WAR REPARATION

WAR REPARATION

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

I never gave much thought to “war reparation”, whether it was the United States paying for a country’s rebuilding efforts at the end of a military intrusion by the United States and her allies. I would suppose that dumping scads of taxpayer funds into countries that the U.S. preemptively engaged in military action might be justified. However in the aftermath of the 2^nd World War when the United States forked over $17 billion which would be about $120 billion in its worth today, to rebuild Europe, that has always kind of been a thorn in my bonnet.

 

I never fully understood that mentality of rebuilding what had been torn down, or bombed to smithereens. I was kind of under the naïve thinking process that when a country invades, and acquires property, natural elements and people, that once the dust of war cleared the offenders (if they’d been defeated) would have to pony up the dough. Having to rebuild their land as well as those that they invaded was kind of like punishment for causing the war, or so I feel.

 

Oh, I understand that after Germany was defeated in World War II, they did not have the funds necessary for the extensive rebuilding efforts. Still the country should still be held responsible for the cost of rebuilding what they ripped apart. People must have thought that the money that the United States Government used in reconstructing Europe grew on trees.

 

I understand that decades after the European Recovery Program (ERP) or the Marshall Plan ran its four year course of spending that $17 billion dollars it is almost silly to question the veracity of what went down more than 68 years ago, but I’d really like for somebody to justify spending taxpayer dollars to help boost the European economy, to rebuild war devastated regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, make Europe prosperous, and prevent the spread of communism. However I have a strong feeling that stopping the spread of communism was of paramount importance to the program.  

 

Does anybody believe here in the 21^st century that that $17 billion dollars all went to Europe for a rebuilding and humanitarian effort…..I didn’t think so. The debacle that Iraq and Afghanistan have been with regards to the suit-cases and cardboard boxes full of American taxpayer dollars disappearing, I’m sure happened after 1945 in Europe.

 

You see, “we get the old cattle prod when we come into this life and when we leave”. What our slick authority figures do is to cajole the American taxpayers into a war which costs trillions, with mostly our young people possibly being shot to death…..and when hostilities are at an end, these same war hawk authority figures suddenly turn humanitarian and dish out American taxpayer money to rebuild what they’ve crushed. It’s really a sweet situation for the current authority figures, and the next general of these people.

 

HOWEVER IT’S NOT ONLY EUROPE THAT NEEDS REBUILDING BY U.S. TAXPAYERS

We don’t usually equate war reparations payouts here in the United States, no, it’s usually some little Iraq, or Afghani village that we’ve never heard of and much less can say. However that has all changed, and we have us to thank  for what seems to be happening with greater frequency here in the U.S.

 

Some U.S. cities seem to be addressing police brutality the same way that our high ranking governmental authority figures do with rebuilding our war torn military escapades around the world…..using tax dollars to repay victims who have been wronged with regards to how their lives were torn apart.

 

I read several articles about these reparations, and I sat bolt upright during my morning coffee and bananas and knew exactly what I’d have to blog about today. Seems like American citizens are a little like all of those innocent German’s during World War II that had absolutely no idea about Hitler’s genocide of the Jewish people.

 

Those’s right, right here in the United States helpless imprisoned people, mostly black, are subjected to all sorts of physical degradation. Come on, we know that this happens all of the time, and that the vast majority of these people (like I mentioned) are black.

 

Let’s get this straight, in war the United States and her allies invade a country because there is a feeling that the country invaded MIGHT be planning some sort of attack against the U.S. or one of her allies…..in the future. So our authority figures figure it’s better to strike first and ask questions later…..and then, when the answers to the questions don’t quite fit the reason for the sorties that U.S. taxpayers have just paid for…..our authority figures decide that we have to partake in the rebuilding process because they made an oops. And where does that money come from…..well ladies and gentlemen, get to diggin once again, cause we just got another tax bill.

 

Sadly the exact same thing is happening right here in the United States, this time in the form of the country’s policing agencies. Yup those big bellied, muscle-bound, red-necked peace officers are overstepping their bounds again…..actually still! You didn’t really think that today’s law-enforcement agencies invented brutal and rough treatment to the people that they arrest…..did you?

