Showing posts with label Republican. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Republican. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Summary of Reality Today

THE ABSURD TIMES




 

Illustration: The reason we are after Assad (same ones as Gaddafi and Saddam)




Summary of Reality Today

            by

Czar Donic





            Far too many idiotic things have been going on lately that we were at a loss as to how to address them.  We have better things to do than communicate facts and truths to those morons (the bulk of the world, with the largest concentration in the U.S.) who simply will not understand.  There are simply too many things going on, and going on wrong, to even hope to scratch the surface.

            At this point, enter Noam Chomsky who is able to deal with many of them in one lecture or speech.  We simply reproduce it below.  Much of this material will sound very Orwellian to many and all is true and accurate as well.  We suspect that he wears his hair so strangely these days, in addition to keeping a soft monologue, simply not to appear as dangerous to those in power.

            Later, there is a question and answer session and that will be presented separately, in another edition.  One question that may not seem clear is why the republicans are no longer really a Party.  The answer can perhaps be understood by likening it to a swarm of termites.  Each particular member has a very limited intelligence and purpose, but just like a swarm of termites, or an ant colony, collectively, somehow working together, they adapt and focus merely on their own survival and growth until they threaten to overwhelm any opposition or kill their host and thereby die out.  In such cases they become less lethal until most host becomes available and then they become even more virulent. 

            Here, then, is his speech that covers the mideast and imperialism along with domestic oppression of the truth:

         TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2015

Noam Chomsky on George Orwell, the Suppression of Ideas and the Myth of American Exceptionalism

In a Democracy Now! special, we spend the hour with Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned political dissident, linguist, author and institute professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he's taught for more than half a century. Chomsky has written more than 100 books, including his latest, "Because We Say So," a collection of his monthly columns. On Saturday, Chomsky spoke before a sold-out audience of nearly 1,000 people at The New School's John L. Tishman Auditorium in New York City. In a speech titled "On Power and Ideology," he discussed the persistence of U.S. exceptionalism, Republican efforts to torpedo the Iran nuclear deal, and the normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Today, in a Democracy Now! special, we spend the hour with Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned political dissident, linguist, author and institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he's taught for more than half a century. Noam Chomsky has penned more than a hundred books; his newest, Because We Say So, a collection of his columns.
On Saturday, Chomsky spoke before a sold-out audience of nearly 1,000 people at The New School's Auditorium here in New York City. Chomsky discussed the persistence of U.S. exceptionalism, Republican efforts to torpedo the Iran nuclear deal and the normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations. Professor Chomsky also explained why he believes the U.S. and its closest allies, namely Saudi Arabia and Israel, are undermining prospects for peace in the Middle East. His speech was titled "On Power and Ideology."
NOAM CHOMSKY: The role of concentrated power in shaping the ideological framework that dominates perception, interpretation, discussion, choice of action, all of that is too familiar to require much comment. Tonight I'd like to discuss a critically important example, but first a couple of words on one of the most perceptive analysts of this process, George Orwell.
Orwell is famous for his searching and sardonic critique of the way thought is controlled by force under totalitarian dystopia. But much less known is his discussion of how similar outcomes are achieved in free societies. He's speaking, of course, of England. And he wrote that although the country is quite free, nevertheless unpopular ideas can be suppressed without the use of force. Gave a couple of examples, provided a few words of explanation, which were to the point. One particularly pertinent comment was his observation on a quality education in the best schools, where it is instilled into you that there are certain things that it simply wouldn't do to say—or, we may add, even to think. One reason why not much attention is paid to this essay is that it wasn't published. It was found decades later in his unpublished papers. It was intended as the introduction to his famous Animal Farm, bitter satire of Stalinist totalitarianism. Why it wasn't published is apparently unknown, but I think perhaps you can speculate.
Orwell's observations on thought control under freedom come to mind in considering the raging debate today about the Iran nuclear deal, which currently occupies center stage. I should say it's a raging debate in the United States, virtually alone. In almost everywhere else, the deal has been greeted with relief and optimism and without even a parliamentary review. This is one of the many striking examples of the famous concept of American exceptionalism.
The fact that America is an exceptional nation is regularly intoned by virtually every political figure, and, I think more revealingly, the same is true of prominent academic and public intellectuals. Can select almost at random. Take, for example, the professor of the science of government at Harvard. He's a distinguished liberal scholar, government adviser. He's writing in Harvard's prestigious journal,International Security, and there he explains that unlike other countries, the "national identity" of the United States is "defined by a set of universal political and economic values," namely "liberty, democracy, equality, private property, and markets." So the U.S. has a solemn duty to maintain its "international primacy" for the benefit of the world. And since this is a matter of definition, we can dispense with the tedious work of empirical verification, so I won't spend any time on that.
Or let's turn to the leading left-liberal intellectual journal, The New York Review. There, a couple of months ago, we read from the former chair of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that "American contributions to international security, global economic growth, freedom, and human well-being have been so self-evidently unique and have been so clearly directed to others' benefit that Americans have long believed that the [United States] amounts to a different kind of country." While others push their national interest, the United States "tries to advance universal principles." No evidence is given because it's again a matter of definition. And it's very easy to continue.
It's only fair to add that there's nothing at all exceptional about this. American exceptionalism was standard for every great power, very familiar from other imperial states in their days in the sun—Britain, France, others. And this is true, interestingly, even from very honorable figures from whom one might have expected better—so, John Stuart Mill, for example, in England, to mention a significant case—which raises interesting questions about intellectual life and intellectual standards.
Well, in some respects, American exceptionalism is not in doubt. I just mentioned one example: the current Iran nuclear deal. Now, here the exceptionalism of the United States, its isolation, is dramatic and stark. There are actually many other cases, but this is the one I'd like to think about this evening. And in fact, U.S. isolation might soon increase. The Republican organization—I hesitate to say "party"—is dedicated to undermining the deal, in interesting ways, with the kind of unanimity that one doesn't find in political parties, though it's familiar in such former organizations as the old Communist Party—democratic centralism, everyone has to say the same thing. That's one of many indications that the Republicans are no longer a political party in the normal sense, despite pretensions, commentary and so on.
AMY GOODMAN: Noam Chomsky, speaking Saturday at The New School in New York. When we come back, he addresses Iran, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the U.S. presidential elections, in a moment.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2015

