Before I launch into another inflammatory rant about society, culture, technology, and aesthetics, I'll quickly rattle off the assorted musical tracks that serenaded me during my last shower. My iPod Nano always manages to throw a few head-scratching juxtapositions into every playlist.
Sudsy Songs
- Kentucky Moon, by the Kinks
- The Machine in the Ghost, by Apollo 440
- How, by Lisa Loeb
- Beware My Love, by Matthew Sweet
- Once Upon a Time in the West (Live), by Dire Straits
Thank You For Your Service
Hollywood has just released a new film, entitled "Thank You For Your Service," starring Miles Teller and another host of forgettable B-list celebs. It just seems suspicious that a film with this exact title should be released a year after another film titled "Thank You for Your Service" was released. The 2016 film was openly critical of the failure of the United States military to address mental issues facing servicemen and women, and placed that failure within the context of the cavalcade of aimless and worthless conflicts into which these people are thrown.Call it idle conjecture if you will, but releasing a 2017 film with exactly the same title, but with a positive spin on the United States military-industrial complex sounds an awful lot like a public relations manoeuvre.
The relationship between the entertainment industry and the U.S. military is not dissimilar to the relationship between the entertainment industry and sexual impropriety or paedophilia - it's all-pervasive. As this article asserts, very few films are released without being screened by members of the CIA or NSA:
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/07/operation-tinseltown-how-the-cia-manipulates-hollywood/491138/
It also seems oddly coincidental that, as the USAF starts to re-draft retired pilots for lack of experienced personnel, there seem to be an awful lot of pro-military, propagandist releases.
In fact, the amendments to the presidential executive order seem to be worded in just such a way that ALL retired servicepeople are eligible for drafting.
https://www.salon.com/2017/10/20/trump-signs-executive-order-to-draft-retired-pilots-back-into-military-service/
Just as America starts to run low on the number of (straight, cisgendered) people willing to become cannon-fodder in meaningless conflicts, television shows like "Valor", "SEAL Team", and "The Brave" suddenly crop up. Too few people to send on "patrol" in Afghanistan? Make some sexy military soap operas to make being hung out to dry in a field of hostiles every day palatable, even desirable. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that
- the advertising airtime for these TV shows is peppered with 30-second recruitment spots
- the productions are subsidized by the military, including free leases of equipment and footage
- all scripts and releases are vetted by military personnel.
Bottom line: America is run by the military-industrial complex, and they are running out of worker-drones to fly the actual drones. They need more simple-minded non-college graduates to reproduce and then die in the field. Caring for the wounded and disabled is just a drain on resources. Body bags from Niger are more convenient than amputees from Kirkuk. And you can't draft people with critical thinking skills like Pat Tillman. You have to kill those shit-disturbers yourself. Ask Steven Elliott. So make education prohibitively expensive and restrict birth control so that we can get back to the good old system of keeping the poor people breeding and fighting wars on behalf of the interests of the privileged financial elite.
And I think that's enough venting of spleen and ichor on my part.
Thank you very much for your attention, ladies and gentlemen and until next time, it's goodnight England and the colonies,\
—mARKUS
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