tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35871895437675918142024-03-05T06:42:19.458-08:00Mammon or Messiah researchmammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.comBlogger1235125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-4483711598376093842011-07-22T14:01:00.000-07:002011-07-22T14:02:55.100-07:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjO_WLCV29Nh6KdRgTzmxXzVuMt8klSkdQskO-0z9t33yQxe5ogIjDX85qIeYAtZjzY4nZBmQuFAr9K-5GX161rKR0du8tbY4Nee_t24RM7aMs_JuQ6Muy5K_VrExozkI2rxz6tBXVu3A/s1600/JHGospel.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 199px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjO_WLCV29Nh6KdRgTzmxXzVuMt8klSkdQskO-0z9t33yQxe5ogIjDX85qIeYAtZjzY4nZBmQuFAr9K-5GX161rKR0du8tbY4Nee_t24RM7aMs_JuQ6Muy5K_VrExozkI2rxz6tBXVu3A/s400/JHGospel.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632285105564230274" /></a>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-9634070032806515582011-07-22T12:21:00.000-07:002011-07-22T12:34:39.797-07:00Parsons/Makwana: The Silent Humanitarian Crises Beyond East Africa<div><i>The international response to the East African crisis is far short of urgent needs, yet the extreme deprivation being reported is only the tip of the iceberg.</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Silent Humanitarian Crises Beyond East Africa</b></div><div>by Adam Parsons and Rajesh Makwana <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/22-2">article link</a> <a href="http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/07/the-silent-humanitarian-crises-beyond-east-africa/">article link</a> <a href="http://www.stwr.org/aid-debt-development/the-silent-humanitarian-crises-beyond-east-africa.html">article link</a></div><div>July 22, 2011 | CommonDreams | Dissident Voice | Share The World's Resource (STWR)</div><div><br /></div><div>The unfolding crisis in the Horn of Africa is yet another tragedy that reflects the dysfunction and injustice inherent in the structures of the world economy. Although the factors that are currently causing widespread hunger and deprivation across a large part of the region include the worst drought for 60 years, escalating food prices and continued regional conflict, the problem is largely man-made and entirely preventable if sufficient resources are redistributed to all people in need. </div><div><br /></div><div>Around 10.7 million people already need urgent humanitarian assistance, while many thousands are fleeing a devastated Somalia each day to take refuge in makeshift camps across Ethiopia and Kenya. The United Nations has now officially declared two regions of southern Somalia to be in famine - a situation in which at least 20 percent of households face a complete lack of food and other basic necessities, and starvation, death and destitution are evident. As the Famine Early Warning Systems Network <a href="http://www.fews.net/docs/Publications/FEWS%20NET_FSNAU_EA_Evidence%20for%20a%20Famine%20Declaration_072011_web.pdf">makes clear</a> (pdf), the currently inadequate levels of humanitarian response are likely to see famine spread across all eight regions of southern Somalia within two months and could lead to "total livelihood/social collapse". </div><div><br /></div><div>With food insecurity in the East African region remaining an ongoing concern for decades, many humanitarian agencies have been trying to draw attention to a potential famine in these countries for some time. The UN made an appeal for $500m in 2010 to assist with food security, but managed to secure only half from donors. Consequently, hunger levels have rocketed over recent months, and in some areas the number of young children <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93223">suffering malnutrition</a> is now three times the normal emergency level. At least half a million children <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93257">risk death</a> if immediate help does not reach them, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). </div><div><br /></div><div>The humanitarian coordinator for Somalia has also <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/jul/20/un-declares-famine-somalia">described the lack of resources</a> as alarming, with insufficient donations of food, clean water, shelter and health services to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Somalis in desperate need. The underlying problem is repeated by various aid organisations: that the international response is not commensurate with the urgent requirements of those affected by the humanitarian catastrophe, and there is a lack of international support to address the deep-seated causes of the crisis or to mitigate future crises. </div><div><br /></div><div>Yet the extreme deprivation being widely reported across East African is just the tip of the iceberg. Needless impoverishment and death is an ongoing catastrophe that unfolds daily, largely without any attention from the world's media or the public. At least 41,000 people in the developing world continue to die each day from easily preventable diseases that barely occur in high-income countries, such as diarrhoea, malaria or nutritional deficiencies. Despite the scale of these preventable deaths - amounting to 15 million lives lost each year, half of which affect young children before their fifth birthday - there is no official recognition that such extreme deprivation should also be considered a humanitarian catastrophe and treated accordingly. </div><div><br /></div><div>These shameful mortality rates occur as a result of the ongoing silent disaster of world poverty, which receives a similarly inadequate international response to the periodic famines or food crises in countries like Somalia. For over a decade, international efforts to reduce poverty have centred around the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of globally agreed targets that are set to expire in 2015. Although the MDGs have done much to focus attention on global poverty, they are widely considered an insufficient and superficial approach to economic development and saving lives. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>A deadly lack of ambition </b></div><div><br /></div><div>The politically sensitive principles of equity and distributive justice that featured in the original <a href="http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm">Millennium Declaration</a> have gradually faded from the official development discourse, accompanied by a deadly lack of ambition. Even if the MDG goal on halving rates of poverty is met, a staggering 882 million people will still be living in absolute poverty in 2015. In effect, the MDG's focus on merely reducing over time the number of people living below the threshold of human survival tacitly accepts the continuance of poverty-related deaths each day. Similarly, goals four and five commit to reduce maternal mortality by only three quarters by 2015, and under-five child mortality by two-thirds, which accepts not only a high number of preventable maternal and child deaths remaining at the end of the MDG period, but also many millions of such needless deaths in the interim. </div><div><br /></div><div>In an interdependent and globalised world, there can be no meaningful process of development whilst so many people living in poverty die prematurely and unnecessarily. The impact on families, communities and economies are devastating, and preventing these deaths is an urgent moral necessity. Even in the crudest economic calculations, putting an end to avoidable deaths would amount to a significant investment in human capital, as healthy individuals whose basic needs are secured are far more likely to contribute to the growth of communities and nations. It is objectionable from any social, moral or economic viewpoint that sufficient resources are not immediately made available to address the crises of extreme deprivation, especially in its most acute manifestation well before the situation degenerates into a full-blown famine. </div><div><br /></div><div>International efforts to address the life-threatening poverty of millions of people in the poorest countries must aim far higher and provide much more than the current insufficient, voluntary and often conditional donations of overseas aid and disaster assistance. A massively upscaled redistribution of resources from North to South is essential to avert humanitarian disasters and prevent extreme deprivation and poverty-related deaths. Given the scale of these related crises, an international program of emergency relief must become the highest priority of world governments, followed by assistance for developing countries to secure ongoing state-provided welfare and essential services for all their citizens. Efforts to improve the redistribution of wealth nationally through the development of local industries, better taxation and the provision of comprehensive social protection for all people should become the new focus of international development policy. </div><div><br /></div><div>Central to this transformation of development is the <a href="http://www.stwr.org/economic-sharing-alternatives/sharing-the-worlds-resources-an-introduction.html">principle of sharing</a>, which embodies universally accepted ethical values that reflect our common humanity. Aligning the international policy discourse more closely to our shared moral obligations can help redeem decades of unjust economic and social policy, prevent future famines and help manifest an inclusive vision of progress and development. In the simplest economic terms, sharing points to the need for a redistribution of wealth from rich to poor, and a shift in power relations from financial and commercial interests to the world's majority population. The East African crisis presents another opportunity for civil society to demand that wealth and resources are shared more equitably across the world, and that policy-makers prioritise the complete eradication of poverty above all other concerns.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Adam Parsons</b> is the editor at Share The World's Resources, (STWR) a London-based NGO campaigning for essential resources - such as land, energy, water and the atmosphere - to be shared internationally and sustainably in order to secure basic human needs. He can be contacted at adam(at)stwr.org.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Rajesh Makwana</b> is the executive director of Share The World's Resources, (STWR), a London-based NGO campaigning for essential resources - such as land, energy, water and the atmosphere - to be shared internationally and sustainably in order to secure basic human needs. He can be contacted at rajesh@stwr.org</div><div><br /></div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/">home page</a></div><div>Dissident Voice <a href="http://dissidentvoice.org/">home page</a></div><div>Share The World's Resource (STWR) <a href="http://www.stwr.org/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Somalia: the Real Causes of Famine</b></div><div>by Michel Chossudovsky <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25725">article link</a></div><div>July 21, 2011 | Global Research</div><div>Global Research <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=home">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Famine in Somalia: The Use of Food as an Instrument of Warfare</b></div><div>U.S. and Ethiopia Kill Somalis With Food Weapon</div><div>by Glen Ford <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25724">article link</a> <a href="http://blackagendareport.com/content/us-and-ethiopia-kill-somalis-food-weapon">article link</a></div><div>July 21, 2011 | Global Research | Black Agenda Report</div><div>Black Agenda Report <a href="http://blackagendareport.com/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Republican Lawmakers Tell the World Where to Go</b></div><div>by Jim Lobe <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/07/22">article link</a></div><div>July 22, 2011 | CommonDreams | Inter Press Service</div><div>Inter Press Service <a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/index.asp">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Ensuring Fair Shares in a World of Limits</b></div><div>As worldwide demand increases for natural resources that are already in short supply, how should aid donors and campaigners respond?</div><div>by Alex Evans <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/22-1">article link</a> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jul/20/fair-share-natural-resources">article link</a></div><div>July 22, 2011 | CommonDreams | The Guardian/UK</div><div>The Guardian/UK <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-82389935470483252882011-07-21T10:54:00.000-07:002011-07-21T10:57:38.522-07:00Ralph Nader: Why Not Corporate Patriotism for a Change?<div><i>If companies are given American rights, they should have loyalty to this country too.</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Why Not Corporate Patriotism for a Change?</b></div><div>by Ralph Nader <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/21-4">article link</a> <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-0720-nader-20110720,0,2078635.story">article link</a></div><div>July 21, 2011 | CommonDreams | The Chicago Tribune</div><div><br /></div><div>The fireworks and celebrations that mark Independence Day are over. But the need for a national conversation on corporate patriotism has never been more timely.</div><div><br /></div><div>For more than 125 years the courts have been awarding corporations most of the constitutional rights possessed by human beings. Corporations — as artificial entities — now almost have rights equal to "We the people," even though the words "corporation" and "company" are not mentioned in the Constitution.</div><div><br /></div><div>Under the current 5-4 conservative majority in the U.S. Supreme Court, "corporate personhood" is spreading. The Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case allows unlimited independent corporate expenditures for or against any political candidates.</div><div><br /></div><div>Since large corporations keep unleashing their corporate attorneys to push the domain of corporations as "persons," it is way overdue to judge them by the same yardsticks as we judge real persons.</div><div><br /></div><div>U.S. corporations, chartered (born) in the U.S., rising to great size and profits because of American workers, saved or succored repeatedly by taxpayer subsidies and bailouts in Washington and state capitals, and sometimes rescued by U.S. Marines or protected by the U.S. fleets when they are in trouble abroad, owe the American people and our country some measure of loyalty and duty.</div><div><br /></div><div>Instead of extending patriotic gratitude, large U.S. corporations increasingly are sending the opposite message. "We're outta here, with your jobs," their behavior says. Unfortunately, some CEOs appear to have no problem with dictatorial communist regimes like China or oligarchies like Mexico that know how to oppress impoverished workers. Workers in China cannot start independent unions or uniformly use independent courts to recognize their health, safety and economic rights.</div><div><br /></div><div>Products from foreign sweatshops are exported back to the U.S. where abandoned factories and communities proliferate.</div><div><br /></div><div>Corporations say they love their country, especially when it comes to manufacturing modern weapons systems for the Pentagon. So let's extend this love and see how they measure up patriotically.</div><div><br /></div><div>Is it patriotic for drug companies to leave our country without any production facilities for ingredients used in penicillin and other key drugs because they have shipped production rapidly in the past decade to China and India which lack the inspection standards we have here? Leaving America defenseless and so dependent in this critical area is especially galling. Remember Big Pharma accepts billions in tax credits and valuable free research, development and clinical testing by the National Institutes of Health for many important pharmaceuticals.</div><div><br /></div><div>Is it patriotic for CEOs to continue using public services and gobs of corporate welfare while they move their corporate headquarters to a small office in the Bahamas or other tax havens to escape paying their fair share to the Treasury? Such tax escapees burden ordinary taxpayers further.</div><div><br /></div><div>Is it patriotic for CEOs to demand and use taxpayer dollars to facilitate moving abroad with their industries? The latest version of this lack of fealty is taking large federal subsidies for solar energy research and development and then moving the production facilities to China. Andrew Grove, former CEO of Intel, has written critically of this ominous, job-draining trend.</div><div><br /></div><div>Is it patriotic for General Motors to be saved from bankruptcy by taxpayers and still keep billions in taxpayer-paid reserves and credits, yet lobby against the Obama administration's proposed overdue safety and fuel economy standards?</div><div><br /></div><div>In 1996, I sent letters to the CEOs of the largest hundred U.S. chartered corporations, urging them at their annual shareholders meeting, in the name of their corporation (not their boards of directors or officers) to pledge allegiance to the flag.</div><div><br /></div><div>For example, the CEOs would stand up, and on behalf of General Motors, DuPont, Exxon Mobil, Pfizer or Bank of America, "pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."</div><div><br /></div><div>The many responses were instructive. Only Federated Department Stores thought it was a good idea. The other companies either said that they would take the suggestion under advisement or they misinterpreted my letter as asking for pledges by corporate officials and shareholders, no matter what their nationality. Ford Motor Co. flatly declared "the concept of corporate allegiance is not workable." In high dudgeon, O. George Everbach wrote back declaring "Kimberly-Clark believes that it has an inalienable right to choose when, where and how it wishes to display its patriotism."</div><div><br /></div><div>Well at least Kimberly-Clark recognized the concept. Now it is time for American workers and taxpayers to say to corporate America that companies can't always have it both ways — to receive all the benefits of American corporate personhood and avoid all the expectations of patriotic behavior and the responsibilities that go along with those privileges and immunities.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is not a left-right divide. For as Pat Buchanan has said, if these U.S. corporations are not loyal to us, why should we be loyal to them?</div><div><br /></div><div>© 2011 Chicago Tribune</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Ralph Nader</b> is a consumer advocate, lawyer, and author. His most recent book - and first novel - is, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1583229035?tag=commondreams-20/ref=nosim">Only The Super-Rich Can Save Us</a>. His most recent work of non-fiction is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0061238279?tag=commondreams-20/ref=nosim">The Seventeen Traditions</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/ralph-nader">articles</a> by Ralph Nader</div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/">home page</a></div><div>Ralph Nader <a href="http://www.nader.org/">home page</a></div><div>The Chicago Tribune <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/#&lid=Home&lpos=Main">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Corporate America's Sunshine Patriots</b></div><div>by Michael Winship <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/21-1">article link</a></div><div>July 21, 2011 | CommonDreams</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The People's Budget vs. The Plutocracy</b></div><div>by John Atcheson <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/21-0">article link</a></div><div>July 21, 2011 | CommonDreams</div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-69684912429580472542011-07-20T09:09:00.000-07:002011-07-20T09:21:33.320-07:00Willie Osterweil: A Global Fight for Radical Democracy<div><b>Yes We Camp: A Global Fight for Radical Democracy</b></div><div>by Willie Osterweil <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/19-9">article link</a> <a href="http://www.shareable.net/blog/yes-we-camp-a-global-fight-for-radical-democracy">article link</a></div><div>July 19, 2011 | CommonDreams | Shareable</div><div><br /></div><div>Millenials all over the world have received a brutal political education. The lucky few of us paid far more and will get far less for our college degrees than any generation before, we have watched with dismay as our parents squabble over light bulbs while the seas boil, and we have witnessed the steady erosion of public space, individual rights, the fourth estate, and checks on executive power. America has been at war for basically the entire adult lives of everyone under 30. The financial collapse of 2008 seemed to catch Baby Boomers by surprise, but for us, it was just another news story, a predictable event in a world spinning out of control. We have also grown up with racial and sexual tolerance as the norm (if not the rule), with communication and information constantly at our fingertips, and in a world where, though crises are shared globally, so is community.</div><div><br /></div><div>We have seen the house of cards start to tremble, we have watched our future sold to the lowest bidder, and we see it happening everywhere at once.</div><div><br /></div><div>Out of this potentially nihilistic morass a serious movement for change is emerging. Though it would be disingenuous to call it a youth movement – it’s too big for that – Millenials have been at the vanguard in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Greece, Ireland, Iceland, and Spain. We have developed new tactics, new ideologies, new ideas, and we’ve done it fast. Though strategies and expressions have varied to match cultural and national contexts, the movements share striking similarities. These movements have no leaders, no major political parties, no rigid ideologies and no demands beyond total, real, democracy.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Yes We Camp,” one of the witty twitter hashtags of Spain’s 15 May movement, sums things up well. Inspired by the Arab Spring, galvanized by crisis, unemployment and austerity, fed up with the ineffective, corrupt, and often misanthropic political process, we are leaving our homes and moving to the street. In a blend of last-chance desperation and optimistic empowerment, we are building autonomous, totally democratic camps in city centers across the world. In these camps total inclusive democracy is praxis, everything is shared, and we build revolutionary consciousness everyday.</div><div><br /></div><div>Perhaps no country is better suited to the radical democratic camps than Spain. A relatively young democracy, Spain has a rich political history of autonomous revolt and a strong cultural tradition of shared outdoor space. With unemployment hovering around 25 percent, and youth unemployment above 40 percent, a decade long housing bubble as dramatic as that in the US, and a series of dramatic cuts to social services being pushed by the EU and the ‘socialist’ Zapatero government, Los Indignados have over 60 percent popular support. I’ve discussed the <a href="http://www.shareable.net/blog/revolution-in-spain">history of the movement</a> and <a href="http://www.shareable.net/blog/spain-the-indignant-community">life in the camps</a> for <i>Shareable</i> before, but I’d like to zero in on the political methods and practices I witnessed (and took part in, to a limited extent) in Barcelona’s Placa Catalunya.</div><div><br /></div><div>The camp is fundamentally organized around the principle of the General Assembly. If you’ve been in any kind of leftist meeting you have an idea of how it works: someone volunteers to be meeting facilitator, and people raise their hands to get on the ‘stack’. The facilitator calls on people in the order they volunteered, and only one person speaks at a time. They seek consensus rather than majority rule: all of the meetings I witnessed ended with dissenters agreeing to proposals and accepting the decision of the group. In a majority vote, voters are presented with a yes/no question and 51 percent carries the day, but in General Assembly proposals are built during conversation and debate, and as such actually reflect the desires of the group as a whole.</div><div><br /></div><div>From the general assembly <i>Los Indignados</i> formed commissions, which focus on specific issues and questions within the camp, such as communication, international press, infrastructure, and food. These commissions set up their own booths and tents, where they work and remain available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to speak with the public walking through the square. Commissions all have their own assemblies, following the same methods. As such, all actions, choices, and movements are formed from the bottom up, not the top down.</div><div><br /></div><div>This means, of course, a lot of meetings: it can be boring, and slow, and sometimes frustrating. But everyone takes part in the decision process, and everyone’s voice is listened to, not just heard. During a general assembly on Tuesday the 21st, a group of eleven and twelve year olds marched into the square chanting, to general applause. The assembly was paused to allow the kids to come up on stage and address the camp. What is lost in ideological rigidity you gain in respect, actualization, and consciousness. Democracy is messy, but efficiency is capitalism's catch-phrase.</div><div><br /></div><div>Everything is shared: decision making, food, labor, information, experience, resources, cigarettes. Placa Catalunya has a free kitchen, daily teach-ins, meeting schedules, public art spaces, a play space for kids, free movie screenings, and much more.</div><div><br /></div><div>The camps also serve as action and information centers: people form actions large and small from the centralized point, allowing for a fluidity and speed of organization unavailable to other forms of organization. It also allows for simple scalability of involvement: core revolutionaries sleep and live in the camp, some people spend a couple days a week there, others only show up for major protests. This improvisational form of occupation creates a strong but fluid movement open to all and run by the people.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a practice of total democracy, of real, revolutionary tolerance. Los Indignados are 100 percent against violence, but they define violence to include homelessness, unemployment, hate speech and other forms of injustice. To quote the popular chant: this is what democracy looks like!</div><div><br /></div><div>Similarly organized camps can be found throughout Spain, in Athens, and of course Egypt and Tunisia. Smaller camps have been springing up all over the world: England, Iceland, Italy, and France, throughout South America, even some in Japan and South Korea.</div><div><br /></div><div>They’ve been appearing here in the US too. After the people were kicked out of the capitol building in Madison, they spontaneously organized Walkerville, an anti-Walker camp and protest space. I am writing these words from Bloombergville, the New York City encampment built to fight Bloomberg’s 2012 budget. A camp sprung up in San Jose this week, and Boston last week. A group called “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_213225485384195">American Spring</a>” has planned camps for next month in Pheonix, San Fransisco, San Jose, and across the Southwest, and <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/revolution-will-not-be-deactualized/1308230236">a major anti-war encampment</a> is planned for Washington D.C, slated to start on October 6.</div><div><br /></div><div>It’s not clear whether all of these camps can succeed in their goals, but it is totally clear that this method is capable of transforming consciousness (particularly among millenials) and making a better future seem not only possible, but plausible. This is the new method of resistance, revolt and democracy developed by a generation with nothing to lose and everything to gain. We will be seeing many more of these camps before this crisis is over, and one may well be coming to your city. If it’s not, get your friends together, find points of unity, and grab your sleeping bags.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Willie Osterweil</b> is a writer and punk singer based in Brooklyn, NY. When he's not overseas taking part in revolutions, Willie edits the A/V section for <a href="http://thenewinquiry.com/">The New Inquiry</a> and fronts the band <a href="http://vultureshit.bandcamp.com/album/cmon-n-book-us">Vulture Shit</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/">home page</a></div><div>Shareable <a href="http://www.shareable.net/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Neoliberalism, Austerity, and the Global Crisis of Legitimacy</b></div><div>by Chris Maisano <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/19-10">article link</a> <a href="http://theactivist.org/blog/the-global-crisis-of-legitimacy">article link</a></div><div>July 19, 2011 | CommonDreams | The Activist</div><div>The Activist <a href="http://theactivist.org/blog/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div>The Never-Ending Depression</div><div><b>The Economy Can Only Recover If We Repudiate the Debt</b></div><div>by Washington's Blog <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25707">article link</a> <a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/07/economics-professor-well-have-never.html">article link</a></div><div>July 20, 2011 | Global Research | Washington's Blog</div><div>Global Research <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=home">home page</a></div><div>Washington's Blog <a href="http://washingtonsblog.com/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Class Politics of the US Debt Ceiling Crisis</b></div><div>by Patrick Martin <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25709">article link</a> <a href="http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jul2011/pers-j19.shtml">article link</a></div><div>July 20, 2011 | Global Research | WSWS</div><div>WSWS <a href="http://www.wsws.org/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Balance the Budget on the Backs of Billionaires</b></div><div>by David Swanson <a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/Balance-the-Budget-on-the-by-David-Swanson-110720-966.html">article link</a></div><div>July 20, 2011 | OpEdNews</div><div>OpEdNews <a href="http://www.opednews.com/index.php">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-41396004770243053382011-07-19T09:57:00.000-07:002011-07-19T12:04:42.885-07:00Mary Bottari: ALEC Exposed<div><b>ALEC Exposed: Milton Friedman's Little Shop of Horrors</b></div><div>by Mary Bottari <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/19-2">article link</a> <a href="http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=22223">Uprising Radio</a></div><div>July 19, 2011 | CommonDreams | PRWatch | Uprising Radio</div><div><br /></div><div>Although he passed away in 2006, states are now grappling with many of the toxic notions left behind by University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman.</div><div><br /></div><div>In her groundbreaking book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312427999?ie=UTF8&tag=commondreams-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0312427999">The Shock Doctrine</a>, Naomi Klein coined the term "disaster capitalism" for the rapid-fire corporate re-engineering of societies still reeling from shock. The master of disaster? Privatization and free market guru Milton Friedman. Friedman advised governments in economic crisis to follow strict austerity measures, combining radical cuts in social services with the full-scale privatization of their more lucrative assets. Many countries in Latin America auctioned off everything standing -- from energy and water utilities to Social Security -- to for profit multinational firms, crushing unions and other dissenters along the way.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, U.S. states are in crisis. The 2008 Wall Street financial meltdown, caused by years of deregulation and lack of government oversight, cost Americans $14 trillion in lost wealth and eight million lost jobs. Today some 25 million are unemployed or underemployed. This jobs crisis has tanked federal and state tax receipts, adding billions to state budget shortfalls.</div><div><br /></div><div>As the prime movers of this deregulatory agenda, the GOP spin machine has launched into hyper-drive in an attempt to wash the blood from their hands. Governors across the nation, backed by Wall Street's Club for Growth and the Koch Brother's Americans for Prosperity, are working hard to convince average Americans that a jobs crisis is actually a deficit crisis and that the culprits are not the big banks on Wall Street, but state, county and municipal workers.</div><div><br /></div><div>In lockstep, governors are reaching for an almost identical set of "solutions," to their financial woes: massive tax breaks for big corporations, constitutional amendments to prevent states from raising revenue, the slashing of critical public services, the busting of unions and the privatization of every possible aspect of government including public schools -- long a Friedman agenda item. (See the video <a href="http://fora.tv/2006/07/21/Milton_Friedman">here</a>.)</div><div><br /></div><div>The similarity of these measures has not gone unnoticed, but now we have found the fountainhead of these radical measures: the American Legislative Exchange Council. (ALEC)</div><div><br /></div><div><b>ALEC Exposed</b></div><div><br /></div><div>This week the Center for Media and Democracy made available to the public over 800 ALEC "model" bills and resolutions on a new website, <a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed">ALECexposed.org</a>. We display the documents, crafted by corporations, and right-wing state legislators behind closed doors, so that citizens across the country can now trace the origins of many of the radical proposals moving in their states. (Our site contains lists of ALEC members, corporations, task forces, scholars, funders and more.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Milton Friedman famously <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=7ZUl-iF7Sl4C&pg=PA166&lpg=PA166&dq=Only+a+crisis+--+actual+or+perceived+--+produces+real+changes.+When+the+crisis+occurs,+the+actions+that+are+taken+depend+on+the+ideas+that+are+lying+around.+That,+I+believe,+is+our+basic+function:+to+develop+alternatives+to+existing+policies+to+keep+them+alive+and+available+until+the+politically+impossible+becomes+politically+inevitable&source=bl&ots=Xi55fnucQD&sig=udtY798DTZLTTyiFiY57LxIn7Oc&hl=en&ei=TlEkTqfrLMrh0QHlranLAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDgQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Only%20a%20crisis%20--%20actual%20or%20perceived%20--%20produces%20real%20changes.%20When%20the%20crisis%20occurs%2C%20the%20actions%20that%20are%20taken%20depend%20on%20the%20ideas%20that%20are%20lying%20around.%20That%2C%20I%20believe%2C%20is%20our%20basic%20function%3A%20to%20develop%20alternatives%20to%20existing%20policies%20to%20keep%20them%20alive%20and%20available%20until%20the%20politically%20impossible%20becomes%20politically%20inevitable&f=false">said</a>: "Only a crisis -- actual or perceived -- produces real changes. When the crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable." Think of ALEC as Milton Friedman's little shop of horrors where legislators across the country can easily access the "ideas laying around."</div><div><br /></div><div>ALEC is not a lobby, and it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Behind closed doors, corporations hand legislators the law changes they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Corporations are "equal" members. They have their own corporate governing board which meets jointly with the legislative board. Corporations and trade groups fund almost all of ALEC's operations directly through hefty membership dues and indirectly through corporate foundations, like the Charles G. Koch Foundation.</div><div><br /></div><div>Corporations, like Koch Industries, Phillip Morris, Reynolds, Kraft, Wal-Mart, Bayer, Coca Cola, State Farm and more, sit on ALEC task forces and vote with state legislators to approve "model" bills in secret. They wine and dine legislators at swank hotels, with child care provided, fundraisers and other perks pre-arranged. After a swell time, participating legislators -- overwhelmingly conservative Republicans -- bring the bills home and introduce them into statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations. ALEC cuts out the middleman and the state legislators themselves become "super lobbyists" for the ALEC agenda.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Disaster Capitalism in the States</b></div><div><br /></div><div>In December of 2008, while the economy was shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs a month, one group was treating the catastrophe as a terrific opportunity. Governor Mitch Daniels reminded an ALEC gathering that the collapse of the U.S. economy was "a terrific time to shrink government!"</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2010, Republicans won the governorship and control of both houses in 21 states. ALEC shock troops swung into high gear. In Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Maine a steady stream of bills emerged from Milton Friedman's shop.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Starving State Government of Revenue to Make It Dysfunctional and Despised:</b> ALEC members are introducing hundreds of bills to grant tax breaks to big corporations and to cripple state's ability to raise revenue, including new constitutional rules to limiting state taxing powers. Grover Norquist would love these lethal proposals.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Privatizing Schools and Other Government Services:</b> ALEC bills encompass over 20 years of effort to privatize public education through an ever-expanding school voucher system, to turn Medicare and Medicaid into voucher programs,and to privatize almost all aspects of government including toll roads and bridges, pensions, foster care and prisons. Foreign firms like Maquarie and Cintra, which are snapping up U.S. roads and bridges, are also using ALEC to push model bills.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Race to the Bottom in Wages for Americans:</b> ALEC bills would repeal state or local laws that boost workers wages such as "living wage" and prevailing wage laws. ALEC bills call a starting minimum wage an "unfunded mandate" but think that prison labor is just terrific. ALEC also supports a radical "free trade" agenda that sends U.S. manufacturing and an increasing number of service-sector jobs overseas.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Defunding Traditional Supporters of the Democratic Party:</b> ALEC purports to be nonpartisan, but only 1 of 104 legislators in ALEC's leadership is a Democrat. ALECexposed.org contains dozens of bills to defund public sector and private sector unions and to make it harder for trial lawyers to bring cases when consumers are injured or killed by dangerous products.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Help Needed!</b></div><div><br /></div><div>ALEC's agenda is vast. These bills and many more are moving in all 50 states. We need your help! Visit <a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed">ALECexposed.org</a> today, see the corporations and legislators pursuing this agenda and help us track the bills moving in your state. Join the conversation on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#%21/CenterforMediaandDemocracy">Facebook</a> and Twitter at #ALECexposed and Take Action to tell the ALEC corporate cabal to "<a href="http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/632/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=7281">Dump ALEC!</a>"</div><div><br /></div><div>© 2011 Center for Media and Democracy</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Mary Bottari</b> is the Director of the Center for Media and Democracy's <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Real_Economy_Project">Real Economy Project</a> and editor of their <a href="http://www.banksterusa.org/">www.BanksterUSA.org</a> site.</div><div><br /></div><div>PRWatch <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/35270">articles</a> by Mary Bottari</div><div>PRWatch <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/">home page</a></div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Keynes Cocktail Is No Joke</b></div><div>by Staff Report <a href="http://www.thedailybell.com/2700/Keynes-Cocktail-Is-No-Joke">article link</a></div><div>July 19, 2011 | Daily Bell</div><div>The Daily Bell <a href="http://www.thedailybell.com/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>President Obama's Big Deal: Cuts for Social Security, But No Taxes for Wall Street</b></div><div>by Dean Baker <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/19-1">article link</a></div><div>July 19, 2011 | CommonDreams | CEPR</div><div>CEPR <a href="http://www.cepr.net/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>World War Three Is Under Way and YOU Are the Enemy</b></div><div>by Rob Kall <a href="http://sovereignchristiansurvivalistcreed.blogspot.com/2011/07/world-war-three-is-under-way-and-you.html">article link</a> <a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/World-War-Three-Is-Under-W-by-Rob-Kall-110706-550.html">article link</a></div><div>July 6, 2011 | SCSC | OpEdNews</div><div>SCSC <a href="http://sovereignchristiansurvivalistcreed.blogspot.com/">home page</a></div><div>OpEdNews <a href="http://www.opednews.com/index.php">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>How to Liberate America from Wall Street Rule</b></div><div>How is it that our nation is awash in money, but too broke to provide jobs and services?</div><div>by David Korten <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/19-8">article link</a> <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/david-korten/liberate-america">article link</a> <a href="http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=22266">Uprising Radio</a></div><div>July 19, 2011 | CommonDreams | YES! Magazine | Uprising Radio</div><div>YES! Magazine <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/">home page</a></div><div>Uprising Radio <a href="http://uprisingradio.org/home/">home page</a> </div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Abundant Community; </b></div><div><b>John McKnight & Peter Block; Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods</b></div><div>The Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show Podcast <a href="http://www.opednews.com/Podcast/The-Abundant-Community-Jo-by-Rob-Kall-100825-721.html">article/podcast link</a></div><div>Recorded August 25, 2010 | OpEdNews</div><div>OpEdNews <a href="http://www.opednews.com/index.php">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-33550956573435391252011-07-18T10:27:00.000-07:002011-07-18T10:56:45.068-07:00Richard Clark: A Road to Serfdom<div><b>Global Economic Crisis: The Ultimate Goal of the Bankster-led Political-economic Warfare Being Waged Against Us Is ... ?</b></div><div>by Richard Clark <a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Ultimate-Goal-of-the-B-by-Richard-Clark-110714-667.html">article link</a></div><div>July 14, 2011 | OpEdNews</div><div><br /></div><div>As economist Michael Hudson <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25586">points out</a>, the European debt crisis is really the product of financial warfare instigated by big banks. Yes, these banks are engaged in warfare against the rest of society. What's going on in Greece is exactly what's going to happen in America very shortly. Why? Because in every industrialized country, the big banks are in the process of offloading their bad debts onto governments. They are then forcing these governments to sell off national assets so that the bankers can be paid what they consider to be their due. (For more about this, see the linked video at <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25586">this</a> web site, about Greece being a dress rehearsal for the US.)</div><div><br /></div><div>In a nutshell, what it says is that the world is being prepared for the kind of "neo-feudalism" that these banksters (intent on ever more completely becoming our masters and lords) intend to implement. And so it is that America is in the early stages of being subjected to the same type of <a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/06/america-is-being-raped-just-like-greece.html">plundering</a> as Greece and Ireland.</div><div><br /></div><div>As Hudson <a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2008/09/what-time-is-it.html">explained</a> in 2008, what these banksters and their cohorts are really trying to do is to roll back the Enlightenment, roll back the moral philosophy and social values of classical political economy and its culmination in Progressive Era legislation, as well as the New Deal institutions that embody such legislation. They're not trying to make the economy more equal, and they're not trying to share power -- <i>just the opposite</i>: Their aim is to implement a kind of pre-industrial and even feudal socioeconomic system. What this means is that our economy is being pushed back and put on the road to debt peonage. Hence forth, most manufacturing will be done in Asia and Europe. </div><div><br /></div><div>What we have here, therefore, is indeed a "Road to Serfdom." It is just the opposite of the government sponsorship of economic progress and rising living standards that we had until Reagan took the White House. Rather, it's the dismantling of democratic government and the dissolution of regulatory agencies, for the purpose of creating this new kind of neo-feudal system. (Don't miss Max Keiser's <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25586">discussion</a> of this neo-feudalism on the Keiser Report. Just scroll down until you see a picture of economist Michael Hudson on the linked video screen.)</div><div><br /></div><div>If all this sounds far fetched, consider that Foreign Policy magazine recently ran an article entitled "<a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/04/15/the_next_big_thing_neomedievalism">The Next Big Thing: Neomedievalism</a>," arguing that the power of nations is declining, and is being replaced by big banks and other corporations, wealthy individuals, the sovereign wealth funds of monarchs, and city-regions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Also consider that many progressive economists are now telling us that the true purpose of the bank rescue plans is "a massive redistribution of wealth (concentrating ever more of it into the hands of) the bank shareholders and their top executives."</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, as the wholly non-partisan Australian economist Steve Keen observed:</div><div><br /></div><div>"This is the biggest transfer of wealth in history," as the giant banks have handed off their toxic debts (stemming from fraudulent activities) to tax payers in their respective countries. These big banks created bubbles -- using fraud -- because that's the only way they could make the obscene profits they feel they now deserve. (<a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/10/simon-johnson-confirms-william-k-blacks.html">See this for details</a>). And be sure to not miss Max Keiser's interview of Steve Keen <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25586">here</a>. (Just scroll down until you see Mr. Keen's picture on the linked video screen.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Indeed, <a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/11/its-not-great-recssion-its-great-bank.html">this isn't the "Great Recession", it's the Great Bank Robbery</a>. In simple language, the big banks have <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Takes-Pillage-Deceit-Untold-Trillions/dp/0470928557/ref=pd_sim_b_1">pillaged</a> and <a href="http://www.examiner.com/economic-policy-in-national/nobel-prize-winning-economist-described-the-root-of-the-financial-crisis-1993">looted</a> the rest of the world, and now they are beginning to pillage and loot the USA. It is not only Greece that is losing its sovereignty; the big banks are in the process of <a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/04/banana-republic-with-no-bananas.html">turning America into a banana republic</a> as well. Remember, the trillions in bailouts <a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/01/government-says-no-to-helping-states.html">went to banks, not to Main Street</a>, and <a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/06/ron-paul-88-of-fed-bailout-loans-went.html">a large percentage of the bailouts</a> went to foreign banks (and <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/article/fed-releases-details-secret-855-billion-single-tranche-omo-bailout-program-just-another-fore">see this</a>). And so did <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25566">most of the money from the second round of quantitative easing</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>In short, warfare initiated by the big banks has now gone global. As Warren Buffet, one of America's most successful capitalists and defenders of capitalism, has <i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html">pointed out</a></i>, "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's <i>making</i> that war." And winning it. </div><div><br /></div><div>Let's not forget that it was <i>inequality that to a large extent <a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/07/economy-cannot-recover-as-long-as.html">caused the Great Depression and that has also caused the current economic crisis</a></i>. Finally, let's not forget, either, that the father of modern economics, Adam Smith, <i><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/02/grading-free-market-capitalism-and.html">didn't believe</a></i> that inequality should be a taboo subject, and that even some conservatives, in addition to most liberals of course, are <a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/02/its-myth-that-conservatives-accept.html">against rampant inequality</a>. In spite of this, however, polls show that the vast majority of Americans continue to greatly underestimate the <i>amount</i> of inequality that has, in our country, over the past 30 years, been generated. Most remain largely unaware of the colossal crime that has been committed against them. </div><div><br /></div><div><i>That lack of awareness we must bring to an end.</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Richard Clark</b>: Several years after receiving my M.A. in social science (interdisciplinary studies) I was an instructor at S.F. State University for a year, but then went back to designing automated machinery, and then tech writing, in Silicon Valley. I've always been more interested in political economics and what's going on behind the scenes in politics, than in mechanical engineering, and because of that I've rarely worked more than 8 months a year, devoting much of the rest of the year to reading and writing about that which interests me most. Web site <a href="http://www.techeditingservices.com/">http://www.techeditingservices.com/</a></div><div><br /></div><div>OpEdNews <a href="http://www.opednews.com/author/author8235.html">articles</a> by Richard Clark</div><div>OpEdNews <a href="http://www.opednews.com/index.php">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Global Economic Crisis: Finance Is the New Mode of Warfare</b></div><div>by Prof. Michael Hudson <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25676">article link</a> <a href="http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/71485">program link</a>(mp3) <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28612.htm">article link</a></div><div>July 18, 2011 | Global Research | Guns and Butter (KPFA) | ICH</div><div>Global Research <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=home">home page</a></div><div>Guns and Butter (KPFA) <a href="http://www.kpfa.org/archive/show/complete/34">archive page</a></div><div>Information Clearing House <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Sitting Atop Trillions: What Would Business Do with Another Tax Break?</b></div><div>by Joseph Dwyer <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/18-9">article link</a> <a href="http://www.policyshop.net/home/2011/7/14/sitting-atop-trillions-what-would-business-do-with-another-t.html">article link</a></div><div>July 18, 2011 | CommonDreams | Policy Shop</div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/">home page</a></div><div>Policy Shop <a href="http://www.policyshop.net/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Reading the Debt Ceiling Tea Leaves to Predict the Future</b></div><div>by Jack Rasmus <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/reading-debt-ceiling-tea-leaves-predict-future/1310749515">article link</a></div><div>July 18, 2011 | Truthout</div><div>Truthout <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-62687528953385756842011-07-17T10:13:00.000-07:002011-07-17T10:19:30.233-07:00Bob Chapman: Financial Crimes on Wall Street and the Debt Crisis<div><b>Financial Crimes on Wall Street and the Debt Crisis</b></div><div>Crisis And Collapse Unfortunate but Inevitable</div><div>by Bob Chapman <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25655">article link</a> <a href="http://theinternationalforecaster.com/International_Forecaster_Weekly/Crisis_And_Collapse_Unfortunate_but_Inevitable">article link</a></div><div>July 16, 2011 | Global Research | International Forecaster</div><div><br /></div><div>Crime on Wall Street, in banking and in corporate America pays. One just neither admits or denies and lets the corporate shareholders pay the fines. These are today’s untouchable, who steal billions and get away with it. Financial institutions are too big to fail, as are their key employees. </div><div><br /></div><div>To a great extent fraud and other criminal behavior caused the credit crisis and lack of recovery that we have witnessed over the last 5 years. We have had top officers of firms see their companies headed for trouble and with this inside knowledge they have cashed out their share holdings. Then there were the predatory lenders, syndicators of bonds, which contained mortgages, now known as toxic waste, that were criminally given AAA ratings when they deserved BBB. We had some 1,000 corporate officers who backdated their options. Only one was criminally prosecuted when they all should have been. </div><div><br /></div><div>Prosecutions have come few and for between, because the SEC, CFTC and the Justice Department aid and abet these crooks in order to keep harmony in the system, which is coming unglued. They have always done this, but over the past 5 years even the uneducated can see what has and is taking place. In fact the more outrageous the crime, the less it is liable to be pursued. This non-pursuit of crime needless to say encourages more crime and further damages overall corporate and financial sectors. There is no accountability and we see none in the future. Let there be no mistake this financial crisis is worse than the last depression. This continuing degenerative process can only assist in a further degeneration of the system.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>A bill has been introduced by Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the permanent subcommittee on investigations, that would change IRS regulations that allow American traders of credit default swaps to avoid paying federal taxes on transactions initiated in the US. It would tighten rules that enable some hedge funds and US corporations to reduce federal tax liabilities by declaring themselves foreign companies and moving a small part of their operations overseas. It would require companies to provide the SEC and the public, with a country-by-country breakdown of their sales, employment and operations.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>Senator Levin says that abuse of offshore havens cost American taxpayers $100 billion a year. Presently American transnational conglomerates have more than $2 trillion stashed offshore waiting for another tax break like the one five years ago that allowed them to bring $350 billion home at 5-1/4% instead of regular taxation of 35%. That works out to about $600 billion lost to the Treasury. Gains from traders would be $20 billion over ten years. The removal of these tax breaks would certainly help cut the budget deficit.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>The crisis in Greece is finally causing contagion in Italy. The crisis of all six near bankrupt euro nations is upon us and it is permanent. Moody’s just downgraded Ireland again, at the worst possible time. Spain, which is in terrible shape, will soon follow. The EU members and their controllers, the banks, keep trying to put band-aids on their festering problem. Sooner or later they will have to face the music and that is those six nations will all have to go bankrupt along with the banks. All of you subscribers in the EU and UK get your funds out of the bank, now, and into gold and silver coins. If you don’t you may end up with nothing. If this goes on long enough it will take the presently solvent nations down as well.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>The European Union and the euro zone were ill conceived and bound to failure. After having lived in Europe for years, and being able to speak several of their languages, you get to understand people and the way they think. Both entities were anthropologically unnatural. Europe is still tribal. Just look at countries like Germany, France and Belgium where people speak different variations of the same language. In Belgium they speak two distinct languages. The EU’s major flaw was sovereign countries ran their own fiscal policies, as bureaucrats ran the EU. You have to either federalize all the way or forget it. The euro zone foisted one interest rate fits all, all on countries that should have never had the same interest rates as say Germany. We talked about both these issues 14 years ago, but as usual, no one was listening. From the very beginning the EU and the euro zone were doomed. Both are going to now begin the process of disintegration, as both are a failure. The six countries will go bankrupt, as will the banks. That will dislodge England and push it into bankruptcy and that in turn will force the US to follow. That may be the catalyst that forces a meeting of all nations to revalue, devalue and multilaterally default, hopefully such a meeting will occur long before this stage is reached. There is no question now that the game is over. The question now is when?</div><div><br /></div><div>Workers have become a form of inventory just like widgets. For years now companies have laid off and rehired workers at will, keeping the expensive worker participation to a minimum. If you use total figures and include discouraged workers the unemployed are 20.6 million, up 483,000 in June. We do not see stimulus 3 coming from Congress, so we expect unemployment to resume its relentless rise upward from 22.6%. Mind you unemployment reflects $1.7 trillion in stimulus 1 and 2, and QE 1 and QE 2, which takes us well over 44 trillion. All those injections did was to bail out the financial sector and government. As we know our President tells us the administration created three million jobs, at a cost of $266,000 per job. That is hardly something to write home about. Corporate America is in excellent financial shape, but they will be slow to hire until they see a firm recovery in place. Sure GE made $17 million, because they did not pay taxes as we do, but they won’t rush out to hire unless the reason to hire exists. The real opportunity to hire has to be with small business that hires 70% of Americans. They do not enjoy the tax-free status of GE. Most of these small companies are barely hanging on. These are the companies that banks won’t loan too. Half of them are still experiencing falling profits, only 20% are doing well.