Every young human on the planet, whether rich, poor, powerful or weak is now confronted with the probability that civilized life and life itself on this planet will soon be destroyed. We face a return to the Stone Age and the law of the jungle. The impending crisis, noted by many, is due to the population explosion, finite and diminishing sources of energy, soil, and water, global warming, and a fragile uncontrolled market economy. Jared Diamond in his 2005 book Collapse made us aware that civilizations have perished in the past for reasons similar to those that will cause the collapse ours. Some raise the question whether or not we have evolved enough to deal with sustaining ourselves and our civilization. That is a very good question.
An evolved rational response to our human predicament would compel us quickly to set up a political economy whose first priority is to sustain and conserve our planet and its resources. We need to rid ourselves of our planet wide political economy based solely on greed for quick profits and greedy consumption. We need prompt public planning by entities with the governmental power to preserve resources. In a word, we must do away with capitalism as we now know it. We should also be doing the following:
Stop all pro life policies and flood the world with free contraceptives.
Stop cutting trees immediately, everywhere.
Stop all pollution of our air, our rivers and lakes and halt all discharge of sewage and pollutants into the oceans.
Require all engines everywhere to have zero emissions.
Stop using water and soil to feed cattle, chickens and pigs. Humans must learn to eat corn, beans, and squash and soy bean products.
Stop all flood irrigation in agriculture and compel the use of drip irrigation. Seriously conserve topsoil everywhere.
Prohibit building or paving on tillable top soil.
Establish and enforce planet wide regulation of fishing to prevent over fishing and destruction of species.
Make a massive transition to solar cooking, solar water heating, solar power, wind power, wave power, and current power. Adopt all energy conservation strategies.
Recycle and reuse everything. Compost all human excrement and garbage.
Study and copy what Cubans have done with organic farming and worm culture to get food without oil, and oil based fertilizers.
Put a huge tax on gasoline.
Stop building subdivisions in deserts.
We in the West need change our own values, curb our own consumption, and determine what is really important to our civilized life and is possible to have. We need an all out research effort to develop new sources of energy, and to reduce our energy use. We need a means of rational debate and communication among us.
We in the US as a national community are doing absolutely nothing about any of the foregoing imperatives for our civilized survival. In fact, we as a nation are leaving no stone unturned to make things worse!
We have no public community with the power to plan for our sustainable future. We worship our uncontrolled profit seeking market economy. Privatizing, and enlarging profit making opportunities, are the dominant ideas of our age. We, as a human community are not planning, are not thinking ahead, and are not conserving. “All government is bad. Get the government off your back!” “Planning is socialism.”
We ruthlessly plunder the finite resources of the planet to make a short term profit and to gratify our greedy consumption wishes.
We buy ever more, consume ever more. Our economy and our jobs depend on our increasing consumption. We are not rethinking our priorities and we are not curbing our consumption so that we consume only what is really needed. “There is no need to sacrifice. Buy more! Create more jobs.”
We encourage the births of more humans everywhere. We reject public implementation of family planning. Some religions and some governments make “pro life” a central tenet of their belief systems.
We waste resources on wars to control resources and to enlarge profit making opportunities for those in power.
We have no means for reasonable objective communication and enlightenment among us. Our media propagandizes and encourages our existing uncontrolled market economy and encourages even more consumption and larger SUVs. Our right wing radio ridicules and belittles the very idea that a crisis exists. Those who make profits from our uncontrolled market economy control what is researched and taught in our universities.
So our children and grandchildren will almost certainly live in the Stone Age and with the law of the jungle where the strong and powerful kill and starve the weak.
We could plan and prepare now. We could now spread the consciousness of active non-violence, of truth, of justice. We must of course learn how to solar cook, compost, and grow sustainable foods. However, our thinking and planning now could make this life for our progeny much more pleasant. It could help to preserve our existing body of knowledge, know how, and wisdom. It would be nice to preserve our computers, and the vast store of knowledge on the web. It would be nice to preserve our ability to make glass, and metal objects. It would be nice to preserve our knowledge of medical care and public health.
December 1, 2007
Douglas R. Page, Tucson, AZ dougpage2@earthlink.net
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
MAKING FUN OF THE ISRAEL LOBBY
Much of comedy and humor consists of making fun of or exposing those things that we repress or that we do not like to talk about. So we tease each other about our hidden foibles. Stand up comics make jokes about what happens or what does not happen in our bathrooms and our bedrooms, and about our politicians.
Tom Reiss has an article in The New Yorker for November 19, 2007 entitled “Laugh Riots,” about Dieudonne a Black French comic. Beginning around 2002, this already famous, rich and very popular guy started making jokes about Zionism. The Israel Lobby in France and much of the French establishment immediately began criticizing him as anti-Semitic and some of his fans abandoned him. He became the darling of the “David Duke Types” in France, but his fan base remains far broader than this. I cannot judge from the article alone whether Dieudonne is anti-Semitic by my standards or whether he is a brilliant comic innovator bringing a long needed comic challenge to the Israel Lobby. He is seen as anti-Semitic by almost all Jews and, as I will try to show below, that is part of the problem that calls for comic relief.
It is not anti-Semitic to be against Zionism, although the Israel Lobby does its best to label anti-Zionism as anti-Semitic. Not all Jews are Zionists. Conservative Jews see Zionism as a corruption and false reading of Judaism. For them worship of the State of Israel instead of God is idolatry. There are Jewish peace groups in Israel and in the United States that are either outright anti-Zionist or willing to set up and honor a viable separate state for Palestinians. It is not anti-Semitic to be critical of neocon, right wing, or hawkish acts and policies of Israel in exactly the same way that it is not anti-American to be critical of such in the U.S. Many US Jews are very critical of the Bush Administration, but will tolerate no criticism of Israel.
For those of us who yearn for equality, true democratic self-government, truth, justice and peace for ourselves and others, it is imperative that the awesome political power of the Israel Lobby be challenged. It has been politically impossible in the US to make such a challenge because of our own guilt about failing to rescue the Jews in WWII, the Holocaust, and the sly, astute and intimidating use of the charge of “anti-Semitism” in a way that is reminiscent of the charge of “communism” in the era of Joseph McCarthy.
The key to understanding Zionism is that it is and always has been a political effort to capture as much land for Jews in the Middle East as possible. The goal is territory, territory only for Jews. It is this basic truth that Israel and Israel Lobby propagandists and a large number of American Jews deny and suppress, suppress like the sexual urge of Victorian women.
There are many characteristics of Zionism that make it an enemy to be opposed and challenged and made fun of:
• Zionists promote the false idea that the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza were fairly captured by Israel in the 1967 War. The fact is that War was with Egypt and Syria. Palestine was not a participant. Israel simply seized the opportunity to expand “Israel.”
• Zionists say “Israel’s right to exist is non-negotiable!” Of course! But the Zionist catch is, Zionists set no limit to and no defined boundaries for the “Israel.” They try to lead the world to believe that any territory occupied by the Israeli army is “Israel.” Zionists aggressively seek more and more geographical territory. Some seek the return of Biblical Israel which allegedly extended from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Iraq. So when the President of Iran states, as I do, that Israel must remove the West Bank settlements, and halt the military occupation, the Israel Lobby falsifies the statement, says the Iranians want to “drive Jews into the sea” and uses that as a reason to bomb Iran and broadcasts the charge of “anti-Semitism,”
• The inappropriate or false charge of “anti-Semitism” is something like, but worse than the children’s story where Peter yells “wolf” “wolf” once too often and the claim becomes ridiculous and meaningless. Peter was just a scared and manipulative little boy, and not a powerful nation secretly seeking to capture more and more territory for Jews.
• Zionists themselves are and were terrorists and assassinated and bombed innocent civilians in their quest to establish, expand, and maintain the State of Israel.
• Zionists have never favored the establishment of a viable state for Palestinians.
• Zionists have never suspended the aggressive building of settlements in the West Bank following Camp David or the Oslo Accords and have never been willing in negotiation to make such suspension an immediate fact in peace negotiation.
• Zionists are “racist” in the sense that they establish, expand and maintain “Israel” only for persons who have a Jewish mother. No others can move to “Israel.”
• Zionists, although secular, promote the idea among Jews world wide to worship “Israel” and to defend it with religious zeal.
• Zionists have never recognized their victimization of the Palestinians who occupied the area for many centuries, have neither made nor offered reparations or compensation. They simply ignore and deny their existence. Hence 4 million Palestinians have been living in refugee camps under occupation by the Israeil Army for 40 years.
• Zionists have never sincerely sought peace in negotiations and have always followed the policy of ongoing military occupation and settlement expansion even during peace negotiations to “establish facts on the ground,” in other words to take more territory for Jews, while pretending to negotiate for peace.
• Zionists promote self pity among Jews world wide, and promote seeing themselves as victims of the Palestinians.
• Zionists are allied with and linked with Bush, the neocons, and the Christian Right in the US, and thus actively promote the Bush-Cheney effort to attack Iran.
• Zionists and more importantly the Israel Lobby simply deny all of the foregoing and seek to punish, ridicule, and shame those who utter any of the foregoing.
The above lies, prejudices, denials, and hubris are fertile material for comedians and stand up comics. If this is what Dieudonne is doing in France, we badly need his counterpart in the United States. Persistence and repetition are key to successful propaganda. Making fun of, satirizing, and ridiculing this propaganda is the weapon of the comic.
As Bryan Zepp Jamieson says:
“Lies have the power to alter truth.
But truth has the power to destroy lies.”
November 19, 2007
Douglas R. Page, Tucson, AZ dougpage2@earthlink.net
Tom Reiss has an article in The New Yorker for November 19, 2007 entitled “Laugh Riots,” about Dieudonne a Black French comic. Beginning around 2002, this already famous, rich and very popular guy started making jokes about Zionism. The Israel Lobby in France and much of the French establishment immediately began criticizing him as anti-Semitic and some of his fans abandoned him. He became the darling of the “David Duke Types” in France, but his fan base remains far broader than this. I cannot judge from the article alone whether Dieudonne is anti-Semitic by my standards or whether he is a brilliant comic innovator bringing a long needed comic challenge to the Israel Lobby. He is seen as anti-Semitic by almost all Jews and, as I will try to show below, that is part of the problem that calls for comic relief.
It is not anti-Semitic to be against Zionism, although the Israel Lobby does its best to label anti-Zionism as anti-Semitic. Not all Jews are Zionists. Conservative Jews see Zionism as a corruption and false reading of Judaism. For them worship of the State of Israel instead of God is idolatry. There are Jewish peace groups in Israel and in the United States that are either outright anti-Zionist or willing to set up and honor a viable separate state for Palestinians. It is not anti-Semitic to be critical of neocon, right wing, or hawkish acts and policies of Israel in exactly the same way that it is not anti-American to be critical of such in the U.S. Many US Jews are very critical of the Bush Administration, but will tolerate no criticism of Israel.
For those of us who yearn for equality, true democratic self-government, truth, justice and peace for ourselves and others, it is imperative that the awesome political power of the Israel Lobby be challenged. It has been politically impossible in the US to make such a challenge because of our own guilt about failing to rescue the Jews in WWII, the Holocaust, and the sly, astute and intimidating use of the charge of “anti-Semitism” in a way that is reminiscent of the charge of “communism” in the era of Joseph McCarthy.
The key to understanding Zionism is that it is and always has been a political effort to capture as much land for Jews in the Middle East as possible. The goal is territory, territory only for Jews. It is this basic truth that Israel and Israel Lobby propagandists and a large number of American Jews deny and suppress, suppress like the sexual urge of Victorian women.
There are many characteristics of Zionism that make it an enemy to be opposed and challenged and made fun of:
• Zionists promote the false idea that the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza were fairly captured by Israel in the 1967 War. The fact is that War was with Egypt and Syria. Palestine was not a participant. Israel simply seized the opportunity to expand “Israel.”
• Zionists say “Israel’s right to exist is non-negotiable!” Of course! But the Zionist catch is, Zionists set no limit to and no defined boundaries for the “Israel.” They try to lead the world to believe that any territory occupied by the Israeli army is “Israel.” Zionists aggressively seek more and more geographical territory. Some seek the return of Biblical Israel which allegedly extended from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Iraq. So when the President of Iran states, as I do, that Israel must remove the West Bank settlements, and halt the military occupation, the Israel Lobby falsifies the statement, says the Iranians want to “drive Jews into the sea” and uses that as a reason to bomb Iran and broadcasts the charge of “anti-Semitism,”
• The inappropriate or false charge of “anti-Semitism” is something like, but worse than the children’s story where Peter yells “wolf” “wolf” once too often and the claim becomes ridiculous and meaningless. Peter was just a scared and manipulative little boy, and not a powerful nation secretly seeking to capture more and more territory for Jews.
• Zionists themselves are and were terrorists and assassinated and bombed innocent civilians in their quest to establish, expand, and maintain the State of Israel.
• Zionists have never favored the establishment of a viable state for Palestinians.
• Zionists have never suspended the aggressive building of settlements in the West Bank following Camp David or the Oslo Accords and have never been willing in negotiation to make such suspension an immediate fact in peace negotiation.
• Zionists are “racist” in the sense that they establish, expand and maintain “Israel” only for persons who have a Jewish mother. No others can move to “Israel.”
• Zionists, although secular, promote the idea among Jews world wide to worship “Israel” and to defend it with religious zeal.
• Zionists have never recognized their victimization of the Palestinians who occupied the area for many centuries, have neither made nor offered reparations or compensation. They simply ignore and deny their existence. Hence 4 million Palestinians have been living in refugee camps under occupation by the Israeil Army for 40 years.
• Zionists have never sincerely sought peace in negotiations and have always followed the policy of ongoing military occupation and settlement expansion even during peace negotiations to “establish facts on the ground,” in other words to take more territory for Jews, while pretending to negotiate for peace.
• Zionists promote self pity among Jews world wide, and promote seeing themselves as victims of the Palestinians.
• Zionists are allied with and linked with Bush, the neocons, and the Christian Right in the US, and thus actively promote the Bush-Cheney effort to attack Iran.
• Zionists and more importantly the Israel Lobby simply deny all of the foregoing and seek to punish, ridicule, and shame those who utter any of the foregoing.
The above lies, prejudices, denials, and hubris are fertile material for comedians and stand up comics. If this is what Dieudonne is doing in France, we badly need his counterpart in the United States. Persistence and repetition are key to successful propaganda. Making fun of, satirizing, and ridiculing this propaganda is the weapon of the comic.
As Bryan Zepp Jamieson says:
“Lies have the power to alter truth.
But truth has the power to destroy lies.”
November 19, 2007
Douglas R. Page, Tucson, AZ dougpage2@earthlink.net
Monday, November 12, 2007
LET'S GET CLEAR WHAT IT MEANS TO BE LIBERAL AND THE CONSEQUENCES
We toss political and civic terms around without giving them much thought. This leads to disappointment and consternation. For example, why is it that a liberal magazine like The Nation or a leading liberal radio commentator Amy Goodman will not engage in an open exploration and discussion of 9/11? Why will The Nation never examine the working dynamics of capitalism? Why does Al Gore not discuss the effect of the legal imperative governing corporations on Global Warming that the sole legal obligation is to make as much profit for shareholders as possible in the short run? Why will Counterpunch deal with the Israel Lobby but not 9/11?
The dictionary gives as the first meaning of radical: "of or from the root or roots; going to the center, foundation or source of something; fundamental; basic."
I insist on trying to get to the root causes of our political, civic and even my personal problems. It is the only way I can feel sane. Thus I insist on examining and understanding the dynamics of capitalism, the exercise of power by the Israel Lobby, and the root causes of Global Warming. This is more than a personal quirk. I believe that one can have a full understanding of phenomena only by such an examination and analysis. Intellectual honesty and the scientific method compel us to do this.
We are well aware that there may be hidden pressures on liberals and their media outlets. For example, they may be funded by foundations that impose restrictions. They may have accepted CIA approved writers in their bosoms. However in many cases it may be personal inclinations of the authors. It is this latter inclination that I wish to examine here.
The dictionary definition of a liberal: “giving freely; generous…tolerant of views differing from one’s own; broad minded….favoring reform or progress…somewhat more conservative than “progressive.”
It is apparent that getting to the root of things is not a driving force for a liberal. A liberal is thus charitable, but does not question what causes the need for charity. A liberal may be offended by war or by torture, and will give money to protest organizations, but may be less interested in getting to the root causes. A liberal will thus be seduced by those who claim to be preserving freedom and democracy while torturing.
I have a further insight not mentioned in the dictionary. The evidence seems to show that the first imperative for a liberal is to preserve his own privileges, advantages, personal comfort and well being. To a liberal, this is only rational self interest. From that base, a liberal will be tolerant, generous, charitable and reforming, to the extent that his own well being and comfort is not imperiled. Since getting to the root of things might challenge a liberal’s own privileges, a liberal avoids such inquiry. It is not even denial. It is simple avoidance of what is seen as irrelevant. A liberal knows intuitively that his own personal well being rests on the suffering of others, and he does not wish to “go there.”
The upshot of all of this is that we are unlikely to get much help from liberals in halting Global Warming or in terminating wars abroad to secure oil.
November 12, 2007
Douglas R. Page dougpage2@earthlink.net
ZNet Commentary
Veterans' Voices November 11, 2007
By Cynthia Peters
Written testimony "means that we no longer allow ourselves to be silenced or allow others to speak for our experience. Writing to heal, then, and making our writing public, as I see it, is the most important emotional, psychological, artistic, and political project of our time."
-- Louise De Salvo, PhD author, Writing as a Way of Healing
The dictionary gives as the first meaning of radical: "of or from the root or roots; going to the center, foundation or source of something; fundamental; basic."
I insist on trying to get to the root causes of our political, civic and even my personal problems. It is the only way I can feel sane. Thus I insist on examining and understanding the dynamics of capitalism, the exercise of power by the Israel Lobby, and the root causes of Global Warming. This is more than a personal quirk. I believe that one can have a full understanding of phenomena only by such an examination and analysis. Intellectual honesty and the scientific method compel us to do this.
