Organizing Notes

Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....

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The collapsing US military & economic empire is making Washington & NATO even more dangerous. US could not beat the Taliban but thinks it can take on China-Russia-Iran...a sign of psychopathology for sure. We must all do more to help stop this western corporate arrogance that puts the future generations lives in despair. @BruceKGagnon

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

READING THE TEA LEAVES

Activists in South Korea protest at US embassy calling for dialogue with the north

I've got several things on my mind today - the economic collapse, the recruitment of our children into the military, and Hillary Clinton over in Japan threatening North Korea. So here goes.

A short video I saw this morning over at AfterDowningStreet's web site got me started again on this rant. The video is called America's Controlled Economic Implosion. The bottom line is that the oligarchy is trying to drive the economy into the ground as a way to essentially undertake the largest transfer of wealth in our nation's history. You can watch the video for yourself right here. In one part of the video you see Rep. Dennis Kucinich saying to one of the Treasury Department operatives "Our question is who you are working for?" My sentiments exactly.

If you read the interview with Naomi Klein below you see her talking about the role Larry Summers played, while at Harvard University, helping to transfer the wealth of Russia into the hands of the oligarchy after the dismantling of the former Soviet Union. So it's not a matter of Wall Street ineptness here - I see it as an intentional process of taking us down to our knees. And most importantly, I see that Obama's team of economic disaster pirates are playing the same grab-and-go strategy as Bush's did. Correct me if I am wrong on this one?

The second thing is about recruitment of kids into the military. This morning I got an email from Veterans for Peace about a place called the Army Experience Center that is inside a shopping mall in Northeast Philadelphia. The photo that went with the email (I couldn't copy it) had a bunch of kids sitting on a Humvee shooting military weapons at this recruiting center in the mall. Reports put the cost of the center at $12 million. Veterans for Peace in Philadelphia just held at protest at the place as a way to draw attention to what is going on there. Good because this place is bad news for us.

I've long been saying that under corporate globalization, or call it the new world order, every country will have a different role. My reading of the tea leaves is that our role, from what I've heard the Pentagon say over the past few years, will be security export.

It's no coincidence we have no manufacturing base in this country any longer. It's no coincidence that we are losing jobs like crazy. It's no coincidence that news reports in the last few days have said military recruitment is picking up because of the economic collapse. The power structure has a plan for us and we don't talk much about it. We rush around putting out fires but do a poor job in our movements of connecting the dots and analyzing the "strategic situation" at hand. We don't do enough talking in our political work about this larger picture so the public can get a better handle on what is really coming down.

Our kids are being prepared for a life of endless war - with few other options. Why in hell are we not screaming our lungs out about this?

The last thing is Clinton - our new Secretary of State. I'm tracking her and Gates (DoD), and Gen. Jones (National Security Adviser) in order to get a sense where Obama is going on foreign policy. Clinton is over in Japan right now and this morning a New York Times article says: Mrs. Clinton also warned North Korea not to undertake a test of a ballistic missile, as it has threatened in recent days. “The possible missile launch that North Korea is talking about would be very unhelpful in moving our relationship forward,” she said after a meeting with the Japanese foreign minister, Hirofumi Nakasone.....Mr. Nakasone said he was not concerned that “the U.S. policy toward North Korea is going to change in any significant way.”

What right does the US have in telling North Korea that they had better not test a missile? Hell, we do it practically every day from Cape Canaveral in Florida, or Vandenberg AFB in California, or White Sands missile test range in New Mexico. The arrogance and double-standard seems to still be a central part of US foreign policy, even under this new administration. Please show me the change?

I'm just trying to read the road signs today. I don't much like what they are telling me.

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