March 29, 2013

N. Korea going off the deep end? Rockets "On Alert" to strike US military bases.

This can't be good news. When nations act like this, nothing good ever
comes of it. WTF are they thinking? They seem to be inviting a "preemptive
attack", by the US and/or S. Korea. It's just stupid. How can people be
so damned idiotic, when there are so many things that can "go wrong" when
tensions are ramped up like this. Not that the US is completely innocent of
escalating things, but still. I find this development very troubling.

North Korea Rockets On Standby To Hit U.S. Bases On Kim Jong Un's Orders, KCNA Reports
Reuters | Posted: 03/28/2013 7:16 pm EDT | Updated: 03/28/2013 10:10 pm EDT

By David Chance and Phil Stewart

SEOUL/WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - North Korea put its rocket units on standby on Friday to attack U.S. military bases in South Korea and the Pacific, after the United States flew two nuclear-capable stealth bombers over the Korean peninsula in a rare show of force.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed off on the order at a midnight meeting of top generals and "judged the time has come to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists in view of the prevailing situation", official KCNA news agency said.

On Thursday, the United States flew two radar-evading B-2 Spirit bombers on practice runs over South Korea, responding to a series of North Korean threats. They flew from the United States and back in what appeared to be the first exercise of its kind, designed to show America's ability to conduct long-range, precision strikes "quickly and at will", the U.S. military said.

The news of Kim's response was unusually swift.

"He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets of the KPA, ordering them to be standby for fire so that they may strike any time the U.S. mainland, its military bases in the operational theaters in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in south Korea," KCNA said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/28/north-korea-rockets-on-standby-kim-jong_n_2975245.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

March 24, 2013

Until Workers Own Their Jobs, We're Only Rearranging Titanic's deck chairs - this IS the rEvolution

Do yourself a favor and please watch this video, of Richard Wolff, economics Professor
at Amherst & Yale, lay out passionate & lucid logic for doing the obvious, to take care of
ourselves, to exercise much ballyhooed "democracy" in our own economic life, by simply
taking one huge clearheaded step OUT of the capital v. labor box, the box where workers
endure an increasingly frequent and pathetic string of defeats via "collective bargaining"
motif, which we all blithely assume to be set in concrete.

I mean really, "what's the alternative?" you ask?
HERE is the answer ---->

Here's a cross post from Video & Multimedia Forum, of an interview with Professor Fred
Freundlich another well-informed advocate for worker ownership as a massive corporate
paradigm shift, which could be easily facilitated through the tax incentives.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=107748

Worker ownership literally WAS the original labor movement in the USA, rather than
collective bargaining motif, which hasn't worked out so well over the long haul, which
has led to outsourcing, downsizing, and all manner of anti-worker laws being passed.
Fuck 'em. Labor needs to use what influence and recourses it still has managed to hold
onto, and just buy-out and own the freaking factory, using well-known, tried and true
methodologies and models that have been around for over a century.
http://www.workerscontrol.net/authors/worker-cooperatives-united-states-historical-perspective-and-contemporary-assessment
This is what the Labor Movement was pretty much ALL ABOUT in the late 1800's and
during 1900s, until they dumped all their eggs into the collective bargaining basket in
early 20th century in the US.

In addition to the Labor Movement, there are ALREADY national associations, a network
of technical assistance consultants and capital investors, etc. that can be built upon and
duplicated.
http://www.nceo.org/
http://www.usworker.coop/front

Here's a rather amusing piece by Gar Alperovitz about how profoundly UNinterested the Wall
Street Journal is in shedding light on the worker ownership option, which should be a clue.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/08-6

So here's the BOTTOM LINE: Why in the fuck are we not doing this? And doing it full-bore
on a grand scale, to invest & focus our collective attention and energy and resources in a way
where we REALLY can make a historic and substantial difference to heal the economy and
rebuild a stable Middle Class. Compared to this notion, everything else is just tinkering or
kicking the can down the road, a road leading straight into a draconian neo-feudal dystopian
nightmare.

I can think of no better rEvolutionary idea in which to invest, to focus, to spread the word
about, to apply pressure on politicians to align themselves with, and support worker owned
enterprises in every conceivable and legal way.

If we don't do this, we no longer have any excuses left to lean on, to comfort ourselves. We
can't say down the road that we didn't know what to do, because THIS IS THE FUTURE, if there
is a future where workers are paid a living wage and are valued for the work they do because
once ALL workers fucking OWN their jobs, no one can take their livelihood away from them
again, or destroy their community by outsourcing, etc. ... not ever. We will have awakened
from our nightmare, and taken charge of our collective economic welfare.

