Stop Me Before I Vote Again

They'll shrink the military budget from 58% of discretionary spending to 57%.

Then Obama will crow about how he's slashed military budgets in order to get gullible liberals to vote for him.

It's all political posturing. That's my explanation of the new varnish anyways.

A proposed, possible, kick-the-can-down-the-road decrease in the rate of spending increase is hardly worth addressing. But I will say this: Trotsky shouldn't have had all those anarchists shot at Kronstadt. I know I'm recanting on the issue. I firmly supported his actions at one point. But I was wrong. In addition, I think every Red should hang his or her head in shame for Stalin's betrayal of the Republicans. In many ways, it's as though we here right now personally pulled the trigger on Buenaventura Durruti, his death by friendly fire notwithstanding.

There. I feel much better.

Dp I think his is about a very fast reversal of the more boots doctrine
Once embraced by candidates Kerry lady clinton and ohbarry

The Rummy thesis has re emerged

Empire of the air with flying robots etc

And special dark op units like nailed bill Bradley

No major power war on the horizon either

So the system runs lean on boots
And trims the order book for some patently useless weapon systems

Al supremo : freezing the total security budget in real terms
means yearly increases at the rate of helmet cost index

Which exceeds the household index as reconfigured
During the Clinton miracle

As to shooting anarchists
I suggest we melt their macho down by pavlovian means
And refashion them as dance instructors

Stalin did indeed turn his short blocky back to the final thrashings of the Spanish republic
For that I chide my inner totalitarian every new moon

You really want substance? I've got substance kicking around somewhere. Uncle can pound sand, literally, from the air until it's glassed over, but as soon as that stops, a really cheap and pretty effective surface to surface missile can be pulled right up to the shoreline and be launched at one of Uncle's multibillion dollar maritime mausoleums. If the coastline offers any cover at all, there's room for quite a few. If the victim du jour has small boat capacity, it can send a swarm of cheap, effective missiles out to plague him. The land sites suitable for any of those tactics have to be occupied by boots. Once the boots are there, they have to be defended.

Empire ain't cheap. It really does require "full spectrum dominance". Absent truly radical change here, I predict another budget doubling, like the one from Baby Doc to the Sour Policy Monk.

Getting back to the proper direction for this, and any other thread, I've reevaluated the massacre at Kronstadt and I'm afraid I've changed my mind again. It's been pointed out to me that the massacre was an attempt to stamp out a contradiction, not resolve it, but that sort of thing can happen to anyone. On a low blood sugar day, I've done things that—if scaled up, and if I had an army at my disposal—would likely have worked out the same way. Case in point: I have a big old air compressor. Co-workers with full spectrum plumber's butt offend me greatly. I thought it would be amusing to teach one to pull his pants up. I honestly had no idea my simple jest would send him to the emergency room. But the intestinal tract is actually that fragile. This, I feel, parallels historical events almost precisely.

- There are many ways to reallocate defense dough, though this is really more akin to the whole bringing home of the troops from Iraq, which ain't so much.

- The details here get more press of the "hey we're adults talking about adult things" variety. Bo's supporters love that. Shows their almost as smart as he is.

- This move could one day enable a timely fight on the Senate floor.

- The move draws a unbelievably massive distinction between Bo and Mitt. The choice could not be clearer. Win-win.

That distinction has unnerved me greatly. I've been under the impression that Mitt Romney was already president. But now some weird doppelganger is blundering around denouncing his own policies.

I think the thinking is that if the US armed services are not configured as armor and tank centric forces then they'll have to be used more efficiently, and future expeditionary occupations will be planned to rely instead on the sort of soft political solutions which actually have longer duration and effect. US air mastery is in no danger of challenge from any nation on the planet. The Russians exposed their many air weaknesses in Georgia, and Chinese air doctrine is almost non-existent. Besides, the Chinese don't have anywhere close to the sea platform necessary to project air power.

With the US reconfigured for rapid platform projection - and that means air and sea coordination - then the Army's purpose begins to align with that of the original intent of the Marines: expeditionary penetration.

The likelihood of a tank war with Russia has approached zero, and it's far more costly to maintain the capacity to throw bodies and bulk away on the Russian steppe. It is far more cost effective to insert wetworkers and rapid deployment capably special operators into Iran...

Re Mitt, and as a side note: It's been very heartening to see Republican candidates feel compelled to denounce Romney for being....a capitalist. I don't quite know what to make of that little nugget of a development, but it feels like some sort of progress. The blue-collar/Reagan Democrat natives are restless, and they they're directing at least a fraction of their ire toward Mitt's Bain-ness....well, what shall we make of that?

