Members of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) boast an extensive spy network, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its special forces wing, the Quds force. The group has a track record of exposing clandestine parts of the Iranian security apparatus. They have been openly collaborating with the West against the Iranian government for years, and are probably the true CIA asset behind the most recent attack.

Despite an attack occurring near Parliament, lawmakers continued to go about their business, even as gun battles took place in surrounding office buildings. The live radio broadcast of the Parliamentary session did not even stop.

Pretty brave politicians, eh? I assume that their voters are thinking they made a good choice.

(People think it’s so brave to go to war armed with a gun: it’s much harder to be that guy who carried just a banner – all they have is belief and self-sacrifice.)

Foreign commentators are talking about how Iran has finally been successfully targeted by ISIL, as if we are supposed to be scared now.

Not likely.

The reason is simple: Most Iranians today either fought, survived or grew up during the deadliest conventional war ever fought between regular armies of developing countries – the Iran-Iraq War from 1980-1988.

Maybe I’ll be proven wrong, as I’m writing this just a couple hours after the attack was neutralized, but I doubt it. I know Iran and have faith that the terrorists won’t win by scaring us into submissive lives.

Give them time and I predict that Western commentators will eventually admit their befuddlement that the Iranian government isn’t using this terrorist act as a way to increase their own power and control the populace – after all, that tactic has been so amazingly effective! 

This attack helps the West: to show how disproportionate their responses are

But such a response of “business as usual” is unthinkable in the West. Sure, the UK talks about “Keep calm and carry on,” but we all know that’s just an empty slogan aimed at consumers. 

Police observe the Parliament building in Tehran during the attack.

Heck, the BBC even falsely reported: “However, officials announced a nationwide state of emergency in response to the attacks.” I guess they just arrogantly assume we still follow their lead? Not that this bad journalism could ever tarnish their reputation, of course….

What happens in the United States? Well, let’s remember the Boston Marathon bombing:  They went into total lockdown. The entire city transportation system was shut down. 19,000 National Guard troops occupied the city. 

“Armored vehicles motored up and down neighborhoods. Innocent people were confronted in their homes at gunpoint or had guns pointed at them for merely peering through the curtains of their own windows,” remembered the Atlantic. (Of course, they totally exonerated the authorities, writing: “May no one condemn them.”)

And yet this incident inspired the phrase “Boston strong”.

LOL, I guess it means being strong from behind your locked doors? Strong like “internet tough guys”, who spout self-aggrandizing, bullying nonsense?

Hey, I’m not definitely not insulting Bostonians as cowards. I know exactly why they stayed inside – they feared arrest. They know that if they didn’t comply they would get thrown in jail and have the key tossed away because: that’s America.

Bostonians didn’t fear the terrorists – they feared the police. They feared the justice system. The feared a domestic army ready to attack without notice and a legal system ready to exonerate them.

Of course, the mainstream media never said this, and never will. The average American doesn’t even want to accept it, as it would cause great shame. It is still totally true.

Bostonians probably would have courageously rallied in Harvard Square against terrorism…if there was genuine leadership.  But there isn’t. The leaders go underground at such moments: “I’m too important” – the essence of Western individualism.

What about France? LOL, a six-month extension to the state of emergency was declared at 4 am after the Nice truck attack, and that wasn’t even terrorism, but a lone nutjob with no connections to terror organizations.

You wake up and: “Ah, bon? More police state dictatorship just one step below martial law? Oh well, we have croissants for breakfast….”

And is anyone going to say that this was a “false flag” operation, as is usually bandied about in the West? You won’t hear anyone but bitter Iranian exiles possibly making those claims. Can you imagine a Cuban saying a similar thing about their righteous, peoples’ government? Hardly.

As I have proven, Iran is effectively a Socialist nation, so maybe it’s the idea of “permanent social war” that stiffens Iran’s backbone against giving up our democratic liberties? We certainly need those against the capitalists and imperialists who occupy nearly all our neighbors, as well as many other countries.

Iran doesn’t need to use such tragedies to terrorize its own population because it isn’t trying to terrorize anyone, anywhere. It truly fights against terrorism – in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Palestine.

There is no doubt that manipulating terror attacks to quell democracy is what happens in Western countries, and the question is why? I would say it’s that the West is truly scared of having its social model called into question due to the repeatedly illegitimate actions of its leadership.

And why wouldn’t they be, in this endless age of austerity, yawning inequality, rampant xenophobia and blocked futures?

But the Iranian government has no such fears – the people view them as legitimate.

But the West doesn’t understand Iran at all

The New York Times’ main man in Iran is Thomas Erdbrink – don’t look to him for an understanding of Iran, even though he has been based there since 2002.

He won’t realize that this terror attack is nothing to those of us from the “Burned Generation”.

What is that? Well, as he wrote in 2012, my generation, “…calls itself the ‘burned generation,’ because they feel they lost out on the natural evolution of life. While their parents managed to find jobs, marry and buy houses, this generation’s ambitions have been boxed in by the political decisions of Iran’s leaders and the foreign pressures that followed.”

No: We call ourselves that because we were burnt by chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq War. This generation grew up during wartime and saw atrocities.

Sad: How wrong people can be.

Nearly criminally negligent: To be considered a “top” journalist and to get something so very important so very wrong. You can see why I haven’t forgotten, after five years, his disgusting spin.

Because I think that, after 15 years and having married an Iranian woman, he knows the real definition – I think he spun it that way to push his capitalist and imperialist agenda, and to please his pro-Zionist bosses.

I’m surprised he’s still tolerated inside Iran. It’s one thing to do critical journalism, but to get your facts wrong means you are no longer a journalist but a propagandist.

