Jharrin4's Blog

The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming! Really? Well, they’re up to something, thanks to Vlad Putin, the ex Soviet era KGB agent turned President. The Russian Federation–once known as the Soviet Union–is making BIG news again. No, nothing to do with Sochi. Those games are over, now a new game of brinksmanship is on, and it’s all about Ukraine. Akin to the “Arab Spring” from a few years back when Tunisia, Egypt and Libya underwent a citizens revolt on perceived governmental corruptions, Ukrainian citizens gathered in their capital of Kiev and stood defiant in the face of its government’s intransigence (and bullets) to force change. The capital of Kiev was ground zero for the world to watch the relentless protestors. Social media and our age of instant coverage/information/evidence factored into the positive outcome for the dissenting voices. (One wonders if the American Revolution would have been over in a few days if iPhones and Twitter feeds were available). But back to Russia and Ukraine. The media (social and network) watched, and in less than a month, the protestors got the Prime Minister to flee. In the wake of this development, though, comes the geographic complications of Ukraine’s “we the people” moment. Apparently, the east of Ukraine that borders Russia wasn’t completely on board with the revolt. Harkening back to the Cold War era, when the USSR was Ukraine’s proxy modus operandi, some folks in the East still prefer Moscow over Kiev calling the shots. To what extent such pro-Moscow Ukrainians actually exist in number, such is the excuse Putin is asserting that motivated him to send troops into Crimea in southern Ukraine. Now, suddenly it has become an East/West issue within Ukraine itself (supposedly), as well as an East/West issue between Russia and its one-time Cold War nemesis, the USA.

Now, for we Baby Boomers, it’s deja vu all over again.

This Boomer is rather, let’s say, enjoying–or at the least, appreciating, the irony. Boomers grew up in the “duck and cover” era of Cold War paranoia. Air raid drills. Bomb shelters. So many nukes. Just a matter of time. Assured Mutual Destruction. Then, in short order by 1991 the Soviet Union collapses under the dead weight of its ersatz, crypto Communist ideology and the Cold War is kaput. But now, like the ghost of geo-politics past, we have Moscow sending troops across Ukraine’s border into the Crimea region and tensions are rising. Not exactly the Cuban Missile Crisis and its “who’ll blink first?” showdown between Washington and Moscow tempting nuclear WWIII, but hey, the situation is fluid and tensions are rising. I expect nothing too apocalyptic will come of this development, but for the time being it’s bringing back those memories when our enemy was clearly identifiable, and substantial enough in nuclear weaponry and uniformed and well-trained soldiers that it at least appeared to be a threat to take seriously, and everything else seemed small potatoes.

I’m weary of breathless reporting on Kim Jong Un, the diabolic doofus of the creepiest country on earth, North Korea (and apparent pal of Dennis Rodman) who is a threat only to his own people. C’mon. North Korea, Iran, Syria, even teenie-weenie Cuba and the Castro clan are portrayed as 21st Century boogeymen, but all of those countries combined amount to a flea on the back of the USA’s 800 lb gorilla in the you want a piece of me? posturing for provocation gamesmanship. It’s not lost on any of the old or newer members of club de nuke that the U.S. is the only country to ever use the atomic bomb in anger–twice! And the US of A has more shiny, sophisticated new war toys than any other country by leaps and bounds. Now, it’s old Cold War sparring partner, it’s only serious threat from back in the day, is making noise. Sure, modern Russia isn’t the potential force it once was during its politburo zenith, but it still has nuclear missiles in significant numbers. Nukes, plus Putin’s illogical aggressiveness as a response to what happened in Kiev make for compelling speculation. Vlad’s seemingly playing “chicken” with the West when it come to Kiev. Apparently, history may have taken the Cold War hood away from Putin, but it can’t take that hood out of Putin. And he’s calling the shots.

Stay tuned. The old boogeyman from the Moscow is back, in a 21st Century remake. Maybe it’s an oligarchy now, not a Marx/Lenin/Stalin/Khrushchev inspired big commie bear daring defiance from its “Union” members, but it’s good old Mother Russia and that bear has come out of hibernation and is acting a bit like a bully.   And if push comes to shove, and East/West tempers flare, borders are breached, shots are fired or launch codes are invoked, I’ll roll myself a joint, pour a few fingers of rye and wait for the possible atomic denouement and finally understand all those by-gone years of paranoia, proxy wars, and propaganda actually wasn’t all bluster and bullshit after all.

