Zimnoiac Emanations

03:46 pm - PTSD

I think we in this culture live as victims of post-traumatic stress
disorders, another word for which is Civilization.

Meant to be imbedded within a Gaian matrix we have been removed (we don't
really remember by whom or why) and we long for a return.

We long for connections to our animal cousins but settle for lavishing our
affections on our domesticated pets (who often display the same neurotic
symptoms of PTSD as we).

This "somethng missing" is like an itch we cannot quite scratch. Drugs,
booze and compulsive sex are but temporary palliatives. We addict so easily
to so many things.

We have been removed from our natural conviviality as co-operative tribal
creatures and made to compete to such an extent that we find it really hard
to co-operate on anything of much consequence.

Until, at some point, either through commune with a visionary plant, or being
awakened by a Derrick Jensen book, or some other blessed means, we start to
remember what we have lost.

And are losing.

Then the pain really starts but at least now we can name the disease and
begin a move towards re-integration.

04:22 pm - when a bear shits in the woods

my dog does not shit and then lay down in the pile.

most civilized humans crap and piss in their drinking water, flush it down
into septic tanks which then pollute their rivers and groundwater. They think
this is normal. Imperial mentalities rob from others to enrich themselves;
this becomes a way of life.

Support the Troops.

Growth is good.

Steven King deserves all his wealth cause he entertains people;
he's also a Red Sox fan

Kill a Commie for Mommie.

MY wife

MY child

MY car

The woman is MINE the land is MINE the moon is MINE the womb is MINE


Have a nice day.

03:37 pm - hold the GMO

I was mulling over a common argument put forth by pro-GM technocrats that
goes something like this:

"...well, humans have been hybridizing and doing gene combinations on plants
for hundreds of years and GMO is merely another advancement along that
path..."

Then it occured to me the difference.

...which is that when one does selective plant breeding for purposes of
"improving" a plant (which really amounts making it more suitable for human
use of one sort or another) through traditional means of selective
pollination, the plant has the option of rejecting the attempt. That is, the
result does not "take" all the time.

In the case of "genetic modification", the insertion is forcible, the target
organism does not have the option to reject the attempt. It is viewed as an
object, denuded of choice. This I view as a form of bio-technological rape.
As opposed to a partnership between between organism and human, a kind of
marriage of species with the potential to advance both sides.

09:40 am - politics and the fall from grace

I think the phrase 'government of the people' is a contradiction in terms.
Besides which, people don't actually need to be governed unless they have
been bought up to depend on on authority for direction in their life and
plenty of us have proven that you can break free form that.

Basically once someone takes up office in a 'government for the people' they
cease to be people. It's an old saying but power corrupts and I have yet to
meet a single person who hasn't been corrupted by power - I mean I can't
even properly handle the power I have over my own children.

+++
for most of our presence here child raising has been a communal task. the nuclear man-woman-kids thing is an artifact of the last 150 years or so of industrial society. And even in my grandparent's generation there were extended family groupings.

it's like corn is a very "promiscuous" plant and if it becomes too inbred it genetically downgrades over generations.

we are tribal monkeys and we can and have worked out non-coercive ways and means of voluntary organization.

the thing which the current paradigm has done is to strip the memory of this in many but it's still inside us and we have to get it back.

whether it's learning to co-exist on this list or earth it's mostly the same approach differing in scale.

And the Golden Rule is to do unto others as you want done to you.

So why is that so hard?

Cause some of the wayward monkeys have escaped from the group, adopted a faulty model precluding a positive feedback loop are running amuk and destroying the whole thing which is what i think this group calls civilization. Or it's the class struggle, or whatever metaphor we want to choose today.
+++



Even if there existed a fantasy governator who could handle power perfectly

+++
things should never get to that point of authoritarian control.

i would propose as a start doing what many indigenous people have done and give the grandmothers veto power over all decisions.

then bring back the archaic values of equality and partnership which for the most part have guided the human sojourn here till fairly recently and by the absence of which the civilized humans are at the brink of blowing the whole planetary pooch into meltdown.
+++

they would still find themselves having to defend their power base in order
to keep doing their 'perfect' governing and given how keen people are to get
their hands on power

+++
I think the addiction to power is an indirect result of bad infant toilet training. Actually the invention of the flush toilet might be the root of all civilized evil.
+++

it would ultimately mean having to kill them to keep
them at bay - thereby corrupting the governors anyway. This, by the way, is
what happens to every bright eyed idealist when they enter politics thinking
they are going to make a diference. They either drop out because they aren't
prepared to play rough or they compromise themselves attempting to grab and
maintain power and become like every other politician that ever existed.

