Til Schweiger…

When I was first locked up, the federal prison population had some 56,000 souls. Be the end of that enforced sabbatical the number had quadrupled to over 200,000.

If one counts the entire gulag in the US homeland, the mass is currently over 2.4 million; a total of 7.5+ million under control of the criminal justice system.

When people examine the lifetime incarceration rate in America, they find that it’s 6% for white males and a staggering 32% for blacks, and still growing.

Another significant aspect of this sociological reality is that the American Gulag is a vast international melting pot. The BOP contains a non-US citizen population at 27%.

The US federal prison system is one of the most effective means that America uses—other than the military, middle-class tourism and business contractors–in teaching the rest of the world who and what we are. Is that what we really want to do?

And I’m not referring to the classic image of lumpen low-lifes. Most of the international “criminals” I met in federal prison were relatively respected members of their communities: Ship’s captains, airline pilots, political figures, military officers, businessmen (w/out official US portfolio), doctors, lawyers, students and others.

I was impressed with a list so significant and extensive that I foresee a growing international caste of figures that have been well-schooled in the real America. I suspect that the corporate empire will come to regret that factor.

F*** all their “ideal” propaganda bullshit. Personally, I doubt there’s a nation left on Earth that doesn’t have an exclusive club of American gulag graduates. Who do you think is going to rule those societies tomorrow, or at least be significant players?

Among many things I learned included the fact that the BOP brags to communities (where they wish to build new prisons) that its incarcerated population is comprised of only 3% violent offenders. Of course, that means that 97% of the prison populations are NOT violent offenders.

The reality is that the vast majority of inmates are consensual, moral and public order offenders, mostly violators of various drug prohibitions.  Another time, another place, they would not even be considered “criminals” at all.

Naturally, when TV and Hollywood depicts prisoners, it suits their dramatic incentive to portray that group as violent predators (and that’s about all the public ever sees thru the corporate media…”if it bleeds, it leads“).

Unfortunately, even many former prisoners popularize that notion for their own “anti-heroic” self-serving purposes. “Look how f***ing bad I am!”

So long as the public has this view, prisoners will remain both as criminals and social victims, and the conservative corporatist elite will be able to use that criminalization as their central means to control the mass population by warehousing and employing surplus labor at low-wage slavery. This also serves to undermine municipal and union employment.

For the corporatist ruling class, it’s simply all about business and profit (“Hey, nothin’ personal!”).  Of course the irony is that most of their wealth and the system that provides it is itself a criminal enterprise.

As of 2012 there were 1,226 $billionaires in the world with a total wealth of $4.6 trillion. It’s estimated that another $32 trillion sits in offshore banks creating and circulating nothing. This further undermines production.

No more than 5% of the world monetary system is employed in the creation of goods and services. The rest is basically debt that drives disparity. Over 1.4 billion people as a result live in extreme poverty on less than $1.25/day.

It takes a massive police, military and gulag system to maintain enforcement of this criminal distribution of the world’s wealth. I estimate that 97% of the systemic conflict in the world directly serves corporatist interests at creating and sustaining this reality.

Bringing it down to a more intimate level… Among the variety of cellmates I was honored to know (and a few who definitely should remain incapacitated from the public), included a German native whom I’ll call Hans. I knew a good number of bank robbers, but none as unique as Hans.

As an officer at an American branch of Deutsche Bank, Hans had been in a position to rip off more than $200 million from several major US banks. His failure to “cooperate” (snitch-out others and pay restitution) led to an unprecedented sentence of some 14 years in prison at the time.

(The banks were especially pissed that Hans wouldn’t simply cut a deal. I decline to use his real name because, I’m convinced, he still has most of the toys…and money.  Hell, maybe one of these days, I might even take him up on that Caribbean vacation…)

Several of us were sunning at a table in the prison rec field one holiday weekend, including Old Joe, an ancient bank robber with some 30+ known robberies to his credit (privately, many more). As with other famoso figures, talk soon turned to various escapades.

A couple of guys were ribbing Old Joe for getting, at best, a few $thousand on any of his bank heists. (He looks like an ancient Willie Nelson and stands maybe 5’. He might as well notify the FBI when he’s in town to save everyone the trouble of picking him up.)

