America : Freedom to Fascism

NOT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE

beware of fascism

The Commander X Lecture

Free Speech - Noam Chomsky

"It's the End of the World as We Know iT"

George Orwell

Politics Today And My Vote - These are The Seats for the Senate

                                          © Cristina Homem de Melo

liberty leading the people

Eugène Delacroix 1830

legalize democracy

the secret government

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo has its roots in the French occupation of Mexico, which took place in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, the Mexican Civil War of 1858, and the 1860 Reform Wars. These wars left the Mexican Treasury nearly bankrupt. On July 17, 1861, Mexican President Benito Juárez issued a moratorium in which all foreign debt payments would be suspended for two years. In response, France, Britain, and Spain sent naval forces to Veracruz to demand reimbursement. Britain and Spain negotiated with Mexico and withdrew, but France, at the time ruled by Napoleon III, decided to use the opportunity to establish a Latin empire in Mexico that would favor French interests, the Second Mexican Empire.

Late in 1861, a well-armed French fleet stormed Veracruz, landing a large French force and driving President Juárez and his government into retreat. Moving on from Veracruz towards Mexico City, the French army encountered heavy resistance from the Mexicans near Puebla, at the Mexican forts of Loreto and Guadalupe. The 8,000-strong French army attacked the much smaller and poorly equipped Mexican army of 4,500. Yet, on May 5, 1862, the Mexicans managed to decisively crush the French army, then considered "the premier army in the world".

The victory represented a significant morale boost to the Mexican army and the Mexican people at large. In the description of The History Channel, "Although not a major strategic win in the overall war against the French, Zaragoza's success at Puebla represented a great symbolic victory for the Mexican government and bolstered the resistance movement." The description of Time magazine was: "The Puebla victory came to symbolize unity and pride for what seemed like a Mexican David defeating a French Goliath." It helped establish a much-needed sense of national unity and patriotism. (read more)

International Workers' Day

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies) is an international industrial union that was formed in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain.

The IWW promotes the concept of "One Big Union," contends that all workers should be united as a social class and that capitalism and wage labor should be abolished. They are known for the Wobbly Shop model of workplace democracy, in which workers elect their managers and other forms of grassroots democracy (self-management) are implemented. IWW membership does not require that one work in a represented workplace, nor does it exclude membership in another labor union.

The Wobblies differed from other union movements of the time by its promotion of industrial unionism, as opposed to the craft unionism of the American Federation of Labor. The IWW emphasized rank-and-file organization, as opposed to empowering leaders who would bargain with employers on behalf of workers. This manifested itself in the early IWW's consistent refusal to sign contracts, which they felt would restrict workers' abilities to aid each other when called upon. Though never developed in any detail, Wobblies envisioned the general strike as the means by which the wage system would be overthrown and a new economic system ushered in, one which emphasized people over profit, cooperation over competition.

One of the IWW's most important contributions to the labor movement and broader push towards social justice was that, when founded, it was the only American union (besides the Knights of Labor) to welcome all workers including women, immigrants, African Americans and Asians into the same organization. Indeed, many of its early members were immigrants, and some, like Carlo Tresca, Joe Hill and Mary Jones, rose to prominence in the leadership.
(read more)

money for nothing

the limits of tyrants

"All tyranny needs 

to gain a foothold 

is for people of good 

conscience to remain silent."

Thomas Jefferson.

happy revolution day

what we're seeing

Fascism is one word for what we're seeing

As FDR knew, it's actually capitalism without boundaries, and it's apolitical.


Article by: BONNIE BLODGETT

It's a well-known fact that as a young man Ronald Reagan supported Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.

An acquaintance of mine who happens to be a prominent politician and who knew Reagan personally says that Reagan later was "absolutely certain" that, had FDR lived to preside over postwar America, he would have "seen the light."

Reagan himself saw the light -- got his first glimmer, anyway (his full conversion to conservatism came later under the guidance of a hard-nosed labor negotiator) --while working for the Screen Actors Guild, an organization crawling with Commies. Most had joined the party to protest the fascism that had gripped Germany and was about to subjugate Europe.

Whether FDR would have flip-flopped remains an open question, but I doubt it. Roosevelt had a more nuanced understanding of economics than Reagan did. He knew that fascism is capitalism without boundaries, that both fascism and communism (with a small "c") are apolitical, and that economics trumps politics every time.

Born into wealth, FDR understood that Wall Street traders had a gambling mentality and that outwitting the feds was part of the game. In 1934, he set out to level the playing field. His Securities and Exchange Commission ushered in the longest stretch of financial stability in U.S. history.

