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Author Topic: Corruption in Government  (Read 57528 times)

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AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #660 on: May 25, 2018, 11:01:07 pm »
Democracy in Chains: The Radical Right’s Stealth Attack on American Democracy

May 23, 2018

In part one, Nancy Maclean reveals Nobel prize-winning economist James M. Buchanan as the architect of the Koch Brothers’ secret campaign to undermine public education, unions, and to reshape America



Story Transcript

JAISAL NOOR: 2018 has been the year of the teacher, as waves of protest in mostly Republican-dominated states starting in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona, and most recently North Carolina have challenged not only low pay, but tax cuts and the privatization that have crippled public education.

STRIKING NORTH CAROLINA TEACHER: The state keeps asking more of us every year, but giving us less resources. So that’s one of the big reasons we’re here to fight today.

JAISAL NOOR: These states have all adopted policies backed by right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers, whose network of dark money funders has poured untold sums into transforming the American political landscape by shackling the government’s ability to fund social services and enforce regulations while cutting taxes on the wealthy and increasing protections for corporations, all while passing a slew of restrictive voter laws, in the name of advancing so-called liberty.

A number of reporters and scholars have written works that have shed light on the workings of the shadowy networks of the right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers. But until now there has been little understanding of the origins of the ideology behind this assault on democratic institutions. That led our next guest, Nancy MacLean, the William Chafee Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University, to look into the ideological foundations of this movement. And what she uncovered is deeply shocking and troubling; the subject her explosive book, “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America.” Really happy to have you on.

NANCY MACLEAN: Great to be with you.

JAISAL NOOR: So For the first part of this discussion, let’s start at George Mason University, where you stumbled upon a remarkably unguarded trove of documents belonging to the late Nobel Prize-winning economist James McGill Buchanan, and what you were able to piece together about his role in the Koch brothers’ plans to reshape America and its democratic institutions. Talk about how you came across this, and what you started to piece together.

NANCY MACLEAN: Well, James Buchanan had been on my radar from some historical research that I had done on the state of Virginia’s massive resistance to Brown vs. Board of Education in the late 1950s, and I became intrigued with him. And when I finally was able to get into his private archive at George Mason in 2013, I found all of my suspicions confirmed about the ways that his ideas were being weaponized by the Koch donor network in order to effectively disable our democracy, and to do things like privatizing public education, inflicting these radical cuts in necessary social services in the country, changing constitutional law. All kinds of things I was able to find in that archive.

And ironically, I got into the archive in September of 2013, just as Buchanan’s ideas were guiding a government shutdown in Washington, D.C. led by Ted Cruz, a figure deeply steeped in both this thinking and rooted in the Koch network. So very, very, I would say, unsettling experience to be in the archives during the day while watching the damage being inflicted on Americans who needed the federal government’s services, and needed the government open during the time I was at the archives for the first time.

JAISAL NOOR: So, limiting democratic participation and empowering the wealthy is nothing new in American history. What’s different about Buchanan’s work? What makes his ideas so radical and so dangerous to democracy?

NANCY MACLEAN: Yeah, Buchanan was playing on that same team as the wider right, with people like Milton Friedman and others who believed in a kind of free market fundamentalism, believed that government was the problem, believed that the solution was to turn decision making over to the market for just about everything. But what was different about Buchanan is that he came up with a theory of how government grew over the 20th century, and particularly the domestic part of government, what is sometimes called the liberal state. So things like Social Security and Medicare, worker’s rights, environmental protection, antidiscrimination, and so forth. He produced a theory that was aimed really to discredit government so that people would not automatically look to government in cases of market failure, and that turned out to be a much more insidious, and in the long run effective, approach to to undermining the popular achievements of the 20th century.

So Buchanan’s approach was complementary to that of Friedman and the Chicago school and others, but again, much more devastating. And we see it today in all the language about the swamp, the notion that all public figures are corrupt and misleading the public. All of those ideas really stem from a school of thought that Buchanan developed called ‘public choice economics’ most broadly, and his particular variant was often called the Virginia school of political economy.

