“It is now clear that the U.S. financial system is in cardiac arrest.”
– New York economist Nouriel Roubini
“The world is on the edge of the abyss because of an irresponsible system.”
– French Prime Minister François Fillon
“If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down.”
-George Bush
And those are supporters of capitalism. Here’s what one socialist has to say :
“The world will never be the same after this crisis. A new world has to emerge, and it is a multipolar world. We are decoupling from the wagon of death.”
-Hugo Chavez
Chavez is kind in calling global capitalism a “wagon” of death , given the speed at which this missile is hurtling towards destruction. Problems unnoticed by establishment leaders only a short while ago have become major threats to the superstructure of an economy which has been rotting at its foundation for quite some time. But present fears expressed by those most responsible for speeding up the process of decomposition never question the system. Only greedy people and bad ideas are responsible for market chaos , and it’s easy to find individual demons for the blame game. But we need to see the whole picture and not just the trees on which mind managers focus our attention, while they blur the rest of the forest. We live as renters in a fast deteriorating public environment , while we are directed to protect only specially chosen private landlords.
This system has always privatized profits and socialized loss, but never to the massive extent of recent experience. The sorry state of political disorganization allows this gigantic rip-off to go on without a furious demand for a new economic order. We collectively lend billions to the banks, and then go to them as individuals and plead for a loan or credit line. But don’t hang by your lip expecting leadership for a new order to come out of this election.
That seemingly endless Halloween Horror of a campaign will likely bring victory (?) to the lesser evil half-white, over the greater evil half-wit. Both serve corporate command, sharing slavish devotion to the privately controlled market, the global empire and the Jewish colonial state in Israel. Representing those with the highest capacity for accumulating wealth , the greater evil has directed his campaign at those with the lowest capacity for accumulating knowledge. The lesser evil has relied on a massive ad campaign stressing symbolic hope and is certainly less debased than the other, as polio is less deadly than cancer. But whichever one moves into the publicly subsidized usually All - White House , both assure that we will still be suffering a malignant disease . The taxpayer burden of support for rich welfare chiselers, now claiming billions in payments almost every day, will continue no matter which chairperson capital has had rubber stamped by a minority of the electorate.
A choice of Nader or McKinney would be for real change, but given the control still exercised in support of crackpot realism , few will cast such a vote. Perverse democracy reproduces perverse leadership, with differences that are physically minimal and only appear significant to the psychologically desperate. But they mean continued disaster for a society still addicted to the political drugs administered by servants of the status quo, presented to them as agents of a word without meaning in this context: change.
The drain on taxpayers is greatest in supporting a global killing machine of weaponry, armies and foreign military bases to make wars that preserve the empire . It will still be a while before this imperial energy guzzler finally runs out of gas, but its over extended forces were helpless in Georgia , and further signs of its diminished capacity are evident, for which we should be at least slightly grateful. The ghouls who wish to increase bloodshed in Afghanistan , like the half-white and the half-wit , can only do so by decreasing bloodshed in Iraq. The end may indeed be near, but it can’t come soon enough for those still in the path of this “wagon of death”.
But singling out presidents, CEOs and other market culprits only clouds the mind with satanic symbols so that a demonic system escapes perception, let alone understanding. For the present that system will continue bringing great wealth to some, but for the future, it threatens more wars, poverty and devastation for all .
We need real democratic change, from the roots of our political economy, and we need to create it before it is forced on us by further calamity . Americans should take heart at foreigners who, with far less material wealth, take control of their own social environments. They are ridding themselves of corrupt and unjust old orders run by and for minorities , and creating truly democratic new ones for the benefit of previously unrepresented and terribly exploited majorities. We will eventually have to do the same thing, for our own survival. The signs are clear that this farce cannot go on much longer, unless we believe in race suicide.
Just don't expect anything substantial to happen after November’s vote , except for; a possible market boom, tales of new riches , the survival of capitalism, and shortly thereafter , the next bust. Let’s hope it isn't the final explosion, and we’d best be working to uncouple ourselves from this “wagon of death” long before that occurs. While prayer for that outcome may be useful to some, action will need to be taken by all for real change to occur.
And that doesn't simply mean changing the age, sex or race of a leader, but the nature and practice of democratic organization of a society in order to truly serve all of its people. In the process of creating such change in the USA, we would not only save ourselves, but help serve humanity as well.
Copyright (c) 2008 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net
Monday, October 20, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Great Depression and the Myth of FDR
For once the ticker tape was not exaggerating.
Panicked traders scrambling to dump everything at once bellowed like a herd of wounded beasts. On the floor of the exchange Post Two descended into outright madness as General Oliver Bridgeman's plummeting U.S. Steel stock flushed the entire economy away. Crouched down to scribble frantically on a pad of paper, Bridgeman leaped up shouting over the din in a vain attempt to stop the hemorrhaging prices.
At Post Four - Anaconda, Caterpillar Tractor, Southern Pacific, U.S. Pipe and Foundry, General Motors - a sweaty trader went insane, shrieking hysterical orders until friends took him by the arm and led him away.
Leading industrials dropped forty points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted a record 13% in a single day. With ruined investors devastated, a reporter announced that brokers were working "like shell shocked soldiers," sweat pouring down their faces, their collars and shirts torn to shreds.
Outside the exchange, a hint of violence charged the air as a silent crowd stood on the steps of Federal Hall, hands in pockets, hats pulled low, eyes fixed grimly ahead. A strange noise arose from the streets - first a murmur, then a hum, finally a roar of stunned disbelief.
At the House of Morgan Thomas Lamont dangled his prince-nez and addressed a mob of reporters: "There has been a little distress selling on the Stock Exchange . . ." Representatives of thirty-five of the largest wire houses on Wall Street issued a joint statement claiming that the market was "fundamentally sound" and that "the worst has passed."
So occurred the Great Crash of 1929. The reason was a growing disequilibrium between capitalism's immense productive capacity and its aggregate purchasing power. In the twenties low wages and high profits caused industrial productivity to outstrip consumer purchasing power. By the end of the decade a microscopic minority of investors possessed far more wealth than it could productively spend or invest while 70% of non-farm families lacked sufficient income with which to sustain an adequate diet. Six million families, 42% of the total, earned less than $1000 a year and could not make the profit system respond to their unmet needs.
Soaring productivity exacerbated the problem, as mechanization, increasing sophistication of industrial processing, and greater specialization of the labor force produced more for less and concentrated wealth in ever fewer hands. Foreign investment, installment credit, and stock speculation postponed the day of reckoning for a short time, but when hugely inflated stock prices and proliferating numbers of stocks spooked buyers in October 1929, the market went into a deep crash.
Amidst the vast economic misery occasioned by the collapse, an increasingly militant working class resistance emerged, ushering in social democratic reforms that had been won decades earlier in more civilized societies. In 1932, the Norris-LaGuardia Act was passed, exempting unions from antitrust prosecution. Three years later the Wagner Act legalized the right to organize, elevating workers from an anonymous mass of productive atoms to a legitimate class whose grievances had to be negotiated. The same year the Social Security Act opened the door to government funded old-age insurance - over the screams of private industry. (Old age pensions had been enacted in Bismarck's Germany in 1870, in Austria in 1881, Norway in 1894, Finland in 1895, Britain in 1897, and France, Italy, and Denmark in 1898.)
The upsurge of strikes, demonstrations, and factory occupations that made such changes possible alarmed the business community, which worried about revolution and the guillotine just a few years after having declared history over with an assumed permanent victory for the business classes. The National Association of Manufacturers warned in 1938 that "the newly realized political power of the masses" posed unprecedented danger. "Unless their thinking is directed," it added, "we are definitely headed for adversity." A corporate counteroffensive quickly developed new methods of strike-breaking, manipulative "human relations" policies in personnel, and enormous propaganda efforts dedicated to smearing union organizers as treasonous "Reds."
