Strung Out Episode 198. WORLD ROUNDUP FROM THE BACK YARD.
[00:00:00] Welcome to Strung Out, the podcast that looks at life through the lens of an artist. Your host is the artist, writer, and musician, Martin Lawrence McCormack. Now here's Marty. Hey there, great to have you with us and welcome to Strung Out. I am Martin McCormack and I am sitting out in my backyard on what is proving to be a beautiful, beautiful spring day here in Chicago.
[00:00:30] And, uh, a couple things going on that I wanted to talk to all of you folks about is, uh, just, uh, first of all, um, I have now started doing, uh, video, uh, YouTube podcasts. And so that's why you're seeing me. And if you're not, you can still listen to me. But you have that option and it's, uh, it's working pretty good, but I'm learning the limitations and, um, I was a little nervous about it because I didn't know how much storage I had on my iPhone, but I've checked my storage and miraculously, it looks like I've got a lot going on.
[00:01:17] So, uh, please bear with me when. The jets fly over and everything else because this is it, but you get the whole thing. This is life in the urban setting of Chacol. Uh, today is the 13th of April when I'm recording this and there's a couple things that are going on in the world that I want to talk about right now.
[00:01:42] First of all, in the historical context, on April 12th in 1860 was the firing on Fort Sumter and um, firing of Fort Sumter was An important point in American history. The reason being was that Lincoln was elected president and the elite in the South decided that they were not going to tolerate having a president.
[00:02:16] A Northern president, uh, tell them what to do with the issue of slavery. And it really even didn't get that far. When, when the Lincoln was elected, the South Carolina was the, the First state to secede, soon followed by other southern states until you had about 17 states, uh, out of the south. And, uh, the idea was festering for a long time.
[00:02:48] You had, uh, uh, John Brown. Who was an abolitionist, who, uh, went all the way out to Kansas and participated in fighting, uh, against, uh, slaveholders that wanted Kansas to be, uh, a slave state. With the election of Lincoln, what you see is that, uh, the North, uh, Now kind of has the South boxed in. The people that were making hundreds of thousands of dollars on various plantations in the South had a problem.
[00:03:28] If they were going to go and do anything about the North and this idea of slowly letting slavery go, they were going to have to strike out on their own. They did. And what ensued was four years of bloody civil war, the re election of Abraham Lincoln, the declaration that slavery was illegal, and it culminated in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
[00:04:04] At that point, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, also in April, no coincidence, April 14th, is when Abraham Lincoln gets assassinated, Um, brings full circle at least the violence of that civil war. But what it doesn't do is it doesn't end, goes on into what is called Jim Crow. And Jim Crow was, again, the attempt by southern elite aristocracy to, uh, kind of get the slavery issue under control.
[00:04:47] If they couldn't have slaves, at least they could have people that were disenfranchised on the boat so that they could not rise up and overpower their power base. This is important to note because what it comes from is a war of race and slavery and becomes a war about class. And when the black, uh, The vast majority of the South, as Jim Crow enacted, for another 100 years at least, they are kept under the thumb of the aristocracy in the South.
[00:05:32] So,
[00:05:36] what happens, of course, is the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The Civil Rights Movement is all about equality. But it's also about class. President Johnson is the president of the United States, uh, when the civil rights act gets signed and Johnson himself declares war on poverty. And what it is, is an attempt to bring up the poor class, at least into the middle class, eradicate poverty across the board.
[00:06:13] Now. It's the old saying, uh, rising tide lifts all boats. In the case of that, uh, a rising tide doesn't lift all the boats. A war on poverty kind of, uh, peters out. And part of that reason is once again, the assassination of leaders in our country. Martin Luther King gets killed. Robert F. Kennedy gets killed.
[00:06:41] And so you, you now have this dearth of political leadership, Thank you. That once again is set up, people that want to have basically an aristocracy. They want to have the white ruling class, mainly southern, rule. This is cemented with Richard Nixon in 1972 when he starts courting and ultimately bringing over the southern democrats.
