We Americans have a blind spot induced by corporate imperial propaganda. When you live in the aura of empire, you just can't see certain inconvenient facts.
The truth is: the despicable Assad regime has not killed even a fraction of the innocent civilians that the Clinton regime killed in its brutal economic sanctions against the people or Iraq, or the Bush regime killed in its cynical invasion of the Middle East under the bloody banner of "Democracy." Assad has killed his thousands, Clinton and Bush have killed their hundred thousands.
5/27/12
Remember the Horror, Not the Glory
The VA estimates that 18 American soldier/vets commit suicide every day. More will kill themselves in one year than our enemies killed in the past 10 years.
But the real enemy is greed.
Wall Street makes obscene profits from military weapons. The U.S. produces more weapons than the next seven leading arms-manufacturing nations combined. Our war industry is a vast network of corporations including America's most iconic companies: GE, Boeing, DuPont. To sustain war profiteering, Wall Street controls both Congress and the White House, using them to propagate perpetual war.
Our brave soldiers do not share Wall Street profits. Now thousands of America's finest return from combat that shattered their lives, and the lives of hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan who just want their own countries back. The national wealth that paid for their training gives little for their healing.
I write this on Memorial Day, a day we remember the fallen.
Let us not remember war's glory. That is fake memory. Let us remember war's horror: how it lies, how it fattens the crawls of the rich with the blood of the poor, how it ruins the soul as well as the body.
5/21/12
Home Rule
It's
interesting to live in an economy that has already collapsed. Like
Wile. E. Coyote running off a cliff, churning his legs in the air before
he drops, our economy is over the edge and running on air. Any
remaining wealth belongs to the elite, and is made of nothing but other
people's debt.
Won't it be amazing when Wall Street, the Federal Reserve, and the international banking system all fall, and we discover how resourceful we really are?
Won't it be amazing when Wall Street, the Federal Reserve, and the international banking system all fall, and we discover how resourceful we really are?
The new economy will be neither socialist nor capitalist, left or right, Democrat or Republican, because they are one and the
same. Both parties sell elections to the highest bidder, disinherit
working people, and centralize authority in the power elite. And both systems rob power from the very source where it most needs to be cultivated: the local.
Revolution won’t be necessary. The Federal Reserve and its banks will
collapse by themselves. Let the dead bury their dead.
The seeds of the new green economy already blossom on the
outskirts of every American town. Break the old financial empire down into a
network of sustainable bio-regional communities, with publicly chartered
nonprofit banks, worker-owned cooperatives, and autonomous grids
producing green energy from diverse clean sources.
Wall Street is over. Invest in the wealth of friendship.
Cultivate community. Plant tomorrow’s dinner in the village commons.
Don’t wait on Washington. Start at home.
“Economy” comes from the Greek “ecos,” meaning home, and
“nomos,” meaning rule. Economy means ruling from home, governing right
where you are. The doorway to the future is not through the left or the
right but the local.
This isn’t a radical vision. This is the way it all started.
(Published in the Olympian, Olympia WA, May 28, 2012)
5/17/12
Home
Won't it be amazing when Wall Street, the Federal Reserve, and the international banking system all fall, and we discover how resourceful we really are? Then we'll see how many seeds of new, green, sustainable economics are already planted locally, humbly blossoming around us on the outskirts of town.
Don't worry so much about the economy. Don't buy into the bitter debate between capitalism and socialism: they are both finished. Let the dead bury their dead.
In Greek, Ecos means home. Nomos means rule, order. Economy: the order of the home.
Plant something in your own back yard. Cultivate community. Wall Street is over: invest in the wealth of friendship. The gateway to the future is the local. Come home. In fact, you're already there.
5/14/12
Debtism
RE: "What Jamie Dimon Didn't Tell You on Meet the Press", LA Times, May 14 LINK
Jamie Dimon and the Wall Street banking elites do not practice capitalism. They practice debtism.
Wealth derived from other people's debt creates no jobs or products. It is carrion wealth, the wealth of vultures.
