Many of us are not aware of how inevitably and speedily our imperial capitalist economy is moving toward bankruptcy. We are sailing on a magnificent yacht that is moving downstream toward an immense waterfall and we are deaf to the crashing sounds of falling water.
The money we spend on the military, not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but world wide far exceeds the TARP bail out funds. But if you include the cost of Iraq, now 2-3 trillion dollars, on top of Tarp which Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury, says we may need 2 trillion dollars to fix Wall St. and the banks, we are looking at an economic crisis that cannot continue. Keep in mind that all this money is borrowed. Income tax is insufficient to cover the expense. Bush did not raise taxes for his imperial war, he lowered them. We are borrowing from China, Japan and other Asian countries. Add the service on the debt and you feel as though you are becoming mentally unsound. It cannot be real. Oh, but it is.
Now let’s consider what we actually manufacture for export. Guess? It’s weaponry. We don’t manufacture much of anything else. We produce more arms and munitions than anyone else in the world and we ship this weaponry to 730 American military bases throughout the world, actually in 130 countries. The money spent also includes global communications, espionage installations, military operations, nuclear weapons, construction, pension, hospitalization and disability payments for veterans and much, much more.
We are now at the point where we may not raise enough money to pay for all of this. We cannot continue to rely on massive spending for armies and weapons to keep the economy afloat and prevent collapse. It is not productive. It is dead end spending. Furthermore, an economy based on war leads to the destruction of the human spirit. We tend to think of war only in terms of victory or defeat when in reality “it is about death and the infliction of death.” We do not consider our adversary as people and we kill without conscience. As a result, we also kill unarmed civilians and we establish secret prisons where our soldiers torture the inmates. Torture was permissible because Attorney General Gonzalez decreed that the Geneva Conventions prohibiting torture was obsolete. It happens that this prohibition was a ratified treaty signed by the U.S. and was therefore a law. According to our Constitution a ratified treaty is a law of the land. Gonzalez had no power or authority to nullify it. Bush then issued a memo stating that captives from the battlefields are not POWs but rather are “illegal combatants.” There is no such term in International Law. Bush’s attorneys made it up.
Thus the Geneva Conventions in regard to POWs did not apply, according to Bush, Gonzalez and John Yoo in the Office of Legal Counsel. Troops were then free to torture.
Those responsible for torture should be prosecuted. It is a violation of the law. The subject is not debatable.
References: .
Fisk, Tom. The Great War for Civilization. 2005.
Johnson, Chalmers. Nemesis. 2006.
Stiglilitz, J. and Bilmes, L. The 3 Trillion Dollar War. 2008.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Israel and the United States
Despite the Israel Lobby’s indoctrination of Congress, it is recognized by almost 40 % of Americans that the incredible anti-Americanism experienced all over the world is caused mainly by the US support of Israel. It is also true that Israel’s influence on the Bush administration was a primary cause for the invasion of Iraq and the constant pressure on Congress and the present administration to start another war this time against Iran. Furthermore, if it is real, the so-called “war on terror” certainly is not aided by our alliance with Israel nor is our relationship with our allies around the world strengthened by our constant praise of Israeli policies in the Middle East. Our support of Israel is promoted primarily by the political power of the Lobby and has no strategic value. In fact that support is not in our national interest and is actually in the end harmful to Israel.
What are some of the arguments used in America for the support of Israel? The moral argument is quite effective. For example, Israel is weak and encircled by those who want to demolish it; Jews have suffered persecution in Europe; Jews are “morally superior” to the Palestinians. Except for European persecution these arguments are pure and simple myths. Moreover, Jews are no longer the victims rather Jews instead have become the persecutors. The treatment of Palestinians has been brutal. The Israel Defense Forces since 2006 have been striking Palestinian civilian targets killing men, women and children by the thousands.
Under these circumstances Israel is hardly the underdog. It is not weak and has always been militarily superior to the Palestinians going back to the first war, the War for Independence in 1948. The Israelis have “superior firepower, manpower, organization and command.” No Arab army would consider invading the Israeli state. They would be wiped out.
America quite often uses the argument for support of Israel that it is a democracy surrounded by dictatorships. It is the only democracy in the Middle East and America supports democracies. That isn’t always true since there are democracies in the world that we do not support. But more importantly Israel’s democratic values are a little different than ours. In the U.S. people of any race, color or religion enjoy equal rights. In Israel Arabs do not enjoy equal rights. In fact Palestinian Arabs are treated in a highly discriminatory manner and it is accepted by most Israeli Jews that Arabs be unequally treated. The excuses used are that they are dirty and smell bad, they are ignorant and uneducated. The average Jew ignores the fact that Palestinians are kept in poverty by Israeli law. Evicting Palestinian families from their homes is a continuing policy that forces them to live in slums.