Noam Chomsky: The United States, Not Iran, Poses Greatest Threat to World Peace

In a speech Saturday at The New School in New York, Noam Chomsky explained why he believes the U.S. poses the greatest threat to world peace. "[The United States] is a rogue state, indifferent to international law and conventions, entitled to resort to violence at will. … Take, for example, the Clinton doctrine—namely, the United States is free to resort to unilateral use of military power, even for such purposes as to ensure uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies and strategic resources—let alone security or alleged humanitarian concerns. And adherence to this doctrine is very well confirmed and practiced, as need hardly be discussed among people willing to look at the facts of current history." Chomsky also explained why he believes the U.S. and its closest allies, namely Saudi Arabia and Israel, are undermining prospects for peace in the Middle East. "When we say the international community opposes Iran's policies or the international community does some other thing, that means the United States and anybody else who happens to be going along with it."

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We spend the hour with MIT professor, author, activist, political dissident, Noam Chomsky. Over the weekend, he spoke to a packed audience at The New School here in New York City.
NOAM CHOMSKY: The former Republican Party has now become a "radical insurgency" that's abandoned parliamentary politics. I'm quoting two highly respected, very conservative political commentators, Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein of the right-wing American Enterprise Institute. And in fact, they may succeed in increasing sanctions, and even secondary sanctions on other countries, and carry out other actions that could lead Iran to opt out of the deal with the United States—with the United States, that is. That, however, need not mean that the agreement is nullified. Contrary to the way it's sometimes presented here, it's not a U.S.-Iran agreement. It's an agreement between Iran and what's called P5+1, the five veto-holding members of the Security Council plus Germany. And the other participants might agree to proceed—Iran, as well. They would then join China and India, which have already been finding ways to evade the U.S. constraints on interactions with Iran. And in fact, if they do, they'll join the large majority of the world's population, the Non-Aligned Movement, which all along has vigorously supported Iran's right to pursue its nuclear programs as a member of the NPT. But remember that they are not part of the international community. So when we say the international community opposes Iran's policies or the international community does some other thing, that means the United States and anybody else who happens to be going along with it, so we can dismiss them. If others continue to honor the deal, which could happen, the United States will be isolated from the world, which is not an unfamiliar position.
That's also the background for the other element of Obama's—what's called Obama's legacy, his other main foreign policy achievement, the beginning of normalization of relations with Cuba. On Cuba, the United States has been almost totally isolated for decades. If you look, say, at the annual votes in the U.N. General Assembly on the U.S. embargo, they're rarely reported, but the U.S. essentially votes alone. The last one Israel joined. But, of course, Israel violates the embargo; they just have to join, because have to join with the master. Occasionally, the Marshall Islands or Palau or someone else joins. And in the hemisphere, the United States has been totally isolated for years. The main hemispheric conferences have foundered because the United States will simply not join the rest of the hemisphere in the major issues that are discussed. Last one in Colombia, the two major issues were admitting Cuba into the hemisphere—U.S. and Canada refused, everyone else agreed—and the U.S. drug war, which is devastating Latin America, and they want to get out of it, but the U.S. and Canada don't agree. Now that's actually the background for Obama's acceptance of steps towards normalization of relations with Cuba. Another hemispheric conference was coming up in Panama, and if the United States had not made that move, it probably would have been thrown out of the hemisphere, so therefore Obama made what's called here a noble gesture, a courageous move to end Cuba's isolation, although in reality it was U.S. isolation that was the motivating factor.
So if the United States ends up being almost universally isolated on Iran, that won't be anything particularly new, and in fact there are quite a few other cases. Well, in the case of Iran, the reasons for U.S. concerns are very clearly and repeatedly articulated: Iran is the gravest threat to world peace. We hear that regularly from high places—government officials, commentators, others—in the United States. There also happens to be a world out there, and it has its own opinions. It's quite easy to find these out from standard sources, like the main U.S. polling agency. Gallup polls takes regular polls of international opinion. And one of the questions it posed—it's posed is: Which country do you think is the gravest threat to world peace? The answer is unequivocal: the United States by a huge margin. Way behind in second place is Pakistan—it's inflated, surely, by the Indian vote—and then a couple of others. Iran is mentioned, but along with Israel and a few others, way down. That's one of the things that it wouldn't do to say, and in fact the results that are found by the leading U.S. polling agency didn't make it through the portals of what we call the free press. But it doesn't go away for that reason.
Well, given the reigning doctrine about the gravity of the Iranian threat, we can understand the virtually unanimous stand that the United States is entitled to react with military force—unilaterally, of course—if it claims to detect some Iranian departure from the terms of the agreement. So, again, picking an example virtually at random from the national press, consider the lead editorial last Sunday in The Washington Post. It calls on Congress—I'll quote—to "make clear that Mr. Obama or his successor will have support for immediate U.S. military action if an Iranian attempt to build a bomb is detected"—meaning by the United States. So the editors, again, make it clear that the United States is exceptional. It's a rogue state, indifferent to international law and conventions, entitled to resort to violence at will. But the editors can't be faulted for that stand, because it's almost universal among the political class in this exceptional nation, though what it means is, again, one of those things that it wouldn't do to say.
Sometimes the doctrine takes quite a remarkable form, and not just on the right, by any means. So take, for example, the Clinton doctrine—namely, the United States is free to resort to unilateral use of military power, even for such purposes as to ensure uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies and strategic resources—let alone security or alleged humanitarian concerns. And adherence to this doctrine is very well confirmed and practiced, as need hardly be discussed among people willing to look at the facts of current history.
Well, The Washington Post editors also make clear why the United States should be prepared to take such extreme steps in its role of international primacy. If the United States is not prepared to resort to military force, they explain, then Iran may—I'm quoting—Iran may "escalate its attempt to establish hegemony over the Middle East by force." That's what the president, President Obama, calls Iran's aggression, which we have to contain. For those who are unaware of how Iran has been attempting to establish hegemony over the Middle East by force—or might even dream of doing so—the editors do give examples, two examples: its support for the Assad regime and for Hezbollah. Well, I won't insult your intelligence by discussing this demonstration that Iran has been seeking to establish hegemony over the region by force; however, on Iranian aggression, there is an example—I think one in the last several hundred years—namely, Iranian conquest of two Arab islands in the Gulf under the U.S.-backed regime of the Shah in the 1970s.
