Womens Figure

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Is it Bad to Sleep in a Sports Bra?

Should You Wear a Sports Bra to Bed?

It’s not bad to sleep in a sports bra if it makes you more comfortable. Bras are generally restraining and most women ache to reach home and get rid of them. Some wear bralettes or stay bra-less all day when they are staying at home.

Women who habitually sleep in bras say they feel more secure, comfortable, and have better sleep. Young girls with very sensitive breasts also find solace when they go to bed in a bra.

But what kind of a bra should you wear to bed? The answer is a soft, slightly stretchy, breathable and non-binding bra. A low impact sports bra is consistent with that description.

Benefits of Sleeping in a Sports Bra

Why would you prefer to wear a sports bra to bed and not an ordinary bra? Some reasons are listed below:

Low impact sports bras are more comfortable than regular bras
They don’t pinch
They are friendlier on sensitive breasts
Most athletic bras are breathable and wick away moisture, keeping you cool
Sports bras are more suitable for nursing women

Can Wearing a Sports Bra to Bed Affect Sagging?

There is no evidence that wearing a bra to bed will prevent breast sagging. There is also no evidence that bras can cause sagging. Many medical experts agree that sagging is caused by aging, pregnancy, weight loss and weight gain.

Some researchers argue that wearing a bra to bed can help with preventing (but not reversing) stretch marks. It’s also very clear that wearing any bra, day or night, cannot cause cancer.

Wearing a Sports Bra to Bed and Breast Growth

There have been theories that wearing some type of binding or minimizer bra can hamper or delay breast growth. But research has confirmed that no bra can affect breast development.

The determinants of the rate of breast growth are mainly genes and hormones. It has also been seen that weight loss or gain can affect the size of a woman’s bust.

So, wearing a sports bra at night will not affect the size or growth rate of your breasts.

Low impact sports bra

When Nursing and Breastfeeding

During pregnancy, breasts can be very unpredictable. They keep changing in size, become sensitive, softer, and sore. In the last months, they can leak milk. Should you wear a bra to bed during this period?

Yes! Wearing a bra to bed in your pregnancy can make you more comfortable and help you sleep better.

I’ve seen so many women who spend their days around the home while breastfeeding without wearing a bra at all. But they can’t go to bed without a bra. This is simply because they can’t stand leaking breast milk on their beds.

If you can, invest in a good quality maternity or breastfeeding bras. They are soft and don’t have any hard objects. But they still offer sufficient support.

In case you are not willing to buy these custom bras, a low impact sports bra will do. High impact sports bras tend to be very rigid. They may not accommodate your changing bust size. You can also try a built-in camisole or tank top, or a stretchy unwired soft cup bra.

Nursing bra

When is it Bad to Wear a Sports Bra to Bed?

The key is that the bra you are wearing to bed should make you more comfortable. If it becomes a bother, you shouldn’t sleep in it. Here are bras to avoid for sleeping in:

High impact sports bra
A bra that is too tight
Those that pinch your skin
Wrong size
Those that cause rashes in the mornings

Always make sure that you are wearing the right style of sports bra to bed. Wearing the wrong bra might not hurt you in a few days or weeks. The side effects may take a longer time before you realize it.

Conclusion

Always avoid going to bed with a bra on just because you don’t want to take it off. Be honest with yourself. If the reason is not comfort, you could be doing the wrong thing.

I’ll emphasize that there is nothing bad with wearing a sports bra to bed provided it doesn’t bind or pinch your body, or cause discomfort when or after wearing it.

20 Best Front hook sports bras

Buy the best front hook, high impact sports bras and get a new experience. Shop bras for athletics, leisure, sleep, everyday and post-operation wear

20 Best Back Closure Sports Bras

Shop the best back closure sports bras whether for workouts, daily use or post-operation. Also learn why you may need to wear a back clasp sports bra even for everyday wear

Sunday, September 16, 2018

Women get more share in Inheritance under Shari'a law:

If you view only one aspect of the bigger picture of the shariah, which is sometimed presented incorrectly, you will miss the wisdom that it holds as an integrated whole.

In Islamic law of inheritance, Women get less than men in only 4 situations, equal in 20 situations and more than men in 14 situations!

And remember that all the financial needs of women have to be borne by their male relatives at every stage of her life.
And if her male relatives do not support her, she can claim it through law.

