A nation can be one or the other, a democracy or an imperialist, but it can’t be both. If it sticks to imperialism, it will, like the old Roman Republic, on which so much of our system was modeled, lose its democracy to a domestic dictatorship. –Chalmers Johnson
In the ordinary course of going about my life—you know: tormenting conservatives, torturing faith healers, smashing the patriarchy, extracting $82 billion worth of amusement for readers out of the Religion-Industrial-Complex, sounding the alarm about the deadly squirrel menace, all the usual stuff—I have found myself repeatedly thinking a very specific sentiment: most US citizens have no idea what our government does or who it serves. And to be clear, by “most,” I mean the vast, overwhelming majority.
This is true for a number of reasons. It starts with our grade schools serving up steaming piles of shit: the noble escapades of Christopher Columbus, the warm and cooperative relationship between Native Americans and European colonialists we celebrate as a national holiday, a justice system that produces justice, our fearless and vaunted adversarial press, the great cause of democracy for which US citizens routinely sacrifice blood and treasure all over the world, the moral meritocracy of capitalism and The American Dream™, and on and on. Don’t even get me started on the myths we are fed about race. NEWSFLASH: there is no part of U.S. history or culture that is not inexorably linked to Africans dragged to this country in chains, and forced to work under the most brutal conditions imaginable, thereby amassing great wealth for America’s Owners. It continues to this day.
And then of course our rancid corporate media piles it on, 24/7/365, its sins of omission frequently far greater than its whitewashing of reality. We USians are surely among the most propagandized populations in the world, ever. The fog is so thick, we choke on it.
But this is what a ruling class does. This is what a ruling class has always done, and will always do. And so, quite understandably, most US citizens have no idea what our government does or who it serves.
Most US Citizens Have No Idea What Our Government Does Or Who It Serves.
MUSCHNIWOGDOWIS
#muschniwogdowis
♥♥♥!!!
OMG don’t you love it?! I LOVE IT. This ingenious new hashtag is guaranteed to be trending worldwide on Twitter. Any minute now.
Okay, maybe it’s a little clunky. Also: practically unpronounceable. But I am nevertheless finding it very, very useful.
Today’s demonstration of its utility comes courtesy of this headline in The Nation: The Obama Administration Has Brokered More Weapons Sales Than Any Other Administration Since World War II. You can read the whole thing for yourself for a nice overview of how it all works, though not all the nasty little devils in the details. But the takeaway is this: the Executive Branch of the US government, from the Pentagon to the State Department to the Commander-in-Chief, is a dedicated worldwide sales force shilling for Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Northrup Grumman.
Here is one example of how it works:
Take the administration’s proposed new 10-year aid deal with Israel. If enacted as currently planned, it would boost US military assistance to that country by up to 25 percent—to roughly $4 billion per year. At the same time, it would phase out a provision that had allowed Israel to spend one-quarter of Washington’s aid developing its own defense industry. In other words, all that money, the full $4 billion in taxpayer dollars, will now flow directly into the coffers of companies like Lockheed Martin, which is in the midst of completing a multi-billion-dollar deal to sell the Israelis F-35s.
What looks like a $40 billion US taxpayer gift to Israel is actually a $40 billion US taxpayer gift to Lockheed Martin. Israeli citizens, by the way, enjoy excellent universal health care, including mental health treatment and dental care for their kids. Unlike, say, the very same US citizens shelling out that $40 billion.
Hell, why not just hand it over directly to Lockheed, with the tiny little caveat that it reincorporate itself as a non-profit? (Hahaha. Oh man, sometimes I really crack myself up.)
__________
I remember reading something somewhere sometime about war profiteering once being considered an unconscionable crime, if you can believe it. Moneymaking from warmaking is evil, generating as it does massive profits for an elite few out of volatility and violence for the many. Now it is quite literally the American Way.
