A lucid outline of the sequence of events....

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Great Depression of the 21st Century: Collapse of the Real Economy by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, November 15, 2008

The financial crisis is deepening, with the risk of seriously disrupting the system of international payments. This crisis is far more serious than the Great Depression. All major sectors of the global economy are affected. Recent reports suggest that the system of Letters of Credit as well as international shipping, which constitute the lifeline of the international trading system, are potentially in jeopardy. The proposed bank "bailout" under the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is not a "solution" to the crisis but the "cause" of further collapse. The "bailout" contributes to a further process of destabilization of the financial architecture. It transfers large amounts of public money, at taxpayers expense, into the hands of private financiers. It leads to a spiraling public debt and an unprecedented centralization of banking power. Moreover, the bailout money is used by the financial giants to secure corporate acquisitions both in the financial sector and the real economy. In turn, this unprecedented concentration of financial power spearheads entire sectors of industry and the services economy into bankruptcy, leading to the layoff of tens of thousands of workers. The upper spheres of Wall Street overshadow the real economy. The accumulation of large amounts of money wealth by a handful of Wall Street conglomerates and their associated hedge funds is reinvested in the acquisition of real assets. Paper wealth is transformed into the ownership and control of real productive assets, including industry, services, natural resources, infrastructure, etc. Collapse of Consumer Demand The real economy is in crisis. The resulting increase in unemployment is conducive to a dramatic decline in consumer spending which in turn backlashes on the levels of production of goods and services. Exacerbated by neoliberal macro-economic policy, this downward spiral is cumulative, ultimately leading to an oversupply of commodities. Business enterprises cannot sell their products, because workers have been laid off. Consumers, namely working people, have been deprived of the purchasing power required to fuel economic growth. With their meager earnings, they cannot afford to acquire the goods produced. Overproduction Triggers a String of Bankruptcies Inventories of unsold goods pile up. Eventually, production collapses; the supply of commodities declines through the closing down of production facilities, including manufacturing assembly plants. In the process of plant closure, more workers become unemployed. Thousands of bankrupt firms are driven off the economic landscape, leading to a slump in production. Mass poverty and a Worldwide decline in living standards is the result of low wages and mass unemployment. It is the outcome of a preexisting global cheap labor economy, largely characterized by low wage assembly plants in Third World countries. The current crisis extends the geographic contours of the cheap labor economy, leading to the impoverishment of large sectors of the population in the so-called developed countries (including the middle classes). In the US, Canada and Western Europe, the entire industrial sector is potentially in jeopardy. We are dealing with a long-term process of economic and financial restructuring. In its earlier phase, starting in the 1980s during the Reagan Thatcher era, local and regional level enterprises, family farms and small businesses were displaced and destroyed. In turn, the merger and acquisition boom of the 1990s led to the concurrent consolidation of large corporate entities both in the real economy as well as in banking and financial services. In recent developments, however, the concentration of bank power has been at the expense of big business. What is distinct in this particular phase of the crisis, is the ability of the financial giants (through their overriding control over credit) not only to create havoc in the production of goods and services, but also to undermine and destroy large corporate entities of the real economy. Bankruptcies are occurring in all major sectors of activity: Manufacturing, telecoms, consumer retail outlets, shopping malls, airlines, hotels and tourism, not to mention real estate and the construction industry, victims of the subprime mortgage meltdown. General Motors has confirmed that "it could run out of cash within a few months, which could prompt one of the biggest bankruptcy filings in U.S. history". (USNews.com, November 11, 2008)) In turn this would backlash on a string of related industries. Estimates of job losses in the US auto industry range from 30,000 to as much as 100,000.(Ibid) [...snip....] In the last two months, there have been numerous plant closures across America leading to the permanent layoff of tens of thousands of workers. These closures have affected several key areas of economic activity including the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, the automobile industry and related sectors, the services economy, etc. US factory orders have declined dramatically. Research firm Autodata reported in October that "sales of cars and light trucks in September had declined 27 percent compared with a year earlier."(Washington Post, October 3, 2008) Unemployment According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, an additional 240,000 jobs were lost during the month of October alone: "Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 240,000 in October, and the unemployment rate rose from 6.1 to 6.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. October's drop in payroll employment followed declines of 127,000 in August and 284,000 in September, as revised. Employment has fallen by 1.2 million in the first 10 months of 2008; over half of the decrease has occurred in the past 3 months. In October, job losses continued in manufacturing, construction, and several service-providing industries... Among the unemployed, the number of persons who lost their job and did not expect to be recalled to work rose by 615,000 to 4.4 million in October. Over the past 12 months, the size of this group has increased by 1.7 million." (Bureau of Labor Statistics, November, 2008) The official figures do not describe the seriousness of the crisis and its devastating impact on the labor market, since many of the job losses are not reported. The situation in the European Union is equally disturbing. A recent British report points to the potential plight of mass unemployment in North Eastern England. In Germany, a report published in October, suggests that 10-15% of all automotive jobs in Germany could be lost. Job cuts have also been announced at General Motors and Nissan-Renault plants in Spain. Sales of new cars in Spain plummeted by 40 percent in October in relation to sales in the same month last year. Bankruptcies and Foreclosures: A Money-spinning Operation for the Financial Giants Among the companies on the verge of bankruptcy are some highly lucrative and profitable operations. The important question: who takes over the ownership of bankrupt giant industrial corporations? Bankruptcies and foreclosures are a money-spinning operation. With the collapse in stock market values, listed companies experience a major collapse of the price of their stock, which immediately affects their creditworthiness and their ability to borrow and/ or to renegotiate debts ( which are based on the quoted value of their assets). The institutional speculators, the hedge funds, et al have cashed in on their windfall loot. They trigger the collapse of listed companies through short selling and other speculative operations. They then cash in on their large scale speculative gains. According to a report in the Financial Times, there is evidence that the plunge of the US automobile industry was in part the result of manipulation: "General Motors and Ford lost 31 per cent to $3.01 and 10.9 per cent to $1.80 despite hopes that Washington may save the industry from the brink of collapse. The fall came after Deutsche Bank set a price target of zero on GM." (FT, November 14, 2008, emphasis added) The financiers are on a shopping-spree. America's Forbes 400 billionaires are waiting in limbo. Once they have consolidated their position in the banking industry, the financial giants including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, et al will use their windfall money gains and bailout money provided under TARP, to further extend their control over the real economy. The next step consists in transforming liquid assets, namely money paper wealth, into the acquisition of real economy assets. In this regard, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is a major shareholder of General Motors. More recently, following the collapse in stock values in October and November, Buffett boosted his stake in oil producer ConocoPhillips, not to mention Eaton Corp, whose price on the NYSE tumbled by 62% in relation to its December 2007 high (Bloomberg). The target of these acquisitions are the numerous highly productive industrial and services sector companies, which are on the verge of bankruptcy and/or whose stock values have collapsed. The money managers are picking up the pieces. Ownership of the Real Economy As a result of these developments, which are directly related to the financial meltdown, the entire ownership structure of real economy assets is in turmoil. Paper wealth accumulated through insider trading and stock market manipulation is used to acquire control over real economic assets, displacing the preexisting ownership structures. What we are dealing with is an unsavory relationship between the real economy and the financial sector. The financial conglomerates do not produce commodities. They essentially make money through the conduct of financial transactions. They use the proceeds of these transactions to take over bona fide real economy corporations which produce goods and services for household consumption. In a bitter twist, the new owners of industry are the institutional speculators and financial manipulators. They are becoming the new captains of industry, displacing not only the preexisting structures of ownership but also instating their cronies in the seats of corporate management. No Reform Possible under the Washington-Wall Street Consensus The November 15 G-20 Financial Summit in Washington upholds the Washington-Wall Street consensus. While formally presenting a project to restore financial stability, in practice, the hegemony of Wall Street remains unscathed. The tendency is towards a unipolar monetary system dominated by the United States and upheld by US military superiority. The architects of financial disaster under the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act (FSMA) have been entrusted with the task of mitigating the crisis, which they themselves created. They are the cause of financial collapse. The G20 Financial Summit doesn't question the legitimacy of the hedge funds and the various instruments of derivative trade. The final Communiqué includes an imprecise and blurred commitment "to better regulate hedge funds and create more transparency in mortgage-related securities in a bid to halt a global economic slide." A solution to this crisis can only be brought about through a process of "financial disarmament", which forcefully challenges the hegemony of the Wall Street financial institutions including their control over monetary policy. "Financial disarmament" would also require freezing the instruments of speculative trade, dismantling the hedge funds and democratizing monetary policy. The term "financial disarmament" was initially coined by John Maynard Keynes in the 1940s. Obama Endorses Financial Deregulation Barack Obama has embraced the Washington-Wall Street consensus. In a bitter twist, former Congressman Jim Leach, a Republican who sponsored the 1999 FSMA in the House of Representatives is now advising Obama on formulating a timely solution to the crisis. Jim Leach, Madeleine Albright and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who also played a key role in pushing through the FSMA legislation, were in attendance at the November 15 G-20 Financial Summit, as part of President-elect Barack Obama's advisory team: "President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden announced that former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Republican Congressman Jim Leach would be available to meet with delegations at the G-20 summit on their behalf. Leach and Albright are holding these unofficial meetings to seek input from visiting delegations on behalf of the president-elect and vice president-elect. (mlive.com, November 15, 2008) Related Article Who are the Architects of Economic Collapse? Will an Obama Administration Reverse the Tide? - by Michel Chossudovsky - 2008-11-09 The engineers of financial disaster are being considered by President-Elect Barack Obama for the position of Treasury Secretary.

