Open Letter To Biden

He will not be president but there is still room to grade his performance as president.

This is an open letter to President Biden….this is a focus on international situations and what he/she can do is answer questions.

Mr. President,

The ongoing wars in Gaza, the West Bank and Ukraine raise serious questions about American foreign policy, questions that call for honest answers.

1. Gaza

Why do you continue to enable Israel’s genocide against Palestinian civilians in Gaza? The death toll from IDF bombs and missiles has reached more than 40,000 (not counting untold numbers buried in the rubble). Following the declaration of siege by extremist members of the Israeli war cabinet last October, Israel has deployed starvation as a war tactic.  It has drastically reduced humanitarian  deliveries of food and medicine; and it has destroyed both clean water sources and sewage disposal facilities. As a result, Gazans (especially children) are dying of malnutrition and disease– this on top of the enormous stress of repeated evacuations under fire.

Your oft-repeated calls for a ceasefire and a two-state solution have fallen on deaf ears. Prime Minister Netanyahu has firmly refused to change course. For both political and personal motives, he clearly wants to prolong the war. Yet you continue to supply him with a wide assortment of lethal weapons that fuel Israel’s genocide  How do you reconcile your professed desire for a ceasefire and the return of hostages with your continuing and unconditional deliveries of arms that kill and maim Gazans?

read on…..

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/09/18/some-whys-an-open-letter-to-president-biden/

Time for the Democrats to take up a cause other than lining their pockets by special interests….the world is on the brink and Biden and probably his VP Harris can still do much to make this a more peaceful world.

But will they?

My thought is NO they will not….their hands are dirty with all the conflicts and deaths associated with them and they are in too deep top change the course or for that matter change anything.

I have a problem voting for these criminals…..but what is a person of principle to do?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“cognito ergo me agitare”

School Shootings: A Retrospective

Another mass shooting but not at a school (for a change)….this time in Birmingham, Alabama…..

A mass shooting killed four people and wounded 18 others in a popular nightlife area in Birmingham, Alabama, with many of the victims caught in the crossfire, police said. No one was immediately arrested, and police asked the public for information. The shooting happened shortly after 11pm Saturday in the city’s Five Points South entertainment district, said Officer Truman Fitzgerald in an email to the AP. Officers arriving at the scene found two men and a woman on a sidewalk with gunshot wounds, and they were pronounced dead there. An additional male gunshot victim was pronounced dead at a hospital.

A preliminary investigation showed that “multiple suspects fired upon a large group of people who were outside in a public area,” Fitzgerald said. “Detectives believe the shooting was not random and stemmed from an isolated incident where multiple victims were caught in the crossfire,” Fitzgerald said. Injured people began showing up at hospitals, Fitzgerald said. By early Sunday, police had identified 18 other victims with injuries, some of them life-threatening.

That attack lead me to look at the school shootings that are all too common.

Almost daily there is a school shooting or a bomb threat or other assorted attacks on the schools of our great nation….it has become commonplace and gets nothing more than a shrug from the people that we depend on to make our schools safe…..why is that?

School shootings are American Exceptionalism in action. No other country does them like we do. None even come close. USA! NRA! USA! NRA! USA! NRA!

 A country that tolerates the routine shootings of its own school children as the cost of doing business in our weird notion of a “free society” is unlikely to feel any empathy for Palestinian children killed by the weapons we sell Israel. Violence is our chief export; indifference to the bloodshed is our national characteristic.

This is just a retrospective of these incidents and how some politicians handle them.

JD Vance, who now speaks at outdoor rallies inside a box of bulletproof glass, said that school shootings are now “a fact of life” in America.

Number of school shootings in the US by year…

2024: 45
2023: 82
2022: 79
2021: 73
2020: 22 (Pandemic school closures)
2019: 52
2018: 44
2017: 42
2016: 51
2015: 37
2014: 36
2013: 26
2012: 13
2011: 15
2010: 13
2009: 22
2008: 18

States with the highest per capita school shootings since 2008

Louisiana: 32 shootings; 0.69 shootings per 100,000 people
Maryland: 32 shootings; 0.52 shootings per 100,000 people13 s
Alabama: 25 shootings; 0.50 shootings per 100,000 people
Tennessee: 33 shootings; 0.48 shootings per 100,000 people
Mississippi: 13 shootings; 0.44 shootings per 100,000 people
Arkansas: 13 shootings; 0.43 shootings per 100,000 people
North Carolina: 41 shootings; 0.41 shootings per 100,000 people
Georgia: 41 shootings; 0.38 shootings per 100,000 people

How long will we tolerate this kind of crap?