If she doesn't have any male relatives to support, it's the responsibility of the Muslim society and the government to support her and her kids.

Apart from this, she gets Mehr during marriage, which is totally her's.

She also has right to own property or any wealth independently and she can do business if she wants. She can dispose of her wealth in any manner she likes.

Even if the husband is poor and his wife is rich, it's still the responsibility of the husband to take care of her and their children's needs and he cannot force her to support or share in family expenses.

And all these economic rights were given to women by Islam since more than 1440 years.

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

IT -- Manlio Dinucci -- La NATO espandibile e sempre più costosa si allarga sull’Europa

Bruxelles, protesta contro il vertice della NATO che si apre oggi

La NATO espandibile e sempre più costosa

si allarga sull’Europa

Manlio Dinucci

Si svolge oggi e domani a Bruxelles il Summit Nato a livello di capi di stato e di governo dei 29 paesi membri. Esso conferma al massimo livello il potenziamento della struttura di comando principalmente in funzione anti-Russia. Saranno costituiti un nuovo Comando congiunto per l’Atlantico, a Norfolk negli Usa, contro «i sottomarini russi che minacciano le linee di comunicazione marittima fra Stati uniti ed Europa», e un nuovo Comando logistico, a Ulm in Germania, quale «deterrente» contro la Russia, con il compito di «muovere più rapidamente le truppe attraverso l’Europa in qualsiasi conflitto».

Entro il 2020 la Nato disporrà in Europa di 30 battaglioni meccanizzati, 30 squadriglie aeree e 30 navi da combattimento, dispiegabili entro 30 giorni o meno contro la Russia. Il presidente Trump avrà così in mano carte più forti al Summit bilaterale che terrà, il 16 luglio a Helsinki, col presidente russo Putin. Da ciò che il presidente Usa stabilirà al tavolo negoziale dipenderà fondamentalmente la situazione dell’Europa.

Il raggio di espansione della Nato va ben oltre l’Europa e gli stessi membrl dell’Alleanza. Essa ha una serie di partner, collegati all’Alleanza da diversi programmi di cooperazione militare. Tra i venti che rientrano nella Partnership euro-atlantica, figurano Austria, Finlandia e Svezia. La partnership mediterranea comprende Israele e Giordania, che hanno missioni ufficiali permanenti al quartier generale Nato a Bruxelles, Egitto, Tunisia, Algeria, Marocco e Mauritania. Quella del Golfo comprende Kuwait, Qatar ed Emirati, con missioni permanenti a Bruxelles, più il Bahrain. La Nato ha inoltre nove «Partner globali» in Asia, Oceania e America Latina – Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mongolia, Corea del Sud, Giappone, Australia, Nuova Zelanda e Colombia – alcuni dei quali «contribuiscono attivamente alle operazioni militari Nato».

La NATO – costituitasi nel 1949, sei anni prima del Patto di Varsavia, formalmente in base al principio difensivo stabilito dall’Articolo 5 – è stata trasformata in alleanza che, in base al «nuovo concetto strategico», impegna i paesi membri a «condurre operazioni di risposta alle crisi non previste dall’articolo 5, al di fuori del territorio dell’Alleanza». In base al nuovo concetto geostrategico, l’Organizzazione del Trattato del Nord Atlantico si è estesa fin sulle montagne afghane, dove la Nato è in guerra da 15 anni.

Ciò che non è cambiato, nella mutazione della NATO, è la gerarchia all’interno dell’Alleanza. È sempre il Presidente degli Stati uniti a nominare il Comandante Supremo Alleato in Europa, che è sempre un generale statunitense, mentre gli alleati si limitano a ratificare la scelta. Lo stesso avviene per gli altri comandi chiave. La supremazia Usa si è rafforzata con l’allargamento della Nato, poiché i paesi dell’Est sono legati più a Washington che a Bruxelles.

