Like many cartoonists, I rely on idiocy for inspiration. Which is why I read Thomas Friedman. He recently wrote that the world would suffer less stability as the US is forced by budget constraints to turn inward.
You’re Gonna Miss Us
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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In the harsh light of reality
We wear our shades or we close our eyes
Trip over our morality
Pick up ourselves with our little white lies
Indulge in our brutalities
Though it’s ourselves we come to despise
In the hard light of reality
But i can see how we can be so fantasy dependent
We don’t sleep so easily
If we can’t dream of innocence
We wish for immortality
While making sure that it’ll never happen
Count up all the fatalities
And judge their values by the flags they’re flapping
Our fake spirituality
Is pretty shabby in it’s silver wrapping
In the harsh light of reality
But i can see how we can be so fantasy dependent
We don’t sleep so easily
If we can’t dream of innocence
In the harsh light of reality
Our progress often seems like mere destruction
So much for rationality
As long as we are keeping up production
We fail to grasp the actualities
Our problems really are our own construction
In the harsh light of reality
But i can see how we can be so fantasy dependent
We don’t sleep so easily
If we can’t dream of innocence
Human Radio
Happy 20th Anniversary, Ross!!!!
Uncle Tom is the king of jumping on the band wagon 10 years too late. Reading him is like watching students in a classroom have an “ah-ha” moment on a weekly basis. Hey, he makes a lot of money so I guess he’s smarter than I am
We are the invader that will not leave.
The crusade is over Barry, bring the Templars home.
I think it’s actually a nice thought experiment that may be being carried out by the Global Recession; what would a world look like where the US is not able to invade a country on a whim.
And Ted’s posted a cutesy/funny response to that question.
Actually, we should just F*cking GIVE china the world.
As Napoleon said; “China is a sleeping dragon and will shake the world when she awakens.”
China clearly wants to take the US’s place in the world. LET THEM.
China is a dragon? Well, the world is an elephant. A rabid, deranged circus elephant. And the elephant is a counter to the dragon. It’s hide can resist the firey breath, the tusks can pierce the scales and it’s just mean strong and onrey enough to attack it.
Instead of waiting for a war or economic sabotage, just GIVE them the world.
All that “Debt” to them, starting since Nixon and yes I do include Clinon in this mess, but much more so Dubya… Well they could “Make us” pay it. So what we should do is make it a “Farm Subsidy” policy again.
For decades our “Farm Subsidies” have brought ruin and misery to the world. We’ve used surplus to destroy local economies we then abandoned in a heartbeat when things changed. Now our own farm economy is threatened by businessmen who use foreign farms but are able to get “Tax Breaks and Subsidies” to make them cheaper than anything the economy could muster.
The best way to “Pay Back” China is to turn America back into the world’s “Breadbasket” and have the surplus go over to them. No $, just food. They are a hungry country with a growing appetite and despite their land space only a fraction is useful for farming. They have a controlled economy and population so dumping food over there won’t hurt them like it did other countries. Just give them food as a currency and continue it. Any attack on us, economic or physical, becomes a punch in their own gut. And even if the worst paranoia was true and they intended to invade, they are smart enough to know that if they did that Americans would fight to the end and it’d be decades before agriculture even approached the pre-invasion levels.
China will run the world better than us. Everyone expects us to be nice, including us. No one thinks that of China for a second. They imagine them part a huge unstoppable army of Communists, part Genghis Khan, part Fu Manchu…
So the interactions would be:
Small country: “Please don’t invade us!”
Chinese rep: “We beal yu noah ill marice. We seek mutual tlade allangement to mutual benefit!”
We don ‘t invade countries on a whim.
The plan to invade is handed to governance providers by the private sector through think-tanks and conferences. Much effort is put into incentivizing law makers to support the plan. The media just parrots the official sources. Then comes the wait for a perfect excuse to carry out the plan. If the excuse does not come, we just make up an excuse, and invade anyway.
A whim would be nice.
The plan to invade is handed to governance providers by the private sector through think-tanks and conferences
By “private sector”, I presume you mean the military-industrial complex, whose only “customer” is government, with whom it is joined at the hip. I’m pretty certain IBM, Microsoft and Oracle aren’t having a secret cabal planning for the invasion of Iran.
We may not invade countries on a whim, however Article I Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the right to declare war.
But I guess we killed Iraqis, Afghans, Vietnamese, Nicaraguans, Filipinos, et al by executive fiat because it fulfills our inherent manifest destiny for the world that is implied in the Constitution.
Right?
My point Nom, is we do not invade countries on a whim. Yes, there is a process for us to go to war with other countries. The legislative branch has been all to willing to give away it’s powers to the executive.,
Give away? You’re too kind….shirk…is more like it. It’s a constitutional violation. Arrest them all for it.
I’m pretty certain IBM, Microsoft and Oracle aren’t having a secret cabal planning for the invasion of Iran.
Why only pretty sure? Oh. This is why:
“DOD’s current use of Microsoft technology is extensive and is demonstrating success in a growing number of mission- critical applications for warfighting and business processes,” said Bob Dees, executive director of defense strategies at Microsoft Federal.”
source: http://fcw.com/articles/2005/04/08/microsofts-new-market.aspx
Should I even bother googling IBM’s defense contracts, or do you want to do that one?
lemme know, k? thx
oleg,
How does that prove that Microsoft or IBM is planning an invasion? They sell products to the government. Like most companies, they see the glutenous spending of that behemoth as a cash cow.
just curious, if I provided you with a video of Bill Gates throwing everyone out of the war room, and bringing in his own team to move little pieces around a map of Iran, how would you respond?
