War on the Cheap

Uwe Reinhardt is not at all happy:

Who's Paying for Our Patriotism?: President Bush assures us that the ongoing twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are worth the sacrifices they entail. Editorialists around the nation agree and say that a steadfast American public was willing to stay the course. Should anyone be surprised by this national resolve, given that these wars visit no sacrifice of any sort -- neither blood nor angst nor taxes -- on well over 95 percent of the American people?

At most, 500,000 American troops are at risk of being deployed to these war theaters at some time. Assume that for each of them some 20 members of the wider family sweat with fear when they hear that a helicopter crashed in Afghanistan or that X number of soldiers or Marines were killed or seriously wounded in Iraq. It implies that no more than 10 million Americans have any real emotional connection to these wars.

The administration and Congress have gone to extraordinary lengths to insulate voters from the money cost of the wars -- to the point even of excluding outlays for them from the regular budget process. Furthermore, they have financed the wars not with taxes but by borrowing abroad. The strategic shielding of most voters from any emotional or financial sacrifice for these wars cannot but trigger the analogue of what is called "moral hazard"... if all but a handful of Americans are completely insulated against the emotional -- and financial -- cost of war, is it not natural to suspect moral hazard will be at work in that context as well?

A policymaking elite whose families and purses are shielded from the sacrifices war entails may rush into it hastily and ill prepared, as surely was the case of the Iraq war. Moral hazard in this context can explain why a nation that once built a Liberty Ship every two weeks and thousands of newly designed airplanes in the span of a few years now takes years merely to properly arm and armor its troops with conventional equipment. Moral hazard can explain why, in wartime, the TV anchors on the morning and evening shows barely make time to report on the wars, lest the reports displace the silly banter with which they seek to humor their viewers. Do they ever wonder how military families with loved ones in the fray might feel after hearing ever so briefly of mayhem in Iraq or Afghanistan?

Moral hazard also can explain why the general public is so noticeably indifferent to the plight of our troops and their families. To be sure, we paste cheap magnetic ribbons on our cars.... But... we allow families of reservists and National Guard members to slide into deep financial distress as their loved ones stand tall for us on lethal battlefields and the family is deprived of these troops' typically higher civilian salaries. We offer a pittance in disability pay to seriously wounded soldiers who have not served the full 20 years that entitles them to a regular pension. And our legislative representatives make a disgraceful spectacle of themselves bickering over a mere $1 billion or so in added health care spending by the Department of Veterans Affairs -- in a nation with a $13 trillion economy!

Last year kind-hearted folks in New Jersey collected $12,000 at a pancake feed to help stock pantries for financially hard-pressed families of the National Guard. Food pantries for American military families? The state of Illinois now allows taxpayers to donate their tax refunds to such families. For the entire year 2004, slightly more than $400,000 was collected in this way, or 3 cents per capita. It is the equivalent of about 100,000 cups of Starbucks coffee. With a similar program Rhode Island collected about 1 cent per capita. Is this what we mean by "supporting our troops"?

When our son, then a recent Princeton graduate, decided to join the Marine Corps in 2001, I advised him thus: "Do what you must, but be advised that, flourishing rhetoric notwithstanding, this nation will never truly honor your service, and it will condemn you to the bottom of the economic scrap heap should you ever get seriously wounded." The intervening years have not changed my views; they have reaffirmed them.

Unlike the editors of the nation's newspapers, I am not at all impressed by people who resolve to have others stay the course in Iraq and in Afghanistan. At zero sacrifice, who would not have that resolve?

Impeach George W. Bush. Impeach Richard Cheney. Do it now.

Comments

[Garth Sullivan]

Brad,

It seems that your page is now taking an unconscionably long time to load. Two minutes or so and it ties up the browser while it creaks towards full page loading.

Is this something that you are aware of? Can it be fixed? It is starting to be a real deterent to visiting your site.

[RT]

Dear House Dems: which one of you nuts has got any guts??

We've been waiting for years for someone to introduce articles of impeachment. They're way overdue.

Sure, nothing would come of it. But it would be a marker: it would say just how seriously we regard the lies the got us into war, the treatment of prisoners in the American gulag, and the willingness to have our men and women in uniform get blown up for spurious reasons.

(No loading problems here.)

