I'm perfect, and everyone I hate is crazy

On Tuesday French President Francois Hollande said in response to the Belgium terrorist attack, "We are at war.”
I couldn't help but think, "Haven't you been at war since September 2014, when you started bombing Syria? More than a year before the Paris attacks?"

All those bombs that get dropped on Syria and Iraq don't count. At least they don't count to people who count.
Obviously that isn't only true for the French. Just last week we killed 150 people in Somalia, more than the number of people who died in the Paris attacks, and we didn't even notice. We wouldn't have cared if we had noticed.
We aren't at war with Somalia. According to the Obama Administration, we aren't even at war with the group we just slaughtered. So why did we do it? Who cares? It's not like their lives are worth much, amirite? Because if their lives were worth something and we didn't care about murdering them, then we are awful people, and that can't be true.

Oh sure, if it's a refugee child washing ashore a beach in Greece, then we must do something about it. But if it's one of the hundreds of similar children killed by American bombs, well, that's just the way the world works. Can't change it. Can't even avoid it by electing a president who doesn't want to bomb the ME.

The point is that We Must Bomb The Middle East Because Those Bad Guys Are Crazy.
Which bad guys? That depends on the year.
It used to be Iranian leaders. Then it was Saddam. Then it was al-Qaeda. Then it was the Taliban. Then it was Gaddafi. Now it's ISIS.
Each and every time they were just like Hitler and absolutely crazy. How could they not be crazy? They are opposing our team, and that's insane. It's perfectly logical. No more proof is required.

The important thing is that by being crazy then they don't have legitimate grievances.
There is nothing to understand because it is impossible for anyone to understand them, assuming of course that you wanted to listen to what they had to say. Besides they speak those weird languages and dress funny, so they must be insane. And who has the time, amirite?
For instance, Sunnis in Iraq peacefully protested the Shia government in Baghdad for years. Did they have legitimate grievances? They couldn't have, otherwise we wouldn't be bombing them.

Everyone who has ever watched a big-budget action film knows that you can't reason with the crazy, evil bad guy. The only thing that works is killing him, and that fixes everything 100% of the time.
That's why we keep winning the GWOT, year after year, decade after decade.
If our bombs happen to kill their children, well, they shouldn't have had them in a war zone country. We didn't intentionally target their families for murder and that's the exactly same thing as not being at fault.

And speaking of crazy, evil bad guys, how about Trump and his fans?
They also oppose our team, and that makes them insane. Therefore it's not important to know whether the tens of millions of Americans that support him have any legitimate grievances.
Everyone on Our Team knows that Trump has said some things that are racist and misogynist, and...that's everything Trump stands for, right? Did he say something about Free Trade Agreements? Ah who cares, amirite?
The important thing is that Trump is not on our team, he said some terrible things, and that makes him and his supporters crazy. You can't reason with them! We haven't tried to reason with them, but I'm sure you can't. That's why shutting down his rallies is what Good Guys do in a democracy.

Which is why pulling out the Big 'ol Banhammer on DKos makes perfect sense. People that don't like Hillary are automatically Trump supporters. Obviously, they are both not on Our Team and that is the only way to measure things in life. Nuance is for pussies.
To Hell with Sun Tzu and his "know thy enemy" crap. If he was so smart he'd be on Our Team already.
Why know thy enemy when you can use Predator Drones to blow up their houses? Why know thy enemy when you can ban anyone who questions Our Team? Why know thy enemy when you can disparage their supporters in the media?
Why know thy enemy when it may not help win the next election (the only true measurement of value)?

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I haven't decided yet.

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Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

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Please help the Resilience Resource Library grow by adding your links.

First Nations News

Raggedy Ann's picture

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

lotlizard's picture

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Steven D's picture

So I won't tell you what to do. But the bastards who support
HRC, who gave a speech as bad or worse than Trump to AIPAC,
deserve to be reminded for whom and for what they are voting.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

gulfgal98's picture

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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

jiordan's picture

that will no doubt bring down the banhammer, so I can't advise you either way. Although I personally think the more people who see this, the better.

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But there are probably better things to court the banhammer on.

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Please help support caucus99percent!

