31 posts tagged “politics”

Why do people on Vox (and other boards) completely ignore the fact that the Russia-Georgia conflict began when Georgia attacked Southern Ossetia on Thursday, killing according to some reports over 1,500 civilians (mostly Russian citizens) and a dozen Russian soldiers? I mean seriously - Russian response is not proportionate and they are certainly using this situation to their advantage, but they did NOT start this.

Oh, I know why. Because we are getting our news from CNN, Fox, etc, and other American (or Western) news sources, that are not even trying to be objective and are clearly taking sides in the conflict.

The fight is really between US and Russia. Georgians are American puppets, and were used in an American gamble. The gamble didn't go as planned, and Russia, after decades of being pushed around, actually stood up for its interests. US does it on daily basis around the world and the Western media is always hard at work ignoring these actions or trying to create numerous justifications for these actions, but god forbid some other country does anything even remotely similar - and the headlines immediately slip back into Cold War mentality - Russian bear, Hitler, remember Budapest, and other crap.

The reality is that there is no right or wrong in this conflict - all sides are assholes. Attempts of Georgian president to spin this conflict as a Russian attack against freedom sound pathetic. (Unless we equate the words "freedom and democracy" with "pro-American government of any sort and American business interests.") Of course Georgians are sure that Russia is at fault. Of course Russians think that Georgia is at fault. But it is sad that it is virtually impossible to find a single news source that is not tainted with obviously one-sided propaganda.

So what would have been a good outcome? Georgia killing 1,500 civilians and retaking the regions that voted for their independence over 15 years ago, making sure that American interests in the region are protected while Russia protests in the UN with obvious lack of results? Is that what you would call a good outcome? Victory of freedom and democracy?

The thing is that there is no good outcome. Not for ordinary people anyways. Neither for Georgians, nor for Russians, nor for Ossetians, nor for Americans. Say, Russia looses, and American backed Georgian forces establish their military superiority over the region. So what? Ordinary Americans will not benefit from this. They will just pay the bill (as they already did - who do you think paid for those weapons that killed Ossetian civilians?) Innocent civilians would still die (in this scenario it would be Ossetians and Russians). And some oil company would still profit immensely. The only difference is which oil company profits - Russian backed Gasprom, or American backed Exxon?

So we can go ahead and get scared of Russians (or Americans), demand military retaliation against Russia (or American interests), and parrot the propaganda of our choosing. But if we wish to be honest with ourselves, let's remember that it's not about freedom, human rights, east vs. west, and other crap. It's all about fighting for resources under the banner of your favorite Energy Provider. It's not the case of good guy vs. bad guy. It's all about something that used to be called "Bushmen ethics" (my apologies to the Bushmen) - I steal a goat from my neighbor - it is good; my neighbor steals a goat from me - it is bad. Sadly, we (the ordinary Bushmen) won't even get to taste the stolen goat.

Do you consider yourself a patriotic person?  Why or why not?

No. In fact, I consider myself anti-patriotic.

My main reason for being anti-patriotic is quite simple really. I think patriotism (e.g. "love for or devotion to one's country") is illogical and dangerous.

Just because some government happens to be in control of the geographic region I happen to inhabit, doesn't mean that I am willing to die (or kill) for it. Because, after all, a "country" is really nothing more than a territory controlled by some government. I agree to follow all the laws and regulations of this government, primarily because I am afraid of the consequences I could face for not doing so, but it doesn't mean that I agree to make any sacrifices for it, love it, or whatever else is considered patriotic nowadays.

I love humanity. However I do not love people that happen to live under the control of the same government, that I live under control of, any more than any other people.

I am willing to make sacrifices for the well-being of all. But I am not willing to make any sacrifices for the wellbeing of some at the expense of the rest.

I consider myself a citizen of the world, and I am not planning on joining the herd of flag-waving patriots that for some bizarre reason love the geographic region they inhabit (or whatever government happens to rule over them) so much, that they are often willing to kill a fellow human being who happens to live across the border, if ordered to do so, and in fact, think that they are doing the right thing. Patriotism might start with something as seemingly innocent as flag-worshiping, but it always ends with murder. Patriotism is always bad. There is no such thing as "good patriotism." And the habit of shooting "traitors" that is so common among all governments (whether communist, fascist, or democratic) is yet another proof of that.

For some reason nobody thinks that an obsessive devotion to one's town or neighborhood is a good thing, especially to the point of readiness to kill in the name of the neighborhood. Hell, I love my neighborhood - but if my local neigborhood association demanded my 100% devotion to them, forced me to honor the neighborhood symbols to the point of idolatry, or requested me to kill someone just because they live elsewhere - I would think they are nuts. However, once, we increase the scale to the size of a country this "obsessive devotion" becomes something supposedly wonderful, positive, and very much encouraged. I understand why the governments of any country encourage it - it helps them to control the population. What I don't understand is why there are so few people that question this ridiculous notion.  

