Tomgram: Dilip Hiro, The Waning of America

Tomgram: Dilip Hiro, The Waning of America Tomgram: Dilip Hiro, The Waning of America
Posted by Dilip Hiro at 10:30am, September 23, 2010.

"...As China’s third biggest supplier of petroleum (after Saudi Arabia and Angola), Iran figures prominently on Beijing’s radar screen. So far, Chinese energy corporations, all state-owned, have invested $40 billion in the Islamic Republic's hydrocarbon sector. They are also poised to participate in the building of seven oil refineries in Iran. When, earlier this year, European Union (EU) companies stopped supplying gasoline to Iran, which imports 40% of its needs, Chinese oil corporations stepped in. That was how in 2009, with a $21.2 billion dollar two-way commerce, China surpassed the EU as Iran’s number one trading partner. It is estimated that China-Iran trade will rise by 50% in 2010...

...Given the growing economic strength of China, Brazil, and India, among other rising powers, U.S. influence will continue to wane. The American power outage is, by any measure, irreversible."

Dilip Hiro, a London-based writer and journalist, is the author of 32 books, the latest being After Empire: The Birth of a Multi-Polar World (Nation Books).
Copyright 2010 Dilip Hiro

Neato.

Right wing asshole Republicans who know me personally have wondered why I have a long history of suffering from depression. Gee I wonder? I have lived my whole life in this county, which happens to be one big fucking military base, with the military industrial complex having a large presence. My dad never made the kind of money that some of my middle class friends' dads made because he didn't work inside that group. You might or might not be surprised to learn how many families are dependent on it. Getting those numbers is especially tricky. Even the author of the book I'm trudging through doesn't know them, probably because they are in so many places.

How much Hollywood depends on the propagandistic bullshit is also glaring once you take a look at it. I watched a movie last night that had the myth of American power, prestige, and law enforcement's superiority woven right into it. Not surprisingly, it's been released all over the world . Frankly, I thought sick and twisted dude had a right to be pissed off, but parts of the movie were really stupid. I like thrillers occasionally, but I find the car/foot chases, the explosions/fires and fisht-fight/gunfight scenes as tedious as I'm sure some guys find shit they don't understand in "chick flicks" tedious.

Buh Bye Larry Summers

So Long, Summers
Posted on Sep 21, 2010
By Robert Scheer

" Finally! The announced departure of Lawrence Summers as the president’s top economic adviser is welcome news...."

Ok, so why does this song start playing in my head?

Neil Young - Needle and the Damage Done

Oh yeah, might be this:

"....." radical financial deregulation that Summers helped make law when he worked for Bill Clinton. He led the effort to destroy the career of Brooksley Born, the Clinton-appointed head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission who had the prescience to sound the alarm in the face of a dangerously spiraling market in suspect mortgage packages..."

Bombing kills 10 women, a child at parade in Iran

"...But Iranian officials quickly pointed the finger at the United States, and the local Friday prayer leader blamed "Zionists."

"As the investigations indicate, the attack has foreign backing," provincial governor Vahid Jalalzadeh told state television. "Unfortunately, the Americans and their allies are in the region. From the first day of their presence and their slogan to establish security in the region, we can see that the unrest has increased."..."

Sure, of course if Miss Lindsay and his buddies ever shut the fuck up, and if the CIA didn't have such a miserable reputation for playing stupid games with Iran the power structure in Iran wouldn't be able to get away with blaming the US. People would see that the Kurds got screwed out of land and power when their territory was carved up and sectioned off into three different countries when the borders were drawn. Obviously not for their benefit. And then there is the fact that many Kurds are Sunni and the power structure in Iran is Shia. So go ahead and blame the US instead of addressing the Kurds' legitimate complaints.

Newt Gingrich is an asshole and an idiot

Gingrich Calls For Federal Ban On Shariah Law In US
Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 18, 2010, 12:05PM

(title link)

Please alert the mainstream media

Powell Criticizes Right-Wing’s Attacks Against Obama: ‘Let’s Attack Him On Policy, Not Nonsense’

September 19th, 2010 at 1:15 PM by Igor Volsky

The people who are paying attention already know that the msm is full of shit. And may I add that it veers to the RIGHT which benefits corporate interests, not the LEFT which has the potential to benefit the people.

Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin the movie on HBO in 2010. I laughed and I cried and I loved the movie. A real person, here is her website . A truly inspiring human being.

Liberal Icon Warren Tapped by Obama to Take on Wall Street

"Financial Industry Not Pleased

Not only has Warren's selection upset various Republicans on Capitol Hill but also infuriated the financial industry."


Wooooo Hooooooooo!

I want to thank my friend

For being there for me when I was in a funk because one of my best friends moved to another state and my kid went back to school. You know who you are, thank you.
I hope I didn't screw up your classwork.

And thanks to BadTux I laughed this morning. Thanks BadTux, for reading that crazy stuff so that I don't have to.