Lo stesso Trattato di Maastricht del 1992 sancisce la subordinazione dell’Unione europea alla NATO, di cui fanno parte 22 dei 28 paesi della Ue (con la Gran Bretagna in uscita dall’Unione). Esso stabilisce, all’articolo 42, che «l’Unione rispetta gli obblighi di alcuni Stati membri, i quali ritengono che la loro difesa comune si realizzi tramite la NATO, nell’ambito del Trattato del Nord Atlantico». E il protocollo n. 10 sulla cooperazione istituita dall’art. 42 sottolinea che la NATO «resta il fondamento della difesa» dell’Unione europea. La Dichiarazione congiunta sulla cooperazione Nato-Ue, firmata ieri a Bruxelles alla vigilia del Summit, conferma tale subordinazione: «La NATO continuerà a svolgere il suo ruolo unico ed essenziale quale pietra angolare della difesa collettiva per tutti gli alleati, e gli sforzi della Ue rafforzeranno anche la NATO». La PESCO e il Fondo europeo per la Difesa, ha sottolineato il segretario generale Stoltenberg, «sono complementari, non alternativi alla NATO ». La «mobilità militare» è al centro della cooperazione NATO-UE, sancita dalla Dichiarazione congiunta. Importante anche la «cooperazione marittima NATO-UE nel Mediterraneo per combattere il traffico di migranti e alleviare così le sofferenze umane».

IL RAGGIO di espansione della NATO va ben oltre l’Europa. Essa ha una serie di partner, collegati all’Alleanza da diversi programmi di cooperazione militare. Tra i venti che rientrano nella Partnership euro-atlantica, figurano Austria, Finlandia e Svezia. La partnership mediterranea comprende Israele e Giordania, che hanno missioni ufficiali permanenti al quartier generale Nato a Bruxelles, Egitto, Tunisia, Algeria, Marocco e Mauritania. Quella del Golfo comprende Kuwait, Qatar ed Emirati, con missioni permanenti a Bruxelles, più il Bahrain. La NATO ha inoltre nove «Partner globali» in Asia, Oceania e America Latina – Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mongolia, Corea del Sud, Giappone, Australia, Nuova Zelanda e Colombia – alcuni dei quali «contribuiscono attivamente alle operazioni militari NATO ».

SOTTO PRESSIONE degli USA, gli alleati europei e il Canada hanno aumentato la loro spesa militare di 87 miliardi di dollari dal 2014. Nonostante ciò, il presidente Trump batterà i pugni sul tavolo del Summit, accusando gli alleati perché, tutti insieme, spendono meno degli Stati uniti. «Tutti gli alleati stanno aumentando la spesa militare», assicura il segretario generale della Nato Stoltenberg.

I PAESI CHE destinano alla spesa militare almeno il 2% del pil aumentano da 3 nel 2014 a 8 nel 2018. Si prevede che da ora al 2024 gli alleati europei e il Canada accresceranno la loro spesa militare di 266 miliardi di dollari, portando la spesa militare complessiva della NATO oltre i 1000 miliardi di dollari annui. La Germania la porterà nel 2019 a una media di 114 milioni di euro al giorno e pianifica di accrescerla dell’80% entro il 2024. L’Italia si è impegnata a portarla dagli attuali 70 milioni di euro al giorno a circa 100 milioni di euro al giorno. Come richiede quello che, nel programma di governo del «contratto» tra M5Stelle e Lega, viene definito «l’alleato privilegiato dell’Italia».

il manifesto, 11 luglio 2018

NO WAR NO NATO

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https://www.pandoratv.it/category/opinioni/manlio-dinucci-opinioni/

DE -- Manlio Dinucci -- " DIE KUNST DES KRIEGES " -- USA und NATO verdrängen krisengeschüttelte EU

" DIE KUNST DES KRIEGES "

USA und NATO verdrängen krisengeschüttelte EU

von Manlio Dinucci

Eine Gruppe von Staaten, die sich weigert, ihre Unabhängigkeit von den Vereinigten Staaten als gegeben anzunehmen und sich gleichzeitig weigert, unter den Einfluss der europäischen Aufbegehrenden zu fallen, hat sich entschieden, ihre Unterordnung unter die NATO zu bekräftigen.

Zwei Gipfeltreffen, beide in Brüssel im Abstand von zwei Wochen, repräsentieren den Status quo der europäischen Situation. Auf der Tagung des Europäischen Rates vom 28. Juni wurde bestätigt, dass die Union, die sich auf die Interessen der Wirtschafts- und Finanzoligarchien stützt, beginnend mit denen mit der größten Macht, derzeit wegen ihrer Interessenkonflikte, die sich nicht auf die Migrantenfrage beschränken, zerfällt.

Der Nordatlantikrat - an dem am 10. und 11. Juli die Staats- und Regierungschefs von 22 EU-Ländern (von insgesamt 28), die Mitglieder des Bündnisses (mit Großbritannien, das die Union verlässt) teilnehmen werden - wird die NATO unter amerikanischem Kommando verstärken. Präsident Donald Trump wird daher auf dem bilateralen Gipfel, der fünf Tage später, am 16. Juli in Helsinki, mit dem russischen Präsidenten Wladimir Putin stattfinden wird, die stärksten Karten in der Hand halten.

Was auch immer der US-Präsident am Verhandlungstisch festlegt, es wird die Situation in Europa grundlegend beeinflussen. Die Tatsache, dass die USA nie ein vereintes Europa als gleichberechtigten Verbündeten gewollt haben, ist für niemanden ein Geheimnis. Mehr als 40 Jahre lang, während des Kalten Krieges, hielten sie Europa in Unterordnung als Frontlinie der nuklearen Konfrontation mit der Sowjetunion. Im Jahr 1991, als der Kalte Krieg vorbei war, befürchteten die Vereinigten Staaten, dass die europäischen Verbündeten ihre Führung in Frage stellen oder entscheiden könnten, dass die NATO jetzt hinfällig sei, da sie von der neuen geopolitischen Situation überholt sei. Dies ist der Grund für die strategische Neuausrichtung der NATO, die nach wie vor unter amerikanischem Kommando steht und durch den Vertrag von Maastricht als "Grundlage für die Verteidigung" der Europäischen Union anerkannt wird, sowie für ihre Osterweiterung, die die ehemaligen Länder des Warschauer Pakts mehr mit Washington als mit Brüssel verbindet.

Während der Kriege nach dem Ende des Kalten Krieges (Irak, Jugoslawien, Afghanistan, Irak zum zweiten Mal, Libyen, Syrien) verfolgten die Vereinigten Staaten geheime Abkommen mit den größten europäischen Mächten (Großbritannien, Frankreich, Deutschland) und teilten mit ihnen bestimmte Einflusszonen, während sie von den anderen europäischen Staaten (einschließlich Italien) ohne wesentliche Zugeständnisse erhielten, was sie wollten.

Das Hauptziel Washingtons besteht nicht nur darin, die Europäische Union in einer untergeordneten Position zu halten, sondern mehr noch, die Bildung einer Wirtschaftszone zu verhindern, die ganz Europa, einschließlich Russland, vereinen könnte, indem sie sich mit China an die sich entwickelnde "neue Seidenstraße" anschließt. Dies hat zu dem neuen Kalten Krieg geführt, der 2014 (während der Obama-Regierung) in Europa ausgelöst wurde, sowie zu den Wirtschaftssanktionen und der Eskalation der NATO-Strategie gegen Russland.

Die Strategie von "Teile und Herrsche", ursprünglich in den Kostümen der Diplomatie verkleidet, ist nun für alle sichtbar. Als er im April mit Präsident Macron zusammentraf, schlug Trump vor, Frankreich solle die Europäische Union verlassen und bot ihm günstigere Handelsbedingungen als die der EU. Wir wissen nicht, was in Paris beschlossen wird. Aber es ist bedeutungsvoll, dass Frankreich einen Plan für gemeinsame militärische Operationen mit einer Gruppe von EU-Ländern auf den Weg gebracht hat, ein Plan, der unabhängig vom Entscheidungsapparat der EU gemacht wurde. Das Abkommen wurde am 25. Juni in Luxemburg von Frankreich, Deutschland, Belgien, Dänemark, den Niederlanden, Spanien, Portugal, Estland und dem Vereinigten Königreich, das sich somit auch nach seinem Ausscheiden aus der EU im März 2019 beteiligen kann, unterzeichnet. Die französische Verteidigungsministerin Florence Parly stellte fest, dass Italien das Abkommen noch nicht unterzeichnet hat, weil es "eine Frage der Details, nicht des Wesentlichen" sei.

Tatsächlich wurde der Plan von der NATO gebilligt, da er "die Schnelligkeit der Streitkräfte des Bündnisses vervollständigt und verstärkt". Und, wie die italienische Verteidigungsministerin Elisabetta Trenta betonte, die "Europäische Union muss auf internationaler Ebene für Sicherheit sorgen und dazu ihre Zusammenarbeit mit der NATO verstärken".

il manifesto, 3.juli 2018

Übersetzung: K.R.

