Crises of Capitalism [11:10m video]

I highly recommend this delightful and informative animated video.

For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress.  Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action.

In this RSA Animate, radical sociologist David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?

The People vs. the Banks

by Shamus Cooke from Workers Action. 

What ordinary people must understand is that the class war is now raging across the globe. They are now presented with a choice: they can simply roll over and surrender, or they can fight back.

The investors who control financial markets know that a day of reckoning is coming: the massive debt that was pushing forward the world economy for years needs to be paid back, and those who own the banks don’t want the responsibility. Better for millions of workers to sacrifice social services, pensions, wages, etc., than for thousands of rich investors to be taxed. 

More on the class war here.

New study documents media's servitude to government

by Glenn Greenwald from Salon.

We don't need a state-run media because our media outlets volunteer for the task:  once the U.S. Government decrees that a technique is no longer torture, U.S. media outlets dutifully cease using the term.  That compliant behavior makes overtly state-controlled media unnecessary.

Once one understands that the government and the media are just different departments of the Empire ruled by capitalist elites, then it becomes easy to understand the actions of mainstream media.

The Iranian Threat

by Noam Chomsky from Z Communications. 

This well-known author, long blacklisted by mainstream media, describes the ominous indications for an attack on Iran by the US. This, of course, has been on the Empire's agenda for several years, but recent developments look like it may be going into its operational phase. He attempts to get inside the imperial "head"of the Empire, and what he see does not bode well for the prospects for peace. 

Though the Iranian threat is not military, that does not mean that it might be tolerable to Washington. Iranian deterrent capacity is an illegitimate exercise of sovereignty that interferes with US global designs. Specifically, it threatens US control of Middle East energy resources, a high priority of planners since World War II, which yields “substantial control of the world,” one influential figure advised (A. A. Berle).

But Iran’s threat goes beyond deterrence. It is also seeking to expand its influence.

I can think of other reasons also for this dire outlook. What is always the solution for capitalist powers when domestic concerns become so worrisome that the citizens get edgy? War. The ruling class may see a quick victory in Iran as the necessary antidote to citizens' growing anger about public spending cutbacks, unemployment, and the Gulf oil disaster. 

Going Horizontal at the U.S. Social Forum

from Dissident Voice. 

If one political concept dominated the proceedings of the US Social Forum, it was horizontalism.  Organizers mentioned it in relation to media access, workshop panelists offered it as an alternative to top-down NGOs and political parties and participants already engaged in politics employed it as a measurement of their own groups’ internal functioning.  To some, horizontalism represented more of an abstract democratic sense informed by anarchist sentiments.  For others, it meant thinking through power relations that operate inside the new structures they sought to set up – frequently things like cooperatives, community supported agriculture or community gardens.  Kandace Vallejo an organizer with the Student Farmworker Alliance (SFA) offered a more concrete definition. 

Banks Financing Mexico Gangs Admitted in Wells Fargo Deal

from Bloomberg News. The banksters are partners in crime with the drug cartels as this article from a major capitalist mouthpiece illustrates.

BP in the Gulf - the Persian Gulf

from Asia Times Online. It is becoming all to easy, almost fashionable to attack BP. This author shows how sophisticated he is by showing off his knowledge of BP's history of crimes in Iran and that he has been boycotting BP for years. He writes:

...when you're filling up at a Shell or ExxonMobil station, it's hard to feel much sense of moral triumph. Nonetheless, I reserve my right to drive by BP stations. I started doing it long before this year's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Thus he implies that other big oil companies are just as guilty of crimes, but quickly steers away from delving into that mine-ridden subject. Big Oil corporations have been the leading predatory actors in capitalist exploitation and political crimes and shenanigans in many countries of the so-called developing world, countries that were too weak to defend themselves. Read this, this, and this.

If such companies were nationalized and under the control of working people, such monstrous crimes would not have been committed.

Time out

Time to Investigate Blankfein and Paulson (More AIG Shenanigans Edition)

by Yves Smith from her blog, Naked Capitalism. 

The author who has had an extensive career in the financial services industry knows of what she writes, and she has been an excellent, honest detective by uncovering the many crimes of the banksters. I guess having been such an avid swimmer in the waters of capitalism all her life has made it very difficult for her to attack the system itself. The banksters, especially those in the Federal Reserve, are merely the conductors of this orchestra that is dedicated to control, exploitation, quick and easy profits--and the people be damned. It is the orchestra that needs to be shut down, not merely the conductors. 

Despite Gulf disaster deepwater oil is all we have left

from Peak Generation. 

Deep water oil drilling will continue as long as we, the people, put up with the system of capitalism that demands growth. So the question is, how much environmental destruction will we allow the governing elites to inflict upon the earth before we put a stop to it? Unfortunately, most people in the US haven't even gotten to the point of questioning the system.

Never mind the ongoing environmental and economic carnage in the Gulf of Mexico, rapidly reaching Biblical proportions – a poisoned sea allegedly spewing toxic rain across the US which, if whipped up by a hurricane, just might lead to a mass exodus from an entire seaboard – the industry is frantically promoting its right to continue with deepwater exploration.

Workers of the world, co-operate!

from Red Pepper (UK). The author provides his assessment of the benefits of worker cooperatives. Referring to the latter, he asks:

But are they microcosms of the democratic society that we crave? Or do they hinder political change by taking people away from social movements and trade unions and into self-contained, competing and self-exploitative economic units? Workers’ co-ops clearly have massive advantages over authoritarian systems of workplace organisation – but do they have the potential to change the world?