Instead of action against this obscenity we get such platitudes as “thoughts and prayer’ or the ever politician BS…’there is no place for violence in America’….have these idiots ever watched a news story?

Violence does have a place in America unless you are too blind to see it…..and will continue as long as some garden slugs believe there is a Constitutional right to kill children.

Thanx to my friend at beetleypete.com for bringing this quote from Tom Waits to my attention.

“We are moneys with money and guns”

I Read, I Write, You Know

“cognito ergo me agitare”

“Banality Of Evil”

That is a term that was first used by Arendt back in the early 60s at the trial of Eichmann…..

The term “banality of evil” was coined by intellectual Hannah Arendt after she observed the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi official who, from his post atop the inscrutably-named Office IV B 4, oversaw the grim logistics of funneling Jews into German concentration camps.

Arendt said she was struck to find Eichmann “neither perverted nor sadistic,” but “terrifyingly normal.” Rather than a rabid ideologue or psychopathic antisemite, Arendt found herself observing a boring bureaucrat whose diligent performance of his assigned duties was largely motivated by a mere desire for career advancement. “The deeds were monstrous, but the doer – at least the very effective one now on trial – was quite ordinary, commonplace, and neither demonic nor monstrous,” Arendt later wrote.

The term “banality of evil” was coined by intellectual Hannah Arendt after she observed the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi official who, from his post atop the inscrutably-named Office IV B 4, oversaw the grim logistics of funneling Jews into German concentration camps.

Arendt said she was struck to find Eichmann “neither perverted nor sadistic,” but “terrifyingly normal.” Rather than a rabid ideologue or psychopathic antisemite, Arendt found herself observing a boring bureaucrat whose diligent performance of his assigned duties was largely motivated by a mere desire for career advancement. “The deeds were monstrous, but the doer – at least the very effective one now on trial – was quite ordinary, commonplace, and neither demonic nor monstrous,” Arendt later wrote.

That typed….ever heard of the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC)?

No?

As tourists complete their strolls to the White House from the east along Pennsylvania Avenue, they pass a relatively unremarkable, columned office building that overlooks Lafayette Square — oblivious that, behind its walls, bureaucrats are quietly inflicting poverty, illness and death on innumerable innocents around the world.

The Freedman’s Bank Building doesn’t house CIA or Department of Defense officials, but rather the US Treasury’s little-known Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Instead of orchestrating airstrikes or insurgencies, these bureaucrats impose mass suffering via economic warfare, collectively serving as the tip of the spear that is America’s ever-expanding economic sanctions regime.

https://starkrealities.substack.com/p/ofacs-banality-of-evil-small-us-agency

This group can be as lethal to innocent civilians as an airstrike….

Just thought you might like to know.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“cognito ergo  me agitare”

Is It An Illusion Of Liberty?

I have been thinking about some people that cherish our liberties but in the past few years those so-called liberties have been eroding away and a special thanks to the Supreme Court for helping the demise.

Below are some thoughts from an author, Stuart Delony, on what we are losing, piece by piece….

It’s that time when we celebrate our freedoms while cooking meat, blowing things up, and conveniently ignoring the erosion of the very liberties we’re celebrating. So between the hotdogs and fireworks, let’s explore if we’re as free as our forefathers intended… or living in blissful ignorance.

Remember back in history class? When we all learned that the founding fathers risked everything to declare independence from British tyranny? They gave us the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and seemingly endless bumper sticker quotes. 

Fast forward to now, and I’m left wondering if those sacrifices were in vain and freedom a relic of the past. Think I’m wrong? Let’s look down a list for fun:

A Surveillance Nation

Our civil liberties are on life support. Mass surveillance has become the norm. Big Brother watches our every move. Sure, we’ve still got the right to protest, but only if you’re okay with being pepper-sprayed, tasered, and/or hauled off to jail. It really doesn’t seem much of an upgrade to tar and feathering.

The Voting Games

Voting is supposed to be the cornerstone of democracy, right? Except it’s not as simple as showing up and casting a ballot. Gerrymandering ensures that politicians pick their voters and not the other way around. Then we’ve got voter ID laws, polling place closures, and purges of voter rolls. Those are just a few of the tricks used to suppress the vote. And don’t even get me started on the Electoral College.

