Life in OUR America, Volume 2, The Livyjr Files Options

[jeffmoskin]

That's the story of Kucinich. Still does not play the game, but calls it as he sees it.

You may have noticed that when he was having a good time puncturing balloons in the presidential campaign.

And that's what happened.

A.B.

Thank you, A.B.

He impressed me as a gadfly, too. I like that.

Probably not a good person to have as president, but good to have in government.

[Abu Beacon]

[quote=Livyjr,Feb 18 2005, 03:58 PM]

[/quote]
A.B., I'll tell you what I think makes the difference with people such as this Mr. Voinovich, AND THAT IS PEOPLE LIKE YOU COMING INTO AN INTERNATIONAL FORUM SUCH AS THIS ONE IS, and speaking his name out loud, AND THEN, cut and paste your post about him over through http://www.congress.org and right into Mr. Voinovich's personal mailbox, to let him know that you have spoken his name out loud for all the candid world to hear!

People like you with the courage of your convictions, A.B., are the catalyst for change here in OUR America, because you are venerable!


I just lost three myself, in this last week!

And so!

I know!

[/quote]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Great idea to paste my posting on a letter to Senator Voinovich. I would not have thought of that.

Anyhow ---

I did'

Doubt if he will respond to me, if he does I will post his letter.

Thanks for all of your encouraging words.

A.B.

[jeffmoskin]

BUMP

The ORIGINAL "Life in OUR America" thread has been closed! Maybe we maxed out the file size or something. Anyway, for any body wanting to access the now closed thread, here's the way:

1. at the top of this page click MEMBERS.

2. at the bottom of that page, in "Search Options and Filters" type Livyjr and click GO

3. click the bold Livyjr link found on the member list.

4. click "find member's posts"

5. click the rightmost ">>" icon. That will put you back to the beginning of the original thread. You can navigate from there.
Since the thread is "closed", you cannot use the "quote" or "reply" buttons. You can, however, still use the "copy/paste" method.

At the risk of sounding presumptuous, I think there were some posts very much worth saving.

[Abu Beacon]

Thank you, A.B.

He impressed me as a gadfly, too. I like that.

Probably not a good person to have as president, but good to have in government.

jeffmoskin - you continue to amaze me. Your statement about Dennis Kucinich is so on the mark ' . IMO too, Dennis Kucinich would not be a good president but we absolutely need men like him in government. Since Dennis is a ' home town ' person, I know more about his strengths and weaknesses tham many others whose knowlege of him is very casual, having read about him or seen him briefly on T.V.

He is your classic dissenter - in the right way.

He has never to my knowledge said it was sunny when it was raining'

What he believes, he says. Hopefully you will like it.

If you don't, go get a second opinion.

What he says, he believes. Right or wrong, you do not have to guess about any hidden agenda.

Your knowing all that without really knowing the man, is what amazes me.

A.B.

[Abu Beacon]

And somewhere along the line here, I want to get back to the "American Creed" which jeffmoskin posted in here a while back, but right now the "HOT" story has to do with this alleged "tort reform" legislation that George W. Bush in essence snuck through OUR Congress, and which he is supposed to sign, later today, limiting OUR rights, as American citizens, to seek redress in the courts of this nation, as is OUR Constitutional right!

Stress! It's not a good thing. That's what we all hear from all the experts.

I believe it.

Some people handle it better than others. Either way, we would be better off without too much of it.

There must be a point to this.

Yes, there is.

There are certain ' hot buttons ' that can really frustrate and anger people.

My hot button is this new class of people who have taken up residence and appropriated the seats of power in OUR America .( A good Livyjr expression )

They are the " Untouchables ", in a totally different way from the caste of people in India who have the same label.

These Untouchables can lie with impunity.

These Untouchables can torture prisoners illegally without being investigated.

These Untouchables can have secret, illicit meetings and keep the American citizen from knowing what was talked about or what decisions were made in their name.

These Untouchables can send Americans off to foreign lands to be killed or maimed badly and , unbelievably, convince the citizenry that it was not only the last choice they had , but was also the right thing to do.

These Untouchables can make deals with big business, not in the best interest of the American people who they swore to protect and take care of. They are very sly. They fool enough people into believing they ARE protecting and looking out for the best interest of the those they are selling out.

This could go on and on.

Perhaps someone else knows of ways these Untouchables are getting away with actions which are exactly contrary to the well being of the majority of the American pople.

Why are they so --- Untouchable?

A.B.

[Livyjr]

Stress!

It's not a good thing.

That's what we all hear from all the experts.

I believe it.

Some people handle it better than others.

Either way, we would be better off without too much of it.

There must be a point to this.

Yes, there is.

There are certain ' hot buttons ' that can really frustrate and anger people.

My hot button is this new class of people who have taken up residence and appropriated the seats of power in OUR America. ( A good Livyjr expression )

They are the " Untouchables ", in a totally different way from the caste of people in India who have the same label.

These Untouchables can lie with impunity.

These Untouchables can torture prisoners illegally without being investigated.

These Untouchables can have secret, illicit meetings and keep the American citizen from knowing what was talked about or what decisions were made in their name.

These Untouchables can send Americans off to foreign lands to be killed or maimed badly and, unbelievably, convince the citizenry that it was not only the last choice they had, but was also the right thing to do.

These Untouchables can make deals with big business, not in the best interest of the American people who they swore to protect and take care of.

They are very sly.

They fool enough people into believing they ARE protecting and looking out for the best interest of the those they are selling out.

This could go on and on.

Perhaps someone else knows of ways these Untouchables are getting away with actions which are exactly contrary to the well being of the majority of the American pople.

Why are they so --- Untouchable?

A.B.

Boy, A.B., beware the power of an old man when he gets the bit between his teeth!

And good going here, A.B., telling things the way YOU see them, instead of just being another "yes, sir, oh, no sir" kind of "Stepford" American, like a robot, or a zombie!

And this is a real good question that you pose above here, to be quite truthful with you!

When I came home from Viet Nam, in my mind was to look up the "MAN" who had sent us over there to destroy that country and the people who were in it, in the name of the tri-partite "GOD" of America: "GEETUS, MOOLAH, and MAMMON"!

Whose voice was it that I heard in my ears that night as we sat there in a helicopter, hovering above a village full of nothing but children and women, while flares were going off, lighting the place up like day, and CS gas morter rounds were impacting in the village to drive the people out into the open so we could follow the order that was coming over the radio and into my ears: "KILL THEM ALL!"

"KILL THEM ALL!"

All these years later, I still hear that voice in my head, and think about that night, and what might have happened, BUT FOR the Lt. who was the aircraft commander that night!

"Anyone back there who pulls a trigger WILL ANSWER TO ME!"

This with his hand on his own .45!

And so he countermanded the order coming in over the headphones, to me, the man IN THE GOD SEAT with the rifle who was supposed to heed that order!

Several weeks later, that Lt. and all the rest of that crew were shot out of the sky by our own artillery, if you can believe that.

And they burned all the way down!

And I still remember that, as well, my friend out on the ground with his legs burned off, in a crawling position which said he survived the crash itself, and only died after either getting out himself, or being thrown out on impact, one of the two!

SO!

That makes me a "last man", and still, I persist in wondering what happened that night that they were shot down!

I know that something had to have happened after we got back that night, because in essence, that Lt. countermanded a direct order from Bn. TOC, but I don't know what that was, since I was but a lowly enlisted man, and so, I was not privy to things which went on at the "higher" levels of the chain of command.

Whatever happened, that Lt. and all that crew but me were all killed, by our own fires, they say!

For that to have happened, either there was a terrible mistake on the part of that Lt., OR, he was vectored into the path of that artillery!

There is not a third option that I am aware of.

Was he killed to keep him quiet?

I always wonder that, A.B.; I always do, BECAUSE it is within the realms of possibilities, as the saying goes.

And that is the source of the power that these "untouchables" have over the rest of us; this ability to simply destroy us if we "get out of line"!