[00:07:19] And the Southern Democrats flip and they become what we have as the Republican party that goes from the seventies all the way up to 20, I would say probably 2000, uh, 2010 with the rising of the Tea Party. The rising of the Tea Party is a more virulent faction. Of this aristocracy, this idea that we can cut funding to programs that are going to help lower classes or the middle class even do better.
[00:07:56] And by doing that, they say it's in the name of taxes, in the name of saving money. And, uh, you should be able to allow, uh, capitalism to run.
[00:08:11] Here goes the train. I can set in flight. But, what happens? Is, is that once again, those that have the most to lose are very, very quick in asserting their power. Just like in the Southern aristocracy during, uh, leading up to the civil, we have a moneyed aristocracy that has had tax cut after tax cut given to them.
[00:08:42] And they don't want to lose that. They don't want equality in the sense of. Pay your fair share. All right. So that's, that's an interesting thing to note. Now, when Trump gets elected, this is now becomes the Tea Party is once again, uh, metastasized, if you will, into what's called the Made America Great Again Party.
[00:09:10] And this is the current situation that we have. We have old time Republicans. We have some leftovers, some holdouts from the Tea Party. And then we have this extreme, extreme virulent group of people, the Magna Party, holding on to power at any cost. Well, what is that power? You have to ask yourself, what is the power?
[00:09:34] The power is tax cuts for the wealthiest in this country. Rolling back of any kind of programs that can help the middle class, that can help the poor class. In other words, let's establish inequality. In other words, let's establish a class system in the United States. This is as old as the opening shot from Fort Sumter.
[00:10:06] This battle has been going on. In many ways, it has now gone past race. Yes, we still have racism. We still have, uh, people that are being killed because of not only their skin color. but their social status in this country. It's interesting to note that we just had the passing of O. J. Simpson. O. J. Simpson represented one of the first people that kind of transcended the color barrier.
[00:10:41] He became a spokesman for Hertz Rental Cars. He was extremely successful, not only in playing football, but acting and, and really being a role model So it shocked a lot of people when the accusation of him killing his wife and a friend, uh, hit the news. And I remember clearly I was playing a gig up in, uh, New Richmond, Wisconsin, the Shamrock Club up there.
[00:11:15] And we had to stop everything for the white Bronco slow speed chase. It was pretty amazing. We just sat at the bar with our instruments, Because everybody was transfixed watching this slow speed chase. O. J. Simpson had a gun to his head. He was acting suicidal. Sure looked like he was guilty. We may never know.
[00:11:38] He was acquitted in the jury trial. But the civil trial, he was actually found guilty. And, uh, had to make a restitution. Um, especially to the Goldman Factory. The reason I'm bringing that up, Is, is, here's a great example of a person that transcended class, yet when it came to the trial, what happened was we weren't aware of class at that point as we were much more in tune with racism, racism as a result of classism.
[00:12:20] And one way you can go and divide a middle class is if you make some easy assumptions that, Hey, this guy, he's not the same color skin as you. You can look down on him. It's a very, very old practice in this country. So OJ Simpson is acquitted and marches off into history. He was found guilty of trying to steal some items and things like that, that had to do with memorabilia.
[00:12:53] Very kind of weird, dramatic thing in his later part of life. He ends up. dying just this week. Uh, it looks like it was maybe a colon cancer that took his life.
[00:13:10] It's an interesting footnote because the battle still goes on and this is a battle about class. Now, should we have rich people in this country? Of course we should. Should we have capitalism? Yes. You know, people, people need to be rewarded for working hard. There's nothing wrong with that and there's nothing wrong with the average person aspiring to have more money to to have vacation stuff.
[00:13:40] But we are getting to a point in our development of our world where the old system of class, the old system of work even is quickly being upended. With the arrival of artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence is going to change the dynamic of basic jobs. So you're going to have assembly lines of nothing but robots.
[00:14:12] You're going to have delivery systems of nothing but robots. You're going to have a lot of people who are going to be out of work. Why are businesses so excited about that? Because here is slavery again, but this time it's automated and there's going to be a lot of people that won't have that much to do.
[00:14:36] Pretty scary in a sense. Now, what will give rise? You'll have maybe the worker bees that tend the artificial intelligence that could possibly be what's going on. Um, but it remains to be seen just what kind of jobs, if any, can come out of it. But there's going to be a lot of turnover. This is important to know because.