Hitler Gets A Margin Call

Naomi Wolff and the 10 Steps to Fascism

Naomi Wolff interview about her new book on the 10 Steps to Fascism

Game Over: Thirty-Six Sure-Fire Signs That Your Empire Is Crumbling

by David Michael Green

So. You've built yourself an empire, eh?

Well, bully for you!

What's next, you ask? Well, now you've got to do what everybody does when they have an empire, of course. You've got to worry about it falling apart, mate!

But how to tell for sure? Let me see if I can be helpful. Here are some rules of thumb to keep in mind, thirty-six sure-fire indicators that your empire is falling apart:

You know your empire's crumbling when the folks who are gearing up their empire to replace yours start blowing up satellites in space. And then they don't bother to return your phone calls when you ring up to ask why.

You know your empire's crumbling when those same folks are cutting deals left, right and center across Asia, Latin America and Africa, while you, your lousy terms, and your arrogant attitude are no longer welcome.

You know your empire's crumbling when you're spending your grandchildren's money like a drunken sailor, and letting your soon-to-be rivals finance your little splurge (i.e., letting them own your country).

You know your empire's crumbling when it's considered an achievement to pretend that you've halved the rate at which you're adding to the massive mountain of debt you've already accumulated.

You know your empire's crumbling when you weaken your currency until it looks as anemic as a Paris runway model, and you're still setting record trade deficits. (Hint: Because you're not making anything anymore.)

You know your empire's crumbling when "the little brown ones" (thank you George H.W. Bush - certainly not me - for that lovely expression) in country after country of "your backyard" blow you off and proudly elect anti-imperialist leftist governments.

You know your empire's crumbling when you can't topple those governments and replace them with nice puppet regimes - like in the good old days - even if you wanted to. And you badly want to.

You know your empire's crumbling when one of their leaders comes to the United Nations and makes fun of your emperor, calling him the devil, and joking about smelling sulphur where he just stood. And though a few folks cringe, everybody laughs.

You know your empire's crumbling when just about your entire military land force is tied up in a worse-than-useless war launched on the basis of complete fabrications, that every day is actually making you less - not more - secure from external threat.

You know your empire's crumbling when almost half the soldiers in that war are high-paid mercenaries, and you don't dare institute a draft.

You know your empire's crumbling when you send soldiers into war with two weeks training and a lack of armor, and then you keep them there for three, four and five rotations.

You know your empire's crumbling when a member of the Axis of Evil can test missiles and explode nuclear warheads, and all you can do about it is mumble some pathetic warnings about how they better not do that again or there will be consequences.

You know your empire's crumbling when you even think that there is an Axis of Evil.

You know your empire's crumbling when a rag-tag military hodge-podge of irregulars has you pinned down in an endless fight you can't win, but also can't lose.

You know your empire's crumbling when you're too dumb to even ban Humvees as a first step toward ending your dependency on a foreign-owned crucial resource.

You know your empire's crumbling when you trade your prior moral leadership on human rights issues for global disgust at your torture, 'extraordinary rendition' (a.k.a. kidnaping for torture) and the dismantling of nine centuries worth of civil liberties progress.

You know your empire's crumbling when you blow off international law that you once helped create, and undermine the institutions of international governance that you once helped build.

You know your empire's crumbling when opinion polls confirm that every month you're more and more despised throughout the world.

You know your empire's crumbling when you can't even pull off the hanging of a tin-pot murderous former dictator without turning him into a hero.

You know your empire's crumbling when you're the richest country in the world, but nearly 50 million of your people don't have basic health care coverage.

You know your empire's crumbling when the World Health Organization ranks your healthcare system 37th 'best' in the world, just above Slovenia, and just below Costa Rica. (And far below Colombia, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.)

You know your empire's crumbling when instead of making it easier for citizens to obtain a higher education, you're making it harder and more expensive.

You know your empire's crumbling when your government gives tax breaks to industries as a reward for exporting your jobs elsewhere.

You know your empire's crumbling when the so-called 'opposition' party can't even turn that obscenity into a viable campaign theme and use it to clobber the worst emperor in your history.

You know your empire's crumbling when your middle class has been stagnant for three decades, while the wealth of the hyper-rich continues to climb through the roof.

You know your empire's crumbling when your reaction to that is to exacerbate the problem by enacting tax policies that massively increase further still the gap between the rich and the rest.

You know your empire's crumbling when the predatory class has taken over your government and is stripping the country of everything not bolted down to the floor. And then it sells the floor itself, as well, to your rivals.

You know your empire's crumbling when you're spending tens of billions of dollars you don't own on new nuclear warheads and space weapons that don't work, to be used against an enemy you don't have.

You know your empire's crumbling when one of your cities drowns and your government does next to nothing before, during and after.

You know your empire's crumbling when a massive environmental nightmare is looming around the corner, and your emperor not only ignores it, but claims it isn't real while taking steps to exacerbate it.

You know your empire's crumbling when your emperor is warned by a CIA briefer of an imminent terrorist attack of vast proportions, and responds by remaining on vacation and dismissing the briefer with the words: "All right. You've covered your ass, now."