</div><div><br /></div><div>Year-on-year in the municipal sector 450,000 workers are going to lose their jobs, because many of these entities are close to broke. They and the states want more money from the federal government, which it doesn’t have to give. Large, very profitable businesses generally create very few jobs. They and mid-sized companies are buying more and more labor saving equipment, or they are moving production offshore. For the last three years most of the new jobs paid subsistence wages. Those are $8.00 to $11.00 an hour jobs, which are really part-time providing a 34.3-hour week, as inflation roars ahead up 10.6% and headed up to 14% by yearend. The average duration of unemployment is at an all-time high and 44% unemployed have been out work six months or more, at an all-time high.</div><div><br /></div><div>We had a gentlemen call in on one of our programs, he has a masters and had been out of work for four years. He went to a company and told management he would work for nothing in order to learn to operate a forklift. After training he got a job doing that work at a plumbing company. He has the distinction of beating out 26 other applicants. He has been told in 1-1/2 years they will be an opening for him in accounting, his major. This is the state of America today, as our transnational conglomerates ship our jobs out of the country every day.</div><div><br /></div><div>We figure a debt extension bill is on the way, but it will only cut $150 to $200 billion a year in government spending, hardly an accomplishment. If the Fed does not inject $850 billion into the economy we are looking at a minus 3% to 5% in GDP. That is in addition to buying $1.7 trillion in treasuries and other associated toxic waste. </div><div><br /></div><div>The newest recession began a few months ago, or should we say downturn in an inflationary depression. There will be no recovery this year or next without $850 billion additional being thrown into the economy. No 3.5% growth. Perhaps a minus 4% if we are lucky. That should put unemployment close to 25% by 2012. After the news comes out that the term debt deal has been done the stock market will begin to slip downward.</div><div><br /></div><div>As this transpires we see a million more foreclosures and more the following year. In order for the economy to revive housing it has to revive and we see absolutely no chance of that happening over the next two years. As the Fed supplies buckets of money and credit inflation will scream upward. 25% to 30% is already in the pipeline for next year via QE and Stimulus 2. There is no way that can be stopped. That will be added to by the results of QE 3 in 2013. We wish it won’t be this way, but it is.</div><div><br /></div><div>There has been an inevitability since August 15,1971, that America and the western world would move from crisis to crisis until the financial and economic system eventually collapsed.</div><div><br /></div><div>For those who have been objective over those years what we are seeing today is no surprise.</div><div><br /></div><div>No one in America wants the merry-go-round to stop. Americans are not prepared to face the music. They naturally want more debt creation, but interestingly by 70%, they did not want a short-term debt extension. That is understandably confusing and the reason is that when it comes to economy and finance they are really in the dark. What they truly do not understand along with much of Wall Street is that the debt problem is much worse and deeper then they believe.</div><div><br /></div><div>The problems in Europe are never ending. The solvent countries are discovering what we discovered a year ago May. The cost of the six-country bailout we projected at $4 trillion. A month ago we increased that to $4 to $6 trillion. When we said $4 trillion Germany said $1 trillion. This past week they said $3.5 trillion. We wonder why it took them so long to catch up. As of this writing the Greeks have signed a bailout deal but the lenders still do not know what they want to do. They are finally reaching the realization that they cannot be serviced never mind be repaid. You can cut wages and spending 40% or 50% and not expect revenues to fall. That means the bankers get paid and no one else does. That is what Wall Street’s game is all about.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Bob Chapman</b> is a frequent contributor to Global Research.</div><div><br /></div><div>Global Research <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=listByAuthor&authorFirst=Bob&authorName=Chapman">articles</a> by Bob Chapman</div><div>Global Research <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=home">home page</a></div><div>International Forecaster <a href="http://theinternationalforecaster.com/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>‘Let ‘Em Eat Peas’: An Elitist Mantra for Our Age</b></div><div>by Donna Smith <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/17-4">article link</a></div><div>July 17, 2011 | CommonDreams</div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Blowing It: Democrats, Unable to Be a Party of the People, are Sinking Themselves</b></div><div>by Dave Lindorff <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/17">article link</a></div><div>July 17, 2011 | CommonDreams</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Morality of Gold</b></div><div>by Anthony Wile <a href="http://www.thedailybell.com/2690/Anthony-Wile-The-Morality-of-Gold">article link</a></div><div>July 16, 2011 | Daily Bell</div><div>The Daily Bell <a href="http://www.thedailybell.com/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Greater Depression Is Upon Us</b></div><div>by David Galland <a href="http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/07.11/greater.html">article link</a></div><div>July 16, 2011 | Silver Bear Cafe</div><div>The Silver Bear Cafe <a href="http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/home.html">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-79344021239205321162011-07-16T07:57:00.000-07:002011-07-16T08:20:08.478-07:00Smecker/Jensen: You Can't Kill a Planet and Live on It, Too<div><b>You Can't Kill a Planet and Live on It, Too</b></div><div>by Frank Joseph Smecker and Derrick Jensen <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/you-cant-kill-planet-and-live-it-too/1310403275">article link</a></div><div>July 16, 2011 | Truthout</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><i>Let's expose the structure of violence that keeps the world economy running.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>With an entire planet being slaughtered before our eyes, it's terrifying to watch the very culture responsible for this - the culture of industrial civilization, fueled by a finite source of fossil fuels, primarily a dwindling supply of oil - thrust forward wantonly to fuel its insatiable appetite for "growth."</div><div><br /></div><div>Deluded by myths of progress and suffering from the psychosis of technomania complicated by addiction to depleting oil reserves, industrial society leaves a crescendo of atrocities in its wake. A very partial list would include the Bhopal chemical disaster, numerous oil spills, the illegal depleted uranium-spewing occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan, mountaintop removal, the nuclear meltdown of Fukushima, the permanent removal of 95 percent of the large fish from the oceans (not to mention full-on systemic collapse of those oceans), indigenous communities replacement by oil wells, the mining of coltan for cell phones and Playstations along the Democratic Republic of the Congo/Rwanda border - resulting in tribal warfare and the near-extinction of the Eastern Lowland gorilla.</div><div><br /></div><div>As though 200 species going extinct each day were not enough, climate change, a direct result of burning fossil fuels, has proved not only to be as unpredictable as it is real, but as destructive as it is unpredictable. The erratic and lethal characteristics of a changing planet and its shifting atmosphere are becoming the norm of the 21st century, their impact accelerating at an alarming pace, bringing this planet closer, sooner than later, to a point of uninhabitable ghastliness. And yet, collective apathy, ignorance and self-imposed denial in the face of all this sadistic exploitation and violence marches this culture closer to self-annihilation.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lost in the eerily comforting fantasy of limitless growth, production and consumption, many people cling to things like Facebook, Twitter, "Jersey Shore" and soulless pop music as if their lives depended on it, identifying with a reality that's artificial and constructed, that panders to desire rather than necessity, that delicately conceals the violence at the other end of this economy, a violence so widespread that we're all not only complicit in it to a degree (e.g., if you're a taxpayer, you help subsidize the manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction), but victims of it as well. As Chris Hedges admonished in his books, "Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy" and the "Triumph of Spectacle," any culture that cannot distinguish reality from illusion will kill itself.</div><div><br /></div><div>Moreover, any culture that cannot distinguish reality from illusion will kill everything and everyone else in its path as well as itself.</div><div><br /></div><div>As the world burns, as species die off, as mothers breastfeed their children with dioxin-tainted breast milk, as nuclear reactors melt down into the Pacific while the aerial deployment of depleted uranium damages innocent lives, it is perplexing that so few people fight back against a system that has horror as a reality for most living on the planet. And those who fight back, who stand in opposition to the culture behind such wholesale abuse and call it what it is - a genocidal mega-state (especially if you believe that the lives of nonhumans are as important to them as yours is to you and mine is to me) - are met with hostility and hatred, scoffed at, harassed, even tortured. With so much at stake, why aren't more people deafening their ears to the nutcases who preach a future of infinite-growth economies? And why do so many people continue to put "the economy" first, to take industrial capitalism as we know it as a given and not fight back, defend what's left of the natural world?</div><div><br /></div><div>"One of the reasons there aren't more people working to take down the system that's killing the planet is because their lives depend on the system," author and environmental activist Derrick Jensen told me from his home in California when I interviewed him on the phone recently. "If your experience is that your food comes from the grocery store and your water comes from the tap, then you are going to defend to the death the system that brings those to you because your life depends on them," Jensen explained. "If your experience, however, is that your food comes from a land base and that your water comes from a stream, well, then you will defend to the death that land base and that stream. So part of the problem is that we have become so dependent upon this system that is killing and exploiting us, it has become almost impossible for us to imagine living outside of it and it's very difficult physically for us to live outside of it.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The other problem is that fear is the belief we have something left to lose. What I mean by this is that I really like my life right now, as do a lot of people. We have a lot to lose if this culture is to go down. A primary reason so many of us do not want to win this war - or even acknowledge that it's going on - is that we materially benefit from this war's plunder. I'm really unsure how many of us would be willing to give up our automobiles and cell phones, hot showers and electric lights, our grocery and clothing stores. But the truth is, the system that leads to these things, that leads to technological advancement and our identity as civilized beings, are killing us and, more importantly, killing the planet."</div><div><br /></div><div>Even in the absence of global warming, this culture would still be murdering the planet, bumping off pods of whales and flocks of birds; detonating mountaintops to access strata of coal and bauxite, eliminating entire ecosystems. All this violence inflicted upon an entire planet to run an economy based on the foolish and immoral notion that we can sustain industrial societies, all while trashing the planet's land bases, ecosystems and life. And the fantastic rhetoric those who insist on adapting to these changes promulgate - that technology will find a fix, that we can adapt, that the planet can and will conform to fixes in the market - is dangerous.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Another part of the problem," Jensen told me, "is the narratives behind this culture's way of living. The premises of these narratives grant us the exclusive rights and privileges of dominion over this planet. Whether you subscribe to the religion of Science or of Christianity, these narratives tell us that our intelligence and abilities permit us exclusive rights and privileges to work our will on the world that is here for us to use. The problem with these stories, whether you believe in them or not, is that they have real effects on the physical world. The stories we're told about the world shape the way we perceive the world and the way we perceive the world shapes the way we behave in the world. The stories of industrial capitalism - that we can sustain infinite-growth economies - shapes the way this culture behaves in the world. And this behavior is killing the planet. Whether the stories we are told are fantasies or not doesn't matter, what matters is that these narratives are physical: the stories of Christianity may be fantasy - let's pretend for a moment that God doesn't exist - well, the Crusades still happened; the notion of race or gender may be up for debate, but obviously, race and gender does matter and this postmodern attitude drives me crazy because, yeah, race and gender is not an actual thing, but it all has real-world effects - African Americans comprise 58 percent of the prison population and one-third of all black men between the ages of twenty and twenty-nine are under some sort of criminal justice supervision; as for gender, well real males rape females.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Another example [of how things that truly aren't real still have real-world effects]," Jensen continued, "is there was this serial killer a while back who was killing women in Santa Cruz. Voices in his head were telling him that if he didn't kill these women, then California would slide off into the ocean. It's apparent this guy was delusional, a total nut job and sick in the head, but his delusions still resulted in real-world effects. Hitler too had the delusion that Jews were poisoning the race. That delusion had real-world effects. And we can sit around and discuss whether Weyerhaeuser truly exists, but forests still get deforested. Or better yet, it's pretty clear that it's silly to really believe that the world won't run out of oil ... and then it's suddenly clear that it's not so silly - there is a physical reality. In the real world, you can't have a nature/culture split, but in this culture you do and it has real effects on the physical world. You can't live on a planet and kill it at the same time."</div><div><br /></div><div>You find the problem with an industrial production economy when you unpack the word "production." As Jensen makes clear in his book "The Culture of Make Believe," production is essentially the conversion of the living to the dead: animals into cold cuts, mountains and rivers into aluminum beer cans, trees into toilet paper, oil into plastics and computers (one computer uses ten times its own mass in fossil fuels). To go paperless is not to go green, or maybe it is, depending on what shade of Green we're talking about here. Basically, every commodity one comes in contact with is soaked in oil, made from resources, marked by, as Jensen puts it, the turning of the living to the dead: Industrial production.</div><div><br /></div><div>And with conflicts and wars that are waged or instigated by this culture to access (steal) the resources needed to fuel this economy's colossal machines, this culture winds up butchering entire non-industrialized communities of people ... the elderly, children who cling to their mothers as drones hawk over staggered onlookers ... the innocent and vulnerable written off as "collateral damage." Himmler used a similar epithet for Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Serbs, Belarusians, and other Slavic peoples in a pamphlet he edited and had distributed by the SS Race and Settlement Head Office: "Untermenschen."</div><div><br /></div><div>This is an acceptable price we must pay it, so we are told.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the US, more lives are lost weekly from preventable cancers and other illnesses than are lost in ten years from terrorist attacks. And the corporations this culture fights for overseas are the very organizations culpable for these domestic deaths every week.</div><div><br /></div><div>The list of victims whose lives are subject to violent assault and extinction to feed this culture's "production" is as long and as diverse as you want to make it.</div><div><br /></div><div>"An infinite-growth economy is not only insane and impossible," remarked Jensen, "it's also abusive, by which I mean that it's based on the same conceit as more personal forms of abuse. It is, in fact, the macroeconomic enshrinement of abusive behavior. The guiding principle of abusive behavior is that the abuser refuses to respect or abide by limits or boundaries put up by the victim. Growth economies are essentially unchecked and will push past any boundaries set up by anyone other than the perpetrators. And a successful abuser will always ensure that there are some 'benefits' for the victim, in this case, e.g., we can watch TV, we can have computer access and play games online - we get 'benefits' that essentially keep us in line.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Furthermore, according to the stories of industrial capitalism, this economic system must constantly increase production to grow and what, after all, is production? It is indeed the conversion of the living to the dead, the conversion of living forests into two-by-fours, living rivers into stagnant pools for generating hydroelectricity, living fish into fish sticks and ultimately all of these into money. And really, what is gross national product? It's a measure of this conversion of the living to the dead. The more quickly the living world is converted into dead products, the higher the GNP. And these simple equations are complicated by the fact that when GNP goes down, people often lose jobs. No wonder the world is getting killed.</div><div><br /></div><div>"And if we take global warming into consideration here - oh and I believe the latest study on global warming mentioned something along the lines of the planet now being on track to heat up by 29 degrees in the next eighty years ... if that isn't curtailed immediately, no one will survive that ... And so all the so-called solutions to global warming take industrial capitalism as a given. And here we see the same old abusive behavior: the narratives are not only created around the perceptions of the perpetrators, i.e. those in power, but are forced upon us by them as well, so we come to believe the narratives and accept them as a given. And, essentially, to take industrial capitalism as a given when it comes to solutions to global warming is absolutely absurd and insane. It's out of touch with physical reality. Yet it has disastrous effects on the real physical world. If you force a planet to conform to ideology you get what you get.</div><div><br /></div><div>"A while back I had a conversation with an anarchist who was complaining that I was 'too ideological,' and that my ideology was 'the health of the earth.' Well, actually, the earth is not and cannot ever be an ideology. The earth is physical. It is real. And it is primary. Without soil, you don't have a healthy land base and without a healthy land base you don't eat, you die. Without drinkable clean water you die."</div><div><br /></div><div>And this is one of the problems with our culture: its lack of ability to separate ideology - the kind that accommodates maximizing pleasure and domination - from the needs of the natural world. And, so, if solutions to global warming do not immediately address the basic needs of the planet, well ... we're fucked.</div><div><br /></div><div>"One has to ask," pressed Jensen, "if hammerhead sharks could provide solutions, if the indigenous could give solutions and if we would listen to the solutions they are already giving, would these solutions take industrial capitalism as a given? The bottom line is that capitalist solutions to global warming are coming from the capitalist boosters, from those in power who are responsible for exploiting and destroying us and more importantly, the planet."</div><div><br /></div><div>By the 1940s, in Germany, Arthur Nebe's gassing van was in wide use. Those who drove Nebe's death vans never thought of themselves as murderers, just as another somebody getting paid to drive a van, to do a job. Today, those who work for Boeing, Raytheon, Weyerhaeuser, Exxon Mobil, BP, the Pentagon ... will always see themselves as employees, not murderers. They will always see themselves as working a job that needs to be done.</div><div><br /></div><div>Those members of this culture who blindly go along without interrogating the culture's narratives, who identify with the pathology of this culture, will always see themselves as just other members of society. For these people, the murder of a planet feels like economics; it feels normal after having been pushed out of consciousness by careers, styles and fashions; it may not even feel like anything at all after being psychically numbed by pop radio, sitcoms, smart phones, video games ... But at the other end of all these glittery distractions is an unremitting array of violence, poverty, extinction, environmental degradation.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I saw this right-wing bumper sticker the other day that read, 'You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers,' but it's not just guns: we're going to have to pry rigid claws off steering wheels, cans of hair spray, TV remote controls and two-liter bottles of Jolt Cola," cautioned Jensen. "Each of these individually and all of these collectively are more important to many people than are lampreys, salmon, spotted owls, sturgeons, tigers, our own lives. And that is a huge part of the problem. So of course we don't want to win. We'd lose our cable TV. But I want to win. With the world being killed, I want to win and will do whatever it takes to win."</div><div><br /></div><div>When Adolph Eichmann stood before the Jerusalem District Court and was asked why he agreed to the task of deporting Jews to the ghettos and concentration camps, his response was, <i>No one ever told me what I was doing was wrong</i>. Today, 200 species have become extinct; another indigenous community will disappear from this planet forever; an entire forest will be removed; and millions of human lives will be forced to endure the agonies of famine, war, disease, thirst, the loss of their land, their community, their way of life. Not enough people have stepped forward to say that what this culture is doing to the planet is wrong.</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, here it is folks: What this culture is doing to our very selves, what it's doing to the planet, is wrong. So damn wrong. And the sooner we replace this economy, the sooner we can dissolve these toxic illusions and their formative narratives. Only then, can we begin to live the free lives we were born to live and win the fight.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>Derrick Jensen</b> has been called the poet philosopher of the ecological movement. He has written some 15 books critiquing contemporary society and the destruction of the environment.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Frank Joseph Smecker</b> is a freelance writer and philosophy/English major at the University of Vermont. His work has appeared in: Truthout.org, Z Magazine, Rain Taxi, Counterpunch, The Ecologist, Counter Currents, Petroleum World, Fifth Estate, and elsewhere.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Help fight ignorance. <a href="http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6694/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=2160">Click here for daily Truthout email updates</a>.</div><div>Truthout <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-2156383085597600782011-07-15T10:27:00.000-07:002011-07-15T10:39:52.955-07:00John W. Whitehead: The Military Industrial Complex<div><b>The Military Industrial Complex: The Enemy from Within</b></div><div>By John W. Whitehead <a href="http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/commentary.asp?record_id=719">article link</a> <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28575.htm">article link</a></div><div>July 11, 2011 | Rutherford Institute | ICH</div><div><br /></div><div>“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes … known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” <i>--James Madison</i></div><div><br /></div><div>“When a nation becomes obsessed with the guns of war, social programs must inevitably suffer. We can talk about guns and butter all we want to, but when the guns are there with all of its emphasis you don't even get good oleo. These are facts of life.” <i>-- Martin Luther King Jr.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>If there is any absolute maxim by which the federal government seems to operate, it is that the American taxpayer always gets ripped off, and Americans would do well to keep that in mind as Congress and the White House debate whether or not to raise the debt ceiling from its current high of $14.3 trillion. For one thing, the grandstanding by both parties over health care costs and Social Security is nothing more than a convenient distraction from the glaring economic truth that at the end of the day, it’s not the sick, the elderly or the poor who are stealing us blind and pushing America towards bankruptcy. It’s the military industrial complex (the illicit merger of the armaments industry and the Pentagon) that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us against more than 50 years ago and which has come to represent perhaps the greatest threat to the nation’s fragile infrastructure today. </div><div><br /></div><div>Having been co-opted by greedy defense contractors, corrupt politicians and incompetent government officials, America’s expanding military empire is bleeding the country dry at a rate of more than $15 billion a month (or $20 million an hour)--and that’s just what the government spends on foreign wars. That does not include the cost of maintaining and staffing the 1000-plus U.S. military bases spread around the globe. Incredibly, although the U.S. constitutes only 5% of the world's population, America boasts almost 50% of the world's total military expenditure, spending more on the military than the next 19 biggest spending nations combined. In fact, the Pentagon spends more on war than all 50 states combined spend on health, education, welfare, and safety.</div><div><br /></div><div>War is not cheap. Although the federal government obscures so much about its defense spending that accurate figures are difficult to procure, we do know that since 2001, the U.S. government has spent more than $1.2 trillion in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That number, however, is probably closer to $2.7 trillion when you add in the war in Pakistan and other hidden costs, and will likely climb to $4.4 trillion before it’s all over. Additionally, the American military industrial complex is spending roughly $4 million per day on the unconstitutional war in Libya.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yet what most Americans fail to recognize is that these ongoing wars have little to do with keeping the country safe and everything to do with enriching the military industrial complex at taxpayer expense. Just consider the fact that the annual cost to support one U.S. servicemember in Afghanistan alone is over $1 million, with fuel costs making up the bulk of the expenses. Of course, one of the reasons for the high cost of maintaining each soldier can be attributed to the lack of governmental oversight of private contractor billings, which are rampant with fraud, waste and fat.</div><div><br /></div><div>War--or the art of killing--has unfortunately become a huge money-making venture, and America, with its vast military empire, is one of its best buyers and sellers. Not only does the U.S. have the largest defense budget, it also ranks highest as the world’s largest arms exporter. According to a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks military expenditures worldwide, the arms industry is thriving despite the ongoing global economic recession. In fact, 45 of the top 100 of the world’s largest arms-producing companies are based in the U.S. These U.S. corporations generated just under $247 billion in 2009, which constituted 61% of total arms sales internationally.</div><div><br /></div><div>The American military-industrial complex has erected an empire unsurpassed in history in its breadth and scope, one dedicated to conducting perpetual warfare throughout the earth. For example, while erecting a security surveillance state in the U.S., the military-industrial complex has perpetuated a worldwide military empire with American troops stationed in 177 countries (over 70% of the countries worldwide).