“P. S. I Love You!”

 

P = Plunder

S = Steal

And yes, the insatiable moguls of the big banks and ravenous Oberführers of the multinational corporations love it!

We're talking about people who don't live and think like most of us.  For these folks, 'more' is never a question.  It's an answer!  The only answer.

When the economy crashed in 2008, largely the result of an orgy of speculation and gross distortion of the investment market by the greed of these banksters and corporate hustlers, they were more than happy to line up to plunder the Federal Reserve to the tune of $16 trillion dollars.  Why not?  Money was like manna falling from the heavens into the accounts of major banks all over the world, so that their addiction to casino capitalism could continue without a pause and set us up for the next catastrophic meltdown.

Besides outright theft of fiat money in the form of capitalization subsidies, at another level the plunder takes the form of a lot of acronyms -- NAFTA, CAFTA, TPP, TTIP, TISA -- and the gutting of any regulatory oversight.  These so-called "free trade" deals just lubricate the wheels for transferring the wealth and political control from the vast majority of citizens -- the ones who actually work a living, producing things of practical value, products which are markedly more substantial and less diabolical than debt leveraging, collateralization, privatization, and monetization -- to the already ultra-wealthy, ultra-powerful elite.

What will they come up with next?

Corporate greed and plutocratic avarice apparently knows no limits.  As if exporting our jobs to sweat shops in China and Bangladesh putting millions of American workers on the streets; gutting our manufacturing base by shuttering 50,000 factories; pursuing hostile takeovers to gain market share and even monopoly control; promoting predatory lending and liars loans to ravage families and small businesses; destroying unions and driving wages down to the point that a person can't survive any longer working a 40-hour work week; yes, as if abusing the enormous resources and financial power of corporations and their brothers in crime, the Wall Street banks, to relegate the average individual during the long working years of his or her life to the status of a serf weren't enough, now the rich are coming after the elderly.  Giving 45 years of your life to serving the "man" no longer means you are allowed to live a decent, comfortable life in your retirement years.  These criminals are now after employee pension funds.  And because any big pile of money is targeted for a P.S. I Love You blitzkrieg, regardless of who it rightfully belongs to, since 1985 using their pay-for-play puppets in Congress they have been raiding the Social Security trust fund.  Did you get that?  TRUST FUND, as in the fund of all of our accumulated contributions toward retirement, set properly aside and protected so that the money would not be used for anything else.  All the money is gone now.  It funded wars, bail-outs, every variety of corporate welfare and fiduciary abuse which has become standard operating procedure. The money the old folks in retirement homes in good faith paid into Social Security over their lives is just another asset for exploitation.

Just so you aren't deluded into thinking that the mountains of money stolen via all of the unprincipled, anti-social, anti-democratic, coldly callous and cruel instruments of wealth extraction the ultra-rich have ruthlessly applied in the past is ever enough, consider this:

Over the past several years, while poverty rates in America continue to increase, while real wages have barely risen and many are forced to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet, using a rather innocent-sounding device called quantitative easing, $3.5 trillion has been created out of thin air and made available to investment banks and our too-big-to-fail menagerie of casino capitalists.

$3,500,000,000,000!

Is there anyone out there who could use $10,000?  How about $1,000?

Actually, $500 would be a big deal for most of us.

Of course, none of the $3.5 trillion trickled down to you and I -- I assume this is not being read by hedge fund CEOs or any other members of the exclusive .1% club -- au contraire! Instead, it trickled up!

A lot of it found its way into offshore accounts and tax havens.

Plundered . . . stolen . . . socked away.

For what?

More yachts?  More vacation homes?  More private jets?

What else can they possibly buy?

Patience now!  Give them time.

Spending trillions of dollars is not easy.

It takes time and energy.

Arrogance and myopia.

Unfeeling and irrepressible selfishness.

A sense of entitlement and a disdain for the less fortunate.

Callousness, irresponsibility and a total lack of decency and compassion.

Fortunately for the rich, they won't have to plunder and steal to get these.

They already have them in great abundance.



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



“P. S. I Love You!”

TPP . . . just extrapolate and you’ll get it.

 

Because of some trademark or product protectionist agreement or with Bayer, there is no such thing as generic aspirin here in Japan.

They sell aspirin in blister packs, ten to a package, for a little over $8.00 here. As if aspirin is some sort of amazing wonder drug.

Therefore, this bottle which I bought the last time I was in America for $6.99 here in Japan would cost over $240.00!

This is a simple example of how what would appear to be an innocuous patent agreement can dramatically impact the cost and availability of a consumer item.

I bring this up because the public is finally beginning to wake up to the perils of the TPP, a so-called free trade agreement aggressively being promoted by the Obama administration.

The type of arrangement which priced my aspirin in the stratosphere will exponentially expand under TPP.  Of course, this only scratches the surface in terms of the horrifying implications.  TPP is a weapon of mass socio-political devastation.  Here is the entire text.

There are 12 countries included in the TPP:  U.S., Japan, Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Chile, Vietnam, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, Mexico, and Brunei Darussalam, representing 11.3% of the world population and 40% of the total economic activity across the planet.

TPP will affect just about everything bought and sold, used by most of us on a regular basis --  food, clothing, medications, movies, songs, cars, smart phones, furniture -- you name it and TPP will be there with its hairy arms wrapped around it one way or another. 

The TPP trade agreement runs over 5,000 pages.  It's been in formulation and negotiation for over three years.  Until very recently, it has been completely kept from the public eye -- literally it was subject to a top secret classification and anyone even attempting to discuss its details was subject to fines and imprisonment -- which alone should have raised major red flags about its contents.  Parts of it were leaked and then finally the entire text of this burdensome document was released.  Now the worst suspicions of those issuing warnings all along have been confirmed.  There is so much to condemn about this diabolical gift to corporations, we could go on for months detailing its egregious agenda and ruthless grab for power.  Much of the analysis and resulting critique is very technical. Most people can be forgiven for having their eyes glaze over and their attention wander.

I offer my simple anecdotal tale to make this complex issue real and accessible.

I submit it as a typical dose of daily life and hopefully a loud wake-up call.

Corporations do whatever they can to maximize profit . . . period!

Corporations are not community-minded or people-oriented.

Corporations are not loyal to countries or their citizens.

Corporations are not in the business of being nice.

They are only in business to make money.  Anything which stand in the way of making money must be eliminated or changed.

We've had NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, WTO.

TPP is now the last in a long list of systematic efforts to fashion the rules, engineer the marketplace, game the system, load the dice, all in the name of making greater profits.  The TPP is a brilliant, if insidious redesign of the macro-economic regime to favor profit over people, corporations over government, faceless multinational corporate hegemony over local community and citizen control.  Please understand . . .


TPP is not an abstraction. It is a genuine threat.

TPP is the worst trade agreement in history.

TPP will crush people under the weight of corporate greed.

TPP will destroy America as a sovereign nation and a functioning democracy.

TPP will destroy any hope for citizens having a say in the future of this country.

TPP will imprison the 99% and make us permanent slaves of the corporate state.

TPP is misleadingly named the Trans-Pacific Partnership and is being sold as a trade agreement.  It in fact is neither.  It is not a partnership of nations.  Nor is it a mere trade agreement.  Designed by multinational corporations, mostly headquartered in America, it is a supra-national framework for destroying the sovereignty of nations and giving citizens of those nations -- that's you and I -- even less say in the industries and marketplace which produce and make available the items we purchase, including the basic necessities of life.

As workers, it gives us less power to improve our wages and working conditions.  Worker safety will suffer, union organizing will become all but impossible.

As consumers, the quality and safety of everything we buy will be compromised.  It will be a race to the bottom, as any attempt at regulation and requiring transparency is challenged under rules limiting and barring practices which interfere with pursuit of profits.

As members of communities, any and all of our efforts, both local and national regulation of environmental conditions -- meaning he purity and safety of our ground, air, and water -- will come under attack, and all of the progress made to improve the environment over many decades will unravel.

The evil step-sister of TPP is TTIP -- the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership -- a nearly identical regime of corporate tyranny targeting the 28 nations of the European Union which is simultaneously under negotiation and aggressively being promoted by our self-described "progressive" president.

Greenpeace just managed to leak 13 of 17 chapters of the most recent version of TTIP.

There have been massive demonstrations and riots going on in Europe against TTIP for quite some time now.  The release of the text of TTIP has heightened tensions even more.

U.S. citizens might just want to ask themselves:  What's all the fuss about?





[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



TPP . . . just extrapolate and you’ll get it.





 

“Buddy, can you spare some change?”

 

We're on our own. You and I __ the vast majority of Americans __ have no one else to turn to.

Not our leaders, not our pundits, not our spokespersons, not so-called "job creators", not our teachers or ministers. Not the Clintons or Bushes, not the Trumps or Romneys. Certainly not the Kochs or the Murdochs or Bloombergs, Adelsons or Gates. Not the Dimons or the Blankfeins.

