Uncle Sam Wants You

I ran oligarchic British rule from America. I replaced it with rule "of, by, and for" the people.

I am not a man. I am the soul of America. I am the spirit of 'We the People'.

I want you, the good people of America, to recognize me. I am dying.

I want you to demand freedom of speech; all speech.

I want you to demand freedom of religion; all religions.

I want you to demand the end of wars for plunder and profit.

I want you to never invade or dominate the people of foreign lands. I want you to never stoop to the level of cowardly and aggressive tyrant; to not defend yourself unless you are actually under attack.

I want you to recognize that the greatest threat to freedom is the timid and cowardly need to wrap our nation within a bubble of security. I want you to burn the Patriot Act and anything that looks like it.

I want you to demand and use freedom of assembly; to protest and organize.
I want you to demand that the state not arrest or detain or harass anybody unless they are involved in an identified crime.

I want you to demand that no person is deprived of life, liberty, or property, without fair opportunity to defend himself.

I want you to demand that all people are granted their natural liberty unless a fair trial deems them a threat to others.

We are no longer a bastion of justice; a standard other nations aim to be. The State is raising itself above rule of law. We are losing governance by rule of law and giving way to a state of arbitrary lawlessness and laws of convenience. The Spirit of America has not only been corrupted. It is being been savagely ripped to shreds. America is its own nemesis.

I want you, the people of America, to be under full volitional control of your labour and your resources. This is where prosperity is born and this is where it flourishes. To be prosperous again, 'we the people' must resume control of our wealth. Our nation has been commandeered by privateers; privateers that have sold our wealth and our birthright for fast profit. Our wealth and prosperity, our work ethic, has been replaced by an ethos that worships scheming and manipulating for individual gain.

Don't despair. My Spirit is not dead. It is immortal. And it is not limited to or owned by America. It is fundamental to human beings everywhere and always has been. It is the spirit of humanity. It is as unstoppable as life itself.

It is here: " True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

It is there: "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." - Noam Chomsky

It is everywhere: " When there is state there can be no freedom, but when there is freedom there will be no state. -Vladimir Lenin

The $1,000,000,000.00 Photo Op

The G 20 and G8 meetings in Toronto and Huntsville, Ontario, scheduled for late June will cost Canadian taxpayers one billion dollars.

These meetings happen regularly and one thing they have in common is that nothing ever comes out of them. They are completely useless. Real Politik happens behind closed doors with lawyers and lobbyists. It does not happen at G 20 meetings. This is all aimed to spoon feed innocent bystanders enough pabulum to keep us docile.

And what of the Bay Street neighbourhood where the representatives of the ruling class will meet? It is, naturally, at the centre of where our twit masters do their business. The fact that it is our masters that have multiple financial crisis mounting on top of an archaic economic system might suggest their quisling political clowns and puppets should just hide. But no, they are paid good money to take it on the chin and take it on the chin they will.

The bourgeoisie have screwed us all and they are putting the iron state apparatus in place to ensure we learn out humble station. Working classes in the represented eight and twenty countries are not happy and those in economic hinterlands are starting to mix Molotov cocktails. There are hints of class warfare as one class batters and rapes the other.

As it is American workers can't find jobs while car manufacturing plants rust away. Scores are homeless while families have no place to sleep.

The twit class have sold the jobs away to squeeze that extra bit of profit for themselves. Jobs that North Americans and Europeans used to believe to be their rightful inheritance; a legacy of hard work and vision. All that is now dust and the 'leaders' will spell out the belt tightening measures that we must endure to ensure those that are too big to fall, don't. The large Bay Street banks at the centre of the G 20 meeting area may be more then tempting targets for anarchists and fed up citizens.

But One Billion dollars?

Just because billion sounds something like million, they are nowhere close. A billion is astronomical. A million seconds would take about 11 or 12 days to pass. A billion seconds would take 32 years.

A trillion, which is a number we hear regarding bailouts to the rich, would take 32,000 years.

So, in the case of numbers, don't let your intuition inform you. Let energetic logic inform you if you want to understand the nature of the situation we are all in at the moment.

Conveniently, a bank was recently fire bombed in Ottawa providing ammunition for the state to spare no expense for security. In 2007, police dressed as protesters were filmed trying to whip demonstrators into a violent frenzy during a North American leaders summit in Quebec.

Increasingly, since 2001, Western democratic states have incrementally notched their fascistic posture to the point they think nothing of arresting people with no charges, putting a bounty on the head of undesirables, and generally raising themselves (the state) above the rule of law. Corporations and the state have consummated their marriage in the most disgusting public porn display in history.

Prior to 2001 anti-capitalist protests were becoming common and no doubt, concerning. The state did react with brutality; as states naturally do. But nowadays we are sailing uncharted waters. Anything can happen.

Don't Do That Voo Doo that You Do Do

World financial systems were devastated in 2008 and 2009. Now, in 2010, nobody is sure where we're headed. There seems to be general agreement that we will not get back to where we were. Wall Street is doing okay apparently. Profits are soaring. Main Street continues to suffer and ominous clouds remain on the horizon. They seem to have dumped their financial fiasco on the lot of us. We can look forward to gutted social programs and decaying public infrastructure throughout the once thriving capitalist world. Main Street appears to be in a long term downward spiral. An economic nightmare.

As ordinary citizens we appear to be at the mercy of politicians and capitalists. Economists and mainstream media appear devoid of courage and savvy. We cannot continue to rely on them as if they can provide sound and critical analysis about what is happening with the economy. They are like schooling fish following bait. Stunned to a fault.

We need to examine the totality of the system we are at the mercy of without prejudice or emotion. We need to look at the good and the bad. We can no longer rely on paid whores and their glib superficial analysis. They are wrong over and over and over again. The people that go to work day in and day out are getting screwed, directly or indirectly, by capitalists and their paid shills.

The absurdity of closed and rusting manufacturing plants rotting as millions look for work; of millions homeless while homes are empty and boarded up is a sign. These are signs that speak far louder and with much more authority than the politicians, the shysters, and their pitiful talking heads. These signs are telling us that something is seriously wrong.

We need to revolutionize our thinking and our sense of responsibility. The days of being responsible for only ourselves and our families are over. We can no longer afford to let the self professed financial wizards hold the reigns. They turned out to be self serving criminals and they got all of us where it hurts. The time to fight back is here.

The Bottom Line

Capitalism tends to certain outcomes and contradictions. This doesn't mean that capitalism has or will necessarily get to its preferred outcomes, but it does mean there will be constant pressure to fulfill these tendencies. For example, steam tends to rise but many factors may retard that tendency. Given the pervasiveness and power of capitalism in the modern world, it is important to understand and debate the tendencies of this force that impacts upon all our lives.

Without abandoning Marx entirely, we will consider a less scholarly and more user friendly look at the tendencies of capitalism.

The most obvious starting point is to name the bottom line. The goal and reason for its existence is profit; benefits to human beings are beside the point - it doesn’t care. It tends to benefit humans in meeting wants more-so than needs. It has no inherent compulsion or mandate to meet them. It is nothing like a personal or human force. Playstations, colourful wrappers and advertizing are important; curing leprosy and aids and providing medicine to the sick are also important, but only if there is profit in it. Capitalism has no responsibility whatsoever to cure the sick or feed the hungry. To make this assumption, as both apologists and detractors sometimes do, isn't constructive or fair. It simply isn't the case. The extent to which the capitalist system has been beneficial to human beings is a matter of auspicious coincidence on the part of both capitalists and consumers.

Tendencies of Capitalism

- The tendency to sell cheap: Otherwise, somebody else will sell cheaper; this is the fundamental tendency to competition.

- The tendency to buy low and sell high: This tendency includes wages; that is, to pay as little in wages as possible and to sell the produced item for as high a price as possible. The potential for competition from other capitalists tends to keep the margin between the output for wages and the price of the commodity at a small and ever decreasing margin.

- The tendency to reduce or eliminate overhead costs: This tendency requires capitalists to use the most efficient and cost effective technology possible resulting in the technological revolution that has occurred over the past century. Ironically, if the process is devoid of labour input, the value of the product decreases. The general labour theory of value (Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Marx) addresses this tendency. That is, the general value of a commodity depends, in part, on the labour that has gone into it.

- The tendency of the rate of profit to fall: As production becomes more efficient and more is produced with less effort, the rate of profit falls. The result is the need for capitalists to find new ways of making a profit and to squeeze a dime out of a worker. There is also an increased need to acquire public services and infrastructure, to plunder, and to expand markets where no market existed before and to profit from public utilities and human needs.

- The tendency to reduce real wages: And to reduce the workforce. As the rate of profit diminishes, the most obvious place to gain extra profit is exactly where the wealth was created in the first place, from the producer (the worker) by paying him or her less in real terms.

- The tendency for big firms to consume smaller firms: This process not only builds the assets of the capitalist, it reduces competition.

- The tendency to pit the consumer against the worker: It is the dual life of the average citizen; we are both. We want service to be efficient and products to be of high quality but we resent bosses cracking the whip.