[00:15:03] It is proven that a good, vibrant democracy has to have a healthy middle class in order to be successful. And if you don't have the healthy middle class, if you don't have people that are able to make money and feed their families, then this leads to chaos, disillusionment. It leads to authoritarianism.
[00:15:26] It leads to a lot of bad things. So we have to remember what happened on April 12th, 1860, when the first shot was fired at Fort Sumter. We have to remember that because it, it reminds us that we've been here before. Where people have tried to hold on to power. People have tried to manipulate the masses.
[00:15:54] Those who are few in number are very powerful. And Right now, as a country, we slowly are finally coming to terms with racism. We're slowly working our way out of that morass, but we're into a bigger morass, which is the class distinctions and the class, uh, warfare, if you, who held that, is going to erupt, mainly because of artificial intelligence.
[00:16:27] Mainly because the political systems that are in place want to still have this system of protection for the elite and disenfranchisement of middle class and poor class. It is something to think about, something to worry about, if you will. Um, and it's not that we have enough worries on our plate, right?
[00:16:54] We have a lot of things happening in the world. But let's take a little break. Let's play a little music. And when I come back, we'll talk about some of those other worries in the world. Hey, want to show your support of Martin's artist endeavors? Buy me a coffee is an online site that makes supporting Marty easy.
[00:17:16] In just a few taps, you can make a payment of any amount and no account is needed. You can also decide to become an ongoing supporter. Go to martinmccormack. com and click on the words Support Martin. Let's help Martin keep it all capital.
[00:17:55] Am I kidding? Is it just a joke?
[00:18:10] What is the purpose? Should I even care? Do I make a difference? Anybody?
[00:18:48] Are you whistling in the dark?
[00:19:03] Can you tell me, do you have a clue? Are you just as lost, don't know what to do? Whistling in the dark If I was a lighthouse, I'll go Wouldn't have a reckon on the rocks while I spend the night.
[00:19:51] Will I be constantly whistling in the dark?
[00:20:13] When I'm dead, who'll remember me? What will I leave behind, or will there just be Whistling in the dark?
[00:20:28] Who am I kidding? Is it just a joke? Can it be all I've made was made to be broke? What is the purpose? Should I even care? Do I make a difference? Anybody there? Can you tell me? Do you have a clue? Are you just as lost? Don't know what to do? If I was alive, I wouldn't have a lot of recordships.
[00:21:03] And we're back and I'm happy to have you. Listening and watching for those of you that are now watching the podcast on YouTube. Let us talk about what is happening with these wars going on in the world. We are about to have a showdown between Iran and Israel and we don't know what it's going to look like but if we can take what Iran did in the past and the United States Um, uh, assassinated General Solyamani, who was the big Iran, uh, uh, Let me let the train go by.
[00:21:59] Solyamani was the architect of Iranian resistance in the Middle East and in the world. He was a pretty tough cookie. And under orders of then president Trump, he was assassinated, not in Iran, but he was assassinated in Iraq. And the Iranians went gonzo and, uh, they retaliated by firing cruise missiles at bases.
[00:22:30] of the United States and Iraq. Those soldiers that were at that base suffered injuries, not fatal, but pretty bad considering that they had concussions and things like that, that affected them. Uh, if that sort of thing is the template of which Iran is going to respond, Then what we have happened on April 1st was that the Israeli military blew up an embassy in Syria, in which there were several, uh, guards, uh, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard leadership there.
[00:23:15] These were probably guys that were working on, um, you know, stirring the pot in the Middle East, uh, working with, uh, The Yemeni tribes, the Houthis, working with Hezbollah, certainly working with Hamas. And so Israel, uh, decided that, uh, they would just strike this place. Now, they didn't take credit for it.
[00:23:42] They just, uh, they just remain silent on that, but everybody kind of knows who did what and why they did it. So, why is this so different from when Soleimani was, uh, assassinated, um, just a few years back? Well, there's so much more happening. There's an ongoing conflict right now, and the world is
[00:24:13] really watching what's going on in Gaza. There's a lot of people being killed, innocent civilians, upwards of over 30, 000 people killed, children. This is, uh, doesn't sit well with anybody in the civilized world. Now you add this bit with, uh, the Iranian people, uh, having their pride, uh, affected by the fact that somebody blew up their embassy in Syria.