Well, these shocking Iranian efforts to establish regional hegemony by force can be contrasted with the actions of U.S. allies—for example,NATO ally Turkey, which is actively supporting the jihadi forces in Syria. The support is so strong that it appears that Turkey helped its allies in the al-Nusra Front, the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, to kill and capture the few dozen fighters that were introduced into Syria by the Pentagon a few weeks ago. It's the result of several years and who knows how many billions of dollars of training. They did enter and were immediately captured or killed, apparently with the aid of Turkish intelligence. Well, more important than that is the central role of the leading U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia, for the jihadi rebels in Syria and Iraq, and, more generally, for Saudi Arabia having been—I'm quoting—"a major source of financing to rebel and terrorist organizations since the 1980s." That's from a study, recent study, by the European Parliament, repeating what's well known. And still more generally, the missionary zeal with which Saudi Arabia promulgates its radical, extremist, Wahhabi-Safafi doctrines by establishing Qur'anic schools, mosques, sending radical clerics throughout the Muslim world, with enormous impact. One of the closest observers of the region, Patrick Cockburn, writes that the "Wahhabisation" by Saudi Arabia—"The 'Wahhabisation' of mainstream Sunni Islam is one of the most dangerous developments of our era"—always with strong U.S. support. These are all things that wouldn't do to mention, along with the fact that these pernicious developments are a direct outgrowth of the long-term tendency of the United States, picking up from Britain before it, to support radical Islam in opposition to secular nationalism. These are long-standing commitments.
There are others, like U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, who condemn Iran's destabilization of the region. Destabilization is an interesting concept of political discourse. So, for example, when Iran comes to the aid of the government of Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan in defense against the assault of ISIS, that's destabilization, and we have to prevent it, if not aggression, perhaps. In contrast, when the United States invades Iraq and kills a couple hundred thousand people, generates millions of refugees, destroys the country and sets off a sectarian conflict that's tearing Iraq and, by now, the whole region to shreds, and, on the side, increases terrorism worldwide by a factor of seven, just in the first year, that's stabilization, part of our mission that we must continue for the benefit of the world. Actually, the exceptionalism of U.S. doctrinal institutions is quite wondrous to behold.
Well, going on with The Washington Post editors, they join Obama's negotiator, Obama's Clinton negotiator, Dennis Ross, Thomas Friedman, other notables, in calling on Washington to provide Israel with B-52 bombers, and perhaps even the more advanced B-2 bombers, and also huge, what are called massive ordnance penetrators—bunker busters, informally. There's a problem: They don't have airstrips for huge planes like that. But they can use maybe Turkey's airstrips. And none of this is for defense. These are not defensive weapons, remember. All of these weapons are offensive weapons for Israel to use to bomb Iran, if it chooses to do so. And, you know, since Israel is a U.S. client, it inherits from the master the freedom from international law, so nothing surprising about giving it vast supplies of offensive weapons to use when it chooses.
Well, the violation of international law goes well beyond threat; goes to action, including acts of war, which are proudly proclaimed, presumably, because that's our right—as an exceptional nation again. One example is the successful sabotage of Iranian nuclear installations by cyberwar. The Pentagon has views about cyberwar. The Pentagon regards cyberwar as an act of war, which justifies a military response. And a year ago, NATO affirmed the same position, determined that aggression through cyber-attacks can trigger the collective defense obligations of the NATO alliance, meaning if any country is attacked by cyberwar, the whole alliance can respond by military attacks. That means cyberwar attacks against us, not by us against them. And the significance of these stands is, again, something that wouldn't do to mention. And you can check to see that that condition is well observed.
AMY GOODMAN: Noam Chomsky, speaking Saturday at The New School in New York. When we come back, Professor Chomsky continues on the issue of the Middle East, U.S.-Israel relations, presidential politics and Donald Trump. More in a minute.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: In our Democracy Now! special, we continue our full-hour broadcast with Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned political dissident, linguist, author, institute professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he's taught for more than half a century. He's author of more than a hundred books. As we bring you the remainder of his speech, "On Power and Ideology," which he delivered this weekend at The New School here in New York.
NOAM CHOMSKY: Perhaps the United States and Israel are justified in cowering in terror before Iran because of its extraordinary military power. And it's possible to evaluate that concern. For example, you can turn to the authoritative analysis, detailed analysis, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the main source for such information, last April, which conducted and published a long study of the regional military balance. And they find—I'll quote—"a conclusive case that the Arab Gulf states have ... an overwhelming advantage [over] Iran in both military spending and access to modern arms." That's the Gulf Cooperation Council states; that's Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates. They outspend Iran on arms by a factor of eight. It's an imbalance that goes back decades. And their report observes further that "the Arab Gulf states have acquired and are acquiring some of the most advanced and effective weapons in the world [while] Iran has [been essentially] forced to live in the past, often relying on systems originally delivered at the time of the Shah," 40 years ago, which are essentially obsolete. And the imbalance is, of course, even greater with Israel, which, along with the most advanced U.S. weaponry and its role as a virtual offshore military base of the global superpower, has a huge stock of nuclear weapons.
