Yes, YOU! Your troops, mine too, they are, you see, our troops. And, the short answer is No, you don't know where they are. Sure, some are in Iraq, Okinawa, and Syria, and Saudi Arabia, and D.C., and San Diego and uh, like, Africa. Africa, big place that. They are, in fact scattered all over the globe in some 800 of so "bases" depending upon who you are listening to and accounting for quibbles like whether or not "lily pads" are bases and all like that. Oh, and are National Guard troops our troops too? They must be if "we the people" can send them abroad and into combat. "We the people", heh, a nice phrase for "the powers that be", isn't it? Ah well, and the CIA's combat forces, are they also our troops? Well, that gets tricky. Here's the government line on that from the wikifolk:

The Special Activities Center (SAC) is a division of the United States Central Intelligence Agency responsible for covert operations and paramilitary operations. ...

The Special Operations Group (SOG) is a department within SAC responsible for operations that include high-threat clandestine or covert operations which the U.S. government cannot be overtly associated.[3] As such, unit members, called Paramilitary Operations Officers and Specialized Skills Officers, do not typically carry any objects or clothing, e.g., military uniforms, that would associate them with the United States government.

If they are compromised during a mission, the United States government may deny all knowledge. SOG is considered the most secretive special operations force with less than a hundred operatives. The group often selects former military service members from special mission units such as Delta Force, MARSOC, DEVGRU, Army Special Forces, ISA, and 24th STS, as well as other United States Military forces.

Sound almost more like pirates or brigands than your troops, don't they? Doesn't matter, they are almost de minimus in number relative to the truly enormous size of our military

And how about the mercs, all those civilian contractors like Blackwater that we hire to kill people as needed and otherwise help our troops kill people? Are they "our troops" too? After all, "we the people" hire them too, just like "we the people", especially the CIA people sometimes hire entire proxy armies, paramilitary death squads and like that? Damn there's a major scarcity of clarity in this, heh, arena.

But that's not what this is about. This is about Armistice Day. You know, it's still Armistice Day, even though we changed it officially to Veterans' Day. I actually grew up with Armistice Day, and everybody was taught the whole story, and 11,11,11,11; the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11 month. Yes! A cessation of hostilities, and we, and a lot of other nations and peoples celebrated it too. Who knows, maybe, just maybe some one or two of those persons or places would still be of a mind to celebrate the cessation of hostilities. Not us, however. We know better than that, silly naive country that we were. How the hell could somebody in their right mind celebrate the cessation of hostilities. The money, the power, the control, and everything else important come from the hostilities. That's why we're a warfare state, with an economy and position as the global top predator that depends on wars and warfare. This is far and away a better way of life than being the peace loving simpletons of yore, don't ya think?

Ah well, I see that my time is up, especially if I'm gonna stick to form and play some music. I know that the Aussies were involved, and celebrated that armistice, so let's start with something from down under.

Heh, the first two versions of that song that I tried to post were blocked by You Tube as "age inappropriate". That says a lot. After all, impressionable young minds should not be exposed to the truth about war and its horrors lest they come to disapprove of it. That would be horrible for our economy and the share prices of all those stocks that all the members of all three branches of the government own in large quantities

But hey, never mind all that, there's big money in war, really big money, even if pretty much none of it trickles down (TM) to the troops, and even less trickles down (TM) to "We the People", aka, the hoi polloi

Oops, my bad attitude is showing again.

On this day in history:

1215 – The Fourth Council of the Lateran met to assert a Magikal doctrine
1572 – Tycho Brahe observed the supernova SN 1572 but it wasn't called that
1620 – The Mayflower Compact was signed
1675 – Gottfried Leibniz demonstrates integral calculus for the first time
1831 – Nat Turner was hanged after inciting a slave uprising.
1869 – The Victorian Aboriginal Protection Act was enacted, effectively leading to the Stolen Generations.
1887 – Four anarchists were executed as a result of the Haymarket affair.
1918 – Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies
1919 – American Legionnaires stormed the Centralia, WA, IWW hall during an Armistice Day Parade; 4 attackers were killed
1921 – The Tomb of the Unknowns was dedicated at Arlington
1926 – The United States Numbered Highway System was established.
1930 – Patent number US1781541 was awarded for the Einstein refrigerator.
1982 – Space Shuttle Columbia, the first operational mission of the Space Shuttle program,launched
1992 – The General Synod of the C of E voted to allow women to become priests.
2004 – The PLO confirmed the death of Yasser Arafat

Some people who were born on this day:

“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”

~~ Fyodor Dostoevsky,

1821 – Fyodor Dostoevsky, author essayist, and philosopher
1866 – Martha Annie Whiteley, chemist, mathematician and activist
1867 – Shrimad Rajchandra, philosopher, spiritual mentor of Mahatma Gandhi
1896 – Shirley Graham Du Bois, author, playwright, composer, and activist
1904 – J. H. C. Whitehead, mathematician
1914 – Daisy Bates, activist, journalist and lecturer
1922 – Kurt Vonnegut, author
1925 – Jonathan Winters, actor, comedian and screenwriter
1926 – Maria Teresa de Filippis, race car driver, first woman in F1
1927 – Mose Allison, singer, songwriter, and pianist
1928 – Ernestine Anderson, singer
1929 – LaVern Baker, singer

1930 – Hugh Everett III, physicist and mathematician
1937 – Alicia Ostriker, poet
1940 – Dennis Coffey, guitarist, Funk Brother
1945 – Chris Dreja, guitarist and songwriter, Yardbird

1945 – Vince Martell, singer and guitarist
1953 – Marshall Crenshaw, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1962 – James Morrison, horn player and composer
1964 – Margarete Bagshaw, painter and potter
1977 - Marsha Mehran, author

Some people who died on this day:

There is nothing of greater importance to the well-being of society at large - of man as well as woman - than the true proper position of woman.

~~ Lucretia Mott

1831 – Nat Turner, enslaved person and rebel leader
1855 – Søren Kierkegaard, Christian Existentialist
1880 – Lucretia Mott, activist
1917 – Liliuokalani, queen, rebel, songwriter
1939 – Bob Marshall, author and activist
1945 – Jerome Kern, composer
1972 – Berry Oakley, bass player
1984 - Martin Luther King, Sr., pastor, missionary, and activist
opposite
1993 – Erskine Hawkins, trumpet player and bandleader
1998 – Paddy Clancy, singer and actor

Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

Veterans' Day

Today's Tunes

So, the cancellation of an armistice or other peace is:

Of course, defense contractors, bankers, politicians and other warmongers say otherwise

Highway system

Mose Allison

Ernestine Anderson

LaVerne Baker

Dennis Coffey

Chris Dreja

Vince Martell

Marshall Crenshaw

James Morrison

Jerome Kern

Berry Oakley,

Paddy Clancy

Bonus:

Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?

Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

open thread, Armistice Day, Nat Turner, Mose Allison, LaVerne Baker, Paddy Clancy. repost