Joe intimated that his money came from the banks, not retirees and pensioners. Hans, who bears a striking resemblance to the German actor/director Til Schweiger, assured him that the $200 million he looted from Citicorp et al. definitely came from the banks, not persons, and he didn’t have to stick a gun in any poor teller’s face.

In fact, Hans added, that if those banks were honest trustees of public moneys, he would never have been able to loot them in the first place. Like street swindlers and carny cons, there is always the presence of larceny in the heart of the victims to make the scam work…they just didn’t expect it to work against them.

Great cons work in part because the victims believe they’re profiting from some theft. I came to define Hans as a class-conscious corporate hustler.

The American banks believed that they were going to profit significantly from the scam Hans was running. Instead, they got scammed. Of course, ultimately it ALL comes from labor…the actual producers of all wealth.

At one point, Hans showed me a letter he had received from his home bank in Germany advising him that, although negotiations for a routine treaty-transfer to German jurisdiction had broken down (on the American end), he was assured that his position at Deutsche Bank was still available upon release.  No doubt…

After all, it’s only business, eh?

Dr. Publico

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

Given the overt success of class war by the corporatist elite, only the willfully ignorant and conservative cadre ignore and/or gleefully support the looting of the economy, the impoverishment and de-democratization of the masses, and the destruction of public gov’t.

If you’re the studious type, you can read an inside analysis by a former player and predictor of the current condition (Chase, Wall St., gov’t+) in Michael Hudson’s The Fictitious Economy (replacing former industrial capitalism with debt-financed, asset-price inflation) or watch a video on the subject. Professor Hudson’s explanation is surprisingly understandable.

If you want a master’s level foundation in clear economics in about an hour and 21 minutes, watch David Graeber’s video, Debt: The first 5,000 yrs…or better yet, read the book.

Of course, what’s new about class war is that their order-of-battle is more advanced than ever before in history. They’ve pretty much won the economic war…accumulating over 90% of the world’s wealth and the forces to keep it.

As for the political side of that war, the destruction of organized labor, the impoverishment of gov’t and the private profiteering of public services is serving the elimination of what remains of capital democracy itself.  I see no pause in their quest short of corporatist fascism.

Today, these forces directly control the governorships and/or legislatures of 30 US states, the US House of Representatives and the US Supreme Court.

They take no prisoners and they never compromise. They have no intention of surrendering one inch on the political field of battle to what they perceive as “mob rule” (democracy).

In fact, they’re well on their way to assuming direct dictatorial control of the remaining bastions of such “mob rule,” the urban cities.

One of the foremost journalists in America today is Christopher Lynn Hedges (56).  Hedges is the son of a Presbyterian minister and graduated from Harvard with a Master of Divinity…not your usual radical background.

As synchronicity would have it, Hedges chose to build a career in journalism. He worked as a foreign correspondent for some 20 years in 50 nations throughout Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He reported for a variety of mass media, including 15 years on the New York Times.

Coming by his critical analyses thru direct experience, Hedges understands war and conflict intimately. Unlike many main-street journalists, he’s not shy about revealing that knowledge publicly, nor, like many of his professional brethren, does he engage in conservative cowardice or self-serving career-seeking by towing the corporate-media line.

It was inevitable that the NY Times would censure him for his political and antiwar views, especially those related to Israel/Palestine. Today Chris is a celebrated author of 10 books, a senior fellow at The Nation Institute, and a prolific writer for TruthDig.com.

Hedges’ most recent article is entitled, “We, the Vast Underclass, Must Rise Up Against Global Mafia—or Die.”  No shrinking violet; Hedges doesn’t mince his words.

This also speaks to my own analysis. International corporatism (monopolistic capitalism) is not simply a conservative ideology; it’s a thoroughly evil, criminal enterprise. Given my academic discipline [PsyD], I would add: A sociopathic pathology.

Hedges’ latest book written with Joe Sacco is Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. It speaks to the reality of the class war in that “formal liberal and governmental institutions that once made reform possible are no longer equipped with enough authority to check the assault of corporate power.”

Thru ALEC and lobbying combines, “corporations write our legislation.” They own and operate over 90% of the information systems and media. They’ve now privatized most of the educational system, which perpetuates their rule, profit and propaganda.

Click on image to enlarge…

The police and judiciary are corporate subsidiaries. The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are people for the purpose of political power (558 US 310 [2010]), the freedom for corporations to purchase all electoral systems and candidates, and that there is no duty for the police to serve or protect the public (545 US 794 [2005]).

