Re: If Al Gore and John Edwards are spending too much on mansions, while other Americans struggle to pay rent - Should ANYONE in the upper class be maintaining mansions, while poor Americans struggle with rent?

On Mar 9, 1:53 pm, Bill Bonde <tributyltinpa...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

It is the same argument which is why Gore is such a hypocrite. Of course
the counter argument is that the US generates about the same amount of
CO2 as they do GDP. That they have fewer people is just testament to
their reproductive self control.

The fact that the US generates -- or enjoys -- about 20% of the
world's GDP couldn't have anything to do with the fact that we
basically control the World Bank and the IMF, could it?

And it couldn't have anything to do with the fact that we send the
Marines, the CIA and/or the Army to small foreign countries to
overthrow their governments and rearrange their economies every few
years?

1898 - Cuba, Phillipines, Puerto Rico
1903 - T Roosevelt sends warships to support revolution in Panama
1909 - Occupation of Nicaragua, overthrow of president - US Marines
to return to Nicaragua off and on over the next 18 years
1911, 1915 - US Marines to Mexico
1916 - Marines occupy Haiti
1919 - US Siberian expeditionary force attacks revolutionary forces in
Russia
1925 - US Marines to China
...
[World War I, World War II, Korean War also should get mentioned in
here somewhere]

1946 - US military occupation of Greece
1953 - CIA topples democratically elected government of Iran, which
had nationalized British-owned
oil company; in wake of regime change, Iranian oil
industry is changed to give major US
oil companies greater access to Iranian petroleum output
1954 - CIA topples democratically elected government of Guatemala,
primarily to protest Guatemalan
nationalization of US-owned United Fruit Co., a
multinational banana producers
1956 - US helps to create Diem government in South Vietnam, begins
long military involvement in SE Asia
1958 - US Marines dispatched to Lebanon, to block effects of
revolution in Iraq
1960 - CIA involved in assassination of first President of Congo, P.
Lumumba; US subsequently
sends mammoth amounts of aid to dictator Joseph Mobutu, aka
Mobutu Sess Seko, who
renames the country Zaire
1961 - Bay of Pigs - US backs attempted rebel invasion of Cuba, which
is a failure; CIA later involved
in repeated unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Castro
1963 - Lyndon Johnson extends warm welcome to military coup in Brazil
that topples
left -leaning government there
1965 - US Marine invasion of Dominican Republic, where US corporations
have extensive
investments in sugar, nickel production
1960s - US aid to Portuguese, South African governments fighting for
white minority rule in southern Africa;
heavy US dependence on mineral imports from Africa; more
than 400 US companies defy proposed
embargo of South Africa by investing in the economy there

1960s and early 1970s - Heavy US military aid and economic aid to Shah
of Iran; much US encouragement
for Iranian nuclear energy program; sale of US airplanes,
etc. to Iranian army
1971 - US support for rightwing military coup that overthrows Sihanouk
monarchy in Cambodia, at roughly
the same time, US bombing of rainforests helps destabilize
Cambodia, pave way for bloody Khmer Rouge insurgency
1973 - CIA, Nixon administration encouragement of military coup that
overthrows elected leftist government
in Chile, reverses Chilean nationalization of US business
interests there
1979 - US under Jimmy Carter blocks IMF loans to new Sandinista
government in Nicaragua
Late 1970s - US under Carter begins covert aid to Muslim fighters
opposed to left-leaning government
in Afghanistan
1979 - Carter denounces Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, US aid to
Islamic fighters in country starts to grow
Early 1980s - US under Reagan funds radical Islamist radicals battling
Soviet occupation of Afghanistan,
including Osama Bin Laden; US helps Saudis, Pakistani
intelligence to recruit foreign
Islamist fighters to come to Afghanistan to fight the
Russians;
Early 1980s -- US CIA funds contra guerrillas seeking to overthrow
Nicaraguan government;
Early 1980s -- US provides aid to guerrilla forces seeking to
overthrow leftist government in oil-rich Angola,
1981 - 1989 - US engages in funding of both sides in Iran - Iraq War,
but with primary focus on
providing economic, military aid to Saddam Hussein in Iraq
-- in latter 1980s
US firms sell helicopters, anthrax spores, potential
biological warfare agents to Saddam government
1983 - US military invasion, occupation of Grenada
1989 - US military invasion of Panama, overthrow of Noriega
dictatorship
1990 - US invasion of Iraq in First Gulf War
1993? - US involvement in Somalia, "Black Hawk Down" incident
1996? - US Marines restore Aristide government to power in Haiti
Late 1990s - US under Clinton engages in massive air war against
Yugoslavia, helps block
Serbian attacks against Muslims of Kosovo
Late 1990s - US under Clinton extends help to military dictatorship in
Columbia, in the name of
fighting "war on drugs"
2001 - In reaction to 9-11 attacks, US under Bush invades Aghanistan
by air, with some ground
support, topples Taliban government; US captures Afghan
Muslim fighters for shipment to
Guantanamo Bay
2003 - US under Bush launches invasion of Iraq, topples Saddam
government
2003 (?) - US Marines to Haiti, topple Aristide government, remove
Aristide by air to Central
African Republic

Obviously, none of these military adventures could POSSIBLY have
anything to
do with America's global economic leadership, right, Bill?

It's just that we're so darned productive and free, and so darned
responsible in planning
our families.

And of course, we only subsidize our farmers for domestic reasons,
never
to help them conquer foreign markets in basic foodstuffs -- such as in
Mexico,
for instance, where cheap Midwestern corn is now destabilizing the
tortilla market
and displacing thousands of poor Indian farmers, many of whom are now
crossing the
border to the US as illegal immigrants ...

None of this blame game stuff is going to reduce total CO2 output or
improve the lives of all humans. Certainly telling successful
populations not to enjoy their lives isn't going to do that.

No, better to just forget it, and "let bygones be bygones." It's all
ancient history anyway.

And undoubtedly we can count on the Mexicans, Iranians, Iraqis,
Cubans, Nicaraguans etc. not to hold any grudges ..




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