More Profound Than Ruin*

“The emptier our hearts become, the greater will be our crimes.” James Baldwin

In the same way Israel slowly chokes the Palestinians out of existence while the world sits on its hands and averts its eyes, the world is witnessing the slow demise of Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, who has been in exile in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for nearly eight years -- without, it must be noted -- ever being charged with a crime. Assange, a journalist by trade, has been cut off from the outside world for months and is reported to be in declining health. He is largely denied access to sunlight, fresh air, and medical attention. Ecuador, under pressure from the United States, is said to be in the process of revoking Assange’s citizenship. If Assange is booted from the Ecuadorian embassy it’s likely the British government will turn him over to the United States, which will no doubt mean lifetime confinement or execution for espionage.

Assange and Wikileaks exposed the slimy underbelly of American foreign policy in Iraq and Libya, embarrassed the Clinton campaign, and the political elites will never forget that. They prefer to cover their brutality and mendacity under the guise of freedom, liberty and democracy. The persecution of Assange is a bipartisan gig, one of the few matters Democrats and Republicans agree on. If the United States gets its mitts on Assange, he’ll get the Chelsea Manning treatment, and then some for good measure. All investigative journalists should be watching this cruel injustice with extreme care as the distance separating them from Julian Assange isn’t long. Expose the ugly or uncomfortable truth about empire, feel the wrath. No journalist is safe, and particularly not when the President of the United States calls the media the “enemy of the people” and Saudi Arabia murders a journalist in its own consulate in Turkey.

So behemoth Amazon has chosen sites for its next headquarters, extracting billions of dollars in tax concessions from New York and Virginia in exchange for what it promises will be thousands of high-paying jobs and urban renewal. The latter no doubt means hyper-gentrification, soaring rents and housing prices, and longer commutes for working stiffs who will not be able to afford the price tag. The promised number of jobs will likely be fewer than advertised, which is usually what happens when corporations play cities and states against one another. This sorry game has been going on for decades. Corporations dangle the carrot of jobs, jobs, jobs, and then slam states and cities across the back with demands for tax breaks and infrastructure improvements. It’s basic extortion, and taxpayers usually wind up holding the bag or suffering diminished social services.

Amazon is the avatar of nearly everything wrong with the American economy. Gargantuan size, low wage seasonal workers, shameless exploitation, cutthroat practices. It has been allowed to become a monopoly that has driven thousands of small businesses out of existence, turned main streets into virtual ghost towns, wiping out retail jobs, local brick & mortar stores, bookstores, all because it can withstand selling products at a loss. I’ve seen this happen on State Street in Santa Barbara, the retail backbone of my hometown. Amazon is now competing with FedEx and UPS to control the delivery pipeline. If the US enforced its antitrust laws, Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods would never have been approved. No single corporation should amass the power that Amazon has over so many aspects of the economy. This kind of concentrated economic power naturally turns into political power. Many years ago, singer-songwriter Greg Brown wrote that one day there will be one corporation selling one little box, it will give you everything you want and take everything you’ve got. That’s Amazon. Yes, Amazon makes acquiring stuff easy and quick, but as a society we pay dearly for this magical efficiency. I buy stuff from Amazon, so I’m as guilty as most American consumers, though whenever I hit that one-click button I feel a little sick to my stomach.

Trump sure looks like a frightened man with piss running down his leg. He’s sullen and petulant and more erratic than ever, his statements little more than gibberish. He reminds me of a comedian who has run out of material, who reaches deep into his bag and finds nothing but lint, and can do nothing but repeat himself. Naturally, Trump made a fool of himself on his recent ceremonial visit to France. The French mocked him. Back home, Trump spews unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. The White House is rumored to be a total shit show, a scene of confusion and disarray, turmoil and backstabbing. Trump must sense that the Democrats are coming (if Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer don’t capitulate before the first shot is fired, as Democrats almost always do) with Robert Mueller not far behind, and the rotten facade of Trump World on the verge of collapse.

