The dismantling of “the charter of every self-respecting man”

chomsky reflects on the magna carta and the upcoming millennium celebration of its creation in 2015...

Recent events trace a threatening trajectory, sufficiently so that it may be worthwhile to look ahead a few generations to the millennium anniversary of one of the great events in the establishment of civil and human rights: the issuance of Magna Carta, the charter of English liberties imposed on King John in 1215.

What we do right now, or fail to do, will determine what kind of world will greet that anniversary. It is not an attractive prospect – not least because the Great Charter is being shredded before our eyes.

worthwhile reading... as always, chomsky provides important historical context which is rarely a part of our political and social discourse...

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Stiglitz: Unrestrained power and rampant greed are writing an epitaph for the American dream

i was pointed to this by commenter mettle...

from the guardian...

The ancient Greeks had a word for it – pleonexia – which means an overreaching desire for more than one's share.

[...]

In The Price of Inequality, Joseph E Stiglitz passionately describes how unrestrained power and rampant greed are writing an epitaph for the American dream. The promise of the US as the land of opportunity has been shattered by the modern pleonetic tyrants, who make up the 1%, while sections of the 99% across the globe are beginning to vent their rage. That often inchoate anger, seen in Occupy Wall Street and Spain's los indignados, is given shape, fluency, substance and authority by Stiglitz. He does so not in the name of revolution – although he tells the 1% that their bloody time may yet come – but in order that capitalism be snatched back from free market fundamentalism and put to the service of the many, not the few.

[...]

The Price of Inequality is a powerful plea for the implementation of what Alexis de Tocqueville termed "self-interest properly understood". Stiglitz writes: "Paying attention to everyone else's self-interest – in other words to the common welfare – is in fact a precondition for one's own ultimate wellbeing… it isn't just good for the soul; it's good for business." Unfortunately, that's what those with hubris and pleonexia have never understood – and we are all paying the price.

and the price we're paying is horrific...

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The ideology of capitalism and free markets reject the need for thought, knowledge, information, and any notion of public life

rob urie in counterpunch...

Occupy is Alive; So is History

Political leadership in the West has calcified atop a set of existing facts and trajectory that assure rebellion in one form or another until they are reconciled. In addition to the economic divides between wealth and poverty, employment and unemployment, opportunity and the lack of opportunity, there is a generational divide that has left youth around the world on the outside of economic life.

[...]

These conditions were not created by the young or by the multitudes that are likewise on the outside of economic and mainstream political life. They result from decades of ideologically driven policies that assumed that the secular deity of markets removed the need for thought, knowledge, information, and any notion of public life. This ideology supports a predatory economic order that has had disastrous consequences for vast majorities in the West. And yet it still drives economic and political decisions today.


[...]


[T]here are entirely practical reasons why rebellion is here to stay until these problems are resolved. What this rebellion will look like will be a function of material conditions as they develop and the systemic response to them. To date this response has been discouraging and events unfolding in Egypt add new degrees of pessimism. This written, rebellion is both necessary and life affirming.

we'll see, i guess...

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Sitglitz: Money trumps democracy - America has the highest level of inequality of any of the advanced countries

in my travels over the years, i've always been acutely aware of the disparity between rich and poor in many of the countries i've visited... mexico was my first eye-opening experience in the early 70s and, despite the appearance of home depots and sam's clubs that have popped up like poisonous mushrooms after a rain, as of last october, i haven't seen that much change... the poor are still very poor and the rich are still staggeringly rich... i've seen the same story repeated to greater and lesser degrees all over latin america, the balkans (with a few exceptions), africa and, saddest of all, afghanistan...


i always thought that the poor in the u.s., although i know there are some whose circumstances are almost as extreme as in the poorest of third world countries, were poor at a level a bit more comfortable than, for instance, in mexico... i don't think that any more... in the last ten years, especially, i've seen my country slide inexorably toward third world standards with no end in sight...


joseph stiglitz is an acute observer and i offer this only as a way to keep the problem visible...

[T]he American dream is a myth. There is less equality of opportunity in the United States today than there is in Europe – or, indeed, in any advanced industrial country for which there are data.

This is one of the reasons that America has the highest level of inequality of any of the advanced countries – and its gap with the rest has been widening. In the “recovery” of 2009-2010, the top 1% of US income earners captured 93% of the income growth. Other inequality indicators – like wealth, health, and life expectancy – are as bad or even worse. The clear trend is one of concentration of income and wealth at the top, the hollowing out of the middle, and increasing poverty at the bottom.

It would be one thing if the high incomes of those at the top were the result of greater contributions to society, but the Great Recession showed otherwise: even bankers who had led the global economy, as well as their own firms, to the brink of ruin, received outsize bonuses.

A closer look at those at the top reveals a disproportionate role for rent-seeking: some have obtained their wealth by exercising monopoly power; others are CEOs who have taken advantage of deficiencies in corporate governance to extract for themselves an excessive share of corporate earnings; and still others have used political connections to benefit from government munificence – either excessively high prices for what the government buys (drugs), or excessively low prices for what the government sells (mineral rights).

Likewise, part of the wealth of those in finance comes from exploiting the poor, through predatory lending and abusive credit-card practices. Those at the top, in such cases, are enriched at the direct expense of those at the bottom.

i never cease to be amazed at the greed manifested by those at the top and completely baffled at their disregard or even outright contempt for any notion of the common good...

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Alternet: The relentless drive of corporations to maximize profit above everything else, including safety, fair working conditions, clean air and water, healthy communities, and common decency

tara lohan writing in alternet...

The corporate model we have today hasn't always been around and it doesn't need to remain the dominant way we do business. There is no reason we should be swabbing the decks of a sinking ship -- alternatives already exist and they are flourishing.

"What's underway is an ownership revolution. It's about broadening economic power from the few to the many and about changing the mindset from social indifference to social benefit," Kelly [Marjorie Kelly, a fellow at the Tellus Institute and author of the new book Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution] writes. "We're schooled to fear this shift, to think there are only two choices for the design of an economy: capitalism and communism, private ownership and state ownership. But the alternatives being grown today defy those dusty 19th-century categories. They represent a new option of private ownership for the common good. This economic revolution is different from a political one. It's not about tearing down but about building up. It's about reconstructing the foundation of ownership on which the economy rests."

[...]

[A] healthy, living economy needs biodiversity. We can find this if we begin to look around -- across the U.S. and the world -- where there are businesses designed not for maximum profit, but with a mission-driven social and economic architecture. One of these models is the "social enterprise."

The Social Enterprise Alliance defines these organizations as "businesses whose primary purpose is the common good. They use the methods and disciplines of business and the power of the marketplace to advance their social, environmental and human justice agendas." And one of the defining characteristics is that "The common good is its primary purpose, literally 'baked into' the organization's DNA, and trumping all others." [emphasis added]

[...]

The idea of social enterprises is catching on in the business world in the U.S. with the emergence of Benefit Corporations, also known as B Corps, which are designed, "to create a new sector of the economy which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems." B Corps are all for-profit companies that have legal structures mandating that the company is designed to work not for maximum shareholder gain, but for the good of society and the environment.

in the 80s there was a move among corporations toward participative governance, employee empowerment, consensus decision-making and addressing the needs of stakeholders with all the same seriousness reserved for owners and shareholders... this understandably made our super-rich elites nervous as they perceived it as an assault on their power and their perceived "right" to vacuum up unlimited quantities of cash from enterprises in which they had invested their capital... i was particularly supportive of this movement as it aligned very well with my own values and principles...

in my work with large corporations in that era, i devoted vast amounts of skill and energy to making front-line workers, the ones who are the heart and soul of any organization, the beneficiaries of the fruits of empowerment - shared decision-making, increased authority and responsibility and a commensurate share of the rewards... it took a while to sink in to my thick skull that the senior managers had no intention of letting such "socialist" notions take hold but that didn't prevent them from giving lip service all the same...

the terminology of that era is still evident in the introductory pages of every corporate annual report but it's as phony as a three-dollar bill... even so, i continue to teach and train those principles in every venue in which i have an entree - consulting jobs, teaching an mba class, and in every conversation i have with anyone willing to listen to me pounding the pulpit...

of one thing i am sure... unless and until a stake is driven through the heart of the utterly false concept of social darwinism and we make a conscious and collective decision to support the common good and accept that we are all in this boat together, we will never reach the kind of organization changes tara lohan writes about...

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Stiglitz: Moral deprivation, all the apples in the barrel are rotten and capitalism is broken

when i read stiglitz' book, globalization and its discontents, in 2003, it opened my eyes... that was the first year i worked in international development and i was witnessing first-hand a lot of different dynamics that i was trying to make sense out of... sitting in a former communist country and watching the mad scramble to shift to a market economy would have simply been undecipherable chaos for me if i had not had stiglitz as a guide... i was left with a deep impression of a profoundly moral person of great intellect who was nonetheless gifted in making hugely complex forces understandable in ways that upheld what i had come to believe was basic common sense... i'm pleased to see him still out in front as a rational, moral force at a time when the quasi-religious ideology of capitalism is collapsing under its own weight...

this is an excerpt from a daily beast article quoting stiglitz from his latest book, from cairo to wall street: voices from the global spring...

If no one is accountable, the problem must lie in the economic system. This is the inevitable conclusion and the reason that the protesters are right to be indignant. Every barrel has its rotten apples, but the problem, as MIT Professor Susan Silbey has written, comes when the whole barrel is rotten.

Much of what has gone on can only be described by the words moral deprivation. Something wrong had happened to the moral compass of so many of the people working in the financial sector. When the norms of a society change in a way that so many have lost their moral compass—and the few whistle-blowers go unheeded—that says something significant about the society. The problem is not just the individuals who have lost their moral compass but society itself.

What the protests tell us is that there was outrage and that outrage gives hope. Americans have always had an idealistic streak, reflected both in the instruction in schools and in political rhetoric. Kids read the Declaration of Independence, “all men are created equal,” and they read the words literally, all men, white and black, and they believe them. They recite the Pledge of Allegiance, which promises “justice for all,” and they believe it.

[...]

The political system seems to be failing as much as the economic system, and in some ways, the two failures are intertwined. The system failed to prevent the crisis, it failed to remedy the crisis, it failed to check the growing inequality, it failed to protect those at the bottom, and it failed to prevent the corporate abuses. And while it was failing, the growing deficits suggested that these failures were likely to continue into the future.

Americans, Europeans, and people in other democracies around the world take great pride in their democratic institutions. But the protesters have called into question whether there is a real democracy. Real democracy is more than the right to vote once every two or four years. The choices have to be meaningful. The politicians have to listen to the voices of the citizens. However, increasingly, and especially in the United States, it seems that the political system is more akin to “one dollar one vote” than to “one person one vote.” Rather the correcting the market’s failures, the political system is reinforcing them.

[...]

[P]rotesters are asking for so little: for a chance to use their skills, for the right to decent work at decent pay, for a fairer economy and society. Their requests are not revolutionary but evolutionary. But at another level, they are asking for a great deal: for a democracy where people, not dollars, matter; and for a market economy that delivers on what it is supposed to do. The two demands are related: unfettered markets do not work well, as we have seen. For markets to work the way markets are supposed to work, there has to be appropriate government regulation. But for that to occur, we have to have a democracy that reflects the general interests, not the special interests. We may have the best government that money can buy, but that won’t be good enough.

i will put stiglitz' argument into my own words... i believe he's making a case for a return to the concept of the common good, a concept i believe has been under constant assault by the social darwinian mindset of our super-rich elites... we can't get back to it fast enough to suit me...

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The rich have milked our society for everything

from common dreams... well worth clicking through and reading the whole thing...

Five Reasons Why The Very Rich Have NOT Earned Their Money

1. They've Taken All the Middle Class Wage Increases
2. They've Mismanaged Key American Industries
3. They've Benefited from 50 Years of Public Research
4. They've Increased Their Incomes By Not Paying Taxes
5. They've Contributed Little to Society

what it boils down to is that the country has been run for their benefit...

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Corporate philanthropy as a cover for not contributing to the common good of your country

another insightful post from glenn's guest blogger, murtaza hussain...

A list of the most charitable companies in America shows some of the biggest tax evaders in the country. These include heavyweights such as Goldman, Wells Fargo, BoA and Exxon Mobil; a company which made $41.1 billion in profits last year and paid only 17 percent in effective taxes, a far lower rate than the average U.S. citizen. The savings here vastly outweigh any donation which is subsequently offered in the spirit of “social responsibility”. The result of this neglect of public duty has been spending cuts across all areas of government, resulting in layoffs to teachers, the closing of hospitals and the slashing of benefits to the most vulnerable sections of society including children and the elderly. That these same corporate citizens turn around and give back a fraction of what they owe in the form of charitable donations (for which they of course can claim further tax benefits) is a cynical attempt to manage their public image in the face of the increasingly angry public backlash against their policies.

The private social safety net, provided by corporate donors as compensation for the public one which their tax avoidance helps shred, is a poor substitute for democratically accountable public spending. Besides being poorer, free of public oversight, and geared primarily towards public relations efforts, the private safety net is a rug that can and will be pulled out from under its beneficiaries at the slightest notice. Goldman Sachs, which generously gave $320M in charitable contributions in 2010 and $500M in 2009, drastically cut its charitable budget to $78M a year in 2011 in response to reduced profits while making minimal cuts to employee bonuses and other compensation. “Doing God’s work”, as Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein famously described the companies activities is apparently an elective commitment based on market conditions. Whereas as a strong public safety net is managed democratically by its beneficiaries, corporate charity can and will disappear the moment it is deemed necessary which exemplifies clearly why it is no substitute for government spending.

i am fully in favor of csr (corporate social responsibility) but in no way is it a substitute for contributing a fair share of resources to the overall common good... an effort to polish a reputation to such a sheen that it blinds the public to what is in essence a repudiation of the social welfare of the country is, i'm afraid, the strategy for many corporations... particularly notable is the point hussain makes about the rug being pulled at a moment's notice...

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The "crisis of capitalism" has consolidated its dominance and exploitation over the rest of society

james petras talks about why we might want to consider socialism in light of the unending rape and pillage of world resources by our super-rich elites...

Finance capital, the principle detonator of the crash and crises, recovered, the capitalist class as a whole was strengthened, and most important of all, it utilized the political, social, ideological conditions created as a result of “the crises” to further consolidate their dominance and exploitation over the rest of society.

In other words, the ‘crises of capital’ has been converted into a strategic advantage for furthering the most fundamental interests of capital: the enlargement of profits, the consolidation of capitalist rule, the greater concentration of ownership, the deepening of inequalities between capital and labor and the creation of huge reserves of labor to further augment their profits.

[...]

A recent study reports “US corporate profits are higher as a share of gross domestic product than at any time since 1950” (FT 1/30/12). US companies cash balances have never been greater, thanks to intensified exploitation of workers, and a multi-tiered wage systems in which new hires work for a fraction of what older workers receive (thanks to agreements signed by ‘door mat’ labor bosses).

The “crises of capitalism” ideologues have ignored the financial reports of the major US corporations.According to General Motors 2011 report to its stockholders,they celebrated the greatest profit ever,turning a profit of $7.6 billion, surpassing the previous record of $6.7 billion in 1997.A large part of these profits results from the freezing of its underfunded US pension funds and extracting greater productivity from fewer workers-in other words intensified exploitation-and cutting hourly wages of new hires by half.(Earthlink News 2/16/12)

Moreover the increased importance of imperialist exploitation is evident as the share of US corporate profits extracted overseas keeps rising at the expense of employee income growth.

[...]

A real capitalist crisis would adversely affect profit margins, gross earnings and the accumulation of “cash piles”. Rising profits are being horded because as capitalists profit from intense exploitation , mass consumption stagnates.

Crises theorists confuse what is clearly the degrading of labor, the savaging of living and working conditions and even the stagnation of the economy, with a ‘crises’ of capital: when the capitalist class increases its profit margins, hoards trillions, it is not in crises. The key point is that the ‘crises of labor’ is a major stimulus for the recovery of capitalist profits. We cannot generalize from one to the other. No doubt there was a moment of capitalist crises (2008-2009) but thanks to the capitalist state’s unprecedented massive transfer of wealth from the public treasury to the capitalist class – Wall Street banks in the first instance – the corporate sector recovered, while the workers and the rest of the economy remained in crises, went bankrupt and out of work.

[...]

Socialism is no longer the scare word of the past. Socialism involves the large-scale reorganization of the economy, the transfer of trillions from the coffers of predator classes’ of no social utility to the public welfare. This change can finance a productive and innovative economy based on work and leisure, study and sport. Socialism replaces the everyday terror of dismissal with the security that brings confidence, assurance and respect to the workplace. Workplace democracy is at the heart of the vision of 21st century socialism. We begin by nationalizing the banks and eliminating Wall Street. Financial institutions are redesigned to create productive employment, to serve social welfare and to preserve the environment. Socialism would begin the transition, from a capitalist economy directed by predators and swindlers and a state at their command, toward an economy of public ownership under democratic control.

we need to start taking a hard look at reality... capitalism is a profoundly broken system and we need to face the fact that it has also become a ideological doctrine, no more or less than any other religion...

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Whining U.S. banks make me physically ill

great gobs of steaming bullshit... the banks are one of the prime culprits in why the world economy is in the mess it is in right now and, despite the trillions of dollars that the u.s. and the eu have tossed their way, have continued to reward themselves without any regard for the general welfare of the people they were chartered to serve... now, they're saying if they don't get their way, it will only delay any recovery... they can all go directly to hell...

Banks warn rule change will hurt recovery

US banks fear that any recovery in the US housing market will be further delayed as a result of moves to remove credit ratings from American regulations, which will boost banks’ capital requirements by billions of dollars.

Bankers have until Friday to respond to a proposal by the Federal Reserve and other regulators that would increase the “risk weights” on securitised assets, driving up sharply the equity capital that banks are forced to set against them.

screw 'em... they haven't done anything for anybody but themselves...

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The power-brokers in the global economy are finally realising that something has gone badly awry

a thoughtful, well-written op-ed in yesterday's guardian...

We can now see the true cost of globalisation

The worldwide public realises there is something deeply wrong with today's world economic system

i particularly like the closing comment...

[A]s we sift through the wreckage of the Great Recession, perhaps it's finally time to heed Marx's words, and stand up for workers everywhere.

i would re-word that just a bit to "it's time to stand up for the common good of all peoples everywhere"...

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Putting natural persons back in charge of our government

thom hartmann...

With the end of corporate personhood, it will be possible for the humans of the United States and every nation in the world to define the terms of a new economy. With natural persons once again in charge of government, we can redefine the rules of business so that corporations are profitable when their actions lead to sustainability and a clean environment, respond to values defined by local communities, and promote and develop renewable forms of energy. We can strip out the strings and the harnesses put into regulatory law by corporate lobbyists so that the government agencies charged with protecting us from malefactors and criminals can once again work.

[...]

Once corporate personhood is eliminated and corporations are again seen as they really are—the fictitious legal creatures of the states that authorized and created them—all this can change. The rightful representatives of humans— our governments—can then pass laws like the ones that were once part of this nation and its states, forbidding corporations from attempting to influence the laws and the regulatory agencies that oversee their activities.

[...]

"Democracy alone can supply the vitalizing force to stir the peoples of the world into triumphant action," Truman said, "not only against their human oppressors, but also against their ancient enemies—hunger, misery, and despair."

The role of government is to protect, defend, and represent the interests of its own people, he said. "Democracy maintains that government is established for the benefit of the individual, and is charged with the responsibility of protecting the rights of the individual and his freedom in the exercise of his abilities." Citing Locke’s concept of natural rights, he added, "Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to govern himself with reason and justice."

"natural persons"... kind of has a nice ring to it, doesn't it...?

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Remember, remember, the 5th of November

from anonymous...

If we are selfish today, then our future will be selfish tomorrow. But, if we respect, love and live for one another today, then our futures will do the same. The future will be following in our foot steps, just as we have been and are doing right now. For the last four weeks we have been given the opportunity and the responsibility to change our futures outcome. Second chances are hard to come by, and we can all relate. Let us make our voices heard, our presence not only seen, but felt, and let what we do here shake the world awake. This is our test of our commitment to change.

This is our chance to stand up against big banks and corporations with their Consumerism and Classism that has long divided all of us into groups of race, sex, political parties, have, the have nots and everyone in between. With the help of our own government, big banks and corporations have whipped us into line and divided us to keep the ideas, the power, and the knowledge separated to keep us weak, confused, and dependent on their services.

Corporations and big banks have taken over our government with money that line our representatives’ pockets and have blinded them from seeing us as people but instead a cash crop, as cheap labor, as entertainment, and even as lab rats. WE ARE PEOPLE.

These occupations might be our only stand against the corruption and abuse of power we have been experiencing over our life time. This is our calling. If we stop, if we stand still, then Wall Street, the uprisings in Europe and in the Middle East would have been for nothing. America is at the heart of the worlds corruption, and us being citizen leaders of America. We have the opportunity to bring it down. If we fall here we may never get the chance to get back up.

I am asking you to stand with us the tired, the manipulated, the lost and confused. Stand with neighbors, families, and friends. Stand with the ones who fought, fight, and die for this country and the people who helped build this country.

such an eloquent plea for a return to the principle of the common good...

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FWIW - an open letter to liberals, progressives and my fellow citizens

dear friends...

we have reached the point where we can go no further unless we come together and move forward as one... i believe what's happening in new york city, across the nation and around the world with the occupy movement offers us the best chance for that...

this i do know... if we keep on splintering our efforts to restore the ideal of the common good that is the basis for all the best humanity has to offer, we will never get there...

here's what i mean by "splintered"... below is just a sampling of my email from only the past 18 hours...

If we want to put a stop to the Republican War on Women once and for all, we must take back the House, to make sure disastrous bills like this one never get off the ground.

Contribute to EMILY's List today. Help us keep up the fight to take back the House and hold the Senate.

and...

Our Chairman and Founder, former Vice President Al Gore, has personally trained more than 3,000 people to deliver a multimedia presentation based on our worldwide event, 24 Hours of Reality. This is a powerful story about how climate change is affecting us now and what we can do to solve it. People across the globe have asked to bring a Climate Presenter to their communities. Now, you can too.

Join us today. Host a free Climate Reality presentation where you live.

and...

The White House's official website has a new feature that allows citizens to create petitions to request the Obama Administration to take a specific action. We submitted a petition last month asking the President to crack down on unlicensed puppy mills by closing a loophole in the Animal Welfare Act regulations.

We are determined to make this one of the top petitions on the White House website and need your help to get as many signatures as possible before the Oct. 23 deadline. There are only five days left -- will you help us bring puppy mill cruelty to the attention of the President?

and...

[Common Dreams] One week into our Fall Fundraising Campaign and the momentum is building - but we are still far short of our goal of $50,000.

You can help us reach it by making a secure, online donation right now here. Or, by printing our donation form and mailing it back to us with a check here. Or go here for other options.

and...

Every kid needs access to a good school. Give every student a chance at a great education and support the Empowering Parents Through Charter Schools Act.

and...

The special offer below from CREDO Mobile expires tomorrow, so I urge you to join them today. CREDO is the only phone company mobilizing its members and activists to support the Occupy Wall Street movement - and they have a 25-year history of supporting progressive causes and nonprofit organizations. Why not put your phone bill to work supporting social change instead of right-wing politicians?

and...

Recently, Republicans in the Senate voted not to even discuss the President's jobs bill, which could have put millions of people back to work.

To show your solidarity with workers and the unemployed, and send a message that come November, JOBS will be the number one issue on the minds of voters we want you to have this sticker.

Please donate $5 and we'll send you a sticker right away.

and...

The campaign has put together a debate watch game to make sure there's a real cost to all the attacks and nonsense. Here's how it works: You pick a word or phrase from the list below to sponsor, and pledge to give $3 or $5 (or however much you'd like) for each mention. So tonight, as the Republican candidates prattle on about defunding Social Security, ending Medicare as we know it, and everything else they support, they will literally be building this campaign.

Check it out, and get your guesses in now before the debate starts at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Don't worry, you can set a cap on how much you want to give, in case someone (not saying who) says "9-9-9" two dozen times.

and...

All that energy means we have an opportunity to be a part of new ambitious campaigns across the country, including in Reno, to hold the big Wall Street banks accountable. That's why, as we continue to support occupations nationwide, we're also organizing Make Wall Street Pay meetings from October 23-26. The idea is to set a time in each community when MoveOn members and others can come together to determine how to Make Wall Street Pay in our communities—from stopping illegal foreclosures, to forcing the big banks to pay their fair share in taxes, to closing our personal accounts at the big Wall Street banks and urging our schools, municipalities, and other institutions to do the same.

and...

Meanwhile, time is running out for the so-called Congressional "Super Committee" to deliver its recommendations to cut over $1 trillion from federal spending over the next ten years. In just a few short weeks, the Super Committee will finalize its report. With all eyes on the 99%, we have an opportunity to make the news again before it's too late.

Show the Super Committee they can't ignore us! Write a letter to the editor today and make your message heard: Move the Money from wars and weapons back to our communities!

and...

Opponents of the open Internet are gearing up to convince the Senate to pass a Net Neutrality-killing "resolution of disapproval."

Meanwhile, we're fighting back with all we've got. So far more than 2,000 people have called their senators and urged them to stop the corporate takeover of the Internet.

If you haven't already, please pick up the phone and tell your senator to vote "no" on the resolution of disapproval.

is it any wonder we're not getting anywhere...?

everybody's built their own little world and their own little organization and their own little fiefdom around their own little perspective of what they think is the most important thing in the world and that simply ain't gonna cut it... we're bleeding energy off in every direction and the thing that's most important, the common good for all suffers...

i believe it's a gut-level understanding of the need to restore the common good that is driving so many people to support the occupy movement... i respectfully suggest that all you little progressive, liberal interest and advocacy groups out there do likewise...

here's what i wrote in response to the first solicitation cited above and i will continue to do the same with every one i receive... i recommend that anyone who agrees that the restoration of the pursuit of the common good is our paramount objective do the same...

There is no solution to the climate crisis or any other crisis as long as our political and economic system remains fundamentally broken.

I suggest that, instead of continuing to pursue this singular issue in isolation, that the Climate Reality Project throws its organizational support behind what's happening with Occupy Wall Street. OWS has taken on the key money and power interests that have contributed substantially to the climate issue as it now stands and are obstructing every move to fix it. If Al Gore had any cojones, he would take the lead on this but that would probably mean giving up his seat at Kleiner Perkins.

Just sayin'...

whaddaya say...?

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This is a bribe-based system—an oligarchy all the way to the core

mark sumner posting on daily kos...