It’s not as if Erdbrink is alone, and certainly not as alone as when Iran was fighting Iraq. Back then even the USSR was arming Iraq, too.

Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, told CNN that, "The message is loud and clear: These people are attacking the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic," Gerges said.

How does a Salafist terror attack even bring up the idea of the legitimacy of the Iranian government? Just like in Syria, the Western media sees ISIL as being freedom fighters…when they oppose a modern government in a Muslim country.

But absolutely nobody believes you inside Iran, Gerges. Outside of Iran, your ideas were retweeted by places like France 24 (run by the French state), because all Western mainstream media hate the democratic choice of the Iranian people and will use any pretext to attack its legitimacy.

Frankly, the smart money is that this wasn’t even ISIL.

Does it matter if it was ISIL? Who is behind ISIL is all that matters, right?

Was it really ISIL? I doubt it – I bet it was the MKO (or MEK), the Mujaheedin Khalq Organization (here’s a story I wrote on them years ago which has been effectively wiped from Google), because that’s who it usually has been, like with the high-profile assassinations of nuclear scientists, after getting training from Mossad.

This insane cult has zero credibility in Iran because they fought WITH Saddam Hussein and against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war…let that sink in and their lack of domestic credibility is pretty easy to understand, eh?

But they do have Iranian passports, speak the language, know their way around, can fit in, etc. One of the terrorists may have even taken cyanide to commit suicide, as is common with the MKO, when they aren’t setting themselves on fire in capitals across Europe.

Khomeini’s shrine was attacked previously - a suicide bomber in 2009. That was likely MKO, too. It was too bad because I had just been there – it was in the middle of a major expansion and beautification.

The bomber did not stop that – just slowed it down. It will be the same thing in 2017.

Anyway, let’s say ISIL did finally get into Iran. Who is supporting them to get there?

According to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei: “ISIS ideologically, financially and logistically is fully supported and sponsored by Saudi Arabia — they are one and the same.”

We all know this. Outside of the West, at least.

Iran gets what fascism is, the West does not

The day before the Iran attacks there was a cop attacked with a hammer at Notre Dame Cathedral. 900 people were kettled inside Notre Dame and forced to keep their hands in the air. Now that’s a tourist story outside the norm….

I was urged by French journalists to drop what I was doing – covering Emmanuel Macron’s new right-wing rollback to the labor code – to cover that story. Fat chance….

Of course, to attack an armed cop with a hammer and two kitchen knives is the definition of insanity, but the man cried, “This is for Syria”.

And yet, a local English-language journalist wrote: “The motive of the man armed with the hammer is unknown….”

LOL, are they re-reading their own copy? Well, if journalists repeatedly don’t get that it’s not Islam but France’s foreign policy after this exact same motivation was cited by the Kouachi brothers, Amedy Coulibaly and nearly all the other home-grown French terrorist since 2012…why should I expect they would they get it now?

And it’s the same with the link between Saudi Arabia, the West and ISIL –willful blindness. But also apathy: people prefer low gas prices to forcing their politicians to stop supporting fascist ISIL. 

Iran’s Burned Generation and the elder generation know what war and fascism is. People wonder why we have pictures of dead soldiers up everywhere – it’s not simply to glorify our martyrs, it’s to show the young people that war is real. Once they forget or misunderstand….

The West does not understand fascism – they are even coming close to democratically voting them into offices across Europe. In the US a fascist already won.

They don’t understand war: France has had dozens of wars since World War II – all started by France and held on foreign soil. The US hasn’t had a war at home since 1865, and thus their idea of war is distorted by blissful ignorance.

Iran gets war, and they are not about to put themselves on a pathetic faux-war footing like those two nations have done over relatively trivial terror attacks.

The correct response: This attack was ‘trivial’

The West widely quoted Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani for dismissing the attacks as a “trivial matter” being handled by security forces.

I guess this is to portray him as cruel or ruthless or, the worst thing in the West today, insensitive to the feelings of others.

But Iranians know exactly what he means – an isolated terror attack is not the same as war. Sorry to burst the bubbles of the armchair media hawks and the foaming Western generals dying to play with their fancy new toys, but it’s actually just a pale, fleeting facsimile.

And, despite what the West wants this attack to lead Iranians to believe: We will not be fooled into thinking that our entire social model can be called into question by Salafist terrorists. Who are they to question our society, LOL? Anyway, outside of actual war zones there are definitely far more pressing issues: education, health care, worker compensation, worker protection, etc., which touch every single person for their entire lives. All my condolences to the victims and their loved ones, of course.

If France wants to throw their legal rights out the window over what equals a bad day in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria – that’s their choice. But please don’t expect Iran to do the same.

It’s a terrible thing, 12 people dying and dozens of casualties (so far). But I think many in Iran are looking at Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Palestine, Mali, the C.A.R….and the US, France and the UK… and thinking: it could be a lot, lot worse.

I’d make this column longer, but I want to make sure to get a good seat tonight at the Champs de Mars for when the Eiffel Tower changes colors. It won’t resemble the Iranian flag, of course. I just figure that since the Eiffel Tower famously went dark when Al-Qaeda was finally kicked out of Aleppo, Paris will want to mourn Iran’s failure to be defeated by terrorism by radiating ISIL’s color - black. 

Unfortunately, I’ve covered plenty of Roma camp demolitions since 2010, and they never actually stop, but a pro-Roma group sent me an email that attracted my attention.
..
Just outside of Paris a few dozen Roma families were terrified because at any unspecified moment cops were going to swoop in, bulldoze the camp, confiscate or destroy their meager possessions and render them homeless while providing no housing alternative.
...
This is totally normal in France. 

