Today's big read
/jd
The John McCain Phenomenon
–– The political establishment needed a war-hero fetish object—and so it invented one
John McCain is finally dead.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/the-mccain-phenomenon-blanchfield
There are so many quotable quotes in this Patrick Blanchfield essay I feel bad only stealing one. Blanchfield dives hard into what Americans needs in a hero and how willing the American media is to build a mountain of horse shit to sell it them. All in the service to the American empire and keep it going, even as it is clearly failing now. best quote...
/jd
‘…The reckless Hotshot becomes the Maverick, who happens to always vote the same way as the Company Man; Han Solo, but for Empire.
And behind this narrative, so appealing to so many Americans, lies yet another one, about the supposed power of suffering and sacrifice to endow the sufferer with wisdom and to produce moral transformation. Not for nothing has the writer Peter Lucier, an Afghanistan veteran, argued that Americans seem to want their veterans to be quasi-Christ figures, at once Messiah, High Priest, and Sacrificial Lamb, the delegated executors and interpreters of a civic religion which their sacrifice dignifies and consecrates.
From the stories of his time in the Hanoi Hilton, which in the telling of admirers can take on the feel of a Passion Play, to the outsized hopes laid on McCain as a could-have-been-transformational president, the McCain Phenomenon plays all these keys, and more…’
Read it all at… https://thebaffler.com/latest/the-mccain-phenomenon-blanchfield
Even when the Saudis actually admit to war crimes, the US/UK weaponry keeps flowing to them.
/jd
‘…In a rare admission, a U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition accepted responsibility Saturday for an airstrike last month on a school bus in northern Yemen that killed scores of people, including at least 40 children.
The statement by the coalition called the attack unjustified and vowed to punish those involved.
[….] More than 17,000 civilians have been killed or injured since the war began, mostly by airstrikes. The fighting has deepened the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and millions are suffering from hunger, disease and displacement…’
Juan Cole writes about McCain…
‘…The really big problems that the United States faces are not a matter of personality. They are structural. On structural matters, McCain voted with Trump 83% of the time…’
https://www.juancole.com/2018/09/funeral-personalities-drilling.html
Gideon Levi writes… Shame on You, America
‘…Anyone familiar with the conditions in the refugee camps knows just how dependent their inhabitants are on the UN agency. There might be some waste, certainly there are freeloaders, reform is absolutely necessary, but UNRWA provides basic humanitarian assistance. Without it there are no schools, clinics and food in the camps. America owes an indirect debt to the people there; it funds and supports the Israeli occupation, and it has never lifted a finger to reach a genuine solution to their suffering.
But the new America has lost its shame, too; it no longer even wants to pretend to be the honest broker, or take care of the world’s needy, as its position obliges it to do. Let us say, then, shame on you, America…’
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-shame-on-you-america-1.6434429
archived with no paywall: https://archive.fo/CdUXX
Drought In Central Europe Reveals Cautionary ‘Hunger Stones’ In Czech River
‘…A lengthy drought in Europe has exposed carved boulders, known as “hunger stones,” that have been used for centuries to commemorate historic droughts — and warn of their consequences.
The Associated Press reports that hunger stones are newly visible in the Elbe River, which begins in the Czech Republic and flows through Germany.
“Over a dozen of the hunger stones, chosen to record low water levels, can now be seen in and near the northern Czech town of Decin near the German border,” the AP writes.
One of the stones on the banks of the Elbe is carved with the words “Wenn du mich siehst, dann weine”: “If you see me, weep.”…’
via https://twitter.com/BenSpielberg/status/1036209190363049984