People think this all a bunch of "hoo-hah", of course, but that don't change anything, or make it go away.

And your story above about Dennis Kucinich is a case in point.

And your previous story in another post in here about Jesus, and who he upset, so as to get himself killed is another case in point!

It's about power, A.B., raw power!

It goes right to people's heads and does something to their minds.

I know this to be true myself, having sat there in the "GOD SEAT" with that rifle!

If you don't quit "cold turkey" and walk right away from it, you are lost forever, and A.B. many were, and many still are, and in the future, likely many will be!

There but for the grace of God go we!

Now, I have not answered your question, I know, but hopefully, between us, we have ripped the cover off of something, and that cover, once off, may be difficult to put back on, if only enough other Americans can find the courage of their own moral convictions to do as you have done; ASK WHY THIS CRAP EXISTS, HERE IN OUR AMERICA!

[Livyjr]

Kucinich is one of those people who are either well liked or greatly disliked.

Most people in this area like him as is evidenced by his consistently getting re-elected.

I am one of those, although I am in a different voting district.

The esablishment greatly dislikes him.

When he was mayor of Cleveland, I believe it was in the seventy's, he was young and brash and spoke his mind.

At that time, the City of Cleveland owned a municipal power plant which produced electricity for about 30 % of the city, at a lower cost than the utility company.

The utility company wanted to buy out the city owned plant and Mayor Kucinich was pressured by the money people to sell it.

He refused.

A.B.

"THE GAME!"

"He does not play the game!"

How often do we hear that, AND THEN ACCEPT THE FACT that the one "who does not play the game", is going to get their a** kicked right up around their ears, just before they are thrown right out the door and into the trash heap of time!

"Whistle blowers", some of them are called, or "gadflies", as jeffmoskin has said, and I personally wonder at that; WHY AREN'T THEY CALLED HEROS?

Or honest citizens?

Or upright people?

And WHO is this "establishment"?

These "Brahmins", or "patricians", as they are called, most often by OUR MEDIA, of all things, when our media itself should be "devoted" to keeping OUR Republic an actual Republic, or democracy, where there are no classes!

We became a Republic so as to escape the tyranny of jolly olde England, and its "class structure", which was in many ways the source of that tyranny!

SO?

Where did things go wrong, here in OUR America?

Where did we lose OUR destiny?

OR did we just give it away, willingly, because life in a true Republic was just too demanding; requiring us as individuals to have to think, and consider, and act, responsibly?

Sallust said back in the last days of Rome's Republic that "only a few preferred liberty; as for the rest, all they sought was a kind master!"

Is that us, then, some two thousand years later?

Has the wheel turned back to that same "notch" that Sallust was observing back in his day?

Questions for OUR times!

Here, in OUR America!

Or is it, anymore; OURS, I mean?

Or is it now the exclusive property of Mr. George W. Bush and his?

And if so, what does that portend for OUR future?

If we are to have one, that is; for in life, it is my experience that nothing is guaranteed, especially the future!

And if you don't believe me, go ask the Spartans!

I think they will know exactly what I am trying to say here.

[Abu Beacon]

"THE GAME!"

t was observing back in his day?

Questions for OUR times!

Here, in OUR America!

Or is it, anymore; OURS, I mean?

Or is it now the exclusive property of Mr. George W. Bush and his?

And if so, what does that portend for OUR future?

If we are to have one, that is; for in life, it is my experience that nothing is guaranteed, especially the future!

And if you don't believe me, go ask the Spartans!

I think they will know exactly what I am trying to say here.

Do we deserve what we are getting because of our silence?

Definition of Untouchable -----

Out of the reach of the Law.

A.B.

[Livyjr]

And since it is a "slow news" day right now, I am going to insert this article for the record in here on how a "warrior" in OUR America saw war, some years ago:

Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC

War is just a racket.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people.

Only a small inside group knows what it is about.

It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else.

If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight.

The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent.

Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers.

There are only two things we should fight for.

One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights.

War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to.

It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison.

Truthfulness compels me to.

I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps.

I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General.

And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers.

In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time.

Now I am sure of it.

Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service.

My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups.

This is typical with everyone in the military service.

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914.

I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.

I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street.

The record of racketeering is long.

I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?).

I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916.

In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket.

Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints.

The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts.

I operated on three continents.

"Several Chapters from Smedley Butler's 'War is a Racket'"

Chapter One

WAR IS A RACKET

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious.

It is the only one international in scope.

It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict.

At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War.

That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns.

How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle?

How many of them dug a trench?

How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out?

How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets?

How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy?

How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious.

They just take it.

This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few - the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war.

(The general public shoulders the bill).

And what is this bill?

This bill renders a horrible accounting.

Newly placed gravestones.

Mangled bodies.

Shattered minds.

Broken hearts and homes.

Economic instability.

Depression and all its attendant miseries.

Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.

Again they are choosing sides.

France and Russia met and agreed to stand side by side.

Italy and Austria hurried to make a similar agreement.

Poland and Germany cast sheep's eyes at each other, forgetting for the nonce [one unique occasion], their dispute over the Polish Corridor.

The assassination of King Alexander of Jugoslavia [Yugoslavia] complicated matters.

Jugoslavia and Hungary, long bitter enemies, were almost at each other's throats.

Italy was ready to jump in.

But France was waiting.

So was Czechoslovakia.

All of them are looking ahead to war.

Not the people - not those who fight and pay and die – only those who foment wars and remain safely at home to profit.

There are 40,000,000 men under arms in the world today, and our statesmen and diplomats have the temerity to say that war is not in the making.

Hell's bells!

Are these 40,000,000 men being trained to be dancers?

Not in Italy, to be sure.

Premier Mussolini knows what they are being trained for.

He, at least, is frank enough to speak out.

Only the other day, Il Duce in "International Conciliation," the publication of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said:

"And above all, Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace..."

"War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the people who have the courage to meet it."

Undoubtedly Mussolini means exactly what he says.

His well-trained army, his great fleet of planes, and even his navy are ready for war – anxious for it, apparently.

His recent stand at the side of Hungary in the latter's dispute with Jugoslavia showed that.

And the hurried mobilization of his troops on the Austrian border after the assassination of Dollfuss showed it too.

There are others in Europe too whose sabre rattling presages war, sooner or later.

Herr Hitler, with his rearming Germany and his constant demands for more and more arms, is an equal if not greater menace to peace.

France only recently increased the term of military service for its youth from a year to eighteen months.

Yes, all over, nations are camping in their arms.

The mad dogs of Europe are on the loose.

In the Orient the maneuvering is more adroit.

Back in 1904, when Russia and Japan fought, we kicked out our old friends the Russians and backed Japan.

Then our very generous international bankers were financing Japan.

Now the trend is to poison us against the Japanese.

What does the "open door" policy to China mean to us?

Our trade with China is about $90,000,000 a year.

Or the Philippine Islands?

We have spent about $600,000,000 in the Philippines in thirty-five years and we (our bankers and industrialists and speculators) have private investments there of less than $200,000,000.

Then, to save that China trade of about $90,000,000, or to protect these private investments of less than $200,000,000 in the Philippines, we would be all stirred up to hate Japan and go to war - a war that might well cost us tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives of Americans, and many more hundreds of thousands of physically maimed and mentally unbalanced men.

Of course, for this loss, there would be a compensating profit - fortunes would be made.

Millions and billions of dollars would be piled up.

By a few.

Munitions makers.

Bankers.

Ship builders.

Manufacturers.

Meat packers.

Speculators.

They would fare well.

Yes, they are getting ready for another war.

Why shouldn't they?

It pays high dividends.

But what does it profit the men who are killed?

What does it profit their mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts?

What does it profit their children?

What does it profit anyone except the very few to whom war means huge profits?

Yes, and what does it profit the nation?

CHAPTER TWO

WHO MAKES THE PROFITS?

The World War, rather our brief participation in it, has cost the United States some $52,000,000,000.

Figure it out.

That means $400 to every American man, woman, and child.