Those who live on stock dividends from firms that invest in debt should live in shame. What is needed is not simply more regulation, but the criminalization of debt-investment.
Wall Street banks are no better than a crime syndicate. Here's how their scam works. The Federal Reserve prints worthless money and gives it to the bankers for free: then they sell it to us for a profit, as credit.
There was a time when profiting from other people's debt was regarded as a sin, the sin of usury. Dante reserves a deep place in hell for usurers, and in the Qu'ran the practice is unlawful.
Romney wanted to let the auto industry collapse. Let's apply that strategy to the Fed and the international banks. Let them collapse. Let the whole Wall Street pyramid of shame collapse.
Then we can start over again with an economy that actually makes products and generates jobs. Create publicly chartered regional banks that operate within their means. Pay bankers as public employees: but allow no one to amass wealth from the debt of others.
Jamie Dimon and the Wall Street banking elites do not practice capitalism. They practice debtism.
Wealth derived from other people's debt creates no jobs or products. It is carrion wealth, the wealth of vultures.
Those who live on stock dividends from firms that invest in debt should live in shame. What is needed is not simply more regulation, but the criminalization of debt-investment.
Wall Street banks are no better than a crime syndicate. Here's how their scam works. The Federal Reserve prints worthless money and gives it to the bankers for free: then they sell it to us for a profit, as credit.
There was a time when profiting from other people's debt was regarded as a sin, the sin of usury. Dante reserves a deep place in hell for usurers, and in the Qu'ran the practice is unlawful.
Romney wanted to let the auto industry collapse. Let's apply that strategy to the Fed and the international banks. Let them collapse. Let the whole Wall Street pyramid of shame collapse.
Then we can start over again with an economy that actually makes products and generates jobs. Create publicly chartered regional banks that operate within their means. Pay bankers as public employees: but allow no one to amass wealth from the debt of others.
5/6/12
Putin, et al.
RE: 'At Moscow Rally, Arrests and Violence,' May 6, NYT
We truly live in an Orwellian world. The KGB still controls Russia. Meanwhile,
totalitarian communists still control China, regularly imprisoning and beating
dissidents. All that has really changed in both countries is that they now use
capitalism to enrich their elites. Proving that capitalism is not the opposite of
communism: democracy is.
Perhaps most Orwellian of all is the rhetoric of Barack Obama, who proclaims
an end to the American empire in Afghanistan, while in the same breath announces
12 more years of virtual military occupation.
'War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.' ~George Orwell, 1984.
We truly live in an Orwellian world. The KGB still controls Russia. Meanwhile,
totalitarian communists still control China, regularly imprisoning and beating
dissidents. All that has really changed in both countries is that they now use
capitalism to enrich their elites. Proving that capitalism is not the opposite of
communism: democracy is.
Perhaps most Orwellian of all is the rhetoric of Barack Obama, who proclaims
an end to the American empire in Afghanistan, while in the same breath announces
12 more years of virtual military occupation.
'War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.' ~George Orwell, 1984.
4/16/12
The Courage to Leave Afghanistan
Clearly, we have no idea why we are in Afghanistan. We fight merely for pride now, and because we lack the courage to admit we were wrong.
We lost the war ten years ago, when we let Al Qaeda escape into Waziri Pakistan. Instead of leaving, we staid as imperial occupiers, erecting a flimsy, corrupt puppet government.
Now our own corruption reveals its brutality in the murder of innocent civilians and the desecration of Afghan corpses. As in Iraq, our mission has grown murky, serving no U.S. national interest except the profit of arms manufacturers, at the expense of brave soldiers and their families.
It is time for our leaders to show the courage of confession. Yes, it takes courage to fight, and our troops have gone above and beyond. But it takes a subtler courage to admit that our fight is misdirected, our policy is arrogant, and the age of American imperialism is over.
Are there any American leaders with the guts to proclaim a turning point in U.S. policy: to proclaim that America no longer seeks dominion, but partnership, no longer profits from the business of war, but promotes the vision of peace?