Contrary to much mythologizing, President Roosevelt sought to harness the working class to capitalism, not emancipate it from the exploitative system, and he actually started out more conservatively than Herbert Hoover. He handed government authority to people who wanted to control workers and retain power in the business classes. He was sincere in his efforts to ameliorate the worst symptoms of the profit system, but only in order to stabilize it and prevent stronger measures from being undertaken by angry workers determined to find a permanent cure to the booms, busts, panics, and breakdowns that had plunged millions of workers into untold misery for generations. For example, the Wagner Act was designed to reverse labor's radical direction and restore passivity and continuous production by institutionalizing the authority of conservative labor leaders over the rank and file. The goal was to direct labor militancy into legalistic procedure and away from sit-down strikes. In general, FDR's labor laws sought to make labor "responsible" by inducing its leaders to become dependent on state and corporate support that could later be contracted or withdrawn.
Similarly, federal relief was implemented to cool off mass protest, defeat Norman Thomas's bid for the presidency as the Socialist Party nominee, limit violent upheaval, and banish the threat of revolution. Wherever organized labor was strong, the New Deal offered concessions, but where it was weak it declined to help; and when militant upheaval abated, aid was sharply cut, imposing suffering worse than any since the Crash itself.
Such policies were only to be expected from FDR's appointees, most of whom were decidedly anti-working class. His first Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, was from the overtly racist and anti-labor wing of the Democratic Party. Jesse Jones, a conservative millionaire newspaper owner, headed the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and later the Commerce Department, and was a great friend of the monopolists. War Secretary Henry Stimson was a Wall Street attorney who negotiated General Somoza into power in Nicaragua. The under-secretary of State was Edward Stettinius, a U.S. Steel millionaire. The Chief of the National Recovery Administration was General Hugh H. Johnson, who went to San Francisco and declared the 1934 general strike there a "menace to the government," which it certainly was. But he offered no clue why government that ushered in economic collapse shouldn't be menaced with workers' control.
New Deal reforms did go well beyond prior legislation, but they never contemplated far-reaching changes in the system that had created the disaster. The Roosevelt Administration's reforms called not for a realignment of classes, but for industry cooperation in implementing government-directed reforms. As a result, men were paid to rake leaves and build mausoleums, but not to work idle machines producing the means to feed and clothe themselves. Only massive public enterprise could have moved the U.S. fully into the era of social democracy, but the New Deal shunned social planning and rejected government responsibility for full employment, in favor of high joblessness and unemployment insurance. Charity for workers and entitlement for the corporations that held them down continued to be the operative values.
In fact, the New Deal was a boon to private industry. The "code authorities" of the National Recovery Administration were drawn heavily from the ranks of big business. They restricted production and set prices that benefited major corporations at the expense of their smaller rivals,, and primed the production pump by funneling torrents of public cash into the hands of financial elites. In nine years the Reconstruction Finance Insurance Corporation extended big business $15 billion in loans.
The federal housing program awarded subsidies to construction firms and insured the loans of mortgage bankers. Agricultural price supports and production cutbacks aided large producers while displacing tenant farmers and sharecroppers when federal acreage rental programs withdrew lands from cultivation. The Civilian Conservation Corps provided subsistence jobs for just three million of the 15 million people out of work. The Works Project Administration sporadically employed 9 million people at wages below the norm in private industry. Of twelve million people working for less than 40 cents an hour, only half a million benefited from the minimum wage law - just over 4% of them. The Social Security Act covered but half the population and offered no medical insurance or protection against pre-retirement illness. Welfare programs were funded not by a wealth tax, but by regressive payroll and sales taxes.
Finally, only the massive war orders of the 1940s lifted the economy out of the Depression, so if anyone deserves credit for curing that catastrophe it is Adolf Hitler, not Franklin Roosevelt.
As for the grotesquely lopsided distribution of wealth that precipitated this and every other economic crisis under capitalism, researchers have found that income inequality persisted unchanged through the Hoover, Roosevelt and Truman years.
Sources:
Professor Frank Stricker, "Causes of the Great Depression," California State University Dominguez Hills course materials 1993
Howard Zinn, "A People's History of the United States," (Harper, 1995)
Michael Parenti, "Democracy For the Few," (St. Martins, 1995)
Daniel R. Fusfeld, "The Economic Thought of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Origins of the New Deal," (Columbia, 1954)
I. F. Stone, "The War Years, 1939-1945," (Little Brown & Company, 1988)
Noam Chomsky, "Deterring Democracy," (Hill and Wang, 1991)
Noam Chomsky, "Year 501 - The Conquest Continues," (South End, 1993)
Richard O. Boyer and Herber M. Morais, "Labor's Untold Story," (Cameron Associates, 1955)
John Spritzler, "The People As Enemy - The Leaders' Hidden Agenda in World War II," (Black Rose, 2003)
Gardner, Lloyd C., "Safe For Democracy: The Anglo-American Response to Revolution, 1913-1923," (Oxford, 1984)
Wiesen-Cook, Blanche, "Eleanor Roosevelt - The Defining Years, 1933-1938," (Penguin, 1999)
------Michael K. Smith is the author of "The Madness of King George" (illustrations by Matt Wuerker), "Portraits of Empire," and "Rise To Empire" (forthcoming), all with Common Courage Press
Panicked traders scrambling to dump everything at once bellowed like a herd of wounded beasts. On the floor of the exchange Post Two descended into outright madness as General Oliver Bridgeman's plummeting U.S. Steel stock flushed the entire economy away. Crouched down to scribble frantically on a pad of paper, Bridgeman leaped up shouting over the din in a vain attempt to stop the hemorrhaging prices.
At Post Four - Anaconda, Caterpillar Tractor, Southern Pacific, U.S. Pipe and Foundry, General Motors - a sweaty trader went insane, shrieking hysterical orders until friends took him by the arm and led him away.
Leading industrials dropped forty points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted a record 13% in a single day. With ruined investors devastated, a reporter announced that brokers were working "like shell shocked soldiers," sweat pouring down their faces, their collars and shirts torn to shreds.
Outside the exchange, a hint of violence charged the air as a silent crowd stood on the steps of Federal Hall, hands in pockets, hats pulled low, eyes fixed grimly ahead. A strange noise arose from the streets - first a murmur, then a hum, finally a roar of stunned disbelief.
At the House of Morgan Thomas Lamont dangled his prince-nez and addressed a mob of reporters: "There has been a little distress selling on the Stock Exchange . . ." Representatives of thirty-five of the largest wire houses on Wall Street issued a joint statement claiming that the market was "fundamentally sound" and that "the worst has passed."
So occurred the Great Crash of 1929. The reason was a growing disequilibrium between capitalism's immense productive capacity and its aggregate purchasing power. In the twenties low wages and high profits caused industrial productivity to outstrip consumer purchasing power. By the end of the decade a microscopic minority of investors possessed far more wealth than it could productively spend or invest while 70% of non-farm families lacked sufficient income with which to sustain an adequate diet. Six million families, 42% of the total, earned less than $1000 a year and could not make the profit system respond to their unmet needs.
Soaring productivity exacerbated the problem, as mechanization, increasing sophistication of industrial processing, and greater specialization of the labor force produced more for less and concentrated wealth in ever fewer hands. Foreign investment, installment credit, and stock speculation postponed the day of reckoning for a short time, but when hugely inflated stock prices and proliferating numbers of stocks spooked buyers in October 1929, the market went into a deep crash.
