Bloomberg and Chavez
New York mayor Mike Bloomberg likes his job so much he wants to keep it. The problem is that the law restricts him to two terms. So to get the law changed he’s meeting with business leaders, including the publishers of the three major newspapers in the city. He’s popular with the big money crowd and they’re likely to help him.
Congress people, local pols and lots of foreign leaders can keep their jobs as long as they get reelected. They say that had he lived FDR would still be president.
A few months back, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez went not to business but to the voters to similarly repeal a two term limit on the presidency. That proposal was part of a package of constitutional changes that the citizens rejected on a close 51-49 percent vote. Chavez gracefully accepted his defeat, allowing that he might revisit those issues in the future.
I follow the media reasonably closely. They have not, as far as I know, branded Bloomberg a dictator scheming to be mayor for life. But that is exactly what they said--and still say--about Chavez.
By any fair standard, Venezuela has become the most democratic nation in the hemisphere. Elections are fair and turnout is massive. The opposition and its media are free to the point of indulgence. They are even allowed to go so far as to call for coups and the killing of government officials. There are no political prisoners. And there are no government death squads butchering the opposition as in Columbia, Washington’s preferred model for Latin democracy.
More importantly, the great majority of citizens have taken control of their society and their own lives by way of a myriad of new and evolving self-help initiatives that extend from the barrios to the nation at large. They finally have their own government using the nation’s great energy wealth to better themselves and move Latin America towards an integrated, prosperous and democratic community akin to the European Union.
I said ‘any fair standard’ above. You will hardly find one across our political and media horizon. It has been decided at our leading levels that the Venezuelan example is a threat to business as usual and cannot be be allowed to thrive or spread. Therefore it must be subverted in private and demonized in public.
So we have Chavez, a democratic leader, constantly portrayed as a dictator. We have a perfectly peaceful county that has never fought a war depicted as a violent threat to its neighbors. And we have a nation with a close and warm relationship with the U.S. labeled anti-American because its people have good reason to be highly critical of the Bush regime and the policies of empire long despised across the continent.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Will Obama Sell Out to the Liberals?
Will Obama Sell Out to the Liberals?
No wonder rightwingers think liberals are immoral and lacking in family values. Millions of liberals are ardently trusting that Obama will cheat on his bed mate and romance them instead.
It’s a fact that Barack’s in the sack with corporate and imperial America. His main pillow partner when it comes to mega bucks and macro priorities is Goldman Sachs, which, if you recall, provides treasury secretaries and grand strategy to both Dem and Rep regimes.
Also occupying Obama’s oligopolic ottoman are JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Union Banque Suisse, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, etc. This is the crowd that switched America from a manufacturing to a finance economy (see Stuff Versus Money below), which collapsed last spring and has since been replaced by socialism for the rich and feudalism for everyone else.
They expect Obama to continue to grant them first dibs on everything. That means an ever increasing concentration of wealth that sinks millions of mere citizens while keeping the yachting set riding high in the water. That’s what Barack's bucks from business are buying. You can be sure they're dead serious about getting their money's worth.
The empire acolytes to whom Obama has promised 90,000 more troops, a bigger violence budget, and busier interventionist policies than Bush are also depending on his good faith. He says Afghanistan must remain the most fought over backwater on earth. He’s hot to trot into Pakistan even against the violent opposition of 170 million Pakis. He's incensed by Iran, a country that hasn't attacked another in 270 years, and adoring of Israel, a country that envisions its borders in line with God's realty offering in Genesis 15:18. He agrees with Bush that the U.S. rather than Russia must be the regional power in the Caucasus. And he’s lined up squarely with the worst reactionaries in Latin America against the broad and deep wave of democratic reform sweeping that continent.
So what are the millions who forked up chump change for Obama paying for? Vague promises, indefinite indications and soothing cliches. That’s what they should expect.
Amazingly, they expect more. They think that on being elected Obama will turn faithless to finance and becoming loving of liberals. They think Obama will reform and revive the nation, inspiring a new era of concern for the many rather than the few, reasonableness in maintaining our global interests, and setting an aura of goodwill that brings us all together in rousing choruses of Cumbaya.
I’m not that cynical. I think Obama’s an honest guy. He’ll stay true to those what brung him.
No wonder rightwingers think liberals are immoral and lacking in family values. Millions of liberals are ardently trusting that Obama will cheat on his bed mate and romance them instead.
It’s a fact that Barack’s in the sack with corporate and imperial America. His main pillow partner when it comes to mega bucks and macro priorities is Goldman Sachs, which, if you recall, provides treasury secretaries and grand strategy to both Dem and Rep regimes.
Also occupying Obama’s oligopolic ottoman are JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Union Banque Suisse, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, etc. This is the crowd that switched America from a manufacturing to a finance economy (see Stuff Versus Money below), which collapsed last spring and has since been replaced by socialism for the rich and feudalism for everyone else.
They expect Obama to continue to grant them first dibs on everything. That means an ever increasing concentration of wealth that sinks millions of mere citizens while keeping the yachting set riding high in the water. That’s what Barack's bucks from business are buying. You can be sure they're dead serious about getting their money's worth.
The empire acolytes to whom Obama has promised 90,000 more troops, a bigger violence budget, and busier interventionist policies than Bush are also depending on his good faith. He says Afghanistan must remain the most fought over backwater on earth. He’s hot to trot into Pakistan even against the violent opposition of 170 million Pakis. He's incensed by Iran, a country that hasn't attacked another in 270 years, and adoring of Israel, a country that envisions its borders in line with God's realty offering in Genesis 15:18. He agrees with Bush that the U.S. rather than Russia must be the regional power in the Caucasus. And he’s lined up squarely with the worst reactionaries in Latin America against the broad and deep wave of democratic reform sweeping that continent.
So what are the millions who forked up chump change for Obama paying for? Vague promises, indefinite indications and soothing cliches. That’s what they should expect.
Amazingly, they expect more. They think that on being elected Obama will turn faithless to finance and becoming loving of liberals. They think Obama will reform and revive the nation, inspiring a new era of concern for the many rather than the few, reasonableness in maintaining our global interests, and setting an aura of goodwill that brings us all together in rousing choruses of Cumbaya.
