Ted Rall for February 06, 2013

Mr. Rall is a passionate voice. I would like to have seen him apply that voice to the recent HSBC report where a financial firm was found to be too big to prosecute after helping Iran, Drug Cartels, and other such groups to circumvent US and Int’l laws. One reason we are at “war” (conflict?) is because of the gap between the grossly rich and the impossibly poor. Dozens of nations are led by individuals who enrich themselves and their supporters on the backs of their peoples. Corporations across the planet encourage this abuse of the poor while falsely inflating the value of money over the commodities for which money is traded. The S&P suit being brought by the government is just another example of how a “self regulating” organization aids and abets these abuses. Money is a much deadlier weapon than drones and is killing many more people; it destroys many more futures. Hyper trading makes our over volatile stock markets unstable. The failure of our legislators to finance regulators in order to protect us from the next set of abuses from those deemed to big to fail, or to prosecute, leaves us vulnerable as a nation and as individuals with investments in our banks and markets. Corporations own media outlets and newspapers and perhaps Mr. Rall is not permitted to address these other abusers of our neighbors, or perhaps he simply believes the actions we are taking overseas are more important. I believe that if we create jobs, get our financial house in order AND continue to protect our children, elderly, wounded warriors and our environment, we can lead by positive examples rather than by threat of military or financial conflict.Respectfully,C.

Ted’s representation’s of our President are accurate as his descriptions of our President’s actions: None.

Great cartoon.

The US military is bureaucratic enough that even if they did enlist, his daughters would never get near a combat zone. Quite a contrast to Prince Harry flying actual combat missions.

Excuse me i I missed it, but has no one commented on Ted incorrectly stating that the poor are not disproportionately maimed by football. I’m aware of no empirical studies on it but would venture to say that, if not as equally disproportionate as death and maiming in the military, it is certainly substantially disproportionate.

My point Ted: this was a misleading and false analogy which minimizes the injuries to disadvantage football players,

Very bad taste and poorly thought out.

I suspect he left his keyboard unattended and a rogue child got to it ;-)

Even if we eliminate all deferments, the children of the wealthy & powerful will just be commissioned as officers & sent to safe, comfortable places. No front line duty for them.I wonder if Obama would be ok with Lieutenant Malia piloting drones from a cubicle in Syracuse, NY?

Thanks, Mr. Rall. I do not see any false equivalency here, but perhaps others are better at spotting it.

In any case, I have long said that if we want to avoid stupid or pointless wars, we should re-institute the draft with no available deferments. A volunteer military is only valuable when the people who choose to go to war really do think of soldiers as people, rather than plastic pieces on a game board. Since that doesn’t happen, a volunteer force ends up like ours is now, stuck in middle-east quagmires with multiple tours of duty and “stop-loss” provisions to keep them from being able to leave when their hitch is up.

I’m looking forward to Ted’s comment on the recent White House memo claiming the right to kill any American anywhere if he or she appears to be up to no good.

@ Ted Rall – I apologize if I implied you never target corporations. With Citizen’s United, redmapping, voter suppression, and the 2014 elections already seeing funding, I have hopes you and your fellow artists will target them even more.@ Mickey1339 – Goldman-Sachs has been given much of the…credit?…for the damage done to the Greek economy because of its use of the same risky financial products they used in the US. S&P is hopefully a sign of things to come.Respectfully,C.

I agree Tigger. He also put highly involved wall street players into positions of authority over our finances Geithner was one, I don’t have time to research the other. I do disagree with who you feel is to blame as I believe it goes back to 1998 and laws loosening how investors could gamble with pensions. That is too broad a statement, but time is not my friend right now.Also, as long as senate republicans were able to block anything the dems put forward in the senate, the dems did not have control. That said, Reid is an idiot, and Pelosi was disrespectful and antagonistic. The republicans and dems both have worked very hard to make our nation weaker and more divided just as Geo Washington said they would.Wish I had more time to say this better.Be well,C.

Yes, glad you can read past the typo, well done!

You need to be 18 to join the military and it’s all volunteer… oh, right, it’s not supposed to make sense. Mission accomplished.

What makes you think I wasn’t including chickenhawks from both parties? There are plenty of chickenhawks on both sides of the aisle. I have no respect for any of them.When it comes to protecting the scions of the rich & powerful, there seems to be plenty of bi-partisanship.

You really aren’t naive enough to think that de-regulating finance wasn’t something conservatives were enthusiastic about? The notion that more Americans should own their homes was very popular in the GOP, leading to de-regulation of banking. The vast bulk of subprime mortgages were from private banks, not Fannie or Freddie. They built that, then it burst.

It has become wise for me to change my ‘handle’. Hope you find it amusing and appropriate. I’m willing to consider alternatives if anyone has a suggestion. That may be akin to asking a person where I should go and how I should get there, but it could be fun.Respectfully,C.

Night Gaunt is more correct than wrong, Howgozit. (I still want to call you Howie)The Navy Seals were the bullet, the CIA was the gun aimed at the target. The President pulled the trigger. The most popular plan was to use one of two types of drone strikes, but the President knew if the building was simply destroyed, no one would know if it was bin Laden killed or not. There would have also been no intell collected from the location. It was a team effort, almost bipartisan. A rare thing in our nation nowadays.By authorizing the strike, and the use of men, the President participated in the death of an enemy and confirmed his death, preventing us from fighting a “ghost”. It won’t bring back friends and family lost in NY, the Pentagon, or Flight 93, but it does feel like justice more than it does revenge. Respectfully,C.

You are right on target,as usual.Nicely done!