The Nightmare

Over the years in an attempt to bring about some degree of social justice the Federal Government through Congress has funded a number of social welfare programs that millions of moderate and low income families depend on. For example, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Pell Grants are designed to assist the elderly, the sick, the disabled , the health of 24 million children and the education of the needy.

For the domestic programs the Federal Government gets high marks. But when historically we consider our foreign policy over the years the Feds failed miserably.

Beginning with the Russian Revolution in 1917 we have had a foreign policy directed toward destroying Bolshevism either militarily or politically. Our military budget and our political action was directed to that end for 74 years . To the capitalists of the world the successful Bolshevik revolution was a fearful nightmare. Here was an alternative option to plutocracy that might spread widely. Oh, my! So in 1918 with the paranoid backing of the capitalist power brokers the U.S. along with Britain, France and Japan militarily invaded Russia intending to overthrow the Bolshevik government. The U.S. and Britain also gave financial aid to the right-wing anti-Bolshevik White Russian armies. Herbert Hoover, who was Chairman of the American Relief Administration used humanitarian fund intended for starving civilians to supply the White Russian armies.

The U.S. Sent 40,000 troops plus naval vessels as part of the allied invasion causing many military and civilian casualties . It was a total waste of blood and money. Most American are not aware that we participated in this failure, not even Ronald Reagan who wrongly stated publicly in 1984 and directed his remarks to the Soviet Union that “our sons and daughters have never fought each other in war.”

Another reason for the invasion was, of course, the vast natural resources located in Russia. The Western Corporate investors hoped to invest in the natural wealth of the country before it was nationalized by the Bolsheviks. The corporate capitalists followed the armies and intended to pull out oil, coal, timber, ore and gold for use in the West.

Historically what is significant about this period is that although the invasion of Russia was a “hot war” in reality it was the beginning of the “cold war.” The “cold war” was based not on a fear of Russia attacking us but rather the corporatists fear of communism. After World War II the cold war as we know it kicked into high gear. At that time there was much talk about engaging the Soviet Union in war. But it became obvious after WWII when Field Marshall Montgomery paid a visit to the Soviet Union, he reported to Eisenhower that the Russians were in “no fit state to go to war.” They had lost 22 million citizens while at the same time cities, railways and industries were destroyed. Even our own military advisers admitted that the Soviets were not preparing for war. Yet the specter of a Russian attack was used all during the cold war to support a constant military buildup in the U.S. Today we understand the power of the military-industrial complex that produced endless weaponry and huge profits for the U.S. weapons manufacturers. Money that could have been well spent in other areas.

Poverty in the world frightens the world's capitalists because eventually people suffering in an unstable economy may rise up, smote the wealthy and drive them from their land. Free market globalization was introduced by the transnational corporations to deal with this problem. But as we have shown in previous blogs, it wasn't free nor was it a market and it only increased poverty. And remember the fear of communism in SE Asia made the Viet Nam war a reality based on lies and was a total waste.

Now returning to the 1920's during the rise of Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany, there was continual conflict between Western Capitalism and Soviet Communism. On the other hand, the corporate capitalists were extremely tolerant and approving of the Fascist countries in Europe.

Hitler and Mussolini supplied troops and weapons to Franco in Spain to crush the Republic. The Western Allies and the U.S imposed an embargo against the democratic Republic and supplied fuel to Franco's army.

The Western plutocracy did not look upon Fascism with the same fear as Communism. In fact they hoped that Germany would move against the Soviet Union. After all the Fascists were not a threat to business. Both Nazism and Italian Fascism had destroyed the labor unions and made business more profitable. Privatization increased in both countries. The power brokers of the West recognized that Nazism had destroyed the Communist movement in Germany and in the occupied portions of Europe. Fascism in Italy did the same in that country.

After WWII the cold war antagonisms continued for 50 additional years backed by the dread of Communism. The continued production of weaponry on both sides finally bankrupted the Soviet Union In effect Western plutocracy won the “war” but in the process traded off Bolshevism for the Russian mafia spreading thuggery, violence and drugs throughout Europe and the U.S.

