An infamous despot said, “It is always more difficult to fight against faith than against knowledge”. He also said, “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it” – Adolph Hitler. I am obviously no fan of the evil Hitler, but I have to acknowledge some of the brilliant propaganda and mind bending tools used by the Nazi’s. In fact many of these same propaganda tools are used by imperialistic countries such as the U.S. today. The bottom line of the above is that the emotions of the most brilliant human beings can sometimes over take their sense of logic, reason, and civility. In the main we are emotional human beings who sometimes act rationally, but construct self deceptive myths in order to insure our feelings of safety, self righteousness, and ego.
A couple of examples that follow bring to mind conversations that I had with local Benicia residents that support my reasoning. About six months ago I was approached by a person in the public safety field who asked me why I had to write articles about “9/11” that questioned the “Official” government conspiracy story. I don’t know this person very well, but from the brief initial dialogue that we had, I picked up from his body language that the content of my articles was a very sensitive and personal issue for him. Digging deeper he revealed to me that he lost two first responder friends in the Twin Tower collapses. So here was an intelligent sensitive man who worked for and trusted his government leadership and organizations and was betrayed, and did not need me to remind him of that fact. For him it was difficult or almost emotionally unfathomable that the government of the U.S. could be complicit in a secretive barbaric conspiracy that would compromise the safety and lives of his comrades whose work it was to protect the public safety. This violation of faith is akin to being raped or brutally beaten by a parent whom one has had the ultimate faith and trust.
Several months ago, after the alleged assassination of bin Laden, I ran into another person who I know relatively well. To give you some background he is politically conservative and the last one to be a fan of Barack Obama. He is a good man, a public safety retiree, very religious, and a person of integrity. I said to him, “What do you think of this phony politically motivated scam of Obama to make us think that we just killed bin Laden”? I had previously done a great deal of research on the subject that is supported by former FBI and CIA employees that in fact know that bin Laden died of pneumonia from renal failure back in 2001. He said to me, “I have to have faith in my government by believing what they tell me”. So this statement is really code for I have to have faith and trust in my country above else, regardless of reality, because my sanity and peace of mind bolstered by a hideous myth is more important than the truth.
I could go on further and site more specific examples of what lengths people will go to emotionally, in order to deceive themselves into feeling a mythical sense of safety and trust. Have you ever heard one partner in a relationship say to other, “If you are going to do something that is personally illicit please don’t tell me about it”. Some people such as myself want to know everything, no matter how bad the news or devastating emotionally. People and organizations act in often times repeatable patterns. Having first hand evidence of these patterns may give us the information to forestall greater problems in the future. When we possess knowledge we have more tools to make intelligent decisions that may have an important effect on our lives and well being. Knowledge is empowering, ignorance is a prison cell of the mind.
I notice that there is a common thread with those who are religious, patriotic, and who have a difficult time coming to grips with corruption by high level authority and government. The person possessing the above personality trait reveres authority, unconditional loyalty, sees the world through their own mythical telescope, covets tradition, and feels uncomfortable questioning the status quo while remaining naively idealistic. These are basically good people who want it to live in a world of “Ozzie and Harriet”, where they can believe that they are living in the best country of virtue and honorable intentions in the world.
If you want o find out the truth about “9/11”, which maybe emotionally uncomfortable for some, I suggest you visit the following resource sites: AE911truth.org, 911 truth.org, 911reserach.wtc7.net, journal911studies.com, firefightersfor911truth.org, tinyurl.com/completetimeline. Einstein said, “Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance”. As a fellow Americans we you have the patriotic duty to investigate government falsehoods, know the truth about 911, and confront our government.
As many more people are becoming aware of the truth about 9/11, the governments only rebuttal is to try and demonize and name call those in the know. Because a lie cannot be easily defended, the government refuses to further investigate, call more witnesses, or enter into public debates with professionals in the science and engineering world. If officials and those who refuse to admit reality call you a “Nut case, crazy truther, or conspiracy head case” take that as a compliment that they do not have a rational and truthful answer that supports the Official Report. To date 220 respected military, intelligence, and security people have grave doubts about the government’s version of 9/11. Over 300 survivors and family members have been deceived by the government and are pushing for a new independent investigation. Nearly 1,000 academics, medical, and legal professionals are calling for a new investigation. Over 250 military and commercial pilots have little confidence in the Official Report and are backing a new investigation. Over 1,500 architects and engineers led by Richard Gage, AIA have publicly endorsed a petition for a new investigation. There are over 150 questions that the government refuses to honestly answer. At the end of the day the truth is distilled out by the obvious science, not concocted myths and misleading government propaganda.
Not only was there a tragedy of approximately 3,000 Americans dying on September 11th, but since that date due to the lies concocted by the EPA and the previous administration about the safety of the air around Ground Zero, 50,000 people and first responders have contracted respiratory diseases and some terminal cancer. More people have died since that date from asbestos and other toxins resulting from the Controlled Demolitions of three buildings into fine dust.
All the facts, unanswered questions, and government lies that are exposed will not convince anyone who has put up an emotional road block in front of their intellectual reasoning and logic process that we the American people have been egregiously lied to by our government in complicity with our corrupt corporate owned mass media. Unfortunately our society and culture has advanced much more technologically than it has evolved emotionally. America has perpetuated a myth of violence, machismo, and that “Grown men don’t cry”, or express their feelings. We have unfortunately substituted childlike faith in religion, military, country, and authority for grown up mature reality. Authority is not always truthful, and many times violates our trust. Until we face head on, the evil behaviors of specific government, corporations, and bankers working in concert to create False Flag events such as the Sinking of the Maine, Gulf of Tonkin event, Operation Northwood’s, USS Liberty, and “9/11”, we will continue to move into costly and devastating wasteful protracted wars. Excessive military spending brought down Rome and the U.S.S.R., it is bringing down America as you read this article.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Take care of our people and distrust our government
Based on the history of the leadership of our nation why should we have cause to trust our government? I do not dislike most Americans, but I have a great disdain and little respect for our high level government, Department of State, security departments such as the CIA and Homeland Security, and military industrial complex. In the main our top government leaders, who are owned by major corporations and bankers, choose what is economically prudent for these special wealthy interests, not for Americans in general. Be it a False Flag event, an unnecessary war, special tax benefits, or a bailout of a major corporation or bank, we the working class usually receive the short end of the stick. Let us say the working class is anyone making less than $250,000 per year. There are many doctors, lawyers, and other professionals who are in the working class. The elite reap the major benefits of wars and bailouts, while the working class gives up life and limb, and do not receive the subsidies and tax perks that the wealthy elite are in line to receive. Believe it or not, if we the working class, take the time and energy to become well informed, become activists, and create non-violent revolutions, we can indeed make a difference.
National loyalty and blind patriotism are the anathema of democracy. The long term survival of our nation depends on the critical thinkers, those who do not go along with government and mass media propaganda, and those who expose corruption, and embarrass and prosecute immoral government leadership. It is very easy to “Go along to get along”, but the great strides and improvements in our society have come from the courageous pioneers such as MLK, Jr., Daniel Ellsberg, Emma Goldman, Susan B. Anthony, Samuel Gompers, JFK, RFK, and others who were willing to become imprisoned, persecuted, or murdered for their sense of humanistic compassion, ideals, and morality. How many of us have the courage to go against the tides of corruption, greed, oppression, and intolerance to make our country a more civilized nation.
I believe the label describing the US as a “Great Nation” is incorrectly used, has spurious interpretations, and really is a euphemism for great economic wealth and military power, not exactly humanitarian or civilized characteristics. Corporations and bankers have done little or nothing to insure social progress and equality for the masses; it is not in the wealthy owners best interests to let the people have power and parity. Unbridled Capitalism is as dangerous as unbridled Communism.
All of our top level departments of the federal government are led primarily by ex corporate officials or by associations and special interest groups with allegiance to major corporations and banks. True representatives of the working class American have very little power in high levels of government. The Washington insider beltway is overburdened with over 32,000 lobbyists whose primary agenda is to promote the economic well being of major corporations and financial institutions, and not the well being of the working class consumer. The stewardship of the environment, financial transparency, consumer health and safety, and the fiscal well being of the average American usually is normally subordinated to the profit goals of the corporations who run the government from behind the curtain of transparency.
The major political parties have a pre-determined agenda to expand imperialism and pre-emptive wars on foreign soils, to eviscerate our constitutional rights by the expansion of the Patriot Act and Homeland Security, cover up the fraud and deceit perpetrated by the privately held cabal of worlds bankers called the Federal Reserve, and to increase our national debt to funnel more money into coffers of the wealthy elite. Even monies meant to go into hands of the needy ultimately wind up in the hands of corporations providing basic needs such as medical care, food, housing, energy, and major discount retailers such as Wal-Mart. At the end of the day the agenda of the two major parties is to enrich the corporations, whose plethora of lobbyist’s payoff the politicians who run our government. The corruption and sham of our so called two party system is akin to the fixed matches of big time wrestling. Barack Obama is the consummate example of a corporate Wall Street Rockefeller prostitute for hire, masquerading in liberal clothing to advance the goals of corporate America and the Military Industrial Complex. Obama may show a few token gestures of social progress for gay rights groups, some minorities, or consumers, but primarily he is the chatteled whore of corporate America and Wall Street.
The constraints of the presidential debates are structured to exclude or censure all other parties and potential candidates such as Ron Paul, Jesse Ventura, and Ralph Nader whose straight forward platforms threaten the economic strongholds of the two major parties. The debates are in essence controlled by a private entertainment corporation whose goal is to exclude all other points of view except those of the two major parties.
There are many more documented barbaric interventions by the US that have resulted in the direct or indirect killing of over 6 million innocent people in third world countries primarily for the protection of corporate profits. The following are patent examples of corrupt, immoral, and barbaric U.S. behavior of our high level leaders over the last fifty years.
The murderous plots by compartmentalized criminal elements of the CIA, FBI, military, Mafia underworld, and Secret Service of MLK, JFK, and RFK are sordid examples of what evil lengths that our government will go to suppress attempts to end profitable wars and to abolish or make transparent the corrupt Federal Reserve.
CIA cou de ta’s spear headed by the past presidents whose primary loyalty was to multi-national corporations, and not democratically elected Latin America leaders of the people, serve as major embarrassments to the purported integrity of American foreign policy. ITT corporation, led by CEO Harold Genneen, a major Nixon contributor influenced our CIA and military to murder many Chilean citizens and assassinate democratically elected President Ajende. A similar episode happened with the Eisenhower CIA at the behest of United Fruit Company in the overthrow of Arbenz.
Illegal bombing perpetrated by Nixon, Kissinger, and McNamara that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Vietnamese and Cambodian civilians primarily for the enrichment of defense contractors who manufactured planes and tens of thousands of tons of bombs.
Lies by the past administration that perpetrated myths about bin Laden, WMD’s, and 19 alleged Muslim high-jackers that started with the “False Flag 9//11” event and have ended in major wars, suppression of our constitutional rights, trillions of dollars of national debt, and thousands of innocent lost lives. The present Obama administration and both parties in congress continue to effect illegal pre-emptive wars in the Middle East and clandestine wars around the world. Be it Johnson, Nixon, Clinton, Bush, or Obama’ neither major party represents the true interests of the American people or world peace, but only the enrichment of the Military Industrial Complex and wealthy elite who reap the financial benefits of corruption and brutality.
Ron Paul, Ralph Nader, or other candidates who are not owned by corporate America, may not be your perfect candidate for president, but the reality is that these independently minded men or women of relatively high integrity are a much better alternative than what the corrupt two party system has to offer. The existing two party system has literally taken the power and constitutional rights away from the average American. We can make a difference in the next election by voting for and electing independent people of integrity, and not the owned candidates of the present two party system who are prostitutes to corporate America. Power to the people; let us show the Military Industrial Complex and corporate America that we will not continue to accept their abuse and exploitation. Let us declare the tenth anniversary of 9/11 as a non-violent jihad against the stronghold of our government and corruption by corporate America. So I ask again, how can I in good conscience, respect the present and past leaders of my countries government.
National loyalty and blind patriotism are the anathema of democracy. The long term survival of our nation depends on the critical thinkers, those who do not go along with government and mass media propaganda, and those who expose corruption, and embarrass and prosecute immoral government leadership. It is very easy to “Go along to get along”, but the great strides and improvements in our society have come from the courageous pioneers such as MLK, Jr., Daniel Ellsberg, Emma Goldman, Susan B. Anthony, Samuel Gompers, JFK, RFK, and others who were willing to become imprisoned, persecuted, or murdered for their sense of humanistic compassion, ideals, and morality. How many of us have the courage to go against the tides of corruption, greed, oppression, and intolerance to make our country a more civilized nation.
I believe the label describing the US as a “Great Nation” is incorrectly used, has spurious interpretations, and really is a euphemism for great economic wealth and military power, not exactly humanitarian or civilized characteristics. Corporations and bankers have done little or nothing to insure social progress and equality for the masses; it is not in the wealthy owners best interests to let the people have power and parity. Unbridled Capitalism is as dangerous as unbridled Communism.
All of our top level departments of the federal government are led primarily by ex corporate officials or by associations and special interest groups with allegiance to major corporations and banks. True representatives of the working class American have very little power in high levels of government. The Washington insider beltway is overburdened with over 32,000 lobbyists whose primary agenda is to promote the economic well being of major corporations and financial institutions, and not the well being of the working class consumer. The stewardship of the environment, financial transparency, consumer health and safety, and the fiscal well being of the average American usually is normally subordinated to the profit goals of the corporations who run the government from behind the curtain of transparency.
The major political parties have a pre-determined agenda to expand imperialism and pre-emptive wars on foreign soils, to eviscerate our constitutional rights by the expansion of the Patriot Act and Homeland Security, cover up the fraud and deceit perpetrated by the privately held cabal of worlds bankers called the Federal Reserve, and to increase our national debt to funnel more money into coffers of the wealthy elite. Even monies meant to go into hands of the needy ultimately wind up in the hands of corporations providing basic needs such as medical care, food, housing, energy, and major discount retailers such as Wal-Mart. At the end of the day the agenda of the two major parties is to enrich the corporations, whose plethora of lobbyist’s payoff the politicians who run our government. The corruption and sham of our so called two party system is akin to the fixed matches of big time wrestling. Barack Obama is the consummate example of a corporate Wall Street Rockefeller prostitute for hire, masquerading in liberal clothing to advance the goals of corporate America and the Military Industrial Complex. Obama may show a few token gestures of social progress for gay rights groups, some minorities, or consumers, but primarily he is the chatteled whore of corporate America and Wall Street.
The constraints of the presidential debates are structured to exclude or censure all other parties and potential candidates such as Ron Paul, Jesse Ventura, and Ralph Nader whose straight forward platforms threaten the economic strongholds of the two major parties. The debates are in essence controlled by a private entertainment corporation whose goal is to exclude all other points of view except those of the two major parties.
There are many more documented barbaric interventions by the US that have resulted in the direct or indirect killing of over 6 million innocent people in third world countries primarily for the protection of corporate profits. The following are patent examples of corrupt, immoral, and barbaric U.S. behavior of our high level leaders over the last fifty years.
The murderous plots by compartmentalized criminal elements of the CIA, FBI, military, Mafia underworld, and Secret Service of MLK, JFK, and RFK are sordid examples of what evil lengths that our government will go to suppress attempts to end profitable wars and to abolish or make transparent the corrupt Federal Reserve.
CIA cou de ta’s spear headed by the past presidents whose primary loyalty was to multi-national corporations, and not democratically elected Latin America leaders of the people, serve as major embarrassments to the purported integrity of American foreign policy. ITT corporation, led by CEO Harold Genneen, a major Nixon contributor influenced our CIA and military to murder many Chilean citizens and assassinate democratically elected President Ajende. A similar episode happened with the Eisenhower CIA at the behest of United Fruit Company in the overthrow of Arbenz.
Illegal bombing perpetrated by Nixon, Kissinger, and McNamara that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Vietnamese and Cambodian civilians primarily for the enrichment of defense contractors who manufactured planes and tens of thousands of tons of bombs.
Lies by the past administration that perpetrated myths about bin Laden, WMD’s, and 19 alleged Muslim high-jackers that started with the “False Flag 9//11” event and have ended in major wars, suppression of our constitutional rights, trillions of dollars of national debt, and thousands of innocent lost lives. The present Obama administration and both parties in congress continue to effect illegal pre-emptive wars in the Middle East and clandestine wars around the world. Be it Johnson, Nixon, Clinton, Bush, or Obama’ neither major party represents the true interests of the American people or world peace, but only the enrichment of the Military Industrial Complex and wealthy elite who reap the financial benefits of corruption and brutality.
