The Missing Howls of Denunciation Over Major Sex Trafficking

Click here to access article by Michael Brenner from Consortium News.

Brenner is confused by the differential treatment in the Epstein affair, and has no answer for his own questions: 

Why have the howls of outrage not echoed through the media? Why has the trumpet’s call to action been silent?  Why haven’t the halls of Congress resounded with denunciation and the demands for justice.[?]

Well, let me offer a answer. Those of you who have been following my blog already know the answer, so my answer will be for all the others. 

My answer will provide a key answer to most of the world's problems, and the Epstein story, and the way it is being handled, will provide an excellent illustration of the primacy of social-economic class.

The factor of social-economic class determines so much of our existence, and accounts for so many problems we are faced with. That is precisely why ordinary people, after grasping the real nature of their problems, have gone on to organize revolutions against their ruling classes. And, this is the fundamental reason why academics, promoted by the ruling class, have frequently aided in the suppression of this factor.

The French Revolution and the Russian Revolution are prime examples. Both were ultimately contaminated within and destroyed from without. In the former case, the revolution was directed against the aristocracy and monarchy. The French Revolution contained the embryonic capitalist class of people who, with their superior education and skills, eventually dominated the revolution and took control of it. This class were also aided by Germany, who invaded France during the Revolution. In the case of the Russian Revolution, the new socialist revolutionaries were hampered by the necessity of relying upon educated/trained people, who had largely aristocratic and bourgeois class affiliations, in government positions. But a major factor in the ultimate deterioration of their Revolution was the constant opposition by the existing capitalist nations, including military invasions. This resulted in a deformed ruling class of bureaucrats, and eventually led to the collapse of the socialist experiment in the Soviet Union. To sum up, history during the past roughly 10,000 years has been overwhelmingly determined by class struggles. This view is the contribution of Marxists whose teachings have been thoroughly suppressed contemporary capitalist societies for obvious reasons.  

This Epstein event furnishes us with a prime example of this phenomenon. Benner's exposes the startling inconsistency of treatment in this crime which involved members of the ruling class. The legitimate issue of inequality regarding certain segments (women, gender identity, etc.) of contemporary societies have been used by the ruling capitalist class primarily as distractions from the recent gross crimes committed by the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. Because Epstein served the ruling class by furnishing them with overt and virtual sex slaves, such crimes have been ignored in past; and if they succeed with the Epstein event, they will quash any substantive punishment for those members of the ruling class who participated in these crimes. 

Corporate welfare

Click here if you wish to access the cartoon by Max Gustafson directly from his website. 

Capitalism = homelessness

Click here to access article by Stephen Millies from Workers World. 

The author reviews much of the housing history of the US, including attempts to fund public housing, to illustrate how even a fundamental need such as housing cannot be met in a socially just way by an economy governed by capitalist principles simply because under capitalism profits always take precedence over vital social needs.

Blankenship the imprisoned convict

Click here to access article by economist David Ruccio from his blog Occasional Links & Commentary.

This post provides another illustration of how the justice system handles capitalist's crimes different from worker's crimes. When capitalist Blankenship committed 29 murders while in pursuit of profits, he is convicted of a misdemeanor. When a worker commits a murder while trying to gain money to feed his family, he is frequently sentenced to death.

Water War Against the Poor: Flint and the Crimes of Capital

Click here to access article by Mumia Abu-Jamal from CounterPunch.

In a capitalist society, only capital matters. It’s all about the Benjamins – bucks over bodies. Profit. Period.

In Michigan’s prisons, there ain’t a single prisoner who committed a more vicious crime than the Governor of that state.

Their crimes, no matter what, were retail. The government, for a few bucks, committed crimes against thousands –wholesale.

But these are crimes of the powerful.

They don’t count.

These are crimes of capitalism.

Inequality of opportunity (3 graphs)

Click here to access article by David Ruccio from Real-World Economics Review Blog.

By posting these three graphs, Ruccio, and economist, illustrates how class advantage distorts economic opportunities for working people under capitalism.

It’s impossible to defend the grotesque—and growing—levels of inequality that characterize U.S. capitalism.

