Critical Issues

People Power – Part 1: The Only Possible Path to Peace

JD

Here’s the premise. If anyone can find a flaw in this logic, please let me know . . .

• The majority of US citizens want an end to war and reduced military spending.

• The defense budget can and must come way down.

• The DOD is not going to defund itself.

• Congress is not going to defund the DOD.

• The wealthy ruling elite makes huge amounts of money from war.

• As a captive of big money politics, Congress exclusively serves the ruling elite.

• Thus, Congress and their wealthy patrons will never willingly reduce defense spending.

• Only THE PEOPLE will take the initiative to shrink defense spending and end the wars.

• Current elected representatives are not listening and will never listen to THE PEOPLE.

• We must replace those now in office with ones who listen to and serve THE PEOPLE.

• So, the only path to peace is WE THE PEOPLE uniting politically and demanding it.

• We only vote for candidates who make an ironclad commitment to peace and diplomacy.

If there’s something missing or out of place here, please give us some helpful assistance. We’re always looking to improve our thinking.

January 6 Gave Revolution A Bad Name

JD

Even a broken clock is correct twice a day.

Likewise, an incompetent, historically ignorant, politically naive, diplomatically challenged, shallow, impulsive, narcissistic reality show host elected by a conned citizenry to the highest office in the land can occasionally get a few things right as well.

I won’t get into a spitting contest over whether the election was rigged to an extent necessary to “steal” it from Trump. Every election is rigged, to varying degrees. To deny that is to be out of touch with how fundamentally corrupt our electoral system is at all levels, and what an abysmal state our last-gasp democracy is in. Recall that on occasion, election rigging wasn’t up to the task, so a president was elected by judicial fiat.

Nor will I come anywhere near Trump’s motives or level of involvement in the shambolic insurrection that took place on January 6.

The important thing he got right was this: We should throw every last bum out of our legislative branch, both House and Senate. I didn’t say assassinate or torture them, although a good case could be made for “disappearing” the entire lot . . . for good! And for the good of the nation. At least barring them from public life. I include everyone, even Sanders, AOC, the rest of the squad, all of the virtue-signaling mannikins now in Congress who spend more time raising money for their reelection campaigns and their corrupt corporate-oligarchy political parties, than taking care of the business of governing and caring for the people.

A clean sweep.

A fresh start.

Yes, there have been a few promising initiatives. But overall, there is no evidence that any of the people in power, and I also include Biden, Harris, and just about everyone in the collection of self-serving mediocrities which populate this and past administrations, know or care the first thing about serving everyday citizens and “promoting the general welfare”.

I’m sure I’ll get a barrage of comments defending these lackluster sock puppets of the ruling elite. Let me just recommend in advance: I’m not talking about measuring these phonies by the vapid standards we become accustomed to. The bar has been lowered so many times, it’s not a bar anymore. It’s a broken pipe laying in the mud. Reach deep inside, folks. Use your imagination. Recall the dreams and idealism of your youth. Imagine what the U.S. could be instead of trying to decide how much humiliation and misery we should tolerate.

I don’t have to defend the necessity of an occasional revolution. As you can see from the above quote, Thomas Jefferson did it for me. By his measure we’re about 12 revolutions overdue.

Even John F. Kennedy recognized that when confronted with extreme abuse of power, we are left with no alternative.

What he said was unambiguous. If the system isn’t able to self-correct, then the system gets a big bloody nose. In extreme cases, we skip the left hook to the nose and go right for a decapitation. I hear Chanel makes a nice line of designer guillotines. How timely.

Let’s be clear. At no time in recent history has the need to replace those in power been so urgent and obvious. Real democracy is dead in the U.S. and the country is ruled by oligarchs. Not very smart oligarchs. Not oligarchs with a shred of decency. But money talks. The ruling elite have the money. Most everyday people are scrambling to survive. There’s no contest.

As much as many of us prefer to ignore or deny, Donald Trump got a few things right. Unfortunately, he suffered from a debilitating case of ADHD. He’d say the right thing, then either contradict himself in action or appoint opponents of his ideas to key positions, who then went on to sabotage whatever occasional flash of brilliance he had. Plus he was an unbroken stallion, and the Deep State realizing they couldn’t control him, deep-sixed his presidency. Most of us are grateful for that but we have to keep in mind that the cure in the long term might be worse than the disease. Turning more power over — perhaps the entire control of our nation — to the invisible autocrats of our intelligence agencies and the untouchable puppet masters of technocratic tyranny is not a very smart idea. If that’s our strategy, we might as well just get it over with and take a blow torch the Constitution. How about during half-time at the next Super Bowl.