+++
I like Trotsky's idea of "Permanent Revolution" which I take to mean that things remain fluid and no obstructions of unaccountable power get to establish themselves.

You can see why Stalin had to get rid of him.
+++

I don't think any 'mass' answer is a real answer - this goes for governments
as well as mass (final?) solutions like steralization - we're just not
capable of handling the power that goes with it and it's naive to think we
can do it without corruption occurring.

+++
Derrick makes the point in one of his lectures that the only truly "free trade" would be when a group can meet all it's own needs and then it can engage it's neighbors without survival compulsion which leads to war and conquest and etc.

So, if and when abundance can be restored then non-compulsive trade and association can take place.
++++


This sounds like I'm going to advocate anarchy

++++
don't be ashamed of it but if you feel the need i think there is a 12-step program for it.
+++




but every time that's been
tried some power mongering neighbour moves in and ends it.

+++
that's why we start by giving the last say to the grandmothers. Except that Barbara Bush definitely DOES NOT get to vote.
+++

The only time
political anarchism will be possible is when we meet the conditions of the
popular definition of anarchism which is when civilisation falls apart, and
blow me down if I haven't arrived at a point where I might recomend a person
reads one of Derrick's books to flesh out this arguement :-)

+++
Damn if we ain't back where we started! :-)
+++

-stu

11:26 am - Whore-O-Witz

This is so lame, it calls a law to outlaw dialogue and rescind free speech rights a "Bill Of Rights". The poor "conservatives" are so persecuted, no one gets to hear THEIR point-of-view. It's a form of psychological warfare to feign persecution which gives then the right to respond aggressively.

Orwell will love it.

Of course there is "bias" all over the place but this does not preclude exercise of free speech whose purpose is to encourage DISCUSSION of biases and points of view. But so many of the proponents of this sort of thing have arguments so undefendable they are afraid to engage in discussion for fear of being exposed so they use the coercive power of the state to supress speech. In the Academy, no less, which is supposed to be a sacred place of free speech and exchange of ideas.

It figures that David Whore-o-Witz would be out front and center on this. He loves the publicity and has made a very comfortable career promoting this sort of trash.

The targeted academics had better stand up against it and refuse intimidation or they will deserve the consequences.