You know your empire's crumbling when the same emperor drops everything to fly across the country from his vacation home in order to sign a bill intervening on the wrong side of a personal medical drama involving a single family.

You know your empire's crumbling when gays and immigrants are used as diversionary issues to keep people from thinking about the pillaging of their country and their wallets actually taking place. And it works.

You know your empire's crumbling when people are getting more religious and less scientific, not the other way around.

You know your empire's crumbling when your political leaders start to be chosen by dynastic rules of succession.

And you especially know your empire's crumbling when the most idiotic child of one of the least accomplished leaders in its history is not only crowned as the next emperor, but is even revered for a time by most of the public as a great one.

Rome? Britain? Spain?

At this rate we'll be lucky to end up like Belgium.

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/gameover.php

http://snipurl.com/2x5t2

American Capitalism: The Murder Culture vs The Gift Culture

By Justin Frambes

7/11/08


"Centuries ago they came to the "New World", the masses of European settlers escaping political and religious oppression, war, corrupt landlordism, etc. for freer, much greener pastures, but unknowing pawns as they were and slaves to a system so omnipresent they never saw it, let alone questioned it, they brought with them the monetary control system and systematically conquered the entire North American continent, ultimately resulting in the deaths of anywhere from 8 to 145 million American Indians through disease, dispossession of their land (most often illegal), and outright genocide, all in the name of [American] "progress" and profit. Along with the American Indians, the Gift Culture" passed into the pages of history.

As the United States established itself, so did capitalism and the modern corporate world under the monetary control system. Viewing the continent as a vast source of future wealth and American Indians and their way of life (Gift Culture, sustainability) as "savage," "antiquated," and standing directly in its way atop "waste and unappropriated lands" 1, it set upon its mission of removing them and plundering the land for every resource it had. Blinded by greed for the money and power to be obtained through acquisition of all the natural resources and growth of a taxpaying population, it never questioned its predatory way of service to self (where one serves self) at the expense of others — e.g. their disrespect, disregard, and brutality toward other peoples, other customs, animals, and nature itself (indeed, it lived completely out of touch with nature, where its only relationship to it was to prey upon it). Today, 232 years after its inception, the American empire having influenced almost every corner of the world (and led almost all other nations by example), its pursuit of material and financial wealth through capitalism has left the Earth's air, land, rivers and sea polluted beyond human repair and humanity in a state of misery and disarray.

American Indians were (and had always been) free from the monetary control system, living under their humble Gift Culture, but efforts during the 18th and 19th centuries to force them into accepting "civilization", being American citizens, and ultimately taxpayers subject to the jurisdiction (control) of the United States were relentless and unyielding, and eventually succeeded. What the world largely has today, as a result of the historically costly success of America and capitalism and abandonment of the Gift Culture (excluding the digital world where it still lives), is that of a convenient but ultimately regressive, debt-based, fast-paced, stressful, egocentric, self-important, individualistic, isolationist, unsustainable, anti-communal / anti-tribal, fear-based (fear of losing money, power, importance, normalcy, services, materialism, of death, and so on) way of life disconnected from nature and almost completely devoid of meaning and realism.

It is very revealing that most people cannot imagine what life would be like without money. The problem however is not necessarily money itself, it is humanity's belief in and use of it (via the ego). Unfortunately it demands that life is a perpetual state of debt to someone or something other than oneself, something to be continuously earned until the end ("the cost of living"), and places an arbitrary numerical value on life itself, when in actuality all life is equal and sacred. Furthermore it gives only the illusion of balance; its very existence creates imbalance and poverty, the opposite of its purpose, which is to obtain security. And when accompanied by greed, hatred, or self-centeredness it becomes the tool of corruption, control (through ownership), and leads to destruction and disregard for others and loss of quality and integrity in its pursuit, namely that of profits.

Such things are incapable of existing under a Gift Culture, a free system that is not derived from the ego and based on pure self-interest, but one of codependence, coexistence, and care for others — where wealth is not in how much one acquires, as it is under capitalism, but how much one can give away freely. With no universal currency to acquire, there is no controllable economy or outlet for greed and hatred through ownership to be had. The American Indians, for instance, had not even a definition of private property:

"The Indians had no concept of "private property," as applied to the land. Only among the Delawares was it customary for families, during certain times of the year, to be assigned specific hunting territories. Apparently this was an unusual practice, not found among other Indians. Certainly, the idea of an individual having exclusive use of a particular piece of land was completely strange to Native Americans.

The Indians practiced communal land ownership. That is, the entire community owned the land upon which it lived." 2

Ownership of land is now at an all-time high and how much global corporations own is staggering. The capitalist system, having operated at full speed for over 200 years, has exhausted the world extensively, and is at this point showing blatant signs of impending failure, all due to its unsustainability and careless disregard for everything except itself. People are now, more than ever, finding themselves with less and less money and are becoming disillusioned with the monetary control system as a whole as the trillions of dollars of unpaid debt come full circle, causing prices to skyrocket due to the plummeting purchasing power of the dollar and the stock market to threaten a disastrous collapse.

With nothing being manufactured in the country anymore thanks to rampant outsourcing by corporations for higher profits and the Federal Reserve Corporation as usual looking out for its own interests and those of the banks, there is no solution in sight to the problem except to brace oneself for the impending great wave of changes.

In order to survive what seems to be coming, compassion (with discernment) for others, the slow formation of localized, self-sustaining communities, and free exchange of goods will become inevitable necessities, and perhaps with those, as the money itself and the belief in it collapses, will arrive a gradual return to the Gift Culture, where such selflessness, while at first provided out of necessity, will eventually be done so voluntarily as humanity realizes a better way of living.

http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=785

http://snipurl.com/2x5ck

Aaron Russo, 1943-2007

Award-winning filmmaker and libertarian political activist Aaron Russo succumbed to cancer Friday at age 64.

Russo was best known for his films, most famous among them Trading Places and The Rose, which won three Golden Globe awards in 1980.

What’s less well known is that he was also instrumental in bringing musical acts to the United States in the 1970s, including one of my all-time favorites, Led Zeppelin.

In his later years, though, Russo turned to politics. In 1996 he produced and starred in a film, Mad as Hell, where he criticized many government policies such as the national ID card, the war on drugs, and government regulation of alternative medicine. In 1998 he ran in the Republican primary for governor of Nevada but was defeated. In 2002, before he could decide whether to run again, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer.

In 2004 he ran for President under the Libertarian Party banner, but failed to get the nomination.

Most recently he produced a documentary film, America: Freedom to Fascism, showing a quest to discover which law requires Americans to pay federal income taxes and finding something quite different.

And in 2007 he was one of the first to endorse Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) for President, doing so even before Paul announced his candidacy. Just before he died he spoke to long time friend and libertarian activist Stephen Gordon about Ron Paul:

In our last telephone conversation, Aaron told me he’d kick my butt if I didn’t do what I could to ensure Ron Paul is the next president of the United States. This was his style. While some have viewed his rough-appearing exterior in a negative manner, those of us who knew him realized what a Teddy Bear he truly was. For those who aren’t aware, Aaron has a long history with Congressman Paul. — Gordon Unleashed

Gordon also says: “If I had to guess the epitaph Aaron would prefer, it would be this: All your freedoms, all the time!” We can honor the legacy of Aaron Russo by rededicating ourselves to the fight to reclaim our lost liberties.

