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Tanks for the Memories: A Historical Tribute to Trump’s ‘Salute to America’
The Editors, New York Book ReviewCheck it out, a pictorial tribute for Trump’s 4th of July: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/07/03/tanks-for-the-memories-a-historical-tribute-to-trumps-salute-to-america/
Lets do a poll, which despot does Trump most remind you of?
My vote goes to Benito Mussolini.
sorry I was stuck with that video - the 15 second clip - says it all. The rest, … hmmm, perhaps a cautionary note.
The cascading consequences of ‘being had’ by a yet bigger, more ruthless despot.
Ruthless fools who know no history are destined to repeat history, the rest of us are stuck following them.
The comparisons are pretty ridiculous given the fact that no military equipment rolled down D.C. streets and the speech lacked any references to world domination; it was in fact a non-partisan speech made of the usual boilerplate we hear from all presidents e.g. how great America is, how great the military is, etc.
Very mild stuff.
A report of the event: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fourth-of-july-celebrations-to-draw-thousands-to-the-nations-capital/2019/07/03/a6d2adb8-9da1-11e9-b27f-ed2942f73d70_story.html?noredirect=on
The comparison to Mussolini is plenty accurate.
Mild stuff?
We know how that song goes, those first little pills were mild too, but felt so empowering. But then a little wouldn’t do, so the little got a little more and more.
Idiot chest thumping, is idiot chest thumping, just like them dictator types love it.
Just wait till next year.
Oh are the flag wearing, flag waving fools that don’t seem to have a critical thinking sober bone in their bodies supposed to impress? Well that or they really are outrageously self-certain nasty Me First, fuk you and yours, types.
It’s all that idiotic flag waving that got us into that fraudulent war of profit, that started this never ending reliance on an endless war against the terrorist we’ve created ourselves out of our stupidity and blind-faith in our righteous right to endless boundless avarice. Never having a single thought for how many of our problems today are of OUR OWN MAKING and not the fault of funny colored peoples in third world countries.
You can snicker, but we all know this shit show will not end well for anyone.
The oneoneguy a card carry NATIONALIST???
Oh are the flag wearing, flag waving fools that don’t seem to have a critical thinking sober bone in their bodies supposed to impress? Well that or they really are outrageously self-certain nasty Me First, fuk you and yours, types. It’s all that idiotic flag waving that got us into that fraudulent war of profit, that started this never ending reliance on an endless war against the terrorist we’ve created ourselves out of our stupidity and blind-faith in our righteous right to endless boundless avarice. Never having a single thought for how many of our problems today are of OUR OWN MAKING and not the fault of funny colored peoples in third world countries. You can snicker, but we all know this shit show will not end well for anyone.Whatever you say.
You see what you think you see. Most military spending is not for the purpose of military equipment (tanks). It is for the purpose of keeping our nation out of a depression. In a depression, the farms and houses are taken over by the banks that have not closed. The soup lines are long and there are no jobs.
To stop the depressions, the nation was divided into seven economic zones. When one of these zones is in a recession for a given period of time and no public programs are available to be funded quickly then military contracts are given out to military contractors in the zone. This keeps our military organized and if they get a plane or a tank out of the economic stimulus program then it is better than just dumping money in the zone or increasing the welfare programs.
Who are the real – “Well that or they really are outrageously self-certain nasty Me First, fuk you and yours, types.” That have over regulated our nation to the point that our government must keep using the money for military contracts instead of our infrastructure or other public systems.
As President Trump tries and deregulates us and put the country in an economic stability where these stimulus programs don’t have to be used. Guess who complains? The working man does not like the stimulus programs because it causes inflation. The idea is to save money for retirement. When you retire you don’t want to pay $5 for a $0.50 cup of coffee or $10.00 for a $1.00 hamburger.
So your last sentence brings us right back to: “Well that or they really are outrageously self-certain nasty Me First, fuk you and yours, types.”
Although they would cloak it in much more soothing words. Wave that flag, and God Bless.
Maybe you are right. But what bothers me is “outrageously self-certain nasty” language that is nothing more than far-left BS. Yes, people are reaching the breaking point. We really need to drain the swamp and get rid of the Earmark politics. With a congress where it costs 2¢ to make a penny and 7¢ to make a nickel. The working man does not understand why items like this are not addressed and fixed. Congress is busy working on college being paid for everyone in the world. When 40% of Americans don’t have $400 in the bank. We have 83 overlapping federal welfare programs that together represented the single largest budget item with more spent on these programs than on Social Security, Medicare, or national defense combined.
