In Russian, the phrase "gore vidal" means "he has seen grief". This is certainly an apt description of the great writer and philosopher who has for so long drunk deeply of all that life life has to offer and now, in his 84th year, occupies a most cynical place among America's literati. It's almost as if his idealism was dashed against the rocks in its infancy and only now, in its semi-aborted yet still-living form, is given full vent as he ever so understatedly pours out his personal grief in one of the most revealing interviews I've ever read.
At last, through this interview, I grasp an inkling of why so few of us become great artists whether its expression be literary, graphic or musical. With apologies to Irving Stone, one must ask "is the ecstasy worth the agony?" That said, I can now understand why we, as a people, so readily become "bovine souls" or even "sheeple" who would rather embrace the wolf than the shepherd. Alas, that is what happens when hope dies.
Read More
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Fighting for the Family of Man
By Peter Chamberlin
December 28, 2009
The American people are slowly waking-up to what we are. We are a Nation that has surrendered our right to determine our own destiny for the promise of a job, a nice home, or healthcare that we can afford. We think that we are still the same people who volunteered to fight a war against an obvious evil because it was the right thing to do, but that is no longer who we are.
The long series of wars that we have made possible, because we continued to think that it was right, have changed us. Our support for endless war has opened the door for a few individuals to reap astronomical profits from our Army’s actions. Our government is the hands of men who profit enormously by manufacturing and exporting war, not the tools of war, but actual war itself. Serving a government that creates wars, then uses our children for cannon fodder in them is a travesty beyond measure.
Patriotism and dedicated service to a mission to start wars all over the world does no service to the Nation; it undermines the American homeland. Bravery and heroism in service to a cause, whose ultimate objective is the destruction of the American Republic, is more than foolishness, it is dishonor to those who have served in the past and a dark stain on the ideals they fought for.
The men who pull the strings and make the life and death decisions in America have a hunger that extends far beyond our shores. It was not enough that they owned everything in this country, they had to bleed the country dry in a methodical plan to use their American assets as seed money to take over the world. They would buy controlling interest in every corporation and every country in the world. Whatever they couldn’t buy they planned to take by force.
It was not enough that we were slowly destroying the world in order to maintain our extravagant lifestyles; they had to go and accelerate the process. What have we empowered our leaders to do in the name of “preserving our way of life”?
To save the American way, we have spread the cancer of war onto every shore, driving it deeply into every heart. We have forced the entire world to engage in our war upon individual freedom, for limiting freedom of action in the rest of the nations is the only way to avoid limits on our own behavior. American foreign policy is a pathological assault upon the rest of the human race. Anyone with an unsuppressed conscience, a true love of his or her country, or an ounce of human decency has to be disturbed to the point of exploding over what is being done by American hands.
Most of our leaders freely admit that we are in this global war to preserve our “way of life,” having dropped the ruse about this being a war of “self-defense,” long ago. Even though it is approaching absurdity to continue claiming victim status in this war of aggression, the appeal that we are fighting to preserve the “American dream” still fires-up the ignorant masses, who all long to become millionaires themselves. For sheep such as this, there is no cure; no appeal to reason (no matter how eloquent or profound) can dissuade them from supporting this fight for world conquest. Such people have long ago laid their consciences to rest, for them there is no hope.
The power of the conscience is our greatest weapon in this ideological war. The key that can save America (and the world) from itself is the collective guilt that we all share, which alone has the power to motivate us to take the necessary actions to put an end to the assault. American leaders view the world as a prize to be won, or better, to be taken by force. To this end, they have hatched a monstrous plan, so pervasively evil that it is beyond comprehension to the average sheep’s puny little mind.
Everything in the plan centers around the willingness of a certain type of individual to murder his own countrymen for money and power. Without the active aid of this key personality type; the plan will not work.
Wherever the Empire oozes forth, spreading its putrid decadence, there are always countless men without consciences, waiting to become part of the great desolation. When confronted by this evil, so many men think that they will somehow fare better by serving this beast than by opposing it. The monsters know this, and know how to recognize which men and women can be swayed with bribery or threats and which ones will not submit to the yoke for any reason. Their work is organized like a symphony, hitting the high notes here, slamming the low notes over there. The point is, they know how to play us like we were merely instruments. Our task in the resistance must be to recognize this and learn to recognize the sheep’s mind within ourselves. Once we learn to recognize it within, we can apply that knowledge to the people we meet, or hope to influence, learning to recognize which one is open to reason and which one is a closed mind. Their intent to control the world is based on their ability to control and manipulate minds. We must develop similar capabilities, if we are to be effective. Changing human nature is the name of the game. We must teach the sheep to think like wolves.
Resistance is the only answer.
"Information Clearing House"
December 28, 2009
The American people are slowly waking-up to what we are. We are a Nation that has surrendered our right to determine our own destiny for the promise of a job, a nice home, or healthcare that we can afford. We think that we are still the same people who volunteered to fight a war against an obvious evil because it was the right thing to do, but that is no longer who we are.
