Welcome to post-democracy! (tags)
In the current systemic crisis, this capitalist pseudo-democracy is producing a real dystopia on a par with the nightmares of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley: the apparently responsible citizen (in reality a powerless object in the heteronomous process of capital exploitation) chooses the way in which his intensified exploitation and alienation is to be concretely organized and perfected.
Noam Chomsky on Why This is the Most Dangerous Point in Human History (tags)
We live in a world facing existential threats while extreme inequality is tearing our societies apart and democracy is in sharp decline. The U.S., meanwhile, is bent on maintaining global hegemony when international collaboration is urgently needed to address the planet’s numerous challenges.
Authoritarian Capitalism (tags)
The banks and auto corporations were bailed out and rescued and the ensuing public debt was invoked in order to cut public expenditures on health care, education, pensions, and public salaries. Furthermore, a new race to the bottom has started.
Battle for Social Democracy and Unfettered Capitalism (tags)
Two opposing schools of thought face each other at the sickbed: neoliberalism and social democracy. Didn't the death-bells of neoliberals ring in the course of the financial market crisis? Were not neoliberals unmasked who first caused the whole mess with their deregulation?
War in Ukraine. Nato taboos fall (tags)
This military-scientific glorification of a war that has long been hopeless for both sides, which is also supported by some media, leads to the postulation of the prospect of victory against one's better judgment. What is meant, however, is more likely a victorious peace.
The geopolitical confrontation between China and the West and Peace logic (tags)
The main issue is monopolarity or multipolarity. And this also raises the question of geopolitical hegemony. In other words, whether Western interests will remain supreme and Western value systems will therefore be of universal significance?
In the Trap of NATO and The Collapse of US Hegemony (tags)
Even before the outbreak of the global Covid pandemic, it was widely recognized that U.S. hegemony was in irreversible decline. In August 2021, the Taliban captured Kabul as U.S. forces withdrew. Only about six months later, war broke out between Russia and Ukraine.
Let the advertising die! (tags)
Advertising leads to useless purchases because it often persuades consumers to have needs instead of satisfying existing desires. This leads to excessive consumption of resources and materials and thus damages the environment.
Spiral downward and No exit! (tags)
The austerity dictates imposed on the Eurozone are only exacerbating the crisis they are supposed to be fighting. The austerity measures are leading to a collapse in domestic demand.
Hysterical Populism and the Appetite of Leviathan (tags)
The relationship between economy and social order has been turned upside down: economy is no longer a function of an overarching culture, but conversely, "human society has sunk to being an accessory of the economic system" (Karl Polanyi). RK was founder of Exit & Krisis blogs.
Making yourself comfortable in capitalism (tags)
"Whoever has a wife should behave as if he had none, ... whoever buys as if he were not the owner, whoever makes use of the world as if he did not use it" (1 Cor 7:29f). Paul is speaking here to people who were "called" as slaves into the messianic church (1 Cor 7:21).
Degrowth - not just Green New Deals! (tags)
We live in a time of many and accelerating crises. Climate breakdown is breathing down our neck. Biodiversity is collapsing in ecosystems around the world, and many natural safety nets – water cycles, soil fertility, fish stocks, microbial diversity – are unraveling.
America's disastrous 60-year war (tags)
America's 60-year war, a losing proposition for many, turned out to be a clear winner for a few, In his book,1984, Orwell wrote about permanent war as a way to consume the products of modern capitalism without a higher standard of living for workers..
Capitalist crisis policy is ultimately in a crisis trap... The central banks' billion-dollar "quantitative easing" may have prevented the collapse of the world financial system in 2020, but it is only a postponement of the crisis.
The Swedish Eugenic Societies (tags)
Even Sweden was total neutral you should know about the intimate ties with that part of the German eugenics movement that would shape Nazi biopolitics...
Power, Profit and Prestige (tags)
The United States was also constantly at war, after independence, with Native Americans. The U.S. armed forces engaged in a thousand military operations, large and small, against Native Americans between 1868 and 1890!
Beyond market and state (tags)
The dominant, financial market-oriented factions of capital are using the crisis to further enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else by attempting to appropriate even the wealth of society that is yet to be generated in the medium term by indebting the state.
Capitalism as the religion of indebtedness and debt (tags)
In capitalism, the fundamental social relation is neither exchange nor production. Rather, it is debt that dominates and supersedes every other way of recognizing and valorizing the measure between people. Those who have money are creditworthy, manifesting the sign of God's grace.
Walkthrought: continuity of German national socialist History of Psychiatry (tags)
Hobby Intelligence Service (HobbyIS) Introducing to Who is who in the German History of Psychiatry (Google translated Wikipedia de) which still influencing ICD and DSM diagnosis catalogues...
Lessons from the First New Deal for the Next One (tags)
Why Karl Polanyi Still Matters (tags)
In The Great Transformation (1944), Karl Polanyi explains why the economy must be embedded in society and society must not be embedded in the economy. He describes land, labor and money as "fictitious commodities" since they cannot be multiplied and created on the market.
Struggles in the Shadow of the Pandemic (tags)
For Trump, wealth, privilege, and power was even license to invent reality as he saw fit. Thus any divergence from his worldview and interests were ‘fake news’. Trump ensured the plutocratic wealthy were no longer in the political shadows but now in the mainstream.
What could change with Biden and Harris? (tags)
The next few years will be all about democracy in the U.S., about the social cohesion of a diverse population, about stopping environmental destruction, and about a successful structural change of the economy that goes hand in hand with the creation of sufficient, well-paid jobs and humane working conditions.
How should our economy grow? (tags)
If, on the other hand, the inequality distribution is reduced via increased spending on education, positive growth effects may result. In addition, too much inequality can destabilize the political system through social unrest, creating great uncertainty for investors, for example with regard to the protection of property rights.
Privilege versus equality. "The central issue in the conflict between the government and doctors in Saskatchewan is not health insurance, but democracy," noted the Globe and Mail after the strike began. "The experts, no matter what their specialty, must always ultimately be subordinate to the laity."
The long struggle for a post-capitalist society (tags)
The (Corona) crisis has relentlessly exposed the inability of neoliberal capitalism and its political personnel to meet the elementary needs of the people. Even if it is not felt to the same extent in Germany due to the depressing political conditions: the neoliberal offensive is in a deep existential crisis.
US billionaires got $1 trillion richer during Corona (tags)
A recent study by the Institute for Policy Studies determined that the 647 billionaires in the USA have been able to increase their assets by $960 billion since the beginning of the corona crisis in mid-March by the cut-off date of November 17.
The New Deal and Self-destructive Donald Trump (tags)
From 1929 to 1932 industrial production halved and in a chain reaction over 5000 banks went bankrupt. Farmers' incomes shrank by 70 percent, unemployment rose to 25 percent, and there were no welfare state measures to cushion the misery.
COVID-19 and Catastrophe Capitalism (tags)
The scale of the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences on world accumulation are unprecedented, with the global economic costs still increasing. At the end of March, some three billion people on the planet were in lockdown or social-distancing mode.36
"Don't let them take democracy away from you" (tags)
"United we can and will overcome the time of darkness in America," he said. After four years of Trump's presidency, the Biden-Harris team wants to reunite the country, overcome the Corona crisis and boost the economy with millions of new jobs.
A fair and solid crisis financing (tags)
The contrast between the EU and the US in COVID financing could hardly be greater. McDonald's operators, Marathon Oil (over $400 million), Exxon, Chevron and Sea World received relief and will reduce their future tax payments. Tax gifts characterize the US way of corruption and contradict these recommendations.
How to generate unemployment and deflation (tags)
The theory put forward by fair-weather philosophers that the pandemic will be a salutary shock leading to a better, more sustainable world is wrong. Less is not more, but less. Corona is not an opportunity, it is an evil. We can only hope that one day it will pass.
Our normality is not returniing (tags)
If the government's response to the debt accumulated during the crisis is austerity, it will make the situation even worse. It is therefore right to call for a more active and visionary state policy that shows a way out of the crisis. What form will these policies take?
The Forgotten History of the Financial Crisis (tags)
In the United States between late 2008 and early 2009, 800,000 people were losing their jobs every month. By 2015, over nine million American families would lose their homes to foreclosure—the largest forced population movement in the United States since the Dust Bowl.
Wave of layoffs in the US election campaign (tags)
The corona pandemic triggered the most massive job losses in the USA since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Unemployment rose to its highest level in more than 70 years. In April alone, 20.5 million jobs outside agriculture were cut, according to the government
How do you prepare for the time when the affluent society crumbles? French intellectuals have even declared a new science - "collapsology." Solidarity is the humane and enlightened answer, not the assault rifle. Rep. Omar proposes a rent and mortgage moratorium.
"It's the economy stupid!" (tags)
US unemployment at the start of April 2020 is higher than at the peak of the 1929 Great Depression. Trump is to blame for the botched response to the Coronavirus that he initially called a hoax. The real hoax is Trump's commitment to America!
Economics in the times of the coronavirus (tags)
Most people’s thinking is determined by the development of the Covid-19 crisis, the return of “the hour of executive power” (Gerhard A. Ritter), i.e. state of exception legislation, and the fears which it evokes as well as the economic measures in response to the health crisis.
IMF Chief Warns of Financial Disaster Driven by Inequality (tags)
IMF Head Kristalina Georgieva warns of a return of the Great Depression driven by inequality and financial sector instability in a speech delivered at the Peterson Institute of International Economics.
Karl Polanyi on Unfettered Capitalism (tags)
Karl Polanyi condemned profit greed and deregulated markets. Today's capitalism critics are his heirs and don't know it. An unfettered capitalism is responsible for the world coming out of joint. "Finance capital was put in the driver's seat."
Ten Years After the Financial Crash (tags)
US economic statistics are dubious since financial markets are based on financial products and money out of nothing. Tax havens, micro-second betting, stock buybacks and corruption through lobbying are market-distorting and cause revenue shortfalls.
National Congress has Voted to Cut 2 Million People Off Food Stamps with a 19 billionSlash (tags)
The vote was close in the National Congress. The damn thing passed by a few votes. Many Congress people voted against their own people
THE CONSERVATIVE THREAT (tags)
What's been going on in this nation from it's very inception is not only unconscionable, but immorally repugnant for a people who claim to believe in “Liberty and Justice For All.” So we must act - and not just as factions, but as a PEOPLE - to challenge ALL injustice. We must respond to unlimited wealth and influence with people-power. If we continue to sit on our hands, or to allow ourselves to be divided into factions, we’re doomed.
PBS POV "The Uprising of 1934" Textile workers in the SE challenge unjust order (tags)
PBS POV has come out with a while ago ago the 1934 textile strike in 5 SE states with many mills and hundreds of thousands of whait workers who were not protected by New Deal legislation during a hard Great Depression. According to Clooney thosands were blacklisted a 7 murdered
Neoliberal Austerity Leads to Deeper Crisis (tags)
A high state share in the economy, developed social states and readiness to intervene actively and anti-cyclically prevent falling into a depression. Trump's demonizing regulation, Medicaid, public schools, Head Start, Meals on Wheels, taxation and democracy must be resisted
Who Says It Can't Happen Here? (tags)
We have endured 40 years of creeping authoritarianism and it now appears that it may run right over democracy. We must resist and act in solidarity.
A society of social descent, precariouisness and polarization has emerged out of the society of ascent and social integration. The modern age continues developing but backward. The social state, is a de-commodifying institution since it socializes risks.
What is Living and What is Dead in Social Democracy? (tags)
Tony Judt and William Beveridge were great progressives and crusaders for the social state. In the US, the middle class benefited enormously in the postwar years from subsidized housing and subsidized education. We appear to have lost the capacity to question the present.
