IMPORTANT: Do Not Write Down Anything About This Website's Secret Plan To Rule The World

I highly recommend The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet. It's about the highly-creepy yet little-known "Christian" "Family" to which many powerful politicians, in America and elsewhere, belong. It was consciously modeled after the Communist Party, complete with cells, secrecy, cult-like devotion, etc.

And as with most creepy organizations, it's concerned that outsiders will learn what it's up to, and so members write to each other stressing the need to never write anything down. Here's a Family memo Sharlet dug up in the Billy Graham Center archives:

[The Family's political initiatives] have always been misunderstood by 'outsiders.' As a result of very bitter experiences, therefore, we have learned never to commit to paper any discussions or negotiations that are taking place. There is no such thing a 'confidential' memorandum, and leakage always seems to occur. Thus, I would urge you not to put on paper anything relating to any of the work that you are doing...[unless] you know the recipient well enough to put at the top of the page 'PLEASE DESTROY AFTER READING.'

This reminds me of a 1972 memo by Fred Malek, an aide in the Nixon White House, about illegally channeling federal money to administration supporters:

No written communications from the White House to the Departments -- all information about the program would be transmitted verbally...documents prepared would not indicate White House involvement in any way.

I think the lesson here is clear: high-functioning paranoids are always the same.

AND NOW: Fred Malek is currently national finance co-chair for the McCain Presidential Campaign. And while this may sound like a joke, it is not: Malek also has his own blogg.

—Jonathan Schwarz

The Tony Snow Award For Enormity In The Field Of Noggindom

The latest Poor Man comix are even funnier than normal.

—Jonathan Schwarz

Inside Der Clintönbunker

Written by James Adomian, put together by Dan Strange.

(from Dennis and IOZ)

—Jonathan Schwarz

Aping

On good days, politics is 95% primate screeching and hooting. On bad days it's 100%. This is why I hate and fear politics so deeply.

In any case, the New York Times Freakonomics blogg has an interesting interview with Frans "Bonobo" de Waal that touches on primate politics:

If both monkeys got the same reward, there never was a problem. Grapes are by far preferred (as real primates, like us, they go for sugar content), but even if both received cucumber, they’d perform the task many times in a row.

However, if they received different rewards, the one who got the short end of the stick would begin to waver in its responses, and very soon start a rebellion by either refusing to perform the task or refusing to eat the cucumber.

This is an “irrational” response in the sense that if profit-maximizing is what life (and economics) is about, one should always take what one can get. Monkeys will always accept and eat a piece of cucumber whenever we give it to them, but apparently not when their partner is getting a better deal. In humans, this reaction is known as “inequity aversion.”

I actually don’t think the response is irrational at all, but related to the fact that in a cooperative system, one needs to watch what kind of investment one makes and what one gets in return. If your partners always ends up getting a greater share, this means that you’re being taken advantage of. So, the rational thing to do is withhold cooperation until the reward division improves.

This holds an important message for American society which is becoming less fair by the day.

De Waal also points out other species besides humans have a sense of rhythm; for instance, cockatoos. Watching the below video, I'm seized with the desire to tape myself mimicking this dancing bird as closely as possible. I'd like to get a white suit and white headdress and then put them on and try to reproduce his moves exactly. Among other things, I'd have to keep my hands clasped behind my back and not bend at the knees.

—Jonathan Schwarz

More On Purported Bush Sr. Assassination Plot

When the Pentagon released a study about Iraq's terrorist activities under Saddam, I thought it was interesting they hadn't mentioned anything about Saddam's supposed attempt to assassinate George H.W. Bush in Kuwait in 1993. But I missed this article by Michael Isikoff at the time, on exactly this subject:

[C]uriously little has been heard about the allegedly foiled assassination plot in the five years since the U.S. military invaded Iraq. A just-released Pentagon study on the Iraqi regime's ties to terrorism only adds to the mystery. The review, conducted for the Pentagon's Joint Forces Command, combed through 600,000 pages of Iraqi intelligence documents seized after the fall of Baghdad, as well as thousands of hours of audio- and videotapes of Saddam's conversations with his ministers and top aides. The study found that the IIS kept remarkably detailed records of virtually every operation it planned, including plots to assassinate Iraqi exiles and to supply explosives and booby-trapped suitcases to Iraqi embassies. But the Pentagon researchers found no documents that referred to a plan to kill Bush. The absence was conspicuous because researchers, aware of its potential significance, were looking for such evidence. "It was surprising," said one source familiar with the preparation of the report (who under Pentagon ground rules was not permitted to speak on the record). Given how much the Iraqis did document, "you would have thought there would have been some veiled reference to something about [the plot]."

