Category Archives: Politics

Politics

Dirty Hands.

While Americans are out shopping intensely for their loved ones, I’ve become very saddened that so little news appears about Iraq, from what I can tell. Only a few commentators nationally are saying anything of substance about the waste of lives and treasure there; on in particular is the inimitable Bob Herbert, who writes today a piece called Now and Forever. The expenditure of funds for the misguided war continues and, according to Herbert, might go to $3.5 trillion.
Do people know how much money that is and what that same amount of money could afford them? Free health care forever, stable bridges and infrastructure, energy independence, massive educational investments, even free child care! All of that would be possible if, somehow, Americans would stand on their feet and come to terms with the squandor of their own money and the jeopardization of their children’s futures.
I ask in seriousness and seriousness of purpose: Is there mass hypnosis going on in the States?

Politics

Disaster Capitalism.

I listened with lots of quietly anxious attention to author Naomi Klein today on Democracy Now. She is a powerful speaker and I’m looking forward to reading her new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism .
This is from today’s interview with Amy Goodman (and you can listen to the full interview at the first link above):

And we talk about torture so often in this country as being just about getting information. Torture is a tool of state terror. That is what torture is, and that is why it’s prohibited. It is about instilling — it’s a method of instilling terror in an individual, and it’s also a method of spreading terror throughout a whole society, saying we are willing to use these techniques; if you cross us, you will be subject to these techniques. So it is the science of terror. It is literally terrorism. You know, if you have somebody in your control, and your goal is to convince them that they are going to die, and as they gasp for breath their lungs are filled with water, what are you, if not a terrorist?

Politics

Easy War.

I finished watching the one-hour-and-ten-minute Sean Penn-narrated documentary War Made Easy. It hasn’t happened recently, but by the 57th minute, I found myself shaking in anger and anxiety, filled with a rage about the war that has been costly and useless. The film ingeniously makes use of now-historical footage from Vietnam and Iraq in which administrations and the media co-actively constructed the cause, needs, continuity, and deceipt of war.
The documentary ends with parts of Martin Luther King’s powerful 1967 speech Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence. Here are just some of the words he spoke, back then, over 40 years ago, just long enough for us to have forgotten:

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.

And this:

A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, “This way of settling differences is not just.” This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

Politics

Oil.

Jim Holt, a newish writer I believe, wrote a very compelling piece eight days ago for the London Review of Books about the real logic behind the war in Iraq. I had to read it twice (nay, three times) because what he articulates is what every citizen of the world kind of already knows and what Alan Greenspan already spilled: “In terms of realpolitik, the invasion of Iraq is not a fiasco; it is a resounding success.”

Politics

Random Rots.

From my perch up in The North, the United States has been undergoing a tremendous upheaval politically, full of high crimes, misdemeanors, symptomatic illegalities, and impoverished will. But it’s been accompanied by, to my eyes, an American public that is more docile than I’ve ever witnessed. I’ve been in email conversations with some friends in the States about this and we’re trying to figure it out.
But I thought I’d make a list of some of the more, crazy, heinous or venal activities of the past year or so just so I’d have a record of it.
Here:

  • Darfur, despite the word “genocide” being uttered by some in the Bush administration, continues to be a word that describes “genocide.”
  • Democrats were elected to office recently in a fantastic “sweep” and it appears that the Congressional janitorial staff have done more in their offices than elected officials have.
  • Polls indicate that both Americans and Iraqis (by a large majority) want the U.S. to calmly and intelligently leave Iraq; despite this, there is neither calm nor intelligence in Iraq.
  • In nearby Iran, thumbing one’s dirty nose at the U.S. has become a national pasttime of the picking variety.
  • Taking responsibility global warming have become industrial design terms for large corporations, indicating that the message to them is loud and clear and that they’ll shout back in quiet advertising.
  • Michael Moore released a movie called “Sicko” a while ago. That was so cool that he made a movie again.
Politics

Michael Moore on Government.

I guess this is politics week here at Deckchairs.
I can’t say enough good things about Michael Moore’s recorded speech to the California Nurses Association on Tuesday about the realities of health care in the United States. It’s completely on and is a must-listen (or -read) for anyone confused about why contemporary health care in America is provided inequitably. He’s so completely coherent, funny, and smart that I think the guy should be considered for a Nobel. Who else is willing to say publicly that American government can be reconstructed to provide real health care for all Americans, regardless of income level?
One beautiful quote: “Ask your grandparents if that Social Security check comes every month. It not only comes every month, my Dad said, it comes on the same day. Through the government-sponsored US mail. And remarkably it is the same amount every month! They actually get the check right. How do they do that? Tens of millions of seniors every month get a social security check on time for the exact amount!”

Politics

Hamas Rules.

So 1.5 million Gazans now have the lovingly hooded Hamas government to thank for taking over their schools, infrastructure, and nationhood. A fiasco.
Let’s see who might be to blame here. I’ll write a list:

  1. The United States (for saying little and doing nothing)
  2. Gazans (for voting Hamas in)
  3. Fatah (for idling)
  4. Israel (for denying)
  5. The United Nations (for handsitting)
  6. Saudi Arabia (for funding)
  7. Syria (for financing)
  8. Iran (for supplying)
  9. Egypt (for organizing)
  10. Jordan (for ignoring)
  11. Russia (for laughing)
  12. Lebanon
  13. Kuwait
  14. Bahrain
  15. Yemen (these four, for fomenting and abetting)