Democracy and the Social State (tags)
Finance capitalism and Citizens United turn life, language and democracy upside down as the $150 million given by Wall Street to Hillary Clinton fall under the rubric "social engagement." With these theses, Franz Segbers emphasizes the social state as the foundation of democracy.
US Economy: False Diagnoses and False Solutions (tags)
Hillary Clinton's and Donald Trump's economic plans are too simplistic. Innovations and ideas are lacking. Many people despair. Washington did not always ignore the middle. FDR's New Deal built 165K public buildings.
Growing Inequality Harms the Political Economy (tags)
Neoliberalism and finance market capitalism encourage creating money out of thin air, exploding inequality, precarious work and environmental destruction. Wages are not only a cost factor but an important demand factor leading to either investments or social blight.
The Works Progress Administration created 651K miles of highway, 124K bridges, 8K parks and 125K public buildings including 41K schools. In the US of Amnesia, corporate subsidies are called public necessities and public welfare unnecessary Orwell warned us of this inversion of language.
Austerity Against Democracy, 40 pp (tags)
How much state does the social market economy need? What lessons should be drawn from the 2008 financial meltdown? What happens to trust when financiers are above the law?
Super Bowl 50: Super Militarization and Super Inequality (tags)
The most expensive single sports game on Earth kicked off under unprecedented militarization of the police and the highest levels of inequality since the Great Depression.
Economic Crises as Sicknesses and Catastrophes (tags)
The 2008 financial crisis is often wrongly described as a "state debt crisis" where cause and effect are inverted and economists and the market are released from responsibility. Sickness and catastrophe metaphors dominate discussion
For 40 years, the Bremen study group has published memorandums. The council of experts promoted the profits of businesses, not aggregate economic demand. Mass unemployment surpassed the 5 million mark because of neoliberal structural reforms.
Republican Race Tightens: Does It Matter? (tags)
Republicans
Near Zero Percent Federal Funds Rate Since December 2008 (tags)
Fed
Interested in USA History??Study Great Depression (tags)
The Great Depression began in 1929 with manipulation of the US Stock Market based in NYC. It led to massive disruptions throughout the nation for many levels of workers, families and towns.
social injustice
Black New Orleans 10 Years Post-Katrina (tags)
Katrina
Monied Interests Run America (tags)
Fed
Looming Greek Capitulation to Troika Bandits? (tags)
Greece
Leaked Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) Draft Text (tags)
trade
Thoughts on Independence Day Weekend (tags)
Independence Day
High-Seas Piracy: Israel's Latest Bandit Act (tags)
Israel
Free collection of articles.
Video: Meltdown: The Secret History of the Global Financial Collapse, 42 min (tags)
700 free movies and 700 free E-books await you at www.openculture.com. Enjoy!
Hypocritical and Hippocratic Economic Policy in Europe (tags)
The crisis is multilayered-a bank crisis, a crisis of wealth distribution and a misallocation of capital between long-term real investments and virtual financial investments.. The frugal Schwabian housewife is not a suitable model.
Obama's Demagoguery in Selma (tags)
Obama
Obama Is Leading the Way Toward Economic Catastrophe (tags)
"...important trading partners—Japan, China, others in Asia—are employing a nasty trade strategy from the early thirties known as “beggar thy neighbor.” They are weakening the value of their own currencies (and boosting the dollar’s value) so their exports will be cheaper than competing American products..."
Russia Counters US Big Lies with Hard Truths (tags)
Ukraine
America's Abysmal State (tags)
America
Pacific Radio Discovers Audio Of Speech by Dr King To London Audience (tags)
Pacific Radio has discovered audio tape of a speech Dec 7 1964 Dr Martin Luther King gave in London days before his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize as the youngest recipient ever at that time. It is in audio at http://democracynow.org and in text at http://pacificradioarchives.org
Discussing ethical human rights and change in Pakistan following reported Taliban violence (tags)
Discussing possible change within Pakistan, whether the State could adopt ethical human rights or the possibility of an Islamic political party being formed with ethical human rights as its non-political and spiritual base.
America
Monied Interests Have Lots to Give Thanks For (tags)
Thanksgiving
US Electoral Postmortems (tags)
elections
economy
Obama Doublespeak Duplicity (tags)
Obama
The New York Times War on Truth (tags)
NYT
Learning from Roosevelt: HIs "New Deal" (tags)
The Civilian Conservation Corps helped overcome the basic pessimistic mood in society. Within a few months, 500,000 young persons had hope again. The government should intervene in case of an economic emergency.
Wall Street Journal Supports Putschist Oligarch Ukrainian Rule (tags)
Ukraine
Southern California Mothers Fight Back Against Foreclosures for Mothers’ Day 2014 (tags)
On Mothers’ Day weekend, Los Angeles families rallied outside Wells Fargo bank to bring attention to the greed and corruption of the banks that continue to fraudulently foreclose on families across the nation.
America's Hidden Hunger Crisis (tags)
hunger
The Future of the Captured State (tags)
Liberating the Economy from Prejudices (tags)
Economics is not an immutable unchangeable fate but a human system where changing rules changes outcomes. James Galbraith and Joseph Stiglitz are two well-known economists who question the myths of conventional economics, the self-healing, efficient and deregulated market
Unprecedented Inequality Under Obama (tags)
class war
Corporate Taxes in America (tags)
taxes
anti-war
America's Economic Dark Side (tags)
class war
Yellen's Fed Assures Business As Usual (tags)
Fed
Cost of the Crisis, 72pp (tags)
The cost of the Wall Street-caused financial collapse and ongoing economic crisis is more than $12.8 trillion. $12.8 dramatically understates the true costs of the crisis because so much is simply unquantifiable.
Senator v. President Obama on War and Peace (tags)
Obama
The AFL-CIO’s New Strategy: Inspiration or Hype? (tags)
After years of embarrassing denial, the AFL-CIO recently took its first baby step in addressing the crisis that has engulfed organized labor: it recognized there was a problem. In the run up to its national convention in early September in Los Angles, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka recently admitted that “what we’ve been doing isn’t working,” and consequently announced a new strategy that was, supposedly, a revolutionary break from the previously-failed strategy of organized labor.
Obama's Way: Waging Financial War on Humanity (tags)
Obama
The State Should Rescue the Market Economy (tags)
A balance recession is more than a temporary slump of the economy. During a balance recession, private economic actors try to reduce their debts. The cheap money seeps out on the financial markets where it leads to new bubbles. The labor market does not function like other markets. Falling wages did not lead to more employment - as claimed for decades.
Financial War - How Banks and Bandits Endanger our Democracy (tags)
Political failure follows market failure. Participation in system criminality is without risk of prosecution. The financial crisis is not only a system failure. It was caused by human actions in the banking sector that are objectively punishable.
Are Reforms of the Financial Sector Enough? (tags)
This article focuses on seven errors and seven remedies of the financial crisis. The financial crisis was also a crisis of easy money. For years and again today, speculators exploited the situation that money was and is very easy to borrow in the US and Japan.
Defending IMF Financial Terrorism (tags)
class war
More Economic Straight Talk (tags)
class war
US Economy: Troubled or All's Well? (tags)
economy
Tim Geithner's Legacy of Shame (tags)
grand theft
U.S. Cannot Tell Iran to Abandon its Nuclear Program (tags)
Interview conducted by Iranian journalist Kourosh Ziabari with Mark Vorpahl
Obama: Money Power's Point Man (tags)
class war
Institutionalized Inequality in America (tags)
class war
The "Fiscal Cliff" Is a Hoax ... and a Mel Brooks Routine (tags)
The "fiscal cliff" comedy routine in Washington DC is a staged act where Democrats play the "good cop" who want to tax the rich and cut social welfare programs vs. the "bad cop" Republicans who don't want to tax the rich and promise heavy cuts on social welfare programs. Where is the voice of reason that says maybe this so-called fiscal cliff isn't really such a big deal after all?
Stagnation, not growth, is the norm for mature capitalism (tags)
The dynamics of a mature capitalist economy result in stagnation and financialization, creating deepening inequality.
Barack Obama must stimulate the economy with state spending. The astonishing example of Europe could convince republicans who in the past blocked everything... The monetary policy of a central bank cannot replace fiscal policy,
Economists Argue over Distribution Question (tags)
More and more economists take distribution questions seriously. When inequality becomes too great in a national economy, the economy becomes unstable. Private indebtedness and income inequality massively increased in the US Financial markets uncoupled from real economy
media
Banks, Bankers and Banksters (tags)
An unrestrained speculative capitalism emerged out of investment capitalism. New financing instruments are invented. Risks are trivialized or glossed over to soothe the population. Boundless indebtedness becomes the norm. The new age led to immediate profit eclipsing investment.
Flim Flam Substitutes for Debate (tags)
elections
Hypocrisy not Democracy in America (tags)
tyranny
class war
On the Solutions of Liberal Economists (tags)
The crisis has shaken economics to its foundations. The neoliberal mainstream has lost its support; economists alternate between self-doubt and arrogance. Once they believed in the rationality of economic actors and markets and the notion that financial management exists to serve the real economy.
AIPAC Wants War on Iran (tags)
anti-war
Out of the Slump: The Only Road (tags)
A real analysis of the United State’s economic history is rarely discussed by politicians or media alike, since the conclusions that would be inevitably drawn would be out of step with what politicians are currently advocating.
class war
class war
US Cities Going Bankrupt (tags)
class war
Libor Scandal Reflects a Cesspool of Financial Fraud (tags)
fraud
RI Regains Mexican Presidency (tags)
Mexico
The Crisis and Beyond: Thinking Outside the Box (tags)
Claude Hillinger is a professor of economics at the University of Munich.
Contagion Affects Europe (tags)
Class war
The Taft-Hartley Act: ‘Neutrality’ as a weapon (tags)
All the new rules put into place by the act were directed against employees, despite the neutral-sounding language.
The Left, Labor and Occupy (tags)
Barely half a year after it burst on the scene, the Occupy Wall Street movement is splintering left and right. This was inevitable in a movement that was united only in what it opposed and could never put forward a positive program, whether of reformist "demands" on the capitalist state or of revolutionary action against it. Liberals, who latched onto Occupy hoping it could pressure the Democratic Party in a more populist direction, want to expel "black bloc" anarchists. Reformist social democrats rail against "ultraleftists" in Occupy and cozy up to the labor tops. On the other side, many (but not all) anarchists oppose unions. Some are simply arrogant petty-bourgeois labor haters. Others are grappling with real problems, but with skewed analysis and dead wrong conclusions. Discussion of recent workers' struggles, from Wisconsin to West Coast longshore, underlines that the key question is leadership, but not just replacing one set of bureaucrats with another. Unions have always faced vicious anti-labor laws, but we have the power to defeat them. It is necessary to drive out the pro-capitalist bureaucracy, the labor lieutenants of capital, in order to turn the unions into instruments of revolutionary class struggle.
“Severely Conservative” (tags)
Mitt Romney's remark last February that he was a "severely conservative" governor of Massachusetts highlighted the love of discipline that holds the radical Right in general and the Republican Party in particular and reconciles their rejection of a role for government in the economy with their insistence that government aggressively enforce "traditional moral values."
Oligarchy and Democracy (tags)
Jeffrey A. Winters is professor of political science at Northwestern University and author of Oligarchy, published by Cambridge University Press in 2011.
BTL:GOP Presidential Candidates Revive Christian Right Culture War to Rally Its Extremist (tags)
Interview with Peter Montgomery, senior fellow with People for the American Way, conducted by Scott Harris
PLM Statement on increased US military presence in the Philippines (tags)
PLM Calls for an Independent Foreign Policy and a Non-Aligned ASEAN
America's Sham Economic Recovery (tags)
class war
The core of all western-individualist ideas of justice is the principle of personal responsibility. Everyone is responsible for the consequences of his/her actions. This motivates as well as disciplines. "We punish the virtuous and reward the squanderers."
Obama hosts George H.W. and Jeb Bush at the White House (tags)
Unbeknownst to the press, President Obama met Friday evening with former president George H.W. Bush and his son, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, in the Oval Office.
Responsible New York Banking (tags)
banking
class war
Russia
America's Weak Jobs Report (tags)
class war
Human Rights and Racial Justice (tags)
Human Rights are attained and maintained through struggle, organized movement building
[Strategy!:] The Occupy Movement Needs a Good Fight (tags)
The Occupy Movement Needs a Good Fight "Power concedes nothing without a demand." - Frederick Douglass In a movement based on general anger about inequality and the domination of big banks, it becomes difficult to focus the rage into something concrete. For many Occupiers, being concrete is a mere distraction, meant to shift the movement into something 'less radical,” since their targets — big banks and inequality — are at the root of the problem. Why mess with the tree when you could go for the roots? But, as any tree-removal worker will tell you, the tree comes first, then the roots. The roots cannot be the immediate goal of the Occupy movement because pulling them out would require tens of millions of hands, and the vast majority of working people are not yet directly involved in the movement, though many of them are giving approving nods from a distance. Bringing these more distant people into the movement requires they be given a good reason to join. And although a general anti-1% sentiment sounds appealing to the 99%, a struggle to win worker-friendly demands can help pull these people into the streets.
BTL:Grim Economic Data Illustrate the Severe Decline of America's Middle Class (tags)
Interview with Andy Kroll, Mother Jones Magazine reporter and associate editor at TomDispatch.com, conducted by Scott Harris
Six Proposals for Helping the 99% (tags)
Solidarity, social justice and sharing open doors while tax cuts for the super-rich only lead to exploding inequality. double standards and cynicism. Access could replace excess. The empire could be superseded by the republic.
economy
Wall Street Runs America (tags)
Wall Street
The Economy Sinks in a Deep Crisis of Meaning (tags)
Economists are compared with astrologers and mocked as crystal-ball readers because they are frequently way off the mark with their growth forecasts. Economists have not learned the great lessons. Mainstream economy entrenched itself behind a model world and often faded out reality.
BTL:Is the Wall Street Occupation a Spark that Can Ignite a New U.S. Economic Justice Move (tags)
Interview with Chris Hedges, author of "The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress", conducted by Scott Harris
BTL:As U.S. Poverty Rises, Social Safety Net Programs Face Cuts (tags)
Interview with Dr. Cathy Grace, director of early childhood development with the Children?s Defense Fund, conducted by Scott Harris
Video: Woody Guthrie on BookTV (tags)
Will Kaufman is a professor of American literature and culture at the University of Central Lancashire, England. His books include "American Culture in the 1970s" and "The Civil War in American Culture."
Hard Times Getting Harder (tags)
economy
economy
Obama?s Continued Failures on the Environment and Jobs (tags)
[Photo: Bridge in Felton, California built by workers in the Works Progress Administration which employed 3.8 million people from 1935 to 1941 and built 11,000 schools, 122,000 public buildings, 77,000 bridges, 285 airports, 24,000 miles of sewer, and 664,000 miles of road. Photo by Liberation News]
Political Washington Fiddles While Rome Burns (tags)
class war
Before we can determine if America has succumbed to fascism, we first must have a good definition and understanding of what fascism really is
Debt Ceiling Debate Charade Masks Planned Entitlement Cuts (tags)
criminal plan
Working America's Dismal State (tags)
depression
Dismissively Ignoring Hard Times (tags)
depression
U.S. Election 2012- Stewart Alexander: Jobs Report a Disaster for Obama (tags)
President Barack Obama recently kicked off his 2012 re-election campaign; however, the sluggish economy and the president?s failure to create jobs could threaten his hopes for re-election. With all the bad news on the economy, the president still remains the favorite to win in 2012. President Obama is a formidable fundraiser and has the financial backing of Wall Street and could spend as much a $1 billion for re-election; and approaching November 2012, the Republican field of presidential hopefuls appears to be hopeless.
Public Banking: An Idea Whose Time Has Come (tags)
public banking
Spanish Voters Reject Austerity (tags)
financial terrorism
U.S. Election 2012: Alexander says Republicans Can?t Win against Obama (tags)
President Obama has fallen far short of fulfilling has campaign promises that led him to victory in 2008; however, approaching U.S. Election 2012, the field of Republican presidential candidates is the worse since 1964; according to Stewart Alexander. Some members in the Republican leadership are already writing off the 2012 Election and are setting their hopes on 2016. By 2012, President Obama could win the presidential election by a landslide.
“In financial crisis, no prosecutions of top figures”… Because of widespread corruption of (tags)
The widespread corruption of the US justice system is a key factor in the financial crisis, which is often overlooked.
S & P Downgrade Targets Entitlements (tags)
serfdom
Economic Recessions in America (tags)
The US economy, and for that matter the global economy, is a living, breathing thing. With that analogy in mind, we find that the comparison is closer than most of us would normally think.
Obamanomics: Waging War on American Workers (tags)
exploitation
President Obama Divides the Nation over His War with Libya (tags)
The majority of Americans are tired of wars and the cost to fight these wars as the nation sinks deeper into a national recession. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost $1 trillion and after one week in Libya, the cost is approaching $1 billion. When Americans are suffering cutbacks and layoffs, and 22 million Americans are out of work, the question is “Obama, where are the jobs?”
The End of the Long 20th Century (tags)
The US no longer has the necessary financial means to maintain its worldwide military machine (which now drives the US deeper in indebtedness to the international financial markets). The failure of the Project for a New American Century shows the US has not succeeded in subjecting the world
Wisconsin's Spirit: Courage for Other States to Emulate (tags)
worker struggles
Wall Street versus the Poor and the Middle Class: Obama’s FY 2012 Budget Is A Tool Of Clas (tags)
"Please help alert the people before it’s too late. Share these articles with everyone. Organize teachings in your churches, union halls, schools, or other community groups, etc. We can stop this but we have to act. Don’t wait on someone else to do it. We can’t allow the people of this country to be fooled any longer. This is a life or death situation for our citizens, for most all of us. Spread everywhere. "
Obama's Anti-Populist Budget (tags)
neoliberalism
Deliberately Misleading Testimony of Acting Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar, US DOJ (tags)
Given the abundance of official, expert, and media reports of large-scale false imprisonments, widespread corruption of the courts, and unprecedented fraudulent dispossession of homeowners throughout the United States, the testimony by the Acting Inspector General must be deemed false and deliberately misleading.
Criminological Perspective: Collapse of the US Justice System and the Financial Crisis (tags)
Like the Great Depression before it, the current financial crisis in its essence is a system-wide integrity crisis. Unless integrity of the financial and justice systems in the US is addressed, socio-economic and civil society conditions are unlikely to improve in the foreseeable future.
Link to 576-page Final Report of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (tags)
Happy reading! The truth will still make some of us free!
America's Dire State of the Union (tags)
economic crisis
Mass Street Protests in Egypt (tags)
liberation protests
The Logic of Imperial Insanity and the Road to World War III plus many mirrors (tags)
"Obama wasted no time in rapidly accelerating America’s imperial adventures. While dropping the term “War on Terror” from usage, the Pentagon adopted the term, “overseas contingency operations.”[4] This was to be the typical strategy of the Obama administration: change the appearance, not the substance. The name was changed, but the “War on Terror” remained, and not only that, it was rapidly accelerated to a level that would not have been possible if undertaken by the previous administration."
Waging War on American Workers (tags)
targeting the middle class
The Fix Is In: Expect Democrats to Buckle (tags)
Democrats will cave
More on Obama's Capitulation and Betrayal (tags)
capitulating to Republicans
Obama Capitulates to Republicans (tags)
Obama betrayal
The November 2 midterm elections were not only a decisive rejection not only of the Obama administration but a full-scale endorsement of free-market economic policies and lassiez-faire capitalism — albeit by a much smaller segment of the American electorate than voted Obama and the Democrats into power in 2008. Millions of Americans voted against the party under whose watch unemployment has risen from 6.2 to 9.5 percent, and bought into the Republicans' critique that the reason for Obama's failure is he's been too much of a progressive, unduly burdening the private sector with regulation and taxation. Thanks to talk radio and Fox News, millions of Americans profoundly believe that Obama and the Democrats are far more radical than they are — and as long as they remain on the air and have their current level of influence, U.S. politics will continue to move even further Right.
50 million starving in USA; Corporate Profit Records Broken (tags)
While the capitalist class promotes its second celebration of genocide of Native Americans, the other being Columbus Genocide Day, with its orgy of eating food that is mass produced in a manner that is harmful to the food source and the consumer, 50 million Americans face hunger.
Destructive Neoliberal Austerity (tags)
austerity, not stimulus coming
Class Warfare Jeopardizing American Workers' Security (tags)
waging war against vital social benefits
David Broder: Symbol of Major Media Depravity (tags)
Broder flacks for power
Systemic Washington-Sanctioned Fraud (tags)
massive fraud
foreclosuregate one of many examples
Ex-Fed Chairman Paul Volcker Criticizes the Federal Reserve (tags)
"Altogether the 81-year old Volcker can hardly see anything good in the development of the financial system over the last 25 years."
The Road to World War III - The Global Banking Cartel Has One Card Left to Play (tags)
"The global elite have consistently used a strategy of arming and funding both sides of armed conflicts. While opposing populations kill each other off, they make off with their natural resources. When they confront a government that cannot be bribed or provoked into civil or regional war, they fund brutal death squads, attempt military coups and intimidate them by giving weapons to undemocratic neighboring regimes. If all that doesn’t work, they are declared a threat to national security and the US military, private contractors and NATO forces invade and occupy the country. These terrorist strategies are not limited to the Middle East and Africa, just ask our neighbors throughout Latin America about the School of the Americas. Contrary to popular belief, the horrendous torture techniques inflicted upon people in Abu Ghraib, Iraq were not an isolated incident. Many of those brutal torture techniques were developed over years by torturing innocent civilians throughout Latin America."
BTL:Corporate-Funded Tea Party: Repeal New Deal Government Programs (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine
The Political Consequences of Stagnation (tags)
My apologies to T. S. Eliot, but September, not April, is the cruelest month. Before 9/11/2001, there was 9/11/1973, when Gen. Pinochet toppled the Allende government in Chile and ushered in a 17-year reign of terror. More recently, on 9/15/2008, Lehman Brothers went bust and torpedoed the global economy, turning what had been a Wall Street crisis into a near-death experience for the global financial system.
Jerry Brown Widens the Chasm Between Labor and the Democratic Party (tags)
With the November elections rapidly approaching, most Americans are unimpressed and uninvolved, having concluded that elections have changed little in their struggling lives, despite all the promises of politicians.
NYC Workers Stand with the Muslim, Arab, and South Asian Communities: (tags)
Our Grief Is Not an Excuse for Racism, Islamophobia, Bigotry or War
America Facing Depression and Bankruptcy (tags)
The worst is yet to come
Iraq Pullout: Mission Accomplished or Strategic Retreat? (tags)
daily violence rages
Arctic contaminants threaten polar bears (tags)
Arctic contaminants threaten polar bears
PHILIPPINES: New Economics for a New Administration (tags)
The dominant feature of the Arroyo administration was pervasive corruption, but its most destructive legacy in the long term will probably be its policy failures. The ascent to power of a new president, backed by a new Congress, provides the opportunity for a fundamental shift in policy in order to end poverty and re-launch the Philippines on the road to development.