Ron Paul, Ralph Nader, or other candidates who are not owned by corporate America, may not be your perfect candidate for president, but the reality is that these independently minded men or women of relatively high integrity are a much better alternative than what the corrupt two party system has to offer. The existing two party system has literally taken the power and constitutional rights away from the average American. We can make a difference in the next election by voting for and electing independent people of integrity, and not the owned candidates of the present two party system who are prostitutes to corporate America. Power to the people; let us show the Military Industrial Complex and corporate America that we will not continue to accept their abuse and exploitation. Let us declare the tenth anniversary of 9/11 as a non-violent jihad against the stronghold of our government and corruption by corporate America. So I ask again, how can I in good conscience, respect the present and past leaders of my countries government.
Why are many Americans so naïve?
I believe that many Americans are naïve due to a combination of religious indoctrination, poor literacy, childlike optimism, relative lack of suffering, stymied emotional development, and unquestioning acceptance of corporate and government propaganda. These idiosyncrasies or skill deficiencies are not individually unique, but rather work in concert to squash critical thinking skills and create emotional denial that has resulted in acceptance of disinformation, and/or a lack of information. I believe that many people have the innate visceral ability to understand what reality is, but rather than embrace sometimes painful truths they let their emotional defense mechanisms over power their ability to think critically and question deeply and objectively.
Our patriarchal authoritarian systems do not support and encourage critical thinking and questioning, but rather rewards unquestioning allegiance to authority figures, traditions, and institutions. America has developed one of the most sophisticated, insidious, and mind numbing marketing and propaganda machines using primarily “Madison Avenue” tactics and specialized and focused “Think Tanks” to obfuscate reality for the naïve childlike public. From infancy through adulthood we are constantly bombarded with overt and subliminal messages that to be loved and accepted by both family and society we must conform, follow, trust, and unquestionably respect authority.
The parent child relationship forges the first steps for the brain washing of the infant child. Every child wants to be loved and adored, so by fitting the mold of being a “good boy” or “good girl”, the child endeavors to diminish its individuality, act in a socially acceptable definition and control or limit individual creativity in order to achieve the love of the parents.
Many Americans believe the private Federal Reserve Bank is a government operated institution; naïve ignorance again exposes its ugly head. On June 4, 1963, a virtually unknown Presidential decree, Executive Order 11110, was signed with the authority to basically strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the United States Federal Government at interest. With the stroke of a pen, President Kennedy declared that the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank would soon be out of business. Five months later JFK was assassinated for wanting to destroy the central bank cabal and bring a swift peaceful end to the Vietnam War.
There are only five countries that do not have a Central Bank. These countries are Cuba, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, and Libya. What a coincidence that we have invaded Iraq and Libya and have Iran in our gun sights. In addition these three countries have nationalized major oil reserves. The bankers and oil companies have such tremendous power over our government’s military, that we have invaded these countries for their oil, and to create private central banking institutions.
Religion is proof positive that some misdirected Americans believe that to be moral and ethical citizens that they must be unquestioning God fearing religious zealots. A Pew Research poll showed that evangelical religious followers were three times as likely to be only high school graduates, as opposed to their critical thinking more enlightened well educated counter parts. A recent Gallup Poll has concluded that one-third of the American adult population believes the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally word for word. How naïve and childlike is that type of immature thinking? Fortunately this percentage is slightly lower than several decades ago. Progressively there has been a movement away from extremist religious belief, with many people coming out of the non-sectarian closet and proudly admitting to be Atheist, Agnostic, Pagan, or questioning reformed institutional religious believers.
The funeral industry, mythical Heaven and Hell, and emotional refusal to deal with death as a normal life passage event is another example of naiveté, and emotional denial. How many people do not make pre-arrangements for adequate estate planning or timely funeral plans, because they are naïve about the mature acceptance of death. A useful money saving, “Win-Win” tip is to will your remains to a medical school for the betterment of future mankind. There is no need for wasting money on conscience assuaging funerals, expensive burial plots, or grave markers. If you have the money for these worthless frivolities give it to a life saving or educational charity and forget about enriching your local funeral director. By the way no one is going to “Heaven or Hell”, because it is only a non-existent myth, so be the best you can be while you are alive.
The naïve electorate bites hook, line, and sinker on the redacted incomplete news propaganda that is thrust upon them in concert with the government and corporate owned mass media in order to shape their unquestioning childlike minds into accepting the “Myth of the week”.
Another myth embraced by the Pollyanna naïve American is that wars are fought for “Freedom, Liberation, and Democracy”. Democracy is a US euphemism for privatizing existing government industries and services, with little concern for the human rights of the ordinary citizen. Another myth again, profitable wars are usually started by other people who are evil and bad, but never by the power elite who plot False Flag events with the puppet heads of state. The False Flag attacks on the “Maine in Cuba”, “The Gulf of Tonkin incident”, “CIA commandos acting as Communist rebels in Latin America”, “Pearl Harbor”, and “9/11” are all war creating incidents that were either planned by heads of state or were allowed to happen with the full knowledge and complicity of the corrupt US government.
9 years ago over 80% of the emotionally reactive American electorate was falsely convinced that we should preemptively invade Iraq; a gross error in judgment that will cost over 3 trillion dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives. We invaded Iraq to because we cared so much about humanity and wanted the free the Iraqi people to be free and have a better life. That’s why we destroyed their museums, hospitals, schools, infrastructure, and government buildings. Our invasion created massive unemployment and ultimate desperation that was the cause of much increased terrorism and insurgency. We destroyed every ministry building in Iraq, with the exception of the Oil Ministry that contained important maps and documents that would lead us to all the oil wells and production facilities.
Another myth, The World Bank and International Monetary Fund were created primarily to help third world nations and not enrich international Rockefeller and Rothschild bankers using unaffordable loans and usurious interest rates. I suggest you read “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by Thomas Perkins who for many years was a senior economist and loan packager who entrapped third world countries with unaffordable loans and forced their poor peoples to their knees with over whelming debt.
There will always be greedy people in government working with private industry and financiers to plot and conspire to create wars and oppression for economic gain; it just makes good business sense without the benefit of ethics or a moral compass. These evil forces of greed can be pushed back when people become knowledgeable, release themselves from their mechanism of emotional denial, and take an activist role of conscience and resistance. Unfortunately we are not safe as ordinary citizens from our corrupt government leaders who operate in Fascist manner with captains of industry and finance.
Those who falsely believe that their leaders truly care about their well being would not send 58,000 young men off to die in Vietnam, or cause the murder by controlled demolition of the World Trade Center Towers that killed over 3,000 innocent Americans, foreign nationals, and Muslims; and ultimately killing twice that many by lying about the toxicity of the dust from the explosive forces and fire retardant asbestos. It is time to shed our myopic nationalism and set up an appointment with our local friendly therapist so that we can learn to cope with the painfulness of emotional discomfort and better empower ourselves with the realities of the world. Knowledge is power. “Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance” - Albert Einstein.
Our patriarchal authoritarian systems do not support and encourage critical thinking and questioning, but rather rewards unquestioning allegiance to authority figures, traditions, and institutions. America has developed one of the most sophisticated, insidious, and mind numbing marketing and propaganda machines using primarily “Madison Avenue” tactics and specialized and focused “Think Tanks” to obfuscate reality for the naïve childlike public. From infancy through adulthood we are constantly bombarded with overt and subliminal messages that to be loved and accepted by both family and society we must conform, follow, trust, and unquestionably respect authority.
The parent child relationship forges the first steps for the brain washing of the infant child. Every child wants to be loved and adored, so by fitting the mold of being a “good boy” or “good girl”, the child endeavors to diminish its individuality, act in a socially acceptable definition and control or limit individual creativity in order to achieve the love of the parents.
Many Americans believe the private Federal Reserve Bank is a government operated institution; naïve ignorance again exposes its ugly head. On June 4, 1963, a virtually unknown Presidential decree, Executive Order 11110, was signed with the authority to basically strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the United States Federal Government at interest. With the stroke of a pen, President Kennedy declared that the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank would soon be out of business. Five months later JFK was assassinated for wanting to destroy the central bank cabal and bring a swift peaceful end to the Vietnam War.
There are only five countries that do not have a Central Bank. These countries are Cuba, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, and Libya. What a coincidence that we have invaded Iraq and Libya and have Iran in our gun sights. In addition these three countries have nationalized major oil reserves. The bankers and oil companies have such tremendous power over our government’s military, that we have invaded these countries for their oil, and to create private central banking institutions.
Religion is proof positive that some misdirected Americans believe that to be moral and ethical citizens that they must be unquestioning God fearing religious zealots. A Pew Research poll showed that evangelical religious followers were three times as likely to be only high school graduates, as opposed to their critical thinking more enlightened well educated counter parts. A recent Gallup Poll has concluded that one-third of the American adult population believes the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally word for word. How naïve and childlike is that type of immature thinking? Fortunately this percentage is slightly lower than several decades ago. Progressively there has been a movement away from extremist religious belief, with many people coming out of the non-sectarian closet and proudly admitting to be Atheist, Agnostic, Pagan, or questioning reformed institutional religious believers.
The funeral industry, mythical Heaven and Hell, and emotional refusal to deal with death as a normal life passage event is another example of naiveté, and emotional denial. How many people do not make pre-arrangements for adequate estate planning or timely funeral plans, because they are naïve about the mature acceptance of death. A useful money saving, “Win-Win” tip is to will your remains to a medical school for the betterment of future mankind. There is no need for wasting money on conscience assuaging funerals, expensive burial plots, or grave markers. If you have the money for these worthless frivolities give it to a life saving or educational charity and forget about enriching your local funeral director. By the way no one is going to “Heaven or Hell”, because it is only a non-existent myth, so be the best you can be while you are alive.
The naïve electorate bites hook, line, and sinker on the redacted incomplete news propaganda that is thrust upon them in concert with the government and corporate owned mass media in order to shape their unquestioning childlike minds into accepting the “Myth of the week”.
Another myth embraced by the Pollyanna naïve American is that wars are fought for “Freedom, Liberation, and Democracy”. Democracy is a US euphemism for privatizing existing government industries and services, with little concern for the human rights of the ordinary citizen. Another myth again, profitable wars are usually started by other people who are evil and bad, but never by the power elite who plot False Flag events with the puppet heads of state. The False Flag attacks on the “Maine in Cuba”, “The Gulf of Tonkin incident”, “CIA commandos acting as Communist rebels in Latin America”, “Pearl Harbor”, and “9/11” are all war creating incidents that were either planned by heads of state or were allowed to happen with the full knowledge and complicity of the corrupt US government.
9 years ago over 80% of the emotionally reactive American electorate was falsely convinced that we should preemptively invade Iraq; a gross error in judgment that will cost over 3 trillion dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives. We invaded Iraq to because we cared so much about humanity and wanted the free the Iraqi people to be free and have a better life. That’s why we destroyed their museums, hospitals, schools, infrastructure, and government buildings. Our invasion created massive unemployment and ultimate desperation that was the cause of much increased terrorism and insurgency. We destroyed every ministry building in Iraq, with the exception of the Oil Ministry that contained important maps and documents that would lead us to all the oil wells and production facilities.
Another myth, The World Bank and International Monetary Fund were created primarily to help third world nations and not enrich international Rockefeller and Rothschild bankers using unaffordable loans and usurious interest rates. I suggest you read “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by Thomas Perkins who for many years was a senior economist and loan packager who entrapped third world countries with unaffordable loans and forced their poor peoples to their knees with over whelming debt.
There will always be greedy people in government working with private industry and financiers to plot and conspire to create wars and oppression for economic gain; it just makes good business sense without the benefit of ethics or a moral compass. These evil forces of greed can be pushed back when people become knowledgeable, release themselves from their mechanism of emotional denial, and take an activist role of conscience and resistance. Unfortunately we are not safe as ordinary citizens from our corrupt government leaders who operate in Fascist manner with captains of industry and finance.
Those who falsely believe that their leaders truly care about their well being would not send 58,000 young men off to die in Vietnam, or cause the murder by controlled demolition of the World Trade Center Towers that killed over 3,000 innocent Americans, foreign nationals, and Muslims; and ultimately killing twice that many by lying about the toxicity of the dust from the explosive forces and fire retardant asbestos. It is time to shed our myopic nationalism and set up an appointment with our local friendly therapist so that we can learn to cope with the painfulness of emotional discomfort and better empower ourselves with the realities of the world. Knowledge is power. “Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance” - Albert Einstein.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Why the Pentagon Papers Matter Now
The following abstract from a June 13, 2011 article written by Daniel Ellsberg is, I believe extremely important in the context of creating world peace. We continue to wage wars in the Middle East based on “False Flag” reasons and government lies. Anybody familiar with the mission statement of the PNAC (Partnership for a New American Century) will clearly understand that the US goal is to control all energy assets in most of the world by economic or forceful means. Let’s be clear folks, we have not invaded Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, and soon to be other Muslim nations for “Freedom & Liberation”. Our primary goals in these illegal and preemptive wars are the control of fossil fuel assets, drugs, metals used in hi-tech manufacturing, and removal of leaders who advocate government owned banks that threaten the profits of the international banker cabal.
Ellsberg writes the following:
“While we go on waging un-winnable wars on false premises, the Pentagon papers tell us we must not wait 40 years for the truth.
The declassification and online release Monday of the full original version of the Pentagon Papers - the 7,000-page top secret Pentagon study of US decision-making in Vietnam 1945-67 - comes 40 years after I gave it to 19 newspapers and to Senator Mike Gravel (minus volumes on negotiations, which I had given only to the Senate foreign relations committee). Together with the newspaper coverage and a government printing office (GPO) edition that was heavily redacted but overlapped the Senator Gravel edition, most of the material has been available to the public and scholars since 1971. (The negotiation volumes were declassified some years ago; the Senate, if not the Pentagon, should have released them no later than the end of the war in 1975.)
In other words, today's declassification of the whole study comes 36 to 40 years overdue. Yet, unfortunately, it happens to be peculiarly timely that this study gets attention and goes online just now. That's because we're mired again in wars - especially in Afghanistan - remarkably similar to the 30-year conflict in Vietnam, and we don't have comparable documentation and insider analysis to enlighten us on how we got here and where it's likely to go.
What we need released this month are the Pentagon Papers of Iraq and Afghanistan (and Pakistan, Yemen and Libya). We're not likely to get them; they probably don't yet exist, at least in the useful form of the earlier ones. But the original studies on Vietnam are a surprisingly not-bad substitute, definitely worth learning from.
Yes, the languages and ethnicities that we don't understand are different in the Middle East from those in Vietnam; the climate, terrain and types of ambushes are very different. But as the accounts in the Pentagon Papers explain, we face the same futile effort in Afghanistan to find and destroy nationalist guerrillas or to get them to quit fighting foreign invaders (now us) and the corrupt, ill-motivated, dope-dealing despots we support.
As for Washington, the accounts of recurrent decisions to escalate in the Pentagon Papers read like an extended prequel to Bob Woodward's book, Obama's War, on the prolonged internal controversies that preceded the president's decisions to triple the size of our forces in Afghanistan.
In accounts of wars 40 years and half a world apart, we read of the same irresponsible, self-serving presidential and congressional objectives in prolonging and escalating an un-winnable conflict: namely, the need not to be charged with weakness by political rivals, or with losing a war that a few feckless or ambitious generals foolishly claim can be won. Putting the policy-making and the field realities together, we see the same prospect of endless, bloody stalemate - unless and until, under public pressure, Congress threatens to cut off the money (as in 1972-73), forcing the executive into a negotiated withdrawal.
To motivate voters and Congress to extricate us from these presidential wars, we need the Pentagon Papers of the Middle East wars right now. Not 40 years in the future. Not after even two or three more years of further commitment to stalemated and unjustifiable wars.
Yet, we're not likely to get these ever within the time frame they're needed. The WikiLeaks' unauthorised disclosures of the last year are the first in 40 years to approach the scale of the Pentagon Papers (and even surpass them in quantity and timeliness). But unfortunately, the courageous source of these secret, field-level reports - Private Bradley Manning is the one accused, though that remains to be proven in court - did not have access to top secret, high-level recommendations, estimates and decisions.
I've long regretted that it didn't even occur to me, in August 1964, to release the documents in my Pentagon safe giving the lie to claims of an "unequivocal, unprovoked" (unreal) attack on our destroyers in the Tonkin Gulf: precursors of the "evidence beyond any doubt" of nonexistent WMD’s in Iraq, which manipulated Congress, once again, to pass the exact counterpart of the Tonkin Gulf resolution.
Senator Morse - one of the two senators who had voted against that unconstitutional, undated blank cheque for presidential war in 1964 - told me that if I had provided him with that evidence at the time (instead of 1969, when I finally provided it to the senate foreign relations committee, on which he had served): "The Tonkin Gulf resolution would never have gotten out of committee; and if it had been brought to the floor, it would have been voted down."
That's a heavy burden for me to bear: especially when I reflect that, by September, I had a drawer-full of the top secret documents (again, regrettably, not published until 1971) proving the fraudulence of Johnson's promises of "no wider war" in his election campaign, and his actual determination to escalate a war that he privately and realistically regarded as unwinnable.