The long series of wars that we have made possible, because we continued to think that it was right, have changed us. Our support for endless war has opened the door for a few individuals to reap astronomical profits from our Army’s actions. Our government is the hands of men who profit enormously by manufacturing and exporting war, not the tools of war, but actual war itself. Serving a government that creates wars, then uses our children for cannon fodder in them is a travesty beyond measure.
Patriotism and dedicated service to a mission to start wars all over the world does no service to the Nation; it undermines the American homeland. Bravery and heroism in service to a cause, whose ultimate objective is the destruction of the American Republic, is more than foolishness, it is dishonor to those who have served in the past and a dark stain on the ideals they fought for.
The men who pull the strings and make the life and death decisions in America have a hunger that extends far beyond our shores. It was not enough that they owned everything in this country, they had to bleed the country dry in a methodical plan to use their American assets as seed money to take over the world. They would buy controlling interest in every corporation and every country in the world. Whatever they couldn’t buy they planned to take by force.
It was not enough that we were slowly destroying the world in order to maintain our extravagant lifestyles; they had to go and accelerate the process. What have we empowered our leaders to do in the name of “preserving our way of life”?
To save the American way, we have spread the cancer of war onto every shore, driving it deeply into every heart. We have forced the entire world to engage in our war upon individual freedom, for limiting freedom of action in the rest of the nations is the only way to avoid limits on our own behavior. American foreign policy is a pathological assault upon the rest of the human race. Anyone with an unsuppressed conscience, a true love of his or her country, or an ounce of human decency has to be disturbed to the point of exploding over what is being done by American hands.
Most of our leaders freely admit that we are in this global war to preserve our “way of life,” having dropped the ruse about this being a war of “self-defense,” long ago. Even though it is approaching absurdity to continue claiming victim status in this war of aggression, the appeal that we are fighting to preserve the “American dream” still fires-up the ignorant masses, who all long to become millionaires themselves. For sheep such as this, there is no cure; no appeal to reason (no matter how eloquent or profound) can dissuade them from supporting this fight for world conquest. Such people have long ago laid their consciences to rest, for them there is no hope.
The power of the conscience is our greatest weapon in this ideological war. The key that can save America (and the world) from itself is the collective guilt that we all share, which alone has the power to motivate us to take the necessary actions to put an end to the assault. American leaders view the world as a prize to be won, or better, to be taken by force. To this end, they have hatched a monstrous plan, so pervasively evil that it is beyond comprehension to the average sheep’s puny little mind.
Everything in the plan centers around the willingness of a certain type of individual to murder his own countrymen for money and power. Without the active aid of this key personality type; the plan will not work.
Wherever the Empire oozes forth, spreading its putrid decadence, there are always countless men without consciences, waiting to become part of the great desolation. When confronted by this evil, so many men think that they will somehow fare better by serving this beast than by opposing it. The monsters know this, and know how to recognize which men and women can be swayed with bribery or threats and which ones will not submit to the yoke for any reason. Their work is organized like a symphony, hitting the high notes here, slamming the low notes over there. The point is, they know how to play us like we were merely instruments. Our task in the resistance must be to recognize this and learn to recognize the sheep’s mind within ourselves. Once we learn to recognize it within, we can apply that knowledge to the people we meet, or hope to influence, learning to recognize which one is open to reason and which one is a closed mind. Their intent to control the world is based on their ability to control and manipulate minds. We must develop similar capabilities, if we are to be effective. Changing human nature is the name of the game. We must teach the sheep to think like wolves.
Resistance is the only answer.
"Information Clearing House"
Sunday, December 27, 2009
THE REINCARNATION OF THE DARK AGES
None Dare Call It RELIGIOUS FEUDALISM
By Loren Adams, 27 December 2009
The king taxed the peasants to poverty while the royals were exempt from paying any. Reason? Unjust tax codes were a design of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich. That was the “targeted tax-cut” which invariably became law. “He who hath the gold maketh the rules.”
The Dark Ages was the birthplace of “Trickle-Down Economics.” The caste system was embraced, the church was simply a ruling arm of the monarch, and slavery was legitimatized by the religious righteous.
Republicans constantly decry labor’s “class warfare,” but this is the real war being waged across America. The cultural war is basically a derivative of class warfare – where the ruling class has employed white evangelicals to do their bidding: divide and conquer.
During the Dark Ages, wealth was exclusively inherited, not earned. The legal system was purchased like a commodity resulting in juryless trials, military tribunals, pronouncements by a king acknowledged as sovereign and commissioned by God to rule as if the voice of Providence Himself, executive orders usurping representation, taxation without representation, etc. Anyone disputing the monarch’s sovereignty was designated a traitor and summarily executed, tortured or banished to dungeon. These were the markings of the Dark Ages. Are they not similar to contemporary Republicanism so glaringly demonstrated during the Bush years?
