Two people who know better and should be ashamed of themselves. Have you been watching all the squabbling that’s been going on over the $1 trillion infrastructure bill and the $3.5 trillion jobs and families bill congress is trying to pass? President Biden met with two dozen Democratic member of congress today, including Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema, trying to bridge the gaps between the House and the Senate on one hand, and progressives and centrists on the other.
Thanks, Lucian. Spot on! As an Air Force vet it pains me to note that the F-35 symbolizes everything that is wrong with this concept of ‘Defense’ and our unwillingness as a nation to scale back these enormous boondoggles. We really need to examine why all these trillions of dollars splashed out over the decades on ever more unnecessary and over-arching complex machines-of-war don’t deliver on what we claim: making our country ‘Safer.’ The reverse is true. We need to be more like Norway, Canada, and Sweden. Work on making our own country legitimately safer for people to live, grow up in, and thrive, without blindly carrying on as the World’s greatest Bully. It does all a great disservice and does not make for a livable planet or sustainable future.
I guess Democratic politics has finally become my religion, in the sense that its tenets seem to me self-evident. A belief that the government SHOULD help people. That the government SHOULD maintain the country's infrastructure. That ultra-rich people SHOULD pay much higher taxes than they currently do, and so on down th list. Everything the Dems advocate seems to me self-evidently SO much better than the cruel, punitive, selfish aims of the GOP.
A freaking defense bill when all they could squawk about with Afghanistan was the mess they perceived of it under Biden(which it wasn’t); but they want a defense bill instead of fixing our infrastructure that’s in many cases on its last legs! I want to keep it clean here but you know I don’t mean ‘freaking’!
As long as the powers that be's best buds in the military industrial complex make out like bandits, the American public, (who happen to pay for all of this goddamn unworkable shit we call 'defense') can go to hell, die in the streets and get run over by the nearest truck hauling parts to those places that make the airplanes that don't work, and the guns that don't work for the wars we don't win, in the places we have no idea what the hell we're doing there.
All so we can be lulled into thinking they're working for us but you know the truth that they're not working for anyone but the rich people who buy their campaigns and the seats they sit on because once they're out of office, they go on to better things if they don't get re-elected.
Yes indeed. Fuck them all. For once, let the American public get the benefit of the money not the rich contractors and money men who've screwed us with their non-payment of taxes for all these years.
You know why I voted for Biden? Because he knows what's required, and he knows the kind of people who he's fighting against. We can only hope his stamina and will power will hold up against all those who would defeat him once again.
And next time, vote out Sinema, and Manchin, who's playing a double-double game, but he's really a Republican with long deep roots with oil and coal people. He doesn't care as long as they're happy.
The Pandemic wasn't a problem for the Kingston Trio and a lot of other acts like us. It was a catastrophe. The meager bucks I was able to receive on the "FEMA program" (or whatever it was) were so small that we barely survived. I look at the trillions being spent everywhere else and all I can do is shake my head. I know, I know, an old folk act doesn't register on the radar... But, I have a hunch the pain we have felt isn't much different than the pain they felt over a Bandera in West L.A. when it CLOSED FOREVER. Or pizzucotto on San Vicente---gone forever... I see $140M fighter jet and all I can do is shake my head. Really? We NEED more jets? Like, having more than the Chinese could create in a wet dream ain't enough? I could go on... It's Lucian's column, but he's fucking right about this...
Australia, where I live has right wing toxic masculinity (mostly) problems too, but we aren't overwhelmed as you are by gun culture, gerrymandering, inadequate public education, lack of access to subsidised health care, resrictive voting laws, insane right wing legislators. Though the mental disease of racism still bubbles away evilly here like all colonialist societies. You have 13 times our population but we don't have a proportionate 25,000 Covid deaths. I live in a little town, Nimbin, renowned for its alternate lifestyle, I believe we wouldn't survive in America's hate filled, ungenerous, cruel, buccaneer capitalist society, which I also am aware produces music, brilliant political analysis and etc. How the steel was tempered?. I imagine that scene in the Blues Brothers with all those police abseiling down from helicopters to shut my little hippie town down, if we were in America. Shudder. I read your articles with horrified fascination and am so grateful I was born here in Australia and not, say, in Texas or nightmare Mississipi. How can you stand it?
