By Sam Taylor Bellingham Herald
Cliff Cornell fled the U.S. Army four years ago for British Columbia when his Georgia artillery unit was ordered to serve in Iraq war.
On Wednesday, Cornell was deported from Canada, arrested in the U.S. and booked into the Whatcom County jail.
Read on...
This is not what Peacenik wants to read on a nice sunny Friday, or any day. A minority, unpopular, Canadian government is deporting U.S. army deserters back to the U.S. Peacenik can only assume Ignatieff and the Liberal Party support this action, or they just can't be bothered to raise a finger or word in protest. Are Canadians and Canadian politicans so afraid to appear anti-war, for fear of being labelled anti-military, that they allow this to happen? It didn't take long to turn Canadian society from a society that was proud of its peace keeping tradition into a society that seems proud of its war making ability. A change that Peacenik thinks Canadians will soon regret.
2/6/09
On the Edge
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: February 5, 2009
A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to economic recovery. Over the last two weeks, what should have been a deadly serious debate about how to save an economy in desperate straits turned, instead, into hackneyed political theater, with Republicans spouting all the old clichés about wasteful government spending and the wonders of tax cuts.
It’s as if the dismal economic failure of the last eight years never happened — yet Democrats have, incredibly, been on the defensive. Even if a major stimulus bill does pass the Senate, there’s a real risk that important parts of the original plan, especially aid to state and local governments, will have been emasculated.
Krugman seems to agree with Peacenik's post yesterday that playing nice with the Republicans is a complete waste of time. Krugman seems to think that the stimulus plan has a chance to succeed, to some extent. But notice how dire Krugman thinks the situation is. Of course Peacenik thinks the situation is even more dire. Peacenik thinks it is too late. Peacenik is going to buy a pot and a pan and a pitchfork. Read Naomi Klein's article on how some simple non-violent protest brought down Iceland's government. Peacenik is ready to protest. Are you?
Published: February 5, 2009
A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to economic recovery. Over the last two weeks, what should have been a deadly serious debate about how to save an economy in desperate straits turned, instead, into hackneyed political theater, with Republicans spouting all the old clichés about wasteful government spending and the wonders of tax cuts.
It’s as if the dismal economic failure of the last eight years never happened — yet Democrats have, incredibly, been on the defensive. Even if a major stimulus bill does pass the Senate, there’s a real risk that important parts of the original plan, especially aid to state and local governments, will have been emasculated.
Krugman seems to agree with Peacenik's post yesterday that playing nice with the Republicans is a complete waste of time. Krugman seems to think that the stimulus plan has a chance to succeed, to some extent. But notice how dire Krugman thinks the situation is. Of course Peacenik thinks the situation is even more dire. Peacenik thinks it is too late. Peacenik is going to buy a pot and a pan and a pitchfork. Read Naomi Klein's article on how some simple non-violent protest brought down Iceland's government. Peacenik is ready to protest. Are you?
2/5/09
The Game Is Up
Inquiring minds are noting similarities between the implosion in Ireland and the implosion in California. Let's take a look starting with In Ireland, "the game is up".
DUBLIN — At 2 a.m., with time for compromise running out, the Irish prime minister finally presented his emergency plan for the floundering economy to the country’s trade union leaders.
He proposed an average 7 percent reduction in gross pay for bureaucrats, teachers, police, firefighters, road cleaners and everyone else on the public payroll, in the form of a levy to finance their pensions.
He made clear that without an agreement the government would do it anyway.
Peacknik is noticing a sense of resignation in the blogosphere and the media that there is no acceptable solution to the economic crisis. It seems like nothing has changed.
Check out Denninger. Obama is spinning his tires and the Democratic controlled Congress is acting like they are in the minority. The "bad bank" solution probably won't work, and after weeks of talking about it, there still isn't even a plan. The U.S. senate just removed health care benefits for the unemployed from their stimulus plan. Republican wingnuts continue to dominate the airwaves. The UK is on the verge of the deepest slump in 60 years. The world is in a state of economic collapse.
