A Nation of Relentless Savagery

 

You've been avoiding this for a long time.

You prefer to remember the times he took you to the park, that amazing camping vacation a few summers back, the funny things he often says at the dinner table, that beautiful dog he gave you on your 12th birthday.

But you can't deny it any longer.  The truth is painful.  But . . .

Dad is an alcoholic and he beats mom.

Do you hate him?  Do you reject him as your father?

No . . . but things have to drastically change and very soon.

This is not actually the story I wish to tell.  I'm merely drawing a parallel.  I'm talking about dealing with denial, facing reality, accepting responsibility, taking action.

There are many situations in life for which the above scenario is a metaphor.

The parallel I'm making is the relationship between a citizen and a government gone mad.

We've avoided it for a long time.  We prefer to think of America as a beacon of hope in the world, the fountainhead of truth and justice, a purveyor of democratic values and human rights.

But we can't deny it any longer.  The truth is painful.  But . . .

As Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his monumental, myth-shattering speech -- the one that probably got him assassinated -- at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967:

“The greatest purveyor of violence in the world: My own government, I cannot be silent.”

I won't go into the long history of American aggression.  Whole books have been written which detail our gruesome heritage of merciless wars, the most notable being Howard Zinn's classics, A People's History of the United States and the more recent A People's History of American Empire.  Nor will I indict the U.S. foreign policy apparatus for its gross deceptions and hypocrisies, elucidated with unparalleled clarity and candor in William Blum's excellent work, America's Deadliest Export: Democracy.

I won't talk about the millions of human carcasses piled on top of more carcasses, the result of countless war crimes and merciless military strategies which place no value on human life, whether the victims are in uniform or innocent civilians.  I've realized that the scale of the horror is such that its incomprehensible to most good decent citizens.  I myself when confronted by figures like 3 million Vietnamese killed, 1.5 Iraqis killed, on and on, find my eyes glazing over in the deluge of zeroes.  I literally cannot grasp these numbers and apply them meaningfully to the grief and physical suffering which they are supposed to somehow encapsulate.

Let's instead look at a few simple very recent facts and try to put them in perspective.

Fact 1:  The U.S. is not officially at war with any other country at this time.

Fact 2:  The U.S. has not been attacked in any sense of the word in the last 16 years.

Fact 3:  Last year the U.S. military dropped 26,171 bombs on seven different countries.



Mind you, these are the official figures.  Who knows what the real totals are?

These were not water-filled balloons or July 4th fireworks.  At the end of every explosion, there were body parts strewn all over the surrounding area.  Survivors were being crushed in collapsed buildings, or crawling along the ground with limbs torn off, leaving a trail of blood squirting out of severed arteries.  Innocent people, men, women, and children just going about the everyday business of living, were mangled by a lethal mix of high-velocity shrapnel, and chunks of rubble created by ton after ton of high-yield explosives dropped anonymously from the sky.

Rigorous studies have made it very clear that well over half of the casualties of current warfare are civilians.  In what are called 'internal conflicts' -- like Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia -- which now are by far the most prevalent form of military conflict, the percentages can be as high as 90% civilians.  These violent clashes are typically fought by proxies. In all of the countries just listed, the aggressors are mercenaries paid by the U.S. and its allies to enter and destroy a country in what is then deceptively characterized as a civil war or "people's uprising".  There is very disturbing recent evidence, for example, that the U.S. through CIA back channels has been funding ISIS, Al Nusra, as well as other extremely barbarous terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria.

By the way, that money they withhold from your paycheck?  Or that quarterly tax payment you regularly make?  Think about it.  This is where a big chunk of your tax dollars is going.  You're paying for this.

Does any of this make my point a little more comprehensible?

26,171 bombs . . . funding terrorism . . . innocent civilians die . . . all in a days work.

America can say with great pride that what it does, it usually does very well.

When we put our minds to something, we pull out all the stops.

Now we can put killing right up there in the Top 10.

We kill efficiently.  We kill without remorse.  We kill without hesitation.

NOTICE TO THE WORLD . . .

Beware!  We are a nation of relentless savagery!

Then again, a lot of countries already know that.

---

I've said this many times before and I'll keep saying it until people get it . . .
Peace will not come from the top.  There are too many incentives and rewards in our corrupt corporate kleptocracy to keep the wars going and the wheels of the defense industry churning out more mechanisms of death and destruction.

It is only when we everyday citizens finally have had enough of the carnage, enough of the military waste, enough of the chest-beating imperialism which makes us less safe, enough of the empty rhetoric which claims to embrace the noble virtues but is just more deception in the name of war and imperial conquest, it is only then that America will turn around.