Conservative flunkies are (s)elected to office to act as corporate cadre for the destruction of democracy, and neo-liberals in gov’t carry out the impoverishment of the public treasury to further enrich banks and financial institutions.

All labor unions and independent mass organizations have been decimated. All protest, whistle-blowing news sources, resistance and the regulation of gov’t or corporations has been criminalized. “The greater the destruction, the greater the apparatus crushes dissent.”

Hedges continues, “A handful of corporate oligarchs around the globe have everything—wealth, power and privilege—and the rest of us struggle as part of a vast underclass, increasingly impoverished and ruthlessly repressed. There is one set of laws and regulations for us; there is another set for a power elite that functions as a global mafia.”

Hedges recognizes that cynicism is only self-serving nihilism that excuses the believer from resisting. “Even if you fail, even if we all fail, we will have asserted against the corporate forces of exploitation and death our ultimate dignity as human beings.

“We will have defended what is sacred. Rebellion means steadfast defiance. It means refusing to succumb to fear. It means refusing to surrender, even if you find yourself caged like an animal. It means saying no.

“To remain safe, to remain ‘innocent’ in the eyes of the law in this moment in history is to be complicit in a monstrous evil.

“It is time to build radical mass movements that defy all formal centers of power and make concessions to none. It is time to employ the harsh language of open rebellion and class warfare. It is time to march to the beat of our own drum.

“The law historically has been a very imperfect tool for justice, but now it is exclusively the handmaiden of our corporate oppressors; now it is a mechanism of injustice.

“It is our corporate overlords who launched this war. Not us. Revolt will see us branded as criminals. Revolt will push us into the shadows. And yet, if we do not revolt we can no longer use the word ‘hope.’”

Ahh…what more can one say?

Dr. Publico

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

I mean, think about it! Corporatist klanners (the Tea Party) are shocked that their “non-profit” fronts have been targeted for investigation by the IRS for illicit political activity?

Their corporate-owned and operated “news” media lead the mob in witch-hunting this dastardly deed. Meanwhile, neo-liberals stifle their mirth behind a façade of investigating “the usual suspects.”

Now com’n, let’s get real… I got a sense of humor at least as good as the next gullible fool, but what’s with this spring silliness? No Monica Lewinsky available?

Staying on point, one of my investigative comrades has discovered a rabbit hole into the Vatican Archives (at least as relevant as the flim-flam news these days that passes for second-term diversions from real politics: Corporate class war).

(Disclosure: I was a Criminal Defense Investigator [CDI] in Detroit for 17-yrs. As such, I lay claim to knowing at least as much as those manipulating the “news.”)

Of course, if one reads ALL of the available archives extant throughout the world’s Christian sects, such as the Copts of Egypt, some 12-to-16 million, they would find a variety of information not available in any one source…and certainly not the King James version of the “Bible.”

Anything that conflicted with the official Christian convention called for by the Roman Emperor Constantine, 325 years after Jesus, became heretical; unendorsed writings and subjects were stamped out…literally. Of course, some survived.

I can see why the Emperor Constantine wanted to “reform” the Church . There were many writings in conflict with the official state version. The real story is somewhat less…shall we say, dramatic.

One very real problem that Ol’ Conny had was that most of his troops holding together the empire (like today) were volunteer mercs who had to be paid. There just wasn’t enough rip, rape and plunder to go around.

So, with his state-religion partners, they devised this hustle of awarding chits for a certain percentage of service “to Jesus” (in lieu of coin). These were redeemable in heaven after death. Neat scam, eh?

An earlier Canaanite version…

Mary (her name in Hebrew is Miryam) was raised by the Temple. Unwanted or unaffordable infants were abandoned at the Temple doorstep (usually with a donation included). They raised her.

Story tells that she a precocious child, well-developed and cute as all get-out.  Per usual practice, the Temple auctioned these kids off around puberty to member families for eventual marriage.

Yosef, an aged widowed contractor about 70, was both a devout member and relatively rich. Think of an early Donald Trump, only Joe actually worked…not simply manipulated people, finances and pimped out his kids.

Given Old Joe’s situation, he had no interest in a young bride. While required to attend the “auction,” he made no bids.