Obama thought he could work with the Republicans in crafting a solution. That was a mistake. The republicans are only interested in obstruction. And now Obama is stuck with a cabinet and a bunch of advisors who are ill-suited to the task. What task you ask. The task of recognizing reality and coming clean with the American people and the world. And the task of instituting policies that will help the workers and not protect the criminals on Wall St. Peacenik asks again. Is anyone going to jail for the crimes that contributed to this financial crisis? An editorial in the Washington Post is not leadership.
Endless Propaganda
The War on Terror is a Hoax
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
According to US government propaganda, terrorist cells are spread throughout America, making it necessary for the government to spy on all Americans and violate most other constitutional protections. Among President Bush’s last words as he left office was the warning that America would soon be struck again by Muslim terrorists.
If America were infected with terrorists, we would not need the government to tell us. We would know it from events. As there are no events, the US government substitutes warnings in order to keep alive the fear that causes the public to accept pointless wars, the infringement of civil liberty, national ID cards, and inconveniences and harassments when they fly.
The most obvious indication that there are no terrorist cells is that not a single neocon has been assassinated.
Keep Reading...
punditman says...Once in awhile, you need a dose of Paul Craig Roberts' truth serum to put your brain back on task. There...that feels better.
If America were infected with terrorists, we would not need the government to tell us. We would know it from events. As there are no events, the US government substitutes warnings in order to keep alive the fear that causes the public to accept pointless wars, the infringement of civil liberty, national ID cards, and inconveniences and harassments when they fly.
The most obvious indication that there are no terrorist cells is that not a single neocon has been assassinated.
Keep Reading...
punditman says...Once in awhile, you need a dose of Paul Craig Roberts' truth serum to put your brain back on task. There...that feels better.
2/4/09
Whither the Future...
Mad Max?...Baez?...Orwell?
punditman says...
Peacenik's post in which he mentioned a possible Mad Max future versus a non-Mad Max future goes something like this:
Mad Max is a dystopian nightmare with roving gangs, no security and an increasingly violent society. In other words, a failed state where misery is king; one in which Coors' Light is bartered for old Hulk Hogan videos and the Philadelphia Flyers win the Stanley Cup every year. On the other hand, a non-Mad Max future entails communities working together to solve problems. In other words, a hippie paradise where harmony is king, ecologically conscious micro breweries dot a tree-scaped, hemp-infested countryside, jambands fill the air in every hamlet (clean air, that is) and the Leafs win the Stanley Cup every year.
The problem Punditman sees with this either/or future is that it implies that the State either crumbles completely from unknown forces or that it concedes defeat and starts singing "kumbaya" alongside civil society groups who are trying to solve problems. Fat chance of either!
Peacenik then goes on to say in the post below that "There is a tipping point. It is close." But a tipping point into what kind of future?
The Chris Hedges article below points to Sheldon Wolin's "inverted totalitarianism," to sum up the current American cultural and political landscape. Unlike classical totalitarianism like fascism or communism, where politics and messianic leadership dominates economics, inverted totalitarianism means economics overshadows politics. Under "normal" conditions, it more or less works. Consumerism, a decent average standard of living and a vast entertainment industry full of facile distractions tend to keep the citizenry "happy" and politically passive. But what happens if the American imperium quickly unravels, what then?
What will become of the United States if the current economic crisis results in massive, continuing job losses for a prolonged period? What if people can no longer buy the junk that they think brings them joy? What if peak oil means they're unable to fill their gas tanks without long lines and violent confrontations? What if cutbacks cause Entertainment Tonight (ET) to go off the air?
Given the elite attachment to State power and the considerable degree to which the general population is already subordinate, Punditman thinks that people could easily start to turn to demagogues to save them and return ET to its' rightful place in their hollowed out lives. Thus "inverted totalitarianism" could devolve further into the more garden-variety totalitarianism we are familiar with, albeit an American version, where ET is on every channel all day long. In recent years, we've witnessed increasing government control, surveillance and the stifling of dissent. There is little sign that this will reverse itself, notwithstanding Obama's largely symbolic actions (or inactions).