But it turns out absence of evidence still isn't evidence of absence:

"It would not have surprised me at all if the Iraqis expunged any record of that—it was an utter embarrassment for them," says Paul Pillar, the CIA's former top analyst on the Middle East.

You bet. Likewise, given the utter embarrassment the CIA felt when its remote control mechanism failed to crash Flight 93 into the Capitol on 9/11, I'm not surprised they've expunged all references to it from their records.

EARLIER: The FBI chemist who tested the explosives recovered in Kuwait describes how his report was falsified.

—Jonathan Schwarz

New From TomDispatch

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Portrait of an Oil-Addicted Former Superpower
How Rising Oil Prices Are Obliterating America's Superpower Status
By Michael T. Klare

Nineteen years ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall effectively eliminated the Soviet Union as the world's other superpower. Yes, the USSR as a political entity stumbled on for another two years, but it was clearly an ex-superpower from the moment it lost control over its satellites in Eastern Europe.

Less than a month ago, the United States similarly lost its claim to superpower status when a barrel crude oil roared past $110 on the international market, gasoline prices crossed the $3.50 threshold at American pumps, and diesel fuel topped $4.00. As was true of the USSR following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the USA will no doubt continue to stumble on like the superpower it once was; but as the nation's economy continues to be eviscerated to pay for its daily oil fix, it, too, will be seen by increasing numbers of savvy observers as an ex-superpower-in-the-making.

That the fall of the Berlin Wall spelled the erasure of the Soviet Union's superpower status was obvious to international observers at the time. After all, the USSR visibly ceased to exercise dominion over an empire (and an associated military-industrial complex) encompassing nearly half of Europe and much of Central Asia. The relationship between rising oil prices and the obliteration of America's superpower status is, however, hardly as self-evident. So let's consider the connection.

The rest.

—Jonathan Schwarz

Stop it, Amy!

By: Bernard Chazelle

I wonder how long it'll be before we get to read the obituary of this immensely talented woman.

— Bernard Chazelle

PS: I assume I was the last one to notice this. Jonathan is becoming quite the celebrity.

PPS: Nonstop travel has kept me from posting. Sorry.

What An Amazing Accomplishment

It's September 12, 2001. You're sitting in front of a TV, watching footage of the World Trade Center collapse over and over and over again.

All of a sudden, someone from seven years in the future walks out of a tiny temporal vortex, and tells you: George W. Bush is going to fuck this up so badly that in 2008, the United States of America will likely elect as president a black man whose middle name is Hussein and whose father was Muslim. Oh, and he also admits he's used cocaine.

I think it would have been easier to convince me of the reality of time travel. "No, no, I believe you really are from the future. But the other stuff, that's CRAZY."

—Jonathan Schwarz

God Damn Little Man

Thank you to this by Mimi Smartypants for mentioning this cartoon, or whatever it is.

Thank you to grendelkhan for mentioning cartoonist Tim Kreider and this specifically. I note that here Kreider refers to "John Ralston Saul’s indispensable book Voltaire’s Bastards."

Thank you to Jesus/Buddha/Mohammed/DARPA for inventing the internet.

—Jonathan Schwarz

I Wonder When The Mission Changed

This is from a new article about David Petraeus by Spencer Ackerman:

While commanding the 101st Airborne Division during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, David H. Petraeus famously mused to journalist Rick Atkinson, "Tell me how this ends." Asked today by The Washington Independent how he would answer that if one of his own division commanders posed it, Petraeus replied by phone from Baghdad's Camp Victory, "I would just reiterate what our objectives are, and that is what we're trying to help the Iraqis achieve. And that is: an Iraq that is at peace with itself and with its neighbors; and can defend itself; that is a democracy in Iraqi fashion -- I would also say a government that is represent of and responsive to all its citizens."

This is George Bush on March 6, 2003:

Q Thank you, sir. Mr. President, millions of Americans can recall a time when leaders from both parties set this country on a mission of regime change in Vietnam...What can you say tonight, sir, to the sons and the daughters of the Americans who served in Vietnam to assure them that you will not lead this country down a similar path in Iraq?

THE PRESIDENT: That's a great question. Our mission is clear in Iraq. Should we have to go in, our mission is very clear: disarmament. And in order to disarm, it would mean regime change...But it's very clear what we intend to do. And our mission won't change. Our mission is precisely what I just stated.

—Jonathan Schwarz

Poll: 68% Want Troops Out Of Iraq Within Six Months

A new poll by ICR found 68% of Americans want Congress to use the power of the purse to bring all troops home from Iraq within the next six months. This is up from 54% last September.