And we haven't paid the debt yet.

We are paying it, our children will pay it, and our children's children probably still will be paying the cost of that war.

The normal profits of a business concern in the United States are six, eight, ten, and sometimes twelve percent.

But war-time profits - ah! that is another matter - twenty, sixty, one hundred, three hundred, and even eighteen hundred per cent - the sky is the limit.

All that traffic will bear.

Uncle Sam has the money.

Let's get it.

Of course, it isn't put that crudely in war time.

It is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and "we must all put our shoulders to the wheel," but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket - and are safely pocketed.

Let's just take a few examples:

Take our friends the du Ponts, the powder people - didn't one of them testify before a Senate committee recently that their powder won the war?

Or saved the world for democracy?

Or something?

How did they do in the war?

They were a patriotic corporation.

Well, the average earnings of the du Ponts for the period 1910 to 1914 were $6,000,000 a year.

It wasn't much, but the du Ponts managed to get along on it.

Now let's look at their average yearly profit during the war years, 1914 to 1918.

Fifty-eight million dollars a year profit we find!

Nearly ten times that of normal times, and the profits of normal times were pretty good.

An increase in profits of more than 950 per cent.

Take one of our little steel companies that patriotically shunted aside the making of rails and girders and bridges to manufacture war materials.

Well, their 1910-1914 yearly earnings averaged $6,000,000.

Then came the war.

And, like loyal citizens, Bethlehem Steel promptly turned to munitions making.

Did their profits jump - or did they let Uncle Sam in for a bargain?

Well, their 1914-1918 average was $49,000,000 a year!

Or, let's take United States Steel.

The normal earnings during the five-year period prior to the war were $105,000,000 a year.

Not bad.

Then along came the war and up went the profits.

The average yearly profit for the period 1914-1918 was $240,000,000.

Not bad.

There you have some of the steel and powder earnings.

Let's look at something else.

A little copper, perhaps.

That always does well in war times.

Anaconda, for instance.

Average yearly earnings during the pre-war years 1910-1914 of $10,000,000.

During the war years 1914-1918 profits leaped to $34,000,000 per year.

Or Utah Copper.

Average of $5,000,000 per year during the 1910-1914 period.

Jumped to an average of $21,000,000 yearly profits for the war period.

Let's group these five, with three smaller companies.

The total yearly average profits of the pre-war period 1910-1914 were $137,480,000.

Then along came the war.

The average yearly profits for this group skyrocketed to $408,300,000.

A little increase in profits of approximately 200 per cent.

Does war pay?

It paid them.

But they aren't the only ones.

There are still others.

Let's take leather.

For the three-year period before the war the total profits of Central Leather Company were $3,500,000.

That was approximately $1,167,000 a year.

Well, in 1916 Central Leather returned a profit of $15,000,000, a small increase of 1,100 per cent.

That's all.

The General Chemical Company averaged a profit for the three years before the war of a little over $800,000 a year.

Came the war, and the profits jumped to $12,000,000. a leap of 1,400 per cent.

International Nickel Company - and you can't have a war without nickel - showed an increase in profits from a mere average of $4,000,000 a year to $73,000,000 yearly.

Not bad?

An increase of more than 1,700 per cent.

American Sugar Refining Company averaged $2,000,000 a year for the three years before the war.

In 1916 a profit of $6,000,000 was recorded.

Listen to Senate Document No. 259.

The Sixty-Fifth Congress, reporting on corporate earnings and government revenues.

Considering the profits of 122 meat packers, 153 cotton manufacturers, 299 garment makers, 49 steel plants, and 340 coal producers during the war.

Profits under 25 per cent were exceptional.

For instance the coal companies made between 100 per cent and 7,856 per cent on their capital stock during the war.

The Chicago packers doubled and tripled their earnings.

And let us not forget the bankers who financed the great war.

If anyone had the cream of the profits it was the bankers.

Being partnerships rather than incorporated organizations, they do not have to report to stockholders.

And their profits were as secret as they were immense.

How the bankers made their millions and their billions I do not know, because those little secrets never become public - even before a Senate investigatory body.

But here's how some of the other patriotic industrialists and speculators chiseled their way into war profits.

Take the shoe people.

They like war.

It brings business with abnormal profits.

They made huge profits on sales abroad to our allies.

Perhaps, like the munitions manufacturers and armament makers, they also sold to the enemy.

For a dollar is a dollar whether it comes from Germany or from France.

But they did well by Uncle Sam too.

For instance, they sold Uncle Sam 35,000,000 pairs of hobnailed service shoes.

There were 4,000,000 soldiers.

Eight pairs, and more, to a soldier.

My regiment during the war had only one pair to a soldier.

Some of these shoes probably are still in existence.

They were good shoes.

But when the war was over Uncle Sam has a matter of 25,000,000 pairs left over.

Bought - and paid for.

Profits recorded and pocketed.

There was still lots of leather left.

So the leather people sold your Uncle Sam hundreds of thousands of McClellan saddles for the cavalry.

But there wasn't any American cavalry overseas!

Somebody had to get rid of this leather, however.

Somebody had to make a profit in it - so we had a lot of McClellan saddles.

And we probably have those yet.

Also somebody had a lot of mosquito netting.

They sold your Uncle Sam 20,000,000 mosquito nets for the use of the soldiers overseas.

I suppose the boys were expected to put it over them as they tried to sleep in muddy trenches – one hand scratching cooties on their backs and the other making passes at scurrying rats.

Well, not one of these mosquito nets ever got to France!

Anyhow, these thoughtful manufacturers wanted to make sure that no soldier would be without his mosquito net, so 40,000,000 additional yards of mosquito netting were sold to Uncle Sam.

There were pretty good profits in mosquito netting in those days, even if there were no mosquitoes in France.

I suppose, if the war had lasted just a little longer, the enterprising mosquito netting manufacturers would have sold your Uncle Sam a couple of consignments of mosquitoes to plant in France so that more mosquito netting would be in order.

Airplane and engine manufacturers felt they, too, should get their just profits out of this war.

Why not?

Everybody else was getting theirs.

So $1,000,000,000 - count them if you live long enough - was spent by Uncle Sam in building airplane engines that never left the ground!

Not one plane, or motor, out of the billion dollars worth ordered, ever got into a battle in France.

Just the same the manufacturers made their little profit of 30, 100, or perhaps 300 per cent.

Undershirts for soldiers cost 14¢ [cents] to make and uncle Sam paid 30¢ to 40¢ each for them - a nice little profit for the undershirt manufacturer.

And the stocking manufacturer and the uniform manufacturers and the cap manufacturers and the steel helmet manufacturers - all got theirs.

Why, when the war was over some 4,000,000 sets of equipment - knapsacks and the things that go to fill them - crammed warehouses on this side.

Now they are being scrapped because the regulations have changed the contents.

But the manufacturers collected their wartime profits on them - and they will do it all over again the next time.

There were lots of brilliant ideas for profit making during the war.

One very versatile patriot sold Uncle Sam twelve dozen 48-inch wrenches.

Oh, they were very nice wrenches.

The only trouble was that there was only one nut ever made that was large enough for these wrenches.

That is the one that holds the turbines at Niagara Falls.

Well, after Uncle Sam had bought them and the manufacturer had pocketed the profit, the wrenches were put on freight cars and shunted all around the United States in an effort to find a use for them.

When the Armistice was signed it was indeed a sad blow to the wrench manufacturer.

He was just about to make some nuts to fit the wrenches.

Then he planned to sell these, too, to your Uncle Sam.

Still another had the brilliant idea that colonels shouldn't ride in automobiles, nor should they even ride on horseback.

One has probably seen a picture of Andy Jackson riding in a buckboard.

Well, some 6,000 buckboards were sold to Uncle Sam for the use of colonels!

Not one of them was used.

But the buckboard manufacturer got his war profit.

The shipbuilders felt they should come in on some of it, too.

They built a lot of ships that made a lot of profit.

More than $3,000,000,000 worth.

