The Great Cover Up.... Again

History has shown that, first the corporate establishment creates a scandal, then the government creates a cover up scandal. We're watching a cover up unfold before our eyes.

Why the cover up? Because the establishment in charge is trying to 1) hide their role in causing the scandal, and 2) preserve their wealth and power... at the expense of common folk.

A historical example: The "cover up" during the 1980s Savings and Loan debacle, which by the way was about the size of the AIG piece of what's shaping up to be the downfall of the US Empire, was as follows. Rather than expose the depth of the S&L mess, risking public out cry that would expose Congress' role in causing the mess, Congress swept it under the rug. They spread the S&L bailout costs over a long time, creating a huge interest payment burden for the public. A lot of these interest payments were eventually paid to many of the financial industry thieves who stole money and caused the S & L failures.

Same type of coverup is happening now and a mark-to-model shell game, on which I wrote today, shaping up to is a big part of it. In the short run, things will look good, but it's also dangerous. It's the same kind of trickery that Japan played in the 1990s that led to their lost decade, drifting in and out of recession.

The internet is all abuzz about last weeks interview of William K. Black by Bill Moyers. Black was involved in exposing the theives of the S&L crisis. One of them was Charles Keating, after whom the senate's so-called "Keating Five" were named, including John McCain. According to Moyers, Keating wrote a memo that read, in part, "get Black — kill him dead."

William Black fired a broadside last Friday, April 3, on Bill Moyers Journal:

BILL MOYERS: Why are they firing the president of G.M. and not firing the head of all these banks that are involved?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: There are two reasons. One, they're much closer to the bankers. These are people from the banking industry. And they have a lot more sympathy. ... But the other element of your question is [they] don't want to change the bankers, because if [they] do, if [they] put honest people in, who didn't cause the problem, their first job would be to find the scope of the problem. And that would destroy the cover up.

BILL MOYERS: The cover up?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Sure. The cover up.

BILL MOYERS: That's a serious charge.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Of course.

BILL MOYERS: Who's covering up?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Geithner is charging, is covering up. Just like Paulson did before him.

Black levels the charge that the Obama administration is intentionally covering up the insolvency of the big banks. Some will say that this is to preserve stability, a montra of the establishment, but as noted above, it's really about preserving establishment power and wealth.

William Black Interview Transcript

Psssst... Do Something

• Contact the Broadcast Media
  
• Contact the Newspapers
  
• Contact the US Senate
  
• Contact the House of Representatives

Sources:

Bill Moyers Journal, April 4, 2009. (Video, transcript and more).

McCain Incorrectly Equates a Military Tactic with a Strategy

McCain exposed his own lack of understanding about the difference between a "tactic" and a "strategy" after he accused Senator Obama of not knowing the difference:

I'm afraid Senator Obama doesn't understand the difference between a tactic and a strategy.

I'm certain that Obama does understand the difference. A strategy is the big picture goal and approach. Tactics are the smaller actions taken to implement the larger strategy.

It's not clear that McCain understands the difference. McCain exposed his lack of understanding in the September 26 debate when he equated a "tactics" used to implement the troop surge with a "strategy":

There is social, economic progress, and a strategy, a strategy of going into an area, clearing and holding, and the people of the country then become allied with you.

"Clearing and holding" areas is an example of a military tactic. The "strategy" was the broad goal of stabilizing the security situation so that the Iraqi governance system could become functional. The troop surge could be considered either a sub-strategy or major military tactic to support the larger stabilization strategy.

But "clearing and holding" is definitely not a strategy. It might even be considered a sub-tactic of the tactical surge designed to meet the "strategy" of bringing a period of stability to Iraq. McCain clearly displayed his lack of understanding of strategy and tactic.

Don't take my word for it. Consider what former Director of the National Security Agency, William E. Odom, LT General, USA, Ret., said in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 2, 2008.

It is an honor to appear before you again. The last occasion was in January 2007, when the topic was the troop surge. Today you are asking if it has worked. Last year I rejected the claim that it was a new strategy. Rather, I said, it is a new tactic used to achieve the same old strategic aim, political stability.

(Full Testimony)

McCain's muddled brain is further exposed by his circular thinking about strategies:

This strategy requires additional troops, it requires a fundamental change in strategy and I fought for it.

McCain's idea of a "strategy" was to have "a fundamental change in strategy"? Oh Kayeee. I'm not impressed with this so-called straight talking maverick. McCain's a phony.

Sources:

Los Angeles Times, Full Transcript of the First Debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, September 26, 2008.

U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Testimony of William E. Odom, April 2, 2008. [PDF]

We're Different from those who are in Unaccountable Power

"Internationally-renowned investigative reporter and filmmaker John Pilger talks about the limitless occupation in Palestine, the war in Iraq, the current pathetic state of mainstream journalism, and his new book Freedom Next Time."

That's how Flashpoints Radio casts its May 17, 2007 interview of Pilger. Pilger's clarity of thought, founded on adherence to basic principles and sound logic, accounts for his concise and compelling explanation of current affairs. The following is the first in a two-part series of partial transcripts from the interview.

The interview began with the current situation in Gaza. Pilger understands that context is critical in any discussion. On Gaza he begins,

You have to understand, Gaza is a prison. On one side is the sea. On another side is Egypt, through which there is a boarder, but generally it's closed. And, on the other side, is Israel, which locks people in.

