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American Exceptionalism

While I do understand (and share) the natural inclination to prefer one’s home — i.e. one’s community, or the land on which one grew up — I totally reject “American Exceptionalism”.

Think of it this way: I love my family more than other families. But it has nothing to do with thinking they’re smarter or better looking or superior to all others. I love my family because it’s my family.

….but if it went around like a bully beating up other families all the time, I’d start to feel much differently about it. I’d plead with it to stop, and if it didn’t, it would be very difficult to continue proudly calling it my family.

#usa #merica #american exceptionalism #empire

The one question political quiz

It is ok to use violence or the threat of violence to force my peaceful neighbor to do as I say:

a) whenever I want b) if I sincerely believe it will be good for them c) if I appoint a government official to do so d) never

#politics #liberty #libertarianism #voluntarism #government

Government, as we know it, is the real enemy. It produces nothing except distortions of social life, through war, taxation, regulation, and the general redistribution of wealth and resources.

Joseph Sobran

#government #politics #libertarianism

Freedom in the USA

I’m tired of being talked to like a child and told self-serving nonsense by politicians and the media about how free the USA is. A quick assessment reveals the absurdity of the cliché. The State has first claim on the fruit of our labor, and it decides what percentage it will allow us to keep. The State spends many trillions of dollars in debt to preserve and expand its power, and it forces us to pay the tab. The State surveils our daily communications by collecting all phone calls, texts, emails and internet usage and even records our location at every given moment via our cellphones. The State claims the right control our bodies, and it decides what we can and can’t put in them. The State breaks down the doors of peaceful homes and cages those who dare to disobey its edicts about what they are permitted to ingest. The State controls our education by setting the curriculum and requiring its approval to teach children, and it indoctrinates us with fairytales about its goodness. The State controls our money, and it creates new dollars at will to fund its welfare-warfare empire and requires us by law to use its continually devalued currency. The State propagandizes us daily with its subservient media hacks who dutifully repeat its lies and attack the few journalists who are willing to challenge power.

We only think this is a free country because the State has taught us to think that since early childhood. This is not a free country.

#freedom #usa #merica #empire

Independence Day!

On this Independence Day, I’ll be reflecting on what an exceptionally free country we live in. Sure, the U.S. has the largest prison population in the world, the most expansive surveillance apparatus in history, a supreme leader who claims the authority to kill any person on earth, and every American is forcibly tethered to the government’s $17.5+ Trillion of debt…but besides that and a bunch other things…Land of the Free, I guess.

#usa #merica #4th of july #empire #freedom #independence day

This is not a form of brainwashing.

#usa #merica #nationalism #empire

#HeresYourDrugWar

#war on drugs #heresyourdrugwar #drugs

In advance of its third war on Iraq, the Pentagon is seeking immunity from Iraqi law, apparently in the event the military again commits war crimes.

However, a war of aggression is itself a war crime, as per the post-WWII Nuremberg principles. Indeed, it is "the supreme international crime". It’s not yet clear how they will get around that.

#war crimes #iraq war #iraq #iraq war 3

"We're Going Back to Iraq" - by Justin Raimondo

President Obama’s announcement that the US is sending 300 "advisors" back to Iraq to stave off the rising Sunni insurgency was couched in assurances that "American forces will not be returning to combat in Iraq" – but who really believes that? A proven liar – "If you like your health insurance you can keep it" – this President has absolutely no qualms about engaging in systematic deception if it serves his purposes. Indeed, his version of the numbers is in itself a blatant lie: in reality, we are sending 575 military personnel into Iraq, including the 275 marines and troops sent to guard the now-imperiled US Embassy – and that’s just what they’re announcing publicly. God knows what the real numbers are.

#iraq #war #war on terror #iraq war #nonintervention

The Peace Prize-wielding Warmonger in Chief threatens to strike again.

#iraq #iraq war #iraq war 3 #obama

Unjust, illegal, stupid Iraq War #3?

Obama Poised to Send Special Forces to Iraq

The 2003 war on Iraq was one of the worst foreign policy catastrophes in U.S. history. It was a disaster morally, economically and strategically. The war resulted in a staggering loss of life and unimaginable human suffering on the part of innocent Iraqis, a crushing price tag for the American people in blood and trillions of dollars, and an end result of which Osama bin Laden could have only dreamed.

The only answer to this utter horror is nonintervention. Any military solution will, as always, lead to something even worse, as is clearly on display in the aftermath of one of the most egregious of the USA’s many unjust, illegal and stupid wars.

#war #iraq #obama #nonintervention

King Obama Tells Scotland Not to Secede From Britain

What concern is it to the US if Scotland secedes from Britain, or if Britain leaves the EU? None at all. But these authoritarian types absolutely hate any move toward independence and decentralization. The precedent it sets terrifies and infuriates rulers like Obama (or Bush, or Clinton, or whoever).

http://news.antiwar.com/2014/06/05/obama-tells-scotland-not-to-secede-from-britain/

#obama #secession #authoritarian #scotland #independence #decentralization

On the heroism of Edward Snowden

He knew the power of the global empire he was going up against — actually, he knew enough to know it was powerful beyond comprehension. He saw how Bradley Manning (war crimes whistleblower) was tortured, and how John Kiriakou (CIA torture whistleblower) was imprisoned — both for simply telling the truth. He knew that he would not get a heroes’ welcome or parades in his honor and that, at least initially, many millions of Americans who he sacrificed himself for would label him a traitor and call for his head, and if the most powerful government in the world could catch him in time it would gladly oblige. He did the right thing anyway. When I consider how much this smart, talented, articulate, young man gave up to alert us to the US government’s unprecedented violations of our liberty, in spite of the dire consequences of which he was fully aware, I am astounded. Edward Snowden is easily among the greatest American heroes to ever live.

#nsa #edward snowden #hero #snowden

3 Homes Destroyed in Military Plane Crash in Imperial Valley, CA

Thankfully, it appears that there were no civilians killed. If there had been, I wonder if they would have been reported as collateral damage?

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Military-Plane-Crash-Imperial-Valley-Neighborhood-San-Diego

#collateral damage #war

The War on Whatever

The War on Terror is just like the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty, etc. Ultimately, its purpose is not to defeat what it claims to combat. Its purpose is to divert endless money, resources and power to the state and its corporate cronies. And its result is inevitable: it will create more of what it wages war against.

#war #war on terror #war on drugs #war on poverty

Neighborhood gang puts toddler in coma

Cops nearly killed a 19-month-old toddler when they threw a flash-bang grenade in the house he was sleeping in during a no-knock raid. The grenade landed in his crib and blew up in his face, and now he’s in a medically-induced coma. A SWAT team broke down the door at 3:00 am on the suspicion of a non-violent drug offense based on a tip from an informant. No drugs were found, and the suspect was not even home at the time the house was raided. According to County Sheriff Joey Terrell:

"The door that we entered was the door that we bought dope out of - that’s why entered at that door. Our team went by the book. Given the same scenario, we’ll do the same thing again. I stand behind what our team did.”

The War on Drugs is a war on the American people. It needs to end, completely and immediately. Read Will Grigg for more. #HeresYourDrugWar

UPDATE:

This is really from the Habersham Sheriff’s website:

#cops #war on drugs #police state

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