Maybe there are detailed plans out there somewhere to mobilize the good decent citizens of this country.  I haven't personally seen any.  So here is mine.  Yes, it is outside-the-box, some would say radical, extreme.  But if we are the nation we claim to be in the world and in the eyes of God, isn't cruelly and senselessly dropping 26,171 bombs on mostly innocent people extreme and radical?
My plan demands very little of us individually.  We don't have to march on the capital or mount a revolutionary insurrection.  Despite that, it could make all the difference in the future we leave to our children and our children's children.  All that is really required is that we listen to the voice of reason and stand strong.

At least take a look.  Open your mind up to the possibility of a future without the madness.  Of a future without endless war.  Of a future when our hard-earned tax dollars don't go to fund the relentless savagery of a military gone mad.

 

The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World is now available both as an ebook and deluxe paperback at all of the usual outlets . . .

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


A Nation of Relentless Savagery

Is this really happening?

I've avoided writing very much about the presidential election.  I know I'm in a very tiny minority, many of whom are housed in large buildings with locked doors and bars on the windows.  But I really see it as an entertaining distraction, a three-ring circus, keeping us all enthralled and on the edge of our seats, while out in the parking lot they are stripping our cars of anything that can be fenced to pawn brokers, body shops and used-tire dealers.

So while the photo at the head of this article would seem to suggest otherwise, I'm not going to add to the big noxious cloud of vaporous analysis and shock-jock commentary about who is up, who is down, where is Bernie, who is Jill, can you find Waldo.

Instead I'm staying the course here, announcing my latest initiative, and doing so, risking adding even more evidence to my public file that I'm masochistic and delusional.

Yes . . . I'm at it again, giving it one more shot, attempting to drive home my message.

"What is that message?" you ask innocently -- your acting about as convincing as Obama on his visit to Hiroshima when he donned such a sad face and declared nuclear weapons a very bad thing, though he's spending another $1 trillion to upgrade our nuclear arsenal.

Come on!  You know my message!  I'm more of a broken record than Bernie Sanders.

 

Speaking of whom, isn't it amazing how easy it is to marginalize and destroy a good man?  A little voter fraud here, some media bias there, well-placed dollars to lock in the loyalty of super-delegates, the nauseating duplicity of "progressives" like President Obama and Elizabeth Warren, the nomination victory manufactured by the pundits, and BINGO!

Bye-bye, Bernie!

That's where things allegedly stand right now anyway.

But back to my message.  Which is built around this certainly vulgar but perhaps thought-provoking question:

WHO GIVES A FLYING FUCK?

Because . . . (brace yourselves, folks, here it comes again) . . . regardless of who ends up in the Oval Office . . . 

IT'S CONGRESS THAT MAKES THE LAWS!

So this time . . .

I'm reaching out to progressive congressional candidates!

Anyone out there who is running for the Senate or the House, anyone out there who knows someone who is running for the Senate or the House, or anyone out there who knows what the Senate and the House of Representatives do, please look at my new activist website:

NO CONTRACT NO VOTE!

I have proposed this approach in countless blogs, published articles, and in three books.

It is a methodology, a strategy, a powerful political device for WINNING ELECTIONS!

Ha ha ha!

"Winning elections?  Why would we want to win elections?"

If you have to ask, you might want to read this.

Anyway . . .

In my left-of-left, radical-revolutionary dreams -- or are they actually hallucinations? -- I imagine pink-slipping the current crop of corporate suck-ups, the pay-for-play political toadies, plutocratic lapdogs, flunky footmen for the rabidly rich, insatiable plunderers of our economy and destroyers of the American Dream, the sycophantic Yes-men of Wall Street looters and the too-big-too-jail banksters, the sniveling servants of crony-capitalists and ruthless kleptocrats pillaging our national wealth, the cynical complicit despoilers of democracy who are cravenly turning America into a Third World banana republic (if it's not completely obvious, I'm referring to the execrable frauds now serving in Congress), then replacing them with unselfish, committed, truly progressive public servants who honorably represent all of us, not just the rich and powerful.

And . . .

After completing my imagined shake-up of government and rooting out the corruption, installing a Congress of the people, by the people, for the people, a legislature serving the needs of all Americans, thereby assuring a healthy, safe, fulfilling, prosperous future for our children and our children's children -- YES! -- at this glorious juncture I see all of us, united, delirious, grateful-beyond-words, turning to one another and asking . . .

Is this really happening?



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

Is this really happening?

TPP . . . just extrapolate and you’ll get it.

 

Because of some trademark or product protectionist agreement or with Bayer, there is no such thing as generic aspirin here in Japan.

They sell aspirin in blister packs, ten to a package, for a little over $8.00 here. As if aspirin is some sort of amazing wonder drug.

