The superrich have drawn a clear line in the sand between themselves and everybody else. How did we get here?

— By Barbara Ehrenreich and John Ehrenreich

Mother Jones,  Thu Dec. 15, 2011

EXTRACT:

And here was another thing many in the middle class were discovering: The downward plunge into poverty could occur with dizzying speed. One reason the concept of an economic 99 percent first took root in America rather than, say, Ireland or Spain is that Americans are particularly vulnerable to economic dislocation. We have little in the way of a welfare state to stop a family or an individual in free-fall. Unemployment benefits do not last more than six months or a year, though in a recession they are sometimes extended by Congress. At present, even with such an extension, they reach only about half the jobless. Welfare was all but abolished 15 years ago, and health insurance has traditionally been linked to employment.

In fact, once an American starts to slip downward, a variety of forces kick in to help accelerate the slide. An estimated 60 percent of American firms now check applicants' credit ratings, and discrimination against the unemployed is widespread enough to have begun to warrant congressional concern. Even bankruptcy is a prohibitively expensive, often crushingly difficult status to achieve. Failure to pay government-imposed fines or fees can even lead, through a concatenation of unlucky breaks, to an arrest warrant or a criminal record. Where other once-wealthy nations have a safety net, America offers a greased chute, leading down to destitution with alarming speed.

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US Troops Surround Syria on the Eve of Invasion?

A former official from within the ranks of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is reporting that US and NATO forces have landed outside of Syria and are training militants to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

According to her, several sources internationally have confirmed the news, although the US media has been instructed to temporarily censor itself from reporting the news.

Additionally, Edmonds says that American and NATO forces are training Turkish troops as well, to possibly launch a strike from the north of Syria.

Continue reading “Owl: US Troops Surround Syria on the Eve of Invasion?”

“Non-Hierarchal, Network-Controled Governance” Is a Better Term Than Anarchy

For me, the anarchy argument is a philosophical can of worms. It's like pulling a loose thread on a suit that never ends. Bryan Kaplan Ph.D. (of George Mason University), in his Anarchist Theory FAQ makes a pretty good case that the only thing anarchists have in common is a belief that “all forms of government are unnecessary, oppressive, and undesirable and should be abolished . . . ”

Unfortunately, this is probably the least supportable of all anarchist claims. To begin with (as Kaplan points out) the argument is framed in the negative. And that's not an enviable starting position for a philosopher or debater. And even Kropotkin, one of the most prominent anarchists (as Kaplan also points out), argued that “No destruction of the existing order is possible, if at the time of the overthrow, or of the struggle leading to the overthrow, the idea of what is to take the place of what is to be destroyed is not always present in mind. Even the theoretical criticism of the existing conditions is impossible, unless the critic has in mind a more or less distinct picture of what he would have in place of the existing state. Consciously or unconsciously, the ideal, the conception of something better is forming in the mind of everyone who criticizes social institutions.”

In other words, abolishing government would bring everyone out of the woodwork; and they would all have their own ideas about what to replace it with, and they would all be talking at once (perhaps shooting as well). It's hard to imagine much could get accomplished in that kind of environment.

Now, panarchy is an idea I can agree with, because it means non-hierarchal governance. But I think non-hierarchal governance is a far better term because it's associated with systems theory, which is about taming complexity. I can't think of many philosophies that are less intellectual as a whole than anarchy. And I have exactly the opposite point of view of non-hierarchal governance. So from my perspective, the value of open-source systems and collective-intelligence should not even be loosely associated with anarchy.

Continue reading “Theophilis Goodyear: Panarchy versus Anarchy – Non-Hierarchal, Network-Controled Governance + Panarchy RECAP”

Electoral Summit Conference Call Notes

12/7/2011

[Draft] Summary

The electoral reform act was discussed and we reached consensus that while the bill is an outstanding effort worthy of passing, it is too complex for the average citizen to support without an extensive education campaign, and therefore not passable in the short run. And, there are also provisions in it that likely would not garner supermajority support.

However, time is of the essence, and now is likely that time. There is angst in the country from a broad spectrum of groups both conservative and liberal. A greater middle seems to be forming—that is pragmatic, centrist, realist and tolerant. And no real change for the 99 will come until the entrenched duopoly the two parties have which is funded by all forms of lobbyists is broken up.

If all the aspects of electoral form were subjected to a focus group, real, researched, and/or blinked, and the items that had supermajority support were found and packaged, there could be a pledge crafted that would be “bulletproof” for passage. Something a vast supermajority of people could go viral on.

Continue reading “Electoral Summit Conference Call Notes”

On those rare occasions when two of our contributing editors hold diametrically opposite views, I am asked to come back and blend them.  Here are my premises, followed by a selection of articles that represent both sides of the argument.

1.  Neither Barack Obama nor Leon Panetta have a clue.  They are posturing on the basis of domestic politics both because that is how they want to do things, and because there is no coherent credible intelligence to be had within the U.S. Government.  To Obama's credit, he is holding fast on vetoing any bills seeking to overturn the hard-fought agreement to trigger automatic cuts in defense co-equal to cuts in entitlements.

2.  It is not possible for the US Government to continue to borrow one trillion dollars a year and to continue to be so corrupt that both political parties agree on one thing and one thing only: that they both love the two-party monopoly privilege of continuing to loot the public treasury in order to enrich themselves at taxpayer expense.

3.  The Pentagon is the most monstrously ineffective organization on the planet, exceeding the fraud, waste, and abuse of any or even all of the dictators by at least one order of magnitude.  The Pentagon has no strategy, no serious operational campaign plan for any region, and is unable to design, build, deliver, provision, and fight a ship or complex aircraft with any semblance of integrity.  The fact that the Department of State is an empty shell and that the Office of Management and Budget cannot spell “management” makes the Pentagon's incapacity all the more treacherous.

4.  Nothing will change at the Pentagon until the general public goes on strike to demand the Electoral Reform Act of 2012 and to insist that its provisions be upheld.  Absent an honest President and an honest Congress, the Pentagon will continue to remain the biggest slush fund for corruption in the US Government, joined by the Department of Homeland Security and the long-standing energy, health, and prison complexes.

5.  Worse, while the Pentagon maneuvers to hype the China threat, it is also supporting an Israeli-led endeavor to start a regional war with Iran.  This degree of irresponsibility is in my view impeachable treason.  It betrays the public trust in every possible way–our civilian and uniformed “leaders” are in my judgment in direct violation of their Oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States  against all enemies domestic and foreign.  They should be fired en masse along with every dual US-Israeli citizen holding clearances, and every former Wall Street executive now serving in the US Government.  This is not rocket science.  All it takes is INTEGRITY; cf Journal: Politics & Intelligence–Partners Only When Integrity is Central to Both as posted 13 October 2009.

Below the line are the relevant headlines with short comments.

Continue reading “Robert Steele: Cutting the US Military Budget – and Firing the Civilian and Uniformed “Leaders” Betraying the Public Trust + RECAP”