Masters Of War

Come you masters of war You that build all the guns You that build the death planes You that build all the bombs You that hide behind walls You that hide behind desks I just want you to know I can see through your masks. You that never done nothin' But build to destroy You play with my world Like it's your little toy You put a gun in my hand And you hide from my eyes And you turn and run farther When the fast bullets fly. Like Judas of old You lie and deceive A world war can be won You want me to believe But I see through your eyes And I see through your brain Like I see through the water That runs down my drain. You fasten all the triggers For the others to fire Then you set back and watch When the death count gets higher You hide in your mansion' As young people's blood Flows out of their bodies And is buried in the mud. You've thrown the worst fear That can ever be hurled Fear to bring children Into the world For threatening my baby Unborn and unnamed You ain't worth the blood That runs in your veins. How much do I know To talk out of turn You might say that I'm young You might say I'm unlearned But there's one thing I know Though I'm younger than you That even Jesus would never Forgive what you do. Let me ask you one question Is your money that good Will it buy you forgiveness Do you think that it could I think you will find When your death takes its toll All the money you made Will never buy back your soul. And I hope that you die And your death'll come soon I will follow your casket In the pale afternoon And I'll watch while you're lowered Down to your deathbed And I'll stand over your grave 'Til I'm sure that you're dead.------- Bob Dylan 1963

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Lobbying: how politicians are bought and sold

Lobbying: how politicians are bought and sold

In his masterpiece called  Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State, Engels pointed out that even in a “democratic republic”, wealth still wields power indirectly, but all the more surely. “It does this in two ways”, he explains, “by plain corruption of officials, of which America is the classic example, and by an alliance between the government and the stock exchange.”

In a later work, State and Revolution, Lenin took up the same theme, examining the completely fraudulent character of parliamentary democracy. “At the present time”, he wrote,” Imperialism and the domination of the banks have ‘developed’ both these methods of defending and asserting the omnipotence of wealth in democratic republics of all descriptions.” READ MORE

Ripe for Leftist Challenge, Nader Describes Clinton as 'Poster Child for Military-Industrial Complex' | Common Dreams

Ripe for Leftist Challenge, Nader Describes Clinton as 'Poster Child for Military-Industrial Complex' | Common Dreams

Monday, July 29, 2013

An Anarchistic Understanding of the Social Order: Environmental Degradation, Indigenous Resistance, and a Place for the Sciences « Andrew Gavin Marshall

An Anarchistic Understanding of the Social Order: Environmental Degradation, Indigenous Resistance, and a Place for the Sciences « Andrew Gavin Marshall

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..........................An anarchistic understanding of the institutions and ideologies which control the world order reveals a society blinded by apathy as it nears extinction. The institutions which dictate the political, economic and social direction of our world are the very same ones destroying the environment to such an extent that the fate of the species is put at extreme risk. To not only continue – but to accelerate – down this path is no longer an acceptable course of action for humanity. It is time that socially segregated populations begin reaching out and working together, to share knowledge, organizational capacity, and engage in mutual action for shared objectives. With that in mind, it would appear to be beneficial not only for those involved – but for humanity as a whole – if Indigenous peoples and segments of the scientific community pursued the objective of protecting the environment together. Acknowledging this is easy enough, the hard part is figuring out the means and methods of turning that acknowledgement into action.
This is again where anarchist principles can become useful, emphasizing the creative capacity of many to contribute new ideas and undertake new initiatives working together as free individuals in collective organizations to achieve shared objectives. This is not an easy task, but it is a necessary one. The very future of humanity may depend upon it.
For notes and sources, download the paper here.HERE IS HIS BLOG

Sunday, July 28, 2013

US Government Protection of Al-Qaeda Terrorists and the US-Saudi Black Hole :: JapanFocus

