One eye popping thing the Woodward book mentions is the cost of the Afghanistan War; over one trillion dollars. U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan have cost US taxpayers $5.6 trillion since 2001. And you wonder why your roads and bridges and schools are so sh**ty.
No, what I wonder, Bette, is why you're so silent? Why aren't you objecting to the ongoing Iraq War? You certainly love to present yourself as political. I just see partisan. You like to present yourself as educated too but I only knew someone who was nasty, angry, masculine and every thing wrong with the NYC music scene. That's what killed your film career, that image. If you hadn't lied about who you were when you briefly had a hit film career, it might not have mattered.
If you hadn't tried to dispose of your gay following, you might have managed to hang on after the studios were done with you. But there you were, lying to the world, about how you didn't know what was going on in the baths (the gay bathhouses she got her start in), insisting that you were just on stage singing, you had no idea what they were doing in there.
I was embarrassed for you, Bette, and I've never felt kindly towards you.
So you disowned your gay following -- the only real following you had -- and you went around with your macho on the set ways (your behavior on the set of JINXED! was not an aberration, it was who you were), having problems with everyone -- Shelley Long, Lily Tomlin, etc, etc -- unable to get along with anyone. From around 1986 to 1988, you had a successful film career. 1987 was when you began reshaping your past to write out your gay following. And you thought you got away with it but they talked and talked and, in the pre-web days, got the word out and, within a year,your hit making days were over.
And so when DISNEY could ditch you, they immediately did.
There was no reason to lie about except maybe now it was a conservative area and AIDS was claiming a lot of lives. But, Bette, that was actually a reason to stand by your past, not to run from it.
So it's not like I have any respect for you and I've never liked you as a person. I've disliked you so much that in 2005, when I tried really hard not to say anything bad about anyone, I admitted in a roundtable at THIRD how much I disliked you. You can from the mafia side of the music business, as so many low rents out of NYC did at that time. And everything was always a competition to you -- even a casual conversation. You were never someone anyone could relax around.
So maybe I'm being harder on you than I should? Maybe. And you can prove me wrong and prove yourself so right in one simple step by denouncing the ongoing Iraq War and calling for an end to it.
But you won't do that, will you, Bette?
It's not in you. You'll whine about the money but heaven forbid you take a brave stand on anything.
You couldn't stand with your gay fans during the days of the AIDS plague -- a time when just being gay was enough to hurt your career. And you can't stand with what's right today.
I will give you credit for one thing, you stood up for Laura Nyro and you paid for her son to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. I do give you credit for that. It showed much more class than I'd ever given you credit for.
Too many people, people with much more class than Bette Midler, have remained silent as the wars have continued year after year.
The US: The Century of Lost Wars - Global Research
From the James Petris (GLOBAL RESEARCH) article Dirk is recommending:
The Lost Wars
The US has been engaged in multiple wars and coups since the beginning of the 21st century. These include Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Palestine, Venezuela and the Ukraine. Besides Washington’s secret intelligence agencies have financed five surrogate terrorist groups in Pakistan, China, Russia, Serbia and Nicaragua.
The US has invaded countries, declared victories and subsequently faced resistance and prolonged warfare which required a large US military presence to merely protect garrison outposts.
The US has suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties – dead, maimed and deranged soldiers. The more the Pentagon spends, the greater the losses and subsequent retreats.
The more numerous the vassal regimes, the greater the corruption and incompetence flourishes.
Every regime subject to US tutelage has failed to accomplish the objectives designed by its US military advisers.
The more spent on recruiting mercenary armies the greater the rate of defection and the transfer of arms to US adversaries.
Success in Starting Wars and Failures in Finishing Them
Meanwhile, Women's March on the Pentagon events take place October 20 and 21st. Cindy Sheehan has been discussing these events:
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