Blogging from China not allowed

Although I have tried several ways around the Chinese filters, I am unable to post any blogs from China. This is disappointing because my living and working experience in China has been very favorable and rewarding.

As a political scientist, living and working in China is allowing me to gather data for a future paper related to Chinese/American relations.

The change of Barack Obama from a Dove to a Hawk

In a 2007 interview with The Boston Globe, candidate Barack Obama said "The president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation”

At the time Obama gave that speech to The Boston Globe, Mr. Obama was a political candidate running for office exploiting the prevailing anti-war feeling of the public after four years of war in Iraq and six years of war in Afghanistan. However, on March 19, 2011 President Obama unilaterally authorized the United States to attack Libya on humanitarian grounds, absent any threat to the U.S. and without approval from Congress.

The change in Barack Obama from a political candidate championing the republican principles enshrined in the U.S. Constitution to a powerful executive unilaterally using military force, illustrate how every president since the end of World War II has succumbed to an unofficial set of rules in Washington DC pertaining to U.S. military power known as the Washington Consensus. The decision by Barack Obama to unilaterally authorize a military attack on Libya, continue the war in Afghanistan and fail to close the military gulag in Guantanamo Bay, clearly illustrates how Barack Obama has embraced and maintained the Washington Consensus of power projection, a global military presence, and interventionism as the preferred method to achieve American foreign policy goals and objectives.

Explained in eloquent and perfunctory style by Andrew Bacevich in his book, Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War, the professor of international relations at Boston University and a former retired Lt. Colonel of the U.S. Army informs his readers that the Washington Consensus is a belief that the United States - and the United States alone - should lead, save, liberate and ultimately transform the world. Like most Presidents since the passing of The National Security Act in 1947, since becoming president, Barack Obama has succumbed to the powerful interests that form the National Security State and in the process stymie the republican principles of the Constitution and continue to enable the existence of an Imperial Presidency.

Very similar to days when monarchs like Louis XIV of France and his court of generals, bishops, and other First Estate aristocrats began to seek to fight “limited” wars that declining empires often fight for pride and prestige, first estate elites in America have supported and waged several limited wars is such places as Grenada, Panama, Afghanistan and Iraq. Like the First Estate elites in the Court of Louis XIV, the United States has increasingly fought these limited wars with a professional army, supported by mercenary soldiers.

William Astore, a retired Lt. Colonel and professor of history perspicaciously wrote in a recent TomDispatch article:

In the eighteenth century, France was the superpower of Europe with a military that dwarfed those of its neighbors.  And who dictated France’s decisions to go to war?  The answer: the king, his generals, and his courtiers at the Court of Versailles.  In the twenty-first-century, the U.S. celebrates its status as the world’s “sole superpower” with a military second to none.  And who dictates its decisions to go to war?  Considering the lessons of Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya, the answer is no less obvious: the president, his generals, and his courtiers within the vast edifice of Washington’s national security state.

France’s “enlightened” wars were fought by professional armies and mercenaries, directed by a unitary executive who did as he pleased, and endured by the lower orders who had no say (even though they provided the brawn and blood).  Similarly, our twenty-first century masters plunge us into their version of enlightened wars and play their version of global chess matches.

The analogy can be pushed further.  In pre-revolutionary France, the First and Second Estates (the clergy and the nobility) constituted less than 2% of the population but controlled nearly all of France’s wealth and power.  Their unholy alliance kept the Third Estate (everyone who wasn’t a churchman or a noble) under their collective thumb.

Now, consider the United States today.  Our equivalent to the First Estate would be the clergy of finance and banking (the religion of the almighty dollar).  Look for them in their houses of worship on Wall Street.  Our Second Estate equivalent would be the movers and shakers inside Washington’s Beltway.  Look for them in the White House, the Pentagon, Congress, and on K Street where the lobbyists for the First Estate tend to congregate.  The unholy alliance of these two estates leaves the American Third Estate -- you and me -- with the deck stacked against us.