Amidst the vast economic misery occasioned by the collapse, an increasingly militant working class resistance emerged, ushering in social democratic reforms that had been won decades earlier in more civilized societies. In 1932, the Norris-LaGuardia Act was passed, exempting unions from antitrust prosecution. Three years later the Wagner Act legalized the right to organize, elevating workers from an anonymous mass of productive atoms to a legitimate class whose grievances had to be negotiated. The same year the Social Security Act opened the door to government funded old-age insurance - over the screams of private industry. (Old age pensions had been enacted in Bismarck's Germany in 1870, in Austria in 1881, Norway in 1894, Finland in 1895, Britain in 1897, and France, Italy, and Denmark in 1898.)
The upsurge of strikes, demonstrations, and factory occupations that made such changes possible alarmed the business community, which worried about revolution and the guillotine just a few years after having declared history over with an assumed permanent victory for the business classes. The National Association of Manufacturers warned in 1938 that "the newly realized political power of the masses" posed unprecedented danger. "Unless their thinking is directed," it added, "we are definitely headed for adversity." A corporate counteroffensive quickly developed new methods of strike-breaking, manipulative "human relations" policies in personnel, and enormous propaganda efforts dedicated to smearing union organizers as treasonous "Reds."
Contrary to much mythologizing, President Roosevelt sought to harness the working class to capitalism, not emancipate it from the exploitative system, and he actually started out more conservatively than Herbert Hoover. He handed government authority to people who wanted to control workers and retain power in the business classes. He was sincere in his efforts to ameliorate the worst symptoms of the profit system, but only in order to stabilize it and prevent stronger measures from being undertaken by angry workers determined to find a permanent cure to the booms, busts, panics, and breakdowns that had plunged millions of workers into untold misery for generations. For example, the Wagner Act was designed to reverse labor's radical direction and restore passivity and continuous production by institutionalizing the authority of conservative labor leaders over the rank and file. The goal was to direct labor militancy into legalistic procedure and away from sit-down strikes. In general, FDR's labor laws sought to make labor "responsible" by inducing its leaders to become dependent on state and corporate support that could later be contracted or withdrawn.
Similarly, federal relief was implemented to cool off mass protest, defeat Norman Thomas's bid for the presidency as the Socialist Party nominee, limit violent upheaval, and banish the threat of revolution. Wherever organized labor was strong, the New Deal offered concessions, but where it was weak it declined to help; and when militant upheaval abated, aid was sharply cut, imposing suffering worse than any since the Crash itself.
Such policies were only to be expected from FDR's appointees, most of whom were decidedly anti-working class. His first Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, was from the overtly racist and anti-labor wing of the Democratic Party. Jesse Jones, a conservative millionaire newspaper owner, headed the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and later the Commerce Department, and was a great friend of the monopolists. War Secretary Henry Stimson was a Wall Street attorney who negotiated General Somoza into power in Nicaragua. The under-secretary of State was Edward Stettinius, a U.S. Steel millionaire. The Chief of the National Recovery Administration was General Hugh H. Johnson, who went to San Francisco and declared the 1934 general strike there a "menace to the government," which it certainly was. But he offered no clue why government that ushered in economic collapse shouldn't be menaced with workers' control.
New Deal reforms did go well beyond prior legislation, but they never contemplated far-reaching changes in the system that had created the disaster. The Roosevelt Administration's reforms called not for a realignment of classes, but for industry cooperation in implementing government-directed reforms. As a result, men were paid to rake leaves and build mausoleums, but not to work idle machines producing the means to feed and clothe themselves. Only massive public enterprise could have moved the U.S. fully into the era of social democracy, but the New Deal shunned social planning and rejected government responsibility for full employment, in favor of high joblessness and unemployment insurance. Charity for workers and entitlement for the corporations that held them down continued to be the operative values.
In fact, the New Deal was a boon to private industry. The "code authorities" of the National Recovery Administration were drawn heavily from the ranks of big business. They restricted production and set prices that benefited major corporations at the expense of their smaller rivals,, and primed the production pump by funneling torrents of public cash into the hands of financial elites. In nine years the Reconstruction Finance Insurance Corporation extended big business $15 billion in loans.
The federal housing program awarded subsidies to construction firms and insured the loans of mortgage bankers. Agricultural price supports and production cutbacks aided large producers while displacing tenant farmers and sharecroppers when federal acreage rental programs withdrew lands from cultivation. The Civilian Conservation Corps provided subsistence jobs for just three million of the 15 million people out of work. The Works Project Administration sporadically employed 9 million people at wages below the norm in private industry. Of twelve million people working for less than 40 cents an hour, only half a million benefited from the minimum wage law - just over 4% of them. The Social Security Act covered but half the population and offered no medical insurance or protection against pre-retirement illness. Welfare programs were funded not by a wealth tax, but by regressive payroll and sales taxes.
Finally, only the massive war orders of the 1940s lifted the economy out of the Depression, so if anyone deserves credit for curing that catastrophe it is Adolf Hitler, not Franklin Roosevelt.
As for the grotesquely lopsided distribution of wealth that precipitated this and every other economic crisis under capitalism, researchers have found that income inequality persisted unchanged through the Hoover, Roosevelt and Truman years.
Sources:
Professor Frank Stricker, "Causes of the Great Depression," California State University Dominguez Hills course materials 1993
Howard Zinn, "A People's History of the United States," (Harper, 1995)
Michael Parenti, "Democracy For the Few," (St. Martins, 1995)
Daniel R. Fusfeld, "The Economic Thought of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Origins of the New Deal," (Columbia, 1954)
I. F. Stone, "The War Years, 1939-1945," (Little Brown & Company, 1988)
Noam Chomsky, "Deterring Democracy," (Hill and Wang, 1991)
Noam Chomsky, "Year 501 - The Conquest Continues," (South End, 1993)
Richard O. Boyer and Herber M. Morais, "Labor's Untold Story," (Cameron Associates, 1955)
John Spritzler, "The People As Enemy - The Leaders' Hidden Agenda in World War II," (Black Rose, 2003)
Gardner, Lloyd C., "Safe For Democracy: The Anglo-American Response to Revolution, 1913-1923," (Oxford, 1984)
Wiesen-Cook, Blanche, "Eleanor Roosevelt - The Defining Years, 1933-1938," (Penguin, 1999)
------Michael K. Smith is the author of "The Madness of King George" (illustrations by Matt Wuerker), "Portraits of Empire," and "Rise To Empire" (forthcoming), all with Common Courage Press
Friday, October 10, 2008
CHANGE?
“It is now clear that the U.S. financial system is in cardiac arrest.”
– New York University economist Nouriel Roubini
“The world is on the edge of the abyss because of an irresponsible system.”
– French Prime Minister François Fillon
“If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down.”
-George Bush
And those are supporters of capitalism. Imagine what socialist critics of the system are saying? Here’s an example:
“The world will never be the same after this crisis. A new world has to emerge, and it is a multipolar world. We are decoupling from the wagon of death.”
-Hugo Chavez
Calling global capitalism a “wagon of death” might seem rather kind, given the sonic pace at which this missile seems to be speeding towards destruction. Problems totally unnoticed by mainstream economists and politicians only a short while ago have become major threats to the entire superstructure of the global economy. Its foundation has been rotting for quite some time, but present cries of fear and panic coming from those most responsible for speeding up the process of decomposition will not look to the system, but only the evil people and bad ideas which they blame for this deadly mess.
In the short term it will be easy to find demons for the individual blame game, but for the long term we’d better begin looking at the whole picture and not just which trees our mind managers choose to bring into sharp focus, while they blur the forest.
