Fat Tuesday Thoughts

Mardi Gras generates approximately 1 billion each year to the New Orleans economy. New Orleans and Louisiana have received billions over the years from the federal coffers. And the city fathers of NO cannot keep their own damn levees in better shape?

Hillary Clinton was one of the first, if not the first, to speak out on our security over the ports deal. Ms. Clinton is proving herself and her party to be just as strong on national security as the republicans. She can thank BushCo for the nice start on her forthcoming presidential bid.

DP World ports. The bossman could sell to one of the formerly interested bidders - Denmark's Moeller-Maersk, Singapore's Temasek Holdings (oops state owned) and Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa (part of Cheung Kong Group holdings). Moeller-Maersk really needs the income as in 2005 Iraq filed suit against the Danish company Moeller for failure to pay port fees. (Don't be silly, those cartoons were not retaliation.)

In other, more important news, Olbermann and O'Reilly continue to rag one another. You know the ruling class just wants to entertain when they create "feuds" for anchormen, reporters, news hosts, or whatever these characters are called. It's raw World Wrestling for intellectuals.

Zogby poll says 90 percent of troops in Iraq think they are there because of Saddam's involvement in 9/11. I believe Herr Kissinger said, "Troops are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns." Or to that effect. Does Zogby prove Kissinger correct? Do the families of these 90 percent also believe we're in Iraq because of SH/911? Who will have empathy for dumb animals, stupid enough to be used as killer pawns - the American public who pawned them? Stay tuned – next week a poll will show 80 percent of Iraqi in Iraq think 100 percent of Americans are dumb.

And, for all those strung out Brits needing good news, Afghan opium production which provides 90 percent of Brits drug market, has doubled, and the British commander yesterday vowed his forces would play no part in drug eradication there.

Also in the news from Europe – half of you are fat and happy. Which leads me to conclude, Europeans too are just as doped, dumbed, and happy as Americans.

Another Former Analist

From PrisonPlanet ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern "does not rule out Western involvement in this week's Askariya mosque bombing in light of previous false flag operations that have advanced hidden agendas of the ruling elite."

Certainly the ruling elite have performed false flag ops (911 comes to mind) to advance a hidden agenda but in the case of the mosque bombing I do have to ask if there's a possibility the bombing might be the work of Iraq's former "ruling elite," considering the billion$ in funding and training the US for 20 years so generously supplied former CIA asset Saddam Hussein. Where did all Saddam's loyal well-trained republican elite guards go? Are they willing to fight for that Hussein look-alike on trial now? Is there any chance troops loyal to Saddam might want to fight a guerrilla war with the US, since historically the US is less than stellar on the ground; performing best when bombing and incinerating the enemy "back to the stone age."

McGovern … "suggested that Posse Comitatus, the law that forbids the military to take on a policing role within the US, is being systematically overthrown." Suggested huh? I've blogged more than once, and I quote myself,

"U.S. Code Sections 331 through 334. Section 332 states: "Pursuant to the presidential power to quell domestic violence, federal troops are expressly exempt from the prohibitions of Posse Comitatus Act, and this exemption applies equally to active-duty military and federalized National Guard troops."

The military has long been released from Posse Comitatus rules if needed to "quell domestic violence" or any disaster that might trouble us, if so ordered by a president. What part of "expressly exempt" do folks not understand?

McGovern continues ""Not only have the top ranks of the intelligence community been politicized and corrupted, so has the army. The military establishment is goose stepping around, saluting the President …"

Get a clue Homer McG, read Smedley Butler. The military has always been "politicized." And incidentally, perhaps he forgets his own military experience, but the military is required to salute the CIC.

Other notable quotes: " "As I look at the top Pentagon brass, I have to conclude that unlike my days as a US army officer, those folks have been so politicized that if the US President told them to go ahead and exercise police functions in this country they would go ahead and salute and they would do it, and that's really scary." …. McGovern concurred that staged terror has long been used by our governments … Concerning 9/11 McGovern declared that although he is still in two minds, he is deeply suspicious of the official version of events and "there is certainly a cover up."

Ray McG sprinkles in terms like "hidden agendas" and "goose stepping" that give us wingnuts goosebumps and confirms our worst suspicions and predictions of how corrupted the government and military. I just think it neater than hell that a 27 year CIA veteran analyst comes forward and confirms so many theories about the ruling elite, you know, now that he's no longer one of their waterboys. He is no longer part of anything the government would stage, right?

Someone Trying to Take Our Guns, Oh My

One of our favored anti-Bush anti-Zionist anti-neocon cabal sites, WRH, linked to an article by Ground_Control. Mr. Ground is what you get when you mix a rightwinger's gun scare with a leftwinger's sky is always falling – or what I call a "scare white people winger." The Ruby Ridgers, the Minutemen protecting us from Mexicans, and the type who hang around abortion clinics and KKK meetings, etc. It's usually god and guns that keep their attention the longest.

Mr. Ground says " … school shootings which have occurred, can be attributed to an organized attempt to influence anti-gun legislation. In some cases, the timing of the shootings coincided with pro-gun, "conceal and carry" measures, expected to be passed in the states where the shootings took place."

Or … to Mr. Ground and the site he links to, "they" somehow manipulate school kids to commit mass murder in the classroom via the "Manchurian" plotters. The evil plotters somehow induce Americans to place their children on drugs for learning disorders, then dad buys the kid guns as a "hobby" and at some point anti-gun plotters slip the kid a pharmaceutical "cocktail" that (no pun intended) triggers a massacre in math class. The shooter is a victim of the "Zionist" plotters - plotting "against our right to keep and bear arms." Intentional school shootings push Joe Law-Abiding that much closer to losing his guns. Get it? I've heard some wild excuses for poor parenting but this has to be the most insane.

Think that logic would fly if Black school boys began Glocking down classmates in the library? The Manchurian plotters made me do it excuse. I wonder if Mr. G. would buy the idea that the D.C. snipers, ex-military John Allen Muhammad and 17-year-old John Lee Malvo, were also brainwashed and slipped a mickey for murder? Or do "they" only do Manchuria on white folks?

Mr. Ground writes : "The names of the principal anti-Second Amendment legislators -- Feinstein, Metzenbaum, Schumer -- tell part of the story". Hmmmm, do those sound j-e-w-i-s-h? He continues : "This is the same group of people which is simultaneously lobbying, to take away our First Amendment Rights also, under the guise of ficticious, hate crimes legislation." Gotta say it, only stupid white guys could honestly believe hate crimes are fiction.

The caterwauling against our "right to keep and bear arms" has nothing to do with disarming Joe America and conquering America from within (boo!). Too many of us are too well-armed, legally and illegally. In my State, the legal gun toting (ownership) limit for an individual is 51 guns. Many folks are over the limit but Uncle Scam doesn't know. Millions of weapons are sold privately and passed around for years without government knowledge and tracking.

