foolish fears be banished

John Mueller, author of Atomic Obsession, set me straight about nuclear weapons. Thanks to you John, and to book TV.

Swiftboats on steroids

A potentially mortal blow to democracy was struck today in a Supreme Court ruling, yes sir, CITIZENS UNITED v. FEDERAL ELECTION, which basically rules that; money = free speech.

One cannot out-shout reason, a louder voice does not make a more logical argument, but that's not the opinion of five advocate judges.

Combine this ruling with the repeal of truth in advertising law and there will be no limit to moneyed propaganda of special interests. I hope that Senator Feingold is outraged, but I wonder what Senator John McCain really thinks. I remember when McCain was one of the good guys, before he got swift-boated by the GW handlers henchmen.

Supranational Democratic Institutions

I happen to be an advocate for global democracy, but we have a long, long way to go before we might see that happen. I read a great book on the subject a few years ago and I can't seem to find it anywhere. I probably passed it on to someone before I wrote any notes, oops. I thought the authors name was Brian Belsito or something like that, but google searches aren't helping me now. If I remember correctly, he was a member of the Integral Institute or at least somehow affiliated. If anyone can help me out, please do so.

I suppose I am a disciple of Thomas Jefferson. I revere him above all other men. I tell you this so you will have a more clear idea about what I refer to when I write about democracy. Perhaps I should refer to myself as a progressive, a liberal democrat or a socialist. They are all just labels and do not seem very constructive to me. Too many people have too much bias concerning these words which makes reasonable discussion far too difficult.

The United Nations, the World Trade Organization, and the International Monetary Fund are all institutions that exert profound influence on a global scale. These institutions are far from democratic. I believe that we need to create new democratic institutions, supranational democratic institutions to work with the aforementioned institutions and possibly replace them.

The need to form these institutions has never greater when we consider the global problems of environmental degradation, nuclear proliferation, increasing socioeconomic disparity and an escalating clash of cultures.

There are people working for the creation of such institutions, but there seems to be little momentum, inept organization and insufficient public awareness or enthusiasm for these efforts to bear fruit. Why is this so?

I suspect that the answer is that there are powerful antidemocratic forces at play. Rather than waste time and energy identifying the villains, which has already been done and continues to be done in an exhaustive manner, I would prefer to concentrate on the who and how to create viable supranational democratic institutions.

As for the who, at the top of my list is Al Gore. I can think of no one better qualified to lead a global effort for the common good. Other choices include; Thom Hartmann, Paul Krugman, Jeffrey Sachs, Leonardo Dicaprio, Amy Goodman, some of the cast and crew from Who Killed the Electric Car? Bono from U2 might be a good choice. Heck, maybe Michael Moore could help.

We need to get as many people on board as possible of course, but we are going to need the talents of some good propagandists and high profile people.

Someone from Egalitynow was quick to respond, THANKS! That warms my heart a little. Yesterday as I was working on this blog I was researching the subject and became more than a little disheartened. I have a hard time understanding it. It seems like a no-brainer to me. Modern democracy has been so good for the world. No modern democracy has ever suffered famine and no modern democracies have ever been at war with one another. Amazing! The spread of modern democracy has been a boon for the world and is still ongoing, the trajectory and implications seems obvious. Millions of people complain and rant and rave about the WTO, IMF and the structures within the UN, but it seems that few are working in earnest for economic democracy.

Be Warned, again

We were warned before, but it did us little good. We are now being warned again. If you are wise and lucky, then you may be able to minimize your personal losses. For others with little, like myself, there is little we can do to prepare for the next chapter of economic disaster.

I caught just a few minutes of my favorite radio host talking with Ravi Batra, and what little I heard was disturbing. They were in agreement that a new economic bubble was going to burst not long from now. When exactly that may be, they could not say, other than certain powers that may be could keep sticking their fingers in the dike until the next election cycle is completed. I suspect that they are correct, because they are smart educated men who have no vested interests in profiting from the losses of the masses.

They contented that no structural changes have been made in our financial system while speculative investing has inflated commodities such as gold and oil. Meanwhile, the national debt has never been greater nor has the debt burden of Americans ever been so great. One-third of mortgages are under water.

I don't think one needs to be an economist to understand Batra's wage- gap theory. It's pretty simple. If productivity outpaces workers wages, then nobody will have enough money to buy much stuff. Supply and demand. Productivity= supply, Wages= demand. You don't need to be an economist to figure out that supply and demand need to be relatively balanced for the economy to be healthy.

I guess it's about time for me to add some more labor into Moore's Law, less work, but I digress.

Back to Batra, or about him, "on the eve of the Great Depression, 1 percent of the people in this country owned 36 percent of the wealth — the highest wealth concentration in this country, up to that point. Currently, the richest 1 percent of U.S. households have 38 percent of the wealth, according to Edward Wolff, professor of economics at New York University.
In 2005, the Fed chairman’s continued love affair with debt and rising productivity at the expense of wages led Batra to write Greenspan’s Fraud, a searing critique of Greenspan’s economic policies since 1987." which I lifted from here.

If I had any money in stocks, I sure as hell would get it out. The stock market is not a good place for middle-class money which includes retirement accounts. I would not invest in gold either.

The wealthiest 5% own about 75% of stocks. Let them take the losses, they can afford it. The bottom 80% of wealth holders only own about 4% of the stock market. If that bottom 80% took all their money out of stocks, it would hardly matter. It wouldn't create a run and collapse the financial system. Don't let the propagandist talking-heads fool you. By the way, I got those figures here. You can find more up to date information at the Economic Policy Institute.

I sure hope Batra's optimistic predictions come true and we witness The New Golden Age: The Revolution against Political Corruption and Economic Chaos.

In the meanwhile, get ready for a rough ride that may last a few years. It looks like a return to Depression Economics.

Here is a great article outlining the history of how we got here.

Near the end of January 2010 we witnessed the Dow Jones drop more than 500 points in reaction to President Obama's call for financial reforms. I consider this shot across the bow as another example of how a small minority of financial elites can produce big results. Too big to fail should be too big to exist, but the giants do exist and will not go gently into the night.

As I write, I am watching Meet the Press and it appears that a lie of omission will be committed by ignoring the big story of fascist victory in the Supreme Court. We shouldn't be surprised, NBC is a big corporation owned by another bigger corporation. Face the Nation on CBS sure devoted lots of time to the matter, good for them.

Alan Grayson appears to be aligned with main street, but I doubt his legislative proposals to save our democracy will get any traction....at least not without your help. Until then it will remain a democracy for the few, as it has always been.