Most Americans in the 1950s paid scant attention to any of this, thanks in part to the sense of security FDR had provided by ending the Depression and winning the war. To them Stalin was the new Hitler. After all, hadn't Stalin annexed the entire eastern bloc in a brazen, Nazi-style power grab?

Something else FDR understood, having fought with the Soviets and having sat beside their leader at Yalta, was that those countries were the spoils of a war that took 40 million Russian lives.

Fast-forward four decades. By the time Reagan imperiously commanded Gorbachev to "tear down that wall," the evil empire had already imploded. It was in its death throes. The U.S. president relished his opportunity to turn the Russian people's suffering into a live-action morality tale.

The longer the bread lines in Moscow, the more he mocked the austerity that such images displayed. To Reagan, the lesson could not have been simpler. Get out those credit cards, America, and turn up the thermostat. The Cold War's over and the good guys won.

The private sector saw an opportunity, too -- in the president's giddy enthusiasm for unfettered capitalism. On the home front, deregulation removed pesky governmental red tape and impediments to the consolidation of everything from banking to agriculture.

Americans for the most part enjoyed their spending spree. And why not? The stock market was booming. Banks were turning home ownership into a bet you never lose.

Few seemed alarmed by the S&L crisis, the tech bubble, Enron, Tyco et al. -- or even knew that President Bill Clinton, in a failed effort to soften Republican positions on other issues, repealed the Glass-Steagall Act and set the stage for the mortgage crisis by turning the financial sector into what Charles Ferguson, whose scorching critique of Wall Street, "Inside Job," won Best Documentary Film at last year's Oscars, calls "the predator elite."

Ferguson believes that a coalition of corporations and big banks has "captured and neutralized" elected officials. Campaign spending has soared by a factor of more than 300 since the late 1970s, and private-sector interests have outspent public-sector interests by "between 50 and 100 to one."

Former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley is also concerned. He spent $1.6 million to get elected in 1979. The seat Bradley held for 17 years cost his successor $65 million. And that was before super PACs. The winning candidate, a billionaire, financed his own victory.

Reckless spending at all levels of society caused the current recession, but if it weren't for Republican spin, bought and paid for by the predator elite, the average American would have long since figured out not just that housing prices don't always go up but how ill-advised were the Bush tax cuts, deregulation, and the leveraging of everything but Grandma.

They'd see that it wasn't socialism that brought Europe to the brink of bankruptcy but American-style capitalism -- real-estate deals and other high-risk ventures facilitated by something called the credit default swap that was all the more effective for its inscrutability.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is learning the hard way that inscrutability is fascism's ultimate weapon. His was the swing vote in the Citizens United case. He wrote the majority opinion granting corporations the same free-speech rights as people.

In the real world, that means unlimited spending on right-wing political causes and candidates. Kennedy insisted that along with such freedoms would come certain responsibilities: He required that all contributors identify themselves.

But economics trumps politics every time. Our democracy is now in its death throes. Enforcement has been deemed more trouble than it's worth. (bonnieblodgett.com)

boot

Celebrating nuclear shutdown in Japan! - historic day

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HAPPPY CHILDREN'S DAY JAPAN!

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TOKYO - Thousands of Japanese marched to celebrate the last of this nation's 50 nuclear reactors switching off Saturday, shaking banners shaped as giant fish that have become a potent anti-nuclear symbol.

Japan will be without electricity from nuclear power for the first time in four decades when one of three reactors at Tomari nuclear plant in the northern island of Hokkaido goes offline for routine maintenance checks.

After last year's March 11 quake and tsunami set off meltdowns at Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, no reactor stopped for checkups has restarted amid growing public worries about the safety of nuclear technology.

People gather at an anti-nuclear demonstration on the Children's Day national holiday, calling for a safer future for younger generations at a park in Tokyo on May 5, 2012. The last working reactor in Japan is to be switched off May 5, 2012, leaving the country without nuclear power just over a year after the world's worst atomic accident in a quarter of a century. AFP PHOTOS / KAZUHIRO NOGI

"Today is a historical day," shouted Masashi Ishikawa to a crowd gathered at a Tokyo park, some holding traditional "Koinobori" carp-shaped banners for Children's Day that have grown into a symbol of the anti-nuclear movement.

"There are so many nuclear plants, but not a single one will be up and running today, and that's because of our efforts," Ishikawa said...

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> more: Japan Nuclear Power: Thousands Celebrate As Last Of Reactors Switch OfF | CP | By Yuri Kageyama, The Associated Press

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see also

whats up: RC's NUCLEAR BLOG
NO NUKES | #RE-TOOL NOW
Occupy Nuclear Daily (#OccupyNuclear)

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FDR