In some incredibly twisted way, Trump was the voice of the people — at least some people — probably not the kind of people anyone here would want to hang out with. But he had (and still has) a lot of fans. His campaign was the first time in a long time that it was publicly acknowledged that a lot of regular folks were tired of getting screwed by a rigged system. Yes, Trump couldn’t have been a worse bearer of this torch. But at least we got a fleeting glimpse of the flames.

Now we’re back to the default setting: Guys like Biden and gals like Harris spouting slogans that are ear candy and brain anesthetics, woke gender-blenders like Buttigieg striking poses to get a third-leg up on the next presidential election, fake progressives cheerleading their walk-in-place approach to solving the most serious problems in history, and hapless, hopeless, pathetic voters looking at fake radicals like the Squad as the flickering pilot lights for real change. What all of this screams is form without substance. We get fooled again. New boss is the old boss with a focus-group tested bumpersticker on his BMW.

The sad thing about January 6 — and everybody knows what I’m referring to because the Alice in Wonderland narratives around are still being milked by pundits and politicians alike — is that it had both sides working to make sure it flopped, that instead of representing an actual challenge to power or a wake-up call to the public or a warning label for the buffoons and criminals now holding office, it was a huge embarrassment, an unfunny joke, a reminder that politics is Pro Wrestling, only without sexy ring girls.

Joe Biden calls January 6 “The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”

Liz Cheney — talk about strange bedfellows, Cheney and Biden — claimed the forces behind January 6 “represent a threat America has never seen before.” Which is certainly easy to say if you’ve never picked up a history book in your life.

The Congressional resolution which established the investigation of January 6 called the mob assault “one of the darkest days of our democracy.”

The Democratic Party elites are calling January 6 the domestic equivalent of the 911 attacks.

Did all of these people get their education watching Saturday morning cartoons?

What are these pathetic snowflakes going to do when some tech-savvy insurrectionist strolls onto the national mall carrying a suitcase nuke and turns DC into a caramelized crater?

For better or worse, the whole thing was pure spectacle — that’s the way Trump and the MAGA crowd see the world — a pathetic attempt at symbolism wrought by morons. The government was in no danger of being overthrown by such a disorganized, ragtag bunch of urban hillbillies. The real danger lay in the weaponization and politicalization of this non-event by the Democratic Party and the intelligence agencies, which had a number of embedded provocateurs, on the scene as the PR stunt devolved to its disastrous denouement.

Granted, I can’t prove this. It’s impossible in an era of fake news and fake justice to prove anything. But if a little logic and common sense are applicable here, it’s axiomatic that our internal intelligence agencies knew exactly what was going to happen, and if they didn’t actively engineer this embarrassment, then they let it unfold knowing they could use it against their current and future enemies — that would be the American people. This is a classic, well-established, and usually effective drill.

Where is this headed? A bill authored by truly one of the most lackluster congressmen in our history, Adam Schiff, will open a second war on terror, this one targeted domestic terrorism. More surveillance, more eavesdropping, more curtailing of free speech and dissent, more false flags, more fear, more anxiety, the final nails in the coffin of what was once for the world the beacon of civil liberties and respect for human rights. Yes, it’s 911 all over again. Wash, rinse, repeat. 

With friends like these, who needs enemies? With people representing us like Adam Schiff, who needs a foreign enemy to destroy our democracy and turn our citizens into slaves?

Put the right label on it: MADE IN AMERICA! The destruction from within of our country, its ideals, its constitution, its promise of government by the people, its self-anointed role in the world as defender of human rights, guardian of human dignity, promoter of democracy.

There’s only one remedy . . .

A clean sweep.   

A fresh start.

Maybe these “extreme” ideas are starting to make more sense?

But you ask: “What will happen? Congress has all sorts of protocols and procedural precedents, established rules and guidelines for committee assignment and processing of legislation. What about all that legislative infrastructure?”

Exactly! What about it, folks? How about throwing out the babies AND the bathwater? Is any of it serving “we the people”? Sometimes you have to completely raze a building and start from scratch. YES . . . THAT IS WHAT I’M RECOMMENDING!

It’s either that or a constitutional convention or . . . uh-oh . . . we’re back to what Jefferson and Kennedy said.