[00:24:51] Sounds a pretty big message. Uh, and clearly it's Israel because what the message is, is we know you're behind all this stuff that you're trying to do to our country and we can hit you with impunity wherever we're at. So that's the next thing that happens. Now you have Iran saying, oh, yeah, just watch us and what is that going to look like?
[00:25:19] Are they going to go through their proxies? Are they going to go through Hezbollah and attack through? Lebanon Are they going to try to launch a cruise missile attack on something? Are they going to try to blow up an embassy somewhere in the world? We just don't know. And it's interesting to note that the United States is saying that, uh, we're not gonna tolerate anything that comes from Iran.
[00:25:51] If Iran does that and attacks something on Israeli soil especially, which I kind of doubt they're going to do. I think what they're going to do is they're going to go and look for something in another country. And they're going to, uh, do it tit for tat. Now this could be anywhere in the world. Wherever there's an Israeli embassy and where there's enough Iranian assets to go and, uh, make this happen.
[00:26:19] Now, where this gets really complicated is that Iran is in league with Russia, and because they're in league with Russia, selling Shaheed drones and, um, basically being, uh, uh, a source of, uh, material for Russia to attack Ukraine, they also are in bed to some degree with China. Since they're in, this is kind of an, I'll call it an axis, the, the modern axis powers right now that we're dealing with here.
[00:27:00] Um, this doesn't bode well because it's the, uh, if Iran attacks Israel again, Israel will retaliate. The United States will be drawn in. Russia's going to be drawn. China reluctantly will be drawn in. So we're sitting, um, the, uh, the precipice, if you will. Now, cooler heads might prevail if it's, it's done to some sort of asset that's not in Israel itself.
[00:27:41] And what I mean by that is that Iran will take a page from what it did before when it, uh, sent cruise missiles over to attack the U S bases after the The assassination of Soleimani. I think that will probably be what you're going to see because Iran realizes that once the United States gets involved in this situation, and if the United States goes all out in this situation, that's going to be a big problem.
[00:28:14] Um, you were talking about, um, major conflict and that doesn't bode well for any of us in the world. Again. So it remains to be seen. Um, but at the moment, these are very dangerous times. At the same time, you have the United States feeling like it's being. pushed around to some degree by the Netanyahu government.
[00:28:44] Uh, the Netanyahu government is a far right government. They believe that all of Israel, uh, land wise belongs to Jewish people. And There's a great article on, um, Vox Magazine, if you get a chance to look at it, about Arab Jews. It's a little more complicated than just that. There's various kinds of Jews that reside in Israel.
[00:29:15] There's also the Palestinian Arabs. And the Marazi, um, Jews were the original Jews that were in that area. Oriental Jews was the terms that would have been, uh, given to them, uh, prior to World War I. They, in an effort to kind of be, um, more Israeli than the Israelis, the Ashkenazi, um, well, European Jews are, are very, very, uh, right leaning these days.
[00:29:48] So they are under the Likud government of Netanyahu. Committed to the idea that, um, the far right extremes that there's no Palestinian people that can be no Palestinian state. Okay, and we're going to take a little break here. And, uh, when we come back, I'm going to continue along talking about what's going on with Israel and Iran and how this all plays into, uh, everything.
[00:30:27] You're listening and watching Strung Out. Hello, Holly Chase here, presenting artwork by Martin McCormick. Every work of art involves inspiration. It is there at the birth of the idea, when learning a new craft or how to use a specific media, when researching a subject, or studying objects. Inspiration is also there.
[00:30:50] One of the things I love most about looking at art is defining that thing that makes me respond to it. And here's the thing about Marty's scratch art, the delicate permanence of his marks. Marty's process, as we see in his newest scratch art piece, Summer Storm, requires a steady, confident handling of the X Acto blade, and a dedication to the image in his mind.
