Nothing was the same for me after April 2003.
Growing up, I had always suspected my country was, if not hopelessly deranged, then surely in the grips of a malevolent elite. But the sight of my country's mass media and political elites raucously cheerleading a flagrantly illegal, unjust war of colonial annexation straight out of the late 19th century was more than just a passing shock.
No, it wasn't just the lies and mayhem of the invasion, or the carnage it triggered (carnage predicted by literally everyone who had ever studied Iraqi society). It was the deeply suicidal nature of the whole affair. On some deep level of its political unconscious, this Empire had decided to go to Central Asia to die.
But what goes around, most surely, surely comes around. The post-imperial circle is now complete:
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Iraq's oil auction hits the jackpot
By Pepe Escobar
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No, the oil revenues won't bring back the dead. But the Shiite crescent now has a chance to join Eurasia's developmental states.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Comedy Platinum
There's comedy gold, and then there's that once-in-a-lifetime event, comedy platinum:
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USA Today: Obama: 'Fat-cat' bankers owe help to U.S. taxpayers
"I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of, you know, fat-cat bankers on Wall Street," Obama said.
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No, you just appointed those fat cats to run the economy, ensuring our economy continues to rot.
You also forked over trillions of taxpayer dollars to those fat cats, the most egregious transfer of wealth from a middle-class to oligarchs since the looting of Russia.
But fear not, my fellow Americans, because your Empire has only begun to bleed money. Obama's health insurance scheme will fork over trillions of taxpayer dollars to the vampires of the health insurance industry. It'll look good on the Christmas mantel -- a trillion-dollar medico-insurance complex, right next to those other criminal and insane boondoogles, that trillion-dollar military-industrial complex and those trillion-dollar failed colonial wars.
Last November, the people of this country voted for FDR II, not Bubblenomics 2.0. Once they start realizing they've been tricked, all hell is going to break loose around here. I just hope we Leftists can help channel that anger into something constructive.
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USA Today: Obama: 'Fat-cat' bankers owe help to U.S. taxpayers
"I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of, you know, fat-cat bankers on Wall Street," Obama said.
---------
No, you just appointed those fat cats to run the economy, ensuring our economy continues to rot.
You also forked over trillions of taxpayer dollars to those fat cats, the most egregious transfer of wealth from a middle-class to oligarchs since the looting of Russia.
But fear not, my fellow Americans, because your Empire has only begun to bleed money. Obama's health insurance scheme will fork over trillions of taxpayer dollars to the vampires of the health insurance industry. It'll look good on the Christmas mantel -- a trillion-dollar medico-insurance complex, right next to those other criminal and insane boondoogles, that trillion-dollar military-industrial complex and those trillion-dollar failed colonial wars.
Last November, the people of this country voted for FDR II, not Bubblenomics 2.0. Once they start realizing they've been tricked, all hell is going to break loose around here. I just hope we Leftists can help channel that anger into something constructive.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Give Piece a Chance
Lots of news coverage of Premier Obamachev, leader of the United States of Securitized Assets, receiving the Ignoble Piece Prize. You haven't heard? Why, there's a transcript right here.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Old Machines and New
Ah, the capital markets -- where sharks grow their teeth.
Case in point: the Chicago Daley machine (still going strong, after all these years) sold off Chicago's parking meters for the next 75 years to EU-based Allianz and a UAE-based sovereign wealth funds (hat tip to the SWF Institute for pointing this out):
"Abu Dhabi Shares Profits From Parking Meters"
Chicago got $600 million on the deal, and parking fees are sure to skyrocket. You could argue this isn't such a bad thing, give that higher fees are a disguised carbon tax, and will discourage auto use in a city which has a reasonably widespread system of mass transit.
Still, it says something about the profound decline of US civil society, that a major US metropolis does not have the administrative capacity to run a bunch of parking meters.
Case in point: the Chicago Daley machine (still going strong, after all these years) sold off Chicago's parking meters for the next 75 years to EU-based Allianz and a UAE-based sovereign wealth funds (hat tip to the SWF Institute for pointing this out):
"Abu Dhabi Shares Profits From Parking Meters"
Chicago got $600 million on the deal, and parking fees are sure to skyrocket. You could argue this isn't such a bad thing, give that higher fees are a disguised carbon tax, and will discourage auto use in a city which has a reasonably widespread system of mass transit.
Still, it says something about the profound decline of US civil society, that a major US metropolis does not have the administrative capacity to run a bunch of parking meters.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Stimulus II: Unions and Developmental States Go to Work
Given that two-thirds of the stimulus package funds are due to be spent over the next twelve months, this is a glimmer of good news:
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From Bloomberg: "Obama Focuses on Small Businesses to Spur Job Growth"
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said lawmakers may seek to finance $75 billion to $150 billion in highway construction and other job creating measures with unused TARP funds.
