STOP the War in Syria!! End the American Empire

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I feel it can't be said enough. STOP the War in Syria!

Damn man, what are we doing?

I grew up during and served in the Vietnam war. I remember the horrors and atrocities and the lies. Wars are always based on lies and the war in Syria is no different.

Now the ruling elite have had, over the last fifteen years, their War OF Terror, Afghanistan war, Iraq war, Libya war, Yemen war, and the Syria war. The Syria war is going to be escalated, that's a given. The stage is being set. Whether it takes place during lame duck war criminal Obama's last few months or during Clinton's first few months remains to be seen. Actually it's happening now but the big fireworks are still ahead.

Imagine the people of Afghanistan, the people of Iraq, the people of Libya, the people of Yemen, the people of Somalia, the people of Syria. All subjected to the destructive greed of the American Empire. The American people.

The United States of America's savage war against the people and country of Syria is a clear and present danger to humanity We the Serfs should try to stop NOW. It is a moral and ethical imperative.

"Contrary to what is being reported in the mainstream media, the US government is not undertaking any measures to end this war. Actually, Washington is doing everything in its power to deepen and widen the conflict, not only because of Syria’s strategically important position (which ignited the conflict), but also for another reason that has become of vital interest to the US financial industry during the past two years."

The price of oil. Low oil prices are causing enormous pressure on the financial oligarchy and the economies of oil producing states. Wall Street wants an increase in the price of oil and a sure fire way to do that is war.

"When the rest of the loans come due at the end of this fall, creditors will be facing enormous problems, as the world economy remains stagnant with no improvement in sight. Above that, the present price of oil is itself the product of massive manipulation: Producers have hired fleets of tankers that are filled to breaking point and storages are almost bursting at the seams. Contrary to media reports there is no chance that production will be significantly cut in the near future, due to the fierce competition between the producing states, some of whom are themselves on the verge of bankruptcy."

While most everyone is talking about who won the debate between Trump and Clinton, how Trump responded to his ignorant and assholish remarks caught on tape, and the insults the war criminal Clinton and Pathetic Wannabe billionaire threw at each other, the conditioning for the escalation of the war in Syria is taking place.

"Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump know what the financial industry expects from the next President of the United States. That’s why there are three issues in the ongoing election campaign that the two of them entirely agree upon: The ‘war on terror’, the ‘struggle against radical Islamists’ and the ’destruction of Isis’. All three slogans are nothing but a pretext for putting a fuse to the oil keg, which is the Middle East."

http://www.globalresearch.ca/trump-or-clinton-no-americas-future-will-be...

At the very least, we should be flooding our political "representatives" with emails and phone calls telling them to stop the illegal war against Syria. I don't know why the young people are not in the streets. It's clear this could turn into an even bigger conflict with Russia and even China. That's where we're headed. Perhaps the election is that distracting when we're at such a critical point. I'm damn surprised the young people are not in the streets. Maybe it can be a cornerstone of the protests against Hillary Clinton after she gets elected. Something has to be done.

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featheredsprite's picture

Syria is a black hole. And the rest of the Middle East is the stuff spinning around the event horizon and changing faster than the speed of light.

[The science is correct. And the metaphor ain't far wrong, either.]

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Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.

Big Al's picture

That fits well with his supporters who are mostly chickenshits who believe in the war OF terror. But he's certainly not like Clinton, who has said Assad must go, i.e., regime change. Trump is not indicating that. Which goes along with his stances on Russia and NATO. But his stance on ISIS is troubling because the War OF Terror, with ISIS being the latest iteration of the terrorist enemy, has been manufactured and he hasn't challenged those lies. I don't know if he's smart enough to realize it's all interrelated.

But it doesn't matter, Clinton is going to win. She's the one the neocons wanted, those who control the media want, she's the next step after Obama. We have to challenge her as soon as she's elected.

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lotlizard's picture

as the official result. Which is why I could see a person voting for Trump just to put a slight limit on the size of the landslide.

Disclaimer: not to say that anything warrants trust in the integrity of the official result.

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Maybe we should prioritize human survival over upper class style? This is the real reason the GOP Establishment is down on him - we surely know by now that they don't care about women's comfort. And neither do the Democrats, especially Hillary. Oil prices are down and the Military Industrial Complex is endlessly greedy. And Hillary loves death.

True, he's crass and often very obnoxious, but he doesn't want WWW III, and he doesn't want the TPP, etc., either of which spells our doom.

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We Are Many and it got me thinking that we need an anti-war in Syria movement right now.

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Big Al's picture

It should be like the A number one thing.

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WaterLily's picture

Just thinking about Syria makes me sick to my stomach, literally. How are we not in the streets?!

I guess it's because the masses are truly dumbed down and distracted. Sickening.

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snoopydawg's picture

And see why they can't have their infrastructure fixed and why social programs need to be cut and why we can't afford decent health care in their country as well as everything else that our government tells us that there isn't any money for.
I have read so many comments about not letting any refugees into this country because they should have either stayed in their country to fight the terrorists or that the refugees will be terrorists.
I would like them to understand that our troops aren't fighting for our country's defense or our freedoms.
Our military is fighting alongside the same terrorists groups that people think attacked us on 9/11 and that our troops fought against during the Iraq war.
This is how one person feels about our government supplying the terrorists with weapons.