We are well aware that there may be hidden pressures on liberals and their media outlets. For example, they may be funded by foundations that impose restrictions. They may have accepted CIA approved writers in their bosoms. However in many cases it may be personal inclinations of the authors. It is this latter inclination that I wish to examine here.
The dictionary definition of a liberal: “giving freely; generous…tolerant of views differing from one’s own; broad minded….favoring reform or progress…somewhat more conservative than “progressive.”
It is apparent that getting to the root of things is not a driving force for a liberal. A liberal is thus charitable, but does not question what causes the need for charity. A liberal may be offended by war or by torture, and will give money to protest organizations, but may be less interested in getting to the root causes. A liberal will thus be seduced by those who claim to be preserving freedom and democracy while torturing.
I have a further insight not mentioned in the dictionary. The evidence seems to show that the first imperative for a liberal is to preserve his own privileges, advantages, personal comfort and well being. To a liberal, this is only rational self interest. From that base, a liberal will be tolerant, generous, charitable and reforming, to the extent that his own well being and comfort is not imperiled. Since getting to the root of things might challenge a liberal’s own privileges, a liberal avoids such inquiry. It is not even denial. It is simple avoidance of what is seen as irrelevant. A liberal knows intuitively that his own personal well being rests on the suffering of others, and he does not wish to “go there.”
The upshot of all of this is that we are unlikely to get much help from liberals in halting Global Warming or in terminating wars abroad to secure oil.
November 12, 2007
Douglas R. Page dougpage2@earthlink.net
ZNet Commentary
Veterans' Voices November 11, 2007
By Cynthia Peters
Written testimony "means that we no longer allow ourselves to be silenced or allow others to speak for our experience. Writing to heal, then, and making our writing public, as I see it, is the most important emotional, psychological, artistic, and political project of our time."
-- Louise De Salvo, PhD author, Writing as a Way of Healing
Sunday, November 11, 2007
CAPITALISM WILL KILL OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN
Humans in the past have had to deal with factors that threatened their survival. A few adapted and survived, but most did not. Our civilization is no different. It will not survive either.
UCLA Professor Jared Diamond in his 2005 book Collapse list 12 different causes of the inevitable fall of civilized life on our planet home within 30 years. They will cause our children and grandchildren to live in the Stone Age, with the law of the jungle, and to die. They are real. They are imminent. They all must be solved. If we solved 11, but left one unsolved, Diamond says our civilized life would still be over.
There are some obvious things we humans could and should do right now to adapt and survive.
1. Stop all pro life policies and flood the world with free contraceptives.
2. Stop cutting trees immediately, everywhere.
3. Stop all pollution of our rivers and lakes and halt all discharge of sewage and pollutants into the oceans.
4. Require all engines everywhere to have zero emissions within 1 year.
5. Stop using water and soil to feed cattle, chickens and pigs. Humans must learn to eat corn, beans, and squash and soy bean products.
6. Stop all flood irrigation in agriculture and compel the use of drip irrigation. Seriously conserve topsoil everywhere, and prohibit building or paving on tillable top soil.
7. Establish and enforce planet wide regulation of fishing to prevent over fishing and destruction of species.
8. Make a massive transition to solar cooking, solar water heating, solar power, wind power, wave power, and current power. Adopt all energy conservation strategies.
9. Recycle and reuse everything. Compost all human excrement and garbage.
10. Study and copy what Cubans have done with organic farming and worm culture to get food without oil, and oil based fertilizers.
11. Put a huge tax on gasoline.
In our denial and our addiction to comfort, we are maintaining a political economy that will aggressively cause the death of our children and grandchildren! We do not have a political economy based on wise planning and community action. We have capitalism, a political economy whose sole obligation is to earn as much short term profit as possible. The capitalist system brings vast wealth to the top 1% of us, but it does no planning, has no responsibility to the planet or to humans, and actively opposes all that we should be doing to solve the problem.
Our struggle with capitalism and the money it produces for the very rich is about a lot more than justice, equality, freedom and self-governing democracy. It is about our civilized survival. Marxists like to say that capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction. It is much more than that. Capitalism aggressively fuels the destruction of civilized life on this planet and death for millions.
Unfortunately, we need to do a lot more than look at Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth. We must reduce capitalism’s awesome power by refusing to buy its products, refusing to work within it, and by denying its legitimacy.
November 11, 2007
Douglas R. Page dougpage2@earthlink.net
UCLA Professor Jared Diamond in his 2005 book Collapse list 12 different causes of the inevitable fall of civilized life on our planet home within 30 years. They will cause our children and grandchildren to live in the Stone Age, with the law of the jungle, and to die. They are real. They are imminent. They all must be solved. If we solved 11, but left one unsolved, Diamond says our civilized life would still be over.
There are some obvious things we humans could and should do right now to adapt and survive.
1. Stop all pro life policies and flood the world with free contraceptives.
2. Stop cutting trees immediately, everywhere.
3. Stop all pollution of our rivers and lakes and halt all discharge of sewage and pollutants into the oceans.
4. Require all engines everywhere to have zero emissions within 1 year.
5. Stop using water and soil to feed cattle, chickens and pigs. Humans must learn to eat corn, beans, and squash and soy bean products.
6. Stop all flood irrigation in agriculture and compel the use of drip irrigation. Seriously conserve topsoil everywhere, and prohibit building or paving on tillable top soil.
7. Establish and enforce planet wide regulation of fishing to prevent over fishing and destruction of species.
8. Make a massive transition to solar cooking, solar water heating, solar power, wind power, wave power, and current power. Adopt all energy conservation strategies.
9. Recycle and reuse everything. Compost all human excrement and garbage.
10. Study and copy what Cubans have done with organic farming and worm culture to get food without oil, and oil based fertilizers.
11. Put a huge tax on gasoline.
In our denial and our addiction to comfort, we are maintaining a political economy that will aggressively cause the death of our children and grandchildren! We do not have a political economy based on wise planning and community action. We have capitalism, a political economy whose sole obligation is to earn as much short term profit as possible. The capitalist system brings vast wealth to the top 1% of us, but it does no planning, has no responsibility to the planet or to humans, and actively opposes all that we should be doing to solve the problem.
Our struggle with capitalism and the money it produces for the very rich is about a lot more than justice, equality, freedom and self-governing democracy. It is about our civilized survival. Marxists like to say that capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction. It is much more than that. Capitalism aggressively fuels the destruction of civilized life on this planet and death for millions.
Unfortunately, we need to do a lot more than look at Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth. We must reduce capitalism’s awesome power by refusing to buy its products, refusing to work within it, and by denying its legitimacy.
November 11, 2007
Douglas R. Page dougpage2@earthlink.net
Saturday, November 10, 2007
IT TAKES MORE THAN VOTING; LET'S ORGANIZE FOR EFFECTIVE RESISTANCE NOW
Paul Krugman in his new book The Conscience of a Liberal makes the point that the money of the very rich now controls our political system. Republican Kevin Phillips gave us the evidence for this back in 2002 in Wealth and Democracy. The very rich are determined to use their money to eradicate the idea that government can and should protect people from the ravages of the Law of the Jungle, and the greed of the powerful. Thus when Hillary proposed her complicated health plan in 1993, Republicans neither offered nor would they accept any compromises. Instead, Republicans were determined to kill the whole idea of health insurance for all because they knew that if it succeeded, it would be a graphic demonstration that government could and should work for the benefit of all. There is much evidence that the ruling class and the Republicans are even more determined to kill the idea of good government today. So when Majority Leader Nancy Pelousi says that she wants to have a bipartisan debate about what to do about health coverage, I think she is choosing a mistaken strategy. She knows jolly well what Krugman knows that Republicans are determined to kill the whole idea of health care forever. What is her possible compromise? Health care that nobody can afford with a tremendous amount of profit for the insurance companies?
Despite all of this, Krugman, Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and almost all persons who oppose Bush are urging us to work within the Democratic Party, to talk to people and to organize for ballot box voting because, they say, there is a significant difference between the stated objectives of the Democratic and Republican Parties. The evidence shows that whatever the Democrats may say they will do for us voters, they actually do what their rich campaign donors demand. Democrats have been doing this ever since 1965 when Medicare was passed. Since then money has trumped our votes every time.
.
The truth is that ballot box democracy, or ballot box avenues of change are now blocked in this country, if indeed they have ever really existed. There is no way we voters can overwhelm the power of money. Campaign reform simply has not done it and will never do it. We must engage in other forms of political activity beyond mere voting.
Think not of Bush, but of "King Bush" who may be replaced with "Queen Hillary" being the mythical personification of the 5000 white Christian males (the wealthiest 1%) who have the money and power to make the decisions affecting us all.
Then think of the “princes, dukes, marquis, earls, viscounts, and barons” who are in one way or another on the payroll of this "King" or "Queen." These “royalists” are spread throughout the government, the armed forces, business, the media and academia. They will not cross their monetary master, the “King” no matter what voters or anybody else may say.
Then there are us voting serfs who are lied to by the "King's" media, deprived of any other source of information, diverted with TV, football, NASCAR racing, and images of sexy young women. We serfs are made to feel rich with a proliferation of toys, I pods, Walk men, DVD players, digital cameras, junk food and cars. We serfs see no reason to give up what we have by doing anything to cross the "King." Who needs democracy when everything is good enough? A little irritating, but good enough.
Historically, there have been those who were willing to cross the "king" because of ideals, because of their consciences, or because of what was really important to them. Our forefathers who signed our Declaration of Independence pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor, and in many cases they indeed lost their lives and fortunes.
If this is an accurate depiction of our current plight, then we should minimize stamp licking and ballot box politics. Those of us who feel impelled to act for reasons of what is really important to us have the following choices:
1. Violent revolution (which in my view is immoral, counterproductive and impossible) Che Guevara was such a person and is still worshipped throughout Latin America 40 years after his execution by the CIA)
2. Active non-violence: stop paying all taxes.....stop buying anything produced by a corporation...stop working for any corporation.... (This is an effective exercise of power that would add muscle to our voting power if millions join in the activity.)
The final active non-violence is to do what the two Catholic priests did recently....in an effort to halt the teaching of torture and to cause the close of the School for Americas, they blocked the entrance to Fort Huachuca. They willingly submitted to arrest, and willingly accepted the punishment...7 months in the Florence, Arizona prison. While I very much appreciate their actions, I question how much influence their suffering has. Besides, I do not want to go to prison.
My wife C. Jay’s meditation this morning centered on this:
“November 5: Financial Security
An affluent society often functions as a giant tranquilizer. In the pursuit of the rewards of affluence, we have to tune out our awareness so completely that we become destructive to our bodies and our psyches. We have to develop our addictions to shut off our awareness of what is really important to us. We operate out of denial and are threatened by anyone wanting to challenge our denial.” (emphasis added)
I think that most of us are so addicted, and we have indeed shut off our awareness of what is really important to us. We are indeed threatened by anyone who wants to challenge our denial. So even though 64% of us oppose Bush and his policies, we do nothing about it.
What is really important to me? To you? What is more important to us than material goods?
Caring for others. Having others care for me. A government that cares. A good government that protects me from the Law of the Jungle and the greed of the powerful. A government that guarantees and protects my freedom. A government that protects me from the risks of the loss of civilized existence and global warming. A government of, by and for the people where we the voters are sovereign and not the money of the rich.
These foundational needs, while more subtle and further back in the recesses of our minds than the immediate gratification of a Coke & Big Mac, or a new car, are indeed more important when we stop to think about them.
Because of the overwhelming power of money, voting for Hillary or Barack is simply not enough, and is a waste of time without more. Here are some things we can do without giving up our life style:
• We can certainly, even with our affluence addiction, spread the truth. When the true facts of 9/11 are finally exposed to a majority of the American people, there will be an immense awakening. We can spread the truth about Zionists in Israel and in the US and their unrecognized controlling impact on us that may or may not be in our own best interest.
• We can organize among ourselves and participate in buyer’s boycotts and work stoppages. The Democrats and Republicans will both vote further to fund the War. We should then participate in a 3 day “sick out” work stoppage and we should not buy anything for 3 days. When another appointment like that of Attorney General Mukasey reaches the Senate we can have a 3 day sick out and purchasing strike. This is a powerful way we can match the political power of money. The powers that be can be made to change their positions if their profits are threatened.
• We can get our priorities in order: Truth, Justice, and then Peace. The current wars are based on lies. Truth can erode the underpinning of our wars. Wars are started to preserve privileges and cause inevitable injustices. If we end the war, we can then promote justice. There can be no enduring peace without justice. So when we have ended the wars, and promoted justice, we can then work effectively for peace. So we should work for Truth, Justice and Peace, in that order.
E mail me if you want to join an active nonviolent Truth Justice Peace movement. It must be organized from the bottom up. It is up to us.
November 5, 2007
Douglas R. Page dougpage2@earthlink.net
Despite all of this, Krugman, Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and almost all persons who oppose Bush are urging us to work within the Democratic Party, to talk to people and to organize for ballot box voting because, they say, there is a significant difference between the stated objectives of the Democratic and Republican Parties. The evidence shows that whatever the Democrats may say they will do for us voters, they actually do what their rich campaign donors demand. Democrats have been doing this ever since 1965 when Medicare was passed. Since then money has trumped our votes every time.
.
The truth is that ballot box democracy, or ballot box avenues of change are now blocked in this country, if indeed they have ever really existed. There is no way we voters can overwhelm the power of money. Campaign reform simply has not done it and will never do it. We must engage in other forms of political activity beyond mere voting.
Think not of Bush, but of "King Bush" who may be replaced with "Queen Hillary" being the mythical personification of the 5000 white Christian males (the wealthiest 1%) who have the money and power to make the decisions affecting us all.
Then think of the “princes, dukes, marquis, earls, viscounts, and barons” who are in one way or another on the payroll of this "King" or "Queen." These “royalists” are spread throughout the government, the armed forces, business, the media and academia. They will not cross their monetary master, the “King” no matter what voters or anybody else may say.
Then there are us voting serfs who are lied to by the "King's" media, deprived of any other source of information, diverted with TV, football, NASCAR racing, and images of sexy young women. We serfs are made to feel rich with a proliferation of toys, I pods, Walk men, DVD players, digital cameras, junk food and cars. We serfs see no reason to give up what we have by doing anything to cross the "King." Who needs democracy when everything is good enough? A little irritating, but good enough.
Historically, there have been those who were willing to cross the "king" because of ideals, because of their consciences, or because of what was really important to them. Our forefathers who signed our Declaration of Independence pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor, and in many cases they indeed lost their lives and fortunes.
If this is an accurate depiction of our current plight, then we should minimize stamp licking and ballot box politics. Those of us who feel impelled to act for reasons of what is really important to us have the following choices:
1. Violent revolution (which in my view is immoral, counterproductive and impossible) Che Guevara was such a person and is still worshipped throughout Latin America 40 years after his execution by the CIA)
2. Active non-violence: stop paying all taxes.....stop buying anything produced by a corporation...stop working for any corporation.... (This is an effective exercise of power that would add muscle to our voting power if millions join in the activity.)
The final active non-violence is to do what the two Catholic priests did recently....in an effort to halt the teaching of torture and to cause the close of the School for Americas, they blocked the entrance to Fort Huachuca. They willingly submitted to arrest, and willingly accepted the punishment...7 months in the Florence, Arizona prison. While I very much appreciate their actions, I question how much influence their suffering has. Besides, I do not want to go to prison.
My wife C. Jay’s meditation this morning centered on this:
“November 5: Financial Security
An affluent society often functions as a giant tranquilizer. In the pursuit of the rewards of affluence, we have to tune out our awareness so completely that we become destructive to our bodies and our psyches. We have to develop our addictions to shut off our awareness of what is really important to us. We operate out of denial and are threatened by anyone wanting to challenge our denial.” (emphasis added)
I think that most of us are so addicted, and we have indeed shut off our awareness of what is really important to us. We are indeed threatened by anyone who wants to challenge our denial. So even though 64% of us oppose Bush and his policies, we do nothing about it.
What is really important to me? To you? What is more important to us than material goods?
Caring for others. Having others care for me. A government that cares. A good government that protects me from the Law of the Jungle and the greed of the powerful. A government that guarantees and protects my freedom. A government that protects me from the risks of the loss of civilized existence and global warming. A government of, by and for the people where we the voters are sovereign and not the money of the rich.
These foundational needs, while more subtle and further back in the recesses of our minds than the immediate gratification of a Coke & Big Mac, or a new car, are indeed more important when we stop to think about them.
Because of the overwhelming power of money, voting for Hillary or Barack is simply not enough, and is a waste of time without more. Here are some things we can do without giving up our life style:
• We can certainly, even with our affluence addiction, spread the truth. When the true facts of 9/11 are finally exposed to a majority of the American people, there will be an immense awakening. We can spread the truth about Zionists in Israel and in the US and their unrecognized controlling impact on us that may or may not be in our own best interest.
• We can organize among ourselves and participate in buyer’s boycotts and work stoppages. The Democrats and Republicans will both vote further to fund the War. We should then participate in a 3 day “sick out” work stoppage and we should not buy anything for 3 days. When another appointment like that of Attorney General Mukasey reaches the Senate we can have a 3 day sick out and purchasing strike. This is a powerful way we can match the political power of money. The powers that be can be made to change their positions if their profits are threatened.
• We can get our priorities in order: Truth, Justice, and then Peace. The current wars are based on lies. Truth can erode the underpinning of our wars. Wars are started to preserve privileges and cause inevitable injustices. If we end the war, we can then promote justice. There can be no enduring peace without justice. So when we have ended the wars, and promoted justice, we can then work effectively for peace. So we should work for Truth, Justice and Peace, in that order.
E mail me if you want to join an active nonviolent Truth Justice Peace movement. It must be organized from the bottom up. It is up to us.
