The Clinton Doctrine continues the past on steroids.
Here is what I see over the past 55 years of (mostly) watching from afar. No matter who has been in office, liberal, centrist or wing-nuts, white or black, America has always been America first and the rest of the world can go dig themselves a hole and die, or slowly die from having our resources stripped to American’s benefit. All with wonderfully moral convictions to hide behind.
Everywhere I look I see gross injustice both inside the USA, where things have devolved to the point of what amounts to a police/military occupation of Black and Brown people with inhumane gulags run for private profit, poisoned water systems, fracking the life out of nature and the atmosphere etc. And outside of the USA where, we are subverted, bankrupted, forced into sweatshop slavery, forced out of our farms into urban slums, or bombed to death by extremely intelligent psychopaths who think they have to control the entire world for the benefit of mostly white alpha males AKA the billionaire class.
Presidents and their cabinets, congresspeople , lobbyists are on puppet strings and nearly all of them are corrupt to the point of leaving office with fortunes.
In the meantime we are called corrupt, or terrorists, or communist totalitarians… even when we have more equitable and just systems of governance and care a lot more about the environment, climate women’s/ gay/children’s rights , income equality redistribution of wealth), land reform than the USA by a wide margin. Part of the problem is that everyone who is cinnamon shaded or darker are considered by powerful Americans and their voters, incapable of helping themselves and in need of American guidance and “largesse”.
I talked to the few family members I have in California this afternoon and they are all voting in the primary. It is their business for whom. But, good luck trying to convince them, or me, that anything is going to change in the American psyche or march towards world domination.
Comments
Trump vs. Clinton vs Sanders World View
Here is the difference between Trump and Clinton. Trump wants to build a wall and keep the rest of the world out. Clinton wants to dominate the whole world militarily and economically. Sanders, I believe wants to be equitable partners with the rest of the world. Or at least as far as he could go with it given the pathology of American politics..
From the Light House.
Sanders might reign in the warmongering
and that would be a start, anyway.
I don't think that he has profited financially from war.
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
Apparently Evo Morales thinks so too.
He was listening very carefully to Sanders' speech at the Vatican, and at the end, he shook his hand.
By the way, I'm sorry he is no longer going to be your President. I was hoping for a better outcome. He seems a decent man.
Nonetheless, I'm still more hopeful for your people than for some others in South America. It seems fairly clear to me that somebody in the CIA, or perhaps at State, has decided to no longer tolerate left-wing governments popping up down there, but Bolivia seems more resilient than most. Perhaps I'm wrong; I haven't studied the matter in detail.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Evo Pres Til 2019
He is President until 2019. He lost a referendum for a third term. I think the people were just saying that we need to move past Evo (probably more to the left?)
We are one of the most heavily unionized country in the world and we know how to shut things down. We are steeped in Marxist and anti-neocolonial theory on the everyday conversational level. The problem is going to be to find a leader as excellent as Evo.
My biggest fear is the world oligarchs destroying our economy. The drop in hydrocarbon prices have hurt us. We went from second poorest after Haiti, to fourth poorest after Haiti, Honduras and Paraguay, and have entered the mid nations ranks in perceived corruption. USA is mega-corrupt but not perceived to be so by its poor hoodwinked populace.
I am thinking of starting an essay about the new Bolivian constitution to put some new ideas out there.
From the Light House.
That's exactly what they're doing, from Greece to
Venezuela. I really hate the rhetoric of blaming socialism for people starving in Venezuela. Not that I think their govt is perfect or anything, but like anybody couldn't see that oil prices were being fixed to pressure them (and Putin, for other reasons). Russia is still a superpower, and so hasn't crumbled under the pressure; looks like Venezuela is crumbling. And I hate what's happening in Brazil. Again, of course Roussef isn't perfect, but if this isn't a "velvet" coup, I'm a Rotarian.
Somebody in the US Deep State decided they didn't like what was happening in South America. That's my best guess. I don't have what I'd call real evidence or proof, though.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
“Why I am #NeverHillary”
http://opednews.com/articles/Why-I-Am-NeverHillary-by-Ted-Rall-Democrati...
Morning Alex and TY for this post. We Canadians are also
real worried about what has happened to our American cousins and fear that the growing fascism may become permanent. We in the rest of the world can help by standing firm in support of American progressives like the c99ers. I hope that the support that friends like you and I give is helpful to them. Enjoy your day, my friend :=)
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
You Canadians ought to be concerned about US refugees
pouring over your borders, Gerrit. Also, where do you live again? How many rooms do you have? Do you like cats?
I'm not overly worried about a fascistic Donald Trump if only because the PTB don't buy into his schtick. It's not like Congress is going to agree to spend a trillion dollars building a 30 foot wall or trying to force Mexico to do it. Trump's goals do not align with the goals of our neocon/neolib congressional leaders, so we will be a little bit protected from his stupidity. On the other hand, Hillary's goals perfectly align with the goals of the PTB - and that is far more worrisome.
Vote Clinton - Occupy Mexico as a cheap labor colony
Trump somehow makes nutcake weird right wing "Republicanism" a tragicomedy, entertaining in a perverse way. Its like Cheech and Chong doing Newt Gingrich.
The work crew I am on had a big laugh saying... "Trump he want to build a wall and keep d Mexicans out. Clintuun she want to occupy Mexico an make it into cheap labor colony at the service of d rich whiteman. Hillary she know what it like down on d plantation, she holding d whip."
Both IMO are insane.
From the Light House.
Hello Haikukitty! All kitty lovers welcome always :=) I so agree
with your election analysis; you explain it perfectly. And yes, we do wonder about the coming U.S. refugees. Not whether, only about the when. The other question is the who? Will most refugees be the lovely progressives like c99ers or the nutbars?
Enjoy your evening, my friend :=)
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
It is helpful, and thank you.
By the way, I'm getting a bit concerned about your PM. I thought he was a genuine alternative to Harper, but it's starting to look like what happened w/Obama down here. I don't like his reversal on fossil fuels at all, at all. Hats off to your indigenous people who seem to, if you'll pardon the crudeness, have balls of cast iron.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Hi CSS. You're right, CSS, we lefties didn't trust PM Goodhair
before the election and we don't trust him now. He's an extroverted Obama. And you're also right about the cojones of our First Nations. They are what stands between us and tar sands oil being pumped out to all four corners of the world. Theo nly reason he's PM is because voters picked the strongest alternative to Harper and our traditional left party, which was riding very high before, ran stupidly to the right. Your instincts are right on: keep an eye on Trudeau. Enjoy your evening, mate,
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
Corporate America (and world)
The US government jumps to the pull of the corporate puppet master's strings. It is my thought that the goal is a global corporate network that calls all the shots to exploit the planet and the people for the profit of the corporate overlords. That includes selling weapons to both sides of any conflict they can arouse.
Can we take back this country from the grips of the corporations? Many of us are trying. Help us if you can. Encourage your family to support Bernie... he is the only chance (slim as it is) to change the direction of the US.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
So much for Losertarian delusions that
private corporations would be better stewards of the environment than any government. It's nonsense, it always was nonsense, and anybody with two brain cells to rub together should know that it's nonsense.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Of course it's nonsense. It was also disingenous.
There's no way any of them actually believed that - it was just a BS lie used as a selling point. There was already plenty of proof that private corporations were horrible stewards of the environment and human rights - going back the the very beginning of the Industrial revolution and a London where people would come home covered in black dust after a walk outside.
There has never been a corporation that puts the environment above profits and there never will be. The only companies who might be trusted to operate sustainably are small businesses whose owners must live in the same community where they operate. So that they get covered in the black dust right along with their workers.
Anybody who talks like the public and private sectors
are separable, at this point, should be sent back to kindergarten, or to a lunatic asylum. Unless of course, they're lucky enough to come from a foreign country that is still pushing back against corporatism.
I'm being extra harsh today, and I'm sorry. There are actually libertarians I'm willing to make common cause w/against corruption. But only the ones who see that the big corporations and big banks are part of the problem.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
During the summer of 1976
I spent two and a half months at the reactor site at Los Alamos, NM. During that time my wife worked at the library. On day she copied some documents from 1945 that included some comments by Kenneth Bainbridge. One of those was the observation that the Trinity test was awesome and awfully, and an other was his remark to Oppenheimer, "Now we are all sons of bitches."
Bainbridge and many others from that time and place tried to keep this new technology/weapon out of the hands of the military industrial complex, arguing that civilian control was the only way to properly oversee future developments. Reading the various original accounts that summer only helped to strengthen my commitment to fight corporate control of our lives. This "new" concern is but a tiny blip in that effort.
remember when the wing-nuts
remember when the wing-nuts were going on and on how South African apartheid was the symbol of freedom and anti-communism?
