The Weekly Watch
It's a Slippery Slope
When the Empire Falls
When the Empire Falls
here's proof the minions will survive but the ivory towers will fall (1.5 min)
Across the country and world symptoms of the collapse are evident. Our self centered “for profit” mentality is driving us to the brink of extinction. We have created the forever war on terror by droning our way to ever more terrorists. All the while bowing to the god of profit by selling weapons to both sides of most conflicts. On a large scale we have promoted environmental degradation, climate chaos, and the sixth mass extinction event largely for the profit of a few fossil fuel giants. On another scale we see the public sphere privatized “for profit” from schools to prisons to hospitals to parks to... a for profit system enforced by militarized police. And yet another obvious symptom of the fall of the empire is the crony corporate economy designed for the elite with the current tax cut as a prime example.
Howard Zinn describes the fall of the empire as beginning on 9/11 (2.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-pZ70ihRtw
I'm sure most of you caught Chris Hedges October piece “The End of Empire”
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-end-of-empire/
Here's Graham Elwood's take on the article (11 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnZ6NwsLf3Q
Noam does a good job describing the empire in his conversation with Abby Martin a few years ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgJUwNCQfJc (25 min)
Like all empires, ours rests on the back of others. The Thanksgiving Myth plays into the narrative.
Our national empire rises as we destroy the indigenous cultures which were here before we arrived. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/owe-indigenous-america/
Standing Rock leaders delivered a petition of 55,000 signatures to the Morton County State Attorney Office this week
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20528:Standing-Rock-Water-Protectors-Del...
Slavery is also one of our national original sins. It's legacy plays out in our privatized prisons where slavery is still legal. Chris Hedges describes the situation in less than 5 mins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC9WFzczemQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buWC8f88uL4 (Chris in conversation with Eugene Puryear)
Slavery enforced by a militarized police
A Day Before A Baltimore Detective Was Set to Testify Against His Own Department, He Was Gunned Down. So Police Barricaded the Community.
https://theintercept.com/2017/11/23/baltimore-police-shooting-lockdown/
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20538:Detective-Murdered-Day-Before-he-w...
The capitalist system itself is teetering on collapse by its very nature. Lynn Fries in an extended interview with Thomas Piketty about his book Capital in the 21st Century (30 min and text) http://therealnews.com/t2/story:11858:Piketty%3A-The-Market-and-Private-...
The promise of economic growth is that the poor can live like the rich and the rich can live like the oligarchs. But already we are bursting through the physical limits of the planet that sustains us.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/11/23/every-friday-black-friday-...
The Endless War...
No issue illustrates our decline more than our culture of war...to keep us safe.
Our moral decline is evident in our complicit behavior creating disaster in Yemen
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/complicit-americas-non-war-crimes-yemen/
After a lengthy "60 Minutes" report fails to even mention the vital US support for the devastating Saudi-led war on Yemen, Shireen Al-Adeimi says Americans are largely hidden from their government's complicity (16 min with text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20551:Why-is-US-Complicity-in-Yemen%27s-...
Great series of interviews with Larry Wilkerson and Paul Jay (about 9 min each with text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20519:Why-is-the-US-Media-and-Foreign-Po...
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20550:Overthrowing-Assad-and-the-Neocons...
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20553:%27The-Saudis-are-Going-to-Fight-T...
The hypocrisy of war
https://theintercept.com/2017/11/22/bosnia-ratko-mladic-verdict-siege-wa...
Our failure shows in the prosecution of any who stand against corporate greed...
from environmentalists
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/11/22/blocked-discussing-climate-...
to Political Protesters
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/trump-inauguration-day-arrestees-face-...
and still the Standing Rock water protectors
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20528:Standing-Rock-Water-Protectors-Del...
Guarantee the fall by limiting peoples access to information
There's the attempt to choke off any narrative other than the corporate claptrap by discarding net neutrality among other schemes
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/11/21/internet-defenders-urge-mas...
A new plan unveiled by Federal Communications Commission chair Ajit Pai would repeal hard-fought net neutrality rules that uphold equal internet access. Can Pai's effort be stopped? (10 min with text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20534:Trump%27s-FCC-Goes-to-War-on-Net-N...
