What the world surely doesn’t need. 

Patrice Greanville

The New York Times headline made me wince:

Jon Stewart to Direct Serious Film, Will Take Hiatus From ‘Daily Show’ 

The news—when read in more detail— was not reassuring. It would seem like one of the most colossal egos in the entertainment world is about to pull an ARGO on us.  No I’m not referring to Affleck, whose Oscar for that perniciously-timed film is the official certification for Hollywood’s willing concubinage with imperial America. I’m talking about Jon Stewart, by far one of the most insufferable and self-impressed personalities in the modern pantheon of cheap idolatry for which American culture will surely be remembered—should the world survive its runaway ignorance and misdirected violence.

The reason for my disgust is that Stewart is about to take a 12-week hiatus from his duties at the uber-adulated The Daily Show to direct a movie whose plot—oh my— he penned.  The movie —”Rosewater”, is reported to be an adaptation of the 2011 book “Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity and Survival,” by Maziar Bahari and Aimee Molloy. Hmm. Hold that a cotton-pickin’  minute.  Captivity? A guy named Bahari? Knowing as I guess you do, that the US and its usual accomplices are desperately looking for a way to provoke a fight with Iran, what country do you think will be cast as the humorless heavy in this picture? Yes, that country. The same country already exploited by liberaloid Affleck to excellent “artistic” returns.

“One of the reasons we are in this business is to challenge ourselves,” Mr. Stewart said [fatuously], “and I really connected to Maziar’s story. It’s a personal story but one with universal appeal about what it means to be free.”  Mr. Bahari’s ordeal is familiar to “The Daily Show” fans — in fact, the comedy program played a role in it. ⁽¹⁾

The blooming of this execrable notion took place in a rather serendipitous manner. According to the Times,

A Canadian-Iranian journalist and documentarian, Mr. Bahari was jailed in Tehran in 2009 for four months, accused of plotting a revolution against the government. Shortly before his arrest, Mr. Bahari had participated in a “Daily Show” sketch, conducted by one of the show’s correspondents, Jason Jones, who was pretending to be a spy. Mr. Bahari’s captors used the footage against him. “You can imagine how upset we were,” Mr. Stewart said, “and I struck up a friendship with him afterward.”

Since ARGO was premised on something like a ruse to fool the Iranians, Stewart’s  premise, also packing identity errors, sounds to me derivative, at best. Not so bloody funny. Let alone that original. How many times are we gonna take credit for rooking the Iranians?

One more requiem for liberalism

With this recklessly ill-timed film, Jon Stewart is now clearly joining not only the lot of imperial apologists (which as Abby Martin suggests—see below—was well prefigured by his fawning over Obama and other Democratic politicos), but also proving for the umpteenth time that liberals are either egotistical assholes with the political acumen of a hedgehog or… thinly-veiled groupies for the imperial status quo. So first Affleck, now Stewart, where will it end, this noxious parade of (shall we say charitably) unwittingly self-indulgent “cinematic art”?

Since Stewart  is a comedian, very much the frat-sort, smart-ass, middlebrow American comedian, the kind that the politically illiterate and almost permanently infantilized Generation X finds so damn amusing, albeit one now afflicted with acute auteur pretensions, we can’t tell at this point where this expensive bauble will end, hopefully in the trash, but we can bet that the Iranians will be once again characterized as fanatical ciphers  or dunces—not exactly the image needed at this point to inject some warmth and respect in the American mind toward that tortured nation.

Well. What else could we expect? This is the rotten Zeitgeist we inhabit, friends. For ill or for ill.

In the final analysis, however, as even a bright 6-year old could tell, war is too dreadful a matter to be left to mere politicians…or  megalomanic buffoons.  Man, where is George Carlin when we need him!

Patrice Greanville is the editor in chief of The Greanville Post. 

•••••
ADDENDUM

Abby Martin of RT calls out court jester Stewart and his accommodation of Obama.  Hard questions are never asked on Stewart’s Daily Show, particularly when Democrat politicians need votes.  I’ve said previously how Stewart parades a constant stream of establishment war criminals and monsters on his program so they can peddle their books.

