War Games, Comic Relief, and Diversionary Tactics

I am so glad that Cleopatra was on hand during that Superbowl brawl last Sunday along with her Roman escorts to provide the ogling body-politic with some spectacular Circus Maximus-type highlights in that post-modern Coliseum.  I mean Lucas Oil Stadium in Indy was all greased up and ready for action.  And you could easily tell it was Cleo  up there because of the imitation “walk like an Egyptian” moves she gave us up front.  It made me recall her (Cleo’s) erstwhile love affair with Mark Anthony from the imperial days of Rome gone by. But, of course, M.I.A., the baby act, got all the press with that fickle middle finger of hers.  Just can’t trust those up-and-coming starlets.  Never know what the fuck they’ll do.

Interesting as well that the mythical Giants beat the nationalistic Patriots… perhaps as a proleptic anticipation of what lays in wait for Empire.  And, of course, there were heroes galore and cameras to catch all the action. However, after watching the brawl in the bowl, and the last minute antics whereby the giants (living as they do, closer to Wall Street) overcame the fav’d sons of Empire, King Obama suddenly announced that perhaps it is not such a good idea to attack Iran, suggesting that the patriotic among us might prefer to find a diplomatic “fix” after all.

And then, it’s always nice to see a hometown hero like Robert Downey Jr., having emerged from jail, to then emerge from his repeated capers as Sherlock Holmes, helping to save the civilized world from a robotically armed apocalypse.  The SB trailer for the Avengers was just icing on the cake for the spectators of the spectacle.

But, as Al Jazeera noted, the US Superbowl is far more than a game.  Their journalist clearly writes: “The Superbowl isn’t just about a sport, it’s about entertainment. Americans love a spectacle; they want to be taken for a ride.”  Boy, does he have us pegged.  Ya think?  And, even the local cathedral got into the act, with fans stopping in to offer the god a brief prayer for victory.  The Bowl has even been dubbed by some as a “rare communal moment for Americans.”  Well, I guess that sums up our capacity for community now doesn’t it.  Much like the community of brothers in a United States Marine Corps unit.

In all seriousness fellow travelers, the rite of passage that the Superbowl represents is nothing short of civilized ecstasy: with a hot new Silverado truck on display after the teleological moment arrives, hot super heroes to save us from the technological cataclysm just around the corner, lots of great commercials specifically designed with a consuming demographic in view, great eats – chips, salsa, ribs on the table, and lots of cold Coors light beer on ice, the one that doesn’t even taste like beer.  I mean, you might as well do the circumcisions right there folks, because it doesn’t get any better than this.  And talk about heroic feats in the quest for the golden Vince Lombardi trophy.  It’s just about as magical as pulling King Arthur’s sword from the stone, without the magician on hand.

Meanwhile, we had several other shows going on at the same time, folks.  Some sports related, some not. Well, I guess that depends upon how you define ‘sport’.  I know that the Empire considers gameboy-interactive-drone-death-dealing-virtual-military-action in Pakistan pretty much like a game or sport.  At lest the smartly-dressed nerds controlling the screens from inside their bunkers consider it a game; its like the Big game.

And, then there are the countrywide gladiator fights going on city to city in Syria.  Boy, that’s turning into one ugly game.  Maybe time to send in those tough US Navy Seals; you know, the same ones who assassinated Osama bin Laden, the same ones that made sure the Colonel (Gaddafi) was lit up like a Christmas tree for the rebels to get a clear shot at. I hear that the big O-man is at least considering some kind of military assistance to the Syrian underdogs. So you might want to take the rebels with the points on that game. But no one knows for sure who is going to win the international game of musical chairs down there, the Saudis, the USA or Russia, for ongoing influence. And why does Syria matter: because of its neighborhood. It borders both Israel and Iraq.  So that’s a pretty big bowl game as well; we’ll just have to keep the snacks warm until we see the next few plays unfold.

And of course Libya is still good for a few well-placed bets.  You realize, of course, that the USA and NATO allies are poised to send in ground troops now to protect the oil platforms in Brega, the port that controls the flow of Libyan oil exports.  King Obama has deployed 12,000 US troops to Malta in apparent readiness to have boots on the ground there shortly.   And apparently, there has already been some NATO action there, killing the very rebels they previously assisted, in an effort to secure the oil fields there.*  I am sure no one has heard of this troop movement; it is how the hegemony operates: in secrecy.  This is your tax dollars at work folks: and your democracy making decisions for you while keeping you entertained.

But, hey, what about those Egyptians… they must be taking their lead from the mother Madonna-Cleopatra at the Big Bowl game.  Wow, what a week’s worth of soccer action there, huh folks.  They just can’t get enough of that shit.  Ya just gotta love those games where the word competition takes on a whole new meaning; where it is raised to the next level, so to speak. And nothing like a little military action (in the streets) to really shake up the spectators, wake them out of their brief stupor and allow the big guns to roll on over them again.  Wonder when our World championship game will look as exciting as that shit storm in Egypt. Well, everything in perspective folks.

Now, we have the really big show in Iran developing.  We are in pre-game warm-ups right now; you can tell by all the trash-talkin’ going on.  But, just wait until those cool fighter jets take to the air, the drones are let loose, and the missiles start flying off ships.  Man is that looking to be a great match-up, the high priest of Islam, the great Ayatollah, against the pseudo-Muslim, American hegemon.  I don’t think we’ve seen anything quite that exciting folks, not since the Christians were fed to the lions at the Coliseum in old Rome.  And Iran has made it crystal clear that they can and will throw the long ball if necessary to hit US targets around the world.  Wow.  Sure sounds like some solid Vegas action to me.

Meanwhile the US has just struck up an arms deal with Bahrain worth $53,000,000.  The arms manufacturers must love that deal. So POTUS is pretty much making a huge bet on the regime cracking open and then cracking down on those democracy-seeking demonstrators there.  The game should play-out fairly expeditiously after the arms deal comes down.

Seriously, folks, we are a country of wars, games and diversionary tactics.  We keep the sleepy public drugged on superbowls, and smaller bowls of diverse narcotizing agents, and then let the big boys make decisions, and spend our tax dollars.  Face it folks, we have a very big habit, and the big boys around here have an even bigger habit to maintain. And the entire world is paying the price of our continued addiction and entertainment.