by Jim O’Reilly from his blog, Comments on Global Political Economy.
It is becoming clear that the contradictions inherent in capitalism are reaching a dead-end, and this reality is slowly becoming obvious to everyone.
This blogger, a retiree from a career in banking and finance, explains:
Infrastructure spending is the only prescription offered by the lords of the system. That it’s grossly inadequate to the scale of the problem is clear. Zuckerman says it will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, but just a few paragraphs earlier he documented that we have tens of millions suffering from inadequate employment and the condition is worsening. Further, he proposes that the infrastructure spending be financed by the workers themselves through tolls while providing his class of wealth “a minimum calculated rate of return”. The arrogance is staggering!
As the incessant growth--and only growth that creates profits for a few--required by this system comes up against environmental resource limits, climate instability, and environmental degradation, it is becoming imperative for the rest of us to fight for a change of systems. Contrary to what they would have you believe, there are alternatives.
by Peter Boyle from International Journal of Socialist Renewal.
The author provides some interesting details on Gaddafi's variable history with the oil-hungry West, and leads him to this conclusion:
What has led to this new Libyan revolution is the degeneration of the regime born of the 1969 revolution into a crony capitalism. The popular character of the new revolution is undeniable, it is far from clear what sort of regime will emerge out of it. The same greedy and powerful Western interests that first attacked and then propped up the Gaddafi regime are preparing for a change of tack, including considering direct military intervention.
See also this article entitled, "Libyan Opposition Leaders Slam U.S. Business Lobby’s Deals With Gaddafi".
Soon after U.S. President George W. Bush dropped sanctions against Libya in 2004, when Gaddafi announced that he intended to give up weapons of mass destruction and expressed his eagerness to join the war on terror, U.S. and British oil producers and business interests jumped at the chance to expand into the country, which has been ruled with an iron fist by the unstable leader for some 40 years.
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya from Voltaire.
The author raises some interesting questions about US and NATO's intentions regarding Libya, and furnishes some interesting material that suggest an affirmative answer to the title's question.
The flames of revolt are being fanned inside Libya. Chaos in the Arab World has been viewed as beneficial in many strategic circles in Washington, Tel Aviv, London, and NATO Headquarters. If Libya falls into a state of civil war or balkanizes this will benefit the U.S. and the E.U. in the long term and will have serious geo-political implications.
by James Corbett from Global Research TV.
Corbett reviews the real history of the Middle East and other areas of interest to global capitalists as counterpoint to false Empire propaganda and history. Likewise, he reveals the real use of the words "terrorist" and "terrorism" to hide the hegemonic activities of the global capitalists.
However, the latter is only one side of the double-sided sword of these words: the other side is the fear that they engender in an unwitting public in order to induce compliance with policies and activities that violate international laws, that promote war crimes against other countries, that create acceptance of domestic laws (Patriot Acts) which undermine civil rights and rights to privacy, and that justifies expenditures for weapons while sacrificing health, education, and welfare of citizens.
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US ruling class made exactly the same use of the words "communist" and "communism".
by Michael Hastings from Rolling Stone.
There is really nothing new here, it's just that such incidents are rarely reported in mainstream media when they are discovered. Actually I haven't seen this current report covered much in the latter.
They are an ongoing activity of the military-industrial complex to promote their interests and their Empire. Most Americans remain totally unaware of this practice. It can't be emphasized enough that US political operatives not only engage in subversion of foreign countries, they also focus a lot of attention to subverting the US government and many other institutions to serve their interests.
If you wish to know more about this practice, I urge you to read The Secret Team by retired Col. L. Fletcher Prouty who was a liaison officer between the Pentagon and the CIA between 1955 and 1963. Also, read The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America by Hugh Wilford.
by Azad Essa from Al Jazeera.
Citing the absence of media coverage for the rest of Africa, the writer makes us aware that much of Africa is seething with discontent much like we've seen in North Africa and the Middle East. Citizens in the rest of Africa are definitely aware of the events to the north and they suffer much the same hardships under similar regimes.
