Edwynn
Posts: 4105
Joined: 10/26/2008
Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: tweakabelle
I note the questions i posed at the end of my last post remain, at this point, unanswered.
They were at least partially answered in post #4, and you seem to have been satisfied with the explanation at the time.
quote:
ORIGINAL: tweakabelle
How American tax $ are prioritised and spent is decided by Americans i would have thought.
Also explained in post #4, which you seem to have understood at the time. The corporations decide where the money goes, Diebold determines who gets elected, and the media decide what we are supposed to bitch about, and it's their job to exclude the first two items..
quote:
ORIGINAL: tweakabelle
Conspiracy theories about some secret cabal of Western European Arms manufacturers and financiers (post #84) do have a certain novelty value. Alas, in the absence of evidence, they have no other value. So i don't find attempts to pass the buck to Europeans at all persuasive.
Nothing conspiratorial or secret about it, except for those that never bother to look beyond what the front page or the simple TV blurbs tell them.
2008 rank 2007 rank Company (country) 2008 arms sales (US$ m.) 2007 arms sales (US$ m.) Arms sales as share of company’s total sales (%), 2008 1 2  Lockheed Martin 32 420 29 860 95 2 3 Boeing 29 880 29 400 70 3 1  BAE Systems 29 200 30 480 48 4 4 Northrop Grumman 26 090 24 600 77 5 5 General Dynamics 22 780 21 520 78 6 6 Raytheon 21 030 19 540 91 7 7  EADS 17 900 13 100 28 8 9  Finmeccanica 13 020 9 850 52 9 8 L-3 Communications 12 160 11 240 82 10 10  Thales Group 10 760 9 350 58
Four European companies being in the top ten does not constitute a 'cabal,' it's just standard business practice.
And not to leave out the mercenaries ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArmorGroup
Those guys are doing a bang-up job too, and it's certainly no secret to their investors.
And for those speaking with the same voice that "Americans" actually wanted an invasion and that "Americans" don't want a good health care plan, let's take a look at things as they are, as opposed to what the media present ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_15,_2003_anti-war_protest
On the day, over 300 buses and four special trains brought protesters in from across the country. 100,000 protesters (BBC estimate) took part in a rally near the UN building. Among those taking part was the 9/11 Families For Peaceful Tomorrows, a group made up of some relatives of victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center.
As people tried to reach the rally area they ended up constituting an unplanned march, stretching twenty blocks down First Avenue and overflowing onto Second and Third Avenue.[23] In total estimates range from been 300,000 to 400,000 protesters (WSWS estimate).[21] to over a million protesters (Berlin Heise estimate)
At a demonstration in Los Angeles, California, 50,000 (WSWS estimate[21] to 60,000 (GLW estimate) protesters (CNN said "thousands") marched down Hollywood Boulevard filling it for four blocks.[/link]
Other activists in California originally planned to hold a protest in [link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco,_California]San Francisco on the Saturday but they changed to the Sunday in order not to conflict with the city's Chinese New Year's parade. The protest was held on Sunday February 16. The BBC estimated the crowd size to be 150,000 people,[53] while protest organisers and police agreed that the crowd count was 200,000 people.
And even before all that, there was this;
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1027-06.htm
More Than 100,000 March in Washington, DC
Antiwar Protest Largest Since '60s by Monte Reel and Manny Fernandez Tens of thousands of people marched in peaceful protest of any military strike against Iraq yesterday afternoon, in an antiwar demonstration that organizers and police suggested was likely Washington's largest since the Vietnam era.
Organizers with International ANSWER, a coalition of antiwar groups that coordinated the demonstration, had hoped for a turnout rivaling that of its pro-Palestinian rally in April that officials estimated at about 75,000. Organizers said they easily eclipsed that figure yesterday, assessing attendance at well more than 100,000.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note that the story above is by the mouthpiece Washington Post, so of course they had to present the affair as being "organized" by some group whom they immediately and prominently identified as being pro-Palestinian, in the laughable but predictable attempt to splay this not as an 'anti-war' protest but rather a 'pro-terrorist' rally. I can just about guarantee that not even 100 of the crowd ever heard of that group, and I know as a fact that the demonstration was not "organized" or "coordinated" by any such group. The media go to the last measure in excluding any possibility that people might act on their own conscience, insisting instead that any genuine citizen voice must be solely at the behest of some "organization."
Out of all that, the media (especially TV media) gave us the briefest glimpse possible, narrowing camera shots to make the crowd appear to be much smaller than in reality, and burying most of what little attention they gave to it in the middle of the newspaper.
Contrast that with the early tea party "rallies" that had maybe 15-30 people in attendance but the camera angles and the exorbitant and incessant "news" coverage went to great lengths to make it appear as some overwhelming phenomenon of near-biblical proportions. Headline and front page news, week after week.
And let's not forget 'Joe The Plumber' who, even after having his cover story blown on day two, was nevertheless blown into our face relentlessly by the media to an uncaring audience for over 3 months.
If you are relying on these idiots to inform you of what 'Americans' think, you've lost before even starting.
< Message edited by Edwynn -- 11/21/2010 1:29:47 AM >
|
RE: World comparison shows U.S. health care lacking - 
Profile
No wonder you're so confused. 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread