Have We Begun the Real Work Yet?
The Real Work
by Wendell Berry
It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.
Escalate Protests Against Torture
Graphic courtesy: Afterdowningstreet.org
What we need now are enhanced techniques of prosecution.
Like General Massu during Algerian War of Independence, Dick Cheney has publicly admitted his loathsome crime of systematic torture, saying that it was successful and necessary. Everywhere on the left of the spectrum we’re hearing and reading the stale, pre-packaged echo chamber that Cheney is out there enjoying free air time to defend his own record. How can pundits presume they know the real reason Cheney is suddenly snarling everywhere (OMG, I gag every time I see his face) when for eight years he lurked and crept around in the shadows manipulating policy to commit torture? They say he’s now cringing in the shadows of his own soul.
Instead of sitting in front of butt-licking media whores he should be sitting in a courtroom facing his loathsome crimes. But I have serious doubts this will ever happen. I hope I’m wrong, but as one of those tiresome conspiracy theorists, I’m extremely disturbed by something Daily Kos blogger OutOnALimb wrote yesterday:
Why [does Cheney] put himself at risk this way? – because he is, in fact, putting himself at risk, because he has committed war crimes, and he has admitted to them.
There’s a good reason. He still has contacts with Halliburton, with KBR, with The Terrorists Formerly Known as Blackwater (all of which are all about money), with the Saudi royal family, and with the bin Laden family.
Here’s a thought: maybe they’re planning another 9/11-type attack on the United States. And Cheney is in on it. And when it happens, he’ll say, “See? I told you so. Obama caused this. It’s time for martial law.”
Why would he do this? To insure that Obama fails, and that Republicants look good again. To re-instill the fear that kept Darth Cheney and his friends in power, and which is now ebbing. To create more contracts for Halliburton and their ilk, who are now starting to lose their reason for being.
Here’s the scenario. Within a year, there will be a spectacular attack on the United States. And Cheney will claim to be a prophet. And will later turn out to have been a co-conspirator.
Well, whatever the reason, there’s a growing tide of citizenry that’s unwilling to allow these crimes to just fade away. The Robert Jackson Steering Committe and the essays on torture and command responsibility of Benjamin Davis, Professor of law at the University of Toledo College of Law, are excellent sources to educate ourselves about both the crimes of torture and the recourse we have to prosecuting them. I think it’s safe to say that such prosecution is an extreme imperative, so you can add your name to the petition of SpecialProsecutor.us — 200 GROUPS REQUEST SPECIAL PROSECUTOR FOR BUSH, CHENEY, et alia
But as I said earlier, I have serious doubts this prosecution will ever come to trial. Why? Because corporate interests have a stranglehold on government. It’s all about money and power, and the status quo will never relinquish their gains. Let’s recall status quo gains ripe for prosecution that have been quashed already:
- impeachment of bush for murder
- the truth about 9/11 (facts lost in the useless 9/11 Truth Commission)
- single-payer health care advocacy (voices that support single payer health care are clearly a majority, but they’ve been systematically shut out of hearings)
- forcing citizens to pay for bank bailouts without regulation and without accountability
- illegal wire-tapping of American citizens
- (A list of crimes mentioned elsewhere in this blog)
Sorry, I’m not going to hold my breath, however noble the efforts made to bring these crimes to prosecution. After all, (posthumously) nixon and skelator bush no. 1 (former head of the CIA) have never faced prosecution (and likely never will) because the first thing bush no. 2 did when he occupied the White House was to have their records sealed. At the time, back in 2000, I didn’t understand why bush sealed these records and how critical the information was, but sadly it’s clear to me now (and let’s not forget those involved in human rights violations connected to and benefiting from the infamous formerly named School of the Americas at Fort Benning, GA between 1946 and 2001, among others).
We must escalate the protest against torture and those who commit it
If the former (and present) bi-partisan criminal administration isn’t prosecuted as part of the torture apparatus, future administrations will continue to torture with impunity. Torture is a crime against humanity. Many of those tortured were innocent; torture never works; and torture multiplies aggression against the nation of those who torture.