Let us stop killing people just to save face. Let us be brave enough to end this war and confess our need for a new vision. That takes the deepest kind of courage, the courage of humility.
(Published in the Olympian, Olympia WA, April 21, 2012)
We lost the war ten years ago, when we let Al Qaeda escape into Waziri Pakistan. Instead of leaving, we staid as imperial occupiers, erecting a flimsy, corrupt puppet government.
Now our own corruption reveals its brutality in the murder of innocent civilians and the desecration of Afghan corpses. As in Iraq, our mission has grown murky, serving no U.S. national interest except the profit of arms manufacturers, at the expense of brave soldiers and their families.
It is time for our leaders to show the courage of confession. Yes, it takes courage to fight, and our troops have gone above and beyond. But it takes a subtler courage to admit that our fight is misdirected, our policy is arrogant, and the age of American imperialism is over.
Are there any American leaders with the guts to proclaim a turning point in U.S. policy: to proclaim that America no longer seeks dominion, but partnership, no longer profits from the business of war, but promotes the vision of peace?
Let us stop killing people just to save face. Let us be brave enough to end this war and confess our need for a new vision. That takes the deepest kind of courage, the courage of humility.
(Published in the Olympian, Olympia WA, April 21, 2012)
4/14/12
How Many Women Can Choose to Stay Home?
"Now Mom and Dad both have to work whether they want to or not, and usually one of them has two jobs." ~Senate Candidate Mitt Romney, 1994, at Bright Horizons Family Solutions, a chain of day care centers in Massachusetts.
It is commendable that, instead of getting a job picking tomatoes for Campbell Soup, Anne Romney made a "lifestyle choice" to stay home with five children. But poor women who make that choice are called welfare queens.
Few American women have such choice. They must work a job and raise a family, because it takes both parents' incomes just to break even, given the wages corporate American pays.
Under the Romney-approved budget of Paul Ryan, women will have even more children to raise while working, since their current reproductive options will be limited. And this budget will force working parents to home-school their children somehow, because only 2% of our population can afford private schools, yet Republicans plan to cut public schools and the department of education.
These moms and dads will do it all on extremely low-wage incomes, without college degrees, because Republicans will cut community college grants for low-income students. Yet college is essential for decent-paying American jobs today.
Thus, under the Romney-Ryan budget, our nation will be governed by a tiny elite of the educated rich, served by masses of uneducated serfs, with women suffering the brunt of the oppression. Is this our new American dream?
It is disingenuous to say that Anne Romney made a "lifestyle choice" to stay at home with her five boys and two Cadillacs. Being born into wealth and privilege is not a choice. Being born into poverty is not a choice either.
It is commendable that, instead of getting a job picking tomatoes for Campbell Soup, Anne Romney made a "lifestyle choice" to stay home with five children. But poor women who make that choice are called welfare queens.
Few American women have such choice. They must work a job and raise a family, because it takes both parents' incomes just to break even, given the wages corporate American pays.
Under the Romney-approved budget of Paul Ryan, women will have even more children to raise while working, since their current reproductive options will be limited. And this budget will force working parents to home-school their children somehow, because only 2% of our population can afford private schools, yet Republicans plan to cut public schools and the department of education.
These moms and dads will do it all on extremely low-wage incomes, without college degrees, because Republicans will cut community college grants for low-income students. Yet college is essential for decent-paying American jobs today.
Thus, under the Romney-Ryan budget, our nation will be governed by a tiny elite of the educated rich, served by masses of uneducated serfs, with women suffering the brunt of the oppression. Is this our new American dream?
It is disingenuous to say that Anne Romney made a "lifestyle choice" to stay at home with her five boys and two Cadillacs. Being born into wealth and privilege is not a choice. Being born into poverty is not a choice either.
4/4/12
Transcend Left and Right in 2012
In the coming election, we finally have an opportunity to transcend the crippling duality of Left and Right.
