The recent incident, gone viral, of former Obama Administration official Stuart Seldowitz harrassing and brow-beating ordinary workers inside a food truck has struck a nerve. It not only put on full display the bankruptcy of US policy when it comes to Israel and the Middle East, but also the consistency of this policy across administrations. Republican and Democrat alike. For African-Americans it yet further confirmation that Obama, rather than being the second incarnation of JFK era Camelot, was instead Bush Jr. lite. That Obama could take counsel from such a man as Seldowitz is beyond disturbing but astounding and perplexing if one buys into the narrative on Obama pushed by the political establishment. AS it turns out, Obama was no less faithful servant of Empire and the Oligarchy as all the Presidents that preceded him and those that followed. Who Knew? People in the know like me did. But I digress. This is about Seldowitz.
Tag: war
Recently, I learned that 71 percent of young Americans between 17 and 24 are ineligible to serve in the military. That is, over 24 million of the 34 million young people cannot join the armed forces—even if they wanted to–they’re physically unfit. Likely it is this unfitness for military duty of much of the young American population, rather than fake concern over Iranian lives, that contributed to Trump’s eleventh-hour decision to halt the recent intended attack on Iran. Continue reading
Note: This is an older post from my Blogger days.
What follows is comment left at the WSWS in regard to a piece dealing with the connection between the war In Iraq, but in the larger view US imperialism in general, and the abandonment of a major American city in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Money used for bombs is money not used for social needs or the rescue of an entire city truck by disaster. Continue reading
Note: This is an older post from my Blogger days.
Me: The tie-in between the Arctic and Middle-East (as Pepe Escobar puts it) “pipelineistan” completes the circle. So, here is the plan, keep the Russians and Iranians (unless, of course, they fall into submission) from supplying Europe and China, seize the Arctic and so save the petro-dollar and control all of Euro-Asia to boot. So says Zbignew Bryzinski in the pages of the Grand Chess Board. The problem for the US is that the Russians and Chinese are excellent Chess players. Whatever interests Putin serves, he and the rest of the Russian leadership are head and shoulders above the likes of Obama, Nuland, Power, Kerry et al. Probably can say the same for the Chinese. Ours is simply a bunch of brutish, un-polished gangsters in comparison. To bad only some of us are listening.
R: The U.S. can’t seize the Arctic. The longest shoreline is Russia’s. It would take WW III. I don’t believe we’re going that far. But there will certainly be a tussle about oil fields in the Arctic. I agree that the Russians and Chinese are good chess players. We just barge in and bomb places. Continue reading
Note: This is an older post from my Blogger days.
As I’ve read much on the material on blackcommentator.com I’ve been impressed with the focus and dead on analysis of U. S. society. Specifically, on the current misadventure in Iraq, much of the commentary focused on the enabling character of the white U. S. population. Although there is some truth to Noam Chomsky’s assertion that the high levels of support for the war is a result of the massive and unprecedented propaganda campaign unleashed on the North American populace, I have always maintained that the strength of the propaganda campaign is not solely based on its intensity and pervasiveness but on the receptiveness of the white American audience that it is directed at. It does not take much to convince a population who are inured to violence (witness the popularity of professional wrestling and reality TV), mesmerized by popular media that consistently and unabashedly define democracy and freedom as uniquely American values and finally, are heirs to three plus centuries of fashioning a national identity based on white superiority and privilege. Continue reading
