Booman emailed me a copy of today’s Obama UN speech, probably for the same reason that he re-posted this article:

Talking American Exceptionalism (See my comments on his post Rumsfeld Can Be Sued for Torture for more on that general subject.)

Booman thinks of himself as a “realist.” He believes that gradual change is the best way to go about balancing out the nearly infinite set of vectors that work on the direction of human history at any given moment.

But it is a magical reality in which he lives.

Magical thinking.

“Thinking” that does not deal with the plain facts of the matter.

Here is a quote from early in the Obama speech:

I took office at a time of two wars for the United States. Moreover, the violent extremists who drew us into war in the first place – Osama bin Laden, and his al Qaeda organization – remained at large. Today, we have set a new direction.

No mention whatsoever of the 100+ year history of “violently extreme” European and American meddling in the affairs of the oil-rich countries of the Middle East and North Africa. None.

And here is a quote from Booman’s article:

Before a United States corporation discovered oil in Saudi Arabia in 1938 the country was economically undeveloped. Its citizens subsisted through trade and crafts and tourism. Medical care was rudimentary. Today, according to the CIA World Fact Book Saudis enjoy a life expectancy of 75.67 years and an income of $12,800. Make of that what you will. The American decision to make a deal with the King of Saudi Arabia to develop his oil fields has clearly benefitted the people of Saudi Arabia. With a 2005 GDP of $338 billion, there is plenty of money to go around even after the princes get done whoring around Monaco and buying expensive aircraft from Boeing. So, from the outset, I’d like people to recognize that American “imperialism” in the Muslim world has been of great benefit to many of the people that live there.

The key phrase in the second quote?

Sure.

“I’d like people to recognize that American ‘imperialism’ in the Muslim world has been of great benefit to many of the people that live there.”

Read on for more.
Have you been there, Booman? In the third world, all over the world? On the street, not as a tourist? I have, for over 45 years. In Colombia, in Venezuela, in Cuba, in Puerto Rico, in Vietnam and Thailand, in Egypt, in Morocco, in Haiti and the other smaller Caribbean islands, in South Africa, in Brazil. Playing music for the people who really live there, mostly. You know…”The natives?”

Have you seen first-hand how much or how little American economic imperialism…another term for “American exceptionalism” as far as I am concerned….in the Muslim world has been of benefit to most of the people who live there? I called the Arab Spring 3 1/2 years ago and I was right on the money.  (We ARE “At War”. My observations after a week in the Middle East.)

Saudi Arabia? A drop in the bucket compared to the human misery that has been endemic to the third world over that 45+ years of “American exceptionalism.” (A jive, CIA-generated disinfo media meme if ever I heard one, by the way.). A drop of blood in that bucket if you really want to get down to it because Saudi Arabia is among the most militarily-enforced dictatorships ever to have existed on the planet Earth. Who armed that dictatorship? The U.S. did, of course.Why? Oil. Duh. Cheap oil so that the political and corporate powers of the U.S. could continue to build the economic Ponzi scheme that has marked the oil-driven American economy since the end of W.W. II. A Ponzi scheme based on transferring the accumulating debt to ever greater numbers of third world citizens, a Ponzi scheme that has…as all eventually do…reached the end of its bubble life.

It’s time we stop.

Hey, what’s that sound?

Everybody look what’s goin’ down. (Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth”, 1966)

POP!!!

The sound of that bubble breaking on 9/11/01.

Bet on it.

it was a huge bubble, Ponzi America, and it has taken 10 years to truly, effectively deflate. But it is over.

Over for all except the last-standers…yourself apparently included…who are still making believe that it never existed, that everything the U.S. did after W.W. II was in some way justifiable because of “world affairs.”

I call bullshit, Booman.

Big time bullshit.

This “big time”:

A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research at United Nations University reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000. The three richest people possess more financial assets than the lowest 48 nations, combined.[6] The combined wealth of the 10 million dollar millionaires grew to nearly $41 trillion in 2008.[7] In 2001, 46.4% of people in sub-Saharan Africa were living in extreme poverty.[8] Nearly half of all Indian children are undernourished, however even among the wealthiest fifth one third of children are malnourished.[9][10]

And this big time as well:

Average wealth amounted to $144,000 per person in the USA in year 2000, and $181,000 in Japan. Lower down among countries with wealth data are India, with per capita assets of $1,100, and Indonesia with $1,400 per capita.

Per capita wealth levels vary widely across countries. Even within the group of high-income OECD nations the range includes $37,000 for New Zealand and $70,000 for Denmark and $127,000 for the UK.

Wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe, and high income Asia-Pacific countries. People in these countries collectively hold almost 90% of total world wealth.

Those figures won’t fly much further, Booman. Y’know why? Them injuns got weapons now. The weapons of terrorism and in many cases, nuclear weapons as well.

“American exceptionalism?”

We ain’t so “exceptional” anymore. We jes’ anotha buncha rednecks fighting for our life in the piney woods of the universe.

Wake the fuck up. Obama’s gotta wake the fuck up too. He probably knows exactly how dangerous our situation is…outnumbered and soon to be outgunned as well…but eyes wide shut ain’t the way to fight.

Speaking of “…the violent extremists who drew us into war in the first place – Osama bin Laden, and his al Qaeda organization” without speaking of the much more “violent extremism” of the U.S. and its economic allies since 1945 will not wash anymore, Booman. It certainly won’t wash in a new Third World comprised of countries like Venezuela (Where I am headed in mid-November, by the way.), Brazil, Cuba (Where I was less than 8 months ago.), China, and the nascent Islamic democracies (or maybe not-so-democracies) that are arising as we speak. They know better. From painful personal experience. And they are not going to forget anytime soon, either.

Bet on it.

But you “moderate leftinesses”…and I include Barack Obama in that blanket condemnation…are betting that the same old-same old empty “exceptionalist” rhetoric will make our cuts and abrasions “Alllllllll better”, like Mommy’s soothing words after a little spill offa baby’s new tricycle.

But we are not riding a tricycle, Booman.

Not hardly.

More like this ride, actually:

                        YEEEEEEEHAH!!!

Or…wake the fuck up.

Your choice.

Our choice, actually, unless of course the universe still needs our brand of “exceptionalism.”

We shall see.

Soon enough.

Meanwhile…a stitch in time buckles the fabric of the universe and a drop in a leaky bucket saves none.

Or something like that.

So it goes.

Wake the fuck up.

Later…

AG