Saturday November 7, 2009, 11:33 pm
When capitalism was formed as a freedom by the new colonists in America or the U.S. by the founding fathers and populations, it was freedom from tyranny. Today capitalism is corporate plutocracy. Corrupt Capitalism is formed for the benefit of the rich and powerful and the rest of U.S. can go fish. That is why we NEED MORE REGULATION and LAWS removing power from corporations to lobby, to own media, to influence elections with contributions beyond writing one letter as citizens do. Each owner of corporations or stock holders can write their representatives, but no more.

Today's U.S. government is the product of CORRUPT CAPITALISM and it shows how greed and avarice dominate government, markets, laws, and even cause wars.

We need to return to the simple freedom of selling and buying and end large corporations from influencing more than 100 people. No corporation should be bigger than 100 people. Regulated Capitalism might start promoting freedom again, but today's crapalistic corrupt capitalism is crap because it is criminal and has corrupted our Constitution, robs our elections, lies to US in the media, and avoids paying taxes. Regan was the worst economic clown president in the history of the U.S. Republican policy is to protect corrupt capitalism and the rich and powerful that benefit from it. The rest of the support for repugs comes from demented religious idiots who think protecting the status quo makes their antiquated religious views more secure, but that makes our world corrupt.

Human emotions distort practical thought. You can't be emotionally involved in religion and think practically about the absurdity of blaming women for the problems of the world or the cartoon logic of heaven or hell, so if that faulty logic is self justified or group reinforced from churches or religious factions, repug corrupt capitalism looks good too.

Regulate capitalism so people can't cheat and abuse each other any more. Limit incomes to one million a year or half a million and redistribute the wealth to education and health care. End tax breaks for the rich and make capitalism possible again as the freedom it started out being. Capitalism is SOCIALISM compared to the feudalism it replaced in the American colonies in the 1700's, but today's un-regulated laissez-faire Corrupt Capitalism is Corporate FEUDALISM where corporate kings and executive lords rob the world of it's resources and labor.

End corrupt Corporate Capitalism! Regulate in the spirit of the Constitution's protections of people's rights, end the reign of the rich and powerful corruption of our Constitution and the return to today's Corrupt Capitalist Feudalism.

Sunday November 8, 2009, 12:28 am
Thank you Casey...The perfect summation!...

I don't like doing this, but I will...Too many people don't read the story and comment blindly, so please read the story first?... :-)

November 6, 2009

Richard C. Cook

If you want to get an idea of what America once was like, read the poems of Walt Whitman. Whitman was born on Long Island in 1819 and grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. His family was poor, but even though he left school at the age of 11 he gave himself an education by reading and working in the printing shop of a newspaper until he gradually became a published writer. He worked as a teacher and news reporter and owned his own newspaper by the age of 20.

In 1848 Whitman was a delegate to the founding convention of the Free Soil Party. During the Civil War he worked as a nurse in Union military hospitals and held several government jobs, including interviewing Confederate prisoners for pardons. Some of his greatest poems came from his war experiences, including his famous elegy upon the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, “Oh Captain! My Captain!” His great collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, was self-published. He died a national hero in 1892 in Camden, New Jersey, where thousands of people came to pay their respects.

Whitman has always been viewed as a poet of the people, in contrast to the pretentious dandies from academia who have controlled official American culture for much of our history. He wrote of workmen, farmers, sailors, soldiers, lovers, criminals, and prostitutes.

In the text of the first edition of Leaves of Grass, he wrote of himself as, “Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos, disorderly, fleshly, and sensual, no sentimentalist, no stander above men or women or apart from them, no more modest than immodest.” He had discovered a great secret, one that is known to everyone who is young at heart: that the free individual, always potentially a “kosmos,” stands at a much higher level in the scale of creation than any man-made collective.

Thus was Whitman a hero to the Beatniks of the 1950s who tried to rediscover an authentic American voice in the streets and on the roads and highways of this great land. The spirit of Whitman was surely present through the rebellion of the 1960s, when America's young men and women rose up and fought the Establishment to stop the Vietnam War and bring civil rights to racial minorities.

The Establishment fought back with a vengeance and, through the most egregious betrayal in history, reduced the world's greatest industrial democracy to the pathetic shadow of its former self we are today.

The first thing the Establishment did was destroy the industrial job base by shipping millions of good jobs to China and other Third World nations, where slave laborers could be forced to churn out consumer products at a fraction of the cost of similar work done by American workers.

