A REFLECTION ON JAKE'S ROOMS

Note:  Those who have followed my work at all know that I am a great fan of the Alabama artist Jake Berry.  In my seminal work Wasichu: The Killing Spirit, I named the lead male Jake partially in tribute to Jake Berry.  He is a man for all seasons in the world of art and his latest works add immeasurably to his legacy.  What follows is a reflection as well as a review of ROOMS IN WHICH WE EXISTED by Jake Berry and Peter Ganick.  Readers are encouraged to look it up online and purchase a copy.  While art should be free, artists need to survive. 

ROOMS IN WHICH WE EXISTED

By Jake Berry and Peter Ganick

Argotist Books

A REFLECTION BY JACK RANDOM

To believe that abstract drawings can speak in words is a form of madness that goes to the heart of artistic expression.  Of course drawings speak.  Of course there are words to be heard.  It requires a willingness to listen and interpret and a defiance of normative values that disallow such a process. 

Jake Berry is uniquely qualified to the task of interpreting abstract images.  He creates in both forms – verbal and visual.  In fact, he creates in all sensual forms.  If it were possible to create in other forms – smell and taste and touch and forms beyond the senses – he would do that as well. 

From the chaotic dream imagery of scribbled lines over lines he finds mystery and pulls at themes that touch the soul.  The artist struggles to express essential truths.  Sounds emerge from the cacophony.  Images find meaning.  Madness finds a home in the quietude of daily life.  Everything has meaning and everything lies.  Everything changes from form to form, from substance to substance, and finds itself reborn. 

A strip of light suddenly rips across the eye, revealing far too much of who we are in what we see.  The brazen light of twisted figures we’d rather not welcome into our field of play.  We drown in the sea of infinite change.  We have always drowned.  We are drowning still and falling through time as if we had weight and exist in the finitude of space. 

Dead limbs rise toward … the gloaming…

Forces greater than our imaginations can behold propel us forward, tearing us apart before allowing us to be whole and rest once again.  We dream.  The beauty pulls at our senses.  We stumble and fall without resistance.  The rapture awaits.  We seek pleasure in the simplest notions. 

Hear the music and see the order in delightful colors.  Let it beckon us into the raging winds of fire and fury.  There can be no relief.  Memories exist in layers and layers over the symphony of thought and feeling, pain and sorrow, joy and forgiving. 

Drink long and deep.  The geography is bleeding. 

The unending search for order and harmony.  The chorus is missing.  The dream emerges and plants itself just beyond our world of structure.  A ballerina descends a winding staircase, nude and unashamed.  The joy she brings is beyond word and imagery.  The sorrow must follow.  It is the way.  Like life follows death.

The promise of a life to come. 

We know by raw intuition it can never make sense.  It can only offer a vision to ease our walk along the path.  It is the way. 

The heart has a manner of cognition the mind can never anticipate. 

The explosion of the senses is inevitable.  We cannot endure.  There are far too much and too many stimuli.  We cannot assimilate.  We sleep.  We dream and often we wish never to awaken.  But we do awake and endure for the beauty and the wonder pull us to consciousness. 

…coffee is all that matters…

We have secrets.  Secret lives and secret histories.  Buried children and stolen dreams.  We own nothing and claim everything.  We speak loudly to protect the silence.  We are lost once again in the implosion of stimuli. 

There is order here.  There is an algorithm that describes it precisely.  If we are to find our way home it is the key.  But do we want to go home?  Or do we want to fly in random order like a murder of crows? 

Are we done with reckless supposition? 

No.  We are never done.  Not while we still breathe the shifting winds and curse the closing darkness.  Let’s get drunk and do it again! 

Sleep has become a construction from which the debris of such violence hangs in a tattering wind.  Who would ever want to sleep again? 

We awaken and find comfort in the arms of a lover, in the smile of a child, in the warmth of a rising sun.  Sing me a song, old woman.  Make me alive again. 

There is something greater than ourselves.  There is a reason to rise and reach and journey to the sea.  There is hope.  There is love.  There is hardship.  There is trouble.  There is always trouble.  Death shadows behind the rocks and screeching harlots of horror.  Can we escape?  No but we can survive.  Drink the water.  We have almost reached our destiny.  There is hope. 

Decipher it and lose all traces of destiny. 

We must suffer and we must endure. 

Why are there barricades in the desert where there is nothing to protect? 

It goes beyond the reach of my madness.  And yet I have been here before.  I have drunk from the well.  I have tasted the seed.  I have reached for promises that were never there.  I will reach again if I am able.  This much I know. 

… a horse designed by Dali… 

We are humans.  We strive to make sense of it all.  It is our nature.  We take scattered events in the vacuum of time and create patterns.  And from those patterns we create history and logic and structure.  In the end it all makes sense. 

But what is rational is convex and playful. 

The child is born in writhing pain that becomes penultimate joy.  The propagation of life is a tragic comedy.  The dissolution of life is a comic tragedy.  Time unfolds to push and pull at our cords.  The books are empty, devoid of wisdom, and the worms inhabit our bloodlines.  Pour me a drink and buy me some time. 

You will know that compassion has found your veins. 

We approach the answer though the question evades.  It is there in the darkness.  It is there in chorus of cicada.  It is there beyond the bushes where the wild things lie. 

Where the crows take them to see and be seen. 

There is wisdom there but it has no words, no sight nor sound.  There is truth but it has no name.  If you see the Buddha kill him for she is not the Buddha. 

But it was nothing a good fire couldn’t fix. 

I don’t know what this is but this is important.  It is the birth of religion.  It is the ancient and singular truth.  It is the Eye and the Bee and the Know and the Say.  It is the all that is nothing.  It is. 

With every bright new species religion is born and the naïve eye explodes against itself. 

We are rising and we have risen.  We are falling and we have crashed into the depths of a dark an unknown sea.  We have seen all there is to see and we have learned to crave more.  It is the way. 

The archaeologists will never understand the smell of gunpowder year after year and the deep carnality of an uncertain god. 

The play’s the thing and only the children understand.  We grow old and we lose our sense of play.  We mold our worries and fears onto objects as if to give them meaning.  The only meaning they have is the meaning we give to them.  God bless the children.  Never sacrifice your youth. 

Let him sleep.  Leave the poison by his bed.  It is no longer necessary. 

Jake Berry and Peter Ganick have given us an opus, the death and birth of a new religion as old as the barren sea.  This is the ultimate message of a master who has visited many dreams and dove into infinite mysteries with the will to be lost.  I don’t know about Peter but as for Jake:  It is a wonder and a miracle that he has survived these great adventures to the deepest depths of knowledge and mystery to climb out of the void and bestow upon us, his readers and consumers, the meaning and the message. 

This is yet another work of great genius.  May he live forever. 

Jack Random – Author of the Chess Series.  

MIND OF MANSEL: THE PLAYWRIGHT

The Playwright

He wonders this morning as he often does if August Strindberg went for a walk in present day America would it inspire him to write a play. Just a day ago he wrote, “How can you trust your enemies when you don’t know yourself?” Often these thoughts were around him but as often than not he thought about Strindberg taking on a role in a world created by Beckett, wandering a wasteland. Maybe it was a wasteland.

In one version Strindberg had the body of a workman and carried a large toolbox with both hands over a mountain. As he walked he recounted the last days of his life in chronological order. “Two weeks before my death, I took it upon myself to arrange every photograph of myself by throwing them off a cliff into a raging sea. Let the beasts of the sea rest them on a shore somewhere and that is how a biographer will find me.”

In another he is paralyzed in a hovel in India. His eyes look about until they meet mine. This being a dream he looks into the camera. He speaks to me with his thoughts. The voice the dream creates is harsh and old. He flashes a set of teeth that is loosening as the dream goes on. I find myself shaking as he speaks. “In the Ganges you will find the words needed for escaping what brought you here. Wipe your hand over the surface like the froth of a warm drink and it will enable you to see through to the bottom. On the bottom is a set of sketches that when arranged describe every dark dream of infancy. If you can break this autobiographical transformation then any room you decide to sleep in thereafter will not close in, but burn.”

