Lessons in Accountability for Senate, White House & Board Room: Why I Don't Give a Damn About What Charlie Rangel Did, & Why I Hope He Beats the Rap

Lessons in Accountability for Senate, White House & Board Room: Why I Don't Give a Damn About What Charlie Rangel Did, & Why I Hope He Beats the Rap

By Richard Power

The U.S. body politic is very ill. And the Obama administration has so far been a breathtakingly clear mirror into the seriousness of the illness. Consider the fierce and rather effective resistance mounted against even the most modest and incremental reforms to the finance and health insurance rackets. (See Eric Alterman's Kabuki Democracy: Why a Progressive Presidency Is Impossible, for Now for some context.)

Looking ahead, if Citizens United v. FEC is not somehow neutralized, and if the likes of Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman ascend to high office in 2010 and 2012, the life-threatening disease that ails us may well enter a terminal phase (some would argue it already has, but I remain absurdly optimistic).

If these trends continue, the criminal prosecution and/or media "investigations" of powerful executives and high government officials will become even rarer than they are now, and those that do occur will target individuals and organizations who threaten corporate interests; and, indeed, as in the case of Don Siegelman and ACORN, they will also be predicated on false charges.

There are lessons of accountability to be learned but POTUS, the A.G., the mainstream news media, et al, are not reaching for the juiciest fruit.

I worked for Charlie Rangel when I was a kid in New York City, in 1969; he was an Assemblyman running for City Council President on a ticket with Rep. James Scheuer running for Mayor and former Police Commissioner Vincent Broderick running for Comptroller. The ticket lost the Democratic Primary, but I remember that campaign fondly, and Charlie, in particular.

In recent years, Charlie Rangel has shown he still has some street in him.

To put the US body politic in touch with the truth and consequences of the foolish military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the excesses of the military-industrial complex in general, Charlie (who actually served in the U.S. military) proposed reinstating the draft:

Rangel continues to push for a draft, but argues that it should not resemble the one this nation experienced in Vietnam. “Vietnam had a political draft,” he said. “All you had to do is what Cheney did, what Bush did. All you had to do was know a politician and get deferments.” Rangel is calling for a draft with no deferments. Think Progress, 8-17=10

To pay for meaningful health care reform for the poor and the middle class, Charlie proposed slapping a surtax on the wealthiest:

Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives want to increase taxes on the highest-earning American families to help pay for an overhaul of the nation’s health-care system. Legislation to be unveiled on July 13 would raise $540 billion over the next decade by setting a 1 percent surtax on couples with more than $350,000 in annual income, said Representative Charles Rangel, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. Bloomberg, 7-11-09

Is Charlie Rangel guilty of the charges of corruption on which he faces accountability?

I don't know, and I don't give a damn.

There are plenty of lessons in accountability that are past due in Beltwayistan, Banksterstan, Infotainmentstan and the Oiligarchy, and only once the backlog is cleared up, will I entertain the issues related to Rangel, or acknowledge any validity in the calls for his resignation.

When Donald Rumsfeld has to follow in the footsteps of Idi Amin and seek refuge in Saudia Arabia; when C-level executives at BP; Goldman Sachs and Massey Energy are indicted; when Scooter Libby does prison time for the crimes he was convicted of; when those who wrongly imprisoned Don Siegelman are tried for what they did; when those responsible for Bin Laden's escape for Tora Bora (HINT: they were suits, not uniforms, and they were politicians not intelligence officers) are held accountable; when the full documentation on Cheney's secret energy meetings is released; when Bush stops raising money for his library, and has to raise money for defense lawyers instead; when mainstream media exposes the Chamber of Commerce's role in the propagation of denialist lies about the Climate Crisis; when John Yoo is forced from UC Berkeley, and has to lawyer up and turn on the "Commander Guy" he served; when someone can explain to me what happened to the federal investigation of Tom DeLay, and why his trial in Texas has been delayed eight years, then I will give a damn what Charlie Rangel did or didn't do to deserve this investigation.

And these are just a few examples.

There is something terribly wrong here in the USA, and the source of this wrongness festers in the kulchur of the political establishment, the mainstream news media, and the board rooms of our "corporate persons." The US body politic cannot begin to recover, and redeem itself, until it understands the afflictions and addiction it suffers from; and what Charlie Rangel did or didn't do is of little significance in this healing process.

