Money and power bring privileges of many kinds. Not just command over goods and services, labor and other resources, but also social deference and very often immunity to legal penalties. As they say, there is one law for the rich and another for the poor. Let’s look at a few examples. Fraud is a good place to start. Rewarding business acumen Before going into politics in 2010, Rick Scott was CEO of the Hospital Corporation of America. In this capacity, he masterminded schemes to defraud Medicare of an estimated $7 billion. Without admitting guilt, he settled all claims against...
Read more »
Note. You can listen to this brilliant song by Buffy Sainte Marie at http://www.buffysaintemarie.co.uk or on YouTube. “Keshagesh” is a Cree word roughly equivalent to “greedy guts.” Socialists will identify “Keshagesh” or “Mr. Greed” with the world’s capitalist class, or with capital as the endlessly expanding and all-devouring force of production for profit. I never saw so many business suits. Never knew a dollar sign that looked so cute. Never knew a junkie with a money Jones: He’s singing, “Who’s selling Park Place? Who’s buying Boardwalk?” These old men they make their dirty deals. Go in the back room and...
Read more »
American global hegemony continues its steady decline. The most striking recent case in point is the overt shift of Pakistan, long a U.S. client state, into China’s sphere of influence. The U.S., no longer able to supply its forces in Afghanistan through Pakistan, has no choice but to withdraw rapidly from that country. (The old Soviet supply route through Uzbekistan is inadequate on its own, and we know from Wikileaks that the U.S. asked China to allow a new route through Chinese territory but was refused.) Afghanistan will revert to its traditional status as a dependency of Pakistan, whose...
Read more »
From Vladimir Sirotin (Moscow), translated with explanatory notes by Stefan Yesterday I was at a sickening meeting of the Organizing Committee for Honest Elections and Against the Putin Regime (or something like that). It was attended by a very ill-assorted bunch of people. Sitting on the platform were Udaltsov, Geidar Jemal, Lev Ponomarev, Ilya Ponomarev, Vladimir Tor, Ivan Mironov, Mr. Krylov and a number of others. (1) The picture looked surreal. The main theme of the overwhelming majority of speakers was that everyone must unite in the fight against Putinism and for honest elections – leftists,...
Read more »
Chatsworth is a district of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley, well endowed with parkland and sports facilities. It is home to a number of Hollywood film stars. Many famous films and TV series were shot in the area. Chatsworth is also the world center of the porn business, with 200 production companies employing 1,200 – 1,500 performers (and a few thousand other workers). Here too are the offices of the industry’s trade magazine Adult Video News, which sponsors an annual convention in Las Vegas and an award show modelled after the Oscars. Most performers are poorly educated...
Read more »
On the internet I keep running across the same image – the scowling face of a teenage boy, accompanied by the words: Fix Defiant ODD Children. It is an ad for a “Total Transformation Program” that will “empower” you to “stop defiance, backtalk and lying” and “regain control of your child, your family and your life”. ODD, in case you’re wondering, is the “diagnosis” that psychiatrists now pin on disobedient youngsters: Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Until recently no one had ever heard of it. Numerous programs to “fix” disobedient kids are on offer to American parents. Many are residential programs...
Read more »
Like hunger and homelessness, the global trade in luxury goods is booming. Turnover fell from $254 billion in 2007 to $228 billion in 2009 – a decline that observers attributed to “luxury shame”. Rich people could still afford all the luxuries they wanted, but apparently they felt a trifle uneasy about flaunting their wealth at a time of crisis. They soon got over their unease. Sales recovered to $257 billion in 2010 and are expected to surge to $276 billion in 2011. “Luxury shame is now over,” declared marketing consultant Claudia d’Arpizio in March. So the long-term trend still...
Read more »
A large majority of Americans – 87 percent, according to one poll – approve of the killing of Bin Laden. Many were visibly overcome by joy when they heard the news, and the subsequent warning by CIA director Leon Panetta that the operation would actually increase the terrorist threat to the US only slightly damped their spirits. Within a few days of the operation, video games were on the market offering simulated experiences of killing Osama – or, in one case, his ghost! If you get killed by him first, never mind: you can just start over again. Sam...
Read more »
No, of course earthquakes and tsunamis are natural phenomena. But it is known where – if not when – they are going to strike. So in principle society could take action to minimise the human impact. It was known that the seabed off the northeastern coast of Honshu (the main island of the Japanese archipelago) is prone to earthquakes. It was known that a sufficiently powerful offshore earthquake would generate a tsunami. So why not leave the endangered coastal area uninhabited? Crammed into the danger zone This earthquake and most of its aftershocks were offshore. However, the next major...
Read more »
At the time of going to press, the “revolution of anger” in Egypt seems to be entering a new phase. Tahrir Square has been reopened to traffic and commerce. Massive political demonstrations are over, at least for the time being, but strikes and protests by various groups of workers continue. The employees of the National Bank of Egypt have forced the resignation of its chairman, a Mubarak ally. Ambulance drivers, public transport workers, and even the police are demonstrating for better wages and conditions. Many Egyptians are dissatisfied with what has been achieved so far, and with good reason....
Read more »