If economic decline continues unabated, if militarism and foreign intervention persists without huge reductions in force and cost; in other words, if no remedies appear that begin to dismantle the corporate/state nexus of domination and corruption, then Punditman sees the Wolinian scenario as rather likely. To coin an old lyric that inspired a certain underground movement, "You don't need a weatherman to know which the wind is blowing." So put away your Mad Max movies and dust off Orwell's 1984.
Or, Americans could always come to the senses, enact major reforms, stem the totalitarian tide and muddle on through to the best of their abilities. With a little luck...
punditman says...
Peacenik's post in which he mentioned a possible Mad Max future versus a non-Mad Max future goes something like this:
Mad Max is a dystopian nightmare with roving gangs, no security and an increasingly violent society. In other words, a failed state where misery is king; one in which Coors' Light is bartered for old Hulk Hogan videos and the Philadelphia Flyers win the Stanley Cup every year. On the other hand, a non-Mad Max future entails communities working together to solve problems. In other words, a hippie paradise where harmony is king, ecologically conscious micro breweries dot a tree-scaped, hemp-infested countryside, jambands fill the air in every hamlet (clean air, that is) and the Leafs win the Stanley Cup every year.
The problem Punditman sees with this either/or future is that it implies that the State either crumbles completely from unknown forces or that it concedes defeat and starts singing "kumbaya" alongside civil society groups who are trying to solve problems. Fat chance of either!
Peacenik then goes on to say in the post below that "There is a tipping point. It is close." But a tipping point into what kind of future?
The Chris Hedges article below points to Sheldon Wolin's "inverted totalitarianism," to sum up the current American cultural and political landscape. Unlike classical totalitarianism like fascism or communism, where politics and messianic leadership dominates economics, inverted totalitarianism means economics overshadows politics. Under "normal" conditions, it more or less works. Consumerism, a decent average standard of living and a vast entertainment industry full of facile distractions tend to keep the citizenry "happy" and politically passive. But what happens if the American imperium quickly unravels, what then?
What will become of the United States if the current economic crisis results in massive, continuing job losses for a prolonged period? What if people can no longer buy the junk that they think brings them joy? What if peak oil means they're unable to fill their gas tanks without long lines and violent confrontations? What if cutbacks cause Entertainment Tonight (ET) to go off the air?
Given the elite attachment to State power and the considerable degree to which the general population is already subordinate, Punditman thinks that people could easily start to turn to demagogues to save them and return ET to its' rightful place in their hollowed out lives. Thus "inverted totalitarianism" could devolve further into the more garden-variety totalitarianism we are familiar with, albeit an American version, where ET is on every channel all day long. In recent years, we've witnessed increasing government control, surveillance and the stifling of dissent. There is little sign that this will reverse itself, notwithstanding Obama's largely symbolic actions (or inactions).
If economic decline continues unabated, if militarism and foreign intervention persists without huge reductions in force and cost; in other words, if no remedies appear that begin to dismantle the corporate/state nexus of domination and corruption, then Punditman sees the Wolinian scenario as rather likely. To coin an old lyric that inspired a certain underground movement, "You don't need a weatherman to know which the wind is blowing." So put away your Mad Max movies and dust off Orwell's 1984.
Or, Americans could always come to the senses, enact major reforms, stem the totalitarian tide and muddle on through to the best of their abilities. With a little luck...
It's Not Going to Be OK
By Chris Hedges, Truthdig. Posted February 4, 2009.
The economic crisis could plunge the U.S. into a long period of social instability. Our democracy is in peril; the threat of totalitarianism is real.
The daily bleeding of thousands of jobs will soon turn our economic crisis into a political crisis. The street protests, strikes and riots that have rattled France, Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Iceland will descend on us. It is only a matter of time. And not much time. When things start to go sour, when Barack Obama is exposed as a mortal waving a sword at a tidal wave, the United States could plunge into a long period of precarious social instability.
At no period in American history has our democracy been in such peril or has the possibility of totalitarianism been as real. Our way of life is over. Our profligate consumption is finished. Our children will never have the standard of living we had. And poverty and despair will sweep across the landscape like a plague. This is the bleak future. There is nothing President Obama can do to stop it. It has been decades in the making. It cannot be undone with a trillion or two trillion dollars in bailout money. Our empire is dying. Our economy has collapsed.
