Jeffery Sachs is a bright and outspoken man. Here he does a great job of explaining the source of angst being felt across this Nation and this Planet. Please take a few minutes and listen to him flesh out the rationale felt by so many.
Also recently Nobel Laureate Economist Paul Krugman wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times. His essay does a good job of explaining the consistent mis-representation of this movement for rational change. Here is is Op-Ed piece. Paul Krugman's Panic of the plutocrats
"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." - Henry Ford
"Widespread poverty and concentrated wealth cannot long endure side by side in a democracy." -Thomas Jefferson
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State." ~ Josef Goebbles
"There's class warfare, all right,but it 's my class, the rich class, thats making war, and we're winning" ~ Warren Buffet
"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself.......That, in its essence, is Fascism: “ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
“The rule of law does not do away with the unequal distribution of wealth and power, but reinforces that inequality with the authority of law. It allocates wealth and poverty in such calculated and indirect ways as to leave the victim bewildered.” Howard Zinn, Historian 1922 - 2010
Recently, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont wrote an open letter to President Obama. He has asked us the American People to sign the letter with him. His letter points out the inequities of our tax and economic policies.
I don't want to speak for him so I ask you to take a few minutes and read Sen. Sanders letter to the President.
So far me, and one hundred and thirty four thousand people have signed the letter and I hope you will too.
Also, recently Robert Reich has put together a great video explaining our situation and how we got here. I say it is a great video because he manages to explain things in just two minutes and fifteen seconds. It is obviously an overview or simplified explanation, but as such is quite succinct in conveying the message.
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." ~ John Kenneth Galbraith
Today we need to reset our moral compasses. Greed is not good. Greed is one of religion's deadly sins for good reason. We all need to take a step back and realize what we have become. It is an ugly sight. Our brain-dead tax and economic policies are backwards and regressive. The majority of this Nation's wealth is becoming concentrated in ever fewer hands and each year more people fall between the cracks.
If we can wake ourselves from the media mantra of selfishness and consumerism we will see that we are allowing our children's future to be stolen by the opulent minority.
Change is created first in our minds, then through our actions. The first step is to take a hard look at ourselves and see what we have become.
Today we collectively act as though this Nation's criminal invasion of the Sovereign Nation of Iraq was OK. We don't object to our government torturing people. We remain silent as our Presidents claim powers above all laws of this Nation and this World. The President claims the right to disappear or assassinate anyone. By the way, that does include you, me, and our children. This is a horrid legacy we are leaving or children.
We need to change our thinking and behavior. We need to realize that what goes around, comes around. If we accept vicious criminal behavior from our government, the day that viciousness visits us gets closer. Caring about others pays long term dividends, we need to realize this.
Today we have allowed ourselves to be sold the dark, empty socio-economic policies of greed and violence. Empathy is the key to change. Please invest a few minutes of your time to listen to sociologist Sam Richards sharing his insights on empathy.
"I call you my base: the haves and the have mores." ~ Geo. W. Bush
"There's class warfare, all right,but it 's my class, the rich class, thats making war, and we're winning" ~ Warren Buffet
" They only call it class warfare when we fight back" ~ Cindy Sheehan
"What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood." ~Aldous Huxley
"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right." - Thomas Paine
"Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich." ~Sir Peter Ustinov
“If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace. ” ~Franklin D. Roosevelt
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." ~Franklin D. Roosevelt
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall -- think of it, ALWAYS." ~ Mohondas Gandhi
"Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world." ~Desmond Tutu
"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" ~ President Dwight D. Eisenhower
This photo was taken in 1994 during the famine in Sudan. The picture depicts a famine stricken child crawling towards a United Nations food camp located about a kilometer away. The vulture is waiting for the child to die so that it can eat it. The photographer who took this photo, Kevin Carter committed suicide about three months later, due to depression. According to the New York Times, where this picture first appeared, the little girl survived. Here is a link to a NYT story about this tragic situation.
"You just gotta look inside yourself and the eyes of your friends, and you'll find the secret of how to be a humanitarian. So, love to you." ~ Neil Young
We are being mislead by the media in this Nation and while many people kinda' understand that, most do not understand the depth and degree of that deception. There are some glowing examples of this to be seen, but not coincidentally from the corporate media.
Several years ago, there arose a dispute between a couple of investigative reporters and the Fox News Affiliate they worked for. It was a story about bovine growth hormone and it's human health safety in milk. Eventually the reporters were fired, they sued in civil court for being wrongfully fired, and won.
Then NEW WORLD COMMUNICATIONS OF TAMPA, INC., d/b/a WTVT-TV appealed the decision, essentially saying they had the right to mislead and lie, and to require their employees to do so. The Appeals Court agreed. Because the FCC's news distortion policy is not a “law, rule, or regulation” under section 448.102, Akre has failed to state a claim under the whistle-blower's statute. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment in her favor and remand for entry of a judgment in favor of WTVT.