The Rich Get Richer

You’re free to pursue the American Dream – if you can afford it. The top 1% hoard their wealth while the rest of us are stuck in a cycle of debt, stagnating wages, and skyrocketing living costs. The richest 1% of Americans own more than 40% of the country’s wealth. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% collectively own just 1%. A level playing field is never an option when corporate greed reigns supreme. The system is rigged whether we want to acknowledge it or not.

A Selective Kind of Liberty

Personal freedom used to mean being able to make choices about your own body and life. Today, reproductive rights are under constant assault, with politicians horny to control what women’s bodies. Doesn’t sound creepy at all. Then there’s LGBTQ+ rights. While progress has been made, there’s always a new push to strip away the hard-won gains.

The Changing Narrative

Is truth truth anymore? Media companies now control what we see, hear, and read, shaping public opinion to suit their agendas and profits. The problem is that independent journalism is on the decline and dissenting voices are drowned out by the din of manufactured consent.

Our liberties are being strip away slowly but slowly and we the people spend our time worrying about bathrooms while you focus on silliness you are losing your rights and liberties.

Don’t blame Trump completely for the Dems have done little to change the direction of this downward spiral…..they promise but their actions are far from proof.

This vote will be a joke told by our great-grand kids and you spend your time worrying about bathrooms.

I hope you get what is coming to you for cultivating ignorance.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“cognito ergo me agitare”

Assault On Free Speech

We hear a lot of this stuff these days….it seems that everyone is ranting about the loss of of our right to freely speak our minds.

The TikTok thing is said to be a loss of free speech and so……

Take for instance this AntiSemitism Awareness Act that will come up for a vote soon.

Totalitarianism rarely shows its true face when it arises. Instead, it often pretends to stand for good and decent values. A new bill claims to fight anti-Semitism, something all decent people oppose. 

But anti-Semitism — that is, bias and discrimination against Jews because of their religion or ethnic identity — is already barred under civil rights law. The real goal of the so-called “Antisemitism Awareness Act” is to suppress free speech.

This dangerous bill was passed by the House of Representatives and now awaits a Senate vote. It outsources some of our constitutional rights to an outside organization, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, whose arbitrary definition of anti-Semitism poses a threat to civil liberties.

It could be used to crush legitimate debate about Israel, its policies and American policies toward it — policies that have given rise to one of the greatest acts of genocide since the Holocaust.

This bill could suppress historical research and ban the mention of facts that have been verified by international organizations. It could initiate lawsuits, funding cuts and disciplinary action across all American “education programs or activities, and for other purposes.” (Those “other purposes” are not defined.)

Student protesters, professors, writers and even elected officials could face political repression and become legal targets.

The Dangerous ‘Anti-Semitism Awareness’ Act

I bring this up because according to this pack of manure flies I am an anti-Semite….which is total bullshit.

My dislike of the state of Israel has not a damn thing to do with religion….I personally could care less where or what they choose to worship that is their problem not mine.  I dislike Israel goes way back to 1967 and the murderous attack on the US naval vessel, the USS Liberty, where they, Israel, was allowed to attack an unarmed ship killing and injuring American sailors without any retaliation.

My nation may have forget this dastardly deed but I have not.

If I criticize the bastards I will be labelled an anti-Semite….I say so be it I refuse to give up my right to free speech and criticism.

First I was banned from a boycott of Israel and now I cannot criticize the state of Israel and their barbaric ways….this from a government that is in the deep pockets of AIPAC.

Apparently with enough ‘grease’ you can get anything you want from our corrupt officials…..like Congress and the White house.

You may be silent but I shall not and will never until I am dead.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is US Devoted To The Constitution?

The recent rulings by the corrupt Supreme Court got me to thinking about the Constitution…..is the US truly devoted to the document?

Let me tackle the question….I think the people of this nation is all caring about the Constitution and the people we elect could care less about the document.

The people warp themselves in the Constitution as some sort of misguided patriotism but once you get pass amendment 1 and 2 they know nothing.

In reality….it shows up often in political discourse as some sort of symbol of freedom and then quickly disappears until it is needed in some sort of explanation for a particular political action.