Read on...
In an earlier post Peacenik wondered why there was no rioting in the U.S. as the economy swirls down the toilet. This post, by Chris Hedges, offers up some interesting theories as to why the populace is so passive. And it doesn't bode well. The corporate media and a willingness to be distracted by entertainment all contribute. But Peacenik thinks the collapse will be so profound that violence and riots will occur. The corporate media is losing its influence to the horrible bloggers. Major newspapers are going out of business. The public is finally getting angry about executive compensation. There is a tipping point. It is close.
The economic crisis could plunge the U.S. into a long period of social instability. Our democracy is in peril; the threat of totalitarianism is real.
The daily bleeding of thousands of jobs will soon turn our economic crisis into a political crisis. The street protests, strikes and riots that have rattled France, Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Iceland will descend on us. It is only a matter of time. And not much time. When things start to go sour, when Barack Obama is exposed as a mortal waving a sword at a tidal wave, the United States could plunge into a long period of precarious social instability.
At no period in American history has our democracy been in such peril or has the possibility of totalitarianism been as real. Our way of life is over. Our profligate consumption is finished. Our children will never have the standard of living we had. And poverty and despair will sweep across the landscape like a plague. This is the bleak future. There is nothing President Obama can do to stop it. It has been decades in the making. It cannot be undone with a trillion or two trillion dollars in bailout money. Our empire is dying. Our economy has collapsed.
Read on...
In an earlier post Peacenik wondered why there was no rioting in the U.S. as the economy swirls down the toilet. This post, by Chris Hedges, offers up some interesting theories as to why the populace is so passive. And it doesn't bode well. The corporate media and a willingness to be distracted by entertainment all contribute. But Peacenik thinks the collapse will be so profound that violence and riots will occur. The corporate media is losing its influence to the horrible bloggers. Major newspapers are going out of business. The public is finally getting angry about executive compensation. There is a tipping point. It is close.
2/3/09
The Neo Con New York Times
Peacenik looks at the byline of this op-ed piece in the New York Times and Peacenik almost gives up hope. Hope that any world problems can be resolved peacefully. John Bolton is a warmonger. John Bolton is a neo con. John Bolton wants war with Iran. Yet here is John Bolton, blithely offerring up his opinions on Iraq and Iran. Check out this story about Iraq and then decide how wonderful the "surge" has been. A totally discredited, shameless warmonger commands the op-ed pages of the New York Times. John Bolton shouldn't be able to get a letter to the editor of the Parry Sound Beacon published. Peacenik is speechless.
The Whole World Is Rioting as the Economic Crisis Worsens -- Why Aren't We?
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted February 3, 2009.
Americans are rightfully angry about the economic decline, but with a few small exceptions, quietly so. Why? It depends on whom you ask.
Explosive anger is spilling out onto the streets of Europe. The meltdown of the global economy is igniting massive social unrest in a region that has long been a symbol of political stability and social cohesion.
It's not a new trend: A wave of upheaval is spreading from the poorer countries on the periphery of the global economy to the prosperous core.
Over the past few years, a series of riots spread across what is patronizingly known as the Third World. Furious mobs have raged against skyrocketing food and energy prices, stagnating wages and unemployment in India, Senegal, Yemen, Indonesia, Morocco, Cameroon, Brazil, Panama, the Philippines, Egypt, Mexico and elsewhere.
Peacenik has been posting contradictory stories on whether people will riot or not, as they become poor, hungry, homeless and angry. Many commentators think the future will not be Mad Max like. Some commentators think the future will be Mad Max like. What does Peacenik think? Peacenik thinks there will be some rioting. Peacenik isn't sure what effect the violent suppression of rioting will have. The concentration camps are already constructed in the U.S. The police have their Tasers and Lasers. The science of crowd control is well developed. Will Peacenik riot? Will you?
