Hey, maybe if I type the title without spaces it won't convert to Hindi....
I expect political speeches to be shallow. This expectation could be characterized as cynicism, but it derives from conditioning. The shallowness comes from the American politicians’ desire to manipulate, and from their cold indifference to the needs of the masses. It comes from megalomaniac personalities and an inability to analyze political dynamics outside the accepted parameters. This is doubly true for speeches from the winnowed few who curry the favor of the multinational corporations.
Imagine my surprise and relief, then, to hear Barack Obama’s Nation United speech, delivered in Philadelphia earlier this week. Instead of cant, I heard careful analysis. In place of manipulation, I heard compassion, and an effective gesture of healing. This speech was intended to heal America’s racial divide, and it actually opened a door to doing just that. It was more than a speech—it was an historic event.
So again, imagine my surprise. I could not believe my ears. We have great analytical minds in US politics, people like Karl Rove, who sensitively divine every turn of the zeitgeist, and use it for their advantage. Senator Obama’s speech revealed keen insight, but unlike Rove and his ilk, Obama used that insight as a healing scalpel. The speech was a response to constant attacks from the corporate right media to smear him as a hater of Whites. Obama didn’t just respond, he cleared the deck.
I cannot overemphasize the importance of getting your own copy of the speech, and listening or reading the whole thing. It is best to listen to it. It is readily available –it’s on truthout.org, it’s on youtube, it’s printed on the local chain daily’s website. This speech has the legs of a colossus and will keep walking across the landscape whether I recommend it or not. With the Nation United speech, Obama changed the discourse, marginalized the sniping Right, and won the Presidency. The speech made me weep with long-denied relief and happiness. This man actually intends to set things right.
Did you hear that from me, the cynic, the anarcho-socialist who scoffs at the corporate charade of US presidential politics? Yes you did, and I haven’t changed a bit. I don’t expect Obama to make any changes that his psyche and political education are not ready for. There’s no single-payer health plan in his platform. He probably has no idea of the advanced nature of the climate crisis. But this is not the same man who won the Illinois Senate seat, and I’m not sure if it’s the same man who started the run for the Oval Office. Whoever he is, he has changed the game, and he has done so with a great heart, a greater leadership than anything that has appeared in the A-list presidential dock since 1968. Suddenly, a great light has spread over the continent, one that reveals Barack’s competitors as the scurrying mice that they are. Suddenly, a great light….
…………
You’ll be pleased to know that Dick Cheney has been having a good time in the Middle East, fishing from the Sultan of Oman’s private yacht, and ginning up a war against Iran. Scott Ritter, the former arms inspector in Baghdad, and Sy Hersh, the great American journalist, have both written whole books revealing that the buildup of war materiel and constant vast war exercises aimed at Iran have made war all but inevitable. Indeed the pile of equipment grows larger, as for example with the addition of the USS Wasp and its complement of vertical take-off planes (which are as dangerous to its pilots and crew as to anyone else). I have also pointed to this military mobbing, but I wonder if it is as Noam Chomsky has been saying for more than a year now, that the US intends to confront Iran as it has North Korea, constantly threatening in order to wear down the society with constant defense expenses and procedures, and with all the stress that accompanies such preparations. Be that as it may, it is my duty to point to these extensive war preparations, especially as the election grow nearer. Even the success of Barack Obama makes the likelihood of war grow nearer, not by his intention of course, but by the nature of the fascist manipulators who stole the Presidency eight years ago. They face an interesting set of challenges. Clearly they have a deal with the collaborators like Nancy Pelosi not to hold them accountable for false war, invasion, occupation, torture, spying, and outrageous corruption. But will Pelosi maintain power in the same way? How can they guarantee that they will not face some new power arrangement that will throw them into their own Guantanamo?