Not to hijack Geology Byotch's post on fiber I am moving economic theory part of the discussion here:

MEMTONY said:

by Matt Taibbi
(from “Rolling Stone” – complete article here)

…Then there's 9/11. Like Bush's, Rudy's career before the bombing was in the toilet; New Yorkers had come to think of him as an ambition-sick meanie whose personal scandals were truly wearying to think about. But on the day of the attack, it must be admitted, Rudy hit the perfect note; he displayed all the strength and reassuring calm that Bush did not, and for one day at least, he was everything you'd want in a leader. Then he woke up the next day and the opportunist in him saw that there was money to be made in an America high on fear.

For starters, Rudy tried to use the tragedy to shred election rules, pushing to postpone the inauguration of his successor so he could hog the limelight for a few more months. Then, with the dust from the World Trade Center barely settled, he went on the road as the Man With the Bullhorn, pocketing as much as $200,000 for a single speaking engagement. In 2002 he reported $8 million in speaking income; this past year it was more than $11 million. He's traveled in style, at one stop last year requesting a $47,000 flight on a private jet, five hotel rooms and a private suite with a balcony view and a king-size bed.

While the mayor himself flew out of New York on a magic carpet, thousands of cash-strapped cops, firemen and city workers involved with the cleanup at the World Trade Center were developing cancers and infections and mysterious respiratory ailments like the "WTC cough." This is the dirty little secret lurking underneath Rudy's 9/11 hero image -- the most egregious example of his willingness to shape public policy to suit his donors. While the cleanup effort at the Pentagon was turned over to federal agencies like OSHA, which quickly sealed off the site and required relief workers to wear hazmat suits, the World Trade Center cleanup was handed over to Giuliani. The city's Department of Design and Construction (DDC) promptly farmed out the waste-clearing effort to a smattering of politically connected companies, including Bechtel, Bovis and AMEC construction.

The mayor pledged to reopen downtown in no time, and internal DDC memos indicate that the cleanup was directed at a breakneck pace. One memo to DDC chief Michael Burton warned, "Project management appears to only address safety issues when convenient for the schedule of the project." Burton, however, had his own priorities: He threatened to fire contractors if "the highest level of efficiency is not maintained."

Although respiratory-mask use was mandatory, the city allowed a macho culture to develop on the site: Even the mayor himself showed up without a mask. By October, it was estimated, masks were being worn on site as little as twenty-nine percent of the time. Rudy proclaimed that there were "no significant problems" with the air at the World Trade Center. But there was something wrong with the air: It was one of the most dangerous toxic-waste sites in human history, full of everything from benzene to asbestos and PCBs to dioxin (the active ingredient in Agent Orange). Since the cleanup ended, police and firefighters have reported a host of serious illnesses -- respiratory ailments like sarcoidosis; leukemia and lymphoma and other cancers; and immune-system problems.

"The likelihood is that more people will eventually die from the cleanup than from the original accident," says David Worby, an attorney representing thousands of cleanup workers in a class-action lawsuit against the city. "Giuliani wears 9/11 like a badge of honor, but he screwed up so badly."

When I first spoke to Worby, he was on his way home from the funeral of a cop. "One thing about Giuliani," he told me. "He's never been to a funeral of a cleanup worker."

Indeed, Rudy has had little at all to say about the issue. About the only move he's made to address the problem was to write a letter urging Congress to pass a law capping the city's liability at $350 million.

Did Giuliani know the air at the World Trade Center was poison? Who knows -- but we do know he took over the cleanup, refusing to let more experienced federal agencies run the show. He stood on a few brick piles on the day of the bombing, then spent the next ten months making damn sure everyone worked the night shift on-site while he bonked his mistress and negotiated his gazillion-dollar move to the private sector. Meanwhile, the people who actually cleaned up the rubble got used to checking their stool for blood every morning.

Now Giuliani is running for president -- as the hero of 9/11. George Bush has balls, too, but even he has to bow to this motherfucker.

(from “Rolling Stone” – complete article here)

"I have already several times expressed the thought that in our day the feeling of patriotism is an unnatural, irrational, and harmful feeling, and a cause of a great part of the ills from which mankind is suffering, and that, consequently, this feeling--should not be cultivated, as is now being done, but should, on the contrary, be suppressed and eradicated by all means available to rational men. Yet, strange to say--though it is undeniable that the universal armaments and destructive wars which are ruining the peoples result from that one feeling--all my arguments showing the backwardness, anachronism, and harmfulness of patriotism have been met, and are still met, either by silence, by intentional misinterpretation, or by a strange unvarying reply to the effect that only bad patriotism (Jingoism or Chauvinism) is evil, but that real good patriotism is a very elevated moral feeling, to condemn which is not only irrational but wicked.
What this real, good patriotism consists in, we are never told; or,if anything is said about it, instead of explanation we get declamatory, inflated phrases, or, finally, some other conception is substituted for patriotism-- something which has nothing in common with the patriotism we all know, and from the results of which we all suffer so severely."

(from "Patriotism and Government" by Leo Tolstoy)

The rest of the article can be found here