December 20, 2014

Why Have Americans Stopped Resisting Economic Privilege?

Why Have Americans Stopped Resisting Economic Privilege?

December 19, 2014
by Steve Fraser

The following excerpt is from the introduction to Steve Fraser’s new book, The Age of Acquiescence.

Marx once described high finance as “the Vatican of capitalism,” its diktat to be obeyed without question. Several decades have come and gone during which we’ve learned not to mention Marx in polite company. Our vocabulary went through a kind of linguistic cleansing, exiling suspect and nasty phrases like “class warfare” or “the reserve army of labor” or even something as apparently innocuous as “working class.”

In times past, however, such language and the ideas they conjured up struck our forebears as useful, even sometimes as accurate depictions of reality. They used them regularly along with words and phrases like “plutocracy,” “robber baron,” and “ruling class” to identify the sources of economic exploitation and inequality that oppressed them, as well as to describe the political disenfranchisement they suffered and the subversion of democracy they experienced. Never before, however, has the Vatican of capitalism captured quite so perfectly the specific nature of the oligarchy that recently ran the country for a long generation and ended up running it into the ground. Even political consultant and pundit James Carville (no Marxist he), confessed as much during the Clinton years, when he said the bond market “intimidates everybody.”


[font size="1"]Southern Labor Archives at Georgia State University[/font]

Occupy Wall Street, even bereft of strategy, program, and specific demands as many lamented when it was a newborn, nonetheless opened up space again for our political imagination by confronting this elemental, determining feature of our society’s predicament. It rediscovered something that, beneath thickets of political verbiage about tax this and cut that, about end‑of‑the world deficits and ­missionary-​minded “job creators,” had been hiding in plain sight: namely, what our ancestors once called “the street of torments.” It achieved a giant leap backward, so to speak, summoning up a history of opposition that had mysteriously withered away.

.......(snip).......

Gilded ages are, by definition, hiding something; what sparkles like gold is not. But what they’re hiding may differ, fundamentally. Industrial capitalism constituted the understructure of the first Gilded Age. The second rested on finance capitalism. Late-​nineteenth-​century American capitalism gave birth to the “trust” and other forms of corporate consolidation at the expense of smaller businesses. ­Late-twentieth​-​ century­ capitalism, notwithstanding its mania for mergers and acquisitions, is known for its “flexibility,” meaning its penchant for off­-loading​ corporate functions to a world of freelancers, contractors, subcontractors, and numberless petty enterprises. The first Gilded Age, despite its glaring inequities, was accompanied by a gradual rise in the standard of living; the second by a gradual erosion. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://billmoyers.com/content/steve-fraser-age-acquiescence/

December 20, 2014

Professor Richard D. Wolff on jobs and democracy

Published on Dec 18, 2014

Why do so few American's vote? Wolff says it's because we're trained every workday that other people (powerful elites) make the decisions for us. Wolff describes how our anti-democratic economic system undermines America's ability to support a functional political democracy.

December 20, 2014

Simon Johnson: Antonio Weiss Should Not Become Undersecretary for Domestic Finance

Elizabeth Warren and the Independent Community Bankers of America Are Right: Antonio Weiss Should Not Become Undersecretary for Domestic Finance

Friday, 19 December 2014 11:34
By Simon Johnson, The Baseline Scenario | Op-Ed


Antonio Weiss has been nominated to become Undersecretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department. A growing number of people and organizations have expressed reservations about this potential appointment, which requires Senate confirmation – including Senator Dick Durbin (D., IL), Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D.,NH), Senator Joe Manchin (D., WV), the American Federation of Teachers (in a press release on December 17th), and other groups. And, from another part of the political spectrum, the Independent Community Bankers of America has also come out strongly against Mr. Weiss.

In a speech last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren detailed her concerns about Mr. Weiss's background:

"He (Mr. Weiss) has focused on international corporate mergers and companies buying and selling each other. It may be interesting, challenging work, but it does not sufficiently qualify him to oversee consumer protection and domestic regulatory functions at the Treasury that are a critical part of the job."

And Senator Warren made it clear that the Weiss nomination needs to be seen in this broader context:

"Time after time in government, the Wall Street view prevails, and time after time, conflicting views are crowded out."

.....(snip).....

