An Ethical Choice

It would seem that the election is over. Donald Trump, confident in his prospects of defeating Joe Biden, suddenly has to face a younger, smarter and more exciting candidate in Vice President Kamala Harris. She also has the advantage of newness, being female and the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica. This would give her an automatic boost among Asians, African Americans and immigrant citizens. Her choice of running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz added to her momentum, giving a plain-spoken common man sensibility to her campaign. Trump immediately fell in the polls, and now faces an uphill battle for the presidency.

The excitement has died down a bit since the convention. Harris is a pretty boring speaker, and is annoyingly vague on what she will do as president, her economic plan so far something like the age old promises of a chicken in every pot and happy days are here again. She says she wants to incentivize entrepreneurship, a good crowd-pleaser, even has a slogan: Opportunity Economy. She also promises to crack down harder on illegal immigration, a non-answer that does nothing to address the problem, just making life harder for the many who are fleeing violence and poverty. Conspicuous in its absence is any meaningful mention of climate change.

Worst of all, though, is that she stands firm with Joe Biden in supporting the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Genocide is the systematic, planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political or ethnic group. This is exactly what the government of the state of Israel is doing to the Palestinian people, first in Gaza, but now extending to the West Bank of the Jordan River. This campaign is done with funding, weapons, including 2000 pound bombs, and diplomatic support from the government of the United States, presided over by Joseph Biden, and now fully supported by his vice president Kamala Harris.

At last month’s Democratic Convention Palestinians were denied the opportunity to present their case for ending this support, in spite of having many elected delegates being told they would be able to speak. Instead, the event’s choreographers chose to keep them off the stage, but paraded the parents of Hamas hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin in front of the crowd, effectively playing to their support from AIPAC. I wonder how these manipulators feel now that Hersh has been killed. They likely don’t care. It worked when they needed it to work, and now it’s on to other things.

This presents a quandary for me, and likely for millions of others. Should I vote for a candidate who supports genocide, or find some third party or independent candidate to give my meaningless vote to? I don’t like any of the alternate candidates, and won’t vote for genocide, so my only real option is to cast my meaningless vote creatively.

Earlier this year I called Wisconsin U.S. senator Tammy Baldwin’s local office to implore her to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. She of course was not there, and the phone person I talked to said he would pass my comments on to the senator. I told him I was going to vote for Alfred E. Neuman for senator in the upcoming election. Alfred E. Neuman, the Mad Magazine character known for saying only "What, me Worry?," doesn’t exist, but I prefer someone imaginary and therefore incapable of supporting genocide to someone who does exist and supports genocide. In the recent primary election I did write-in Alfred E. Neuman for Senate.

I can vote for Alfred E. Neuman for president too. The first time I voted for president was 1968, for Hubert Humphrey, Democrat. It was either him or Richard Nixon. I chose the lesser of two evils. I had been in Army basic training during the Democratic Convention in Chicago that summer, and was not happy with what happened there, and the choice I was faced with on my first time voting for president. Since then I have voted for the lesser of two evils numerous times, though not always. I voted for Ralph Nader in 1996 and 2000. I actually campaigned for Hillary Clinton in 2016, covering a complete "turf" for her by myself, double-debasing myself by working to elect and voting for the lesser of two evils. I forgive myself. The alternative was Donald Trump.

I won’t make that mistake this time. Kamala Harris cynically chose to deny a Palestinian voice at the convention, making the arrogant assumption that those who voted uncommitted or uninstructed in primaries would fall into line in November, having no choice but her or Trump. I don’t like being played. I still believe Donald Trump won’t be the “Republican” candidate by November 5, exiting due to health problems, so his flunkies will have to come up with another sociopath. Hmm. Who might that be? Who could be more diabolical than Trump? Arkansas senator Tom Cotton.
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Here's a song. Here's another. Bob Marley. Bob Dylan. The Beatles. Little Village. Peter Tosh.

