The NY Times today reports that French companies Airbus and Areva (nuclear power) have signed $26.7 billion worth of contracts with China during a visit there by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. With the US dollar in a graveyard spiral, conspicuously absent from the report is the word "communism" and the words reserved for articles about the US' current enemies, North Korea and Iran, "centrifuges" and "nuclear terrorism." People with good memories might remember that the propaganda event that got "Red China" off the US' enemies list was their ping pong team's visit to the US. Does that mean that Ahmadinejad should stop harping about relocating the Zionists and take up table tennis? You can see the Times report and my satrical cartoon to go with it by clicking here.
There's a funny joke about Bush and Saint Peter going around the internet. I thought the ending was a bit weak so I started to modify it. In the process it turned into a one act play. You can read it by clicking here.
Andrew Meyer, a student at the University of Florida, was attacked by a squad of integrated, equal opportunity cops after he asked speaker Senator John Kerry a question. Meyer asked, since Bush was threatening to attack Iran, why wasn't Kerry trying to impeach Bush in order to stop him. A video of it wound up on YouTube. It was vintage Third Reich. Only the color of the uniforms and the high-tech electro-shock equipment was different. Read my comments and access a link to the video by clicking here.
Two professors at the University of Chicago have just published a book documenting the extraordinary influence Israel has over US foreign policy. The Times, having decided to review the book, was faced with having to accept or refute the professors' findings. Well, it did neither. See my cartoon interpreting what they actually did by clicking here.
With public support for the US aggression against Iraq sinking toward negative numbers, the Bush regime's propaganda machine is running low on ideas. The latest ploy is to send a General, who knows what he's supposed to say, on a fact-finding mission. The last time this was tried was at the threshold of the Vietnam War. Read the history by clicking here.
On September 2, 2007 Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq on his way to Australia. The Reuters pool photographer provided the photo coverage. The NY Times used 5 of these photos in the course of the following day to illustrate its account of Bush's visit. The first of these appears to be a revealing sight gag by Bush. Read my interpretation by clicking here.
If you can arrange to be attacked you can be sure of roaring support from the media-sated population, but if you can add a dash of altruism, like spreading democracy, you can even get bleeding-heart, but empty-headed, liberals to join the Greek chorus of support for the imperialist carnage. As World War I dragged on and the public belatedly began to ask questions, the governments, as the executive committees of their respective elites, took pains to assure their publics that they had no intent to gain control of territory at the losers' expense. This war was all about defending democracy and the national honor against barbarism. It must be one of the great coincidences of all time that Britain, and to a lesser extent France, gained control of the Arabian Peninsula and its oil wealth after WW1, that this was previously controlled by Turkey, that Turkey was on the losing side of the war, that British companies are still among the dominant oil companies in the region, and that the invasion of Iraq was an Anglo-American enterprise. The NY Times today provides us with a perfect example of the altruism of this international oil Mafia which has extended across two world wars and countless bloody interventions. You can see one of the victims of this altruism by clicking here.
As their latest Wall Street Ponzi scheme threatens to go sour, the Apostles of the Free Market are ranting for the US Treasury to bail them out. You can read and watch their rants by clicking here.
In its edition of July 31, the LA Times published an article on Toyota's introduction of a new lower priced Prius. Discreetly tucked into the prose at the end of the article, the reporter revealed three measures taken by the federal and California authorities which will discourage sales of this most popular and fuel efficient vehicle. The enormous gap between what the political State preaches and what it actually does demanded satire. You can read my contribution to late-Capitalism's three-ring circus by clicking here.
In 1967 Captain Howard Levy rocked the US Army and the elites it serves by refusing to train Green Beret units prior to their deployment to Vietnam. Howard was court martialed and sentenced to three years imprisonment at hard labor, but his example lives on. I visited him while he was locked up awaiting his Court Martial. You can read my description of that visit by clicking here.
Here's a little animated cartoon illustrating two kinds of learning curves. In the first, the victim learns after two mistakes. In the second, indicating insanity, he never gets it. You can see it by clicking here.
A member of Congress from Minnesota has finally said it in public. This may be the ultimate proof that Bush is a "lame duck" as far as retaliating against a US congressman is concerned, but in September of 2002 a member of Chancellor Schröder's cabinet was fired for making just such a comparison. You can read my commentary on this belated outrage from the 0.1 side of the 1.1 party state by clicking here.
The class war rages all the time, but sometimes it rages more than usual. Like when it comes time to pay for a military defeat. Read an example of how it gets reported from the other side by clicking here.
Is Bush an anomaly or is he just a moronic patsy and a willing front man? Are only Republicans war criminals? If you think so then think again. Vietnam was the Democrat's war and this film clip from the movie Sir. No Sir! will remind you of what it was like. Add that to what we know is going on now and the conclusion is that the criminal continuity lies in the system itself, independently of who's signing the papers. Watch it by clicking here. [It's an 11.7 MB Windows Media file.]
Is it a coincidence that global warming is a hot topic just as defeat in Iraq is staring the US in the face? In this essay I recap the historical context of Nixon's declaration of Earth Day and conclude from the parallels today that "Global Warming" is a tactic for keeping the "intellectuals" busy and off the scent. Read it by clicking here.
A poem?! Are we getting senile? This year's G8 Conference was hosted by Germany. Under the G8's principle of a rotating presidency, this year it was German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany hosted the conference. The location was Heiligendamm, a beautiful summer resort on the Baltic coast just west of Rostock. The conference ended on Friday, June 8th. As part of a photo op the 9 representatives (8 plus the representative of the European Union) sat in what the Germans call a Strandkorb, literally a "beach basket" which is a chair woven of basket material and customarily used on beaches. It so happened that the seating arrangements in this "beach basket" put Angela Merkel between Vladimir Putin and George Bush. While sitting in this absurd object Merkel got into a peculiar pose with respect to Putin and Bush and at just that moment a photographer snapped the three of them. The NY Times published the picture and it suggested a poem to me. Read it by clicking here.
A music video?! Are we getting senile? It's Lotte Lenya singing Mac the Knife from the Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht musical The Three Penny Opera. The graphics are by me. It's a 7.3 MB windows media file. With a good DSL connection it will download in about 10 seconds. If you are limited to a dial-up connection send me an email and I'll fix up something for you. Watch it and you can diagnose the senility, if any, by clicking here.
Yesterday, Senator Boxer (D-CA) sent an email to her constituents in which she briefly gave the history and significance of Memorial Day, including her recommendation for observing the holiday. Read my response by clicking here.