~Jody Harrow
STATE OF STATE
There’s a line in the play Hamilton, when King George finds out George Washington is yielding his power and stepping away he exclaims, “I wasn't aware that was something a person could do. I'm perplexed.” When they whisper in his ear John Adams is next, he is astonished and sings “ ...next to Washington they all look small. All alone, watch them run. They will tear each other into pieces, Jesus Christ, this will be fun!” He cackles grotesquely adding,"President John Adams, good luck."
Our news is polarized for the ratings and advertising dollars. It is no longer substantive. TV newscasts are a distraction reduced to finger pointing while our elected officials go deep sea diving into the pockets of business interests.
Today’s fixation on Building a Wall, FBI investigation of Russia’s election meddling (Russia!), anti-wrinkle creams and TV Evangelists saving us because we are so special - as if God cares more about the U.S. than the rest of the world. There is no reporting on our heinous war crimes or our consistent meddling into other countries politics to depress the price of natural resources.
Big money rules the media. The shortsighted commentators are paid to endorse the views of their owners 24/7 - channel’s of big business: Fox news - foreign owned Rupert Murdoch, CBS - Westinghouse then Viacom, now Redstone, NBC owner Comcast, etc. Subscriber cable TV came into being so viewers wouldn’t have to consume any ads. Free TV has now become a mega outlet to reach them - raking in the cash like a casino for the owners who are the beneficiaries of this deal.
The Vietnam War
It would never be protested today as it was in the late 60’s - early 70’s due to this early explosion of TV coverage. The population was riveted, leading I'm sure to ad revenue uptick. But the media has since learned, from being caught recording an unpopular war, to fetter a lack of information about world news. Instead it occupies itself with incessant finger pointing at Trump. The media treats him like he’s performing on a royal stage - which he’s not.
One downside of the Vietnam War was the CIA bringing drugs from South East Asia to pacify the war protesters, hoping to make them the passive hippy movement. When this drug problem reached epidemic proportions in inner cities it came to be labeled by government, the perpetrators of it, as the War on Drugs. But it didn't stop there, in the next decade, while the CIA was in collusion with the Nicaraguan dictators to topple their existing revolution,and keep it a "banana republic" they moved into a drugs for arms deal. We brought drugs into this country and then imprisoned the very drug dealers for disseminating it in inner cities who became very rich off this trade. In the process we tore apart the very foundation of inner city populations.
I lived in Japan where they had a drug problem after WWII and immediately got on top of it to stamp it out. They give universal health care to all, even someone like myself who immigrated there for a few years, and they outlaw any use of guns. Mission accomplished!
An Honest “American” Wage
We pay our government huge taxes and are then told it’s the government’s money to decide how to spend it. Congress is getting paid salaries from taxpayer and enormous sums from lobbyists. Over 50% of our discretionary tax spending dollars go towards supporting the military industrial complex. Industrial Welfare. Trump offers corporations long-term tax cuts. TV media outlet seldom discuss the trillions in National Debt piling up – with numbers reaching over $20 trillion and growing every minute.
We begrudge people in need in this country the benefits of their tax dollars for “universal” health, higher minimum wages and better education. They brand this payback as “socialism”. Such a dirty word - think, "Bernie's a socialist". How dare he! I thought McCarthy-ism was over? In order to keep wages low we hire undocumented immigrants and people in the prison system - another word for slave labor - while government privatizes this institution.
And for those that can’t compete we have to work 24/7.
Let’s look at Mexican immigration. Can we even call it that? We took over 40% of Mexico’s landmass from 1846-48 to annex it to the United States while Spain was too weak to defend it. Who are the rightful owners of these States now called New Mexico, Arizona, California (let the Gold Rush begin), Utah, Nevada, parts of Colorado and Texas. all the way to the tip of Wyoming and Kansas. After this annexation, some States had the audacity to ban the native Mexicans from having citizenship, voting rights and took away the land they owned.
Wasn't it Obama who started to tighten the rains on immigration? Trump then used this issue as a platform for his campaign - the carrot before his voters. What it seems to come down to is that in times of plenty we are more than happy to have illegal aliens doing jobs that we don’t want to pay an honest “American” wage for. In times when those jobs are not needed we redact our open arms policy for immigrants. Once example is when Mexicans were deported in droves and families torn apart after the stock market crash of 1929.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
In the middle of the room sits the elephant. No one dares address the problem for global warming, war conflict, soon to be food shortages, population explosion. 7 billion people on the planet and rising every single day. In the 20c alone it rose from more than 5 times from 1.5 to 6.1 billion. It’s spiraling out of control. Could this be because industry and the stock market sees no immediate cost benefit to shrinking a population? Young ones are expected to carry the burden of social security costs for an aging population.
Our hypnotic focus on foreign election meddling turns the true focus away from the source of domestic meddling. Something we can control if we chose to and not half way around the world but that exists our own backyard.
Without a strong understanding of history and the antecedents that lead up to the 2018 we are sitting in, how can we wrap our heads around the complexity of what we see around us? We are offered Band-Aid solutions and a plethora of feel good aids to fill our body and spirit.
And then there’s dear, old Trump. He's declared bankruptcy several times. Well known in the hospitality industry is that he was such a failure at keeping hotels afloat, in the end his only viable possession was his name. His name became his brand, which he could sell over and over again, with no outlay of money or risk. Is this the reason he won’t disclose his tax returns?
He campaigned with a promise not to go into Syria and bomb them. What was one of the first things on his agenda when he started office? Bomb Syria!
A missile strike against Syria, launched from the U.S.S. Porter.CreditFord Williams/European Pressphoto Agency
His close advisors are military generals while he himself, brought up in military academies, wouldn’t even serve in a war or allow his children to. Let’s see what wars he and his children could have been a part of, given the “opportunity”. The Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Afghanistan War - the one we started to fight in the 1980’s (not as the media reports in the early 2000‘s after 911 - because let's face it, even 911 has a precedent). The real start of our intervention in Afghanistan began in the 1980’s to kick the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan. We paid the Taliban/the jihadists/ the Mujahideen over 3 billion to rise to power because we didn’t find the Afghans resistant enough to our cause of toppling Soviet threat. Ronald Regan called them our beloved "freedom fighters".
Through Pakistan we secretly funneled money to support the now dreaded terrorist organization that we brought to power and then shamefully left in power - walking away from the Afghanis once we drove the Soviet Union. Cold War ended. Deal done - or so we thought.
ON THE HORIZON
When will our fears of “the other” stop? Where is the ability to resolve conflict by discussion, arbitration and mediation. We must look to the past for answers to a better future that look to embrase all people’s interests. If people are unhappy and can’t express themselves or they can't move ahead, fear and hatred will fester like an open wound. Drugs and mental disease are only the byproducts of this, not the cause. If the rich want to stay rich they have to give a sense of prosperity to all, whether monetary or otherwise.
My glimmer of hope is with the people who protest in the street. The minority populations who have risen up against all odds. And the brave people making documentaries on these issues. And our next generation - the new and upcoming voters, the ones who are standing up against mass school shootings and police brutality.
Craig Atkinson – Do Not Resist documentary
Iranian people detest the US government in collusion with the CIA for toppling their democratically elected leader, Mossadegh, in 1953 in favor of a dictator who would allow foreign interests to keep control of Iranian oil refineries.
In a recent documentary about the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia with Iranians protesting the anniversary of this US + UK coup but were welcoming of U.S. people visiting their country (during an all to brief window where Obama tried to mend our differences) a reporter asked, “Why?” Their reply, "The people of America are different from their politicians. Those politicians are just a bunch of rich people. They're different from 99% of the American people."
THE TIME IS NOW Hopefully, it is not too late for radical change. Because if not now, when?