[matt]

Impeachment will never happen. Look at the arrogance of this little asshole today, appointing Bolton on the first day of congress's August recess. Now we're stuck with this dick at the UN until 2007.

Why was this appointment so important? For the same reason that the Supremes had to install Georgie Boy in the White House in 2000: Mustn't let the truth of the Reagan/Bush years ever see the light of day, so stage a coup, install an imbcile in the White House who will lock away forever the criminal records of those administrations, then kill an oponent in Minnesota so that the senate falls into the junta's hands, then start an internationally illegal war, lie, cheat, and steal another election, and then, nominate an ideologue for an important post dealing with the same international community and rule of law you just snubbed, nominate someone close to the criminal acts of the afore-mentioned administrations for the Supreme Court so that your back is covered in the event the rule of law catches up with you, smirk and sneer as you pronounce your decision, then go back down to Crawford to play cowboy while the idiots in this country gloat right along with you as the rest of us seethe.

Impeachment? Not likely. And we don't have an Alec Checkerfield bent on revenge to save us at this current time.

This is the revenge of Dick Nixon, reaching out from the grave.

[Tom Cecere]

Instead of impeachment, adding a little feedback to the system would be a better idea. So, a simple proposal:

A constitutional convention to debate the resolution that:

1. In any declared war, all children and grandchildren of federal employees, including elected and appointed officials, between the ages of 21-39, are to be inducted into military service and serve in the war zone on the same basis as all other soldiers.

2. No military presense in a foreign country may last more than 90 total days without express consent of Congress, which will then qualify it under this amendment.

3. No members of the armed services under the age of 21 will be sent to a foreign war zone.

Why a constitutional convention? Because, of course, Congress will never do it. Why raise the age to 21? Because children shouldn't be fighting our wars, and in today's world and the future, 18 is still a child.

[Derelict]

Sadly, he will soon be labeled un-American, unpatriotic, and possibly a traitor for this piece. Should his son speak out upon his return, he, too, will be called un-American--even if, God forbid, he should come home badly wounded.

That today's Republicans not only stand still for such action but actually defend and participate in it tells us all we need to know about the party's committment to America's ideals.

[matt]

Ah yes. A constitutional convention. With delegations sent by all the states? Appointed by the governors and legislatures of those states?

Since these right wing nut jobs seem to like playing around with the constitution so much, here's an amendment for them: Make ALL presidential pardons subject to review. Take away the sovereign's right to pardon his co-conspirators. A sitting president may not pardon anyone in his administration ahead of a trial and cannot pardon a convicted criminal without a super-majority vote of approval for the pardon in congress. An incoming president, if he was part of the previous administration IN ANY WAY cannot pardon other members of that administration. Remember the big stink over Clinton's pardons? Anyone remember a big fuss raised when Poppy Bush pardoned his Iran-Conra cronies?

Another novel idea: Automatically declassify ALL government records thirty years after they have been classified, subject to review by an impartial, non-partisan commission of persons who have never sercved in government and who are not connected to the government, possibly historians.

Let's let the patient have a little sunlight, people, we are dying from the secrecy that has fallen over this country in the last 40 years.

Oh yes, one other thing. Remove the part of Bills of Attainder not issuing and stipulate that no one even remotely related to the criminal Bush-Walker crime syndicate be permitted to hold any public office in the United States until the portion of the national debt which that family is responsible for has been satisfied, starting with the bailout of the S&Ls right down to this criminal adventure in Iraq.

[save_the_rustbelt]

Prof:

This topic in particular is loading very slowly, other topics seem fine so far. Also, you ate my last post.

Rerun..........

Ben Stein (quirky to be sure) has proposed a 1% surtax on high incomes, I believe to be in effect until the last soldier clears Iraq.

Probably not high enough, but the debate would be fascinating.

At last check. only about 1% of members of Congress has a son, daughter, or close relative in the military.

[Tom Cecere]

Save -

Exactly. No financial sacrifice, no children in harm's way; sounds like the Roman empire to me. We'll be hiring illegal immigrants for the army soon.

Little Bush is a political coward of the highest order. No ability to say "No" to any of his backers, loyalists, or funding sources. We could redo "Profiles in Courage" by using him as a counter-example.

[luci phyrr]

Tom Cecere's got the right idea, but we should go further - a draft. No deferments for college kids, draft kicks in when foreign engagement goes for over 90 days, or involves more than, say, 10,000 troops.

