Because race matters in the US. While obviously complex, there are ways that race still matters in hurtful and hateful ways – not always and everywhere, but enough to poison US society. Obama’s election pushes back against what has been wrong about race in the US in a fundamental way. No, his election does not mean all will be great; but it symbolizes a certain possibility, made tangible now in a new way, that race need not limit good people.
Perhaps this does not make much of a difference to you, TV, but you have no doubt noticed how much it matters to so many Americans.

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Sam: Of course race matters in the US. As a “minority” myself I am reminded of this fact every day of my life. But the election of Obama does not mean there is a victory for African Americans or other minority groups. The message this sends is that the establishment will support anyone who sells out, regardless of their race. This is not “victory” when selling out means ignoring over 100 million Americans who live in poverty—many of whom happen to be non-white.
The Olympians who gave the “black power” salute are the polar opposite of a complete sell out like Obama. A minority in office is supposed to be informed by their experience as a minority, and while Obama has certainly leveraged his race for popularity purposes, I don’t see any concrete ways in which he is addressing the problems minorities face.
PTC: You want specific policy changes? How about these:
* Reducing the military budget, closing down at least some of military bases abroad, withdrawing (not “redeploying”) all forces (including military contractors) from Iraq in six months (and returning all oil and natural resources to the Iraqis), withdrawing all forces from Afghanistan. Changing the tone of our negotiations with Iran, and an firm “no” on expanding the war to Pakistan.
* Adopting a single-payer system of universal health insurance, as called for by Physicians for National Healthcare and HR 676 in the House.
* Adopting a comprehensive public works program funded by the reduction in military spending.
* Investment in solar energy, wind energy, and geothermal—NOT “clean coal” or ethanol or nuclear power.
* Pulling out or renegotiating NAFTA and WTO. Adopting a minimum wage adjusted for inflation.
* Adopting Instant Run Off Voting/Rank Choice Voting for all national elections, and adopt the National Initiative.
* End all military support Israel, negotiate with Hamas as well as with Fatah, and work out an unbiased solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem.
* Abolish the death penalty, give full amnesty for all non-violent drug offenders who have been locked up in prisons. Crack down on “white collar crime”. End corporate welfare and help working Americans before bailing out massive corporations. Put up regulations to put an end to speculation (regulations which many in Obama’s cabinet, such as Summers and others, consistently opposed under the Clinton administration).
I can pretty much guarantee none of these options are even on the table for an Obama administration.

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“* End all military support Israel, negotiate with Hamas as well as with Fatah, and work out an unbiased solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem.”
Let’s at least be honest while we disagree on policy. Hamas and Fatah are not going to give an “unbiased solution” to the “Israeli Palestinian problem.” Not at this point in history.

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Sam- Yeah that particular thread got a little silly. Some of the others “over there” do as well. It got even sillier after you checked out, but we have dick to keep us straight.
Anyhow, cool blog. Thanks for letting me post a little.

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TV:
Now I start to understand why Stoicism was fashionable in the previous empire(s), as it might be the only outlet to the ones with some sensibility. Empire will follow its own logic and run its own course. All the “The rest of the industrialized world” had run their colonialist and imperialistic course. Patience, perseverance might be the only available virtues to follow.
Marcus Aurelius:
“How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life!” (xii.13)
As to these inconvenient facts, some choose to ignore, some choose to endure and some choose to benefit from, it is all depend upon different circumstances.

OBAMA’S RECKLESS WARMONGERING GANG

As I explained during the election, the media herded the US public away from anti-war candidates towards pro-war candidates. Obama tried to portray himself as an ant-war candidate when running against the very pro-war Hillary Clinton. But after his song and dance routine in front of the extreme war-monger ethnic cleansing operation called AIPAC, he steered himself, directly after winning the nomination, into the pro-war seas on the right.

Then there is Afghanistan: this land is always very difficult to control. Long before Islam was even a glint in some god’s eye. Only Alexander the Great managed to bring them around. He did this by marrying an Afghani princess, Roxanne. Then, most importantly, he left.

Here is an idea: Will Obama ever marry an Afghani ( possibly Muslim ) princess therefore become Obama the Great? He definitely want to follow the last Great’s footstep to “surge” into that ” grave of all the empires”… let’s sit back and bring on some popcorns… or green tea, just as a taoist or stocist would do..