- Tendency to co-opt and control the state: This is not a conspiracy theory; it is the grandest conspiracy of all. The marriage of modern capitalist states and capital is almost complete. Real decisions are made behind closed doors with lobbyists, lawyers and politicians.

- The tendency to reduce regulations and safety standards: These are costly and inefficient.

- The tendency to aim for short term profit: Investing, especially with the advent of computer technology is as easy as pushing a button or implementing a program. However, this does not erase the tendency for large capitalists to work and invest in fertilizing the overall context for investing in the long term.

- The tendency to privatize everything: Including natural resources such as water, land, and the air we breathe; the latter is difficult to control.

- The tendency to value human beings in terms of exchange value: Correspondingly, there is a tendency to de-value or ignore human beings that do not play a part and a true tendency to de-value human beings that are an obstacle to profit. These tendencies have many psychological and other ramifications depending on the extent to which capitalist ideology has been introjected by the local population or the particular individual.

- The tendency to invest in and develop profitable commodities: While human needs may demand medicine, housing, and food, the concentration of capitalism will be medicine, housing and food only if these items can fetch profit. If not, more tasty hamburgers or better game boy graphics will be the areas of research and development.

- The tendency to laterally acquire all aspects of production: Large firms aim to control all aspects that go into production from owning and controlling primary industries to shipping and advertizing.

- The tendency to contract out: Rather than pay union wages or maintain a workforce, it may be more cost efficient to buy services or goods.

- The tendency to force the state (taxpayer) to absorb costs: Paying for necessary roads, railways, general infrastructure tend to be offloaded to taxpayers as much as possible.

- The tendency to shape shift: Capitalism's tendencies and appearance changes through time. For example, the logic of Fordism has been lost to the tendency to expand markets to poor countries. The domestic market, once vital, is now forgotten. There is more profit to be made elsewhere. The logic of Keynesianism has also been lost to globalization. The general political wisdom had stated, however reluctantly, that the more wages/money locals have, the more they demand goods and services, requiring more employees to provide commodities to demand of consumers. This domestic economic stimulation tends toward inflation, an accepted necessary evil.

Another change has been the increased focus on capitalists to invest in capital as opposed to produced commodities. Although capital is devoid of value without labour and manufactured commodities to back them up, modern capitalists have been living off and getting wealthy from false financial bubbles; they have been living off a credit card without a real job. This has resulted in enormous pain for many millions over the past several years.

Voodoo

The logical extensions of capitalist ideology appear to be most closely articulated by the ideological formulations of the Austrian and Chicago Schools of Economics and by such individuals as Milton Freidman, Ludwig von Mises, and right wing politicians like Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and fascists like Augusto Pinochet. The ideas have gained tremendous currency and even current liberals have come to accept neo-liberal perspectives. Liberals like Obama pay lip service to leftist policies but concede important economic matters to voodoo. This strain is more consistent with advanced capitalism in the sense that it articulates and aims to satisfy its global needs. One such need is to usurp what they see as interference from the state which tends to put limits on the need for excess and unbridled theft. In the USA, Tea Party protesters are demanding the reduction/end of government. They advocate for pure capitalism and challenge and attack government based redistribution mechanisms. The end result for most of the tea-partiers would be utter devastation.

The logical conclusion to such an environment would be that wealthy classes would own and control not only market based commodities but public utilities as well. It is a system of capitalist anarchy.

So far their performance has been dismal. Their free trade and globalization initiatives from the 80s have devastated manufacturing; the heart of the economy. Their unfettered and unregulated voodoo have magically blown financial bubbles resulting in financial disasters as these bubbles (false economies) collapsed.

As painful as these voodooistic machinations have been on the middle and lower strata of society, they have created delirious glee on Wall Street. They are diametrically and unapologetically opposed to social responsibility.

From a rational point of view, wealth begins with production. From the marginalist point of view the genesis of wealth is a fuzzy concept but generally, they believe that wealth emanates from the wealthy and down to the middle classes (the workers that produce). This view would suggest that the best way to stimulate the economy would be to give wealth to the wealthy and they will be in a position to "trickle" money all the way down to the rest of us. With the billions granted to the ultra wealthy these past few years, Bush and Obama could have paid off mortgages and put money in people's pockets to buy cars and other goods and services. They are children of the high priests of magical thinking.

The logical extension of the mess we find ourselves in today is similar to the social and economic configuration of feudal Europe several hundred years ago. Kings and Lords are replaced by the most powerful of the capitalist class. Ironically, our social and economic configuration could conceivably return to something reminiscent of the social configuration that capitalism pulled us out of.

We have been subdued through Keynsian policies and Keynes was explicit in his intend to curb working class revolutionary sentiments. The deal worked quite well. Those days are over. Massive unemployment and massive cuts to social programs are here to stay.

As a result we are in for a period of social upheaval. The ugly past has returned and we are in it.

The Nature of Capitalism

We may ask ourselves how capitalism, the -ism we associate with democracy and freedom, with social and technological progress and with justice, could be turning on us. This is why we need to examine the true nature of the beast. The nature of capitalism is multifaceted. While it has potent liberating potential it also has the potential to turn on us with a vengeance.

When we examine it we find that capital does not provide anything but compulsion. It is completely ethereal. Illusory. Unlike commodities, it doesn’t exist in the tangible world. Money has little or no use value, it is all exchange value. Capital exists as an abstract compulsion. What is not so abstract is the real impact it has on each and every one of us. It has radically changed the way we behave and the way we live. It has changed the way we value and see ourselves.

Ultimately capitalism isn't an ideology. It isn't right wing or left wing. It is a sleight of hand, a trick to gain profit from any given unit of exchange. It is a sleight of hand that comes dangerously close to theft. But that is a human judgment. Capitalism on its own is amoral, apolitical, it is devoid of substance or ethics. Paradoxically, it is also the most potent political, immoral, and ruthless force the world has known. It is fully intent on taking over the world and its mission is almost accomplished. We are slaves to it and there is no good reason to believe that we will not continue to be slaves to it. As a tool it has been enormously useful and inadvertently, it has propelled us well into the future of human development. But the time has come that it is no longer a tool. It appears to have become a malevolent spirit that has turned the tables and has taken control of humanity.

Magical Thinking to Critical Thinking

As a subject and an area of study we may find the whole thing too unwieldy and difficult to understand. As a subject it is loaded. We either love it or we loathe it. To criticize it is to be risk being labeled a communist and a Marxist. To point out its strength, its ability to improve the lives of individuals and nations, and its power to develop and enrich us all, we run the risk of being criticized as a tool of the rich and powerful. As a subject it appears to be off the radar for most; it has traditionally been a subject area only intellectuals and economists dared to probe.

The time has come to examine the true nature of this phenomena and what it is. We need to examine the very basics from the ground up; literally. It is the single most relevant context of our lives. Everything we see are commodities or potential commodities. Cars, computers, cups, and tables are modified rock. Everything around us is all extracted from rock or water. This are base of all things, even our bodies. Workers and nature modify rock and water and turn them into commodities. We need to start from there and to not be afraid to look at the whole process. It is all our own inheritance. We are part of it. It is our world.

Capitalism has been and is the most powerful social force in history and it directly impacts you. It will impact you until the day you die. It will impact your grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It is nothing to shy away from.

As long as it is only the intellectuals, the economists, and the capitalists that examine and understand it, we will remain utterly at its mercy. The problem with that is, it has none.

His Master's Voice

The Province of Ontario is having a fire sale.

Act now and get in on these amazing deals. It looks too good to be true but - it be true. The very profitable Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, Ontario Power Generation, Hydro One and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario will soon be up for grabs. Each one is a cash cow - they are very profitable enterprises owned by the people of Ontario.

If it walks like a duck...

The Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, has been advised by his masters at Goldman Sachs as well as other private financial wizards to sell these lucrative assets off. While plans being discussed will see that no private shareholder will be able to buy into a majority position, there is nothing to suggest that further privatization will see that eventuality. If this thin edge of the wedge is granted the rest will be easier.

The problem is this: If the enterprises are profitable and they are owned by the taxpayers; Why should the taxpayers sell them off to private investors who will collect large sums of profit for themselves? Why not use that money to either reduce the burden on the taxpayer or use it to shore up strained infrastructure?

McGuinty is taking advice from the same people that have plunged the Western world in economic crisis through short term scheming. Millions of American workers and homeowners have been devastated by their slippery manoeuvres. These are people that operate with one thing in mind and that one thing is short term profit. They are using politicians and media to continue to convince us that Wall Street is our friend; a benevolent money wizard that knows what is best for Main Street. At this point it is insulting.

A Politician is a Politician is a Politician

McGuinty is facing an election in 2011. Potential initial investment sums on his books just prior to an election will make the McGuinty Liberals look good. And maybe that is it. Maybe that is the reason why McGuinty is selling these lucrative assets to wealthy investors. However, a move like this does raise suspicion. After all, he would not be the first politician on the take. For instance, in June 2007 it was reported here (MWC News) that BAE (weapons sellers in the UK) kicked one billion British pounds back to Saudi Prince Bandar to secure a 43 billion pound sale of weapons systems. At the time Tony Blair said that he will block an inquiry by the Serious Fraud Office to the affair because he did not want to offend the Saudis; he did not want to "damage relations" with them.

http://leftlite.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html

As a result of this and many other offences against the public by politicians and corporations we need to be suspicious. While we do not allege that Ontario politicians are on the take like Prince Bandar, we need to raise the possibility. It would explain a lot.