Syria, but U.S. Special Forces saw close up how the chaotic U.S. policy of aiding Syrian jihadists enabled Al Qaeda and ISIS to rip Syria apart, explains ex-British diplomat Alastair Crooke.

“No one on the ground believes in this mission or this effort”, a former Green Beret writes of America’s covert and clandestine programs to train and arm Syrian insurgents, “they know we are just training the next generation of jihadis, so they are sabotaging it by saying, ‘Fuck it, who cares?’”. “I don’t want to be responsible for Nusra guys saying they were trained by Americans,” the Green Beret added.

And this is one of the best articles I've read about what the Syrian war is about.
http://www.mintpressnews.com/migrant-crisis-syria-war-fueled-by-competin...

This article has been updated to reflect recent Wikileaks revelations of US State Department leaks that show plans to destabilize Syria and overthrow the Syrian government as early as 2006. The leaks reveal that these plans were given to the US directly from the Israeli government and would be formalized through instigating civil strife and sectarianism through partnership with nations like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and even Egypt to break down the power structure in Syria to weaken Iran and Hezbolla.

As usual since way before Smedley Butler told us that he had spent 33 years fighting so that the corporations could rape other countries of their resources, this is what the Syrian war (and every war) has been about.

It's the oil and gas pipelines, stupid!
Indeed, tensions were building between Russia, the U.S. and the European Union amid concerns that the European gas market would be held hostage to Russian gas giant Gazprom. The proposed Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline would be essential to diversifying Europe’s energy supplies away from Russia.

Turkey is Gazprom’s second-largest customer. The entire Turkish energy security structure relies on gas from Russia and Iran. Plus, Turkey was harboring Ottoman-like ambitions of becoming a strategic crossroads for the export of Russian, Caspian-Central Asian, Iraqi and Iranian oil and even gas to Europe, assesses journalist Pepe Escobar writing for Al Jazeera.

The Guardian reported in August 2013:

“Assad refused to sign a proposed agreement with Qatar and Turkey that would run a pipeline from the latter’s North field, contiguous with Iran’s South Pars field, through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and on to Turkey, with a view to supply European markets – albeit crucially bypassing Russia. Assad’s rationale was ‘to protect the interests of [his] Russian ally, which is Europe’s top supplier of natural gas.’”

And this was also the reason why Ukraine's president had to be removed.
He wouldn't allow foreign corporations (US special interests) to build pipelines, drill for oil and the usual natural resources that they wanted to get their hands on, but that's another story.
However, the current president of Ukraine who used to live in Virginia told Hillary that if he was made president then he would allow US special interests into his country.
And the only time the American people give a thought about the refugees who are fleeing from their countries is when they see pictures like this one
image_208.jpeg
or the one of the little boy in the ambulance after his city was bombed and blamed on Russia.

I don't know how to wake people up enough for them to understand that our government has been lying to us for decades about the reasons why our country has to illegally invade or bomb other people's countries and use our tax dollars and our men and women's lives, but it hasn't ever been to defend their country or their freedoms.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Big Al's picture

frigging brainwashed. The propaganda from the corporate media is astoundingly consistent across the board so unless people seek out alternative sources they simply will not know. That simple really.
How to combat that is one of our key issues.
Thanks for that info snoopydawg.

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snoopydawg's picture

And thanks for continuing to write about these issues. It's important for people to see how much the government's propaganda that they have been bombarding on us for decades has worked on Americans and there has to be a way for them to start questioning why this country has been at continual war for the 15 years after 9/11.
And not just this time frame but pretty much the whole time since the pilgrims landed on the shores of this country.
I remember playing cowboys and Indians when I was a kid because I learned in school that the Indians were the bad guys. That means that I have been hit with their lies my entire life.
And I look at like being raised in a certain religion and how hard it was to understand that it was poppy cock!
I don't remember where I saw this, but it stuck with me for years and it hit home.
I knew that Israel has been pulling our government's strings regarding the wars in the Middle East and getting our country and our military to remove anyone who threaten them and wants to be the only superpower in the Middle East, but I didn't realize how far back it went.

‘In 1914 any American would have laughed to scorn the idea that in three years time he would be struggling and suffering in France for the sake of affairs which had no connection with those of his own country.

‘And yet, when 1917 came, the same man enlisted enthusiastically. Every soldier whom we happened to interview and questioned as to his personal motives for fighting, invariably replied: 'we are fighting for democracy'. They were one step ahead of their fellow soldiers from other nations, who went for their own country's sake.

‘It is only when we realize that France was invaded by hundreds of thousands of inhabitants from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida, Illinois, Wyoming, California, Louisiana, and subsequently from Ontario, Manitoba, Rhodesia and New South Wales, whose only possible motive was to hasten the triumph of democracy, that we begin to understand something of the power of Israel. The power to stir up a whole nation of solid, egotistical and utilitarian individuals, and to persuade them that their greatest privilege is to set out and get themselves killed at the uttermost ends of the earth, with no hope of gain for themselves or their children and almost without their understanding against or for whom they are fighting, or why, is a simply incredible phenomenon which makes one afraid when one comes to think about it.’

E. Malynski: La Démocratie Victorieuse, 1929

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

TheOtherMaven's picture

It has the reek of "The Protocols of Zion" about it.

It's also factually wrong about Canada, Rhodesia, and Australia - they were there from the get-go. Canada declared war on Germany on August 5, 1914 - one day after the British Parliament did. Rhodesia, as a loyal member of the British Empire, followed suit, as did Australia. "British" troops on the Western Front and elsewhere included large numbers of Colonials. The Gallipoli campaign ran 25 April 1915 to 9 January 1916, and the Anzacs were in the thick of it. (How easily we forget what we should never forget!)

The US was the only laggard, dragging its feet and spouting about "neutrality" until 1917.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

I think it's on Netflix...about Syrian civilians running INTO BATTLES to rescue others.
If this doesn't wake people up, nothing will.

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Big Al's picture

The White Helmets are a UK/US construct openly aligned with terrorist groups. The mainstream corporate media, including Netflix, has not and is not going to tell the truth about the Syria war.

http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/04/30/video-syria-white-helmets-exposed-...

http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/10/23/syrias-white-helmets-war-by-way-of...

[video:https://youtu.be/5k6hSS6xBTw]

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WaterLily's picture

I just posted about this upthread. Didn't realize the backstory.

I knew, watching it, that there was an obvious agenda behind the film -- but I can see how others who have not been following the war would not.

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gulfgal98's picture

The American people are brainwashed based upon my own anecdotal experience with our now defunct Peace vigil. Most people we met really believe we are fighting terrorism in these wars. They really do not want war, but have been scared to death by the propaganda that has been whipped up by our leaders and the media. So they see these wars as a necessary evil to prevent the terrorists from coming to get them here in the good ole US of A.

Moral arguments do not work. Most people I talked to have no idea just how many people we have killed over there. And they do not want to know because in effect that is also blood on their hands. That is why moral arguments do not work. Geo-political arguments do not work. Seeing something in a big picture context is difficult for most people to grasp. Everything is happening somewhere else and as long as it is not here, they are not worried.

I found that the one argument that does get some traction is the fiscal costs of these wars. Most people I talked with were shocked when I told them just how much these wars are costing us and they are not paid for, but are mortgaged into the future.

Those of us in our Peace vigil were so frustrated by a lack of concern by most citizens that every one of us was in favor of re-instituting the draft with no exceptions. Then the American public literally will have skin in the game and will demand an end to these wars. There was a draft during Viet Nam and IMHO, that was the catalyst for people marching in the streets and protesting.

But as long as the oligarchs are getting rich off of war and the people are in the dark about these wars of choice, they will continue.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

climate change? Wasted. Get the fuck out of here.

It does show for all paying attention that Capitalism is immoral. Narcissistic self-centered assholes one and all.

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Alligator Ed's picture

Tonight's debate was about as enlightening as debates over whether Kim Kardashian's ass is real or an implant. I knew that the sexual misconduct was going to be prominent. Nobody talks about challenging the Russians with a war-like act because of Obama/Clinton's misguided Syria policy. For all the talk about dislocated coal miners and oil independence, not a single word by Trump or pseudo-climate warrior Clinton.

The deficiencies in the debate were many but not unexpected. All previous presidential debates were more issue-oriented than this one and its immediate predecessor.

Al, unless those of draft age, now including females, rises up to protest at the level during the Vietnam war, ain't nothin' gonna happen. We both know that.

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Big Al's picture

I think back to the 2002/2003 protests against the impending Iraq war and wonder what the hell happened. Even since Occupy in 2011. It's like the people have been neutered.

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SCNR (Sorry, could not resist). Thank you for suggesting people do something/anything (what? I don't know) to oppose ever more suffering and destruction. "You can bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb it in to peace." /stayhuman

2003: Peace Protests Continue Despite President Bush's Dismissal of the Anti-War Movement As a Mere "Focus Group"

On Tuesday President Bush was asked to address the massive anti-war protests. He said: "Democracy is a beautiful thing, and that people are allowed to express their opinion. I welcome people’s right to say what they believe. Secondly, evidently some of the world don’t view Saddam Hussein as a risk to peace… you know, size of protest, it’s like deciding, well, I’m going to decide policy based upon a focus group."

Edit: Adding link to video trailer, LOL irony there ya go google. February 15th, 2003: The Day the World Said No to War
That's when the peace movement in the Bay Area died I think. People would rather google and facebook on ithings then save the planet, because focus groups.

Why oh why are we still at war for oil? Clinton will be Bush's fifth term, or similar.
Naked Capitalism: The Billion Barrel Oil Swindle: 80% Of U.S. Oil Reserves Are Unaccounted-For
Just follow the link and pick your quotes, there are many other articles and comments, confirming my biases. Heh.
"Where's that confounded bridge?" /thecrunge Edit: Proper quote and attribution.

Peace & Love

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The Crunge(sp?). NOT quadrophonia.

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

and for knowing wtf I's trying to say. Smile Triggered in to oblivion from another essay, f*cking Jackie Gleason. Makes me stop talking and go out of my mind. Ta!

The Who - The Real Me (Bass track)
Cheers

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get chronic lyricosis on occasion. Zep used to be my thing.

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

Led Zeppelin in Oakland, CA 1977

Ha ha @ the tech Smile Give us a break it is way before cell camera phones but there I was. Grew up at Day on the Greens, and at Winterland.

Love rock, love the electric guitar, it sends me. Smile Peace

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Thanks, oil article and various comments there particularly interesting, although there could, of course, be multiple factors involved. Confusing for some of us, (meaning me,) lol.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Between the endless wars and their everyday problems. It was the draft that caused the huge antiwar movements before. Young people today feel no personal danger of ending up being blown up in some middle eastern hellhole and don't connect the grim financial situations they face with the diversion of tax dollars to destruction capitalism. How many people even know a member of the armed forces today? In the 60s, every family faced the risk of a family member being scooped up and shipped out, and we saw the war nightly on TV. The oligarchs have done a spectacular job of hiding the realities of unending war. Bring back the draft and we'd be out of the middle east in a year.

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Gus, I hope you reconsider the position that bringing back the draft would stop the war in a year. It often comes up in discussions about the volunteer army (which is just a current version of the old 18th century recruit-mercenaries-among-the-impoverished scheme). But people forget that the first anti-draft demos during the Vietnam war were in 1963; the first public draft card burnings were in NYC in '64. The last helicopters pulled out of Vietnam in 1973.

It took 10 years to force the US out.

The only thing providing more cannon fodder to the defense department--which is what the draft does--is give them more people to commit their crimes against humanity.

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Shaylors Provence

revolt in Vietnam. The protest of choice was fragging and the military was unable to cover up about 600 of these incidents.

I do agree that we should not have a draft because it does provide cannon fodder for the military/industrial/financial complex to wreak havoc in the world. We also don't need military bases in 150 countries and don't need 16 intelligence agencies.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Bisbonian's picture

...for determined Vietnamese fighting them to a standstill despite overwhelming firepower and military resources, to force the US out."

There, I fixed it for you.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

thanatokephaloides's picture

The only thing providing more cannon fodder to the defense department--which is what the draft does--is give them more people to commit their crimes against humanity.

Don't forget that we were entangled in the Middle East back then, too. We just didn't notice it as much because of the Vietnam cluster.

Bringing the draft back will accomplish no good and much evil. We fought that shit for damn good reasons.

Admittedly, I'm beginning to despair that anything will cause an awakening of the American People en masse. Critical thinking is just short of banned, and the vast majority of us have been so stupified that these will go along to get along at nearly any cost.

Diablo

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

To wake up the country to exactly the reality you speak of: American troops are little better than mercenaries. They are being used by utterly immoral and cynical people like our former SOS to fight and kill and die for corporations and other nations like Israel and Saudi Arabia. We the people have no reason what soever to be in Syria, or the other middle eastern countries. I have to agree with the earlier version of Trump when he said he'd worry about ISIS when it had a navy.The sonambulance of America is deeply disturbing.

In my rural community, there are no jobs. Virtually all the manufacturing jobs disappeared 15 or 20 years ago. Young people with a high school education who don't want to or can't work on a farm have a choice: Subway, Walmart, or the army. The army looks pretty good. They don't ask questions. Their families don't either. Its a job.

But the city kids, the college grads, the young people justifiably pissed off that the only jobs they can find are low paying temp jobs, would not look kindly on being forced to slog through sand carrying a 50 lb pack of artillery so some multinational corporation could ensure a profit or some Saudi prince could enforce his religious views other Muslims. I like to think they'd wake up and say WTF! .Hell no we wont go. I'd like to think people in the streets can and will correct the direction this country is moving in. Dreamer?

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Signed, sealed, delivered by the PTB (powers that be), just like there will be nothing done to charge HRC for the email debacle.
The dark powers in our govt. don't give two whistles for the people of any country, we are just pawns in the game.
Seriously, I agree we need to revive the anti-war movement. I protested the war in Vietnam, and those following. I stood as a delegate at the convention next to the VIP section where BC and Kaine sat, shouting, "No More War!". I directed an updated antiwar version of Lysistrata in 2002 and held weeklong public discussions on the decision to go to war in Iraq....kept thinking I had to retire the play, but then more wars break out, much worse than those that came before.
Popular Resistance folk were in Philly during the DNC and they were discussing a whole range of topics, including stopping the TPP. They also encourage the revival of the anti-war movement.
Also, just read this article in Counterpunch about the same thing
I wish everyone had this as a bumper sticker, tshirt, sig line: STOP the WARS:SAVE the PLANET and the PEOPLE.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/07/needed-now-a-peace-movement-again...

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Our survival depends on it. Anyone else would mean we'd have a chance.

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Mon, 10/10/2016 - 8:24am — Sunspots

Hillary has to lose.
Our survival depends on it. Anyone else would mean we'd have a chance.