The shock and awe of murderous foreign policy has always been an extension of the shuck, jive and owe of domestic economic policy. But none of that works any more, even though it may still take a while for this imperial energy guzzler to finally run out of military gas. Already, the puppet in Georgia saw how weak the imperial protector was when he foolishly invaded Ossetia and expected aid from the U.S. and its NATO lackeys. But over extended global forces could hardly help, and the Russians easily prevailed while asserting themselves, once again, as a global power . Further signs of systemic diminished capacity are evident, for which the world should be slightly grateful. For the murderous ghouls who wish to do so , the only way to increase bloodshed in Afghanistan is to decrease bloodletting in Iraq. The end may indeed be near, but it can’t come soon enough for those still in the path of this “wagon of death”.
And the seemingly endless Halloween show of a presidential campaign will finally bring victory (?) to either the Democrat half - white lesser evil, or the Republican half - wit greater evil. Both are servants of the same corporate command, sharing slavish devotion to global empire and the Jewish colonial state of Israel. One may certainly be less debased than the other, as polio is less malevolent than cancer. But whichever one moves into the subsidized housing at the usually all-White House, both assure that we will still be suffering a malignant disease . It will only add to the taxpayer burden of support for the rich minority of welfare chiselers, now claiming hundreds of billions from the majority bill payers, every minute of every day.
Corporate media and members of congress responsible for letting things get out of hand are fond of singling out overpaid CEOs and other market culprits, but naming individuals only continues clouding minds with satanic symbols so that a truly demonic system cannot be perceived. That system works to continue bringing short term wealth to a few, but only by threatening everyone else with long term destitution.
A vote for Nader or McKinney will be for real and not simply rhetorical change, but only a few will cast it , given the control mind management still exercises over the population. That control may not last much longer, and good riddance. Like the perverse economy, perverse democracy can only reproduce perverted leadership, with differences that only look significant to those who can afford to pay for them. But they represent continued disasters for those unable to afford the drug of servants of the status quo , presented to them as agents of populist change.
We desperately need real democratic change, and not the kind that is forced on us by calamity and war. The kind being affected by foreigners who are demanding and taking control of their own social environments, ridding themselves of the old order by creating a new one. We will eventually have to do the same thing, for our own survival. The signs are clear that this farce cannot go on much longer, unless we consider committing race suicide.
Just don't expect anything substantial to happen after November, except for a possible temporary market boom and tales of new riches and the survival of capitalism, which will soon be followed by the next bust. Let’s hope it isn't the final explosion. But we’d best be uncoupling ourselves from this “wagon of death” before that occurs, and while prayer may be useful to some, action will need to be taken by all for real change to occur. And it must be not simply in the age, sex or race of an individual leader, but in the nature and practice of a democratic organization of society to truly serve all of our people. We could help save humanity in the process. We’d better get to it, fast.
Copyright (c) 2008 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net
– New York University economist Nouriel Roubini
“The world is on the edge of the abyss because of an irresponsible system.”
– French Prime Minister François Fillon
“If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down.”
-George Bush
And those are supporters of capitalism. Imagine what socialist critics of the system are saying? Here’s an example:
“The world will never be the same after this crisis. A new world has to emerge, and it is a multipolar world. We are decoupling from the wagon of death.”
-Hugo Chavez
Calling global capitalism a “wagon of death” might seem rather kind, given the sonic pace at which this missile seems to be speeding towards destruction. Problems totally unnoticed by mainstream economists and politicians only a short while ago have become major threats to the entire superstructure of the global economy. Its foundation has been rotting for quite some time, but present cries of fear and panic coming from those most responsible for speeding up the process of decomposition will not look to the system, but only the evil people and bad ideas which they blame for this deadly mess.
In the short term it will be easy to find demons for the individual blame game, but for the long term we’d better begin looking at the whole picture and not just which trees our mind managers choose to bring into sharp focus, while they blur the forest.
The shock and awe of murderous foreign policy has always been an extension of the shuck, jive and owe of domestic economic policy. But none of that works any more, even though it may still take a while for this imperial energy guzzler to finally run out of military gas. Already, the puppet in Georgia saw how weak the imperial protector was when he foolishly invaded Ossetia and expected aid from the U.S. and its NATO lackeys. But over extended global forces could hardly help, and the Russians easily prevailed while asserting themselves, once again, as a global power . Further signs of systemic diminished capacity are evident, for which the world should be slightly grateful. For the murderous ghouls who wish to do so , the only way to increase bloodshed in Afghanistan is to decrease bloodletting in Iraq. The end may indeed be near, but it can’t come soon enough for those still in the path of this “wagon of death”.
And the seemingly endless Halloween show of a presidential campaign will finally bring victory (?) to either the Democrat half - white lesser evil, or the Republican half - wit greater evil. Both are servants of the same corporate command, sharing slavish devotion to global empire and the Jewish colonial state of Israel. One may certainly be less debased than the other, as polio is less malevolent than cancer. But whichever one moves into the subsidized housing at the usually all-White House, both assure that we will still be suffering a malignant disease . It will only add to the taxpayer burden of support for the rich minority of welfare chiselers, now claiming hundreds of billions from the majority bill payers, every minute of every day.
Corporate media and members of congress responsible for letting things get out of hand are fond of singling out overpaid CEOs and other market culprits, but naming individuals only continues clouding minds with satanic symbols so that a truly demonic system cannot be perceived. That system works to continue bringing short term wealth to a few, but only by threatening everyone else with long term destitution.
A vote for Nader or McKinney will be for real and not simply rhetorical change, but only a few will cast it , given the control mind management still exercises over the population. That control may not last much longer, and good riddance. Like the perverse economy, perverse democracy can only reproduce perverted leadership, with differences that only look significant to those who can afford to pay for them. But they represent continued disasters for those unable to afford the drug of servants of the status quo , presented to them as agents of populist change.
We desperately need real democratic change, and not the kind that is forced on us by calamity and war. The kind being affected by foreigners who are demanding and taking control of their own social environments, ridding themselves of the old order by creating a new one. We will eventually have to do the same thing, for our own survival. The signs are clear that this farce cannot go on much longer, unless we consider committing race suicide.
Just don't expect anything substantial to happen after November, except for a possible temporary market boom and tales of new riches and the survival of capitalism, which will soon be followed by the next bust. Let’s hope it isn't the final explosion. But we’d best be uncoupling ourselves from this “wagon of death” before that occurs, and while prayer may be useful to some, action will need to be taken by all for real change to occur. And it must be not simply in the age, sex or race of an individual leader, but in the nature and practice of a democratic organization of society to truly serve all of our people. We could help save humanity in the process. We’d better get to it, fast.
Copyright (c) 2008 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net
Sunday, September 21, 2008
More Headline News from a Rational Empire
Market seesaws wildly on news that $85 billion taxpayer bailout resembles attempt to extinguish forest fire with a hypodermic needle. Treasury Secretary Paulson vows to "go the distance," promises taxpayers will "pay back every last dime that has been stolen from them." Fed Chairman Bernanke assures brokers that public will pick up tab for "anything you want to rob in the future, too." McCain declares economy "fundamentally sound"; Obama calls for "kinder, gentler piracy."
Obama accuses McCain of "same old, same old." Outraged Palin condemns Obama for ridiculing McCain's advanced age.
