Thursday, April 2, 2020

We Have Officially Entered the Twilight Zone

When all else fails, you can always count on Blooperpower USA to revive its stupid, cruel and ineffective War on Drugs - that is, the relentless war against poor and dark-skinned people both at home and abroad. The war on drugs is especially necessary when the poor and dark skinned targets live in a country with valuable natural resources coveted by the US corporations which actually  own and control Blooperpower.

The latest drug war surge is also meant to divert our attention from the sad truth that what is still insanely called the world's sole remaining superpower is so lacking in even the most basic drugs and other medical equipment to combat the virus that we are forced to import face masks and other material from China and Russia. 


In a vain, pathetic attempt to save orange face, and divert attention from the ongoing economic and social collapse of the richest country on earth, Donald Trump aims to start another war or three. And appropriately enough, he announced his plans on April Fools Day.

Before he could utter even one of his endless lies, before he could praise himself and tout the latest pitiful half-measures to combat the pandemic, he announced on Wednesday that he is sending the US military to the shores of Venezuela to combat an alleged epidemic of drug trafficking.


No matter that it's Colombia, not Venezuela, that is and always has been the major drug trafficker in the region. If drugs are trafficked by a right-wing CIA-backed "partner" of the United States, it's fine and dandy with the leaders of both our corrupt political parties. But if drugs are trafficked from a socialist country, it is not okay. No matter that calling, with no evidence, President Nicolas Maduro a drug kingpin and putting a $5 million bounty on his head is only the latest gambit to plunder Venezuela of its oil on behalf of Exxon-Mobil and other major polluters. No matter that the plundering of its oil is not even cost-effective. since Saudi Arabia is already glutting the world market with its own cheap oil.


What matters is the war of late stage capitalism against any form of socialism, wherever it exists in the world and wherever it threatens the Overlords of Blooperpower, who never let pesky reality - say, like  the crew of one of the US Navy's biggest vessels coming down with the virus - ever get in the way of their greed. Trump, who couldn't even be bothered to evacuate these sick or exposed sailors, must think that fleets of warships steer themselves.


Just as corporate CEOs place profits and economic growth above the well-being of the working class, so too has the Pentagon placed the safety of its valuable high tech arsenal of weapons on the stricken aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt above the the health of the sick and endangered sailors on board.

Sounding a lot like the Wall Street executives calling for Americans to return to work even if they risk getting sick, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modley insisted that evacuation is not an option. "This ship has weapons on it, it has munitions on it, it has expensive aircraft, and it has a nuclear power plant. It requires a certain number of people on that ship to maintain the safety and security of the ship."

And with the safety and security of the fossil fuel industry being one of the utmost priorities of Blooperpower, the regime change coup and possible US invasion of Venezuela proceeds apace, no matter the pressing needs at home.


The A.P. reports:
The deployment is one of the largest U.S. military operations in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama to remove Gen. Manuel Noriega from power and bring him to the U.S. to face drug charges. It involves assets like Navy warships, AWACS surveillance aircraft and on-ground special forces seldom seen before in the region.
Even as American corporations and private equity vultures are licking their chops at the prospect of exploiting the pandemic and looting the multi-trillion dollar slush fund disguised as a pandemic relief package, Trump hilariously blustered on behalf of himself and his whole cabal of mobster cronies:
As governments and nations focus on the coronavirus there is a growing threat that cartels, criminals, terrorists and other malign actors will try to exploit the situation for their own gain. We must not let that happen."
Of course, with the American military apparatus outright refusing to practice even basic social distancing to protect the troops from the virus, one might well ask whether the troops will even stay healthy enough to overthrow the Maduro government on behalf of the overlords of predatory capitalism.

Only top military brass are working from the safety and security of their own homes and videoconferencing over which global site they'll spread their lethal virus of oligarchy to next.

Wouldn't it be something if the troops emulated the wildcat strikers of Amazon and Instacart and refused to follow orders?

What if they gave a war and nobody came for the understandable reason that nobody was healthy enough or alive enough to fight it?

One thing's for sure. Everything will change.  As Rod Serling used to say, "You are traveling to another dimension, not only of sight and sound but of mind."

The only uncertainty is whether we'll keep descending into chaos and confusion and barbarism, or whether this pandemic journey will culminate in "a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination."

If we imagine a better wondrous land emerging from the complete overthrow of corporate rule, we might yet  live in a country where nobody ever goes bankrupt when they get sick, and everybody has a decent secure roof over their heads, and where endless wars for profit and oil are reduced to nothing but a bad, vague memory.

Keep up the fight, but above all, please stay safe that we may live to fight the bastards for many days, months and years to come.

11 comments:

Matyushenko said...

Could this be Trump's Potemkin moment?

Patricia M. said...

Thank you, as always, Karen - and thanks, too, to the regular contributors to Sardonicky. It has sustained me.

