TELLS THE FACTS AND NAMES THE NAMES VOLUME 22 NUMBER 1, 2015 Drop DeadFeby MikeWhitney The NewGreat Gameby PepeEscobar Will theFrackers GoBust? by Joshua Frank Treachery PoliticalClassby MargaretKimberley oftheBlack intheCrossFrance fire by DianaJohnstone Contact Information Subscriptions CounterPunch Business Office 1- year print edition $55 www.counterpunch.org PO Box 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 1- year digital edition (PDF) $35 CounterPunch Magazine , Volume 22, Toll Free 1 (800) 840-3683 1- year print & digital edition $65 (ISSN 1086-2323) is a journal of progres- 1 (707) 629-3683 1- year institutions/supporters $100 sive politics, investigative reporting, civil editorial: 1- year print for student/low income $45 liberties, art, and culture published by The 1-year digital for student/low income $30 Institute for the Advancment of Journal- [email protected] istic Clarity, 631 Chambers Road, Petrolia, business: [email protected] All subscription orders must be pre- California, 95558.Visit counterpunch. suscriptions and merchandise: paid — we do not invoice for orders. Renew org to read dozens of new articles daily, [email protected] by telephone, mail, or on our website. purchase subscriptions, order books, plus For mailed orders please include name, address and email address with payment, access 18 years of archives. Submissions or call CounterPunch accepts a small number of 1 (800) 840-3683 or 1 (707) 629-3683. Periodicals postage pending at Eureka, submissions from accomplished authors Add $20.00 per year for subscriptions California. and newer writers. Please send your pitch mailed to Canada and $40 per year for all POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: to [email protected]. Due other countries outside the US. CounterPunch to the large volume of submissions we re- P.O. Box 228 ceive we are able to respond to only those Please do not send checks or money Petrolia, CA 95558 that interest us. orders in currency other than U.S. dollars. We DO accept debit cards and credit cards ISSN 1086-2323 (print) Advertising from banks outside the US that have ISSN 2328-4331 (digital) Advertising space is available in Counter- the Visa, Mastercard or other major card www.counterpunch.org Punch Magazine. Media kit available upon insignias. All rights reserved. request. All advertisements are subject Make checks or to the publisher’s approval of copy, text, money orders payable to: CounterPunch editor-in-chief display, and illustration. CounterPunch Business Office Jeffrey St. Clair reserves the right to reject or cancel any advertisement at any time. PO Box 228 MANAGING EDITOR Petrolia, CA 95558 Joshua Frank email [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Address Change Lee Ballinger, Melissa Beattie, Darwin Please notify us immediately of email and/ Bond-Graham, Chloe Cockburn, Windy or mailing address changes for uninter- Send Letters to the Editor to: Cooler, Chris Floyd, Kevin Alexander upted delivery of issues. CounterPunch Gray, Steve Horn, Lee Hall, Conn Hallinan, PO Box 228 Barbara Rose Johnson, Binoy Kampmark, By Mail: CounterPunch Business Office Petrolia, CA 95558 JoAnn Wypijewski, David Macaray, Chase or email : Madar, Kim Nicolini, Brenda Norrell, PO Box 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 [email protected] Vijay Prashad, Louis Proyect, Martha by Phone: Rosenberg, Christine Sheeler, Jan Tucker, 1 (800) 840-3683 Mike Whitney 1 (707) 629-3683 Poetry Editor By Email (preferred): Marc Beaudin [email protected] Cover Image: Paris, the New Normal? (After a SOCIaL MEDIA EDITOR Donations Nathaniel St. Clair Mai ‘68 poster) by Nick Roney CounterPunch’s survival is dependent BUSINESS MANAGER & DESIGN PRODUCTION upon income from subscriptions, dona- Becky Grant tions and book and merchandise sales. We are a non-profit, tax exempt organization SUBSCRIPTIONS & ORDER FULFILLMENT under The Institute for the Advancement Deva Wheeler of Journalistic Clarity, DBA Counter- DESIGN CONSULTATION Punch. Donations are welcome year round. In Memory of Tiffany Wardle Donate by mail, telephone or online: www. Alexander Cockburn counterpunch.org. 1941–2012 table of contents letters to the editor ...... 4 columns

Roaming Charges ...... 5 Laughter in the Dark by Jeffrey St. Clair articles Satire in the service of power in Paris.

Treachery of the Black Political Class Empire Burlesque ...... 6 Age of Terror and by Margaret Kimberley...... 8 Absurdity Will the Frackers Go Bust? by Chris Floyd Terror and technology. by Joshua Frank ...... 12 Grasping at Straws ...... 7 France in the Crossfire Drop Dead Fed by Mike Whitney ...... by Diana Johnstone 13 The high cost of cheap money. The Russia-Turkey EuroAsian Pivot by Pepe Escobar ...... 18 Standing Tall for Tanzania’s National Animal by Monica Bond ...... 20 The Secret Life of Hillary Clinton by John V. Walsh ...... 22 culture & reviews Anger is a Gift by Lee Ballinger...... 24 Clint Eastwood’s ‘American Sniper’ by John Wight...... 26

COUNTERPUNCH VOLUME 22 NUMBER 1, 2015 RIP Robert Stone Robert Stone was a great and letters to the editor passionate and gentle person all at once, and thoughtful and funny. One of the truly Great In Want of a Watchdog and Black Liberation tells a tion to take its place with American writers because he neglected truth. People like the rest of human history. Our government should act always told the emotional truth the late Vincent Harding (a We’ll probably know soon. as a watchdog to protect us, about what his characters were teacher/mentor of mine) had Otherwise, here’s to the pock- the citizens, from harm. If any going through. Good writ- been saying this for years: ets of resistance, wherever they business wants to start selling ers are high class stylists but that King´s radicalness was are, and to the few older brown products or services, they great writers reveal deep truths deep and quite complete (to pelicans who can wait it out, should be required to fund about humanity. He did that in include economic issues that and to the wolves at the door, extensive research to determine his writing and in his life. how the exposure will affect us go straight to the heart of the and to whatever is feral and Margot Kidder 20 years down the road. But USAmerican “system” itself) patient and alive. our politicians always stop at which is precisely why he was Monte Merrick American Victim Card the first question: “How much assassinated. Did Lacan Miss His Calling? Americans by and large don’t will this business pay me in Rev. Jose Tirado have to be personally victim- I have a friend who told me bribes to look the other way ized to continue to assert our Hollywood and Latinos he derived exactly the same while they go out to kill the right to dominate the “other”. It’s shocking that Hollywood pleasure from reading Lacan people of this country.” End of It’s wrapped up in our identity only produced ONE film about and Zizek that he derived from inquiry. as “Americans”. Latinos this year. I don’t under- British crossword puzzles. So Alane Butterfield stand why there is not more of maybe they would have been Michael Sosebee Industrial Solar a market for Spanish language useful at Bletchley, cracking Courage, Obama-Style film here in the US. There code with Alan Turing. Do you want your wild birds I never voted for Obama. I are enough Spanish speakers extra krispy or sautéed? The Jim Tourtelott smelled a rat in 2008 because where I live to support one utility-sized mirrors in the he went from specific positions weekly newspaper and one California’s Water Barons Mojave create a solar furnace on issues to bland generalities radio station, but there are NO Joshua Frank, that is killing a lot of wild and slogans (“Change you can movies in Spanish featuring Your articles about the longer- birds. This fact is yet aother believe in!”). When he chose Latin stars? Heck, Hollywood term implications of climate reason to oppose large-scale Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of is rich and I ain’t, but that change for California water solar promoted by utilities Staff, followed by bailing out seems like what I’ve heard politics are very insightful and who want to corner the solar the big banks, followed by not called an “untapped market”. important. They are also very renewable market and sell closing Guantanamo, followed timely, given the machina- their power to us at inflated Gregg Jacoy by not even allowing single tions of the water barons in the prices. It’s another reason to payer on the table for discus- Sierra Clubber, Can You upcoming Congress to dedicate promote only home and busi- sion in health care reform, I Spare a Tree? even more of California’swater ness photovoltaic solar systems knew I was right. He’s gone Thanks to CounterPunch’s con- to Central Valley ag by repeal- connected to the grid, with downhill since. Now that he’s tinuing coverage of the impo- ing portions of the 1992 Central net metering. Every residential the lamest of lame ducks, he’s tence of Big Green. The Sierra Valley Project Improvement and business rooftop can be a showing “courage” on Cuba. Club sends so much paper out Act (CVPIA) that reserve water energy producer and seller... NUTS! back to the Utilities! WalMart to its members every month for environmental restoration Tim Withee owned First Solar corporation they have probably killed more and fish. You have accurately and wanted to make it a crime trees than Republicans. described how an environmen- to sell residential solar energy Lee Mentley tal calamity will be exacerbated back to your utility. by a policy boondoggle in the In and Out with the making, as well as describ- Bill Addington Anthropocene ing some of the hard choices The Radical King It’s entirely possible that not that must be made. As always, Eric Mann’s CounterPunch only is there no panacea to the thanks for all you do. essay on Martin Luther King extinction crisis, but that it’s Bill Julian too late for so-called civiliza- 4 acerbic black comedian Dieudonné for roaming charges making piquant jokes about Netanyahu. His routine was deemed anti-Semitic, Laughter in the Dark his post-shooting tweets cited as of- fensive, a transgression of French laws. By Jeffrey St. Clair Dieudonné had touched the third rail of tolerance. In the wake of the Paris shootings, But the Paris killers were French. The While Dieudonné was being hauled the Western world exalted in the eu- Kouachi brothers were, in fact, wards off to a post-modern Bastille for phoria of unity. Angela Merkel and of the state for years, educated by the thought crimes, 10,000 French troops Benjamin Netanyahu (a party crasher) state, inculcated with French values, swarmed the streets of Paris, Lyons and held hands. Two doomed politi- bemused by Asterix the Gaul cartoons, Marseilles, dressed in black ops gear, cians, David Cameron and Francoise and fortified by French food. They were armed with automatic weapons, infused Hollande, kissed cheeks. Even the dis- not born “others” or reared as outsid- with new powers of domestic surveil- graced Nicolas Sarkozy seemed freshly ers. They wore French clothes, watched lance — a bracing reminder of just how polished for a miraculous second act. French movies, played French hip-hop swiftly the feted freedoms of the French The left and the near right—though not and frequented Parisian clubs. At what republic could transform into a police the vexing Marine Le Pen—paraded to- point did they come to feel like aliens state, poised to crush unauthorized gether in a revel of solidarity. Fractious in their own land? What triggered their dissent, especially recently banned pro- France has united, the press cooed, the transformation into urban jihadis? Was tests for Palestinian rights. terrorists have failed. it simply a sudden, irrational eruption One can ignore the cries of rage and But what at a distance seems like a over demeaning cartoons in a little-read despair simmering in the banlieues spontaneous coalescence can also be in- French weekly? at your own peril, which, naturally, is terpreted as a deeply-encoded cultural The western elites would like you to exactly what French politicians did, as reflex, a kind of collective defense of the think so, but Cherif Kouachi told those the National Assembly voted 488-1 to superiority of so-called Western values who would listen a much different story. expand its role in the war on ISIS, only and identity. This united front must His metamorphosis was sparked by days after the shootings. There was no surely have been viewed as a fearful other images, images of sadist degrada- room for debate. Not to march in lock- solidarity to Europe’s Muslim com- tion of Muslims in Iraq, the photos of step was viewed as a measure of disloy- munity, a confirmation of their worst American soldiers torturing Iraqis held alty. The French just put the smirk back fears. The surging rallies in defense of in Abu Ghraib prison. on George W. Bush’s face. free speech were simultaneously mass Here’s the first thing to know about Voltaire, France’s fiercest satirist, endorsements of intolerance. Even the the Kouachis. While the brothers were repeatedly admonished his coterie of slain editors and cartoonists of Charlie born in France, their parents were radicals to: “Get the laughter on our Hebdo would likely have cringed at the Algerians, who moved to France from side.” Chris Rock pithily translated sight of millions of people who had war-torn North Africa while the stench Voltaire’s advice this way: “Satire should never read their scabrous magazine re- of destruction, assassination and torture be punching upward.” It is a call to use flexively adopting the tedious slogan “Je was fresh. The stories of those terrible pens to puncture the pretensions and suis Charlie; nous somme tout Charlie.” days must have been relayed, again prejudices of the powerful. And here It has all the hallmarks of an ominous and again to the Kouachi children. we confront Charlie Hebdo’s greatest outbreak of imperial groupthink. They knew better than most that the failing, not that its cartoonists mocked No one paused for a moment to ques- French torturers of their relatives in the Prophet or skewered the Mullahs, tion what set off the killers, what kind of Algeria had written the how-to-manual but that the magazine became a tool of grievances they may have nursed, what for the American torturers in Iraq and the ruling order, aiming its most savage kind of motives drove them to slaughter. Afghanistan. Here was visual proof for work at the most vulnerable citizens of Judgment was immediate. These were the bloody continuity of colonialism. If France: the weak, the marginalized and the people Bernard Henri-Levy and you’re looking for an ignition point, you the dispossessed. In the end, Charlie Michel Houellebecq warned against. might find that the fuse was lit, decades Hebdo, like much of the French intelli- The excitable Muslims, the irrational ago, in the abattoirs of Algiers. gentsia, became an agent of orthodoxy, ones, the fanatics with Kalashnikovs. Back in Paris, as the transcontinen- a persecutor of the poor and the power- People who defy our understanding, tal celebration of tolerance for bigotry less, deaf to their desperation. whose stimulus to action is unworthy of reached a frenzied pitch of self-con- One person’s euphoria is another’s contemplation. gratulation, French police arrested the worst nightmare. cp