November 5, 2007
Douglas R. Page dougpage2@earthlink.net
OUR CIVILIZATION WILL FALL BY 2030 UNLESS...
Jared Diamond, Professor of Geography at UCLA in his 2005 book, Collapse, studies civilizations in the past that seemed viable for hundreds of years and suddenly collapsed, and also some societies that adjusted to changed circumstances and survived. His main collapse examples are the Norse settlements in Greenland, the Southwest Mesa Verde Anasazi Indians, the Mayans, and Easter Islanders.
He looks at 5 causes: people causes (like cutting down all of the trees), climate changes, hostile neighbors, decreased support by friendly neighbors, and society’s response to the problems.
He finds that we at present have 12 problems to worry about, any one of which could bring us down. That means that even if we solve 11 of the 12, civilization is still doomed.
1. At an accelerating rate, we are destroying natural habitats such as forests, wet lands, coral reefs, and the ocean bottom.
2. Over-fishing. 2 Billion people on the planet, most of them poor, depend on fish
for their protein.
3. Loss of plant and animal species (which may be insignificant by themselves, like
earthworms, but which are vital for the survival of our soil and food supply)
4. Soil is eroding at between 10 and 40 times the rate at which soil is forming.
5. Peak oil, the exhaustion oil, gas and coal, or the fact that these sources may become prohibitively expensive to extract.
6. The increasing shortage of fresh water, and the depletion of major aquifers.
7. Limits on the planet’s photosynthetic capacity…meaning that photosynthesis works effectively using the sun’s energy in plant cells depends on local temperature and rainfall. We approach the limit by 2050, due to population pressure.
8. The pollution resulting from civilization and the industries civilization requires, from insecticides, toxic chemicals, mercury, and herbicides. (He does not even mention the apparent affect on our bee population)
9. The introduction of alien species that devastate the populations of native species…Australia’s rabbits, agricultural weeds, blights, water hyacinths that choke waterways, zebra mussels that choke power plants, and the lampreys that devastated the fisheries of the Great Lakes etc
10. Human activities that produce gases such as CO2, that create global warming, climate changes, and thus affect our food supply, our need for fuel to heat and cool ourselves.
11. The planet’s unchecked population growth.
12. The impact population growth has on the environment (depending on whether fuel is used for cooking and heating, whether people eat meat or are vegetarians, and whether or not the third world people are to be allowed to have our standard of living or whether we are going to cut ours.
Each of these 12 is a time bomb, with fuses of less that 50 years says Diamond. He devotes a whole chapter to what is like to live in LA and how the changes will soon clog that city.
Jared then refutes each of the things people say to convince themselves that things will turn out ok.
1. The environment must be balanced against keeping the economy going.
2. Technology (or science) will solve all of our problems.
3. If we exhaust one resource, we can always switch to some other resource meeting the same need.
4. There really is not a shortage of food in the world. The problem is distribution.
(The problem is we are getting most of it and we do not want to give it up)
5. Conditions have really been getting better the last few decades. (Not for the third world)
6. Gloom and doom predictions of the past have turned out to be wrong. (Not all of them.)
7. The planet’s population increase is leveling off. (Yes but not enough)
8. The population can grow infinitely because more people means more inventors and ultimately more wealth. (not to be taken seriously. By this projection, we would have 10 persons on every square yard of dry land in 774 years.)
9. We have no business telling poor people what they should be doing. (We are interconnected. What happens to them will soon happen to us.)
10. All these problems will occur after I die. (Maybe but what about your children?)
11. We can think and communicate, while the earlier failed peoples could not. (But we have our dominant capitalist ideology and serious denial, augmented by the bull horn of the corporatacracy.)
12. There is nothing I can do. It is all dominated and controlled by the corporatacracy.
Diamond on page 522 lists the two choices that those societies which adjusted and survived made while those that failed did not:
1. Long term planning
2. Willingness to reconsider and change core values
Diamond thinks that we can change.
Doug’s note to himself: Capitalists abhor long term planning. We voters can plan for the long term only if we really control the wealth and power of the capitalists. So, for us, our survival is as likely as the day a majority of us choose and demand socialism, or the day the cow jumps over the moon.
What about our willingness to reconsider and change core values? Do you think Wall Street, capitalists, and large corporations will give up their zeal for short term profit and their determination to “leave everything to the market”? Since the corporatocracy owns and controls the media, do you think they will persuade the rest of us voters to change? Given that media control, it does not make much difference what we voters think. Unfortunately, we are addicted to material goods, and to a large extent, gambling. Our delusion is that every man jack of us thinks that he has a chance of being rich some day. That delusion impels a majority of voters to oppose steeply progressive tax rates on the rich. They say: “I may be rich some day myself.”
He looks at 5 causes: people causes (like cutting down all of the trees), climate changes, hostile neighbors, decreased support by friendly neighbors, and society’s response to the problems.
He finds that we at present have 12 problems to worry about, any one of which could bring us down. That means that even if we solve 11 of the 12, civilization is still doomed.
1. At an accelerating rate, we are destroying natural habitats such as forests, wet lands, coral reefs, and the ocean bottom.
2. Over-fishing. 2 Billion people on the planet, most of them poor, depend on fish
for their protein.
3. Loss of plant and animal species (which may be insignificant by themselves, like
earthworms, but which are vital for the survival of our soil and food supply)
4. Soil is eroding at between 10 and 40 times the rate at which soil is forming.
5. Peak oil, the exhaustion oil, gas and coal, or the fact that these sources may become prohibitively expensive to extract.
6. The increasing shortage of fresh water, and the depletion of major aquifers.
7. Limits on the planet’s photosynthetic capacity…meaning that photosynthesis works effectively using the sun’s energy in plant cells depends on local temperature and rainfall. We approach the limit by 2050, due to population pressure.
8. The pollution resulting from civilization and the industries civilization requires, from insecticides, toxic chemicals, mercury, and herbicides. (He does not even mention the apparent affect on our bee population)
9. The introduction of alien species that devastate the populations of native species…Australia’s rabbits, agricultural weeds, blights, water hyacinths that choke waterways, zebra mussels that choke power plants, and the lampreys that devastated the fisheries of the Great Lakes etc
10. Human activities that produce gases such as CO2, that create global warming, climate changes, and thus affect our food supply, our need for fuel to heat and cool ourselves.
11. The planet’s unchecked population growth.
12. The impact population growth has on the environment (depending on whether fuel is used for cooking and heating, whether people eat meat or are vegetarians, and whether or not the third world people are to be allowed to have our standard of living or whether we are going to cut ours.
Each of these 12 is a time bomb, with fuses of less that 50 years says Diamond. He devotes a whole chapter to what is like to live in LA and how the changes will soon clog that city.
Jared then refutes each of the things people say to convince themselves that things will turn out ok.
1. The environment must be balanced against keeping the economy going.
2. Technology (or science) will solve all of our problems.
3. If we exhaust one resource, we can always switch to some other resource meeting the same need.
4. There really is not a shortage of food in the world. The problem is distribution.
(The problem is we are getting most of it and we do not want to give it up)
5. Conditions have really been getting better the last few decades. (Not for the third world)
6. Gloom and doom predictions of the past have turned out to be wrong. (Not all of them.)
7. The planet’s population increase is leveling off. (Yes but not enough)
8. The population can grow infinitely because more people means more inventors and ultimately more wealth. (not to be taken seriously. By this projection, we would have 10 persons on every square yard of dry land in 774 years.)
9. We have no business telling poor people what they should be doing. (We are interconnected. What happens to them will soon happen to us.)
10. All these problems will occur after I die. (Maybe but what about your children?)
11. We can think and communicate, while the earlier failed peoples could not. (But we have our dominant capitalist ideology and serious denial, augmented by the bull horn of the corporatacracy.)
12. There is nothing I can do. It is all dominated and controlled by the corporatacracy.
Diamond on page 522 lists the two choices that those societies which adjusted and survived made while those that failed did not:
1. Long term planning
2. Willingness to reconsider and change core values
Diamond thinks that we can change.
Doug’s note to himself: Capitalists abhor long term planning. We voters can plan for the long term only if we really control the wealth and power of the capitalists. So, for us, our survival is as likely as the day a majority of us choose and demand socialism, or the day the cow jumps over the moon.
What about our willingness to reconsider and change core values? Do you think Wall Street, capitalists, and large corporations will give up their zeal for short term profit and their determination to “leave everything to the market”? Since the corporatocracy owns and controls the media, do you think they will persuade the rest of us voters to change? Given that media control, it does not make much difference what we voters think. Unfortunately, we are addicted to material goods, and to a large extent, gambling. Our delusion is that every man jack of us thinks that he has a chance of being rich some day. That delusion impels a majority of voters to oppose steeply progressive tax rates on the rich. They say: “I may be rich some day myself.”
Thursday, November 01, 2007
BARACK OBAMA NEEDS TO SAY:
BARACK OBAMA’S INAUGURAL SPEECH
January 20, 2009
President Bush, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends:
This is a day of national consecration and I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that I will speak the truth, the whole truth frankly and boldly. We shall not shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country and in the world today.
We are a nation divided. Nearly one half the voters chose another person as President. They would have a President who continued acts of preventive war, torture, rendition, wire tapping, and secret arrest that violate the Constitution and the ideals of this great nation that we wish to live in. Our religious traditions compel that we recognize that those people who disagree with us are also children of God and equal in the eyes of God with us. So like Lincoln, we embrace our adversaries offering malice toward none, and charity for all. We believe that they acted sincerely although mistakenly, based upon fears that we all share.
This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive, and will sustainably prosper.
This is no time for partisanship or polarization. It is a time for us to unite and to solve the critical problems that lie just ahead.
The truth is that we all face not one but three coinciding major crises that affect us along with every one else on this planet. The three crises are: Global Warming, Peak Oil, and Global Financial Meltdown. Any one of these crises could cause an end to civilization and democracy. Each has a triggering effect on the other two. These three crises present us with a challenge of whether or not we have evolved enough, and whether we are wise enough to deal with them. We must deal with them even though we are engaged in painful and expensive wars abroad.
I am firmly convinced that we as a people and our democratic institutions can face and deal with these problems creatively and constructively. It will require the very best that is in us. We shall have to accept new thoughts. We shall all have to participate in some form of national service. We shall have to apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit. We shall have to deal with truth and reality and not fantasy. Some may have to sacrifice. Some may have to pay more taxes than they would like. We must build on the instinct “not to foul our nest,” that we all share regarding our fragile planet home. We must discuss and debate the solutions, but we must then quickly decide and we must quickly act.
Some immediate action to unleash our creative spirits and energies is imperative:
• We must effectively eradicate the tyranny of money power that now weakens our democracy of, by, and for the people with campaign contributions and lobbying.
• We must abolish the Senate’s selfish unconstitutional parliamentary device, Senate Rule XXII that allows a minority of Senators to thwart majority will, commonly known as the filibuster. The Senate, like the House of Representatives shall conduct its business as the Constitution compels and Thomas Jefferson dictated in the first Senate Rules, by rule of a simple majority
• We must establish open and unbiased communication media among us so that each of us can be fully informed voting citizens to make the decisions that are now compelled by events
If we do not eradicate each of these impediments to a government of majority rule of, by, and for the people, we shall remain immobilized and we shall remain polarized.
Like Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, must deal with our own fear. Some of our fear is a justifiable reaction to actual events, and some of our fear has been intentionally implanted. We must as a people decide which of our fears are real, and what their causes are. We must then make calm wise choices about how to deal with our fear. Much of our fear has been intentionally created and augmented by the lies surrounding 9/11 and the lies that lead to our Wars, and the jingoism and patriotism that accompany Wars when our sons and daughters are in harms way. We shall have to unravel all of those lies and deal at long last with truth and reality, as we struggle together to bring all of our troops safely home.
For the past many years, we have allowed our fear to blind us to the real causes and motivations of our enemies. We have shot from the hip without thinking, without planning and without real thought. We have reacted from the most primitive of our own reactions. We have not used our analytical processes and our wisdom in dealing either with our enemies or the fear that we have of our enemies.
This unthinking primitive reaction to our enemies has lead us into disaster. It has not made us safer. It has in no way lessened the power of our enemies. We have learned that military might is ineffective against insurgencies. We have learned that use of military power against insurgencies leads to the destruction of self governing democracy here at home. The enemies of democracy here at home as well as the enemies abroad are now vastly more powerful than they were prior to 9/11, despite our military might.
I shall lead this nation in a new approach that is not based solely on our military might, but makes use also of the wisdom of mankind based on faith, hope, and charity, and the Golden Rule. We as a people must try doing to others as we would have them do to us. We must re-establish a good neighbor policy with other peoples and other nations, rather than a policy that seeks domination, exploitation and control of other peoples and their resources. We shall care for each other here at home and we shall care for others abroad. We shall encourage them to care for us and we shall strive to deserve that caring.
I shall seek out our enemies. I shall talk to them. I shall ask them “What is wrong? Why are you angry? What can we do that would make it better for you?” What sort of help would you like from us?”
I shall use our national wealth and our power as generously as we can, to rebuild, to repair, and to restore economies and standards of peoples living elsewhere on this planet. I believe in the wisdom that I conquer my enemy when I make him my friend.
I believe that we are each created in the image of God and equally loved by God. We are in fact interdependent upon each other. As a nation, I propose that we seek to make friends rather than seeking to create enemies.
Some in official power in the recent past are suspected of committing war crimes, treason, crimes of obstruction of justice, perjury and other high crimes and misdemeanors. These suspected wrongdoers are children of God, but like criminals everywhere, they must be brought to Justice. We must judge them on the basis of their unconstitutional acts and we must hold them accountable in the eyes of the law. I shall create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission where those we charge with obstruction of justice, perjury, and high crimes and misdemeanors may publicly purge themselves, and enlighten us all as to needed reforms, policies and laws, and thereby become eligible for a pardon. Those who refuse to participate in the Truth and Reconciliation process must face prosecution before US Courts and Courts Abroad. I shall allow no claim of immunity on behalf of such wrongdoers.
I do hereby order all persons within my authority as President and as Commander in Chief including the CIA, the FBI, the Homeland Security Agency, and all intelligence agencies to safeguard, maintain, and make immediately available to the public all information and evidence concerning 9/11, the plane crashes, and the destruction of the World Trade Center.
I do hereby make an Executive Order repealing each Executive Order that purports to legitimize wire tapping, torture, rendition, secret arrest, and secret detention. I have no problem defining “torture.” It is any oppressive acts toward captured personnel that we would oppose and reject if applied by our enemies to our own captured sons and daughters.
I hereby make an order restoring the Writ of Habeas Corpus to its full standing under our Constitution, so that the legality of any arrest and any detention by U.S. personnel of a human being anywhere can be heard and decided in our federal courts.
For those who have lost their jobs, who are at risk of losing their jobs, for those who are working at jobs beneath their creative potential, hear this:
We honor and we shall maintain an active government, a government that cares for all of us, a government that will protect us from the greed of economic royalists, and maintain equal opportunity for all. We shall maintain a government of, by, and for the people with equal justice and caring for all.
In this dedication of our nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May God protect each and every one of us. May God guide us in the days to come.
January 20, 2009
President Bush, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends:
This is a day of national consecration and I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that I will speak the truth, the whole truth frankly and boldly. We shall not shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country and in the world today.
We are a nation divided. Nearly one half the voters chose another person as President. They would have a President who continued acts of preventive war, torture, rendition, wire tapping, and secret arrest that violate the Constitution and the ideals of this great nation that we wish to live in. Our religious traditions compel that we recognize that those people who disagree with us are also children of God and equal in the eyes of God with us. So like Lincoln, we embrace our adversaries offering malice toward none, and charity for all. We believe that they acted sincerely although mistakenly, based upon fears that we all share.
This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive, and will sustainably prosper.
This is no time for partisanship or polarization. It is a time for us to unite and to solve the critical problems that lie just ahead.
The truth is that we all face not one but three coinciding major crises that affect us along with every one else on this planet. The three crises are: Global Warming, Peak Oil, and Global Financial Meltdown. Any one of these crises could cause an end to civilization and democracy. Each has a triggering effect on the other two. These three crises present us with a challenge of whether or not we have evolved enough, and whether we are wise enough to deal with them. We must deal with them even though we are engaged in painful and expensive wars abroad.
I am firmly convinced that we as a people and our democratic institutions can face and deal with these problems creatively and constructively. It will require the very best that is in us. We shall have to accept new thoughts. We shall all have to participate in some form of national service. We shall have to apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit. We shall have to deal with truth and reality and not fantasy. Some may have to sacrifice. Some may have to pay more taxes than they would like. We must build on the instinct “not to foul our nest,” that we all share regarding our fragile planet home. We must discuss and debate the solutions, but we must then quickly decide and we must quickly act.
Some immediate action to unleash our creative spirits and energies is imperative:
• We must effectively eradicate the tyranny of money power that now weakens our democracy of, by, and for the people with campaign contributions and lobbying.
• We must abolish the Senate’s selfish unconstitutional parliamentary device, Senate Rule XXII that allows a minority of Senators to thwart majority will, commonly known as the filibuster. The Senate, like the House of Representatives shall conduct its business as the Constitution compels and Thomas Jefferson dictated in the first Senate Rules, by rule of a simple majority
• We must establish open and unbiased communication media among us so that each of us can be fully informed voting citizens to make the decisions that are now compelled by events
If we do not eradicate each of these impediments to a government of majority rule of, by, and for the people, we shall remain immobilized and we shall remain polarized.
Like Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, must deal with our own fear. Some of our fear is a justifiable reaction to actual events, and some of our fear has been intentionally implanted. We must as a people decide which of our fears are real, and what their causes are. We must then make calm wise choices about how to deal with our fear. Much of our fear has been intentionally created and augmented by the lies surrounding 9/11 and the lies that lead to our Wars, and the jingoism and patriotism that accompany Wars when our sons and daughters are in harms way. We shall have to unravel all of those lies and deal at long last with truth and reality, as we struggle together to bring all of our troops safely home.