The ‘defense’ budget is three quarters of a trillion dollars. Profits went up last year well over 25%. I guarantee you: when war becomes that profitable, we’re going to see more of it. –Chalmers Johnson
In closing, ask yourself this question: if America’s Owners (the permanent power factions in Washington DC, a.k.a. the deep state) are perfectly willing to bomb and invade sovereign countries at will, to destabilize and violently overthrow the democratically elected leftist governments of countries whose resources they feel entitled to exploit and install brutal tyrants to guarantee unimpeded access, to assassinate and neutralize labor activists, minority and indigenous organizers or indeed anyone who poses even a minor threat to the profit-making schemes from which they so richly benefit, do you believe for one second that they will ever allow leftists in the US to amass sufficient power to turn the ship of state 180 degrees and put it to work creating more just, peaceful, equitable and sustainable societies?
Aww fuck, I’m sorry. That was a loooong question. Makes my new acronym seem downright pithy by comparison, doesn’t it?
#muschniwogdowis.
Have a nice day.
I’m feeling you, Cousin; I’m feeling you.
Lao Tze
If I hadn’t already lost count, I would ask permission to add your name to the list of those who’ve told me that, if Bernie Sanders won the presidency, he would be promptly assassinated.
Nope. I have a post up about that so-called Amerikkan Exceptionalism. Countries all over the world are trying to tackle serious issues, and doing a kick ass job of it. About the only thing you can say for uStates is that there are laws against anything helpful, beneficial, and making a change for the better, but all the laws for guns.
Raucous Indignation: Thank you. I feel…felt.
Marcus Ranum: Thinkers like that have an unfortunate propensity to go extinct. :|
Pierce R. Butler: If not assassinated, otherwise neutralized.
Caine: I agree 100%. And to add fuel to that dumpster fire, the Citizens United and McCutcheon SCOTUS decisions essentially legalized unlimited bribery. Incidentally, the Raw Story post you linked is basically the plot summary of Michael Moore’s last film, Where To Invade Next. Must see TV.
I just googlelearned that USAmericans do not actually vote directly for the President but rather indirectly through some indirect thingy.
USAmericans do vote directly for congresscritters and other things.
and yet all of the attention is on voting for the President.
Why is that?
chigau (違う), chigau (違う), chigau (違う). Because REASONS, that’s why!
iris #7
Mano has recent post about cricket terminology.
link
That was easier to understand than your link.
also
I am OK with plain chigau. The parenthetic is … parenthetic.
chigau (違う) 8: The point I intended (and utterly failed) to make is that our electoral college is designed to ensure that We the People do not actually have the power to choose a president who is unacceptable to America’s Owners, exactly like the superdelegate system in the Democratic Party primaries.
Apologies for the confusion. In my defense*, when I responded to your comment I was (a) on my phone, (b) with shitty Wifi, (c) engaging in scintillating conversation with at least one very distracting hottie, and (d) drinking copious amounts of Vermentino.
*I used to operate under a very strict rule: Don’t drink and blog. But I found that it interfered waaaay too much with my drinking, so it had to go.
chigau 9: duly noted. Thank you.
iris
It’s all good.
I don’t think I am so much ‘confused’ as revolted.
.
I don’t blog but I have been known to comment.
Almost always while consuming copious amounts of Vermentino-equivalent.
.
After a night of drinking/commenting, breakfast-tea internetting can be interesting.
And no, “they” will never allow a transfer of an iota of power. It will need to be taken by force, as all social progress always has been.
And while I love Vermentino, I will note that I was not the hottie distracting you.
I don’t think the problem is necessarily the ones at the top but also a multitude at the bottom. Yea the average person is soaked in propaganda but the thing is they like it that way. I can’t count the number of blue collar guys, of all ethnicities, I have talked to while running inspections on job sites who are gleeful at the prospect of killing some(insert racial or religious epithet). Even when they are shown a better way they don’t care and blow you and your facts off. It’s deep in the culture Americans are always looking for the next Maffick.
MUSCHNIWOGDOWIS
That perfectly matches the metrical line rhythm of the 1970 Crosby, Stills and Nash tune — “Love the one your with” ….sing it a few times, preferably in a three part harmony,…Musch Niwog Dowis