Capitalism is conflated with Democracy

 The Gringo in Chile wrote to me and said:

Good Morning Bodhi,

As for our new administration.  To me,  it feels like America is making great moves towards global unity.  I am some what confused about our involvement in Afghanistan.

What's your take on this "hot" area?  I feel this Administration is making more progress with health reform and global peace that I have seen during my entire life.  Love to hear your opinion.  

From Chile,

Gringo

My reply: 
The war profiteers own our big media corporations that control the mainstream airwaves.  Anti-war political candidates are excluded during election campaigns from airing their voices on mainstream media.  They are ridiculed and belittled, with character assassinations.  The only candidates that we see on TV are the ones that have agreed to collaborate with the war profiteers. 

That said, Obama got elected with a little help from the war profiteers.  Don't forget, Obama refused public financing of his campaign and therefore, raised more money than any other candidate in history.  A significant portion of his campaign funding came from the war profiteers. 

Now that he has been elected, his campaign promise was to get out of Iraq and fight the REAL war in Afghanistan where Al'Quida is located.  He was never the "peace" candidate.  Now that he is in office, he doesn't necessarily have to comply with the generous supporters that want favorable conditions for more war.  On the other hand, if he crosses the war profiteers, they will assassinate him - DEAD.  If he crosses the peace-niks, they will complain without violence, maybe have another sit-in.  If someone constantly had a sniper pointing a killer weapon at you just in case you slipped-up the rhetoric, what would you say? 

I believe Obama will maintain perpetual war to keep the war profiteers happy while he tries to slip in some popular reforms under their noses.  The same with Wall Street and Health Insurance.  He took their money for his campaign also.  That's why he is approving more corporate giveaways to banks and insurance companies. 

In Peace,  Bodhi

Gringo replied:

Good Morning,

Great piece of work and very clear.  Oh!

Guess its difficult to stay optimistic while being aware of the facts.  

I have no idea how we can continue to finance these wars.  

As a people we must continue to downsize.  Grow our own food.

Be Peace,  share Peace,  just maybe someday Peace will prevail.

Been researching quite a bit about this incredible Che Guevara, as he is so popular with Latin Americans.  His photos are everywhere in Chile.  I started by taking an American, capitalistic attitude towards this guy but after some research I find myself understanding this Man.  In fact,  I am beginning to like him!

In two days we'll begin this 900 mile trip to the central coast....taking the same path that "Che" did in, what, 1957?  I have decided that southern Chile, although quite beautiful, is to pro-German.  Everyone is trying to be white and caught up in this western mentality.

My reply re: Hola Bodhi

Did you mention Che Guevara because you read my comments about him in my blog?

I also began with the usual capitalistic hype about Che.  He is portrayed as an insane, revolutionary thug.  But now I understand that the CIA disinformation campaign prefers to keep us intellectually uninformed, and emotionally charged against such an "enemy" of capitalism.  Additionally, American education has historically conflated democracy with capitalism.  In regard to Che Guevara, they want us all to be Tea-Baggers.  And they have succeeded for 40 years. 

Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism are economic systems.  Democracy, theocracy, plutocracy, dictatorship, monarchy, feudalism, are political systems.  There is nothing automatic about capitalism being a democracy or communism being a dictatorship.  Such is the misinformation in our American educational system. 

On the contrary, when you think about it carefully, capitalism is an economic model where a corporate CEO that usually answers to a corporate Board of Directors dictates all policies from the top down.  There is nothing democratic about it at all.  On the other hand, communism is an economic model in which classically, all the factory workers own the means of production equally, and theoretically all have equal say in the management of the assets and the profits.  That sounds far more democratic to me.  I say classically, because Marx and Engels did not include farmers in the proletariat.  Mao Tse Tung was the one who expanded the proletariat to include not only factory workers but also farmers.  And I say theoretically because the major models of communism in the world today are dictated in practice from a central committee, quite contrary to the theoretical model.  An economic system in which all the workers have a say in the management of the assets sounds way more democratic than the capitalistic system.  How did the disinformation campaign ever convince us of the opposite?

593 H1N1 deaths generates a National Emergency

Although Obama recently declared the H1N1 flu a national emergency, it still remains that there are 36,000 deaths in the USA from the regular flu every year, but there has been less than 600 deaths this year from the H1N1 flu.  President Obama is not calling a national emergency for the 36,000 that die from regular flu. 

Preventable deaths last year in the USA that were not declared a national emergency:
MD errors (iatrogenic)        2,200,000
Nosocomial                        2,000,000
Tobacco                                440,000
Obesity                                 287,000
Diabetes                                 71,300
No medical insurance              45,000
Influenza                                 36,000
Suicide                                    33,300
Infant deaths                           28,527   (2500 of them from SIDS)
Alcohol                                    22,000+
Anaphylaxis                            15,000+
War in Iraq & Afghanistan         5,130 (American GI combat deaths only)
                                                         (pvt contractors, deaths in
                                                         hospital from war injuries,  
                                                         friendly fire, and accidental 
                                                         deaths not included)
Asthma                                      4,000+
Domestic violence                     1000-1600
H1N1 flu  2009                            593     Only this one is declared a national emergency. 

