Guest guest Posted November 22, 2005 Report Share Posted November 22, 2005 We are a new kind of tribe, while still clinging to old paradigms, a branch of an internet tribal system in which there is no touching other than plastic keys and a plastic mouse. At Liberty Underground we want to put hugs into it as the human race mutates. The other side are not trying to evolve us back to the ape as some are saying-- apes are a lot nicer than they. Apes work together for the good of the group. Our rulers are moving us toward a feudal world in which there are kings who play at war as a game and control the wealth while the masses starve and bleed for them on command, drinking fouled water and breathing polluted air. I remember being surrounded, on several occasions, in Vietnam, when those attacking could have run over us if only they knew how weak we were, so my thoughts turned to the probability of death. I would think, " If only they knew me, would they still want to kill me? " I knew they hated me because of what my government did to them, but I was ignorant of the depth of it. It is the job of corporate media to keep people ignorant. Ignorance breeds fear and hatred which are used by our rulers for control. So it is that creeping privatization and globalization drop like cluster bombs on the working class of the world as they read how wonderful it is in their mass media. When one understands the rage of Iraqis, one understands the rage of workers who are losing good jobs, like the 25% layoffs at General Motors announced this morning in the corporate news. One understands it is all related, the pollution, war and hunger. The rich are getting richer from all of it, and the poor are getting poorer from all of it. Mokhiber and Weissman write for the people, so you will not see this in the mass media --Jack Economic Apartheid in America by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman Top executives now make more in a day than the average worker makes in a year. You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both. -- Louis Brandeis How wealthy the wealthy are does matter. If we allow great wealth to accumulate in the pockets of a few, then great wealth can set our political agenda and shape our political culture -- and the agenda and the culture that emerge will not welcome efforts to make American work for all Americans. -- Sam Pizzigati Plutocracy: 1. The rule or power of wealth or the wealthy; 2. A government or state in which the wealthy class rules. 3. A class for group ruling, or exercising power or influence, by virtue of its wealth. -- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary Of the world's 100 largest economies, 47 are nations, and 53 are corporations. Seventy-five percent of major corporations hire a consultant to stop employees from forming a union. The alarming development and aggressiveness of great capitalists and corporations, unless checked, will inevitably lead to the pauperization and hopeless degradation of the toiling masses. It is imperative, if we desire to enjoy the full blessings of life, that a check be placed upon unjust accumulations and the power for evil of aggravated wealth. -- Constitution of the Knights of Labor, 1869. The Washington monument is 555 feet tall. Say it signifies the 2003 average compensation for CEOs in the Fortune 500. The average worker salary would be only 16 inches tall, representing a ratio of 419 to one. In 1965, the worker's monument was 13 feet six inches tall, representing a ratio of 41 to 1. Inherited economic power is as inconsistent with the ideals of this generation as inherited political power was inconsistent with the ideals of the generation which established our government. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt. Born on home plate -- Forty-two percent of those listed inherited sufficient wealth to rank among the Forbes 400. Examples: J. Paul Getty Jr. inherited the oil fortune from his father. David Rockefeller Sr. ($2.5 billion) is the grandson of the Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller. S.I. and Donald Newhouse ($7 billion each) inherited the nation's largest private newspaper chain, plus Conde Nast publications, from their father in 1979. Samuel Curtis Johnson ($1.5 billion) is the great grandson of the flooring salesman who founded the floor wax giant S.C. Johnson and Sons. The United Nations Development Program reported in 1999 that the world's 225 richest people now have a combined wealth of $1 trillion. That's equal to the combined annual income of the world's 2.5 billion poorest people. The richest 10 percent of the world's population receives 49.6 percent of the total world income. The bottom 60 percent receives 13.9 percent of the world's income. The wealth of the world's three most well-to-do individuals now exceeds the combined gross domestic product of the 48 least developed countries. Half of the world's population of six billion live on less than $2 a day, while 1.3 billion get by on less than $1 a day. These are some of things you learn from a new book, just out, titled Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality & Insecurity by Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel with United for a Fair Economy (The New Press, 2005). The book is filled with photos, and charts, and graphs -- that make it a great home schooling tool, for young and old alike. It puts things in perspective. It keeps you on your toes. Read it. Then listen to a little Bill O'Reilly. Then read it some more. Contrast is good. Stretch limousines are longer, yet more people are homeless. Thirty zip codes in America have become fabulously wealthy. Meanwhile, whole urban and rural communities are languishing in unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, growing insecurity and fear. It makes the perfect gift for the holidays. And you probably won't find it at Wal-Mart. Or Costco, for that matter. Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter, . Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor. Mokhiber and Weissman are co-authors of On the Rampage: Corporate Predators and the Destruction of Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press). If you wish to be removed from this list, please let us know To join the Liberty Underground news service visit libertyunderground/ where we put out a daily news/opinion piece which goes beyond the narrow range of corporate media propaganda. You may also join our talk group at libertyundergroundtalk/ if you would like to participate. Liberty Underground of Virginia (LUV) is at http://luvsite.org Tell your friends about us because some people just don't get it " When the power of love becomes stronger than the love of power, we will have peace. " Jimi Hendrix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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