Category Archives: Money in politics

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The Invisible Cartel Is Coming After the Real Prize

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jfk-6JFK was perhaps the last authentic U.S. President. He was murdered because he went against the ruling elite, the military industrial complex, the FBI, and the CIA. He was a threat to their power so they killed him. (JFK the Unspeakable by James Douglass)

Ever since 1963, every U.S. president has been a puppet in the hands of this oligarchy. Eisenhower’s warning to the American people about the danger of the military industrial complex and their partners in the world banks taking over the country has come to pass.

After 9/11, lets check back on what has happened to the American people, our Constitution, and our civil liberties. “W” signed the Patriot Act and the NDAA effectively stripping Americans of our freedoms and protections under the Constitution. Obama has further trampled on the Constitution by embracing the Patriot Act and the NDAA, by extending and expanding them.

Then came Citizens United, making corporations “people” and allowing the wealthy to buy elections at all levels of government effectively crushing democracy and nullifying our votes.

What is going on in Washington is merely theater to frighten and distract us from what is really going on. The recession and the subsequent bailout of those banks too big to fail was orchestrated by the sinister cartel of oligarchs to steal our money, force millions out of their homes, and drive millions more into poverty.

Every financial crisis over the budget and the debt ceiling is a fraud designed to distract attention from what is really the big prize: entitlement programs. The mainstream papers are already beginning to report “conversations” on capital hill about cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and social uplift programs. These sources report that both Democrats and Republicans are finding “common ground” and agreement.

No mention of the bloated “Defense” budget, or insanely expensive wars that were funded off the books, or the obscene tax breaks for wealthy people and corporations, or the Wall Street criminals who stole our future. The cartel is blaming it on poor Americans and those of us who EARNED Social Security and Medicare throughout our working lives.

Lest anyone forget, most on Congress is on the payroll of the ruling elite. It should be obvious they don’t represent the American people. The latest polls, one after another, indicate that Americans have no faith in the Congress….Democrats and Republicans alike. Really, they are expressing their dissatisfaction with government and that includes the presidency and the Supreme Court as well.

So, what we have now is a Congress full of puppets controlled by the cartel, the shadow government that nobody sees.

Back to the presidents. The cartel builds them up and sells them to the American public as the saviors, only to abandon them when it suits their agenda. “W,” Cheney, Rice and that gang of criminals took it all to another level.

obama_mad_coverAlong came Obama streaking across the skies, out of nowhere. He was sold to America and the world as the savior with Madison Avenue slogans like Change you can believe in, Hope, and Yes We Can. During his first campaign, he made promises to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to bring all of the troops home. He promised to shut down Guantanamo and put an end to “rendition” and torture. Obama promised to prosecute the evil bankers who had defrauded the country. And, Obama promised the most transparent government in history.

The fact is, he lied about all of it, and he continues to lie about the budget, the deficit, that he won’t let them touch Social Security, Medicare, Welfare, and Head Start. Nearly all of his appointments have come from Wall Street. He has prosecuted and hunted down “whistle blowers.” He has his own “kill list” and uses drones everywhere to do it. As for transparency, this administration is the most secretive of all time.

What we have is a government run by Wall Street bankers, the very people behind the recession, the debt crisis, the military industrial complex, and the dismantling of the social safety net.

Obama, in fact, was hand-picked and groomed since his college days by the cartel. The Crown family of Chicago, owners of General Dynamics, a major profiteer from war, along with their partners in the cartel, funded Obama, schooled him in the ways of power, and created the persona who effectively deceived the American public.

The cartel owned the financial pillars, the media and the marketing behind this deception. I went to the polls believing that a vote for Obama was a vote for peace, but Obama and both major parties were committed to endless war, targeted killings, record war budgets, and the systematic destruction of the United States Constitution, as well as U.S. and international law.

And the cartel has used the basic psychological tools of fear mongering, false flag events, and lies to make the American public fall in line. They have also corrupted our educational system with the ridiculous emphasis on testing that every teacher knows if heresy, effectively dumbing down and creating a culture of obedient and subservient slaves. They are attempting to privatize education and our prisons…already well underway.

Look around! Just as in ancient Rome, they entertain us with outrageous and insulting to our intelligence reality TV shows; Ultimate Cage fighting; insidious and endless commercials creating an insatiable appetite to consume; 24/7 sporting events; and an endless cycle of movies that for the most part are destructive to our culture.