From the Light House.
deregulation and social security and trade deals and the
sacrifice of our very sovereignty to global corporations and the prison industrial complex and open corruption and laundering party monies back to herself and "sniper fire" and neocon support and Bush donor support and undercutting Medicare . . . .
I think I see a pattern here, and it is not one I endorse.
November is a long way off. I will not commit to HRC unless and until there is compelling reason come the actual election. Pledging allegiance now, as her Brockian swarms try to get us all to do, this far ahead of the election, is not only way premature, it also means capitulating on my principles and my sense of duty to my nation, the world, and future generations.
"Fear is the mind-killer" - Frank Herbert, Dune
Why in the name of all that is Holy would you EVER
support her? If you do, then YOU are just as culpable as an enabler.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
hey, lighten up!
let's see what happens at both conventions. To have the Brocksters ordering us to support her or else is obviously about 20 bridges too far, as you can see from my comments.
There are as yet no nominees, nor 3rd party efforts by defectors from either major party. If someone closer to Hitler ends up in the running, then there just might be a reason to reconsider, is all I'm saying, though it's very, very hard to imagine. Since no one is an expert on the future, I'll leave my decision till we get close. I'll make no pledges and will stand by my principles. You can trust that or not.
For the record, I've never voted for either Clinton, nor for any republican, though I always vote.
"Fear is the mind-killer" - Frank Herbert, Dune
Another reason I think Trump isn't the worst outcome...
in the long-view.
Shrub was an idiot, but he was an idiot with deep connections to the ruling families of the world.
Trump is just a rich buffoon. It will become easier and easier under a Trump presidency for the rest of the world to disregard what America says and wants. It's time for this country to stop thinking it owns the entire world and can do as it pleases, and every other country will fall in line. Empires always fall, its just a question of when. Maybe a Trump presidency will begin that process.
Will it be painful at home? Almost definitely. But it's not fair to keep outsourcing our pain to the rest of the world.
There needs to be a re-balancing of powers if there's ever going to be any hope of peace. America seems to think if it just occupies the entire world, they can enforce their brand of peace. Ask the Romans how that worked out.
The empire is already falling…
The empire has been crumbling for a long while now. We can even see the admitted decay in our infrastructure, in how the commoners are treated.
The rulers show open disdain for the ruled…consistently.
That disdain is now being returned and the self proclaimed nobles are upset at how the commoners can be so openly disrespectful, and unwilling to accept their scorn with smiles and nods of obeisance.
How dare the commoners choose not to show deference to their betters.
You're right, Vayle, I should have said...
accelerate that process.
In the nature of ripping off a bandaid vs. dragging out the pain of removing it bit by bit.
Basic human decency
I set a very low bar for humanity it is called "basic human decency". Mrs. Clinton showed that she could not cross that bar when she laughed after seeing Qaddafi being sodomized with a sword them murdered. "We came, we saw, he died." Sorry that says all I need to know about how she feels about brown human life. Madeline Albright was fine with half a million children dying, Kissenger caused millions of death. Apple meet tree!
Hell no, we won't go along.
To be fair was she happy because he was brown or
was she happy because he was a murderous vicious dictator who murdered 259 innocent people aboard PanAm 103? If you support him because he was brown and most of his victims were white, then YOU are a racist.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
He caused the death of a lot more people
than were on that airplane.
But yes, it was the airplane that focused the attention of the Western World on him.
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
I think you are missing the point.
You don't get gleeful about torture, even if the victim is a torturer, because you have then become what you supposedly fought. If he' a ruthless dictator, then sure, put him in prison, remove him from power. You can even be pleased that you have removed him from power.
But once you start getting gleeful about sodomizing people with swords, you are no better than they are.
And honestly, 259 innocent people doesn't sound like a whole lot these days, does it? When compared with the number of innocents killed in Iraq, Syria, Honduras and on and on.
No, I don't think she was happy because she removed a murderous dictator. I think she was happy because she removed a murderous dictator who did not serve her interests.
her husband killed damn near 259 iraqis per day.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
I understand that and agree.
What I object to is: "Sorry that says all I need to know about how she feels about brown human life." EWliminate "brown" and I'll agree to that too.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Libya is questionable
I am not altogether sure that Qadafi personally had anything to do with Lockerbie even though he accepted responsibility for Libyan oficials and by doing so ended sanctions. " Libya "accepted responsibility for the actions of its officials" and agreed to pay compensation to the relatives of the victims. remember this was the Reagan era and the Reagan types made shit up constantly.
The there is this, "Just days before the sabotage of the aircraft, security forces in European countries, including the UK, were put on alert after a warning from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that extremists might launch terrorist attacks to undermine the then ongoing dialogue between the United States and the PLO."
It is much more complicated than the Reaganites would have us believe.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/crime/article1875477.ece (Behind a Pay Wall)
From the Light House.
Cocky Doody Politics
From Counterpunch:
Similar manly quotes from JFK and of course the most manly American President ever:
Hillary has already demonstrated she is a real man's man with her pithy analysis of Hussein's death: We came, we saw, he died."
You can go read more foreign policy wisdom from Nixon as well and the author's conclusion:
Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/25/cocky-doody-politics-and-world-af...
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Great read Meteor Man
depressing and scary but it shows what a bunch of psycho's we give power to. What a farce to call their sick murderous criminal global terror 'foreign policy'. 'Hey Hey, LBJ how many babies did you kill today.' We call our bloody warriors heroes and thank them for their service. The MIC and their enforcers the military do no service to anyone. Humanitarian interventions my ass. As Mohamed Ali said I ain't got nothing against the Veit Cong or the Syrians, the Cubans, the Iraqis, the Iranians, the Pakistanis, the Hondurans the list is endless. National security my ass. Now we go to war against existential threats to our interest's. Not my or your interests but the masters of wars interests.
I wake up at night filled with fear.
I fear yet another failed attempt at revolution and the installation of an even more right wing, reactionary, warmongering government.
And in the light of day, I realize that I'm not crazy and what I fear is entirely possible.
We are working to provide the US with a choice. They'll have to make a decision about which way they want to go. I don't know if we can succeed in supplying that choice.
NOTE: You and your family can vote for whomever they wish and they certain don't have to tell me about it.
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
Currently, "the American psyche," with all its sins
Is not the problem. The American psyche would like any choice other than the current ugly one being forced down its throat, that much is clear.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Hope for a Change
I have been hoping that the change in "people under the age of 45" would change things... before the opportunity is gone.
From the Light House.
This is an old anger for me
Because US politics in Central America (also South America, but Central America was my main area of interest) were the first thing--other than the environment--that got me into politics as a teenager.
I've been opposed to this shit since I found out, at 16, what happened in Chile.
Unfortunately 30 years of pushing back has had as much effect as a six-year-old hitting a tank with a stick.
And 30 years have taught me that they're actually even worse than I thought they were. Torturing and killing people isn't good enough; they're going to burn the whole planet down.
Sorry, I seem to be in a bad mood today.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
One of the saddest things of my life...
is the "Sixth Great Extinction"... the fact that on a cape in Dominica where I live in lighthouse keepers shack I see so few sea birds now. It used to be thick with sea birds. That and the reefs dieing, and the huge rafts of Sargasso seaweed choking the shores on the windward side of the islands. The change in seasonal rains is grave for farming. The loss of our amphibian fauna, especially the "Chicken frog". And Dominica is still 60% native rain forest and probably another 15% native coastal forest.
Our carbon footprint in Bolivia and Dominica are close to zero but we have to repair the already extensive damage done by corporate consumerism, planned obsolescence, use once and toss away. We need an international politics of compassion and empathy and what we are getting is madness.
From the Light House.
One of the saddest things of my life...
is the "Sixth Great Extinction"... the fact that on a cape in Dominica where I live in lighthouse keepers shack I see so few sea birds now. It used to be thick with sea birds. That and the reefs dieing, and the huge rafts of Sargasso seaweed choking the shores on the windward side of the islands. The change in seasonal rains is grave for farming. The loss of our amphibian fauna, especially the "Chicken frog". And Dominica is still 60% native rain forest and probably another 15% native coastal forest.
Our carbon footprint in Bolivia and Dominica are close to zero but we have to repair the already extensive damage done by corporate consumerism, planned obsolescence, use once and toss away. We need an international politics of compassion and empathy and what we are getting is madness.
From the Light House.