What is of much more significance than what Charlie did or didn't do is the class warfare that has been waged over the decades since the first shot of the Reagan Counter-Revolution:

The 22 statistics detailed here prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace ...
Here are the statistics to prove it:
83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement ... Michael Snyder, The Business Insider, 7-15-10

What is of much more significance than what Charlie did or didn't do is that the U.S. Senate has secured its place in the history of infamy as the institution that turned its back on the future generations, by choosing the campaign money of fossil fuel giants over a chance to mitigate the impact of the Climate Crisis and the Sixth Great Extinction.

A year and a half after President Barack Obama breathed new life into global talks on a climate treaty, the United States is back in a familiar role -- the holdout. The Senate's decision Thursday to shelve legislation on climate change is certain to cast a long shadow over December's meeting in Cancun, Mexico that will work on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Agence France Press, 7-24-10

What is of much more significance than what Charlie did or didn't do is the Obama-Biden White House's failure to deliver on the hope and bring meaningful change to U.S. policy on the plight of Darfur:

For their part, outside powers appear largely content to play along, with U.S. officialdom in particular generating a steady stream of sanguine commentary about the elections and in general the Sudanese state's future prospects to survive its various crises. Glib comments, such as U.S. Special Envoy Scott Gration's eyebrow-raising assertion that Sudan's elections would be "as free and fair as possible," raise an important and oft-obscured question: What is Washington actually looking to accomplish in Africa's largest nation? ... In truth, Washington and Khartoum aren't quite at such loggerheads as their frequent verbal sparring would suggest. Foreign Policy in Focus, 5-17-10

So, no, I don't give a damn about whatever corruption can be proved against Charlie Rangel; considering the facts on the ground in Beltwayistan, Banksterstan and Infotainmentstan (i.e., political corruption, abuse of power, criminal negligence, domestic psy ops, environmental destruction and financial fraud at the highest levels of government and business), if we had turned the corner, if we were indeed getting healthier instead of sicker, the investigation of Rangel would have been something that the DoJ simply had no time or resources to pursue, because of the need to ensure accountability on far greater crimes.

For the Words of Power Climate Crisis Updates Archive, click here.

I encourage you to find out why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love: go to 350.org or Google "Bill McKibben" for the answer.

As always, I encourage you to follow events in Darfur on Mia Farrow's site, it is the real-time journal of a humanitarian at work; the content is compelling, insightful and fiercely independent.

For an archive of Words of Power posts on the Crisis in Darfur, click here.

Richard Power's True North on the Pathless Path: Toward 21st Century Spirituality is available from Amazon.com

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available from Lulu.com.

Visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

From the Gulf to Lockerbie to Darfur, Life is Cheap, & Getting Cheaper - When Will the Loss of You & Yours Become an Acceptable Business Risk?

Diego Rivera, The Flower Seller, 1942

From the Photo Journals of Mia Farrow

A new measure of poverty that assesses a family's health, education and standard of living instead of looking at its income has revealed about 400 million more poor people worldwide than currently gauged. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), launched by Oxford University and the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) ... is based on the hardships the poor suffer rather than on how much they earn. Reuters, 7-14-10

From the Gulf to the Food Bubble to Lockerbie to Darfur, Life is Cheap, & Getting Cheaper - When Will the Loss of You & Yours Become an Acceptable Business Risk?

By Richard Power

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the I.C.C. prosecutor continues to pursue Bashir, while the great nations, East and West, continue to do business with him.

No more excuses. No more denial. This week, the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for three charges of genocide against the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir. The world once claimed ignorance of the Nazi atrocities. Fifty years later, the world refused to recognise an unfolding genocide in Rwanda. On Darfur, the world is now officially on notice. The genocide is not over. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Guardian, 7-15-10

Meanwhile, Eric Reeves, one of our most important resources for in-depth analysis of the ongoing human rights Crisis in Darfur, fears for the flow of vital information and for the lives of those who dare to bring it forth.