</div><div><br /></div><div>In the process, billions have been spent erecting luxury military installations throughout the world. For example, the U.S. Embassy built in Iraq, dubbed "Fortress Baghdad," covers 104 acres and boasts a "city within a city" that includes six apartment buildings, a Marine barracks, swimming pool, shops and 15-foot-thick walls. Camp Anaconda in Iraq, like many U.S. military bases scattered across the globe, was structured to resemble a mini-city with pools, fast food restaurants, miniature golf courses and movie theaters. In economic terms, the money invested in building these bases amounts to what American University professor Gordon Adams describes as “sunk” costs. “We're seeing this in Iraq,” said Adams. “We're turning over to the Iraqis -- mostly either for a small penny or for free -- the infrastructure that we built in Iraq. But we won't see back any money from that infrastructure.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately, Americans have been inculcated with a false, misplaced sense of patriotism about the military that equates devotion to one’s country with supporting the war machine so that any mention of cutting back on the massive defense budget is immediately met with outrage. Yet they might be surprised to learn that little of the money being spent on so-called defense is actually being used for national defense. According to the Task Force on a Unified Security Budget, the FY2012 budget approved by the House of Representatives allocates 87 percent of security money for “offense” (military forces), only 7 percent for “defense” (homeland security), and only 6 percent for “prevention” (all non-military tools, such as diplomacy, foreign aid, and non-proliferation).</div><div><br /></div><div>Sadly, those in uniform are being used as convenient fronts for a military industrial complex that is bilking taxpayers out of billions of dollars in questionable defense spending. There’s a good reason why “bloated,” “corrupt” and “inefficient” are among the words most commonly applied to the government, especially the Department of Defense and its contractors. For instance, a study by the Government Accountability Office found that $70 billion worth of cost overruns by the Pentagon were caused by management failures. To put that in perspective, that equates to one and a half times the State Department’s entire $47 billion annual budget.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fraud is rampant. A government audit, for example, found that defense contractor Boeing has been massively overcharging taxpayers for mundane parts, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in overspending. As the report noted, the American taxpayer paid:</div><div><br /></div><div>$71 for a metal pin that should cost just 4 cents; $644.75 for a small gear smaller than a dime that sells for $12.51: more than a 5,100 percent increase in price. $1,678.61 for another tiny part, also smaller than a dime, that could have been bought within DoD for $7.71: a 21,000 percent increase. $71.01 for a straight, thin metal pin that DoD had on hand, unused by the tens of thousands, for 4 cents: an increase of over 177,000 percent.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, this kind of rampant abuse is ludicrous, and never more so than at a time when unemployment is topping 9.2%. When most Americans can scarcely afford the cost of cooling their own homes, taxpayers should be up in arms over having to pay through the nose to the tune of $20 billion--more than NASA’s entire annual budget--to air condition the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. “In essence, what we're doing is we’re air conditioning the desert over there in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places,” noted retired brigadier general Steven Anderson, a former chief logistician for Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq. And if you think gas prices at home are high, just consider what the American taxpayer is being forced to shell out overseas: once all the expenses of delivering gas to troops in the field are factored in, we’re paying between $18-30 per gallon for gas in Iraq and Afghanistan. Incredibly, despite reports of corruption, abuse and waste, the mega-corporations behind much of this ineptitude and corruption continue to be awarded military contracts worth billions of dollars.</div><div><br /></div><div>The rationale may keep changing for why American military forces are in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, but the one that remains constant is that those who run the government are feeding the appetite of the military industrial complex. And what began in 2001 as part of an alleged effort to root out al Qaeda has turned into a goldmine for the military industrial complex. Even the lip service that is paid to drawing down the troops doesn’t amount to much of a savings in the end when you factor in the cost of replacing those troops with civilian contractors. For example, while the Obama administration was touting the withdrawal of troops from Iraq earlier this year, plans were being made to triple the size of the private security contractors and support staff to between 7,000 and 8,000. </div><div><br /></div><div>Just consider: the Pentagon in 2008 spent more money every five seconds in Iraq than the average American earned in a year. And yet Congress and the White House want taxpayers to accept that the only way to reduce the nation’s ballooning deficit and avoid raising the debt ceiling is by cutting “entitlement” programs such as Social Security and Medicare. As Martin Luther King Jr. recognized, under a military empire, war and its profiteering will always take precedence over the people’s basic human needs.</div><div><br /></div><div>Incredibly, if the government would just take the amount spent on the war in Afghanistan this year alone ($122 billion in FY2011) and reallocate it where it’s needed here at home, it would entirely wipe out the projected budget shortfalls for fiscal year 2012 for 41 states and the District of Columbia, totaling $103 billion. Or to put it another way: in roughly 80% of the states projecting deficits this year, if the money spent by each state on the war were used for domestic purposes, it would wipe out that state’s shortfall.</div><div><br /></div><div>Simply put, we cannot afford to maintain our over-extended military empire. As a senior administration official involved in Afghanistan remarked to the <i>Washington Post</i>: “Money is the new 800-pound gorilla. It shifts the debate from ‘Is the strategy working?’ to ‘Can we afford this?’ And when you view it that way, the scope of the mission that we have now is far, far less defensible.” Or as one commentator noted, “Foreclosing the future of our country should not be confused with defending it.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, and inevitably, military empires collapse. The war bell is tolling, and it tolls for us. As Cullen Murphy, author of <i>Are We Rome?</i> and editor-at-large of <i>Vanity Fair</i> writes:</div><div><br /></div><div><i>A millennium hence America will be hard to recognize. It may not exist as a nation-state in the form it does now--or even exist at all. Will the transitions ahead be gradual and peaceful or abrupt and catastrophic? Will our descendants be living productive lives in a society better than the one we inhabit now? Whatever happens, will valuable aspects of America’s legacy weave through the fabric of civilizations to come? Will historians someday have reason to ask, Did America really fall?</i></div><div><br /></div><div>The problem we wrestle with is none other than a distorted American empire, complete with mega-corporations, security-industrial complexes and a burgeoning military. And it has its sights set on absolute domination. Yet at the height of its power, even the mighty Roman Empire could not stare down a collapsing economy and a burgeoning military. Prolonged periods of war and false economic prosperity largely led to its demise, and it is feared that America, by repeating Rome’s mistakes, is headed toward a similar collapse. As historian Chalmers Johnson predicts, “the United States will within a very short time face financial or even political collapse at home and a significantly diminished ability to project force abroad.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Moreover, the so-called American empire faces a violent contradiction between its long republican tradition and its more recent imperial ambitions. As Chalmers Johnson writes:</div><div><br /></div><div><i>The fate of previous democratic empires suggests that such a conflict is unsustainable and will be resolved in one of two ways. Rome attempted to keep its empire and lost its democracy. Britain chose to remain democratic and in the process let go its empire. Intentionally or not, the people of the United States already are well embarked upon the course of non-democratic empire.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>I would suggest that what we have is a confluence of factors and influences that go beyond mere comparisons to Rome. It is a union of Orwell’s <i>1984</i> with its shadowy, totalitarian government--i.e., fascism, the union of government and corporate powers--and a total surveillance state with a military empire extended throughout the world. And as we have seen with the militarizing of the police, the growth of and reliance on militarism as the solution for our problems both domestically and abroad affects the basic principles upon which American society should operate. The military does not view the Constitution in the same way as someone engaged in ensuring that the Bill of Rights and its freedoms are kept intact. Those in the military are primarily trained to conduct warfare, not preserve the peace. We must keep in mind that a military empire will be ruled not by lofty ideals of equality and justice but by the power of the sword.</div><div><br /></div><div>Constitutional attorney and author <b>John W. Whitehead</b> is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His new book <a href="http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/press_release.asp?article_id=864">The Freedom Wars</a> (TRI Press) is available online at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Wars-What-Preserve-Your-Rights/dp/0977233189">www.amazon.com</a>. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at <a href="http://www.rutherford.org/">www.rutherford.org</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Rutherford Institute <a href="http://www.rutherford.org/Resources/JWCommentary.asp">commentaries</a> by John W. Whitehead</div><div>Information Clearing House <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-72410406904228248502011-07-14T09:30:00.000-07:002011-07-14T09:36:40.640-07:00Chris Marsden: The Rampant Criminality of the Corporate and Political Elite<div><b>The Rampant Criminality of the Corporate and Political Elite</b></div><div>Murdoch and the rule of the oligarchy</div><div>by Chris Marsden <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25615">article link</a> <a href="http://wsws.org/articles/2011/jul2011/pers-j11.shtml">article link</a></div><div>July 13, 2011 | Global Research | WSWS</div><div><br /></div><div>The ongoing exposure of systematic hacking of thousands of phones and computers by employees of Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World lifts the lid on the rampant criminality of the corporate and political elite, in Britain and internationally. At least 7,000 people have had their phones hacked and their privacy invaded. The trawl for personal information has targeted a wide range of victims, from politicians and members of the royal family to the families of murder victims and soldiers killed in Afghanistan.</div><div><br /></div><div>The scandal is revealing the thorough-going decay of democracy and all of the official institutions in Britain, including the major parties, Parliament, the judiciary and the media. The most powerful media corporation in Britain, which constantly trumpets the need for “law and order,” has presided over serious violations of the law, including hacking on what one MP called “an industrial scale.” It has done so year-on-year with virtual impunity.</div><div><br /></div><div>Murdoch executives and reporters are notorious as well for threatening and bullying politicians and other notables who criticize the operations of News International or otherwise arouse the ire of the Murdoch family.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now reports have emerged that a News of the World executive destroyed millions of potentially incriminating emails in order to thwart further investigations.</div><div><br /></div><div>Both of the major parties, Conservative and Labour, are implicated in these crimes, not only because of their refusal to call to account News International, the parent firm of Murdoch’s British media outlets, but because of their intimate relations with Murdoch’s media empire. They never challenged the Metropolitan Police for accepting the patently absurd claim that these illegal practices were the actions of one rogue reporter and a private investigator, even as it surfaced that police officers had received tens of thousands of pounds in bribes from News of the World.</div><div><br /></div><div>It was only after numerous civil cases had been taken out against the newspaper by celebrities whose phones were hacked that, in January, the Crown Prosecution Service announced it would review material held by police on phone hacking at News of the World to “assess if a fresh criminal trial is likely.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday was forced to acknowledge official collusion with the Murdoch press, stating, “The truth is, we have all been in this together—the press, politicians and leaders of all parties—and yes, that includes me.”</div><div><br /></div><div>He added, “During the last government, a police investigation was undertaken, it was inadequate and not enough was done. There were reports from the information commissioner and they went unheeded. There were select committee reports on phone hacking and there was no follow-up. Throughout all this, all the warnings, all the concern, the government at the time did nothing. And frankly, neither did the opposition.”</div><div><br /></div><div>This mea culpa is Cameron’s attempt to limit the damage to his government from the scandal. It came the same morning as the arrest of former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, Cameron’s head of communications until Coulson’s forced resignation in January. However, neither Cameron’s admission of responsibility nor his guarded swipe against former Labour governments do justice to the extent of the incestuous, decades-long relations between the Murdoch empire and Britain’s political elite.</div><div><br /></div><div>Murdoch is forever associated with the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and above all with Thatcher’s brutal assault on the working class. He cheered on her deregulation of the City of London, privatisations and tax cuts for corporations and the rich from which he benefited more than most. News of the World’s parent company, News International, carried out an infamous union-busting operation, sacking 6,000 print workers and transferring production to Wapping in London’s East End in 1986.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then, after Murdoch decided that the Tories had exhausted their usefulness as a vehicle for attacking the working class and enriching the ruling elite, he switched support to Labour—which was more than ready to do his bidding. Murdoch dictated government policy to such a degree that Lance Price, a media advisor to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, called Murdoch “the 24th member of the Cabinet.” Price added, “His presence was always felt.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Murdoch himself has publicly boasted of setting the agenda of the Labour government on Europe and “the breakdown of law and order in Britain.” The Murdoch press has relentlessly promoted wars of aggression, most notably the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. Blair telephoned Murdoch personally on three occasions in the days leading up to the US-British invasion.</div><div><br /></div><div>Current Labour leader Ed Miliband is now posing as a critic of News of the World, seeking to make political capital out of Cameron’s relations with Coulson and Murdoch press executive Rebakah Brooks. This is a transparent fraud.</div><div><br /></div><div>The News of the World hacking scandal first came to light in 2006 and was swept under the carpet by the Metropolitan Police, without challenge by the Labour governments of Blair and his successor, Gordon Brown. On April 9, an anonymous ex-minister told the Guardian that Murdoch had “relayed messages to Brown last year via a third party, urging him to help take the political heat out of the row, which he felt was in danger of damaging his company.”</div><div><br /></div><div>It was only last month that Miliband himself attended News International’s summer party in London, alongside shadow chancellor Ed Balls, two of his closest advisers, Tom Baldwin and Stewart Wood, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper and shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander. The Guardian noted at the time that Labour luminaries outnumbered a Conservative delegation headed by Cameron and his wife, Samantha.</div><div><br /></div><div>These relations underscore the travesty of the electoral process in Britain. State policy is determined not by the population’s choice to elect a Conservative or Labour government, but by a clique of billionaires that sets the agenda of all the major parties—of which Murdoch is a particularly influential member, thanks to his control of the media.</div><div><br /></div><div>How does one account for the ability of employees of News International to engage in such rampant criminality without let or hindrance?</div><div><br /></div><div>The official structures of politics and the media in Britain and internationally have become entirely divorced from and openly hostile to the interests of the general population. They have become the province of a plutocratic layer that acts without legal restraint.</div><div><br /></div><div>Murdoch himself is widely acknowledged to be the most powerful man in Britain and one of the most powerful people in the world. He is the archetypal representative of a global financial oligarchy that has arisen on the basis of financial parasitism and an unprecedented growth of social inequality.</div><div><br /></div><div>The narrow layer of the super-rich to which Murdoch belongs has dictated every aspect of political, economic and social life over more than three decades. His 175 or so newspapers and television channels, including Sky in Britain and Fox in the US, are widely viewed as kingmakers inside the political establishment.</div><div><br /></div><div>Murdoch is the supreme purveyor of a particular type of gutter journalism, whose emphasis on sex scandals and the antics of the rich and famous is meant to divert and confuse the public and encourage the most backward sentiments.</div><div><br /></div><div>In America, Fox News and the New York Post serve the same function as the Sun, News of the World (which Murdoch shut down on Sunday) and Sky TV in the UK, while the Wall Street Journal editorial page articulates the political agenda of the most reactionary sections of the US ruling elite. The Murdoch media befoul social and intellectual life with an unremitting torrent of right-wing social nostrums, warmongering, national chauvinism, glorification of “free enterprise,” and demands that essential services on which millions rely be slashed.</div><div><br /></div><div>The most significant expression of the political and ideological putrefaction this has produced is found within the former social democratic parties, such as the British Labour Party. They all easily adapted themselves to Murdoch’s brand of politics, emerging as unabashed defenders of the savage austerity measures demanded after the 2008 financial crash.</div><div><br /></div><div>The scale of the criminal activity that has been exposed at News of the World demands a full and public accounting. All of the major figures associated with News International, including Coulson, Brooks and Murdoch himself, must be questioned under oath as part of a full-scale criminal investigation. In any such inquiry, they should be joined by Blair, Brown, Cameron and their associates.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is clear, however, that the British ruling class will not carry out such an investigation. Any inquiry under the control of the existing political establishment will be a cover-up, aiming to protect News International and its allies in the political establishment and state apparatus.</div><div><br /></div><div>Justice will be secured, and the predatory and socially destructive activities of the media barons halted, only in connection with the development of a mass political movement of the working class that sets out to remove from power an elite which has demonstrated that it is entirely unfit to rule.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Chris Marsden</b> is a frequent contributor to Global Research.</div><div><br /></div><div>Global Research <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=listByAuthor&authorFirst=Chris&authorName=Marsden">articles</a> by Chris Marsden</div><div>Global Research <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=home">home page</a></div><div>WSWS <a href="http://wsws.org/index.shtml">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Media's Endless Propaganda for War</b></div><div>Murdoch Has Blood on His Hands</div><div>by David Swanson <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25628">article link</a> <a href="http://warisacrime.org/content/murdoch-has-blood-his-hands">article link</a> <a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/Murdoch-Has-Blood-on-His-H-by-David-Swanson-110714-963.html">article link</a></div><div>July 14, 2011 | Global Research | War Is A Crime | OpEdNews</div><div>War Is A Crime <a href="http://warisacrime.org/">home page</a></div><div>OpEdNews <a href="http://www.opednews.com/index.php">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Rupert Murdoch Media Empire: A Journalistic Travesty</b></div><div>by Karl Grossman <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/13-1">article link</a> <a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/Murdoch-Media-Empire-A-Jo-by-Karl-Grossman-110713-678.html">article link</a></div><div>July 13, 2011 | CommonDreams | OpEdNews</div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Murdoch & News Corps -- The cancer eating the heart out of our democracy</b></div><div>by Ted Newcomen <a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/Murdoch--News-Corps--Th-by-Ted-Newcomen-110713-546.html">article link</a></div><div>July 14, 2011 | OpEdNews</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Rupert Murdoch: Anthony Blair’s bagman</b></div><div>Britain’s politicians find courage – perhaps</div><div>by Christopher King <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28561.htm">article ink</a> <a href="http://www.redress.cc/global/cking20110713">article link</a></div><div>July 13, 2011 | Redress | ICH</div><div>Redress <a href="http://www.redress.cc/">home page</a></div><div>Information Clearing House <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-73519185405482459092011-07-13T09:03:00.000-07:002011-07-13T09:09:59.394-07:00Robert Scheer: The GOP's Sick Priorities<div><i>Social Security is a particularly weird whipping boy for what ails us, since the program has been solvent since its inception and will be so for the next quarter of a century.</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The GOP's Sick Priorities</b></div><div>by Robert Scheer <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/13-3">article link</a> <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_gops_sick_priorities_20110712/">article link</a></div><div>July 13, 2011 | CommonDreams | TruthDig</div><div><br /></div><div>How deceptive for politicians to stress “entitlements” when they talk about gutting Social Security and Medicare, two programs long paid for by their beneficiaries. The Republicans make it sound as if they’re doing us a favor, cutting government waste by seeking to strangle America’s two most successful domestic programs. And now Barack Obama seems poised to join their camp in undermining the essential lifeline for most of the nation’s seniors, many of whom lost their retirement savings in the banking meltdown.</div><div><br /></div><div>These threatened programs are not government handouts to a privileged class, like defense contractors and bailed-out bankers, who do feel eminently entitled to pig out at the federal trough. On the contrary, Social Security and Medicare have been funded by a regressive tax that falls disproportionately on working middle-class income earners, while caps in the system leave the wealthy—most notably the hedge fund hustlers who helped cause today’s economic crisis—largely untaxed.</div><div><br /></div><div>While there are many plausible ways to ensure the future of Medicare and Social Security—and extending a fair share of the burden to wealthier individuals is a good place to start—such changes should not be considered in the context of a bargain to raise the debt ceiling. These programs have nothing at all to do with a national debt that has spiraled out of control in the past four years as a result of untethered corporate greed. In that time the debt—already inflamed by two wars fought on the credit card while President George W. Bush cut taxes for the wealthy—rose a whopping 50 percent as a consequence of the deepest recession in 70 years, brought on by the banking collapse.</div><div><br /></div><div>Indeed, the economic turmoil has put considerable pressure on these programs. In the past two years, expenditures for Social Security exceeded non-interest income for the first time since 1983, as the trustees of the fund reported the deficits “are in large part due to the weakened economy. …” The interest earned on the more than $2.4 trillion in the Social Security trust fund held by the Treasury more than made up the shortfall, and the fund will be able to fulfill its projected obligations, even given the strain of the baby boomers’ retirement, until 2036.</div><div><br /></div><div>Social Security is a particularly weird whipping boy for what ails us, since the program has been solvent since its inception and will be so for the next quarter of a century. Is there any other public or corporate entity that we can guarantee will be in as good shape for the next 25 years, and even at that point be able to pay 75 percent of its obligations? Presidents both Republican and Democrat have routinely dipped into the Social Security trust fund to float the national debt, and yet critics from both parties have the effrontery now to treat as some sort of indulgence a program for which seniors, current and future, have paid. Seniors are as much “entitled” to the payback on their investment as the folks who buy Treasury notes, people who will be at the forefront of those protected by a rise in the debt ceiling.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, there are more pressing issues with Medicare. Those have to do with cost containment in the medical industry, a situation aggravated when the Republican Bush expanded prescription drug coverage. Unfortunately, health care cost containment was not a serious focus of Obama’s health care reform, and without a national policy alternative it is difficult to contain the cost for seniors who are medically the most needy and therefore the most vulnerable.</div><div><br /></div><div>As with the problems of Social Security, the problems of Medicare can be dealt with handily by increasing payments from the wealthier segment of the population. A very limited effort in that direction was included in the Obama health care law, which requires a 0.9 percent increase in Medicare payments beginning in 2013 for couples earning more than $250,000.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even more troubling than potential Medicare cuts is the threat to Medicaid, a program that provides health care to 68 million needy children, disabled individuals, pregnant women and poor seniors. These people are “entitled” to such aid only as a matter of government-recognized decency that has historically been supported by both Republican and Democratic presidents. That Obama is now even considering reducing support for the most vulnerable in the current harsh economy has brought written opposition from two-thirds of Senate Democrats.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is absurd that Medicaid, along with Medicare and Social Security, is on the chopping block when there is no serious effort to find savings in a defense budget equal to that of the rest of the world’s nations combined, and still at Cold War era levels despite the lack of a sophisticated military enemy. And that the GOP-led House has gotten a supposedly progressive president to consider doing serious damage to our most vulnerable population in order to placate Republicans determined to continue massive tax breaks for the wealthy is morally obscene.</div><div><br /></div><div>© 2011 TruthDig.com</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Robert Scheer</b> is editor of Truthdig.com and a regular columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle.</div><div><br /></div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/">home page</a></div><div>TruthDig <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Faces of Those Obama is Betraying</b></div><div>by Pat LaMarche <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/13-5">article link</a> <a href="http://bangordailynews.com/2011/07/12/opinion/the-faces-of-those-obama-is-betraying/">article link</a></div><div>July 13, 2011 | CommonDreams | The Bangor Daily News (Maine)</div><div>The Bangor Daily News (Maine) <a href="http://bangordailynews.com/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Stealing from Social Security Is NOT a Debt Solution -- Why Do the Media Promote This Dangerous Myth?