A Time for Action - Not Servility

by Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon.

Every day, millions of people in the U.S. get their journalism from independent news outlets that expose not just the extremist antics of Republicans, but also the corporate corruption among Democrats. These informed Americans -- fearful of Speaker Boehner and alarmed by a White House now administered by a JPMorgan Chase executive -- represent a huge base ready to mobilize in new ways.

That's the basis for the launch of a new online organization -- RootsAction.org -- an initiative endorsed by such respected independent progressives as Daniel Ellsberg, Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk and Coleen Rowley.

Our first action -- in collaboration with Daniel Ellsberg -- is a petition to President Obama to end the U.S. war in Afghanistan. [my emphasis]

Wow, that is bold action! Unfortunately, these people are not getting off to a good start. Read the comments following the article to see the lack of enthusiasm. At this point in time, it appears to me that "Two Americas" second comment regarding RootsAction.org is the most apt of all:

It is yet another bait and switch scam for the purpose of herding people back into the fold. 

I'm wondering how many times that progressives can be baited and switched before they grow up and get serious about changing the system. Judging by the comments, it looks like such times have ended.

Evidence of an American Plutocracy: The Larry Summers Story

by Matthew Skomarovsky from Littlesis blog. 

LittleSis is a project of Public Accountability Initiative, a nonprofit nonpartisan research and educational organization focused on government and corporate accountability.

This is a must-read article for anyone who is not yet thoroughly convinced that the US is governed by a plutocracy, a ruling class whose basis of power is the private control and ownership of socially produced wealth, also known as capitalism.

Much of the public has come to view the Obama Administration as the latest round in a quickening game of musical chairs, played by the same old politicians who owe their fortunes or their careers to the same financial institutions that destroyed the economy, each round further consolidating their unaccountable power, each round bringing fresh disillusionment.

Corporate-friendly proposals that arise organically from discussions between government and business elites brought together within old institutions [associated with elite academic institutions, primarily Harvard] funded by a long list of corporate and wealthy individual donors are much more politically viable than those coming directly from a bank lobbyist, an oil company, or a group closely affiliated with one. Corporations don’t dictate specific views, they nurture hundreds of views within a safely constrained spectrum and run with what works best.

In this article the author provides an abundance of information to show how the ruling class uses corporate funded advisory groups and think tanks associated with elite educational institutions to provide legitimate cover for their policies, and how they move their key decision makers in and out of government.

Not that anything has changed from the inception of the US. The country was founded by America's first capitalists who engineered the revolution from Great Britain because the latter's ruling class imposed too many restrictions on them. This embryonic capitalist class in American colonies saw the huge potential for the plunder of the continent's resources and saw only "savages" standing in their way if they could only separate from the mother country. 

They employed people like Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, and the conflicted Thomas Jefferson to espouse the philosophies of the Enlightenment that challenged the rule of aristocracies and feudalism and affirmed the "natural rights of man". These ideas were enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and had a strong influence on farmers and artisans, who otherwise were lukewarm to separation, to support the revolution. 

After the revolution succeeded, the new ruling capitalist class did everything they could to contain these democratic influences.  They clearly feared the people and designed the Constitution to act as a bulwark against popular power. (Read Charles Beard's books entitled, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, and Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy, Woody Holton's Unruly Americans.)

What we see today is the near final victory of this globalized class over working people nearly everywhere in the world. Thus they engage less in the pretend games of "democracy", human and civil rights, and enforce the rule of (their) law almost exclusively against working people that is taking on the appearance of fascism.

Whether the people succumb to their rule remains to be seen. What is certain is that their system is on a collision course with the Earth's ecosystem and resource limits. If we fail to stop it, the result will be the disappearance of human and other life forms.

Violent Media Rhetoric: Beyond Tucson

from Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.

US political pundits and leaders not only use violent rhetoric, but support the violent actions of the Empire. Violence, and the threat of violence, is the naked mailed fist of fascism that is increasingly the character of the US ruling class.

...any discussion of media support for violence should not exclude...examples, many of which emanate from respectable, mainstream figures in the corporate media. The difference is that, in most cases, they are supporting or calling for state violence, usually against citizens of weaker countries who cannot, in most cases, defend themselves. This kind of rhetoric rarely elicits calls for greater "civility" in our public discourse, which suggests that some calls for violence are considered more acceptable than others.

The Will to Drill

by Benjamin Wallace-Wells from the NY Times. 

This is quite a lengthy article, but it will give you a very good picture of the state of oil exploration and production. 

“It’s frustrating to me,” Farnsworth told me. “It’s never going to change, but the general public always thinks, I should be able to get a gallon of gasoline, and it should be damn cheap, and whether I choose to drive a 10-mile-per-gallon car or a 40-mile-per-gallon car should have no impact on that price. We know how hard it is to explore for oil, and we know how hard it is to get it out of the deep water. And there’s been this incredible disconnect, which might have been lessened by the spill, between what people think it takes to get gasoline in their car and what we do.”

Today we are all Tunisians

by Yvonne Ridley from Redress. 

Yvonne Ridley pays tribute to the courage of the Tunisian people and reminds us of the stark fact that all the time when the deposed Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was torturing and plundering his people, he had the full support of the USA and European governments.

And my fellow Americans, do you remember the following words?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it....

Israel’s right-wing future

by Lawrence Davidson from Redress. 

Lawrence Davidson analyses the growth of fascism in Israel, arguing that this process “did not begin ... with 1967 and the taking of the occupied territories. It did not even begin in 1917 and the Balfour Declaration. It began with the very inception of Zionism.”

Return of the Kissinger model

by Adel Safty from Gulf News.

The author reports facts and provides a sound interpretation to reveal that the Obama administration is pursuing the same old strategies to maintain Israeli interests in the Middle East. The appointment of a prominent Zionist, Dennis Ross, to lead the "Israeli-Palestinian peace process" insures that no change will occur in US Middle East policies under this "change" President.

The removal of urgency and the restoration of the Kissingerian approach are not the only successes that Israel and its friends in America have scored. The recent elevation by the Obama administration of Dennis Ross to the position of influential adviser to the president in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is another.

Ross is known for his activism on behalf of Israel and for the role he played as an agent for a foreign government when he was chairman of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute in occupied Jerusalem — an organ of the Israeli government. At the Israeli Palestinian negotiations sponsored by Bill Clinton at Camp David, Ross's role was described as that of Israel's lawyer.

See also this and this.

Like most of Obama's policies and appointments, I maintain my thesis that he, like many of his predecessors, is only an "acting" President. The real decisions are made by ruling class figures behind him. That is precisely why the transition from Bush Jr. to Obama has been seamless and nothing of significance has changed. We still see the never ending wars and unrelenting attacks on social safely nets. The same ruling class is in charge, just different actors on stage.

The Koch Brothers’ Climatologist

by Russ Baker from Who What Why. 

This excellent investigative journalist illustrates how US mainstream media, in this case USA Today, covers climate change issues by using a climate change denier posing as a "climatologist" who is supported by a well-funded, conservative think tank in their report. 

The other day, USA Today ran an article reporting that 2010 had tied 2005 as the warmest year  since record-keeping began in 1880. That’s disturbing data, or course. But what really caught my eye was who they chose to question the significance of the news: a climatologist with….the Cato Institute. That’s a policy outfit heavily funded by the very companies whose emissions heat up the earth’s atmosphere.

Homeland Security's laptop seizures: Interview with Rep. Sanchez

by Glenn Greenwald from Salon. 

More thoughts by this excellent blogger and constitutional lawyer regarding the continuing erosion of civil rights in the US.

For those who regularly write and read about civil liberties abuses, it's sometimes easy to lose perspective about just how extreme and outrageous certain erosions are.  One becomes inured to them, and even severe incursions start to seem ordinary.  Such was the case, at least for me, with Homeland Security's practice of detaining American citizens upon their re-entry into the country, and as part of that detention, literally seizing their electronic products -- laptops, cellphones, Blackberries and the like -- copying and storing the data, and keeping that property for months on end, sometimes never returning it.