Some of the ships were all right.

But $635,000,000 worth of them were made of wood and wouldn't float!

The seams opened up - and they sank.

We paid for them, though.

And somebody pocketed the profits.

It has been estimated by statisticians and economists and researchers that the war cost your Uncle Sam $52,000,000,000.

Of this sum, $39,000,000,000 was expended in the actual war itself.

This expenditure yielded $16,000,000,000 in profits.

That is how the 21,000 billionaires and millionaires got that way.

This $16,000,000,000 profits is not to be sneezed at.

It is quite a tidy sum.

And it went to a very few.

The Senate (Nye) committee probe of the munitions industry and its wartime profits, despite its sensational disclosures, hardly has scratched the surface.

Even so, it has had some effect.

The State Department has been studying "for some time" methods of keeping out of war.

The War Department suddenly decides it has a wonderful plan to spring.

The Administration names a committee - with the War and Navy Departments ably represented under the chairmanship of a Wall Street speculator - to limit profits in war time.

To what extent isn't suggested.

Hmmm.

Possibly the profits of 300 and 600 and 1,600 per cent of those who turned blood into gold in the World War would be limited to some smaller figure.

Apparently, however, the plan does not call for any limitation of losses - that is, the losses of those who fight the war.

As far as I have been able to ascertain there is nothing in the scheme to limit a soldier to the loss of but one eye, or one arm, or to limit his wounds to one or two or three.

Or to limit the loss of life.

There is nothing in this scheme, apparently, that says not more than 12 per cent of a regiment shall be wounded in battle, or that not more than 7 per cent in a division shall be killed.

Of course, the committee cannot be bothered with such trifling matters.

CHAPTER THREE

WHO PAYS THE BILLS?

Who provides the profits - these nice little profits of 20, 100, 300, 1,500 and 1,800 per cent?

We all pay them - in taxation.

We paid the bankers their profits when we bought Liberty Bonds at $100.00 and sold them back at $84 or $86 to the bankers.

These bankers collected $100 plus.

It was a simple manipulation.

The bankers control the security marts.

It was easy for them to depress the price of these bonds.

Then all of us - the people - got frightened and sold the bonds at $84 or $86.

The bankers bought them.

Then these same bankers stimulated a boom and government bonds went to par - and above.

Then the bankers collected their profits.

But the soldier pays the biggest part of the bill.

If you don't believe this, visit the American cemeteries on the battlefields abroad.

Or visit any of the veteran's hospitals in the United States.

On a tour of the country, in the midst of which I am at the time of this writing, I have visited eighteen government hospitals for veterans.

In them are a total of about 50,000 destroyed men - men who were the pick of the nation eighteen years ago.

The very able chief surgeon at the government hospital; at Milwaukee, where there are 3,800 of the living dead, told me that mortality among veterans is three times as great as among those who stayed at home.

Boys with a normal viewpoint were taken out of the fields and offices and factories and classrooms and put into the ranks.

There they were remolded; they were made over; they were made to "about face"; to regard murder as the order of the day.

They were put shoulder to shoulder and, through mass psychology, they were entirely changed.

We used them for a couple of years and trained them to think nothing at all of killing or of being killed.

Then, suddenly, we discharged them and told them to make another "about face"!

This time they had to do their own readjustment, sans [without] mass psychology, sans officers' aid and advice and sans nation-wide propaganda.

We didn't need them any more.

So we scattered them about without any "three-minute" or "Liberty Loan" speeches or parades.

Many, too many, of these fine young boys are eventually destroyed, mentally, because they could not make that final "about face" alone.

In the government hospital in Marion, Indiana, 1,800 of these boys are in pens!

Five hundred of them in a barracks with steel bars and wires all around outside the buildings and on the porches.

These already have been mentally destroyed.

These boys don't even look like human beings.

Oh, the looks on their faces!

Physically, they are in good shape; mentally, they are gone.

There are thousands and thousands of these cases, and more and more are coming in all the time.

The tremendous excitement of the war, the sudden cutting off of that excitement - the young boys couldn't stand it.

That's a part of the bill.

So much for the dead - they have paid their part of the war profits.

So much for the mentally and physically wounded - they are paying now their share of the war profits.

But the others paid, too - they paid with heartbreaks when they tore themselves away from their firesides and their families to don the uniform of Uncle Sam - on which a profit had been made.

They paid another part in the training camps where they were regimented and drilled while others took their jobs and their places in the lives of their communities.

They paid for it in the trenches where they shot and were shot; where they were hungry for days at a time; where they slept in the mud and the cold and in the rain - with the moans and shrieks of the dying for a horrible lullaby.

But don't forget - the soldier paid part of the dollars and cents bill too.

Up to and including the Spanish-American War, we had a prize system, and soldiers and sailors fought for money.

During the Civil War they were paid bonuses, in many instances, before they went into service.

The government, or states, paid as high as $1,200 for an enlistment.

In the Spanish-American War they gave prize money.

When we captured any vessels, the crew all got their share - at least, they were supposed to.

Then it was found that we could reduce the cost of wars by taking all the prize money and keeping it, but conscripting [drafting] the soldier anyway.

Then soldiers couldn't bargain for their labor!

Everyone else could bargain, but the soldier couldn't.

Napoleon once said,

"All men are enamored of decorations...they positively hunger for them."

So by developing the Napoleonic system - the medal business - the government learned it could get soldiers for less money, because the boys liked to be decorated.

Until the Civil War there were no medals.

Then the Congressional Medal of Honor was handed out.

It made enlistments easier.

After the Civil War no new medals were issued until the Spanish-American War.

In the World War, we used propaganda to make the boys accept conscription.

They were made to feel ashamed if they didn't join the army.

So vicious was this war propaganda that even God was brought into it.

With few exceptions our clergymen joined in the clamor to kill, kill, kill.

To kill the Germans.

God is on our side...it is His will that the Germans be killed.

And in Germany, the good pastors called upon the Germans to kill the allies...to please the same God.

That was a part of the general propaganda, built up to make people war conscious and murder conscious.

Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die.

This was the "war to end all wars."

This was the "war to make the world safe for democracy."

No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits.

No one told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here.

No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built with United States patents.

They were just told it was to be a "glorious adventure."

Thus, having stuffed patriotism down their throats, it was decided to make them help pay for the war, too.

So, we gave them the large salary of $30 a month.

All they had to do for this munificent sum was to leave their dear ones behind, give up their jobs, lie in swampy trenches, eat canned willy (when they could get it) and kill and kill and kill...and be killed.

But wait!

Half of that wage (just a little more than a riveter in a shipyard or a laborer in a munitions factory safe at home made in a day) was promptly taken from him to support his dependents, so that they would not become a charge upon his community.

Then we made him pay what amounted to accident insurance - something the employer pays for in an enlightened state - and that cost him $6 a month.

He had less than $9 a month left.

Then, the most crowning insolence of all - he was virtually blackjacked into paying for his own ammunition, clothing, and food by being made to buy Liberty Bonds.

Most soldiers got no money at all on pay days.

We made them buy Liberty Bonds at $100 and then we bought them back - when they came back from the war and couldn't find work - at $84 and $86.

And the soldiers bought about $2,000,000,000 worth of these bonds!

Yes, the soldier pays the greater part of the bill.

His family pays too.

They pay it in the same heart-break that he does.

As he suffers, they suffer.

At nights, as he lay in the trenches and watched shrapnel burst about him, they lay home in their beds and tossed sleeplessly - his father, his mother, his wife, his sisters, his brothers, his sons, and his daughters.

When he returned home minus an eye, or minus a leg or with his mind broken, they suffered too - as much as and even sometimes more than he.

Yes, and they, too, contributed their dollars to the profits of the munitions makers and bankers and shipbuilders and the manufacturers and the speculators made.

They, too, bought Liberty Bonds and contributed to the profit of the bankers after the Armistice in the hocus-pocus of manipulated Liberty Bond prices.

And even now the families of the wounded men and of the mentally broken and those who never were able to readjust themselves are still suffering and still paying.