...globalisation and the accompanying economic liberalisation has created circumstances in which the people of the global South share very similar experiences: "Increasing pauperisation, growing unemployment, declining power to hold their governments to account, declining income from agricultural production, increasing accumulation by dispossession - something that is growing on a vast scale - and increasing willingness of governments to comply with the political and economic wishes of the North.
by Eric Walberg from Global Research.
Rarely have I seen so much accurate realpolitik in one article as I see here regarding Israel and the Middle East. Almost all of the important players and strategies are presented: Zionist influence in the US government (Perle and Kissinger), the domination of the Middle East using divide and conquer strategies which explain so much of recent history, and the use of threats and aid packages against Arab countries to induce compliance with US-Israeli policies.
I am not sure about his optimistic forecasts for the region. The denouement of the current uprisings against autocratic regimes in this area that have served the Empire's interests is no where near completion. All one can say at this point is that the Middle East will not remain the same as it was.
by Carmelo Ruiz Marrero from Americas Program.
More people in South America are critically looking at the new, "progressive" regimes in that continent and find many similarities with previous neo-liberal governments.
“Political and social transformation is an unavoidable condition for the democratic planning of the exploitation of natural goods and the care of the environment,” advises Sabbatella. “That also requires a cultural transformation that stimulates an ever more participatory democracy. Finally, even with good intentions, the transition towards an ecological society is no more than an utopia if the foundations of capitalist production and reproduction are not questioned and altered.”
by John Reimann from IWW.
While less than 10% of the private sector work force is organized in unions in the United States, these unions still represent a potentially massive force in US society, capable of mobilizing millions of workers and youth. This is in the process of being proven in Wisconsin, where the class struggle has broken out into the open.
But workers must not count on co-opted union leadership to protect them.
Audio and script created by Ian Murphy of The Beast via Mother Jones. (I am posting this on Mother Jones' site because the Beast site was down last night.)
Nobody is denying the authenticity of this "pwn" or prank call. In case you missed it on MSNBC, it is a must-listen-to prank pulled on Governor Walker of Wisconsin. In a telephone call Murphy posed as David Koch of right-wing fame who is widely believed to be pulling the strings of Walker the puppet. It is very revealing of the fascist type of thinking that passes for right-wing politics in the US.
(Note: You will need to scroll down the article to listen to the audio.)
The coverage by MSNBC of events in Wisconsin has been excellent and very supportive of the protesters and labor. However, be aware that the coverage is always framed in terms of Democratic versus Republican politics. This is to preserve the myth of political choice in the US. The fact is that both parties serve basically the same masters of the capitalist ruling class. The Republicans are tending toward fascism, but they are really more honest than Democrats who pose as champions of the workers and want to hide the real class war that both are always waging against working people.
from Climate Progress.
Countless studies make clear that global warming will release vast quantities of GHGs into the atmosphere this decade. Yet, no climate model currently incorporates the amplifying feedback from methane released by a defrosting tundra.
Now we find that this threat is worse than previously thought. A major new study by NOAA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) concludes that previous studies have underestimated the release of methane from the permafrost.
But, no matter. Nothing will deter the ruling classes from wasteful, destructive production and consumption in their mad pursuit of profits. Profits are to capitalists as heroin is to an addict. Heroin addicts often go to their deaths to feed their habit. I wouldn't mind if they, the capitalists perished in pursuit of their addiction, but the problem is that we working people share the same planet with them.
by Gustav Wynn from OpEd News.
Always, belatedly, we learn how the government (US) of the ruling class lied to us; and it is always carefully confined to a few mainstream outlets, and long after anyone can do anything about it.
When I was attending a university in the 1960s, I became acquainted with an Indian Sikh student who told me one day that he thought that Americans were the most naive people on earth. Well, I thought about that, didn't believe or disbelieve this observation, and filed it away in my mind. Over the many decades since then I have frequently pulled this memory out and looked at it to see how astoundingly correct he was.