There's big money in domestic arms dealing and sales. Just yesterday I was at a weapons fleamarket. Swords, knives, and an assortment of legal hurts were available. When I asked Joe Redneck why no guns today he gave me a windy speech about government regulations, taxes, licensing, etc. being tougher to meet (pay for). He referred to the government as the "Federal mafia." Good term. Extortion by law.

Now, I love a good conspiracy as much as the next wingnut, and I agree Zionism controls more than is healthy and/or naturally probable in American politics and culture. But Mr. Ground_Control, with his head in the ground, is none too subtle with a racist sky is falling on unarmed white men ideology, a heightened fear for "average, law-abiding citizens unable to defend themselves" due to Zionist plotters and folks whose surnames include 'stein, baum, or schu.

What the gun-control crowd is doing is kissing the other cheek of the government/corporate ass, the little lip spot marked 'arms manufacturers owe the government.' The tit for tat I've mentioned numerous times before. It's necessary Americans jump through more hoops to obtain, own, sell, buy a weapon simply because each hoop has another pay-gov regulation/fee attached. Or, in economics - REVENUE. Mo' money to the coffers of the corporatocracy.

Fatter Cats

While pundits and pols pretend Americans are endangered with the UAE Dubai Ports (DP) deal to operate 6 US ports, no one I've read mentions the sale in December 2004 of CSX Corporation’s International Terminal Business to DP.

"CSX owns companies providing rail, intermodal and rail-to-truck transload services that are among the nation's leading transportation companies, connecting more than 70 river, ocean and lake ports, as well as more than 200 short line railroads. Its principal operating company, CSX Transportation Inc., operates the largest railroad in the eastern United States with a 22,000-mile rail network linking commercial markets in 23 states, the District of Columbia, and two Canadian provinces. CSXT headquarters are in Jacksonville, Fla."

CSX's domestic lines was sold in December 2002 to the Carlyle Group. It appears Dubai purchased only the international terminal business of CSX and Carlyle the domestic lines of CSX. Those domestic lines being predominantly rails. Guess we know who will be shipping us in boxcars to those detention centers built by Halliburton/KBR.

If CSX rings any bells that may be due to Floridian Thomas Martin Fiorentino, a fatcat one time CSX lobbyist, who in 1997 took a "courageous stand" against "political sell-outs to special-interests, denouncing a Florida fundraiser in which fat cats who contributed $50,000 got a private audience with President Clinton and Al Gore."

Fiorentino has since courageously served BushCo in D.C. as chief of staff of the Federal Railroad Administration and counselor to the Deputy Secretary of Transportation. Or the bell may ring because John Snow, Treasury Secretary, was CEO of CSX.

But the opposition, as usual, has jumped on an issue that isn't an Arab threat to you or me, nor would the sale take jobs from Americans. Many in the naysayer crowd are also the sayers of such gems as "we can't be isolationist" and "it's an interdependent world now." But we can't inter-depend on Arabs? We've already sold America to the Japanese, Chinese, Europe, and India.

Originally 9/11 terrorism sent us into Afghanistan. Now some say a few of the 9/11 hijackers had ties to UAE, and Michael Moore pointed to a Saudi connection in Fahrenheit 911, and BushCo propaganda pointed to Iraq, Iran, Syria connections. Are we leaving any Arabs out? Scared enough yet?

Another discordant talking point for me: Dubai Ports is a state/government owned entity. And the United States isn't? Corporate owned government or a government owned corporation – what's the difference.

This port-a-gate has nothing to do with terror or threat – it's all business.

The fatcats are squabbling, likely just to score political points with the voting naysayers above. Reaching across the aisle our pols are doing their part to piss off and write off more of the Middle East on our way to WWIII or IV, choose the numeral you prefer. Whichever way it goes, it's all profit for big business.

Have You Hugged Your Globalization Today

Rumor or fact has it that Madeleine Albright's Group is representing the UAE on the Hill in their deal for control of those US ports. Below I mentioned Karen "The Fixer/Sitter" Hughes was in Dubai last week to assure Dubai businessmen it's a done deal. Just a courtesy call from Herr Bush and bipartisan buddies following the orders of the ruling elite crowd. Although unlikely the Dubaians were all that concerned as they are part of the global elbow-rubbing ruling elite crowd (for now anyway).

Madeleine formed the Albright Group with the usual resume, former Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, spent eight years on the President’s Cabinet and National Security Council, former permanent representative to the UN, professor, scholar, chairman, and on the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange.

The last week in November 2005 Ms. A. was a featured speaker at the Leaders in Dubai convention. Along with Colin "Tom" Powell, Michael Eisner, Queen Noor, Rudolph "Asskissy" Giuliani, Bill Clinton via videocast, etc.

The previous May 2005 Albright had been busily chairing and preparing a Pew Global Attitudes Project report from a series of worldwide public opinion surveys. Other board members and/or advisors on the project were Queen Noor and Henry "Assassinator" Kissinger. According to the report – all corners of the world want globalization, free market, democracy, although Lebanese industrialist Jacques Sarraf, acknowledged that modern developments were not always 'for the best', but should be embraced overall. Oh yes, even if not for the best, let us hug it.

My bet is the survey was not to measure "acceptance" of globalization in all corners of the world, but resistance.

Albright cites the "IMPENDING ARAB WORLD JOBS CRISIS" in this speech. According to her the Arab world will need 100 million jobs created in the coming decade, and she repeats the corporate line that "globalization needs to be embraced." It can't be good for us if the ruling elite are hugging it that much.

With massive investment going on in the Arab world (see here) surely the need for construction workers, burger flippers, waiters, maids, will provide some of the 100 million jobs. And there's always a need for prostitution and telemarketing. Arabs only have to embrace it like the rest of the cornered world.

HumorInk

Raking Muck

Turn off the television news, the radio news. Stop believing half the top stories on the favored websites. Most of it is propaganda. Material from both left and right and in between; written to manipulate and direct the thinking in one direction or the other. Most of it is nothing more than links to mainstream media anyway, the latest spiel from leftwing or rightwing shill. Pro-Bush, anti-bush, or in the middle. Left, right, in between – it's manufactured containment, controlled opinion; behind every headline is a corporate hand. Uruknet and the Guardian are not bringing any more "truth" than MSNBC or Fox News.

I watched the author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man on CSPAN. John Perkins is an excellent speaker and I agreed with most of what he said. His book tells of US dark machinations around the globe in third world countries; an economic "hit man" for U.S. corporatocracy (coalition of government, banks, and corporations).