THE FICTION OF FREEDOM IN AMERICA (tags)
The servants of these investors and money "managers," like corporate executives and our elected - excuse the expression -representatives, look from the side, taking a payoff, as we get economically raped. This is designed to prevent wage "inflation" (that's a raise in the minimum, or any other, wage) by keeping unemployment high,
Worldwide Economic Crisis: Two Opposite Models as Answers (tags)
In a large part of the population, there is a consensus that capitalism has no answers to the great social challenges of social security, hunger and climate change. An alternative investment program (emphasizing children, culture and climate change) gives a long-term answer.
Democrat Clinton's $5 million wedding while workers starve (tags)
Democrat Chelsea Clinton's father, war criminal former president Democrat Bill Clinton, spent $5 million on his daughter's wedding, of which $2 million will be reimbursed by the taxpayers for the Secret Service, while we are in a Great Depression wtih massive starvation and homelessness, increasing daily. The Democrats are just as much a party of the rich as the Republicans Are you still registered Democrat?
BTL:U.S. Workers' Stories Illuminate Intensifying Struggle for Dignity (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine
BTL:'Fix Congress First!' Organizes to Change 'Pay to Play' Status Quo in Washington, D.C. (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine
La Opinion Article on RAC-LA (tags)
Article from La Opinion 7-18-10 PA-3 on the "serve the people" work that RAC-LA (Revolutionary Autonomous Communities-Los Angeles have been doing for 2 3/4 years in MacArthur Park following the police riot there on May Day 2007.
What “Jobless Recovery” Means in Capitalism (tags)
The phrase “jobless recovery” entered the capitalist lexicon in 2002. But since then nobody want to be associated with these phrase. Although a lot of economist tried to use this term as a byword. Still noboy want to own up to this infamous phrase. The term “jobless recovery “ had been associated with the terms of momentary statistical growth and corporate profits on books of accounts and in the stock market rather than in terms of production, employment and improvement of the people's living conditions.
Deficit Hysteria: Wrongheaded in Times of Depression (tags)
proposed policies are wrecking economies
Stanley Sporkin: BP's Ombudsman Fixer (tags)
corruption in high places
Oval Office Duplicity: Cover for Corporate Criminality (tags)
government/corporate crime
Lost Youth Employment in Illinois (tags)
an entire youth generation is being trashed
Illinois: A State in Crisis (tags)
Illinois a microcosm of America
BTL:Senate Finance Reform Bill Falls Short of Addressing Concentration of Wealth and Power (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine
Growing Homelessness in America (tags)
Washington's indifference to a growing problem
The Economics Behind Immigration Reform (tags)
How convenient for Goldman Sachs. Just as most working people were demanding that the Goldman bosses and other Wall Street criminals either be massively fined, jailed or worse, the nation’s attention is suddenly forced to react to the racist immigration law in Arizona. And although the two incidents are not directly related, they represent a trend that is likely to increase in the months and years ahead.
Goldman Sachs: Master of the Universe (tags)
Don't bet against Goldman
The Global Economic Crisis: Riots, Rebellion and Revolution (tags)
"In the same month, the highest-ranking general in the United States, “Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ranks the financial crisis as a higher priority and greater risk to security than current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” He explained, “It's a global crisis. And as that impacts security issues, or feeds greater instability, I think it will impact on our national security in ways that we quite haven't figured out yet.”[22] Rest assured, they’ve figured it out, but they don’t want to tell you."
Citizen Money as a Bold Social Utopia (tags)
"Spring has returned. The earth is like a child that knows poems." (Rainer Maria Rilke) Citizen money would guarantee a reasonable life for all. Citizen money challenges our social and cultural assumptions and uncouples work and income.
The business sector of the U.S. — particularly the giant corporations that dominate our economy — literally regard themselves as above the law. Not only do they pay millions of dollars in legal bribes to politicians under the guise of “campaign contributions” to gain legislation that makes them BILLIONS in additional profits, they merrily disregard existing laws on issues ranging from labor to the environment to health and safety and paying their taxes. And a U.S. population brainwashed by decades of Right-wing propaganda extolling the private sector and the “free market” as good, efficient and honest — and damning the public sector as ineffective and hopelessly corrupt — has led most Americans to see government, not corporations, as their real enemy.
On the Benefits of Seceding from the United States (tags)
Time to disunite the states.
Selling Out America to Wall Street (tags)
pillaging American wealth
VIDEO: Joseph Stiglitz' "Freefall" on BookTV (tags)
"Incentives matter. Short-sighted behavior on an annual basis involved excessive risk taking. `Too big to fail' is ersatz capitalism socializing losses.
"We are in the Greatrest Financial Bubble of all Time" (tags)
"An old world perishes as a new world arises-pictorially comparable to a caterpillar that dies because the butterfly comes to life. What is called financial crisis is only a superficial symptom.. One of the main causes of the debacle is the Americanized corporate governance." (F.Malik)
Remembering Howard Zinn (1922 - 2010) (tags)
He'll be sorely missed.
How Liberals Strengthen the Right Wing (tags)
The Democrats look around, blindly, after losing their long-held Senate seat in Massachusetts, and with it their Senate super-majority. They wrongly blame the voters, or their “populist” opponent, but rarely themselves. The Democrats’ claim to be “shocked,” but this scenario is now too familiar in the U.S. two-party system — that corporate-owned game of political musical chairs. Just when it seemed that the Democrats could finally “do something” — since they had a year of super-majority status in the Senate — a wrench was somehow thrown in the machinery.
Political Earthquake Rocks Massachusetts (tags)
Massachusetts voters send a message to Washington
The Recession Is Over, the Depression Just Beginning (tags)
America's economy is dire and worsening
in the eye of the storm (tags)
in the eye of the storm
Obama Year One: Betrayal and Failure (Part II) (tags)
Worse than Bush
End the Fed? Or End the Market Economy? (tags)
When Republican Congressman Ron Paul recently introduced legislation to audit the Federal Reserve, diverse sections of the political spectrum applauded. And rightfully so. The Fed’s role in the still-developing bank bailouts is one of utter secrecy; the total cost of which — as estimated by the bailout’s Special Inspector General, Neil Barofsky — could cost taxpayers $23.7 trillion. The fact that legislation needed to be introduced to raise the question of the whereabouts of these funds points to a larger breakdown in U.S. democracy.
Abolish the Fed and Return Money Creation Power to Congress (tags)
Only Congress empowered to create money
Enough is Enough
Will the Great Depression Be Repeated? (tags)
Global trade fell 30 percent three years after the crash. The US gross domestic product shriveled 40 percent. In 1932, every fourth American was without a job. In Germany, industry only produced half of what was produced three years before.
A New Paradigm: The New Deal of the 1930s (tags)
The New Deal that led out of the worldwide economic crisis in the 1930s was based on the combination of a new technical-economic model with a new socio-economic model. Obama's achievement is not turning the necessity of overcoming the crisis against the social principle
Obamacare Targets Entitlements (tags)
the plan is to make America Guatemala
How Neoliberal Ideology Destabilized the World Balance: Krugman and Galbraith (tags)
"If the depression has not openly erupted, all the features of the 1930s are having a spectacular comeback." (Paul Krugman) To free the US from the claws of private interests, James Galbraith urges the public authority to set social and ecological norms.
The justification offered for the new military bases in Colombia is the "war on drugs (tags)
"The justification offered for the new military bases in Colombia is the "war on drugs." The fact that the justification is even offered is remarkable. Suppose, for example, that Colombia, or China, or many others claimed the right to establish military bases in Mexico to implement their programs to eradicate tobacco in the U.S., by fumigation in North Carolina and Kentucky, interdiction by sea and air forces, and dispatch of inspectors to the U.S. to ensure it was eradicating this poison-which is, in fact, far more lethal even than alcohol, which in turn is far more lethal than cocaine or heroin, incomparably more than cannabis. The toll of tobacco use is truly fearsome, including "passive smokers" who are seriously affected though they do not use tobacco themselves. The death toll overwhelms the lethal effects of other dangerous substances."
Today your freedom is being signed away (tags)
Today at the UN New York States are signing a treaty which by its exclusion of core obligations and the right to development will create a people more dependent on the State and Corporations as well as discriminating against the poor. Obama ( & other States) is following such policies.
The First Shots of the Trade War (tags)
With the G-20 summit approaching, cheerful talk of “international cooperation” fills the White House press-room. These comments carry with them the implication that “free trade” is integral to “cooperation,” a fact made explicit in the last meeting of the G-20. There, in the name of “united action,” world leaders agreed not to install any new protectionist measures. Since then, protectionist measures have flourished. Instead of global cooperation we have its opposite: international tensions are on the rise as trade disputes sharpen.
GERMANY: What Lessons Do We Learn from the Financial Crisis? (tags)
Rating agencies were paid by the firms to be rated. Ultimately rational individual conduct led to an irrational collective result. The lesson is clear. On the way of regulation or taxation, banks must be given a massive incentive to remain small.
Were You at the March on Washington? (tags)
Two websites designed to energize Tea Party volunteers.
Global Systematic discriminationagainst the Poor due to be signed (tags)
International human rights law to be signed by States on Sept 24, 2009, systematically discriminates against the poor. The establishment is pitted against the independent peoples and the most disadvantaged. A mediocre nation and a dependent people are the very likely outcomes.
Court Orders Fed to Disclose Emergency Bank Loans (tags)
Manhattan Chief U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ruled against the central bank yesterday, rejecting the argument that loan records aren’t covered by the law because their disclosure would harm borrowers’ competitive positions.
Satiation or Two Limits of Growth: John Maynard Keynes (tags)
"The first great economic crisis of the 21st century marks the end of a failed political-economic experiment..The past 30 years of redistribution from bottom to top were a glistening epoch for the owners of capital.."
Capitalism is the Problem: System Error (tags)
The chaos that we now witness is only the latest crisis of the global economic system. The system has not succeeded in keeping profits at the level of the postwar years. What is good for one capitalist is not necessarily good for the system. Triple-digit billions have been pumped into system
In the US, people have lived above their means for years and now must permanently lower their living standard. In America as in Europe, economists expect a tremendous rise in unemployment in the fall. This does not mean people will shop more.
Self-Abandonment of the System (tags)
The banks are seemingly on Victory Street and taxpayers face bankruptcy. Bailing out banks by printing money is a dubious recovery. Paulson, Bernanke, Summers and Geithner are the architects of a policy of easy money. The money given to banks does not reach the economy.
Reviewing F. William Engdahl's "Full Spectrum Dominance:" Part II (tags)
the threat of totalitarian democracy
BTL:Minimum Wage Campaign Fights for National Living Wage (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine
Obama's Cap and Trade Carbon Emissions Bill - A Stealth Scheme to License Pollution and Fr (tags)
plunder and pollution if passed
The San Francisco Strike of 1934: It’s Lessons Today (tags)
The progressive sector of the US labor movement marked July 5, 1934 - a day striking labor unions called "Bloody Thursday" - a turning point in the history of working people on the West Coast. On that day, strikes, riots, tear gas and armed troops on the San Francisco waterfront 1934 strike still had an impact that is still felt to this day. "I think it is still relevant to the Bay Area," said Kevin Starr, the pre-eminent historian of California who wrote about the strike in "Endangered Dreams," a history of California in the Great Depression.
"We are moving into a world-historical situation where all the points of social, economic and political life will be reset..A revolutionary process is only possible when a radical reform gets going.. A radical redistribution from top to bottom must be fought for.."
Decommissioning a Superpower (tags)
"From July to September 2008, China reduced its investment in the US real estate banks Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The US tgovt needs $1.5 billion in foreign credits day after day..The greatest debtor of the world cannot force the law of trade on its creditors any more.."
Obama's Financial Reform Proposal - A Stealth Scheme for Global Monetary Control (tags)
global dominance, not reform is planned
Economic Crisis and the Crisis of Neoliberal Ideology (tags)
The crisis has his origins in the "real" economy. Inequality is the ideological motor of neoliberfalism. German president Kohler described the financial markets as a monster. The metaphor has changed from market as rational subject to monster.