[00:31:22] He has one shot at deciding where and how every scratch is made in the emulsion of the film. There is no erasing, no repainting or remodeling or smoothing over. Perspective and scale, once established, without grids, I might add, must be maintained in every session. We've had the pleasure of watching time lapsed video of Marty's session.
[00:31:59] NEXT WEEK, I'll talk about what inspired his choice of subject matter. As always, I encourage you to visit the gallery at martinmccormack. com. And email me about any piece that inspires your purchase.
[00:32:51] When I was a kid, it lived under my bed.
[00:32:57] When I was older, it lived in my closet.
[00:33:03] Nowadays it likes to live in my hand. There's just no way I can dodge it. Fear is a friend and a foe. Fear is with me wherever I go, we know. Fear, a foe but a friend. And it's gonna be with me to the end. I fear whenever there's something new that holds me back. If there's a change. It gets real mad,
[00:33:48] when I wanna leap it attacks, how can something so good be so bad, dear? Fear is a friend and a foe. Fear is with me wherever I go, we know. Fear, a foe but a friend. And it's gonna be with me to the end, I think.
[00:34:46] I see it lives in you when I look in your eyes. Let's work together and find a way
[00:34:57] To get over our fear and through its lies And finally make our fear obey. Fear is a friend and a foe. Fear is with me. With me wherever I go, we know Finn,
[00:35:22] a foe but a friend And it's gonna be with me to the end Finn, is a friend and a foe Finn, is with me wherever I go, we know Finn,
[00:35:45] a foe but a friend And
[00:36:15] we're back here in the backyard and I want to talk, uh, to continue along what I was talking about with, uh, uh, Israel and where things are right now. Um, you have an extremely far right reaching government in Israel. Uh, this is a problem in the sense that they do not believe or want a two state solution in uh, Israel.
[00:36:43] Up to now, that has been the only way out. Is the two state solution and, uh, it has failed time and time again, not always due to Israel either, you know, the PLO under Yasser Arafat and, uh, some of the other, uh, constructs of, uh, government at the time. And Mahmoud Abbas, who is the president of the Palestinian authority.
[00:37:09] They're just, uh, the, the Palestinians. Have not had, uh, adequate leadership. And part of that though, is because it's, uh, they haven't really been given the status as a state. So you could almost argue, you know, it's the chicken and egg sort of thing. That is about to change. We have seen countries like Ireland and I believe Spain.
[00:37:37] And, uh, other, uh, European and, uh, some Middle Eastern countries starting to coalesce around the idea that rather than let the Israelis and Palestinians sort this out, we're just going to declare a Palestinian state. And then that way, with them having a voice in government and some sense of sovereignty, uh, we can make some progress with them.
[00:38:03] Why is that important? Well, because you have places like the West Bank where the Israeli government and the orthodox settlers have been settling Palestinian land with impunity, basically erasing the idea of a Palestinian state by action, deeds. So that's, that's a real problem. That's a problem because once you have the Palestinian people totally deprived of any kind of land whatsoever, you kind of have the problem that.
[00:38:41] Was facing the Jews for a long time, you know, the Jews wandering the face of the earth or so it seems, you know So this is something that We can't take lightly. It has to be resolved with some amazing Statementship. How does this all play into the bigger picture is? You know the next question and how it plays into the bigger picture is this Iran acting through its proxies is an ally of Russia.
[00:39:16] Russia is dependent on Iran for all the drones, majority of drones that they have, the Shaheed drones and Russia and China are also in close cooperation right now, authoritarianism with those three countries. If you want to throw in North Korea, you can. But where this is going down is if the Iranians choose to hit assets on Israeli territory itself, you're going to have open conflict.
[00:39:57] That means there will be retaliation on Iranian territory. That in turn most likely will draw in Russia, possibly China. Now that is problematic for the United States because the United States It's sworn to stand by Israel. Hopefully it made that promise. Okay. So you're going to have some sort of war.
[00:40:28] Where does Ukraine play in all of this? Well, because, uh, we have held up funding for Ukraine, uh, in the United States Senate because of the Republicans. Um, we are jeopardizing the war in Ukraine and in some ways kind of allowing it to happen. These other incidents with Gaza and now with Iran to kind of, uh, build up some intensity of their own because of our own inactivity.