Special interest groups of all kinds actively influence members of Congress and have for decades. A particularly powerful interest group is the Israel Lobby which is made up of Jewish organizations, registered lobbyists and wealthy or not so wealthy Jewish individuals. This lobby is a “loose coalition” that strives to influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Israel. It is extremely effective in supporting policies in the Middle East that often have no strategic or moral value for the U.S. The organization that has the most influence in Congress and is the core of the Israel Lobby is the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). This committee’s effectiveness in Congress is overpowering. When an issue comes up involving Israel, there is never any debate. The critics are silent. Every other issue whether it is education, energy, abortion, gay rights, you name it, the debate is always brisk and animated. There is an extended exchange of views. But when the issue involves Israel, there is very little dialogue or none. And any Congressman or Senator that takes an adversarial position in regard to an Israel issue supported by AIPAC usually ends up persona non grata. The motto is: “Cross AIPAC, you play with fire.”
Now as for the Palestinians, it will not be easy but there are a number of things we can do. According to some experts in international affairs, we could encourage other countries to “isolate Israel as we did in the case of South Africa.” We could aid the Palestinians economically to help develop their own state. Of course, they would have to stop all violence against Israel. And Israel would have to stop its violence against the Arabs.
Continuing the present policy just makes things worse and destroys our reputation in the world. Opinion polls indicate that the American people would support pressing Israel to settle. At the moment the hard line lobby stands in the way.
References:
Mearsheimer and Walt. The Israel Lobby. 2007
Fisk, Robert. The Great War For Civilization. 2005.
Wikipedia
What are some of the arguments used in America for the support of Israel? The moral argument is quite effective. For example, Israel is weak and encircled by those who want to demolish it; Jews have suffered persecution in Europe; Jews are “morally superior” to the Palestinians. Except for European persecution these arguments are pure and simple myths. Moreover, Jews are no longer the victims rather Jews instead have become the persecutors. The treatment of Palestinians has been brutal. The Israel Defense Forces since 2006 have been striking Palestinian civilian targets killing men, women and children by the thousands.
Under these circumstances Israel is hardly the underdog. It is not weak and has always been militarily superior to the Palestinians going back to the first war, the War for Independence in 1948. The Israelis have “superior firepower, manpower, organization and command.” No Arab army would consider invading the Israeli state. They would be wiped out.
America quite often uses the argument for support of Israel that it is a democracy surrounded by dictatorships. It is the only democracy in the Middle East and America supports democracies. That isn’t always true since there are democracies in the world that we do not support. But more importantly Israel’s democratic values are a little different than ours. In the U.S. people of any race, color or religion enjoy equal rights. In Israel Arabs do not enjoy equal rights. In fact Palestinian Arabs are treated in a highly discriminatory manner and it is accepted by most Israeli Jews that Arabs be unequally treated. The excuses used are that they are dirty and smell bad, they are ignorant and uneducated. The average Jew ignores the fact that Palestinians are kept in poverty by Israeli law. Evicting Palestinian families from their homes is a continuing policy that forces them to live in slums.
Special interest groups of all kinds actively influence members of Congress and have for decades. A particularly powerful interest group is the Israel Lobby which is made up of Jewish organizations, registered lobbyists and wealthy or not so wealthy Jewish individuals. This lobby is a “loose coalition” that strives to influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Israel. It is extremely effective in supporting policies in the Middle East that often have no strategic or moral value for the U.S. The organization that has the most influence in Congress and is the core of the Israel Lobby is the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). This committee’s effectiveness in Congress is overpowering. When an issue comes up involving Israel, there is never any debate. The critics are silent. Every other issue whether it is education, energy, abortion, gay rights, you name it, the debate is always brisk and animated. There is an extended exchange of views. But when the issue involves Israel, there is very little dialogue or none. And any Congressman or Senator that takes an adversarial position in regard to an Israel issue supported by AIPAC usually ends up persona non grata. The motto is: “Cross AIPAC, you play with fire.”
Now as for the Palestinians, it will not be easy but there are a number of things we can do. According to some experts in international affairs, we could encourage other countries to “isolate Israel as we did in the case of South Africa.” We could aid the Palestinians economically to help develop their own state. Of course, they would have to stop all violence against Israel. And Israel would have to stop its violence against the Arabs.
Continuing the present policy just makes things worse and destroys our reputation in the world. Opinion polls indicate that the American people would support pressing Israel to settle. At the moment the hard line lobby stands in the way.