The previous Ontario Conservatives sold the lucrative Highway 407 system to private investors and the investors continue to get wealthy while Joe Main Street is paying more to drive on the private highways; as you would expect. The Conservatives also contemplated selling Hydro One but their scheme fell through.

McGuinty, like all liberals, understands that screwing the population through incremental policy decisions is far easier than exposing themselves in one fell swoop (as conservatives tend to do). In that spirit McGuinty's scheme is all about portions and complexity. Private investors will not be allowed to own majority shares and there will be limits on foreign investment - for the time being.
And it naturally follows that McGuinty believes the majority of Ontario taxpayers are morons.

The Soft Sell

According to the Toronto Star, Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan admitted he was "doing what the spinmeisters call preconditioning" and said "The upcoming throne speech and budget will not announce the sale of any asset we currently own." He further stated, "We will, however, continue to examine whether our government businesses could be unleashed to provide new jobs and economic opportunity for Ontario families," and he said that there would be widespread public consultation on any such move.

Look for a careful and calculating approach to the multi-billion dollar handoff to the same people that have been advising McGuinty. Look for increases in prices for electricity, booze, and lottery tickets. Look for a substantial increase in Ontarians tax bills in the coming years.

A Time to be Cynical

As citizens we need to become more aware of the connections between politicians and private investors, especially the likes of Goldman Sachs. We have traditionally deferred to them assuming that they know best and that they will work in societies best interests. We elect politicians that are accustomed to the backrooms and lobbyists and lawyers. The idea being that if we have the best shyster representing our constituency, we will get a better deal. The bitter truth is it doesn't work that way and it never did.

We need to look inside the backroom deals between privateers and politicians and at the moment the citizens of Ontario can make a good start. We need to demand McGuinty and Goldman Sachs meetings and all meetings between our elected representatives and large scale thieves be transparent.

Considering all that has happened over the past decade, now is the time to be cynical. In fact, it always was.

We Need to Talk

The sentence "We need to talk" is a powerful one. When it is used in a marriage it either means that the request is to deal with difficult problems or, in the case of an abusive relationship, that phrase may mean the victim has had it. It's over.

If you're old enough you may remember when we fell in love. We had just emerged through tough times; a depression and a war. It was the 50s. The grim years had passed and we were courted by a spirit; the spirit of capitalism. The grim bleakness of the past was giving way to televisions, household conveniences of all sorts, rock and roll and a world of optimism and colour. And over the next few decades the trajectory was clear and it was aiming toward heaven. The sky was the limit. Everything was getting better.

We collectively fell in love with the spirit of capitalism. It was youthful and charming and it was a fantastic provider. Our lives were improving. Wages were rising and demand for goods and services demanded more goods and services.

In Western Europe and North America we not only fell in love with capitalism, we got married. Our past flirtations with socialism were forgotten. Capitalism loved us and we loved capitalism. It demanded fidelity and we grew to trust it. We became loyal. It was a marriage made in heaven.

Something happened along the way.

We assumed that capitalism would remain faithful. But it hasn't. Instead, it began its affairs. We looked the other way. Capitalism had its 'needs'. It dated throughout Latin America and in Asia but we remained confident that it would always come home. It spent weekends in the Middle East and assured us that it was a matter of bringing home the bacon. It was business.

At first, we could look the other way. After all, this was just sex. It wasn't love.

Have we fooled ourselves? Has capitalism just used us? We thought it was genuine love and that love would last forever. Are we in denial? We still dream of yesterday and superimpose it on tomorrow. We continue to believe the lies; we want to. We believe that this is just the natural cycle of boom and bust and that the good times will return. We want to believe it in the face of some very hard realities.

Our partner seems more and more inhumane as time goes by. Sometimes it behaves like a psychopath. And maybe it isn't "sometimes", maybe it is a psychopath all the time. Maybe that is just what we have been married to all these years.

We must examine ourselves; our own dual nature. We are a consumer and we are a worker. Capitalism has always served and smiled at the consumer side. And it has been served by the worker side. It has been far more ruthless to the worker that it has depended on for its very sustenance; capital. It has turned vicious to the worker while still flirting with the sexy consumer side of us. But we are one and the same. Kill one and the other dies as well. Abuse the worker and the consumers wilts.

Capitalism flirts and smiles at others and still rules the household with an iron fist. In the past we ignored its nasty side when it would come home drunk and beat the hell out of us. We were forgiving when it raped Vietnam and punished us for protesting. We have forgiven and forgotten all the violence, the cruelty, and the disappointments.

But now things are getting serious. We are at a point where we have to ask ourselves whether this marriage is good for us. We thought the violence would end, that the system would mature and settle down. It matured alright but instead of settling it has become more virulent. Like the saying goes - 'be careful what you wish for'. It matured and is becoming less stable and predictable. It is ripping all we had built to shreds. It still rules the roost and what do we get out of it? The house is falling to pieces. We are running out of food and medicine and capitalism is off running with that whore in China. In the past we put up with the abuse but we were getting something out of it.

What we have to face up to is the fact that we fell in love with and married a psychopath and that psychopath is now an addict. While the house falls to pieces capitalism it is still borrowing and spending like there's no tomorrow. It is feeding its insatiable gambling habit. And where is the money coming from? Need we ask? We are in hock to his communist whore and we have no idea how we'll pay it back. We never see a paycheque anymore and the kids are getting hungry.

Taking Stock

It is time to take a sober second look at what we have been married to.
To be fair, capitalism never did promise loyalty. It always said that it was interested only in making profit. We assumed that we were part of it. And we were as long as we were needed to create capital. In return we got shiny new cars and a feeling of security. We didn't complain or even notice the ugly moods as long as we got what we wanted. We sold ourselves to them. We needed the money. We knew we were being exploited and we all said, in unison, "what's good for GM is good for America". We knew it was a marriage of exploitation. We considered it mutually beneficial and it was.

Our failure to look at the ugly nature of our partner is something we all need to take responsibility for. Our partner went all over the globe killing and dominating poor people and what did we do? We turned away and pretended it wasn't happening. Their theft was our hegemony and we glazed over the invasions, the assassinations, and the proxy fascism that our masters used to bring home the bacon. We accepted it and called it 'national security'; obedient to a fault.

Within the hegemony the terms of exploitation we had agreed on are no longer satisfactory to our partner. Gambling finance capital is far more lucrative and far more attractive than dealing with ugly blue collar workers demands and complaints. Gambling is a lot more fun, even when the gambler knows he will win. The shell games have been hard to keep up with but they are worth watching. These games expose the lack of loyalty our partner has for us.

We have just witnessed massive criminal activity on the part of capitalists resulting in further gutting to our manufacturing infrastructure. They created a false economy through leveraging to overvalue stocks. They have operated using any means available to increase short term gains for themselves and have been rewarded for their criminal behaviour with massive bailouts granted to them by their employees (politicians). They have created bubble after bubble staving off reality. Pretending everything's okay - telling us everything's okay. Lying.

Our partner continues to spend and buy flashy things and as time passes he spends less on the house and family and more on himself.

Reform

Before running to a divorce lawyer we may want to look at the possibility of reforming the relationship. If two parties want to make it work it has a chance. But we need to ask ourselves; What would reform look like? After all, the marriage itself starting within a context of reform. John Maynard Keynes recognized flirtations back and forth between workers/consumers and capitalism and he dressed capitalism up in a shiny new suit and taught it to speak and act like a gentleman.

In the 1980s the magical belief that supply creates demand was pushed by politicians, right wing think tanks and economists. These voodoo ideas took hold and this redefined the relationship. The Keynesian marriage was now standing on precarious ground. Supply side economics implied that wealth emanates from the wealthy class and dismissed the value of work and workers in favour of a myopic focus on increasing short term capital. It was as if the marriage didn't matter anymore. And to the capitalists, it didn't.

Keynes was on the demand side and said that demand creates supply. Keynes made sense. The former does not. The crisis of 2008 drives that reality home in spades. And even though it makes no sense to you or me, Bush and Obama were instructed by their betters to deliver boatloads of tax dollars based in dead labour to bail out the criminals. The story line was that those deemed "to big to fail" were supposed to stimulate the economy by loaning our tax dollars back to us.

That cynical thought that just crossed your mind is pure intelligence. Recognize it.

The model that has been successful worked with the understanding that to stimulate the economy it is necessary to stimulate demand for goods and services. Instead of bailing out the capitalists the Treasury should have saved homes and jobs. They should have provided massive infrastructure projects like Roosevelt's New Deal. That would have stimulated the economy. But it would have caused inflation. The same people that wrote up Obama's bailouts are those that would be hurt most by inflationary pressures. And it was not done.

