Reddit reviews War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier
We found 39 Reddit comments about War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Feral House
>What the actual fuck is wrong with politicians.
You're slowly becoming aware of how corrupt and fucked up the world really is... You're not seeing what's going on behind the scenes... they fear the net and hence want to lock everything down.
The (mass surveillance) by the NSA and abuse by law enforcement is just more part and parcel of state suppression of dissent against corporate interests. They're worried that the more people are going to wake up and corporate centers like the US and canada may be among those who also awaken. See this vid with Zbigniew Brzezinski, former United States National Security Advisor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7ZyJw_cHJY
Brezinski at a press conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWTIZBCQ79g
Snowden on terrorism/spying.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/sep/25/edward-snowden-treaty-glenn-greenwald-mass-surveillance-terrorism-video
Democracy Inc.
http://www.amazon.com/Democracy-Incorporated-Managed-Inverted-Totalitarianism/dp/069114589X/
Intereference in other states when the corporations dont get their way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mxp_wgFWQo&feature=youtu.be&list=PLKR2GeygdHomOZeVKx3P0fqH58T3VghOj&t=724
From war is a racket:
"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil intersts in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."[p. 10]
"War is a racket. ...It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." [p. 23]
"The general public shoulders the bill [for war]. This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations." [p. 24]
General Butler is especially trenchant when he looks at post-war casualties. He writes with great emotion about the thousands of tramautized soldiers, many of who lose their minds and are penned like animals until they die, and he notes that in his time, returning veterans are three times more likely to die prematurely than those who stayed home.
http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865/
>Is there any politician out there willing to fight for Canadians? Is that too much to ask?
Sorry to tell you the government doesn't work for you.
These links will take a while to digest, but if you want to understand what's going on in the world, you owe it to yourself to become informed about the true state of the world.
Our brains are much worse at reality and thinking than thought. Science on reasoning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmi0DLzBdQ
Rd wolf on economics
http://www.rdwolff.com/
"Intended as an internal document. Good reading to understand the nature of rich democracies and the fact that the common people are not allowed to play a role."
Crisis of democracy
http://trilateral.org/download/doc/crisis_of_democracy.pdf
http://www.amazon.com/Crisis-Democracy-Governability-Democracies-Trilateral/dp/0814713653/
Education as ignorance
https://chomsky.info/warfare02/
Overthrowing other peoples governments
http://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list
Wikileaks on TTIP/TPP/ETC
https://youtu.be/ABDiHspTJww?t=17
Energy subsidies
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2015/NEW070215A.htm
Interference in other states when the rich/corporations dont get their way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mxp_wgFWQo&feature=youtu.be&list=PLKR2GeygdHomOZeVKx3P0fqH58T3VghOj&t=724
Manufacturing consent (book)
http://www.amazon.com/Manufacturing-Consent-Political-Economy-Media/dp/0375714499/
Protectionism for the rich and big business by state intervention, radical market interference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHj2GaPuEhY#t=349
Manufacturing consent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwU56Rv0OXM
https://vimeo.com/39566117
Testing theories of representative government
https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
Democracy Inc
http://www.amazon.com/Democracy-Incorporated-Managed- Inverted-Totalitarianism/dp/069114589X
From war is a racket:
"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil intersts in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."[p. 10]
"War is a racket. ...It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." [p. 23]
"The general public shoulders the bill [for war]. This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations." [p. 24]
General Butler is especially trenchant when he looks at post-war casualties. He writes with great emotion about the thousands of tramautized soldiers, many of who lose their minds and are penned like animals until they die, and he notes that in his time, returning veterans are three times more likely to die prematurely than those who stayed home.
http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865/
Blum:
http://williamblum.org/aer/read/137
US distribution of wealth
https://imgur.com/a/FShfb
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
The Centre for Investigative Journalism
http://www.tcij.org/
Some history on US imperialism by us corporations.
https://kurukshetra1.wordpress.com/2015/09/27/a-brief-history-of-imperialism-and-state-violence-in-colombia/
The real news
http://www.therealnews.com
Sure thing. What do you suggest?
