A quote for our times . . .

[HughBeaumont]

[EarnestPutz]

1. I always stop when I see Andrew J. Bacevich's name...

...mentioned. He is ex-military, a clear-eyed academic who
has written extensively about war and America's penchant
for for starting them.

[raccoon]

11. I've read some of his books. He's a great writer. Into

[Saviolo]

2. How many times during the debates?

How many times did they ask "How much will that cost? How will you pay for that?" to anything that even remotely helps people? Health care, middle class tax cuts, infrastructure plans, combating climate change, $15 minimum wage...

But as soon as it's "We're going to bomb them" or "It's time to start a conflict here or there" or even "We need to arm defenses against this or that imagined threat" the cost is NEVER brought up.

[HughBeaumont]

7. How many times on this site is that asked . . . lately . . .

I would think every Democrat is for a multi-payer health system and doesn't think it to be an "over-promise" or "politically un-achievable", not question how much it's going to cost or how we will pay for it.

Ask that of pointless war. Ask that of Corporate Pork. Ask that of tax cuts for the wealthy, which they're trying to get rid of the PPACA for.

[NBachers]

3. I like to launch my bombs when I'm entertaining, over dessert.

[GeoWilliam750]

4. An odd thought on this...

Conservatives only want to give people what they deserve

Poor people do not deserve any help at all

The "Other" richly deserves bombing

[Rhiannon12866]

5. And we have to resort to begging for donations from taxpayers

[HughBeaumont]

6. For exorbitant OOP health care costs AND disaster.

Barbaric.

Human rights should NOT be politicized . . . they should just BE.

[Rhiannon12866]

9. Exactly!

Human rights need to be our number one priority. So many of our ancestors - and current citizens - came to this country because that was the promise of America. That was President Carter's signature issue and we still have much to learn from him.

[leftstreet]

8. DURec

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

10. Wish I could rec this a million times.

What if all the money ever spent on war had been spent on peace?

[niyad]

12. amazing how that works, eh?

[KY_EnviroGuy]

13. The other side of that coin is...

....when you want to go bomb somebody, there's remarkably little discussion of the long term repercussions or blow-back as a result of that killing and destruction.

but,

.....if you give needy people a helping hand, you'll always find plenty of talking-head harrumphing about how that makes them dependent and lazy.

[HughBeaumont]

14. Don't you just love that?

Especially since America itself is the biggest militarism-dependent drug addict ever. This country couldn't imagine a world without a military global empire or even one that demands a reduction in overall military spending.

Then there's corporate America, whose own welfare far exceeds that of social welfare.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

15. Exactly!

And, corporate America includes big-corporate media. We've even allowed huge industrial corps to buy up big chunks of our media. How convenient!

The worship of our corporate world should justify starting a new megachurch, LOL.