R2P = L2K

 

Robert Scheer at Truthdig treats us to an oft-recurring refrain in his impassioned pleas for sanity and common sense.  I've heard it a number of  times in the many fascinating interviews I've heard of this brilliant, inspiring journalist. 

Here it is . . .

"What happens to these people?"

Indeed!

What happened to Colin Powell?

He ruined a sterling reputation and destroyed his historical legacy by lying at the U.N. -- with the whole world watching -- about WMDs in Iraq.  Hundreds of thousands of people died so he could make his boss, George W. Bush, proud of him.  Tragic on so many levels.

Here's a good one:  What happened to Dick Cheney?

This is the man behind the curtain, personally responsible for more chaos and carnage than anyone since Richard Nixon murdered 3 million people in Vietnam and Cambodia.  This is really mind-boggling!  Watch him explain in 1994 why we should not destroy Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein.

  

Okay, Cheney is a psychopath.  So we can't expect consistency, much less common sense.

But what happened to Samantha Power?

She is an example of someone who has truly made the transition to the dark side. 

She wrote a book on the "responsibility to protect" or R2P, as the convenient acronym goes.  It was called A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, and won a Pulitzer Prize. However, this once noble framework and call for responsible, moral action is now the neocon public relations weapon of choice to bomb and destroy any country that has the audacity to disagree with America's corporate imperial ambitions.  Power herself has become a neocon war monger, who rails incessantly at any national leader or country who stands in the way of America's march to world hegemony.

R2P now equals L2K -- license to kill.

"What happens to these people?"

I think I can answer that.  But I'm not going to waste my time.  Because . . .

You know what?

I don't really care what happens to any of these people.  Not any more than I care exactly how a dog contracted rabies.  When the animal is frothing at the mouth, howling, leaping in the air, snapping at everything in sight, out of its mind and posing a danger to everyone -- children, old folks, anyone innocently strolling by -- there's only one immediate concern, and one sensible action.  We need to take action before someone gets hurt.


I'm not proposing shooting these people. But they do need to be isolated before they do any more harm to others.  They need to be called out, driven out, shut out, exiled from public life.  They must be removed from positions of power before anyone else gets hurt. 

"What happens to these people?"

I know what should happen to them.

No more pulling punches.  No more political correctness or obsequious politeness.

We don't behead here in America. But we certainly do eviscerate public figures --vilify and assassinate them in the public forums, smear and quarantine them, ridicule and demonize them personally, mock and marginalize their messages.  Usually it's the good decent ones, citizens and public servants who take their duty to their country seriously and are guided by genuine moral concerns and driven by selfless and magnanimous agendas. People like Don Siegelman, Edward Snowden, Dennis Kucinich, Chelsea Manning, John Kiriakou.


 

Time to turn the tables and call out the real enemies of America.

These people have made a sham of what this country stands for, lie and deceive the citizenry about the real agenda behind their faux-noble ideas, rationalize and obfuscate the horrifying consequences of their actions.

We'll start with Samantha Power. Her book, brimming with noble intentions, has morphed into a foreign policy brimming with lethal weapons.  She truly is a traitor to both herself and us.

We should show no more mercy toward her than she and her homicidal accomplices have the hundreds of thousands they've murdered, in the name of "responsibility to protect".

There should be no haven. Wherever this violent, disingenuous shrew appears publicly -- and even where possible privately -- everyone should be reminded she is a murderer and a war criminal.  When the outcries and collective revulsion sufficiently compounds and she is rendered totally ineffective and discredited, she will be toppled from her pulpit at the U.N. and the chances of survival for those who she now "protects" will be increased exponentially.

Rot in Hell Samantha Power!  You've killed enough people.

Make snuff movies or become a mercenary sniper.

Either is a perfect match for your CV.


[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



R2P = L2K

The BS Challenge

 

While I disagree with Bernie Sanders on a host of important policy issues, I will certainly give credit where it's due.

The man admirably has raised the awareness of the American public on critical challenges to the American way of life -- like income inequality, corporate malfeasance, the plundering of the working and middle classes by Wall Street and the 1%, the corruption of our democracy by the Citizens United decision and unprecedented influx of money into electoral politics.

There is now real talk of major reform.  The word "revolution" is being floated.

Perhaps more laudably, Sanders has said that the movement fueled by his presidential campaign must go on with or without him.  If he is drummed out of the election by the Machiavellian apparatus of the Democratic Party, or if he loses to Trump or Cruz or which ever imbecile the Republicans nominate, we shouldn't give up. We must fight on for what he stands for and for the vision of America he has presented.

Bravo!  This is excellent advice.