Had I or one of the scores of other officials who had the same high-level information acted then on our oath of office - which was not an oath to obey the president, nor to keep the secret that he was violating his own sworn obligations, but solely an oath "to support and defend the constitution of the United States" - that terrible war might well have been averted altogether. But to hope to have that effect, we would have needed to disclose the documents when they were current, before the escalation - not five or seven, or even two, years after the fateful commitments had been made.
A lesson to be drawn from reading the Pentagon Papers, knowing all that followed or has come out in the years since, is this. To those in the Pentagon, state department, the White House, CIA (and their counterparts in Britain and other Nato countries) who have similar access to mine then and foreknowledge of disastrous escalations in our wars in the Middle East, I would say:
Don't make my mistake. Don't do what I did. Don't wait until a new war has started in Iran, until more bombs have fallen in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, Libya, Iraq or Yemen. Don't wait until thousands more have died, before you go to the press and to Congress to tell the truth with documents that reveal lies or crimes or internal projections of costs and dangers. Don't wait 40 years for it to be declassified, or seven years as I did for you or someone else to leak it.”
It is important that patriotic citizens of America demand transparency from their government, support the Bradley Manning’s, Julian Assange’s, and Daniel Ellsberg’s who have the courage to put their lives on the line to out corporate and government corruption, cover-ups, and fascist behavior.
Ellsberg writes the following:
“While we go on waging un-winnable wars on false premises, the Pentagon papers tell us we must not wait 40 years for the truth.
The declassification and online release Monday of the full original version of the Pentagon Papers - the 7,000-page top secret Pentagon study of US decision-making in Vietnam 1945-67 - comes 40 years after I gave it to 19 newspapers and to Senator Mike Gravel (minus volumes on negotiations, which I had given only to the Senate foreign relations committee). Together with the newspaper coverage and a government printing office (GPO) edition that was heavily redacted but overlapped the Senator Gravel edition, most of the material has been available to the public and scholars since 1971. (The negotiation volumes were declassified some years ago; the Senate, if not the Pentagon, should have released them no later than the end of the war in 1975.)
In other words, today's declassification of the whole study comes 36 to 40 years overdue. Yet, unfortunately, it happens to be peculiarly timely that this study gets attention and goes online just now. That's because we're mired again in wars - especially in Afghanistan - remarkably similar to the 30-year conflict in Vietnam, and we don't have comparable documentation and insider analysis to enlighten us on how we got here and where it's likely to go.
What we need released this month are the Pentagon Papers of Iraq and Afghanistan (and Pakistan, Yemen and Libya). We're not likely to get them; they probably don't yet exist, at least in the useful form of the earlier ones. But the original studies on Vietnam are a surprisingly not-bad substitute, definitely worth learning from.
Yes, the languages and ethnicities that we don't understand are different in the Middle East from those in Vietnam; the climate, terrain and types of ambushes are very different. But as the accounts in the Pentagon Papers explain, we face the same futile effort in Afghanistan to find and destroy nationalist guerrillas or to get them to quit fighting foreign invaders (now us) and the corrupt, ill-motivated, dope-dealing despots we support.
As for Washington, the accounts of recurrent decisions to escalate in the Pentagon Papers read like an extended prequel to Bob Woodward's book, Obama's War, on the prolonged internal controversies that preceded the president's decisions to triple the size of our forces in Afghanistan.
In accounts of wars 40 years and half a world apart, we read of the same irresponsible, self-serving presidential and congressional objectives in prolonging and escalating an un-winnable conflict: namely, the need not to be charged with weakness by political rivals, or with losing a war that a few feckless or ambitious generals foolishly claim can be won. Putting the policy-making and the field realities together, we see the same prospect of endless, bloody stalemate - unless and until, under public pressure, Congress threatens to cut off the money (as in 1972-73), forcing the executive into a negotiated withdrawal.
To motivate voters and Congress to extricate us from these presidential wars, we need the Pentagon Papers of the Middle East wars right now. Not 40 years in the future. Not after even two or three more years of further commitment to stalemated and unjustifiable wars.
Yet, we're not likely to get these ever within the time frame they're needed. The WikiLeaks' unauthorised disclosures of the last year are the first in 40 years to approach the scale of the Pentagon Papers (and even surpass them in quantity and timeliness). But unfortunately, the courageous source of these secret, field-level reports - Private Bradley Manning is the one accused, though that remains to be proven in court - did not have access to top secret, high-level recommendations, estimates and decisions.
I've long regretted that it didn't even occur to me, in August 1964, to release the documents in my Pentagon safe giving the lie to claims of an "unequivocal, unprovoked" (unreal) attack on our destroyers in the Tonkin Gulf: precursors of the "evidence beyond any doubt" of nonexistent WMD’s in Iraq, which manipulated Congress, once again, to pass the exact counterpart of the Tonkin Gulf resolution.
Senator Morse - one of the two senators who had voted against that unconstitutional, undated blank cheque for presidential war in 1964 - told me that if I had provided him with that evidence at the time (instead of 1969, when I finally provided it to the senate foreign relations committee, on which he had served): "The Tonkin Gulf resolution would never have gotten out of committee; and if it had been brought to the floor, it would have been voted down."
That's a heavy burden for me to bear: especially when I reflect that, by September, I had a drawer-full of the top secret documents (again, regrettably, not published until 1971) proving the fraudulence of Johnson's promises of "no wider war" in his election campaign, and his actual determination to escalate a war that he privately and realistically regarded as unwinnable.
Had I or one of the scores of other officials who had the same high-level information acted then on our oath of office - which was not an oath to obey the president, nor to keep the secret that he was violating his own sworn obligations, but solely an oath "to support and defend the constitution of the United States" - that terrible war might well have been averted altogether. But to hope to have that effect, we would have needed to disclose the documents when they were current, before the escalation - not five or seven, or even two, years after the fateful commitments had been made.
A lesson to be drawn from reading the Pentagon Papers, knowing all that followed or has come out in the years since, is this. To those in the Pentagon, state department, the White House, CIA (and their counterparts in Britain and other Nato countries) who have similar access to mine then and foreknowledge of disastrous escalations in our wars in the Middle East, I would say:
Don't make my mistake. Don't do what I did. Don't wait until a new war has started in Iran, until more bombs have fallen in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, Libya, Iraq or Yemen. Don't wait until thousands more have died, before you go to the press and to Congress to tell the truth with documents that reveal lies or crimes or internal projections of costs and dangers. Don't wait 40 years for it to be declassified, or seven years as I did for you or someone else to leak it.”
It is important that patriotic citizens of America demand transparency from their government, support the Bradley Manning’s, Julian Assange’s, and Daniel Ellsberg’s who have the courage to put their lives on the line to out corporate and government corruption, cover-ups, and fascist behavior.
The Military Industrial Complex, sustainability, and us
I wish to focus on our next industrial/technological revolution, that being sustainability. There is incredible opportunity for reducing our dependence of fossil fuels, reducing our need for natural resources, creating a tremendous positive engine for domestic employment, and responsible stewarding of our environment for generations to come. Moving into this next exciting technological revolution will require citizen passion and commitment, ergo political will, and a redirection of financial and intellectual resources. So the question is where will the money, scientific, engineering, and manufacturing talent come from?
In reality we are spending over 8% of our GDP, ballooning our national debt, including direct Department of Defense, interest, veteran’s benefits, Department of Energy, Homeland Security, and subsidies to city and state law enforcement for quasi-homeland security issues. We are talking money, that could be better spent on alternative energy research, development, and implementation; all mostly domestic employment. Our attempt to improve health care has been a superficial strategy that is really about the welfare of the drug, insurance, and general health care purveyor industry, and ultimately Wall Street. Health care industry jobs and services usually improve people’s lives and create domestic employment. Our declining position as a modern country in the world is decaying in part due to our reduced industrial manufacturing sector and inadequate training and educational resources, as well as staying behind in finding ways to use those resources more effectively. Our infrastructure of roads, bridges, parks, inland waterways and levees are in need of major upgrading and improvement; all domestic employment opportunities that provide positive societal benefits.
The ultimate cause of the growth of the insidious destructive immoral Military Industrial Complex is corporate greed and our own amoral complicity. How many people who work in the defense industry would give up their lucrative jobs in order to support better humanitarian uses of financial and intellectual resources? How many of us will write a letter, telephone our legislators, write an article in a tabloid in protest of our misplaced priorities for defense? How many people are afraid to stand up to our government leaders because some of the electorate are apathetic citizens, indolent, or fearful of being labeled Anti-American, “Pinko”, or unpatriotic? How many people would support the closure of their local military base, even though it would mean a short term loss to local city or town’s economy? Unfortunately the economic tentacles of defense spending serve to enrich many people both in the public and private sectors at the expense of more important and beneficial stakeholders. So before we layoff responsibility on corrupt bankers, greedy defense contractors, and deceitful prostituting politicians we need to get our own ethical and moral houses in order. Are we really serious about peace, or do we just like to mouth the abstract words? If we choose to opt for short term economic gain over morality, how can we expect our own politicians to be moral creatures?
Falling behind in sustainability progress is a greater real security priority to our nation than the manufactured need for a bloated military killing colossus. There is a requirement in general in the interest of national security, that all military defense hardware be manufactured in America by legal citizens of this country, but in reality our domestic corporations are the major beneficiaries of this major economic charade. If we make sustainability a national security priority, all those employed in alternative energy, recycling, energy auditing and engineering, re-adaptation of energy systems, “Green Industries”, and anything else directly related to the above would have to be made in America by naturalized citizens. In reality death and disintegration will come to our nation if we do not have the energy resources, we continue to foul our environment, and we do not focus on all elements and stakeholders that add actual positive benefits to our society.
The structure of the military and its results are the antithesis of a sustainability model. The military is one of the largest single consumers of fossil fuels. The military is exempt from many environmental laws that govern civilian society. The testing and actual use of military hardware and munitions leaves devastation and environmental contamination wherever it is used. The inherent wastefulness and corrupt purchasing practices of the Pentagon are an example of the very poor use of financial, intellectual, raw materials and energy. There is no major single societal service or product that comes to mind that is less sustainable than the Military Industrial Complex.
America is incredibly resourceful and a “Can do” nation. When one reflects on how quickly we ramped up our engineering talent and manufacturing resources to produce liberty ships, planes, uniforms, munitions, and military base infrastructure and support for WWII; why can’t we use that same talent, focus, and energy to produce for the nations good, not destructive ends? It is estimated that over half of the scientists and engineers in this country are connected directly or indirectly to the design and production of military hardware. Just think of the good that could be produced by our society if a major portion of these talented people were used to support sustainability projects instead of murder and destruction?
Eisenhower remarked that "every gun that is made is a theft from those who hunger" – a bomber is two power stations and a hospital not built. I believe that we buy into the Military Industrial Complex fraud for greed, self interest, and a manufactured fear that we need major military security. When we spend money motivated by fear, be it for insurance, our military, emergency health care, or other reasons that may interfere with our thoughtful and rational thinking processes we are less mindful of the cost. After our initial invasion of Iraq typical gains in stocks for the defense industry increased at double the rate of non-defense stocks. If we choose to invest our money in killing hardware, how can we call our leaders and politicians immoral, when we in fact out of our own greed are equally complicit in our immoral economic decisions?
What can I do as an ordinary American to effect a change? Firstly think about selling all your investments in the defense industry and reinvest them in sustainability industries. If you are a member of a union or pension group lobby, I suggest you lobby your representatives to divest themselves of all investments of the plans in the defense industry, and reinvest in positive domestic industries. If you are employed by the defense industries try and seek employment in other industries, even if it requires a minimal pay reduction. Write your legislative representatives discouraging them from funding pork barrel legislation that funds war industries. If there is a convention in your area that is used to market military hardware, try to discourage your city from hosting it. If there is such a convention in your locale, organize a large group of protesters to draw media attention to the wasteful use of our countries resources.
Be active, encouraging your children and any students of college or high school age to stop military recruitment on campus, blocking ROTC programs, and generally resisting the expansion of the military in your area. If they show recruitment advertising, before the major movie in your local theater threaten the movie house owner that you and your friends will not be a continuing movie patron unless the misleading deceptive recruitment advertising is eliminated.
So believe it or not, we do have the power and ability, as ordinary citizens to create a peace loving mindset in this country and the world if we are truly sincere and manifest our passion. Do not forget that it was major protests in the 60’s and 70’s that brought the Vietnam War to an end. Apathy, cowardice, and inaction are more dangerous to a society than guns and swords.
In reality we are spending over 8% of our GDP, ballooning our national debt, including direct Department of Defense, interest, veteran’s benefits, Department of Energy, Homeland Security, and subsidies to city and state law enforcement for quasi-homeland security issues. We are talking money, that could be better spent on alternative energy research, development, and implementation; all mostly domestic employment. Our attempt to improve health care has been a superficial strategy that is really about the welfare of the drug, insurance, and general health care purveyor industry, and ultimately Wall Street. Health care industry jobs and services usually improve people’s lives and create domestic employment. Our declining position as a modern country in the world is decaying in part due to our reduced industrial manufacturing sector and inadequate training and educational resources, as well as staying behind in finding ways to use those resources more effectively. Our infrastructure of roads, bridges, parks, inland waterways and levees are in need of major upgrading and improvement; all domestic employment opportunities that provide positive societal benefits.
The ultimate cause of the growth of the insidious destructive immoral Military Industrial Complex is corporate greed and our own amoral complicity. How many people who work in the defense industry would give up their lucrative jobs in order to support better humanitarian uses of financial and intellectual resources? How many of us will write a letter, telephone our legislators, write an article in a tabloid in protest of our misplaced priorities for defense? How many people are afraid to stand up to our government leaders because some of the electorate are apathetic citizens, indolent, or fearful of being labeled Anti-American, “Pinko”, or unpatriotic? How many people would support the closure of their local military base, even though it would mean a short term loss to local city or town’s economy? Unfortunately the economic tentacles of defense spending serve to enrich many people both in the public and private sectors at the expense of more important and beneficial stakeholders. So before we layoff responsibility on corrupt bankers, greedy defense contractors, and deceitful prostituting politicians we need to get our own ethical and moral houses in order. Are we really serious about peace, or do we just like to mouth the abstract words? If we choose to opt for short term economic gain over morality, how can we expect our own politicians to be moral creatures?
Falling behind in sustainability progress is a greater real security priority to our nation than the manufactured need for a bloated military killing colossus. There is a requirement in general in the interest of national security, that all military defense hardware be manufactured in America by legal citizens of this country, but in reality our domestic corporations are the major beneficiaries of this major economic charade. If we make sustainability a national security priority, all those employed in alternative energy, recycling, energy auditing and engineering, re-adaptation of energy systems, “Green Industries”, and anything else directly related to the above would have to be made in America by naturalized citizens. In reality death and disintegration will come to our nation if we do not have the energy resources, we continue to foul our environment, and we do not focus on all elements and stakeholders that add actual positive benefits to our society.
The structure of the military and its results are the antithesis of a sustainability model. The military is one of the largest single consumers of fossil fuels. The military is exempt from many environmental laws that govern civilian society. The testing and actual use of military hardware and munitions leaves devastation and environmental contamination wherever it is used. The inherent wastefulness and corrupt purchasing practices of the Pentagon are an example of the very poor use of financial, intellectual, raw materials and energy. There is no major single societal service or product that comes to mind that is less sustainable than the Military Industrial Complex.
America is incredibly resourceful and a “Can do” nation. When one reflects on how quickly we ramped up our engineering talent and manufacturing resources to produce liberty ships, planes, uniforms, munitions, and military base infrastructure and support for WWII; why can’t we use that same talent, focus, and energy to produce for the nations good, not destructive ends? It is estimated that over half of the scientists and engineers in this country are connected directly or indirectly to the design and production of military hardware. Just think of the good that could be produced by our society if a major portion of these talented people were used to support sustainability projects instead of murder and destruction?
Eisenhower remarked that "every gun that is made is a theft from those who hunger" – a bomber is two power stations and a hospital not built. I believe that we buy into the Military Industrial Complex fraud for greed, self interest, and a manufactured fear that we need major military security. When we spend money motivated by fear, be it for insurance, our military, emergency health care, or other reasons that may interfere with our thoughtful and rational thinking processes we are less mindful of the cost. After our initial invasion of Iraq typical gains in stocks for the defense industry increased at double the rate of non-defense stocks. If we choose to invest our money in killing hardware, how can we call our leaders and politicians immoral, when we in fact out of our own greed are equally complicit in our immoral economic decisions?
What can I do as an ordinary American to effect a change? Firstly think about selling all your investments in the defense industry and reinvest them in sustainability industries. If you are a member of a union or pension group lobby, I suggest you lobby your representatives to divest themselves of all investments of the plans in the defense industry, and reinvest in positive domestic industries. If you are employed by the defense industries try and seek employment in other industries, even if it requires a minimal pay reduction. Write your legislative representatives discouraging them from funding pork barrel legislation that funds war industries. If there is a convention in your area that is used to market military hardware, try to discourage your city from hosting it. If there is such a convention in your locale, organize a large group of protesters to draw media attention to the wasteful use of our countries resources.
