Smearing Howard Zinn

Courtesy of NPR's All Things Centrist and Establishment and Right Wing Considered, the people who studiously ignored Zinn during his lifetime because they were too busy sucking up to those in power and being a mouthpiece for the upper classes.

Corrente:

When I heard that historian and activist Howard Zinn died on Wednesday, I wondered how (or even if) NPR would cover his death. They have quite a track record of glorifying some of the vilest characters of the right (e.g. torture apologist and dictator loving Jeanne Kirkpatrick, economist Milton Friedman, and Jerry Falwell) when their lives come to an end, so I wondered how an avowedly leftist person such as Zinn would fare.

[...]

Then came the NPR "remembrance" on ATC, cooked up by NPR history distorter, Allison Keyes. Keyes must have some seriously limited research abilities because for comments about Zinn, she could only come up with Noam Chomsky (makes sense), Julian Bond (okay), and David Horowitz...seriously, Keyes turns to the extremist, right-wing Horowitz, sleazy polemicist "with no...actual occupation" and "no academic credentials" so he can weigh in on the scholarship and character of Howard Zinn. The result ain't pretty. Keyes, dignifying Horowitz with the title of a "conservative pundit and author," tells us that he "calls A People's History of the United States a travesty." She also includes sound bites of Horowitz saying,

"There is absolutely nothing in Howard Zinn's intellectual output that is worthy of any kind of respect," and "Zinn represents a fringe mentality which has unfortunately seduced millions of people at this point in time. So he did certainly alter the consciousness of millions of younger people for the worse."

All the assholes, the professional conservative thugs, are getting in their little digs.

There is a FAIR action alert on the story.

Progressive Voice writes:

Shame on “All Things Considered” for stooping so low you would give far-right activist David Horowitz time to blast Howard Zinn and everything he stood for. I’m sure whoever approved this will try to somehow rationalize this disrespect in the name of “balance.” After all, you gave time to Noam Chomsky who you and the mainstream media usually keep off the air. Therefore you had to balance with Horowitz. Such reasoning for guest selection is biased, unfair and totally inappropriate especially under these circumstances. This is not purely a political event where you supposedly “balance” left and right. The bottom line is you’ve gone way over the decency line by failing to respond with sufficient respect to the death of a great American historian, activist and human being.

Enough of that. It's all so predictable. Here's more Howard Zinn:

"...understand that the major media will not tell you of all the acts of resistance taking place every day in the society, the strikes, the protests, the individual acts of courage in the face of authority. Look around (and you will certainly find it) for the evidence of these unreported acts. And for the little you find, extrapolate from that and assume there must be a thousand times as much as what you've found."

- Howard Zinn, On Getting Along (1999)

"I label myself as a radical, not as a liberal."
- Howard Zinn

"Capitalism is proving itself incapable of handling this enormous economic system in a just and rational way."
- Howard Zinn

"He was an unbelievably decent man who felt obliged to challenge injustice and unfairness wherever he found it."

Bob Herbert:

Think of what this country would have been like if those ordinary people had never bothered to fight and sometimes die for what they believed in. Mr. Zinn refers to them as “the people who have given this country whatever liberty and democracy we have.”

Our tendency is to give these true American heroes short shrift, just as we gave Howard Zinn short shrift. In the nitwit era that we’re living through now, it’s fashionable, for example, to bad-mouth labor unions and feminists even as workers throughout the land are treated like so much trash and the culture is so riddled with sexism that most people don’t even notice it. (There’s a restaurant chain called “Hooters,” for crying out loud.)

I always wondered why Howard Zinn was considered a radical. (He called himself a radical.) He was an unbelievably decent man who felt obliged to challenge injustice and unfairness wherever he found it. What was so radical about believing that workers should get a fair shake on the job, that corporations have too much power over our lives and much too much influence with the government, that wars are so murderously destructive that alternatives to warfare should be found, that blacks and other racial and ethnic minorities should have the same rights as whites, that the interests of powerful political leaders and corporate elites are not the same as those of ordinary people who are struggling from week to week to make ends meet?

Mr. Zinn was often taken to task for peeling back the rosy veneer of much of American history to reveal sordid realities that had remained hidden for too long. When writing about Andrew Jackson in his most famous book, “A People’s History of the United States,” published in 1980, Mr. Zinn said:

“If you look through high school textbooks and elementary school textbooks in American history, you will find Jackson the frontiersman, soldier, democrat, man of the people — not Jackson the slaveholder, land speculator, executioner of dissident soldiers, exterminator of Indians.”

Radical? Hardly.

"The more reactionary a ruling class ... the more is its ideology taken over by anti-intellectualism, irrationalism, and superstition."

[source]

"The more reactionary a ruling class, the more obvious it becomes that the social order over which it presides has turned into an impediment to human liberation, the more is its ideology taken over by anti-intellectualism, irrationalism, and superstition."
- Paul Baran, 1961

Yoo Fucker Fleeing Protesters

May he be hounded by Berkeley students until his retirement.

Inside Higher Ed:

Controversy continues to surround John Yoo, a tenured law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, who held roles in the Bush administration in which he justified actions widely viewed as torture. Many of his critics have said he is unsuitable to teach law -- a stance rejected by Berkeley officials as antithetical to academic freedom. As detailed in the blog Above the Law, Yoo is teaching this semester and is frustrating those who want to protest his classes. Yoo is revealing the location only to students, while other classes' meeting times and locations are all public. Asked about his "secret class," Yoo told the blog: "The location of the class, of course, is available to the students who want to take it. If the protesters want to go, they could always apply for admission as 1Ls and pay the full tuition like everyone else. They will find that it is harder to compete for admission with our smart and accomplished students than it is to make a ruckus."

The Justice Dept. absolved John Yoo of any wrongdoing today. Your government always comes through when it comes to protecting the powerful.

Obama said in his State of the Union:

America's greatest source of strength has always been our ideals. ... We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all created equal.

And so the promise of the notion of equality lives on, always useful as a propaganda tool, never to be realized in fact. John Yoo, who catered to the whims of a cruel and thoughtless president, can never be convicted of wrongdoing as an ordinary American would be. His former high place in government makes him special, beyond the reach of the law.

"Should I put it on Mr Blankfein?"

Good thinking Mr President. Better to run anything you do by the CEO of Goldman-Sachs first. They're your base after all.

But wasn't 93% of Obama's contributions less than 200.00 and from private individuals?

Here's the other 7%:

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/sectorallc.php?cycle=2008

Democrats used to be the party of working people. Unions, minorities. The poor. Those middle and upper class people who looked to the future. Those with a social conscience. As recently as the 2004 election there still was a disparity:



"What should I do, Mr. Blankfein ? May I call you Lloyd, by the way?"

No you may not. Make a speech, you're good at that. Call us Fat Cats or something equally droll.


"What if I compare the bailouts to root canal, and then pretend it took balls to back that decision, Mr. Blankfein? And then, OK and then I'll really lay into the lobbyists! That would show the voters that I'm in their corner right sir?"

Excellent Barry. Excellent. Make sure to ring them up the following day and apologize. Let them know you didn't mean it. Fell free to ask them for more money if you'd like.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/78509-after-obama-rips-k-street-administration-invites-lobbyists-to-private-briefings


"What if I fired Ben Bernanke ? His incompetence in missing the bubble and opposing regulation caused much of this. Firing his pontificating ass would show the people I mean business, wouldn't it Mr. Blankfein?"



Barry, Barry. You still don't get it. Firing Ben, although richly deserved would rile the stock markets just when investor confidence is building. We wouldn't want to do that. Besides don't forget that Ben is working for me too. Just make your State of the Union Speech. Fire them up like you do. You'll have them eating out of your hand in no time. Now I believe Bill and his friend were waiting on their coffee.

Michael Zezima: Five Lessons from Howard Zinn

Via Dissident Voice:

1. “Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.”

2. “To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.”

3. “The challenge remains. On the other side are formidable forces: money, political power, the major media. On our side are the people of the world and a power greater than money or weapons: the truth. Truth has a power of its own. Art has a power of its own. That age-old lesson—that everything we do matters—is the meaning of the people’s struggle here in the United States and everywhere. A poem can inspire a movement. A pamphlet can spark a revolution. Civil disobedience can arouse people and provoke us to think, when we organize with one another, when we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a power no government can suppress. We live in a beautiful country. But people who have no respect for human life, freedom, or justice have taken it over. It is now up to all of us to take it back.”

4. “As dogma disintegrates, hope appears. Because it seems that human beings, whatever their backgrounds, are more open than we think, that their behavior cannot be confidently predicted from their past, that we are all creatures vulnerable to new thoughts, new attitudes. And while such vulnerability creates all sorts of possibilities, both good and bad, its very existence is exciting. It means that no human being should be written off, no change in thinking deemed impossible.”

5. “The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

"As soon as you say the topic is civil disobedience, you're saying our problem is civil disobedience, That is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience."
- Howard Zinn, at a Johns Hopkins debate with Charles Frankel

"I start from the supposition that the world is topsy-turvy, that things are all wrong, that the wrong people are in jail and the wrong people are out of jail, that the wrong people are in power and the wrong people are out of power."

- Howard Zinn

Adoration of Apple

Courtesy of sycophant Stephen Fry:

Well bless my soul and whiskers. This is the first time I’ve joined the congregation at the Church of Apple for a new product launch. I’ve watched all the past ones, downloaded the Quicktime movies and marvelled as Apple’s leader has stood before an ovating faithful and announced the switch to Intel, the birth of iPod, the miniMac, the iTunes Store, OS X, iPhoto, the swan’s neck iMac, the Shuffle, Apple retail stores, the iPhone, the titanium powerbook, Garageband, the App Store and so much more. But today I finally made it. I came to San Francisco for the launch of the iPad. Oh, happy man.

[...]

Yes, I do like and have tried to champion OpenSource software. How can I square that with my love of Apple? I’m complicated. I’m a human being. I also believe in a mixed economy and mixed nuts. I love our National Health Service and the National Theatre, but I also love Fortnum and Mason’s and Hollywood movies. “Apple,” Steve Jobs said, “stands at the intersection of Technology and the Liberal Arts.” This statement confused non-Americans who are not familiar with the phrase Liberal Arts (you can look it up here) but I think shows the fundamental cultural seriousness of Jobs and Apple which in turn explains their huge success and impact. He might perhaps more accurately have said that Apple stands at the intersection of Technology, the Liberal Arts and Commerce.” You may or may not be in the queue for an iPad in March, April, May or June. Or you may decide to stay your hand for version 2.0 or 3.0. But believe me the iPad is here to stay and nothing will be quite the same again.

Generating a new post label for Swiftspeech!: barf.

"Never before have people been so infantalized, made so dependant on the machine for everything; as the earth rapidly approaches its extinction due to technology, our souls are shrunk and flattened by its pervasive rule."
- John Zerzan

"The news of Howard Zinn's death hit me like a ton of bricks."

Paul Street:

The news of Howard Zinn's death hit me like a ton of bricks. I did not expect to cry and then about 10 minutes after getting the e-mail...it hit me - three times. The last time I looked down and saw that I was standing in my den about one foot away from one of my old "instructors' copies" of Zinn's masterpiece, A People's History of the United States, 1492-Present.

"I Don't Take Him Very Seriously"

This morning tears gave way to a bit of disgust, thanks to the New York Times and the Associated Press (AP). Even in death the great critics of the rich and powerful have to be put in their place. The Times pulled its initial obituary of Zinn off the Associated Press (AP) wire.

"Even liberal historians were uneasy with Professor Zinn," the AP reported, quoting the former Kennedy administration court historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. "I know he regards me as a dangerous reactionary," Schlesinger once said, according to the AP." And I don't take him very seriously. He's a polemicist, not a historian."

It was quite an insult to include that condescending dismissal from an academic power-elite aristocrat like Schlesinger. Yes, Arthur M. Schlesinger, who wrote the following in his history A Thousand Days: "1962 had not been a bad year...aggression [was] checked in Vietnam."

[...]

Howard Zinn was an American giant. He made vapid servants of power like Schlesinger and the New York Times' managers look like moral and intellectual ants by comparison.

[...]

As the fake-progressive, not-so "liberal" Obama's latest shining yet strangely mediocre speechifying blared across the nation's Telescreens last night, I was led to reflect on the wisdom of Howard Zinn's elementary but powerful observation that a "better" politician in the White House "will not mean anything unless the power of the people asserts itself in ways that the occupant of the White House will find it dangerous to ignore." So true! No honest and informed progressive can deny the wisdom of that remark as we move into the second year of the Obama administration - an epitome of Zinn's dark judgment on the "limited vision" of U.S. political culture past and present. It's up to us to write and act out the other great theme in A People's History - popular resistance on a large scale, informed by the wisdom of Shelley, who Zinn quoted at the end of the Afterword to the 2003 edition of A People's History:

Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquished number!
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many; they are few!

Read the whole thing and keep reading Paul Street!

Obama v. Republicans

A feisty Obama defends his Republican-friendly centrist ways at a Republican caucus retreat.

"I may not agree to a tax cut for Warren Buffett."

Xe-vil

In honor of Howard Zinn

In honor of Howard Zinn, sent in an email from the Buffalo Field Campaign:

In honor of Howard Zinn, who passed away last night:

"We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world."

"Any humane and reasonable person must conclude that if the ends, however desireable, are uncertain and the means are horrible and certain, these means must not be employed."

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places-and there are so many-where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

"Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery - have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience."

"Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it. "

"The challenge remains. On the other side are formidable forces: money, political power, the major media. On our side are the people of the world and a power greater than money or weapons: the truth. Truth has a power of its own. Art has a power of its own. That age-old lesson - that everything we do matters - is the meaning of the people's struggle here in the United States and everywhere. A poem can inspire a movement. A pamphlet can spark a revolution. Civil disobedience can arouse people and provoke us to think, when we organize with one another, when we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a power no government can suppress. We live in a beautiful country. But people who have no respect for human life, freedom, or justice have taken it over. It is now up to all of us to take it back."

~ Howard Zinn, 1922 - 2010.

HowardZinn.org has links to some nice tributes.

Afraid to be perceived as soft on defense, unafraid to be mercilessly cruel towards innocent civilians

The Hill:

The Department of Defense's new proposed budget would dwarf military spending sought during President Ronald Reagan's time in office.

According to a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, the money sought by the Defense department as well as President Barack Obama's 2010 budget -- which excludes money for ongoing war efforts -- would outpace Reagan's defense spending at its peak.

A-waitin' on Obama, Obama, Obama, a-waitin' on Obama

This Langston Hughes poem from 1934, "Ballad of Roosevelt," is featured in Howard Zinn's film, The People Speak. Doesn't it bring to mind Obama?

Ballad of Roosevelt

The pot was empty,

The cupboard was bare.

I said, Papa,

What’s the matter here?

I’m waitin' on Roosevelt, son,

Roosevelt, Roosevelt,

Waitin' on Roosevelt, son.

The rent was due,

And the lights was out.

I said, Tell me, Mama,

What’s it all about?

We’re waitin' on Roosevelt, son,

Roosevelt, Roosevelt,

Just waitin' on Roosevelt.

Sister got sick

And the doctor wouldn’t come

Cause we couldn’t pay him

The proper sum—

A-waitin on Roosevelt,

Roosevelt, Roosevelt,

A-waitin' on Roosevelt.

Then one day

They put us out o' the house.

Ma and Pa was Meek as a mouse

Still waitin' on Roosevelt,

Roosevelt, Roosevelt.

But when they felt those

Cold winds blow

And didn’t have no

Place to go

Pa said, I’m tired

O’waitin' on Roosevelt,

Roosevelt, Roosevelt.

Damn tired o‘ waitin’ on Roosevelt.

I can’t git a job

And I can’t git no grub.

Backbone and navel’s

Doin' the belly-rub—

A-waitin' on Roosevelt,

Roosevelt, Roosevelt.

And a lot o' other folks

What’s hungry and cold

Done stopped believin'

What they been told

By Roosevelt,

Roosevelt, Roosevelt—

Cause the pot’s still empty,

And the cupboard’s still bare,

And you can’t build a

bungalow

Out o' air—

Mr. Roosevelt, listen!

What’s the matter here?

Pa said, I’m tired

O’waitin' on Obama,

Obama, Obama.

Damn tired o‘ waitin’ on Obama.

"He leaves a legacy of truth, inspiration and optimism."

"The terrorism of the suicide bomber and the terrorism of aerial bombardment are indeed morally equivalent. To say otherwise ... is to give one moral superiority over the other, and thus serve to perpetuate the horrors of our time."
- Howard Zinn

"Here's to our heroic, learned, brilliant, patient, compassionate, generous, and very funny friend, Howard Zinn, who passed away this afternoon. He leaves a legacy of truth, inspiration and optimism. His kind and wizened voice will always be what I hear when my conscience prompts me to behave like a decent and responsible person. Thanks for everything, Howard."
- Barry Crimmins

"Many people are calling Zinn a radical. I suppose he was, in the getting-to-the-root-of-matters sense. But to me it reveals how fucked our system remains that a person as plain spoken, down to earth, and direct as Howard Zinn is viewed as a fringe figure, an oddball lefty who took a 'contrarian' stance against the status quo. If Zinn was weird, then let's be weirdos too. Thank you, Howard."
- Dennis Perrin

"I just learned that my friend Howard Zinn died today. Earlier this morning, I was being interviewed by the Boston Phoenix, in connection with the release in Boston in February of a documentary in which he is featured prominently. The interviewer asked me who my own heroes were, and I had no hesitation in answering, first, 'Howard Zinn.'"
- Daniel Ellsberg

"He was my teacher and mentor, the perfect role model of the compassionate citizen activist historian journalist. I was happy when I received my copy of The Nation in the mail yesterday and saw that he had penned a short comment on Obama’s first year in office. I thought to myself I’m glad that Howard is alive and well. I haven’t heard from him since his wife died not too long ago. I’ve kind of dreaded this day because when people like Howard go there’s really nobody to replace them. Certainly none of the historians from my generation I’ve encountered in my life."
- Joseph Palermo

"On my website I have had for years his name as one of the two most inspirational professors in my training with a link to a Zinn website. His greatness inspired me as it has countless of others. His courage as an educator, labour organiser, antiwar protestor, civil rights activist with S.N.C.C., revisionist historian, advocate for social justice and for democratic socialism will endure. His scholarly oeuvre will endure. His reputation as one of the most significant historians of the twentieth century will endure. As long as I teach. As long as I have students. As long as I have a voice, I will continue in my little way with my modest capacities, his foundational emphasis on scholarly activism and progressive change. There is no turning back, not now, not ever."
- Peter N. Kirstein

"It is bad enough when a loved and admirable person dies and one realizes they can never be replaced, that there will never be another one remotely like them. It is worse when that person's death leaves a hole in the entire moral universe, that a spiritual vacuum has been created that can never be filled. The pain is more intense, the feeling of irreplaceable loss even stronger.
My only consolation at this moment is knowing that though Howard Zinn the man has died, 'Zinn' has not. I know that many of us will continue to be sustained in the difficult years to come by the answers we will receive when we find ourselves asking:
-- What would Howard think, how would he see it?
-- What would Howard say?
-- How would Howard feel?
And, most importantly:
-- What would Howard do?
Zinn has died. Long live 'Zinn'."
- Fred Branfman

"Howard was asked once whether his praise of dissent and protest was divisive. He answered beautifully: 'Yes, dissent and protest are divisive, but in a good way, because they represent accurately the real divisions in society. Those divisions exist - the rich, the poor - whether there is dissent or not, but when there is no dissent, there is no change. The dissent has the possibility not of ending the division in society, but of changing the reality of the division. Changing the balance of power on behalf of the poor and the oppressed.'
Words like this made Howard my hero."
- David Zirin

Howard Zinn belongs with the great truth-tellers of history. He told the truth with great style and humor.

The essence of his engaged outlook and his wonderful humor can be heard in "Machiavelli and Teaching".

Howard Zinn dies

A giant inspiration in my life is gone from this earth. I am so very sad tonight.

"Democracy doesn't comes from the top.
It comes from the bottom."
- Howard Zinn.

"...you might say the theme of my work is that we cannot depend on people in the White House. We can depend on people picketing the White House."
- Howard Zinn

You can find an online version of A People's History here.

A great collection of mp3 lectures here.

Slumming with Socialists

"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

I started a new blog the other day, Slumming with Socialists, to give vent to my increasingly radicalized, socialistic outlook.

I'm tired of slumming with Democrats and Republicans and I'm getting too old to waste time hoping for change from their ossified ways of thinking, being, and doing.

At some point, I plan to move it over to WordPress. I hope you will check it out on a periodic basis.

The radical theory of capitalism

"Most must be insecure and afraid so that a few can face life with confidence. Nearly everyone must suffer a stunted existence so that a minority can enjoy life to the fullest."

Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate:

The radical theory of capitalism postulates a mechanism—the accumulation of capital—as central to an understanding of the system. It lays out the features of this accumulation and asks how it is possible. Using the labor theory of value, it concludes that accumulation can only take place if workers are exploited, that is, forced to labor an amount of time in excess of the time necessary to pay for the constant and variable capital. The peculiar nature of the nonhuman means of production, their status as private property, permits the capitalists to appropriate the money that comes from the sale of the output produced during the surplus labor time. States are brought into being by these very same men of wealth to safeguard the entire enterprise. At the core of capitalist production is violence, either in the form of the slow death of unemployment or the mailed fist of the employer and the employer’s state.

Capitalist economies may be engines of growth, capable of producing mountains of output, every good and service under the sun and then some, in infinite variety. But as the radical theory makes clear, the fruits of growth can not be equitably distributed, for the benefit of all. Many must be poor, so that a few can be rich. Most must be insecure and afraid so that a few can face life with confidence. Nearly everyone must suffer a stunted existence so that a minority can enjoy life to the fullest. The evidence of this is so overwhelming that neoclassical economics can only survive because of its great propaganda value.

Speaking of Marxism, don't miss the latest episode of Seeing Red Radio!

Thanks, Barack! Now go away.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- No. 1 home-improvement retailer Home Depot Inc. said Tuesday that it's cutting 1,000 jobs as it plans to shut three underperforming pilot stores and consolidate various back-end functions.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Wal-Mart's plans to cut more than 11,000 jobs at Sam's Club and outsource its product sampling and demonstration will better showcase its products and bolster demand at its wholesale-club chain, which has lagged its sister subsidiaries, analysts say.

I don't blame the last President for this mess. I blame the current President. He has had a year to bring us out of this crisis and he is failing badly.

He could have rammed through health care reform. In pieces or as a whole. He had the votes. He chose instead a giveaway to insurance companies. And to Big Pharma. He could have ended the war in Afghanistan, saving billions of dollars. He chose to escalate. He could have reformed the banking sector. He chose to give them everything they wanted. He could have focused on job creation. Joblessness is predicted to remain stable at 10% through 2010.

His most recent decision, to become a deficit hawk during an employment crisis, is a cruel slap in the face of struggling Americans.

May a caring progressive step forward soon to run against this poor excuse for a President in 2012.

As with Bush, I can't wait until the jerk in the White House is out the door and no longer wrecking people's lives.

[Obama golfing w/corporate execs]

Mortality Musing

There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons --
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes --

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us --
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are --

None may teach it -- Any --
'Tis the Seal Despair --
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air --

When it comes, the Landscape listens --
Shadows -- hold their breath --
When it goes, 'tis like the Distance
On the look of Death --


~Emily Dickenson~

What' Ya Think, Home Boys 'n Girls? Give Barry A Little More Time?

Personally, I think he has done himself in.

 (The old self-administered fork.)

Do you think I'm being unfair?

The fiction of democracy

In his most recent column, the fiery Chris Hedges references Sheldon Wolin's excellent Democracy, Inc.

The fiction of democracy remains useful, not only for corporations, but for our bankrupt liberal class. If the fiction is seriously challenged, liberals will be forced to consider actual resistance, which will be neither pleasant nor easy. As long as a democratic facade exists, liberals can engage in an empty moral posturing that requires little sacrifice or commitment. They can be the self-appointed scolds of the Democratic Party, acting as if they are part of the debate and feel vindicated by their cries of protest.

Much of the outrage expressed about the court’s ruling is the outrage of those who prefer this choreographed charade. As long as the charade is played, they do not have to consider how to combat what the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls our system of “inverted totalitarianism.”

Inverted totalitarianism represents “the political coming of age of corporate power and the political demobilization of the citizenry,” Wolin writes in “Democracy Incorporated.” Inverted totalitarianism differs from classical forms of totalitarianism, which revolve around a demagogue or charismatic leader, and finds its expression in the anonymity of the corporate state. The corporate forces behind inverted totalitarianism do not, as classical totalitarian movements do, boast of replacing decaying structures with a new, revolutionary structure. They purport to honor electoral politics, freedom and the Constitution. But they so corrupt and manipulate the levers of power as to make democracy impossible.

"Representative institutions no longer represent voters. Instead, they have been short-circuited, steadily corrupted by an institutionalized system of bribery that renders them responsive to powerful interest groups whose constituencies are the major corporations and wealthiest Americans."

- Sheldon Wolin, 2003

Free speech at the Virginia Crisis Pregnancy Center

Don't ban corporate speech at election time, ban corporate speech all of the time

We have gone from what the founders envisioned, protection of free speech for individuals and protection of those who speak truth to power, to free speech for powerful corporations and protection of their right to spread lies and drown out the voices of the powerless.

Allan D. Kanner:

...as critical as free speech is to a democracy, and as vulnerable as it is to suppression, it is not an absolute right but rather one that needs to be evaluated in terms of the contexts in which speech occurs.As I will argue, modern marketing, especially as developed by large corporations, has created a context in which limits on commercial speech are not only justified, but essential to a free society.

[...]

There are two properties of modern commercial speech that make it extremely harmful to both society and to individuals, and therefore a legitimate candidate for governmental restrictions.

The first is that corporate marketing has developed in the last century into a form of commercial speech that dwarfs all that has preceded it in scope, sophistication, and influence. It is now virtually impossible to participate in public life without constant exposure to commercial messages. Through a combination of advanced technology, new marketing techniques, and enormous amounts of funding, modern marketing is functioning more like propaganda for a materialistic ideology than like simple advertising. As such, we should seriously consider whether it has evolved into a qualitatively new type of commercial speech.

As it stands, corporate marketing is generating great harm. It routinely employs a large number of subtle and damaging psychological manipulations that adversely affect people’s health and emotional well-being.The enormous scope of marketing itself is problematic. For example, the hyper-materialistic message promoted by corporate advertising drives the consumer frenzy that is destroying complex life on the planet. Junk food advertising is a major contributor to the international obesity crisis.

[...]

In sum, corporate marketing is a form of speech, perhaps a new form, which is harming individuals, society, and nature on a massive scale. Its negative impact is escalating. Under these circumstances, legal restrictions on corporate advertising are not only justified but also necessary to protect democracy and preserve a free society.

"Moral power is ... incomparably superior to political power."

Adin Ballou (1845):

Moral power is everywhere, in all things. It is exercised by, or at least reflected from, the innumerable hosts of universal nature. But political power is exercised by only a handful of human beings. It is vested, nominally, in the voting citizens, and exercised by their chosen representatives in he several departments of government. And who are voting citizens? Exclude all females, all minors under twenty-one years of age, all paupers and persons under guardianship, all slaves, all un-naturalized foreigners, and many others for want of the requisite property qualification. The residue will be voting citizens, amounting to less than one fourth of the whole nation. Deduct from these, the sick, helpless, indifferent, and scrupulously conscientious against voting, and the, average proportion of actual voters to the mass will be one to six, or more likely one to ten. Of these, there must be a majority, or strong plurality to determine any important issue. The dominant party furnishes nearly all the offices of government, and is itself managed in all its principal doings by a subtle few behind the curtain. The whole political power in every country is virtually in the hands of a mere fraction of the people.

[...]

...let political power look up and present its vaunted resources. Behold its swords, its muskets, its cannon, its powder and ball, its forts, arsenals, dockyards and ships of war; its regulars, its militia, its banners, caps, feathers, tinsel epaulettes, parti-colored uniforms; its jails, prisons, gibbets, pillories, whipping-posts and stocks; its courts, processes, and technicalities; its congresses, general assemblies, town meetings, caucuses and vigilance committees; its wire-pullers, pipe-layers, venal newspapers, and brazen-faced demagogues, all crying like the daughters of the horse-leech: Give! Give office and salary! Mighty as political power is, in physical force and money; terrible as it sometimes is in vengeance, what is it compared with moral power? And what is all the good it does compared with the good done by moral power? Why then is it so dreaded, courted, lauded, and sought after, even by professed philanthropists and moral reformers?

Time to Divorce the Democrats

[source]

"Walk away, close the door behind you and begin the work required to build a real force for progressive change in the United States."
- Ron Jacobs

Ron Jacobs:

In terms of economics, today’s Democrats resemble the Democrats of old more than they do the Democrats of the New Deal and the Great Society. They are in the pay of today’s equivalent of the slaveowners–the global capitalists that roam the world searching for labor pools easy to exploit because of their desperation and national governments willing to brutalize workers into submission just like the slavedrivers and field bosses of old. Not only are they in their pay, but they push through legislation like NAFTA designed to make that search for exploitable labor and new markets easier and more profitable than it already is. On the domestic front, it was the Democrats under Bill Clinton that dismantled the system of public assistance for women with children and it is under Barack Obama that a new commission designed to bypass the Congress on the question of possibly dismantling Social Security was recently set up.

[...]

I can’t be emphatic enough, there is no reasonable reason to waste a dollar or a moment of your time campaigning for the Democratic Party. Barack Obama’s campaign based on false hope and promises and the subsequent reneging on almost every promise of change should be enough to convince any left-leaning or progressive person in the United States who voted for Obama in 2008 that the time has come to end this relationship for good and forever. Like the cheating and lying spouse that keeps asking for one more chance after you find them in bed with your enemy once again, there comes a time to end the relationship. Not only have the occasional moments of bliss and the crumbs that say I care become fewer and fewer, they are no longer enough. The denial so many left-leaning Americans have lived with in their relationship with the Democrats is causing more harm then it is worth. Walk away, close the door behind you and begin the work required to build a real force for progressive change in the United States.

"Someone who believes in the system will intensify the killing."

Cancer in the Family

Dear Friends, Cyberbuddies, and Cyberbrethren,

I will currently be on semi-hiatus from blogging. My father has been diagnosed with cancer and I am unable to offer any pithy statements on society or the environment. I hope to carry on His passion and knowledge for history, politics, and worlds events.

As yet, my family is still waiting to hear the specific details of his condition. He is undergoing various tests to determine the specific nature of his illness.

I will post whenever I can and thank you all. I have cross-posted this email on Vigilante's It's not Political—It's Personal to say that I'm not ignoring you but have been (as you might imagine) preoccupied.

Welcome to the United Sachs of Exxonia (or maybe, goodbye)

Where the law should dictate that members of Congress sport corporate logos (because flag pins don't tell the whole story) and it's time to rebel, or leave.

Bad Attitudes:

From now on, let’s allow them to decorate our soldier’s uniforms with corporate logos, too. Let every Iraqi and every Afghan see, emblazoned on every Marine’s helmet, the insignias of those corporate individuals responsible for bringing them freedom. Similarly, let’s encourage every elected official to proudly display the colors of their biggest corporate sponsors, so we specifically know who to thank for keeping us free from the dreaded, godless specter of European-style socialism in the coming years.

How fitting that this decision came along so close to Martin Luther King Day, because it has, to paraphrase King himself, helped us live up to our creed. Five brave justices have compelled us to live up to our values by extending one of our most cherished freedoms to a much misunderstood, much maligned group of hard-working Americans; a group that, all too often in our history, has been denied a seat at the table. Now, thankfully, our long suffering fellow citizens in Corporate America can finally step out of the shadows and have their day in the sun.

God bless you, Justice Roberts.

Ian Welsh:

This decision makes the US’s recovery from its decline even more unlikely than before—and before it was still very unlikely. Absolute catastrophe will have to occur before people are angry enough and corporations weak enough for their to even be a chance.

So, my advice to my readers is this.