Manipulation - How Markets Really Work (tags)
Insiders move markets up or down for profit.
GM's Turn on Obama's Chopping Block (tags)
The alarm bells should be ringing day and night about what’s being prepared at General Motors — the ripple effects could produce tidal waves. The Obama administration has made no secret about its plans for GM: the Chrysler bankruptcy was the “test case,” and now Obama’s Wall Street buddies inside the Auto Task Force plan to replicate it. The vast implications of the Chrysler bankruptcy went unnoticed by the mainstream media, concerned as it was with the convenient hype provided by Swine Flu.
Socialist Stewart Alexander: Washington and Capitalism in Shambles (tags)
Since President Barack Obama took office in January, the U.S. economy has gone from bad to worst. Nationwide, home foreclosures continue to climb, consumer spending is down due to the credit crisis, more than 6 million Americans remain unemployed, and while paychecks are shrinking, inflation and gas prices are on the increase. The U.S. economy and capitalism is in a total mess.
Reviewing Ellen Brown's "Web of Debt:" Part V (tags)
Part V of Federal Reserve plunder
Political Poisonings: A Continuing American Tradition? (tags)
I am an American seeking asylum in Europe because I have been poisoned, apparently for political reasons. It seems the US government has experience with this punishment for political opponents, but worse things may be in store for the masses.
Political Poisonings: A Continuing American Tradition? (tags)
I am an American seeking asylum in Europe because I have been poisoned, apparently for political reasons. It seems the US government has experience with this punishment for political opponents, but worse things may be in store for the masses.
Reviewing Ellen Brown's "Web of Debt:" Part II (tags)
Part II of Brown's superb book.
The End of Finance Market Capitalism: Renaissance of Socialism? (tags)
The crisis offers an historical chance to civilize an unbridled capitalism with reform policy. The future relation of market and state is the focus of attention.. Financial markets are characterized by herd behavior. Risk consciousness disappears.
FDR's New Deal v. Obamanomics in Their First 100 Days (tags)
stark mirror opposites
The Global Research News Hour - Media As It Should Be (tags)
in-depth truthful discussion and analysis
The importance of the independent media (tags)
"The mass media form for us our image of the world and then tell us what to think about that image. Essentially everything we know—or think we know—about events outside our own neighborhood or circle of acquaintances comes to us via our daily newspaper, our weekly news magazine, our radio, or our television."
"Low-Wage Capitalism" Author Speaks in San Diego (tags)
Fred Goldstein, contributing editor of the Workers' World newspaper and author of the new book "Low-Wage Capitalism," spoke at the Malcolm X Library April 18 and described the current economic collapse as a classic "crisis of overproduction" in the Marxist sense. Though Wall Street greed and the bursting of the housing bubble played a part, he said, the real cause was the capitalist class's success in driving working people's wages down, not only in the U.S. but worldwide, to the point where workers can no longer afford to consume the products they produce. He called for a mass progressive movement to make explicit economic demands, especially jobs.
Obama Draws Fire from Socialists and Conservatives (tags)
Socialists and conservatives alike believe bigger government and heavy spending is not the answer to restructuring the U.S. economy; and even though the ideas of socialists and conservatives are vastly different, both groups are opposing the president on his enormous spending proposals that are lacking any clear plans on how to revive the economy and limit an ocean of future debt for the nation.
Lessons from 1929: Christina Romer (tags)
Roosevelt's debt-financed spending packages were historically unique since balanced state budgets were the norm..Roosevelt's New Deal led to an increase of nine to thirteen percent in the real GDP between 1934 and 1938. Charlie Rose's interview with Ms Romer is life-giving.
Barack Obama: Crime Boss (tags)
Obama's criminal partnership with Wall Street
A Union for the Jobless (tags)
With unemployment in LA over 10%, and probably closer to 20% in our working class communities, the time has come for an organization for the unemployed. Harry Kelber is a writer whose been in the labor movement since the 1930s, a real veteran.
Obama's New World Order (tags)
Obama's imperial agenda
Lessons from the Great Depression: Christina D. Romer (tags)
This paper was presented at the Brookings Institution Washington D.C. March 9, 2009. Christina Romer, economics professor at Berkeley, is one of President Obama's economic advisers in the Council of Economic Advisers.
4/10-12 Chicago:NISN National Grassroots Immigrant Strategy Conf & Film Festival (tags)
Stop Immigrant Raids! Support Immigrant Workers Rights! Together We Build A New Immigrant Rights Movement!
BTL:Campaign Cash Bought Deregulation Triggered Economic Meltdown (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine
VIDEO: Lessons of the Great Depression (tags)
Output per worker, efficiency or productivity, increased 25% from 1923-1930 while wages only increased 4%. The first problem is that people can't afford what they produce. The second problem is that we've been consuming the planet
Alexander: Food Lines Show Signs of National Depression (tags)
According to Reuters, “The previous record for food stamp enrollment was 31.6 million last September, which included “disaster” stamps for states hit by hurricanes and floods.” Today’s disaster, that has increased that number is the U.S. economy; even with the government bailouts totaling close to $3 trillion, the U.S. economy is in freefall and the lines for food stamps and unemployment benefits continue to climb.
Monetary and Fiscal Failure, Fraud, and Fear of What's Next (tags)
looting the treasury continues with militarism ready to confront dissent
Updating the Militarization and Annexation of North America (tags)
The North American Union is still viable.
U.S. Senate and House Introduce Employee Free Choice Act ( EFCA ). SPFPA at the Forefront (tags)
Today is one of those defining moments in history as we introduce legislation that puts power back into the hands of the people who are truly the backbone of this economy.
Putin and China: US Responsible in the Economic Crisis (tags)
Investment banks, the pride of Wall Street, have practically ceased to exist, Putin added. In only twelve months, their losses exceeded the profits of the past 25 years. Wen said the blind pursuit of profit led to the worst crisis since the Great Depression of 1929.
Systemic Failure: Capitalism "Lays an Egg" (tags)
deepening economic crisis
Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Economic Crisis (tags)
economic conditions worsening
Robert Jensen Challenges Patriotism, Industrialism (tags)
University of Texas journalism professor Robert Jensen spoke in San Diego February 21. His talk was billed as a challenge to the idea of patriotism, but he also said flatly that the industrial mode of production and the way of life it has allowed are no longer sustainable and the world's population will have to live in small, self-sufficient local communities. His speech also attacked "the coarsening of the culture" represented by the easy availability of pornography.
Fear of the Great Depression (tags)
The acute danger exists of a self-reinforcing downward spiral from deflation, increasing debts and new problems in the financial sector..Degenerate banks must be closed by the state in a controlled way. Politics must try to reduce the uncertainties of consumers.
In recent months, we have witnessed billions of dollars pumped into the financial institutions WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED. Reckless behavior and greed have been graced with the most extravagant rewards, allowing the rich to get even richer. After receiving their bailout, A.I.G. executives resumed their plans for a retreat at a lavish resort. Meanwhile, foreclosures have risen, unemployment has soared, and misery has spread with virtually nothing being done for the millions of workers suffering from these afflictions. We cannot sit back and simply hope that things will get better. The financial executives have organized themselves and lobbied for bailouts. We must now do the same. We must organize ourselves and mount a campaign, insisting that government programs benefit the majority of the population first and foremost, not the super wealthy small minority.
Corporate Front Group gives “Defense of the American Worker” awards to Anti-Worker - Legis (tags)
EXPOSED: Senator Richard Burr and U.S. Representative Howard Coble below have among the worst records in Congress on workers’ rights. How Dare they accept an award t on “Defense of the American Worker”.
CRISIS RAISES RISK OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ASIA (tags)
The global economic crisis heightens the potential for social unrest in Asia, where millions of people suddenly out of work will demand governments take swift and decisive action, analysts said.In the Philippines, of the country’s 36 million labor force, an estimated 40,000 to 200,000 workers are expected to lose their jobs this year, the National Economic and Development Authority said.
BTL:Replace Wall Street's Phantom Wealth with Main Street's Real Wealth (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine --Weekly Summary
Rebuilding the House George Smashed:Can America Avoid Fascism? (tags)
America can avoid sliding into a full-blown fascist state complete with concentration camps and right wing death squads if we begin to act now. If we fail to act wisely we will face that dreaded moment when the gestapo pounds on our door in the middle of the night.
Time for a Bad Ideas Bank (tags)
The global economic disaster plunges economics into a legitimation crisis-not yet noticed by the vast majority of the affected. The current financial crisis involves dogmas that markets function best and correct their own mistakes.
Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign (tags)
Below is the introduction, ten point program, and partial list of endorsers for the Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign
Will Obama Start the Next Trade War? (tags)
While campaigning to be president, Obama gave the general impression that he would act “cooperatively” to solve international problems, moving away from the Bush strategy of irresponsible “unilateralism.” But Obama took an aggressive stance towards China even on the campaign trail, including the accusations of “currency manipulation,” “violating intellectual property rights,” and “devaluing their goods.” Of course, the average American cares nothing about these types of crimes, nor should they.
Banks Injure Economic Stimulus Plan by Jacking up Credit Card Interest (tags)
Could banks jacking up credit card interest during a horrendous recession—delay U.S. economic recovery and destroy the expected benefits of the Economic Stimulus Plan?
Obama’s Campaign Promises and the Laws of Capitalism (tags)
Throughout his campaign, Obama made repeated overtures to working people. He talked about job creation, a tax cut for the middle class, health care, education, the rescinding of the lavish tax cuts for the rich, clean energy, facilitating unionization, and the elimination of the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy for gays in the military. One got the distinct impression when he was campaigning that Obama was oriented to helping ordinary working people, who are now struggling to pay their bills, not the rich.
A New Administration, Tired Old Policies (tags)
Counterproductive policies heading America for depression
Portland's Town Hall Meeting on the Economic Crisis (tags)
On January 31st, Portland Oregon held an important — perhaps historic — mass meeting in response to the economic crisis. Dozens of unions and other progressive organizations were able to attract over 800 people to hear an analysis of the crisis itself, proposed solutions, and a variety of workshops which included everything from labor rights, trade and immigration, and a "green economy." It is believed that this was the first such event in the country.
Can Ejidos Save Mexico from Collapsing Peso? (tags)
Rural Mexican villages restore their ejido communal farm land and introduce a new community currency modeled after ideas from Lazaro Cardenas to prepare for petrocollapse and the continuously devalued peso.
Competing Ideologies: Davos v. Belem (tags)
alternate ideological views
Alexander: Obama’s $825 Billion Stimulus Plan offers too little, too late (tags)
With less than 10 days in office, President Barack Obama has indicated that his $825 billion economic stimulus package will energize the U.S. economy and create future jobs for more than three million Americans. Socialists nationwide are rejecting this new call for deficit spending and are calling for programs that will meet the short and long term needs of the nation and create immediate employment for the millions of working people that are unemployed or under-employed.
Twenty-five people at the heart of the meltdown (tags)
This article was published Jan 26, 2009 in The Guardian.
Back from the Wilderness: Joseph Stiglitz (tags)
Economy theory has long explained why unhindered markets do not correct themselves, why regulation was necessary and why the government had an important role to play int he economy. Many who worked for the financial markets forced a kind of market fundamentalism.
The Blame Game in Gaza: Covering for Israel, Concealing War Crimes (tags)
Israeli war crimes in Gaza
Obamanomics: Why the Stimulus Plan Will Not Revive the Economy (tags)
This article was published in: The Independent, Dec 12, 2008.
From Real Estate Speculation to Collapse of Global Deficit Economy (tags)
Joy to the world, the world of fallen idols and bubble transfer. The truth will set us free but the truth is a process, not a cudgel or stimulus. After the dot-com bubble, trillions were "invested" in real estate speculation. The crisis of the work society is the background for low interests.