Watch Aaron Russo’s Mad as Hell

Watch America: Freedom to Fascism

Vampire Nation

What Lies Beneath: Privileged Grotesques, Ordinary Monsters and the Iraqi Deathscape.

by Phil Rockstroh

7/12/07

At present, George W. Bush is unpopular with the majority of the American public not because of the murderous mayhem he has unloosed in Iraq; rather, his standing has plummeted, due to the fact that he didn’t deliver the goods. Americans are fine with fueling our republic of road rage using the blood of Iraqis (or any other distant and darker people) as long as “the mission” doesn’t drag on too long or reveal too much about ourselves.

How did we come to be a nation of vampires who live by sustaining ourselves on the blood of others? Is our mode of collective being so toxic in the United States that a writer must bandy about metaphors culled from Gothic horror fiction to describe it?

I’m afraid it’s come to that: We are a people whose psyches have grown monstrously distorted from an addiction to imperial power and personal entitlement. (Imagery of Smurfs and Teletubbies won’t rise to the analogy, albeit as terrifying as those demons of hell-bound cuteness are.)

The corporate culture of exploitation has begot a hellscape of narcissists. It is an authoritarian culture riddled in kitsch and cruelty, in nationalistic hagiography and displaced rage – all the distortions of national character inherent in privileged grotesques and ordinary monsters.

A narcissist’s actions are monstrous because his only love is the image of himself wielding control and power. (Does this remind you of anyone, perhaps someone who struts about in a flight suit — someone prone to proclaiming himself “the decider” – someone who grows intoxicated to the point of becoming insensate from a whiff of his own pheromones as he swoons in macho-narcissistic self-worship?)

And what about the everyday monsters, those who feel nothing — not outrage, not remorse, nor sorrow – by the conscience-devoid attempt made by our vampiric leaders to sustain “our way of life” on Iraqi blood? Are you not a monster as well when you feel nothing before immense human suffering? If you are impervious to, grown inured of, or have chosen to remain ignorant of the agony of the Iraqi people, then you might as well join the ranks of the undead — because the distant landscape of corpses in Iraq and Afghanistan matches your internal deathscape.

In short, our empire’s dependence on the resources (the life’s blood) of others renders us a nation of vampires. Moreover, the corporatist character (our national character) is defined by the vampire’s trait of taking, never giving. Accordingly, what do the big monsters at the top take from us, the little monsters?

To name one: our time, the precious hours of our finite lives. The corporatists are Time Vampires: For a moment, reflect on all the hours of life you’ve wasted away — in office cubicles, in commuter traffic jams, in the addictive pursuit of consumer dreck, or simply numbed-out and exhausted, rendered inert from the incessant, soul-sucking stress of the corporate state.

The corporatocracy devours our time and, like the charges of a vampire, has made us dependent and slavish in return. In our bloodless enslavement, we lose the vitality borne of existing within life’s inherent mysteries and grow estranged from the deep resonances of participation mystique.

How does one begin to take back one’s soul from these elitist usurpers? Start with this: The ebullient skepticism engendered from calling out soul-numbing, self-serving authoritarian lies.

In an era as perilous as ours, it’s imperative we act with utmost urgency. Yet, tragically, the exigencies of our age are being played out against a panorama of longer, more stressful work hours, superficially ameliorated by a mass media culture comprised of ceaseless trivia and mindless distraction.

This pathology began years ago when our ancestors offered up their life’s blood to the early corporatists of the Industrial Age. Henry Ford was a gray ghoul who measured out our flesh with his productivity-measuring stopwatch; he was a cunning practitioner of the black art of convincing human beings they’re mere cogs in an inhuman machine. It was only a short trudge from there through history’s slaughterhouse to Adolf Eichmann, insulated within his vampire’s coffin of cold calculations that shielded him from the horrific implications of the system of mechanized extermination he devised.

The corporate vampire’s creed is defined by ruthless efficiency; the fear of a “loss of productivity” is the driving force of the death machine. The system is so ruthless and inhuman that it must conceal its true face, hence the rise of the telegenic undead known as the corporate media. Do not look to them to report the facts of our condition: After all, a mirror can’t reflect the image of a vampire. A vampire is empty to the core; therefore, there is nothing to reflect.

Furthermore, his emptiness is the progenitor of his destructive nature. Rather than face himself, his appetite for death will devour all in its path: rain forests, Arctic glaziers, the people of Iraq, the hours of your life, as well as your inner being.

It is the force that holds Democratic politicians in the thrall of their own fecklessness, because they answer to the same blood-sucking, corporate masters as the rest of us. Quite simply, they’re afraid of their bosses too. The Washington Beltway is a version, in miniature, of the entire soul-dead, American corporatocracy. The careerist politicians within the Beltway are afflicted with the same diminution of choice — the same hyper-attenuation of the will to freedom — as the rest of us.

And what remains for us: an existence (or lack thereof) within this hierarchical hellscape of narcissists. What sort of a pathetic mode of being is this, a life shackled to the service of a monstrous system wherein one must evince the obsequies of a vampire’s bloodless lackeys?

To reverse this situation: Now is the time to drag the lies of the corporate state into the sunshine where they will wither to dust. We are not powerless: We live in a world where our collective, hidden intentions are made manifest by our outward actions. This is why Gothic — even B-movie — metaphors are not an overwrought description of our present condition. Ergo, by the vehicle of cultural collaboration, we are a nation of world-destroying, B-movie monsters — we are a hack-scripted, second-billed feature at the drive-in movie of existence — a laughed-off-the-big-screen of the cosmos, box-office poison of a people.

We are soul-sucking creatures of kitsch. Flesh-eating zombies of conformity. Road-rage werewolves. Right-wing, talk show demons whose wrathful voices rage into empty air. Hungry ghosts wandering the aisles of supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurant chains and the food courts of shopping malls. We are: The Fat, Mindless Blobs That Ate the Planet.

To survive, first, we must find the monster within, then drive a stake through its heart.

Phil Rockstroh, a self-described, auto-didactic, gasbag monologist, is a poet, lyricist and philosopher bard living in New York City. He may be contacted at: philangie2000@yahoo.com

Ron Paul Blasts the War On Terror

Giuliani To Run For President Of 9/11 |

Giuliani To Run For President Of 9/11

"'My fellow citizens of 9/11, today I will make you a promise,' said Giuliani during his 18-minute announcement speech in front of a charred and torn American flag. 'As president of 9/11, I will usher in a bold new 9/11 for all.'"

'V' Visits The White House

'V' Visits The White House:

"About 60 protesters dressed up as the Guy Fawkes look-a-like 'V,' from the movie by the same name, staged a protest at the White House yesterday. In an encouraging sign, a group of elementary school children visiting the White House on a school trip were much more interested in 'V' than in the White House or its occupant. The children busied themselves taking photos of the 'Vs' and shaking their hands: a clear sign that the Rove/Fox propaganda machine has little effect on those who will be left holding the tab for the recklessness of the 'Baby Boomer' generation. ..."

Will Iran's Detention Of UK Sailors Lead To War?

Will Iran's Detention Of UK Sailors Lead To War?:
"There are many unanswered questions surrounding the capture of the fifteen British seaman/inspectors by the Iranians this week. Were they in Iraqi or Iranian waters? How can we be sure? Why did the British Foreign Office prohibit the frigate from going to the aid of the sailors when it could have? Why would Iran be so foolish as to hand the British and Americans an excuse to turn this provocation into an attack on Iran? Will it be enough to provoke war?"