The priests chose an interesting gambit to get Joe and his $$ involved. They ruled to “let the Lord decide.” As all the eligible bachelors (including those widowed) were gathered in the Temple court awaiting the early Judaic version of “America’s Got Talent,” the priests handed out sheppard’s staffs to them and released a group of doves over the crowd.

The deal was, if a dove landed on a member’s staff he was then obliged to take home the prize (Mary) and not-so-incidentally pay the Temple 10% of his wealth. The early writers neglect to explain how the game was rigged.

When Old Joe took Mary home she was reported to be 12-yrs-old. While she was technically “betrothed,” he installed her in his household as a maid-trainee.

Soon, Joe and his boys went off to Lebanon on a contract to help build a winter retreat for some rich Roman dude…whatever. The only son he left behind was James, then about 15.

Now here the story gets a bit dicey. Certain early writers alleged that one of the younger maids, being jealous of Mary, went off and snitched her out to the Temple. It seems that Mary had got preggers and it was starting to show.

This being an offense (to both lovers) punishable by stoning to death, she was arrested. However, she stuck by her story that it was an immaculate conception (ain’t they all?) and that no earthly male was involved. Maybe Joe had a good lawyer.

And the future?

Old Joe of course had rushed home (an easy boat ride down the coast) to deal with the problem. At first he was inclined to let the chips fall where they may, but he soon realized that James was the potential target of the investigation.

Joe had a dream “confirming” Mary’s version and, coughing up another 10% of his wealth (this girl was getting expensive) the Temple priests decided to “let the Lord sort it out.” The investigation was dropped. You see? American criminal justice isn’t all that unique.

Now maybe the official Church, a few hundred years later when they decided these things, kind of left that part out because—let’s face it–the story is just a wee bit too common and lends itself to secular interpretations.

And the point?  Maybe if you get people used to supernatural fantasies and believing routinely in miracles, etc., then they’ll accept the evil and chaos around them.

Maybe the corporate-klan Tea Party is the new Jerusalem? Maybe climate change is the result of divine providence? Maybe the accumulation of 99% of the wealth in the world by less than 1% of the population is “god given,” or worse, the natural order of things?

Maybe education, medical care, clothing, housing, food, clean air and water, democratic principles and social consciousness for others is all a mirage and actually the proper result of profit, privilege and power by money changers who rule the temples of life?

I mean…I don’t know everything….

Dr. Publico

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia…

The trial itself was a 2-wk affair before a jury in Detroit federal court, Aug-Sept of 1990 before Judge Bernard A. Friedman.

A former Wayne County prosecutor, he was appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan in 1988. I was his first major trial.

Friedman was never shy about his ultra-conservative politics and his Revisionist-Zionist fund-raising and advocacy of the settler-colonial state of Israel (I was identified as pro-Palestinian). His open adversarial rulings came as a self-described “American patriot.” Today he is a Senior Judge on the US District Court in Detroit.

The trial is a matter of public record (Case #89-CR-80041-02-DT). Absent any evidence, I was charged with a drug conspiracy, which uniquely under American “justice” does not require a predicate crime.

The conviction was based on the fraudulent testimony of Arthur Abrams and others who opted to “cooperate” in various prosecutions in lieu of terms up to life in prison. Abrams was allowed to continue his cocaine dealing with impunity.

Every so often he would give up a dope client, usually competitors, and/or testify against targets such as myself, in which he was fed his script by the police and prosecutor. This special use of snitches is a fairly routine practice in the American criminal justice system today.

In a later sworn affidavit to a number of attorneys and media sites–including 60 Minutes–Abrams admitted his and the gov’ts perjurious role, but recanted when again threatened with prison.

Make Love–Not War…

Growing out of the cultural revolution of the 1960s was the social use of certain drugs by youth, especially the counter-culture, Vietnam military and college students.

Those drugs that survived the initial years of this recreational experimentation included marijuana, peyote, LSD and cocaine.

Some turned to dealing these products among their own milieu (either that, or turn to established criminal communities).

Nevertheless, given the ever-growing drug prohibitions, criminalization followed. Ronald Reagan upped the ante with a major escalation in Nixon’s war on drugs, including draconian sentencing and mass incarceration.

Circa 1983, Colonel Oliver North, the CIA and their contractors (supplying illicit arms to the Contra War) financed their ops with the mass distribution of cocaine in the black urban areas of Southern California (one financial aspect of the Iran-Contra conspiracy).  By converting powder coke to “crack,” they discovered a major marketing development.