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Since the Hamas attacks of last October 7, many in the world have become aware of the control the government of Israel has over U.S. politics, eliciting endless arms shipments and money, silencing critics, offering primary election opponents to those who dare to dissent, influencing members of Congress, bullying university presidents into cracking down on student and faculty protesters, and, of course, creating propaganda for our ever-compliant corporate news media. This is done primarily through the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC).  Read more here.

The collusion between the governments of Israel and the U.S. to commit genocide against the Palestinian people is a form of organized crime. done on an international scale in a so far brutal and effective manner. It works because of corruption, and not just in the U.S. and Israel, but among all the major powers except Russia and China, which have their own priorities and preoccupations. A counter-movement is beginning, and is building momentum. Read about it here. Knowledge is power, and though Israel has killed 134 journalists so far since October 7, word is still getting out. 

Over 41,664 people have been killed in Gaza since the October 7 attacks, including at least 15,000 children, not including the more than 20,000 buried, trapped, detained and lost. Over 500 health care workers have been killed. Of the 36 hospitals in Gaza, 32 have been attacked or destroyed. The basic necessities of life - food, water, electricity, sewage treatment, health care - are all being attacked and denied.

This madness won't last, and it will ultimately fail, for several reasons. One of course is that the world is waking up. More important, though, is sustainability. Israel needs to be able to feed at the trough of American largesse, and that largesse is about to turn into parsimony. The unsustainable infinite-growth U.S. economy is about to experience finitude. It has been running on fumes for decades, but just as you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip, you can only squeeze resources out of Planet Earth for so long, and then no more.

Finitude of resources in tandem with climate change means it is all over now, baby blue, just in time for the presidential election. It may take a while longer, but all the king's AIPACs and all the king's guns will not put the Humpty Dumpty of this evil crime syndicate together again.

This calls for a song. Of course, when you are God's chosen people, no worry. "He" is on your side. We'll see.
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For edification on any number of topics, Letters and Politics from KPFA in Berkeley is indispensable. A recent interview with Haim Bresheeth-Zabner, veteran of the Israeli Defense Force, can be heard here. He is the author of the book "An Army Like No Other," a stunning revelation of Israel's history of terrorism, mass murder, land theft and apartheid in its zeal to secure a Jewish state on land that had people already living on it. A YouTube video of the interview seems to be unavailable, but this interview oof the author from 2020 on An Army Like No Other is plenty good.

Worthy of mention is that the established order of the United States government and its political apparatus know all this very well.

And, putting it in the broadest context, this madness is happening in the context of ever-worsening climate change. Practicing genocide when planetary civilization is under existential threat is beyond stupidity, and is a luxury that is doomed to failure. Genocide transforms to suicide.

Here's an opinion piece about Kamala Harris from the University of Wisconsin's Badger Herald.

Colleges and universities across the country are instituting new policies to limit dissent. This includes the University of Wisconsin. The Daily Cardinal, UW's legacy newspaper, has this analysis. On August 29, writer and educator Henry Giroux was interviewed on Madison's WORT about the crackdown on dissent. 

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Update, September 15:

I went to see a concert by Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Dave Alvin a few days ago. They encored with this song. It was much better live, pretty incredible. This is what it was like. This song was their second encore. This was their third encore. Here's Jimmie Dale Gilmore in The Big Lebowski. Here's the original of Get Together. The first time I ever heard Jimmie Dale Gilmore was in 1994, when this cover of a Johnny Cash song was played on the radio. Bob Dylan did a version of Train of Love in 1999. And, of course, the Johnny Cash original. Here's Jimmie Dale Gilmore doing my favorite Grateful Dead song. I think I might be right where I belong.
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Update, September 21: California university professors are starting to fight back against suppression of free speech. Maybe we'll find out who the thugs were who attacked students with clubs and pipes at UCLA last May. Former members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have become students at American Universities. In a Venn diagram sense, I wonder what the intersect is of IDF and violence at U.S. campuses might be.

You can get Alfred E. Neuman for president T-shirts. The campaign is growing. Who knows? Maybe he'll win. It would be great.