Soccer moms will all be screaming. People will actually question the necessity of our future wars, since their little Timmy might take a bullet for the cause.

[trotsky]

Just to step outside the bubble for a moment, Mr. Reinhardt's complaint concerns much more than the president's tax policies. Disabled vets at the bottom of the scrap heap, food-pantry drives getting minimal donations, chatty morning TV shows ignoring the news -- these are Bush's fault how?

[dryfly]

Don't need a constitutional amendment... just need voters who (1) pay attention to the issues (2) give a damn. We have neither... until we have voters that do it will be lots more of same.

Politely try to change the attitudes of 2-3 people you know who are misinformed &/or on the wrong side of these issues. Also motivate them to convert others in kind. It is slow hard work but possible. It is vital.

That is how change occurs.

[Lewis Carroll]

"Disabled vets at the bottom of the scrap heap, food-pantry drives getting minimal donations, chatty morning TV shows ignoring the news -- these are Bush's fault how?"

More like Bush is the symptom of the infection of selfishness in the American body politic. However, those fundraisers have been made necessary by the unwillingness of government officials to do what they solemnly swore to do. And that unwillingness stems from the cancer on our federal government that is the Bush administration.

Appealing to the baser instincts of the American electorate has been what the Bush administration has been about from day one. What, me sacrifice? Hell, I live in the "Ownership society". I got mine, and the rest of you can go to hell. Oh, except the troops. God bless the troops. Don't believe me? Check out that 'Support the troops' sticker on the back of my SUV.

So you see, ultimately we get the government we deserve. And the fact that the US saw fit to elect (?) twice a snake oil salesman who will drag our nation down a rathole with a laugh and a grin is only fitting.

Manus manum lavat.

[Jason]

They aren't, at least directly. Indirectly the Right (read: GOP funded by Anarcho-Capitalist Libertarian Corporate Leaders) has set the conditions for this little morality play by skillful manipulation of the media at all levels to paint a highly distorted view of the world. The current crop of politicos are just the beneficiaries of the echo chamber and a numb-and-dumb populace. Play patriotism over the airwaves, wave the flag in person, stab the vets in the back from the shadows of gov't committee rooms. The blathering morning talk shows are just there to make Soccer Moms and Corporate Raider Dads feel good about voting and living the Republican lifestyle (and it IS a lifestyle...). Ignoring the news in favor of entertainment is just good policy, and a profitable policy at that.

[s9]

Lewis Carroll writes: "So you see, ultimately we get the government we deserve."

I prefer to say we get the government the *majority* deserves.

[lash marks]

Matt, gotta agree with you 100%, the same 100% (100-0) of our US Senators who voted to continue the War of Extortion until October for an additional, what, $80B? I've lost track when it topped 1/3 of a TRILLION, all those bales of $100's, like some coke bust drug cartel, only now it's the Bush Cartel.

And like any cartel's government coup, as soon as they topple SCOTUS, we're f--ked. Don't tell that to any mil folks, they're all rabidly behind the colossal porkbarrel.
War is big business, and business is GOP!

Something is going to fall from the cosmos, and kick everluving bejesus out of BushCo.
You can just feel it, that electric tingle, like those huddled BoyScouts in their tents.
Then like a toppled Vichy government, all those BushCo cronies will be begging beside the road, their heads shaved, tatters, and tattoes carved in their arms, 'sympathizer'.

So take a breather. Don't worry, be happy!
http://mayyoubehappy.com/nothingmatters.html
http://nebraskabioclean.com/index2.html

[Lewis Carroll]

s9,

I think you have a point. My bad.

And Jason,

I'll grant you that there has been a huge movement afoot for years now to achieve a "highly distorted view of the world", but at some point, one has to ask, do people have some responsibility to be not just a citizen but an INFORMED citizen?

Then again, I realize it's become much harder now that the major media outlets have begun to frame things according to right-wing paradigms.

[spencer]

I am also having problem with your site being very slow to load both the main page and the comments.

[sam iam]

By the way, the 1/3TRILLION dollars extorted from US in plastic wrapped bales of $100's?
http://www.crunchweb.net/87billion/
See that little guy in his car at the bottom?
That's you, in the soup lines after the war.