Government and free enterprise need not be enemies. Government protects consumers, workers’ rights, and American jobs. Government saves small businesses from the monopolizing tendency of mega-corporations. Government starts up local entrepreneurs with tax-funded stimulus grants to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure.
The Right scoffs at any notion that government could stimulate business, praising Mitt Romney’s laissez-faire capitalism. But they forget that Romney’s greatest achievement, the Salt Lake City Olympics, received millions in federal dollars.
Meanwhile, the left unfairly spurns the profit motive. Fair profits need not stand for greed: they also stand for initiative and self-sufficiency. Fair profits allow us to support our families without begging our neighbors for handouts or our government for entitlements. If we had public-private partnerships that empowered more of us to earn a living wage with solid profits, our nation’s economic problems would be over.
The future belongs neither to socialism nor unregulated corporatism, but to government-business partnership. And that is what Barack Obama is all about.
Government and free enterprise need not be enemies. Government protects consumers, workers’ rights, and American jobs. Government saves small businesses from the monopolizing tendency of mega-corporations. Government starts up local entrepreneurs with tax-funded stimulus grants to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure.
The Right scoffs at any notion that government could stimulate business, praising Mitt Romney’s laissez-faire capitalism. But they forget that Romney’s greatest achievement, the Salt Lake City Olympics, received millions in federal dollars.
Meanwhile, the left unfairly spurns the profit motive. Fair profits need not stand for greed: they also stand for initiative and self-sufficiency. Fair profits allow us to support our families without begging our neighbors for handouts or our government for entitlements. If we had public-private partnerships that empowered more of us to earn a living wage with solid profits, our nation’s economic problems would be over.
The future belongs neither to socialism nor unregulated corporatism, but to government-business partnership. And that is what Barack Obama is all about.
3/8/12
Why Shouldn't Iran Have a Nuke?
Why shouldn't Iran have a nuke? We have lots of them.
We can preach the danger of nuclear weapons to others when we get rid of ours. But American foreign policy usually fails to practice what we preach.
The U.S. treats others as we would not want them to treat us. We bomb, invade and occupy sovereign nations. In the name of "self-defense," we impose empire. The U.S. is by far the most violent nation in the Middle East. This primitive ethic of might-makes-right poses as "American Exceptionalism."
Iran feels threatened. We invaded Iran's Eastern and Western flanks, our fleet patrols their access to the sea, we threaten to bomb them through our Israeli proxies, and secretly our CIA, with Israel's Mossad, murders Iranian nuclear scientists.
But when a nation like Iran develops a nuke, we stop threatening them, and start treating them like a member of the club.
So if I were Iranian, I would want nuclear weapons too: not to attack anybody, but to stop American bullying.
Threatening our adversaries only feeds their hostility. If America wants a peaceful Middle East, with lower oil prices, we should withdraw U.S. troops and let Iran join the nuclear club.
When Jesus said, "Love your enemies," he gave us a wiser and more practical foreign policy.
We can preach the danger of nuclear weapons to others when we get rid of ours. But American foreign policy usually fails to practice what we preach.
The U.S. treats others as we would not want them to treat us. We bomb, invade and occupy sovereign nations. In the name of "self-defense," we impose empire. The U.S. is by far the most violent nation in the Middle East. This primitive ethic of might-makes-right poses as "American Exceptionalism."
Iran feels threatened. We invaded Iran's Eastern and Western flanks, our fleet patrols their access to the sea, we threaten to bomb them through our Israeli proxies, and secretly our CIA, with Israel's Mossad, murders Iranian nuclear scientists.
But when a nation like Iran develops a nuke, we stop threatening them, and start treating them like a member of the club.
So if I were Iranian, I would want nuclear weapons too: not to attack anybody, but to stop American bullying.
Threatening our adversaries only feeds their hostility. If America wants a peaceful Middle East, with lower oil prices, we should withdraw U.S. troops and let Iran join the nuclear club.
When Jesus said, "Love your enemies," he gave us a wiser and more practical foreign policy.
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