Iraq's govt corrupt?

Nah, say it aint so?

GAO: Iraq's Government, Requesting Billions, Has Billions in Surplus Aram Roston September 10, 2010

San Bruno picture

Why do we have billions to make neighborhoods in other countries look like this, but we can't replace gas main lines that do this type of damage in our own country?

PG&E will "investigate" it.

Oh fuck me, I bet you anything that they are already preparing a cadre of lawyers to defend the company.

Commenting over at HuffPo

It took me 4 years to get to 1,000 comments over at HuffPo, and I did that today. When I see that people have made 7,000 comments in 2 months and have all their badges, I wonder sometimes they do anything but snort meth in their parent's basement and make comments at HuffPo. I'm not interested in becoming a moderator (fucking control freaks don't let any discussion happen in the comments section ), or a networker (woo woo, it's a junior high popularity contest!), and what.the.fuck is a goddamned 'pundit' over there? I didn't ask to be "superuser" badged, I just didn't turn the badges off.

So. What a way to commemorate this particularly ugly anniversary, to tangle with some idiotic moderator. I lost. All of my comments on that particular thread disappeared. I don't go with the flow, but I generally don't let loose with the vitriol over there. Today the idiocy was just too much for me.

Why blogging has become irritating to me

Because I read today:

BLOOD DIAMONDS? TRY BLOOD COLTAN


and I bitched about it over four years ago. Probably sounds hypocritical since I've blown through 3 computers and two cell phones since then eh?

Tu Frontera

(translated by Google)

I know I have not the proper passport
visa or granted, nor the right side
is that maybe I am not very well presented
and you may think I'm a little weird

I know you can not believe what I say,
But that changed after I've met if, perhaps,
my past scares you or that I come from a wrong place

Only one day let me cross your border
Just let me love you to want me
Just let me cross the limit, at least once

I know some bad people have been
they have done to raise the surveillance zone
is that there are some ugly history
who has put the state of imminent danger
is that you have lost trust in people

But that will change, because I understand how you feel if ..
I still think is strange
but I swear I do not come to hurt you

Only one day let me cross your border
Just let me love you to want me
Just let me cross the limit, at least once

New ideas, new lights and new colors,
morning new new new new wings nights
new cultures, new worlds and dreams
new seas, new life, new dreams, new dances, new

New landscapes, new clothes, new journeys, new days
joy new, old tunes, new
new new words, new looks new
new ideas, new wind, new times, just ..

Only one day let me cross your border
Just let me love you to want me
Just let me cross the limit, at least once

At least .. once .. let me cross the limit .. at least once ..

register to vote

click here to find out how long before the election

and how

New College Teaches Young American Muslims

npr (title link to audio)

"1/3 of all American Muslims were born here."

There is a reason that this post doesn't have a "religion sucks" title.

Religion sucks #23

How to Kill Goyim and Influence People: Israeli Rabbis Defend Book's Shocking Religious Defense of Killing Non-Jews (with Video)

AlterNet / By Max Blumenthal A rabbinical guidebook for killing non-Jews has sparked an uproar in Israel and exposed the power a bunch of genocidal theocrats wield over the government.
August 30, 2010 |

Dismantling the Empire

by Chalmers Johnson


This may seem totally unrelated, but bear with me.

James Lee, the Unabomber, and Mental Illness vs. Terrorism

During his trial, Kaczynski fired his attorneys because they argued that he was insane. It was later revealed that Kaczynski was a volunteer in mind-control experiments sponsored by the CIA.

Michael Mello, author of the recently published book, “The United States of America vs. Theodore John Kaczynski,” notes that at some point in his Harvard years–1958 to 1962–Kaczynski agreed to be the subject of “a psychological experiment”. Mello identifies the chief researcher for these only as a lieutenant colonel in World War II, working for the CIA’s predecessor organization, the Office of Strategic Services. In fact, the man experimenting on the young Kaczynski was Dr. Henry Murray, who died in 1988.

OpEd News gets my vote for Labor Day coverage

Misery of Massive Unemployment Mocks Meaning of Labor Day

Labor Day as Memorial Holiday; Middle Class R.I.P.

Employers Who Fire the Most Workers Receive 42% Higher Salaries, America Wake Up!!

Felon

In a country of 300 million we incarcerate 1000 people a week. Fascism sucks. When corporate profits, and that includes the prison industrial complex becomes more important than any type of rehabilitation whatsoever, we have our priorities all fucked up. This movie is apolitical, brutal, and harsh.

I didn't realize that Matt Simmons had died

INVESTMENT BANKING
Matthew Simmons, Noted Energy Banker, Dies at 67
August 9, 2010, 6:01 PM

"..In 2005, Mr. Simmons wrote “Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy,” in which he argued that Saudi Arabia’s oil production had peaked and that the world was headed for a supply shock. The view made him a national figure for the “peak oil” theory, which espouses that the world had hit its maximum oil production output.
Mr. Simmons retired from Simmons & Company International in 2005 and later served as the company’s executive chairman. He was still the face of the company and maintained client relationships.

