The BP Oil Spill: Time to Get Unreasonable

by Brooke Jarvis from Yes! Magazine. This features an interview with activist Diane Wilson.

It was almost like seeing your own death. You cannot imagine it, but it appears to be happening. I think many people thought they really might see the end of the whole Gulf, just filling up like a river of oil, just wiping out everything. People are very, very upset about it. They don’t know what to do, because what is there to do?  They can't leave. Down here you are the 4th, 5th generation fishing or shrimping the same waters. You have a sense of place, and your identity is the place. I've been down here through I can't tell you how many hurricanes, and people don't leave even when they know a storm’s coming.

CNN anchors attack the scourge of anonymity

by Glenn Greenwald from Salon. Greenwald takes aim at CNN hypocrisy about anonymous bloggers and hits a bulls-eye. Mainstream media's use of anonymous sources has hid a multitude of lies.

Workers power in action

by Leela Yellesetty from Socialist Worker. This is part 2 of a series of 3. My posting of part 1 is here.

She summarizes the history of worker struggles against capitalism from a Marxist perspective. My only comment on this part is to add my view of what went wrong with the Russian Revolution. Her reasons are perfectly valid--the armed invasions by 14 capitalist countries and the starvation and disease resulting from the invasions (and WWI). 

But she seems to  idolize the Bolsheviks while claiming it was all Stalin's fault. Stalin was a long standing Bolshevik and did not become a dictator all by himself. 

She writes correctly about revolutions, "...what strikes you is how rapidly people's consciousness change, compared to how slowly it can move in normal times." But I argue that the consciousness of many Bolsheviks, like all revolutionaries before them, did not change in some respects. They still held to authoritarian methods of rule that preceded them under the Czars. They did not trust workers to rule themselves. They saw themselves as having an exclusive knowledge of socialism. They were the "vanguard"! Hence they immediately took power away from the Soviet worker councils and Soviet society eventually degenerated into the concentrated rule of Stalin alone.

Modernizing Henry George

by Herman Daly from CASSE.

Sacrifice of nature’s scarce services constitutes an increasing opportunity cost of growth, and that in turn means that nature must be priced, either explicitly or implicitly. But to whom should this price be paid?

                                                                *************

“Value added” belongs to whoever added it. But the original value of that to which further value is added by labor and capital, the value of scarce natural resources and natural services, should belong to everyone.

Marxists argue that capital is accumulated surplus value created by labor. Under capitalism capitalists claim this as their private property. If the Marxists are correct, then by the same reasoning as Henry George, because the capitalists did not create this stored value, they cannot legitimately lay claim to it, and it should belong to all working people.

Time out

G20-Toronto property damage is a good thing

by Denis G. Rancourt from Activist Teacher. Some thoughts from angry activists after the protests at the recent G20 meeting in Toronto.
 

A Cooperative Approach to Renewing East Kentucky

by Sara Pennington and Randy Wilson from Solutions. 

We propose that the East Kentucky Power Cooperative and their 16 distribution cooperatives launch an aggressive, well-funded, five-year energy efficiency and renewable energy initiative—called "Renew East Kentucky"—in the EKPC service area.

                                                           ************

This program could create thousands of local jobs and, by diversifying the regional energy portfolio, yield additional economic benefit to struggling families. It would work in collaboration with ongoing regional efforts in affordable housing and more recent efforts to re-tool Kentucky's workforce for green energy jobs. The proposal may serve as a road map for transition in other areas.

The only catch is...the plan would need federal dollars to launch it. And as we all know, the US government needs all this money in its unending war against "terrorists".

Anger Rises Over U.S. Tax Dollars for Settlements

from IPS news service.

There are currently half a million Israeli settlers in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. All of the settlements are illegal under international law and are in violation of various UN resolutions.

The Unbearable Dullness of Luxury Goods

by Jamie Johnson from Vanity Fair. It's important to keep in touch with our fellow Americans of the 1% to share in their concerns and worries. Today we learn that because they have so much, it is no longer cool to display their riches.

U.S. Saudi Sale Is Said to Approach $30 Billion Including 84 F-15 Fighters

from Bloomberg News. 

All the elected representatives from my State of Washington vigorously defend Boeing Corporation whenever so-called "defense" contracts are up for consideration. They always "sell" this support to the public via corporate owned media by saying that they are supporting jobs and the economy.

This argument always seems to work because it has a small element of truth to it, and corporate media endlessly repeats the argument without allowing any kind of criticism or alternative points of view. Of course, the argument is such a shallow one.