I contribute to, and am a member of both Sierra Club and Public Citizen. These organizations have the dubious challenge of trying to make a difference, particularly as it relates to issues embraced by those of us more than a little to the left of center, politically. As a member, I receive a monthly Sierra magazine and a Public Citizen newsletter. These publications address how things are going as far as their influence in matters ecological and/or political. Essentially, both organizations are always attempting to formally appeal to voices of reason in Washington, D.C.

However, those “voices” are hard to reason with, unless those trying to engage in logical reasoning with a good dose of pathos thrown in have the right stuff. That stuff is called money. That’s why financial contributions (small change, like me, or those with deeper pockets) are the life-blood that keeps both Sierra and P.C. healthy enough to fight another day.

Reading the above noted publications isn’t typically a morale booster, though. It seems for every success, there’s a defeat or delay or simply deaf ears that are invoked by their reporters. Certainly, for those who are crazy enough to be concerned about the environment or dysfunctional and corporate-controlled politicians, it’s a blessing to have these and other organizations trying to hold to account those who hold important office, and who more and more appear to have been bought and paid for by a select and obscenely small but well financed political faction that care little but for the bottom-line. The future is now, apparently, so for them now is the time to enact draconian environmental legislation (i.e. the Keystone XL Pipeline, among other ideas) and help to support conservative judges who support ultra-conservative readings of the Constitution (i.e. the Citizens United ruling that has corporations as “people” and money as “free speech”).

So, am I bolstered by my monthly perusal of articles in Sierra or Public Citizen? Hell, no! Actually, it’s rather disturbing to encounter some of the reports that suggest money is the bloodline that keeps our body politic’s corpus callosum functioning with most of that blood money going to the Right-wing side of its brain. Meanwhile, the Left side scrambles and scrounges for rogue corpus corpuscles to seek equilibrium while being dazzled to dizziness by well-heeled lobbyists packing weapon’s grade bank rolls backed by the likes of the Koch brothers and their ilk.

The antidote to my angst over how much money has apparently corrupted our now wheezing democracy is akin to the advise given to Hemingway’s doomed protagonist in the story “The Killers,” that maybe it’s best not to think about what’s coming. But think I do. So I renew my memberships, if not much faith in a fanciful future amount of positive outcomes in forthcoming Sierra and P.C. monthly mailings. Unfortunately, such optimism has waned as the years go by, especially the last 33 of them, politically speaking.

Some vestige of Nader’s Raiders exists in Public Citizen and Sierra Club isn’t about to shut up, either, even if their voices might seem as though coming from one of the more remote outposts of Mother Earth. You know, out in some pristine piece of natural beauty that’s likely lying in the cross-hairs of some mining, fracking or oil congomerate, whose conniving Washington-based wolves prowl the corridors of power, sniffing out the scent of their all too eager to please prey.

The future does seem to be now, with the past serving as prologue.

The winter Olympic games are about half over, and so far no incidents of a terrorist nature have occurred. In the run-up to the opening ceremonies, recall the numerous reports of security operations in Russia and elsewhere picking up “chatter” about so-called black widows, female suicide bombers thought to be possibly already in the Sochi area. Thankfully, so far, so good with the massive security presence. About the biggest noise to come out of the games was yesterday’s U.S. hockey team’s victory over their favored Russian opponents.

Actually, other than some unexpected competitive outcomes on the slopes or ice, most of the adversity coming out of Sochi has been related to shoddy acommodations, warm temperatures and lots of dead dogs littering the landscape.

Don’t flush the toilet paper. In fact, don’t drink the water. Bathe in it at your own risk. Also, don’t lean on the walls, they might collapse. $50 billion can only go so far.
Apparently, some rooms are upscale, but those are for the folks with world class credentials. Of course.

The sub-tropical setting of these games has belied the inherently icy cold climate expected for winter Olympics, producing a juxtaposition of skiing and skating and snowboarding events taking place with temperatures hovering around 60. By the time the events are winding down and the closing ceremonies take place, perhaps flip-flops, tank-tops and Tropicana sun screen SPF 35 may be in vogue.