We are now coming full circle with uprisings in the Middle East and with the “Occupy Wall Street: We are the 99%”. Poverty in the world has become a crushing burden, and people are no longer silent. The nightmare of the corporate capitalists continues.

Former President Eisenhower has often been quoted as warning the American public to be aware of the "military-industrial complex". But actually the original phrase that he used was the “military-industrial-congressional complex.”

Recently an observer from another source pointed out that wars occur today because:

“we invent enemies to buy the bombs.”

References:

Common Dreams
M.Parenti
B. Sanders
Wikipedia

The Return of the Invertebrates

Turn over a rock and here they come crawling down main street.

Who are they ?

Why its Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas, who is also the latest candidate for President, followed by his Pentecostal gang known as the “New Apostolic Reformation.” (NAR) These new prophets, who have a direct link to God, are planning slyly to insinuate their control over the Federal Government and intend to use Rick Perry as their entree. Their plan is to take dominion over all aspects of society, i.e. education, business, government, politics, media, arts and entertainment. This means that Christians have a “god-given right” to rule autocratically all American cultural, political and economic institutions. Another name for the NAR is Dominionism. So beware of Dominionism! It is a new theocracy and it is based on Christian fundamentalism. It is the radical right wing effort to control and direct the Republican Party. And Rick Perry is deeply linked to this brand of Evangelical theocracy. The state of Texas is considered “The Prophet State” and has been chosen by God to lead the country back to Godliness with Rick Perry as the Commander.

The adherents of the NAR have some very odd and eccentric beliefs. There is a woman named Cindy Jacobs, who is a “respected prophet” and a neo-Pentecostal leader. She believes that the repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” caused thousands of birds to fall out of the sky in Arkansas. C. Peter Wagner, one of the founders of the NAR, believes that the demonization of Japan is occurring because the Sun Goddess visits the Emperor for sexual intercourse. As a result, the Japanese stock market has plunged and has not recovered. Mike Bickle, another Pentecostal minister, teaches from the pulpit that Oprah is an anti-Christ. She is the forerunner of the Harlot of Babylon, he maintains. She is, therefore, evil and deceitful. Or how about this one? The Statue of Liberty is a demonic idol.

These bizarre beliefs were expressed at a prayer meeting Gov. Perry held in Houston, Texas. He was present and has not disavowed this lunacy. In fact, the day of the event he announced his intention to run as a candidate for President. There is no question that Perry openly seeks the support of pastors who believe in Dominionism. As one Evangelical minister has said, “Christians have an obligation to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ, to have dominion over every aspect of life”. “It is dominion we are after”, he said. In short, these looney- tunes are seeking “World Conquest”. Sounds like Christian Imperialism. Can you believe these ding-a-lings?

Now we are going to hear a great deal about the jobs miracle that Perry was able to bring off in the state of Texas. Well, the job miracle is a myth. Texas is fortunate to have some very valuable natural resources, i.e. gas and oil that is the basis for a very profitable industry. When prices rose, the industry increased production and hired new workers. Perry's magic had nothing to do with the increased jobs in the oil industry. It was beyond his control. The remainder of the job miracle is actually minimum wage jobs with no benefits. In fact Texas has highest number of minimum wage jobs in the country except for Mississippi.

As Molly Ivins once said in reference to the office of governor:

“In Texas we do not hold high expectations for the office. It has mostly been occupied by crooks, dorks and the comatose."

References:

Rachel Maddow
Daily Beast
Huffington Post
Wikipedia

Beware of the Bachmann

Well, folks, I think we can forget about Sara Palin as a presidential candidate. She had a screening of her documentary film and no one showed up. Lewis Black's comment was that he had never thought of her as a real person but he saw her really as just an “ hallucination.”

