Friday, April 17, 2015
Russ, Dick, and a mystery death
Looks like there's a good chance that Russ Feingold will return to the Senate. Bravo!
Frankly, Feingold should be running for President right now. He's quietly courageous, he has excellent stances on most issues, and he once bought me soup. (That bowl of soup remains the sole political bribe I've ever taken -- although, to be fair, the minestrone came without an explicit quid pro quo, and I shall so testify to any investigating committee.)
Besides, Feingold is the only politician in America who could possibly get away with telling Bibi Netanyahu to go to hell.
Meanwhile, in DickWorld: Dick Cheney has argued that anyone who helps Iran in any way -- as Obama allegedly has -- should be considered a traitor. But there is video of Cheney, in the late 1990s, demanding the lifting of sanctions on Iran, because Haliburton -- then run by Cheney -- wanted to do business there. In the end, Haliburton did do business there, through a foreign cut-out. Dick made that decision.
Let me add another example: Ronald Reagan's administration sold arms to Iran. Why do Republicans hate to mention that discomforting fact of history?
Dick's hypocrisy inspired the superb Jon Stewart segment embedded above. What the hell are we going to do without Jon Stewart?
(We can do without Dick just fine.)
Mystery Death. I'm sure you recall Viktor Yanukovych. He's the democratically-elected Ukrainian leader we deposed in a coup that we're not supposed to call a coup even though everyone knows full well that it was a goddamned coup. Ever since he was ousted, funny things have been happening to folks who happened to work for the old (democratic) government.
And by "funny" I mean deadly.
The latest victim is Oleg Kalashnikov. His death is being called a suicide. Maybe; maybe not. There has been an awful lot of "suicide" going around lately. Let's face it: It's pretty easy to stage such a thing, especially when you know that the local cops aren't going to cross the Powers That Be.
The American media never talks about the Ukrainian mystery deaths, because the American media has been trying to brainwash all of us into liking the ghastly regime that the neocons installed in that country. At the same time, the American media continually screamed "Putin Did it!" after Boris Nemtsov was killed, despite the utter lack of evidence implicating Putin. Double standard!
(Nemtsov was indeed a Putin critic, but he posed no serious threat to the government. Nil nisi bonum and all that, but frankly, he was kind of shitty.)
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3 comments:
I hate to burst your bubble, Joe, but even if Russ Feingold somehow managed to get himself elected, he'd quickly learn just how little latitude a president actually has in today's fascist America.
As someone who's spent considerable time studying and contemplating the JFK assassination, I assume you realize that the faction - or syndicate - responsible for that death has remained in power ever since.
While we as the proletariat voting public are presented with the illusion of choice, the cynical reality is that the systems of power and control are by this point so well entrenched, so redundant, and so pure ideologically that nothing short of a mass awakening of the sleeping masses could ever challenge their rule.
This is why movements like Occupy and any semblance of coherent opposition to the police state, the war on drugs, perpetual war, or the generally symbiotic relationship between government and big business are so quickly infiltrated, discredited, slandered, or otherwise dissolved: as soon as people understand who's really working against them, the jig is up.
I'm not saying that the power structure is vulnerable; in fact I fear the opposite is closer to the truth. The synthetic reality they've managed to create is so ubiquitous and so misleading that even considering the possibility that the call is coming from inside the house, so to speak, causes painful cognitive dissonance in the deeply indoctrinated masses.
As for the spate of deaths currently plaguing members of the former Ukrainian government, unfortunately it's more likely the rule than the exception. Power is never given away and maintaining it requires effort. The ruling elite did not become the ruling elite by negotiating with their detractors and they certainly haven't maintained their grasp on power by allowing potential threats to their machinations continue to exist.
It doesn't matter if you're talking about Russia, the United States, the UK, or most likely any other political entity on the planet: those who seek power at all costs will always triumph over those who play by the rules. The forces of darkness will continue to make advances against the forces of benevolence because we're ultimately ruled by evil.
Speaking of Dick Cheney, now might be as good a time as any to re-assess the deaths of Paul Wellstone, Pat Tillman, and Deborah Jean Palfrey in the context of potential threats having been neutralized.
Anon makes a good point.
In any competition, sociopaths always have an advantage over normal humans, because sociopaths have no moral restraints on what they can do to win. They are only restrained by material factors. Hence, sociopaths tend to rise to the tops of any hierarchies.
I have a lot of respect for Sen. Feingold, though it was clear that he was bought off by his appointment to the Obama campaign effort and a mealy-mouthed speech I saw him give in the fall of 2012 was very disappointing to me.
Maybe someday we'll have a viable candidate who has the courage and the honesty to tell it like it is and to reveal when they've been blackmailed and threatened.
Giving up before we've tried is a poor choice. If the candidates of emerging parties can get on the ballot and get media coverage and get in on the debates, they have a chance to bring new thinking to the process.
Those who promote cynicism and futility and despair as if it were wisdom are helping to make the world a bworser place.
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