Let’s Try To Figure This Out

Posted on January 20, 2016 by johnrachel

man-ponderingSo you have a stubborn old right wing uncle. You know the one I’m talking about. He’s the guy who gets all his insights into the world from Fox, thinks Rush Limbaugh is Prophet Isaiah reincarnated, and would join Donald Trump base jumping from the top of Trump Tower in a snow storm

How do you reply when he claims that all sorts of scientists have proven that climate change is a hoax?

How about this?

Let’s say you went to ten doctors and had a full examination. Nine of them told you point blank you were suffering an extremely aggressive form of cancer, your life was in danger, and you needed to be treated immediately. But one doctor told you that you were in great health and there was nothing that should concern you.

The nine doctors who warned you of impending doom unless drastic action were taken, all work for respected independent medical facilities, hospitals, research labs, universities.

The one doctor who had buckets of good news happens to work for the insurance company who would have to pay for your medical bills.

Which advice would you heed?

Would you go out and celebrate, have a few drinks, maybe smoke a pack of cigarettes?

Or would you be first in line next morning at the clinic to begin treatment?

There is overwhelming agreement in the legitimate scientific community — the clearly objective, independent, unbiased centers for study and research — that climate change is real and it is largely being caused by humans. While the public for various reasons lags in grasping the extent and immediacy of the crisis, over 97% of climate science researchers agree. Less than 3% of the literature on climate change challenges this huge consensus.

Misinformation_Timeline_medAnd guess where the nay-sayers come from?

They belong in that same suspicious category of compromised, non-objective, “interested” parties as that doctor who works for the health insurance company — the one that probably got a bonus for telling you everything was fine and you didn’t need medical help.

The bulk of climate change denial studies is generated by bought-and-paid-for lackeys who WORK FOR THE FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY!

So as the title of my article suggests . . . let’s try to figure this out.

Who should we listen to?

The 10,000+ scholars who have published thousands of pier-reviewed research papers which declare we have a problem?

Or the handful of deniers, many of whom have published articles which have not passed the standards of pier-review, but who probably live quite affluently with the money they get from oil, gas, and coal companies?

Speaking of self-serving deceptions, the climate agreement recently reached at COP21, the international climate conference in Paris at the end of last year, was a PR stunt. Respected climatologist James Hansen calls it a total fraud.  It has no teeth, is not legally binding, has no fines or penalties for irresponsible deviations from its nice-sounding, highly-acclaimed guidelines for holding the temperature rise to 2˚C.  Yes, it made a lot of people feel good, stuffed a lot of feathers in a lot of caps, not least of which is the one for President Obama’s historical legacy. Obama, who in his State of the Union address touted America’s and his own pivotal leadership role in shaping the final agreement, called it “the best chance to save the one planet we have.” But anyone who is actually paying attention knows that this slippery non-binding pile of happy face promises is no substitute for an absolute and genuine commitment to real, actionable, and enforceable policy realignment.

So . . . have we figured this out?

We have a combination of willful denial (ignorance), disinformation (self-righteous lying), paralysis (corporate oppression), and general apathy (sheeple power).

I don’t feel well.

Is huffing gasoline bad for the environment?

Posted in Climate Change, Deconstruction, Environment, Political Analysis, Science | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Happy New Year!

Posted on January 1, 2016 by johnrachel

It’s a very special time of year
For family and friends holiday cheer
For those no longer with us
We shed a tear
A time to share
A time of feast
A time to care
And pray for peace
A time to give to those
Who have the least

(Chorus)
Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukkah
Peace be with us
Happy New Year

This is the time to start anew
Atheist Christian Muslim Jew
To reach within
And find the love inside of you
Discard the old seek out the new
Reject the false embrace the true
To look ahead decide
To bring out the best in you

(Chorus)
Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukkah
Peace be with us
Happy New Year

(Chorus – Japanese)
Akemashite
Omedetoo
Peace be with you
Happy New Year

(Chorus)
Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukkah
Peace be with you
Happy New Year

Let this new year finally bring peace to the world.  May we discover and embrace the understanding needed to live together in genuine and lasting harmony.

“Happy New Year” © Copyright 2014 – Words and music by John Rachel
     Dancing Needles Music (Publisher) – ASCAP (All rights reserved.)