Again, many thanks for your intelligent and rational comments. It blew my mind that we spent $200 million every day we were in Afghanistan. Heaven help us if our government actually does something that helps Americans. Sinema and Manchin are wearing me down, Sinema with her close ties to the pharmaceutical industry and Manchin with his coal interests.
Repugs are KKKoch $uckers. PAC Hacks. Apparently we will never learn to put people over corporations—and no—Corporations ARE NOT people. “Citizens United” was the biggest failing of the Supreme Court, and it was orchestrated by Charles Koch under Reagan.
Can you extrapolate the current idea of “defense” down to little boys playing with their green army men and space rockets? Because I can. And it makes me sick to my stomach!
Defense spending is the big money maker for politicians and their respective home states. Spending for social programs is not in their profit interest. Infrastructure isn't sexy enough for the rich fat cats in government now. Our government's priorities are by the rich and for the rich.
Yes... pass these bills, kill the filibuster, and expand the SC!
But how can we convince 'them' to do so? Luckily I live in state (CT) where we have 2 great Senators. They certainly seem to be on the right page. I have written them to encourage them and thank them for their work. But what else!? I'm 70 years old now, and I'm not able to March. I've made phone calls, written letters and shared your wisdom with my 'followers' on social media. But what else can we do? What else can I do? I am so sad, mad, and aching to make a difference!?
I don't know if any of the MSNBC hosts read or subscribe to your column, nor if Manchin and Sinema or their aides do, but I take advantage of the "share" opportunity frequently and use it to tweet them your articles. From time to time, something pops up that makes me think their producers have someone on staff that peruse and use your excellent points. I also post on FB and I email to friends. We here can help spread the word.
Thanks, Lucian. Spot on! As an Air Force vet it pains me to note that the F-35 symbolizes everything that is wrong with this concept of ‘Defense’ and our unwillingness as a nation to scale back these enormous boondoggles. We really need to examine why all these trillions of dollars splashed out over the decades on ever more unnecessary and over-arching complex machines-of-war don’t deliver on what we claim: making our country ‘Safer.’ The reverse is true. We need to be more like Norway, Canada, and Sweden. Work on making our own country legitimately safer for people to live, grow up in, and thrive, without blindly carrying on as the World’s greatest Bully. It does all a great disservice and does not make for a livable planet or sustainable future.
I guess Democratic politics has finally become my religion, in the sense that its tenets seem to me self-evident. A belief that the government SHOULD help people. That the government SHOULD maintain the country's infrastructure. That ultra-rich people SHOULD pay much higher taxes than they currently do, and so on down th list. Everything the Dems advocate seems to me self-evidently SO much better than the cruel, punitive, selfish aims of the GOP.
A freaking defense bill when all they could squawk about with Afghanistan was the mess they perceived of it under Biden(which it wasn’t); but they want a defense bill instead of fixing our infrastructure that’s in many cases on its last legs! I want to keep it clean here but you know I don’t mean ‘freaking’!
A-FUCKING-MEN!
As long as the powers that be's best buds in the military industrial complex make out like bandits, the American public, (who happen to pay for all of this goddamn unworkable shit we call 'defense') can go to hell, die in the streets and get run over by the nearest truck hauling parts to those places that make the airplanes that don't work, and the guns that don't work for the wars we don't win, in the places we have no idea what the hell we're doing there.
All so we can be lulled into thinking they're working for us but you know the truth that they're not working for anyone but the rich people who buy their campaigns and the seats they sit on because once they're out of office, they go on to better things if they don't get re-elected.
Yes indeed. Fuck them all. For once, let the American public get the benefit of the money not the rich contractors and money men who've screwed us with their non-payment of taxes for all these years.
You know why I voted for Biden? Because he knows what's required, and he knows the kind of people who he's fighting against. We can only hope his stamina and will power will hold up against all those who would defeat him once again.
And next time, vote out Sinema, and Manchin, who's playing a double-double game, but he's really a Republican with long deep roots with oil and coal people. He doesn't care as long as they're happy.
