Banksters fleece the world

It's disturbing to many of that President Obama is advocating for Larry Summers to head the Fed. If you'd like to learn more about and how the banksters have been doing what, check out this great article. It ought to disturb you. 

Ever hear of Cancer Alley? You can read all about it at Treehugger if you have the stomach for it. Perhaps I'll go for a walk in the park on this beautiful day to try to shake some of the darkness that threatens to consume my psyche.

On a more immediate and brighter note, Portugal reported that 70% of the power consumed in the first quarter this year came from renewable sources. It's nice to see that Big Oil doesn't control everything everywhere.

If you'd like to see just how brazenly the NRA distorts the truth, just click here and check out the graphics.

There has been a lot of information about income inequality, but the decline of social mobility remains on a back page. Fortunately we can simply click to read about it and don't have to dirty our hands with that old fashioned messy ink.

I really like these charts from a Gallup poll...what I find so interesting is the public perception in contrast with the history of tax rates in this country.

 

Motivation

Just a little side note before I get down to business...seeing that I was just fired from a crappy job that regularly committed all 8 Surefire Ways to Demotivate Your Employees and had other ways as well. I wonder if the NFIB is for real or if it's a corporate front.

One of the questions we should ask ourselves as activists is, how do we sustain efforts?
Another is, how do we grow our base?

the right problem is a conservative conundrum

There's a problem with the American right that seems like an intractable conservative conundrum. It is a difficult subject to address, but the political right in America is severely diseased and we need reasonable discussion about this pressing matter before more harm is inflicted on society.

Yeah, there are some problems on the left, but I don't think that they as dire as the condition on the right. Either way, Truth Matters. We may find that conservative attitude is both a stage and a type. In any case, there may always be The Conservative Brain among us and in us. There are pros and cons to just about everything.

It may be helpful to visit Conservative Myths for an orientation and a contrast to liberalism.

We now have more millionaires in this country then ever before.
We now have more people experiencing food insecurity than ever recorded.
We now have more billionaires in this country then almost ever before.
More people have dropped out of the workforce than ever before.

AlterNet helps to reveal that structural economic conditions are not responsible for these changes.

Maybe some of the rich and famous alleged atheists will help with the SBNNR project.

American Anti-Corruption Act
Fair Elections Now Act
Gail & Franklin Project
Grassroots Democracy Act
............................................from the comments found here at TED

Debt-tastrphe

It's looking more and more like all of the conspiracy theorists and bankster alarmists have been correct. I still can't exactly peek behind the curtains, but I an familiar with the Secret of Oz. BusinessWeek (via Bloomberg?) and Fox Business (with really crappy link/references) have stories about the Chinese debt situation, which should evolve into a crisis if they want to follow the Western models.

WTF? I've been asking for quite some time as to who all the money is owed to if all the richest nations on the planet (besides Germany) are all deep in debt. Looks like the world wide web is a Web of Debt. I hope some people eventually get to inhabit all those ghost cities before they rot with neglect. Check it out...

 

Fallout

Fallout from the Fukushima disaster appears to have sickened babies in the West coast states of the US. You can read about that here....

Lawrence Lessig gave a recent TED Talk We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim. He did a good job framing an issue and making a point, but he failed to confront the right problem, the problem of the right. In that last election cycle he talked about, nearly half of the people voted for Romney and Republicans made great gains in many states. I wonder if he is simply trying to promote his new book. Perhaps he has fallen into the conceit of the middle. I;m not even sure what the hell he's talking about in this talk, do you? Okay, so it makes a little sense near the 18 minute mark.

It's funny how some liberals bend over backwards trying to find virtue in conservatives'. Aren't the KKK an epitome of conservatives? Do we really need to condone these things?

states of thest

Corporate captures government

Regulatory capture is a term that all True Patriots should be familiar with. It is a difficult subject to research because the corporate _________ controls major media outlets and a significant amount of academia. Kudos to Adam Thierer who published the best piece on the subject that I have found.

Rachel and crew gave us a nifty example of Big Oil's capture of oversight... I sure would like to embed that..., but I'm stymied by corporate controls...so please click on the above link.

Lawrence Lessig gave a fine TED Talk and qualifies as a True Patriot. He's for The People. He does his homework and cites the Federalist Papers, #52 where it is written that one branch of government should be dependent on the people ALONE. Found at  minute 7:20...please view it for yourself.