Torture isn’t an aberration. It was planned at the highest levels and is now an an institution. Don’t listen to Obama’s words. Look squarly at his actions. Guantanamo and secret prisons continue around the world; white phosphorus continue to be used; drone aircraft continue to murder civilians.
Phantom Wealth Yields $180 Trillion Debt & Opium Trade
Forget “swine flu.” The most destructive epidemic on the planet has long been affluenza. Another word for affluenza is capitalism. One of its symptoms of affluenza is a form of rabid sleeping sickness. This epidemic began in the 16th century under the name mercantilism and continues under the name global free trade. The good news is that there is a way to inoculate ourselves from it. The bad news is that this epidemic has left most of humanity blind. Let’s take a closer look.
Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are privately owned. Capitalism is the motive for producing goods and services is to sell them for a profit, not to satisfy people’s needs. Put simply, capitalism is the sport of making money. What we’ve been lulled into believing is 
that the purpose of an economy is to make money for rich people. The nightmare the bottom 95 percent of human beings sleepwalk through is a pathological mentality caused by the stranglehold of the banks and the illusion of phantom wealth.
From ClubOrlov:
In 1835, the debt of the adolescent American republic was an unimpressive $34,000. But decade after decade the federal debt continued to expand, along with American power and influence. By the middle of April 2009, America’s federal debt stood at $11.2 trillion. Current projections suggest that the total is on track to make $13 trillion before the end of the 2009 fiscal year.
Coincidentally, this figure is close to the one Bloomberg gave toward the end of March for the costs of the US government’s various rescues, backstops, and guarantees in the current crisis. Bloomberg’s tally so far shows the American public with $12.8 trillion in such spending and promises. Realistically, the odd war here and there will add another $3 trillion to America’s deficit spending in the relatively short term. Neil Barofsky, the Treasury Department’s Special Inspector for oversight of the first $700 billion allocated by Congress to help ease the pain on Wall Street, asserts that an additional $2.3 trillion will be needed for that purpose, taking the visible banking tranche to about $3 trillion, for now.
Meanwhile, a different branch of the US Treasury — the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — catalogs $170 trillion in derivative exposure among five large US banks. A commonly accepted estimate of the failure rate of these derivative instruments is 20%. If the government is to continue to bail out the country’s major financial institutions, the American public should expect this exposure to yield at least $34 trillion in new obligations. America’s federal housing lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will no doubt want to pitch in as well, contributing another $5 trillion of their own exposure.
Finally, estimates of the present value of the unfunded entitlements of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid involve much guesswork but generally tend to fall in the range of $50 trillion to $150 trillion. For the sake of this analysis, let us accept the mean value of $100 trillion as gospel.
If the U.S. is staggering beneath a $180 trillion debt, and income tax only generates $1 trillion in revenue, where does the other $179 trillion come from? According to Catherine Austin Fitts, it comes from the manipulation by Wall Street (which controls the government) to keep the dollar as the world monetary standard. How does Wall Street manipulate and maintain this artificial standard? The dollar will remain the global monetary standard, the reserve currency, as long as the U.S. maintains the largest military in the world. So, why does the dollar’s performance defy economic fundamentals? How is it that $20 trillion in bailouts hasn’t triggered hyper-inflation? And why has the focus moved from Iraq to Afghanistan?
I don’t have the answers, but you’ll never get the truth from the MSM. I think we can all agree on that now. And as you watch everything drain away, are you feeling financially ambivalent? If you’ve ever seen or heard all the ads for buying gold, forget about it. At this writing, gold sells for under $1,000 an ounce. But you should be investing in opium, which sells for a whopping $10,000 an ounce.
Want to know the real reason for the original invasion of and recent escalation in Afghanistan? It ain’t about the Taliban, folks.The CIA and Wall Street have long been (and continue to be) involved in the drug trade. And the most lucrative of this capital, as we now see, is opium.