Issues of confidentiality take on a particular inflection when writing about a place like Sudan ... Presently, one of my primary concerns is the electronic intercept capability of the Khartoum regime’s ruthlessly efficient National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), as well as its Military Intelligence ... Importantly, Darfuris on the ground regularly communicate among themselves and with those in the diaspora. And recently, Radio Dabanga has become an important clearing house ... In aggregate they paint a much grimmer picture than can be gleaned from the sanitized information provided by the UN and the fear-enforced silence on the part of international nongovernmental organizations. Khartoum’s tight restriction on journalists ... and its complete denial of access to all human rights monitors, make for what is becoming a “black box genocide.” Eric Reeves, On Confidential Sources in Sudan, Dissent Magazine, 7-12-10

Darfur is slipping into the abyss, and it does not look as if any reversal of the forward momentum is forthcoming. That no longer surprises me. The great nations, China, in particular, and yes, the USA, are playing the board game Risk with the continent.

Life is cheap; and getting cheaper in the great fraud that is the "Global Economy." (Oh, it is global for the corporations, but not for governments or peoples.)

Diego Rivera, The Flower Vendor

To prove my point, I urge you to put aside, for a moment, the global financial meltdown brought on by the recklessness of Goldman Sachs and its fellow banksters, as well as the ecocide in the Gulf brought on by the recklessness of BP; and consider, instead, two earlier incidents involving Goldman Sachs and BP.

Frederick Kaufman, a contributing editor for Harper's Magazine, recently wrote a piece entitled "The Food Bubble: How Wall Street Starved Millions and Got Away With It."

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking about Goldman Sachs today, this—they call it a landmark settlement, but they made more after-hours in trading last night than they will have to pay. So let’s look at Goldman Sachs and its record overall.
FREDERICK KAUFMAN: Yeah, this is really—it’s really outrageous. And on a certain level, this reform bill is really a sham, because it does not cover, in any way, shape or form, what Goldman Sachs—and really, let’s be honest here, it wasn’t just Goldman; it was Goldman, and it was Bear, and it was AIG, and it was Lehman, it was Deutsche, it was all across the board, JP Morgan Chase — what these banks were able to do in commodity markets, really which reached its peak from 2005 to 2008, in what is now known as the food bubble. And as Juan points out, this is unconscionable what happened, in the sense that their speculation and their restructuring of these commodity markets pushed 250 million new people into food insecurity and starving, and brought the world total up to over a billion people. This is the most abysmal total in the history of the world. Democracy Now, 7-16-10

And as the ecocide in the Gulf continues, renewed attention has been turned on a story that first surfaced in August 2009, concerning BP's involvement in the strange and disturbing release of the man responsible for the slaughter of innocents in the commercial airliner blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

BP received a new round of scrutiny yesterday when it admitted that officials had lobbied the British government in 2007 to “conclude a prisoner-transfer agreement that the Libyan government wanted to secure the release of the only person ever convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing over Scotland, which killed 270 people, 189 of them Americans.” BP was “worried that a stalemate on that front would undercut an oil exploration deal with Libya.” Think Progress, 7-16-10

So, yes, life is cheap, and getting cheaper: a terrorist who murdered 270 innocents set free to return as a hero to his own country in 2007, for the sake of BP (yes, of course, the U.K. government denies it now), 250 million more hungry people in the world in 2008, for the sake of Goldman Sachs and its fellow banksters.

And then, a global financial meltdown, for which Goldman Sachs has now paid a $500 billion fine that it made back before the end of the day's trading.

Meanwhile, down on the Gulf Coast: "Foreign oil giant BP is on a spending spree, buying Gulf Coast scientists for its private contractor army. Scientists from Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University and Texas A&M have “signed contracts with BP to work on their behalf in the Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA) process” that determines how much ecological damage the Gulf of Mexico region is suffering from BP’s toxic black tide."

What's next?

Isn't it ironic that so much of the US body politic is obsessed with POTUS' birth certificate, and with the Mexicans slipping across the border to pick fruit and clean toilets, when the truly illegitimate citizens are those corporate persons that have now robbed so many nations of both wealth and conscience. And yet, so much of the U.S. body politic continues to empower these illegitimate citizens; seeking in every battle, e.g, over Wall Street, health insurance, energy, the Internet, etc., to protect them from even the most modest of reforms. Yes, how many more of you think regulation is the problem? Yes, and taxes? Oh yes, and the deficit; now that your overlords are finished jacking it back up, you are all going to use it as an excuse to cover your eyes and plug your ears, aren't you?

You're even thinking of putting their Renfields in charge of everything - again, aren't you?

