The Unsmiling Bodhisattva: Ending Our Collaboration With War

[ronnewmexico]

Yes...the way the fed is currently comprised and operated leads directly to private overt influence.
100% corrrect to my opinion.

That is what needs to be remedied, not eliminate the fed.

[Lhug-Pa]

Nangwa

That makes sense, and now I see more what Ronnewmexico was getting at.

Even still, no Fed at all, would be better than a for-profit privately owned Fed.

Although a non-private non-profit "Fed" could be a good thing, as you said.

Edited my previous post quite a bit a couple minutes ago...

[ronnewmexico]

It is not better...The fed being of corporate interest to exculsion.
Private interest with no fed..... worse.

You really have to study what causee these things of US government to exist before you propose ending them.
Like with the FDA, OSHA Income Tax....there was real cause for their creation and maintance.
That they are occaisonally or often misused by corporate interest or serve not properly their dictates...does not mean the conditions that favored their existecne no longer exist or can be disregarded.

Once studied what caused them to be then one can approximate that deciding. Without knowing that...wrong always will one be.

Who knows what caused those things...FDA, mandatory testing of any prescription drug on animals by law....there was a reason for that....death of many.
One example but virtually all things of government were created for significant purpose. Rarely do those conditions completly subside.

[Lhug-Pa]

Well for many of these current organization's existence to be justified, would require them to undergo a MAJOR overhaul.

Look up the Obama administration, the FDA, and Monsanto, all together in Google and see what you come up with.

Did anyone watch the Ron Paul interview posted a few posts ago?

[ronnewmexico]

Major overhaul yes i certainly agree. Subject of overt politicization and corporate influence many do not serve their intended purpose.

I studied Ron Paul subsequent to the economic meltdown in 08...he had it wrong. STill does... just not meeting the facts is he.
I can read through the nonsense easily knowing a bit about the facts of it.
Foreign policy...agree with him 100%.

The causes of their creation justify their existance. If those causes are found no longer to exist then they, the government entities, may not exist of be devolved.
If the causes of their existance do still exist, then we must modify them to better meet the current situation that they are in if they are considered to be not meeting their imperitive.

The fed...still exists the same cause for their existance as was present in the day of theodore rosevelt.
FDA same thing
SEC...same thing.
EPA..same thing

And on and on.
Some things devolve at times.....bureau of weights and measures.....if not eliminatedalready, perhaps that could be elimanated or something like that....not these things we are discussing.

Now this part I will get on my soapbox the rest is about all not opinion but factually represented..

For years and years through various means has been furthered the notion government is arbitrary and in fact a cause of much of the US's woes.
Now come the fruition or those propogandistic endeavors.....no government eventually will you have.
Great defense industry, perhaps that

.... a seat on the economic table which the common person is only offered by government...it will be gone.
So no voice then the commoners....how sad they will be...

America.... I no arbitrator of karma..... but your industry through global warming and how you do things..it choking the world.....so you will be choked as were the dominators before you. largly by their own hands fall empires not by exterior forces.
What americans think they are most closely defending is what is choking them. The defense of those things is the choking thing.

Long gone lifetimes next or more. Human none will remember this thing nor why its fall.
Sad memories that may persist of some form or fashion this thing of self destruction. Lessons learned always present by inclination is this thing of destruction formed. So inclined to this destruction are they.

[Lhug-Pa]

Good, we agree on overhauling and foreign policy.

The U.S. has some heavy karma for sure.

Speaking of which, you mentioned devolution....

The topics of Involution, Devolution, Evolution, and Revolution are very interesting:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Revoluti ... =&safe=off

[ronnewmexico]

If the US had spent one tenth of what they spent to fight that imagined enemy in Iraq, 100 billion dollars. Spent it upon giving safe water to drink to peoples globally, as Ashoka did in india years ago...terrorism would have instantaneously devolved....none would stand for it against a american thing
And no constant drain on resource then that.

Such is as all empires by the hand of their own peoples and as a result of not loving enough...always that is how they fall.
How soon is the question not if.

Ron Paul...all for it......... hope he gets elected.......... hastened will be the demise, and thus with some luck, less harm globally, and humanity may have a bit of a chance of surviving the next great crisis it faces.
Newt Perry...I'd take any of them.
Best chance though....if Rocky Anderson gets traction...its curtains for Obama. Probably not to happen however that.

[Indrajala]

Not paying taxes will just put you in jail. Even withholding whatever percentage is used for the military, will only mean that the political representatives will cut non-military parts of government that you might like. Defense spending is too popular & too needed in the minds of most politicians.

You can abandon your country and live elsewhere in a land where taxes won't be used for evil ends. That is tantamount to not paying taxes, though in some scenarios individuals still have to pay taxes to their home country even if they pay taxes in their new resident country.

[Will]

Not paying taxes will just put you in jail. Even withholding whatever percentage is used for the military, will only mean that the political representatives will cut non-military parts of government that you might like. Defense spending is too popular & too needed in the minds of most politicians.