America’s founders rejected the monarchial system where its legitimacy hinged on approval by the religious supremes. The “separation of church and state” concept of the new republic was established for that reason. Now we are sliding back into the realm where the head of state rides to power on a religious beast, where any successful candidate must be approved by the predominant religious system to win. Even our beloved Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign felt he must do pilgrimage to Saddleback Church and later pay homage to Pastor Rick Warren at Inaugural.
The Dark Ages were not only dark from plagues, they were darkened from ignorance, superstition and greed. The religious right denied the world was round; anyone disputing this “God-derived” doctrine was executed or imprisoned. Science was equated with Satanism. Thus, discovery, invention, innovation, and commercialism could not flourish, and the West plunged into poverty. Does America not see the similarity? A religious system that wages war on science, denies climate change, rejects evolution, and edits Texas texts for school children to include praise for Limbaugh, Beck and Palin is a system geared toward destroying not only scientific and environmental thought, but the foundation of economy.
The religious system was USED to gain power for monarchs similar to the way current political operatives USE the religious to further their own aims. In the Middle Ages, the doctrine of the “divine right of kings” precluded civil liberties; the king/queen equaled “divinity.” Potentates (royals) were considered surrogates of God. Power was passed down from father to son — Dynasties divinely ordained by entitlement. So, when we hear of world leaders or presidents bequeathed the title “Man of God,” watch out. It may not be long before civil liberties and human rights become casualties in the name of national unity and security — and with popular support — the masses duped by superstition. Remember the Bush theocratic dynasty.
History has witnessed its booms and busts (some massage as “cyclical market adjustments”). History repeats itself. We were at the core of an unparalleled economic boom at the close of the Clinton years — measured by purchases, low unemployment and budget surpluses. There were more jobs than people to fill them; illegals streamed across the border. Now we’re in a deep recession as a consequence of buying into Republican Dark-Age mentality.
What caused history’s busts? When capital is concentrated among the wealthiest, history warns of ominous collapse. The bubble bursts. It happened in 1837, 1857, 1884, 1893, 1907 and 1929. In all depressions there was glaring disparity of income: The poor — poorer, the rich — richer.
Prosperity is the result of healthy circulation of currency where the vast majority have robust purchasing power. When wealth fails to circulate but is dammed up by a concentration at the top, the economy falls and results in depression or severe recession. When the rich accumulate an overwhelming portion of the wealth, their house of cards comes tumbling down because there remains few to buy the goods sold by the wealthy to sustain the lifestyle.
Sure, other factors – such as over-speculation, Wall Street insider trading, anti-labor trade agreements, deregulation, and tax policies determined by greedy special interests – drive the economy into the ditch. But are not these all related? The world is loaded down with the cancers of Bernie Madoffs and Kenny Lays before downturn metastasizes itself into poverty, crime and collapse.
Consider this ominous fact: The average American’s income has remained flat since 1977 — 33 years ago, while the income of the richest 1% has more than tripled — 228% (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities). CEOs (corporate executive officers) incomes rose 400% in the 1990s to $10.6 million annual income per capita, while take-home pay for the average American, the 80%, rose zero percent.
Real life experience bears it out. Most Americans don’t enjoy the purchasing power they once did when a one-income family could raise children, purchase a home, car and college education for their kids. Now both parents work (if lucky enough to have a job) and still can’t keep up, resulting in less quality education, poor family relations, rising crime, and an eroding moral foundation.
Some in this country never learn from history. The greedy are blinded to the fact that refusing to care for others less fortunate ultimately leads to their own demise. The underlying truth may be that these tightfisted characters are not so much concerned about accumulating wealth as widening the gap. Yes, they delight in seeing the difference. Class consciousness means more to them than money in the bank. Thus, the motive defines the power struggle.
Thom Hartmann’s depiction of America’s economic and educational decline is accurate.
The political will of the radical right is more stubborn than ever. Not only do they want to defeat Health-Care Reform, they want to rid the country of any safety-net, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and any other “socialist” program. It’s all “socialism” or “communism” to them. . . “un-American.”
They hide their greed behind such noble causes as “individualism,” “patriotism,” “character & family values” and “national security,” but all the while their ultimate aim is the same. Proudly they wave the flag and claim to be the lead standard bearers for patriotism; all the while we recall they’re missing in action when it really counts; wealthy family ties shield them from risk. Only the rich initiate wars, mostly the poor fight them. The double standard of justice comes from obscene wealth. Principles can be compromised at a price. And so can religion, their primary weapon of choice.
In similar manner, they buy off religious organizations and congressmen, hire the best lobbyists, and manipulate enough voters through the religious system to change laws for their benefit. Their aim? To further concentrate the wealth and leave the rest of the country destitute if need be. Their “compassionate conservatism” is hypocrisy cloaked in a sound-bite.
In future years it will be written that the real enemy of our times was not communism or socialism (as many Tea-Baggers scream), but rather the re-emergence of a form of feudalism in alliance with theocracy or what The Family (“C-Street”) calls “Dominionism.” The Handmaid’s Tale was not too far off.