But there is more to it than that. The context we are operating with is one of advanced and matured monopoly capitalism. Products are produced as cheaply as possible (for the benefit of the consumer) and any and all means to cut costs are utilized as the capacity to squeeze a dime from a unit of labour decreases. As it is, capitalists are becoming ruthless. And it is far easier to squeeze a dime from a unit of labour in China than it is in North America or Europe.

Not only is John Maynard Keynes dead; so is Henry Ford. Capitalism in 2009 - 2010 is not the same partner that we married in the 50s. It has morphed into monopolism. It has lost its facade, its charm.

Raw capitalism is cruel. People are sacrificed every day in wars and over 40,000 Americans die each year because they cannot afford health insurance. This is a health care holocaust. It is easily and completely avoidable but the problems persist and persist for the sake of profit. Monopolism has shown itself to be a more ruthless psychopath than any human could possibly be. Decisions are made every day in boardrooms that result in human misery and death. The system is pernicious and incorrigible.

We also need to consider the outcomes that reform (if at all possible) would result in. If we could resurrect Keynes and get the production machines back in gear in the post industrial world, the outcome would be exactly the same as it has been. We would stave off the inevitable but the nature of the beast would remain unchanged. Staving off the inevitable is exactly what Greenspan, Paulson and Bernanke have done. It is what the smoke and mirrors bubbles of the past few decades have done; bought time.

In all this we tend to our daily lives and ignore the deterioration of our economic and social realities. We have been doing so since the 80s when capital began its 'globalization' emphasis. Leftists like Michael Moore and scores of protesters were pointing out red flags to no avail. And here we are twenty years later and we can see that the leftists were right. And at this point, time is not on our side.

Or Revolution

The metaphor here points toward divorce. As we search the metaphorical singles bars looking for a new marriage partner we can see that there is none. The old communist order has fallen to pieces for good reason. Communist and clerical totalitarians smile and wave from the dark corners. The psychopath told us its either him or them. We have but two choices. The dictatorship of the psychopath or totalitarianism.

Looking into a crystal ball for the way forward we consider the status quo and see shades of Colombian drug gangs or Somalian style anarchy in our streets. We may see shades of Mussolini fascists beating them back. No matter what way we look we see poor people trembling over burning barrels. It is capitalism without Keynes and it could morph into any of a number of styles of barbarism.

The status quo has got to go.

Collectively we are pioneers. We are going where no society has gone before. For the most part, we have no idea where we are going. We really need to take this matter seriously. And we must look at facts.

To begin with we need to recognize that the psychopath had never been our provider. It was always the other way around. It is the workers that have fashioned every item of value in our world; the cars, the streets, the buildings and everything in them. The capitalist hires managers who are workers and people to organize the trading and the buying and selling; also, workers. Everything that is done is value from mining the ore to building the cities is done through work. If we examine it, it was us all along. It is us that built this infrastructure that now rots and rusts. And it rots and rusts because Joe Psycho can't make a profit.

We lack confidence in our ability to survive without our abuser. But this is nothing to be alarmed about. Slaves have always felt dependent on their master and on some level feared independence.

We have more choices than we imagine. We don't have to decide between one tyrant over another. We can roll up our sleeves and stand together, independent of rulers and tyrants.

We need to develop a vision where each and every human being has his and her vital needs guaranteed. THEY will tell us we can't do it without 'them'. THEY will tell us we will perish without 'them'. Abusers always need to make victims feel dependent and helpless. But if we examine what has really happened and how wealth is actually created, we can see that all the wealth, including capital, has been manufactured by us; the people that get up and trudge off to work every day.

We believe that the abuser has the power but in fact, we have all the power. The abusers power is based in illusions and scams.

We need to talk.

Love Me: I'm a Liberal

As Obama ratchets up the war machine and continues to wage economic war on American workers, it is easy to forget his rhetoric prior to the election. As far to the right as he is in his policies, the American right continue to portray him as, God forbid, a socialist.

Commentary from the American right dismiss liberals and relegate them far on the margins of acceptability. They make socialism and liberalism synonymous. In the USA, liberals are socialists and vice versa. Maybe when you are standing next to Augusto Pinochet everything looks left.

That clumsy dismissal of all that is not conservative is a mistake. It's not fair to liberals. It's even less fair to socialists. Liberals, if you examine them now or through history paint the same broad strokes as conservatives. They campaign as if they were socialists but once in power, they not only paint the same broad strokes as the right but they fill in many of the details to the most minute detail - exactly the same.

It wouldn't be fair or accurate to say liberals are the same as conservatives however. They not only talk differently, their approach is different. They may want to achieve the same broad goals but they strategize differently and present differently. Liberals are pragmatic and slick. Conservatives are ideologically principled (notwithstanding a quick buck) and stupid.

Obama is a liberal. He may be called a socialist by the raging right but if you ask any socialist, he or she will explain why, with certainty and passion, Obama is no socialist.

Politicians always sound courageous and principled during an election campaign. Campaign rhetoric is always well to the left. Prior to an election, politicians are going to stand up to the biggest of big business. Even the HMOs and the banks are not safe according to campaign trail bluster. They will end war and they will feed the poor and they will increase social spending and cut taxes. As predictably as rain on a weekend they turn sideways and show the other face once they get the votes. At that point they turn and the soft liberal face vanishes. They become ugly and mean spirited. That conservative face tries to hide its darting eyes and its iron teeth.

This isn't new. It is a very old story. Centrist liberal and social democratic parties have been at it a very long time. The question arises; Is it a matter of dishonesty or is it that once they are elected their real bosses come from the shadows and demand pro business decisions? It is both.

Liberal voters naively believe what politicians say. And even in the face of politicians actions that run contrary to what they promised, they remain loyal. They believe. Like religious zealots they can't be swayed. They defend their liberal hope. They will rationalize, minimize, deny reality. They will blame others. Their leader remains pristine even in the face of obvious election lies. Even when their hero slaughters innocent people in Afghanistan. Even in the face of consistently anti middle class governance.

Big Business

Since Obama has taken the Presidency, the big banks have enjoyed the same unfettered financial freedom to do as they wish as they did under Bush. They also enjoy unconditional support from the state.

They have enjoyed a spending spree courtesy of the American taxpayer that has paved the way for them to take even more control of the finances of America. The big banks hold more of the share of Americans deposits than they did under Bush. Not that Obama is more friendly to them. The process of concentration and accumulation is simply continuing, unabated. The big fish are eating the smaller fish and are growing even more menacing and powerful. The process is eased through government subsidies.

Financial power was highly concentrated prior to the economic crisis. Rather than using policies that would create real economic stimulation by providing money to those that really need it - like workers and homeowners, the crisis resulted in both Bush and Obama facilitating greater concentration. Real stimulation is inflationary and the ultra wealthy don't want their money de-valued.

We might imagine American politicians saying to the to the big banks; 'don't worry. We got your back.' But it doesn't work that way. They didn't say it. They didn't have to. Politicians always keep their promises to big business. They don't even have to make them. They are assumed. Public promises are not really promises, it's just election talk. Private promises are always solid. It's a matter of who controls whom.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was created in the depression to ensure depositors savings are there for them by provided banks with security and backing. The FDIC controls the banks and you can bet your bottom dollar that the people that control the FDIC are the same as those that control the President.

The FDIC has increased the number of banks categorized as 'troubled' to 416 on August 27, 2009. It was 305 three months ago. The financial feeding frenzy continues under Obama. With the help of the FDIC the large fish are eating small ones and have also gorged themselves on some very large ones as well. In the past year JP Morgan Chase swallowed Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual with the help of the federal government. Bank of America and several other mega financial institutions deemed "too big to fall" have been benefiting immensely from this crisis. They are laughing all the way to their own vaults. To be precise, they are laughing all the vaults of JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo.

Through the American state, the taxpayer is funding these takeovers and absorbing the losses through the FDIC.

And there we have it. Mr. 'love me I'm a liberal' Obama is finishing what Bush started. He is moving the process of consolidating power and wealth in American at a faster rate than anyone before him.

The American state has become an extension and a tool of big business. Any President that tries to change that or even question it will be in the sights of another Lee Harvey Oswald. We can't entirely blame Obama. He just knows how to play the game. The problem is systemic.

War

Conventional war and big business are intimately connected to the state. Big business can exist without war but war can't thrive without big business. They thrive on each other.

Obama has fired up the war in Afghanistan like a man possessed. The unfortunate people of Afghanistan and in the mountains of Pakistan that happen to live near Taliban are being incinerated by Obama and his war machine. People are being killed by human-less drones and manned multi-billion dollar war toys with cowboys dropping bombs on some of the most impoverished and oppressed people on the planet.

Cindy Sheehan was a celebrity to the soft left in the USA when she was protesting against Bush's wars. But she isn't so popular nowadays. To her, war, not Bush, is the enemy. That's where Sheehan and many of the liberals part company. She can't even get acknowledgement from the anti-war movement since Obama took the reins. You gotta love him - he's a liberal like many of the anti-Bush protesters.

Obama's expansion of the war both in size and intensity is alarming. The anti-war movement is silent and their voices have been silenced by the liberal Obama supporting quislings in their ranks.