It would only have merit if it could be argued that if corporations weren't allowed to make weapons (usually of mass destruction), they could not make anything else. No, they couldn't build high speed rail systems, build bridges, other mass transit systems, develop alternative energy systems, etc. 

Of course, they could; but next quarter's financial statements will be greatly enhanced if they sell highly profitable weapon systems while maintaining the Empire's access to cheap raw materials, cheap labor, and markets so that the ruling classes can become even richer and more powerful.

Also, although little publicized, Saudi Arabia has a terrible human rights record. But that doesn't bother our ruling class. Whereas it does bother them in states they don't like such as North Korea, China, Venezuela, etc.

Torture and ill-treatment persist, as do incommunicado detention, prolonged detention without charge, and unfair trials. There are scores of political prisoners and possible prisoners of conscience. Saudi Arabia continues to use flogging and amputations as punishments. Executions, beheadings with a sword, occur regularly and are disproportionately carried out against foreign nationals. Foreign workers are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, particularly female domestic workers, who have virtually no protection at all.

Nowhere has the discussion of political reform been more animated than on the issue of women’s rights, though there has been little real progress. Municipal elections were held in early 2005 for half the seats in the Kingdom’s municipalities, but women were excluded for participation, and proposals to allow women to drive have been shelved. Awareness of the problem of violence against women has increased as a result of the severe beating of well-known TV personality Rania al-Baz by her husband, but there have been few changes to prevent or provide redress for such violence. Suspected homosexuals have been subjected to flogging. Though there has been some improvement, freedom of expression remains extremely curtailed, and discrimination on the basis of religion is absolute. Shiites face discrimination in all walks of life, and non-Muslim foreign nationals are subjected to harassment, detention, abuse and summary deportation. Executions have been carried out for witchcraft and apostasy.

Like all their other counterparts in the rest of the US, my Washington State representatives really represent the corporations who fund their campaigns.

Summer Rerun: “Toothless Fed”

by Yves Smith from Naked Capitalism. 

This reprinted post from this website illustrates how vexed liberals are to understand the system and to defend it. IMO, they simply don't understand, or unwilling to face the facts, that the fundamental driving forces of capitalism--individual acquisition of wealth, ownership rights over wealth produced by working people, etc--result in behaviors characterized by greed, manipulation, and gaming the system so that it becomes what it is today--economic ruin with islands of wealthy people amidst seas of poor people. Thus the people running this system are perfectly "reasonable", although sociopathic.

Geithner seems like a reasonable guy. And that is what ought to trouble us. He seems to have drunk the Kook Aid by which reasonable people believe it is important to continue to demonstrate reasonableness by assuming that others with great power are also reasonable. Yet, as we’ve seen in the political sphere, that is a fatal assumption. And, I believe we’ll see the same thing in the financial sphere. The folks in charge are not reasonable. They are after profits and wealth for themselves. And, while self-interest has a long storied past as a powerful motive force for the good when it is kept in check by reason, even Adam Smith noted that the assumption that reason would keep it in check was foolish.

It's the economic system, stupid! 

The Lies That Bind: American Myth Obscures Murderous Enterprise

by Chris Floyd from Empire Burlesque.

The Empire has been exceptionally successful at indoctrinating its own citizens with the virtues of its actions and policies in spite of all the devastation they have caused.

...those who have been imbued from birth by the myth of American Exceptionalism become active collaborators in this censorship of state crime. It is actually a form of self-censorship. There is no need for the state to spend a lot of time and energy jailing or killing or silencing or even discrediting those who tell the unpleasant truth; most people, in their blind adherence to the myth, simply will not hear it.

Time out

Climate Bill, R.I.P.

by Tim Dickinson from Rolling Stone. 

This Rolling Stone article is very good at providing the details of the usual Congressional charade of dealing with issues that the public wants, but that the ruling class opposes. Thus Congress and the President must go through the motions of appearing to support something the public wants, but somehow things just don't turn out right, and then comes the blame game.
 
Liberal environmental bloggers are all over the internet commenting on this article and "wringing their hands", and looking for some kind of positive spin on it. Most of these bloggers and the environmental movement as a whole are comprised of middle class people who mean well, but are tied to the coattails of the ruling class and the system that supports them both--capitalism. They will rarely, if ever, question the system that produces this kind of theater in Washington. Some even go so far as to blame the public for the political disaster. See this.


Then they make all kinds of excuses or lame explanations as to why a climate bill is dead. See this, in which the blogger makes the following statements:

Since Obama ignored the call for direct personal involvement on comprehensive climate and energy action, one can only assume he is just not that into it.