</b></div><div>by Dean Baker <a href="http://www.alternet.org/media/151601/stealing_from_social_security_is_not_a_debt_solution_--_why_do_the_media_promote_this_dangerous_myth/">article link</a> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jul/11/social-security-debt-ceiling-talks?">article link</a></div><div>July 11, 2011 | AlterNet | The Guardian</div><div>AlterNet <a href="http://www.alternet.org/">home page</a></div><div>The Guardian/UK <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Disintegrating Economic Recovery</b></div><div>by Prof. John Kozy <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25602">article link</a></div><div>July 12, 2011 | Global Research</div><div>Global Research <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=home">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Europe and America: "Financially Burning"</b></div><div>by Bob Chapman <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25607">article link</a></div><div>July 13, 2011 | Global Research | International Forecaster</div><div>International Forecaster <a href="http://theinternationalforecaster.com/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Great Depression Comes Knocking</b></div><div>by Staff Report <a href="http://www.thedailybell.com/2660/Great-Depression-Comes-Knocking">article link</a></div><div>July 13, 2011 | The Daily Bell</div><div>The Daily Bell <a href="http://www.thedailybell.com/">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-68705478576286093162011-07-12T09:20:00.000-07:002011-07-12T09:23:16.168-07:00Dave Lefcourt: Extremism, Endless War, Apathy and Passive Indifference<div><b>Extremism, Endless War, Apathy and Passive Indifference</b></div><div>by Dave Lefcourt <a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/Extremism-Endless-War-Ap-by-Dave-Lefcourt-110711-335.html">article link</a></div><div>July 11, 2011 | OpEdNews</div><div><br /></div><div>There are times the disenchantment feels overwhelming, that the forces of unnecessary endless war, brutality, the killing of innocents in drone strikes and missile attacks et al is so endemic while the majority of people remain apathetic and passively indifferent. That is galling.</div><div><br /></div><div>One imagines somehow shaking people out of their stupor while shouting, "Don't you see; don't you realize what's going on?" Then coming to ones senses and thinking they're thinking I'm some sort of crazed lunatic, over-reacting as "chicken little" and the sky is falling. And this is not just with those on the right!</div><div><br /></div><div>There are times the exasperation is felt with those on the left. Such is the case with Libya and Qaddafi. It seemed unconscionable to let this madman massacre the people of Benghazi and from here the U.N. at the 11th hour stepping in and halting his assault on the city and its people was the correct action to take. Yet the anti-war left denounced the U.N. interdiction as just another example of imperial over-reach. From here this action shouldn't be equivocated with America's wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, the over-reach into Pakistan and Yemen. It seemed like a knee jerk reaction.</div><div><br /></div><div>The same can be said of the ACLU and its support of the Supreme Court's decision upholding "Citizens United" in an extremist interpretation of the 1st Amendment giving corporations the same freedom of speech rights as people.</div><div><br /></div><div>These are two examples of leftist extremism even if they refuse to see it. One embracing the power of the state while the other seeing no legitimacy in states taking action.</div><div><br /></div><div>The right and today's Republicans are easily dismissed as monolithic, ideological reactionaries who offer absolutely nothing. The fact is the left has its demagogues and extremist ideologues as well.</div><div><br /></div><div>It has been hard to reconcile the ideological left's sometime lockstep, knee jerk nature.</div><div><br /></div><div>In looking at the past there have been extremist (seen as such at the time) ideological and successful movements. Think of the suffragettes who campaigned tirelessly for women's right to vote, the civil rights movement against official segregation and denial of equal rights. Before that were the abolitionists against slavery (a cause for the Civil War but which subsequently ended the practice).</div><div><br /></div><div>Then there have been the unsuccessful ideological movements (with some continuing to this day).</div><div><br /></div><div>Prohibition was enacted attempting to legislate morality but was repealed some 15 years later with the realization you can't legislate against and abolish sin. It only magnified the desire to commit it and made it even more appealing. It is why the war on drugs is an utter failure. Even poverty which has always existed can never be eliminated and the war on poverty could do little in ending it. The war on terror only results in endless war and is something that has always existed and can never be eradicated. Like crime can never be completely eradicated it can be controlled from completely eroding civil society but there will always be crime.</div><div><br /></div><div>Declaring war on something doesn't mean it will be eradicated. Some cures can be found for some diseases but disease will never be eliminated.</div><div><br /></div><div>Can we make war against brutality and eliminate it from the face of the earth? Unfortunately, no.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even when there has been successful war against an imperialist fascist state such as Nazi Germany in W.W. II, its success didn't eliminate imperialism or fascism forever. Fascist imperialism could be resurrected. Certainly ending Nazi fascism didn't kill fascism.</div><div><br /></div><div>Communism didn't end with the demise of the Soviet Union. Capitalism doesn't exist without the state rescuing it from its excesses and applying socialistic measures to keep it from imploding.</div><div><br /></div><div>Man is an imperfect species. He (she) can never be made perfect. Life itself can never be made perfect, with only success and no failure. There can not be success without some failure.</div><div><br /></div><div>We are on the threshold of biological wonder, completing the genome and working with the fundamental building blocks of life. There may be a time where new limbs can be grown, a cure for Alzheimer's and the like but the idea of endless life and no death? Prolonging life is obviously happening now, but death is as much a part of life as life itself.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the West we embrace "progress" as if it is a human, instinctive and universal value. This is Western hubris as much as American's hubris believing everyone wants be an American or that globalization is some inevitable result of human progress.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are Islamic cultures that do not embrace "progress", where religion and government are the same and not separate as we in the west believe it should be.</div><div><br /></div><div>The American Indian culture had no concept of ownership of the land. Owning land was an alien concept brought by European colonialism and imperialism. Americans often think of "ownership" as something God given and a natural right.</div><div><br /></div><div>The American Indian culture was decimated by overwhelming numbers of mostly white Americans of European heritage taking "ownership" of the land. Just imagine if the American Indian culture had superior numbers"but it didn't and the Native Americans were brutalized and forced to adapt. So in truth the freedom we extol was really the result of conquest and plunder, not something that God granted.</div><div><br /></div><div>Be that as it may, too many Americans today take their freedom for granted, as if they are "entitled" and as Americans "exceptional" in getting their way, again as if God granted.</div><div><br /></div><div>This American hubris is triumphalist that embraces unnecessary war and acquiesces over our hegemony all over the world and to which the world opposes.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hopefully, it is not too late to learn mutual respect of others, their values, their culture and differences.</div><div><br /></div><div>We can no longer be imperialist overseers as if the oceans are American lakes and we dominate the world.</div><div><br /></div><div>It remains to be seen whether we have the foresight and ability to do so; either that or suffer the fate of all other empires before us that fell in the past. This time in our own unceremonious demise. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Dave Lefcourt</b> (dglefc22733@aol.com): Retired. The author of "DECEIT AND EXCESS IN AMERICA, HOW THE MONEYED INTERESTS HAVE STOLEN AMERICA AND HOW WE CAN GET IT BACK", Authorhouse, 2009</div><div><br /></div><div>OpEdNews <a href="http://www.opednews.com/author/author40828.html">articles</a> by Dave Lefcourt</div><div>OpEdNews <a href="http://www.opednews.com/index.php">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-6843129171380449822011-07-12T09:16:00.000-07:002011-07-12T11:06:50.478-07:00Ethan Indi: Jesus, My Favorite Conspiracy Theorist<div><b>Jesus, My Favorite Conspiracy Theorist</b></div><div>by Ethan Indi <a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/Jesus-My-Favorite-Conspir-by-Ethan-Indi-110710-673.html">article link</a></div><div>July 11, 2011 | OpEdNews</div><div><br /></div><div>Language is like a map. And stories take people to new places. Yet if we don't possess the language to put the story in context its value might be overlooked. Elimination of language takes away and new language expands. Conspiracy theorists often offer new language so people can follow them, while people who would like to eliminate conspiracies like to eliminate language and stories and storytellers even. </div><div><br /></div><div>President Eisenhower arguably knew more about the military and war than any other US president and was perhaps the greatest conspiracy theorist of the last century with his coining of the phrase "military industrial complex' and his warning concerning it. The powers that be normally discount and disbelieve any notion of conspiracy, and any new language concerning it, but when the President defines it, it is hard to deny. The military industrial complex describes a militaristic corporate entity among entities. </div><div><br /></div><div>There is endless variety of conspiracy, clandestine crimes and power grabs, but they all pertain to one goal; oligarchical collectivism. George Orwell, another great conspiracy theorist right up there with Eisenhower, originally penned this phrase. He arguably authored the most profound political fiction on conspiracy theory. Oligarchical collectivism is at root of every institutional conspiracy over individuals for thousands of years. Oligarchical collectivism means the coming together of the few in control of the many, the linking of pyramid systems. The military industrial complex is just one example of oligarchical collectivism.</div><div><br /></div><div>Oligarchical collectivism is the phrase, the unification of institutions of the few in control of the many is the story. The military industrial complex and oligarchical collectivism are keys to understanding the map, the story. Jesus Christ's story is one of an individual standing up to oligarchical collectivism. He is a peaceful warrior who sees wrongdoing interlinked over individuals and speaks up about it. Jesus reacted to the epitome of oligarchical collectivism and tossed over tables and ruffled the feathers of institutions. He stood up the interlinked institutions of the Jewish temple supported by the Roman State and the traders/bankers inside the temple. The oligarchical collectivism for Jesus was the same we have today, interlinking of institutions of religion, state and corporation. The wrongdoing set forth by linking of church, state and corporate institutions is enough to make even Jesus angry. </div><div><br /></div><div>Exploitive institutions are set up in the same pyramidal shape now as they were then. The few are at the top controlling the many through interlocked institutions. And people should be angry. People should be angry and inspired to take action, like a peaceful warrior, like Jesus, when oligarchcical collectivism takes place. </div><div><br /></div><div>And yet people are so subdued, so absolutely and wholly apathetic that we will let the military industrial complex run over strangers and their oligarchical operations rain nuclear poison over entirety. We will let corporate agriculture genetically modify plants and animals without concern. Jesus' story is the story the Prince of Peace fearlessly standing up to and calling out the oligarchical collectivism of his day. Jesus stood up to the oligarchical collectivism he was surrounded by not because he was the son of God, but because he was also a mortal and standing up for liberty is at the core of our mortal human condition. Jesus wanted them to stop doing business and exchanging money in the temple which made revenue for the few among the many, those in control of the church, state and corporate.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is human nature to stand up and repel oligarchical collectivism and yet people today are so passive and tolerant we will let oligarchical collectivists hold reign through one overt conspiracy after another. This itself is conspiracy and as a accused conspiracy theorist I have the phrase for the map to the story. There is an ongoing conspiracy committed by all institutions to instill tolerance on people. Being tolerant toward individuals is okay. Compassion towards individuals is better. Tolerance of individuals is a start, but even Jesus Christ the lord didn't tolerate institutional wrongdoing. Jesus knew very well the difference between individuals and institutions.</div><div><br /></div><div>People are tolerant of wrongdoing, tolerant of oligarchical institutions, tolerant of militaristic corporatist exploitation of others, people are tolerant of government involvement in drug smuggling and gun running. Many people are tolerant little bitches who take more offense to harsh language than they do to exploitation of their neighbors and themselves. And at the same time those with institutionally induced tolerance of institutional wrongdoing are less likely to tolerate an individual's alternate race, origin or perspective. </div><div><br /></div><div>This misunderstanding, this misunderstanding of tolerance and confusion of individuals and institutions is a conspiracy gluing all other conspiracies together. It is the conspiracy of Institutionally Induced Tolerance and should be a psychiatric disorder simply called IT. You have to be fearful of being human, you have to lose all sense of humanity to stand down to institutions and oligarchical collectivism. You have to be barren of feeling or ignorant of the most basic precepts of reality to not be angry when confronted by oligarchical collectivism. Perhaps the conspiracy of IT is so wide that tolerance is induced biologically as well as politically. </div><div><br /></div><div>I myself am certain that the conspiracy theory of IT is not theory, but certainty. I feel this way through compiled information and something institutions do not have and would like to eliminate the validity of, intuition. Institutions despise human intuition, mainly because intuition can detect oligarchical collectivism instantly. To me IT is not as much theory as it is actuality, however I understand it as a theory and in using the word theory I like all other theorists of all other subjects, merely pose the notion for consideration. Eighty five percent of Americans suffer from Institution Induced Tolerance, do your part to fight this disease and stand up to oligarchical collectivism, like Jesus. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Ethan Indi:</b> I write. I love the USA; locals, land and liberty. I hate institutions placed above locals, land and liberty. I have roots in Maine, NYC and Northern California. My freshman work is titled The Complete Patriot's Guide to Oligarchical Collectivism: Its Theory and Practice. It is pro individual and anti institution and may become contraband for thought provoking. In the book I investigate political mentality and political power for individuals among institutions. Progressive Press is the publisher. Within the book are new concepts and new terms based on observations of history, philosophy and reality. I coin the term petrolithic era which began when Diesel died and continues on today. You can see cover and buy it before it's banned on amazon or many other websites and perhaps your local independent bookstore.</div><div><br /></div><div>OpEdNews <a href="http://www.opednews.com/author/author32780.html">articles</a> by Ethan Indi</div><div>OpEdNews <a href="http://www.opednews.com/index.php">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Prophetic Redoubt and Prescience of Theodore Roszak</b></div><div>by Christopher Diamant <a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Prophetic-Redoubt-and-by-christopher-diaman-110710-455.html">article link</a></div><div>July 11, 2011 | OpEdNews</div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-31110994803598780522011-07-11T08:26:00.000-07:002011-07-11T08:32:22.893-07:00Shamus Cooke: Deficit Reduction vs. Democracy<div><b>Deficit Reduction vs. Democracy</b></div><div>by Shamus Cooke <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/11-0">article link</a></div><div>July 11, 2011 | CommonDreams</div><div><br /></div><div>Listening to Congress debate deficit deduction is like listening to a den of lions discuss the welfare of zebras. In both cases the debate is very one-sided. Democrats and Republicans sound disagreeable on TV, but their arguments differ by the tiniest of degrees (like lions fighting over how best to eat a zebra.)</div><div><br /></div><div>The zebras in this case are U.S. working people, who are not seeing their interests represented by their so-called representatives. Instead of fixing the national deficit in the way that the vast majority of Americans would like, only the opinions of a tiny minority of very rich people are being considered. Both political parties are uniting to reduce the deficits on the backs of working people. </div><div><br /></div><div>For example, Obama's chief of staff, William Daley, spoke recently about the budget deficit and the need for massive cuts to social programs, which include Social Security and Medicare: </div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>“Everyone [Democrats and Republicans] agrees that a number around $4 trillion [in cuts] is the number that will make a serious dent in our deficit...He [Obama] didn’t come to this town to do little things. He came to do big things.” (July 10th, 2011). </div><div><br /></div><div>In a recent presidential address Obama said: “Government has to start living within its means, just like families do. We have to cut the spending we can’t afford so we can put the economy on sounder footing, and give our businesses the confidence they need to grow and create jobs.”</div><div><br /></div><div>This is the language of the right wing, which is now the language of both the Democrat and Republican parties. In reality, the U.S. government could easily access trillions of dollars in revenue; it simply chooses not to. Both political parties refuse to discuss how raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations could easily fix the current deficit issue on both the federal and state levels. The ONLY mention of taxing the rich is in the context of the Bush tax cuts, which some Democrats would allow to expire in the coming year; but it’s very possible that Democrats will "compromise" on this issue yet again. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even economist and liberal Obama-backer Paul Krugman put two and two together when he said:</div><div><br /></div><div>"in fact, if all you did was listen to his [Obama's] speeches, you might conclude that he basically shares the GOP’s diagnosis of what ails our economy and what should be done to fix it." (July 8th, 2011).</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>The rich and corporations have always hated Social Security and Medicare; they'd rather not pay taxes towards these programs at all. It lowers their profits. And ONLY this perspective is being shared on the mainstream media and being discussed in the halls of Congress. If massive cuts are made to these federal programs at the expense of millions of working people -- without substantially raising taxes on the wealthy -- then the safety net in the U.S. will have been critically injured. </div><div><br /></div><div>How would the vast majority of working people in this country like the deficit to be fixed? Poll after poll has indicated that cutting Social Security and Medicare is VERY unpopular, while raising taxes on the wealthy is extremely popular. A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll reported that 78 percent of Americans are opposed to cuts in Medicare, while 72 percent favor taxing the rich. (April 20th, 2011).</div><div><br /></div><div>But polls are just one way of expressing popular opinion, i.e. democracy. Another alternative is massive street mobilizations. In Greece the majority of people have exposed the anti-democratic policies of their government, which is trying to impose massive cuts to social programs to fix Greece's budget problems. Sound familiar? If the Greek government doesn't change course it will have zero popular backing, i.e., it will be a dictatorship. Obama's silence on this situation in Greece is very telling. </div><div><br /></div><div>In order to follow the Greek and Wisconsin examples of massive mobilizations, there must be an organizational push within working class organizations to make it happen. A resolution adopted unanimously by the Executive Committee of San Francisco Labor Council on July 5, 2011 expresses this vision: </div><div><br /></div><div>"The big question now is what the labor movement will do to meet this challenge confronting working people and the great majority. The choice is clear: either confine labor's protest against cuts in the social programs to pronouncements opposing them, coupled with lobbying; or combine these efforts with an all-out mobilization of the rank-and-file and our allies to prevent the cuts from being enacted."</div><div><br /></div><div>The San Francisco Labor Council resolution also encouraged all sectors of labor to organize "a campaign to mobilize support for "No Cuts or Concessions! Tax the Corporations and the Rich!" in the streets -- where it counts the most -- and in every corner of the nation." </div><div><br /></div><div>Democracy is no longer expressed in the halls of Congress nor in the White House and must therefore be transferred to the streets.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Shamus Cooke</b> is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action (<a href="http://www.workerscompass.org/">www.workerscompass.org</a>). He can be reached at shamuscook@gmail.com</div><div><br /></div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/shamus-cooke">articles</a> by Shamus Cooke</div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Guess Who Didn't Benefit from $2 Trillion Worth of Increased Worker Productivity</b></div><div>Nearly $2 Trillion Purloined from U.S. Workers in 2009</div><div>by James Cypher <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/11-3">article link</a> <a href="http://dollarsandsense.org/archives/2011/0711cypher.html">article link</a></div><div>July 11, 2011 | CommonDreams | Dollars & Sense</div><div>Dollars & Sense <a href="http://dollarsandsense.org/index.html">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Great Unravelling</b></div><div>by Stephen Lendman <a href="http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman100711.htm">article link</a></div><div>July 10, 2011 | Countercurrents</div><div>Countercurrents <a href="http://www.countercurrents.org/index.htm">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Trickle-Down Cruelty and the Politics of Austerity</b></div><div>by Henry A. Giroux <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/trickle-down-cruelty-and-politics-austerity/1310134880">article link</a></div><div>July 11, 2011 | Truthout</div><div>Truthout <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-88831916421002958862011-07-11T08:20:00.000-07:002011-07-11T08:25:40.801-07:00Joseph E. Stiglitz: The Evils of Unregulated Capitalism<div><b>The Evils of Unregulated Capitalism</b></div><div>by Joseph E. Stiglitz <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/10-5">article link</a> <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/20117714241429793.html">article link</a> <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28527.htm">article link</a></div><div>July 10, 2011 | CommonDreams | Al Jazeera | ICH</div><div><br /></div><div>Just a few years ago, a powerful ideology - the belief in free and unfettered markets - brought the world to the brink of ruin. Even in its hey-day, from the early 1980s until 2007, US-style deregulated capitalism brought greater material well-being only to the very richest in the richest country of the world.</div><div><br /></div><div>Indeed, over the course of this ideology's 30-year ascendance, most Americans saw their incomes decline or stagnate year after year.</div><div><br /></div><div>Moreover, output growth in the United States was not economically sustainable. With so much of US national income going to so few, growth could continue only through consumption financed by a mounting pile of debt.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was among those who hoped that, somehow, the financial crisis would teach Americans (and others) a lesson about the need for greater equality, stronger regulation, and a better balance between the market and government.</div><div><br /></div><div>Alas, that has not been the case.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the contrary, a resurgence of right-wing economics, driven, as always, by ideology and special interests, once again threatens the global economy - or at least the economies of Europe and America, where these ideas continue to flourish.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the US, this right-wing resurgence, whose adherents evidently seek to repeal the basic laws of mathematics and economics, is threatening to force a default on the national debt. If Congress mandates expenditures that exceed revenues, there will be a deficit, and that deficit has to be financed.</div><div><br /></div><div>Rather than carefully balancing the benefits of each government expenditure program with the costs of raising taxes to finance those benefits, the right seeks to use a sledgehammer - not allowing the national debt to increase forces expenditures to be limited to taxes.</div><div><br /></div><div>This leaves open the question of which expenditures get priority - and if expenditures to pay interest on the national debt do not, a default is inevitable. Moreover, to cut back expenditures now, in the midst of an ongoing crisis brought on by free-market ideology, would inevitably simply prolong the downturn.</div><div><br /></div><div>A decade ago, in the midst of an economic boom, the US faced a surplus so large that it threatened to eliminate the national debt.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>So <i>what</i> happened?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Unaffordable tax cuts and wars, a major recession, and soaring health-care costs - fueled in part by the commitment of George W Bush's administration to giving drug companies free rein in setting prices, even with government money at stake - quickly transformed a huge surplus into record peacetime deficits.</div><div><br /></div><div>The remedies to the US deficit follow immediately from this diagnosis: put America back to work by stimulating the economy; end the mindless wars; rein in military and drug costs; and raise taxes, at least on the very rich.</div><div><br /></div><div>But the right will have none of this, and instead is pushing for even more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, together with expenditure cuts in investments and social protection that put the future of the US economy in peril and that shred what remains of the social contract.</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, the US financial sector has been lobbying hard to free itself of regulations, so that it can return to its previous, disastrously carefree, ways.</div><div><br /></div><div>But matters are little better in Europe. As Greece and others face crises, the medicine du jour is simply timeworn austerity packages and privatization, which will merely leave the countries that embrace them poorer and more vulnerable. This medicine failed in East Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere, and it will fail in Europe this time around, too. Indeed, it has already failed in Ireland, Latvia, and Greece.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is an alternative: an economic-growth strategy supported by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Growth would restore confidence that Greece could repay its debts, causing interest rates to fall and leaving more fiscal room for further growth-enhancing investments.</div><div><br /></div><div>Growth itself increases tax revenues and reduces the need for social expenditures, such as unemployment benefits. And the confidence that this engenders leads to still further growth.</div><div><br /></div><div>Regrettably, the financial markets and right-wing economists have gotten the problem exactly backwards: they believe that austerity produces confidence, and that confidence will produce growth. But austerity undermines growth, worsening the government's fiscal position, or at least yielding less improvement than austerity's advocates promise. On both counts, confidence is undermined, and a downward spiral is set in motion.