All of this happened before....(Redux)

... Does It Have To Happen Again?

A few months ago, I highlighted Bill Moyers' look at The Secret Government and wondered if we can avoid the future our history would seem to project.

Well, as is my wont, I recently ran across a wonderful quote. Try to guess when it was said.

"Wall Street owns the country. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street and for Wall Street ... Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags ... the politicians said we suffered from overproduction. Overproduction when 10,000 little children ... starve to death every year in the U.S. and over 100,000 shop girls in New York are forced to sell their virtue for bread...
There are thirty men in the United States whose aggregate wealth is over one and one-half billion dollars. There are half a million looking for work ... We want money, land and transportation. We want abolition of the National Banks, and we want the power to make loans direct from the government. We want the accursed foreclosure system wiped out ... We will not pay our debts to the loan-shark companies until the Government pays its debts to us.
The people are at bay, let the bloodhounds of money who have dogged us thus far beware."

Did you guess 1890? A Kansan Populist named Mary Ellen Lease spoke these words at a time, admittedly worse than our own times, when the anger at wealth and backlash against elite privilege was rapidly rising.

And although the Populist Party was unable to "crack" the lock on elections held by the GOP and Democrats, much of the their strength, organization and platform was coopted and adopted int he following decades.

Hopefully we will not have to wait decades.



(Quote found in Zinn's A People's History of the United States, a book that every citizen should read and digest.)

Love Him or Hate Him...

... but Mike Moore stands for the Citizen

From the first time I saw Roger & Me, I've been a Micheal Moore fan. Yes, he's bombastic. He's over the top. He's been known to distort. And without question, he's a polarizing rabble rouser.

In his heart though, Mike Moore loves the average American. And he's struggled mightily for decades now to show the rest of us what we often do not want to see. What exactly it means to our fellow citizens when their jobs are shipped off to foreign shores. How the myth meets reality when it comes to recruiting for our volunteer military. Why the middle class is disappearing and what it portends for us all.

Moore was interviewed by WAMU's Diane Rehm earlier this week. The entire interview is worth a listen. Do yourself a favor, just click the link and the "LISTEN" button in the upper left. And enjoy one of the few progressive voices allowed out there on the free airwaves we've given our nation's broadcasters.

Michael Moore | The Diane Rehm Show

Weimer Rising?

There are times when James Howard Kunstler strikes me as one of those overwrought "cranks" Charles Pierce says in his book Idiot America that we need in our country (it's a fine read I might add!). In The Long Emergency, Kunstler put forth a rather pessimistic view of our national trajectory in the face of the end of cheap energy. Indeed, Kunstler's views of our future can be downright frightening - the end will be violently painful, almost apocalyptic a la "The Road." (For a less pessimistic view of the future, check out John Michael Greer's The Long Descent.)

Kunstler also writes a blog sharing his view of current events, and how they seem to dovetail into his predictions of our future. To wit:

"The Tea Party people are the corn-pone Nazis I have been warning you about. They are gathering strength in numbers as President Obama and congress fritter away their remaining legitimacy in a manner of governance that more and more resembles an endless Chinese Fire Drill. The delusional craziness of the Tea Partyists exists in direct proportion to the wimpy deceit of the government, especially in matters of money and statistics reporting. Our political leaders are resorting to wholesale deceit because the truth of our situation -- comprehensive bankruptcy -- is too painful to dwell on and for the most part they are too chicken too state it." (We're Weimar, Feb 8, 2010)

So, is Kunstler right? Are we entering our own new Weimer period with the "Tea Party" denizens in the lead? Are these angry citizens delusional?

I have to admit, the so-called "Tea Party" folks have me flummoxed. These citizens are definitely angry about many of the same things I am angry about: lack of governance, arrogant elites, financial fraudsters, do-nothing legislators. But, it seems to me that often the root of their anger lies in more base human emotions: racism, tribalism, jealousy and busy-bodiness. And I cannot get over the fact that many of these genuinely angry Americans are being manipulated by the very forces they are angry with. I mean really, do they honestly believe multi-millionaire media stars like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh actually care about them - except as mindless listeners good for high ratings (and higher salaries)? Does Rupert Murdoch and his corporate media automatons in Fox News and the Wall Street Journal actually desire the involvement of these angry citizens in their own governance? And, if this really is a new grassroots band of Minutemen arising to oppose the tyranny of Washington, why does Sarah Palin get paid thousands of dollars to speak to them (if she's so committed, shouldn't she speak gratis? And the "convention" be not-for-profit?)??

Well, I think Kunstler is right on about the root cause of the anger -- the visible end of these citizen's comfortable way of life. You know, when the end of a good thing becomes undeniable, there will be those who react by denying. Or lashing out. Or blaming. And I think we see all of these on grand display when it comes to the genuine anger of vocal Tea Party supporters. But my crystal ball remains hazier than Kunstler's in that I'm not as sure as he that these manipulated folks are going to be the change agent that drags us all down the Wiemar rabbit hole. Time will tell, of course, but one thing is for certain -- thoughtful citizens need to get out there also and better inform our fellow citizens as to the root causes of their anger. Because if they remain solely educated by the likes of Beck and Limbaugh, then they will form the large body of "useful idiots" needed to intimidate the rest of us.

Over at Stonekettle Station, Jim raises an alarm as well. He's right about how these things start. But, have we entered the phase of inevitable ending?

And if you care to, you can listen to Diane Rehm's conversation on the Tea Party and what it means to America here.

(Image found via Photobucket.)

The Guant�namo “Suicides”

A Cover-up Continues?

Scott Horton has published an advance text of the upcoming cover story in Harpers regarding the 2006 deaths of three Guantanamo detainees while in U.S. custody. Horton is a dogged investigator, renown lawyer and compelling blogger. He has been strongly critical of U.S. torture and rendition policies throughout the Bush Administration and, like Glenn Greenwald, strongly advocated for the Obama Administration to dump it's "look forward, not backward" policies.

"When President Barack Obama took office last year, he promised to “restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great.” Toward that end, the president issued an executive order declaring that the extra-constitutional prison camp at Guant�namo Naval Base “shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order.” Obama has failed to fulfill his promise. Some prisoners there are being charged with crimes, others released, but the date for closing the camp seems to recede steadily into the future. Furthermore, new evidence now emerging may entangle Obama’s young administration with crimes that occurred during the George W. Bush presidency, evidence that suggests the current administration failed to investigate seriously—and may even have continued—a cover-up of the possible homicides of three prisoners at Guant�namo in 2006." The Guant�namo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine)

This article demands to be read. And read again by all officers of our government who are connected to national security and intelligence. Most importantly, it demands an answer from our Attorney General, not only to the specifics of this case, but to the broader issue of what exactly is the Department of Justice doing to investigate torture- and "enemy combatant"-related crimes, but also how FREE the Department actually is to go after those who committed heinous crimes in all our names.

As the first year of Obama'a administration ends, we learn new and, quite frankly, disturbing details about the "suicide" of detainees in Guantanamo. And, as this year ends, we now officially see the failure of one of Obama's signature promises made in the heady, post-inaugural days. That is, to close GTMO within one year. Probably the saddest and most damning aspects of this entire case is that the facts have long been well known. And whitewashed.


Update: Scott Horton published a follow-up to the original story today focusing on the compromised statement made by a key officer in charge of the Cuban prison camp as well as the tepid "non-response" by the Justice Department. If you're smelling a rat, you should be. The response so far seems all very reminiscent of the "official" stories being put out ahead of the first breaking of Abu Ghraib story.

Will there be accountability? When?