An ominous sign for people in Latin America is an Obama initiative in Latin America. He is building seven new military bases in Colombia to the chagrin of South American leaders. Chavez is particularly worried about this development. The leaders in South America are upset to the point that they are demanding explanations from the United States and Colombia for the reasons for the bases.

Latin Americans are far too familiar with death squads, assassinations, and American dominance.

In Israel Netanyahu has approved hundreds of new housing units on the West Bank. Obama expresses "regret". HIs weak and limp reaction is tantamount to approval. Israel and Obama have agreed to not allow new settlements in the West Bank for one year but the Israelis will continue on with construction. The agreement does not include East Jerusalem.

The Israelis and the Americans will agree to new sanctions against Iran. Watch for more belligerence and sabre rattling on this front.

Medical Care

Obama did shake up the privateers that prey on the sick and the elderly in America; the big insurance companies. He threatened to curb their free- wheeling protection racket. And we have seen what happens in the USA when you go up against organized crime.

Standing outside the USA, watching the lies spread about the Canadian and British health care systems by the American right and big business is quite surreal. For Canadians and for people outside the USA, the practice of paying for health care or not being eligible for health care is alien. Insurance companies turning people down applying for insurance due to sickness seems barbaric. The insurers refusal to pay due to pre-existing conditions certainly is barbaric.

The fact that these discussion even happen appears to the rest of us to be archaic. A chapter from another time; a time way back when people were tortured and thrown in jail without charges and left to die when they are sick. A time that has been erased by rational modernity.

The Americans use the term 'socialist' as if they were uttering a curse. It is poison to them. And the notion of universal health care is socialist - a put down. Socialists must plead guilty. We demand universal health care.

Obama's metamorphosis from a sophisticated and sensitive human being to a crude quisling yes man jumping to the demands of the banks, the oil companies, and the HMOs is almost complete. But the liberals, the tax-paying suburbanites that elected him still squint their eyes to see that first face; the face of change and progress.
But more and more, as people are bombed and incinerated in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as old and sick people continue to die in poverty, they must come to realize there is no change with Obama. And they will change who they vote for. Enter: Sarah Palin.
The whole thing is as American as apple pie.

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal
- Phil Ochs

War Looming Against Venezuela

If you are sick and tired of war in the Middle East you may be cringing at the prospect of new military operations in Latin America. In case you haven't noticed, there appears to be an impending attack against the people of Venezuela. Obama is increasing the Pentagon's budget and is spending approximately one billion dollars in its Latin American military operations this year according to Eva Gollinger, a well respected American/Venezuelan journalist.

The problem, in a nutshell, is that the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, is steadfastly independent from Washington's directives and desires. Worse, Chavez is widely popular throughout Latin America and his vision of the Bolivarian revolution is spreading. Most importantly, the spreading defiance against Washington in Latin America compromises future control of vast stores of oil reserves.

History shows that America has a pathological need to control every nation on the planet. There is no way to tally the numbers that have died due to that need.

Common Intervention Strategies

John Perkins (author of ``Confessions of an Economic Hitman`` and an ex-economic hitman himself) in the book and in an interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, points out the strata of strategies the American Empire usually employs to gain control of a given country. First, they use economic leverage with the help of the World Bank and the IMF. Perkins points out that American economic hitmen went in to Saudi Arabia in the early 70s to work out a deal where the Saudis would send most of their petro dollars back to the USA and invest them in US government securities. The interest from the securities would employ American firms to build infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the Saudis would keep oil prices at a level acceptable to the USA.
Perkins goes on to say that if the economic hitmen fail, which is a non starter in the case of Chavez, then other strategies are used. The next step is to foment a coup or a revolution which has been tried and has failed. And if that doesn't work, they assassinate the leader or people that are causing the problems. Perkins points out that in the case of Saddam, he was too clever to assassinate. Then the last strategy is used and that strategy is to sacrifice young men and women to invade the uncontrolled country.

Oil is important to the USA and so is strategic placement of its chess pieces on the globe.

Venezuela

Venezuela is important for both reasons.

The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, has been a problem for the Americans and for the wealthy in Venezuela since he became President. Venezuela and Colombia have been rattling sabres at each other recently. This level of agitation is precipitated by America`s plans to open military bases in Colombia. Chavez is convinced that the bases will be used as a staging point to invade Venezuela and is responding by purchasing military equipment to counter the threat.

Chavez is showing ways and means for Latin American countries to escape the grasp of America and its large corporations. One example of this is The Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America (ALBA). It is a socially oriented trade block that has been created and developed through South America. It aims to address human needs as opposed to profit as the motivation for trade; the latter being the goal of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. In a nutshell, the FTAA is patently capitalistic while the ALBA is socialist.

This initiative by Hugo Chavez and his audacity at standing up to large corporations and the mighty American state naturally raises the ire of the large corporations and their puppets, the politicians.

Obama appears to setting his covert sights squarely on the head of Chavez. Watch for an increase in anti-Chavez/Venezuela propaganda throughout the mainstream media. Watch also for de-stabilization efforts of other countries and leaders in the area that are friendly to Chavez.

Bolivia

Perhaps second on the hit list is Evo Marales. Prior to Morales, the CIA actually ran its operations from the Bolivian Presidential Palace. Morales kicked the CIA out of the palace. History shows that this will set CIA sights on Morales head.

Bolivia is no blip on the American screen. The Americans send over 120 million tax dollars a year in aid to Bolivia. 70% of that money goes to CHEMONICS, a large American consulting firm whose executives are paid large salaries to carry out subversive activities in Bolivia.

According to Eva Gollinger, " USAID-Chemonics in Bolivia are everywhere. They run 6 official programs in the areas of Democracy (HA!), Alternative Integral Development, Environmental Issues, Healthcare and Economic Opportunities (capitalism). On top of that, USAID set up an Office for Transition Initiatives (OTI), just like it did in Venezuela after the failed coup d'etat against Chávez in April 2002, that manages an additional $13.3 million budget and contracts military industrial complex corporation, Casals & Associates, to "promote democracy" and "stabilize" the nation."

Honduras

Then there is the recent overthrow of the democratically elected government of Honduras by the Honduran military to replace Zelaya with dictator Roberto Micheletti. The dictatorship has employed "top notch Democrat lobbyists" and according to the New York Times, Lanny Davis, a right hand man for both Bill and Hillary Clinton, has been hired by the Latin American Business Council to increase support for the dictatorship in congress.

Colombia - USA

By the end of this year, the USA will have a significant military presence in Colombia. Colombian and US negotiators are close to finalising a deal that would give the US three air bases, two military bases, and two naval bases, one each on Colombia’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts. As Brasil`s foreign Minister, Celso Amorim recently stated regarding the bases proposed for Colombia, a strong military presence whose objective and capacity go much further than Colombia’s internal needs.”

Rafael Correa, the leftist President of Ecuador has refused to extend the American lease on its only current military base in Latin America is perhaps another contributing factor to the American urgency to militarize Colombia.

It's hard not to be reminded of the interventions in Latin America through the 1970s and 80s where deaths quads, assassinations, war and massacres were common. This period is a very dark chapter in the annals of American interventionism.

The pretext for the installations is to have bases to operate a war against drugs. To actually invade Venezuela, the Americans will have to develop another scenario. That scenario may be a return to cold war rhetoric and the need to put down dictators in Latin America. The fact that these `dictators` are elected doesn`t matter in the propaganda machine. Washington has supported dictators all over the planet and rid nations of elected leaders. To the Americans, anybody that stands up to American power is a dictator, a strongman, a rouge state or some other pejorative newspeak.

Watch For...

Watch for much more of this. As it stands there is no way the Americans can interfere in Venezuela without raising the ire of citizens and leaders across the globe. They will hype up a propaganda campaign against Chavez and the other left leaning leaders in Latin countries.

As shown above, there are a series of strategies the Americans typically use to get rid of an uncontrolled nation. First, there is the economic hit men gambit. Obviously, that won`t work in Venezuela. Secondly, they may attempt to overthrow Chavez through a coup or revolution. This has been tried but failed. The following two strategies are the most likely at this point. An assassination or a military invasion.

The latter scenario is the most likely and it is most likely that it will be Colombia, as an American proxy, that will commence and wage war against Venezuela. The activity has already started. A trigger, an incident between Colombia and Venezuela, will be easy to stage at this point. Watch for mainstream media lining up against Venezuela.

Considering of all the factors; the history of American interference in Latin America, Chavez and other ALBA members refusal to be controlled by Washington, and the fact that Chavez has commenced a socialist revolution in Venezuela and is followed by others, the probability that the USA will invade is very high. The timing of this impending slaughter may be soon. The recent increase in activity in the region is telling. The Americans are not holding a smoking gun after the coup in Hondurans but again, considering American history of involvement in the region, the onus of proof of NOT being behind it is more on the Americans than the onus being on the accusers that they are behind it.

If there is one thing history does show it is that Washington operates covertly, that is as highly interested in Latin America - as much as the Soviets have been in Eastern Europe, and that Washington rarely tells the truth about covert operations. They may be monsters but they are not stupid.

