Shamus Cooke: Mass Unemployment in America, The Jobs Crisis Demands Attention

By Shamus Cooke

Global Research, August 7, 2011

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25925

When the big banks screamed "crisis," they were instantly rewarded with trillions of taxpayer money. Likewise, when rich bondholders — some of them bailout beneficiaries — yelled "crisis" at the U.S. debt, they were immediately rewarded with trillions of dollars taken from social programs for the poor. The jobs crisis, however, staggers on with no relief in sight. The recent troubles in the U.S. economy are forcing working people to reexamine their hopes for a recovery, as has been promised to them for years. They will not wait much longer.

Knowing that his 2012 election campaign is at stake, Obama plans to at least appear to be doing something. He's not. He is, however, to begin a "listening" bus tour — in crucial electoral states — to hear about the plight of those suffering from the economy. After 4 plus years of mass unemployment you'd imagine that the Obama administration would have a massive, concrete plan to address the issue. He doesn't. Here's the plan according to Reuters:

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"Paritosh Bansal and Dan Wilchins" - Debt Issuers Brace for Impact from Downgrade

Published on Monday, August 8, 2011 by Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/08/us-usa-ratings-financialsystem-idUSTRE7762W720110808

by Paritosh Bansal and Dan Wilchins

A downgrade of United States' top-tier credit rating has Wall Street scrambling to figure out the knock-on effects for the financial system, from mortgages to banks to markets that rely on U.S. Treasuries for collateral.

The immediate effects of the Standard & Poor's downgrade of the country's AAA credit rating late on Friday are likely to be modest, largely because it was expected and already at least partly discounted, experts said.

Many downplayed the likelihood of the sort of financial contagion experienced when Lehman Brothers went under in September 2008. Few had expected it to have to file for bankruptcy, and few were prepared for the fallout. Money market funds froze, some major commercial banks collapsed, and many major dealers and finance houses teetered on the edge of failure.

But even if that type of scenario is unlikely this time, bankers, lawyers and investors wonder if there could be longer-term consequences of S&P's downgrade, given that U.S. sovereign credit is bedrock to the world financial system.

The analysis is complicated because so many of the potential stress points for the financial system are relatively opaque areas like over-the-counter derivatives markets.

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Ron Jacobs: Empire of the Mind, Subversion Through Art

Subversion Through Art

By RON JACOBS

http://counterpunch.org/jacobs08052011.html

Let's consider the empire of the mind.  You know, that method to the advertiser's madness that somehow incorporates messages into our consciousness about the nature of freedom.  An Army of One or the freedom to buy a truck that looks like everyone else's.  Freedom of choice as a replacement for genuine freedom.  And so on.  Beyond the obvious insidiousness of advertising is the much more insistent nature of what is called culture  in the modern society of capital.  There is no enlightenment involved in the merchandise presented to us by car companies, banks, and other commercial failures whose primary intent is to convince us that our future involves us spending our money on their products.  Indeed, there is not even a pretense or supposition that there should be any enlightenment in the equation.  So, we spend our time watching and listening to these entertainment products while we work out how we'll get that new car shown to us every ten minutes during the commercial break.

Trotsky wrote that "every ruling class creates its own culture, and consequently, its own art."  While one might be hard pressed to justify most television shows and most pop music as art, they are what pass for culture.  Once, a conversation with a friend who worked as a college faculty member turned to the question of whether film and music reflected or created popular trends and thought.  In other words, does the culture we absorb influence us or do we influence it.

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"Ari LeVaux" - Armed Federal Agents Raid a Health Food Club, Drag Volunteer to Jail

By Ari LeVaux, AlterNet
Posted on August 7, 2011, Printed on August 8, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/151933/armed_federal_agents_raid_a_health_food_club%2C_drag_volunteer_to_jail

August 3rd was a telling day for the U.S. government's role in controlling our food safety and food security. In Los Angeles, the Rawesome raw food club was raided by armed federal and state agents who arrested a club volunteer and seized computers, file folders, cash, and $70,000 worth of perishable produce. The bail for volunteer James Stewart, 64, was set at $121,000 -- higher than the bail amounts assessed to narcotics dealers and domestic abusers in the courtroom that day. And, in a rare move, Stewart was denied the right to use a bondsman.

Of the thirteen counts against Stewart, 12 regarded raw milk and products made from raw milk that were distributed to club members in a Rose Avenue warehouse. (The other count involved unwashed, room temperature eggs). No illnesses have been reported in the club's 12-year history. And if a problem were to occur with the club's food, members say, they would be able to quickly figure out the source. This was the second such raid on Rawesome, the first having happened in June of 2010.

In addition to the seizure of virtually every file, hard drive, wallet, post-it note and receipt in Rawesome's office, the search warrant also demanded seizure of "cheese, cream, milk, whey, yogurt, butter, kefir, dietary supplements, and any other product deemed necessary for testing."

It remains to be seen if the coconuts, watermelons and buffalo meat taken from the Rawesome Food Club, as seen in this YouTube video, will be tested. What could they possibly test it for? Raw milk contamination? More than likely this food will be tossed.

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Mike Whitney: The Credit Crisis Rages On; What caused Stock Markets to Plunge?

By Mike Whitney

Global Research, August 7, 2011

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25922
 

What caused global markets to plunge on Thursday? 

Was it poor economic data in the US; the sudden slowdown in manufacturing, declining consumer spending, shrinking GDP and ongoing troubles in the housing market? 

No. While the prospect of a double dip recession has pushed shares down for two weeks, Thursday's crash was all about Europe. 

