In the DC Comics Universe, there is a place known as Bizarro World. It was introduced back in the 1960s and is home to the anti-hero Bizarro.
If you are not familiar with him, he is supposed to be a Superman type character but in the opposite sense.
For instance, the inhabitants of Bizarro world live in a place called “htraE”, which is "Earth" spelled backwards. Society there is ruled by the Bizarro Code which states that, "Us do opposite of all Earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness! Is big crime to make anything perfect on Bizarro World!"
In one episode, for example, a salesman is doing a brisk trade selling Bizarro bonds: "Guaranteed to lose money for you". Later, the mayor appoints Bizarro No. 1 to investigate a crime, "Because you are stupider than the entire Bizarro police force put together".
This is intended and taken as a great compliment. In fact, Bizarro World has had such an impact on popular culture that it has come to mean a situation or setting which is weirdly inverted or opposite to expectations. Now, we might not be there yet, but if you looked at the headlines from around the world you certainly might think so.
For instance, if we look at headlines coming out of Ukraine, we see the reemergence of Mikheil Saakashvili, better known to the internet as the “tie eater”.
That’s right, he is the one-time Georgian strongman that started a war with Russia. Although he isn’t Georgian anymore. You see, he was chased out of his country back in 2013 after Georgian authorities issued an international arrest warrant for him.
So, if that isn’t strange enough for you, here is the twist. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is good buddies with Saakashvili and has been for 25 years, going all the way back to university days. So when Georgian authorities asked Poroshenko to extradite Saakashvili so that he could have his day in court and face charges of corruption, Poroshenko told them to take a long walk off a short pier. In fact, Poroshenko then gave Saakashvili Ukrainian citizenship.
And then just to up the ante, he appointed Saakashvili to be the governor of Odessa. Which is not only a major Ukrainian city but also a region that, as it turns out, is facing a situation similar to that of South Ossetia back in 2008. As a quick refresher, South Ossetia is a disputed area in-between Russia and Georgia. The dispute is over territory and goes back to the 1990s after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
In a nutshell, the area has become a no-mans land, although people do live there and is patrolled by “peacekeeping troops”. Also, the world, in general, hasn’t recognized the territory as being a separate and independent state. Which is very similar to Transnistria. A small piece of disputed land in between Ukraine and Moldova. There was a short war that was fought there in the early 1990s and it has been a no-man’s land ever since. And oh, btw, there are numerous Russian speaking people there and Saakashivli has once again begun to break the fragile peace the area had known for years. More than likely, we will all be hearing about Transnistria more and more in coming months. It is almost like going back to the future.
And what about the recent G7 meeting that took place?
Ever since the coup took place in Ukraine in 2014, the world has been awash in Nazi-like terminology or Nazi-ish comparisons. And while some comparisons that Western media pundits have made do look similar on the surface, a more in-depth analysis reveals that those comparisons are nothing more than a cheap facade.
However, one thing that can’t be denied is the West’s support of ultra-right wing groups in Ukraine. It was only a few months ago that Dmitro Yarosh, the leader of the Right Sector, which is essentially a neo-Nazi organization, was appointed to be an adviser to Ukraine’s Chief of General Staff. That’s right. So not only are there neo-Nazi’s at the highest levels of the Ukrainian military but let’s not forget that there are several ultra-right groups in the Ukraine’s parliament. They are everywhere. And it isn’t like they hide it. They are out in the open, literally waiving flags with swastikas. Anyone can see it, a person just has to want to look.
As a quick side-note, it has been said that the most effective fighting groups in Ukraine are the paramilitary groups and of those groups, Azov has been the most effective. Now, with the appointment of Yarosh to the highest levels of Ukraine's military, we have an interesting situation. You see, the Nazi SS also started as a private, volunteer based paramilitary group that eventually was legitimized and incorporated in the regular army. It grew from a small group to become one of the most powerful in the 3rd Reich. With America training the Ukrainian national guard, many pundits are asking if history is repeating itself?
And oh, back to the G7 meeting. Where was it held? It was at a place called Elmau Castle, which is in the Bavarian Alps in Germany and it just so happens that this castle was on of Hitler’s favorite estates to relax, spend time, and talk about the future.
Over to America now, one of the more unfortunate headlines this past week has been come to us from Florida. You see, the IT workers at Disney World were called into an office and told that they were fired due to a “reorganization”. But before they could go, they had to train their replacements. And if that wasn’t bad enough, it turns out that those replacements were foreigners that had been brought over on special work visas! And just to add icing to the cake, it has just been revealed that those American IT workers that had been fired were subsequently placed on a black list, so that they couldn’t get ANY work from ANY of the contractors that Disney World employed. To paraphrase the Seinfeld character the Soup-Nazi, “No Work for you!”
But perhaps the stranger headlines comes to us from inside the Beltway, where lawmakers are working to pass Obamatrade or TPP. The TPP is also known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and is essentially being touted as a routine trade treaty. The reality is that it is far from ordinary. As things stand now, the document is classified.
But let’s say that you are an elected politician and you do get permission to read it (and who gives this?), your staff still has to be approved. And IF they are approved, all of you can walk on down to the basement of the Capitol and file into a secret, secure room. And oh, none of you can take notes. Even though the document is thousands of pages long. Strange right? But guess what? There is good news! If you are one of the 28 US government-appointed trade advisory committees that is providing advice to the US negotiators, you can read it, take notes, basically do whatever you want with it. In fact, it will be your job to help write it! And who are on these “trade advisory committees”?
Big corporations, of course. Members include AT&T, General Electric, Apple, Dow Chemical, Nike, Walmart and the American Petroleum Institute. So, putting all of this aside, the politicians are doing their job, right? They are reading the agreement line by line and going over it with a fine toothed comb, right? Well, as it turns out, no. Rep. Mimi Walters, a person who just went on the Beltway media circuit to promote the trade deal just had her office admit that she hadn’t actually read the bill.
Crazy right? Once again it is almost like going back to the future when Nancy Pelosi held the Obamacare bill in her hand and shouted into the microphone — “We will have to pass it in order to find out what’s inside”. And look how well that worked out for joe-sixpack. Oh, as a small side-note, it appears that the TPP has been in negotiations for six years. Six years. And only now in the last few weeks are people just starting to find out about it.
And what do Americans think of all this? To be honest, probably not much, if at all. As proof of this, a new youtube video by Mark Dice shows people willing to sign a petition to back “President Obama in his plan to show Russia it’s place by employing a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the country in order to maintain America’s superiority in the world.” Most people didn’t even bat an eye and were quick to sign the petition, doing as Mark suggested, their “patriotic duty”, although Dice repeated pre-emptive nuclear strike several many times.
So, what do you think dear listeners, “Are we living in Bizarro World or is this the new normal?”