McCain accuses Obama of advocating sex education for infants. Obama praises McCain's service record, says getting shot down is "a magnificent achievement every American ought to take pride in." Independent voters form breakaway "Nausea Party," promise a "barf bag in every polling booth." Voter support soars.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement hires Mexican kidnapping ring . . . Impressed by record of 43,281 kidnappings this year, Washington contracts Mexican drug cartels to track down illegal immigrants in the U.S. "These people really know how hide and seek is played" said Michael Chertoff of the Department of Homeland Security. The drug barons' new duties will apparently only involve bookkeeping adjustments, since most of them are already on the Drug Enforcement Agency's payroll fighting the "war on drugs."
Rice accuses newly installed Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo of "terrorism without borders." "He refuses to take any salary and says the elimination of poverty is his number one priority," complains U.S. Secretary of State, adding that his Christian Bolshevism is "spreading all over Latin America." She recommends that Lugo, a former priest, "stop reading that liberation theology garbage."
Obama says "Jesus died for my sins," McCain says he is "saved and forgiven," both candidates embrace "pulverize thy neighbor" foreign policy in name of Christ. Human Rights Watch condemns Hugo Chavez for not appointing more coup plotters to high office.
U.S. extends control to 3% of Afghanistan, declares victory amidst sea of opium poppies. With Kabul a maze of blast walls, sandbags, and concertina wire, U.S. airstrikes wipe out 12 orphanages and 18 schools, killing 541 Afghan children. President Bush declares "mission accomplished," expresses regret so many "Taliban militants" choose to live in "harm's way." Obama urges "tougher action" and more U.S. troops.
Washington hails preservation of "Iraqi sovereignty" with new security agreement calling for American control of Iraqi exports, investments, contracts, military bases, marital relations, and tooth decay. U.S. ambassador retains right to arrest and torture at will. U.S. soldiers awarded permanent immunity for anything they have done or will do. Joyous Iraqis turn cartwheels in the streets.
Treasury Department says Israeli helicopter gunships serve "charitable, religious, and educational purposes." I.R.S. confirms donations for blowing up Palestinian apartments do qualify for tax deduction. "Community development, that's what we're looking for," said Noam Schmuck of Peace Through Ethnic Cleansing. "And there's no question that Jewish community thrives on getting rid of Arab loiterers who've been hanging around for centuries to no visible purpose."
Obama and McCain campaigns declare bankruptcy. Fed nationalizes presidential campaigns on strength of news that both candidates are wholly owned subsidiaries of collapsed securities firms. Obama refuses to concede, declares determination to "get down on my knees and fight like hell."
Obama accuses McCain of "same old, same old." Outraged Palin condemns Obama for ridiculing McCain's advanced age.
McCain accuses Obama of advocating sex education for infants. Obama praises McCain's service record, says getting shot down is "a magnificent achievement every American ought to take pride in." Independent voters form breakaway "Nausea Party," promise a "barf bag in every polling booth." Voter support soars.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement hires Mexican kidnapping ring . . . Impressed by record of 43,281 kidnappings this year, Washington contracts Mexican drug cartels to track down illegal immigrants in the U.S. "These people really know how hide and seek is played" said Michael Chertoff of the Department of Homeland Security. The drug barons' new duties will apparently only involve bookkeeping adjustments, since most of them are already on the Drug Enforcement Agency's payroll fighting the "war on drugs."
Rice accuses newly installed Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo of "terrorism without borders." "He refuses to take any salary and says the elimination of poverty is his number one priority," complains U.S. Secretary of State, adding that his Christian Bolshevism is "spreading all over Latin America." She recommends that Lugo, a former priest, "stop reading that liberation theology garbage."
Obama says "Jesus died for my sins," McCain says he is "saved and forgiven," both candidates embrace "pulverize thy neighbor" foreign policy in name of Christ. Human Rights Watch condemns Hugo Chavez for not appointing more coup plotters to high office.
U.S. extends control to 3% of Afghanistan, declares victory amidst sea of opium poppies. With Kabul a maze of blast walls, sandbags, and concertina wire, U.S. airstrikes wipe out 12 orphanages and 18 schools, killing 541 Afghan children. President Bush declares "mission accomplished," expresses regret so many "Taliban militants" choose to live in "harm's way." Obama urges "tougher action" and more U.S. troops.
Washington hails preservation of "Iraqi sovereignty" with new security agreement calling for American control of Iraqi exports, investments, contracts, military bases, marital relations, and tooth decay. U.S. ambassador retains right to arrest and torture at will. U.S. soldiers awarded permanent immunity for anything they have done or will do. Joyous Iraqis turn cartwheels in the streets.
Treasury Department says Israeli helicopter gunships serve "charitable, religious, and educational purposes." I.R.S. confirms donations for blowing up Palestinian apartments do qualify for tax deduction. "Community development, that's what we're looking for," said Noam Schmuck of Peace Through Ethnic Cleansing. "And there's no question that Jewish community thrives on getting rid of Arab loiterers who've been hanging around for centuries to no visible purpose."
Obama and McCain campaigns declare bankruptcy. Fed nationalizes presidential campaigns on strength of news that both candidates are wholly owned subsidiaries of collapsed securities firms. Obama refuses to concede, declares determination to "get down on my knees and fight like hell."
Saturday, September 20, 2008
It's The System, Stupid
With major private institutions collapsing onto taxpayer’s shoulders almost daily, we continue to hear that our system is strong and sound. Sure. And the easter bunny created the universe. We are also told this is the worst crisis since the Great Depression, and that we can believe.
The 20th century depression was a phase in the long range disintegration of a system which has been living on borrowed time and money ever since. Nature and politics are now forcing it to repay some of its colossal debt, but with no collateral save a public willing to absorb further enormous burdens that jeopardize the future of all humanity. The official story holds only the financial community at fault, with greedy dealers and deregulators guilty of all that has gone wrong. Once we get rid of them things will get back to what they were before unregulated free market fundamentalism took over, and everything will be just fine. Sure. The way it was before the easter bunny created the universe.
Folks, we are not simply dealing with a part of an economy going wrong, but with an entire system that is in process of falling apart.
And we certainly won’t solve our problems with the next election, which will make the future seem less precarious for a few of us , while increasing the danger for all of us . The new executive gang will try making repairs at the top of a structure which is rotting at its foundation.The longer we continue supporting corporadoes who only differ on which group of millionaires to pay off with public funds, the shorter the time before we seal our own fate as victims .
Capitalism’s free market religion has brought fortune, comfort and affluence to millions the world over, but in the process it has murdered almost as many, impoverished many more, and brought devastation to the natural and social environment on which humanity depends for survival.
Whether its current stage is called a time of sluggish growth, which is official economc theory , or a time of chaotic collapse, which is the reality for those made homeless, jobless and lifeless by its practice, there is agreement that it is a crisis. So? We have these bust cycles all the time, say the high priests of the faith, and we always survive them with another economic boom. The late breaking bulletin for these fundamentalists is that the booms are getting shorter and are shared by less people, while the busts are becoming longer and taking more people to an economic graveyard which threatens to ultimately include society itself
The gap between a wealthy minority and the rest of humanity is greater than ever before in modern times, and resistance to the savage inequities of the system is growing. This resistance is not always unified and often unclear on exactly what it is against beyond injustice , but since injustice is at the system's core , it’s a worthwhile place to start.
That there is starvation , hunger and massive poverty in a world where affluent minorities go on diets while feeding their pets does not escape the consciousness of the majority doing the suffering. Millions of working people need no economic degrees to understand the injustice of some sitting around doing nothing and getting richer , while they struggle to survive and get poorer. That experience is balanced by a new breed of the educated middle class which lives its morality every day, instead of only once a week in a church, synagogue or mosque. That new class is attempting radical forms of social organizing , even if not always in the political parties necessary to affect long term change. Globally, they are not just raising money to feed the poor and unemployed , but raising consciousness and helping organize people to reclaim their land, their rights, their jobs and ultimately to end poverty, once and for all.