We sure don't need no stinkin' science
https://www.dcreport.org/2017/11/21/we-dont-need-no-stinking-science/
Keep the people dumb...
Schools reflect the failing of the empire....
What the Republicans propose in their tax plans is not just a raid on education-related budget items for the sake of fiscal efficiency; their plans are part of a strategic offensive against the very idea that all children and youth have a right to a free and high-quality education.
http://educationopportunitynetwork.org/gop-tax-plan-is-a-declaration-of-...
It is all about the push for vouchers and charter schools. However, findings from a string of recent studies border on alarming, showing that students who attend private schools with the help of public money may end up doing worse after they leave their public schools. But school choice advocates vigorously argue that parental demand for private school choice proves that it's working.
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/11/15/there-is-no-oversight-priv...
It is a scheme of the corrupt super rich. A fortune derived from the relentless marketing of painkillers is now being used to expand charter schools. https://www.alternet.org/education/notorious-family-contributing-opioid-...
“Public education is a civic good that transcends an economic/consumer model...Children in Halifax County [a rural low-income community in eastern North Carolina] are just as much our children as the children of Chapel Hill [an affluent college town in the state].”
http://progressive.org/public-school-shakedown/lessons-from-north-caroli...
Stick students in front of a computer all day and call it “Personalized Learning”. I recall hearing this from the Newt years ago at a Bell-South education symposium. My question to Newt then is still the same today...can a computer hug and comfort a child?
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/11/08/the-cases-against-personal...
Distraction reigns supreme with sex allegations falling left and right
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/sexual-harassment-al-franken-vs-roy-mo...
and the real abuse not told nor noticed
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/11/21/out-spotlight-and-across-in...
Jimmy Dore explains Congressional Sexual Harassers Names Kept Private By Law! (5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmC8ao9l2_A
RT had to register as a foreign agent, but Lee Camp describes the true foreign agents in the US https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g23xqGb0Vh0&pbjreload=10 (7 min)
There a power play afoot in the Consumer Protection Board. The appointment of English, just moments before Cordray’s departure, suggests that CFPB will make the case that Trump can’t appoint anyone on an interim basis. Only the deputy director can replace an absent or unavailable director.
https://theintercept.com/2017/11/24/richard-cordray-sets-up-titanic-stru...
Chris Hedges most recent piece warns us to beware the moderates
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/behind-mask-moderates/
Tax reform plan of wonder 1 minute cartoon
https://www.truthdig.com/cartoons/tax-reform-plan-wonder/
Jimmy Dore provides Proof Corporate Tax Cuts Don't Help Workers (9 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iqlJOzKkg0
David Cay Johnson explains the tax situation
https://www.dcreport.org/2017/11/22/giving-thanks-for-the-best-tax-bills...
Is it our human nature to be so greedy as to destroy ourselves? Sure seems so...and yet there have always been some communities that cooperate for the betterment of one another and the planet.
“The Water Will Come” brims with long-range modeled projections and mostly inconvenient truths. But it also overflows with politics, deal-making and procrastination, and seems like a modern history of arrogance in the face of evidence.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/water-will-come/
For Thanksgiving, Chris Hedges wishes to dispel the cowspiracy with Chris Schlottmann, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at New York University. They discuss the impact of the animal agriculture industry on the environment. (24 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbzYtayIXm0
There's an effort underway to start a peoples party. Would that be an answer?
As result of the recent election, the establishment Dems feel vindicated. Ralph Northam, the newly elected governor in Virginia, is a conservative Democrat who proudly voted for George W. Bush twice, and he announced that he would sign a bill to ban sanctuary cities. New Jersey’s governor-elect, Phil Murphy, is a former Goldman Sachs executive. In both states’ Democratic primaries, the Dem Party successfully worked to eliminate the progressive candidate. We must hold fast to the principles that awoke the political revolution, chief among them: a party funded by the oligarchs can never represent the people. https://www.forapeoplesparty.org/
I've recommended this 28 page SCS booklet in comments before, but it is worth featuring in an essay.