Therefore, this bottle which I bought the last time I was in America for $6.99 here in Japan would cost over $240.00!

This is a simple example of how what would appear to be an innocuous patent agreement can dramatically impact the cost and availability of a consumer item.

I bring this up because the public is finally beginning to wake up to the perils of the TPP, a so-called free trade agreement aggressively being promoted by the Obama administration.

The type of arrangement which priced my aspirin in the stratosphere will exponentially expand under TPP.  Of course, this only scratches the surface in terms of the horrifying implications.  TPP is a weapon of mass socio-political devastation.  Here is the entire text.

There are 12 countries included in the TPP:  U.S., Japan, Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Chile, Vietnam, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, Mexico, and Brunei Darussalam, representing 11.3% of the world population and 40% of the total economic activity across the planet.

TPP will affect just about everything bought and sold, used by most of us on a regular basis --  food, clothing, medications, movies, songs, cars, smart phones, furniture -- you name it and TPP will be there with its hairy arms wrapped around it one way or another. 

The TPP trade agreement runs over 5,000 pages.  It's been in formulation and negotiation for over three years.  Until very recently, it has been completely kept from the public eye -- literally it was subject to a top secret classification and anyone even attempting to discuss its details was subject to fines and imprisonment -- which alone should have raised major red flags about its contents.  Parts of it were leaked and then finally the entire text of this burdensome document was released.  Now the worst suspicions of those issuing warnings all along have been confirmed.  There is so much to condemn about this diabolical gift to corporations, we could go on for months detailing its egregious agenda and ruthless grab for power.  Much of the analysis and resulting critique is very technical. Most people can be forgiven for having their eyes glaze over and their attention wander.

I offer my simple anecdotal tale to make this complex issue real and accessible.

I submit it as a typical dose of daily life and hopefully a loud wake-up call.

Corporations do whatever they can to maximize profit . . . period!

Corporations are not community-minded or people-oriented.

Corporations are not loyal to countries or their citizens.

Corporations are not in the business of being nice.

They are only in business to make money.  Anything which stand in the way of making money must be eliminated or changed.

We've had NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, WTO.

TPP is now the last in a long list of systematic efforts to fashion the rules, engineer the marketplace, game the system, load the dice, all in the name of making greater profits.  The TPP is a brilliant, if insidious redesign of the macro-economic regime to favor profit over people, corporations over government, faceless multinational corporate hegemony over local community and citizen control.  Please understand . . .


TPP is not an abstraction. It is a genuine threat.

TPP is the worst trade agreement in history.

TPP will crush people under the weight of corporate greed.

TPP will destroy America as a sovereign nation and a functioning democracy.

TPP will destroy any hope for citizens having a say in the future of this country.

TPP will imprison the 99% and make us permanent slaves of the corporate state.

TPP is misleadingly named the Trans-Pacific Partnership and is being sold as a trade agreement.  It in fact is neither.  It is not a partnership of nations.  Nor is it a mere trade agreement.  Designed by multinational corporations, mostly headquartered in America, it is a supra-national framework for destroying the sovereignty of nations and giving citizens of those nations -- that's you and I -- even less say in the industries and marketplace which produce and make available the items we purchase, including the basic necessities of life.

As workers, it gives us less power to improve our wages and working conditions.  Worker safety will suffer, union organizing will become all but impossible.

As consumers, the quality and safety of everything we buy will be compromised.  It will be a race to the bottom, as any attempt at regulation and requiring transparency is challenged under rules limiting and barring practices which interfere with pursuit of profits.

As members of communities, any and all of our efforts, both local and national regulation of environmental conditions -- meaning he purity and safety of our ground, air, and water -- will come under attack, and all of the progress made to improve the environment over many decades will unravel.

The evil step-sister of TPP is TTIP -- the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership -- a nearly identical regime of corporate tyranny targeting the 28 nations of the European Union which is simultaneously under negotiation and aggressively being promoted by our self-described "progressive" president.

Greenpeace just managed to leak 13 of 17 chapters of the most recent version of TTIP.

There have been massive demonstrations and riots going on in Europe against TTIP for quite some time now.  The release of the text of TTIP has heightened tensions even more.

U.S. citizens might just want to ask themselves:  What's all the fuss about?





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



TPP . . . just extrapolate and you’ll get it.





 

Let’s Try To Figure This Out

 

So you have a stubborn old right wing uncle. You know the one I'm talking about. He's the guy who gets all his insights into the world from Fox, thinks Rush Limbaugh is Prophet Isaiah reincarnated, and would join Donald Trump base jumping from the top of Trump Tower in a snow storm

How do you reply when he claims that all sorts of scientists have proven that climate change is a hoax?

