News announced that Clinton & Drumpf took Pennsylvania by a landslide–which given the burlesque of primary elections may not be by much.

For all the drama of this interminable fiasco, what’s most apparent is the massive crisis of leadership facing the US ruling elite & the exposure of the electoral system as completely undemocratic & rigged. The office of president is pivotal to oligarchic rule & it now looks like a craps game or worse, a Mickey Mouse operation.

The fault line that matters however is the crisis of leadership among working people. It’s the era of Bernie Sanders’ kind of socialism which in terms of social transformation ends with a thud, not even a whimper.

In November 2014, Bill Maher, the one-time comedian turned professional hater, called Islam “a dangerous religion that will fucking kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book.” When people went after Maher, Michael Moore rushed to his defense, saying: “Those comedians like Bill Maher who are willing to take the risk of being the court jester–saying the things that the rest of us are often thinking (or wish we were thinking) but are afraid to say–should be supported, not silenced.” Moore wasn’t afraid to express some prejudice of his own when he added “Sure, I can make a daily list of all the horrible things so-called Christians still do in this country. Rarely, though, do their actions involve decapitation.”

At the time I wrote this post, which someone just brought to my attention. I love humor–the silly stuff (even knock-knock jokes) & political satire & this is a defense of humor that doesn’t mask social hatred.
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What’s not to love about Michael Moore’s defense of Bill Maher!? It’s a shabby little testament to stupidity & corruption & to the crisis of comedy in the service of oligarchy. They aren’t the first comedians to sing for their supper & they won’t be the last. No one says comedians need be social critics; you can be like Jerry Seinfeld & crack jokes about nothing. At least he’s funny. Or you can be like Andrew Dice Clay & Eddie Murphy & try to pass off social hatred as humor. Or you can be like Bill Cosby & Chris Rock & pander to racism so you get gigs in the bigger venues. Or you can just be tamed like Whoopie & Rosie O’Donnell & take up hosting banal talk shows. But if you’re going to pretend you’re a social critic like Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, or George Carlin, you can’t try to pawn off misanthropy, misogyny, & Islamophobia in its stead.

Moore flattered Maher for “speaking truth to power.” (When you lack thinking skills or you’re talking ragtime, you have to resort to cliches.) Both men operate as social critics within parameters–& very circumscribed ones indeed. So Moore can spout off about gun control & Maher can snarl on about religion. They can even express opposition to the war in Afghanistan & other government policies that don’t distinguish either one from millions of people around the world. Taking swipes at politicians is not speaking truth to power. Maher is an echo chamber for reactionary political forces & by no means breaks new ground in politics or wit. Or is someone going to argue his Islamophobia is different from that of Pamela Geller? Maher is a misanthrope who holds the human race in contempt & hates some more than others. His rancid hatred of Muslims is only matched by his hatred for women. When Moore defends this crap he only exposes his own political & moral bankruptcy.

Moore was really scraping dregs when he said, “Comedy is & should be a dangerous business. But in order to encourage them to take those chances, we have to give them some leeway, give them a break when, in our mind, they’ve crossed that line.” Oh really!? What kind of crap is that!? Unless you have a stunted sense of humor, Maher hasn’t been funny for a very long time, at least not since hate took over his psyche & buried what little wit he had in stinking manure. What kind of leeway are we being asked to give social hatred & stupidity? Anything goes if you couch it in a quip & have the canned laughter ready?

When does the comedy start? Laughter is one of the loveliest things about human beings & it’s universal. But laughter at the expense of those who are (to twisted minds) fat or homely or disabled or female or gay or politically demonized or anything else is not humor. It is anti-social hatred which does not recognize the beauty of human beings but instead preys on vulnerabilities & supposed flaws.

Some may say it’s hypocritical to skewer those in power (like politicians & the moochocracy) in attempts at political satire. Those many need to understand the function of power relations in humor. Maher & Moore both do. Which is why their humor is a sustained paean to the status quo & which is why neither is very funny anymore. Kissing ass & social hatred just ain’t that amusing.

(Photo is Moore)

Yesterday, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes moderated a town hall meeting with Bernie Sanders in Philadelphia prior to the Pennsylvania primary election today. The interview aired on MSNBC & a full transcript is available online. It’s a cornucopia of shame.

In 2012, the NY Times exposed that Obama holds a meeting every week where they decide which alleged terrorists will be added to his “kill list.” Those on the list are targeted for assassination, usually with drone bombers. Hayes asked Sanders if he would keep the kill list if he became president.

Just after General el-Sisi took over as president of the Egyptian military junta in June 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry expressed US support for his regime & indicated that the executive hold on some US military aid (in place since October 2013) would end. The partial freeze withheld Apache attack helicopters, missiles, tank parts, & fighter jets plus $260 million for the general Egyptian budget. The freeze was grandstanding to placate critics of the violent military crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.

Several days after announcing 200 special operations forces & Apache attack helicopters to Iraq, Obama has announced 250 special forces to Syria “to stem the influence & spread of ISIS.” He did not acknowledge how many highly secretive CIA special forces or US mercenaries will also be deployed.

There are two kinds of special forces in the CIA & several different kinds in the US military, including Green Berets, Delta Force, Navy Seals, Army Rangers, & others, who all have a different command structure than the regular military. This allows them to engage in all sorts of illegal activities with no accountability. They are not deployed for humanitarian or peacekeeping purposes but more as paramilitary death squads & for teaching the art of torture.

Media has been almost dead silent on African refugees for the past year. Not just because Syrian refugees became central in the news but because Frontex, the EU border patrol, launched a naval operation to stop refugees from crossing on the north Africa to Europe routes. There were warships from several nations cruising the sea to thwart them. There weren’t more than a few photos or reports in the entire year when previously there were hundreds, probably because they wanted their methods of thwarting to be secret. The silence was outright suspicious since we knew there were tens of thousands of refugees in countries like Libya & Morocco waiting to cross the Mediterranean on the Italy & Spain routes.

This Bernie or Bust campaign has me perplexed since Sanders recently affirmed he will endorse Clinton if she wins the nomination. Which of course she will in a rigged system. It’s good some of his people say they won’t follow our man off a political cliff but can they take the heat when people start blaming them for President Drumpf? Once again, no real fear since it’s a rigged system top to bottom & Clinton will almost certainly be elected.

Most Bernie or Bust people ought to stop kidding themselves. When the choice comes down to Clinton vs. Drumpf, the grandstanding will dissipate & most will vote for Clinton without batting an eyelash. That’s a given. That’s the political character of lesser evil politics: running in circles chasing a chimera; getting nowhere.

Once again I’ve been accused of intolerance since I have a somewhat hard-assed approach to rightwing blither-hounds. I ice them without much ado because they’re usually rude as hell & I don’t run a debating society. This is a solidarity wall & that’s a very different thing.

I have a mantra: one of the arts of politics is knowing when to save your breath. We’ve all seen those flatulent Facebook debates that go on interminably, with extreme invective & to no point since you can’t talk people out of their derangements or their commitments.

Candlelight vigil for Kashmir in Colorado, April 22nd, 2016

When antiwar rallies are small, we always say they were “small but spirited”–which is always true because we know that with persistence & conviction on our part, people in large numbers can be persuaded to take a stand against war & militarism. That’s when spirited changes to political power.

Long live Kashmiri Intifada! Build international solidarity.