JAISAL NOOR: So a historic figure sort of plays big in this, in your book. James C. Calhoun , who was a slave owner, a former vice president, a statesman from South Carolina who had a lot of influence in the first half of the 19th century in the United States. What role-. So, talk about who he is and his significance, and what role he had on the thinking of Buchanan and other influential figures in this libertarian arch-right movement. .

NANCY MACLEAN: Yes. Before James Buchanan, John C. Calhoun was the most significant antidemocratic thinker in America. He was a Southern slaveholder from South Carolina, onetime vice president, South Carolina member of the U.S. Senate. And he produced two big treatises reinterpreting the constitution and the purpose of American government in a way that would protect slaveholders’ interests. He did this a generation after the founders, and he did it because he could see that national majorities were developing that would challenge slavery and he wanted to protect what had become the most profitable capitalist institution in the mid-19th century when he was writing, or I should say the early 19th century, the first third of it, and the 1820s and ’30s in particular.

And basically he was a theorist of what I’ve come to think about as property supremacy, a kind of property supremacy that reinterprets the constitution in a, in order to protect the absolute prerogatives of property holders, the most dramatic being slaveholders, in order to keep democratic government at bay. And what’s really interesting about Calhoun is that Buchanan’s own colleagues at George Mason University have called John C. Calhoun a precursor to modern public choice theory, in particular to the ideas of this figure James McGill Buchanan , their former colleague. And they actually said that the two systems of ideas had the same purpose and effect. And I could not agree more with that because I think the purpose is to protect the rights of property holders, particularly the wealthiest among them, from the reach of majoritarian democracy. I think that, that kind of sums it up.

JAISAL NOOR: And can you talk about the response from George Mason University before and after they were recently forced to admit that this tremendous amount of money they were getting from the Koch brothers came with strings attached which actually compromise their entire department? Because the Koch brothers had veto power over who served, you know, who, who could work at George Mason? You talk about that, and their evolving response in this case.

NANCY MACLEAN: Yeah, it’s a really chilling story. I will say that I have direct personal experience of how poisonous a presence this Koch donor network is in our public life, because after my book came out, you know, the initial review attention and media attention was universally positive and favorable from professional reviewers from historians and others. And about two or so weeks in, two to three weeks in, there was this kind of libertarian pile on. And much of it came from faculty at George Mason University, who had been funded by the Koch network, who were working with the Koch implant on the campus at George Mason in the economics department, the law school. And something called the Mercatus Center, which, interestingly, is housed on the campus of this public university but in no way accountable to it, and Charles Koch has sat on its board for years.

So, what we saw there is how the Charles Koch Foundation 🦕🦖 and the operatives that it funds basically are weaponizing their implants 😈 👹 on our public university campuses in order to come after anyone who is critical of this operation. And there were a few researchers from Greenpeace, and a wonderful group of young people who have built a group called UnKoch My Campus that researched the people who were attacking me and my book, and found that in 90 cases these were people who were, received-. Faculty members who received direct funding from Charles Koch, or operatives in his various operations, who in most cases never declared their conflicts of interest, basically violating ethics 101 in these attacks.

And the important thing about this is not the personal thing, the attacks on me, but what it tells us about how our higher education system is being used for this larger political project. And as you say, the recent revelations over the last few weeks of what has happened over the years at George Mason 🐉 are quite breathtaking. In one case a faculty member was chosen, hand selected by a donor for a tenured position at this public university. And ironically, he was also the first out of the gate to attack me, this individual. So it is really stunning. The other thing that has come out in these revelations from George Mason is the extent of donor influence over faculty hiring and assessments of faculty performance. They were actually able to have a voice in getting rid of faculty if they didn’t adequately advance the Koch donor project.

And especially chilling was revelations from the law school, I should say all made possible by FOIA inquiries associated with UnKoch My Campus, and a group called Transparent GMU, FOIA inquiries that found that the Federalist Society, the body that has been vetting and recommending federal judges to Republican administrations since Ronald Reagan, the Federalist Society had actually set up a front group, a front group of the kind usually used, in legal terms, for money laundering, to funnel money to the now-named Scalia School of Law at George Mason, in order to use that law school as a base of operations for moving our judiciary to the right in terms of faculty appointments, setting up programs that could assist in this political project, and placing students in clerkships with judges on the right.