He goes for a walk and finds the weather is stormy but accepting. Strindberg would have said of course your death is accepting. He turns from the end of my street and into a wooden area he knows well. I think of the opening shot of Alexander Dovzhenko’s Earth as he looks out at a familiar landscape that has suddenly changed. Moving through the tall grass he sees a giant orchard ahead. He can smell the apples ahead of me. He begins to smile as he approaches them so close that he can almost touch them. His hands become arthritic and he is unable to pick one. He bends down and tries to take a bite but is unable. He looks down and there are thousands at his feet. All around him the tall grass is sprouting apples. He sees Strindberg himself wipe an apple on his sleeve and take a bite as he begins to bleed from his side.

Chris Mansel

MAY DAY FROM MALTA

[Editor's Note: Too often in America we forget the origin and meaning of May Day. Today, as the dream of real change fades with the demise of the Sanders campaign, we would do well to remember International Labor Day.]

MAY DAY 2016

No Gods, No Masters

By Joseph Cachia

“There is really only one 'non-negotiable' demand. And that is; 'power to the working class'.

Each year, as we join millions across the world to celebrate the victories of workers, our own Freedom Day remains still fresh in our minds.

On May Day, we remember that the workers' flag is not red simply by accident or for artistic reasons. As the traditional Labour song goes, “Our life's blood has dyed its every fold”. Not all those who wave the red flag or claim to speak for the working class actually do so while entertaining that feeling.

Of course, the workers have made some gains in this century of struggle.

We live in a globally integrated capitalist society in its highest stage of imperialism, fueling perpetual militarism and warfare. Consequently, we should be aware of the hijacking of our Socialist persuasions by the opportunistic deviation of the 'pseudo-left' factions, whose tendencies do not even deserve the term 'centrist', as these are simply unattested 'anti-Socialist' parties or groups. The 'pseudo-left' denotes political parties, organisations and theoretical blocs which utilise populist slogans and democratic phrases to promote the socioeconomic interests of privileged and affluent strata of the middle class. In other words, the "left" lap dogs of the capitalists. Not unlike the Greek Syriza Party, our Maltese ex-Malta Labour Party has been hijacked and all Socialist principles jettisoned. It is understood to have been converted into a 'pseudo-left' entity under the presumed caption 'Progressive & Liberal Movement'. How would our dear ex-PM Dom Mintoff be turning in his grave!

And is it really the trade unions who shape the future of work? Both the trade unions and the Labour Party have failed the workers miserably! Instead of giving concrete support and calling upon workers to take action, they did absolutely nothing. Our trade unions have become mouthpieces of partisan politics besides the morality crisis reigning in our Maltese politics.

However, the greatest setback for our workers arrived when Malta was tricked into joining the European Union. The European Union does not represent the unity of the European peoples, but rather the dictatorship of the most powerful economic and financial interests over Europe. In reality, the EU is the main instrument for inciting social divisions, fostering national antagonisms and developing authoritarian forms of rule. Since the financial crash of 2008, Brussels has imposed brutal austerity measures, besides enforcing privatisation decrees on Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and other countries, including Malta. It has condemned millions to unemployment and poverty; destroyed education, health and old-age benefits; and left the young generation without a prospect for their future. We must reject all that EU hypocritical fancy talk which finally is translated in to “I dictate”.

The achievement of our rights as citizens and our rights as workers should indeed be celebrated together. Our history has made them inseparable, as well as our destiny. Together we are stronger!

But today, the working class in its millions is not yet in a revolutionary situation. In fact today, it is the capitalists who are on the offensive and the working class that is in the position of the strategic defensive. In striving for our goals we must dispel the idea that change can come from government alone, while our people wait passively for delivery.

“Arise, ye prisoners of starvation.” May Day is the day of the working class, the class that has borne untold sufferings and has nothing, just nothing to lose but its chains.

“When the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century brought a rapid increase in wealth, the demand of workers for a fair share of the wealth they were creating was conceded only after riots and strikes.”

John Boyd

MALTA SOCIALIST PARTY
April 2016
FIGHTING FOR SOMETHING FAR GREATER THAN OUR SELF-INTEREST
Email: mailto:jmcachia@maltanet.netjmcachia@maltanet.net

CACHIA: BRITISH CORRUPTION

Y. A. N. A. (You Are Not Alone!)

By Joseph Cachia

“You do not have to be convicted or even charged of a crime to be able to demonstrate that you've violated a personal conduct policy, which reflect s poorly not only on yourself, but on all of your teammates.”

Roger Goodell (Commissioner National Football League)

Relax, you smooth criminals !
You Are Not Alone !
(with apologies to Yana and Michael Jackson)

Dedicated to all 'Panama Papers' fraudsters.

It’s not £30,000 in Cameron’s offshore account; it’s at least £2 million!
British Prime Minister David Cameron tried to fend off criticism of an offshore trust maintained in the Bahamas, which was inherited from his father, Ian Cameron, in 2010.

However, according to senior British Conservative Party sources, Cameron had at least £2 million in offshore accounts. The money was paid to Cameron, according to the sources, as part of a deal by JR Central, a subsidiary of Japan Railways, to secure a lucrative contract to lay new rails for HS2, the new high-speed British rail system.
In order to ensure that JR Central received the contract for laying the rails for HS2, the firm spread the largesse of its bribes across the British political spectrum in 2015. In addition to Cameron’s £2 million; £1 million to Sir Jeremy Heywood, Britain’s Cabinet Secretary and senior civil servant; £1 million to Nick Clegg, the former leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and Cameron’s deputy prime minister in the ill-fated Tory-Lib Dem coalition that survived until 2015; and £1 million to Ed Miliband, the former leader of the Labour Party.

In addition to the individual pay-offs, it was also reported that JR Central arranged what were described as “bungs” (English slang for “bribes”) to the major political parties. The Conservative Party received £25 million, Labour £10 million, and the Liberal Democrats £10 million. The entire £50 million bribery package was paid through Nomura Bank in Tokyo. (Intrepid Report)

Cameron is facing calls for his resignation as a result of the £30,000 offshore trust in the Bahamas. The real scandal however is that Cameron has siphoned into offshore accounts more than £2 million.
It's no surprise that partners in crime are never lacking – those good friends who get in trouble together or get each other in trouble and laugh about it!

Dear fraudsters, you and your loyal confidants may be able to stick together for some time but definitely not for all the time. Your dominion rests solely on the concealment of your dark dealings and once exposed will bring down the pillars of your empire.

In spite of knowing that corruption hurts everyone and has dire global consequences, trapping millions in to poverty and misery and breeding social, economic and political unrest, back here in Malta giving suspect corrupt politicians a 'standing ovation' beats all reason to understand local politics. Was this a testimonial of the grass-root level of the tentacles of public corruption?

In this regard, the role of honest journalism (if any remains) shoulders the responsibility of keeping the unknowing public informed and continually conscious of the behaviour of its leaders, as otherwise the apathy in the election of their leaders would spell the death knoll of any democracy. Excellent investigative journalism is never out of age! Journalism is just a gun. It's only got one bullet in it, but if you aim right, that's all you need. Aim it right, and you can blow off a pillar of crime. Aim it wrong, and you'll just make a big noise once, and nothing else will happen.
Consequently, because corrupt politicians undermine the public’s confidence in their government, every citizen is victimized by a dishonest member of parliament.

It is true that actually only the crime and the criminal present us the picture of evil, however it's more often the hypocrite that is rotten to the core.

The hardest hitting apprehension is however the realisation that crime and political corruption are always related and relevant. Corruption produces mistrust and mistrust unfortunately translates into apathy, instead of into revolution.

“A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals with the blessing of more and amid the passive acquiescence of all.”
Tacitus

MALTA SOCIALIST PARTY / P.O. BOX 1 / COSPICUA, MALTA (Europe)
April 2016
FIGHTING FOR SOMETHING FAR GREATER THAN OUR SELF-INTEREST
Email: mailto:jmcachia@maltanet.netjmcachia@maltanet.net
Tel: 99866151

DRONES OVER MALTA?

BY JOSEPH CACHIA

[Editor's Note: A passionate voice and guest writer from Malta.]


“Whatever one thinks of the justifiability of drone attacks, it's one of the least 'brave' or courageous modes of warfare ever invented. It's one thing to call it just, but to pretend it's 'brave' is Orwellian in the extreme.”