Erik Roth said...

It's astounding, but ruefully not surprising, that this go for the oil, imperialist war mongering is not reported today in either the New York Times or the Washington Post online editions. No doubt it is another bipartisan obscenity bolstering the oligarchy.

"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs, and explosions, and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy; and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is, that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone."

"I happen to think that the singular evil of our time is prejudice. It is from this evil that all other evils grow and multiply. In almost everything I've written there is a thread of this: man's seemingly palpable need to dislike someone other than himself."

"The ultimate obscenity is not caring, not doing something about what you feel, not feeling! Just drawing back and drawing in, becoming narcissistic."

~ Rod Serling

Marcus A. A. said...

Karen Garcia for President! P

The Joker said...

Somewhat off-topic, but:

"Democratic convention will be postponed, DNC confirms.
One of the biggest events of the 2020 election will be moved from July to August amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/02/bernie-sanders-wisconsin-democratic-primary-coronavirus-pandemic

I think this is just one more step of "the fix" being in against Sanders.

One might hope that the convention delay would increase the likelihood that Biden's cognitive difficulties become undeniably apparent, as there must be some physiological limit to how much of various stimulants he can be injected with. But one already hears rumors of Cuomo or someone else being "drafted" as the Democratic presidential candidate. That becomes even easier for the powers-that-be if the convention gets cancelled or turned "virtual", as I think may occur, this postponement easing-in to that.

I've already decided that I'll not vote for Biden, for a multitude of reasons (any one of which would be sufficient). Should Biden also become undeniably non-viable to the delegates or the Democratic "leadership", let them try to deny the top of the ticket to Sanders. If they do, I'll not vote in November, and the consequence of their maneuvering will be that Democratic candidates up and down the ballot won't get my vote -- nor, I think, the votes of quite a few others.

Enough is enough is enough!

Erik Roth said...



The Intercept today has six other articles I recommend, though I'll let you pick and choose those for yourself. Yet these two audio pieces merit specific mention:

Is Donald Trump Criminally Responsible for Coronavirus Deaths?
https://theintercept.com/2020/04/02/is-donald-trump-criminally-responsible-for-coronavirus-deaths/
April 2, 2020
Deaths from Covid-19 continued to mount this week as the U.S. surpassed 200,000 confirmed cases, more than any other country in the world. Experts increasingly point to President Donald Trump’s willful negligence as a primary cause of the pandemic’s intensity, but MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirscher takes things a step further, arguing controversially that Trump could be legally liable for coronavirus deaths after he leaves office. He makes the case to Mehdi Hasan on this week’s podcast.

[A similar argument, but for naught, was made before: "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder" by Vincent Bugliosi, Vanguard Press, 2008.]

System Update Episode 1 – The Intermediate Bernie Sanders Autopsy
https://theintercept.com/2020/04/01/watch-our-new-weekly-video-commentary-and-interview-program-system-update-debuts-today/
April 1, 2020 ~ by Glenn Greenwald
This article was updated Thursday, April 2nd to include a full transcript of the program.

voice-in-wilderness said...

Here's my pessimistic prediction for the day, week, and month. We are going to look back on these as the good times before Trump's second term begins. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Trump will then be unconstrained and able to roll out the full authoritarian playbook, instead of page by page as been happening in the country since 9/11. Journalism and free expression will be a special target. This is where Trump's friend, Putin, can help him with advice on what works with keeping oligarchs in line and intimidating and eliminating journalists.

I'd love to come back here a year from now and say how wrong I was.

The Joker said...

@voice-in-wilderness

I predict worse, specifically, a large actual war, and before the end of THIS presidential term. Could easily be started by Trump to divert attention, but looking with all objectivity, he's not the only one who could profit by diverting attention, so would Putin and so would Xi Jinping. A world war could begin not only via a conscious intent to divert attention, but also due to their arrogance and a gross miscalculation by any of them -- for example, Putin thinking this would be an opportune time for increased action against Ukraine, Xi thinking this would be a great time to blockade or even invade Taiwan, or Trump (or Israel) thinking this would be a fine time to attack Iran.

The Joker said...

Yet another example for the "capitalism deserves to die" category:

American Airlines flight crams its only 11 passengers into last 3 rows: report.
https://nypost.com/2020/04/03/american-airlines-flight-crams-11-passengers-into-last-3-rows/amp/

Nan Socolow said...

Karen, The Twiligbt Zone will last in America (and the rest of the world) as long as the Black Death of the 1300s lasted, as long as the World Wars and genocides lasted in the 20th Century. Death has dominion over us all under our feckless and unfit President these days.

The Joker said...

"UK prime minister placed in intensive care
The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, has been moved to an intensive care unit after his condition worsened, Downing Street has said." -- The Guardian

Well, Karma's a bitch.

Wondering when DJT will also receive some.