Sunday, January 24, 2016

The Last Post on Overview of Alter America
If Alter America Is Not Realized
The Future of Real America
Five Scenarios

·      Failed State and Beyond
·      Armed Revolution
·      Escalating Blowbacks
·      Armageddon
·      Other global Calamities

Failed State and Beyond

The non-governmental organization, Fund for Peace (FFP), regularly ranks the nations of the world on its “failed state index.”  Over 100 nations are put into the “alert” and “warning” categories. The U.S. is not one of them. One reason is that the FFP is politicized. Its biggest funders are the federal government, corporations, and foundations.  I suspect another reason is that the government uses FFP to corroborate the picking of nations ripe for “democratization,” read that to mean imperialistic subjugation.

Putting the FFP’s list aside, there is ample evidence from the list of her “sadtistics” (see post dated January 5, 2016)  that America already is a failed state or close to becoming one.Once an economic superpower, America is on the way to economic ruin according to Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury for Economic Policy in the Reagan Administration.

Armed Revolution

If Real America’s course is not reversed she may later this century experience widespread public unrest and violence that precipitates an armed revolution (just think of the number of gun carrying citizens in America).

The U.S. government undoubtedly has a contingency plan to combat armed revolution and is already training for the possibility of it happening (e.g., swarms of Black Hawk helicopters flying over Minneapolis the summer of 2014).

If an armed revolution were to occur, it would turn into a bloodbath with thousands of the regime’s tanks in the streets, Black Hawks and drones overhead and not on training missions, storm troopers, and thuggish, militarized police.  The few protestors’ deaths during the Vietnam War would be multiplied by the millions.

                    
The revolution would probably be followed by a dictatorship, which in turn would eventually deteriorate into a state of dystopia and ultimate collapse. That has happened to a few nation states in the history of civilization and there is no guarantee it won’t happen to Real America.

Escalating Blowbacks

America was born in the womb of war
Will she die in its arms?
---The author

Blowback is an exercise in retributive justice, an eye for an eye. There are two sources of blowbacks, or retaliatory actions, one internal involving citizens against their own government, the other external involving actions against a nation by sources outside of it. Both sources produce blowbacks varying in size, intensity, and harm done. By “escalating blowbacks” I mean repeated retaliations against the same target(s) that increase in size, intensity, and harm done. Escalating blowbacks lead to a “mass of bodies for a mass of bodies.”

Internal Blowbacks

Internal blowbacks happen probably daily in America. Most are very small scale, as when, for instance, one or a few citizens protest some government action or inaction. A few blowbacks have been of a much larger scale; viz. the Vietnam War protests and the riots following the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Then there was the really monumental blowback with a slight twist, the Civil War.

There has yet to be a military coup against the politicians because the military/intelligence agencies get whatever they want from them. There has yet to be an armed revolution by the masses since the Civil War, and I hope there never will be one.

External Blowbacks

If you agree with the view that the U.S. provoked Japan into bombing Pearl Harbor  then that “day in infamy” as FDR famously and perhaps deceptively put it, was the most monumental blowback on America ever carried out by another nation---so far. More deadly external blowbacks were to follow years later, some on American soil, some on Americans in foreign countries: the Beirut barracks bombings in 1983, the 1988 bombing of PAA Flight 103 over Lockerbie; the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center; the downing of TWA Flight 800 in 1996; the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; the “9/11” attack; the Baltimore marathon bombing in 2013; the beheadings by the ISIS in 2014.

Unless and until Real America’s two habits are kicked more blowbacks are inevitable according to numerous, very knowledgeable authorities. They include a) an internal DOD report that was shelved, b)  a four-star Marine General who warned that U.S. drone strikes “are begging for retaliation,”  c) a UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, d) a former senior advisor to a high military official, e) a former counterterrorism adviser in the Departments of Defense and Treasury, e) a former Pentagon official and fighter aircraft designer, and f) a  former chief of staff to a Secretary of State

Real  America’s corpocracy regimes have carried out over time covert military actions in 134 countries and currently have authorized torture chambers in 54 countries. Every one of those countries is a potential source of external blowback no matter how long ago they suffered at the hands of America. Memories and legends of carnage and suffering rarely fade. Some of those country’s despotic regimes, usually put in place as puppet regimes with the help of America’s regime have likely allowed U.S. drone strikes as a means to thwart internal rebellion as much if not more so than to thwart external terrorism directed toward the U.S. In Yemen, however, a country with many drone strike casualties, the parliament passed a non-binding resolution to ban the strikes.

The likelihood of external terrorist attacks not only increases with the continued military presence and action of the U.S, but also with advances in technology and ingenuity in its use. The “underwear bomber” on an international flight in 2009 to Detroit showed a bit of clumsy ingenuity that fortunately failed. Can you just imagine a bunch of terrorists brainstorming new techniques and uses? What might they be? I don’t even want to think about it, but the regime’s brain center (wherever that is) better think about it unless it wants to declare peace to the world. Meanwhile, terrorists can and do retaliate with a simple technique perhaps as old as history itself, beheading.