Be active, encouraging your children and any students of college or high school age to stop military recruitment on campus, blocking ROTC programs, and generally resisting the expansion of the military in your area. If they show recruitment advertising, before the major movie in your local theater threaten the movie house owner that you and your friends will not be a continuing movie patron unless the misleading deceptive recruitment advertising is eliminated.
So believe it or not, we do have the power and ability, as ordinary citizens to create a peace loving mindset in this country and the world if we are truly sincere and manifest our passion. Do not forget that it was major protests in the 60’s and 70’s that brought the Vietnam War to an end. Apathy, cowardice, and inaction are more dangerous to a society than guns and swords.
Leave Religion Improve your Sex life
A recent study by Dr. Darrel W. Ray of 14,500 secularists concluded that people who leave religion have a healthier attitude about their sex lives as opposed to some who feel bound by their religion. Dr. Ray is an organizational psychologist, consultant and author of “The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture” and founder of the organization Recovering from Religion. For the first 10 years of his career he practiced as a clinical psychologist before moving into the corporate world where he has had an international consulting practice since 1986. Some the text of my following article is from The Humanist magazine of critical and social concern.
The key findings of his survey were as follows:
• Sex improves dramatically after leaving religion.
• Sexual guilt has little staying power after leaving religion.
• Those raised most religious show no difference from those raised least religious in their sexual behavior.
• Those raised most religious experience far more guilt but have just as much sex.
• Religious parents are far worse at educating their children on matters of sex.
• Religious guilt differs in measurable amounts according to denomination.
This first of its kind survey looks at attitudes and behavior related to sexuality and religion including religious sexual guilt, parenting behavior, sex education and sexual satisfaction before and after leaving religion. The most important finding shows dramatic improvement in sexual satisfaction and a decrease in guilt after people left religion. Approximately 55%% of respondents said their sex life greatly improved to an 8, 9 or 10 (on a 10 pt. scale) after leaving religion while only 2.2% said it became worse.
The primary findings of the study show that people who are religious have a good deal of guilt about sex
and sexuality, but their behavior is about the same as the non-religious. Guilt is a key component of
religious attitudes about sex, but actual behavior, whether first masturbation, first oral sex, first intercourse,
Etc. does not change appreciably with religiosity.
The US government has been deeply involved in abstinence only education for almost 10 years. The government’s own research shows that such programs do not work or at best, delay the onset of sexual behavior by months. Results of this survey closely mirror those of abstinence only programs. Children from religious homes don’t delay sexual activities appreciably but they feel guilty about doing it and probably know less about sex and protecting themselves, than their secular counterparts. Being knowledgeable about the subject of sex including safety and reproductive control are crucial to a well functioning society.
One key finding was a clear pattern of improvement in sexual satisfaction depending on former religious affiliation. The study concluded that Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness, Pentecostal, Seventh Day Adventists, and Baptists are among the most guilt driven of religions Lutherans, Catholics, and Presbyterians were in the middle. Atheists, Agnostics, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists appear to have the healthiest attitudes about their sexuality. Those leaving high guilt religions showed the most improvement in their sex lives.
In the US, many religious leaders are against sex education in schools and insist that parents and churches should be primarily responsible for teaching their children about healthy sexuality. In reality not all parents are knowledge wise, or emotionally equipped to communicate in a mature manner about sexuality with their children. Unfortunately compared to many more progressive European countries the U.S. has a duality about sexual acceptance. A great deal of sexual innuendo is used in American advertising and marketing, but healthy generic sexual attitudes are not necessarily taught or embraced. Results of this survey show parents, whether religious or not, are not particularly good at talking to their children. More secular parents do talk to their children 38% of the time, to a mere 13% of religious parents. People from religious homes felt that their education in sex was poor compared to those from less religious homes.
Most religions preach strongly against pornography or “erotica” so it is reasonable to think that pornography use would be less among the more religious. This survey found that porn use is quite high in all groups and is a key source of sex education for religious teens. The most religious teens said they got their sex education from porn 33% of the time, the less religious 25.2% of the time. The survey found that 90% of men were using
pornography by age 21 with no significant difference between those most and least religious. For women,
over 50% of them were using porn by age 21, and 70% at age 30, with little difference between most and least
religious followers. Many couples find pornography or erotic images to be a positive adjunct to their relationships.
Religions teach against sex before marriage, but the survey found that differences between the most and least religious was negligible. Most important, religious teens said they got their sexual education from personal experience 50.2%, compared to 42.4% for the less religious. In other words, children who were raised most religiously are experimenting with sex more than those raised non-religious.
Women and men saw equal improvement after religion. Those who felt their sex life was worse gave revealing comments such as: “Since leaving religion, I have not had a physical or emotional relationship with my wife.” “Since becoming an atheist I have not met anyone who does not have some religious or 'spiritual' belief system. As a result, life is very lonely. I am proactively meeting new single members of the opposite sex, in an effort to find someone who does not believe in the supernatural.” Some said that religion contributed to marital problems. Those married to very religious people had the least satisfying sex lives and reported many restrictions on what was allowed, even if they had been married many years.
The following are examples of comments from those who felt that they were harmed by religion:
“Once, my wife came home from Church and announced that there will be no more oral sex because the
priest said oral sex was a sodomy and she should not practice it.” “His religiosity prevents us from having an honest discussion. I feel like there is an unseen wall between us now”.
The researchers expected to find those who left religion with residual effects of guilt for many years after leaving their religion. Surprisingly, those who had been out of religion for several years reported few residual effects with great sexual satisfaction. Many who were polled indicated that leaving religion had a strong positive impact on their improved sexual satisfaction.
The study concludes that “biology happens” and people will have sex regardless of religious training. Religious parents do a poor job of educating their children leaving them without the tools to make informed decisions. Religious people have more guilt about sex but do it just as much. The effects of religion wear off fairly quickly for most people once they leave religion entirely. Finally, leaving religion improves sexual satisfaction dramatically for most people.
In my opinion any dogma, cult, or philosophy that discourages critical thinking, free thought, deep questioning, encourages ignorance, and instills unproductive guilt is unhealthy for individuals and society both physically and emotionally. Ignorant and fearful parents who try to keep their school districts from instructing students about sexuality, LBGT studies, and the realities of human interaction are only bringing harm to their children and society. Everyone should attempt to empower themselves about their bodies, organic functions, and diversity in gender relationships. The full report can be downloaded at www.IPCpress.com.
The key findings of his survey were as follows:
• Sex improves dramatically after leaving religion.
• Sexual guilt has little staying power after leaving religion.
• Those raised most religious show no difference from those raised least religious in their sexual behavior.
• Those raised most religious experience far more guilt but have just as much sex.
• Religious parents are far worse at educating their children on matters of sex.
• Religious guilt differs in measurable amounts according to denomination.
This first of its kind survey looks at attitudes and behavior related to sexuality and religion including religious sexual guilt, parenting behavior, sex education and sexual satisfaction before and after leaving religion. The most important finding shows dramatic improvement in sexual satisfaction and a decrease in guilt after people left religion. Approximately 55%% of respondents said their sex life greatly improved to an 8, 9 or 10 (on a 10 pt. scale) after leaving religion while only 2.2% said it became worse.
The primary findings of the study show that people who are religious have a good deal of guilt about sex
and sexuality, but their behavior is about the same as the non-religious. Guilt is a key component of
religious attitudes about sex, but actual behavior, whether first masturbation, first oral sex, first intercourse,
Etc. does not change appreciably with religiosity.
The US government has been deeply involved in abstinence only education for almost 10 years. The government’s own research shows that such programs do not work or at best, delay the onset of sexual behavior by months. Results of this survey closely mirror those of abstinence only programs. Children from religious homes don’t delay sexual activities appreciably but they feel guilty about doing it and probably know less about sex and protecting themselves, than their secular counterparts. Being knowledgeable about the subject of sex including safety and reproductive control are crucial to a well functioning society.
One key finding was a clear pattern of improvement in sexual satisfaction depending on former religious affiliation. The study concluded that Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness, Pentecostal, Seventh Day Adventists, and Baptists are among the most guilt driven of religions Lutherans, Catholics, and Presbyterians were in the middle. Atheists, Agnostics, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists appear to have the healthiest attitudes about their sexuality. Those leaving high guilt religions showed the most improvement in their sex lives.
In the US, many religious leaders are against sex education in schools and insist that parents and churches should be primarily responsible for teaching their children about healthy sexuality. In reality not all parents are knowledge wise, or emotionally equipped to communicate in a mature manner about sexuality with their children. Unfortunately compared to many more progressive European countries the U.S. has a duality about sexual acceptance. A great deal of sexual innuendo is used in American advertising and marketing, but healthy generic sexual attitudes are not necessarily taught or embraced. Results of this survey show parents, whether religious or not, are not particularly good at talking to their children. More secular parents do talk to their children 38% of the time, to a mere 13% of religious parents. People from religious homes felt that their education in sex was poor compared to those from less religious homes.
Most religions preach strongly against pornography or “erotica” so it is reasonable to think that pornography use would be less among the more religious. This survey found that porn use is quite high in all groups and is a key source of sex education for religious teens. The most religious teens said they got their sex education from porn 33% of the time, the less religious 25.2% of the time. The survey found that 90% of men were using
pornography by age 21 with no significant difference between those most and least religious. For women,
over 50% of them were using porn by age 21, and 70% at age 30, with little difference between most and least
religious followers. Many couples find pornography or erotic images to be a positive adjunct to their relationships.
Religions teach against sex before marriage, but the survey found that differences between the most and least religious was negligible. Most important, religious teens said they got their sexual education from personal experience 50.2%, compared to 42.4% for the less religious. In other words, children who were raised most religiously are experimenting with sex more than those raised non-religious.
Women and men saw equal improvement after religion. Those who felt their sex life was worse gave revealing comments such as: “Since leaving religion, I have not had a physical or emotional relationship with my wife.” “Since becoming an atheist I have not met anyone who does not have some religious or 'spiritual' belief system. As a result, life is very lonely. I am proactively meeting new single members of the opposite sex, in an effort to find someone who does not believe in the supernatural.” Some said that religion contributed to marital problems. Those married to very religious people had the least satisfying sex lives and reported many restrictions on what was allowed, even if they had been married many years.
The following are examples of comments from those who felt that they were harmed by religion:
“Once, my wife came home from Church and announced that there will be no more oral sex because the
priest said oral sex was a sodomy and she should not practice it.” “His religiosity prevents us from having an honest discussion. I feel like there is an unseen wall between us now”.
The researchers expected to find those who left religion with residual effects of guilt for many years after leaving their religion. Surprisingly, those who had been out of religion for several years reported few residual effects with great sexual satisfaction. Many who were polled indicated that leaving religion had a strong positive impact on their improved sexual satisfaction.
The study concludes that “biology happens” and people will have sex regardless of religious training. Religious parents do a poor job of educating their children leaving them without the tools to make informed decisions. Religious people have more guilt about sex but do it just as much. The effects of religion wear off fairly quickly for most people once they leave religion entirely. Finally, leaving religion improves sexual satisfaction dramatically for most people.
In my opinion any dogma, cult, or philosophy that discourages critical thinking, free thought, deep questioning, encourages ignorance, and instills unproductive guilt is unhealthy for individuals and society both physically and emotionally. Ignorant and fearful parents who try to keep their school districts from instructing students about sexuality, LBGT studies, and the realities of human interaction are only bringing harm to their children and society. Everyone should attempt to empower themselves about their bodies, organic functions, and diversity in gender relationships. The full report can be downloaded at www.IPCpress.com.
Quotes by Harvey Rifkin
"It is not the big powerful people that I fear most; but the many ignorant childlike fearful masses who find safety in delusion, and who are so easily led like sheep, while allowing themselves to be deceived by government propaganda and religion"
"My ultimate loyalty is to Truth, not Nations, Political Parties, or Religions"
"One man’s conquering hero is another man’s imperialistic barbarian"
"Institutions of Religion, Family, Government, Loyalty, and Finance are like drinking water; they should be consistently tested and questioned so that the users are not infected or poisoned"
"G.O.D= Gold/Guns, Oil, Drugs"
"Love your Capitalism, but don't like some of your Capitalists”
“Being cheap is not putting oil in your car; being frugal or thrifty is buying the best oil at the lowest price and putting it into your car”
“Buy when the fearful are selling, and sell when the greedy are buying”
“No one can make you angry, happy, or defensive; the choice is totally in your hands”
“There was never a good war”
“The apes must be really shaking their heads realizing that they evolved into such a destructive and evil animal as humans”
“Boundaries without flexibility are like valves that cannot be opened or closed”
“My best course of action for positive change is to look at me first, not them”.
“Pride in ones work and ethics is a virtue, pride that supports the ego and lack of clear self introspection is a disease”
"My ultimate loyalty is to Truth, not Nations, Political Parties, or Religions"
"One man’s conquering hero is another man’s imperialistic barbarian"
"Institutions of Religion, Family, Government, Loyalty, and Finance are like drinking water; they should be consistently tested and questioned so that the users are not infected or poisoned"
"G.O.D= Gold/Guns, Oil, Drugs"
"Love your Capitalism, but don't like some of your Capitalists”
“Being cheap is not putting oil in your car; being frugal or thrifty is buying the best oil at the lowest price and putting it into your car”
“Buy when the fearful are selling, and sell when the greedy are buying”
“No one can make you angry, happy, or defensive; the choice is totally in your hands”
“There was never a good war”
“The apes must be really shaking their heads realizing that they evolved into such a destructive and evil animal as humans”
“Boundaries without flexibility are like valves that cannot be opened or closed”
“My best course of action for positive change is to look at me first, not them”.
“Pride in ones work and ethics is a virtue, pride that supports the ego and lack of clear self introspection is a disease”
Osama bin Laden has been dead for 9 years
One thing we know is that Osama bin Laden was a CIA asset used to recruit Muslim fundamentalists to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. We also know that his family had very close ties to the US government and more specifically to the Bush family. In 2001 he was terminally ill with kidney disease. The day that the news flashed about bin Laden’s death I immediately said, based on previous information, “Here goes our leaders fabricating more lies again for political gain or electorate distraction”.
I connected with a politically conservative friend of mine that day that was no supporter of Obama and asked him about his reaction to the news. He said, “You may be correct that the information was a government fabrication, but I have to believe in my government”. The last part of that statement was very telling, as it typifies why many Americans, instead of asking the hard questions, go into denial and cling to false myths to support their emotional peace of mind. Faith can be a very dangerous mindset that distracts us from empowering truths. I believe it is the same reason why many Americans create an impermeable emotional block and refuse to accept, based on all the clear information that 9/11 was an inside job motivated by greed for oil and many other motives that have enriched the stakeholders. We want to feel safe and loyal to our government.
The following is one poignant review of a well researched and scholarly book on the subject. OSAMA BIN LADEN: DEAD OR ALIVE? by David Ray Griffin is a crucially important and timely examination of the whole range of evidence bearing on the question, is Osama bin Laden still alive? The importance of this question for the present comes from the fact that the United States Obama is escalating its offensive in Afghanistan and expanding the war into Pakistan, and has claimed that the "hunt for bin Laden" is one of its principal motivations for doing so. Either explicitly or implicitly, the US government and major media outlets such as the New York Times and Washington Post continue to assert that bin Laden is alive, hiding in the tribal territories on the "AfPak" border, posing an undiminished threat to US security.
In his gripping new book, Griffin strikes at the root of this pretext for war by closely examining all the evidence that has come out since September 11, 2001, either indicating that bin Laden is still alive or that he is in fact dead. His conclusion is that bin Laden is certainly dead, and that in all likelihood he died in very late 2001. Griffin shows that many US experts in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency came to this very same conclusion long ago, but their views, which do not support the continuation of what President Obama, borrowing the term from Dick Cheney, calls "the long war," have received very little media attention. Were they to do so, one of the main props for the war regime would be undermined.
In Chapter 1, "Evidence that Osama bin Laden is Dead", Griffin surveys in detail the many different indications published in the major media in late 2001 and early 2002 that bin Laden had been very ill and had died. These included a December, 2001 video in which he appeared to be at death's door (as admitted by a Bush administration spokesperson), analyses by medical experts of the grave state of his health, the sudden and total cessation in December, 2001 of any surveillance intercepts of communications from him, and even reports of his funeral. In this early period, various high-level officials in the US and Pakistani governments, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President Pervez Musharraf, speculated that he was dead. By mid-2002 many experts had concluded that he was dead, including FBI counterterrorism official Dale Watson, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, and Israeli intelligence officials. As a result the CIA closed down the bin Laden unit in 2002. The conviction that he died in 2001 is held today by former intelligence operatives Robert Baer and Angelo Codevilla.