I'll read yours if you read mine.
For those who think this guy is lying, I present you
http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865/
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/
http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II--Updated/dp/1567512526/
Edit: Nevermind, it looks like 'War is a Racket' is the book for me.
Found these amazing quotes in a review.
>"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested." [p. 10]
>"War is a racket. ...It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." [p. 23]
>"The general public shoulders the bill [for war]. This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations." [p. 24]
>I honestly believe the US military does not defend the rights of citizens or anything of similar matter.
Here it is from the horse's mouth - a five star general admitted that America's military is the hired muscle for Western capitalists.
http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865/
Hi! I skimmed through one cherry-picked article (Senior researcher: a relation of Mr. Chertoff ) in Popular Mechanics, which is owned by The Hearst Corporation, and therefore I am an authority on the entire extremely complicated and obfuscated subject of 9/11.
*American Free Press revealed that Benjamin Chertoff, the 25-year-old senior researcher who authored the 9/11 article, is related to Michael Chertoff, the new Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Http://www.wanttoknow.info
Army General Wesley Clark: Wars are Planned RE: Memo to take out 7 countries in 5 years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw
US MAJOR Stubblebine exposes 9/11 cover up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0xzsbSbVUE
"War is a Racket" By Smedley D. Butler, at the time America's most decorated soldier: http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410494742&sr=8-1&keywords=war+is+a+racket
Testimony from Controlled Demolition Expert Danny Jowenko (recently deceased) ON WTC7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zHHvo6U4lA
What is a False Flag?
>This is both anti-historical and incredibly wrong on so many fronts.
Overthrowing other peoples governments:
http://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list
You are incorrect, I can tell you the facts and the figures and you won't reason to the right conclusion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmi0DLzBdQ
The Centre for Investigative Journalism
http://www.tcij.org/
Some history on US imperialism by us corporations.
https://kurukshetra1.wordpress.com/2015/09/27/a-brief-history-of-imperialism-and-state-violence-in-colombia/
From war is a racket:
"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."[p. 10]
"War is a racket. ...It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." [p. 23]
"The general public shoulders the bill [for war]. This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations." [p. 24]
General Butler is especially trenchant when he looks at post-war casualties. He writes with great emotion about the thousands of tramautized soldiers, many of who lose their minds and are penned like animals until they die, and he notes that in his time, returning veterans are three times more likely to die prematurely than those who stayed home.
http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865/
> I want more Asian Americans to volunteer in the US military because we are underrepresented
So they can participate in this? http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Anything-That-Moves-American/dp/1250045061/
Do some reading. Start with
http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865/
and continue with http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II--Updated/dp/1567512526/
> The middle class got reamed while the rich stood by and watched and placed bets on us.
The middle class doesn't understand the nature of capitalism. They believe the myth of “balance” in capitalist societies.
http://homepages.law.asu.edu/~dkarjala/OpposingCopyrightExtension/commentary/MacaulaySpeeches.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act#mediaviewer/File:Copyright_term.svg
Also the bailout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVjz1OyBJCc
Overthrowing governments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg_-NjjnvP4
http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865/
“I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil intersts in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.” [p. 10]
“War is a racket. …It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” [p. 23] “The general public shoulders the bill [for war]. This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.” [p. 24]
The 9 trillion dollar bank bailout
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVjz1OyBJCc
Libor scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libor_scandal
Rule of law is impossible under capitalism, since the kings of business (he who has the gold makes the rules) get to do whatever they want and the public gets fucked.
Important history:
http://williamblum.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcA1v2n7WW4
More interesting is the book The Plot to Seize the Whitehouse a story about how the rich elite of America tried to overthrow President FDR and how General Smedley Butler refused to cooperate and saved US democracy/ Smedley also eventually authored the great book War Is A Racket. General Butler is the greatest American hero this country has ever seen, Lindbergh is a glorified hack.
> We just really wanted to get bogged down fighting for decades in Afghanistan?