The Pandemic wasn't a problem for the Kingston Trio and a lot of other acts like us. It was a catastrophe. The meager bucks I was able to receive on the "FEMA program" (or whatever it was) were so small that we barely survived. I look at the trillions being spent everywhere else and all I can do is shake my head. I know, I know, an old folk act doesn't register on the radar... But, I have a hunch the pain we have felt isn't much different than the pain they felt over a Bandera in West L.A. when it CLOSED FOREVER. Or pizzucotto on San Vicente---gone forever... I see $140M fighter jet and all I can do is shake my head. Really? We NEED more jets? Like, having more than the Chinese could create in a wet dream ain't enough? I could go on... It's Lucian's column, but he's fucking right about this...
Australia, where I live has right wing toxic masculinity (mostly) problems too, but we aren't overwhelmed as you are by gun culture, gerrymandering, inadequate public education, lack of access to subsidised health care, resrictive voting laws, insane right wing legislators. Though the mental disease of racism still bubbles away evilly here like all colonialist societies. You have 13 times our population but we don't have a proportionate 25,000 Covid deaths. I live in a little town, Nimbin, renowned for its alternate lifestyle, I believe we wouldn't survive in America's hate filled, ungenerous, cruel, buccaneer capitalist society, which I also am aware produces music, brilliant political analysis and etc. How the steel was tempered?. I imagine that scene in the Blues Brothers with all those police abseiling down from helicopters to shut my little hippie town down, if we were in America. Shudder. I read your articles with horrified fascination and am so grateful I was born here in Australia and not, say, in Texas or nightmare Mississipi. How can you stand it?
Again, many thanks for your intelligent and rational comments. It blew my mind that we spent $200 million every day we were in Afghanistan. Heaven help us if our government actually does something that helps Americans. Sinema and Manchin are wearing me down, Sinema with her close ties to the pharmaceutical industry and Manchin with his coal interests.
Repugs are KKKoch $uckers. PAC Hacks. Apparently we will never learn to put people over corporations—and no—Corporations ARE NOT people. “Citizens United” was the biggest failing of the Supreme Court, and it was orchestrated by Charles Koch under Reagan.
Can you extrapolate the current idea of “defense” down to little boys playing with their green army men and space rockets? Because I can. And it makes me sick to my stomach!
Joe Manchurian and the 'It girl' are wtf? Nihilists, imbeciles, I can't tell. Krystal looks
like a low rent hooker, Little Joe comes off like a jock who never grew up, never had friends til now, w/ his bullshit leverage.
I surely hope Prez Joe has his arm twisting techniques up to par for the current crisis.
The turtle is getting weird (is he doing the boogaloo w/ the dark prince one more time
before kicking the bucket.)
I'm hoping my musings are just my imagination running amuck, I hope against hope
for a sane, humane, happy ending.
I'm in my 70s, and I'm very thankful my teenaged daughters don't give a flying fuck about
the crap that keeps me up at night; if they did I'd feel even worse about their future.
ignorance must be bliss for the young.
As Miss Scarlett said "Tomorrow is another day.'
Well, friends, over and out for this nocturne.
the crap that keeps me awake at night
Defense spending is the big money maker for politicians and their respective home states. Spending for social programs is not in their profit interest. Infrastructure isn't sexy enough for the rich fat cats in government now. Our government's priorities are by the rich and for the rich.
Yes... pass these bills, kill the filibuster, and expand the SC!
But how can we convince 'them' to do so? Luckily I live in state (CT) where we have 2 great Senators. They certainly seem to be on the right page. I have written them to encourage them and thank them for their work. But what else!? I'm 70 years old now, and I'm not able to March. I've made phone calls, written letters and shared your wisdom with my 'followers' on social media. But what else can we do? What else can I do? I am so sad, mad, and aching to make a difference!?
I don't know if any of the MSNBC hosts read or subscribe to your column, nor if Manchin and Sinema or their aides do, but I take advantage of the "share" opportunity frequently and use it to tweet them your articles. From time to time, something pops up that makes me think their producers have someone on staff that peruse and use your excellent points. I also post on FB and I email to friends. We here can help spread the word.
One of your articles should be titled ‘Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore’!
YES.
As a former Army officer I expected the next Big One to be a replay of WWII on the plains of Central Europe. That was the planning.
Instead, we got a few suicide pilots with our own commercial planes raising holy hell.
We don't need F-35's and another aircraft carrier.
Let's draft Trump's Gravy Seals and attack the bad guys in the mountain tunnels in you know where...again.