US Government Protection of Al-Qaeda Terrorists and the US-Saudi Black Hole :: JapanFocus
“[B]etween 1998 and 2002, up to US $73,000 in cashier cheques was funneled by [Saudi Ambassador Prince] Bandar's wife Haifa - who once described the elder Bushes as like "my mother and father" - to two Californian families known to have bankrolled al-Midhar and al-Hazmi. … Princess Haifa sent regular monthly payments of between $2,000 and $3,500 to Majeda Dweikat, wife of Osama Basnan, believed by various investigators to be a spy for the Saudi government. Many of the cheques were signed over to Manal Bajadr, wife of Omar al-Bayoumi, himself suspected of covertly working for the kingdom. The Basnans, the al-Bayoumis and the two 9/11 hijackers once shared the same apartment block in San Diego. It was al-Bayoumi who greeted the killers when they first arrived in America, and provided them, among other assistance, with an apartment and social security cards. He even helped the men enroll at flight schools in Florida.”119 - See more at: http://www.japanfocus.org/-Peter_Dale-Scott/3971#sthash.s4RpcJXD.dpuf
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The "Unusual" Yet Ubiquitous Left-Right Alliance: Towards an Anti-Establishment Center

The "Unusual" Yet Ubiquitous Left-Right Alliance: Towards an Anti-Establishment Center
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), left, and a member of his staff are joined by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), far right, as they all pass a group of Boy Scouts. (Photo: Christopher Gregory / The New York Times) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), left, and a member of his staff are joined by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), far right, as they all pass a group of Boy Scouts. (Photo: Christopher Gregory / The New York Times)AP reports: "The House narrowly rejected a challenge to the National Security Agency's secret collection of hundreds of millions of Americans' phone records Wednesday night after a fierce debate ... The vote was 217-205 on an issue that created unusual political coalitions in Washington, with libertarian-leaning conservatives and liberal Democrats pressing for the change against the Obama administration [and] the Republican establishment..." The New York Times writes "disagreements over the program led to some unusual coalitions." Similarly, NBC opined the "amendment earned fierce opposition from an unusual set of allies, ranging from the Obama administration to the conservative Heritage Foundation." [Emphasis added throughout.]
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Arctic Methane "Burp": A Climate Catastrophe with $60 Trillion Pricetag | Common Dreams


Arctic Methane "Burp": A Climate Catastrophe with $60 Trillion Pricetag | Common Dreams
Permafrost on the northeastern side of Spitsbergen, Svalbard, an island in the arctic region between Norway and the North Pole. (Photo: Olafur Ingolfsson.)Warning that a dramatic "burp" or "pulse" of methane from beneath the fragile permafrost of the Arctic caused by continued global warming would set off a "climate catastrophe," a new study says that the continued melting is also an economic "time bomb" that could cost the global economy $60 trillion.
Billions upon billions of tons of methane remain stored in the permafrost throughout the Arctic regions, but specific concern has been placed on the enormous reserves that sit locked beneath the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. Scientists have repeatedly warned that if these deposits—many frozen in the form of methane hydrates—were released, they would trigger massive feedback loops and dramatically increase the rate of global warming.READ MORE

The United States of... Class War, Inequality, and Poverty | Common Dreams

The United States of... Class War, Inequality, and Poverty | Common Dreams

Saturday, July 27, 2013

The Brief, Tragic Reign of Consumerism—and the Birth of a Happy Alternative | Common Dreams

The Brief, Tragic Reign of Consumerism—and the Birth of a Happy Alternative | Common Dreams
Crisis time
Still, as the critics have insisted all along, consumerism as a system cannot continue indefinitely; it contains the seeds of its own demise. And the natural constraints to consumerism—fossil fuel limits, environmental sink limits (leading to climate change, ocean acidification, and other pollution dilemmas), and debt limits—appear to be well within sight. While there may be short-term ways of pushing back against these limits (unconventional oil and gas, geo-engineering, and quantitative easing), there is no way around them. Consumerism is doomed. But since consumerism now effectively is the economy (70 percent of US GDP comes from consumer spending), when it goes down the economy goes too.
A train wreck is foreseeable. No one knows exactly when the impact will occur or precisely how bad it will be. But it is possible to say with some confidence that this wreck will manifest itself as an economic depression accompanied by a series of worsening environmental disasters and possibly wars and revolutions. This should be news to nobody by now, as recent governmentand UN reports spin out the scenarios in ever grimmer detail: rising sea levels, waves of environmental refugees, droughts, floods, famines, and collapsing economies.
Indeed, in view of the events since 2007, it’s likely the impact has already commenced, though it is happening in agonizingly slow motion as the system fights to maintain itself.
The happy alternative READ MORE