CHAPTER FOUR

HOW TO SMASH THIS RACKET!

WELL, it's a racket, all right.

A few profit - and the many pay.

But there is a way to stop it.

You can't end it by disarmament conferences.

You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva.

Well-meaning but impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions.

It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war.

The only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and industry and labor before the nations manhood can be conscripted.

One month before the Government can conscript the young men of the nation - it must conscript capital and industry and labor.

Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted - to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get.

Let the workers in these plants get the same wages - all the workers, all presidents, all executives, all directors, all managers, all bankers - yes, and all generals and all admirals and all officers and all politicians and all government office holders - everyone in the nation be restricted to a total monthly income not to exceed that paid to the soldier in the trenches!

Let all these kings and tycoons and masters of business and all those workers in industry and all our senators and governors and majors pay half of their monthly $30 wage to their families and pay war risk insurance and buy Liberty Bonds.

Why shouldn't they?

They aren't running any risk of being killed or of having their bodies mangled or their minds shattered.

They aren't sleeping in muddy trenches.

They aren't hungry.

The soldiers are!

Give capital and industry and labor thirty days to think it over and you will find, by that time, there will be no war.

That will smash the war racket - that and nothing else.

Maybe I am a little too optimistic.

Capital still has some say.

So capital won't permit the taking of the profit out of war until the people - those who do the suffering and still pay the price - make up their minds that those they elect to office shall do their bidding, and not that of the profiteers.

Another step necessary in this fight to smash the war racket is the limited plebiscite to determine whether a war should be declared.

A plebiscite not of all the voters but merely of those who would be called upon to do the fighting and dying.

There wouldn't be very much sense in having a 76-year-old president of a munitions factory or the flat-footed head of an international banking firm or the cross-eyed manager of a uniform manufacturing plant - all of whom see visions of tremendous profits in the event of war - voting on whether the nation should go to war or not.

They never would be called upon to shoulder arms - to sleep in a trench and to be shot.

Only those who would be called upon to risk their lives for their country should have the privilege of voting to determine whether the nation should go to war.

There is ample precedent for restricting the voting to those affected.

Many of our states have restrictions on those permitted to vote.

In most, it is necessary to be able to read and write before you may vote.

In some, you must own property.

It would be a simple matter each year for the men coming of military age to register in their communities as they did in the draft during the World War and be examined physically.

Those who could pass and who would therefore be called upon to bear arms in the event of war would be eligible to vote in a limited plebiscite.

They should be the ones to have the power to decide - and not a Congress few of whose members are within the age limit and fewer still of whom are in physical condition to bear arms.

Only those who must suffer should have the right to vote.

A third step in this business of smashing the war racket is to make certain that our military forces are truly forces for defense only.

At each session of Congress the question of further naval appropriations comes up.

The swivel-chair admirals of Washington (and there are always a lot of them) are very adroit lobbyists.

And they are smart.

They don't shout that "We need a lot of battleships to war on this nation or that nation."

Oh no.

First of all, they let it be known that America is menaced by a great naval power.

Almost any day, these admirals will tell you, the great fleet of this supposed enemy will strike suddenly and annihilate 125,000,000 people.

Just like that.

Then they begin to cry for a larger navy.

For what?

To fight the enemy?

Oh my, no.

Oh, no.

For defense purposes only.

Then, incidentally, they announce maneuvers in the Pacific.

For defense.

Uh, huh.

The Pacific is a great big ocean.

We have a tremendous coastline on the Pacific.

Will the maneuvers be off the coast, two or three hundred miles?

Oh, no.

The maneuvers will be two thousand, yes, perhaps even thirty-five hundred miles, off the coast.

The Japanese, a proud people, of course will be pleased beyond expression to see the united States fleet so close to Nippon's shores.

Even as pleased as would be the residents of California were they to dimly discern through the morning mist, the Japanese fleet playing at war games off Los Angeles.

The ships of our navy, it can be seen, should be specifically limited, by law, to within 200 miles of our coastline.

Had that been the law in 1898 the Maine would never have gone to Havana Harbor.

She never would have been blown up.

There would have been no war with Spain with its attendant loss of life.

Two hundred miles is ample, in the opinion of experts, for defense purposes.

Our nation cannot start an offensive war if its ships can't go further than 200 miles from the coastline.

Planes might be permitted to go as far as 500 miles from the coast for purposes of reconnaissance.

And the army should never leave the territorial limits of our nation.

To summarize: Three steps must be taken to smash the war racket.

We must take the profit out of war.

We must permit the youth of the land who would bear arms to decide whether or not there should be war.

We must limit our military forces to home defense purposes.

CHAPTER FIVE

TO HELL WITH WAR!

I am not a fool as to believe that war is a thing of the past.

I know the people do not want war, but there is no use in saying we cannot be pushed into another war.

Looking back, Woodrow Wilson was re-elected president in 1916 on a platform that he had "kept us out of war" and on the implied promise that he would "keep us out of war."

Yet, five months later he asked Congress to declare war on Germany.

In that five-month interval the people had not been asked whether they had changed their minds.

The 4,000,000 young men who put on uniforms and marched or sailed away were not asked whether they wanted to go forth to suffer and die.

Then what caused our government to change its mind so suddenly?

Money.

An allied commission, it may be recalled, came over shortly before the war declaration and called on the President.

The President summoned a group of advisers.

The head of the commission spoke.

Stripped of its diplomatic language, this is what he told the President and his group:

"There is no use kidding ourselves any longer."

"The cause of the allies is lost."

"We now owe you (American bankers, American munitions makers, American manufacturers, American speculators, American exporters) five or six billion dollars."

"If we lose (and without the help of the United States we must lose) we, England, France and Italy, cannot pay back this money...and Germany won't."

"So..."

Had secrecy been outlawed as far as war negotiations were concerned, and had the press been invited to be present at that conference, or had radio been available to broadcast the proceedings, America never would have entered the World War.

But this conference, like all war discussions, was shrouded in utmost secrecy.

When our boys were sent off to war they were told it was a "war to make the world safe for democracy" and a "war to end all wars."

Well, eighteen years after, the world has less of democracy than it had then.

Besides, what business is it of ours whether Russia or Germany or England or France or Italy or Austria live under democracies or monarchies?

Whether they are Fascists or Communists?

Our problem is to preserve our own democracy.

And very little, if anything, has been accomplished to assure us that the World War was really the war to end all wars.

Yes, we have had disarmament conferences and limitations of arms conferences.

They don't mean a thing.

One has just failed; the results of another have been nullified.

We send our professional soldiers and our sailors and our politicians and our diplomats to these conferences.

And what happens?

The professional soldiers and sailors don't want to disarm.

No admiral wants to be without a ship.

No general wants to be without a command.

Both mean men without jobs.

They are not for disarmament.

They cannot be for limitations of arms.

And at all these conferences, lurking in the background but all-powerful, just the same, are the sinister agents of those who profit by war.

They see to it that these conferences do not disarm or seriously limit armaments.

The chief aim of any power at any of these conferences has not been to achieve disarmament to prevent war but rather to get more armament for itself and less for any potential foe.

There is only one way to disarm with any semblance of practicability.

That is for all nations to get together and scrap every ship, every gun, every rifle, every tank, every war plane.

Even this, if it were possible, would not be enough.

The next war, according to experts, will be fought not with battleships, not by artillery, not with rifles and not with machine guns.

It will be fought with deadly chemicals and gases.

Secretly each nation is studying and perfecting newer and ghastlier means of annihilating its foes wholesale.

Yes, ships will continue to be built, for the shipbuilders must make their profits.

And guns still will be manufactured and powder and rifles will be made, for the munitions makers must make their huge profits.

And the soldiers, of course, must wear uniforms, for the manufacturer must make their war profits too.

But victory or defeat will be determined by the skill and ingenuity of our scientists.

If we put them to work making poison gas and more and more fiendish mechanical and explosive instruments of destruction, they will have no time for the constructive job of building greater prosperity for all peoples.

