Would You Like A Genocide With Your Wars?
2024 General Election Choices Are Like Pondering Ordering Either Cold Coffee Or Burnt Toast At The All American, Two Choice Only Diner.
Photo by Carol Highsmith's America on Unsplash
So, it appears that our collective political and metaphysical crisis, also known as the American experiment, has a major problem in the research and development department.
The current societal and political zeitgeist is like a plot from a bad sci-fi movie one might find while restlessly clicking and browsing the category on Netflix.
You even know, with unwavering certainty and annoyance beforehand, that the movie is going to be of low quality, only vaguely resembling entertainment, another film short on content and long on hype, when you see the signs in the synopsis: the recycled plotline, poor script, and mediocre acting, but despite that certain knowledge, a nagging voice convinces you to waste your time once again.
60-plus years of living through decades of “democratic elections,” war, assassinations, and political and spiritual crises, both individual and collective, tell me one thing with certainty.
Things have to fall apart and systems are going to have to fail before anything gets better.
No savior is coming, especially politically, so, it’s best not to participate in effectively spreading the cancer further.
That’s a personal decision, but one I might humbly recommend to the voting collective.
Without a doubt, now more than ever, we have to engage with our humanity, empathy, and collective power in ways that transcend just “going to the polls” and focus on direct action to avert further crises.
I have spent many sleepless nights pondering how it could be possible, except through the unseen actions of some nefarious spiritual force, that America could fall so far, that we could be so divided, that two aged, decrepit warmongers, racists, misogynists, and narcissists, both full of ego and largely void of human empathy, could represent the American future unless that future is not meant to be.
How could it be possible, except in a Rod Serling scripted nightmare, that pitiful figures like Donald Trump and Joe Biden could arise AGAIN, that, in a way that could only be possible in science fiction, we have traveled backward in time to 2020, to relive the division, angst, and uncertainty all over again?
I was watching the excellent “Due Dissidence” podcast the other day, which I highly recommend.
The two hosts, Keaton and Russell, were talking about the increasing frustration in the Biden campaign, and specifically by Biden himself, as to how his poll numbers could be so devastatingly low.
Any reasonably intelligent, politically aware, and concerned human might ask, Is it feigned ignorance and cynicism on the part of Biden’s administration, or complete disconnection from reality, that Biden could even ask such a ludicrous question?
Biden has spent four years expanding the hegemony of the American Empire and creating a permanent war economy, bleeding off billions in national wealth, and enabling a destructive proxy war in Ukraine, and is now actively participating in the Genocide of an entire race of innocent civilians in Gaza.
Despite the bragging and self-congratulations on an allegedly “revived” economy, most Americans still struggle to pay their bills and face food insecurity.
That includes the abandoned (and forgotten by ratings-hungry corporate media) residents of Flint, Michigan, who have yet to have access to clean drinking water, and East Palestine, Ohio, who in addition to those hardships, face sickness and fatal illness from the poison of chemicals blown up deliberately and completely unnecessarily by Norfolk Southern Corporation, forcing them out of their homes with nowhere to go. Doctors tell these people, as they flock in desperation for medical help with varying chronic symptoms, rashes, headaches, exhaustion, and dizziness, that they can only treat the inevitable Cancer, not the agents causing it. These chemicals are now and will be for years to come, embedded in the environment. The Federal and State EPA continue to deny the presence of the toxins. This is an ongoing corporate crime against humanity. Biden’s brief and insignificant “visit”, ONE YEAR after the incident, left the residents with a feeling of betrayal, and no wonder. I’ve documented the excellent reporting by Staus Coup News on this blog.
No one is being held accountable.
It seems impossible to believe, but Biden has been aware, since October of 2023, that Israel fully intends to wipe Gaza off the map, yet he continues to supply Israel with weapons every 30 days.
Biden is also aware, on some level, that starvation, through limiting food and water and vital medicine to stem suffering and disease, is part of the plan.
What does it say when Democratic Congressional representatives “push” to demand that Biden stop bypassing Congress and that he consult with them before sending weapons? Not because of the dubious moral implications, of course, there is bipartisan enthusiasm for “standing with Israel,” but because it technically violates a law.
It says that Congress lacks human empathy and spirituality has no part in this horror show.
The question for them becomes: How do we continue to fuel the genocide, but with informed consent?
Yet, as it becomes increasingly obvious the US is complicit in aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes, we see claims that Biden is doing all he possibly can to reason with Netanyahu, everything, of course, but stopping the flow of weapons. It’s the same ugly, demonic energy that fueled Hitler in the World War Two Holocaust. There is a level of evil and cruelty that can’t be denied. The excuse, that Israel has a right to defend itself, the “heartbreak” expressed by dead-eyed and morally vacuous sycophants like Anthony Blinken and Matthew Miller at the State Department, while innocent Palestinians are bombed wherever they go and whatever they do, adds to the horror.
Israel and its proxy sponsor, the United States, has been called out by the International Court of Justice and other global voices of conscience, yet, the US, via Biden, persists in aiding and abetting a modern-day crime against humanity.
The corporate media, in particular, have abdicated their responsibility to air dissenting voices, especially in downplaying the death of US Air Force reservist Aaron Bushnell, relegating the ultimate act of protest through self-immolation to a “typical” case of depression or mental illness, when this was not the case. It’s also not the first time self-immolation has been used as a form of protest against war. Specifically, I recall seeing the picture of a Buddhist monk in Viet Nam who did the same thing.
How is it possible that amidst the massive loss of human life at the beginning of COVID, four impossibly long years ago, the debate in the corporate media discourse would be reduced to Israel’s “right” to “defense” includes the “right” to prosecute a genocide with billions in US provided weapons, the “right” to bomb innocents, and the “right” to starve an entire population off the face of the earth?
