Obama's Folly

Colorado psychic nets $290,000
telling clients their cash is evil,
they should give it to her.

Well, mother-in-law, brother-in-law gone. Normal life resumes.

I just read today somewhere on the web that at some point in June the Afghan “war” will have reached the trillion dollar mark. Think of that, eight years of “war,” a trillion dollars spent, and what do we have? If your answer is nothing you get a gold star. I think it is entirely fair that from now on we refer to this “war” as Obama’s Folly. It is true that Obama did not start this mess, but he could have brought it to an early end. He did the opposite, he accelerated it, added more troops, killed more innocents, and has apparently no intention of ever truly ending it. By now virtually all sentient beings know that there is nothing to be accomplished in Afghanistan militarily, nothing is going to be “won,” nothing to be gained, no legitimate reason to continue pouring more and more resources down into a bottomless pit. Unless…unless…unless this nasty business is continuing because the military/industrial/political complex demands it. It is for them, after all, a true “cash cow.” I like to think that it was true that Obama did not have enough Foreign Policy experience and that he was naively taken in by his Generals who gave him bad advice (Generals always seem to want to fight “wars,” for how else do they advance in grade, fame, and such). But whatever else I might think about Obama, I don’t think he was stupid, so perhaps he was not taken in and actually believed in expanding this totally ridiculous “war.”

I saw Rand Paul interviewed by Rachel Maddow tonight. I must say I was not at all impressed. If he’s the best the Tea Party can do I don’t think there is much to worry about from them. He was evasive, not answering direct questions, and seemed to me to hold entirely contradictory views. For example, he claims he is absolutely opposed to discrimination in any form, but at the same time he believes that private businesses should not be controlled by government in any way. Thus if a private business wants to discriminate presumably that is okay. Although I agree with the Pauls on some things, like ending the “wars,” legalizing pot, and so on, they appear to me to be the worst kind of Ayn Rand 18th century capitalists. I think the only good thing that could come of Rand Paul being in Congress is that his views are so extreme he will be basically just the voice of a relatively unimportant and useless participant.

Heavy oil has now reached the Louisiana shoreline, and oil has also now reached the Loop Current that will take up to the Florida coast and northward to how far no one knows. It is disaster beyond belief. In spite of this calamity there are still some total Airheads like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, and apparently even Barack Obama, that think we should just go on drilling offshore. They are apparently willing to believe the utter nonsense the Oil Giants tell them about how safe it is, how they know what they are doing, how they have highly developed technology, and blah, blah, blah. And people believe this garbage. It is a marvelous situation, BP blames Transocean Drilling, they, in turn blame Halliburton, who throws the blame back on BP, and now, of course, the Governmental agencies responsible for oversight are being blamed. As far as I’m concerned they’re all to blame, the executives of the various companies should be arrested and jailed, the agencies that failed to oversee what they were supposed to oversee should be fired, if not jailed, and offshore drilling should be banned forever while we develop new sources of energy. I doubt anyone of them will be held accountable for anything, the taxpayers will pay, and our corporate “persons” will laugh all the way to the bank (probably in Switzeland, Luxembourg, or wherever). Hey, it’s the American way. Just remember, if you’re going to drill for oil you’re going to have a little spill once in a while, no big deal. Tell that to the Shrimpers and Fisherman and all the others whose lives will be destroyed. Of course they can always sue, while in no time at all they will be handsomely rewarded for their losses (if, that is, they can wait for twenty or thirty years and stay alive long enough). If we continue to drill after this it will be the final proof that human beings are too short-sighted and stupid to manage their lives and the lives of other creatures on earth. If we continue to build nuclear plants our stupidity, nay, our complete idiocy, will be reinforced, as we say, in spades.

LKBIQ:

The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.
Karl Marx

TILT: Fennel is a plant disliked by fleas and can be used to keep them away.