What’s unusual was this: The camp had been allowed to stand for five whole years.

That’s an eternity in Roma time! Last year 60% of all Roma were forcibly evicted at least once. The key word there is, “forcibly”.

So this camp is basically the Rome (the eternal city) of Roma camps.

I covered the story for Press TV. I was one of about five journalists at a press conference the camp had arranged, and I was the only one with a cameraman. I can see why French media don’t want footage of it – Roma camps are third-world societies amid the opulence of Paris. You literally open a door and walk into impoverished India.

How is it possible to have 3^rd-world conditions in France?

Perhaps the best analogy in the Western hemisphere for Europe’s 10 million Roma (or Romani, or Gypsies) is the aboriginals or Native Americans. Like those groups, the Roma are viewed as an expendable nuisance whom time has passed by.

Much like the aboriginals, the Roma are considered drunks, thieves, lazy, violent, stupid and unwelcome, except in isolated reservations on the worst possible land.

Again using Council of Europe figures, France has perhaps just 20,000 Roma in a nation of 66 million people. That’s a percentage of the overall population so low that it breaks my calculator. Put them all in one town and they wouldn’t even officially qualify as a “town” in France.

So the cost of helping them would be a drop in the bucket, but for France the Roma are the ultimate NIMBY – Not In My Back Yard.

But the great thing about the defeat of Marine Le Pen is that France’s minorities are going to be treated much better than they have been.

Hahaha, I’m funny!

When right-wing Nicolas Sarkozy was anti-Roma, he got plenty of international condemnation. But when “Socialist” Francois Hollande expelled even more Roma and destroyed even more of their homes, such condemnation was far more muted. This is very typical treatment in the West: the Left is let off for committing the same atrocities as the Right.

Now, the fake-leftists are sleeping soundly at night because we have Emmanuel Macron in office.

So if it was Le Pen and not Macron who was such a danger to minorities, then what was I doing there?

What was the camp like? We want details

Well, first they weren’t going to let us film. Some of them are illegal, some of them are bashful, etc.

So they made a decision in the typical Western fashion: The richest 1% got together and decided.

Oh wait, this is France: I mean, the highest-ranking bureaucrat followed the precedent of Hollande, and the promise of Macron, and ruled by decree.

Not at all: the entire camp, or at least those who were interested enough, gathered together and debated it for 10 minutes. My cameraman and I waited patiently, and hoped they believed what I promised: that we were there to do a 100% pro-Roma story.

Because what’s balance in such a case? “However…some people say the Roma are diseased, voodoo-practicing beggars who leech off society while getting drunk and dancing around a bonfire every night.”

Anyway, I work for Iranian TV in English – what’s the risk, I told them? The 4 or 5 other French journalists were mostly bogged down in the minutiae of local zoning ordinances. I was there to ask the simple question: “How can the world’s 5^th-richest economy not accommodate just 20,000 Roma?”

So, they decided to let us in and – by Roma standards - it was pretty ok: A few dozen densely-packed caravans (trailers) wedged between two industrial factories, only one of which may have been working, no garbage everywhere, and no running water in the walking areas. When I left I was not covered in grime, and that may have been a first.

It was surprising how few small children there were. I guessed that this was because the stability of five years in one place had created a basic level of prosperity, and by that I mean: the ability to purchase contraception. What conservatives may not realize is that when you have to choose between contraception and food for your household, you will necessarily choose food…but that does not mean you also choose to stop having sex, of course.

While I’ve been to Roma camps and perhaps seen some questionable activity – again, hunger is not going to just stop being a constant problem and the government is providing nothing despite levying taxes – a few dozen refrigerators lined up in rows indicated that this camp’s money-producing activity seemed to be stripping old refrigerators for parts. I certainly don’t know how you could steal a fridge….

Of course begging is another way to get money. But almost nobody is going to hire a 50-year old lady, even if she’s White, so that’s why those are the ones who get sent to beg. Once kids are old enough to not get hit by cars, but haven’t yet hit puberty, they keep Grandma company. I thought going to school is a really lousy life for a kid, but it’s better than theirs.

What was very surprising to see was how many flat-screen TVs and satellite dishes there were. This will shock some people, who feel that begging should be a 24/7 occupation which does not allow for repose. They also probably don’t know how cheap TVs have become. Of course, when the cops come in with the bulldozers they will crush these TVs, and I’m sure this will make such people happy.

All in all, the nearly 200 people living there had spruced it up real nice, and caravans instead of slapdash shacks are a sign that these were indeed “middle-class Roma”. There was even a sign for the main thoroughfare which read “Place Charles de Galle”, LOL.

This camp also benefitted from the barest foundation of governmental support: their caravans rested on actual concrete foundation, as they were squatting on an unused industrial area. Usually Roma are camping on dirt floors which, of course, makes things extremely dirty when the first rain falls, which is nearly every other morning in Paris.

Don’t get me wrong – people should definitely not have been living in that area. The camp was on a long stretch of busy road where people routinely speed and where you definitely don’t want to have children playing. That’s why the camp’s gate is always closed, which makes them even more invisible to the average Frenchman. Problem? What problem?

The French government mainly hurts, it doesn’t give until it hurts

France’s Roma are consigned to such essentially hellish, noisy, dirty, dangerous places - literally on the highway shoulder, under the bridge, next to the dump – just like White Trash, and their Colored counterparts, everywhere. The difference is: the Roma get run off time after time and, if you think about it, that’s a really huge difference.