===========


j
>>
>> What's behind the Student Bill of Rights?
>> By David Bacon
>> t r u t h o u t | Perspective Tuesday 07 June 2005
>
>
>
> Santa Rosa, CA - An older generation of teachers may remember the days of
>
>> California's loyalty oaths and red scares. During the cold-war, McCarthyite era of the early 1950s, educators accused of being Communists or harboring left-wing views were driven from the school system.
>
>
>
>> Today, witchhunts seem once again on the rise. The latest attempt to return to the era of red-baiting is called, ironically, the Student Bill of Rights. That has a fine, democratic ring to it. The phrase, however, is being used to restrict the ability of teachers to introduce controversial or provocative ideas into their classrooms. The argument goes like this: Conservative students are offended when "liberal" faculty try to force them to consider ideas with which they don't agree. Political science or sociology instructors, for instance, who support the benefits of minimum or living wage ordinances for workers, should be prevented from advancing such liberal biases in class.
>
>
>
> If this sounds far-fetched, consider the fact that 13 states have introduced
>
>> legislation that would prohibit such "indoctrination." These bills, a project of ultra-conservative ideologue David Horowitz, aren't aimed at the many prestigious business schools around the country. There, instructors not only teach students that making profit is necessary and virtuous, but insist students learn to do so as efficiently as possible. Instead, these measures are directed against teachers who question such established ideas.
>
>
>
> This spring in Santa Rosa, conservative
>
>> students supporting the state's own version of the Student Bill of Rights demonstrated where this is headed.
>
>
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> On February 25, leaflets quoting Section 51530 of the Education Code were
>
>> anonymously posted on the doors of ten faculty members at Santa Rosa Junior College. The leaflet quoted the code: "No teacher ... shall advocate or teach communism with the intent to indoctrinate, inculcate in the mind of any pupil a preference for communism." Such "advocacy," the statute says, means teaching "for the purpose of undermining patriotism for, and the belief in, the government of the United States and of this state." Fifty years ago, when left-wing teachers were hounded out of the state's school system during the cold war, this code section was rushed through the legislature to make it legal.
>
>
>
> A subsequent press release by the Santa Rosa Junior College Republicans
>
>> claimed responsibility. "We did this because we believe certain instructors at SRJC are in violation of California state law," it said. The same day, a news release was posted on the website of California College Republicans, titled "Operation 'Red Scare,'" saying the action targeted "10 troublesome professors." The organization's chair, Michael Davidson, told blogger John Gorenfeld that "a lot of the college professors are leftovers from the Seventies - and Communist sympathizers."
>
>
>
> In a letter to the campus newspaper, the Oak Leaf, the president of the SRJC
>
>> College Republicans, Molly McPherson, explains that "The instructors I 'targeted' were not selected at random ... There have even been accounts of JC teachers openly advocating Communist and Marxist theories ... [which have] been outlawed in the classrooms of a country with the strongest free speech rights in the world."
>
>
>
> When the campus Republicans found it hard to document the massive teaching
>
>> of communism at the junior college, they retreated to general complaints of "leftist bias" by faculty members. Evidence to support charges of biased teaching seemed just as scarce. In a forum discussing the flyer, student trustee Nick Caston pointed out, "I have been on the Board of Review (the last step of the grievance process) for three years and have never heard a complaint about bias in the class room."
>
>
>
> "I've never even talked with any of the students who were involved in this,"
>
>> commented red-starred professor Marty Bennett. "But I do teach a lot of labor history in my social sciences classes, and I'm identified in the community as someone involved in the labor movement. That's probably why I was chosen." Other instructors also had had little or no contact with the young Republicans. Bennett says that because of the incident, "some teachers were reluctant to take up more controversial subjects. But it pushed others towards an activism they might not have considered before."
>
>
>
>> On her organization's website, McPherson says the flyering was "just in time for one of our senators introducing the academic bill of rights in April." That bill, SB 5, introduced by Sen. Bill Morrow, R-San Juan Capistrano, says, "faculty shall not use their courses or their positions for the purpose of political, ideological, religious or anti-religious indoctrination."
>
>
>
> David Horowitz' website warns that "while a professor is on campus or in an
>
>> academic setting, he or she has professional responsibilities that make partisan political action unacceptable," and that "all too frequently, professors behave as political advocates in the classroom, express opinions in a partisan manner on controversial issues irrelevant to the academic subject." In an era in which Governor Schwarzenegger has gone to war with the state's teachers, Horowitz's admonitions would silence protest against him. On April 20, SB 5 failed to pass the Senate Education Committee. McPherson and her clubmates fared equally poorly in late April student body elections at SRJC, when the slate they supported lost by a 2-1 majority.
>
>
>
> Nevertheless, bills similar to Morrow's have been introduced into 13 other states
>
>> this year. Defending one in the Columbus Dispatch, Ohio State Senator Larry Mumper warned that "card-carrying Communists," whom he defined as "people who try to over-regulate and try to bring in a lot of issues we don't agree with," are teaching at universities. I
>
>
>
> Isn't that what the free market in ideas is all about?
>
> David Bacon is a California
>
>> photojournalist who documents labor, migration and globalization. His book The Children of NAFTA: Labor Wars on the US/Mexico Border was published last year by University of California Press. -------
>>
>
>
>

10:54 am - Micro-Swill

when i learned that the film

"Kill Bill"

was not about Gates

i was very disappointed

09:38 am - garden

grows

doesn't need to be begged,

not everything though:

my experiment is to see how much of my own food i can grow

disadvantages:

high desert climate, fairly extreme heat and sun in summer, frost 5 months, late frosts, rainwater avg 8 inches per year (though we MAY be in a wetter trend in winter due it seems to heavier storms coming onto the west coast and making it over the mountains to here)

advantages: fairly long growing season, good for melons peppers onions squash beans carrots corn parsnips leek wheat rye barley (maybe) oats, greens-all-year-round-with-protection;