Bogged down? Do you not understand that spending a decade fighting in Afghanistan lines the pockets of the people who made the decision to go there?
http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865
You need to get reading.
>Building 7 was hit with a perimeter column from the collapse of the main towers which caused it to become unstable and it was "pulled" down with cables to create a safer collapse.
None of this is true. If it is please provide citations. NIST itself says the debris from the other towers had no significant role in the collapse. There is no evidence whatsoever of cables being used to pull it down.
I think the reason you don't understand this conspiracy at all is because you are not aware of the facts.
Have you read up on the Saudi support of Al queda and the taliban? Or the numerous times that the US government had knowledge of the 9/11 terrorists moving around in the US and getting trained.. and did nothing?
>What he also should have done was get us in, and get us out.
ummm.. that wasn't the point though. The point was to establish an occupation and begin a nation-building exercise that would funnel money into the hands of contractors and thieves.
... and yet you want to go "blitz" into Afghanistan after the Taliban? Neocons crack me up when they call for outrageous nation-building fiascos and at the same time call themselves "conservative", but Democrats trying to justify a failed occupation are even more funny.
Don't have to you proved my point.
I worked EOD. Besides cleaning up IED's, we also did post blast and safing of areas. You see enough death and you look at the consequence of politicians you tend to go you know what this is a bad idea. Ten years later, areas that were supposedly safe, have people being put in cages and melted in acid, troops we trained refused to fight and let cities get captured by ISIS because fuck them they are Sunni and we are Shia and a number of repressive type behavior came from the Iraqi government. The people had it better under Saddam.
So peace muscles, why don't you read War is a Racket.
I'm gunna buy it. I need other book suggestions to make it $25 for free shipping.
Here are some of my suggestions to others:
>The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual (Paperback)
>by John A. Nagl
>http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0226841510
>Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam (Paperback)
>by John A. Nagl
>http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0226567702
>War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier (Paperback)
>by Smedley D. Butler
>http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0922915865
>Cultivating Exceptional Cannabis: An Expert Breeder Shares His Secrets (Marijuana Tips Series) (Paperback)
>by DJ Short
>http://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-Exceptional-Cannabis-Breeder-Marijuana/dp/0932551599
War is a racket.
war's always been ugly and cruel. pick up this book by two time medal of honor recipient Marine Major General Smeadley Butler called: War is a Racket.
"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."
and this was back in the 1930s. Very little has changed. the article mentions how the farmer was working in his poppy fields. that's because we're allowing the manufacturing and distribution of drugs in Afghanistan. this situation is Vietnam and Somalia all over again.
War Is A Racket
I blame the corrupt leaders and co-opted media. While you and I know the reasons for the Iraq war were lies, Fox is now saying we went there to plant the seeds of democracy. The media should be fact checking a excoriating those who lied in the past, but it is not happening. I really don't think that young people taking up arms know how corrupt our current government is. It is hard to believe. I don't want to believe it.
My 17 year old granddaughter, whose 4 year college tuition my wife and I have already paid for in advance, is thinking of enlisting. We are doing out best to disabuse her of the idea that military service protects and promotes freedom. I bought her "War is a Racket" by Smedley Butler She thinks she will be able to serve with her boyfriend who is enlisting and the recruiters are lying. But she thinks she is in love for life and her boyfriend buys the military hero BS hook line and sinker. My granddaughter wants to give her prepaid tuition to her younger sister. She thinks she is being noble. I don't know if you have tried talking sense to a teenager, but they think their life is novel and different from all those who have gone before and that they are the best judge of the nature of reality. She literally has no idea what she would be signing up for.
My own grandmother used to say to me, when unable to set me straight about something in life; "you can't put an old head on young shoulders" and it is true.
Maybe a few kids who enlist want to kill and be bad asses, (there are always a few of those types of people) but I honestly don't think that is the motivation for most. They are duped. It is not their fault that they are young, inexperienced and naive. There are vast forces of propaganda arrayed against them. That is, in my opinion, where the blame lies.