So it is really mind blowing for scholars to see what is being done to our universities. And although George Mason’s administration at first denied this for years to their faculty senate and to the students who were concerned on campus, they have had to admit, now that these FOIA requests have become public, that in fact the donors had grossly undue influence on the campus that has corrupted academic integrity at this public institution.

JAISAL NOOR: Well, that’s really tremendous. And you know, it sort of demonstrates the ideological conviction over the academic, academic conviction of this group. So this wraps up the first part of this discussion about Democracy in Chains, by Nancy MacLean. In our next part we’ll focus on public education and why this assault on democracy has been so closely focused on it. Thanks so much for joining us.

https://therealnews.com/stories/democracy-in-chains-the-radical-rights-stealth-attack-on-american-democracy
« Last Edit: August 18, 2018, 10:17:56 pm by AGelbert »
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #661 on: May 28, 2018, 09:45:58 pm »
Truthdig

Glenn Greenwald: Trump 🦀 Is a ‘Continuation of American Political Culture’ 😈 👹 💵 🎩 🍌 🏴‍☠️ 🐉🦕🦖  (Video)

MAY 27, 2018

— Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata


https://www.truthdig.com/videos/glenn-greenwald-trump-is-a-continuation-of-american-political-culture-video/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #662 on: June 02, 2018, 12:51:42 pm »
June 2, 2018

This week’s #TrumpThreatLevel:

After much delay, the Trump administration finally released a legal explanation to justify its reckless escalation of the war in Syria. Spoiler alert: this explanation isn’t good enough. Trump is basically claiming that he can authorize military force anytime he wants without first consulting Congress. That’s not what the Constitution says, and that puts us all in danger.

The Trump administration has dramatically ramped up lethal force operations around the world, leaving behind a large civilian body count. But even though Trump is required by law to disclose just how many civilians have been killed, he is blocking accountability by refusing to share that information with the public.


Trump 🦀 keeps botching diplomacy with North Korea. First the much-hyped summit is canceled, then it’s back on. South Korean President Moon Jae-In is working hard to salvage a path forward, but Trump keeps raising the threat level anyway.

Visit trumpthreatlevel.indivisible.org for a running list of all the ways Trump makes us less safe and our latest foreign policy resources to take action.



Looking ahead

This Tuesday, we’ve got a major set of exciting primaries, including three of our nationally endorsed candidates!

→ Jeramey Anderson for Congress in MS-04

→ Virginia Madueño for Congress in CA-10

→ Harley Rouda for Congress in CA-48

    You can read more about them on Indivisible435.org!       

All three of these candidates are running amazing grassroots campaigns, and Indivisibles are getting out the vote on these final few days before election day to get their endorsed candidates to the next round. Indivisible CA-48, who endorsed Harley Rouda, has been typing away at text banking shifts ahead of the big day on Tuesday -- check out their unstoppable, dedicated volunteers here!

We couldn’t be more excited to see all of the incredible engagement of both Indivisible groups and endorsed candidates ahead of November. You’re building the big #BlueWave and we’re humbled to call ourselves a part of this movement. Good luck on Tuesday and we’ll be cheering you all on from afar!

In solidarity,

The Indivisible Team
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #663 on: June 03, 2018, 12:59:20 pm »
Everything you think you know about the Deep State is probably WRONG.


Webster Tarpley audio: The Deep State: What It Is 🐍  AND how it put Trump 🦀 into Power



He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #664 on: June 03, 2018, 01:27:16 pm »
Trump's announcement that withdrawing US troops from South Korea is NOT on the agenda for Summit 1 means that Summit 1 won't be successful.  Hopefully there will be a Summit 2 with a different agenda, but an attack on NK is more likely given the hubris involved and the escalation of tensions being provoked around the world, see Geopolitics.

Those tensions alone are plenty. Add to those the domestic pressures from the Mueller probe, the Cohen tapes, and having to rendition Melania to a prison in Thailand to keep her from publicly leaving him. Trump will readily sacrifice Americans to save himself, just as Hitler was prepared to sacrifice the German people at war's end.