Glenn Greenwald


The Italian government has quietly began allowing armed American drones to fly out from its soil at the Sigonella station (a NATO and U.S. naval air base) near Catania in Sicily, Italy for military operations against (allegedly) the Islamic State in Libya and across North Africa. This is a breakthrough for Washington, as after more than a year of negotiations, Italy backed down and surrendered. Although the American media, through a political message, is trying to minimise this abuse by calling it 'defensive', it is not difficult to note the falsity and hypocrisy of such pretensions, as U.S. officials are constantly pushing for drones destined for offensive operations, while reports say that the Pentagon is attempting to persuade the Italians to allow the drones to be used for offensive operations, too. The 'Al-Arabiya', Middle East newspaper, reported that neither Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's office nor U.S. defence officials responded to requests for comment.

So, while European officials have remained reticent to intervene more fully in this highly factionalised and destabilized country, Italy has become a base for armed U.S. drone operations in Libya. And this time without any United Nations sanctions!

So now we have arrived at the Age of Drone Wars, the latest technological warfare, as the weapon of choice of most advanced countries – and right on our doorstep.

Although we are more than concerned and worried about our Italian neighbours, we don't want to meddle in their internal affairs. If Italian Prime Minister Renzi is in any way risking or endangering the safety of his people, through any possible retaliatory terrorist actions on his country, is surely the affair of Italians and none of our business. This rests solely on the concern, judgment and reaction of his own countrymen. Hopefully, we wouldn't have to cancel any plans we might have had for a pleasant night out in Rome!

However, as our country lies in direct line between these warring countries (Italy and Libya) any implications and repercussions through this situation may eventually concern and immerse Malta in serious trouble. We do not feel confident in asking anything of Renzi, though it would not be amiss to know if any considerations in any part of the negotiations had been given, before taking this dangerous step, of any possible or probable spin-off to be borne and suffered by other neighbouring countries.

But notwithstanding all considerations, we feel it incumbent to indulge in striving hard to know what OUR government perceives and acknowledges of this situation. We could not wait to get any internal official information, which after all should have even been divulged to the public before our knowledge from foreign sources. Are there any possible implications for Malta? And if so, how grave could these be?

And so, while we are stupidly bickering on whose swimming pool is the largest, we have, most probably, agents of death flying over our heads while we are peacefully (?) slumbering our lives away! If our population is dormant, could we, at least, dutifully be informed of such more serious and worrying matters?

Unfortunately and very often, this stunning silence by our government on matters of grave national concern is divorcing our civil community from its elected administrators.

In this specific case, we feel that it is our duty to ask responsible authorities to enlighten us of our situation and of any eventualities. The Minister of Home Affairs and National Security and the Minister for Foreign Affairs are explicitly obliged to furnish the public with all relevant available information and not shoulder further additional responsibility for the needless secrecy of any data and any defensive and protection measures.

The most pertinent questions would include, among others, the following:

Was our government involved, in any, way, in the decision taken by the Italian government, considering the friendliness and goodwill existing between our two countries?

Is our air space being violated through the trajectories of these drones? Or was previous permission requested and granted?

Does our government know how many of these drones are going through our airspace? And if so, is our government cognizant of this fact?

Is Italy offering any insurance cover in the case of any mishaps?

How conversant and observant is our government of the legislation governing 'airspace in an age of drones'?

Why do I get the feeling that there's about to be a sharp increase in reported attacks on special forces engaged in anti-ISIS missions?

Brussels attack hits all of Europe, EU leaders say, in which case, blunders committed b y any one member puts all in danger of reprisals. As Albert Einstein had predicted “ It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”

Most probably, the majority of the Maltese population hardly knows what's going on and much less the reason and technicalities of these ongoings. Still, we have a right to know what our government knows! Telling us that 'there is nothing to worry about', surely is not enough to put our minds at rest!


“Our technological powers increase, but the side effects and potential hazards also escalate.”

Alvin Toffler

MALTA SOCIALIST PARTY / March, 2016
P.O. Box 1 / Cospicua

I Want to Go Home, Part III

[Editor's Note: A wise and impassioned voice from Malta.]


I WANT TO GO HOME...
BUT I HAVE NONE
(Part Three - Conclusion)

By Joseph M. Cachia

You (could this well mean also you, dear reader?) took it away from me!

The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist."

Archbishop Helder Camara


There is no place like home, but...

Don't be shocked! Just admit it. We're all hypocrites from time to time. Obviously, none of us try to be, but it can happen to the best of us and, as it turns out, it's not our direct fault, but rather caused through our corrupted media and perhaps our way of living. But the thought hardly exculpates us from the injustices and hardships we are causing.

One would like us to believe that creating a world of 'free trade' will promote global understanding, justice and peace and thus various organizations are invented, claiming the scope. On the contrary, the domination of international trade by rich countries for the benefit of their individual interests fuels anger and resentment and definitely makes us less just and safe, while it tramples on workers' and human rights.

In spite of impacting all aspects of society and the entire world, the WTO (World Trade Organization) is neither a democratic nor a transparent institution, while its structure enables the richer countries to win what they desire and consequently they are the prime and only benefactors. Likewise, the ILO (International Labour Organization), in spite of highlighting that the era of globalization has made many aspects of economic insecurity worse, has done next to nothing in this regard and consequently today we are still in the same distressing situation.

It's no secret that our leaders are hardly perfect, but there's a difference between blundering and flagrantly violating international treaties, breaking your own laws and throwing morality out of the window all in the name of making a quick profit.

It has been estimated that corruption costs around 120 billion euros each year to the EU (European Union) economy and surveys show that the problem has worsened in recent years – and this in spite of the harsh financial regulations reining in Europe. So one can hardly imagine what goes on in developing countries, such as those in the African continent, where you have free-for-all exploitation. I can't imagine poorer chaps than you and I through our hypocrite outlook towards this situation.

The story of African immigration is a long one, but its newest chapters are still being written today. Migrants and refugees streaming into Europe from Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia have presented European leaders and policymakers with their greatest challenge.

The International Organization for Migration calls Europe the most dangerous destination for irregular migration in the world, and the Mediterranean the world's most dangerous border crossing. Yet despite the escalating human toll, the European Union's collective response to its current migrant influx has been more focused on securing the bloc's borders than on protecting the rights of migrants and refugees or, better still, securing stability in their homeland.

The West responds to economic crises with swift government intervention, while it tells Third World nations to do the opposite. Third World countries were ordered to cut government spending, allow private companies to take over state functions (like providing water, electricity and education), and borrow at extremely high interest rates. Wealth was created, but only at the top, while the rest of the country crumbled. We may believe colonialism is dead, but our treatment of the Third World countries reveals otherwise. We may not govern their countries directly, but the results are tragically similar. It is only the methods that differ. While we are suffering the same imposition, we want to play gods!

For more than half a century the Alpine nation of Switzerland has built a reputation as the world's center for tax evasion, fraud accounting, money laundering, racketeering, and above all a staunch ally of corrupt third-world leaders and a great beneficiary of third world corruption. But Switzerland has had it both ways with its hypocrisy and double standards. Her politicians condemn corruption in Africa and the third world while her banks make fortunes off that corruption.

But we must also stop to think why resource-rich African and other developing countries have done even more poorly than countries without resources and if Africa will ever benefit from its natural resources.

Africans live on a continent owned by Europeans! Isn't perhaps 'Africa without Africans' the dream of the local predatory, supremacist white minority? A recent report came out to challenge the well-spread deceptive idea that the West is pouring money into Africa through aid, without receiving much in return. All in contrary, the report proved that Africa through has lost up to 1.4 trillion (1,400,000,000,000) in illicit financial flows to the West from 1980 to 2009. This amount is 233 times the 60 billions foreign 'aid' Africa supposedly received every year from the West.

In Nigeria, the continent's biggest oil producer, at least $400bn of oil revenue has been stolen or misspent since independence in 1960. Meanwhile, 90% of people live on less than $2 per day.

In 1991, the government of Somalia, in the Horn of Africa, collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since, and many of the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply and dump their nuclear waste in their seas.

At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish-stocks by over-exploitation and now we have moved on to theirs.

Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our nuclear waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? “Why do I have to come to YOUR country to eat MY food?” they rightfully ask. And why did tiny Malta send its soldiers, not to help us, but to confront us for fighting for what is rightfully ours [Malta’s]? It is sincerely hoped that it will never find itself in our precarious position!