How about this?

Let's say you went to ten doctors and had a full examination. Nine of them told you point blank you were suffering an extremely aggressive form of cancer, your life was in danger, and you needed to be treated immediately. But one doctor told you that you were in great health and there was nothing that should concern you.

The nine doctors who warned you of impending doom unless drastic action were taken, all work for respected independent medical facilities, hospitals, research labs, universities.

The one doctor who had buckets of good news happens to work for the insurance company who would have to pay for your medical bills.

Which advice would you heed?

Would you go out and celebrate, have a few drinks, maybe smoke a pack of cigarettes?

Or would you be first in line next morning at the clinic to begin treatment?

There is overwhelming agreement in the legitimate scientific community -- the clearly objective, independent, unbiased centers for study and research -- that climate change is real and it is largely being caused by humans. While the public for various reasons lags in grasping the extent and immediacy of the crisis, over 97% of climate science researchers agree. Less than 3% of the literature on climate change challenges this huge consensus.

 

And guess where the nay-sayers come from?

They belong in that same suspicious category of compromised, non-objective, "interested" parties as that doctor who works for the health insurance company -- the one that probably got a bonus for telling you everything was fine and you didn't need medical help.

The bulk of climate change denial studies is generated by bought-and-paid-for lackeys who WORK FOR THE FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY!

So as the title of my article suggests . . . let's try to figure this out.

Who should we listen to?

The 10,000+ scholars who have published thousands of pier-reviewed research papers which declare we have a problem?

Or the handful of deniers, many of whom have published articles which have not passed the standards of pier-review, but who probably live quite affluently with the money they get from oil, gas, and coal companies?

Speaking of self-serving deceptions, the climate agreement recently reached at COP21, the international climate conference in Paris at the end of last year, was a PR stunt. Respected climatologist James Hansen calls it a total fraud.  It has no teeth, is not legally binding, has no fines or penalties for irresponsible deviations from its nice-sounding, highly-acclaimed guidelines for holding the temperature rise to 2˚C.  Yes, it made a lot of people feel good, stuffed a lot of feathers in a lot of caps, not least of which is the one for President Obama's historical legacy. Obama, who in his State of the Union address touted America's and his own pivotal leadership role in shaping the final agreement, called it "the best chance to save the one planet we have." But anyone who is actually paying attention knows that this slippery non-binding pile of happy face promises is no substitute for an absolute and genuine commitment to real, actionable, and enforceable policy realignment.

So . . . have we figured this out?

We have a combination of willful denial (ignorance), disinformation (self-righteous lying), paralysis (corporate oppression), and general apathy (sheeple power).

I don't feel well.

Is huffing gasoline bad for the environment?



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



Let’s Try To Figure This Out

War Games

 

I have been saying for some time that the U.S. wants a war with Russia.

Why? Because if it can cut Russia down to size, then the only country standing between America and total global domination is China. China and Russia have been cozying up lately.  Together they are a formidable threat. Take out Russia, China becomes a manageable opponent.  That's how the theory goes.

Let's cut to recent events.

Terrorist attack in Paris.  Refugee crisis escalates in Europe.  Russia is on the job offering serious opposition to ISIL.  France and other European countries are finally talking about working cooperatively with Russia to defeat ISIS.

French Prime Minister Hollande is scheduled to meet in the next few days with Putin to put their heads together and coordinate their military campaigns against the terrorists.

Turkey blows a Russian fighter jet out of the sky. Its F-16 were laying in wait. Probably the Russian fighter never crossed into Turkish air space. Even if it did, it was even by Turkey's own admission only allegedly in Turkish territory for 17 seconds.

In any case, blam! . . . down goes the plane.

IMMEDIATELY, Turkey turns to NATO -- America's proxy fighters -- to obtain unanimous support and approval for its unquestionably reprehensible deed.

Why?

Because under the terms of the NATO agreement, if any nation belonging to the alliance is attacked, it is regarded as an attack on all members and they must then fight together as a unified force against the alleged aggressor.

Are you seeing now how this works?

Russia had without any reasonable or legal justification one of its planes shot down.

Understandably, Putin has publicly announced that from this point forward, it will defend itself against any threat to its forces in Syria.  It now has a naval ship in the area with the deadly S-300 air defense system, and is sending the even more effective S-400 air defense system to the Syrian base in Latakia.

Voila!

If Russia shoots back in defense under any real or perceived threat -- like Turkish F-16s or Turkish ground defense locking Russian planes with target seeking radar -- in theory all of NATO must oppose it.

Total war!

Merry Christmas Ashton Carter, Victoria Nuland, and all of the other loathsome, wicked, hate-filled, neocon warmongers in our government.  Yeah, you get your big war, just like you wanted.