There are, of course, other threats that justify serious concern and can't be brushed aside. A nuclear weapon state might leak nuclear weapons to jihadis. No joke. In the case of Iran, the threat is minuscule. Not only are the Sunni jihadis the mortal [enemies] of Iran, but the ruling clerics, whatever one thinks of them, have shown no signs of clinical insanity, and they know that if there was even a hint that they were the source of a leaked weapon, they and all they possess would be instantly vaporized. That doesn't mean that we can ignore the threat, however—not from Iran, where it doesn't exist, but from U.S. ally Pakistan, where the threat is in fact very real. It's discussed recently by two leading Pakistani nuclear scientists, Pervez Hoodbhoy and Zia Mian. In Britain's leading journal of International Affairs, they write that increasing fears of "militants seizing nuclear weapons or materials and unleashing nuclear terrorism [have led to] the creation of a dedicated force of over 20,000 troops to guard nuclear facilities. There is no reason to assume, however, that this force would be immune to the problems associated with the units guarding regular military facilities," which have frequently suffered attacks with "insider help." In other words, the whole system is laced with jihadi elements, in large measure because of the—of what Patrick Cockburn described, the "Wahhabisation" of Sunni Islam from Saudi Arabia and with the strong support of the United States, ever since the Reagan administration. Well, in short, the problem is real enough, very real, in fact. It's not being seriously addressed. It's not even discussed. Rather, what we're concerned about is fantasies, concocted for other reasons, about the current official enemy.
Opponents of the Iran nuclear deal maintain that Iran is intent on developing nuclear weapons. U.S. intelligence can discern no evidence for this, but there is no doubt at all that in the past they have, in fact, intended to do so. And we know this because it was clearly stated by the highest authorities in Iran. The highest authority of the Iranian state informed foreign journalists that Iran would develop nuclear weapons "certainly, and sooner than one thinks." The father of Iran's nuclear energy program, former head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, expressed his confidence that the leadership's plan is "to build a nuclear bomb." And a CIA report also had, in their words, "no doubt" that Iran would develop nuclear weapons if neighboring countries do, as of course they have.
All of this was under the Shah, the "highest authority" just quoted. That is during the period when high U.S. officials—Cheney, Rumsfeld and Kissinger—were urging the Shah to proceed with nuclear programs, and they were also pressuring universities to accommodate these efforts. My own university was an example, MIT. Under government pressure, it made a deal with the Shah to admit Iranian students to the nuclear engineering department in return for grants from the Shah. This was done over the very strong objections of the student body, but with comparably strong faculty support. That's a distinction that raises a number of interesting questions about academic institutions and how they function. The faculty or the students of a couple years ago would have a different institutional place. Opponents of the nuclear—in fact, some of these MIT students are now running the Iranian nuclear programs.
Opponents of the nuclear deal argue that it didn't go far enough. You've heard a lot of that. And interestingly, some of the supporters of the deal agree, demanding that it go beyond what has been achieved and that the whole Middle East should rid itself of nuclear weapons and, in fact, weapons of mass destruction generally. Actually, I'm quoting Iran's minister of foreign affairs, Javad Zarif. He is reiterating the call of the Non-Aligned Movement—most of the world—and the Arab states, for many years, to establish a weapons of mass destruction-free zone in the Middle East. Now that would be a very straightforward way to address whatever threat Iran is alleged to pose. But a lot more than that is at stake. This was discussed recently in the leading U.S. world arms control journal, Arms Control Today, by two leading figures in the international anti-nuclear movement, two scientists who are veterans of Pugwash and U.N. agencies. They observe that "The successful adoption in 1995 of the resolution on the establishment of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East was the main element of a package that permitted the ... extension of the [Non-Proliferation Treaty]." That's the most important arms control treaty there is, and its continuation is conditioned on acceptance of moves towards establishing a weapons of mass destruction-free zone, a nuclear-free zone, in the Middle East.
Repeatedly, implementation of this plan has been blocked by the United States at the annual five-year review meetings of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, most recently by Obama in 2010 and again in 2015, a couple of months ago. The same two anti-nuclear specialists comment that in 2015 this effort was again blocked by the United States "on behalf of a state that is not party to the [Non-Proliferation Treaty] and is widely believed to be the only one in the region possessing nuclear weapons." That's a polite and understated reference to Israel. Washington's sabotage of the possibility, in defense of Israeli nuclear weapons, may well undermine the Non-Proliferation Treaty, as well as maintaining dangerous instability in the Middle East—always, of course, in the name of stability. This is, incidentally, not the only case when opportunities to end the alleged Iranian threat have been undermined by Washington—some quite interesting cases; no time, and I won't go into them. But all of this raises quite interesting questions, which we should be asking, about what actually is at stake.
So, turning to that, what actually is the threat posed by Iran? Plainly, it's not a military threat. That's obvious. We can put aside the fevered pronouncements about Iranian aggression, support for terror, seeking hegemony over the region by force, or the still more outlandish notion that even if Iran had a bomb, it might use it, therefore suffering instant obliteration. The real threat has been clearly explained by U.S. intelligence in its reports to Congress on the global security situation. Of course, they deal with Iran. And they point out—I'm quoting U.S. intelligence—"Iran's nuclear program and its willingness to keep open the possibility of developing nuclear weapons is a central part of its deterrent strategy." Right? It's part of Iran's deterrent strategy—no offensive policies, but they are trying to construct a deterrent. And that Iran has a serious interest in a deterrent strategy is not in doubt among serious analysts. It's recognized, for example, by U.S. intelligence. So the influential analyst, CIA veteran Bruce Riedel, who's by no means a dove, he writes that "If I was an Iranian national security planner, I would want nuclear weapons" as a deterrent. And the reasons are pretty obvious.
He also makes another crucial comment. He points out that Israel's strategic room for maneuver in the region would be constrained by an Iranian nuclear deterrent. And it's, of course, also true of the United States. "Room for maneuver" means resort to aggression and violence. And it's—yes, it would be constrained by an Iranian deterrent. For the two rogue states that rampage freely in the region—the United States and Israel—any deterrent is, of course, unacceptable. And for those who are accustomed and take for granted their right to rule by force, that concern is easily escalated to what's called an existential threat. The threat of deterrence is very severe, if you expect to resort to force unilaterally at will to achieve your goals, as the U.S. and, secondarily, Israel do commonly. And more recently, the second U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia, has been trying to get into the club, pretty incompetently, with its invasion of Bahrain to prevent mild reformist measures, and more recently its extensive bombing of Yemen, which is causing a huge humanitarian crisis. So for them, a deterrent is a problem, maybe even an existential threat.
That, I think, is the heart of the matter, even if it wouldn't do to say or to think. And except for those who hope to fend off possible disaster and to move towards a more peaceful and just world, it's necessary to keep to these injunctions. These are things that wouldn't do to say, wouldn't do to think—you don't read about them, you don't hear about them—but they are, I think, the heart of the issue. Thanks.
AMY GOODMAN: Professor Noam Chomsky, speaking at The New School this weekend.