Reviewers call the book a shocking tell-all from an insider. But Perkins basically gives us the same information that Major General Smedley Butler gave in the 1930s; which is governments and war is a corporate racket. Every generation has their "shocking tell-all" insiders. Yet the country continues on the path set by the founding fathers : Expansion, conquest, empire. There has not been one decade in American history without war, whether big, small, overt, covert, fought for corporate interests. Stop the pretense that America was ever a peace-loving nation. This country was founded and built on corporatocracy. Corruption and lawlessness is the American spirit. Face it, we're a nation of grafters and grifters, willing to kill for indoor plumbing while the rest of the world sits in our sewer. It's our way of life.

"Muckrakers" is a term from the turn of the last century which Theodore Roosevelt nicknamed authors who wrote investigative exposés on child labor, prisons, religion, corporations, and insurance companies. The term comes from Pilgrim's Progress which spoke of a man with a "Muck-rake in his hand" who raked filth rather than look up to nobler things. Roosevelt is credited with noting the muckrakers publicized the need for progressive reform, but only as long as they knew when to "stop raking the muck" and avoid stirring up "radical unrest."

Successes you say? At what cost to the world and ourselves? We're better off? Why, because we moved our child and slave labor overseas or into US prisons? Our food is healthier, or creating epidemic diabetes? Work environment better? Where, Wal-Mart and McDonald's, or mining? More humane prisons, where? in Florida youth boot camps? Better education? to do what, handcuff 5-year-old girls who throw tantrums in school? Insurance corporations more honest? Longer lifespans? My great grandparents lived to be 81, 90, 95, and 102. Living in luxury because we have Ipods and Blackberries?

The tell-all insiders were published a century ago as they are today – yet nothing has changed in regard to corruption and corporatocracy. Why? Commercialism. Muckrakers, either for or against an issue, whether exposing truth or parceling out excuses, bring big bucks.

Commercialism is profit, not patriotism; recognition, not honor; elite gain, not national prosperity; it's dealing and selling, not principle. Every generation has tell-all insiders telling it all to the truthseekers among us. Nearly all readers of the tell-all believe the latest article, book, exposé may be the one that "changes things." Tell-alls pacify a segment of America, content with reading and hoping change will come from the next NYT bestseller tell-all, a journalistic exposé, or the next whistleblower. Yet here we are in the same handbasket, decade after decade.

Did Gandhi's India, American Blacks, Nicaragua's Sandinistas, Bolivia, Venezuela, change their landscape without violence? Did they shed corporatocracy? No, and not likely to without Joe America joining in. Even Perkins admits that in order to change America, some will die. He didn't mean death by bookworms and bloggers. We can vote in an entirely new administration, we can bring the troops home now, we can win a few privacy protections on paper, but not much will change and the cycle will repeat.

Truth is - corporatocracy is not going anywhere without an ugly bloody fight. And Americans know that corporatocracy has always won in the end; just look around the world. When enough muck is raked commercialism will have us look at nobler things. The majority of Americans, in their corporate devised comfort zones, ever fearful of change, will continue to permit their government to stage, finance, and commit wars abroad, lest the war comes home as "radical unrest." We've always had the truth (even more so today) – we just keep mucking around with it.

Clueless

I was discussing the world with my eldest daughter (age 31) this last weekend. She's fairly sharp and wise to the world. She works for NGOs, 501s, deals with civil rights issues, predominantly fair housing. She remarked, without malice or meaness, "mom, white people really are clueless." The discussion was too lengthy to go into here but the following article reminded me of the comment.

The Greens, the party name conjures up vegans and dolphins for me for some reason, issued a press release on the 16th regarding the Dissent, Freedoms, Privacy Under Sustained Assault by Bush.

The Greens, as are many on the "left", are also worried about those "detention centers" which Halliburton/KBR last month was awarded the contract to build. During the growth of the prison industry over the last 2 decades white (and Green) folks weren't making as much noise about the prison/industrial complex. In fact, many were fighting to have prisons (jobs) built in their backyard. But that was when it was a given that it would be poor Blacks filling those cells. Okay, granted, the idea that prisons are being built for white folks is a new idea for white folks. But if you're a non-white living in the 'hood one has to laugh at the accusation that dissent, freedom, and privacy are under assault. Where have white folks been?

Yes, white writers have lamented how so many of the nation's minorities remain on the bottom rung, the influx of drugs in the ghetto, etc., blaming 'the man' is indeed easy. The Man supplies the drugs – and manipulates the poverty that leads many to opt for dealing rather than sweeping floors . 'The Man' has always made it easy and alluring for minorities and lower-rungers to play the criminal role in society but it's still an individual's choice.

For decades whites have wept reams of words for the lot in life of Africa and America's Blacks (usually while collecting donations) yet the conditions worsened. Yes, some Black Americans have made "inroads" with acceptance in film, music, sports, political seats, movin' on up acting and singing and sporting, and from podiums repeating the DNC/DLC promises. And certainly there are a few areas in the country where monied Blacks live relatively unmolested; our family has lived in such areas which contributed to the culture shock of moving to the heartland (not much heart here by the way).

Here in the heartland small town Blacks make up 10 to 20 percent of the town's population, concentrated in one area of town. Local whites regularly break discrimination laws in housing and hiring – red-lining with ease – and through city codes, ordinances, steering buyers and sellers, hiring practices, our town is basically still segregated. I could buy in another area but choose not to. (Shaking his head #2 son says most people try hard to get out of the ghetto and I work hard to stay in it.) I have a comfortable big old home with never a problem in the 'hood, and I intend to stay thank you.

My daughter and I find some amusement in the fact that our phone voice doesn't match the physical image in the mind of white folks – we hear all manner of excuses as to why a deal on the phone was a certainty but upon meeting the landlord, agent, etc. the property had been sold, rented, without the foreknowledge of the red-faced flustered asshole stuttering his/her excuses. But what can we do. File a lawsuit? Sue against stupid? Discrimination is not easy to prove in a court of law. My daughter has recently notified the NAACP of the fact that the local paper published the town council's plan to "drive out undesirables" using zoning laws, bulldozing housing, etc. We couldn't believe they actually had the balls and/or stupidity to publish their intent.

My Caucasian family and friends fear my side of town, some refusing to visit after dark. The old sundown law sort of reversed. In fact, this part of town is named "Sunset." The whites fear this side of town, not because in reality crime is worse, or that drugs are worse (crime rates are higher per capita for whites here), but simply because of inherited ignorance and the local and national propaganda that convinces many whites that Blacks are dangerous. The whites believe that in Sunset life-threatening criminal activities go on after sundown, every night, all night long. I've been told by white folks that we kill one another on this side of town, bury the body, and no one ever knows. They cannot be convinced it's untrue. Apparently whites here find it easy to believe that murdered/missing loved ones doesn't mean much to colored folk as the crime can go unnoticed, unknown, unpunished.