I think most of us Americans feel shame over slavery and the Amerindian genocide, plus the numerous smaller abuses (railroad coolies, abuse of Irish, Japanese internment of WWII, etc.). Also those who have read our history recognize that our foreign policy has been nasty and exploitative since a few years after our founding (we exploited the hell out of the Caribbean and Latin America since the early 1800s, I highly recommend this).
That said, we've also done some wonderful things! Despite the propaganda and televised jingoism, most Americans are good-hearted and generous folks. I would even argue that we're the most benign and beneficent of the superpowers in history (compare us to Victorian British Empire or Colonial Spanish Empire or Holy Roman Empire or Rome itself, etc.).
I am proud to be an American, but also recognize that [like nearly ever people] we've done some horrible things. It is far more shameful to pretend we never did evil (Japan & Nanking, Turkey & Armenian genocide) than to recognize and admit our mistakes.
>Am I missing something
You are, in the 90's, pc games you had entire control of the game software and files, you could mod things for free and people could make levels and share stuff for free. Ever since mmo's and steam, the corporate world has been doing a full court press against software ownership.
Pre mass high speed internet penetration they had to give you the entire game to run on your PC. Ever since they discovered the average gamer is tech illiterate and not very bright, they've been doing horrible stuff to the game files like encrypting stuff and making them difficult to mod.
Paid mods is further erosion of control of game software so they can remove your rights completely to own anything you are paying for. They are basically theives at this point and it would take a long discussion of intellectual property law and the mass corruption of capitalist society to fully flesh out.
Your post speaks to your political and historical ignorance of how corrupt the world really is, you don't really understand how evil the companies around you really are.
IP law is corrupt and is never going to be non corrupt, capitalism is not compatable with rule of law. You do not live in a democracy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYFxtNgOeiI
Book:
http://trilateral.org/download/doc/crisis_of_democracy.pdf
Before I begin your brain does not reason nor see reality as it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmi0DLzBdQ
Protectionism for the rich and big business by state intervention, radical market interference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHj2GaPuEhY#t=349
Manufacturing consent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwU56Rv0OXM
https://vimeo.com/39566117
Testing theories of representative government
https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
US distribution of wealth
https://imgur.com/a/FShfb
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
What goes down in the US goes down in all capitalist western states, they all follow the same model of "politics as show" where the public has no input if you look at the research.
From war is a racket:
"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil intersts in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."[p. 10]
"War is a racket. ...It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." [p. 23]
"The general public shoulders the bill [for war]. This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations." [p. 24]
General Butler is especially trenchant when he looks at post-war casualties. He writes with great emotion about the thousands of traumatised soldiers, many of who lose their minds and are penned like animals until they die, and he notes that in his time, returning veterans are three times more likely to die prematurely than those who stayed home.
http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865
Eisenhower warned about the military-industrial complex. And now it's well rooted into the US...and perhaps the Global...economy. Exploitation of war for profit hasn't gone away. Good read: http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300005423&sr=8-1
He is just now figuring out that the U.S. government is one of the leading terrorists organizations in the world? Anyone with any actual knowledge of U.S. history knows that. He isn't as bright or well educated as I thought he was.
All he had to do was read War Is A Racket by Gen. Butler or Overthrow by Stephen Kinzer (just to name only two sources of many).
http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865
http://www.amazon.com/Overthrow-Americas-Century-Regime-Change/dp/0805082409/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322413021&sr=1-1
Have you read War is a racket? It's a small book written by Gen. Butler, the most decorated marine in US history. He explains why the US has overthrown governments and occupied countries for the last 100 years or so.
I don't identify as any particular brand of ideology, just a moral person who's come to certain conclusions about capitalism and mankind.
War won't be gotten rid of as long as capitalism exists, war is for profit. A good read would be smedley butlers "War is a racket".
http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865/
I don't think anyone can study the history of war and come out with a positive view of the for profit model of society. Current societies act like recessions and wars are like 'the weather'. They are expected, planned and artificially induced by powerful people with money. The whole stock market and law is rigged.
