Obama: “Hu, in America, we have freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, human rights, the rule of law, a democracy where government is by the people and for the people, a health care system, a prosperous economy and we are the greatest nation in the history of the world…”

Hu (interrupting): “I believe you, Mr Obama, although rumours have reached me that you also have Guantanamo, torture, rendition, assassination squads, surveillance of your citizens, high unemployment, starving people, bulging jails, tent cities, a debt crisis caused by your many imperial wars, a corrupt financial and judicial system, and your Government is controlled by corporations and Jewish lobby groups and Christian fundamentalists.”

Obama (miffed): “Well, no country is perfect, Hu.”

Hu: “Countries with massive armies often think they are, Mr Obama. Chinese civilization has been around for 3,000 years. We must be doing something right! Will America still be here in 3,000 years?”

Obama opens his big American mouth to speak, then, abruptly he closes it and sits down.

“Gee, I missed! Bloody U.S. weapons!”

Friends, according to Al Jazeera this morning, Taiwan has fired 19  missiles during a military exercise but many of them (5) didn’t hit their targets.

Al Jazeera said that Ma Ying-jeou, the president, visited the base in the country’s south on Tuesday, to demonstrate his commitment to the maintenance of an effective Taiwanese deterrent, but the poor performance disappointed him.

Of course, the 19 missiles were ‘Made in the USA’ and were part of a major sale (6.5 billion dollars worth) conducted during last year which, if I recall correctly, I wrote a post about. The missiles included one RIM-7M Sparrow, which cascaded into the South China Sea less than 30 seconds after launch. Other missiles tested included the Sky Bow II, which have a range of 200km, MIM-23 Hawks and FIM-92 Stingers.

Given the extreme reaction of the Americans to the Cuban Missile Crisis you may wonder why America is involved with an island of 20 million Chinese people which is only 120 kms off the coast of China but wherever there is the potential for conflict and arms sales, America is there with bells on.

What is America’s military involvement in Taiwan?

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This nuclear plant has been attacked by the Stuxnet worm!

Friends, according to Reuters today, cyber warfare has begun.

The article said the tests of the destructive Stuxnet worm had been done over the last two years at the heavily guarded Dimona complex in the Negev desert. It apparently was a joint effort between Israel and the U.S. who  literally are as thick as thieves.

The worm has been used to throw a spanner in the Iran nuclear development program. According to The Times, “The worm was the most sophisticated cyber-weapon ever deployed and appeared to have been the biggest factor in setting back Iran’s nuclear march. Its sources said it caused the centrifuges to spin wildly out of control and that a fifth of them had been wiped out.”

Now, I don’t know about you but I would say that if the worm had been deliberately introduced by the U.S. and Israel to Iran, that that would constitute an attack on Iran, an attack which caused damage to the sovereign state. And surely if damage had been done, then Iran would be entitled to retaliate or at least demand compensation.

But there is a wider issue here. If the Stuxnet worm can wreck Iran’s nuclear program, what could a worm do to the world’s internet, the only real source of information and free discussion left to people like you and me?

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“I’ll be a Saint one day, diddly dum, diddly dee…”

Friends, I read today that Ratzinger, the current Pope, is beatifying his predecessor John Paul the Second in May of this year (in case you didn’t know, beatifying mean making him a Saint).

Australia got its first Saint last year, Mary Mckillop so we Down Under haven’t been forgotten entirely in the Saint stakes. She certainly hasn’t blessed us, not with the floods and all.

The photograph shows Ratzinger holding a painting of John Paul and, as you can see, he’s smiling. Doubtless he’s thinking that if he beatifies John Paul, the next Pope will eventually make him a Saint too. For some reason, this reminds me of the saying: Never give a sucker an even break!

What do you have to do to be made a Saint? Do you have to walk on water or raise someone from the dead? No, nothing difficult like that. What you have to do is be associated with a miracle as in, some person suffering from some terrible affliction prayed to you and, low and behold, the person was ‘cured’.

According to Reuters, Vatican officials claimed that the miracle attributed to the intercession of John Paul with God concerned Sister Marie Simon-Pierre Normand, a 49-year-old French nun diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. She said her illness inexplicably disappeared two months after his death when she and her fellow nuns prayed to him. Church-appointed doctors concluded that there was no medical explanation for the healing of the nun, although last year there were some doubts about the validity of the miracle.

Some doubts? There are a million doubts but not in the minds of the millions who believe implicitly in the pronouncements of the Catholic Church and all their theo-babble and illogical superstition. Of course, it’s not only the Catholic Church that is in on the con. It’s every religion!

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This brilliant painting symbolizes my current feeling about the world

I have to live in. Sometimes it completely

disgusts me!

The most feared fighting force in the world!

