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The United States as a Mass-Killing Machine


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Ever since I bought my first computer about 20 years ago and set up the 6 month trial subscription of AOL to go online during the simpler internet era of banner ads, slow-loading pages and frequent disconnections, I've been a regular reader of TomDispatch - a news commentary site featuring articles written by Tom Englehart, a Vietnam veteran turned harsh critic of America's forever wars, ever-increasing military budgets, and especially the use of military and spy agencies for political and economic purposes. Other writers have contributed to his group blog, which even in today's high speed internet era has made few changes to the site....very little graphics, no popup ads, no paywalls and other assorted moneymaking crap now, it's just about presenting a case, supporting it with evidence and what I find most valuable - is that Englehardt and his contributors over the years still try to delve deeper than most analysts, and get to root causes of problems. 

In his latest piece: SLAUGHTER CENTRAL - The United States as a Mass-Killing Machine   Tom Englehardt doesn't divide America's domestic violence (shootings, massacres, world's highest prison populations etc. from the wars, blockades, arms sales, 800 US military bases around the world that are involved in almost continual bombings and drone killings, as Englehardt sees it, America's killing and displacing of so many abroad, cannot and should not be separated from the increasing violence that goes on in America on the home front. 

But, next time there's another mass shooting, a police execution video, and blowback of some sort against the thousands of US forces stationed abroad or possibly even more 9-11 types of attacks in the US itself, I am already expecting all of the rightwingers....libertarians to conservatives, along with the even more loathesome 'cruise missile liberals' to be looking for foreign nations and foreign scapegoats to point fingers at and hyperventilate even louder in vain attempts to try to put the blame on others!  God knows, we certainly have a very helpful mass media for that cause. But getting to the real truth and putting it out there unvarnished and without pretense is even harder today than it was when TomDispatch.com and other independent sites started 20 years ago!

   

Slaughter Central

The United States as a Mass-Killing Machine

By the time you read this piece,

SNIP

 

Copyright 2021 Tom Engelhardt

Edited by Charles Anthony
re-copied article removed by moderator
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Just now, Right To Left said:

You, more than anyone else here needs to read the article first before shooting off your mouth!

 

Why? Do I need to become a Communist?

If there was a choice between Noam Chomsky & Candace Owens speaking, guess who I'm going to see...

I get it: You hate America. Is there any other nuisance I should be aware of?

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25 minutes ago, DogOnPorch said:

 

Why? Do I need to become a Communist?

If there was a choice between Noam Chomsky & Candace Owens speaking, guess who I'm going to see...

I get it: You hate America. Is there any other nuisance I should be aware of?

Living in Canada means being attached to the US and stuck with whatever trade and foreign policy objectives come out of Washington. It's not a matter of love or hate, but taking a cold, hard look at reality: where we are headed and why today's political and economic systems have set us on a course to disaster at breakneck speed! 

If I'm a communist, the shit that's been happening for the past 30 years are the reasons why!  I was just trying to go about my business until about 20 years ago when I started questioning what I was seeing and what was going on here and around the world. And that's how I became radicalized at an age when you're supposed to trend towards comfort and conservatism! 

If you want to just stay in a protective, self-affirming bubble, certainly today's social media platforms and other garbage give you lots of opportunities to only hear from the idiots you like and agree with and never consider a contrary point of view. But that is not my course in life, and I want the truth whether I like what I see, or not!

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9 hours ago, Right To Left said:

Living in Canada...

If you want to just stay in a protective, self-affirming bubble, certainly today's social media platforms and other garbage give you lots of opportunities to only hear from the idiots you like and agree with and never consider a contrary point of view. But that is not my course in life, and I want the truth whether I like what I see, or not!

 

There's a lot I don't like at the moment about the current situation. It doesn't mean it is time to kill the Kulaks. 

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The perspective that's badly needed in that article is the fact that some country/empire somewhere will alway be the biggest and baddest weapons manufacturer on the planet, period. If not the US then maybe Russia, China (#1 right now for sure), or - god forbid - a murderous religious regime like Iran or Pakistan. The fact that it's America is absolutely not proof that they're evil, as the author is implying.

