W.J. Astore
Guess who’s exempt from a potential government shutdown?
I saw this today at CNN.
The Pentagon has also determined that the training and support of Ukrainian forces is exempt from a potential government shutdown, and will continue even in the increasingly likely event that Congress fails to pass a spending bill in the coming days.
Isn’t it nice to know that even if the U.S. federal government shuts down, Ukraine will still get all the weapons and related military aid they need to continue to fight and kill Russians? Americans may be furloughed from their jobs or have to work for no pay, but Ukraine will get paid.
That one sentence shows you the priorities for “your” government. Guess what? You’re not a priority, but war overseas is. You’re not exempt from a government shutdown, but Ukrainian military forces are.
So, if you want to get paid, America, or enter a federal facility that may be closed due to a shutdown, just wave a blue-and-yellow flag and tell the government it’s all for the war effort in Ukraine.
Bracing Views 
And the American people will go right along with that, Bill. With No Questions Asked and No Answers Demanded.
Just like they have gone along with No Questions Asked/No Answers Demanded about “The Forever War” ever since 9/11.
Just like they have gone along with the war in Ukraine ever since its seed was planted with Obama’s coup back in 2014 and it moved to center stage in February 2022.
Just like they have gone along with perpetual Budget Deficits and a ballooning national, sovereign Debt spiraling higher and higher ever since the bought and sold politicians, entrenched bureaucrats, and anointed appointees in DC discovered how easy it is to do that and to get away with it.
As i have said several times in the past here on BV and elsewhere: A Nation and its People get the government, the system of governance, and the governors it deserves.
And here we are.
It will be interesting to see if there actually is an election in November 2024 [410 days from today]. And even if there is, will there be an Inauguration and seating of a new Congress in January 2025?
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Ukraine is the front line fighting the world’s battle for Democracy against the authoritarianism & fascism of the aggressor & dictator Putin. If we don’t give wholehearted support to Democratic Ukraine, Putin will continue pursuing Russia’s conquest of Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldavia, the Baltic countries & then the rest of Europe & the world. Putin seeks to restore the Soviet Union empire. Our security, our peace, & our Democracy are at risk. We may be next to be confronted by Putin’s conquest. My 3 Brothers did not fight in WW II & I during the Cold War against the Soviet Union empire to sit back & allow tyrant Putin to conquer the world. I will fight for our Democracy. Regrettably, a small number of republican members of MAGA House of Representatives stand in the way of passing the budget & in approving 300 key critical military appointments. Vent your anger on them.
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For Isadore Rosenthal, I suggest heeding President (and former Army General) Dwight Eisenhower’s advice to those who tried to hustle him into doing something against his better judgment: “Don’t just do something. Stand there.” The ticket-punching, kiss-up-kick-down, fuck-up-and-move-up U.S. military could certainly do with a lot more standing and a lot less “doing” (whatever the hell they think they mean by that empty mouth-noise). Otherwise, here we go again with:
Mission Leap
Another Mission. Leap into the Void
blindfolded, on command: “Fire!” “Ready?” “Aim?”
Of ignorance and arrogance alloyed,
the “metal” of our “armor.” Kill and maim
each time we feel frustrated and annoyed
at those who — for our screw-ups — we must blame.
Projecting our own shadow, Jung and Freud
explained our lack of insight, much less shame,
when not the slightest thought have we employed
demanding only undeserved acclaim
for all the lives and hopes we have destroyed.
We see the powerless as our fair game,
and yet we lose. Vast forces we’ve deployed
repeating what has failed, results the same.
Our hero, the psychotic paranoid
who hates and fears the worst an empty name.
Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright © 2023
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A more lengthy prose treatment of similar thoughts by Gaius Baltar, on Larry Johnson’s blog sonar21: WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WESTERN POLITICAL CLASS?, September 23, 2023.
[begin quote]
A breakdown of diplomacy doesn’t quite describe how bad things have become. The behavior of US and European leaders has become increasingly unhinged and any semblance of rationality has been abandoned. It is impossible to listen to western leaders without coming to the conclusion that something is very wrong. Firstly, they seem to have created an upside-down fantasy world where Freudian projection rules and opponents are demonized. Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are both Satan himself, Russia is still losing, and the West is still almighty – as well as the pinnacle of justice, freedom, democracy and culture. Secondly, they can’t seem to be able to open their mouths in public without insulting the non-western world. Joe Biden, Annalena Baerbock, Ursula von der Leyen, Josep Borrell and Emmanuel Macron have barely been seen in public for months without insulting someone. Borrel’s comment about Europe being the garden and the rest of the world a jungle is the pinnacle of this – because we all know what jungles are associated with.
The pressure is getting to the western political elites and they can’t keep a lid on their emotions and real opinions. They can no longer hide their hatred for anyone who resists them, or their contempt for them. Their doublethink, double standards, and extreme sense of entitlement, which justifies any action from them while condemning it from their opponents, is out in the open for all to see. All this, as well as their complete absence of competence and their total abandonment of reality, is very symptomatic for a certain type of people. That is not a coincidence as we shall see.
[end quote]
Yes. I think I got it right about our incompetent, psychotic paranoids projecting their own unexamined shadows on a reality they do not in the least comprehend.
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You do know the Soviet Union was America’s ally in WWII, right? And the country most responsible for defeating Hitler.
How will you “fight” for our Democracy? Are you planning on going to Ukraine and marching to the front to defend democracy there?
How are America’s security, peace, and democracy threatened by a war between two former Soviet republics, Russia and Ukraine? I don’t feel my security is threatened by a war several thousands of miles away from me.
I do feel my security is threatened if the Russia-Ukraine War escalates into World War III due to offensive weaponry being provided to Ukraine on a massive scale by the U.S.
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Everything wrong with America in one sentence?
“If the Americans come, they will draw an arbitrary line through a temporary problem and make it permanent.” — Dr. Andanda W. P. Guruge, formerly Sri Lanka’s ambassador to France and the United States.
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Yes, I remember you sharing that quote, Mike. It is telling. Your old teacher was a wise man.
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I had the great good fortune to have Dr. Guruge as one of my graduate studies professors at the just-getting-started Hsi Lai University (University of the West) when I worked there as the Coordinator of Computer Services. We would often have lunch together where he would regale me with tales of his bureaucratic career both in his own country (in the Ministry of Education) and internationally (as Ambassador). He told me that he always considered France his adopted country.
On several occasions I visited his home in Huntington Beach where he had adorned the walls with pictures of himself with various presidents and prime ministers, including Bill Clinton of whom Dr Guruge said: “He must have the worst sex-life of any national leader I’ve ever met.” With Monica Lewinsky just bursting upon the scene, I had to concede his point.
Dr Guruge told me that the British had designed and built the Sri Lankan bureaucracy and so he started learning their methods immediately upon earning his Ph.D. and embarking upon his lifelong administrative career. When he asked for instructions as to how he should proceed his superior told him: “If someone comes to you with a request, you will tell them ‘The department regrets that it cannot accede to your request at this time.’ If the same person comes back to you a second time, you will tell them: ‘The department regrets that it cannot accede to your request at this time.’ And if the same person has the infernal cheek to come back to you a third time with the same request, pass it along to me with your recommendation and I’ll make a decision.’ No one does bureaucracy like the British, Dr Guruge would say.
Sorry for the digression, but I thought I’d share a little of the fun I had knowing and working with such a gifted, erudite, and truly literate man.
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