Acting through the CIA and organized crime, the Establishment flooded the cities and college campuses with illegal drugs in order to rot the minds and souls of our youth.

They dumbed down education to the point where young people who graduate today know little and can do less of a practical nature. Vocational training is dead. A high school graduate is worth virtually nothing in the job market, and many college graduates are semi-literate and self-absorbed, often lacking backbone, skills, or initiative. Some high school and college graduates are even drug addicts or alcoholics.

They turned the economy over to thieves from Wall Street and created a military machine that turns youth into murderers and assassins whose job it is to conquer the world for the fat cats of global capital.

They ruined the arts, literature, and music through crass commercialization, making it almost impossible for any real original creativity to be produced or communicated. The one bright light in this darkness is the internet, which is being threatened by commercial suppression of freedom of expression by the ambitions of big communications companies. Thank goodness too for the rare creative genius like Michael Moore who has the courage to hold up a mirror to this deeply diseased society.

Then they wrecked people's health with processed food and constant inducements to a sedentary lifestyle while pumping us full of dangerous vaccines and prescription drugs. They drummed it into everyone's head that we are basically weak, ill, helpless creatures who can only survive by taking pills and making constant trips to doctors, hospitals, and clinics.

They induced us to fight over our possessions and freedoms in law courts with the aid of greedy lawyers in front of rapacious judges who have built up the largest prison population in the world. They pulled money and credit out of the inner cities and rural areas leaving those segments of the nation and their populations to rot.

The list could go on and on and on.

Today we are in the midst of not just a recession but a terminal depression. Getting the banks to lend again so people can buy homes at what are still over-inflated prices or so they might compete with immigrants to get construction jobs through building of more useless office buildings or military bases is not a recovery. The “greening of America” is a myth. There is no resurgence of alternative energy investment or new public infrastructure apart from a few highway projects.

American family farming is practically dead and is under a new assault from speculators who are undercutting prices and forcing foreclosures. The local manufacturing sector never came back after the calamitous decline produced by the Paul Volcker recession of 1979-1983, when interest rates were deliberately raised to over 20 percent to kill off family-owned businesses so that global corporations could step in and take over.

Since then we had the “Reagan Revolution” when the banks took over the economy, the Clinton dot.com bubble of the 1990s which crashed in 2000, and the George W. Bush/Alan Greenspan housing bubble which blew up in 2008. Now Main Street lies shattered and shuttered as a result of the crimes and treacheries of the last 30 years.

True, there is a rebellion brewing, including a monetary reform movement that has attacked the power of the Federal Reserve, as well as a few progressive voices that call for a much larger economic “stimulus” than the Obama administration has seen fit to implement.

But is there any practical plan on the part of either political party or organized movement to restore America to what it once was–a place where ordinary people could live, work, learn, and flourish? The answer is a resounding “No.” Not a chance. And “Change You Can Believe In” hasn't changed a thing. All it has done has been to produce another financial bubble, this time using huge amounts of public debt through the sale of U.S. Treasury bonds. Business is not growing and jobs are not coming back. The only thing that has gone up has been the meeting of military recruitment quotas.

This latest bubble will fail too, because money created through lending to float the prices of assets is not wealth. Rather wealth consists of goods and services produced by labor applied to natural resources. Those who provide the labor must be recompensed fairly.

So what is to be done? The answer is that nothing can or will be done, if by that you mean whether a political savior is going to come along to rescue our nation and its people from destruction.

In fact, what they are planning is to continue to throttle and enslave us with a predatory financial establishment and a military policy that is preparing the groundwork for World War III. The war will be fought with American troops against Russia and China, after which China will take over as the world's policeman while this country disappears from the face of the earth. It's the ultimate plan of the New World Order, the ones American politicians, financiers, military leaders, and academics bow down to.

It is time for each and every individual who values his or her own life along with the creative potential of the human spirit to begin to work with others to create a new nation and world. The government isn't going to do it for us. Please believe me. This is not a system that can be reformed. It is a system that must be replaced. And it must be replaced by the ordinary working men and women who have been crushed, used, and abused during the past ugly half-century.

Americans, get to work. Call your friends and family together today and begin to figure out what to do. Start with 15 minutes of prayer and meditation. You will be shown the way from within yourselves. My own view is that setting up local currency systems, as many communities are now doing, is a good place to start.