However, Michelle Bachmann is another story. She may be a loony tune but she is actually a psychopath. Or to state it another way, she is ill. She is suffering from an anti-social personality disorder. These are people who are smart and personable but have no conscience. The government and the corporations are full of them . The have no sense of right and wrong. They are not bothered by the distress of the poor or unemployed. They have no “guilt or shame”. They just don't care. Cutting entitlements does not disturb their sleep because they have no self-doubt. In the case of Michelle Bachmann who is a religious fanatic, God speaks to her and divines her political program. If she is really listening to God, God must be getting it wrong because Bachmann in real life is a pathological liar and is totally uniformed about American history. She is a genetic con artist. It's her nature. She can't help it.

She recently repeated her mantra of too much government spending, but her record shows that both she and her husband have helped themselves to government subsidies shamelessly whenever possible. For example, while ranting against government spending she had 23 foster children, for whom she received a sizable amount for each child from the state. In addition, according to public records, she petitioned the government 16 times for financial aid, much of which would come out of Obama's stimulus package. She had nothing but contempt publicly for the President's economic package. She called the program “fantasy economics”.

The president's package included aid for the states, infrastructure upgrades, health care and education improvements . Bachmann led the attack against these policies.

In 2007, she petitioned the EPA to fund technical assistance and rural water programs in Minnesota. Publicly, she attacked the EPA as a “job-killing agency” and said that if she were president she would eliminate the agency. She wrote at least a dozen times to the Transportation Secretary LaHood asking for federal funds to support replacement of buses and road improvement. She petitioned the Agricultural Secretary Vilsak for funds to support a large industrial complex that would provide jobs in a rural community.

The woman is a world class hypocrite, a mass of contradictions and just a little bit crazy. Unfortunately, she has quite a following in the middle west among the Tea party gang.

She and her husband attended a very strange law school devoted to the teaching of law from the “biblical world view”. It was a segment of the Oral Roberts University, where “60% of the graduates flunked the bar.” One of Bachmann's mentors was a frequent contributor to the John Birch Society rags. Bachmann herself is a strong supporter of the “Left Behind” bunch. She claims that they have been an inspiration for her political ideology and career. I must say that the lunacy is overwhelming. I have to shake my head to make sure that I am not hallucinating.

As George Carlin once said:

I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older, then it dawned on me – they are cramming for their final exam.

References:

Huffington Post – Politics
David Schwartz – Common Dreams
Matt Taibbi – Rolling Stone

Breaking News:

Michelle Bachmann was interviewed by the New Yorker Magazine where she states that the problem is not the economy: it's the Renaissance. Because it did away with the god-fearing Dark Ages.  Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo have “dragged us all down.”

Can Michelle be real?

Religion, Politics and Sex

I have a question: Why is it that the religious left gets so little exposure in the main stream media?

Could it be that progressives are opposed to war , military spending and support social justice? Whereas the religious right gets incredible amounts of publicity in the major media and oppose vehemently public spending for job creation, social security, medicare and health care for the masses.
On the other hand, liberal organizations such as the American Friends Committee, Catholic Worker Movement and the Unitarian Universalists who promote all of the above get no mention in the main stream press.

There are two reasons: money and availability. The religious right has been able to buy up air wave frequencies, i.e. television, radio networks, cable and satellite channels. Millions of people are watching and listening to the ideology of the right wing fanatics, for example, the end of the world foolishness. Ultraconservative spokesmen have been interviewed on TV and radio many more times than progressive leaders. Since the media is owned by billion dollar corporations, it is easy to understand why the networks tend to favor the ultra-religious right.

The right wing televangelists promote globalization in support of the wealthy industrial corporations. Pat Robertson, Ted Haggard and the late Jerry Falwell encourage the wealthy capitalists to exploit the poor masses of the Third World. The role of the missionaries is to precede the investment corporatists. Their purpose is not to encourage social reform but rather to teach piety and faith. Right wing religionists do very little to improve the lot of the masses. Why? Because it is pointless. Judgment day is coming soon and the righteous will float up to heaven and the rest will burn in hell. It is the “rapture” of the second coming of Jesus that will save only the “righteous”, so spend all your money. Clothes, pets and Sinners are forbidden, they will be left behind.