The sad fact is that Wall Street and the CIA have long held the government hostage and now Obama in a straitjacket. What we’ve forgotten is that the real purpose of an economy is to facilitate real-wealth exchange using just and transparent means. Currently, just as local economies around the world like Afghanistan and Gazan economies are dying, our local economies are being drained and outsourced. All of our local resources are being sucked from us to support the voracious black hole, the sport of making money.
So…it’s up to us, the riff raff that makes up 95 percent of the American population, to arm ourselves with knowledge suppressed by the CIA/Wall Street-controlled MSM and with that knowledge, rise up and demand, DEMAND that the President and members of Congress that we (supposedly) ELECTED begin to work for us rather than for Wall Street and the CIA. Until we do, we’ll NEVER see a just economy that serves the people.
A way to begin this transformation is to facilitate a shift in mindset (where the mind goes, the body follows). A good place to begin is to remind yourself and others that money is an artificial and abstract symbol without intrinsic value.
Recommended:
The American Monetary Institute
Randi Rhodes Back May 11!
I was a big fan of the brassy, sassy Goddess of Radio Randi Rhodes. I listened to her show nearly every day. I’m convinced she played a significant role in slapping the truth over all the bush lies and helping to turn the tide to bring the Republican party to its knees. The facts were her weapon. Every day she admonished us to “do our homework.” Her site listed links for us to read for ourself the facts she exposed, facts the oppressor class doesn’t want us to know.
After a controversy in 2008 over her referring to Hillary Clinton as a “big f—— whore” at an off-air event, Air America dropped her like the capitalist cowards they are. She later joined Nova M Radio Inc. but departed in February due to a contract dispute. Her departure left a huge hole in my news consumption. She grated on some and others really despised her style, but for all her loud-mouthed schtick, I knew she told it like it was. I enjoyed her sense of humor and I mourned her loss. I’d often look online for news of her plight, some message from her. Whether for legal reasons or not, all I found was silence.
Yet in my bones I knew that a woman with her courage and voice couldn’t be silenced for long. Last night I heard my local progressive AM station announce her show, and I thought, “Wow. Someone must be drunk and pushed the wrong button.” The sound byte was old and no one had announced her return as far as I knew.
But I jumped online this morning and was excited to find the following from Bradblog. She’ll be broadcasting from Premiere Radio, home of arch-nazis Limbaugh and Hannity, and Beck. I guess Premiere now knows which way the wind is blowing!
And we really, really, really need her, now more than ever, especially since indications are that Obama is just another bush (for sample /ample evidence, visit Open Source Intel).
UPDATE: Radio Ink now has Premiere’s announcement, noting she’ll begin broadcasting again on May 11 out of Washington D.C.:
LOS ANGELES — April 23, 2009: Premiere Radio Networks adds The Randi Rhodes Show to its lineup of nationally syndicated shows, beginning May 11. The show will broadcast live from Washington, DC, and early affiliates will include KTLK/Los Angeles, KKGN/San Francisco, and KPOJ/Portland, OR.
“Randi has carved a niche in talk radio with her straight-forward approach, intelligence, wit, and fact-driven content — qualities that attract audiences,” said Premiere EVP/Affiliate Marketing Julie Talbott. “We can’t wait to deliver The Randi Rhodes Show to stations nationwide.”
Rhodes said, “Right now, America needs a voice that reflects its hopes and concerns. It will be my privilege and pleasure to provide vital information to the public about everything that is possible in the 21st century, and also have a few laughs along the way. Premiere is an incredible family of radio pros, and is truly the most talented and experienced radio syndicator in the nation. I’m exited about this decision and Premiere’s enthusiasm for this partnership. It’s truly a dream come true.
All I can say is, Whoo-hoo!
And speaking of the bloated Limpbaugh, with all the OxyContin he’s taken, after seeing a photo taken of him by ABC News back in January, he’s looking more like Jabba the Hut than ever (click on the image to see that photo of him).