Not unlike the EU (European Union) exploitative maneuverings, much of the merchandise produced by U.S. companies and sold to U.S. consumers is manufactured by workers in third world countries who earn as little as 12 cents per hour, drudging away in harsh and even dangerous work environments, commonly known as 'sweatshops', especially common in apparel and shoe industries. But none are my relatives or friends and not close to me!

What is wrong with us? Do we not care? Are we so absorbed in our own lives or groups or in competition with others that pity for the less fortunate has disappeared from our souls? Do we justify our inaction by stubbornly holding on to weak excuses for our inactivity? How long are we going to continue to be misled by the media and by our governments as to ignore the glaring truth?

In all faith, we want to believe that possibly only perhaps 5% of the populace (mostly governmental) is responsible for these appalling crimes. But we can't help asking: Why are the 95% not doing anything or enough to stop it? Or worse still, abetting and aiding, though maybe unknowingly, these barbaric and cowardly dealings! Surely disgusted with this criminality, why don't you stop and think how you can change this predicament? Aren't you willing or brave enough to voice your protestation to make a change to all this?

However, environmental catastrophes yet loom on the horizon, and, even if the disasters can be averted, who wants to live in a world where inequality, manipulation, conflict, exploitation, alienation, and violence are so commonplace that we often hardly notice them? You may, but not this human!

Africans are now only guests on their own continent. The dream of [the] Europeans is to transform the whole African continent into an entire colony where a white minority owns and controls the local economy, while Africans are just like good consumers or their servants. If [it] materializes, it looks that, as the West would be occupying both continents, it won't make much difference where I, am immigrant, [end up] I'm always in your territory. Yes, you asked for this through your sheer greed, Europe!

It's not dependence; but colonization, because it's a situation where Europeans use brutal military force to maintain corrupted leaders who only will help them exploit the continent. Multinational corporations are the new colonizers in Africa. It is commonly known that various international business corporations, including those dealing in coffee shops, fast foods, shoes, clothing, toys and other similar products, continue to adopt a global policy aggressive towards suppliers and employees.

The Middle East hasn't fared much better. Beyond sanctions, the West's presence across the Middle East has had a negative impact on public perception both across the region and back home. This is owed to a larger pattern of hypocrisy, deceit, and meddling that has been done under various pretenses but for obvious self-serving interests.

Agreeing that child labor is wrong, and then not checking labels to see where your clothes are made! Ignorance is no excuse for this one since it is regularly reported by mainstream media that certain well-known brands use and abuse children to make clothing and other textile/leather goods. Who is not guilty of this from time to time?

Back home for most of us immigrant people there is only unemployment and underemployment, high mortality, little or no medical care, little or no schooling, poor housing, semi-starvation, rigid class structure and exploitation. It is undeniable that many, the high majority of well-meaning Western folk grieve for our sad predicament. But what is grief without wisdom, and what is wisdom without action? Wanting the latest technological gadget, even if it came from a country where people are oppressed? Do you know where your cell phone came from, who made it and how they were treated? Why should I care - it's the latest model!! So, this isn't necessarily you, although we suppose it could well be!

Pope Francis has created political controversy, both inside and outside the Catholic Church, by justifiably blaming capitalism for many of the problems of the poor. And this is totally refuted by our own Maltese government by pronouncing itself as 'pro-business' as if such ways differ. Pope Francis blames poverty on what other people are doing or not doing. Is our blame of 'omission'?

'What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? But wilt thou known, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?'

James 2:14,20

In his encyclical, the Pontiff said: "It is morally unacceptable, politically dangerous, environmentally unsustainable and economically unjustifiable for developing countries to continue to fuel the development of richer countries at the cost of their own present and future."

The West holds some tragic lessons for Africa concerning what happens when the sense of community is lost. News of old people dying in their homes, alone and with no one to care for them, undiscovered until months later, paint a scary picture of what happens when people forget one another.

We must heed the cry for justice, for natives' retrieval of lost lands, against violence, threats and corruption, for trampled human rights, against dire working conditions, slavery and human trafficking and the pollution of water, air and soil. We must acquire and cultivate the power of moral sanctions. Examples of moral resistance to injustice in the last millennium, and the associated lessons of leadership, are now examined for insights and essential truths we will need in order to keep our bearings in the next. Moral sanctions, however, are not expressed solely in words; to be made visible; they must be dramatized in deeds.

We face a defining choice between two contrasting models for organizing affairs. Give them the generic names: Empire and Earth Community.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."

Jimi Hendrix

Joseph M. Cachia, Freelance Journalist
January 2016
Email: mailto:jmcachia@maltanet.net
Vittoriosa - Malta (Europe) / Tel: 21807566 - 99866151

CRIPPLED GREECE BROKE THE EUROPEAN UNION'S BACKBONE

By Joseph M. Cachia, Malta

“If governments let themselves be fully bound by the decisions of their parliaments without protecting their own freedom to act, a breakup of Europe would be a more probable outcome than deeper integration.”

Mario Monti


Following the resounding “No” from Greek voters in a referendum on austerity, which could send the country crashing out of the Eurozone, European leaders were scrambling in total disarray and confusion.

Greece may be ‘broke’, but it surely broke the backbone of the European Union. It may have lost the economic, financial and political battle, but not the war.

Whatever the EU’s response to the courageous Greek “No”, this daring vote blasts wide open the volatility and frailty of the Union. Another bailout would shatter all propositions and self-imposed regulations of the euro-zone, while its negation would send Greece tumbling out of the euro-zone and possibly out of the EU and NATO!

Is the prophecy of the ‘The New York Times’ coming to fruition? “Economy Shows Cracks in European Union”, it had predicted. “But even many committed Europeanists believe that the alliance is failing the test…. and they have rushed to protect jobs in their home markets at the expense of those in other member countries”.

“We are in a moment of a very severe crisis,” said Joschka Fischer, a Green Party politician and former German foreign minister. “We have a traumatic lack of leadership; we are caught right in the middle by the flood.”

The strains are evident in the way countries have worked to bail out their own banks and rescue national factories of global automobile companies.

Divisions are also evident between northern Europe and southern Europe, with more fiscally responsible countries like Germany only reluctantly promising to help floundering economies like those of Spain and Greece.

There is, also, another cleavage that has to do with the nature of the policies required to end the euro crisis. This concerns the euro-zone states in particular, and is embodied in the contrast between the northern states (generally creditors) and the southern states (generally debtors).

Many have wondered if Greece's economy would get so bad that it would eventually break away from the euro zone - a move that could encourage other countries to follow and therefore splinter the currency union.

Most assuredly, all know of the controversial and much-discussed possible Greek EU exit, often referred to as ‘Grexit’! But how many are conscious of the ‘PLAN Z’, the name given to a 2012 secret plan drawn up by the troika (EU/ECB/IMF) to prepare the Greek withdrawal from the euro-zone? For that matter, ‘Z’ could also be a play on alpha and omega i.e. "the end"!

When Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, was asked whether there existed any plan in case any country wants or is forced to leave the euro-zone, so that the markets don’t basically collapse, he simply replied that the question is so hypothetical that he didn’t have any answer - “No Plan B”. Well, here we are now!

A Greek exit from the euro-zone would have immense consequences for the European Union. This is why it is something that the EU wants to avoid at all costs. This is the stark truth now facing, not only the euro zone, but also the entire European Union.

A look into the dictatorial running of the European Union was grossly exposed by the reaction of Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE President) on Merkel’s remarks on Greece when he expressed his shock at the proposals of Angela Merkel in the German Bundestag on the eventual eviction of a member of the euro-zone. He stated thus: “Angela Merkel's lack of solidarity with Greece is shocking. The proposals by the German Chancellor are very disturbing. In the Bundestag, she declared that solidarity towards a country like Greece is not the right response. Her suggestion that consideration should be given to an eventual exclusion from the euro-zone is, frankly, shocking. Above all, it is incomprehensible because it is precisely a European response that is the quickest and least costly solution. If the European Commission issues a loan to Greece, it will not cost a cent for anyone. It's as simple as that. Obviously Merkel no longer wants European solutions. The summit had sent a signal to markets that no euro country risks default,” he concluded.