It seems from Cheney’s peregrinations that the answer is more war—specifically, an extensive aerial bombardment of Iranian cities. The fact that Iran is innocent of any attack against the US matters nothing. Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Israel will need to cooperate for such an atrocity, and that’s exactly where Cheney has been. The former US Captain Eric May and his Ghost Troop organization continue to call for vigilance against a false flag attack, and May further speculates that the date may have a numerological resonance like 7/7 or 9/11; hence March 22nd, for example, becomes a date to look at. I think it is probably still true that such an attack would frighten US citizens into mindless compliance. I was wrong about Obama, so maybe I’m wrong about the American people. Maybe people would see right through some further 9/11 atrocity, and would rise up in anger against the bloody-handed fascists. Who knows? I can only hope.
Here's an email comment that came in during the KBOO PressWatch broadcast:
"The one thing that worries me about Barack is his
proximity to
Brzezinski - the infamous co-author of the Middle
East as we know it -
sole author of "The Grand Chessboard" - a
descendant of Polish faux
aristocrats whose life-long mission is to destroy
Russia
jtg"
--That worries me, too, jtg.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
she said what?
[thurs AM update: go to antiwar.com (not otherwise endorsed) to find stories on the US/Venezuela/Ecuador/Colombia saber rattling (remembering that Colombia is a US client state and recently received 400 main battle tanks), and also note the article on the US naval buildup opposite Lebanon....]
I’ve noticed that all the discussions about the Presidential candidates are done with chains on brains. That is, the context in which these people seek political power is not to be discussed. So naturally I would like to bring out some of that context.
The fascist coup which destroyed Constitutional rule in this nation took place in the Supreme Court; five justices selected a dictator against the expressed will of the people. Although there was protest at the time it was not nationally organized. I admit I did not recognize the coup for what it was, since at the time an unreformed Al Gore, the one who sneered at the Congressional Black Caucus as they pled for Constitutional rule, had run for president with Joe Lieberman, now revealed to be the Republican representative for Israel. Indeed I think had the Supremes not shredded the Constitution in that way, the fascists would have found some other way to implement rule by fiat, perhaps in some variation of the empty Cessna which reminded the former President Clinton that he had gone to far. The corporate press keeps the issues shallow, and roars with rage when anyone points out that the World Trade Centers were obviously detonated, as the Vice President illegally directed military air traffic on that day in 2001.
The Presidential vote fraud of 2004 is not mentioned, either, so that the millions are encouraged to believe that a vote is still a vote in this country.
All unacceptable discussion has been purged from the Primaries, through the icy rejection by the corporate-controlled cameras. We may gingerly discuss how long to carry out our wars, but we dare not speak of withdrawal and war reparations. Impeachment is off the table. Prosecutions for torture and war crimes are off the table. Single payer health care has been skillfully excluded.
Given these circumstances, I would like to present an unhampered exhibition of what I would like to see as a change. The remaining campaigns all talk about change, but by that they mean superficial change.
I would like to limit wealth to one million dollars income annually, and two million dollars property. This would be a substantial change for multi-billionaires like Warren Buffet, but he would be guided through the shock by the free single-payer health care that we could thereby afford. I want a restoral of the dynasty tax, wrongly called the death tax; we need no dynasties, and the Constitution writers were right to take steps against them. We should also confiscate the wealth of repeat-offender corporations and take away their human status. So Exxon-Mobil, and Archer Daniels Midland and hundreds of others could cough up their wealth, even and especially the trillions hidden in semilegal tax dodge accounts in the Caribbean. This might require a show of force in Barbados and Aruba, but I’m okay with that. It could be fun, we could run a Jolly Roger flag up the masts of the big missile ships and aircraft carriers.
Oh yeah, and I would tax churches and force them to open their books. Repeat child offender churches would be disbanded as a menace to society.
My campaign platform, then, is total destruction of corporate rule, seizure of their assets, and movement towards a just society. I would free all nonviolent criminals from our astonishing, record-breaking, racist, three-million-strong prison state, and repeal all minimum-sentence rules. Since we would have plenty of money from the long-overdue confiscations, we could use the liberated labor to perform useful green infrastructure rebuilding—at family wages, of course. There is much to be done, including emergency weather remediation efforts to save the North Pole ice and the Greenland ice cap and of course out precious inland glaciers. No time like the present.