I’m not that cynical. I think Obama’s an honest guy. He’ll stay true to those what brung him.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Vital Interests for Idiots
Vital Interests for Idiots
As if Waziristan weren’t worrisome enough, now Ossetia and Abkhazia have been added to the distant and dangerous threats we never heard of. We fret because former defense secretary Cap Weinberger told us that there is no spot on earth so obscure or remote that it doesn’t represent a vital interest of the United States.(1)
If you notice, cities and states don’t have such interests. Minneapolis is not overly concerned with matters in Miami, and Alaska doesn’t anguish over events in Alabama. In the world beyond, few countries besides ours have interests that go much beyond their borders.
If you add up all of our vital interests you get what our government calls its policy of “full spectrum dominance.” That means we’ve not only declared ourselves the world’s CEO but all of its regional branch managers as well.
For instance, as branch manager of the Caucasus and central Asia our interests include putting amenable politicians in office, creating and managing local armies and police forces, supplying them with weapons at nice markups, making sure we take our oil from under their ground, and seeing to it that the locals don’t unduly interfere in their own internal affairs.
Our Caucasian commitments are fairly new. Up until the early 90’s, the region was part of the Soviet Union, a failing empire in which we were very interested in developing interests. When the USSR shattered into 15 separate countries, we moved quickly. In no time at all, we had military bases, not to mention McDonald franchises, in eight of them.
One of our most successful ventures was Georgia, proud homeland of Joe Stalin. We installed a Wall Street lawyer as president, dispatched thousands of U.S. and Israeli military and secret police advisors, and built an oil pipeline that had the advantage of bypassing Russia, the erstwhile boss of the Soviet empire.
Unhappily, there were a couple of big fat worms in our Georgia peach. First, the Caucasus are to ethnic strife what church basements are to bingo.(2.) Second is that it's not in the interest of Russia, the big bear of the Caucasus, to let us turn its former subject states into a ring of hostile bases for American interests.
So when the incomparable incompetents in the Bush mob pitted their Georgia peaches against their giant Russian neighbor, it was hardly surprising that the Georgians proved as inept as their mentors. Their solons screwed up and their soldiers skedaddled. The Russkies squashed them like rotten fruit.
This raises questions: Why, given the endless wars in the Caucasus, are we making a big deal about this one? What was Karl Rove doing in the region last month ? Why did a military equipped by the Pentagon and trained by our Marines and Israel’s elite fold like an empty six-pack? Does this permanently queer our play in the Caucasus and points east? How much of this mess traces back to the McCain campaign? And how do we handle a resurgent Russia flush with oil, big bucks and a rebuilt military led by a tough and smart cookie who's more accustomed to dishing it out than taking it?
I’m no fan of Henry Kissinger. But he often intones a maxim that’s worth observing: Don’t give the other 96 percent of the world reasons for ganging up on the U.S. For the last eight years the Bushies have been handing out those reasons like free rolls of Charmin. They just sent a gold embossed one to Vladimir “Putie Put” Putin, George Bush’s trusted buddy. You know what he's doing with it.
__________________________________________________________________
(1) There is no corner of the world so remote, no nation so insignificant that it does not represent a vital interest of the United States--U.S. defense secretary Casper Weinberger. Manchester Guardian Weekly, May 20, 1984
__________________________________________________________________
(2) The Caucasus region is subject to various territorial disputes since the collapse of the Soviet Union, leading to the Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988-1994), the Ossetian-Ingush conflict (1989-1991), the War in Abkhazia (1992–1993), the First Chechen War, 1994–1996, the Second Chechen War (1999–present), and the 2008 South Ossetia War--Wikipedia
As if Waziristan weren’t worrisome enough, now Ossetia and Abkhazia have been added to the distant and dangerous threats we never heard of. We fret because former defense secretary Cap Weinberger told us that there is no spot on earth so obscure or remote that it doesn’t represent a vital interest of the United States.(1)
If you notice, cities and states don’t have such interests. Minneapolis is not overly concerned with matters in Miami, and Alaska doesn’t anguish over events in Alabama. In the world beyond, few countries besides ours have interests that go much beyond their borders.
If you add up all of our vital interests you get what our government calls its policy of “full spectrum dominance.” That means we’ve not only declared ourselves the world’s CEO but all of its regional branch managers as well.
For instance, as branch manager of the Caucasus and central Asia our interests include putting amenable politicians in office, creating and managing local armies and police forces, supplying them with weapons at nice markups, making sure we take our oil from under their ground, and seeing to it that the locals don’t unduly interfere in their own internal affairs.
Our Caucasian commitments are fairly new. Up until the early 90’s, the region was part of the Soviet Union, a failing empire in which we were very interested in developing interests. When the USSR shattered into 15 separate countries, we moved quickly. In no time at all, we had military bases, not to mention McDonald franchises, in eight of them.
One of our most successful ventures was Georgia, proud homeland of Joe Stalin. We installed a Wall Street lawyer as president, dispatched thousands of U.S. and Israeli military and secret police advisors, and built an oil pipeline that had the advantage of bypassing Russia, the erstwhile boss of the Soviet empire.
Unhappily, there were a couple of big fat worms in our Georgia peach. First, the Caucasus are to ethnic strife what church basements are to bingo.(2.) Second is that it's not in the interest of Russia, the big bear of the Caucasus, to let us turn its former subject states into a ring of hostile bases for American interests.
So when the incomparable incompetents in the Bush mob pitted their Georgia peaches against their giant Russian neighbor, it was hardly surprising that the Georgians proved as inept as their mentors. Their solons screwed up and their soldiers skedaddled. The Russkies squashed them like rotten fruit.
This raises questions: Why, given the endless wars in the Caucasus, are we making a big deal about this one? What was Karl Rove doing in the region last month ? Why did a military equipped by the Pentagon and trained by our Marines and Israel’s elite fold like an empty six-pack? Does this permanently queer our play in the Caucasus and points east? How much of this mess traces back to the McCain campaign? And how do we handle a resurgent Russia flush with oil, big bucks and a rebuilt military led by a tough and smart cookie who's more accustomed to dishing it out than taking it?