Posted in Music, Philosophy, Social Commentary, Spiritual, War and Peace | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Imagine

Posted on December 31, 2015 by johnrachel

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love John Lennon’s song “Imagine.”

Before I go on, let me say that I too find it beautiful, inspiring, ennobling, a truly remarkable and timeless creation.  I’m thoroughly enchanted by its haunting melody, totally respect and resonate with the intent, the pure sentiment, the message — as I do Lennon’s equally powerful “Happy Xmas (War Is Over).”

So what follows is not criticism of the song per se, but more of an attempt to build on it — find within its deeper implications something productive and enlightening — my shot at taking it to a new level of appreciation.

Let’s be honest.  “Imagine” is an anarchist anthem.  It recommends us picturing a world which has . . .

No Heaven
No Hell
No countries
No religion
No possessions

Throw in ‘no television’ and ‘no money’ and we’re grunting savages back in a cave.

He opens the song with . . .

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try

I have mixed feelings about ‘Imagine there’s no heaven’.  There are many among us who have trouble imagining there is a heaven, at least as some religions characterize it.

I’m not sure imagining heaven pro or con in a literal sense is the issue.

And looking at it more as a metaphor, I think we spend most of our waking lives thinking about some ideal state, some level of perfection where the challenges and hardships of our lives would go away.  We all dream of a utopia, a Nirvana, at least a better version of what we have.  I think it’s wired into us and is what drives humankind to its most admirable achievements.  Why would we want to give that up?

Having said that, the next line is enigmatic. ‘It’s easy if you try’.

Try?

As if we weren’t already trying? That’s practically all we do. We live in fantasy worlds of our own creation or ones conveniently foisted on us from others usually with an agenda.  People constantly live in their imaginations, fancying better looks, sexier more attractive bodies, more interesting friends, finer possessions, better jobs, nicer homes, cooler cars. We are, it seems, already engaged in a nearly pathological level of “imagining”, one which has dissipated our sense of self, submerged our individual identities, often caused a sense of alienation from others, and created unimaginable levels of uncertainty and insecurity. Sometimes when I listen to people talk or look objectively at what occupies a generous portion of their time — television, movies, sporting events — I wonder if they aren’t completely divorced from the real world, even when they appear to be engaged.

If anything, we could be accused of trying too hard, imagining too much. You might more reasonably argue maybe we spend too much time imagining many of the wrong things.

So the question is:  Is what this song recommends an improvement?

Imagine there’s no countries

Imagine no possessions

Nothing to kill or die for

No religion too

Okay . . . gone is heaven, hell, countries, religion, possessions.

What do we replace these with?  There has to be something.  We can’t live in a void.

I recognize he’s saying we should try to imagine ourselves in an alternative better world.  But there’s a reason we don’t imagine a world without countries and possessions. There’s a reason we don’t imagine a world where there’s nothing to kill or die for.  I believe . . .

IT’S BECAUSE WE CAN’T!

I would defend with my life those I love and respect.  My wife.  My daughter.  My friends.

Yes, I would kill and die for them.

Is this bad?

People can’t imagine a world without possessions.  I don’t know if they seriously try or not. I do know it’s not worth the effort.

It’s not the possessions that are evil.  It’s what the possessions do to us and those around us.  It’s when the possessions “possess” us, when one person’s ownership deprives others of basic survival or dignity that they become toxic.

Similarly with countries.  Humans by nature are both social and tribal.  We achieve a sense of communal worth and purpose by belonging to a people, a clan, an extended family, even a nation.  It gives us identify and comfort.  I don’t think humans are capable of viewing themselves otherwise.

I believe that in and of itself is not bad.  It becomes threatening and destructive when it crushes our sensitivity to others who are not in our tribe, when it convinces us that “we” are somehow more special or more important than “them”.  America’s obsession with its exceptional role on the planet, rising above all other nations, is an example of national identification and healthy pride becoming a dangerous, sociopathic affliction.

It is not the lack of imagining or lack of imagination that plagues us.  It is attempting to imagine the wrong things, or things that go against our essential nature.

Plus, I would start small.  If successful, we can work our way up.

