White Knee, Black Neck

There’s something wrong with the tree 

Said Dr. Kendi

Too much rotten fruit

A plague all its own

Sea to sea

Big city, rural town

It makes little difference

They had George Floyd handcuffed, face down

On the pavement

A white cop’s knee on George’s black neck

Choking his life away

White man’s knee on a black man’s neck

Same as it ever was

In America

Righteously outraged

People fill the streets in protest

Seeking justice for George

They are met with tear gas

Rubber bullets

Riot cops in blue

Angry white men in Michigan

Armed with rifles

Storm the state capitol

Become YouTube sensations

Malignant roots anchor the tree

To the soil

In the branches

Remnants of frayed ropes

Sway in the American

breeze

Working Stiffs

“What if we treated racism in the way we treat cancer?” Ibram X. Kendi, How To Be An Antiracist

Labor Day is my favorite national holiday. There’s something right and good about honoring the people who do the work that turn the wheels that make the country function. I’ve always enjoyed work. I remember when I was a kid of nine or ten, doing yard work without being asked, just because it felt good to pull weeds or trim a hedge or turn soil with a shovel. Around the same time I was working on the driving range at Muni, our local public golf course which wasn’t far from our house on Ardilla Drive, picking up range balls. Usually it was me, my brother Mike, and another boy named Jimmy Ley, working sections of the sloping range, picking up balls with a small basket fixed to the end of a golf club shaft as the summer sun went down. Some days we finished in the twilight. We carried large yellow wire baskets until they became too heavy, and then we dumped the balls into a bin on the back of a golf cart. I always tried to pick up as many balls in a single pass as I could. I still remember how the basket banged painfully against my hip and thigh. I also remember how satisfying it felt when the entire range was picked clean, and all the red and blue-striped range balls were washed and stacked, ready for the next day.

That was a long time ago now, another life. 

The decline of organized labor and the rise of income inequality have walked hand in hand. If you’re a capitalist, the first thing you want to do is keep labor costs as low as possible, and it’s much harder to do when workers bargain collectively, speak with a unified voice, and always have the potential to shut down production if you try to take too much and share too little. Eliminate the union and the hand of the capitalist is much freer. And if you can get the legislative arm of the government to help you marginalize organized labor, and the judicial branch to deem it perfectly legal, well, the conditions are ripe for maximizing profit -- or increasing shareholder value -- as it’s euphemistically called in this neoliberal era. It’s profit, pure and simple. 

American capitalists have always fought like cornered wolverines to keep workers from forming unions. Slave labor was the optimum system of course, and as Ibram X. Kendi has noted, “It is impossible to know racism without understanding its intersection with capitalism.” When slavery ended, other means to keep workers in line were used, strikebreakers, private detectives, mercenaries, and state and federal troops. Pitting workers against each other worked well, too, white and black, northern and southern, native born and foreigners. It’s a bloody history, largely forgotten in this time of the “gig” economy, the “sharing” economy, the “flexible” economy. Call it what you will but the end is the same: squeezing the maximum production from the lowest possible labor cost. Why do you think American manufacturers moved to Mexico, Vietnam, Pakistan, and China? 

Organized labor has shrunk so much and been on the slide so long that workers are consigned to the kids’ table, ignored by Republicans and Democrats alike. Want to know the state of Labor in America? Look at the federal minimum wage, the bitter fight for $15 an hour, the JANUS decision; look at public school teachers marching for liveable wages. Look at the bloated salaries of university presidents and the scraps thrown to adjunct faculty and graduate student teaching assistants. 

Capitalism runs on exploitation of people and resources. Capitalists will concede nothing to workers unless and until workers force them to by cutting off their sources of capital. You want to understand America? Look at how we treat our elderly, our young, our infirm, our incarcerated, and our workers. Think about how we treat those among us who have the least. Do we lift them up, or push them down? 

Happy Labor Day. 

Greenland!

“An antiracist idea is any idea that suggests that racial groups are equals in all their apparent differences -- that there is nothing right or wrong with any racial group.” Ibram X. Kendi 

Jared Kushner, Bill Barr and Mick Mulvaney sit in the Oval Office waiting for President Trump to come down from the residence. The President is a half hour late. It’s just after 1:00 p.m. on another humid D.C. summer afternoon. The three men are used to Trump arriving late or skipping scheduled meetings altogether. Barr stares out the window. Kushner and Mulvaney stare at their phones. It’s eerily quiet in the White House. Many offices are dark. Others look vacant.