In a new book it is surmised that the worship of the Constitution has warped our politics……

Which version of the Constitution will shape America’s future? Emboldened coalitions on the right purport to tether the country’s tomorrows to the original meanings of an eighteenth-century Constitution—or to so-called natural law principles that are even older. Anxious liberals, by contrast, hold out frayed hopes that a living Constitution will be able to translate the nation’s constitutional history into a new century. An increasingly vocal cadre on the left proposes something altogether different—to scrap the whole arrangement, to make a clean break from a tarnished constitutional tradition by marginalizing the Supreme Court and doing away with the project of the Constitution entirely

In his new book, The Constitutional Bind, lawyer and political theorist Aziz Rana adds his voice to this swelling chorus, urging that a truly emancipatory politics requires breaking free from the U.S. constitutional project. Rana takes aim at what he calls the worship of the Constitution. U.S. politics today, he contends, idealizes the Constitution to its own detriment. Our political formations—especially those on the left—trim their sails in advance of doing battle by accepting the charter’s historical compromises. But such compromises, Rana says, come at a galling democratic cost. They grant unelected justices on the Supreme Court unwarranted authority over the basic terms of our social life. And they sustain voting inequities in the Electoral College and the Senate, which confer unwarranted representation on rural states with disproportionately white and conservative populations.

As late as the first decades of the twentieth century, Rana proposes, Americans took part in a more robust debate over the Constitution, one that nurtured a wild profusion of alternative political visions. The most promising of those visions, in Rana’s eyes, chafed at and often even rejected the Constitution as a parochial and limiting framework. In the middle third of the twentieth century, however, U.S. politics marginalized the political formations that were most critical of the Constitution’s basic terms. And since the middle of the twentieth century, Rana argues, constitutional politics has shape-shifted into a kind of idolatry. Constitutional devotion has sustained American global empire, supported white ethno-nationalism, justified security panics, and cabined real democracy. Constitutional fetishism, according to Rana, sustains “a fundamentally undemocratic order” by granting the Constitution undue “immunity from challenge”; it produces an anti-democratic “cultural genuflection” before a Supreme Court that supports the interests of elites over the liberation of the masses. We are, Rana tells us, bound “by a narrow constitutional narrative” that constrains our collective life and imposes severe limits on our aspirations for true freedom and equality.

https://newrepublic.com/article/182334/united-states-devoted-constitution

My question now is….given all the stuff happening is this the society that the Founders envisioned with the Constitution?

Now what do you think about the question?

I know there are some great thoughts out there….voice them here and now.

I Reads, I Write, You Know

“cognito ergo me agitare”

Do You Want To Understand?

There is so much bullshit spread about the Israel-Gaza….mostly from the MSM….there is so much more to this situation than a warranted attack in October.

This video has some humorous parts but does try to explain as best anyone that does not live there can do.

It is a long watch and you must go to Youtube, as you can see, to watch it…..but if you think you know it all then I suggest you digest this.

John Oliver’s show “Last Week Tonight” is a good way to learn and with a small amount of humor and sarcasm.

A superb attempt to help people understand….but sadly it may be a fart in the wind.

It will not change many minds for most have there ‘beliefs’ set in stone and no amount of facts will change that.

Sadly this will not change many minds (I know redundant) because most do NOT to understand because to them Israel is always in the right….and that is a very stupid way to make the decision on this conflict and with lives.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Two State Solution Bullshit

The US has used the two state solution as a dodge and an invitation for Israel to do as they want in the theft of land on the West Bank. We have legalized the actions of those thugs that go by the serene name of ‘settlers’…..they are bullies and criminals….period!

Since most people are ignorant on the situation let me describe the two state solution….

The two-state solution refers to a plan to create a Palestinian state separate from the state of Israel. The goal is to address Palestinian claims to national self-determination without undermining Israel’s sovereignty.

The first attempt at creating side-by-side states occurred before the independence of Israel in 1948. The year before, the United Nations passed Resolution 181 outlining a partition plan that would split the Mandate of Palestine (under British control) into separate Jewish and Arab states.

The UN’s proposed borders never materialised. Shortly after Israel declared independence, Syria, Jordan and Egypt invaded, sparking the first Arab-Israeli war. More than 700,000 Palestinians were displaced from the new state of Israel, fleeing to the West Bank, Gaza and surrounding Arab states

Recently the ICJ ruled against Israel on their theft of land and of course the US had to rush in and defend their masters.

The US has criticized the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling that said the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal and must come to an end, claiming it impedes a two-state solution.

