Musings: State of Shibai

It was such a joy to hear the rain come in the night and stay, depositing nearly half an inch of much-needed moisture before it slipped away, leaving big puddles and fog creeping across the road when the dogs and I went out walking in darkness broken only by a few stars and the blinking lights of aircraft overhead.

It had been so long since it rained that I was beginning to feel like I lived on the leeward side. Guess this is what Hawaii under climate change is going to feel like. But don't worry, can still be business as usual —NOT!

Speaking of which, last night Obama gave his bizarre State of the Union address, in which he began by exhorting us to mirror the example set by the Armed Forces — what, you mean follow orders blindly and kill innocents in defense of empire and some bullshit about making America safe, even as we willfully destroy the environment that provides our true security just so we can continue to wildly consume energy and everything else? Ummm, no thanks.

Or was he suggesting we emulate the high rates of suicide, depression, domestic violence, unemployment and brain damage suffered by too many of the 2.3 million vets who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, or the frustration they experience when being jacked around by the VA when it's swamped under a whopping backlog of 900,000 disability claims?

Yet Obama actually had the nerve to say: “As they come home, we must serve them as well as they've served us.” Get real. If you want to know what crappy service we're giving those sent to fight those two misguided wars, read this article in The Week.

After pandering to the vets and nationalistic sentiment, he moved on to the middle class, talking about income inequality and the bad guys on Wall Street, which prompted Ralph Nader to point out:

"Where has he been for over three years? He’s had the Justice Department. There are existing laws that could prosecute and convict Wall Street crooks. He hasn’t sent more than one or two to jail."

But while Obama talked a lot of shit, these two lines really stood out:

We will stand against violence and intimidation. We will stand for the rights and dignity of all human beings

Meanwhile, in the real world, Homeland Security is teaming up with the Coast Guard to create a security zone at Kaunakakai Harbor on Molokai precisely for the purpose of intimidating residents — through the threatened use of violence — who oppose the Safari Explorer cruise ship. It's the same strategy Lingle employed during the Superferry protests: slap up an exclusionary “security zone” and threaten anyone who enters it with a federal crime. Oh, and they'll take away your kids, too. Remember that?

As the notice in the federal register reads, emphasis added:

The establishment of this security zone is necessary to enable the Coast Guard and its law enforcement partners to protect people, vessels, and facilities in and around Kaunakakai Harbor during potential non-compliant protests involving the passenger vessel SAFARI EXPLORER to its intended berth in the harbor.

That's the true state of the union, folks. You can engage in civil disobedience only in the manner the government prescribes. Otherwise, you're non-compliant and treated like a terrorist. But hey, this is a democracy, which means you can submit your comments on the zone even though it went into effect on Jan. 19 and was already used last weekend. And you know they're gonna do it no matter what the people say. That's why I really had to laugh at the part that reads:

We encourage you to participate in this rulemaking by submitting comments and related materials.

Yeah, and don't forget to vote, too. hahahahaha