Moyers: The Secret Government

The Constitution in Crisis

For too long the full length 90 min. version of this documentary has been unavailable. Only a 20 minute version has been circulating. Now as of January 10, 2007 this failure of access ends. Bill Moyers, the respected TV journalist, analyzes the threats to constitutional government posed by an illegitimate network operating from within the government but using secrecy to set itself up outside of the government / peoples oversight. All this back in 1987. This documentary gives a fascinating overview of what has actually happened in the last 50 years regarding the CIA and the Cold War (including Iran, Guatamala, Cuba, Vietnam and Chile). The foundation for the massive push towards greater secrecy in government going on today. Posted by Robert Carrillo Cohen producer "HACKING DEMOCRACY." www.hackingdemocracy.com

Draft The Ivy League!

from Lostwriters.net: "A Military Draft"

"...There are a lot of nations in this world where people are kooky, but only America has the military outreach to project our kookiness onto the world. That is why more than any nation state, America desperately needs a military draft. Numb-skullism, when pertaining to family matters or animal rights or liver abuse, is small potatoes when compared to kickin’ the world’s butt.

......

....We need some high-grade cannon fodder. We need surly, condescending middle-class punks trained to the max in video combat who will instantly clog the wheels of military arrogance. We need those cocky, irreverent kids who as miserable soldiers know their career sergeant is dumber than mom’s brainless poodle. We need those thinkers who just can’t comprehend why our military bureaucracy is determined to sink their overweight body in some quagmire surrounded by killing fields. What we need in our military is a strrong contingent that can’t keep their foul mouths shut and have never seen a program they could just go along with.

And of course we need their parents, parents who contribute to the financial campaign of the local sleaze-ball politicians, who without hesitation will scream and threaten Mr. Corrupt if their little Johnny or Judy comes within 100 Starbucks of any war. And that blur that will blow you off the road and into the ditch, that would be mom headed to her Congressman’s office: “What the f_ _ _ (she hasn’t used that word since Richard Nixon was president) are we doing in that stupid Iraq, you moron Congressman? End this war yesterday if you want to be a Congressman tomorrow!”

We need middle-aged Americans who are closer to the power structure of this nation, who understand how to impact public policy and how to keep our military from sliding into more bloody foreign adventures where our nation's butt gets kicked. As we know, shopping at Macy’s isn’t stopping this war in Iraq.

The greatest resource and safeguard we have for stopping these foolish and wasteful wars that this country keeps returning to like a dog’s bone is to give middle-class Johnny and Judy a real stake in getting their posterior diplomas shot off. The fear that Johnny and Judy could be drafted to fight in some bizarre war will be enough to send their middle-class parents tripping into hysterical spasms with nasty public scenes that will accomplish more than getting them booted out the local country club.

People, it’s time to get serious. It's time to bring on the great middle class..."

FULL MONTY

Habeas corpus

In English Common Law habeas corpus is the name of several writs which may be issued by a judge ordering a prisoner to be brought before the court. More commonly, the name refers to a specific writ known in full as habeas corpus ad subjiciendum, a prerogative writ ordering that a prisoner be brought to the court so it can be determined whether or not he is being imprisoned lawfully.

The words habeas corpus ad subjiciendum are Latin for "You (shall) have/hold the body to be subjected to (examination)", and are taken from the opening words of the writ in medieval times. Other habeas corpus writs also existed, e.g. habeas corpus ad testificandum ("You (shall) have/hold the body to bear witness", for the production of a prisoner to give evidence in court.

Habeas corpus ad subjiciendum

Known as the "Great Writ", the writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum could formerly be used not only in criminal cases, but in cases of imprisonment for private debt. In many jurisdictions today the writ can also be issued against private individuals.

The right of habeas corpus has long been celebrated as the most efficient safeguard of the liberty of the subject. Dicey wrote that the Habeas Corpus Acts "declare no principle and define no rights, but they are for practical purposes worth a hundred constitutional articles guaranteeing individual liberty".

.........................

From Wikipedia

The American Experiment, Really

by Gilles d'Aymery

What have we come to?

A hyper-militarized and arch-violent nation where 100 million people -- one third of the US population -- are directly or indirectly related to the military and countless law enforcement agencies, spending on death and destruction more than the remaining of the entire world; a self-indulgent nation of buccaneers drowning in consumerism and waste without any regard for the consequences wreaked on the environment and the rest of humanity; a pitiful land gripped by fear and insecurity; a human construct based on a mixture of savage social Darwinism, an irrational, deeply conservative (in the reactionary sense), religiosity, and an absurd (and groundless) belief in an innate, god-given Goodness; and the slow but unrelenting "Third-Worldization" of the social and economic fabric of the country where even hope has been hijacked and raped. In brief, a deluded people in unreserved denial of the damages and destructions they inflict upon themselves and the world.

Rejoinder: We are the chosen people. Doing god's work is hard work. (...)

MORE...
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Harper's Magazine: We Now Live in a Fascist State

The article below appears in the current issue of Harpers and was written
by Lewis H. Lapham

www.harpers.org/LewisLapham.html

Knowing the source of this piece makes it all the more disturbing. It is not every day that the editor of a respected national magazine publishes an essay claiming that America is not on the road to becoming, but ALREADY IS, a fascist state.... or words to that affect.

To help prepare you for what follows, here are the final sentence from this piece.... [I think we can look forward with confidence to character-building bankruptcies, picturesque bread riots, thrilling cavalcades of splendidly costumed motorcycle police.]

On message By Lewis H. Lapham Harper's Magazine, October 2005, pps. 7-9 "But I venture the challenging statement that if American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, then Fascism and Communism, aided, unconsciously perhaps, by old-line Tory Republicanism, will grow in strength in our land." -Franklin D. Roosevelt, November 4, 1938

In 1938 the word "fascism" hadn't yet been transferred into an abridged metaphor for all the world's unspeakable evil and monstrous crime, and on coming across President Roosevelt's prescient remark in one of Umberto Eco's essays, I could read it as prose instead of poetry -- a reference not to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse or the pit of Hell but to the political theories that regard individual citizens as the property of the government, happy villagers glad to wave the flags and wage the wars, grateful for the good fortune that placed them in the care of a sublime leader. Or, more emphatically, as Benito Mussolini liked to say, "Everything in the state. Nothing outside the state. Nothing against the state."

The theories were popular in Europe in the 1930s (cheering crowds, rousing band music, splendid military uniforms), and in the United States they numbered among their admirers a good many important people who believed that a somewhat modified form of fascism (power vested in the banks and business corporations instead of with the army) would lead the country out of the wilderness of the Great Depression -- put an end to the Pennsylvania labor troubles, silence the voices of socialist heresy and democratic dissent. Roosevelt appreciated the extent of fascism's popularity at the political box office; so does Eco, who takes pains in the essay "Ur-Fascism," published in The New York Review of Books in 1995, to suggest that it's a mistake to translate fascism into a figure of literary speech. By retrieving from our historical memory only the vivid and familiar images of fascist tyranny (Gestapo firing squads, Soviet labor camps, the chimneys at Treblinka), we lose sight of the faith-based initiatives that sustained the tyrant's rise to glory. The several experiments with fascist government, in Russia and Spain as well as in Italy and Germany, didn't depend on a single portfolio of dogma, and so Eco, in search of their common ground, doesn't look for a unifying principle or a standard text. He attempts to describe a way of thinking and a habit of mind, and on sifting through the assortment of fantastic and often contradictory notions -- Nazi paganism, Franco's National Catholicism, Mussolini's corporatism, etc. -- he finds a set of axioms on which all the fascisms agree. Among the most notable:

The truth is revealed once and only once.