Armageddon

Armageddon may someday be a reality, not just a scriptural prophecy. Humanity has had the capacity for total self-destruction ever since America introduced nuclear bombs to the world. Armageddon could happen by accident rather than by intent, and there have indeed been several “near misses.” Real America’s government has lied about, covered up, and underreported these accidents. It is probably inevitable that there will be more nuclear accidents within our own borders.  

Armageddon could easily happen if there were escalating blowbacks or confrontations among one or more warriors-in-chief and one of them had the mentality of the late General Curtis Lemay, who seriously proposed dropping “the entire stockpile of atomic bombs in a single massive attack” on the Soviet Union during the cold war. Then there was the former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who called a high-level nuclear alert in 1973 to “warn the Russians not to interfere in the ongoing Israel-Arab war and, in particular, not to interfere after he had informed the Israelis that they could violate a ceasefire the U.S. and Russia had just agreed upon.”

Nine countries thereabout currently possess nuclear weapons. Not all of them have signed a treaty agreeing to discontinue expanding their nuclear weapon capability. The U.S. has the most adversarial relations with three of those nations, China, North Korean, and Russia. Sometimes the disputes become overheated and high-level warnings by one or both parties are issued. Whether these verbal exchanges would ever culminate in an exchange of nuclear bombs hurling back and forth remains to be seen. Some pundits argue that U.S. militarism is heading it toward WWIII.

Other global Calamities

Ecocide, Genocide and Manufactured Plague
Ecocide

Mother Nature may have the last laugh, or blowback, if we don’t start placating her instead of plucking her. The planet, offering finite, not infinite resources for human use and having exceeded its carrying capacity for nearly seven billion humans and counting almost exponentially, could very well become unlivable eventually with air that is unbreathable, with soaring temperatures that are unbearable, with water that is undrinkable, with food that is toxic, and with no oil to lubricate and combust. Before those extreme conditions there very likely would be an outbreak of “resource wars.” And we can “depend” on our military being in the thick of it.  

Genocide

Genetic engineering, Real America’s military discovered, could make its arsenal of biological weapons more effective by genetically altering them.  Since there are very few natural pathogens that lend themselves to biological warfare, the genetic engineering of unnatural pathogens is where the military is apparently staking its future in remaining a superpower and threat to uncooperative nations. The military’s secretive research arm, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency), has launched an expensive program called “Living Foundaries,” a misleadingly innocent name if there ever was one.

Just think of what might happen if a psychopathic warrior-in-chief, unrestrained military and political advisers, and mad scientists all came together to plot and unleash an explosion of unnatural pathogens on their adversaries. Can’t you just picture it next century; our one-eyed, two-headed, three-legged species walking down the street, if any streets are left?

Manufactured Plague
The recent scare of a spreading Ebola epidemic has heightened concerns about biological warfare and Ebola terrorism in particular. Real America continues to increase its own capabilities for launching biological warfare. DOD, for example, has reportedly been Ebola trials on humans in Guinea and Sierra Leone just weeks before the Ebola outbreaks there.
Conclusion of Overview Series
If Realizing Alter America Is Impossible
Doomsday Some Day For Real America Is Probable

Alter America Overview Index of 2016 Posts 

1/24 If Alter America Is Not Realized
1/24 The Journey to Alter America: Strewn with Failures Stopped by Roadblocks
1/20 Second, Organize, Strategize, Actualize
1/15 IF Alter America is to be Realized, First Mobilize
1/11 A Model of Alter America
1/5 Alter America Is Not Real America


The Journey to Alter America
Strewn with Failures
Stopped by Roadblocks

Notable Failures

·         Popular Movements
·         Single Issue Protest Groups
·         Third Party Political Candidates
·         Litigations
·         Personal Failures

Major Roadblocks

·         Corpocracy Power
·         Divided/Conquered Public

 Personal Failures in Mobilizing*
·         Reignbow Coalition
·         U.S. Democracy Corps
·         Peace Coalition
·         Twittersod Campaign
·         Numerous Petitions
·         Numerous Luminaries

Reignbow Coalition

“Reignbow” is a homophone for the Rainbow Coalition, a generic term for any coalition of groups or parties opposed to any current regime anywhere. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, leader of the Rainbow Coalition in the U.S., garnered over 3 million and 6 million votes respectively in his 1984 and 1988 presidential bids. While his coalition is mostly of historical significance today, I give him credit for what he did. He, like Ralph Nader, was simply up against the corpocracy.    