Then there’s all those dead dogs in the Sochi area. Evidently, the area that was developed was somewhat slummy, and stray dogs (or even some scraggly four-legged mongrels considered part of ramshackle domiciles) occupied the area in large numbers. When the construction and displacement of the unwashed tenants took place, the dogs scattered, but they didn’t relocate to St.Petersburg or Moscow. When the Olympic village went up, the workers and officials realized the strays were large enough in number to present a nuisance or worse. Solution. Find them. Kill them.

Some reporters documented piles of canine carcasses along the roadways. Perhaps unsettling, but the clean-up crews hustled to erase the evidence of this messy search-and-destroy mission. Less than humane, but better than a black widow blast of human carnage. At this point, not much comment is heard about dead dogs any more. Or the funky water and the wobbly walls. If the ice melts in the Sochi sunshine causing the competitors to race on Slurpee-like surfaces, that could prove to be a new story.

Dog lovers no doubt were/are appalled about the indiscriminate whacking of many a Man’s Best Friend just trying to get by like every other living being. But it’s a dog-eat-dog world, and then you get poisoned or shot while scrounging for a few scraps. Move along. Flush the story. Nothing to see here. Have some Moldavian meatballs and enjoy the giant slalom and the Jamaican bobsledders, who no doubt appreciate the weather, if not the yellow tap water.

Saw the movie “Lone Survivor” the other day. Based on an actual event in 2005 involving a Seal team operation in Afghanistan. The mission was to find and “take out” a so-called high value target, but the mission went terribly wrong. Though the overall mission cost the lives of 18 Seal team members, the film focuses on four of them, of which one became the title’s lone survivor. What the portrayal of the battle on a mountainside in Afghanistan seems to convey is that these soldiers represent the essence of all soldier’s duty: to fight; not to quit; and to watch each other’s back.

The story could have any war as its backdrop. Whether or not a particular war is ultimately judged as justified or necessary or a inherent lost cause matters not when it comes to those who are trained and sent to fight. Thus “Lone Survivor” is neither pro nor anti-war. It’s a tribute to those who fight, regardless of what anyone may think of the meaningfulness of their mission.

All war is should be avoidable, in the abstract, at least. But war is seemingly inevitable, if one cares to take history seriously.

War changes men.

“Sole Survivor” encapsulates that cause and effect. Making a commercial film about the tragic loss of life in the line of duty may seem somewhat cynical. These guys died, fought to the death, except for one had fate, luck or destiny or whatever on his side. Sitting and chomping on a bag of popcorn while watching seems wrong, however.
But this movie does honor those Seals by showing their grit and gutty resolve. What, exactly, they died for will forever be open to question.  

Another crazed shooter leaves 12 dead on a U.S.Navy facility in Washington, D.C. He had his own security clearance that got him through the gates–with his assault weapon in tow. I’ve been around long enough to recall when a mass murderer really was a shocking story. Not so much now, except for those in the line of fire, or their families. Since there’s not the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell of  meaningful gun legislation reform to address our country’s having made access to military weapons by just about anyone–even, apparently,  mentally unstable persons–then comfort yourself in knowing that the odds are remote in the extreme that I or you or the person or persons around you in a crowded room will ever be killed in the next such mass shooting. I’ve always felt that, given there are 7 billion people in the world, and 320 million in the U.S., protective statistical probability is always on everyone’s side.

Certainly. That goes for all the other bad news that occurs on a daily basis. Death behind the wheel. Dying in a train mishap. Skydiving. Motorcycle accidents. Riding a bicycle. And one is seemingly exceptionally safe, statistically, when taking a flight. Of course, there are people who do die in tragic and twisted turns of fate. Sometimes we may be related to someone who is so victimized, or be a close or casual friend of the prematurely departed. Naturally, when that happens, when it hits so close to home, we are shaken and suddenly value life more intensely. For a while, at least. 

So, just go about your business, citizen. Take that flight. Take the City of New Orleans train ride. Go skydiving, or bungee jumping, or head to Spain and join in on the running of the bulls. Go base jumping. Climb Mt.Everest. Get a crotch-rocket motorbike and crank it. Take a cab ride in Manila. Take that 21 speed Trek out into city traffic and bob and weave around all those cars burning overpriced fuel. Go wind surfing or sky surfing. Open that can of meat sauce that expired a month ago. Stand in front of that yellow line we’re warned to stand behind while on a bus. Walk under a ladder. Find a family of black cats and let them have at your space. Go ahead and risk it. The odds are with all of us it’ll be alright! Yes, be confident that you will not be that tragic statistical anomaly. Go the the shopping mall. Go to the movies. Are you a student or teacher? No sweat. The next armed lunatic is not going to show up where you are. Just go about your business, be it routine or thrill-seeking, knowing that the next time there’s a shoot-em-up, or plane crash, or train wreck, or freak accident, know that statistical probability will say your parachute will open as expected and you’ll have a safe landing. Then you can go home, and turn on the news and wait to hear of someone else’s really bad luck.  