Here are just a few things to get us up and running:

Tondo_ManilaImagine everyone in the world having enough to eat.

Imagine everyone being free of illness and disease.

Imagine everyone having clothing and a decent place to live.

Imagine being kind to others, even those we don’t understand.

Imagine treating everyone equally, with dignity and compassion.

Imagine being honest with ourselves and others.

Imagine cooperation instead of competition.

These are things not only we can imagine, but things that can actually be done. 

It’s easy if you try

Having said all of this  — and I know I’ve probably trampled on some sacred ground — I still think that “Imagine” is one of the most beautiful and important contributions a pop artist has ever made to the world.  Let’s enjoy it for its purity of spirit and honesty.

 

Posted in Deconstruction, Political Analysis, Social Commentary, Spiritual, War and Peace | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Squeak . . . woof . . . meow . . . tweet

Posted on December 29, 2015 by johnrachel

twitter-iconI thought Facebook was a wasteland.  Then I discovered Twitter.

I’m now at over 7,000 tweets and I can’t say anything much in my life has changed, except I’m a little older, and perhaps more convinced that the human race is irreversibly beyond redemption. It’s increasingly evident that it’s just a matter of time before we are overwhelmed by our own irrelevance and dissipate like cigarette ash in a typhoon.

But this is the time of the year to gaze back with weepy sentimentality and try to milk the last twelve months for everything good and wonderful. Thus I will try to look on the bright side of the hundreds of hours I’ve spent trying to be clever and witty, in order to attract the attention of the ADHD Twitter community.

Not that this justifies the enormous squander, or represents anything like a reward for all of this pointless effort, I will say I have mastered the art of the text bite. After spending all of my life aspiring to both a deep appreciation of and a level of adroitness with my mother tongue, I have traitorously spurned the English language as a tool for profundity, majesty, nuance, beauty, splendor, power, discovery, insight, grace, and learned to say something — albeit of highly dubious value — using only 140 characters. I don’t know if I should weep and hang my head in shame, or puff up my chest, hook my thumbs in my imaginary blue suspenders, and smile as if conclusive proof has finally just been made public, that yes indeed, Hillary Clinton is a man, as I’ve been saying all along.

Whatever the case, some of my 140 character compositions have done better than others. ‘Done’ means gained acceptance, even acclaim. So here, based on how many times they were “retweeted” or “favorited”, are some of the more popular verbal excretions that I oozed into the swirling torrent of Twitter burble over the past year.

PHILOSOPHY, CREATIVITY AND RANDOM HUMOR

To a hammer everything looks like a thumb.
There are many roads to the truth but they all end up in the same place.
A candid look at a day in the life of a writer.  http://jdrachel.com/?p=5728
Creating memorable characters.  http://jdrachel.com/?p=5765
Writing poetry.  http://jdrachel.com/?p=5797
Canadians are scary!   http://jdrachel.com/?p=927
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” Groucho Marx

POLITICS

Rationalization is the evil step-brother of rationality.
These arrived without my consulting a burning bush.  http://jdrachel.com/?p=5679
Broccoli Is Free Speech and Tractors Are Persons.  http://jdrachel.com/?p=4135
From Bill To Hillary With Love  http://jdrachel.com/?p=4942

“THE MAN WHO LOVED TOO MUCH”

The boycott of my new novel is a 100% success. 
Eat your heart out Marcel Proust. Bleccch! 
No one drowns or is decapitated. 
No diseased spider monkeys. 
In this novel, S&M is a thrift store. 
Water boarding is not surfing. 
No can of beer left behind. 
Detroit…where attitude means survival. 
Stoicism is not the same as a coma. 
No vampire breath spores. 
No faeries or zombie debutantes. 
No injectable transgendering nano-robots.
No neural-net proto-spiders from outer space. 
No secret covens of neo-Nazi Wiccan cheerleaders. 
No self-assembling world-destroying kitchen appliances. 
No Angelina Jolie doppelgängers. 
I actually thought my book was a pile of garbage. 
What is it about men? What is it about women?

“11 – 11 – 11”

I write trivial garbage to clutter the world with nonsense.
Makes great kindling for your Kindle!
Great deal! Only .00001031 cents per word! Less than the price of one of Kim Kardashian’s brain cells.
Unclutter your mind. Pulp fiction as a brain laxative. 