There is no balance of views at the top of the US Treasury. The Wall Street view – what's good for the people who run big banks is good for the country – is fully in control. The most recent demonstration of this point came just last week, when House Republicans proposed to repeal Section 716 of Dodd-Frank – a direct attempt to help Citigroup and other megabanks by allowing them to run more dangerous derivatives out of their insured banks (and therefore create more downside risks for taxpayers and the broader economy). Treasury and the administration not only did not oppose this measure – they actively undermined House Democrats and Senator Warren in their attempts to stick up for Section 716. There is no backbone on financial reform at Treasury. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/28112-elizabeth-warren-and-the-independent-community-bankers-of-america-are-right-antonio-weiss-should-not-become-undersecretary-for-domestic-finance

December 19, 2014

FBI's War on Black America

Published on Dec 17, 2014

Co-produced/Co-directed by Deb Ellis and Denis Meuller (co-directors of HOWARD ZINN: YOU CAN'T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN and PEACE HAS NO BORDERS), THE FBI'S WAR ON BLACK AMERICAL looks at a dark period in our country's history. The film is a documentary exploration of the lives and deaths of people targeted by the US government's COINTELPRO, an FBI mounted program aimed against organized efforts by African-Americans to gain rights guaranteed by our constitution. Includes both archival footage and contemporary interviews with people involved in the movement. The documentary establishes historical perspective on the measures initiated by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI which aimed to discredit black political figures and forces of the late 1960's and early 1970's.

December 19, 2014

Richard Wolff To Peter Schiff - Your System Deprives Masses Of Decent Living Standard

December 19, 2014

10 Book Recommendations for Conscientious Eaters

from Civil Eats:


10 Book Recommendations for Conscientious Eaters
By Barry Estabrook on December 19, 2014


It’s Sustainable Santa, writing. Wee Barry Estabrook is preoccupied with putting together a new book proposal, so Santa thought it was a good idea to help him out (and lighten Santa’s sleigh) by stepping into this space to dash off a few words about Santa’s favorite books of food journalism for 2014—dandy gifts for the food lovers on your list.

Santa’s image consultants insist that Santa maintains the physique of a fat, jolly, old elf, so it should come as no surprise that he takes food ve-r-r-r-r-r-y seriously. And because Santa expects to be embarking on his annual sleigh ride for many more millennia, it should also come as no surprise that he has a vested interest in the long-term sustainability of our food system.

.....(snip).....

In Search of the Perfect Loafperfect_loaf
by Samuel Fromartz

Santa freely admits to having a sweet tooth. He’s always delighted to find a few cookies left out on hearths. But each Christmas Eve after sliding down Sam Fromartz’s chimney, Santa head directly to the kitchen, where inevitably Sam has left a few fresh loaves of his just-baked bread.

Sam happens to be a journalist, and a very good one at that. But he is also one of the very best bread bakers in the land. His baguettes beat out those of all the professionals in a bake-off in his home town, Washington, DC, and when Alice Waters hosted a benefit in the capitol, she insisted that Sam make the bread.

.....(snip).....

The Meat Racket
by Christopher Leonard

By the powers vested in me as the one and only Santa, I hereby declare 2014 to have been the year of sustainable meat books. Christopher Leonard set the pace early in the year with the publication of The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business.

Like Ted Genoways in The Chain, Christopher looks at meat production through the lens on a single company, in this case Tyson, which grew from a one-man, one-truck operation in tiny Springdale, Ark., in the early 1930s, to a vertically integrated chicken, pork, and beef colossus, one of a handful of corporations that control most of the meat Americans eat today. Collectively, these corporations damage the environment and destroy the economic and social fabric of rural communities, all in the name of cheap food—which isn’t all that cheap anymore. The most abused victims group are the folks who raise corporate animals despite the ever-present prospect of bankruptcy. They are called “contract farmers.” Back in Santa’s younger days, people who toiled under the conditions Christopher describes were simply called serfs.

The Meat Racket is a great gift for meat lovers with a taste for business books or anyone curious about how livestock production in America became controlled by a heartless oligarchy. ..............(more)

- See more at: http://civileats.com/2014/12/19/sustainable-santa-has-2014s-10-top-book-gifts-for-conscientious-eaters/#sthash.UDKUNw4F.dpuf

December 19, 2014

Torture’s Fallacies — and Criminality

from Consortium News:



Torture’s Fallacies — and Criminality
December 19, 2014

In America’s fascination with fictional entertainment, torture has been a popular plot device as some tough-guy “hero” extracts a clue from a hardened “bad guy,” most famously with Jack Bauer in “24.” But real-world torture elicits false information – and is a grave crime of state, as Lawrence Davidson explains.

By Lawrence Davidson


It has long been known that torture does not work. One can go back to the Age of Enlightenment. In 1764, Cesare Beccaria published his groundbreaking work, On Crimes and Punishments, in which he examined all the evidence available at that time and concluded that individuals under torture will tell their interrogators anything they want to hear, true or not, just to get the pain to stop. Beccaria’s book led to a temporary waning of the state-ordered torture.

Nonetheless, the United States has used torture repeatedly. Indeed, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s release of its report (five years in the making) on the George W. Bush administration’s use of torture testifies to only the most recent in a long line of such incidents.

For instance, torture was used against prisoners during and immediately following the Spanish-American War, particularly in the Philippines. More recently, the U.S. (and its adversary) used torture during the Vietnam War. Confirming Beccaria’s judgment, the consensus among U.S. military personnel, who examined the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” (the latest euphemism for torture) against Viet Cong and North Vietnamese prisoners, was that it did not work.

