How often have you heard it said, “follow the money.” You don’t need a Sherpa, GPS or hound. It does help to be awake and pay attention.
Ours is a culture of many contradictions. We are a “peace loving” nation created by slaves and the annihilation of the natives and simultaneously the appropriation of the continent by Euro Anglos. That fledgling nation was connected and developed largely by the harnessed labor of foreign born laborers afforded few, if any, of the rights they enabled the few to enjoy.
We are also a “peace loving” nation that engages in violent war at least once a generation---capitalism being the only necessary, if unspoken, justification.
We also take a great deal of pride in our presidents. Many, if not most, of whom have been charlatans whose only claim to fame has been a willingness to be obedient lapdogs of the rich and powerful. Their prime directive once in office being to safeguard the status quo for the oligarchs at the expense of the nation and its citizens.
This is what Euro Anglos call the Golden Rule, “Who owns the gold, makes the rules.”
Many examples come to mind. The big tobacco companies are responsible for the deaths of almost half a million Americans and 5 million people world wide every year. Now we add to that 600,000 from second-hand smoke.
On any given day we see or hear attorney ads trolling for people to join class action lawsuits against pharmaceuticals whose wonder drugs of yesterday are today’s defendants.
Capitalist oligarchs (big tobacco, pharma, banks, wall street) have the money with which to convince our elected representatives to do their bidding. The alternative is to find themselves drawing well funded, oligarch enabled opposition at their next election---not to mention swift boat style ads funded by more special interests.
So it is that the opposition to marijuana is little more than big tobacco fighting off anything that might cut into their profit margin and stranglehold on our republic. Our “law enforcement” is in essence the enforcement for the oligarchs’ way of life. Think of it as Tony Soprano’s henchmen shaking down anyone daring enough to muscle in on their turf. That is simply the way it is. Oh and by the way, we the people are the indemnifiers, the insurance company for big tobacco.
It is reflected in headlines that read:
Authorities find Mexico-to-San Diego drug tunnel
It is the second major drug tunnel discovery in the area in less than a month. Earlier this month, American authorities confiscated 20 tons of pot they say was smuggled through another tunnel, while Mexican authorities seized more than 4 tons of the drug south of the border.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7311777.html
Few pay attention to the headlines that oppose big tobacco, the liquor industry and other established oligarchic forces. Here’s are a couple.
More Than 600,000 People Killed By 2nd-Hand Smoke (but marijuana is illegal?)
"This helps us understand the real toll of tobacco," said Armando Peruga, a program manager at the World Health Organization's Tobacco-Free Initiative, who led the study. He said the approximately 603,000 deaths from secondhand smoking should be added to the 5.1 million deaths that smoking itself causes every year.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131596632
Experts said the study should prompt countries to reconsider how they classify drugs. For example, last year in Britain, the government increased its penalties for the possession of marijuana. One of its senior advisers, David Nutt - the lead author on the Lancet study - was fired after he criticized the British decision.
"What governments decide is illegal is not always based on science," said van den Brink. He said considerations about revenue and taxation, like those garnered from the alcohol and tobacco industries, may influence decisions about which substances to regulate or outlaw.
"Drugs that are legal cause at least as much damage, if not more, than drugs that are illicit," he said.
Meanwhile there are average Americans who pay the price.
In a small East Texas town, one man fights for his right to medical marijuana-and suffers the consequences.
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/a-threat-to-society
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/25/AR2010112503638.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
So many charts, so little blog. Which chart should I show you from yesterday's release of the latest global comparison of health care prices? How about the cost of hip replacements?
The "average" US cost is $34,454. That's twice what it costs in Germany, three times what it costs in France, and six times what it costs in Switzerland. WTF?
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/11/paying-arm-and-leg
And make no mistake it is largely the healthcare insurance industry's lust for profits that keeps the costs related to healthcare spiraling upward.
Presently Americans suffer healthcare costs that run between $2.2 and 2.4 trillion dollars a year. At the same time 59 million Americans go without healthcare. Only the state of New Mexico has less healthcare for its citizens than Texas Red.
Much of that cost is created by capitalists including; big pharmaceuticals, tobacco, soft drink industry, fast food business, and don't forget both the military-industrial complex and the prison-industrial complex.
Much of that cost is created by capitalists including; big pharmaceuticals, tobacco, soft drink industry, fast food business, and don't forget both the military-industrial complex and the prison-industrial complex.
These are the same oligarchic forces that have had our republic in a stranglehold since at least the mid-19th Century.
From Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way…
Hasta Siempre,
More:
George Carlin describing facts about this plutocracy/Oligarchy
Profits before patients (Healthcare insurance reform)
A People's History of the United States – Howard Zinn
http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States-P-S/dp/0061965588/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1290505605&sr=1-1
Profiles in Courage
13 Bankers
Winner take all Politics
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field- keywords=winner+take+all+politics
Slavery by Another Name
Illusions of Justice
The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990
“However, James W. Marquart, Sheldon Ekland-Olson, and Jonathan R. Sorensen offer a more complex thesis. In their book, The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990,[5] they argue that Texas' execution rate reflects the Southern "cultural tradition of exclusion," and that "[s]uch exclusion was a basic element of the legacy of slavery."
The Powers That Be
http://www.amazon.com/Powers-That-Be-David-Halberstam/dp/0252069412/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1290817555&sr=1-1
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