Here’s a pop quiz. Do these words ring a bell? If they do, do they resonate?

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

If that’s too arcane and brainy, then tune into something more street hip, if somewhat less precise.

REVOLUTION

Why?

JD
Why are we doing this? What is the point? That’s very easy to answer . . .
To end the horror the U.S. has been promoting across the planet!

The cruel reality is this is only a partial summary and the death toll is considerably higher.
It’s up to us . . . because the power-drunk, war-crazed imperialists now in charge will never slow down, much less end their agenda of death and destruction.
Please volunteer to help us stop this madness!

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Join us in making the world safer and more peaceful.

What is the Peace Dividend strategy?

JD

The Peace Dividend strategy is a practical plan for achieving a very specific goal. That goal is regime change in Washington DC, i.e. replacing the pro-war, pro-Wall Street, anti-democratic, power-drunk megalomaniacs now in control, with individuals who reflect the real values and priorities of real people living real lives. It’s about getting rid of the lapdogs and liars and electing honest individuals who will answer to and serve the people who put them in office. 

Until WE THE PEOPLE seize power from those who now commandeer the machinery for setting foreign policy, who shape our military priorities and agenda, who view themselves as the indispensable, infallible rulers of the planet, until WE THE PEOPLE are able to decide the direction of our country, create a legal and economic framework which serves all of the people, not just the rich and powerful, the U.S. will continue to bully other countries, topple governments, kill innocent people for geopolitical advantage, create conflict and chaos, inflict untold misery and suffering on everyone on the planet (including increasingly its own citizens), and provoke Russia and China into a major, possibly human life-ending conflict. The rich will just get richer and our best and finest will be sent into battle to protect their portfolios.

Thus, the Peace Dividend strategy is about seizing power, putting it into the hands of a democratically-empowered citizenry, reversing the disastrous trajectory of our foreign policy and aggressive pursuit of world domination, and looking for peaceful solutions the challenges facing the world in these challenging, tumultuous times.

To lay a foundation for citizen participation and activism, the Peace Dividend strategy focuses on the abuse of political and military power from 1992 to the present. This time frame is chosen for a very specific reason. To achieve its stated goal, the Peace Dividend strategy lays out a carefully constructed but entirely truthful message which the general public, or at least 150-200 million of them, can grasp, appreciate, and embrace. The message is the impetus for very simple and achievable action.

Why take this approach?

Most peace messaging unfortunately is too abstract, too broad, too philosophical. It might seem noble and inspiring to those already in the peace movement, good folks dedicated to achieving a world without war. But to everyday citizens who are bogged down and preoccupied with the more practical pursuits of survival, raising a family, holding down a job, making it from one paycheck to the next, most of the appeals currently wielded by peace activists sound like hippie slogans and pie-in-the-sky pining. Often such activists are viewed as misfits who are out of touch with reality.

The reason is obvious. People can’t feel much empathy for cholera victims in Yemen or refugees in Syria, when members of their immediate family are suffering. Everyday folks can’t pay attention to our aggressions in the South China Sea and Russia’s borders, when they need to pay attention to keeping a job and food on the table.

The approach of the Peace Dividend strategy is simple: Just tell the truth! Tell the truth about our endless wars and bloated DOD budgets! Expose the whole “defense industry” game for what it is: an enormous con, a rip-off, a massive fraud perpetrated on the American citizenry. The Afghanistan War was based on lies. The Iraq War was based on lies. Destroying Libya was based on lies. Attacking Syria was based on lies. The need to upgrade our nuclear weapons is a lie. The need for a Space Force is a lie. The need to go to war with Russia is a lie. The need to go to war with China is a lie. It goes on and on. Trillions and trillions of dollars wasted! Manufactured crises. Manufactured consent.

And then crucially, we connect all this fraud and waste to the rough times people are going through . . .

WAR IS MAKING US POOR!

People should be very angry. When they see what’s really happening, THEY WILL BE VERY ANGRY! Trillions of our taxpayer dollars have gone up in smoke. OUR MONEY has been squandered and our future mortgaged. The facts don’t lie. It’s even on the nightly news now! How $2.3 trillion was wasted in a 20-year war in Afghanistan, which to rub salt in our wounds WE LOST!

The Peace Dividend strategy doesn’t stop there. The war criminals and their puppets in Congress and the White House have stolen our money.

We want it back!