The greatest pretense in American politics is this: that our politicians can be utterly dependent on money given to them by contributors, but not be influenced by the source of those funds. It's not true. It's never been true. Now that the judicial takeover of our electoral system is complete, there's not even any reason to hide it. This is a bribe-based system—an oligarchy all the way to the core. Getting it back isn't going to be easy, and probably can't be done with dollars. It's going to take something far more dear.

it's about time that we woke up and smelled that fabled coffee... there is zero daylight between the repubs and the dems... they're both bought and paid for puppets totally beholden to their super-rich, elite handlers... as long as the principle driver is money, we're going to continue to get what we've been getting - governance at all levels singularly focused on the needs of those who pay to have people elected who will serve their needs and their needs alone, the common good be damned...

meanwhile, we, the peasants, are continually exhorted (by democrat-dedicated sites such as daily kos, among others) to toss our pathetic and scarce dollars into the hat to try to outspend those who can contribute millions without breaking a sweat... tell me how THAT'S going to work...

as long as we continue to support the myth that we can somehow make our completely broken two-party system work, we only continue to enable the oligarchs to run our lives and subvert any semblance of the principles the united states was founded on... whenever we attempt to make a stand for the common good, we will find it being attacked with the kind of vigor and unlimited resources that will only succeed in stomping it out... the welfare of senior citizens...? education for our national treasure, the young...? the fate of the unemployed...? the disadvantaged...? the working poor...? fuhgeddaboudit... anyone who doesn't have the advantage of money is, by definition, powerless, so, screw 'em...

where does this leave us...? i wish i knew... what i do know is that what we've been doing isn't working and i, for one, simply can't face the prospect of another repeat of our every four year reality show...

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To worry about Social Security makes absolutely no sense, unless you’re trying to destroy the program

and why would you want to destroy social security...? chomsky makes the point that i have made since i started this blog back in 2005... our super-rich elites are bound and determined to destroy any semblance of the social contract... a social contract implies an underlying principle of the common good, a principle that is completely antithetical to those who are deeply committed to accruing every last scrap of money and power to themselves...

Social Security is not in any crisis. I mean, the trust fund alone will fully pay benefits for, I think, another 30 years or so. And after that, taxes will give almost the same benefits. To worry about a possible problem 30 years from now, which can incidentally be fixed with a little bit of tampering here and there, as was done in 1983—to worry about that just makes absolutely no sense, unless you’re trying to destroy the program. It’s a very successful program. A large number people rely on it. It doesn’t pay munificently, but it at least keeps people alive, not just retired people, but people with disabilities and others. Very low administrative costs, extremely efficient, and no burden on the deficit. The effort to try to present the Social Security program as if it’s a major problem, that’s just a hidden way of trying to undermine and destroy it.

Now, there has been a lot of opposition to it since the 1930s, on the part of sectors of extreme wealth and privilege, especially financial capital. They don’t like it, for several reasons. One is that for the rich, it’s meaningless. For anyone who’s had a fairly decent income, it’s a tiny addition to your retirement but doesn’t mean much. Another is, if the financial institutions and the insurance companies can get their hands on this huge financial resource—for example, if it’s privatized in some way or vouchers— that’s a huge bonanza. They’ll have trillions of dollars to play with, the banks, the investment firms and so on.

But I think, myself, that there’s a more subtle reason why they’re opposed to it, and I think it’s rather similar to the reason for the effort to pretty much dismantle the public education system. Social Security is based on a principle. It’s based on the principle that you care about other people. You care whether the widow across town, a disabled widow, is going to be able to have food to eat. And that’s a notion you have to drive out of people’s heads. The idea of solidarity, sympathy, mutual support, that’s doctrinally dangerous. The preferred doctrines are just care about yourself, don’t care about anyone else. That’s a very good way to trap and control people. And the very idea that we’re in it together, that we care about each other, that we have responsibility for one another, that’s sort of frightening to those who want a society which is dominated by power, authority, wealth, in which people are passive and obedient. And I suspect—I don’t know how to measure it exactly, but I think that that’s a considerable part of the drive on the part of small, privileged sectors to undermine a very efficient, very effective system on which a large part of the population relies, actually relies more than ever, because wealth, personal wealth, was very much tied up in the housing market. That was people’s personal wealth. Well, OK, that, quite predictably, totally collapsed. People aren’t destitute by the standards of, say, slums in India or southern Africa, but ver many are suffering severely. And they have nothing else to rely on, but the pittance that they’re getting from Social Security. To take that away would be just disastrous.

if we honestly believe - and practice - that we are here to take care of each other, that the principles enshrined in the declaration of independence, the u.s. constitution and the message of jesus in the gospels are the only ones worth living by, we pose a profound threat to the principle of social darwinism and our handlers must stomp it out wherever it appears...

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War is a far more important priority than health care and old age pensions for Americans

endless war and the vast amounts of money it generates are clearly the top priorities for our super-rich elites and their bought-and-paid-for elected officials... the common good...? fuck that... grandma and grandpa having a healthy and financially secure old age...? fuck that... poor schoolkids eating a nutritious breakfast...? fuck that... the ONLY people that matter are those who already own our collective asses...

paul craig roberts...