Venezuela has a popular and charismatic leader in Hugo Chavez. Venezuela today captures the appeal and optimism that the Sandinistas held in the 1980s. Washington made it virtually impossible for Ortega`s government to succeed. Military operations and a myriad of strategies of interference eventually crushed the fledgling revolution. The same type of scenario is playing out today in Venezuela.

The Empire has spent enormous sums of tax dollars on the invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The next big project appears to be Latin America and most pointedly, the government of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Venezuela has enormous oil reserves and it is a strategic problem for the Americans throughout Latin America. The old domino effect pretext that past American presidents used to invade and slaughter millions of people over the past half century has some obvious merit. If uncontrolled governments show a better example in terms of providing human needs than the American client states, the people will naturally support and strive for the overthrow of puppet leaders within the Washington Bloc.

We can hope that Venezuela will not be another Iraq or Afghanistan. We can hope that Latin America will not return to the massive slaughters and dirty politics of the 1970s and 80s. But we can do more than hope. Today, there is an element that was not in place in the 70s and 80s. It is this machine and the internet it is connected to. Information and interest are the key components that we have at our disposal to ensure that war does not happen in Latin America. Opposition to war can be powerful and it can save many lives.

It is in all our interests to ensure that history does not repeat itself in Latin America.

Class Action

We are in the midst of class war. You may not have noticed; one side isn't fighting. It's the side that isn't even aware that classes exist. The other side are keenly aware.

For the docile side to fight the fight, they first must be aware that they are on a side, are being fought against, and that they are being attacked by the enemy. Class war isn't new and neither is ubiquitous oblivion to it. It has just become and will continue to become considerably hotter and wider. It's about time that we take notice that we are under attack.

Class Oppression

Racism, sexism, nationalism are a few of the -isms that have been written about, debated, and discussed in popular leftist publications and in schools of social work over the past several decades. Classism has been relatively taboo however. It has been regulated to red publications and venues that sport stacks of large red lettered newspapers sold by religious Marxists that are generally treated like pariahs. These Marxists use a lot of words like bourgeoisie, proletariat, and dialectical materialism. They may be strong in debate and are well armed with economic, social, and historical analysis but nobody listens to them.

Oddly enough, they might be onto something. Class oppression is real and so is class war.

War on the poor has been continuing unabated over the years and their deprivation has been increasing since at least the 1980s. You may not have noticed because you were not one of them. But the security that the working class has enjoyed over the past half a century is on very shaky ground. Maybe we should have listened to some of that religious 'whatever you do to the least of my brethren...' because now we will be joining the ranks of 'the least of you brethren' in greater numbers. Many have. Unemployment is a threat to most and many have already been cast to the lower castes.

The war on the poor that you may have not been noticing has been persistent and relentless.

Not so long ago, for instance, various jurisdictions in Canada passed laws to forbid poor people from panhandling. In B.C. and in other jurisdictions such as Toronto, the 'Beautiful People' are armed with safe streets acts or similar legislation aimed at removing unsightly poor people from their beautiful streets. The legislation sports names like 'The Safe Streets Act' to indicate to noble taxpayers that these people are a danger to us.

In the mid 80’s governments everywhere threw people out of mental hospitals with the promise that they would supply money for less intrusive measures such as community care. That was a promise that was, predictably, broken. And now that they have done this, they are worried that those who are panhandling are neglected mentally ill people and present a danger to pedestrians. That’s how karma works. If you kill and hurt little animals, little animals will give you the creeps. If you kill and hurt poor people, poor people will give you the creeps.

But poor people are simply that – poor people. Panhandlers are youth fleeing abuse, people that cannot find work, people with addiction problems, people with neglected mental health problems and people that have been thrown out of work due to the instability of capitalism. Increasingly, poor people are victims of neo-liberal globalization, people that have been thrown out of work because auto manufacturing plants are shutting down even though people still need cars. People are going homeless even though many houses are emptied each day. But the absurdities and contradictions of capitalism remain unnoticed for the most part.

Anti-poor people laws were passed prohibiting people from employing themselves with squeegees and laws have been passed prohibiting poor people from sleeping in this or under that. This war, the war on the poor, has been in full swing for a long long time. It is about to ratchet up considerably. Many of us were/are just a firing, a redundancy, or an accident away from inhabiting the forgotten ignored class. A reality few of us want to accept.

Silent Violence

When we think of violence, we generally think of war, or revolution, or shooting or some sort of physical brutality. But now, children, women and men all over the world are dying because they can’t access or are not free to get what they need to survive. In the capitalist world freedom and money are synonymous. They are dying because they don’t have the money to get the food or the medicine or medical attention they need.

When we ignore the plight of people in need we are committing an act of silent violence. There are people in our communities that are unemployed, under-employed, elderly, and disabled that live and die in unbearable misery because they can’t access what they need. It is held back from them because they can’t pay for it. This situation is cruel and barbaric. And it is a sin inherent to but not exclusive to capitalism.

Human needs and especially vital human needs should never be at the mercy of the instability of capitalism or the whims of philanthropists. The needs of Torontonians are different in many respects to the needs of hunter gatherers in the Amazon. As societies change and evolve, so do needs. In Toronto you can freeze to death and you can have your power cut or face eviction. What statistics don't measure is the fear and subjective reality that people in these conditions must live with.

At this point one billion people on the planet face daily starvation. This brutality isn't considered a crisis. But when billionaires profits are in jeopardy it is portrayed in mainstream media with hysteria and panic. To calm the privileged class many billions of tax dollars are granted to them to pay for their crimes.

In modern, complex societies human needs grow. The structural backdrop of capitalism appears to be unable to meet the most basic needs of substantial segments of the population. At what point will the plight of the poor be considered a crisis? The unsettling fact of the matter is, humanity has been in crisis all along.

The Current Crisis

We have with us now what is generally thought of as an economic crisis. And it is certainly a crisis. Our economic worlds are in the midst of massive upheaval. Even the ultra wealthy are in danger of being affected.

This crisis will find its bottom at some point and when that happens, unlike typical recessions, the jobs that have been lost won't be coming back. The crisis will be deemed to be over because the ultra wealthy will find a measure of stability for their massive plunder. The reality of increased and permanent homelessness and joblessness will remain. It will become a new status quo. There will remain a constituency of the working class that will still be okay, a large part of that population will have fallen to poverty, and those that have been poor all along will be worse off. But then and now, the stock market numbers will be percolating and the collective response from mainstream media will be: Crisis, what crisis?

The economic crisis has been handled by the wealthy classes and their political gophers by landing the heaviest blows on the chin of the working class. Workers were forced to accept massive job and wage cuts. The working class across the board has had to accept very tough measures and a tax bill (especially in the USA) that is inconceivable.

What is happening and will continue to happen is further reductions to social programs and to programs reliant on public spending such as health care and education. Where private sector employees have taken it on the chin thus far, the public sector will be next. Government spending is bound to be slashed to the bone.

Politicians and pundits talk of green shoots in the economy. The fact is, we are still haemorrhaging jobs and they shout for glee when the flow of blood is less than the month before. Just this week economists in the USA anticipated such a decrease but the numbers have shown far more first time benefits applications than they thought. Initial jobless claims rose by 15,000 to 627,000. And in the USA, the number of people receiving unemployment benefits rose from 3 million to 9 million since the beginning of the year. In time, those people will run out of unemployment benefits and when that happens, if you squint your eyes just right, you'll be able to look at statistics and say; hey, there's a green shoot.

Social safety nets are in bad shape all over but the broken, tattered, and completely inadequate social safety nets in the USA were that way before this crisis occurred. Things are bound to get much worse for the increasing ranks of the unemployed.

The Unseen Battles of the 1990s

In the 1990s the war on the poor was in full swing. In Canada, the Canada Assistance Act was thrown out by Prime Minister Paul Martin. The Act had provided a measure of social security for all Canadians. It was unceremoniously thrown out to unbearable silence on the part of opposition parties, welfare rights groups, and the media. 'Work for your welfare' attitudes were the latest fad. In that period funding to health care and other social programs was slashed to the bone. Politicians were quick to blame bond rating agencies for the need to slash and burn. The Fraser Institute and other right wing lobby groups were shrill and panicked by national and local deficits. These bond rating agencies and think tanks never harass people about funding used to kill foreigners or to prop up the wealthy class. They spout hysterical when a dime is spent to feed somebody but say nothing about funding for war and profits to ammunition makers. They attack expenditures to the poor but never lay a glove on servicing the debt.

At the same time in the USA, Slick Willy brought forward some of the most vile and mean spirited welfare legislation that country has seen. Clintons TANF (Temporary assistance for Needy Families) placed the problem of poverty squarely on the laps of the victims. Aside from the notion that in an area where x% are unemployed because that's how many jobs actually exist, the implicit assumption has always been that the unemployed are so because they choose it that way. As it is, one in seven Michigan residents are on food stamp assistance but individuals are required to show they are looking for work when there is none. As irrational as this seems, it isn't. It is about fixing blame on the victim.