Your fear and frustration is real, but it is tragically misdirected.

So very sad.

Someday, you or your off-spring may be displaced, in dire straights, wondering if anyone will come to rescue you. And if that day ever comes, don't be surprised when the New Boss decides that the loss of you and yours is an acceptable business risk.

Well, some of us choose to stand with the Flower Seller.

Diego River, Flower Day (1925)

Go to Move to Amend and Reclaim Democracy to join in the fight against corporate personhood. (Read the Dissenting Opinion written by Justice John Paul Stevens.)

As always, I encourage you to follow events in Darfur on Mia Farrow's site, it is the real-time journal of a humanitarian at work; the content is compelling, insightful and fiercely independent.

For an archive of Words of Power posts on the Crisis in Darfur, click here.

Richard Power's True North on the Pathless Path: Toward 21st Century Spirituality is available from Amazon.com

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available from Lulu.com.

Visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

Hard Rain Late Night: Pink Floyd - Saucerful of Secrets (Live at Pompeii)

Hard Rain Late Night: Pink Floyd - A Saucerful of Secrets (Live at Pompeii)

Dr. Tammi Baliszewski (Journey to Center) Interviews Richard Power on True North

Tammi Baliszewski, Journey to the Center

My friend and colleague, Dr. Tammi Baliszewski recently interviewed me on my book, True North on the Pathless Path, for her wonderful Internet radio show, Journey to Center.

Here is an audio recording.



To listen to more podcasts of Tammi's radio show, click here.

For more information on her Mandala work, click here.

Ishtar, Ereshkigal, Queen of the Night

Ishtar, Ereshkigal, Queen of the Night (Old Babylonian, probably 1792 - 1750 BC) ... She waits for us to release Her, not from the British Museum where this plaque rests, but from within our own psyches.

Solar Eclipse Casts Shadow Over Easter Island, It Soon Passes; But the Shadow Faux News & U.S. Chamber of Horrors Cast Over Body Politic Only Deepens

Statue on coast of Easter Island, 1983, Credit: Captain Albert E. Theberge, NOAA Corps (ret.)

Climate change is a serious health hazard that the United States must prepare for, according to government and university scientists from across the country. They advised Thursday that climate models show that global warming will increase air pollution and trigger more heat waves, floods and droughts, all of which will threaten human health. Environment News Service, 7-10-10

In a profile piece on U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue, the Washington Monthly’s James Verini reveals that, despite spending hundreds of millions on right-wing pro-business lobbying campaigns, attack ads, and executive bonuses for its top lobbyists, the Chamber has continually struggled to finance its own operations, and even posted a net asset loss of over $29 million according to its 2008 IRS filings. Verini notes that the Chamber has alleviated part of its financial problem by earning “extra income” through renting its roof to Fox News for the network’s White House news coverage. Think Progress, 7-9-10

Solar Eclipse Casts Shadow Over Easter Island, It Soon Passes; But the Shadow Faux News & U.S. Chamber of Horrors Cast Over Body Politic Only Deepens

By Richard Power

July 11, 2010:

The darkness of a total solar eclipse passes over Easter Island, and as the light returns, the sacred site is revealed to be -- as mysterious as it ever was.

In a cemetery outside of Srebrenic, 775 recently identified corpses are added to the 3,749 already laid to rest there. The Prez of Serbia and the P.M. of Turkey are among those present at this commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the massacre of 8,000 Muslims. Just maybe the worst is behind that blood-soaked land.

At Soccer City in Johannesburg, Nederlands and Espana struggle for possession of the World Cup; as much of humanity cheers one side or the other (and for little more reason than the sheer joy of being alive and a part of it all).

But here in the USA, I am sorry to say I do not think that the shadow will pass as swiftly or as predictably as it passed over Easter Island. Nor do I think that, as mentioned with the Bosnians, our worst might be behind us.

And no, the final match we find ourselves in is not for sport but for survival.

This is not time to be polite, or avoid acknowledging a harsh reality because it sounds "partisan." ("Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my!")

George Washington led the American Revolution, Ronald Reagan led a Corporatist Counter-Revolution. When will you realize what has happened here?