In place of mote-defended castles surrounded by thatched-roof shanties will be “gated communities” [sporting high-tech surveillance to keep the homeless and servant-class out] surrounded by metal trailer shanties housing 21st Century serfs. Recall “Hoovervilles”? The new shanty-towns should be aptly named “Bushvilles.” We’ve come a long way in 1,200 years or so. The TPJ Magazine
By Loren Adams, 27 December 2009
The king taxed the peasants to poverty while the royals were exempt from paying any. Reason? Unjust tax codes were a design of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich. That was the “targeted tax-cut” which invariably became law. “He who hath the gold maketh the rules.”
The Dark Ages was the birthplace of “Trickle-Down Economics.” The caste system was embraced, the church was simply a ruling arm of the monarch, and slavery was legitimatized by the religious righteous.
Republicans constantly decry labor’s “class warfare,” but this is the real war being waged across America. The cultural war is basically a derivative of class warfare – where the ruling class has employed white evangelicals to do their bidding: divide and conquer.
During the Dark Ages, wealth was exclusively inherited, not earned. The legal system was purchased like a commodity resulting in juryless trials, military tribunals, pronouncements by a king acknowledged as sovereign and commissioned by God to rule as if the voice of Providence Himself, executive orders usurping representation, taxation without representation, etc. Anyone disputing the monarch’s sovereignty was designated a traitor and summarily executed, tortured or banished to dungeon. These were the markings of the Dark Ages. Are they not similar to contemporary Republicanism so glaringly demonstrated during the Bush years?
America’s founders rejected the monarchial system where its legitimacy hinged on approval by the religious supremes. The “separation of church and state” concept of the new republic was established for that reason. Now we are sliding back into the realm where the head of state rides to power on a religious beast, where any successful candidate must be approved by the predominant religious system to win. Even our beloved Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign felt he must do pilgrimage to Saddleback Church and later pay homage to Pastor Rick Warren at Inaugural.
The Dark Ages were not only dark from plagues, they were darkened from ignorance, superstition and greed. The religious right denied the world was round; anyone disputing this “God-derived” doctrine was executed or imprisoned. Science was equated with Satanism. Thus, discovery, invention, innovation, and commercialism could not flourish, and the West plunged into poverty. Does America not see the similarity? A religious system that wages war on science, denies climate change, rejects evolution, and edits Texas texts for school children to include praise for Limbaugh, Beck and Palin is a system geared toward destroying not only scientific and environmental thought, but the foundation of economy.
The religious system was USED to gain power for monarchs similar to the way current political operatives USE the religious to further their own aims. In the Middle Ages, the doctrine of the “divine right of kings” precluded civil liberties; the king/queen equaled “divinity.” Potentates (royals) were considered surrogates of God. Power was passed down from father to son — Dynasties divinely ordained by entitlement. So, when we hear of world leaders or presidents bequeathed the title “Man of God,” watch out. It may not be long before civil liberties and human rights become casualties in the name of national unity and security — and with popular support — the masses duped by superstition. Remember the Bush theocratic dynasty.
History has witnessed its booms and busts (some massage as “cyclical market adjustments”). History repeats itself. We were at the core of an unparalleled economic boom at the close of the Clinton years — measured by purchases, low unemployment and budget surpluses. There were more jobs than people to fill them; illegals streamed across the border. Now we’re in a deep recession as a consequence of buying into Republican Dark-Age mentality.
What caused history’s busts? When capital is concentrated among the wealthiest, history warns of ominous collapse. The bubble bursts. It happened in 1837, 1857, 1884, 1893, 1907 and 1929. In all depressions there was glaring disparity of income: The poor — poorer, the rich — richer.
Prosperity is the result of healthy circulation of currency where the vast majority have robust purchasing power. When wealth fails to circulate but is dammed up by a concentration at the top, the economy falls and results in depression or severe recession. When the rich accumulate an overwhelming portion of the wealth, their house of cards comes tumbling down because there remains few to buy the goods sold by the wealthy to sustain the lifestyle.
Sure, other factors – such as over-speculation, Wall Street insider trading, anti-labor trade agreements, deregulation, and tax policies determined by greedy special interests – drive the economy into the ditch. But are not these all related? The world is loaded down with the cancers of Bernie Madoffs and Kenny Lays before downturn metastasizes itself into poverty, crime and collapse.
Consider this ominous fact: The average American’s income has remained flat since 1977 — 33 years ago, while the income of the richest 1% has more than tripled — 228% (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities). CEOs (corporate executive officers) incomes rose 400% in the 1990s to $10.6 million annual income per capita, while take-home pay for the average American, the 80%, rose zero percent.
Real life experience bears it out. Most Americans don’t enjoy the purchasing power they once did when a one-income family could raise children, purchase a home, car and college education for their kids. Now both parents work (if lucky enough to have a job) and still can’t keep up, resulting in less quality education, poor family relations, rising crime, and an eroding moral foundation.