In Chapter 2, "Two Fake bin Laden Videos in 2001?", Griffin shows that two videos which purportedly showed bin Laden taking credit for the attacks of 9/11 and thus established his guilt for them, were not only very conveniently timed for the Bush and Blair administrations' legislative and military agendas, but also were highly suspect for other reasons. One of them was never actually released, but simply claimed by the Blair government. The other showed a bin Laden who did not physically resemble the genuine bin Laden of earlier videos, in which he in fact denied responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. Griffin presents strong arguments that claimed videos were faked, suggests likely motivations behind such a risky undertaking, and cites the opinions of experts (including the FBI) who came to this conclusion long ago.
In Chapter 3, "Purported bin Laden Messages After 2001", Griffin argues that if fake bin Laden videos were produced in this early period, when he was probably still alive, then there is even stronger reason to be suspicious of "bin Laden videos" or other claimed "messages" that were released later, after all communications intercepts from him had ceased and many experts had concluded that he was dead. Yet, in subsequent years, a long series of such dubious "bin Laden messages" were released. Griffin presents an exhaustive survey of 19 of these, from an "email message" of March, 2002 to the "bin Laden audiotape" of January 14, 2009. For each and every one, Griffin identifies key indications of fakery or strong reasons to be suspicious of its authenticity. In the course of the discussion of the messages, he establishes that the technical capability to fabricate fake messages of the different types already existed.
In Chapter 4, Griffin turns to the important question "Who Might Have Been Motivated To Fabricate Messages?" He shows that the US military in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 employed a psychological operations unit to produce bogus evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, as a pretext for the invasion. The psyops unit produced a "letter" from a Jordanian in Iraq, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, that was then "intercepted", purportedly enroute to Al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan. The psyop was advanced after the invasion by the New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins, who wrote front-page stories presenting the "evidence" as genuine. Journalists at other organizations, including Newsweek magazine and The Telegraph of London, however, thought it highly likely at the time that the letter was bogus. Griffin concludes that the target of the psychological operation was the US public. He asks, could something very similar have been going on with the "bin Laden messages"? Does the US government desire to expand its war operations anywhere, say into the precise places it claims bin Laden is still living in? Based on the evidence Griffin presents, there is no reason to assume that comparable psyops would not be utilized to achieve this goal.
In Chapter 5, "The Convenient Timing of Many of the Messages", Griffin shows that another reason to suspect the in-authenticity of the "bin Laden messages" is that they frequently were released at key moments when they would benefit the Bush administration in the pursuit of particular objectives. In other words, the "messages" were almost always objectively detrimental to the enemies of the US, and beneficial to the Bush administration or the Blair government. Griffin lists 11 specific instances of this unusual characteristic of the "messages."
OSAMA BIN LADEN: DEAD OR ALIVE? by David Ray Griffin is a book to rally around - that is, a basis on which we can mobilize and organize resistance to yet another incalculably bloody war of aggression by the predatory military-industrial-financial elite that runs this country, and is running it into the abyss. The 9 year myth of bin Laden being alive served the war hawks who wanted to give us a reason to stay in Afghanistan and to perpetuate Muslim bashing. Some people seek an evil symbol to hate and justify aggression and retaliation. Griffin has placed a strong weapon of truth in our hands with which to stop the brutal war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Let's use it!
I connected with a politically conservative friend of mine that day that was no supporter of Obama and asked him about his reaction to the news. He said, “You may be correct that the information was a government fabrication, but I have to believe in my government”. The last part of that statement was very telling, as it typifies why many Americans, instead of asking the hard questions, go into denial and cling to false myths to support their emotional peace of mind. Faith can be a very dangerous mindset that distracts us from empowering truths. I believe it is the same reason why many Americans create an impermeable emotional block and refuse to accept, based on all the clear information that 9/11 was an inside job motivated by greed for oil and many other motives that have enriched the stakeholders. We want to feel safe and loyal to our government.
The following is one poignant review of a well researched and scholarly book on the subject. OSAMA BIN LADEN: DEAD OR ALIVE? by David Ray Griffin is a crucially important and timely examination of the whole range of evidence bearing on the question, is Osama bin Laden still alive? The importance of this question for the present comes from the fact that the United States Obama is escalating its offensive in Afghanistan and expanding the war into Pakistan, and has claimed that the "hunt for bin Laden" is one of its principal motivations for doing so. Either explicitly or implicitly, the US government and major media outlets such as the New York Times and Washington Post continue to assert that bin Laden is alive, hiding in the tribal territories on the "AfPak" border, posing an undiminished threat to US security.
In his gripping new book, Griffin strikes at the root of this pretext for war by closely examining all the evidence that has come out since September 11, 2001, either indicating that bin Laden is still alive or that he is in fact dead. His conclusion is that bin Laden is certainly dead, and that in all likelihood he died in very late 2001. Griffin shows that many US experts in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency came to this very same conclusion long ago, but their views, which do not support the continuation of what President Obama, borrowing the term from Dick Cheney, calls "the long war," have received very little media attention. Were they to do so, one of the main props for the war regime would be undermined.
In Chapter 1, "Evidence that Osama bin Laden is Dead", Griffin surveys in detail the many different indications published in the major media in late 2001 and early 2002 that bin Laden had been very ill and had died. These included a December, 2001 video in which he appeared to be at death's door (as admitted by a Bush administration spokesperson), analyses by medical experts of the grave state of his health, the sudden and total cessation in December, 2001 of any surveillance intercepts of communications from him, and even reports of his funeral. In this early period, various high-level officials in the US and Pakistani governments, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President Pervez Musharraf, speculated that he was dead. By mid-2002 many experts had concluded that he was dead, including FBI counterterrorism official Dale Watson, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, and Israeli intelligence officials. As a result the CIA closed down the bin Laden unit in 2002. The conviction that he died in 2001 is held today by former intelligence operatives Robert Baer and Angelo Codevilla.
In Chapter 2, "Two Fake bin Laden Videos in 2001?", Griffin shows that two videos which purportedly showed bin Laden taking credit for the attacks of 9/11 and thus established his guilt for them, were not only very conveniently timed for the Bush and Blair administrations' legislative and military agendas, but also were highly suspect for other reasons. One of them was never actually released, but simply claimed by the Blair government. The other showed a bin Laden who did not physically resemble the genuine bin Laden of earlier videos, in which he in fact denied responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. Griffin presents strong arguments that claimed videos were faked, suggests likely motivations behind such a risky undertaking, and cites the opinions of experts (including the FBI) who came to this conclusion long ago.
In Chapter 3, "Purported bin Laden Messages After 2001", Griffin argues that if fake bin Laden videos were produced in this early period, when he was probably still alive, then there is even stronger reason to be suspicious of "bin Laden videos" or other claimed "messages" that were released later, after all communications intercepts from him had ceased and many experts had concluded that he was dead. Yet, in subsequent years, a long series of such dubious "bin Laden messages" were released. Griffin presents an exhaustive survey of 19 of these, from an "email message" of March, 2002 to the "bin Laden audiotape" of January 14, 2009. For each and every one, Griffin identifies key indications of fakery or strong reasons to be suspicious of its authenticity. In the course of the discussion of the messages, he establishes that the technical capability to fabricate fake messages of the different types already existed.
In Chapter 4, Griffin turns to the important question "Who Might Have Been Motivated To Fabricate Messages?" He shows that the US military in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 employed a psychological operations unit to produce bogus evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, as a pretext for the invasion. The psyops unit produced a "letter" from a Jordanian in Iraq, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, that was then "intercepted", purportedly enroute to Al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan. The psyop was advanced after the invasion by the New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins, who wrote front-page stories presenting the "evidence" as genuine. Journalists at other organizations, including Newsweek magazine and The Telegraph of London, however, thought it highly likely at the time that the letter was bogus. Griffin concludes that the target of the psychological operation was the US public. He asks, could something very similar have been going on with the "bin Laden messages"? Does the US government desire to expand its war operations anywhere, say into the precise places it claims bin Laden is still living in? Based on the evidence Griffin presents, there is no reason to assume that comparable psyops would not be utilized to achieve this goal.
In Chapter 5, "The Convenient Timing of Many of the Messages", Griffin shows that another reason to suspect the in-authenticity of the "bin Laden messages" is that they frequently were released at key moments when they would benefit the Bush administration in the pursuit of particular objectives. In other words, the "messages" were almost always objectively detrimental to the enemies of the US, and beneficial to the Bush administration or the Blair government. Griffin lists 11 specific instances of this unusual characteristic of the "messages."
OSAMA BIN LADEN: DEAD OR ALIVE? by David Ray Griffin is a book to rally around - that is, a basis on which we can mobilize and organize resistance to yet another incalculably bloody war of aggression by the predatory military-industrial-financial elite that runs this country, and is running it into the abyss. The 9 year myth of bin Laden being alive served the war hawks who wanted to give us a reason to stay in Afghanistan and to perpetuate Muslim bashing. Some people seek an evil symbol to hate and justify aggression and retaliation. Griffin has placed a strong weapon of truth in our hands with which to stop the brutal war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Let's use it!
U.S. Corporations+Fascism=cozy bed fellows
Corporations do not see Fascism as an end game or some ideological principle, but rather as a convenient and profitable delivery system in order to bolster profits for their stockholders. Corporations are not in business to create jobs, become the altruistic benefactor of society, care for the working class, but only to make money for their investors by any means that they can legally achieve, and in some cases illegally without regard to the health and safety of the consumer or the environment. In the following article I will detail egregious examples of how many of our major corporations have partnered up with dictators, despots, and people who we deem to be a threat to our nation.
There has been a continuing trend, since the Reagan years for all branches of government to favor the corporation and financial sectors over the benefits of the purchasing public. The latest decision by a Supreme Court that has been packed by corporate shills such as Roberts, Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and sometimes Kennedy, who ruled that corporations had the equivalent of “Personhood”, was not the intention of the Founding Fathers, nor does this decision inure to the benefit of an open and working democracy. We are seeing corporate favoritism in deference to the benefits of the mass electorate when it comes to consumer protections, stewardship of the environment, and tax payer paid corporate socialism when corporations fail, but free market capitalism when they make money.
My objective is not to malign corporations as a final objective, but rather to bring to the attention of the public that a corporation is like a venomous snake or killer shark that should be watched closely and regulated with reasonable boundaries so that it causes little harm to the public. Corporations should not be allowed to merge and become so big that their financial failure would cause a major disaster to our economy. Snakes, sharks, and corporations perform a useful purpose in society and should not be exterminated, but reasonably contained and regulated.
Corporations, bankers, and even labor unions form favored alliances that do not always benefit the public, with government that we characterize as “Crony Capitalism”. Wars, defense networks, and even the welfare state create a means to transfer tax payer dollars, not necessarily at will, but many times through fear and threats into hands of the corporate denizens. The populace many times will cry out in frustrated reaction to government legislation by demonizing politicians with the word Socialist, Marxist, Communist, or even Fascist many times not really understanding the true definition of the concept or ideology. As with all government stakeholder projects, they were not done by the government, they were done by private companies with funding from the government. This is one crucial difference between fascist economies and socialist economies. In a fascist economy public taxation is used to funnel money to private corporations through the government, whereas in a socialist economy like that of the Soviet Union there is no taxation and industry itself is run by the government for profit.
Corporations have no or little commitment to ideology, patriotism, nationalism, or humanity; they move their capital, hire and fire workers in any country that can maximize their bottom line. As a public relations gesture in order to make their products, services, or branding appear positive and attractive, they will emphasize a few gratuitous positive gestures as a means to gain increased market share.
Some of the primary and more famous American companies and individuals that were involved with the Fascist regimes of Europe are: William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Kennedy (JFK's father), Charles Lindbergh, John Rockefeller, Andrew Mellon (head of Alcoa, banker, and Secretary of Treasury), DuPont, General Motors, Standard Oil (now Exxon), Ford, ITT, Allen Dulles (later head of the CIA), Prescott Bush, National City Bank, Coca-Cola, and General Electric.
I.G. Farben was critical in the development of the German economy and war machine leading up to WWII. During this time I.G. Farben's international holdings along with its international business contracts with companies like Standard Oil, DuPont, Alcoa, and Dow Chemical were crucial in supplying the Nazi regime with the materials needed for war, as well as financial support.
Ford and GM supplied European Fascists with trucks and equipment, as well as investing money in I.G. Farben plants. Standard Oil supplied the fascists with fuel. US Steel and Alcoa supplied them with critically needed metals. American banks gave them billions of dollars worth of loans. American banks and businesses continued to support the Fascist regimes of Europe legally up until the day Germany declared war on America and the activities were stopped under the Trading with the Enemy Act. Despite this, some companies and individuals still maintained a business relationship with the Third Reich.
In Germany, for example, General Motors and Ford became an integral part of the Nazi war efforts. GM's plants in Germany built thousands of bomber and jet fighter propulsion systems for the Luftwaffe at the same time that its American plants produced aircraft engines for the U.S. Army Air Corps....
Ford was also active in Nazi Germany's prewar preparations. In 1938, for instance, it opened a truck assembly plant in Berlin whose "real purpose," according to U.S. Army Intelligence, was producing "troop transport-type" vehicles for the Wehrmacht. That year Ford's chief executive received the Nazi German Eagle (first class)....
After the cessation of hostilities, GM and Ford demanded reparations from the U.S. Government for wartime damages sustained by their Axis facilities as a result of Allied bombing... Ford received a little less than $1 million, primarily as a result of damages sustained by its military truck complex at Cologne...
Due to their multinational dominance of motor vehicle production, GM and Ford became principal suppliers for the forces of fascism as well as for the forces of democracy. It may, of course, be argued that participating in both sides of an international conflict, like the common corporate practice of investing in both political parties before an election, is an appropriate corporate activity. Had the Nazis won, General Motors and Ford would have appeared impeccably Nazi; as Hitler lost, these companies were able to re-emerge impeccably American. In either case, the viability of these corporations and the interests of their respective stockholders would have been preserved.
Perhaps one of the most egregious contributors to the Nazi cause was IBM under the direction of Thomas J. Watson. IBM knowingly helped to setup Nazi census databases through the use of data sorting machines that enabled the Nazis to carry out the Holocaust in a way that they would not have otherwise been able to. Point blank, IBM increased the size and scope of the Holocaust, and did it for profit." Thomas Watson was awarded a medal by Adolph Hitler for his role in assisting in the Nazi regime, and Watson expressed, "the necessity of extending a sympathetic understanding to the German people, and their leader Adolph Hitler." He also expressed, "the highest esteem for Hitler, his country, and his people."
After WWII, corporations such as United Fruit, ITT, BP, Chevron, DuPont, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Bechtel, Shell, and many others have been complicit in over throwing democratically elected governments in other countries in order to continue their oppression, rape the land of natural resources, and keep the indigenous populations in slaved in sub-standard wage conditions.
It is easy to put all the blame for a lack of ethical and moral behavior just on the corporations who support Fascist policies, but we as ordinary citizens are also complicit in being part of Fascist policies. We can mostly agree that the corporation is about profit, not compassion, fairness, humanity, or stewardship of the environment. When we own stock in these corporations, supply these companies, work for banks that lend to these companies, seek employment with these companies, or buy their products or services we are culpable participants in furthering Fascism. When we vote, we need to be cognizant of politicians who are owned by Big Business and avoid them. One of the most critical decisions one can make as a voter is who will or will not appoint judges that are owned by corporations. We as ordinary citizens need to set a benchmark for ethical behavior before we jump to just accuse the “Fat Cats” and politicians.
There has been a continuing trend, since the Reagan years for all branches of government to favor the corporation and financial sectors over the benefits of the purchasing public. The latest decision by a Supreme Court that has been packed by corporate shills such as Roberts, Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and sometimes Kennedy, who ruled that corporations had the equivalent of “Personhood”, was not the intention of the Founding Fathers, nor does this decision inure to the benefit of an open and working democracy. We are seeing corporate favoritism in deference to the benefits of the mass electorate when it comes to consumer protections, stewardship of the environment, and tax payer paid corporate socialism when corporations fail, but free market capitalism when they make money.
My objective is not to malign corporations as a final objective, but rather to bring to the attention of the public that a corporation is like a venomous snake or killer shark that should be watched closely and regulated with reasonable boundaries so that it causes little harm to the public. Corporations should not be allowed to merge and become so big that their financial failure would cause a major disaster to our economy. Snakes, sharks, and corporations perform a useful purpose in society and should not be exterminated, but reasonably contained and regulated.
Corporations, bankers, and even labor unions form favored alliances that do not always benefit the public, with government that we characterize as “Crony Capitalism”. Wars, defense networks, and even the welfare state create a means to transfer tax payer dollars, not necessarily at will, but many times through fear and threats into hands of the corporate denizens. The populace many times will cry out in frustrated reaction to government legislation by demonizing politicians with the word Socialist, Marxist, Communist, or even Fascist many times not really understanding the true definition of the concept or ideology. As with all government stakeholder projects, they were not done by the government, they were done by private companies with funding from the government. This is one crucial difference between fascist economies and socialist economies. In a fascist economy public taxation is used to funnel money to private corporations through the government, whereas in a socialist economy like that of the Soviet Union there is no taxation and industry itself is run by the government for profit.
