An email from Robert McKinney:

.




bravo Linh Dinh.

America has a legion of ogres, some very much in the public eye now that the November election is looming large. We heard from one of these ogres just two days ago, the Missourian politician Todd Akin. I've never trusted anyone with a moniker like "Todd". Sounds too much like some frat brother who serves as the social chairman of the fraternity and kisses ass big time. Akin has issues. How would he respond if he were "legitimately" raped? Would his body reject the overtures and physical assault? Or would Akin "squeal like a stuck pig" and cry for revenge? How well these Republican stuff shirt prigs can endure the pain and anguish of others, especially girls and young women who have been raped. Akin would tell the traumatized victim, "it was God's will", only adding salt to her wounds. Who are these fucking assholes? I can't get out of Missouri too soon.

Bradley Manning is the decent man as is Julian Assange. The Ecuadorian president, Rafael Correa, is a man of great honor. Britain and the U.S. are very fearful of decent men. They seem to embrace ogres with much greater alacrity and heart felt affection. Look how Richard Nixon defeated George McGovern in 1972! Nixon was an ogre on a grand scale. I'm not sure who was the bigger ogre, Nixon or George W. Bush?

I was in Tokyo when the sordid and tragic ordeal of Bobby Fischer played itself out over a year long period. He shouted obscenities at the American officials hanging around Narita as an Icelandic diplomat escorted him through Narita Airport and Fischer finally found safe asylum in Iceland. Here was one of the greatest chess masters of all time being treated like a petty thief. The arrogance of the U.S. Embassy officials in Tokyo was appalling. Mr. Fischer should never have been imprisoned. The Japanese authorities were obviously just doing the embassy goons a favor. Some say that the Foreign Ministry in Japan is just an annex to the U.S. State Department. Perhaps so.

Why was Daniel Ellsberg allowed to publish "The Pentagon Papers" but poor Manning is being tortured and humiliated
for his efforts to inform the American public that its "democracy and freedom" loving government isn't really that keen for such principles after all?! What's that nonsense about free speech and freedom of the press? Not when national security is at stake. And the government elites will tell you that its all about national security these days, even when not so Secret Service agents screw around with Columbian sex workers while purportedly "protecting" the POTUS! When did the American media begin to act so much like the Soviet era Russian propagandists who once did "state journalism" for Pravda? Why so many apologists for an Ogre like George W. Bush?

And yes, the parallel between what happened in that movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado last month, a massive shooting, and what American soldiers and pilots do all too often in places like Iraq and Afghanistan is obvious to anyone who still has the capacity to think critically in America. We'll never know how many Iraqi and Afghan citizens have been coldly murdered by American soldiers who have displayed all the signs of psychotic meltdown. Hell, some of our boys in the military were badly disturbed before they went to Iraq. For them the adventure of killing was all too appealing. Murdering rag heads or "sand niggers" and being called a "hero". Hey, America might be one very sick puppy at this point in its history. What else is new?

I'm returning to Japan in early September. Goodbye Missouri. Living in this region of the U.S. has been an educational experience. Did you know that Harry S. Truman, the guy who ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was once a bagman for the Pendergast political machine in Kansas City? One of young Truman's jobs was to collect the protection money from all the local cat houses and turn this money over to his boss, Tom Pendergast. Folks used to joke that Truman was "the U.S. Senator from Pendergast". Certainly Truman was a world class ogre but he managed to create this public image of being so folksy and just "plain old Harry Truman". Ha, what a joke.

Have things changed all that much in the modern era? Not really. In fact, maybe things are a tad worse.

Some days if I didn't feel a measure of despair, I wouldn't have any feelings at all.

I'm going to 'retire' in Japan. Stop writing and just take long hikes in the mountains of Hokkaido, eat lots of fresh seafood, and soak in the many hot springs. Good luck America, you're goin' need it.

Cheers, Robert McKinney





.