“12 – 12 – 12”

If I get 1,000,000 likes for my video, I win a lifetime supply of kettle corn!
If I get 1,000,000 likes for my video I win two front row seats at a Carly Rae Jepsen concert!
Life is what you make it, with what you can manage to borrow.
Coming to a bathroom wall near you.

“BLINDERS KEEPERS”

Everything makes sense except when it doesn’t.
Even when the cookie crumbles, you can still eat the crumbs.
“Blinders Keepers” is to politics what macrame is to string theory.
The greatest work of literature since Valley of the Dolls! 

“AN UNLIKELY TRUTH”

Blessed are the blissfully blank.
There is strength in numbers and only weakness in apathy.
The fool hears silence where the wise man beholds the roar of an epiphany.  

This is the stuff people thought was worthy of the 7 milliseconds of time it took for them to point and click their approval?  Granted, some of it is cute.

Kid Wanting AttentionAnd, like a little kid standing on the coffee table in the living room dancing and mugging in a frenetic attempt to get everyone’s attention, I appreciate any pleasant nod in my direction.

Nevertheless, I’ve arrived at a profound epiphany in terms of social media.

I just don’t get it.

Posted in Creativity, Deconstruction, Nihilism, Satire, Social Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Getting Rid of That Bulge in the Middle

Posted on December 24, 2015 by johnrachel

machMany Americans would like to lose that unsightly bulge in the middle. Billions of dollars are spent every year on miracle diet pills and weight loss gadgets of questionable value.

Recently, studies have demonstrated that America as a whole is definitely losing its bulge in the middle. 

But that’s not a good thing. 

Look at these charts:

Disappearing Middle Class ChartsA nation which has a sizable majority as middle-class, and is not plagued by extremes of wealth and poverty, is historically a nation which thrives, one which has a solid economy and laudable living standards. A nation which does not declines and disintegrates.

Unfortunately, the U.S. is accelerating in the wrong direction on both counts.

The middle-class is shrinking, and wealth inequality is at an all-time high, projected to become even more severe in the coming decades.

There are way too many factors contributing to this destructive juggernaut to go into here. But two things are obvious.

First, people have to recognize that this is an existential threat to our country.

Second, they need to take action.

Since the all major media is controlled by the plutocracy, the first — to put it mildly — is extremely challenging. There are many talking about these two crises, on alternative and progressive news sites, and of course via blogs such as this one. Bernie Sanders has made them centerpieces of his presidential bid and has done more than any other public figure in recent memory to heighten awareness on these challenges.

But it’s still an uphill battle of Sisyphean proportions.

The second might also seem to be exceptionally daunting, especially since democracy has been officially declared dead as now implemented in America.

Surprisingly, however, there is hope and at least getting started is not that difficult.

I’m referring to a campaign by F-R-E-E.US which takes only a few minutes of your time but has the potential at the end of the slog to make a huge difference.

FREE US is allied with the NEAR Foundation, a progressive think tank.

Vote Like You Mean It_Cover_200x300I’m adopting a very low-key approach in recommending this. I assume you’re all very tired of boorish hawking and inflated promises.  All I’m asking is for you to spend just a little time with it. Look at the site, take a quick survey, and download Vote Like You Mean It, the free book you receive just for giving this a few moments of your time.

Judge for yourself.

But don’t cynically dismiss it.

This could work.

 

Posted in Corporatism, Democracy, Economics, Political Analysis, Social Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Putin’s War on America’s Christmas!

Posted on December 22, 2015 by johnrachel

Putin War on Christmas_2Without a doubt, it is extremely difficult keeping up with the news. There’s so much happening everywhere on the international stage, it’s enough to make your head swim.

I’ve learned that it’s often necessary to go beyond what’s available from the usual news sources, to dig deep and explore alternative avenues for discovering what’s really going on behind-the-scenes. It’s hard work but at the end of the day quite rewarding. Because after getting ALL of the information that’s available through the miracle of the internet, everything starts to make sense. Many of the things which are on the surface puzzling suddenly become clear.

For example, why did Turkey shoot down the Russian SU-24 bomber?