A close reading of the Declaration of Independence reveals a proto-republic’s contempt for wars waged by kings, such as Louis XIV, who often used the lower classes as cannon fodder, in order to pursue their own power and prestige. By giving the more pluralistic Congress the power to declare war, the founders of the Constitution intended to check the power of the executive and its tendency to abuse military power for personal prestige and political gain. A prominent example of how an executive can use the military for its own personal prestige and political gain was the the May 2, 2003 media event of President G.W. Bush landing aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. The recent killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and the bump in the polls for Barack Obama is the most recent example of how the executive branch often benefits the most from military power and the brawn and blood expended by the members of the military.

While the esoteric terms of an Imperial President and a National Security State may be contentious to most Americans who only have a superficial understanding of the U.S. Constitution, the terms explains how Presidents and non-elected elites in Washington DC, who are a part of the Dept. of Defense, CIA, State Department and Dept. of Homeland Security, habitually subvert the checks and balances of power enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Since the passing of the National Security Act in 1947 and the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, the executive branch has habitually used the CIA as its own private army and the members of the all volunteer force with contempt and disdain. This is clearly evident with service members enduring multiple year tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, while the rest of the population goes on with their own lives with little attention to the sacrifices of the men and women in the U.S. military.

First used to destabilize and overthrow god-less Communist governments in Iran in 1953, to Vietnam in the 1960s to central and South America in the 1970s and 1980s, the CIA is now being used to fight god crazed terrorists in the Middle East and south central Asia.

The continuing drone attacks authorized by Barack Obama in Pakistan by the CIA, confirms that Mr. Obama is no different than every Imperial President who has held the executive branch of government since the end of World War II.   

Although most political pundits ridicule the campaign slogan of change by Barack Obama in 2008, in all truthfulness, Barack Obama did change. He changed from an idealistic leader attempting to challenge the entrenched interests of the National Security State, to a pragmatic politician obeying the decade’s long rules of the Washington Consensus. This was quickly confirmed when Barack Obama nominated two former defense lobbyists for the number two and number three positions at the Pentagon in January 2009 and recently confirmed again with his appointment of General Petraeus to the CIA and the transfer of the former head of the CIA to the Pentagon.

Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta

One of the latest books to be added to Il Principe’s library is the 2002 book, Dreaming War, by Gore Vidal.

Like most Americans, Il Principe was not familiar with Gore Vidal due to the wide-ranging media blackout that Vidal has faced in America. Although Mr. Vidal has written over 20 novels, in addition to several plays and essays including his much acclaimed first novel Williwaw, Vidal has been widely blacklisted and shunned by the American main stream press.

The blacklisting of Gore Vidal by the American main stream media is very similar to the way Beppe Grillo is blacklisted in Italy. Understanding how the control of the media in Italy by Silvio Berlusconi has helped the mafia tainted media mogul remain the leader of that country for most of the past 15 years, the blacklisting of Noam Chomsky, and Gore Vidal in America helps to explain why the United States is still in a perpetual war in Afghanistan and Iraq nearly 10 years after terrorist attacks in September 2001.

Starting as far back as 1948 when he suffered the consequences of bringing a gay novel before a wide audience, the blacklisting has largely continued over the last few decades due to Vidal’s talent and aptitude to deconstruct the lies that power tells us.

Similar to other notable intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky who are fiercely critical of American foreign policy and the actions of the US government, Gore Vidal has been largely confined to foreign outlets such as TheTimes Literary Supplement. In stark contrast to dishonest flag waving patriots most Americans are familiar with like Glenn Beck, a former rodeo clown and an individual who never finished college, Gore Vidal has been largely shunned by media outlets who profess to be fair and balanced. When the rare exception does occur and Vidal appears on CNN or some other US media infotainment media outlet, Vidal is often introduced as “a dissenting patriot”, or “a nostalgist of the lost republic”.  

In the chapter Meandering towards Armageddon , Vidal offers a tongue in cheek rebuttal to these critics and in particular ,the  usually even-handed  New Yorker magazine author Louis Menand ,who wrote a October 2002 article entitled “Faith, Hope and Clarity: September 11th and the American Soul,”. Using the normally even handed Menand as the focal point in the essay, Vidal disproves many of the popular misperceptions used by corporate America and national security state surrogates who try  to portray Noam Chomsky and other critics of the Afghanistan War and the subsequent war in Iraq as being "anti-American" or an America hater.

Using the analogy of Nazis in Germany imprisoning anyone why spoke out against Adolf Hitler as being a Germany hater, Vidal writes:

“Professor Menand’s problem is that although he is no doubt some sort of scholar, he is not used to reading anything that might contradict what he thinks he already knows. What Chomsky and I have in common is an interest in public matters and a fascination with the lies that power tells us, lies we deconstruct, lies which also fascinate and affect- a number of our countrymen who do read seriously. There’s nothing more to it than that”.

 

The collection of essays in Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta may be too controversial for some readers. However, for readers who are suspicious of the corporate main stream press and the perpetual war the political elites have forced upon the American people, the collection of provocative and thoughtful essays by one of America’s great literary dissenters will be a refreshing bit of truth and clarity.

The Rare Earth policy of Deng Xiaioping

In the book, Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich, historian and former Republican Party strategist Kevin Phillips skillfully explains how as the wealth of the rich in America has grown, so has its control over government ; making politics a hostage of money. As the recent Wall Street bailout of 2008 and other government bailouts over the last 30 years vividly demonstrate, average honest hard working Americans have been regularly betrayed by politicians more focused on their own short term political careers and doing the bidding of their corporate and wealthy masters, while the long term health of the country has declined to the point where America is now a debtor nation and the status of the US Dollar as the reserve currency for the world is now being questioned. 

One of the most vivid examples of how both American politicians and business leaders have turned America from a country of production and a creditor nation, to a country of consumption and a debtor nation , was to allow and even facilitate the national economic policies of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1986. It was in that year that Deng Xiaoping set out to acquire and master a group of 17 rare earth elements that would be essential in the 21st century world economy. 

Having not enough domestic oil reserves to meet future demand and not inclined to build an enormous and expensive blue water navy to challenge American dominance of the Persian Gulf, Chinese officials, under the direction of Deng Xiaoping, quietly set out to acquire and gain a market share in rare earth elements such as neodymium, samarium, and dysprosium.

Unlike political leaders in America who were and still are more concerned about their own short term political careers and the short term profits of their political donors , Chinese leaders like Deng Xiaoping from as far back as 1986 planned for long term economic growth and sustainability, with an eye on a post peak oil and post fossil fuel based world economy. 


Similar to the way in which American business owners first moved manufacturing centers from  New England and mid west states of Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, to lower cost southern states in America during the 1990s and 2000s, American business leaders then moved or sold their companies to foreign countries.  More concerned about profit, rather than a commitment to the community where many American manufacturing centers were once located, American companies like Magnequench in Indiana which produced rare earth products like neodymium, samarium, and dysprosium, sold their plants and equipment to foreign investors. 


Perhaps no greater example of how the migration of American jobs and manufacturing to foreign countries like China has undermined and weakened America is to look at a plant in Valparaiso, Indiana which used to produce rare earth elements for the US military, but now is now home to a doggie day care center. 


For a more in depth look at the rare earth policy of Deng Xiaoping and the control of rare earth elements used by the US military by the Chinese, you can read this Bloomberg News article. 


The lack of foresight by American officials to identify the future strategic use of rare earth elements like neodymium, samarium, and dysprosium in the production of 21st century renewable energy products like hybrid-electric cars and wind turbines has allowed the Chinese to become the leading producer of wind turbines in the world.

While the Chinese are happy to control 97 percent of the world supply of neodymium, the Chinese probably did not expect how easy it would be to corner the market of a key component in renewable energy products. 

While the elements are not as rare in nature as the name implies, they are difficult to find in profitable concentrations, expensive for Western producers to extract and often laced with radioactive elements. China has been able to dominate the market because it has been able to produce the elements more cheaply, with fewer environmental restrictions than its competitors, and allowed to buy American manufacturing equipment and companies.

Contrary to what many Americans may be told by fear pedaling politicians influenced by defense corporations and unable to see the world beyond their self absorbed bubble of Washington DC, the Chinese government rare earths priority policy did not have the intention to undermine the American defense industry, American national security, or the American economy. 


Corporate greed and the politicians influenced by the wealthy elites in American business are far more responsible for undermining American national security and the long term strength of the American economy.

Why more Americans often believe a lie more than the truth.