What is Europe doing? First it launches accusations provoking speculation against Greek debt. Then a debate on how to aid Greece ensues, during which proposals are made in every direction. And now we are at the point where some are publicly asking if we really should be helping Greece at all. Over the last few days this debate has become absurd. The EU finance ministers decided that it wanted to do something but didn't want to say exactly what. Apparently this action would take the form of a bilateral loan from the 19 euro-zone countries, that is, a single loan that is paid for by the taxpayers of the euro-zone and which will therefore increase the debt level of each member state. These are nothing but imperial politics.

Not unlike other southern EU. countries, including Malta, Greece is a small vassal state of a Greater Franco-German economic empire. The Greek people were used and tricked into joining the European Union, abused and largely left forgotten but now never to be allowed to threaten the empire builders.

Some time ago, MEP (Member European Parliament) Alfred Sant chose to address the Greek issue and titled his article as ‘The Greek Vortex’, a whirling force of suction intended on European funds. Up to there he was quite right – the whole charade centred on Greece’s insoluble debt. However, unfortunately, he failed to mention and further illustrate which banks, corporations and other creditors were siphoning off the Greek economy, including earlier bailouts. What were the final bellies of these handouts? Definitely, not the Greek people! So rich people need more money and tax cuts to ‘motivate’ them, while poor people need less money and more austerity to ‘motivate’ them.

One reason Greece has been forced to seek bailouts from its EU partners is that Greece ceded control over its currency when it joined the European Union and much of Greece’s deficit was caused by excessive military spending, as dictated by the EU, which remains among the largest in the European Union.

William Hague summed it all up when he said: “ People feel that the EU is a one-way process, a great machine that sucks up decision-making from national parliaments to the European level until everything is decided by the EU.” How long can this remain?

So, Tsipras gave the people the choice in a referendum, even urging and spurring the people to vote ‘No’. And he got a resounding ‘No’, but then he goes to the EU. and votes ‘Yes’! Well, is Greece a country or a party? This is unconditional surrender!

International inspectors will have the power to veto Greek legislation. The Syriza government will be forced to repeal a heap of laws passed since it took power, stripping away the last fig leaf of sovereignty.

From now on the Troika will be governing Greece. There definitely is going to be a real conflict about this. There is already a strong groundswell of anger brewing and an inevitable battle is looming on the horizon. Most Greeks know that the only way out of this neo-colonial servitude is to break free of the monetary union and of the EU.

The Greek Parliament cannot override the people’s ‘NO’ vote. The agreement with the creditors is illegal! Greece should have ditched the euro and gone for the drachma, instead of this whole farce.

And finally, may I offer an honest and unpretentious advice to my friend, Tsipras?

Get back on board all the staunch members of parliament whom you ditched because of their unwavering principle based on the people’s hopeful cry. Only they can help you save your country. Then, my friend take their (EU) money (after all they had stolen it from you) and run…as fast and as far as you can away from them all: the EU, NATO and all the other whole greedy lot. After all, it’s only a sinking ship you’ll be escaping from. Nothing in the EU is what it seems. It’s a total mess!

Greece is suffering and the rest of us don’t realise that it could just as easily be us later!

Perhaps this endorses the fact that the alternative to capitalism can only be achieved through revolution!

I think you'll dream of a revolution of free people long after I'm safely dead.

“ We must break up the eurozone. We must set those Mediterranean countries free.” Nigel Farage

Joseph M. Cachia, Freelance Journalist
Email: jmcachia@maltanet.net
Vittoriosa, Malta (Europe)

July 2015

Occupy Wall Street Bloomington

[Editor's Note: This exchange happened after the appearance of an article on Counterpunch entitled "The Revolution Started without Me" by Jack Random. It offers a glimpse of what OWS is dealing with on the front lines of the streets of protest.]

Subject: Occupy Wall Street in Counterpunch
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:20:22 +0000

Hi Jazzman Jack Random,

I read your excellent article in Counterpunch and showed it to some people at People's Park here in Bloomington, Indiana, where we are occupying it in a spin-off of the Wall Street Occupation.

Someone asked, "is he joining us?" and I said I'd write you to ask.

Are you in this movement?

Cordially,

Dave Stewart

Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2011 9:56 PM
Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street in Counterpunch

Dear Dave,

Thank you. I'm impressed that the movement has made it to Bloomington and that there's a People's Park there. The short answer to your question is: No, I am not. As you might have gathered, I'm an old timer. (To me, Dave Stewart is a great pitcher formerly of the Oakland A's.) My obligations and circumstance don't allow me to engage and occupy as the movement requires. I'm with you in spirit. I believe a cultural revolution is badly needed and that it is primarily a movement of the young.

I will offer you some points of unsolicited advice that I considered including in the piece but decided against. I would emphasize the fifth point.

ADVICE FOR THE CAUSE:

1. Learn to police yourself. To the extent you are viable, you will be attacked. Those who oppose you will hire thugs to infiltrate, to pose as allies, to win trust only to cause trouble and trigger retaliation and backlash. Do not let the movement be hijacked by traitors.

2. Remain peaceful. Your enemies want you to be disorderly and violent. They want a reason to suppress you with force. Give them no reason. When they move on you, as they surely will, retreat and wait. When they abandon territory you wish to occupy, move back in. When the police attack, film it from a thousand angles and points of view. Let there be no doubt as to the nature and intent of police brutality.

3. Focus on the major cities with an established activist community. Use the universities as centers of organization and communication. Occupy the parks. Remind the nation that Hoovervilles sprung up in parks across the land during the first Great Depression. Feed the people and provide for the homeless.

4. Remain open and tolerant. Don not allow the cause to be taken over by those who would exclude others on the basis of ideology. Be engaged in political discourse but do not become political.

5. Invent your own rules and don't listen to old timers like me.

Peace,

Ray Miller, aka Jack Random

P.S. It's too bad Howard Zinn is no longer with us. That's one old timer I'm certain would be with you and fully engaged. For myself, I'll find my own ways to lend support as we move along.

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street in Counterpunch
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:09:38 +0000

Dear Jack,

I watched Dave Stewart pitch (on T.V.).

I am 56. I have a good job and am secure financially, etc.

I have slept 'there' theese past nights, as well as hanging out and enjoy talking to all.....people seem to enjoy talking to me. I listen a lot. I don't give advice about "the olden days" (how could I?). It is heartbreaking to hear their stories about how they've tried to do everyting they've been told and yet it has not worked and now they are in a lot of debt and cannot see a way out of it.

I'll take your points to the next meeting (today).

I am certain you will help others (not only me).

When I woke up today, I thought that this was just like a "Hooverville". We ARE encouraging the homeless to join us (they are doing so), and are feeding them. Actually, so far there has been food for all.

IF that is all that this is (we had this conversation last night)...well, that's something. However, we are all trying to 'communicate'...first with each other and then convey that to others. What is going to be interesting is whether all (meaning the homeless) are going to join in our meetings and whether all are going to join the 'community' (while retaining their individuality). In point # 1 you mention 'traitors' and I am glad you did so... In the movie "Battle of Algiers" it can be seen that one of the first steps is to get everyone to 'clean up their act' (no alcohol drunkenness, no prostitution) and that conversation is going to take place today.

I hope that's not too much information.

Believe me, I do more listening than talking. However, when people ask me about stuff I tell them a little and when they ask "how did you learn about that?" I recommend that they read Counterpunch.

I have always enjoyed your postings and hope to read more in the future.

All the best,

Dave

Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2011 1:48 AM
Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street in Counterpunch

I'm very much impressed. Can I post your words?

I have a notion to share with you: a lot of politicians are expressing sympathy. Ask the local council to lift the curfew on the parks. Ask them to sanction the cause. If you get anywhere, spread the word. It might start something.

My best to you and the cause.

Peace, Random

Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street in Counterpunch
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:41:35 +0000

Dear Jack,

Sure, you can post my words. Though I 'just' wrote it to you, perhaps someone will enjoy reading it and perhaps (the goal) check out www.counterpunch.org

It is my opinion that this nascent 'movement' has the potential to lose its way or get co-opted by the Democrats.

For example, in the 'outreach meeting' I proposed that not only should 'we' attempt to spread the word to others who have not attended yet, but to outreach WITHIN OURSELVES....meet others we have not met, and while meeting others discuss whatever issues.