NO WAR NO NATO

SIGN THIS PETITON

DE -- Manlio Dinucci -- " DIE KUNST DES KRIEGES " -- Neokolonialismus und die Flüchtlingskrise

" DIE KUNST DES KRIEGES "

Neokolonialismus und die Flüchtlingskrise

von Manlio Dinucci

Die "Flüchtlingskrise" führt von den Vereinigten Staaten bis nach Europa zu bitteren nationalen und internationalen Kontroversen über die politischen Maßnahmen, die in Bezug auf den Migrantenstrom ergriffen werden müssen. Diese Bewegungen werden jedoch in einem Klischee dargestellt, das die Realität auf den Kopf stellt - das der "reichen Länder", die dem wachsenden Migrationsdruck der "armen Länder" ausgesetzt sind. Diese Falschdarstellung verbirgt die Hauptursache - das Weltwirtschaftssystem, das es einer kleinen Minderheit ermöglicht, Reichtum auf Kosten der wachsenden Mehrheit anzuhäufen, indem es sie verarmt und damit eine erzwungene Auswanderung provoziert.

Was den Migrantenstrom in die Vereinigten Staaten betrifft, so ist der Fall Mexiko symbolisch. Die landwirtschaftliche Produktion brach zusammen, als die USA und Kanada mit dem NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) den mexikanischen Markt dank eigener öffentlicher Subventionen mit kostengünstigen Agrarprodukten überschwemmten. Millionen von Landarbeitern wurden arbeitslos, wodurch sich der Arbeitskräftepool der "maquiladoras" vergrößerte - Tausende von Industriebetrieben entlang der Grenze auf mexikanischem Territorium, hauptsächlich im Besitz oder unter Kontrolle von US-Firmen, in denen die Löhne sehr niedrig sind und Gewerkschaftsrechte nicht existieren.

In einem Land, in dem etwa die Hälfte der Bevölkerung in Armut lebt, hat diese Situation die Zahl der Menschen, die in die Vereinigten Staaten einreisen wollen, erhöht. Dies ist der Ursprung der Mauer entlang der Grenze zu Mexiko, die vom demokratischen Präsidenten Clinton 1994 begonnen wurde, als die NAFTA in Kraft trat, fortgesetzt vom republikanischen Bush, verstärkt durch den Demokraten Obama, die gleiche Mauer, die der republikanische Trump jetzt hofft, entlang 3.000 der Grenzkilometer zu vollenden.

Was die Migrationsströme nach Europa betrifft, so ist der Fall Afrika bezeichnend. Der Kontinent ist reich an Rohstoffen - Gold, Platin, Diamanten, Uran, Coltan (oder Tantalit), Kupfer, Öl, Erdgas, Edelhölzer, Kakao, Kaffee und viele andere.

Diese Ressourcen, die einst vom alten europäischen Kolonialsystem mit sklavenartigen Methoden ausgebeutet wurden, werden heute vom europäischen Neokolonialismus durch an der Macht befindlichen afrikanischen Eliten, billige lokale Arbeitskräften und der nationalen und internationalen Kontrolle des Marktes ausgebeutet.

Mehr als 100 an der Londoner Börse notierte Unternehmen, darunter auch britische, beuten die Bodenschätze von 37 afrikanischen Ländern südlich der Sahara, im Wert von mehr als 1.000 Milliarden Dollar, aus.

Frankreich kontrolliert das Währungssystem von 14 ehemaligen afrikanischen Kolonien über den CFA Franc (ursprünglich für "Französische Kolonien Afrikas", heute "Afrikanische Finanzgemeinschaft"). Um die Parität zum Euro zu wahren, sind diese 14 afrikanischen Länder verpflichtet, dem französischen Finanzministerium die Hälfte ihrer Währungsreserven zu zahlen.

Der libysche Staat, der eine autonome afrikanische Währung schaffen wollte, wurde durch den Krieg von 2011 zerstört. In der Elfenbeinküste (einer CFA-Region) kontrollieren französische Unternehmen den größten Teil der Vermarktung von Kakao, dessen weltweit führender Produzent das Land ist. Den kleinen Produzenten bleiben kaum 5% des Wertes des Endprodukts, so dass die meisten von ihnen in Armut leben. Dies sind nur einige Beispiele für die neokoloniale Ausbeutung des Kontinents.