While the media dutifully focused on the story of President Obama releasing his birth certificate, the far more interesting and politically important story of racial discrimination by US Immigration officials towards President Obama’s father in 1961 was under reported or not reported at all.

Didn’t read about the subtle and almost institutionalized conspiracy against President Obama’s father?  That just underscores how the failure of the media to give more attention to a factual story like the discrimination faced by Obama’s father, rather than the mythical story of President’s Obama birth certificate, is why more Americans often believe a lie more than the truth.

If the now discredited “birthers”, had to have a representative, there couldn’t be a more suitable candidate than Donald Trump. This wealthy two time divorced real estate aristocrat and Vietnam War draft dodger is the ideal representative for the “birthers”. As is often the case in contemporary American politics, the political issue of the birth certificate was a smoke and mirror tactic to keep Americans distracted from more important issues such as the never ending war in Afghanistan, corporate tax evasion by companies such as  General Electric, and  the continuing economic polarization between the rich and poor in America.

Trump however is just the latest personification of the long standing relationship that wealth and democracy has had in American history and the ability of the few to dominate the many. When James Madison was asked during the founding of the republic how any business could get done in Congress with so many conflicting interests in such a large country as America, Madison took the line that oligarchy’s iron law always obtains: A few people always run the show, and keep if they can in the family.   

Uncomfortable for most Americans to admit and unthinkable for opinion making national news organizations to critically analyze, American leaders, often people coming from wealth and privilege (i.e. Kennedy, Bush, Kerry, Romney in the modern era), have a long record of deceiving the American public in order for the few to continue to dominate the many.

Since the end of World War II and the creation of the national security state, the domination of the few over the many has been driven by imperial goals and to maintain the hegemony of the United States in the international system. The recent birth certificate debate was another smoke and mirror tactic by political elites and their surrogates to avoid drawing attention to America’s long term relationship supporting authoritarian leaders around the world and the use of National Security State apparatus agencies like the CIA to overthrow governments in Iran, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, Chile, etc.

If you have trouble believing or supporting that statement, just ask yourself if Bush and Cheney ever found those pesky weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or if the Gulf of Tolkien was a valid reason for the political elites in America to escalate the war in Vietnam? Perhaps Gore Vidal,  a novelist, essayist, playwright, and provocateur whose career has spanned six decades, said it best in his 2002 book Dreaming War.

 “The American global empire rests on a number of Presidential lies that our court historians seldom dare to question. It would seem that Hitler got it about right when it comes to human credulity: the greater the lie, the more apt it is to be believed”.  

With those kinds of statements, it is no surprise that Gore Vidal is described as a provocateur by his admirers on the left and as an America hater by his opponents on the right. Like other intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky, who has been largely blacklisted from the American media, Gore Vidal believes that that the United States should return to its Jeffersonian roots, stop medalling around in the affairs of other nations, and the private affairs of its citizens.

If the main stream media and infotainment cable news outlets reported on the discrimination that President Obama’s father faced during his time at Harvard, perhaps more Americans would be reminded how status quo elites often hide behind lies and false allegations to pursue alternative agendas. One of the recently declassified I.N.S documents reveal how even the supposed liberal Harvard University practiced a subtle form of discrimination towards President Obama’s father when it wrote, (the university) is "going to try to cook something up to ease him out”. 

The failure of the main stream media to give more attention to the treatment that Barack Obama’s father received in 1961, allows patrician elites and their surrogates like Donald Trump to cook up more false stories in order to distract the average American from more important issues.

High Speed Rail Lines Instead of Short Haul Airline Flights

Unlike America, where political leaders and decision makers are often corrupted by special interests who oppose high speed rail, political leaders and officials in other countries are expanding high speed rail passenger service. The latest example comes from the European Union where EU transport commissioner Siim Kallas recently announced a series of transportation goals which included the phasing out of carbon emitting automobiles in city centers by 2050 and replacing short haul airline flights with high speed rail links between all the major cities in Europe.

While the goal of banning all gasoline powered automobiles in city centers will be achieved by market forces when consumers buy more hybrid and all electric motor vehicles in the coming decades, the expanded rail service and elimination of short haul flights between major cities in Europe will be the most politically challenging. In stark contrast to the United States however, where the Florida governor recently cancelled a high speed rail line between Orlando and Tampa, European leaders are at least offering ideas at how to offset the negative effects of increasing prices of petroleum, while at the same time looking at ways to make their transportation infrastructure more efficient and less dependent on fossil fuel based energy sources.   