But not only had the local government tolerated this camp for 5 years, they even allowed Roma associations to help do insane, radical things like allow them to pipe in electricity and water. Thus the TVs and the hygiene. In perhaps the biggest expense to the local government, they even deigned to include their stop for garbage pickups, and that’s why garbage was not everywhere.

Perhaps only in a left-wing bastion like Bobigny - headed by Communists from 1944 to 2014 - was such social generosity available for the Roma. In Southeastern France, where the livin’ is easy but the governments are right-wing, oh la….

But since 2009 the livin’ ain’t easy anywhere in France, due to the planned failure that is neoliberal austerity…and Bobigny is no longer leftist. The new mayor of Bobigny is a conservative, and part of his election platform was clearing out the camp.

This is yet another example of how the betrayal of Hollande and the “Socialists” has turned the country to the right, and stuck it to us all 10 ways from Sunday and for countless Sundays to come.

And even though the Roma present practically no cost to the community – like, say, bailouts for foolish bankers – the government pretends like they are cutting unnecessary costs by scapegoating the Roma.

But ‘no cost’ is still too much when it comes to the Roma

The Roma face more discrimination than any other group in France. It doesn’t matter if they are citizens or not. They are banned from schools, state-run nurseries, denied hospital care and basically excluded from any and all government services. The proof of this simply everywhere.

I interviewed Annamaria Dumitru, and she explained how this refusal of even the barest of humane services creates the vicious cycle of Roma absolute poverty:

“I had to stop my job training (as a beautician) because I had to watch my little daughter, who was not allowed in schools. This is even though my family and I have all our papers.”

Voila. What else needs to be said? This is totally illegal, but totally common.

Let me make it clear: The biggest obstacle to Roma integration is that there is no national pro-Roma policy: One racist judge or anti-Roma bureaucrat can undo years of individual and collective efforts. From Ms. Dumitru to her entire community which has spent five years building and improving their home, the good works of some French people is repeatedly and easily swept away by the discrimination of other French people.

I was invited inside the home of a man in his 40s, where his wife was making his lunch: 5 or 6 fried eggs. No meat, no potatoes, not even bread.

He showed me official documents which illustrated how he had been fighting for a decision, any decision, on his citizenship application – after all, there are time limits which must be enforced. For him – because he is Roma – they are not.

One national court ruled in his favor, and they said that for each day the county fails to make a decision they will be fined 100 euros. But…I would place the odds of this fine ever being collected at slim and none. The county continues to ignore the court, and the man remains in limbo as much as any refugee.

Are Roma parents are somehow ‘different’ from other parents?

A final case from this community: I spoke with a middle-aged man and father of three. Thanks to five years of stability, his 17-year old boy had just completed high school and was hopeful to get a job.

But he was worried about his 12-year old son – what job prospects could he have if they are forced to leave and he’s not allowed in the new school? And what of his 7-year old son, who wasn’t allowed in the primary school? Like any father of any ethnicity, he wants the best for his children.

This story disproves the most reactionary, idiotic and even inhuman stereotype about the Roma: that they choose to “live differently”. C’mon…you show me a mom, who has lugged around her baby for 9 months, who doesn’t want to see her child be healthy, educated and successful? Maybe the occasional single man wants to live the nomadic troubadour life, but how many fathers do? Gimme a break….

Very worried, he asked me what I thought the camp’s chances were of being allowed to stay.

I did what I had to – I lied my butt off. I told him “50/50”.

What was I supposed to say, the truth? “C’mon man, you’ve had a good run! All the other Roma have probably been herded out like cattle 10 different times since 2012! Count your blessings! Besides, I’m sure your type just can’t resist the sound of that open road calling?”

Nonsense.

Trying to change the subject, I asked him how often he was stopped by cops for ID checks. Racial profiling, long in use, was declared legal in January.  He said it wasn’t so bad anymore – only once every couple months. This is a man with a full head of white hair, perfectly coiffed, and wearing a suit.

He then took out of his suit pocket tax forms. He wanted me to see that he had paid hundreds and hundreds of euros in local taxes. Why shouldn’t he be able to stay - he’s paying taxes, but what is he buying?

That was when I noticed that he had indeed been hiding something up his sleeve: he was apparently missing his left hand. You would think that a man who has lived in France for 18 years would have a prosthetic, but…that is really dreamland for a Roma.

It’s a question of socialization, i.e. France’s lack of Socialism

I would think that the Roma imagined they left such mistreatment behind in their ancestral India, where many treat cows better than they treat people? So what’s France’s excuse?

Obviously, it’s a lack of modern Socialist ideals.

All Socialist countries are built on racial and ethnic tolerance. The USSR and Cuba relentlessly promoted minorities to high places of power. Hugo Chavez finally got Afro-Caribbean history in their text books. Iran has Constitutionally-mandated Parliamentary seats for minority religions and groups.

France has…well, they have a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy when it comes to ethnicity or religion…and it is a total failure.

And when it comes to the Roma, it has created a reactionary view which is disgusting and near-total: A poll in 2013 found that a stunning 93% of French blamed the Roma for being unable to integrate, as if it was their choice.

Any Socialist knows France is blaming the victim, because it is all a question of socialization – racism is learned; fighting racism requires laws. Socialism says, “Are you talking racist junk about the Roma and not allowing their children in school? Well then, you are a reactionary bastard – take what money you can carry with you and get out, or we will put you in jail.”

And in Socialist success stories, such reactionaries did leave. And the newly Socialist countries were better for it – how could they not be? And in many cases these rich, racist, huddled masses caused major damage in their new countries – how could they not?

Think of the negative effect the anti-revolution Cubans and Iranians have had on US policy? What about the drug-addicted Ayn Rands, the socialist-hating, austerity-producing Austrian economists, the powerful bureaucrat Brzezinskis, etc.