 

Chi-town will be paying a cool $5.5 million to victims that have had the crap kicked out of them by Chicago’s finest for decades. Milwaukee will be paying almost half a million dollars for illegal strip searches. Los Angeles has millions of dollars pending in court battles with dozens of men and women who have been rousted by LA cops.

 

And those victims who have lost their lives as the result of police brutality numbers in the thousands, and the pending lawsuit settlements are astronomical…..try in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

I have always had a problem with public employees saying that they “serve the public”, it has just never rang true for me. Cops, firefighters, street sweepers, sanitation department people, dog catchers usually feel that they’ve gotten themselves a pretty good gig. Benefits are great, the pay is raised in increments and retirement is dynamite.

 

Oh sure cops and firefighters have a tough, and sometimes dangerous job, but it still usually beats working for a living. I speak from experience here also, my wife was one of those public servants and retired from her job a couple of years ago with some pretty impressive benefits…..I’m not complaining.

 

BUT NOW WE GET TO THE REAL NITTY-GRITTY

We still have time, not much, but time none-the-less, there are some good and decent cops out there, and I’m sure that they are like me and you, abhorred to what they see on their jobs every day. For them to stand up and point fingers has always been a ridiculous statement for the hierarchy of police authority figures to say.

 

You’ve heard of the blue wall, well it goes deeper than any wall of silence that ordinary people have ever encountered. You see cops are a different breed of kitty-cat, they covet their authority, and they seem to have an extra load of testosterone surging through their bodies. A goodly number of cops are control freaks, who must be in charge…..and usually do not make mistakes.

 

There are several things that the common citizens (us) need to do to retake our streets, number one is to realize that all black people, or people of color, are bad people. Actually they’re just about like white people…..(white, just another color) and we need to come to grips with that fact.

 

Police forces are bankrolled by…..guess who, us taxpayers, so we can actually dictate to them what we want done, and how it needs to be accomplished. Non-violence needs to be the order of the day.

 

And finally, possibly the hardest part of this equation is the fact that we need to govern ourselves, and the way we think, say and do. Involvement is paramount to success here, instead of selfies, be taking pictures of cops doing what they perceive as their jobs. What we have, in the final analyses is a responsibility to ourselves, and our kids. We need to be checking our so called authority figures to ensure that they are doing the jobs that we hired them to do.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

IT’S OUR OWN FAULT

IT’S OUR OWN FAULT

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

There seems to be an outbreak of brutality between U.S. citizens and law enforcement over the past several years, and I find it disturbing. I’m not in a street gang, I don’t sell narcotics on street corners, and I don’t have a stable of ladies of the evening. I try and operate my life as a law-abiding citizen…..however, last November (2014) there was a loud knock at my front door on a Sunday night right around 10:00 P.M. It was the cops, and they wanted to know if I had been beating my wife.

 

First off, I was interrupted from my Tru-TV show, and secondly I only beat my wife on Wednesday evenings between 7:30 and 8:00 P.M. so they were early! There’s a little deal that’s called probable cause that cops use all of the time, I know, I watch Law and Order, what those two words, (probable cause) means that John Law can enter your abode whenever they want, all they got to say is probable cause.

 

I was intimidated, scared, bewitched, bothered and bewildered, “actually just intimidated and scared” and one of the cops (there was two plus a trainee) wanted to search my house. Now I ask you, “what would you, think, say and do in such a situation” ….comply…..it’s what I did until my daughter stepped in and kind of put a halt to the silliness. At this point I kind of regained my composure and told the trio of authority figures to leave…..there’d been enough scare tactics for one Sunday evening.

 

There parting shot, “dispatch must have given us a wrong address which I hardily agreed with, anyways I always get sweaty whenever I’m beating my wife…..and on this Sunday night my brow was completely dry.

 

The incident left me with several different emotions, and you can’t know what I mean until you experience firsthand the vulnerable feeling that you have when blue uniformed men demand that you open your door for inspection with pistols hanging from their hips. It doesn’t matter the day, or the hour, the law simply suspects somebody of something.

 

Okay, I’m getting to be an old fool, as opposed to at one time being a young fool, and even though I seldom have had to deal with the law, I have an abiding fear of the law. The only respect that I have for these authority figures is that they can hurt me, they can arrest me, smash down my door and cart me off to jail for…..whatever, or worse…. shoot me.

 

I have to be totally honest, I have been happy to see the law only one time in my life, and I’ve been around a bit. I ran all over the Midwest for thirty years chasing a baseball (playing or involved with the game) and I got to tell you I wasn’t always sober when I drove. I also drove a semi-tractor trailer in 41 different states, and never once was glad to see the law.

 

I have noticed during the past decade or so that regular law enforcement has been stockpiling all sorts of military type equipment that they use once in a while for special incidents, you know, like crowd control, or the disbursement of the same. Pepper spray Tasers, billy-clubs and all sorts of choke-holds that can turn lethal in a heart-beat, or lack thereof. Police forces in the world of 2015 are armed to the teeth, and baby they’re ready, willing and able to use what they got.

 

TO PROTECT AND TO SERVE

I’ve always somehow had a problem with that slogan stenciled across police squad car doors, I personally have never felt the need for police protection, and I sure as hell don’t need a cop to get my cat out of the tree. No-sir-ee, I can protect myself just fine thank you, and you sure as hell don’t need to worry about cops serving me, I’m capable of taking my own sustenance.

 

There has been a dramatic shift in what cops are expected to do, and it hasn’t all been because they simply assumed more responsibility. It seems like a kind of gray area with regards to exactly what police departments across the fruited plains of America are really supposed to do.

 

I believe that fifty or so years ago, the average cop in any average community was supposed to ensure that there was peace, and some stability within a community. Today it seems as if the major thrust of police officers is enforce laws, make arrests and issue citations for an ever broadening litany of rules and regulations, some it seems enacted to generate an income for budgeting situations.

 

The techniques in use by police departments has made a gradual change over the years, there is a seeming heightened focus on total control in every situation. As if the control factor wasn’t enough, many in law enforcement seem to have a trigger finger when confronting a civilian no matter the reason for the stop.

 

I haven’t felt this, but there seems to be a kind of epidemic of police harassment and violence, which is a nationwide issue. I read about it, and see it in newscasts every day of the week.

 

Another issue that has spread across the nation like a wildfire is a seeming unbridled unaccountability for abuse of power, and police brutality has been an issue for several decades now. Cops do not have the right to manhandle, punch, kick, or whack with those batons that they carry.

 

I DON’T HAVE THE TIME…..BUT IF I DID

There is no data base that tracks police killing civilians, there is no data base that tracks police brutality, or abuse of authority, but if I had the time and the where-with-all, I’d bet that the numbers would be significant, scary, and sobering.

 

Here’s the problem in a neat little nut shell, there can’t be a cop-land (where mostly cops live), police forces aren’t families, and they aren’t brothers. Like the rest of us, they are little more than working stiffs, grubbing for a paycheck. When we, as citizens kowtow to the silly notions that fire and safety departments are more than jobs, when they are held up, above the rest, and some kind of hero’s we are asking for trouble, the kind of trouble that we now find ourselves in.

 

And please don’t waste my time with that tired line about appreciating “their service,” because quite frankly…..I don’t. Some of these guys are way past dangerous, they are down-right barbaric, and need to be locked away with some of the people that they arrest.

 

I also take exception to the “the bad cops are just isolated, and the vast number of police officers are fine, upstanding public servants”. If that was the case, why would they refer to themselves as family, and brothers…..and the blue wall of silence!

 

There is an old saying that was uttered by somebody a hell-of-a-lot smarter then I, “absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Truer words were never spoken, especially when talking about the shape of law enforcement in the United States today.

 

Race DOES play a role in how police act and react to situations, areas of their communities, and you’d better believe that the residents of these areas are aware of the race card being played over and over. Race is a big reason that there really isn’t a nationwide data base of police and civilian action, and reaction.