March 24, 2013

Richard Wolff - author of Democacy at Work, is onto this as well

I've been advocating this ever since the mid 80s, when I did my masters
thesis on examining the relative performance of 1) absentee owned, 2)
locally (w/in 50 miles owner lives), and 3) WORKER-OWNED businesses.
Both in terms of employment stability, rate of pay, and the amount of
profits that STAY in the LOCAL economy to turn over again and again,
worker ownership was THE most effective model.

Here's Richard Wolff:

We are at a juncture in History where Labor needs to make an abrupt LEFT hand
turn on a dime, to focus like a laser beam primarily on leveraging worker buyouts
of "distressed" business (the ones that vultures like Bain Capital prey upon); and
secondarily focus on both retaining extant collective bargaining contracts and on
incubating and supporting worker-owned startup businesses.

The workers can take back what's been stolen, but this is the ONLY means by which
they can; because history illustrates clearly that at the end of the day OWNERSHIP
is EVERYTHING, i.e. including that it ultimately trumps any collective bargaining
"victories" of the past, before the 1% figured out how to buy off 1/2 of the workers
to begger and bugger the other 1/2.

http://www.workerscontrol.net/authors/worker-cooperatives-united-states-historical-perspective-and-contemporary-assessment
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/08-6
http://www.nceo.org/
http://www.usworker.coop/front

March 21, 2013

WTF? Ezra Klein is blaming "old people" for deficit

Has Mr. Klein been swilling Tea Party KoolAid on the sly? This is disgusting.
The entire tone of this article is chillingly ageist and hugely misleading.

To try to cover his heartless ass, Klein even admits in the fine print at end of
article that rising health care costs ARE indeed a huge problem, after spending
the entire article torturing and tweaking data suggesting otherwise; i.e. laying
the blame squarely at the feet of US having "too many old people".


What does Mr. Klein suggest we do about having too many "old people"?
Either he's setting the stage for euthanizing everyone over 70, OR he's simply
blowing rainbows up the ass of the 1%, giving them cover for cutting SS and
Medicare benefits. Either way, it's a very ugly picture.

FUCK YOU EZRA KLEIN!!

PS - to see his graphs, you'll need to use the link, as they didn't copy/paste
with the text.

Our coming deficits are driven by old people, not health inflation
by Ezra Klein * March 20, 2013

You’ve heard — perhaps on this very blog! — that our long-term deficits are almost entirely driven by health-care costs. That’s true over the next 50, 60, 70 years, which is, absurdly, the time frame people often talk in. But over the next 20 years, it’s not quite right.

A more accurate way to put it would be that in the coming decades, new spending is almost entirely driven by health-care programs. But what’s really driving the spending in those programs is the aging of the population, not the rise in health-care costs. Over at the Concord Coalition’s blog, Joshua Gordon makes this point in an unusually clear way — by which I mean, of course, with graphs.

Here’s a breakdown of new spending by program between 2012 and 2037. As you can see, Medicare and Medicaid far outpace Social Security, and all programs that are not Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security are expected to shrink as a percentage of the economy:

There are two reasons health-care programs could be spending more. One is that health-care costs are going up. The other is that more people are using them. We typically talk about the problem as if the problem is rising costs. But over the next 20 years, the cost increases are driven by more people.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/20/our-coming-deficits-are-driven-by-old-people-not-health-inflation/?wprss=rss_ezra-klein&wpisrc=nl_wonk

March 20, 2013

Sequestration is working!!!

... i.e. it's doing what GOP knew it would do, kill jobs and bugger the
US economy so they can "blame Obama" for it, and the Democratic
party by implication.

Workers Lose Jobs As Pink Slips Go Out Due To Sequestration
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/19/sequestration-jobs_n_2908924.html

March 15, 2013

Has Meta gone tits-up? ~nt

March 14, 2013

Obama’s "I’m-Not-Dick-Cheney" Standard for Government Secrecy

On several threads recently I've made the observation that some of the stuff Obama
is doing -- related to creating an intrusive 100% saturation surveillance matrix, coupled
with a national security police-state aparatus, with kill lists and drones -- would not have
been tolerated by the Democrats on the Hill under a Republican President.

For pointing this out, I've been subjected to harsh derision and ridicule, by "outraged"
DUers that I would entertain such a notion, assuring me that under Prez. RawMoney,
we'd have it much worse, so I shouldn't worry. Move along now. Nothing here to see.

Well, then I see this on firedoglake, and as often happens, I find that someone else has
written the article I could have written myself on this topic, as is the case with this article;
which illustrates the exact point I was making, and it apparently came out of the mouth of
Obama himself.

