Good day for the American empire

It was two for one day.  First the US killed Anwar al-Awlaki's 16-year old son.  He was a US citizen.  The government's official response:  no comment.  Glenn Greenwald, today, writes:

It is unknown whether the U.S. targeted the teenager or whether he was merely “collateral damage.” The reason that’s unknown is because the Obama administration refuses to tell us. Said the Post: “The officials would not discuss the attack in any detail, including who the target was.” So here we have yet again one of the most consequential acts a government can take — killing one of its own citizens, in this case a teenage boy — and the government refuses even to talk about what it did, why it did it, what its justification is, what evidence it possesses, or what principles it has embraced in general for such actions. Indeed, it refuses even to admit it did this, since it refuses even to admit that it has a drone program at all and that it is engaged in military action in Yemen. It’s just all shrouded in total secrecy.  (Source:  The killing of Awlaki’s 16-year-old son.)

President Obama, on the other hand, had no problem bragging about the death of Gaddafi:

So this is a momentous day in the history of Libya. The dark shadow of tyranny has been lifted and with this enormous promise, the Libyan people now have a great responsibility. To build an inclusive and tolerant and democratic Libya that stands as the ultimate rebuke to Gaddafi's dictatorship. We look forward to the announcement of the country's liberation, the quick formation of an intern government and a stable transition to Libya's first free and fair elections.  (Source: Obama: Gaddafi death is warning to iron-fist rulers.)

Lucky Libya.  Now they have a chance to get a democracy like the United States.  Goodbye universal health care.  Goodbye free college education.  Goodbye, high living standard.  Gaddafi, in his own words:

Now, I am under attack by the biggest force in military history, my little African son, Obama wants to kill me, to take away the freedom of our country, to take away our free housing, our free medicine, our free education, our free food, and replace it with American style thievery, called "capitalism," but all of us in the Third World know what that means, it means corporations run the countries, run the world, and the people suffer, so, there is no alternative for me, I must make my stand, and if Allah wishes, I shall die by following his path, the path that has made our country rich with farmland, with food and health, and even allowed us to help our African and Arab brothers and sisters to work here with us ... I do not wish to die, but if it comes to that, to save this land, my people, all the thousands who are all my children, then so be it. ... In the West, some have called me "mad", "crazy". They know the truth but continue to lie, they know that our land is independent and free, not in the colonial grip. (Source: Anti-Empire Report 97.)

The good guys

Saturday Night Live skit about Mayor Bloomberg and OWS

Dispelling the conservative tax myth

When I was in high school and university, I believed that the markets should be free and then at the end of the day make the transfer payments to the less fortunate. Because I felt that we should make transfer payments at the end to take care of our poor, I considered myself a social conservative. I now see this as analogous to bombing a country back to the stone age and then air-dropping food aid to take care of the now disposed and homeless. (Which we literally do.)

I later came to realize that the government has a responsibility to intervene in the "free" markets to make them actually free by stopping mergers, breaking up monopolies, preventing collusion, protecting the public good and the public environment. If this were actually the case, small business would easily out compete the big corporations. But the corporations have an ace up their sleeve - access to and control of the government. This is what justifies huge CEO salaries in the US.

But it's worse than you ever thought.  There's no money to be made in the US anymore.  The consumer class is broke, the government is burdened with debt, there's no more room to lower interest rates and there is little room for printing more money.  The only way left to make money is to compete for government payouts.  Of course the wealthy are winning this war too.

See:

• The "My God We're Overtaxed" and "My God the Tax Code is Too Complicated" Canard
• The All-American Occupation A Century of Our Streets Vs. Wall Street
• Dean Baker on How We Can Make the 'Free Market' Work for the 99%
• Myth of the Liberal Nanny State

Also, two of Dean Baker's books are free here and here.

From the King James Bible:

The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and with their princes: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. - Isaiah 3:14

Thus according to the bible, one's wealth is considered stolen from the poor. This is perfectly clear now in the US and its global neoliberal empire. Income disparity (inequality) has never been higher in the US.  See this.  There needs to be some serious redistribution of wealth in this country to deal with the increasing poverty (see this) and the quickly disappearing middle class by increasing taxes on the wealthy: 50% tax rates on income over $200,000. 70% tax rates on income over $1 million and 90% tax rates on income over $5 million.  The economy would soar.

Also, Mindsweeper and I wrote an 8 part series on the, 'Bush Tax Cuts' in November and December of 2010 which you can easily find by searching this blog.

Liberty for the People.
Tyranny for the Oppressors.