5 War events, is allowed to have only one empire burlesque effective “meaning,” one message: “We need more power. Give it to us, give it Age of Terror and Absurdity all to us, let nothing restrain us. And we will make you whole, safe, good.” By Chris Floyd The vast technological augmenta- tion at hand for dominators makes it possible for them to maintain an un- precedented level of absurdity in their Millions of words have already been were simply unimaginable before our spin, until public discourse no longer written about the Charlie Hebdo spec- time. The power of violence, money, makes any sense. This is deliberate. As tacle. No doubt CounterPunch readers surveillance, information and commu- filmmaker Adam Curtis noted recently, have seen much of the small propor- nication—all these have been ampli- effective opposition is enfeebled when tion of this verbiage that was perti- fied by several orders of magnitude and there is nothing solid to oppose, only a nent, informative and insightful. There set loose in a relentless, cacophonous, barrage of absurdities backed up by vio- have been laudable attempts to provide thought-obliterating global flow, where lence and money. Such as: political context, cultural nuance, his- they can be used by those who seek to Western powers fight Islamic extrem- torical background—and that rarest of control the will of others and to impose ism by arming Islamic extremists (like unicorns, the voice of reason—amidst their own. This applies most particular- Saudi Arabia) and destroying secular the Niagra-level roar of bullshit that en- ly to states (and organizations that seek regimes. The West fights for democracy gulfed the Hebdo case within minutes of some sort of state-like rule) and power- by arming and coddling authoritarians the first tweets about the incident. And ful corporations. But it also applies to and theocrats. The West urges the over- of course, it is good that we go on trying other levels: criminal organizations, or throw of the Syrian regime, then prose- to make sense of a reality that is at all smaller, less structured groups, right cutes those who go off to overthrow the times besieged by a bewildering array down to “lone wolf” individuals—ter- Syrian regime. Hebdo means we must of powerful forces trying to manipulate rorists, stalkers, trolls—who now have fiercely uphold the “right to offend” our perceptions to suit their agendas. at their disposal an array of cheap, avail- (as David Cameron says), while we put But from one perspective, these able means to murder, terrorize, and people in jail—or simply murder them, worthwhile efforts to render clarity disrupt the lives of others. like Anwar al-Awlaki—when their and meaning from yet another erup- This is not a salvo in the endless, speech offends us. Beggaring and de- tion of our era’s madness are beside tedious battle about whether technolo- grading the world to make rich people the point. Far from the first collision gy is “good or bad.” Technology is what richer is the only way to prosperity. between human actuality and public it is and what we make of it. I’m simply Taking actions known to increase ter- awareness, any Terror War event im- noting that the tools available to the rorism—death squads, drone strikes, mediately leaves the plane of meaning- violent and the powerful are immensely torture, violent intervention, etc.—is ful discourse and is taken up into the more effective than they have ever been. the only way to fight terrorism. “Cloud of Unknowing” generated by And new technology, such as the inter- The list goes on an on, an inexhaust- power-seekers on all sides. There it is net, has brought their power into the ible parade of non sequiturs. Leaders masticated, atomized and refashioned very fabric of our daily lives. no longer even try to make the stories to buttress any argument or position. It All this makes it much easier to drain exhibit an outward veneer of consis- acquires an almost quantum nature, be- the reality of an event and repackage it tency or plausibility. The efforts of coming whatever the observer says it is. according to the needs of the domina- the Bush gang to manufacture bogus There is something more to this tors. Events like the Hebdo killings (and evidence to “justify” their rape of Iraq than the old-fashioned “spin” which the innumerable, far greater atroci- looks downright quaint these days, the powerful have been imposing on ties suffered by the unwhite, the non- next to, say, Obama’s ever-changing, events since the dawn of human con- European) are fed into the ever-boiling shoulder-shrugging, contradictory “ra- sciousness. This ancient practice still brew of politics, profit and power. Their tionales” for turning Libya and Syria goes on, of course, but there is an extra terrible human reality is not allowed into violent, extremist-spawning hell- element in the mix today. And this is to influence or deflect the remorseless holes. Absurdity—the radical denial of the nearly unfathomable hyper-accel- policies—and insatiable appetites— meaning, context, reason and the con- eration of power in the modern world. of power. Is Hebdo about free speech, tinuity of consciousness — is the hand- Technology has made possible concen- terror, blasphemy, blowback, racism, maiden of profit and power in our de- trations and mobilities of power with a a war of civilizations, etc.? It doesn’t liberately degraded, deliberately dazed scale and reach—and ease of use—that matter in the end. Hebdo, like all Terror era. cp 6 that are held on bank balance sheets. If grasping at straws prices stay too low for too long, then the banks will have to write-down the losses Drop Dead Fed on these loans which could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars. By Mike Whitney Naturally, that will push some lenders into bankruptcy or, in the case of the TBTF banks, into the arms of the gov- ernment. This isn’t a scenario that will Six years of zero rates and easy rational exuberance of investors who unfold overnight, but it is something to money have created a whole new set of have pumped money into everything keep an eye on in the latter part of 2015. problems. from energy-related junk bonds to The biggest problem in the short term In 2009, the Fed had a once-in-a- dodgy Collateralized Loan Obligations is the strengthening dollar. The dollar is lifetime opportunity to implement (CLOs). The problem is not that stocks at its highest level in nine years and has radical policies that would have lifted are overpriced, but that the bulk of eq- rallied a full 12 percent against 16 other the economy out of the doldrums, re- uities have been purchased with debt, major currencies in 2014. stored confidence in the central bank’s which is the essence of bubblemaking. The reason the buck is surging is role as chief regulator, and proved to Margin debt on the New York Stock because both Japan and Europe are its critics that it could, in fact, act in Exchange, for example, is hovering trying to weaken their currencies to the public’s interest. Imagine how re- around $400 billion, roughly 10 percent fight deflation, while China is increas- spected the Fed would be today had it off its February 2014 peak of $445 ing fiscal stimulus to avoid a more chosen to mix its purchases of Mortgage billion. Even more shocking is the fact severe slowdown. The Fed, on the Backed Securities (MBS) with, let’s say, that S&P 500 companies spent a hefty other hand, has ended it’s bond buying Infrastructure Bonds that would have $565 billion on stock buybacks in 2014, program and is expected to raise rates put millions of people back to work, most of which was borrowed via the sometime by mid-year. The prospect raised wages, restored confidence, in- bond market. This stunning build up of of higher interest rates has pushed creased demand, and boosted growth. debt is eerily reminiscent of the period the greenback to the top of the heap Do you really think that Congress that preceded the dot-com bust of 1999- where it is wreaking havoc on emerging would have prevented the Fed from 2000, when low interest rates fueled a markets that are bogged down by tril- acting independently if they thought it massive speculative bubble in Internet lions in dollar denominated debt. might end the slump and help to avoid stocks that was completely detached According to the Telegraph, emerg- the full-system meltdown that many an- from traditional metrics like earnings ing economies “have collectively bor- ticipated? or revenues. The Fed’s uber accommo- rowed $5.7 trillion in US dollars... split Not on your life. Besides, the Fed dative monetary policy seems to have between $3.1 trillion in bank loans and could have invoked special powers put us on the same trajectory. $2.6 trillion in bonds. It is comparable under the “unusual and exigent” clause Falling oil prices are also a concern, in scale and ratio-terms to any of the in its charter, which it eventually did mainly because exploration and drill- biggest cross-border lending sprees of anyway. No one in Congress opposed ing is a capital intensive business that the past two centuries.” that maneuver, did they? requires significant funding at rates Paying off these loans is going to be But that’s not the track the Fed that make extraction profitable. That’s extremely difficult in the present en- decided to pursue. Instead of taking not the case at present (see Joshua vironment because most EMs are ex- practical steps to restructure the Frank’s piece in this issue). Most do- periencing a slowdown, their curren- banking system and buck-up the flag- mestic producers can’t make money at cies have weakened, commodity prices ging economy, Bernanke elected to $50 per barrel, which is where prices have plunged, and the amount of the slash interest rates to zero and dump are as of this writing. And if they can’t debt, in real terms, has ballooned. This $4 trillion into financial assets which make money, then they’re not going greatly increases the likelihood of a sov- created another gigantic stock market to be able to pay off their loans or roll ereign debt default that will undoubt- bubble. As a result, the country now over their existing debt. If these compa- edly send markets into a nosedive. faces a new set of problems that look nies are unable to attract fresh capital, All of these problems can be to be more vexing and insoluble than then many of them will default which traced back to the Fed’s cheap money those that preceded the Great Crash of is going to ripple through the financial policy that extends too much credit 2008. system. Also, a substantial amount of to too many people who will never be First, there’s the fact that stocks energy-related debt has been bundled able to repay the debt. It’s a policy that are vastly overpriced due to the ir- into debt instruments and derivatives always ends the same. cp 7 Cointelpro, opportunism and the beginnings of the prison Cracks in the Façade industrial complex all took a toll on what should have been a Treachery of the system changing movement. Black Political Class The one time conscience of the congress now sponsors an annual legislative conference which amounts to little more than a corporate convention advertising politics for sale. By Margaret Kimberley Charitable arms of the CBC such as the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation legally receive unlimited campaign funds from Big Pharma, fast food corporations, defense contrac- The overriding goal of the civil rights movement should tors and telecoms. The current roster of $100,000 and over have been to liberate all black people from the worst of contributors includes Walmart, Dell, ExxonMobil, Johnson American economic, legal and political injustice. Instead we & Johnson, Pepsico, AT&T, Altria, Lockheed Martin, have de facto segregation expressed through a collapsing eco- Anheuser-Busch companies, AstraZeneca and Pfizer. In nomic system, political corruption and a vast and profitable 2010 the then president and CEO Elsie Scott had this telling prison system. At the same time, there are individuals who remark for critics. “Black people gamble. Black people smoke. do well for themselves precisely because they support the or- Black people drink. And so if these companies want to take chestrated suffering of the masses of people. some of the money they’ve earned off of our people and give The traditional civil rights leadership once spoke for black it to us to support good causes, then we take it.” Americans and made demands on their behalf. Those days Yes, liquor companies help black lobbyists and the CBC are gone as corporate dollars have taken control of black poli- party planning business, but Ms. Scott would have been hard ticians and organizations. In addition, Barack Obama’s elec- pressed to find anything aside from a few scholarships to tion to the presidency created misdirected pride, approval of show that big corporations are attentive to the needs of black policies that were once anathema to a politically progressive people. group, and opportunity for the worst scoundrels to act. The crassness of her words was stunning but also enlight- The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) was founded in ening about how this group works and thinks. Their mission 1971 and was known as “the conscience of the congress.” That is to get some of the action, a piece of the pie. The corpo- designation ended when big money interests realized that rations who bankroll the CBC foundation use lobbyists to CBC members could be bought off as easily as their white make laws, some even make war. All of these efforts impact counterparts. Black politics, that is to say the expression of millions of people and their presence as donors says nothing black people’s group interests, was on life support for many good about the state of black politics. The CBC fund raising years. The election of Barack Obama finally pulled the plug cash cow is primarily a means of large scale bribery for for good. Instead of activism and political demands, there greedy and unprincipled politicians and their allies among now exists a coterie of well placed and well paid individuals. now useless civil rights organizations. They give the appearance of supporting black interests when The path to corruption did not begin with the CBC. Their in fact they actively work against them. fundraising prowess was an outgrowth of a plan co-opt a pre- Across the country black people experience the very worst viously progressive group. Black politics began its slow road that the system has to offer. They are displaced by gentrifica- to death at the turn of this century when right-wing think tion, job loss, the loss of public schools to the charter scam, tanks discovered that black preachers and politicians would in the case of Detroit they even lost their citizenship rights, sell out just as quickly as anyone else. Cory Booker, now and in any part of the country they can be killed by police. junior senator from New Jersey, was their first prize catch. In The people they expect to speak up for them now rarely utter his 2002 campaign for mayor of Newark, Booker was awash a word about their suffering. The black political class is an in corporate cash, the first beneficiary of the buyout. entirely self-serving entity. They have little concern for the Booker was a favorite of the right wing Bradley needs of the people they use to gain entrée to high positions, Foundation, the Manhattan Institute and soon of all the cor- elected offices and money. porate media as he attempted to unseat incumbent Sharpe Money began the black political class betrayal. For these James. While Booker failed in that first campaign, he proved people, the liberation movement was less about freedom that black politicians could profit from big money. That year and resistance than it was about improving the lot of certain was a watershed for another reason. In 2002 two members fortunate individuals. The door of opportunity swung open of the CBC, Cynthia McKinney in Georgia and Earl Hilliard wide enough to allow a critical mass to position themselves in Alabama, were unseated by opponents with large cam- in the right spots to earn money and favor. The goal of the paign war chests. The days when a black politician was all but movement should have been to provide justice, security and assured of re-election were over, but the diminished power of living wages for everyone but that would have required sus- incumbency was not due to anything benevolent. tained action and a clear political agenda. Assassinations, 8 Suddenly black politicians had to toe the corporate line Rainbow PUSH, the NAACP, National Action Network, and in the cases of Hilliard and McKinney the Zionist party National Urban League, and the Minority Media line as well. To do otherwise was to face a well funded oppo- Telecommunications Council all oppose a rule which nent and inevitable defeat. Not only was the career trajectory would force them to disclose the names of contributors of the black politician changed, but so was the expectation of when they bring issues before the Federal Communications true representation for their constituents. Commission (FCC). All of these groups have supported big Black Americans have always been the most left-leaning telecom mergers and opposed giving states and localities the cohort in this country. This group was the least likely to right to regulate cable companies. support United States interventions abroad and the most They are also on the wrong side of the net neutrality issue. likely to support progressive policies domestically. That There should be no argument about the benefits of net neu- changed with new faces on the scene like Booker and the un- trality. A toll road of internet access would only harm groups derstandable but misguided desire to rejoice when any black already on the margins but their “representatives” among the person attained a prominent position. political class are more concerned with benefactors’ largesse In 2002 the Cory Bookers and the Harold Fords of the and are secondarily concerned with the people’s rights. world seemed like the worst that politics could offer up to Jackson cried foul when he was accurately described as a African Americans. At the time no one knew that the plight sellout. The reverend always has the option of not selling out, would worsen exponentially because a black man would be but why do the right thing when the wrong thing is so lucra- elected president of the United States. Barack Obama perfect- tive? Jackson and company have been bought by the telecom ed what Booker started and made the political casting couch and other industries and claiming that their constitutional a thing of cynical beauty. The only way to become a credible rights were violated by calls for transparency was particularly candidate for any high office in this country is to raise huge obscene. sums of money. That fundraising prowess is proof of alle- But the obscenity grows even worse with time. The same giance to ruling class interests but political acumen was dis- formerly trusted individuals and organizations who won’t pensed in favor of misguided group loyalty. Blacks suddenly stand up for citizenship rights versus corporate rights now had the worst of all possible worlds. won’t stand up for the right to life itself. The movement fight- The new president brought new opportunities for the un- ing police killing with impunity has had few sincere allies principled and greedy. Granting him political cover was not among the black political class. just an impulse of racial solidarity but also a means of making There is nothing like crisis to show who can and cannot be inroads and cold hard cash. Al Sharpton is among the worst trusted. In 2014 the long hidden story of police killings in this of that lot. Obama uses Sharpton’s undeserved credibility to country was finally brought to wider public attention. First defend himself from activists who are unimpressed with his Eric Garner was killed on camera by police in New York. His ascension to the presidency and point out the very contradic- murder was quickly followed by John Crawford’s. Crawford tions of his presence in the white house. was shot to death in an Ohio Walmart while holding a toy In return for acting as Obama’s political body guard, gun. Ohio is a state which permits open carry of firearms, but Sharpton’s National Action Network gets “sponsorships” from clearly that law is meant only for white people. Just four days corporations such as AT&T, Walmart, GE Asset Management later Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri for the and Forest City Ratner Realty. Former New York City mayor crime of walking in the street instead of on the sidewalk and Michael Bloomberg described Sharpton’s role in a nutshell in then arguing with a white man with a badge. 2009. “In all fairness, Al Sharpton has been an awful lot more The uprising in Ferguson, Missouri exposed who is a of a calming influence on the city and helper to the city than leader and who is a poseur. Americans were shocked to see most people give him credit for.” protesters met by a police force armed with military equip- New York City did not need calm during the Bloomberg ment. They might also have been shocked to learn that just years. It needed protest against stop-and-frisk, gentrification two months earlier, only 20 percent of CBC members, 8 out and charter school expansion. Of course NAN had nothing of 40, voted to end the transfer of military equipment to local to say on that subject after accepting $110,000 from the police departments. That may have been one of the saddest Bloomberg’s astro turf Education Equality Project. votes in CBC history. It would have been unthinkable for Sharpton isn’t alone. Jesse Jackson has been diminished the original CBC members to have voted for such a measure by his brother reverend but he is still in the forefront of deal when they first formed a caucus back in 1971. In those days making. Those deals contradict the interests of the people black political independence still existed. Now it is a part of he claims to represent and now the corruption is out in the wistful memory. open. Jackson shamefully evoked the name of Martin Luther To add insult to injury, when Jesse Jackson arrived on the King and the constitution in an attempt to hide how much he scene he passed the hat and asked angry, grieving people for and others have been bought off by big telecoms. scontributions. Thankfully he was booed by the crowd.