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Monday, September 14, 2015

The Western Revolution: Tarik Ali, Our Ruminations



THE ABSURD TIMES





Illustration: Israel and its view of Religion.  They celebrated one of their many holidays by attacking a Mosque.  By Latuff

The Western Revolution

by

Zarathustra



            Clearly the corporate oligarchy has been exposed despite its power and influence.  It is obvious that people are aware of it and don't like it.  Beyond that, many are not clear as to how to express it or how to act properly.  There is no easy or glib answer to this other than to avoid any action suggested by that elite.

            Even though David Cameron was elected as boss of Britain as head of the Conservative Party, that "victory" actually revealed some other real signs.  For example, Scotland is now governed by a Socialist, or at least "liberal" party and this was the result to a great extent by people deserting the Liberal Democrat Party which seemed to be a somewhat effete group at best, the "Yuppie Liberals", so to speak.

            In the United States, a bright force is Bernie Sanders who brags that he is "socialist,' (whatever that means anymore.  He first gave a twelve hour speech in the U.S. Senate elaborating on his principles, especially on the inequality of distribution of wealth.  While the corporate drums away at the evils of mentioning the "Redistribution of Wealth" as "Communistic" and thus frightening ill-informed people in the country, they actually did engage is a vast redistribution of wealth, only upwards to the point where jot only the top 1%, but the top 1% of the 1% has gained most of the wealth in this country.  Sanders' popularity is an expression of peoples' anger and disaffection with the corporate state and politicians owned by it (including Hilary Clinton).  The best one can say about her right now is that she is not a Republican! 

            That brings us to the Republicans.  The popularity of Donald Trump is extremely misguided because that only virtue he has is that he is not a politician and politicians are seen as instruments of the corporate party.  The same is true of Ben Carson, another alternative who can also speak in complete and coherant sentences.  He will never be nominated for the Republicans because he is African-American and much of the rabble that supports that party thinks of people with different hued skin as enemies who are trying to take things from them (so they have been taught by the corporate party).  Also, the country did elect an African American President and despite his late found abilities, most of the opposition to him is based on his color.  Also, a woman will not be nominated because an African American did not work out and no more "first" people -- we want real people, which actually means people how will do good for society, or, in other words, 'socialists;.  So far, at least, it must be clear that all of the support from voters in the country are fed up with the Corporate Elite.

            The current uprising about immigration is spreading world-wide and, insofar as possible in German, Merkel is showing a conscience.  In the United States, it is one more tool used to keep the disaffected and uneducated in line.

A fine example is an anecdote: Seems a woman was speaking on her cell phone in a different language down in Texas when the redneck behind her said, after her call was finished, said "Lady, if'n youal wanna be in this country, yall should use the language, English"

            She replied, "I was speaking Navajo -- if you want to speak English, go to England."  [We refrain from a linguistic analysis at this pont.]