Here’s a thought to consider from writer Jacob Bacharach, “Poverty—both individual and social—is a policy, not an accident, and not some kind of natural law. These are deliberate choices about the allocation of resources.”

*thank you, William Faulkner

This Week in the Kleptocracy

“In public relations, perception becomes the highest value, just as in capitalist societies, profit is the singular ethic.” Jason Hirthler

EAR TO THE GROUND:

“I don’t have any financial interests with Saudi Arabia, never have.” Donald Trump

“We don’t know what happened to Jamal Khashoggi. Just because he disappeared inside a Saudi consulate doesn’t mean the Saudis had anything to do with it. Could have been a lot of people, many different people, maybe Turks, maybe Greeks, maybe rogue elements we don’t know about. The fake news media is jumping to conclusions, as usual. The King of Saudi Arabia and the Crown Prince, both fine men, very fine men, told me they had nothing to do with it, and I believe them, very strongly, very bigly.” Donald Trump

“I, Donald Trump, do solemnly swear to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, unless doing so interferes with my personal business interests.” Donald Trump  

RECENT HEADLINES:

Trump Humiliates Chinese Panda, Calls for Sanctions.

Trump Compares Crown Prince Salman to George Washington.

Trump Mocks Deaf-Mute Student at White House Ceremony.

Trump Claims Jamal Khashoggi On Vacation In Istanbul, Says Murder Allegation is Fake News Hoax.

The murder of Jamal Khashoggi looks more and more like an episode of the Blacklist gone awry. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, darling of corporate America and New York Times sage Tom Friedman, is, like Donald J. Trump, a rich fuck-up, thin-skinned, not very bright, who relies on brute force to have his way, and makes most everything he touches turn rancid. No wonder Trump admires him. By most accounts, Khashoggi didn’t earn the “dissident” label hung on him by the Western media; he was a relatively mild critic of the monarchy, but he obviously got under bin Salman’s skin, and paid the price for it. Trump and the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who reminds me of a self-satisfied mob bagman, claim the Saudis are innocent until more evidence is unearthed, like video or audio recordings said to be in the hands of Turkish authorities. Sober observers seem resigned that such evidence will not see the light of day, and that Prince Salman will escape this gruesome episode with no more than a black eye. The “special” murderous relationship between Saudi Arabia, Israel and the US will continue.

Journalist Mehdi Hasan believes hostility toward Iran is what unites and animates this trio. Although no Iranian has been accused let alone convicted for murdering Americans on American soil, Trump and many in the war establishment view Iran as the next great bogeyman that must be vanquished. Conveniently forgotten is the fact that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals. How is it the Kingdom got a pass for that? Oil, money, influence with the Bush family and in the corridors of Congress buys a lot of amnesia.

Trump’s fawning, servile and solicitous treatment of the Saudis makes for interesting speculation about the extent of his business ties with the Kingdom. As Ian Masters, host of Background Briefing, said the other day on his program, it’s not about country-to-country relations under Trump, it’s family-to-family -- or more accurately -- crime family-to-crime family. Unravel Trump’s financial dealings and it’s likely that his dependence on Saudi money -- and possibly Russian money -- is more significant than we realize. Trump is a walking, talking, breathing, snorting cesspool of corruption, a human ethical violation, who started cheating in the sandbox in kindergarten and has never done differently since.

Meanwhile, while all eyes are glued to the Khashoggi affair, Mitch McConnell and his band of thugs have set their sights on gutting Social Security and Medicare, a long held wet dream of the whacky right. The talking points are making the rounds, with amplification from Trump, and it’s the same BS story the GOP has hawked for 40 years. Budget deficits are caused by overly generous Social Security and Medicare benefits and must be slashed or America will collapse. Absent from the GOP’s logic are the billions of dollars handed to the wealthy and corporations in the form of tax cuts, subsidies, and other types of “relief.” Also missing is the bloated, wasteful, but sacrosanct Pentagon budget, which accounts for more than half of all Federal outlays. And no mention at all of the legal tax avoidance schemes practiced by major corporations like Apple, Amazon, Verizon, AT&T and so on. Ironic that corporate CEO’s and Trump himself, who talk so lovingly of America and our military machine, our freedoms, blah, blah, feel no obligation to support our country with their tax dollars. For Trump and others of his ilk, paying taxes is for suckers.  