You don't think Mr. Peace Prize Prez is playing a role in this provocative and extremely dangerous scenario?  Right after the plane was shot down, Obama expressed no criticism of Turkey.  Instead, he asserted that "Turkey, like every country, has a right to defend its territory and its airspace."  Moreover, it is implausible that Turkey did this without either the knowledge or prompting of the U.S. government.  Understand that Obama has been on board with the Pax Americana imperialist program of conquest for most of his presidency. If not, how can you justify his precipitating and lying about the crisis in Ukraine.  How else can you interpret the buildup of troops right on Russia's borders, a direct provocation and chest-beating flaunting of our military power?  How else can you explain his unnecessary, counter-productive pivot to Asia, a publicly announced strategy for "containing" China?

Now the holiday season is upon us. We'll all be enjoying the cheer, the time together with family and friends, exchanging gifts, playing Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Risk, Scrabble, Candyland and Boggle.

Just so you know, while you're having all sorts of innocent fun, here we have the lethal game our crazed leadership is playing.

But this particular game is not fun for the whole family.

War games will mean fewer members of your family to enjoy the holiday season next year.


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

War Games

Oratory as a Weapon of Mass Deception

 

I used to say President Obama is a great orator.

In retrospect, particularly in view of his speeches over the past two years, I would have to modify my appraisal: Mr. Obama is a mind-numbingly effective orator -- with major emphasis on 'mind-numbing' -- whose powers of persuasion are both awe-inspiring and reality-altering.

But great? I think not.

You see, great orators don't insult their audiences by lying and using their enormous gifts to wreak havoc on the world, demean other world leaders, and generally inflict listeners with self-serving propaganda.

Great orators ennoble, enlighten, inspire!

There is so much deception, obfuscation, manipulative innuendo, faulty logic, sheer raw hypocrisy in his recent U.N. speech, I could write volumes. But it's not worth your time or mine, since so many of the lies upon which he built this petty and self-aggrandizing show have been repeated with such relentless regularity, they are part of the accepted collective wisdom of both the American public and the government propaganda apparatus, aka the main stream media.

I'll just throw out a few comments.

"But we cannot stand by when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a nation is flagrantly violated. If that happens without consequence in Ukraine, it could happen to any nation gathered here today."

Like Yemen being bombed by the U.S.-supported tyrannical government of Saudi Arabia? Like Iraq? Or Libya? Or Afghanistan? Or any of the 30+ countries the U.S. has attacked or effected regime change by proxy?

Here's a real gem.

"It is not a conspiracy of U.S.-backed NGOs that expose corruption and raise the expectations of people around the globe; it’s technology, social media, and the irreducible desire of people everywhere to make their own choices about how they are governed."

Oh really? One of America's favorite 'NGOs' is the National Endowment for Democracy. First of all even calling it an NGO is a laugh. Everyone knows -- at least in the crowd I run with -- that the NED was created by the CIA and is funded by Congress. For some reason, whenever it shows up on the scene, countries become immersed in chaos and insurrection, with regime change soon to follow. The most recent victim of its handiwork is Ukraine, where it fomented the overthrow of the legitimate democratically-elected government, then installed a chocolate puppet doll to do the bidding of the U.S.

Here the President deftly conflated bragging and threats, as in, "See how we've messed up things for you, Russia? If you don't tow the line, you ain't seen nothing yet, baby!"

"Sanctions have led to capital flight, a contracting economy, a fallen ruble, and the emigration of more educated Russians."

Then, just when I though it was safe to stop gagging and listen further, I picked up on this.

"When a dictator slaughters tens of thousands of his own people, that is not just a matter of one nation’s internal affairs — it breeds human suffering on an order of magnitude that affects us all."

Which is why we supplied chemical weapons to Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein in order to get the job done right back when he was one of our buddies? Which is why we overthrew the democratically-elected leader of Chile and replaced him with a brutal autocrat who then proceeded to kill tens of thousands of his people? Of course, I could go on with many more examples. But it's tedious and pointless, as hypocrisy is apparently now considered one of the great virtues in the Empire of Chaos.

"Assad reacted to peaceful protests by escalating repression and killing that, in turn, created the environment for the current strife."

Really? Is that the whole story? Or just the one the U.S. creates for its fairy tale version of every uprising it seeds and supports to overthrow governments it doesn't like?

Oh yes . . . about those crazy Muslims running around beheading people, driving tens of thousands to flee their native lands and seek refuge in Europe:

"We know that ISIL — which emerged out of the chaos of Iraq and Syria — depends on perpetual war to survive."

Like the U.S. military-industrial complex? Or the U.S. itself which can't stop bombing countries into complying with its dictates?