A little treatise on Disruptive Technology:
http://esd.mit.edu/staging/WPS/ESD%20Internal%20Symposium%20Docs/ESD-WP-2003-01.15-ESD%20Internal%20Symposium.pdf

Now, if we can just make the next leap from the 7% of Internetters who blog, of 43% of Americans who use Internet (e.g. "liberal bloggers" are only 3% of the US population)
to some kinda push-poll cell-phone download, can you IMAGINE the power we could wield in the 2008 elections?

All we need are some clever jingles, some fool Bush backgrounds, and a crazy monkey boy ringtone, and we could *rule* America!

[Dubblblind]

The Bush administration has become a referendum on how low the American society is willing to go. And this doesn't just mean a willingness to toss the Rethugs out on their asses in 2006-8 but those spineless Dems who supported such things as the bankruptcy bill and CAFTA as well. The sad thing, as s9 has suggested, is how fine the dividing line is between those who are and are not supporting this wholesale destruction of America. It will take decades to undo the destruction that this group of thugs has wrought and that is only if the Dems not only get back into power but have the same resolve and focus as the dirtbags in power now. One thing is clear however, and that is nothing will change unless the voters are willing to stand up and say "I'm a human being God Dammit, my life has value...I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore".

[ent lord]

First of all, wasn't there something like $19 million that went missing on Bremer's watch? Or is that the magnitude of cost is to the extent now that a few million here and there really don't count.
I have told my sons that my generation has its monument in D.C., a black wall inscribed with so many names of servicemen who would never father a child, raise a family or get to live their lives out to its natural end and that their deaths are meaningless today. That folly is almost forgotten except for the revisionists who now say we won that war.
I told my sons to not enlist until there was something worth dying for, like my father's generation's Pearl Harbor or even my grandfather's generation's "War to End All Wars". My grandfather went in 1917 and he came back and said, "Don't go to war unless you are damned sure what you are fighting for. Anything less just isn't worth it".
How many more Walls do we need to understand this?

[Lewis Carroll]

ent lord,

It's actually more like $8.8bn that's unaccounted for. But as you said, what's a few million here and there to the crony capitalists?

[dan]

That 10 million is probably on the high side. Assuming that every Army/Navy/Marine/Air Force/Guard does in fact have 20 family and friends sweating their deployment, it is highly likely that many of those 20 overlap. Military families tend to have multiple sons/daughters/cousins enlisted at the same time. Same goes for children of officers. And let's not forget kids that grew up on the same block and went down to enlist together the day they finished high school.

I'd guess the number is probably closer to 5 million...

[Maynard Handley]

Why no "Support our CIA agents" yellow ribbons?

[matt]

Whle we're talking about money missing, let's look closer to home. In the years since 2000 there has been three trillion ($3,000,000,000,000) gone mising from the Dept of Defense. That's trillion, people. That, in addition to the $89 billion missing from HUD, and the shoping bags full of money changing hands in Iraq while the capitalist class's representatives in congress are fixing the laws so that ordinary people have no recourse to bankruptcy and the credit card companies are given a green light to charge fees that Goti's people still drool over.

Why won't things change? How many people who you speak with believe that this economy is in the shitter? How can it be they say, when my neighbor just drove home in a nice new Expedition or Hummer or some other huge gas-guzzling monster, when the kids are all sporting iPods, when the guys has a Rolex for everyday and a Patek Phillipe for special events. then listen to Bloomberg radio and hear how well things are for the monied classes. Stock market down? Oil prices are high. Stock market up, investors are confident that oil supplies will be sufficient for the winter, screw the laws of supply and demand, this is the new economy, kid, nothing matters any more.

And when I turn into a country road by my house and see a lot being cleared for another McMansion, my 9 year old son sighs and says, "I hope they're building a smaller house, something I'll be able to afford when i get out of graduate school." And I smile and realize that maybe I'm getting through to somebody.

Then we get home and my wife is ranting about how all the borders should be closed and my 12 year old girl is telling her she's a nazi.

[Jake]

"the treatment of prisoners in the American gulag"

You don't know what you're talking about - the comparison is ridiculous at best - read some history. See Dick Durbin's foot in his mouth.

"It's actually more like $8.8bn that's unaccounted for. But as you said, what's a few million here and there to the crony capitalists?"

