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I love listening and watching the news, especially on Democracy Now. Some days it is almost too much to wrap my head around. I got to thinking about the fantastic US bottom line policy of "If something doesn't work, then more of that same something is bound to work.": I recall frantic discussions about the need for longer school days because in some districts the kids were in eleventh grade and still hadn't learned to read. So, the obvious solution was that they needed more time each day to be doing exactly the same thing that had failed them for ten years. Oye!

So about sanctions: They never worked in the past to get our desired result, they certainly haven't gotten rid of Fidel in Cuba, for instance, so the best solution has to be more sanctions. Are we nuts?  I saw Hillary in a news clip passionately begging the UN for deeper sanctions against Iran. She was also saying that the US will not stand for civilians getting killed in Syria ?Egypt? Libya? Yemen? What are our drones doing in ten countries at least right now? Does she remember who is the only nation ever to have used atomic power and oops! on civilians.  Do you sometimes wonder what the fuck is going on here.


I remember so well that freezing (in New York at least) day when around the world some sixteen million people marched against the impending invasion of Iraq and George the Second declared that it didn't matter one bit to him what people thought. He was the leader. A few months later he changed his tune from his lies about nukes in Iraq and declared that we were there to make the country free for democracy. And a democracy Bush style really meant that it doesn't matter what the people thought. The sanctions didn't work so well there either. In retrospect, I suppose that we should have done more. Maybe that is the real American lesson. We never go far enough.


Think about potato chips and ice cream. I bought a yummy ice cream cone in Nicaragua the other day and it was about the size of two tablespoons and all the Nicaraguans were thrilled and then some North American buffaloes came in and had to ask for like a quintuple serving and still talked about how small it was. Remember when chips came in one flavor and were in those tiny bags and were a real and rare treat? Now you need an SUV to get the huge bags home from Cosco and WalMart. So maybe we are learning our lesson. If a little doesn't work, try more and more.