Read the rest of the article to find his answers to these questions. IMO worker cooperatives are not in themselves a way to change society. Yugoslavia used them extensively and found that they took on many characteristics of private enterprises because they competed against each other. 

Still when societies have to increasingly localize to cope with diminishing fossil fuels, they can then serve a critical function if they are organized to serve, and answerable to, the wider community.

New ACLU Report And Web Hub Reveal Rise In Political Spying Across United States

from the American Civil Liberties Website.

Unfortunately, law enforcement in our country seems to be reverting to certain old, bad behaviors when it comes to political surveillance. Our review of these practices has found that Americans have been put under surveillance or harassed by the police just for deciding to organize, march, protest, espouse unusual viewpoints and engage in normal, innocuous behaviors such as writing notes or taking photographs in public.”
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“We are determined to prevent the emergence of a domestic secret police apparatus in this country,” said German. “Yet, as the ACLU’s report shows, these activities continue to take place with a regularity that shows there are systemic problems at work that must be monitored closely.”

The system is a capitalist pseudo-democracy that has degenerated into a quasi-fascist state.

Backwardass Townies, Chicken Littles, and Learning New Tolerance

by Kathy McMahon from her blog, Peak Oil Blues. Some down-home, practical advice about connecting with others and building community.

It is my belief that whether we build our lives in a post-peak oil world in-place or move to another location, we are going to be faced with building closer relationships to the locals.

Acid rain is back, and thanks to farming, worse than ever

from The Grist. Factory farms not only spread disease such as swine flu, they are producing acid rain.

Policy makers, environmentalists -- even Republicans -- like to congratulate themselves on the "victory" over acid rain. As this American success story is usually told, acid rain's effects were addressed by a 1990 update to the Clean Air Act that created a cap-and-trade system focused on sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. Since the system was implemented, sulfur dioxide emissions dropped 70 percent, and threatened forests and wildlife were saved. Hurrah!

There's only one problem with that version of history: It's not true.

Opposition grows to police repression in Toronto

from World Socialist Web Site. It is encouraging to see Canadians fighting back against police state methods.

Police provocations on the streets of Toronto continued Monday evening as thousands of city residents rallied in front of the municipal police headquarters to protest the martial law tactics let loose against the population over the weekend.

As crowds began to spill out into the road outside the headquarters, police cordoned off the area, preventing hundreds of others from joining in. Several individuals who attempted to cross the police cordon were summarily arrested. Already, by six in the evening some 2,000 people had gathered in the vicinity, outraged by police actions.

Greek protesters demonstrate against austerity measures (12 pictures)

from the Guardian. See the brave working people of Greece battling ruling class police to save their economy, their jobs, and their independence from financial elites.

Then from Al Jazeera, read in more detail there valiant struggle with this piece, "Clashes break out at Greek protest". 

Shale Gas — The Hydrofracking Wars

by Dave Cohen from his blog, Decline of the Empire. 

Here is another prime example of conventional thinking regarding the contradictions of capitalist fossil fuel policies and ecological imperatives. The author outlines the contradictions very well, but is unable to think beyond the requirements of the capitalist system. It's clear that he believes "there is no alternative". 

...we want to have our cake and eat it too. How do we break out of this vicious circle? One way we could have escaped would been to have a coherent, universally agreed upon energy policy in place over the last 3 decades after the energy dislocations of the 1970s and early 1980s. That policy could have been amended as circumstances changed. But it was way too much for us to expect such a wise policy in Cowboy America. No can do—we'll just make it up as we go along.

So, like most liberals, he makes cynical comments that merely distracts our attention away from the elephant in the room, the system of capitalism, which blocks all attempts at sound environmental policies. What we can't have is capitalism AND a healthy environment.

Live Dangerously: 10 Easy Steps

by Shannon Hayes from Yes! Magazine. 

The subtitle for this piece is an example of drama hyped journalism that is typical in the US where "radical" and "revolutionary" have been reduced to mere buzz words in order to break through the limited attention spans of most Americans: "When Shannon Hayes made a list of easy steps for becoming a radical homemaker, she didn't realize just how revolutionary they were."


Nevertheless, the article is interesting in that it illustrates how even such benign attempts to wean people away from a consumption oriented lifestyle clashes with capitalist culture.

Based out

from Red Pepper (UK). 

Foreign bases have been a mainstay of global US military domination for decades. But in Latin America they have been closing fast and a new deal to use seven Colombian military bases is, paradoxically, a sign of US weakness in the region....

Time out

Visioning the future...if we should be so lucky!

When Capitalism Meets Cannabis

from the NY Times. The most entertaining read of the day, maybe week, or even month! Here is just one gem:

If there is a historical precedent for what’s now happening in Colorado, it could be the 1920s and the era of Prohibition. During America’s dry age, the federal alcohol ban carved out an exemption for medicinal use, and doctors nationwide suddenly discovered they could bolster their incomes by writing liquor prescriptions. 

Fun and games with the "terrorism" label

by Glenn Greenwald. He illustrates how the Empire uses the term "terrorism" in hypocritically self-serving ways to justify its war criminal actions and to stifle dissent.

Toronto police violently suppress G20 protests, arrest over 600

from the World Socialist Web Site. A detailed description of the protests.

As always, police provocation may well have played a role in isolated acts of vandalism. The patrol car, torched by three or four individuals, was done in full view of a whole phalanx of riot policemen who stood idly by at the intersection. “Backup! Put your batons down”, shouted the attending police captain to the riot squad. No attempt was made to arrest the perpetrators. Fire extinguishers possessed by the police were not deployed. The Toronto Fire Department, which can respond to any downtown emergency within minutes, did not arrive for over an hour as camera teams gathered from all the networks.