my one **critical vulnerability** is dependence on city-supplied supplemental water

no real way to overcome that here

and this is being done in the shadows of an airport and air force base in bushamerica with "support our troops" bumper ribbons in fairly prominent display

i figure though that when the techno infrastructure breaks down the cities will tend to get priority

maybe (i think i am allowed a free miracle)

but better by far to be as independent of this crumbling system as possible

ingenious alliances will be the key to survival

09:29 am - the jew

The Jew is the symbolic historic image of the exiled brother,

Cain

sent away without hardly time to pack, rejected by the tribe, the unconscious shadow

not wanted to be seen

first the shaman living on the outskirts of the village,

then the balloon sucking brother in the corner,

the retarded sister reciting poems to flowers all day,

the Son Prodigality,

who must be invited back in to sit around the camp fire

before the melodrama of history is released

and the monkey launched to godhead

09:23 am - A Dinner with Mushrooms

there is a spirit of life on the earth, an overarching presence, that comes and goes

disappears and shows

spirit of truth

the weather gets bad, it recedes for a while;

like Ice Ages,

meteor strikes;

it knows it has to die back to emerge again when conditions are favorable

life comes back, always returns, in

different shapes;

no flowering plants in these parts before 65 millions of years (more or less)

ago

10:30 am - surfing the Kali Yuga

The elite, as a global class (they have forsaken the nation-state as too confining for their harvests) , and as individuals, will do whatever it takes to maintain their privleges and ill-gotten gains. (2% controlling 40% of the resources)

This essentially involves looting the biosphere and the future itself which is the endeavor they have been involved in on this continent for the past 500 years or so. But now the pedal is being pushed to the metal.

The future dystopia, in a world running low on resources, involves guarded compounds of these folks catered to by a small group of serviceable slaves.

This is the logical outcome of the policies they are pursuing and it is why no dissenting views are allowed to reach "the masses" through media conglomeration (they are bedeviled by the internet and are seeking to reign it in), why they are constructing a global police state, a massive prison system.

In previous times there were conciliations to the lower and middle classes here in the US (taking the forms of "social programs") but now that the spout is running dry they need to get it all, damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!

So events and crises are staged (like 9-11, "war on terrorism", etc) in order to control the narrative and the minds of the people through memes of fear, and to create fake demons to try and divert attention away from the REAL pick-pockets.

All is pretty much looted in the US and all they have left is a bloated military and a shell-game financial scam system. They are losing the current military endeavor in Iraq to a group of "insurgents" many of whom learned their trades during the Iran-Iraq war in the early 1980's when they were being trained and supported by the US.

It's all so transparent and tiresome. Utterly and nakedly criminal. There ain't no future to it. It's not what we hairless monkeys are created for, me thinks.

They will implement this unless one way or another we stop them.

-Ironcloudz

08:23 am - election time

it's election time and we once again get to choose between two rich white guys for president. that's assuimg that the electronic voting machines will not be hacked to make the decision and also, as I write this, cracker spawn in Florida and other states are working overtime to disenfranchise black, youth, hispanic voters who are a threat to BushCo.

this time, both are Yalies with stints in a bizarro ruling-class vetting secrect society called Skull n' Bones. Both are pro-war, pro-big bizness, pro military, against meaningful public health care, pro expansion of the worldwide capitalist imperium with no regard for natural environmental consequences.

choose one: the white mofo bastard behind door#1 or door#2. The puppet on the "right" or the one on the "left".

Of course Bush is neither a Conservative in any meaningful sense nor is Kerry anything approaching "left". In this context the whole left vs right paradigm is a shuck.

Although there is a real discussion to be had between notions of socialism, the state, capitalism, etc.
But it will not happen in the corporate media or within the two-dimensional disneyland world of the staged federal electoral process. If anyone cares to see some of my views on these topics they can find them within previous entries here.

Both "rich white motherfuckers(tm)" are in service to segments the ruling class in favor of continuing the slaughter in Iraq in pursuit of control of the oil resources and strategic positioning in the mid-east and West Asia. This includes support for Ariel Sharon, including that Zionist-butcher's displacing of native Palestinians to make way for Jewish dominion and fresh water needs. If not halted this strategy is destined to set the world aflame with a replay of the global imperial wars of the last century.: WWIV with nukes.