Credit where credit is due, however:  Our president did stumble into the truth a few times. Thus, here is absolutely my favorite quote from his speech . . .

"On this basis, we see some major powers assert themselves in ways that contravene international law. We see an erosion of the democratic principles and human rights that are fundamental to this institution’s mission; information is strictly controlled, the space for civil society restricted. We’re told that such retrenchment is required to beat back disorder; that it’s the only way to stamp out terrorism, or prevent foreign meddling."

. . . because it perfectly describes the United States of America, in particular the policies aggressively promoted by Mr. Obama himself.

---

Watch President Obama's entire speech and judge for yourself whether this man is ever capable of doing anything but creating a smokescreen for America's malfeasance in the world, its monomaniacal fixation with its power, its self-proclaimed right to lecture and dictate to others how the world should be run.

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

Justin Bieber is the new Hitler!

 

If someone in the State Department or the White House decides that Justin Bieber's music truly sucks, or even if they just take a disliking to that froofy, pseudo-pompadour hair style he alternates with his Beetle boy look, you can be assured of the headline the next day, front page of the New York Times:

Justin Bieber is the new Hitler!

The campaign of demonizing this young pop star, thus getting the public fired up for his inevitable liquidation, will have begun.

We've seen a lot of 'Hitlers' over the past couple decades. If fact, this vilification by association would seem by now to have outworn its usefulness. But no, the public's knee still jerks when tapped with the mallet of ultimate evil personified. Then it's bombs away, or at bare minimum, a nice bloody assassination or regime change by proxy.

The great thing about the Hitler device is that everyone knows how it ended. And they can now sleep well, fully convinced of what the new evil-drenched Hitler-reincarnation faces in the Great Battle of the White Hats vs. the Black Hats, an epic struggle which defines our moral sensibilities in this age of television and smart phone enlightenment.

Back in 2003, we had a real solid Hitler in Saddam Hussein. Boastful, cocky, imperious to the core.  He ended up swinging on a rope.  Yes!  Take that brutal tyrant!  Nobody messes with freedom, justice, and the American Way!

Gaddafi was an easy target. He even strutted like Adolph, and though he dispensed with the erect-penis-surrogate arm salute, Muammar had all of the PR trappings of Hitler, his Third Reich gallery-of-rogues henchmen, even his puffed-up Italian sidekick, Benito. Ha! Take a knife up the ass, scumbag!  Blam blam blam!  Bye-bye, chest-thumping despot. Guess we showed him what democracy is all about.

 

Of course, the latest big-bang-for-the-buck Hitler clone is the grim Vladimir Putin. Oh baby! Are we ever doing a number on this contemptible autocrat!  Though the wily and aggressive Russian propaganda machine pumps out transparently phony approval ratings __ the latest was a laughable 86% __ we know in the West that the cowering Russkies can't wait for the U.S. and its hyper-masculine NATO allies to reduce their struggling ball-and-chain nation to smoldering, radioactive rubble, so that they can enjoy the benefits of the Home Shopping Channel and 24/7 Donald vs. Hillary news, just like us lucky, well-informed Americans. I'd say your days are numbered, Vlad the Impaler! Keep your shirt on.  Oh . . . I forgot.  You don't wear a shirt.

Not regularly making the headlines up there with the big neo-Hitlers are little neo-Hitlers. Maybe the general public isn't paying very close attention, but these tyrants are never off the radar screens of the neocon ninjas and their proud servants, the Orkin men in the CIA.

Included now or the recent past in this exclusive Hitler-lite, by-invitation-only club would be the likes of Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Evo Morales of Bolivia, certainly Raol and Fidel Castro of Cuba, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, and Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay.

What do all of these scary new Hitlers have in common?

Well, it turns out to be one of two things.

Either they're socialists __ working hard to block the predatory agenda of capitalism, offering citizens a fair share of national wealth, fulfilling the promise of a good life with minimum standards for income, health care, education, home and land ownership __ or they're trying to get out from under the oppressive control of the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency __ the Bretton Woods system that has propped up American political and economic hegemony over the past seven decades.

This last one will definitely get you blown away. This was the real crime of both Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi in the eyes of our neocon goon squad politicos __ George W., Obama, Hillary Clinton, and way too many others to mention.  Currently, we see that their cooperative de-dollarizing has installed Russia and China as the #1 and #2 ranking targets for America's 7000+ nuclear arsenal.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen . . . many observers have drawn the conclusion that America's exceptionalist imperial conquerors would prefer risking nuclear Armageddon to giving up the almighty USD as the economic weapon of choice in the international marketplace. World War III will be the ultimate temper tantrum.

