Free Platinum! (Or, The Coin That Wouldn't Die)

Back in the Day, c. 1896

My grandfather was born about the time that the Free Silver movement got under way, and my father was born at the tail end of it. So Free Silver lasted about a generation, and it never seemed to accomplish its aims.

Nevertheless, it got unanticipated results, many of which are with us today.  The Fed, for example...

I doubt that many of the Platinum Coin enthusiasts know -- or care -- much about the Free Silver movement after the Civil War (from about 1873 up to about 1900), but it was a very high profile populist effort that ultimately involved the Democratic Party and Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, whose "Cross of Gold" speech of 1896 remains one of the most important American political speeches of all time.

So far, the Platinum Coin effort hasn't produced anything close to the populist fervor of the Free Silver Movement, or anything like the eloquence of William Jennings Bryan, nor has it even begun to generate  a populist movement itself, primarily -- I'd say -- because it is a fairly esoteric strategy discussion confined to portions of the internet and television "news."  It could turn into a populist crusade, but it hasn't yet.

Much as happened with the Free Silver Movement, the Platinum Coin effort might lead to completely unforeseen and unintended consequences for good or ill.

When I was first learning about Free Silver, I did not understand it at all. It seemed to make no sense. At the time I was first hearing about it, sometime in the 1960's, silver coins of all denominations and genuine silver dollars were still in circulation, and I had a few silver dollars, some of them minted between 1879 and 1900, and from that evidence, it seemed to me that silver was being coined extensively throughout the period of the Free Silver movement, just as the Silverites were demanding.

But it wasn't so. In fact, there was far less coinage of silver during the period of the Free Silver movement than advocates were demanding. The situation was not unlike the current economic and financial conditions in which a handful of hyper-wealthy individuals and their chosen financial institutions have almost complete control of the economy and can exploit and prey upon any population segment they choose.

Through their control of the economy, they also control the government.

The People have little or no say in policy decisions affecting them.

Americans seem to have little or no understanding of the circumstances of most Americans' lives during the Post Civil War period. I don't claim to understand it completely myself, but what I do know is that most Americans at the time were barely getting by if they were doing well (enough), and many were not doing well at all.

Bluntly, this was a Third World country -- with a Frontier. The Frontier made a number of things possible: nearly endless natural resources for extraordinary exploitation at very little cost; somewhere for people who were not making it in the city to go and try their luck on the land; convenient dumping grounds for all sorts of experimental, marginal and rejected people and ideas. Oh yes, and "freedom" -- which in the case of the Frontier too often meant liberty to slaughter humans and animals at will.

Without the Frontier, the pressure of the economic exploitation of the 19th century corporate class would have likely led to continuous revolt and revolution; as it was, the People endured a lot of suffering and bloodshed as part of the constant -- and very violent -- efforts of the Overclass to suppress popular movements and uprisings which were ongoing throughout the period.

By the end of the 19th century, the Frontier was officially "closed." There was no longer that particular outlet for discontent on the one hand and extensive "free" exploitation of resources on the other. Yet even while there was an apparently open Frontier, the American People were heavily burdened by debt and by constant economic boom and bust cycles that put millions of Americans in economic and physical peril.

The Free Silver movement was intended to relieve some of the debt that kept so many American bound and in poverty, particularly farmers, and it was hoped that Free Silver would begin to tame the wild fluctuations in the economy that had raised up a few to enormous wealth and left most in poverty and misery. Ultimately, it was even believed that Free Silver would be the mechanism by which the government would finally be put in the hands of the People themselves rather than solely functioning on behalf of financiers and corporate interests who owned and controlled it.

Free Silver was never successful directly, and yet, in a way no one anticipated, many of its objectives were achieved indirectly, at least for a while.

Free Silver was  one of the many elements of 19th century Populism, a phase of American political history that is not well understood, and which is often confused with the rise of Progressivism.

Progressivism, rather than being a populist political movement, was a reaction against the rising tide of populism in the 19th century, and it arose out of a mostly Republican and corporatist framework. Rather than continuing to battle the People and Populism, the Progressives saw that the way forward was to adopt some of the elements and demands of the Populists, adapt others, and ensure that a technocratic class of experts would be charged with governing on behalf of "what is best."

Free Silver was deemed not to be "best," and instead a complete overhaul of the financial and monetary system was undertaken which resulted in the establishment of the Federal Reserve among many other changes, efforts undertaken in reaction to the ever worsening cycles of boom and bust and the social and political dislocations and disruptions they caused.

The Frontier was closed, immigration was restricted, worker protections began to be implemented among many other changes.

Free Silver was never adopted, but when the Sherman Silver Purchase program got under way, coincidentally the economy promptly went into a tailspin (the Panic of 1893), which was the worst economic depression the nation had experienced up till then. It was a traumatic event. Some Americans blamed the adoption of some Silverite demands for the Panic and the subsequent depression, and this belief led to the widespread rejection of Populist and Free Silver economic demands. That in turn left a wide opening for the acceptance of Progressivism as an alternative.

All of which led to many intended and unintended consequences.

The Platinum Coin hasn't reached the level of popular interest and advocacy that the Free Silver movement did, and it may never reach that level. It may not have to. By breaking the thrall of the financial interests -- at least for a moment -- that own and control the government, by pointing out that there are viable alternatives in the economic and political spheres, that bold action to change the situation on behalf of the People is possible, the Platinum Coin has the potential to open up a wide range of alternatives for consideration.

The Coin itself may never be minted -- and it may never have to be. An alternative more like the advent of Progressivism may well arise, providing some of the relief sought by advocates of The Coin, but leading ultimately in another direction.

If the Debt Limit issue is allowed reach international crisis levels, we may be surprised at what is done... May be sooner than we think, too.

The So-Called Housing Rebound

There was such a cheery story on NPR a few minutes ago about the apparent 'housing rebound' -- foreclosures are down! Prices are up!

We're in the money! Come on my honey!

And yet, every now and then -- even in these silly little stories that are practically filler -- a hint of what is really going on comes through. Foreclosures are down and prices are up a tiny bit -- a few percent over last year or the year before that or whatever -- because foreclosures are being delayed temporarily and prices are up because foreclosures put on the market are being bought in bulk by "investors" who bid against one another to snap up valuable assets at pennies on the dollar.

This is a version of how this Perpetual Recession works, and why it persists.

Wealth and assets are being stripped from the working and middle classes at a furious clip, while the leisure class and those above it see their portfolios swell with whatever they can hoover up from the increasingly impoverished masses.

They see it is good and they want this game to go on forever. Talk about "money for nothing," regardless of chicks for free.

These economic activities have been going on for years now, bolstered by government policies that ensure the forced impoverishment of millions every year, people whose assets -- whatever they may have been -- are acquired at fire sale prices by the plutocrats and their hangers-on.

As I've said many times, this Recession doesn't end -- and austerity is imposed on the masses to boot -- for a very simple reason, one that should have been obvious at the outset: some people are getting richer than their wildest dreams because others are in such dire straits and distress.

That's how our predatory economy works.

There is no real rebound in housing, nor is there any end to the recession for most people. In fact for many, the economic situation gets worse year by year, and millions and millions more Americans will be forced into poverty before there is an economic turnaround -- if there ever is one. After so many years of the same old thing, it must be dawning on even the densest American that under the current political and economic regime, there will never be a real recovery. As long as there are enough people getting rich off the continued distress of others, there can't be. As long as there are policies which encourage continued wealth and asset stripping from the working and middle classes, there can't be any real recovery.

With regard to the housing rebound, I have meant to write a bit about the situation in our neck of the woods. There have been a lot of foreclosures in this area over the course of the Perpetual Recession, and some of these properties have gone on the market for literally dimes on the dollar, offered at $10,000 or $15,000 or $20,000. Of course they are snapped up by "investors" at these distressed prices and held for the inevitable time when prices rise. Sometimes they're rented, but often they're kept vacant with a property service caring for them sort of until such time as they can be sold again at a profit.

The two properties on either side of us have been vacant for some time. The homeowners on the east tried to sell but were unsuccessful and as far as I can tell, they went into foreclosure and the bank now has the property back. It's on the market at somewhat less than the lowest price the bank would previously accept on a short sale when the homeowners tried to sell. But it's a HUD auction-type sale now, with the price reduced week by week until the property sells.

The homeowners on the west just disappeared one day, never to return. No one knew where they went or what had happened. The property has been vacant for well over a year. The homeowners had been in the mortgage business, and the house was purchased by them in a distress or tax sale for something like $5,000 about 15 years ago. Since then, they had lived in it periodically and rented it out periodically. After the last tenant left, they moved back in for a while, and then disappeared.

A couple of weeks ago, some men in suits came by to let us know that the homeowners had apparently abandoned the property and it was now in foreclosure. That gave us a clue to what happened: our former neighbors took as much money as they could out of the property and strategically defaulted -- and then disappeared. 

In a way, the neighbors played the lenders' game against them -- and at least for now have won. But so many people have lost. More of them all the time. Our rulers ensure as much.

So all the cheery stories about the Housing Rebound can't amount to more than year-end fluff.

The Housing Mess via Econ 4

The Bottom Line- Housing from Softbox on Vimeo.

Better late than never, one supposes.

Foreclosures have been at crisis levels for years and it is still nearly impossible to shake the media and their elite sponsors and owners out of their lethargy about it, let alone to get governments to engage in more than token remediation efforts, most of which seem intended to plump up the banks at the expense of the People.

While the problem has been mentioned periodically among the so-called liberal media and elites, what to do about is an uncomfortable question for those who see mortgages and debt in general as moral rather than practical issues, and who insist on blaming the victims rather than the engineers of this ongoing catastrophe.

They have to play to their audience I guess.

Lives, families, and whole communities have been destroyed by this indifference at every level.

I hope this video will help turn the tide...

The Problem With Versailles

is that the People are nothing more than annoyances -- if they exist at all in the minds of the Nobles.

This is particularly true in the case of what passes for the economy, particularly with regard to the Sage Wise Men who profess to be Economists, the High Priests of the Cult of Greed.

In fact, what they are are shills and handmaidens and water carriers for the Nobility. They do nothing except they flatter their Betters and provide them with "moral excuses" for their rapine and destruction of the rest of humanity.

A new video series is being worked up over at Econ4; Ché say: "Check it out."

On Creeping Militarism

Robo-Forces At the Ready, California State Capitol, Sacramento, c. 2011

In several recent installments, I've focused on the heavily militarized and highly abusive nature of today's more and more violent and oppressive police forces. We've all see it, time and time again.

While some Americans cheer these impositions of Authority, many are deeply troubled by what they see as a fundamental violation of basic American rights by an officious and out of control, mercenary and dangerous domestic control force.

I tend to be in the group of Americans who are very troubled by these developments. I have personally encountered the Robo-Forces at the the Capitol. It can be psychologically intimidating and shocking, even if you are not being chased, beaten, tased or shot by them. "Who are these people, and what are they doing on the grounds of my state Capitol? What are they doing on the streets of my city? What are they doing?"

I got to thinking about this phenomenon a little more deeply yesterday, though, while engaging in some reminiscences on another site about the way things were back in the early to mid sixties -- elementary school for one of us, junior high and high school for me.

As it turned out, we lived no more than a couple of miles from one another, though we had no knowledge of one another at the time. We were both youngsters in suburban Sacramento during a period when the whole city was essentially a military garrison town. There were two large Air Force Bases -- Mather and McClellan -- one to the south and one to the north, and there was an even larger one in Fairfield (Travis) not very far to the west; there was an Army Depot as well. There were plenty of Defense plants as well, the most prominent being Aerojet-General, where the rocket motors for many an intercontinental ballistic missile (along with all kinds of other rocket motors) were built and tested.

I was recalling that most of my friends in junior high and high school were Air Force brats -- and we took it for granted. What else are you going to do? Large parts of the population of the neighborhoods and communities round about were Air Force families. It's just the way it was. Those who weren't military households often had members who worked on base or out at "The Plant," ie: Aerojet. Some were government workers from in town who preferred to live in the suburbs.

The father of one of my friends was a B-52 bomber pilot who periodically went overseas to bomb the Gooks back into the Stone Age and would come back and act like his "job" was simply routine. I remember he was a very nice man.

It was a militarized and military culture that we took completely for granted. We didn't question how militarized civilian life was -- we didn't even notice if it was. Yet I got to thinking that the defense plants and the government presence, and especially the military bases themselves had been the basis of local and regional "stability and order," both in a socio-psychological sense and in an economic sense.

Nothing has been quite the same since the bases closed and the plants shut down. Travis is still in operation, but McClellan and Mather have been converted to civilian uses, and Aerojet has a very different and much smaller footprint and mission now.

Looking back from a distance of 50 years, it's hard to recognize just how militarized everything was back then, how controlled, conformist, and in many ways oppressive the whole society was.

No, we didn't have Robo-cops preening and protecting Our Betters from the rabble; in fact, in those days, the rabble had essentially open access to Their Betters. Government offices weren't behind barricades and metal detectors; there were very rarely any armed guards anywhere; and even the Highest of the Mighty were far more easily approachable than they are today. The idea of these Robo-forces to keep the proles in line was absurd -- at least until the upheavals and social unrest of the mid and later '60's.

But one shouldn't over romanticize the era or think that things were particularly "better." In fact, the local police and sheriffs were notoriously brutal, rigid, spiteful, and some were very corrupt. You got on the wrong side of them, and you took your life in your hands. There were far fewer of them for one thing, and they were much less tolerant of dissent and disruption than today's more numerous police tend to be. They were also grossly racist which meant that communities of color faced sometimes extreme levels of police abuse and oppression.

Perhaps because the whole society was militarized, there was less need for overt policing of the rabble. Most people understood adhered to social limits and conformed to social norms, so there was little call for the more general suppressive displays we've become used to as the New Normal -- at least since the Terror Trap we fell into back in Ought One.

I was a rebel by nature, so I was directly exposed to some of the tactics used against non-conformists during the period. I wouldn't say it was pleasant, and yet I can't recall anything even remotely resembling the kind of casual cruelty we experience from officialdom and police these days. It was a very different concept of social engineering, if you will. The psychology of control was completely different.

Of course school was the primary socializing and controlling element for children, as the job was for adults. But our neighborhoods and communities were just as important, and as this was the Post War Boom Era, suburban neighborhoods and communities were the idealized norm. I lived in a relatively new and expanding suburban communities that initially the freeways hadn't even reached yet throughout my childhood in Los Angeles and Sacramento, and when I wasn't living in a suburban community, I was living in small towns -- an alternate American ideal setting. Except in small towns, I almost always was in the first class in brand new schools.

There were no campus police; the idea was absurd. Even more absurd was the idea of school district police forces, despite the general fear and loathing of "juvenile delinquents" who were thought to be out running wild all the time, though they were rarely actually seen. They were more a media/police creation than a reality -- at least in my experience. The fictive "juvenile delinquent" was instead a kind of boogeyman produced as a contrast to keep everyone else in line.

That was one way of many used to ensure conformity. "You don't want to be like that do you? Of course not!" Big smile.

Very few people were jailed at any given time, but there were quite a few in psych wards and state mental hospitals. One's sanity was questioned before one's criminality. Social rebellion was relatively rare and low key until the mid-sixties, and such rebellion as there was (for example at the HUAC hearings in San Francisco in 1960) was considered the work of Communists and Fellow Travelers or in the case of Beatniks, was seen mostly as harmless eccentricity. Well, unless you were Alan Ginsberg, and then you were considered a Threat to Society.

There was no drug war, though there has always been a drug using subculture. Alcohol abuse was pretty rampant and generally tolerated as were many other kinds of abuse including that of children, single women and odd characters of any sort.

"Gangsters" and "mobsters" and "communists" were the social pariahs, but they were never numerous.

On the other hand, officials in office were respected no matter their party affiliation, the police were considered society's friends and helpers, teachers were regarded with remarkable respect (unless they were accused of communism or homosexuality) and pretty much everyone's economic situation was better than it had ever been and was getting better bit by bit all the time.

It was not an idyllic period of peace and prosperity, however. War with the Soviet Union and instant incineration via massive nuclear attack were constant existential threats, and there was no escape, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. There were periodic panics -- such as during the Cuban Missile Crisis -- that led to widespread social insanity. After Korea, there seemed to be constant low-level conflicts overseas, particularly in Vietnam which became the focus of American armed forces action early in the 1960's, certainly by the beginning of President Kennedy's brief term.

His assassination, following so closely on the assassination of  Diem in Saigon, was an unparalleled shock to the social and political system from which I believe the United States has never recovered. From November 22, 1963 until today, the United States has been in a nearly constant state of social, political and economic turmoil.

The student and counterculture rebellions of the 1960's grew out of the Civil Rights and Nuclear Disarmament movements of the 1950's, but the trigger for the rebellions of the 1960's was pulled in Dallas that sunny November day in 1963. That was when in a way the curtain was pulled back, we saw a very ugly side of the collective and conformist nature of American society and change -- toward peace and love and understanding, of course -- became essential.

Change actually came very quickly. Civil Rights and Great Society programs passed in Congress almost instantly, lifting up the poor and abused minorities in ways that had never been possible before. At the same time, the war in Vietnam -- which had been going on at a low key for some time -- ramped up into a full-scale conflict sucking more and more young people in to the military and for some a very ugly death or dismemberment in the nameless swamps of a far-away land.

Protest increased, and as campuses erupted, so did the inner cities; riots and civil insurrections were brutally and lethally put down by National Guard troops; campus unrest, on the other hand, was mostly handled by local and state police unless it got completely out of hand at which time the Guard was called in and more forceful measures were employed. Anti-war and civil rights campaigns were constantly infiltrated and spied upon by police at every level, notoriously as part of the COINTELPRO operation out of Washington, DC. Of course, anti-war and civil rights campaigns were considered to be the work of Communists during the period as no "true American" would be advocating peace and voting rights for the Colored.

As rights were extended, though, and poverty was reduced, there was a trade off that is still being paid in devastated communities, particularly communities of color, wherein a huge proportion of the male population is criminalized, incarcerated, and placed under a lifetime of scrutiny by the civil authorities.

Peace of a sort would be secured with the defeat of the "Allied" forces in Vietnam, and for a time, it seemed that the United States would de-militarize, especially after the military draft was ended. But something else happened instead.

As liberation advanced and poverty was reduced and peace seemed to break out for the first time in almost anyone's lifetime, economic conditions seemed to freeze and then to march backwards as wages stagnated and the cost of living kept going up. All of a sudden it took two incomes per household to make ends meet, and even then, it often wasn't enough. Debt skyrocketed as incomes stayed flat, but not expenses. Productivity increased spectacularly, but all the economic gains went to the Overclass, a phenomenon that first recognized during the Carter administration. Reagan's response was that "government was the problem." But liberating business from government regulation, as individuals had been liberated restrictive laws, had the effect of compounding the economic tribulations of ordinary people while endlessly enhancing the economic benefits to the already rich and growing richer.

Social militarization may have ended, and along with it restrictions and regulations on business and banking, but official repression was just getting going.

Now, after decades of this, we have a situation in which the People are socially liberated and "free," and yet they are faced with an indomitable extractive Overclass intent on impoverishing them on the one hand and suppressing any effective protest through what amount to military campaigns by mercenary police forces against the People on the other.

In a way, we are back where were were a hundred years ago and more.

Lucky us.

How We Got From There To Here

Catastroika -- in Greek with English subtitles.


CATASTROIKA - ENGLISH SUBTITLES by infowar

The key factor was the collapse of the Soviet Union. The key failure has been the inability of the People to find a working alternative to the counterweight the Soviets provided to capitalism run amok.

The Mortgage Settlement -- Bone Throwing Commences

The Bone Award -- honoring Thrown Bones

The Mortgage Settlement with the major servicing banks was announced with great fanfare the other day as a HHHHHEEEEEUUUUUUUGGE step toward repairing the housing sector, after years of failed attempts to "help struggling homeowners."

It's a thrown bone. Whether it will have more than a marginal effect on the apparently terminally comatose housing sector or whether it will actually help more than a few struggling homeowners remains to be seen. Best prognosis is "We'll have to wait till the swelling goes down."

The problem is, of course, that many millions of Americans have lost their homes and their futures in this Endless Recession, and every mortgage/foreclosure program to "help" them has been operated as a scam by the banks to continue to inflate the value of their phantom mortgage assets while extracting the maximum amount possible from multiple sources of payment for faltering mortgages.

It was in the financial interests of banks to encourage/force homeowner mortgage default, to extend "consideration" of mortgage modification and continue to receive payments from the struggling homeowners, to "approve" modification but not actually enter into it, and then to foreclose; banks were paid every step of this tortuous path for struggling homeowners, and through this and other sleights, they could and quite cheerfully did receive multiple full payments on defaulted mortgages. It was horrible for struggling homeowners, wonderful for the banks. Naturally, they want to keep that con going for as long as they possibly can.

Consequently, few are taking the mortgage settlement at face value or believing that it will actually help more than a few struggling homeowners. The People have been defrauded by these shell-games and promises too many times already.

Nevertheless, it is a bone, the first of what may be a cascade of them this election year.

Millions of Americans have been pushed into poverty during the long years of this Endless Recession. Poverty rates (pdf) are higher now than at any time in a generation, and they continue to rise. Hunger stalks the land. Homelessness is on the upsurge. While unemployment rates are officially declining and "the economy is producing jobs again," much of the decline in the unemployment rate is due to the increase in the number of permanently unemployed who have left the labor market. Wages and benefits for those who still have jobs have been slashed, in many cases by 50% or more, and whatever pensions remain to workers are under fierce assault by the Overclass.

This relentless class war against workers has not even paused to reflect on its many victories as the campaign continues to extract essentially everything of value from the Lesser People in order to keep the Highest of the Mighty in far more whores and heroin than anyone could consume in many hundreds of lifetimes.

But in an election year, bones are traditionally thrown to the ravening masses, and this election year is no exception. The situation is a bit different than previously, though, because of the general discontent at the continuing economic devastation ordinary people are facing, and because of the rowdiness of the crowds of demonstrators and protesters against economic and social injustice which the Occupy Movement continues to assemble.

Something must be done. Bones! That's the answer! Don't make any substantive change that might involve, oh, you know, "shared sacrifices" on the part of the Accumulative Class, heaven forefend! Perish the thought. Just throw some bones.

The People will think the pols really do care about the well being of the masses.

Clue: they don't. The People are nothing but resources to be exploited or parasites to be disposed of; they have no other utility at all to the Overclass. If keeping them docile and servile requires that an occasional bone be thrown, then so be it. The $25 billion or so that this settlement costs is barely noticeable pocket change which will likely not even be paid.

There are more ways to squeeze the teats of this system for the benefit of wealth and privilege than are dreamt of by our philosophers.

Since this particular bone is being thrown earlier by several months than I expected, we may speculate about what all has been set aside by Our Rulers to quiet the the tumultuous hordes beyond the Palace gates. The violent repression of protest that always accompanies the throwing of bones, as well as the separation of the masses into antagonistic segments fighting it out, is also well underway. Damn, everything's a casino as far as Our Rulers are concerned.

It's clear the Overclass is in beginning mitigation mode, but whether their mood turns into a full panic, with visions of tumbrils and guillotines dancing in their heads, remains to be seen. The Revolution may be under way, but it so far only threatens their self-image and their legitimacy, not their persons or even any substantial portion of their property.

Meanwhile, over in Europe, the Rulers do not take the rising tide of protest against the March of Austerity seriously. It's stunning how oblivious they insist on being as they mindlessly insist on their programs of wealth extraction and mass impoverishment to satisfy the ever-hungry, indeed, insatiable, demands of the bankers.

In a sane world, this pattern would never have been allowed to occur, but if by chance it had got under way, the sane response would have been to cancel the bets that are driving the Austerity Train, then cancel the debts and clear the slate. But instead, the bets keep getting paid off and the debts keep increasing, while the People and whole nations are further and further impoverished in a mad race to... what? What do they think the result can possibly be?

Madness...

Envisioning That Better Future -- Eight: The End of Empire

The Imperial route is widely seen as the natural outcome of all serious civilized human endeavor. The Empire, under this viewpoint, is not just natural, it is necessary. You cannot have civilization without it. Why just look at Europe after Rome fell. Obvious, isn't it? No civilization there again until Leonardo and Michelangelo. A thousand years of Darkness and Despair.

Except there was no pan-European empire in Leonardo's day or Michelangelo's time. In their Italy, there was no unified government; there was instead a plethora of more or less independent city-states many of which endured until the middle of the 19th Century.

Rome began as a quasi-independent city-state, as did Athens long before it. In fact, both are said to have originated as collections of neighboring hamlets that formed themselves into a political unit with no ambitions, supposedly, beyond common defense against marauders and pirates.

Both went through democratic periods, periods of tyranny, periods of prosperity, periods of suffering and collapse, and both eventually expanded their reach and rule far beyond their civic boundaries. Both were cruel masters to Natives under sway of their colonial outposts. Both faced frequent rebellion on the Peripheries of their empires; often enough, they faced rebellion right at home.

Observers at the time celebrated their Empires while some denounced and decried them. To Imperialist believers, Empire is necessary for there to even be civilization; to skeptics, Empire saps and destroys civilization because of its overwhelming human and financial costs.

The Imperial overreach of Athens was subsumed by the overreach of the Macedonians subsequent to the subjugation of Athens to Sparta. The center did not hold. But then, what of Sparta? Athens endures; Sparta is gone with the wind, as if it never was, though its legend lives on. The Macedonian empire of Alexander fragmented even before it was fully formed, and the semi-nations that took its place were themselves absorbed and acquired by Rome in the by and bye.

Nothing is forever. And no ruler is ever certain of his throne.

The American experience is of course derived in part from ideas that originated in Athens and Rome, and the impulse to Empire has been part and parcel of the American Dream since the beginning. While the foundation of the nation may have been in rebellion against the British Imperial authority, the Imperial impulse itself was maintained upon independence and it was strengthened with the establishment of the Constitution. Put another way, Empire is built in to the formulation of the State itself.

One cannot imagine a non-expansionist United States in the 19th Century. Expansion on the model of Empire was a necessity for survival. When domestic expansion ceased with the "closure of the frontier" in 1890, it was immediately picked up and renewed through overseas expansion and Imperial conquest, starting with Hawaii.

Throughout the early 20th Century, the United States not only ruled its domestic continental Empire, it had far-flung Imperial outposts in the Pacific and Caribbean that it had seized from the decadent Spanish Empire, and it ruled most of Latin America through economic sway, Native proxies, and sometimes directly through military invasion and martial law.

World War I and World War II had the consequence of breaking up the western empires, but in the process, those global conflicts gave rise to three remarkable and in some ways unprecedented domestic empires: the Soviet Union, the Republic of India and the People's Republic of China.

The European imperial outposts were jettisoned one by one and in batches, as Asia and Africa were "decolonized" and independence and self-determination was proclaimed and enshrined everywhere. Well. Sort of.

After a protracted and devastating civil war, at least partially engineered by outside forces including American, the Soviet Union fell heir to nearly the entirety of the former Russian Empire. Well, how about that. The current rump Russian Federation is a mere flickering shadow of what the Tsars and the Commissars had once ruled.

Independent India likewise emerged from a civil war that ensured the separation of Pakistan from India, and cobbled together the numerous semi-autonomous petty kingdoms of British India into a single Republic, a domestic Empire that even the mighty Brits had been unable to forge (or more likely had not wanted to see emerge.)

At the conclusion of China's long and bloody civil war, the Maoists took control of the entire domestic continental empire of China's glorious past; they also established a rigid and successful independence from alien and outside rule by anyone, including their ever-so-helpful Soviet pals.

Possibly to compensate for the loss of so much overseas territory, Western Europeans concentrated on the establishment of some sort of European continental union or domestic Empire, which is still an elusive goal. Perhaps it's not even a desirable one any more given the current financial pickle the Europeans find themselves in.

As part of that financial pickle that effects not just Europe but practically everywhere, we are witness to the rise of transnational corporate enterprises acting independently of governments, whether local, regional, national or international. Some of these enterprises are far wealthier than many nations, and they can operate with apparent impunity wherever and however they want. They capture governments -- as they have captured our own -- and operate them for their own parasitical interests in defiance of law and the People.

This parasitical and piratical practice by corporate entities roaming the globe is not entirely new, for much the same ethic of parasitism and quasi-independent extractive behavior by corporate entities was how many of the modern European empires were established in the first place. The corporations went in first and seized what they wanted; rule from the palace and throne came after.

The People are seemingly powerless before the onslaught of Empire, whether brought through military or economic conquest or through genocide and extermination.

But Empire, under any guise, should not be seen as either the promoter or savior of "civilization." For it does nothing of the kind. Civilization may or may not survive under Imperial rule, but it will definitely be altered by it, often not for the better.

In envisioning a better future, many are envisioning a future without Empire. It's natural but not easy to do it.

First thing is the recognition of Empire and its strengths and weaknesses, its durability as well as its fragility. There is a widespread myth running around on the internet and in academic circles that proposes that we are witness to the End of the American Empire which is alleged to be crumbling all around us, as it has been doing for many years. I argue this is not at all the case. The American Empire is doing fine; what we are witnessing and in the midst of is the End of the Republic, actually a much more subtle "ending" -- because the political forms and rituals of the Republic will continue indefinitely, but they will have no meaning. At best, they will be entertainment -- much as the current crop of Republican candidates for the presidential nomination are being marketed as entertainment today. At worst, they'll be empty and cynical rituals masking what's really going on, such as takes place in Congress each and every day.

The Empire, on the other hand, is going great guns (quite literally). Its imposition has been refined to such a point that it's almost automatic now. Imperial sway -- in concert with or under the control of -- transnational privateers is now a matter of remote targeting and liquidation according to parameters and protocols that most Americans (let alone their victims) know nothing of, who are in many cases not even aware they exist. Empire no longer requires invading armies and physical occupations of foreign lands.

The Libyan Thing might be instructive. There was no "invasion," for example, though many observers and commentators speak of what happened there as if there had been a physical, military invasion by Imperial Stormtroops, etc. It didn't happen, and it isn't happening now. There is no occupying force, either. There was Imperial intervention and the aerial bombardment of "forces" (let's understand that both the rebels and the Gaddafi forces -- as well as non-combatant civilians -- were subject to arbitrary Death From Above; that's just how these things are done these days) was only the most overt aspect of it. There was a whole menu of more covert Imperial interventions involved, from the relentless anti-Gaddafi propaganda campaign to international murder squads, financial and economic hits, and domestic terrorism and sabotage.

There's much Imperial chest puffing and strutting about over the success of the Libyan campaign, but it took far longer than it was supposed to, and obviously it was beset with lousy intelligence from the get go, as apparently the Imperial sponsors of the aktion had -- and perhaps still have -- no idea who among the fractious Natives they are "supporting." From the evidence, they are actually supporting none of them. Now that the nation of Libya has been successfully liquidated -- that, after all, was the point of the exercise -- the various corporate interests who sponsored the Imperial intervention are picking over the bones, with, you will note, the complicity of some of the Libyans, but by no means all of them. The Libyans may or may not continue their civil war, but the point of this exercise was to strip them of a national consciousness and of assets, and that has been accomplished rather spectacularly. And it was done without a single uniformed Imperial troop on the ground. (Set aside the murder squads for now.) Well, how about that.

The lesson for the Imperialists was that this sort of thing WORKS. And they will do it again.

A nation destroyed, a People in chaos, assets stripped, defenses neutralized, leaders exterminated. No invasion and no colonial outposts necessary. That is how the Empire will be carried forth. By comparison, the Iraq Thing seems primitive and barbaric -- and in retrospect completely unnecessary.

We are witness to the development of a New Imperialism that doesn't require the kinds of physical force that even a few years ago were considered essential for projection of power. Now, most of what's necessary can be done remotely or from overhead, by a relatively few dedicated and determined individuals with a mission and access to technology.

Once we realize that that is what the Empire means now -- and that it is doing just fine, better than ever -- and that it is the Republic that is being collapsed deliberately and with much malice aforethought, we'll begin to have a better idea how to proceed.

The OccupyTVNY interview with Lawrence Lessig and Chris Hedges I posted the other day can help us to focus on how truly out of touch some of even our most insightful elites tend to be. Lessig is, as I say, a nice man, but he still believes that some of the Republic's attributes are functional, even as he acknowledges the Republic has essentially been extinguished. So he advocates an Article V Constitutional Convention in response, as if it were even conceivable at this point. An Article V Convention five -- or ten -- years ago might have had some merit (I was an advocate for a while) but not now. It's too late for that. Not only is the Federal Government captive to its owners and sponsors, so are state governments (did one not pay attention to the 2010 "elections" at all?) and more and more, so are local governments. The People have been essentially and successfully shut out of their government at every level. Where there might have been support in State Legislatures for an Article V Convention (once it was explained by the right people) years ago, now there would only be a blank stare. It's too late, Larry.

Hedges understands this stark fact, and he seems to understand that none of the mechanisms of the Republic actually work on behalf of the People any more, nor can they be made to. That part of our history is over and done. A captured government does not respond to the People because it does not have to.

So what does he recommend? "Civil disobedience" -- in order to do what? Apparently to get the attention of the Rulership, and force them to accommodate the People's Interests. He witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Empire, after all, and the Revolutions that precipitated it. Surely if babushkas and the rebels assembling in the square and banging on their pots and pans could do it in the face of the implacable Soviet system, we more innovative and creative sorts can do likewise.

Yes, well, I thought that too. Years ago, I think we might have done it, but it didn't happen. There was no assembly, there were no babushkas, there was no banging on pots and pans, and there were no rebels where and when it might have made a difference.

Now it's really too late for even that to make a dent in the Imperial armor.

What to do now?

Hedges helpfully points out that in addition to civil disobedience, resisters also have to create and maintain parallel institutions and social structures that serve the People's interests in stark contrast to the failed and captured institutions of the Establishment that serve only the interests of the Mighty Few.

This parallelism is fundamental. Institutional parallelism is a characteristic of all successful separatist and revolutionary movements (and I might add it has also been characteristic of communities suffering under segregationist policies, more and more of which seem to be reinstituted day by day as more and more are ejected from the mainstream of society, and the Security State further and further encages and restricts the remainder.)

The Occupy Movement has established and maintained parallel institutions from its beginning, from communal feeding stations to People's Libraries to outreach and social service programs and more. These aspects are integral to the Movment and the Revolution at its core. As far as I know, all active Occupations utilize as much institutional parallelism as they are able. I have referred many times to the importance and necessity of the demonstration as the keystone of the success of the Movement. By providing alternatives to the failed systems of rule we are under, the Movement ensures its perpetuation.

But what of the Empire? Do we ever get free of it? Perhaps so, perhaps not. The End of Empire means the end of Imperial control in our mind's eye and of our actions and beliefs first and foremost. End that control, and whether or not a political empire continues doesn't matter. The more pressing issue of economic imperialism, which hamstrings everything else that people hope or do, though not so much what they believe, is a much tougher nut to crack (ask the Africans who saw their one hope in Libya demolished before their very eyes).

But even the ropes and strangulation of economic terrorism and imperialism can be undone, through non-cooperation among other means. Ultimately, it appears that the greed and stupidity of those who rule through economic terrorism and imperialism bring the superstructure down sooner or later, these days sooner if events in Europe are any guide.

And then?

Well, that's why we need those parallel institutions!

Yea, verily, the End Is Nigh, but it may not be quite what we anticipated.

And in case it wasn't clear, Mars is not the answer... ;-D

This is What the Endless Recession and Endless Austerity and Endless Budget Cuts Gets You -- Guaranteed:

Joblessness pushed another 2.6 million people into poverty last year as 15.1 percent of Americans counted as poor -- the highest rate since 1993, according to 2010 statistics released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

"I never thought it was going to be this bad," said Celina Lopez, a single mother of two young children who has moved in with her grandmother in El Sobrante. "My situation is pretty scary, in terms of housing, kids and being able to provide for them. I didn't think it would be this hard to find a job."

The poverty rate rose from 14.3 in 2009, and it increased most dramatically for children and the youngest working-age adults -- those between 18 and 24 years old.

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_18884838

--------------------------------------------







Tent City made the news recently and while community leader Steven Brigham says the media attention brought in greater donations, it also brought unwanted attention from the local politicians.

After battling with the city for years to have access to the public land here, Brigham found a New Jersey lawyer to represent his case pro bono.

The attorney, Jeff Wild, argued that the homeless population are part of the public and should therefore have access to public lands. Rather than take the case to court, Lakewood City Council settled, and Brigham signed an agreement to put up no more shelters and allow no more than 70 people to stay.

But last winter the community put up three wooden structures to house everyone and keep them warm.

"We didn't lose anybody last year," Brigham says, "and nobody got sick."

This year could be different. After City Council members saw the shelters on TV, they sent demolition crews in. The walls were torn down around whatever was inside, and meager furnishings were left to the elements.

This year, the tent city's residents will have to put wood-stoves in tents and plastic shanties, increasing fire risk. Brigham says the town is making it impossible to survive there, hoping to get the homeless out, and he's concerned it will end up killing people this year.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/lakewood-new-jersey-homeless-tent-city-2011-9#outside-the-town-of-lakewood-new-jersey-across-from-this-intersection-1#ixzz1XsXLBaII

--------------------------------------------

Denise had lived on my parking lot
for close to a year. Once, her mother
came all the way from Mississippi to
stay there a while. Can you believe
that? Can you imagine what her life
must have been, that sleeping in
a parking lot a thousand miles from
home could be an improvement? The
mother soon moved on; the daughter
stayed. She unfailingly wished me good
morning; we joked together; many
times I felt happy to be her neighbor.

One cold winter afternoon when I had
cooked some Chinese food, I took half
of it out to my parking lot to give to
Denise. She was lying on her side in her
sleeping bag, and her teeth were chattering.
“You mean, you cooked this?”
she said. “Thank you, honey.”

When they evicted Denise, she
screamed in rage and grief. A day later,
the neat tarp houses my friends had
made in their corner of the lot had all
been transformed into garbage. I paid
somebody fifty dollars to haul it away.

Would you like to know what Denise’s
house used to look like? I quote
from her police citation: tent constructed
on pallets, mattress,
sleeping bag, blankets, milk crate,
chair. Under violations the officer
wrote: unlawful camping, refused
shelter, ignored prior warnings.
He also checked: booking required.

I wondered why the officials of my
city were so stupid and cruel, not to
mention wasteful. How much public
money did they spend moving these
people from bad to worse? How many
schools, parks, clinics, and buses got
starved in proportion; how many violent
crimes went unsolved? I also wondered
what “private property” meant—
the right to go on paying property
taxes, I suppose. Then I went inside my
building and sat down because
I felt like crying.

http://harpers.org/archive/2011/03/0083334

This is the reality for more and more Americans, millions upon millions of whom are being pushed into poverty or deeper into poverty every year of this ongoing Endless Recession.

Every time another austerity measure is enacted, another few hundred thousand or few million are thrown off the cliff, to face whatever it is Those People face Down Below (poor devils.)

Keening and rending garments over it will not stop what has been going on for years now.

Change will only come when we make it come.

The Problem Is: The Rich Don't Have Enough... Bling (They ain't bovvered, tho)

On the front page of my local newswipe this morning, below the dismal economic news, the tainted turkey news, the Mubarak-in-a-cage news, the bug news, and the weather (cold and wet; this section of California has obviously moved several hundred miles north in the last few years of so-called "climate change") there was a reprinted story from the New York Times, that bastion of the Little People, headlined:

JET SET'S LUXURY SPENDING SOARS

Isn't that special, though. Good to know that somebody's responsible enough to keep the Demand Economy afloat.

The luxury category has posted 10 consecutive months of sales increases compared with the year earlier, even as overall consumer spending on categories like furniture and electronics has been tepid, according to the research service MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse. In July, the luxury segment had an 11.6 percent increase, the biggest monthly gain in more than a year.

What changed? Mostly, the stock market, retailers and analysts said, as well as a good bit of shopping psychology. Even with the sharp drop in stocks over the last week, the Dow Jones is up about 80 percent from its low in March 2009. And with the overall economy nowhere near its recession lows, buying nice, expensive things is back in vogue for people who can afford it.

But then, is it ever out of vogue? Certainly not. Remember all the luxury-filled movies from the '30's? No matter how bad things got for the ordinary sod, the movies showed you the Other Side of Suffering, where even the rich people's dogs lived better than you did, and they all talked so very fast, and they were jolly and charming and funny as could be.

And get this:

While the free spending of the affluent may not be of much comfort to people who are out of jobs or out of cash, the rich may contribute disproportionately to the overall economic recovery.

“This group is key because the top 5 percent of income earners accounts for about one-third of spending, and the top 20 percent accounts for close to 60 percent of spending,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “That was key to why we suffered such a bad recession — their spending fell very sharply.”

Now doesn't that make you feel better? If it weren't for the rich spending on Prada, you, you poor devil, wouldn't have anything. The statistics prove it! Ha! The top 20% make up fully 60% of consumption. No wonder nothing is being done to help the working and middle class, or to put anyone out of a job back to work. What's the point of it, when they still wouldn't have enough money to spend on $2,800 David Yurman pavé rings?

The lower eighty percent are obviously nothing but parasites. They're lucky to have anything at all.

As for all that bling-bling, here's a Catherine Tate gag with the Queen at the Royal Variety Show some years back. "Are you disrespecting me?"



And for those of us in a "Tumbrils and Guillotines" frame of mind, this little piece from last year by James Howard Kunstler should help get the Rage on:

Worse Than 1789?

The End of the Consumer-Demand Economy

Nobody really wants to admit it, but the Deficit Crisis Crisis Deal has sealed the End of the Consumer-Demand Economy in the United States.

The only way to revive it temporarily under the circumstances is through inflating another bubble, with plenty of profit-taking at the top and even more thoroughgoing misery everywhere else when the bubble inevitably pops.

That's it. Period. Done.

The Consumer-Demand economy that we Americans were used to all those years has now shifted to China and India and most of the rest of Asia, somewhat to Latin America and isolated parts of Africa.

Maybe Russia under the Oligarchs will provide a model of where we're headed, I don't know, but if it is, it is hard to imagine that the proles won't be restless. The way they manage popular discontent in Russia is interesting. Apparently, it's largely a matter of propaganda from the now-free-and-independent media, mocking and suppressing truth-telling dissident voices, and raking an Oligarch over the coals from time to time (including show trials) to prove that the Government is on the People's side. Yay.

Apparently Putin and his Mini-Me, Medvedev, are wildly popular among the suffering masses, too, because "They Care!" and "They Do What's Necessary!" Yaay.

The implosion of the Soviet Union was quite a spectacular thing, given the constant propaganda in this country about how Evil and Powerful it was. I doubt the United States is going to go through exactly that sequence of disillusion and dissolution, with a handful of predators scarfing up everything of value left by the State before its final collapse, all in a period measured in months. But you never know.

It could happen if it were in the interests of Our Nation's Owners to let it happen.

The implosion of the Soviet Union is also what enables the current rounds of Austerity (for Thee) Economics throughout the West. This is what happens when global governing theory is a monopole. When there is essentially no counterweight to one form of governance and economic activity then that One-ness will tend to consume itself into oblivion.

Leaving... what?

That remains to be seen, doesn't it?

Lots of people are putting together their picture of what the Future will look like, and it is all dark and dismal and dreary.

At least it is in the West.

What makes Krugman, et al, so livid about what is happening before our very eyes is that it doesn't have to be this way. Even with Peak Oil and Climate Change and all the other overriding conditions that are supposedly pushing this outcome on everyone.

No, it doesn't have to be this way at all. The ending of a consumer-demand economy implies its replacement with some adaptation of a subsistence economy -- which was basically what the Communitarian hippies were all about back in the day. (The Liberationist hippies, on the other hand, became hedge fund managers and corporate and plaintiff's attorneys!)

In other words, we -- well some of us -- have already been down this road, figured out how to work it pretty well, and have no problem returning to (if we ever left) a subsistence way of life.

For the urban masses, it's a difficult transition, but it's possible.

"We probably need to start wondering why this keeps happening."

LOL. Been taking blog-writing lessons from Digby, has he? Heh.

Everybody has been all atwitter and agog at Taibbi's latest on the Democrats' propensity for last minute caveage to the demands of the Republicans, as well they should be. I know it's been up for a while, but I just got around to reading it today. Shuffle. Shuffle.

The Money Quote:

The Democrats aren't failing to stand up to Republicans and failing to enact sensible reforms that benefit the middle class because they genuinely believe there's political hay to be made moving to the right. They're doing it because they do not represent any actual voters.

Exactly. Nor, let it be said, do the Republicans. They all represent the interest of their Owners and Sponsors. All of them.

Taibbi is one of the damnedest finest political writers practicing the trade today, and his pantsing of the Dems this time is a gem. You can see that he gets his styles and flourishes from his stint with Ames and Levine and the Exile, shut down by Putin's thugs for going where it ought not to, but we might want to ponder why he, Taibbi, has become the go-to guy for the latest and greatest skewerings and pantsings of Our Lords and Masters being regularly published in America today, while Ames and Levine, no slouches themselves, tend to get relegated to the low-rent districts and back alleys (I mean really. Dylan? Rattigan? Mirth and merriment ensue. I think I've done a riff or two on Dylan's good heart but rank incompetence before, but I can't find it in the archives just now. Did I write it at another site? Oh whell.)

The picture above is from an LA Weekly blog post from 2008 by Matthew Fleischer titled "Jesus Made Matt Taibbi Puke." Savory goodness all around."

Oh, the Gnashing of Teeth; the Rending of Garments

As the Debt Ceiling Deliberations plod on, the levels of mass hysteria increase exponentially. Just what the parties to the secret discussions are prepared to agree to is always a bit of a Mystery -- by design to be sure -- but the outlines are always clear enough:

The current cuts to entitlements and social programs will be continued and extended; taxes -- such as the payroll tax intended to pay for Social Security -- will be cut or cuts currently in place will be extended; the rich and their corporations will not pay any more tax no matter what, no way, no how.

This has been the outline from the beginning of the "negotiations," and nothing at all has come up to suggest there's been any change whatsoever in the closed door deliberations.

A thing to keep in mind is that this is the way all the Big Things the Palace wants to do get done:

• a basic Plan is put forth from the Throne
  
  
• the details of that Plan are not revealed to the Public, but they appear to be known to the principals from the get-go
  
  
• there is much sturm und drang from all parties who issue pro-forma anathemas and denunciations of all other parties
  
  
• deliberations continue behind the scenes and in secret
  
  
• the basic Plan the Throne has issued is adopted by the principals in secret
  
  
• many more anathemas and denunciations are issued, many more lines in the sand are drawn, the End of Civilization is declared repeatedly, passionate gnashing of teeth and rending of garments is de rigueur all around
  
  
• the Plan is circulated among the Opinion Leaders and Congressional Chairs; tweakage occurs here and there to address "issues" identified by favored constituencies
  
  
• the Plan is passed to much huzzah and denunciation, but nobody knows what has actually passed until well after the deed is done
  
  
• the poor, the working class, and the middle class are once again screwed; the upper 1% -- and especially the upper .01% -- are showered with even more benefits and largesse
  
  
• rinse and repeat
  
  

This process has been going on for years without let up. It's been relentless. It is mirrored in the astonishing behavior of a clutch of Republican Governors -- most notoriously Scott Walker of Wisconsin -- who have been applying Shock Doctrine tactics in state after state to restrict the rights of workers (particularly public workers) and limit the ability of the People to redress grievances while savagely cutting social programs and education, and heaping ever greater benefits on the upper 1% and ever greater costs on everyone else.

It is a "Pattern" as it were. It is going on almost everywhere simultaneously, and despite all the gnashing of teeth and the rending of garments, absolutely NOTHING is standing in the way of its successful implementation. NOTHING.

Hundreds of thousands have marched in public protest of whatever the Republican Governors want to do, but it doesn't matter; what they want to do is enacted, period. End of discussion.

Eternal arguments go on over this or that Pronouncement from the Throne, this or that policy adopted by the Congress, this or that Big Thing enacted and/or implemented. But just like the protest demonstrations, the Arguments have a stunning lack of effectiveness; nothing changes for the better in other words.

Oh, but same sex marriage is now the law in New York! Haven't you heard! Yay! Celebrate!

Ahem.

If that's your most important thing, then I suppose all the rest of it doesn't matter.

I suppose.

The real question we should be asking is: "Why has nothing at all been effective in stopping this March Over the Cliff?" It's almost as if we are living through a period of Predestination. Or some one else's Plan. I can see why Apocalyptic visions and religious fervor are at an all time high.

The People and the Public Interest literally have no effect on events whatsoever.

Oh, but there was Egypt! Oh, but there was Tunisia! Where Twitter and WikiLeaks and Popular Will overthrew Rotten Dictatorships in a twinkling! Yay! Celebrate!

Well, except that isn't quite what happened. Other than that, everything is now fine in those Happy Lands. Just ask the residents. They will tell you: "Strangely, all is not fine; strangely, we gained almost nothing."

Strangely, that's kind of how it goes.

Strangely, as the Murdoch Media Empire shudders in Britain, the Murdoch Media Empire's machinations world-wide continue unabated. Corrupt as sin, they still rule without let or hindrance.

Strangely, while the Peoples of the World groan under an ever greater burden of debt and penury, the upper crust of the upper crust counts every greater profits.

Strangely, while Everyone Knows that the draconian austerity economic policies being adopted globally will crush any hint of economic recovery everywhere, nothing at all can or will stop their adoption and implementation, no matter the consequences.

Strangely, what the People say and what the People know is broadly and consistently ignored throughout the Ruling Class in order to ensure that that class receives all the benefits and none of the responsibilities of Success. What is happening in the United States is happening everywhere.

Naomi Klein described and predicted it in detail years ago.

But strangely, seeing it in action, everywhere all at once, is more numbing than activating.

Strangely, nothing at all stands in the way of the Four Horsemen riding roughshod over the land.

Nothing at all.

What's the Point of Lifting the Veil?

Lifting the Veil from S DN on Vimeo.

This is Metanoia's long-awaited documentary follow-up to their previous exposés about what's really what, and while I think it is an excellent piece of documentary filmmaking of the utter outrageousness of the economic situation we've been facing for years now and the complicity of the political system in keeping things this way, unless there is an action plan to really change things, knowing what's behind the curtain doesn't help in the least.

Knowing how Our Betters have been misbehaving and robbing the rest of us blind all these years without any plan or even intention to reclaim any of what's been stolen from us -- and is being stolen -- by the High and the Mighty Bandits gets us nowhere at all. It's just adding to the worry and the frustration and the anger that's already there without any productive outlet.

When lifting the veil is an end in itself, as it is more and more to the many Veil Lifter Entrepreneurs that proliferate in bad times and good, there's little point in it.

At some point, we don't need to know any more about how rotten Our Rulers and their Sponsors are.

At some point, action is more important than knowing what's behind the curtain.

Nevertheless, watch the film. Take your blood pressure medicine. And be on the lookout for strategic actions in your neighborhood.... ;-).

Why Is The "Left" So Deeply Invested in Republicans?

For a little while, I thought the rather absurd focus on Republican candidates, characters, office holders and policies on the "left" had abated. But I was wrong. The "left" is entirely invested in the Republican Party, Republican candidates and Republican policies, and can consider and talk about almost nothing else.

It doesn't matter that the "left" is often critical of or mocking Republicans. So long as they are the center of attention -- "all eyes on them" as it were -- Republicans rule.

As if they held complete power in a one party state verging on totalitarianism.

The United States has long been an authoritarian society -- often much more severely so than it is now -- but it has generally resisted totalitarianism. Now, I'm not so sure. As the economic situation continues to deteriorate for the millions, while those on top prosper as never before, a kind of home grown totalitarianism may be inevitable.

For quite a while, each political party was eager to pick the other party's presidential (and sometimes congressional) candidates, or at least to have a significant influence on the selection. It was a game of sorts, sometimes involving dirty tricks, but typically revolving around "chatter" and where possible, voter limitation and suppression. By controlling what was said and heard and who voted, each party sought to dominate the other. The People had little to do with it -- except to the extent they could be manipulated to go along with the program of the political consultants.

But what I see going on now is qualitatively different. Yes, of course, controlling what is said and heard is still important, as is voter suppression -- which is now quite deliberate and out in the open. But now it is no longer a matter of choosing the other party's candidates or influencing the choice. For all intents and purposes, it appears that the Democratic Party has collapsed as a political entity. It has become a pseudo-oppositional subsidiary of the dominant Republican Party, much as Congress and the courts became appendages of the Executive Branch during the Bush Years, something the Obama administration has only partially reversed.

A vestigial Democratic Party is simply uninteresting to observers. Democrats have no power or authority as a political party since they seem to be in complete thrall to their Republican Overlords, indeed more and more Democrats appear to be Republicans themselves -- perhaps Rockefeller Republicans, but Republicans nonetheless.

And as this One Party State develops, what you can do and what you can say and what your future will be diminishes.

You either conform to the will of a tiny minority of primarily banking interests (a totalitarianism of Banksters?) that insists on impoverished drudgery for those who can continue to be employed (ah, shades of Orwells Proles!), and irrelevance for everyone else.

The political Parties are nothing but Show, and not a very good Show at that. Meaningless elections can continue, but Rule is closely held and more and more personal among a diminishing handful of Favorites at the Top. We the People have nothing whatever to do with it.

The "Left" (so-called) is so deeply invested in Republicans and what they do and all their clowning and bizarre antics because the Republicans are the purest expression and face of the Rulers over us. The Dems are not even putting on a good show anymore.

There is a vestigial Real Left in this country, but you would never know it from appearances. In time it may reemerge, but for now, it is essentially underground. In the meantime, more and more Americans are simply withdrawing from the Perpetual Show that has taken the place of the Public Interest in the political realm. They are turning their backs and developing alternatives.

The Government may be in total thrall to the Banksters and their determination to extort the last dime and drop of blood from the masses, but the People themselves have long been strategizing ways to thwart them. If Government really does descend into a kind of neo-Feudal totalitarianism -- the direction its headed -- "opting out" will become more and more common. Our Rulers won't care, at least not until their extortion payments are no longer forthcoming.

And then?

Well, "Hello Greece!"

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Anything?

Everything?







Fascinating.

----------------------------

Some notes: It really is a fascinating exploration of how we got where we are and who and what had such an influential impact on the course of events. It's similar to what James Burke did with "Connections" all those years ago, but with a harder edge -- because everything Curtis gets into is recent or relatively so.

This series is an incomplete exploration, of course, and it is approached from a decidedly British point of view, but it does help us to see how thinkers and actors on the world stage actually do have an effect on what happens and how.

Some of Curtis's startling observations include the resemblance between what Asian economies went through in the 90's and what we in the west are going through now. His observations about the World Computing Machines (as Edward Teller called them) would enable -- and what sort of strange and pitiless philosophy and ideology would go with them -- need quite a bit of expansion, but I think he's mostly on the mark. Underlying much of Adam Curtis's work -- which I really appreciate -- is the idea that a great deal of what we believe is wrong, and it is wrong because those who brought those beliefs forth, whatever their realm, were deep in error.

But "Truth" is never a finality. It is an ongoing and changing discovery. I like that a lot.

Bummer -- Ian Welsh Envisions the Permanent Depression

Ian Welsh predicts we're headed into a more or less permanent economic depression due to an unshakable addiction to fossil fuel and a refusal of the political class to face up to the reality of the situation.

"Baked into the cake" as he says.

Ian Welsh has been one of my favo(u)rite bloggers for quite a long time. His often sour Canuk insight into things going wrong is typically spot on. And I'll grant that the ingredients of the cake he's talking about -- that is to say governments' response to the financial unpleasantness of the last few years -- were spoiled and inadequate before the cake was made, but I'm not so sure he has it right otherwise.

The deal is that the economy that crashed was, much like the post-WWI economy, a "bubble economy." In other words, its promise and progress weren't "real." Some of us saw very well how frail its underpinnings were, and some of us did our best to sidestep the Juggernaut, just stay out of the way. Of course some of those who did are prancing around now in a kind of triumphalist stupor, but Ian is not one of them.

He saw how bad things were likely to get and why: unfettered greed, craven indifference, stupid and passive publics, governing incompetence and complicity. Well, at least in North America.

What I've called the Endless Recession, he suggests is going to be a very long Depression, far outlasting the Great Depression of the 1930's. Could be.

It’s gonna be a long 20 to 30 years folks. Does this have to be the future? In theory, no. In practice, well, yes, apparently it does.

On the other hand, I see what's going on from a somewhat different perspective. It's been obvious to me from the beginning of the Crash way back when -- and the collapse really began in 2007 -- that this situation would become the catalyst, whether intentional or not, for a major economic restructuring in the "Developed World."

The problem of bubble economics is only part of what's been going haywire in the United States for a good long time. As has been often repeated, bubble economies are not sustainable, yet once on a bubble track, it's very hard to get off it. When the only way -- or the "best" way -- to make money is the way it's been done in this country for many a long year, by inflating and deflating bubbles over and over again, you're on a collision course with catastrophe, guaranteed.

It's happened frequently in Western history, and the constant inflation and deflation of economic bubbles in Europe was a big spur to colonization and settlement in North America. People wanted to get away from what was going on back in the Old Country. To some extent, European imperialism of the 18th and 19th Centuries can be attributed to the exhaustion of bubble economies within Europe itself (and a case can be made that the bubbles themselves were partly spurred by the seizure of immense quantities of gold and other valuables from the Natives of the Americas and their wide distribution through Europe from Spain and Portugal.)

Now we're talking about never re-inflating a bubble economy again. That's an interesting concept, and it is not necessarily a depressing one. If bubble economies are unsustainable, as they are, and they have a tendency to spur -- maybe even require -- Imperialist expansion to avoid the Ultimate Economic Collapse or what seers consider the Ultimate Collapse, maybe it's a good thing, not a bad thing, to just get off the bubble economy treadmill altogether.

The Developed World has reached the point where it cannot -- apparently -- sustain itself without seizing the assets and potentially the territories of others. That's primarily what the current Imperial Project is all about. The Arabs have been designated as the "Indians" to be crushed, exterminated and stolen from, much as the United States developed its domestic empire by exterminating the Natives and stealing their land (and much else.)

Oil is the lubrication for all this, control of oil is the reason for it, and an unsustainable fossil-fueled global economy is the consequence. Domestic and overseas populations are forced to pay for Imperial Projects through seizures of their assets. But it can only go so far, and in the end various Imperial Projects collide with unfortunate results.

"Those who will not learn from history are condemned to repeat it." Sure, sure. But the repetition is never quite the same each time out, and if we are going through yet another bubble-collapse-Imperial-Overreach-let's-not-do-this-again phase, it is not without learning some of the lessons of the past.

What Ian sees as an Enduring Depression may well be something else, and it may well be directable toward positive rather than negative ends. Figuring out how that might be done is the challenge...