In Praise of Divine Madness

“In totalitarian states, justice, like truth, is irrelevant.” Chris Hedges, Wages of Rebellion

On the American news networks it’s all Donald Trump, all the time. What outrageous, illogical, insulting or ignorant statement did The Donald make today, and did his latest bit of idiocy equal a bump in the polls? This is all that matters. Trump is fodder for comedians and mainstream media bubbleheads. Trump is a Carnival of One, irresistible to a media machine that thrives on trivia.

Buffoons are nothing new in American politics; we’ve seen them before, and will see them again. What is unusual is to see so many buffoons from one political party at one time. The mediocrity of our presidential candidates – from both parties -- is not reassuring. These hopeless fuckers are the best we can manage? I thought this was the exceptional nation, the world’s beacon of hope…

I like what Bernie Sanders has to say about economic inequality and the urgent need to radically reform a system that makes a few stupendously wealthy and millions abjectly poor, but I am suspicious of Sanders when it comes to foreign policy, particularly the US’s sleeping arrangement with Israel. When this marathon campaign finally ends I have no doubt – none at all – that Sanders will urge his supporters to back Madam Clinton. Bernie will make pious noises about Clinton being the Democrats best hope of retaining the White House and keeping the GOP wolves from conquering all branches of the federal government. I can see the scene now…with passion and conviction Bernie will assure his backers that Clinton will represent their interests, hopes, and dreams...Bernie might even believe this fantasy.

It doesn’t take any imagination to guess whose interests Madam Clinton will represent should she win the White House. Just follow the trail of dollars that leads from Wall Street to her campaign coffers.

Can a nation engaged in endless foreign military conflicts act peacefully at home, or does the mentality of militarism bleed into domestic affairs? I ask myself this question as I struggle to keep track of all the mass shootings in this country. Church, military recruiting office, theater, shopping mall, elementary school, university…have I missed any? The numbers of domestic dead and wounded grow, become staggering, then, ultimately, numbing; the blood is washed away and the victims forgotten. The cycle repeats.

I am reading important but depressing books – The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and Wages of Rebellion by Chris Hedges -- heavyweight stuff by remarkable writers and thinkers. Alexander and Hedges connect the dots, from an economy that relentlessly searches out the lowest labor cost wherever in the world it may be found, to the failed “War on Drugs,” launched decades ago by that paragon of law and order, Richard M. Nixon, to foreign wars that never end, and to the wholesale takeover of all branches of our government by corporations.

A couple of examples are useful here. First, Anthem is poised to acquire Cigna, and become an even more dominant player in the health insurance industry. Can you spell M – O – N – O – P – O – L – Y? Anymore, this is all American corporations excel at: getting bigger by buying other companies so they can amass more political power, more influence, and more dominance – all, naturally at the expense of consumers. If you think this sort of thing is beneficial, I urge you to book a flight on an American airline.

Two, the case of former Attorney General Eric Holder, who has returned to his rightful corporate home at Covington & Burlington, a power house DC lobbying firm. This means that the former chief law enforcement officer in our country, who had responsibility for prosecuting white-collar criminals, crooked CEO’s who gamed the system and fleeced millions of average people, will now advocate, advise and if necessary defend those very same companies and people.

The revolving door between government and corporate boardrooms is heavily greased and, for this reason, because of this perverted symbiosis, Chris Hedges believes we are on the expressway to corporate totalitarianism. The powers arrayed against us – and by us I mean ordinary citizens who work for wages and don’t employ lawyers and lobbyists – are insurmountable. And yet, it’s imperative that we wake up and resist, even if we are doomed to fail. A quality found in rebels is a divine madness that makes them willing to take on battles they cannot win, but nonetheless must fight.

Greece at the Feet of the Market God

“Why were the banks, rather than Greece, bailed out in 2010? Why was Greece asked to change its ways and accused of reckless borrowing, rather than the banks accused of reckless lending?” Chris Arnade, The Atlantic

I’ve been thinking about Greece for the last week, trying to wrap my brain around what has happened to that country at the hands of European bankers and their government enforcers. Greece has debts it can’t possibly repay, not now, not five or ten years from now, and the solution imposed by European banking interests is more austerity, more cuts to pensions, and wholesale selloffs of public assets. If it sounds like a familiar solution that’s because it is the standard formula for making sure financial interests – we can call them elites – get their due, no matter what. Similar action was taken in the United States, in the once thriving manufacturing city of Detroit, Michigan.