Corporations have no or little commitment to ideology, patriotism, nationalism, or humanity; they move their capital, hire and fire workers in any country that can maximize their bottom line. As a public relations gesture in order to make their products, services, or branding appear positive and attractive, they will emphasize a few gratuitous positive gestures as a means to gain increased market share.
Some of the primary and more famous American companies and individuals that were involved with the Fascist regimes of Europe are: William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Kennedy (JFK's father), Charles Lindbergh, John Rockefeller, Andrew Mellon (head of Alcoa, banker, and Secretary of Treasury), DuPont, General Motors, Standard Oil (now Exxon), Ford, ITT, Allen Dulles (later head of the CIA), Prescott Bush, National City Bank, Coca-Cola, and General Electric.
I.G. Farben was critical in the development of the German economy and war machine leading up to WWII. During this time I.G. Farben's international holdings along with its international business contracts with companies like Standard Oil, DuPont, Alcoa, and Dow Chemical were crucial in supplying the Nazi regime with the materials needed for war, as well as financial support.
Ford and GM supplied European Fascists with trucks and equipment, as well as investing money in I.G. Farben plants. Standard Oil supplied the fascists with fuel. US Steel and Alcoa supplied them with critically needed metals. American banks gave them billions of dollars worth of loans. American banks and businesses continued to support the Fascist regimes of Europe legally up until the day Germany declared war on America and the activities were stopped under the Trading with the Enemy Act. Despite this, some companies and individuals still maintained a business relationship with the Third Reich.
In Germany, for example, General Motors and Ford became an integral part of the Nazi war efforts. GM's plants in Germany built thousands of bomber and jet fighter propulsion systems for the Luftwaffe at the same time that its American plants produced aircraft engines for the U.S. Army Air Corps....
Ford was also active in Nazi Germany's prewar preparations. In 1938, for instance, it opened a truck assembly plant in Berlin whose "real purpose," according to U.S. Army Intelligence, was producing "troop transport-type" vehicles for the Wehrmacht. That year Ford's chief executive received the Nazi German Eagle (first class)....
After the cessation of hostilities, GM and Ford demanded reparations from the U.S. Government for wartime damages sustained by their Axis facilities as a result of Allied bombing... Ford received a little less than $1 million, primarily as a result of damages sustained by its military truck complex at Cologne...
Due to their multinational dominance of motor vehicle production, GM and Ford became principal suppliers for the forces of fascism as well as for the forces of democracy. It may, of course, be argued that participating in both sides of an international conflict, like the common corporate practice of investing in both political parties before an election, is an appropriate corporate activity. Had the Nazis won, General Motors and Ford would have appeared impeccably Nazi; as Hitler lost, these companies were able to re-emerge impeccably American. In either case, the viability of these corporations and the interests of their respective stockholders would have been preserved.
Perhaps one of the most egregious contributors to the Nazi cause was IBM under the direction of Thomas J. Watson. IBM knowingly helped to setup Nazi census databases through the use of data sorting machines that enabled the Nazis to carry out the Holocaust in a way that they would not have otherwise been able to. Point blank, IBM increased the size and scope of the Holocaust, and did it for profit." Thomas Watson was awarded a medal by Adolph Hitler for his role in assisting in the Nazi regime, and Watson expressed, "the necessity of extending a sympathetic understanding to the German people, and their leader Adolph Hitler." He also expressed, "the highest esteem for Hitler, his country, and his people."
After WWII, corporations such as United Fruit, ITT, BP, Chevron, DuPont, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Bechtel, Shell, and many others have been complicit in over throwing democratically elected governments in other countries in order to continue their oppression, rape the land of natural resources, and keep the indigenous populations in slaved in sub-standard wage conditions.
It is easy to put all the blame for a lack of ethical and moral behavior just on the corporations who support Fascist policies, but we as ordinary citizens are also complicit in being part of Fascist policies. We can mostly agree that the corporation is about profit, not compassion, fairness, humanity, or stewardship of the environment. When we own stock in these corporations, supply these companies, work for banks that lend to these companies, seek employment with these companies, or buy their products or services we are culpable participants in furthering Fascism. When we vote, we need to be cognizant of politicians who are owned by Big Business and avoid them. One of the most critical decisions one can make as a voter is who will or will not appoint judges that are owned by corporations. We as ordinary citizens need to set a benchmark for ethical behavior before we jump to just accuse the “Fat Cats” and politicians.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
ACLU works to represent the rights of Californians
How can supporting human rights, individual rights, the 1st and 4th Amendments, and lobbying to outlaw costly capital punishment be Socialistic, Communistic, or anti-American? Some folks refer to the ACLU as though it were a pariah that that was against everything that just, humane, and supported by our Constitution. To the contrary the ACLU has been a staunch advocate for justice, equality, and constitutional adherence.
The ACLU publishes a seasonal newsletter that outlines many of their key projects. The following are issues that appeared in the “Spring 2011” newsletter that are at the forefront of some present day ACLU advocacy:
The ACLU has been a fervent advocate for abolishing California’s costly, inhumane, unjust, and ineffective death penalty. Our state faces a $20 billion plus budget shortfall; ending capital punishment is estimated to save the state approximately $1 billion over 5 years. By converting California’s 710 death sentences to permanent imprisonment, we would insure that each of those death row prisoners would remain in prison with absolutely no possibility of parole, and would be accountable to victim’s families through work and restitution to them.
In a quest to purchase drugs for lethal injections, the ACLU uncovered that the State of California had to go to the UK to find a source for 521 grams of lethal injection drugs. The California Department of Corrections paid a total of $36,415 for these imported drugs that were not available in the U.S. Included in the purchase price was $20,000 in fees, with the explanation of $10,000 in fees blacked out. Last year the CDCR paid only $1,210 for injection drugs purchased in the U.S.
States with the death penalty actually have a higher murder rate; capital punishment has not proven to be a murder deterrent. When do we ever hear of an affluent person being put on death row? Very seldom as capital punishment falls primarily on the poor, mentally handicapped, people color, and those who can ill afford expensive private legal representation. O J Simpson is the “poster boy” that proves that expensive legal advice coupled with sloppy state prosecution is the perfect equation for getting away with murder. ACLU staff attorneys have filed Freedom of Information Act requests for more records from the FDA and Customs and Border Protection to trace exactly where the drugs came from and the highly irregular process used to obtain them. The question begs what other secretive, deceptive, and irregular behavior are state officials employing?
The Tehama-Trinity Chapter of the ACLU and The North State Tea Party Alliance teamed up to protect First Amendment rights. The city of Redding attempted to impose new restrictions on when, where, and how residents may hand out leaflets in front of the public library. The unholy alliance of the “Tea Party” and the ACLU proved successful, with the help of a Tea Party activist Tim Pappas, who is also Shasta’s public defender. Recounted Yost the ACLU representative, “We explained our belief that speech is for everyone, regardless of whether one agrees with their point of view. Everyone listened with interest and respect. There seemed to be lots of agreement”.
“California has some of the best laws in the country to protect students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT), or who are perceived to be. The unfortunate reality is that anti-LGBT harassment is still far too widespread. Schools don’t always have tools or knowledge to adequately protect students from bullying, harassment, and discrimination”.
A tragic case in point is Seth Walsh who was a sweet intelligent, 13 year old boy, who loved his family and was also gay. He endured years of bullying, harassment, and verbal abuse in school. Last September as a result of desperation he hanged himself from a tree in his family’s backyard. After nine days on life support he died. After Seth’s death his family contacted the ACLU to perform an investigation of the local school and board of education. The school was urged to take immediate proactive action to remedy the destructive environment of LGBT harassment. In a national survey, nine out of ten LGBT students reported being harassed at school. According to the most recent California Healthy Kids Survey, 12 percent of seventh graders and 10 percent of ninth graders reported being harassed based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation.
The ACLU is co-sponsoring a new bill in the California Legislature (Seth’s Law) which would strengthen existing state laws by requiring every school district to “Create strong and clear anti-harassment programs, if they don’t have them already”. Passing laws is a positive first step, but without programs to reculturate fearful and ignorant people, human rights progress will not be meaningful.
The ACLU recognizes that with more advancement in internet technology, that users of these technologies become mindful of the inherent risks to personal privacy. In addition, the ACLU also is a strong public advocate for First Amendment rights in the alternative media as well as internet blogs and social networks such as Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
The ACLU recommends the following ways to upgrade our much needed privacy protections:
• Holds a conversation among industry leaders, the public, and speech and privacy advocates to reinforce the idea that the Internet is a necessary and powerful platform for free speech that benefits all Californians.
• Ensure that companies doing business in California comply with laws requiring them to inform customers about sharing their personal information with other companies.
The ACLU is supporting SB 602, the Reader Privacy Act, in order to safeguard reader privacy in the digital age. This law would help insure that the government and third parties cannot access our private digital reading records without proper justification.
California has the dubious honor of being the world’s leader when it comes to locking up its residents. The state’s budget for corrections now outpaces university spending. California’s criminal justice system, based on independent studies, has proven to be largely ineffective, unfair, and racially discriminatory. In addition, locking people up for non-violent crimes is way too costly and is a poor choice of human resources. Revenge and retribution are not civil or rational solutions to anti-societal behavior.
The ACLU makes the following recommendations to improve the criminal justice system:
• Stop sending non-violent offenders to prison. Tax payers could save millions of dollars by not incarcerating non-criminal drug users. Drug use should be seen as a misdemeanor, medical disability, not a felony.
• Emphasize rehabilitation. Transfer part of expensive incarceration costs to local jurisdictions for drug treatment programs and skills development.
• Ease the way for people with past criminal convictions to move forward and lead positive lives-to find jobs. People who are incarcerated typically are poor, hopeless, undereducated, and suffer emotional disabilities. Having the stigma of being a criminal only adds another unneeded burden of successful integration into society.
• Support efforts to provide services to all victims of crime, even those with felony convictions. This means that many crime victims are deprived of basic support services such as grief counseling or minimal financial or educational support.
• Issue guidelines to regulate police surveillance and intelligence gathering that targets individual or groups engaged in political or religious activities. This will help to reduce racial or religious profiling, or targeting political activists.
• Investigate and begin to remedy patterns of police misconduct in California. The attorney general has the authority to intervene in cases of police departments or officers engaging in misconduct, excessive force, or false arrests.
The ACLU has also set guidelines for immigrant rights. Procedures and guidelines would be set to ensure that racial and ethnic profiling, or excessive and prolonged detainment would be greatly reduced.
It is important that every Californian be they LGBT, an Internet user, or one voicing dissent that their constitutional, individual, and human rights be respected and upheld. Society prospers as a whole when every individual can be the best they can be without censorship, harassment, injustice, and discrimination. It is advocacy groups such as the ACLU that work for our collective behalf for those noble ends.
The ACLU publishes a seasonal newsletter that outlines many of their key projects. The following are issues that appeared in the “Spring 2011” newsletter that are at the forefront of some present day ACLU advocacy:
The ACLU has been a fervent advocate for abolishing California’s costly, inhumane, unjust, and ineffective death penalty. Our state faces a $20 billion plus budget shortfall; ending capital punishment is estimated to save the state approximately $1 billion over 5 years. By converting California’s 710 death sentences to permanent imprisonment, we would insure that each of those death row prisoners would remain in prison with absolutely no possibility of parole, and would be accountable to victim’s families through work and restitution to them.
In a quest to purchase drugs for lethal injections, the ACLU uncovered that the State of California had to go to the UK to find a source for 521 grams of lethal injection drugs. The California Department of Corrections paid a total of $36,415 for these imported drugs that were not available in the U.S. Included in the purchase price was $20,000 in fees, with the explanation of $10,000 in fees blacked out. Last year the CDCR paid only $1,210 for injection drugs purchased in the U.S.
States with the death penalty actually have a higher murder rate; capital punishment has not proven to be a murder deterrent. When do we ever hear of an affluent person being put on death row? Very seldom as capital punishment falls primarily on the poor, mentally handicapped, people color, and those who can ill afford expensive private legal representation. O J Simpson is the “poster boy” that proves that expensive legal advice coupled with sloppy state prosecution is the perfect equation for getting away with murder. ACLU staff attorneys have filed Freedom of Information Act requests for more records from the FDA and Customs and Border Protection to trace exactly where the drugs came from and the highly irregular process used to obtain them. The question begs what other secretive, deceptive, and irregular behavior are state officials employing?
The Tehama-Trinity Chapter of the ACLU and The North State Tea Party Alliance teamed up to protect First Amendment rights. The city of Redding attempted to impose new restrictions on when, where, and how residents may hand out leaflets in front of the public library. The unholy alliance of the “Tea Party” and the ACLU proved successful, with the help of a Tea Party activist Tim Pappas, who is also Shasta’s public defender. Recounted Yost the ACLU representative, “We explained our belief that speech is for everyone, regardless of whether one agrees with their point of view. Everyone listened with interest and respect. There seemed to be lots of agreement”.
“California has some of the best laws in the country to protect students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT), or who are perceived to be. The unfortunate reality is that anti-LGBT harassment is still far too widespread. Schools don’t always have tools or knowledge to adequately protect students from bullying, harassment, and discrimination”.
A tragic case in point is Seth Walsh who was a sweet intelligent, 13 year old boy, who loved his family and was also gay. He endured years of bullying, harassment, and verbal abuse in school. Last September as a result of desperation he hanged himself from a tree in his family’s backyard. After nine days on life support he died. After Seth’s death his family contacted the ACLU to perform an investigation of the local school and board of education. The school was urged to take immediate proactive action to remedy the destructive environment of LGBT harassment. In a national survey, nine out of ten LGBT students reported being harassed at school. According to the most recent California Healthy Kids Survey, 12 percent of seventh graders and 10 percent of ninth graders reported being harassed based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation.
The ACLU is co-sponsoring a new bill in the California Legislature (Seth’s Law) which would strengthen existing state laws by requiring every school district to “Create strong and clear anti-harassment programs, if they don’t have them already”. Passing laws is a positive first step, but without programs to reculturate fearful and ignorant people, human rights progress will not be meaningful.
The ACLU recognizes that with more advancement in internet technology, that users of these technologies become mindful of the inherent risks to personal privacy. In addition, the ACLU also is a strong public advocate for First Amendment rights in the alternative media as well as internet blogs and social networks such as Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
The ACLU recommends the following ways to upgrade our much needed privacy protections:
• Holds a conversation among industry leaders, the public, and speech and privacy advocates to reinforce the idea that the Internet is a necessary and powerful platform for free speech that benefits all Californians.
• Ensure that companies doing business in California comply with laws requiring them to inform customers about sharing their personal information with other companies.
The ACLU is supporting SB 602, the Reader Privacy Act, in order to safeguard reader privacy in the digital age. This law would help insure that the government and third parties cannot access our private digital reading records without proper justification.
California has the dubious honor of being the world’s leader when it comes to locking up its residents. The state’s budget for corrections now outpaces university spending. California’s criminal justice system, based on independent studies, has proven to be largely ineffective, unfair, and racially discriminatory. In addition, locking people up for non-violent crimes is way too costly and is a poor choice of human resources. Revenge and retribution are not civil or rational solutions to anti-societal behavior.
The ACLU makes the following recommendations to improve the criminal justice system:
• Stop sending non-violent offenders to prison. Tax payers could save millions of dollars by not incarcerating non-criminal drug users. Drug use should be seen as a misdemeanor, medical disability, not a felony.
• Emphasize rehabilitation. Transfer part of expensive incarceration costs to local jurisdictions for drug treatment programs and skills development.
• Ease the way for people with past criminal convictions to move forward and lead positive lives-to find jobs. People who are incarcerated typically are poor, hopeless, undereducated, and suffer emotional disabilities. Having the stigma of being a criminal only adds another unneeded burden of successful integration into society.
• Support efforts to provide services to all victims of crime, even those with felony convictions. This means that many crime victims are deprived of basic support services such as grief counseling or minimal financial or educational support.
• Issue guidelines to regulate police surveillance and intelligence gathering that targets individual or groups engaged in political or religious activities. This will help to reduce racial or religious profiling, or targeting political activists.
• Investigate and begin to remedy patterns of police misconduct in California. The attorney general has the authority to intervene in cases of police departments or officers engaging in misconduct, excessive force, or false arrests.
The ACLU has also set guidelines for immigrant rights. Procedures and guidelines would be set to ensure that racial and ethnic profiling, or excessive and prolonged detainment would be greatly reduced.
It is important that every Californian be they LGBT, an Internet user, or one voicing dissent that their constitutional, individual, and human rights be respected and upheld. Society prospers as a whole when every individual can be the best they can be without censorship, harassment, injustice, and discrimination. It is advocacy groups such as the ACLU that work for our collective behalf for those noble ends.
Poverty: Misconceptions and Reality
There are misconceptions that abound that poverty is primarily the fault of the impoverished. Using a simplistic linear mindset one may sometimes be justified in drawing this myopic observation about the poor. There are different factors that contribute to poverty. The challenge on the table is how do we break the chain of generational poverty, and mitigate the maladies of those in situational poverty.