Earth’s hot past could be prologue to future climate

by Jeffrey Kiehl from University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

The magnitude of climate change during Earth’s deep past suggests that future temperatures may eventually rise far more than projected if society continues its pace of emitting greenhouse gases, a new analysis concludes.

If you don't have time to read this scientist's full report, please view this 3:45m video:

2010 Tied For Warmest Year on Record

from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 

According to NOAA scientists, 2010 tied with 2005 as the warmest year of the global surface temperature record, beginning in 1880. This was the 34th consecutive year with global temperatures above the 20th century average.

Alleged leaks from carbon storage project questioned

by Nathan Vanderklippe from Globe and Mail (Canada).

One of the solutions to capitalism's dilemma with the widespread use of fossil fuels, widely advertised in mainstream media, has been "carbon capture and storage". Here is early evidence that this solution may be hazardous to your health. Of course, only "dumb farmers" are claiming problems--what do they know?

Jane and Cameron Kerr, who own a farm near Weyburn, Sask., have cast doubt on the safety of a much-celebrated Canadian project to bury greenhouse gases after a series of bizarre incidents on their property that, they say, show those gases are escaping. After seeing accumulations of algae, unsightly sheens, strange bubbling and dead animals in and around a dug-out pond near their house, the Kerrs abandoned their property several years ago. Last summer, a consultant they hired confirmed that carbon dioxide from the Weyburn project was indeed bubbling up onto their land.

But, you should forget the "doubts". This major Canadian news agency managed to find some scientists who said:

...there may be natural explanations for many of the couple’s experiences. They also say the “smoking gun” in their consultant’s report may in fact signify nothing.

Extreme Weather Site

from The Huffington Post. 

Unlike any other post so far on my blog, this is a page, not an article on the Huffington website. However, as the incidents of extreme weather have increased in recent years, I felt that their postings on this page really capture the extreme weather occurring today. Although now we are witnessing mostly devastating floods, it was only last summer we saw severe droughts most notably in Russia and Australia. Mainstream media usually covers the events, but also usually omits any connection with climate change.

I found one exception yesterday at ABC News. Although as you can see, they still ask the question, "Is Wild Weather Evidence of Climate Change?", I find this rather encouraging.

A world in breakdown

by Paul Rogers from Open Democracy (UK).

I really don't like to post alarmist articles, but there are times when it is necessary to offset the complacency, the diversions, and reassurance of mainstream media in the face of alarming global trends. Many people here in the US need to wake up from their media-entertainment-induced stupor. 

The most harmful consequences of the world’s economic and environmental crises are likely to be felt in 2011, and to fall most harshly on millions of marginalised people. ...Some of the responses may coalesce into radical movements that will yet eclipse anything seen in the world’s financial hubs.

If and when that happens, perhaps it will be the beginning of the end of the stunning complacency that still grips banks, ministries, the financial establishments and their media. Even after the implosions of 2007-10, the elite belief persists that nothing has changed and nothing needs to change. The realities of the world’s combined environmental, economic and security problems say otherwise.

The War On Wikileaks

by John Pilger from ZCommunications.

This eminent truth-seeking journalist looks at the war being waged against WikiLeaks.

The attacks on WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, are a response to an information revolution that threatens old power orders, in politics and journalism. The incitement to murder trumpeted by public figures in the United States, together with attempts by the Obama administration to corrupt the law and send Assange to a hell hole prison for the rest of his life, are the reactions of a rapacious system exposed as never before. 

The 10 Things That Would Be Different If The Federal Reserve Had Never Been Created

by Tyler Durden from The Economic Collapse. 

About all I know about this author is that, although not in the mainstream, he is a widely respected and read financial-investment analyst. His main website is Zero Hedge. From my study of money creation and the Fed, I believe his arguments are "right on the mark".

The vast majority of Americans, including many of those who believe that they are "educated" about the Federal Reserve, do not really understand how the Federal Reserve really makes money for the international banking elite.

There's a very good reason Sarah Palin can be elected President

by Ed Martin from OpEd News.

This offers a good rebuttal to the comments I made on yesterday's post on the same subject.

Masters of hate locked and loaded

by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times Online. 

After Palin's video release yesterday in which she continues her stupid portrayal of herself as a victim, it appears that the right-wing of the ruling class is preparing to dump her. I believe it is only because she is seen as a rather bumbling "useful idiot" by the right-wing in the US. See this. Clearly her political handlers are not very competent.

For future historians who want to find the moment when Sarah Palin chose life as a culture warrior over life as a legitimate contender for White House, this moment is likely to be it. [from CNN]

It is revealing to note that, although it appears that Palin has lost favor with the ruling class, very little is reported in mainstream media about the rest of the hateful, violence filled rhetoric of the other right-wing pundits supported by the right-wing in the ruling class. 

There's no evidence US hatemongers festering in the politics/talk show crossover swamp are about to be chastised. There's no evidence Republican party leaders will publicly take a stand against the "take out" rhetoric. The Arizona massacre that killed six people and wounded 14 others is already being dismissed en masse in right-wing circles as the usual isolated act of the usual deranged loner.

See also this article from the World Socialist Web Site entitled, "More evidence of right-wing links to Tucson attack".

As for all those "balanced" commentaries in mainstream media that claim both sides are guilty of inflammatory rhetoric, read this.

Tax the Rich to Repay Looted Social Security Money

by Allen W. Smith from Dissident Voice. 

Of course, the rich must be taxed to pay back what they've stolen from the Social Security Trust Fund. But, don't bet on it happening. The American people have been so conditioned to the evil of taxes that they will put up little fight to save themselves in their old age. See this where I developed this argument in more detail. 

Only last month the Obama administration used a tax bill to further weaken the Fund in order to extend Bush's tax cuts to the rich. (See this)

One Year After Haiti Earthquake, Corporations Profit While People Suffer

by Jordan Flaherty from Dissident Voice. 

Now that mainstream media's spotlight is off Haiti and all the grand efforts of Western philanthropy to help in their recovery from last year's earthquake disaster, we now learn what is really happening with these efforts.

...it’s not just corporations who have been guilty of profiting from Haitian suffering. A recent report from the Disaster Accountability Project (DAP) describes a “significant lack of transparency in the disaster-relief/aid community,” and finds that many relief organizations have left donations for Haiti in their bank accounts, earning interest rather than helping the people of Haiti. DAP director, Ben Smilowitz, notes that “the fact that nearly half of the donated dollars still sit in the bank accounts of relief and aid groups does not match the urgency of their own fundraising and marketing efforts and donors’ intentions, nor does it covey the urgency of the situation on the ground.”

See also this from Mother Jones.

Time out

 This illustrates that "the more things change, the more they stay the same", especially in US politics. These ploys that the ruling class uses to manage their population seem to always work. I imagine the next ploy will be to select a woman candidate to promise all kinds of changes. 

Mainstream media will help create all the hoopla over her, and soon all America will "go bananas" over this candidate. 

Palin looked promising for a while to the ruling class, but it appears that she bumbled the opportunity with her release of yesterday's video that portrayed herself as a victim of the Arizona shooting.

120 Seconds Of Gerald Celente Kicking Wall Street's Ass [2:13m video]

from The Daily Bail. 

Text from YouTube page: While millions of Americans are unemployed and the national debt is soaring, it seems top financial executives are far from feeling the pinch.  A recent Wall Street Journal survey estimates they'll receive a staggering $144 billion dollars in compensation and benefits this year.

I don't usually go for rants in which more heat than light is shed. but this one makes a good point about people being distracted by mainstream media.