The Working Class

The old alliance and silent deal between large scale capitalists and the middle classes has been scrapped. This is not a recession. This is a matter of large scale capitalists behaving like pigeons in a skinner box. They are simply programmed to maximize profits and if that means shipping manufacturing plants to places where they can pay for assemblage with pennies, that's what they will do. Expecting anything else is folly and it is stupid. This is not a recession if recession implies 'temporary'. This is a full scale shift in fortunes and in manufacturing.
The middle classes have been asleep for the most part while the poor have been under heavy artillery fire. The life of comforts that comes with nesting under American and British hegemony tended to encourage political apathy. Why upset the apple cart when me and mine are doing okay?

The middle/working classes have been living off not only capitalist exploitation of foreign resources. They have also been living off the demands for goods and services that are drying up domestically. And for people in that situation; people that have been oblivious to class consciousness and oblivious to the starvation and oppression of our brothers and sisters at home and abroad, you have been sold out by your masters. They have no loyalty to nations, religions, or to anything except to their own class. Where 'they' (the poor) have been you are. In fact, you have always been there. As much as it hurts to say this; you/we are not one of them. You/we are not in that class no matter how many status symbols you can/we afford. They (the owners of the politicians) simply don't care what happens to us.

The banks and the large corporations have created the present crisis. And it is they that are reaping a financial harvest at the moment courtesy of the taxpayers. They don't need to worry. Their employees, the Federal Reserve's Bernanke and President Obama will ensure that they are unharmed. They will collude and are colluding with the operators/gamblers and ensure that the games that have brought the economy to this crisis continues. The Federal Reserve has underwritten and guaranteed about $13 trillion to keep their gambling addiction alive. And at the same time, the lower classes are in full crisis. Sinister and foggy financial credit default swaps and other mechanisms to keep the game alive are still in the cards. They fooled us once, they fooled us twice and they will fool us again. The shell games should be outlawed and the fraudsters that have reaped from the games should be jailed - but they are rewarded and the shell games continue. They are rewarded because it is they that pay and control the Bernankes and the Obamas.

We are living in a world where the instruments needed to produce for everybody are available. They are shut down. We live in a world where the numbers of homeless are increasing at an alarming rate and homes sit empty, while the homeless sleep in cars, under bridges, or anywhere that seems safe.

And on it goes. And on it goes because we believe we live in a classless society. And if you really believe that, ask one of them out for a beer. In reality, they don't associate with the likes of you/me.

The Threat to America

Security is a relative concept. We can never be absolutely safe. The greatest cause of death is birth. Once that happens, its unavoidable.

We can choose to live in a secure society. Perhaps we'd choose a totalitarian society where neighbour watches neighbour for the state. Or maybe you'd be more comfortable with a cleric, watching to ensure that you and everybody else stays on the right path.

In societies like this we don't have to worry about our partners infidelity or our neighbour stealing our grocery money. The price is too high. Conventional crime is rare and the state's response to it is severe.

But then there's America. America means (or has meant) more than just the name of a country. It touted itself as 'the' bastion of freedom. And in a free society we can't arrest the criminal before he commits the crime. We have to wait for the act. And in a free society you can say what you want, support and speak to whomever you wish whether they be branded terrorists or Nazis. In a free society we must suffer the paedophile on the street until he actually does something. We must live with a measure of insecurity if we are free. A free society is a messy society, the trains don't run on time, and there are strikes.

Of course America has touted itself as the bastion of freedom and democracy but the genesis of and realization of these principles date back to the Magna Carta and beyond. But we get the idea. We are free.

Not anymore.

Things look more or less the same in everyday life but history books will show that the Bush era has fundamentally changed the nature of the modern state once the owl of Minerva flies off. The tyrants have not started to bust down the doors of leftists and radicals but if you are Muslim, you are suspect. The fascification of America is being achieved through incremental changes and the vast majority don't seem to notice.

The Bush era has seen to it the freedoms we had taken for granted are no longer taken for granted. And this has occurred not only in the USA but in the UK, Canada, Australia and many other free societies.

For generations Americans (and the rest of us) have fought and died for freedom and the basic principles that have evolved from rational arguments in courts, in universities, and in parliaments. This was the holy grail that Americans learned to be proud of. They even sport gung-ho license plates that whack us with 'Live Free or Die'.

The important point being that we live with and under rational principles that are the bedrock of our real security. As long as we live with these principles we can rest easy knowing the state or anyone else can't abuse us and get away with it. Life is unpredictable yes but predictable where it counts. We know we won't be jailed for political deviance and we know when we see injustice, we can fight back.

Not anymore.

Obama is keeping the Bushite template of state tyranny in place after portraying Bush and the Bush era as a period of dangerously uncontrolled folly into the realm where tin-pot dictators and large scale fascists do as they wish; unfettered. Obama is flirting with the idea of allowing preventive detention in the United States as a security measure to make up for the closure of Gitmo. As horrible as Guantanmo Bay is in terms of slamming a hard blow to the principles of freedom, crossing the line further into allowing the state to jail people domestically who are perceived to be a threat would be a fatal blow. Once that happens the pretence is over. We have already swallowed the kool-aid.

So then, where do we see change once we avert our collective gaze from the decor of the oval office and the charisma of Obama?

Much has been said and much has been done to mitigate the threat to America since 9-11. Ironically, the greatest threat to America is Americans; the Americans that cower under their beds waiting for the terrorists to strike providing tacit support for draconian laws and murderous aggression by the state. These 'Americans' are not only Bush and Obama and Cheney and they are not only Americans. The greatest threat to America is you and me and our collective cowardice.

The Bankruptcy of Chrysler

This is an immensely historic event.

After 80 years of making cars and sitting as a cornerstone of American capitalism, Chrysler is closing its plants until August when it will announce its restructuring vision. What will emerge from this cocoon will be a pathetic ghost of what had been one of the great engines that not only produced cars, it produced a way of life. It was a driving force demanding massive quantities of raw materials to be shipped into its plants. It resulted in not only Chrysler workers demanding goods and services, it also allowed workers in factories that produce paint, glass, rubber, and wheel bearings to spend money. And so were the millions of workers that worked at providing goods and services to those workers. The car manufacturers in America have been the main engines of American and Canadian prosperity.

That is because capital is created in the process of turning raw material into buyable stuff. It is the workers that create the money the owners accumulate. The term 'car manufacturers' may be thought of as the investors but in reality, they are the men and women that manufacture cars.

Enduring Neo Liberalism

Neo Liberal policies are something we have been enduring for decades and it will itself endure for some time to come. It is far from dead as current attitudes about the economy show. Don't be hoodwinked into believing that America has gone socialist because they are bailing out large capitalists or promoting union stakes in failing companies. Nothing could be further from the truth. Obama is showing and will continue to show himself to be as married to neo-liberal voodoo economics as his disastrous predecessor. He is a slave to late monopoly capitalism, as was his predecessor. Obama's faith in reliance on the ultra wealthy that are somehow 'too big to fall' will endure.

Capital is a strange ethereal beast and has some dangerous characteristics that must be heeded. Especially now. As a result capitalists themselves must assume similar characteristics. He is slave to capital. He must abandon notions of patriotism and any concern for the economic health of the nation. He must turn away from his human impulse to care about human beings. He must care only about capital and its enhancement. It is more than just software. It is a virus. And that virus will seek out wealth where-ever it is found like a vulture ripping away at a diminishing corpse. It will take it from workers wages and pensions. It will take it from your pockets.

The very ideology that has brought America to the abyss remains unshaken. The underlying assumption is that wealth emanates, somehow, from the rich and 'trickles down' to the rest of us. That is why trillions are handed to the ultra wealthy in bailouts and workers wages and benefits are ravaged and others are left to the unemployment lines. This is in complete contradiction to the socialist view that wealth begins where work occurs and finds its way, rather quickly, to the owners.

Obama said that Chrysler will emerge stronger and more competitive. We have heard for years that with globalization we must become 'more competitive'. Pick this notion apart for a few moments and consider what that really means. It is a continuation of the race to the bottom that American and Canadian workers appear to be winning.

What has caused the crisis is being touted as the way to fix the crisis. This faulty logic is based in capitalists board rooms and with people that know better. They know exactly what they are doing. They are turning America into an economic wasteland in favour of new and more fertile markets.

The Great Sell Out

Chrysler's valuable assets will be sold to private scavengers and the liabilities will be handed to the taxpayer. In this equation we have winners and losers. The wealthy are always the winners and the middle class are always the losers.

The standard of living for Americans and Canadians has been sliding for decades now. Monopoly capitalism takes no prisoners. It is software that is programmed to increase profit and it will do whatever is necessary to that end. It has to pick the meat off the bones of the American and Canadian middle classes and that process has been ratcheted up in a big way during this economic crisis.

This 'restructuring' is a euphemism for a sell out. The workers of North America have been sold out by those they have seen as their bread and butter. The capitalists that are running the show today are different than capitalists that operated in the past. In the quaint past they had direct involvement in the company. Today, under mature monopoly capitalism where shares can be traded in a split second, they are more akin to gamblers in a casino. They don't care about making cars and they don't care about the plight of the nation. Capital accumulation is all that matters and if they could do it without manufacturing anything, that would be best for them. They are programmed software - a virus far more pernicious than Osama bin Laden or terrorism.