9 Obama and the Black Congressional Caucus: Photo AP Al Sharpton supplanted Jackson as the go-to-guy for crisis The well-placed reverend should be able to pick up the management on behalf of the powerful and he has more phone and tell the first black president and first black attorney common sense than to ask distraught people for money. Yet general Eric Holder to prosecute these police brutality cases. he can’t be trusted either. As soon as the non-indictment of Of course that isn’t the role he plays. His job is to take the heat killer policeman Darren Wilson was announced Obama lec- off of presidents and mayors, not to give them any. tured black people about their behavior and Sharpton sec- It is high time for Obama to feel a little pain. The cry onded the motion. He then did what he does best. He used must be “Hands up, don’t shoot. Prosecute.” The Civil Rights his position to make it appear that he is fighting the powers Division of the Justice Department has become a shell of its that be, when in fact he does their bidding. former self under the Obama/Holder watch. The only hope Instead of demanding that the Obama Justice Department of prosecuting the police who killed Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, lead prosecution of these cases, Sharpton calls for marches Michael Brown and others lies with the federal government and befriends the bereaved families. Any protest led by Al which does nothing but leak excuses that the bar for prosecu- Sharpton isn’t intended to fight the police state or politi- tion is too high to reach. The bar is only high when they don’t cians. Sharpton’s job for Barack Obama or New York City want to act. Mayor Bill de Blasio is to confine black protest to a visible but One would think that the bar would be high if a president useless margin while giving the appearance of fighting for real chose to assassinate an American citizen and his teenage son. change. Of course Barack Obama did kill Anwar a-Awlaki and his son Sharpton’s recent Justice for All March held in Washington Abdulrahman and he faced no political repercussion whatso- in December is an example of all that is wrong with supposed ever. So the bar is practically non-existent when he wants it movers and shakers who can never seem to move anything to be so. for black people. The sham was exposed when Ferguson ac- It was president George H.W. Bush who began the suc- tivists made their way to the podium and demanded an op- cessful prosecution of the police caught on camera viciously portunity to speak. Sharpton later said, “This was not a revo- beating Rodney King. After their acquittal in April 1992, the lutionary march and I don’t apologize for that.” Bush Justice Department indicted the four officers. Two were It should have been revolutionary and he should apologize later found guilty and served time in prison. Bush actually for being a charlatan. Actually he needs to disappear from showed more concern and emotion in his comments about politics altogether. Young people and anyone outside of the Rodney King than the first black president did under similar discredited clique must take the mic, figuratively and literally. circumstances twenty years later: The Black Lives Matter and Millions March movements have What you saw and what I saw on the TV video was taken center stage from the useless misleadership personified revolting. I felt anger. I felt pain. I thought: How can I by Sharpton and that new dynamic must be celebrated. 10 explain this to my grandchildren? Viewed from outside pulled up their baggy pants or stopped wearing hoodies. The the trial, it was hard to understand how the verdict plight of black victims seems distant and the odds of LDF could possibly square with the video. Those civil rights lawyers or CBC or Rainbow PUSH staffers ending up like leaders with whom I met were stunned. And so was I, Michael Brown seem remote. Their nonchalant attitude is and so was Barbara, and so were my kids. evidence of a terrible disconnect which allows them to justify ignoring or acting against the interests of the masses. Apparently Barbara, Jeb and George W. are more appalled Now the masses aren’t waiting for anyone’s approval. by police brutality than Obama is. Bush was forced to act by Ferguson, Missouri changed everything and the cracks in the riots that came after the initial verdicts but he didn’t di- the façade are starting to show. It is a good thing when Al minish black anger the way Obama and Sharpton did. Why Sharpton can’t control demonstrators and they stray outside should Obama and his acolytes among the black politicos be the lines consigned to them by officialdom. expected to do less than a republican predecessor? Now only two years remain before a new president will The criminal justice system is rife with oppression and out- be sworn into office. The end of the Obama era is a perfect right cruelty directed at black people in this country. Mass in- opportunity to reassess black politics. His departure will not carceration began in direct response to the liberation struggle insure a return to the days before money ruled the political and has continued unabated ever since. The war on drugs world but it will certainly help. started under Ronald Reagan but the sentencing disparities The Obama hangover will be difficult to overcome but it for crack cocaine were upheld by Bill Clinton, a man foolishly will be absolutely necessary. The slumber that began after the dubbed “the first black president.” Clinton never passed up Iowa caucuses in 2008 is in fact starting to end now. When a chance to make black people his victims whenever he in- Barack and Michelle head back to Chicago there has to be dulged in his cynical triangulations with the right-wing. analysis and an honest assessment of who did and who did Thousands of black people suffered and still suffer under not go along to get along. the horrific Clinton era policies. They have no redress for this Of course, black politics had been suffering a terrible injustice in part because the first black president and the first decline long before Obama’s name was known outside of black attorney general opposed giving the right to request Illinois. As the saying goes, his election took the air out of the resentencing. Obama and Holder get away with their farce room and stopped a much needed conversation from taking because the black political class won’t call them to account. place. The urge to support any black face in a position of On December 3, 2013 the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals power will have dissipated somewhat when the meager gains ruled 10–7 that the Fair Sentencing Act, which Obama signed of the Obama era are confronted. In the end, it will be hard to into law, does not permit resentencing for those who languish claim that Obama’s presidency produced anything other than in prison under the old crack/powder cocaine disparities. As misguided pride. expected, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) decried the The rotten core of the black political class will remain. ruling but its press release didn’t mention that the Obama The allegiance to the Democratic Party and big money won’t administration was in favor of the ruling that kept so many change quickly. It is the people who have changed and who black people in jail. have decided to speak for themselves. Words like the 1%, mass The LDF has earned its status as a highly respected organi- incarceration, every 28 hours and police militarization are zation. But it joined with the rest of the discredited and dis- part of everyday vocabulary. honest phony leaders when it chose to assist in covering the So much can come apart very quickly. The threat of market Obama administration’s deceit. It isn’t just money which mo- collapse and bursting speculative bubbles didn’t end in 2008. tivates the LDF and other organizations. These organizations First the Occupy Wall Street movement and now the anti- are also made up of careerists who protect their positions by police violence movement prove that contentment is only on assisting Obama and Holder in their hypocrisy. If the LDF the surface and can turn to protest if the right circumstances were to show a little courage and expose the fraud it might are present. fall out of favor with the black elite and that apparently is too The clock can’t be turned back to the day before Michael much for them to bear. Brown was killed. Al Sharpton and the rest can’t keep the lid Money and careerism tell part of the story but there is on forever. Already activists have turned to the international something else motivating the gatekeepers of the political community to seek condemnation of American human rights high and mighty. It is clear that the daily struggles of ordinary abuses. That is tremendously important and under cuts the black men and women don’t really resonate with this clique. traitors and opportunists. The crises of 2014 show the path for The people who face years in prison and the families who a newly freed people. cp are left after their loved ones are killed by police are abstract figures. Respectability politics also plays a part in the lack of Margaret Kimberley is a columnist for Black Agenda Report. concern. The victims are seen as people who wouldn’t suffer if She lives in New York City. only they behaved differently, lived in better neighborhoods, 11 less oil will be fracked out of the frigid North Dakota tundra. Will the Frackers Go Bust? Investment bank Evercore Partners recently noted if this The Oil Boom May Be Over downward trend continues, companies in Asia, Europe and North America will be forced to dramatically cut capital spending. Evercore estimates that exploration and produc- by Joshua Frank tion in North America could be cut by as much as 25-30 percent and globally by 10-15 percent this year alone. If true, this means a serious recession will smack the oil producers in I’m a vampire, baby, the very near future. If investments are indeed scaled back, suckin’ blood it will mean that hard to reach oil reserves, those that cost a from the earth. lot of money to access, will most likely remain in the ground. Well, I’m a vampire, babe, The signs are already showing up. ExxonMobile, Royal Dutch sell you twenty barrels worth. Shell and other major extraction outfits have recently an- nounced lay offs and cuts in investment spending. In a nut- -Neil Young (Vampire Blues) shell, lower oil prices mean less oil production in the U.S.— not the other way around. What’s the cause of this drop in prices? Some are taking Oil is crashing, and gas prices at the pump keep sliding conspiratorial jabs at the OPEC “cartel”, while others are lower and lower. As of early January 2015, a barrel of Brent laying blame at the feet of Vladimir Putin, but in reality the crude (the global standard) is selling for less than $50, that’s reason is much more benign: oil prices are simply reacting to half of what a barrel cost just six months ago. What does all of the market and dropping to the average cost of global pro- this mean? You wouldn’t likely think that a significant drop in duction, largely because oil prices have been overly inflated oil prices could actually be a good thing for the environment for the past two decades. Global commodity futures, not just and a bad thing for Big Oil and dirty frackers, yet it may well oil, dropped throughout 2014, and strategic investors are now be. scaling back. In short, the world’s economy is slowing. This It’s long been presumed that expensive oil makes alterna- means, expensive oil-producing operations, like those in tive fuels much more viable. As this line of reasoning goes, North Dakota, won’t remain profitable if the price of oil stays cheaper oil will ensure that more of it will be pumped out of low. the ground and consumed. Gas guzzlers will replace smaller, For example, it costs far more to produce a barrel of oil more efficient vehicles, and more people will fly because plane from fracking in North Dakota (around $70-$80 per barrel) fares will reflect lower fuel prices. Seems logical enough. than it does to pump out a barrel of crude in Saudi Arabia That’s if, of course, you aren’t looking at Big Oil’s profit ($4-$5 a barrel). The Saudis, one OPEC partner, certainly margins. Since 2008, oil production in the United States has are not upset that prices are dipping even though they aren’t increased 80%—from 5 billion barrels a day to over 9 million solely responsible (Venezuela, another member of OPEC, is and the oil barons would very much like to keep it that way. taking a big hit as prices drop). The Saudis are now waiting Most of this increase comes as a result of North Dakota’s for investors to turn their backs on expensive Arctic drilling nearly overnight oil fracking frenzy. But now prices are free- in Russia, tar sands in Canada, and yes, oil fracking in the falling, and profits aren’t what they used to be. The real ques- United States. tion is: how long will these circumstances last? One thing is Oil frackers (and natural gas frackers too, we’ll get to that for sure, the longer the prices decline, the more impact they below) could now be at in the beginning stages of a collapse will have on the entire industry. on the scale of what happened in 1986 when production Let’s start with the fracking boom (oil, not natural gas) in slowed and oil prices hit a low of $9.85 a barrel. As a result, North Dakota’s lucrative Bakken region. In May 2012, North many high-cost oil wells in the U.S. became unprofitable and Dakota leap-frogged Alaska to became the No. 2 oil-pro- had to be shut down. That’s just the kind of event fracking’s ducing state in the country, trailing only Texas. More than foes would like to see happen across the country today. $2 billion a month is spent in the state to frack oil out of the There’s also another elephant in the room for the oil frack- Bakken Shale Formation. As of June 2014, North Dakota ers: supplies are being depleted so fast that production is was producing 1 million barrels of oil per day. This, while oil likely to flat-line and then dip in the years ahead, regardless prices were well over $100 a barrel. To put it bluntly, it’s been a of whether or not the price per barrel increases. Based on mad rush to frack every last bit of North Dakota’s oil. The en- conservative estimates of shale oil reserves, the U.S. Energy vironment be damned, it’s all about the money. But here’s the Information Agency predicts that by 2020 U.S. oil production caveat and it’s a big one: at below $80 a barrel, nearly all of the will plateau. major fracking operators in the Bakken start losing cash. The “I look at shale as more of a retirement party than a revolu- longer oil sits at around $50 a barrel, where it’s at today, the