I think that underlying the success of mainstream media in managing the minds of ordinary people is a comprehensive indoctrination apparatus provided mainly by educational institutions whose aims for its subjects are to instill obedience to authorities and to avoid instruction in independent, critical thinking. Supporting the educational institutions are the many top-down authority structures, governed and monitored by the capitalist class that pervades all other societal institutions, in order to reinforce authoritarian thinking and to punish those who stray from it.

As a result of this pervasive authoritarian influence, ordinary people regard the talking heads on TV as authorities who, like parents, have their best interests at heart and mostly tell the truth. It is hard for them to believe that these authorities mostly lie in the service of their authorities, and this process extends all the way up the chains of authorities to the ruling capitalist class.

Hence, it follows from this system point of view that we must change the engine that drives nearly all of society--the capitalist system, a system which is designed to serve a few at the expense of the many. And it is no longer only a matter of social justice, it is now a matter of human survival. This system, so addicted to the consumption of energy and materials, is fundamentally in conflict with an ecological system that can support human life and many other current life forms.

A broader question might be posed: Is the human creature, that is uniquely endowed with an advanced brain, capable of creating a system that is in harmony with the Earth's ecology, or will it just be another failed evolutionary experiment that was able to survive only for a brief moment in geological time? It is up to us to answer that question, and we must answer it soon because time is running out.

Ecological civilization

by Fred Magdoff, excerpts from article in Monthly Review.


A few days ago I read the full article in Monthly Review, but found it a bit too lengthy for my postings. So I am grateful that "BA" provided these excerpts from the article. I like positive articles like this that illustrate how society could be, and must be, organized to serve the needs of everyone, unlike under capitalism which serves only the selfish, neurotic needs of a few.

...nearly the entire world is now part of a global capitalist system, which is, at its heart, an anti-environmental economic/social system. Having accumulation of capital without end as its motivating force and only goal, capitalism creates environmental havoc locally, regionally, and globally.

... The accumulation of capital, the driving and motivating force of capitalism, leads naturally to many consequences that harm the environment. The system proceeds assuming—contrary to all evidence—unlimited resources (including cheap energy) and unlimited natural “sinks” for wastes generated.

Hence, in contrast to the assertions of neoliberal capitalists, the author clearly shows that there are alternatives.

An ecological society is one that will need to be the opposite of capitalism in essentially all aspects. It would:

   1. stop growing when basic human needs are satisfied;
   2. not entice people to consume more and more;
   3. protect natural life support systems and respect the limits to natural resources, taking into account needs of future generations;
   4. make decisions based on long-term societal/ecological needs, while not neglecting short-term needs of people;
   5. run as much as possible on current (including recent past) energy instead of fossil fuels;
   6. foster the human characteristics and a culture of cooperation, sharing, reciprocity, and responsibility to neighbors and community;
   7. make possible the full development of human potential; and
   8. promote truly democratic political and economic decision making for local, regional, and multi-regional needs.

And: 

Decisions are made—to as great an extent as possible—at the level where the effects will be most felt. Self-regulation in this sense is democratic self-governing and needs to occur at the workplace, community, multi-community, regional, and multi-regional levels, so that major political and economic decisions are in the hands of an empowered populace. A system of economic and political democracy provides better identification of, and solutions to, problems. ... 

Prophets of War: How Defense Contractor Lockheed Martin Dominates the Military Establishment

from AlterNet. 

The article contains excerpts from a new book by William D. Hartung with this title.

Lockheed-Martin is a huge defense contractor that is involved in so many nefarious activities. This corporation is one of the most, if not THE most, powerful corporations in the military-industrial complex, which in turn, is the most powerful section of the US capitalist ruling class. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, this section of the ruling class has found the "war on terrorism" to be a very lucrative substitute for the Cold War as a justification for the huge US expenditures of war-making machines and security services.

While contracts for supplying weapons for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are a significant part of Lockheed Martin’s business, the new company that has taken form since the merger boom of the 1990s has a far wider reach. These activities include everything from involvement in interrogation and police training to profiting from the new post-9/11 wave of domestic surveillance activities. 

False Paradox: Reflections on the American Profits-Jobs Disconnect

by Paul Street from ZNet. 

The author does a good job of explaining all the lies about governmental and business concerns related to creating more jobs.

There’s little mysterious about the disconnect between profits and jobs for those willing and able to look beyond the trickle-down theory’s naïve assumption of an identity of interests between the rich and the rest of us.

As Austerity Bites, Police Get More Brutal

by Apostolis Fotiadis from IPS. 

This report illustrates how the capitalist ruling class reveals it hidden mailed fist when it can no longer manage its population with the institutions of fake democracy. The Greek people are beginning to understand this.

"This is what happens in countries ruled by authoritarian regimes, not in a European democracy."

See, I Told You So Comes Back Around to Bite Rush Limbaugh

by Ed Martin from OpEd News. 

I've noticed that mainstream media has been going out of its way to defend the inflammatory rhetoric of its right-wing pundits. 

See also, "Republicans and Their Guns", and "Sarah Palin’s Cross Hairs – and Obama’s".

Government-created climate of fear

by Glenn Greenwald from Salon. 

This popular blogger among progressives is also a constitutional lawyer and author. Thus, his remarks in this article about the function of "the rule of law" in the US is particularly interesting: it clearly shows that he as changed his views. It very much appears that he, too, is beginning to see the fact of the growing fascism in the US. 

(I try not to use political words carelessly. So often the word fascism is used merely as a buzz word to denote something very bad, or a slur. What I mean by it is a highly centralized rule representing the interests of corporations and political authorities that uses brute force, or the threat of force, to intimidate people into submitting to government authorities.)

Downturn's Ugly Trademark: Steep, Lasting Drop in Wages

by Sudeep Reddy from The Wall Street Journal.

The author provides a lot concrete examples of how the (bankster engineered) economic collapse is affecting American workers--only he doesn't mention all the psychological and social devastation that is occurring and will increasingly occur in the days ahead: depression, marital problems, divorces, behavior problems in children, suicides, increasing crime, homelessness, loss of job skills, etc. These effects will happen unless, of course, we organize some kind of resistance and make changes in the existing economic arrangements.

Obits for "Fabled Hero" of Vietnam War, Vang Pao, Omit CIA Drug Connection

by Conn Hallinan from Foreign Policy in Focus. (About the author.) 

The author reveals what is hidden in mainstream media's innocuous reports on the demise of a former Vietnamese who in actuality was a CIA collaborator in the drug business during the tragic Vietnam War. It is reports like this that can recover real information that was suppressed when the events were happening. It is often hazardous for the health of journalists to report such things.

A fine journalist, Gary Webb, employed by the San Jose Mercury, who in 1996 wrote a series of fine reports regarding CIA involvement in illicit drug operations, found himself blacklisted, his career destroyed, and died mysteriously in 2004.

Deepening crisis traps America's have-nots

by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard from The Telegraph.

Raghuram Rajan, the IMF’s former chief economist, argues that the subprime debt build-up was an attempt – “whether carefully planned or the path of least resistance” – to disguise stagnating incomes and to buy off the poor.

“The inevitable bill could be postponed into the future. Cynical as it might seem, easy credit has been used throughout history as a palliative by governments that are unable to address the deeper anxieties of the middle class directly,” he said. 

I have observed that mainstream media has managed to condition the American people to view any taxes as evil incarnate.  I came to this realization quite recently with the results of a ballot initiative in Washington State that called for an income tax on people earning over $200,000 a year. It was defeated! As a result, this state, as many others, is drastically cutting back on social, medical, educational, and other government services that mostly impact poor people.

In contrast, people have been led to believe that credit is just fine, that funding local infrastructure and services through the purchase of bonds is just fine, while signing up for onerous mortgage loans on homes was greatly encouraged and celebrated ("the ownership society'). Meanwhile the 30 year destruction of well paying jobs and the suppression of wages has continued. Do you see a pattern here? 