Naturally my Administration demands immediate withdrawal from invaded countries and the payment of substantial war reparations. This would traumatize our soldiers who have been lied into committing terrible acts of violence, but as I said, after confiscating criminal corporate wealth, we can afford to restore their sanity.
If this seems whimsical I would remind you that all freedoms and reforms seem like fairy tales until someone actually thinks the concepts true, and then takes steps to make it reality. The defiance of the idea is the groundbreaking start. If we agree to confine our thoughts and words to meek acceptance, then all we can hope for is mercy from the oppressors. I propose we overthrow the state instead.
I’ll give you an example of this paradigm from my own experience this week. I was driving my municipal bus through an area where three or four young men keep a sort of bus-riding tradition going. I had not driven the route for years and was surprised to see the same guys; I recognized them when they recognized me, and engaged in their time-honored tradition of fingering their genitalia while glaring at me. Since I am a transwoman and they have expressed their violent contempt in the past, their message is clear enough. It is a rapist gesture, intended to get under my skin. It works. I haven’t asked these guys what they do for a living, but it evidently has to do with prison-walking, cell phones, swift package exchanges in the back of the bus, and women who walk three steps behind them with their heads down.
So what to do? Nothing? I’m not Supertrans. There’s only so much I can do. So I got a marker pen, and wrote on the outside of my right arm the phrase “death to rapists.”
This put an immediate end to the crotch-feeling. Instead, two young men read the phrase out loud as they stepped on the bus. I smiled and nodded. Who wants to stand up for rapists? But the funny thing was, as I drove on through the morning, how many men were shaken by the phrase. One young man said, and I quote, “Bor-uh-buh--…as he pointed to my arm, and then recovering, said “two zones please.” I gave him his ticket with a warm smile. It seems a lot of young (and not so young) men have an unconscious or at least unexamined identification with the concept “rapist.”
As a pitiful aside, I also remember that several women spoke to me with real gratitude. Are we --as a society--sick, or what? And yes, I was raped at the age of twelve, by –of course—a Boy Scout leader.
Back to the larger political point, we have to be able to think in terms of what we want, and we have to be able to accept that what we want is legitimate. We have to be able to say “Capitalist” and “Imperialist” or equivalent words. We have to acknowledge that a society ruled by signing statements, manufactured fear, militarization of air and rail terminals, unprecedented prison-packing, and endless pointless war is a fascist society. Say it. Say “I live in a fascist society.” Now I ask you, what sort of society would you like to live in?
I’ve noticed that all the discussions about the Presidential candidates are done with chains on brains. That is, the context in which these people seek political power is not to be discussed. So naturally I would like to bring out some of that context.
The fascist coup which destroyed Constitutional rule in this nation took place in the Supreme Court; five justices selected a dictator against the expressed will of the people. Although there was protest at the time it was not nationally organized. I admit I did not recognize the coup for what it was, since at the time an unreformed Al Gore, the one who sneered at the Congressional Black Caucus as they pled for Constitutional rule, had run for president with Joe Lieberman, now revealed to be the Republican representative for Israel. Indeed I think had the Supremes not shredded the Constitution in that way, the fascists would have found some other way to implement rule by fiat, perhaps in some variation of the empty Cessna which reminded the former President Clinton that he had gone to far. The corporate press keeps the issues shallow, and roars with rage when anyone points out that the World Trade Centers were obviously detonated, as the Vice President illegally directed military air traffic on that day in 2001.
The Presidential vote fraud of 2004 is not mentioned, either, so that the millions are encouraged to believe that a vote is still a vote in this country.
All unacceptable discussion has been purged from the Primaries, through the icy rejection by the corporate-controlled cameras. We may gingerly discuss how long to carry out our wars, but we dare not speak of withdrawal and war reparations. Impeachment is off the table. Prosecutions for torture and war crimes are off the table. Single payer health care has been skillfully excluded.