</div><div><br /></div><div>Do we really need another costly experiment with ideas that have failed repeatedly? We shouldn't, but increasingly it appears that we will have to endure another one nonetheless.</div><div><br /></div><div>A failure of either Europe or the US to return to robust growth would be bad for the global economy. A failure in both would be disastrous - even if the major emerging-market countries have attained self-sustaining growth.</div><div><br /></div><div>© 2011 Joseph E. Stiglitz</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Joseph E. Stiglitz</b> is University Professor at Columbia University. Among many books, he is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393324397?tag=commondreams-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0393324397&adid=01DZ1EMVKR7FY3GY30ED">Globalization and Its Discontents</a>. He received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 for research on the economics of information. He is the co-author, with Linda Bilmes, of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393334171?tag=commondreams-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0393334171&adid=1EPR7E8Z8Z0H7HHZN6Y5">The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict</a>. His most recent book is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393075966?ie=UTF8&tag=commondreams-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0393075966">Free Fall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Al Jazeera <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/">home page</a></div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/joseph-e-stiglitz">articles</a> by Joseph E. Stiglitz</div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/">home page</a></div><div>Information Clearing House <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Reagan Mythology is Leading US Off a Cliff</b></div><div>During Reagan's presidency, the US went from a creditor to debtor nation and marked a take-off for financial inequality.</div><div>by Paul Rosenberg <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/10-6">article link</a> <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/2011771074476381.html">article link</a></div><div>July 10, 2011 | CommonDreams | Al Jazeera</div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-54155528768637690982011-07-10T09:21:00.000-07:002011-07-10T09:28:36.437-07:00Caroline Arnold: How Much Blame Do We Share for Our Leaders' Failures?<div><b>How Much Blame Do We Share for Our Leaders' Failures?</b></div><div>Are we rats or are we humans?</div><div>by Caroline Arnold <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/10-0">article link</a></div><div>July 10, 2011 | CommonDreams | Kent-Ravenna Record Courier (Ohio)</div><div><br /></div><div>Six years ago, in the wake of the botched management of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, a friend warned me against blaming Republicans.</div><div><br /></div><div>I replied flippantly that as an unrepentant progressive, I quite enjoyed blaming Republicans, though I recognized that even the GOP, PNAC, and all their associated think-tanks and trained media rescue-dogs couldn’t have single-handedly created a disaster of that magnitude. I added that if the Republicans had planned Katrina, they probably would have directed it to Ohio. Of course there aren’t any hurricanes in Ohio, but heck, there weren’t any WMDs in Iraq, either.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another friend who had volunteered in the cleanup of Katrina running a ham radio operation observed that among the agencies and organizations trying to help, the farther up the hierarchy of any institution, public or private, the worse prepared the people were, the more out of touch, the more incompetent, and the more their efforts were downright damaging.</div><div><br /></div><div>... sounds like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle">The Peter Principle</a> to me. And an interesting corollary would probably be that the higher the hierarchy, the greater the level of incompetence.</div><div><br /></div><div>But how does that work in democracy? Should we expect our elected leaders to rise to our level of incompetence, or theirs? And then who should we blame for their failure?</div><div><br /></div><div>Or have they failed?</div><div><br /></div><div>Take Obama. He claimed to offer "the Audacity of Hope", and too many of us interpreted that as a Hope of Audacity. We hoped Obama would be audacious, bold and daring, and stand up <b><i>against</i></b> war, torture, extralegal assassinations, proliferating weaponry and tyranny, and privatization of public responsibilities, and <b><i>for</i></b> human rights, due process, universal health care, quality education for all, and policies for safe renewable energy, sustainable agriculture and humane immigration.</div><div><br /></div><div>Though Democrats feel he’s failed, he’s been quite competent at managing the takeover of our government by the private sector, corporations and the very wealthy.</div><div><br /></div><div>Looking at the field of possible Republican candidates doesn’t offer much hope either, though there is plenty of audacity – and citizens who apparently resonate with it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Four years ago I <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/01/2228">wrote a piece</a> based on the Declaration of Independence that included these paragraphs:</div><div><br /></div><div><i>The Bush-Cheney White House has enlisted "Armies of foreign Mercenaries" (in this case multinational corporations) to do the works of death, desolation, and tyranny. These bright angels manipulate public policy and public funds: Big Arms - corporations that profit from making deadly weapons and materials for war; Big Energy - profiting from fossil resources, nuclear technology, and human poverty and overpopulation; and Big Brokers - of services ranging from student loans and health care to mercenary soldiers, "extreme rendition,"commercial spying, and propaganda for governments, businesses and ideologies.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>It is increasingly evident that Bush and Cheney believe they Command & Control the U.S. government, its people and its resources, that they need not obey its laws, or even let citizens know what they do with our money, our government, our young soldiers and our venerable ideals.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>What’s changed except the names of those in power?</div><div><br /></div><div>Today our elected leaders committed to privatization, predatory capitalism and Command & Control management are prevailing, making us non-rich people into lab-rats and feeder-rats for their experiments. Cutting our rations of locally grown food, affordable homes, education, medical care, clean air and water, and feeding our youth and our planet’s resources to war, weapons and private profit will not lead to justice, jobs, prosperity or democracy. It will only reduce more of us to rats to serving the recreations of the rich.</div><div><br /></div><div>The problem with ideal democracy – the commitment to give every person the right to participate in decisions that affect their lives – is that it is not quick or nimble enough to deal with its own complexities, with the language, metaphors and concepts of media-driven popular culture, or with the light-speed communication of information, misinformation, and disinformation, let alone those engendered by overpopulation, predatory capitalism, runaway consumption, mass media, politics, religions, and advances in science, technology and medicine. It is further challenged by the extension of personhood to corporations.</div><div><br /></div><div>* * *</div><div><br /></div><div>Fifty years ago Reinhold Niebuhr observed:</div><div><br /></div><div><i>"The sickness from which modern civilization suffers is organic and constitutional. ... Private ownership means social power. The unequal division of social power leads automatically inequality and injustice."</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Any kind of power – physical violence, slavery, racism, sexism, bullying; political, theological, or economic, corrupts both those who wield it and those who receive it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Today’s efforts to destroy unions and collective bargaining in Ohio and Wisconsin, and to promote our assorted overseas wars are essentially aimed at stripping self-determination from – thereby enslaving-- those unable to pay for it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Are we rats or are we humans – aware, discerning, self-determined and capable of choosing our leaders, actions and words? Eight years ago I had the audacity to be hopeful ("<a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0518-06.htm">Let's Talk...</a>" 5/18/03 ) that we could talk to one another.</div><div><br /></div><div>Apparently we’ve reached the level of our incompetence. Now who can we blame?</div><div><br /></div><div>© 2011 Caroline Arnold</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Caroline Arnold</b> ($20,000/ $70,000) retired after 12 years on the Washington staff of US Senator John Glenn. She served three terms on the Kent (OH) Board of Education. In retirement she is active with Kent Environmental Council and sits on the board Family & Community Services of Portage County. E-mail: csarnold@neo.rr.com</div><div><br /></div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/author/caroline-arnold">articles</a> by Caroline Arnold</div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/">home page</a></div><div>Kent-Ravenna Record Courier (Ohio) <a href="http://www.recordpub.com/">home page</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Metaphors for a Post-Federal America</b></div><div>by Karen Kwiatkowski <a href="http://lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski270.html">article link</a></div><div>July 9, 2011 | LewRockwell</div><div>LewRockwell <a href="http://www.lewrockwell.com/">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-31693347277368773162011-07-09T07:35:00.000-07:002011-07-09T07:37:42.002-07:00Bob Chapman: The Looting of Federal Pensions, Social Security and Medicare<div><b>Mounting Public Debt. The Looting of Federal Pensions, Social Security and Medicare</b></div><div>by Bob Chapman <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25570">article link</a></div><div>July 9, 2011 | Global Research</div><div><br /></div><div>Government debt will be in the vicinity of $1.5 trillion this year. Ever since May 16th short-term debt has been frozen at about $14.3 trillion. Up until May 16th the year-to-debt fiscal debt was $783.135 billion. That means if no August 2nd agreement is reach, $275 billion will be needed up to August 2nd, a total of about $700 billion will be needed by 9/30/11, the end of the fiscal year. Those funds are to come from federal pensions, Social Security and Medicare. How will these funds be paid back? We do not know, but we would guess there could be legislation to commandeer private pensions, 401Ks and IRAs. On the other hand an alternative is for the Fed to create $700 billion and buy the Treasury debt. That alone, with normal funding, could reach over $2 trillion. That means they would have to create another additional $850 billion to keep the economy from slipping into a great dark pit. That means additional net funds that would have to be created out of thin air of close to $3 trillion. That means mega inflation 2 to 3 years down the line. In addition the US debt to GDP should be more than 100% by the end of the fiscal year 9/30/11.</div><div><br /></div><div>We guess the Fed can keep interest rates near zero until borrowers finally get fed up with low returns and a loss in principal, as the dollar deteriorates. It was four years ago when rates were 5-1/4%. Rates in time will return to that level and cause economic and financial devastation. We can also assure you Treasury buyers are not driving rates down and bond prices up, the Fed can take full credit for that. Those who seek safety in low interest Treasuries are giving up purchasing power. In today’s markets there is no such thing as safety.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are those that believe it is time to start to raise interest rates and that the time for stimulus is past. They are probably correct, but the problem is the economy cannot stand on its own. Although deflationary depression will come eventually to force it now would mean a great war or series of wars would now have to begin.</div><div><br /></div><div>It also has become self-evident to the populace or at least half of Americans that we cannot keep amassing debt and boosting the economy with stimulus. Their fears are reflected via much higher inflation and major unemployment, both of which are worsening daily. They have experienced three years of this, so to be told by the President, the Fed, the Treasury and Wall Street that what they are experiencing is transitory, reaches deaf ears.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another grandstanding act by the President and his handlers was the latest release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve - only enough to replace one days worldwide consumption. This was supposed to show the administration’s concern that Americans were paying too much for gasoline and inflation was cutting their purchasing power. Their attempt was a failure, but the sale brought in badly needed cash to fund the growing deficit. We believe that was really what the exercise was all about. The move also had its negative affects on the commodity and gold and silver markets, at least for a few days. The failure of these financial and economic false flag operations shows you the underlying weakness of the financial and economic structure and the strength of commodities and gold and silver. Every move Wall Street and banking makes lasts only days or a week, then it is right back to the forceful underlying trend. We believe these elitists are now starting to question whether what they are doing will work. An example was the massive naked short covering not seen in years in gold and silver. JPM, HSBC and others lost the battle in silver and capitulated by covering. This was a major event. They knew the RICO class action lawsuit against them was about to be announced, so they covered a good portion of their shorts that were being used to suppress silver prices. Gold reacted by rising almost $35.00 and closing up $32.60 and silver rising $2.25 and closing up $1.80. The professionals know what this means. The cartel has suffered a huge defeat and if JPM and HSBC lose in court, which they should, it will cost the elitists tens of billions of dollars. The question is how will they arrange to transfer the losses to the public, or will the losses be big enough to take JPM and HSBC under. Only time will tell, but the result will be less control over gold and silver markets and a slight move back to free markets. They cannot take too many losses like this. What it shows you is that these people can be beaten and that we will win this war against these criminals.</div><div><br /></div><div>Over the past few years, lenders have cut back on lines of credit, which has made many Americans unable to access affordable credit. The engine that has driven the economy for many years, cheap available credit, has come to an end and accessibility will become more difficult in the future. A few years ago we noted the availability of credit was beginning to be reduced and in time would reduce consumption. Over those ensuing years many Americans are no longer in the credit system because they cannot meet lending or regulatory qualifications. This is a direct reflection of 22.6% unemployment and massive home foreclosures. The unemployment numbers are even worse than meet the eye. The statistics define the private sector too broadly. In May, the distortion continued with private businesses adding 83,000 jobs of which 34,000 were in health care, social services and education, which are all subsidized. Thus, the real addition was 49,000. Over the past two years 980,000 jobs were added, 7.7 million jobs lost and of 8.4 million jobs lost so far in the inflationary depression only 291,000 have been added. If you cover 11 years instead of five years, 11.7 million have been lost. Real private sector employment was 83.1%. In 12/09 the number was 83.8% and in 1950, 86.2% or a 3.6% drop.</div><div><br /></div><div>The government needs to revive domestic manufacturing, because foreign nations deliberately devalue their currencies and pay slaves wages. The only thing that can change this is tariffs on goods and services. Thus, tightened lending standards and horrible unemployment keep homebuyers from buying into that monstrous inventory for sale. Never mind buy buying a house, those unemployed cannot open a bank account nor do they own a debit or credit card. Credit scores may have risen to 696, the highest in at least four years, but it doesn’t help the unemployed. The other underlying cause is that consumers simply have too much debt, even though delinquencies have fallen 30% in two years. Those with jobs are doing ok, but persistently higher inflation is eating big chunks of their power to consume.</div><div><br /></div><div>What America is seeing today is a flat lining economy. When the credit crisis began, and it is not over, real GDP fell 4%, vs. 25% in the early 1930s. Can you imagine where the economy would be without the bailout of the financial sector, government and to a lesser degree the economy? We are talking about perhaps $5 trillion that we know about. If you take away unemployment, extended unemployment, food stamps, Medicaid and various other social services, we could be in the same spot today as we were in the 1930s. We have been without recovery for almost five years. At least the Great Depression had recovery in 1933 and 1934. We may not have a WWII on the horizon, but we sure have many perpetual wars for perpetual peace. Today the excuse is rogue states and terrorists, which are just excuses to have more undeclared wars.</div><div><br /></div><div>We have to laugh at noted economists who continue to bleat about unemployment in the 1930s that was 25% and today it is only 9.1%. In the 1930s U3 was 25.2% and U6 was 37.6%. Today U3 is 9.1%, U6 is 16.3% and if you extract the birth/death ratio it is 22.6%. There were two recoveries in the 1930s, but both aborted. Over the past few years we have seen transitory gains and actually very little result for some $4.3 trillion in spending. Even so-called conservative economists use government-generated statistics, which they know are bogus. How can they hope to come up with the correct answers for future economic and financial problems? In addition most do not get involved in geopolitics, which severely hampers prospectives and projections. Along those lines those who wish for lower commodity prices are engaging in wishful thinking. Not only do we see fire, draught and floods, but we also see geopolitical dislocation and a flight from stock and bond markets to the safety of commodities, gold and silver. That is not going to end anytime soon.</div><div><br /></div><div>Economists still see recovery without tariffs, recovery, which always eludes them. For several years workers have worked to a maximum of their ability and they still can compete with the emerging world, due to almost zero interest rates. Employers when confronted with a choice of hiring more employees choose to move the work to offshore locations. Attitudes such as this seal the fate of working Americans.</div><div><br /></div><div>As you can see corporate America has lost its direction. They have become creatures of internationalism, participating in the extinction of the US and its world reserve currency, the dollar. The culture in corporate America is decidedly corruption augmented by government’s drive to implement corporate fascism very reminiscent of Germany and Italy in the 1930s, which was a trial run for today’s government.</div><div><br /></div><div>The world’s problem is debt – too much of it. Corporate America, particularly Wall Street, thinks debt creation can go on indefinitely as they continue to loot America. The US economy is doing a slow motion swan dive and the corporatists do not care because they believe they’ll become part of this new World Order. What they do not understand is they are stuck in neutral, as they proceed with their looting operations. Worse yet all, or almost alll of the gold belonging to America citizens is gone. The US dollar is like so many other fiat currencies. People often ask, what currency should be in and the simple answer is none, except to function from month-to-month. The record is there one for all to see, all currencies have on average lost value versus gold and silver for 11 straight years. What more can be expected as deficits for all countries mount year after year? This is why almost all governments are trapped. They have to continue to create money and credit or their economies will collapse. The problems are still all there. Greece and the other five lame ducks, the euro and the EU. The European banking system is still staring over the abyss. We have no debt extension. 4% of the SPR has been sold with no net effect on the oil price or availability. To refill the salt domes will be very costly, while in the meantime government has more money to waste. While all this transpires the military industrial complex is laughing all the way to the bank.</div><div><br /></div><div>The result is investors continue to flee to gold and silver albeit in small numbers. All gold and silver investments only aggregate 0.8% of Americans. What will prices be when 15% of Americans become involved, as that number did in 1980? The success of gold and silver are just a direct reflection of monetary profligacy and the debasement of the US dollar. For the past 2-1/2 years gold has taken over as the only real currency and the dollar can only regain status by again backing the currency with gold. After the recent criminal correction in gold, silver and commodities in just three days, as we predicted the losses have been regained. The suppression cartel is losing its power and soon will become a nonentity. Very soon all will see new highs.</div><div><br /></div><div>The big question is why hasn’t government and the Fed tried to solve the economic situation? The answer is they have no intention of doing so, because they want the public on their knees economically and financially so they can impose World Government. We have news for them, this time they are going to lose and lose it all. Yes, there is going to be a great war or a series of wars you won’t escape that. These criminals are not going down without a fight and it will be a very nasty struggle.</div><div><br /></div><div>The banker situation in Greece, that is the rape and looting of the country, is a set piece of what bankers intend to do in all countries.</div><div><br /></div><div>As we enter the twilight of the American nation we have never been so overwhelmed by the servile incompetence of Congress and its entourage of bureaucrats. We call them team A and team B. As each administration changes the participants change, but their length of service lingers on for many years. They represent the same masters who control them from behind the scenes with the same mission, but with slightly different approaches in order to make it seem change is being made. A great many of these servants from academia although very bright, never had an original thought in their life, never have worked in the business world and all are disciples of John Maynard Keyes and his corporatist fascist philosophy. Is it any wonder our nation is in the state it is in?</div><div><br /></div><div>These are the same geniuses who created massive increases of money and credit starting 11 years ago, only to cap it off with QE1 and QE2 and stimulus 1 and 2, that have only served to rescue an insolvent financial sector and a corrupt insolvent government, which is still in progress. Wall Street and banking have been treated to massive amounts of money supplied by American citizens, who have seen their life savings foreclosed on. They borrow from the Fed at almost zero percent interest rates to invest in higher yielding bets, and wild speculation in totally rigged, manipulated markets. Just to show you how Wall Street’s rigged game works a number of major firms go for months without having a losing trading day. That is impossible unless the game is rigged, which it is for certain elitist, Illuminist corporations. These profit centers are created to offset the massive losses sustained in bad loans, mortgagees and from other speculations. Banks were leveraged 70 to 1 on average. It is now 20 to 40 to one, up from a normal 9 to 1. As a result government sees only 20% of its debt offerings being bought by Americans and foreigners. The remainder is being bought by the Federal Reserve, which for the most part creates money and credit out of thin air to meet these needs.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Bob Chapman</b> is a frequent contributor to Global Research.</div><div><br /></div><div>Global Research <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=listByAuthor&authorFirst=Bob&authorName=Chapman">articles</a> by Bob Chapman</div><div>Global Research <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=home">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-14000873040450698512011-07-08T08:27:00.000-07:002011-07-08T08:28:13.655-07:00Michael Payne: If American Exceptionalism Were a Reality<div><b>If American Exceptionalism Were a Reality: Here's What Life in America Would Be Like</b></div><div>by Michael Payne <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28509.htm">article link</a></div><div>July 07, 2011 | Information Clearing House</div><div><br /></div><div>I occasionally hear someone in the news speak of "American Exceptionalism", the theory that the United States is qualitatively different from other nations; that we are unique among nations and generally superior to them in almost any measurable category. That's a nice thought but it's just not reality. That's not to say that it cannot be attained at some future time. So, let's discuss what America would be like if this nation could truly be called exceptional.</div><div><br /></div><div>That America would resemble the one that existed after the Second World War when people felt really good about themselves. Tom Brokaw even wrote a book about Americans of that time and coined the term, the "Greatest Generation." During those times, the future was bright, and the sky was the limit; everything was looking up as the nation entered an era of what was anticipated to be an indefinite period of peace and prosperity.</div><div><br /></div><div>That generation had the opportunity, and the potential, to lead the nation in exactly that direction and it did, for a time, but then a succession of wars and military actions interrupted those hopes and dreams. But what if America had not taken that turn in the wrong direction? Let's attempt to describe a future America as it might have been initially envisioned by those in the 1950's as they contemplated how America could evolve into an exceptional nation and society.</div><div><br /></div><div>The America that they envisioned would be a prosperous country with a robust economy. The American dream would be in effect with lots of upward mobility for all citizens. There would be plenty of wealthy people, a vibrant, hard-working middle class and, yes, we'd have a lower income class -- but it would not be nearly as large and disadvantaged as that of today.</div><div><br /></div><div>The distribution of wealth between the classes would be balanced, it wouldn't be a situation such as we find today in which most analyses show that the top 1% own about 35% of total wealth, the next 19% own 50% and the bottom 80% own only 15%. No, it would be much more fair and balanced than that because of a system of taxation that our government had created to make certain that every person in America, regardless of their income, paid their fair share; tax breaks, unnecessary incentives and loopholes, together with offshore tax evasion accounts, by corporations and the wealthy would have been eliminated.</div><div><br /></div><div>There would be a thriving manufacturing sector because the Congress would have set up a system of tax incentives and penalties, plus appropriate tariffs that created millions of new jobs in America, and minimized overseas outsourcing. Corporations and workers would have reasonably good relationships, not perfect, but civil. Workers would earn good wages and CEO's would be very well paid but nothing like their salaries today which often are 700 times greater those of their workers.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our government and the business community would have recognized that petroleum would certainly become much more scarce and expensive in the future and they would have worked together to create and develop new sources of alternate energy such as solar, wind, geothermal, and biofuels. The new industries and their energy saving products would fuel the consumer-driven economy, increase the nation's exports dramatically and, once again, make American manufacturing a force in the world.</div><div><br /></div><div>In that America we would have a superior, well funded education system as we did in the past. Our students would be proficient in math and science, and would place very high in world academic rankings, far better than that of today where we rank 21st in math, 25th in mathematics and 15% in reading literacy among the industrialized nations. Teachers would no longer be prime targets for layoffs by Republican governors and they would restore our educational foundations.</div><div><br /></div><div>The nation would have a universal health care system that covered every citizen from birth to death. It would be a single payer system as effective as those of all of the other industrialized nations of the world. The massive health care industry, with its monumental profits derived from constant increases in premiums, would be phased out. Americans would no longer be going bankrupt as a result of astronomical health care bills. The Congress and the president would have initiated this great change as they fully realized that health care for all Americans were a basic right.