It's a given that whites come to Sunset, daylight or dark, for only three reasons : 1) looking for drugs, 2) landlord collecting rent, 3) the law to capture dangerous Sunset residents. The cops know which whites are seeking drugs, and leave the offspring of judges, lawyers, doctors, town fathers alone but do occasionally bust the poor whites who venture to Sunset looking to party. Actually there's only one "corner" where the drug activity goes on but to hear the whites talk you would think the entire population (3000) of Sunset is dealing, buying, selling, manufacturing, using, or killing someone over illegal drugs. I find here most Black folks who do use anything are potheads. It's the whites here who prefer being strung out on heroin, crack, meth, pain killers, etc. There's the trailer park on the white side of town which has a drive-thru window for meth but apparently they run out on occasion and the white boys visit Sunset for whatever is available. If illicit drugs were legalized we might see wealthy Black businessmen in pharmaceuticals, and a lot more whites in prison for stealing and killing to buy a fix. The law of supply and demand, the "free market" could turn the entire drug war around.

My daughter has recently been employed on a venture with a white woman from out of town who represents another NGO. This lady mentioned how frustrating it was coming to the area because in two weeks she has been pulled over twice by the local police for absolutely no reason. She was shocked and disgusted this was happening to her. My daughter asked her to imagine having the experience almost daily.

Because of this generalized overall fear whites have the cops are given free rein to consistently and constantly abuse law and civil rights. Harassment is perfectly legal and the norm in the heartland.

A Black in Sunset knows if the police are summoned for anything – noise from neighbors, Tyrone Jr. beating up Terrell Jr., Lulamae throwing her no good grandson out of the house – at least 8 two man squad cars, a swat team in hi-tech gear, dogs, helicopters, and an armored vehicle will roll up.

Once, a neighborhood argument over something minor broke out with a couple of teen girls cat fighting in the street. The police were called and swooped down in full force eager as always to save white folks from the risk of spillover from out-of-control angry colored folk. Fed up with being treated as threats rather than served and protected Shanicka Watson threw a rock at robocop. The scene eventually ended with 8 Blacks arrested for disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, assault on an officer, trespassing, etc. and 1 robo injured with a rib contusion (sustained when he attempted to run backwards and fell on his own billyclub).

And it's a hi-tech wondrous sight to behold when the feds, state, county, and local lawmen descend on Sunset to bust Bubba for growing marijuana in his basement. The white folks over in Plantation Acres (I kid you not), tsk-tsk and discuss how colored folk are so miserable and making so much trouble for the law.

The police here need only probable cause to search your home, your car, your purse, your person, at any time - and believe me - "just be-cause" - is good enough in the heartland. Our town is not an aberration. I've not told of more horrendous legal abuses here and there are plenty. But, to the whites newly discovered fear of suppressed dissent, loss of freedom and privacy, and detention centers - if such fears are a reality for masses of white folks – all I can say, is where have you been.

Karen Hughes Can I Charge An Amen

Hughes began her third Middle East tour yesterday. I've yet to see any fashion reports on her apparel or cutesy anecdotes of her travels but Karen was never one for striding across the windy tarmac in a black swashbuckling trenchcoat and high black boots, a la Condi Johnny Cash.

Perhaps no fashion statements because we're to believe Karen, Secretary Of Public Diplomacy, (and Bush's favorite babysitter), is more serious in her job to "improve America's standing in the region." But, I'd really like to know what serious diplomats wear to meet and greet, now that I know to wear a blackshirt like Condi when in Wiesbaden.

Publicly Hughes is a "diplomat," the official "public appeaser" or "fixer." The term fixer works best as it is someone who conducts business (sometimes illegally) to benefit their client (in this case BushAngloCo) who may have a history of illegal activity. The appeaser aspect assures the public that our leaders are doing their best to promote world peace, and improved "standing."

We are to believe (be appeased) that Karen, flying around the ME on our dime, is in pursuit of bringing understanding of America to the Muslim world; to help them understand American policy, since obviously many of them can't "stand" it. Karen must convince the Muslim world that the majority of the Anglo world wish them only freedom and democracy, and if they would just listen to the oppressive regimes we support, we wouldn't have to kill so many "terrorists."

But! Cantankerous me, I put forth that the ever political professional Ms. H. is not on a noble mission to spread America's freedom, or to crusade for more understanding relations between Joe Blow and Mohammed Blow. Lord no, "they" need Joe and Mo to hate and kill one another.

Her "charge to keep" is in the hymn " "To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill; O may it all my powers engage to do my Master's will." (BushAngloCo being the master.) Or in Jesuspeak "Fight the good fight of the faith … I charge you to keep this command … amen (1 Timothy 6:12-16). It's too bad Bush has dropped most of the gospel out of his rhetoric as it could provide more conspicuous clues to when and which tree they plan to nail the world on.

Hughes may be forced to address the torture, Gitmo, and cartoons in front of tokenary groups of Dubai students, NGOs, and local community leaders but her real fixer job is at the "major gathering of Islamic political, academic and business leaders." Business leaders the key word here.

She's assuring those suits (or in this case maybe turbans), that UAE control of those 6 US ports is a done deal – ignore the political cattle calls for "hearings," and vowing that seeming reluctance by Hillary, Schumer, etc. is just the usual staged pols wanking off their base with their pandering hand. No one is going to stop the deal.

After visiting Dubai and United Arab Emirates (US Sheik, Inc.) Hughes will take her how-to-improve understanding skills for a stopover in Germany. Likely to meet Germany's new Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and bob heads, expressing agreement in their two nations complete support of "Israel's policy in the wake of Hamas' win in the Palestinian parliamentary elections" (another "charge to keep" : keep down the Palestinians). "Merkel also said she agrees with Israel's decision to withhold the transfer of Palestinian Authority tax monies to the Palestinians until it can ascertain the revenue is not used to fund terror activities." (See, European pols kiss Israel's assets as much as ours do.)

But concern over "standing" between the US and Muslim world is not really on Hughes charge radar. No, no. It's all about God's divinely chosen finances as usual. Amen.

Who's Your Daddy

Salon.com has obtained the entire collection of the Army's Criminal Investigation Command (CID) torture photos, videos, and investigative reports – all neatly hand over on a DVD.

Apparently, the "uniformed member of the military" who gave the material to Salon has no fear of BushCo, the Pentagon, the law, or the CIA. Risking life, limb, and livelihood to turn over the material; material which has been leaking for the last 2 years anyway. Would this be considered an information flood?

It's not every day such a documented and detailed "leak" occurs. Not every day a DVD from Command is handed over to the "liberal" media. Salon quotes the deputy legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights as believing "the material obtained by Salon represents all of the Abu Ghraib images and video the Pentagon has been fighting to keep confidential. I'm guessing that what you have is a pretty rare and complete set."

