January 14, 2012

Imagine the difference.

Romney has the nomination (and he might win in November).

Obama and Romney debate who will be tougher with Iran.

Paul has the nomination (and he will lose in November).

Obama and Paul debate on proposals to scale back the empire and end the drug war. The Republican is the one introducing the drug war proposal, so you have the "Only Nixon can go to China" effect. The dam breaks, allowing national debate on this issue.

And he will lose.

So I'm very puzzled by all those who act as though Paul is the worst in a Republican field routinely full of right-wing states-rights deregulation fanatics.

January 14, 2012

Here, this graphic will make you happy...

Contrary to what some around here insinuate about me, I agree with you.

However, I cannot see how you credibly distinguish Paul in these matters from the equally odious other Republican candidates. The main differences between them and Paul are cases in which Paul is decidedly better, and in which a debate needs to be opened up. Given the choices on the Republican side, if we are to have a preference, he's the best for two reasons: 1) He'll lose. 2) His presence will force national discussion of empire, drug war, the assault on constitutional rights, and banking bailouts, all of which is essential.

Do you really prefer Romney - who could actually win? And who is about a thousand times likelier to start a big war soon as he's in office?

January 14, 2012

Lessons from a Greek Tragedy

At the beginning of the Papandreou government in 2009, it was discovered that the outgoing conservative government had colluded in secret with Goldman Sachs and JPM Chase to hide the size of the Greek national debt using elaborate, high-interest credit swaps that were costly for Greece but profitable for Wall Street. In the wake of this revelation, total Greek debt jumped overnight. This triggered the Greek financial crisis.

The only reasonable and moral course for the government was to default immediately at least on that part of the debt that had been concealed from the public, and to start indicting every public and private official involved in the collusion - including Lucas Papademas, the chief of the Greek national bank who had engineered the collusion with Goldman and JPM. Papademas is today the bankster-appointed unelected prime minister who has replaced Papandreou at the head of an unelected cabinet of "technocrats."

Let this be a lesson to left and center-left governments, including in the United States: Make it your priority to punish elite criminals, or live to watch them return to power. When they do return, they will feel rewarded by their past behavior, resentful of their brief exile from power, and emboldened to exceed their past misdeeds.

The conservatives, Papademas and the Wall Street banks had cooked the books, and to make the Greeks pay for this was insupportable. For a brief moment, the Papendreou government's moral and practical strength was greatest to default and to justify a default before the world, to establish the uncontested sovereignty of the Greek democracy in Greece, and to defend justice and the rule of law against lies and elite sociopathy.

Tragically, there was never a chance of this; like any other politician in the "responsible," neoliberal mode, Papandreou bowed directly to the will of the capital markets and creditors, and moved to impose the crushing austerity they demanded. This amounted to justifying the big lies about how the Greek people were at fault because of their childishness, laziness and moral degeneracy. Papandreou turned the people against him, they rendered the country ungovernable and the ultimate result was that he was effectively deposed by a government of fake technocrats with pedigrees as bankers and (in a couple of cases) fascists; the latter in nicer suits than back in their days when they were beating leftist protesters on the street. The next election is likely to bring the conservatives back to power, and they support an even more crushing austerity. Tomorrow or in a year, Greece will default anyway, as has always been unavoidable, but the consequences will be worse than would have been the case three years ago.

Establishment leftists seem never to understand that principle is the truest and most reliable guide, and that it should not be surrendered out of a perceived pragmatism. Nor have they learned the most important Machiavellian insight: the time to act boldly is when you first come to power!

January 14, 2012

Let's hope sanity prevails because...

the bombing of civilians on the street is obvious terrorism. There are crazy, powerful people in the US and Israel who are trying to start a big, new, horrible war on Iran. Peace is the only credible path to positive change. Peace is the way to avoid nuclear proliferation, end a variety of bloody hostilities, and eventually clear the way to the reforms and openings that the people of both Iran and the US (and Israel) so badly need.

January 14, 2012

Iran is also still holding our heroic Drone-American hostage.