CONQUEST OF THE LAND THROUGH SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS
BY W. C. LOWDERMILK, formerly Assistant Chief, Soil Conservation Service
In 1938 and 1939, his mission was to find out if the experience of older civilizations could help in solving the serious soil erosion and land use problems in the United States, then struggling with repair of the Dust Bowl and the Sullied South. He discovered that soil erosion, deforestation, overgrazing, neglect, and conflicts between cultivators and herdsman have helped topple empires and wipe out entire civilizations. At the same time, he learned that careful stewardship of the earth's resources, through terracing, crop rotation, and other soil conservation measures, has enabled other societies to flourish for centuries.
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1043789.pdf
As a conclusion he suggests there should be an "Eleventh Commandment," as follows:
Thou shalt inherit the Holy Earth as a faithful steward, conserving its resources and productivity from generation to generation. Thou shalt safeguard thy fields from soil erosion, thy living waters from drying up, thy forests from desolation, and protect thy hills from overgrazing by thy herds, that thy descendants may have abundance forever. If any shall fail in this stewardship of the land thy fruitful fields shall become sterile stony ground and wasting gullies, and thy descendants shall decrease and live in poverty or perish from off the face of the earth.
Sounds like a self fulfilling prophesy.
There are efforts to live in harmony with the planet and people.
Australian approach to permaculture with Geoff Lawton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIdHaAnNaJo (1 hour)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01N-kBSdiZI (30 min)
https://wakeup-world.com/2015/07/12/permaculture-reconnecting-with-natur...
Farmer Fung tells it right. The land teaches you if you listen. (8 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W6PjISXCl0
Empires rise and empires fall...
There's no doubt among many economists...China is the most powerful economy and nation on earth. While we fight our forever war on terror (to prop up a failing petro dollar) China reclaims desert, builds trans continental roads and rail, and leads the world installing green energy projects.
China has centuries of experience and had very different results in different river valleys.
https://permaculturenews.org/files/farmers_of_forty_centuries.pdf (118 page ebook from 1911)
Max and Stacy discuss Trump's success in Asia making friends by ignoring human rights and ‘putting America first.’ They see the collapse of our empire as they look at mortality rates in the US lagging further and further behind 35 other industrialized nations in the past forty years while human rights abroad rather than at home became the number one priority. In the second half, Max interviews Dan Collins of TheChinaMoneyReport.com about China 2025 and Donald Trump’s soft power in the region. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA6wtSggzfM (26 min)
China is once again leading the way. Turning desert to fields and forests
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8_Hnmty4vY (10 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyVSodNA54A (13 min)
Around the world more countries are going green. China is making headway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLfWfu3XAzQ (18 min)
As Howard says at the top of the essay, the collapse of this American Empire will be a good thing for us all. We may as well feel positive about it because like the sun this evening, the American Empire is falling.
Comments
Lookout!
Damn impressive offering today. I'll be reading/watching the whole week.
The Empire has to fall. Trouble is it's been 'striking back' as it does.
The quezion is... how long they can 'double down' to do it?
Have a great day all. Let's hope the whole thing crashes and burns soon so we can start picking up the pieces.
I want a Pony!
I agree...the sooner the better
but I think regardless of the time frame, the fall is inevitable.
In the meantime watch out for scams. Ralph spends the hour with fraud expert, Frank Abagnale, inspiration for the Spielberg film, “Catch Me If You Can.” They talk about how to protect yourself from identity theft and other scams in our high tech, digital economy.
https://ralphnaderradiohour.com/the-art-of-the-steal/ (1 hour podcast plus links)
Hope you have a good day Arrow!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
The worst part is the world
looks at us as a blueprint for success. China is the US on steroids.
Rebirth of the China Empire?
They still burn a lot of coal despite green power gains. They have a very long history of environmental degradation (and preservation). Just look at a picture of one of their cities...not very appealing...and they have cities we've never heard of that are bigger than most countries.
I guess empires are imperialist by nature? At one time they built a wall too. China is a bigger and older anthill than ours.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
the most important political actor: the New Climate Regime
Bruno Latour recently published an English Translation of "Facing Gaia: 8 lectures on the new climate regime"
Briefly, we are the people who didn't react 30 to 40 years ago to the climate emergency.