The game is rigged in a 101 different ways and the wealthy elite win when they lose, at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk, as they sleep and when they wake.

We’re nearing the midterm elections, the TV ads are heavy, the mailers arrive in the mailbox daily (and go straight into the blue recycling bin), and I still have no idea what Democrats stand for, save for tepid opposition to the Trump crime family, and a fairy-tale belief that Russia stole the 2016 election for Trump and is planning to do it again. Little proof is offered amid the dire warnings. Progressive Democrats fight through a thicket of the old guard led by Pelosi and Schumer, who insist on keeping the Democratic Party on the same losing trajectory. Corporate campaign money is as addictive as heroin. Schumer is hopelessly addicted and until he, Pelosi, the Clintons, Obama, Feinstein and others are expelled from the party, the Democrats will continue to wander in the political wilderness.

By the way, in case you are wondering, I made up the quotes and headlines. Just having a little fun in these dismal times.

The Uses of Fear

“The chief principle of banana-ism is that of kleptocracy, whereby those in positions of influence use their time in office to maximize their own gains, always ensuring that any shortfall is made up by those unfortunates whose daily life involves earning money rather than making it.” Christopher Hitchens

Demagogues throughout history and the world over understand the use of fear, and how to stoke fear in order to manipulate their subjects or followers. When he’s not at war with black athletes, the NFL, CNN, Elizabeth Warren or members of his own cabinet, or insulting indigenous people with his breathtaking stupidity, Donald J. Trump never misses an opportunity to raise the spectre of crime, immigrants, and Muslims. The litany goes: soft on crime, soft on the border, soft on terrorism, yada yada. In reality, the crime rate in the United States is down, immigrants are not pouring across the border to pillage, rape and plunder, and we have far more to fear from deranged homegrown white men armed to the gills than we do from Muslims. But fear works on a large segment of the American public that doesn’t think, read, or know much, if anything, about history.

Trump bangs on endlessly about the threat of Muslim terrorists, but where did he go on his first overseas trip as President? Right, Saudi Arabia, that bastion of moderation and tolerance. As Al-Jazeera journalist Mehdi Hasan noted recently, “The Saudi Arabians have been exporting their particularly puritanical, intolerant brand of Islam to the rest of the Muslim-majority world since the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.” Naturally, Saudi Arabia is our bosom ally, and naturally, Trump is far too ignorant to see the hypocrisy of American policy.

I noticed the other day, quite out of the blue, a sudden surge of disquiet followed by a flash of white hot anger, and I realized the source of these feelings: Trump, the immoral GOP tax scam, the smirk on Paul Ryan’s face, the ongoing genocide in Yemen, aided and assisted by the United States. These are all people or events that take place far from my everyday life, but they feel real, bothersome, and often infuriating, primarily because I am powerless to do much but write my elected officials, sign on-line petitions, and write this blog. Might as well spit into a Category 5 hurricane. I’m not alone in feeling politically impotent; it’s obvious that the views of the majority of Americans are completely disregarded by political, financial and media elites. The people are only needed every few years to legitimize the system by casting votes in sham elections that are bought and paid for by corporations and the super wealthy.  