The system protectors and their employees will have none of it, whether in the USA, Bolivia , Venezuela, the Middle East , or anywhere else . And they will still run the world after the November election.
While our perverse democracy’s multi million dollar ad campaign grinds our brains into pulp , important issues are reduced to the race, sex and religious beliefs of the major presidential product line. The idiocy of the campaigns is matched by the emptiness of the candidates, a void which can make the simplest expression of moderate thoughtfulness seem a brilliant and probing argument for change. And despite surface political differences , they all support more war , increased military spending, the mythical market , and deep devotion to the Jewish state of Israel which is a major reason for our bloody conflicts in the middle east , and the hateful retaliation they provoke.
No matter which major party affirmative action team wins, it will attempt to strengthen this imperial anachronism by borrowing more billions from foreigners , floating fake electronic money to pay them off , and giving the real bill to taxpayers . New loans will pay off old loans made with other borrowed money to pay still older loans , until this massive Ponzi scheme reaches a climax . It could come sooner than we think.
The myth of a privately controlled free market is only sustained by the reality of publicly financed bail outs of wealth and capital. Unless we demand democratic control of any publicly funded operations in the marketplace, the bottom line will remain the same: They profit, at our loss. This system is morally and financially bankrupt, and we sustain it only by jeopardizing our own future. Some would revive the New Deal that saved capitalism after the last depression, but if we reshuffle those cards we only delay the inevitable. We need an entirely New Deck in order to save humanity from a system which will eventually lead us to total disaster.
Copyright (c) 2008 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net
The 20th century depression was a phase in the long range disintegration of a system which has been living on borrowed time and money ever since. Nature and politics are now forcing it to repay some of its colossal debt, but with no collateral save a public willing to absorb further enormous burdens that jeopardize the future of all humanity. The official story holds only the financial community at fault, with greedy dealers and deregulators guilty of all that has gone wrong. Once we get rid of them things will get back to what they were before unregulated free market fundamentalism took over, and everything will be just fine. Sure. The way it was before the easter bunny created the universe.
Folks, we are not simply dealing with a part of an economy going wrong, but with an entire system that is in process of falling apart.
And we certainly won’t solve our problems with the next election, which will make the future seem less precarious for a few of us , while increasing the danger for all of us . The new executive gang will try making repairs at the top of a structure which is rotting at its foundation.The longer we continue supporting corporadoes who only differ on which group of millionaires to pay off with public funds, the shorter the time before we seal our own fate as victims .
Capitalism’s free market religion has brought fortune, comfort and affluence to millions the world over, but in the process it has murdered almost as many, impoverished many more, and brought devastation to the natural and social environment on which humanity depends for survival.
Whether its current stage is called a time of sluggish growth, which is official economc theory , or a time of chaotic collapse, which is the reality for those made homeless, jobless and lifeless by its practice, there is agreement that it is a crisis. So? We have these bust cycles all the time, say the high priests of the faith, and we always survive them with another economic boom. The late breaking bulletin for these fundamentalists is that the booms are getting shorter and are shared by less people, while the busts are becoming longer and taking more people to an economic graveyard which threatens to ultimately include society itself
The gap between a wealthy minority and the rest of humanity is greater than ever before in modern times, and resistance to the savage inequities of the system is growing. This resistance is not always unified and often unclear on exactly what it is against beyond injustice , but since injustice is at the system's core , it’s a worthwhile place to start.
That there is starvation , hunger and massive poverty in a world where affluent minorities go on diets while feeding their pets does not escape the consciousness of the majority doing the suffering. Millions of working people need no economic degrees to understand the injustice of some sitting around doing nothing and getting richer , while they struggle to survive and get poorer. That experience is balanced by a new breed of the educated middle class which lives its morality every day, instead of only once a week in a church, synagogue or mosque. That new class is attempting radical forms of social organizing , even if not always in the political parties necessary to affect long term change. Globally, they are not just raising money to feed the poor and unemployed , but raising consciousness and helping organize people to reclaim their land, their rights, their jobs and ultimately to end poverty, once and for all.
The system protectors and their employees will have none of it, whether in the USA, Bolivia , Venezuela, the Middle East , or anywhere else . And they will still run the world after the November election.
While our perverse democracy’s multi million dollar ad campaign grinds our brains into pulp , important issues are reduced to the race, sex and religious beliefs of the major presidential product line. The idiocy of the campaigns is matched by the emptiness of the candidates, a void which can make the simplest expression of moderate thoughtfulness seem a brilliant and probing argument for change. And despite surface political differences , they all support more war , increased military spending, the mythical market , and deep devotion to the Jewish state of Israel which is a major reason for our bloody conflicts in the middle east , and the hateful retaliation they provoke.
No matter which major party affirmative action team wins, it will attempt to strengthen this imperial anachronism by borrowing more billions from foreigners , floating fake electronic money to pay them off , and giving the real bill to taxpayers . New loans will pay off old loans made with other borrowed money to pay still older loans , until this massive Ponzi scheme reaches a climax . It could come sooner than we think.
The myth of a privately controlled free market is only sustained by the reality of publicly financed bail outs of wealth and capital. Unless we demand democratic control of any publicly funded operations in the marketplace, the bottom line will remain the same: They profit, at our loss. This system is morally and financially bankrupt, and we sustain it only by jeopardizing our own future. Some would revive the New Deal that saved capitalism after the last depression, but if we reshuffle those cards we only delay the inevitable. We need an entirely New Deck in order to save humanity from a system which will eventually lead us to total disaster.
Copyright (c) 2008 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Is Charlie Gibson Qualified To Be a Journalist?
Reading through the transcript of Charlie Gibson's September 11 interview with Sarah Palin gives an excellent view of corporate contempt for any form of populism. Rather than practice journalistic impartiality, Gibson prefers to frame questions that he hopes will make Palin look bad. He starts off asking her if she regards herself as truly qualified to be vice-president, and when she replies that she does, he asks her if it didn't take some "hubris" on her part to accept McCain's offer to be his running mate. Gibson could just as easily have asked her if it didn't take some nerve to accept the offer, but this much more common word would not have stood as good a chance of making Palin appear "ignorant," which is what Gibson was eager to do.
Gibson asks Palin if being commander of the Alaskan National Guard and hailing from a state so close to Russia are sufficient "credentials" to be vice-president in "a very dangerous world." He neglects to cite any evidence that support his assumption that "credentials" result in superior political judgment and better foreign policy. The long history of bloody U.S. interventions carried out by U.S. presidents and their cabinet secretaries strongly suggests that there is no positive correlation between establishment credentials and good government, quite the contrary. But Gibson either doesn't know or doesn't care about this. Furthermore, his use of the cliche "dangerous world" shows him to be an eager recipient of ideological hand-me-downs, and his lack of awareness of the massive contribution U.S. foreign policy makes to keeping the world far more dangerous than it needs to be highlights a very bi-partisan ignorance.