I know this isn't necessarily an attack on capitalism, but when you argue for freedom and justice and against capitalism you are not being intellectually or logically consistent.

"Indirectly the Right (read: GOP funded by Anarcho-Capitalist Libertarian Corporate Leaders) has set the conditions for this little morality play by skillful manipulation of the media at all levels to paint a highly distorted view of the world."

Please, don't EVER mistake George W. Bush or anyone that fervently supports him as an "Anarcho-Capitalist Libertarian". He is much more of a fascist than someone who believes in individual rights (which are the backbone of anarcho-capitalist libertarianism).

Please, this is something that is killing the Democrats. You are turning off people who agree with your foreign policy measures by bashing the free market. You truly have turned liberal into a dirty word - now we have to put "classical" in front of it in order to make it something decent.

And where in the hell did you get the idea that Libertarians are in any way WARMONGERS? It is offensive and absurd and indicitive of your ignoramus nature.

[Jake]

"And when I turn into a country road by my house and see a lot being cleared for another McMansion, my 9 year old son sighs and says, "I hope they're building a smaller house, something I'll be able to afford when i get out of graduate school." And I smile and realize that maybe I'm getting through to somebody."

I'm not one to lecture on parenting, but instilling pessimism into young people is not something I exactly "smile" about.

And on the stock market, the laws of supply and demand haven't been abandoned, our economy is just much less dependent on oil than it used to be! Don't criticize what's going on, research it!

[howard]

Jake, you claim to be an optimist, but apparently, when you heard reports of torture and abuse at prison camps, your very first thought is "gee, that sounds like the america i know and love."

that, after all, is the only possible thing that claiming that dick durbin's foot is in his mouth can mean.

[matt]

Pessimism isn't exactly what my son has learned. He's learned that building to the max is not what we need at this point. We don't need more large houses one lands that were once forests; more affordable housing would be nice so that people don't have to be tricked into interest only mortgages.

You can lecture me all you want to on parenting once you tell me how many kids you've raised.

As for the economy, I think you should do a little research when it comes to our dependence on fosssil fuels. Noticed the number of SUVs on the road lately? Tried getting a forward contract from your oil company on heating oil for the winter? Consolidation in the oil industry isn't a sign that things are hunky dory nor is current research into things like hydrogen fuel cells and other alternative forms of energy. The oil companies know that we are on the downward slope of Hubbert's Peak and they are exracting every last dime of profit they can, that's why gas prices are so high, that's why there are no new refineries being built in this country to take advantage of "increased supply" from OPEC.

If you really believe things are so peachy I'm glad for you. Maybe you're right; if you aren't at least you're marching along optimistically. But be realistic about where this economy is headed. There are only so many times homeowners can refinance their mortgages to take part in this glorious spending spree this country is on.

Actually, it's kind of nice to see the people and their government so aligned on this issue. Families are struggling under unheard of debt with little or no savings (I'm sure you're different). They are emulating their government which has a chief executive who is so fiscally irresponsible he's leading us to unknown levels of debt. but what is to be expected of a Texas oilman, someone who goes around hat in hand asking other people for their money so that he can realize his dream? And when the holes turn up dry, he walks away and the investors wave goodbye to their money.

Who was that masked man? Certainly not the Lone Ranger. More like the Scarlet Pimpernel.

[Lewis Carroll]

"I know this isn't necessarily an attack on capitalism, but when you argue for freedom and justice and against capitalism you are not being intellectually or logically consistent."

I'm having a hard time considering the CPA as anything close to free-market capitalism.

Let's see:

1. No-bid contracts to Halliburton and Bechtel on a cost-plus basis.

2. Screening CPA employees solely on the AEI or Hudson Institute loyalty test, rather than any semblance of expertise in their putative function in Iraq.

3. Non-existent or completely irresponsible accounting.

4. Paying mercenaries and ex-soldiers three to ten times what our own soldiers are paid for work the soldiers would formerly have done in the services or corps of engineers (such as security, transport and infrastructure), increasing costs tremendously.

I'm a salesman. You're no more capitalist than I am. But intellectual honesty requires that I'd almost be willing to kill to get a deal in my field that is the sweetheart one so generously offered up by the Bush administration with our tax dollars. Excuse me, our kids' and grandkids' tax dollars.

Somehow I get the feeling Adam Smith wouldn't be impressed.