Now that Chrysler in sinking, it seems that it is suddenly a good idea for the workers (the UAW) to take some ownership of this sinking ship. What nobody is talking about is the possibility that this is an 'easing in' process to the bitter end of Chrysler. Consumers are not going to flock into Chrysler dealerships to help the company out. Consumers too are a virus and are not idealists. Consumers buy into deals and they buy products that they have faith in. The plants will close and we will wait until August when this depression is even more protracted, and Chrysler will make an announcement with little fanfare or attention. They will announce what we all expect.

Fight Back

What is most important now is that workers wages and benefits are increased. Not only with Chrysler but across the board. More wages means more demand for goods and services. As Henry Ford observed, the workers need to be paid enough to buy cars.

To get America and the rest of the world on track, it is vital that workers do what they had done in the early and middle part of the last century - and more. The situation now is more dire. Workers must fight back and take control. The means of production are shutting down and they are shutting down because capitalism is not working. It is work and it is workers that create wealth. It is in the hands of the working class to rebuild and re-tool without the benefit of being told what to do. And when we do get back on track, it will be a completely different track on a new trajectory. A trajectory to stability, peace and equality.

When and how we fight back is up to us. Obama isn't going to lead us and neither will the scam artists we have become conditioned to have faith in. Obama and the scam artists will tell you there are only two choices. We either must rely on the greedy impulses of the financial elites or we face totalitarianism.

It is up to us to forge a third way. We will soon have no choice.

Political Prisoners in Cuba

As an advocate of socialism, it pains me to see so-called socialist
governments jailing people for expressing political dissent.

With this in mind, I hope to encourage anti-Castro, anti-socialist
critics to help me out with this. As I look into this, what seems to
emerge is information that Cuba is not holding political prisoners as
much as they are holding(at least some of them)bona fide terrorists.

What has piqued my curiosity are reports that the majority of
prisoners in Cuban jails want nothing to do with a Cuban proposed
prisoner swap after President Obama said that Cuba should release its political
prisoners and the Cubans suggested a swap. "It's nearly unanimous
among the prisoners that they not be exchanged for military men
arrested red-handed in espionage activities in the United States,"
said Elizardo Sanchez of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and
Reconciliation. "They would rather stay in prison."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/21/cuban-prisoners-dont-trad_n_...

This obviously indicates that the USA is also holding 'political
prisoners'. Five Cubans have been arrested on espionage charges. Along
with the five Cubans, who had allegedly been spying among the Miami
mafia to ward off further attacks on Cuba, the USA is holding many
Muslims prisoner without trial. The USA has plenty of dirt on its
hands in terms of political prisoners.

The Cubans are holding over 200 alleged political prisoners. Human Rights
Watch reports: "Belinda Salas, president of the Latin American
Federation of Rural Women (FLAMUR) – a Cuban organization – said she
was with three other dissidents on December 9 when eight security
officers assaulted them, with no warning. Her husband, Lazaro Alonso,
a former political prisoner, was hit repeatedly in the groin and
beaten in the face and head until he was unconscious. Officers tore
Salas’s shirt from her body and fractured her hand in the assault.
Salas was not arrested, but her husband and two others were detained
by security forces.

Other dissidents were reportedly visited by state security agents and
given verbal warnings in advance of International Human Rights Day
that they would suffer beatings, imprisonment, or other punishments if
they took part in any of the planned activities. Some of the detainees
have since been released, though the current number of those arrested
in the last few days and where they are being held remain unknown."

According to Human Rights Watch, "the Cuban government still needs to
take concrete steps to decriminalize political dissent, Human Rights
Watch said. Specifically, it should unconditionally release all
political dissidents. It should also repeal the provisions of the
penal code that provide the basis for gross violations of human
rights." This Human Rights Watch article suggests that this was not actually
written by Human Rights Watch(eg. Human Rights Watch said)and a look through
their material on Cuba isn't impressive. There is not much in terms of
hard information and there is plenty of rhetoric. Perhaps somebody can
provide a link to more detailed information about Cuba's political
prisoners.

William Blum does provide some information here:

http://www.counterpunch.org/blum0901.html

Info on the five Cubas held in US jails:

http://www.freethefive.org/

List of prisoners held in Cuban jails:

http://www.directorio.org/presos/prisoners_list.php

There is no doubt that some of the prisoners held in Cuba are
terrorists. But what about those that merely expressed political
dissent? Is there an element of this or are they all criminals?

Then there is the reality that Cuba has been under attack from the USA
for five decades. Are the Cubans actually jailing dissenters or are
they jailing terrorists? Does America's attacks on Cuba excuse them
for being authoritarian?

The Growing Class Divide

We're seeing Wall Street rally over the past month, gaining much of what was lost in previous months.

Looks good eh?

Unless you pick up the front sheet of mainstream media and peek underneath where you will see masses of workers continuing to be thrown out of work, industrial machinery continues to rust, trade and overall growth continues to show alarming evidence of an abyss.

The bailouts seem to be working if you watch the recent gyrations on the stock markets. American Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has calmed investors fears by making it clear that the American taxpayer will bail out their worthless assets and will buy them at inflated prices. Private stockholders have reacted. When Geither announced this bonanza (that he would be dumping massive container ship loads of tax dollars into their pockets and that it is secure) private capitalists reacted and drove the Dow Jones back up over the 8,000 mark. The value of worthless assests was restored for private capitalist money changers.

Obama has been meeting with the cream of the capitalist crop and taking direction from them. He is doing a good job for them and they are happy with his so called 'change'.

They will also make Obama cut what's left of America's crippled social programs to the bone. The plight of the average U.S. citizen is exacerbated by the already tattered social safety net. Times were bad, they are going to get much worse. Demands will also be made to cut social services in Canada, the UK, and Europe. What's good for capitalists is not good for the rest of us and vice versa.

The illusions playing out before your eyes, now, are just that, illusions. Capitalists are not going to tolerate heavy market regulation and although the gods of reason and logic demand it, these gods are not working in the interests of monopoly capitalism. Off with their heads. "The Financial Accounting Standards Board, which determines what rules U.S. companies must follow when adding up their numbers, has relaxed requirements that forced financial institutions to account for massive paper losses stemming from possibly temporary damage to assets caused by the credit meltdown. Critics say the easing of mark-to-market rules allows the banks to play fast and loose once again with asset values. Advocates of the reform say it's ludicrous to force institutions to value securities at current distressed market prices if there's no actual market for the stuff." (Brian Milner - Globe and Mail)
http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090403.wtakingstock0404/BNStory/robColumnsBlogs/home

A gutsy and honest bank analyst named Meridth Whitney warned investors to sell in November. She could see what was coming. And she isn't being fooled by the recent jump in Wall Street numbers. She said that available credit to consumers in the US will shrink by about 55% in the next two years. “Since 2006, you've had liquidity coming out of the market. That's caused consumer credit to worsen. Liquidity continues to come out of the market. Therefore, consumer credit continues to worsen,” ... “The assets on bank balance sheets are worth less and less. And they need more and more capital.” - Meredith Whitney (Globe and Mail April 3)

It is worth noticing that the Financial Accounting Standards Board is weakening accountability mechanisms as the capitalists demand. This, in the face of the horrendous consequences resulting from deregulation and market anarchy. They have weakened market to market accounting rules and this will allow the banks to value their worthless assets as they wish.

The same smoke and mirrors chicanery that held the value of assets at inflated rates is still in place. Voodoo economics continue to massage our worries away, telling us that everything is okay. Our capitalist rulers have everything under control. And, as before, the mainstream media and the politicians continue to do Wall Street's malignant bidding.

Meanwhile, a massive rift is becoming apparent. On one side sit the fat cigar smoking con men with the politicians and their armies of media whores and beggars in suits and on the other side, here sit the rest of us. They are simply taking our wealth away through the power of the politicians and telling us that if we are lucky, they might loan it back to us at 18% interest. Class war is on. They, on that side, know it. We don't.

The world has turned upside down. Wealth is what you see before you and around you. Wealth is not money. Wealth is stuff. Stuff is real, money is an illusion. When this reality is understood, we will stop believing that wealth emanates from the wealthy class. The wealthy class merely exploit, manipulate, and steal to gather their wealth. Contrary to popular belief, these people don't earn it, they manipulate it. Their power rests in an agreed upon illusion; capital. In reality however, all wealth is created through the processes of taking material from the ground and fashioning it into 'stuff'.

We can do that. We do do that. We don't need the parasites to encourage us.

Wealth is cars and shirts and copper ore. And it is you and I that transform rocks and materials into valuable commodities.

Upside down thinking makes us believe that we need the shysters to make copper wire, cars, and shirts. That wealth depends on capital. And that is why we are mute when Obama and the rest of the groveling errand boys ship containers full of tax dollars over to the other side of that nasty rift.

We have learned to see the world through the eyes of the class that are on the other side of that rift. We have to stop depending on them. The sooner, the better.