US Gen. Smedley Butler; US Marine, UN Weapon InspectorScott Ritter, FUN 24H, Nov. 30, 2023, Garland Nixon, GP; Pfc. Sandoval, Sheldon S., Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Scott Ritter: "Israel is horrific genocidal, maniacal Zionist country, Hamas winning battle for Gaza"
War Is a Racket (Smedley Butler)
(FUN 24H)
Nov. 30, 2023: "Zionism is a sickness," says Scott Ritter. U.S. General Smedley Butler was right: War is a Racket, a scam, a scheme, a cheat, a fraud, a lie motivated by profits. #scottritter#hamas #palestine #hamas #israel
"'From the river to the sea' was invented by the rabid rightwing Likud Party that supports current Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu. It cries that pro-Palestine peaceful demonstrators sing it, but they wrote it to excuse their genocide against Arabs, Palestinians, Gazans. There is a rightwing in Israel even more bloodthirsty than CIA Asset Netanyahu. Illegal Israeli settlers are glad to kill to steal homes and land. Netanyahu's government hands out automatic weapons for them to do it. And they do.
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Who can possibly guess why many observers who do know about these LNG deposits are suggesting that Israel’s interest in driving millions of Palestinians out of Gaza (dispossession, depopulation, dislocation, genocide if necessary) may have more to do with money than Zionism, religion, fear, or terrorism?
Jimmy Dore and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss why no one else in the media is discussing this highly germane aspect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
U.S. General Smedley Butler: War is a Racket (Forgotten History) Nov. 21, 2022: Born on July 30, 1881, U.S. Major General Smedley D. Butler was the eldest son of a Quaker family from West Chester, Pennsylvania. Only two Marines ever received the Medal of Honor twice, Daniel Daly and Smedley Butler, both in separate conflicts. Besides being twice decorated with the Medal of Honor, how did he display even greater courage and preserve the U.S. Constitution, preventing a coup that wanted to instal a U.S. military dictatorship? Find out in this episode. Hosted by Colin D. Heaton. The Forgotten History Channel is a 10th Legion Pictures Production. #forgottenhistorychannel
Dennis Kucinich, The CH Show, 11/3/23; Sheldon S., Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Palestine, Israel, and the US War Machine with Dennis Kucinich | The Chris Hedges Report
(The Real News Network)
Premiered Nov. 3, 2023: The Real News Network Podcasts. Israel's ongoing massacre in Gaza has stirred worldwide calls for a ceasefire to stop the genocide unfolding. The United States has been no exception, which countless peace demonstrators taking to the streets in recent weeks.
That hasn't stopped the US government from backing Israel's horrific campaign in Gaza to the hilt. The White House has refused to heed calls for a "ceasefire" and has even deployed two aircraft carriers to the Mediterranean — not to defend victims in Palestine, but to dissuade regional powers (Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc.) from joining the attack on genocidal Israel to defend Muslim civilians in Palestine.
As the possibility of a regional war -- and even a world war if Iran is attacked and Russia and China step in -- looms with the entry of Yemen into the conflict, many wonder how the US might respond to such a scenario.
Former U.S. Congressperson Dennis Kucinich joins The Chris Hedges Report for a discussion on the US War Machine — what it is, how it works, and how it might respond should the Jewish-Israeli war on Palestine spiral into a wider conflagration.
Studio Production: David Hebden, Adam Coley. Post-Production: Adam Coley. Watch The Chris Hedges Report live YouTube premiere on The Real News Network every Friday at 12:00 pm ET: therealnews.com/chris-hedges...
Listen to episode podcasts and find bonus content at The Chris Hedges Report Substack: chrishedges.substack.com.
ABOUT: The Real News is an independent, viewer-supported, radical media network. Help continue producing The Chris Hedges Report by following and making a small donation:
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Gen Z explains why they won’t join the U.S. military: NOT what you think, but worse
Go to war, and one day we'll say, "F U for your..."
(Jamesons Travels) Gen Z teen explains why they are not joining. It's not what one would think...because it's worse.
[Actually, it's better. The kids are going to be all right. They don't want to join a patriarchal rape camp system of oppression that leads to so much unskillful karma that one would be working it out for generations and millennia to come. Killing for empire, oil, control, and world domination by transnational corporations? H to the no.