Rare and complete indeed. The evil neocon cabal have lost their plumbers.

According to this blurp about Salon.com, the site's history began with "journalism veterans" David Talbot, Andrew Ross, and David Zweig in 1995. Targeting a literate audience attracted to highbrow content, the trio launched Web-based Salon Magazine with financial backing from Adobe Ventures, Apple Computer, and Hambrecht & Quist.

Hmmm. I can understand Apple and Adobe backing but Hambrecht & Quist? H&Q is a Boston based (as in Brewster Jennings) capital management / investment firm who "invest in small emerging growth equities, both public and private, in the healthcare and life sciences industries."

Not sure how the Salon website, which began and made it's fame with Clintonism, Ken Starr, and Princess Di fits into healthcare and life science investors but … what do I know. (BTW, life sciences encompass companies in the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, biomedical technologies, life systems technologies, nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, food processing, environmental, biomedical devices, and organizations and institutions that devote the majority of their efforts in the various stages of research, development, technology transfer and commercialization.)

Then, with "essays by Camille Paglia and an interactive Table Talk section, Salon soon caught the eyes of the mainstream media. Time magazine selected Salon as the best Web site of 1996. Michael O'Donnell, a consumer software executive, became president and publisher that year.

Salon's coverage of the death of Princess Diana in 1997 brought a cluster of new visitors (tabloid grazers) to its Web site. By the end of the year, the company had attracted additional financial backing from Japanese publisher ASCII Corporation and Borders Group." (Big publishers.)

With inquiries into the dealings of President Clinton dominating the headlines in 1998, Salon began delving into investigative pieces. Its coverage of special prosecutor Kenneth Starr's Whitewater investigation helped usher Salon into the spotlight. The company secured 1998 distribution agreements with America Online (now AOL Time Warner), the Go Network (now Walt Disney Internet Group), and CIA – oops wrong acronym, I meant CNN Interactive.

It all makes me go hmmmmmm. Usually the writers at Salon (remember they target the literate highbrow) pooh-pooh the idea of conspiracies, i.e. the Clinton cocaine smuggling, Princess Di's death or 9/11 insider/coverup – although they seem to believe the 7000 pages of the Pentagon paper proved we can't believe anything our leaders say - but Salon does make sure the reader is given all the fruitynut details surrounding every conspiracy theory floating around. Not sure how that makes their brows any higher than the rest of us.

Jaws

In my sometimes bizarro world, reading of Peter Benchley's death, I made a connection to this article on BushCo's 2007 budget :

"While this year's State of the Union looked to many like final proof of the death of Social Security privatization, you wouldn't know it by reading the FY 2007 budget released last week."

"Private accounts proposed are similar to the plan first suggested in last year's State of the Union address."

The sharks are circling. As I've stated before, we the peons are handed legislation our overlords decide is best, even if they have to backdoor us and later, after it becomes policy, they assure Joe Knownothing it's the best thing for him and his.

Without googling, can you list 3 legislative bills in the last 30 years that have been helpful, enhancing, beneficial to Citizen You.

At least one-third of Americans supported the privatization idea from the beginning, the elite support the idea (more funds for the Always-Siphoning-Off the Poor to Support Wall Street Inc.), so it's only a matter of time before some version of privatization is handed down from the Mount High Corruption Caucus. (Also recall that AARP initially endorsed BushCo's dinkering with Social Security issues.)

So, mark my words, steps toward SS privatization, or "private accounts" will take place before BushCo leaves office. By the time the government's shackles become a permanent tattoo – most of us today will be dead and buried - probably in the paupers grave (or urn) as Social Security lump sum death benefit ($255) is also targeted by BushCo for elimination. But keep heart, those fighting dems are planning intense opposition to any thought of cutting that $255 death payment. And you thought the dems didn't love you anymore.

Gossip Too Good to Pass Up

Cheney's got a girlfriend.

"Sirius radio's Alex Bennett just broke a rumor that the delay in reporting the news that Cheney shot an old man in the heart was due to an effort to hide or spin Cheney's female companion.

Pamela Willeford, ambassador to Switzerland and -- yes -- Liechtenstein, was part of the hunting excursion with Cheney and Whittington. And according to Willeford's account, Cheney and the ambassador were side-by-side when the shooting of Whittington took place."

Torture Alert

Torture news makes a comeback this week (along with Plame, the missing Pentagon billions, the war to save the dollar, etc.) Why? I have been going through the archives here and elsewhere and basically the same issues, same rhetoric, same hype, same theories, still presented as news as they were a year ago, two years ago, three years ago. Ever watch a dog chase its tail?

Regarding the latest Abu Ghraib scandal, from The Age : "They included photographs of blood-soaked Iraqi prisoners who had been tortured or shot dead, footage of a prisoner repeatedly slamming his head into a metal door, and a film of naked male prisoners being forced to masturbate in front of the camera." Excuse me, but can I have a little verification and proof that the victims were shot dead and/or tortured to death? I could show you a photo of myself on a foreign beach at night getting dressed with a wetsuit lying at my feet and a small boat with guns in the background but that's not proof I'm running guns.

Also making the rounds yesterday was Ann Louise Bardach's For One Marine, Torture Came Home, where Ms. Bardach, speaking for the dead, tells us this marine committed murder/suicide (killed his father, then self) because of the "unspeakable" tortures he witnessed in Afghanistan. Bardach psychoanalyzes the dead. (Seems to be the trend this month with folks using a coffin as background to make political statements, a la the King funeral.)

Can someone explain to me how these newest torture photos, taken by US personnel and held by US military, were "leaked" in Australia but not the US? Were not these photos confiscated by the US military after the first leak 2 years ago? At least some of this newest batch is from the same incidents photographed previously, some even include more of Ms. England and friends. So far, none of the "new" photos appear to be any worse than the first batch. The same hoods, same beatings, same masturbation, same nudity. Is this newest batch the unspeakable horror that Sy Hersh spoke of?

Who benefits by making soldiers the criminals? Bush? Cheney? Israel? You, me? Europe? It's not making sense because we know if the powers-that-be wanted these photos and information unknown it would be unknown. The CIA was at Abu Ghraib, knew photos were taken. Did the CIA allow a group of low level low life personnel to walk off with proof of what was going on, or is the CIA "leaking" like a sieve again?

Explain to me why BushCo would make an issue of releasing the photos, knowing the pics will be seen by everyone online anyway, and making it an issue only portrays BushCo as suppressing freedom, condoning torture, etc. I can't say BushCo is that stupid, afterall this is the same crew who got away with murdering 3000 Americans on 9/11 and stealing two elections.