</div><div><br /></div><div>The nation's infrastructure would rank with the best in the world, not 23rd as it does today. Our interstates, roads, highways, bridges and waterways would be well maintained. There would be far fewer over-the-road trucks on our highways and fewer automobiles. There would be efficient, affordable public transportation, greatly increased railroad traffic, high speed trains between cities and even bullet trains, say from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. We would see a significant movement to electric and hybrid cars; huge SUV's and V-8's would become totally obsolete.</div><div><br /></div><div>Wall Street and our financial systems would be stable and growing, based upon reasonable and appropriate rules and regulations instituted by Congress to prevent abusive and manipulative practices. Many of the financial crooks and manipulators would be in prison after our Justice Department, at the president's urging, would have been investigated and prosecuted them. As a result home foreclosures and related personal bankruptcies due to illegal and manipulative mortgage practices would no longer be a problem.</div><div><br /></div><div>Congress would be a place where the interests of the people were paramount, where Corporate America had no more influence, where one party could not block legislation or presidential appointments; there would be no such thing as a filibuster as the Congress would have overhauled the legislative rules. Presidential and congressional election campaigns would be six months long, they would be financed by public funds; corporate contributions would be illegal and all voting would be done by paper ballots with audit trails to prevent abuse.</div><div><br /></div><div>There would still be a threat of terror in the world but America would address it by a combination of intelligence agencies, Special Forces and highly sophisticated electronic surveillance systems. Gone would be the vast military empire and its hundreds of bases. The annual defense budget would be about one third of what it had been at its peak of $1.3 trillion. America would have a real Defense Department not one that specialized in offensive military actions around the world.</div><div><br /></div><div>There would be three political parties in America and a new breed of politicians that would have no need for monetary ties to corporations because of newly instituted campaign finance reforms; our elected representatives in Washington would be free to enact legislation in the best interests of the people. Corporate America would no longer own the Congress and call the shots. Corporations would assume their proper place as a driving force in the new economy.</div><div><br /></div><div>And last and best of all there would be an American president with courage and strong moral beliefs that could not be cowed by the military or beholden to Corporate America and lobbyist organizations; a new breed of president who understood that war was a last resort, not to be launched by pre-emptive strikes and invasions of sovereign nations. This would be a president who put the interests of the American people above all, listened to their views and responded to their needs and problems.</div><div><br /></div><div>We need to contrast the America that I'm portraying here with the America of today. Quite a bit different, aren't they? Many might say that the exceptional America I'm describing is a totally unrealistic supposition at best, that it sounds like some kind of Utopian society in which everything would be perfection. No, what I'm describing is not perfection; it is simply how a stable, responsible society would be expected to function if its government had put its priorities in the proper order, with the needs and interests of the American people at the top of the list.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm describing the America that might have been.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Michael Payne</b> is an independent progressive who writes articles about domestic social and political matters as well as American foreign policy. He is a U.S. Army veteran.</div><div><br /></div><div>Information Clearing House <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-10474054819320636002011-07-07T08:33:00.000-07:002011-07-07T08:35:52.794-07:00Szandor Blestman: War, the Sickness of Empire and Economic Genocide<div><b>War, the Sickness of Empire and Economic Genocide</b></div><div>by Szandor Blestman <a href="http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/07.11/genocide.html">article link</a> <a href="http://szandorblestman.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=347:war-the-sickness-of-empire-and-economic-genocide">article link</a></div><div>July 04, 2011 | Silver Bear Cafe | Szandor Blestman</div><div><br /></div><div>I've made the claim for some time now that the economy is people. It's you and me trading goods and services on a voluntary basis. It's me providing you with my labor or something I've created, then you providing him with your labor or something you've created, then him providing her with his labor or something he's created and so on and so forth. This is what makes economy, so it would make sense that the economy would grow as the population grows. It would make sense that the economy would shrink as the population shrinks. It would make sense that the economy would stabilize when the population stabilizes. But this is not what has happened. I believe this is at least partially because some people have been able to manipulate the mechanisms of economy in unnatural ways for their own benefit, and therefore to the detriment of most others.</div><div><br /></div><div>One way this can be accomplished is through war. It has been said that war is the health of the state. Certainly it has been shown through history that nothing grows the power of a central government better than war. But while war may help the machinations of the state, it does not do the same for the economy. Instead, it takes resources that would be better spent on other ventures and uses them to destroy lives and property. Yes, it might help enrich certain individuals and corporations and those who work for them, but in the end it is a drain on resources and kills the very people who could help grow the economy through peaceful, mutually beneficial trade.</div><div><br /></div><div>This might be something that many Americans in particular might find hard to accept. The population of that nation has not had to deal with the horrors of war upon the citizenry for almost a hundred and fifty years. The wars their government has engaged in have more or less been profitable to them. World War I helped its economy as it remained neutral and provided arms to the combatants before they entered it in 1917. World War II provided American industry with many opportunities before the Japanese attacked near the end of 1941. The industrial might of America was unrivaled coming out of World War II and the adoption of the dollar as the world's reserve currency created a military, industrial and financial super power unmatched in the world's history. War seemed to be good for America.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yet the nation's populace seemed to remain ignorant as to the true nature of its perceived wealth. The wars its government has engaged in have been paid for by borrowing, not by using money that had been saved. The resources that may have helped pay for wars have in reality been stolen from indigenous populations at the point of a gun. These resources certainly weren't acquired through voluntary trade. These debts need to be paid back in some form or another, the question is by whom? I certainly don't believe it should be by the common folk who may have tacitly gone along with the war programs but did not orchestrate them. Yet it is the common folk who will pay because of the fiscal and political manipulations of the super wealthy elite who continue to hide and obfuscate their influence in such matters.</div><div><br /></div><div>The debts are coming due. Those who have loaned the money, regardless of whether or not paper money has any real value, want to be paid back. There is a problem, however, in that the nation is technically bankrupt. And it's not just the United States of America that has this problem, but many nations worldwide take in less revenue than they spend and can no longer afford to pay back even the interest on the loans they've received from various lenders. To solve this problem, governments often feel they can do two things, either raise taxes or cut spending. The United States government has for years decided to put the burden on the backs of their future generations by printing money and inflating the currency supply. I think a better solution would be to stop wasting money on bullets, bombs and engines of destruction. I think it is a good time to stop policing an empire, start closing down bases and bringing home troops, and use the trillions that would be saved by not empire building to pay off the debt and start rebuilding prosperity and wealth.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yet this is not something that the central banking institutions would have. They wish to keep the common folk in debt. They wish to siphon off the unprecedented wealth that has been enjoyed by the largest and most powerful middle class the world has ever known and horde it in their own coffers. Why not do this by bombing already impoverished people? Why not destroy the infrastructure of nations that are on their way up the socio-economic ladder? Why not use fear, ignorance and the inherent distrust of other cultures to foment a clash of civilizations? In this way, they can keep the wealthier nation in debt and dependent on their good graces and at the same time steal the natural resources of less fortunate nations through the international corporations they control. Why should they care if innocents are killed along the way, as long as their pockets are lined and their coffers filled?</div><div><br /></div><div>War of any kind does not bring economic prosperity to the masses. It does not bring freedom, liberty or democracy to the people. It brings only death and destruction, the exact opposite of economic prosperity. It brings complete moral degradation. It brings about the enslavement of the masses in one form or another to all the parties involved. It brings about unprecedented profits for a few societal parasites who wish to horde all the wealth for themselves. It brings prosperity only to the fat spiders at the top who spin their webs to entrap all humanity so they can feed upon the misery they create. It is these few wealthy elite who seem to wish for the destruction of all economy who should be held to account, not the common folk. It is they who have failed miserably, for they have shown their utter disdain for humankind and the desperate emotional impoverishment they wallow in when it comes to caring for the less fortunate.</div><div><br /></div><div>Peace is the way to economic prosperity. Individual freedom is the way to peace. Only by creating and producing will the economy grow, not through killing and destroying. How much more can mankind endure before this lesson is learned? It is time to stop empowering the elite who pull the strings. It is time to stop borrowing their worthless paper money for wars and other destructive government programs they have set up to entrap the masses of humanity. It is time to create alternatives to the monopolies of currency they control and to allow these alternatives to operate unmolested by the government agencies that the wealthy corporate elite have bought and paid for. It is time to stop forcing our empire and corporate world government upon the masses of the world and to start allowing all individuals to operate as the sovereign beings they are. Americans should be leading by example, not by the heavy handed machinations of a militarized police force.</div><div><br /></div><div>We have seen this sickness before in the world. We have seen historically how empire corrupts and rots away the core of the principles that brought it into being. We have seen how power corrupts and how absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is time for the common folk to shout "Enough!" It is time we refuse to pay for the destruction any longer. It is time to trim back the branches of empire, break the grip of government monopoly and rid ourselves of the tyranny that is now encamped upon our shores. When this happens, the buds of freedom can grow again and perhaps one day blossom into beautiful flowers. When this happens, prosperity will once again visit the common folk and we can all build wealth together.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Szandor Blestman</b>: My archived articles are available at <a href="http://szandorblestman.com/index.php">szandorblestman.com</a>. Please visit there and make a donation to help support me and my efforts. I also have an ebook available entitled "<a href="http://ipicpublishing.com/ebooks/index.php/home-page/the-ouijiers.html">The Ouijiers</a>" by Matthew Wayne.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Silver Bear Cafe <a href="http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/home.html">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-64999670636813265592011-07-07T08:29:00.000-07:002011-07-07T08:31:45.270-07:00Robert Scheer: The Tea Party and Goldman Sachs<div><b>The Tea Party and Goldman Sachs: A Love Story</b></div><div>by Robert Scheer <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/06-9">article link</a> <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_tea_party_and_goldman_sachs_a_love_story_20110705/">article link</a></div><div>July 6, 2011 | CommonDreams | TruthDig</div><div><br /></div><div>Face it. We live in two nations, sharply divided by an enormous economic chasm between the super-rich and everyone else. This should be an obvious fact of life for most Americans. Just read the story in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal headlined “Profits Thrive in Weak Recovery.” Or the recent New York Times story pointing out “that the median pay for top executives at 200 big companies last year was $10.8 million,” a 23 percent gain over the year before. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the midst of a jobless recovery, those same corporations are sitting on more than $2 trillion in reserves, refusing to invest in this country, as increasing percentages of their profits are garnered in tax-sheltered operations abroad. And the bankers who caused the economic meltdown have turned against President Barack Obama, who saved them; instead they favor a tea-party-dominated Republican Party that seeks to limit any restraint on corporate greed while destroying the ability of state and federal governments to bring some measure of relief to ordinary folk.</div><div><br /></div><div>The whole point of the tea party is to focus concern over our stagnant economy on something called “big government” while ignoring the big corporations that have bought the government as an accessory to their marketing strategies. Big government is big precisely because it now exists primarily to make the world safe for multinational capitalism, whether through a bloated defense budget, trade pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement, or monetary policies that serve the interests of the largest companies. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was their lobbyists who got Congress to end sensible regulations of financial shenanigans, and now, with the new tea party members of Congress as their most stalwart allies, they are yanking the teeth from the very mild regulations that Obama got through the last Congress. As The Associated Press reported: “Congressional Republicans are greeting the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama’s financial overhaul law by trying to weaken it, nibble by nibble.”</div><div><br /></div><div>It is nothing short of demagogic for the Republicans to be complaining about the debt when it was the radical deregulatory policies that they pursued which caused all that governmental red ink in the first place. What a hoax to pretend that teachers’ pensions or environmental protections are responsible for a debt that increased by 50 percent as a direct consequence of the banking collapse. Yet they want to gut even the tepid regulations that became law under the Obama administration, foaming at the mouth about sensible regulation as job killing when it is the uncontrolled greed of Wall Street that is at the root of our high unemployment.</div><div><br /></div><div>Congressional Republicans are cutting funding for the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as if those already underfunded agencies are centers of anti-business radicalism. The CFTC is run by former Goldman Sachs partner Gary Gensler, who, back when he was in the Clinton Treasury Department serving under another onetime Goldman leader, Robert Rubin, teamed up with Republicans in Congress to gut financial regulation. He is one of the Obama regulators who has managed to delay even the minor controls that the Dodd-Frank law requires for the still wildly out-of-control $600 trillion derivatives market.</div><div><br /></div><div>What a joke that the tea party assertion that radicals have taken over the Obama government is embraced even by lobbyists for Goldman Sachs, whose former executives have populated the Obama administration as widely as they did the two previous administrations. All they are missing this time around is that they didn’t get to have one of their own named as treasury secretary, as was the case in both the Clinton and Bush cabinets.</div><div><br /></div><div>This week, the Los Angeles Times reported on Goldman’s renewed lobbying efforts in Washington aimed at watering down what remains of the promise of Dodd-Frank. True to Washington tradition, Goldman has hired Michael Paese, a former top staffer for the “liberal” Rep. Barney Frank to head its Washington operation, which last year spent $4.6 million lobbying Congress to soften the bill, a task now made far easier with Goldman’s tea party allies in the new Republican-dominated House. As the Times noted, “Goldman has spent much of its money on hired guns from major Washington lobbying firms, including former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and former House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.).”</div><div><br /></div><div>Between the faux populism of the tea party and the army of sellout ex-congressional staffers and politicians from both parties, the Washington fix is in. Short of hitting it big on a lottery ticket, the vast majority of Americans are sentenced to a future of lowered expectations, insurmountable personal debt and dismal job prospects. </div><div><br /></div><div>They may not know it, however, thanks to the constant propaganda from a corporate culture dominated by images of a classless nation in which all consume the delights of the American dream, from the perfect smartphone to the perfect pill for bladder control, while merrily hacking away on the perfectly manicured golf course of one’s fantasies.</div><div><br /></div><div>© 2011 TruthDig.com</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Robert Scheer</b> is editor of Truthdig.com and a regular columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle.</div><div><br /></div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/">home page</a></div><div>TruthDig <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-41011941361403923552011-07-06T08:00:00.000-07:002011-07-06T08:05:10.092-07:00Shamus Cooke: How to Save the U.S. Labor Movement<div><b>How to Save the U.S. Labor Movement</b></div><div>by Shamus Cooke<a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25523"> article link</a> <a href="http://www.workerscompass.org/ck/ck2011/ck07052011.html">article link</a></div><div>July 5, 2011 | Global Research | Workers Action</div><div><br /></div><div>The first step in saving the labor movement is recognizing that it needs saving. Sadly, many union leaders -- including Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO -- refuse to accept this reality, choosing instead to dismiss the current threats against labor unions as "exaggerated,” or limited to this or that Republican politician. In fact, the labor movement -- especially public sector unions -- is facing nationwide attacks by Democrats and Republicans alike. </div><div><br /></div><div>On a state-by-state basis unions are being blamed for the budget deficits that are the result of the Great Recession -- itself triggered by Wall Street and fueled by declining taxes on corporations and the rich. This massive recession is certain to create deficits for years to come, guaranteeing that the cross-hairs will remain firmly on the backs of labor unions, since the backs of the corporations escaped the cross-hairs by their domination of the two party system and media.
This anti-union atmosphere will thus grow, and will soon affect all unions, much like high unemployment has already weakened all unions by pushing down wages and lowering union membership. And union membership is already drastically low: with 7 percent private sector unemployment, unions are already facing near extinction. The attack on the public sector, if successful, will completely destroy the power of unions in relation to the power of corporations. Labor's diminishing clout is already recognized by politicians of both parties; indeed, the current attacks would not be happening if it were otherwise. Big business now has undisputed and complete control over both parties. The New York Times reports: </div><div><br /></div><div>"The reality is that the U.S. labor movement has steadily lost influence, politically, socially and economically. Labor believes that President Barack Obama is taking it too much for granted; he is." (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/us/07iht-letter07.html">March 7, 2011</a>).</div><div><br /></div><div>A recent member of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) International Executive Board, Stephen Lerner, was more blunt when he spoke at Pace University: "Unions are almost dead. We cannot survive doing what we do."</div><div><br /></div><div>It is in this context that solutions must be proposed, debated, and pursued. Labor unions do not need genius-caliber ideas or fancy gimmicks to save themselves; there are numerous practical, common sense solutions that could be implemented immediately. Below are six: </div><div><br /></div><div><b>1) Go on the offensive.</b> No struggle of any kind can be won on a purely defensive basis. Yet many labor unions seem content with continually fending off corporate attackers, taking steps backwards as they do so, since waging defensive campaigns uses precious union resources. Purely defensive campaigns imply weakness, since a powerful organization would choose to use its resources in a more empowering way. Concessionary bargaining is a prime example of unions not flexing their muscle, and sadly, it's become the new norm for many unions, which weaken themselves further with every new concession-filled contract. The union movement will not be able to grow significantly as long as it persists in concessionary bargaining. Who would want to join a union and pay dues if the results are progressively worse contracts?</div><div><br /></div><div>Labor unions are capable of conjuring powerful social forces when they do go on the offensive. Oregon unions decided to mobilize in favor of a Tax the Rich and Corporation measure that would reduce the state deficit: union members flocked to phone banks and door-to-door canvassing, winning over the community with a landslide election victory that saved hundreds of millions of dollars in social service cuts. The events in Wisconsin proved that unions would have tremendous community support to go on the offensive against the anti-democracy Governor Walker. The non-union working class in Wisconsin correctly viewed the unions' fight as a battle against the status-quo, and they wanted to join. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>2) Mobilize the community.</b> One of the biggest mistakes unions have made over the years has been to disconnect themselves from the community. Unions became insular organizations unconcerned with organizing new members or fighting for working people in general, mistakes that can easily be remedied by reversing course. The media is focused on demonizing unions in the eyes of the broader working class, but unions can fight back by waging real campaigns to save Social Security, Medicare, or other national programs like food stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, and especially addressing unemployment. Fighting for the unemployed by demanding a public works program would boost the image of unions in the eyes of working people nationwide. The union movement cannot win by itself; it is too small. SEIU has recognized this in their fledgling campaign called Fight For a Fair Economy. But a truly successful campaign would require that all unions become involved. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>3) Re-unite the labor movement.</b> It is long overdue for the Change to Win unions and the AFL-CIO to reunite. The progressive vision of the Change to Win unions did not materialize; the labor movement as a whole is weaker because of this divide. New campaigns need to be organized on a national basis, with all unions directing their energy in a coordinated fashion. If the major unions all wage separate campaigns they are doomed to failure. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>4) Political Independence.</b> Union leaders should realize that the Democrats don't want to be friends anymore. How many betrayals must it take? The Democrats are attacking teachers’ unions across the country on the state level with "education reforms" that disempower union seniority and create non-union charter schools. On the national level Obama's anti-union Race to the Top education reforms is a blatantly anti-union continuation of Bush's No Child Left Behind program.