As is the problem between France and their Muslim community, the main issue is the majority’s failure to believe that the minority has even one thing to teach. France not only does not tolerate multiculturalism – multiple cultures – they adhere to the assimilationist insistence that only one culture should dominate: White French Nationalism, even if it is not called that openly.

These Roma will be out on the street…but not for long, I think. Their “tribe mentality” means they have social links, so I hope that they can get just a bit of help from their Roma friends. This community-centeredness is something which individualist France would greatly benefit from learning in order to reduce their massive amount of alienation, cynicism and overall nervous tension, evidenced by their sky-high levels of addiction to anti-depressants, sleeping pills and other psychotropic drugs.

Another thing the Roma can teach them is how to play music which actually has a beat and isn’t depressing. The only French musician anyone in the US has ever heard of is a Roma: the guitarist Django Reinhardt. Serge Gainsbourg’s success is baffling to all non-French musicians, Edith Piaf’s vibrato is tighter than piano wire, Johnny Halliday probably wouldn’t have cut it in the US and I can’t name a 4^th French musician whom you have heard of.

I can solve the Roma problem right now

Just leave the Roma alone for one generation, which I have always defined as 33 years.

That’s it.

What will happen is they will have the stability to build roots, savings, ties to the community, etc. Give them the chance to build real lives and they will run with it and not look back. My source for this: the damned Roma themselves!

If you’ve read this far you should agree that the following statement is not an exaggeration: France is an apartheid state when it comes to the Roma.

For the anti-Roma resisters, i.e. “the French”…I want to ask you this question: Are you ok with your daughter marrying a Roma? If you allow them into your schools and workplaces, this is bound to happen.

I think the French aren’t ok with that, which is why they are segregated from normal society. This is disgusting, not modern and as far-right as you can get.

If you are ok with your daughter marrying a Roma – even in some far-off time like 20 years from now - that then you should realize that the best way to help your future son-in-law is to stop keeping your boot on his neck. Let ‘em live, and they’ll make good family members and citizens.

The Bobigny camp may already be gone by the time you’re reading this. The French state thinks that rendering them homeless wasn’t enough – they had to terrorize them by not giving them a date and time when the whip would come down.

And it will be a terror operation because even though just a whip, a hard look and a few hundred cops would do, France will send in the riot police, with more armor than an American football player, armed to the teeth, wreaking destruction on a small, helpless village like modern-day Mongols.

Say goodbye to “the Rome of the Roma”. I hope they start again near where I live.

There I was again, flying first class on my shareholders’ dime from New York to San Francisco, when I was deeply saddened to read about the death of Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Adviser to Jimmy Carter.

Brzezinski: an unreconstructed reactionary to the bitter end.

For a moment I thought: “Surely I can find some anti-Putin articles to read rather than this one?” Those always make me so happy!

But then I remembered that Zbig was a man after my own heart, because he was one of the West’s greatest Russophobes. Even The New York Times talked of his “rigid hatred of the Soviet Union”.

Zbig ended the détente led by Nixon as Carter, not Reagan, restarted good, old-fashioned, American Russophobia: Selling the Soviets computers with bugs for industrial sabotage, the propaganda effort of the 1980 Olympic Boycott, the US grain embargo to try and starve the Russian people, the arming of the Taliban’s forerunners to destabilize a left-wing government in Afghanistan and thus unleashing Islamic terrorism on the world, etc.

Just as American Democrats know for an undeniable fact that Jimmy Carter is our nation’s greatest living man of peace, I contend that Zbig’s anti-Russian stance makes him nearly as great a humanitarian, and certainly a model Democrat in 2017.

And Zbig knew, as I and all good Democrats know, that the greatest fight of our generation is the fight against Vladimir Putin. Poverty, starvation, refugees, terrorism, climate change – everyone in America is realizing that if we can just get rid of Putin, everything else will surely fall into line. Surely!

So I was pretty sad to read of Zbig’s passing, but that’s when it hit me: Just because he’s gone, it doesn’t mean we have to give up hating Russia! We’ve been hating Russia since November – more than 6 months now – and, frankly…it feels awesome! I don’t how long it takes to make a habit permanent, so let’s all agree to lock this in this Russophobia for at least 3.5 more years, possibly 7.5!

It would be a fitting testament to a man whose prophetic Russophobia was misunderstood as “anti-communism”.

Say it loud: It’s time for progressive Americans to unite behind hating Russians! Again!

Let’s party like it’s 1979!

Russophobia isn’t actually racism – it proves your patriotism

Now, I’m as politically-correct a CEO as was ever made - my allegiance to Hillary proves that - but I can tell that some people think that I should equivocate by writing “hating the Russian government” instead of “the Russians”.

Well, it’s bold, but being bold is why we CEOs deserve the big bucks and you deserve our crumbs. Not our table crumbs – those are too good for you – I mean the crumbs that fall around our fine, Italian shoes. 

Here’s the problem with the Russians: Putin’s approval rating is over 85%.

Putin surrounded by Russian girls—who clearly admire him. Obviously we can't trust their judgment.

It is a testament to the master of evil that he has duped nearly all 144 million Russian citizens. They said that 50 million Elvis fans can’t be wrong, but 124 million Putin fans clearly are. I don’t know anything about Russian domestic politics, but I don’t have to  - that’s my right as an American.

So I think that if we are going to keep the pressure on Putin we’re going to have to widen our net a bit. I’m not sure even Rachel Maddow can focus solely on Putin until possibly 2024?

Lord knows Saint Rachel has tried! She devoted 53% of her program to anti-Russian topics over a 6 week period. I would estimate the Facebook pages of those who watch MSNBC are 90% dedicated to sharing her anti-Russian views. I certainly approve of that…but never during work hours!

