About That Election, America

The last time you did this?

Imagine

Imagine if any one of these things happened in our US history.

--If Jack Kennedy hadn't been assassinated

--If LBJ didn't lie us into Vietnam and that war

--If Bobby Kennedy hadn't been assassinated

--If Richard Nixon hadn't been elected to the presidency

--If George W. Bush weren't successful in stealing the 2000 election

--If George w. Bush didn't lie us into the Iraq War

The ramifications of each would be huge.

Now, imagine if all the above occurred.

What a world.


Links:

JFK . American Experience 

LBJ . American Experience

Nixon . American Experience

George H. W. Bush . American Experience

Eric Greitens Has Started Getting Into Trump Territory

Eric Greitens, Republican, far Right Wing candidate for Missouri's next Governor (shudder) is starting to send out messages that he's very like Donald Trump. That is, not just wrong but misguided and downright scary. His latest TV ad got me both scared and even angry.

President Obama, the "worst President of (his) lifetime."

Forget that President Obama helped bring us back from the worst economic downturn in 8 years since the last Great Depression.

Forget that President Obama saw to the saving of General Motors which has since come roaring back, saving literally millions of jobs. 

Forget that the stock market has gone to new highs during his Presidency. Forget that employment has gone WAY up during this same Presidency.

Forget that the deficit has shrunk, actually, factually shrunk during our current President's administrations.

Deficit shrinks by $1 trillion in Obama era

Forget and ignore that 20 million more Americans have health care insurance than used.

More Americans Than Ever Have 

Health Insurance Coverage

And then ignore or forget that, because of "Obamacare", America is spending far less on health care.

Health spending post-Obamacare seen 

$2.5 trillion lower 

And a lot more. 

Yeah, forget all that. 

Just call President Obama the worst President in your lifetime, completely forgetting the laws broken by Ronald Reagan and the nationally and internationally illegal war George W. Bush got us into in Iraq, by his choice and lies. 

Iran-Contra and Arms-for-Hostages Scandals: 

Ronald Reagan

Then, also forget that the same George W. Bush totally and completely ignored his Daily Presidential Brief, warning him Osama bin Laden was planning and preparing an attack on our nation, resulting in over 3000 lives lost that fateful day, 9/11. 

Forget, too--if you ever even knew it--that George W. Bush flew planeloads, literally planeloads of our own money, US cash, straight from the Federal Reserve into Iraq after he "liberated it", only to have it squandered because, yeah, that really happened.

How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. 

And watched it vanish

NY Fed's $40 Billion Iraqi Money Trail

So, yeah, if you forget and ignore all that and a lot more, I guess you could come to the rather bizarre, slanted and misguided conclusion that President Obama is the worst President of your lifetime.

It isn't President Obama and his work and his successes, his personal ones and his successes for our nation, that I find offensive.

It's Eric Greitens and his ads and lies and all like him and any who believe this scary nonsense.

Be afraid, people. Be very afraid when people like Donald Trump and Eric Greitens and heck, for that matter, Catherine Hanaway and others like them are all out there, successfully getting money from the wealthy and corporations, just so they can peddle their extremist, Right Wing fear and even, yes, lies.

Better yet. Get out there and vote.

Links:

THE List of 371 Obama Accomplishments so far, With Citations

On Dubya' and Obama

Bill Maher, with no expletives, on Former President George W. Bush compared to President Barack Obama.  Republican war hawk vs. Democratic negotiator.



It's difficult to believe we have to talk them out of these things and people.

Memorial Day

Bring them home.

Who We Are, America

Who we are, what we've become, what we're actually doing, in spite of what we think of ourselves.

---Our health care has become unobtainable for millions of us.  And we know it.

US Healthcare: Most Expensive and 

Worst Performing

---Same with college education (actually, according to this ranking, we're 3rd most expensive in the world but climbing).

10 Most Expensive Countries for College 

in the World in 2015

---We spend more on what we call defense than any other nation, bar none and far and away, yet we no doubt think of ourselves as a peaceful people and nation.

World's Top Military Spenders: U.S. Spends More than Next Top 14 Countries Combined.

---same with weapons---we are the world's number one arms seller.

World's Largest Weapons Exporters

So congratulations, America and Americans. I don't think you really know exactly who you actually are and/or what you're doing in the world and even to your own nation.

Don't Wanna' Study War No More

This is so true and America, the world's biggest arms seller, is the biggest, worst culprit.

Peace loving people, my ass.

The John Ellis Bush Presidential Candidate Theme Song

"...when everything is handed to you

It's only worth as much as the time put in

It all just seems so good the way we had it

Back before everything became automatic

Automatic"

Yeah.

That pretty much says it all right there.

Prophetic. Prescient

On this day, September 25

1990 - Saddam Hussein warns that US will repeat Vietnam experience.

It's Not Too Late!

An hour to go, I'm going to sneak this in yet. It's too important to not.