By putting them to this useful job, we can all make more money out of peace than we can out of war - even the munitions makers.

So...I say, TO HELL WITH WAR!

[Livyjr]

Do we deserve what we are getting because of our silence?

Definition of Untouchable -----

Out of the reach of the Law.

A.B.

It sure would seem that way, to me, anyway, A.B.

It sure would seem that way!

After all, what you sow is what you reap, and if we are now reaping "corrupt government", someone must have sowed those seeds!

So ........

This post has been edited by Livyjr: Feb 19 2005, 03:13 PM

[Livyjr]

Strange coincidence: 

February 2nd was Ground-hog's Day.

It was also the day of the State of the Union Address.

In an ironic juxtaposition of events, one involved a meaningless ritual in which we looked to a creature of little intelligence for an accurate prognostication of the future.

The other involved a ground-hog.

JUXTAPOSITION!

What a word that is, eh?

Juxtaposition!

Things side by side in a way that interests you, as it is somehow, "out of the ordinary"!

When there is true "juxtaposition", it is your "senses" that "know" it, and hence, information is exchanged between you and the "environment", in such manner about the times you are now in, that you literally can see "into" the "future", and so, see the "safe path" through!

And such is the case with me right exactly now, IN HERE, where there seems to be a real "confluence" of events in here, and thus, a "coalescence" of mental energy that has brought together an interesting and diverse group of people in here, including, and perhaps starting with A.B., who may well be the oldest member in here "chatting" along with the rest of us!

Now, to me, that is something!

It just is!

It is (or was for me, and still is) hard for an older person to work on a computer.

If you have arthritus, or damaged joints, or nerves and muscle, such as I, then manipulating a mouse can be torture, and typing as well.

And then there is simply learning the computer!

All of what is written always seem to assume some basic knowledge that older people WERE NEVER INFORMED ABOUT, OR PRIVY TO!

And so, I just have to salute A.B. for being in here, as it is quite an inspiration to me, as to how vital a person can remain, as one gets older gracefully!

[jeffmoskin]

Boy, A.B., beware the power of an old man when he gets the bit between his teeth!

And good going here, A.B., telling things the way YOU see them, instead of just being another "yes, sir, oh, no sir" kind of "Stepford" American, like a robot, or a zombie!

And this is a real good question that you pose above here, to be quite truthful with you!

When I came home from Viet Nam, in my mind was to look up the "MAN" who had sent us over there to destroy that country and the people who were in it, in the name of the tri-partite "GOD" of America: "GEETUS, MOOLAH, and MAMMON"!

Whose voice was it that I heard in my ears that night as we sat there in a helicopter, hovering above a village full of nothing but children and women, while flares were going off, lighting the place up like day, and CS gas morter rounds were impacting in the village to drive the people out into the open so we could follow the order that was coming over the radio and into my ears: "KILL THEM ALL!"

"KILL THEM ALL!"

All these years later, I still hear that voice in my head, and think about that night, and what might have happened, BUT FOR the Lt. who was the aircraft commander that night!

"Anyone back there who pulls a trigger WILL ANSWER TO ME!"

This with his hand on his own .45!

And so he countermanded the order coming in over the headphones, to me, the man IN THE GOD SEAT with the rifle who was supposed to heed that order!

Several weeks later, that Lt. and all the rest of that crew were shot out of the sky by our own artillery, if you can believe that.

And they burned all the way down!

And I still remember that, as well, my friend out on the ground with his legs burned off, in a crawling position which said he survived the crash itself, and only died after either getting out himself, or being thrown out on impact, one of the two!

SO!

That makes me a "last man", and still, I persist in wondering what happened that night that they were shot down!

I know that something had to have happened after we got back that night, because in essence, that Lt. countermanded a direct order from Bn. TOC, but I don't know what that was, since I was but a lowly enlisted man, and so, I was not privy to things which went on at the "higher" levels of the chain of command.

Whatever happened, that Lt. and all that crew but me were all killed, by our own fires, they say!

For that to have happened, either there was a terrible mistake on the part of that Lt., OR, he was vectored into the path of that artillery!

There is not a third option that I am aware of.

Was he killed to keep him quiet?

I always wonder that, A.B.; I always do, BECAUSE it is within the realms of possibilities, as the saying goes.

And that is the source of the power that these "untouchables" have over the rest of us; this ability to simply destroy us if we "get out of line"!

People think this all a bunch of "hoo-hah", of course, but that don't change anything, or make it go away.

And your story above about Dennis Kucinich is a case in point.

And your previous story in another post in here about Jesus, and who he upset, so as to get himself killed is another case in point!

It's about power, A.B., raw power!

It goes right to people's heads and does something to their minds.

I know this to be true myself, having sat there in the "GOD SEAT" with that rifle!

If you don't quit "cold turkey" and walk right away from it, you are lost forever, and A.B. many were, and many still are, and in the future, likely many will be!

There but for the grace of God go we!

Now, I have not answered your question, I know, but hopefully, between us, we have ripped the cover off of something, and that cover, once off, may be difficult to put back on, if only enough other Americans can find the courage of their own moral convictions to do as you have done; ASK WHY THIS CRAP EXISTS, HERE IN OUR AMERICA!

Now I know why I run to this site as soon as my computer boots up.

Livyjr, I don't know WHY it just happened that your C.O. told you NOT to KILL THEM ALL, but because of him and because of you there are dozens maybe hundreds of grown-up Vietnamese today. Perhaps they are research scientists who will discover the cure for some ailment just waiting for all of us old geezers.

And there are thousands of their family members and friends who did NOT have to mourn their deaths, asking "Why?"

Thank you for posting this experience. I know it must be painful for you, and I know you have never forgotten certain experiences and you never will. But I'm glad you are willing to post them and share them so we can all be a part of it.

We all are a part of the world, and we have a big job to do to get it back from its corrupt usurper king.

We need all the truth and honesty we can find.

[jeffmoskin]

Another great post, Livyjr. Your "finds" continue to amaze me.

...And since it is a "slow news" day right now, I am going to insert this article for the record in here on how a "warrior" in OUR America saw war, some years ago:

Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC

War is just a racket.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people.

Only a small inside group knows what it is about.

It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses....



...CHAPTER FOUR

HOW TO SMASH THIS RACKET!

WELL, it's a racket, all right.

A few profit - and the many pay.

But there is a way to stop it.

You can't end it by disarmament conferences.

You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva.

Well-meaning but impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions.

It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war.

The only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and industry and labor before the nations manhood can be conscripted.

One month before the Government can conscript the young men of the nation - it must conscript capital and industry and labor.

Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted - to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get.

Let the workers in these plants get the same wages - all the workers, all presidents, all executives, all directors, all managers, all bankers - yes, and all generals and all admirals and all officers and all politicians and all government office holders - everyone in the nation be restricted to a total monthly income not to exceed that paid to the soldier in the trenches!

Let all these kings and tycoons and masters of business and all those workers in industry and all our senators and governors and majors pay half of their monthly $30 wage to their families and pay war risk insurance and buy Liberty Bonds.

Why shouldn't they?

They aren't running any risk of being killed or of having their bodies mangled or their minds shattered.

They aren't sleeping in muddy trenches.

They aren't hungry.

The soldiers are!

Give capital and industry and labor thirty days to think it over and you will find, by that time, there will be no war.

That will smash the war racket - that and nothing else.

Maybe I am a little too optimistic.

Capital still has some say.

So capital won't permit the taking of the profit out of war until the people - those who do the suffering and still pay the price - make up their minds that those they elect to office shall do their bidding, and not that of the profiteers.

Another step necessary in this fight to smash the war racket is the limited plebiscite to determine whether a war should be declared.

A plebiscite not of all the voters but merely of those who would be called upon to do the fighting and dying.

There wouldn't be very much sense in having a 76-year-old president of a munitions factory or the flat-footed head of an international banking firm or the cross-eyed manager of a uniform manufacturing plant - all of whom see visions of tremendous profits in the event of war - voting on whether the nation should go to war or not.