For the past many years, we have allowed our fear to blind us to the real causes and motivations of our enemies. We have shot from the hip without thinking, without planning and without real thought. We have reacted from the most primitive of our own reactions. We have not used our analytical processes and our wisdom in dealing either with our enemies or the fear that we have of our enemies.
This unthinking primitive reaction to our enemies has lead us into disaster. It has not made us safer. It has in no way lessened the power of our enemies. We have learned that military might is ineffective against insurgencies. We have learned that use of military power against insurgencies leads to the destruction of self governing democracy here at home. The enemies of democracy here at home as well as the enemies abroad are now vastly more powerful than they were prior to 9/11, despite our military might.
I shall lead this nation in a new approach that is not based solely on our military might, but makes use also of the wisdom of mankind based on faith, hope, and charity, and the Golden Rule. We as a people must try doing to others as we would have them do to us. We must re-establish a good neighbor policy with other peoples and other nations, rather than a policy that seeks domination, exploitation and control of other peoples and their resources. We shall care for each other here at home and we shall care for others abroad. We shall encourage them to care for us and we shall strive to deserve that caring.
I shall seek out our enemies. I shall talk to them. I shall ask them “What is wrong? Why are you angry? What can we do that would make it better for you?” What sort of help would you like from us?”
I shall use our national wealth and our power as generously as we can, to rebuild, to repair, and to restore economies and standards of peoples living elsewhere on this planet. I believe in the wisdom that I conquer my enemy when I make him my friend.
I believe that we are each created in the image of God and equally loved by God. We are in fact interdependent upon each other. As a nation, I propose that we seek to make friends rather than seeking to create enemies.
Some in official power in the recent past are suspected of committing war crimes, treason, crimes of obstruction of justice, perjury and other high crimes and misdemeanors. These suspected wrongdoers are children of God, but like criminals everywhere, they must be brought to Justice. We must judge them on the basis of their unconstitutional acts and we must hold them accountable in the eyes of the law. I shall create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission where those we charge with obstruction of justice, perjury, and high crimes and misdemeanors may publicly purge themselves, and enlighten us all as to needed reforms, policies and laws, and thereby become eligible for a pardon. Those who refuse to participate in the Truth and Reconciliation process must face prosecution before US Courts and Courts Abroad. I shall allow no claim of immunity on behalf of such wrongdoers.
I do hereby order all persons within my authority as President and as Commander in Chief including the CIA, the FBI, the Homeland Security Agency, and all intelligence agencies to safeguard, maintain, and make immediately available to the public all information and evidence concerning 9/11, the plane crashes, and the destruction of the World Trade Center.
I do hereby make an Executive Order repealing each Executive Order that purports to legitimize wire tapping, torture, rendition, secret arrest, and secret detention. I have no problem defining “torture.” It is any oppressive acts toward captured personnel that we would oppose and reject if applied by our enemies to our own captured sons and daughters.
I hereby make an order restoring the Writ of Habeas Corpus to its full standing under our Constitution, so that the legality of any arrest and any detention by U.S. personnel of a human being anywhere can be heard and decided in our federal courts.
For those who have lost their jobs, who are at risk of losing their jobs, for those who are working at jobs beneath their creative potential, hear this:
We honor and we shall maintain an active government, a government that cares for all of us, a government that will protect us from the greed of economic royalists, and maintain equal opportunity for all. We shall maintain a government of, by, and for the people with equal justice and caring for all.
In this dedication of our nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May God protect each and every one of us. May God guide us in the days to come.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
THE ISRAEL LOBBY: THE OTHER ELEPHANT IN THE LIVING ROOM
We speak of religious influences over politics with much justifiable hesitation. We want a separation of church and state. We have nightmarish memories of the Holocaust, of pogroms, of the inquisition, and of religious intolerance. Our Constitution states: “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
John F. Kennedy, our first Catholic President, pledged to American Baptists and to all Americans that in the case of a conflict between the Catholic Church and the United States, that he would support the interests of the United States.
We voters must now face the fact that there are an astounding number of powerful Zionists who hold high positions in the Executive Branch of our government, in the House of Representatives, in the Senate, and in the federal courts below the level of the USSC.
Zionists are those who support a homeland for Jewish people in the Biblical land of Israel. There are 40 million Christian Zionists in the U.S., so Zionists are both Christian and Jew. The boundaries of the Biblical land of Israel extended from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Iraq. Zionists in Israel and in the U.S. are now right wing, aggressive hawks, neocons, racist, and oppressive toward the poor in every country. Zionists conceal and sometimes deny even to themselves the fact of Israel’s unilateral capture and 40 year military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the expropriation of farms and villages there and their ongoing expansion of settlements for Jews in the West Bank. Zionists are very aggressive about occupying all of the land of Biblical Israel, with neither concern nor responsibility for the Muslims who have lived there for centuries. Zionism coincides perfectly with the dynamics of unregulated capitalism, and with the ideological objectives of neocons.
Jewish Zionists are political allies of the right wing in the U.S., and of the millions of U.S. citizens who are right wing Christians and Christian Zionists . Zionists are represented in the U.S. by the Israel Lobby of which AIPAC plays a very powerful part.
Israeli Zionists reluctantly participate in “peace processes” when forced by the U.S., but seek to delay even modest proposals while they escalate the expansion of settlements in Muslim territory to continue to “establish facts on the ground.”
Most U.S. Jews are not right wing neocons and yet they uncritically support the Israel Lobby, and maintain a powerfully shaming attitude of “Jewish correctness” that it is “anti-Semitic” to criticize Israel or AIPAC, or to express concern for the plight of Palestinians. Thus American Jews and American Christian Zionists must be considered responsible for all that Israel does to its neighbors.
An initial point of order and clarification: It is NOT anti-Semitic to be anti-Zionist, or to be against the current hawkish government and positions of Israel. Similarly, it is not anti-Semitic for one to take the position as I do, that Israel has a right only to the territory within its 1967 borders, and that its capture and military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is wrongful, illegal, in violation of International Law and of the UN Charter. It is not anti-Semitic vigorously to oppose political positions taken Christian Zionists and by American Jews. These distinctions must be widely discussed and debated. We must be prepared for and endure the inevitable deluge of false ad hominem attacks that we are “anti-Semitic.”
Hillary Clinton is not a Jew, but she is a Zionist. So are Senators Charles Schumer, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and Joseph Lieberman. So are Congresspersons Rahm Emmanuel, Gabriel Giffords, Tom Lantos, Steny Hoyer, and Henry Waxman. These are only some of the Democrats. All Republicans steadfastly support Zionism in Israel as well. The Zionists influencing the Executive Branch are very prominent: Norman Podhoretz, William Safire, Irving Kristol, William Kristol, Martin Peretz, Cynthia Ozick, Ruth Wisse, Leon Wieseltier, Richard Perle, John Bolton, Leo Strauss, Henry Kissinger, Elliot Abrams, Philip D. Zelikow, Paul Wolfowitz, Jeffrey Bergner, Paula Dobriansky, Robert Kagan, Peter Rodman, William Schneider, Jr., and Robert B. Zoelick, Douglas Feith, and Lewis “Scooter” Libby, James Woolsey, and Richard Armitage. Some have dual citizenship with the US and Israel. They admit to an “unbreakable bond with Israel.” These Zionists ardently supported the Iraq War. Israel and its Israel Lobby, uncritically supported by Christian Zionists and most American Jews, are also lobbying hard for a military attack on Iran.
Zionists no matter where they are placed in the government must be confronted and asked to pledge their first loyalty to the United States and not to Israel.
I believe that an attack on Iran by Israel and/or the United States would be disastrous for the thirty thousand Jews who live comfortably in Iran, disastrous for Israel, disastrous for Jews everywhere, and disastrous for the United States. We who oppose these foreign invasions must now recognize that our former political allies in liberal politics and the civil rights movement, American Jews, are now our political enemies. Elected Zionist representatives claim that the vital wishes of Israel and of the United States are identical, thereby avoiding the issue. So, I must disagree with, publicly expose, and vote against Zionist elected representatives whether they are Jewish or not, who automatically give Israel what it asks for. American Jews, formerly for peace and civil rights, have now chosen to join with the neocons in Israel and in the United States, and with the Christian Right. American Jews have changed from being defenders of truth and justice to supporters of preventive war, torture, and oppression.
The critical political point of all of this is that Christian Zionists have a very large influence on the Republican Party and Jewish Zionists have an overwhelming dominant influence and control of the Democratic Party. Jewish Zionists are the principal reason the Democrats cannot be aggressive about ending the Iraq War or preventing a War with Iran.
I am deeply indebted to Christopher Bollyn for his rigorous intellectual honesty and courage for investigating and writing about the evidence showing Zionist involvement in 9/11. The information that follows was first unearthed and publicized by Bollyn. He and his family have paid a heavy personal price. For all of the facts that follow please see and support his web site at http://www.bollyn.com/index. I have met Bollyn personally and I am convinced that he shares my values. He is not anti-Semitic. He is anti-Zionist, as I am.
.
Once this unpleasant subject is opened, it leads to some very surprising other issues. For example, what really happened on 9/11 and what were the causes? Bush and the Zionists in his administration have classified as top secret all of the evidence of what happened on 9/11. Democratic Zionists show no interest in investigating 9/11. There is no apparent reason for this. The wrong doers know what they did. Why should what they did be hidden from the American voters? Bush did his political best to prevent any investigation at all, and then limited the scope of the investigation to what should be done in the future, carefully avoiding the causes and what went wrong. Bush’s additional control of the Official Investigation was his placement of Philip D. Zelikow , a Zionist as the chief of staff who controlled the scope of the inquiry, the input of evidence and the content of the final report which most critics have labeled a complete whitewash. All of the private lawsuits by victims involving 9/11 where the evidence of wrongdoers could be produced had been assigned to Zionist judges Michael B. Mukasey and Alvin K Hellerstein until Mukasey. After Mukasey’s retirement, Hellerstein was assigned control all of the private lawsuits by victims against 9/11 wrongdoers. He actively prevents any of them from going to trial where the hidden facts of 9/11 might be opened to the public. Bush has nominated Mukasey to be the new Attorney General, who from his beliefs and background can be depended upon not to use his position as America’s top lawyer to investigate 9/11 and indict those responsible. When Mukasey was presiding over one of the 9/11 hearings, the lawyers for Arab defendants challenged Mulcasy to recuse himself because he was a Zionist. Mukasey denied the request and stated that the fact of his Zionism “was utterly irrelevant.” A Zionist, Michael Cherthoff is head of Homeland Security and thus the boss of the FBI. All of these Zionists are helping to keep the lid on 9/11 and to prevent any challenge to the official story.
Why are Zionists so interested in suppressing facts about 9/11? 9/11 was a massive crime involving 3000 murders. Obstruction of Justice is a serious federal crime in itself. Why would Zionist Judge Hellerstein not want the truth about the wrongdoers revealed in a trial on the merits? Why would he make the strange order that the damages of the victims be heard in a first separate trial, and that liability issues would be heard in a later trial? Why is he putting immense pressure on the victims to accept money and forget attempting to produce evidence showing who was responsible?
Why would AIPAC, the America Israel Public Affairs Committee, be concerned that physics professor Steven Jones of BYU, carefully following the scientific method, tested some WTC steel residue and found that it contained thermite? This evidence, and the fact that steel stayed molten in the basement of WTC for weeks after 9/11, forces the conclusion that thermite explosives were used to bring down WTC 1, 2 & 7 in controlled demolitions. AIPAC was concerned and successfully pressured BYU to suspend Jones from teaching at BYU. Why would AIPAC be so concerned?
AIPAC’s and the Zionists’ concern may be based on the following facts that tend to show that Israel had a substantial part in causing or allowing 9/11 to happen.
The Forward, New York City’s leading Jewish newspaper reported that the 5 Israelis who had been arrested on 9/11 standing on top of a moving van near the WTC taking pictures of the tragedy and making gestures of celebration, were Mossad agents. (Mossad is Israel’s CIA). The paper further reported that the van was owned by Urban Moving Company which was a Mossad front. The 5 Mossad agents were Oded Ellner, Omer Gauriel Marman, Yaron Shmuel, Paul Kurzberg, and Sivan Kurzberg. After their deportation to Israel on November 20, 2002, 3 of them appeared on Israeli television and stated that they were “documenting the event.” They obviously knew ahead of time when and where the disaster would occur so that they could be there to document it.
Further evidence of the zealous Zionist effort to suppress facts of 9/11 is revealed in the following. Would you not like to know the identity of the “prominent New York congressmen”?
“Late October 2001: Intense Political Pressure to Release Suspected Israeli Spies Arrested on 9/11
Around this time intense political pressure is put on US officials holding five Israeli men arrested for suspicious behavior at the time of the 9/11 attacks (see 3:56 p.m. September 11, 2001). According to the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and two unidentified “prominent New York congressmen” lobby heavily for their release. According to a source at ABC News, well-known criminal lawyer Alan Dershowitz also becomes involved as a negotiator to help get the men released. (Dershowitz will later refuse to comment on the matter.) [CounterPunch, 2/7/2007] ABC News will later report that was “high-level negotiations between Israeli and U.S. government officials” over the five men, resulting in a settlement. [ABC News, 6/21/2002] Apparently the political pressure will succeed because the men will be released a few weeks later (see November 20, 2001]).”
The above information is part of Paul Thompson’s time line of all publicly available information about 9/11 set forth in his time line at http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/project.jsp?project=911_project
(Readers will find it profitable to read all of the entries in the time line under the heading “Israel.”)
Approximately two hours before the attack (in other words about 6:45 am on 9/11) two employees of Odigo Inc, an Israeli owned instant messaging company located two blocks from WTC, received text messages warning of the attack. Washington Post 9-28-01.
There is much much more that I will put in a future article. Guess what company controlled security at Logan Airport in Boston on 9/11? Guess who owned the 99 year leases on WTC buildings, prudently insured them in January, 2001 and then recovered nearly $5 billion in insurance on an investment of $100 million?
This cover-up, this obstruction of justice, cannot be maintained forever. When the whole truth emerges, this involvement of Israel could produce a firestorm of anti-Semitism and hatred of the United States that could sweep the planet for decades. We all should take note and do our best to indict the 9/11 wrongdoers, hold them accountable as criminals, and then do all we can to maintain temperate civilized life for all, be they Christian, Jew or Muslim.
October 27, 2007
Douglas R. Page, Tucson, AZ dougpage2@earthlink.net
END NOTES
Christian Zionists and Jewish Zionists have different reasons for their close tactical alliance. Christian Zionists believe that the expansion of Israel is a part of the coming War of Armageddon when Jesus will appear on earth and convert the Jews to Christianity. If the Jews refuse to convert, Jesus will send them to Hell. Jewish Zionists welcome the help of these Christian Zionists and believe that the second coming of Jesus is highly improbable, a “risk worth taking,” as Rabbi Lerner puts it in his article critical of the Israel Lobby in the September issue of Tikkun.
2 Wikipedia lists some further fascinating information about Zelikow. He is a very bright, holds both a PhD. and a law degree, and has been a professor at major universities. His field of academic specialty and expertise is the creation and maintenance of, in his words, “public myths” or “public presumptions,” which he defines as “beliefs” (1) thought to be true (although not necessarily known to be true with certainty), and (2) shared in common with the relevant political community.” Was this why he was chosen to write the obviously phony official report of 9/11?
Another fascinating tid bit: Zelikow has also written about terrorism and national security, including a set of Harvard case studies on "Policing Northern Ireland." In the November-December 1998 issue of Foreign Affairs, he co-authored an article entitled "Catastrophic Terrorism," in which he speculated that if the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center had succeeded, "the resulting horror and chaos would have exceeded our ability to describe it. Such an act of catastrophic terrorism would be a watershed event in American history. It could involve loss of life and property unprecedented in peacetime and undermine America’s fundamental sense of security, as did the Soviet atomic bomb test in 1949. Like Pearl Harbor, the event would divide our past and future into a before and after. The United States might respond with draconian measures scaling back civil liberties, allowing wider surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects and use of deadly force. More violence could follow, either future terrorist attacks or U.S. counterattacks. Belatedly, Americans would judge their leaders negligent for not addressing terrorism more urgently."
What a strange coincidence that 9/11 happened at the World Trade Center and caused exactly the response that Zelikow predicted.
John F. Kennedy, our first Catholic President, pledged to American Baptists and to all Americans that in the case of a conflict between the Catholic Church and the United States, that he would support the interests of the United States.
We voters must now face the fact that there are an astounding number of powerful Zionists who hold high positions in the Executive Branch of our government, in the House of Representatives, in the Senate, and in the federal courts below the level of the USSC.
Zionists are those who support a homeland for Jewish people in the Biblical land of Israel. There are 40 million Christian Zionists in the U.S., so Zionists are both Christian and Jew. The boundaries of the Biblical land of Israel extended from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Iraq. Zionists in Israel and in the U.S. are now right wing, aggressive hawks, neocons, racist, and oppressive toward the poor in every country. Zionists conceal and sometimes deny even to themselves the fact of Israel’s unilateral capture and 40 year military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the expropriation of farms and villages there and their ongoing expansion of settlements for Jews in the West Bank. Zionists are very aggressive about occupying all of the land of Biblical Israel, with neither concern nor responsibility for the Muslims who have lived there for centuries. Zionism coincides perfectly with the dynamics of unregulated capitalism, and with the ideological objectives of neocons.
Jewish Zionists are political allies of the right wing in the U.S., and of the millions of U.S. citizens who are right wing Christians and Christian Zionists . Zionists are represented in the U.S. by the Israel Lobby of which AIPAC plays a very powerful part.
Israeli Zionists reluctantly participate in “peace processes” when forced by the U.S., but seek to delay even modest proposals while they escalate the expansion of settlements in Muslim territory to continue to “establish facts on the ground.”