Today's military is pro-LGBTQIA+. Come rape and harass and get it from comrades.
Come back a Republican alcoholic PTSD-sufferer, broken and ignored at by the V.A., dropped into homelessness, addicted, anxious, all messed up and looking forward to a pittance for "serving" in the Chair Force droning innocents then labelling them "combatants"? The U.S. military-industrial complex has a saying, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's by FEAR and goes, "Let's have a war so you can go die." Anyone who thinks YOU should join this man's army ought to go join themselves, the cowards.
Ven. Thanissaro (trans.) accesstoinsight.org; edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly
KARMA: It's everywhere you're going to be.
One needs a livelihood (a way of earning a living or way of getting the funds to survive independently, most commonly a job, but not necessarily).
Knowing that, the Buddha advises humans to avoid unskillful karma (unwholesome deeds that lead, when their results finally ripen whether in this life or a future life, to suffering).
He defined "wrong livelihood" for people. "A follower [of my advice] abstains from five types of business. What are those five? Trade in weapons, trade in human beings, trade in meat, trade in intoxicants, and trade in poisons"
(AN 5.177).
Considering the military to become a soldier? It would be good to reconsider.
SUTRA: If I die in battle, I go to [Valhalla], right?
I killed all those people for nothing, out of ignorance, fear, and hatred. Now I'm going to...
The headman Yodhajiva went to the Blessed One [the Buddha], greeted him with respect, and sat respectfully to one side. Sitting there, he asked:
"Venerable sir, I have heard that it is passed down by the ancient teaching lineage of warriors that 'When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, if others strike him down and slay him while he is striving and exerting himself in battle then, with the breakup of the body after death, he is reborn in the company of devas (shining ones) slain in battle.' What does the Blessed One have to say about that?"
"Enough, headman, set that question aside. Do not ask it."
But a second time...and a third time the headman Yodhajiva asked it... 'What does the Blessed One have to say about that?"
"Headman, apparently, I am unable to get around it by saying, 'Enough, headman, set that question aside. Do not ask it.' So I will answer directly:
"When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, his mind is already seized, debased, and misdirected by the thought, 'May these beings be struck down or slaughtered, annihilated, destroyed. May they not exist.'
"If others then strike him down and slay him while he is striving and exerting himself in battle then, with the breakup of the body after death, he is reborn in a hell called the Realm of Those Slain in Battle.
"But if he holds such a view as, 'When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, if others strike him down and slay him while he is striving and exerting himself in battle then, with the breakup of the body after death, he is reborn in the company of devas slain in battle,' that is a wrong view.
"Now truthfully I say, there are two destinations for a person with wrong view, hell or the animal realm."
How could I have been so dumb to believe that?
When this was said, the headman Yodhajiva began to sob and he burst into tears.
[The Blessed One said:] "That is what I could not get around by saying, 'Headman, enough, set that aside. Do not ask it.'"
[Yodhajiva:] "Venerable sir, I'm not crying because of what the Blessed One said to me but because for so long time I have been deceived, cheated, and fooled by that ancient teaching lineage of warriors who said that'" (SN 42.3).
Smedley Darlington Butler (1881–1940) was a USMC major general, the highest rank at the time. He was the most decorated Marine in U.S. history when he passed away. During his 34-year career as a Marine, he participated in military actions in the Philippines, China, Central America, the Caribbean during the Banana Wars, and France in WW I. He later became an outspoken critic of U.S. wars and their consequences. He even exposed a businessmen's plan to overthrow the U.S. government. He received 16 medals, five for heroism, and was one of only 19 men to receive the Medal of Honor twice, one of three to be awarded both the Marine Corps Brevet Medal and the Medal of Honor, and the only Marine to be awarded the Brevet Medal and two Medals of Honor, all for separate actions. In 1933, in the Business Plot controversy, he told a congressional committee that a group of wealthy businessmen/industrialists were plotting a military coup to overthrow U.S. Pres. FDR.
War? Shmore! We're making big money.
After he retired in 1931, he did a nationwide tour with a speech titled "War is a Racket." It was so well received that he wrote it out, expanded it, and published it as a short book.