12 tion,” Art Berman, a petroleum geologist who spent 20 years College London contend that “globally, a third of oil reserves, with Amoco, recently told Bloomberg. “It’s the [industry’s] half of gas reserves and over 80 percent of current coal re- last gasp.” serves should remain unused from 2010 to 2050 in order” to While others may challenge Berman’s assessment, there is fend of catastrophic climate change. no denying that dropping prices, coupled with expensive ex- Even if fracking begins to slow in the U.S., this does not traction methods, will eventually have a very real impact on mean other countries might not start to frack their own Big Oil. It’s already happening. As of November 2014, permits expansive oil and gas reserves—such as Russia, China, to drill for oil and natural gas were down 40% from October. Argentina, Libya and Venezuela. Even so, fracking isn’t cheap, Truth be told, the oil market is, and has always been, and depreciating prices don’t leave much room for profitabil- finicky. Yet renewables, like decentralized solar, are not. UN ity. Simply put, if they can’t afford to frack, they won’t do it. climate chief negotiator Christiana Figueres recently stated One thing is certain, the frackers across the United States that “[oil price volatility] is exactly one of the main reasons aren’t pleased with the rapidly declining price of oil. If the why we must move to renewable energy which has a com- slide continues or remains right where it is, you can safely bet that fewer and fewer permits will be issued for fracking op- erations, and more fossil fuels will remain in the ground, right where they should be. cp

Joshua Frank is the Managing Editor of CounterPunch.

France in the Crossfire Liberté, Eqalité, Fraternité

by Diana Johnstone

On January 11, three million people jammed the boulevards Fracking: Getty Images and streets between the Place de la République and the Place de la Nation in Paris. Another million joined marches in the pletely predictable cost of zero for fuel…We are seeing more other main cities of France. and more the realization that investment in fossil fuel is actu- France, so often divided and bickering, appeared to be ally a high risk, is getting more and more risky.” united at last, at least emotionally. As oil prices have slumped, so too have natural gas prices. “I am Charlie” was the unifying slogan. Such a slogan is Renewables on the other hand, have remained extremely not to be taken literally. France was genuinely shocked and steady. Deborah Rogers of Energy Policy Forum reports that horrified by the January 7 massacre of artists and writers at frackers have overproduced natural gas, largely to meet finan- the Charlie Hebdo editorial meeting, especially since several cial analysts’ lofty, unrealistic targets in order to keep the cash of the victims were popular cartoonists whose work appeared flowing in. It was all by design of course—Wall Street’s design. in many periodicals. But most of the four million had almost “Wall Street promoted the shale gas drilling frenzy, which certainly never opened the pages of Charlie Hebdo before its resulted in prices lower than the cost of production and martyrdom. Few realized the depths of obscenity of certain thereby profited [enormously] from mergers & acquisitions of the caricatures obsessively ridiculing Muslims and “the and other transactional fees,” writes Rogers. “U.S. shale gas Prophet”. Despite the paper’s notoriety, not many people and shale oil reserves have been overestimated by a minimum bought it. The weekly, whose staff was decimated in the of 100% and by as much as 400-500% by operators according January 7 attack by two gunmen shouting “we have avenged to actual well production data filed in various states.” the Prophet”, was near bankruptcy, with a dwindling circula- If true, coupled with the dropping global oil prices, fracking tion and no advertising. in the United States may be on the skids. That’s a good thing That has certainly changed. For several days this week, for the environment, at least for the near future. The more French people were lining up at news stands hoping to buy fossil fuels that stay where they are the better, contends a new one of the seven million press run of the latest edition. It was study published in the January issue of the science journal bravely published by the survivors, with a subsidy of one Nature. Christophe McGlade and Paul Ekins at University million euros from the French government. On French radio,

13 listeners are being exhorted to send money to keep “freedom Thus the first major government measure to defend of expression” alive—meaning Charlie Hebdo. freedom of expression was to punish the wrong kind of ex- On Sunday, January 11, the bells of Notre Dame Cathedral pression. rang all day long in tribute to a paper whose cartoons por- Early the next morning, French police arrested the come- trayed priests and nuns as sex maniacs. Muslim leaders, dian Dieudonné on grounds of “apology for terrorism”. whose religion had become the main butt of Charlie’s obscene His offense? At the end of the January 11 march, the jokes (and butt is the appropriate word), also came forward to Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala had posted a FaceBook message identify with “Charlie”. which concluded with the sentence: “I am Charlie Coulibaly”. The unanimous élan was abundantly interpreted by main- The tweet had been rapidly withdrawn, apparently on the stream media to mean that France was the foremost defender advice of friends who found it dangerously ambiguous. of Western values, liberté, égalité, fraternité and above all This oxymoron was the sort of provocative humor favored freedom of expression. We can say whatever we want, we can by Charlie Hebdo. But Coulibaly’s crime in a Kosher grocery laugh at anything! store was off limits for joking. When everyone seems to agree, it usually means that we Prime Minister Manuel Valls hastened to clarify the dis- are riding on the crest of a major misunderstanding. The tinction. We must not “confuse freedom of opinion with anti- moment of intense emotion that united the nation would Semitism, racism, negationism”, he declared, stressing that

