What are we waiting for?

History is not evolution. Evolution is a matter of environment and chance, acting over millions of years. But history is a matter of environment and choice, acting within lifetimes, and sometimes within years, or months, or days. History is Larmarckian...if we choose to establish certain methods of doing business it will be so...And if we choose others, so shall that be. Think outside the box. Who cares if the rest of the world dumps us? We need to rebuild within the US...yep...it'll be tough, but it could bind us together as community and rid the world of the scourge we've become...and the system of economics that has failed...because it is not sustainable. It is false...and temporary. It could cause the rest of the world to do likewise. Sustainability is what we need to strive for...not this blip of existence supported by a resource that is finite and quickly disappearing. This is not to invite catastrophe...precisely the opposite. If we are aware of the consequences and act rather than react, voluntarily...the consequences would be different than having it thrust upon us in a time of real strife and disaster, which could/would make it a National Katrina. That is the opportunity which was squandered in the wake of 9/11...and is most unforgiveable. It will come...whether we go into it willingly and bonded together...or it happens to us as 'an act of god' for which we are all ill prepared.

The lies of GW Bush's Budget Proposal

Bush's new budget includes cuts of 65 billion dollars over 5 years to the poorest recipients of medicare...plus increases in medicare monthly deductions from Social Security recipients. His budget includes 101 billions of dollars in new weapon systems for the coming year alone...176 billions in weapons systems total for the year...and a defense budget of over 600 billions of dollars (not including supplementals for Iraq/Afghanistan war on terrorism). His increase does not provide enough to fully fund the 98,000 person increase in the Army and Marines that he's asking for. His budget steals 1 trillion dollars from the Social Security trust fund monies coming in between now and 2012...at which time his budget will be 'balanced'...without mentioning that 200 billion dollars that 'balanced' year will be coming out of the SS trust fund. Lies and obfuscation...and the media is complicit. Cut monies from the least among us...while stealing their money to increase the wealth of Defense Contractors... It's an outrage and should be brought to the attention of your representatives in both houses of Congress. Eisenhower was so right in warning us about the MI complex... *** "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." "I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it." "In most communities it is illegal to cry "fire" in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims?" "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." ~~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Sofia, the water edition...alas...a dream that sailed away

Matt and Jill

Enjoying their lives in Kauai...

You go!

B4BC

Remember...don't forget!

Corporate/Capitalist Historical Perspective

A little historical perspective could allow everyone to have some understanding of what is going on in 'our world'... Thorstein Veblen's, "The Theory of the Leisure Class"...Robert Heilbroner's, "The Worldly Philosophers"...both make the point (in different time references) that monopolists/oligarchists/international bankers are not much different from barbarians because they use brute force (often the military of our nation), cunning and competitive skills to make money from others, and then live off the spoils of conquests rather than producing things themselves. There are alternatives to the current, corrupt, crony capitalism...which can bring about some peace and prosperity to the entire world in just manners..."Natural Capitalism" by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins describes some methods of doing this... The fact that transnational corporations and their agendas have come to dominate cultural, political, and economic life on a global scale can hardly be disputed. These powerful corporations have used national governments and government-created international bodies to create a legislative and institutional regime that accedes to and actively promotes and implements a "free-market" ideology. There are tremendous costs to the political, economic, and social fabric of the entire global community as corporations have become ever more capable under this ideological regime in extracting wealth and generating huge profits on a worldwide basis. Poverty, social and political disintegration, and environmental degradation are the main consequences of this global corporate ascendance. (And war)... The ability of corporations to penetrate the political and cultural sectors of our society is hardly a late twentieth century phenomenon. Despite the founders' efforts to contain corporations by explicit and revocable state charters, emerging industrialists in the post-Civil War era became powerful enough to sway legislators and the judiciary to act in their behalf. Not only did corporations generally gain rights in perpetuity, but the Supreme Court declared corporations to be legal persons entitled to the same rights as ordinary citizens, in addition to limited liability. By the late 1920s capitalism had largely emerged triumphant over worker and community interests, despite Teddy Roosevelt's attempts to reign them in. Consumerism has been instilled as the only legitimate avenue for realizing individualized "freedom." A form of democratic pluralism existed among the civil, governmental, and market sectors of society in the post-WWII era, but any such sectorial accommodation was mostly an aberration that came about only because of the necessity to solve the twin crises of the Great Depression (caused by corporate-led economic excess) and WWII. Any social accord that may have existed was shredded as corporations, backed by the Reagan administration, renewed their assault on the working class and relentlessly pursued self-interested global strategies, continued through Bush I, Clinton, and now Shrub... Over the last two decades, middle-class jobs have been lost, median pay has stagnated, and austerity has been imposed on the less fortunate as a profound upward redistribution of wealth and income has occurred. Globally, the structural adjustment measures forced upon developing nations by the World Bank and the IMF to qualify for loans, ripped the fabric of those societies and have actually increased indebtedness to First World bankers... Trade agreements and administrative bodies, such as NAFTA and the WTO, are designed to eliminate local restrictions on investments by international firms and barriers to the free movement of goods between nations... The freedom for capital to move freely among nations has also fueled rampant financial speculation unrelated to productive investment. Unconscionably, American taxpayers have been forced to bailout those engaged in extracting wealth from the developing world. "Free market" ideology is used to justify the gutting of the social and legal structures of nations. But it is a disingenuous view... Free market activities posited by Adam Smith involve local, individual economic actors, none of whom have the power to control the marketplace... Unregulated, unfettered market activities by huge economic entities can result in market coercion. For example, monopolistic firms can externalize costs...that is, they are powerful enough to force societies to pay for the social and environmental side-effects of their activities. For example, labor and environmental regulations are often ignored with impunity...society picking up the pieces. The impact of corporations acting as legal persons cannot be overemphasized... Corporations overwhelm actual citizen political participation and free speech by the extent and intensity of their political lobbying and media controlling efforts. Corporations and the rich, in a form of legalized bribery, basically fund political campaigns... They also heavily sway public opinion through public relations front organizations, conservative think-tanks, and the control of the major media. The dependency of the media on advertising dollars virtually guarantees presentation of views that are compatible with corporate interests, not to mention the fact that the huge media empires are themselves transnational corporations with no interest in harming broader corporate interests. Foxes building hen houses.

Thanks, Katrina Vanden Heuvel...

In presenting his plan for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq this week, current Representative and now Presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich, noted that "after the first Gulf War, Iraqis reestablished electricity within three months, despite sanctions. Four years into the US occupation there is no water, nor reliable electricity in Baghdad." He also pointed out that Iraqis receive a paltry 5 percent of subcontracts while US contractors make billions of dollars and "millions of Iraqis do not have a means of financial support, nor substantive employment." Kucinich's example cuts to the heart of the gross corruption, waste and profiteering that marks the failed Iraqi Reconstruction effort – over $50 billion spent on private contractors with little return and billions unaccounted for. Not only did the Republican Congress turn its back on its Constitutional responsibility for oversight, it even attempted to surreptitiously oust the one individual who was uncovering some of the corruption – Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart W. Bowen. So what did President Bush offer on Wednesday night as a solution to rein in the waste and fraud of the Iraqi Reconstruction effort? "A reconstruction coordinator in Baghdad to ensure better results for economic assistance being spent in Iraq." Seriously.