            Now we come to the next revolution, a very real one: the Labour Party in England.  Leremy Corbin was overwhelmingly elected head of the party.  He is decidedly in favor of the people, insisting on the people owning the transportation system, free higher education, free health care, and so on: in other words, socialism.  Rather than attempt to correctly describe him here, Tarik Ali, who has known him for over 40 years, has explained and his entire interview follows:


MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2015

In Upset, Socialist Jeremy Corbyn Elected as U.K. Labour Leader on Antiwar, Pro-Refugee Platform

Longtime British socialist MP Jeremy Corbyn has just been elected leader of the opposition Labour Party after running on an antiwar, anti-austerity platform. When Corbyn first announced his candidacy three months ago, oddsmakers put his odds of winning at 200 to one. But on Saturday, Corbyn won in a landslide, receiving 59 percent of the vote. He will succeed Ed Miliband, who quit after the Conservatives retained power in May's election. Corbyn addressed supporters at a victory celebration on Saturday. "Let us be a force for change in the world, a force for humanity in the world, a force for peace in the world, and a force that recognizes we cannot go on like this, with grotesque levels of global insecurity, grotesque threats to our environment all around the world, without the rich and powerful governments stepping up to the plate to make sure our world becomes safer and better," said Corbyn during his victory speech. Corbyn then left the celebration to attend the #RefugeesWelcome rally in London.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today's show in Britain, where a longtime socialist MP, Jeremy Corbyn, has just been elected leader of the opposition Labour Party after running on an antiwar, anti-austerity, pro-refugee platform. When Corbyn first announced his candidacy three months ago, oddsmakers put the odds of his winning at 200 to one. But on Saturday, Jeremy Corbyn won in a landslide, receiving 59 percent of the vote. He'll succeed Ed Miliband, who quit after the Conservatives retained power in the May elections. Corbyn addressed supporters at a victory celebration on Saturday.
JEREMY CORBYN: This week, the Tories will show what they're really made of. On Monday, they have the trade union bill, designed to undermine even the ILO conventions and shackle democratic unions and destroy another element of democracy within our society. We have to oppose that. They're also pushing the welfare reform bill, which will bring such misery and poverty to so many of the poorest in our society. I want us, as a movement, to be proud, strong and able to stand up and say, 'We want to live in a society where we don't pass by on the other side of those people rejected by an unfair welfare system; instead, we reach out to end the scourge of homelessness and desperation that so many people face in our society.' We're strong enough and big enough and able to do that. That is what we're about.
There are many, many issues we face, and many people face desperation in other parts of the world. And I think it's quite incredible the way the mood in Europe has changed over the past few weeks of understanding that people fleeing from wars, they are the victims of wars, they are the generational victims of war, they're the intergenerational victims of war, end up in desperation, end up in terrible places, end up trying to gain a place of safety, end up trying to be—exercise their refugee rights. They are human beings just like you, just like me. Let's deal with the refugee crisis with humanity, with support, with help, with compassion, to try to help people who are trying to get to a place of safety, trying to help people who are stuck in refugee camps, but recognize going to war creates a legacy of bitterness and problems.
Let us be a force for change in the world, a force for humanity in the world, a force for peace in the world, and a force that recognizes we cannot go on like this, with grotesque levels of global inequality, grotesque threats to our environment all around the world, without the rich and powerful governments stepping up to the plate to make sure our world becomes safer and better, and those people don't end up in poverty, in refugee camps, wasting their lives away when they could be contributing so much to the good of all of us on this planet. We are one world. Let that message go out today from this conference center here in London.
AMY GOODMAN: After his victory speech, Jeremy Corbyn went to the #RefugeesWelcome rally in London, where he called on the British government to do more to help refugees seeking safety in Europe.
JEREMY CORBYN: The refugees move on and on. And there are whole generations of refugees around the world that are victims of various wars. So those desperate people in camps in Lebanon, in Jordan, in Libya and so many other places, desperate people trying to cross into Turkey and other places, they are all, in a sense, victims of wars. So, surely, surely, surely, our objective ought to be to find peaceful solutions to the problems of this world.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2015

"A Political Insurrection in Britain": Tariq Ali on Election of Jeremy Corbyn as New Labour Leader

