Anti-Democratic Nature of US Capitalism is Being Exposed

Bretton Woods was the system of global financial management set up at the end of the second World War to ensure the interests of capital did not smother wider social concerns in post-war democracies. It was hated by the US neoliberals - the very people who created the banking crisis writes Noam Chomsky

By Noam Chomsky


12/10/08 "Irish Times" - -- THE SIMULTANEOUS unfolding of the US presidential campaign and unraveling of the financial markets presents one of those occasions where the political and economic systems starkly reveal their nature.


Passion about the campaign may not be universally shared but almost everybody can feel the anxiety from the foreclosure of a million homes, and concerns about jobs, savings and healthcare at risk.


The initial Bush proposals to deal with the crisis so reeked of totalitarianism that they were quickly modified. Under intense lobbyist pressure, they were reshaped as "a clear win for the largest institutions in the system . . . a way of dumping assets without having to fail or close", as described by James Rickards, who negotiated the federal bailout for the hedge fund Long Term Capital Management in 1998, reminding us that we are treading familiar turf. The immediate origins of the current meltdown lie in the collapse of the housing bubble supervised by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, which sustained the struggling economy through the Bush years by debt-based consumer spending along with borrowing from abroad. But the roots are deeper. In part they lie in the triumph of financial liberalisation in the past 30 years - that is, freeing the markets as much as possible from government regulation.


These steps predictably increased the frequency and depth of severe reversals, which now threaten to bring about the worst crisis since the Great Depression.


Also predictably, the narrow sectors that reaped enormous profits from liberalisation are calling for massive state intervention to rescue collapsing financial institutions.


Such interventionism is a regular feature of state capitalism, though the scale today is unusual. A study by international economists Winfried Ruigrok and Rob van Tulder 15 years ago found that at least 20 companies in the Fortune 100 would not have survived if they had not been saved by their respective governments, and that many of the rest gained substantially by demanding that governments "socialise their losses," as in today's taxpayer-financed bailout. Such government intervention "has been the rule rather than the exception over the past two centuries", they conclude.


In a functioning democratic society, a political campaign would address such fundamental issues, looking into root causes and cures, and proposing the means by which people suffering the consequences can take effective control.


The financial market "underprices risk" and is "systematically inefficient", as economists John Eatwell and Lance Taylor wrote a decade ago, warning of the extreme dangers of financial liberalisation and reviewing the substantial costs already incurred - and proposing solutions, which have been ignored. One factor is failure to calculate the costs to those who do not participate in transactions. These "externalities" can be huge. Ignoring systemic risk leads to more risk-taking than would take place in an efficient economy, even by the narrowest measures.


The task of financial institutions is to take risks and, if well-managed, to ensure that potential losses to themselves will be covered. The emphasis is on "to themselves". Under state capitalist rules, it is not their business to consider the cost to others - the "externalities" of decent survival - if their practices lead to financial crisis, as they regularly do.


Financial liberalisation has effects well beyond the economy. It has long been understood that it is a powerful weapon against democracy. Free capital movement creates what some have called a "virtual parliament" of investors and lenders, who closely monitor government programmes and "vote" against them if they are considered irrational: for the benefit of people, rather than concentrated private power.


Investors and lenders can "vote" by capital flight, attacks on currencies and other devices offered by financial liberalisation. That is one reason why the Bretton Woods system established by the United States and Britain after the second World War instituted capital controls and regulated currencies.*


The Great Depression and the war had aroused powerful radical democratic currents, ranging from the anti-fascist resistance to working class organisation. These pressures made it necessary to permit social democratic policies. The Bretton Woods system was designed in part to create a space for government action responding to public will - for some measure of democracy.


John Maynard Keynes, the British negotiator, considered the most important achievement of Bretton Woods to be the establishment of the right of governments to restrict capital movement.


In dramatic contrast, in the neoliberal phase after the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system in the 1970s, the US treasury now regards free capital mobility as a "fundamental right", unlike such alleged "rights" as those guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: health, education, decent employment, security and other rights that the Reagan and Bush administrations have dismissed as "letters to Santa Claus", "preposterous", mere "myths".


In earlier years, the public had not been much of a problem. The reasons are reviewed by Barry Eichengreen in his standard scholarly history of the international monetary system. He explains that in the 19th century, governments had not yet been "politicised by universal male suffrage and the rise of trade unionism and parliamentary labour parties". Therefore, the severe costs imposed by the virtual parliament could be transferred to the general population.


