Why America Sucks And Why It’s Great
Daily Show won’t let me center this, their website kinda sucks.
This Daily Show episode highlights America’s foreign policy piece de retardance – the Israel-Palestine affair. Now the US is cutting off funding for UNESCO (largely humanitarian work) because they dared vote to recognize Palestine. That sucks, but the Daily Show has fully and hilariously called them on it. That’s what’s great.
One major thing wrong with America is its willful and ignorant foreign policy, an issue Julian Assange has discussed with some intelligence. His basic point is, well, here:
The U.S. saw the French Revolution and it also saw the behavior of the U.K. and the other kings and dictatorships, so it intentionally produced a very weak President. The President was, however, given a lot of power for external relations, so as time has gone by, the presidency has managed to exercise its power through its foreign affairs function. If we look at what happened with Obama and health care reform, we see this extraordinary situation where Obama [indecipherable] can order strikes against U.S. citizens overseas but is not able to pass, at least not easily and not in the form that he wanted, a health reform bill domestically.
Assange is talking about the Presidency, but it applies to the government in general. As Stuart Reid wrote: “The game becomes much easier if foreign policy decisions are obscured from the domestic audience.”
A lot of US foreign policy is enacted upon people that can’t vote on it, backed by taxpayer funds of people too busy to lobby or care. So you get a lot of policy that’s bad for the US, the people its purporting to help, and generally everybody. That sucks.
What’s great, however, is that American people are uniquely mediated and that makes them quite powerful, if they pay attention. For example, I learned about this UNESCO through a US TV program (The Daily Show) filmed in New York, publicly accessing and making fun of US representatives. That’s what’s right about America.
In this report, John Oliver totally ridicules the US policy, going so far as to travel to Gabo, probably putting significant pressure on the government and getting US citizens involved in a dangerous foreign policy largely ignored by their population, and thus largely immune to democratic oversight. And it’s fun to watch.
That’s what’s great about America. It has better TV than the Chinese. And it’s a functioning democracy. I think the two may be connected.
Posted on Saturday, March 17th, 2012 in Politics, USA, Video.
Mohsin Hamid, author of How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia, has a nice 
I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and 
I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the 
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from 
Democratic America have many undemocratic allies and support “undemocracy” outside America. It seems they prefer democracy only in their country. Many of the world’s most repressive dictators have been friends of America. Tyrants, torturers, killers, and sundry dictators and corrupt puppet-presidents have been aided, supported, and rewarded handsomely for their loyalty to US interests.
These undemocratic allies rise to power through bloody ClA-backed coups and rule by terror and torture. Their troops may receive training or advice from the CIA and other US agencies. US military aid and weapons sales often strengthen their armies and guarantee their hold on power (Eg. Saudi Arabi). Willingness to provide unhampered access for American business interests to exploit their countries’ natural resources and cheap labor are the excuses for their repression, and the primary reason the US government supports them. Rarely are they called to account for their crimes. And rarely still, is the US government held responsible for supporting and protecting some of the worst human rights violators in the world.
This is a puppet show. The puppeteers are following a script. The world is on to US script and won’t take it anymore. US arms the same elements that they expect to fight in the future … they allow a crisis to evolve in order to market intervention to the American public and select allies.
To the populations back home in US the reason often given for was for “freedom”, “stability”, “Protecting America” and so on.