Washington’s priorities and those of its presstitutes could not be clearer. President Obama, like George W. Bush before him, both parties in Congress, the print and TV media, and National Public Radio have made it clear that war is a far more important priority than health care and old age pensions for Americans.

The American people and their wants and needs are not represented in Washington. Washington serves powerful interest groups, such as the military/security complex, Wall Street and the banksters, agribusiness, the oil companies, the insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, and the mining and timber industries. Washington endows these interests with excess profits by committing war crimes and terrorizing foreign populations with bombs, drones, and invasions, by deregulating the financial sector and bailing it out of its greed-driven mistakes after it has stolen Americans’ pensions, homes, and jobs, by refusing to protect the land, air, water, oceans and wildlife from polluters and despoilers, and by constructing a health care system with the highest costs and highest profits in the world.

[...]

This is economic destruction. It always occurs when an oligarchy seizes control of a government. The short-run profits of the powerful are maximized at the expense of the viability of the economy.

the super-rich elites are out to create a world suitable only for themselves, a gated community in which they can indulge themselves to their hearts' content while the peasants grovel outside for a crust of bread...

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A defective system of money, banking, and finance puts money in the wrong places

there's a lot of good common sense here... unfortunately, our super-rich elites don't give much of a shit for either common sense or the common good... they would fight recommendations like these tooth and nail...

How to Liberate America from Wall Street Rule

How is it that our nation is awash in money, but too broke to provide jobs and services?

[...]

In the 1970’s Wall Street interests began pushing a deregulation agenda that led to a transfer of financial power from Main Street to Wall Street. Wall Street’s mega-banks lost interest in real investment and developed a new business model. They now specialize in charging excessive fees and usurious interest rates, providing leverage to speculators, speculating for their own accounts, luring the unwary into mortgages they cannot afford, bundling junk mortgages to sell them as triple-A securities, betting against the clients to whom they sell the overrated securities, extracting subsidies and bailouts from government, laundering money from drug and arms traders, and offshoring their profits to avoid taxes.

The consequences include the erosion of the middle class, an extreme concentration of wealth and power, a costly financial collapse, persistent high unemployment, housing foreclosures, collapsing environmental systems, the hollowing out of U.S. industrial, technological, and research capacity, huge public and international trade deficits, and the corruption of our political institutions.

Wall Street profited at every step and declared its experiment with deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy a great success. It now argues for extending the same measures even further.

How to Liberate America from Wall Street Rule spells out details of a six-part policy agenda to rebuild a sensible system of community-based and accountable financial services institutions.

1. Break up the mega-banks and implement tax and regulatory policies that favor community financial institutions, with a preference for those organized as cooperatives or as for-profits owned by nonprofit foundations.
2. Establish state-owned partnership banks in each of the 50 states, patterned after the Bank of North Dakota. These would serve as depositories for state financial assets to use in partnership with community financial institutions to fund local farms and businesses.
3. Restructure the Federal Reserve to function under strict standards of transparency and public scrutiny, with General Accounting Office audits and Congressional oversight.
4. Direct all new money created by the Federal Reserve to a Federal Recovery and Reconstruction Bank rather than the current practice of directing it as a subsidy to Wall Street banks. The FRRB would have a mandate to fund essential green infrastructure projects as designated by Congress.
5. Rewrite international trade and investment rules to support national ownership, economic self-reliance, and economic self-determination.
6. Implement appropriate regulatory and fiscal measures to secure the integrity of financial markets and the money/banking system.

the only way things like this will ever see the light of day is if the american people band together to make it happen... this would involve tossing the super-rich elites, the banksters and their bought-and-paid-for elected officials out on the street or, better yet, herding them onto u.s. navy ships and holding them in indefinite detention in the lagoon at diego garcia in the indian ocean...

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A plea for the common good

i had seen this video clip but commenter mettle's endorsement tipped me over into posting it...

olbermann...



we ALL count, goddamit...!

i arrive back in afghanistan this coming sunday... why in hell's name am i going back to that tortured country yet again...? why...? because i give a shit about the afghans and if there's only one tiny thing i can do to make things better there, i'll do it...

there are some truly wonderful people in afghanistan and, yes, there are some pretty rotten ones too... but going back there, despite the risk, despite the hardship, despite the incredible frustration with the way my country has been screwing over that country, nevertheless helps keep me focused on reality...

in case you hadn't noticed, staying focused on reality here in the u.s. is becoming increasingly harder every day...

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Here's a novel thought: the well-being of other people is hardwired into humanity

actually, it's novel only in the context of our present-day society, brainwashed as it is in ayn randian, social darwinian concepts...

read lisa dodson's account of her first-person experiences in community altruism and empathy...

The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy

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