Why is it that bankers can make reckless loans they know can’t be repaid and suffer no negative consequence when that is exactly what happens? We get moralizing about lazy and slothful Greeks and the moral hazard of cancelling their debts. The lazy and slothful must be taught a lesson no matter how painful the learning is to the young and the elderly, the hungry and the homeless. We, the prudent and productive, reserve the right to dictate how you will set your shaky house in order. The first essential lesson is that you must worship at the altar of the infallible Market God. You will look to the Market God for answers to all the critical questions of life itself, it boils down to measuring, quantifying, and slapping price stickers on all human activity. Got it?

The financial elites have rigged systems all over the globe to socialize losses and privatize gains. This is why the world’s richest people and corporations get richer while more and more people get poorer. It’s a sadistic arrangement that feeds on itself and now pervades every aspect of our lives. It’s the reason medical care in the United States is a privilege, not a right; it’s why major corporations exploit prison labor; it’s why the wealthy and politically-connected legally avoid paying their fair share of taxes; it’s why “democracy” is a façade, a charade we go through periodically to legitimize a system that enslaves and impoverishes us.

The Greek people overwhelmingly rejected austerity. European financial interests ignored the will of the people. Elites ignoring the will of the masses is the story of our time.  

Elvis, Bernie and Hillary

OK, folks, I haven’t written anything for a while now. I was in Las Vegas at a conference for a week. I landed at 9:45 p.m. on Saturday night and the temperature was 104 degrees. The next day it was 111 or something obscene like that, but fortunately I was indoors most of the time, shuttling between the Westgate Hotel and the LV Convention Center. During my stay the main question on my mind concerned water, and specifically the source of Vegas’ water. Lake Mead I was told. I didn’t see a single notice in the Westgate – or the Convention Center for that matter -- about saving water, and I doubt that many of the tourists or conference goers gave water a second thought. Hailing from drought-ravaged California, water is always on my mind.

Given a choice of places to go, I would not choose Vegas. I’m not a Vegas person. I don’t bet on horse races, play cards, roll dice or do anything else to put my limited funds at risk. I walked through the Westgate casino – a dismal place in need of a facelift – past the slot machines and blackjack tables, past the bored-looking dealers and the bronze statue of Elvis -- without a shred of interest. Las Vegas seems like an absurdity to me, an improbable city set in an inhospitable landscape. To me Vegas is a theme park in Hell. Everything in the hotel was overpriced – bottled water cost $4, a bowl of fruit went for $6.50, an awful turkey club for $12, etc. I subsisted on water, trail mix, protein bars, and coffee.

Anyway, I’m back on the Platinum Coast, where water is scarce, homes cost a kings ransom, and the poor are pushed to the margins where they don’t annoy the tourists. It’s high season and State Street is sun-splashed and jammed with visitors, gawkers, Europeans with American dollars in their pockets and motivation to spend.

I had a three-hour layover in Phoenix on my way back to California and, as if that wasn’t bummer enough, the airport sound system piped in a radio interview with Donald Trump. Talk about slow torture. To hear Trump tell it, he deserves to be president of the United States because he has succeeded at everything he has ever set his hand to, plus he has guts and gumption and would negotiate great deals with the Chinese, and he’d drive all the illegal immigrants back to Mexico where they belong, and he’d balance the federal budget, eradicate ISIS and make America great again.

Donald Trump is a dick.

The other morning I heard a report on ABC News about Bernie Sanders and how his presidential campaign is drawing large, enthusiastic crowds compared to the relatively small crowds that Hillary Clinton is drawing on her highly staged campaign stops. Bernie pulls in 9,000 while Hillary draws a paltry 850. Ah, but let’s not forget, the ABC reporter reminded us, that Hillary is light years ahead when it comes to fund raising, which, as we all know, is the only thing that matters in American politics.

Not one word – not one – about why Sanders is drawing large, enthusiastic crowds. What is Sanders saying that resonates with potential voters? ABC News won’t say. Maybe they don’t care – Hillary’s got the dough, the corporate backers, the name and organization, and when it’s all said and done and Hillary has the nomination on ice, Sanders will undoubtedly urge his supporters to put their shoulders behind Hillary.

What does Sanders think about the military budget, Israel settlement building in the West Bank, or the number of civilians in Gaza killed by the IDF in the last five or six years? What does Sanders have to say about Yemen or Syria or US relations with China for that matter? Your guess is as good as mine.

ABC’s lazy reporters and editors should be horsewhipped. Or confined to the Westgate hotel in Vegas for a month. Or forced to listen to Donald Trump’s stump speeches until their ears bleed and they scream for mercy – or death.

Plus 9

It feels like open season on black people in this perverse country. Add nine more to the count for the year. I believe that Black Lives Matter, but they still matter far less than white lives.

The Fox News twist is that the killings were an assault on “Christians.” This is one of the network’s major tropes, repeated and echoed by all their demented celebrity mouthpieces. The white shooter isn’t a terrorist, claim the Fox propagandists, he was defending Christianity from assault by liberals.

If the victims had been white, the shooter black, the media would use words like “thug” and “predator” to describe him; if the victims had been white and the shooter a Muslim, the media would label him a terrorist.

The flag of the old confederacy still flies above the capitol in South Carolina.

President Obama wrings his hands and claims these mass killings must stop, but he will not spend much time arguing with Congress about handgun control; Obama is very busy trying to obtain fast-track approval for the TPP, a payback to his corporate masters. We’ll get some lip service from the White House about gun control, a moving speech or two, some tears, but no action.

Let’s face it, for the foreseeable future crazy people will obtain handguns, and innocent people will be shot. We are a violent nation, at home, and abroad. This isn’t about to change.

Racism in America is reflexive. Dr. King was murdered nearly 50 years ago, and here we are, mourning black victims of a white man with racist demons in his head and his heart.

Chess Pieces

“American foreign policy – like that of most states – is based not on justice but on power.”   Robert Fisk

So, it will take a generation to subdue ISIS, the brutal and sadistic murderers who would not exist if the US had not invaded Iraq in 2003. Pity the people who get in their way, particularly women.

The US will send more “advisors” and build more outposts in Iraq, as if this tactic has any chance of succeeding. We’ve tried it, and it failed, but because we are the essential nation, the world’s global police force, not to mention the biggest badass on the block, we reserve the right to do stupid shit over and over.

Who is the enemy and who are our friends? Who can we trust today, and will we be able to trust them tomorrow? The stupidity of George and Dick tipped the bottle over, released the genie, and Obama has stayed the disastrous course. We’re out, back in, and for what? And this is how it’s going to play for another generation?

When it comes to the Middle East, America is blinded by a deadly combination of ignorance and arrogance.

The US doesn’t understand the Middle East, never has, and most likely never will. We support the monarchs of Saudi Arabia no matter how many of their own people have their heads lopped off in public rituals; we count the dictator of Egypt among our bosom pals; and Israel, darling Israel, can do no wrong in our eyes, even when Israel’s hands are covered with the blood of innocent Palestinian children.

The conditions are perfect for endless war and profitable arms deals.

Writing for the website Counterpunch, John Wight notes that, “In 2015 the parallels between Cambodia and the Middle East are undeniable. The conditions, as mentioned, out of which ISIS has emerged and proliferated were created by the West’s destabilising presence in the region, with the objective of controlling the huge natural resources located there.”

Cambodia paid a horrific price at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. And who made the Khmer Rouge possible? The fingerprints are undeniable.

The average American citizen like myself looks in vain for cooler, wiser heads. We lack the agency to change the course of American foreign policy. Our views and opinions are irrelevant to the ruling class. They want the liquid gold buried in the ground in the Middle East and are willing to kill for it, even if it takes another 25 years.

John Wight again: “Just as with Southeast Asia in the 1970s, in 2015 the world is suffering at the hands of men in expensive suits, sitting in Western capitals, who view the world as a chessboard – with countries and peoples reduced to chess pieces on that board to be moved around and removed at their whim and fancy.”