Here’s the thing, and we can take advantage of this: Nobody in the US even knows if it’s actually “racist” to be racist towards Russians.

Are the Russians a race? They’re pretty numerous, after all. But maybe they’re Slavs? Does anyone here know what a Slav is? Aren’t they Orthodox Christian? Is that like the Greeks? Is being against Greeks racist? They sure look pretty indistinguishable from Turks, but whoever heard of anti-Greek racism – they’re the fount of Western civilization despite half of ancient Greece being in Turkey?

Here’s another point in our favor: We have no racial slur against Russians, because it’s ok to insult practically anyone from Central or Eastern Europe. We can call Czechs “Bohunks” and Hungarians “Honkys” without anyone batting an eye.

Are Russians offended at “Rooskie”? “Rooskie” just seems to mean a “Russian”?

We can’t call the Japanese “Japs”, of course, but it’s ok to call those from Scotland “Scots”, which is odd. The British can’t call Pakistanis “Pakis”, even though Pakistan means “land of the pure”, hardly an insult but certainly factually incorrect. The British call Indians “Asians”, but in the US “Asians” are the Chinese and the lesser Chineses.

Clearly, we need to devise a better slur immediately to help sustain our Russophobia.

But my larger point is: Let’s just call Russians “White” - this way we can be racist against them with no problem at all! They certainly look Whiter than the Greeks, now that I think about it….But this is all distracting us from advancing the Russophobe agenda!

I’m here to proclaim: Russophobia is not racist! It’s like being racist against the French – it’s just good sense!

Russophobe progressives of the US unite ! You have nothing to lose but your chains!

I spoke to a Russian passenger on the plane about all this.

Well, that’s not actually true. You see, as an American progressive I’d never talk to anybody who could even possibly give me the hint of nearly being able to say something which could remotely be perceived as being maybe not 100% condemnatory of Putin.

So not only do I refuse to even have dinner with anyone who I suspect of voting for Trump, but I’m certainly not going to come within 3 feet of someone who might explain Putin’s popularity.  It is better that 124 million Putin-supporters be condemned than to allow one Putin-supporter to go free!

If there’s one thing American’s don’t do, it’s play chess

Another thing Americans don’t do: have an exit strategy. And what’s the exit strategy towards our 6 month love affair of hating Russians? There is none. So let’s just keep going despite all the problems, like Americans do.

Please note: I will immediately notify my friends in the Deep State if anyone posts a comment below which discusses any possible exit strategy. Because how could we let Putin off the hook for meddling in US democracy? We have no proof after 6 months, despite having the best spy network and computer hackers in the world, but... all we need is more time! I’m sure of it! Rachel Maddow, my darling, I believe you!

And Zbig’s daughter, poor Mika Brzezinski, I truly am sorry for her loss. There is nothing funny about losing your father. But I’m sure Mika will carry the torch and continue her father’s anti-Russian crusade, as she has done at MSNBC, where she is another impeccably credible journalist who got to where she is with no help at all from Daddy, who was a regular analyst on her show.

And, like Rachel, Mika should be a role model for not just female journalists but serious thinkers everywhere: just look at this sexy photo shoot with Vanity Fair. What? I heard Marie Curie made similar photos in her lab involving Erlenmeyer flasks.

The whole world knows that America can always rely on our impeccable mainstream media, which is so free from bias.

Why, if we had a Russophobia problem The New York Times would have covered it by now, right? But they have written just 1 article which raised American “Russophobia” in the last 6 months, so we’re clearly fine!

Doesn’t hating Russians just ‘feel’ right?

To be honest, I was worried about my aged father, with whom – of course – I have basically no contact. He lives in a nursing home. I can never forgive him for that time as a child when we were in a grocery store and he refused to buy me sugary cereal.

He was really anti-Russian – to honor our forefathers we need his hate to not be in vain!

I’m also worried about my kids: I grew up being taught to hate Russians – there’s no questioning the values with which I was raised - but this recent Russophobia is all new to them.

Our propaganda efforts are way behind! Remember this video game from the 80s - “Rush‘n Attack” (say it fast). Knifing guys wearing fur-lined coats amid a snowy backdrop – but that was totally not Cold War propaganda because Americans don’t do propaganda, of course.

Part of this is my fault, I’ll admit. Among the many boards I sit on is a video game company, and we patriotically tried to do a reboot of this game during Obama’s “pivot to Asia”:

We called it “Chin Kick”. The cover had a boot in someone’s face – all you could see was a bamboo hat and two big front teeth flying off in either direction.

But we didn’t get it finished before the 2016 election, and here we are pivoting back to Russia (thankfully). By the way, this failure made our stock dip. I fired 700 workers, so problem solved.

I shouldn’t have asked him, but….

Remember my coworker whom I can’t stand, Fazlollah? I should know better than to bring up politics with him, but I had just printed out a new photo of Putin for my dartboard so I had to pass by his cubicle. All Fazlollahs must be familiar with Afghanistan, I figured, so I asked him for a high-five about Brzezinski’s successful plan to bankrupt the USSR by supporting the Mujahedeen there. All Americans know that this is how we brought down the Soviets.

Fazlollah made a long pause and said, “I thought it was applying American economic ideas which bankrupted the Soviets?”

As usual, I have no idea what planet he’s from, so I changed the subject. I tried to talk to him about Putin.

Fazlollah said, “My friend, have you considered seeing someone about your OCD?”

He’s totally un-American, so he doesn’t realize how being obsessed with Russia is the new patriotism.