While this was paid for by Democrats.com, ICR is a straight and narrow polling company. These are valid results:

Should Congress:

Give President Bush 100 billion dollars to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for the rest of 2008 and beyond
13.4%

Give President Bush 170 billion dollars to keep U.S. troops in Iraq in 2009 and beyond
9.8%

Give President Bush 50 billion dollars to bring U.S. troops safely home within 6 Months
16.8%

Require President Bush to use existing funds to bring U.S. troops safely home within 6 months
51.2%

Don't know
5.8%

Refused to answer
3.0%

—Jonathan Schwarz

New From TomDispatch

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The Last War and the Next One
Descending into Madness in Iraq -- and Beyond
By Tom Engelhardt

The last war won't end, but in the Pentagon they're already arguing about the next one.

Let's start with that "last war" and see if we can get things straight. Just over five years ago, American troops entered Baghdad in battle mode, felling the Sunni-dominated government of dictator Saddam Hussein and declaring Iraq "liberated." In the wake of the city's fall, after widespread looting, the new American administrators dismantled the remains of Saddam's government in its hollowed out, trashed ministries; disassembled the Sunni-dominated Baathist Party which had ruled Iraq since the 1960s, sending its members home with news that there was no coming back; dismantled Saddam's 400,000 man army; and began to denationalize the economy. Soon, an insurgency of outraged Sunnis was raging against the American occupation.

After initially resisting democratic elections, American occupation administrators finally gave in to the will of the leading Shiite clergyman, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, and agreed to sponsor them. In January 2005, these brought religious parties representing a long-oppressed Shiite majority to power, parties which had largely been in exile in neighboring Shiite Iran for years.

Now, skip a few years, and U.S. troops have once again entered Baghdad in battle mode. This time, they've been moving into the vast Sadr City Shiite slum "suburb" of eastern Baghdad, which houses perhaps two-and-a-half million closely packed inhabitants. If free-standing, Sadr City would be the second largest city in Iraq after the capital. This time, the forces facing American troops haven't put down their weapons, packed up, and gone home. This time, no one is talking about "liberation," or "freedom," or "democracy." In fact, no one is talking about much of anything.

The rest.

—Jonathan Schwarz

Cinco De Arturo

Happy birthday to Arthur Silber, who turns sixty today. I suspect he wouldn't say no if you were moved to send him some money.

CINCO DE WHY-O?: Three years ago I wrote a post about the geopolitical origins of Cinco de Mayo, which are pretty damn interesting in their own right as well as relevant to our situation in America today.

—Jonathan Schwarz

Words: Do They Mean Anything?

I dig Matthew Yglesias of the Atlantic. First, he's pretty funny, which goes a long way with me. And second, he's an interesting and encouraging case study in recent structural changes in America's political economy. Not long ago, there would have been no room at fancy magazines for someone with his perspective. Now things have changed enough so there's a teeny-tiny foothold. If he were fifteen years older he would have either had to change his perspective in order to have a career, or keep his perspective and have no career.

And because I dig Yglesias, I found this, from the beginning of his new book Heads in the Sand, to be discouraging:

[O]ne should avoid unwise extremes and hew to a soundly moderate course of action...

Unfortunately...though backed by the teachings of Aristotle, the Buddha, and Goldilocks alike, [this view] offers little in the way of practical guidance. In a world where one conservative author's proposed response to Islamic violence is to "invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity" and a non-trivial number of people are committed to blanket pacifism, the middle ground turns out to be an extraordinarily broad patch of terrain.

To begin with, the ritualized execration of the Dirty Fucking Hippies is gross. But what's worse is that it's completely untrue that "a non-trivial number of people are committed to blanket pacifism." Or at least it is if words have any meaning.

I assume what Yglesias is trying to say is that a fairly large number of Americans believe in non-interventionism; ie, that the United States shouldn't attack other countries and should generally stay out of their affairs. But that's not pacifism. Pacifism, people with access to dictionaries know, is

1: opposition to war or violence as a means of settling disputes; specifically: refusal to bear arms on moral or religious grounds

2: an attitude or policy of nonresistance

In other words, pacifists don't just refrain from attacking others. They also don't defend themselves (violently) if attacked.

So how many genuine pacifists—ie, people who wouldn't resist if the United States were invaded—are there in America? I'm not sure, but I bet they could all fit in my apartment.

To get a sense of how extreme this position is in US politics, let's ask Noam Chomsky whether he's a pacifist. Noam?

CHOMSKY: I'm not a pacifist.

I don't think there are a non-trivial number of people committed to a political perspective to the left of Noam Chomsky. What I do think is that hundreds of years of imperialism have damaged our understanding of what words mean. ("Pacifism is extreme and crazy! America not attacking other countries is pacifism! America not attacking other countries is extreme and crazy!")

It's too bad Yglesias is contributing to this, rather than using his talents to combat it.

—Jonathan Schwarz

"In Praise Of Palestinian Steadfastness"

I have literally never in my life read something like this in an American news outlet:

In praise of Palestinian steadfastness
Despite 60 years of hardship, real achievement, too.