You simply cannot dislodge or correct the system. I'll give you an example from the videogame industry and copyright in general.
Why can't gamers own their own games? because corporations have absolute authoritarian control of the law. All new AAA games for the PC are going F2P/MMO. Especially after the massive sales of diablo 3, everyone wants to lock down software to the internet. The just released path of exile takes advantage of the tech illiterate irrational audience for profit. If they ever shut down their 'free to play' game that is money gone forever and nothing to show for it.
Money and property endlessly expand and cant' be kept in check by the law. Copyright law being absolute proof 'you can't fix capitalism'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act
Now if you lost every single time 10 times in a row after preaching "we just need to fix capitalism" or 'we just need free'r markets' you'd think those people were fucking deluded and ignorant.
Smedley remains the most highly decorated soldier in US history. The full speech is available as a book Good reading, and amazingly still topical given that it was published in 1935.
"Ok. Somewhere in that wall of text you said all programmers work for free. So is libertarianism just a cover organization for some group of programmer haters? Because now I kinda want to join."
-- I started my career as a programmer, and I did not work for free. A lack of IP doesn't mean prices for works will go to zero, just that they will go to whatever price the market determines your labor is worth. I am about to buy a phone system that is built around asterisk. I'm still going to pay thousands for the software customization, because it is not worth it to me to figure everything out myself. Fedora Core is free, but people still pay for Red Hat for support. Certainly the market will change, and behavior will change with it, but I never said labor should be free. I do expect that the end result would be that software prices would come down, but I think the vast majority of the world will still pay you to compile and publish software so they don't have to. Also, I am speaking for myself, not Libertarianism as a whole.
As for the Goldman thing, I've posted about it in the past with tons of reference. Please look at my post history for a better explanation and links.
For car companies, the regulatory barriers are smaller than continued bailouts. If the Federal government would stop bailing them out, they would have been broken into smaller a long time ago, and the issue we have now would never have started.
For banks, we have programs like the FDIC that encourage risky behavior by socializing risk and privatizing rewards. Additionally, the large banks sit on the board of the Fed, and make money based on the operating profits of the Fed. The Fed makes money essentially by creating money and making interest on it. Since the big banks get the money from the Fed first, and make profits on said money when it is paid back, and the Federal Government will bail them out if they fail, they have a number of incentives to increase the money supply (and inflation) through loans that become increasingly riskier as more are made (all the safer loans will be made first, and each incremental loan will be made to a slightly riskier candidate than the last). And, at the end of the day, we've now seen that the big guys will be prevented from failure by taxpayer dollars if all of this fails to prop them up. Ideally, what should have happened is that these banks should have been allowed to fail. Then smaller banks could have all bought up local branches or small segments of each of the bigger banks, leading to a bunch of smaller (but bigger than before), safer, and more regional banks. The bailout of the big guys is essentially a de facto barrier to smaller banks. To make things worse, the treasury department essentially financing the purchase of middle tier banks by the big tier guys (bear sterns and Chase is a prime example). Then we talk about regulating the entire industry more. So the end result is this: we socialize all of the loss for the big banks, we let them keep all of their profits, and we let them use tax payer dollars to get even bigger. We prevent smaller banks from having the opportunity to expand, and then we saddle everyone with higher operating costs even though the big guys were the real problem. That is an end result brought about by the Federal Government.
For insurance companies, a good example is how HMOs came about. HMOs were illegal in many states until the Federal Government stepped in. Whether you follow Michael Moore and blame Nixon, or you want to blame Ted Kennedy since he was heavily involved in the legislation, the point is the Federal Government made sure you pay more and get less for health insurance.
For research, people vote with their dollars. If you and I really want to develop an amazing and cheap photovoltaic device that makes power accessible to everyone, but we can't raise any capital to do it, that means people would rather have faster computer chips than cheap power. For the record, I've been struggling on and off for a few years with a business plan for open source development of technologies (not code, but schematics). Our main issue is time, not interest. It is a different model, but different can be good. If something is broken, the only way to guarantee you don't fix it is to not change anything.
