This and That

1.  I see by yesterday's headlines that Afghanimization is going about as well as did Vietnamization---Nixon & Kissinger's plan to turn over the fighting in Vietnam (back when) to the South Vietnamese Army.  Similar conditions exist in Afghanistan as existed in Vietnam during that war---a corrupt government, a native Army incapable of defending itself, a native people who do not support the corrupt/puppet government, and a native people who want us out of their country.  And yet we continue... completely ignoring the lessons of History.  Young troops being maimed & killed for the sake of the Corporatocracy...the Oligarchy...the Plutocracy...whatever you wish to call it...and, the estimated one trillion dollars worth of unmined minerals...the natural gas & oil pipeline corridors...Brzezinki's "American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives".  Shameful...and utterly so.  Apparently most Americans still believe that the present war is protecting us from TERRORISM, the Boogie Man that replaced the other Boogie Man, Communism.  Please.  That's about as true as the line that the Vietnam war was protecting us from Communism.  Let's see, N. Vietnam won...and life everywhere else went on pretty much the same.  No dominoes fell.  We now trade with Vietnam and visit there at will.

2.  Kudos to Snowden, the guy who blew the whistle on the NSA.  The NSA's actions were the result of orders from the FISA "Court", a secret "court" with absolutely no oversight by anyone...not Congress, not anyone... except of course, the Dictator-in-Chief (any President, not just Obama).  Where are the "checks and balances"?  Over the last 2-3 decades, the Executive Branch has seized an incredible amount of unconstitutional power.  Defenders of that obscenity can go on & on about how this or that secret action---with no oversight---prevented this or that calamity.  They miss the point---our Constitutional Republic cannot legally operate that way.  We have, in effect, an Outlaw Government.  Defenders of the current obscenity can go on & on about how, as Obama put it, "no one's conversations are being listened to".  Really?  How do we know?---there's no oversight.  Plus, the NSA actions included the internet.  I didn't hear anyone say, "no one's web surfing is being watched".  Again, how do we know...there's zero oversight.  Our Republic exists in name only...the checks and balances are long gone.  Long gone.

Be Well