I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of…
Awareness | Debate | Action
I was at an event on the Upper East Side last Friday night when I got to talking with a salesman in the media business. The subject turned to Zucotti Park and Occupy Wall Street, and he was chuckling about something he'd heard on the news.
"I hear [Occupy Wall Street] has a CFO," he said. "I think that's funny."
"Okay, I'll bite," I said.…
ContinueAdded by Cromag on October 28, 2011 at 11:18pm — No Comments
-By Glenn Greenwald
As intense protests spawned by Occupy Wall Street continue to grow, it is worth asking: Why now? The answer is not obvious. After all, severe income and wealth inequality have long plagued the United States. In fact, it could reasonably be claimed that this form of inequality is part of the design of the American founding -- indeed, an integral part of it.
Income inequality has worsened over the past…
ContinueAdded by Cromag on October 28, 2011 at 11:00pm — No Comments
A Few Companies Have Power Over Most of the Real Economy
The idea that the few dominate the many will not come as news to those gathered either to…
Added by Cromag on October 28, 2011 at 10:50pm — No Comments
On October 3rd, protesters at Occupy Wall Street failed to march. Instead they clumsily lurched. With white painted faces, glazed looks and dollar bills hanging out of some mouths, protesters chanted “I smell money, I smell money…” It was Corporate Zombie Day. Scenes like this and the sight of Guy Fawkes masks, clown suits, drumming circles and surrealistic posters all over the country have left many commentators scratching their heads. Is th…
ContinueAdded by Cromag on October 28, 2011 at 10:04pm — No Comments
Seven Defects of American Governance – Part 1
Beyond the Magnificent Seven, there are a bunch of other sevens; the seven climes, the seven continents, the feast of the seven fishes, the seven dwarfs, the seven deadly sins, the seven sacraments, the seven seas, the seven seals with their seven secrets, the seven virtues and the Seven Wonders of the World to name at least most of them.
To these I have another seven; our federal government's policies of war and empire,…
ContinueAdded by Harold Hellickson on October 3, 2011 at 12:36pm — No Comments
The Seven Defects of American Governance
Just as there are seven dwarfs, seven virtues, and seven deadly sins there are seven major policy defects of American governance; the policies of war, empire, monetary, fiscal, trade, income inequality and social justice. This article is a summary statement of these seven defects. A more detailed discussion of each of these defects will follow in four seperate articles.
The war on terror was stupidly enacted and is stupidly conducted.…
ContinueAdded by Harold Hellickson on September 29, 2011 at 8:24am — No Comments
Washington's recently staged drama of dysfunction over the federal debt limit sadly distracted attention from real crises occurring outside the beltway. These include…
Added by Cromag on August 5, 2011 at 4:18pm — No Comments
Dear Friends,
As I write this, I am watching the economic chaos in Greece. I’m sure we’re all sharing the feelings of fear of economic collapse that is rampant among the other European countries – and in fact, around the world.
These events are classic cases of what I detail in my books – “Confesssions of An Economic Hit Man” and “Hoodwinked.”
Greece has been struck by economic hit men. Set to default on its debts, the Athens government is leading the pack…
ContinueAdded by Cromag on August 5, 2011 at 4:01pm — No Comments
Added by Cromag on May 16, 2011 at 6:00am — No Comments
Since the summer of 2003 I’ve crisscrossed the country speaking at colleges and theaters and bookstores, first with The Weather Underground documentary and, starting in March of this year, with my book Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen (William Morrow, 2009). In discussions with young people, they often tell me, “Nothing anyone does can ever make…
ContinueAdded by Cromag on March 19, 2011 at 10:00am — No Comments
The Trap is a Adam Curtis documentary film originally produced for the BBC in three episodes. It talks about the modern political realities, where the policies came from and the massive failures of those ideals and how they have ended up exactly where they did not want to be.
This episode 1 starts in the Cold War and shows the seeds that were sown to produce the modern political reality. Curtis examines the rise of game theory used during this time, and the way in which its…
This is a great article about the knowledge, skill and experience required to go up against entrenched powerful interests.
They hang the man and flog the woman,
Who steals the goose from off the common,
Yet let the greater villain loose,
That steals the common from the goose.
-- Seventeenth-century English protest rhyme…
ContinueI have been thinking a lot about the ineffectiveness of regulatory systems, and the relationship to Ecologist Garrett Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons concept for understanding how we come to be at the brink of numerous environmental [and economic] catastrophes. In 2011 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the Eastern Mountain Lion extinct, exemplifying a precarious system at best, and showing that impotent laws cannot…
ContinueAdded by Cromag on March 12, 2011 at 11:00am — No Comments
Watching the videos below, and exploring the additional materials and links, is a primer for understanding how seemingly powerless activists organize and affect widespread change. One caveat is understanding elitism and the irony of democracy; that changing status quo from one ruling class to another does not necessarily improve all conditions or eliminate oppression and corruption […
ContinueAdded by Cromag on February 21, 2011 at 6:30pm — No Comments
Toxic Textiles? Are the sales personnel of Germany's clothing retailers at risk of being poisoned? The textiles they sell are contaminated with highly toxic chemicals. The chemical PCP (Pentachlorophenol), which is prohibited in Germany, is applied to garments to protect them during transport to Europe. Other hazardous pesticides used in the cultivation of cotton in Asia have also been found in textiles. A camera crew picks up the trail in…
ContinueAdded by Cromag on February 20, 2011 at 1:21pm — No Comments
Early in 2008, workers at a government-owned textile factory in the Egyptian mill town of El-Mahalla el-Kubra announced that they were going on strike on the first Sunday in April to protest high food prices and low wages. They caught the attention of a group of tech-savvy young people an hour's drive to the south in the capital city of Cairo, who started a Facebook group to…
Continueby Jonathan Smucker on January 28, 2011
I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of…
Added by Cromag on February 13, 2011 at 7:12pm — No Comments
by Jonathan Smucker on February 3, 2011
In his essay Voluntarism and Social Masses, Antonio Gramsci…
Added by Cromag on February 13, 2011 at 7:00pm — No Comments
Added by Cromag on December 7, 2010 at 12:28pm — No Comments
Eye opening read for all activists ( that requires little commentary) from economist Michael Pettis:
Added by Jehu Eaves on December 2, 2010 at 5:00am — No Comments
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