The problem with Schecter's analysis is his failure to consider the differences in the mainstream media of the late sixties and that of today.

The anti-war movements of the Viet Nam era were greatly assisted by a sympathetic press which gave those protest activities plenty of coverage. Any similar actions would be ignored by the corporate press today.

People need to understand that "freedom of the press" requires independence from corporate as well as governmental control.

q

For how many years did the republican party have to wait, barely able to control their anger, as democrats, from Roosevelt to Johnson, created large "entitlement" programs?

They dreamed of one day being in control of all the houses of government and the courts; of totally crushing the democrat party, and destroying every crumb of it's hated "entitlements." And while they planned for that destruction, they created a monolith of corporations that would take them to where they wanted to be.

They'd finally discredited the democrat party in the Clinton years (with his help), enough to get them in the majority in Congress. From there it was easy. They'd had their monolith to bulldoze everything that stood in their way to the presidency, and to keep the way clear as they began to put their plans in place.

They'd need to get a good war going right away, not only to take the citizens attention off the white house, but because wars are the best money makers there are, and 9/11 provided the perfect way. And of course the hue and cry and constant color codes for terrorism helped keep people's attention on other things while the chosen and his puppet master went to work behind their smoke screens.

And in Congress, they shut out the democrats, and went to work on the planned destruction. For four years they dismantled programs, refilled the courts, and destroyed regulations. Everyone with a brain knew that corporations didn't need to be regulated. They would regulate themselves.

The party was living high on the hog. The world was theirs to conquer and they had a good start on it. Money flowed like honey out of the treasury and into the pockets of war profiteeers and the rich friends in high places. There was no end to it.

Then those damned democrats got back in Congress and the people started demanding things of them, and the republicans had to spend their time trying to block the democrats and what they were trying to do.

And suddenly, or so it seemed anyway, Wall Street, all those big corporations that had been swilling down all that fake money that flowed like honey, started to choke on the cardboard and garbage it turned out to be instead of honey.

And at the edge of the abyss, as they started feeling the ground shift beneath them, a few questioned, "Why wasn't someone watching out for us?" "Where was the regulators to make sure this didn't happen?"

Sooner or later harsh reality comes a-knockin and sooner or later it becomes impossible to ward it off with illusion masquerading as happy-faced optimism.
Still, who sees any consequences for these swindlers? The difference this time around, as with Bush and his Iraqi war crimes, is, aside from lip service and moral bluster, there is no real accountability--over and over again.
If anything happens at all it will be small groups taking some kind of action simultaneously--probably unplanned, spontaneous reactions that will trigger the tide. But who knows, could just be long drawn out quiet desperation and clinging to the familiar secure symbols.

I'll DO it... people will listen to me. cause I look cool. and talk funny.

Societies/political economies run by criminal gangs with no interest in the common good (i.e. corporatists) are unsustainable. Now that's a surprise!

If the left can gain the momentum, it should never let up. Never.

There is only one stock these days that is a "sure thing" - - - The Karl Marx Rope Company. The IPO is only a few days old, so get in on the ground floor. I can also recommend Assisted Suicide, LLC, a brand new service company that will administer a lethal injection identical to that used in American Capital Punishment, Inc. After you've lost your life savings and decide to take your leave of this totally corrupt and absurd world, you will find this much less painful and messy than putting a gun in your mouth and blowing the back of your head off.

"The problem with Schecter's analysis is his failure to consider the differences in the mainstream media of the late sixties and that of today...."

That kind of comment was called nihilism, the frame of mind that leads to nowhere. We all will be better off if we give more thoughts to origins of our current predicament.

Nothing leads to failure as sure as undeserved success. Sucked in blood, Europe gifted to the USA the role of The Leader in very hopeful sense of the word. By the concerted efforts of all Administrations, starting from Harry Soft Spoken Truman and up to the current monkey of a man, that title was transformed into Fuhrer; the American Republic was degenarating into Empire for full 60 years.

Yet the progress is unmistakable too. After several decades ridiculing Socialism and proclaiming Neo Liberal End of History, the latter is back with a vengeance. I often read here the word Capitalism in perjurative sense, but the word Socialism still seems too repugnant to majority of readers.