The proposals and proclamations issuing from the Trump kleptocracy are so heinous and cruel that it makes me wonder if people in Washington sit around thinking of the most damaging things they can inflict on the nation. How can we punish senior citizens, children, the infirm or disabled? What can we do to foul the environment and hasten the effects of climate change? How can we make it more difficult for young people without piles of cash to attend college? How can we get the masses to pay for the excesses of corporations and the wealthy? It’s as if there is a diabolical think tank around the corner from Pennsylvania Avenue where morons and fucktards hatch schemes…Trump has no respect for his office, the Constitution, the rule of law, basic decorum, and he’s even incapable of awarding commendations to elderly American Indian war veterans without making an ass of himself. If Trump were the president of Trinidad and Tobago or the Marshall Islands, I might be less troubled by his penchant for fouling everything he touches, but he’s the President of the United States and his buffoonery isn’t a laughing matter.

My wife clings to the idea that only the arts can save us from our worst impulses, live theater, plays, music, dance, painting; I want desperately to believe her. In a time of darkness, we must look for the light wherever we can.

Iran: Our Beautiful Bogeyman

"Saudi Arabia may purchase $110bn in sophisticated US armaments, but in two years its air force has failed to subdue irregular Houthi forces in Yemen, though its merciless bombardment has brought 17 million Yemenis to the brink of famine and an incipient cholera epidemic." Patrick Cockburn

Iran. Iran. Iran. Repeat. Iran. Iran. Iran. Morning, noon and night. State sponsor of terrorism, enemy of moderate elements in the Middle East, violator of human rights, mortal danger to Israel. Iran is the bogeyman of choice for Saudi Arabia, Israel and the U.S.

As it was under Obama so under Trump:  the drumbeat for war never stops and the American warfare state never takes a holiday. If there is one lesson the Trump people have learned in the first five months of their regime, it is that military action makes corporate media news personalities salivate and poll numbers rise. Things going to hell on the domestic front? Launch cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield. Press coverage a little rough, too many uncomfortable questions about Russia? Rattle the saber against North Korea or drop a massive bomb on Afghanistan. The network mouthpieces, liberal (so-called) and conservative, will nod their heads in unison and describe you as “presidential,” even if five minutes earlier they were speculating about your mental stability and wondering if you will survive a full term.

And no matter what is happening at home, always, always, always, be prepared to accuse Iran of stirring up trouble and posing a direct, imminent threat to Israel. Never mind that Iran is virtually surrounded by US military assets...If we had the honesty to strip away the BS, lies, and propaganda about Iran, we would see that Iran has more to fear -- far more -- from the US than the US does from Iran.

Here’s what John Wight had to say in a recent piece for Counterpunch: “Specifically, on what planet can Iran be credibly accused of funding and supporting terrorism while Saudi Arabia is considered a viable partner in the fight against terrorism? This is precisely the narrative we are being invited to embrace by President Trump in what counts as a retreat from reality into the realms of fantasy, undertaken in service not to security but commerce.”

Most Americans are too stressed out about their falling living standards, student loan debt, medical bills, opioid addictions, car payments, foot fungus, erectile dysfunction and disintegrating financial circumstances to fret about what their government is doing in the distant Middle East. They don’t understand, or care, about the schism between Sunni Islam and Shia Islam. Most buy the fear-based lie that Islam is a religion that promotes violence and hatred against the West and is hell-bent on ruling the entire world. Likewise, we have been taught, conditioned like lab rats is more accurate, to believe that Israel is a righteous nation in a precarious situation, surrounded by murderous Arabs, and must be supported by America without question. And Saudi Arabia, oil-soaked Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most repressive regimes, where executions take place in public and all dissent is brutally stifled (the reason old Wilbur Ross didn’t see any protesters on the streets), is our staunch ally and bosom friend.  

Donald Trump appears even more ridiculous outside our borders than he does within them, cozying up and kissing the asses of despots and tyrants, professing his love for the F-18 fighter jet.  Everything about Trump screams the worst of our country: hubris, bellicosity, vacuousness, stupidity, vanity, cruelty, excess, hypocrisy, and narcissism. I feel sorry for Pope Francis, a man of decent instincts, who came face-to-face with Trump in Rome and probably felt a cold chill skitter down his spine. “Until now,” I imagine the Pope thinking as he looks heavenward, “I have considered you a merciful and just God.”