Given these circumstances, I would like to present an unhampered exhibition of what I would like to see as a change. The remaining campaigns all talk about change, but by that they mean superficial change.
I would like to limit wealth to one million dollars income annually, and two million dollars property. This would be a substantial change for multi-billionaires like Warren Buffet, but he would be guided through the shock by the free single-payer health care that we could thereby afford. I want a restoral of the dynasty tax, wrongly called the death tax; we need no dynasties, and the Constitution writers were right to take steps against them. We should also confiscate the wealth of repeat-offender corporations and take away their human status. So Exxon-Mobil, and Archer Daniels Midland and hundreds of others could cough up their wealth, even and especially the trillions hidden in semilegal tax dodge accounts in the Caribbean. This might require a show of force in Barbados and Aruba, but I’m okay with that. It could be fun, we could run a Jolly Roger flag up the masts of the big missile ships and aircraft carriers.
Oh yeah, and I would tax churches and force them to open their books. Repeat child offender churches would be disbanded as a menace to society.
My campaign platform, then, is total destruction of corporate rule, seizure of their assets, and movement towards a just society. I would free all nonviolent criminals from our astonishing, record-breaking, racist, three-million-strong prison state, and repeal all minimum-sentence rules. Since we would have plenty of money from the long-overdue confiscations, we could use the liberated labor to perform useful green infrastructure rebuilding—at family wages, of course. There is much to be done, including emergency weather remediation efforts to save the North Pole ice and the Greenland ice cap and of course out precious inland glaciers. No time like the present.
Naturally my Administration demands immediate withdrawal from invaded countries and the payment of substantial war reparations. This would traumatize our soldiers who have been lied into committing terrible acts of violence, but as I said, after confiscating criminal corporate wealth, we can afford to restore their sanity.
If this seems whimsical I would remind you that all freedoms and reforms seem like fairy tales until someone actually thinks the concepts true, and then takes steps to make it reality. The defiance of the idea is the groundbreaking start. If we agree to confine our thoughts and words to meek acceptance, then all we can hope for is mercy from the oppressors. I propose we overthrow the state instead.
I’ll give you an example of this paradigm from my own experience this week. I was driving my municipal bus through an area where three or four young men keep a sort of bus-riding tradition going. I had not driven the route for years and was surprised to see the same guys; I recognized them when they recognized me, and engaged in their time-honored tradition of fingering their genitalia while glaring at me. Since I am a transwoman and they have expressed their violent contempt in the past, their message is clear enough. It is a rapist gesture, intended to get under my skin. It works. I haven’t asked these guys what they do for a living, but it evidently has to do with prison-walking, cell phones, swift package exchanges in the back of the bus, and women who walk three steps behind them with their heads down.
So what to do? Nothing? I’m not Supertrans. There’s only so much I can do. So I got a marker pen, and wrote on the outside of my right arm the phrase “death to rapists.”
This put an immediate end to the crotch-feeling. Instead, two young men read the phrase out loud as they stepped on the bus. I smiled and nodded. Who wants to stand up for rapists? But the funny thing was, as I drove on through the morning, how many men were shaken by the phrase. One young man said, and I quote, “Bor-uh-buh--…as he pointed to my arm, and then recovering, said “two zones please.” I gave him his ticket with a warm smile. It seems a lot of young (and not so young) men have an unconscious or at least unexamined identification with the concept “rapist.”
As a pitiful aside, I also remember that several women spoke to me with real gratitude. Are we --as a society--sick, or what? And yes, I was raped at the age of twelve, by –of course—a Boy Scout leader.
Back to the larger political point, we have to be able to think in terms of what we want, and we have to be able to accept that what we want is legitimate. We have to be able to say “Capitalist” and “Imperialist” or equivalent words. We have to acknowledge that a society ruled by signing statements, manufactured fear, militarization of air and rail terminals, unprecedented prison-packing, and endless pointless war is a fascist society. Say it. Say “I live in a fascist society.” Now I ask you, what sort of society would you like to live in?
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