I would recommend visitors to CD reading if "Imperialism as the latest stage of Capitalism", the pamflet written in 1915. The pamflet describes current situation with amazing accuracy as if author's understanding of reality were deeper than we expect now from experts in economics and geopolitics.

May be, just may be only movement on the scale of that of 100 years ago may withstand the force of tsunami, which was well predicted and which is upon us to-day.

Nihilism never was and never will be an answer.
v.purto

Just as Merlin changed young Arthur into a bird of flight so he could see that the "lines" defining countries only exist on maps and in people's minds, money exists merely to enable commerce. The true commerce of Life is about people's needs and our labors to satisfy those needs.

Just as one must slow a vehicle before making a turn (changing direction) we must take advantage of this slow-down to look at what activities are really needed, for example consumerism or infrastructure -- the coolest phone or health care -- a comfortable ride or a comfortable environment..., and proceed in those new directions.

Attempts to keep the existing "party" (both 'political party' and the 'pop the champagne and buy crap party') only delay the failure of our current course of waste, bogus wealth, and neglect. Are we thinking humans or lemmings? Time will tell and we can only hope.

It's more a conspiracy of willful ignorance of the facts in front of "their" faces and warnings from the Pauls and Naders of the world - a willful ignorance in exchange for Wall Street "campaign contributions" and promises of future "private sector" riches.

"...as we watched a Congressional committee grill a banker about the greed that led to his downfall." Downfall defined as walking away with over half-a-billion of our dollars and zero consequences.

Oh, if only I could suffer such a horrible fate...

Teach-ins are beset with the problem that there is no scientific theory of economy upon which to assess the behavior of our system. The purpose of government has always been to protect the market from its victims. Markets always entail victims because labor is the underlying source of value (as Adam Smith observed), but labor is governed by the laws of thermodynamics. Every transaction produces a loss, not a profit. The losses are externalized upon the environment, the public at large, the customers, the workers, and in short all who are outside the provisions of the contract, the legality of which is protected by government. Scientifically, every transaction contains a true cost which is expressible in isolation as:
True Cost = Market Value + (Market Value / Overall Efficiency)
The externalities dwarf the values of the market and thus to protect the market is to wallow in injustices, playing to the financial class power that benefits from the market at a cost of blood and suffering to the public.

From this article:
"We seem to be confronting a trifecta of failure: a financial failure, a political failure and a media failure all reinforcing each other. It's the perfect storm."

From an article by Jack MacMillan in 2004:
"Two speech transcripts [on the White House website] show Budget Director Mitch Daniels reporting that shortly after 9/11, while discussing the recession, the war, and 9/11, Bush turned to him and said, "Lucky me! I hit the trifecta."

But I'm sure even George W. never imagined he would hit the trifecta twice in his presidency. And he was worried about his legacy!

If the disaster capitalists are right, there will be opportunity in the empire's collapse. The Friedmanites have a plan. Maybe we'd better make one too and put it in writing.

Honesty is the Sucker

It ain’t just honesty looking lonely any more
spin and truthiness are looking downright grim
from George ‘the decider’ to Hank ‘the disburser’
things keep getting worser and worser

Never mind a little ‘irrational exuberance’ on the St
we’ve got ‘panicky irrationality’ taking up the beat
You’d think the terror nation was in a jam
what with all the bankster’s on the lam
or is it just the priciness of Sam?
as we all call Uncle
from the patriot priders to the Abu Ghraibers
to the neo Conserve-your-money-ists

Ya all better harken to the decider George
‘this sucker could go down’

After years in captivity, the cage door is thrown open and yet the bird sits passively on its perch.

Perhaps that should be the message of the first teach-in.

The jailors, having stolen all there was to steal from those imprisoned, will soon abandon their posts.

"a national teach-in movement on campuses and communities to educate the change-oriented community to put this issue and some real solutions on the agenda"

That sounds like a great action. Let's do a teach-in on CD. Organize the curriculum.

Alan MacDonald

We are not only on the 'edge of the abyss' of an economic war, but more broadly facing the abyss of a political economic war for the very existence of democracy in both the political AND economic spheres of our lives.

This war (or more accurately a continuation of the American Revolution) will determine whether democracy or Empire will rule in both the political and economic space.

In Europe, and particularly in Germany (where the Nazi Empire ruled both politics and economics), serious media voices are raising the specter of fascism if democracy is overwhelmed by this economic war expanding and smothering political democracy. While the US MSM dominated media is so ignorant, or complicitly deceptive of such threats, that the American people are left totally unaware of the rise of empire:

"In the online edition of the newsweekly Die Zeit, Ludwig Greven expresses the fear that the financial crisis threatens to become “a crisis of democracy.” Answering his own question—who governs Germany, the government or the leaders of finance capital?— he responds: “To all intents and purposes, it is the banks and the financial markets.”

"Heribert Prantl argues similarly in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The global financial crisis is not only about confidence in the money markets, he writes: “It also concerns faith in the sovereignty and capacity of democracy.... It is not only about plugging up gigantic monetary holes, but also ensuring that the crisis of global capitalism does not become a global crisis of democracy.”

"Ulrich Schäfer, also writing in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, remarks that the chancellor and her finance minister have behaved like “the victims of an unparalleled extortion racket, in which the financial markets have taken hostage an entire government and a whole nation.”

[From WSWS --- Germany: Government fears crisis will spur political radicalisation By Peter Schwarz 9 October 2008]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/oct2008/radi-o09.shtml

This is the moment the radical left has been waiting for for generations. If they do not make a move to become the mainstream, they never will.

The best thing that could happen would be for all the left-leaning groups in America to form a common front to begin selling a different idea about how to deal with our situation.

We can have lemonade or just sit around with a bunch of lemons.

Danny I am ready.

We need an economic justice movement, no doubt about it, but somehow the discussion of economic justice never develops into an examination of the monetary system, the "money power", as it was known in our past when people seemed to have had a clearer view of the facts of life than we do now.

There's the discussion of ideologies if there's a socialist in the party, or a laissez faire capitalist, but even the average Marxist who likes to quote Lenin's direful predictions for capitalism seems to know little about money mechanics, let's call it. The money power is not ideology.

Danny Schechter doesn't discuss the money power. He talks about economic justice, which is discussing the cart while ignoring the horse. The money power was assigned by the Founders to the Congress, under Article I, Section 8, Clause 5 of the Constitution. The Congress has never truly exercised that money power because Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, was the first privatizer who handed over the money power to private bankers through the creation of a deficit financing system.

The discussion of economic justice should begin with a discussion of a Constitutional monetary system, which we have never had because from the very start the wealthy minority sought to keep the money power in private hands.

As we cry foul about the bail out of wealthy speculators, we ought to be recognizing that the private monetary system, called The Federal Reserve, is a PRIVATE system that is operated chiefly for the benefit of a private financial elite. The cause of economic injustice can be located right here: the wealthy minority owns the goose that lays the golden egg.

The private system, the Fed, is screwing up big time. Shouldn't the discussion begin with a discussion of the Constitutional money power and the need for that money power to be exercised by the people's Treasury to "promote the general welfare"?

This is not socialism, friends, this is Constitutionalism, this is the populist native vision of America. Why don't we try it?

"If the laws of God and men are therefore of no effect, when the magistracy is left at liberty to break them, and if the lusts of those, who are too strong for the tribunals of justice, cannot be otherwise restrained, than by sedition, tumults, and war, those seditions, tumults, and wars, are justified by the laws of God and man."

-Algernon Sidney, Discourses concerning Government 1698 (posthumous)

Occasionally when I call my legislators I do not say a word, I just scream in the phone !!! I hope this catches on....

"Many who foresaw disaster kept quiet."

And some who did where either ridiculed or just ignored as irrelevant.

For 20 years, Share International magazine (www.share-international.org/magazine/SI_main.htm) has been sending media releases, publishing reports, forecasts, trends and articles relating to the current global economic crisis. It also speaks about an extraordinary Teacher who is here now to guide, inspire and educate us out of this dangerous mess. Expect to see him interviewed on a major US television network very soon.

Peace and justice through sharing and understanding.

