http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/07/blind-acceptance-of-unjust-economic.html
We've all been blessed with the ability to rationally discern reality from illusion propped up by an aesthetic orthodoxy of economic fundamentalism. What do we realize when we arrive at a gas station to fill our car up with gas, visit the grocery, receive a bill from a hospital that shows a $200,000 balance that our insurance didn't pay, open the mailbox and find a foreclosure notice on our home, get the news that our office or factory is closing and moving overseas, or we find ourselves unable to send our child to a university because the cost is now beyond our comprehension? Are we then struck with a profound belief that the 'free market' coupled with 'globalization' will continue to provide us with economic security or does reality grasp us by the neck demanding our recognition.
We all know far to well what is transpiring globally - a select group of oligarchs (the business elite) that comprise less than 5% of the population have setup a system (totalitarian economic society) that ensures them ultimate power over the 95% of us that fall under their crushing 'boot'. Within their society we're continually bombarded by the frantic ranting of fanatic experts espousing the omnipotence and infallibility of the 'free market economy'. They've even instructed the most intellectually pliable among us in the fine art of simultaneously reconciling a multitude of contradictions into unquestioned compliance and acceptance of their orthodoxy. Essentially, all it requires is a citizenry that is indoctrinated into thinking in terms of proffered processes and dissuaded from deep thought.
When you can rob someone of all pretenses of personal power over their lives and instill in them a sense of hopelessness in the face of forces seemingly beyond their control you've essentially anesthetized them from taking meaningful actions at understanding the reality of their situation much less directly acting to change their condition. Feelings of "that's just the way it is", "we've done it to ourselves", "there's nothing we can do about it", and "we'll just have to adjust", begin to permeate the collective consciousness.
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The 'Free Market' Guise Is "Big Brother"
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/07/free-market-guise-is-big-brother.html
Funnel everything back onto the adaptive, receptive masses of the global citizenry instilling in them a feeling of inferiority whereby all their actions have and will be perceived to result in a continuing deterioration of their economic situation. It is a perversion of thought pandered through the totalitarian economic society that every injustice or inequality committed by the business elite is ultimately our fault due to our inherent inferiority. We are to blame for not adequately educating ourselves, for over spending, and generally not adjusting to the new world economic order.
In order to effectively perpetuate this ball-faced lie the media is used by the business elite to manipulate not just public opinion but thought itself. There now exists correct and incorrect thought and incorrect thought is portrayed as deviant thought to be identified and ultimately vanquished within our current authoritarian society. Thought is always constrained to only those ideas and concepts acceptable to those who wield power within a strictly regimented hierarchical society. Therefore within the totalitarian economic society complete uniformity of opinions throughout the entire global citizenry is a goal strived for constantly by the elite.
The totalitarian economic society can only effectively extend it tentacles of corruption, subversion, hate, and inequality into every crevice of existing equality through their complete obliteration of the self. Individuality is the enemy of the oppressor for it represents individual thought that disrupts the currents of illusion perpetuated by effective societal propaganda. In fact, the two primary aims of the totalitarian economic society is the complete subjugation of all global citizens under the 'heal' of the business elite and the maintenance of a perpetual vigilance targeted at rooting out and extinguishing all independent thought from whatever level of society it originates.
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Not Inflation but Monopolistic Pricing
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/07/not-inflation-but-monopolistic-pricing.html
Inflation is an increase in prices that is triggered primarily from rising wages among the general population which in turn results in a significant consumption 'pop'. With more and more money flowing into the economic system from the acceleration in consumption spending by a citizenry flush with wealth - prices will trend higher. Companies realize that there are far more consumers that are willing to spend money on their products than products available to purchase - they therefore ramp up production to meet the demand. In the process, these companies will increase their prices for their products realizing full well that consumers that may never have purchased their products before may now want them given their new found wealth.
