PUTIN & POLITICS

(From an e-mail sent to friends 6/17/17.)

There has recently been a SUGGESTION that Russia may have tried to mess with the actual vote-tallies in the 2016 Presidential Election!  That would be reprehensible and actionable, in my opinion, if true.  It transcends the issue of “stupid people” being manipulated by ALLEGED Russian meddling with e-mails and other media.  Hillary Clinton DID write and send those surreptitiously disclosed e-mails, though!  Vladimir Putin did not invent those!

However, I am still skeptical of anything coming out of the American Security State.  I think most of our Fearless Leaders in BOTH parties are spoiling to revive the “Cold War."  President Trump has done some seriously stupid stuff lately, but he’s not alone.  America really NEEDS a villain, just like Christianity NEEDS the Devil!  We must have a boogeyman to hate and to dump on and, since the “queers” are now off-limits, and the Muslims are slowly fading, that leaves China, Russia and North Korea, the titans of our precious “Domino Theory.”  Welcome back, Kotter!

This past week I watched all 4 nights of interviews with Vladimir Putin by Oliver Stone on “Showtime.”  I am certainly not ready to become a Putin cheerleader.  He is probably VERY ruthless, but I have no doubt that being President of Russia is a much harder job than being President of the US.  Some autocracy is not excusable, but it is understandable.

I DO think Putin is very wise and very accomplished.  He does not seem to traffic in petty nonsense at all.  He is a black belt in judo and in another self-defense skill AND he plays competitive team ice hockey (w/SKATES!!!) on a regular basis!  He is as “focused” as anyone I have ever watched!  He seems to regard most of our obsessions and declarations as utter silliness.  I have no doubt he was playing to the American audience, however.  I don’t know if he is “truthful,” but I have no reason to trust his version of things any less than the usual bullshit coming from the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, etc.  They are KNOWN liars!  Why do Americans so easily forget?  EVEN IF they are telling the truth THIS TIME, their warnings and conclusions are impaired by their past dishonesty, manipulations and even assassinations.  I trust Edward Snowden and Julian Assange (who denies that the Russian government was the source for the Wikileaks-published e-mails) a lot more than I trust the American Security State!

Most Americans have a two-dimensional view of most foreign nations and peoples.  We cannot seem to comprehend their complexities as being as convoluted as our own, but they are.  I learned this first-hand during my travels in China back in 1987, which was the ideal time to be there, being between the “Gang of Four” and "Tiananmen.”  It was an extraordinary experience, as I traveled up and down the east coast of China, from Hong Kong to Guangzhou to Shanghai to Beijing and back, by train, alone, in the winter of 1987.  I tried to pay attention during that extraordinary experience.

That warped view of the “other” that so afflicts most Americans is seriously damaging to our level of global awareness and sophistication.  We are mostly abject fools and don’t know any better.  The recent expansion of NATO is a case in point: NATO SHOULD have been disbanded when the Berlin Wall came down, but instead it has been thrust right up against Russia’s borders.  That was a stupidly arrogant provocation so easily avoided with a shred of common sense!  But, NATO is really Big Business for defense contractors!

The perfect metaphor for the Usual Suspects fabricating US foreign and military policies is Lucy van Pelt in “Peanuts,” when every fall she wheedles Charlie Brown to trust her JUST ONE MORE TIME to hold the football so he can kick it.  Then, of course, she jerks it away just as Charlie runs up to kick the ball and winds up on his back instead!    General Motors periodically declares that it has learned from its past mistakes building total crap on 4 wheels and that we can trust it THIS TIME to make good cars, which it mostly STILL does not do (see Consumer Reports' evaluations).  Likewise, the American Security State, knowing that its deplorable record is now common knowledge, implores us to trust it JUST ONE MORE TIME when it tells us that Russia, etc. is messing with us.  Right.  The journalists and politicians may be willing to suck on that lollipop, but not I.  Not yet, anyway.

I am thinking more and more that there may be no constitutional authority for the federal government to keep “secrets” from the taxpayers in peacetime, exc. as related to potential war strategies and armaments specs.  I don’t see it enunciated anywhere in the Constitution, and I think the 10th Amendment plainly prohibits “implied” powers.  I believe the American Security State expends most of its energy and money trying to manipulate alleged allies to give knee-jerk support for our business-focused global policies instead of protecting us from “terrorists.”

And now, with Donald Trump at the helm, it is bound to get much worse.  It seems he’s even got the American Security State itself worried!