Anderson Cooper - Cornel West clash: a note about fantasy
So I guess there was some sort of "interview" of Cornel West by Anderson Cooper. I don't know. Whenever I hear or read of these mouthpieces I am reminded of a character in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" called the Mouth of Sauron.
The Mouth of Sauron was a human being in the straight sense; he was not one of Tolkien's imagined races of Elves or Dwarves or Orcs, being, it is told, a "Black Numenorean." In one of the most captivating scenes in the book, which in this case is The Return of the King, the Mouth of Sauron lays down the law to the assembled armies of Aragorn, Gandalf, and others:
"These are the terms,' said the Messenger, and smiled as he eyed them one by one. 'The rabble of Gondor and its deluded allies shall withdraw at once beyond the Anduin, first taking oaths never again to assail Sauron the Great in arms, open or secret. All lands east of Anduin shall be Sauron's for ever, solely. West of the Anduin as far as the Misty Mountains and the Gap of Rohan shall be tributary to Mordor, and men there shall bear no weapons, but shall have leave to govern their own affairs. But they shall help to rebuild Isengard which they have wantonly destroyed, and that shall be Sauron's, and there his lieutenant shall dwell: not Saruman, but one more worthy of trust.' (166)
Note that, amidst all of the swords-and-sorcery action occurring in this chapter, here Tolkien inserts a statement with tones of what must be called "Realpolitik," as if the Mouth of Sauron were a political negotiator of a sort typical of our world. This is Sauron's version of the armistice the French signed with Nazi Germany.
By the same token, you see, the neocon warmongers and their media lapdogs offer realpolitik statements of why they cannot trust Putin, in the same way in which Sauron could not trust Saruman. Still less can they trust a force that is neither Sauron nor Saruman, which in this case would be the relatively powerless Cornel West.
In the FOX "News" retelling of Cornel West's interview with Anderson Cooper, we see this:
The CNN anchor responded that Russian President Vladimir Putin was too dangerous to leave unchecked, "You saw what [Putin] did to Grozny in the ’90s. I mean he flattened that city. Civilians were trapped in that city, the world didn’t come to the rescue of Grozny. He did exactly what he wanted to do. I mean, unchecked he will slaughter people."
At which point West changed the subject to Iraq. Another way in which West might have handled Cooper's attack on Putin might have been to say: "Is THAT what the US is doing?" Such a tactic might have exposed more than a revelation of twenty-year-old US foreign policy as a form of mass murder.
And this is what would have been exposed, had West chosen thusly: what the US is in fact doing in Ukraine has nothing to do with "checking Putin." The US is handing Zelensky all sorts of odds-and-ends military hardware that is continually being destroyed by Russian bombing, and obliging Zelensky to launch "counter-offensives" that have so far resulted in at least 400,000 Ukrainian casualties. Meanwhile, there's the rapid acceleration of de-dollarization going on, while America is, in Joe Biden's words, "running out of ammo" and meanwhile Russia grows more prosperous by the day. So, no, the US is in no sense "checking" Vladimir Putin. Only in Anderson Cooper's paid-for fantasy world is the US, with its pointless goading of Ukraine into continuing a war it can't win, "checking" Vladimir Putin.
All the nice warmongers are like, "Omigod Putin's evil!" But Putin's evil (or lack thereof) is not the issue at hand. Rather, Putin has managed to organize the Russian military such that it can win wars, whereas the US military, like the rest of the US government, is a plaything of private corporations whose profit is their primary concern. This, more than anything else, is why the US cannot defeat Russia in Ukraine. If the US cannot defeat Russia, then it's not "checking" Putin's ambitions through a continued proxy war with Russia in which its contribution is not entirely serious and in which its devotion to corporate profit is out of control. Okay? Okay.
Fantasy is nice stuff when done right. When done wrong, as any observer of Ukraine can see, it's catastrophically stupid.
EXTRA CREDIT: Sabrina Salvati checks it out:
Comments
Brian Berletic straightens out the moral warmongers
"there's something so especially sadistic about waving the flag of a country that you're actively destroying" -- Aaron Mate
AC - Dunce Supreme
A number of years ago, I was watching a re-run of the Jeopardy! television program. At least I remember it as a re-run; it might not have been. In any event, Alex Trebek had various celebrities as contestants in this episode, with winnings going to charity. I cannot remember who any of the contestants were - except one: Anderson Cooper.
Anderson Cooper distinguished himself by being the most ignorant contestant I had ever seen on this program. His performance was so embarrassing that I was embarrassed just to watch it. The man knew absolutely nothing. I mean zilch. I'm not even certain he knew there were 50 states in the Union. I'm sure you believe I'm kidding, but it really was that bad. If I remember correctly, at one point he simply threw in the towel and gave up.
All that is to say that Anderson Cooper is reading a script at all times. If he's doing an interview, I would assume he has an earpiece and is fed every line that emits from his trap.
Great essay!
Cassiodorus. I really enjoyed the Lord of the Rings Trilogy when I read it a long time ago.
About the Cornel West coverage, shaming is what they do to stigmatize anyone who gets in the way of the corporate war machine narrative.
This is why Newsweek recently tried to shame Christine Ahn as one of the most visible representatives and organizers of National Mobilization to End the Korean War July 27-28, 2023, in Washington, DC.
https://www.womencrossdmz.org/national-mobilization-to-call-for-peace-on...
This is the link to Christine's letter to Newsweek criticizing their hit piece against her and her organizing efforts:
Women Cross DMZ Responds to Newsweek Opinion Column “North Korean Stooges Step Into the Light”
July 15, 2023
https://www.womencrossdmz.org/women-cross-dmz-responds-to-newsweek-opini...
One thing I learned from browsing through the related links and articles was the connection to the nuclear industry. This explains a lot, especially in light of Moon Jae-in's shut down of leaky outdated reactor facilities at the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant and current South Korean president Yoon Seok-yeol's efforts to prosecute career government officials who were involved in the process supporting the previous administration's decision to do so. There is also Yoon's transparent effort to publicly rush to approve Japan's scientifically questionable plans to dump contaminated Fukushima nuclear waste water into the Pacific Ocean for decades. The interminable Fukushima disaster is bad PR for the nuclear industry that needs to be dumped into the sea as quickly as possible. There are also Yoon's plans to contract for construction of nuclear power plants in eastern Europe, his desire to become a nuclear weapons state, the "nuclear consultative group" and the increased presence of US nuclear powered platforms in South Korea and Australia.
The Unknown Oligarch Fighting for an Endless Korean War
Follow the money fomenting conflict on the Korean Peninsula, and all roads lead to Honolulu.
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/korean-war-annie-chan/
One of South Korea's elder statesman Moon Chung-in who may know more about North Korean diplomacy than any other person alive said recently- 문정인 “윤석열, 전쟁 너무 쉽게 생각하는 듯! 군대 안 갔다온 사람들이 특히...” (Yoon Seok-yeol thinks too easily about war. Peculiar, inasmuch as he avoided his military obligation...) South Korea has mandatory military conscription for men, technically it is still at war with North Korea. The wealthy often fabricate medical disabilities or get some civilian alternative service scam.
The list of American civic organizations supporting the Korean Peace Action is impressive which includes Veterans for Peace and many others.
https://www.womencrossdmz.org/national-mobilization-to-call-for-peace-on...
I wish I could go to DC, my health is not good enough currently, I will have to participate vicariously.
語必忠信 行必正直
It would seem --
-- that even in Korean politics you have this dominant hubris which the US and its favorite local politicians share. No?
"there's something so especially sadistic about waving the flag of a country that you're actively destroying" -- Aaron Mate
Yes, hubris
...that's exactly the right word. The established media is large part of it, the way it is used by the elites to cover up blatant corruption and lies, and make false accusations against those who oppose them. This is the giant Wurlitzer that projects the fantasies spun to justify their lust for power and wealth without limits. Because the military dictatorship has been discredited as a cultural feature in the South Korean experience, a soft authoritarianism is marketed as "freedom and common sense" that can pose as democracy when it really is a disguise for a return to the police state. Being able to get away with blatant lies, corruption, and incompetence is what leads to the hubris. The press chaebol and the corporate elites they are a part of, are untouchable. Yoon as their agent, consequently thinks he's untouchable as their police power accomplice.
TK said the other day, "It's not just that they're so corrupt, it's more that they don't even bother hiding it." In other words, the press will hide it for them no matter what facts are obvious to anyone who researches events for themselves. This is where the arrogance comes from. They will drown out and publicly shame anyone who says otherwise. In South Korea the consequences may also include investigation and prosecution for those who persist in publicly telling the facts, then labeled "fake news." Yoon has labeled opposition critics and dissenters as "anti-state forces," implying they are in league with North Korea communists.
The Korean term is press prosecution collusion ( 검언유착 ) the method by which reality is stood on its head and people are accused often of crimes committed by the accusers. Lee Jae-myung the opposition leader put it this way, "who is the criminal?" I listened to an analysis yesterday in which the elite chaebol who own the media giants Cho-Joong-Dong - Chosun Ilbo, Joongang Ilbo, and Donga Ilbo, are really the dominant power in South Korea because of their ability to create reality and enforce it in combination with corrupt government officials like Yoon Seok-yeol. This is because of their ability to fabricate reality, convict and defame people in the media, while the prosecution and now the president merely does as ordered. Part of their agenda now is curb the power of public media like MBC, KBS, SBS etc. It's a familiar pattern from the Lee Myung-bak administration. If a president like Park Geun-hye gets out of line, the press will mobilize the public for impeachment. In this fashion the overt military dictatorship appears unnecessary and the patina of democracy is maintained. The devolution into the censorship/ police state cannot be maintained without the establishment media, they are indispensable.
Literally, the translation is prosecution-press collusion where the press is ostensibly the agent of Yoon's corrupt prosecutors, but I reverse it to press prosecution at first because it flows easier off the tongue, but the press role is the dominant one politically and socially, or rather the capital that controls the press. By the way, not too long ago, New York Times moved its Asian headquarters to Seoul, in a "partnership" with Joongang Ilbo, one of the dominant members of the South Korean propaganda cartel, to better control the dialogue in the English language media about East Asian affairs but particularly in South Korea, which has a new critical geopolitical role to play in Indo-Pacific strategy and the anti-China game. The US MICIMATT got their "tri-lateral alliance" and the NATO partner role for South Korea and Japan and they won't let go.
語必忠信 行必正直
perception management
is big bucks business all over
runs hand in hand with creating
non-critical thinking skills in the
mass news consumer populations
mind your wants as something
wants your mind
thanks soryang
Jimmy Dore weighs in:
"there's something so especially sadistic about waving the flag of a country that you're actively destroying" -- Aaron Mate
Agree overall
w Jimmy's take, though he was a little too critical of West's performance, which was weak but not a complete disaster. He did at times let lightweight Anderson Cooper run roughshod over him with the constant interruptions, which is not a good look for West.
Cornell might be under the impression that by calling the host-interviewer "my good brother" often enough, which he does in any interview, he will elicit a friendly softball interview style. But Cornell doesn't pay Cooper's salary, and AC's first priority is to please the powerful entities who write his paycheck.
Wish he would drop the brother/sister rhetoric, which I don't buy and find annoying. But I do find it interesting that CNN would invite him for interviews recently. Is it bc, in contrast to RFK Jr, they know West, gushingly admiring of St Fauci, has nothing uncomfortably contrary to say about covid vaccines and FDA/CDC corruption?
Good guy, well intentioned, but very flawed candidate repping a party even more flawed.
The important thing at this point --
-- about Cornel West and RFK Jr. -- is that they are not Joe Biden. Mike Pence, on the other hand, is trying his best to be Joe Biden. This is also true of most of the crop of Republican candidates.
https://youtube.com/shorts/_lD_biUbmaQ?feature=share
I recognize that this is a low bar. But our politicians play Joe Bidens on TV. In an interview published yesterday, Cornel West recognized that his candidacy is a "moment in a movement." With just that comment he showed himself to be head and shoulders above the crop of Joe Bidens currently in the Presidential race.
For half a century now the Democrats have been focused upon "winning," which for them has meant electing politicians who cleverly scheme ways of losing to Republicans, or they scheme the enactment of the "Republican-lite" policies themselves. The rest of the Democratic Party reacts to such dramatic defeats as they've suffered at the hands of their own party by doubling down on the process, pretending even harder that they are "winning." This strategy -- of pretending that one is winning when in fact one is losing -- replicates itself across the field of issues, vaccination policy or any issue you please, most notably (see diary above) in Ukraine. Its current epicenter is Joe Biden, which is why it's so important not to be Joe Biden.
"there's something so especially sadistic about waving the flag of a country that you're actively destroying" -- Aaron Mate
Republican Lite
works well enough for me, except on war, covid vaccine mandates, and censorship where the Dems want to be Republican Heavy.
I see CW's appeal mainly to the left of left wing of the black community, which is small in number. Another 1.5-2% candidate at best. RFK Jr would have much stronger national appeal as a 3d party candidate, probably going well above the 19% of Perot, possibly getting a third of the vote or more. But those decisions are a long way off right now.
We'll see how the geriatric Joe looks in Feb-Apr. I think he'll have to tamp down the situation in Ukraine, as that unnecessary conflict no longer whips up people's emotions as it did a year and a half ago. Right now he has a far more dangerous situation on his hands in Ukraine than LBJ did in VN, and RFK Jr is far better able to make the case against that war than preacher Cornel.
I disagree with all of that.
First off, "Republican-lite" is in fact Republican-enabling. In Barack Obama's "Republican-lite" tenure of office as President, the Republicans gained 13 governor's houses, all branches of the Federal government, and 900+ state legislative seats. It was truly record-setting.
Second, "Republican-lite" is bad enough all by itself. It's the replacement of AFDC with TANF. It's the 2005 Bankruptcy Bill. It's Gramm-Leach-Billey. It's the Grand Bargain and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Third, Cornel West has already argued that his candidacy is a "moment in a movement." He isn't, in other words, campaigning to earn N percent of the vote, and to dismiss his candidacy as such is to miss the point.
Fourth, what happens when RFK Jr. is cheated out of the nomination? I see no sign that he will do anything other than endorse Joe, as Bernie did.
Cornel West has an opportunity here to disrupt the standard pattern in which the Democrats spend enormous amounts of donor cash promoting neoliberal (and, now, neoconservative) losers to well-entrenched Republicans. The reason he has this opportunity is because he has a critique of "empire" which is going to seem all the more appealing as the proxy war in Ukraine devolves unto increasingly worse results. When the primaries are over, people will want an alternative to Joe "World War III" Biden and big-talking lazy criminal Donald Trump. The bad news has been apparent in Europe, now, for a year or so. It's probably coming here. In this regard, he appeals to the 59% of the public who are making ends meet.
In that vein I'd like to preempt what can only be called "Kyle Kulinski thought." Here's Sabrina Salvati:
"there's something so especially sadistic about waving the flag of a country that you're actively destroying" -- Aaron Mate
Agreed
And thanks again for Sabrina. She's a whip of a commentator.
I didn't make myself
clear above, writing something susceptible of different meanings. When I wrote "R Lite works well enough for me" it was meant to endorse RLite as a good enough negative descriptor of the Dem Party, not as an endorsement of their rightward drift in the past 30 yrs being acceptable to me.
On CW's "moment in a movement", it doesn't interest me as I understand his meaning. It's an echo of an old, almost tiresome argument from Nader in 1996 and 2000 -- he was running not so much to win but to begin a progressive movement, just get to 5% national support, etc. Never happened or came close.
These movements need building from the ground up starting at the local/state level. Look at the pathetic results of the Green Party after 25 yrs running candidates for president. It's barely a tiny blip on the political radar after all these years, still behind the Libertarian Party in overall support, and they are absent from the discussion in the in-between election yrs. Look at the left overall even after two viable Bernie candidacies in 2016 and 2020 -- left leaders fold well before the cards are even taken out of the pack and their backers are largely silent, discouraged or have also folded.
Re RFK Jr, it's way too early to tell what he would do if outrageously denied the D nomination. Let's let the political crime play out first then take a look. It's encouraging however that he's clearly stated more than once that he won't endorse any candidate prosecuting an unnecessary, costly and dangerous war like Ukraine. Not sure if Cornel, who endorsed Biden last time, has taken such a clear principled stand.
You left out an important part
about West's ‘endorsement’. It was with strong reservations, and he qualified his ‘support’ soundly.
There's also this for clarification
The important, relevant
part of political endorsements, like congressional votes, is the yes/no part of the endorsement or vote, not the CYA political rhetoric that often comes with it. The big headline for Cornel, Bernie, Chomsky and other progressives in 2020, the part that the public heard, is that they ended up endorsing Biden. No one pays much heed to the "but, even though ..." political nuance and backtracking in the footnotes.
And it seems clear a lot of West's 2020 endorsement language can be used against him in 2024 should it come down once again to a "milquetoast neoliberal" Biden v the "neo-fascist" Trump, with Cornel's 2% candidacy possibly being an important factor in certain tossup states in helping Trump sneak back in -- or so the argument would go.
Me, I'm in favor of more and better third parties with better leaders carrying the banner. Neither West nor his covid vaccine mandate-favoring Green Party impress me much.
Sure.
Next time you decide to form a third party they'll be sure to vote you the head of ballot access drives in all fifty states. Good luck!
"there's something so especially sadistic about waving the flag of a country that you're actively destroying" -- Aaron Mate
Here's what Cornel West sounds like --
-- when he's not being interrupted by Anderson Cooper.
"there's something so especially sadistic about waving the flag of a country that you're actively destroying" -- Aaron Mate
Thank you for the conversation
between Cornel West and Nina Turner. Enjoyed it all. I'm still smiling at “peacocks strut because they can’t fly”.
If I had my laptop, which is being repaired, I'd post Nina Simone's, Isn't it a Pity, here.
As an expat American citizen
with an American passport I have the right to vote. Only, the officials have made it practically impossible for me to register. If I could I would vote for Cornel West. He represents the change that most closely reflects what I would like to see.
I really enjoy the perspective Sabrina brings to light.
It's nice to watch videos with real people.
Anderson Cooper, on the other hand, reminds me of Max Headroom.
"there's something so especially sadistic about waving the flag of a country that you're actively destroying" -- Aaron Mate
Blipverts
and all...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
more and better third parties
totally agree. for that to happen, the stranglehold the duopoly uses to prevent
challengers has to be shattered. Thru the courts - doubtful, state by state
break-out is also remote. Whenever the vast majority of voters require changes
in the present system, we will be leaving the comfortable realm of business-as-
usual. I'm all for that!
One other way
to break through would be with a party fielding a name nominee who is so appealing at the national level that he would be difficult to keep off state ballots. RFK Jr would fit that bill. A Change/Unity Party type of 3d party bid sounds about right. Tulsi Gabbard as his VP.
Otherwise, apart from those rare chances like the current one, it would take years, decades to build a viable new party to compete at the national level. Years and decades the dolts at the Green Party should have been using, since at least 1996, to build themselves up from 1%. But of course they sat on their thumbs and didn't and so it's still stuck on trying to reach 5%, 30 yrs later.
True, but how else do you get there these days,
than step by step, outside the formidable powers that insist you vote for one of the two? RFK Jr has chosen to run in a place that has proven to be impossible for success. I seriously question that choice.
I think voting for a third party who represents the change you’d like to see might be a good beginning.