[00:41:04] Inactivity in the world is perceived as weakness. And right now the United States looks really, really weak because we can't approve this money. The irony about the money. Is that that money for, uh, Ukraine immediately gets invested into the United States armaments industry. Not that I think that's a great or wonderful thing.
[00:41:28] That's the way it is. You pour the money in to make the shells to send or the aircraft or whatever to go to Ukraine. Why is that important? Because that could. Help the economy and that could bring down inflation. And if that happens in an election year, especially this weird election year, um, that's going to look good for president Biden, right?
[00:41:54] So when warfare happens, you usually don't change horses in midstream. The, uh, American people will probably stay the course and they're probably going to say, well, we're going to at least stay with the party that's in power since they are managing things. Might not be a hundred percent happy, but why throw it on its head?
[00:42:17] And we've seen the track record of, uh, the previous administration and they're not necessarily, uh, um, that strong on our adversaries. So. That is part of the impetus to withhold the funding for Ukraine, as much as they say about the border and things like that. And we got to take care of the border.
[00:42:43] That's a separate issue that could be resolved and was actually put out as a bipartisan effort, um, some months ago and got killed by the Republican party. Why? It's an election year. Here's where the repercussions of that now are, are happening. Weather's warming up. The Ukrainians don't have the money.
[00:43:09] Europe looks to our leadership. The armaments for Ukraine are still to be coming. Uh, you now have, uh, an additional, uh, conflict that has gone from being Israel against Hamas to Israel against Hamas and Hezbollah, the Houthis, now to Israel and Iran, Israel and Iran, Iran being an ally of Russia. So you have the, uh, you have a big, big mess that's only getting bigger by our inaction and, uh, and that's where it stands.
[00:43:50] So how do we wrap this all up in a nice little bowl for this podcast? Well, it comes down to people being able to look at it with the overreaching, Vision and realizing that their vote has to be on the side of order and democracy. And that we have a party in the MAGA party that, uh, the Republican party is ruptured.
[00:44:21] So we have a very dangerous situation politically at home. But we have an even more dangerous political situation overseas. And Our inactivity every day that goes by with us not doing anything gives the adversaries the opportunity to do something. And that's the quandary. If come November, we decide to not change things and, uh, uh, keep the course and, uh, try to get, uh, at least a majority, uh, going with, uh, the In this case, the Democratic Party, we might be able to see some of this stuff alleviated, um, some of these conflicts resolved, um, and hopefully sooner than later, if we don't do anything in the present right now, and this is the problem for Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House and all the other Republicans.
[00:45:23] They're very well be. Uh, a major war going on. And if there's a major war going on, who's going to be blamed for that? So, that's the problem. They have to come up, it's, it's, uh, they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. Had they had just gone and, uh, approved the bill for, uh, the border protections, along with the Ukraine funding, this wouldn't be an issue at this point.
[00:45:57] There's even a good chance that maybe we would have been a little more firm with Israel and we wouldn't have seen Israel, you know, strike out at Syria like that, you know, a lot of that is to draw us into the conflict, I believe. So here we are. So be careful about that vote that you have. But in the meantime, also, just pay attention to what's going on in the world.
[00:46:24] And if you live in a place where you feel you can. Uh, write your congressperson and you can tell them you, you stand with the idea of Ukraine receiving the funding and the United States being assertive and not being weak. Then I encourage you to do that. Well, that's a very long winded podcast for this week, uh, I'm going to go back into the arts next week.
[00:46:55] I'm going to be interviewing, uh, different people, uh, that, uh, about, uh, some artistic careers around the Chicagoland area and also some interesting stuff now that the weather's warming up, uh, just, uh, things that will be of interest to you regarding, um, outdoor life and such. And, uh, until next week, I want to thank you for listening to Strung Out and we'll talk to you soon.
[00:47:20] Bye bye. Thank you for listening. For more information about this show or a transcript, visit martinmccormack. com. While there, sign up for our newsletter. See you next time on Strung Out.
[00:47:49] Giving out joys, giving out sta