I’m no fan of Henry Kissinger. But he often intones a maxim that’s worth observing: Don’t give the other 96 percent of the world reasons for ganging up on the U.S. For the last eight years the Bushies have been handing out those reasons like free rolls of Charmin. They just sent a gold embossed one to Vladimir “Putie Put” Putin, George Bush’s trusted buddy. You know what he's doing with it.
__________________________________________________________________
(1) There is no corner of the world so remote, no nation so insignificant that it does not represent a vital interest of the United States--U.S. defense secretary Casper Weinberger. Manchester Guardian Weekly, May 20, 1984
__________________________________________________________________
(2) The Caucasus region is subject to various territorial disputes since the collapse of the Soviet Union, leading to the Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988-1994), the Ossetian-Ingush conflict (1989-1991), the War in Abkhazia (1992–1993), the First Chechen War, 1994–1996, the Second Chechen War (1999–present), and the 2008 South Ossetia War--Wikipedia
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Stuff Versus Money
Stuff Versus Money
People tend to confuse capitalism and consumerism. Capitalism is about money and consumerism is about stuff. In the old days, capitalists made money by making stuff. The trouble was that making stuff cost money--for raw material, labor, machines, and the like. With so many bright MBAs around, it didn’t take long to figure out that you could make even more money by not making stuff.
Among the first to try this was the American Can Company. It had a great recession-proof business, since even the dog food consumed by the poor came in cans. But making cans required tons of metal, big clanky machines and workers to run them. So in the 80’s American Can kicked the cans and went into the money business. It changed its name to Primerica and started peddling insurance, loans, mutual funds and other products that exist only in computer files and on paper printouts.
The monkey see monkey do spirit soon had other companies aping Primerica. Factories faded and financials fulgurated. Manufacturing, which led the nation that led the world, dropped to 11 percent while FIRE (Wall Street talk for finance, insurance and real estate) soared to 30 percent of the economy. Let other countries make stuff, we’ll make money.
The change from palpables to pelf robbed millions of Americans of decently-paid manufacturing jobs. That meant they could no longer afford to buy stuff. Even money capitalism couldn’t exist if people didn’t consume. So the problem was how to get the broke to buy. The answer was credit.
If you’re my age, you’ll remember when it used to be scarce. To qualify for a mortgage or a car note, you had to be a solvent citizen with a rich uncle as co-signer. Then easy credit kicked in and banks started issuing credit cards to house pets and peddling mortgages to picaroons.
Limitless credit was a splendid solution--for a while. Soon, not only consumers but businesses and government were engorged with debt. That debt earned not just interest but fat fees of all kinds. What’s more all those IOUs could be sliced, diced and packaged in countless ways for resale, re-resale, re-re-resale, ad infinitum.
By “countless” I mean that the debt mountain has become so high that there is no way of toting it up and sorting it out. Imagine accidentally adding salt to a sugar bowl and then trying to separate the grains.
But debt is not our main economic problem. In the past, all such awful arrears have been written down and forgotten in one way or another. Borrowers have simply renounced their owings. Governments have inflated themselves out of hock by debasing their currency to where it takes a billion bucks to buy a stick of gum.
The serious issue is that Americans are now both broke and out of credit. And since ours is a consumer society, a dearth of customers means slow death. The reasonable solution is to start making stuff again, thus providing people with wages to buy stuff. A good place to begin would be producing a new energy system and rebuilding our failing infrastructure.
But our capitalists are not likely to make such investments at home as long as they can make more money away. The other 96 percent of the world is now a better bet than the good old U.S.A. We should have stayed with stuff. Too late now. It looks like hard times will be around for awhile.
People tend to confuse capitalism and consumerism. Capitalism is about money and consumerism is about stuff. In the old days, capitalists made money by making stuff. The trouble was that making stuff cost money--for raw material, labor, machines, and the like. With so many bright MBAs around, it didn’t take long to figure out that you could make even more money by not making stuff.
Among the first to try this was the American Can Company. It had a great recession-proof business, since even the dog food consumed by the poor came in cans. But making cans required tons of metal, big clanky machines and workers to run them. So in the 80’s American Can kicked the cans and went into the money business. It changed its name to Primerica and started peddling insurance, loans, mutual funds and other products that exist only in computer files and on paper printouts.
The monkey see monkey do spirit soon had other companies aping Primerica. Factories faded and financials fulgurated. Manufacturing, which led the nation that led the world, dropped to 11 percent while FIRE (Wall Street talk for finance, insurance and real estate) soared to 30 percent of the economy. Let other countries make stuff, we’ll make money.
The change from palpables to pelf robbed millions of Americans of decently-paid manufacturing jobs. That meant they could no longer afford to buy stuff. Even money capitalism couldn’t exist if people didn’t consume. So the problem was how to get the broke to buy. The answer was credit.
If you’re my age, you’ll remember when it used to be scarce. To qualify for a mortgage or a car note, you had to be a solvent citizen with a rich uncle as co-signer. Then easy credit kicked in and banks started issuing credit cards to house pets and peddling mortgages to picaroons.
Limitless credit was a splendid solution--for a while. Soon, not only consumers but businesses and government were engorged with debt. That debt earned not just interest but fat fees of all kinds. What’s more all those IOUs could be sliced, diced and packaged in countless ways for resale, re-resale, re-re-resale, ad infinitum.
By “countless” I mean that the debt mountain has become so high that there is no way of toting it up and sorting it out. Imagine accidentally adding salt to a sugar bowl and then trying to separate the grains.
But debt is not our main economic problem. In the past, all such awful arrears have been written down and forgotten in one way or another. Borrowers have simply renounced their owings. Governments have inflated themselves out of hock by debasing their currency to where it takes a billion bucks to buy a stick of gum.
The serious issue is that Americans are now both broke and out of credit. And since ours is a consumer society, a dearth of customers means slow death. The reasonable solution is to start making stuff again, thus providing people with wages to buy stuff. A good place to begin would be producing a new energy system and rebuilding our failing infrastructure.
But our capitalists are not likely to make such investments at home as long as they can make more money away. The other 96 percent of the world is now a better bet than the good old U.S.A. We should have stayed with stuff. Too late now. It looks like hard times will be around for awhile.
Friday, July 25, 2008
2008--The Year That Isn’t
Make lots of videos. Date everything. Don’t trash any files. If the Dems win the White House and Congress, this year, 2008, will be erased from public memory. So you’ll want to keep private proof that you lived through it.