To me, the biggest issue is that "we" are protesting events as they stand now. We are NOT bitching about Clinton (NAFTA/Glass-Steagall, to mention only a couple), Bush I or II, we are protesting what is going on NOW.

Therefore, we're not 'hoping for change' in 11/12, nor is the current President helping us (otherwise, we would not be in the situation we are now).

And than, (and it might be prissy), there is the important issue of cleanliness (picking up litter, keeping our bodies clean) and not using the drugs (alcohol, tobacco) which are used to keep us unable to think beyond the present.

These thoughts met with a lot of resistance.

It is my belief that the powers that be are more than willing to allow us to implode, fracture, and then 'admit' that the present power structure is the best.

To ask for a permit is to admit that we are acting under their authority, so I most respectfully will not make that suggestion, but I'll mention it to others.

We have already had a heated discussion about accepting money. Many were vociferous of refusing money IF the Dems offered it to us, but all were willing to accept from local businesses and people. So far, the Dems have been defeated, but daily representatives drop by, as are the Christian kooks wanting to 'pray for us' and last night they set up a hot dog stand, which, of course, is pork and simply awful nutrition.

But I cannot tell those who are hungry not to eat.

Jack, I am totally honored you wrote me back. As I wrote earlier, I have always completely enjoyed your Counterpunch postings.

All the best,

Dave
Bloomington, IN.

Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011 12:09 AM
Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street in Counterpunch

Dear Dave:

It is a delicate balance between inclusion and control. I certainly understand the alcohol ban. It introduces behavioral consequences best avoided. The exclusion of tobacco is a bit trickier. Marijuana introduces a whole new set of issues you may wish to avoid or not.

My suggestion for gaining a waiver on curfew in the parks was intended to either abandon pseudo support or if granted to avoid a conflict with the police. Once again, a delicate balance. You're right not to seek permission.

The issues you're confronting are not easy. The trash issue has become important as it is currently being used in New York and elsewhere as an excuse to clear out the protesters. The money issue is also complex but I support your position.

Time permitting, I appreciate the information and will offer any ideas that may occur to me.

It is a great endeavor you're undertaking. Keep the faith.

Peace, Random

Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011
Subject: RE: Occupy Wall Street in Counterpunch

Dear Jack,

I am so honored you have written me several times, and truly have appreciated your thoughts and suggestions.

You have been very helpful in many ways, and, time permitting, if you happen to have other thoughts I would be happy to hear from you.

I will, as I have in the past, relay your thoughts to others.

Thank you very much for the encouragement!!

And, I look forward to future postings of yours in Counterpunch, whether on this topic or any other.

All the best,
Dave

DEBT CEILING MADNESS

From PUBLIC CITIZEN, Robert Weissman, President.

Washington is in the grip of a fever. It’s hard to find a word other than lunacy to describe what’s going on. We are veering toward potential economic catastrophe. And Congress is hung up on a debate that shouldn’t be occurring. It is debating an imaginary problem that conjures scary future scenarios but ignores dire existing circumstances. The consensus proffered solution to the imaginary problem would damage our country and further weaken our economy.

Democrats and Republicans are at loggerheads, but they are disagreeing primarily about how much harm they want to impose. That’s a very consequential disagreement, but it ignores the fact that we don’t need to impose any harm at all.

Let’s correct some of the upside-down components of the current debate.

1. There should not be a debate over increasing the nation’s debt ceiling.

Prior approval of increases — more than 100 — have been routine, and this time should be no different. Raising the debt ceiling merely authorizes the U.S. government to make good on spending previously authorized by Congress.

It is true that Republicans in Congress signaled some time ago that they would not easily agree to another increase in the debt ceiling. That’s why Democrats should have passed an increase in the last Congress, a move they declined to make because of fear of electoral consequences. At very least, the administration should have insisted on increasing the debt ceiling as a condition of agreeing to the December 2010 deal to extend the Bush tax cuts.

2. The government should be running larger, not smaller, deficits.

The country has not recovered from the Great Recession. One in six people who would like a full-time job are unable to find one. We don’t have to worry about hard times coming sometime in the future — we are living in hard times right now!

To fuel a stalled economy and put people back to work, the U.S. government should be spending more money. This is basic Keynesian economics. It shouldn’t be controversial. State governments are starved for cash, and laying off thousands of teachers, librarians, fire fighters and police. If the federal government gave the states block grants, they could keep people employed, and keep delivering needed services. Our country, and our economy, would be stronger.

Much of the country is suffering through a summer of staggering heat waves. This should be an urgent reminder of the need to take radical action to mitigate catastrophic climate change. Especially with so many people out of work, the government should be spending money to employ people to retrofit buildings around the country and to invest in R&D on solar and wind energy.

And, of course, there is no shortage of other pressing needs to which people can be put to work. By contrast, cutting spending right now will worsen our very severe economic crisis, and push more people out of work.

3. Our economic problems are present, not future.

It is both bewildering and unconscionable that pontificating politicians and pundits express so much concern for imagined future economic problems while ignoring the real and present suffering that pervades the country. There is also some very fuzzy math that takes over the discussion. If it continues to grow economically, and if it makes wise investments, the country is going to be significantly richer in the years and decades ahead. We’re not going to be poorer, irrespective of the size of the national debt.

4. It’s actually not very hard to find a few trillion dollars.

To say that the debt ceiling debate shouldn’t be taking place, and that we should be running larger deficits, is not to say there aren’t appropriate areas of the budget to cut, and appropriate revenue streams to tap.

On the spending side, among many other things, we could:
• Save more than a trillion dollars over 10 years by ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Cut more than $500 billion from the Department of Defense budget by replacing private contractors and eliminating weapons systems the Pentagon says it does not need. Hundreds of billions of more in savings are available through modest cuts at DoD. The United States would still have, by far, the world’s largest military. A very modest proposal from the Congressional Progressive Caucus totals $2.3 trillion in savings over 10 years through ending the wars and cutting the Defense budget.
• Save more than $150 billion in pharmaceutical costs just by negotiating better prices with Big Pharma. More aggressive moves to fix the broken pharmaceutical development system could offer savings far larger, with the government obtaining a significant portion of well over a trillion dollars in savings on pharmaceutical expenditures over 10 years.
On the revenue side, among many other things, we could:
• Tax Wall Street speculation and raise between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion over 10 years.
• End offshore tax haven abuses, and raise a trillion dollars over the next decade.
• Close corporate tax loopholes. By way of illustration, getting rid of just two large breaks, deferral of overseas revenue and accelerated depreciation, would raise about $700 billion. The Treasury Department lists $365 billion in corporate tax breaks being gifted annually — that’s $3.65 trillion over the 10-year period talked about in these debt debates! Thanks to all the loopholes and escapes, corporations are benefiting from record low tax rates — 21% on average (this is what they are actually paying, not the nominal rate). For a handful, the tax system is a source of revenue. Citizens for Tax Justice looked at 12 major companies that together made $171 billion in profits from 2008-2010 and found that the dozen companies together paid negative $2.5 billion in taxes, thanks to $62 billion in tax subsidies.
• Tax capital gains as ordinary income, and raise $1 trillion.
Many of these and other sensible budget ideas are included in the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s People’s Budget. A key thing to keep in mind about all these savings and increased revenue is that they should be ploughed back into public investments and public priorities. We need more net spending, not less. Over time, we need to reduce the deficit, but much of that will occur automatically, as the country moves back to fuller employment and more robust growth.

We do not need to touch, nor should we touch, Medicare or Medicaid. Nor should we tamper with Social Security, which is financed separately from the rest of the federal budget and has nothing to do with the debt. It’s impossible at this point to know how the debt ceiling debate is going to play out. It’s also highly uncertain what happens if the U.S. government defaults — catastrophe may follow, or it may not.

What is certain is that irrationality is ruling the day.

It’s past time to leave behind this orchestrated and false crisis. Our country faces a legion of real and serious problems. It’s time we got to work taking them on.

See also: "Suicide Watch: Debt Ceiling Showdown" by Jack Random. Posted on Counterpunch 7/29/11.

TAKING BACK YOUR PARTY

A PLEA FOR MODERATION BY BILL PEACH

[Editor's Note: This writer hails from Nashville, Tennessee.]