Obey. Don't question authority!
It was condensed in Reader's Digest, which boosted its surging popularity. In the introduction to the condensed version, Lowell Thomas praised it.
War Is a Racket points to examples, mostly from WW I, that prove that industrialists are subsidized and enriched by publicly funded wars.
Their operations generate massive profits for private corporations and companies that milk money from mass human suffering.
"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."
[That's why we have wars, not the lies they us and repeat in the mainstream media.]More
It is natural to first remember those who are closest to us.
Many of us have been personally touched by war. But we must also extend
that mourning.
We must remember the combat veterans, civilian ["collateral damage"] victims,
and their families, who are all equally human beings. Honoring and
remembering some deaths while ignoring others not only perpetuates war, it also ignores the moral injuries of war, which is now recognized as a
significant cause of veteran suicide.
This Memorial Day, VFP is reminding the public that the human cost of war is more than
human soldiers. It is also the people who are caught in the crossfire. Each year VFP members participate in a wide range
of activities in cities and towns all across the nation to observe
Memorial Day.
In Washington, D.C., VFP will display the Swords to Plowshares Belltower from May 25-27 to remember ALL people murdered and killed in war. On Memorial Day morning VFP will host a ceremony at
the Belltower at 9:00 AM then solemnly proceed by foot to the Vietnam
Memorial to deliver open "Letters to the Vietnam Wall" at 10:30 AM as
part of the Vietnam Full Disclosure Campaign. More
What is a "false flag" operation, and what does it have to do with WW II's Pearl Harbor?
U.S. General Smedley D. Butler
War is a scam. War, what is it good for? Absolutely something: making money for arms dealers, war profiteers, professional military men, stock markets, and industry/corporations.
Just ask U.S. Marine Corps Major General Smedley D. Butler. He figured it out before 1935 then wrote the book on it. By international and constitutional law, as well as other contractual agreements, the U.S. cannot enter war without Congressional authorization. That's never stopped us.
For all we really need is a pretext, a "false flag operation," an excuse to justify doing what we plan in advance as "retaliation" for something else. For instance, if we're attacked, we have given ourselves the right to start military hostilities without hesitating to ask anyone's permission.
So the military-industrial complex, with plenty of help from the Congress, rules our government and the military it funds. U.S. Pres. Eisenhower warned us.
Since we need an attack to strike back, and since no one will attack us, let's just say they did -- Bay of Tonkin, Bay of Pigs, Bay of Pearl Harbor.
We were so innocently minding our own peace-loving business when those subhuman monsters came and dared to attack us on our own soil!
What could we do but "fight back"? We knew it was coming to Hawaii (a 1,000 islands we had invaded and forcibly made part of the USA largely to create a forward military base for strategic advantage), we had moved all of our real ships out to sea for safety, and we brought in our own junkers filled with youthful recruits to be sitting ducks. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted war.
The Japanese -- and since we had secretly broken their code months before, we knew all about their intentions and plans weeks in advance -- flew in, saw that it was a setup, but could not retreat. So they bombed as planned and went on kamikaze missions. And we played it up to the hilt.
Even 75 years later on anniversary days like today, we officially grieve and remember how brave we were to seek revenge.
In the guise of foreign wars - James Madison
Our hands were forced to enter the "good war" and kill hundreds of thousands, injure millions (many still feeling the effects of nuclear fallout because we are the only nation in the known history of the world to ever drop nuclear bombs on a human population, a civilian one at that, in contravention of all conventions and acceptable military practices).
Hooray for our side! Let's kill all who oppose our interests, particularly as it relates to our free trade freedom. If we need something more spectacular than Pearl Harbor, how about we take down a bunch of towers in our biggest city with the cameras rolling? Sure, why not?
If we're willing to accept Operation Northwooods, why not sacrifice 5,000 citizens for endless wars -- taking down seven countries from Iraq and Afghanistan to Syria and Iran. All invasion plans have been prepared in advance.
(BCTV) The Pearl Harbor advance-knowledge theory is the idea that American officials had advance knowledge of Japan's Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Ever since the Japanese attack there has been debate as to how and why the United States had been caught off guard and how much and when American officials knew of Japanese plans for an attack.