Part of the magic of America is that, to quote my buddy Karl, we can make the solid vanish into air. We can take notions people have held for eons and shut them off like a radio, never to be thought about again.
If you recall, that’s what happened on February 22, 1972. That was the day Richard Nixon took chow with Mao in Peking's Forbidden City. Up until that trip, Americans had been told for decades that Chairman Mao was the all-time evil dictator of the most fanatically monstrous regime in history. Then, with the soup, Mao magically became Charlie Chan and China turned from a communist tyranny into a capitalist’s wet dream. Slave labor stopped being a horror and was redefined as a neat cost saver for investors. The conventional wisdom that China needed to conquer the world, and particularly San Francisco, to make room for its multiplying millions disappeared on the east wind.
On December 31, 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved itself, abandoning socialism for the poor but keeping it for the soon to be rich. For the preceding 74 years, America’s rulers and their media never stopped warning that the Kremlin master plan for world conquest listed the U.S. as target number one. Not only that, they were responsible for all the troubles on Earth, according to Ronald Reagan. As in China, Russia kept the same ruling elite when it made its big policy change. Only now they called themselves capitalists instead of commissars. They invited our corporations to partner with theirs. With that, the sadistic Soviets instantly transmogrified into benign Buffets and their dark gulags became bright industrial parks. Their commie conspiracy evanesced like a shooting star somewhere over Siberia, never to be seen again.
Now for 2008. The Republicans paraded a cute little kid this week wearing a teeshirt that read, "The mess in my pants is nothing compared to the mess Democrats will make of this country if they win Nov. 2nd." Mark that as among the first assaults on the annum. They’ll be lots more.
Washington and Wall Street and their media are doing their best to fig leaf our flaccid economy. Have no fear the bottom is near is all we hear. Apart from bailing the bourses and keeping bank runs from turning into marathons, their obvious aim is to hide the blame and elect McCain. But if the old Navy flier gets shot down again, this time by Barack-ack, those bets are off. By that point, the Republicans will be geared up to accuse the Dems for the credit calamity.
They will tell their media that 2008, and particularly the sea change on St. Patrick’s Day weekend, never occurred. That’s when, if you recall, our free market financial system was put on life support by the Fed after having collapsed, a victim of its own venality. Instead, the Republicans will fabulate that the economy went south on Inauguration Day. They will repeat it so often that folks will see their suffering as a Democrat Depression. Call it Obama Blues.
The “free enterprisers” will have no choice but to continue to slop at the public trough since there isn’t that much private money on the planet to save the banks and brokerages. But we will all pretend not to notice and will maintain our core myth that private can do no wrong and public can do no right.
Only troublemakers will dare to mention 2008 and that the socialization of Wall Street has supplanted the commercialization of Washington. We’ll become nostalgic for the prosperous Bush II years and won’t vote for Democrats again for a very long time. On the bright side, those 2008 mementos you manage to save will be worth a pretty penny.
Make lots of videos. Date everything. Don’t trash any files. If the Dems win the White House and Congress, this year, 2008, will be erased from public memory. So you’ll want to keep private proof that you lived through it.
Part of the magic of America is that, to quote my buddy Karl, we can make the solid vanish into air. We can take notions people have held for eons and shut them off like a radio, never to be thought about again.
If you recall, that’s what happened on February 22, 1972. That was the day Richard Nixon took chow with Mao in Peking's Forbidden City. Up until that trip, Americans had been told for decades that Chairman Mao was the all-time evil dictator of the most fanatically monstrous regime in history. Then, with the soup, Mao magically became Charlie Chan and China turned from a communist tyranny into a capitalist’s wet dream. Slave labor stopped being a horror and was redefined as a neat cost saver for investors. The conventional wisdom that China needed to conquer the world, and particularly San Francisco, to make room for its multiplying millions disappeared on the east wind.
On December 31, 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved itself, abandoning socialism for the poor but keeping it for the soon to be rich. For the preceding 74 years, America’s rulers and their media never stopped warning that the Kremlin master plan for world conquest listed the U.S. as target number one. Not only that, they were responsible for all the troubles on Earth, according to Ronald Reagan. As in China, Russia kept the same ruling elite when it made its big policy change. Only now they called themselves capitalists instead of commissars. They invited our corporations to partner with theirs. With that, the sadistic Soviets instantly transmogrified into benign Buffets and their dark gulags became bright industrial parks. Their commie conspiracy evanesced like a shooting star somewhere over Siberia, never to be seen again.
Now for 2008. The Republicans paraded a cute little kid this week wearing a teeshirt that read, "The mess in my pants is nothing compared to the mess Democrats will make of this country if they win Nov. 2nd." Mark that as among the first assaults on the annum. They’ll be lots more.
Washington and Wall Street and their media are doing their best to fig leaf our flaccid economy. Have no fear the bottom is near is all we hear. Apart from bailing the bourses and keeping bank runs from turning into marathons, their obvious aim is to hide the blame and elect McCain. But if the old Navy flier gets shot down again, this time by Barack-ack, those bets are off. By that point, the Republicans will be geared up to accuse the Dems for the credit calamity.
They will tell their media that 2008, and particularly the sea change on St. Patrick’s Day weekend, never occurred. That’s when, if you recall, our free market financial system was put on life support by the Fed after having collapsed, a victim of its own venality. Instead, the Republicans will fabulate that the economy went south on Inauguration Day. They will repeat it so often that folks will see their suffering as a Democrat Depression. Call it Obama Blues.
The “free enterprisers” will have no choice but to continue to slop at the public trough since there isn’t that much private money on the planet to save the banks and brokerages. But we will all pretend not to notice and will maintain our core myth that private can do no wrong and public can do no right.
Only troublemakers will dare to mention 2008 and that the socialization of Wall Street has supplanted the commercialization of Washington. We’ll become nostalgic for the prosperous Bush II years and won’t vote for Democrats again for a very long time. On the bright side, those 2008 mementos you manage to save will be worth a pretty penny.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Iraq Going, Going, Gone
Iraq Going, Going, Gone
Things are going great guns in Iraq. The military situation, the economy, the political process are all surging smartly. Not surprisingly, the Iraqis are giving notice that they have no further use for the United States of America.