 

A BLACK A DAY IN THE EASIEST WAY

It is estimated that as many as 400 black men are shot to death here in the United States every year that means that at least one black man is shot every 24 hours, an appalling figure if true. There’s all sorts of stories about blacks getting murdered by cops across the country, and make no mistake, it is murder.

 

The numbers aren’t much different for Latinos with the average being shot to death between 350 and 400 males. The vast majority of police who shot either blacks or Latinos are white, which shouldn’t be surprising because the about 75% of all police forces in the country are white.

 

Believe it or not, there is also a status type symbol with regards to the killing of a black young person. I suppose you might relate shooting a black man to death the same as earning you’re bones. Of course for the vast majority of Americans this type of an attitude is completely foreign, and is unbelievable to understand.

 

With the attitude and the atmosphere on the streets of America today, as far as I can see, there is little reason for a black or Latino to confront cops in any sort of situation because that minority has an almost 50% chance of getting shot, or otherwise manhandled. White people, the basic framers of government today understand little about what a black person goes through during his life, yet it’s still the white man who sets standards, regulations rules, and laws that are supposed to aid minorities in their struggles with racism today.

 

CLOSING SHOTS

A 34 year old biomedical technician, Ricardo Arceo (a Latino), got out of his sisters van after a traffic stop, raised his hands over his head and begin walking towards the cop who pulled his revolver and shot Arceo to death…..on a Los Angeles street.

 

Undercover drug officers in Orlando, Florida shot to death unarmed Izzy Colon after a physical altercation. Colon may have been stupid to involve himself in a physical struggle, but undercover agents, guns, money and drugs make for a witches brew.

 

In Kent, Ohio a 29 year old police officer, Sarah Berkey, is on paid leave after the off duty officer shot and killed a 29 year old man.

 

Sidney, Nebraska police shot and killed Dana Hiavinka after cops responded to a domestic disturbance. The two officers saw a women running away from her residence, and when they entered the house they were confronted by the knife wielding Hiavinka who they shot to death. A graphic illustration of why one should never bring a knife to a gun fight.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a police car dash cam shows Officer Lisa Mearkle shooting David Kassick fatally in the back for a traffic stop.  It parallels the South Carolina shooting death of black motorist Walter Scott for a broken tail-light.

 

Of course there was the fatal shooting of black man, Eric Harris by a 73 year old white former real estate broker Robert Bates when Bates mistook his pistol for a Taser. It is true that Harris was a suspect in a weapons sting operations, and it’s also true that he ran from officers…..but getting shot by a ride-along 73 year old former real estate agent…..with an unauthorized gun to boot…..not cool.

 

And finally there’s the case of Freddie Gray, in Baltimore, Maryland who died in police custody from a snapped spine injury. Police are at a loss to figure out how Gray “picked up his injuries”, here’s a clue, he was black and the cops were white.

 

I remember my brother-in-law getting busted for driving while under the influence of alcohol in Pontiac, Michigan 20 or so years ago. After he was released and came home, his face looked like somebody had danced on it…..and he’s white.

 

Yup police are out of control, and we’ll probably never get control back again, at least in my lifetime. It’ll be up to my kid’s kid’s to deal with the problem, all I can say is “good luck.” For me, I plan on keeping my head low and my butt lower than my head!

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

PRIVATE MILITARY AND SECURITY CONTRACTORS AND JAMES BOND

PRIVATE MILITARY AND SECURITY CONTRACTORS AND JAMES BOND

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

I read with interest an article by Sam Hananel in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporting on judicial action against four former Blackwater security guards who allegedly shot to death 14 Iraqi civilians and wounded 17 others. I use the term alleged because in a war zone does anybody ever really know what happens.

 

Although these guys were convicted (one will get life, while the three others will serve 30 year sentences) they may never be incarcerated except during the time that they await their appeals. Possibly Blackwater, the Iraqi war, and the recent judicial action speared some poor down and out American citizen from their seeming blood-lust for shooting innocent people to death.

