![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/David-Masciotra-199x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nYou may remember David Masciotra from last year<\/a> when he tried to make the point that the military doesn’t protect him. Well now, at Salon<\/a>, he’s upset that the Pentagon is paying some NFL sporting teams to advertise patriotism for them. For the record, I don’t like it either; the money the Department of Defense spent should have been used for weapons, equipment and training. But I’m sure that Masciotra would disagree with that, too. <\/p>\n I’m also pretty certain that this particular article was published to take advantage of the hype it would receive from the stank-ass hipster doofus readership at Salon on Memorial Day in order to boost their own egos because they’re pretty much left out on a day that celebrates sacrifice and service.<\/p>\n Masciotra begins his little tantrum with the proclamation that “The American empire is dying, and the economy is declining.” I guess he hasn’t notice what ideology has presided over this decline – the ideology, not the political party. Both major parties are racing to the Left as fast as they can go – that’s why America is in such bad shape.<\/p>\n The United States military, with its garish parades and idolatrous rituals of uniform and flag consecration, functions as the final and fading echo of its country\u2019s creed: \u201cWe are better than the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n The real religion of America is America….<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yeah, that’s the problem. maybe if we all went out and stomped on a flag occasionally without being molested by popular opinion, the country would be in better shape. We should just dump our war dead in a massive hole like a landfill and then we’d have more money to buy flat screen TVs for the country’s poor.<\/p>\n Just as he did in his previous rant, Masciotra, for some obscure reason, veers into the sexual assault discussion;<\/p>\n The Pentagon is obstinate in its refusal to deal with the sexual assault epidemic in the military, where some reports suggest one-third of servicewomen are raped, and most of them are too frightened of the consequences to their careers to report the crime. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Masciotra should talk to some of the troops because I’m pretty sure that those in my audience who are still serving could tell him that the Pentagon is dealing with the sexual assault issue with a fervor that makes me wish that they’d pursue our enemies in the same way. Of course, statist Masciotra thinks that the only solution to sexual assault is placing it in the hands of the legislators instead of the commanders. I don’t see him recommending that authority for investigating and prosecuting sexual assault on campus be taken out of universities, though. A college student is much more likely to assaulted than any member of the military.<\/p>\n As a fairly regular viewer of football, it now strikes me that rarely have I seen any opening or halftime ceremony include veterans in wheelchairs or vets struggling to stand on prosthetic limbs. Living and breathing human beings who come to represent the cold and callous consequences of war are not convenient symbols for American greatness or military adoration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Seriously? Then you haven’t been paying attention. Maybe you looked away when they appeared to protect your fragile ego from being confronted with the visage of someone who is better than you in every regard. Do the names of Marine Corporal Kyle Carpenter or Army Ranger Michael Schlitz ring a bell with you, Dave? No? Well, then you haven’t been paying attention.<\/p>\n Many Americans believed that the military existed in the world of valor and sacrifice beyond the tawdry traps of greed and con artistry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now, while I agree with you that the Pentagon misspent millions of dollars, I’d hardly call them con artists. Advertising only works on people who are shopping for a product and that applies here, too. Americans are proud of their military members and they want to be proud. If they weren’t in the market for it, they wouldn’t be buying it. Try paying the NFL to stage a tribute to stank-ass hippies.<\/p>\n When the Pentagon enlists the NFL in a propaganda campaign to transform America into Sparta, it equivocates war with football. Football is a testosterone fueled battle where warriors in uniform heroically overcome the odds to impress and excite millions of viewers with their feats of courage, speed, and strength.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yeah, that’s what we want – a New Sparta. You’d be one of the first that we’d banish from the warrior kingdom, in that case. <\/p>\n There is an insidious connection between the State, major corporations, and the creation of a country where the vast majority of the people subsist on crumbs falling from the feast of the banquet table overhead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yeah, crumbs that they can use to buy flat screen TVs and luxury automobiles. Love them crumbs.<\/p>\n America is no longer a republic in political procedure nor is it truly democratic in cultural practice. It is a militarized economy and a garrison state. Fifty five percent of discretionary spending from the federal government goes to the military. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n The key word in that phrase is “discretionary” – defense is one of the things that government is supposed to be doing, according to the Constitution, as opposed to the spending that goes for welfare, education, shrimp on a treadmill, turtle roadway crossings, etc….<\/p>\n The imperial theater of military glorification in football stadiums is a small part of the large, and largely successful, effort to intellectually paralyze the public with propaganda. The ruling class, and their loyal court of jesters in Washington, are not likely to explain how American tax money goes to nothing that is actually useful and helpful to the public. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n I guess Dave would be in favor of a massive tax cut then to strangle the government spending on irrelevant stuff. Well, probably not.<\/p>\n Thanks, Dave. Can you end your rant with a useless, tired and worn cliche?<\/p>\n The fun is over for the NFL now, and it will soon end for the entire country. That is until and unless America reaches a day when schools and hospitals have all the money they need, and the Pentagon has to host a bake sale to fund its new bomber.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Thanks, Dave, you’re a real tool.<\/p>\n Yeah, he tried to throw cold water on the whole Memorial Day thing so the hipster community can feel better about themselves when confronted with something they don’t understand – sacrifice and service. They’re too busy thinking that they’re having a real impact on American lives because they write books about John Mellencamp. His only real accomplishment is gluing that rat to his face. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"