Jack Random

Jack Random is the author of the Jazzman Chronicles (Crow Dog Press) and Ghost Dance Insurrection (Dry Bones Press). See The Chronicles have been posted on the Albion Monitor, Bellaciao, Buzzle, CounterPunch, Dissident Voice, Pacific Free Press and Peace-Earth-Justice. www.jazzmanchronicles.blogspot.com

The China Problem:

Monday, 06 February 2012 22:26 Jack Random

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China's Premier Wen Jiabao (R) answers a question as he and new Vice Premier Li Keqiang attend a news conference in Beijing in this March 18, 2008 file photo. China has begun work on an 18-month reshuffle of its top economic and regulatory policy officials as part of a leadership transition that will see President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao hand their posts to a younger generation.

A Grand Opening for Americans Elect - Largely omitted from the Republican debates, largely ignored by media pundits, and largely neglected by the incumbent president, the China problem looms as the single most critical issue that should decide the 2012 election.

China is the primary owner of American debt. Imbalance of trade with China is the primary reason for that debt. And China is the primary beneficiary of the demise of American industry.

For the last thirty years, since the onset of the Free Trade era, whenever a union plant was shuttered in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois or Missouri, a ceremony was held in Beijing. What remains of American industry is a shell of its former self. America became a retailer nation, a nation that no longer produced goods, and the working middle class, the backbone of America’s rise, slowly faded into obscurity.

Omission in Osawatomie: A Line Obama Will Not Cross

Tuesday, 24 January 2012 17:30 Jack Random

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In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous bird-women, portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island.

Like the sirens to Odysseus, President Obama’s address at Osawatomie, Kansas, was pleasing to the progressive ear but if you allow its seductive tone to capture you, it could well prove fatal to the cause.

We have heard this song before. It takes us back to the soaring oratory that uplifted the masses and propelled a one-term senator to the presidency. Then as now, the president correctly and brilliantly deconstructs the problem: The middle class is under siege, hemorrhaging skilled and unskilled jobs to cheap labor markets overseas, resulting in depressed wages and declining benefits, depleted retirement funds, union busting and unregulated industries.

But, then as now, his solutions fail to approach the heart of the matter. Proclaiming a new world economy based on innovation, he advocates government funding for research and education, science and engineering, progressive taxation, regulation, consumer protection and a commitment to building and rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure.

The Lies of War: Leaving Iraq, Remembering Vietnam

Monday, 19 December 2011 00:00 Jack Random

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Soldiers with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division pose with a U.S. flag outside their Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle before leaving Camp Adder to travel with the last U.S. military convoy to leave Iraq December 18, 2011.

“You are part of an unbroken line of heroes spanning two centuries — from the colonists who overthrew an empire, to your grandparents and parents who faced down fascism and communism, to you — men and women who fought for the same principles in Fallujah and Kandahar, and delivered justice to those who attacked us on 9/11.

“The most important lesson that we can take from you is not about military strategy –- it’s a lesson about our national character. Because of you, we are ending these wars in a way that will make America stronger and the world more secure.” - President Barack Obama, Address to Troops at Fort Bragg, December 14, 2011

The lies of war are forgotten as easily and readily as the wrappings of Christmas or the resolutions of a new year. Like a child still in diapers, the lessons of war must be learned again and again until finally they are taken to heart.

The Revolution Started Without Me

Monday, 17 October 2011 00:00 Jack Random

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Occupy Wall Street participants carry on their occupation of Zuccotti Park near Wall Street in New York, October 17, 2011. Exactly a month after a few hundred anti-capitalism activists set up camp in New York, the Occupy Wall Street movement has gone international and won the attention of the White House - even if no one knows where it will go next.

“[Occupy Wall Street is] a diffuse and leaderless convocation of activists against greed, corporate influence, gross social inequality and other nasty byproducts of wayward capitalism not easily extinguishable by street theater.” - Ginia Bellafante, NY Times 9/23/11

In the summer of 1968 I had finished my freshman year in high school. By chance, I journeyed to San Francisco with some older fellow students, checked the scene at Haight-Ashbury, partied with the cast of Hair and ended up on the beach in Big Sur talking philosophy. I was offered a hit off a joint but declined.

Later that year a friend and I hitched to a New Year’s concert at the Fillmore West. As Cold Blood, Boz Skaggs and the Voices of East Harlem marked the hours to midnight, joints passed freely among the audience. This time I accepted though my friend declined.

California to Obama: Cease and Desist!

Monday, 10 October 2011 00:00 Jack Random

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'The Obama administration initially signaled that the federal government would not enforce drug laws against marijuana where voters had sanctioned it for medicinal purposes.'

There is an unspoken law in modern electoral politics: Take care of your adversaries; your friends can take care of themselves.

In today’s political universe, progressives have no place to go but Democrat. So it is for minorities, labor advocates, environmentalists and antiwar protesters. There is no choice in electoral politics but to side with the milquetoast moderates of the Democratic Party.

In this environment of winner-take-all and take it for granted politics, the most populous state in the union is also the most neglected and under-represented. That is why a Democratic White House can get away with policies and programs that disregard the interests of California with a callousness that borders on disdain.

Things have gotten so bad in the golden state that even members of the Milquetoast Party are beginning to raise their voices: Thirty two representatives of the California congressional caucus recently went public with their plea for effective relief from the foreclosure crisis, an ongoing catastrophe that blocks any chance of real recovery from the Great Recession.

Ten Years After: The Politics of Rage

Sunday, 11 September 2011 00:00 Jack Random

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“Since 9/11 US foreign policy…has been driven by fear.” - Richard Engel, Foreign Correspondent

“People wanted revenge, and the policymakers seized the opportunity to use U.S. military power.” - Robert Jensen, Professor of Journalism

Perhaps the most popular interpretation of how the world changed after September 11, 2001, is the assertion that our policies and our politics have been motivated by fear. Like most popular notions, it carries an element of truth but it should not go unchallenged.

There can be no doubt that our government promoted and played to fear with their color-coded terror alerts. There can be no doubt that our government wanted us to be afraid so that we would not question their wars or their betrayal of human rights and civil liberties. They wanted us to grant them unlimited powers to carry out an imperial foreign policy they had already planned.

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Jack Random

The China Problem:

Omission in Osawatomie: A Line Obama Will Not Cross

The Lies of War: Leaving Iraq, Remembering Vietnam

The Revolution Started Without Me

California to Obama: Cease and Desist!

Ten Years After: The Politics of Rage

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