Trump enters the Oval Office with a scowl on his face and sits behind his desk. Except for a telephone and three remote controls, the desk is absolutely bare. “We’re bombing Denmark, Trump says. “If they won’t deal with Trump for Greenland within 24 hours, they will get the shit bombed out of them. America First. Get that nasty woman on the phone and tell her the deal. Trump wants it done!”

Barr looks at Kushner. Kushner shrugs and looks over at Mulvaney. Mulvaney looks at the rug.

“No woman tells Trump no,” says Trump. “I’m virile, beautiful, the second coming of God, and the King of Israel. Who says no to the King of Israel?” Mulvaney starts to say something then thinks better of it and returns to staring at the floor. He knows it’s wise to let Trump get the venom out of his system. Early that morning Trump unleashed a storm on Twitter, accusing Hillary Clinton of interfering in his plan to buy Greenland, attacking the Federal Reserve for not cutting interest rates and the New York Times, MSNBC, CBS, and CNN for falsely reporting that the economy was taking a downturn, when in fact many people (three people on FOX News) were saying the economy was growing ten times faster than it did under Obama. Trump ended his Tweet barrage with a tirade against China and a guarantee that America will win the trade war and bring China to its knees.  

Turning toward the Attorney General Trump says, “You’re fat, Bill. You disgust me. You look like a sad sack. Get some exercise, lose some weight. Look at me, look at this perfect physique, I’ve got the body of a 25-year-old and I never exercise. My doctor thinks I’m a miracle. I could run a marathon if I wanted to. Probably break the world record.”

Mulvaney sucks his bottom lip into his mouth to stifle a snort. 

“Yes, Mr. President,” Barr says, “you’re absolutely right, I’m fat, I’m disgusting, but you sir are a tremendous physical specimen.”

Trump waves his hand dismissively and starts talking about how the United States deserves to own Greenland. Trump can see no reason for Denmark not to sell, other than to spite him, a mistake for which Denmark will pay. He orders Kushner to follow-up with the Joint Chiefs of Staff about a missile strike. “And see if Mnuchin can slap them with sanctions.” 

“I’m not getting any credit for the economy,” Trump says, looking accusingly at Mulvaney. “Why not? The economy’s booming, we’re making tons of money, terrific amounts of money. I’m the greatest American president since George Washington, I have more beautiful hair, better teeth, I’m smarter, richer. Women adore me. Men want to be me. Children worship me. I should give myself the Medal of Honor, just for being me. Yeah, a Medal of Honor is good for Trump. I want a big parade, Jared, the biggest in history. I want this to happen right after we bomb Denmark and they agree to sell Greenland. Once we have Greenland, I’ll award myself the medal. Obama never got a Medal of Honor.”

Bill Barr stares out the window, trying to block out the voice inside his head that chides him for selling his soul to Trump. 

Mulvaney again stifles the urge to say something, to tell Trump that awarding himself the Medal of Honor is a terrible idea, even worse than his inexplicable obsession with buying Greenland. Mulvaney feels dizzy and disoriented. Working for Donald Trump is like being incarcerated in a wind tunnel. 

“No, sir,” Jared says, “he didn’t. He didn’t deserve it. Obama made America weak. You’re making America strong. Who should present you with the medal? It has to be someone with great stature.”

“That’s a hard one,” says Trump, “since nobody’s stature is as great as mine. I might have to give it to myself. But I want Greenland first!”

  

Waiting on the Ghost of Edward R. Murrow

“Capitalism is like poisoned honey. People swarm to it like bees.” Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Hypocrisy is lodged deep in the American character. We proclaimed that all men are created equal, but put millions of African men (and women and children, too) in bondage; we freak out over the possibility that Russia interfered in our election process, as dubious and corrupt as that money-drenched process is, when the US has for decades interfered in the elections of nations around the globe; we spend more money on the military and intelligence services and domestic security than any country on earth, and yet our president loses his shit over the possibility that a few hundred Central American refugees might “overwhelm” our border.

If you get your information about the world from the American corporate media, you might believe that the only major problems we face are high taxes (always too high), threats from Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea, Putin, Robert Mueller, and Stormy Daniels. Poverty, racism, perverse and destructive income inequality, climate change, Fukushima, the murder of unarmed peaceful protesters by the Israeli army, not worth covering. It’s all spin and counterspin, PR flackery, truth-killing, obfuscating statements from nitwits like Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and fawning servility from people who call themselves journalists. Superpower? The world’s most wonderful democracy? Land of the free, home of the brave?