Afrika, das als von ausländischer Hilfe abhängig dargestellt wird, leistet tatsächlich eine jährliche Nettozahlung von rund 58 Milliarden US-Dollar ins Ausland. Die sozialen Folgen sind verheerend. In Afrika südlich der Sahara, wo die Bevölkerung mehr als eine Milliarde Menschen zählt und zu 60% aus Kindern und Jugendlichen im Alter von 0 bis 24 Jahren besteht, leben etwa zwei Drittel der Einwohner in Armut, davon etwa 40% - also 400 Millionen - in extremer Armut.

Die "Flüchtlingskrise" ist in Wirklichkeit die Krise eines nicht nachhaltigen Wirtschafts- und Sozialsystems.

Ausgabe Dienstag, 26. Juni 2018

Übersetzung K.R.

NO WAR NO NATO

SIGN THIS PETITON

Monday, July 9, 2018

July 4 Is Matrix Reinforcement Day by Paul Craig Roberts

July 4 Is Matrix Reinforcement Day

July 3, 2018

July 4 Is Matrix Reinforcement Day

Paul Craig Roberts

July 4, 2018, is the 242 anniversary of the date chosen to stand as the date the 13 British colonies declared independence. According to historians, the actual date independence was declared was July 2, 1776, with the vote of the Second Continental Congress. Other historians have concluded that the Declaration of Independence was not actually signed until August 2.

For many living in the colonies the event was not the glorious one that is presented in history books. There was much opposition to the separation, and the “loyalists” were killed, confiscated, and forced to flee to Canada. Some historians explain the event not as a great and noble enterprise of freedom and self-government, but as the manipulations of ambitious men who saw opportunity for profit and power.

For most Americans today the Fourth of July is a time for fireworks, picnics, and a patriotic speech extolling those who “fought for our freedom” and for those who defended it in wars ever since. These are feel good speeches, but most of them make very little sense. Many of our wars have been wars of empire, seizing lands from the Spanish, Mexicans, and indigenous tribes. The US had no national interest in WW 1 and and very little in WW 2. There was no prospect of Germany and Japan invading the US. Once Hitler made the mistake of invading the Soviet Union, the European part of World War 2 was settled by the Red Army. The Japanese had no chance of standing up to Mao and Stalin. American participation was not very important to either outcome.

No Fourth of July orator will say this, and it is unlikely any will make reference to the seven or eight countries that Washington has destroyed in whole or part during the 21st century or to the US overthrow of the various reform governments that have been elected in Latin America. The Fourth of July is a performance to reinforce The Matrix in which Americans live.

When the Fourth of July comes around, I re-read the words of US Marine General Smedley Butler. General Butler is the most highly decorated US officer in history. By the end of his career, he had received 16 medals, five for heroism. He is one of 19 men to receive the Medal of Honor twice, one of only three men to be awarded both the Marine Corps Brevet Medal and the Medal of Honor, and the only to be awarded the Brevet Medal and two Medals of Honor, all for separate actions.

Butler served in all officer ranks that existed in the US Marines of his time, from Second Lieutenant to Major General. He said that “during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”

Butler says he was a long time escaping from The Matrix and that he wishes “more of today’s military personnel would realize that they are being used by the owning elite as a publicly subsidized capitalist goon squad.”

Butler wrote:

“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.

“A few profit — and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can’t end it by disarmament conferences. You can’t eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can’t wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war.

“The only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and industry and labor before the nation’s manhood can be conscripted. One month before the Government can conscript the young men of the nation — it must conscript capital and industry and labor. Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted — to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get.” https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.pdf

In November, 1935, Butler wrote in Common Sense magazine:

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period . . . I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

The military/security complex, about which President Eisenhower warned Americans 57 years ago, adroitly uses the Fourth of July to portray America’s conflicts in a positive light in order to protect its power and profit institutionalized in the US government. In stark contrast, by the end of his career General Butler saw it differently. Washington has never fought for “freedom and democracy,” only for power and profit. Butler said that “there are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights.”

Today the anti-gun lobby and militarized police have made it very difficult to fight for the defense of our homes, and the War on Terror has destroyed the Bill of Rights. If there could be a second American revolution, maybe we could try again.

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