Even generals can say they “were just doing their job”. It does not make them neutral.
Microsoft is a war profiteer. They don’t need to do the jobs of generals to be a part of the war machine. All they need to do is work really hard at profiting in every endeavor, no matter what the end result might be. As long as they are competing for the contracts, they are doing their part, as are their competitors.
Actually Oleg,
They are providing the government a service, just like every other government contractor.
Angelo,
I’m sorry, but that was a pretty silly example, and you know it. Microsoft doesn’t seel any product specific for the military, and it doesn’t lobby Congress critters and aides in charge of “defense”, unlike Bell or McDonnel-Douglas. You might as well have gone after JBS,Tyson, or freiggin’ McDonalds, ’cause I’m certain they’re selling food to the military.
Now, it would be very principled of Microsoft if they refused to do business with the DOD, or all of government, for that matter. They won’t for two good reasons: they want to make a buck, if the customer is willing to pay; and two, they might fear blowback in the form of strong-arming them for supposed violations of existing or fictitious regulation. For all I know, it might be even illegal to boycott Uncle Sam. OTOH, there’s a reason MSFT/IBM/HP don’t sell to say, the Iranian government (at least directly). I’ll give you one chance to answer that, without the random Google search.
Hey Ted.. saw you on Friday night… interesting concept… sort of a quiet crowd.. except for communist woman and questioning young man and the anti-fed guy…
and me of course…
I thought boycott meant a refusal to buy, not a refusal to sell. Example, you want me to buy the following notion:
tech companies are peacenics who are being forced at gunpoint to make flight simulators, etc. for the military.
I hereby boycott that notion.
You attempt to exhonerate the war profiteers because they compete for these contracts on account of mere self interest. Would you have me also suppose they are not self intersted enough to foster the conditions which stoke further demand for such contracts? Or, further, that they are not self intersted enough to distinguish a Pinochet from an Allende? No way. It would be a tremendous leap to assume such strategic disinterest. Imagine if I were asking you to make such a leap.
I would not buy stock in such a company. Now, a company with proven ability to exploit puppet states with weak constitutions would enter my portfolio faster than the drop in the stockmarket the day the US military budget is cut to sane levels.
When EVER there is an opportunity to make many, many millions (or even billions) of dollars through the Pentagon, then there is pressure from the so-called “INVISIBLE HAND” to use those weapons systems. Factor that in with the national security industry, the oil industry, the arms industry, the military supply industry, etc., and the pressure to actually use military force becomes too overwhelming. Witness the U.S. govt’s response to Katrina, to Haiti, etc. — bring in the troops and put the hammer down. Don’t like what some guy in Yemen or Pakistan or Philippines is saying, then target them for assassination or disappearance.
To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
Angelo,
Only in your twisted logic can Microsoft be seen as “war profiteer” because they sell their wares to the DoD (are you even aware of what is it that they make their money from, and what percentage of that money is made from your beloved federal government?). I guess you consider Kimberly-Clark a war profiteer too, since the troops in Afghanistan are wiping their behinds with toilet paper they sold to Uncle Sam. Now, pause for a moment, and consider the difference between MSFT and Kimberly-Clark on the one hand, and, say, Bell, Raytheon, Xe, whose major, if not only, “customer” is the DoD. Do you honestly think Oracle is paying lobbyists in DC to push for war?
I don’t know what throwing in Allende and Pinochet has to do with this discussion. The pair of blood-thirsty, power-mad degenerates is tangoing in the fiery pits down below, for all I care.
To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
Especially if that hammer are the deluded theories of a 19th-century German sociologist who was seriously confused about economics, and the nails are other people’s business.
Oleg,
Using your logic, Microsoft is a peace-profiteer if any peace activists use Microsoft products and IF they pay for them.
weird, it’s like the words “mission-critical applications for warfighting” mean nothing to you. Big business and war are best buds. Stop pretending not to understand that. Or keep it up. It is a fun discussion.
weird, it’s like the words “mission-critical applications for warfighting” mean nothing to you.
Well, actually they don’t. Such buzzword-ridden drivel is what makes business meetings in either the productive private sector, or the wasteful government sector such a bore. I’m guessing the above means they’re using Sharepoint to show a nice screen with drone-striking sites to the generals. It’s not a fun discussion for me, seeing as you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. I repeat, do you know what percentage of MSFT’s bottom line comes from “federal”? And out of that, how much is DoD? Do you have any idea what line of products MSFT sells to corporate customers (and yes, goverment agencies are also corporate customers)?
Using that same twisted logic, I guess Walmart must be a pillar of the welfare state, since so many people use food stamps in their stores. I guess that must make you a big fan of Walmart, right?
Dude, the people using the foodstamps at Walmart are employees!
walmart gives you all of the government assistance program applications with your new hire packet.
The amount of government assistance goes UP when Walmart comes to town.
That does not make them a pillar of the welfare state, it makes them a raider of it. Microsoft is a raider as well, only they conspire with stooges on the inside to get the sam. MS is not e result. I’m not going to look up yet another chart proving something logic can tell us. MS is not doing charity work for the government. We are paying for those “mission critical applications for warfighting”. Clearly, Microsoft sees the tech future of the military and wishes to profit even more than they already are.