We want back at least some of the trillions taken from us as good, decent citizens under false pretenses, then used to fight unnecessary wars and buy military junk we never needed. Money which just ends up in the coffers of the defense industry, and ultimately in the bank accounts of wealthy investors who profit from the never-ending wars. It’s a pipeline right from the pocketbooks of everyday citizens and their meager family budgets, to the already incomprehensibly rich.

WE DEMAND OUR MONEY BACK!

The Peace Dividend refund currently totals $20,544 for each and every living U.S. citizen.

That’s over $82,000 for a family of four. Everybody gets the same amount. Warren Buffet and Jeff Bezos get the same as you and your 10-year-old kid, your grandma and the guy who picks up your trash.

And if you don’t think we can afford this, stop right there. See Paying For The Peace Dividend.

Understand something . . .

This is not helicopter money. It’s not UBI. It’s not socialism.

IT’S A REFUND!

It’s everyday citizens getting back money which NEVER should have been taken from them in the first place, and putting that money back in their bank accounts where it belongs.

Our case is clear and our logic unassailable. The public for the past 30 years have been victims of the greatest rip-off in the history of the world!

Another way to look at this:  We are demanding “war reparations” in the form of a Peace Dividend Refund, for the war the power-drunk, war-crazed lunatics have been waging, not just on our alleged enemies, but on us, our families, our communities, our schools.

FOR THE WAR THEY’VE BEEN WAGING ON THE TRUTH!

Will our establishment politicians, now in the pockets of defense industry and Wall Street, beholden to the imperial fantasies of the neocon fanatics, go along with this?

Probably not. THAT’S THE POINT OF THIS STRATEGY. If they can’t serve the people, send them packing. They are fabulously talented. They can become an Amway distributor or a greeter at Walmart. Their phony smiles are perfect for any number of job opportunities.

Then again, maybe a few of the establishment politicians will come around. That’s fine. They have a choice: But either they commit in writing with the Peace Dividend candidate contract, to GIVE US OUR MONEY BACK or . . . we don’t vote for them. We vote for someone who will. Then we’ll get a government that works for all of us and Walmart or Target will get a bubbly employee at the front entrance, just in time for Black Friday.

Is such an ultimatum really necessary?

YES! It’s come to this. The reason is simple. The war machine will continue to accelerate until we stop it.

However, there’s hope. There’s a very proven method for stopping our out-of-control government from further squandering. It’s a proven method! Works every time . . .

Empty the vault! No money. No money for military expansion. No money. No money for imperial wars.

This is exactly what the conservatives have done to us for years, only we’re turning the tables. THEY spend all the money on war and military. “Oh gosh, folks. We ran out of money. Sorry. We have to cut social programs. And there’s nothing now to fix our infrastructure.”

Ah hah! We see how this works. So we do exactly the same thing to them. THE REFUND (now we’re getting to the real reason for such an outrageous, drastic approach) EMPTIES THE VAULT. Refund $6.832 trillion to THE PEOPLE. No money for war. “Oh gosh, warmongers. We ran out of money. Sorry. You’ll have to close the bases. Start with Guantanamo and Okinawa. And we’ll have to cancel all that silly militarization of outer space. And the upgrading our nuclear weapons? Out of the question. Building more ships and tanks and missiles. FUHGEDDABOUDIT!”

Do you folks get this? This is so obvious. This could work!

But instead we flounder around talking about trimming this and trimming that. SCREW THE TRIMMING! Get people angry! Show them the LIES! The outrageous waste and fraud. Get people to DEMAND THEIR PEACE DIVIDEND REFUND … $20,544 for every single citizen! Spend the money on THE PEOPLE! No money for war!

How can the people get the power back?

How can we get our military, our economy, our government back on track?

ONLY VOTE FOR PEACE DIVIDEND CANDIDATES!

If we get a veto-proof majority in the House and the Senate, and these newly elected representatives go to DC and pass the Peace Dividend legislation, EVERYTHING CHANGES! Just sit back with a glass of your favorite evening comfort drink and think about it. EVERYTHING CHANGES … at least for now. People get a windfall. The DOD is stopped in its tracks. The MIC has to completely rethink and retool. And we can actually talk about things that matter to most Americans. The entire two-party duopoly gets turned on its head. Why? Because 99% of the establishment candidates from the two major parties will refuse to go along with this. They’ll fight it tooth, nail, cloak, dagger, go nuclear, go INSANE! I already know the kaka that they’ll be spewing. You do too. You hear it every time anybody wants to do something for THE PEOPLE of this country.