World and US Situation, 2008 (tags)
For more than two years, we revolutionaries had observed the impending total unravelling and complete discredit of the "free market" pretense of monopoly capitalism and the full bankruptcy of the policy of "neoliberal globalization." But the leaders of the US and other imperialist countries and the puppet states were always lying and boasting about the so-called strong fundamentals of their economies. Only recently have they been compelled by the circumstances to admit that the US and global capitalist system are beset by the worst economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The Federal Reserve Abolition Act (tags)
Abolishing the Fed.
The State Invests and Memorandum 2008 (tags)
When the state invests, it ensures that the economy will grow faster tomorrow than today: new streets, better schools and new eco-techniques. In a few years we will all earn more. Even German bank president Axel Weber urges a state economic program.
Excess Debt and Deflation = Depression (tags)
the worsening economy
Bank of America Forces Workers to Suffer (tags)
Bank of America, founded in California, has pressured Republic Windows to withhold paychecks from workers, AFTER gettinga 45 bil bailout from our taxes.
The Global Economic Crisis - Bad and Worsening (tags)
the crisis is deepening
Obama's Economic Dream Team? (tags)
indeed for Wall Street bankers
"Like the Fall of the Wall" (Joseph Stiglitz) (tags)
The mixture of low interests, excessive liquidity and lax oversight on money institutes led to the financial crisis. National indebtedness rose two-thirds in only eight years. The govt should immediately begin investing in the infrastructure, education and other projects.
Some thoughts on the current economic crisis and capitalism
Hope in Common, by David Graeber (tags)
We seem to have reached an impasse. Capitalism as we know it appears to be coming apart.
The global crisis is a crisis of capitalism (tags)
It is time for the workers and the poor in the Philippines to prepare for the worse the moment its government keeps on repeating the mantra that the economic fundamentals remain good and thus there is little to worry about effects of the global recessionary trend. The world found itself in the present mess precisely because of such blind faith in neoliberal fundamentalism.
Worse Than the Great Depression? (tags)
a distinct possibility
Fed Defies Transparency On Bailout Monies: Refuses to Disclose (tags)
By Mark Pittman, Bob Ivry and Alison Fitzgerald Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
A reality check.
The deepening economic crisis.
What the Economic Crisis Means for Us and How to Defend Ourselves (tags)
Gloom and Doom-----The pillars of the U.S. capitalist economy are crumbling and falling all around us while the federal government frantically races from one crisis to another, throwing money at them as if throwing water on a fire. It could well turn out that the money represents only a few drops of water thrown on threatening flames that will soon billow into an out-of-control wildfire so that nothing President-elect Barak Obama has proposed will succeed in averting the disaster.
Fannie Mae Lie:SEC Chris Cox,Agora Inc.,James Dale Davidson, Lord Rees Mogg,LOM Bermuda (tags)
Now why does Chris Cox and his SEC (U.S.Securities Exchange Commission)allow Scott Lines and his LOM(Lines Overseas Management) of Bermuda Bahamas Isle of Man,etc.whose massive U.S. penny stock frauds and manipulations in collusion with disgraced Florida Democrat Rep.Tim Mahoney's vFinance and Charles Schwab has been covered up by the SEC itself to buy and sell Fannie Mae,Freddie Mac,etc. shares ? And how can anyone know just how many they really buy and sell or short,(dump),over time ? Could these types of offshore hedge fund and securities fraudsters be what caused the collapse of Fannie Mae shares and NOT the lie Chrisopher Cox about 'naked shorting' Cox has sold to the public ?
More from the Front Lines of the Financial Crisis (tags)
The worst is yet to come.
Studs Terkel: The Passing of An Icon (tags)
He's irreplaceable.
Bush administration denies funding for FBI probe of mortgage mess (tags)
The Bush administration is rejecting FBI pleas for more agents to investigate crimes that helped trigger the global financial meltdown, bureau sources said this week.
Public Enemy Number One (tags)
Fed- engineered crisis.
Growing financial crisis.
Past sins are coming home to roost.
[B]oth Messrs. Obama and McCain are reiterating their commitment to good, old-fashioned American-style war making. . . . Rather than offering relief, the new entrant to the White House come January is likely to simply exacerbate the mayhem.
Anatomy of the American Financial Crisis (tags)
Can a repetition of the US Great Depression of the 1930s or Japan's more recent protracted recession of the 1990s be avoided? Both were results of a severe banking crisis. The answer is yes, if the vicious cycle of asset price decline and banking credit crunch can be avoided.
The Philosophies of Deregulation and Neoliberalism are Dead in the West (tags)
"The patient suffers massive internal bleeding and is given a blood transfusion. The banks lent money and accepted inflated assets as security. This bubble burst..Those who pocketed profits for years want to pin the losses on the taxpayers."
The October Surprise - Global Panic (tags)
It's not over.
Let's Have a New President November 5 (tags)
With the U.S. economy in free fall, this country doesn't have the luxury of waiting until January 20, 2009 to swear in the winner of this year's presidential election, This post presents a modest proposal for installing the election winner in the White House immediately, so he can get to work on fixing the economy right away.
US military admits killing 33 civilians in Afghanistan air strike (tags)
US military admits killing 33 civilians in Afghanistan air strike
Lee Sustar explains that the mayhem in the markets this week is symptomatic of a deeper crisis--and the leaders of the most powerful governments aren't sure what to do.
The Fleecing of America (tags)
Public and private looting.
AJLPP Condemns Capitalist Bailout (tags)
he US House of Representatives approved a $700 billion bailout package for US banks, under pressure from all sides as the effort to head off a spreading financial crisis hung in the balance. President Bush happily signed the bill into a law at the White House today. October 3, 2008.
Bush and the neocons caused it all (tags)
Al jazeera tells it all
America where are the patriots? (tags)
The bailout is part of the overall scheme by those in power who are directing events for an outcome of their choosing. It is the handful of individuals who some refer to as "The Illuminati." This elite group of powerful people has been creating and directing events in America and world Society ever since Colonial Days and in modern times as well.
The U.S. Economy on FIRE (tags)
The current U.S. economic crisis didn't start a few years ago when banks and financial institutions started selling "subprime" real estate loans to high-risk borrowers and then repackaging them as "mortgage-backed securities." It began in the early 1970's as a result of a long-term plan by America's major corporations and business leaders to drive down workers' wages and extract more surplus value — and the workers' response, which was to take on more debt. Any real solution that benefits working people cannot be instituted until the power of the corporate rich over the political system is broken.
The government-business looting of America.
Congress standing up to the bailout (tags)
Transcript of address from Rep. Marcy Kapitur, D-Ohio, Toledo The latest reality game - Wall Street Bailout - has a counter-game called Wall Street Reckoning. The Capitol switchboard is easy and free: 800-270-0309
Bail-Out, Economic Democracy and the Socialist Path (tags)
David Schweickart, political philosopher, discusses the financial crisis, what it exposes about capitalism, how it can set the stage for economic democracy, and open the socialist path.
Pacifica Los Angeles KPFK Listeners Ask:Will Censorship of Socialist Perspectives Continue (tags)
With candidates of socialist perspective taking the lead on issues in the 2008 election, listeners of self-proclaimed Pacifica "Revolutionary Radio" KPFK wonder if the station will continue to censor their candidates and positions and ignore their core point that, as a matter of empirical fact, liberal reform has failed and shows no prospect for success with an Obama election.
The Homeless Move to Bushville. (tags)
This is what I have been watching the wires for, a report revealing the 21st. century Hooverville.
Reviewing Danny Schechter's "Plunder" (tags)
A masterful account of the subcrime crisis.
Further Oppression of the Poor likely at the UN: America – both the Problem and the Soluti (tags)
After many years I devised a human rights approach to address the problems faced by societies, national and international. This includes immediately addressing core minimum obligations (i.e. dealing with the most serious violations), including the empowering rights to human rights education (re democratic support for human rights) and the right to development (re small business promotion) as well as non-retrogression (the protection of existing rights). However remarkably I was to find that the rights I focused on were virtually identical to the rights excluded by the complaints procedure due to be adopted by the UN General Assembly next month. I am now even more convinced than ever that my socially responsible ‘bottom-up’ human rights approach is the path forward while the global elites, international and national institutions fear any change that threatens their positions and lifestyles.
Tarot Cards and the Left (tags)
How prognostications of doom encourage passivity over action
Peace Mom v. Guardian of Power (tags)
Challenging entrenched power in Congress.
Alexander Dismisses Economic Plans of Obama and McCain (tags)
There is no easy fix for the ailing U.S. economy, and Barack Obama and John McCain are not prepared to make the necessary changes that will protect the interests of working people. Comparing the economic plans of the two candidates, it does not matter whether McCain or Obama is elected in the 2008 Election; the economic programs that have been outlined by both candidates will only produce minor differences to the present Bush White House.
Is Dubya an Agent of the New World Order? (tags)
Conspiracy is as American as apple pie. Every day in America, in state and federal courts, some defendant faces charges of conspiracy. I submit that since 1891, a conspiracy has existed, forged by British imperialist Cecil Rhodes, and others, to reduce America to a vassal state of the New World Order. It is beyond cavil that the policies of Dubya (George W. Bush) have been an absolute disaster for America. Could Dubya be working for the NWO?
The Time is Ripe: Democratic Controls of the Financial Markets! (tags)
Like the melting of the dollar, the energy, food and housing crises have systemic roots, the logic and dynamic of maximum profit.. The US is experiencing a "margin call." The world wants its money back. The economy and the financial markets should serve people, not vice versa.
Doug Dowd's "At the Cliff's Edge" (tags)
an indictment of imperialism
Potential Future Hyperinflation (tags)
Potential economic trouble ahead.
Socialist Party VP nominee calls McCain “reckless” on Iran (tags)
The ongoing reckless statements by Senator McCain are another indication that the Republican presidential frontrunner is mapping a road to the White House by staying the course that has been paved by President Bush; a course that will continue to advance U.S. imperialism, a course that will continue to benefit the rich at the expense of working people, and a course that has spiraled the U.S. economy into the worst recession since the Great Depression.
These reckless statements by Senator McCain are another indication that the Republican presidential frontrunner is mapping a road to the White House by staying the course that has been paved by President Bush; a course that will continue to advance U.S. imperialism, a course that will continue to benefit the rich at the expense of working people, and a course that has spiraled the U.S. economy into the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Economic troubles are broad, deep and worrisome.
Famine killed 7 million people in USA (tags)
Another online scandal has been gathering pace recently. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, deleted an article by a Russian researcher, who wrote about the USA’s losses in the Great Depression of 1932-1933.
Frances Fox Piven's "Challenging Authority" (tags)
Advancing disruptive social protests for change.
In Response to Global Crises Ontario Tent City Homeless March Out to Route 66 (tags)
In Response to Global Crises, And Lack of Legal Shelter, Ontario Homeless March on Steinbeck's Route 66--To Plead That Housing, Food, Clothing and an End to All Homeless Criminalization Be Made A Basic, National, Civil Right
The Legal Criminality of Finance Capitalism (tags)
The market mechanism, the Keynesians say, is not efficient or balanced. Charles Ponzi was one of the greatest swindlers of American history. Instead of the capitalist economy holding the strings of politics, politics could use economic power to create new realities.
Federal Tax Relief Package is Welfare for Billionaires (tags)
President Franklin Roosevelt introduced the New Deal that began to release the nation from the grips of the Great Depression. America is now in the Bush Recession, and to implement effective economic solutions it will be necessary to take a page from the socialists' book. One-time checks are not the answer, and the federal stimulus package is already doomed to failure.
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade - A Profile in Courage, Honor and Hope (tags)
The story of anti-fascist freedom fighters.