But, as they have throughout American history, some people still try. Their most common argument is that there’s nothing wrong with unequal outcomes as long as there is equal opportunity.

Hmmm, not so much.

Policing and Profit

Click here to access article from the Harvard Law Review. (Note: I was alerted to this article by a reader of the Real-World Economics Review Blog and posted on the latter blog. I am posting the article from the original source as a matter of policy, because it is free of errors, and contains very valuable references which the secondary posting lacks. Because the article is unsigned, the "About" section of this leading scholarly law journal indicates that it was written by a member-student or students who consist of 2nd and 3rd year law students at Harvard.) 

I was rather shocked by the extent of privatization of the legal system and the gross injustice and exploitation that poor citizens experience who become entangled in it. My second reaction was my astonishment that no one in alternative media had alerted us (as far as I know) to this kind of material last year, and my third reaction was astonishment that the ruling class are fully aware of their system of injustice for poor and minority people: much more so by coverage like this that targets the elite than ordinary citizens who have not had such experience with the judicial system.

When residents of Ferguson, Missouri, took to the streets last August to protest the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager killed by a white police officer, the events dramatically exposed an image of modern policing that most Americans rarely see: columns of police pointing military weaponry at peaceful protesters. But the ongoing tension between residents and police in Ferguson was also indicative of another, less visual development in how the police are used to oppress impoverished communities: using law enforcement to extract revenue from the poor.

Also, on the same subject, view this chart and read the brief explanation in a posting entitled "Charged with Immigration Offense" that shows how many private companies profit from the detention of immigrants to the US.

Matt Taibbi on Democracy Now: Banks Admit to Crimes, Pay $5 Billion, And Still No One Goes to Jail

Click here to access article by Yves Smith from Naked Capitalism.

As we learn of another white cop shooting unarmed African-Americans suspected of shoplifting some cartons of beer, we also learn about another example of banksters robbing the entire economy with impunity. The banks merely pay fines which do not appear to function as a deterrent to discourage further bankster crimes. Many keen observers see this as very similar to a mafia style "protection racket": banks pay the fines and their banksters go free to commit more crimes. The banks' reactions? Oh, but it's just a case of a few bad apples.

The article exposes the lies of former Attorney General Eric Holder, one of the ruling class's favorite "house niggers", who promised with great fanfare in February that his Dept. of Justice would be prosecuting banksters for their crimes.

Capitalism, the working class and the fight against police violence

Click here to access article by David Walsh from World Socialist Web Site.

...the fundamental division in Baltimore—as in American society as a whole—is class, not race. Like many urban centers, Baltimore is run by a predominantly black political elite, including the mayor, the city council president, the police chief, the top prosecutor and many others. Half of the police force is black as well.

Our ruling masters like to divide Americans on racial lines, however this is only to obscure the class lines and class war waged by the ruling capitalists along with their middle-class servants, against the rest of the population. But then in the 1950s and '60s the Civil Rights Movement happened to ameliorate the worst forms of racism, and it wasn't fashionable anymore to be a racist. So, then our masters came up with another deception to hide their racist divide and rule operation. They trained, rewarded, and generally co-opted a small layer of African-Americans like Obama who were willing to sell their souls to the master-owners of society much like they did with African slave traders who sold their fellow Africans into Anglo-American slavery.

To facilitate the war on the working class, the ruling class worked deliberately to integrate a small minority of the African-American middle class into the mechanisms of state power, including through policies such as affirmative action. Meanwhile, conditions for the vast majority of African-American workers and youth are worse today than they were in the 1960s.

Obama himself represents the culmination of this process.

This reminds me of the saying often attributed to Mark Twain: “History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” The current way which our masters use this thin layer of African-Americans is much like what existed in the early days of slavery in our country. Malcolm X gave a very vivid description of this history.

There was two kind of slaves. There was the house negro and the field negro. The house negro, they lived in the house, with master. They dressed pretty good. They ate good, cause they ate his food, what he left. They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near their master, and they loved their master, more than their master loved himself.