The Ludwig Feuerbach Internet Archive

The Feuerbach Internet Archive
“Feuerbach is the only one who has a serious, critical attitude to the Hegelian dialectic and who has made genuine discoveries in this field. He is in fact the true conqueror of the old philosophy”. Marx, 1844
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The Secret Life Of Unemployment: Jobless Rate In The U.S Higher Than Italy And Ireland But Is Hidden By Government

The Secret Life Of Unemployment: Jobless Rate In The U.S Higher Than Italy And Ireland But Is Hidden By Government
Job Fair

Friday, July 26, 2013

Time To Decide: Concentrated Wealth Or Shared Prosperity, Economic Democracy | PopularResistance.Org

Time To Decide: Concentrated Wealth Or Shared Prosperity, Economic Democracy | PopularResistance.Org

1plut

What John Kerry Really Did in Vietnam » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

What John Kerry Really Did in Vietnam » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

Death by Corporation, Part II: Companies as Cancer Cells

Death by Corporation, Part II: Companies as Cancer Cells
Businessmen arrive(Image: Businessmen arrive via Shutterstock)
The financial industry, chemical industry, drug companies, nuclear industrial complex and dirty energy empire work "like tumor cells for the relentless destruction of the environment that they themselves depend upon for their very lives. And the rest of us stand by and watch it happen."
The Financial Industry
The global financial crisis of 2008, at a cost of more than $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression. The financial crisis became a human crisis. The World Bank estimated that 53 million people worldwide were thrown into poverty and that between 200,000 and 400,000 babies died annually as a result. Millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa have suffered severe malnutrition and long-term brain damage as fallout from the financial disaster
Suicide rates rise and fall with the state of the economy. Unemployment and foreclosure are the largest triggers in increased suicide risk. About 35,000 Americans die every year from suicides, up about 28 percent since 1999. Suicide rates in Europe, where the recession has been even more severe, are even higher. Ervin Lupoe from Wilmington, California, shot his five children and wife to death before turning the gun on himself. Lupoe was deep in debt, behind on his mortgage and had been fired from his hospital job. Anxiety, fear, crime, domestic abuse, murder and suicide all increased worldwide because of the financial crisis.
It was an "avoidable" disaster caused by widespread failures in government regulation, corporate mismanagement and heedless risk-taking by Wall Street, according to the conclusions of a federal inquiry. It was the private market, not government programs, that made, packaged and sold most of these wretched loans without regard to their quality. The packaging, combined with credit default swaps and other esoteric derivatives, spread the contagion throughout the world. That's why what initially seemed to be a large but containable US mortgage problem touched off a worldwide financial crisis.
The speculative binge was abetted by a giant "shadow banking system" in which the banks relied heavily on short-term debt, snake oil mortgage hucksters and credit rating agencies that essentially prostituted themselves for cash from the investment banks. Regulators "lacked the political will" to scrutinize and hold accountable the institutions they were supposed to oversee. The financial industry spent $2.7 billion on lobbying from 1999 to 2008, while individuals and committees affiliated with it made more than $1 billion of campaign contributions.
The banking industry is completely unchastened. It is now pressing a full-frontal assault on repealing Dodd-Frank - a small, inadequate attempt to prevent it from destroying our economy again.
The Chemical Industry  READ MORE

Chris Hedges: As a Socialist, I Have No Voice in the Mainstream - Pt 6 of 7

Democratic establishment unmasked: prime defenders of NSA bulk spying l Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Democratic establishment unmasked: prime defenders of NSA bulk spying l Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Israeli parliament approved the deportation of 40,000 Bedouin from their...