Since team Obama sucks at messaging so badly, it's impossible to know whether any strategy would have worked.

Fundamentally, Rahm and Axelrod simply don't get global warming.

What the bloggers and much of the environmental movement don't get is that capitalism is the engine that is driving us off the cliffs of climate change, resource exhaustion, and environmental degradation.

BP accused of 'buying academic silence'

from  BBC News (US & Canada coverage).

"Our ability to evaluate the disaster and write public policy and make decisions about it as a country can be impacted by the silence of the research scientists who are looking at conditions," he said.

"It's hugely destructive. I mean at some level, this is really BP versus the people of the United States."

Another ‘Viable’ Candidate Bites the Dust …

by Sibel Edmonds from Boiling Frogs. 

Read this to find out how US foreign policy really works on behalf of the Empire as seen by this former FBI language specialist and whistle-blower extraordinaire. Or, if wish to avoid doubts about mainstream media myths, don't read it--instead continue listening to CNN, NBC, ABC, etc.

I started this piece on Bakiyev with two cases that may have appeared not related: Turkey’s Ciller & Pakistan’s Bhutto. I could have easily picked half a dozen others, but I think these two sufficed to illustrate our almost-canned foreign policy script and its implementation in countries of interest; the selection criteria and the method to ‘groom & plant’ puppet regimes: The training period in the UK or US, a complete disregard for atrocities and human right abuses, the strong partnerships with  the underground industries fully assisted and supported by our operatives..., the joint efforts in fraud and embezzlement, the unconditional protection from accountability & providing safe haven later when needed (both personal and for embezzled funds)…

Latin America: Climate Change Swing States

by Janet Redman from Foreign Policy in Focus. 

The author reports on US preparations for the upcoming climate change meeting in Mexico at the end of this year.

The United States clearly spelled out its agenda for the international climate negotiations in the strategic communications objectives  accidentally leaked in April. At the top of the list was "reinforc[ing] the perception (my emphasis) that the U.S. is constructively engaged in UN negotiations in an effort to produce a global regime to combat climate change." The document also compels the U.S. negotiating team to "create a clear understanding of the CA's [Copenhagen Accord's] standing and the importance of operationalizing ALL elements."

The Copenhagen Accord embodies all of the major political demands of the United States. Binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have been scaled back to a voluntary "pledge and review" process. The pledges made so far fall short of the 25-40 percent cuts by rich countries that scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say are necessary to avoid climate catastrophe. Missing those targets carries no legal consequences.

The author concludes the article with this very perceptive statement:

This climate change debate is about much more than ecological stability. Global climate treaties will determine which countries' fossil-fuel-based growth will be constrained and by how much. The resulting international agreements and domestic policies will determine the relative importance of natural resources in the global economy. Because minerals, forests, agricultural soils, and water are not spread evenly across the planet, securing access to these and other resources will be — and in many regions already are — at the center of the geopolitical struggle precipitated by climate change.

Julia Gillard, the new warlord of Oz

by John Pilger from the New Statesman. Looks like the ruling class in Australia played the same card as the US ruling class did with Obama by putting up a woman dressed in "change" drag to fool the Australian people--and it worked!

The rise to power of Australia’s first female prime minister led to hopes for political change. But early signs indicate that Gillard will do little more than protect vested big-business interests.

Iraq Withdrawal? Obama and Clinton Expanding US Paramilitary Force in Iraq

by Jeremy Scahill from The Nation. Hillary changes her tune to serve the interests of her employer--the US Empire and its ruling class.

This is a developing illustration of how the governing class "pulls the wool" over the eyes of the people in the US. Corporate media will be very instrumental in this deceit by covering the phony withdrawal as if it were real.

Using private forces is a backdoor way of continuing a substantial US presence under the cover of "diplomatic security." The kind of paramilitary force that Obama and Clinton are trying to build in Iraq is, in large part, a bi-product of the monstrous colonial fortress the US calls its embassy in Baghdad and other facilities the US will maintain throughout Iraq after the "withdrawal."

The US Military Moves Into Costa Rica

by Mike Vorpahl from Workers Action. The author looks at the recent stationing of US Naval forces in Costa Rica in the context of the Empire's strategy to maintain control over Latin America.

This begs the question, however, if such an over the top display of military muscle is needed now to combat the drug cartels, what will be done in the next few months to make their presence unnecessary? The history of such U.S. military deployments around the world suggests a more credible outcome than what the agreement states. Once the U.S. moves such massive forces into a country, they rarely move them out.