Most of them are on the other team, or at very least play for the other team. That other team is one that you and I will never get to join. It is an isolated, insular, impudent, incomprehensibly wealthy club __ a very tiny slice of our 300+ million __ who have so much, want even more, and will never be satisfied until they have it all. We are just more items on their shopping list. Welcome to capitalism run amok! Welcome to a country where everything has a price and there are some who are so possessed by greed, they see human beings as servants, chattel, minions, serfs, and __ if they can get us for free __ slaves.

What's this got to do with us? History has shown that in every society there is always an elite which sees itself as superior to the swarming mob, a cut above the unwashed masses, members of an aristocratic class, living in its own exclusive world of privilege. It's just an unpleasant side of human nature. There's nothing new about snobbery.

Why should we be concerned?

If it's not obvious, it's this . . .

They now own and control our elected representatives, including whoever holds the office of President. You doubt this? Look at Obama's aggressively embracing and promoting the worst, most onerous trade bills in the history of the world, TPP and TPIP. This one master stroke by the ruling oligarchs will enslave nearly half of the world's population. National borders will mean nothing. Corporations and the oligarchs who own them will exercise absolute imperial rule over wealth, resources __ our lives, and those of our children.

This whole TPP/TPIP issue should be a warning! There's a message in this treachery we need to remind ourselves of every waking minute:  Even some of those who claim to be "one of us" or "on our side" are owned by that tiny .1% of America who truly have the power __ the ones who are actually running things.

So . . . it's just us. It's you and me against them.

My strategy for radical electoral reform, as described in my book Candidate Contracts: Taking Back Our Democracy, is not elitist. Nor does it pander to the elite. It does not crawl to the rich and powerful and beg them to show us some mercy.

As a matter of fact, my plan is the essence of populist activism. For it to be successfully implemented requires participation by average citizens, across the political spectrum.

I will admit, I did send the book gratis to hundreds of thinkers in academia, think tanks, pundit pools, a host of well-known and not so well-known spokespersons for the "liberal establishment". While many of these prominent individuals are part of __ often lead __ the national conversation on all things germane to the running of our country, most of them are very much a part of the system. But their endorsement of my ideas might give them credibility, or at least draw some attention to a plan which regular citizens need to know about and actively support.

I'm not sure what to expect of these thinker types.

Frankly, I'm not expecting much.

Most of them are busy, and more inimically, tightly locked into their own methodologies for what they peddle as activism. They often neglect to notice that despite their best and allegedly noble efforts, things continue to deteriorate. The only change is that as each day passes, things deteriorate more quickly.

I must say, there sure are an abundance of people commenting on the problems.

But not many solving the problems.

It's a fundamental distinction, which is often missed.

What if you had a horrible flesh-eating disease?

Medical experts come in and declare: "We have analyzed all of the data and come to the conclusion that you are in big trouble, clearly in horrible pain, the victim of a terrible disease. It is very tragic! Have a nice day."

Do we need to bring in several more teams of experts to tell you the same thing?

I assume this is more what you'd hope for: "We have analyzed the data on your condition. While your situation is serious, we have come up with a detailed plan involving a host of drugs, some surgical procedures, and a program for rehabilitation. We can cure this and once we are done, you should be able to live a long and fulfilling life."

The difference should be apparent.

My book is not more whining. It offers a step-by-step, highly detailed plan for challenging the corruption of our current politicos, and for reversing the destruction of representative democracy in America.

Let me just mention this in closing . . .

There are a few highly visible figures who are on our side, demonstrated by their own writings and activism for our team, by their dedication to making a better life for every American. Once the printed books are out, I will be sending copies to Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Robert Reich, Michael Moore, and several others who are to varying degrees in the national spotlight, and whose support would be valuable.

We'll see what comes of that.

I can't force anyone to pay attention. I can only put my ideas out there.

Change doesn't just magically happen.

People need to believe it's possible.

Then they need to make room in their hearts and time in their day to make it happen.

__________________________________________________________


"Candidate Contracts: Taking Back Our Democracy" is now available . . .

Amazon (Kindle) . . . amzn.to/1QJRiNZ
Apple (iBook) . . . apple.co/1BXnPcy
Amazon (Paperback) . . . [ TBA ]
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Smashwords . . . bit.ly/1B4DQCp
Direct from printer . . . bit.ly/1MGjDnN



[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Distractions

 
Magicians are adept at distraction, as are card sharks, pickpockets and politicians.

And when you throw in the main stream media as a partner in crime, you have the perfect storm for a misinformed and malleable public.

It goes without saying that Americans are constantly bombarded with stories and images provoking fear. Just in the past couple months, we've had ISIS sleeper cells, the certainty that Ebola would be spreading like a plague across the land, a cyber attack by North Korea on our sacrosanct movie industry and our freedom of speech, last but not least, the threat of a reconstituted Soviet Union under the rule of that barbarian Vladimir Putin, raining nuclear-tipped ICBMs down on us. 

These are what I would call the "pro-active" distractions, ones which disable our ability to think rationally and turn us into trembling bowls of paralyzed Jello.

But I've decided that perhaps the most insidious distractions are the "passive" variant, the on-the-surface innocent ones that monopolize our attention with crises which are beyond trivial, drain us of energy and focus better directed to important issues that makes a real difference, make a mockery of anything resembling meaningful conversation, and upend and distort both our personal and national priorities.

I could go on for months on these distractions. We all know what they are. They include everything from celebrity gossip, to scandals involving iconic figures in sports, politics, business, and so on.
Just last week, there was a "scandal" which monopolized huge swaths of American media. Everyone had to weigh in, even allegedly serious journalists like Ed Schultz. Frankly, I was tempted to throw my hands up in the air, throw my hat in the ring, maybe throw up.

This was the whole business about the amount of air in the footballs thrown by all-star Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots. I don't have to explain this "crisis" in technical detail, because if you had your television on at any point, you already know that America demanded to know whether there was the legal minimum amount of air pressure in the footballs Mr. Brady used in his glorious ascent to football stardom.

While one third of America's school children are now officially living in poverty . . .

While despite the rosy figures spewed by our government, the truth is America's economy is in decline and a major economic crash is coming, probably sooner than later . . .

While we as ordinary citizens are being treated as the enemy, with constant surveillance and spying, and a militarized police presence which is often brutal and not adverse to killing innocent people, especially people of color . . .

While the planet is heating up at rates far beyond the most pessimistic predictions, boding unparalleled depletion of food resources, displacement of millions of people, setting the stage for massive global conflict over water and arable land . . .

While the banksters and Wall Street criminals go unprosecuted for their prior malfeasance and fraud __ e.g. the crash of 2008 __ and continue to loot the national treasury . . .

While TTP and TTIP, so-called "free trade agreements" which will be the nail in the coffin for an economy which serves the needs of the majority of citizens in our country, are being rammed down the throats of good, decent, hard-working people to serve the interests of the oligarchy . . .

While the neocon lunatics now in control of America's foreign policy are busy rallying the nation for an unnecessary, unjustified, lethal confrontation with Russia __ a major war, folks, as in World War III! . . .

We are wringing our hands over the amount of air in a football?


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

 

Irony Deficiency Anemia

Our government has become oblivious to the ignominious irony of its policies and actions. Therefore, it blunders on, never questioning why often much of what it does produces the very opposite of either its stated or actual intentions.

Without intended irony, it arms the rest of the world to make it safer. Anyone with a checkbook can obtain weaponry from America. The U.S. is by a huge margin the biggest supplier of military hardware to the international community. We are then shocked when these same weapons end up pointing at us, now in the hands of bin Laden, al Qaeda and other militant extremists.

Without intended irony, it incentivizes corporations to export America's jobs, reasoning that the healthier these corporations are, the sounder will be the economy of the country, evidence of spreading poverty and grotesque income inequality be damned. TPP and TTIP are the latest virulent initiatives toward transferring national sovereignty to multinational corporations, strengthening America by draining it of its self-determination and economic vitality. These so-called trade agreements are NAFTA on steroids. We just hope there's an open seat at future Third World economic
conferences and those countries don't despise us for plundering their natural resources all these years.

Without intended irony, the President declares himself the "environmental president" while promoting the greatest surge in domestic oil and gas production in our history, including the use of fracking and opening up vast stretches of pristine land and fragile offshore sites to ruinous exploration and drilling. The U.S. still refuses to sign the Kyoto Treaty, only marginally participates in world conferences on the environment, and most certainly fails to provide much-needed leadership on issues like climate change and the rapid and dramatic decline in the health of the oceans. The only environment we have protected is a business environment which worships plunder for profit.

Without intended irony, America holds itself up as the beacon of democracy in the world while supporting ruthless despots and grotesque tyranny throughout the world, likewise tolerating the corruption of the electoral system in America itself. Welcome to a world where money buys politicians and the voice of the common citizen is silenced both by oligarchical monopoly of the national conversation and voter disenfranchisement.

Without intended irony, the U.S. promotes democracy in the Ukraine by encouraging the overthrow of an elected government and replacing it in a coup with neo-nazi thugs and plutocrats, who then rig the next election which they of course claim validates their rule, then training and supplying the neo-Nazi National Guard with weapons. As we should suspect, this is part of a bigger plan
which has nothing to do with spreading democracy, and in fact reignites
old antagonisms with Russia and puts us all at risk for World War III.
Nice work, eh?

Without intended irony, the U.S. affirms its commitment to ridding the world of nuclear weapons by spending more now on upgrading our existing stockpiles and R&D on new more destructive nuclear devices, than we did at the height of the Cold War.  With over 4,800 nuclear warheads in its current arsenal __ enough to destroy life on Earth many times over __ we negotiate agreements with our allies to expedite the efficient use and deployment of our bulging arsenals of collective mass suicide.

Without intended irony Obama promised to foster transparency in his administration, yet has increased secrecy, prosecuted whistle blowers at a record rate, has fanatically clamped down on leaks, drastically curtailed freedom of the press by attempting to force journalists to reveal their sources, classified more government documents and communications than any president in our history, has overseen massive and intrusive surveillance by the NSA and other national security agencies of innocent Americans, foreign nationals and even heads of state of America's allies, and continues to
expand the capacity of government agencies to unconstitutionally monitor and record every interaction by U.S. citizens.

Without intended irony, it honors its "responsibility to protect" by attacking other nations, killing a lot of innocent people, creating fear and animosity in the rest of the world, and as a result it fails
its responsibility to protect the people it is most responsible for, American citizens. With our cavalier use of military force, we are more feared, resented, despised than ever. Serious blowback is inevitable. How ironic, eh?

Without intended irony, we scold other countries, like Russia and China, for being bullies, while we ignore resolutions and concerted efforts of the United Nations, refuse to join the ICC or acknowledge its legal authority over us, reserve the right to use our military at any time and place of our choosing, skirt the Geneva conventions by using torture, harass and bomb countries we are not at war with using drones and special ops troops, and talk about needed cooperation among members of the international community while economically strangling with sanctions any country which does not bend to our unilateral dictates.

Yes, we fail to see the irony in all of this. We choose to turn a blind eye to the deceptions and self-sabotaging contradictions. This has indeed made our country sick, an anemic and feckless nation of sheeple, vis-a-vis the noble ideals we once held and now unconvincingly espouse. We struggle with buckling knees in an increasingly futile attempt to prop up the political house of cards we've built of self-deception and delusions.

No house of cards can rise forever. The longer we pile rationalizations and faulty logic on imperialistic hubris and sociopathic fantasies, the closer we come to its ultimate collapse.

It's no longer a question of 'if' but 'when'.

It will collapse.

Let's hope it doesn't take the foundations of our once great nation with it and we are still left with something upon which to rebuild.


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

When Hope Becomes Hype

 

I don't hate government.

I don't hate Obama per se.

I am against corruption.

I intensely hate lying.

I especially hate it when campaign promises are made with what I take to
be sincerity and genuine caring, then are with cool dispassion and
complete lack of remorse broken.

Having said that . . .

What happens when hope turns out to be hype?

Here is a sampling of the record of Obama and his administration since he took office:

• Carried out military interventionism in Libya without Congressional approval.
• Gave a no-bid contract to Halliburton cronies – just like Bush did.
• Has an administration full of lobbyists, after promising he wouldn’t have any.
• Has close ties to Wall Street, but pretends to support Main Street.
• Broke his promise to close Guantanamo Bay.
• Instigated conflict in Ukraine, then lied to the American public about it.
• Continues to support with aid and armaments extremist factions of al Qaeda terrorists in Syria.
• Supported the $700 billion TARP corporate-welfare bailout just like Bush.
• Waged the biggest war against medical marijuana of any president, which was the opposite of what he had promised.
• Nominated the six-time tax cheater and Wall Street insider, Timothy
  Geithner, to head the government agency that enforces the tax laws and
  oversees banking policy.
• Gave tax dollars to AIG executives, then pretended to be outraged about it.
• Expanded Bush’s unconstitutional government faith based programs.
• Supported Bush’s unconstitutional Patriot Act, signing NDAA into law New Years Eve 2011.
• Increased the national debt more in one term than Bush did in two, contrary to campaign pledges.
• Continues and defends Bush’s policy of unconstitutional, indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without filing any charges.
• Continues and defends Bush’s policy of unconstitutional, warrantless wiretapping.
• Has avoided prosecution of Wall Street criminals.
• Had four U.S. citizens killed without judicial process.
• Using drones has murdered over 2,000 people, at least a third of which are innocent civilians and include women and children.
• Illegally put thousands of guns into hands of criminals via Operation Fast and Furious.
• Falsely has claimed “This is the most transparent administration in history” when astute observers judge it to be the least.
• Had “off the record” meetings with lobbyists, against his promise to reduce the influence of lobbyists.
• Broke his promise to put health care negotiations on C-SPAN.
• Supported new bailouts for speculators who caused housing bubble.
• Used “off the books” funding for military interventionism, something he was extremely critical of during his first campaign.
• Falsely claimed he would wait five days before signing bills.
• Gave tax dollars to campaign contributors and lobbyists, and falsely claimed the money was for “green energy”.
• Rewarded his fundraisers by giving them federal jobs, after promising “the most sweeping ethics reform in history.”
• Falsely promised “stimulus” spending would be transparent.
• Promised relief from the onerous effects of GATT and NAFTA but now
  is secretly promoting TPP and TTIP,  two of the worst trade agreements
  in history. TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids.
• Allows campaign contributors to give lobbyists access to the White House.
• Falsely has stated his campaigns were not funded by large donors.
• Approved giving 20 F-16 fighter jets to a Sharia dictatorship.
• Has Freedom of Information Act record worse than Bush’s.
• According to Ralph Nader, Obama is a “war criminal” who is “more aggressive, more illegal worldwide” than Bush.
• Nominated Jack Lew to be Secretary of the Treasury, a man who had
  participated in what Obama himself had called “the biggest tax scam on
  record.”
• Purchased 2,717 mine resistant armor protected vehicles for use on civilian streets in the U.S.
• Using the Espionage Act has persecuted numerous whistleblowers.
• Oversees and encourages the spying on U.S. citizens innocent of any
  crime as well as on foreign dignitaries, many of whom are our allies.
• In direct opposition to freedom of the press guaranteed in the
  Constitution, harasses and threatens journalists with prosecution.

If this were the record of a Republican __ a Romney or a McCain __ I would be
angry and very frustrated, but it would hardly come as a surprise.

That this is the record of a man and a political party zealously promoting the
appearance of progressive values, claiming with high rhetoric to have
the welfare of the country and its people at heart, is infuriating. It is a callous and most certainly calculated betrayal.

We were told we were being given hope.

It turned out to be hype.

[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Real News

 

Over the past few weeks, we have endured the build-up to a major political charade, the unnecessary shut down of the government, and a totally manufactured kamikaze crisis over raising the debt ceiling. There may have been other newsworthy things going on but good-luck finding them in the monotonous, ever-vacuous reality show presented to the American public by the mainstream media.

As anyone with a functioning brain would suspect, a lot was happening. I've cherry-picked, by way of illustration, a few items that would seem in the long view relatively important.

Never making the short list for the annual Mr. Congeniality Award, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raged on before the whole world that "Iran is building now ICBMs that the United States says could reach this city (New York) in three or four years," went on to call Iranian President Hassan Rouhani a blatant liar, and then topped off his rant by claiming "in the last three years alone, Iran has ordered, planned or perpetrated terrorist attacks in 25 countries on five continents." He offered no supporting evidence but he's a great guy so we can be confident he knows what he's talking about. Bibi then went on to say that Israel was prepared to mount a military attack against Iran to prevent them from building a nuclear weapon __ again he offered no supporting evidence of a nuclear bomb in any stage of actual development __  and was prepared to "go it alone" if necessary, meaning I guess, to start World War III without assistance from anyone else.

Ignoring a stunning speech at the United Nations and overtures from Rouhani indicating a desire for peace and a pledge of full transparency and cooperation regarding Iran's nuclear energy programs, President Obama and the bellicose Bibi joined spittle for a bad cop-bad cop number on Iran when the two met at the White House on October 1st. While many if not most nations prefer to error on the side of peace, America apparently is completely baffled by any initiatives aimed at diplomatic discussions and stands firmly behind its current drones-and-bombs approach to solving any and all disputes.

Speaking of drones, Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai's visit to the United States was actually given decent coverage in the media, but the prevailing narrative was the violent harassment heaped on her by religious fanatics who oppose her "liberal" views. She was shot in the head by the Taliban for suggesting that women have equal access to education. What was given very short shrift, if mentioned at all, was her message to President Obama when she met face-to-face with the drone-killer-in-chief: "I thanked President Obama for the United States' work in supporting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan and for Syrian refugees ... I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education, it will make a big impact." Was he listening?

TPP negotiations continued in high gear. This abominable "trade agreement" __ which in fact is not so much a trade agreement as a blank check for transnational corporations to be able to: trump the authority of national governments; dismember labor unions; capitalize on slave labor and inflict other forms of worker abuse; institute a form of trans-sovereign legal proceedings with no oversight or appeal; institutionalize a corporate race to the bottom in terms of human rights, worker safety, environmental safeguards, community control, and food standards; and completely destroy regulatory mechanisms for assuring the integrity and reliability of international financial systems __ has met with increasing opposition in a number of countries, Japan being foremost among them. TPP is almost completely unmentioned in the American press, so if you don't know about it, you don't have to feel guilty. It's so secret that even members of Congress aren't allowed to see the draft document. So don't tell anyone, okay?

On October 2nd, two days into the government shutdown, President Obama met with America's top bankers, who were conveniently attending a conference in Washington DC. Included were Jamie Dimon (CEO, JP Morgan Chase), Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs), Brian Moynihan (Bank of America), and Michael Corbat (Citigroup). This certainly comes as no surprise, considering Obama's campaign coffers brimmed from the money donated by these same gentlemen. What was telling was that this meeting of gigantic wallets with our President was barely mentioned in the mainstream press, and certainly the details of the high-level discussions were never revealed. We can safely assume that Obama and the fifteen banksters nodded and agreed that the meltdown of the American government was bad and defaulting on the nation's debt obligations would be worse __ as in catastrophic! It most definitely wasn't mentioned in the press that several of these too-big-to-jail bank CEOs were under investigation for uncompetitive manipulation of LIBOR rates, and one in the middle of negotiating a settlement with the Department of Justice for mortgage fraud. My mom used to tell me that people are judged by the company they keep. But she's dead.


 

Speaking of too-big-to-jail, Jamie Dimon and JP Morgan Chase walked away with a $100 million slap-on-the-wrist fine from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for the $6.2 billion London whale debacle. As part of the modest settlement, they had to admit wrongdoing __ as in disastrous mishandling of investors money and the concealment of their astronomical losses from their stockholders and regulatory agencies. Whew!! Sure glad that's over so they can get back to more casino banking, an unregulated high stakes game known as derivatives roulette. Yes, another day, another dollar! Or million dollars. Or is it billion? Wait! How many zeroes in a trillion?

While we're on the subject of derivatives and the dizzying heights of risk and stupidity, as the U.S. tottered toward the brink of default and bankruptcy, the total notional exposure of the world's banking system to derivatives continued to grow precipitously. No one knows for sure what the exact figure is, but it's estimated at somewhere between $700 trillion and $1.2 quadrillion, horrifyingly 10 to 17 times the value of the ENTIRE WORLD ECONOMY. What does this mean for you and I? Let's just say that it was these same exotic financial instruments responsible for the economic crisis in 2008, which wiped out savings, pension funds, investment portfolios, ultimately costing Americans an estimated $12.8 trillion, in destruction of assets net value, massive loss of jobs, home foreclosures, crippling of GDP growth and overall productivity, on and on. These financial weapons of mass destruction themselves took a huge hit in the economic collapse five years ago. But with Wall Street and investment bank addiction to gambling still pathologically entrenched as the de facto operating business model, derivative trades have since been steadily accumulating and now exceed the level at the time of the collapse in 2008. We won't have to wonder how bad it will be this next time. We can just watch it on TV __ assuming of course, we each still have a TV and electricity in our homes when this house of cards comes tumbling down.

As criminal negligence of the nation's well-being was passed off as democracy in action on the floors of Congress, accused traitor Edward Snowden addressed European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. His statement was read to the committee by Human Rights Director Jesselyn Radack, and included this highly salient remark: "A culture of secrecy has denied our societies the opportunity to determine the appropriate balance between the human right of privacy and the governmental interest in investigation. These are not decisions that should be made for a people, but only by the people after full, informed, and fearless debate. Yet public debate is not possible without public knowledge, and in my country, the cost for one in my position of returning public knowledge to public hands has been persecution and exile." Did you hear about this? I saw no mention in the MSM. I guess he forgot to include a video of Miley Cyrus twerking him.

The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  (IPCC) released their fifth and final report on global warming and definitively confirmed what we already knew, though many continue to deny it. Dude! Elvis is still alive. The Holocaust never happened. There is a Santa Claus! But the simple truth is, these scientists have been wussy whining about the Earth-turning-to-a-pile-of-ash-and-cinders thing for decades now. Time to move on! This is our Thelma & Louise moment. Why spoil a great ending with a lot of wringing of hands and crybaby bawling about something as minor as the extinction of the human race.