Netanyahu, Hollande, Merkel and Abbas at Paris Unity march. Photo: AFP soon reveal the depths of its divisions. “racism, anti-Semitism, apology for terrorism are not opin- ions, they are crimes.” He vowed to strengthen enforcement Liberté of the Gayssot law which punishes any questioning of the The terrorists—the brothers Cherif and Said Kouchi, and Holocaust (in practice, denial of the use of lethal gas cham- their accomplice Amedy Coulibaly, who murdered four men bers at Auschwitz). in his attempt to take hostages at a Kosher supermarket— So there should be no mistake. Offending Jews, or ques- were killed by police on January 9. tioning details of the Holocaust are crimes, not freedom On January 13, for the first time since the end of the First of speech. Racism is a crime, but insulting Muslims is not World War in 1918, the entire membership of the French racism. So it is not a crime. Clear, everybody? National Assembly rose and sang the Marseillaise. Prime For his incriminated message, Dieudonné will go on trial Minister Manuel Valls gave a speech hailed by politicians and and attempt to explain that what he meant was not in fact an media as uniting the nation. Valls vowed to enforce relent- “apology for terrorism”. lessly the law against “apology for terrorism”—punishable by The context was two messages, the first sent in the morning up to seven years in prison. of January 11: 14 In this moment of profound meditation, let us leave For a whole year, I have been treated as public enemy resentments aside and reach out our hands toward number one, although all I am doing is to try to make others in order to unite against nameless hatred; this is people laugh, and to laugh at death, because as for the hour for us to gather together united around those death, death laughs at us, as Charlie knows, alas. who have never been afraid to laugh. Peace for those who have left us and for their dear ones. Guards, hu- Although for weeks I have been seeking peace under morists, caricaturists, journalists, policemen, Muslims, your authority, I have had no reply… Jews, Christians, atheists…in this symbolic day we are all brothers. We are all Peace! As soon as I say anything, instead of trying to un- derstand me, I am not listened to. You just look for a After taking part in the mass demonstration for freedom of pretext to ban me. I am considered to be an Amedy expression, Dieudonné sent this message: Coulibaly although I am no different from Charlie. After this heroic march, what can I saay…Legendary! (…) Magical instant equal to the Big Bang which created In fact, just last month, Dieudonné had made a formal the Universe…Or to a lesser extent (more localized) appeal for a truce with Jewish community organizations, of- comparable to the crowning of Vercingetorix, I am fering to pay amends so they could stop suing each other. finally returning home. Know that this evening, as for These peace overtures were ignored. me, I feel I am Charlie Coulibaly. The state prosecutor immediately brought charges. This is Egalité hardly surprising, since for over a year Prime Minister Valls A minute of silence was held in all French schools in has made it clear that the government should use all its means tribute to the victims of the attack on Charlie Hebdo. To the to silence the Franco-African humorist, who has been the dismay of teachers, the minute of silence was “perturbed” in target of major Jewish organizations since his short 2003 TV hundreds of classrooms. sketch satirizing an extremist Israeli settler as representative In the Paris suburb of Saint Denis, students told reporters of “the Axis of Good”—an allusion to George W. Bush’s “Axis from Le Monde that “lots of kids make the comparison with of Evil”. Charlie Hebdo had been in the forefront of attacks on Dieudonné.” While Dieudonné was punished, Charlie was Dieudonné. excused on grounds of “freedom of expression…” Adolescents What did Dieudonné mean by his imprudent message? It acknowledged that they had never seen Charlie Hebdo, but seemed obvious to me that far from “supporting terrorism”, wasted no time in checking it out on the web and generally the humorist meant to say that he was being treated like didn’t like what they saw. A few found the anti-Muslim cari- public enemy number one, like Coulibraly, even though his catures so offensive that they concluded that the terrorists business was comedy, like Charlie Hebdo. might have been justified in assassinating the editor, Charb, This was indeed his own interpretation in a letter he im- but should have spared the others. mediately addressed to Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, A commentator on French television channel France who had described his remark as “abject”. (Since there is 2 noted that the government’s task henceforth would be to some confusion about this, I should mention that Dieudonné identify all those who are “not Charlie” and take measures has never been a Muslim. He was raised as a Catholic by his to “bring them back into the Republic”, one way or another. Breton mother, and makes relatively gentle fun of all reli- However, the overwhelming majority of people who say they gions. One of his sketches lampoons Islamic terrorists and are “not Charlie” are appalled by the terrorist attacks. The notion that loyalty to “the Republic” can be tested by taste for their promised virgins.) a deliberately offensive comic weekly is strangely conformist. “Yesterday, we were all Charlie, marching so as to stand up Contrary to its historic origins in opposition to Catholic for our freedoms. So that we can go on laughing about every- domination of the education system, contemporary laïcité or thing,” Dieudonné wrote to the Interior Minister, who is in secularism in France has been taking the form of a sort of re- charge of national police. ligion of its own, in which “the Republic” is a sacred value. Back from that march, I felt very alone. More than religious attitudes, reactions to the caricatures in Charlie Hebdo reflect a generation gap, between the May For one year, the State has had me in its sights and is ’68 generation (now in command of society) and the in- trying to get rid of me by all means. Media lynching, ternet generation for whom the best humorist in France is banning my shows, tax investigations, searches of my Dieudonné. home, interrogations… more than eighty judicial pro- There were two versions of Charlie Hebdo. The first one cedures have been launched against me and my associ- emerged in 1969, as a continuation of a sixties paper called ates. (…) Hara Kiri, which was banned for a joke about the death of 15 Charles de Gaulle. The new name was a mixed allusion to semitism). Charles de Gaulle and Charlie Brown of Peanuts. The sixties Insulting gays/lesbian you will face court (homofobic and seventies were a period of revolt against a relatively au- laws). thoritarian society, and the mordant humor was directed Insulting muslims called ‘freedom of speech’. especially against the powers that be, powers that could still exercise censorship: the Catholic Church and the State. In the Does it smell hypocritic? Or at least, unfair? 1970s, Charlie Hebdo was a favorite of the May ’68 generation. It went out of business at the end of 1981. Times were I agree, muslims shall follow rules of the countries they changing fast. live. It is true. The Charlie Hebdo that was revived in the summer of 1992 Some of them makes mess around. It is also true. brought back some of the artists from the first version, but But making insults, provoking and blaming was and the spirit was very different. The new editor was Philippe Val, will never be solution. an opportunist who used the weekly as a stepping stone to ... an establishment career, next as head of French Radio Inter. He was an open supporter of Israel and of U.S. wars. Whereas Solution is action. Maybe hard. Maybe strong and un- Charlie Hebdo the first had attacked the powers that be, pleasant. But these double face and hypocritic action Charlie Hebdo the second attacked the enemies of the powers will never solve current situation. It will only increase that be. In the name of “human rights”, the Serbs were por- tension and hatred. (…) trayed as psychotic killers, Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi as bloodthirsty maniacs, and the Muslims as loathsome degen- More pictures—more attacks. Is this what France (and erates when they were being bombed, in several places, by the others) want? ... And now whole world crying in hyste- United States and NATO. ria for 12 people. Dieudonné’s humor went in another direction, showing sympathy with Palestinians. Please, Peshawar attack—0 reaction, Palestine, Yemen, Charlie Hebdo inspired a certain nostalgia in the May ’68 Nigeria, Syria, Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan—0 reac- generation, although the change was increasingly noticed and tion. There more than thousands and thousand victims drove some old fans and staff members away. Some have de- already. nounced the anti-Muslim obsession as racist. This viewpoint is widespread in the rest of the world. These things made me confused and disappoint in eu- Among the many messages I have received in the past few ropean understanding of freedom of speech, democra- days was a letter from Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. It sy and human rights (and these people want to come echoes what many have written but it came from farther away to Kazakhstan and teach us some human rights). than most (here are excerpts, with the original spelling): Note: On December 16, in retaliation for a Pakistani army Yes, we do belong to different cultures, traditions and attack on their base in North Waziristan, seven Taliban attack- so as different views. At least we try to see to the situa- ers wearing bomb vests cut through a wire fence to gain entry tion from all aspects. (…) to the Army Public School and went from class to class, killing 152 people, 133 of them children, and injuring more than 120. All Majority of Kazakhstan population consider them- seven gunmen were killed. selves as muslims, but in fact, it only words (no actions what muslims have to carry, like prayers, charity, etc). Fraternité So, funny thing, some muslims supported attack, some Close to fifty world leaders (and their bodyguards) showed said it was wrong and supported journalists, some up, or showed off, in Paris on January 11. They lined up arm didnt care. in arm for photo ops on the Boulevard Voltaire with French President François Hollande in the middle, as if they were Honestly, I am not perfect muslim (i am not perform- leading the march, before retreating to the Elysée Palace. ing actions written to be performed). I didnt support Hollande was flanked by German Chancellor Angela Merkel attack, but what made me so concerned is this: and the President of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, a remind- er of France’s recent military action against Islamic fighters in France calls those caricatures “freedom of speech” and that country. But a few dignitaries down to Hollande’s right they died for freedom of expression. For me freedom was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a couple must be 100 % and for all, like 100 % or 0 %. There cant of dignitaries to his left was the President of the Palestinian be half-freedom. Look what I mean: Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. Insulting jews in France you will face court (anti- Unity? Fraternity? Shared Values?

16 As has been widely reported, Hollande wanted the gather- are reproached for existing as a ‘community’, but at the same ing to strengthen French national unity, and for that reason time they are called upon to react against terrorism as a com- sent messages requesting that neither Netanyahu nor Abbas munity,” Roy wrote in Le Monde on January 9. This is a Catch attend. French authorities are desperate to prevent “the 22 situation. “Republican” France feels it would be threatened Middle East conflict from being imported into France” - too by a unified Muslim community, and yet exhorts Muslim late. religious authorities to exercise leadership against Islamic Despite being asked to stay away, Netanyahu decided to fundamentalism. But to exercise the desired influence, come anyway, along with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor imams would first have to lure French Muslims back into the Lieberman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, all intent mosques! The extremists are outside any community, and on asserting their leadership of the French Jewish communi- tend to be recruited either in prison or on the internet. This is ty. France then asked Abbas (who had agreed to stay away) to an international phenomenon, not an attribute of the “Islamic come after all, in a vain stab at maintaining balance. community” in France. Netanyahu did everything to steal the show. However, the rise of the Islamic State, with its spectacu- With his habitual chutzpah, the Israeli Prime Minister used lar decapitations, the rejection of rationality and return to the occasion to warn French Jews that they were not safe in religion by a certain number of children of secular parents, France, and to exhort them to leave their native land and and the alarming phenomenon of young people going off move to Israel. “Israel is your home”, he told them. “A special to join the Jihad in Iraq and Syria is feeding Islamophobia team of ministers will convene this week to advance steps in a France which is losing its own sense of identity. The to increase immigration from France and other countries runaway best seller in France in recent months has been Le in Europe that are suffering from terrible anti-Semitism”, he Suicide français, by Eric Zemmour, which records forty years promised. of what he considers to be France shooting itself in the foot, Netanyahu turned the day of French secularism into a reli- politically and culturally. Much of his criticism is cogent, gious occasion by leading Hollande and leaders of the Jewish and is a welcome change from that discredited chief media community to ceremonies at the Grand Synagogue in Paris, guru, Bernard-Henri Lévy, whom he opposes on most points where he made a long speech (viewed by critics as aimed at (except for strong support of Israel). Zemmour denounces voters in Israel). The next day he accompanied the bodies of French acceptance of mass immigration as a major aspect of the four Jewish victims of Coulibraly’s attack on the Kosher national “suicide”, especially the policy of allowing immigrant supermarket to Israel for burial. workers to bring in Muslim wives and children with no jobs Prime Minister Manuel Valls attempted to fend off and no job prospects, at a time when the education system is Netanyahu’s offensive to hijack French Jews by stress- too lax to promote cultural assimilation. ing the importance of the Jewish community in France. “If Some of that is surely true. But after predicting the possi- 100,000 French people of Spanish origin were to leave,” the bility of civil “war” in France, Zemmour caused an uproar on Spanish-born Valls declared, “I would never say that France the left by suggesting, to an Italian newspaper, that the “unas- is not France anymore. But if 100,000 Jews leave, France will similated population” might be deported – as the Germans no longer be France. The French Republic will be judged a were deported from Eastern European countries after World failure.” War II. Since the January 7 attacks, Eric Zemmour has aban- With their high proportion of professionals, Jews are a doned his book signing gigs and gone into hiding. valued elite in France. There is no doubt that the government So has the writer Michel Houellebecq, whose latest novel, is intent on doing all it can to keep them. Submission, was published on the day of the terrorist attack. The Muslims cannot feel quite so appreciated. Their fears His futuristic fantasy portrays the defeat of Marine LePen in are growing, without the protection of influential associations the 2022 presidential election by a Muslim who thereupon such as CRIF (Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de subjects France to Sharia law. France) or LICRA (Ligue Internationale contre le Racisme et So while Netanyahu is urging Jews to leave France and go l’Antisémitisme). to Israel (although many would prefer Canada or the United A major misapprehension about Muslims in France, es- States as safer), and the French government is urging them to pecially abroad, is that “extremists” are only an exaggerated stay, prominent writers within France are openly suggesting expression of the views of a tight religious community. This that Muslims are unwelcome. is definitely not true for France, insists the leading scholar on In the five days since the Charlie terrorist assassinations, the subject, Olivier Roy. Most French Muslims are of North the Interior Ministry has registered a score of attacks on African origin, from Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia, and are far Muslim targets, not counting Paris and its suburbs. Mosques more integrated than is generally recognized. French secular- were set on fire in Poitiers, Le Mans and Aix-les-Bains in ism has in fact rubbed off on the country’s Muslim popula- Savoy. Swastikas were painted on the walls of the mosque tion, most of whom are not particularly religious. “Muslims in Louviers. In Peronne, an indelible swastika was painted