If you can leave the US, do. Most of the world is going to suffer over the next decades, but there are places which will suffer less than the US: places that have not settled for soft fascism and a refusal to fix their economic problems. Fighting to the very end is very romantic, and all, but when you’re outnumbered, outgunned, and your odds of winning are miniscule, sometimes the smartest thing to do is book out. Those who came to America understood this, they left countries which were less free or had less economic hope than America, and they came to a place where freedom and opportunity reigned.

That place, that time, is coming to an end. For your own sake, and especially for the sake of your children, I tell you now—it is time to get out.

Koyaanisqatsi

Koyaanisqatsi
koy · ahn · i · skaht · see
noun (from the Hopi Language)
1. life disintegrating
2. life out of balance
3. life in turmoil
4. crazy life
5. a state of life that calls for
another way of living.

"...before getting caught up in designing grand schemes for a hopefully more sustainable, peaceful and happy way of living human life on earth, we need to ask ourselves, How has our current way of gaining knowledge about the world led us so far astray that we now stand on the precipice of an environmental and human disaster? Can we use the same way of knowing that got us into this mess to now get us out of it, or do we need an entirely different way of knowing?"
- Oneida Kincaid

"For the past fifty years, an ever-increasing number of people have come to depend on the media, especially TV, for fantasy friendships."

# Our pair bonds are unstable; 50 % of all American marriages end in divorce.

# An increase in the number of people working and in the number of hours they work has meant that even those who live with their spouses and children see less of these people every day than they used to or want to.

# Because of the increase in the amount of time we spend at work, we spend more time in relationships that are competitive rather than cooperative or hostile rather than nurturing. Much of our emotional energy may be diverted here, leaving less for what really sustains us.

[...]

# Technological entrepreneurs have created alternative outlets and surrogate ways of partly satisfying our emotional needs. For the past fifty years, an ever-increasing number of people have come to depend on the media, especially TV, for fantasy friendships. It isn't only crazy people like John Hinckley who fall in love with movie stars and relate to them as if they were real lovers or friends. According to Wright, "The evolutionary psychologists John Tooby and Leda Cosmides see in the mammoth popularity of TV shows (like) 'Cheers' during the 1980s a visceral yearning for the world of our ancestors--a place where life brought regular, random encounters with friends, and not just occasional, carefully scheduled lunches with them." Today the market for shows like "Cheers" has only expanded. More recent equivalents include "Friends," "The Seinfeld Show," and "Frasier" (which was actually a spin-off of "Cheers"). A brand new trend is the artificial creation of pseudo-tribal environments, as with the show "Survivors." What's new here is that these shows lack even the façade of fiction. You're simply plugging yourself into the unscripted daily life of your surrogate tribe. Of course, you could be meeting your real neighbors instead, but why do that, when this is easier?

[source]

Our Real Enemies

"Our real enemies are not in some distant land. They are not people whose names we don't know and cultures we don't understand. The enemy is people we know very well and people we can identify. The enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable, the enemy is the CEOs who lay us off from our jobs when it's profitable, it's the insurance companies who deny us health care when it's profitable, the banks who take away our homes when it's profitable. Our enemy is not five thousand miles away, they are right here at home. If we organize and fight with our sisters and brothers we can stop this war, we can stop this government, and we can create a better world."
- Mike Prysner

"If you have watched any old mob movies, you know that any racket needs a front. In America the front is called democracy."

[source]

Joe Bageant:

If you have watched any old mob movies, you know that any racket needs a front. In America the front is called democracy. Like the term populism, the people have no idea what democracy really is, but has something to do with the free market capitalism that issues forth such things as bass boats. And it certainly it has to do with every citizen having a small piece in the determination of national matters. Clearly untrue as that is, nevertheless it is one helluva a sales point, revered by the proles and not to be fucked with if you are to maintain the illusion of the consent of the people among the people. The front.

[...]

In a marvelous bit of Mobius strip logic, the activists end up working toward the success of some minute difference in national policy that serves the purposes of the established power cartels. The main difference is in the degree of profitability for the corporate state. More profit or a helluva lot more profit.

In the end the activists find themselves working for the election of someone who, by the very nature of being selected as a candidate by the system, has been vetted by his or her own elite peers as one who will -- ta ta! -- preserve the system from change.

[...]

I am no political genius, which I prove regularly by writing these columns and essays. But I dare say leftish activist energies could be better spent than by selling the latest political greaseball to one's neighbors and/or perfect strangers willing to answer the door. One option would be to expend that effort in destroying the genuine common enemy of the people, all the people: Capitalism and its brutal commoditization of our very lives and breath. Which would make one a socialist.

True, socialism has not a chance in hell in the USA. So there is no use in even discussing our little problem of thug capitalism and rogue nation warfare in that context. Forget that democratic socialism by its very nature (along with a few buckets of hot tar and thumbscrews judiciously applied on Wall Street) is the solution to the most brutal material aspects of our degenerative capitalist disease, now nearing its full-blown outcome. If you haven't noticed, the rich and the mean have prevailed. Only a fool would believe that having prevailed, they are going to mellow out, become kinder and more compassionate.

"...leftish activist energies could be better spent than by selling the latest political greaseball to one's neighbors and/or perfect strangers willing to answer the door. One option would be to expend that effort in destroying the genuine common enemy of the people, all the people: Capitalism and its brutal commoditization of our very lives and breath. Which would make one a socialist."
- Joe Bageant

Defending ourselves out of an equitable, educated society

National Priorities Project:

Taxpayers in California will pay $89.2 billion for Total Defense Spending in FY2010. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:

36,723,380 People with Health Care for One Year OR

1,593,995 Public Safety Officers for One year OR

1,260,447 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year OR

13,409,056 Scholarships for University Students for One Year OR

16,677,357 Students receiving Pell Grants of $5350 OR

267,074 Affordable Housing Units OR

33,352,594 Children with Health Care for One Year OR

10,672,710 Head Start Places for Children for One Year OR

1,281,492 Elementary School Teachers for One Year OR

158,974,776 Homes with Renewable Electricity for One Year

Keep it up and one day there won't be a democracy (if our dysfunctional system still deserves that name) left to defend.

"For us, as revolutionaries, meaningful action is..."

"For us, as revolutionaries, meaningful action is whatever increases the confidence, autonomy, initiative, participation, solidarity, egalitarian tendencies and self-activity of the masses, and whatever assists in their demystification. Sterile and harmful action is whatever reinforces the passivity of the masses, their apathy, cynicism, differentiation through hierarchy, alienation, reliance on others to do things for them, and the degree to which they can therefore be manipulated by others, even those acting on their behalf."
- Maurice Brinton, About Ourselves

"If - both East and West - millions of people cannot face up to implications of their exploitation, if they cannot perceive their enforced intellectual and personal under-development, if they are unaware of the intrinsically repressive character of so much that they consider 'rational', 'common sense', 'obvious', or 'natural' (hierarchy, inequality and the puritan ethos, for instance), if they are afraid of initiative and of self-activity, afraid of thinking new thoughts and of treading new paths, and if they are ever ready to follow this leader or that (promising them the moon), or this Party or that (undertaking to change the world 'on their behalf'), it is because there are powerful factors conditioning their behavior from a very early age and inhibiting their accession to a different kind of consciousness."
- Maurice Brinton, The Irrational in Politics (1970)

Having destroyed real health care reform, Obama takes aim at Medicare and Social Security

Ian Welsh:

So, in addition to screwing up healthcare and escalating in Afghanistan, it seems that Obama is set to appoint a deficit reduction panel. Their job will be to come up with a “bipartisan” way of cutting the deficit by cutting Medicare and Social Security. There is no other way to cut the deficit, because the only other large bucket of money, the defense budget, is off the table, and no one is willing to radically raise taxes on the rich.

It really is getting to be comical.

They went with stupid

Boston Gobe:

Just last week, Brown visited the home of a voter in Harvard, Jack Farren, who asked him, “Do you think that whole global warming thing is a big fraud?’’

Brown’s answer was illustrative, in that he did not reject the fraud theory.

“It’s interesting. I think the globe is always heating and cooling,’’ he said. “It’s a natural way of ebb and flow. The thing that concerns me lately is some of the information I’ve heard about potential tampering with some of the information.’’

Brown continued, saying: “I just want to make sure if in fact . . . the earth is heating up, that we have accurate information, and it’s unbiased by scientists with no agenda. Once that’s done, then I think we can really move forward with a good plan.’’

"The world exists only through the imperium, they can’t understand it in any other way."

Rustbelt Radical:

Rachel Maddow ’s understanding of Haiti’s history is as blinkered in its way as Brooks is in his. The world exists only through the imperium, they can’t understand it in any other way. For Maddow, the United States and Haiti are old republican friends, simpatico in spirit- a sort of family. Sure they are. One of many pieces of the story missing from Maddow’s little narrative is that one republic was built by expansionist slave-owners and the other built by rebellious slaves. Nowhere does Maddow mention that the United states has routinely occupied Haiti, out of sisterly love we are sure, including a twenty year stretch into the 1930s. No, we’re not all in this together; we have different interests.

If you are getting it through the mainstream, you are not getting it straight.

Until we stop doing this...

And this...

And even this...

And instead do more of this...

And this...

And even this...

Very little will change for the better.

Something is fundamentally wrong with your party when...

[source]

A state in which Democrats outnumber Republicans 3-to-1 sends a warmongering, torture-denying, death-penalty-supporting, anti-gay-marriage asshole to replace liberal lion Ted Kennedy in the United States Senate.

Time for the Democrats, and their dysfunctional functionary in the White House, to do some serious navel gazing.

Thoughts on Massachusetts

Massachusetts could well be represented by a Republican Senator. We will know soon enough. As an ex-native of the Bay State, it feels like a huge sea change has taken place, no matter what the result. A Republican Senator in Massachusetts (!) seems almost unthinkable to me, like the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The methods of protest, noncooperation and non-violent intervention

Take your pick. Martin Luther King, Jr. did.

Via the Albert Einstein Institution:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION

Formal Statements
1. Public Speeches
2. Letters of opposition or support
3. Declarations by organizations and institutions
4. Signed public statements
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
6. Group or mass petitions

Communications with a Wider Audience
7. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10. Newspapers and journals
11. Records, radio, and television
12. Skywriting and earthwriting

Group Representations
13. Deputations
14. Mock awards
15. Group lobbying
16. Picketing
17. Mock elections

Symbolic Public Acts
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
20. Prayer and worship
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
24. Symbolic lights
25. Displays of portraits
26. Paint as protest
27. New signs and names
28. Symbolic sounds
29. Symbolic reclamations
30. Rude gestures

Pressures on Individuals
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils

Drama and Music
35. Humorous skits and pranks
36. Performances of plays and music
37. Singing

Processions
38. Marches
39. Parades
40. Religious processions
41. Pilgrimages
42. Motorcades

Honoring the Dead
43. Political mourning
44. Mock funerals
45. Demonstrative funerals
46. Homage at burial places

Public Assemblies
47. Assemblies of protest or support
48. Protest meetings
49. Camouflaged meetings of protest
50. Teach-ins

Withdrawal and Renunciation
51. Walk-outs
52. Silence
53. Renouncing honors
54. Turning one's back


THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

Ostracism of Persons
55. Social boycott
56. Selective social boycott
57. Lysistratic nonaction
58. Excommunication
59. Interdict

Noncooperation with Social Events, Customs, and Institutions
60. Suspension of social and sports activities
61. Boycott of social affairs
62. Student strike
63. Social disobedience
64. Withdrawal from social institutions

Withdrawal from the Social System
65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation
67. "Flight" of workers
68. Sanctuary
69. Collective disappearance
70. Protest emigration (hijrat)


THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION: (1) ECONOMIC BOYCOTTS

Actions by Consumers
71. Consumers' boycott
72. Nonconsumption of boycotted goods
73. Policy of austerity
74. Rent withholding
75. Refusal to rent
76. National consumers' boycott
77. International consumers' boycott

Action by Workers and Producers
78. Workmen's boycott
79. Producers' boycott

Action by Middlemen
80. Suppliers' and handlers' boycott

Action by Owners and Management
81. Traders' boycott
82. Refusal to let or sell property
83. Lockout
84. Refusal of industrial assistance
85. Merchants' "general strike"

Action by Holders of Financial Resources
86. Withdrawal of bank deposits
87. Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments
88. Refusal to pay debts or interest
89. Severance of funds and credit
90. Revenue refusal
91. Refusal of a government's money

Action by Governments
92. Domestic embargo
93. Blacklisting of traders
94. International sellers' embargo
95. International buyers' embargo
96. International trade embargo


THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION: (2)THE STRIKE

Symbolic Strikes
97. Protest strike
98. Quickie walkout (lightning strike)

Agricultural Strikes
99. Peasant strike
100. Farm Workers' strike

Strikes by Special Groups
101. Refusal of impressed labor
102. Prisoners' strike
103. Craft strike
104. Professional strike

Ordinary Industrial Strikes
105. Establishment strike
106. Industry strike
107. Sympathetic strike

Restricted Strikes
108. Detailed strike
109. Bumper strike
110. Slowdown strike
111. Working-to-rule strike
112. Reporting "sick" (sick-in)
113. Strike by resignation
114. Limited strike
115. Selective strike