Several writers, including journalist Robert Stinnett[3] and former United States Navy Rear Admiral Robert A. Theobald, have argued that various parties high in the U.S. and British governments knew of the attack in advance and may even have let it happen or encouraged it in order to force America into war via the "back door." Evidence supporting this view is taken from quotations and source documents from the time and the release of newer materials.
Ten official U.S. inquiries
The U.S. government made nine official inquiries into the attack between 1941 and 1946 and a tenth in 1995. They included an inquiry by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox (1941); the Roberts Commission (1941-42);...More
Soldier crying after glories of war -- killing, brutalizing, imposing rule (gettyimages.com)
(Slayer) "Fight Till Death" (lyrics and music by Jeff Hanneman) from the album "Show No Mercy"
LYRICS
Metal and men clash once more to the end
Warriors above with power to kill descend
Militia of blood troops of hate march to die
Soldiers of hell, VETERANS of death, arise!
CHORUS: Prepare for attack/Your bodies will burn/In this war there's no return/Prepare for attack/Death will arrive/Your orders are clear/No way to hide/Fight till death!
Senseless death of all mankind overtakes
Armored assassins destroy at will your escape
Children of sorrow are trampled onto the grave
There is no future, no f*cking world to be saved.
CHORUS. (To reign in hell!)
Gods of steel unleash their destruction on man
Reign of death what is the final command
Scepters of hate are dropped upon this earth
Clouds of terror destroy all hope of rebirth.
Fight till death. Fight till death. Fight till death.
Wrong livelihood: I want to be a killerslayer soldier
Our little murderer has been killed in war!
Right livelihood (samma ajivo) is the fifth of the eight path factors that comprise the Noble Eightfold Path, belonging to the virtue division of the Buddhist path.
Definition
"What is right livelihood? There is the case where a disciple of the noble ones [ariyas = enlightened ones], having abandoned karmically harmful livelihood, keeps life going by right livelihood: This is called right livelihood." — SN 45.8
Balance
"Herein [within this Doctrine], Vyagghapajja, a householder, knowing one's income and expenses, leads a balanced life, being neither extravagant nor miserly, knowing that in this way one's income will be in excess of one's expenses and not expenses in excess of income.
(WQ) Sink not in debt like a stone in water (Sigalovada Sutra). For "if your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall."
I never meant to kill; you have to believe me!
"Just as the goldsmith or goldsmith's apprentice knows, on holding up a balance, that by so much it dips down, by so much it tilts up, even so a householder, knowing income and expenses, leads a balanced life, neither extravagant nor miserly, knowing that by this much income will be in excess of expenses and not expenses in excess of income." — AN 8.54
Wrong livelihood for lay followers
"A lay follower is wise to refrain from engaging in five types of business. What are the five? They are doing business [dealing, trading, profiteering] in weapons, human beings, meat, intoxicants, and poisons." — AN 5.177
Want to be a killer soldier? You may want to reconsider...
Althouse: The Crying Soldier
Then the chieftain Yodhajiva went to the Blessed One [the Buddha], bowed, sat respectfully to one side, and said:
"Venerable sir, I have heard that it has been passed down through the ancient teaching lineage of warriors that, 'When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, if others strike him down and slay him while he is striving and exerting himself in battle then, with the breakup of the body, after death, he is reborn in the company of devas [angels, beings of light] slain in battle.' What does the Blessed One have to say about this?"
"Enough, chieftain, set that aside. Do not ask that."
I'm going to knock in some heads (AP)
But a second and third time...the chieftain Yodhajiva [persisted and repeated the same question...] "What does the Blessed One have to say about this?"
"It seems, chieftain, that I have been unable to dissuade you by saying, 'Enough, chieftain, set that aside. Do not ask that.' So I will answer plainly:
Live by the sword: 'TIl death do us part (Slayer)
"When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, his mind is already seized, debased, and misdirected by this thought [intention, volition, motivation]:
"'May these beings be struck down, slaughtered, annihilated, and destroyed. May they cease to exist!' If others strike him down and slay him while he is striving and exerting himself in battle then, with the breakup of the body, after death, he will reborn in a hell called the realm of those slain in battle.
Live by the gun as a soldier then a cop (AP).