But let me make a point I've made repeatedly to a deafening silence.  Even if Bernie does win, we must fight for what he stands for and the vision of America he has presented, and this fight goes way beyond just getting him into the White House.

Translation:  If Obama with majorities of both houses of Congress on his side couldn't get anything "revolutionary" done, with the current complexion of the House and Senate what chance does a Sanders presidency have?  (I really don't want to get into why Obama failed. I have my own rather extreme take on that.  It's not relevant.  My point is still valid.)

Let me also offer my solution.

Let me offer it as a challenge to all of you Bernie supporters, because I know you are way above average intelligence, well-read and versed in history, informed and armed with a deeper understanding of the realities of our political system.

If you folks are really feeling the Bern, then you need to build on your enthusiasm and support for Bernie and take it to a whole new level.  This means transforming Congress into something allied with and totally supportive of the "Bernie Sanders revolution".

This accords with his entire vision for remaking America, is true to the selfless spirit of his campaign, and assures genuine progress -- WITH OR WITHOUT HIM!

If he gets elected, he gets a Congress he can work with.

If he doesn't get elected, the thrust and wisdom of his vision continues, promoted by those leading the charge in our legislative bodies.

So here's the plan.

District by district, state by state, we give an ultimatum to every single candidate running for Congress in the 2016 election.  Every single candidate for the House and Senate.

EITHER YOU'RE WITH BERNIE OR YOU'RE AGAINST HIM.

If you're with Bernie, you get our votes.

If you're against Bernie, you don't.

And if you're against Bernie, we'll find someone else -- independent, Green Party, greeter at Walmart, homeless guy on a freeway ramp.

Because ANYONE WOULD BE BETTER THAN YOU!

Am I being clear here?

Now we get to the nuts-and-bolts.  And I sincerely apologize for this article being so long. But I can't fashion this into a short and snappy meme.

I've been pushing this idea for four years.  It has not caught on.  I accept responsibility.  Perhaps my writing is deficient.  The reason for my prior failure is not important.

As just explained above, we set up a showdown -- a line in the sand.  We confront every candidate in the 2016 federal election with a simple, easily-grasped choice. 

"You're either with us or against us."

How do we do that?

We give them a contract to sign.

Either they sign it and get our vote.

Or they don't sign it and they don't get our vote.

This is how you reform the Democratic Party or get the scum out of the running!

Here's the contract.

---

(Note: This is written for a candidate campaigning for the House of Representatives.  Obviously, it can easily be reconfigured for a Senatorial candidate.)

I, [Name of Candidate], if elected to a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, hereby commit to sponsor and vote in favor of legislation for all of the following:

• Raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour.
• Reforming tax regulations to stop corporations from shifting their profits and jobs overseas to avoid paying U.S. income taxes.
• Establishing a progressive estate tax on the top 0.3 percent of Americans who inherit more than $3.5 million.
• Enacting a transaction tax on Wall Street speculative trading.
• Investing $1 trillion over five years towards rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, railways, airports, public transit systems, ports, dams, wastewater plants, and other infrastructure needs.
• Creating 1 million jobs for disadvantaged young Americans by investing $5.5 billion in a youth jobs program.
• Making tuition free at public colleges and universities throughout America.
• Expanding Social Security by lifting the cap on taxable income above $250,000.
• Increase benefits by at least 10% for all eligible recipients.
• Establishing healthcare as a right of citizenship by enacting a Medicare for all single-payer healthcare system.
• Requiring employers to provide at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave; two weeks of paid vacation; and 7 days of paid sick days.
• Enacting a universal childcare and prekindergarten program.
• Making it easier for workers to join unions by fighting for the Employee Free Choice Act.
• Breaking up huge financial institutions so that they are no longer too big to fail.

I will not resist, discourage, or in any manner put up an impediment to, and in fact will publicly and on the floor of the House of Representatives actively promote, any and all legislation in support of these measures. If no other legislator comes forth to propose such individual pieces of legislation, I will create and introduce by my own initiative, within 90 days of taking office, legislative acts for all of the foregoing, for consideration by Congress.

I further understand and fully agree to the following: If I violate the above-stated terms of this agreement, I will tender on the 91st day after taking the oath of office for my legislative seat, my full and unqualified resignation from this elected position. Moreover, within one year of my resignation, I will refund all contributions made by individual donors in support of my candidacy for this office.

This entire agreement constitutes a legally binding contract between myself and that class of citizens who will be my constituents, should I win the upcoming election. In the event that I fail to perform the above-required actions, redress may be sought by those same citizens in the form of a class-action suit in a civil court of law, and I will be liable for a minimum of $10,000,000 damages for breach of contract. If I fail to resign from office due to my failure to fulfill the other requirements of this contract or similar contracts, I may be liable for an additional class-action settlement for an amount not less than $50,000,000. No portion of these specified settlements may be paid from campaign donations, PACs or SuperPACs.