Our boys landing on a beach near San Francisco!

Friends, I can’t stand it anymore. I have to do something. How can I just sit here and watch the U.S. implode, watch it sink into insignificance, into obscurity?

My Government tells me that the U.S. is Australia’s closet ally. If this is true, then let Australia do something about the terrible pickle that the U.S. is in (or more particularly, the American people).

As I see it, this obviously would include invasion and occupation, something that the U.S. does itself. Unfortunately it doesn’t do it very well as any evaluation of the current state of Iraq and Afghanistan would attest but no matter.

You may be asking: what is wrong with the U.S. (only if you are an American)? Well, I won’t canvass all the problems because that would make this post novel-length, but to a long-time observer like me it seems there is a huge disconnect between the American people and their Government.

Putting it bluntly, the American Government is run by a corrupt cabal of lobby groups, politicians, Zionists, oligarchs, corporations, the Pentagon and the Christian Church. Friends, this is not how a democracy is supposed to be, no sirree. Government by the people for the people is the aim of democracy. Or was!

So what needs to happen? Well, the American people don’t know what to do about their Government and those who control it. They are angry and frustrated and hot and bothered. They run up and down the street saying, “Woe is me/us,” and, “The sky is falling.”

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Friends, Queensland and northern NSW are in the grip of massive floods. They cover an area equal in size to France and Germany!

Ten people have been killed so far and 90 people are missing, and that figure is expected to rise dramatically.

Thousands and thousands of homes have been inundated and many of those will have to be demolished. Others are filled with thick mud and sewage.  Cars float by like strange boats. People sit on their iron roofs awaiting rescue.

Highways, railway lines and bridges have been swept away or badly damaged. Billions and billions of dollars of damage have been done but no one can estimate how much until the flood waters recede.

And the rain just keeps coming! What have we done to deserve this?

These photographs give little idea of the destruction.

The bottom one conveys some of the heartbreak.

But houses can be replaced!

Lost family can’t.

Is this a metaphor for the U.S.?

After reading through the articles on ICH this morning I gained the clear impression that the U.S. is rapidly declining. In fact I would almost say collapsing in slow motion.

From reading the articles I felt that the American Government, the wealthy oligarchs, the corporations, the Pentagon Princes, the Banksters, the Media Moguls, etc, are all desperately trying to prop up the system that has brought them so much money and power. But the system is broke.

For thirty years I have been expecting the capitalist system to collapse. How can any economic system survive if it requires more and more people to spend more and more on an infinitely expanding number of goods and services. Eventually they run out of money and, fearing unemployment, stop spending.

How can any economic system survive the export of its jobs overseas to take advantage of cheap labor and materials simply to make mega-profits. What happens to its civilian population: they lose their jobs and join the dole queues.

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Gun massacres in America are a regular occurrence.

Friends, as you would know there’s been another gun massacre, this time in Tucson, Arizona. A Congresswoman was shot in the head and is in a critical condition. Six others are dead while others are injured and in hospital.

The shooter, who has been in trouble with the law and, from what I can gather, has a history of emotional problems, bought the Glock semi-automatic pistol a few weeks ago at a gun warehouse, no questions asked.

Of course, gun massacres in the U.S. are commonplace. America is a violent country and many people have arsenals of weapons that the Army would be proud to have.

The right to bear arms is held up by Americans as almost a God-given right which does tend to conflict with the claims that God is a God of love and Thou shalt not kill, but no matter.

Now Australia is not free from guns but they are very restricted since the Port Arthur Massacre in April, 1996, when a deranged man who slept with a pig went on a killing spree.

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I can feel it in my bones. We are drifting inevitably towards oblivion, towards nuclear winter, towards extinction.

Why do I think this, you ask? Well, let me explain. We got through the cold war because Russia went bankrupt and, besides, it sensibly didn’t want to engage in nuclear war. The same can’t be said for the U.S given the Cuban crisis and the intractable position of the Yanks.

Now, in 2011, the scene is vastly different. The U.S. still has the world’s biggest army (though it is stretched very thin) but more nations have nuclear weapons now though the actual number is probably unknown. Who is to say that North Korea hasn’t sold weapons to countries like Iran? Who is to say Pakistan, which has a very dodgy political situation, hasn’t exported some of its nuclear weapons or technology?

The U.S. is struggling financially to maintain both its gigantic army and its military bases which are spread across the world. It is also struggling to win two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) despite its vaunted military superiority. And it is struggling economically and is no longer the economic superpower it once was.

And now new competitors have arrived on the scene. Russia is regaining some of its lost influence and military strength and is forging new links with other nations which don’t care too much for American imperialism. China is emerging as a potential Superpower both in an economic and military sense and it is beginning to challenge America for strategic advantage and for control of economic resources.

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