 

Of course the reaction after the decision was read to the four former security guards was typical…..”utter betrayal by the same government that was served honorably”. “I cannot say in all honesty that we did anything wrong.”

 

Not one ounce of remorse for the tragedy that killing 14 innocent men, women and children, and wounding another 17 people. I won’t even ask the question of “what price do these four men feel would be fair for killing 14 innocent people”, there answer would be meaningless to all of those involved that remain citizens in Iraq.

 

Of course the defense argued, and argued, and argued for mercy, saying that “decades long sentences would be unconstitutionally harsh for men who operated in a stressful war-torn environment and who have proud military careers”. Defense attorneys also argued that the guards were “using weapons that had been issued by the U.S. State Department for their protection”.

 

THREE THINGS WERE MISSING IN THE LEGAL PROCEDINGS

Actually there was more than three things missing during the legal-beagle proceedings, but I’ll list just three, an almost total disregard for the loss of so much human life, and the total lack of remorse by…..anybody. And nobody talked of the war between the United States, her allies, and Iraq being preemptive…..the war was completely unnecessary.

 

People here in the United States (not that many people) talk about the injustice of the war with Iraq, there used to be talk about bringing those responsible for the war to some sort of justice. Nobody seems to have gotten the reason why nobody has been taken to task over the insanity. The answer is easy…..there is no justice.

 

How can anybody be brought to justice when hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, and another million or so have had their lives irreversibly changed by the actions of a handful of people.

 

So now we are down to four men who killed 14 people and wounded 17 others with weapons that were issued by the U.S. State Department for their protection. These men didn’t only kill these people, they used weapons that were manufactured in the United States through a government contract, paid for by U.S. taxpayers, and offered up to these guys for their protection.

 

The ammunition (bullets) that ripped through those innocent men, women and children came through a government contract that was paid for by United States taxpayers…..in other words every taxpayer in the U.S. is complicit in the dastardly deed.

 

And here’s the kicker…..the United States taxpayer paid these guy’s salaries, and probably much of the equipment that they used right down to their skivvies. Now ain’t that a hot kettle of fish, like me, I’ll bet you didn’t figure that you were actually complicit in war-time murder.

 

Remorse…..it’s a funny word, but it fits in this case “to a t” this incident, (the 14 dead and the 17 wounded) can be used as an illustration that depicts how horrible war is, and why it should be avoided at all costs.

 

I can guarantee you that the four men who killed and wounded the Iraqi’s feel absolutely nothing, no remorse and no shame. If anything their only regret is getting caught, being brought to trial, convicted and sentenced. Obviously these men, their superiors, and most military personal figured that the incident was little more than collateral damage, a cost of a war…..and acceptable.

 

And the loss of human life, while regrettable, is necessary…..right…..well hell no, human life is precious, something to be treasured, and protected at all cost. And please don’t waste my time with the “but they are oppressed, under the evil dictatorship of Saddam Hussein”, or the really tired excuse…..”the United States and her allies have given the Iraqi people a chance for freedom, and a chance to operate their country as they see fit”.

 

That sentiment is hubris and frankly, to me, distasteful, but it’s basically how our Federal Government authority figures operate, and exactly how our foreign policy is conducted. The Pentagon is happy, and the military industrial complex is overjoyed.

 

IT’S HOW WE ROLL

There is a massive deception campaign in the United States, and in its global propaganda, which seeks to portray the U.S. as a poor set-upon nation that would like world peace but has to keep military stations around the world to “police” the entire world’s “troubled hot spots”. Of course nothing could be further from the truth; the fact of the matter is that the United States is the world’s biggest war-monger that the world has ever seen.

 

Lets us take a quick peek at exactly how a peace loving society has to spend on defense, “keeping in mind that the fiscal year of the United States is October 1 to September 30”. The request for fiscal year 2016 for defense alone will be $585.2 billion dollars, $25.9 billion more than FY 2015, or 4% more. And here’s the kicker, the estimated cost of report or study for the Department of Defense alone will cost the taxpayers an addition $12,000.