Yes, Danny, I agree. National economic teach-ins, and the abolition of the Federal Reserve for starters. And serious discussion of the necessity to DEFAULT on the nation's 10 trillion debt (actually, the General Comptroller says it is as large as 56 trillion if you factor in unfunded mandates like Medicare and Social Security, Veterans Benefits, etc.) and fund long-neglected people in need, the abolition of the Military Industrial Complex, the Media Infotainment Complex, etc. In a word, Revolution.

Something that folks may not have considered.

Global dimming has pushed back the onset of higher temperatures, according to several studies... the really compelling one I read about was the one that was based out of the Maldives.

One of the scenarios for seeing warming crank up was the slowdown in industrial output caused by a global recession and/or depression, leading to a major slowdown in the output of particulates.

We might all be dealing with far more pressing matters than economic systems within a year or so.

Moe Seager to Danny.

Right! Right On!! We have arrived at OUR historic moment. It's high time the progressive communities come together to forge a national movement, forward towards one national coalition challenging for elected offices on state and federal levels. Meantime. we can continue electing on the local and regional levels. This forward motion can be conducted under Democrat-Republican administrations. The guardians of empire never volunteer to devolve power. If we don't take a stand outside the Democrat-Republcan party we will surely perish, as is always the case with wounded dynasties, the Empire eats its own.

We need not take the bait, "Democratic party or oblivion". We are not myopic. That's the chronic condition of the fear driven panic stricken apologists of the Dems, costumed as progressives-now-liberals, socialists-now-human face capitalists. More tricks than treats, their Halloween gags.

Count on legions of Dems exploiting our democratic forums for the purpose of roping us back into the barn, into pens labeled, center right, center, liberal and progressive. Some are paid staffers, most are simple misguided movement tourists, lonely hearts, would be progressives disdained and marginalized by the DNC, allowed a voice in a truly democratic forums. They let out captives to fight for them, to do much of their battling for the Democrat-Republican in-house dog fights. Apologist Dems have been employed this sabotage since the deaths of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, the underground exile and death of Yippee icon Abbie Hoffman. In the 60's and 70's the apologists swarmed the anti-Viet Nam, Civil Rights, No Nukes, Feminist movements, policing independent thinkers with carrot-and- stick-cajolery.

Presently, apologists are spinning "Obama is not the movement" (Right.) " We must force Obama to Change." How bittersweet the humor, the disillusioned new generation voters: Obama supporters protesting president Obama! For his insufficient redress of health care, employment stimuli, energy-climate "clean" coal, new nuke plants, arctic drilling of our wilderness, bed time in Wall Street, Middle East wars. Where next - Venezuela? Bolivia?! This is the apologists task, to siphon off popular, mass activism , into harmless ineffectual activity. Long ago my dear Aunt Bea warned me,
Don't take the problem to the problem.

We can launch forward our work to galvanize a national movement, coaltion partners behind elections in state and federal offices. As we do this we should take lessons from the 60's and 70's. The chief lesson I think, not to descend into sectarianism, as the old New Left did, sabotaging the very goals, failig the needy and oppressed they claimed to represent. More so, "We" know better than our allies, and will undermine "them" for your betterment. Sabotage.

Our movement has yet to establish a mass democratic concensus behind a single progressive party, single candidates slate. We have no merit based leader. No one among us, no single group should assume entitlements. This painstaking process is long hard and arduous, as it was for the revolutionists in 1776. No getting around it. Precisely because it requires us to hash out guiding principles and electoral agendas, will strengthen our mass democratic movement, shape it into a vehicle of mass popular appeal, able to place our candidate in the renamed Rainbow House.

Perhaps Nader and Gonzales, McKinney and Clemente, Cindy Sheehan, their respective supporters might sit down among us to forge a united front! Perhaps one or more of those few exceptional Dems will join us. Will work along side and behind our chosen candidates. Jimmy Carter, Dennis Kucinnich, John Conyers,Mich, local DEMOCRATIC Democrats, et al.

Yes, an historic moment presents itself. We may choose to birth a mass base militant democratic American movement. A movement leading a nation of principles, character, for the benefit of WE the People. Proud at home. Proud before the communities on our planet. Our birth right.