Happy International Day of Peace!

The International Day of Peace, sometimes unofficially known as World Peace Day, is observed annually on 21 September. It is dedicated to world peace, and specifically the absence of war and violence, such as might be occasioned by a temporary ceasefire in a combat zone for humanitarian aid access. The day was first celebrated in 1982, and is kept by many nations, political groups, military groups, and peoples. In 2013, for the first time, the Day was dedicated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to peace education, the key preventive means to reduce war sustainably.

To inaugurate the day, the United Nations Peace Bell is rung at UN Headquarters (in New York City). The bell is cast from coins donated by children from all continents except Africa, and was a gift from the United Nations Association of Japan, as "a reminder of the human cost of war"; the inscription on its side reads, "Long live absolute world peace".

Imagine.

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace...

In Memoriam, 9/11

To the estimated 4,347 American soldiers who died in the war we were all lied into (see Casualties in Iraq),

Links:  The Bush White House Was Deaf to 9/11 Warnings

Bush Received More Warnings About 9/11 Than We Realized

Bush Warned of Hijackings Before 9-11

A Message From the Republican Party

The Iraq War, By the Numbers

From the article of the same name from  the Business Insider:

BY THE NUMBERS: The Staggering Cost Of The Iraq War

The Iraq War was so messy and costly that the best attempt to assess the sheer damage is through numbers.

We drew from sources including various news reports, The Brookings Institute 's Iraq Index, and the Costs of War Project to document money and blood spent on the war. 

189,000: Direct war deaths, which doesn't include the hundreds of thousands more that died due to war-related hardships.

4,488: U.S. service personnel killed directly.

32,223: Troops injured (not including PTSD).

134,000: Civilians killed directly.

655,000: Persons who have died in Iraq since the invasion that would not have died if the invasion had not occurred.

150: Reporters killed.

2.8 million: Persons who remain either internally displaced or have fled the country.

$1.7 trillion: Amount in war expenses spent by the U.S. Treasury Department as through Fiscal Year 2013.

$5,000: Amount spent per second.

$350,000: Cost to deploy one American military member.

$490 billion: Amount in war benefits owed to war veterans.

$7 trillion: Projected interest payments due by 2053 (because the war was paid for with borrowed money).

$20 billion: Amount paid to KBR, contractor responsible for equipment and services.

$3 billion: Amount of KBR payments Pentagon auditors considered "questionable."

$60 billion: Amount paid for reconstruction, (which was ruled largely a waste due to corruption and shoddy work.)

$4 billion: Amount owed to the U.S. by Iraq before the invasion.

1.6 million: Gallons of oil used by U.S. forces each day in Iraq (at $127.68 a barrel).

$12 billion: Cost per month of the war by 2008.

$7 billion: Amount owed to Iraq by the U.S. after the war (mostly due to fraud).

$20 billion: Annual air conditioning cost.

Missing: $546 million in spare parts; 190,000 guns, including 110,000 AK-47s.

40 percent: Increase in Iraqi oil production.

$5 billion: Revenue from Iraqi oil in 2003.

$85 billion: Revenue from Iraqi oil in 2011.

$150 billion: Amount oil companies are expected to invest in oil development over the next decade.

$75 billion: Approximate amount expected to go to American subcontracting companies, largest of all Halliburton.

0: Nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction found (though a bunch of chems were discovered).

Perhaps most importantly, this list doesn't account for the emotional damage caused to service members and their families as well as the destruction to the homes, social fabric, and psyche of the Iraqi people. 

For some visual accounts, check out Buzzfeed's Iraq war in front pages and Time's Iraq war in images.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/iraq-war-facts-numbers-stats-total-2013-3#ixzz3bm3Zc9mJ

___________________________________________

So yes, next time someone says "You're still blaming George W. Bush", be sure to tell them they're right. We sure as hell are.

Never Forget

No, never, ever forget.

On This Memorial Day

A story with links to photos from NPR:

It's Not Rude: These Portraits Of Wounded Vets Are Meant To Be Stared At

It's as George McGovern said so rightly and well, all that long ago:

“I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.” 

Dubya' vs. the Kenyan

Very relevant, right down to today, and on many levels.

America's Priorities

I saw this on Facebook yesterday and had to post.

You wouldn't think this is an actual, accurate description of the state of our spending and our priorities in America today but it is.

This is what spending more--far more--on "defense" in this nation gets you.

Forget that we Americans paid into Social Security with our own money, from our paychecks. All that was spent and is still being spent on other things, instead of back to us on Social Security, for which it was created.

Instead, we keep making and buying bombs and guns and bullets and tanks and weapons of war.

Our priorities, America's priorities, are seriously screwed up, without question.

So what are we going to do about it?

No Difference Between the Two Political Parties?

Really?

Keep This Image In Mind Next From Now to November 2016, America

One of the Best Things Democrats Have Going for Them Between Now and November 2016

And all they have to do is let it sit there.