Politics – Page 4

OCCUPIED (2015)

January 29, 2018 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

In OCCUPIED (2015), a Norwegian TV series now available on Netflix (created by bestselling author Jo Nesbø), Russia undertakes an “iron hand in a silk glove” (soft in appearance but ruthless in reality) invasion of Norway, resulting in an amazing political thriller that had me on the edge of my seat.

Several years in the future, turmoil in the Middle East reduces oil production. The United States achieves energy independence and withdraws from its commitments there as well as NATO. In Norway, a green party, headed by Prime Minister Jesper Berg, ceases all oil and gas production after a hurricane devastates the country and causes a movement to halt climate change. The country is switching to a thorium-based energy source and hopes Europe will do the same. Desperate for energy and unable to switch in time, the European Union gives Russia the green light to seize Norway’s oilfields in the North Sea and impose other demands on the country. (No wonder this show upset the Kremlin.)

In this turmoil, we follow a number of engaging characters. Jesper Berg, the prime minister, tries to collaborate with the Russians to get them to leave, compromising his government and its platform in the process. One layer of the show is the politics inside the government and Berg trying to outsmart the Europeans and the Russians in a diplomatic cat and mouse game. Djupvik, one of his bodyguards, rises to become an important player in both Norwegian and Russian intelligence, producing another layer that functions as a spy thriller. Thomas Eriksen, a journalist, takes on Berg, the Russians, and the growing Free Norway underground, while his wife’s flagging restaurant revives due to patronage by Russian officials, marking her as a collaborator. Then we have the Free Norway underground, which grows steadily in popularity until it’s functioning as a full-fledged terrorist movement.

In each episode, these characters are increasingly put through the wringer as the occupation challenges their principles, puts them into no-win situations, and steadily raises the stakes as the first season nails a riveting climax. A lot of the time, you’re not even sure who’s a hero or villain in all this, who is trustworthy to whom, and if what they’re saying is true. The result is an intense story that operates simultaneously as a political, international, spy, and police thriller, with frequent unexpected surprises. The main premise may seem a stretch, but everything that happens is realistic, the characters in particular are endearing and realistic, even the minor ones, and the pacing and dialogue are terrific. Highly recommended, and I’ll be keeping my eye out for season 2, which has already aired in Norway and other countries.

(On a side note, the show is spoken in Norwegian with a little English and Russian. The Norwegian language is wonderful, and so are the people, all of them attractive and living in what seems to be an orderly, clean, and caring society. Unintentionally, the show acted as a tourism commercial for me, I’d love to visit some day. The only really odd note for me is the song that opens each show. The lyrics are great if you tune in, but the tone is really off.)

SAVING CAPITALISM (2017)

December 6, 2017 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

In SAVING CAPITALISM (2017), a documentary on Netflix, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich highlights the major points in his book with the same title while having conversations with ordinary Americans about how changes in the economy are affecting them. This spot-on analysis of how American democracy has become corrupted by corporate influence, and what this means for the economy and average Americans, is essential viewing for people of all political stripes.

Reich is a Democrat who was Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, but his analysis speaks to anger that crosses the cultural divide in America and speaks to almost everybody in a nonpartisan way. The documentary shows him talking to conservatives and libertarians who humorously agree with him but then fall back on stereotypes about liberals to insist there shouldn’t be agreement. Reich’s central thesis is that a free market doesn’t exist in America, there is simply government making rules that define the game. Deregulation is more about changing the rules to suit big business than it is eliminating regulation. He charts how the rich and big business accumulate wealth, which they use to accumulate power, which they use to change the rules to benefit them, and how this hurts democracy and workers. The result is a country that is a de facto oligarchy designed to serve the few instead of everybody. The horrifying Republican tax bill–which gives massive tax breaks to corporations and the rich, which will come at the expense of Social Security and Medicare–is a perfect example of this. Reich predicted anger and resentment about income inequality in the 90s, when he found himself increasingly marginalized in the Clinton Administration, and it explains why many of the same people supported both Sanders and Trump. Both candidates spoke to income inequality, though arguably only one actually meant it. It’s a stark raving fact that the middle class has been steadily shrinking for decades and all economic gains are going to the top 1%.

The people in SAVING CAPITALISM recognize the same problem but have different solutions. The leftist may come away from SAVING CAPITALISM saying, maybe capitalism shouldn’t be saved. In fact, Reich’s analysis is so frank and bleak it makes you wonder what can be done. While socialism and capitalism can work well together, pure socialism, even democratic socialism, may not be the answer and in any case couldn’t be achieved with anything short of violent revolution. The conservative or libertarian will come away saying, if crony capitalism (the government rigging the game on behalf of a small group of corporations) is inevitable, we should keep capitalism but take away government’s ability to make the rules. But that would eliminate what little economic security Americans have left, and stick them with the bill for all, instead of most, of capitalism’s externalities (costs that businesses impose on society, such as pollution, poor safety, etc.). Instead of ensuring fairness, capitalism would run amok. The bottom line is both sides want Americans to have more economic security, believe government is focused on catering to the rich and big business, and that if the system doesn’t change, America will decline. The key is to ensure government sets the rules of the same with the interests of Americans, and to do that they need to take power back from corporations and the rich, which would mean getting money out of politics. On that, at least, I think most Americans can agree.

Reich has the facts but no easy answers. But maybe that’s enough for one documentary–to at least get everybody to recognize we see the same problem (crony capitalism and government slanted to the rich, creating a two-tiered society) and want the same thing (democracy responsive to average people and more economic security), and can therefore debate solutions from a common understanding of what the problem is.

Regardless of what your politics are, or whether you even care about politics at all, you owe it to yourself to watch this documentary right now. It’s a crash course on what’s wrong with our political/economic system that will make you think and piss you off.

The Bonus Army of 1932

November 2, 2017 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

In 1932, the Bonus Army–some 17,000 American WWI veterans and their families and supporters (about 43,000 in total)–gathered in Washington, DC to demand the bonuses they were promised by the government for their service in the war. The law creating the bonuses stipulated they couldn’t be redeemed until 1945, for which they’d earn the principal plus compound interest, but many of the veterans had been out of work since the beginning of the Great Depression, and wanted the bonuses paid out in cash now.

After the protest, about 10,000 of them camped in “Hooverville” shantytowns in the city. An attempt to move up the date of the payout was defeated in Congress. Initial attempts to dispel the Bonus Army ended in violence and the camps unmoved. The shantytowns were controlled by the veterans, who made streets and sanitation facilities and held parades every day. Despite “Red Scare” rumors that went around the city, the protesters maintained good discipline.

President Herbert Hoover ordered the U.S. Army to remove the Bonus protesters. Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded a force of infantry, cavalry, and tanks that approached the camps. The cavalry and tanks were commanded by Major George S. Patton. Civil service employees left work to watch from the streets. The Bonus Army thought the soldiers were marching to honor them and cheered. Patton ordered the cavalry to charge to cries of “Shame!” from onlookers. The infantry followed with fixed bayonets and tear gas to drive the protesters from the camp.

The protesters fled the first camp across the Anacostia River to their largest camp, at which point President Hoover ordered a halt to the attack. MacArthur ignored the order. Stating the Bonus Army wanted to overthrow the government, he ordered a fresh assault, resulting in 55 veterans being injured and another 135 arrested. The camps and all the veterans’ belongings were burned.

Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of MacArthur’s junior aides, disagreed the military should be used against fellow veterans. He later recalled, “The whole scene was pitiful. The veterans were ragged, ill-fed, and felt themselves badly abused. To suddenly see the whole encampment going up in flames just added to the pity.”

A second Bonus March in 1933 had a different result. Franklin Roosevelt, recently elected president, offered the veterans jobs in the Civilian Conservation Corps. Most took the jobs. Three years later, the Democrat-controlled Congress overrode FDR’s veto and paid out the bonus nine years early.

The Business Plot of 1933

November 1, 2017 by Craig DiLouie 2 Comments

The Business Plot, or Wall Street Putsch, was an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States and install a nationalist, business-friendly dictatorship. It involved prominent rich men, including Prescott Bush (George W. Bush’s grandfather), who controlled many of the country’s biggest corporations, including Chase Bank, General Motors, Standard Oil, Dupont, Heinz, and others.

They were unhappy with the election of Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt as president in 1932. FDR was trying to get the New Deal passed and wanted to abandon the gold standard, which the rich saw as a road to inflation, undermine their wealth, and use it to subsidize the poor. “This is despotism, this is tyranny, this is the annihilation of liberty,” one senator lamented. The New Deal, they predicted, would lead to the country becoming bankrupt and adopting communism. Some on the Right believed Roosevelt was secretly a Jew bent on world domination.

The plotters promised $3 million and planned to build an army of 500,000 Great War veterans from American Legion branches. The plan was for this army to seize Washington (on the pretext of the president’s poor health) and install a popular military figure as the country’s new executor, while FDR remained a figurehead. They approached U.S. Marine Major Generator Smedley Butler, who’d fought in France, Latin America, and the Philippines. Butler was approached by American Legion leaders in on the plot. If he declined, apparently the plan was to approach U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur. Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander James E. Van Zandt later told the press he’d also been approached.

Smedley Butler exposing the Business Plot

Butler immediately notified the government of the plot. Congress held hearings on it. The documents were sealed until only recently, some deleted (but inadvertently exposed and then published). You can read everything here. Congress found the plot to be “alarmingly true.” The committee declared it “received evidence showing that certain persons had made an attempt to establish a fascist organization in this country. There is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient.”

None of the alleged plotters were questioned by Congress (claiming it had no reason to based on “hearsay”), nor anybody formally charged. As the plot was uncovered while in the planning stage, it is difficult to say whether it might have gone from discussion to action. The press and numerous politicians considered it a “cocktail putsch,” something discussed but never seriously acted upon, though there was evidence it was actively being plotted. In 1936, William Dodd, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, which at the time was under Nazi rule, wrote a letter to FDR that stated: “A clique of U.S. industrialists is hell-bent to bring a fascist state to supplant our democratic government and is working closely with the fascist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity in my post in Berlin to witness how close some of our American ruling families are to the Nazi regime… A prominent executive of one of the largest corporations told me point blank that he would be ready to take definite action to bring fascism into America if President Roosevelt continued his progressive policies.”

The Congressional committee would go on to become the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which later would not afford the same courtesy to suspected communists as it did to the Wall Street and corporate tycoons. Smedley Butler, meanwhile, would go on to pen his famous speech/short book, WAR IS A RACKET, in 1935.

A NIGHT AT THE GARDEN

October 31, 2017 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

As today is Halloween, I’d like to share with you something I watched that I found truly chilling. Marshall Curry’s powerful documentary, A NIGHT AT THE GARDEN, is just six minutes long. The film depicts a real event that happened in American history, a rally of 20,000 American fascists at Madison Square Garden in New York City on the eve of World War 2.

They were members of the Bund (“federation”), a fascist organization wrapped in the American flag. The main speaker is German immigrant Fritz Kuhn, who demands “our government shall be returned to the American people who founded it” in front of a massive painting of George Washington in the backdrop. The Americans give him the fascist salute. At the end, a woman sings “The Star Spangled Banner.”

When a protester rushes the stage, he’s beaten by brownshirts until police come and take him away, an incident that draws cheers from the crowd. Outside, protesters were being beaten and trampled by police.

Dorothy Thompson, a journalist married to Sinclair Lewis (who would write IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE), observed the rally. She wrote an article in the August 1941 issue of HARPERS, “Who Goes Nazi?”, in which she proposes a party game of guessing, among guests at a party, who would support the Nazis if they took over. She proposes that Nazism is not so much an ideology as a worldview that appeals to a certain psychology.

While this rally took place, Hitler was building his sixth concentration camp. Seven months later, World War 2 began.

Watch it here:

INTO THE GUNS by William C. Dietz

October 5, 2017 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

In INTO THE GUNS by William C. Dietz (author of LEGION OF THE DAMNED), meteors strike the earth and wipe out the U.S. government. In the ensuing chaos, military units find themselves cut off from the chain of command, and the Southern states plan secession. The result is a setup for a second American civil war.

I read the synopsis and thought, wow, count me in. Here’s what I liked and didn’t. First, I’d heard Dietz is a master of military sci-fi, and his skills are on full display here. The guy writes supremely well, carries a story, gives you likeable characters, and delivers detailed action. I also enjoyed the ideas behind the North and South getting ready to fight. What’s at stake is the strategic petroleum reserve, which in the South. The South wants to keep it for itself, the North says it belongs to the whole country and wants it shared. The South wants to reconstitute as a confederacy incorporated like a business, with a CEO, board of directors, and voters become shareholders–in short, a version of libertarian government where corporations and the rich can buy votes and dominate decision-making. The North wants to spend money on a massive reconstruction program to repair the damage and rebuild the country.

Dietz portrays the North in a more favorable light, but I was just grateful for once not to read a second civil war novel in which dirty liberals try to steal everything under the direction of Black socialists who want to disarm patriotic citizens and create a Marxist one-world government. Seriously, I’ve read one or two of those, and they’re basic right wing wish fulfillment. They don’t require willing suspension of disbelief from the reader so much as an unquestioning ideology, one in which the world is divided between evil liberals and plucky patriots.

Despite what I liked about it, I had some reservations. Within days of the attack, gangs attack and begin to overrun major military bases. One military unit, run by one of the book’s protagonists, finds itself under attack by a nearby town that wants its fuel for itself. While this created opportunities for Dietz to show off his excellent skills as a military fiction author, I found it hard to believe that within days of disaster, gangs or even small towns would find the wherewithal and strength to take on U.S. Army units in their bases, much less win. Civilians don’t come across as very nice people in this novel. Most of them are selfish looters. The President is a civilian but for one odd reason or another ends up going into combat with the troops much of the time.

A final issue for me was the timeline and pacing. The country falls apart, everybody starts attacking everybody else, military units go rogue and turn mercenary (strangely resisting the chain of command when it begins to reassert itself), and the South plans secession in a timeline that seems to be highly compressed for the most part but then suggests time is jumping ahead quite a bit. This is apparently a series; I would have hoped the first book would deal with the meteor strikes and their aftermath, leading up up to the civil war, and the second book get into it. That being said, the quick pacing keeps things moving.

In the end, you just have to regard it as pulpy military adventure fiction and run with it. If you’re good with how some of the events bump fast forward, and the dubious realism of how the country responds to the crisis in its first months, you’re in for a fast-paced, action-packed read.