I am confounded at the hullabaloo caused by the H1N1 flu rather than the sharp increase of smoking among youths and young adults, or obesity rates of 1 in 3.  I believe the H1N1 "pandemic" preparations are nothing more than a drill for the real pandemic in the unknown future. 

If only they could get MD's to wash their hands, we could prevent the majority of the 2M annual deaths from people catching a contagious disease in the hospital (nosocomial disease).  Where's the national emergency about this?  Maybe they can rush through a vaccine that will prevent hospital patients from catching diseases before entering the hospital.  Or better yet, a vaccine that will promote hand washing among doctors.  How about a vaccine that will prevent greed in corporate executives? 

I believe the declaration of a "national emergency" is nothing more than the means for another corporate robbery of taxpayer funds to pay BigPharma for a vaccine that grandfathered in safety testing from another similar vaccine. 

ObamaCare

We are currently at an historic moment culminating 100 years of effort toward health care reform.  Many people are criticizing Obama for not providing the nation with HIS plan for health care reform. 

I would like to praise our professor of Constitutional law, now President, for restoring the Executive Branch to its Constitutional role of carrying out the laws written by Congress.  Obama is not playing the Unitary Executive of Alexander Hamilton or George Bush.  Instead, he is allowing Congress to follow their Constitutional mandate to heed the calls of the electorate and craft legislation for the Executive Branch to execute. 

On the other hand, our elected representatives in Congress are jockeying around the issues as usual, not sure whether to represent the electorate or their corporate donors.  Therefore, it is paramount that We the People contact our Senators and Representative in Congress in every way and as frequently as possible to tell them what kind of health care we want.  Call, write and fax them everyday until health care legislation is passed. 

Response to Kucinich re renewing the authorization for war in Iraq

Honorable Representative Kucinich,

You asked for my comments regarding your 2002 opposition to the authorization for war in Iraq and the current issue of renewing it.

Since both houses of Congress on both sides of the aisle have been collaborating with the war profiteers against the best interests of the American people, Democracy in America is nothing more than a myth, a ruse to keep the public satisfied.  There is barely a handful of honest Congressmen who look look out for the Common Good.  They are overruled by the overwhelming opposition of Democrat and Republican sellouts who have ascended into office.  At this point in history, the war profiteers are calling the shots. 

I recall 1984 when the CIA was mining the harbors of Nicaragua.  It was in the alternative press for months before a British ship was struck and became an international incident.  Even though a committee of Congress had approved the illegal mines, even though Russian and Panamanian ships struck mines earlier and was denied in the US press, even though the Prime Minister of Nicaragua had formally appealed to the US government against the mines, Congress all pretended to be surprised once the British ship was struck.  They all claimed they knew nothing about it.  I call that the "pretend game." 

Today, Congress on both sides of the aisle continue to play the pretend game when they authorize more funds for a war that now obviously was initiated on false premises.  The war profiteers have them in their pockets.  And if they aren't being paid off, then they are probably being threatened.  It is a sad state of affairs. 

As long as the government divides the people with fear and race baiting, the opponents of war will never unite and become the overwhelming majority that they are.  There is barely an honest face in Congress.  The American people have been sold out. 

Being Prepared for Disaster

I recently commented on a FaceBook friend who had taken up jogging.  I mentioned that it is important to stay in shape in order to be able to pick up your children and run when the next holocaust arrives.  Some people were very disturbed by this comment.

Is there anything negative about preparing for a disaster?  Should we keep our head in the sand?  I always say, if it happened once, it can happen twice.  When we look back on history, even within the last decade, we see one genocide after another.  From the Hebrews killing the Canaanites, Amalekites, and Midianites, the 6 recorded genocides in Chinese history, the several times the Jews were targeted, to the current genocides in Darfur, Rwanda, and slaughter of the Sunnis in Iraq, the list is too long to even mention here, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history) who knows when the leaders in power will choose to scapegoat you or me next?  And what if it is a natural disaster instead?

I remember reading the Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.  She described a scene in which her mother got an early warning that the Japanese were marching toward Nanjing.  She put all her family heirlooms into a wheelbarrow with her two children and headed north out of the city.  She walked until her wheelbarrow broke, and abandoned it at the side of the road.  She picked up her children, one in each arm, and ran until her shoes broke.  She discarded the shoes, and ran until the soles of her feet were raw from broken blisters.  She was exhausted.  She made a difficult decision.  She sewed family photos and money into the vests of her children and left them at the side of the road, and continued running.  Like Sophie's choice.  As war foments around us, as long as governments believe war is justified for any reason, you or I may be the next ones running for our lives.  

Does it upset people to think about preparing to escape from an earthquake, flood, or forest fire?  Someone called me "negative."  I guess it is a negative thing to learn from history.  It must be a negative thing to stay in shape in order to rescue your children from potential disaster.  I suppose my critics mean it is positive to think of staying in shape to look sexy, or for cardiovascular health, and ignore the oft repeated lessons of history.