Most U.S. Jews are not right wing neocons and yet they uncritically support the Israel Lobby, and maintain a powerfully shaming attitude of “Jewish correctness” that it is “anti-Semitic” to criticize Israel or AIPAC, or to express concern for the plight of Palestinians. Thus American Jews and American Christian Zionists must be considered responsible for all that Israel does to its neighbors.
An initial point of order and clarification: It is NOT anti-Semitic to be anti-Zionist, or to be against the current hawkish government and positions of Israel. Similarly, it is not anti-Semitic for one to take the position as I do, that Israel has a right only to the territory within its 1967 borders, and that its capture and military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is wrongful, illegal, in violation of International Law and of the UN Charter. It is not anti-Semitic vigorously to oppose political positions taken Christian Zionists and by American Jews. These distinctions must be widely discussed and debated. We must be prepared for and endure the inevitable deluge of false ad hominem attacks that we are “anti-Semitic.”
Hillary Clinton is not a Jew, but she is a Zionist. So are Senators Charles Schumer, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and Joseph Lieberman. So are Congresspersons Rahm Emmanuel, Gabriel Giffords, Tom Lantos, Steny Hoyer, and Henry Waxman. These are only some of the Democrats. All Republicans steadfastly support Zionism in Israel as well. The Zionists influencing the Executive Branch are very prominent: Norman Podhoretz, William Safire, Irving Kristol, William Kristol, Martin Peretz, Cynthia Ozick, Ruth Wisse, Leon Wieseltier, Richard Perle, John Bolton, Leo Strauss, Henry Kissinger, Elliot Abrams, Philip D. Zelikow, Paul Wolfowitz, Jeffrey Bergner, Paula Dobriansky, Robert Kagan, Peter Rodman, William Schneider, Jr., and Robert B. Zoelick, Douglas Feith, and Lewis “Scooter” Libby, James Woolsey, and Richard Armitage. Some have dual citizenship with the US and Israel. They admit to an “unbreakable bond with Israel.” These Zionists ardently supported the Iraq War. Israel and its Israel Lobby, uncritically supported by Christian Zionists and most American Jews, are also lobbying hard for a military attack on Iran.
Zionists no matter where they are placed in the government must be confronted and asked to pledge their first loyalty to the United States and not to Israel.
I believe that an attack on Iran by Israel and/or the United States would be disastrous for the thirty thousand Jews who live comfortably in Iran, disastrous for Israel, disastrous for Jews everywhere, and disastrous for the United States. We who oppose these foreign invasions must now recognize that our former political allies in liberal politics and the civil rights movement, American Jews, are now our political enemies. Elected Zionist representatives claim that the vital wishes of Israel and of the United States are identical, thereby avoiding the issue. So, I must disagree with, publicly expose, and vote against Zionist elected representatives whether they are Jewish or not, who automatically give Israel what it asks for. American Jews, formerly for peace and civil rights, have now chosen to join with the neocons in Israel and in the United States, and with the Christian Right. American Jews have changed from being defenders of truth and justice to supporters of preventive war, torture, and oppression.
The critical political point of all of this is that Christian Zionists have a very large influence on the Republican Party and Jewish Zionists have an overwhelming dominant influence and control of the Democratic Party. Jewish Zionists are the principal reason the Democrats cannot be aggressive about ending the Iraq War or preventing a War with Iran.
I am deeply indebted to Christopher Bollyn for his rigorous intellectual honesty and courage for investigating and writing about the evidence showing Zionist involvement in 9/11. The information that follows was first unearthed and publicized by Bollyn. He and his family have paid a heavy personal price. For all of the facts that follow please see and support his web site at http://www.bollyn.com/index. I have met Bollyn personally and I am convinced that he shares my values. He is not anti-Semitic. He is anti-Zionist, as I am.
.
Once this unpleasant subject is opened, it leads to some very surprising other issues. For example, what really happened on 9/11 and what were the causes? Bush and the Zionists in his administration have classified as top secret all of the evidence of what happened on 9/11. Democratic Zionists show no interest in investigating 9/11. There is no apparent reason for this. The wrong doers know what they did. Why should what they did be hidden from the American voters? Bush did his political best to prevent any investigation at all, and then limited the scope of the investigation to what should be done in the future, carefully avoiding the causes and what went wrong. Bush’s additional control of the Official Investigation was his placement of Philip D. Zelikow , a Zionist as the chief of staff who controlled the scope of the inquiry, the input of evidence and the content of the final report which most critics have labeled a complete whitewash. All of the private lawsuits by victims involving 9/11 where the evidence of wrongdoers could be produced had been assigned to Zionist judges Michael B. Mukasey and Alvin K Hellerstein until Mukasey. After Mukasey’s retirement, Hellerstein was assigned control all of the private lawsuits by victims against 9/11 wrongdoers. He actively prevents any of them from going to trial where the hidden facts of 9/11 might be opened to the public. Bush has nominated Mukasey to be the new Attorney General, who from his beliefs and background can be depended upon not to use his position as America’s top lawyer to investigate 9/11 and indict those responsible. When Mukasey was presiding over one of the 9/11 hearings, the lawyers for Arab defendants challenged Mulcasy to recuse himself because he was a Zionist. Mukasey denied the request and stated that the fact of his Zionism “was utterly irrelevant.” A Zionist, Michael Cherthoff is head of Homeland Security and thus the boss of the FBI. All of these Zionists are helping to keep the lid on 9/11 and to prevent any challenge to the official story.
Why are Zionists so interested in suppressing facts about 9/11? 9/11 was a massive crime involving 3000 murders. Obstruction of Justice is a serious federal crime in itself. Why would Zionist Judge Hellerstein not want the truth about the wrongdoers revealed in a trial on the merits? Why would he make the strange order that the damages of the victims be heard in a first separate trial, and that liability issues would be heard in a later trial? Why is he putting immense pressure on the victims to accept money and forget attempting to produce evidence showing who was responsible?
Why would AIPAC, the America Israel Public Affairs Committee, be concerned that physics professor Steven Jones of BYU, carefully following the scientific method, tested some WTC steel residue and found that it contained thermite? This evidence, and the fact that steel stayed molten in the basement of WTC for weeks after 9/11, forces the conclusion that thermite explosives were used to bring down WTC 1, 2 & 7 in controlled demolitions. AIPAC was concerned and successfully pressured BYU to suspend Jones from teaching at BYU. Why would AIPAC be so concerned?
AIPAC’s and the Zionists’ concern may be based on the following facts that tend to show that Israel had a substantial part in causing or allowing 9/11 to happen.
The Forward, New York City’s leading Jewish newspaper reported that the 5 Israelis who had been arrested on 9/11 standing on top of a moving van near the WTC taking pictures of the tragedy and making gestures of celebration, were Mossad agents. (Mossad is Israel’s CIA). The paper further reported that the van was owned by Urban Moving Company which was a Mossad front. The 5 Mossad agents were Oded Ellner, Omer Gauriel Marman, Yaron Shmuel, Paul Kurzberg, and Sivan Kurzberg. After their deportation to Israel on November 20, 2002, 3 of them appeared on Israeli television and stated that they were “documenting the event.” They obviously knew ahead of time when and where the disaster would occur so that they could be there to document it.
Further evidence of the zealous Zionist effort to suppress facts of 9/11 is revealed in the following. Would you not like to know the identity of the “prominent New York congressmen”?
“Late October 2001: Intense Political Pressure to Release Suspected Israeli Spies Arrested on 9/11
Around this time intense political pressure is put on US officials holding five Israeli men arrested for suspicious behavior at the time of the 9/11 attacks (see 3:56 p.m. September 11, 2001). According to the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and two unidentified “prominent New York congressmen” lobby heavily for their release. According to a source at ABC News, well-known criminal lawyer Alan Dershowitz also becomes involved as a negotiator to help get the men released. (Dershowitz will later refuse to comment on the matter.) [CounterPunch, 2/7/2007] ABC News will later report that was “high-level negotiations between Israeli and U.S. government officials” over the five men, resulting in a settlement. [ABC News, 6/21/2002] Apparently the political pressure will succeed because the men will be released a few weeks later (see November 20, 2001]).”
The above information is part of Paul Thompson’s time line of all publicly available information about 9/11 set forth in his time line at http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/project.jsp?project=911_project
(Readers will find it profitable to read all of the entries in the time line under the heading “Israel.”)
Approximately two hours before the attack (in other words about 6:45 am on 9/11) two employees of Odigo Inc, an Israeli owned instant messaging company located two blocks from WTC, received text messages warning of the attack. Washington Post 9-28-01.
There is much much more that I will put in a future article. Guess what company controlled security at Logan Airport in Boston on 9/11? Guess who owned the 99 year leases on WTC buildings, prudently insured them in January, 2001 and then recovered nearly $5 billion in insurance on an investment of $100 million?
This cover-up, this obstruction of justice, cannot be maintained forever. When the whole truth emerges, this involvement of Israel could produce a firestorm of anti-Semitism and hatred of the United States that could sweep the planet for decades. We all should take note and do our best to indict the 9/11 wrongdoers, hold them accountable as criminals, and then do all we can to maintain temperate civilized life for all, be they Christian, Jew or Muslim.
October 27, 2007
Douglas R. Page, Tucson, AZ dougpage2@earthlink.net
END NOTES
Christian Zionists and Jewish Zionists have different reasons for their close tactical alliance. Christian Zionists believe that the expansion of Israel is a part of the coming War of Armageddon when Jesus will appear on earth and convert the Jews to Christianity. If the Jews refuse to convert, Jesus will send them to Hell. Jewish Zionists welcome the help of these Christian Zionists and believe that the second coming of Jesus is highly improbable, a “risk worth taking,” as Rabbi Lerner puts it in his article critical of the Israel Lobby in the September issue of Tikkun.
2 Wikipedia lists some further fascinating information about Zelikow. He is a very bright, holds both a PhD. and a law degree, and has been a professor at major universities. His field of academic specialty and expertise is the creation and maintenance of, in his words, “public myths” or “public presumptions,” which he defines as “beliefs” (1) thought to be true (although not necessarily known to be true with certainty), and (2) shared in common with the relevant political community.” Was this why he was chosen to write the obviously phony official report of 9/11?
Another fascinating tid bit: Zelikow has also written about terrorism and national security, including a set of Harvard case studies on "Policing Northern Ireland." In the November-December 1998 issue of Foreign Affairs, he co-authored an article entitled "Catastrophic Terrorism," in which he speculated that if the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center had succeeded, "the resulting horror and chaos would have exceeded our ability to describe it. Such an act of catastrophic terrorism would be a watershed event in American history. It could involve loss of life and property unprecedented in peacetime and undermine America’s fundamental sense of security, as did the Soviet atomic bomb test in 1949. Like Pearl Harbor, the event would divide our past and future into a before and after. The United States might respond with draconian measures scaling back civil liberties, allowing wider surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects and use of deadly force. More violence could follow, either future terrorist attacks or U.S. counterattacks. Belatedly, Americans would judge their leaders negligent for not addressing terrorism more urgently."
What a strange coincidence that 9/11 happened at the World Trade Center and caused exactly the response that Zelikow predicted.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
UNCONTROLLABLE CAPITALISM
The Elephant in the Living Room that will kill us all unless we give it Our Full Attention
We sometimes label those topics that we are too inhibited to talk about as an “elephant in the living room.” In our nation, nobody talks about the social adequacy of Capitalism. Capitalism is such an elephant in the living room. Almost no one is aware of the fact that capitalism is uncontrollable by voters because of its dynamics.
THE UNCONTROLLABLE AXIOMATIC DYNAMICS OF CAPITALISM
1. The very core of capitalism is hiring. Forget the “good” employers that you know. They are an atypical tiny minority. The actual pervasive dynamic is this: A man with money hires a man with no money to work for the employer at the lowest possible wage so as to earn as much profit for the employer as possible.
2. This dynamic, repeated thousands of times over many decades, produces a group of human employers and those who invest with them, with immense money and power. Capitalism thus creates a group of humans with the power and the incentive to thwart the majority will and voting power of democratic voters.
3. This group uses its power and its money to:
• Own or control the media, advertising and PR sectors. It uses the manipulative PR “arts” surrounding patriotism, jingoism, militarism, nationalism, and racism to augment its control. This group thus controls even what we think about.
• Thwart majority democratic rule of voters by bribery of elected officials, euphemistically called “campaign contributions.” Capitalism thus becomes uncontrollable by the ballot box political process of voters.
• Control the government, regulatory agencies, foreign policy, the military, and the intelligence agencies.
• Outsource anywhere on the planet to obtain the cheapest possible labor, with no responsibility whatever to their existing employees, their home communities, or even the national security manufacturing interests of the nation.
• Defy all regulation, warm the globe, and pollute the air, the oceans, and the upper atmosphere. Capitalists use forests, the fishes of the sea, tillable soil, and potable water simply as a “factor of production” to make as much profit as possible, and with no responsibility to the community or humanity. Capitalism, with its awesome uncontrollable power is thus the very antithesis of socially responsible sustainability.
4. Capitalists and their employees are the source of funding for academics, “liberal” magazines, and NGO’s like Common Cause, the Sierra Club, and other “cause” organizations, and their employees.
Al Gore and the Nobel Committee are prime examples of our failure to give attention to “the elephant in the living room.” Al Gore has received the Nobel Prize for his work publicizing Global Warming, although he completely ignores the greedy economic engine that causes Global Warming.
http://www.counterpunch.org/frank10152007.html
We can never achieve a sustainable civilized life on this planet unless we understand the dynamics of capitalism. Voting for Hillary, or voting for anybody who accepts campaign money bribes, will do absolutely no good. With an understanding of the dynamics of capitalism, we can, acting together, exercise control:
• We can stop working, stop buying, and stop listening to capitalist media and PR.
• We can become aware of the lack of legitimacy of the capitalist status quo, of its crippling affect on our democratic voting power, and of its destruction of the planet. Capitalism is the deadly enemy of sustainability.
• We can prohibit private hiring for profit altogether or,
• We can require employers to get annual permits to hire humans, conditioned upon decent wages and working conditions, and limitations on the profits of an employer and investors.
• We can insist on a steeply progressive tax on wealth and income to diminish the power of this class of capitalists.
As we create this sustainable civilized life, we must maintain a consciousness of the awesome anti-social dynamics of capitalism so that we never again let capitalism get out of control.
Please meditate on the following social phenomena and the possible contribution of uncontrollable capitalism to each:
• The increasing number of people who are being treated for personal depression.
• The high levels of personal debt in American households
• The compounding obesity of the US population in the last ten years.
• The instability and fragility of the US economy and the constant risk we endure.
• The fact that this richest nation on earth cannot provide adequate health coverage for its residents, or even its children.
• The fact that the income of dentists has escalated far more than the cost of living, while 40% of US children have untreated cavities.
• The incessant PR message that all government and all taxes for community purposes are evil.
• The immense disparity between of wealth between the top 1% in the U.S. who get 21% if the income and the 12% earned by the bottom 50%, and the social consequences of that disparity.
• The ongoing chatter about further tax cuts for the rich.
• The fact that the typical college graduate leaves college with a debt of $50 to $150 thousand dollars that will consume 1/3 or his post graduate income for ten years.
• The fact that our dams, free ways, levees, and our entire public infrastructure are in very bad repair.
• The fact that we as a people and as a nation are unable to enact laws and policies that would insure a sustainable civilized survival for our off spring.
• The fact that our manufacturing industries and jobs have been outsourced to other countries, so that no longer needed employees can only get low paying jobs in fast food franchises.
• The fact that we get into one war after another against “communists” and “terrorists,” spending a huge portion of our national treasure.
• The fact that we as a people are immobilized, passive, and submissive to these drastic changes that have occurred in the last 20 years, particularly in the last 10. Our capacity for outrage, rebellion, and protest has been extinguished.
• The fact that neither Republicans nor Democrats offer any real solutions to the foregoing.
October 18, 2007
Douglas R. Page dougpage2@earthlink.net
We sometimes label those topics that we are too inhibited to talk about as an “elephant in the living room.” In our nation, nobody talks about the social adequacy of Capitalism. Capitalism is such an elephant in the living room. Almost no one is aware of the fact that capitalism is uncontrollable by voters because of its dynamics.
THE UNCONTROLLABLE AXIOMATIC DYNAMICS OF CAPITALISM
1. The very core of capitalism is hiring. Forget the “good” employers that you know. They are an atypical tiny minority. The actual pervasive dynamic is this: A man with money hires a man with no money to work for the employer at the lowest possible wage so as to earn as much profit for the employer as possible.
2. This dynamic, repeated thousands of times over many decades, produces a group of human employers and those who invest with them, with immense money and power. Capitalism thus creates a group of humans with the power and the incentive to thwart the majority will and voting power of democratic voters.
3. This group uses its power and its money to:
• Own or control the media, advertising and PR sectors. It uses the manipulative PR “arts” surrounding patriotism, jingoism, militarism, nationalism, and racism to augment its control. This group thus controls even what we think about.
• Thwart majority democratic rule of voters by bribery of elected officials, euphemistically called “campaign contributions.” Capitalism thus becomes uncontrollable by the ballot box political process of voters.
• Control the government, regulatory agencies, foreign policy, the military, and the intelligence agencies.
• Outsource anywhere on the planet to obtain the cheapest possible labor, with no responsibility whatever to their existing employees, their home communities, or even the national security manufacturing interests of the nation.
• Defy all regulation, warm the globe, and pollute the air, the oceans, and the upper atmosphere. Capitalists use forests, the fishes of the sea, tillable soil, and potable water simply as a “factor of production” to make as much profit as possible, and with no responsibility to the community or humanity. Capitalism, with its awesome uncontrollable power is thus the very antithesis of socially responsible sustainability.
4. Capitalists and their employees are the source of funding for academics, “liberal” magazines, and NGO’s like Common Cause, the Sierra Club, and other “cause” organizations, and their employees.