Consider the most recent fruits of the transformation that started with Reagan-Bush and was brought to its full ripeness with Bush-Cheney:

A majority of voters now think President Barack Obama is a socialist, at least according to one new poll. The poll (PDF) from Democracy Corps finds that 55 percent of likely voters believe that the word "socialist" describes the president either "well" or "very well." Talking Points Memo, 7-9-10

Poll: 24% Of Americans Think Obama Was Born Outside U.S. Not sure what to make of this, but a new Vanity Fair/60 Minutes poll reveals nearly one out of four Americans believe that President Barack Obama was born outside of the United States, with only 39% correctly stating he was born in Hawaii. Media Matters, 7-29-10

Have we really degenerated into a nation of idiots?

George Washington was the father of a revolution against the British Empire and the corporatist power of the East India Trading Company; Ronald Reagan was the father of a counter-revolution for the corporatist power of the likes of Goldman Sachs, BP, Massey Energy, the health insurance racketeers, etc.

The riches of the wealthiest North Americans grew by double digits in 2009 ... Millionaires in the U.S. and Canada saw their wealth increase 15 percent in 2009, to a total of 4.6 trillion dollars, the report found ... Their fortune is a stark contrast to the lives of more than 15 million people in the U.S. who are unemployed and searching for work, and the eight million more who are just getting by with a part-time job ... More than two million more people were working prior to the recession but have now dropped out of the labour force. Apart from the newly unemployed, about 39 million people in the U.S. are chronically poor and do not have enough food to eat ... Inter Press Service, 7-9-10

Have we really been robbed and left for dead?

These two disturbing questions prompt a third, what shall I/you/we do? And overarching that third question is a fourth, the most profound of all, how shall/I/we be, so that we are not defined solely by what we might be called on to do?

Just for a day or night or a moment, whatever you can safely steal from Mammon, let go.

Listen to the trillions of wind chimes we call "silence." Feel that infinite expanse in which all we comprehend is no more than a minute particle.

In the time that is upon us, you will need to know how to do this for yourself.

There is a gaping abyss just ahead. We may have to go deep into it (just follow Carly Fiorina & Meg Whitman, they'll show you the way); or we may somehow save ourselves.

Ready?





Go to Move to Amend and Reclaim Democracy to join in the fight against corporate personhood. (Read the Dissenting Opinion written by Justice John Paul Stevens.)

I also encourage you to find out why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love: go to 350.org or Google "Bill McKibben" for the answer.

Richard Power's True North on the Pathless Path: Toward 21st Century Spirituality is available from Amazon.com

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available from Lulu.com.

Visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

From Woody Guthrie to Patrice Lumumba & Back Again: Independence Day in Congo & the USA - Lessons Unlearned Can Be Cataclysmic

Patrice Lumumba, a Film by Raoul Peck (1992)

"This land is your land, this land is my land from the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters ..." Woody Guthrie

"Don't weep my love. One day history will have its say. Not the history they teach in Brussels, Paris or Washington, but our history. That of a new Africa. And on that day..." Patrice Lumumba

From Woody Guthrie to Patrice Lumumba & Back Again: Independence Day in Congo & the USA - Lessons Unlearned Can Be Cataclysmic

By Richard Power

I have one memory of a childhood July 4th. At a parade in Point Pleasant, N.J. The flag was approaching, held aloft by a soldier. I stood erect, and placed my hand over my heart. Then I looked around, and saw all the grown men around me were still sitting in their lawn chairs, sipping beer and staring into space. I turned to the adult with me, and asked, "Why are they not standing for the flag of our country?"

The innocence of a child.

Five decades have past. I read them like the concentric rings on a fallen tree. The civil rights movement, the war in Vietnam, the Watergate investigation, the assassinations of JFK, MLK and RFK, the solar panels Jimmy Carter put on the White House (Ronald Reagan had them removed), Iran-Contra, the Starr Chamber of the 1990s, then Bush v. Gore and the abomination it brought us, culminating in Citizens United vs. FEC.

From 2000 on, I have spoken out, and, at a personal price, been among those providing the vital context and continuity that the US mainstream news media has so tragically failed to deliver; I have done so because I could see what was coming, and I would not be silent. I would have preferred to be proven wrong. But that is not happening.