For example, America's need for a navy arose from the fact that her merchant ships were being seized by pirates and it's crewmen were being enslaved, not from a desire to rule the world. That's the world that America grew up in. America was the eventual driving force in the abolition of slavery. "You're welcome, humans. Go fuck yourself Engelhardt you little commie bitch." - America.

America's need for a vast military came from a need to help out in WWII, and to help defeat Naziism, not to bomb civilians. And make no mistake, the 2,000+ terrorist attacks per by the people whom the Afghanis work with are intentionally targeted at civilians. Therefor, stats like "700 civilians in Afghanistan" most certainly need some clarification. How many of those people are in the same car or house with a known terrorist when they're killed? If your husband is a terrorist and you make his dinners and raise his children to be terrorists are you somehow classified as "a civilian" for the purposes of his article? Does a 17 yr old who's already been making bombs for 3 years (an Omar Khadr) count as a civilian by virtue of their age?

That was a hit piece by a person with a small, naive world view. We'd all love it if there was no need for a military, but I think we all know what would happen to a country that was unable to defend itself from other countries that are actually quite evil, and they do exist. 

Edited by WestCanMan
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49 minutes ago, SpankyMcFarland said:

On the mass-killing front, though, the US is an outlier. It has become a feature of their culture that they seem unable to do anything about.  

 

De facto civil war...if not Left vs Right...it's city mouse and country mouse...suburbs vs inner city...rich vs poor...etc. How it can resolve is not really a mystery...just extremely undesirable. 

On the other-hand: A weekend in Chicago has the same casualty figures as an operation in Viet-Nam...but nobody notices.

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1 hour ago, SpankyMcFarland said:

On the mass-killing front, though, the US is an outlier. It has become a feature of their culture that they seem unable to do anything about.  

People cry "Save us America", then they cry "Americans attacked all these countries" and they include theirs on that list.

The list of countries that "America attacked" is very small compared to the list of countries that America was begged to intervene in. 

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On 4/14/2021 at 4:09 PM, Right To Left said:

and blowback of some sort against the thousands of US forces stationed abroad or possibly even more 9-11 types of attacks in the US itself, I am already expecting all of the rightwingers....libertarians to conservatives, along with the even more loathesome 'cruise missile liberals' to be looking for foreign nations and foreign scapegoats to point fingers at and hyperventilate even louder in vain attempts to try to put the blame on others!  God knows,

So wait, are you saying "Why has the whole world not attacked and destroyed America yet?" Because I see a familiar pattern emerging here.

 

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38 minutes ago, DogOnPorch said:

 

De facto civil war...if not Left vs Right...it's city mouse and country mouse...suburbs vs inner city...rich vs poor...etc. How it can resolve is not really a mystery...just extremely undesirable. 

On the other-hand: A weekend in Chicago has the same casualty figures as an operation in Viet-Nam...but nobody notices.

Now Americans are all freaked about the shooting of a person who just shot a gun, 5 times, at a car with people in it, and then ran from police with the gun in his hand and ignored several orders to stop.

The guy tried to hide the fact that he had dropped the gun, and then turned and raised his hands quickly to put his arms up, no doubt the cop thought the gun was still in his hand. 

Once again, they put the police in a situation where their life was actually threatened and then act like the cops should just be chill. The leftists who incite fear and hatred of police, and obviously violence, then wonder why police are quick to defend their lives. Fucking idiots.

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1 hour ago, DogOnPorch said:

 

De facto civil war...if not Left vs Right...it's city mouse and country mouse...suburbs vs inner city...rich vs poor...etc. How it can resolve is not really a mystery...just extremely undesirable. 

On the other-hand: A weekend in Chicago has the same casualty figures as an operation in Viet-Nam...but nobody notices.

Actually, it’s easy to notice both. Mass-killings are a bizarre aspect of American life that the people down there seem to accept. 