 

Sadly the $585.2 billion figure doesn’t even come close to what the taxpayers of the United States will be paying for our brand of peace. There’s something called military activity of other government departments, such as nuclear weapons program, much of which is handled by the Department of Energy, or the Veterans Program which pays for the care and benefits of former military personnel which in all totals $166 billion. There is also more than $400 billion that is paid in interest on loans from prior wars and military expenditures.

 

Since the 1960’s the United States has been playing slight of hand to hide the actual scale of its military spending from the American taxpayer. There’re several different ways that the U.S. government has accomplished this shell game. Adding to the federal budget the amount of money spent of Social Security, the nation’s retirement program, and Medicare, the health insurance for the aged, and disabled. And as everybody worth a hoot knows, both of these programs are funded by separate payroll tax paid by employees and employers, and the resulting funds are actually dedicated to the citizens who receive or will receive benefits from those programs.

 

Because of the gerrymandering system of accounting that is practiced by the federal government, it’s next to impossible to guesstimate how much is spent on America’s drive for world peace, but a starting figure would be in excess of $1.5 trillion dollars.

 

That figure…..$1.5 trillion is more than the budget of many second world countries who are struggling to get somewhere near where the United States occupies sits in the world of this century.

 

Lets us count the ways that the United States government conducts its peace-making, war-making approach to the world at large. I said earlier that the U.S. taxpayers are complicit with regards to how the U.S. operates around the world. Our authority figures are mirror images of what many, many citizens say, think and do.

 

When American soldiers shoot innocent women in the head, or shoot a toddler in the middle of the back, everybody shares in squeezing the trigger. We are the ones who allow our government leaders to appropriate tax dollars to do these dastardly deeds. We are the ones who elect these people to power, and then don’t rein them in when they revert to form. It’s how we roll.

 

SHAKEN BUT NOT STIRRED

James Bond couldn’t have said, or done it better, there’s no draft in the United States, little honest news coverage, very little images of exactly what is going on in these far off places, and a general lack of interest. Remember former President George W. Bush and his famous comment, “continue on with your normal lives, and don’t let the terrorists spread their fear”.  

 

I’m sure that James Bond would have likened the way that the United States endeavors to achieve peace throughout the world as a kind of job security effort. You do not spread peace by doing so through threats, genocide, and bully-boy tactics.

 

Somewhere, somehow many U.S. authority figures forgot the real meaning of spreading peace…..which is relatively easy to achieve. Two words come to mind for me…..understanding and acceptance. Believe it or not, everybody in the world is not the same as United States citizens. No one country in the world…..ever…..has had all of the answers.

 

Until the general public of the U.S. understands this fact, there will continue to be war, death, and human degradation on a grand scale.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

AUTHORITY FIGURES ARE RUNNING RAMPANT IN THE U.S.

AUTHORITY FIGURES ARE RUNNING RAMPANT IN THE U.S.

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

Apparently we are a sorry collective lot of people here in the United States…..at least domestically, on the national stage, not so much. We US citizens are coddled and cajoled into and out of all sorts of domestic situations…..and I’ll be damned, back into again some of the same crap we just were steered out of.

 

Gun violence here in the United States is awful, thousands of people die every year by firearm activity, whether by suicide, by mistake, or by murder. It doesn’t really matter which way the fatal shot was administered; the results are always the same, blood, smagma and the involuntary execration of bodily fluids. Getting shot to death by a firearm is never, ever pretty.

 

People on the streets of America are under attack by authority figures every single day of the week, and probably twice on Saturday. I have blogged before on the danger on the streets of the United States, so I won’t bore you with numbers…..well maybe just a few! I ran across an article while researching for this blog, and wouldn’t you know it, I felt that I simply must share it with you-all. The info is from PolitiFact.com, a reputable outfit that I’ve used for several years now, and their information has never steered me wrong.

 

Now these figures are from 2013 which actually isn’t that long ago when one considers that either a data base or manual record keeping of civilian shootings, or deaths involving a weapon is sorely lacking here in the United States. Probably gun owners, gun sellers, and the policing organizations would rather not dwell on the negative side of the issue of people getting wounded by gunfire, or worse killed.