Parliamentary democracy is by definition rotten because it doesn't represent the voice of the people, which is that of the sublime leader.

Doctrine outpoints reason, and science is always suspect.

Critical thought is the province of degenerate intellectuals, who betray the culture and subvert traditional values.

The national identity is provided by the nation's enemies.

Argument is tantamount to treason.

Perpetually at war, the state must govern with the instruments of fear. Citizens do not act; they play the supporting role of "the people" in the grand opera that is the state.

Eco published his essay ten years ago, when it wasn't as easy as it has since become to see the hallmarks of fascist sentiment in the character of an American government. Roosevelt probably wouldn't have been surprised.

He'd encountered enough opposition to both the New Deal and to his belief in such a thing as a United Nations to judge the force of America's racist passions and the ferocity of its anti-intellectual prejudice. As he may have guessed, so it happened. The American democracy won the battles for Normandy and Iwo Jima, but the victories abroad didn't stem the retreat of democracy at home, after 1968 no longer moving "forward as a living force, seeking day and night to better the lot" of its own citizens, and now that sixty years have passed since the bomb fell on Hiroshima, it doesn't take much talent for reading a cashier's scale at Wal-Mart to know that it is fascism, not democracy, that won the heart and mind of America's "Greatest Generation," added to its weight and strength on America's shining seas and fruited plains.

A few sorehead liberal intellectuals continue to bemoan the fact, write books about the good old days when everybody was in charge of reading his or her own mail. I hear their message and feel their pain, share their feelings of regret, also wish that Cole Porter was still writing songs, that Jean Harlow and Robert Mitchum hadn't quit making movies. But what's gone is gone, and it serves nobody's purpose to deplore the fact that we're not still riding in a coach to Philadelphia with Thomas Jefferson. The attitude is cowardly and French, symptomatic of effete aesthetes who refuse to change with the times.

As set forth in Eco's list, the fascist terms of political endearment are refreshingly straightforward and mercifully simple, many of them already accepted and understood by a gratifyingly large number of our most forward-thinking fellow citizens, multitasking and safe with Jesus. It does no good to ask the weakling's pointless question, "Is America a fascist state?" We must ask instead, in a major rather than a minor key, "Can we make America the best damned fascist state the world has ever seen," an authoritarian paradise deserving the admiration of the international capital markets, worthy of "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind"? I wish to be the first to say we can. We're Americans; we have the money and the know-how to succeed where Hitler failed, and history has favored us with advantages not given to the early pioneers.

We don't have to burn any books.

The Nazis in the 1930s were forced to waste precious time and money on the inoculation of the German citizenry, too well-educated for its own good, against the infections of impermissible thought. We can count it as a blessing that we don't bear the burden of an educated citizenry. The systematic destruction of the public-school and library systems over the last thirty years, a program wisely carried out under administrations both Republican and Democratic, protects the market for the sale and distribution of the government's propaganda posters. The publishing companies can print as many books as will guarantee their profit (books on any and all subjects, some of them even truthful), but to people who don't know how to read or think, they do as little harm as snowflakes falling on a frozen pond.

We don't have to disturb, terrorize, or plunder the bourgeoisie.

In Communist Russia as well as in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, the codes of social hygiene occasionally put the regime to the trouble of smashing department-store windows, beating bank managers to death, inviting opinionated merchants on complimentary tours (all expenses paid, breathtaking scenery) of Siberia. The resorts to violence served as study guides for free, thinking businessmen reluctant to give up on the democratic notion that the individual citizen is entitled to an owner's interest in his or her own mind.

The difficulty doesn't arise among people accustomed to regarding themselves as functions of a corporation. Thanks to the diligence of out news media and the structure of our tax laws, our affluent and suburban classes have taken to heart the lesson taught to the aspiring serial killers rising through the ranks at West Point and the Harvard Business School -- think what you're told to think, and not only do you get to keep the house in Florida or command of the Pentagon press office but on some sunny prize day not far over the horizon, the compensation committee will hand you a check for $40 million, or President George W. Bush will bestow on you the favor of a nickname as witty as the ones that on good days elevate Karl Rove to the honorific "Boy Genius," on bad days to the disappointed but no less affectionate "Turd Blossom." Who doesn't now know that the corporation is immortal, that it is the corporation that grants the privilege of an identity, confers meaning on one's life, gives the pension, a decent credit rating, and the priority standing in the community? Of course the corporation reserves the right to open one's email, test one's blood, listen to the phone calls, examine one's urine, hold the patent on the copyright to any idea generated on its premises. Why ever should it not? As surely as the loyal fascist knew that it was his duty to serve the state, the true American knows that it is his duty to protect the brand.

Having met many fine people who come up to the corporate mark -- on golf courses and commuter trains, tending to their gardens in Fairfield County while cutting back the payrolls in Michigan and Mexico -- I'm proud to say (and I think I speak for all of us here this evening with Senator Clinton and her lovely husband) that we're blessed with a bourgeoisie that will welcome fascism as gladly as it welcomes the rain in April and the sun in June. No need to send for the Gestapo or the NKVD; it will not be necessary to set examples.

We don't have to gag the press or seize the radio stations.

People trained to the corporate style of thought and movement have no further use for free speech, which is corrupting, overly emotional, reckless, and ill-informed, not calibrated to the time available for television talk or to the performance standards of a Super Bowl halftime show. It is to our advantage that free speech doesn't meet the criteria of the free market. We don't require the inspirational genius of a Joseph Goebbels; we can rely instead on the dictates of the Nielsen ratings and the camera angles, secure in the knowledge that the major media syndicates run the business on strictly corporatist principles -- afraid of anything disruptive or inappropriate, committed to the promulgation of what is responsible, rational, and approved by experts. Their willingness to stay on message is a credit to their professionalism.

The early twentieth-century fascists had to contend with individuals who regarded their freedom of expression as a necessity -- the bone and marrow of their existence, how they recognized themselves as human beings. Which was why, if sometimes they refused appointments to the state-run radio stations, they sometimes were found dead on the Italian autostrada or drowned in the Kiel Canal. The authorities looked upon their deaths as forms of self-indulgence. The same attitude governs the agreement reached between labor and management at our leading news organizations. No question that the freedom of speech is extended to every American -- it says so in the Constitution -- but the privilege is one that musn't be abused. Understood in a proper and financially rewarding light, freedom of speech is more trouble than it's worth -- a luxury comparable to owning a racehorse and likely to bring with it little else except the risk of being made to look ridiculous. People who learn to conduct themselves in a manner respectful of the telephone tap and the surveillance camera have no reason to fear the fist of censorship. By removing the chore of having to think for oneself, one frees up more leisure time to enjoy the convenience of the Internet services that know exactly what one likes to hear and see and wear and eat. We don't have to murder the intelligentsia.

