Q. The U.S. against the clear objections of the government in Syria is occupying valuable land, stealing the country's oil, and preventing access to the most agriculturally productive region, effectively starving the population. The world sees this for what it is, a cruel game sacrificing innocent people for some perceived geopolitical advantage. Is this the kind of reputation the U.S. wants? Or does it simply no longer care what the rest of the world community thinks?
A. The US really only has one playbook. So even though the standard propaganda The US wants to give you freedom and democracy has broken down and no longer holds up, the US government keeps pushing it. Meanwhile they have and endless array of economic sanctions on countries (economic war), they're bombing multiple countries, and they spend billions on CIA cutouts trying to create coups in various nations. They've invaded, destroyed, or "coup'ed" numerous countries most commonly those who are outside our central banking system and/or are socialist. Yet, when a US official walks up to that podium, they still say, "We need to bring democracy to ___[fill in country]__."
Q. In a democracy, at least in theory citizens have a say in all matters of public policy. Yet, in the end none of the recent military campaigns and undeclared wars seem to achieve much popular favor or support. What is and what should be the role of everyday citizens in determining the foreign policy and military priorities of the country? Or are such matters better left to the "experts"?
A. I'll do you one better. For much of what our Pentagon's actions not even elected officials have a say. Congress rarely intervenes in military matters. They no longer declare wars, even though they're supposed to. Even the president doesn't oversee most military intelligence actions. He may have some say in whether we start bombing a country, but 99% of the Pentagon's behavior is not scrutinized by the President or Congress. On top of that, no one seems to know where the money goes. As I said earlier, trillions of dollars are floating around and thousands of auditors can't even get to the bottom of it. Whistleblowers have said that when they were serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, they would be given bundles of millions of dollars to hand out and no one kept track of where it went. In Afghanistan we were paying the Taliban and fighting the Taliban. We were paying the opium growers and fighting the opium growers. The only book that does this insanity justice is Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22.
Q. Now there's pervasive spying on U.S. citizens right here at home. What place does any of this have in "the land of the free"? Does this mean government of the people, by the people, for the people is just a sham?
A. Yes, it's a sham. The government can't truly represent the people unless the people know what the government is up to. But we're not told most of what the government does. And when a whistleblower reveals what our government is up to or a journalist like Julian Assange they're horribly persecuted and imprisoned. Furthermore, even if you wanted to claim we have a free democracy in the US, the two corporate parties agree on 90% of the core issues of our country. They agree on capitalism, on militarism, on Wall Street, on environmental destruction, on unlimited surveillance, on a massive prison state, on dystopian policing they agree on just about everything. So if our choice is between those two parties, then it's no choice at all. None of our elections are legit in this regard.
Q. Recently we've seen some token but precedent-setting direct payments to citizens in the form of Covid relief. There is also the ongoing discussion about reparations to descendants of slaves. If it could be unequivocally established that the government has abused DOD funding, misused and squandered vast sums of money to promote unjustified wars, purchase unneeded equipment, unnecessarily expand U.S. military presence across the globe, and regularly lied to the American public to manufacture consent for these misadventures and fraudulent activities, practical and political considerations aside, do you see any constitutional or other legal barriers to the public identifying, expecting, or even demanding proper compensation? A cash refund or citizen reparations for massive, authenticated abuse of power?
A. I'll go beyond that. I believe Universal Basic Income is both doable right now and would save millions of lives. It would instantly end homelessness, extreme poverty, hunger, and a large percentage of health problems. Ending those things would also greatly decrease crime. Furthermore, UBI already exists in Alaska and other smaller examples. However, this is not to say it would solve all the problems with capitalism. It would not. Having an economic system that pushes everyone to seek profit over all else will ultimately destroy everything eventually. Capitalism requires infinite growth on a finite planet. By definition, it cannot sustain, and we're already seeing signs of environmental collapse. We need a mental revolution, an evolution of what is possible. And we need it now.
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