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JOTTINGS
(Formerly "The Gadfly's Blog")
2016
2017,
2016,
2015,
2014,
2013,
2012,
2011,
2010, 2009,
2008,
2007,
2006,
2005,
2004
Before
2004
I offer below,
random musings, reflections, correspondence, scraps of
work-in-progress, and other such miscellany, perchance worth sharing
but not ready for the prime time of formal publication.
Much of this
material has been adapted from personal e-mail correspondence. While
I am perfectly free to use, revise and expand on my side of these
exchanges, use of the "incoming" correspondence is problematic. I
have neither the right nor the inclination to include the words of
my correspondents if they can be identified either by name or
description.
If I am confident that the correspondents can not be identified and
if their part of the exchange is essential to the exchange, then I
might quote them directly. Otherwise, their ideas will be briefly
paraphrased, only to supply context to my part of these
conversations. In no case will I identify the correspondents by
name.
On the other hand, signed letters to The Crisis Papers and The
Online Gadfly are fair game as are other comments published in the
internet. They were submitted with the clear understanding that
they, and their signatories, might be made public.
Incoming correspondence will be identified by italics. My
contributions will be in plain text.
March 20
Response to Patrick Smith's:
It is urgent that she’s stopped: Hillary Clinton’s
nightmare neoliberalism and American exceptionalism makes the world a
dangerous place
I fullly agree with Smith's diagnosis. The prescription
however remains unsettled.
Face it: we are confronted with two evils. And Trump, or Cruz, or Kasich --
all hell-bent on a new Cold War and US hegemony -- represent the greater
evil.
Bernie Sanders could deliver us from these evils, but let's get real -- he's
a very long shot at best.
So if we are faced with Clinton vs. Trump, what to do?
My choice is a nose-plug vote for Clinton, following which the struggle
begins.
First via a popular movement, in the streets if necessary. Let's not forget
that public protests ended the Viet Nam War.
Second, we enlist the international "coalition of the fed-up." As few
Americans realize, we are not universally admired abroad. Quite the
contrary, a recent International Gallup Poll found that most of the
industrialized world regards the US as the greatest threat to world peace.
There are indications that, post-Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, etc., our
erstwhile "allies" are getting restless under our "hegemony," and might soon
be ready to bolt.
Witness the Minsk accords, worked out by Germany, France, Ukraine and
Russia, with the US conspicuously uninvited. All seem well aware that the
origin of Ukraine crisis was primarily in Washington, not Moscow.
So imagine President Hillary faced with a European consensus (sans England):
"You want a cold war with Russia? If so, count us out. We're with Russia on
this." Then expect some radical re-thinking.
Seventy-Five years ago, the United States (and the Soviet Union, don't
forget!), rescued Europe. Perhaps the time will soon arrive for Europe to
return the favor.
Putin put it well: "We want to be partners with the Americans; the Americans
expect us to be their vassals." The Russians, a proud and determined people,
will not accept this.
Has Hillary Clinton every heard of "Stalingrad"?
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