The book is his fascinating take on why that has happened. He unravels science, politics and religion to give some answers. These were the Gifford lectures in 2013 which were expanded and completely rewritten and published in English a few months ago.
**
He has a new book out in French. This is an interview about the new book "Where to Land?". I don't read FR and am relying on Google Translate for the title of the book and for the interview.
And a few paragraphs from the interview which is linked below. Remember this is an automatic translation.
Each paragraph begins with a question in bold. I put in in bold in the block quote but it didn't come out. Watch for it.
It took a hundred years for the social question to be a major issue in politics. Socialism, etc. In 23 years the earth has become the major issue. And to invoke nature, "to save nature" already puts one in the modernist frame of nature vs culture. He has spend several books laying this out but he makes the case that environmentalists are stuck in the same frame as the climate deniers.
Do you want to return to the past and have light from a candle? You tree huggers ...Parties continue to say a choice between the economic development vs ecology. This is where US establishment politics is stuck.
The title of the book is Where to Land? Latour other places makes the case that the root issue is land. The earth.
Last year he several times talked about a plane trip. You are on a plane and the pilot comes on the intercom and says "you were on a trip to the globe of globalization, but cannot land there because it doesn't exist." Later he comes on and says that you want to return to the land but it no longer exists. (ask native peoples) Then he has a third attractor to land on Earth. When Trump was elected he added a fourth attractor, OFF SHORE, in the sense of off shore accounts. Trump was a new breed not connected to globalization, the land of the past, the earth we cannot escape from even though historically humans have been seen as more than nature, etc. Trump is in a space of his own.
In short, The New Climate Regime will dominate global politics even though it is not any state.
Here is the link to the interview in French
Bruno Latour : « Défendre la nature : on bâille. Défendre les territoires : on se bouge »
Amen to that
We all know the deniers are just like the tobacco execs...lying to promote profit over people. This nasty crap shale oil they pump through the Keystone causes leaks. There are heroes standing against the fossil fuel giants. Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network explains pipeline opponents still have reason for cautious optimism.
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20522:Is-the-Keystone-XL-Pipeline-a-Done...
(12 min with text)
I admire his hopefulness and the role he plays in the good fight. And I appreciate your link to Bruno.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Here's Chris Hedges with Alfred McCoy
on the decline of the American empire: YouTube , 28 min., (RT)
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
I guess I've been reading a lot of Hedge's work
cause he vibed me in on today's theme. Thanks for the appropriate link!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Just wanted to say thanks, Lookout. Piqued me today in various
directions, resulting in watching some clips and going back into my Hedges books.
Didn't know Graham Elwood, who am familiar with only through the Jimmy Dore Show, lost a hosting gig at some conference because of his public profile on Twitter (though ironically it was a Trump supporter single him out, despite most of his criticism being toward Neoliberal Dems). McCarthy Era 2.0, for sure. Loved that ultimately the effect of losing the job just furthered cemented his resolve to do more political commentary (didn't know he has a YouTube channel also), instead of being kowtowed by the fascist surveillance state.
Which bring me to Hedges again. Death of the Liberal Class really is a must-read for everybody here, and in the country, especially if you want to understand how we got to this point and ended up with the fraudulent farce of the 2016 election. The collusion of government and Big Business to undermine the People so as to ensure profits for donors of political campaigns has been a long march to now. "Liberal" institutions sold out long ago. The media of course are, and have always been, the pivots in their web of deceit and plunder.
On the comments at the Real News story about the Baltimore detective who was just murdered before he was scheduled to give testimony about a police racketeering ring, there was this: lyrics to a song called The Ballad of Freddie Gray
Thanks again, Lookout. Great job you're doing.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
many thanks
Hope you and the family are doing well. All the best!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thanks Lookout!
Your one paragraph sums it up quite nicely
"we're screwed"
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Thanks
There's lots of material to illustrate the decline of the empire...I tried to boil it down. That's really the trick each week... trying to boil it down.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Again you boil it down very nicely!
But yes, it's extremely tricky. -g-
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley