"Barry the Blade" Obama

US President Barack Obama is lauded by his supporters for greatly improving the USA and its economy, using data measured from the collapse of the Bush regime.

That collusive disaster was orchestrated by Republicans, but where major Democrats (such as Sen. Hillary Clinton) fed lavishly to gain nourishment & resources. Obama himself sadly leaves a soiled legacy.

Obama's "successes" are largely built on sand: the national infrastructure is eroding, huge funds continue to pour uselessly into overseas militarism & so-called defense, while the American people have become progressively more brutal and hopeless.

Emperor Obama has given corporations precedence over citizens, letting the interests of big capital discuss & compose the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) in government-protected secrecy. That agreement would further severely limit the USA and other democracies from controlling our own futures. Bad bad bad.

Uncovering the secret operations of US democracy has been horrible. Obama and his government coverup murder, mayhem, torture, illegal spying, and improper collaboration with foreign intelligence services, while whistle-blowers try to shine light on American corruption.

These people helping our citizenry were systematically crushed. Responsibility lies at the elegantly-shod feet of Barry Obama.

Obama can issue presidential clemency & pardons to people who've fought against the Dark Side, (including):
Ed Snowden
Chelsea Manning
Julian Assange

Obama can still rescue a positive legacy... Pardon the People's Heroes.

Snowden, Manning, Assange: Presidential Pardons Please.

Land of the Small

Just returned from visiting Japan, a nation always interesting...

Due to aging, this trip was slightly uncomfortable. In terms of my personal aging, I'm physically not as flexible as in past decades as I creep near toward retirement age. Japan is built for people six inches (15-cm) or more shorter. The population is narrower and lighter. Buses, chairs, etc. are designed for an average Japanese adult, plus or minus very little. Japanese buses and airplanes manage to add an extra row or two compared to designs aimed at Europe or North America. If you visit Japan, you'll soon see & feel what I mean...

The second point of aging is Japan's infrastructure & cityscape. In the late 1970s when I first visited Japan, much of the infrastructure looked new. Bridges, highway guardrails, overpasses, etc. seemed clean or maybe dusty. Now much of every city is streaked or ridden with rust and clearly deteriorating. Factory areas have suffered as production moved abroad: buildings are often underutilized or derelict. Slow depopulation of rural areas, along with mercantile difficulties, left dismal & darkened shopping areas, with shuttered shops and a general depressing atmosphere.

There are surely dynamic areas and thriving neighborhoods throughout Japan. Exciting & different experiences can be encountered everywhere. People are very kind, usually quite curious, and ultimately friendly. But there's a layer of grime over much of the declining Japanese nation...

Electing Your Prison Warden

"Choice" between voting for Clinton or Trump is disgusting.

Each clearly represents Big Business & mega-corporations. Each has vowed to be a servant of Zionism.

Electing Clinton or Trump will continue America's wasteful militarism around the globe. For the past 50 years, both major parties have wastefully poured America's resources into weapons of death & destruction, preferring not to invest in people & American communities.

The U.S. Federal system is now broken beyond repair. We must plan & prepare for disintegration.

We watched the collapse of the often-cruel Soviet Union machine. Because of gross mismanagement, the USA is overdue to collapse. Prepare now to weather the coming storm & assorted plagues.

Drift to the Dark Side

...
Each major candidate is from The Dark Side ...
...

Talking Turkey

A key aftereffect of Turkish insurrection might be a shift in Turkey's support of NATO operations across Europe. Turkey's been a staging area & military base for NATO / US strike forces on Syria & elsewhere.

We occupy bases around the world, at great cost. Could it happen the bossy USA pulls the plug on NATO, and let Europe defend itself? Labeling American occupation forces "NATO troops" fools no one.

Might the tens of thousands of US military forces leave Europe for the first time since WWII?  Probably not immediately, but surely the day will come when American voters and ultimately the leadership realizes the heavy costs far outweigh any benefits to the USA.

Big Bite in Turkey

The attempted coup in Turkey was triggered by the USA.
Militarist funds flows from the USA destabilize the world.
Funding foreign militaries is by definition political interference.

The plotters against President Erdoğan have watched US-backed anti-democratic "rebellions" in Egypt (against President Morsi), Honduras (against President Zelaya), Haiti (against President Aristide) and elsewhere. US military aid & "friendly relations" flow generously as democracy is subverted & crushed. Now in these dark lands, Government-directed death squads control the streets. The fresh US-backed dictator grins wickedly at news cameras and poses with the US President & top US officials.

The message clearly sent by the Obama government (and those of his predecessors) to America's hireling fascist dictators is dark, dirty, and powerful.

No BJ for Britain

Bumbling Boris Johnson played with fire, and burned his fingers.
Then Boris Johnson ran away.

Naughty Boris Johnson!

 

UPDATE: Boris Johnson will serve the Queen's government as UK Foreign Secretary. Bravo to the World.
God Bless Us Every One!

Racist Hate

When my parents married in Massachusetts in 1956, they were legally prohibited to marry or cohabit in 14 states -- so of the then 48 American states, they'd be criminals in 29% (my mom is mixed race, Hawaiian / Caucasian / Chinese, my dad is Caucasian). Their marriage lasted 58 years to my Dad's death.

If my mother were Negro, they were barred marriage in a further 11 states (25 total, or the majority of the then 48 states).

Such laws are gone. Most admit the USA ain't perfect, but we're nearer to ruined, economically & morally. We fund belligerent militarism around the world (via deficit spending). We've many millions of impoverished & underemployed Americans, and our dog-eat-dog democracy cultivates abiding hates & racism. Mass media and consumerism are enemies. Our ruling elite pays little heed ...
Not good at all. 
Grade: D

Eating Sand

Nobody wants to die needlessly or foolishly.

"War Hero" families help cultivate myths of justified butchery.

But nobody wants to DIE EATING SAND.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and US President George W. Bush, were officially exposed as war criminals today: 6 July 2016, in Sir John Chilcot's report of The Iraq Inquiry.

Bush, Blair & cronies tried mightily to mislead the world from the earliest stages of planning the war in Iraq, tossing sand in our eyes when they themselves were dirty. Remember the Powell deception? (link and transcript) All was widely reported at that time, but many poor suckers did not understand -- and were sent away to die. Rest in Peace if possible.

Among the many voices against the war in early 2003, the UK Leader of the House of Commons, MP Robin Cook, was perhaps most explicit. But his warnings went unheeded, and hundreds of thousands of people have died...

Here's (mp3) Cook's highly-remarkable speech in the House of Commons:
Robin Cook resigns over Iraq attack plan 2003-03-17.mp3

and a transcript:
Robin Cook resigns in order to vote against war on Iraq

Cook warned against unilateralism, bullying and wielding war in doubtful circumstances. But the munitions boys & militarists pushed us into a criminal WAR

NATO Brexit?

A majority in the UK wants to avoid supernational entanglements. Will the new UK Prime Minister be leading the nation out of both the EU & also out of NATO?

What impact will Brexit impose on the NATO alliance?
Should NATO overall be shutdown?

A prominent voice in the Boston Globe claims NATO contributes to instability as an anti-Russian behemoth pushing military solutions, when creative diplomacy is needed. America is urged by anti-interventionist author Stephen Kinzer to step back from NATO, cutoff its nearly 75% of total funding, and let Europeans develop their own security systems. America & its Western allies are being groomed to hate a preselected next enemy.

Could the disengagement process lead to curtailing the close intelligence cooperation amongst America's allies?

Will the symbiosis of the USA & its closest ally Israel bring aboard a diminished UK with less European leverage?

And for the United Nations Security Council, the UK's been gifted an unelected ("Permanent") seat with veto opportunity. Keeping representative staff in expensive New York City costs dearly, and such UNSC membership is clearly undemocratic. Perhaps UK withdrawal from the UNSC lies ahead?

Those outside can only say, "God Cheer & Tally Ho!"

REMAIN?

Belligerent Britain is eager to LEAVE
But the costs will be greater than most can conceive:
We'll need new munitions and rockets and tanks
And young cannon fodder to people the ranks.

Throwing mud, hateful whingeing
Hurts the Brits overseas
Do we want ethnic cleansing?
Xenophobe policies?

Must our live-abroad brethren
File home? (Make some room!)
Liquidating their casa
For the Olde English gloom?

The rich will grow Richer
And the poor will eat shit
Lady Swell will still party
While we proles must submit.

Blame our own megawealthy
Who will keep us in chains
As the dear House of Windsor
Will still swill their champagnes.

(poem)
REMAIN?
by  Genki

Understanding Bondage

Some people heartily feel America the beautiful is the Greatest Nation on Earth, and God smiles on her prosperity and the American people.

Others feel we live in a shithole of deeply corrupt systems, with a population willfully ignorant of damages we impose on the environment and the wider world.

Happily I'm somewhere in-between.

But it is important to understand major trends & faults in our society, or risk being damaged. Thus please read these disturbing analyses of what's wrong with the USA today, which provide actionable advice:

"Thank You for Standing Up"  by Chris Hedges

"Voting will not alter the corporate systems of power. Voting is an act of political theater. Voting in the United States is as futile and sterile as in the elections I covered as a reporter in dictatorships like Syria, Iran and Iraq." (written in January 2012)

"Con vs. Con"  by Chris Hedges
"The repeated argument of the necessity of supporting the “least worse” makes things worse... build alternative movements and parties to bring down corporate power or continue to watch our democracy atrophy into a police state and our ecosystem unravel... If you want to see what America will look like soon, across the country, shift your focus from the convention halls to the streets in Cleveland and Philadelphia. It is in the streets that our corporate masters will win or lose."

"A Debasing Spectacle: Behind and Beyond the Latest Quadrennial Carnival"  by Paul Street
"The quadrennial electoral extravaganza is no place to go looking for justice...  
Let’s mourn and organize."

One Man, Acting Alone?

The brutal murder of Jo Cox is a multi-dimensional outrage & horror.

As the UK seemed to lurch toward ethnic cleansing, the public murder of a young mother by a disaffected loner (?) may have shifted the tide of public opinion.

The accused killer has been announced as Thomas Mair, though in court he claimed his name to be "Death to Traitors - Freedom for Britain" ... Did his Mum ever called him that? We may never know, but the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. We're told Tommy "appears to have links to far-right groups" and also that there is great political importance in how the story is reported (The Washington Post).

I'm a supporter of the EU, and for Britain to remain. I'm wholly against targeted killings and violence.

Jo Cox may be a rallying focus against an extreme element of society who'd sacrifice anyone or all. But the story within hours was being twisted in various ways. Corporate media spin and greater forces in society were harvesting benefits from the young mum's still-warm corpse.

For example, many media sources published "news" released from the USA about extremist book purchases allegedly made the perpetrator 17 years ago (BBC link). How can a packing slip from 1999 be produced in a matter of hours "proving" the perpetrator's dark thinking? One answer is that public attention span is very short, and the Brexit vote deadline near, so the proofs needed to be generated quickly. Voilà! ? How & why could a private civil rights group in the USA have such information & evidence? Surely extremist publishers & booksellers don't share their data so easily...

Look into the inconsistencies (link) and it's easy to find explanations, but these arguments are dark as the murder, and the multiple forces of law and good and evil all become grey and difficult to discern. So much easier just to cluck at feel sad about the tragedy. Is that truly our democracy in action?

NewRepublics?

GuestAPO USA

Always Outmaneuvered!

 

Protection Against Controllers

As Britain debates potential exit from the European Union, it's useful to consider who wins.

The idea that local people will be empowered by relying on corrupt national-level stooges is ridiculous It's still mega-government. Most people are -- sorry to be brutal -- enslaved as sheep.

The fight is truly over checks-and-balances. Who will be the bosses? and how much freedom will the corrupt elite have to suppress us? National-level "elite leaders" are actually forced to maintain minimal standards by organizations such as the EU and UN.

External enemies include huge foreign systems, including corporate systems. The European Union has many safeguards for human rights. Great EU efforts against monopolization and corruption have levied very large multi-billion euro fines on sneaky dirty corporations. These are functions national entities can only mobilize with great difficulty.

Our enemies are global & well-funded.

American Tyranny - 4 more years?

American Tyranny is scheduled to continue another four to eight years - at least.

If you don't like the way government & megawealthy corporate cronies intrude at your cost into your home & personal life, too bad. Americans are electing people who help the rich, and who help themselves. There's shit left for you.























"Just four more years" before potential reform again becomes possible? The answer's NO. Is it really possible now via voting?  no.

America was bled by the Bush-Cheney regime, and Halliburton-Blackwater milked us dry. But then Obama and the Upper Class gave huge public funds to their rich & powerful 1% friends to maintain controls over housing, the markets and over our lives.

Repression becomes stronger. "The Obama government of Hope" built-up a spying & reconnaissance infrastructure attached to every phone & computer, continued assorted wars & destabilization, and generated enemies by escalating poorly-targeted assassinations (including American citizens abroad).

Clearly the ballot box offers no salvation -- the system's perpetually corrupt. (In the Democratic California primary, millions of ballots remain uncounted three days later). The little we have is being rudely taken -- even illusions of fairness, justice, hope...

Life don't run forever. Fattened by cheap cuts of meat & greasy sweets, Americans are beginning to wake up angry.

Brexit Opportunity

I don't think the UK should withdraw from the European Union. Boris Johnson (BoJo & co.) irresponsibly counsel for Brexit - my fellow Balliol man's become a driver of dumfux...

Painting neighbors as enemies and becoming more insular is shortsighted -- a favorable scenario only for arms dealers and right-wing extremists.

On the positive side, one group's loss is another's gain.

Sad for Brits with vacation homes on the continent - When many sell & flee, prices will fall. Good for the rest of us hoping for a bargain, but overall a loss to better human understanding.

Democrat? Republican? American

TV talking heads tell us Bernie Sanders failed to become Democratic Party nominee for President of the USA. They slice their commentaries in various ways, but avoid a major point: Bernie came into the corporate-controlled Democratic Party and nearly deposed their already-crowned Queen -- and Bernie is not even a member of the Democratic Party.

Corporatism stacked the deck against Sanders. "Superdelegates" favoring Clinton were quickly & overwhelmingly appointed, choices of their party bosses who funneled huge monies to Clinton. Party bosses restricted Sanders campaign access to the national Democratic voter database -- after sharing Sanders supporter data with others (with the NGP VAN database). In some states such as New York, only Party members registered many months previously were allowed to vote at all. As Clinton gradually looked poised to win the nomination, they pressured other candidates to drop out. The crushing Party mechanisms were operated by a creepy 49-year old politico from Florida, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former co-Chair of Hillary Clinton's 2008 Presidential effort. The Party bureaucracy is now saturated with talking heads and parasitic political operatives, desperately seeking self-enrichment & wholly deaf to progressive change.

Sanders did more than shake things up. Sanders helped us recognize the heavy CHAINS we're forced to wear. Student debt, a predatory financial system, an overseas-based military with procurement spending out of control (but poor veteran support services), an economy with insufficient environmental safeguards, an election system of candidates spouting foolish platitudes & lies.

Sanders was always an INDEPENDENT.

Sanders walked into the Democratic Party and won much support. Now buzzards circle, clucking "Same old, same old" -- But perhaps change may still happen... American independents, not so easily corralled by poor choices & decrepit party hacks, may still generate true change. The awareness built by Bernie Sanders will not easily fade.

Fixing Cholera ?

People who suddenly see an unreasonable dimension to American politics are slow to awaken, but perhaps better late than never?

The same corporate crowd who brought the USA to endless expensive illegal & unwise wars in Afghanistan & Iraq, and earlier in Vietnam, are now serving up Cholera to the American people.

Yumbo!

"Promises" made by the heated diseased soon forgotten...
TPP actually OK. Unwarranted spying & endless wars OK.
Bibi Netanyahu, Chief Adviser, OK. Torturing enemies? OK.
Corporate-controlled Cholera.

Parenting 101

The case of a little darling left in the Japanese woods by his parents after throwing rocks raises many interesting issues. One bright point is that parenting classes could become a new growth industry.

Society suffers from the high costs of delinquency & crime. Many housewife-mothers could be fruitfully employed to help parents with advice on how to raise their spawn. Japanese society needs more kids, women need more jobs. Government can spend funds on human services instead of on foolish construction projects or another wasteful national defense boondoggle. Parents might be given a tax incentive upon successfully completing a carefully designed Parenting course.

Number of births in Japan has slid dangerously in past decades. As recently as 1973 there were 2,092,000 children born in Japan. Last year may have been under a million births (they're still counting), but anyway, approximately half the newborn kids compared to the early 70s. This is far below replacement rate; the Japanese population is aging and citizen numbers are dropping.

Character for "Parent" - (elements mean stand by a tree watching)

RIP Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali.  Cassius Clay.  He surely riled The Man.

Listen (*) to his political speeches & banter.

Then, Ali was struck-down. After 1984 Ali could barely talk.
Unnaturally convenient...

Let's understand Truth: a strong & glib politically-astute leader, antiwar, actively seeking to overturn America's animosity against his race. We know for a fact Ali was illegally monitored and labeled Threat to the State by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, and branded an enemy by Nixon's corrupted White House .

"World leaders marveled at the spell he cast over the crowds. "If you were a Filipino," joked Ferdinand Marcos, "I'd have to shoot you."" (quote from Esquire, June 1989).

Now imagine an American government unit being ordered to
chemically castrate Muhammad Ali - 
" Don't kill him, just shut him up! "

When did it happen? Who did it? Ali was erased long ago.
Far Too Convenient to happen naturally...
Was Muhammad Ali poisoned by the US Government? 
  ... more likely than not ...

Bloggers can only speculate (as here, link)...

Where might someone leak a truly dark story?

CHOLERA? or TYPHUS?

Our Great Choice USA®
Toxic Twins for Tyranny

   Enjoying Democracy since 1776
      "Best Nation on Earth"
     GOD BLESS AMERICA

Cholera ...?  or  Typhus ...?     Choose Now or Can't Complain?
Americans can stop being bitch-slapped by corporate megawealth.

 
 

Europeans !

Much news focuses on the problems of Europe. Let's think of our Progress.

We're not at WAR. Please understand the arms dealers and big-money militarists are disappointed their munitions markets have largely evaporated. The Germans are not arming themselves against the French, the Greeks against the Brits. Our young people are not conscripted for military service, then thrown into battle to be butchered.

We do not suffer from arbitrary search & seizure at each of Europe's internal borders. Those of us who remember passport controls & inquisitive customs officials are very happy those days are gone.

We can holiday easily around Europe and the wider world. We enjoy foods and products from most everywhere. We exchange information and combine our energies to minimize abuses.

I look at this Merci Zlatan! link, of a Swedish footballer in France, and recognize Europeans have much to be proud about:
Merci Zlatan!      Here's more inspiration:   Names of the World  

Of course, the Grand-père with connections seeks to boost his kin...

Non-Violent Dividend

Disparities in society are severe and dangerous.

Those on the butt-end can look forward to lives nasty, brutish & short.
 -- quoting Thomas Hobbes from Leviathan (1651)

Rich folk best invest to keep the proles from violence. 

Hopelessness breeds Dangerous Animosity & Destructive Action.
It's time we carefully consider the idea of a basic income (link).

Otherwise, my wealthy friends risk the sharp edge of a guillotine...
Tragedy! 

Crimes of the Condor

A few government criminals, of many hundreds, were successfully prosecuted in Argentina as part of the US-led Operation Condor. They were responsible for torture, murders, and other crimes across South America in American-supported dictatorships: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay & Uruguay.

The terror killed 60,000+ people, while 400,000 were arrested, tortured & imprisoned. Of course the Yankee strategists and criminal funders can still be prosecuted, but corruption runs deep. Most politicians are just puppets -- the destructive tools of monstrously dirty capitalists who can live anywhere - or nowhere. Mega-yachts vs. farmers and activist laborers.

Find those truly Guilty... Convicted criminals should imprisoned, if possible, and purged of social honors. The town squares, bridges, and city streets named after these killers should be renamed.

Native Hawaiian Determination

Native Hawaiians are not self-governing.

We are Occupied -
Yankee military took huge tracts of land
Outsiders push agendas & profit scams.

Hawai'i's environment includes Hawaiians
Hawai'i's environment always includes Hawaiians
Hawaiians protect the homeland, our islands.

Don't steal our Land
Don't You ripoff Aloha

Let's celebrate Together
Not Rich tourist Served by Da kine...

Listen to the voice of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (link)
A Great Peaceful Force boosting Hawaiian sovereignty.
Here's his Tribute (1min 15 sec) Final Voyage :
https://youtu.be/b9ixtdjzIjw

IZ -- now dead 19 years -- Hawaiians still shit upon.
Rest in Peace IZ  -- Always Hawaiian !
Native Hawaiian Self-Government NOW

Pardon Fascism?

Henry Kissinger was never charged with crimes by the USA.
Dick Cheney still spews deadly poisons.
Richard Nixon was pardoned.

Why no pardon for those helping Americans understand our government?

Ed Snowden    •   Chelsea Manning    •   Julian Assange

The answer's clear:  Our Government is Brutally Corrupt. 

Snowden  •  Manning  •  Assange
Proved Our Empire's Leaders are Dirty
Pardon these Activists NOW

Sport Cheats & Frauds

The USA is now critical of Russia because some of its athletes have used banned performance-enhancing drugs.

But the USA can't speak out against others, because America still shelters the notorious self-admitted cheat Lance Armstrong.

The US Postal Service sponsored Armstrong & his cycling team for many years, paying millions of dollars in support. American beauty Lance has not spent a day in prison for his admitted corruption, drug trafficking, conspiracy, threats, slander and other crimes. The Feds are still slowly seeking to recover some of their misspent millions (link). But Armstrong severely damaged the nation's reputation -- a horrible disappointment & dirty symbol to millions of former fans, a slimy embarrassment to his family and the great state of Texas. Perhaps corrupt political connections & wealth keep him from prison?

Many American cheats & frauds have been apprehended - some belatedly (such as Marion Jones) - but we can imagine many dozens, hundreds, or perhaps thousands have avoided being caught. The USA is clearly a bad judge for others when American Lance Armstrong, the most notorious sport cheat in history, has not been criminally prosecuted and continues to live fat on his ill-gotten gains.