In fact, they never did. They boast a 5,000 year-old civilization, well-watered land, endless oil and gas, and an educated and enterprising population. In other words, the nation did not require any building, but merely rehab after being wrecked by a grisly tyrant, twenty years of war, and a combo bombing and starvation campaign by the U.S.
If you recall, the original fantasy of the Bushies was to quickly conquer the devastated Iraq, install the oleaginous Chalabi as comprador in sheik, scarf up the oil, and use the place as a base to run the Middle East. The Iraqis would report to Greater Israel, Ltd., the regional branch manager for Empires Are US, Inc., of Washington and Wall Street. It was even anticipated that new subsidiaries would quickly be established in Damascus and Tehran.
But those monkeys did not fly out of anyone’s ass. Since the Crusades, the throngs in that particular corner of creation have upheld the bothersome creed that they should rule themselves rather than submit to infidels. Their modes of resistance tend to be idiocentric, drawn out and crazily complex. For instance, they have no problem with temporarily switching sides in the middle of a war if the inducements are sufficiently tempting. Able to multitask mayhems, they see little reason to suspend internal rivalries to unite against a common enemy. And, most vexing of all, they view defeat as no reason for submission. Something can always be arranged. In other words, once you make trouble for them, you’re in over your head even if you’re Gargantua.
Since the Bushies don’t know anything, they don’t know that. Instead, they’ve been refighting Vietnam while the Iraqis are busily proclaiming their divorce from unwanted wives Petraeus, Bush, Cheney and McCain.
You could see it coming. While the Bushies were advising the Iraqis to fear and loathe the Iranians the two were schmoozing on a red carpet of kissyface comity. Indeed it was revealed that Chalabi, the Pentagon’s substitute for Saddam, was in fact a Persian agent of influence. The Iraqis are also on friendly terms with their other neighbors
Getting Americans to understand politics of this sort is like expecting cats to herd mice. Anyway, our yahoos and militarists are all smiles because the surge is splendiferous, while the Iraqis are pleased because they now feel able to maneuver the Americans out the door.
It’s the perfect time for them to make their move. Bush is a lame duck and Obama is an unfledged hawk who prefers Pakistan for his predations. The empire is insolvent and its military exhausted. Successful surge or slick snow job, Americans have long lost their yen for offing generic ragheads and camel jockeys in payback for 9/11.
Those are not the only reasons why Iraq has its chance to break free of the empire, they’re also grounds to do so. What does this proud nation get out of bowing to America and Israel? Why should even the so-called pro-American elements in the Iraqi ruling class give away their nation’s oil to Exxon, Chevron, et. al., for chump change when they can own the whole thing? Why should they become another GI cat house like Okinawa? What can they get from the U.S. that they can’t get from the Europeans, Iranians, Chinese, Indians, Japanese, etc?
Anyway you look at it, the American empire is a loser. It has less and less to offer its clients. Indeed, instead of bossing them around, it is increasingly being manipulated and bought out by them.
Let the Pentagon play out its surge fantasies by paying the Sunnis millions a month not to attack us. Let McCain and company think they have the bad guys on the run. Sometime soon, the Iraqis will demand that we leave, lock, stock and barrel. Will we take their sovereignty seriously and pack up. This would mark us as losers just as Bush and McCain warn. Or would we stay against their will? That means open war against all of Iraq, not just its bad guys.
Zawahiri, number two to bin Laden, foretold this Hobson's choice back when the Iraq war began. The Americans are caught between two fires, he said. If they leave, they lose everything. If they stay, they bleed to death. With Obama and McCain, America has a choice between losers and bleeders.
Things are going great guns in Iraq. The military situation, the economy, the political process are all surging smartly. Not surprisingly, the Iraqis are giving notice that they have no further use for the United States of America.
In fact, they never did. They boast a 5,000 year-old civilization, well-watered land, endless oil and gas, and an educated and enterprising population. In other words, the nation did not require any building, but merely rehab after being wrecked by a grisly tyrant, twenty years of war, and a combo bombing and starvation campaign by the U.S.
If you recall, the original fantasy of the Bushies was to quickly conquer the devastated Iraq, install the oleaginous Chalabi as comprador in sheik, scarf up the oil, and use the place as a base to run the Middle East. The Iraqis would report to Greater Israel, Ltd., the regional branch manager for Empires Are US, Inc., of Washington and Wall Street. It was even anticipated that new subsidiaries would quickly be established in Damascus and Tehran.
But those monkeys did not fly out of anyone’s ass. Since the Crusades, the throngs in that particular corner of creation have upheld the bothersome creed that they should rule themselves rather than submit to infidels. Their modes of resistance tend to be idiocentric, drawn out and crazily complex. For instance, they have no problem with temporarily switching sides in the middle of a war if the inducements are sufficiently tempting. Able to multitask mayhems, they see little reason to suspend internal rivalries to unite against a common enemy. And, most vexing of all, they view defeat as no reason for submission. Something can always be arranged. In other words, once you make trouble for them, you’re in over your head even if you’re Gargantua.
Since the Bushies don’t know anything, they don’t know that. Instead, they’ve been refighting Vietnam while the Iraqis are busily proclaiming their divorce from unwanted wives Petraeus, Bush, Cheney and McCain.
You could see it coming. While the Bushies were advising the Iraqis to fear and loathe the Iranians the two were schmoozing on a red carpet of kissyface comity. Indeed it was revealed that Chalabi, the Pentagon’s substitute for Saddam, was in fact a Persian agent of influence. The Iraqis are also on friendly terms with their other neighbors
Getting Americans to understand politics of this sort is like expecting cats to herd mice. Anyway, our yahoos and militarists are all smiles because the surge is splendiferous, while the Iraqis are pleased because they now feel able to maneuver the Americans out the door.
It’s the perfect time for them to make their move. Bush is a lame duck and Obama is an unfledged hawk who prefers Pakistan for his predations. The empire is insolvent and its military exhausted. Successful surge or slick snow job, Americans have long lost their yen for offing generic ragheads and camel jockeys in payback for 9/11.