All bullshit aside is this **** maniacal Trump hatred ever going to end here for a day at least.

Aren't you blowing this Melania situation out of hand. The man is a womanizer, has been married three times, everyone knows what he is including her. He never represented himself as a holy or exemplary family man

Now your accusing him of murdering her, and claiming his going to sacrifice lives of Americans, comparing him to Hitler, how disgusting.

Grow up will you all. The man is a human being, has a mother a father wives and children and is an American Citizen.

He was elected by your fellow citizens, he didn't seize power. Hate him all you wish but after a few years of this **** it's time to act like adults. 

When you own the fact that you can't handle criticism of Trump because you support his dastardly, empathy deficit disordered, immoral, vulgar, might is right world view, then maybe you can claim a basis for your endless whining. Until then, the only one into nauseatingly repetitive bullshit is you.







He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #665 on: June 03, 2018, 01:29:29 pm »
All bullshit aside is this **** maniacal Trump hatred ever going to end here for a day at least.

Aren't you blowing this Melania situation out of hand. The man is a womanizer, has been married three times, everyone knows what he is including her. He never represented himself as a holy or exemplary family man

No. Not for a minute.

Defend him as you will, and own the white nationalism, rampant criminality, utterly disgusting racism that drips, drips, drips from him. like gonorrhea, grifting, and the lies, lies, the incessant lies. Yeah, that's your boy.

You go nourish yourself with the corn picked out of his turds. Bon appetit.

In re Melania, she hasn't been seen in 22 days. Her twitter account has made a single post, in language clearly not hers. So WHERE is she?

I think she is leaving his ass,and he has her sequestered. Got a better idea?

Not mine.

 
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #666 on: June 08, 2018, 05:58:19 pm »
Why the GOP 🦍 Really Wants to Cancel the Senate’s August Recess

WRITTEN BY Robin Marty , Care2

PUBLISHED June 8, 2018

SNIPPET:

McConnell cites a “judicial crisis” of empty seats that still need to be filled — ignoring the fact that the reason so many seats remain open is because the Senate GOP refused to confirm President Barack Obama’s nominations. Regardless, for Republicans the need is real.

After all, come January 2019, there’s a strong possibility that Republicans will no longer hold the majority — and it will be the Democrats with the power to confirm or deny.

But filling up judicial vacancies is only a fig leaf for the real reason behind the clamor to keep Senate in session as often as possible. According to The Hill, the other goal is to prevent Democratic incumbents from campaigning at home, giving an advantage to their GOP challengers.

Full article:

https://truthout.org/articles/why-the-gop-really-wants-to-cancel-the-senates-august-recess/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #667 on: June 08, 2018, 09:22:32 pm »
June 8, 2018

Primaries Expose Bitter Fight 🤬 in Democratic Party

Down with Tyranny blogger Howie Klein says corporate Democrats fight to undermine and defeat progressive candidates in spite of Sanders’ proven success in working class districts

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #668 on: June 11, 2018, 06:11:24 pm »

Yep.  :(

The racist bastards never stop doing what they do. As they get more confident of their power, they become more in-our-faces about brazenly doing what those evil bastards have ALWAYS done since ancient times, when they could get away with it.


Quote
There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.

There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.

There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.

Proverbs 30:12-14

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #669 on: June 11, 2018, 09:46:29 pm »
The news from Puerto Rico

The Battle for Paradise


A corporate-government program 🦀 to undermine civil society 😠

Quote
A video version of Naomi Klein's new book "The Battle for Paradise."

The situation in a nutshell:

Grassroots efforts are thriving in the face of extraordinary challenges.

Official efforts are failing - deliberately.

Why?


One reliable place to send help:

http://hispanicfederation.org

http://www.nextworldtv.com/videos/what-isnt-working-1/the-news-from-puerto-rico.html
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #670 on: June 13, 2018, 12:49:29 pm »
Agelbert NOTE: Who was King Lemuel's Mother? ??? Nobody knows, but her advice is still wrongly ignored. The writer here covers it pretty well. However, I disagree that everyone who self-medicates becomes an addict. Most people who self-medicate do not. It is Biblically OKAY to self-medicate to mitigate the pain of sickness and/or poverty. It is just wrong to condemn everyone who self-medicates. Too many Christians have a stuffed shirt, overly judgemental, attitude towards drinking. There is NO Biblical basis for claiming Christians should not drink fermented beverages. The Biblical admonition, in several places in Scipture, is to avoid getting drunk, not to abstain totally from drinking.

But, since "Evangelical Christians" have an irrational prejudice against drinking, they try to spin the Bible to make it look like Scripture prohibits drinking booze.

All that said, it is to the writer's credit (though he wrongly tries to spin the good advice for the poor as "irony") that he admits that the advice of King Lemuel's mother is sound. King Lemuel's mother 🕊 makes it quite clear that the pain and misery of the sick and/or those in poverty is ample justification for self-medication.

As you can see from the vulgar, arrogant and totally unprincipled government leaders 🦀🐉🦕🦖 we are cursed with today, the elites continue to ignore this timeless advice.  :(


Proverbs 31:1-9: Lemuel’s Mother And The Duties Of Kings

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Nathan Albright

The identity of King Lemuel is unknown. Some people think that Lemuel is a pen name of King Solomon, the author of most of Proverbs, but like Agur, the author of Proverbs 30 [1], he may simply be an otherwise unknown wise man whose wisdom remains in the Bible even after he has been forgotten by history. In this case, the wisdom was (according to Proverbs) originally the wisdom of Lemuel’s mother. Unfortunately, Lemuel’s mother, who was presumably a princess or queen herself, has not been recorded in scripture, and as Lemuel’s identity or his realm is forgotten, Lemuel’s mother also has been consigned to historical oblivion.

Nonetheless, what is most important about King Lemuel and his mother is not their identity, or what realm they ruled over, but the worthiness and implications of the advice itself on the duties and responsibilities of kings. Needless to say, the subject is of considerable interest to me. Of course, when the Bible speaks about kings and their duties and responsibilities, kings is a title that refers to civil rulers and leaders in general and is not limited to monarchy, though it is of course applicable at all places and all time.

There are three pieces of advice given to Lemuel by his mother and then recorded in scripture. Let us examine each of them in turn and see what sort of relevant advice we can glean from them. The first piece of advice is recorded in Proverbs 31:1-3: “The words of King Lemuel, the utterance which his mother taught him: What, my son? And what, son of my womb? And what, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings.” It is ironic that Lemuel’s mother tells him not to give his strength to women nor his ways to that which destroys kings. What is meant here? Given the context, that Lemuel is the son of his mother’s womb and vows, that Lemuel was a queen, the lawfully wedded wife of her husband, presumably a king. Giving your strength to women means collecting and being ensnared in a harem by women scheming for influence for themselves and their children. What destroys kings is the luxuriant and corrupt and decadent lifestyle that most monarchs live–a way that destroys them mind, body, and spirit. So, lesson number one for leaders is: don’t amass a harem; stick with one godly wife.

The second piece of advice is found in Proverbs 31:4-7: “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink; lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the justice of all the afflicted. Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those who are bitter of heart. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.” This is a wise command, but one that is seldom heeded by rulers. Far too often those who consider themselves elites enjoy parties and banquets and luxury. The Bible forbids leaders from drunkenness (including religious leaders) because it interferes with the duties of a leader to discern and judge justly. Intriguingly, Lemuel’s mother recommends drink for those who are perishing, whose lives are full of misery, so that they can forget their misery for a little while. This seems to be a major reason why people self-medicate their problems and become alcoholics. It is not clear whether this advice is ironic, and intended to point out that drunkenness reflects misery rather than happiness, vanity and futility rather than the proper purposeful life of a ruler, but it is sound advice anyway. Lesson number two for leaders is: stay sober and sober-minded.

