SC294-12

https://informationclearinghouse.blog/2024/01/28/the-great-non-mystery-of-populism/15/

The Great Non-Mystery of Populism

The most farcical spectacle in recent memory is that of the Democratic Party, with its collective skivvies in a twist, doing wild conceptual gyrations and contortions in their desperate effort to remove, by any means possible, Donald Trump from the ballot.  There is a kind of embarrassing pathos in observing the media, clutching their pearls, and rooting for DeSantis, and Haley, the Hindu Hope, or—Jesus!—anybody, who might, just possibly, take the Golden Golem of Gulosity down.  And they can’t get there.

Democrat panjandrums and pundits all tell you, warn you, and threaten you, that if you let this odious monster win he will “destroy our democracy”, which threat is less than compelling when it’s so obvious that they couldn’t give a big rat’s ass about “our democracy”, and haven’t, for generations.

They will vilify and denounce, in the darkest terms, the rank Populism that has been his support and sustenance over four years of involuntary retirement.  Populism as a phenomenon has always been, in the view official America, just a short step up from Communism, which some dimmer spear carriers in our Congressional asylum still think exists somewhere, a menace. 

This Populism they indict as behind Trump, has the very same mystical vibe of horror for them in their fogged minds as the Red Menace had for their blockhead forefathers, and now they see it rising again from out of its mausoleum.  They can’t understand it.  They can’t comprehend how a belief so far from the gospel of Ayn Rand and F.A. Hayek can continue to exist.  It is a profound, vexing, and impenetrable mystery to them.

But only to them.  All governments of the world are now, and always have been, the elaborate constructs of the privileged, ownership class.  This is historically true under every preceding system scholarship has known as it is of Capitalism, so that it can’t be put off on our own particular pathology of the last several hundred years.  It was Capitalism’s many uglinesses and evils, though, that gave rise to the phenomenon of Populism.

Because governments are organized by elites to keep hoi polloi enslaved and quiescent, the best and only means to do so, up to and including much of the modern era, was force.  That always worked until it didn’t, and then the game repeatedly came down in a great welter of blood and death.  

Preferring to avoid such untoward outcomes and having learned a little about the human animal and its quirks and susceptibilities, Capitalist elites hit upon a better way.  What you do is this: you create a system you call democracy, in which you inculcate the widespread illusion that the miniscule elites who own everything have great concern for their less fortunate brothers. 

They don’t, of course.  If they could keep the bastards in line more efficiently in some other way, say, by lobotomizing them all, or injecting them with obedience fluid, or implanting a chip in their brains—this may still be tried, btw—they would gladly do it,  but there was no such way and their need for control was great.  

So they created a party system of rule in which one faction is said to represent the elite, and another the people.  illusion is the key, because in reality both parties represent only the elite, but this—as the Bishop’s wife said of our descent from apes—must never be generally known.  This ingenious invention has had resounding success around the world and has forestalled the guillotining of vast numbers of the Ruling Class for generations.

Its success prevailed unabated despite continual—one might say habitual—disappointment of the vast majority of subject people, struggling on, ever backing phonies, promised great things that never materialized, urged to vote again for some sleazy ass who baldfacedly assured them that, okay, mistakes were made, but this time was different, he’d get them another few bucks, make them pay only a little more of the taxes that the rich never pay at all, and rejigger their chiseling, buggering “health care” hustle.

But, all good things must have an end, and so, once again, as it happened once or twice before, a great percentage of the people began to have such a violent distaste for the crow and steaming waste they were fed, that they began to be angry.  Fooled, yes; shamed, conned, dumped on; hoodled without being kissed.

So, you see, dear bankers, tycoons and political geniuses, this is what happens when an entire country absorbs the truth that neither dirty partisan cathouse gives a goddam whether they live or die as long as they can oppress and abuse them.  When at last the monster con of the two party system is shown plainly for the bottomless crock of shit it is, you get Populism, dummies!

Populism erupts when a whole people rebels against a system that not only does not serve them but is actively, vigorously betraying them, running them like hogs and sheep, stripping and extracting from them everything they have and are entitled to, treating them as stupid, humble serfs, a passive, insentient profit source to be cheated, plundered and wanked without limit.

So your mystery—your Great and Insoluble Conundrum—need no longer baffle and oppress you, O, Sages, O, Guardians of The Empire.  Pace, Lincoln: you can screw some of the people all of time, all of the people some of the time, but you can’t screw all of the people all of the time.  That stink you smell emanates from the purulent corpse of your dead system.  Be very afraid!

And your fear and dread is not misplaced.  When the mass of ignorant, baffled people catch fire and rebel, the result is likely to be even worse than you imagine.  Populism is not expressed in refinement of values or elegance of taste.  It’s about anger, rage,  fury.  And it’s not about electing elevated human specimens or noble visionaries.  It’s about electing anybody but you. 

....

https://informationclearinghouse.blog/2024/01/27/south-africa-scored-an-astonishing-win-against-zionism/11/

South Africa scored an astonishing win against Zionism

ICJ ruling indicts US, UK, Germany

Let’s cut to the chase:

By 15-2, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has just ruled in favor of BRICS member South Africa, and ordered Israel to take all necessary measures to prevent a genocide in Gaza.