New Energy Bill- Working People will Pay (tags)
The Democrats and Republicans have made it clear that they are the corporate parties and they only represent the interests of the capitalists and the billionaires. The new energy bill is another long term payment plan that will be required of working class people while the billionaires continue to collect.
Morgan Stanley Issues Full US Recession Alert (tags)
Morgan Stanley has issued a full recession alert for the US economy, warning of a sharp slowdown in business investments and a perfect storm for consumers as the housing slump spreads. Under the conservative definition, man is the servant of money. Long live alternative economics!
Mortgage Crisis Jeopardizing Working Class Families (tags)
If the two corporate parties, the Democrats and Republicans, take a wait-and-see attitude while the mortgage lenders and multi-billionaires take the hard-earned family resources of millions of Americans, the results will be catastrophic for working class families, and ultimately for our entire economy.
A Hundred and Fifty Years Later and Marx Still Prevails (tags)
Marx Was Right But Don’t Tell Them
Greenspan's Dark Legacy Unmasked (tags)
Alan Greenspan's true record of public disservice.
America Before a New "New Deal" (tags)
The laissez-faire capitalism as practiced in the US turned out to be a flop. The New Deal and the welfare state built by Roosevelt and his direct successors was systematically slandered, delegitimated and then destroyed.
David Walker, comptroller general, warns of impending crisis (tags)
Learn from the fall of Rome, the US is warned. There were striking similarities between America's current situation and the factors that brought down Rome including declining moral values, an over-confident and over-extended military and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government.
Stock Market Meltdown - First Signs of Global Economic Rout
'Old Europe' Bails Out Idiot-run Free-Market US Government - Again (tags)
Right now, the entire world's banking system is being pressed to the limit of what it can do to prevent a worldwide crash of the capitalist system due to what one European banker called "a complete evaporation of liquidity" [Source: "ECB reportedly weighs dollar swap with Fed", MarketWatch.com, 13 August, 2007]. In layman's terms, that means that the world's banking system is running out of the funds needed to keep the capitalist credit system running.
The Underrated Power of Economists (tags)
During the Great Depression between the two world wars, the Brit John Maynard Keynes came to an insight that was implemented in the 1960s. The state must guide the economy by its spending to avert the danger of depression.
Somalia: US Foreign Policy and Gangsterism + Leaked emails (tags)
The failed UN/US intervention of 1993 led directly to the triumph of the warlords, who plundered, raped, and murdered their way through the streets of Mogadishu, the Somalian capital, and reduced the country to Mad Max territory. The same deadly chaos - made in the US - now again foments more hate.
Economist Milton Friedman dies at 94 (tags)
Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who advocated an unfettered free market and had the ear of three U.S. presidents, died Thursday at age 94.
IMPERIALISM 101 - THE US ADDICTION TO WAR, MAYHEM AND MADNESS - PART I (tags)
THE US HISTORICAL PURSUIT OF GLOBAL DOMINANCE
Calderon as ExxonMobil's welcome mat via NAFTA/PPP (tags)
The historical pattern of ExxonMobil indicates their support for pro-NAFTA/PPP Calderon and possible takeover of Mexican owned Pemex by ExxonMobil corporation (restored monopoly)..
"Realist" as Swearword in Bush's Iraq Quagmire (tags)
The great historical crisis of the 1860s proeduced Abraham Lincoln; the "Great Depression" produced Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We can only hope the political system of the US will produce similar leading figures.
The Second American Revolution : Capitalism, Proverbs and Parables (tags)
I will speak to them in parables (sound bites). I will reveal to them mysteries and the secret things which have been kept hidden from them for long ages past. A revolution is a propaganda war and it the decisive battles are not fought with guns.
The Second American Revolution - Revolutionary Theory (tags)
Let's start making everything perfectly clear....
Palestinian Choices and an action alert on Gaza (tags)
...a luta continua
The REAL Assault on Marriage: Top 10 Ways Bush & Co. Have Undermined Marriage (tags)
This article was first published in July of 2003 when the US Senate first took the issue of a constitutional ban on gay marriage up as a diversion from deteriorating conditions in Iraq. And now, after three more years of the Bush cartel, it is even more relevant today.
Intel's (Moore's) Law and Microsoft's Lawlessness Ending -- Economic Crisis (tags)
Dell, Microsoft, and Intel stocks are in freefall. Like the last Tech Wreck (in 2000), this one has to do with Moore's Law.
FEAR OF A BROWN AMERICA! (tags)
There are forces at work in this nation that dread the growth of a BrownAmerica (even if over a third of this country was originally Mexican territory!).
Intel's (Moore's) Law and Microsoft's Lawlessness Ending -- Economic Crisis (tags)
Transistors-per-chip growth (Moore's First Law) is ending (soon, see graph), and it could be very bad for the economy. The good news is that Gordon Moore's Second Law is finally coming into effect. This "forgotten" part of his famous article was about "handy" "sale"-priced computers (see his cartoon).
Mexican Concentration Camps (tags)
How will the American government deport 4 million illegal immigrants?
Pension cuts and inequality wiping out retirement for American workers (tags)
For a growing number of US workers, dreams of a decent retirement are quickly evaporating as companies shift retirement costs onto workers, in the form of deductions from already declining wages, in order to maintain profits in a competitive global economy. In the wake of the post-World War II business boom, US workers were granted certain limited concessions in a three-legged system of retirement security that included individual savings, government programs and private employer pensions. Between the 1940s and the 1980s, private pensions with a guaranteed payout (also known as defined-benefit pensions), became a standard component of compensation for a large section of the American workforce.
What Immigrants Must Learn from the Black Civil Rights Movement ... and Soon (tags)
Un Pueblo Unido
The Hidden Terror of HR4437: No Compromise in the Movement for Migrants Rights (tags)
What We Must Learn Now from the Black Civil Rights Movement
THE US WAR AGAINST IMMIGRANTS IN THEIR FIGHT FOR EQUITY AND JUSTICE
La Tumba del Mojado – A Message to My People (tags)
La rosa de Mexicali / y la sangre en el río Bravo / son dos cosas diferentes / pero en color son hermanos / y la línea divisoria / es la tumba del mojado. ----- Paulino Vargas / Los Tigres del Norte
Bush's Immigration Trap (tags)
Labor: Organize the Unorganized!
Iran’s Oil Exchange threatens the Greenback (tags)
"The Bush administration will never allow the Iranian government to open an oil exchange (bourse) that trades petroleum in euros. If that were to happen, hundreds of billions of dollars would come flooding back to the United States crushing the greenback and destroying the economy. This is why Bush and Co. are planning to lead the nation to war against Iran. It is straightforward defense of the current global system and the continuing dominance of the reserve currency....."
Brown Skin / Yellow Star: Why You Must Join the March 25th Demo (tags)
The US Senate debates legislation that would make migrants an openly felonized, legally scapegoated racial and cultural under-caste, with deeply dangerous implications for us all. 600,000 or more to march this Saturday, March 25th, Broadway and Olympic, 10 AM.
THE US GULAG PRISON SYSTEM - THE SHAME OF THE NATION AND CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY (tags)
An expose of the US gulag prison system at home.
A World Lit by Energy Warfare (tags)
...What "Mission Accomplished" in reality achieved was an intractable quagmire of bloodletting and a nightmarish prospect of global conflict...
DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA - IT'S SPELLED C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N (tags)
US past and present policy using a broader definition of corruption
Has anyone seen Smedley Butler? (tags)
Well, sadly, Smedley is not around anymore but today we desperately need someone like him to help us stop the complete destruction of our freedoms by the industrialists and secret societies that have taken over this country.
WILL IRAN BRING REVOLUTION INTO THE USA ? (tags)
Iran’s Oil Exchange Threatens the Greenback by Mike Whitney www.dissidentvoice.org January 24, 2006
The Courts Will Judge Bush? Not Even Close (tags)
The majority of the Supreme Court -- the controlling group of fascist thugs who shredded the Constitution to set up the Bush-Cheney Illegitimacy and its unconstitutional power grab in January 2001, who shredded federalism and legal equity with "Raich" in 2005, and who shredded "eminent domain" in 2005 so that predator elitists all over the world can have any US property they want -- are incompetent to judge anything.
Returning Money to the People (tags)
Please share this with those you know who are tired of being a financial slave because they have been duped into accepting a fraud!
Battered by Katrina, Gulf Coast workers stand up (tags)
NEW ORLEANS — Gail Andrews, a quiet, unassuming African American woman from New Orleans East, found her mother two weeks after Hurricane Katrina. Six weeks later, she lost her again. This time forever. At age 68, Andrews’ mother died.
The Federal Reserve is Privately owned (tags)
The secret to enslaving a nation.
"The Market Has No Heart": Paul Samuelson (tags)
A post-Katrina economics must emphasize parallel worlds, solidarity and human dignity to safeguard long-term necessities and creativity. If all countries only become more competitive, mass unemployment will result. What is public must remain public.
Learn about the financial fraud that has enslaved you your whole life!
CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM (tags)
Every year since 1990, the United Nations publishes its Human Development Report. It contains the most authoritative data on the state of the world. These reports are available online: hdr.undp.org/reports/view_reports.cfm?type=1. Based on those reports (referred to by year, followed by page), what does our world look like?
REPUBLICANS are LOSERS at FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY (tags)
Reagan's tax cuts for the extremely wealthy was the biggest distribution of wealth in the history of the world, from the poor and middle classes, to the extremely rich. And what did the extremely wealthy do with all of those trillions of dollars? They horded it.
Two colossal manmade disasters: Katrina and Alan (tags)
What becomes obvious when a Katrina comes along is that for the many "born to lead," there is only a scant few "committed to serve."
A Revolutionary ‘Sound bite' (BKH) (tags)
Bring revolutionary clarity which is required to overcome and destroy counter revolutionary mass confusion, the product of the propaganda attacks and deceits of this current ruling system.
The Web: The growing threat of spyware (tags)
Yet another bale out for failed capitalism - fed try to shore up online banks.
The land of milk of honey (BKH) (tags)
I am exhausted and thus taking the weekend off as a revolutionary columnist, but there are still a few things I wanted to get off my chest, just on the off chance that maybe Indymedia might be knocked off line before Monday so as tired as I am today I thought I would still get a few things written down
Time to Get Back to Where We Once Belonged (tags)
Forget all the scare tactics about not having enough of a nest egg, about Social Security going bust. We Baby Boomers already know the answer for living well in our old age. We just need to get it together again. --------------
THE DEATH OF PENSIONS? by Mumia Abu-Jamal (tags)
Everybody wins -- except the workers.
The Minuteman Project: Modern Day Slave Patrols (tags)
The political context of white vigilantism and why white people need to fight it.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH IS NOW IMPEACHABLE (tags)
This is from the Portland IMC: author: Joseph Hillier The evidence of brutality, torture, murder, corruption, conspiracy, and complete contempt for all standards of human decency that is certain to come out during the impeachment of Bush and his high administrative officials will forever discredit the evil neo-con, capitalist, corporate, militarist ideology.
Ground Zero - (Californians Lead The Way Off The Cliff) (tags)
No Summary
Republican bullies should give up on proposed `nuclear' option to end filibusters (tags)
Bullies would rather thrown over the board, scatter pieces everywhere, than play a game they cannot win.
BTL:White House Campaign to Privatize Social Security Based on... (tags)
...Phony Crisis ~ Interview with economist John Miller, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
Federal Officers and Whistle Blowers under attack by Bush Administration (tags)
Bush Administration targest whistle blowers and Federal Officers as "Terrorists"..... Whistle Blower laws voided and civil and human rights under attack...... individuals even "prosecuted" for "being depressed"..... and for excercising civil rights...........