President Erdogan initially claimed it was just a standard response to a pilot error.

I have discovered by using some of the same highly reliable “deep data” sources that our own CIA uses — Facebook and Twitter — the real reason the Russian plane was destroyed.

Turkey was protecting a Christmas ornament factory!

Here is one such facility in the town of Bidama, near the Turkish border. Look at how it was mercilessly bombed to rubble by the Russian air campaign.

Russia Destroys Ornament Factory

Granted, the “whoops-sorry-about-that” official position of Turkey is plausible. After all, the U.S. military has had a few minor slip-ups itself — over a year ago by bombing a facility making the highly dubious claim it’s a hospital, then a few months ago killing members of the Syrian military in a bombing run.  Gee, these things happen!  Hey!  Nothing is perfect. Haven’t we all had the tab break off a soda can making it nearly impossible to open?

But it wasn’t an impulsive or anomalous response when Turkey had its F-16s shoot down the Russian plane. Matter of fact, I’ve learned from deep sources right in the Middle East that Turkey’s entire military campaign on the Syrian-Turkey border is now dedicated to standing up to the attack Russia is mounting on our most holy — and most profitable — holiday of the year.

Yes, I am talking about . . . Vladimir Putin’s war on America’s Christmas!

Now I’m not saying I approve of crazy jihadists making money, even if it’s by manufacturing what have widely been judged to be the finest and most stunning Christmas ornaments available today.

Furthermore, it’s not at all consistent with our long-range intent — that of defeating terrorism — to have thousands of tons of contraband holiday decorations “smuggled” into Turkey, then shipped to America to be distributed to shopping malls from one end of the country to the other, so that rampaging bands of cutthroats and mad suicide bombers have the funding to buy even more weapons, ski masks, and SUVs. 

But these are nice terrorists, as is evidenced by the excellent contribution they are making to the beauty of America’s Yuletide trimmings and overall good cheer.

So lighten up!  It’s Christmas!  Where’s your holiday spirit?

I can tell you where Vlad the Impaler’s holiday spirit is . . . at the end of a barrel!

While he would like to enjoy Christmas at the helm of a reconstituted Soviet Empire, with all his comrades sitting around a Christmas tree drinking vodka, or doing their trademark “gunslinger” strut across Russia’s newly-conquered vassal state of Crimea, he plans on us here in America being deprived of the beautiful holiday ornaments produced in villages of liberated Syrians, and sticking us with cheap, sweat-factory junk from China.

Yes!  The plot thickens!

Like I said, spend a little time on the internet, and everything starts to make sense.

See, Putin and Xi Jinping are chums.  And now we get to the whole truth behind Russia’s military campaign in the Middle East, and its alleged war on ISIS . . .

Russia is destroying the Christmas ornament factories in northern Syria of well-meaning and industrious entrepreneurs — jihadists who are America’s good buddies — to enhance its partnership with China. The endgame is that the Chinese will continue to monopolize the mistletoe-ornament-tinsel-manger-scene market and use the money to buy advanced new military weaponry from . . .

Who else?

Russia!

I have to hand it to Putin. He is one cagey character!

Or is that KGB character?

 

Posted in Nihilism, Satire, War and Peace | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Press Release: National Council on Political Correctness

Posted on December 16, 2015 by johnrachel

Book Burning_AmericaWe are overjoyed at our recent success in getting Adventures of Huckleberry Finn banned from a Philadelphia school district. This overrated piece of racist trash by the self-indulgent literary hack, Mark Twain, deserves to be consigned to lining the bottom of a bird cage.

However, we are now privy to additional previously undetected attempts to subvert all of us, particularly the youth of this country, actually recruiting them while they’re young and impressionable into the ways of “gay sex” — though to be quite honest about it we can’t figure out how persons of the same gender rubbing their private parts together is in any way joyful.

Look at any biology book. What is the human species called?  Homo sapiens!  Well we really need to ask:  If we’re HOMO sapiens, how did there get to be more than 7 billion of us?  The council recently recommended that this term be replaced with hetero sapiens — as God intended it.

Homo School Class_2There are related sneak attacks.  How about ‘HOMOgeneous’?  Right!  They slipped that in when we weren’t looking!  The council is now deciding whether to replace this hideous bit of deviant brainwashing with either ‘sameogeneous’ or ‘uniformogeneous’.

It’s not just in the classroom that our children are being seduced into the evil cults of buggery and carpet munching.

What do they drink every day during lunch?  HOMOgenized milk!  Can you believe this? These perverts will stop at nothing!  The council recommends replacing this phrase on all labels with the pleasant-sounding and benign ‘blendogenized milk’.

This conspiracy has spread like a silent disease through our whole culture.  What about the word ‘ANALysis’?  Pretty clever, eh?  The council is in the process of replacing this hideous subversion of God’s perfect plan for proper sexual behavior.  Leading the alternative terms currently under consideration are ‘examinalysis’ and ‘cogitalysis’.  We’ll keep you posted.

Here’s one for the books.  This bit of slime nearly got by us.  What are apartment units which are sold for personal ownership called?  CONDOMiniums!  Can you believe it?

Granted, it’s pretty clever.  Now personally, I’m for these fudgepackers covering their junk however they can — never know who’s standing next to you taking a wiz in the public john — but I sure as heck don’t want to be reminded of the sick shenanigans that goes on using these love gloves every time I drive down the street.  Now every time I see one of “those” buildings, I can only picture rooms brimming with gallons of sperm.

There are countless other examples we could share.  This press release, specifically timed for the most sacred holiday season of the year, is just to let all you good, God-fearing folks out there that we are, and certainly will continue to be, on the job stamping out decadence and perversion — particularly this new trend of “same sex” coupling — wherever we find it.

Remember . . . PC doesn’t just mean Politically Correct.  It also stands for Personal Christ!

God bless you and God bless America!

Posted in Deconstruction, Human Sexuality, Satire, Social Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

War Games

Posted on November 25, 2015 by johnrachel

Axis and AlliesI have been saying for some time that the U.S. wants a war with Russia.

Why? Because if it can cut Russia down to size, then the only country standing between America and total global domination is China. China and Russia have been cozying up lately.  Together they are a formidable threat. Take out Russia, China becomes a manageable opponent.  That’s how the theory goes.

Let’s cut to recent events.

Terrorist attack in Paris.  Refugee crisis escalates in Europe.  Russia is on the job offering serious opposition to ISIL.  France and other European countries are finally talking about working cooperatively with Russia to defeat ISIS.

French Prime Minister Hollande is scheduled to meet in the next few days with Putin to put their heads together and coordinate their military campaigns against the terrorists.

Turkey blows a Russian fighter jet out of the sky. Its F-16 were laying in wait. Probably the Russian fighter never crossed into Turkish air space. Even if it did, it was even by Turkey’s own admission only allegedly in Turkish territory for 17 seconds.

In any case, blam! . . . down goes the plane.

IMMEDIATELY, Turkey turns to NATO — America’s proxy fighters — to obtain unanimous support and approval for its unquestionably reprehensible deed.

Why?

Because under the terms of the NATO agreement, if any nation belonging to the alliance is attacked, it is regarded as an attack on all members and they must then fight together as a unified force against the alleged aggressor.

Are you seeing now how this works?

Russia had without any reasonable or legal justification one of its planes shot down.

Understandably, Putin has publicly announced that from this point forward, it will defend itself against any threat to its forces in Syria.  It now has a naval ship in the area with the deadly S-300 air defense system, and is sending the even more effective S-400 air defense system to the Syrian base in Latakia.

Voila!

If Russia shoots back in defense under any real or perceived threat — like Turkish F-16s or Turkish ground defense locking Russian planes with target seeking radar — in theory all of NATO must oppose it.

Total war!

Merry Christmas Ashton Carter, Victoria Nuland, and all of the other loathsome, wicked, hate-filled, neocon warmongers in our government.  Yeah, you get your big war, just like you wanted.

You don’t think Mr. Peace Prize Prez is playing a role in this provocative and extremely dangerous scenario?  Right after the plane was shot down, Obama expressed no criticism of Turkey.  Instead, he asserted that “Turkey, like every country, has a right to defend its territory and its airspace.”  Moreover, it is implausible that Turkey did this without either the knowledge or prompting of the U.S. government.  Understand that Obama has been on board with the Pax Americana imperialist program of conquest for most of his presidency. If not, how can you justify his precipitating and lying about the crisis in Ukraine.  How else can you interpret the buildup of troops right on Russia’s borders, a direct provocation and chest-beating flaunting of our military power?  How else can you explain his unnecessary, counter-productive pivot to Asia, a publicly announced strategy for “containing” China?

Now the holiday season is upon us. We’ll all be enjoying the cheer, the time together with family and friends, exchanging gifts, playing Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Risk, Scrabble, Candyland and Boggle.

Just so you know, while you’re having all sorts of innocent fun, here we have the lethal game our crazed leadership is playing.

But this particular game is not fun for the whole family.

War games will mean fewer members of your family to enjoy the holiday season next year.

Posted in Deconstruction, Political Analysis, War and Peace | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Let’s just shake hands and smile for the camera!

Posted on November 19, 2015 by johnrachel

John KerryCorporate greed over sensible policy again was brazenly flaunted as the operating principle of our “forward-looking” leaders in Washington DC, as John Kerry just announced that the U.S. would not be party to a binding agreement fighting climate change, issuing from the upcoming UN climate conference next month in Paris.

President Obama, a man who is certainly never shy about aggrandizing himself and using any and all slippery language to give a flattering portrayal of his presidency for the history books, has at times crowned himself as the “environmental president.”

But there is little doubt where his loyalties lie and what his priorities are. The man has become the “drill, baby, drill” standard bearer of Sarah Palin’s ignorant, short-sighted vision for an America awash in oil and an Earth shrouded in a steamy blanket of CO2.

The oil and gas industry loves these guys, despite occasionally public grumbling.

Mr. Kerry’s announcement was not only baffling, it was fiercely obnoxious, again showing what it means to deal with the biggest baddest bully on the block.  The stated purpose, the recognized agenda, the very raison d’être of this critical meeting of the world community is unambiguous: The EU, for example, made its position very clear in September, stating that the bloc “is pressing for a global, fair, ambitious and legally binding international treaty that will prevent global warming from reaching dangerous levels.” (My italics.)

But America is an exceptionalist nation, deemed by historical destiny to somehow float above all others. Things like international agreements, existential threats, the laws of physics and nature itself, apply to everyone except the United States of America.

We make our own rules and create our own reality.

Thus, those other non-entities which comprise the other 195 nations in the world hosting the 96% of the world’s population who are not blessed to be Americans, should be honored that Mr. Kerry, as the personal ambassador of our environmental president, even takes the time out of his busy schedule to show up for some nice photo ops and to shake hands with the rest of the irrelevant world leaders who are attempting to do something constructive about a rapidly worsening crisis.

“Yes, Mr. Kerry and Ms. Merkel.  That’s looks great.  How about if you shake hands and smile?  Perfect!  This will be right on the front page of our news website tomorrow!”

Posted in Corporatism, Environment, Political Analysis, Political Rant | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

War Criminal as Stand-Up Comedian

Posted on November 18, 2015 by johnrachel

Screaming OstrichPresident Obama said the following publicly at a fundraiser, poking fun at criticism of him by the Republican candidates during their first debate.

(You can watch the video here. Quote occurs around 4:48.)

“Have you noticed that everyone of these candidates say, ‘Obama is weak.  Putin is kicking sand in his face.  When I talk to Putin he is going to straighten out.  Just looking at him.  He is going to be . . .’  And then, it turns out they can’t handle a bunch of CNBC moderators.”

We’ve come to expect this sort of cuteness from this charming man, who seems to think his role as a comedian trumps his responsibilities as the most powerful leader of the free world, whatever ‘free’ could possibly mean in this age of 24/7 surveillance.  This remark, while entertaining and clever, is instructive in many ways.  It says a lot about Obama as a man, that despite his air of constant cool, he is vulnerable even to the cheap shots of fools like the Republican candidates, and that he personalizes the challenges which America’s role in international relations presents.  It’s been very obvious to me for a long time that Obama perceives his differences with Putin as a schoolyard scrap, rather than a profound confrontation of ideas and alternative actions.  It seems to escape him that in our dealings with Russia, we are attempting to balance the national interests of two equally important and determined peoples, not fighting over who’s going to be quarterback of the football team or who gets to take out the homecoming queen on a date. 