I thought about it and decided that I'm going to earn a banhammer on something more classy than a rant.
Although I did enjoy this rant

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Miep's picture

that bans all the economists.

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Stay on track. Stay in lane. Don't throw rocks.

Miep's picture

is still there, but his post yesterday was not exactly toeing the Mar 16 line either.

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Stay on track. Stay in lane. Don't throw rocks.

detroitmechworks's picture

And sometimes, they just disagree with us.

None of those "Crimes" deserve the death penalty, IMHO.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Which is OK. Being ignorant happens sometimes.

However, we don't CARE that we don't know what we are doing.
That's unforgivable.

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gulfgal98's picture

If you are a humanist, you DO care.

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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

lotlizard's picture

period, let alone as an argument for why U.S. and other Western nations’ troops are invading and occupying their country.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/22/headlines/poll_92_of_young_afghan...

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movie buff's picture

We bomb their training camps, they bomb our subways. Wash, rinse, repeat. No leader on either side thinks what they're doing will make a difference. It doesn't even seem to matter what country it all goes down in. It's just east vs. west, us vs. them. The desired result of all these corpses is that the rabble on each side stays fearful and angry, and the leaders on each side stay in power.

Did these people in Somalia have anything to do with Brussels? No. But we just guaranteed that there will be yet another Brussels in the near future. Because this is how the game is played, and this is always how the game has been played.

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"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky

Tommymac's picture

Goes back to Pharoe.

Hell, Back to before him even ... back to the days before written history when homo sapiens were climbing out from underneath the glaciers and forming the first true agricultural society. 4 castes emerged - Priests', Warriors, Artisans, and Workers.

Which are still with us today. Perhaps in slightly differ forms - but still the one on top and in control use the same tactics to control the ones on the bottom.

Get the workers fighting among themselves so they don't see the shenanigans going on at the top to maintain the pyramid. Use those 2 classes in the middle to set up the game and enforce its rules. Rinse and repeat for 30,000 years.

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FEEL THE BERN: "But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing." - Thomas Paine
"Here I Stand, I can do no other." - Attributed to Martin Luther, 1521

Sustained irony is a very difficult thing to achieve.

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Twain Disciple

whyvee's picture

approach. Politicians and religious leaders/sects have figured this out and used it very effectively throughout history. And, unfortunately, too many people lack the skills required for critical thinking; they are easy targets for moving along an agenda that somehow only makes sense to them.

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Borkrom's picture

Thank you, someone else (besides others on this site) that freaking gets it. This statement is right on point. It is "us" vs the few of "them". They want the power and wealth and need to keep us down to keep it.

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Miep's picture

when people you want to control or shun are not allowed to be angry, only crazy.

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Stay on track. Stay in lane. Don't throw rocks.

underwriter505's picture

For finally realizing they should be angry, and being angry, say "Amen!"

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Miep's picture

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Stay on track. Stay in lane. Don't throw rocks.

kharma's picture

Team USA Fuck Yeah!
Team Democrats Fuck Yeah!

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There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams

thanatokephaloides's picture

Team USA Fuck Yeah!
Team Democrats Fuck Yeah!

Fuck Team Democrats, Yeah!

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

murphthesurf's picture

Hey Now!

Glad I "Crossed Over ", and already see many familier
usernames, and the enlightened ideas they bring.

Peace to all ~

Go Bernie!

Peace -
Murph

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PastorAgnostic's picture

That way we can harass you, too, with our welcomes!

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themis's picture

PA is on the selection committee and has a wicked set of questions for newbies to answer (I guess I passed?)

Please write a Howdy diary?

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The only thing harder than speaking truth to power is speaking truth to stupid.

Big Al's picture

politicians, and yes that includes Bernie Sanders.
And don't forget Libya, Obama and Clinton lied to the U.N just like Bush and slaughtered tens of thousands of innocent civilians and children. Those at the top are our enemy, in effect our own government at the highest levels is our enemy. It's a fight for humanity and we're losing. We need to step up our game man.

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Big Al's picture

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Raggedy Ann's picture

Why, indeed! Your whole essay is on point. I'm sick and tired of those pussies, anyway. Fkn who cares about these people? We've got the final four to think of, the Master's is right around the corner. Baseball hasn't even started yet - geez, can we get a grip and at least let baseball off the ground this season?

We are exceptional! Let's not forget that, people!!

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

PastorAgnostic's picture

To acknowledge something, one must have enough comprehension of one's self, of the something, and then, to connect the two. Even then, change is scary.

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Don't do it. They'll go berserk and ban you. And then there'll be nothing left on GOS. Your diaries are the best analyses I read over there anymore. I learn tons from your economics and imperial war stories. Let this one go...

I think a BDS diary would be better...

Thanks for all you do.

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Mark from Queens's picture

Though I'm hardly there anymore because it's difficult to watch the degraded discourse, every Prog walking on egg shells and the intensified HRC pom-pom cheerleading. But the Neoliberal pestilence that has slowly taken over at TOP just makes me want to continue to poke my head in now and again to expose their fraudulence.

I think both pieces are the kinds of contrast that should continue to be posted there to challenge the suffocating echo chamber. We all know the place has become a authoritarian joke, but for folks coming to that site for the first time, to think that progressives are with HRC is unsettling.

BTW, if anyone has missed the Thom Hartmann hour-long segment with Thomas Frank on his new book "Hey Liberal," about how Dems have sold out the party to white upperclass elites and Wall St at the expense of the middle class, it's not to be missed (maybe you'll even catch the dramatic, 2nd Amend fear-mongering NRA commercial they seem to be running every time you turn to YouTube now, of Australia sawing through guns to break them after they passed anti-gun measure in response the massacre in 1996)

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Thank's for posting it here. We all know what the problem is. We've been sold out, and the collective we can't or won't get its act together. Between the professional left and politicians, I don't know which is worse. The veal pen is alive a well.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

I already loved his writing, but this is the first time I've seen him in an interview. He's really a nice, interesting guy.

I love how he points out that Republicans are the party of the 1%, but the Democrats are the party of the top 10%.
That's why neither wants real change.

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whyvee's picture

Watched the whole thing- explains a lot about how the Dems became the party of "not the average guy/gal." And, it explains how we got HRC as the presumptive nominee. It is a sad commentary on the Dem. party.

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gulfgal98's picture

Markos Moulitsas and why he supports Clinton. He sees himself as a part of the meritocracy class. That makes it easy for him to look down upon those of us who still hold the great masses of people as important.

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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

Mark from Queens's picture

here with one of the best interviewers around, Leonard Lopate on WNYC:

"How the Democrats Have Helped Wall Street, Not the Middle Class"

My only problem with Frank, and I've read What's The Matter With Kansas? and The Wrecking Ball, is that in a interview for Pity The Billionaire he was strangely a bit dismissive of OWS, and seemed to put more credence into the astro-turfed Tea Party douchebags, as a political movement. Otherwise I think his command of history and politics is right on. Wonder if like Bob Herbert and so many other journalists similarly he might have changed hs tune on OWS, to give it is proper and righteous due for utterly changing the conversation. Or as Herbert said, and I'm paraphrasing, it wasn't what Occupy has done for us it's that we didn't do more for Occupy.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

shaharazade's picture

Or maybe not as you did not tear down the heir apparent to the throne. Although she does advocate 'we came we saw we killed' and it is worth it, as the rule of the land. Some might construe this great rant as going against the edict of no loose lips that might sink her ship of state. Your aiding and abetting the crazy enemies who want some truth and reason. Ban hammers are a primitive weapon and not very effective at stopping people from thinking and caring.

It's blowback created by design. Can't have an endless war if you don't create an endless enemy. Why do people in the west think these refugees are fleeing to Europe or anywhere on this world? Could it be because the US, NATO and the coalition of the willing (billing) have invaded, occupied, bombed, killed them, reeked havoc via the spooks, dismembered, tortured, thrown people in black holes, turned their lands into piles of rubble, pillaged, stolen their resources, and droned their weddings to name a few reasons. There's ample reasons for the 'terrist's who are gonna kill yer family' going on a rampage This latest round of The Great Game is just a continuation of the ancient 'we have always been at war with Eurasia' that the US took up when the Brits left off. Better killing and thought control technology in this round.