They never would be called upon to shoulder arms - to sleep in a trench and to be shot.

Only those who would be called upon to risk their lives for their country should have the privilege of voting to determine whether the nation should go to war.

There is ample precedent for restricting the voting to those affected.

Many of our states have restrictions on those permitted to vote.

In most, it is necessary to be able to read and write before you may vote.

In some, you must own property.

It would be a simple matter each year for the men coming of military age to register in their communities as they did in the draft during the World War and be examined physically.

Those who could pass and who would therefore be called upon to bear arms in the event of war would be eligible to vote in a limited plebiscite.

They should be the ones to have the power to decide - and not a Congress few of whose members are within the age limit and fewer still of whom are in physical condition to bear arms.

Only those who must suffer should have the right to vote.

A third step in this business of smashing the war racket is to make certain that our military forces are truly forces for defense only.

At each session of Congress the question of further naval appropriations comes up.

The swivel-chair admirals of Washington (and there are always a lot of them) are very adroit lobbyists.

And they are smart.

They don't shout that "We need a lot of battleships to war on this nation or that nation."

Oh no.

First of all, they let it be known that America is menaced by a great naval power.

Almost any day, these admirals will tell you, the great fleet of this supposed enemy will strike suddenly and annihilate 125,000,000 people.

Just like that.

Then they begin to cry for a larger navy.

For what?

To fight the enemy?

Oh my, no.

Oh, no.

For defense purposes only.

Then, incidentally, they announce maneuvers in the Pacific.

For defense.

Uh, huh.

The Pacific is a great big ocean.

We have a tremendous coastline on the Pacific.

Will the maneuvers be off the coast, two or three hundred miles?

Oh, no.

The maneuvers will be two thousand, yes, perhaps even thirty-five hundred miles, off the coast.

The Japanese, a proud people, of course will be pleased beyond expression to see the united States fleet so close to Nippon's shores.

Even as pleased as would be the residents of California were they to dimly discern through the morning mist, the Japanese fleet playing at war games off Los Angeles.

The ships of our navy, it can be seen, should be specifically limited, by law, to within 200 miles of our coastline.

Had that been the law in 1898 the Maine would never have gone to Havana Harbor.

She never would have been blown up.

There would have been no war with Spain with its attendant loss of life.

Two hundred miles is ample, in the opinion of experts, for defense purposes.

Our nation cannot start an offensive war if its ships can't go further than 200 miles from the coastline.

Planes might be permitted to go as far as 500 miles from the coast for purposes of reconnaissance.

And the army should never leave the territorial limits of our nation.

To summarize: Three steps must be taken to smash the war racket.

We must take the profit out of war.

We must permit the youth of the land who would bear arms to decide whether or not there should be war.

Certainly an idea whose time has come. Only 72 years late.

[Livyjr]

Another great post, Livyjr.

Your "finds" continue to amaze me.

In all truth, jeffmoskin, they continue to amaze me as well, and I am completely serious about that; especially these words from this Marine General which literally "jumped" into my hand, just before I posted them in here!

SO!

How about that?

JUXTAPOSITION!

Or synchronicity!

And by the way, folks, I want to invite everyone to step outside here, and look to your right, and just down the street, you will see a sign for "A.B.'s Corner"!

Yes, that is right!

"A.B.'s Corner", dedicated to OUR A.B., is now open, and conducting business!

Reminiscences!

That's the theme!

And encouragement for the younger folks out there, of whom I am one!

[Livyjr]

"A.B.'s Corner", dedicated to OUR A.B., is now open, and conducting business!

Reminiscences!

That's the theme!

And encouragement for the younger folks out there, of whom I am one!

And here, I am just coming back from A.B.'s Corner, where the pot belly stove has been installed, and is now in use, thanks to "Stoves by Gabrielle"!

SO!

Stop by and have a sit!

Take a load off!

And enjoy!

The warmth is very comforting!

[Livyjr]

And here once again, I am returning from "A.B.'s Corner", and I have to say that the warmth over there actually brought a tear to my eye, which is not a bad thing, not a bad thing at all!

[Livyjr]

SO!

We grow as a community in here, with A.B.'s Corner now being open for business, where nostalgia, in a sense, anyway, is the "commodity", and I personally think that is a good and healthy thing!

It gives us diversity, and a sense of continuity, when people go back through their own memories, and say, "Hey, wait a minute, I have been through worse than this, and I have survived", or they recall the hardships and travails that their own parents or grandparents went through, and they realize, from that, just what the word "tenacity" can really be all about, and tenacity is not an empty word at all!

And then we have Mr. George W. Bush:

Politics

"Private tapes shed light on candidate Bush - Conversations on political foes, drugs recorded by old friend"

The Associated Press
Updated: 9:36 p.m. ET Feb. 19, 2005

NEW YORK - Private conversations with George Bush secretly taped by an old friend before he was elected president foreshadow some of his political strategies and appear to reveal that he acknowledged using marijuana, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The conversations were recorded by Doug Wead, a former aide to George W. Bush’s father, beginning in 1998, when Bush was weighing a presidential bid, until just before the Republican National Convention in 2000, the Times said in a story posted on its Web site.

The tapes show Bush crafting a strategy for navigating the tricky political waters between Christian conservative and secular voters, repeatedly worrying that evangelicals would be angered by a refusal to bash gays and that secular Americans would be turned off by meetings with evangelical leaders.

On one tape, Bush explains that he told one prominent evangelical that he would not “kick gays, because I’m a sinner."

"How can I differentiate sin?”

Candid talk about foes, drugs

In early tapes, Bush dismisses the strength of John McCain for the nomination and expresses concern about rival Steve Forbes.

He also praises John Ashcroft as a promising candidate for Supreme Court justice, attorney general or vice president.

Bush also criticizes then-Vice President Al Gore for admitting marijuana use and explains why he would not do the same.

“I wouldn’t answer the marijuana questions,” he said, according to the Times.

“You know why?"

"Because I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried.”

According to the article, Wead played 12 of the tapes to a Times reporter.

He said he recorded them because he viewed Bush as a historic figure.

He is the author of a new book on presidential childhoods.

The White House did not deny the authenticity of the tapes.

“The governor was having casual conversations with someone he believed was his friend,” White House spokesman Trent Duffy said, referring to Bush.

[Livyjr]

TENACIOUS: tending to hold fast; not easily pulled apart; cohesive, tough; persistent in maintaining or adhering to something valued as habitual!

OUR America!

What really is it?

Is it today the same as it was in 1776, for example?

Or is that all really gone?

And who can even answer that question, as who would be the "authority"?

George W. Bush, the "lost man"?

As president of America, or the world, does George W. Bush "get" to tell us who we are, or does he get to define us, out there on the world stage?

Or is he just himself, another human being out there on the face of this earth, like all the rest of us common folk in here?

And who can answer that?

Well, I would say, "EACH ONE OF US", for a start, anyway!

WE ARE WHO WE ARE, and George W. Bush is neither in charge of that, nor can he define who or what we are, nor can the Republican National Committe, nor this "Racey" Ott fellow that the Republicans had in charge of something or other to do with Mr. George W. Bush in this last election, nor this Mehlman fellow that is now a high something-or-other in the Republican National Committee, which is the home of hatred and bigotry in OUR America these days, in my opinion, anyway!

And here, of course, I might just be doing a little venting, but AS AN AMERICAN, I really was made to be "upset" by the division caused in this country by this Republican crowd in this last election, and as far as I am concerned, that is not yet over, which was part of my reason for nudging Mr. A.B. to get his corner set up, and the stove lit, because now that the election is over, it is time to do some "re-assessment", especially as to this "heart and soul" of America, and just what exactly it might be, now that we are in the 21st Century, and an apparent "New World Order" that is being directed by this Republican crowd, at the apparent direction and instigation of this NEW CON crowd who appear to be some powerful "sub-group" within the Republican Party with direct control of the reigns of power of that thug-like organization.