The difference between Bush and Kerry is purely one of strategies not anything based upon much that is meaningful to the vast majority of disenfranchised humans on the planet. At the same time they do represent fiercly competitve segments of the ruling classes and it is to them that they are really directing their messages. They play both sides of the fence in that respect since it is also a part of their job descriptions to be front-men for these several sectors of controlling interests while selling themselves to the voting public (in truth just something over 50% of eligible voters) as representing their interests.

They are using the threat of "terrorism" to scare the populace into submission using bogeymen such as Bin Laden (a CIA creation and asset) and Al Qaeda (also a US Intelligence asset). Most of the the incidents of what they term "terrorism" consist of "false flag operations" where these events are either engineered or allowed to occur to promote the political goals of the ruling classes.

Discussion of the following, arguably the most pertinent to our collective futures, is disallowed by both camps of the monopoly duopoly:

massive inequalities of income and resource distribution domestically and globally; maintenance of a profit-based economic system based upon material expansion in a world of diminishing resources; true alternative energy and survial strategies in this Age of the End of Oil; analysis of the several cartels which control our lives and destinies (medical, energy, agriculture, media); instituting a sound monetary system in service to community rather than the bogus fiat currencies based upon dollar-denominated speculative deficit spending.

The way forward is both simple and revolutionary: allow a multitude of voices to be heard within an integral democratic media community with the faith that the truth will rise to the top. This is happening to some degree thanks to the internet and the hard work and integrity of many independent researchers. We need a total resuscitation of the Commons of public discourse and debate.

The only advantages I can see in electing Kerry is that it would somewhat disempower the apocalypse-driven christian right as well as send a symbolic message to the rest of the world that a majority segment of the voting classes in the US reject the utter criminality of BushCo. I also realize that many who will vote for Kerry are well-meaning and sincerely desire progressive change. Those who support Bush are in many cases Fascist-oriented individuals as well as highly disoriented working class folks who have been totally dispossessed by the two-party monopoly and corrupt labor bureaucracies. These latter are a symptom of the "double-bind" nature of the US political system.

The real work is the demolition of the vested power centers and interests in favor of the political and social empowerment of the masses. A balancing of the needs of the collective Gaian intelligence matrix without oppression or hive-ation of the indivdual.

09:50 am - "sustainable growth"

there is a basic misunderstanding which is being perpetuated, in many
cases consciously by the "vested interests", that physical growth must
drive productive economics. Kapitalism is headed towards strangling the
earth momma (yes, that IS Big Momma Thornton!) who birthed it.

This is the false ideology which is threatening to overwhelm the gaia
biosystem and the human experiment therein.

The growth imperative must shift towards the imaginative forces of mind
directed towards engineering ultra-hip "vaccum" energy devices, low-heat
fusion instead of fission, and synaptic-level micro-voltage strategies
(including nano-tech).

Then we can both garden the planet successfully as well as explore the
stars.

Bikes are great but it is also possible to engineer silent ultra-fast
very safe transport devices so that I could get in one right now and
play a gig with Joe Wilder tonight in new york. Boy would I like that!
And entirely without pollution of noise or air.

These resources of mind and matter are currently being tragically
squandered into a blunderbuss military machine and useless consumer
goods ideologically driven by a rapacious profit-ubber-alles economic
model for the benefit of a smaller and smaller group of owners. While
the rest of us slurp the post-industrial swill.

This planet is going to evolve with or without us and it's going to
happen a lot faster then most people realize.

03:22 pm

in response to:
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0907-15.htm

================

a more interesting question perhaps is WHY WON'T (or WHY CAN'T...) Kerry
respond forcefully.

And the reason (like a good lawyer I never ask a question I don't have
the answer to...) is that he has already disavowed his most noble
sentiments which he expressed back in the 70's against the Vietnam War
-- and even a sort of rudimentary critique of American Imperialism -- by
supporting this imperial war: even saying he would have voted for it had
he known that the whole WMD was a crock! (which he undoubtedly did know
at the time anyway, the guy is not that stupid)

This chump is so sold out he can't even keep his lies straight. Kind of
like George W. That's what got him as far as he has.

His job is to place discussion of the Iraq War (and related issues) off
the table on behalf of his funders and constituency: who are not you
and I but rather the hyper-rich and corporate interests who benefit from
imperialism, who are the 1% who control 90% of the wealth. And who also
fund such "citizen lobby groups" as moveon.org who are backing him.