There are actually “Left Behind” computer games sold by Wal-Mart. In the game the”good guys” are taught to slaughter non-believers. The righteous are the missionaries. “Bad Guys” have “Arab sounding names”. Let us build a world of social injustice by teaching hate and bigotry to our kids.

Let us now consider this peculiar breed, the television preacher, the televangelist. He preaches moralistic nonsense bathed in piety, but when it comes to his private life the hypocrisy is shocking. We all remember Jimmy Swaggart who preached to millions of television viewers about the perils of
“loose morality” and a belief in family values. But privately Jimmy was caught consorting with prostitutes. Jim Bakker, another televangelist, was accused and convicted of fraud and illegal sex. Ted Haggard, pastor of the New Life Church and a vehement homophobic was throughout his career having sex with male prostitutes.

And then there is sensational tale of a prominent conservative college headed by George C. Roche III. A man who believed intensely in family values and was just as vehemently anti-liberal. As it happened, Roche was a proved philanderer, liar and a fraud. A shocking revelation was the fact that for 20 years he was having sex with his son's wife. She later committed suicide after he divorced his dying wife and married another woman . He was a skirt chaser among students and employees. By the way, William F. Buckley, Jr. was a trustee of the college and had nothing but praise for the school.

Finally, religious pedophiles, rapists and homophobes still exist in the Catholic church and other denominations.

As George Carlin once said,

“When you are born you get a ticket to the freak show.
When you are born in America , you get a front row seat.”

References:


George Carlin
Google
M. Parenti
Wikipedia

The Lessons of Weimar

After the demise of the monarchy following Germany's defeat in World War I, the Germans established the Weimar Republic. Although Germany had instituted some welfare reforms in the late 19th century, Weimar was Germany's first exposure to democratic government since it included a constitution and a parliament.

There are some parallels in the U.S. today to what occurred in the 1920's in Germany. Is it possible that we can learn something from history? We tend not to, but let's try anyway.

In 1930 the major world depression had caused huge unemployment in Germany. Six million were unemployed or 1/3 of the work force. Currently in the U.S., We are faced with a similar unemployment crisis. Also, we have a huge debt, as did the Weimar Republic. Their solution was to make drastic cuts in government spending as many of our politicians today are spinning. In Germany debt reduction made the situation worse, weakened the Republic and in the end put the Nazi party in power. Unemployment demands job creation and this is done by increasing the debt temporarily. Then when the employed worker pay his taxes, the debt will begin to decrease. In the U.S., we are not dealing with the unemployment crisis which amounts to 14.5 million with 5 million of that total no longer looking for work. In addition, today in the “muddle west” there are anti-democratic Republican governors who intend to break the labor unions that represent public employees. And that's just the beginning. The crypto-Fascist Koch Brothers are financing these right-wing fanatics whose purpose is to quash all unions.

This is all done to preserve the power and control of the billion dollar giant corporations. Preservation of the plutocracy is the ultimate goal even if it means the destruction of democracy. It is clear then that there is a definite link between Fascism and Capitalism, that a Fascist political system is intended to preserve Capitalism. Fascism is the key instrument for the preservation of plutocratic domination.

In the early days of the Weimar Republic workers were able to win crucial benefits, namely unemployment compensation, the 8 hour day and the right to unionize. But when the economic shock of 1929 occurred, the giant corporations and banks were faced with reduced profits. It was then that the wealthy corporations withdrew their support from the Republic because it was too pro-labor. The corporations pressured the government to eliminate welfare programs and big business cut wages and broke the unions. Then the corporatists poured money into the Nazi Party.

Thus, braced with cash it was possible for the party to win 37% of the vote in the 1932 election, the most they had ever won. It was more than any other party and made it possible to gain control of the government with the help of the right-wing power brokers in secret negotiations. Hitler was appointed Chancellor by President Hindenburg and that ended the Republic. The Corporate Fascists won the day, saved German capitalism and traded the Democratic Republic for murder, torture and political repression.