None of this has happened by chance. It has all been very carefully orchestrated for many, many years by the cartel of wealthy, elitist oligarchs. Their goal is to consolidate all of the wealth creating the greatest disparity of wealth ever, and power into their own hands and to force the populations of the entire world into subservience. This isn’t new. Every empire, every autocrat, every brutal dictator from time immemorial has done this. And when the pain was so severe, when the oppression became so unbearable and felt by the masses, there were revolutions that overthrew the powerful.

Throughout America’s own history there have been countless revolutions against those who have attempted to control and subjugate the people. There were those who rose up and died opposing slavery. There were those who died and were persecuted for demanding a woman’s right to vote. There were those who died fighting the corporate barons of industry for just wages, safety, the 40 hour workweek, paid vacations, health benefits and the abolition of child labor. More died fighting for civil rights and protesting the Vietnam War.

In the next few weeks, let’s see if Obama apologizes for cutting Social Security and Medicare. He’ll say “we all have to make sacrifices.” Let’s see if Obama approves the XL Pipeline. Let’s see if he puts and end to the NSA spying, to his personal kill list. Let’s see if he continues to try to take away American’s right to own guns. Let’s see if Obama continues to trample on the Constitution, taking away what’s left of our civil liberties.

Let’s see if Obama cuts the war budget, brings all of our troops home, and pours the $1 Trillion annually spent on wars into making America and Americans healthy and hopeful again.

And the really big one…let’s see if he sneaks through the TPP which will effectively be the end-game and the end of democracy, the rule of law, and the sovereign rights of nation states.

Obama and Congress are just pimps, prostitutes, and puppets of the evil, hidden cartel of the oligarchy. Obama and Congress are not in charge. They don’t make policy. They just do what they are told.

So, my guess is we will see all of this begin to unfold in the next few months, and then, let the revolution begin!

 

Bring Our War Dollars Home, Economic Bill of Rights, Government shutdown, Military Industrial Complex, Money in politics, Obama, Occupy Wall Street, Pax Americana, Pax Tibi Productions, Peace Movement, Regis Tremblay, War

Proof Washington Doesn’t Work For US

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Shutdown capitolI’m not outraged at the government shutdown. Actually, I think it might be one more important step in the meltdown of the entire system which does not represent the people. In my opinion, it can’t come soon enough!

For as long as anyone can remember, Congress and the White House have been co-opted by Wall St, corporations, and the military industrial complex. Since the Wall St. bailout, income disparity between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of us is the largest since the 1920’s. The middle class is disappearing, and the ranks of the poor are expanding. The unemployed and under-employed are struggling and will never catch up in this environment.

The people in Washington, and that includes all the lobbyists and special interests groups, have kept the focus on greed and deception. They’ve succeeded in dividing Americans on everything from guns and immigration, and from healthcare to voting rights, all the while ignoring the most serious problems facing the U.S. and the planet.

So, while the planet continues to warm at a pace that will make life as we know it unsustainable in the next fifty years; while we do nothing to rid the planet of fossil fuels much less invest in renewable energy; while our educational system lags far behind the rest of the world; while college education is unaffordable; while our infrastructure is in disrepair; while states and municipalities are strapped and unable to provide basic services; and while those people in Washington continue to spend $1 Trillion a year on the business and export of war, they shut down the entire system that should be focusing on everything but Obamacare.

In two weeks, Washington will again play this ugly game of brinkmanship over raising the debt ceiling which will throw the entire U.S. and world economies into chaos, and will really put the hurt on everyone, including the 1% who risk losing their fortunes. Not even the greedy plutocrats want to see that happen. Maybe that would be a good thing. Maybe the order of the world would be transformed.

The answer to all of this is quite simple in my mind. A fundamental change is taking place, a natural, evolutionary demise of “the great American Way of Life” is underway. Claims of “exceptionalism” ring hollow. The belief that unlimited power and full-spectrum dominance can create a Pax Americana is falling apart. Perpetual war and an ever-increasing War Department budget not only has bankrupt the country economically, but morally.

The country that invented the atomic bomb, used it twice and continues to use it as a weapon of domination is on a march to destroy the planet either by its use, or by its inability to convert those war dollars into saving the planet.

