- Samuel Beckett, from Waiting for Godot
The current USEmpire's presidential pay-to-play (s)election is playing like a revival of Samuel Beckett's absurdist play – lots of talking about stuff but nothing much really happens. Beckett's English version “is subtitled 'a tragicomedy in two acts.'” [1] In modern theatrical parlance the debates are a reality TV show where, one by one, people get voted off the island.
The cast of potential POTUS characters often appear high on Global War Of Terror Of Drugs (let's acronym call it: Gwotod), and with Afghanistan being the “source of 90% of Earth’s heroin” [2] it raises the question as to why that -stan was really invaded in the first place.
First off, though: “A campaign video... features the Texas senator and GOP presidential hopeful [Ted Cruz] firing off several rounds from a bacon-wrapped AR-15 rifle, and then eating the bacon. 'Mmm, machine-gun bacon,' Cruz says after taking a bite from a plastic fork.” [3]
Then, there's The Donald whose Narcissistic personality disorder (an actual thing) is enough to make a narcissus plant wilt:
That’s not loyalty, that’s mindless blind following, aka insanity.
The venerable Gore Vidal, in an interview with Washington Monthly, 2008 [5], cited an Emperor with some sanity:
Dodging the questions Meanwhile, lest too much fixation on GOPers Trump and Cruz as the only verbal gunslingers, a look elsewhere. While admirably concerned about and taking action to help prevent gun violence (except for calling out the big guns aka USE military budget, 2015 ~$600 billion [6]), Michael Bloomberg (suddenly maybe possibly tossing his hat in the ring of fire) has also been known to make such remarks:
If an average citizen made such machismo remarks that citizen would probably be swooped upon and investigated. But in MainstreamMediaLand, talk has been bastardized and so it spews.
Bloomberg might actually have some business smarts to help better manage a notoriously corrupt system, yet how did the Mayor respond to the Occupy movement? By “...calling out the NYPD thugs and loosing them on the protesting kids, ... denying them portapotties near the Zuccotti Park occupation zone, and ... finally crushing the movement with a night-time assault and police riot that featured clubs, tear gas, mace and mass arrests.” [8]
Is it hot in here or is that The Bern? While appreciating much of what Bernie Sanders says about the home front, my suspicions of getting Berned increased with this: “There would be nothing more in this world that I would like than to take on Donald Trump. We would beat him, and we would beat him badly.” [9] (More than world peace, Bernie?) Add to that Sanders' slogan, “A Future to Believe In,” which reads like an Obama “Change We Can Believe In” fantasy remix, with a dose of dangling messiah JUST out of reach.
My response to The Bern's slogan is further summed up with lyrics from The Doobie Brothers:
In Sanders' favor, a website describes his reluctance to be a warmonger, including this bit: “Bernie Sanders voted against the Iraq War, and believes that while military force is sometimes needed, it should always be the absolute last resort.” [10]
Yet the following examples of his foreign affairs war stance raise questions:
According to Ted Rall, from an interview with Sanders:
In the Peace Dept., all in all he seems the best of the lot... but there's that slogan, and a systemic military-industrial legacy that could easily affect his current pronouncements.
Clinton dynasty? Hillary's a war-hawk. Laura Flanders writes: “I’ve actually read her books, both of them, and I don’t think she’s ever seen a bombing mission she didn’t approve... Clinton’s coming on strong against the gun lobby and the NRA but US arms sales never did better than when she was Secretary of State. She approved what was at the time the largest ever US arms sale to scary Saudi Arabia, even as she acknowledged in Wiki-leaked cables, that that country was world’s leading source of support for Sunni terrorist groups.” [13]
Her husband, as POTUS, was instrumental in policies that have – ironically over time – helped spawn the Black Lives Matter movement. As Michelle Alexander notes in her NYT bestseller, The New Jim Crow:
Also noteworthy:
Thus, War Of Drugs... to control and imprison people, plus Global War Of Terror because, for examples, drones, a form of foreign terrorism (“Drone” - trailer here), and domestically a lot of people are being terrorized through economic warfare and, as The New Jim Crow reveals, through the concern of being jailed for minor, often drug related, offenses.
Meanwhile, as if on drugs, Ben Carson can barely keep his eyes open while talking.
Addictive aberrations Underlying all the fanfare and machismo (yes, Hillary, that includes you) is a bloated military-industrial-complex and a disconnect from caring for Mother Earth and all Her children (which includes all those mentioned herein). War as a vehicle for world domination is not native to the US landmass (known as Turtle Island to the Original Inhabitants); war is a mutant aberration from lack of communing with all of Nature, the elements, and fellow human beings.
Though drugs are not necessarily part and parcel of warfare, they are often connected:
And, corresponding with the post-9/11 escalation of global aggressions:
Chalmers Johnson helped to highlight the extent of the USEmpire's global military bases (currently estimates range from about 800 to 1000). Nick Turse's book The Complex expands on the influences, and in his book Base Nation, “As David Vine demonstrates, the overseas bases raise geopolitical tensions and provoke widespread antipathy toward the United States.” [18]
Whether drug related or not, war is an addictive behavior. Along with the obvious direct horrors, it fosters anxiety, paranoia, depression, and other side effects.
NOTES: 1. "Waiting for Godot” 2. “Heroin Dealer in Chief. Afghanistan, Source of 90% of The World’s Heroin” 3. “Ted Cruz sizzles up 'machine-gun bacon'” 4. "Donald Trump Boasts He Could "Shoot Somebody" and Not Lose Votes” 5. "The Monthly Interview: Gore Vidal” 6. National Priorities Project 7. "Bloomberg tells Paterson to cowboy up, crack down on Senecas selling tax-free smokes on NY thruway” 8. “Bloomberg: a Candidate of, By and For the 0.01%” 9. “Bernie vs. Billionaires: Unafraid of Bloomberg and Would 'Beat Trump Badly'” 10. See here 11. “Bernie Sanders' Troubling History of Supporting US Military Violence Abroad” 12. “Ted Rall’s Bernie Sanders Interview: On Drones, Guns And War” 13. “Who Cares if Hillary is Warm? I Care About Her Wars” 14. The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander, (The New Press, 2010, 2012), p.56. 15. Ibid, pp.49 & p.6. 16. “Vietnam” Drug Use In” 17. “10 Wars and the Drugs That Defined Them” 18. See here http://www.davidvine.net/
Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) is an essayist and resident poet on Axis of Logic. In addition to his work as a writer, he is a small press publisher and Turtle Islander. His recent book is “Drive-thru Theofascism & The Hero's Journey” and the newest is “Dear_______, poem-letters to friends and enemies.” He is working on a new book, “Musings With The Golden Sparrow.” You can contact him via his literary website.
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