"If we can't have it our way, then everybody dies!"

Having said that . . . I always try to end on a positive note.

All of you devoted fans who swooned to "One Less Lonely Girl" and danced the night away to "As Long As You Love Me" can rest easy. 

It doesn't appear that Justin Bieber is planning on de-coupling from the U.S. dollar __ it has served him quite well __ or leading a socialist revolution among his tweener fan base. Justin seems not at all concerned about the general welfare and never sings about social justice to his faithful "Beliebers".  He just keeps pumping the U.S. dollars out of their non-biodegradable plastic wallets, like the exemplary capitalist he is.

I'd say he's probably pretty safe for now.



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

“Buddy, can you spare some change?”

 

We're on our own. You and I __ the vast majority of Americans __ have no one else to turn to.

Not our leaders, not our pundits, not our spokespersons, not so-called "job creators", not our teachers or ministers. Not the Clintons or Bushes, not the Trumps or Romneys. Certainly not the Kochs or the Murdochs or Bloombergs, Adelsons or Gates. Not the Dimons or the Blankfeins.

Most of them are on the other team, or at very least play for the other team. That other team is one that you and I will never get to join. It is an isolated, insular, impudent, incomprehensibly wealthy club __ a very tiny slice of our 300+ million __ who have so much, want even more, and will never be satisfied until they have it all. We are just more items on their shopping list. Welcome to capitalism run amok! Welcome to a country where everything has a price and there are some who are so possessed by greed, they see human beings as servants, chattel, minions, serfs, and __ if they can get us for free __ slaves.

What's this got to do with us? History has shown that in every society there is always an elite which sees itself as superior to the swarming mob, a cut above the unwashed masses, members of an aristocratic class, living in its own exclusive world of privilege. It's just an unpleasant side of human nature. There's nothing new about snobbery.

Why should we be concerned?

If it's not obvious, it's this . . .

They now own and control our elected representatives, including whoever holds the office of President. You doubt this? Look at Obama's aggressively embracing and promoting the worst, most onerous trade bills in the history of the world, TPP and TPIP. This one master stroke by the ruling oligarchs will enslave nearly half of the world's population. National borders will mean nothing. Corporations and the oligarchs who own them will exercise absolute imperial rule over wealth, resources __ our lives, and those of our children.

This whole TPP/TPIP issue should be a warning! There's a message in this treachery we need to remind ourselves of every waking minute:  Even some of those who claim to be "one of us" or "on our side" are owned by that tiny .1% of America who truly have the power __ the ones who are actually running things.

So . . . it's just us. It's you and me against them.

My strategy for radical electoral reform, as described in my book Candidate Contracts: Taking Back Our Democracy, is not elitist. Nor does it pander to the elite. It does not crawl to the rich and powerful and beg them to show us some mercy.

As a matter of fact, my plan is the essence of populist activism. For it to be successfully implemented requires participation by average citizens, across the political spectrum.

I will admit, I did send the book gratis to hundreds of thinkers in academia, think tanks, pundit pools, a host of well-known and not so well-known spokespersons for the "liberal establishment". While many of these prominent individuals are part of __ often lead __ the national conversation on all things germane to the running of our country, most of them are very much a part of the system. But their endorsement of my ideas might give them credibility, or at least draw some attention to a plan which regular citizens need to know about and actively support.

I'm not sure what to expect of these thinker types.

Frankly, I'm not expecting much.

Most of them are busy, and more inimically, tightly locked into their own methodologies for what they peddle as activism. They often neglect to notice that despite their best and allegedly noble efforts, things continue to deteriorate. The only change is that as each day passes, things deteriorate more quickly.

I must say, there sure are an abundance of people commenting on the problems.

But not many solving the problems.

It's a fundamental distinction, which is often missed.

What if you had a horrible flesh-eating disease?

Medical experts come in and declare: "We have analyzed all of the data and come to the conclusion that you are in big trouble, clearly in horrible pain, the victim of a terrible disease. It is very tragic! Have a nice day."

Do we need to bring in several more teams of experts to tell you the same thing?

I assume this is more what you'd hope for: "We have analyzed the data on your condition. While your situation is serious, we have come up with a detailed plan involving a host of drugs, some surgical procedures, and a program for rehabilitation. We can cure this and once we are done, you should be able to live a long and fulfilling life."

The difference should be apparent.

My book is not more whining. It offers a step-by-step, highly detailed plan for challenging the corruption of our current politicos, and for reversing the destruction of representative democracy in America.

Let me just mention this in closing . . .

There are a few highly visible figures who are on our side, demonstrated by their own writings and activism for our team, by their dedication to making a better life for every American. Once the printed books are out, I will be sending copies to Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Robert Reich, Michael Moore, and several others who are to varying degrees in the national spotlight, and whose support would be valuable.