With just $1 Trillion spent on the war machine every year, just about every problem in the world could be solved: poverty, hunger, clean water, clean renewable energy for everyone, education for everyone….Naive? I think it is naive to believe that Washington can solve any of these or do anything that is good for America and mankind. So, maybe, just maybe this meltdown is a good thing. From my point of view, that’s optimistic. Thinking that the present cast of thieves in Washington can do any good provides little hope for anything but more of the same.

Bring Our War Dollars Home, Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, Military Industrial Complex, Money in politics, Obama, Pax Americana, Pax Christi, Pax Tibi Productions, Peace Movement, Regis Tremblay, Veterans For Peace, War

Mainers Speak Out Against Bombing Syria

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I made this video at the protest in Monument Square in downtown Portland, Maine. I only talked to two people who were ambivalent about whether America should do anything in Syria. This is my reply to Portland Press Herald columnist, Bill Nemitz, who made it seem like everyone there backed Obama:

I usually appreciate most of your writings, but this time you are just another in the mainstream media beating the drums of war. I was there yesterday and interviewed on camera far more people than you did, and their stories are quite a bit different. They don’t want perpetual war, they don’t want violence, they are sick and tired of the fear the government and military industrial complex has been using on the American people.

Everyone I interviewed wanted peace and demanded a political solution to these conflicts the world over. Everyone I interviewed was opposed to the U.S. assuming the role of the planet’s sheriff. And just about everyone knew that this was, as it always has been in all of the U.S. conflicts, all about oil and extracting resources with the use of force when the local indigenous people object. The presidents and politicians talk about “national interests” not national defense. America’s national interests are the resources the greedy corporations need to make money. All of those people in Monument Squareknow that endless war-making and an economy based on consumption are not sustainable. And all of those people know that we no longer have a government that represents the people. It has been taken over by corporate interests and the oligarchy.

Finally Bill, an honest look at the world, at least since European exploration and imperialism since the 15th century, demonstrates that the white, exceptionalist Europeans have always seen the world’s resources as theirs to claim, all the while committing genocide of the native peoples whom they considered to be evil, less than human, and savages. When those explorers came to this country, the massacred native Americans and stole their ancestral lands.

The U.S. has engaged in more than 180 conflicts around the world since 1798…all for control of resources that were claimed for national interests. In all of those conflicts spanning two centuries, the U.S. has killed untold MILLIONS of innocent indigenous people by  wholesale massacres and indiscriminate bombing. Everyone I interviewed is outraged at the duplicity of the U.S. in holding anyone accountable for human rights violations and war crimes when this country has committed far worse atrocities over the span of more than 200 years!

The U.S. objecting to the use of chemical weapons and weapons of mass destruction is the most disingenuous lie of all, for in our name, the U.S. has used Agent Orange, napalm, white phosphorous and the most terrifying weapon of mass destruction, the atomic bomb….not once, but twice.

So, Bill, this time you missed something, right in step with the rest of the corporate-owned media. You missed the untold history of this country, and the evil that continues to be done in our name.

As in the run up to each and every foreign war the U.S. has fought, we have been lied to and frightened into believing that America is at risk, our lives and precious lifestyles will be harmed, and the lie of the great American Way of Life will be exposed.

The endless war on terror and the global imperial advance of the U.S. guarantees perpetual war. Most, if not all, of the people in Monument Square and the millions of Americans and people around the world out protesting this week against another American military intervention know this. And you missed it… the real story.

Here’s the link to his irresponsible bit of reporting, if anyone cares to read it:

http://www.pressherald.com/politics/syrian-images-hang-over-peace-protest_2013-09-01.html

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Gangjeong Village Video Documentarian Jailed

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Dungree-1Park Sung-Soo has been documenting the daily struggle in Gangjeong Village since the summer of 2011. He was accused of trespassing when he entered the navy base complex to protest the harassment of two young women reporters with sexual remarks by the base security personnel.

The two young women reporters appealed the incident to the Korean Human Rights Committee, but their case was dismissed.

Dungree

Park Sung-Soo, AKA Dungree, was not able to pay his fine amounting to $1500 U.S. dollars, so he decided to serve out his fine in jail for 28 days. Dungree is resolute in not wanting anyone to pay his fine. He is willing to bear the sufferings he will encounter for the month in prison.

Dungree is a victim of the new government’s strategy to oppress people with  fines and to put down the protest against the illegal construction of the base.

Since the beginning of the struggle in Gangjeong Village in 2007 to February 2013, there have been upwards of 700 arrests with 500 indictments. 22 activists have been imprisoned. All have been released with the exception of Prof. Yang Yoon-mo who has been sentenced to 18 months, this being the fourth time he has been jailed. Prof. Yang agreed to end his 52 day old hunger strike on March 24, the third since his protest began.