Here again, we find ourselves in luck. The society is so glutted with easy entertainment that no writer or company of writers is troublesome enough to warrant the compliment of an arrest, or even the courtesy of a sharp blow to the head. What passes for the American school of dissent talks exclusively to itself in the pages of obscure journals, across the coffee cups in Berkeley and Park Slope, in half-deserted lecture halls in small Midwestern
colleges. The author on the platform or the beach towel can be relied upon to direct his angriest invective at the other members of the academy who failed to drape around the title of his latest book the garland of a rave review.

The blessings bestowed by Providence place America in the front rank of nations addressing the problems of a twenty-first century, certain to require bold geopolitical initiatives and strong ideological solutions. How can it be otherwise? More pressing demands for always scarcer resources; ever larger numbers of people who cannot be controlled except with an increasingly heavy hand of authoritarian guidance. Who better than the Americans to lead the fascist renaissance, set the paradigm, order the preemptive strikes? The existence of mankind hangs in the balance; failure is not an option. Where else but in America can the world find the visionary intelligence to lead it bravely into the future -- Donald Rumsfeld our Dante, Turd Blossom our Michelangelo?

I don't say that over the last thirty years we haven't made brave strides forward. By matching Eco's list of fascist commandments against our record of achievement, we can see how well we've begun the new project for the next millennium -- the notion of absolute and eternal truth embraced by the evangelical Christians and embodied in the strict constructions of the Constitution; our national identity provided by anonymous Arabs; Darwin's theory of evolution rescinded by the fiat of "intelligent design"; a state of perpetual war and a government administering, in generous and daily doses, the drug of fear; two presidential elections stolen with little or no objection on the part of a complacent populace; the nation's congressional districts gerrymandered to defend the White House for the next fifty years against the intrusion of a liberal-minded president; the news media devoted to the arts of iconography, busily minting images of corporate executives like those of the emperor heroes on the coins of ancient Rome.

An impressive beginning, in line with what the world has come to expect from the innovative Americans, but we can do better. The early twentieth-century fascisms didn't enter their golden age until the proletariat in the countries that gave them birth had been reduced to abject poverty. The music and the marching songs rose with the cry of eagles from the wreckage of the domestic economy. On the evidence of the wonderful work currently being done by the Bush Administration with respect to the trade deficit and the national debt -- to say nothing of expanding the markets for global terrorism -- I think we can look forward with confidence to character-building bankruptcies, picturesque bread riots, thrilling cavalcades of splendidly costumed motorcycle police.

TEN TIPS ON HOW TO LIVE IN THE "NEW WORLD ORDER"

1. WATCH LOTS OF TELEVISION. Television pleasantly induces mental stupor, telling you all you need to know. If it wasn't on the nightly news, then it definitely isn't true.

2 AVOID TALKING ABOUT RELIGION OR POLITICS. No matter how innocuous your speech may be, it could be misinterpreted and recorded in your Government Personal Thought Dossier.

3. DEBATE TOPICS PROMOTED BY NWO-SPONSORED MEDIA. Example: Discuss the pros and cons of government under Labor or Liberal (or Democrat/Republican or Tory/Labor) while ignoring real issues like the economy and sovereignty already sold out to foreign interests by self-serving politicians doing the bidding of powerful transnational corporations.

4. PARTICIPATE IN NWO-SPONSORED 'FEEL GOOD' PROGRAMS. There's disasters all over the world and you seem hopeless to do anything about it: Why not partake in NWO-sanctioned programs like Walk for Want or 40 Hour Famine and even buy an Amnesty International Sticker for your car, while the agents of the NWO wreak havoc in parts of the world you've hardly ever heard of.

5. WORK, EAT, ENTERTAIN, AND SEEK MEDICAL HELP AT NWO-SPONSORED OUTLETS. Always buy NWO-manufactured grocery items preferably from large supermarkets. Growing your own veggies or purchasing organically grown produce affects the profit margins of NWO corporations. Safely entertain yourself by religiously viewing sports events, mindless TV shows/movies, as well as trivia and illusion-filled books and magazines. Listen to any type of mind-numbing music spewed forth by the corporations of the NWO. If you get sick, refrain from 'alternative' cures or therapy, and always seek medical help at NWO-sponsored hospitals or clinics and take whatever medicines and drugs you are given.

6. READ, HEAR AND WATCH NWO-MANDATED MEDIA. Exploring 'alternative' media might result in dangerous thought crimes against the NWO authorities. Disregard any ideas or reports not originating with NWO media as 'conspiracy theory.'

7. MEMORISE THE OPINIONS OF NWO LEADERS AND TELEVISION NEWS REPORTERS. Reiterate them as if they were your own during all social and business conversations.

8. HYPOCRISY IS THE SAFEST POLICY. And affiliations with State-approved religious organisations are permitted, and may be rich fields for business contacts.

9. WATCH OTHERS AND MAKE SURE THEY DO THE SAME AS YOU. Keep an eye on neighbours, friends and family to ascertain they are obeying the law. Always call the NWO authorities if you suspect any wrongdoing. Participate in dob-in programs. If ever confronted by someone who questions NWO policies, it's best to convince them ignorance is bliss. If the case is serious, immediately seek help from NWO psychiatrists.

10. WILLINGLY AND HAPPILY participate in all NWO school indoctrination programs. Realise the honour associated with being a breeder and caretaker of the next generation to SERVE THE MASTERS in the NEW WORLD ORDER.

http://www.newdawnmagazine.com.au/Articles/10_tips_NWO.html

Are We There Yet? Fascism in America

By STEW ALBERT

Is America going fascist? Or has the cursed event already happened? It depends on your definition of fascism. What usually occurs in a fascist scenario?

* Labor unions are weak and the right to strike is denied by law. In Bush's America, the unions and their solidarity are extremely weak. The right to strike is still permitted by law, but strikes seldom happen and when they do, as in the current case of Northwest Airlines, scabs are brought in and management and the White House collude about how best to crush the workers. A merging of giant corporations and the State is well along.

* Civil liberties are declining in number and the right to assert them grows increasingly chancy. When the Patriot Act is combined with a variety of authoritarian laws passed during the Clinton administration and fanatics are placed in charge of the secret police, those who do speak out against the government must carefully watch their words. Much of what was once permitted to rebels is now against the law. Indeed, with secret trials, undisclosed prisons and torture, one may question to what extent the law actually still exists.

* The increasingly Draconian regime faces a weak, dispirited and divided opposition. America is almost a de facto one party state where the Democrats pay Bush the highest compliment by trying to imitate him. And many in the radical left and progressive movements (Cindy excepted) aren't able to go beyond silly sectarianism or tactical and organizational incompetence. --- The rise and glorification of irrational philosophy. The current government assault on scientific thought in the name of Christian extremism and phobic nationalism easily fills that requirement. Additionally, a cultural war rages where authoritarian religious values deride and delegitimize their opponents as practitioners of decadence and treason.

* Fascism tends to be warlike and criminally aggressive. The invasion of Iraq combined with the flag waving, ultraviolence and official big lies does the trick. And the ongoing threats to Syria and Iran strengthens the case.

* We usually find a "Duce" in charge. A character created by image manipulation and propaganda. Every attempt has been made to put Bush over as a triumph of the will cowboy hero who flies big airplanes and struts on flight decks in his special uniform. The effort to create a sneering superman hasn't completely worked because Dubya comes across as a little too dumb for the task.