Well, by design or not, the end result is what we have today--Americans and a large part of the world indebted to a tiny group of capitalists. Welcome to neo-feudalism!

Arizona's Long Dark Night Continues

by Randall Amster from Huffington Post. 

The open persecution of people of color at the level of both bodies and minds; the outright hijacking of the state's politics by far-right figures with white supremacist ties; the bankrupting of the economy while private interests gain tax breaks and write favorable laws for themselves; the decimation of the public infrastructure including the education and health care systems -- all of this and more has been front and center for beleaguered Arizonans in recent years.

I've often had my suspicions about all the violent metaphors and imagery used by the rabid right wing in the US. I can't believe that they use such language without being aware of how it inflames unstable people to commit literal violent acts as we witnessed this past weekend in Arizona. My suspicion is that they aim to encourage such incidents to justify an ever increasing and oppressive police state in the US. The Empire's fascists evidently feel that they need to secure their American center as they increasingly feel their domination of the world slipping away.

Wikileaks: Bradley Manning and the Rule of Law

by Kevin Zeese from Global Research. 

I think that there is a pronounced element of naiveté running through this article. But it is very common among progressives and liberals. I am referring to the "rule of law" that is often invoked to criticize the actions of the capitalist Empire. 

Once again, I insist that progressives grow up. The "rule of law" is used by the ruling classes to obscure the fact that they, the ruling capitalist classes, rule, and rule according to their interests, that is, to secure total domination of working people and accumulation of wealth. 

Think of the "rule of law" as an adult fairy tale designed to have working people believe that life under their regimes is fair and just. As is often cynically expressed, the "rule of law" is more like a "golden rule of law"--those that have the gold rule.

Look how they are treating Bradley Manning. The authorities in this case don't even bother with legal procedures. He hasn't been charged with any crime and yet they have been holding him in dehumanizing solitary confinement for six months.

There are lots of adult fairy tales used to hide the realities of class rule such as capitalist governments are democracies, the elections they stage are legitimate means of securing democracy, we have freedom of the press, the virtuous "founding fathers" designed the perfect political system, all citizens enjoy equal political rights, etc.

Laws are a reality, but a reality only for working people, not for those that rule. They make the rules, but those rules don't apply to them, only to us. How many banksters have you seen arrested for the crimes they committed while creating the current economic collapse? Only one--Bernie Madoff! He made the mistake of stealing from fellow members of the ruling class. 

How many war criminals have stood trial for their crimes? Only leaders of defeated nations or leaders of small countries are tried for war crimes. The ruling capitalist classes have a code of conduct that is very similar to the Mafia--you don't snitch on, or steal from, or harm each other unless members break these rules or are very minor players. 

The ruling class has established the institutions of law to present a thin veneer of legitimacy to their rule while enforcing their will upon us. To sum up, they make the rules of law. They enforce them only on us. And finally, they fool us into thinking that the system is legitimate so that we obey them without question.

The Pentagon's Planet of Bases

by Nick Turse from TomDispatch. (You may want to skip Engelhardt's introduction by scrolling down to the article.)

In a world of statistics and precision, a world in which “accountability” is now a Washington buzzword, a world where all information is available at the click of a mouse, there’s one number no American knows.  Not the president.  Not the Pentagon.  Not the experts.  No one. 

This has puzzled me also. There have been so many widely varying numbers thrown out about the number of bases that it has been hard to know what to believe. I once tried to access data and ended up with total confusion. However, this is the best coverage on this question that I have seen.

Spinning Unemployment in a Collapsing Empire

by Paul Craig Roberts from OpEd News. 

...what fell was not the number of unemployed people but the number of unemployed people who are actively looking for work. Those who have become discouraged and have ceased looking for work are not considered to be in the work force and are not counted as unemployed in the U.3 measure. The unemployment rate fell because discouraged workers increased, not because employment rose.

If the Fraud Stops, the Financial System Collapses

by Charles Hugh Smith from his blog. 

Unfortunately, this is the only entry I could find for today--and I found this at the last minute before my deadline of noon, Seattle time. Briefly, I think he makes many good points, but where I differ is that I believe that the capitalist system is INHERENTLY corrupt--the system IS organized crime. And it has always been that way, only now it is much worse.

Fraud, collusion, embezzlement, manipulation and misrepresentation of risk are not isolated incidents, they are now the essential fabric of our entire financial system.

Though fraud and complicity are presented in the mainstream media as isolated conspiracies outside the status quo, the truth is that the status quo is now entirely dependent on fraud and complicity for its very survival. Every level of the status quo would immediately implode were fraud and complicity suddenly withdrawn from the system.

The Meaning of Daley

by Russ Baker from Who What Why. 

Russ Baker is one of America's premier investigative journalists. His sensitive "antennae" points us to some real food for thought on how our government really functions in contrast to the news pablum that mainstream media feeds us. 

In this article he delves into Obama's recent appointment of William Daley for the important position of White House Chief of Staff. Daley comes from the Chicago political machine; but more importantly, Baker reveals all the other interests he is tied to--the real powers behind the throne. This is how American style "democracy" works. 

It is much like any production in the theater or cinema. The stage play, "Democracy in America", always retains the same producers, directors and screenwriters who are always recruited from sections of the ruling capitalist class, but it is performed with different actors.  In the play the latter act out their roles through various scenes of elections, after which they are selected and then play the role of government leaders. The directors and/or the producers always select the actors, and the latter are given their scripts by the screenwriters. Daley's role will probably be that of director and screenwriter, the banking institutions that of the producer.

If, like most Americans, you confined yourself to reading/listening/viewing mainstream media, you would think that these events on stage were reality, not just someone's or some class's version of reality. You would think that elections were important and a sure sign of a real democracy.

WikiLeaks' Most Terrifying Revelation: Just How Much Our Government Lies to Us

by Fred Branfman from AlterNet. (Fred Branfman exposed the U.S. Executive's Secret Air War in Laos, which illegally and savagely murdered tens of thousands of innocent Laotian peasants. See Wikipedia if you wish more details on the author.)

In this article the author brings together all the sordid government lies exposed by WikiLeaks to show "how much our government lies to us."

The purpose of communicating with the public is not to provide them with truthful information but rather to advance “the mission”. People who communicate with the public obtain their jobs and are promoted on the basis of their ability to mislead, deceive, “spin” and lie. There is no recorded case where Executive Branch officials have been rewarded for telling the truth to the American people, and many where they have been punished or lost their jobs for doing so.

What Are Rich People Worried About in 2011?

by Jamie Johnson from Vanity Fair. 

Today on our brief excursion into the lives of the rich one percent of Americans, the author, who is an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, leads us on this tour to find out what is causing the rich to have fear. 

It seems that we have this in common with them as we look ahead to our futures. We worry about paying next month's rent, getting a job, having our unemployment benefits end, having our homes foreclosed, having our company close down and move to Asia, having our son or daughter come back from Afghanistan in a box, etc. Let's see what is so frightening to the rich.

Why are so many Americans unemployed and underemployed? And what could we do about it?

by Richard Clark from OpEd News. 

He has some excellent ideas about what could be done to provide for more employment, but he is very short on why nothing is being done. The best he can offer is that the "powers-that-be" wouldn't like it, or the Republicans and blue dog Democrats wouldn't like it. To hide the fact that both parties work for the same ruling class, political analysts, particularly in mainstream media, often resort to vacuous explanations like this. 

Off the top of my head, I can think of several reasons for the government's lack of progress to solve the unemployment crisis. The ruling class that sponsors and directs the government are supported by their ownership of bonds and stocks. Increasing employment gives labor more bargaining power for increased wages which, of course, cuts into profits. Likewise, unemployment does just the opposite. High unemployment rates keep inflation down which preserves the value of bonds. Last, but not least, the ruling class prefers to invest their money in countries that can supply them with cheap labor and weak environmental restrictions. 