The average fine against the activists has been approximately $3,000 U.S. dollars, and some have had fines as high as $9,000 U.S. dollars bringing the total amount of fines to $450,000 U.S. dollars. But, that’s not all. The total compensation fee for “damages” is approximately $290,000 U.S. dollars.

All of the activists are willing to go to jail because they cannot afford the fines.

There is no way to sugar coat these gross violations of human rights and the total disregard and disdain for the civil rights of these people who are fighting for self-determination, a transparent and open democratic process, justice, peace, and the survival of their culture, not to mention their livelihoods.

To blame for this most recent displacement of indigenous people, the violation of human rights, the destruction of the environment, the beating of war drums, and the escalation of tensions around the world is the government of the U.S., the U.S. war department, and the military industrial complex.

Meanwhile, the Village is protesting the navy’s military residential housing project which will effectively obliterate this 400 year old village with accommodations for 8,000 military personnel.  This base will require maintenance facilities, an airport, radar, fuel tanks, bars, restaurants, shops, and brothels, and probably missile silos.

What is happening on Jeju Island, and in so many other places around the world, are crimes against humanity.

America! Now they are coming for us! Not only is the #1 U.S. export weapons and “security,” but now the corporations are fast at work to get us to pay for their lust for power and profits. They want (Congress will do their bidding) to pay for all of it on the backs of the middle class and the poor.

Every state in this country owes thousands of jobs to the corporations who produce the weapons and supplies of war. Because of this, there is hardly a person in Congress who will oppose their lust for more and more and more. They threaten to close down their factories and move if Congress doesn’t keep increasing the war budget that feeds the military industrial complex.

Just a cursory glance across this land reveals their ugly job-creating lies from coast to coast, and from border to border: tar-sands, Keystone pipeline, the East-West Highway in Maine, the proposed LNG tank in Searsport, Maine, hyrdo-fracking wherever they can find gas. They are stealing our own precious resources like water and selling them for profit.

Meanwhile our states are broke and can no longer maintain critical infrastructure; provide quality education; and protect the social safety net, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

There is only one answer to this suicidal march: more than 60% of the discretionary spending of the U.S. (our taxes) go to the military aka the war department. If one includes veteran’s benefits and NASA, the percentage is much higher. Bush’s wars will cost us more than $4 TRILLION. There are more than 800 U.S. military “bases” in every corner of the globe……supposedly for national security. Read: the interest of the corporations who extract resources and exploit other nations.

The Villagers of Gangjeong along with the Catholic Bishop of Jeju, Bishop Kang, have the answer: “Peace is the way. No Naval Base on the Island of Peace.” It is the moral obligation of every human being to oppose war and work for peace and justice in the world.

For those who are not able to travel to Jeju to support this struggle, you can send donations to www.savejejunow.org to help pay the fines and to support the activists who represent us in this global struggle against the U.S. imperial march towards domination of the world by force.

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Scott Walker Survives – The Only Winners are Corporations and the Super-rich

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Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin survived a recall election on June 5, 2012 thanks to $60 million in outside money and $10 million from the Koch brothers. In what was a contentious and divisive contest that has lasted for months, a record number of Wisconsinites turned out to vote.

It all began last year when the Tea Party governor and his Republican controlled legislature passed legislation taking collective bargaining rights away from public employee unions as a way to close the state’s budget gap. As a result of the attack on public unions, tens of thousands of demonstrators filled the capital building and grounds for days and began the recall drive that collected over 900,000 signatures.

There were no winners in this election except for corporations and the super-rich. This is so for the following reasons. First, the state remains bitterly divided. Walker succeeded, in his own words, by “dropping a bomb and dividing and conquering.” This is all part of an ALEC blueprint being played out in Republican controlled legislatures across the country and in Congress where right wing radicals, the ponds in this scheme, have succeeded in bringing our government and our democracy to the brink.

Furthermore, the Democrats won back control of one senate seat in the recall and now can completely block Walker’s agenda and create gridlock. Not much good will happen to improve the lives of the working people of Wisconsin, and NO jobs will be created. People have got to stop believing this bullshit. It doesn’t trickle down. Never has. Never will.