We'll see what comes of that.

I can't force anyone to pay attention. I can only put my ideas out there.

Change doesn't just magically happen.

People need to believe it's possible.

Then they need to make room in their hearts and time in their day to make it happen.

__________________________________________________________


"Candidate Contracts: Taking Back Our Democracy" is now available . . .

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Direct from printer . . . bit.ly/1MGjDnN



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

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Shallow

 

I love all of the hand-wringing, thoughtful analysis, speculation and prognostication surrounding Obama's public addresses.

Though the ADHD American public seems to little notice or be bothered by the lack of consistency or coherence to our president's policies on just about everything, pundits lately seem preoccupied with getting to the bottom of his erratic pronouncements. You know, those policy statements which seem often at odds with the best interests of the country, and even more baffling, at odds with themselves.

I hate to sabotage the good work all of the talking heads and pundits do. Moreover, I understand that they have to keep up the illusion they're doing something invaluable __ after all, we're talking job security. But this whole business of trying to find coherence in Obama's policies is a waste of everyone's time.

There never has been any consistency or sense to it. What can we expect? When he's talking to his "base", he spews progressive platitudes. When he deals with plutocrats, he morphs into the plutocrat he really is. When he pontificates about Mother Earth, now he's the great shepherd guardian of the environment. When he speaks at West Point, Obama becomes the mighty conquering hero, leader of the exceptionalist empire.

It comes down to this. Obama has no core principles, no political philosophy. Most of the time you can just, as they say, "follow the money". Of course, in our enlightened times, money is free speech. So sometimes it's about power and its manipulation. But there's always a "payoff" down the road __ voter support so he can continue wreaking havoc on what's left of egalitarianism and transferring the nation's wealth to his friends in the 1%.

Lately, there's been all of these noble attempts at analyzing why Obama is so hostile to Russia and Putin. The obvious answer is that he now fully subscribes to the nefarious vision of American hegemony embodied in Zbigniew Brzezinski's Grand Chessboard.

That may be true. But at the very core of Obama's Russophobic animosity . . . it's personal.
He hates Vlad the Impaler for upstaging him, not just aspiring to the higher moral ground __ shrewdly making some modest gains on the international stage __ but by Mr. Putin's actually achieving it in the eyes of the world. Putin's ratings soar. Obama's plummet.

Snowden . . . Syria . . . Ukraine.  There you have it, my puzzled pundits.

Obama now has a big chip on his shoulder and a very wounded ego. 

Despite a lot of lying, calculating and ruthless propaganda, posing, strutting, bullying, muscle-flexing, employing all of the exceptionalist weapons of the tallest, baddest bully pulpit on the planet, Obama has and continues to make a total fool of himself. And it's such a blow to his hyper-inflated ego that Vladimir Putin won't bow before his childish barbs, Obama simply can't handle it. Poor wittle boy!

We have seen in his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress, then his speech before the U.N., and just recently his remarks to the G-7 __ using these extremely visible and internationally honored forums __ our President leveling vituperative taunts and personal insults at the leader of a great world power.
Personal insults!

This is our Nobel Peace Prize President.

This is our "don't do stupid stuff" President.

My eyes were opened to how shallow this man is during a recent interview. I had always been in awe of Obama's vast talents as an orator, delivering noble and moving sentiments, always putting himself in the best possible light, such that many believe him to be a truly great and noble man, a president who cares about the world, the people, world peace. What a shock it was to see the man in the stark personification of a self-absorbed sociopath who evidently has now lost perspective on his own public persona.

He was asked what it's like being President of the United States.

The first words out of Obama's mouth and I quote:  "It's a fun job."

Do I have to break this down for you? Let's just ignore how blatantly arrogant that remark was. The President has vast responsibilities and powers. His decisions affect everyone on our planet. He literally has life-or-death power over millions of people.

And he thinks it's a fun job.

As if we give a flying fuck whether he's having fun or not.

Obama has kept up a good front for longer than I would have expected. Many would have buckled under so much constant attention and adoration. But for seven years, he managed to fool a lot of people, even the people who are now suffering under his catastrophic lack of vision and leadership.

Obama may be a sharp guy. But it always seems that in the end, good judgment inevitably snaps under the dogged badgering of closeted narcissism. And now we have it, though it might have taken a little longer this time around. 

If talk is cheap, and the preferred use of the bully pulpit is self-congratulation over the greater good of the country __ or even an occasional nod to reality __ then the rumors of this President's greatness for the history books are grossly exaggerated, and will inevitably blow away like mere belches of hot air.

Just what the already overheating planet needs . . . more hot air.



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