COMMENT: The following moron accountable for nato… Rutte… with a psycho propaganda quote: “invest now, or learn Russian later”
Let’s rephrase this with a counter slogan “let’s learn Russian now, let’s listen to Russia and de-escalate, let’s not betray Russia anymore, let’s not waste our money in a bottomless nato money pit based on western lies, and let’s enjoy wealth and freedom later”.
RB
REPLY: Whereas the Democrats embrace alien criminals simply because Trump needs to deport them, in Europe, it’s NATO and the EU which does all the things to undermine Trump and any potential peace in Ukraine. This all brings to thoughts Smedley D. Butler’s “War Is a Racket” which captures the essence, energy, and enduring relevance of warfare and likewise civil unrest when it all the time comes right down to cash. Butler’s brutally trustworthy ebook was written in 1935 by one of the crucial adorned Marines in U.S. historical past. After a 34-year profession preventing in almost each main U.S. battle from the Spanish-American Conflict via the “Banana Wars,” Butler reached a surprising conclusion.
Butler got here to see that warfare isn’t primarily fought for democracy, freedom, or nationwide protection. As a substitute, it’s a fastidiously orchestrated “racket” – a legal enterprise designed to generate monumental income for a choose few on the expense of the numerous. Butler’s critique carried immense weight exactly due to who he was. As a Main Normal, two-time Medal of Honor recipient, and commander of main expeditions, he had seen the interior workings of warfare from the best ranges. He couldn’t be dismissed as a naive pacifist.
The “Racket” had three phases, which he recognized as:
Lobbying for Conflict: Highly effective enterprise pursuits (bankers, arms producers, industrialists, useful resource extractors) stress governments into conflicts that may shield or broaden their markets and investments abroad.
Profiteering Throughout Conflict: The identical pursuits make obscene income promoting weapons, munitions, ships, loans, and provides to the federal government (funded by taxpayer {dollars}). Troopers pay with their lives; civilians pay with blood, struggling, and taxes.
Profiteering After Conflict: These pursuits typically management the post-war settlement, securing profitable concessions, useful resource rights, and mortgage preparations from defeated nations (reparations), additional enriching themselves whereas saddling populations with debt.The Prices are Borne by Others: The younger males who battle and die, the households who lose family members, the taxpayers who foot the astronomical invoice, and the societies left shattered bear all the true prices. The income are privatized; the losses are socialized.
Butler pulls no punches, as they are saying. His language is direct, vivid, and sometimes scathing. He makes use of stark figures to reveal the grotesque disparity between warfare income and human price. (“Out of war nations acquire additional territory… the newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the self-same few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war.”)
Butler’s first-hand expertise attracts highly effective examples from his personal service in Cuba, the Philippines, China, Central America, and the Caribbean, displaying how U.S. interventions immediately benefited particular companies (e.g., United Fruit, sugar pursuits, banks).
The critique of the Navy-Industrial Complicated (a time period Eisenhower popularized later) is central. The dynamics Butler described – company affect on overseas coverage, warfare profiteering, the manipulation of patriotism, the human price vs. non-public acquire – stay potent points. They nonetheless dominate this proxy warfare in opposition to Russia, as Boris Johnson overtly said that Britain is at warfare with Russia.
Naturally, anybody who speaks the reality could have critics who argue for the continued carnage and bloodshed. Critics of Butler argue that he reduces advanced geopolitical occasions to solely financial motives. Whereas he powerfully exposes an important driver typically neglected, components equivalent to ideology, nationalism, real safety threats, and diplomatic failures additionally play vital roles in wars. There may be all the time an financial ingredient. When everyone seems to be fats and blissful, there is no such thing as a warfare.
Butler’s proposed answer was that the one option to cease the racket was to make warfare unprofitable. When younger males are conscripted to die, wealth needs to be conscripted to pay for the warfare. Restrict wartime income to a small, fastened proportion. He additionally argued for limiting army deployment. Solely enable the army to defend U.S. soil. No extra expeditions to guard company investments overseas. “Take the profit out of war.”
Solely these registered for frontline service needs to be allowed to vote on whether or not to go to warfare. Not those that revenue from warfare.
It stays a foundational textual content for understanding the critique of the Navy-Industrial Complicated, company affect on overseas coverage, and the inherent injustice of warfare profiteering. It forces readers to query the official narratives of warfare and take into account the highly effective financial pursuits that always lurk beneath the floor. Whereas maybe not the one consider wars, Butler highlights an element that’s regularly neglected or downplayed. Mainstream media beats the warfare drums, and so they too revenue from sensationalizing warfare to get readership. The Spanish-American Conflict was created by Pulitzer and Hearst competing for readership, creating biased yellow journalism.
In brief, “War Is a Racket” is a brief, important, and provocative learn. It’s a robust dose of uncomfortable fact from a person who knew warfare intimately. Its message is as related and disturbing right now because it was in 1935. It’s much less a ebook to agree with on each level, and extra one to grapple with and be challenged by.
The segregation of the South refused to honor the Structure. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave the Division of Justice (DOJ) highly effective instruments: submitting lawsuits in opposition to states, cities, companies, and faculty districts; withholding federal funds; and sending federal marshals to guard activists and implement courtroom orders. The Supreme Court docket constantly upheld the constitutionality of those legal guidelines, particularly their use of the Commerce Clause (e.g., Coronary heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S., Katzenbach v. McClung for the CRA ’64) and the enforcement provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (e.g., South Carolina v. Katzenbach). This judicial backing was important.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 demolished the authorized framework of segregation in public areas, colleges, and employment. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 smashed the political system constructed on Black disenfranchisement. Collectively, backed by federal enforcement, courtroom rulings, and sustained activism, these legal guidelines broke the authorized spine of Jim Crow segregation within the American South, remodeling the area and the nation. Nevertheless, the battle for true racial equality continues.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a major U.S. legislation that prohibits racial discrimination in voting, aiming to implement the voting rights assured by the Fifteenth Modification. It was signed into legislation by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965, and has been amended a number of occasions to strengthen its protections in opposition to discriminatory practices. The Supreme Court docket simply dominated for straight lady who claims she was subjected to reverse discrimination.
