I Have A Simple Question For The Class... DO YOU... In Total... Respect Our Government/System ???

[cherokeeprogressive]

43. "For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there." 58,000+ men and women died for a lie.

No, I can't say as I do...

LBJ got on the radio on 8/4/1964 and asked the American public for permission to use military force without a congressional declaration of war based on something he couldn't confirm at the time, and later, he made the statement I put in my subject line. He actually made that statement in an offhand manner and even giggled according to reports I've read. As far as I'm concerned, LBJ is the first President who lied the country into war and no one seems to care and what's more; some here put him in the "Greatest Presidents Ever" category. He lied us into war. Then came Nixon, and nothing has been "what it seems" ever since.

I posted this last Christmas Day about visiting my Favorite Uncle (Don) in the VA Hospital. I never posted about it again, but he passed away 3 days later on the 28th. He never went home. He knew he was going to die when I visited, and even though my Cousins and Aunt were in the room, it was my hand he held, and me he promised he'd get better. He knew I was going to be destroyed. I promised I'd be back Saturday. He passed Friday. I blame Lyndon Johnson and the American Government for his death and the 40+ years of misery he suffered due to being wounded, contracting malaria, and being exposed to Agent Orange.

As far as I'm concerned, "government", in the federal sense, exists today only to serve itself. D.C. is the richest area in the United States and it's not because of the 537 elected critters, it's the 10's of thousands of federal employees who make their homes there.

All this nonsense about the NSA, PRISM, XKEYWHATEVER, and the rest? Does anyone really think it's about protecting the American People? If they do, they're either extremely naïve, or willfully ignorant. It's about protecting the Federal Government of the United States. Nothing more and nothing less. There will come a day, and I pray it doesn't happen in my lifetime, when an order will come down from somewhere inside the federal government to kill an American Citizen on US soil. That killing won't happen in order to protect an American Citizen. Its origin will be motivated by the government's fear for its own survival. I believe that with all my heart.

Our government offers us obfuscation, doublespeak, reticence, redacted documents, outright lies, and while taking much offers little in return but sustenance for those who cannot or will not provide it for themselves. It doesn't make people thrive, it merely helps them eat each day.

If you're wondering how I could call myself a Democrat and feel the way I do about government, go back and study where the terms "Big Brother", "The Man", and "Johnny Law" came from (they're not terms of endearment), and who people like Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner and Bobby Seale were/are. In the years between then and now, government hasn't gotten BETTER at what it does, it's gotten better at HIDING what it does.

Thanks for asking.