And you know your chief ally will do absolutely nothing in retaliation,
You build more illegal settlements and say “fuck you!”
Gorilla says: “Calling a non-bluff is pretty easy!”
Posts Tagged ‘US’
When You’re Not Serious About Peace
Thursday, August 11th, 2011Libya Is Bahrain: Both Are Only About Oil
Monday, March 14th, 2011Why are Americans getting all heated up about Libya using brutal force to keep a dictator in power, while our ally Saudi Arabia has just invaded Bahrain to do exactly the same thing?
Let’s see: a foreign invasion by a neighboring country to prop up a repressive minority government, sound familiar?
It was called Yugoslavia, and for NATO it was bombs away. Have to stop the genocide, after all!!!
Nowadays, as then, we don’t do much to stop genocide when there’s oil at stake.
Gaddafi may be a lunatic, but invading Libya and the Japanese earthquake together might take the price of oil up to $300/barrel or more.
It’s just not something a US President wants to do in the year before his reelection campaign, particularly when he’s already losing two pointless wars.
Similarly, Bahrain’s a minor oil kingdom, but pissing off the Saudis is something we simply cannot afford to do.
So, our President is playing this right. He’s doing as little as he possibly can about Bahrain and Libya.
It’s not the moral high ground, but we no longer occupy that space, what with the torture, the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the secret prisons, and the overseas detention camps.
And there’s no more appetite in DC for doing something about energy policy than there is for doing something about unemployment.
Gorilla says: “Staying safe and cozy in a parallel universe of denial is pretty much all America does these days!”
Average Is As Average Does
Tuesday, December 7th, 2010How to explain the rise of the far right Know Nothings, the ones who are funded by America’s plutocrats?
Or the ongoing desire of our President to screw his own supporters with a deal that does nothing about unemployment and provides said plutocrats with even more lucre?
Look no further than the NY Times chart on international educational levels:
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/12/07/education/07education_graph.html?ref=education
As a nation, we are breathtakingly average when it comes to our attainments: lousy in math and science, can just about read and write!
Gorilla says: “Exceptionalism means never having to say you’re pig ignorant!”
Flying To Another Failure
Friday, December 3rd, 2010The President has landed in Afghanistan, where he’ll decide:
1) The war continues to be a complete waste of time and treasure. We’ll start pulling out next year.
2) The war continues to be a cheap and cynical political trick for a politician who seems totally out of touch with reality. We’ll stay another 4 years, with an option for another 40.
3) The war continues to be the only serious US jobs program going. The jobs are all going to Afghans, presumably because of a shortage of corrupt, medieval warlords and/or drug mules.
4) The war continues to be an opportunity to discriminate against the LGBT community. John McCain never met an asshole he didn’t like and/or resemble.
5) The war continues to be the only fight left to lose for a rudderless, leaderless, contemptible American political class.
Gorilla says: “Ringing the changes on failure is a melancholy dirge indeed!”
Pasta With Fools
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010The news from Euroland keeps getting grimmer…
Today, it’s Italy and Spain, but the larger issue remains: extend and pretend isn’t working on either side of the Atlantic and the day of reckoning is fast approaching.
For Euroland, the problem is straightforward: the PIIGS are going to default, the only questions are how big the haircuts will be and whether the euro currency regime survives.
For the US, bank loan losses have still not been fully marked to market, and they are substantial: several trillion dollars.
There will be at least another 5-10 years of high unemployment and deflation until and unless politicians get serious about creating jobs (vastly more stimulus is needed, on the order of $2 trillion/year for the next 3-5 years) and enforcing moral hazard (politicians cannot continue being wholly owned subsidiaries of a bankrupt Wall Street, and house prices need to fall another 20-30%).
With the Know Nothings guaranteeing another 2 years of stagnation and gridlock in Washington, it’s difficult to be anything other than pessimistic about the rest of this decade.
Gorilla says: “When we have no leaders, we’re all bottom feeders!”
Longing For…
Sunday, November 28th, 20101) A rational discussion about actual US national security and foreign policy, rather than another breathless, useless trove of information that demonstrates how much money we waste on the pursuit and classification of stupidity.
2) A national leader who will say: “Here is my jobs program, which envisions hiring 25 million Americans in the next 12 months to fix our woefully under repaired, under educated, and under compassionate country, and is the first one in living memory that is not based on giving rich people more money”.
3) A national leader who will say: “Here is my financial services program, the first one in living memory that is not based on impoverishing millions so that corrupt, predatory and failed bankers are made whole”.
4) A national leader who will say: “I don’t give a shit about what the deficit might be in 20 years, I think hiring more people and significantly downsizing the healthcare and financial services industries right now will pretty much take care of everything in the future. If I’m wrong, feel free to call me out in 20 years”.
5) A national leader who will say: “Henceforth I will not waste any more time and treasure on Iraq, Afghanistan, Middle East peace, North Korea, terrorism, counterinsurgency, the war on drugs, and Iran. These are minor issues and/or fifth-rate nations not worthy of anyone’s attention.”
Gorilla says needs must: “A fresh start on the road back from nowhere!”
Out For A Bout
Thursday, August 26th, 2010Russia’s not happy about US attempts to extradite the Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
The suspicion on the US side is that the Russian government is protecting Bout, while the Russians may be worried that Bout will spill the beans in a US court.
It’s hard to assess which side is being more breathtakingly hypocritical.
Russia and America are among the world’s largest arms dealers, and they, like Bout, have certainly provided weaponry to some very dubious regimes.
Gorilla says: “The reset button is reading tilt again!”
Same Headlines, Same Result
Monday, July 19th, 2010Pakistan’s Elite Pay Few Taxes, Widening Wealth Gap
Tax Bills In 2009 At Lowest Level Since 1950
Gorilla says: “We’re not Pakistan, we just play with them on TV!”
A Crisis Of Inaction
Monday, March 15th, 2010Why? Because the Israelis continue to build illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jersualem and are not serious about negotiating with the Palestinians about peace.
Nothing changes of course, because the US isn’t really willing to take the Israelis on: there’s zero support in Congress for reducing or conditioning the billions in aid we give to the Israelis each year.
So, we get this diplomatic dance of dunces: Joe Biden gets huffy, Benjamin Netanyahu gets semi-apologetic, and on the ground the status quo is maintained and worsens.
Gorilla says: “The settlement horse left the barn nearly 30 years ago, he won’t be returned!”
La Bouilloire Est Noire
Friday, March 12th, 2010Mais oui, there’s almost nothing as amusing as listening to a French President lecturing the United States about protectionism!
Angry at what he saw as the Pentagon rigging a tanker aircraft deal in favor of the US supplier Boeing, and yes, they certainly did so at the behest of the US Congress, M. Sarkozy puts it: “In life there is what you say and then there is what you do.”
Of course, if it’s a European company trying to compete in France against the French electric company, you can bet your last freedom fry that M. Sarkozy will say: “Non!”
Protectionism, whether of the professional classes by the United States or of the farming classes by the US and the EU, is a fact of life.
Despite what the Know Nothing Party may believe, there’s no such thing as free trade.
Gorilla says: “Comme M. Sarkozy, je suis un pot qui veut être libre!”