Americans are rightfully angry about the economic decline, but with a few small exceptions, quietly so. Why? It depends on whom you ask.
Explosive anger is spilling out onto the streets of Europe. The meltdown of the global economy is igniting massive social unrest in a region that has long been a symbol of political stability and social cohesion.
It's not a new trend: A wave of upheaval is spreading from the poorer countries on the periphery of the global economy to the prosperous core.
Over the past few years, a series of riots spread across what is patronizingly known as the Third World. Furious mobs have raged against skyrocketing food and energy prices, stagnating wages and unemployment in India, Senegal, Yemen, Indonesia, Morocco, Cameroon, Brazil, Panama, the Philippines, Egypt, Mexico and elsewhere.
Peacenik has been posting contradictory stories on whether people will riot or not, as they become poor, hungry, homeless and angry. Many commentators think the future will not be Mad Max like. Some commentators think the future will be Mad Max like. What does Peacenik think? Peacenik thinks there will be some rioting. Peacenik isn't sure what effect the violent suppression of rioting will have. The concentration camps are already constructed in the U.S. The police have their Tasers and Lasers. The science of crowd control is well developed. Will Peacenik riot? Will you?
2/2/09
Robert Fisk’s World: When did we stop caring about civilian deaths during wartime?
The mere monitoring of bloody conflict assumes precedence over human suffering
I wonder if we are "normalising" war. It's not just that Israel has yet again got away with the killing of hundreds of children in Gaza.
And after its own foreign minister said that Israel's army had been allowed to "go wild" there, it seems to bear out my own contention that the Israeli "Defence Force" is as much a rabble as all the other armies in the region. But we seem to have lost the sense of immorality that should accompany conflict and violence. The BBC's refusal to handle an advertisement for Palestinian aid was highly instructive. It was the BBC's "impartiality" that might be called into question. In other words, the protection of an institution was more important than the lives of children. War was a spectator sport whose careful monitoring – rather like a football match, even though the Middle East is a bloody tragedy – assumed precedence over human suffering.
I'm not sure where all this started. No one doubts that the Second World War was a bloodbath of titanic proportions, but after that conflict we put in place all kinds of laws to protect human beings. The International Red Cross protocols, the United Nations – along with the all-powerful Security Council and the much ridiculed General Assembly – and the European Union were created to end large-scale conflict. And yes, I know there was Korea (under a UN flag!) and then there was Vietnam, but after the US withdrawal from Saigon, there was a sense that "we" didn't do wars any more. Foreigners could commit atrocities en masse – Cambodia comes to mind – but we superior Westerners were exempt. We didn't behave like that. Low-intensity warfare in Northern Ireland, perhaps. And the Israeli-Arab conflict would grind away. But there was a feeling that My Lai had been put behind us. Civilians were once again sacred in the West.
Keep Reading...
punditman says...
It's amazing what the politics of fear can do. For awhile after 9-11, people were afraid of terrorists popping out from under their beds and putting anthrax in their pajamas. White powder scares brought out SWAT teams in the most obscure locations. Some idiots even bought duct tape to protect their homes from chemical attack. Remember...WTF?
Now with this economic mess, people are turning inward again, afraid of losing their jobs, houses and savings, so they're hoarding lima beans and raising chickens on their balconys. Hmmm...perhaps this crisis is yet another way to keep people afraid and insular so that they won't band together for real change? In other words, it's an engineered crisis. 9-11 has lost its desired affect. WMDs was 99% poppycock. Punditman will have to think about that a little more.
Yet still, the war machine marches on, gobbling up precious resources while bringing death and destruction in its wake. Innocent people are being killed in our names. Does anyone care anymore? Robert Fisk does. Peacenik does. Punditman does.
I wonder if we are "normalising" war. It's not just that Israel has yet again got away with the killing of hundreds of children in Gaza.
And after its own foreign minister said that Israel's army had been allowed to "go wild" there, it seems to bear out my own contention that the Israeli "Defence Force" is as much a rabble as all the other armies in the region. But we seem to have lost the sense of immorality that should accompany conflict and violence. The BBC's refusal to handle an advertisement for Palestinian aid was highly instructive. It was the BBC's "impartiality" that might be called into question. In other words, the protection of an institution was more important than the lives of children. War was a spectator sport whose careful monitoring – rather like a football match, even though the Middle East is a bloody tragedy – assumed precedence over human suffering.