But John has got to do this while hoping that the majority of Americans
who are against this latest imperial adventure will vote for him as the
"lesser evil" candidate... The Anybody-But-Bush people.

Strategically speaking, I don't think it's gonna work and I think Bush
will likely win and the Dems will be even more discredited and possibly
cease to exist as a party at all.

Then they can blame Nader again.

Of course I might be wrong, maybe Kerry will win. And the war will go
on while he tries to establish a "multi-lateral" approach to ganering
the remaining energy reserves on the planet on behalf of the "American
Way of Life"(tm).

The really sad thing is that none of it is necessary, we have the means
at our disposal to create a much better world for all of us and a true
democracy. But it ain't gonna happen through electing dismal specimens
like Kerry as the replacement CEO for America, Inc.

09:36 am - CointelPro redux?

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/19/1354257

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has visited political activists in at least six states to question them about their involvement in protests at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

FBI officials describe the questioning as part of a larger effort to track any planned disruptions related to the conventions, the presidential debates or the November election.

An FBI spokesman told The New York Times this week that the individuals visited in recent weeks are "people that we identified that could reasonably be expected to have knowledge of such plans and plots if they existed."

But civil rights groups say the 40 to 50 documented cases of FBI questioning amount to harassment and result in the chilling of free speech.

Now, ABC is reporting that the NYPD has identified 56 so-called "primary anarchists" who will be followed 24 hours a day. One supervisor and six cops will be assigned to each person.

Several Democratic legislators this week issued a letter to the Justice Department's Inspector General calling for an investigation into the FBI questioning calling it" "systematic political harassment and intimidation of legitimate antiwar protesters." ====================================


ah-ha, pre-emptive speechus interruptus.

This is different than CointelPro in that it is more out in the open. Back then there was some semblance of legal oversight so this type of activity was denied even while it determined lethal outcomes like the murder of Fred Hampton in Chicago.

6 cops for each person! wonder who gets bathroom patrol?

None of these individuals has committed a crime. This is of course one of the key signatures of the Police State. Pre-emptive assumption of criminal activity is also a hallmark of the ultra-repressive State apparatus.

It's a symtom also of how terrified of popular input is the current regime while it flounders in military overreach and the prospect of "endless war" makes itself felt in the "homeland".

It has no choice in it's self-maintenance but extreme repression via a huge domestic police force (which has also become more and more militarized, posse comitatus having been effectively repealed).

In a world of diminishing natural resource availability and the prospect of bio-spheric meltdown the choices are a re-configuration of our resource-usage--intense, growth-based economic order or intense state repression as deprivation becomes more widespread.

The choice the global ruling classes have made is obvious.

10:43 am - Slick Willy speaks

A few points I would add to Patrick Martin's incisive article.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jul2004/dems-j29.shtml

While "Slick Willy" Clinton's speaking style and rhetorical skills have
been well honed over the years (as opposed to his saxophone skills, I'm
afraid), the level of hypocrisy displayed in his speech takes one's
breath away.

In almost all cases the worst depredations of the Bushistas were
anticipated by policies and  legislations sheparded during the Clinton
Years.

The "Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996"  with it's
draconian approachs to Habeas Corpus and extension of the death penalty
(what the heck is an "effective" death penalty anyway??) presages in
many ways the Patriot Act(s). 

This bill was passed in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995
and the first World Trade Center bombing in 1991, both of which upon
close examination have fingerprints of the US intelligence milieu all
over them.  And in this light both can be seen as "rehearsals" for the
horrific Terrorist Blitzkreig of September 11, 2001.

The "Telecommunications Act of 1996" is a major piece of
telecommunications legislation and grants further monopoly rights to
media monoliths by elimination of barriers between the industry's
segments, e.g., local and long distance services, broadcast and cable
television, etc.

Welfare "Reform"; which puts further pressure upon the most vulnerable
segments of the working class, plus those falling through the cracks of
the capitalist wage system, burdening most severely women and children.
In bringing "structural reform" and neo-liberal economics home to a
domestic audience the Clinton Administration pushed along the ownership
classes' war upon the masses in the US.  Which continues today taking
ever more virulent forms. Similar policies had been imposed throughout
the Third World by the IMF and similar institutions and, when needed, by
brutal imperial military interventions, overt and covert, exercised
during the Clinton years and to the present day.