Lastly, I'm fascinated with your insistence that I explicitly agree with you on WWII. I think you are completely right, and never meant to imply otherwise. Ever since I read "War is a Racket" by Smedley Butler, I've been pretty anti-war across the board. It is a great book, by the way, and still relevant today. It is also cheap and short:
http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865
I don't mean this to be an exhaustive list of examples, but I hope it at least makes you curious enough to read up. Hell, link me to stuff proving me wrong if you find some good ones. I'll trade learning for being right any day of the week.
After a quick google search I managed to track the book. It was written by a decorated General and has received quite a few avid reviews.
Again, though, I stand by my claim on the site. I'll do some more googling to find out whether his claims are backed up by secondary sources though, but I do believe in his honesty.
Thanks, those are awesome! Before you take your test, you should read this book. https://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865
Fq that. ;)
If it isn't obscure, you could just search Google or Gutenberg. I'm going to give you some weird ones. They'll be cheap, tho. The public domain is good to you in the respect.
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds -- Gotta love an era that produced books that told you everything you needed to know about the contents solely by the title.
The Book of the Damned -- Charles Fort's work has spawned an entire society, a counter-culture, with conventions, fanzines, magazines and associated weirdness. Fort took seriously things that "Science" dismissed. Rain of frogs? BS, says science. Reality to science: bite me, here are some frogs falling from the sky.
War is a Racket by Smedley D. Butler -- just the ravings of one of America's most decorated leaders talking about how the military is exercised for private interests. He also stopped an coup against Roosevelt.
That's it for now. Others may chime in with Joseph Campbell, and alot of other great things. Those are a few of my classic, older, weirdness. I'd probably also add most anything by Thomas DeQuincey, but, he is rarely to anyone's taste :(
Some light reading for you. Written after WW1. http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865
I hear this is good
http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1417714204&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=smedley+butler
War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier
http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865/
And here’s an article by a former US marine on the powerless US military:
https://russia-insider.com/en/node/27630
as was your comment.
Libya, Aghanistan, Iraq.. and 50 or so other occupations and regime changes brought by the US have little or nothing at all to do with defending the US. Funding those excursions is not defense spending, it's spending on military. There is a difference. Read what one of the most decorated generals in the US had to say about our military spending: War is a racket
Military Industrial Complex, it goes by.
One of your highest - at the time - decorated Generals, Smedley Butler wrote a book about his views regarding how the US military has been misused for corporate gain: "War Is A Racket".
https://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865/ref=sr_1_3/141-1122814-0487011?ie=UTF8&qid=1522798016&sr=8-3&keywords=war+is+a+racket
One of your own presidents, Eisenhower, warned about this problem in his farewell speech:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OyBNmecVtdU
Yes: your country is now the dominant 'Superpower'. . . what's another word for Superpower again? I'll give you a clue: it begins with "E".
Reduce your intake of Hollywood war movies.
Problem?
> I see toys infested with spyware, which is in fact insane BS.
You don't seem to grasp the history of corporations, they will do anything to make a buck even kill people. the whole point of pointing that out is that the rich ARE at war with the public. You know little about corporate history clearly, I suggest you get a copy of war is a racket by smedly butler.
From war is a racket:
"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil intersts in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."[p. 10]
"War is a racket. ...It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." [p. 23]
"The general public shoulders the bill [for war]. This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations." [p. 24]
General Butler is especially trenchant when he looks at post-war casualties. He writes with great emotion about the thousands of traumatised soldiers, many of who lose their minds and are penned like animals until they die, and he notes that in his time, returning veterans are three times more likely to die prematurely than those who stayed home.
http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865/
If you think class war is some fantasy you don't know anything about history. Why do you think the public has been screwed for the last 200 years on things like IP law? (Aka why aren't thigns going public domain?) Here's hint, the government doesn't work for us it works for the rich and corporations.
I was pointing out the fact that the public (aka us) is purposely mis educated to believe things that are false.
https://youtu.be/ILQepXUhJ98?t=101
War is a racket.