The point is: all Americans in the shrinking middle class are essentially "house niggers", but African-Americans suffer racism most dramatically at the hands of police; but milder, hidden forms of racism are still prevalent throughout all institutions which adversely impact the economic opportunities for African-Americans the most.

Income Inequality Costs The Middle Class $18,000 A Year

Click here to access article by Bryce Covert from ThinkProgress. 

This article provides jargon-free analysis and charts to reveal the increasing class income differences from roughly 1980 till now between high income earners and the rest of us. 

It must be understood that there are essentially two types of people in a capitalist society from an economic point of view: those who "own" capital (factories, machinery, equipment, patents, intellectual property, etc--essentially anything that is regarded as having monetary value) and are referred to as "capitalists" and those whose work creates capital but without "ownership" or control over it--workers. Capitalists live off of their "ownership" of things: dividends, interest, capital gains, etc; while workers receive income from the work they perform for the owners (capitalists). The analysis in this article focuses only on income earners or workers.  

It should also be understood that workers are also divided: the closer that workers are to capitalists the more privileges they enjoy and are usually paid with salaries for their work whereas lower income people are paid wages based on the time (hours) they perform work. Thus, those with the highest incomes are people who work directly for capitalists as managers, top accountants, and highly skilled technical people.

Supremacy: A Social Order of Division, Control and Enslavement

Click here to access article by Kali Ma from The Hampton Institute. (Commentary that follows was modified slightly at 8 AM 8/22/2013.

Overall I think that this is an excellent contribution to understanding how the capitalist system can so easily control their populations through the method of divide and control. However, I think it has some weaknesses which can lead one into the favorite liberal critique of society--that of identity politics. This view tries to emphasize that we are all entitled to respect regardless of our "place" in the social class structure of such societies. Thus, such a political critique emphasizes political action toward eliminating inter-group rivalries and invidious distinctions that such rivalries naturally promote. Such emphasis diverts attention away from the system itself and the necessity to change the system--not merely hierarchy which is an effect, not a cause.

...the goal is to completely abolish hierarchy, which only the people can do.

I do not believe that it helps to dignify the work that many wage slaves must perform in order to survive. 

This is how hierarchy works - someone has to rank at the bottom in order for those on top to be recognized as the "winners." Without such ranking, everyone would be equal. Moreover, society absolutely depends on workers to clean, maintain, repair and service various sectors of society, including private property and public commons. These individuals provide an extremely valuable service that allows society to function yet the system gives them no credit and, in fact, looks down on them and blames them for being in that position. Just imagine a society without sanitation workers to haul off your waste and keep the streets clean, or maintenance workers to keep your buildings running and the AC flowing when it's 100 degrees outside, or grocery clerks who stock your food and water so you can conveniently pick it up and feed your family. Without them, doctors, lawyers, engineers and other members of the professional class could not go about their business. But society has little respect for these individuals who are often paid minimum wage with no benefits; yet they are the very people who make society function. 

Such efforts are very misleading. The work that many people have to do is of course necessary to the functioning of society, but the low pay they receive limits the opportunities they and their families have in order to participate in society in meaningful ways outside of their work hours. Such limitations are the direct actions of the capitalist system and directly contributes to worker low self-esteem. Here I am thinking mostly about low wage worker opportunities in education and lack of participation in decision making, not only in their work places, but also in society as citizens. In other words, low-paid, low-skilled work is intrinsically demeaning, and we should acknowledge that and not pretend otherwise. That doesn't mean, of course, that we should treat such workers with contempt, but rather with sympathy and understanding, and as comrades.

These limitations are an inherent part of any class-structured society, and extremely evident in our present capitalist society. Hierarchy must be studied as a method of controlling populations in order to provide lavish benefits to a ruling class while exploiting the vast majority, and not simply as producing bitter rivalries and invidious attitudes among competing worker groups. And, it is only one method among many: chief of which includes agencies of indoctrination throughout society.

Why You're in Deep Trouble If You Can't Afford a Lawyer

Click here to access article by Hannah Levintova, Jaeah Lee, and Brett Brownell from Mother Jones. 