"But if one holds such a view as this: 'When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, if others strike him down and slay him while he is striving and exerting himself in battle then, with the breakup of the body, after death, he is reborn in the company of devas slain in battle' -- that is his wrong view.
"Now, I tell you, there are two destinations for a person possessed of wrong view -- hell [the downfall, which includes many different types of increasingly bad worlds] or the animal realm [rebirth as any of the many diversified types of animals]."
They lied to me, cheated me fooled me!
When this was said, the chieftain Yodhajiva burst into tears and sobbed. [The Buddha then said:] "That is what I could not get you to set aside by saying, 'Enough, chieftain, set that aside. Do not ask that.'"
"Venerable sir, I am not crying because of what the Blessed One said to me, but because I have been deceived, cheated, and fooled for so long by that ancient teaching lineage of warriors who say [that one would be reborn] in the company of angels [or heroes] slain in battle.'" — SN 42.3
Oh, our little killer was killed while trying to kill others for his government!
Ven. Seonaidh Riley Perks and friends on retreat in Ireland, May 2005. "We came here a few times to practice as the energy was palpable and the view quite lovely."
The lineage of "Celtic Buddhism" was suggested in the 1970s during casual conversation between the renowned Tibetan lama ChögyamTrungpaRinpoche and his student John Perks. Its actual development is the result of the mixing of their minds.
The lineage was formally incorporated as a non-profit in 1989, when it took on an official status. After meeting for years in rented rooms Ven. Seonaidh Riley Perks established the Anadaire Celtic Buddhist Center on 11 acres in Vermont, where the sangha ["community"] erected a stone circle which has aided in increasing and focusing energies of transformation.
Beginning in April, 2006 several of the sangha would move to Ireland for a year to strengthen and expand Celtic Buddhism. (More details: Center Programs).
Sangha members are encouraged to establish a daily meditation practice. The Vermont sangha practices include shamatha/vipashyana, tonglen["serenity/insight, taking and giving meditation"], deity yoga, and Tibetan style ngöndro and chöd. As a group there are yearly retreats to Maine or, to further connect with latent Celtic energies, Ireland and Scotland. One member has delved into thangka painting to explore the emerging Celtic Buddhist mandala.
The development of a new lineage is a very interesting and potent situation. Staying open and intuitive is both the challenge and the opportunity.
Traditional Buddhists may complain about unstructured aspects of Celtic Buddhism. Ven. Seonaidh says, "It's still a big question mark as to what Celtic Buddhism is going to evolve into. It's important to make the question mark very big, so that it remains a big open question. Not only about oneself, but the society in which one lives. Celtic Buddhism could be viewed as an open exploratory adventure with no conclusion."
Center stone of Circle of Blue Sovranty,Anadaire Celtic Buddhist Center, Vermont
A unique autobiographical account of the author's seven years as butler and personal attendant to ChögyamTrungpaRinpoche. Inspired by his Tibetan teacher's request to "write about how we worked together," John Riley Perks has given us a candid look into the dynamic and often magical relationship between a Vajrayana master and his student.
Excerpt: "One evening Rinpoche and I were sitting in the kitchen. Max rushed in from shopping in town. Now the closet and the basement doors were next to each other and both doors looked the same. The basement stairs were very steep and ran down about twelve feet. Max was distractedly talking to us as he took off his coat, opened the wrong door and, not looking, reached in to hang it up. Rinpoche yelled, 'Shunyata!' as Max and his coat fell into the basement. Unhurt except for a few scrapes, Max climbed out. 'Rinpoche,' said Max, 'you should have tried to stop me.' 'Why?' replied Rinpoche, 'You could have gotten enlightened!'"
"Venerable Seonaidh Perks played a crucial role in the creation of many of the Vidyadhara's institutions and his story of their mutual dance is hilarious, wild, shocking, and poignant. This book is a rare thing." -- Douglas Penick, author of Gesar of Ling, Wisdom Publications
USA Celtic Buddhist Center PO Box 1241 Rockland, ME 04841 (207) 701-5022 heartln@sover.net
IRELAND Celtic Buddhist Lineage Tir Argus House Churchill, Letterkenny Co. Donegal celticbuddhist@gmail.com
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