Hillary is the most obviously and blatantly inimical to civilization/democracy and life, but any Repub - including the incorporated billionaire, Trump - and the Libertarian running will support the TPP et al corporate coups, which, if without the corporate/military aspect of the fascist take-over a somewhat slower and more painful planetary destruction cycle, but definitely making life not worth living for virtually all in very short order. Although that's moot, as the MIC and other corporate/billionaire interests in this global hostile corporate take-over are all for military conquest and, evidently, nuclear obliteration of all countries and peoples capable of standing up for themselves and having officials refusing to be conned/bullied or bribed into self-destruction via Trojan Horse 'trade deals' resulting in an unrestrained industrially-poisoned serfdom for all so-far surviving across the already being murdered-for-power-and-profit globe.

In any event, no remaining life support system/oxygen within decades without the public interest being universally asserted starting now and very few of those decades remaining even without nukes, under unrestrained corporate/billionaire control.

Edit: noticed a couple of typo's, no idea what I've missed, lol. Too tired...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

He was forever thankful and confused as to how he wound up in Panama, canal zone, instead of Vietnam. He still had stories from friends who were in the middle of that hell hole of war and destruction. I shudder just being reminded of it from this distance.

What we do NOT need is yet another round of wasting the lives and hopes of more millions of people. However, until we somehow take our country back from the people who profit from it, we are doomed to repeat ....

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Because there is still no risk of having one's life interrupted when Uncle Scam's Press Gangs come calling. One can still attend classes, work a lousy job, have a relationship, and sleep at night without fear the DI is going to call you out of you bunk at 3am for a surprise inspection. Because there is no risk of losing one's life for nothing beneficial.

Until there is, there will be no protests. That is pretty much why Vietnam didn't erupt in street protests until the Marines got sent in, with ever-increasing numbers of Army right behind them. The draft was used to fill those ranks, and the rich kids hid in the colleges while the ghetto was emptied.

LBJ should have held onto Jumbo more often. Maybe then he'd not have seen any need to display that he could be one.

(For those who don't get my reference, Jumbo is what LBJ called his male appendage.)

edited for clarity

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

lotlizard's picture

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That is a powerful piece of video. What is it from?

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

hellinahandcart's picture

for answering neoconned, particularly so specifically.
I work nights, come home in the early hours, piddle around and fix a Kentucky Coffee before I cruise the net for an hour or so. I crashed, literally, within a few minutes of posting that link, so I appreciate your stepping in and supplying specific info. Thank you.

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lotlizard's picture

France’s Le Pen says “blind West” aiding Syrian war

In Germany as well as France, all the mainstream parties are okay with NATO countries flooding the Middle East with billions of dollars worth of arms and bringing chaos, er, excuse me, “humanitarian no-fly zones” to Libya and Syria.

In Europe today, populist right-wingers offer the only effective channel for registering a “No” against the U.S., the Saudis, and the wars.

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k9disc's picture

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/is-nuclear-war-becoming-...

And there are frightening indications that some senior military officers might be eager to get things started in the belief that a war with Russia could actually be winnable. Certifiable loose cannons on deck include Wesley Clark, who reportedly tried to engineer a confrontation with Russian peacekeepers in Kosovo in 1999. Crazier still, Gen. Philip Breedlove (who retired earlier this year) worked hard during his time as supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe to get NATO and the U.S. involved in a proxy war over Ukraine. In leaked emails, an interlocutor suggested he and the U.N. secretary general might “fashion a NATO strategy to leverage, cajole, convince or coerce the U.S. to react” to the Russian “threat”; Breedlove found this “very promising.” Breedlove, who has regularly lied about the extent of the Russian presence in Ukraine, has hysterically described Moscow as a “long-term existential threat to the United States and to our European allies.” The general was also reportedly in contact with State Department Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, who helped engineer the coup that overthrew the Ukrainian government in 2014.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is calling Putin a new Hitler while the New York Times editorializes against “Vladimir Putin’s Outlaw State.” And the real danger is that the Russian people are watching this display with concern and might soon believe themselves to be backed into a corner by an implacable enemy. Putin has several times warned that there is an increasing perception in Russia that the country is being surrounded and endangered by the continuous expansion of NATO as well as by threats relating to his country’s involvement in Syria. Opinion polls suggest that the average Russian now expects war with the West.

The insistence on the part of the many in the West that Putin must be resisted by using force majeure if necessary is based on gross exaggeration of the actual threat coming from Moscow. That nuclear weapons are now apparently employable in the plans for deterrence on the part of NATO, as well as in the Russian plans for self-defense, should be a terrifying prospect for anyone who cares about what might come next.

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

mimi's picture

say it all, no?
[video:https://youtu.be/VvVrQqU1Gwc]
and where will Ashton Carter finally stand, on which side? His recent rhetoric resembled much that of Gen. Mark Hilley's.
[video:https://youtu.be/9pZeZB1NCns]
Tulsi Gabbard, thank you.

May be it's all about a mental health crisis among not only the incarcerated mentally ill patients, but among the enabling politicians, who do nothing to stop this abuse. Can't stop thinking about Chelsea Manning.