 

JUST THE FACTS MA’AM

Some people say that statistics can be rearranged to conform to whatever it is that people might want to prove. Me, well I believe in the power of statistics as a gauge to track what might be happening regarding a certain subject. In this case when somebody tells me that 87 people die every single day of the year due to gunshot wounds I immediately sit up and take notice.

 

When that same person tells me that 270 people are shot every day with a firearm, and that 100,000 people suffer gunshot wounds every year I don’t just take notice, I raise out of my chair and begin looking over my shoulder to see who’s following me. And I think that I’m aware…..huh, I guess I’m far from being informed.

 

These figures aren’t influenced by either liberal or conservative types, the data comes from the federal Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC); experts in the field who keep the most reliable statistics on the subject. Apparently there are also another 13,851 non-fatal injuries from BB or pallet guns which are not included in that 100,000 figure listed in the previous paragraph.

 

The only area of the study by the CDC that I guess I would have issues with is the 18,735 suicide killings by firearms, although these people are wounded…..(beyond repair) I don’t think that those figures should be counted in with the 100,000 people that are injured by a gunfire shooting.

 

Besides the 18,735 who commit suicide by firearm, there are 11,493 homicides, 554 unintentional shooting deaths, 333 legal intervention deaths, and 232 undetermined deaths by gunfire. If you discount the 18,773 suicides by gunfire, there are still 81,265 people shoot during an average year in the United States, or about 35 deaths per day, down from the 87 if you count suicides, however still unacceptable as far as I’m concerned.

 

With this background, the country’s authority figures consider that they are more than well equipped to hand out sorts of advice with regards to all sorts of issues that are confronting the world at this time. Forget about the deaths in the streets of America, forget about the 80 some thousand that are shot but don’t die in the US, what the hell, the authority figures work better with foreign problems than domestic stuff anyways.  

 

AND NOW THE U.S. PASSES OUT ITS BRAND OF HELP TO ITS NEIGHBORS AND ALLIES

The United States is by far the most militant country in the entire world today, just because most of our authority figures (elected, appointed and enlisted) think and say that “the United States is the best equipped, and has attained a higher plane of rationality” does not make it so.

 

This attitude is self-consoling and delusional: it is not rational, but only enervated, and confuses its own lack of interest in the future with moderation. After the great blood-letting of the past two twentieth century world wars, and the war on terror that is currently fourteen years on, somebody needs to step forward and halt this ongoing madness.

 

We don’t even have to go back into the twentieth century to make a body count to show that wars of the world are being waged through a thin veil of major world-wide credit and debit corporation balance sheets.

 

The twentieth century military skirmishes and declared wars have taken more then 8,621,000, this figure after the world collectively had learned a lesson from the two world wide wars that took a combined 60,670,868 human beings.

 

What the world authority figures learned from probably the bloodiest segment of world history  was that the human conscious could take wars with smaller casualty lists, less collateral damage, and worst of all, turn a blind eye towards those people who advocate war mongering where smaller amounts of human degradation and petulance occur.

 

For some, in other countries, waging war is as common as mom and apple pie is here in the United States. For decades and generations, the mentality of war has been passed on from father to son. As a people, US citizens are beginning that long and arduous path down the generations of military families. There is no honor in this perceived path to glory, what it is, is a ticket to a loss of a father, a son, daughter, aunt, uncle, or other relatives, or worse horribly disfigured and completely reliant on others for help.

 

For the United States authority figures to pass weapons, military advice, and military support that includes American boots on the ground is ridiculous and moronic. And for the US citizen to allow this dispensing of governing and justice is distasteful to me. Oh I know what some might say…..”if you don’t like it here, move.” And that would be fine with me…..except the way that the United States authority figures are passing out their way of governance, and weapons, a guy like me would be hard pressed to secure that utopian nirvanic place.