Democratic governors across the country are passing "cuts only" budgets at the expense of labor unions and working people while refusing to raise taxes on the rich or close corporate loopholes. </div><div><br /></div><div>Some labor leaders refuse to mobilize their members against these attacks because union members were mobilized to campaign for these governors only months before! The same is true for President Obama, who received hundreds of millions of dollars from the unions for his election campaign and gave virtually nothing in return. Will Obama's new promises in 2012 fool labor leaders once again or will they engage in self-deception? Sadly, the nation’s largest teachers union, the NEA, has pledged to support Obama's next campaign. It is terribly demoralizing for union members to watch the candidate they endorsed attack their wages and benefits. The electoral strategy has failed -- miserably. Union resources can be used in a multitude of productive ways instead of funding their attackers’ electoral campaigns. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>5) Powerful slogans.</b> Union leaders cannot inspire their members to be active in boring campaigns or by using watered down demands. To win any campaign unions need to be able to mobilize their members and the community. This effort requires that unions re-learn how to agitate around important issues while proposing real solutions. The Great Recession is posing this question starkly before the labor movement: how will labor unions fight back against the powerful corporate offensive that was unleashed with the collapse of the economy? How will unions save their members’ benefits while creating jobs for the community at large, when the media claims "there is no money?” Again, no radical solutions are needed. National Nurses United has already come up with the solution: make Wall Street pay! Tax the rich and corporations!</div><div><br /></div><div>All the labor movement has to do is point to the historically high levels of income inequality and demand that the rich and corporations be taxed to pay for the recession that they caused. No other sector of society can afford to pay for this recession. Unions must point out that taxes on the rich have decreased dramatically over the past three decades, causing these massive deficits. A national campaign to tax the rich and corporations has the capacity to mobilize all working people so that the national and state budget deficits can be fixed -- without slashing Social Security and Medicare -- while a massive public works campaign can be started to create millions of jobs. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>6) Take back the streets.</b> None of the pressing social issues of most concern to working people can be addressed by politicians of the Democrat and Republican parties. We've entered a period where politics are being transferred to the streets, where politicians can only be influenced by the implied threat inherent in massive demonstrations, rallies, and mobilized communities. The power demonstrated in Wisconsin showed clearly the direction that labor unions need to go if they want to avoid extinction; the tactics of the last thirty years must be renounced and the strategies of the labor movement's birth must be reclaimed. The massive power that labor unions accumulated up through the 1940's by waging aggressive campaigns in the streets and workplaces was frittered away in consequent decades by union leaders content with making backroom deals with politicians. Labor can either be a friend or feared by the corporate elite, it can't be both.</div><div><br /></div><div>The initiative to implement these common sense proposals must come first and foremost from rank and file members, since they have suffered the most from the current failed strategy and tactics adopted by top union officials. The rank and file must put unrelenting pressure on the officials to change course and begin to put up a real fight in defense of the membership. If the officials do not respond, then the rank and file can exercise their democratic rights and take appropriate action.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Shamus Cooke</b> is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action (<a href="http://www.workerscompass.org/">www.workerscompass.org</a>). He can be reached at shamuscooke@gmail.com. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.</div><div><br /></div><div>Global Research <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=listByAuthor&authorFirst=Shamus&authorName=Cooke">articles</a> by Shamus Cooke</div><div>Global Research <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=home">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-82022734966496404752011-07-06T07:44:00.000-07:002011-07-06T07:58:29.503-07:00Rex Weyler: Deep Green: Why De-Growth?<div><i>Deep Green is Rex Weyler's monthly column, reflecting on the roots of activism, environmentalism, and Greenpeace's past, present, and future. The opinions here are his own.</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Deep Green: Why De-Growth? An interview</b></div><div>by Rex Weyler <a href="http://www.countercurrents.org/weyler050711.htm">article link</a> <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/deep-green-why-de-growth-an-interview/blog/35467/">article link</a></div><div>July 05, 2011 | Countercurrents | Greenpeace</div><div><br /></div><div>“GDP, the so-called measure of economic growth, does not separate costs from benefits.”</div><div>- Herman Daly, World Bank Economist, author of “Steady State Economics.”</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2008, economists and scientists met in Paris to discuss “Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity.” The Degrowth (Décroissance) movement grew from this economic revolution in France. In 2010, a similar conference convened in Barcelona. For the last two years I have helped organize the Degrowth Conference in Vancouver, Canada. Journalists and traditional economists have asked why a degrowth movement is necessary. Here are answers to their questions:</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Why focus on ending growth? Isn’t growth natural?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, growth is natural, but even in nature, growth is limited.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Degrowth movement addresses the growth of human consumption, driven by economic growth, population growth, and the impacts of resource extraction – oil spills, polluted rivers, atmospheric carbon. System feedbacks such as melting permafrost and methane releases, add to the impact. We can call aggregate human consumption and waste “throughput.”</div><div><br /></div><div>We now hear talk of “decoupling” economic growth from material and energy throughput, which would be desirable, but we must be realistic because we possess very few actual examples of such decoupling. Historically, economic growth leads to increased energy and materials throughput. For example, some people once claimed that computers would “save paper” but this did not happen. Human society today uses six-times more paper than we did in 1960. Computers accelerated economic growth, and although this yielded benefits to certain sectors of society, the growth required more consumption, ecological devastation, and social inequity.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>But don’t we want certain economic sectors to grow, like renewable energy and developing economies?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Yes. But to achieve ecological balance and social justice, we need to respect the limits nature places on material and energy throughput. A social transition can take place without total system growth, but even solar panels and windmills require materials and energy, rare-earth metals, copper, steel, silicon and so forth. We don’t mine copper or silicon with solar energy, we mine them with hydrocarbons.</div><div><br /></div><div>We need to appreciate the magnitude of the transitions we contemplate. Today, the rich 15-percent of Earth’s people consume about 85-percent of the resources. Meanwhile, our population grows and nations expect their economies to grow by 3-to-4-percent annually. Projecting these growth rates to 2050, a world of 9 billion people with social justice and better living standards, powered with renewable energy would require about 30-times more resources than we consume today. We would be fair and wise to ask: Is that possible?</div><div><br /></div><div>Furthermore, energy systems – windmills, solar arrays, dams – have fixed life-spans, so even if we built enough renewable energy to power a world of 9 billion people, that infrastructure would have to be built again, and again, forever, to be “sustainable.” In nature, desire does not equal capacity. We have to start with Earth’s capacity and design our cultural transition based on that capacity.</div><div><br /></div><div>Therefore, the key policy of any ecological energy plan must be conservation, the only solution that does not require material growth. Conservation has to start with wealthy nations. If rich consumers reduced energy consumption by half – possible since rich economies waste so much energy – then the rest of the world could double energy use, and we could still reduce total world energy use. But if we attempt to power the wasteful, consumer culture built on fossil fuel for 9-billion people, we encounter some inconvenient laws of physics, thermodynamics, and ecology.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>But can we not become more efficient through innovation?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, but we will need to question our assumptions. Historically, humans have made millions of industrial efficiency gains without reducing consumption. When society achieves efficiency with a resource, it becomes cheaper, so we tend to use more, not less. This phenomenon, documented by William Jevons during the coal era, is known in economics as the rebound effect. Efficiency could reduce consumption, but humanity has a poor track record of doing so. Historically, efficiency gains increased profits or reduced consumer costs, but do not save resources. We can change this but we should not be naive.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>But growth is a natural biological and evolutionary impulse.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, growth is not innately evil. However, growth is not innately “good,” and can become destructive even in nature. When our cells don’t stop growing, we have cancer; if our bodies don’t stop growing, that is obesity. Successful species grow until they overshoot their habitat capacity. Growth can become a liability.</div><div><br /></div><div>Throughout history, certain dominant societies grew until they depleted their habitats. A few learned to simplify, degrow, and endure. Modern advocates of degrowth are not against social diversity or innovation. The degrowth movement is simply cautioning society about the historic link between economic growth and ecosystem destruction. Wishful thinking won’t change this.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Diversity and complexity grow continuously. Does Nature really have a limit on growth?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>The word “growth” does not mean the same thing in different contexts. Non-material qualities – species diversity, innovation, or human ideas – can “grow,” but this is quite different from the growth of material things such as populations, cell phones, or power plants.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even non-physical qualities – beauty, love – require physical foundations with limits. Nature can produce five species of finches or fifty species but nature imposes limits on the total biomass of finches, or forests, humans, or human technical artefacts. Forests reach a limit that we call “maturity,” at which point the forest reaches dynamic homeostasis, roughly stable biomass with shifting diversity.</div><div><br /></div><div>Humans can create virtually unlimited musical styles, but only a limited number of maple cellos with ebony fingerboards. A biophysical supply chain makes “non-material” social innovation possible. Dreaming up innovations may require near-zero material throughput, but the practical application of those innovations requires energy and materials.</div><div><br /></div><div>The infrastructure of knowledge – education, books, Internet, conferences – that nurture an environment of ideas, requires throughput. For this reason, cultures that have dominated in technical innovation also dominated in resource consumption. The Internet may feel like “free” information but requires massive materials, energy, and waste sinks. Growth of difference (diversity) is not the same as growth of stuff. We’ll need to be precise about claims that economic growth can avoid throughput growth.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>But the biosphere has grown its energy and material throughput for billions of years with no sign of stopping.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>This needs to be qualified for two reasons: Growth rates and natural collapse events.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nature’s growth rates remain tiny compared to human economies. Nations typically attempt to grow their economies at 3-4-percent annually. Since about 1750, this equates to a doubling of human consumption every 20 years. On the other hand, over the last 500-million years, Earth’s biomass has doubled about every 50 million years, 2-million-times slower than human economic and consumption growth. Growth is natural, but not anywhere near the rate that bankers and neoclassical economists want economies to grow.</div><div><br /></div><div>Secondly, collapse appears frequently in the fossil record and in human history. Biological diversity reached capacity limits not only during the famous “five extinctions” but in thousands of minor extinctions. About 600-million-years-ago (mya), free oxygen allowed cells to extract more energy from the ecosystem, unleashing tremendous diversity growth. However, this growth reached habitat limits many times between 550mya and 200mya, as species diversity crashed, recovered, and crashed again. Growth does stop in nature, and reverses. The rate of <a href="http://www.eas.slu.edu/People/DJCrossley/uniquearth/week8/chapter7.htm">diversity growth peaked</a> during the Cambrian era, 550-500mya, and has not been equalled since. Diversity is not a one-way progression; it grows, stutters, collapses, and recovers based on environmental capacity and conditions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Today, human sprawl reduces Earth’s biological diversity. Humans occupy and impact habitats, replacing and obliterating species. If natural growth was unlimited, then these other species could survive human expansion, but human expansion fills and depletes ecosystems, exposing nature’s limits.</div><div><br /></div><div>Likewise, we witness cultural diversity growth and simultaneous cultural loss. Industrial growth has diminished cultural diversity as well as species diversity. Historical anthropologist Joseph Tainter has shown that when societies grow, they inevitably face problems related to habitat capacity. To solve these problems, they develop new technologies, but these solutions tend to create new problems (irrigation causes salinization, nuclear energy causes leukemia, and so forth.) Highly complex societies eventually experience “diminishing returns” on their innovations, which Tainter explains in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Complex-Societies-Studies-Archaeology/dp/052138673X">The Collapse of Complex Societies</a>. A few societies overcame this dilemma by simplifying their systems, but most overshot their habitat and collapsed. Growth is not a solution for societies in overshoot. Rather, solutions to overshoot involve reduced consumption, simplification, and a return to fundamental rules of ecology.</div><div><br /></div><div>Human social complexity has grown over the last 100,000 years, punctuated with collapses and ecosystem decline. Human success clearly incurs ecological and social costs. Economist Kenneth Boulding called these ecological and cultural losses the “metabolic costs” of growth. Donella Meadows, and others simply pointed out the “Limits to Growth.” Since human impact now threatens global ecosystem balance, we don’t know if human complexity will continue to grow.</div><div><br /></div><div>Degrowth advocates suggest that the best strategy to ensure maximum human diversity is to stabilize our consumption and expansion. Dynamic homeostasis, nature’s genuine sustainability, makes demands on growing things, and simplicity proves as important as complexity. The notion of degrowth is not intended to destroy human society, but to preserve it.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>If our growth economy recycles as nature does, are we not more sustainable?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, of course, but we need to understand nature’s costs and limits regarding recycling. Human economies should attempt to approach 100-percent recycling, but recycling itself requires energy and materials. In nature, recycling is a cost of life, not just a solutions. The laws of energy transformation teach us that there is no such thing as 100-percent recycling, even in nature, because of these throughput costs.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Attacking growth is counter-productive because people expect growth, and want to find hope.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>In the autumn, when leaves fall and the air turns cold, it is not “pessimism” to point out that winter is coming. If hope is delusional, it is futile.</div><div><br /></div><div>The degrowth movement does not “attack” growth, which has its appropriate place in nature. The degrowth movement simply exposes the pretence of celebrating the benefits of economic growth while ignoring the costs. Rich nations typically ignore the costs of growth by exporting those costs to poor nations and to nature: Sending city garbage to the country, dumping toxic waste at sea, exploiting workers to make products cheap, and devastating the landscape in resource mining. A large portion of China’s CO2 emissions, for example, are really European and American CO2 emissions, because those nations consume the products of that pollution.</div><div><br /></div><div>Naturally, people resist the idea of limits on their consumption. The instincts to grow were forged in natural evolution, but those instincts don’t make limits disappear. Even in non-human nature, instincts can become counter-productive. Aggression, for example, exists because it had survival value, but in certain contexts aggression becomes destructive. When the context changes, instincts can be harmful. Once a species reaches its habitat limits, the instincts to grow and expand become a liability.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Aren’t ecosystems destroyed just as thoroughly in poor nations as wealthy ones.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, but usually because those nations are plundered and exploited by the rich. Sheer numbers of inhabitants anywhere can deplete an environment, but wealthy-nation industrial expansion is the leading cause of global ecological destruction. Many cultures were sustainable for thousands of years, and could have endured many thousands more, until colonized by industrial nations, which took their resources, took slaves, waged war, practiced genocide, and so forth. In the industrial era, rich nations export destructive resource extraction, waste disposal, and social costs to the poor nations. Africa is not ecologically depleted and poor because Africans consumed too much stuff; it is depleted and poor because Europe and North America plundered it to fuel their economic growth. Now, China, Japan, and other industrialized nations have joined the plunder of poor nations and the global commons. Nature limits population growth, but for humanity, wealthy consumption and economic growth remain the primary causes of ecological destruction.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Rather than degrowth, should we not focus on preserving ecosystems?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>If our social, political, and economic planners actually understood ecosystems, we might avoid a lot of problems we face.</div><div><br /></div><div>But degrowth is not just a rallying cry or a trivial idea. Degrowth is an important, natural concept that our society needs to understand, whether we call it Degrowth, Limits to Growth, Costs of Complexity, Overshoot, Carrying Capacity, Metabolic Costs, Diminishing Returns on Innovation, Entropic Limits, “The Meek Shall inherit the Earth,” or “Richer lives, simpler means” as Arne Naess said.</div><div><br /></div><div>The problem for our society is not that these ideas are too complex or wrong, but that they are annoying and inconvenient for the wealthy and powerful. Everyone wants more. Millionaires want to be a billionaires. The more that individuals grab and horde, the less there is for everyone. On the other hand, as we learn to share and live modestly, our ecosystems can recover and provide us with nature’s bounty. The best way for poor nations to avoid deeper poverty is to protect their ecosystems from plunder.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Degrowth movement advocates richer, more rewarding lives with less material stuff. Our economic efforts should focus on providing basic needs to everyone in the human family, rather than enriching a few, while others starve. Beyond basic necessities, happiness does not come from consuming more stuff. Happiness comes from friends, family, community, creativity, leisure, love, companionship, and time spent in nature. These things can grow without much material throughput. These are the qualities of life we should be helping to grow.</div><div><br /></div><div>This may be the most important public dialogue of this century. And we better get this right, because humanity may not get many more chances.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Rex Weyler</b> was a director of the original Greenpeace Foundation, the editor of the organisation's first newsletter, and a co-founder of Greenpeace International in 1979. He was a photographer and reporter on the early Greenpeace whale and seal campaigns, and has written one of the best and most comprehensive histories of the organisation, Greenpeace (Raincoast, 2004). His book, Blood of the Land, a history of the American Indian Movement, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Deep Green is Rex's monthly column, reflecting on the roots of activism, environmentalism, and Greenpeace's past, present, and future.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Useful resources:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Degrowth Research: <a href="http://degrowth.net/Economic-Degrowth-for">Recherche & Décroissance</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Albert Bartlett on Exponential Growth: “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY">Arithmetic, Population, and Energy</a>” video lecture.</div><div><br /></div><div>William Catton, <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Overshoot-Ecological-Basis-Revolutionary-Change/dp/0252009886">Overshoot</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Donella Meadows, et. al., <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Limits-Growth-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/0451057678/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305664195&sr=1-2">Limits to Growth</a> (D. H. Meadows, D. L. Meadows, J. Randers, W. Behrens, 1972; New American Library, 1977).</div><div><br /></div><div>Herman Daly, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Steady-State-Economics-Second-New-Essays/dp/155963071X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305664097&sr=1-1">Steady-State Economics</a> (1977, 1991).</div><div><br /></div><div>Mark Anielski: <a href="http://www.genuinewealth.net/">Genuine Wealth</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lourdes Beneria, <a href="http://www.abebooks.com/Gender-Development-Globalization-Economics-People-Mattered/3048164520/bd">Gender, Development and Globalization</a>: Economics as if People Mattered.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kenneth Boulding, <a href="http://www.panarchy.org/boulding/spaceship.1966.html">The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth</a>, 1966.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ivan Illich, <a href="http://clevercycles.com/energy_and_equity/">Energy and Equity</a>, 1973, Le Monde also discusses the negative social and ecological impact of high-energy society.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Entropy-Law-Economic-Process/dp/1583486003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305675699&sr=8-1">The Entropy Law and the Economic Process</a>, (1971).</div><div><br /></div><div>T. Gutowski, et. al. (“<a href="http://web.mit.edu/2.810/www/lecture09/10-Gutowski.pdf">Thermodynamic Analysis of Resources Used in Manufacturing Processes</a>,”(PDF) Environ. Sci. Technol. 43(5) pp1584-1590, 2009).</div><div><br /></div><div>K. De Decker, (2009) “<a href="http://www.energybulletin.net/node/49730">The Monster Footprint of Digital Technology</a>” tracks the embodied energy and material resources of silicon based technology.</div><div><br /></div><div>Arne Naess, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ecology-Community-Lifestyle-Outline-Ecosophy/dp/0521348730/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product">Ecology, community and lifestyle</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Wendell Berry, <a href="http://www.hudson.org/files/documents/Berry_Solving_for_Pattern.pdf">Solving for Pattern, on appropriate solutions</a> (PDF).</div><div><br /></div><div>Countercurrents <a href="http://www.countercurrents.org/index.htm">home page</a></div><div>Greenpeace <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/">home page</a></div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-10019512738756980412011-07-05T08:29:00.001-07:002011-07-05T08:30:32.598-07:00Understand The Corporate Tools Used To Control Us<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPLLOP8zPuAUNgmGklhN6kjITuL1fWX9Xu5hyphenhyphenk3Vr9vfuuus_GxYMlXUZaJjLyg_RODAcNu6SiCukKqq2ZywMJ6CVKVtHWR8sMY3f4h62i1NI6HR1IwDcpvIMQafZhDteIjWfrdJviMig/s1600/MM_FRN1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 265px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPLLOP8zPuAUNgmGklhN6kjITuL1fWX9Xu5hyphenhyphenk3Vr9vfuuus_GxYMlXUZaJjLyg_RODAcNu6SiCukKqq2ZywMJ6CVKVtHWR8sMY3f4h62i1NI6HR1IwDcpvIMQafZhDteIjWfrdJviMig/s400/MM_FRN1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5625890998525677810" /></a>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-46344689770867529352011-07-05T08:25:00.000-07:002011-07-05T08:29:09.344-07:00... Neither Be Partaker Of Other Men's Sins<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIqOZYBXBv8kqHF2SaGa4D1OEpin9r3Zz5Ys8pgXdPsQu3NAtykvXi6oeECmTsnYS36822JEHB1gsuXjiwjWImtNOyplNd-yt_9u8m_6Kjv81CN1kExBsKAC9s-n8HAAe4TDm2hvzHHHo/s1600/MM_FRN2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 265px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIqOZYBXBv8kqHF2SaGa4D1OEpin9r3Zz5Ys8pgXdPsQu3NAtykvXi6oeECmTsnYS36822JEHB1gsuXjiwjWImtNOyplNd-yt_9u8m_6Kjv81CN1kExBsKAC9s-n8HAAe4TDm2hvzHHHo/s400/MM_FRN2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5625890498745454754" /></a>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587189543767591814.post-36367618690177467922011-07-04T08:56:00.000-07:002011-07-04T08:57:38.675-07:00Linda Wagner Schmoldt: 'We the People' or 'I the Person'?<div><b>'We the People' or 'I the Person'?</b></div><div>by Linda Wagner Schmoldt <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/04-3">article link</a></div><div>July 4, 2011 | CommonDreams</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a concerted effort these days by the powers that be to break down the structures that allow people to come together.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is no accident that we see the Supreme Court taking rights and power away from groups of citizens and workers while increasing the powers of the ruling class and corporations. On state and federal levels we see rulings that restrict the formation of unions, negate collective bargaining, and squelch class-action suits.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is harder and harder to hold public demonstrations and protests as codes, laws, and fees limit where, when and how we can gather. We have lost many of our common spaces--places where we can come together and speak truth to power. The rights of civic/social leaders and organizers are threatened with scrutiny and abuse. Exorbitant prison sentences and fines are imposed on those who gather to protest and/or do civil disobedience. The making of crowd control devices is a strong industry in the U.S. (and in our ally, Israel.) We are becoming a police state and the military is waiting in the wings.</div><div><br /></div><div>When the news covers demonstrations they always focus on the most radical looking people. They don’t show the old women and the families walking peacefully with their children. The media relishes any show of violence or aggression. The message is clear. These people are not like you. People like you don’t take to the street and protest. We are taught to fear the masses.</div><div><br /></div><div>And what shall we gather around? It becomes more and more difficult to sort out truth from lies, especially when the lies are echoed across the corporate-owned media and halls of power. Support for Wiki-leaks, or any other organization that exposes the truth behind what is really going on, is labeled as treason. There is a crack down on whistleblowers.</div><div><br /></div><div>Terrorist alerts and the nightly news, as a police blotter of all the crimes we need to fear, forces us to stay in our homes, to be suspicious of our neighbors and to be fearful of anyone who differs in skin tone, speech, culture or way of life. Report your neighbors; don’t talk to them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Whole groups of people get labeled as a threat to our security, whether it is gays who want to marry, immigrants who want to earn a fair wage for their labors, teachers and other public “servants” who want to claim the money set aside for their health care or retirement. Our enemies and those we can’t trust increase daily.</div><div><br /></div><div>We are taught that what are most important are our rights as individuals. Our god is free-enterprise, the unchecked, unregulated right to make as much as we like, even at the expense of our society and our earth. We see regulations as a threat to our individual rights to do business and make a profit.</div><div><br /></div><div>We are urged to think of ourselves first. If I am not old, why should I pay for those on Social Security or Medicare? If I don’t have children, why should I care about education? If I’m not gay, not an illegal immigrant, not unemployed, not losing my house, not confronting an unwanted pregnancy…</div><div><br /></div><div>And when crisis affects me, I will blame myself. I will think I am alone. I will think I have to solve my own problems. I certainly won’t blame a broken social system.</div><div><br /></div><div>Across the world there are huge demonstrations. The powers that be are threatened by masses of people in other countries who force their leaders to put the good of their society ahead of individual and corporate interests. Note the reaction to any resource industry being nationalized. In Venezuela we have spent millions to bring down the popularly-elected Hugo Chavez who has nationalized the oil production and channeled the profits to fund social programs. That’s one of the actions that Muammar Gaddafi was threatening to do as well.</div><div><br /></div><div>Countries or leaders that might want to put their people first are a threat. We constantly hear about the high taxes individuals pay in socialist countries. If we knew the truth we might start to compare how other countries empower their people by meeting their basic needs--that when the needs of the community are put ahead of individual rights, everyone benefits. We are told the myth that the U.S. is number one and do not see the abysmal ranking of our country on meeting social needs.</div><div><br /></div><div>To those who want to protect their greedy accumulation of wealth and power, We the people (anywhere) are a scary proposition. God forbid that we should come together and discover our commonality and our strength. We might demand education that teaches us to think. We might start to question. We might want transparency in government or demand truth in the media. We might demand justice and equity, a say over our daily lives.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is effective to keep us isolated. To use wedge issues to keep us divided. To make us think we aren’t connected to the rest of the world. To keep us suspicious and fearful. To keep us ignorant. To keep us focused on “I the person.”</div><div><br /></div><div>We, together, are obviously a huge threat, otherwise why is so much effort being expended to keep us apart? Some people this Fourth of July will celebrate their independence and the rights they have as individuals. A few will recognize our interdependence. They realize that we can’t do it alone, that we need community and that democracy is about We the People, not I the Person.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Linda Wagner Schmoldt</b> is a “wonderer, wanderer, writer and social agitator” who lives in Portland, Oregon. linda@schmoldt.us</div><div><br /></div><div>CommonDreams <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/">home page</a> </div>mammonmessiahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13503914934987423696noreply@blogger.com0