Migrant Mother/Pea-Picker in the Dust Bowl, Photo by Dorothea Lange, 1936

Reality sometimes offers horrifically apt metaphors:

At least 230 people were killed when a fuel tanker overturned and exploded in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo ... Some people died while trying to steal fuel leaking from the tanker, but most were killed at home or watching World Cup soccer in cinemas. Reuters AlterNet, 6-3-10

The seemingly endless oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is killing countless sea animals and sea birds, large and small. But there is no story as tragic as the plight of the sea turtles. These magnificent, graceful, creatures are particularly vulnerable to the effects of oil in the water, which weakens their eggs, chokes and poisons their young, and leaves adults addled and starving ... And if that weren't tragic enough, it turns out that shrimp boats hired by BP to corral floating oil with booms and set it on fire have been burning hundreds if not thousands of the young turtles alive. Dan Frommkin, Huffington Post, 7-2-10

June 30th, 2010 was the 50th anniversary of Congolese independence from colonial rule.

"... the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is remembering the 50th anniversary of its independence from brutal Belgian rule. But its people have little reason to celebrate, despite the grandiose festivities organised by the Kabila regime. Eastern Congo remains deeply insecure, with the internal displacement of hundreds of thousands of citizens; the vast majority of Congolese are illiterate and deprived of healthcare; and the historic 2006 elections (the first since 1960) notwithstanding, democratic space is shrinking, not widening." Harry Veorhoven, Guardian, 6-30-10

July 4th, 2010 is the 234th anniversary of U.S. independence from colonial rule.

In the beginning, the promise of the USA was framed in compromise: slavery, genocide and the subjugation of women were part of the package. The rabble were allowed to dabble in democracy; the Senate and Electoral College would ensure that Plutocrats did not lose their investment. Over two painful centuries, the genocide ran its course, the slavery was abolished, and women were no longer denied the right to vote. In late 20th Century, after two great wars and a great depressions, a powerful middle class arose.

This middle class was tolerated, for awhile; until it got uppity, and started to challenge the power of the Plutocrats. Yes, it got uppity: real congressional investigations, environmental consciousness; and so, a counter-revolution was conjured up, blueprinted by Lewis Powell, fronted by Ronald Reagan, funded by the Plutocrats.

The jellybean-coated counter-revolution was sold to an easily manipulated populace by corporatist media, with help of so-called "New Democrats." This is not conspiracy-theory, this is simply corporate kulchur at work (corporatist kulchur) ...

As Chomsky said, if you want to study totalitarianism, don't study Soviet Union, study the modern US corporation.

But greed is a debilitative disease, the Plutocrats could not leave well enough alone, could not stop themselves from going too far ... Thus the Climate Crisis, Bush v. Gore, endless war, the global financial meltdown, Citizens United, the ecocide in the Gulf ... Yes, gut the factories, and have Tom Friedman tell a fairy tale about the "New Economy" and then outsource those jobs overseas too, and when the manure hits the propellers, blame it all on Mexicans.

The Plutocrats couldn't stop themselves, could not get enough; they have plundered, broken and leveled government, economy and climate. Now their Renfields in the US Senate even block extended unemployment benefits ...

In tuning into the 50th anniversary of the Congo's independence, I was struck by some of the expert analysis and commentary, and how relevant it was to plight of my own country.

"It is nothing short of hypocritical for Congo to throw nationwide celebrations without acknowledging the appalling state of human rights in the country today," said Veronique Aubert. "The Congolese people are trapped in a limbo between an unsatisfactory peace and the threat of further approaching crises.
"Until Congo's government puts the interest of its people first, security and respect for human rights will remain a distant dream." Amnesty International, 6-30-10

The same could be said of the USA, and unless the trends throttling us now are reversed, this will be borne out in the years to come.

It is high time the west replaced its 50-year-old illusion of prioritising 'political stability' with justice and accountability that has an emphasis on human rights and grassroots state-building. The root cause of Congo's intractable crisis is the interplay of top-down authoritarianism, external manipulation and absolute impunity for those who violently exploit its people and resources: continued support for the "stabilising-factor Kabila" while accepting his failure to address atrocities by his security services implies repeating the disasters of the past. Harry Veorhoven, Guardian, 6-30-10

The same prescription could be written out for the USA, but it is highly unlikely that it will be applied to either the USA or the Congo; since the life of the common people of the USA is now sliding downward toward that of the poorer nations, rather than nations like the Congo being raised up to the quality of life which we once symbolized.

Think that I am engaging in hyperbole and exaggeration? Wash Jim Lehrer and David Gregory out of your ears for a moment and ponder these three stories:

As the nation contends with a long and sustained labor market recession, a new study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research demonstrates that the current unemployment rate is higher than the conventional measure shows ... Adjusting for this older workforce shows that the United States is experiencing the weakest labor market since the Great Depression. Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), 7-1-10

Let them eat bootstraps? And if that's the answer, what will they pull themselves up by after they have eaten them?

The USDA reports than nearly 17 million children in America struggled with hunger in 2008 -- a number that is now certainly even higher. Vicki B. Escarra, Huffington Post, 7-2-10

Will you allow them to be sacrificed them on the altar of "austerity" that almost all of Beltwayistan and Infotainmentstan seem to worship at?

Americans spend twice as much as residents of other developed countries on healthcare, but get lower quality, less efficiency and have the least equitable system ... The United States ranked last when compared to six other countries -- Britain, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, the Commonwealth Fund report found. Reuters, 6-23-10

Is the oft-repeated meme "the USA has best health care in world" actually a Biblical reference, as in "the last will be first, and the first will be last" (Mathew 20:10)?

At this cross roads in our history, "American Exceptionalism" is a false doctrine concocted to rationalize our hypocrisy to our own ignorance. We are excepted from our own human rights principles whenever convenient. We are excepted from our own history when it contradicts the false memes with which we manipulate body politic. We are excepted from scientific fact when it conflicts with our religious superstition. We are excepted from scientific fact when it conflicts with corporate interests.

If you cannot identify the problem, how you can you solve it; if you cannot diagnose a disease, how can you work on a cure?

Acorn is an authentic and effective community-organizing group calibrated to the poorest of the poor among us, and it has been vindicated, i.e., cleared of the false charges made against it; but, of course, it will not see its Federal funding restored, and yet Blackwater, responsible for profoundly disturbing events which have done serious damage to the image of the U.S.A. (not to mention to our collective soul), has recently been awarded $100 million by the C.I.A. and $120 million from the U.S. State Department.

Paul Watson, anti-whaling leader of Sea Shepherd has been placed on the Interpol wanted list for daring to lead an intervention against Japanese whaling ships in the Antarctic.

But Massey Energy CEO Blankenship isn't wanted by Interpol. Nor BP CEO Tony Hayward. Nor Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Nor Dick Cheney, George Bush or John Yoo.

Consider this Goldman Sachs story (you won't be hearing about it on NBC Meat The Press or ABC Weak In Revision, you won't be hearing Wolf Bluster challenging Tim Geithner either):

The world's wealthiest speculators set up a casino where the chips were the stomachs of hundreds of millions of innocent people. They gambled on increasing starvation, and won. Their Wasteland moment created a real wasteland. What does it say about our political and economic system that we can so casually inflict so much pain? Johann Hari, How Goldman Gambled on Starvation, Independent, 7-2-10

We are all Ethiopians now, or soon will be.

The lessons of the Congo in 2010 and the USA in 2010 is that political independence is not real independence as long as inhumane and unnatural corporate interests are allowed to dictate terms and continue to control the vertical and the horizontal, from behind a not so thick curtain.

Imagine, on this July 4th, an America that chooses to be young again, and to revive its youthful idealism; imagine an America that's new anthem was written by Woody Guthrie, and that embraces the next Lumumba as an ally in forging a new civilization, one worthy of this long-suffering planet and its desperate peoples. That is the spirit of the revolutionary America, the brave, young nation that repudiated British rule, and with it the not so hidden corporate hand of the East Indian Trading Company.

Remember ...

Pete Seeger & Bruce Springsteen singing "This Land is Your Land" at Obama Inaugural (January 2008)


To learn more about the Congo -- read Who Pays the Price? Raped for Technology at A Safe World for Women, and go to the Enough Project's Raise Hope for Congo, and Ben Affleck's Eastern Congo Initiative

Raise Hope for Congo

I also encourage you to find out why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love: go to 350.org or Google "Bill McKibben" for the answer.

Richard Power's True North on the Pathless Path: Toward 21st Century Spirituality is available from Amazon.com

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available from Lulu.com.

Visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

Hard Rain Late Night: Natalie Merchant -- My Skin

Hard Rain Late Night: Natalie Merchant -- My Skin