Obama Speaks at UN 2015That he uses the most visible public podium in the world to level cheap shots at Putin, personal insults unworthy of a street thug, much less President of the United States, is both dangerous and counter-productive.  He has squandered a ton of good will tendered by Mr. Putin.  Certainly a lesser man than Vladimir would have long ago written off Obama as a childish dilettante.  But as we’ve observed at the G-20 meeting, he keeps insisting that he is open to cooperation and constructive engagement whenever the U.S. decides to stop pouting over its humiliation in Syria, and its horribly misguided and murderous actions in the Middle East now being judged by the world as the shameful disgrace they are.

On an entirely different level, in broad strokes it says even more about what is wrong with America’s entire world view, its self-sabotaging foreign policy, and its reckless insensitivity to the havoc and hardship we as a nation inflict on the world, all while beating our chests about our duty and entitlement as leader of all humankind to celebrate a new historic Age of American Splendor and Enlightened Empire.

victoria-nulandHowever, lately we’ve seen an even more baffling dynamic playing out.  We have on one hand, the bellicose, dangerously provocative hyperventilating of Ashton Carter, Samantha Powers, and the Devil Woman herself, Victoria Nuland (the scary creature pictured here).

Carter lumps Russia in with ISIS as the greatest threat to America, Nuland blames the Syria conflict, the refugee crisis, the Ukraine, and probably her clogged kitchen drain on Putin, the increasingly shrill Samantha Powers (see photo at the head of this article) is the MICs best friend with her mad R2P obsession, putting her in Guinness Record territory for the number of countries she would bomb into peaceful mourning . . . do I have to go on?  If you watch the news programs, you get pounded with the insane rants of these saber-rattling war hawks.  So you know.

At the same time, our Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde president steps into a phone booth, does a quick costume-change ala Superman, and becomes Mr. Diplomacy, all ready to do the right thing and actually start fighting terrorism in earnest.  This is, of course, after he’s wasted three years bombing camels and sheep dip in the desert, while caravans of white SUVs stretching as far as the eye can see, glide by on their way into Iraq and Syria, full of weapons provided at least in part by the CIA, paid for by our allies, smuggled in through Turkey, or air-dropped by the U.S. itself.

What is this, the diplomatic version of good-cop/bad-cop?

Maybe it’s the reincarnation of the Keystone Cops.

Why does anyone trust any of these people?

Obama Putin at G-20Yet here we see Obama, off in a corner, having a nice talk at the G-20 meeting with Putin, the same man he mocked and vilified both during his State of the Union address, and more recently with the eyes of the entire world watching at the United Nations.  How cozy.  How convenient.

Why does Putin still intimate that Russia is open to working with America, when time in and time out, America has proven it is entirely unreliable, lacking any concept or intent of dealing with others in good faith?  It negotiates treaties, then violates or walks away from them.  It grandstands, teetering like a circus clown on the high moral ground of dubious  self-proclaimed righteousness, while destroying countries, inflicting unprecedented levels of chaos and carnage, at the same time preparing for a major war with China or Russia, maybe both.  Is this hypocrisy, confusion, or just stupidity?

Moreover, why should we as U.S. citizens for a second believe that Obama and the motley collection of people HE CHOSE TO SURROUND HIMSELF WITH are at all sincere about engaging Russia — and of course the countries in Europe we have flooded with refugees by  bombing the Middle East for two decades now — in a serious discussion about a peaceful resolution to this mess?  Which one of these blowhards are we even supposed to listen to?  Talk about mixed messages.  This administration is at war with itself!

So what are we to do now?  Get our hopes up that things are turning around?  That policy makers have finally woken up and are ready to put things right?

Then again, what choice do we have?

Wait until after the next election to see which psychopath will lead the charge?

I guess we need to take stock and count our blessings.  Maybe personally, I should commit to being a dutiful patriot by firmly resolving to respect Mr. Obama and honor his service as our president . . . to our country . . . and to the world.

After all, he’s the best smart-ass money can buy.

And as war criminals go, the guy can sure yuk it up!

Posted in Deconstruction, Political Analysis, Political Rant | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments