Op-Ed
I know a lot of folks don't take me seriously, because I don't have the money machine behind me that Elizabeth Warren or Barack Obama, but but here's my two cents again. I am not rich. I am not owned by the corporations or by the political machine. I am of the working folk, like you. Not a Wall Street mouthpiece robed in false promises of populism. Not an Ivy League-educated lawyer with a web of powerful and dangerous connections.
I am not a lawyer, but I have been reading the Law now for years... like another man you may have heard of... his name was Abraham Lincoln.
I am tired of our current President and our current Congress tearing down our world. Every four years a new President come into office, and every four years, all the President does is work for the rich and for the war machine. And they continue to destroy and despoil our planet.
I am not a lawyer, but I have been reading the Law now for years... like another man you may have heard of... his name was Abraham Lincoln.
I am tired of our current President and our current Congress tearing down our world. Every four years a new President come into office, and every four years, all the President does is work for the rich and for the war machine. And they continue to destroy and despoil our planet.
On election night 2011 during the evening and into the next morning, Franklin County pollworkers contacted the Free Press telling the paper that they were unable to make the electronic voting machines print out precinct-level results as required by law. This prevented pollworkers from posting election totals at the polling sites at the end of the night.
One pollworker of 35 years reported that "programming errors" had prevented "many precincts" in Franklin County from being able to print their totals for display on the windows of the voting locations."
A concerned citizen also wrote that he was aware of "an unknown number of Franklin County precincts which could not print out their precinct totals last night, due to a 'glitch.' These precincts included mine, where the results were not posted inside the window of the shelter house, as has been customary every preceding election I've lived here."
One pollworker of 35 years reported that "programming errors" had prevented "many precincts" in Franklin County from being able to print their totals for display on the windows of the voting locations."
A concerned citizen also wrote that he was aware of "an unknown number of Franklin County precincts which could not print out their precinct totals last night, due to a 'glitch.' These precincts included mine, where the results were not posted inside the window of the shelter house, as has been customary every preceding election I've lived here."
As the numerologists note our arrival at 11/11/11, our attention is better focused on this day as the anniversary of the end of the useless, worthless, horrifying war that turned so much of 20th Century into a twisted, violent mess. And on how we must prevent the same from happening to our shiny new millennium.
A superb route to that understanding comes through a modern masterpiece, TO END ALL WARS: A STORY OF LOYALTY AND REBELLION, 1914-8, by Adam Hochschild.
A seasoned author and social critic who helped found Mother Jones Magazine, Hochschild's page-turning account of the "Great War" in Great Britain is both a joy to read and a tragedy to digest.
Its glory lies in Adam's ability to penetrate the human core of the arrogance, foolishness and utter senselessness of a conflict that for no real reason killed at least ten million people outright and tens of millions more (including 500,000 in the US) by disease, most notably the influenza, which struck just prior to humankind's ability to mass-produce penicillin.
A superb route to that understanding comes through a modern masterpiece, TO END ALL WARS: A STORY OF LOYALTY AND REBELLION, 1914-8, by Adam Hochschild.
A seasoned author and social critic who helped found Mother Jones Magazine, Hochschild's page-turning account of the "Great War" in Great Britain is both a joy to read and a tragedy to digest.
Its glory lies in Adam's ability to penetrate the human core of the arrogance, foolishness and utter senselessness of a conflict that for no real reason killed at least ten million people outright and tens of millions more (including 500,000 in the US) by disease, most notably the influenza, which struck just prior to humankind's ability to mass-produce penicillin.
On Thursday, OccupyWashingtonDC.org teamed up with the Backbone Campaign, National People's Action, and the New Economy Working Group in a march from Freedom Plaza to the Federal Housing Finance Administration (FHFA).
The demand they brought, along with giant props including a foreclosed house under water, was for a correction. The 1%, they said, inflated house values and made off with ill-gotten gains, but those left with underwater mortgages when the house values were brought back down have suffered. The demand is for mortgage values to be adjusted to match the current market values of houses.
"People in power know that the real solution to the continuing collapse of the housing market is universal principal reduction of American mortgages to real market value," said Bill Moyer of the Backbone Campaign. "It's time those with the power find the backbone to stand up to the banks and Institutions that hold these mortgages and insist they stop drowning America with false solutions, inaction and greed."
The demand they brought, along with giant props including a foreclosed house under water, was for a correction. The 1%, they said, inflated house values and made off with ill-gotten gains, but those left with underwater mortgages when the house values were brought back down have suffered. The demand is for mortgage values to be adjusted to match the current market values of houses.
"People in power know that the real solution to the continuing collapse of the housing market is universal principal reduction of American mortgages to real market value," said Bill Moyer of the Backbone Campaign. "It's time those with the power find the backbone to stand up to the banks and Institutions that hold these mortgages and insist they stop drowning America with false solutions, inaction and greed."
Vultures' Picnic, Chapter 10 - Fukushima, Texas(function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();
Glenn Beck is more dreadful than you think.
Thursday night (October 27) I attended Glenn Beck's performance piece at Vets Memorial. His appearance was sponsored by Ohio Right to Life to kick off its annual state conference and fill its operating budget (according to Beck) for next fiscal year. Just buying a ticket wasn't good enough. In a word of faith moment, Beck ordered us to pull out the donation envelopes from our programs and hold them tight for the next couple hours as he inspired us to stuff them with cash, check or credit card number. From the looks of the beg buckets held by ORTL volunteers standing beneath the exit signs when it was all over, Beck had indeed miraculously turned envelopes into cash.
Lying in bed the next morning I wondered just what I could write about Beck. There must have been something in his 90 minute one man show that was revealing or quotable or enlightening, or entertaining. Alas! There is none. For 90 minutes Beck paced the stage, implored, and wept over....well... something, but it's unclear what.
Thursday night (October 27) I attended Glenn Beck's performance piece at Vets Memorial. His appearance was sponsored by Ohio Right to Life to kick off its annual state conference and fill its operating budget (according to Beck) for next fiscal year. Just buying a ticket wasn't good enough. In a word of faith moment, Beck ordered us to pull out the donation envelopes from our programs and hold them tight for the next couple hours as he inspired us to stuff them with cash, check or credit card number. From the looks of the beg buckets held by ORTL volunteers standing beneath the exit signs when it was all over, Beck had indeed miraculously turned envelopes into cash.
Lying in bed the next morning I wondered just what I could write about Beck. There must have been something in his 90 minute one man show that was revealing or quotable or enlightening, or entertaining. Alas! There is none. For 90 minutes Beck paced the stage, implored, and wept over....well... something, but it's unclear what.
“Mr. Obama and his senior national security advisers have sought to reassure allies and answer critics, including many Republicans, that the United States will not abandon its commitments in the Persian Gulf even as it winds down the war in Iraq and looks ahead to doing the same in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.”
I pluck a paragraph from the New York Times and for an instant I’m possessed by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, aquiver with puzzlement down to my deepest sensibilities. I hold you here, root and all, little paragraph. But if I could understand what you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what empire is, and hubris . . . and maybe even, by its striking absence, democracy.
The paragraph contains the careful verbiage of exclusion, which is the only language in which the geopolitical powers that be are able to communicate.
I pluck a paragraph from the New York Times and for an instant I’m possessed by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, aquiver with puzzlement down to my deepest sensibilities. I hold you here, root and all, little paragraph. But if I could understand what you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what empire is, and hubris . . . and maybe even, by its striking absence, democracy.
The paragraph contains the careful verbiage of exclusion, which is the only language in which the geopolitical powers that be are able to communicate.
This won’t be Vietnam, exactly. No helicopter whisking the last remaining Americans off the roof of the embassy. A contingent of 16,000 State Department contract employees — over 5,000 of them armed mercenaries — will be staying on, running what’s left of the American operation in Iraq.
But there’s little doubt we lost this war — by every rational measure. Everyone lost, except those who profited from (and continue to profit from) the trillions we bled into the invasion and occupation; and those who planned it, most of whom remain in positions to plan or at least promote the wars we’re still fighting and the wars to come.
But in a certain profound sense, the war in Iraq, as we have come to know it over the last almost nine years, is shutting down. The Obama team couldn’t get “Iraq’s inspiring but fragile democracy” (in the immortal words of Joe Lieberman, waxing absurd in a USA Today opinion piece) to approve immunity from local prosecution for American troops. Our noble cause trembled, collapsed, and for a moment we became a democracy. The will of the sick-of-war public prevailed.
But there’s little doubt we lost this war — by every rational measure. Everyone lost, except those who profited from (and continue to profit from) the trillions we bled into the invasion and occupation; and those who planned it, most of whom remain in positions to plan or at least promote the wars we’re still fighting and the wars to come.
But in a certain profound sense, the war in Iraq, as we have come to know it over the last almost nine years, is shutting down. The Obama team couldn’t get “Iraq’s inspiring but fragile democracy” (in the immortal words of Joe Lieberman, waxing absurd in a USA Today opinion piece) to approve immunity from local prosecution for American troops. Our noble cause trembled, collapsed, and for a moment we became a democracy. The will of the sick-of-war public prevailed.
Feeling angry about being betrayed by a corrupt government owned by rich and corporate elites has driven the Occupy Wall Street movement. Emphasizing how the top one percent has prospered incredibly while the bottom 99 percent have been screwed royally is supported by countless data. New data show this is a global phenomenon and that even in the worst of economic times the wealthiest make out like the bandits they are, and there are a lot more of them than one percent.
Globally, millionaires and billionaires now control 38.5 percent of the world’s wealth, according to the latest Global Wealth Report from Credit Suisse. Never have so few owned so much. There are 29.7 million people in the world with household net worth of $1 million or more; they represent less than 1 percent of the world’s population, actually just .4 percent of 7 billion people.
Globally, millionaires and billionaires now control 38.5 percent of the world’s wealth, according to the latest Global Wealth Report from Credit Suisse. Never have so few owned so much. There are 29.7 million people in the world with household net worth of $1 million or more; they represent less than 1 percent of the world’s population, actually just .4 percent of 7 billion people.
America’s war in Iraq is over. The last U.S. troops will leave by year’s end, “with their heads held high, proud of their success and knowing that the American people stand united in our support for our troops.” So sayeth President Obama.
A “sham of a mockery of a sham,” is what Groucho would call Obama’s announcement and he would be right.
For several reasons Mr. Marx would be much closer to the truth than Mr. Obama.
1) Even with “all” troops pulled out…well…who knows about Special Forces since their presence in a country never seems to really equal a “troop presence.” But even if all the “non-combat” combat troops leave and even if we don’t count the Marine Corps’ standard complement of guards at the world’s largest embassy, 5,000 armed mercenaries will remain indefinitely. The State Department, not the War Department will be responsible for them, but a killer for hire is not likely to become a diplomat at the stroke of midnight on December 31.
A “sham of a mockery of a sham,” is what Groucho would call Obama’s announcement and he would be right.
For several reasons Mr. Marx would be much closer to the truth than Mr. Obama.
1) Even with “all” troops pulled out…well…who knows about Special Forces since their presence in a country never seems to really equal a “troop presence.” But even if all the “non-combat” combat troops leave and even if we don’t count the Marine Corps’ standard complement of guards at the world’s largest embassy, 5,000 armed mercenaries will remain indefinitely. The State Department, not the War Department will be responsible for them, but a killer for hire is not likely to become a diplomat at the stroke of midnight on December 31.