Supported by statistics which reveals that a new high speed rail line recently opened between Madrid and Barcelona now has over 50% of the market share of travel between those two cities, EU Transportation commissionerSiim Kallas and other EU policy makers have evidence that consumers are more willing to take a high speed train as opposed to a short haul airline flight.  

Although the recent data showing that high speed rail commands over 50% of the market share between Barcelona and Madrid may be attributed to the increase in airfares as a result of the recent rise in oil prices, the increase in market share for the high speed rail line could also be a sign that more consumers prefer the benefits that rail service offers over airline service. Part of the reason why European discount airlines like Easy Jet and Ryan Air are able to offer such low air fares is due to the fact that these airlines fly into smaller airports located sometimes a half hour outside the city center, and charge for nearly every service including using the aircraft toilet.

In addition to the benefit of arriving and departing from a city center and having to pay to use the toilet, rail service also includes the benefits of  avoiding the ever increasing security procedures associated with airline travel, travel delays as a result of inclement weather and the flexibility to buy a ticket at short notice without paying a high premium as is the case with airline tickets.Furthermore, rail service does not limit the amount of carry-on bags, is more comfortable than low cost airline seating, and is better for the environment and is a source of new long term job creation.

With the price of oil at 107 dollars a barrel and not expected to go below 100 dollars for the foreseeable future, , it appears that European Union leaders are doing more to prepare for a post peak oil world economy than American political leaders. 

By offering the consumer more than just two options of either purchasing an airline ticket or driving a car, high speed rail based travel between two cities can be less expensive, offer the consumer more flexibility, and create more long term jobs for local communities.     

A journey in the hell around Fukushima

Italian blogger and political activist Beppe Grillo has long been a critic of nuclear power. As one can imagine, the recent nuclear accident triggered by the March 11th tsunami has given Mr. Grillo even more reason to criticize nuclear power.

In a recent blog posting entitled, Fukushima Level 7 Incident, Italy’s most popular blogger shared a YouTube video of a Japanese film crew traveling towards the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station.

Documenting their journey through the earthquake damaged terrain with hand held Geiger counters, the crew encounters herds of stray dogs, cattle, and even a stray pit bull as they journey through abandoned towns.

Jon Stewart Pitches US Hypocrisy in ‘Freedom Packages’ Infomercial

The Daily Show - America's Freedom Packages
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Quiz

One of the best right of center media outlets is The Economist Magazine. 

In addition to the pragmatic and level headed political analysis offered in The Economist, the British news outlet also offers readers access to economic and business research, forecasting and analysis by their Economist Intelligence Unit. 

The same unit that publishes the bi annual Democracy Index, the Intelligence Unit recently published a Global Liveability Quiz that quizzes readers on how well they know the living conditions around the world? 

If you are willing to take the challenge, take the Global Liveability Quiz, and see how well you know the living conditions in the world you live in. You may be surprised by the answers.

It is based on the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Survey, a newly published report that assesses 30 indicators across broad categories and scores cities from 1-100. You are entitled to a free summary of the report at the conclusion of the quiz

The Collapse of the Old Oil Order

A recent article by Michael T. Klare on TomDispatch pitches the idea that the recent social and political unrest in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Oman, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, and Yemen, is the beginning of the end of cheap oil and the collapse of the old oil order.

Michael Klare, who  is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, and the author of  Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, presents a strong argument as to why the days of cheap oil and gasoline will soon be as obsolete as vinyl records and analog TV.

Some of the more noteworthy passages from the article include historical facts on the Iranian coup and how western democratic countries like Great Britain and the United States have often undermined and sabotaged democratic movements in oil producing countries.

Isn’t it interesting how democracy and self determination is ok for the United States and other western countries, but if any popular uprising threatens western oil company profits, democratic movements in oil producing countries like Iran have been stopped and autocratic rulers like the Shah of Iran are put in place by the United States.

For the complete article by Michael Klare please go to TomDispatch or download the iTunes podcast internview with Timothy MacBain.