Progressives Challenge Pelosi Fundraiser

The Crisis of Finance Capitalism and the Exhaustion of Neoliberalism

The Crisis of Finance Capitalism and the Exhaustion of Neoliberalism

In the five years since the Global Financial Crisis, no policies have been developed to effectively ensure against another systemic failure of banking and insurance systems.
It has now been five years since the beginnings of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). What has been learned - if anything - by international agencies about the nature of the crisis and how to manage macroeconomic policy? In the wake of the crisis, ongoing problems of the Eurozone, slow and fragile growth in the United States and a slowdown of emerging economies, governments around the world have been reviewing the risks to insure economies against the systematic failure of banking and insurance systems.  
The GFC drew attention to market volatility, to knock-on effects of "too big to fail" entities, the dangers of high levels of public debt and the risks associated with the massive growth and expansiveness of the finance sector vis-a-vis the real productive economy. Suddenly the role of the state and other extra-state agencies is back on the policy agenda as governments explore the scope of new regulatory tools designed to restructure banks, introduce new capital reserve levels and monitor professional standards. Greater thought has been given to the threats that the finance sector pose to the economy as a whole, and European governments in particular have sought to deal with these problems by pursuing austerity measures designed to cut levels of unsustainable public debt.
To read more articles by Michael Peters and other authors in the Public Intellectual Project, click here.
The systematic collapse of global financial institutions is in part a result of a number of interrelated problems that indicate the many dimensions of the crisis of finance capitalism and the exhaustion of the neoliberal model of development:
  1. The failure, and subsequent recapitalization, nationalization or bailout of major banks leading to an era of "austerity politics" in Europe;
  2. The massive growth of the world derivatives market and consequent over-expansion of national banking systems in relation to the "productive economy";
  3. The growth of unsustainable sovereign and national debt levels resulting in sequestration and quantitative easing policies in the United States;
  4. The attempted regulation of tax evasion strategies by multinational companies;
  5. The tax evasion by wealthy individuals in a system of international tax-havens and trusts;
  6. The excessive bonuses and preferential shares given to CEOs even in the face of poor performance;
  7. The way that the EU (acting with the CEB and IMF) has exercised considerable fiscal and economic pressure on democratically elected governments to change policies;
  8. The rapid growth of new information technologies that produces a new global complexity of high-frequency trading (HFT) at a speed that eludes national and regional agencies to effectively track or regulate;
  9. The decline of trust and misalignment of incentives at the very heart of the financial culture of equity markets;
  10. The fraudulent and criminal culture at the highest levels of the finance industry including the deliberate manipulation of the Libor exchange rate, with few criminal convictions except for ponzi-schemers and insider-traders.
The heart of Anglophone finance capitalism is built on the twin pillars of Wall Street and the City of London, and the globalization of finance markets has increased this connectivity. In both these poles, the culture of the finance sector has come under increasing scrutiny.
The final report of the "Kay Review of Equity Markets and Long-Term Decision-Making" (July 2012) concluded that "short-termism is a problem in UK equity markets and that the principal causes are the decline of trust and the misalignment of incentives throughout the equity investment chain" (p. 9). The Kay Review identifies "the systematic nature of the problems" and aims to restore trust and confidence in the investment chain through a variety of measures including "the application of fiduciary standards of care" and "diminish[ing] the current role of trading and transactional cultures." Overall, the review focuses on defeating the short-termism of equity market traders and to reintroduce a concept of good stewardship of financial resources based on transparent and trustworthy financial intermediation. The review is damning of the change in culture that has occurred since the 1970s that has benefitted traders at the expense of users.
The financial system has been transformed since the 1970s by globalisation, deregulation, and reregulation. These developments changed the culture of UK financial institutions and the identity and behaviour of the leading participants. A culture which had emphasised trust relationships was replaced by one which gave primacy to trading. The trading culture has influenced the behaviour of market users - companies and savers - as well as market intermediaries. In the long run, the outcome has benefitted market participants more than market users (p. 88).
John Kay has been a longtime critic of investment banking, which has been ruthless in dumping risk on hapless consumers. He suggests - as one commentator summarizes it in an interview with Kay - "there is an endemic culture in financial services that makes it incapable of learning from other disciplines," particularly from the study of complex systems that provides sophisticated analysis and understanding of how systems work and the damage that monocultures can inflict on the whole ecosystem. Kay is an advocate of what he calls "narrow banking,"the purpose of which is to protect the nonfinancial economy from financial instability:
A much needed restructuring of the financial services industry would establish a retail sector focused on the needs of consumers, rather than on the promotion of products and the remuneration of producers. We could look forward to an industry in which new technologies are used, not just to reduce costs, but to deliver better services. We should establish a market in which customer satisfaction is the measure of success. That would be an outcome very different from our recent experience. But it is an outcome we can - and must - achieve (p. 5).
Perhaps even more significant is Kay's (2009) comment, quoting Simon Johnson's (2009) The Quiet Coup. "The financial services industry is now the most powerful political force in Britain and the US." He goes on to say: READ MORE