5 Responses to “Daily Dose: 06/02/08”

1. Christian on June 3rd, 2008 4:49 pm

   1) Rabid Chinese Nationalists are fascists who seek to repress those in solidarity with the people of Tibet by any means necessary, including computer hacking, physical violence and even murder. They deserve nothing but contempt. China’s attempts to convince the world that it is not one vast concentration camp are doomed to failure. I predict disruptions at the Beijing Olympics (i.e., athletes collapsing and dying due to tremendous pollution that hangs over the city like a pall).
   China’s crimes against humanity are more numerous than hairs on a human head.
   2) Many “gurus” are charlatans who exploit gullible Westerners in order to enrich themselves. A prime example is the Maharishi Yogi, who managed to insinuate himself into the Beatles’ inner circle before he was exposed as a complete and utter fraud. Holy men of any stripe don’t automatically deserve our respect and devotion. I haven’t seen the Meyers film, but once again, I’m astonished that people in Pakistan, India, etc. get so worked up about a stupid movie, even rioting and killing one another, while their own nations languish in poverty, illiteracy and vast disparities in wealth. They should invest the same degree of passion in developing their countries as they do to massing in the streets, burning U.S. flags and being slaughtered by the police and national security forces. They’re wasting their time taking offense at irreverent cartoons and boycotting Danish goods (wow - talk about idiotic), dumb American comedies, etc. After all, the British didn’t run riot after the Austin Powers series, in which Meyers played a groovy secret agent and relentlessly lampooned them.

2. Frank Eng on June 3rd, 2008 8:49 pm

   Dear Christian:
   “Rabid” you supply the nation “nationalists” are fascists. Indeed. And in spades. Whatever the color or creed. OR “ideology” for that matter.
   But, never fear, Christian, you and I, as in that old saw, “East is East and West is West,” are as likely to “meet” as a snowball in Hell, not even a “Chinaman’s” chance of it. And I feel relatively certain you will be as relieved as I.
   About those poor Olympians dying of Beijing vapors and/or Gobi sands, those who competed in Mexico City a generation? back seem to have survived.
   Besides, why would ANYone wish bad ‘cess on ANY competitor, other than those who murdered in Munich.
   And, speaking of smog, I am a survivor, at near-89, of more than 33 years of breathing Angeleno smog, not that I am “proud” of same. On the other hand, San Franciscans tend to dismiss Angelenos AND Los Angeles with far too much hauteur and far too little cause.
   As for the “city that knows how,” I nominate Portland as the authentic city of cosmopolites AND cosmopolitan culture, sans self=anointed “sophisticates” who insist on putting their laundrymen and servitors in their “rightful,” i.e., second-, no make that third-, class place.
   As for oppressed Tibetans, I say let them speak for themselves. In an open plebiscite.
   But, tonight, this evening earlier on, I feel, finally and a bit faintly still, HOPE.
   Hope for America. And ALL of us.
   And you, Christian, and especially you, In-Chul, Art as well, who has suffered through my rants, I hope each and every one of you, PLUS every voter in these 50 fractured states, watched and listened, I had to read the captions of course, to the three deining “speeches” of these “primaries” AND the upcoming November election.
   Poor John McCain. He hasn’t a pegged leg on which to stand, and what little I gathered of his pitch is, well, er, ah, LESS than riveting?
   The second “speech” is that of Billary, “defiant” and “unyielding.”
   She continued and continues to uppoint the more than obvious fact that SHE and “Reagan Democrats” are the true banner-holders for the Establishment AND a third term for Dubya and the theoneocons.
   Despite all her declamations of, by, and FOR “the people,” she still stands by Lieberman and the hawks and those who insist that incompetence and corruption and mindless mayhem are preferable to letting go of “power,” here read money, honey.
   Ir is instructive, of course, that she too insists that the “popular vote” count stands in her favor. Well, I believe that way before I give credence to the official vote counts of 2000 and 2004.
   But I, for one, await THAT “final” count.
   Meanwhile, even as she laid out, in a speech twice as long as Obama’s “victory” speech in St. Paul, or at least so it seemed to me. her claims and her implied threat, like, is she going to proclaim herself THE “independent,” no, make that Republican, nominee?
   And, finally, Obama’s rousing barn-burner of an oration in St. Paul. If I had any doubts before, they have been fully annulled. This guy is FOR REAL. And he can do it. Provided he has the opportunity to do so in the next five months.
   There is hope. For this country. For “our” people(s). For the world, in fact.
   And Obama spelled it out in words and concepts.
   Frank Eng
   P.S.: Were I privy to the Obama campaign, I would whisper, ANYone BUT Billary as a “team.” Much better, John Edwards. He may not corral the racists, but he should be able to twist a few hands of the working unemployed, whatever the color of their “collars.”
   P.P.S.:: LOVED Obama’s phrase tonight, about the “wedge issue of religiona” and “patriotism as a bludgeon.” The latter almost hetter than Samuel Johnson himself.

3. Frank Eng on June 3rd, 2008 11:17 pm

   DEFINING, folks, as in “defining apeeches.”
   McCain spluttered “I’m no George Bush,” but does ANYone believe him”
   Billary, the true opposition here, spouts talking points, but neglects to “honor” her “defeat.”
   As for the rest of us no-counters, hey!, maybe we can begin to hope to be counted when, as, and IF the “losers” can, finally, acknowledge their “loss.”
   Note well the irony of McCain in New Orleans, Billary in New Gawk, and Obama in the “heartland.”
   No, folks, there is NO way Obama can “lose” come November, unless those swiftboaters can deliver one final foul blow, as beneath the belt and under the radar.
   No, time for Americans to summon Cheney and Dubya and all their theoneocon gang before the ultimate “bar” of “justice,” which is to say, simple “impeachment” AND Cnogressional summonses to explain their “above-the-law” claims and protestations.
   Frank Eng

4. Christian on June 4th, 2008 9:44 am

   Frank, once again, I’m put in the uncomfortable position of having to agree with some of the points you raise. Despite her protestations, Hillary is very much part of the system and by extension, the political problem that paralyzes our nation today. In order to attract voters, the Democratic Party completely refashioned itself in the Republican image during the 1990s. Angela Davis has noted that by the end of that decade, it was virtually impossible to distinguish between the two parties.
   Let’s not forget that Bill Clinton repeatedly ordered the bombing of Iraq, that the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was attacked by fighter jets under his command, and that both the proto-fascistic Omnibus Crime Bill and Welfare to Work, which led to the abolition of the meager and woefully inadequate resources extended to poor people (women in particular) even as government handouts to corporate coffers vastly increased, bore his signature. The nostalgia that many people, even those who characterize themselves as progressives, feel for the Clinton era has always befuddled me. While I don’t agree with Obama on every position, I still think he’s a far better candidate than Clinton, but of course the pickings are slim right now. And the warmonger and virulent racist McCain (you’ll remember his usage of the racist epithet for Vietnamese a few years ago…for which some prominent members of the Vietnamese-American community publicly forgave him, based upon their shared hatred of “communism”) is indeed George Bush in virtual replica, though at least McCain can formulate coherent sentances. His election in November would be a disaster for our nation and the world.

5. Frank Eng on June 4th, 2008 10:00 pm

   Christian:
   I am speechless.
   When did we ever disagree?
   As for Huang, he is truly a mensch, and someone these kitetails are privileged to recognize.
   Frank
   P.S.: You TOO noted how that missile found its target in Belgrade? Reminds me of the magic bullet that killed JFK, not to mention the “implausibility” of the “facts” before, during, and AFTER 9-11, by which I mean FOUR separate teams succeeding despite “surveillance”?, the implosions themselves, AND the performances of both Cbeney in the bunker and Bush in the kindergarten, where he belongs of course, and not forgetting NORAD.
   P.P.S.: You’re a fan of Angela Davis too?
   P.P.P.S.: Yeah, how can refugee-immigrants embrace the very soul of “western” contempt, not to mention bombings and genocide, with pesticidal leavings?
   Apparently a few millions? of them can, in their pursuit of gain and glory. Ah, “politics.” Ah, such “interesting times”.

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