In 2004, Christie Todd Whitman, published a book titled It’s My Party Too. She had been governor of New Jersey and head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Christie, a member of a distinguished and wealthy eastern Republican family, resigned her position in the Bush administration because “fundamentalist ideologues substituted right-wing doctrine for science.” She believed the Republican Party had been taken over by “social fundamentalists.”

I cannot speak for Republicans, but I feel their pain. I campaigned for George McGovern and Eugene McCarthy during racial strife and opposition to war. I understand the frustration of a divided political party. Ideas that I did not see as radical or revolutionary were not ideas embraced by moderate Democrat and independent voters. I have since been more main stream in the elections of moderates and pragmatists -- Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

A few weeks ago, the Williamson County Republican Party invited and hosted Geert Wilders for a meet and greet at party headquarters prior to his rally at the Cornerstone Church in Nashville. He came under the aegis of the Tennessee Freedom Coalition, a group with a radical image not compatible with local Republican politics. I don’t know if the local party leaders consulted the membership, but the event brought national exposure and evoked some concern and disaffection among moderate Republicans.

Those of us who embrace the principles of Democratic politics have finally found a unity within our own party. Once labeled as liberal or progressive, which none of us found offensive, we have again become the party of the political center. The most evident rebirth of democracy came in support of the students, parents, and teachers of public education. It emerged dramatically in New York, in one Congressional district, in an unprecedented upset, possibly because of a single issue. The once moderate Republican has been alienated by the movement that shattered the party.

My concerns have been primarily with the Tennessee Legislature. I spent 24 years on two school boards. We have always opposed random pieces of legislation that were simple errors in judgment, not in the best interests of classroom instruction or student performance. This session seems to have been a calculated attack on public education.

We would like to believe that the five or six Republican members of the House and Senate who drafted and introduced recent legislation were isolated anomalies from a move to privatize or abolish public education. The movement is not unique to Tennessee, and extends beyond the misinterpretation of American history.

None of us, Republican or Democrat, want to cry wolf, or be prophets of doom, or purveyors of conspiracy theories. This shift of political power is not a threat to the Democratic Party; it could be the return ticket to majority status. Politically we should strategically welcome it. However, it does not bode well for the integrity or future of the Republican Party, nor does it enhance the well-being of American politics.

Whatever this phenomenon is, it did not happen overnight. We can’t blame it on President Bush or President Obama, or the deficit, or the debt, or three wars. The movement has not addressed economic ills, or jobs, or Main Street, or small business. We will address those eventually, but for now we are forced to endure the folly of distraction, and partisan allegiance to corporate and social ideology.

We have created a monster. I think President Eisenhower may have been the visionary who saw this coming. His experience in Europe had taught him that the rise of extreme movements was not unique to time or place. Authoritarianism could take root anywhere, even in America. This movement has roots in the McCarthy era in a mood of extreme nationalism and fear, intensified by ostentatious religious zealotry.

There are many names that were early players in the abduction of the Republican Party and the Christian faith. R. J. Rushdoony and Robert Welch of the John Birch Society were forerunners of the Religious Right and the sequential images of Jerry Falwell, Ralph Reed, Tony Perkins, Grover Norquist, Richard Viguerie, Irving and William Kristol, Tim LaHaye, and Pat Robertson. The establishment of “the private schools for the white students” or “seg academies” as we called them, followed Brown v. Board of Education, almost sixty years ago.

But even now, I sense a “distrust of democracy.” There is organized opposition to public education, women’s rights, small business, religious freedom, health care, and voting rights. There is revisionist denial of slavery, a renewal of primitive fundamentalist ideology, and a misguided plea for “God’s government” defined by standards of extremism and intolerance of the fifties, and a cultural vengeance in a penal code derived from the laws of Leviticus.

I watch an “intrusive government” invade the heart, the mind and the body. I hear words of hatred and religious intolerance from voices that bring ignominy to our tradition of faith. I see efforts to reverse the march of freedom in the work place. I am still optimistic that both parties, Republican and Democratic, will speak in opposition to extremism. It may take two or more election cycles, but I think the moderates will return and take back their party, and conservative sanity will find some viability slightly right of center, and restore a two-party system about which we will feel no need for apology.

Bill Peach
615-306-1731
billpeach@att.net
Politics, Preaching & Philosophy
http://billpeach.wordpress.com/

REMEMBERING BASEBALL & BRYAN STOW

(Please send out to as many people as you can)

To All Sports Fans,

We should all be thinking a lot about Bryan Stow, the Giants fan who is in a coma right now after being attacked after a game. This Monday night, the Giants and Dodgers will begin a second series, this time in San Francisco. But this issue has nothing to do with the Giants or the Dodgers. It’s about what it means to be a fan.

We all come out to watch the game of baseball to support our teams, to have a great time at the ballpark, and to remember and pay homage to the childhood wonder that we all felt growing up watching our heroes play. For me, being a fan is about knowing that I see the game exactly how my dad taught me to… even a little bit clearer (just like he always knew that I would). It’s about looking up with my little brothers and telling him that the Giants finally won it all! (And knowing he’s celebrating wherever he is.)

But to those fans who see yourselves as something like rival gang/club members protecting the honor of your teams, with violence if necessary, please know that you are missing the point, and you are truly disgracing your heroes. Giants fans out there talking about REVENGE for Bryan Stow, you are just as misled and in need of a look in the mirror as those FEW Dodgers fans who committed this crime in the first place, whether you act on it or not. And I hope a few of you are offended by me saying that because you absolutely need to think about the feelings and thoughts that resulted in that man being forced to fight for his life his life right now.

I mean I Haaaaaaaaaaate the Dodgers. Lol. But I why in the world should that extend to their fans??? Somewhere there is a Dodger fan with the EXACT same story as mine. A Dodger fan raises his hands just as high as a Giants fan when his team is doing well, and for the same reasons. The same goes for fans of the Yankees and Red Sox. We all just want to someday turn to our children, holding a ballpark hotdog, and watch with a smile as they experience the game for the first time.

So Monday night, regardless of the score at the end of the game, if you should come across a rival fan, look him in the eyes and tip your cap, (you can even refuse to smile if you like. lol), and give a fellow Sports Fan the respect that you both deserve.

John Miller

Buy American: Check the Can

By Joan Stellrecht


Did y’all see that Diane Sawyer has a special report coming up this week. They removed ALL items from a typical, middle class family's home that were not made in the USA . There was hardly anything left besides the kitchen sink. Literally. During the special they are going to show truckloads of items - USA made - being brought in to replace everything and will be talking about how to find these items and the difference in price etc..

It was interesting that Diane said that if every American spent just $64 more than normal on USA made items this year, it would create something like 200,000 new jobs!

I WAS BUYING FOOD THE OTHER DAY AT WALMART and ON THE LABEL OF SOME PRODUCTS IT SAID 'FROM CHINA’

FOR EXAMPLE THE "OUR FAMILY" BRAND OF THE MANDARIN ORANGES SAYS RIGHT ON THE CAN 'FROM CHINA '

I WAS SHOCKED SO FOR A FEW MORE CENTS I BOUGHT THE LIBERTY GOLD BRAND OR THE DOLE SINCE IT'S FROM CALIF.

Are we Americans as dumb as we appear --- or --- is it that we just do not think while the Chinese, knowingly and intentionally, export inferior and even toxic products and dangerous toys and goods to be sold in American markets?

70% of Americans believe that the trading privileges afforded to the Chinese should be suspended.

Why do you need the government to suspend trading privileges? DO IT YOURSELF, AMERICA!!

Simply look on the bottom of every product you buy, and if it says 'Made in China ' or 'PRC' (and that now includes Hong Kong ), simply choose another product, or none at all. You will be amazed at how dependent you are on Chinese products, and you will be equally amazed at what you can do without.

Who needs plastic eggs to celebrate Easter? If you must have eggs, use real ones and benefit some American farmer. Easter is just an example. The point is do not wait for the government to act. Just go ahead and assume control on your own.

THINK ABOUT THIS: If 200 million Americans refuse to buy just $20 each of Chinese goods, that's a billion dollar trade imbalance resolved in our favor...fast!!