Toronto G-20 - The Shape of Things to Come [7:54m video]

from The Real News Network. Paul Jay reviews a G-20 document that suggests the future that the capital elites have in store for us, and then sums up his observations regarding police tactics used against protesters.

No right for freedom of assembly says 500 arrests [12:40m video]

The Real News Network. Paul Jay interviews a lawyer who is a member of the Law Union of Ontario.
First, they discuss the police infiltration of the Black Bloc group that was involved in some property destruction while being unhampered in carrying out their acts. 

More importantly was the revelation of a regulation that was passed (by the Province of Ontario?) recently, not given any publicity through normal channels, and used against the demonstrators. The regulation was described as essentially instituting martial law. This, once again, illustrates that capitalist ruling classes use the veneer of democratic practices and a theory of civil rights, but when it really suits them, they can easily dispense with such niceties and out comes the mailed fist of fascism.

Genetically Altered Salmon Get Closer to the Table

from the NY Times. 

The F.D.A. confirmed it was reviewing the salmon but, because of confidentiality rules, would not comment further.

Under a policy announced in 2008, the F.D.A. is regulating genetically engineered animals as if they were veterinary drugs and using the rules for those drugs. And applications for approval of new drugs must be kept confidential by the agency.

Critics say the drug evaluation process does not allow full assessment of the possible environmental impacts of genetically altered animals and also blocks public input. 

The Media Empire Strikes Back: Reviewing Reviews of South of the Border

from Dissident Voice. The author's concluding statement completely misses the function of corporate owned media: 

But the reviews aforementioned do little more than expose the ideological biases that dominate the U.S. media and the laziness that afflicts journalists today.

          These failures of the media are part of the reason why America is ailing."

The function of mainstream media is to serve the Empire and its ruling class. They are merely following orders to pan Oliver Stone's new film which is at odds with the Empire's propaganda.

The Powers-That-Be Are Terrified of the Mass Awakening Taking Place Worldwide

from Washington's Blog. 

Oligarchs are seizing more overt control in most countries in the world, the worldwide economy is on course for another - even bigger  - train wreck, countries are cracking down on freedom and becoming more tyrannical, we are in a permanent state of war..., and companies like BP are destroying our natural resources without any checks and balances.

BP’s Dumb Investors

by George Monbiot from his blog. 

I don't think that fund investors were "dumb", just greedy and aware that corporations rule. So why worry about risk? Governments, that is, working people will always pay for any damages the corporations cause, notwithstanding Obama's assurances that BP will pay for everything. While corporations like BP are too big to fail (see this), American workers are dispensable.

...whenever greens or ethical investors warned them about BP’s cavalier behaviour, instead of thanking them, the big fund managers reacted with hostility. On 15 April, five days before the Deepwater Horizon explosion, a group of investors led by Co-operative Asset Management tabled a resolution at BP’s AGM requesting more disclosure of the risks it was running in its tar sands operations(12). It was one of the most successful ethical resolutions ever, but all that means is that funds holding 15% of the shares either supported it or abstained. The other 85% supported the company’s right to keep bamboozling them.

Time out

The Third Depression

by Paul Krugman from the NY Times. Even one of capitalism's high priests has this to say:

It is...the victory of an orthodoxy that has little to do with rational analysis, whose main tenet is that imposing suffering on other people is how you show leadership in tough times.

And who will pay the price for this triumph of orthodoxy? The answer is, tens of millions of unemployed workers, many of whom will go jobless for years, and some of whom will never work again.

Live from Planet Norte

by Joe Bageant from his blog. 

Joe returns to the US from his exile-haven in Mexico and experiences culture shock as his senses are assaulted by US culture. His farsighted vision enables him to see what is coming, and its not pretty. But he is able to accept it and, by doing so, finds some kind of peace.

...the truth is that the universe is busy enough hurling toward its destiny, and does not give a rat's ass what we do or do not like. Or whether a smear of biology on a speck of cosmic dust manages to poison itself to death.

So stay strong. Transcend. Find reasons to love.

Nobody ever gets out of this world alive, anyway.

Through the Wormhole: The Secret State's Mad Scheme to Control the Internet

by Tom Burghardt from his blog, Antifascist Calling. This fine investigative report is following the ruling class government's increasing efforts at controlling and monitoring the internet.

"The recent combination of those three elements--reading e-mail messages, asking companies to participate in the monitoring program, and getting the NSA in the loop--has set off alarm bells about future uses of Einstein 3," ....

Those bells have been ringing for decades, tolling the death of our democratic republic. As military-style command and control systems proliferate, supporting everything from "zero-tolerance" policing and urban surveillance, the deployment of packet-sniffing technologies will soon join CCTV cameras, license plate readers and "watchlists," thus setting the stage for the next phase of the secret state's securitization of daily life.

Missing in the movement

from Now (Toronto). 

The impressive agenda of workshops, teach-ins and actions put on by civil society groups, students, unions and activists at last weekend’s (June 18-20) People’s Summit at Ryerson U was both an inspirational kick in the ass and a solid kick to the groin.

The Toronto G20 Riot Fraud: Undercover Police engaged in Purposeful Provocation At Tax Payers' Expense

from Global Research. Mainstream media, as usual, is covering this incident strictly from the police's point of view. 

From another Globe and Mail photo, notice this "protester" with "fucking immigrants" on his shirt and a Palestinian type face scarf--rather crude, politically naive and incompatible with left slogans and images. Also he's wearing some unusual protective arm sleeves.

