Bruno chama atenção para o novo documentário de Errol Morris (Sob a Névoa da Guerra) que joga seus holofotes (e seu interrotron) sobre Donald Rumsfeld, o secretário de defesa dos EUA no governo George W. Bush. Assista ao trailer abaixo:

Ou os U.S.A. não contam como ícone pop? Acho que ganhei nessa rodada…

A crise nos EUA não é novidade: depois dos anos 60, o país começou a entrar numa espiral de crises econômicas que redefiniram o século 20 à medida em que esse caminhava para o fim. Parte deste imaginário começou com o programa Documerica, que chamava fotógrafos amadores para retratar os problemas do país com o meio ambiente em imagens fortes. As desse post saíram de uma pré-seleção feita pela Atlantic, mas há uma conta inteira do Flickr dedicada ao tema. Veja mais abaixo.

Uma declaração rápida de um dos políticos conservadores mais influentes dos EUA (no vídeo acima, a partir de, er, 4:20):

“Two quick thoughts: The WikiLeaks guy should be in jail for the rest of his life. He is an enemy of the United States, actively endangering people, and he’s gonna get a lot of folks killed. And I think that’s a despicable act, and we should treat him as an enemy combatant, and as an absolute enemy of the United States.”

“Second, I’m proud that Secretary Clinton actually cared about national security, actually was trying to gather intelligence. And I wish we had more aggressive leaders in the Obama administration who thought that defending America was their first job, and being liked by foreigners was a far distant second. So I think that she ought to be praised for trying to gather intelligence, not in any way attacked or condemned.

“And no one from WikiLeaks should feel comfortable the rest of their lives. These are bad people doing bad things, and they’re gonna get Americans and our allies killed. And we should recognize that, and recognize that it is in effect an act of war against the United States.”

Via Talking Points Memo.

Imagine só:

If I were president the first thing I would do is probably get sat down by the Pentagon and the powers that be who would say, “No, you’re probably not going to get done the things that you—we saw your one sheet and you’re not going to get it.”

I think a lot of presidents go in with a big to-do list and someone sits them down and says “That’s really not how the game is played, son. You’re going to have to learn: this is the beltway. We do things a certain way. You had high hopes and you’ll get a few of these things done, watered down, neutered and relatively meaningless by the time they crawl through the Senate, but as it is now these big burly strong changes, no.” So I would probably be told that because my first day in office I would have lost Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. I would have reestablished Glass-Steagall. I would have demanded that the Bush tax cuts—they would have sun-setted, they would have gone away. There would have been some pain. The middleclass would have been hard up against it, but we would be in a much different position than we are now.

So I would have gone in reacting to eight years of George W. Bush, two useless wars that make America hemorrhage life and treasure. I would immediately start repairing the perception of America in the world, like our president did by speaking out in Cairo to basically Islam. So I would do things like that, realizing my first four years in office would be to repair and somehow neutralize the eight years that came before me, so maybe in my next term I could go slowly up field to a noticeable degree, and that would be my legacy. The first four years, clean up the storm, clean up the wreckage, make nice with the world, demilitarize as far as American military presence in the world. I would get my military force out of the, like, 141 countries that we’re in plus all the black bases we have off the record. I would bring these people home.

Via Big Think.

Uma versão da Koalogy. Queria ver um do Brasil.

“This is the Dick Cheney version of creativity, otherwise known as ‘doing exactly what you’re told'” – que bicho gênio. Mas o final, sobre confundir o inconsciente coletivo, é arrebatador.