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I am gobsmacked by these appointments, most of which could just as easily have come from a President McCain … this all but puts an end to the 16-month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, the unconditional summits with dictators, and other foolishness that once emanated from the Obama campaign … [Hillary] Clinton and [James] Steinberg at State should be powerful voices for ‘neo-liberalism’ which is not so different in many respects from ‘neo-conservativism.’”
— Max Boot, neoconservative activist, former McCain staffer.
Again, “How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life!” (xii.13)
“Change” changed …

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pc:
Mr Obama said: “To ensure prosperity here at home and peace abroad, we all share the belief we have to maintain the strongest military on the planet.”
Do I need to elaborate?

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PC:
The following blog can elaborate with more clarity than I do. Please think about it and give me your feedback if you like.

Sam, please delete it if you think it is too long.

http://emsnews2.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/warmonger-obama-wants-us-to-patrol-planet/
Today’s top story is Obama swearing he will have us all go bankrupt trying to ’save innocents’. There is no way we can save all ‘innocent’ people, especially since we are busying terrorizing and killing huge numbers of totally innocent people. Our brutal war on terror has accomplished only one thing: it has killed a lot more people and motivated others to do the same, even more. We call this, ‘escalating violence.’
Barack Obama says US ‘will maintain strongest military on planet’, as Clinton confirmed top diplomat – Telegraph
Mr Obama said: “To ensure prosperity here at home and peace abroad, we all share the belief we have to maintain the strongest military on the planet.”
With the responsibilities of office just seven weeks away, he added that his administration was “absolutely committed to eliminating the threat of terrorism”.
“We cannot tolerate a world where innocents are being killed by extremists,” Mr Obama said in the wake of Bombay attacks, adding that he was “heartbroken” by the deaths of six Americans in the massacre.
“We have to bring the full force of our power, not only military but diplomatic and political, to deal with the threats,” he said, also vowing that the US would stand with India.
So, the US is going to continue, nay, raise military spending and continue, nay, increase the number of US troops patrolling the entire planet? So terrorists will stop? The US has troops all over the place, especially where ‘terrorists’ are supposed to be or want to attack. Let us remind ourselves that many ‘terrorists’ are civilians fighting Great Powers. Revolutionaries, religious radicals, political opponents, etc. Nearly all of whom are civilians, not military powers.
List of United States military bases – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Key:
More than 1000 US Troops.
More than 100 US Troops.
Use of military facilities.
We see from this map that most of the richest and most powerful export commerce powers on earth, Europe and Japan, are heavily guarded by US forces. Which are there at our own expense. The negotiations over the moving of US bases protecting Japan from Russia and China were extraordinarily nasty two years ago. The Japanese seriously did NOT want to pay for moving us. They wanted to LEND us money for this, not GIVE us money to do this!
Even though they, not us, wanted us to move in the first place!
The other shocking thing about this map is, outside of the bases protecting the richest nations, the US is ‘using bases’ or has troops mostly in MUSLIM countries. Indonesia, the Middle East, the regions between Russia, China and India as well as Muslim sections of Africa.
The new team in the White House also wants to take over Sudan, as well. Indeed, to take over all of Northern Africa is one of our many goofy goals. Note that there are only two countries left! Once we control them with our military, the Mediterranean will be an American Lake! Will wonders never cease?
Of course, we can afford exactly nothing of all this! We can’t pay for it! We are NOT paying for it! We took the Japanese loans to move our bases around so we can menace China still, for example. The Japanese were happy. But the Chinese were also happy!
They have this great fear [HAHAHA] that the US might wise up and figure out, we are being used as a tool, we are fools! But now, the Chinese no longer fear this. They know the US will merrily charge down the present road to our doom!
Another thing about this map: notice that the US has troops in Thailand. Just yesterday, the crooks in Thailand’s government were forced to resign after brave demonstrators risked their lives to hold sit-ins at the international airport there! Political instability is not removed via us stationing troops somewhere.
