Navigating between extinction and enslavement, brave humankind could very well avoid both to reach compelling new heights.
Neils Bohr once said that prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future. Despite the words of caution from the pioneering quantum physicist, I’d like to offer you my take on the three potential futures that we, as a species, are facing.
The first is extinction. This is where the human race is no more because we’ve wiped ourselves out in some foolish conflict or scientific mishap. Either that, or the universe conspires to eliminate us using it’s vast arsenal. There’s not a lot we can do to avoid this, apart from building peace instead of war.
The good news, despite what the mainstream media may want us to believe, is that humankind is actually the most peaceful we’ve ever been. (more…)
There’s a standard business negotiation tactic which has been brought into the realm of politics, used most effectively by right wing conservatives: ask for the stars and settle with the moon. So effective has this strategy been that the entire political spectrum has consistently shifted to the right over the past few decades.
Lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford sent a proposal to the American Bankers Association, offering to implement an $850,000 strategy to undermine the credibility of the Occupy Wall Street protesters. The plan was leaked to MSNBC host Chris Hayes, who made the memo available on the net.
The authors of the proposal have exposed just how scared the banking industry really is. Should the Occupy movement co-opt the Democratic party in the same way the Tea Party did the Republicans, according to the lobbyists, such events could “have very long-lasting political, policy, and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.”
The document goes on to caution that Tea Party protesters could potentially join forces with Occupy Wall Street because “well-known Wall Street companies stand at the nexus of where [OWS] protesters and the Tea Party overlap on angered populism. […] This combination has the potential to be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses and contrast it with stories of millions of Americans making do with less this holiday season.”
But, like you’ve read here many times before, the occupy movement will not be stopped. There is too much at stake, and too much already wrong with our system for us to simply give up. The point of no return has been breached and now we cannot stop until we’ve reclaimed democracy for the world.
Glenn Greenwald wrote a concise exposé into the hypocrisy surrounding Bahrain and the United States. As Greenwald details, the gap between President Obama’s words and the actions of his administration is quite substantial.
Leading [Bahraini] political opposition figures have been sentenced to long prison terms, in some cases for life, solely for their role in organizing the large street protests.
[America’s] DSCA notified Congress today of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Bahrain for Armored High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles, TOW Missiles and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support worth an estimated $53 million.
So, why on earth would the American government sell weapons to merciless thugs who will, most certainly, use them on the civilian population? Well, the answer is in the DSCA’s press release itself:
This proposed sale will … improve the security of a major non-NATO ally that has been, and continues to be, an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East.
In other words, Bahrain is loyal to America and it’s largest corporations. As long as the tiny country’s corrupt regime keeps playing the game, any butt-kickings issued by Bahrain’s security forces are free to be stamped with MADE IN THE USA.
While the whole MasterCard spoof can get tired fast, it’s great to spread awareness about Wikileaks’ struggle with a banking embargo. Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, and more, all refusing to do business with Wikileaks, all bowing to pressure from the government.
Damages will be sought for the projected $15 million in lost donations to the whistleblowing website.
That’s awesome for Julian Assange and his band of freedom fighters. When a bunch of powerful corporations are ganging up on you, you must be doing something right!
Robert Reich, political economist and Secretary of Labor for the Clinton administration, enlightens us with two concise and compelling videos.
In the first, Reich describes the intricate collusion between the government and the defense industry, and how taxpayer money is being used by the war industry to secure even larger government contracts:
And for this video, Reich analyzes in detail how the super-rich have been running away with the economy, and in turn, the political system:
Two well-delivered and professionally produced clips, giving myself (along with many other film-makers) something to aspire to.
Warning: Charles Ferguson’s award winning documentary Inside Job may cause steam to shoot out your ears as your blood boils with the fury of a thousand suns.
Breaking down the inner workings of a trillion dollar scam, Ferguson’s film exposes the incestuous working relationship between the financial industry and the government.
On one side, lobbyists and politicians work diligently to deregulate the financial sector. Once they’ve enacted enough systemic changes, these corporate shills can walk straight into high-paying jobs with the very same companies their new laws benefited the most.
On the other side, big bankers and brokers use their new leeway to exploit barely comprehensible money-making methods, like derivative schemes. These high-risk leveraging techniques, only possible with loose oversight, can contribute to or even encourage an economy vulnerable to collapse.
Then, as we saw a few years ago, when the whole house of cards comes crashing down, the same people who caused the collapse can count on their political allies to fund billion dollar bailouts, all without addressing the underlying monetary policies.
What is happening is a crime. It’s robbery! They’ve bilked the world’s people out of trillions of dollars. The fact that not one of these corporate cronies has gone to jail shows just how institutionalized the corruption has become.
Also released this week, an Anonymously penned open letter challenges us to help usher in a world where today’s inherent injustices have gone obsolete.
Answer: They subtly manipulate the system in ways barely comprehensible to us, with the end result being our money lining their pockets.
Corporations have countless lawyers and lobbyists tirelessly working in their favor, rigging the economy and laws in ways that ultimately cheat the general public out of more and more money and power.
In George Monbiot’s latest article, he breaks down the intricate details of what could be “the biggest and crudest corporate tax cut in living memory”. Here’s some highlights from his piece:
If you’ve heard nothing of it, you’re in good company. The obscure adjustments the government is planning to the tax acts of 1988 and 2009 have been missed by almost everyone. They are, anyway, almost impossible to understand without expert help. But as soon as you grasp the implications, you realise that a kind of corporate coup d’etat is taking place.
[The UK Prime Minister David Cameron] has quietly been plotting with banks and businesses to engineer the greatest transfer of wealth from the poor and middle to the ultra-rich that this country has seen in a century.
So how did this happen? You don’t have to look far to find out. Almost all the members of the seven committees the government set up “to provide strategic oversight of the development of corporate tax policy” are corporate executives [from major corporations and banks].
Our political system protects and enriches a fantastically-wealthy elite, much of whose money is, as a result of their interesting tax and transfer arrangements, effectively stolen from poorer countries and poorer citizens of their own countries.
Governments ensure that we are thrown enough scraps to keep us quiet, while the ultra-rich get on with the serious business of looting the global economy and crushing attempts to hold them to account.
Sure, the methodology used by corporations can be subtle and complex, but the solution to corporate power grabs is quite simple: we need to make our collective voice louder than those of the corporations.
The power and influence of these billion dollar corporate empires will prove to be no match for the cooperative efforts from large groups of energized and motivated people.