Listen, folks. We’ve got nothing to lose here. Here’s the worst case scenario . . .

Even if we don’t get our refund, if we got this in front of the public, if we got media to pay attention to this idea — and yes, if in 250 congressional races THIS was a big deal, it would be headline news on MSM —  for the first time in decades we’d be talking about the insanity and waste and lies surrounding the endless wars. We’d be talking about PEACE for a change! And maybe have a serious discussion about how truly screwed up the priorities are right now.

Please keep this thought front and center at all times: The Peace Dividend Project has a very specific goal. Stop the war machine before it destroys the country and possibly all life on the planet. Of course, I feel horrible for the people in Yemen and Iran and Venezuela and Cuba and all the other victims of U.S. military aggression and twisted foreign policies. But none of them are HERE in the belly of this horrible beast. None of them can vote. We start here and if we can stop the hate and lies inside our borders, we can start spreading the love and truth outside our borders. Maybe the world will forgive us our sins and we can get a fresh start.

By the way, if you want to join us and give us a little time and energy, just sign up here . . .

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Join us in making the world safer and more peaceful.

The Never Ending Cycle of Nuclear Insanity

JD

“We reap what we sow . . .”

Amidst all of the sensible and sane cries to eliminate nuclear weapons, we are caught in a self-sustaining, self-reinforcing feedback loop. Call it the Death Spiral of Human Annihilation.

Yes, the U.S. throughout its history, despite official denials even among historians who should know better — maybe they do but prefer being manufacturers of myth rather than chroniclers of history — has been territorial, possessive and aggressive. The Monroe Doctrine declared the entire Western hemisphere as America’s backyard. The U.S. was hardly shy about grabbing as much as it could from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American War, lands as far away as the Philippines. Through treaties and hard-headed diplomacy, it has effectively turned most European nations, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Japan into vassal states, which promote and serve the interests of the U.S., including using their military assets and personnel to take to the battlefield in undeclared wars and provocations against those countries the U.S. perceives as enemies or obstacles to its imperial rule.

This is not particularly extraordinary or surprising. Competition defines and drives much of what goes on between countries, each nation vying for advantage and improvements in its own standing and accumulation, regardless of what hardships it might impose on other countries and their populations. Thus U.S. adventurism and colonization was pretty much business-as-usual for much of its history, as it was for every other ambitious nation on the rise.

However, beyond predictable overt aggressiveness, it was at the end of and immediately after WWII that a seismic change occurred in Washington DC that has elevated our country to become the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world” and propelled the entire planet toward the unstable, chaotic mess we now find ourselves in.

Politically there was the marginalization of Henry Wallace, and the installation of Harry Truman as president. Institutionally it was the creation of the extremely independent security organization, the CIA, as successor to the OSS (Office of Security Services). Programmatically, it was bringing 1600 Nazi scientists into the U.S. under Operation Paperclip. Economically, it was the continuation of a war economy and the expansion of the MIC — the military industrial complex — cementing in place the core elements of “forever war” even in times of peace. Dwight D. Eisenhower saw what was happening and in January 1961 warned the country of the dangers of this in his farewell speech.

The U.S. pursuit of empire and global hegemony now had the mechanisms, the funding, the know-how, the institutional momentum, the “right stuff”, to take the world stage. All of the toxic premises and preconditions were now circulating in the bloodstream of the military and diplomatic channels, a cocktail of pathogens for the madness that infected and captivated those in power, and still does to this day.

This virulence culminated in the 90s with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The U.S. turned its back on an unprecedented historical opportunity, the chance for peace and cooperation on a global scale, one that had the potential of initiating a millennium where wars were the rare exception, and the colonial power struggle paradigm would be consigned to history books. Instead it embraced the “end of history”, a baseless claim of ultimate superiority and entitlement based on America’s victory over the world’s only other superpower.

By the late 90s the U.S. pulled out all of the stops. It would leave no technology untapped, no opportunity unexploited, no promise or treaty unbroken, UN resolutions and world opinion be damned, international law deemed irrelevant. The trajectory we are now on was set in stone. It’s our way or bombs away.

Let’s not get distracted or deluded by claims of noble intent and appeals to the twisted logic of empire.

And our mental discipline starts with our never ever forgetting who started this mess. And thus who must take the lead in fixing it.

Dropping the atomic bombs on Japan sent a message to the world, particularly the Soviet Union.