SOURCE: 

Jon Stewart to Direct Serious Film, Will Take Hiatus From ‘Daily Show’

⁽¹⁾ http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/jon-stewart-to-direct-serious-film-will-take-hiatus-from-daily-show/

•••••

not be celebrated.  And that someone would see the obvious and call Stewart on it, that to pick—of all possible subjects, many much more urgent—this particular plot to sink a pile of greenbacks in it, is simply obscene. Well, about that I suppose I was being way too optimistic.

—PG

by Stephen Lendman

Ernest Moniz, Obama’s new (compromised) Energy Secretary.

Throughout his tenure, he ignored the best, brightest, most honorable and well qualified. He chose cabinet and other top picks he should have spurned. He did again. He addressed reporters in the White House East Room. He “announc(ed nominations for) three outstanding individuals to help us tackle some of our most important challenges.”

He chose Sylvia Burwell as new Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director. She replaces Jeffrey Zients. She’s president of the Walmart Foundation. Previously she was Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Development Program president. She prioritized profit making over good will.

In 2001, she joined the Gates Foundation. From 2002 – 2006, she was executive vice president, CEO and executive director.

Earlier she was Clinton’s OMB deputy director, assistant to the president, and deputy chief of staff. She served Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in the same capacity.

Prior to entering government, she did financial consulting. She did so for McKinsey & Company.

She’s a Trilateralist. She’s a Council on Foreign Relations member. She serves on MetLife’s board of directors. She belongs to the Nike Foundation Advisory Group.

She’s an Aspen Institute member. She serves on its Strategy Group. It’s an elitist club. It’s international and influential. It’s comprised of businessmen, politicians, bureaucrats, and likeminded figures. They’re up to no good.

Center for Economic Policy & Research economist Dean Baker called her appointment “cause for concern.”

Author and filmmaker Kenneth Harvey said it’s “unnerving to suddenly find (Obama) in bed with Walmart.” Nation magazine said it “wielded (the foundation’s) massive budget to expand the retail giant’s influence at all levels of government and to pave the way for store expansions.”

The Nation obtained a previously unreported document. It’s titled “Recognizing the Walmart Foundation For Its Good Works.”  It tells organizations “we are looking to the grantees that turn to the Walmart Foundation for funding to help us spread the word.”

Expect Burwell to sail through confirmation easily.

Obama chose Ernie Moniz as new Energy Secretary. He replaces Steven Chu. He was Clinton’s Energy Department Under Secretary. He advised on overseas and DOE research and development, energy and environment technologies, national security, and various science issues.

He oversaw the national laboratory system. Doing so included national security programs, stockpile stewardship, and non-proliferation. Earlier he was MIT Professor of Physics. He was its Institute of Technology’s Energy Initiative director. It’s funded by corporate heavyweights. They include BP, Chevron and Saudi Aramco.

Moniz directed research on coal’s future, nuclear energy and natural gas. He sought corporate backing to do so. He’s in bed with powerful interests he’s beholden to. Expect them to take full advantage. Expect him to comply willingly. Environmental groups are concerned. On February 21, Inside Climate News headlined “Moniz: Shale Gas Boom a Low-Carbon Solution – for Now,” saying:

He drew lots of fire for being “pro-industry.” It made him Obama’s top choice. A Food and Water Watch statement said “His appointment to the DOE could set renewable energy development back years.” It’s circulating a petition against him.

He doesn’t return requests for interviews. Perhaps he’ll feel otherwise now. He believes natural gas is “part of our energy solution for some time.”

He calls hydraulic fracking a “game-changer.” No politician in his view will “walk away from this,” he said.

He calls environmental risks manageable. They “can be mitigated to acceptable levels through appropriate regulation and oversight.” He said it knowing not to expect it.

Big Oil gets what it wants. He’s comfortable working with energy giants. He believes doing so will influence America’s energy future positively.

Earlier Moniz was Clinton’s Associate Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

His research interests include theoretical nuclear physics. He was MIT’s Bates Linear Accelerator Center director.

He served numerous universities, national laboratories, professional societies, and government agencies. He did so in advisory roles. Expect easy confirmation.

Obama chose Gina McCarthy EPA head. She’s an air quality expert. She’s EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation assistant administrator. She’ll replace Lisa Jackson if confirmed.

She’ll be involved in the Keystone XL Pipeline construction project. It’s a controversial 1,661-mile Alberta, Canada to Port Arthur, TX initiative.