Several months ago my partner and I were invited to be members of the “Safety Net Summit Planning” board of Solano County. This board is overseen by the First 5 Solano Children’s and Family Commission (FFFC). April 27th we attended a symposium in Fairfield sponsored by United Way in concert with FFFC that was attended by many people from Solano County government who in some way affect positively or negatively the lot of the impoverished. The FFFC is a not for profit agency primarily funded by a $6 million dollar yearly grant from United Way. The mission of FFFC, headed up by Christina Arrostuto, is to reduce poverty in Solano County, by 50% in ten years primarily amongst families with children.
The keynote speaker, Dr. Donna Beegle, Phd, told a very inspiring story about how she ascended from a family of abject poverty. She shared with us her personal feelings about what being poor means and how one’s self esteem and personal perception in the community is perceived..Dr. Beegle was one of six children, who’s mother and grandmother was an itinerant cotton picker and who’s father, who was also unskilled scraped by doing odd jobs. Her brothers all suffered from learning disabilities, substance abuse addictions, and a history of incarceration At the age of 15, Dr. Beegle was a high school dropout, pregnant with her first child, without marketable skills who had to survive on $400 a month in welfare and food stamps. Skipping ahead in this story she worked to receive her GED, be accepted to the University of Portland, and ultimately receiving her doctorate in psychology. Dr. Beegle explained the differences in generational and situational poverty. Dr. Beegle is primarily the rare exception to upward mobility than the norm.
Poverty is a complex issue where factors of physical, emotional, environmental, and perceptions of one’s power, or lack thereof perpetuates, hopelessness and desperation. We live in an affluent developed nation where one in eight people nationally live below the poverty level. The poor have very few advocates relative to the wealthy and powerful. Most laws do not promote the interests of the poor. Someone who is poor in our materialistic narcissistic society is seen typically in the abstract, as an inanimate drag on society, who is an uncomfortable reminder that we are all our brothers’ keeper. We sometimes negatively stereotype the poor as a way of assuaging our guilt about having to take more responsibility for solving the problem of poverty.
Poverty does not only effect the poor, but more importantly society in general. Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, and more specifically the Head Start program was successful in reducing child poverty by 23%. In the next administration a societal malaise seemed to affect the electorate any many of these supportive anti-poverty programs were reduced or eliminated, but we had the money for B-52 bombers and thousands of tons of bombs that killed 2 million innocent Cambodian civilians.
Modern European nations are more humanistic and responsible in their views of dealing with poverty. Many people who are in poverty can be advanced out of this suffocating state of affairs by external forces in society if there is a genuine national will and priority to improve the lot of the poor.
My understanding is that generational poverty is where generations of families pass on an acculturated mindset that being impoverished is their prescribed destiny. Many people who are in generational poverty have distinct characteristics that mark them as outcasts in the general populace. For example their external dress, lack of etiquette, poor language skills, health challenges, eating habits, hopelessness, lack of financial skills, and little clear vision of exiting out of their predicament. There is a definite poverty mentality that needs to be broken with the help of external support from society. Many of us who own homes, have money set aside, investments, adequate food, transportation, and a clear plan for our lives cannot fully comprehend what it means to have to sleep in a car, or bounce from relative to friend, or not be able to afford a Costco card or enough money to buy at reduced prices by purchasing in bulk. Try having to move around the Bay Area without a car or adequate money for public transportation? If you have children, envision not having medical insurance and having to wait countless hours in clinic waiting rooms. Think about all the money you have to waste on check cashing services, money order costs, and shopping in local convenience stores because you do not have transportation to the local super market or discount store. Would your child want to attend school regularly, dressed in ragged dirty clothing, and be ostracized by their classmates for being less than? How do you feel when you are in the company of wealthy people, even though you are reasonably comfortable; well a poor persons feels the same way in the company of a working person who has steady financial health?
Out of desperation many of the generational poor self medicate their emotional pain with illicit drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. As a society do we take a proactive role to try to mitigate these diseases that unfortunately are viewed as crimes? The US has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world. The poor have a much greater chance of being incarcerated than those that are affluent. Many of the people in prison are there as a result of system that deals with drug abuse in a punitive way instead of first using a medical solution. The financial resources used for predominately punitive reasons could be better used to work proactively with many of the poor, who out of hopelessness and desperation become substance abusers.
During economic recessions and with more jobs being outsourced, more and more people are falling into situational poverty. Situational poverty can be caused by being under employed and not being eligible for any or little public assistance. Those without adequate medical insurance, who are unable to work and have no other safety net fall into situational poverty.
Those in continual or prolonged situational poverty have a much greater chance of continuing in poverty because they become conditioned to have no hope. Ironically those poor who come from other countries, and most specifically third world nations perceive a myth about the US that our streets are paved with gold; ergo they have tremendous hope and optimism of exiting out of poverty. Unfortunately those US nationals have lost most hope.
The following is the most recent data on poverty in Solano County:
• The poverty threshold level is $18,310 for a family of four
• High school graduation rate was 75% in 2008-9; in CA it was 79%.
• 34% could not afford adequate food.
• 18% of families with children under 18 live in poverty.
• 21% of children 0-5 were living in poverty (many do not live in families)
• Unemployment is 12% (probably a low figure).
• Approximately 4,000 foreclosures
There are stories of families with children losing the homes in foreclosure, one or both parents lose their jobs, they have to sleep in their car or a cheap one room motel, the children are ostracized in school for being homeless, do not have a comfortable place to do their homework, and have to put their few belongings into mini-storage.
There is something very wrong in a population that sees its way clear to spend over a trillion dollars a year on defense, give tax cuts to the top 1% who many times will invest their money abroad for a higher return, subsidize major corporations, oil and agribusiness. Corporate profits were up 81% over the previous year, the income divide is it at its greatest since the Great Depression. Poverty is a major cost not just to those impoverished, but a loss/cost of over $500 billion per year to our nation as a whole. With all these misallocated resources in this country, how in good conscience can we blame poverty on the lot of the poor?
Several months ago my partner and I were invited to be members of the “Safety Net Summit Planning” board of Solano County. This board is overseen by the First 5 Solano Children’s and Family Commission (FFFC). April 27th we attended a symposium in Fairfield sponsored by United Way in concert with FFFC that was attended by many people from Solano County government who in some way affect positively or negatively the lot of the impoverished. The FFFC is a not for profit agency primarily funded by a $6 million dollar yearly grant from United Way. The mission of FFFC, headed up by Christina Arrostuto, is to reduce poverty in Solano County, by 50% in ten years primarily amongst families with children.
The keynote speaker, Dr. Donna Beegle, Phd, told a very inspiring story about how she ascended from a family of abject poverty. She shared with us her personal feelings about what being poor means and how one’s self esteem and personal perception in the community is perceived..Dr. Beegle was one of six children, who’s mother and grandmother was an itinerant cotton picker and who’s father, who was also unskilled scraped by doing odd jobs. Her brothers all suffered from learning disabilities, substance abuse addictions, and a history of incarceration At the age of 15, Dr. Beegle was a high school dropout, pregnant with her first child, without marketable skills who had to survive on $400 a month in welfare and food stamps. Skipping ahead in this story she worked to receive her GED, be accepted to the University of Portland, and ultimately receiving her doctorate in psychology. Dr. Beegle explained the differences in generational and situational poverty. Dr. Beegle is primarily the rare exception to upward mobility than the norm.
Poverty is a complex issue where factors of physical, emotional, environmental, and perceptions of one’s power, or lack thereof perpetuates, hopelessness and desperation. We live in an affluent developed nation where one in eight people nationally live below the poverty level. The poor have very few advocates relative to the wealthy and powerful. Most laws do not promote the interests of the poor. Someone who is poor in our materialistic narcissistic society is seen typically in the abstract, as an inanimate drag on society, who is an uncomfortable reminder that we are all our brothers’ keeper. We sometimes negatively stereotype the poor as a way of assuaging our guilt about having to take more responsibility for solving the problem of poverty.
Poverty does not only effect the poor, but more importantly society in general. Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, and more specifically the Head Start program was successful in reducing child poverty by 23%. In the next administration a societal malaise seemed to affect the electorate any many of these supportive anti-poverty programs were reduced or eliminated, but we had the money for B-52 bombers and thousands of tons of bombs that killed 2 million innocent Cambodian civilians.
Modern European nations are more humanistic and responsible in their views of dealing with poverty. Many people who are in poverty can be advanced out of this suffocating state of affairs by external forces in society if there is a genuine national will and priority to improve the lot of the poor.
My understanding is that generational poverty is where generations of families pass on an acculturated mindset that being impoverished is their prescribed destiny. Many people who are in generational poverty have distinct characteristics that mark them as outcasts in the general populace. For example their external dress, lack of etiquette, poor language skills, health challenges, eating habits, hopelessness, lack of financial skills, and little clear vision of exiting out of their predicament. There is a definite poverty mentality that needs to be broken with the help of external support from society. Many of us who own homes, have money set aside, investments, adequate food, transportation, and a clear plan for our lives cannot fully comprehend what it means to have to sleep in a car, or bounce from relative to friend, or not be able to afford a Costco card or enough money to buy at reduced prices by purchasing in bulk. Try having to move around the Bay Area without a car or adequate money for public transportation? If you have children, envision not having medical insurance and having to wait countless hours in clinic waiting rooms. Think about all the money you have to waste on check cashing services, money order costs, and shopping in local convenience stores because you do not have transportation to the local super market or discount store. Would your child want to attend school regularly, dressed in ragged dirty clothing, and be ostracized by their classmates for being less than? How do you feel when you are in the company of wealthy people, even though you are reasonably comfortable; well a poor persons feels the same way in the company of a working person who has steady financial health?
Out of desperation many of the generational poor self medicate their emotional pain with illicit drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. As a society do we take a proactive role to try to mitigate these diseases that unfortunately are viewed as crimes? The US has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world. The poor have a much greater chance of being incarcerated than those that are affluent. Many of the people in prison are there as a result of system that deals with drug abuse in a punitive way instead of first using a medical solution. The financial resources used for predominately punitive reasons could be better used to work proactively with many of the poor, who out of hopelessness and desperation become substance abusers.
During economic recessions and with more jobs being outsourced, more and more people are falling into situational poverty. Situational poverty can be caused by being under employed and not being eligible for any or little public assistance. Those without adequate medical insurance, who are unable to work and have no other safety net fall into situational poverty.
Those in continual or prolonged situational poverty have a much greater chance of continuing in poverty because they become conditioned to have no hope. Ironically those poor who come from other countries, and most specifically third world nations perceive a myth about the US that our streets are paved with gold; ergo they have tremendous hope and optimism of exiting out of poverty. Unfortunately those US nationals have lost most hope.
The following is the most recent data on poverty in Solano County:
• The poverty threshold level is $18,310 for a family of four
• High school graduation rate was 75% in 2008-9; in CA it was 79%.
• 34% could not afford adequate food.
• 18% of families with children under 18 live in poverty.
• 21% of children 0-5 were living in poverty (many do not live in families)
• Unemployment is 12% (probably a low figure).
• Approximately 4,000 foreclosures
There are stories of families with children losing the homes in foreclosure, one or both parents lose their jobs, they have to sleep in their car or a cheap one room motel, the children are ostracized in school for being homeless, do not have a comfortable place to do their homework, and have to put their few belongings into mini-storage.
There is something very wrong in a population that sees its way clear to spend over a trillion dollars a year on defense, give tax cuts to the top 1% who many times will invest their money abroad for a higher return, subsidize major corporations, oil and agribusiness. Corporate profits were up 81% over the previous year, the income divide is it at its greatest since the Great Depression. Poverty is a major cost not just to those impoverished, but a loss/cost of over $500 billion per year to our nation as a whole. With all these misallocated resources in this country, how in good conscience can we blame poverty on the lot of the poor?
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Taxes down for the rich, Incomes down for the working class
“Rising tides lift all ships” is a metaphor used by supply side economists, Reagonomic worshippers, and those of wealth who attempt to fraudulently convince the working class electorate that tax breaks for the wealthy are good for all. When billionaires such as Warren Buffett publicly say that taxes for the uber wealthy are too low, then there is great trouble in River City. When international corporations such as General Electric who made $14 billion last year paid no taxes, it is obvious that the great lobbying efforts of the wealthy and major corporations have paid off handsomely for our pimping politicians in Washington. When the Wall Street “Sharks” get special tax treatment on their ordinary earnings on special hedge fund brokerage sales the system is broken for the masses, but not the elites. Earning ability is also a function of purchasing value ability. For example if Warren Buffett is in a much lower tax bracket than his secretary, also he can borrow money at rock bottom rates, and afford to hire the best lawyers for tax avoidance, then Buffet’s purchasing ability is also greater, not only because he has a much greater income, but also that he is receiving more value per dollar of income.
The divide of earning and purchasing ability is greater today than it has been since the Great Depression. Not only have tax breaks been so skewed in favor of the rich, but earning ability in terms of adjusted dollar value for the working class has actually decreased. For example, IKEA the big box discount furniture dealer is opening up a factory in Danville, SC, but not for the ability to get the highest quality workers. The big difference is that the Europeans enjoy a minimum wage of about $19 an hour and a government-mandated five weeks of paid vacation. Full-time employees in Danville start at $8 an hour with 12 vacation days, eight of them on dates determined by the company.
One cannot necessarily fault GE for paying no taxes in the US last year. GE’s income gains in the US for 2010 were offset by previous year’s losses in their financial sector businesses. The US has a high corporate tax rate of 35%, while other developed nations tax their corporations at around 25%. Ireland has a corporate tax rate of 12.5% to encourage corporate investment. This draconian high corporate taxation by the US is mistake number one because multi-national corporations have an incentive to minimize their proration of income low and expenses high for US operations. The tax burden should be higher on the individual investor and not the corporation.
In addition, our capital gains rates are too low at 15% and should be increased to previous rates of 20 to 25%. Taxes on dividends should be taxed at ordinary income rates, with no special deductions. Corporations will just pass their taxes on as a cost of operations, such as insurances, permits, and property taxes.
Even though that I am not the best friend of some large multi-national corporations, I would be in favor of eliminating corporation taxes all together and increasing taxes at the personal capital gain and income level to individuals. The US has invested around $3.2 trillion outside this country. On the other hand foreign companies such as Siemens and ABB have invested $2.2 trillion here. We need to encourage investment in the US. Many European companies located in the US, who are used to a more progressive society, have been known to treat American workers better than their US counter parts.
The alternative minimum tax was setup to catch the incomes of high earners who used tax loopholes to greatly participate in legal tax avoidance. The AMT should be in effect for high income earners without the benefit of tax avoidance loopholes.
The working class employee making less than $106,800 per year are at another disadvantage, they are taxed for FICA and Medicare at 7.65%, or up to $8,170 per year, while the CEO making $2 million per year and still only paying a maximum of $8,170 is effectively paying .04% of his income into government pension and Medicare funds. Unearned income from rents, stocks, bonds, etc, are not subject to FICA/Medicare taxation; more money to go into the investors pockets.
The sales tax falls disproportionately more on low income earners. The average worker is able to save very little money after paying for housing, food, transportation, and medical costs. The person who has a large income is able to travel to other locals many times avoiding sales taxes. One can argue that the wealthy stimulate the economy by buying expensive cars, houses. and boats. I know of a yacht broker who sells multi-million dollars boats to the wealthy. In order to avoid California State sales/use taxes the buyer will take delivery outside the US or in a state with a lower tax rate. If the average person buys a car in California they are in effect paying a use tax on purchase equivalent to the sales tax. A wealthy business investor wishing to but an expensive Ferrari or Mercedes can travel to a foreign land where there is minimal tax, purchase the vehicle for their multi-national corporation as a depreciable asset and bring it back to the US as a used much less valuable asset. As a bonus the investor may chose to expense his world wide jaunt as a business opportunity and marketing cost.
Donating ones art collection and building a museum with ones name above the door is the ultimate legal tax avoidance game. Let’s say my name is Don Fisher the founder of the Gap stores. I love to collect modern art and as a result, I built up a vast art collection that is valued at $1 billion. Over the years my investment in this collection has only been say $200 million, now turned into a 5 fold increase by market appreciation. I donate this collection to MOMA in San Francisco for a $1 billion write off, which will easily offset $400 million in taxes from my estate or earnings from my trusts. So this art collection has given me great pleasure, caused me to be the cultural envy of my peers and community, and lastly has given me a great return on my original investment just on the tax avoidance benefits.
Foundations are other great legal tax avoidance schemes that bring their benefactors great public adulation, still allow control of assets, and create tax sheltering way into the future. I speculate that Warren Buffett and Bill Gates will pay no or very little income taxes or estate taxes due to their use of the tax system. The Rockefellers have given much of their wealth to foundations that own stock in major corporations on which the Rockefellers sit on boards or have proxy agents who still continue to control the enterprises.
