or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
December 05, 2011
Kenneth Pollack Still 100% Insane
I don't think I'll ever get over Kenneth Pollack. He's such a perfect embodiment of how the people who run the U.S. are simultaneously incredibly boring and incredibly dangerous. For previous posts about him, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here and probably other places I've forgotten about.
Anyway, via Glenn Greenwald, I see Pollack is still so disconnected from reality he might as well be a diagnosed schizophrenic. Here are some of his latest insights into foreign policy (from an article about Iran):
Saddam Hussein’s Iraq [was] recklessly aggressive to the point of inadvertent suicide.
Some people might want to focus on the "recklessly aggressive" part here, which I admit is pretty funny. Iraq was so recklessly aggressive that it destroyed all of its most powerful weapons, which is what all the best aggressors do. But the crowning glory of the sentence is the "inadvertent suicide." It's like Al Capone saying the Bugs Moran Gang "accidentally killed themselves."
BONUS: Here's Saddam Hussein talking in December, 1990 before the Gulf War about how, if the Iraqi army were pushed out of Kuwait, it would constitute "aggression":
SADDAM: ...if aggression were to take place, we will assume that Israel has taken part in it. Therefore, without asking any questions, we will strike Israel.
Saddam and Kenneth Pollack are such insightful geopolitical strategists, I just don't understand why their schemes haven't turned out better.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at December 5, 2011 11:11 PMStudy of the ancient world, and consideration of the ease with which the modern world slips back into old habits, gives credence to the Anarchist theory that States are just better-organized mafias.
Posted by: Cloud at December 6, 2011 03:16 AMAre they seriously doing this all over again? Frak me.
Why even bother, since they've been hitting Somalia, Yemen, Libya, with impunity. Maybe because Iran has a lot more people and could actually hit back somewhat, therefore public opinion is more of a concern.
Posted by: Cloud at December 6, 2011 03:34 AMI hope not, but I suppose Obama is a typical enough sovereign that he'd give the go-ahead to a full scale invasion, thinking of it in terms of economic stimulus and re-election fuel.
Posted by: Cloud at December 6, 2011 03:47 AMCloud
States are what they always were. I bet we agree about that.
Read a little Pepe Escobar for bullshit-free evaluation of current goings on:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ML02Ak01.html
The vast energy riches of the Caspian and Central Asia are still sitting there, and energy remains the great epoch's unsolved problem on which everything hinges, so even though the USSR is gone and the Chinese have turned Mao into some sort of Andrew Carneggie, the materialist view of history should be that the corporate behemoths that own the means of production in the US, Nato, and Japan still want/need to sink their financial teeth into that energy treasure. Otherwise, the basic dynamic of capitalism, in particular the declining rate of profit, will eventually bring down the whole house of cards and everyone will have to resort to horrific and bloody civil war or sharing. (Heaven forbid it comes to that!)
Obama can't stop these processes any more than he can stop time, and neither can we or anybody else. Not alone anyway. And yet there are decisive moments--we just don't know what they are, or who is going to have to carry the Ring of Power to Mordor. (Sorry.)
Of course, to express my Turingian view on the favorite subject of you and many ATR readers, we also can't be sure whether Obama is a turd or a Baby Ruth that someone threw in the pool to be funny.
Posted by: N E at December 6, 2011 06:26 AMwe also can't be sure whether Obama is a turd or a Baby Ruth that someone threw in the pool to be funny.
I suspect that those who've been forced into a taste test are pretty darn sure.
Posted by: Happy Jack at December 6, 2011 07:00 PMhappy jack
you scored from three
Posted by: N E at December 6, 2011 10:25 PMThe last of the previous examples on Pollack stupidity is linked twice.