In fact, I’m not sure where he’s from….Human Resources says we’re not allowed to ask each other’s religion, but he’s not Christian because he’s doing Ramadan, which apparently just started.

Frankly, his increased niceness despite what must be a sub-zero blood sugar level is annoying. I told Fazlollah about how one of my family members does something similar: They gave up putting milk in their coffee for Lent. Think of it - a whole month with black coffee!

Fazlollah perceived that, due to my OCD, I was physically unable to leave his cubicle until we had talked about Putin.

He sighed and said in his accented English, “The US has interfered in the democratic affairs of dozens of nations just since World War II. So what if Russia exposed corruption in the Democratic Party? What’s good for the goose is good for the duck, right?”

That was hilarious! I made sure everybody heard his mistake!

“Hey Fazlollah, can you take a gander at some papers,” I shouted! Everybody laughed…another intellectual victory for me!

Russophobia must be the progressive cause of our generation!

We progressive Americans fought against Russian socialism and now we need to fight against Russian non-socialism! 

Get the flags up! “More Prussia, less Russia!” “Are You Putin Me On, Trump?” “No dogs or Russians allowed!”

I can’t wait to see the hagiographies of Zbig on MSNBC - we must keep his progressive legacy alive to fight the not-completely Russophobic Trump administration! The New York Times admiringly wrote about Zbig: “But his strict adherence to ideas in which virtually every issue circled back to the threat of Soviet domination was remarkable….”

You see? Russophobia is “remarkable” and admirable.

But…it made me a bit worried: I just don’t see anything similar to that in 2017. America has changed so much…even the names are all different. I mean, where are we going to find a “Zbigniew” to cheerlead our Russophobia?

And my psychiatrist says I’m in a dangerous state – he says that, after 6 months, any let-up in my Russophobia addiction could be catastrophic. 

Because…what else would we talk about? Hillary’s failed policies? Obama’s failed policies? Fixing those policies?

Clearly, that’s something only Putin would want! 

The Hollande era has ended, and the Macron era has begun – one must look to Brussels to find many who are happy about it.

This is not a column about Hollande’s reign, and reign is the right word for a man who leaves the country in an 18-month state of emergency, i.e. a police state dictatorship. But it would be too long to list all of Hollande’s crimes against France’s humanity and France’s humans, legal citizens and otherwise.

That is a column for another day.

It’s absurd to read the mainstream media’s coverage of the undearly departed Hollande: They are trying to convince us that he “didn’t deserve his unpopularity”, that he was “misunderstood” or that he “will be appreciated later”.

All of these false narratives arrogantly and shockingly whitewash his four years of record unpopularity, and they also show whose side the mainstream media is truly on: the side of power, and not the people.

If you are on the side of the French people you do not write such revisionist hagiographies of such a flagrantly undemocratic president – you condemn; you reflect the judgment of the people. That’s the only way a journalist should be able to cash their paycheck with a clear conscience.

Hollande betrayed his promises to fight for the rights of his people so scandalously that it is absolutely justice that he was betrayed in the end: Macron appears to have manipulated Hollande perfectly.

I’ll drop the repugnant Hollande with this clear statement: Hollande did not deserve any better than this – to be betrayed by the unknown he plucked from the chorus, groomed for power, and whose name was on the handle of the knife in his back.

Who is this kid we’re stuck with?

A fundamental question which will likely dog Macron: Is Macron an authentic person?

I covered the recent passing of Fidel Castro for Press TV and I heard from everyday people over and over – many of whom had met Castro – that he was an “authentic person”. I thought: “I hope people say the same for me when I pass on.”

But I am a nobody and I do not seek power over others – if I am an inauthentic person the circle of people I hurt will be limited. An inauthentic president, however, ruins entire nations.

Macron’s wife is a good indication that he may not be an authentic person. They met when she was his high school drama teacher: How can any actor ever be considered an “authentic person”? Actors pretend to be anyone but themselves, after all; they are people who perfect the craft of lying in public.

Trump was an amateur thespian, and I don’t think he even stops for five minutes to ask himself who he really is.

The fact is that since the advent of moving pictures politicians increasingly have nothing to do with intellectual accomplishments, ethical standing or even military discipline/selflessness – they simply know how to lie with poise after reading the polling data, which they throw out once in office.

A word about France’s new first lady, Brigitte Macron, née Trogneux: She was not just a simple drama and French teacher, as is commonly reported. She is also an heiress of the Chocolaterie Trogneux family. The former failed politician is not as rich as Theresa Heinz Kerry, but many are at a loss to explain America’s love for ketchup.

I’ve known plenty of 39-year olds who “kept it real” – the jury is out on Macron.

So far the MacronLeaks have not turned up much. To be honest, we journalists in France need more time – we have been busy with the transfer of power. However, Macron is from the new generation which grew up with home video games and computers in his private schools – he’s not dumb enough to leave digital evidence of malfeasance, one assumes.

So far the biggest thing has been that the Macron team paid hundreds of thousands of euros for polls. Obviously, this needs to be probed deeper, but I bring it up because Macron has just announced his prime minister.

The old lady, or ladies, who would be prime minister (ministerette?)

A front-runner for Prime Minister was Laurence Parisot, who is now the head of the national bosses union – yes, even bosses get a union in France, and they are almost supremely powerful in the political-business sphere, as you can imagine. Parisot owns and runs perhaps the top polling firm in France, IFOP, the French Institute of Public Opinion.

This intersection between polling and politics should worry any citizen. Of course, market research firms sell polls – that’s what people who are too dumb to be journalists and too uncreative to be advertisers do – but the obvious temptation to manipulate public opinion with false polling should preclude someone from holding office in a normal democracy.