George W. Bush had a stint implanted yesterday as treatment for some coronary artery blockage. Presidents present and past get top-notch health care. Few of them ever die before they are well into their 70s. Ronald Reagan made it to 93, as did Harold Ford. Jimmy Carter will be 89 in October, while George H.W. Bush turned 89 this past June. Bill Clinton–looking vigorous as usual–will be 67 this month.

In the 20th century, excepting the assassinations of William McKinley and John Kennedy, the only president to die of natural causes under the age of 60 is William Harding, in 1923. President Obama just hit 52 on August 4, and one would assume that he will be around for a few more decades, at least.

Well, bully for him and our ever-older and older and older living ex-presidents. As much stress as being President of the USA obviously carries with occupying that office, it seems a likely combination of decent family genes and world-class healthcare make for a long life.

But back to George W.Bush and his stint. W will be 67 on his next birthday. He’s likely going to be around for a good while longer, continuing to enjoy the perks of being an ex-President. He’s been writing books (well, with the help of a “ghost” or two) and doing book tours; he was shilling “Decision Points” on Oprah Winfrey a few years back. As with all Presidents, even after leaving office, he is protected by Secret Service personnel. He’s free to wander about, guarded, and if he gets a sniffle, no sweat. Presidential healthcare is on-call.

Ironic, though, that while George W. is spinning tales, getting free five-star medical attention, his actual presidency is quite controversial. Oprah may gleefully give him a bright smile and a stage to perform his historical reductions, but many legal scholars here and in other countries accuse him of being a war criminal. Some countries have even announced that if he sets foot on their soil, he’ll be arrested.

Which bring us to Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning. Snowden and Manning both are considered “whistleblowers” by many legal and constitutional experts. Others view them as treasonous villains. Manning is about to be sentenced, possibly to 100 years in jail after being convicted by a military court for revealing classified documents to Wikileaks that cast a negative light on U.S.military combat operations in Afghanistan.

Mr.Snowden also shared some apparent secret info to Wikileaks that reveal the National Security Administration is apparently snooping everyone’s phone calls. Snowden is in Russia. The U.S.wants to prosecute him too, if U.S.authorities can nab him.

Do you see where I’m going with this? Manning is tried and convicted for shedding light on just how cruel and cold combat realities can be. And Afghanistan, along with Iraq are both dubious and deadly military operations started under George W.Bush. Remember? WMD? Saddam’s soon-to-be nuclear capabilities? Revenge for 9-11, even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11? Recall, over 5000 American soldiers dead, and countless “collateral” dead, innocent Iraqi civilians? In the meantime, since post-military operations in Iraq, the sectarian violence goes on and on. What was the reason we invaded? Was it not unconstitutional? So say many of those legal scholars. Where’s there’s smoke, perhaps there is fire. Accountability, anyone?

Afghanistan is still costing U.S.military lives, and likely creating new anti-American terrorists day-by-day. President Obama should have ended the Afghan fiasco as oon as he took office. Not so. Obama is busy denouncing Mr.Snowden and wanting his hide. Justice must be served. National security. Snowden must be held to account. But when President Obama was asked about holding George W.Bush accountable for possible war crimes, he said he’d prefer to look forward, not backwards. Thus, W. gets a pass, even though those many legal and constitutional experts unequivocably accuse him of being, ipso facto, a murderer of tens of thousands of people during the course of his administration. But he gets that special protection. He’ll likely never have to be defend himself in a court of law. He’s apparently perpetually free to write more books and go on media-intense book tours. Paging Oprah…

So, Manning is already legally dead military meat. Snowden is being monitored and sought as a dangerous, traitorous, transgressor. The mainstream media, however, does not attempt in the least to shed light on their reasons for doing what they did, for their stated concerns about the U.S.’s legal and moral culpability in its foreign and domestic modus operandi. Not anymore than the same media ever attempted to find the truth about Bush’s frenetic “rush to war” and the possible atrocities that took place because of them. Spying on U.S. citizens by our government? Nevermind. It’s Snowden that must be caught and tried. Innocent casualties of war? Never you mind. Bradley Manning was a loose cannon who had to be punished. 100 years behind bars…

Breaking news! George W.Bush just got a coronary stint implanted…and is likely to have many, many more years of good health. Unlike Manning now, or Snowden if he’s ever apprehended, George W. apparently won’t have to defend his actions as president, or ever contemplate living out his days behind bars. Jail cells are for criminals, whoever our government decides is such.