Multi-Industry Strikes
116. Generalized strike
117. General strike

Combination of Strikes and Economic Closures
118. Hartal
119. Economic shutdown


THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

Rejection of Authority
120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
121. Refusal of public support
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance

Citizens' Noncooperation with Government
123. Boycott of legislative bodies
124. Boycott of elections
125. Boycott of government employment and positions
126. Boycott of government depts., agencies, and other bodies
127. Withdrawal from government educational institutions
128. Boycott of government-supported organizations
129. Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents
130. Removal of own signs and placemarks
131. Refusal to accept appointed officials
132. Refusal to dissolve existing institutions

Citizens' Alternatives to Obedience
133. Reluctant and slow compliance
134. Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision
135. Popular nonobedience
136. Disguised disobedience
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
138. Sitdown
139. Noncooperation with conscription and deportation
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
141. Civil disobedience of "illegitimate" laws

Action by Government Personnel
142. Selective refusal of assistance by government aides
143. Blocking of lines of command and information
144. Stalling and obstruction
145. General administrative noncooperation
146. Judicial noncooperation
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

Domestic Governmental Action
149. Quasi-legal evasions and delays
150. Noncooperation by constituent governmental units

International Governmental Action
151. Changes in diplomatic and other representations
152. Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
153. Withholding of diplomatic recognition
154. Severance of diplomatic relations
155. Withdrawal from international organizations
156. Refusal of membership in international bodies
157. Expulsion from international organizations


THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

Psychological Intervention
158. Self-exposure to the elements
159. The fast
a) Fast of moral pressure
b) Hunger strike
c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
161. Nonviolent harassment

Physical Intervention
162. Sit-in
163. Stand-in
164. Ride-in
165. Wade-in
166. Mill-in
167. Pray-in
168. Nonviolent raids
169. Nonviolent air raids
170. Nonviolent invasion
171. Nonviolent interjection
172. Nonviolent obstruction
173. Nonviolent occupation

Social Intervention
174. Establishing new social patterns
175. Overloading of facilities
176. Stall-in
177. Speak-in
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system

Economic Intervention
181. Reverse strike
182. Stay-in strike
183. Nonviolent land seizure
184. Defiance of blockades
185. Politically motivated counterfeiting
186. Preclusive purchasing
187. Seizure of assets
188. Dumping
189. Selective patronage
190. Alternative markets
191. Alternative transportation systems
192. Alternative economic institutions

Political Intervention
193. Overloading of administrative systems
194. Disclosing identities of secret agents
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws
197. Work-on without collaboration
198. Dual sovereignty and parallel government

(h/t Dohiyi Mir, Pax Americana - be sure to follow ntodd's 198 Sunday's thread)

"A world in which the principle of separation rules."

[Drone Pilot]

Edward Carpenter, from Pagan and Christian Creeds (1920):

We are accustomed to think of the external world around us as a nasty tiresome old thing of which all we can say for certain is that it works by a "law of cussedness"—so that, whichever way we want to go, that way seems always barred, and we only bump against blind walls without making any progress. But that uncomfortable state of affairs arises from ourselves. Once we have passed a certain barrier, which at present looks so frowning and impossible, but which fades into nothing immediately we have passed it—once we have found the open secret of identity—then the way is indeed open in every direction.

The world in which we live—the world into which we are tumbled as children at the first onset of self-consciousness—denies this great fact of unity. It is a world in which the principle of separation rules. Instead of a common life and union with each other, the contrary principle (especially in the later civilizations) has been the one recognized—and to such an extent that always there prevails the obsession of separation, and the conviction that each person is an isolated unit. The whole of our modern society has been founded on this delusive idea, WHICH IS FALSE. You go into the markets, and every man's hand is against the others—that is the ruling principle. You go into the Law Courts where justice is, or should be, administered, and you find that the principle which denies unity is the one that prevails. The criminal (whose actions have really been determined by the society around him) is cast out, disacknowledged, and condemned to further isolation in a prison cell. 'Property' again is the principle which rules and determines our modern civilization—namely that which is proper to, or can be appropriated by, each person, as AGAINST the others.

"...each person is an isolated unit. The whole of our modern society has been founded on this delusive idea."
- Edward Carpenter

Free Speech Nation

Journalism 2.0:

WikiLeaks.org, a Web site that specializes in the publication of classified or restricted information, announced that it’s pursuing an unprecedented avenue to sustain itself. Late last year the whistleblower organization began lobbying the Icelandic parliament to consider a series of bills, which if passed would transform that nation of 300,000 into a beacon of global free expression.

According to WikiLeaks’ reps, the new laws would be modeled on offshore financial centers or tax havens. The British Virgin Islands, for example, attracts the rich with a set of lenient/shady tax laws unavailable in most countries. Iceland, under the WikiLeaks’ proposal, would offer sources and journalists a strong package of legal protections thereby establishing itself as a sanctuary for free speech.

(h/t Bad Attitudes)

"The inertia carries it forward."

A film for the couch potato in you: Surplus - Terrorized into Being Consumers. All ten parts are available on YouTube. Features John Zerzan.

"I don't want a fancy car."
"I don't want another Big Mac."

You want to fight corporate America, you can do it with your pocketbook everyday by abstaining from consumption and, when you do consume, by supporting good companies. It's that simple.

"They would have no difficulty in exterminating one another to the last man."

[Drone Pilot]

"The fateful question for the human species seems to me to be whether and to what extent their cultural development will succeed in mastering the disturbance in their communal life by the human instinct of aggression and self-destruction. It may be that in this respect precisely the present time deserves a special interest. Men have gained control over the forces of nature to such an extent that with their help they would have no difficulty in exterminating one another to the last man."
- Sigmund Freud,
Civilization and its Discontents, 1930

"An edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

Rich Benjamin:

The just-released jobs report shows 85,000 more jobs lost in December, with startling unemployment across the board: Teenagers (27 percent), Blacks (16.2 percent), Hispanics (12.9 percent), Whites (9 percent), and the general population at 10 percent and rising.

Socio-economic progress in the United States is no better today then during the latter years of Dr. King's life. America faces the same poverty rate today (13.2 percent) that Dr. King denounced in 1968 (12.8 percent). Meanwhile, the number of people living in poverty in that time span has grown from 25 million to a whopping 40 million, including 12 million children.

[...]

"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane," King declared in 1966. Two years later, the year he was assassinated, King launched his Poor People's Campaign, "a multiracial army of the poor," that marched on Washington to demand an Economic Bill of Rights from Congress.

"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar," Dr. King maintained. "It is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

I would add: an edifice which produces 359 billionaires also needs restructuring.