Eureka Moment

She doesn’t get enough mayonnaise
and mustard packets, attacks
Wendy’s employee with taser.

You might think the U.S. and other countries involved in the “Iran controversy” would be happy to learn that Brazil and Turkey have worked out an agreement with Iran to take much of their uranium and make sure it will be used for peaceful purposes, but apparently not. The U.S. and others are still apparently determined to impose severe sanctions on Iran if they do not stop processing uranium. I may be terribly uninformed but it is my understanding that Iran has every right to process uranium as long as it is not for nuclear weapons. Iran has said repeatedly its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes and they do not even want a nuclear bomb. There is no evidence Iran is producing a nuclear weapon, and whatever evidence there is seems to indicate they are telling the truth. So here we are, insisting they stop doing something they have a legal right to do, and insisting they are doing something there is no evidence for, and pressuring other countries to go along with sanctions to prevent them from doing what they either are not doing or have a legal right to do. As this makes no sense at all, there must be more to it than meets the eye. Somewhere I read recently that Israel and the U.S. are not really concerned with Iran’s nuclear program but, rather, with regime change. I guess they want regime change because the current Iranian regime is not favorably disposed towards Israel and they dream of overthrowing them as they previously did when we imposed the Shah on them. Regime change, however possible, makes more sense than their pitiful nuclear program that will never, never, ever, be enough to challenge the Israeli and U.S. nuclear programs, even if they were eventually to produce a bomb. Ultimately, I have no doubt this is fundamentally all about the U.S. determination to control the Middle East and the oil supply, and also keep the price of oil in dollars rather than euros (this would seem not to be much of a problem at the moment given the condition of the euro).

There seems to be some talk these days of actually reducing the “defense” budget. I put that in quotation marks because I don’t believe it is truly primarily for defense. Somewhere I saw a list of things like how many battleships, submarines, nuclear weapons, and so on we possess. I can’t remember precisely the numbers but in every case it is not that we have more of these things than anyone else, it’s that we have in every category far, far, far more. Indeed, we have so many more it is utterly ridiculous, even far-fetched, I should even say perhaps unbelievable. If we were to cut the numbers in half we would still possess far, far more. This means all this hardware cannot be merely for defense, it has to be related to the military/industrial/political complex that now seems to be so untouchable I doubt it will be possible to rein it in significantly. The presence of this military budget also, I believe, explains why we will not cease threatening Iran or be exiting Afghanistan (and probably Iraq) any time soon (until we can perhaps find some new imaginary enemies like, perhaps, visitors from outer space). As long as we continue to pour obscene amounts of money into “defense” we will inevitably spend ourselves into oblivion. But I guess a few will have a few more years of fantastically luxurious lives while the lives of the masses continue to decline from unemployment, poverty, and hopelessness.

Wait, I just had a genuine “Eureka moment!” We can solve the unemployment problem easily by putting everyone to work building pyramids, castles, massive tombs and monuments honoring all our successful entrepreneurs, billionaires and multi-millionaires, CEO’s, and others in the mold of Trump, Buffet, Turner, and maybe even the highly successful radio and television stars like Limbaugh and Beck. And don’t forget the outstanding athletes who have attained multi-millionaire, even billionaire status like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. What an idea! I’m sure they would be pleased to have grand monuments built for them (they could be even subsidized by the government to spare them from having to pay it all themselves). They could vie for the most spectacular and expensive tombs and monuments and compete for the rarest and most expensive materials and objects of art. Obviously the more money they have the more elaborate their monuments would be. They could make the Pyramids, Versailles, the Taj Mahal, Parthenon, Eiffel Tower, Cristo-Rei, and even the Great Wall of China look tawdry. With modern technology and know-how, monuments for wealthy capitalists could be immeasurably greater, more spectacular, and more durable than anything previously seen on earth (including Dubai). Granted these massive monuments to the Great Capitalists wouldn’t do much for individual citizens, for health care, education, global warming and such, wouldn’t do much for society in general, and the jobs probably wouldn’t pay much, but hey, it would provide a lot of jobs, and all the workers would have to be fed and housed (at least minimally). Maybe after they finished the job they, too, could be honored by being interred with the honoree who, no doubt, would feel it was money well spent (any other use of it would clearly be considered overly socialistic). I better work on this, it sounds too good to be true.

LKBIQ:
People are the common denominator of progress. So... no improvement is possible with unimproved people, and advance is certain when people are liberated and educated. It would be wrong to dismiss the importance of roads, railroads, power plants, mills, and the other familiar furniture of economic development.... But we are coming to realize... that there is a certain sterility in economic monuments that stand alone in a sea of illiteracy. Conquest of illiteracy comes first.
John Kenneth Galbraith

TILT:
The Pig-footed Bandicoot is extinct.