Prior to reaching an inflationary period the Federal Reserve will analyze trends in inflation indicators such as the M1 money supply and wage levels relative to worker productivity. If the money supply and wages start rising within an economy that has experienced negligible productivity increases this (along with other economic markers) typically indicates that an economy is moving towards an inflationary period. Wage increases within an economy that has experienced negligible productivity gains is indicative of a tight labor market and/or a well organized labor market that is in a position of strength relative to (capital) corporations. In the 1960's & 70's when the United States was at its economic nadir and labor unions represented a larger percentage of workers there were periods of inflation and one brief instance of stagflation.
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Wake up America - The Financial Pillage Continues
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/06/wake-up-america-financial-pillage.html
The U.S. dollar's fall against most of the major currencies is the result of a lack of confidence by speculators and governments in the future viability of our economy. We are a nation of debtors that produce very little of anything - not even our past ingenuity and technological base remains for it was erased by greed induced multinational companies scouring the planet in search of cheap labor. Why would anyone want to possess even one dollar bill since it represents a government in name only, a government that is completely beholden to special interest business elites that only use its shell to do their exclusive bidding. Therefore it is only logical that these same evil cloaked speculators realize that the United States is on the verge of a final pillaged by their fellow wicked business elite rulers. Why possess the paper money of a shell of a nation whose poor citizens are bleeding profusely on the pavement (from globalization) unable to muster any meaningful spending power without acquiring debt that they can no longer find or afford.
Only the special interests of a few well heeled business elites matter to our governmental representatives - you're of no concern to them, just a mere citizen. National interests are no longer relevant because nations are fast becoming just fascades that are used by the business elite to exact their complete control over every aspect of our lives - our wallets will be completely drained into the bottomless cauldrons of a seething greed that covers the entire financial landscape of this corrupt totalitarian economic society.
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The Human Toll of Our Economic Death
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/06/human-toll-of-our-economic-death.html
Sitting out in the car last fall waiting for Diana to step out of the last remaining department store in a dilapidated mall that had been dying slowly for a few short years, it occurred to me that the moment represented the collapse of our nation. This store was closing its doors forever, when the setting sun caressed it in shadows - there would be no returning. Looking over the quiet, dark, and desolate concrete that the encased towering glass opening one couldn't help but wonder what went wrong, for when it happened we were all in the midst of flying head first towards the payment with hair streaming back - there was no halting the terrible fall.
This had mall been just a reflection of the general capital destruction (both material and human) that had been occurring even prior to the 'Great Fall' which happened in just a few sharply defined months. Through a combination of factors both inherent to the distorted economic society and symptomatic of the resulting consumption crisis that grew unabated as real wages steadily dropped lights everywhere started their crescendo of darkening.
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Consumption Crisis Resulting From Distorted Economy
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/06/consumption-crisis-resulting-from.html
Everything that transpires on our planet cycles within one of many natural loops given that the entire biosphere is our self contained spaceship hurtling us on its elliptical track around the Sun. Space engulfs this living organically lush planet reaching around it with a cold vacuum of nothing other than plasma energies that race across the poles ebbing from our pulsing star. All the various natural systems stabilize across a range of dynamic spectrums merging, mingling, and converging across boundaries that are in a constant state of flux. Nothing is at any instant in a state of equilibrium but only continually approaching a natural steady state. The key word is approaching, since the planetary events are like a boiling pot of water vigorously active but never so stimulated to exceed the natural limits placed upon their expanding volume of molecular excitement.
Chaotic systems both natural and artificially induced (like our contorted, manipulated economic society) always involve the excitement of a multitude of variables that operate within a unique closed system. It is still a system even though most of the variables have been distorted in order to bring short-term gain to a few at the expense of those many who continually grope for income with outstretched hands. Any one of the perturbed variables may tilt the entire system towards temporary instability. Granted a multiplicative effect of income generation is possible by generously infusing the system with income but only through meaningful production either creative or actual transformation of material into useable capital is unperturbed economic steady state migration possible.