Surprising Origins of Human Goodness
We in Western societies have finally begun to realize that if we are to survive, we must re-connect with ourselves, the Earth, and each other. To do this we must first re-connect with our emotions, which have been co-opted by profiteers. What will it require to re-connect? Here are a few thoughts.
Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die.
- E.M. Forster, from chapter 22, Howards End (1910)
Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, director of the Greater Good Science Center, and coeditor of Greater Good magazine. His research focuses on pro-social emotions, power, and moral reasoning. He writes about an aberration of the human species that he calls Homo economicus which creates profound inequality and a greatly diminished capacity for happiness. True happiness, he says, comes from the connections we have with each other. The new framework needed so people are no longer trapped in Homo economicus’s machine (in place for self-aggrandizement, voracious acquisition of wealth and power) Keltner says has to do with unbastardized awe, reverence, and compassion.
Keltner’s research included Charles Darwin’s surprisingly less-known The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, which you can read in its entirety online.
Publisher Comments:
A new examination of the surprising origins of human goodness. In Born to Be Good, Dacher Keltner demonstrates that humans are not hardwired to lead lives that are “nasty, brutish, and short” we are in fact born to be good. He investigates an old mystery of human evolution: why have we evolved positive emotions like gratitude, amusement, awe, and compassion that promote ethical action and are the fabric of cooperative societies?By combining stories of scientific discovery, personal narrative, and Eastern philosophy, Keltner illustrates his discussions with more than fifty photographs of human emotions. Born to Be Good is a profound study of how emotion is the key to living the good life and how the path to happiness goes through human emotions that connect people to one another.
Here’s Keltner on
Born to Be Good: The Science for a Meaningful Life
…and Try to do
Other Viral Effects of Swine Flu
In a sad world where everything has a dollar value and is gobbled up as intellectual property, the the current global panic about the so-called swine flu gaining momentum in Mexico and the US gains in exponential complexity.
There are the headlines which spread the fear (I’m getting that fear-mongering corporate media such as BBC are as timid about reporting facts, because to do so would heap government and elite power wrath upon them) as they are huge about spreading fear. For example my brother owns a restaurant and when BBC called him to learn how he was weathering the economic meltdown, he told them he was doing quite well, thank you, and their interest died immediately.Then we have the forums; and there are the governments which care only about political impact; there is historical data about influenza pandemics
1918: The Spanish flu pandemic remains the most devastating outbreak of modern times – infecting up to 40% of the world’s population and killing more than 50m people, with young adults particularly badly affected
1957: Asian flu killed two million people. Caused by a human form of the virus, H2N2, combining with a mutated strain found in wild ducks. The elderly were particularly vulnerable
1968 H3N2: An outbreak first detected in Hong Kong, and caused by a strain known as H3N2, killed up to one million people globally, with those over 65 most likely to die
Then there are the profiteers and con artists, otherwise known as the disaster capitalists such as the voracious pharmaceutical corporations (closely aligned with petroleum and monolithic aggro business and GMO interests). And don’t forget the analysts on all sides, depending on their agendas. We have the gloom and doomers, for example, those with dire die-off scenarios borne from either mass starvation after peak oil or vector-borne illnesses spawned by global warming.
All of these (and some I must have forgotten) bloom profusely in an array, much like a bicycle wheel with many spoked, from the hub of the situation on the ground. No one knows if this epidemic will actually bloom into a global pandemic or not, but one thing is for certain: fear in such an instantaneously interconnected world goes viral overnight.
It’s easy to envision insurance corporations rubbing their hands in glee during the panic. And Washington quivers with excitement as the searing floodlights of scrutiny pan away from terrorism, torture, the economy, the healthcare crisis, global warming pressures, energy and so many more pressing problems that have befallen them of late.
Personally, I lean toward the analysis that since human beings have no natural enemies except each other and vector-borne illnesses, we seem to have exceeded the planet’s carrying capacity, its past time for universal law to kick in. We are like rats packed into cages. We are so afraid of suffering and death here in the West, we are unable to put them into perspective. Indeed, if this epidemic goes pandemic, I’m afraid we have some grave lessons to learn…finally. Farming Pathogens, Rob Wallace’s website spells out who the real swine are.