Al Gore and the Nobel Committee are prime examples of our failure to give attention to “the elephant in the living room.” Al Gore has received the Nobel Prize for his work publicizing Global Warming, although he completely ignores the greedy economic engine that causes Global Warming.
http://www.counterpunch.org/frank10152007.html
We can never achieve a sustainable civilized life on this planet unless we understand the dynamics of capitalism. Voting for Hillary, or voting for anybody who accepts campaign money bribes, will do absolutely no good. With an understanding of the dynamics of capitalism, we can, acting together, exercise control:
• We can stop working, stop buying, and stop listening to capitalist media and PR.
• We can become aware of the lack of legitimacy of the capitalist status quo, of its crippling affect on our democratic voting power, and of its destruction of the planet. Capitalism is the deadly enemy of sustainability.
• We can prohibit private hiring for profit altogether or,
• We can require employers to get annual permits to hire humans, conditioned upon decent wages and working conditions, and limitations on the profits of an employer and investors.
• We can insist on a steeply progressive tax on wealth and income to diminish the power of this class of capitalists.
As we create this sustainable civilized life, we must maintain a consciousness of the awesome anti-social dynamics of capitalism so that we never again let capitalism get out of control.
Please meditate on the following social phenomena and the possible contribution of uncontrollable capitalism to each:
• The increasing number of people who are being treated for personal depression.
• The high levels of personal debt in American households
• The compounding obesity of the US population in the last ten years.
• The instability and fragility of the US economy and the constant risk we endure.
• The fact that this richest nation on earth cannot provide adequate health coverage for its residents, or even its children.
• The fact that the income of dentists has escalated far more than the cost of living, while 40% of US children have untreated cavities.
• The incessant PR message that all government and all taxes for community purposes are evil.
• The immense disparity between of wealth between the top 1% in the U.S. who get 21% if the income and the 12% earned by the bottom 50%, and the social consequences of that disparity.
• The ongoing chatter about further tax cuts for the rich.
• The fact that the typical college graduate leaves college with a debt of $50 to $150 thousand dollars that will consume 1/3 or his post graduate income for ten years.
• The fact that our dams, free ways, levees, and our entire public infrastructure are in very bad repair.
• The fact that we as a people and as a nation are unable to enact laws and policies that would insure a sustainable civilized survival for our off spring.
• The fact that our manufacturing industries and jobs have been outsourced to other countries, so that no longer needed employees can only get low paying jobs in fast food franchises.
• The fact that we get into one war after another against “communists” and “terrorists,” spending a huge portion of our national treasure.
• The fact that we as a people are immobilized, passive, and submissive to these drastic changes that have occurred in the last 20 years, particularly in the last 10. Our capacity for outrage, rebellion, and protest has been extinguished.
• The fact that neither Republicans nor Democrats offer any real solutions to the foregoing.
October 18, 2007
Douglas R. Page dougpage2@earthlink.net
Friday, September 28, 2007
WHY DO WE AVOID THE FACTS OF 9/11?
UNDERSTANDING THE TRANCE AND THE DENIAL ABOUT 9/11 AND THE CONCLUSION THAT CHENEY & RUMSFELD “MADE IT HAPPEN ON PURPOSE”
Before getting into the imposed secrecy and the strange facts of 9/11, we must keep in mind the vast personal, cultural, political, and economic shock that we are thus fostering. If we are right about the MHIOP massacre, and I believe we are, we are indicting Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and certain other key moles within the government and security agencies for the almost unimaginable horror of intentionally murdering thousands and thousands of human beings.
Our government in our human psyche is something like a projection of our human parents. What would we adolescent children do if during a seemingly normal upbringing, we discovered that our parents, despite their parental façade, were actually murdering people and planning to enslave us, their own children? Would we deny the whole thing? Run? Run where? To some normal caring adults? How could we trust anybody else if we could not trust our own parents? Would we do what we had to do to survive? Shoot our parents? Steal? Hide? Forage? Kill ourselves? What community with other humans could we join? Nothing in our human experience has prepared us to deal with this. We do have the experience of the Holocaust, but neither Jews nor Gentiles did anything appropriate at the time to deal with it. We apparently have not ingested the lessons of the Holocaust to prevent its happening again in this new and different form.
Then let’s look at the external political-economic implications of the MHIOP massacre. Nothing happens in this country without the support and approval of the very wealthy and powerful, of their Wall Street financial interests, and of their Media. We know that Wall Street and the CIA have a revolving door relationship. If MHIOP is correct, we are indicting also our economic system, our mainstream media, and all our elected officials who participated in the cover-up. There remains no person and no institution that we can trust. We cannot bring ourselves even to think about it. It is an unimaginable nightmare. No wonder then that we have such trouble communicating the facts to our friends and neighbors. Our trouble in dealing with these implications has some similarity to the trouble of Germans following WWII. They denied the Holocaust. None of them “knew” what had been going on. They could not speak of it. It took decades and the birth of new generations of Germans before Germans could speak openly of the Holocaust and the shame of those who allowed it and implemented it.
However, we are not children. We are adults. We can learn from history. We have evolved. We have no alternative but to face the facts and deal with the conclusions they lead to, unless we all choose to self destruct. It is our ultimate challenge. Have we evolved enough to deal with it? We humans may succeed. We may not. We have to do what we can to survive as civilized humans.
My friend Creston founds his optimism and hope on his assumption that bright human beings like Bill and Hillary Clinton will eventually figure things out. I think he ignores the role of money and power that has always dominated the Clintons. They always do and say what money and power want.
However, it is true that human consciousness changes very slowly, maybe a little faster than evolution of body parts, but not much. That being the case, the probability is that it will take a hundred years for the full truth about 9/11 to come out. Capitalism will never fall suddenly and drastically enough to compel sudden change toward truth and democracy. The market impulse, the competitive impulse, and the trading impulse will always be in humans. The anti-social evils of capitalism will be very gradually recognized, and very slowly brought under some human control. The power of capitalism to create its own truths and its own reality by ownership and control of the media and by bribing elected representatives can be observed by bright humans and the truth slowly communicated on the internet. We do have to face the power of capitalists who will bitterly oppose the social controls of capitalism that we must have. The consciousness of some capitalists may evolve to some small degree, but we still have to deal with the consciousness of those capitalists who do not evolve. As to them, my way of dealing with their power is active nonviolence, including “sick outs,” sit down strikes, work stoppages, confrontations, buyers boycotts etc. Because the awesome power of naked capitalism will remain for a long time, there will be more wars, more killing of civilians, much more of our own blood shed, more loss of freedoms, and further lowering of living standards of ordinary people toward the level of the Third World. There will be increased polarization and increased levels of hatred, but gradually more and more people will see it our way.
Meanwhile, we can establish and live in alternate communities, living by our values, eating our own or local food, bartering, trading and the like.
So the upshot is that each of us should do the thing that we think will cause this elevation of consciousness. Voting for Democrats may help to keep things from getting worse. My zeal for informing others about the dynamics of capitalism, active nonviolence, exposing the Israel Lobby, and making “torture a moral issue” can and should continue, as should continued exposure of 9/11. It is all part of the effort. Change of consciousness will come very slowly. Nobody can make it come more quickly, and therefore we may lose the fight and slip into the dark ages. On the other hand, we may win only a little at a time over the years, but enough to keep civilization and democracy alive. Our survival instinct compels us to try.
Dated: September 28, 2007
Doug Page dougpage2@earthlink.net
Before getting into the imposed secrecy and the strange facts of 9/11, we must keep in mind the vast personal, cultural, political, and economic shock that we are thus fostering. If we are right about the MHIOP massacre, and I believe we are, we are indicting Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and certain other key moles within the government and security agencies for the almost unimaginable horror of intentionally murdering thousands and thousands of human beings.
Our government in our human psyche is something like a projection of our human parents. What would we adolescent children do if during a seemingly normal upbringing, we discovered that our parents, despite their parental façade, were actually murdering people and planning to enslave us, their own children? Would we deny the whole thing? Run? Run where? To some normal caring adults? How could we trust anybody else if we could not trust our own parents? Would we do what we had to do to survive? Shoot our parents? Steal? Hide? Forage? Kill ourselves? What community with other humans could we join? Nothing in our human experience has prepared us to deal with this. We do have the experience of the Holocaust, but neither Jews nor Gentiles did anything appropriate at the time to deal with it. We apparently have not ingested the lessons of the Holocaust to prevent its happening again in this new and different form.
Then let’s look at the external political-economic implications of the MHIOP massacre. Nothing happens in this country without the support and approval of the very wealthy and powerful, of their Wall Street financial interests, and of their Media. We know that Wall Street and the CIA have a revolving door relationship. If MHIOP is correct, we are indicting also our economic system, our mainstream media, and all our elected officials who participated in the cover-up. There remains no person and no institution that we can trust. We cannot bring ourselves even to think about it. It is an unimaginable nightmare. No wonder then that we have such trouble communicating the facts to our friends and neighbors. Our trouble in dealing with these implications has some similarity to the trouble of Germans following WWII. They denied the Holocaust. None of them “knew” what had been going on. They could not speak of it. It took decades and the birth of new generations of Germans before Germans could speak openly of the Holocaust and the shame of those who allowed it and implemented it.
However, we are not children. We are adults. We can learn from history. We have evolved. We have no alternative but to face the facts and deal with the conclusions they lead to, unless we all choose to self destruct. It is our ultimate challenge. Have we evolved enough to deal with it? We humans may succeed. We may not. We have to do what we can to survive as civilized humans.
My friend Creston founds his optimism and hope on his assumption that bright human beings like Bill and Hillary Clinton will eventually figure things out. I think he ignores the role of money and power that has always dominated the Clintons. They always do and say what money and power want.
However, it is true that human consciousness changes very slowly, maybe a little faster than evolution of body parts, but not much. That being the case, the probability is that it will take a hundred years for the full truth about 9/11 to come out. Capitalism will never fall suddenly and drastically enough to compel sudden change toward truth and democracy. The market impulse, the competitive impulse, and the trading impulse will always be in humans. The anti-social evils of capitalism will be very gradually recognized, and very slowly brought under some human control. The power of capitalism to create its own truths and its own reality by ownership and control of the media and by bribing elected representatives can be observed by bright humans and the truth slowly communicated on the internet. We do have to face the power of capitalists who will bitterly oppose the social controls of capitalism that we must have. The consciousness of some capitalists may evolve to some small degree, but we still have to deal with the consciousness of those capitalists who do not evolve. As to them, my way of dealing with their power is active nonviolence, including “sick outs,” sit down strikes, work stoppages, confrontations, buyers boycotts etc. Because the awesome power of naked capitalism will remain for a long time, there will be more wars, more killing of civilians, much more of our own blood shed, more loss of freedoms, and further lowering of living standards of ordinary people toward the level of the Third World. There will be increased polarization and increased levels of hatred, but gradually more and more people will see it our way.
Meanwhile, we can establish and live in alternate communities, living by our values, eating our own or local food, bartering, trading and the like.
So the upshot is that each of us should do the thing that we think will cause this elevation of consciousness. Voting for Democrats may help to keep things from getting worse. My zeal for informing others about the dynamics of capitalism, active nonviolence, exposing the Israel Lobby, and making “torture a moral issue” can and should continue, as should continued exposure of 9/11. It is all part of the effort. Change of consciousness will come very slowly. Nobody can make it come more quickly, and therefore we may lose the fight and slip into the dark ages. On the other hand, we may win only a little at a time over the years, but enough to keep civilization and democracy alive. Our survival instinct compels us to try.
Dated: September 28, 2007
Doug Page dougpage2@earthlink.net
Friday, September 14, 2007
THE REAL CLASS WAR, UNFORTUNATELY SUCCESSFUL
THE CONSERVATIVE COMMONSENSE FACTUAL AND POLICY ANALYSIS
OF
PROFESSOR MICHAEL HUDSON
Professor Michael Hudson of the University of Missouri in Kansas City and head of the Institute of Macroeconomic Policy Analysis is newly appointed Chief of Economic Policy for the Kucinich presidential campaign.
THE REAL CLASS WAR
The status quo politicians and the mainstream press immediately label anyone who examines solutions to the disparity between the rich and the rest of us in the United States as “proposing a class war.” The truth is that this charge masks the real long standing class war maintained against ordinary citizens.
Professor Hudson looks at the tax laws, state, local and federal, and the economic interests that cause them to be enacted. He comes to the insight that the wealthy have in fact long been conducting a class war against all employees, wage and salary earners. Their objective has been to remove or minimize taxes on the rich and on real property and to impose the entire burden of taxation on employees who work for a salary or wages. Using Hudson’s approach, one can see that these interests have been working at least since1913, and have become increasingly successful. Now in 2007, the power of these interests overwhelms the power of voters.
Hudson calls this group of interests the Finance, Insurance, Real Estate Lobby, in other words the FIRE Party that now is able to get whatever it wants from elected representatives and to stop what it does not want. FIRE is able to control our elected representatives because it is the source of 95% of the money that elected officials need to get re-elected. The FIRE Party controls the Federal Government, and each of the elected federal officials. It is almost always able to nullify the political implementation of majority will of voters. Hudson also now includes the pharmaceutical companies as important components of the FIRE party, but for some reason, he does not include the military industrial complex and the armaments manufacturers. Perhaps Hudson sees these latter as being mere appendages of the Finance interests. Hudson says that financial transactions in real estate, stocks, bonds, company buyouts and the like constitute 95% of the spending in the US and spending for goods and services are only a very minor part. The Financial interests thus have the money to become politically dominant.
Hudson begins with Republican Theodore Roosevelt’s progressive reaction to the excesses of the Golden Era, leading to the enactment of the 16th Amendment in 1913 making a progressive tax on incomes possible. (It is noteworthy that the private Wall Street controlled Federal Reserve Bank was also established in 1913.)
At the time of the Republican Progressive era most of the taxes were on land. In 1930 70 % of the state and local tax revenue came from taxes on land while in 2007 only 10% comes from land taxes. There was then a prevailing ethic and belief that the good of all involved having a sustainable healthy productive workforce. Those who worked were entitled to enough income for their own maintenance. This was the assumption of economist Adam Smith, and the moral and spiritual ethic of St. Thomas Aquinas who wrote in the 1200s that Work touches life itself—‘to live well is to work well’…that work means life and life means living with meaning and a sense of contributing to the community.
Another background insight to this former Republican position was that the amount of land on the planet is finite while the number of people is constantly increasing, and that land is the ultimate source of food for all these humans. Civilized humans can not leave land to the law of the jungle, and in the control of rich landowners who have the power to deprive people of food.
Still another background assumption was that human beings as producers, had dignity and value not only to themselves, but to the whole society. Employees had an opportunity for pride in their creativity and workmanship and in their contribution to community well being. At that time, there was the wisdom that human beings as consumers could only have greedy “wants” and that greedy consumption should be disciplined, limited and controlled.
In Republican tax policy at that time, most taxes were on land, and the assumption was that the amount of money a worker needed for his sustainable maintenance was exempt from all tax. Adjusted to today’s levels that would be around $40,000. The assumption was that land owners and wealthy people should pay the taxes because they got the most material benefit. Although all taxes were evil, the least evil tax was one based on land value.
Thus as late as 1980s the income to rate of our progressive income tax authorized by the 16th amendment was 72% at the top levels. States and local governments maintained property taxes sufficient to fund schools, colleges and universities. There was an Estate Tax imposed so that unearned income could not be transferred and compounded in successive generations.
Following World War II, the US thus had sufficient funds to provide 11 million veterans with a college education and home loans. (In ensuing decades these veterans have paid back that government investment many times over, in their own income taxes.)
The FIRE party began its counter-revolutionary class war in 1913 to cut taxes on the rich and impose the burden on wage earners. Hudson emphasizes that the Democratic Party has implemented each step of this class war, despite its false rhetoric about being for “the little guy.”
In 1913, FIRE established the Federal Reserve Bank, a private institution controlled by FIRE. The voters through the US Treasury until that time controlled money and credit, and the worth of the dollar was backed by gold. Control of credit, and the purposes for which credit could be used was thus placed in private hands, FIRE’s hands. FIRE thus had control of the economy and planned the economy to suit itself. FIRE usually wants higher interest rates, “tighter credit” and the people through the US Treasury wanted “easy credit.”
In 1935 FIRE had enough political clout to cause employees to finance their own ultimate retirement security through a regressive flat tax on a portion of their wages. FIRE also caused the income of wealthy employees to be exempt from the SS tax above a certain level. Social Security should have been paid from the general budget and funded by the steeply progressive income tax with no exemption for wealthy earners. FIRE prevented that, protected the wealthy, and increased the burden on ordinary wage earners.
In 1947 FIRE caused the enactment of the Taft Hartley Act which made it much more difficult for employees to organize unions by prohibiting membership to zealous radical union organizers and by making it illegal for a group of employees of one union to help another group of employees to organize, by means of secondary boycotts. The intended effect of Taft Hartley was to weaken unions politically so that they could not impede FIRE’s class war.
Beginning after WWII, FIRE began an immense PR campaign to emphasize the role of human beings, not as producers, but as consumers. Greedy consumption was not only good in itself, but it was necessary to “grow” the economy.
Along the way, FIRE obtained volume after volume of exemptions and benefits for land owners and imposed more and more taxes on wage earners such as:
a. FIRE obtained special “capital gains” taxes at rates less than taxes on earned income for increases in land value.
b. FIRE obtained the right to a phony depreciation deduction for a fictitious lessening of value on a building even though the building in fact increased in value.
c. FIRE obtained the right to an “IRC 1031 exchange” so that a land owner with fully depreciated property could exchange it for other property and repeat the depreciation anew on the exchanged property. Meanwhile the person who initiated the exchange could get his own depreciation deduction for the property he obtained in the exchange.
d. FIRE obtained the right to incorporate its businesses and to keep its business accounts in offshore tax havens like the Cayman Islands.
e. FIRE obtained the right to deduct the interest on money he borrowed in improving his land or in financing other business transactions.
f. FIRE obtained reduction after reduction in the Estate Tax with the ultimate objective of eliminating it entirely.