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Caress Us with Lies from a Corrupt System
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/06/caress-us-with-lies-from-corrupt-system.html
The cackles can be heard coming from behind every wall of this 'windowless dirty room' that where trapped within - with little or no hope of escape. Don't worry every now and then they'll throw us a dark moldy piece of stale bread from that opening in the wall to our far right. Word is that those on the other side who call themselves 'controllers' have nightly banquets within crystal palaces. The controllers belong to a select group of privileged citizens who are the lobbyists, business elite, corrupt elements of the intelligentsia, and least we forget the governmental representatives that have been 'body snatched' by the business elite through their lobbyists.
We've been dropped here because when we were working outside within their society we had the indiscretion to engage in wasteful spending. Not just your average supplementing of our paltry subsistence wages through excessive borrowing (credit card, and 2nd mortgage debt) at their financial 'company stores' but the heinous act of causing a correction within their economic society. We neglected to cut back our daily meals from 3 to 1 in order to save some of our meager income at their banks.
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Oil Block Induced Profit Inflation - Crumbling Economy
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/06/oil-block-induced-profit-inflation.html
Immediately nationalize all the oil companies whose corporate offices reside within the borders of the United States. Seize all assets belonging to the oil companies and their associated oil block (OPEC, oil speculators, and oil companies) thieves' intent upon exacting a short term extraction of available income from every sector of our dying economy. The consuming nation-states should use any and all means at their disposal to ensure that an adequate oil supply is maintained. We cannot afford to idly watch while the entire contrived totalitarian economic society swirls into an income drain gasping with flailing arms for consumption that is mostly chocked off through artificially imposed oil company profit inflation, and speculator income extraction enhanced through OPEC production limits.
Stop the profit inflation spurred on by the oil 'block' intent upon financially razing each and every global citizen leaving behind a barren economic landscape incapable of sustaining consumption spending. With the consumption 'machine' already sputtering from lack of any real wage growth among the working class (even during a period of unprecedented productivity gains) the assault by the oil 'block' on the wallets of this most important group of citizens further erodes their already strained ability to spend. With each and every day the erosion of potential spending from this majority of the citizenry is spilling every additional dollar of potential spending into an encroaching sea of oil profits.
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Many more articles that break through the wall of illusion...
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/
To listen to all the flap about the rescue of Betancourt the last few days over Alvaro Uribe, the President of Columbia, one would get them impression that he is a left wing hero.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Alvaro Uribe is a right-wing hardliner. His political life has been dominated by his desire to rid Colombia of the leftist rebels who killed his father, a rich landowner 20 years ago. Hardly "a man of the people" Uribe comes from a wealthy family and he was educated at Oxford and Harvard.
Columbia under the leadership of Uribe is a perfect example of people trading in their rights for a leader who will keep "law and order". They forget that it was the paramilitaries, paid for and supported by Uribe and friendly USA business interests that kept the fighting up in their cities to keep the leftist out that created the conflicts. They forget that it is friends and relatives of Uribe who push the small landowners out.
Now Uribe is trying to get the Constitution of Columbia changed so he can be "legally" re-elected for his third term. (LOL I'm sure if Bush had a competent PR person instead of "turd blossom" Karl Rove all these years, he might have done better and would be pulling the same sort trick. What is more likely from Bush will be an attempt to start a war in Iran, suspend the elections and declare marshal law.)
Read from the BBC news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3214685.stm
Death Squads meet on Uribe's ranch
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/17/AR2007041702007.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/world/americas/16colombia.html
Perhaps since the Underdog image isn't getting any traction, McCain should change his new image to Underpig. That might at least attract some of the big Republican donors who continue to refuse to donate to his campaign.
According to an article this morning from the Associated Press to call McCain an underdog is an understatment.
"McCain also doesn't seem to have a coherent message let alone much of a strategy despite securing the nomination three months earlier than Obama."
The McCain campaign still does not have a big theme around which to build a winning campaign. And when it comes to message and strategy, McCain continues to flounder while Obama runs ads in 18 states compared to 11 for McCain. McCain has 300 people working for his campaign and Obama has 1,000.
That was the joke. Now for some truth.
McCain has some very unsavory friends and supporter. Among them include Carl H. Lindner Jr., a billionaire Cincinnati businessman, former CEO of Chiquita Brands International and co-host of a recent top-dollar fundraiser.