Point being, you are trying to define people. You might also want to define the environment these people live in. America right now is a welfare country that is being politically pushed by the far-left (communists). Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party expanded the welfare state to the point where German citizens were receiving assistance under the auspices of the National Socialist People’s Welfare and it was the goal of the people to accept this system of government.
It is your goals and not Trump’s goals to get the most from the government that you can. The Trump backers want to give and build a government with a future. Where is the future in your policies? What the Left is doing is not progressive. These ideas are nothing more than failed social reforms of the past. Not only are they hurting the atheist movement but destroying the progressive reforms that could help America.
Point being, it would be hard to argue that America is not driving to become a socialist country. America is considered a social democracy. Which is to say we are a free market, capitalist society that has social programs, social services and welfare. For socialism to exist there would have to come into existence a very large and powerful social movement, based on millions of people, who have been developing major collective struggles against the various state and private employers. Hence – the Democrats.
And we would need to have a process of change in the nature of the governmental system so that it gets broken down into new grassroots forms, like neighborhood assemblies and large democratic delegate bodies. Exactly what the Democrats are setting up and doing now.
The masses want — comprehensive free at point of use services (health care, childcare, education at all levels) and direct controls on how the ecological commons is used — what is allowed to be spewed into it, and things like that.
The general economy then becomes worker run and socially accountable in terms of what it does.
We are looking at two different pathways for our future. A socialist system or a social democracy system. The scales will be tipping more toward socialism as the health care, socialized medicine and energy production is taken out of the market and put under government control.
And it just burns you that President Trump makes a salute to America. Because right now America represents what is best for the world and you prefer to have what is best for you.
Mike- i wish you would expand on your last sentence.
And the nazi party was a fascist imperial party. An ideology the ruling class turn to when capitaliam is in crisis eg the great depression. And to think that it came with blessing of States with a dominate catholic churh such as germany, spain italy Portugal Croatia and hungry
Player, Germany had the best colleges and was progressive and their money was considered the best in the world. But it fell apart fast after the WWI. The Americans pumped billions into Germany and its economy bounced back. But Germany’s economical failure was not because of capitalism. It was because of the capitalism that Americans invested that Germany was able to recover so fast. The payments for the war was to blame. So, one could say capitalism is not to blame, the lack of capitalism is to blame. The Ruhr Valley was the greatest industrial complex in the world and its only problem was political.
To explain the last sentence.
Put civilization on a timeline and you go back into pre-history.
My viewpoint.
Civilizations are societies and cultures that live together under one set of laws of order.
Civilization top common factors are:
-
High protein -
Happiness -
Rules of Laws -
High knowledge level -
Capitalist system -
Control of greed -
Minimal caste
The first seven seem to be a must for past civilizations. Keep the people fat and happy is a winner. The third item is also very important.
-
Capitalist system. A common factor of all successful civilizations in the past was the use of a capitalist system. It would be stupid to take another pathway which has no proven record of successful civilizations.
People seem to be fat and happy in a good capitalist system. Look at Venezuela, no capitalist system now and the people are losing weight and are unhappy. The socialist system is just spending someone else’s money and eating food grown by somebody else.
Point being. America represents how this system of good civilizations has evolved from pre-history. America was built on what was proven to work with earlier systems. What is missing from the list is management. Different forms of management had been used with the capitalist system. Figure out China, a communist management but a capitalist working system for the people. In Europe they have tried socialist management with a capitalist system. It does not work. To get voted into office you have to offer free stuff. At some point you run out of free stuff.
RE: Catholic Church. The church was part of the government. It controlled schools, housing and hospitals. The Church even had taxing authority over the people.
Mike - a dose of reality please.
The past half century of American capitalism has been a period of decay, presided over by a criminal oligarchy of corporate billionaires and financial speculators. The United States has the highest social inequality of any major industrialized country; its social infrastructure is in a state of collapse; and its healthcare and public education systems are abysmal. The most basic index of social well-being, life expectancy, is declining, propelled by the sharp rise in drug overdoses and suicides.
The younger generation faces a future of permanent indebtedness, poverty, and low-wage, temporary employment. For them, Trump advised, “now is your chance to join our military and make a truly great statement in life, and you should do it.”
Trump included in his Fourth of July speech the inevitable homilies to American soldiers, the “heroes who proudly defend our flag.” The reality confronting American soldiers, however, was expressed in the outpouring of tales of suicide, depression, violence, addiction, and mental anguish that followed a US Army tweet on “how service has impacted you” in May
Thank you Player, that dose of reality is a good counterpoint to Mike’s belly-button rambling.
Mike, I’m always impressed for how confidently you can speak what’s on my mind and in my heart - though it has nothing to do with any facts, or the actual reality - but that don’t mean fuk to the rightwing political types, controlling the narrative is all that matters - truth and honesty are dispensable.