Jeremy Corbyn has been a member of the House of Commons since 1983 and has a long history of voting against his Labour Party, which had moved considerably to the right under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Corbyn's victory presages the prospect of a return to the party's socialist roots, championing the renationalization of public transportation, free university tuition, rent control, and a national maximum wage to cap the salaries of high earners. We speak to longtime British editor and writer Tariq Ali, who has known Corbyn for 40 years. He calls Corbyn the most left-wing leader in the history of the British Labour Party.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Jeremy Corbyn has been a member of the House of Commons since 1983. He has a long history of voting against his Labour Party, which had moved considerably to the right under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Corbyn's victory presages the prospect of a return to the party's socialist roots, championing the renationalization of public transportation, free university tuition, rent control, and a national maximum wage to cap the salaries of high earners.
Well, for more, we go to London, where we're joined by Tariq Ali, who has known Corbyn for 40 years. Tariq Ali is a British-Pakistani political commentator, historian, activist, filmmaker, novelist and editor of the New Left Review. His latest book is The Extreme Centre: A Warning.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Tariq. Can you talk about this 200—what did the oddsmakers put it at?—200-to-one odds, three months ago, that Jeremy Corbyn would win the Labour Party leadership?
TARIQ ALI: Amy, I would have agreed with them, actually. I'm just sort of cursing I didn't put 10 or 20 pounds on it—I'd be rolling in it if I had. In fact, nobody expected Jeremy to win, including Jeremy himself. What happened was a political insurrection in Britain, that young people poured out after hearing him speak on television and radio, packed his rallies, and what we saw was an English version of the Scottish uprising that swept the Scottish National Party to power earlier this year. So it's been a very exciting campaign, and it's grown and grown and grown. And it wasn't 'til, I think, a few weeks ago that we realized that he really was going to win. And even still, we couldn't believe it.
But his victory marks a huge shift in English politics. And the big problem here now is the following, that we have the most left-wing leader in the history of the British Labour Party in power as leader, and we have a very right-wing parliamentary Labour Party, which has been effectively created by Blair and Brown, by ending democracy in the party, by parachuting office boys and office girls to become members of Parliament, so that they have no one of note in Parliament today. That's the contradiction that Jeremy faces. And I think one of the things he will have to do is to restore democracy in the party, give party conferences once again real meaning, and move forward. But, you know, that will happen, and it will take some time. In the meantime, we are all rejoicing, those of us who have been participating in progressive politics for years, that we have a leader of the opposition, that for—after many, many decades, England, or Britain, has a leader of the opposition. And that is a huge step forward.
AMY GOODMAN: For our American audience, Tariq, is Jeremy Corbyn becoming leader of the Labour Party with these 200-to-one odds about three months ago equivalent to Bernie Sanders winning the Democratic nomination for president, the socialist senator from Vermont?
TARIQ ALI: Well, it is very similar, Amy, except that Jeremy is very good on foreign policy issues. I mean, he has been very strong attacking all the imperial wars. He has been very strong on the right of the Palestinians to national self-determination. He has denounced wars, and, as we heard earlier, he has linked the refugee crisis to the wars that are creating refugees. And Bernie has, of course, been very good attacking the corporations and the oligarchic aspects of American political and social life, so in that sense he is similar, but he has been very reluctant on foreign policy issues. Nonetheless, it would be the equivalent, you're right, that if somehow Bernie Sanders became the official candidate of the Democratic Party to take on the Republicans, I mean, they would be—people would be squealing with anger, the traditional elites, but it would be a step forward. And that step has already been taken now in England.
AMY GOODMAN: Tariq, we're going to break, then come back to this discussion. Tariq Ali is British-Pakistani political commentator, historian, activist, novelist, editor of the New Left Review. We'll be back with him in a moment.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: Billy Bragg singing "The Red Flag," the semi-official anthem of the British Labour Party. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman, as we talk about the shocking election victory of MP Jeremy Corbyn as head of Britain's opposition Labour Party. Let's turn to some voters who supported Corbyn in Saturday's election.
CORBYN SUPPORTER 1: I grew up to Blair. That was my—I'm 23 years old, so my—you know, my entrance into adulthood, all of my kind of conscious life was Blair and New Labour. And I think it's incredibly exciting that we have a meaningful alternative in mainstream politics. I think that's something that I think is extraordinary.
CORBYN SUPPORTER 2: I'm just—just I'm very, very, very, very happy that he's won. I feel like it's the start of something new and something much fairer and better for the world.
CORBYN SUPPORTER 3: He is able to engage with young people, because he's a conviction politician. I think there's a lot of young people who have become disengaged with politics, and I think he's someone that young people can relate to.
CORBYN SUPPORTER 4: I think it's a change for the Labour Party. I think it's a change for Britain. I think it's a positive change. I think it's positive politics, which I can identify with. It's not the—you know, it's not the politics of envy. It's not the politics of fear. It's the politics of hope. And it's somebody that I think we seriously have a chance with in the Labour Party.
AMY GOODMAN: Some of the people who supported Jeremy Corbyn. He got an overwhelming 59 percent victory in the election that makes him now the leader of the Labour Party. Our guest is Tariq Ali, the British political commentator, activist, historian, filmmaker, editor of the New Left Review. His latest book, The Extreme Centre: A Warning. Tariq, talk about who he beat, who he ran against, and also then Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and what the Labour Party had become. He often opposed his own Labour Party.
TARIQ ALI: Yes, Jeremy was a very consistent member of Parliament. As a lawmaker, he voted against all the wars. He voted against any attempt by Labour to support the austerity policies of the current Conservative government. He didn't succeed in winning the party [inaudible], because the bulk of them—most of them, I would say—agree with austerity and have not opposed Cameron. So, Jeremy has been, you know, all the time I have known him—and I say this about very few politicians, Amy, as viewers will recall, but he has been one of the most honest politicians I know. He has got integrity. He has been consistent. And he has fought for the causes which large numbers of progressive people all over the world believe him—believe in. And he's been like this for 40 years. I mean, the causes he's espoused and spoken for, he has attended meetings where there were only 30 or 40 people present, just to make sure that there was a lawmaker there to explain to them what was actually going on. So he's a very impressive guy, and he's completely different from these spin-doctor-tutored politicians. That's what people like about him, that he says it. He just gives it to you straight. There's no [bleep]. He goes on and tells people what he believes in. And I think he's been amazed himself by the response, because there's no demagogy, it's fairly straightforward stuff.