"Beginning under his tenure, Chiquita executives paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (known by the Spanish acronym AUC), which is described by George Washington University's National Security Archive as an 'illegal right-wing anti-guerrilla group tied to many of the country's most notorious civilian massacresIn 2007,
Chiquita, the international fruit corporation, admitted to funding a Colombian terrorist group and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. The justice Department indictment, filed March 13, 2007 in D.C. Federal Court, states that Chiquita gave more than $1.7 million to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia - AUC), an illegal right-wing anti-guerrilla group tied to many of the country's most notorious civilian massacres.
SOURCEs
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB217/index.htm
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2008/07/in-colombia-mcc.html
As far as I'm concerned, Colin Powell's endorsement would not be a plus for Obama.
Twice in his life Colin Powell had the chance to stand up and tell the truth for his country and both times he failed.
Colin Powell lost it for me the day I found out that he was sent to Vietnam to investigate early claims of an American soldier about My Lai that the US soldiers had wantonly killed and abusedVietnames citizens. He came back and filed a report that nothing was wrong. Turns out, as we all know that report did not reflect what happened.
Then as if that were not enough in 2003, Powell proved himself yet another time to be a yes man when he lied about the Iraq War to the United Nations. Powell even admitted it himself In a February 2005 interview with Barbara Walters on ABC News "20/20" program, Powell himself declared his UN Iraq speech to be a blot on his reputation.
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02072006.html
FROM WIKI ABOUT MY LAI:
Six months after My Lai,Tom Glen, a 21-year-old soldier of the 11th Light Infantry Brigade, wrote a letter to General Creighton Abrams, the new overall commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, accusing the Americal Division (and other entire units of the U.S. military) of routine and pervasive brutality against Vietnamese civilians. The letter was detailed and its contents echoed complaints received from other soldiers.Colin Powell, then a 31-year-old Army Major, was charged with investigating the letter, which did not specifically reference My Lai (Glen had limited knowledge of the events there).
In his report Powell wrote: "In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent."My Lai was the mass murder of 347 to 504 unarmed citizens of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), almost entirely civilians and the majority of them women and children, conducted by U.S. Army forces on March 16, 1968. Some of the victims were sexually abused, beaten, tortured, or maimed, and some of the dead bodies were mutilated
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre
I read today where Obama spent the Fourth of July in Butte Montana. Only two Democratic candidates since 1948 carried Montana. (In 1948 Harry Truman was the Democrat who won Montana.)
Most presidential candidates don't spend much time or money in trying to capture Montana. It has been a rather solid red state and it only has three electoral votes.
Bill Clinton did win it in 1992 but only with a third of the vote because Ross Perot split the conservative vote. (Clinton lost Montana in 1996) The other Democrat who won was Lyndon Johnson who beat Barry Goldwater in 1964. [Interesting Goldwater, like McCain hailed from Arizona.]
By contrast, McCain has not even visited Montana this election year.
The McCain campaign remains confident. Tom Steward, a McCain spokesman reported: "The more often Barack Obama travels to Montana, the more voters will be reminded of why they disagree with him on the issue they care most about."
SOURCE:
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-montana-battleground,0,3603877.story
I wonder why Obama cares about Montana?
As if the Bush administration has not already done enough to bring our country and its people to our economic knees, they continue to do their damage. And as each day passes, I grow angrier and angrier at the members of the House of Representatives for not beginning the impeachment proceedings against George Bush and Dick Cheney.
In addition to the horrible implications of nuclear war (bought about by Pakistan, who do have nuclear bombs and who could possibly retaliate in defense of Iran); there is a more immediate effect of the Bush administration along with Congress’s support of continued badgering of Iran: the price of oil.
World oil prices have risen by nearly 50% since the beginning of 2008. Many believe that among the contributing factors, the uncertainty about Iran is another issue that keeps oil prices high. It is reported that oil market still believes that there is at least a 50% chance that either Israel or the USA will attack Iran before the end of Bush’s term. Some experts predict the price per barrel for oil could rise as high as $200 a barrel before fall.One way to take that speculation away is to remove Bush and his administration from the equation by impeaching Bush and Cheney.