[Ronald Brak]

Sorry to be picky, but the United States production during world war two was even more impressive than the article suggests. The U.S. was finishing an aircraft carrier almost every week towards the end of the war and producing Liberty ships at a much faster rate.

I was going to write more about the support the U.S. has given Australia in the past and how the U.S. is still Australia's big brother, but the clocks are striking thirteen and I have to go now.

[Jake]

'when you heard reports of torture and abuse at prison camps, your very first thought is "gee, that sounds like the america i know and love." '

Actually, I was outraged, and still am. However, twisting Russian history to make a political point is absurd. I think people were wrongly treated and that someone has got to be held responsible - all the way up to the top.

"Families are struggling under unheard of debt with little or no savings (I'm sure you're different)."

You're right, I am different. I have worked hard and SAVED. No, I don't have a big house or a big car, but the pessimistic side of me has prepared for the future. I guess that makes me a bad person.

"The oil companies know that we are on the downward slope of Hubbert's Peak and they are exracting every last dime of profit they can, that's why gas prices are so high,"

Hmm. Or maybe its that China's usage of crude grew by 35% last year. Nope, get out the doomsday predictions - they're much more realistic!

"As for the economy, I think you should do a little research when it comes to our dependence on fosssil fuels. Noticed the number of SUVs on the road lately?"

Are you suggesting that paying attention to the number of SUV's on the road is RESEARCH? You have to look outside of your little bubble. Not to mention, SUVs aren't exactly what fuel the economy, buddy.

Lewis: I agree with all of your points but this one

"3. Non-existent or completely irresponsible accounting."

Don't jump on this bandwagon just because of a select few messing up. They got their dues. A couple of my friends own independent banks in the Midwest. The new laws congress has passed is putting extreme financial burdens on their companies. They have to provide an absurd amount of reports to the feds.

And I agree with both of you on the federal governments fiscal irresponsibility. Bill Clinton was a tight ass compared to G-Dub - and more free trade capable.

However, you (as Democrats) must be careful not to try and solve the problems the Bush Admin. has created with strictly socialistic policies. Remember, even if you regain power in 8 years, you will not always be in power. So, do not create tremendous government powers to "fix" things. One day, another G-Dubesque politician will be in there and it will all go away - along with our civil and property rights.

Let the free market allocate goods and services without the wealthstunting and market distorting hand of the government creeping in to protect (/hurt) big oil or hurt (/protect) big business.

Otherwise, if interventionism and radical foreign policy becomes a staple in american politics, you pessimists will be right: we will go down the shitter.

[me]

In Woodstock, Georgia when you exit the interstate there is s group panhandling for "Armor for out Troops".

[Lewis Carroll]

Jake,

You make a lot of good points, but as to the accounting comment, it was specific to the CPA in Iraq.

And there is a proper balance to be struck between strict market-worshipping orthodoxy and radical socialism. It's just completely disingenuous for people to cry "socialism" every time it's hypothesized that the government might be able to do something better than the private sector.

FWIW, I do think the Clinton administration struck a good balance between market-driven and government-managed economics.

[JamesIsBack]

I find it amazing that libs can simultaneously argue we are spending too much on the military, yet too little. This idea that Bush is somehow impoverishing soldiers and veterans is ridiculous. VA spending has increased nearly 50% in 5 years, nearly twice what Clinton did in 8 years, despite the fact that the number of veterans is decreasing. Pay for soldiers has been increasing at about 4% a year, significantly more than Clinton's 2.9% raises. Plus they raised combat pay, separation pay, housing pay, enlistment bonuses, health and education benefits for reservists. I have been deployed twice since 9/11 and both times I had a higher after tax income than my civilian job in software. Yes, you could always do more, but that isn't the same as charging neglect.

[Lewis Carroll]

The fact of the matter is that the number of veterans is not decreasing, considering that we have 400k+ rotating through OIF.

Moreover, what about the under-equipping of the current force in Iraq?

All of that $hit has been shunted aside and swept under the rug, in favor of ridiculous photo-ops where Bush gets to play big C-in-C.

And maybe Clinton SHOULD have forced through more increases for veterans. Been to a VA hospital recently?

#1, tu quoque is not a good argument, and #2, Clinton didn't do immense damage to the military by throwing into some Neocon-ideology white whale chasing meat grinder.