RECORDS FALL UNDER BUSH: THE BIG PICTURE (tags)
The U.S. Dept. of Commerce projects a record $631 billion annual trade deficit for 2004.
A Forgotten Day & a Forgotten Country
"For the richestg 1%, the Reagan tax cuts were pure elixer.. Reagan's budgets slashed social spending. Domestic discretionary spending was the special target.. Hardest hit were programs for low-income Americans.."
If party politics is the art of lying (and it is), then for the ordinary person political conventions are to be avoided at all costs. If these were judged by the standards of that other massager of the truth, advertising, then every one would be sued for being misleading.
George W. Bush, The Neocons, & The Nazis: Ties That Bind (tags)
There are numerous connections between the Bush family and the Nazis. Moreover, the philosophy of the neocons within the Bush administration has already been connected with fascism. However, no article has attempted to present an overview of the fascist connections within the Bush administration.
Acting on principle: John Randolph’s life and legacy (tags)
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – John Randolph, a great light of stage and screen, was laid to rest here Feb. 24 at age 88. Actor and activist, Randolph shined his light through the anti-Communist hysteria of the McCarthyite 1950s.
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists: Mobilize the vote (tags)
Bush lies ‘coming and going,’ CBTU leader charges
Abolish the welfare state (tags)
Is China weeks away from 'Great Depression'? (tags)
Already in need of a $45 billion bailout, the CBRC suspended all lending for three days. The enormity of China's banking problem is dawning on everyone--the system is nearing meltdown.
NESARA: peace information February 20th – April 9th, 2004 (tags)
“This morning from 7:30 am to 8 am, I shared the good news of NESARA on the ?Healthy Choices? show on KEST Radio 1450 AM in San Francisco”
Kerry catches tax cut mania (tags)
It is highly unlikely that tax breaks would spur much job-creating investment, since employers are reluctant to expand operations while facing overcapacity in almost every industry. Utilization of industrial capacity hit a 20-year low of 74 percent last year, and is barely higher today. Instead of adding jobs, employers are squeezing more from fewer workers, while allowing little or no wage growth.
How Will Bush Deal With the Deficits? Connecting the Dots to Iraq (tags)
Bush administration's perpetual war and attendant defecit spending responsible for illusory economic prolificacy.
"When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History" by Thom Hartmann Published on Sunday, March 16, 2003 by CommonDreams.org The 70th anniversary wasn't noticed in the United States, and was barely reported in the corporate media. But the Germans remembered well that fateful day seventy years ago - February 27, 1933. They commemorated the anniversary by joining in demonstrations for peace that mobilized citizens all across the world.
Your Vote Means Nothing (tags)
The 2004 Election Dog And Pony Show, Your Vote Means Nothing
An Executive Dictatorship? (tags)
The United States Is An Executive Dictatorship.
Did Reagan win the cold war? A myth exploded. (tags)
Before I disprove this myth, I want to point out the childishness, crassness, and just plain ignorance of the propagandists who make this claim. Such a massive global struggle, and one guy who stumbled in after 90% of it was over decides to claim all the credit?
The Democrats don’t deserve our support (tags)
There is no reason to assume, as many do, that a Gore presidency would have avoided war after September 11. Clinton oversaw UN-sponsored sanctions against Iraq that led to the deaths of more than 1 million Iraqis, and U.S. warplanes dropped bombs on Iraq almost daily during his time in office. And Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998, calling for the U.S. "to seek to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein." Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeleine Albright admits in a recent Foreign Affairs article, "I personally felt [Bush’s new Iraq] war was justified on the basis of Saddam’s decade-long refusal to comply with UN Security Council resolutions on weapons of mass destruction."
The New Morality(TM) of Capitalism (tags)
During the Great Depression, Pres. Roosevelt used social programs (ex. The Hoover Dam) to employ miilions of Americans because continued despair would've led to the same Fascism that devoured post-WWI Germany. Today's right-wing pundits call such policies "immoral" and FDR a "Communist".
Hegemony, Survival and Self-Deterrence (tags)
We are currently witnessing a major expansion in the US, hence Western, global military system.
Wal-Mart's benefits come under fire (tags)
Sally Lieber, D-San Jose, points to Wal-Mart employee hand-outs about social services like Medicaid, food stamps and temporary assistance as proof that the retailer uses state and federal tax dollars to supplement "poverty" level wages and benefits.
Ridiculous Liberal Posturing re Israel's Syria Incursion (tags)
Blowing up innocent children in Haifa is accepted as pretty much normal business in the Middle East. But taking out the supposedly empty infrastructure of a killers' training base on Syrian soil is terrible.
Interesting article from the Asia Times. A different perspective than the usual propaganda from our Wall Street-controlled media.
Job Losses at Level of Great Depression (tags)
Job Losses at Level of Great Depression Contradict President Bush's Wishful Predictions
Job Losses At Great Depression Level (tags)
The wonders of Bushonomics on display for all. His Father may have been George Herbert Hoover Bush - does this make the current Bush Calvin Coolidge?
Poor Americans continue to multiply under Bush as Republicans continue to ignore trend (tags)
A new federal report due out Sept. 26 will show poverty increasing even more. And still Republicans like Bush and Kelsey "Frazier" Grammer continue to ignore the problem.
Why democrats act like republicans (tags)
But yourself in the shoes of a democratic politician: you need support. You need voters, volunteers, and donations. You try to move left. But people on the left join third parties, choose not to vote, or don't even care. So what can you do?
The death of the lesser of two evils: if not Camejo, then Flynt! (tags)
When Real Politics gloriously and excitingly raises its head in the recall effort, many leftists bleat nervously about Republican plots, and the need to rally to the Democratic Party and its man in Sacramento.
The Superpower's Paralysis (tags)
"The triumphalism of the Bush administration has vanished for a long time..`From victorious liberators, we have quickly become hated occupiers.'.. More than two and a half million jobs were destroyed since Bush took office.." Translated fr German
1,401,285 for Recall of Gov Davis (tags)
1,401,285 signatures as of 7/12/03 have been collected to recall the worst governor in California's history, Gov. Davis, who has cost the taxpayers millions of dollars to pay for prison-concentration camps, the death penalty and private power.
The Overthrow Of The American Republic Part 35 (tags)
In even the largest reference libraries, there are almost no books stating the true history of America's highest tribunal, the U.S. Supreme Court. The same is true of law libraries and those of law schools.
For the purposes of posterity I must reveal here that I am not a Muslim, but a conservative Catholic. By a conservative Catholic, I hold to the notion that there is only one faith, and therefore one would assume that it would be in my interest, given these leanings, to jump on that same religion bashing bandwagon that many of my co-religionists have.
Solving The Enigma Of Media Manipulation (tags)
Most journalists have never told the truth about politics; they only are allowed to say what their bosses let them say. And almost always, if the newspaper or TV station is a big one, their bosses won't let them tell the truth about practically anything.
The Overthrow Of The American Republic Part 34 (tags)
CLASS STRUCTURE. Because of a brainwashing system of higher and lower education, most ordinary Americans, unlike Europeans, are almost completely blank when it comes to understanding CLASS.
Webs of Power - Part 2: The Federal Reserve (tags)
The Federal Reserve Bank of America is not a government entity. It is a private corporation with stock owned by shareholders. A majority of these shareholders are not American. The prior paragraph is common knowledge by economists and professors, and can easily be found with minimal research.
Neo-liberalism (by Latuff) (tags)
Copyright-free artwork by Brazilian cartoonist Latuff.
The Most Dangerous President Ever (tags)
I miss Ronald Reagan.
The Rise of the Third Reich and Bush (tags)
This is why he projects his shadow on Saddam Hussein.
When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History (tags)
To the extent that our Constitution is still intact, the choice is again ours.
Abe Magil: A tribute to a working class, Marxist journalist (tags)
Marxist journalist and pamphleteer. Devoted family man and friend. Poet. Editor. Political leader. All of these describe Abe Magil, who died in January.
Global Economic Boycott of all U.S. Brands, Imports and Exports. (tags)
If George Bush launches this illegal war against the people of Iraq the Global Peace Movement must impose a global economic boycott of all U.S. brand name products
DENNIS KUCINICH FOR PRESIDENT??? (tags)
WWW.KUCINICH.COM
Fear of a spiral into Depression as job losses mount (tags)
Dismal sales at Christmas time were propped up by deflationary price cuts, and now the retail sector is among the hardest hit as one third of a million jobs are slashed in February. Not coincidentally, the same rise of the Extreme Right Wing is taking place as was seen during the depression of the 30s, with the same drive to seek relief in aggressive wars of conquest...
13 myths about war in Iraq (tags)
This piece was created by the entire 13myths.org team, using an online collaborative process. Email: info@13myths.org. 13myths.org is a project of Organizers' Collaborative; for more information, visit organizenow.net.
Great Depression. George Bush vs Einstein on economic policy (tags)
According to the mathematician, Albert Einstein, the policies of George Bush are likely to result in another Great Depression. To quote a recurring quip, 'I know George Bush, and let me tell you, George Bush is no Albert Einstein.'
The peace protestors inspire hope in a nation that seemed headed for its own destruction.
No to Capitalist War, Yes to Anarchist Revolution! (tags)
The following is the text from a new poster from the Federation of Revolutionary Anarchist Collectives (FRAC). The poster is the first in a series and is in both english and spanish. This poster examines the root causes of the impending war, possible methods of resistance here in North America, and our vision of a free society.
RACE CLASS AND THE WAR ON DRUGS (tags)
A damning history of anti-drug laws in North America,
we are graced with 300 or so wordz or wizdom from the great educator, Prof. Walter E. Williams. "More Government Means Less Freedom, Our Founders Knew This Well."
[PFMPE] Leaders Fit For Fools (tags)
Here we stand, willing victims of a system which not long ago collapsed the world's "economies."
What Nativism & Xenophobia have to do with Bilingual / Bicultural Education in America
Maxine Waters Town Hall Meeting and Speakout (tags)
October 5, 2002 First Church of God
Maxine Waters Town Hall Meeting and Speakout (tags)
October 5, 2002 First Church of God Inglewood, CA
A series of e-mails that Loyola School of Law, New Orleans, Professor Bill Quigley has sent back from Iraq. He has been there on a Voices in the Wilderness delegation since Sept. 21. I hope they inspire us all to work harder for peace.
ILWU faces historic moment for Union and Nation (tags)
ILWU faces historic moment for Union and Nation. story from portland indymedia.
Anarchism and the Labor Movement (tags)
The differences between Labor and anrachists need to be understood in order for any successful revolution is to take place
Transcript of militarized police forum (tags)
In light of recent Bush administration efforts to expand the domestic role of the military, "Declassified Radio" is re-releasing the transcript of a past program on the military's growing influence on domestic policing. This program, initially released in October of 2001, includes material from a September 25, 2001 symposium on militarized policing held at Judson Church in New York City. Speakers included Paul Richmond of the National Lawyer's Guild, "Covert Action Quarterly" writer Frank Morales, and Sam Smith, editor of the "Progressive Review".
Saving and improving Social Security: The Communist Party’s solution (tags)
Marx’s observation that the task of a movement goes beyond mere interpretation of events was never more apt than when it comes to the struggle to defend – and improve – the Social Security system.
SAUDIS REJECT AIDING U.S. (tags)
The U.S. can not continue to maintain its economic and political domination in the Near East without the coperation of Saudi and other crucial states in the area.
Appalachia Throbbing From Assaults on People and Environment:Corruption Finds a (tags)
Appalachians are suffering in areas of mainly parts of 4 states with large areas of Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. This is where the poverty and lack of support is hurting the worst. Secondarly outside corporations are locating in these areas or leaving these areas with little or no regard for laws that were meant to protect these peoples. The federal government is robbing the Black Lung fund according to the Nation Magazine.