How America Lost Its Political Sanity! A Cousin’s Unsolicited View of Politics (Part I)

By Mickey Walker - 09.13.15

We’ve all got ‘em.  Cousins or in-laws who think they know politics and attempt to give you quick course and the benefit of their knowledge whether you ask for it or not.  They call us out for being big-spending Liberals but never mention the New Conservatives philosophy that spending on insane weaponry to keep us safe is fine, just fine.  Talking out of both sides of the mouth simultaneously, they present an elusive target to zero in on.  Does the Tea Party come to mind?  Can anyone tell me how Ted Cruz or Donald Trump managed to reach such popularity in the GOP?

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IMPERIALISM, WAR, AND/OR DIPLOMACY: WHERE SHOULD THE PEACE MOVEMENT STAND?

By Harry Targ - 08.07.15

Not every conflict was averted, but the world avoided nuclear catastrophe, and we created the time and the space to win the Cold War without firing a shot at the Soviets.

….

Now, when I ran for president eight years ago as a candidate who had opposed the decision to go to war in Iraq, I said that America didn’t just have to end that war. We had to end the mindset that got us there in the first place. It was a mindset characterized by a preference for military action over diplomacy, a mindset that put a premium on unilateral U.S. action over the painstaking work of building international consensus, a mindset that exaggerated threats beyond what the intelligence supported. (Barack Obama, “Full text: Obama gives a speech about the Iran nuclear deal,” The Washington Post, August 5, 2015).

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Europe’s New Barbarians

By Conn Hallinan - 09.13.15

On one level, the recent financial agreement between the European Union (EU) and Greece makes no sense: not a single major economist thinks the $96 billion loan will allow Athens to repay its debts, or to get the economy moving anywhere but downwards. It is what former Greek Economic Minister Yanis Varoufakis called a “suicide” pact, with a strong emphasis on humiliating the leftwing Syriza government.

Why construct a pact that everyone knows will fail?

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LABOUR’S LEADERSHIP CONTEST : CORBYN, TRIDENT AND NATO

By Michael Faulkner - 09.13.15

Since the earliest years of the cold war, in any mainstream discourse on British foreign policy, certain supposed truths have been treated as so self evident that to question them is treated either as infantile ignorance or deliberate hostility to Britain’s “national interest.”  This has been particularly so in the case of the so-called “independent nuclear deterrent” and membership of NATO.  A moment’s reflection by anyone with a mind unencumbered by official “defence” propaganda should call into question the need for either of these. 

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A REAL WELLNESS PERSPECTIVE ON THE MEANING OF LIFE: THERE IS NONE AND THAT’S GREAT NEWS

By Donald B Ardell - 09.13.15

Life is inherently meaningless. If you accept that life is meaningless in the cosmic sense, and that this is applicable to all humans and other life forms, you liberate yourself from religious dogmas and other superstitions and create a clear path to discovering the best, most effective and fulfilling kinds of meanings and purposes for your short existence: A life of bountiful meaning and purposes, despite being cosmically meaningless and inconsequential. Oh joy. Oh happiness.

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Drones vs. anti-drone laser cannons for fun and profit.

By Iris Vander Pluym - 09.13.15

People, prepare to be dazzled—if unsurprised—by my astonishing prescience.

On a Monday I was dining out with my partner, so of course the topic of drones naturally came up. We were discussing a recent article by The Washington Post’s Craig Whitlock; thanks to a whistleblower at FAA, we now know about the 700 near-collisions between planes and drones this year (so far).

“But don’t worry about it!” I scoffed. “Drone manufacturers will surely come up with a perfect solution to the very drone menace they created! Then our tax dollars will not only pay for drones themselves, we’ll also happily pay America’s Owners for the technology to neutralize them! WIN-WIN!”

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