For some links to eye witness reports that made it into the Guardian, see this, and this.

Also, in this video check out the people confronting police who serve to protect the ruling class.
G20 Protest, June 25 from NOW Magazine on Vimeo.

Creating Real Utopias

from New Left Project. Although I am put off a bit by the esoteric, academic jargon, the article may contain some useful ways of thinking about changing the system which is of critical importance. In the article there is a link to more discussions on the subject that may be useful.

All Eyes On California Strawberries: 40,000 People Join Scientists To Oppose Methyl Iodide

from Civil Eats. Agri-business comes up with another poison to destroy people's health in their mad pursuit for more profits.

Big Oil Has Pipeline into Nebraska Campaigns

from Nebraska Watchdog. This illustrates the way fake democracy works in the US.

An examination by Nebraska Watchdog has found that Big Oil and Electricity have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the three Nebraskans on Capitol Hill who have voters in the path of a controversial oil pipeline.

A Call for a Democratic Economy

from Yes! magazine. This is a review of a recently published book entitled, The Value of Nothing, by Raj Patel. Looks to me like the author is on the right track.

Patel’s solution is one of radical democracy, but radical only when compared to our current celebrity political culture. Instead of voting for our favorite overlord every four years, citizens should be organizing and taking an active role in establishing the rules that govern their own lives. These kinds of societies have existed before, and exist today. Patel’s primary models are ancient Athenians and the contemporary Zapatistas. For the Zapatistas, democracy is a way of life, rather than a rare and unpleasant ritual.

Time out

How Big Foundations and Wall Street Elites are Legitimating Their Plans to Balance the Budget

from Counter Punch. An excellent report on the latest battle waged by the US ruling class in its war against working people.

While one function of the U.S. government (perhaps the main function in recent decades) is to facilitate capitalist accumulation on ever-greater scales, another function, more a necessity growing out of the pain and dislocation that wealth accumulation creates, is to legitimate rule, oftentimes by stabilizing an otherwise brutal socioeconomic structure.

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...on Saturday these AstroTurf town hall meetings, occurring in 19 major cities and dozens of other locations, will provide cover for what is otherwise a foregone set of conclusions that include recommendations that the Congress and White House cut and privatize many social programs.

BP: Gulf Resident Gives Behind the Scenes Account, Slams Cleanup and Safety

from Naked Captalism. The article gives good background on, and analysis of, the information gathered by a wife of a Gulf fisherman as she was given extensive exposure to BPs cleanup efforts. I recommend the link to the actual videos and transcripts.

Now, as far as EPA, OSHA, NOAA, BP, and the federal government , they every one of them’s in collaboration with each other. That comes from someone at the top of NOAA. That’s who I’ve been talking to. They gave me someone at the top of NOAA. But, they’re all in collaboration with BP.  

What do BP and the Banks Have In Common? The Era of Corporate Anarchy

by Gonzalo Lira from his blog. This guy puts things in the right perspective. What I find so difficult to understand is why most people don't get it and simply swallow whole whatever corporate sponsored pundits say.

Curiously, individuals—ordinary people—are being supervised and regulated more and more stringently. Yet at the same time, corporations are becoming more and more free to do as they please. No one notices how strange this is—we have even lost the social framework to even talkabout regulating and supervising corporations, because too many foolish pundits equate supervision and regulation with Socialism. Yet curiously, personal freedom is being chipped away, day by day, without a peep from these self-same "freedom-loving" pundits.

Green Change Wants Delaware to Revoke BP’s Corporate Charter

from Corporate Crime Reporter. 

Some people are about to learn that the laws are for the "little people" not the corporations, not for the ruling class. They are about to learn who the real government is in the US. I think that's good.

In Dire Straits, Americans Whimper Instead

by Ted Rall from Common Dreams. An excellent, insightful article on the apathy of American people toward their tormentors.

Why I Support the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund

from Food Freedom. Another illustration of how government regulators, like the laws, are for the little people.

A Doctored History: An Interview With William F. Pepper [20m audio]

from Truthout. Be sure to listen to the 20 minute interview. Dr. Pepper has a real understanding of US government and society.

If working people are going to build an alternative to this current criminal capitalist system, they must make the effort to uncover their real history as opposed to the contrived history they get in the media and educational institutions

If one thinks about it, one should not be surprised by the US practice of assassinating its own citizens. They have practiced this for a number of years on opposition leaders in other countries, and they continue to do so, both here and abroad. They made several hundred attempts to kill Castro. The character of this ruling class has taken on the qualities of the Mafia with whom they do business when their services are required.

They don't take out people like Dr. Pepper because he has been effectively silenced in that no mainstream media will go near him, and they need to maintain the fiction of "freedom of speech", etc. Police states are much more expensive to operate. Nevertheless, the US is definitely headed in that direction with its elaborate prison system, surveillance of communications, more aggressive control of protest demonstrations, etc.

G20: Doves on finance reform, hawks on austerity [9:58m video]

from The Real News Network. The guest is associated with liberal think tanks, The Institute New Economic Thinking and Economic Policy for the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. 

Such people are concerned about threats to their beloved system, capitalism, resulting from the social cataclysms in the offing due to austerity cuts, the attacks on public spending and social safety nets. These people largely represent the old, more secure aristocracy of capitalists who largely inherited their wealth and who know that unbridled greed could create a powerful backlash that can destroy the system.

Time out

Banks ‘Dodged a Bullet’ as Congress Dilutes Rules

from Bloomberg Business Week.