In related news, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature released their IPSO review on the dismal state of the oceans. The bad news is that "the anthropogenic stressors on the ocean go beyond the conclusion reached last week by the U.N. climate change panel the IPCC," and that "the ocean is absorbing much of the warming and unprecedented levels of carbon dioxide." Meaning the world's oceans are experiencing the deadly three-pronged effect of de-oxygenation, acidification, and catastrophic warming. These combined with gross overfishing don't bode well. In a phrase, 'the oceans are dying' and we're the ones killing them. The IPSO report doesn't even take into account the vast amount of toxic pollutants and trash that we dump into them. Damn! Anyone hungry? Let's get a McFish sandwich while we still can.

Speaking of poisoning the oceans, the damaged nuclear facilities at Fukushima continued to pour tons of radioactive isotopes into the sea and local environment. Whatever! Refer to the Thelma & Louise remark above. Pedal to the metal. Don't look back. No fear. Right on.

Chinese President Xi Jinping pressed on with his China's Silk Road initiatives. In case you aren't familiar with this __ most Americans aren't __ this enormous economic strategy is a "supremely ambitious, Chinese-fueled trans-Eurasian integration mega-project, from the Pacific to the Baltic Sea; a sort of mega free-trade zone." This region contains "close to 3 billion people and represents the biggest market in the world with unparalleled potential." So while the congressional three-ring circus further damaged our faltering economy, now growing at a sluggish rate of 2.5%, and made America look like a bunch of bumbling idiots, China was building on their already impressive growth rate of 7.8% by "bringing about a new multipolar international order."

This is perhaps redundant to mention, but Chinese President Xi Jinping also dazzled the attendees at the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Besides presenting brilliant new prospects to attending nations for even more lucrative trade deals with China, he led a "Happy Birthday" for Russian President Vladimir Putin, with Indonesian President Susilo Yudhoyono on acoustic guitar. Obama canceled his own trip there, presumably because he was busy buying non-chafing Kleenex in case Boehner had another blubbering fit during their budget negotiations. Obama's no show in Bali, Indonesia was the icing on the cake for the rest of the world. America has long been perceived as a bull in a china shop and a force to be reckoned with. But as the crisis with our insane Congress unfolded, we were looking more like a church mouse on LSD. In a much-debated but certainly well-received editorial published by The Xinhua News Agency __ which is the official press agency of the People's Republic of China __ writer Liu Chang called for the de-Americanization of the world economy. Hey guys! It's not too soon to start learning to eat with chopsticks.

Last and at least theoretically not least, during the 17 days of the government shutdown, over 350,000 people in our lovely world died of starvation. At the same time, speculators pumped up on testosterone and panting over the prospect of making a totally awesome killing, continued to drive the prices up on huge stockpiles and surpluses of food.

So what's the point?

Granted, the shutdown of the government and the debt ceiling crisis was much more consequential than Miley Cyrus' twerking or even Gloria Steinem's comments a few days ago about the place of eroticized-objectified-commodified pop stars in the greater scheme of things, specifically Ms. Cyrus.

But it's still a matter of perspective. It should come as no surprise when somewhere down the road, America devolves into a second or third-rate power and the rest of the world has passed us by. Because while we immerse ourselves in our petty dramas and obsess over the ridiculous machinations of our pea-brain politicians, there are a multitude of other things going on across the globe __ and even in our own country __ which ultimately will destroy America's capacity for leadership and undermine our own ability to function as a society and a nation.

It comes down to this . . .

The rest of humankind wrestles with all sorts of challenges. It struggles to make sense of the manipulations, the posturing, the militarization, the privatization, the corporatization, the countless day-to-day clashes between authority and the common citizen's forthright and simple desire for a decent life. It's difficult anywhere for anyone to keep up with and deal with in a constructive way. America has no monopoly on distraction and confusion.

But the other people on this tiny planet are also very aware of our own special American brand of folly __ our breathtaking ignorance of the rest of the world; our un-Christian and hypocritical lack of compassion for others, even fellow-Americans; our infantile fairy-tale "exceptionalism"; our inability to put our own house in order, while we make pompous declarations about how everyone else should live their lives, preferably just like us.

The world sees our divisiveness, our indecision, our insensitivity, our superficiality, our paralysis, and this recent self-destructive congressional tomfoolery exactly for what it is.

Boehner cries. Obama high-fives. Miley shakes her firm little butt.

Got it.

We in America can sit on the edges of our seats glued to the boob tube all we want.

We can wring our hands, cheer for our side, and yell expletives at the other.

We can watch this reality show like we watch professional wrestling.

We can pretend these travesties are what's really important.

But someday we're going to have to face the facts.

The real world actually has real news.



[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]