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The only reason this is happening is (1) public sector unions have kicked up a ruckus about impending cuts (since the public sector is one of the few areas where US workers can legally organize unions these days, union membership for all state and Federal employees is around 36.8%, according to the BLS), and (2) the digital commons has gone after Wall Street's panzer divisions with Katyushas and RPG-29s.
It should be noted that the US is behind the curve here -- the rest of the world has been rolling out second-round stimulus packages. Japan is spending an additional $81 billion, Russia bailed out its car industry and is boosting pensions by 40% by 2010, the equivalent of $35 billion, India and China are continuing their stimulus packages, while Brazil is gearing up for major infrastructure spending as preparation for the 2016 Olympics.
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From Bloomberg: "Obama Focuses on Small Businesses to Spur Job Growth"
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said lawmakers may seek to finance $75 billion to $150 billion in highway construction and other job creating measures with unused TARP funds.
-------------
The only reason this is happening is (1) public sector unions have kicked up a ruckus about impending cuts (since the public sector is one of the few areas where US workers can legally organize unions these days, union membership for all state and Federal employees is around 36.8%, according to the BLS), and (2) the digital commons has gone after Wall Street's panzer divisions with Katyushas and RPG-29s.
It should be noted that the US is behind the curve here -- the rest of the world has been rolling out second-round stimulus packages. Japan is spending an additional $81 billion, Russia bailed out its car industry and is boosting pensions by 40% by 2010, the equivalent of $35 billion, India and China are continuing their stimulus packages, while Brazil is gearing up for major infrastructure spending as preparation for the 2016 Olympics.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Special Message from the Airship Uplink
The crew of the airship Uplink, domicile of lizard-monkeys, viera-bears, and several technologies which haven't been invented on this planet just yet, have asked me to forward the following:
Dear Americans --
Do you worry that your country is being looted by irresponsible and greedhead banksters?
Are you queasy at the fact that your ruling elites spend their time preaching the virtues of failed neocolonial wars your country can't win and can't afford to pay for anymore?
Are you angry that Wall Street cretins have bought off your politicians?
Fear not, Uplink's crew has the ideological ammunition you've been looking for.
The first thing you must do is read Paul Klebnikov's thoroughly researched, unimpeachably honest and utterly devastating Godfather of the Kremlin (hint: the subtitle of the book is "The Decline of Russia in the Age of Gangster Capitalism"). You will discover that none of your problems are new. In fact, they have been the problems of your semi-peripheral neighbors for about thirty years now.
Next, map out the shocking parallels of the Soviet collapse with your own collapsing Empire.
Draw a deep breath.
Last but not least, draw your own (post-Imperial) conclusions. To paraphrase an icon of the gaming culture, neoliberalism is powerful, but the developmental state is solid!
Dear Americans --
Do you worry that your country is being looted by irresponsible and greedhead banksters?
Are you queasy at the fact that your ruling elites spend their time preaching the virtues of failed neocolonial wars your country can't win and can't afford to pay for anymore?
Are you angry that Wall Street cretins have bought off your politicians?
Fear not, Uplink's crew has the ideological ammunition you've been looking for.
The first thing you must do is read Paul Klebnikov's thoroughly researched, unimpeachably honest and utterly devastating Godfather of the Kremlin (hint: the subtitle of the book is "The Decline of Russia in the Age of Gangster Capitalism"). You will discover that none of your problems are new. In fact, they have been the problems of your semi-peripheral neighbors for about thirty years now.
Next, map out the shocking parallels of the Soviet collapse with your own collapsing Empire.
Draw a deep breath.
Last but not least, draw your own (post-Imperial) conclusions. To paraphrase an icon of the gaming culture, neoliberalism is powerful, but the developmental state is solid!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Beginning of the End
Nomi Prins has been poring over the books of the big banksters, who are floating on an ocean of $14 trillion of taxpayer-provided bailout funds (that's not a typo, the number really is fourteen trillion dollars), and it isn't a pretty sight.
In other news, Afghanistan is about to become the graveyard of a third Empire. Some future historian will have to uncover the relentless dialectic which drove the very last imperialist world hegemon (there will be no others) to commit economic and geopolitical suicide, by sacrificing its industrial base for a bunch of irresponsible banksters, and sacrificing its democracy for an insane war of colonial conquest on one of the poorest countries on the planet.
In other news, Afghanistan is about to become the graveyard of a third Empire. Some future historian will have to uncover the relentless dialectic which drove the very last imperialist world hegemon (there will be no others) to commit economic and geopolitical suicide, by sacrificing its industrial base for a bunch of irresponsible banksters, and sacrificing its democracy for an insane war of colonial conquest on one of the poorest countries on the planet.
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