Gibson asks Palin if she has ever met a foreign head of state, as though meeting heads of state were a pre-requisite to international understanding, or even just made such understanding more likely. There is no evidence that suggests this would be the case. There are far better questions that Gibson left unasked, such as, "What should our policy be in Palestine?" Why didn't Gibson ask such an obvious question? Osama bin Laden has made it very clear that USrael's conquest of Palestine is a major grievance leading to attacks such as occurred on 911, and the Palin interview was conducted on the anniversary of those attacks, yet Gibson asks nothing about what is widely regarded as the "mother question" in the Middle East. His only interest in Middle East policy is to ask what to do about the allegedly "existential" threat Iran poses to Israel. He cites no evidence that Iran's nuclear program has or intends to produce an atomic bomb, merely assumes we are faced with a "nuclear Iran," with "nuclear" intended to be understood as nuclear weapon, not nuclear electricity. Furthermore, he uses the word terrorist uncritically, offering no definition of the term that would allow us to acquit the Bush Administration of the charge that it is a terrorist government for having killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and invaded a sovereign nation without provocation. In short, Gibson thinks ideologically, which is not what allegedly professional journalists beholden to value-free information gathering techniques are supposed to do.
On Iran, Gibson is completely subservient to the Israel lobby's view of the country. Here is how he asks about what the U.S. response to a nuclear Iran should be: "What if Israel decided it felt threatened and needed to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities?" (italics added)
It is difficult not to be troubled by this response. Just how does one decide to feel something? And since when do feelings dictate bombing raids on foreign nations? Gibson is so intent on revealing Palin to be a moron that he overlooks his own stupidity.
Gibson quotes Palin saying that U.S. leaders are sending soldiers "on a task that is from God" and asks her, "are we fighting a Holy War?" That political leaders regard war as sacred is not exactly news, so what is the point of the question? It can only be to discredit Palin for her strong Christian beliefs. But how are these beliefs any more politically dangerous than the conviction of virtually the entire political class that Israel is a Holy State? In his memoirs Jimmy Carter says Israel was "ordained by God." Nevertheless, Carter is not discredited for having made this claim, but for having pointed out that Israel is an apartheid state (though Carter believes that it is so only in the Occupied Territories). That Israel can torture and murder on a massive scale largely thanks to the "humanitarian" aid flowing by the billions from Washington and the tax exempt contributions of American Jewish donors, ought to be at least as alarming as Palin's belief that U.S. soldiers are on a Divine Mission, but Gibson is entirely unconcerned about it.
After Palin states that she would favor putting Georgia and Ukraine in NATO, Gibson asks whether the U.S. wouldn't then be obligated to intervene militarily to protect Georgia against Russia. His only expressed concern is whether or not such a war would be "worth it" to the United States. The lack of any moral concern in the exercise of force is exactly what allows the Bush neo-cons to masquerade as ethical idealists bringing democracy to a "backward" Middle East (except for Israel), but again, Gibson shows no concern about this, persisting in his "realist" political line. That the U.S. has supported the most reactionary political forces in Central Asia for decades, amassing a staggering civilian death toll, is not mentioned by Gibson, a rather significant omission of essential background information that makes it impossible for viewers to judge the policy question properly. And let us recall the by now classic statement on mass murder of civilians being "worth it" to the United States. Asked in 1996 by Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes whether the economic sanctions on Iraq that killed "more children than died in Hiroshima" was truly worth whatever political gain the policy was alleged to have achieved, then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright responded, "we think the price is worth it." This is the realist philosophy that presumes itself qualified to lead us to a bright future.
Furthermore, Gibson's use of the term "existential" to refer to the alleged threat that Iran poses to Israel is itself part of a religious ideology that holds the West possessed of civilized values and the Islamic republics permeated by wickedness that can only be overcome by force. Until this backward Western theology receives the attention it deserves we will all be caught up in Holy Wars that enrich the few and bring anguish to the many.
Gibson asks Palin if being commander of the Alaskan National Guard and hailing from a state so close to Russia are sufficient "credentials" to be vice-president in "a very dangerous world." He neglects to cite any evidence that support his assumption that "credentials" result in superior political judgment and better foreign policy. The long history of bloody U.S. interventions carried out by U.S. presidents and their cabinet secretaries strongly suggests that there is no positive correlation between establishment credentials and good government, quite the contrary. But Gibson either doesn't know or doesn't care about this. Furthermore, his use of the cliche "dangerous world" shows him to be an eager recipient of ideological hand-me-downs, and his lack of awareness of the massive contribution U.S. foreign policy makes to keeping the world far more dangerous than it needs to be highlights a very bi-partisan ignorance.
Gibson asks Palin if she has ever met a foreign head of state, as though meeting heads of state were a pre-requisite to international understanding, or even just made such understanding more likely. There is no evidence that suggests this would be the case. There are far better questions that Gibson left unasked, such as, "What should our policy be in Palestine?" Why didn't Gibson ask such an obvious question? Osama bin Laden has made it very clear that USrael's conquest of Palestine is a major grievance leading to attacks such as occurred on 911, and the Palin interview was conducted on the anniversary of those attacks, yet Gibson asks nothing about what is widely regarded as the "mother question" in the Middle East. His only interest in Middle East policy is to ask what to do about the allegedly "existential" threat Iran poses to Israel. He cites no evidence that Iran's nuclear program has or intends to produce an atomic bomb, merely assumes we are faced with a "nuclear Iran," with "nuclear" intended to be understood as nuclear weapon, not nuclear electricity. Furthermore, he uses the word terrorist uncritically, offering no definition of the term that would allow us to acquit the Bush Administration of the charge that it is a terrorist government for having killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and invaded a sovereign nation without provocation. In short, Gibson thinks ideologically, which is not what allegedly professional journalists beholden to value-free information gathering techniques are supposed to do.
On Iran, Gibson is completely subservient to the Israel lobby's view of the country. Here is how he asks about what the U.S. response to a nuclear Iran should be: "What if Israel decided it felt threatened and needed to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities?" (italics added)
It is difficult not to be troubled by this response. Just how does one decide to feel something? And since when do feelings dictate bombing raids on foreign nations? Gibson is so intent on revealing Palin to be a moron that he overlooks his own stupidity.
Gibson quotes Palin saying that U.S. leaders are sending soldiers "on a task that is from God" and asks her, "are we fighting a Holy War?" That political leaders regard war as sacred is not exactly news, so what is the point of the question? It can only be to discredit Palin for her strong Christian beliefs. But how are these beliefs any more politically dangerous than the conviction of virtually the entire political class that Israel is a Holy State? In his memoirs Jimmy Carter says Israel was "ordained by God." Nevertheless, Carter is not discredited for having made this claim, but for having pointed out that Israel is an apartheid state (though Carter believes that it is so only in the Occupied Territories). That Israel can torture and murder on a massive scale largely thanks to the "humanitarian" aid flowing by the billions from Washington and the tax exempt contributions of American Jewish donors, ought to be at least as alarming as Palin's belief that U.S. soldiers are on a Divine Mission, but Gibson is entirely unconcerned about it.
After Palin states that she would favor putting Georgia and Ukraine in NATO, Gibson asks whether the U.S. wouldn't then be obligated to intervene militarily to protect Georgia against Russia. His only expressed concern is whether or not such a war would be "worth it" to the United States. The lack of any moral concern in the exercise of force is exactly what allows the Bush neo-cons to masquerade as ethical idealists bringing democracy to a "backward" Middle East (except for Israel), but again, Gibson shows no concern about this, persisting in his "realist" political line. That the U.S. has supported the most reactionary political forces in Central Asia for decades, amassing a staggering civilian death toll, is not mentioned by Gibson, a rather significant omission of essential background information that makes it impossible for viewers to judge the policy question properly. And let us recall the by now classic statement on mass murder of civilians being "worth it" to the United States. Asked in 1996 by Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes whether the economic sanctions on Iraq that killed "more children than died in Hiroshima" was truly worth whatever political gain the policy was alleged to have achieved, then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright responded, "we think the price is worth it." This is the realist philosophy that presumes itself qualified to lead us to a bright future.