[video:https://youtu.be/2JOTuQ2dnuM]

There is a mental health crisis in this country. And if you look at the young, who aren't on the streets protesting against wars in Syria and the ME, then it's because, they always get a chance online to just watch the "funny" stuff and the "comedian stuff" in it. You can say what you want, as much as you can read the alternative media and sources online, as much you get escape routes to drown the horrors of wars to those, who never felt the bombs falling on their own homes, in making fun of it. You can watch it even here. I know it might be a desperate reaction for the lack of knowing what else to do with this horrible situation, but everybody knows it's not a solution, but a little Advil medication to make you stop thinking seriously.

Amazing how helpless we all seem to be.

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k9disc's picture

That's some awfully tough talk for a civilian.

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

k9disc's picture

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

k9disc's picture

[EDIT] My Bad... This Was Milley

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

mimi's picture

In Europe today, populist right-wingers offer the only effective channel for registering a “No” against the U.S., the Saudis, and the wars.

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lotlizard's picture

You have things like former finance minister and SPD candidate for the chancellorship Peer Steinbrück leaving the Bundestag and going to work for a bank (ING Diba), and not seeing any conflict of interest in this kind of U.S.-style revolving door relationship.

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lotlizard's picture

The IMF, globalization, and all the other losers

Apart from the fast increasingly brainless political ‘discussions’ that don’t deserve the name, in the US and UK and beyond, there are the transnational organizations, NATO, IMF, EU and all those things, all suffocating in their own hubris, things I’ve dealt with before in for instance Globalization Is Dead, But The Idea Is Not and Why There is Trump. But none of it still seems to have trickled through anywhere that I can see.

The end of growth exposes the stupidity and ignorance of all but (and even that’s a maybe) a precious few (of our) ‘leaders’. There is no other way this could have run, because an era of growth simply selects for different people to float to the top of the pond than a period of contraction does. Can we agree on that?

And in the western media consensus, it comprises anything from Trump to Beppe Grillo, via Hungary’s Orban and Nigel Farage, Spain’s Podemos, Greece’s Syriza and Germany’s AfD. All these completely different movements have one thing only in common: they protest the failed and fast deteriorating status quo, and receive a lot of support from their people for doing that.

Of course the traditional right wing smells the opportunity too, so Hillary (yeah, she’s right wing) and Theresa May and Sarkozy and Merkel are all orchestrating sharp turns to the right, away from their once comfortable seats in the center. They all sense that power will not be emanating from the center going forward, and it’s power, much more than principles, that they are after.

Globalization is done. And while we can discuss whether that’s of necessity or not, and I continue to contend that the end of growth equals the end of all centralization including globalization, fact is that globalization was never designed to share anything at all, other than perhaps wealth among elites, and low wages among everyone else.

The EU and IMF have not delivered on what they promised, in the same way that traditional parties have not, from the US to UK to basically all of Europe. They promised growth, and growth is gone. They may have delivered for their pay masters, but they lost the rest of the world.

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Alligator Ed's picture

From the link "Globalization is Dead, But the Idea is Not" I believe comes the crucial insight:

‘Most just want to live satisfying lives among their friends and family..’ is not the same as “they want GDP expansion”, no matter how you phrase it. That’s just an idea. For all we know, the truth may be the exact opposite. The neverending quest for GDP expansion may be the very thing that prevents people from living “satisfying lives among their friends and family”.

I do not understand the world wide slump in trade, much less the concept of "negative" interest rates. I am not an economist, but I can see with my scant knowledge that economies internationally are not offering benefits to the citizenry. When economies go bad and people have insufficient food and shelter, trouble is bound to erupt. And it is percolating. We are like Rome with airplanes and missiles, mercenary (i.e., volunteer military) troops, endless draining of public monies for destructive purposes which in no way benefit either the populace as a whole in the attacking country and certainly is more devastating to the attacked countries' citizenry.

Yet here we have the Queen of Wall Street proclaiming the need for open borders and the scam called "free trade". If HRC's Mad Bombing doesn't get us, her economics will--but many of the 99% knew that--probably not enough to prevent Medusa's ascendency on the Drone Throne.

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Alex Ocana's picture

I listened to an hour and a half of two political vultures last night and felt like I had been bathing in hyena urine. Dirty... I had to take a long shower afterwards and had nightmares.

Most of us here already know this, but the stinking garbage of corporate lies goes much deeper than I have realized. When these vulture candidates with the stink of hyena breath spoke about Syria and Aleppo I was ashamed to be part of a human race who "elects" such deceitful blood sucking rodents to public office.

We need three (or four or more) groups of protests to join together because they are all interrelated: BlackLivesMatter and social justice advocates and Peace People and Stop Climate Change Activists... everyone needs to get out on the street and onto the "airwaves".

Unfortunately I don't see it happening. All I see are localized BLM protests and an isolated anti-pipeline indigenous rights protest in Dakota. Its sad, very sad that a big protest in Charlotte, for example, is only supported by one other protest in Oakland... not in every city in the United States. Its sad that there isn't, as far as I can tell from the Caribbean, that imperialism isn't being protested at all or even discussed by the grand majority of Americans as they march on destroying the world.

Here are some articles from 21st Century Wire.

http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/10/01/journey-to-aleppo-part-i-exposing-...

http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/10/07/video-white-helmets-miraculous-rag...

http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/10/03/white-helmets-save-aleppo-protest-...

http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/10/07/crosstalk-white-helmets-really-wit...