SO!

We have branched out in here, with the setting up of that thread, "A.B.'s Corner", which is introspective in nature, while this one will continue to look at issues, and since we go all over the place in here, anyway, there really won't be much of a change in here.

But my thoughts obviously change, as time goes on, and as I hear other people's thoughts in here, especially, and their concerns, which I do think about; quite a bit, actually!

One of the "areas" where people need to do some "accepting" is in what is called "politics", here in OUR America, and that is what this above story on George W. Bush is supposed to be a focus about, as ALL POLITICS in the world ARE NOT THE SAME, and likely never will be, and so, we as a nation should not be out there trying to make everyone an American!

And we should not even be thinking along those lines, for it is delusional thinking on OUR part to be thinking that all these other people out there in the world have no society, or civilization, or whatever, until we come to bring it to them!

If ever there was a height to arrogance, that would be it in my estimation!

As nations go, we are quite a young one, and we should not lose sight of that fact, ever!

My thoughts right now, anyway!

To be continued!

SO!

Stay tuned!

Live, late-breaking!

Life, in OUR America!

[Livyjr]

SO!

We grow as a community in here, with A.B.'s Corner now being open for business, where nostalgia, in a sense, anyway, is the "commodity", and I personally think that is a good and healthy thing!

It gives us diversity, and a sense of continuity, when people go back through their own memories, and say, "Hey, wait a minute, I have been through worse than this, and I have survived", or they recall the hardships and travails that their own parents or grandparents went through, and they realize, from that, just what the word "tenacity" can really be all about, and tenacity is not an empty word at all!

And then we have Mr. George W. Bush:

Politics

"Private tapes shed light on candidate Bush - Conversations on political foes, drugs recorded by old friend"

The Associated Press
Updated: 9:36 p.m. ET Feb. 19, 2005

NEW YORK - Private conversations with George Bush secretly taped by an old friend before he was elected president foreshadow some of his political strategies and appear to reveal that he acknowledged using marijuana, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The conversations were recorded by Doug Wead, a former aide to George W. Bush’s father, beginning in 1998, when Bush was weighing a presidential bid, until just before the Republican National Convention in 2000, the Times said in a story posted on its Web site.

The tapes show Bush crafting a strategy for navigating the tricky political waters between Christian conservative and secular voters, repeatedly worrying that evangelicals would be angered by a refusal to bash gays and that secular Americans would be turned off by meetings with evangelical leaders.

On one tape, Bush explains that he told one prominent evangelical that he would not “kick gays, because I’m a sinner."

"How can I differentiate sin?”

Politics!

There was a time in my area of OUR America, in the place where I was born, known as the "Bloody Thirteenth Ward", where "politics" was a realm alleged to be inhabited by saloon keepers, and thugs, and goons, and the ordinary folk, if they knew what was good for them, well, they just stayed out of that business, and as an American, I have always been curious about that, to be truthful.

WHY?

Why wouldn't Americans want to have control over their own destiny, through the workings of THEIR government, and my conclusion, in MY OWN AREA of OUR America, is ethnicity!

And before anyone flies off the handle, here, I don't mean bigotry!

What I mean is that during those days, many "citizens" right here where I am were either first or second generation immigrants, AND SO, they had memories of lives dominated by repression in other countries, and fears of that repression, and so, somehow, they just could not rise up to a life of true liberty, while I, a later generation, knew nothing but liberty, and here, liberty MUST NOT BE mistaken for freedom, or licentiousness, neither of which is liberty!

Think on OUR Pledge of Allegiance: "Liberty and Justice for ALL!"

Not "freedom for all!"

A big difference.

Or "My Country Tis of Thee, sweet land of liberty"!

Again, "LIBERTY", and not freedom!

When I was young, we talked of liberty!

Now, it seems all I hear about is freedom, and usually it is some thug or goon hammering and yammering at me, a combat veteran, that "freedom is not free", and therefore, I am to bow down and kiss the very ground that George W. Bush might have walked on, because according to these thugs and goons, I am free ONLY because of George W. Bush!

Well, you know what?

That is the biggest load of horse crap that there ever was!

I am free because I am free, and I work to keep it that way, DESPITE GEORGE W. BUSH and this crowd of thugs that is now the Republican Party, here in OUR America!

If ever my "freedom", or liberty was at stake, IT IS NOW, and the threat is not from outside OUR America; it is from within, and that threat is embodied right in George W. Bush!

He is the threat to me, and no other that I am aware of!

His witless belligerence, his mindless bellicosity, his bigotry, his hypocrisy, as is apparent from this news article above, where he admits to being a "sinner", like everyone else in the world probably is as well!

Which brings me to this following "piece" which I just retrieved from Volume I of "Life in OUR America":

Beware the brave man!

He may be a hero, willing to risk his very life, but he will also be willing to endanger the lives of others.

After all, he is a risk taker and therefore does not see the wisdom in conservation, compassion, and carefulness.

Such a person will threaten others, force his will upon others, and even murder others, not out of passion, but out of something much deadly - rationale!

He will justify his actions according to ideology, patriotism, religion and principle.

When attacked, a brave man goes forth in strength, power and confidence.

In that boisterousness, there is little awareness of the subtle.

Life is not simple, and it takes a great deal of time to master.

Perhaps that is why the brave are youthful while the wise are old!

- Deng, Ming-Dao

end quotes

Beware the brave man!

True words, BUT ....

Even more, BEWARE the man who is not brave, but is instead a schemer, and is willing to don appearance and garb for the sake of appearing as the brave man!

He is even more dangerous, because in the end, it is his scheming which brings down the nation!

Don't believe me?

Read some history, and find therein an example of where a schemer has brought his nation high, and then held it there, for an enduring period of time, such as a lifetime of a whole generation, as opposed to a few transitory years!

And when you can find such an example, and post it here, or where ever for all the candid world to read, then, and only then, shall I be made a believer!

Use Rome for an example, perhaps, or England, which used to "own the show" over here, until OUR forefathers in LIBERTY gave that schemeing, tyrannical crowd the boot back in the 1700's; and good riddance!

Until then, I think that I shall take my comfort more in those who have grown old, gracefully, as the "peacemakers" of this earth!

They in the long run just might be a little more "blessed" than the brave man, and that is why I cleave to them, myself, having had enough of brave men and war in my own short lifetime, down here on this earth of OURS, and here, in OUR America.

[Livyjr]

Politics!

There was a time in my area of OUR America, in the place where I was born, known as the "Bloody Thirteenth Ward", where "politics" was a realm alleged to be inhabited by saloon keepers, and thugs, and goons, and the ordinary folk, if they knew what was good for them, well, they just stayed out of that business, and as an American, I have always been curious about that, to be truthful.

WHY?

And here is the "flip side" of that above, FOR US, as the heart and soul of OUR own compassionate side of OUR America to read and heed, and consider, as we pick our own paths through life down here on this earth of OURS:

The handbook of the strategist has said:

"Do not invite the fight, accept it instead,"

"Better a foot behind than an inch too far ahead!"

Which means:

Look a man straight in the face and make no move,

Roll up your sleeve, and clench no fist.

Open your hand, and show no weapon,

Bare your breast and find no foe.

BUT .....

As long as there be a foe, value him!

Respect him, measure him, be humble towards him;

LET HIM NOT STRIP FROM YOU, HOWEVER STRONG HE BE,

Compassion, the one wealth which can afford him!

- Lao Tze, and me, too.

end quotes

"As long as there be a foe ...."

Well, there is, and his name is George W. Bush, and from all appearances, that foe is going to be a foe for at least four more long, and likely dreary years, and so ......

As the song says; "Pancho needs your prayers, it's true, but save a few for George W. Bush, too!"

SO!

Let us all think on what it really means to be an "American", and in that "being", let us not exclude George W. Bush from OUR compassion, even as he and the Republican Party work very hard to EXCLUDE us from theirs!

A thought, anyway, on what being an American with "liberty of conscious" means to me!