In the 1950s I served in the Army and became acquainted with a fellow soldier who had grown up in Cuba and I heard from him the many tales of corruption of the Cuban government and the US support of that government. After leaving service I followed in alternative news sources the subsequent events in Cuba following their revolution in 1959. I contrasted what I knew with the outrageous lies I was getting from US mainstream media.
I participated in the Civil Rights Movement and witnessed the distorted coverage and lack of coverage in mainstream media about what was actually happening. I witnessed the Kennedy assassination and saw the cover-ups, the contrived tales to make the official reports fit a lone assassin theory, the many mysterious deaths of people who had been connected with the assassination, etc. This same experience occurred over and over again through the Vietnam War, the assassination of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, and the many US-CIA engineered events in Third World countries to overturn governments, occasionally outright invasions of these countries. And on and on up to the current war in Afghanistan (see this for a list of such events), with the real events always covered up and replaced with justifying lies from mainstream media. Frankly, I believe, along with a number of engineers and architects, that the 9/11 tragedy has been part of this same pattern of cover-up and lies. And most Americans always believe these lies! What has further astounded me is that I have had absolutely no influence even on close friends and relatives about questioning the official versions of these events.
There were times when I thought I was living in an open ward of a huge institution for the insane. I have always wondered how long this would go on, how many times could people be lied to, how bad things would have to become for ordinary working people before they would wake up! I am now beginning to see some signs that give me hope. As the mythology of the American dream turns increasingly into the nightmare of current realities, it appears to me that my fellow Americans will wake up, and wake up with quite a jolt. When they do, look out!
by Jim O’Reilly from his blog, Comments on Global Political Economy.
Even someone who retired from a career in banking and finance, like this astute blogger, can see this simple, but widely obscured, truth:
Unions were a great threat to business power in the early 20th century but the sad fact is they’ve been co-opted. Since the end of World War II, unions have consistently acted to put down worker militancy and thereby assure the smooth operation of a capitalist system which puts near complete power in the hands of business. It’s a serious mistake to think of unions as an institutional counterweight to oligarchy.
by Glen Ford from Black Agenda Report.
A society built on racist lies and outright nonsense will believe anything. Therefore, it is no wonder that Republicans have achieved such “wondrous success by planting the words ‘We’re broke’ in the mouths of men and women who are transparently rich, and who in turn serve the interests of the super-rich.” Unfortunately, President Obama and other Democrats worship the same idols as Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
by Kanya D'Almeida from IPS.
This journalist examines labor protests and Gov. Walker's actions in Wisconsin and discovers a class war.
Seen through this broader lens of Walker's political allegiances, the events in Wisconsin take on a different light.
As political columnist Sally Kohn points out, the crisis in Wisconsin "isn't about budget deficits or government spending or even public employee benefits. It's class war, wherein the big business, conservative Right tries to pit working class Americans against one another so that the super-rich can continue to pilfer our private and public coffers for their own boundless gain."
from Reuters.
The Greeks are once again engaging in a 24 hour general strike in their class war:
Greek police clashed with protesters Wednesday as around 100,000 workers, pensioners and students marched to parliament to protest austerity policies aimed at helping Greece cope with a huge debt crisis.
by Richard Wolff from the Guardian.
Nothing better shows corporate control over the government than Washington's basic response to the current economic crisis. First, we had "the rescue", then "the recovery". Trillions in public money flowed to the biggest US banks, insurance companies, etc. That "bailed" them out (is it just me or is there a suggestion of criminality in that phrase?), while we waited for benefits to "trickle down" to the rest of us.
Of course, the real reason is much more fundamental than tax avoidance by the corporations and the rich. This is an effect, not a cause. But, of course, this liberal media outlet, and anyone that works for them, can't go that far.
The twin pillars of capitalism, the right to "own" economic enterprises and the sanctity of contracts, have created a small class of people whose material interests are fundamentally opposed to the majority. The private "ownership" of socially produced wealth by individuals has allowed the latter to appropriate ever greater portions of this wealth. The growing concentration of ownership that has naturally occurred over the capitalist period has created a class of people who have at their disposal tremendous powers of influence and instruments of coercion. During this period this has resulted in the rich becoming ever richer and the poor ever poorer. This fundamental social contradiction is now being played out in the horrific insurrections in North Africa and the Middle East, and we will be seeing this class war here in the US. The protests in Madison, Wisconsin are only the beginning.
by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times Online.