That's it! The Mitt is here to absolve Bo of his sins. The rites of this summer and fall will be the most sublime of all!

To be fair, Gingrich (like Santorum) has fallen in line with Catholic orthodoxy, CZ. Likening Romney to a vulture because he "undermined" capitalism is welcome, but it's not like the Catty candidates are queuing up to piss off defense, insurance and oil concerns.

This from today's developments:

Mr Supreme. said he wants to send troops "everywhere."

Candidate of choice double cross

Drunk Pundit sez on 01.09.12 @23:18:
Then Obama will crow about how he's slashed military budgets in order to get gullible liberals to vote for him.

It's all political posturing. That's my explanation of the new varnish anyways.

Trouble is, it's the same old varnish that Bill Clinton used in '96: suddenly rediscover the Pwog part of his "base", do some weak-assed, token shit that all nice and Lefty and Pwoggy, then tell 'em "don't say I never did nuthin' for ya". The Pwogs will start huffing the varnish, get really high, and vote Democratic again.

By this point, of course, the Pwogs have huffed so much varnish that they've sustained irreparable brain damage.

It's misreporting, as DP says. More importantly, it encourages the mistaken belief that Presidents and Congresses are in control of the Pentagon's spending. In fact, corporate capitalism positively demands escalation there, as explained a half-century ago by Baran and Sweezy. Of necessity, it moves in starts and fits, but it always moves. It must, and the premium on it, in our age of mega-deficits being required just to tread water, is higher than ever.

The big question is how they'll justify the next great leap forward, now that the 911 tide has crested. Iran (once Zero is safely re-elected) would serve, but the cost there might be too extreme even for our heedless overlords.

Al Schumann sez on 01.10.12 @02:31:
A proposed, possible, kick-the-can-down-the-road decrease in the rate of spending increase is hardly worth addressing...

Eeeeewwwwwww. You said "kick the can down the road". For shame, dude. Step away from the TV set. I repeat: Step away from the TV set.

...But I will say this: Trotsky shouldn't have had all those anarchists shot at Kronstadt. I know I'm recanting on the issue. I firmly supported his actions at one point. But I was wrong. In addition, I think every Red should hang his or her head in shame for Stalin's betrayal of the Republicans...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gEvxw9XKzo

Iran is not a future war. Iran is a now war. The US has been mucking about in Iran for ten years, arming the Baluchi insurgency and encouraging what its leadership prefers to call "terrorism" whenever some other state or entity but itself does it.

If, out of consideration for reciprocity, the ayatollahs had used even a single day at the start of the last ten years, arming Dine and Apache separatists from control points in Mexico, Iran would be into its ninth year, eleventh month and twenty-ninth day of "no fly zone" bombing by now.

Dude's playing to liberals. He'll get votes for proposing so-called defense cuts, and then he can talk about boosting foreign aid.

And by foreign aid, I mean those "democracy" promoting outfits. The fronts used to foment trouble in other nations. Libya has shown the way to a kinder, gentler regime change, fit for a liberal. None of that vulgar invasion stuff for the Big O.

Eeeeewwwwwww. You said "kick the can down the road". For shame, dude. Step away from the TV set. I repeat: Step away from the TV set.

I don't watch TV! If they're kicking the can down the road on television now, all the more reason to stay clear.

I grew up on political songs, Mike, and I've always hated most of them. That one is especially annoying. My own property modification days focused primarily on rehab and reassignment of slumlord-owned death traps; it's been galling to me that the net, unintended result was to make a row of shitholes worth gentrifying. After that, I got a little nasty and then after that I got a lot old.

So it goes...

Al Schumann sez on 01.10.12 @18:59:
I don't watch TV! If they're kicking the can down the road on television now, all the more reason to stay clear...

Good for you! ...Yeah, they're saying "kick the can down the road" every chance they get now; it's only a matter of time before the pundits and politicians beat it to death and move on to the next lame catch phrase. Joe Scarborough abused it especially heavily during the big debt ceiling "crisis". I've gotten as sick of that as I am of "on the table" and "reset".

I grew up on political songs, Mike, and I've always hated most of them...

I'm guessing that even approaching 55, I'm still a mere lad compared to you. Just between you and me, I really hate most political songs, too -- at least the stuff my wife (nine years my senior) cut her teeth on in her college folk scene. I could give a shit less what that sonofabitch would do with a hammer if he had one, and was always a bit irked by the lyric we shall overcome some day. What the fuck do you mean "some day"? How about overcoming right now? The only songwriters from that era who really did anything for me were Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs, who'll always hold a special place in my heart for writing "Love Me, I'm A Liberal". But, yeah, most of that stuff was pretty lame and toothless -- rarely evocative, inspiring or poetic, mostly Liberal policy talking points written in rhyme. There's a reason people referred to that musical era as the "Folk Scare".