In 1983, FIRE had enough power world wide to take the dollar off of the gold standard in the Bretton Woods agreement. As a substitute, the US made a treaty with Saudi Arabia that oil would always be valued in dollars and not in any other currency. This deal is backed and enforced by the might of the US military in Israel, Afghanistan, Iraq and the entire Middle East.
In 1980s, using Reagan as its persuasive spokesman, the top federal income tax rate was reduced to 27% from its former 72% level and corporate income taxes were reduced 12% to 34%. FIRE also caused Reagan to fire striking air traffic controllers in the implementation of FIRE’s class war.
In 1983, FIRE set up Greenspan to head a committee to deal with the social security “crisis” allegedly arising because the existing levels of funding would not be sufficient to pay the baby boomers by the year 2030. FIRE’s real fear was that steeply progressive income tax would be imposed to pay for the costs of social security, Medicare, universal health care and other needs everybody had in common. Greenspan’s recommendation was that the existing regressive social security taxes be increased and that the age of retirement be raised from 65 to 67. The earnings of wealthy employees remained exempt. At the same time, Bush set up his campaign to privatize social security by allowing the investment of a portion of their SS contribution in the stock market.
FIRE caused Bill Clinton “to do away with welfare as we know it” and to adopt no substitutes. FIRE caused Clinton to enact the free trade laws that are the basis for the outsourcing of the jobs of Americans to Mexico China and India with their much lower wage rates without any solutions for those who lost jobs in the US. FIRE caused Clinton to deregulate broadcasting and to give away public airwaves free of charge. This was the foundation for FIRE’s monopoly of the media and its pervasive right wing talk shows. FIRE thus controls our main sources of information, and it uses this control to enhance its power.
In the Bush times, FIRE grossly reduced taxes on the wealthy for a period of 10 years, the reduction being subject to a “sunset” termination in 2008. Implementing FIRE’s demands, Bush intentionally increased the federal debt many times over for the stated purpose of making it impossible for the federal government ever again to finance a welfare state, a GI Bill, a New Deal, Universal Health Coverage, or free education through college. FIRE’s agent, Alan Greenspan held interest rates at an artificially low level thereby stimulating the vast boom of real estate and financial transaction loans, all for the purpose of bringing billions of dollars in profits to FIRE. FIRE caused a deregulation of the market and its transactions. FIRE caused the enactment of a draconian Bankruptcy Act.
Now in 2007, fearing that a Republican might not win, FIRE is pouring immense amounts of money into the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Obama knowing that they can be counted upon to do its bidding, and thus to perpetuate FIRE’s control of our government, and to continue wars and domination abroad.
In the entire Congress, only Democrat Dennis Kucinich and Republican Ron Paul attempt to bring this class war to the attention of voters. Hudson has now joined the Kucinch presidential campaign. He is writing a new proposed tax policy to undo the FIRE class war, and to provide facts and figures so that Kucinich can bring the foregoing to the attention of all voters, and to deal with the looming depression and financial disasters.
OF
PROFESSOR MICHAEL HUDSON
Professor Michael Hudson of the University of Missouri in Kansas City and head of the Institute of Macroeconomic Policy Analysis is newly appointed Chief of Economic Policy for the Kucinich presidential campaign.
THE REAL CLASS WAR
The status quo politicians and the mainstream press immediately label anyone who examines solutions to the disparity between the rich and the rest of us in the United States as “proposing a class war.” The truth is that this charge masks the real long standing class war maintained against ordinary citizens.
Professor Hudson looks at the tax laws, state, local and federal, and the economic interests that cause them to be enacted. He comes to the insight that the wealthy have in fact long been conducting a class war against all employees, wage and salary earners. Their objective has been to remove or minimize taxes on the rich and on real property and to impose the entire burden of taxation on employees who work for a salary or wages. Using Hudson’s approach, one can see that these interests have been working at least since1913, and have become increasingly successful. Now in 2007, the power of these interests overwhelms the power of voters.
Hudson calls this group of interests the Finance, Insurance, Real Estate Lobby, in other words the FIRE Party that now is able to get whatever it wants from elected representatives and to stop what it does not want. FIRE is able to control our elected representatives because it is the source of 95% of the money that elected officials need to get re-elected. The FIRE Party controls the Federal Government, and each of the elected federal officials. It is almost always able to nullify the political implementation of majority will of voters. Hudson also now includes the pharmaceutical companies as important components of the FIRE party, but for some reason, he does not include the military industrial complex and the armaments manufacturers. Perhaps Hudson sees these latter as being mere appendages of the Finance interests. Hudson says that financial transactions in real estate, stocks, bonds, company buyouts and the like constitute 95% of the spending in the US and spending for goods and services are only a very minor part. The Financial interests thus have the money to become politically dominant.
Hudson begins with Republican Theodore Roosevelt’s progressive reaction to the excesses of the Golden Era, leading to the enactment of the 16th Amendment in 1913 making a progressive tax on incomes possible. (It is noteworthy that the private Wall Street controlled Federal Reserve Bank was also established in 1913.)
At the time of the Republican Progressive era most of the taxes were on land. In 1930 70 % of the state and local tax revenue came from taxes on land while in 2007 only 10% comes from land taxes. There was then a prevailing ethic and belief that the good of all involved having a sustainable healthy productive workforce. Those who worked were entitled to enough income for their own maintenance. This was the assumption of economist Adam Smith, and the moral and spiritual ethic of St. Thomas Aquinas who wrote in the 1200s that Work touches life itself—‘to live well is to work well’…that work means life and life means living with meaning and a sense of contributing to the community.
Another background insight to this former Republican position was that the amount of land on the planet is finite while the number of people is constantly increasing, and that land is the ultimate source of food for all these humans. Civilized humans can not leave land to the law of the jungle, and in the control of rich landowners who have the power to deprive people of food.
Still another background assumption was that human beings as producers, had dignity and value not only to themselves, but to the whole society. Employees had an opportunity for pride in their creativity and workmanship and in their contribution to community well being. At that time, there was the wisdom that human beings as consumers could only have greedy “wants” and that greedy consumption should be disciplined, limited and controlled.
In Republican tax policy at that time, most taxes were on land, and the assumption was that the amount of money a worker needed for his sustainable maintenance was exempt from all tax. Adjusted to today’s levels that would be around $40,000. The assumption was that land owners and wealthy people should pay the taxes because they got the most material benefit. Although all taxes were evil, the least evil tax was one based on land value.
Thus as late as 1980s the income to rate of our progressive income tax authorized by the 16th amendment was 72% at the top levels. States and local governments maintained property taxes sufficient to fund schools, colleges and universities. There was an Estate Tax imposed so that unearned income could not be transferred and compounded in successive generations.
Following World War II, the US thus had sufficient funds to provide 11 million veterans with a college education and home loans. (In ensuing decades these veterans have paid back that government investment many times over, in their own income taxes.)
The FIRE party began its counter-revolutionary class war in 1913 to cut taxes on the rich and impose the burden on wage earners. Hudson emphasizes that the Democratic Party has implemented each step of this class war, despite its false rhetoric about being for “the little guy.”
In 1913, FIRE established the Federal Reserve Bank, a private institution controlled by FIRE. The voters through the US Treasury until that time controlled money and credit, and the worth of the dollar was backed by gold. Control of credit, and the purposes for which credit could be used was thus placed in private hands, FIRE’s hands. FIRE thus had control of the economy and planned the economy to suit itself. FIRE usually wants higher interest rates, “tighter credit” and the people through the US Treasury wanted “easy credit.”
In 1935 FIRE had enough political clout to cause employees to finance their own ultimate retirement security through a regressive flat tax on a portion of their wages. FIRE also caused the income of wealthy employees to be exempt from the SS tax above a certain level. Social Security should have been paid from the general budget and funded by the steeply progressive income tax with no exemption for wealthy earners. FIRE prevented that, protected the wealthy, and increased the burden on ordinary wage earners.
In 1947 FIRE caused the enactment of the Taft Hartley Act which made it much more difficult for employees to organize unions by prohibiting membership to zealous radical union organizers and by making it illegal for a group of employees of one union to help another group of employees to organize, by means of secondary boycotts. The intended effect of Taft Hartley was to weaken unions politically so that they could not impede FIRE’s class war.
Beginning after WWII, FIRE began an immense PR campaign to emphasize the role of human beings, not as producers, but as consumers. Greedy consumption was not only good in itself, but it was necessary to “grow” the economy.
Along the way, FIRE obtained volume after volume of exemptions and benefits for land owners and imposed more and more taxes on wage earners such as:
a. FIRE obtained special “capital gains” taxes at rates less than taxes on earned income for increases in land value.
b. FIRE obtained the right to a phony depreciation deduction for a fictitious lessening of value on a building even though the building in fact increased in value.
c. FIRE obtained the right to an “IRC 1031 exchange” so that a land owner with fully depreciated property could exchange it for other property and repeat the depreciation anew on the exchanged property. Meanwhile the person who initiated the exchange could get his own depreciation deduction for the property he obtained in the exchange.
d. FIRE obtained the right to incorporate its businesses and to keep its business accounts in offshore tax havens like the Cayman Islands.
e. FIRE obtained the right to deduct the interest on money he borrowed in improving his land or in financing other business transactions.
f. FIRE obtained reduction after reduction in the Estate Tax with the ultimate objective of eliminating it entirely.
In 1983, FIRE had enough power world wide to take the dollar off of the gold standard in the Bretton Woods agreement. As a substitute, the US made a treaty with Saudi Arabia that oil would always be valued in dollars and not in any other currency. This deal is backed and enforced by the might of the US military in Israel, Afghanistan, Iraq and the entire Middle East.
In 1980s, using Reagan as its persuasive spokesman, the top federal income tax rate was reduced to 27% from its former 72% level and corporate income taxes were reduced 12% to 34%. FIRE also caused Reagan to fire striking air traffic controllers in the implementation of FIRE’s class war.
In 1983, FIRE set up Greenspan to head a committee to deal with the social security “crisis” allegedly arising because the existing levels of funding would not be sufficient to pay the baby boomers by the year 2030. FIRE’s real fear was that steeply progressive income tax would be imposed to pay for the costs of social security, Medicare, universal health care and other needs everybody had in common. Greenspan’s recommendation was that the existing regressive social security taxes be increased and that the age of retirement be raised from 65 to 67. The earnings of wealthy employees remained exempt. At the same time, Bush set up his campaign to privatize social security by allowing the investment of a portion of their SS contribution in the stock market.
FIRE caused Bill Clinton “to do away with welfare as we know it” and to adopt no substitutes. FIRE caused Clinton to enact the free trade laws that are the basis for the outsourcing of the jobs of Americans to Mexico China and India with their much lower wage rates without any solutions for those who lost jobs in the US. FIRE caused Clinton to deregulate broadcasting and to give away public airwaves free of charge. This was the foundation for FIRE’s monopoly of the media and its pervasive right wing talk shows. FIRE thus controls our main sources of information, and it uses this control to enhance its power.
In the Bush times, FIRE grossly reduced taxes on the wealthy for a period of 10 years, the reduction being subject to a “sunset” termination in 2008. Implementing FIRE’s demands, Bush intentionally increased the federal debt many times over for the stated purpose of making it impossible for the federal government ever again to finance a welfare state, a GI Bill, a New Deal, Universal Health Coverage, or free education through college. FIRE’s agent, Alan Greenspan held interest rates at an artificially low level thereby stimulating the vast boom of real estate and financial transaction loans, all for the purpose of bringing billions of dollars in profits to FIRE. FIRE caused a deregulation of the market and its transactions. FIRE caused the enactment of a draconian Bankruptcy Act.
Now in 2007, fearing that a Republican might not win, FIRE is pouring immense amounts of money into the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Obama knowing that they can be counted upon to do its bidding, and thus to perpetuate FIRE’s control of our government, and to continue wars and domination abroad.
In the entire Congress, only Democrat Dennis Kucinich and Republican Ron Paul attempt to bring this class war to the attention of voters. Hudson has now joined the Kucinch presidential campaign. He is writing a new proposed tax policy to undo the FIRE class war, and to provide facts and figures so that Kucinich can bring the foregoing to the attention of all voters, and to deal with the looming depression and financial disasters.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
A STRATEGY FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL?
DOUG’S REVIEW OF RELIGION AND THE HUMAN PROSPECT
History Professor Emeritus at UCLA, Alexander Saxton has written a scholarly brilliant book in which he asks the question facing us all: Can the human species survive in face of coinciding ecological limits, runaway population growth, nuclear proliferation, a fragile multi-national market economy, conflicting religious fundamentalisms, Wars, preventive wars, pollution, over fishing? …..the list is frightening and endless. Saxton’s second question is: Can religion provide humans on this planet a collective belief system such as to make the massive changes in consciousness, behavior and life styles necessary to enable humans to live sustainably on the planet without killing each other?
The book is Saxton’s attempt to answer this question, and he is hopeful but very dubious.
Saxton was born in 1919, raised a Catholic and is now a left non-believer and brilliant academic. He has written for Monthly Review, and the Monthly Review Press has published his book.
In his attempts to answer his own questions, Saxton studies the works of other scholars who have examined religion, its successes, and its use by the powerful to maintain power, its conflicts within and without, and its many failures. Saxton is rational and scientific. He seems unconcerned with any field of human wisdom except the field based on science. He does not distinguish between the rigors of the scientific method and rationality.
Saxton says over and over that whatever solution religion comes up with must be credible to the nonbeliever.
At all times, Saxton looks only at institutional religions as contrasted with the private, individual spiritual impulse. They are different. Saxton might find support in spirituality when he finds little or none in institutional religion.
Saxton apparently has not read modern theologians for the actual substance and validity of their writings. See for example:
DOUG’S BIBLOGRAPHY OF PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGIANS AND SAGES
E. F. Schumacher, A Guide for the Perplexed (Harper & Row Publishers Inc. 1979)
Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ (The Berkley Publishing Group, A division of Penguin Group [U.S.A.] Inc., 2002)
Daniel Goleman, Destructive Emotions A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama (Bantam Dell, A Division of Random House Inc., 2003)
Alan W. Watts, Myth and Ritual in Christianity (Beacon Press,Boston, 1968)
Dorothee Soulee, Against the Wind: Memoir of a Radical Christian (Forest Press, Minneapolis, 1999)
Sjoerd L. Bonting, Chaos Theology (St. Paul University, Ottawa(2002)
Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination (Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1992)
Marcus J. Borg, The Heart of Christianityp (Harper, San Francisco, 2003)
Karen Armstrong, A History of God (Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1993)
Matthew Fox, Original Blessing (Bear & Company, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1983)
These modern progressive theologians offer such concepts as the following:
• Nobody can prove the existence or nonexistence of God or of a loving or creative intelligence and energy in the universe. However, most humans have always yearned for a reality beyond ordinary experience, and the yearning seems to be a part of human DNA. For many centuries, most sages have found it meaningful and useful to assume the existence of a loving God. Zen Buddhists put much more emphasis on the teachings of Buddha, but in effect Buddha occupies the place of a loving God. Today many nonbelievers or outright atheists addicted to alcohol find help in the spiritual program of Alcoholics Anonymous by “faking it until they make it,” that is by pretending that God exists and getting on with the Program.
• God is love…at least this is the reliable component that humans can experience. God is in us and acts through each of us. God is neither male nor female and is certainly not a bearded man in white robes sitting in the clouds making angry judgments about us and sending sinners to hell.
• Each of us has the capacity to be ongoing loving co-creators with God if we choose to do so because God is in us.
• God created all humans (along with the rest of creation), loves each of us humans, sinners included, and expects us humans to give each other sincere caring attention as God does. This may be a root of our socialist and constitutional concern with equality and socialist vision of a compassionate political economy.
• The Christian doctrines of Virgin birth and Resurrection from the Dead are not literally or historically true but are nevertheless profoundly meaningful stories and metaphors that give some humans meaning to their existence.
• Evil, sin, hell, the Holocaust, and wars are part of the chaos of the universe much like the entropy in modern physics. A loving God, and loving human co-creators with God, struggle to bring order and love to this chaos among humans and to make meaningful adjustments and accommodations to avoid the effects of natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes insofar as is possible. There is a realization that some chaos is a permanent part of the universe co-existing with a loving God as it is in nuclear particles.
• Ancient ritual and ceremony deserve respect for being reminders of the foregoing values and to maintain and preserve the human wisdom so far accumulated.
• Ritual and ceremony, long tested by human experience, can bring order to the irrational dark sides of us humans, which if unchanneled, can lead to mob behavior, National Socialism, holocausts, and insane doctrines such as those of Jim Jones in Guiana.
• Since the word love has so many meanings, progressive sages make clear that the love involved is caring for others, being cared for, sharing, cooperation, and the absence of angry violence.
• Institutional religion does as much harm as it does good. This is because basic insights and teachings have been codified, stripped of meaning, ignored, misinterpreted, or used by rulers to manipulate the people or to achieve secular political power. Religion has been and is the opiate of the masses. The Church continues to be the Chaplain of Empires.
• All privilege and inequality is founded on violence. Violence never achieves any idealistic objective. We humans must become aware that the 5000 year old Myth of Redemptive Violence is false.
At the outset Saxton discusses 3 different definitions of religion:
Religion is BELIEF in spiritual beings
Religion is KNOWLEDGE of spiritual beings
Religion is the IMAGINING OF spiritual beings.
Saxton is not happy with any of the choices, but he finds the first least offensive, but to be effective, it must be credible, and it’s utility scientifically provable.
I have yet another definition: Religion is a FIXED ASSUMPTION that a creative loving intelligence exists in the universe and within each human, and that humans and their communities need and benefit from this postulate.