We learned from the article published in the New Yorker last week by Seymour Hersh that the Bush administration is sponsoring a $400 million covert action program against Iran to destabilize its government. We know that if Cheney had his way that Iran and likely half the Middle East would lay in smoldering ruins. We know now with a degree of some certainty that Cheney and Bush would like nothing better than to initiate a shoot-out at the Iranian OK Corral.And members of our Congress continue to vote YEA on amendments like the Kyle-Lieberman Amendment and H.Con.Res. 362 that are nothing more than bully threats against Iran that increase instability in the Middle East and drive up the price of oil for Americans.
Isn’t it time to tell them NO. and to demand that they begin impeachment proceedings against this administration now while we still have a country and a world left?
http://www.impeachbush.org/site/PageServer
Paul Krugman said it best in his NYT column yesterday in his comments about General Wesley’s statements about McCain.
“ . . . What General Clark actually said was that Mr. McCain’s war service, though heroic, didn’t necessarily constitute a qualification for the presidency. It was a blunt but truthful remark, and not at all outrageous — especially given the fact that General Clark is himself a bona fide war hero.
Yet the Clark affair did reveal something important — not about General Clark, but about Mr. McCain. Now we know what a McCain administration would represent: namely, a third term for Karl Rove.
It was predictable that the McCain campaign would go wild over the Clark remarks. Mr. McCain’s run for the White House has always been based on persona rather than policy: he doesn’t have ideas that voters agree with, but he does have an inspiring life story — which, contrary to the myth of the modest maverick, he talks about all the time. The suggestion that this life story isn’t relevant to his quest for office was bound to provoke a violent reaction. . . “Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/04/opinion/04krugman.html?
The main reason for Esmin Green’s death, contrary to what some have suggested on this site, has nothing to do with Esmin’s race-- or of the people who did not come to her assistance.
Most likely the main reason for Ms Green’s death on the emergency floor was the corporate policy of the people who own and manage the facility. The Facility, Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn is run by the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) operates the public hospitals and clinics in New York City. It was created in 1969 by the New York State Legislature as a “public benefit” corporation. It is similar to a municipal agency, but has a Board of Directors that are appointed and is run according to the same principles that guide private corporations.The problem is that this facility is run according to the same model that most privately owned hospitals and care facilities operate—for a profit. I’m sure it has many similar rules, some spoken and others unspoken. The standard rule for most emergency waiting areas is to make patients wait who have no insurance (unless they are gushing blood) so as to discourage them so they will leave. After waiting several hours, many people will just give up and leave. This is a plus for the hospital as they don’t have to incur the loss of treatment without payment.
Read More »Of all the nations in the world we have been the most irresponsible in the use of nuclear weaponry. To begin with, we are the only nation in the world who has ever used nuclear bombs against humanity and we did it twice (more if you count the numbers of times that we have detonated nuclear devices on this planet.
Read More »Looks like the likelihood of the USA attacking Iran is dwindling somewhat--at least according to an article in today's BBC news. Now if we can just keep the Israeli hotheads contained.
Not only would an attack on Iran endanger world peace and perhaps even our survival as a species--were we to survive nuclear war, gas prices would be so expensive that no one literally could afford gasoline. The first thing that Iran would do is to close the Straits of Hormuz, through which oil is transported from the Gulf. Look at a map and see the implications.
SOURCE FOR WHAT FOLLOWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7486971.stm
Administration at odds
Adm Mullen's opinion echoes what the then head of Central Command, Adm William Fallon, said last November, that an attack on Iran was not "in the offing".
Iran is not making highly enriched uranium suitable for a weapon, only low-enriched uranium useable as nuclear power fuel 
Adm Fallon resigned in March amid reports that he was at odds with the administration over Iran.
Increasingly, the military option seems to be narrowing to an Israeli option.
Read More »1. Refrain from attacking the Patriotism of any candidate.
2. Refrain from attacking the military record of any candidate. This includes attacking someone for not serving.
3. Refrain from "swiftboating" of any kind.