As Israel celebrates 60 years of statehood this month, Palestinians are taking the opportunity to remember the catastrophic shattering of their society in 1948. It is not simply a question of recalling the past; they continue to struggle for self-determination and to have their rights recognized under international law.

Yet it is a mistake to consider the past 60 years as simply a story of unmitigated disaster for the Palestinian people. There have also been significant successes and achievements – and it is a story worth telling. This is all the more remarkable, given the extent to which the society was devastated in 1948: Israel destroyed some 400 villages as 85 percent of Palestinians in what became Israel were dispossessed.

In spite of everything, Palestinians have not only survived but won international recognition for Palestinian statehood thanks to unflagging persistence. Often bereft of allies, they have struggled to make substantive political gains. But Palestinians inside Israel, the Occupied Territories, and the diaspora have resisted Israeli domination – and refused to just "go away."

The rest.

Congratulations to the author, Benjamin White, for getting this published in the Christian Science Monitor, and congratulations to the Christian Science Monitor for running it. I feel like I've fallen into an alternate universe in which human beings aren't tribalistic lunatics. Help!

I strongly encourage anyone who cares about this issue to write to the Christian Science Monitor as well as to their opinion editor directly to say thank you. It's safe to say they'll be getting a fair amount of correspondence unhappy with them.

(Thanks to Dennis Perrin for sending me this.)

—Jonathan Schwarz

The Shadow Elite

Paul Rosenberg is writing a series at Open Left on the extremely important yet little-examined phenomenon of the creation of "shadow elites":

While the notion of Fox News as "populist" is a ludicrous rightwing perversion in one sense, it is quite accurate in another sense we dare not ignore--and that is, quite simply, that it reflects the truest test of elite power--the ability to define the essential contours of populist thought, and to cast someone else as the dreaded "elite".

This is a very old game, and it's way past time we got a better handle on it.

That's from Part I. There is also a Part II.

The only flaw is that Rosenberg fails to mention the real elites who control all unseen: The Rotarians.

—Jonathan Schwarz

We're Going To Lose

Here's "Jesus Made Me Puke" by Matt Taibbi, an excerpt from his new book The Great Derangement:

Fortenberry began to issue instructions. He told us that under no circumstances should we pray during the Deliverance.

"When the word of God is in your mouth," he said, "the demons can't come out of your body. You have to keep a path clear for the demon to come up through your throat. So under no circumstances pray to God. You can't have God in your mouth. You can cough, you might even want to vomit, but don't pray."

The crowd nodded along solemnly. Fortenberry then explained that he was going to read from an extremely long list of demons and cast them out individually. As he did so, we were supposed to breathe out, keep our mouths open and let the demons out.

And he began...

"In the name of Jesus, I cast out the demon of incest! In the name of Jesus, I cast out the demon of sexual abuse! In the name of Jesus..."

"In the name of Jesus," continued Fortenberry, "I cast out the demon of astrology!"...

"In the name of Jesus Christ," said Fortenberry, more loudly now, "I cast out the demon of lust!"...

"In the name of Jesus Christ, I cast out the demon of cancer!" said Fortenberry...

"In the name of Jesus, I cast out the demon of handwriting analysis!" shouted Fortenberry...

"In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, I cast out the demon of the intellect!" Fortenberry continued. "In the name of Jesus, I cast out the demon of anal fissures!"

It's things like this that make me convinced progressives, whoever we are, will ultimately lose and mankind will destroy itself.

That's because incest, sexual abuse, astrology, lust, cancer, handwriting analysis, intellect, and anal fissures are genuine problems for people. Anyone who suffers from them naturally wants to know WHO'S RESPONSIBLE.

Bad political movements provide easy answers in the form of all-encompassing worldviews: it's the demons, or the Joos, or the filthy Arabs, or the dirty Mexicans, or the capitalist swine, or Jane Fonda. (Or all of them working together.) Cast them out and all your problems will vanish.

By contrast, good political movements cannot provide easy answers, or in most cases any answers at all. What we think we can do is get us all $4 an hour more, plus health care and a little more control over our lives. What we can't do is end human suffering.

Rationally speaking, this would be a giant improvement, particularly since the likely alternatives involve the deaths of billions. But irrationally speaking, we don't want to just suffer less, we want to stop suffering. And this is something honest movements can't offer.

That's the problem. We'll need to go to the barricades just to solve the problems that can be solved. But the larger problems will remain, and in the end, everyone will have to deal with them alone. It's hard to get people to the barricades on this platform.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of a slight increase in pay
Plus a little bit less teasing for teenagers poor or gay
And a crappy little state for Palestinians someday
And that is all we've got
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
And that is all we've got

—Jonathan Schwarz