With the information that Escobar has dug up, the situation in Bahrain looks very much the same as the situation in Libya and elsewhere in that region--a conflict between wealthy autocrats backed mostly by elements serving the US Empire. Libya's Gaddafi is a little different in that he, after confessing his sins and pledging support for the war against al-Qai'da, has been tolerated by the Empire's political operatives. Thus, US mainstream media's treatment of the uprisings in these two countries has been very different.
Mainstream media's conditioning by so many years of Gaddafi being on the Empire's shit list has made it easy for them to portray him as an evil ogre who uses mercenaries to fire on Libyans, while framing the uprising in Bahrain, a key component of the Empire, as simply a dispute between Shi'ites and Sunnis, and omitting any reports of Bahrain's rulers using mercenaries to attack and kill their citizens.
The king of Bahrain, Hamad al-Khalifa, has blood on his hands after his mercenary security forces - Pakistani, Indian, Syrian and Jordanian - with no previous warning, attacked sleeping, peaceful protesters at 3 am on Thursday at the Pearl roundabout, the tiny Gulf country's version of Cairo's Tahrir Square.
In the brutal crackdown, at least five people have been killed - including a young child - and 2,000 injured, some by gunshots, two of these in critical condition. Riot police targeted doctors and medics and prevented ambulances and blood donors from reaching the Pearl roundabout. A doctor at Salmaniya hospital told al-Jazeera there was a refrigerated truck outside the hospital, which he fears the army has used to remove more dead bodies.
by Chris Floyd from Empire Burlesque.
Tens of thousands of ordinary people pour into the streets in a desperate bid to stop yet another vicious assault on their human rights -- and their human dignity -- by an utterly corrupt political system run by callous, greedy elites. The factotums of the system -- the same kind of third-rate lackeys and shriveled-up souls found in the goon squads of governments since time immemorial -- mewl and bawl at the rabble's effrontery: how dare they challenge their "legitimate" rulers!
by Yves Smith from Naked Capitalism.
It looks like the One Percent, lead by their latest attack dog, Gov. Walker of Wisconsin, plan to sell off public assets--no doubt, at bargain prices. It looks like the class war is heating up. Are you prepared to wage battle?
The problem, of course, is that these deals put important public resources paid for by taxes (or even worse, financed by bonds and thus potentially not even yet fully paid for) in the hands of private investors. They then earn their returns by charging user fees of various sorts. The public must rely on the new owners for reinvestment and maintenance, and depending on how the deal is negotiated, may have ceded control as far as fee increases are concerned. This is tantamount to selling the family china only to have to rent it back in order to eat dinner.
by John Feffer from Foreign Policy in Focus.
The author has an interesting idea that could possibly diminish the gaps between the brainwashed right, the naive left, and real change activists in the US.
It would be very easy for American politics to devolve into a clash of leftist rage versus rightist rage. But let's consider another scenario. One message can unite many of the people attracted to the populist anger of the right and left.
from PR Watch.
The One Percent are attempting, and in many cases succeeding, in taking over major institutions in our fake democracy. It seems that the great unwashed can't be trusted and must defer to their betters who are the richest, the winners in the capitalist game, and by capitalist definition, the best. Well, maybe they are right. Let us look at the evidence that this article reports.
Every day, dozens of reporters and bloggers cover the Big Three's reform campaign [the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation], but critical in-depth investigations have been scarce (for reasons I'll explain further on). Meanwhile, evidence is mounting that the reforms are not working.
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya from Global Research.
The revolution in Egypt and other counties awaits its denouement.