When it comes to the most scrutinized genocide ever, followed 24/7 by every smartphone on the planet, it’s fair to argue that South Africa has just scored an astonishing win against Zionism.

And yet, as a Global Cynic Armada argues, in practical terms there has been no call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Of course it may also be argued that calling for a ceasefire only applies to a war – as in the case of the proxy war in Ukraine. Gaza is a case of genocide of an indigenous population perpetrated by an occupying power. That calls for an immediate halt to all genocidal acts. Essentially this is what the ICJ has ordered.

The South African Foreign Ministry has noted that “if one reads the sentence, it’s implicit” that a ceasefire must be imposed.

The inestimable former British ambassador Craig Murray has noted that “after an extremely damning exposition of the facts by South Africa”, powerfully “and meticulously well stated”, conclusions were inevitable.

These are the highlights:

“The military operation conducted by Israel in Gaza has resulted in untold death and injuries, destroyed substantial infrastructure and housing units, caused mass malnutrition, collapsed the healthcare system, and displaced the majority of its inhabitants. This war has affected the entire population of Gaza and will have far lasting consequences. The court has taken note of the language of dehumanization by senior Israeli government officials.”

Hence the ICJ “accepts the South African demand for urgent provisional measures to be taken for the protection of Palestinians in Gaza against Israel and recommends” (italics mine) the following:

By 15-2: “The state of Israel shall take all measures to prevent the commission of genocide to Gaza.”

By 15-2: “The state of Israel shall ensure that the military not commit any acts of genocide.”

By 16-1: “Israel shall take all measures to punish all public solicitations to genocide.”

By 16-1: “Israel shall take immediate and effective measures to address adverse conditions to life in the Gaza Strip”.

By 15-2: “Israel shall take effective measures to preserve evidence of actions impacting the Genocide Convention.”

By 15-2: “Israel shall submit to the court a report of all measures taken to follow the orders of this court within one month.”

The Houthis and the Genocide Convention

The ICJ decision is binding (italics mine). Yet even as the ICJ decided that Israel must “take all measures to prevent death and injury”, and provide for all Palestinian humanitarian needs (including access to food, medicine, infrastructure), what happens if Tel Aviv simply ignores the decision?

Even considering that Israel must file a report on the remedial actions within one month of the ruling, all bets are off on whether biblical psychopathy practitioners will comply.

The answer came fast. Israel’s National Security Minister Ben Gvir, a cartoonish candidate for the role of out of control psycho in a cheap horror flick, stated that “the decision of the antisemitic court in The Hague proves what was already known: This court does not seek justice, but rather the persecution of Jewish people. They were silent during the Holocaust and today they continue the hypocrisy and take it another step further.”

Psychos don’t do history. The ICJ in its current iteration was founded in 1945.

What the ICJ ruling certainly did was de facto legitimize the moral strength of the Houthis supporting “our people” in Gaza.

And this while the US and the UK are spinning across the Global South that they must strike against the Houthis, whose policy of defending Palestine translates as upholding the Genocide Convention. The US and the UK cynically evoke the necessity to “protect international law.”

The overwhelming majority of the Global South instead interprets it as a peacekeeping force upholding the Genocide Convention – the Houthis – attacked by the rogue purveyors of the “rules-based international order”.

In parallel, a crucial point has been underlined by crack international lawyer Juan Branco. France currently presides the UN Security Council. According to Article 94.2 of the UN Charter: by South Africa’s request, the UN must (italics mine) force Israel to apply the ICJ ruling.

No one should count on trashy Macronist France to do the right thing.

The killing won’t stop 

From the Global South’s point of view, it’s no less than appalling that an African, Ugandan judge Julia Sebutinde, opposed all the provisional measures requested by South Africa against Israel.

As the ICJ ruled that “Israel’s actions in Gaza may (italics mine) constitute genocide with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a specific ethnic group – the Palestinians”, it logically follows that US complicity with Israel amounts to US complicity in the genocide of Palestinians.

The ICJ ruling in fact indicts US, UK, Germany and other collective West members who all stated that the South African case is “without legal merit” and should be thrown out.

So it’s no wonder that a team of 47 South African lawyers is already preparing a lawsuit against the US and UK for complicity.

Whatever happens next, the hyper-committed Global Cynic Armada will not relent. The ICJ ordering Israel to “take all measures to prevent death and injury” certainly can be interpreted as calling for a ceasefire, without mentioning the magic word.

But what the Global Cynic Armada really sees is four interlinked toxic items: No ceasefire; kill the Palestinians, but softly; feed them before you kill them; and you still have one full month to engage in widespread killing.

As much as the ICJ may be dismissed as a collective West farce, the fact is the ruling explicitly calls for Israel to stop the killing. One may argue that the ICJ did the absolute maximum of what it can possibly do under its jurisdiction and procedures.

Yet considering that the ICJ has less than zero ways to enforce its ruling – it depends on the hyper-corrupt UN – the Global Cynic Armada may have got the grim picture right: the killing won’t stop.