17 on a monument to North African soldiers who died fight- ing for France in World War I. Shots were fired at mosques The New Great Game in Soissons, in Vendôme, and in a village near Albi. In the The Russia-Turkey EuroAsian Pivot small town in the Rhone valley, a 17-year old student of North African origin was beaten up. A bomb exploded in front of a Kebab restaurant next to the mosque in Villefranche-sur- By Pepe Escobar Saône. Hostile or obscene anti-Muslim inscriptions were written on mosques and buildings in Rennes, Bayonne, Mâcon, Liévin and Béthune in the North, Bischwiller in The recent, spectacular “Exit South Stream, Enter Turk Alsace. In Corsica, a mosque and a Muslim prayer room were Stream” Pipelinistan gambit keeps sending massive geopo- festooned with the porcine carcass remains. litical shockwaves all across Eurasia. The New Great Game Muslims are now asking for the sort of police protection doesn’t get more exciting than this. that has been accorded Jewish synagogues and schools for Gazprom has announced that if the EU wants to buy gas in years. the near future, better link up with upcoming “Turk Stream” But meanwhile, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, general direc- —or it will lose all the gas that now transits Ukraine; “The Turkish stream is the only route through which 63 billion tor of the European Jewish Association, the biggest federation cubic meters of Russian gas can be supplied, which at present of European Jewish organizations, has written to European transit Ukraine. There are no other options.” government ministers asking that gun licensing laws be Considering the havoc being wreaked by Caliph Ibrahim revised in order to arm Jews to defend their communities. and his ISIS/ISIL/Daesh goons all across “Syraq” and other Margolin justified this extraordinary request by the fact that jihadism imponderables ranging from the Maghreb to Libya in the January 7 hostage taking at a Kosher supermarket in to the rest of the Middle East, if the EU does not get its act Paris, four Jews “were murdered in cold blood for no reason together it is running the risk of harboring a bunch of nations other than being Jewish”. with no energy in the near future—as Russia is progressively This would represent yet another advantage of the favored rerouting oil and natural gas towards Asia. The EU’s embrace Jewish community over the Muslim population. The very of suicidal sanctions against Russia—a graphic illustration request is also an insult to France, whose police already give of warped Brussels foreign policy—could only lead to this priority to protecting Jewish individuals and institutions. outcome. On January 16, the Confederation of Jews of France and Background is essential to understand the current game. In Friends of Israel (CJFAI) welcomed the fact that the French a nutshell, a few years ago Russia devised North Stream – fully government had taken its advice by strengthening the law operational—and South Stream—still a project—to bypass against “apology for terrorism” and had used it to bring unreliable Ukraine as a gas transit nation. Now Moscow has charges against Dieudonné. It called for further measures to devised a new sweet deal with Turkey to bypass the “non- punish racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia, as well as constructive” (Putin’s words) approach of the European giving the government the power to “block sites and messages Commission (EC) and, once again, unreliable failed state of racist or anti-Semitic hatred” Ukraine. Over five years ago I was following in detail Pipelineistan’s There can be little doubt that any such measures will be ultimate opera—the war between rival pipelines South Stream used by the government primarily to reassure the influential and Nabucco. Nabucco eventually became road kill. South Jewish community and to counter foreign media campaigns Stream might eventually resurrect, but only if the EC comes branding France as “anti-Semitic”. cp to its senses (don’t bet on it.) The 3,600 kilometer long South Stream should have been Diana Johnston lives in France and is the author of Fools’ in place by 2016, branching out to Austria and the Balkans/ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO, and Western Delusions. Her new Italy. Gazprom owns it by 50%—along with Italy’s ENI (20%), book, Queen of Chaos: the Misadventures of Hillary Clinton, will French EDF (15%) and German Wintershall, a subsidiary of be published by CounterPunch. BASF (15%). As it stands these European energy majors are not exactly beaming—to say the least. For the best part of 2014 Gazprom and the EC were haggling about a solution. In the end Brussels predictably succumbed to its own medioc- rity—but most of all relentless U.S. pressure over weak link Bulgaria. Russia for its part still gets to build a pipeline under the Black Sea—but now redirected to Turkey and, crucially, pumping the same amount of gas South Stream would. Russia 18 also gets to build a new LNG (liquefied natural gas) central nuclear industry, apart from increased soft power interaction hub in the Mediterranean. Thus Gazprom has not spent a (more trade and tourism). Most of all, Turkey is now increas- hefty $5 billion in vain on finance and engineering costs. The ingly on the verge of becoming a full member of the Shanghai redirection makes total business sense. Turkey is Gazprom’s Cooperation Organization (SCO); Moscow is actively lobby- second biggest customer after Germany; much bigger than ing for it. This means Turkey acceding to a privileged position Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria combined. as a major hub simultaneously in the Eurasian Economic Belt Crucially, in terms of internal optimization, Russia also ad- and of course the Chinese New Silk Roads. The EU blocks vances a unified gas distribution network capable of deliver- Turkey? Turkey looks East. That’s Eurasian integration on the ing natural gas from anywhere in Russia to any hub alongside move. Russia’s borders. Washington, through its Ukraine gamble, has tried very And as if it was needed, Moscow is handed yet another hard to create a New Berlin Wall from the Baltics to the Black graphic proof that its real growth market in the future is Asia, Sea to “isolate” Russia. Team “Don’t Do Stupid Stuff” in D.C.

Oil pipeline in Central Asia. Photo: AFP especially China—not a fearful, stagnated, austerity-devas- could never see it coming; yet another Putin counterpunch. tated, politically paralyzed and now distracted by the endless Applied exactly across the Black Sea. remake of the war on terra EU. The evolving Russia-China I have been reporting for years how Turkey’s key strategic strategic partnership – which is not only in energy but also imperative is to configure itself as the indispensable energy financial, economic and military—implies Russia as comple- crossroads from East to West—transiting everything from mentary to China, excelling in major infrastructure projects Iraqi oil to Caspian Sea gas. Oil from Azerbaijan already tran- from building of dams to laying out pipelines. This is trans- sits Turkey via the Bill Clinton/Zbig Brzezinski-propelled Eurasia business with a sharp geopolitical reach—not subject- BTC (Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan) pipeline. Turkey would also be ed to ideology-drenched politics. the crossroads if a Trans-Caspian pipeline is ever built (slim chances as it stands), pumping natural gas from Turkmenistan Russian “defeat”? Really? to Azerbaijan, then transported to Turkey and finally Europe. Turkey also made a killing. It’s not only the deal with So what Putin’s counterpunch accomplished with a single Gazprom; Moscow will build no less than Turkey’s entire move is to have stupid EU sanctions once again hurt the EU.