Richard C. Cook is a former federal analyst who writes on public policy issues. His latest book is “We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform.” His website is www.richardccook.com.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

And so: WAKE UP AMERICA! There's a big world out there. Come join it?

Sunday November 8, 2009, 4:21 am
Amen David, your article is right on with the TRUTH hon.

I am awake, and will be prepared...This govt. here will never change ~ GREED is the word!

TY so much for enlightening us with this article of truth my friend.

In peace,
FreeSpirit...

Sunday November 8, 2009, 6:26 am
The problem is that man's greed and selfish ambition has taken him off the road to freedom and truth... this has become a snare for many... and unfortunately the majority of us as left out with the vultures to feed on the carcasses that are left over... or the crumbs that have fallen off the table

Sunday November 8, 2009, 8:24 am
The corrupt taught the geed and selfishness to the society. Taught the people to expect and to take what ever it wanted to become 'Conspicuous Consumption'....to create a scenario that will as before backfire on those who created it. "What Once Was Will Be Again".

Yes David, we must band together to create a new society free of greed and selfishness. But as anyone who is addicted to a substance one must hit the bottom and have no where to turn, no where to go, then and only then will they look for a new option, a new life free of the addictions to greed and manipulation.

Our great country died when Our Great President Kennedy was put down by those who are still trying to corrupt us today. That was nearly 50 years ago. Kennedy chose to become a President of the People and was murdered by those in power to stop him. The majority of Beatniks and Hippies joined the addiction. A few of us did not. I am an old hippie and I do not do drugs nor do I consume alcohol to any degree, and I did not become wealthy on the backs of others forsaking all I learned from my generation. I learned from my Mother and Grandparents about what freedom truly is. And so believe in the freedoms our ancestors from worlds past fought for and died for. Tthe Human Spirit shall rise again. The idea we can change and do better is an idea without substance. We MUST look at the past and see what was done wrong and correct that/those wrong(s) to make sure we DO NOT do IT again.

This may not be what you were looking for, but it is what I see after reading the article and what I learned from my family before me. And yes, we shall overcome in small groups.

What amazes me is the series: Firefly and how it was terminated because it shows just what is happening now. My how movies and books shadow the truth, if we are listening.

Sunday November 8, 2009, 9:16 am
"There is a rebellion brewing", the article says.
Yeah, no kidding. More like, "boiling over", I would
say. People are seriously pissed-off, and they have
reason to be. Hopefully, the evil capitalist system will
be what gets killed in this coming rebellion, replaced by
a system of compassionate democratic socialism that
places people first.
We can surely take inspiration from
Walt Whitman, truly an everyman for every age.
However, the article also says, "start with 15 minutes
of prayer and meditation", which is the best recipe of all.
This is a great post, David,
and I thank you kindly!
noted.

Sunday November 8, 2009, 11:57 am

A light Sunday reading, you say. Huh

I'm telling, again and again: our governments have no real power, most politicians are no more than butlers for corporations, we are only a voting machine which surrenders people to politicians, until next election, when we change, or not, the butlers in our owners houses.

Keep Internet free!

Sunday November 8, 2009, 12:06 pm
Excellent post for a dastardly situation, David. Cook is right on all counts. The dumbing down of Americans is most critical in that many continue to believe and support the very one's who betrayed and used us.

Casey ~ I like your idea of corporations having no more than 100 people. This would drastically reduce corruption and spread the wealth around.

Tim ~ Yes, people have a right to be pissed off, but many are in the dark as to why and how to go about turning this madness around. I still have hope, though...

Sunday November 8, 2009, 2:35 pm
Whitman is one of my favorite American poets, with that, enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Oh, just for fun, if you haven't heard the Vaughan Williams "Sea Symphony" which is a choral symphony with lyrics from Leaves of Grass, then get the cd and sit back and forget politics for a while.

Sunday November 8, 2009, 7:39 pm
Noted .

Sunday November 8, 2009, 10:11 pm
"America The Betrayed...", by the Establishment. I sincerely acknowledge some very fine commentary. But, ..., I find that I am needing a clear and current definition/explanation?, of Who or What the Establishment is. When referred to I hear and see so many nuances. I know what I readily think when I hear "The Establishment". And that is spawned from an updated, based in my 60's roots, conception.