I'm not sure where all this started. No one doubts that the Second World War was a bloodbath of titanic proportions, but after that conflict we put in place all kinds of laws to protect human beings. The International Red Cross protocols, the United Nations – along with the all-powerful Security Council and the much ridiculed General Assembly – and the European Union were created to end large-scale conflict. And yes, I know there was Korea (under a UN flag!) and then there was Vietnam, but after the US withdrawal from Saigon, there was a sense that "we" didn't do wars any more. Foreigners could commit atrocities en masse – Cambodia comes to mind – but we superior Westerners were exempt. We didn't behave like that. Low-intensity warfare in Northern Ireland, perhaps. And the Israeli-Arab conflict would grind away. But there was a feeling that My Lai had been put behind us. Civilians were once again sacred in the West.
Keep Reading...
punditman says...
It's amazing what the politics of fear can do. For awhile after 9-11, people were afraid of terrorists popping out from under their beds and putting anthrax in their pajamas. White powder scares brought out SWAT teams in the most obscure locations. Some idiots even bought duct tape to protect their homes from chemical attack. Remember...WTF?
Now with this economic mess, people are turning inward again, afraid of losing their jobs, houses and savings, so they're hoarding lima beans and raising chickens on their balconys. Hmmm...perhaps this crisis is yet another way to keep people afraid and insular so that they won't band together for real change? In other words, it's an engineered crisis. 9-11 has lost its desired affect. WMDs was 99% poppycock. Punditman will have to think about that a little more.
Yet still, the war machine marches on, gobbling up precious resources while bringing death and destruction in its wake. Innocent people are being killed in our names. Does anyone care anymore? Robert Fisk does. Peacenik does. Punditman does.
Iran's nuclear terrorism fears
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
"The commission believes that unless the world community acts decisively and with greater urgency, it is more likely than not a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013."
This statement was made recently by Graham Allison, one of the authors of "World at Risk", a report by the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, during his testimony before the US Congress. Sounding alarms about the growing risks of a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States, the report gloomily states that America's "margin of safety has decreased".
Its interesting how egocentric the U.S. and the U.S. media is. The rest of the world barely exists. Unless of course the U.S. wants to wage war against some part of it. Does Iran have its own problems? You'd never know by reading and watching the U.S. media. Peacenik got sucked into believing that the U.S and or Israel would attack Iran before the end of George Bush's term of office. Peacenik is still worried about Israel attacking Iran. The New York Times had an opinion piece on the Iranian threat today. The neo cons still have unrestricted access to the media and to Obama. The neo cons still fan the flames. But Iran does have its own problems. Including a nuclear Pakistan. Can Obama reach out to Iran? Or, will ramping up the rhetoric against Iran turn out to be a convenient distraction for Obama. Peacenik is watching and worried.
"The commission believes that unless the world community acts decisively and with greater urgency, it is more likely than not a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013."
This statement was made recently by Graham Allison, one of the authors of "World at Risk", a report by the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, during his testimony before the US Congress. Sounding alarms about the growing risks of a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States, the report gloomily states that America's "margin of safety has decreased".
Its interesting how egocentric the U.S. and the U.S. media is. The rest of the world barely exists. Unless of course the U.S. wants to wage war against some part of it. Does Iran have its own problems? You'd never know by reading and watching the U.S. media. Peacenik got sucked into believing that the U.S and or Israel would attack Iran before the end of George Bush's term of office. Peacenik is still worried about Israel attacking Iran. The New York Times had an opinion piece on the Iranian threat today. The neo cons still have unrestricted access to the media and to Obama. The neo cons still fan the flames. But Iran does have its own problems. Including a nuclear Pakistan. Can Obama reach out to Iran? Or, will ramping up the rhetoric against Iran turn out to be a convenient distraction for Obama. Peacenik is watching and worried.
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