“We are concerned that the breadth of the court’s opinion will complicate efforts to resolve the conflict and bring about an urgently needed just and lasting peace, with two states living side-by-side in peace and security,” a State Department spokesperson told Reuters in an email on Saturday.

The spokesperson said the ICJ ruling, which was a non-binding opinion, was “inconsistent with the established framework.”

In contrast, the US refused to condemn the Israeli Knesset passing a resolution that rejects the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River, which covers all of the occupied territories.

“I’ll let Israeli officials speak to their own legislative chamber and the actions that that chamber takes,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said about the Knesset vote. He claimed the US was still committed to a two-state solution, but the US continues to back an Israeli government that’s explicitly opposed to the idea.

The ICJ ruling said the establishment and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem amounted to annexation. Since October 7, Israeli settlers have stepped up their attacks on Palestinians to steal their homes, and the Israeli government has approved the largest land grab in the West Bank in 30 years.

(antiwar.com)

The rhetoric of the two state solution is a con….all it does is allow Israel to steal whatever they want and the US will rubber stamp it.

I am sick of the scam of the two state solution after almost 50 years and the US meddling and allowing Israel a free hand to act out as it sees fit under the guise of self-defense.

It is all bullshit!

Either stand by the so-called commitment or stand aside and STFU.

Enough bullshit already!

“cognito ergo me agitare”

No One Has Done More

To be fair that whole quote is “I have done more for the Palestinians than anyone”.

That was a wildly inaccurate statement by Joe Biden in a recent interview…..seriously?

President Biden claimed in an interview published on Monday that he has done more for the “Palestinian community” than anyone else, comments that come after over nine months of his administration supporting Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza.

“I’m the guy that did more for the Palestinian community than anybody,” he said on the YouTube show 360 With Speedy.

As an example of what he’s done for the “Palestinian community,” Biden said, ” I’m the guy that opened up all the assets, I’m the guy that made sure that I got the Egyptians to open the border to let goods and medicine and food through.”

However, Biden also backed the Israeli operation to capture the Rafah border crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border, and it’s been closed ever since.

Biden also appeared to suggest in the interview that he has only provided “defensive weapons” to Israel even though his administration has shipped tens of thousands of bombs and other types of munitions.

“I sent defensive weapons,” Biden claimed. “I denied them offensive weapons that they were using 2,000lb bombs and the rest because I made it real clear they cannot use weapons that we provide them to, in fact, use in civilian areas.”

While the administration did pause a single shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, it shipped 14,000 of them to Israel before that. Israel is still using heavy munitions on civilians, as Israeli officials told Axios that the military dropped five 2,000-pound bombs on the al-Mawasi camp over the weekend in a strike that killed at least 90 Palestinians, including many women and children. Israel said the strike targeted Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s senior military commander, but Hamas denied the claim, saying it was an excuse to massacre civilians.

In the interview, Biden expressed strong support for Israel and the idea of Zionism. “Do you know what a Zionist is? If there weren’t an Israel, every Jew in the world would be at risk. There’s a need for it to be strong and a need for Israel to be able to have, after World War II, the ability for Jews to have a place that was their own. You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist,” he said.

Lily Greenberg Call, a Jewish-American who resigned from the Interior Department over Biden’s support for the slaughter in Gaza, criticized Biden for frequently claiming that without Israel, Jews wouldn’t be safe. “Jewish safety cannot — and will not — come at the expense of Palestinian freedom. Making Jews the face of the American war machine makes us less safe,” Call said in her resignation letter.

(antiwar.com)

Defensive weapons……bombs are not defensive.

But then what has Biden done for the Palestinian people?

While the administration did pause a single shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, it shipped 14,000 of them to Israel before that. Israel is still using heavy munitions on civilians, as Israeli officials told Axios that the military dropped five 2,000-pound bombs on the al-Mawasi camp over the weekend in a strike that killed at least 90 Palestinians, including many women and children. Israel said the strike targeted Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s senior military commander, but Hamas denied the claim, saying it was an excuse to massacre civilians.

In the interview, Biden expressed strong support for Israel and the idea of Zionism. “Do you know what a Zionist is? If there weren’t an Israel, every Jew in the world would be at risk. There’s a need for it to be strong and a need for Israel to be able to have, after World War II, the ability for Jews to have a place that was their own. You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist,” he said.

