Chengdu China: Time Machine | John Rachel

My wife Masumi and I just spent a week in Chengdu, China. It was like climbing into a time machine and traveling into the future.

Mind you, back in 2009, on my way to Nepal, I stopped in Chengdu for seven days. Today’s Chengdu is unrecognizable, like being in an entirely different city!

Chengdu in 2009 had its share of charms. The electric motor scooters kept the streets quiet. The temples, people doing Tai Chi in the park, the ease at getting around due to an efficient public transportation system, the charm of older parts of the city blended in with modern buildings, the impressive variety of cuisine.

I did notice then that there was a lot of building going on. Sixteen years later, it’s evident where they were taking things. Boy, is it ever!

I’ll follow this over the next couple weeks with more targeted articles.

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

Chengdu China: Time Machine | John Rachel

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 ]

United?

"The United States of America!" 

Doesn't saying it just make your heart leap for joy?

I start hearing the national anthem play in my head, see the rockets red glare
bursting in air, the American flag waving majestically over the capital
skyline.

But I started wondering the other day:  What exactly does the 'united' stand
for?  What exactly during these contentious, deeply divisive, tragically
troubled times does it mean?

'United' would seem to imply Unity. Agreement. Fellowship. Consensus. Harmony.

Does that sound like contemporary America to you?

Here are some big questions . . .

Are we united by a sense of national purpose?

Are we united by a belief in our destiny and place in history? 

Are we united by confidence in our superiority?

Are we united in our belief in American exceptionalism?

Are we united in our desire for empire?

Are we united by a love for our fellow Americans?

Are we united by our patriotism and sense of duty?

Or . . . are we united by our indifference?

Are we united by our faith in the American Dream?

Or . . . are we united by our pessimism?

Our cynicism?

How about some systemic issues . . .

Are we united in our faith in capitalism?

Are we united in the trust of our government?

Are we united in our belief in American democracy?

Are we united by a trust in God?

A system of shared values?

An ethos?

Are we united by our sense of self-determination?

Or . . . are we united by our sense of helplessness?

Our vulnerability and fatalism?

Our surrender?

How about some very specific issues . . .

Are we united in our love of guns?

Are we united by our freedom of speech?

Are we united by our disdain for socialism?

Are we united by the War on Terror?

Are we united by our hatred of Muslims?

Then there's the psychological component . . .

Are we united by love?

Or . . . are we united by hate?

Are we united by courage?

Bravado?

Self-respect?

Or . . . are we united by fear?

Are we united by our optimism?

Or . . . are we united by our despair?

Our desperation?

Our doubt?

Here I believe is a really important question: Where does the rugged
individualism which we see as the hallmark of a true American fit in?

How can we be united if we each have our own priorities and agenda?

Maybe we're not united at all.

Maybe it's all an illusion.

Maybe the United States of America is more like United Airlines, or United 
Van Lines. Catchy name but it doesn't really allude to any real or even
imagined unity.

And speaking of huge corporations, maybe we are united as customers,
shareholders and employees of the vast corporations which seem to run
everything these days. We are the biologic modules of a sprawling
corporate Gaia, united in our service to interlocking clusters of
entrepreneurial entities.

Less abstract and more the stuff of day-to-day living . . .

Are we united by the automobile?

Are we united by television?

Are we united by smart phones?

Are we united by the internet?

Holiday sales?

Shopping?

Football?

Which makes me wonder . . .

Maybe we're just a bunch of lonely people who need to feel like we belong to something.

Or maybe not.


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