Mr. Simmons, however, found himself in some hot water with Simmons & Company International in early June after he told Fortune magazine that BP would probably need to declare bankruptcy because of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. BP severed its relationship with the company after Mr. Simmons made the controversial comments. .."

The Republican Who Dared Tell the Truth About America's Looming Oil Disaster
Matt Simmons didn't let the money, bullshit or arrogance surrounding the oil industry cloud his judgment.
September 4, 2010 |The Tyee / By Andrew Nikiforuk

California bombs on bag ban

The American Chemistry Council, a lobbying group representing ExxonMobil and DuPont, used every political trick to stall out the bill.

China - The Rebirth of an Empire

China: The Rebirth of an Empire - Trailer from Veverka Bros. Productions on Vimeo.

Mexico drug kingpin says he received trailers of US cash

"...Mexico has arrested several top drug bosses in recent months, but the military crackdown on organized crime has been accompanied by a spike in violence -- more than 28,000 people have been killed in suspected drug attacks since 2006..."

POLL: Unemployment affects 3 out of 4 Americans

Right, so why did I give up watching my teevee when I realized they were never going to shut up about economic recovery?


Obama condemns W Bank 'slaughter'

Oh, fuck me, can I puke now?

( Israeli vs Palestinian deaths )

Wild Girl

written by Rickie Lee Jones

Wild girl, you must have been a terror
When you were young
Your mamma must have let you run,
Let you run free...
But it wasn’t very nice
Eating all that sugar and spice –
What they want a girl to be
And all the things a child learns
On their way from hope to here,
The innocence, the fury, the racism
Rage and fear
I don’t remember – tell me again –
The part no one wants to hear...

Well, that’s so many peoples story,
A lot of heartache but not much glory,
But glory, the truth be told
Tomorrow you are twenty–one years old

I say Happy Birthday tomorrow to you,
Go out and get some glory,
The only game in town.

You can live your life with regret
About the things you think you did wrong,
(A lot of people do)
Or over what some one would not give,
Or you can be grateful
When you open your eyes,
The story you write, you live

Well it’s hard to be older and poor
I don’t dig it that much anymore,
But every day of my life
I’m so proud I became his wife
Because I got to raise Charlotte
And Charlotte’s learning
The only game in town
Wild girl in a red dress
Come on, speak up, say yes
This thing that makes you beautiful
Never comes out of a jar
You are a beautiful girl
Because you reach out
from your beautiful world,
That is the daughter you are

Walk right and the real world knows it
Cuz you bring it back down into the real world
Walk right up the real world knows it
You’ll bring it back down into the real world
Say take me back baby
I just wanna make a dream come true –
I came here to love somebody –
I just want to make my dreams come true...

And I’m trying
Because trying is
The only game,
Live to tell the tale –
The only game in town

Music break

Wow, Balm in Gilead , her latest, is really good. Listen a bit here. She's done some weird stuff here and there over the years, and I have all of her stuff except for Live at Red Rocks now, but this is really nice. What a terrible fan I am that I didn't even realize that she released it in November of last year. The only excuse I have is that hey, after thirty years of being a fan, and being broke most of that time, I missed a few along the way. I've looked for a CD copy of ""Girl at her Volcano" over the years, but seemed to find only vinyl. I had two copies of her first album on vinyl and then a CD copy. I had a roommate destroy one copy of it because the bitch was sick of hearing it. What the hell was that girl's name? No matter, I can still sing Danny's All Star Joint", or Youngblood without missing a beat. In the car or shower of course, you know.

The only other artist I have everything they have done is Michael Franks .

Reading now

Dismantling the Empire by Chalmers Johnson. (Click on title link to buy. Scroll down the page)

Plunder - The Crime of our Time

Streaming on Netflix now or click on title link. They called Danny Schechter a Cassandra when he tried to warn about the housing bubble. Phooey, he was right.

Immigration backlog stirs move to release some U.S. detainees

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 28, 2010

"...It comes amid a push by ICE to focus on illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, rather than seek to deport all illegal immigrants...

...As those applications are being reviewed, immigrants in detention who do not have criminal backgrounds might be eligible for release, Morton said. Local ICE officials have discretion in releasing detainees, he added, and would take into consideration a number of factors, including "national security and public safety..."

Finally, something that makes sense.

Hustlers and the Idiot Swarm

Have you realized that what they taught you in school and what you see on your TV doesn't match the reality of your life? Your family's life? Your friend's lives? Do you see that your "American dream" is not quite what you hoped it would be? Not quite what you thought you were buying?

Well folks that uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach?

Trust it.

You were lied to. You're being lied to on a daily basis. The Rev has the scoop, he did his homework and cited his sources. I'm glad I bought the book. Get it here. The solutions to the problems in the last chapter are uplifting and inspirational.