The third lesson from Lemuel’s mother is contained in Proverbs 31:8-9: “Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.” Most kings and rulers may wish to be seen as defending the cause of their people, but in reality most of them plead the cause of elites, be they military leaders or aristocrats or palace courtiers or wealthy businessmen. Elites do not need for rulers to speak on their behalf. They have their own power, their own lobbyists and lawyers and other backers, and do not need the power of the throne to support their interests. Rather, it is the poor and needy and speechless, those who do not have a voice in the corridors of power, nor can afford those to speak on their behalf, that require the support of the ruler. And this support cannot merely be lip service, but needs to be the expenditure of actual political capital and effort on their behalf, for the cause of justice within a realm. Most rulers and leaders, whatever their inclinations, are unwilling to crusade for justice within their realms and institutions, but are content to go with the flow and enjoy the perks of office as well as the benefits of associating with those who are already powerful and well-connected, rather than to disrupt that equilibrium for the sake of justice and equity. Lesson number three for leaders is: godly leaders speak for the powerless and poor, not for the elites.

All of these pieces of advice for leaders cut against the grain of how leaders generally behave. If there are three sins of leaders that are extremely common, the sins of sexual immorality, luxuriant decadence, and casual injustice are high among them. These are especially omnipresent evils in monarchies whose focus is on splendor and luxury and where the power of the monarch and his inner clique is bolstered by some kind of bogus divine right view of leadership and where the responsibility of rulers to uphold constitutional standards is weak or nonexistent. We ought to be careful when we see such standards present to ensure that such rulers are made aware of their obligations to the people and cease from serving only themselves and their favorites. Lemuel’s mother gave immensely wise advice, and advice that is sadly seldom heeded by leaders, whether crowned monarchs or not, to this day. Let it not remain so.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/seven-things-i-learned-from-the-wisdom-of-agur/

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #671 on: June 13, 2018, 02:45:52 pm »
You have to know these things when you're a King, you know.


I don't think leaders these days get much good advice from their mothers, or anyone else. Your post points out one additional thing you didn't mention. These ideas are not new. They're as old as civilization. By now we should be figuring it out, but we aren't. Not a good reflection on the  durability of human wisdom.

Yup. One of these days I might even convince you we are DEVOLVING, instead of "evolving".  ;D
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #672 on: June 13, 2018, 04:56:17 pm »
You have to know these things when you're a King, you know.


I don't think leaders these days get much good advice from their mothers, or anyone else. Your post points out one additional thing you didn't mention. These ideas are not new. They're as old as civilization. By now we should be figuring it out, but we aren't. Not a good reflection on the  durability of human wisdom.

Yup. One of these days I might even convince you we are DEVOLVING, instead of "evolving".  ;D

No argument, really. We are Devo.

Yep.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #673 on: June 18, 2018, 06:16:35 pm »
Cuba versus the USA in regard to the Level of Freedoms

I have no wish to trade my current repressive government for an even more repressive government so that I personally can live a lower standard of living. Tell me again why that's a good thing?

Oh come on.  Even you acknowledge to develop any kind of society that is remotely "sustainable" we need to Power Down, use less fossil fuels and live closer to the land with more of the population involved in food production.  The Cuban Revolution forced all those things to happen, and today Cuba is far better prepared for SHTF Day than the FSoA.  Voluntarily giving up your vacations to the VI and lowering your standard of living is a way to provide a better chance for your kids to have any kind of future at all.
I've got to second RE on this.  At least with the current government evidence can support or disprove that the government is repressive or not.  It is a matter of opinion but only so far, because facts are facts are facts and repression can be measured.  In contrast any government we 'trade' it for is a total speculative unknown because it has not yet happened.  It is a logical fallacy of some kind.  Maybe this one?


RE

Perhaps expressing two things which can't possibly be traded is not exactly an amphiboly in a strict grammatical sense but the content of Eddie's statement is a claim that this is the best of all possible world by equating knowledge of a future which has not yet transpired.  That violates causality and is impossible.  It is a bourgeois acceptance of the status quo.

If you are confused think of having "repressive government" on both sides of a mathematical equation.  Basic algebra would cancel them out leaving you with the conclusion that we should accept what we have now because it must be the best.  That is Eddie's claim.  Problem is one of Eddies 'repressive governments' is imaginary and in the future and other one is not and is here with us right now.  Two different things which can't be equated can't cancel each other out, be the current government repressive or not.