“Reignbow” is meant to connote a peoples’ movement intent on wresting reign from the corpocracy and returning it to the American people. Several years ago I attempted to mobilize 20 some segments of the  public into the Reignbow Coalition. It never got off the ground.

U.S. Democracy Corps

America has a Peace Corps but no peace. Several years ago I created the U.S. Democracy Corps and recruited hundreds of American citizens who have in their own ways been promoting peaceful and lawful means of reclaiming social and economic justice in America and establishing peaceful relations with other nations (see October 4, 2014 post). The Corps also included a group of honorary members who are distinguished Americans. The Corps still exists on paper but has never been activated.

Peace Coalition

More than a hundred antiwar and peace NGOs were invited to join together as a coalition to provide political pressure behind each proposed initiative to end America’s endless warring and spying. Only a handful of NGOs were interested. War sustains even NGOs proclaiming to oppose it.

Twittrsod Campaign

The “sod” in twittersod stands for save our democracy. There are millions of Americans who tweet but only a few hundred joined.

Numerous Petitions

Numerous petitions to be sent to political leaders were circulated on the Internet but there were not enough signers.

Numerous Luminaries

Besides the many luminaries who agreed to be named “Honorary Affiliates” of the U.S. Democracy Corps, many other luminaries (including a famous third party presidential candidate) were contacted over the years. Nothing materialized from these efforts.

Personal Failures in Organizing*

·         U.S. Chamber of Democracy

U.S. Chamber of Democracy

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce (USCC) is one of the most powerful and wealthy lobbyists for Corporate America. The core mission of the USCC is “to fight for business and free enterprise before Congress, the White House, regulatory agencies, the courts, the court of public opinion, and governments around the world.”

In the fourth chapter of my book, The Devil’s Marriage: Break Up the Corpocracy or Leave Democracy in the Lurch, I proposed a counterforce organization and named it the U.S. Chamber of Democracy. My intent was for it to be an “organization without bricks and mortar,” that is, a virtual Inter Network of existing organizations with the overall purpose of developing and carrying out a comprehensive strategic  plan in unison with a second source of “double-fisted” democracy power to be developed, a new and very large coalition of the corpocracy’s adversaries that I called the “People’s Reignbow Coalition” (see above) that would be a melding of many different segments of the populace and would provide the political muscle/pressure behind each and every strategy.

I asked over 100 NGOs to join, numerous wealthy foundations for funding, including one purportedly devoted to antiwar causes, and scores of local Chambers of Commerce that had left the USCC.  Very few organizations were interested. They would not exist if the corpocracy did not exist.

Post Mortem

So far corpocracy power reigns. Large corporations and the big banks dominate America’s business affairs, and America’s endless warring and spying has yet to end.

Next Blog in the Making

Real America’s Future if Alter America Fails

*My own failed, naive attempts to move Real America toward Alter America

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

If Alter America is to be Realized
First, Mobilize
(See Blog Posted 1/15/16)
Second, Organize, Strategize, Actualize

1. Organize

Organized/United Corpocracy Power

·         Corporations: Top-Down Organizations
·         US Government: Top-Down Bureaucracies
·         US Military: Top-Down Chain of Command
·         US Intelligence Agencies: Top-Down Bureaucracies
·         NGOs Compromised by the Corpocracy

Disorganized/Divided Democracy Power

Hodgepodge of Movements
Hodgepodge of Single Issue Activist Groups
Millions of Dissatisfied Individuals

2. Strategize

Corpocracy Power

·         Corporations: Corporate Strategies
·         US Government: Corporate Influenced Strategies
·         US Military: Military Strategies
·         US Intelligence: Spy Strategies
·         NGOs: Corpocracy Influenced Strategies

Democracy Power

A Few Poposals/Ideas Here and There

3. Actualize

Corpocracy Power

Ongoing and Ruinously

Democracy Power

Scattered and Ineffective

Next Blog in the Making
Recent Failures to Actualize Democracy Power


Friday, January 15, 2016

IF Alter America is to be Realized
First
Mobilize

Don’t doubt the power of one
But mobilize the power of many

“Our” government is always mobilizing for war
We the people need to start mobilizing for peace
Before it’s too late

In times of war and other military interventions “our” government mobilizes the troops to get them ready for action.  

If Alter America is to be realized someday the first step is for  Americans discontent with Real America to mobilize into action to prevent America’s corpocracy, including its military/industrial/political triumvirate, from continuing to make our nation a “ruination” headed for nuclear or environmental doomsday.

Mobilize the Discontented & Groups of Activists
A Potential Boiling Pot of Democracy Power

Most Americans believe government and corporations are too powerful. Most Americans think the rich are too rich and should be taxed more. Most Americans are sick and tired of US wars and other military interventions and think America should mind her own business, not that of other nations.