So, you see, the system creates class conflict, and working people face a powerful opponent. It doesn't help when many working people are brainwashed into thinking that the system is good for them.

Irish Leaders Castigated As Greatest Traitors Of All Time

by Gabriel Donohoe from OpEd News.

This guy is becoming one of my favorite internet authors. In this piece he offers a comprehensive report on the bankster-vultures that have descended upon Ireland, explains how this happened, and who benefits, in other words, follow the money. It is the same story everywhere in the West.

One special interest group, the banksters, prevailed spectacularly over the interests of the Irish people. How did the banksters manage to wield such inordinate influence over crucial governmental policy?

The uncomfortable truth about mind control: Is free will simply a myth?

by Michael Mosley from The Independent. 

This piece offers a good review of the classic psychological studies done by Milgram and others on the willingness of people to comply with authorities. 

My hunch is that all class structured societies rely on the obedience of their subordinates to follow orders. It is so much more efficient than having to threaten people with harm to follow the orders of ruling classes. Hence, education and general socialization of children strongly emphasizes obedience to authority figures. And many people, in my opinion, really never grow up and out of this training. They simply transfer their obedience from their parents and teachers to bosses, political figures, media "experts", etc.

Extreme weather events help drive food prices to record highs

from Climate Progress. 

...the combination of peak oil and extreme weather are likely to create growing food insecurity this decade, particularly since the nation and the world have decided to take no action to address either problem.

Obama Appoints Ultimate Wall Street Insiders to Top Posts ... Again

from Washington's Blog.

This is only for those who still cling to the delusion that Obama represents change. He is employed by the same crowd that hired the Bushes, Clinton, Reagan, etc. 

The little red book that swept France

by John Lichfield from The Independent. 

A 93 year old French resistance fighter in WWII is fighting back against the system. We must ask ourselves, "am I doing enough?"

Indignez vous! (Cry out!), a slim pamphlet by a wartime French resistance hero, Stéphane Hessel, is smashing all publishing records in France. The book urges the French, and everyone else, to recapture the wartime spirit of resistance to the Nazis by rejecting the "insolent, selfish" power of money and markets and by defending the social "values of modern democracy".

 

Everything is OK Montage [8:02m video]

from BackBurnerNews. 

This is great therapy to help you survive one more day of capitalism. It shows that the Brits are very creative in the methods they use to fight back against the system.

The urge to surge: The US's 30-year high

by Tom Engelhardt from Asia Times Online. 

This is one of the best critical reviews of Empire polices, particularly in relation to the nine year war in Afghanistan-Pakistan, that I have seen. The author weaves together the many strands of the push to Empire, or as he expresses it, the "urge to surge" that has created this monstrous, power-drug addicted Empire. 

The author almost always provides a penetrating analysis of political events, but he is always careful not to stray beyond the limits of tolerance imposed on writers by all significant media outlets. Permit me to stray for him.

To be sure, domination over others is a powerful drug, but he fails to mention the other drug--probably the primary drug because it also provides power--the accumulation of wealth. The engine of this accumulation is the capitalist system, a system that is supported by the twin pillars of the  rights of private ownership of socially produced wealth and the inviolability of contracts, both of which are enforced by state military-police forces. 

The parallels that he describes between the Soviet military involvement in Afghanistan and the Empire's is useful, but only to a point. There are significant differences which reveal differences in the social-political structures of the former Soviet Union and the United States. 

The Soviet Union was a centralized bureaucratically dominated system with public ownership of all significant parts of the economy. Under Stalin's leadership it was never an expansionist country. But because of the constant threats, invasions, and occupations of their territory by Western capitalist countries in the 20th century, their leaders were understandably extremely protective of its borders. Afghanistan was right on their border, like Canada is on our border. They simply could not allow the CIA funded subversion of their neighboring country to succeed.

The US, on the other hand, is a country under the leadership of the capitalist class whose primary agenda is always the accumulation of more wealth, and with that wealth comes more power which also contributes to the accumulation of more wealth. 

After WWII the ruling class in the US was "king of the hill". It had the only industrial plant that was still intact, a huge military force, and tremendous wealth. It absorbed what was left of the British Empire, enforced their class interests in shaping the setup of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the US dollar as the currency used in international trade. 

It was primarily at this point in time that the ruling capitalist class in the US became really drunk on power. The most significant part of the globe that stood in their way of world domination was the Soviet Union. They declared (an informal) war, albeit a limited one, on the Soviet Union. It started off as containment because their were many countries on the border of the Soviet Union that wanted strong labor oriented governments. Hence the CIA subversion of these movements in France, Italy, Greece, Korea, and many other countries. Soon the policy evolved into "rollback" that resulted in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world was wide open to capitalist exploitation. There were only a few remaining areas that they couldn't control or strongly influence: mostly the Middle East or Eurasia, North Korea, and China. The latter country offered cheap labor for US companies, so it was largely left alone. North Korea wasn't very important. But the Middle East had most of the oil and other resources. Hence the need to come up with an excuse to invade that area. 9/11 provided that excuse.

The threat to world peace and social justice has always been the capitalist system. Nowadays, we are faced with the most ominous threat of all--the threat to our planetary ecosystem and human life. 

Wikileaks: Israelis ‘Intend to Keep the Gazan Economy on the Brink of Collapse’

by Juan Cole from his blog Informed Consent.

Critics of the WikiLeaks leaks have often pointed to the presence of leaks that are supportive of Israeli policies and the absence of leaks that are critical of these policies. One, of course, must see that the gatekeepers of the leaks are largely mass media outlets of NATO countries. It is interesting that this leak was reported by a news agency from a more peripheral member country--Norway.

The Norwegian newspaper Aftenpost has released a March, 2008, US embassy cable describing the Israeli blockade and siege of Occupied Gaza as an attempt to reduce the society to the lowest possible level of functioning without provoking a “humanitarian crisis” (presumably mass starvation).

While Washington pursues CEOs, they snub U.S.

by Robert Reich from SF Chronicle. 

The former Secretary of Labor under the Clinton administration reveals how both US political parties pursue the favors of corporate heads:

So the White House caved in on the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and is telling CEOs it will be on their side from now on. As the president recently told a group of CEOs, the choice "is not between Democrats and Republicans. [See this] It's between America and our competitors around the world. We can win the competition."

But even better, he writes about how the US corporations, several that have taken taxpayer bailouts, are offshoring most of their production and creating jobs for non-US citizens.

There's only one problem. America's big businesses are less and less American. They're going abroad for sales and employees. That's one reason they've showed record-breaking profits in 2010 while creating almost no American jobs. 

So, as you can see, even the President makes it clear that US elections don't have any relevance. (As if you didn't already know.) The US government representatives, who are sponsored by corporations and their owners, support their sponsoring corporations against other competitors. But, doesn't it get rather confusing for Obama when corporations and their owners are globalized? Maybe it is fairly easy--just add up the contributions and their sources and you will find the US military-industrial complex at the head of the line. See this, and this.

The climate movement is in desperate need of renewal

by Bradley Day from the Guardian. 

In the final weeks of 2010, 20 individuals – including myself – went on trial after being accused of conspiring to shut down the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power station. Today we received our sentences. The jury were presented with a wealth of evidence, not seeking to disprove the charge, but to justify it.

Despite hearing terrifying evidence from some of world's leading climate change experts; learning of the millions of pounds spent in their local area as a result of extreme weather conditions; listening to gut-wrenching testimonies from flood victims across the globe; and observing senior politicians explain our crippling democratic deficit, the jury went on to deliver a unanimous guilty verdict.

Capital's war against WikiLeaks

by Mark LeVine from Al Jazeera.