Ask yourself, what it means to you. What does it mean? It's the 'man', the bureaucracy, government, all of the above? Ah, the 'status quo '? I believe that we've come to a time when we can't just use the term without having a more precise understanding of what it means to us, and I'm suggesting that that should be clearly articulated and agreed upon.

It only makes sense to know your enemy, so exactly, where do we focus? Our so-called elected representation? Tell me how a gaggle of geese can move a mountain.

We are betrayed, what we gonna do about it? The question has been asked, "To big to fail?" I'm wondering, 'too big to euthanize'? (I softened my language for my own protection!)

Monday November 9, 2009, 10:52 am
Well sorry David, didn't get this "light" Sunday reading in but did today.

I find this article to be very clear in the way it was presented sort of wrapped it up in a nutshell. Covered a lot of territory that I feel most who have lived in this Country can relate to from their own personal observations and experiences.

That being said, many still are asleep even though they have viewed these things and lived through them and are still living through it. Like some type of fog descended down and everyone walking around half dead. Must be that dumbing down the article said, yes there are alot of drinkers and those who use drugs out there.

When I was educated it was still required that one had to use critical thinking skills and we had a lot of work to meet school requirements. When my children went to school I was always saying, is that all you are required to do or learn? No projects? No requirements of books to read? Check true or false questions? Gee you got a 50% chance, all one had to do was show up. Although the schools did feel my children met the requirements each year and therefore passed them along, I added some requirements of my own onto their education....."oh Mom." Believe me, I told them, you'll thank me one day. They have, already

So I am going to print this article and put it into every bill I mail out, put it into every card I send, mail it to every person I know, and just keep passing it along. I've read many things, this isn't the most earth shaking, but it is clear enough and understandable enough.....to maybe just wake up some more people from the fog induced state they are in.

Thanks David, my printer is busy as I type.

Monday November 9, 2009, 11:41 am
Thank you DAvid and Dandelion for the forward. I loved all of Walt Whitmans' work. And "dumbing down" is soooo poignant of today. Sad, but Americans DOOO need to wake up!!
WTG Dandelion!!
It is a system that must be replaced. And it must be replaced by the ordinary working men and women who have been crushed, used, and abused during the past ugly half-century.
So very true!

Monday November 9, 2009, 12:02 pm
Dandelion G., I had to laugh about your children's lack of homework. My fifteen year old doesn't get as many books assigned, which I cured for her, but as to homework and projects, she averages four hours a day, and that is not because she is taking her time. She is all AP, and that may have something to do with it, but evidently at her school, it's more like we remember.

And, for those who worry about my reading selections for her, they are wide in philosophy. Focus is on critical thinking, not on indoctrinating her. Plenty of fiction and poetry as well.

Monday November 9, 2009, 12:12 pm
My dear friend Suruna has made some interesting points.
A "gaggle of geese" moved some mountains in the
late 18th century. A group of pissed-off colonists,
a guerilla army, defeating the most awesome military
force the world had known at that time? Our forefathers
(and mothers) did exactly that, throwing England off this
continent. And, the Afghani people are doing that to the
United States right now (Godspeed to the Afghanis!)
It's been done before, and it can be done again. All we lack
at this point is the collective will. "The Man", "The Establishment",
it's all the same and it's all evil. As Suruna said, it's all about knowing
your (our) enemy. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?
Yeah, buddy! I believe we can do it again, but it's a slow process.
We need to take our inspiration from the right places, but if we're
ever going to change things to put the people first, we really have
to WANT to!

Monday November 9, 2009, 6:26 pm
Understanding the American economy is appreciating that most people are working harder to earn less while the government subsidizes bonuses for prostitutes and blow for Wallstreet bankers with public funds.

Tuesday November 10, 2009, 6:34 am
Oh Thank You for posting this Article. It will be reposted every where I go. Hope some fruit comes from all my reposting. Sometimes it seems in vain.

Tuesday November 10, 2009, 8:28 am
An enlightening article, David!

For examples of some hope, see the Zeitgeist Addendum (Zeitgeist II) or the Venus Project, which I believe have some nuggets of wisdom. . . also on ZNet you can learn more about Participatory Society. . . and don't forget the eco-villages on the East Coast. Just to offer a little hope.

I hope humanity one day transcends life based on monetary systems. Bertrand Russell's "In Praise of Idleness" is a good essay as well.