Remembering the Liberty

Posted on August 16, 2017 by jimmie

An image of USS Liberty after the attack on Jun 8, 1967It is a property of the past to sink into oblivion, and of unpleasant truths to fade into evanescence. To this past belongs the attack on the USS Liberty.

The annals of US history record that, on Jun 8, 1967, the Israelis mistakenly attacked by air, and torpedoed by sea, an unarmed US intelligence ship, killing 34 sailors and wounding 171 others. 2017 marked the 50th anniversary of that attack.

Following are some details of the ship, of the episode and of its aftermath. For, similar to occasions that perhaps we all have felt, a detail that uncalled returns to mind, rekindles fuller memories of a larger connected event, not otherwise spontaneously recalled. And I think that the attack on the Liberty should not be forgotten. Continue reading →

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Was Marx a Marxist?

Posted on July 27, 2017 by jimmie

A cartoon of Karl Marx for the blog titled Was Marx a Marxist?Many confound what they think with what they know. With Marx, personal notions of Marxism often justify arbitrary conclusions, reflecting the perceiver’s prejudice, fancy or indoctrination. Any related discussion turns then into a vicious circle of arguments searching for proofs, and proofs that are but someone’s opinions.

Furthermore, various currently-popular and alternative media sources, when referring to Marxism, utter remarkable nonsense and slander, “the which, in every language they pronounce, stuffing the ears of men with false reports.” (1)

All this may be of disturbing obviousness, though it should be stated, given some equally disturbing notions, circulating at large within both the current and counter-current cultural streams. Continue reading →

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Don’t Cry For Me Venezuela

Posted on June 28, 2017 by jimmie

Uncle Sam waiting for Chavez' death to gobble up VenezuelaAccording to the great Dr. Johnson, “Men can be estimated by those who know them not, only as they are represented by those who know them.” An unavoidable universal contingency – for, indeed, we don’t know most of the people we judge. And the same, but for a few much-travelled individuals, applies to nations.

We also know that “on the tongue of Rumor, continual slanders rise, stuffing the ears of men with false reports.”

That rumor and falsehood are trademarked products of the oligarchical news-mill needs no elaborate demonstration. Truth, by atrophy of misuse, has lost the sense of its own meaning. Continue reading →

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The Magnificent (G)Seven

Posted on June 1, 2017 by jimmie

Snowwhite and 7 socks representing the (G7) countries or The Magnificent (g)Seven - topic of the blogOf course few would really call them magnificent. And I wonder how many have concluded that these high-profile meetings among potentates are but occasions for taxpayer-paid and unspeakably luxurious vacations.

Lodgings suitable to gods host opulent guests, while epicurean cooks sharpen with cloyless sauce their appetite, and prepare pantagruelian dinners to solve the problem of poverty. Or rather, multitudes overwhelmed by abject poverty, may observe what is lavished in ostentation, luxury or frolic – for the poor multitudes’ benefit. Continue reading →

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Saudi America

Posted on May 15, 2017 by jimmie

a hand where each finger represents a branch of ISIS, illustration for the blog titled Saudi America. Article dealing with the first overseas trip by TrumpAs a European commentator noted recently, it is symbolic that the president of the most advanced democracy in the world makes his first foreign trip to the most feudal among Arab monarchies.

On the other hand, US citizens at large see happening what they vaguely expected, and probably wanted when they voted for Trump. Namely, that the curtain of elitist euphemisms and contrived metaphors masking the lying and the rudeness of previous administrations, would be dropped in favor of greater coarseness of expression and less palpable disguise.

This is apparent even in the body language and voice of (at least some) members of the Cabinet. I think particularly of the Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. With his cowboy name, he may not have an Eastwood smile and a Robert Redford hair, but when he begins to speak, it is as if he said, “I am sir Oracle, and when I ope my lips, let no dog bark.” Continue reading →

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Douce France

Posted on April 29, 2017 by jimmie

Douce France. Image of a French village, visual accompaniment of the poet lines that open the blog titled "Douce France"“Douce France, cher pays de mon enfance” – so goes the song [Sweet France, dear country of my infancy].
I did not live my childhood in France, but at times I feel as If I did, for I know her well.

I can daydream about a town or village in the “France profonde”, and think of the lines,

“On marche sur un mur de pierres, un petit pont est devant nous
Dessous passe une rivière, couleur de pluie, souffle d’antan”
[Walking on a stone wall, a small bridge ahead
Below a river, the color of rain, the breath of yesteryear]

And all this beyond and besides Paris, the cathedrals, the history, the people, the writers, the painters, the literature, the movies, the artists, “les philosophes” and “la Rive Gauche.” Continue reading →

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Trillary’s Victory

Posted on April 13, 2017 by jimmie

a vignette with the script no more wars for a lieThe Western media has launched a volley of sycophantic praise of Trump’s victory in the great American raid on a Syrian airport, which produced new dead, though fewer than what is now routinely accepted as a lugubrious normal.

Nevertheless, it seems that the US has dropped the pretense and decided to intervene directly in the Syrian conflict. A conflict it wanted and prepared, while hiding behind the mask of a civil war. Continue reading →

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Newton, 9/11, Russia and the Free-Press

Posted on April 3, 2017 by jimmie

a somewhat coarse but realistic graphic metaphor of the so called free pressThe Pentagon recently released more photos taken in the aftermath of the 9/11 plane crash. They do not clear the doubts of many on the dynamics of the crash against the Pentagon. Nor, as a news item, they displaced – in the combine that conjoins Congress, Senate and the ”free-press” – the current overwhelming interest in Russia’s role in the 2016 US presidential elections. An interest acting as a trigger for a slew of anti-Russian declarations by sundry governmental and military bigwigs. Continue reading →

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Plato Among Pundits, a Dialog

Posted on March 14, 2017 by jimmie

Dialog on the Common Good, the Will of the People, the Thought Unique and why Democrats refuse to accept the results of the elections.

I loaded my unimpressive weekly groceries onto the carrier belt and the counter lady said, “A vegetarian, I see.”

“A perspicacious observation and an accurate deduction – I replied. And since you noticed, let me add that vegetarianism is a practice devoutly to be wished, for the health of man and the life of animals. As I left that paradise of comestible choices, I heard a familiar voice calling me. It was Critias, son of Protagoras, whom my twenty-five readers have already met in the blog “Basket of Deplorables.” He invited me for a coffee at a nearby establishment. Continue reading →

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War among Poor

Posted on February 7, 2017 by jimmie

An image of migrants unloaded from a boat in the MediterraneanAfter Berkeley’s war and fitful fever of destructive demonstrations, the mob sleeps well, or so it seems. As equally well sleep the millions who joined the women’s recent ‘spontaneous’ marches worldwide.

These demonstrations (and other similar), are actually atheistic masses, to dupe common sense and satisfy facade rebelliousness or a desire-to-belong. Of the throng who took part in them it can rightly be said that “… if they love they know not why, they hate upon no better a ground.” Continue reading →

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