ECB chief Jean Claude Trichet touched-off a panic when he announced the Central Bank would resume its purchases of Irish and Portuguese debt, but made no indication that he'd buy bonds from struggling Italy and Spain.  (Italy's 10-year sovereign bond has soared to over 6 percent in recent days signally deepening distress.) Investors took Trichet's announcement to mean that the ECB would not backstop the world's 3rd largest bond market (Italy), so bond yields would continue to go higher while banks throughout the EU would suffer devastating losses. That set off a firestorm in the bond market that quickly spread into equities sending global markets into a nosedive and wiping out $4.4 trillion in capital. 

So, what does it all mean? 

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Rady Ananda: Growing Your Own Food -- Permaculture, Integrative Organic Farming and Gardening

By Rady Ananda

Global Research, August 8, 2011

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25928

While the Bush reign may be described as a war on privacy, Obama’s is clearly a war on food freedom.* As his Monsanto administration arrests organic farmers and distributors, seizing and destroying healthy foods privately contracted and sustainably grown, this tyranny is not unique to the United States.  All over the world, organic, sustainable farmers are under attack by large agribiz actors  who, through government and trade agreements, are regulating them out of business and destroying the environment in the process. 

Two farmers arguing against ecocidal hyper-regulation and “conventional” and “orthodox organic” farming are Simon Fairlee of England and Sepp Holzer of Austria. Both have written seminal books that should grace the bookshelves of everyone who gardens, farms or cares about the impact of agriculture on the biosphere.

In Meat: A Benign Extravagance, Simon Fairlee successfully proves that animal husbandry must be part of any sustainable farm, but used under a permaculture system (that which mimics nature) – beyond organic.  “Permaculture” is short for “permanent agriculture” – agricultural ecosystems that are designed to be self-sustaining. It practices natural anarchy.

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Texas drought will harm wildlife habitat for years

August 8th, 2011 in Space & Earth / Environment

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-08-texas-drought-wildlife-habitat-years.html

(AP) -- In a muddy pile of sand where a pond once flowed in the Texas Panhandle, dead fish, their flesh already decayed and feasted on by maggots, lie with their mouths open. Nearby, deer munch on the equivalent of vegetative junk food and wild turkeys nibble on red harvester ants - certainly not their first choice for lunch.

As the state struggles with the worst one-year drought in its history, entire ecosystems, from the smallest insects to the largest predators, are struggling for survival. The foundations of their habitats - rivers, springs, creeks, streams and lakes - have turned into dry sand, wet mud, trickling springs or, in the best case, large puddles.

"It has a compound effect on a multitude of species and organisms and habitat types because of the way that it's chained and linked together," said Jeff Bonner, a wildlife biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Since January, Texas has only gotten about 6 inches of rain, compared to a norm of about 13 inches, making it the most severe one-year drought on record. Last week, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center said the La Nina weather pattern blamed for the lack of rain might be back soon, and if that happens, the dry spell would almost certainly extend into 2012.

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Sino Daily: Dalai Lama's political successor to be sworn in

Sino Daily
Dharamshala, India (AFP) Aug 8, 2011

http://www.sinodaily.com/reports/Dalai_Lamas_political_successor_to_be_sworn_in_999.html

Lobsang Sangay, a 43-year-old Harvard scholar, will be sworn in as head of the Tibetan government-in-exile on Monday, replacing the Dalai Lama as the movement's political leader.

In a historic shift from the dominance of Tibetan politics by religious figures, the new prime minister, who has never set foot in Tibet, will assume the temporal duties relinquished by the Dalai Lama in May.

Although the 76-year-old monk will retain the more significant role of spiritual leader, as well as his hold on major policy-making decisions, the transition will make Sangay a far more prominent figure than his predecessor.

The challenge he faces is daunting.

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Raul de Sagastizabal: "Europe Is On The Verge Of Collapsing"

By Raul de Sagastizabal

Global Research, August 8, 2011

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=DE%2020110808&articleId=25932

Europe is on the verge of collapsing and the world is again in the quagmire, the reason being Europe, rather than just Greece, is the planet's soft belly, and the impact of Europe's eventual downfall would make itself felt throughout the world, even if Germany, or France, could somehow be spared.

The scale of impact is unpredictable, but potentially worse than that of the recent toxic assets crisis. The European bloc is the second largest economy, the first trade partner of China, the largest importer of Russian energy and the first buyer of high quality raw materials (it still holds the Hilton quota, the world's most expensive meat quota).

All over the world European debt holders and many states maintain their reserves in euros. China, for example, has one-fourth of its reserves in such currency and holds a large amount of Greek, Portuguese and Spanish debt bonds....

Without debt restructuring involving important debt amount reductions and extended maturities, Greece will not be able to meet her commitments, just like the rest of Europe's debt-overhung Europe's periphery economies - Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, and the effects would certainly contaminate the rest of Europe including the region's strongest economies.

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Jane Slaughter: USA, The Next Low-Wage Haven

Published on Saturday, August 6, 2011 by Labor Notes

http://labornotes.org/2011/07/next-low-wage-haven-usa

by Jane Slaughter

Jokes about the U.S. becoming “Europe’s Mexico” are commonplace, but now high-priced consultants are pushing the notion in all seriousness.

They’re predicting that within five years certain Southern U.S. states will be among the cheapest manufacturing locations in the developed world—and competitive with China.

For years advisers like the Boston Consulting Group got paid big bucks to tell their clients to produce in China. Now, they say, rising wages there, fueled by worker unrest, and low wages in Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina mean that soon it won’t be worth the hassle of locating overseas.

Wages for China’s factory workers certainly aren’t going to rise to U.S. levels soon. BCG estimates they will be 17 percent of the projected U.S. manufacturing average—$26 an hour for wages and benefits—by 2015.

But because American workers have higher productivity, and since rising fuel prices are making it even more expensive to ship goods half way around the world, costs in the two countries are converging fast.

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