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Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullshit- again

Posted: 03 Sep 2009, 11:03am
by IkarisOne
There was a time, not all that long ago, when the U.S. pretended that it viewed war only as a "last resort," something to be used only when absolutely necessary to defend the country against imminent threats. In reality, at least since the creation of the National Security State in the wake of World War II, war for the U.S. has been everything but a "last resort." Constant war has been the normal state of affairs. In the 64 years since the end of WWII, we have started and fought far more wars and invaded and bombed more countries than any other nation in the world -- not even counting the numerous wars fought by our clients and proxies. Those are just facts. History will have no choice but to view the U.S. -- particularly in its late imperial stages -- as a war-fighting state.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ ... ghanistan/

Re: Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullshit- again

Posted: 03 Sep 2009, 3:32pm
by eumaas

Re: Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullshit- again

Posted: 03 Sep 2009, 3:53pm
by Dr. Medulla
[youtube][/youtube]

Re: Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullshit- again

Posted: 04 Sep 2009, 11:14am
by IkarisOne
Dr. Medulla wrote:[youtube][/youtube]
That is one of my all-time favorite Carlin bits.

Re: Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullshit- again

Posted: 04 Sep 2009, 11:18am
by IkarisOne
This Greenwald motherfucker is fearless
Yesterday, Physicians for Human Rights issued a new report which finds that CIA doctors "came close to, and may even have committed, unlawful human experimentation" on detainees in U.S. custody, as "doctors actively monitored the CIA's interrogation techniques with a view to determining their effectiveness, using detainees as human subjects without their consent." Human experimentation on helpless detainees. Is it any wonder that the people who are responsible for that and helped to enable it -- critically including media stars who waved it all away -- don't want any light shined on what was done? If you were them, would you?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/02/cia-usa

Re: Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullshit- again

Posted: 04 Sep 2009, 11:23am
by eumaas
IkarisOne wrote:
Dr. Medulla wrote:[youtube][/youtube]
That is one of my all-time favorite Carlin bits.
Amen!

Re: Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullshit- again

Posted: 04 Sep 2009, 11:28am
by Dr. Medulla
eumaas wrote:
IkarisOne wrote:
Dr. Medulla wrote:[youtube][/youtube]
That is one of my all-time favorite Carlin bits.
Amen!
He's on my very short list of heroes. Demonstrated time and again that comedy isn't just about making you laugh. Ideally, it's subversive and it's a tool to stay sane.

Re: Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullshit- again

Posted: 04 Sep 2009, 11:58am
by IkarisOne
Dr. Medulla wrote:
eumaas wrote:
IkarisOne wrote:
Dr. Medulla wrote:[youtube][/youtube]
That is one of my all-time favorite Carlin bits.
Amen!
He's on my very short list of heroes. Demonstrated time and again that comedy isn't just about making you laugh. Ideally, it's subversive and it's a tool to stay sane.
Carlin was the polar opposite of the Clash- the older he got, the angrier and more uncompromising he got. Hence a whole new generation discovered him. Excellent lesson- stick to your guns, die with your boots on. Nobody loves a sellout.

Re: Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullshit- again

Posted: 04 Sep 2009, 1:10pm
by Dr. Medulla
IkarisOne wrote:Carlin was the polar opposite of the Clash- the older he got, the angrier and more uncompromising he got. Hence a whole new generation discovered him. Excellent lesson- stick to your guns, die with your boots on. Nobody loves a sellout.
I mentioned not too long ago that he was in dangerous of becoming safe and inoffensive. Late 70s to late 80s/early 90s, he fell into a lot of cute language play (the shit vs. stuff routine) or y'ever see this? He was still funny because he was so damn good at delivery and construction of a joke, but it was safe. Then in the early 90s, I guess when the right became foamingly angry, he just let loose as a seriously pissed off old man. Amazing transformation from the hippie stand-up who was infamous for working blue. Angry George was everything I want from a comedian—let me laugh, let me vent, make me think, make me pick sides. Fuming was always worth it with George leading the way.

Re: Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullshit- again

Posted: 14 Sep 2009, 5:44pm
by eumaas
Glenn Greenwald is sounding like a left-libertarian:
Super-rich corporations aren't benefiting from a free market, laissez faire approach. They're benefiting from the opposite: a constant merging of government and corporate power whereby the latter exploits the former for its own benefit. The right-wing theme that an expansion of federal government power means a contraction in corporate freedom is completely obsolete: government power is the means by which large corporations benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ ... index.html

Re: Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullshit- again

Posted: 14 Sep 2009, 5:57pm
by Dr. Medulla
eumaas wrote:Glenn Greenwald is sounding like a left-libertarian:
Super-rich corporations aren't benefiting from a free market, laissez faire approach. They're benefiting from the opposite: a constant merging of government and corporate power whereby the latter exploits the former for its own benefit. The right-wing theme that an expansion of federal government power means a contraction in corporate freedom is completely obsolete: government power is the means by which large corporations benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ ... index.html
That passage doesn't seem especially left libertarian to me so much as just plain left. Sounds like NDP complaints about corporate welfare bums and the like. Mind you, of course they don't have a problem with govt power per se, just when it is in service of corporations.

Re: Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullshit- again

Posted: 14 Sep 2009, 6:05pm
by IkarisOne
eumaas wrote:Glenn Greenwald is sounding like a left-libertarian:
Super-rich corporations aren't benefiting from a free market, laissez faire approach. They're benefiting from the opposite: a constant merging of government and corporate power whereby the latter exploits the former for its own benefit. The right-wing theme that an expansion of federal government power means a contraction in corporate freedom is completely obsolete: government power is the means by which large corporations benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ ... index.html

He is a left libertarian.

Re: Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullshit- again

Posted: 14 Sep 2009, 6:15pm
by eumaas
IkarisOne wrote:
eumaas wrote:Glenn Greenwald is sounding like a left-libertarian:
Super-rich corporations aren't benefiting from a free market, laissez faire approach. They're benefiting from the opposite: a constant merging of government and corporate power whereby the latter exploits the former for its own benefit. The right-wing theme that an expansion of federal government power means a contraction in corporate freedom is completely obsolete: government power is the means by which large corporations benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ ... index.html

He is a left libertarian.
I've seen him mainly defined as a progressive/liberal civil libertarian, which fits. I'm using left-libertarian in this definition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-liber ... marketeers
http://all-left.net

Re: Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullshit- again

Posted: 14 Sep 2009, 7:45pm
by IkarisOne
Forget Obama- Glenn Greenwald for President, is what I say:
Nothing that the GOP is doing to Obama should be the slightest bit surprising because this is the true face of the American Right -- and that's been true for a very long time now. It didn't just become true in the last few months or in the last two years. Recent months is just the time period when the media began noticing and acknowledging what they are: a pack of crazed, primitive radicals who don't really believe in the country's core founding values and don't merely disagree with, but contest the legitimacy of, any elected political officials who aren't part of their movement. Before the last year or so, the media pretended that this was a serious, adult, substantive political movement, but it wasn't any truer then than it is now. All one has to do is review their behavior during the Clinton presidency -- to say nothing of the Bush years -- to see that none of this is remotely new. Nothing they're doing to Obama is a break from their past behavior; it's just a natural and totally predictable continuation of it.

Re: Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullshit- again

Posted: 14 Sep 2009, 7:48pm
by eumaas
Recent months is just the time period when the media began noticing and acknowledging what they are: a pack of crazed, primitive radicals who don't really believe in the country's core founding values and don't merely disagree with, but contest the legitimacy of, any elected political officials who aren't part of their movement.
Whereas I wouldn't see any elected political officials as legitimate even were they part of my movement, haha.