If the Arab protesters are to make far-reaching changes they must persist with their demands and not back down. Nor can they ignore the role that foreign policy and economic factors play in their states. This is essential in order for genuine changes/revolutions to take place and not bogus shows of democracy. The current transitional government in Tunis and the Egyptian military junta are continuations of the old regimes. They will either try to maintain power or wait until a “controlled opposition” takes power and “managed democracies” are established in Tunisia and Egypt.
All is not doom and gloom. The U.S. government and the Egyptian junta are not omnipotent powers either. They have limited strength. Nor can they control the lower ranks of the Egyptian military. Washington and the Egyptian generals have been worried about defection amongst the ranks of the junior officers and the non-commissioned members of the military.
A new reality is setting in. A new Middle East is coming, but it will be one that no one expects. Creative destruction and political manipulation can only go so far. What is certain is that the new Middle East will not be the one that Condoleezza Rice and Ehud Olmert bragged about when Israel was bombarding Lebanon in 2006. The U.S. establishment will eventually realize that humans cannot control chaos.
by zeynep from Technosociology.
I found this article challenging, but so right on the crucial questions about constructing alternative political structures. The writer is an academic who uses some very specialized concepts, but uses them in an attempt to shed light on the crucial questions for our time. The questions, of course, have immediate relevance for the evolving social-political situation in Egypt.
...few revolutions remain leaderless—which is exactly why it is very important to understand that the diffused nature of this revolution is hardly an inoculation against the emergence of this dynamic [the tendency for non-hierarchical structures to evolve into hierarchical ones]; in fact, it might even contain the seeds of extreme hierarchy.
I think it is imperative for the human race and its survival that this species must quickly learn how to construct inclusive democratic systems of governance. We have lost a valuable insight since we left the small hunting and gathering societies: our survival depends on the contributions of everyone and upon our natural setting, the planet, for our survival. We must show respect to all human beings and live in harmony with the environment if we are not to self-destruct through wars, famine, climate change, and resource exhaustion.
The main barrier, as I see it, is all the cultural baggage we've inherited since the beginning of the agrarian era that bestowed to us hierarchical systems to organize our societies. It has now become almost second nature for us to move toward such systems.
by Jesse D. Palmer from Slingshot Collective (Berkeley, CA).
This organization doesn't mince words!
We can demand a different way. A system that keeps you busy doing meaningless jobs you hate to more quickly undermine the planet's ability to support life and make a tiny number of people rich and powerful so they are unaccountable to everyone else is a crazy system. It isn't the type of system you want to see recover -- it is the type of system you want to go out into the streets to overturn. Many millions of people who see through the confusion will be out on the streets in 2011. Will any of them be in the US? Will you be there? What can we do to be part of the future, and not the past?
from Twin Cities Indymedia.
I've noticed in mainstream news coverage that whenever a labor leader is allowed to express their views, which is rare, that they are currently being allowed to say that they only want the right to bargain, nothing more. Well, I had a hard time believing that the workers of Wisconsin want only that. This article reveals, once again, how the labor hierarchy are either out of touch with working people, or more likely in touch with the ruling capitalist class.
A treacherous coalition of the trade Union bureaucracy and their allies in the Democratic Party are working overtime to ensure the movement dissipates and that the goal of the movement is limited to one demand and one demand only; "Don't eliminate collective bargaining rights." What's the gain for the member's if we have the right to bargain when all they're talking about is giving away our rights and benefits? There's nothing in it for us except demoralization and defeat. The Union heads on the other hand have no purpose in society if they can't sit down with the boss.
(For great internet coverage of the scene in Wisconsin, I recommend you go to this site that is based in Madison.)
by David Walsh from World Socialist Web Site.
The editors of Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal have therefore felt it necessary to come to the defense of the dictatorships propped up by Washington. In an editorial February 16 (“Egypt and Iran”), the Journal uses the occasion of police repression by the Iranian regime to make the case for US-backed dictators.
The WSJ argues that "...pro-American dictatorships have more moral scruples."
I've read elsewhere (can't remember where) some observations by people on the ground in Egypt that the Egyptian Generals didn't trust their army to fire on the people, and feared that the guns might be turned on them.
by Michael Barker from Pulse.
