Last week I spoke at a high school. As I often do, I told them I’d perform a magic trick. I only know one, but I know it will almost always work with no skill required. I scribbled on a piece of paper and folded it up. I asked someone to name a war that was justified. They of course said “World War II” and I opened up the paper, which read “World War II.” Magic!

I could do a second part with equal reliability. I ask “Why?” They say “the Holocaust.”

I could do a third part, as well. I ask “What does Evian mean?” They say “No idea” or “bottled water.” #WarIsALie
— Read on davidswanson.org/the-ancient-mythical-rites-of-pearl-harbor-day/

“When the president of the United States plays with that fire or takes that beast out for a walk, it is not just another political event, not just a normal day in campaign 2020. It is a cause for shame.”

Read more:

https://lacrossetribune.com/opinion/columnists/michael-gerson-the-return-of-america-s-cruelest-passion/article_0d1c3d53-9054-5725-b9eb-946e5ff5eeed.html

“If we measure the wrong thing,” warns Joseph Stiglitz, “we will do the wrong thing.”

“It should be clear that, in spite of the increases in GDP, in spite of the 2008 crisis being well behind us, everything is not fine,” writes Stiglitz. “We see this in the political discontent rippling through so many advanced countries; we see it in the widespread support of demagogues, whose successes depend on exploiting economic discontent; and we see it in the environment around us, where fires rage and floods and droughts occur at ever-increasing intervals.”
— Read on www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/25/everything-not-fine-nobel-economist-calls-humanity-end-obsession-gdp

www.youtube.com/watch

Sanders was one of a number of critics who saw the Monday announcement that the White House won’t treat the settlements as illegal as another attack on the Palestinian people. 
— Read on www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/18/trump-pandering-his-extremist-base-israeli-settlements-says-bernie-sanders

Why has the Republican Party become so thoroughly corrupt? The reason is historical — it goes back many decades — and, in a way, philosophical. The party is best understood as an insurgency that carried the seeds of its own corruption from the start.

— Read on medium.com/the-atlantic/the-corruption-of-the-republican-party-b5ad7a1aeaff

The Pentagon’s “Base” Budget: The Pentagon’s regular, or “base,” budget is slated to be $544.5 billion in Fiscal Year 2020, a healthy sum but only a modest down payment on total military spending.

As you might imagine, that base budget provides basic operating funds for the Department of Defense, much of which will actually be squandered on preparations for ongoing wars never authorized by Congress, overpriced weapons systems that aren’t actually needed, or outright waste, an expansive category that includes everything from cost overruns to unnecessary bureaucracy.
— Read on popularresistance.org/the-us-is-spending-1-25-trillion-annually-on-war/