theBarackbomb

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.