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4 hours ago, SpankyMcFarland said:

Actually, it’s easy to notice both. Mass-killings are a bizarre aspect of American life that the people down there seem to accept. 

Mass-killings are everywhere. Don't forget that the US has approximately the 4th-highest population on earth.

Sadiq Khan: "Terrorism in big cities is normal."

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On 4/16/2021 at 1:45 PM, SpankyMcFarland said:

Actually, it’s easy to notice both. Mass-killings are a bizarre aspect of American life that the people down there seem to accept. 

And that's why I moved back to Canada a little over 30 years ago! 

I was bamboozled by the BS of so many propagandists....even repeated often by at least two of my uncles that USA was the place for a young man to go to be a success.

But, just as everything you buy today has warning labels, you have to check the label or check under the hood to find out if its all really worth it!

The only people who see America as a 'land of promise' today it seems, are the desperate poor coming as refugees from southern nations impoverished by US exploitation. May as well go to the place where all the money ends up.....even if you have to live on slave wages!

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On 4/16/2021 at 1:09 PM, WestCanMan said:

Now Americans are all freaked about the shooting of a person who just shot a gun, 5 times, at a car with people in it, and then ran from police with the gun in his hand and ignored several orders to stop.

The guy tried to hide the fact that he had dropped the gun, and then turned and raised his hands quickly to put his arms up, no doubt the cop thought the gun was still in his hand. 

Once again, they put the police in a situation where their life was actually threatened and then act like the cops should just be chill. The leftists who incite fear and hatred of police, and obviously violence, then wonder why police are quick to defend their lives. Fucking idiots.

Be honest here! Are you conflating two different shooting events,  or trying to tell us that the 13 year old boy fatally shot after being chased by a cop on foot patrol had fired a gun FIVE times!  According to a Chicago Police statement, they claim a 21 year old man had fired the gun in question at a car in the neighborhood. But, I wouldn't even take their word for it on those details, since these same lying bastards are still claiming that the boy (Adam Toledo) had a gun in his right hand when the cop shot him dead that night. If you look at screen captures of his bodycam video that was released to the public over the weekend, you can plainly see that the boy has nothing in either hand when he turned around!  

And according to other police statements, accompanied by bodycam and security cam video, the boy was with a 21 year old 'Ruben Roman' when police encountered them and ordered them to stop...but both fled down the dark alley. My guess would be that Roman was using the boy as an accomplice; and since he wasn't found holding a gun when he was found later, there was only one gun and he handed it off to a 13 year old because of his apparently lengthy arrest record.  

It's possible that Adam Toledo carried the gun and dropped the gun before he turned around, but that's difficult to say because of the lack of lighting. It's even impossible to determine if the kid he's chasing has anything in his hands. Begs the question: why would he want to get so close to someone carrying a gun, when that would only leave him with the option of shoot-to-kill if he believed the suspect could shoot at him? Regardless, the first pictures of Adam Toledo before being shot, show nothing! 

Later in the cop's bodycam video, you can see that he is distraught..no doubt realizing he fucked up and fatally shot a kid. He's telling him to "stay with me," "keep breathing," but that's impossible after seeing that surge of blood high in the chest or low in the neck, severed the boy's windpipe.....in a similar manner as the Jan. 6 shooting of Ashli Babbitt showed the same surge of blood from a shot to the neck. 

Too late!  It does put him in a higher category than the murderous mercenary - Derek Chauvin at least!

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53 minutes ago, Right To Left said:

The only people who see America as a 'land of promise' today it seems, are the desperate poor coming as refugees from southern nations impoverished by US exploitation. May as well go to the place where all the money ends up.....even if you have to live on slave wages!

It may seem that way, but it isn't. Canada still suffers from US 'brain drain', meaning a lot of people who graduate from universities here, or work in medical operating rooms or what have you, get offered fancy paying jobs in the US. Naturally it is the finest and best who get invited there. Our top scientists, researchers, engineers and business men.