South America has its own occupation forces. Yanqui go home is an old cliche. We have left a rather ugly footprint in history in the Western Hemisphere. Supposedly, our troops are fighting drug gangs down there. While such gangs run riot, here. Ah! But Bush and Obama agree, we need these same sort of military troops HERE!
Already, American police resemble more and more the South American style of policia: militarized and violent. The US resembles more and more, the places we patrol abroad that are violent. NOT the rich, heavily industrialized nations we protect. Those have nice social programs because they spend nearly nothing on their own military. And they get to poke at Russia and China with total impunity!
And here at home, while Obama and Bush worry about ‘innocent’ people being terrorized due to religious or ethnic wars like the ones that rage in Palestine, the US state governments are going down the tubes, one by one, starting with one of the biggest and formerly, wealthiest of our states, California:
Arnold Schwarzenegger warns California is almost broke – Telegraph
Mr Schwarzenegger has declared California to be in a fiscal emergency and called for the state’s politicians to work together in a special legislative session to reduce its growing $11bn (£7.4bn) deficit.
That deficit is projected to grow to $28bn over the next 18 months, and the Republican Governor wants politicians from all sides of the divide to work together in order to ensure the state does not run out of cash.
The state of California is reeling not only from fall in investments made in the equity markets, but also from declines in tax revenues and capital gains as a result of the downturn in the business and property markets, not to mention an inability to tap the debt markets for funding.
“Without immediate action, our state is heading for fiscal disaster,” Mr Schwarzenegger said in Los Angeles.
His own Republican party won’t vote for any tax hikes, of course. Meanwhile, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts are also going under. The commodity states like Alaska and Texas, the ones selling us oil or selling oil to Japan, they are still doing fine. But the collapse in commodity prices is now beginning to hammer them, too.
We just had several spectacular balloons that have all burst, one after the other. We have a lot to attend to, here at home. Using the US dollar to regulate international trade has been a total failure. One reason is simple: the US cannot have military bases across the entire planet while having a weak currency! We need a strong currency since we are paying THEM to protect themselves! Or rather, protect often totally evil rulers who are cruel despots.
This takes us back to ‘terrorists’ who are mostly civilians fighting the authorities: they are the people being oppressed or mishandled by authorities supported by the US military in the first place. They correctly see the goal must be this: to drive the US insane with small terrorist attacks until we go bankrupt. This is the strategy of most of the ‘terrorist’ organizations. Just like when ‘terrorists’ worked very hard to drive the great empires into a war 100 years ago, they are doing this today.
Just for example, after a Serbian civilian who was an ardent ‘ethnic liberationist’ shot the Archduke and his wife in 1914, he was seeking to ethnically cleanse his sector of lands formerly held by the dying Ottoman Empire. He hated Muslims and hated the host of other ethnic groups in his neighborhood. The waves of ethnic cleansing that swept Europe from 1900 to today were very, very bloody.
And the US had to fight not one but two world wars to slow this down, somewhat. The Iron Curtain prevented a lot of this killing. Very bloodily, alas. But when it fell, the killing resumed! And the US, instead of denouncing ethnic cleansing EVEN IN PALESTINE, instead, takes sides with first, one ethnic group, then another.
And we can’t afford to do this! It is that simple. Diplomatically, politically and especially, economically: we have to first fix THIS mess: http://www.ny.frb.org/research/directors_charts/global_all.pdf
Look at that graph from the government!!!! It is TOTALLY INSANE! It doesn’t even dare start at $0 losses and thus, show the hideous size of this deficit! No, they start at $-400 billion which was the deficit when? 6 years ago? It got so bad, in 2006, it was nearly a trillion dollars in LOSSES.
Losing your hair is no fun. Losing your mind is no fun. Losing your shirt is no fun. The US has lost EVERYTHING!!! And who, pray tell, is ravaging us this way?
Japan, China, Europe, India….on and on it goes. The oil kingdoms we protect in the Middle East. They are ALL running us into the ground, fast. China is very happy about this. But then, so are all the people we are protecting. True terror is looking into the gaping hole in our finances and seeing our Presidents, like wind up puppets, talking about spending even more so we can patrol the planet on debts we are accumulating as fast as we are accumulating trade deficits.
Where is our peace, President Obama? Where is our prosperity? They are not under your desk in the Oval Office. Any more than Saddam’s fabled WMD were there.

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