And speaking of viral, the bush reich’s frenzy to suck out every last cent of American capital to stuff into the pockets of their “base” rippled so far beyond the epicenter it caused a pandemic recession/depression. This crime against humanity echos multinational agribusiness corporations crimes such as the swine and chicken factories worldwide, including the one in Mexico with its H2N1 product that now ripples far beyond the epicenter of containment where we teeter on the edge a lethal epidemic. So much for “free” trade, NAFTA, and the WTO.
Same Imperialism, Different Face
Thousands of Pages of Evidence and a Quarter Million Signatures: What Will It Take For Attorney General to Prosecute STorture Crimes? Amid citizen outrage and news that torture was used to extract a link between Iraq and al Qaeda, Eric Holder won’t say if he intends to prosecute. (Source: Alternet)
Related: Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism; Taxi to the Dark Side
Courtesy Leon Kuhn - WPN
We once lived under common law, which once served us well and had its own language. But a new language, LEGALESE, has been developed to serve corporate imperialism, a language which you only think you understand. For example, Are you a PERSON or a human being? Are you governed by laws or STATUTES? Are countries being run by governments and courts or by CORPORATIONS? Do policemen/women or POLICE OFFICERS enforce your agreement to obey? Do you elect representatives or COMPANIES RUN FOR PROFIT to Congress or Parliament? Have you noticed that your name, as an employee of the CORPORATE country in which you live is always CAPITALIZED to distinguish you as a subject under these CORPORATIONS’ FORCE of law (contracted policies) rather than its law? What do their complex and FICTITIOUS terms and policies actually mean? You might be surprised. I invite you to watch the five-part series “It’s an Illusion” by John Harris. You’ll listen to the news with new ears if you do. I promise you.
Part 1/5 John Harris – It’s an Illusion
The People’s United Community, mentioned by Harris in the video.
BBC5.tv (NOT BBC !)
Your Money or Your Life
For a long time I’ve been looking for an explanation of how it is that money, an imaginary invention, gives the power to rule the world at the same time cause such misery and inequality, such corruption and devastation, and as such is a pathological convention used as an instrument of theft, war, and planetary destruction. Money allows psychopaths to remain in power.
Well, I think I finally found someone who has deconstructed this question for me in depth and with foresight. That person is David Korten who clarifies why and how it’s imperative not that we fix the system, but that we change it altogether.
David C. Korten holds MBA and PhD degrees from Stanford Business School and taught for five years at Harvard Business School before joining the Harvard Institute for International development to head a Ford Foundation project to strengthen national family planning programmes. He moved to Southeast Asia in the late 1970s, working first for the Ford Foundation and then as a regional advisor on development management to USAID. Eventually, disillusioned with the official aid system, he spend the last five years of his fifteen in Asia working with NGOs identifying why development was failing.
He came to realise that the deepening poverty, growing inequality, environmental devastation, and social disintegration he was observing in Asia were also being experienced in nearly every country in the world. Moreover, the United States was actively promoting policies that made matters worse. For the world to survive, the United States must change, and he returned to the US in 1992 to help bring that change about. He has since written two highly influential books, When Corporations Rule the World (1995), The Post Corporate World: Life After Capitalism (1999), and The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community (2007)..
Here are some links to his excellent analysis and solutions.
From the Love of Money to the Love of Life
A Planetary Alternative to the Global Economy
Yes! Magazine’s online articles by David Korten
Yes, the empire is crumbling. We’d better hustle so it doesn’t crush us as falls. The Local Exchange Trading System (LETS) is global movement of a local chapters that promotes exchange trading system that is viable, vibrant, sane and equitable. Our government is now owned by the private Federal Reserve. LETS is a way out of this tyranny. So are organizations like Bright Neighbor, which is all about support and cooperation, not competition and hoarding. Beneath all the war and insanity a new world is percolating.