Most of the people who have been reading about this matter are planning on implementing this on March. 4th and continue it until April 4th. That is only one month of trading losses, but it will hit the Chinese for 1/12th of the total, or 8%, of their American exports. Then they might have to ask themselves if the benefits of their arrogance and lawlessness were worth it.

Remember, March 4th to April 4th

START NOW.


Send this to everybody you know. Let's show them that we are Americans and NOBODY can take us for granted.

If we can't live without cheap Chinese goods for one month out of our lives, WE DESERVE WHAT WE GET!

Pass it on, America.

THE GREAT CON OF THE FINANCIAL ELITE

The Financial Con of the Decade Explained So Simply Even A Congressman Will Get It
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/financial-con-decade-explained-so-simply-even-congressman-will-get-it

(Submitted by Tyler Durden 7/10/10. Forwarded by DakotaNomad 8/6/10.)

Sometimes, when chasing the bouncing ball of fraud and corruption on a daily basis, it is easy to lose sight of the forest for the millions of trees.

Luckily, Charles Hugh Smith of oftwominds.com has taken the time to put it all into such simple and compelling terms even [a] corrupt congressmen will not have the chance to plead stupidity after reading this.

Of course, to those familiar with the work of Austrian economists, none of this will come as a surprise.

1. Enable trillions of dollars in mortgages guaranteed to default by packaging unlimited quantities of them into mortgage-backed securities (MBS), creating unlimited demand for fraudulently originated loans.

2. Sell these MBS as "safe" to credulous investors, institutions, town councils in Norway, etc., i.e. "the bezzle" on a global scale.

3. Make huge "side bets" against these doomed mortgages so when they default then the short-side bets generate billions in profits.

4. Leverage each $1 of actual capital into $100 of high-risk bets.

5. Hide the utterly fraudulent bets offshore and/or off-balance sheet (not that the regulators you had muzzled would have noticed anyway).

6. When the long-side bets go bad, transfer hundreds of billions of dollars in Federal guarantees, bailouts and backstops into the private hands which made the risky bets, either via direct payments or via proxies like AIG. Enable these private Power Elites to borrow hundreds of billions more from the Treasury/Fed at zero interest.

7. Deposit these funds at the Federal Reserve, where they earn 3-4%. Reap billions in guaranteed income by borrowing Federal money for free and getting paid interest by the Fed.

8. As profits pile up, start buying boatloads of short-term U.S. Treasuries. Now the taxpayers who absorbed the trillions in private losses and who transferred trillions in subsidies, backstops, guarantees, bailouts and loans to private banks and corporations, are now paying interest on the Treasuries their own money purchased for the banks/corporations.

9. Slowly acquire trillions of dollars in Treasuries--not difficult to do as the Federal government is borrowing $1.5 trillion a year.

10. Stop buying Treasuries and dump a boatload onto the market, forcing interest rates to rise as supply of new T-Bills exceeds demand (at least temporarily). Repeat as necessary to double and then triple interest rates paid on Treasuries.

11. Buy hundreds of billions in long-term Treasuries at high rates of interest. As interest rates rise, interest payments dwarf all other Federal spending, forcing extreme cuts in all other government spending.

12. Enjoy the hundreds of billions of dollars in interest payments being paid by taxpayers on Treasuries that were purchased with their money but which are safely in private hands.

Since the Federal government could potentially inflate away these trillions in Treasuries, buy enough elected officials to force austerity so inflation remains tame. In essence, these private banks and corporations now own the revenue stream of the Federal government and its taxpayers. Neat con, and the marks will never understand how "saving our financial system" led to their servitude to the very interests they bailed out.

The circle is now complete: in "saving our financial system," the public borrowed trillions and transferred the money to private Power Elites, who then buy the public debt with the money swindled out of the taxpayer. Then the taxpayers transfer more wealth every year to the Power Elites/Plutocracy in the form of interest on the Treasury debt. The Power Elites will own the debt that was taken on to bail them out of bad private bets: this is the culmination of privatized gains, socialized risk.

In effect, it's a Third World/colonial scam on a gigantic scale: plunder the public treasury, then buy the debt which was borrowed and transferred to your pockets. You are buying the country with money you borrowed from its taxpayers. No despot could do better.
As for part two of this epic con we are all living through:

The Con of the Decade (Part II) meshes neatly with the first Con of the Decade. Yesterday I described how the financial Plutocracy can transfer ownership of the Federal government's income stream via using the taxpayer's money to buy the debt that the taxpayers borrowed to bail out the Plutocracy.

In order for the con to work, however, the Power Elites and their politico toadies in Congress, the Treasury and the Fed must convince the peasantry that low tax rates on unearned income are not just "free market capitalism at its best" but that they are also "what the country needs to get moving again."

The first step of the con was successfully fobbed off on the peasantry in 2001: lower the taxes paid by the most productive peasants marginally while massively lowering the effective taxes paid by the financial Plutocracy.

One Year Later, No Sign of Improvement in America's Income Inequality Problem:
Income inequality has grown massively since 2000. According to Harvard Magazine, 66% of 2001-2007's income growth went to the top 1% of Americans, while the other 99% of the population got a measly 6% increase. How is this possible? One thing to consider is that in 2001, George W. Bush cut $1.3 trillion in taxes, and 32.6% of the cut went to the top 1%. Another factor is Bush's decision to increase the national debt from $5 trillion to $11 trillion. The combination of increased government spending and lower taxes helped the top 1% considerably.
The second part of the con is to mask much of the Power Elites' income streams behind tax shelters and other gaming-of-the-system so the advertised rate appears high to the peasantry but the effective rate paid on total income is much much lower.

The tax shelters are so numerous and so effective that it takes thousands of pages of tax codes and armies of toadies to pursue them all: family trusts, oil depletion allowances, tax-free bonds and of course special one-off tax breaks arranged by "captured" elected officials.

Step three is to convince the peasantry that $600 in unearned income (capital gains) should be taxed in the same way as $600 million. The entire key to the U.S. tax code is to tax earned income heavily but tax unearned income (the majority of the Plutocracy's income is of course unearned) not at all or very lightly.

In a system which rewarded productive work and provided disincentives to rampant speculation and fraud, the opposite would hold: unearned income would be taxed at much higher rates than earned income, which would be taxed lightly, especially at household incomes below $100,000.

If the goal were to encourage "investing" while reining in the sort of speculations which "earn" hedge fund managers $600 million each (no typo, that was the average of the top 10 hedgies' personal take of their funds gains), then all unearned income (interest, dividends, capital gains, rents from property, oil wells, etc.) up to $6,000 a year would be free--no tax. Unearned income between $6,000 and $60,000 would be taxed at 20%, roughly half the top rate for earned income. This would leave 95% of U.S. households properly encouraged to invest via low tax rates.

Above $60,000, then unearned income would be taxed the same as earned income, and above $1 million (the top 1/10 of 1% of households) then it would be taxed at 50%. Above $10 million, it would be taxed at 60%. Such a system would offer disincentives to the speculative hauls made by the top 1/10 of 1% while encouraging investing in the lower 99%.

Could such a system actually be passed into law and enforced by a captured, toady bureaucracy and Congress? Of course not. But it is still a worthy exercise to take apart the rationalizations being offered to justify rampant speculative looting, collusion, corruption and fraud.

The last step of the con is to raise taxes on the productive peasantry to provide the revenues needed to pay the Plutocracy its interest on Treasuries. If the "Bush tax cuts" are repealed, the actual effective rates paid on unearned income will remain half (20%) of the rates on earned income (wages, salaries, profits earned from small business, etc.) which are roughly 40% at higher income levels.

The financial Plutocracy will champion the need to rein in Federal debt, now that they have raised the debt via plundering the public coffers and extended ownership over that debt.

Now the con boils down to insuring the peasantry pay enough taxes to pay the interest on the Federal debt--interest which is sure to rise considerably. The 1% T-Bill rates were just part of the con to convince the peasantry that trillions of dollars could be borrowed "with no consequences." Those rates will steadily rise once the financial Power Elites own enough of the Treasury debt. Then the game plan will be to lock in handsome returns on long-term Treasuries, and command the toady politicos to support "austerity."

The austerity will not extend to the financial Elites, of course. That's the whole purpose of the con. "Some are more equal than others," indeed.