Watch Jane and her husband explain it them selves in this clip from the documentary The Corporation.
As Akre noted after the verdict, "the `threshold issue' the court wrote ---
and all it ruled upon --- was whether the technical qualifications for a
whistleblower claim were ever met by me. In Florida, to file such a claim,
the employer misconduct must be a violation of an adopted law, rule or
regulation. FOX argued from the first --- and repeatedly failed in front of
three different judges --- to have the case tossed out on the grounds there
is no hard, fast, and written rule against deliberate distortion of the
news.
"In essence," she adds, " the news organization owned by media baron Rupert
Murdoch, argued the First Amendment gives broadcasters the right to even lie
or deliberately distort news reports on the public airwaves."
News Corp, Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, and Fox News all have a long habit and history of playing fast and loose with the truth. I am including the link to an edited version of Robert Greenwald's glaring expose' of this gang in his documentary OUTFOXED - Rupert Murdoch's War On Journalism. Though edited, this video details their long history of intentional slant, all the way to pure propaganda. It remains consistent with the original intent and scope of the full length documentary.
In the days of the Soviet Union, they had their State run news organs, Izvestia and Tass. These were pretty much propaganda organs, but they only had limited effect because the people new it was propaganda. Today we here in the USA have a real problem on our hands because most people believe they are hearing the truth, and moreover are inclined to think they aren't being lied to. Both of those ideas are fallacies, and to further the case we will take a look at the latest chapter in the continuing saga of media, and most specifically Fox Media lying and distortion.
Recently the Right-wing Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper attempted to have a law repealed that forbids lying on broadcast news.
Let that sink in, He wanted to repeal a law forbidding lying on broadcast news. Sanity prevailed in Canada. The law was not changed.
But the interesting news angle to this, is that now News Corp/Fox News has been barred entry into the Canadian market with their now dead, "Sun TV News".
Here is a link to a news article written by Robert Kennedy Jr covering this very subject.
Folks there is an equally pernicious aspect to this story, other than News Corps claim to the right to lie, and being barred access to the Canadian market because of it. Think about the fact that the rest of the corporate media isn't telling us about any of this either. Take notice of the fact that this story was covered by Huffington Post, and documentaries, but the corporate news has no desire to point out to us just how glaringly we are routinely lied to.
That glaring and consistent omission of the truth, by all of the corporate media is propaganda by omission, and we are victims of it routinely. Think about it, News Corp won the case, and confirmed their "legal right" to lie, in 2003 . It is now 2011, and Rupert's "Sun TV News" is barred from the Canadian market because of a ban on lying on the news.
How much of any of this has the corporate news informed us of?
Editors note: Today, March 17th, I saw an article on Crooks and Liars that dovetails quite well with this post, so I decided to add it to this post.
Check out this bit of Fox News bile. Hannity turns logic on it's head
The people of Egypt have proven once again that the path to change is peace. Or perhaps I should say peaceful protest. The people of Egypt displayed remarkable restraint and co-operation. They defended each other, and themselves when attacked, but otherwise were remarkably peaceful and resilient.
"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?" Mohandas Gandhi
When the Berlin Wall came down, when the Marcos Regime was ended, and now in Egypt, non violent protest has been the hallmark of each. This is a time of change, let us hope that Egypt continues to move towards a government and constitution much more inclusive and representative of all the people. This will be a rapidly changing story as they move towards a new constitution and government. I hope this opportunity blossoms. As the winds of change blow across the planet, we can only hope that peace and cooperation continue to prevail. Protest movements are sprouting up in many places, Bahrain, Iran, Algeria, and Libya are all mentioned as locations of protest. All will not succeed, we can only hope for real change that will bring some measure of fairness and equality to the people of these and other nations. Speaking of other nations, I think of Saudi Arabia. This nation is a glaring example of all that is wrong in this world. It is a viciously repressive regime, a kingdom, to be exact. Decades ago the US govt. tied it's fortunes, our lives and livelihoods, to this brutal regime. We the American people need to learn and understand that our very way of life is at present tied to the continued repression of the Saudi people. It won't last much longer. The Saudi/US collusion runs deep and gets complicated very quickly, but it boils down to a system of financial/power collusion. When the people of Saudi Arabia overthrow the vicious and corrupt Saudi regime, life as we know it will change. The change will be very difficult for the US and it's people. Our economy, such as it is, relies on "cheap" oil, in ready and abundant supply. These supplies will be interrupted, how much, and how consistently remains to be seen, but you can count on it having a negative effect on our anemic economy. As populist movements for freedom and representative government sweep across the globe, lets stand on the side of humanity. We should not side with brutal corrupt regimes, not even for the obvious selfish reasons of continuing an unsustainable system founded on corrupt regimes and unsustainable policies.
This blog post from Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox is worthy of wider distribution. Hence my re-posting it here at my blog. Please take a few minutes and take a listen to Cindy and her guests, and Major General Smedley Butler, a real American hero that most Americans have never even heard of.