The overhaul, which still requires approval from the full Congress, won’t shrink banks deemed “too big to fail,” leaving largely intact a U.S. financial industry dominated by six companies with a combined $9.4 trillion of assets. The changes also do little to solve the danger posed by leveraged companies reliant on fickle markets for funding, which can evaporate in a panic like the one that spread in late 2008.

Is anyone surprised? Our government is owned by these companies. The challenge for the ruling class is to camouflage what they are doing behind some sort of democratic process.

Meanwhile, increasing numbers of working people are thrown on the garbage heap of unemployment without any safety net.

The United States of Nigeria

from Washington's Blog. 

The headline hits the nail squarely on its head. It makes the point that few Americans understand. The mega-oil corporations are in charge and they have been trashing the planet with impunity for years. The most egregious examples are Nigeria and Ecuador, with the US only now joining the list of victims.

America Detached from War

by Tom Engelhardt from Tom Dispatch.

As it happens, the enthusiasm for drones is as much a fever dream as the one Bush and his associates offered back in 2002, but it's also distinctly us. In fact, drone warfare fits the America of 2010 tighter than a glove. With its consoles, chat rooms and "single shooter" death machines, it certainly fits the skills of a generation raised on the computer, Facebook and video games. That our valorous warriors, their day of battle done, can increasingly leave war behind and head home to the barbecue (or, given American life, the foreclosure) also fits an American mood of the moment. 

Oil Consortium Behind War Crimes - Aid Agencies

from IPS news service. 

The entry of a Swedish-led oil consortium into southern Sudan in 1997 triggered civil war and crimes against humanity, claims a European coalition of aid agencies. 

Gasland The Movie -- Watch Tap Water Burst Into Flames

from The Daily Bail. 

The energy industry is freaking out about this film.

America Can't Solve Crises Because It's a Company-Owned Town

by Glen Ford from Black Agenda Report. Unlike the author in the article below this, Ford has no difficulty in identifying the culprit that is destroying the environment and human and other life forms.

Those among the public and media that still harbor the illusion that government is there to serve the people, despite seeing so much evidence to the contrary, speak of a national “malaise,” a loss of purpose, a temporary failure or flaw in the national character. What nonsense!

The lost civilization: Finding a reality-based frame of reference in the age of delusion

by Dan Allen from Energy Bulletin. 

The strength of the article lies in his observations about the essential nature of human beings and how this is incompatible with current social organization. He produces some real gems in the section, "What are we?". For example:

...tight community organization is an evolutionarily-engrained social construct of our species. And I think it is important to note here that this evolutionarily-mandated proclivity towards tight communities is the antithesis of the atomizing industrial social organizations increasingly being thrust upon us.

But, once again like so many other observers of contemporary matters, he is unable to name the system which has prevented humans from realizing their potential--capitalism. He keeps using terms like "industrial", as if the mechanization of production powered by fossil fuels was the same as social organization. Is he merely playing it safe in a capitalist society that punishes critics of its system, or has he been brainwashed? In any case, until we identify the core problem, we will never find a solution.

Eat Less Meat, Eat Better Meat

from Civil Eats. I think that this is a very sensible article regarding the issue of meat eating versus vegetarianism. I have lived with too many vegetarians who made a religion out of avoiding meat. 

Conrad Black given fresh hope of early release after US supreme court ruling

from the Guardian. It is rare for even the worst corporate criminals, especially those of the ruling class like Black, to go to jail. Here we see the US Supreme Court bending over backwards to prepare for his release. 

The disgraced former Telegraph owner Conrad Black and the Enron fraudster Jeffrey Skilling have won fresh hope of early release from jail....

Time out

Judge Who Lifted Moratorium Tied To Offshore Drilling Companies

from The Huffington Post. I didn't see this glaring conflict of interest reported anywhere in mainstream media.

"American Conspiracies": Review of Jesse Ventura's Book

from Global Research. I read Ventura's earlier book entitled, Don't Start the Revolution Without Me!, and found that it contained some very interesting observations from an archetypal, US working class guy who had briefly attained power by becoming governor of Minnesota. I was impressed by his honesty and bluntness about what he witnessed while at this level of power. I haven't read this one, but based on my reading of the other, I recommend it.

"I've not written this book because I get off on talking about conspiracies. I've written it because, until we face the terrible reality of the assassinations and the governmental drug dealing and the stolen elections and the rest...until we look at how, slowly and insipidly, the most venal of men took control of our nation, we don't stand a chance of putting things back on track."

The Global Political Awakening and the New World Order: The Technological Revolution and the Future of Freedom, Part 1

by Gavin Marshall from Global Research.

This series on "the global awakening and the new world order" has taken on the ambitious task to assess where the world's people, the elites vs ordinary people, are from an historical and future perspective. It is clear that the governing classes have greatly benefited from globalization, but the advances in technology, particularly in communications, have brought people closer together and have created threats to the continued rule of capitalist elites. What will come out of this clash of opposing forces? The elites, people like Brzezinski, are clearly worried, but I wouldn't count them out.

In Deep Water: A Way of Life in Peril [23:2lm video]

from Aljazeera. Unlike mainstream media Avi Lewis (Canadian) puts the BP disaster in its larger context: the four decades that the petrochemical industry, with the blessing of "collaborative" federal regulators, has had its way with the fragile ecosystems of the Gulf. In moving interviews with local residents, seafood workers, and activists, Avi examines the industry's legacy of wetland erosion and health hazards that serves as the backdrop for the current disaster.

Towards a new economy and a new politics

by Gus Speth from Solutions. 