Day 41, I believe.

January 14, 2012

Greece should have defaulted immediately after the Goldman Sachs scam was exposed.

At the beginning of the Papandreou government in 2009, it was revealed that the outgoing conservative government had colluded in secret with GS and JPM to hide the size of the Greek debt using elaborate and high-interest credit swaps. Greek debt jumped overnight. This triggered the Greek crisis. The only reasonable and moral course was to default immediately at least on that part of the debt that had been concealed, and to start indicting every public and private official involved in the collusion - including Lucas Papademas, then the chief of the Greek national bank. Instead, Papademas is now the bankster-appointed unelected prime minister who has now replaced Papandreou. Let this be a lesson that Obama also should have learned: Punish the elite criminals, or live to watch them take over again and do even worse things. The conservatives, Papademas and the Wall Street banks had cooked the books, and to make the Greeks pay for it was insupportable. The government's moral and practical strength to default and justify it before the world, and to establish the uncontested sovereignty of the Greek democracy in Greece, was greatest in that moment. Tragically, there was never a chance of this; like any other politician in the neoliberal mode, Papandreou bowed directly to the will of the capital markets and moved to impose the crushing austerity they demanded, effectively justifying the big lies about how the Greek people were at fault because of their childish laziness and moral degeneracy. The ultimate result was that he was deposed by a government of fake technocrats with pedigrees as bankers and (in a couple of cases) fascists, the latter now in nice suits. Leftists seem never to understand the most important Machiavellian insight: the time to act is when you first come to power!

January 14, 2012

Untrue.

The NYT has been CIA since CIA.

http://www.carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php

January 13, 2012

Default is the only way forward.

For some time there will be devaluation, inflation, currency controls, and command economy. It will be ugly - not necessarily more ugly than austerity and debt slavery - and then better. Argentina defaulted more than 10 years ago, followed by robust growth and a restoration of international credit status. If they keep the debt, they'll be enslaved and thought to be dead beats forever. If they default, ten years from now no one will even remember it. (No one outside Greece, that is.)

Greece needs the protection of a controlled national currency and import restrictions to re-develop domestic industry. The immediate priority is food self-sufficiency. Enough resources are fallow, enough villages empty, to allow that to develop. The Greek people are among the best-educated in the world. There are plenty of engineers and chemists. They can make their own pharmaceuticals. They can make their own solar panels, and make use of the country's abundance of sun to end dependence on imported hydrocarbons (and start reversing the ecological disaster).

All that's really needed is the will and imagination to strike a different path. The biggest obstacle is in the prevailing habits and ideologies, not in the actual possibilities for a different world.

January 13, 2012

"Wall St got screwed by Obama"

"the onerous regulations they now have."

Note: I don't do ROFL smilies. But if any post has ever earned them!

The Wall Street banks only exist today, and can only continue their perpetual extraction of profit out of the productive economy and subjugation of whole nations to debt slavery, because after the Bush regime started the rescue package to keep the criminal banks in business, the Obama administration continued and expanded on it: AIG, Citi and BoA bailouts, TARP, support for the Fed unlimited self-service windows, allowing guaranteed interest rate arbitrage (loans to banksters at 0%, government bonds at 3-6&), taking hundreds of billions in private toxic assets into the public sector, appointments of Wall Street stooges to all key economic positions, reappointment of Bernanke, and, of course, since the spring of 2009 suspending mark-to-market (officially ending capitalism as it applies to capitalists, although of course it still applies to the rest of us patsies).

Just you wait. The learning curve is accelerating. I wonder what Goldman and Co. will do later this year, when 200,000 people are marching in downtown Manhattan, chanting "Mark to Market! Mark to Market!"

January 13, 2012

So really any quotation of a Republican should be censored, right?

Also, can we tolerate quotations from any non-Democrats, or people who aren't explicitly endorsing Obama at least once a paragraph? How do we know they're not secretly not-endorsing Obama? Maybe the safest way to go is to just have a single DLC/Obama 2012 Campaign Press Release Forum.