I sign this contract voluntarily and with full appreciation of my responsibility to the citizens of the [Name of Congressional District] should they choose me as their elected representative. I accept the terms of this document as legally binding, and with a thorough and lucid understanding of its requirements and consequences.

Signed: ________________

Date: _________________

---

Let me tell you why this will work.

First, we'll know who's serious about reform and who's not.  Talk is cheap.  If a candidate signs the contract, we'll know he or she is serious.  Because . . .

Second, if they've signed on the dotted line, when they report for work in Washington DC, they will have to deliver on everything they agreed to in writing in the contract.

Not just because it's a contract.  But because it would be political suicide if they didn't.

I won't elaborate.  You're smart people.  Think about it.

In closing, I find it inspiring and heartening that Mr. Sanders is doing what he's doing.

I hope that his supporters will have the energy and foresight to build on the awakening that seems to be occurring in this country.  I hope they will dedicate themselves to putting in place elected representatives who truly represent, who are serious about turning this country around, advancing an America which serves all of us, not just a privileged few.

Yes, I put this forth as a challenge.

It's really quite simple . . .

Cheer leading and hero-worship are the easy part.

Revolution is hard work.

Bernie got the ball rolling.

Are you prepared to do some heavy-lifting?

Or is Chris Hedges right? . . .

Is this just more BS along the historical road to disintegration and collapse?



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]





The BS Challenge

Peace is as American as . . . ?

Has America ever really had a peace movement?

Yes, there was an anti-war movement in the late 60s, early 70s.

But it was an anti-war movement . . . specific to one particular war.

The Vietnam War.

Why?

Because young people -- I was the perfect age and in the thick of it -- didn't want to get blown away in some rice paddy in some country in Asia they could barely find on a map.

It's was survival.  Demonstrate.  Burn your draft cards.

Stay alive!

To be in principle for peace means you are values-driven.

But Americans for the most part are results-driven.

Get the job done.  Get the job done right.  Have a beer.

Which troublingly is a short leap to "the ends justify the means".

To see how that works out, just ask the civilian survivors of Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki.

Ask the citizens of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Kosovo, Yemen.

Get the job done.  Get it done right.  Watch the Super Bowl.

Peace is a warm and fuzzy idea. It's something you can wriggle right up to, get all friendly, pinch its cute little cheeks, coddle it like a newborn, smile for the camera.

Yes, peace is really awesome!

As long as you don't have to be peaceful.

Therein lies the conundrum.

America likes to kick ass!  It's our way or the highway.

It's our way or you better head for a bomb shelter, mofo!

America is tough.  You know where America stands.

America wears its temperament on its sleeve.

It open-carries its guns . . . fair warning.

Don't even think about it!

Fuck with me and you're dead meat!

Doesn't exactly sound like fertile ground for a peace movement, eh?



However, peace signs are great!

Simple and attractive.

Make a great tattoo.  Charm bracelet.  Bumper sticker.

They're compact, symmetrical.

Fit nicely anywhere.

FUCK YEAH!  PEACE, BROTHER!


[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



Peace is as American as . . . ?

Still Crazy After All These Years

Yes, I'm still climbing the mountain near my house here in Japan. Only twice a week now. It has been COLD! Maybe not by Michigan standards (where I grew up), but I've lost all of my tolerance for low temperatures. I think living in Southern California for fifteen years recalibrated my body's thermostat.

So to make my twice-weekly pilgrimage up the mountain, I bundle up like I'm exploring the Siberian tundra. It's well worth it. The calm, the quiet, the meditation, the centering has become a ritual I can't live without. Well, I guess I would live. But I'd be more insane than I already am.  My wife, Masumi, has yoga and ballet.  I stumble up and down a big mound of dirt.  Works for me.

Today my trek was a real adventure and a phenomenal treat.  While normally we don't get that much snow here in Sasayama -- and when we do, it typically doesn't linger more than a day -- this weekend we got over 12 cm (5 inches) and it stuck around.

Now I don't own proper hiking boots. And given the variations in temperature, sometimes I was plowing through snow, other times negotiating slush and ice. My feet ended up very numb and at times I felt like I was roller skating on Teflon. I'm proud of myself. I only fell once -- no broken bones. And my piggies thawed out real nice. None had to be amputated. I didn't even get chillblain itchies! Anyone growing up in severe winter weather will know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, here are a few photos.