But with the radicalisation of the general public during the Great Depression and the anti-fascist war, that luxury was no longer available to private power and wealth. Hence in the Bretton Woods system, "limits on capital mobility substituted for limits on democracy as a source of insulation from market pressures".


The obvious corollary is that after the dismantling of the postwar system, democracy is restricted. It has therefore become necessary to control and marginalise the public in some fashion, processes particularly evident in the more business-run societies like the United States. The management of electoral extravaganzas by the public relations industry is one illustration.


"Politics is the shadow cast on society by big business," concluded America's leading 20th century social philosopher John Dewey, and will remain so as long as power resides in "business for private profit through private control of banking, land, industry, reinforced by command of the press, press agents and other means of publicity and propaganda".


The United States effectively has a one-party system, the business party, with two factions, Republicans and Democrats. There are differences between them. In his study Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age, Larry Bartels shows that during the past six decades "real incomes of middle-class families have grown twice as fast under Democrats as they have under Republicans, while the real incomes of working-poor families have grown six times as fast under Democrats as they have under Republicans".


Differences can be detected in the current election as well. Voters should consider them, but without illusions about the political parties, and with the recognition that consistently over the centuries, progressive legislation and social welfare have been won by popular struggles, not gifts from above.


Those struggles follow a cycle of success and setback. They must be waged every day, not just once every four years, always with the goal of creating a genuinely responsive democratic society, from the voting booth to the workplace.


* The Bretton Woods system of global financial management was created by 730 delegates from all 44 Allied second World War nations who attended a UN-hosted Monetary and Financial Conference at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods in New Hampshire in 1944.


Bretton Woods, which collapsed in 1971, was the system of rules, institutions, and procedures that regulated the international monetary system, under which were set up the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) (now one of five institutions in the World Bank Group) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which came into effect in 1945.


The chief feature of Bretton Woods was an obligation for each country to adopt a monetary policy that maintained the exchange rate of its currency within a fixed value.


The system collapsed when the US suspended convertibility from dollars to gold. This created the unique situation whereby the US dollar became the "reserve currency" for the other countries within Bretton Woods.


Noam Chomsky is professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His writings on linguistics and politics have just been collected in The Essential Chomsky, edited by Anthony Arnove, from the New Press.

© 2008 The Irish Times

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Cynicism: Can Damage Democracy's Health!

• Caroline Davies
• The Observer,
• Sunday September 14 2008
• Article history

Cynicism may now represent one of the greatest threats to democracy, according to a research project at the London School of Economics.

Findings indicate that people are more cynical about politics than anything else, and that cynicism is a more important factor than distrust when it comes to whether people vote. Those who think politicians are liars will probably continue to vote, whereas those who are contemptuous of them are less likely to do so.

But what if politicians could measure the impact that their buzz words were having on the cynicism levels of different groups? The Syntony Research Team at the LSE is trying to develop a 'Cyndex' - a cynicism index. It would measure the emotional responses of cynics according to their age, race, religion, gender and socio-economic backgrounds - from mild frustration to violent anger.

'All the evidence shows people are getting more cynical with the messages we get from government, from businesses, from the media,' said Charles Liasides of Syntony, who is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Social Psychology. 'People are deserting some TV stations because they are becoming cynical about reality TV insulting their intelligence; they turn off from some adverts because they are patronising; and all those wonderful gaffes we have had with the government recently - the U-turns, the backfiring policies - are having an effect. But is it good for democracy?'

In a pilot survey linked to the Royal Society of Arts (involving questionnaires completed by 1,100 fellows), Syntony's conclusion is that cynicism is infecting the very fabric of our society. Top of the list was politics, for which the average level of cynicism registered was 51 per cent, compared with 31 per cent for general cynicism of life, 30 per cent for business cynicism and 37 per cent for media cynicism.

Men were more cynical about their fellow human beings than women (32 per cent compared with 27 per cent). 'It seems women are more idealistic,' said Dr Alain Samson of the Syntony team.

Those who regularly read newspapers were significantly less cynical about the media (34 per cent against 40 per cent).

'But our most important finding suggested that people who did not vote were more likely to be cynical about the government than distrusting,' said Samson. 'Usually, people focus on distrust, or lack of confidence, as the most important factor when it comes to disengagement. But in fact, it is cynicism.'

Samson said the indications were that this was because politicians have a public face, making them more prone to criticism than faceless businessmen. The consequences of such cynicism are vast, the team believes. It can result in people disengaging from politics, turning away from major media, or boycotting products. It could also prompt people to join pressure groups or, in more extreme cases, to resort to direct action or violence. 'This has wide implications in the cohesiveness of society,' said Liasides.

