Useful Idiots

Bernanke Is Getting Killed in the Bond Market

"Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke's latest disclosure statement for year end 2012 shows that he held positions in the Blackrock High Yield Bond Fund and US Treasury strips. If he continues to hold these positions, he is losing big time. His Blackrock bond position is down by at least 5%. Meanwhile, his strips position is likely getting destroyed. Here is a chart on the PIMCO 25+ Year Zero Coupon U.S. Treasury Index ETF, which is likely comparable to what Bernanke is holding. Over the last 12 months, it is down more than 24%. Bottom line: Bernanke is not only screwing up the nation's economy, he is screwing up his own portfolio." Continue reading →

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Another Lying Rice in the White House

[May 2013] "She happily spread the lies and war propaganda to coerce support for an invasion, and she had her own 'mushroom cloud' moment when she peddled the lie to fellow diplomats behind closed doors that Gaddafi was issuing Viagra to his troops so that they may carry out mass rape. What is it about lying officials named 'Rice'? The stated purpose of the Libya force authorization was to protect the insurgents in Benghazi, who it was said Libyan army was about to engage. We all know how that came out: the insurgents were saved by US intervention and they shortly therafter went on to express their appreciation by killing the US ambassador and three others." Continue reading →

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Chris Hedges: The Treason of the Intellectuals

"If they had known then what they know now, they assured us, they would have acted differently. This, of course, is false. The war boosters, especially the 'liberal hawks'—who included Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Al Franken and John Kerry, along with academics, writers and journalists such as Bill Keller, Michael Ignatieff, Nicholas Kristof, David Remnick, Fareed Zakaria, Michael Walzer, Paul Berman, Thomas Friedman, George Packer, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Kanan Makiyaand the late Christopher Hitchens—did what they always have done: engage in acts of self-preservation. To oppose the war would have been a career killer. And they knew it." Continue reading →

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Why Is the U.S. Destabilizing One Country After Another?

"[..] Sixth, the military-industrial complex and its lobbies on the Hill thrive on the profits, the work of war, the advancements, and the demand for their services that instability brings. The DHS thrives on an atmopshere of war and fear. Members of Congress thrive on making speeches about promoting rights and democracy, even though they are promoting war, instability, refugees and death. The State Department appears to have abandoned diplomacy and become subservient to the neocon influences. Seventh, the U.S. has a ready-made pro-war interest group in many churches. [..]" Continue reading →

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How Empires Fall

"Rome didn't fall so much as erode away, its many strengths squandered on in-fighting, mismanagement and personal aggrandizement/corruption. More telling for the present is Goldsworthy's identification of expansive, sclerotic bureaucracies that lost sight of their purpose. The top leadership abandoned the pursuit of the common good for personal gain, wealth and power. This rot at the top soon spread down the chain of command to infect and corrupt the entire institutional culture. As the empire shrank and lost tax revenues, the Imperial bureaucracies continued growing, much as parasites attach themselves to a weakened host." Continue reading →

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Should We Celebrate the American Revolution?

"Conservatives who cherish the Fourth of July while cheering today’s wars have a high tolerance for cognitive dissonance. The American Revolution was, at best, a revolt against empire. The taxes at issue were being used to finance Britain’s national security state. The colonial rebels didn’t 'support the troops' – they resented them. And they resented Britain’s status as the hypocritical world power, which closely resembled the modern United States – an empire claiming the mantle of liberty while smashing its colonial subjects. Today’s conservatives would have likely been partisans of King George. Independence would mean Washington, DC, releasing control of its colonies worldwide." Continue reading →

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No, thanks: Stop saying “support the troops”

"To support the troops is to accept a particular idea of the American role in the world. It also forces us to pretend that it is a country legitimately interested in equality for all its citizens. In reality, the troops are not actually recipients of any meaningful support. That honor is reserved for the government and its elite constituencies. 'Support our troops' entails a tacit injunction that we also support whatever politicians in any given moment deem the national interest. If we understand that 'the national interest' is but a metonym for the aspirations of the ruling class, then supporting the troops becomes a counterintuitive, even harmful, gesture." Continue reading →

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How to Fix the Army: Sack All the Generals

"Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, a seasoned Army colonel who has already earned a reputation for being something of a whistleblower by tracking leadership failures from the field in Afghanistan, describes a system where underserving leaders 'received prestigious medals, promotions to higher ranks, and plum follow-on jobs; others retired and went to work for defense contractors, often with companies that had profited from the failed acquisition effort.' Davis worries about the decade of the Army and Marine Corps obsessed with counterinsurgency and small-unit warfare while a 'a new generation of Chinese military leaders has deepened its understanding and application of conventional warfare.'" Continue reading →

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If Chris Kyle Had Been a Muslim, We’d Call him an Extremist

"Imagine: A young Muslim from the Islamic world joins his country’s armed forces to fight an aggressive war against an overwhelmingly Christian nation. He gains accolades for his work as a sniper, executing his job with ruthless efficiency and little remorse. He admits to viewing the war he is fighting through the prism of religion. He gets a tattoo on his arm declaring that he embraces the concept of holy war. When parliamentarians in his own country question the conduct or course of the war, he states, 'How would they know? They’ve never even been in a combat situation.' That he became the author of a bestselling book, and served as a symbol of strength used by politicians." Continue reading →

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Our Moral Crisis

"It seems official, the United States is a permanent wartime state. Senior Obama Administration officials have stated that the War on Terror, in its 'limitless form,' will carry on for another decade, possibly two. Given our role in the world, as an economic and military super-power, and given the economic, social and environmental crisis we see the world in, we must no longer deny that US foreign policy is a great agent of repression. We are a global threat to peace, security, liberty and the environment. Violence has become our foreign policy – it is the status quo. Perhaps what is most disturbing is the support the public lauds on politicians who support aggressive foreign policy." Continue reading →

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