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/03/14/obamas-im-not-dick-cheney-standard-for-government-secrecy/

As a Senior life-long progressive "radical"/Democrat (sometimes Independent or Green),
I feel it is my civic duty to point out the insidious nature of hyper-technological draconian
over-reach (with security cameras every where, drones on their way, DHS buying billions
of bullets and armor-plated vehicles mysteriously, etc.) , no matter WHO is in charge of it,
or WHO tries to tell me "Just Trust Us, we're the good-guys".

I don't need to be reminded that Obama "is better than" RawMoney on many fronts, but
on the civil liberties front this is small consolation when "better than" looks like my worse
nightmare taking shape, in terms of the kind of world or society I want to live in.

March 12, 2013

Imagine we are in a dream

Imagine we are in a dream
John Hubbird * 3/11/13

Imagine we are in a dream together, right now, 
in this precious moment of borrowed time.
What part of myself are you? 
And who am I to you?

Can we come ever more fully into our own together?  
Collaboratively, collectively choreographed e-motion?
Can we unlock these Ancient Chains?
Can we reclaim our Humanity?

These epiphanies and many more like them,
Oozing out despite Invisible Hand buggery, 
Despite their shame behind Shadow’s Veil. 
Trying in vein to disappear Truth itself.  

But the Bees know.
The grass knows.
The Mountain shouts it loud. 
Through liquid ruby sky falling.  

Centered semblance of myself, 
holding breath, then deep breathing, 
swinging pendant. 
Hypnotized. 

By the stark outlines of no tomorrow, 
by the bleeding edge of us down under, 
the jack-boot of a few filthy lucre addicts, 
drunk on their own snake oil. 

Merciless, heartless, calculating. 
Predatory, Vampiric, Cannibalistic, 
Hell on Earth is on the march everywhere, 
and it’s spirit name is Wetiko.  

These horrors aside, it’s never too late to dream,
or imagine  a transformed world of raw beauty & grace. 
It’s never too late to love.
or to live each day anew.  

Together, we don't know yet what we can do?
Together rhyms with tethers unfurled, 
Each for every other to the end of Time. 
Intermission now before the last act.  

________*_________* ________*_________* ________


To learn more about Wetiko, how to help dispel it, etc.,  
please see: http://www.awakeninthedream.com/wordpress/


______________________________________________

March 8, 2013

Workers Unite to Buy-out Corporate America!

This is a juncture in History where Labor needs to make an abrupt LEFT hand
turn on a dime, to focus like a laser beam primarily on leveraging worker buyouts
of "distressed" business (the ones that vultures like Bain Capital prey upon); and
secondarily focus on both retaining extant collective bargaining contracts and on
incubating and supporting worker-owned startup businesses.

The workers can take back what's been stolen, but this is the ONLY means by which
they can; because history illustrates clearly that at the end of the day OWNERSHIP
is EVERYTHING, i.e. including that it ultimately trumps any collective bargaining
"victories" of the past, before the 1% figured out how to buy off 1/2 of the workers
to begger and bugger the other 1/2.

http://www.workerscontrol.net/authors/worker-cooperatives-united-states-historical-perspective-and-contemporary-assessment
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/08-6
http://www.nceo.org/
http://www.usworker.coop/front

March 8, 2013

IMHO this is what the Labor Movement needs to get back into, and pronto!!

rather than collective bargaining motif, which hasn't worked out so well
over the long haul, which has led to outsourcing, downsizing, and all
manner of anti-worker laws being passed. Fuck 'em. Just buy and own
the freaking factory, using well-known, tried and true methodologies and
models that have been around for over a century.
http://www.workerscontrol.net/authors/worker-cooperatives-united-states-historical-perspective-and-contemporary-assessment
This is what the Labor Movement was pretty much ALL ABOUT in the late
1800's and during 1900s, until they dumped all their eggs into the collective
bargaining basket in early 20th century in the US.

When the workers own the business, and hire management, there's no
fucking way they are going to "outsource" their jobs, and because they own
the business that pays their wages, they can actually afford to run at less
of a "profit", which to them is just a bonus on top of their wages.
see Mondragon phenomenon in Spain:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation

Also there is a technical assistance resource nationally for this kind of thing,
either start-ups or buy-out conversions. http://www.nceo.org/

It isn't that the labor movement is "dead" so much as it IS that collective bargaining
as a model for leveraging a living wage, has outlived itself; and that worker
ownership is the future of the labor movement, if it has one.
Also see: "Revealed: Wall Street Journal More Interested in Caviar and Foie Gras
Than Employee-owned Firms: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/08-6