Some in this country never learn from history. The greedy are blinded to the fact that refusing to care for others less fortunate ultimately leads to their own demise. The underlying truth may be that these tightfisted characters are not so much concerned about accumulating wealth as widening the gap. Yes, they delight in seeing the difference. Class consciousness means more to them than money in the bank. Thus, the motive defines the power struggle.
Thom Hartmann’s depiction of America’s economic and educational decline is accurate.
The political will of the radical right is more stubborn than ever. Not only do they want to defeat Health-Care Reform, they want to rid the country of any safety-net, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and any other “socialist” program. It’s all “socialism” or “communism” to them. . . “un-American.”
They hide their greed behind such noble causes as “individualism,” “patriotism,” “character & family values” and “national security,” but all the while their ultimate aim is the same. Proudly they wave the flag and claim to be the lead standard bearers for patriotism; all the while we recall they’re missing in action when it really counts; wealthy family ties shield them from risk. Only the rich initiate wars, mostly the poor fight them. The double standard of justice comes from obscene wealth. Principles can be compromised at a price. And so can religion, their primary weapon of choice.
In similar manner, they buy off religious organizations and congressmen, hire the best lobbyists, and manipulate enough voters through the religious system to change laws for their benefit. Their aim? To further concentrate the wealth and leave the rest of the country destitute if need be. Their “compassionate conservatism” is hypocrisy cloaked in a sound-bite.
In future years it will be written that the real enemy of our times was not communism or socialism (as many Tea-Baggers scream), but rather the re-emergence of a form of feudalism in alliance with theocracy or what The Family (“C-Street”) calls “Dominionism.” The Handmaid’s Tale was not too far off.
In place of mote-defended castles surrounded by thatched-roof shanties will be “gated communities” [sporting high-tech surveillance to keep the homeless and servant-class out] surrounded by metal trailer shanties housing 21st Century serfs. Recall “Hoovervilles”? The new shanty-towns should be aptly named “Bushvilles.” We’ve come a long way in 1,200 years or so. The TPJ Magazine
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Faith Leaders Defend Families Facing Foreclosure
The Parable of the Unmerciful Banker ~ Jim Wallis
This week, I joined a press conference with People Improving Communities through Organizing and the Center for Responsible Lending on the steps of the United States Treasury. The first three speakers were not the usual Washington talking heads. Instead, they were American homeowners who were losing their homes to foreclosure—a terrible thing that now happens to another American family every 13 seconds (6,600 per day). And a rapidly increasing number of them are now due not to subprime mortgages, but to the loss of employment. That’s what had happened to those who told their stories on Monday in Washington D.C. across from the White House and just down the street from the huge Bank of America and PNC Bank buildings.
Mercy Martinez began to cry as she spoke. She had saved for years and put $100,000 down to buy her first condo. Choking back tears, she recalled her meeting with the Countrywide Financial mortgage broker. “I had enough money for a traditional, 30-year fixed rate loan; but the loan servicer unethically tricked me into an adjustable rate loan that could put me in foreclosure at any moment.” Now she waits for the “time bomb” of her loan to explode, and when it does she will join the millions of Americans facing foreclosure. Mercy is not alone: in 2006, 61 percent of subprime borrowers were forced into mortgages more expensive and riskier than what they qualified for.
Meanwhile, inside the White House, the heads of the nation’s biggest banks and financial institutions were meeting with the president. They were told that since the American people had bailed them out, they now needed to do something for the American people by beginning to lend again and to agree to loan modification plans enabling homeowners not to lose everything. But so far, those admonitions are falling on deaf ears.
Indeed, I learned this week that the bonuses and extra compensation paid to the executives at the big banks are on track to exceed the 2007 level of $162 billion (even after some banks, like Goldman Sachs, have switched compensation packages away from cash and into stock bonuses). At the same time, the Center for Responsible Lending estimates that the bonus pool of just one of these big banks would have been enough money to prevent or significantly delay foreclosure for all 2.3 million people who lost their homes last year. And what about loan modifications to help homeowners stay in their homes? To date, Bank of America has agreed to fewer than 100 permanent home loan modifications. Amazing.
At the press conference, I pointed out the fundamental moral contradiction of this situation: Those whose behavior is most responsible for causing this economic crisis are being saved from failure and suffering by the American taxpayers, while those least responsible for causing this recession are now losing both jobs and homes — with no bailouts for them on the horizon. My friend Rev. Derrick Harkins made a point about “grace.” He suggested that in order to try to save the economy from a feared massive meltdown, some real grace was extended to the big banks; but they now seem unwilling to extend grace to anyone else. Does this sound like a gospel parable to you?
What it sounds like to me is a very bad morality play. We need a new national conversation about all this, a return to some basic values, and a moral recovery to accompany an economic recovery. We cannot go back to normal this time; we need a new normal. It’s time to change the script of this play. That is the only way all this suffering and pain can be redeemed.