 ...Assange is right that there is something "neo", if not exactly new, in the way the corporate sector is behaving today and its relationship with government. It lies in the embrace - or better, re-embrace - of finance capitalism and militaristic empire and the military industrial complex that sustains it.

Whether preying on unwitting consumers in middle America or preying on suspected insurgents in the Middle East, these are two of the most secretive sectors of the American economy. They depend on the public knowing as little as possible about their inner workings to secure the greatest possible freedom of action, power and profits.

He prefaced his article with the question:

Can the leak phenonomen sustain the continued assault by the corporate sector to prevail in the first ever cyber-war?

He doesn't have an answer, but my answer is that if we, the 99% of the world, do not support the exposure and reporting of truth, we will be defeated. The most important weapon against the Empire is accurate information.

Capitalism and Degrowth—An Impossibility Theorem

by John Bellamy Foster from Monthly Review. 

The author examines the degrowth orientation that seems to be informing most of "green" thinking in liberal and environmental circles today. 

What is known as “degrowth economics,” associated with the work of Serge Latouche in particular, emerged as a major European intellectual movement in 2008 with the historic conference in Paris on “Economic De-Growth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity,” and has since inspired a revival of radical Green thought, as epitomized by the 2010 “Degrowth Declaration” in Barcelona.

He asks and considers this question:

The degrowth concept...forces us to confront the questions: Is degrowth feasible in a capitalist grow-or-die society—and if not, what does this say about the transition to a new society?

If you liked this article, you might wish to read a lengthier, more comprehensive essay on social-economic system arrangements necessary in order to live in harmony with nature: "Ecological Civilization" by Fred Madgoff from Monthly Review.

Given the overwhelming harm being done to the world’s environment and to its people, it is essential today to consider how we might organize a truly ecological civilization—one that exists in harmony with natural systems—instead of trying to overwhelm and dominate nature. This is not just an ethical issue; it is essential for our survival as a species and the survival of many other species that we reverse the degradation of the earth’s life support systems that once provided dependable climate, clean air, clean water (fresh and ocean), bountiful oceans, and healthy and productive soils.
 

John Pilger’s The War You Don’t See: An indictment of news reporting as state propaganda

by Paul Mitchell from World Socialist Web Site.

A film review. 

John Pilger has reported on six wars, beginning in Vietnam in 1967, and produced more than 55 documentaries. His new film, The War You Don’t See, examines the media’s role in war and asks whether it has become part of the propaganda machine of the state. The documentary focuses in particular on the practice of “embedding” journalists in military units, which has helped virtually destroy independent war reporting.

Recovery Recedes, Convulsion Looms

by Walden Bello from Foreign Policy in Focus. 

The author looks at economic trends in the global economy and asks an important question (which he attempts to answer):

The triumph of austerity in the U.S. and Europe will surely eliminate these two areas as engines of recovery for the global economy.  But is Asia indeed on a different track, one that would make it bear, like Atlas, the burden of global growth?

Natural-Catastrophe Losses Rose to $37 Billion Last Year, Munich Re Says

by Jann Bettinga from Bloomberg. 

With the exception of earthquakes, I think that natural disasters will increase due to climate instability. The world seems to have one extreme weather event after another. Witness the floods currently happening in Australia. Let us pray that we haven't yet passed significant tipping points.

Neo-Colonialism, Imperialism and Resistance in the 21st Century

by Devon DB from Global Research. (Devon DB is 19 years old and studying political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.)

This is a good, brief essay which explains the reality behind the history of the "liberation" of the former colonies by their European masters. However, he seem to miss the distinction between neo-colonialism and neoliberalism.

If you have been wide awake and aware of developments in the last 20 years, you already know that neoliberalism is the application of many of the same methods, especially the use of debt financing, but now used everywhere in the world against working people. Welcome to the world of globalized capitalism!

FG Hemisphere vulture fund’s latest victory against the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

by Renaud Vivien from CADTM.

You may wonder why this article, taking place in far off Africa, has relevance for your life. In this globalized capitalist world we are now living in, financial scam artists are using mostly the same methods everywhere to put all working people in debt to the owning class. This will probably end up, if we don't stop them, with the whole world looking like a modern version of feudalism, or neofeudalism.

Our country (USA) was founded by this class of people who, under the leadership of Alexander Hamilton, perpetrated one of the cleverest schemes to enrich the new ruling class that had taken over the US after the Revolutionary War. To get working people to fight that war, they encouraged authentic patriots like Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry to frame the issues as involving the inherent or natural rights of people. This was reflected in the inspirational wording of the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

But after the war was over, the people soon found out that it was a war to establish the independence of the American capitalists from all the restrictions placed upon them by English rulers. Paine then was totally ignored, and ended his life penniless and obscurity. As Robert G. Ingersoll wrote:

One by one most of his old friends and acquaintances had deserted him. Maligned on every side, execrated, shunned and abhorred – his virtues denounced as vices – his services forgotten – his character blackened, he preserved the poise and balance of his soul. He was a victim of the people, but his convictions remained unshaken. He was still a soldier in the army of freedom, and still tried to enlighten and civilize those who were impatiently waiting for his death. Even those who loved their enemies hated him, their friend – the friend of the whole world – with all their hearts. On the 8th of June, 1809, death came – Death, almost his only friend. At his funeral no pomp, no pageantry, no civic procession, no military display. In a carriage, a woman and her son who had lived on the bounty of the dead – on horseback, a Quaker, the humanity of whose heart dominated the creed of his head – and, following on foot, two negroes filled with gratitude – constituted the funeral cortege of Thomas Paine.

After the war the Constitution was rammed through a convention that had been billed as a meeting where modifications to the Articles of Confederation were to be discussed. As Charles Beard, the noted historian and political scientist of the early 20th century wrote in his seminal work, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution:

Instead of being a document drawn up by patriotic men for the protection of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the Constitution was the work of consolidated economic groups--...property interests....

Having laid the ground rules to insure the priority of property rights which would be enforced by the new national army, they ran their scam that I will briefly describe. (See the above book for more details and also Beard's book entitled, Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy.)

During the war the soldiers, farmers and working people (as usual) led by members of the local elites, fought the war against the British. It was a grueling war: many defeats were suffered at the hands of the British, long imprisonments in terrible conditions, and soldiers endured long delays in receiving their pay which also caused hardships for their families. Then when they were paid, they were usually paid in paper script (formally debt) issued either by their respective States or the Confederation government. This money depreciated dramatically over time to where it was worth less than 20% of its nominal value and as low as 5%. After the war was over, Hamilton and his capitalist friends quietly went about buying up all this script at their market value. Then after the Constitution was rammed through, they made sure that the new government assumed all of the debts for this old money and other war debts at their face value! 

Anyway--excuse my digression--as the author of the article explains, these vulture funds will likely be operating in the US as well:

Please note that these attacks are not confined to Africa. For example, Argentina is now prey to two vulture funds, Elliott Capital and EM Limited, who are trying to seize the funds deposited by the Argentine government with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS)- an amount exceeding $ 1 billion. Nothing hinders (for the time being) the vulture funds from attacking the North next, given the speculative practices on their debts. In this context, further measures are needed to take the vulture funds out of harm’s way.

All this illustrates is that the use of debt is a primary weapon in the arsenal of capitalists to accumulate wealth and power at the expense of those who create wealth and fight the wars of capitalists.

The Irish crisis: a complete failure for neo-liberalism

by Eric Toussaint from CADTM. 

This offers a review of the effects of neo-liberal policies as practiced in Ireland which "for a decade, ...was heralded by the most ardent partisans of neo-liberal capitalism as a model to be imitated." Of course, this is only an example that is being replicated in many parts of the free-market capitalist world. What is so remarkable is that the practitioners of this global scam are undeterred in their efforts to continue the operation.