 

I must add that I have absolutely nothing against military personnel, nor do I hold anything other than the highest regard for those veterans from World War II. But since that time wars have been engagements of profiteering for those world-wide military corporations. As a people, peace lovers of the world need to reign in their authority figures before we’re all pushing up the daisies.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

THOSE WITTY ECONOMICAL TYPES

THOSE WITTY ECONOMICAL TYPES

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

 

Austerity, bankruptcy, belt tightening, poor as hell, upside-down, or in the poorhouse, no matter which way you put it, an $18,000,000,000,000 national debt is really a financial figure that nobody can get a handle on…..even the rich and shameless. I recently read an article by a couple of young economic reporters, Jesse A. Myerson and Matt Bruenig in an edition of Al Jazeera about how to put the national debt in a kind of context.

 

It was their contention that although the Federal Government does have a huge national debt, (and that the $18,000,000,000,000 debt) is nothing to sneeze at, the Fed does own all sorts of assets. In fact the United States Federal Government is the largest asset holder in the world. The portfolio includes 900,000 buildings, 41,000,000 acres of land, 4,000,000 miles of roads, 12,000 miles of commercial inland water channels and 6540 dams.

 

Of course the actual value of all of the above is impossible to estimate a value on, but there was a study in 2010 that loosely took a stab at that figure and came up with a value figure of $17,000,000,000,000. If that figure is even close, the United States isn’t really that bad off. Just sell of a few acres here, a couple of buildings there and maybe a couple of million miles of road and, bingo, we’re out of debt.

 

Now I understand that the situation isn’t that easy to solve, but come to find out, all this rhetoric by Democrats and Republicans is, well, a bunch of bull. Those authority figures in Washington really have little honest to goodness clue about what is driving the country. While they bicker over adding on their own little pet peeves in order for the passage of a higher debt ceiling, the poor working class continues to get poorer.

 

LET’S TAKE A QUICK LOOK AT WHERE SOME OF THIS DEBT COMES FROM

“Why did the U.S. government spend $2.6 million dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly”? “Why did the U.S. government spend $175,587 to determine if cocaine makes Japanese quail engage in sexually risky behavior”, and finally, “why did the U.S. government spend $2 million dollars for a soccer field for Guantanamo, Cuba detainees”? Don’t have an answer, neither do I, and the guy that compiled this information, Tyler Durden doesn’t either.

 

Here’s just a few of the ways that the federal government piles on the debt;

a. IRS paid $70 million in bonuses to employees.

 

b. The United States military will be leaving $7 billion worth of military equipment behind in Afghanistan.

 

c. In 2012 $25,000 of taxpayer money was spent on a promotional tour for the Alabama Watermelon Queen.

 

d. Over the past 15 years $5.25 million has been spent on hair care services for the U.S. Senate.

 

d. U.S. Government spent $27 million to teach Moroccans how to design and make pottery in 2012.

 

e. The U.S. Government is spending $3.6 million a year to support the opulent lifestyles of former presidents.

 

f. Government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year to the Palestinian Authority.

 

g. The Fed spent $505.000 in 2012 for hair and beauty products for cats and dogs.

 

h. $10,000 was spent for talking urinal cakes in Michigan.

 

i. When Vice President Joe Biden and his staff stopped off in Paris for one night, the hotel bill was $585,000.50.

 

j. 15,000 retired federal employees are currently collecting federal pensions for life worth a minimum of $100,000 per year.

 

I could go on, Durden has a bunch of these facts and figures, but I think that you get the idea, the same people that’s job it is to curb spending, and bring the national debt more in line with some sort of payback and the same people who got us to where we are at the present time. Isn’t that kind of like the foxes guarding the hen-house…..from the foxes!

 

REMEMBER THIS FALL AND THE DEBATE ON THE NATIONAL DEBT FIGURES

It’ll come again this fall, all the scare tactics will come to the forefront, and the dire predictions of unimaginable debt will be hauled out of the closet. Just call or write your representative and tell them to simple sell a few thousand acres, a couple of those unused post office buildings, and a dam or two, and hey, we’ll be just fine…..for another year.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!