The team is planning a nationwide sample to create the Cyndex, which it intends to develop commercially. 'We believe it will be valuable for all communicators to help them be more credible with the public,' said Liasides.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Our Managed "democracy"

Posted on May 15, 2008

press.princeton.edu

By Chalmers Johnson

It is not news that the United States is in great trouble. The pre-emptive war it launched against Iraq more than five years ago was and is a mistake of monumental proportions—one that most Americans still fail to acknowledge. Instead they are arguing about whether we should push on to “victory” when even our own generals tell us that a military victory is today inconceivable. Our economy has been hollowed out by excessive military spending over many decades while our competitors have devoted themselves to investments in lucrative new industries that serve civilian needs. Our political system of checks and balances has been virtually destroyed by rampant cronyism and corruption in Washington, D.C., and by a two-term president who goes around crowing “I am the decider,” a concept fundamentally hostile to our constitutional system. We have allowed our elections, the one nonnegotiable institution in a democracy, to be debased and hijacked—as was the 2000 presidential election in Florida—with scarcely any protest from the public or the self-proclaimed press guardians of the “Fourth Estate.” We now engage in torture of defenseless prisoners although it defames and demoralizes our armed forces and intelligence agencies.

Democracy Incorporated

By Sheldon S. Wolin

Princeton University Press, 376 pages

The problem is that there are too many things going wrong at the same time for anyone to have a broad understanding of the disaster that has overcome us and what, if anything, can be done to return our country to constitutional government and at least a degree of democracy. By now, there are hundreds of books on particular aspects of our situation—the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bloated and unsupervised “defense” budgets, the imperial presidency and its contempt for our civil liberties, the widespread privatization of traditional governmental functions, and a political system in which no leader dares even to utter the words imperialism and militarism in public.

There are, however, a few attempts at more complex analyses of how we arrived at this sorry state. They include Naomi Klein, “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism,” on how “private” economic power now is almost coequal with legitimate political power; John W. Dean, “Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches,” on the perversion of our main defenses against dictatorship and tyranny; Arianna Huffington, “Right Is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe,” on the manipulation of fear in our political life and the primary role played by the media; and Naomi Wolf, “The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot,” on “Ten Steps to Fascism” and where we currently stand on this staircase. My own book, “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic,” on militarism as an inescapable accompaniment of imperialism, also belongs to this genre.

We now have a new, comprehensive diagnosis of our failings as a democratic polity by one of our most seasoned and respected political philosophers. For well over two generations, Sheldon Wolin taught the history of political philosophy from Plato to the present to Berkeley and Princeton graduate students (including me; I took his seminars at Berkeley in the late 1950s, thus influencing my approach to political science ever since). He is the author of the prize-winning classic “Politics and Vision” (1960; expanded edition, 2006) and “Tocqueville Between Two Worlds” (2001), among many other works.

His new book, “Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism,” is a devastating critique of the contemporary government of the United States—including what has happened to it in recent years and what must be done if it is not to disappear into history along with its classic totalitarian predecessors: Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and Bolshevik Russia. The hour is very late and the possibility that the American people might pay attention to what is wrong and take the difficult steps to avoid a national Götterdämmerung are remote, but Wolin’s is the best analysis of why the presidential election of 2008 probably will not do anything to mitigate our fate. This book demonstrates why political science, properly practiced, is the master social science.

Wolin’s work is fully accessible. Understanding his argument does not depend on possessing any specialized knowledge, but it would still be wise to read him in short bursts and think about what he is saying before moving on. His analysis of the contemporary American crisis relies on a historical perspective going back to the original constitutional agreement of 1789 and includes particular attention to the advanced levels of social democracy attained during the New Deal and the contemporary mythology that the U.S., beginning during World War II, wields unprecedented world power.

Given this historical backdrop, Wolin introduces three new concepts to help analyze what we have lost as a nation. His master idea is “inverted totalitarianism,” which is reinforced by two subordinate notions that accompany and promote it—“managed democracy” and “Superpower,” the latter always capitalized and used without a direct article. Until the reader gets used to this particular literary tic, the term Superpower can be confusing. The author uses it as if it were an independent agent, comparable to Superman or Spiderman, and one that is inherently incompatible with constitutional government and democracy.