Explain to me how abusing, torturing, and murder by US personnel is any worse than the abuse, torture, murder that goes on in American prisons every day and has for years. Some will say because American inmates are guilty – but how does that make abuse, torture, murder any more justifiable? We also know there are innocent men and women held in American prisons.

I'm not debating the issue of torture being right or wrong; it is wrong and I presume most decent people agree. But I would debate labeling what we have been fed so far as being "horrors." I have seen horror and these photos to date are disgusting, but not horrors.

With less time of late I am not being as concise in making a point or points (hopefully that changes soon), but my points here are we're being handed "scandals" which indicates to me that other truths go undetected, and the "scandals" we're handed lead only to talking points, slapping a few lower level semi-elite folks around for show, and demonizing our own troops. Another point, a person shouldn't link (or excuse) suicide/murder to being a veteran who saw war (that was done with Vietnam vets too). Millions of people witness the unspeakable on a daily basis and do not go home and murder. And why is it, after five years of prominent folks being scared spitless to breath a word against BushCo, it's now the brave thing to do? And finally, I believe I have that new work virus going around. See below.

!! VIRUS ALERT !!

There is a new virus. It's called WORK. If you receive WORK from your colleagues, your boss, via e-mail, or from anyone else, do not touch it under any circumstances. This virus wipes out your private life completely.

If you should happen to come in contact with this virus, take two friends and go straight to the nearest bar. Order drinks immediately and after three rounds, you will find that WORK has been completely deleted from your system.

Forward this virus warning immediately to at least five friends. Should you realize you do not have five friends, this means you are already infected by this virus and WORK already controls your life. If this is the case, go to the bar and stay until you make at least five friends. I think I have five friends, but am not entirely positive so I'm headed for the bar anyway.....it never hurts to be safe.

THANK GOODNESS I GOT THIS IN TIME

On the Way to the US Third World, Inc.

In the news yesterday was the usual dosage of economic scare – Syria now moving their foreign exchange reserves to the euro. All $2 to 4 billion of their reserves (a spit in the financial ocean).

The short story did make me wonder if China and India's joint purchase of the Syrian Petro-Canada oil fields was paid in renminbi, dollars or euros. Some market the story as "Syria confronts US." No Syria is not in a confrontation with the US. The Syrian ruling elite are just protecting their ass-sets, just in case US, Inc. tries to freeze them. Makes me wonder if American businessmen are sitting in Bejing and Delhi discussing euros and Grandma Millie - "Just cut 'em off. They're so fucked. They should just bring back fucking horses and carriages, fucking lamps, fucking kerosene lamps."

How close are we to spending euros or renminbi at Wal-Mart? Remember a couple of years ago BushCo backed down on the steel tariffs, cut agricultural subsidies, and placed an import cap on Chinese imports of socks and pants. Psssssst … that cap was very small in accordance with WTO rules and assured US textiles manufacturers would back CAFTA, i.e. more unemployed American textile workers, more indigenous Caribbean and Central American folks earning your nickles and dimes, but margins of profit and the "free" market are a-okay in this hemisphere.

If the US economy "crashes" as some predict – remember folks, don't blame the Chinese, Indians, bourses or bloggers – it's businessmen – fucking your grandma (with the help of foreign leaders doing same to their grandmas).

For Sale

Next week China and Pakistan will meet and greet and celebrate 55 years of diplomatic ties between the 2 nations. All about common interests, economic interests, stability in the regions, etc. Our new best friends are best friends too.

Nearly a year ago Pakistan admitted that the "father" of its nuclear program, A.Q. Khan (a Dubai businessman), did give centrifuges to Iran, but as an individual and not in connection with the Pakistani government of course. Pakistan refused the US any direct access to Khan; as of a year ago Khan was under Pakistan "house arrest." Western diplomats suspect Khan also aided North Korea's nukes over the years.

Internationally every nation knows who is getting what from who, when, and where. Diplomats and ambassadors hear as much at dinner parties (that's why they "suspect" so much so often). Khan reminded me of the Edwin P. Wilson case. Fallguy Wilson had to do 22 years in prison for playing in Libya with the CIA.

But with guys (and gals) like Edwin Wilson I'm waiting for the current American connection to the black market to be made public. Wilson was convicted in 1983 for illegally exporting explosives. Eddie's playground and friend was Libyan bad guy (US new best friend) and terrorist at the time, Muammar Ghadafi. Wilson was "former" CIA (1955-1971) and his defense in '83 was he still worked for the agency. Wilson was convicted in Texas, and in Virginia for unauthorized exporting of firearms, attempted murder, obstruction of justice and witness tampering.

A year ago Wilson's conviction was vacated by the Southern District of Texas court and the DOJ announced they would not seek retrial. The court ruling states that "Because the government knowingly used false evidence against him and suppressed favorable evidence, his conviction will be vacated." What?! The CIA suppressed evidence and planted false evidence? But the Texas vacation didn't vacate his Virginia conviction. He was paroled finally last year at the ripe old age of 75, however.

Wilson's bio reads a lot like Val Plame's. From 1955 through early 1971, Wilson was employed full-time, mostly as an undercover agent (NOC), by the US government through the Central Intelligence Agency. His assignments sometimes required him to establish and use “front” companies to gain access to information and to support CIA operations here and abroad.

Did the CIA frame Wilson, one of their own? Or was Wilson a true patriot just doing a lengthy assignment after giving aid to the enemy of the Reagan era, which unfortunately for whatever reason did not create the War on Terror so long sought. (Check out Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr. Yep, the daddy of Schwarzkoph Junior who did Iraq for daddy Bush. Schwarz Sr. helped set up and train the Iranian police forces and reinstall the Shah way back. Remember Condi said this was a generational war. It's been going on for generations and will continue to do so.)

Personally, I believe Wilson guilty of all charges; he must have been skimming big CIA profits to have been punished so long. Anyway, it all just makes me wonder – can you trust the Plame/Wilson affair (back in the news again today) to not be just another CIA operation? Wonder why in Plame's 20 years of service she never stumbled on at least one American doing Wilsonian type business. And isn't it odd that BushCo outing Plame hampers the administration's ability to learn more about Iran's nuclear program (or so we're told) – just one more excuse for BushCo's better safe than sorry mushroom cloud policy.

Glass Half Full

Someone over at Huffington reads this as "The inscription noting the duration of Bush's presidential term doesn't read "2001-2009." It reads "2001-BLANK." In other words, the statue says he's going to be president from 2001 through infinity!"

Or more of the canceled election crapoloa in "Is someone at the National Guard trying to warn us? Does President Bush plan to use his Executive authority under his wartime powers to cancel the 2008 election."

My first thought was perhaps Bush won't make it to 2009. Hope springs eternal ya know.

Viva la Revolucion!

At home and abroad many champion the "revolutions" in Bolivia and Venezuela. The election of social progressives in both countries offer hope to the leftists of the world. "Creating a new beacon on a hill" for the world's poor, so it is said.

Having some personal experience in Latin American politics I've tried to see where this latest round of "radical" leaders south of the border are headed. Some one near and dear to me was shot in the 1970s during a coup attempt in Bolivia; he escaped and has never returned to his hometown of Cochabamba. He now lives in Central America, still politically active. I listen carefully to his counsel on Latin politics; he maintains hope for a revolution of the poor and I find that inspiring. We lived through and watched the US systematically grind down the resolve and unity of Nicaraguans, until Nicaraguans surrendered hope and idealism to DC by electing the White House approved, considered somewhat "liberal," Violeta Chamorro.

Nicaraguans knew that turning away from the Sandinista movement would end the long deadly US financed war; end the embargo that nearly starved them out. Today Nicaragua, just as other nations in the area, has become a tourist trapista; an excellent gringo investment opportunity, where little brown folks will serve you, especially since el gringo (or his facsimile) now owns the land, builds the hotel, and passes out the pesos (or cordoba). Violeta is comfortably back on her estate overlooking the gorgeous bay of San Juan del Sur; per Washington, mission accomplished. Apparently, even Danny Ortega now knows the road to the Nicaraguan presidency is through the White House.

Chileans attempted a "movement" in 1970 with the election of Salvador Allende. He nationalized the Chilean copper mines, ITT, etc. Allende was eventually assassinated (thanks to Henry Kissinger and Nixon), after cutoff of aid and economic sanctions were placed on Chile with US ambassador Ed Korry stating "We will do all in our power to condemn Chileans to utmost poverty." The method and thinking haven't changed. (Though the poverty chickens are coming home to roost.) Every socialist movement in Latin America has been short-lived and replaced with Anglo controlled tyranny. There is not one Spanish speaking nation south of the US border that hasn't been condemned to poverty by Anglo policies and politicians.

So I'm not holding out a lot of hope for Hugo Chavez, or the recently elected Bolivian president Evo Morales, to jumpstart a worldwide movement of and for the poor. The ruling elite have never allowed such movements to go unmolested in the past. Imagine the loss to their portfolios. As long as the powerful can keep the white "middle-class" dumb, doped, and in check(s) the elite win out over social movements by the poor, the brown, the revolutionary. The poor are kept too busy grubbing for survival. Famine is a tool of the ruling elite, all the while they claim to fight against hunger. It's odd, they can't seem to win against the evils that afflict the poorest, i.e. war, poverty, drugs, hunger, etc. but let one little "leftist" nationalize a national resource and the elite can (at their discretion) within weeks proclaim victory over his deposed (or decomposing) body.

If we go even further back there was the same hope for the poor with Bolivar, Fidel, Che, etc. Their ideals of a socially fair and just world are dusted off by every generation. Hugo and Evo are the newest faces in the revolution. Promising to take back their country's wealth from ruling Anglo oligarchies and foreign corporate interests. I wish them good luck and speed.

Socialism should put people before profit, however, that cliché is practiced nowhere on earth. But the ruling elite's twisted sense of humor (or sadism) does allow the poor to hope of such a practice (as they squeeze harder on the economic thumbscrews). Hope dished to the poor cost the elite little to nothing.

But wait, do not the dumb, doped, and fatted claim France, Spain, England, are socialist? Yes, especially when on topics of medicine/health care, but Europe is capitalist. Aren't countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark, etc. socialist? No, they are gated white communities with growing racial/immigration problems.

So what if anything has changed this time around for the left? Not much that I can see. Some may think that because Russia, Asia, and Europe are doing more and bigger business in Latin America this will limit US tampering with Latin nations and/or leaders. But it's never really been solely about US tampering – it's corporate interests, and multinational interference knows no border, has no loyalty to any particular "nation" and even less so today in the world of conglomeratus. You don't really believe do you that a Japanese corporation is totally owned by the Japanese, a Russian or Chinese company held only by local nationals? There isn't a nation on the planet which isn't owned and operated by big business. And most of the hands collecting the biggest profits at day's end are Anglo (with a few non-Anglo toads as fronts). Being a toad can be lucrative and cushy.

Hugo and Evo are our Sandinistas and Zapatistas, our Bolivar and Che of the new millenium. Hugo and Evo will likely be bought or eliminated by what's best for the globocoporate elite. Kind of makes you wonder how Fidel stayed in power all these years doesn't it? Maybe he's just been useful. A "beacon" to the left.

Maybe revolution is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration, or something like that. Maybe all we need do is sweat a little more.

Cartoon Response

Arab-European League responds to cartoons with some of its own, with the remark "If it is the time to break Taboos and cross all the red lines, we certainly do not want to stay behind."

Samples below.

Caption to first : "Write that one in your diary Anne."

Caption to 2nd: "I don't think they are Jews." "We have to get to 6,000,000 somehow."

Chilling Trends

Silencing dissent a growing trend. By Steve Thomma - Knight Ridder

WASHINGTON – "The ejection of two women from the U.S. Capitol for wearing message T-shirts during President Bush's State of the Union speech this week was the latest incident in a growing trend of stifling dissent."

And ….

"This trend has a chilling effect on those who disagree with people in power, analysts say."

Chilling huh. I shouldn't expect more from a political writer who actually believed " The 2004 presidential election gives Americans the most dramatic choice of leaders and directions in at least a quarter of a century."

Whoa! Of the two Yale brothers - Bush likes beer and pretzel and Kerry likes French wine and cheese? Dramatic differences indeed.

Had Kerry been installed as president, does anyone believe the US would be doing much of anything any differently? What is "chilling" is how consistently left leaning political writers seem to do nothing more than reinforce the silly idea that we somehow were once freer to "dissent." Guess he wasn't of the age of dissent during the '60s. There was quite the "growing trend" to silence folks back then; with dogs, fire hoses, assassination, jail time, trigger happy National guardsmen, dossiers, etc.

Analysts such as myself might say : Anytime you seriously dissent in the US – the powers that be will kick your butt. Dissenters today are not being gunned down or hosed down, so chill. They can't silence the masses when the masses are not making any real noise. The only "trend" is hack writing from both sides yelling fire when there's not even smoke.

As the hacksters focus on T-shirts, wiretaps, and spies, government henchmen (pols) are busy with designs to dismantle as much as they can of social safety nets, passing big money contracts to corporations who contract the jobs abroad, passing tax hikes along to the states to screw you so Big Federal Daddy isn't blamed, doing nothing about the rising costs of food, shelter, energy; nothing about corruption (tokens don't count), election fraud, and war profiteering.