Those are not the only reasons why Iraq has its chance to break free of the empire, they’re also grounds to do so. What does this proud nation get out of bowing to America and Israel? Why should even the so-called pro-American elements in the Iraqi ruling class give away their nation’s oil to Exxon, Chevron, et. al., for chump change when they can own the whole thing? Why should they become another GI cat house like Okinawa? What can they get from the U.S. that they can’t get from the Europeans, Iranians, Chinese, Indians, Japanese, etc?
Anyway you look at it, the American empire is a loser. It has less and less to offer its clients. Indeed, instead of bossing them around, it is increasingly being manipulated and bought out by them.
Let the Pentagon play out its surge fantasies by paying the Sunnis millions a month not to attack us. Let McCain and company think they have the bad guys on the run. Sometime soon, the Iraqis will demand that we leave, lock, stock and barrel. Will we take their sovereignty seriously and pack up. This would mark us as losers just as Bush and McCain warn. Or would we stay against their will? That means open war against all of Iraq, not just its bad guys.
Zawahiri, number two to bin Laden, foretold this Hobson's choice back when the Iraq war began. The Americans are caught between two fires, he said. If they leave, they lose everything. If they stay, they bleed to death. With Obama and McCain, America has a choice between losers and bleeders.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Two Scenarios
One. Obama wins. The landslide majority that elected him along with a lopsided Democratic congress demand the change he promised. They want immediate action on jobs and the economy. They want the troops out of Iraq and America out of the empire business. Their tackle today list also includes energy, health care, the environment, schools, infrastructure.
Obama and the Dems respond positively. They signal their bona fides by initiating withdrawal, citing mounting Iraqi calls for us to clear out. Obama announces global base closings to save money and show foreigners we have no imperial designs on them. In what is called the Obama Overture, he assures democratic Latin leaders that efforts to overthrow their governments will cease to be replaced by cooperation on ending the poverty that drives millions north.
At home, Obama launches a Real Deal of fresh initiatives on the Four E’s--the economy, the environment, energy and education. He says it's time to catch up with the rest of the first world on health care. Some of his proposals seem more practical than others. But people are inspired and energized by the sense that Washington is finally on their side.
Hard times gradually give way to a more rational and balanced prosperity that emphasizes broad well-being over personal consumption. The world seems a bit safer and Americans more hopeful. Obama and the Dems easily win reelection in 2012. We become Denmark with Rockies.
Two. Obama wins. The people who voted for him demand the change he promised. They expect things to happen, but nothing much does. It becomes more and more apparent that Obama, despite his brains, youth, cool and promise, is just another face for business as usual.
People feel betrayed. The angriest among them take to the streets. Obama quickly unleashes the repressive apparatus built up over the Bush years to punish the troublemakers. Mass roundups, disappearances and fear of torture or worse scare potential protesters into quiescence.
The economy sinks further, imperial wars get nastier, the country grows dismal and surly. And, of course, the rich get richer. Comes the 2012 election and Obama is excoriated for the mess. An extreme right wing Republican (possibly an Alaskan yahoo) promising order and military victory, wallops him in the election. We enter a dark age of fascism.
One. Obama wins. The landslide majority that elected him along with a lopsided Democratic congress demand the change he promised. They want immediate action on jobs and the economy. They want the troops out of Iraq and America out of the empire business. Their tackle today list also includes energy, health care, the environment, schools, infrastructure.
Obama and the Dems respond positively. They signal their bona fides by initiating withdrawal, citing mounting Iraqi calls for us to clear out. Obama announces global base closings to save money and show foreigners we have no imperial designs on them. In what is called the Obama Overture, he assures democratic Latin leaders that efforts to overthrow their governments will cease to be replaced by cooperation on ending the poverty that drives millions north.
At home, Obama launches a Real Deal of fresh initiatives on the Four E’s--the economy, the environment, energy and education. He says it's time to catch up with the rest of the first world on health care. Some of his proposals seem more practical than others. But people are inspired and energized by the sense that Washington is finally on their side.
Hard times gradually give way to a more rational and balanced prosperity that emphasizes broad well-being over personal consumption. The world seems a bit safer and Americans more hopeful. Obama and the Dems easily win reelection in 2012. We become Denmark with Rockies.
Two. Obama wins. The people who voted for him demand the change he promised. They expect things to happen, but nothing much does. It becomes more and more apparent that Obama, despite his brains, youth, cool and promise, is just another face for business as usual.
People feel betrayed. The angriest among them take to the streets. Obama quickly unleashes the repressive apparatus built up over the Bush years to punish the troublemakers. Mass roundups, disappearances and fear of torture or worse scare potential protesters into quiescence.
The economy sinks further, imperial wars get nastier, the country grows dismal and surly. And, of course, the rich get richer. Comes the 2012 election and Obama is excoriated for the mess. An extreme right wing Republican (possibly an Alaskan yahoo) promising order and military victory, wallops him in the election. We enter a dark age of fascism.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Rock Stars, Sure!
Politicians, Are You Kidding?
I personally find the fan mentality stupid and an indicator of an empty soul. Decades ago, I knew and traveled a bit with Bob Dylan, one of the epic icons of my era. I liked his music but not him. Nothing personal. Actors, artists, politicians and the like are obliged to be egotists by the fact that they are their work, and, too often, little more. So unless you are the kind of person who enjoys people who only enjoy themselves, my advice is to enjoy their efforts and otherwise enjoy other friends.
What can be said in praise of the Dylans, Elvises, Brandos and Hemingways, however, is that they give us words, music, fantasies, characterizations and insights that intrigue, entertain and often enlighten us. The world is better for their efforts. On a lesser level, I can even understand Star Trekkies as harmless manifestations of infantilism.
Politics, the joke goes, is showbiz for ugly people. It also provides work for opportunists not quite clever enough to make it in business. In other words, the jerk who was your class president. At worst, politicians make things worse for us; at best, they better themselves while ignoring us. That being the case, I cannot fathom the fan worship for conventional politicians. The hoop-lah for Hillary and the ardor for Obama look to me like falling in love with Wolf Blitzer’s eyeglasses. It’s pathetic. Tens of thousands have shown up to cheer the banal cliches and empty promises of these wind-up grin, by-the-book, off-the shelf solons.
Yes, I know, one’s a woman and one’s more than white. And that’s a big innovation when it comes to one of the last jobs in the country reserved to male caucasians of the christian persuasion.