There are more than a million people living there... [he describes the malnourished children and lack of economy]... it's an enforced ghetto. And it's enforced by the United States. When I say the United States, yes Israel does it, but really, all of the wars conducted by Israel, and the impositions of Israel in the Middle East are American-backed, and they're done, as just described, with American aircraft, who happen to be flown by Israelis.

That's very important to understand that, in the reporting, I've just watched a television report here, in which it described the most horrific bombing, as even using that euphemism "air strikes," how anodyne that sounds, and four Hamas militants were killed. How do they know? And militants about what? Militants about running the Country? Hamas was voted in to run the Country, in democratic elections, and that sorely upset the United States, and they decided to stop it.

And the tragic civil war, of a kind, that has erupted in Gaza is entirely caused by outside forces, about people not being allowed to democratically run their own country, choose their own people.

If I sound somewhat strong about this it's because I've been to Gaza and I've seen the conditions there, and it's just unreal to come away from a place like that, and to really know what's causing this, horror, and then to be, sort of, transported into our safe and comfortable world.

Gaza is the metaphor, a very live and bleeding metaphor, for the whole Middle East, and probably for the whole world in terms of the imposition of great power on powerless people.

Dennis Bernstein asked about Pilger's two films and said, "We hear language like, 'a road map'"... "It's a cynical discussion to talk about a map." Pilger replied,

Yes, it's a cynical discussion... and it's a farcical discussion, and it requires the kind of contortion of intellect and morality that most people aren't capable of. In my opinion I think most people live their lives in a straight forward manner. Power does not. We're different. We're different from those who are in unaccountable power. And that's true now in the United States, it's true to a great degree here in Britain, and in other so-called democracies, the word itself has fallen into disrepute.

Yes I made two films. I made the first one, Palestine is Still the Issue I believe in 1975 I think. I made the second one, Palestine is Still the Issue in 2002. And the reason I kept the title was because it was still the issue. Fundamentally over those years, nothing had changed, fundamentally nothing had changed. The Palestinian people were subjected to the world's longest military occupation, were an indigenous people in their own homeland, denied the right of living peacefully in their own homeland. Denied the right to even live peacefully along side those who came later, that is the Israelis. Those who want to believe the Biblical story of three thousand years ago, go ahead, ah [chuckle] ah there are plenty of myths in the world, but we're dealing with lives now.

Israelis and Palestinians could be living together today in peace were it not for the power ambitions of the United States, combining with the more extreme power ambitions of Zionist Israel. I don't say that with a light heart, it's just true. Any any journalist who's been going backwards and forward to that part of the world for so many years, as I have, who denies that truth, because they're worried they're going to be attacked by Zionists and get a blizzard of e-mails, and the usual stuff, then they should stand up to that, because that's the truth.

And until Palestine, until the people of Palestine are given justice, which will automatically give security to the people of Israel, then the rest of the Middle East will remain in a sort of perpetual torment, ah and indeed, much of the world.

Bernstein turned the discussion to Iraq, bridging it with the common theme of the mainstream media coverage [See Part 2].

Sources:

Flashpoints Radio, WPFA, May 17, 2007.

Jim Webb on Wealth Gap: 2007 State of the Union Response

Transcript of the Democratic response to president George Bush's 2007 State of the Union Address. The Democrats selected Jim Webb, freshman senator from Virginia, who has populist sentiments. He shared his views on using the economic system for everyone, not just those who have enough money to make more money. This view is taking hold, now that we have several decades of experience that demonstrate the failures free market fundamentalism. The primary failure is that wealth accumulates among a small minority, and away from the vast majority. Jim Webb addressed the wealth gap head on. Hopefully the Democratic Party understands this and will act on it.

Webb framed the issue as, "... how we see the health of our economy, how we measure it, and how we ensure that its benefits are properly shared among all Americans."

When one looks at the health of our economy it's almost as if we are living in two different countries. Some say things have never been better. The stock market IS at an all time high and so are corporate profits. But these benefits are not being fairly shared.

When I graduated from college, the average corporate CEO made 20 times what the average worker did. Today, it’s nearly 400 times. In other words, it takes the average worker more than a year to make the money that his or her boss makes in one day.

Wages and salaries of our workers are at an all time low as a percentage of our national wealth even though the productivity of American workers is the highest in the world. Medical costs have skyrocketed, college tuitions are off the charts. Our manufacturing base is being dismantled and sent overseas. Good American jobs are being sent along with them. In short, the middle class of this country, our historic backbone and our best hope for a strong society in the future is loosing its place at the table. Our workers know this through painful experience. Our white collar professionals are beginning to understand it as their jobs are disappearing also. And they expect, rightly, that in this age of globalization, their government has a duty to insist that their concerns be dealt with fairly in the international market place.

In the early days of our republic, president Andrew Jackson established an important principle of American style democracy. That we should measure the health of our society not at its apex but at its base. Not with the numbers that come out of Wall Street, but with the living conditions that exist on Main Street. We must recapture that spirit today.

See E.J. Dionne commentary, "A Reagan Democrat"
I wouldn't put it that way. He's a populist democrat in the tradition of the agrarian revolt of the late 1800s.