Anders Breivik: A derivative mind should be wasted

Dear Anders:
If you are so Islamophobic then why don't you really try something? Contact me so I can fly you first class to Gaza. Have you no Viking pride? What does killing your own Lutheran tribe do, fool?

There are followers and there are followers. Breivik is incapable of an original thought. Not deranged but derivative. Even his bombing strategy was unoriginal and clearly an effort to frame Bin Laden. But hello, Bin Laden is dead. You acted too late, A.B.

You are a nihilist, a death believer because what you constantly think of and worry about never existed, except in the railings of media pundits, bloggers, generals, and politicians. Necrophiliac. So desperate to find your nemesis called the 'Muslim terrorist' that you were compelled to mimic what you thought he was and would do. The only true question is why didn't you follow through with a self-suicide? 

With no regards,
Cosmocat

Focus on deficit talk not deficit problem

Sigh...

has nothing been learned since the 1980's? There are now 2 ways to analyze politics. One looks at the politics of the object of discourse (modern). The other addresses the politics of the discourse (pomo).

Take the current deficit talks in DC. You could think all day about how to solve the deficit, count up the numbers, decide who to tax or what to cut.


Or you could think about the politics of the talk. Thus, who gains from the fear such talk create? Like the Prez. saying yesterday that he cannot guarantee Social security checks will be sent  if the deficit issue is not resolved. In one swoop, the other party got deflated, no doubt as phone calls came in from scared seniors  (who do vote by the way). That is just one example.

Overall, what this deficit talk does is reinvigorate official politics. The Prez., Congress, The Fed. all become important players again. You see, citizens' attention is less and less on them given Facebook or sheer survival needs today. So to get their attention back, the politicians scream ever louder. (The press loves it of course; more ad sales for their product).

So expect more drama, more kibuki dances, because the one thing that the official political world cannot stand is to be ignored as irrelevant to your life.    

Towards a post-Gates Afghanistan

Bob Gates has left the US Department of Defense. Many would say that he has been something of a sure hand there. But on Afghanistan he has been mistaken. He is famous for the statement that the US is 'not trying to create a new Switzerland in Afghanistan.' To him it seems like a perfectly obvious and pragmatic view. We all chuckle at the thought of Afghans crafting Rolex watches or munching on chocolates.

But the policy that Gates has pursued is even more idealistic than that. For him and his boss presumably to not pursue such a transformational project would be costly. Curiously however massive transformation is exactly their project, with all the forces of history and politics against them. A new Switzerland would be easier.

Here's why. The Gates' view is to make Afghanistan a unitary state, like France run from Paris, only in this case Kabul would run the place  After all, it is the capital city, no? Switzerland also has a capital city but it does not run the country...the provinces or cantons do. The national government is a creature of the cantons. Switzerland is a confederal state. So is Afghanistan historically. And with Gates gone maybe there is a chance that the US could now implement a confederation policy. 

What has been worse about Gates' policy is that it not only counters Afghan history and politics but it goes against global trends. The centrality of Westphalian-style states is fading worldwide. Not completely mind you. But there is more competition in the global space. There are now strong IO's and NGO's and MNC's and stateless peoples and stateless insurgencies, etc. etc.

Sometimes the definition of a hero is one who triumphs against all the odds. Indeed Gates has said he does not care how much it all costs monetarily and his Defense budget never ever declined during his tenure. But today's heroes simply need to win not win bullheadedly.  

Circumcision debate

Has anyone kept with this movement or with the referendum in Frisco? The idea is to ban the mutilation of infants at least until they are ready to choose for themselves. One side is claiming freedom of religion.

All I will say for now is that this raises an interesting question of gendered voting since only the men of Frisco should vote. They alone have the experience on this matter. 

The Challenge of Debt or Debt Challenges

Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Portugal (Italy, Spain, USA)...

One of the nice things about political science is that you don't believe that things just happen...the good ones do not believe in randomness. What we do believe in is sovereignty which basically means somebody with power makes what is happening happen. That is what distinguishes us from the economists. They work with models and trends to understand events...pretty and tidy but always one step behind.

Regarding all of the debt talk the smart observers does not ask what will happen to the Debt (crisis, default, Euro-collapse). No one asks who does such talk serve? In the short term it puts fear into a lot of people which is an emotion that can certainly be manipulated.

Be wise: distinguish between effects of the reality of debt and the politics of debt. Economists worry about the former. Not us. We worry about how the debt crisis is used by the powerful. 

The big game is what I call DEBT BRINKMANSHIP. Europe versus USA. All of these odd deadlines! Soon the Greek parliament votes on whether to pay back debts. In August the USA says it cannot charge anymore to its credit card. Who would have thought anyone would take deadlines seriously in politics!?

What you see is two giant blocs, Eu and US, threatening to implode (with Fitch and Moodys chiming in) in a duel of implosion. They play on the game or ruse of failure. 'We are about to fail.' 'No we are.' 'No us' and so on. It gets everyone's attention and outsiders rush to invest their export earnings into the bonds/debt of the other bloc, either the US (so-called safe haven) or EU (China says it will invest more) depending upon who looks like they will NOT implode worse than the other. Back and forth.

The question is what's next? Every game gets old...just ask your kids. Could it be a Greece scenario? That is when the citizens get involved in a spectacular way. Could we then see brinkmanship over power rather than debt? The two blocs, citizens and elites, would attack each other but then always back down at the last minute, always unwilling or unable to take charge fully?? Have we entered the Age of Stunted or even Farcical Revolutions? 

Give (some peace a chance in Libya

With so many wars underway it is understandable that its opposite has been forgotten. Take Libya, one of the topics at the meeting of the G8 'the fancy countries.' Libya presents a clear case for peacemaking. Neither Tripoli nor Benghazi can win. So settle up, make nice, and everybody wins. Not pretty and 'no mission accomplished' banners. No doubt there would be grumbling. But postmodern politics are those of the in-between of the liminal. The era of total war is over when entire populations were recruited into the fight. The choices now are not victory versus defeat nor war versus peace nor even life versus death. They are more or less war versus more or less peace. Right now Libya is in the midst of the former. The interesting future would be to see some half-assed peace come out of this. Same in Yemen: today impure war...tomorrow impure peace.      

On debt ratings companies...

Were it not for a craven press that simply repeats their 'assessments' would anyone listen to the likes of Fitch or S&P who go around pronouncing that Greece and even the USA is a bad credit risk? An old conspriacy movie, Enemy of the state, had a great line: who's monitoring the monitors? Well today let us be the first...we are. And we say, after their oversights in 2008-2009, that they are full of it.