Back in 1963 at the height of liberal (in the American political sense) influence the One Percent's Supreme Court was a bit embarrassed by the obvious fact that civil rights, like everything else, were essentially for sale under capitalist rule in the US. So our ruling class set about establishing a cover for this embarrassment with the provision of a "public defender". 

The article exposes what lies below this fig leaf: the obscenity of class based justice. Predictably, the editors of this liberal publication frame the issue as one that can be solved within the system. Thus, you can ignore their naive solutions, instead focus on the reality of injustice under the public defender arrangement.

Morgan Stanley Sued for Racial Discrimination in Pushing Predatory Loans to Black Homeowners

Click here to access article from American Civil Liberties Union.

Morgan Stanley discriminated against black homeowners and violated federal civil rights laws by providing strong incentives to a subprime lender to originate mortgages that were likely to be foreclosed on, according to a groundbreaking lawsuit filed today.

I'm not sure that the plaintiffs will win this case because I think that banking institutions discriminated more on the basis of class than race. I think that anyone who appeared to be uneducated or naive was subject to the same incentives.

Occupy Empathy

Click here to access article by Mickey Z from World News Trust.

The author describes a recent visit to Saks department store in New York City in which he experienced what it is like to be a target of the Blue Bloc: what it is like to be a person of color, an immigrant, or a Muslim when confronted by police. His white skin saved him from being frisked and arrested.

NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy to be reviewed by US department of justice

Click here to access article by Ryan Devereaux from The Guardian. 

This report supports my argument that police state methods consistent with fascist rule is already happening in the US, but only to selected populations: 

Last year the [NYC] police department stopped close to 700,000 people on the city's streets, more than ever before. As with every year over the past decade, the vast majority of those stopped were African American or Latino and nearly nine out of 10 had committed no crime. The department is on track to make 2012 another record-setting year.

Where you live makes a major difference:

Steve Kohut, born and raised in Manhattan's Lower East Side, says he's been stopped and frisked "more times than I can remember" since he was 12. "It was just life to me," Kohut said.

He only realized that it was not common to all areas of the city when he visited a friend's upscale neighborhood. It prompted him to question the practice. "Wait a minute, the cops don't stop you every time you go to the store over here? They don't do that to you? They don't search you? They don't push you up against a wall? They don't put your face on the hood of their car?"

Lying to Eat

Click here to access article from American Civil Liberties Union.

Dishonesty, in its various incarnations, is not an admirable trait. But in moments of desperation, a lie can seem like the only option. Anita McLemore, a Mississippi mother of two, faced one of those unfortunate moments when filling out her application for food stamps — and now she’ll pay the price, by spending three years of her life behind bars in federal prison.

A Tax Break Nobody Needs

by Gerald E. Scorse from Dissident Voice. 

While the tax code is extremely unfair, this author focuses much too narrowly on one provision of it. And he doesn't deal with the issue of extending tax cuts to the wealthy passed during Bush's administration. 

For the most part corporations are brimming over with cash as are many rich Americans who mostly stash their millions in offshore bank accounts. But then, who writes the tax code? The corporate sponsored representatives in Congress.

Austerity for workers, tax cuts for business—Europe’s class policy

from World Socialist Web Site. Class war is raging in Europe as in the US.

Big business, the banks and the super rich are being increasingly relieved of paying taxes. The resulting deficits in state budgets, exacerbated by the hundreds of billions awarded to the banks in government rescue packages, are now being addressed through a combination of increased consumption taxes, which fall most heavily on the working class, and savage cuts in social programs and public sector jobs and wages.

Slick Operator: The BP I've Known Too Well

by Greg Palast from TruthOut. The author gives us his scoop on how Big Oil really functions.

I've seen this movie before. In 1989, I was a fraud investigator hired to dig into the cause of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Despite Exxon's name on that boat, I found the party most to blame for the destruction was ... British Petroleum (BP).

Global warming means local (super) storming

from Climate Progress. The article provides evidence to suggest that we can expect more and more extreme weather events in the future.

These emerging signals are consistent with what we expect from our projections, giving us confidence in the science and models that underpin them. In the absence of action to mitigate climate change, we can expect much larger changes in the coming decades than have been seen so far.