* Racism is usually part of the fascist mix. The post 9/11 antidemocratic assault on Arabs and certain Muslim Asians combined with the panic and minute man vigilantism taking place on the Mexican border satisfies this similarity.

* Free elections no longer take place although fascism may permit some stage managed electoral activity. George Bush was not elected President in 2000. The Presidential election was fixed in Florida. Doubts continue about the integrity of the 2004 election. There is authentic concern about the introduction of non paper trail computer voting. And Republicans are redistricting to assure their Congressional power.

The leaders of this fascist construction have been following a successful right wing version of Gramscian analysis. They have gradually been building an authoritarian culture within the framework of ordinary civil society and have now reached a point of power where they have begun reconstructing the State.

When making judgments about fascism's presence we should not just look at the final totalitarian model that developed in Europe during the 1930s. Fascism passed through various stages and wasn't born overnight in its final horrible form. And it's possible that America will never go the full route. It may even develop am Americo-fascism with a human face. But there is a difficulty with this speculation. The fascisms of Europe evolved in opposition to the rise of the proletariat and the challenge of socialism. Hence it included and corrupted certain aspects of socialism in its practice. It always contained an element of welfare state in its structure and defined itself as a middle way between liberal capitalism and socialism.

American fascism is flowering in a post socialist era in which global capitalists feels fully free to bury the welfare state. Because of this historical circumstance, American fascism has within itself the potential for an unearthly collective barbarism.

Stew Albert runs the Yippie Reading Room. His memoir, Who the Hell is Stew Albert?, is just out from Red Hen Press. He can be reached at: stewa@aol.com

RKM on the Neocons

"...The place to start, in assessing our current situation, is to
consider how the world looks from the perspective of those in
the White House. They came into power with a plan, and they
have proceeded systematically to implement that plan -
basically the PNAC document - with great success so far. They
took a drastic step, and committed themselves to the course,
when they blew up the World Trade Center. And they seem to
have gotten by with it, despite glaring contradictions in both
the evidence and their cover stories. They took another
drastic step, and committed themselves further to their
course, when they invaded Iraq on trumped-up charges and
contrary to international law. Again, they seem to have gotten
by with it, despite the quagmire, and despite all their lies
having been revealed.

These people, in their own minds, are on a roll. They've found
a sure-fire formula for world conquest. On the domestic front,
the main tool is terrorism hysteria, which can be stirred up
at any time with a simple false-flag incident, blamed on
whoever they choose. The media never asks questions about such
claims, it simply parrots them. On the global front, the main
tool is the demonization of "rogues states" - "threats to
security" - which continues to be effective despite the lies
around Iraq. Again the media acts as an amplifier.

One thing we need to understand about these people is that
they have pulled out all the stops. They will do whatever they
consider necessary to pursue their stated objectives. They
proved this on 9/11. They are willing to take significant
risks, if they believe they have covered all the angles
adequately. We must keep this determined ruthlessness in mind
when we consider their attitude toward using nuclear weapons.
From a cost-effectiveness point of view, nukes offer great
advantages. They could enable a conquest of Iran without the
quagmire and with less expense, as compared to Iraq. Given
their world-conquest agenda, I would imagine they are eagerly
seeking ways to open the nuclear Pandora's box. Presumably
they'll say "Nukes save lives", in the same way the Nazi's
said, "Total war is shortest war." What the neocons will need
is to do is to create an incident that they can use an excuse
to move the game up to the next level of technology.

That's why the article "Israel, Iran, Mossad and a Nuclear
False Flag Attack" was notable:
(http://www.cyberjournal.org/cj/show_archives/?id=462&lists=newslog).
Mossad is a very convenient agency to carry out
projects such as 9/11 - they share the neocon's ruthlessness
and objectives, they're very competent, and they're relatively
isolated from the Beltway gossip networks, as compared to
domestic covert agencies. If Mossad could blow up a U.S.
nuclear facility, and that could be blamed on Iran, that would
give the neocons an excuse to go into Iran with 'tactical'
nukes. The scenario is a highly plausible one, and the claims
in the article seem to be well documented.

But enough about Iran. It's only a stepping stone, a fueling
depot, as regards geopolitics. The game being played has three
main players: the U.S., China, and Russia. The U.S. wants to
rule the world, and Russia and China are the only significant
obstacles to that objective. Both China and Russia are well
aware of this fact. China has been rapidly upgrading its
military capabilities in anticipation of a U.S. attack, and
Russia has been taking an increasingly harder line as a
nationalist power, even as the CIA peels one regime after
another from the Russian orbit.

The question here is how long will Russia and China continue
to play the appeasement game? From their perspective, the only
difference between the Nazis in 1939, and the U.S. now, is that
the U.S. has more powerful weapons and control of the seven
seas. Russia and China both know that appeasement only delays
confrontation, and improves the strategic position of the
aggressor. Just as England and France drew the line at Poland
as regards Nazi expansionism, so we must expect that Russia
and China will draw a line somewhere, with regard to the
neocons.

We may be getting close to that line already. It's hard to
tell. I did read one report that claimed Putin had warned
Washington and Tel Aviv that an attack on Iran or Syria would
lead to a nuclear response by Russia against Israel. Apart
from the predictions in Revelations, I haven't seen
confirmation of that report from other sources. But surely,
there must be such a line somewhere.

With their revived and dubious Star Wars project, and their
distribution of nuclear weapons to field commanders, the
neocons seem to be making every preparation for nuclear
confrontation, despite the uncertain risks. I'm sure they are
confident of their ability to create whatever excuses are
necessary, for whatever initiatives they deem necessary. The
question here is what domestic losses the neocons consider to
be "acceptable" in a nuclear exchange. Given their
demonstrated lack of regard for civilian lives generally,
whether domestic or foreign, one shudders to imagine the
definition of "winning" that exists in their deranged minds.
They probably dream of themselves as the undisputed masters of
a post-apocalyptic world, cleansed of excess population and
culled of unfavored races, a world all cleared away and in
dire need of reconstruction, via Halliburton and ilk.

---

That's a geopolitical perspective. We could also look at
things from a global economic perspective, or from an
environmental or human-rights perspective. All such
perspectives are equally dismal, and in their own ways equally
apocalyptic. Because of the way our societies are organized,
and how decision are made, the energy and resources of our
civilization are being devoted to making everything worse as
quickly as possible and in as many ways as possible. It is
totally insane.

---

I say these things not to depress you, but to help us all
refocus our attention on the real issues of the day, as
opposed to the trivia carried in the media. The purpose of the
media is to give us a comfortable sand-patch in which we can
bury our heads, tempting us down the path of the ostrich. It
might feel better, but it doesn't help our situation."

rkm
http://cyberjournal.org

The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - Naomi Klein

"Few ideologues can resist the allure of a blank slate--that was colonialism's seductive promise: "discovering" wide-open new lands where utopia seemed possible. But colonialism is dead, or so we are told; there are no new places to discover, no terra nullius (there never was), no more blank pages on which, as Mao once said, "the newest and most beautiful words can be written." There is, however, plenty of destruction--countries smashed to rubble, whether by so-called Acts of God or by Acts of Bush (on orders from God). And where there is destruction there is reconstruction, a chance to grab hold of "the terrible barrenness," as a UN official recently described the devastation in Aceh, and fill it with the most perfect, beautiful plans..."


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