But, come on. Obama is no Hugo Chavez and Hillary doesn’t even come close to Segolene Royal, who’s a weak socialist, but a kind of socialist nevertheless. No such animals in this country. Neither Hillary up until now nor Obama from now on will utter a word that might bring even a titter of concern from the richest and most reactionary people in this country. Quite the contrary. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Exxon, Boeing, etc., rest content that their chump change investment in Obama will pay for itself billions of times over. Thus the fact of his color means little more than a flicker of national pride and a Guinness entry.
So what are the masses getting hot pants about? It’s not what Obama’s bringing to the show, but what the audience wants to believe about him. He’s a tall, good-looking, hip young guy. He’s bound to do high, handsome, cool and contemporary stuff in the White House. He might even make the war go away and gas get cheaper.
And the Bushies, those money grubbers and bible huggers, they hate his guts and blanch at his brownness. Pissing them off is almost enough to justify a vote for Obama. Still, folks, he's just a politician. And a business as usual one as usual. Save your adoration for the next American Idol.
Politicians, Are You Kidding?
I personally find the fan mentality stupid and an indicator of an empty soul. Decades ago, I knew and traveled a bit with Bob Dylan, one of the epic icons of my era. I liked his music but not him. Nothing personal. Actors, artists, politicians and the like are obliged to be egotists by the fact that they are their work, and, too often, little more. So unless you are the kind of person who enjoys people who only enjoy themselves, my advice is to enjoy their efforts and otherwise enjoy other friends.
What can be said in praise of the Dylans, Elvises, Brandos and Hemingways, however, is that they give us words, music, fantasies, characterizations and insights that intrigue, entertain and often enlighten us. The world is better for their efforts. On a lesser level, I can even understand Star Trekkies as harmless manifestations of infantilism.
Politics, the joke goes, is showbiz for ugly people. It also provides work for opportunists not quite clever enough to make it in business. In other words, the jerk who was your class president. At worst, politicians make things worse for us; at best, they better themselves while ignoring us. That being the case, I cannot fathom the fan worship for conventional politicians. The hoop-lah for Hillary and the ardor for Obama look to me like falling in love with Wolf Blitzer’s eyeglasses. It’s pathetic. Tens of thousands have shown up to cheer the banal cliches and empty promises of these wind-up grin, by-the-book, off-the shelf solons.
Yes, I know, one’s a woman and one’s more than white. And that’s a big innovation when it comes to one of the last jobs in the country reserved to male caucasians of the christian persuasion.
But, come on. Obama is no Hugo Chavez and Hillary doesn’t even come close to Segolene Royal, who’s a weak socialist, but a kind of socialist nevertheless. No such animals in this country. Neither Hillary up until now nor Obama from now on will utter a word that might bring even a titter of concern from the richest and most reactionary people in this country. Quite the contrary. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Exxon, Boeing, etc., rest content that their chump change investment in Obama will pay for itself billions of times over. Thus the fact of his color means little more than a flicker of national pride and a Guinness entry.
So what are the masses getting hot pants about? It’s not what Obama’s bringing to the show, but what the audience wants to believe about him. He’s a tall, good-looking, hip young guy. He’s bound to do high, handsome, cool and contemporary stuff in the White House. He might even make the war go away and gas get cheaper.
And the Bushies, those money grubbers and bible huggers, they hate his guts and blanch at his brownness. Pissing them off is almost enough to justify a vote for Obama. Still, folks, he's just a politician. And a business as usual one as usual. Save your adoration for the next American Idol.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
No, Not Here, Too
I was reminded of what Hugo Chavez said when he followed George Bush to the speaker’s rostrum at the UN. “The devil was here yesterday. It still smells from sulphur.”
Ask conservative Republicans to name a lush island with great beaches dominated by the extreme left. Chances are those few who know a bit of geography will come up with one of two answers--Cuba or Martha’s Vineyard.
It’s hard to imagine cold reactionaries warming up to either isle. I just can’t picture, say, the Cheneys cuddling like love birds at a corner table while enjoying perfect Daiquaris at La Bodeguita del Medio in Old Havana. Nor can I see the likes of chubby little Karl Rove with his beach pail and shovel building sand dungeons in Chilmark. But strange things do happen.
The faint odor of sulphur I whiffed on a recent weekend in my summer town of West Tisbury, smack in the middle of the People’s Republic of Martha’s Vineyard, had me wondering about its provenance. Then a neighbor, who’s in the know when it comes to Vineyardish, told me that indeed Karl Rove was on the island.
On Saturday, Rove helped to sort the mail at Alley’s General Store (apparently feeling no compunction to consult the FISA court). He dropped by the Strawberry Festival at the First Congregational Church. And he stall shopped the collectivist in concept but rapacious in reality Saturday vegetable market across from our house. Reliable sources had it that Rove was the weekend guest of his attorney, Robert Luskin, a nominal Democrat with a list of quirks and clients that put him somewhere on the colorful quotient between James Woods as The Shark and Denny Crane in Boston Legal.
Also on the Island last weekend was William Cohen, former Maine Republican Senator and Defense Secretary in the Clinton administration. He and his wife gave me and mine that big politician smile as we were leaving and they were entering the airport cafe on Sunday morning.
The reality is that Martha’s Vineyard is not really that liberal. In fact, it’s increasingly stuffed with highly juiced zillionaires for whom the difference between rented Republicans and docile Democrats is slighter than that among their chardonnays.
Anyway, the sulphurous fumes had passed by Sunday, blown away by wet gray clouds that kept us from the beach.
I was reminded of what Hugo Chavez said when he followed George Bush to the speaker’s rostrum at the UN. “The devil was here yesterday. It still smells from sulphur.”
Ask conservative Republicans to name a lush island with great beaches dominated by the extreme left. Chances are those few who know a bit of geography will come up with one of two answers--Cuba or Martha’s Vineyard.
It’s hard to imagine cold reactionaries warming up to either isle. I just can’t picture, say, the Cheneys cuddling like love birds at a corner table while enjoying perfect Daiquaris at La Bodeguita del Medio in Old Havana. Nor can I see the likes of chubby little Karl Rove with his beach pail and shovel building sand dungeons in Chilmark. But strange things do happen.