Last night there was a question about "Russian War Crimes"

http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2016/10/07/hysteria-at-un-betrays-wester...

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From the Light House.

Big Al's picture

about this "Stop the War in Syria" issue. How can we stop the U.S. from waging war in Syria when most people don't even understand what's happening? That's no different from any war, but the propaganda surrounding the Syria war has been concerted and organized by the entire corporate media. It shows clearly that the 90% owned corporate media works together with the government, Wall Street, etc., to wage these wars.

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mimi's picture

enough time to ever keep up with it. Canada ...?

[video:https://youtu.be/e7D4r8OTgTw]

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Big Al's picture

and has been slanted against Russia since the start of the conflict in Ukraine. So I'm not going to watch that video. VICE news had the headline "Russia Invades Ukraine! Day1, Day2, etc., for about the first 50 plus days of it. Russia did not invade Ukraine, that was the war propaganda snippet they wanted everyone to absorb.
Canada's government joins in the U.S. wars just like Britain.

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mimi's picture

in a week or so.

I have work to do and it seems that reading anything these days, isn't going to help.

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mimi's picture

(had mixed Vice with the Intercept, my, my, stress is making me lose my mind) and I know and remember now why.
Will come back to that. Thanks, anyway Al, to remind me of it.

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Bob In Portland's picture

After World War II the US Army began importing Nazi rocket scientists to help the military make intercontinental ballistic missiles. Werner von Braun was cleansed for public exposure and even used to make appearances on The Wonderful World Of Walt Disney. Then there were the other scientists, from Germany and Japan who worked in concentration camps on all sorts of medical atrocities.

The CIA took it a step further. The Congress For Freedom was supposed to be a private charity that imported freedom fighters and people fleeing from Communism from Europe into the US. They were actually Nazis and Nazi collaborators, and the CIA's intention was to push immigrant communities rightward (and you can't get much farther to the right than Nazis). Not surprisingly, Ronald Reagan, who been an FBI informer in Hollywood during the Red Scare, was the spokesman for the CFF. One of the main groups that the CIA imported (with a similar resettlement program in Canada) was the OUN-B, Nazi collaborators not only against ethnic Russians in Ukraine during WWII, but they were the main perpetrators of the Jewish extermination program in Ukraine, where a million Jews were murdered during the war. Ukrainians took over the killing because the constant slaughter was ruining the esprit de corps among the German soldiers. The Ukrainians performed that mass murder with glee.

After WWII the CIA, using Reinhard Gehlen's eastern Nazi spy organization, supported these Nazi collaborating murderers after the war into the fifties to fight a guerrilla war against the Soviets.

Eventually, these neo-Nazis were integrated into immigrant communities and those among them who showed leadership skills were backed by the CIA. They included Hungary's Arrow Cross, Yugoslavia's Ustache and others. Many of their children grew up to be Reagan Democrats.

The story about these Nazis became news for a brief time during the 1988 election when the fascist content of the ethnic heritage unit of the Republican Party was revealed by reporter Russ Bellant and reported in THE NATION. When the Iron Curtain collapsed the US sent some of these fascists, imported and homegrown, back into eastern Europe to infiltrate the political processes there.

Many of the people sent back into Ukraine were tied to the OUN-B. When the US backed the coup against the elected government of Ukraine in 2014, it backed a combination of oligarchs and street fascists. Eastern Ukraine, which is more heavily ethnic Russian, refused to recognize the Nazi coup, and thus began that civil war.

Here are some links for readers to catch up on this tawdry part of our history:

A 2014 NATION interview with Russ Bellant: https://www.thenation.com/article/seven-decades-nazi-collaboration-ameri...

An entire issue (Fall 1990) of COVERT ACTION INFORMATION BULLETIN which is dedicated to the CIA using fascists and Nazi collaborators as politicians to be insinuated into eastern Europe. In the issue is also an essay by Carl Oglesby about the Treaty of Fort Hunt, which brought Gehlen's Nazi spy organization into the CIA: https://ia800505.us.archive.org/1/items/CovertActionInformationBulletinN...

Christopher Simpson's book, BLOWBACK, is generally considered the best source for the post-WWII Nazi importation programs. The blowback in the title is essentially, when you import and support Nazis and fascists into your country, your country gets more and more fascist. Bellant's book, Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party, focused on how these CIA-imported Nazis became an integral part of the Republican Party. In some of the CAIB essays there are descriptions of these fascists using the resources of US's National Endowment for Democracy to help them infiltrate east European political movements.

In 1993 this fascist work by the NED began becoming bipartisan. Not suprisingly, the Clintons have been part of this. The NED has been used in collaboration with CIA destabilization programs around the world. Hillary Clinton's State Department has worked hand in hand with the NED and the CIA to overthrow the elected government in Ukraine in 2014.

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mimi's picture

I don't remember if I have the book "Blowback" in my boxes. Another one unread.

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Liberals have long been corrupt and, I strongly believe, are acting as place-holders for the pathological corporate-rep Cons, their pay-masters apparently realizing that they could not again cheat Harper in without riots.