Multiple bombings of Iraq, one episode of which was justified by Clinton
himself as a sort of revenge for Sadaam's highly implausible plotting to
assassinate George Bush Sr.(!)

Not to mention the hideous sanctions regimen, a clear crime against
humanity, which continued unabated throughout the Clinton years and
brought death to thousands of Iraqi children.

Incidentally all these legislations and policies were enthusiatically
supported by the current Democratic presidential designate, Senator John
F. Kerry.

As for Clinton's statement —the Republicans “need a divided America, but
we don’t”.

In my view he is wrong.

"We" -- that is the majority of Wage Slavers --  as distinct from the
elite insiders of the Democratic Party --  need to make a clear and
decisive divide between the interests of the New World Order(tm)
International Plutocracy and the interests of the overwhelming number of
human and non-human inhabitants on earth, and base our politics upon
advancing ingenious methods of sane and sustainable economics and true
democratic structures to facilitate them.

Without these changes I am afraid the future prospects for our species
-- and even the bioshphere itself -- will be be bleak.

 





 

05:03 pm - Faren-height nine eleven

I think this just proves that  Micheal Moore is doing his best to expose the Capital Gang for what they are and he's making errors along the way...but then no one is perfect.  I'm just glad that someone is getting "something" out there that is going to wake up millions of folks who otherwise wouldn't know about this stuff. 
===


altho i have not yet seen the film it seems to me from what I have heard through hearsay it's biggest faults are:

1) personalizes things too much in terms of BushCo and  promotes the notion that a change of regime to the Democrats without a questioning of the monopoly-duopoly faux-electoral system will improve matters.  But Mike was a guy who supported Kosovo-killer Gen. Wes Clarke for Pres so this is not a big surprise.

2) accepts at face-value the official 9-11 narrative of "19 al-quaeda hi-jacker/terrorists and a box-cutter" which even a fairly cursory examination of the events and their aftermath show to be bunk.

An argument could be made that his promoting #2 does more harm than the movie does "good"; but i would not agree since his film seems to be getting loads of people to look at this stuff and discuss it and question the Regime which is a very good thing.  Including deconstructions and evaluations of the film itself.

Which seems to be, to paraphrase Michael Parenti, more of a "liberal complaint" than a "radical analysis".

IC

11:49 am - “Bush administration takes steps to cancel US election

Your article ( http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jul2004/elec-j13.shtml) is quite comprehensive, the best I have so far seen on this latest threat to civil rule in the US on behalf of the unelected crypto-fascists at the helms of power. Several points I think worthy of further amplification: The floating of this story in the mainstream press at this time serves as a means of providing entree to just those elements and coalitions disposed to carry out a terrorist attack preceding the ’04 elections.

It provides a signal to them that the way will be made clear—through forms of “benign neglect” and even active assistance by elements of the intelligence establishment (as took place during the 9/11 attacks)—for the carrying forth of just such an attack.

If this appears excessively conspiratorial to some, I suggest a more through investigation into the collaborative circumstances surrounding and facilitating the 9/11 attacks as well as the attacks preceding the recent Spanish elections, several very good articles about which have appeared in these very pages.

It’s also worth noting that plans for Martial Law, domestic concentration camps and military occupation have been on the books for some time. Do a web search for “Operation Garden Plot” and “Rex 84” for starters.

As well, as implied by your article, the floating of this story is a way of “softening up public opinion”; intending to blunt opposition beforehand to declarations of martial law, suspensions of elections, and comprehensive suspensions of democratic and legal procedure. A sort of preemptive “psychological operation” aimed at the broad masses of the US public. In the same category have been the whole absurd litany of “Code Orange” alerts put forth by the Commissars of “Homeland Security”.

Also, in a bizarre way, such threats serve to legitimize the two-party monopoly capitalist electoral setup since it implies that these elections really do make much of a difference and that their cancellation would mean much. Even though it’s clear that the policies pursued by both the Dems and Repubs are virtually identical in that they reflect the consensus of their plutocratic funders.