Environmental groups strongly oppose it. They do so for good reason.

If completed, it’ll carry toxic tar sands oil from Western Canada to refineries on America’s Gulf coast. It’ll pass through environmentally sensitive areas.

They’re in six states. They include waterways and the Oballala Aquifer. It’s one of the world’s largest. In America, it supplies about 30% of the nation’s irrigation ground water.

Friends of the Earth says Keystone XL “will carry one of the world’s dirtiest fuels: tar sands oil.” Its route “could devastate ecosystems and pollute water sources, and would jeopardize public health.”

If completed, it’ll double America’s dirty tar sands oil supply. It’ll increase environmental toxicity.

Big Oil wants it. So do Republicans and conservative Democrats. Expect Obama to go along. He always does. McCarthy’s job is facilitating it. He chose her for that purpose. She’s got other corporate priorities to serve.

Her rhetoric has no bearing on policy. She’s beholden to powerful interests. Earlier she was Connecticut Department of Environment Protection commissioner. She served from 2004 – 2009.

From 1999 – 2003, she was Massachusetts Office of Commonwealth Development deputy secretary of operations. She  served five state governors. Mitt Romney was one.

Environmentalists hope she’ll address their concerns more responsibly. She wasn’t chosen to do so. She’s beholden to energy giant interests. So are Burwell and Moniz.

What corporate America wants, it gets. It’s in good hands with all three.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled “Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour

http://www.dailycensored.com/more-controversial-obama-appointments/

By Andre Damon, wsws.org

Needs repeating: Obama initiated the “sequester”.

Following last week’s imposition of $1.2 trillion in government spending cuts, which will slash social services for millions of people, Wall Street is demanding more cuts. Major credit rating agencies, which in 2011 downgraded the rating of the United States’ sovereign debt, say more spending cuts—particularly to “entitlements” like Medicare and Medicaid—are needed to keep the country’s debt rating from being cut further.

These demands come as congressional Democrats have dropped all pretenses to blocking the sequester cuts, while Republicans are drafting a bill that would sharply curtail the sequester’s impact on military spending in preparation for making the cuts to social services permanent.

David Riley, Fitch Rating’s global managing director for sovereign ratings, told CNBC Europe that the sequester cuts are “not the most ideal outcome,” stressing that he would have preferred to see more “long-term” cuts. Saying: “You’d rather have intelligent cuts and some revenue measures as well … but we don’t live in an ideal world, and it’s better to have some deficit reduction than none at all.”

Translated from the political doublespeak adopted by the Obama administration, by “intelligent cuts,” Riley means cutbacks to programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. This remark followed similar comments by Merrill Lynch executive Savita Subramanian, who told the New York Times over the weekend that “the market wants more austerity.”

With the passage of the sequester, the next major budgetary milestone is the upcoming March 27 deadline for Congress to approve government appropriations. If the Democrats and Republicans fail to vote on an appropriations bill before then, it would trigger a shutdown of the federal government.

In recent days both parties have made clear that they have no intention of turning the deadline into a political battle. The Democrats, in particular, have stressed that they do not intend to use the March 27 deadline to force the Republicans to overturn the social spending cuts imposed by the sequester. “Certainly we don’t want to have a shutdown of government,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Friday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell echoed the Democrats’ sentiments that the funding authorization bill would pass without a hitch, saying Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” program that “I believe we’re going to be able to work out passing the continuing resolution later in March on a bipartisan basis.”

House Republicans have proposed a bill to extend funding for the federal government through September 30, while eliminating much of the sequester’s impact on military spending. “The legislation will avoid a government shutdown on March 27th, prioritize [defense] and veterans programs, and allow the Pentagon some leeway to do its best with the funding it has,” said House Rules Committee Chairman Hal Rogers in a statement.

The bill gives the Defense Department the leeway to shift money between different accounts, significantly blunting the sequester’s impact. Washington newspaper The Hill noted that “In total, the bill includes $518 billion for defense, $2 billion more than President Obama requested this year but the same as in 2012.”

The bill likewise includes provisions for extra funding allocations for border security, as well as staffing provisions for the FBI and the federal prison system.