Second, because of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that allowed unlimited and undisclosed amounts of obscene money in elections, corporations (naturally bent on busting unions to increase their bottom lines), Super PACs, special interests, and the obscenely rich contributed more than $60 million to put Walker over the top. His opponent, Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee, trailed far behind with only $18 million raised.  When factoring in the money each campaign raised, the disparity was 7-1.

This demonstrates just exactly why the super-rich and corporate dollars have trumped our voices in elections. Because “money is speech,” Scott Walker is not beholding to the people of Wisconsin but to the Koch brothers and super rich who contributed to his campaign.

Consider this: the number of registered, corporate lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled since 2000 to more than 34,750 who lavished $3.5 Billion on the 535 members of Congress in 2010 alone! That’s  millions of dollars for every U.S. Senator and member of Congress. Corporations and the rich own Congress and us!

This very same agenda is being played out in the presidential election and in state elections all across this land. We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars to buy politicians and to win elections.

Third, there is no shortage of money – anywhere – except in the pockets of the poor and the middle class. Productivity has risen steadily over the past 30 years. Corporations have been earning record profits. The only problem is the 1% have increased their wealth by 361% over that period while the wealth of the 99% has remained flat or decreased. More and more of the middle class are falling into poverty while the richest 1% have tripled their share.

CEOs and financial industry employees made more than all 16 million unionized employees in the United States, and they made as much as all 17.5 million full-time government workers in the United States.

And, as if to pour salt in the wound, the richest 1% pay less in taxes than the average American. According to the IRS, the wealthiest 6 families in the United States reported an average income of $202.4 million, down for the second year as the Great Recession slashed their capital gains.

In addition to the six who paid no tax, another 110 families paid 15 percent or less in federal income taxes.  That is less than half what the rest of us pay!

Overall, the top 400 paid an average income tax rate of 19.9 percent. The top 400 earned five times that much every day. Corporations like G.E. and Exxon Mobil not only do not pay taxes, but receive huge government subsidies! And yet, the Republicans and their Tea Party rogues would have us believe that cutbacks in social services, infrastructure, education, pensions, and more taxes on the working class are required to balance the budget!

Corporations, Congress, and state legislatures are victimizing the working class and blaming us for all of our problems.  Americans has been duped into believing that unions,  government workers, and the poor are the problem in this country. This is the biggest scam in the history of the United States. No wait, it is the biggest heist in our history.

Fourth, Americans still cannot see that the Republicans and Democrats we elect do NOT represent us. We are still locked into the belief that America is a democracy where everyone has a vote and that our elected politicians represent us. This is a myth that blinds us as to who is really in control of the economy, defense, agriculture, energy, and education.

At the top of the pyramid are a small group of wealthy families who control the Federal Reserve, Wall St, and the banks, that in turn lend money to corporations. Those corporations in turn contribute billions of dollars each year buying the members of Congress, who in turn do their bidding.

George Carlin was prophetic and way ahead of his time in this famous piece on “its a big club and you ain’t in it.” It is a must watch, even if you’ve seen it before.

We’re not talking just about corporations like Proctor & Gamble, Kraft, Coke, Pepsi, and Disney. We’re talking about the military industrial complex and the Department of Defense that soak up 60% of our tax dollars every year! They are the corporations that are building warships, advanced fighter jets, bombers, and drones. They are the corporations that have turned space into a giant spy network and into the battle ground of the future. They are the corporations that are manufacturing rockets and missiles and all of the weapons we sell all over the world. America’s largest export, by far, is weapons and military technology!

Here’s what the scheme looks like.

You can see this graphic and a stunning documentary @ thrivemovement.com

And for what? The answer to that question is frightening. 1) to control the world’s resources: oil, water, precious and rare metals, and food;  2) to dominate and control the planet and space; and 3) to control us by neutralizing our voices in elections and doing away with our constitutionally protected rights of free speech, peaceable assembly, and the redress of grievances to our government.

Don’t believe it. Watch this video of Paul Weyrich, the founder of ALEC, the shady, right wing organization behind the Republican assault on workers, the middle class and the poor.

The Walker recall and every other election are merely distractions that serve to continue the myth that the politicians we elect represent us and are capable of caring for the common good when, in reality, they are doing the bidding of the rich and powerful. The only thing that governments do in this scheme is to collect our hard-earned money, control our lives and keep us in check.

The recall in Wisconsin is nothing more than an expensive side-show designed to deceive and distract while the 1% continue to plunder the planet and make serfs of 99%.