Now the situation in this country is not that bad - yet. But in Wisconsin and other middle western states we see the powerful few using the economic crisis to destroy union organization. The right wing claims there is no money for welfare, health plans, pensions and collective bargaining. But this not true. There is plenty of money. It is just in the hands of the few instead of the working population.

The fascistic Koch Bros. want to destroy all your hard won democratic rights and privileges. And they use puppets like the Governor of Wisconsin to achieve their goals.

There is a joke going the rounds of the internet.

There are three guys sitting around a table. One is a billionaire, the second is a union worker, and the third is a Tea Partier. In the center of the table is a dozen delicious cookies. The billionaire takes 11 cookies for himself. Then he warns the Tea Party guy,

“Lookout, that union guy is going to take your cookie.”

References:

Hedges, Chris. American Fascism
Parenti, M. Contrary Notions
Weitz, Eric. Weimar Germany
Wikipedia

PDF for 2010

For those who would like copies of my writings there is a link in the download section for a PDF file containing all the posting for El Gato 2010.

Capitalist Imperialism

Imperialism by definition means the domination of another nation through control of their land, labor and natural resources. It is done commonly through the investments of capitalist corporations spreading their tentacles primarily throughout the third world. Oftentimes it is preceded by military invasion as in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although capital is largely invested in Western nations, i.e. North America and Europe, third world investments are much more profitable. For example, profits in the underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa and Latin-America are about 50% greater than in the developed nations. Now, free market imperialism is already spreading into Eastern Europe.

We invade nations militarily in the name of democracy and humanitarianism or especially if they “threaten our national security.” When what we are really doing is making “the world safe for the Fortune 500.” We select those countries that could not possible be a threat to our national security because they are smaller and weaker. However, their natural resources are the main attraction , namely oil, mercury, platinum, zinc, aluminum and the like. And, of course, cheap labor is a strong lure.

We propagandize our own people to believe that democracy and capitalism are linked and we spread that gospel around the globe. We disregard the many countries that are capitalistic and undemocratic, such as Thailand, Pakistan, South Africa, Indonesia, Columbia and many others. They are all “free market” third world counties and none are prosperous. Through the free market system we have destroyed social democracy in Eastern Europe and installed capitalistic democracy. As a result, the people no longer have food subsidies nor price controls. Health plan benefits are cut and guaranteed employment is gone. The free market has privatized land, farming and factories. There are major increases in corruption, crime, alcoholism and drug addiction. The Russian Mafia has spread throughout Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the United States. Investors are getting wealthier, while the poor grow in number and get poorer. Living standards have dropped by half, thanks to free market globalization.

According to the last census, in the U.S., a free market capitalist nation, 48 million are living at the poverty level or below, while the Wall St. plutocrats are accumulating unbelievable wealth.

Due to the super exploitation by imperialistic capitalism, millions of third world people are living in urban slums enduring disease and hunger. The land was taken by western agribusiness to raise export crops for the corporations profit. As a result, there is no land for the locals to raise beans and rice for home consumption. Millions of children are suffering from mental illness, malnutrition and catastrophic stress caused by life in the slums. The adults are demoralized, depressed and physically ill from malnutrition and stress. Child labor is widespread for a few cents per hour. According to one report in India there are 55 million underage children working for pennies.

The neo-imperialists today are no longer interested in acquiring colonies. Rather the aim is to acquire wealth through the channel of the client state. A client state opens itself to investment by foreign capitalists at a very favorable rate of profit. The country is administered by native rulers so that the corporate investor is not burdened with the costs of administration and is free to take the profits and run. The native rulers are very generous to the corporate investor in return for large amounts of financial aid available to those who govern. However, this type of government encourages rampant corruption and fraud.

But, if a charismatic reformer comes along, then political situation can change. A good example is Chavez in Venezuela, Morales in Bolivia and the popular uprisings, as we speak, in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Jordan. Unfortunately, in the United States today, if the system takes away your job and your house, you just “roll over”.

As one observer said,

“We live in a world that is out of joint, as if it has been struck by an enormous earthquake so that the roads are no longer flat, nor the buildings straight.”

References:

Davis
Kerr
Parenti
Wikipedia