Far from relinquishing its neo-liberal orientation, the IMF declared that among Ireland’s priorities it is counting on the adoption of reforms to do away with structural obstacles to business, so as to support competitiveness in the coming years. “Socialist” Dominique Strauss-Kahn said he was convinced that a new government after the elections in early 2011 would not change anything: “I’m confident that even if the opposition parties, Fine Gael and Labour, are criticizing the government and the programme [...], they understand the need to implement the programme.”

Notice the use of the political identifier, "socialist". This is widely practiced in Europe where real socialism was a dream of many and often used by capitalists and fascists, like wolves masquerading in sheep's clothing, to manage, or "manufacture", the consent of the people. Even the Nazis used the term in the name of their party, "National Socialist German Workers' Party", This is identical to the widespread practice in the US of using "democracy" and "democratic" in reference to practices or countries that are likely the opposite. See the Orwellian term, "doublespeak".

Actually, I think that the widespread degradation of political terms and concepts are a deliberate attempt by ruling classes to confuse ordinary people, who want to understand politics, so that they never understand the injustices of class rule.

The Corporatization of Social Commons

by Zeynep Tufekci from Technosociology. 

We are increasingly aware of the erosion of the traditional commons such as public services, public parks, and social safety nets, all of which are being cut back to the bare-bones. Corporations and their governments are replacing these with privately owned "public" spaces such as shopping malls. 

But, as this perceptive writer warns us, there is much more under the radar--the insidious trend whereby corporations are gradually creating our "commons" in the form social network media. This commons is also controlled by private interests, learns everything it can about us, and sells the information to other corporations to better market their products to us. Moreover, corporations likely make all this information available to the government, a "commons" which they own and control as well.

For most people, most of the time, that does not create major issues (even while creating dramatic consequences for few), but the totality of these interactions creates a tragedy of commons – actions that may be reasonable for individuals creates an environment which has dramatic consequences for everyone. In our case, the consequence we are headed for is  a world of near-complete surveillance of everyday actions that is searchable, permanent and public. We are slowly but surely creeping into this world and it is high time for a serious public discussion to take place. 

I think that this article is an important antidote to all the rosy messages emanating from the cheerleaders of localization, like David Korten and Rob Hopkins (see this) who fail to see these encroachments on our diminishing commons, and who portray localization as a romantic journey into blissful independence and social utopia. 

Localization is fine if it localizes and socializes all the 95% of the world's resources owned and controlled by private interests. Otherwise, it will only offer us the opportunity to struggle for  survival on the leftovers and scraps of the Brave New Corporate World.  Unfortunately, these spokespersons of the localization movement and darlings of corporate and government media ignore this reality. Meanwhile, the One Percent continue depleting resources and wrecking havoc on the ecosystem; and localization, as Korten and Hopkins define it, will pose no problems for them.

The drug ad as cultural exemplar

by Djelloul Marbrook from his blog. 

The pharmaceutical advertisement must surely be the exemplar of American culture: this product is a wonderful thing if it doesn’t kill you.

As caveat the pharmaceutical advertisement is a masterwork of satire. It stands as artful metaphor for every political speech, every plank in a platform, every crafty dodge, every piece of tricky legislation cobbled by lobbyists and their elected stooges.

Unpicking the lessons of our occupation, means recognising its realities

by Jo Casserly from UCL Occupation.

The British students at University College London (UCL) are fighting back against tuition hikes and cutbacks. They are using the new social media and incorporating the revolutionary experiences of previous generations with new ideas of organizing from the bottom-up. Their thinking is evolving into some big ideas that sees their struggles as a part of a class war, and a war that they intend to win. 

The article follows with more discussion and contains some important links to other sources of information.

Democracy's failures, 2010

by Priyamvada Gopal from the Guardian. 

She reviews recent events in the UK and the world to find that "representative democracy" is losing its democratic facade to reveal something which she can only hint at--a naked class war. Well, this might represent real progress.

Resort Report: Being Nouveau Riche is Terribly Out of Style This Year

by Jamie Johnson from Vanity Fair. 

It is time for our Saturday visit to the lives of the rich in America. Jamie Johnson, heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, offers us once again a brief glimpse of what their lives are like so that we may better understand those who rule over us. 

In a country which pretends that everyone is "middle class", it is rather ironic that in actuality Americans make all kinds of social distinctions. I guess we need to maintain our egalitarian, democratic myths in order to keep from revolting. 

But we are, indeed, a class structured society.  To illustrate this point, Johnson explains to us today that even within the rich there are layers of distinctions--primarily two main ones: the old rich and the nouveau riche. He writes:

If there’s one thing that old-fashioned members of resort society fear, it’s the nouveau riche.

If you would like to learn more about the class of people who rule the US, I highly recommend Jamie Johnson's film entitled, "The One Percent". Being of that class, he has rare access to the rich and powerful who otherwise are rather obsessive about avoiding any public exposure.

Spain: Beyond the general strike

by the Editorial Team of the Catalan ID Group from The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy.(Fall 2010)

In contrast to Americans, our European brothers and sisters have been actively fighting on the streets of Europe against the cuts in public services and social supports. This Inclusive Democracy chapter in Spain recognizes the limited aims of this activism and their inherent weaknesses. In this article they review a necessary strategy to overcome these limitations in order to build a genuine democratic movement that, in contrast to revolutions from above, is the only kind that can lead us out of the growing oppression of the capitalist nightmare. Such discussions are an absolutely necessary starting point in order to develop tactics in support of a strategy to win the battle of survival. Out of these discussions arose the Barcelona Assembly to implement this strategy.

This initiative to launch an autonomous and truly combative movement, organized outside the trade unions, that goes beyond a single day of striking and to become an outcry against the ruling elites and their socioeconomic cutbacks, was a very important step in bringing power back to the people from the various bureaucracies controlling it.

2011: A Brave New Dystopia

by Chris Hedges from TruthDig.

The author uses the themes from both Huxley and Orwell to show how both function to lead us down to a "Brave New Dystopia".

The two greatest visions of a future dystopia were George Orwell’s “1984” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” The debate, between those who watched our descent towards corporate totalitarianism, was who was right. Would we be, as Orwell wrote, dominated by a repressive surveillance and security state that used crude and violent forms of control? Or would we be, as Huxley envisioned, entranced by entertainment and spectacle, captivated by technology and seduced by profligate consumption to embrace our own oppression?

Either Hedges has a morbid fascination with the totalitarian nightmare that he sees ahead of us, or else he is compulsively trying to awaken most of us who are sleeping to the reality that this is no mere nightmare. It seems to me that this endless focusing on the horrific trends he so often, and correctly, points out serves mostly to immobilize people. I would rather see him and others spend more time in constructive efforts such as offering ideas as to how we can prevent these dystopias from happening, how we can move from here to something resembling a utopia, how we can begin to replace the systems of oppression with systems of liberation.

The Shadow Banking System: A Third Of All The Wealth In The World Is Held In Offshore Banks

from The Economic Collapse. 

The super wealthy and the international banking elite think that it is really funny that our paychecks are constantly being drained by federal taxes, state taxes and Social Security taxes while they literally pay nothing at all.  These incredibly rich elitists make a ton of money doing business in wealthy western nations and then they transfer virtually all of their profits offshore where they don't have to contribute any of it in taxes.  It works out really great for them, but it sucks for the rest of us.

The Impact of the Crisis on Women in Eastern Europe

by Ewa Charkiewcz from CADTM.

This rather formalistic, academic, and lengthy piece (you can skip many of the details) focuses on the impacts of neo-liberal policies in Eastern Europe with particular emphasis on the consequences for the lives of women. Women always bear the primary responsibilities of "social reproduction" by which is meant all the tasks related to the maintenance of families. the rearing of children, etc. The impacts have been felt most dramatically in these countries due to the fact that under previous "socialist" regimes there existed considerable governmental supports for families. Thus, under neo-liberal policies everything that incurs costs for the capitalist sector is being removed and the effects are often devastating for the lives of ordinary people, often literally killing them.