Our choices, according to the analysts, seem to be freedom for T-shirts (reminiscent of '60s argument to wear the flag on ass of pants) and against eavesdropping. Then, when they tell us we have the right to wear those tees anywhere we want and announce they have ceased warrantless wiretapping – we can yell hot-damn woohoo - we won!

Why They War

The party in power at onset of war tell us the same lies; war for democracy, freedom, human rights, to "prevent" atrocities that may occur if they do not intervene. The party not in power happily goes along, minus the few necessary mandated detractors who demand the US not act as world policeman, shouldn't practice nation building, etc.The pols and ruling elite try to offer somewhat valid reasons for Joe Blow to die on foreign soil, justification to send our dollars and blood to war; all hollow reasons and all rerun, whether raising a flag on Iwo Jima or at Ground Zero. Wars are all beginning to look alike. Another "Pearl Harbor type event" didn't go quite as planned for the commanders of the new century. However, rest assured (or uneasily) they're arguing about it among themselves.

Reagan sent money and arms to Central America so the freedom fighters could save the ruling classes in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, the Contras, from commies. Ron saved American college students and the citizens of Grenada from Cuban influence. Poppy Bush played relentless rock music over loud speakers and saved Panamanians from Manuel Noriega. And of course, Pops saved the royal family of Kuwait and stopped Saddam in mid-air tossing of babies from incubators. And, the all time favored "preservation of our way of life" is a given.

Compared to past wars, WWI and II, it's obvious the minds of the ruling elite can no longer create the enemies and causes the masses will rush to die for (we are wising up, slowly).

Hitler was the epitome of the evil-doer, making even WWI's Kaiser Wilheim (Queen Victoria's grandson and the Beast of Berlin) less vile. If you stare at history long enough you might conclude Hitler was no more nor less, no worse than other blood and money mongering head of state. The Japanese at Nanking Massacre, Stalin's purges, Pol Pot, My Lai, El Salvador's Mazote massacre, General Custer, BushCo in Iraq, etc. Extermination is extermination, whether it's indigenous brown people, Injuns, Blacks, or Jews.

I've always thought it a handy little legacy Hitler bequeathed his fellow Anglo elites, when he renamed The German Workers' Party to include the term National Socialist, or National Socialist German Workers' Party, Nazi for short. Associating his evil with socialist; and the idea that thinking like a nationalist is wicked, has gone far in advancing Joe Blow's faith in the idea that socialist bad, capitalist good, nationalist bad, global good. Even the term "worker's party" has an antisocial ring to it. Corporate power and PR couldn't have done better and the Anglo-elite can thank Hitler for turning socialism and worker's party into dirty words in America. Hitler was well-scripted by his creators. But then so is boy Bush and we know who's behind him.

The experts and propagandists drone on and on about democracy, freedom, saving others, bringing the free market to the downtrodden and oppressed. They lecture on how philanthropic the wealthy, how much tax the wealthy willingly pay, how the wealthy want only the best for the world, and if that means outsourcing and offshoring your job – the wealthy will suck it up and do it. You're told the economy is taking a few hits from outside forces of evil who would bourse us to death, but not to worry, the captains of industry are holding things together (even as they file bankruptcy and order layoffs) and wisely use your tax dollars to fight those who would bring down the US economy. Those captains on the yachts will throw you an inflatable lifesaver, if the pentagon has funded enough to go around.

I remember the 1950s well. After WWII the elite had so much profit they didn't know what to do with it. Hemorrhaging profits; some had to trickle down. The 1950s was a period in the US that will not be repeated. Millions of Americans, like my uncles and aunts, worked in manufacturing, on loading docks, as mechanics, truck drivers and bricklayers, in mom-pop businesses. It was the era of Made in America; where an item made in Japan was an embarrassment, something to be ashamed of as it meant you were either cheap or poor, or both.

In the 1950s many American families purchased modest brick ranch homes on large lots for $15,000-20,000 with 20 year mortgages. They bought Rambler stationwagons, and had lots of kids. The scrawny sapling trees in the yards grew huge, patios were built and basketball hoops hung on the garage as the land and the families matured. Twenty years later (early 1970s) they were selling the homes for $150,000 to 250,000. Quite the reinvestment profit for working class stiffs like Joe Blow.

What happened to white Joe Blow in and after the 1950s is similar to the success of Black men and women after the Civil War. In the latter half of the 1800s great numbers of freed slaves quickly rose to form a middle class, opening successful businesses, schools, universities, creating wealthy townships. Then Jim Crowe, segregation, lynchings, burning down entire Black towns, denial of constitutional and civil rights, etc. The post WWII white Joe Blow got uppity too in the '50s and '60s; better educated, better employed, better off economically. And the elite brought him down. We all know we're seeing the first generation who will not do better economically than their parents before them.

What you seldom hear from the ruling class pundits, like Limbaugh, is how capitalism works. It must have PROFIT. And no other business generates profit like war. Afterall, you have to continuously buy/sell the goods that only war can consume faster than it can be produced. Energy, food, armament, clothing, materials, everything. Why build malls where most Americans can no longer afford to shop. Give them Wal-Mart. Give them a once a year tax reward credit of $1500 to 3900 for struggling to support families on working wages. They can buy Hilfiger brand, and pay off all those payday loans so they can begin again – hanging on until next year's EIC refund. Who needs schools? Folks have learned to feel uppity and rich once a year without education, in a new outfit or two, working low-pay deadend jobs.

Preventing atrocity is not why "they" war, humanitarianism is not why they war. Fighting tyranny is not why they war. Saving lives is not why they war. They war for one reason and one reason only. Profit. Investment. Capitalism. Capitalism must accumulate more and more profit and invest in more and more production in order to make more profit to invest and finance more capital. Nothing accomplishes this better than war. It is said capitalism began in Britain in the 1800s, but viewing all warring empires of history it's always been about profit, investment, expansion, profit, investment, expansion. Call it whatever 'ism' you like.

No war's aftermath will be forced to share the profits with the working class the way WWII did. And experts won't tell you the 1950s rise of America's working class to the middle class was unintentional; a byproduct of obscene war profits. WWII was the continuation of WWI and was masterminded by the elite of that era. But the growth of the '50s newly middle-classed and subsequent civil unrest of the '60s will not be allowed again. In the middle of the last century we witnessed the once and only vigorous growth of middle-class America, and it's rapid decline and destruction. These days folks believe just managing to pay the rent and utilities puts them in the middle-class.

The ruling elite continue attempts at imitating that post WWII profit margin - without sharing the plunder or launching the same scale of war (yet). But while the "rich get richer" the profits will be directed elsewhere, it will not lift the working class across the US as it did two generations ago. Contrary to myth – a rising tide will not lift all boats. Many little dinghies are going to sink, go under, take on water, with millions fighting over a limited number of rubber donuts on a rope the elite throw their way. Here's hoping you can tread water.