References:
Mearsheimer and Walt. The Israel Lobby. 2007
Fisk, Robert. The Great War For Civilization. 2005.
Wikipedia
Bank Fraud
Let’s start with a definition of fraud. Fraud is the intentional perversion of the truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right. It involves deceit, trickery or misrepresentation. And of course fraud is a criminal act.
So who committed this fraud? You may find this hard to believe but the deceit was coldly planned by those in charge of the major banks and lending institutions in the country. The CEOs, CFOs and members of the boards are guilty of fraud. They have not been prosecuted and they have not been found guilty but that is what they were about. To make themselves personally rich they deliberately made bad loans because bad loans pay extremely well. These loans were called “liar’s loans”. That means that nothing is documented. A borrower applies for a mortgage and the lender does not verify the borrower’s job, his income or his assets. He is encouraged to misrepresent, i.e. lie about his finances. This kind of deception can only lead to disaster. For example, the bank known as Indy Mac in Los Angeles went down because it had made $80 billion (!) worth of “liar’s loans”.
The complicated financial instruments such as CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) that were created to deceive buyers, i.e. institutional investors, were made up of liar’s loans and given AAA ratings by the rating agencies without even looking at them. AAA means “zero credit risk”. But in fact these instruments had overwhelming risk. One trader said that “the banks knew they were selling crap”. And that is how these investments became toxic. When the original mortgages foreclosed, the banks became insolvent. That is where we are today. But the government is covering up the insolvency of the banks saying it will take 2 trillion taxpayers’ dollars to solve the problem. But at the same time the banks are claiming they are fully capitalized, i.e. solvent. What is the truth? The real solution is to close the banks, put them in receivership and fire the executives who caused the problems which means that a person is appointed to manage the corporation during the reorganization. It is not nationalization and it was done during the S & L debacle in the 80’s.It was also done during the Great Depression in the 30’s. It happens to be legally mandated and it is being disregarded. By the way the FDIC will protect your deposits during the re-org. So don’t panic if it ever comes to that.
Primarily we need to get rid of the people at the top who committed the fraud and caused the problem If they remain in charge, we will never find out how the fraud was perpetrated, who was responsible and what are the assets (if any) really worth. We can’t expect the guys who did it to tell us anything. Dump these guys and put in new people we can trust. In short, uncover the cover-up and then regulate.
References:
Black, William K, Bill Moyers Journal 4/3/09
Common Dreams.
So who committed this fraud? You may find this hard to believe but the deceit was coldly planned by those in charge of the major banks and lending institutions in the country. The CEOs, CFOs and members of the boards are guilty of fraud. They have not been prosecuted and they have not been found guilty but that is what they were about. To make themselves personally rich they deliberately made bad loans because bad loans pay extremely well. These loans were called “liar’s loans”. That means that nothing is documented. A borrower applies for a mortgage and the lender does not verify the borrower’s job, his income or his assets. He is encouraged to misrepresent, i.e. lie about his finances. This kind of deception can only lead to disaster. For example, the bank known as Indy Mac in Los Angeles went down because it had made $80 billion (!) worth of “liar’s loans”.
The complicated financial instruments such as CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) that were created to deceive buyers, i.e. institutional investors, were made up of liar’s loans and given AAA ratings by the rating agencies without even looking at them. AAA means “zero credit risk”. But in fact these instruments had overwhelming risk. One trader said that “the banks knew they were selling crap”. And that is how these investments became toxic. When the original mortgages foreclosed, the banks became insolvent. That is where we are today. But the government is covering up the insolvency of the banks saying it will take 2 trillion taxpayers’ dollars to solve the problem. But at the same time the banks are claiming they are fully capitalized, i.e. solvent. What is the truth? The real solution is to close the banks, put them in receivership and fire the executives who caused the problems which means that a person is appointed to manage the corporation during the reorganization. It is not nationalization and it was done during the S & L debacle in the 80’s.It was also done during the Great Depression in the 30’s. It happens to be legally mandated and it is being disregarded. By the way the FDIC will protect your deposits during the re-org. So don’t panic if it ever comes to that.
Primarily we need to get rid of the people at the top who committed the fraud and caused the problem If they remain in charge, we will never find out how the fraud was perpetrated, who was responsible and what are the assets (if any) really worth. We can’t expect the guys who did it to tell us anything. Dump these guys and put in new people we can trust. In short, uncover the cover-up and then regulate.
References:
Black, William K, Bill Moyers Journal 4/3/09
Common Dreams.
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