Democrats have voiced little opposition to this bill, which is set to be voted on by the House Thursday, and it is likely to clear the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Meanwhile, after spending much of the last week demagogically denouncing the sequester spending cuts, the White House has abruptly switched its public tone, seeking to move on to other issues in the general admission that the administration will do nothing to reverse the cuts.

“We are going to manage as best we can … but this is not the right way to go about deficit reduction,” Obama said in a cabinet meeting Monday, adding later that “Now, my agenda is obviously broader than the sequester.”

In an article titled “With sequester in swing, Obama switches his focus to other priorities,” The Hill quoted a senior White House official, saying, “Until they’re willing to compromise [on the sequester], there’s not much more we can do.”

The newspaper concluded that “President Obama will shift his focus to immigration, gun control, increasing the minimum wage and other second-term priorities now that the sequester cuts have begun.”

These developments underscore the fact that, from the beginning, the sequester cuts were a stage-managed affair, with Obama’s nominal opposition to the cuts being entirely for show. In fact, the White House was instrumental in orchestrating the sequester, and the cuts to discretionary spending it imposes are thoroughly in line with the Obama administration’s own proposals for spending cuts.

From the start, the cuts were intended to be made permanent, and to set a new baseline for the imposition of even further cutbacks to basic social programs.

With the sequester cuts in place, amid a crisis atmosphere whipped up by the threat of another debt downgrade by Wall Street, the crosshairs will now shift to “entitlement spending,” most notably Medicare and Social Security.

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

President Obama is a full partner with the Republicans in the latest episode of the manufactured disaster saga: sequestration. “The idea was to make every popular constituency in the country scream – and accept the inevitability of massive entitlement cuts.” It’s a goal shared by corporatists in both parties.
“Disaster capitalism is manifesting itself as disaster governance.”

The Obama administration has been very skillful in framing itself as the good guy in the latest looming fiscal disaster, this time under the heading of “sequestration.” On Friday, across-the-board cuts of $85 billion are set to go into effect, wreaking havoc on most government operations. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and what’s left of welfare are not directly affected, but these so-called “entitlement” programs have, in fact, always been the primary targets of this cascade of manufactured crises. Disaster capitalism is manifesting itself as disaster governance, and President Obama is fully complicit in the corporate-imposed charade. Indeed, Obama is most culpable for infecting the nation with austerity fever.

It was Obama who swallowed whole the corporate argument, previously championed by Republicans, that the national debt was Crisis Number One and that entitlement programs were the root cause. From the moment in January of 2009 when Obama served notice that Social Security and all other entitlements would be put on the chopping block, he became the chief mover and shaker for so-called entitlement reform. He created the model for austerity, through his Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction commission. It was Simpson-Bowles that provided the basis for the massive cuts offered by President Obama in 2011. When the Republicans balked at even a modest tax increase for the rich, it was the White House National Economic Council Director, the corporate deal-maker Gene Sperling, who came up with the sequestration scheme, which was timed to explode right after the 2012 elections. The idea was to make every popular constituency in the country scream – and accept the inevitability of massive entitlement cuts.

“The Republicans are his partners, not his opponents.”

Let me repeat: Sequestration was Obama’s idea. So-called entitlement reform is Obama doctrine. Austerity was embedded in the Democratic Party’s agenda under President Obama. More than any other individual, it was Barack Obama who engineered the current disaster scenario. These waves of austerity crises were not inevitable, but they are the inevitable result of President Obama’s calculated statements and actions since Election Day 2008. The Republicans are his partners, not his opponents. The closest thing he has to an opposition – at least on paper – is the Congressional Progressive Caucus, whose two co-chairs introduced a bill that would turn the austerity juggernaut on its head. It’s called the Balancing Act of 2013, and would replace all of the sequestration cuts with new revenues, and then add a $276 billion stimulus to the economy. Needless to say, the progressive bill will get nowhere, not just because of Republican opposition, but because the top Democrat, Barack Obama, wants to go down in history as the smart austerity president. Just as he said he wasn’t opposed to wars, but only to dumb wars – which is why he has built tens of thousands of the smartest drones and smartest bombs ever devised by man. He’s outsmarting what passes for a Left in the United States at every turn. They cheer him as he effectively consummates his grand bargain with the GOP, in a cacophony of manufactured crises, exhausting what little opposition remains.

That’s why we at BAR call him the more effective evil.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Bruce A. Dixon