This conclusion has been supported by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, who was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for over five years. He has repeatedly said that he knows, from personal experience, that “victims of torture will offer intentionally misleading information if they think their captors will believe it.” ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: https://consortiumnews.com/2014/12/19/tortures-fallacies-and-criminality/

December 19, 2014

An Eye in the Sky Is Coming to America’s East Coast

via truthdig:



In a few days, the U.S. Army will position in the skies over Maryland two billion-dollar blimps capable of monitoring activity in an area the size of Texas.

The launching of the massive, $1.4 billion-per-piece airships will mark the culmination of an 18-year-long project billed as a measure of defense against cruise missiles. As a nifty bonus, the twin sentinels, which will float in place at a height of 10,000 feet, close to an interstate and 45 miles northeast of Washington D.C., will be able to spot and track cars, trucks and boats hundreds of miles away.

Dan Froomkin at The Intercept reports that “army officials claim they have no interest in monitoring anything other than missiles, or maybe boats.” But the project, known as JLENS (“Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System) and built by Raytheon, “can detect plenty more than that.” One blimp provides ” omnipresent high-resolution 360-degree radar coverage up to 340 miles in any direction,” while the other “can focus on specific threats and provide targeting information” (whatever that means.)

“Aerostats like JLENS aren’t limited to radar,” Froomkin continues. “If equipped with extremely high-resolution video cameras, they can see and record everything for miles, with extraordinary detail. In Kabul, for example, residents are used to seeing the U.S. military’s tethered aerostat—called the Persistent Ground Surveillance system—hovering above the city, capturing video of daily life below.”

The ACLU’s Jay Stanley is not convinced that the Americans beneath JLENS won’t eventually be subject to the surveillance imposed on the people of Kabul. “I’m sure that the people who are giving us these assurances mean everything they say, but the nature of government programs and government agencies is that things tend to expand and privacy protections tend to shrink,” Stanley told Froomkin. “If we’re going to have massive blimps hovering over civilian areas, or within radar-shot of civilian areas, then we need some very ironclad checks and balances that will provide confidence that there’s no domestic surveillance going on.” .........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/an_eye_in_the_sky_is_coming_to_americas_east_coast_20141218

December 19, 2014

Quiet Distress Among the (Ex) Rich

Quiet Distress Among the (Ex) Rich

Thursday, 18 December 2014 09:27
By Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism | News Analysis


While the wealthy don’t get much sympathy on this website, the restructuring of the economy to save the banks at the expense of pretty much everyone else has hurt some former members of the top 1% and even the 0.1%. And it’s also worth mentioning that some of the former members of the top echelon occupied it when the distance between the rich and everyone else was much narrower than it is now.

The fact that economic distress has moved pretty high up the food chain is a sign that this recovery isn’t all that it is cracked up to be. Even though the media is awash in stories of how much stronger the economy is getting, I see all sorts of counter-indicators locally: more restaurant and retail store closures than during or at any point after the crisis (and pretty long store vacancies), reports from my hair salon that business is not all that great, and my gym offering hefty discounts on renewals for the first time. Perhaps NYC is in a mini-downdraft, but that would be the reverse of the pattern in recent years, where thanks to the tender ministrations of the Fed and Treasury, the city has weathered the downturn better than most of the US.

A cohort that is in quiet distress is women who were divorced 15 or more years ago. Conventional wisdom is that London is a great city for woman to go through divorce, and New York is a lousy one. I have no basis for validating that statement. But regardless, the assumptions in handing out settlements back then, that the ex wife would be able to earn a decent return on her investments and land at least an adequately paid job when she was done receiving alimony, are out the window now. So women who thought they’d gotten enough to be able to raise their kids and live comfortably, or at least adequately, are now scrambling in their mid 50s to mid 60s to figure out how to survive, when reinventing yourself at that age is an against-the-odds proposition.

Here’s a story from someone I’ve known for the past three or so years (details disguised). We’ll call her Karen. She is from a wealthy family, sent to private school in Europe, attended an Ivy League college in the mid 1970s and got a graduate degree in math from one of the top programs in America. She married someone also from a wealthy family who is now a billionaire. Karen wound up inheriting almost nothing because the very successful manufacturing business that her grandfather built was run into the ground by her father. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/28079-quiet-distress-among-the-ex-rich

December 18, 2014

There's lots of great Chris Hedges speeches on the inter webs.......

..... but this one I'm listening to now on iPod podcast is AMAZING. Brutally honest and blunt. The focus is the War on whistleblowers, but he ties it all in to everything going on today.
I found it (free) on iTunes - Chris Hedges war on whistleblowers human rights week. I haven't been able to find an audio or video link yet - I'm still searching. Its a long one, but it's the best I've heard from him. Or anybody.