Player: "The past half century of American capitalism has been a period of decay, presided over by a criminal oligarchy of corporate billionaires and financial speculators. The United States has the highest social inequality of any major industrialized country; its social infrastructure is in a state of collapse; and its healthcare and public education systems are abysmal. The most basic index of social well-being, life expectancy, is declining, propelled by the sharp rise in drug overdoses and suicides."Yes. Well put.
It always amazes me how people can see the destruction of civilized society by rampant capitalism, yet they are so brainwashed into thinking capitalism is “good” and socialism is “bad”, that they ignore reality, including their own suffering and that of their friends and family.
Hopefully the pendulum doesn’t swing too far right before people finally wake up. But with so many people so ignorant, and with all the money and influence held by those who benefit from the way it is, I honestly think that things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.
Player,
The past half century of American capitalism has been a period of decay, presided over by a criminal oligarchy of corporate billionaires and financial speculators. The United States has the highest social inequality of any major industrialized country; its social infrastructure is in a state of collapse; and its healthcare and public education systems are abysmal.
On the political viewpoint. Democrats are now the party of the rich.
Who to blame? The swamp.
Player,
“The past half century of American capitalism has been a period of decay”
American capitalism system is the backbone system used by 183 nations in the world today. And it was not done with ambassadors, it was done through working with our nation’s large corporations. It has changed the world and the lives of the people of the world to living a better life.
You are correct. And this decay you are seeing is very understandable and is expected.
The Greeks and the Romans wanted very much to have a civilization as strong as the Egyptians. The Egyptian civilization lasted the longest and worked very well and was the envy of all nations. To have a nation where the people did not have to work hard, enjoyed food and drink, had good laws, good health and was able to spend time with song and music. Mainly because of the capitalist system.
The capitalist system gets out of balance and must be readjusted. It was the pharaohs job to keep the world in balance. It was the job of the temples to keep the people fat, happy, educated and healthy. Basically, the government. But when the government got greedy, the people got unhappy. When the pharaoh saw the people were unhappy. He would readjust the wealth and make the people happy again. This readjustment or recycling of the capitalist system of a temple had to take place about once every twenty years or once a generation.
The goal of the Greeks and Romans was to build an Egyptian type of system without the Pharaoh. The temples were the government and the Pharaoh was the spirit or the moral standards of the people. The Greeks setup a system and the Romans improved upon it. Jesus was part of the Greek/Roman system and was setting Israel up to be governed by an improved version of the system. Basically, a checks and balance system which was meant to keep the rules of law applied over everyone.
This is going to be hard to get my point of view across due to the lack of understanding, so try to stay with me. On my post above, number six was “Control of greed”. That is having a good checks and balance system. You know it as the Supreme Court. Number seven is “Minimal caste”. Socialism and communist system are meant to remove caste but have proven to be nothing more than a system of caste.
Caste, all Americans are view by most of the world as upper caste. The problems you are seeing with the American capitalism system is caste problems. Capitalism does not have to be controlled by the upper caste. There does not even have to be caste in our system of capitalism. Caste does work well in the medical, educational and religious fields. Hillary lost the election because of a Caste revolt. Yet, ask ten people to explain what caste is and you most likely will get nine wrong answers.
So, why is America having trouble with caste? Simple, our system was never finished or completed. Jefferson picked up Jesus’s new ideas of checks and balance system for the Greek/Roman rule. The weak point of the system was caste. Caste can be controlled by good morals. You can even have good caste if you have good morals. Mankind has not been able to get rid of caste, systems used caste going back into pre-history. So, the idea was to build the system that promoted good caste. Jefferson did not want to use religion in our new system. But Jefferson wanted a system that would have good morals. He reviewed the works of the Greek and Roman philosophers of morals. Jefferson understood that good morals meant a good capitalism balance and a civilization with happy and healthy people. Jefferson conclusion was that the teachings of Jesus was the best system to teach morals. Jefferson created two different bibles of the works of Jesus by removing the deity out of bible.
Our system is the work of thousands of years of striving for the best system. We know what the problems are, and we know what needs to be done. Our President is trying to remove the caste in DC and open the door for us to work on finishing a system our forefathers have passed down to us.
Need to cut off here Player.
"When the pharaoh saw the people were unhappy. He would readjust the wealth and make the people happy again. This readjustment or recycling of the capitalist system of a temple had to take place about once every twenty years or once a generation."Your imaginary capitalism success story has a pharaoh who redistributes wealth?
Do you know the meaning of any of the words you use?