And the big question now is: Can he, or can Labour under Corbyn, win the next election? His enemies are all saying he can't, and this is a disaster, the Labour Party has committed suicide. I'm not so sure. I believe that if the campaigns he has espoused continue, especially taking back the railways into public ownership, and some of the utilities, instituting free education so that people with, you know, small amounts of money don't have to pay tuition fees for their kids, improves public housing, gets rid of Trident—these are nuclear missiles, part of Britain's NATOresponsibilities, and they've created a huge panic, because the prime minister, David Cameron, has said that Jeremy Corbyn's election has made Labour a national security risk, which is outrageous. What's the logic of that? I mean, a few weeks ago, British drones killed their own citizens in the Arab world. So what? Are we going to have the Labour Party droned? I mean, it's bad, unpleasant, irresponsible talk, trying to seal off a debate, which is only beginning. The candidates who opposed him were visionless, unimaginative, people created by a system which didn't believe in politics or democracy anymore. That's, in my opinion, who they were. And that's why lots of people rejected them. I mean, the day Corbyn was elected, 14.5 thousand people, just on that day, joined or rejoined the Labour Party. So he has energized Labour's base like no one has been able to do for a very long time. I mean, Blair was a warmonger. Brown was a neoliberal supporting the banks and the corporations. Jeremy Corbyn represents a huge break with that. And we will see how he proceeds.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn back to January 2003, when British MP Jeremy Corbyn spoke at an antiwar rally here in the United States in Washington, D.C. We featured a part of his address on Democracy Now!
JEREMY CORBYN: And I have to say, as a member of the British Parliament from the Labour Party, that there is overwhelming public opposition to British involvement in a Bush's war over Iraq, because we recognize this war for what it is. It's not about peace. It's not about democracy. It's not about justice. It's a war about oil, and it's a war where the main beneficiaries will be the arms manufacturers, who have made so much out of so much misery for so long.
We are in one of the richest countries in the world, and I also represent another very rich country in the world. If all we can say to the poorest people in the poorest parts of the world, suffering water shortage, health shortage, a pandemic of AIDS and so many other injustices, all we can offer is weapons of mass destruction and further wars, all we do is spawn the conflicts of the future. A world—a world at peace can only be achieved if we are a world based on social justice. So our message to the Capitol, to the White House, to Downing Street in London and all the others is: Pull back! Bring the troops home! Bring about peace in the region! No more wars for oil!
AMY GOODMAN: That was Jeremy Corbyn, a British MP, in 2003 in Washington, D.C., at a major antiwar protest. Again, it was just a few months before the U.S. attacked Iraq. Now, well, there are thousands of refugees coming from Iraq and Afghanistan, joining Syrians and Nigerians and others. Tariq Ali, yesterday—or this weekend, Saturday, right after Jeremy Corbyn won as leader of the Labour Party, he said he had to go, in giving his acceptance speech, because was racing off to the #WelcomeRefugees rally, where he also spoke. Can you talk about his position on refugees right now and what is Britain's official position, David Cameron's position?
TARIQ ALI: Well, David Cameron has limited the number of refugees allowed into Britain, compared, for instance, to Germany. Though Germany, too, we should recall, has now ended free entry into that country. I think the European Union is in a huge crisis on the refugee question.
And Jeremy's position, as stated by him at the rally, is very clear: You make wars, you bomb other parts of the world, you destroy their social infrastructure, you make life so miserable for them that they have no alternative but to leave their countries; and when they knock on your door, you pat them on the back and say, "Not so many of you." Why didn't you think about that when you were dropping bombs on them, that created the refugees? So he has linked the imperial wars waged by the United States and its European allies, or some of them, to the refugee question, and that is absolutely correct, Amy. And he has argued strongly against any new wars or bombing raids on Syria or Iraq or whoever and on whatever pretext, because he knows it will make things worse. So, his position has been very strong on these questions.
And, you know, just what you showed on the screen, a newly elected leader of an opposition party in a European country immediately going and joining a huge demonstration, welcoming refugees, that has not happened for a very long time, not just in Britain, but in the whole of Europe. So the impact Jeremy's election as leader of the Labour Party, in Europe, will be worth watching, to see how they're going to react to this.
AMY GOODMAN: Your book, Tariq Ali, is called The Extreme Centre: A Warning. Explain what you mean.
TARIQ ALI: What I mean is, Amy, that people have often talked, you know, about the extreme left, the extreme right, or the populist left, the populist right, without discussing what has become a huge problem in global politics, but especially in the European Union and North America and Australia, which is that it doesn't matter which party you elect. When it comes down to it, on the fundamentals of the day—waging war, imposing austerity, helping out the big corporations, sucking up to the rich—there's no big difference between them. They might use different language, but their politics are the same. And that this is no longer acceptable to large numbers of people, which is why, when the young see possibilities of an alternative, whether in Greece or Portugal or Spain or Ireland and now Scotland and England, they do something about it. And Jeremy really has broken with extreme-center politics. He was never part of that mess. And this is what is so exciting in this country today.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to Jeremy Corbyn talking about socialism. The election of Jeremy Corbyn as the new leader of Britain's Labour Party has many believing this will mean a return to the party's socialist roots. This is Corbyn debating at the venerable Oxford Union in November of 2013 that socialism works.
JEREMY CORBYN: If you want to live in a decent world, then is it right that the world's economy is dominated by a group of unaccountable multinational corporations? They are the real power in the world today, not the nation-state. It's the global corporations. And if you want to look at the victims of the ultimate of this free market catastrophe that the world is faced with at the moment, go to the shantytowns on the fringes of so many big cities around the world. Look at those people, migrants dying in the Mediterranean trying to get to Lampedusa. Why are they there? Why are they dying? Why are they living in such poverty? I'll tell you this: It's when the World Bank arrives and tells them to privatize all public services, to sell off state-owned land, to make inequality a paragon of virtue. That is what drives people away and into danger and poverty.
And I will conclude with this thought: Think about the world you want to live in. Do you want the dog to eat the dog, or do you want us all to care for each other, support each other, and eliminate poverty and injustice? A different world is possible. Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Jeremy Corbyn. By the way, his argument won.


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