Lily Greenberg Call, a Jewish-American who resigned from the Interior Department over Biden’s support for the slaughter in Gaza, criticized Biden for frequently claiming that without Israel, Jews wouldn’t be safe. “Jewish safety cannot — and will not — come at the expense of Palestinian freedom. Making Jews the face of the American war machine makes us less safe,” Call said in her resignation letter.

An aid supply pier that did not work…..massive amounts of weapons to0 Israel…..rubber stamping anything and everything Israel did……is there more?

I would guess the Palestinian people would ask Biden to stop helping for he is killing them in droves.

This just Biden trying hard to get the genocide spotlight to dim a bit.

He has done NOTHING of substance for the Palestinian people…..so STFU about your imaginary accomplishment.

“cognito ergo me agitare”

What The Hell Is “Militainment”?

Now there is a word you do not see everyday….basically because the media and entertainment industries do not want the public equating stuff to war.

Hollywood has weaponized entertainment to promote war….some say as many as 2500 films and show are in that category.

“The easiest way to inject a propaganda idea into most people’s minds is to let it go through the medium of an entertainment picture when they do not realize that they are being propagandized,” explained Elmer Davis, a renowned CBS broadcaster, who had just been named director of the Office of War Information (OWI), a Pentagon program created on June 13, 1942, six months after Pearl Harbor.

Later in 1953, as the Cold War was in full swing, President Dwight D. Eisenhower commented on the burgeoning partnership between Hollywood and the Pentagon by stating that, “the hand of government must be carefully concealed and […] wholly eliminated,” adding that the engagement should “be done through arrangements with all sorts of privately operated enterprises in the field of entertainment, dramatics, music and so on.”

Thus, the president who coined the term “military industrial complex,” was, in fact, one of the first major proponents of what would later be called the military entertainment complex or the militainment industry.

Today, this militainment industry is thriving. From Top Gun to the Marvel franchise and even shows like Extreme Makeover, the Pentagon has been able to shape the narratives of more than 2,500 movies and TV shows. No one knows this better than Roger Stahl, the University of Georgia’s Communications Studies Department Head, and author of Militainment Inc. With University of Bath lecturer and Workers Party Candidate Matthew Alford, investigative journalist Tom Secker, and others, Stahl created “Theaters of War,” a concise 87-minute documentary in which he methodically dissects our modern militainment industry, showing the behemoth it has become.

Responsible Statecraft talked to Stahl, Alford, and Secker about the ways our TV screens are weaponized through the Military Entertainment Complex’s oversight over and control of Hollywood scripts and production agreements.

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/theaters-of-war/

Do not get me started on the Pentagon and the patriotism of pro sports teams…..I know you have seen the ‘Patriot’s Day” or the Vets appreciation Day, or a salute to the armed forces….all that is not out of the desire to show their appreciation but rather a paid event by the Pentagon.

In the past few years, the Pentagon spent $6.8 million to pay for patriotic displays during the games of professional sports teams.

That’s according to a joint oversight report released by Arizona Republican Sens. John Flake and John McCain on Wednesday.

The senators found that since 2012, the Pentagon has signed 72 contracts with teams in the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, and Major League Soccer that amounted to “paid patriotism.”

For example, taxpayers paid $49,000 to the Milwaukee Brewers to allow the Wisconsin Army National Guard to sponsor the Sunday singing of “God Bless America.” In another contract, the New York Jets were paid $20,000 to “recognize one to two New Jersey Army National Guard soldiers as hometown heroes.”

USA Today reports that NFL teams received the biggest slice of the pie — $6 million, according to the report. The newspaper adds:

“The Atlanta Falcons received $879,000; the New England Patriots, $700,000; and the Buffalo Bills, $650,000. The Atlanta Braves received $450,000, the most of any Major League Baseball franchise, while the Minnesota Wild were paid $570,000, the most of any National Hockey League team.

“The Atlanta contracts included a 2013 event during which a roaring crowd cheered as the Falcons welcomed 80 guard members who unfurled an American flag across the Georgia Dome’s turf.”

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/05/454834662/pentagon-paid-sports-teams-millions-for-paid-patriotism-events

Keep in mind that cash is your money, taxpayer cash…..it is bad enough that we must fund every goddamn war on the planet but we also have to pay overpriced athletes to be patriotic?

Did you know patriotism has a price?

Go Team!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“cognito ergo me agitare”