Mother Jones published an article about Obama's war on whistleblowers. Brave New Foundation is releasing a film on the subject. In the article is mention of Daniel Ellsberg and I recently came across a bunch of You Tube entries from him. Geez, makes me think of Bradley Manning.

Truth-out brings us the story, Monsanto's Next Target, Democracy. I thought they already won that battle. If you've seen any of the documentaries about Monsanto then you might hold the same opinion. Can't we revoke that corporate charter?

AlterNet asks if Tom Friedman is the most over-rated pundit around, but the story about stupid Americans is the one that caught my eye, Why Americans are so Ignorant -- It's Not Only Fox News, There Are Some Understandable Reasons for it. It's well worth the read. In the end, I learned that I am a gadfly.

Ellen Brown helps us to understand how the financial industry has captured government and warns us that Wall Street is a ticking time-bomb that could ruin your bank account. Seeing that I'm a gadfly, I have to ask what bubble will break and precipitate the next crash. Isn't that the way it usually works?

I'm happy to learn about Science Progress, where science, technology and policy meet. I'll have to look around.

Pros and Cons

Progressives should express the virtues of conservatives and conservatives should express the virtues of liberalism. It would be a constructive exercise for us to engage in, don't ya think?

I'll start...

Liberals spoke about unity in diversity....or was that just a cult thing?...anyhow, I was thinking that diversity is a strength in ecology, so it goes to follow that conservatives' serve as agents for divergent evolution. Conservatives tend toward closed in-group affiliations in both genetic and cultural contexts that result in "specialization" or differentiation from other groups. This is an important feature in nature resulting in greater local homogeneity and greater global diversity.

Seen in this light, prejudice and close-mindedness has a beneficial effect.

Aw come on you wussie liberals. You're always the ones saying we need to be accepting...if we listen to you, we'll all be a McWorld in short time.

conscientious music

we'll start out with some randy newman

 

a little something before and perhaps contributing to the banning of DDT, the formation of the EPA and creation of the clean water act...

here's a shot at consumerism and conspicuous consumption...one of my favorites..
"...sell your soul just to buy, buy buy..."

I suspect that "bad weather" is kind of a blanket phrase for all the bad stuff...it's my pick from the man with the most conscientious lyrics of anyone....or at least they used to be...get back Jack

good stuff...

and here are some lyrics from the author of this blog...have fun with the links and good luck in the rabbit hole. Maybe someday I'll sing and play guitar and record and...

A terror storm it blew in
there's loose change cross the lands
the ships from hell are sailing
still looking for new hands

so don't get lost in the maze
just chasing for that cheese
try to be part of the cure
'cause we're all damn sure disease

and we damn all tomorrows
as we live for this one day
it's all the future generation
that will have to pay

so go on now delude yourself
say it's all god's good plan
and go on and have a beautiful day.....


 

If I had a million dollars

I thought it would be a good exercise to write about what I'd do with one million dollars. I thought it would be fun to embed a fun tune too...

I suppose I'd take 10% off the top and spread it around to the Who We Support list. That in itself would be a good exercise.

I'd take a chunk for my personal use...$50,000 would keep me living high on the hog for a couple of years at least. I've always been near poverty level, I've just never been motivated for material gains. I'm a simple guy in that way. My riches lie within.

Next step would be to hire a lawyer and an accountant to help make Integrative Activism nice and legal. I'd buy some domain names. I'd hire a web designer or two for a while.



 

addressing the right problem

It seems unlikely that we will be able to resolve the internal political problems in the USA without the help of independent and conservative citizens. Unfortunately, corporate media has manufactured and controls conservative culture ensuring that Americans remain a divided people.

Corporate media also influences the liberal culture, but does not create an equivalent problem on the left because liberals tend to be more open-minded about the abuses of corporate powers. Liberals alone speak out against corporatism, but conservatives will remain close-minded and resistant to hear or learn anything about it. This is the reason IA is developing a True Patriot movement.

Chris Hedges helps to bring us a dose of liberal truth and gave us The Day That TV News Died, along with lots of other good writings. 147 people could wreck the world?

We know the right wing spin machine perpetuates a lot of falsehoods, lies and misinformation that too many gullible people believe.

Here's a facebook group that I like.....Americans Against Fox New and Republican Lies...cool, huh?