Wolin writes, “Our thesis ... is this: it is possible for a form of totalitarianism, different from the classical one, to evolve from a putatively ‘strong democracy’ instead of a ‘failed’ one.” His understanding of democracy is classical but also populist, anti-elitist and only slightly represented in the Constitution of the United States. “Democracy,” he writes, “is about the conditions that make it possible for ordinary people to better their lives by becoming political beings and by making power responsive to their hopes and needs.” It depends on the existence of a demos—“a politically engaged and empowered citizenry, one that voted, deliberated, and occupied all branches of public office.” Wolin argues that to the extent the United States on occasion came close to genuine democracy, it was because its citizens struggled against and momentarily defeated the elitism that was written into the Constitution.

“No working man or ordinary farmer or shopkeeper,” Wolin points out, “helped to write the Constitution.” He argues, “The American political system was not born a democracy, but born with a bias against democracy. It was constructed by those who were either skeptical about democracy or hostile to it. Democratic advance proved to be slow, uphill, forever incomplete. The republic existed for three-quarters of a century before formal slavery was ended; another hundred years before black Americans were assured of their voting rights. Only in the twentieth century were women guaranteed the vote and trade unions the right to bargain collectively. In none of these instances has victory been complete: women still lack full equality, racism persists, and the destruction of the remnants of trade unions remains a goal of corporate strategies. Far from being innate, democracy in America has gone against the grain, against the very forms by which the political and economic power of the country has been and continues to be ordered.” Wolin can easily control his enthusiasm for James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution, and he sees the New Deal as perhaps the only period of American history in which rule by a true demos prevailed.

NEXT PAGE >>>

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Are You Ready?

October 6, 2007

The Revolution on Leadership Fraud in America Begins Today!

By Kevin Gosztola

The people of America stand vastly immobilized, as do the poor, middle class, and the elderly, all people who have been demoralized and disrespected in the past decade. While Americans protest the war, many forget that in order to be effective, no matter the number of people that gather, people must strike at the heart of the institutions that are corrupting and destroying our Constitution and this beautiful nation of ours. Too many neglect the fact that it is the very processes in which our leaders were elected that have led us to the point we are at today. Let’s not forget that we allowed a president to be elected in two consecutive elections that didn’t actually win. While some nations would have staged a coup, we staged a ceasefire because we bought into the idea that polarization was crippling America.

Polarization is not what cripples America. We can preach about the need for blue states and red states to come together. We can preach the need for all people of every color, ethnicity, and race, etc. to unite but if we fail to realize that what we are dealing with is ideas that support working with corruption and broken government versus ideas that do not support allowing corruption and broken government, than we see that there is only one solution.

Americans must commit to a long term vow to take back America in the same way that American revolutionaries claimed their freedom from King George over two centuries ago.

The title from King George to “King” George: How America Came and Went would be an apt title for a tale of how an empire rose and fell, but I do not want to be part of that narrative. I would rather be part of a narrative that involves rebel forces fighting the imperial forces and winning because of an all powerful force that echoes throughout the minds of Americans---this force being a drive to be moral, humane, and compassionate human beings that can together maintain security and sustainability nationally and internationally.

The process that currently exists requires us to elect people who represent us. It does not ask us to pick who we think will win but asks us to pick who should win. In our districts, in our state, in our nation, we must stand up for our rights and our nation. To help you, I have put together a brief questionnaire you can give to each candidate running for office. Based on his or her answers, you can decide if he or she deserves to have any power whatsoever in America.

1) What do you think about “war as an instrument of foreign policy”? Is peace attainable? How do you propose we attain peace if you believe in it?

2) Do you possess the strength and courage to take on corporate and special interests? Are you willing to take them on in the same way that Teddy Roosevelt did nearly a century ago when he broke up monopolies?

3) What do you propose as a solution to America’s health care crisis? If your solution is not single-payer not-for-profit health care, than how do you propose we tackle the crisis instead? How is that approach better than instituting a single-payer health care system?

4) How important is it to you that we institute a “living wage” in America? Do you believe in impressing the importance of having Americans work “service” jobs or “labor” jobs because these jobs keep our nation running? How do you propose that importance be impressed if not through a “living wage”?

5) How do you propose we handle global warming? What about a worker’s program to restructure our nation so it can be “green” or take on global warming so we can begin to curb the negative effects it is having on our planet? If not a worker’s program, what do you propose?

6) What do you think about tuition-free education from pre-school to public college? How can we institute that? If not, why is it not possible?

7) What is the importance of labor unions in America? What do you propose we do for labor? If your plan does not involve ending free trade agreements like NAFTA, what do you think we should do instead? How is that plan better?