Jim Wallis of Sojourners
(read more)
This week, I joined a press conference with People Improving Communities through Organizing and the Center for Responsible Lending on the steps of the United States Treasury. The first three speakers were not the usual Washington talking heads. Instead, they were American homeowners who were losing their homes to foreclosure—a terrible thing that now happens to another American family every 13 seconds (6,600 per day). And a rapidly increasing number of them are now due not to subprime mortgages, but to the loss of employment. That’s what had happened to those who told their stories on Monday in Washington D.C. across from the White House and just down the street from the huge Bank of America and PNC Bank buildings.
Mercy Martinez began to cry as she spoke. She had saved for years and put $100,000 down to buy her first condo. Choking back tears, she recalled her meeting with the Countrywide Financial mortgage broker. “I had enough money for a traditional, 30-year fixed rate loan; but the loan servicer unethically tricked me into an adjustable rate loan that could put me in foreclosure at any moment.” Now she waits for the “time bomb” of her loan to explode, and when it does she will join the millions of Americans facing foreclosure. Mercy is not alone: in 2006, 61 percent of subprime borrowers were forced into mortgages more expensive and riskier than what they qualified for.
Meanwhile, inside the White House, the heads of the nation’s biggest banks and financial institutions were meeting with the president. They were told that since the American people had bailed them out, they now needed to do something for the American people by beginning to lend again and to agree to loan modification plans enabling homeowners not to lose everything. But so far, those admonitions are falling on deaf ears.
Indeed, I learned this week that the bonuses and extra compensation paid to the executives at the big banks are on track to exceed the 2007 level of $162 billion (even after some banks, like Goldman Sachs, have switched compensation packages away from cash and into stock bonuses). At the same time, the Center for Responsible Lending estimates that the bonus pool of just one of these big banks would have been enough money to prevent or significantly delay foreclosure for all 2.3 million people who lost their homes last year. And what about loan modifications to help homeowners stay in their homes? To date, Bank of America has agreed to fewer than 100 permanent home loan modifications. Amazing.
At the press conference, I pointed out the fundamental moral contradiction of this situation: Those whose behavior is most responsible for causing this economic crisis are being saved from failure and suffering by the American taxpayers, while those least responsible for causing this recession are now losing both jobs and homes — with no bailouts for them on the horizon. My friend Rev. Derrick Harkins made a point about “grace.” He suggested that in order to try to save the economy from a feared massive meltdown, some real grace was extended to the big banks; but they now seem unwilling to extend grace to anyone else. Does this sound like a gospel parable to you?
What it sounds like to me is a very bad morality play. We need a new national conversation about all this, a return to some basic values, and a moral recovery to accompany an economic recovery. We cannot go back to normal this time; we need a new normal. It’s time to change the script of this play. That is the only way all this suffering and pain can be redeemed.
Jim Wallis of Sojourners
(read more)
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Deja Vu... Afghanistan/Vietnam
When Our Leaders Fail to Lead,
We have to make them.
By David Korten
What David Korten learned from his experiences during the Vietnam War.
On Tuesday night [December 2, 2009], President Obama announced his decision to increase U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan. It was a tragic error. He specifically said that to compare Afghanistan with Vietnam is a misreading of history. In a way, I would have to agree. We ultimately left Vietnam in humiliation. Afghanistan is not comparable, because our prospects […]
(read more)
October 2009 Anti-war Demonstration in Boston
We have to make them.
By David Korten
What David Korten learned from his experiences during the Vietnam War.
On Tuesday night [December 2, 2009], President Obama announced his decision to increase U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan. It was a tragic error. He specifically said that to compare Afghanistan with Vietnam is a misreading of history. In a way, I would have to agree. We ultimately left Vietnam in humiliation. Afghanistan is not comparable, because our prospects […]
(read more)
October 2009 Anti-war Demonstration in Boston
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Something's Happening... but we don't know what it is
Is Obama determined to follow the path of Lyndon Johnson? It seems that he has allowed the forces of the military industrial complex and the fear of being considered “weak” to control his decision making. This is disheartening to say the least. I want to believe that things will work out, but that's getting more and more difficult for me as I see us going further down the road to ruin.
The following is an article I read an article this morning about President Obama’s speech to the nation last night:
IMPERIAL BLUES By Robert Borosage
..."[O]ur troop commitment in Afghanistan cannot be open-ended -- because the nation that I am most interested in building is our own." —President Obama
But Afghanistan comes first?
President Obama made the best possible case for dispatching more troops to Afghanistan last night. But his speech left me with a haunting foreboding. Surely this is the way that great imperial powers decline. Their soldiers police the ends of the earth. There is always another enemy, always a threat—sometimes imagined, often real—that must be faced. And meanwhile, the productive economy declines, the rich live increasingly off investments abroad, the poor depend on public sustenance, the middle declines. No battle is so costly that it cannot be afforded; no battle so unimportant that the nation must not be mobilized. The soldiers become professionals, "volunteers" in our terms. The institutions of the Republic—the Congress, the Senate—are scorned, often deservedly so. The executive decides the questions of war and peace. The secret state expands. The country finds itself constantly at war. New presidents inherit the wars of their predecessors. They are faced not with deciding to go to war, but whether to accept defeat in one already in progress.