Skip Conover gave us The 10 Big Lies Republicans Tell. Good job on that one. There's also Republican News to take a looks at, but I digress.

More Inequality

There's more news and information concerning the growing wealth inequality in the USA that is worth noting. The Business Insider published a great article with loads of charts and graphs. AlterNet carried a story about Five Ugly Extremes of Inequality...and USA Today printed a story about CEO pay outpacing worker pay.

There has been some word about minimum wage adjusted for inflation and productivity claiming that the adjusted wage would be over $20 an hour. Wouldn't that be nice?

a third state solution

The conflict between Palestine and Israel remains a thorn in global politics. If an international body could remove the West Bank and Jerusalem from the control of these partisan parties, then perhaps we could make some progress toward greater world peace.

Considering that Jerusalem is considered the home of three world religions, it seems only logical that this region should be considered and administered as a world cultural site and should be under the jurisdiction of a global democratic body dedicated to preserving the heritage and peaceful conduct of all that transpires within.

Rashad Khalidi recently authored Brokers of Deceit and has been on a publicity tour which is nice because there are now numerous videos available for our viewing. Several publications have run articles and interviewed the man such as the Atlantic. I highly recommend reading the six questions article in Harpers. Of special interest to me is his opinion on the status of democratic effort throughout the middle east.

Could a new global democratic effort help our brothers and sisters in the Arab lands?

Corporate realities

To be against or opposed to corporations is a foolish and simplistic position. To be in favor of altering the influence of corporations in our political system is a more sane and balanced attitude.

It can be hard to criticize corporations and the role they play in our societies because we have grown up within their influence. It can be hard to imaging how things could be different in the same way that it was difficult for people five hundred year ago to contemplate a wall of separation between church and state.

It is worth noting that more than half of the world's largest economies are corporations, not countries. Countries are defined by geographic boundaries while multinational corporations move with relative ease in the globalized economy.

Worth reading although grossly outdated is an overview by Corpwatch with an attempt to summarize the economic and political clout of corporations prior to the Citizens United ruling and massive bailouts in more recent years. These new developments have transformed too big to fail into too big to jail. At least Bernie is telling it like it is...unlike corporate media....and by the way, if the 16 trillion dollars that was given to the banks were divided up and given to the citizens, that would have given us each more than $50,000.

Global Trends provides an updated version and list of the top 100 economies.

Today, corporate profits are at 60 year highs while main street continues to struggle. The reasons for this are obvious to some while unimaginable to others. It might be the tax rates, stupid. Okay, that's not nice, but corporations are owned mainly by very few people and have reaped the vast majority of economic benefits over the last few years while the majority of Americans have struggled. Is that fair?

Perhaps you should join the 99 for 90%. We need one another to educate each other.

Here is an article, Calling All Rebels, featuring Chris Hedges and David Cay Johnston that I found to be powerful. With notable quotes like, Yeats, "the best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity.” and I'm not sure who asks this,"The power elite, including most of those who graduate from our top universities and our liberal and intellectual classes, have sold out for personal comfort. Why not us?"

and lastly it closes.... Those who do not rebel in our age of totalitarian capitalism and who convince themselves that there is no alternative to collaboration are complicit in their own enslavement. They commit spiritual and moral suicide.

 

I just watched another TED Talk and it seems to be the most important talk that I have seen yet. If what he explained is true, then we have more hope than I dared dream. It will probably take a lot of political work to work it out.

God bless Allan Savory and may he be right.

remove Scalia

The title says it all, but if you're not up to speed....

Justice Scalia said that the voting rights act was a "perpetuation of racial entitlements". The dude has got to go. IF always like Think Progress, so you can read more about it there. Thomas should be banished too. WTF, his wife gets paid by the Heritage Foundation.

Word has it that the new head of the FDA is a Monsanto executive. Lets check that out and see why that might be important...okay here is the top ranking site according to bing and here is the second ranked story and here is the story as reported by the Huffington Post which is the best reported of the bunch.Arey coporate media stories appearing in the top search items?

According to some, Monsanto is among the most evil of corporate entities. Some claim that this corporation is the poster child for corporate manipulation and deceit while others...well heck, why don't you educate yourself on why Monsanto is considered an evil entity by so many.

I don't think that the most liberal media hosts, Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow brought this story to light. Geez, I wonder who is linked into NBC....

Let's see, who else has been appointed lately without public scrutiny.....