I heartily agree with the general thrust of this article, but I don't believe that the author understands what any real change is up against. Like many other social critics, he is unable to name the system, but keeps referring to the need for systemic changes. If change is to be possible, we must understand the system and the class it serves. Still I highly recommend reading this article.

The case for fundamental change is underscored especially by the urgency of environmental conditions. Here is one measure of that problem: All that human societies have to do to destroy the planet’s climate and biota and leave a ruined world to future generations is to keep doing exactly what is being done today, with no growth in the human population or the world economy. Just continue to release greenhouse gases at current rates, just continue to impoverish ecosystems and release toxic chemicals at current rates, and the world in the latter part of this century won’t be fit to live in. But, of course, human activities are not holding at current levels—they are accelerating dramatically.

Fascism–American Style

from Max Keiser's blog. This guest's analysis of fascism American style is roughly on the mark, but when he gets into the details, he loses his way. Still the essential thrust of the article is on the mark.

Manhattan’s Welfare Kings: How Billionaires Turned Farms Into Personal Tax Havens and Petty Cash Machines, Allowing Them to Give Less, While Taking More

by Yasha Levine from The Exiled. 

Most people know next to nothing about this $20 billion-a-year welfare for the rich program, probably because the billionaires want it that way. Why get the masses worked up? Best to let them think the $200 billion they spent from 1995 through 2006 went to friendly farmers with cute farmhouses, rather than to Chevron or Kenneth Lay. Better to let urban entrepreneurs call themselves backyard farmers and toil away for the locavore movement, than to realize that their rich neighbors are reaping actual “farm” subsidies.

Time out

Four Possible BP-Style Extreme Energy Nightmares to Come

by Michael Klare from AlterNet, original source at Tom Dispatch. 

O’Reilly promised then that his firm [Chevron], like the other energy giants, would do whatever it took to secure this “difficult energy” to satisfy rising global demand.  And he proved a man of his word.  As a result, BP, Chevron, Exxon, and the rest of the energy giants launched a drive to obtain traditional fuels from hazardous locations, setting the stage for the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster and those sure to follow.  As long as the industry stays on this course, rather than undertaking the transition to an alternative energy future, more such catastrophes are inevitable, no matter how sophisticated the technology or scrupulous the oversight.

But, you see, capitalist regimes have no choice. Their system is built upon fossil fuels, and alternative energy sources cannot provide the every increasing energy needs of this system.

It's the goddam system, stupid!

US commander recalled from Afghanistan after mocking Obama

from World Socialist Web Site. 

This and other sources frame the conflict between McChrystal & Obama as one of civilian vs military control of foreign policy. I don't see it that way to any significant extent. The military and civilian elements are so intertwined in the US ruling class that such a distinction is irrelevant. What is much more likely is that the war adventure in Afghanistan is clearly going awry, its legitimacy is increasingly thin, NATO allies are jumping overboard and withdrawing their troops. Hence, all war parties in the ruling class are at each others throats. 

Such a situation of extreme frustration can be dangerous. I worry that they might make a dramatic miscalculation such as attacking Iran in hopes of salvaging some kind of victory from the ashes of their defeat. 

Is it much of a stretch to see that Osama Bin Laden's strategy to draw the US into a war in Eurasia is now reaching its goal--bankrupting the US as it did for the Soviet Union?

America frets over foreign clinical trials

from The Great Beyond. Government regulation, whether it is over wild betting schemes on Wall Street, or pharmaceutical experiments on humans, or genetically modified food experiments, or deep-water oil drilling, will almost always lose out to those who profit from these activities because they own and control our government and its regulatory systems. 

Banning Secret Government Meetings Isn’t Hard, Or Why Some FCC Officials Should Fear Going to Jail

from Fire Dog Lake. 

This is what a failed democracy looks like: After years of avid public support for Net Neutrality – involving millions of people from across the political spectrum – the federal regulator quietly huddles with industry lobbyists to eliminate basic protections and serve Wall Street’s bottom line. 

I would put it like this: This is what fake democracy looks like....

On the other hand, maybe there is hope for the internet. Read this.

Cause and effect in the War on Terror

by Glenn Greenwald from Salon. 

The issue here is causation, not justification.   The great contradiction of American foreign policy is that the very actions endlessly rationalized as necessary for combating Terrorism -- invading, occupying and bombing other countries, limitless interference in the Muslim world, unconditional support for Israeli aggression, vast civil liberties abridgments such as torture, renditions, due-process-free imprisonments -- are the very actions that fuel the anti-American hatred which, as the U.S. Government itself has long recognized, is what causes, fuels and exacerbates the Terrorism we're ostensibly attempting to address.  

There is no contradiction when you get the underlying cause correctly--the desperate need for capitalists to control access to the remaining resources in the world. When people fight back, the ruling class media go to work by citing terrorism as the problem. This deliberate reverse reasoning obfuscates the real problem and provides justification for the criminal wars.

Venezuela: Workers’ Control and the Contradictions of the Bolivarian Process

from Global Research, but originally from the Socialist Project (Canada).

This is a transcription of an interview with a union activist at a state owned coffee company in Venezuela. This could have been a great opportunity to learn about progress of workers in a state controlled company, but the union leader talked mostly at great length about political theory. Little of substance was discussed about his particular plant or in the wider worker struggles. Mostly the changes in worker conditions appear to be that of freedom of speech. Thus they can talk and talk about radical ideas, but otherwise little appears to have changed under Chavez other than talk. I think that this may reflect the attitude of most working people in Venezuela: they still hold out hope, but real progress is minimal, and they hate to admit it especially to an outsider. These two paragraphs represent the entire interview:

In order to guarantee the triumph of this revolution, its authenticity, exploitation of the working class has to end, and workers have to have self-governance. This is the fundamental criteria of the revolution. Socialism is a society in which participation, ideas and politics have to come from the grassroots, from the workers. Chávez has declared his commitment to this, but at times he makes deals with segments of the private sector, and this isn't our idea of revolution, this isn't what we truly want.