However, Parisot was passed over. Many assumed it would be current IMF chief Christine Lagarde. It was not.

Many assumed it would be some old lady – any old lady - because the 39-year old Macron married a 64-year old woman, so he clearly works well with the elder female generation.

People are asking: “When will they stop bringing up his wife’s age?” They won’t, at least outside of France. That’s because most everyone assumes there is a moral component to sex, love and marriage. A winter-summer romance, especially on the flip-side of the usual gender, is going to provoke questions and that’s life in the public eye.

But this, however, is France. Mitterand had a secret family which the press dutifully covered up; Hollande secretly dated an actress. If Macron has certain needs – however varied his may be – that 39-year old men have…well, he’s in the right country to keep it under wraps.

Or maybe he’s already found that mistress that every French president seems to have: Angela Merkel.

Hey, shortly after appointing his Prime Minister that’s who he flew off to see…but my imagination insists on keeping visions of that meeting purely work-related. It’s bad enough that Merkel has damaged so much else!

Is Macron even capable saying “no” to Merkel? Regardless of any possible attraction, it’s much more likely this generation’s Margaret Thatcher will act as the inexperienced Macron’s guru, and all we can do is just groan yet again.

As Marine Le Pen said in the lone presidential debate: “In any case France will be governed by a woman: either me or Madame Merkel.” Ouch!

But, for form’s sake, Merkel was not appointed French Prime Minister

The new prime minister is 47-year old Edouard Philippe.

Who? Well, that’s not such a bad response – maybe Macron is going to do what he promised: totally regenerate France’s pool of politicians. Polls said that was the 2^nd most-popular reason why voters chose Macron over Le Pen. Neither the Socialists nor the party of de Gaulle advanced to the 2^nd round for the first time ever in large part for this important reason.

The new PM may not even last a month, however – it all depends on the “Third Round of the Presidential Elections”: next month’s legislative elections.

Macron’s list of legislative candidates is also pleasantly surprising, in this vein – there are only a few dozen recycled Socialists among the first 430 of roughly 580 candidates. Half are new to politics (probably businessmen, I imagine). We’ll have to wait for the final list, but now is the time to be optimistic: Maybe there really will be new blood in the halls of French power? Maybe the Socialists will get the punishment they deserve? Maybe the Conservatives won’t keep getting ghost jobs on the taxpayer dime?

It would be very easy for Macron to blow up the system: He has already said that he is not envisioning a career in politics. His hope appears to be to stay president for 10 years and then go back into the private sector and make more Rothschild-type of money.

As I wrote, this is good in the sense that it reflects the democratic will of the people – well, at least one current of it. However, there are clearly drawbacks to having your country run by mercenaries.

It is very easy to blow up public service when you have no intention of recreating a better public service. Isn’t this the overarching goal of neoliberalism? Reflect on this at your leisure….

The goal of Western politicians is not to create a better government, but to end social services and become billionaires. Look at the Clintons; look at Barack Obama, who is somehow planning to own an NBA team on the salary of a university professor and presidential pension.

There is no guarantee that Macron’s party will win a majority in Parliament – that’s actually opposed by 61% of the public – but bringing in political neophytes also has a nefarious advantage: they will be easy to control and whip into line. Hollande’s far-right “deforms” – not “reforms” – suffered from too many Socialist “rebels” (LOL) who refused to back them. Macron saw up close how Hollande had to bypass Parliament, threatening it with dissolution, in order to pass the right-wing labor code rollback known as the “Macron Law”.

It sucks to be ruled by a Westerner – welcome to the 3^rd World

Here is what the new prime minister thought of Macron – per an interview with French centrist paper Libération, dated January 18 of this year:

“Who is Macron? For some, impressed by his ability to seduce and his reformist rhetoric, he will be the natural son of Kennedy and Mendès France. We can doubt this: the first had more charisma and the second had more principles. For others, he will be Brutus, the adoptive son of Caesar.”

Wow…was this the best buddy Macron could find to be his number two? Can’t Macron play nice with people his own age? Compare me to Brutus and I wouldn’t hire you to run my lemonade stand.

“Macron, who takes no responsibility but promises everything, with the ardor of a youthful conqueror and the cynicism of an old truck-driver. If I dare to say it, he acts like a used-car salesman.”

Sweet Mary, whose side are you on?! Why on earth are you going to work for such a man, then? Do you just want money and power, is it? Who is worse – you or your boss? Sheesh….

The luckiest countries - whether they know it or not - have revolutionaries as leaders instead of politicians. Ho Chi Minh, Sankara, Khomeini - all were simple people who lived simply, with no desire for material wealth. You might not agree with them, but damned if they weren't authentic people.

In the West it's nothing but total phonies running the show. There’s no metric for it, but the effect this has on increasing individual alienation must be astronomical.

Who with a normal salary would really rather have a Hillary or a Macron instead of a Castro? All Cubans want is the West to lift their blockade – they don’t want Western culture. Of course, Westerners assume the Coloreds surely want both: Excuse us while we either bust a gut laughing or an eye vessel from excessive rolling.

Well, Brutus lasted only a year in power. Macron appears likely to be the 3^rd consecutive 1-term president in France – such turnover is great for established capitalists and terrible for the long-term management of society’s needs.

But we should not be cynical from the beginning: The owl of Minerva flies at night. That’s a dramatic way of saying that we can’t properly judge until time has run its course.

But it is midnight for Hollande, and the very real victims of austerity hope it comes crashing down on him like the thunder of hell.

I’m getting pretty dramatic here, eh?! Macron and his wife would likely applaud.

Best of luck enjoying your Macron era!