They Vastly Outnumber Americans with Corpocracy Power

·         The 1% filthy rich
·         The people in large corporations
·         The people on Wall Street
·         The people in the war and gun industries
·         The military and spy people
·         The politicians
·         The ideologues preaching imperialism
·         The people in the mainstream media

The Millions of Americans in the Boiling Pot with Potential Democracy Power
Anyone, Any Group Discontent with Real America

·      Aggrieved victims of injustice (e.g., Black Lives Matter)
·      Angry voters
·      Antiwar and peace groups
·      Authors and investigative journalists
·      Bloggers
·      Business and public servant exemplars
·      Consumer groups
·      Climate and environmental groups
·      Creative arts (the antithesis of warring and spying)
·      Enlightened super wealthy
·      Environmental groups
·      Front line volunteers (e.g. soup kitchens)
·      Grass roots movements
·      Individual social activists
·      Millennials
·      Occupy movement and its many groups
·      Organized religion (the positive elements of it)
·      Party twin alternatives (i.e. not Republicans or Democrats)
·      Feminist groups
·      Responsible corporate owners
·      Senior citizens with liberal or progressive orientation
·      Small businesses and their associations
·      Small farmers and their associations
·      Social entrepreneurs
·      Twitter People
·      Unions

This list shows that millions of discontented Americans are already mobilized. Now they need to be persuaded to join an umbrella organization that unites them into one grand coalition that can apply political pressure to get strategic reforms made on the path to the ultimate goal, Alter America.

Next Post in the Making

Organizing and Strategizing for Alter America

Monday, January 11, 2016

A Model of Alter America

Alter America does not exist, but a model of it does and it differs markedly from Real America:

·                     A democracy, not a corpocracy
·                     Peacemaking, not war making
·                     Domestically tranquil, not domestically violent
·                     Economic justice, not injustice
·                     Social justice, not injustice
·                     Environmentally responsible, not irresponsible
·                     Full employment, not outsourced jobs
·                     Adequate standard of living, not impoverishment
·                     Adequate health care coverage for all, not excluding anyone
·                     Fair, not rigged elections favoring the twin parties
·                     Viable political alternatives to the twin parties
·                     Public service politicians, not pawns of powerful, harmful interests
·                     The public’s public services for true service, not privatized services for profit
·                     Socially responsible, not irresponsible capitalism
·                     Creating localized economies, not globalized exploitation

Next Post in the Making

The Steps to Alter America

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

STARTING JANUARY 5, 2016
THIS BLOGSITE DEDICATED TO ALTER AMERICA*

Alter America Is Not Real America

Real America today has always been the Real America since her founding. The only changes have been in the diversity and growing prevalence of the problems facing the majority of Americans. At no time in her history has there ever been an Alter America.

The simplest and quickest way to picture Real America is to scan a list of current facts and figures called the “sadtistics” about the conditions of life most Americans endure.

Real America's Sadtistics

Corporate America dictates to government America
Corporate gouging of consumers
Corporate immunity from accountability for wrongdoing
Corporate indifference to unhealthy/unsafe products and services
Corporate outsourcing of jobs
Corporate welfare and tax evasion
Endless wars and other military interventions leading to countless deaths, indescribable destruction, and widespread human misery
Excessive deterioration of public infrastructures
Expelled from the U.N. Human Rights Commission
U.S. Supreme Court’s fraudulent ruling on the 2nd Amendment
Almost as many guns possessed as there are Americans
Frequent domestic gun violence and fatalities
Government’s disregard for international accords/treaties
Government’s failure to promote the common welfare
Government’s inhibition and punishment of dissent and whistle blowers
Government lawlessness and unaccountability
Government’s surveillance of all citizens
Government’s use of torture
Huge income inequality
Nearly 3 million unemployed
Nearly 50 million people living in poverty
Half of public school students live in poverty
Over ½ million homeless
Nearly 15 million needy, hungry children
Large prison population
Lost domestic opportunities from a $1trillion national security budget
Low life expectancy
Militarized, brutalizing and homicidal police
Millions of financial hardships from medical bills
Millions of foreclosed homes
Millions of American livelihoods dependent on warring and spying
Polluted rivers/reservoirs/drinkingwater
Privatization of public services
Racial hatred and violence
Six deaths a day from lack of health insurance
Surprising but not unexpected blowbacks frm foreign enemies US creates with its military/CIA/imperialistic actions.
18000 crumbling bridges

CAN REAL AMERICA GET ANY “SADDER?”

Next Post in the Making
What is Alter America?

*Major resources for this blog site are (1) The Devil’s Marriage: Break Up the Corpocracy or Leave Democracy in the Lurch [see http://tinyurl.com/nsrjubn ], (2) America’s Oldest Professions: Warring and Spying [see http://tinyurl.com/n9ew856 ], and (3) Corporate Reckoning Ahead [see http://tinyurl.com/npkqzpo ].