Our hope is that enough of the population is awake to the fascist criminality of the Regime—in no small part thanks to alternative media and sites such as wsws.org—that the more ruthlessly inclined sectors of the ruling classes involved perceive these plans as unworkable.

Another deeper political element which I believe comes in to play as motivation for the engineering of domestic and foreign terrorist networks and operations at this time, are impending resource shortages (oil, natural gas, potable water, etc.), whose imminence makes it that much more imperative to the ruling classes that they gain total control of their sources and disbursements.

IronCloudz

Albuquerque, New Mexico

13 July 2004

11:24 am - Reagan Uber alles

Adolf Hitler, a failed artist (he was twice rejected from Art school), achieved revenge upon society through leadership of the Third Reich.

Ronald W. Reagan, a grade 'B' hollywood actor who felt he deserved better, achieved his revenge through turning in "commie" members of the Hollywood community to the FBI, many of them of greater talent then he.

His accomplishments in later political life were many:

unprecedented growth of social and financial inequality in the United States manifest in the grotesque concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny segment of American society; the sickening decline of literacy and general level of culture through media monopoly grants; the dumbing-down and defunding of public education and cultural institutions; the utter bankruptcy of the institutions of American democracy, and, what we are witnessing now as a blatant eruption of American imperial militarism. Not to mention the extreme degradation of the natural environment which might have fatal results for the very habitability of the bio-sphere.

None of this could have been achieved without a debased "opposition", the Democratic Party, which never raised much serious opposition to even the worst of the right-wing assaults of the 80's. Assisted by an Big Labor beauracracy which consistently betrayed their workers. Helping to create a Plutocratic one-party corporate dictatorship.

If present trends continue, humanity faces a dark future of environmental degradation accompanied by natural resource exhaustion, sung to the tune of militarist repression of dissent.

This is the bleak legacy of Reaganism. Carried on today in even more blatantly malignant forms as Bush-ism.

08:46 am - rocketry privatization

Privately funded rocket successfully carries man to space
Last Updated Mon, 21 Jun 2004 19:07:48

MOJAVE, CALIF. - A pilot has flown the first privately financed manned rocket beyond the Earth's atmosphere and returned safely.

Spectators applauded as the spacecraft glided to a safe landing at 8:15 a.m. PDT on Monday in Mojave, Calif., about 90 minutes after it took off.

09:09 am - political fiolosophy

my political filosophy these days i might describe as
anarcho-libertarian socialist.

i think that a major re-distribution of the worlds material resource base
needs to occur through participatory means. As a start.

All hierarchies of control need to be challenged, questioned and if
found wanting re-configured. And where hierarchies are existing
they ought to be fluid such that individuals might circulate in
"job assignments" according to abilities and inclinations throughout
their lives. Wage Slavery must be terminated and replaced with
radically democratic structures of worker-control over job conditions
and duties. This needs to be imbedded in larger democratic
organizations tasked with determining what jobs and projects need to be
accomplished, timelines, etc

And every project considered must meet the tests of minimal impact on
resources such that the well-being of the local and global ecologies are
paramount. Industrial production ought also to
be re-structured according to methods outlined at:
http://www.mcdonough.com

I believe in a Meritocracy but only in so far as the above
meta-equalitarian restructures take place.

The Capitalist State ought to become an artifact of the past with a
loose amalgamation of globally bio-regional centralities taking it's
place.

The globally competitve monopoly-capitalist system has
shown itself quite incapable of providing even the minimal of needs to
an overwhelming number of the planet's human and non-human sentient and
plant citizens. And it is acting to decimate the underlying
bio-meta-structures of the earth through mindless greed-based
extractions of elements felt needed to fuel the consumer economy. It
has had app 15 years since the dissolution of it's global competitor,
the USSR, to provide us with the "miracle of the marketplace" and has so
far left in it's wake massive imbalances in resource accumulation and a
decimated bio-sphere. If globalized Capitalism is to continue on it's
present trajectory the end result is likely to be a terminal meltdown of
the life-support capabilities of the bio-sphere.

Through computer technology we could with a bit of creative thinking and
will use these machines to aid in accomplishing the above goals. We can
partner with our technologies to do the above.
We can, as much as possible, start to restore the planet's biota through
thoughtful organically based means using plant breeding methods and
permacultural strategies tuned to local conditions and watershed
structures.

That's a start.