By the time I started getting into political songs, though -- in my early teens -- all the best stuff wasn't being written by wimpy folkies, but by rock'n'roll bands: Jefferson Airplane's Volunteers, Country Joe's Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag, and the Jimi Hendrix arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner, which I especially enjoyed as playing it around our house back then was the equivalent of burning a flag.

Luckily, in my opinion, punk pretty much single-handedly rescued protest music. I love watching my wife and her folkie friends cringe at the sound of London's Burnin', Anarchy In The UK and Let's Lynch The Landlord.

Too bad we don't agree on that Against Me! track. I can't get enough of that one these days, especially when I think of how the partisan Democrats, Liberals and Pwogwessives behaved during the last three Presidential elections, and during Obummer's current term. It sums up the current state of Liberalism with a blast of pure raw truth -- the Socialists and Anarchists did all the heavy work and took all the heat, while the Liberals took all the credit -- plus it has the added advantage of not being composed and performed by a bunch of dickless folkies.

Mike, there's an absolute rule on the internet that any thread discussing age must include a reference to George Melly and The Stranglers. I read that somewhere, and I believe it. So here's George singing "What An Old Codger I Am". The dancer's identity must be left as an exercise for the viewer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49hEKqbe9NQ

I'm with you all the way on the majority of political songs. If I had a hammer, I wouldn't hammer out justice in the morning and I wouldn't do it all over this land. I'd want a balaclava and a well planned escape route, with contingencies. Marx himself was aware of the need to exercise a certain circumspection. I really wish more of our latter day comrades could get right with the Old Moor on this issue. Marx's vigor in this should inspire codgers. But that polemic must wait. Here's the relevant passage.

...in order to cool our heated blood, we started on a double quick march, until Edgar Bauer stumbled over some paving stones. “Hurrah, an idea!” And in memory of mad student pranks he picked up a stone, and Clash! Clatter! a gas lantern went flying into splinters. Nonsense is contagious – Marx and I did not stay behind, and we broke four or five street lamps – it was, perhaps, 2 o'clock in the morning and the streets were deserted in consequence. But the noise nevertheless attracted the attention of a policeman who with quick resolution gave the signal to his colleagues on the same beat. And immediately countersignals were given. The position became critical.

Happily we took in the situation at a glance; and happily we knew the locality. We raced ahead, three or four policemen some distance behind us. Marx showed an activity that I should not have attributed to him. And after the wild chase had lasted some minutes, we succeeded in turning into a side street and there running through an alley – a back yard between two streets – whence we came behind the policemen who lost the trail. Now we were safe. They did not have our description and we arrived at our homes without further adventures.

I think the eloquence of that recounting would suffer greatly from deconstruction. It's one of those things that just is, and is just fine being that way.

Agree with you on Phil Ochs and Love Me I'm A Liberal. Maybe the best excoriation ever. And it gets to the key difference between a song sold with a political marketing hook and a song that is a good fucking song that also happens to be political.

I cried when they shot Medgar Evers
Tears ran down my spine
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
As though I'd lost a father of mine
But Malcolm X got what was coming
He got what he asked for this time
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen
My faith in the system restored
I'm glad the commies were thrown out
of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board
I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
as long as they don't move next door
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

The people of old Mississippi
Should all hang their heads in shame
I can't understand how their minds work
What's the matter don't they watch Les Crain?
But if you ask me to bus my children
I hope the cops take down your name
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I read New republic and Nation
I've learned to take every view
You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden
I feel like I'm almost a Jew
But when it comes to times like Korea
There's no one more red, white and blue
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I vote for the democratic party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singing those songs
I'll send all the money you ask for
But don't ask me to come on along
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Al Schumann sez on 01.11.12 @02:25:

...Happily we took in the situation at a glance; and happily we knew the locality. We raced ahead, three or four policemen some distance behind us. Marx showed an activity that I should not have attributed to him. And after the wild chase had lasted some minutes, we succeeded in turning into a side street and there running through an alley – a back yard between two streets – whence we came behind the policemen who lost the trail. Now we were safe. They did not have our description and we arrived at our homes without further adventures.

I think the eloquence of that recounting would suffer greatly from deconstruction. It's one of those things that just is, and is just fine being that way.

Man... what a great story. Makes my old war stories of ducking cops and avoiding mass arrests at World Bank actions seem pale by comparison -- even my adventure at Franklin Square in September of '02; I'll say no more about it other than that whenever I think of that insane twenty minutes, the phrase "Are you ready for some football?" comes to mind.

http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/communist_party_animals.jpg