Just ask Mr.s Manning and Snowden.

Several days ago, the British publication The Guardian, busted the U.S. for its ongoing snooping of everyone’s phone calls. Some 29 year-old working for a private security firm as part of our government’s “war on terror” evidently couldn’t handle the moral or constitutional dubiousness of such a “Big Brother” modus operandi, and violated his top-secret clearance credentials by clearing his conscience. Since then, the Obama administration and congress have been practicing damage-control.

Did I mention Big Brother? Certainly, Big Bro is not an entirely unfamiliar moniker, its having been used to denote a government literally watching/listening to its citizenry a la George Orwell’s decades-old dystopian novel 1984. That book was Orwell’s expression of his concerns about the British (or any, by extension) government becoming a bit too, let’s say, control freakish. Big Brother. Totalitarianism. Freedom is Slavery. War is peace. Ignorance is strength. Doublethink. Thought crime. Thought police. Gray, chilling and unfortunately, as time goes by, less and less a cautionary tale, and more of a “I told you so!” from the Great Literary Beyond.

Orwell certainly was on to something back in 1949! Given our digital and hand-held technologies that allow all of us to photograph or video anything, anywhere, anytime for any reason, we’re all a bit of Big Brother-ish in a way. Social media has become a blessing and a curse. Fun and games. Truth–and consequences, sometimes serious consequences. But we smart phone-packing citizens are just moping around thinking that somehow the most mundane of scenarios or events warrant documentation. However, a government systematically eyeballing and/or eavesdropping on us? Now we’re talking Orwell. We’re talking Orwellian. Usually the term Orwellian is followed by the adjective nightmare. And evidently, since the Guardian revelation, barely a week ago now, the super-snooper story it tells has sent shock waves through society. As a result, sales of 1984 have been robust. It went from 11,000 in rank of sales on-line to 100th since the Snowden revelations hit the mass media airwaves. I hope Orwell’s descendants get some royalties on all this action.

My generation (Boomers) is quite familiar with Orwell, including his other well-known tome Animal Farm an allegorical tale of a dystopia that was aimed at Soviet/Satlinist rule. Orwell certainly had a sociopolitical conscience. The books, however, differ in that while both seek to illuminate perceived political and military rule of a rather stringent kind, the Soviet Union and Stalin were hardly projections of a possible future. By the 1930s, they had become stark reality for post-Revolutionary Russia, starting with the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, and Stalin’s eventual rise to paranoid-driven power . What Orwell wrote of in 1984 wasn’t a blatant development in Great Britain in the 1940s. And thank goodness! Winston Smith, the protagonist of the novel, serves to demonstrate the flinty, unforgiving constraints placed on him and his ilk by the Big Brother system of brainwashing or brute force designed to break the will of anyone who dared resist their being expected to be quietly compliant and obedient to the nefarious will of the government. That so many surveillance systems are now routinely part of our daily lives makes George quite a literary prognosticator, indeed.

The fact that Orwell is a bestseller for the moment could be taken as a sign that a lot of “we the people” types want to re-read him or maybe finally get around to getting to know this Big Brother dude. In any case, I have always thought that Orwell should be required reading because it could obviously stir up some awareness of why a government should be afraid of its people, and not the other way around. Better late than never on Orwell book sales. It’s the public, not just our government that needs to engage in some damage control.

I’m obviously not a prolific blogger. About once every month, starting in September 2010, I vent in this format; not that I don’t always have passionate opinions (personal and/or informed) on many events, stories, issues, some of which are new, some lingering and languishing amongst the mounting rubble from an avalanche of daily digital dispatches via mainstream news outlets, secondary outlets (domestic and foreign), postings in the blogosphere, Twitter and the rest.