All that amongst trivialities like March Madness picks by former President Obama, who fully endorses another four years of a Joe Biden administration, Oscar talk, Grammy nominees, and jubilation over an allegedly improved economy.
It’s deception at the highest level.
A compliant media, and allegedly politically and morally aware celebrities and musicians remain deafeningly silent. Bruce Springsteen is photographed wearing a T-shirt that calls for a Trumpless America free of alleged future fascism, is tagged as a “legend,” not for his musical career, but for being anti-Trump, all while deliberately ignoring the current ongoing fascism perpetuated by the current power structure of the Biden administration.
The energy I saw in the 70s, exemplified by Springsteen uniting with Jackson Browne and other musicians to make the public aware of the dangers of nuclear energy, or Crosby, Stills, Nash, And Young telegraphing the atrocities of the Viet Nam War is a wisp of a memory. This energy, shouldn’t be relegated to wispy memories or nostalgia.
Where are these people NOW?
Apparently, an insider is alleged to have revealed that, on hearing of his extremely low poll numbers, Biden began cursing and shouting, which, for those who have been paying attention, is typical behavior, not atypical.
Biden’s recent State of The Union Speech was reminiscent more of a cage match at a WWE wrestling event than a “report to the nation” with the squinting, slurred oratory, and bizarre shouting. Not that the alleged “opposition party” offered any sane or rational behavior as a counter-example. The speech was largely uninspiring and, in fact, recycled well-worn themes from previous SOTU speeches word for word.
Another point made during the Due Dissidence commentary was that Biden’s public appearances are so stage-managed and controlled that campaign staffers have spent time debating (when they’re not protecting him from spontaneously interacting or responding to press inquiries) I kid you not, how fast Biden should be walking. The slower gait might give voters the impression of the truth: Biden isn’t as agile as he once was, and thus, is weaker. It’s part of the human condition. Walking too fast, on the other hand, might increase the danger that he would trip and fall on his face. The lie, that Biden is as vital as he ever was, must be sustained.
The question in this bizarre charade becomes, “Who is actually in charge of this shit show?”
Chris Hedges, one of the few fearless journalists with a moral center remaining in public and social media discourse, recently noted that Christian Fascism will be Joe Biden’s parting gift to America:
“Joe Biden and the Democratic Party made a Trump presidency possible once and look set to make it possible again. If Trump returns to power, it will not be due to Russian interference, voter suppression or because the working class is filled with irredeemable bigots and racists. It will be because the Democrats are as indifferent to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza as they are to immigrants, the poor in our impoverished inner cities, those driven into bankruptcy by medical bills, credit card debt and usurious mortgages, those discarded, especially in rural America, by waves of mass layoffs and workers, trapped in the serfdom of the gig economy, with its job instability and suppressed wages.
Biden and the Democrats, along with the Republican Party, gutted antitrust enforcement and deregulated banks and corporations, allowing them to cannibalize the nation. They backed legislation in 1982 to green light the manipulation of stocks through massive buybacks and the “harvesting” of companies by private equity firms that resulted in mass layoffs. They pushed through onerous trade deals, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, the greatest betrayal of the working class since the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which crippled union organizing. They were full partners in the construction of the vast archipelagos of the U.S. prison system — the largest in the world — and the militarization of police to turn them into internal armies of occupation. They fund the endless wars.
The Democrats dutifully serve their corporate masters, without whom most of them, including Biden, would not have a political career. This is why Biden and the Democrats will not turn on those who are destroying our economy and extinguishing our democracy. The slops in the trough would dry up. Advocating reforms jeopardize their fiefdoms of privilege and power. They fancy themselves as “captains of the ship,” labor journalist Hamilton Nolan writes, but they are “actually the wood-eating shipworms who are consuming the thing from inside until it sinks.”
So, if the “choices” are between Christian fascism or Neoliberal fascism, slow poison or quick poison, war abroad, or war at home, we have most certainly come to the point of no return.
All we can do is protest the worst of it and hope for better times because friends, ultimately it will be totally up to us.
Thanks for your interest and support.
Update: 3/22/2024 It is clear now that the US role in the ongoing genocide of Gazans has been stepped up. In this excellent article by Substack writer Bill Astore, a military veteran, it is noted that :
Currently, there is also bipartisan posturing in a race to see which party can rush to invite Netanyahu to address Congress. A typical voter might ask, how does the leader of a nation commiting war crimes get the chance to plead a case personally to Congress, amplified by corporate media? From Axios:
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday signaled he won't stand in the way of inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress.
Why it matters: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said earlier on Thursday he planned to invite Netanyahu to address at least the House — with or without Schumer's go-ahead.
"We'll certainly extend that invitation," Johnson said on CNBC's "Squawk Box," adding, "I'm the one that extends the invitations to speak in the House, and if we just have the House, that's fine too."
Johnson said he has also been invited to address the Israeli Knesset and "we're just trying to work out schedules on all this."
The latest: Schumer, in a statement, said Israel "has no stronger ally than the United States and our relationship transcends any one president or any one Prime Minister."
"I will always welcome the opportunity for the Prime Minister of Israel to speak to Congress in a bipartisan way," he added.
A Schumer spokesperson told Axios that Johnson hadn't discussed the invitation with Schumer as of Thursday morning.
Between the lines: A senior Israeli official had told Axios that Schumer's sign off would be essential, saying the Israeli leader "isn't going to come and speak in front of half of Congress."
Also, see this post from writer and statistician Stephen Semler