You can sure that the US is vigorously working behind the scenes to move power into the hands of Empire approved "democratic reformers".
The ongoing insurrection in Egypt is fantastic, but the barriers standing between the people and any substantive form of democracy are formidable and will need to be overcome in the near future. As one might expect there are plenty of ‘reformers’ waiting amongst the counter-revolutionaries to undermine any forthcoming revolution, ready and willing to proudly take on the mantle of power in the name of the democracy.
Read this to learn what happened in the Philippines in 1986.
from Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.
I think the author of this piece is on to something. His/her argument is that the current attacks on PBS and NPR (public TV and radio in the US) are a ploy to move their content ever further to the right. Read this, this, and this.
by Gail the Actuary from The Oil Drum.
The author provides substantial evidence to support her thesis. She barely touches on the issue of the pollution of ground water due to shale fracking, but it appears to becoming a significant health issue. See this, this, and this.
by William T. Hathaway from Redress.
The author of a new book reports on new tactics being used by some radical activists.
...peace activists have turned to radical tactics. They've moved beyond demonstrations and petitions into direct action, defying the government's laws and impeding its capacity for mass murder. Some of them have become domestic insurgents, helping soldiers to desert, destroying computer systems, trashing recruiting offices, burning military equipment and sabotaging defence contractors. As criminals for peace, they are defying the Patriot Act and working underground in secret cells to undermine the US military empire. They are convinced the only way to bring peace now is to bring the system down.
by Robert Reich from TPM Cafe.
Reich outlines the old divide and conquer strategy currently be used against working people in the US. This is useful information, but mixed in with it is the old liberal nonsense about Republicans and Democrats.
Lately, I've been seeing the same framing of the issues on the liberal TV station, MSNBC. This is a major tactic used by the ruling class to create the illusion of political choice in the US. It is complete nonsense. However, as long as working people continue to be fooled by it, they will suffer the consequences.
For a clearer understanding of the role of the Democratic Party, read a review of Lance Selfa’s The Democrats: A Critical History. Then read the book.
by Eva Golinger from Venezuelanalysis.
Although she focuses on US tax money to fund the destabilization of her native country, Venezuela, the same observations about funding also applies to many other nations of the world where the US (read "US ruling class") has interests. Such funding has resulted in so many repressive autocratic regimes like the ones in North Africa and the Middle East that their citizens are fighting against.
Included in the whopping $3.7 trillion request is over $670 billion for the Pentagon's ever-increasing annual budget, nearly $75 billion for the intelligence community and $55.7 billion for the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The funds that go to the CIA, USAID, and a considerable portion of the Pentagon's budget is for the sole purpose of promoting, and safeguarding the profits of global capitalists. The reason that the US runs such huge deficits is because the US ruling class refuses to tax itself to pay for these expenses; instead they make the US government, which they essentially own, borrow the money from the Fed, which they own, and whoever else that will buy US Treasury paper--China, Japan, etc.
Thus, taxes have to be bled disproportionately from working people.
With the economy in shambles, mostly because of the reckless gambling of banksters and other capitalists, many working people are now unemployed and therefore tax revenues are reduced. The solution that the ruling class wants is to slash all public spending that goes to working people. It is now open class warfare, only most working people outside of Wisconsin still don't see it.
by Gabriel Donohoe from OpEd News.
Great title! Although the bill hasn't the slightest chance of survival, the very idea will be a shock to banksters. I'm curious to see how much Ron Paul and other libertarians support the bill.
Kucinich's Bill, if enacted as written, would take the power of money creation away from the banksters and return it to Congress as the Founding Fathers had originally intended. And in no time, the National Debt would be fully paid off with debt-free, interest-free U.S. Treasury dollars.
Forget about the usual reverence paid to the "Founding Fathers". The latter just hadn't thought up the idea of the Fed at that point in time. They did create a central bank called the Bank of North America by pooling the huge war profits they, and the merchant class, had made off the Revolutionary War, added some foreign loans, and finally, some US Treasury money that they took to supply sufficient funds for their bank. They then made loans to the US Treasury.