“We have the ultimate weapon and we will use it. Don’t mess with us, don’t doubt our resolve, no one can stop us.”

The Soviet Union had no choice. Either develop a sufficient nuclear potential to counter that of the U.S. or be held hostage to bullying and coercion.

That unfortunate dynamic unleashed a nuclear arms race that at one point saw enough nuclear weaponry in the stockpiles of the U.S. and the USSR, to destroy the planet 50 times over. This madness has been tempered slightly with treaties but it’s still insanity by any rational measure. Russia and the U.S. still have over 13,000 nuclear weapons — much more powerful and “usable” than when they were at peak numerical levels — and other nuclear nations add another 1,125 to the mix. This is an improvement. The same improvement we could claim if a person only got shot 14 times instead of 50 times. The coroner’s work reconstructing the body for viewing might be a little easier. Should we count our blessings?

Listen, folks. It’s on us! Both the U.S. as a nation and the U.S. as citizens. There’s no passing the buck here, not when the survival of life on Earth is at stake.

Until the U.S. steps forward and leads the effort, nuclear warfare will always be with us. And annihilation of the human species will always hover over us as a real, increasingly probable result.

Moreover, please never forget: Those now in power will never backtrack on this suicidal course. It is what defines them, drives them. It’s as much a part of them as their hearts and brains and the void where their souls would be if they weren’t morally bankrupt, sociopathic mutants.

The only way we’ll have peace is if we REMOVE FROM POWER every single one of the warmongers.

No excuses. No compromise. No fear.

I recommend a massive awakening of 150-200 million U.S. citizens as to the personal costs of war, the inevitable product of: our military adventurism and expansion; our endless, unnecessary, illegal, immoral wars; our completely wasteful procurement of unneeded weapon systems, upgrading our nuclear arsenal, now putting weapons is space in violation of existing treaties; a commitment without the approval of the citizenry to “full- spectrum dominance”, i.e. world rule by an unchallengeable empire.

For decades the DOD and their rah-rah imperialists in office have had a blank check. And like anyone with a blank check, they’ve spent OUR MONEY with wild abandon. THIS is a strategy for defunding the military just enough so that it can properly defend our nation and its people, but no longer use everyday citizens as an ATM machine for its delusional, monomaniacal pursuit of hegemony over the entire planet. We the people never voted for this psychopathic agenda, one which smacks of master race conquest. THIS MECHANISM  will sufficiently drain the Treasury so that unnecessary DOD spending is impossible, and most importantly, extricate the crazies from the toxic dump they’ve turned our once-democratic institutions into.

Please repeat after me: No excuses. No compromise. No fear.

$2.261 Trillion Fraud: Stay Tuned, They’re Just Getting Warmed Up

JD

Well, we’re finally getting out of Afghanistan. That’s great news! But I have one question. Why did we go into Afghanistan in the first place? That was 20 YEARS AGO! You might think it was to catch Osama bin Laden. Well, folks, the Taliban offered to turn him over to us. But we bombed and attacked them anyway.

Here’s another question: Did you vote on starting a war in Afghanistan? I know I didn’t. We didn’t even vote through our congressman. Only Congress can declare war on a country and Congress never declared war on Afghanistan.

Here’s the real kicker: Do you know how much this war cost us? You and I, the taxpayers. Try $2.26 trillion and counting. Yes, according to Brown University’s Cost of War Project, that’s what the bill for that mess comes to. And that EXCLUDES future interest payments and future costs for veterans care.

$2,261,000,000,000.

Did you ask for this? I don’t remember the American public ever saying: “Great idea! Go and blow more than $2 trillion over there. Let our schools fall apart, our bridges and roads crumble, let the communities go bankrupt, but PLEASE spend ten or twenty years blowing up villages and killing innocent people with our money. Sounds like a swell plan!”

This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. This is just ONE WAR. This is just a drop in the ocean of money wasted on endless wars and expansion of our bloated military.

Anyone remember something called the peace dividend? Yes, back in 1992 when the USSR fell apart, they said we were going to stop all the fighting. All that defense money would be now spent on making our lives better, our schools better, our communities better. This was the beginning of a new era.

Well, we haven’t stopped fighting since.

Isn’t it time to end this madness? How about some peace for a change?

Where’s our peace dividend?

By the way, if you want to join us and give us a little time and energy, just sign up here . . .

Join us in making the world safer and more peaceful!