Yes he does.
Some samples follow. Go read it all.
Unexceptionalism: A Primer
By E. L. DOCTOROW
TO achieve unexceptionalism, the political ideal that would render the United States indistinguishable from the impoverished, traditionally undemocratic, brutal or catatonic countries of the world, do the following:
PHASE ONE
If you’re a justice of the Supreme Court, ignore the first sacrament of a democracy and suspend the counting of ballots in a presidential election. Appoint the candidate of your choice as president.
If you’re the newly anointed president, react to a terrorist attack by invading a nonterrorist country. Despite the loss or disablement of untold numbers of lives, manage your war so that its results will be indeterminate.
Using the state of war as justification, order secret surveillance of American citizens, data mine their phone calls and e-mail, make business, medical and public library records available to government agencies, perform illegal warrantless searches of homes and offices.
Take to torturing terrorism suspects, here or abroad, in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment. Unilaterally abrogate the Convention Against Torture as well as the Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war. Commit to indeterminate detention without trial those you decide are enemies. For good measure, trust that legislative supporters will eventually apply this policy as well to American citizens.
Suspend progressive taxation so that the wealthiest pay less proportionately than the middle class. See to it that the wealth of the country accumulates to a small fraction of the population so that the gap between rich and poor widens exponentially.
By cutting taxes and raising wartime expenditures, deplete the national treasury so that Congress and state and municipal legislatures cut back on domestic services, ensuring that there will be less money for the education of the young, for government health programs, for the care of veterans, for the maintenance of roads and bridges, for free public libraries, and so forth.
Deregulate the banking industry so as to create a severe recession in which enormous numbers of people lose their homes and jobs.
Before you leave office add to the Supreme Court justices like the ones who awarded you the presidency.
—snip—
PHASE FOUR
If you’re a justice of the Supreme Court, decide that the police of any and all cities and towns and villages have the absolute authority to strip-search any person whom they, for whatever reason, put under arrest.
With this ruling, the reduction of America to unexceptionalism is complete.
“With this ruling, the reduction of America to unexceptionalism is complete.”
Yup.
That it is.
We are now the world’s largest banana republic.
Congrats, rats.
You done good.
Real good!!!
AG
Betcha some of y’all don’t like the inclusion of a picture of Obama in this piece.
Oh.
Oh.
AG
P.S. Are they holding hands? Damn near.
There is a wonderful, far-reaching interview with Noam Chomsky up on Counterpunch today. It is well worth reading in its entirety.
However, his take on the media…not just “the media” but on a precise technique that it uses to control dissent…was an eye-opener for me. Like a great deal of what Prof. Chomsky says, I kinda knew it but didn’t have a firm grasp on its true shape and texture;
Here it is:
The use of this technique…concision…is at fault throughout the society now. It is at fault in the mass music, in the mass journalism, and in to a great degree in the mass entertainment. now. It is an advertising technique.
Not “Coca-Cola…a great tasting drink that has a secret recipe, a drink that is preferred by more people than any other drink in the world,” not “Ford, a wonderfully designed car from the company that pioneered the concept of assembly line manufacture,” but rather “Coke-We Are The World” and “Ford-Quality is Job One,” just to reference a couple of classics.
Or…
Same same.
As Chomsky also says in this interview:
Go read it.,
An amazing man.
A national treasure.
AG
Need I mention Twitter? 140 characters per tweet?
Naaaaahhhh…
This is an attempt at the elimination of “character.”
I got yer “140 characters or less”…right here, slimeballs.
Right here.
An’ here, too.
Bet on it.
Concise enough?
If a picture is worth 1000 words, how much more valuable is a picture than a tweet?
Hmmmm…????
How do I know?
A little birdie tol’ me.
Not that cutesie little tweety boid, neither.
The characters always come home to roost
Bet on that as well.
AG