Although the author focuses on Eastern Europe and on women, the political strategies of neo-liberalism used there can be seen here in the US as well; and her delineation of these strategies are useful for an understanding of what is happening here. She argues that the economic situation can no longer be described as a financial crisis because...

bailed out banks and subsidized investors are doing well. All countries in the region used anti-crisis measures to strengthen investors and businesses at the expense of protecting households. Now the increased budget deficits and growth in public debt are treated as an excuse to continue neoliberal public sector reforms.

And what she refers to as "public sector reforms" means drastic cuts to all social programs like health, education, welfare, childcare services, etc.

But now the solution to solve this former financial crisis is being "shifted to people, who are reconstituted as major cause of the crisis. How it is done?"

• Step one has been to put the the spotlight on budget deficits, while the causes of the budgetary deficits (bailing out falling banks) are removed from the agenda.
• Step two has been to reconstitute budget deficit and public debt as major causes of crises that need to be addressed with a variety of social austerity measures. In this way spending on people (or in other words on social reproduction) is constituted as the cause of the crises that is being addressed.
• Step three: with crises reinvented, what actually caused it: neoliberal governance with its mantra of deregulating social rights in the name of facilitating business growth, cutting public spending and privatizing social sectors is brought back as the solution to the problems that contributed to the crisis in the first place. 

Does this sound familiar?

Dollars for Docs Payments Approach $300 Million

by Charles Ornstein , Tracy Weber and Dan Nguyen from Pro Pulblica.

Corporate capitalism corrupts everything it touches; and nowadays it touches nearly all aspects of our lives, even into such critical areas as our health-care. 

ProPublica launched Dollars for Docs in October, creating the most accessible accounting yet of pharmaceutical payments to doctors for speaking, consulting and other duties.

Smell Something Rotten?

from Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. 

FAIR's once-a-year's release of the worst examples of journalism in the US. Another way to put it--US corporate media's best efforts to dis-inform, obscure, distort, and manage information and analysis in support of the Empire's ruling class.

WikiLeaks is not shielding Israel

by Linda S. Heard from Online Journal. 

This provides a good update on the WikiLeaks' controversies.

World Tired of Paying Bill for US Military [10:09m video]

Interview with Michael Hudson from The Real News. 

Hudson offers his explanation of why the working and middle classes in the US are being sacrificed to fund the Empire's military and wars.

As the core of the Empire, that is, the NATO countries, experience increasing competition from the BRIC countries, the latter are seeking more independence. This, however, does not in any way comfort me. This is just more inter-capitalist rivalry--like we saw in the 20th century--which can be very dangerous for working people and for world peace.

Where are the jobs? For many companies, overseas

from Associated Press. 

Welcome to the globalization phase of capitalism. The article illustrates how economies directed by capitalist ruling classes (what economies aren't nowadays?) dictate that investments should only be directed toward areas of the globe where short term profits can be realized. If you like capitalism, then you must love what is happening in today's world. If you own stocks in any of 96% of the top 500 US corporations, you must love corporations and the system that created them. 

Jobs (in the US)? Who among those who rule the world like jobs. They are a cost of doing business and therefore cut into profits. Hence, if you are a capitalist, you go where people will work for the lowest wages. What could be easier to understand than that? What is so difficult to understand is why working people put up with this arrangement and believe all the lies they are told by capitalist media. See this. 

Two, Three, Many Colombias

by Kevin Young from Foreign Policy in Focus.

For those of you who know that the purpose of capitalist media organs is to manipulate American public opinion to support the Empire's goals of total planetary control and exploitation, this article will be of little interest. It will only confirm what you already know--we have, once again, been lied to. However, it does serve to illustrate where the thinking of American liberals and many progressives are situated. They are increasingly aware that there is a ruling class who have interests separate from most Americans. This writer hints at what is a glaring fact to us:

Given the current constellations of power in the United States and Latin America, a substantial demilitarization of policy would simply incur too much elite resistance and deliver few political rewards.

Well, that is progress! But, whether it is enough progress to keep this class of people from destroying the planet for human habitation remains to be seen. Unfortunately, he seems to think that there is nothing we can do about changing such policies because the "elites" wouldn't like it.

De-growth – is not enough [a must-study article]

by Ted Trainer from The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy Vol. 6, No. 4 (Fall 2010). 

This article is fairly lengthy, but because it deals with the most serious issues in this age of multiple crises, it certainly deserves the additional time it takes to understand it fully. In my opinion, this article along with the other articles from the ID Journal represent the leading edge of progressive thought in the world today. (There appears to be a few obvious errors in the article which could have benefited from more proofreading before publication.)

At least at the present time I favor Ted Trainer's writings which I feel are much more accessible than those of Fotopoulos who is the founder of ID thought. I find that the latter's writing style is a bit off-putting due to his frequent use of rather convoluted, complex sentences and obscure terms. The latter may be due to the fact that English is a secondary language for him, and more of a European English than American. Also, I find that Fotopoulos tends to be too argumentative for my taste. I really don't think that there are any really significant differences between these two writers. But that is only my opinion, and I encourage you to explore the other articles in this issue of the Journal Vol. 6, No. 4 (Fall 2010).

The Dream Of Democracy

by Ralph J Dolan from Global Research. 

This Vietnam veteran sees the existing problems as due to a "global ruling class", but, so far, does not see this class in relation to a system. Hence, in his view, only the class needs to be changed. This is about as far left as progressives in this country have gone. Most do not yet see the underlying system upon which the ruling class is constructed. Still, after so many years of believing in democratic fairy tales, this represents progress among progressives in the US.

Asserting that a totalitarian political and economic ideology still dominates our world suggests that there exists a ruling class.  How can it be denied?  From country to country one sees ruling families, juntas, crony capitalism, brutal regimes, fat oligarchs amidst vast squalor, domination of the political and economic mechanisms by small, wealthy, entrenched, ruthless, privileged groups.

This is the global ruling class.  They are an elite club.  They look out for each others' political and economic interests.  They lead double lives.  They are all double agents.  They pretend to serve one master but actually serve an entirely different master.  They wear masks.  In public they sing of the glories of the idea of democratic governance, of the march toward the liberation of the human race from tyranny and oppression.  In private they ridicule such notions, despise the people and seek to manipulate the dumb masses to augment their own power, wealth and prestige.

Likewise, looking at only the prospect of removing the ruling class leaves us only with the prospect of a new ruling class.

It is true that in this vulnerable time some new tyrant may come and take the place of the old tyrant.

This concerns me. I fear the possibilities that exist if progressives in the US fail to move beyond this type of thinking. When people become desperate for change, they may go in any direction to achieve it--much like what happened during the Wiemar Republic in Germany in the 1930s.

I Will Not Participate In the Journalism of Appeasement

by David DeGraw from Amped Status. 

The author is getting exasperated with some of his fellow journalists, and is about to start packing. I am not sure this is a great option. Where can one go in the world that is beyond the reach of the Empire? I think it is far better to stay here and collaborate in figuring out how to create a system free of privileged private interests. 

If you are not calling for revolution or organizing, you are either unaware of what’s happening around you, horribly naïve or a fascist sympathizer. If we continue to let our politicians and wealthy members of society live in comfort, free from the consequences of their actions, we are complicit in our own demise.

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So are we going to start fighting back, or should I just move my family to another country? Most everyone who understands our economic and political situation are having this debate now and contemplating moving outside the country. Is that what we should do? Should we just leave the country and let it collapse?

Still, I think that the author has a ways to go to understand that it is the capitalist system itself that needs to be dismantled, and then needs to come up with ideas about a new system that insures social justice, peace, and living in harmony with nature.