And slowly, the great power declines from the inside out. The wars are costly, running up national debts. Vital investments are put off. Schools decline. Sewers leak. For a long time, circuses distract from the spreading ruin. Other societies become productive centers, capturing the new industries. Some begin providing better education and support for their citizens. Their taxes, not drained by the cost of wars past and present, can be devoted to what we used to call "domestic improvements."
The escalation in Afghanistan, so inevitable, so logical, so thoughtfully considered, surely is but a chapter in this saga. The president committed the country to spend about $250 billion in Afghanistan over the next 18 months. For a wealthy country, this isn't a lot. We can afford it. We will chase the devil in South Waziristan. Our soldiers will repel the Taliban, providing a "breathing space" for a corrupt government whose writ barely reaches the outskirts of the capital city.
On Thursday, the President will convene a jobs summit. Already, his aides have sent out the word that deficits will limit what can be done. Or as the head of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, Christine Roemer, "Given the budget deficits this administration inherited, it is critical to leverage scarce public funds."
The collapse of revenues at the state and local level will force states to make cuts and layoffs that are projected to cost another 900,000 jobs over the next year. But more aid to the states and localities, unpopular in the polls, is apparently not on the president's agenda. Anyone traveling in America runs into the growing costs of our aging and outmoded infrastructure, from collapsing bridges to exploding sewer pipes, to slow trains on bad tracks, to schools in such disrepair that they pose dangers to the students. But a bold program of investment in our infrastructure is considered a bridge too far.
Far worse in many ways than the money squandered on wars abroad is the attention consumed, the values distorted. This president understands that Americans are focused on the economic troubles here at home. In his speech last night, he argued "as we end the war in Iraq and transition to Afghan responsibility, we must rebuild our strength here at home. Our prosperity provides a foundation for our power. It pays for our military. It underwrites our diplomacy. It taps the potential of our people and allows investment in new industry. And it will allow us to compete in this century as successfully as we did in the last."
Note the order of priority. Our "strength here at home" is needed because it (1) is the foundation of our power; (2) pays for our military; (3) underwrites our diplomacy. It also taps the potential of our people and allows us to compete globally. Stunningly absent in that martial list is any sense of creating a society that has eradicated hunger and poverty, that has secured the American dream for its citizens.
This attention disorder undermines our security as well. Next week the president will travel to Copenhagen, where he will boldly call for setting standards on carbon emissions, in essence promising to deliver a Congress that is not nearly ready to make that commitment. This president, more than any other, has the vision and the capacity to rally this country to meet the real security challenge posed by catastrophic climate change and to grasp the vital economic opportunity of leading the impending green industrial revolution. The speech to the cadets of West Point might have dramatically made that national security case, begun a campaign to run up to the Copenhagen global summit and culminated in a Nobel Peace Prize address that framed the new challenge. Instead, the president had little choice but to focus his attention and his speech on Afghanistan, with critics already accusing him of dithering, daring to question the generals' "requirements."
This is a very rich country, despite the years of conservative misrule. But even wealthy countries must choose. We can afford to police the word—to sustain 800 bases across the globe, to station troops in Korea, in Japan, in Bosnia, in Europe, fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, sustain fleets to police the seas.
In his speech, the president called us to that mission:
"The struggle against violent extremism will not be finished quickly, and it extends well beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan... unlike the great power conflicts and clear lines of division that defined the 20th century, our effort will involve disorderly regions and diffuse enemies.... We will have to be nimble and precise in our use of military power. Where al-Qaida and its allies attempt to establish a foothold—whether in Somalia or Yemen or elsewhere they must be confronted by growing pressure and strong partnerships."
South Waziristan, Yemen, Somalia, Kosovo, the Taiwan straits, the North Korean border, the seven seas—we can do this. But the result is that we are continually at war. And the wars cost—in money, in lives, in attention. Inevitably, domestic priorities, as well as emerging security threats that have no military answers, get ignored. A rich country, Adam Smith wrote, has a lot of ruin in it. We seem intent on testing the limits of that proposition.
Amen to that! Now... what can we do? Those of us who voted for Obama expected better from him and he needs to hear from us. You can call the White House at (202) 456-1111 or e-mail the president with your thoughts on what he is doing.
The following is an article I read an article this morning about President Obama’s speech to the nation last night:
IMPERIAL BLUES By Robert Borosage
..."[O]ur troop commitment in Afghanistan cannot be open-ended -- because the nation that I am most interested in building is our own." —President Obama
But Afghanistan comes first?