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2 hours ago, Right To Left said:

Be honest here! Are you conflating two different shooting events,  or trying to tell us that the 13 year old boy fatally shot after being chased by a cop on foot patrol had fired a gun FIVE times!  According to a Chicago Police statement, they claim a 21 year old man had fired the gun in question at a car in the neighborhood. But, I wouldn't even take their word for it on those details, since these same lying bastards are still claiming that the boy (Adam Toledo) had a gun in his right hand when the cop shot him dead that night. If you look at screen captures of his bodycam video that was released to the public over the weekend, you can plainly see that the boy has nothing in either hand when he turned around!  

1) Whether he shot the gun, or he was with the guy that shot the gun, is something that can only be known after the fact. At the time the cop was chasing him, he was one of two people who was there when the gun was shot, and the gun was in his hand.  What do you think the cop suspected at that time? That someone was dumb enough to take the gun that was just fired? Of course he was suspected of shooting. 

2) He ran along the fence to where there was a gap in the fence on his right side, and the gun was clearly visible in his right hand at that point. Right when he got to the spot where the fence started again, he hid the fact that he was dropping the gun by throwing behind the fence while he was turning to his left to face the officer.

His trick worked, in that he managed to get the gun out of his hand unbeknownst to the officer before he turned to face him, but since the officer was tricked into not knowing that he had dropped a gun, the cop thought that the gun was still in his hand.  So when he quickly raised his hand, the cop thought that the gun was going to end up pointed right at him. 

The age of the kid is irrelevant at that point. Pointing a death machine at a cop will get you killed if you're ten or 90.

Quote

And according to other police statements, accompanied by bodycam and security cam video, the boy was with a 21 year old 'Ruben Roman' when police encountered them and ordered them to stop...but both fled down the dark alley. My guess would be that Roman was using the boy as an accomplice; and since he wasn't found holding a gun when he was found later, there was only one gun and he handed it off to a 13 year old because of his apparently lengthy arrest record.  

It's possible that Adam Toledo carried the gun and dropped the gun before he turned around, but that's difficult to say because of the lack of lighting. It's even impossible to determine if the kid he's chasing has anything in his hands. Begs the question: why would he want to get so close to someone carrying a gun, when that would only leave him with the option of shoot-to-kill if he believed the suspect could shoot at him? Regardless, the first pictures of Adam Toledo before being shot, show nothing! 

Later in the cop's bodycam video, you can see that he is distraught..no doubt realizing he fucked up and fatally shot a kid. He's telling him to "stay with me," "keep breathing," but that's impossible after seeing that surge of blood high in the chest or low in the neck, severed the boy's windpipe.....in a similar manner as the Jan. 6 shooting of Ashli Babbitt showed the same surge of blood from a shot to the neck. 

Too late!  It does put him in a higher category than the murderous mercenary - Derek Chauvin at least!

You have bogus sources son. 

Most of the videos out there freeze for a long time at the exact moment the kids hands are in the air, making it seem as though the cop had all day to stare at the innocent kid before he racistly blasted him to kingdom come.

In real time, the kid is shot by the time his hands are up. The cop had a tenth of a second to respond to a gun being pointed at him. You show me a cop who doesn't pull the trigger at that very exact moment and I'll show you a cop with very little time left to live on this earth. 

That was a textbook, PERFECT, shooting. Unfortunately the 14 yr old kid is dead now, that doesn't alter the fact that it was a perfect shooting. The cop gave the kid multiple chances to do the right thing and drop the gun and then the cop waited until the very last millisecond possible before he fired his gun. 1/2 a second later the cop could be dead himself, 1/2 a second earlier he had no reason to shoot. The kid tried to hide the fact that he was getting rid of the gun, and then he moved very quickly, he basically tricked the cop into shooting him. 

Here's a photo from ABC news, which is not a conservative broadcaster by any stretch of the imagination:

 

Any insinuation that there's anything wrong with that shooting is just hateful and divisive fear mongering. I knew that on the 15th. There's no excuse for you to not know it now. You've been duped, or worse....

 

 

 

Screen Shot 2021-04-19 at 5.11.52 PM.png

Edited by WestCanMan
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