I lean toward the existence of a loving creative intelligence in the universe (however baffling and mysterious) as being helpful to me personally, but I neither believe in, have knowledge of, nor imagine such a creative loving intelligence. For me, it is a rational very useful fixed assumption upon which to live. I think that I and my fellow humans on the planet are better off if we assume, if we behave and act as if, such a creative loving intelligence exists “out there” but more importantly in each of us. As the Bible says: God is in you.
Example and explanation: In 12 step programs, the person beginning his quest for sobriety is told as the 1st step, to recognize that he is powerless and to turn his will over to God. The person who says he does not believe in God is told to “fake it until you make it.” Thousands of such nonbelieving persons have thus achieved sobriety.
The actual dynamics in a 12 step group are quite human and observable. Assume further with me, that God is love, that God is in each of us, and that each of us has the power to be caring, (and to receive caring), forgiving, understanding and helpful. Believers find this power to be divine. However, nonbelievers also have this power to be caring, (and to receive caring), forgiving, understanding and helpful In the 12 step group, the person seeking sobriety looks cautiously around the group and receives this caring help of “God” in the faces of each other group member.
Active nonviolence, as taught in the training manuals, and in the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi proceeds on the fixed assumption that there is a kernel of decency, the ability to care and to receive caring, in every human.
It is this human capacity for caring, and to receive caring that is foreign to the scientific method, and to Marxian “scientific” socialism. The human need for this quality is completely rational. It is not irrational. We humans desperately yearn for this quality from our government, from our political parties, from our friends and our families. We yearn for communities where we can give and receive caring.
This capacity for caring is honored, respected and promoted in each of the major faiths.
The point of all of this is that a worldwide mass political movement could be based on the recognition of this non rational value of caring. Whatever else the fundamentalists in each faith believe, at the core of their faiths, they share a need and recognition of this value, with the rest of us.
My scientist PhD. daughter is a ferocious atheist, but she has at least as much capacity for caring as any believer. So do atheists, nonbelievers, and cynics.
The core of each religion offers a vision of a better life on earth (as well as in heaven) and thus offers a strategy for penetrating the trance imposed on us by the oligarchy.
We all, believers, nonbelievers, and fundamentalists, share respect for some version of the Golden Rule.
At some level, we all wish to sustain and preserve our planet home for practical as well as spiritual reasons.
We can all share the discipline of active nonviolence and recognize the falseness of what Walter Wink labels The Myth of Redemptive Violence.
While institutional religion will not be on the cutting edge of a planet wide political movement, those with a private subjective spirituality, theologians and sages could be.
It is important to realize that one’s spirituality and one’s view of his own religion, are subjective and private. They are not, and cannot be, subjects for rational debate in the civic arena. There is immense wisdom in a strict separation of church and state. Rabbi Michael Lerner and his political movement, The Network of Spiritual Progressives, have not learned this. His members never do anything, but debate endlessly exactly what their mission is.
Sages and theologians of each faith might be crucial to the survival of humans on this planet. They should take the lead and publicly teach the golden rule and the value of caring and receiving caring at the root of each major faith.
September 9, 2007
Doug Page, Tucson AZ dougpage2@earthlink.net
History Professor Emeritus at UCLA, Alexander Saxton has written a scholarly brilliant book in which he asks the question facing us all: Can the human species survive in face of coinciding ecological limits, runaway population growth, nuclear proliferation, a fragile multi-national market economy, conflicting religious fundamentalisms, Wars, preventive wars, pollution, over fishing? …..the list is frightening and endless. Saxton’s second question is: Can religion provide humans on this planet a collective belief system such as to make the massive changes in consciousness, behavior and life styles necessary to enable humans to live sustainably on the planet without killing each other?
The book is Saxton’s attempt to answer this question, and he is hopeful but very dubious.
Saxton was born in 1919, raised a Catholic and is now a left non-believer and brilliant academic. He has written for Monthly Review, and the Monthly Review Press has published his book.
In his attempts to answer his own questions, Saxton studies the works of other scholars who have examined religion, its successes, and its use by the powerful to maintain power, its conflicts within and without, and its many failures. Saxton is rational and scientific. He seems unconcerned with any field of human wisdom except the field based on science. He does not distinguish between the rigors of the scientific method and rationality.
Saxton says over and over that whatever solution religion comes up with must be credible to the nonbeliever.
At all times, Saxton looks only at institutional religions as contrasted with the private, individual spiritual impulse. They are different. Saxton might find support in spirituality when he finds little or none in institutional religion.
Saxton apparently has not read modern theologians for the actual substance and validity of their writings. See for example:
DOUG’S BIBLOGRAPHY OF PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGIANS AND SAGES
E. F. Schumacher, A Guide for the Perplexed (Harper & Row Publishers Inc. 1979)
Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ (The Berkley Publishing Group, A division of Penguin Group [U.S.A.] Inc., 2002)
Daniel Goleman, Destructive Emotions A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama (Bantam Dell, A Division of Random House Inc., 2003)
Alan W. Watts, Myth and Ritual in Christianity (Beacon Press,Boston, 1968)
Dorothee Soulee, Against the Wind: Memoir of a Radical Christian (Forest Press, Minneapolis, 1999)
Sjoerd L. Bonting, Chaos Theology (St. Paul University, Ottawa(2002)
Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination (Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1992)
Marcus J. Borg, The Heart of Christianityp (Harper, San Francisco, 2003)
Karen Armstrong, A History of God (Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1993)
Matthew Fox, Original Blessing (Bear & Company, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1983)
These modern progressive theologians offer such concepts as the following:
• Nobody can prove the existence or nonexistence of God or of a loving or creative intelligence and energy in the universe. However, most humans have always yearned for a reality beyond ordinary experience, and the yearning seems to be a part of human DNA. For many centuries, most sages have found it meaningful and useful to assume the existence of a loving God. Zen Buddhists put much more emphasis on the teachings of Buddha, but in effect Buddha occupies the place of a loving God. Today many nonbelievers or outright atheists addicted to alcohol find help in the spiritual program of Alcoholics Anonymous by “faking it until they make it,” that is by pretending that God exists and getting on with the Program.
• God is love…at least this is the reliable component that humans can experience. God is in us and acts through each of us. God is neither male nor female and is certainly not a bearded man in white robes sitting in the clouds making angry judgments about us and sending sinners to hell.
• Each of us has the capacity to be ongoing loving co-creators with God if we choose to do so because God is in us.
• God created all humans (along with the rest of creation), loves each of us humans, sinners included, and expects us humans to give each other sincere caring attention as God does. This may be a root of our socialist and constitutional concern with equality and socialist vision of a compassionate political economy.
• The Christian doctrines of Virgin birth and Resurrection from the Dead are not literally or historically true but are nevertheless profoundly meaningful stories and metaphors that give some humans meaning to their existence.
• Evil, sin, hell, the Holocaust, and wars are part of the chaos of the universe much like the entropy in modern physics. A loving God, and loving human co-creators with God, struggle to bring order and love to this chaos among humans and to make meaningful adjustments and accommodations to avoid the effects of natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes insofar as is possible. There is a realization that some chaos is a permanent part of the universe co-existing with a loving God as it is in nuclear particles.
• Ancient ritual and ceremony deserve respect for being reminders of the foregoing values and to maintain and preserve the human wisdom so far accumulated.
• Ritual and ceremony, long tested by human experience, can bring order to the irrational dark sides of us humans, which if unchanneled, can lead to mob behavior, National Socialism, holocausts, and insane doctrines such as those of Jim Jones in Guiana.
• Since the word love has so many meanings, progressive sages make clear that the love involved is caring for others, being cared for, sharing, cooperation, and the absence of angry violence.
• Institutional religion does as much harm as it does good. This is because basic insights and teachings have been codified, stripped of meaning, ignored, misinterpreted, or used by rulers to manipulate the people or to achieve secular political power. Religion has been and is the opiate of the masses. The Church continues to be the Chaplain of Empires.
• All privilege and inequality is founded on violence. Violence never achieves any idealistic objective. We humans must become aware that the 5000 year old Myth of Redemptive Violence is false.
At the outset Saxton discusses 3 different definitions of religion:
Religion is BELIEF in spiritual beings
Religion is KNOWLEDGE of spiritual beings
Religion is the IMAGINING OF spiritual beings.
Saxton is not happy with any of the choices, but he finds the first least offensive, but to be effective, it must be credible, and it’s utility scientifically provable.
I have yet another definition: Religion is a FIXED ASSUMPTION that a creative loving intelligence exists in the universe and within each human, and that humans and their communities need and benefit from this postulate.
I lean toward the existence of a loving creative intelligence in the universe (however baffling and mysterious) as being helpful to me personally, but I neither believe in, have knowledge of, nor imagine such a creative loving intelligence. For me, it is a rational very useful fixed assumption upon which to live. I think that I and my fellow humans on the planet are better off if we assume, if we behave and act as if, such a creative loving intelligence exists “out there” but more importantly in each of us. As the Bible says: God is in you.
Example and explanation: In 12 step programs, the person beginning his quest for sobriety is told as the 1st step, to recognize that he is powerless and to turn his will over to God. The person who says he does not believe in God is told to “fake it until you make it.” Thousands of such nonbelieving persons have thus achieved sobriety.
The actual dynamics in a 12 step group are quite human and observable. Assume further with me, that God is love, that God is in each of us, and that each of us has the power to be caring, (and to receive caring), forgiving, understanding and helpful. Believers find this power to be divine. However, nonbelievers also have this power to be caring, (and to receive caring), forgiving, understanding and helpful In the 12 step group, the person seeking sobriety looks cautiously around the group and receives this caring help of “God” in the faces of each other group member.
Active nonviolence, as taught in the training manuals, and in the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi proceeds on the fixed assumption that there is a kernel of decency, the ability to care and to receive caring, in every human.
It is this human capacity for caring, and to receive caring that is foreign to the scientific method, and to Marxian “scientific” socialism. The human need for this quality is completely rational. It is not irrational. We humans desperately yearn for this quality from our government, from our political parties, from our friends and our families. We yearn for communities where we can give and receive caring.
This capacity for caring is honored, respected and promoted in each of the major faiths.
The point of all of this is that a worldwide mass political movement could be based on the recognition of this non rational value of caring. Whatever else the fundamentalists in each faith believe, at the core of their faiths, they share a need and recognition of this value, with the rest of us.
My scientist PhD. daughter is a ferocious atheist, but she has at least as much capacity for caring as any believer. So do atheists, nonbelievers, and cynics.
The core of each religion offers a vision of a better life on earth (as well as in heaven) and thus offers a strategy for penetrating the trance imposed on us by the oligarchy.
We all, believers, nonbelievers, and fundamentalists, share respect for some version of the Golden Rule.
At some level, we all wish to sustain and preserve our planet home for practical as well as spiritual reasons.
We can all share the discipline of active nonviolence and recognize the falseness of what Walter Wink labels The Myth of Redemptive Violence.
While institutional religion will not be on the cutting edge of a planet wide political movement, those with a private subjective spirituality, theologians and sages could be.
It is important to realize that one’s spirituality and one’s view of his own religion, are subjective and private. They are not, and cannot be, subjects for rational debate in the civic arena. There is immense wisdom in a strict separation of church and state. Rabbi Michael Lerner and his political movement, The Network of Spiritual Progressives, have not learned this. His members never do anything, but debate endlessly exactly what their mission is.
Sages and theologians of each faith might be crucial to the survival of humans on this planet. They should take the lead and publicly teach the golden rule and the value of caring and receiving caring at the root of each major faith.
September 9, 2007
Doug Page, Tucson AZ dougpage2@earthlink.net
BETRAYED DEMOCRATS MANIFESTO
THE BETRAYED DEMOCRATS MAINIFESTO
A Strategy for Betrayed Democratic Voters
OUR GOALS
1. We seek elected officials who care about us and will support policies that enable us to care for each other so as to meet our spiritual, creative, and material needs.
2. We want acts and conduct abroad that foster our interdependence and interconnectedness with human beings everywhere and meet our common need for peace and justice for all.
3. We want the US to withdraw our troops from Iraq NOW. We demand that our elected representatives use their constitutional power to vote against further funding of this war and against funding for the looming attack on Iran, and to vote only for funding a prompt orderly safe withdrawal of troops.
4. We insist on foreign policies that will provide a sustainable peaceful just life for all humans on this planet. We insist on having elected officials who will deal promptly and creatively with the looming, coinciding crises of nuclear proliferation, oil and energy shortages, over fishing, deforestation, global warming, ecological destruction, overpopulation, the compounding differences in wealth between the rich and the poor, pollution, and a fragile economy
5. We are willing to give up our unnecessary material goods and to make the changes and sacrifices in our personal lives that implementation of the above demands will make necessary.
6. We demand open access to all information necessary for us to govern ourselves wisely and a clear open public discussion of all issues of public concern, specifically including the most controversial: Israel-Palestine, the Israel Lobby, and an opening to public access all of the classified facts about the tragedy of the 9-11 World Trade Center.
7. We have become aware that it is the controlling financial oligarchy with its media that is determined to maintain the war. This is the same financial oligarchy that provides campaign funds to our elected representatives. We demand that our elected representatives confront this financial oligarchy, reject its financial contributions to their campaigns, their trips abroad, and their lobbyists, and betray the interests of that financial oligarchy instead of betraying us voters.
OUR STRATEGY OF ACTIVE NONVIOLENCE TO ACHIEVE OUR GOALS
We recognize at long last that the Democrats, bought and paid for by the money of the rich and powerful, vote on all important issues with the Republicans. We now realize that the rich and powerful constitute a governing financial oligarchy that now controls both the Republicans and the Democrats. We note that with each additional outrageous act of George W. Bush, the puppet of the Oligarchy, the Democrats simply cringe, acquiescence, and fund even more outrageous acts.
We acknowledge that there are only two viable political parties in the US. Despite its betrayal of us voters, the Democratic Party is the more likely of the two to make changes to meet our needs. We reject the self serving propaganda of the Democratic Leadership Committee that the Democrats are “the lesser evil” that it uses to get our votes and then to betray us. We perceive that the power of the Democratic Party to deceive us, to betray us, and to perpetuate Oligarchic control depends on two things: 1. the money of the Oligarchy for their campaign costs. 2. Our votes. The tragedy is that our votes for the “lesser evil” enable the Democrats to continue to do bad things.
We are determined to overcome our fear, our despair, our alienation from each other, and our silent immobilization. We choose to act constructively together.
THEREFORE
We the undersigned Democrats, in a campaign of active nonviolence in the tradition of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., do hereby pledge to withhold our votes from each Democratic candidate unless that candidate makes a sincere credible pledge to honor and implement each and every one of our goals. We shall monitor every single vote that each elected person makes, and we shall work actively to defeat that representative if he or she breaches his pledge.
Dated: September 9, 2007
Douglas R. Page dougpage2@earthlink.net
A Strategy for Betrayed Democratic Voters
OUR GOALS
1. We seek elected officials who care about us and will support policies that enable us to care for each other so as to meet our spiritual, creative, and material needs.
2. We want acts and conduct abroad that foster our interdependence and interconnectedness with human beings everywhere and meet our common need for peace and justice for all.
3. We want the US to withdraw our troops from Iraq NOW. We demand that our elected representatives use their constitutional power to vote against further funding of this war and against funding for the looming attack on Iran, and to vote only for funding a prompt orderly safe withdrawal of troops.
4. We insist on foreign policies that will provide a sustainable peaceful just life for all humans on this planet. We insist on having elected officials who will deal promptly and creatively with the looming, coinciding crises of nuclear proliferation, oil and energy shortages, over fishing, deforestation, global warming, ecological destruction, overpopulation, the compounding differences in wealth between the rich and the poor, pollution, and a fragile economy
5. We are willing to give up our unnecessary material goods and to make the changes and sacrifices in our personal lives that implementation of the above demands will make necessary.
6. We demand open access to all information necessary for us to govern ourselves wisely and a clear open public discussion of all issues of public concern, specifically including the most controversial: Israel-Palestine, the Israel Lobby, and an opening to public access all of the classified facts about the tragedy of the 9-11 World Trade Center.
7. We have become aware that it is the controlling financial oligarchy with its media that is determined to maintain the war. This is the same financial oligarchy that provides campaign funds to our elected representatives. We demand that our elected representatives confront this financial oligarchy, reject its financial contributions to their campaigns, their trips abroad, and their lobbyists, and betray the interests of that financial oligarchy instead of betraying us voters.
OUR STRATEGY OF ACTIVE NONVIOLENCE TO ACHIEVE OUR GOALS
We recognize at long last that the Democrats, bought and paid for by the money of the rich and powerful, vote on all important issues with the Republicans. We now realize that the rich and powerful constitute a governing financial oligarchy that now controls both the Republicans and the Democrats. We note that with each additional outrageous act of George W. Bush, the puppet of the Oligarchy, the Democrats simply cringe, acquiescence, and fund even more outrageous acts.
We acknowledge that there are only two viable political parties in the US. Despite its betrayal of us voters, the Democratic Party is the more likely of the two to make changes to meet our needs. We reject the self serving propaganda of the Democratic Leadership Committee that the Democrats are “the lesser evil” that it uses to get our votes and then to betray us. We perceive that the power of the Democratic Party to deceive us, to betray us, and to perpetuate Oligarchic control depends on two things: 1. the money of the Oligarchy for their campaign costs. 2. Our votes. The tragedy is that our votes for the “lesser evil” enable the Democrats to continue to do bad things.
We are determined to overcome our fear, our despair, our alienation from each other, and our silent immobilization. We choose to act constructively together.
THEREFORE
We the undersigned Democrats, in a campaign of active nonviolence in the tradition of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., do hereby pledge to withhold our votes from each Democratic candidate unless that candidate makes a sincere credible pledge to honor and implement each and every one of our goals. We shall monitor every single vote that each elected person makes, and we shall work actively to defeat that representative if he or she breaches his pledge.
Dated: September 9, 2007
Douglas R. Page dougpage2@earthlink.net
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