19 German business interests, with an economy already hurting Ankara shares the same obsession with the House of Saud, so badly because of lost Russia business, were not amused. far avid investors in the Turkish economy. The EC’s brilliant “strategy” revolves around the EU’s so- As for the House of Saud, it’s behaving like a camel lost in called Third Energy Package, which requires that pipelines the Arctic. The House of Saud’s lethal game in Syria always and the natural gas flowing inside them must be owned by boiled down to regime change so a Saudi-sponsored oil pipe- separate companies. The target of this package has always line from Syria to Turkey might be built. Now the Saudis see been Gazprom—which owns pipelines in many Central and Russia about to supply all of Turkey’s energy needs—and still Eastern European nations. And the target within the target be positioned to sell more gas to the EU in the near future. has always been South Stream. And “Assad must go” still won’t go. Bulgaria and Hungary—which, by the way, have always And then there’s a dangerous Rumsfeldian “known fought the EC “strategy”—are now scrambling to explain the unknown”; how the fragile Balkans will react when subor- fiasco to their own populations, and to keep pressing Brussels; dinated to the whims of Ankara. As much as Brussels keeps after all they are bound to lose a fortune, not to mention get Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia in a strait jacket, in energy terms no gas, with South Stream out of the picture. they will start depending on Turkey’s goodwill. So here’s the bottom line; Russia sells even more gas—to For the moment, let’s appreciate the magnitude of the Turkey; Turkey gets much-needed gas with a cool discount; geopolitical shockwaves after Putin’s counterpunch. Russian and the EU, pressured by the Empire of Chaos, is reduced to gas to Europe won’t be delivered via Ukraine anymore, but dance, dance, dance like a bunch of headless chickens in dark via Turkey. On top of it, Moscow told the EU that if they Brussels corridors wondering what hit them, and now com- really need Russian gas—and they do, badly—they will have pelled to build its own expensive infrastructure to transport to build a EU-financed pipeline to Turkey or, as Gazprom’s the gas it will have to buy from Russia via Turkey. No wonder Alexei Miller diplomatically put it, “now it is up to them to cracks are widening in the Atlanticist bunch, with France, for put in place the necessary infrastructure starting from the instance, now openly lobbying for the end of sanctions. Turkish-Greek border.” So this is the way stupid sanctions end; not with a bang, but You break it, you build it drowned in an energy-deprived, war on terra, whimper. cp This is not the endgame—far from it. In the near future, many variables will intersect. Pepe Escobar is the author of Empire of Chaos. Ankara’s game may change—but that’s far from a given. President Erdogan, call him the Sultan of Constantinople, has had plenty of time to identify rival Caliph Ibrahim of ISIS/ ISIL/Daesh fame trying to steal his mojo. Thus the Sultan is bound to be flirting with mollifying his neo-Ottoman dreams, Standing Tall for Tanzania’s and steering Turkey back to its previously ditched “zero prob- lems with our neighbors” foreign policy doctrine. National Animal Imponderables, once again, apply. Erdogan’s game so far The Future of Giraffe was the same as the House of Saud and the House of Thani; get rid of Assad to allow an oil pipeline from Saudi Arabia and a gas pipeline from the South Pars/North Dome mega- By Monica Bond field in Qatar through Syria. This pipeline would be Qatar- Iraq-Syria-Turkey, rivaling the already proposed, $10 billion Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline. Final customers: the EU, of course, The lanky, loveable goliath we all know as a giraffe is -un desperately mired in “escape from Gazprom” paranoia. likely to be mistaken for any other animal on the planet. But The Qatari pipeline would tap into the $10 billion Trans- how and why did this enthralling creature get to be so tall? Anatolian Pipeline (TNAP)—which should be started this The story starts many millions of years ago, when the first year—bringing gas from Azerbaijan to Turkey, and in se- ancestors of modern giraffe called ‘giraffids’ evolved in the quence, at the Greece-Turkey border in Kipoi, link with the northern forests of Eurasia and eventually spread southwards Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which in the end won over into Africa. road kill Nabucco. The pipeline route would then be Greece, Giraffids were browsers that specialized in eating the leaves Albania, the Adriatic Sea and all the way to Italy in San Foca. of trees, but many other kinds of browsers also competed for A major “if” is Azerbaijan being fully equipped to supply this those same leaves. It is likely that rivalry for the most nutri- gas route. tious leaves meant that early giraffids with longer necks and So what now? It’s too early to tell whether Erdogan will legs could reach leaves higher in the canopy than their com- abandon for good his “Assad must go” obsession. After all petitors, and thus survived better. These traits were passed 20 on to their offspring, resulting in taller and taller individu- important information about this imperiled animal: the use als over time. About one million years ago, the modern, ex- of digital photographs and pattern-recognition computer tremely long-necked giraffe arose. Towering more than five software to identify and track individual giraffe by differences meters high with a nearly two-meter-long neck, it is the tallest in their coat patterns, which are as unique as human finger- animal on the planet: a classic example of the wonders of the prints. These technologies have allowed wildlife biologists to evolutionary process. compile demographic data on hundreds or even thousands Prehistoric environmental changes caused the extinc- of giraffe—sample sizes unheard of in the days before digital tion of all but two types of giraffids: the okapi (found only in photography. Moreover, using photographs to identify indi- the Congo Basin) and the modern, long-necked giraffe. The viduals eliminates the need to capture and place a mark on modern giraffe is restricted to sub-Saharan Africa, yet is un- the animal, and so is entirely non-invasive and non-traumat- doubtedly one of the most beloved and recognizable animals ic, and far less expensive. to people around the world. Its unique shape and extreme The demographic data are used to test complex hypotheses height, the beautiful coat patterns, and its elegant, unhurried about how factors like sex, age, disease, location, vegetation stride and mild nature make this gentle giant an immensely quality, water availability, predators, density of other hoofed popular safari and zoo attraction. mammals, climate, and proximity to human settlements Unfortunately, despite its popularity, the wild giraffe is be- affect the survival, reproduction, and movements of giraffe. coming increasingly endangered throughout Africa due to These data can offer insights into what may be the most ef- deforestation for charcoal, conversion of savanna woodland fective conservation measures. For example, Derek Lee of habitat to agriculture, and a troubling surge in bushmeat Dartmouth College and the Wild Nature Institute has been poaching. The Giraffe Conservation Foundation estimates studying demography of giraffe in the Greater Tarangire that giraffe numbers throughout Africa have plummeted by Ecosystem since 2011. His study area includes the landscape 40 percent in the last decade to less than 80,000 individuals— inside and surrounding Tarangire and Lake Manyara national far fewer than the current number of African elephants. parks. Lee’s project aims not only to understand factors af- Tanzania is the world’s stronghold for giraffe, supporting fecting survival and reproduction in landscapes subjected to more than any other country. Although the Masai giraffe different human uses, including parks and village lands, but is the national animal of Tanzania, populations have de- also to pinpoint important calving grounds and identify criti- clined here since the 1980s. Aerial surveys conducted by the cal movement pathways. These data are disseminated to the Tanzanian Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) indicate wildlife authorities to guide land-use planning for the benefit population losses in the Katavi-Rukwa and Ruaha-Rungwa of giraffe in the region. regions since 1986. Yet few people in Africa and elsewhere are Giraffe in Tanzania are facing myriad human-caused prob- aware of the plight of our beloved giraffe. A group of deter- lems, including illegal poaching, tree-cutting for charcoal, mined giraffe enthusiasts are aiming to change that, by raising and conversion of savanna habitat to cultivated agriculture. world-wide awareness and increasing local conservation Since the 1940s, human population and agricultural expan- efforts. sion in the Masai Steppe of northern Tanzania have increased On-the-ground field research can reveal where giraffe are fivefold, causing substantial habitat loss and fragmentation. faring well and where they are doing poorly, help wildlife Natural predation by lions and hyenas can also negatively authorities understand the reasons for population declines, affect giraffe survival, but this problem is exacerbated as wild- and provide science-based recommendations on where and life are increasingly harassed out of village lands and squeezed how to focus conservation efforts. Research on ecology of into smaller areas. Most giraffe populations are now largely wild giraffe began in the 1950s, but tapered off after the 1970s. restricted to lands in and around national parks. In ensuing years, little work had been conducted, leaving Illegal poaching for bushmeat is a growing threat to the authorities with no strong information about the ecologi- declining giraffe population in Tanzania. Recent research by cal causes of the recent population declines observed from Dr. Christian Kiffner of the School for Field Studies, based aerial surveys, and few data to guide conservation efforts. in Karatu, suggests that each year poachers from Kigongoni Demographic studies that examine individual survival and (the bushmeat hunter stronghold in the Tarangire-Manyara reproduction are particularly important, but previous studies ecosystem) kill perhaps 90 giraffe in the western part of the were too small-scale and too short-term to provide much ecosystem, which includes Lake Manyara National Park, useful data. Mto wa Mbu game controlled area, and Manyara ranch. On Recently, however, a resurgence of interest in giraffe has average, selling the meat of one giraffe brings around TSH spurred two large-scale demographic research projects in 300,000 of revenue. Giraffe are usually hunted at night, Tanzania: one in the Serengeti Ecosystem and one in the dazzled by spotlights and/or perplexed by loud horns and Greater Tarangire Ecosystem. These projects are taking ad- killed with machetes or spears. Even giraffe within massive vantage of exciting new technological advances to provide protected areas like the Serengeti are not safe. Dr. Megan 21 Strauss of the University of Minnesota, who conducted the with expertise in ecology of wildlife in fire-affected forests and demographic study of giraffe in the Serengeti Ecosystem, habitat use of African savanna ungulates, and is the founder of notes that poachers in the Serengeti target giraffes with wire the Wild Nature Institute. snares set in the tree canopy. Dr. Strauss believes that poach- ing has contributed to observed declines in giraffe density in some regions of the Serengeti compared with the 1970s. Research in Tanzania and elsewhere can help guide man- agement policies aimed at conserving viable giraffe popula- A Pre-Visualization tions throughout their range. In addition to demographic re- search, scientists are working to understand the genetics of The Secret Life of Hillary Clinton giraffe. Historically, nine subspecies within the single species Giraffa camelopardalis were recognized, but some biologists have proposed recently that as many as eight of these should By John V. Walsh be recognized as distinct species. The Giraffe Conservation Foundation and the LOEWE Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre are conducting additional genetic sam- “We’re going in!” The Envoy’s voice had the sting of a cold pling required to make a final decision. Along with genetic wind cutting across the taiga. Ratta. Tatta Tat. The plane out research, Dr. Julian Fennessy of the Giraffe Conservation of Ramstein was pelted with a barrage of fire as it descended Foundation is spearheading a population status review into Tuzla Air Base in Bosnia. Ratta Tatta Tat. One piece of for each country, with Derek Lee, Megan Strauss, and Dr. shrapnel pierced the window next to the Envoy’s seat. She Douglas Bolger of Dartmouth College collaborating on the was calm. “We can’t make it ma’am. There’s even heavier fire status review for Tanzania. Right now the giraffe is designated below.” “That was an order, Major Fenton.” She was even a species of “least concern” on the International Union for the cooler than her voice in the midst of the panic around her. Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List. That may change “I’m going up front.” Bursting into the cockpit she took the if the different giraffe subspecies become recognized as sepa- controls and put the plane into a steep dive, getting it below rate species: when the status reviews are completed, each the barrage of bullets. The plane hit the ground with a fearful species is likely to be listed as threatened and receive stronger bounce, avoiding a crash only because she had become one protections. with the monster jet. On the tarmac, the plane took gunfire Much remains to be done to safeguard a future for wild again. She cried, “We came here on a mission. We’re going giraffe. Giraffe research remains underfunded, and we have in! Put down the chutes!” The slides deployed. Grabbing a limited information about the current status of the various rifle from her bodyguard she was the first one down. Running subspecies, although efforts are being made to rectify this sit- now, head down, holding rifle aloft with one arm to let the uation. But without increased awareness, our national animal others know the path and with her daughter sheltered under will continue to slide quietly towards extinction. That is why the other, she outpaced them. And then she and the rest were 21 June has been declared as World Giraffe Day. The longest safe in the hanger. day (in the northern hemisphere) or night (in the southern “I felt the sinpers’ bullets whizzing overhead!” she declared hemisphere) is a perfect time to celebrate the tallest animal to the assembled crowd, now safe. The hanger burst into ap- and advocate for its conservation! Wildlife biologists, land plause. And then she was startled, as from a dream. The ap- managers, government officials, conservation organizations, plause erupted in the press conference, as she finished her and members of the public can work together to stand tall for account. The worshipping press was mesmerized by her story. giraffe, as we recently have for elephants. Among those who applauded loudest were those who were As Tanzanians there are several ways we can demonstrate with her in Tuzla. They knew it was all a lie. Their careers our pride in our national animal and reverse its trend towards were flourishing, their salaries soaring. She thanked them all. extinction. Avoid purchasing and eating bushmeat, and en- Before she knew it, she was whisked off the stage. courage friends and family to refrain as well—and spread the “Hill, what were you talking about?” Her bewildered word about the devastating effects of bushmeat poaching on husband looked at her in the holding room. You were never wildlife populations. Contact TANAPA and TAWIRI officials fired on, and you don’t even know how to fly a kite let alone and let them know you care about giraffe and you support a jet. “Oh, shut up, Bill. You underestimate me every time. efforts to conserve habitat and prevent poaching. It is distress- Your memory fails you. I was there. You forget those long ing to imagine a world without this most beloved of African hours of learning to do stunt flying when I was president of icons, but with the development and implementation of effec- the Winged Wellesley Women. For God’s sake don’t quibble tive conservation measures, we may not have to. cp about details. I had to push you to expand NATO when your Monica Bond is a wildlife biologist and biodiversity activist buddies kept harping on Versailles.” Bill looked like a puppy 22 “Hill, what were you talking about?” Her bewildered husband looked at her in the holding room. You were never fired on, and you don’t even know how to fly a kite let alone a jet. “Oh, shut up, Bill.” that had just been whacked with a rolled up newspaper. He apprehensive since she had entered the Oval Office. And knew that there had not been so much as a paper plane flown sure enough there, he was. Before he could make a move, she at Wellesley. He bit his lower lip and fell silent. moved around him, thinking methodically, “Encircle, encir- The limousine picked them up and whisked them away cle.” Then she flew at him feet first, striking her soles deeply to her all-important speech, her first State of the Union. into his chest and shouting , “Encircle and break.” The blow Bill watched her take the podium before the joint session of appeared to knock Vlad unconscious; he was motionless. She Congress. touched the inert heap. It was lifeless, cold and wet, the sweat “The Commander in Chief,” the Speaker announced. still on the corpse. She looked out over the assemblage. The day was an inferno But she knew his presence meant that the country was under an intense sun in Rome, not a cloud in the sky. The under attack. Grabbing the red wall phone, she called for Coliseum crowd was going wild, oblivious to the oppressive Bradford. In an instant he was there carrying the black brief- heat. “Caesar, Caesar, Caesar” the sweltering mass chanted in cases with the presidential seal on the leather. How she loved unison. She was now back from the successful North African those seals and the leather. “Look at that miserable dictator campaign to a tumultuous celebration, the likes of which over there,” she yelled at Bradford, her words echoing in the Rome had not seen since the days of the first emperor. gym. He was befuddled. “That is just a pile of wet towels, The Speaker came forward and placed a laurel crown on her Ma’am.” She did not hear him. “We have been attacked,” she head. She smiled without showing her teeth and pointed to cried. “Open the briefcase.” Bradford looked like a truck had the ground. The Speaker knelt and she pointed to her feet. He run over him - but he was trained for this and did as told. kissed her feet, rose and backed away, bowing as he receded. She looked in, her retina was quickly scanned and she turned She slowly turned 360 degrees looking at each section of the the two keys. “Done,” she exclaimed triumphantly. “Nobody crowd. Then she deliberately raised her hands high. Within messes with the Indispensible Nation.” The bays to rocket a few moments the entire crowd fell silent. Slowly she looked silos all over the planet were rolling back minutes after she around, very slowly indeadly silence, paused for what seemed spoke. Bradford was sobbing now. like an eternity, then deliberately, loudly declaimed, “We Sirens were wailing in the White House and through- came...We saw...He died.” The assemblage jumped to its feet out the Capital; panic was everywhere. Rockets from across applauding wildly, insanely. She had echoed the first Caesar, the seas had now been launched and spotted. Bill appeared and she had no doubt that her exploits would far outstrip at the door of the gym. He saw the hysterical Bradford, col- his. She was sure that the Libyan spoils would fill the general lapsed on his knees, with the President standing over him, coffers. The captured arms were already on the way to Syria beaming triumphantly but silent. Bill pulled her to the emer- for her next campaign. But again the speech was over before gency elevator and they plunged into the shelter deep, deep she knew it. And again she was in the limousine with Bill. He underground. Bill was also sobbing now. But not Hillary; was distraught. “Hill, you know Gaddafi was killed in a brutal she stood there, erect, adjusting her exercise outfit, with her way when you were head at State. It was your idea to do that, back against the elevator wall, looking contentedly into the and it does not look good when you gloat.” She stared at him distance, a faint smile on her lips. Again she had prevailed. scornfully. “Hill,” he said, “I think you are having one of your Hillary Clinton, unbending, defiant to the end. days again. Maybe Dr. Kleinkopf should adjust your meds Libya was hot and dusty. She thought of Arabia’s Lawrence again.” “Ridiculous,” she clipped, not even looking his way. as she demounted her camel and jumped astride a white They went back to the White House. It was late. Bill went stallion. She and here noble steed galloped through miles of to bed and she went to the White House gym. She got into desert sand to the site of the fighting miles away in Benghazi. her white exercise outfit and was ready to do some yoga. And She was there in secret to watch the front lines of Libya, and then there he was right there in the gym, also dressed in white to aid her lover, the Libyan ambassador who was in over his with a black belt and lying in the corner doing some stretches. head. Together they had set in motion a real revolution. cp It was Vlad! How did he get in? She had long suspected that John V. Walsh can be reached at [email protected]. there were breaches of security, and she had grown ever more