The faint odor of sulphur I whiffed on a recent weekend in my summer town of West Tisbury, smack in the middle of the People’s Republic of Martha’s Vineyard, had me wondering about its provenance. Then a neighbor, who’s in the know when it comes to Vineyardish, told me that indeed Karl Rove was on the island.
On Saturday, Rove helped to sort the mail at Alley’s General Store (apparently feeling no compunction to consult the FISA court). He dropped by the Strawberry Festival at the First Congregational Church. And he stall shopped the collectivist in concept but rapacious in reality Saturday vegetable market across from our house. Reliable sources had it that Rove was the weekend guest of his attorney, Robert Luskin, a nominal Democrat with a list of quirks and clients that put him somewhere on the colorful quotient between James Woods as The Shark and Denny Crane in Boston Legal.
Also on the Island last weekend was William Cohen, former Maine Republican Senator and Defense Secretary in the Clinton administration. He and his wife gave me and mine that big politician smile as we were leaving and they were entering the airport cafe on Sunday morning.
The reality is that Martha’s Vineyard is not really that liberal. In fact, it’s increasingly stuffed with highly juiced zillionaires for whom the difference between rented Republicans and docile Democrats is slighter than that among their chardonnays.
Anyway, the sulphurous fumes had passed by Sunday, blown away by wet gray clouds that kept us from the beach.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
The Heart of the Matter
I’ve had a couple of near Tim Russert moments over the last decade. In fact, I’ve got two stents in the left anterior descending, the vessel that sank him. I like to kid that I keep a locker at Yale New Haven Hospital and have a zipper installed in my femoral artery for quickie catherizations.
All my half dozen or so catherizations were done at Yale--except for one. The exception was performed seven years back at the Hôpital Cochin at the Port Royal in Paris.
The American health care debate tends to be ideological and/or financial. The right wingers demonize any proposal for a public system as socialistic, a death ray pejorative that instantly zaps any scheme for civic improvement in its tracks. Liberals point out that our private system is heading from atrociously expensive to monstrously unaffordable.
I once got involved in the details of those differences. But since enjoying the hospitality of a French hospital, I just tell my story when the subject comes up. For me, that pretty much sums up the issue. Here it is:
Suffering severe chest pain, I was taken by ambulance from my Montparnasse hotel to the nearby hospital. A catherization was immediately performed. It was determined my stents were okay and I had no new blockages. They kept me overnight for observation. I was released in the morning. The doc in charge of my case gave me a DVD of the procedure to bring back to my cardiologist at home.
Meanwhile, my wife was on the phone to the states getting authorization for payment from Yale Health Plan. On the way out the next morning, we stopped at la caisse to pay the bill. The tab was the equivalent of $1,300. The cashier gave me two pieces of paper: my credit card chit and a hospital bill listing just two items: specialité cardiac and 2 forfait journalier (room charge for two days). Had I been a French citizen, I would not have paid a centime. There was no charge for the ambulance, that being a free public service for anyone who happens to need one in France.
Back at home, my health plan was paying somewhere between $16,000 and $25,000 for my catherizations. The bills, of course, looked like the Manhattan phone book. On the few occasions I needed an ambulance, that was an extra grand or so.
At the time I wrote a more detailed op-ed on this incident for the Hartford Courant. It was headlined “Getting Sick in a Healthy Country.” At the end, I advised the Yale Health Plan that they could fly their catherization candidates first class to Paris, put them up at the Ritz, throw in a couple of three-star meals and ooh-lah-lah shows and still save themselves a few bucks on on the deal.
The difference between France’s socialized medicine and our commercialized medicine is obvious. The aim in France and the rest of the first world is to keep their citizens healthy at a reasonable cost to the society. The aim here is to make profits on their sickness. The French live longer and healthier lives than we Americans at far less cost to their nation. We produce billionaire hospital and pharmaceutical executives. Take your pick.
I’ve had a couple of near Tim Russert moments over the last decade. In fact, I’ve got two stents in the left anterior descending, the vessel that sank him. I like to kid that I keep a locker at Yale New Haven Hospital and have a zipper installed in my femoral artery for quickie catherizations.
All my half dozen or so catherizations were done at Yale--except for one. The exception was performed seven years back at the Hôpital Cochin at the Port Royal in Paris.
The American health care debate tends to be ideological and/or financial. The right wingers demonize any proposal for a public system as socialistic, a death ray pejorative that instantly zaps any scheme for civic improvement in its tracks. Liberals point out that our private system is heading from atrociously expensive to monstrously unaffordable.
I once got involved in the details of those differences. But since enjoying the hospitality of a French hospital, I just tell my story when the subject comes up. For me, that pretty much sums up the issue. Here it is:
Suffering severe chest pain, I was taken by ambulance from my Montparnasse hotel to the nearby hospital. A catherization was immediately performed. It was determined my stents were okay and I had no new blockages. They kept me overnight for observation. I was released in the morning. The doc in charge of my case gave me a DVD of the procedure to bring back to my cardiologist at home.
Meanwhile, my wife was on the phone to the states getting authorization for payment from Yale Health Plan. On the way out the next morning, we stopped at la caisse to pay the bill. The tab was the equivalent of $1,300. The cashier gave me two pieces of paper: my credit card chit and a hospital bill listing just two items: specialité cardiac and 2 forfait journalier (room charge for two days). Had I been a French citizen, I would not have paid a centime. There was no charge for the ambulance, that being a free public service for anyone who happens to need one in France.
Back at home, my health plan was paying somewhere between $16,000 and $25,000 for my catherizations. The bills, of course, looked like the Manhattan phone book. On the few occasions I needed an ambulance, that was an extra grand or so.
At the time I wrote a more detailed op-ed on this incident for the Hartford Courant. It was headlined “Getting Sick in a Healthy Country.” At the end, I advised the Yale Health Plan that they could fly their catherization candidates first class to Paris, put them up at the Ritz, throw in a couple of three-star meals and ooh-lah-lah shows and still save themselves a few bucks on on the deal.
The difference between France’s socialized medicine and our commercialized medicine is obvious. The aim in France and the rest of the first world is to keep their citizens healthy at a reasonable cost to the society. The aim here is to make profits on their sickness. The French live longer and healthier lives than we Americans at far less cost to their nation. We produce billionaire hospital and pharmaceutical executives. Take your pick.
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