Had the NDP stuck to their democratic socialist platform, they'd have achieved their briefly-anticipated landslide in a real election, but Mulcair is weak/corrupted, and the division allowed for some rather suspicious election results on what was supposed to be nation-wide strategic voting, certainly in my long-term NDP province, supposedly with a solid wave of early voters for the corrupt Liberals, later overcome by a solid mass of CON???!!! voters?

This after Harper passing a 'law'???!!! that Elections Canada was gagged from informing the public about electoral fraud. (And with only Elizabeth May of the Green Party consistently fighting in Parliament for the people and environment - and illegally shut out by Harper as a result, and out of the electoral debates, as well.

So the Cons are in provincially and the healthcare system here (and no doubt all other social programs benefiting the people,) slated for local as well as corporate assault, All Ready For Hillary and the corporate coups she'll impose on our next-door neighbours and thereby also validate in all other countries with bribed/bullied/BSed public officials accepting these illegal and unconstitutional coups - and which Harper untraditionally and, I believe, illegally signed ('for fun' or some such nonsense) as he was in the process of finally being booted out of his stolen Prime Ministerial position. (And signally/typically failed to keep his promise of resigning as Con Party Dictator 'if the votes weren't there' - perhaps the Koch brothers and others were unable to find another such corrupt replacement in all of Canada?)

Our local police were fairly recently gifted a tank???!!! evidently to protect corporate interests against the overall pacific and typically non-gun-carrying citizens in our city. Grenades and bayonets were not mentioned; some may have been tucked inside the tank, for all I know. I suppose we'll find out later, if all goes wrong, as planned.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

I can't figure out at all what she was talking about. The point seemed to be that the bad Russians and Syrians are going to take over Alepo and then there will be a blood bath?My understanding is that Al Nusra, ISIS and Al Qaeda are occupying parts of Alepo and are in the process of being defeated by Syria and Russia and are suing to leave. When they are out, the people of Alepo will be safe and can start to rebuild. The point of Martha's question seems to be that unless the Obama regime uses more military force in Alepo then bad things will happen? This was apparently in response to Trump policy of non-interference.

Just listening to the MSM and those who drank the koolaid is disheartening. We have truly become an aggressive imperialist country with a population totally brain washed into supporting these illegal, immoral acts of aggression.

The conflict is escalating, if you are paying attention. The US bombed Syrian troops, killing some 60 of them, and wounding another 100. There were probably Russian military advisers in the group. Russia responded by targeting a Western military headquarters in East Alepo with missiles and killing American, British, Saudi, Turkish and Qatari officers. This has been kept quiet since admitting this presence also admits giving aid and comfort to the terrorists.

Russia also responded to the bombing of the Syrian Army by stating that any aircraft involved in aggressive acts like this will be shot down. They are not kidding as they have their very capable S300 and S400 air defense systems on the ground in Syria. The Obama Regime is playing a very very dangerous game, with Hillary poised to take it to the next level.

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Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

Alex Ocana's picture

Yes, the questions and answers about Aleppo were truth turned upside down. Not the only question/answer segment with inverted truth by a long shot. Its sickening when even the questions are lies.

Dominica's big worry? Will radioactive fallout from nuking Miami force us to live in caves for a number of years (unfortunately we don't have any caves, so its rhetorical).

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From the Light House.

Alligator Ed's picture

We must save Aleppo by destroying it. Fuck the inhabitants. Kill them all and let Dog sort them out. Were the U.S. of A., the biggest, baddest mofo's on the planet--stick that in your pipe Vladimir. Our nukes are badder than your nukes, Putin. Cruz was a small thinker--he only wanted ISIS to glow in the dark. Our Majestic Killary wants the entire world to glow in the dark--now that's what I call a great vision for the world. And I want all you serfs to endorse Her Heinous and be thankful that you have 3 jobs and work 60 hours a week--after all those damn A-rabs aren't working at all (they're smokin', man, smoking').

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Bisbonian's picture

Because they are old enough to remember seeing their parents in the streets in 2003, accomplishing precisely nothing.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Amanda Matthews's picture

tear gassed and arrested for their non-accomplishment. And it showed TPTB that some people refuse to accept the continual use of citizens as cannon fodder so as to make money for the rich man.

Maybe you don't remember Vietnam. It worked that time.

Sitting on one's butt NEVER works. Which is where we are now.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Bisbonian's picture

What stopped Vietnam was a bunch of Vietnamese people that, no matter how many B-52s dropped no matter how many bombs, they kept on fighting, kept on carrying war materiel through the jungle on trails, kept on shooting back. They never gave up, they were never going to give up, and they beat the US military. Coincidentally, there were anti-war protesters in America, doing just what they did before the Iraq War, with the same effectiveness. But took credit for stopping the war. Maybe they even believed it...like people praying for the sun to come back during an eclipse.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Granma's picture

I have thought of a place to do a war protest/plea for peace that will have some visibility, even though the "news" doesn't cover it. I need to make a sign to hold.

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riverlover's picture

groups, for pipelines or shipping facilities. What is being "allowed" to happen in North Dakota, that amount of resistance, would never be allowed by PTB to happen in Ohio, for example. Seems like Indigenous people's groups are nucleus for resistance worldwide. I hope more charismatic leaders appear from them.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.