23 “Know Your Enemy” The myth of a classless society is culture & reviews shored up by the relentless drum- beat for concepts such as objectivity, balance, and nonpartisanship. All of Anger is a Gift myth that America is a classless society. them were blown out of the water in Tom Morello was on his myth- one fell swoop in 1931 with the song busting journey in the late 1980s “Which Side Are You On?,” a savagely by Lee Ballinger when he worked as California Senator beautiful challenge written by Florence Alan Cranston’s scheduling secretary. Reece, the wife of a Harlan County coal “Eighty per cent of the time I spent The musician biography has become miner. Rage Against the Machine is one with the Senator, he was on the phone such a staple of the publishing industry of the few bands that has been able to asking rich people for money.” that I was even offered a deal to write consistently match Reece’s masterful Years later Morello expanded on that a book about Bob Burns, a drummer level of agit-prop. They always make it experience: in Lynyrd Skynyrd who only played clear that there are sides and they make on the band’s first two albums. And People tend to think that if the it clear which one they’re on. although I haven’t read most of these worker and boss enjoy the same Rage’s debut album was released bios, I’m confident none of them has TV shows, or own some of the in 1992, not at all coincidentally a few a chapter anything like “Wage Slavery: same commodities, then that months after the LA rebellion. As Chris Is There an Alternative?,” which begins represents the disappearance Barton wrote in the Los Angeles Times: Know Your Enemy: Rage Against the of class antagonism. But the Even before Florence and Machine (Omnibus Press, $24.95) by splendor of Beverly Hills could Normandie erupted in April Joel McIver. not exist without the sweatshops 1992, Rage Against the Machine McIver presents experiences and of Indonesia, and without the was warning of the conditions opinions from Noam Chomsky and layoffs in Flint, Michigan. Or, for that would give birth to the riots. Rage guitarist Tom Morello, but to that matter, without centuries The Rodney King verdict may get a specific answer to his question of black slavery, the genocide of have been the spark, but it was about wage slavery, McIver conducts Native Americans, numerous years of frustration among the a lengthy interview with electrician- imperialist wars, foreign death economic underclass of South turned-writer Pamela Satterwhite, squads, fascist dictators support- Central Los Angeles that fueled author of Waking Up: Freeing Ourselves ed with our tax money. That’s the uprising. Now, for better From Work. what props up the consumer or for worse, Rage Against the paradise of Melrose Avenue. The future will be the op- Machine’s legacy is intertwined posite of what we have now, with that of the riots. because now everything is These are the realities that inform Joel McIver notes that, just as Rage based on our selling our gifts,” Rage’s songs, the scathing lyrics of is a multi-ethnic band, the 1992 LA re- says Satterwhite. “The opposite which began to take shape in the bellion that helped to set the stage for of that is expressing our gifts spoken word journals of Rage vocalist their music’s popularity was also multi- rather than alienating them. As Zack de la Rocha when he was a teen- ethnic: 51 percent of those arrested Emily Dickinson said, ‘Reduce ager. They are now embedded in the were Latino, 38 percent black, 9 percent no human spirit to disgrace of DNA of millions of music fans around white, and 2 percent Asian. This too is price.’ What we are born with is the world. no coincidence. inherently cooperative, curious, The band or its individual members and joy-seeking. In the world Yes I know my enemies have traveled the world in support that we create, power will be in- They’re the teachers who taught me of all manner of struggles. In 2000 distinguishable from beauty, and to fight me Rage played in the streets outside the ‘work’ indistinguishable from Compromise, conformity, assimila- Democratic convention in the middle ‘life.’ tion, submission of a police riot. In the summer of 2010 Ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the Before we can get to that future they played a benefit for Arizona or- elite there’s a long to-do list that must be ganizations fighting the SB 1070 anti- completed. One of the most important immigrant legislation, followed shortly items on that list is overcoming the afterward by a show in Brazil where the

24 band expressed its support for the MST, & Rap Confidential after it was recom- McIver nor any of the many other the country’s huge movement of land- mended in the liner notes of two Rage critics who’ve raised that issue ques- less workers. albums. It was under twenties who tion the growing movement of fast food Zack de la Rocha has gone from were a large percentage of the troops workers for a living wage. Aren’t they his own backyard (LA’s South Central at Occupy. It is under twenties who attacking the very corporations which Farm) to Chiapas to support the are most at risk to police violence, it give them a paycheck? Most of us work Zapatistas to Switzerland to testify us under twenties who are put in gang (or seek to work) for corporations or before the International Commission databases in astronomical numbers just for institutions controlled by corpora- of Human Rights of the United Nations because they’re under twenty. When tions. The choices are limited, to say the about the death penalty in the U.S. Rage played N.W.A.’s “Fuck Tha Police” least. The Springsteen song “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” which Rage has recorded to powerful effect, could be about the band: Wherever there’s somebody fightin’ for a place to stand Or decent job or a helpin’ hand Wherever somebody’s strugglin’ to be free Look in their eyes Mom you’ll see me After getting off to a good start with the topic of wage slavery, McIver begins to wobble. He expresses amazement at Rage’s immediate and continuing pop- ularity, saying it was “unprecedented for a band with such uncompromising- -and for many, uninteresting views. Let’s face it, most of us don’t spend many of our waking hours pondering our corporate paymasters, or wonder- ing how extensively we are controlled Rage Against the Machine, 1992. Photo: Getty Images. by the media: we are too busy trying to under twenties weren’t indifferent, Morello responds to Rage’s critics by pay the bills. Multiply that indifference they were ecstatic to find a major band saying, “Grassroots activist organiza- by 10, in the case of the under twenties reflect their political feelings back to tions, people who really work for social in Rage’s fan base, and it’s all the more them. justice and don’t just sit smugly with miraculous that the band and their As for the over twenties, millions of self-righteous indignation, have been album reached such a high point in so them also love Rage, and the idea that supportive of our efforts. I believe that short a time.” they are “too busy trying to pay the we can do much more in this area than A band that that draws so skillfully bills” to care about issues is nonsense. we’ve already done. I believe it is our on hard rock and hip-hop is going to Nearly every poll shows that the ma- responsibility to continue to amplify find a big audience. But Rage’s popular- jority of over twenties favor universal the band’s message by any means nec- ity stems from more than that. It’s not health care and oppose the current e s s ar y.” hard to figure out. wars, they fear that the police are out Whether or not a band records for McIver says the “under twenties” of control and want immigrants to a big corporation is not a moral issue. were indifferent but it was under twen- have legal status. In other words, they Would humanity be better served if ties who were in the streets during the respond to Rage’s songs because the Rage was part of some vaguely defined LA Rebellion. It was under twenties music expresses things they care about. underground? There are positive things who lined up at the political informa- Wobbling further, McIver asks how you can do because you are a rock tion tables at Rage shows. It was under Rage can reconcile its politics with the star. For instance, during the 2003 twenties who jammed the inbox at the fact that their music is distributed by a Los Angeles supermarket strike, I was highly political music magazine Rock multinational corporation. But neither standing next to Tom Morello at the

25 Roxy in Hollywood before a benefit What is a “political band”? If we six Oscar nominations, while a movie show he’d arranged with many top define it as simply “a desire to change depicting the historic struggle against names. His phone kept ringing—some the world” we begin to see that there racism led by Martin Luther King, of the calls were from other bands who is a vast musical army already out Selma, has received none. have millions of fans saying they were there. For instance, there are over one American Sniper, directed by Clint on the road but wanted to be involved. thousand benefits held every week in Eastwood, tells the story of Chris Kyle, On May 1, 2012 at Occupy Wall Street, America where musicians play to raise a Navy Seal who served four tours of Morello led a Guitarmy of several money for other musicians who are in duty in Iraq as a sniper and was credited hundred guitarists in street demonstra- a health crisis. Few of the bands who with 160 confirmed ‘kills’, earning him tions, an expansive new form of mobi- play these shows would describe them- the dubious honour of being lauded lization made possible by his rock star selves as “political,” yet they are part the most lethal sniper in US military status. of a gigantic movement for universal history. Of course there are messy contradic- health care whose individual parts have Played by Bradley Cooper, in the tions that come from mixing art with yet to connect. That is political. This is movie, Kyle is an all-American hero, the corporate bottom line. Tom Morello the type of big tent we need if we are a Texas cowboy who joins the mili- responds that “We would happily sign going to affirmatively answer the ques- tary out of a sense of patriotism and a to the socialist record label that would tion posed by Joel McIver in Know yearning for purpose and direction in distribute our propaganda to the four Your Enemy: “Wage Slavery: Is There An his life. Throughout the uber-tough se- corners of the globe. But those are not Alternative?” cp lection process, Kyle is a monument of the historic circumstances in which we stoicism and determination, willing to Reach for the lessons the masked were born.” bear any amount of pain and hardship pass on The corollary to a narrow view of mu- for the honour of being able to serve And seize the metropolis sician options is a narrow view of what his country as a Navy Seal—America’s It’s you that it’s built on constitutes politics. When Rage went equivalent of the Samurai. sEverything can change on a new on hiatus in 2002 and all its members The personal struggle he endures as a years day except de la Rocha formed Audioslave result of what he experiences and does (with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell in Iraq is not motivated by any regrets as lead singer), the media harped on “War Within a Breath” over the people he kills, including how this was not a political band. For women and children, but on his failure example, the Los Angeles Times opined Lee Ballinger is an associate editor to kill more and thereby save the lives of that Rage had “dissolved into the plod- at Rock & Rap Confidential. Free email American soldiers as they go about the dingly apolitical Audioslave.” subscriptions are available by writing business of tearing the country apart, The truth is that Cornell, the sup- [email protected]. city by city, block by block, and house posed reason for a lack of politics, wrote by house. songs for Audioslave about the WTO If American Sniper wins one Oscar, demonstrations in Seattle, Hurricane never mind the six its been nominated Katrina, and the war in Iraq. Audioslave Clint Eastwood’s for, when this annual extravaganza of performed in Cuba and often per- movie pomp and ceremony unfolds formed Rage songs in their live show. “American in Hollywood on February 22, it will The misreading of Audioslave is only not only represent an endorsement of one example of the limited way that Sniper” U.S. exceptionalism, but worse it will the term “political” is applied to music. be an insult to the Iraqi people. In the Political bands are thought of as those Tribute to a Racist movie they are depicted as a dehuman- that stand up and say, “Hey, we’re po- ized mass of savages—occupying the litical!” That’s what happened on July Killer same role as the Indians in John Wayne 30, 2012 when 60,000 fans gathered at Western movies of old—responsible for the Los Angeles Coliseum for the LA their own suffering and the devastation Rising festival featuring Rage Against By John Wight of their country, which the white man is the Machine, Lauryn Hill, Rise Against, in the process of civilizing. Immortal Technique, and El Gran Anything resembling balance and The swamp of moral depravity in Silencio. A powerful and beautifully perspective is sacrificed in American which America is sinking is illustrated eclectic show but not one that provided Sniper to the more pressing needs of US by a movie glorifying the exploits of a a broad enough definition of “political.” propaganda, which holds that the guys racist killer, American Sniper, receiving

26 who served in Iraq were the very best given that the peddling of such myths is They say that patriotism is the last of America, men who went through the very currency of Hollywood. Over refuge of the scoundrel. In the hands hell in order to protect the freedoms many decades the U.S. movie industry of a movie director with millions of and way of life of their fellow country- has proved itself one of the most potent dollars and the backing of a movie men at home. It is the cult of the soldier weapons in the armoury of U.S. impe- studio at its disposal, it is far more dan- writ large, men who in the words of rialism, helping to project a myth of an gerous than that. It is a potent weapon Kyle (Bradley Cooper) in the movie America defined by lofty attributes of deployed against its victims, denying “just want to get the bad guys.” courage, freedom, and democracy. them their right to even be considered The ‘bad guys’ are, as mentioned, the As the myth has it, these values, and victims, exalting in the process, when Iraqis. In fact if you had just arrived in with them America itself, are continu- it comes to Hollywood, those who the movie theatre from another planet, ally under threat from the forces of murder and massacre in the name of you would be left in no doubt from the evil and darkness that lurk outwith America.

Still from American Sniper. movie’s opening scene that Iraq had and often times within. The mountain With this in mind, it is perhaps invaded and occupied America rather of lies told in service to this myth has fitting that Chris Kyle was shot and than the other way round. only been exceeded by the mountain of killed by a former Marine at a shooting Unsurprisingly, the real Chris Kyle dead bodies on the basis of it—victims range in Texas in 2013. “Man was born was not as depicted by Clint Eastwood of the carnage and mayhem unleashed into barbarism,” Martin Luther King and played by Bradley Cooper. In his around the world by Washington. said, “when killing his fellow man was a autobiography, upon which the movie Chris Kyle was not the warrior or normal condition of existence.” cp is supposedly based, Kyle writes, “I hero portrayed in American Sniper. He hate the damn savages. I couldn’t give a was in fact a racist killer for whom the John Wight is the author of a po- flying fuck about the Iraqis.” only good Iraqi was a dead Iraqi. He litically incorrect and irreverent It is clear that the movie’s director, killed men, women, and children, just Hollywood memoir – Dreams That Clint Eastwood, when faced with the as his comrades did during the course Die – published by Zero Books. choice between depicting the truth and of a brutal and barbaric war of aggres- the myth, decided to go with the myth. sion waged by the richest country in But should come as no surprise, the world against one of the poorest.

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The CounterPunching Minister (Who Couldn’t be ‘Preyed’ Away) By Rev . William Alberts Introduction by Jeffrey St . Clair

“William Alberts’ astute understanding of how ‘American exceptionalism’ has served as a mas- sive trick, a cloak of sanctity, for preserving de- nial in the face of systematic injustices at home, and grotesque imperialism abroad, clearly spells out for the reader the criminality of our capitalist system.” -- S. Brian Willson, author Blood on the Tracks.

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