8) What do you propose to do about the plague of debt in our society? How do you plan on handling home foreclosures, predatory lending, and crippling tax policies, which are decimating the poor and middle class? Why will you be capable of combating this plague?

9) What will you do to allow the people’s voice to be heard on the public airwaves instead of the corporate or establishment voice? Does your plan involve the Fairness Doctrine? If not, why? What changes can be made to the Fairness Doctrine so that we can still regulate an agreement that requires media outlets to give a voice to the people?

10) Will you tirelessly work to fix the processes in America that are keeping Americans disenfranchised and disgusted with the electoral process and the processes of governance in the executive, judicial, and legislative branches? Do you believe our Constitution has been damaged in the past decade? If so, what do you propose we do to repair our Constitution?

11) If necessary, will you vigorously pursue impeachment of elected leaders who undermine our nation and our Constitution?

A history of protesters and dissenters against the status quo has taught us many lessons. Bob LaFollette taught us the importance of progressive economics. Ralph Nader taught us the importance of corporate accountability. John L. Lewis taught us the importance of justice for workers. Rachel Carson taught us the importance of environmental accountability. Mother Teresa taught us the importance of compassion. Thomas Jefferson taught us the importance of democracy. George Washington taught us the importance of nationhood. Mahatma Gandhi taught us the importance of the dream of freedom through soul force. Susan B. Anthony taught us the importance of the dream of gender equality. Abraham Lincoln taught us the importance of the dream of union through equality. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us the importance of the dream of racial equality. And Jesus Christ taught us the importance of the dream of peace and personal transcendence.

Together, we can teach each other the importance of running a nation through community.

Join me in turning cynicism and defeatist mentalities into optimism and dreams of a better world.

Authors Website: myorwelliannightmare.newsvine.com

Authors Bio: Kevin Gosztola is from Mishawaka, Indiana. He is studying film at Columbia College in Chicago and loves movies but has an even greater love for this country. He has been reading political books and following politics since he was 15 years old feeling that it is necessary to pay attention to his country, a feeling that was instilled in him by his 5th grade teacher when she asked us all to watch the news every morning. He likes music especially music with politically charged lyrics or progressive undertones. He hopes to become a filmmaker who makes regular movies along with avant-garde ones and documentaries. In everything he does, he wants to fight for the greater good and also push the limits of what is accepte in society. He believes in life with no boundaries and loves the underdog. That's why he supports guys like Kucinich for 2008 even when people around him point at him and laugh calling him crazy. He's not afraid to lose if he knows what he's doing is right.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Democracy Interrupted by Frank J. Ranelli http://www.opednews.com

Why we, as a nation, have been titrated, which is the gradual increasing of dosage, pressure, and propaganda, till the desired effect – an inured and compliant society – have willingly bequeathed away our autonomy of self-government, embraced the genesis of tyranny, and begin our seemingly inexorable march towards dictatorship.

Part IV of the "American Democracy in Crisis" series.

If the past is prologue, then the present may be prescient. Each day, many of us awaken to a queasy feeling of unrest, knowing that the rule of law is under assault. The Constitution is in jeopardy and our unassailable rights to an egalitarian society are quickly being abolished. Television, newspapers, blogs, and a litany of books are reminiscent in our collective conscience that America has been browbeaten into trading peace for war, liberties for securities, sovereignty for safety, and blood for oil.

Our reputation on the world’s stage is indelibly stained by pernicious acts of imperialism, hegemony, blind patriotism, and outright incompetence by Washington’s power brokers and their agents of avarice. Yet, beyond dystopian polls and sparse demonstrations, Americans seems unwilling to accept and are extraordinarily unaware, that tyranny is taking root here in America.

We have ran the gamut of – and sadly sanctioned – some of the most unconceivable and heinous measures in American history. The Military Commissions Act, The Patriot Act, The Domestic Wiretapping Program, ignored the Geneva Conventions, revoked habeas corpus and engaged in torture. We removed our selves from the world’s courts, attacked and now occupy a country that never posed a grave or imminent danger to our own nation and then failed to adequately care for the pointlessly wounded soldiers, evident by the Walter Reed Hospital debacle.

The Justice Department enacted by law and created in1870, to make certain fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans was carried out under the law, has been purely politicized. It has been altered and grotesquely mutated into a blanket of immunity for loyalty and allegiance to an autocratic president that has throttled our nation to the point of snuffing out all legitimacy of our national system of jurisprudence.

Alberto Gonzales, the empty suite at the head of the Department of Justice, appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate in 2005, not only repeated lies with impunity, but also obediently abdicates his sworn duty. He obsequiously yielded to Bush’s wild assertions of executive privilege and steadfastly refused to pursue Congress’ mandated contempt citations for Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton. Justice, by these lawless actions, is not being served, but is abruptly being handed its hat.

The commutation of I. Scooter Libby, an obstructionist of the law and felon, reminds us than justice is no longer in service in the interest of integrity and impartiality. Justice is now enslaved to the bidding of the Bush Administration and serves only to provide shelter and safe haven for loyal soldiers within a rogue, Mafioso-style executive branch.

Pre-emptive war planning operatives, such as John Yoo, David Addington, Paul Wolfowitz, the infamous “Torture Memo”, the radical “Unitary Executive Theory”, unconstitutional signing statements, the shocking Abu Ghraib torture pictures, The Project for a New America Century’s outlandish, 1998 white paper entitled, Rebuilding America’s Defenses, all signify we are on an inexorable march towards dictatorship.

It should now be brutally apparent and undoubtedly understood by all that the Bush Administration is not merely above the law; it is the law. Our seven-year autocracy has now morphed into full despotism. Bush and his actors of austerity, beyond all doubt, are desperados who are unrestrained and unfettered, severing all ties with restraint and decency, decorum and sound judgment. The nascent Nixon enterprising years of imperialism and lawlessness are feeble by contrast.

We have rhetoric from armchair members of Congress who assert, “This administration has weakened America in a way that is frightful[1]”, and then refuse to breathe life into the comatose corpse of a once proud and functioning democracy by taking impeachment, the people’s remedy for the infringement of our independence, “off the table.” Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of the Democrats are quite content to allow Bush to self-destruct, in full view of the nation, while the U.S wreaks havoc in the Middle-East, in order to create what they falsely believe will be a landslide election weighted heavily for the Democrats by Bush's massive blunders and political collapse.

Thirty plus years after Nixon's failed coup d'état, George W. Bush has taken the idea of a tyrannical, presidential despot, at the helm of the Executive Branch, to dizzying heights and abject lows in America in the 21st century. Bush has now fully entrenched himself – in a twisted, extravagant, bravado-ridden version of Richard Nixon – by stonewalling every action Congress takes, as a totalitarian ruler, more bellicose and bombastic than his previous six years of pompous swagger and reckless governing.

The juxtaposition of these two loggerheads – an ineffectual Congress and an imperial President – leads to the will of the people being usurped, subjugated, and silenced. The People no longer have a voice in this government, for it is no longer our government as much as it is no longer a democracy. What America has become is an autocracy operated by lobbyists, mega-corporations, the military-industrial complex, and the whores in Washington that these power brokers, in a very fascist way, have bought politicians’ loyalty, acquiescence, and obedience. Contrary to the revisionist history so may of us are indoctrinated with, and unswervingly clutch to without reason or true examination of the facts, is our nation is run by an oligarchy.

Our will as a nation is not being done for a very simple reason. We, as a nation, have been titrated – the gradual increasing of dosages, pressure, and propaganda – till the desired effect, an inured and complicit society, have willingly bequeathed away our autonomy of self-government. We have bestowed our birthright to despotic rulers who do not find fear in – or seek shelter from – the near unanimous disapproval of the people they suppress and subdue[2]. They seek not the consent of the people for they seek only allegiance and adherence to their own reprehensible, egocentric, and depraved pursuits for power, money, and authoritarian control. Never in America's past has an assault on the truth and freedom been waged so viciously nor have the American people been so reprehensibly divided and utterly deceived by men we never truly elected in the first place.

What is prescient about the present is the deafening silence in which we fail to speak out, take action, or demand accountability. George Bush and Dick Cheney are the epitome of, the embodiment of, the exact personification of, what the founders feared in an autocratic oppressor, the rise of a despot to the presidency, and how that despot would come to exist. The framers of the Constitution gave us all the tools we need, without the shedding of blood, to ensure the rights and freedoms of the people remained intact and attempts at tyranny or oppression were rejected and ultimately beaten back.

We have to begin to change the framing of peoples’ mind first, and then explain the actions that need to be taken. No matter what or how somber the facts are, if the framing, the paradigm within which people operate is not changed, then no transformation will take place.

The only proper instrument for accountability and transformation – when a president becomes despotic in his actions – is impeachment, trial, and removal for failure to respect and honor the Constitution and faithfully execute the laws of the land. Impeachment is a just and necessary remedy and we must immediately diverge away from the idea that it takes away from other work Congress should and can be doing. When you have a president who openly flouts and disobeys the law, intentionally attempts to erase the separation of powers of our tripartite government and assume dictatorial powers, no legitimate work, which will stand as the rule of law for all men, can be realized.

Here is the straightforward reason why impeachment is a mandate to return to a working democracy: No matter what legislation Congress passes, Bush will veto it, ignore it, or add a dubious “signing statement”, making unilateral claims he may disregard it or claim the bill is "unconstitutional", plainly bypassing the judicial process of the Supreme Court, as well. As many historians have appropriately point out, not even King George III of England had or assumed these kinds of authoritarian powers.

The fabric of democracy is feeling the strain and we must unburden our country, through impeachment, from a despotic president and a dangerous vice-president who uses fear and subjugation to rule by and not the rule of law to govern our nation by. There can and must be far more significant consequences for all of these abuses of power and executive anarchy, or the actions of Bush and Cheney will simply become historical precedence for future abuses by future presidents, whether a republican or a democrat.

---

[1] Senator Russ Feingold (D) of Wisconsin, on Meet the Press, July 22, 2007

[2] 71% of Americans Disapprove of the Way Bush is Handling His Job; July 23, 2007, American Research Group

http://www.ranellirants.blogspot.com

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

What Democracy?

by TED BOHNE http://www.opednews.com

For decades now I've listened to countless people including myself refer to the social control construct we live under as a "democracy." I've heard countless state unequivocally how this is the greatest most benevolent nation in the history of the world.

I've heard more recently how the US armed forces are the mightiest fielded also in the history of the world. This despite the fact that despite all this technoligical crap we're all paying trillions for the US is getting an assbeating in the Middle East.

The American people feel free to admonish the rest of the world on human rights which it also believes it is the best in the world in terms of keeping track of such rights here at home.

As I grew from a boy to an old man now, and thankfully destitute of any form of ideology; patriotic, religious, or any other sort of belief that doesn't require considerable thought to determine it's validity. I was a boy scout. Went to Catholic school, though I can say without any problem, I wish my sainted mother would have left my ass in a public school.

I went to church every Sunday, confession every Saturday scared shitless at the tender age of eight that I'd die before confessing my sins and go straight to hell. I probably wasn't the best student in the world. I did well in the subjects I liked, and not so well in those that didn't interest me.

Got me through a Master of Arts in Individual Studies though. I served my country during time of war. Even spent a year in the Active Reserves. All this time believing I lived in the single greatest country known to mankind.

The sort of country that stands forth on the mountain as a shining example of Democracy, and an example for the rest of the world to emulate.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that whole shtick was a load of crap. Imagine my surprise when I discovered there was no "Gulf of Tonkin" incident to kick off the Vietnam war.

James Stockdale, Admiral USN, Ret, was in an F-86 flying over the Gulf of Tonkin when this "incident" was allegedly happening, when he said there was nothing going on down there. So 58,000 Americans, and a couple million Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians died in an attempt to save French colonialism for good old America.

Not Communism. There was no threat to the US from the Vietnamese, and countless billions of dollars that could have been used for cancer research, to help strenghthen our educational system, or just put more food on people's tables, simply went up in smoke.

Further the US had their asses RUN OFF by the advancing NVA. That is, the US CUT AND RAN. Not the soldiers, but POTUS, and senior military and government officials. Sadly, information wasn't as readily available in those days as it is today. Remember the computer that took Apollo 11 to the moon and back wasn't much more powerful than a hand held calculator!

The US, besides enacting genocides against other people, has on many occasions stood by and WATCHED others commit them You know like Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, Idi Amin, the mess in Darfur, and others.

But my disappointment was far from over. The Korean "police action" technically goes on to this very day. The only thing the US was able to do to the DPRK was push them back beyond the 38th parallel despite MacArthur's attempt to annex North Korea. Made it to the Chinese Border and was shoved all the way back.

Imagine the world "landscape" if the US had involved itself in stopping the Nazis in, say, 1936 or 1937. Yes, it is well known the US was suckered by Winston Churchill in to the first world war using "Remember the Lusitania" as a war cry despite Maritime law, and rules of engagement, passenger ships were to carry no implements of war and certainly not J.P. Morgan's huge store of ammunition. See, the Brits had already broken the German code and knew exactly where the sub that sunk the Lusitania would be. Remember Churchill's "Room 40?" Ever even heard of it? I thought not.