At the end of day it is about the ratio of all taxes and living expenses relative to total income. The wealthy are able to move their investments to the locals of best return. Capital creates more capital and has no patriotism or nationality. Increasing the taxes on the wealthy will not materially affect their standard of living, it will only affect their level of more wealthy building. So maybe to encourage wealth building we should give new wealth builders a moratorium on taxing bank interest, dividends, and small capital gains, and tax them at a higher rate when their net worth (excluding their home) exceeds $1 million or their taxable income exceeds $150,000. It would not hurt my feelings to eliminate the $106,800 ceiling on FICA deductions; let’s get the full amount from those fat cat CEO’s and Wall Streeter’s. When the richest nation in the world has a poverty level of 12%, and the working class is barely getting ahead something does not compute.
The divide of earning and purchasing ability is greater today than it has been since the Great Depression. Not only have tax breaks been so skewed in favor of the rich, but earning ability in terms of adjusted dollar value for the working class has actually decreased. For example, IKEA the big box discount furniture dealer is opening up a factory in Danville, SC, but not for the ability to get the highest quality workers. The big difference is that the Europeans enjoy a minimum wage of about $19 an hour and a government-mandated five weeks of paid vacation. Full-time employees in Danville start at $8 an hour with 12 vacation days, eight of them on dates determined by the company.
One cannot necessarily fault GE for paying no taxes in the US last year. GE’s income gains in the US for 2010 were offset by previous year’s losses in their financial sector businesses. The US has a high corporate tax rate of 35%, while other developed nations tax their corporations at around 25%. Ireland has a corporate tax rate of 12.5% to encourage corporate investment. This draconian high corporate taxation by the US is mistake number one because multi-national corporations have an incentive to minimize their proration of income low and expenses high for US operations. The tax burden should be higher on the individual investor and not the corporation.
In addition, our capital gains rates are too low at 15% and should be increased to previous rates of 20 to 25%. Taxes on dividends should be taxed at ordinary income rates, with no special deductions. Corporations will just pass their taxes on as a cost of operations, such as insurances, permits, and property taxes.
Even though that I am not the best friend of some large multi-national corporations, I would be in favor of eliminating corporation taxes all together and increasing taxes at the personal capital gain and income level to individuals. The US has invested around $3.2 trillion outside this country. On the other hand foreign companies such as Siemens and ABB have invested $2.2 trillion here. We need to encourage investment in the US. Many European companies located in the US, who are used to a more progressive society, have been known to treat American workers better than their US counter parts.
The alternative minimum tax was setup to catch the incomes of high earners who used tax loopholes to greatly participate in legal tax avoidance. The AMT should be in effect for high income earners without the benefit of tax avoidance loopholes.
The working class employee making less than $106,800 per year are at another disadvantage, they are taxed for FICA and Medicare at 7.65%, or up to $8,170 per year, while the CEO making $2 million per year and still only paying a maximum of $8,170 is effectively paying .04% of his income into government pension and Medicare funds. Unearned income from rents, stocks, bonds, etc, are not subject to FICA/Medicare taxation; more money to go into the investors pockets.
The sales tax falls disproportionately more on low income earners. The average worker is able to save very little money after paying for housing, food, transportation, and medical costs. The person who has a large income is able to travel to other locals many times avoiding sales taxes. One can argue that the wealthy stimulate the economy by buying expensive cars, houses. and boats. I know of a yacht broker who sells multi-million dollars boats to the wealthy. In order to avoid California State sales/use taxes the buyer will take delivery outside the US or in a state with a lower tax rate. If the average person buys a car in California they are in effect paying a use tax on purchase equivalent to the sales tax. A wealthy business investor wishing to but an expensive Ferrari or Mercedes can travel to a foreign land where there is minimal tax, purchase the vehicle for their multi-national corporation as a depreciable asset and bring it back to the US as a used much less valuable asset. As a bonus the investor may chose to expense his world wide jaunt as a business opportunity and marketing cost.
Donating ones art collection and building a museum with ones name above the door is the ultimate legal tax avoidance game. Let’s say my name is Don Fisher the founder of the Gap stores. I love to collect modern art and as a result, I built up a vast art collection that is valued at $1 billion. Over the years my investment in this collection has only been say $200 million, now turned into a 5 fold increase by market appreciation. I donate this collection to MOMA in San Francisco for a $1 billion write off, which will easily offset $400 million in taxes from my estate or earnings from my trusts. So this art collection has given me great pleasure, caused me to be the cultural envy of my peers and community, and lastly has given me a great return on my original investment just on the tax avoidance benefits.
Foundations are other great legal tax avoidance schemes that bring their benefactors great public adulation, still allow control of assets, and create tax sheltering way into the future. I speculate that Warren Buffett and Bill Gates will pay no or very little income taxes or estate taxes due to their use of the tax system. The Rockefellers have given much of their wealth to foundations that own stock in major corporations on which the Rockefellers sit on boards or have proxy agents who still continue to control the enterprises.
At the end of day it is about the ratio of all taxes and living expenses relative to total income. The wealthy are able to move their investments to the locals of best return. Capital creates more capital and has no patriotism or nationality. Increasing the taxes on the wealthy will not materially affect their standard of living, it will only affect their level of more wealthy building. So maybe to encourage wealth building we should give new wealth builders a moratorium on taxing bank interest, dividends, and small capital gains, and tax them at a higher rate when their net worth (excluding their home) exceeds $1 million or their taxable income exceeds $150,000. It would not hurt my feelings to eliminate the $106,800 ceiling on FICA deductions; let’s get the full amount from those fat cat CEO’s and Wall Streeter’s. When the richest nation in the world has a poverty level of 12%, and the working class is barely getting ahead something does not compute.
Capitalism is not societies benign cure all
Some folks live under the myth that private enterprise, using free market capitalism can be the remedy for all of society’s ills and a magic pill to fill everyone’s needs. In an ideal world where every capitalist balanced the long term needs of society with a generous dose of ethics and magnanimity the utopian formula just might work. Unfortunately human nature many times works in extreme self interest with little regard for the general needs of society, environmental stewardship, or transparent communication about products and services.
I have been a free market capitalist my entire adult life having owned and run businesses that included construction, real estate development, real estate syndication and investment, food service, and now industrial surplus sales and liquidation. My resume includes a summary general education in business law, accounting, and finance as well as engineering and construction. I started my first business when I was fifteen years old repairing appliances, providing plumbing and electrical repairs, and doing general handyman services for many of my neighbors, family, and friends. With over 50 years of business experience I can easily say that my experience includes marketing, putting together investor syndication packages, hiring and managing employees, dealing with many government agencies, borrowing from banks, and doing all the administrative jobs that are necessary to run a business. My message is that I have a very good grasp of what capitalism can achieve as well as its short comings.
When I say that the capitalist does not always have the best interests of society on their “To Do” list, I will cite some concrete examples of where capitalism has fallen short. Now having been a capitalist for five decades my intention is not to totally defame free enterprise or throw the “Baby out with the Bath Water”. I believe that a mixed economic model with regulated capitalism and some government services is best for the overall needs of society. For selfish reasons the staunch elites and moneyed classes will say that the Socialistic delivery of services is a pariah on the nation and we must guard against it at all costs.
Our health care, food, finance, and energy industry delivery systems are prime examples of how minimally regulated capitalism does not serve society well and in many cases is overtly harmful. In today’s society with everyone on information overload and rapidly changing technology it is not realistic or reasonable to expect the average consumer to know the entire strengths and weaknesses of every product and service available. Those people who have the added benefit of a higher education and the economic resources to vet the what vendors are selling have some degree of greater advantage, but are still not in a position to perform thorough due diligence on their own. The old adage, “Caveat Emptor” meaning let the buyer beware is an apathetic free enterprise attitude; but is this insensitive requirement realistic or humanistic?
If we had long term energy policy that could not be squashed or corrupted by big oil or coal, I believe that today we would be a lot less dependent on fossil fuels. If we were a lot more alternative energy independent I believe our need for oil imports and imperialistic intervention in the Middle East would be greatly decreased. Unfortunately fossil fuel producers have tremendous political influence that derails movement away from our dependency on them. The metrics have proven that we are a having a major increase in Global Warming since the beginning of the 20th century when the industrial revolution, expansion of automobile use, and technological development cause a great increase in fossil fuel energy consumption. The fossil fuel producers have hired sophisticated think tanks and PR organizations to try to down play man made Global Warming. Delaying a mitigation solution for curtailing GW and the increase in green house gases is already proving to have a disastrous effect on our planet.
Bechtel Corporation in concert with pressure from the IMF pressured Bolivia to privatize its water utility system, as a result the poor Bolivians water cost tripled and the people had to revolt in desperation. Bechtel fortunately turned the water system back to the people.
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who many capitalists decry as the devil incarnate, in reality has been a savior for his countries people. He has nationalized the predatory oil producers, using the revenues for universal health care, improved housing, better education, and providing improved services to the general population. He enjoys over a 60% popularity rate and is very re-electable. Venezuela under Chavez now grows it own corn and grains, whereas before it was solely dependent on imports from countries such as the US. The bottom line is that with a mixed economy the people are happier and fairing a lot better than they did from totalitarian money lords.
Utility companies such as PG&E charge some of the highest rates. There costs of doing business are shareholder profit distributions, political lobbying costs, taxes, and other expenses that increase their rates to the consumer. Utility districts such as Alameda and Modesto provide lower utility costs to the consumer without subsidy, because they do not have the added expenses of a private utility such PG&E.
China using the long term planning and the mixed economy model seems to be developing very well. Granted, China has human rights and environmental stewardship issues it quickly needs to amend, but they are a picture of the US one hundred years ago when there were little worker rights and industry was totally irresponsible about environmental stewardship.
The pharmaceutical industry is grossly responsible for increased health care costs and marketing products that are unhealthy and sometimes death threatening to people’s health. For example poor mothers in Harlem are encouraged to buy sugar dense Similac baby formula by Abbott Labs, one of the major pharmaceutical companies, instead of breast feeding which has been proven to be much healthier for child development. Those infants ingesting Similac instead of mother breast milk will have a greater degree of obesity sometimes resulting in diabetes and heart disease. Breast milk is also more beneficial for proper brain development. Do we want to have an increased population of learning disabled children and adults? Society will pay for the greed of Abbott Labs dearly with increased health care costs. Doctors are given perks such as free vacations, entertainment tickets, and gourmet restaurant meals in order to encourage and prescribe drugs and products for patients that are destructive and not cost effective. Without proper regulations this capitalistic delivery system for drugs is destructive to society.
The not for profit health care model of the Kaiser Permanente system is out pacing all other private systems. Their quality of care and patient satisfaction has greatly improved in the last ten years and has become a benchmark model for many private for profit systems. The day is coming when the greedy Wall Street system and doctors earning one half million dollars or more per year will be coming to an end. The government needs to subsidize medical education so that we can attract bright medical school candidates who will easily work for $250,000 per year, as doctors do at Kaiser. Private for profit insurance providers and people wanting to go into medicine for big dollars will go by the wayside.
Capitalism without long term planning, reasonable oversight and policing in certain industries such as healthcare, energy, food, transportation, finance, consumer products and services will not properly serve the needs of society. Government absent crony capitalism is an unfortunate ingredient that is necessary to foster and protect the needs of society. Public banks serve the entirety of nation state, while private banks only serve the stockholders. There is plenty of room in our economy for the capitalistic delivery of goods and services, but some essentials such as health care insurance, basic housing, some transportation, utilities, and police and fire protection are best delivered by the quasi private/public sector.
I have been a free market capitalist my entire adult life having owned and run businesses that included construction, real estate development, real estate syndication and investment, food service, and now industrial surplus sales and liquidation. My resume includes a summary general education in business law, accounting, and finance as well as engineering and construction. I started my first business when I was fifteen years old repairing appliances, providing plumbing and electrical repairs, and doing general handyman services for many of my neighbors, family, and friends. With over 50 years of business experience I can easily say that my experience includes marketing, putting together investor syndication packages, hiring and managing employees, dealing with many government agencies, borrowing from banks, and doing all the administrative jobs that are necessary to run a business. My message is that I have a very good grasp of what capitalism can achieve as well as its short comings.
When I say that the capitalist does not always have the best interests of society on their “To Do” list, I will cite some concrete examples of where capitalism has fallen short. Now having been a capitalist for five decades my intention is not to totally defame free enterprise or throw the “Baby out with the Bath Water”. I believe that a mixed economic model with regulated capitalism and some government services is best for the overall needs of society. For selfish reasons the staunch elites and moneyed classes will say that the Socialistic delivery of services is a pariah on the nation and we must guard against it at all costs.
Our health care, food, finance, and energy industry delivery systems are prime examples of how minimally regulated capitalism does not serve society well and in many cases is overtly harmful. In today’s society with everyone on information overload and rapidly changing technology it is not realistic or reasonable to expect the average consumer to know the entire strengths and weaknesses of every product and service available. Those people who have the added benefit of a higher education and the economic resources to vet the what vendors are selling have some degree of greater advantage, but are still not in a position to perform thorough due diligence on their own. The old adage, “Caveat Emptor” meaning let the buyer beware is an apathetic free enterprise attitude; but is this insensitive requirement realistic or humanistic?
If we had long term energy policy that could not be squashed or corrupted by big oil or coal, I believe that today we would be a lot less dependent on fossil fuels. If we were a lot more alternative energy independent I believe our need for oil imports and imperialistic intervention in the Middle East would be greatly decreased. Unfortunately fossil fuel producers have tremendous political influence that derails movement away from our dependency on them. The metrics have proven that we are a having a major increase in Global Warming since the beginning of the 20th century when the industrial revolution, expansion of automobile use, and technological development cause a great increase in fossil fuel energy consumption. The fossil fuel producers have hired sophisticated think tanks and PR organizations to try to down play man made Global Warming. Delaying a mitigation solution for curtailing GW and the increase in green house gases is already proving to have a disastrous effect on our planet.
Bechtel Corporation in concert with pressure from the IMF pressured Bolivia to privatize its water utility system, as a result the poor Bolivians water cost tripled and the people had to revolt in desperation. Bechtel fortunately turned the water system back to the people.
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who many capitalists decry as the devil incarnate, in reality has been a savior for his countries people. He has nationalized the predatory oil producers, using the revenues for universal health care, improved housing, better education, and providing improved services to the general population. He enjoys over a 60% popularity rate and is very re-electable. Venezuela under Chavez now grows it own corn and grains, whereas before it was solely dependent on imports from countries such as the US. The bottom line is that with a mixed economy the people are happier and fairing a lot better than they did from totalitarian money lords.
Utility companies such as PG&E charge some of the highest rates. There costs of doing business are shareholder profit distributions, political lobbying costs, taxes, and other expenses that increase their rates to the consumer. Utility districts such as Alameda and Modesto provide lower utility costs to the consumer without subsidy, because they do not have the added expenses of a private utility such PG&E.
China using the long term planning and the mixed economy model seems to be developing very well. Granted, China has human rights and environmental stewardship issues it quickly needs to amend, but they are a picture of the US one hundred years ago when there were little worker rights and industry was totally irresponsible about environmental stewardship.
The pharmaceutical industry is grossly responsible for increased health care costs and marketing products that are unhealthy and sometimes death threatening to people’s health. For example poor mothers in Harlem are encouraged to buy sugar dense Similac baby formula by Abbott Labs, one of the major pharmaceutical companies, instead of breast feeding which has been proven to be much healthier for child development. Those infants ingesting Similac instead of mother breast milk will have a greater degree of obesity sometimes resulting in diabetes and heart disease. Breast milk is also more beneficial for proper brain development. Do we want to have an increased population of learning disabled children and adults? Society will pay for the greed of Abbott Labs dearly with increased health care costs. Doctors are given perks such as free vacations, entertainment tickets, and gourmet restaurant meals in order to encourage and prescribe drugs and products for patients that are destructive and not cost effective. Without proper regulations this capitalistic delivery system for drugs is destructive to society.
The not for profit health care model of the Kaiser Permanente system is out pacing all other private systems. Their quality of care and patient satisfaction has greatly improved in the last ten years and has become a benchmark model for many private for profit systems. The day is coming when the greedy Wall Street system and doctors earning one half million dollars or more per year will be coming to an end. The government needs to subsidize medical education so that we can attract bright medical school candidates who will easily work for $250,000 per year, as doctors do at Kaiser. Private for profit insurance providers and people wanting to go into medicine for big dollars will go by the wayside.
Capitalism without long term planning, reasonable oversight and policing in certain industries such as healthcare, energy, food, transportation, finance, consumer products and services will not properly serve the needs of society. Government absent crony capitalism is an unfortunate ingredient that is necessary to foster and protect the needs of society. Public banks serve the entirety of nation state, while private banks only serve the stockholders. There is plenty of room in our economy for the capitalistic delivery of goods and services, but some essentials such as health care insurance, basic housing, some transportation, utilities, and police and fire protection are best delivered by the quasi private/public sector.
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