The drums of war are beating again. Trump threatens to pull the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, while Bibi Netanyahu, the corrupt and murderous Israeli Prime Minister, makes a hyperbolic presentation suggesting that Iran is poised to seize control over the entire Middle East, and wipe Israel from the map. Never mind that Israel has a nuclear stockpile, plus the unequivocal support of the US military, Iran is the key threat to peace in the region. Forget the fact that the JCPOA appears to be working, and that Iran is said to be complying with its terms, Trump still wants to pull out and make Iran pay a terrible price, whatever that means. Trump obviously hasn’t troubled himself to read the JPCOA or have someone explain its basic terms to him with graphics. I doubt Trump could find Iran on a map.

Short Takes:

Trump is now apparently denying that he had sex with former adult film star “Stormy Daniels,” though the Orange Menace clings to his accusation that Daniels violated a non-disclosure agreement. If Trump and Stormy didn’t do the big nasty, why was an NDA required?

I came across this quote in Ibram X. Kendi’s brilliant history, Stamped from the Beginning: “Faced with an empty national treasury, erratic trade policies, international disrespect, and fears of the union falling apart…” this was America in 1787. Sounds familiar.

What became of all the furor over Trump’s tax returns? Is the IRS “audit” of his returns completed? If not, this must be the longest and most comprehensive audit in the history of the IRS.

Trump seems to have a very difficult time securing competent legal representation. On the other hand, what self-respecting lawyer would want anything to do with a man who lies about everything, all the time, and whose closet is stacked with skeletons?

Congratulations to our friend, Nomi Prins, on the official release of her new book, Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World. Nomi is a wonder.

Killing with Impunity

“Hate and ignorance have not driven the history of racist ideas in America. Racist policies have driven the history of racist ideas in America.” Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning.

How does an Israeli soldier shoot an unarmed Palestinian, a human being? What does the soldier feel as he or she brings a man or boy into the crosshairs? Is there any remorse after pulling the trigger, any flicker of conscience hours or days later? Dozens of non-violent Palestinian protesters have been killed by the Israeli Defense Forces in the past few weeks, thousands more wounded or injured. The protesters pose no lethal threat to Israel, they are not surging across the border, crossing from their occupied territory into Israel, and yet Israeli soldiers fire live ammunition into crowds. Think of the military officers who issue these shoot-to-kill orders. Why don’t Palestinian deaths matter? Palestinians are protesting the longest military occupation in modern history, an occupation that couldn’t be sustained without unquestioned backing from the United States. Why does my country support this slow, ongoing genocide?

To kill with impunity and without remorse requires indoctrination. You must convince your own people that you are killing inferiors or terrorists. Hitler’s regime indoctrinated many Germans to believe that Jews were the source of Germany’s problems, a blight on the purity of the German nation. Jews were systematically dehumanized, their rights abridged, their property stolen; but even this wasn’t enough, the Jews had to be exterminated, wiped out. Hasn’t Israel been doing the very same thing to Palestinians for more than half a century?

Israel has perfected the tactic of deflecting any and all criticism by shouting, screaming, and fulminating that all its critics are anti-Semitic. Israel has a right to exist as a state. It has a right to security. But it doesn’t have a right to murder unarmed people. It doesn’t have the right to bomb Gaza every few years in what is known in Israeli defense circles as “mowing the lawn.” It doesn’t have the right to control who and what enters or exits Gaza, the right to control Gaza’s airspace and territorial waters. Aside from the United States, no nation in the world gets away with murder like Israel does, year after year, decade after decade.

Short Takes:

The Trump kleptocracy is right on track, normalizing corruption, hastening the fall of the American empire. The oligarchs must know, on some level, that the end is near because they’re making a mad grab for as many spoils as they can haul.

Capitalism is killing us, and the planet. Goes to show that any ideology taken to extremes will produce tyranny.

Fukushima is now the worst nuclear disaster in history. Seven years gone and the media has no interest, as if by ignoring the calamity it will vanish. Kind of the same charade Trump and the Republicans play with anthropogenic climate change.

I was fortunate to meet author and activist Tasoula Hadjitofi when she visited Santa Barbara on April 29. I reviewed her book, The Icon Hunter, for the SB Independent. Hadjitofi is a gracious, intelligent and intrepid woman.