Furthermore, Gibson's use of the term "existential" to refer to the alleged threat that Iran poses to Israel is itself part of a religious ideology that holds the West possessed of civilized values and the Islamic republics permeated by wickedness that can only be overcome by force. Until this backward Western theology receives the attention it deserves we will all be caught up in Holy Wars that enrich the few and bring anguish to the many.
Socialism or Barbarism
Recent events solidify America's position as foremost practitioner of hypocritical policies which would be laughable if they weren't so dangerous. A nation that destroyed Yugoslavia in alleged defense of breakaway efforts by Kosovo can express horror at seeing Russia support breakaway states from Georgia. Russia’s possible over reaction but completely understandable crushing of Georgia over its attack on Ossetia, revealed the ridiculous military defense fiction of NATO in its imitation of America’s leading politicians - No Action, Talk Only. That helpless creature of the 20th century becomes more useless in the 21st.
While the dreadful Bush regime nears its end, the policies in place since long before it took power will continue destroying the American empire no matter which new gang attempts to control the crumbling operation. But so long as major media serve as stenographers for establishment power, the public will continue to be treated as preschool children and given naps between sweet treats and nursery rhymes. In fact, if we let under paid child care workers take over our government and media, we’d all be much better served.
Reference to an alleged Russian power play by political and media mind managers can lead people to swallow the worst forms of fantasy as representations of reality. The english speaking Georgian president who regularly cites american political heroes as models for what he calls his democracy is a case in point. Try imagining an American president speaking Russian and quoting Stalin and Lenin as his heroes and you get some idea of the suspension of thought needed to accept this lap dog as an actual leader of his people, and not an agent of fast fading western imperialism.
Many of us, especially our major party presidential tickets, believe that the awesome majesty of the universe was created by something with a penis, so nothing should surprise us when we who vote for them swallow the fantastic fables and lunatic legends perpetuated by our consciousness controllers. No better example, perhaps even beyond the foreign policy fiasco of Russia and Georgia, exists than the recently completed conventions of our ruling Hypocratic and Theocratic parties. These massive tv productions, with programmed crowds that make a reality tv show audience seem like a bunch of hermeneutics of philosophy grad students, approach the spectacle of American Idol or the Olympics but with less real meaning.
Accepting an increase in warfare in Afghanistan so we can decrease warfare in Iraq as its hopeful signs of “change we can believe in”, the ecstatic crowd at the Hypocratic Con indulged in group hysteria over selection of our first semi-black candidate, who will do exactly what his white owners demand. This amounts to positive change in a population reduced to finding progress in the look of a performer, while totally neglecting the substance of actual performance.
Meanwhile, the Theocratic party gang picked a previously unknown woman from Alaska for vice president, stressing the importance of whether the mens or ladyies room is used before the executive sends troops to their death. Should the Theocratic ticket somehow succeed - against all odds but given the dreadful nature of the Hypocrats, all things are possible - many may wish for a quick demise at the top so that this woman can take over and quickly bring down the entire facade of empire. While opposition hit teams dig up dirt and trash her character, she may turn out to be the closest thing to an average american in the entire multi billion dollar fiasco. She certainly believes in the penis bearing creator of all and everything, opposes abortion, shoots guns, supports the market, loves Israel and has a family. Perfect. She could take over tomorrow.
But seriously folks, as the old comics used to say, what can we do about a situation that gets crazier and more frightening even as mainstream mind shapers depict it as logical, democratic and sanity enhancing? More than ever, we need to question everything we are told by major media and our corporate government and to believe nothing until we are convinced by material evidence from sources we can trust. This means we should also question some of the gibberish that poses as independent media or online detective work, since many of the stories carried are on a par with the science fiction and fantasy we are given by our main stream consciousness corporadoes. Be critical and skeptical of all, and if you haven't the time to investigate, find someone you trust who has the time. And then continue being careful and critical of that source.
This government is a tragedy but it will be followed by one that is as tragic in that it will support the system with only cosmetic changes that may please some sectors - temporarily - while destroying others. Which is exactly what we are doing now, and have done for far too long. It is fast coming to a point at which we, and all inhabitants of the planet will have to act as though it’s all of us or none of us. And in the words of Rosa Luxemburg in the 20th century, echoed by Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and growing numbers around the world in the 21st, we will face a choice: socialism or barbarism.
While the dreadful Bush regime nears its end, the policies in place since long before it took power will continue destroying the American empire no matter which new gang attempts to control the crumbling operation. But so long as major media serve as stenographers for establishment power, the public will continue to be treated as preschool children and given naps between sweet treats and nursery rhymes. In fact, if we let under paid child care workers take over our government and media, we’d all be much better served.
Reference to an alleged Russian power play by political and media mind managers can lead people to swallow the worst forms of fantasy as representations of reality. The english speaking Georgian president who regularly cites american political heroes as models for what he calls his democracy is a case in point. Try imagining an American president speaking Russian and quoting Stalin and Lenin as his heroes and you get some idea of the suspension of thought needed to accept this lap dog as an actual leader of his people, and not an agent of fast fading western imperialism.
Many of us, especially our major party presidential tickets, believe that the awesome majesty of the universe was created by something with a penis, so nothing should surprise us when we who vote for them swallow the fantastic fables and lunatic legends perpetuated by our consciousness controllers. No better example, perhaps even beyond the foreign policy fiasco of Russia and Georgia, exists than the recently completed conventions of our ruling Hypocratic and Theocratic parties. These massive tv productions, with programmed crowds that make a reality tv show audience seem like a bunch of hermeneutics of philosophy grad students, approach the spectacle of American Idol or the Olympics but with less real meaning.
Accepting an increase in warfare in Afghanistan so we can decrease warfare in Iraq as its hopeful signs of “change we can believe in”, the ecstatic crowd at the Hypocratic Con indulged in group hysteria over selection of our first semi-black candidate, who will do exactly what his white owners demand. This amounts to positive change in a population reduced to finding progress in the look of a performer, while totally neglecting the substance of actual performance.
Meanwhile, the Theocratic party gang picked a previously unknown woman from Alaska for vice president, stressing the importance of whether the mens or ladyies room is used before the executive sends troops to their death. Should the Theocratic ticket somehow succeed - against all odds but given the dreadful nature of the Hypocrats, all things are possible - many may wish for a quick demise at the top so that this woman can take over and quickly bring down the entire facade of empire. While opposition hit teams dig up dirt and trash her character, she may turn out to be the closest thing to an average american in the entire multi billion dollar fiasco. She certainly believes in the penis bearing creator of all and everything, opposes abortion, shoots guns, supports the market, loves Israel and has a family. Perfect. She could take over tomorrow.
But seriously folks, as the old comics used to say, what can we do about a situation that gets crazier and more frightening even as mainstream mind shapers depict it as logical, democratic and sanity enhancing? More than ever, we need to question everything we are told by major media and our corporate government and to believe nothing until we are convinced by material evidence from sources we can trust. This means we should also question some of the gibberish that poses as independent media or online detective work, since many of the stories carried are on a par with the science fiction and fantasy we are given by our main stream consciousness corporadoes. Be critical and skeptical of all, and if you haven't the time to investigate, find someone you trust who has the time. And then continue being careful and critical of that source.
This government is a tragedy but it will be followed by one that is as tragic in that it will support the system with only cosmetic changes that may please some sectors - temporarily - while destroying others. Which is exactly what we are doing now, and have done for far too long. It is fast coming to a point at which we, and all inhabitants of the planet will have to act as though it’s all of us or none of us. And in the words of Rosa Luxemburg in the 20th century, echoed by Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and growing numbers around the world in the 21st, we will face a choice: socialism or barbarism.
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