 


Well does "repression" have anything to do with resource scarcity? There is always resource scarcity more or less, less in good times, more in hard times. But now we have resource depletion and too many mouths to feed and therefore too many screams of social injustice and lack of equality. Who gets the biggest pieces of pie. Those with money and power. Who are the most repressed? Those living in places where the pie is declared evenly distributed by dictum. It's all bullshit of course, because the strongest, most opportunistic, smartest and most able always get more pie even when the pie is getting devoured. Idealists propose otherwise. That is what ideals are. Not reality! Reality is dark and stark. Nobody wants to look at it. They would rather just keep yammering about injustice and who is going to bell the cat. It's not going to change when the resources are next to nothing. The same fight for power and pie will continue in the midst of starvation. Only the weak will have less breath to scream and the strong and opportunistic will have more reason to uphold "private property". It has always been so. It will continue to be so. So Scream On. Cheers.


I think resource scarcity and repression are clearly linked.

In a world (like the one humans once lived on a few generations ago), with lots of wide open spaces and not that many people, it is much easier to live a life free of government repression.

For nearly 100 years, malcontents from the lower 48 went and lived like mountain men in Alaska on public land. They trapped and fished, and lived for years without any contact with the government. Now the US Forest Service has helicopters and technology that can spot a cooking fire miles away. All those old guys died off and new ones are not allowed. The commons has been effectively cleared, because that public land has to be managed. By "managers". Bullshit. The Forest Service is in service to the corporations who profit from the resources, not the people. It's that simple.

Even though the US Constitution GUARANTEES  the right for Americans to occupy public land.

But yeah. I do agree that the idea that you can redistribute wealth equitably to build a better world overlooks the fact that some people are greedy no matter what their politics, and that powerful people always manage to do pretty much what they want, regardless.

Yep. Nevertheless, the following extremely profitable business in the USA has absolutely nothing to do with resource depletion and everything to do with carefully and cruelly planned exploitation, humiliation, impovershment, legal slavery and the methodical destruction of all socially beneficial cohesion in communites of color. I am certain that Cuba is less repressive, at least in this regard.

 
Rattling the Bars: More Arrests And Jail Time

June 17, 2018

Executive Producer Eddie Conway uncovers why more arrests are not resulting in safer making communities.


He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Corruption in Government
« Reply #674 on: June 18, 2018, 09:02:09 pm »
Far-Right 🦀 Wins Presidency in Colombia: ‘A Frightening Result’ 😨

June 18, 2018

Ivan Duque, who is the candidate of former president Alvaro Uribe, won a solid victory for Colombia’s presidency and will probably take Colombia back towards civil war and internal repression, with the help of the US and other conservative governments, argues Manuel Rozental, of PueblosEnCamino.org

Quote
Manuel Rozental

Emmanuel Rozental is a Colombian activist, physician, and practicing surgeon with more than 40 years’ involvement in grassroots political organizing with youth, indigenous peoples, and urban and rural movements. He has been exiled several times to Canada for political activities. Academic in social and political sciences, strategist with social movements throughout the Americas and beyond.



SNIPPET from video interview:

Quote
So our fear is now that Colombia is the spearhead of the U.S. policy for this continent. And the U.S. policy for this continent in economic terms is this: war actually is not a means to an end. The resources and territories that are needed are not only a means to an end. War is the end in itself.

The Middle Eastern wars have activated the economy and have improved the economy in the U.S. [Inaudible] that Colombia’s role is one of the Israel of Latin America. And what comes here is a model and a new phase, neoliberalism is left behind.

The new phase such as Colombia and Mexico for capital from the U.S., and pushed by, promoted by U.S. corporations and the Pentagon, is actually a, let’s call it a mafia-type capitalism which is, on the one hand, drug trafficking and drug mafias together with governments and corporations, and launching all types of wars constantly.

I am not trying to generate fear. I’m just showing the type of movements we’re seeing developing here.

https://therealnews.com/stories/far-right-wins-presidency-in-colombia-a-frightening-result
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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