President Obama made the best possible case for dispatching more troops to Afghanistan last night. But his speech left me with a haunting foreboding. Surely this is the way that great imperial powers decline. Their soldiers police the ends of the earth. There is always another enemy, always a threat—sometimes imagined, often real—that must be faced. And meanwhile, the productive economy declines, the rich live increasingly off investments abroad, the poor depend on public sustenance, the middle declines. No battle is so costly that it cannot be afforded; no battle so unimportant that the nation must not be mobilized. The soldiers become professionals, "volunteers" in our terms. The institutions of the Republic—the Congress, the Senate—are scorned, often deservedly so. The executive decides the questions of war and peace. The secret state expands. The country finds itself constantly at war. New presidents inherit the wars of their predecessors. They are faced not with deciding to go to war, but whether to accept defeat in one already in progress.
And slowly, the great power declines from the inside out. The wars are costly, running up national debts. Vital investments are put off. Schools decline. Sewers leak. For a long time, circuses distract from the spreading ruin. Other societies become productive centers, capturing the new industries. Some begin providing better education and support for their citizens. Their taxes, not drained by the cost of wars past and present, can be devoted to what we used to call "domestic improvements."
The escalation in Afghanistan, so inevitable, so logical, so thoughtfully considered, surely is but a chapter in this saga. The president committed the country to spend about $250 billion in Afghanistan over the next 18 months. For a wealthy country, this isn't a lot. We can afford it. We will chase the devil in South Waziristan. Our soldiers will repel the Taliban, providing a "breathing space" for a corrupt government whose writ barely reaches the outskirts of the capital city.
On Thursday, the President will convene a jobs summit. Already, his aides have sent out the word that deficits will limit what can be done. Or as the head of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, Christine Roemer, "Given the budget deficits this administration inherited, it is critical to leverage scarce public funds."
The collapse of revenues at the state and local level will force states to make cuts and layoffs that are projected to cost another 900,000 jobs over the next year. But more aid to the states and localities, unpopular in the polls, is apparently not on the president's agenda. Anyone traveling in America runs into the growing costs of our aging and outmoded infrastructure, from collapsing bridges to exploding sewer pipes, to slow trains on bad tracks, to schools in such disrepair that they pose dangers to the students. But a bold program of investment in our infrastructure is considered a bridge too far.
Far worse in many ways than the money squandered on wars abroad is the attention consumed, the values distorted. This president understands that Americans are focused on the economic troubles here at home. In his speech last night, he argued "as we end the war in Iraq and transition to Afghan responsibility, we must rebuild our strength here at home. Our prosperity provides a foundation for our power. It pays for our military. It underwrites our diplomacy. It taps the potential of our people and allows investment in new industry. And it will allow us to compete in this century as successfully as we did in the last."
Note the order of priority. Our "strength here at home" is needed because it (1) is the foundation of our power; (2) pays for our military; (3) underwrites our diplomacy. It also taps the potential of our people and allows us to compete globally. Stunningly absent in that martial list is any sense of creating a society that has eradicated hunger and poverty, that has secured the American dream for its citizens.
This attention disorder undermines our security as well. Next week the president will travel to Copenhagen, where he will boldly call for setting standards on carbon emissions, in essence promising to deliver a Congress that is not nearly ready to make that commitment. This president, more than any other, has the vision and the capacity to rally this country to meet the real security challenge posed by catastrophic climate change and to grasp the vital economic opportunity of leading the impending green industrial revolution. The speech to the cadets of West Point might have dramatically made that national security case, begun a campaign to run up to the Copenhagen global summit and culminated in a Nobel Peace Prize address that framed the new challenge. Instead, the president had little choice but to focus his attention and his speech on Afghanistan, with critics already accusing him of dithering, daring to question the generals' "requirements."
This is a very rich country, despite the years of conservative misrule. But even wealthy countries must choose. We can afford to police the word—to sustain 800 bases across the globe, to station troops in Korea, in Japan, in Bosnia, in Europe, fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, sustain fleets to police the seas.
In his speech, the president called us to that mission:
"The struggle against violent extremism will not be finished quickly, and it extends well beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan... unlike the great power conflicts and clear lines of division that defined the 20th century, our effort will involve disorderly regions and diffuse enemies.... We will have to be nimble and precise in our use of military power. Where al-Qaida and its allies attempt to establish a foothold—whether in Somalia or Yemen or elsewhere they must be confronted by growing pressure and strong partnerships."
South Waziristan, Yemen, Somalia, Kosovo, the Taiwan straits, the North Korean border, the seven seas—we can do this. But the result is that we are continually at war. And the wars cost—in money, in lives, in attention. Inevitably, domestic priorities, as well as emerging security threats that have no military answers, get ignored. A rich country, Adam Smith wrote, has a lot of ruin in it. We seem intent on testing the limits of that proposition.
Amen to that! Now... what can we do? Those of us who voted for Obama expected better from him and he needs to hear from us. You can call the White House at (202) 456-1111 or e-mail the president with your thoughts on what he is doing.
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