What do Brussels and the Twin Tower's have in common hummm? How come we can't see that the people from SA who escape and come poring across our boarders are fleeing hell holes that the US created? The global racketeers and their enforcer's the MIC operate from transnational centers where economic terrorism is hatched and applied. Can't pay the vig? Nice country you have there it would be a shame if we turned it into a pile of ruble and sicced the dogs of war, death and poverty on your people. Cause and effect and connecting the dots are that hard to grasp. Hard to know your enemy when your it. Hard to even admit it's gonna get you one way or another, easier to blame the crazy who doesn't look like you or think like you.

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snoopydawg's picture

image_0.jpeg

You are right. Can't have endless war if you don't have endless enemies. Especially the ones that we created. From Al Quada in the 80's to the current ones in Syria to help us overthrow Assad. Including the same group of AQ we first created, then fought against during the Iraq war and now fighting alongside them in Syria. It a circular clusterfuck and it's not going to end until the last resource is raped from other people's lands.

I don't understand how people can't understand why the terrorists attacks countries. They have had their countries bombed and innocent civilians have been killed for decades. It's called blowback.
For some reason it's only called terrorism when people use suicide vests, planes or other types of bombs against us or the NATO countries that are bombing the countries in the Middle East, but it's called self defense when NATO countries use 500 lb bombs to kill them.
>

from the comments I read today on my local news website after the Brussels bombing, people here are afraid that ISIS is already in this country and the attacks are going to happen soon.
They were bitching about Obama letting in the refugees and don't realize that there's a two year vetting process before any of them are allowed in.
And they want the military to bomb them ‘back to the stone age’ no matter how many innocent civilians are killed.
Too many people have no idea that the US and its allies are the ones who are creating and funding the terrorists. Our Allie Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest financial supporter of the terrorists and the US doesn't not only tell them to stop funding them, it sells them weapons and jets. As well as other countries.
And Hillary's supporters don't give a shit that Bill made millions from giving speeches to those governments before Hillary's state department swooped in and sold them weapons and then those governments donated millions to their foundation. How that is legal or acceptable by our government is beyond me.

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

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

Miep's picture

Violence is only allowed to run downhill, along power lines. When people break the rules and fight back, they are punished.

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Stay on track. Stay in lane. Don't throw rocks.

k9disc's picture

Yo sha, totally agree with your comment, and would like to take it to it's logical conclusion.

We are involved in War Markets. Thomas P. Barnett, in The Pentagon's New Map, a powerpoint presentation given to movers and shakers in government during the run up to the illegal invasion of Iraq, talks about how we are now financing our debt by exporting security. He literally highlighted these War Markets as both a military asset and funding stream for national debt.

He also talks of how the DoD's job is not to simply win wars, it's to "dream up the future of warfare and create the military to win it". "If you wanted to simply defend America, I could write that budget for $100B per year -- tomorrow (emphasis his).

Combine these two and I think you have a rather terrifying confluence.

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

RantingRooster's picture

If we ain't jumping up and down chanting USA, USA, then we are a subversive, unpatriotic, traitors even. But hey, when you can vote for the epitome of humanity, why vote for anyone else, amirite? (wink)
Great post and rant!

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

snoopydawg's picture

Being brutally tortured and then murdered by being sodomiz d by a sword.
JFC! What type of person would laugh at this? And the woman who was interviewing her laughed too.
Sociopaths, IMO. And we can look forward to more of this if she's elected. And we are going to get Bill too.

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

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

Alison Wunderland's picture

Violent resistance to state power cannot be prevented through security measures, no matter how violent, intrusive, or coercive they get. If you stop people from associating in public, they do it in secret. If you prevent them having access to guns, they build their own bombs. If you deprive them of all other weapons, they use rocks; and if rocks aren't handy, they'll make do somehow. Israel was one of the first modern nations to make this clear to the rest of the world; it's even clearer now. Suicide bombings are not proof of some kind of ethical deficiency or moral depravity specific to the Palestinian people. They are simply proof of the fact that we are not truly disarmed until we are dead. Penned in, put down, carved up, killed off, conquered in just about every conceivable way, the Palestinians are still resisting with their own bodies--because they're the only weapons they have left. -- The Plaid Adder

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