You can abandon your country and live elsewhere in a land where taxes won't be used for evil ends. That is tantamount to not paying taxes, though in some scenarios individuals still have to pay taxes to their home country even if they pay taxes in their new resident country.

What countries have no military or defense spending - Costa Rica (or is it El Salvador) and .... ?

[Nemo]

It's not very hard to find a country less evil than America. Sweden, Finland, Norway,etc are not currently involved in colonialist wars of aggression, have a semblance of Democracy and a much more fair distribution of wealth. I'd rather live almost anywhere but America. If you want to be a radical make your own power and grow your own food.

It may be a good time to leave. The levers of American Democracy no longer work. 70% of the American people were against bailing out the banks. Moneyed interests trump democracy. A military budget larger than the entire rest of the world combined speaks volumes about the USA's character. Capitalism is dead. Banking services and manufacturing for government controlled monopolies(Military and pharmaceutical/medical) are pretty well all that is keeping you afloat. America is going down the toilet 30 years sooner than anyone suspected thanks to starting so many unwinnable wars. Throwing out the rule of law, destroying education and letting infrastructure crumble while eroding the entire framework of regulations that kept speculators in check has paved a road that leads to America's long term doom.

[Indrajala]

Not paying taxes will just put you in jail. Even withholding whatever percentage is used for the military, will only mean that the political representatives will cut non-military parts of government that you might like. Defense spending is too popular & too needed in the minds of most politicians.

You can abandon your country and live elsewhere in a land where taxes won't be used for evil ends. That is tantamount to not paying taxes, though in some scenarios individuals still have to pay taxes to their home country even if they pay taxes in their new resident country.

What countries have no military or defense spending - Costa Rica (or is it El Salvador) and .... ?

Having a military used for defence and having a military for aggressive wars are two different things.

[Thug4lyfe]

You should pay tax.

[ronnewmexico]

Comparative tax rates are mentioned a bit in this aricle of opinion.....http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/are-taxes-in-the-u-s-high-or-low/

A comparison study has just been made on developed economies and their GDP to tax rate overall, highest to lowest...the US is 26 ahead of only mexico and argentina.

Find it on the internet that....what a surprise a bit hard to find....fact nevertheless, not one corproations want to be known of however.
Buddhists nations in a historical context have always had defensive armies for the most part.
Armies of aggression....not really.

Ah a bit of work but found it... needless to say the heritage foundation numbers found in some sources like wikipedia may be a bit confusing mileading or downright off....http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/taxation/total-tax-revenue_20758510-table2

Wiki does have a good article telling what OECD is for those (americans) not familiar with it....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_for_Economic_Co-operation_and_Development..

Heritage foundation is a right wing think tank of sorts. Basically OECD numbers are comparing generally apples to apples with comparative type economies of larger countries of a democratic nature.
Throw in teeny tiny countries or other inclusive criteria other forms of government perhaps.... and you get not a comparitive sampleing usefull for discussion of taxation in a western economic model. The Saudies for instance....small and not much taxation so great is government revenue from oil, as but one example. But such is the heritage foundation.

The US taxes for me...it is not the taxes.... it is spending a disproportianate amount on defense, which is necessary to maintain a army of conquest not defense which is the problem. Probably not necessary is it to compare percent of GDP to defense spending, nation by nation....america is way way disproportianate in that regard. Number one I am quite certain. Largest of armies all others combined to my dim recollection is that thing.
The fall of the economy of the USSR and its predessor, the war on afghanistan were not unrelated issues...the straw that broke the camels back is what it was. Not falling far from that tree the US and its varying wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And naturally the refusal to raise taxes to pay for that thing and then the inevitable consequences to balance the budget the social services must be sacrificed, to that thing then...of war.
Not by accident that.....deficits created for means, as STockman.... Regans budget director attested to back in the day....was the plan.

[cdpatton]

Not paying taxes will just put you in jail. Even withholding whatever percentage is used for the military, will only mean that the political representatives will cut non-military parts of government that you might like. Defense spending is too popular & too needed in the minds of most politicians.

You can abandon your country and live elsewhere in a land where taxes won't be used for evil ends. That is tantamount to not paying taxes, though in some scenarios individuals still have to pay taxes to their home country even if they pay taxes in their new resident country.

Taxes have nothing to do with it. It's culture, values, and decisions. We may not have anything to do with the decisions if we are just ordinary citizens, but we can at least combat the false doctrines that supports those decisions among other ordinary citizens. For example, the soldier/veteran worship here in the US. What is all this "run off to the a peaceful corner of the world and hide" talk?! Sariputra still has flowers stuck to him.

[ronnewmexico]

Military Predator Drones are now being used by the forces of enforcement, in this specific drug enforcement, on american citizens in North Dakota.....http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/10/nation/la-na-drone-arrest-20111211.....

War it embibes the american psyche.