I know how good I have it.  I thank the karmic lottery every day for the life I fell into.

Is it so unreasonable to think that every single person in the world deserves this?

Just a simple, basic shot at happiness, free from hunger, fear, war, oppression.

Not that I expect it to shine any light on my random musings, here's a song by Paul Simon. (Is he still married to Edie Brickell? Last I heard, their neighbors were complaining about the noise from them screaming at each other during their epic connubial squabbles.)

I don't feel so all alone.

I guess everyone's still crazy after all these years.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Still Crazy After All These Years

Choose A Symptom, Ignore The Disease

 
This presidential election is about choosing a symptom and living in denial of the disease.

Willful ignorance, cognitive dissonance, reductive rationalization, diversion or delusion -- call your suicide pact Kool Aid whatever you want -- has little sway with the Grim Reaper.  Just ask Steve Jobs.  He thought he could beat the Big C.  He was dead wrong.

America made its bargain with unspeakable Evil and now is afflicted with the cancer of its own corruption and self-sabotaging choices.

To avoid the pain, it has euthanized its democracy.

To avoid thinking about extinction, it has embraced fantasy, magic, demagoguery.

To avoid the humiliation of moral bankruptcy, it has exalted profit over people.

To mask its treachery, it wraps itself in the flag, thumps on the Bible, and proclaims: "You're either with us or against us."  Anyone who doesn't fall in line is carted off to a for-profit prison.
To keep the sheeple giddy as we sashay to slaughter, it now promotes puerile pandering, grandstanding and simpleminded showmanship over a principled, thoughtful, honest and constructive national conversation.

Thus . . .

Elections have become a circus.  The center ring is reserved for the ones with the shiniest teeth-whitened smiles, biggest megaphones, and most dazzling tricks.
It's all so very entertaining, eh?  What will Donald Trump say next?  Ha ha ha!

America has hollowed itself out from the inside.  As is embarrassingly and frighteningly evident from the current presidential campaign, the political system can now only collapse into its own vacuousness -- the black hole of a sham democracy.

Trump, Cruz, Clinton, Sanders?  They're symptomatic of the times.  The inflammation.  The nausea.  The diarrhea.  The vomiting.  They're the struggling, heaving, gasping of a deathly ill body politic, telling us something's very wrong.  Quick!  Call an ambulance!  Vital signs are fast disappearing!

So I say . . .

Don't yell at Hillary.  Or Trump.  It's like yelling at a stuffy nose.  Or a rash. 

They're just symptoms.  It's a waste if time.

We need to get to the root of the problem.

"What's the disease?  Cancer you say?"

Cancer is not a simple pathology.  It's complex and multi-pronged -- which, of course, is why it so stubbornly resists a comprehensive and enduring cure.

The form of cancer which is destroying our nation is a like self-replicating Hydra which has metastasized throughout the entire infrastructure of our economy, ravaged the entire political system, leeched the media of any integrity and efficacy; it has polluted even the basic support systems of our churches and community organizations; it has completely poisoned the collective consciousness of our citizenry. 

This brazen and aggressive malignancy feeds on:

1)  Unchecked imperial ambitions.
2)  Exceptionalist hubris and arrogance.
3)  The crushing power of corporations.
4)  The militarization of everything.
5)  Plutocratic tyranny and greed.

Trump?  Clinton?  Cruz?  Sanders? 

Choose your symptom.  As if it makes a difference.

Each has his or her own special twist.  A plausible version of reality.

Adult fairy tales.  Bedtime stories.  Go to sleep now.  Dream the American Dream.

At the same time . . .

If we listen very carefully to them, as tedious and exasperating as that often is -- with their carefully-crafted rhetoric, focus-group tried-and-tested talking points, slick sound bites, patriotic pandering, tongue-wagging, finger-pointing, massaging and masking of the truth, manipulation of public perception, their smooth seductions and patronizing provocations -- we do indeed see what the real problem is.  It's right there staring back at us through the rheumy, half-closed eyes of a patient on life-support, whispered, but still audible, in the phlegmy rhythm of an incipient death rattle.

Our country is very, very sick.

And yes, I include Sanders as a symptom. Here is a decent human being who is being vilified as an extremist and a socialist nutcase because he promotes such controversial ideas as:  Every person has a right to a living wage, and every citizen should get proper, affordable health care.  Isn't that an obvious sign that the central nervous system of America is being ravaged by some malignant flesh-eating bacteria?

 

Yet make no mistake about it . . .

None of these candidates will talk about the disease itself.

Because none of them has a cure.

There's only one cure.

Us.  That's right . . .

You and I.



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



Choose A Symptom, Ignore The Disease