Therefore we need to build an alternative to negotiating with capitalists, another form of pushing the revolution forward, pushing consistently for the control of workers from below. Chávez came to office in 1999, and over ten years later the concrete advances toward workers’ control have been very minimal.

Oliver Stone's New Documentary Explains Progressive Governments in Latin America, Exposes Adversarial Media Bias

from Upside Down World. Looks like an interesting film that provides some real insights on developments in South America.

...viewers are provided two starkly different portraits of Latin American contemporary history as it unfolds. He does this by juxtaposing two diametrically opposed viewpoints: that of private media outlets in both the U.S. and in Latin America and those of leaders in the region, those responsible for creating the "pink-tide."

State budget crisis getting critical

from The Economic Populist. The author cites evidence that the bankster's bad gambling debts are hollowing out communities all across the US. In my own area library hours have been cut back, my local swimming pool closed for the summer, city workers laid off, public transit cutbacks, etc.

Human race 'will be extinct within 100 years', claims leading scientist

from Mail Online. This is what I've been arguing during the past year. It will happen unless we do away with the capitalist system and install a system that can coexist with the environment.

Fenner blames the onset of climate change for the human race’s imminent demise.

He said: 'We'll undergo the same fate as the people on Easter Island.

'Climate change is just at the very beginning. But we're seeing remarkable changes in the weather already.'

A Colossal Fracking Mess

from Vanity Fair. After the Gulf is destroyed, your water source may be next as the capitalist system in its obsession with growth continues to destroy the environment that supports life.

“Fracking,” as it’s colloquially known, involves injecting millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals, many of them toxic, into the earth at high pressures to break up rock formations and release natural gas trapped inside.

Time out

There really isn't much of a difference between Republicrats and Demopublicans. Just some are a little smarter than others. 

Monsanto GM seed ban is overturned by US Supreme Court

from the BBC. Is there any doubt that the ruling class owns the US Supreme Court as well as Congress and the Executive?

Environmentalists had argued that there might be a risk of cross-pollination between genetically modified plants and neighbouring crops.

They also argued over-use of the company's weedkiller Roundup, the chemical treatment the alfalfa is modified to be resistant to, could cause pollution of ground water and lead to resistant "super-weeds". 

Also, read this regarding another Supreme Court ruling.

Workshop details: ISE at the US Social Forum

from the Institute for Social Ecology. A workshop on the Thursday where ordinary people are coming together to see what can be done to promote real solutions to the climate change conundrum.

Real solutions do exist! This workshop will begin with discussion of false solutions and their direct impacts on our communities, and then turn toward a collaborative and wide ranging discussion of genuinely renewable, community-centered solutions, rooted in the principles of climate justice. This is part of an ongoing effort to build a “People’s Vision” for U.S. climate action that is just, effective, realistic and potentially transformative.

A Grim Outlook for Emissions As Climate Talks Limp Forward

from Environment 360. Nothing but "we the people" can stop capitalists from destroying our planet.

In the wake of the failed Copenhagen summit, prospects for cutting global CO2 emissions are worse than they’ve been in years. With talk of mandated cuts now fading and with countries exploiting loopholes, the world appears headed toward a flawed agreement based not on science but on politics.

See also from Foreign Policy how it's back to drilling as usual.

Occupational Hazards: Praise the Warlord and Pass the Ammunition

by Chris Floyd from his blog, Empire Burlesque. This article is a bit cynical, perhaps, but right on. The Empire has a way of doing things "inadvertently".

Stanley McChrystal recalled over Rolling Stone article

from the Guardian. When the war vultures start attacking each other, I think that may be good news for the doves.

World's millionaires are back to strength after banking crisis

from the Guardian. Hey guys, just in case you were worried, the rich are doing okay!

Sales of yachts in the United States were up 30% in the first quarter of the year, a sign that the world's wealthiest people are starting to spend freely again after hunkering down during the recession.

According to the Merrill Lynch survey, demand across luxury goods picked up in the second half of 2009, with the biggest share of what the bank describes as "investments of passion" being spent on collectibles including cars, yachts and jets.

The Real Science Gap

from Miller-McCune. 

The author bemoans the fact that there are so few opportunities for Americans in scientific fields after receiving costly Phds. Articles like this completely amaze me. They waste so much verbiage wringing their hands over the fact that American scientists are getting the shaft, that it just isn't right, etc, instead of looking at the system itself which rewards only profit not patriotism, not commitment to one's fellow citizens, communities, neighbors--no, profit über alles! If you accept the system, then you have to accept the consequences.

Fighting Talk: The New Propaganda

by Robert Fisk from The Independent. This renowned journalist reveals that the profession of journalism has been made to serve the needs of the Empire, and how it manipulates words for that purpose.

Many of my colleagues on various Western newspapers would ultimately risk their jobs if they were constantly to challenge the false reality of news journalism, the nexus of media-government power.

You mean, like Helen Thomas and Peter Arnett?

The Obama administration and its pundit-defenders

by Glenn Greenwald from Salon. 

The article supports my long held contention that Obama was carefully selected by the ruling class for the 2008 show elections to defuse all the popular anger against Bush, the wars, and the economic collapse. They were right--much of the anger was defused, and the leftover has been mostly directed against immigrant workers. He was the perfect candidate to "pull the wool over the eyes" of the American people. Even with this Gulf oil spill disaster that was caused in large part by the Administration's waving of environmental checks, you can be sure that he will be well protected by mainstream media.

USDA opens public comments on Monsanto’s H1-7 GM beet

from Food Freedom. 

I am forever amazed at the gall of these ecocidal corporations that insist on selling us a product we simply don’t want.  Can you imagine Ford getting laws passed to require people to buy its failed Edsel?  How bad must the product be if the only way they can sell it is by forcing people to buy it?  Is this mafia capitalism?

US, Israel Warships in Suez May Be Prelude to Faceoff with Iran

from Israel National News. As if we didn't have enough to worry about!

Despite Egypt’s reported refusal to block the canal to Iranian boats, the clearance for the American-Israeli fleet may be a warning to Iran it may face military opposition if the Iranian Red Crescent ship continues on course to Gaza.

Time out

Decades of high unemployment likely [12:29m video]

from The Real News Network. 

Paul Jay interviews Deane Baker who is the co-director of The Center for Economic and Policy Research. Unfortunately, Jay and his guest seem to believe that the US managed elections can change anything. Otherwise the comments by Baker clearly indicate that the ruling class is following the theme expressed by Rahm Emanuel: "never waste a crisis", or something to that effect.  In other words, the economic crisis is maintained precisely to do away with, or cut back, on Social Security, Medicare, etc.  I have little doubt that the crisis was allowed to happen, in addition to bubble induced profits, precisely for this reason.

Gulf oil spill: A hole in the world

by Naomi Klein from the Guardian. 

The Deepwater Horizon disaster is not just an industrial accident – it is a violent wound inflicted on the Earth itself. In this special report from the Gulf coast, a leading author and activist shows how it lays bare the hubris at the heart of capitalism

The Stealth Attack on America’s Best-Loved Program

by Robert Kuttner from New Deal 2.0.  

The ruling class has been pilfering the Social Security funds for a number of years. As they go global for talent, as they offshore more industry and services to countries that corporations can "manage" in order to get cheap labor and material without those obnoxious environmental laws being enforced, younger Americans will earn much less and will no longer be able to contribute much to the Social Security fund as they have in the past. Hence, by pursuing the imperatives of a profit driven system, the capitalist ruling class will bankrupt the fund. 

So, contrary to what this liberal author writes, I believe that the Obama administration is rationally looking to cut Social Security and other social spending. And public opinion? Well, the ruling class is very adept at managing that. With nearly complete control over all information that is delivered via the media and educational institutions, this shouldn't be too hard for them to do.

Forget national boundaries in this capitalist globalized world. What lies in the future, if we the people allow it to happen, is that boundaries will mean little except to exploit as issues to divert working people's attention away from the real issues. We will have islands of prosperous people living behind well guarded, gated communities surrounded by vast seas of poverty.

It's the goddam system, stupid!

Countries That Support US in Afghanistan Get Preferred Access to Minerals

by Yves Smith from her blog, Naked Capitalism.

Ain’t imperialism grand?

There is an alternative: “Coop Video” [2:54m video]

from P2P Foundation. Unfortunately, cooperatives, in the legal sense, function like any other profit seeking body of people. The main difference between a coop and a corporation is that the former is guided more by humanitarian set of principles. This, of course, makes it difficult for them to compete with strictly profit oriented enterprises. Hence coops must compromise those principles if they are to survive, and inevitably they must also act like their profit-seeking rivals.

A true alternative would be to design an economy to serve the needs of people (as a society) as democratically determined by them.

Digital Nation? No Thanks!

by Peter Crabb from Culture Change. The author looks at all the digital gadgets being hyped by profit seeking corporations and concludes that they mostly offer people distractions and tear at the social fabric of society while pretending to connect people. I agree.

The dialogue about multitasking and distraction is part of a larger battle over consciousness, and the corporate sellers of junk technology are winning that battle as they colonize the minds of younger generations. Those of us who envision a new reality that is free of corporate parasitism would do well to take note of this development. It isn’t just tv and the internet. It’s a whole consumption constellation of corporate-produced distractions that have totally captured the attention and energies of young people. The digital ghetto they live in isolates them from older generations and cultivates contempt for any reality other than the one they have been sold. Why visit with neighbors or learn to garden when texting is so much more fun and easy? 

Time out

Will the post-oil future be bicycle-free?

by Kurt Cobb from The Oil Drum. These "campfire" discussions are always fascinating to me because they elicit so many intelligent, thoughtful comments. This one regarding bicycling is not an exception.

U. S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood may soon be nominated for heresy-of-the-year award for an impromptu speech at the 2010 National Bike Summit in March. In that speech he said federal transportation policy will no longer favor automobiles over bicyclists and walkers.

How The Media Misreports on Venezuela, Even When Given Full Information

by Mark Weisbrot from South of the Border.

Mark Weisbrot, CEPR co-director and South of the Border co-writer, responds to Stephen Sackur’s article in The Guardian

The author deconstructs an article in the Guardian, a liberal British news source, to illustrate how capitalist media is unable or unwilling to provide any kind of reasonable coverage of government figures if they are in opposition to the capitalist system or if they criticize it.

Chinese workers rising

from Green Left. 

The next time someone tells you that Marx or Marxism is outdated because capitalism is not as exploitative as it was in the 19th century, just crack open your copy of Capital, turn to the chapter on the working day, and compare its vivid depiction of the brutalisation of the British working class to the state of the working class in China today.