I didn't realize how good sourcewatch really is....they should definitely be supported.


What a messed up post. Here's the reminder to support Millions Against Monsanto....

Good guys, bad guys and interesting people

I need to get it together and make a new list of who I'd like to support.

I should also make a list of bad guys. I hadn't heard about Pete Peterson until today.

Food and Water Watch -----Foodopoly is on the to watch list as is this TED talk yikes

Economic Democracy

Economic Democracy sounds pretty good to me. I hope I get to read Economic Democracy, but I'll at least peruse through The Institute for Economic Democracy which looks like it has lots of good stuff.

Professor Richard D Wolf also writes about Economic Democracy and various economic related issues. His essays are relatively short and easy to read. I highly recommend visiting the site.

I also note that Global Issues is paying attention, as usual. Check out the video selection provided.

When I get a little more time I'll explore the Economic Populist....

There is a story circulating which may seem crazy, but it seems true, that more Americans have been killed by domestic gun violence than all the wars we have waged combined. Yeah, guns.

The Conciet of the Middle

The fallacy of the middle.

I've been searching for that elusive truth that hides in the middle. At times, I thought I had found it only to have it slip from my mental grasp like smoke in a net. I am more than ever convinced that it is simply a myth, as real as magical unicorns.

The conciet of the middle is an intellectual and philosophical delusion of laziness. It is the arrogance of those who rationalize themselves as more reasonable than the zealots of the conservative right or the liberal left.

I now appreciate the Biblical passage where God says that because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I shall spit you out of my mouth. The truth is that you just cant find The Truth between a half-truth and a lie.

My quest led me to an integral culture that promised us all that we could grow and evolve into enlightenment. I more recently sought wisdom from Johnathan Haidt. I will use these example to demonstrate my point.

It is widely accepted that conservatives are more authoritarian and liberals are less so. I remember a talk between Don Beck and Ken Wilber in which they agreed that liberal had problems with authority. In Johnathan Haidt's Ted Talk he asserts that liberal tend to dismiss the moral value of authority. I gotta call bunk on these guys.

Liberals don't have problems with authority, just false or abusive authority figures. College professors are reputed to be among the most liberal, but they are authority figures and have gained their positions by studying the authorities in their respected fields. They had to comply to all acedemic authorities and to the system to gain their positions.

Members of the Democratic Party are by definition, liberal. At least compared to Republicans. They don't have problems with authority. They rise through the ranks of the party and conform to standards. Democratic Presidents have never been anti-authoritatian, nor are Senators and very few Representatives.

The Republican Party is quite different. The Republicans have rebelled audaciously against Democratic Presidents. Just review modern history and Congressional voting records and it will be clear that democrats are less opposed to republican efforts than democrats opposing republican efforts. What is really going on here? Reflect on the people you know and have know in the backlight of authority and make your own assesment as to which mindset honors authority more or less. 

My conclusion is that liberals have the ability to question authority where conservatives are more blinded by the doctrines of their percieved ingroup. Which leads us to....

Ingroup/Outgroup. Haidt gives us another moral root to examine, Ingroup/Outgroup. This insight seems to have a bit more merit than authority which is simply hogwash. Conservatives are more restrictive and liberals are more inclusive. We can all agree on that.




 

Good news

It's nice to get some good news, so here is an inspiring piece about ten animals that humanity has saved from extinction. Never mind that we drove them to near extinction in the first place...

More good news is that recent research is clarifying the inherent differences between liberal and conservative perspectives and helps us to find commonalities as well. Johnathan Haidt gave us some good TED talks and for the moment I like to concentrate on the following:

it is the five moral roots that we share that is in particular interest at the moment. If you'd like to proceed to about 8 min 30 sec into the presentation you will find the five moral roots graphed. He contends that liberal tend to dismiss three of these values; Authority, Ingroup and Purity.

This presents the liberals with an opportunity to express views in ways less commonly utilized....or does it?

Ingroup; Both camps consider themselves to be ingroup and the other to be an out group. Both think of themselves as patriotic, don't they? Where is the true difference here?


Purity: Conservatives are more traditional in their position on discrimination. Liberals are more consistently for inclusion.

Loyality:

Authority: Liberals definately loos the fight on this one, or do they?


The more I think about this the more convinced I become that the right simply has the wrong information. They consume the majority of the most