People are still convinced that the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor was a "sneak attack." This, despite the fact that Roosevelt sent the Pacific Fleet from It's home in San Francisco to Bumfuck Egypt, I mean Pearl Harbor. The battleships were of WWI vintage, and the carriers put to sea, ALL OF THEM. There is now clear evidence that FDR well knew of December 7th 1941, before December 7th, 1941. There was at very least radar contact with the incoming Japanese aircraft in time to sound General Quarters. You might want to do some reading on this topic. Unless you NEED this crap to be true to hold your belief system together.

Same goes for the use of not one, but two nuclear weapons on an Island that had been virtually burned to the ground by US incendiary bombs. The death toll in Tokyo alone was twice that of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Most of the other large cities had been incinerated the same way.

Nagasaki was a secondary target. Clearly as long as these nuclear devices fell on the island of Japan, that was enough. The Japanese Air Force was completely destroyed, her navy was at the bottom of the Pacific, and the US had weeded the ground forces out as far north as Okinawa. Invasion? My ass! They could have continued their already brutal use of incendiary bombing and burned the remnants of Japan to the ocean floor.

But no, the myth of having to invade the Island of Japan persists to this day.

What about covert operations like, oh, say, the overthrow of the government of Mohammed Mossagdeh in the favor of the Pro US Mohammed Reza Pavlavi. Or Salvador Allende of Chile for General Augusto Pinochet.

Not many know that prior to Juan Batista, President of Cuba was overthrown by Fidel Castro, the US supplied weapons and logistics to Castro! Then you have the Bay of Pigs screw up, Not because JFK called it off, but because American Air Support didn't show up because their watches were not set to the correct time, and they arrived an hour late. Well, to late for the Cuban exiles who were captured or killed.

What about US support of brutal dictators such as Poppa and Baby Doc Duvalier of Haiti, and the latest installment of a thug to power in Haiti. There's the US backed overthrow of Augusto Sandino in Nicaragua for Anastasio Somoza, another murdering thug. Organized terrorists such as the "contras" who raped pillaged and plundered the Nicaraguan country side, and the Death Squads in Guatemala and El Salvador green lighted by John Negroponte. All in the name of "Freedom and Democracy." Actually it was to open markets for US corporations and empire building. But let's not cloud the issue with facts.

de·moc·ra·cy [ di mókrəssee ] (plural de·moc·ra·cies) noun 1. free and equal representation of people: the free and equal right of every person to participate in a system of government, often practiced by electing representatives of the people by the majority of the people 2. democratic nation: a country with a government that has been elected freely and equally by all its citizens 3. democratic system of government: a system of government based on the principle of majority decision-making 4. control of organization by members: the control of an organization by its members, who have a free and equal right to participate in decision-making processes [Late 16th century. Directly or via French<> democratia<> dēmokratia "rule of the people"

Now, just for kicks, what part of this definition applies to the United States? Not just now when things are at their worst, but lets go all the way back to 1787. The Constitution of the United States, referred to by the non-president as “just a goddamned piece of paper,” was written by rich white men. None of these mopes could decide how to write such an instrument and please everybody.

By the time they finished cobbling it together, it pleased NO ONE, and was so full of loopholes you could read a newspaper through it. Down through the history of the US, the wealthy have always controlled most of this country’s riches. Now, more than ever. It wasn’t until FDR arrived on scene that ANY form of social safety net existed in any form. Then listening to the dumbshit Americans whine about socialism and finally communism, as if these forms of social control EVER EXISTED IN FACT.

So, I wonder, what part of our “Democracy” do YOU want to recover? This country has NEVER BEEN A DEMOCRACY, THEN OR NOW. The system has been fraught with lies, fraud, murder, genocide, and other forms of mischief since day one. This country, that would be the United States of America is the chief terrorist nation on earth. Then you have the little monkey Israel, stolen from the indigenous people by the US, UK, and UN. The question now is, who is leading who around by the nose. Israel or the US. If you want to know, just do a little looking into how many of these right wing extremists are Jewish or Christian Fundamentalists or Zionists. Anti Semite?, me, who cares. The Truth is more important. Even many Jewish Rabbis state unequivocally that according to the Torah, Israel isn’t supposed to have attained “statehood” yet, and I guarantee there will be no peace in the middle east as long as Israel exists.

So, for all you people who want your democracy back, remember, you have to have had one to start with.

Mr. Bohne is a clockmaker and activist. He HATES the US Government, and without stretching the truth (reality) will do anything to dig up dirt on any of these bastards, as long as it's REAL dirt. "the first man to raise his fists, is the first man to run out of ideas."

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.