Volume-based smokable coke ($5, $10 and $20 rocks) is both affordable and more psychologically addictive.  White-cultured, weight-based powder coke is usually snorted, less addictive and more expensive.

The devastating effect on black and poor communities across the nation was soon clear. By 1984, anyone having a socio-political-consciousness had abandoned dealing in cocaine at all. No more rationalizing excuses….

The attraction for law enforcement and the gov’t was obvious: Forfeiture and seizure of cash, property and effort-free investigation work (they let the snitches do all the work…and still do).

From 1973-thru-1989 I was primarily a Criminal Defense Investigator (CDI) for Attorney Sheldon Halpern and other Detroit-area law firms. I worked mostly homicide, rape and drug cases.

In 1988 I was working a state case where my good friend, Larry Genoa, was charged with again dealing cocaine.  If he was, I would have known. In fact, it was an entrapment attempt by SEMCO (one of the many quasi-vigilante groups financed between local police and federal drug laws and money).  Halpern argued brilliantly and the judge eventually dismissed the case.

Another relevant case at the time was the retrial of Norman Richardson after 11-yrs in state prison on a murder-for-hire conviction.  My investigation of the original police/prosecution led to his retrial and an acquittal by the second jury. I could have saved myself a lot of grief…

Richardson soon went to work for his sister’s Detroit crack organization and attempted to pressure me to give him the names of my “dope clients,” whom he claimed he would “rob, kill and share the proceeds” with me.

Norman’s insistence grew into threats and convinced he was a serious psychopath I reported the situation to Detroit’s Homicide Bureau.  There was nothing they could/would do short of an overt act by Richardson.

One evening matters came to a head. Norman came to my apartment and threatened me “for the final time,” he said.  I answered “for the final time, NO!” Again, the case is a matter of public record; Richardson brought a knife to a gun fight and I successfully defended myself.

The state prosecutor ruled self-defense, but I soon got a visit from two homicide detectives informing me, “Nick, you better watch your back. We’ve learned that Richardson was a Confidential Informant (CI) working for the FBI. They were using him to entrap you in a crime.”

I can only presume that one or more of my numerous political peccadillos had sparked their interest. It later turned out that the leader of the joint local-federal SEMCO unit was a former lieutenant in the Michigan State Police Intelligence Division (Red Squad) that I was party to having abolished in a suit in state court in Lansing.  Small world.

Other potential factors included an undercover role I was assigned to by a federal judge to investigate the US Attorney’s office and the FBI in a particular drug/kidnap case. The judge had me paid thru the US Marshal’s Service. This probably did not endear me to those personnel who received censorious letters in their files from the court.

On December 21^st, 1988, Pan Am 103 was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 souls. The final destination of that flight was Detroit, MI. I assumed that Detroit-area law firms would be handling some of the future litigation and I intended to be their chief investigator.

Given my own investigative and flight experience (Private Pilot, SEL, SES) and personal knowledge of the PFLP-GC and its leadership (then being the chief suspects), I made a number of contacts in the Middle East, including the former Bureau Chief for NBC Abdallah Schleifer and others, to connect with the PFLP-GC for an interview.

All of these elements came together at 7am, February 11th, 1989, seven weeks after Pan Am 103. My daughter and grand-daughter were taking me to Detroit’s Metro Airport to catch a flight to Nicaragua (and Havana) for the purpose of arranging that interview.

A cohort of super-armed, Ninja-clad and masked SEMCO cops descended on us at the elevator bank. Terrorizing my family, I “consented” to let them into my apartment.

The search warrant, arriving two hours later, revealed that it was based upon the previous June’s secret federal Grand Jury indictment. True to the warning given me by detectives from the DPD Homicide Bureau, I had been added to the “Abram Conspiracy” within a month of Richardson’s demise.

Whatever the genesis and associated factors of that prosecution, the feds succeeded in eliminating me from the scene.  I was sentenced to 25-yrs in federal prison plus a 3-yr term of Supervised Release.

I served 16-yrs in High and Medium Security prisons, 4-yrs in Minimum Security prison camps, 2-yrs under home arrest on an Elderly Offender Congressional Program and 3-yrs of Supervised Release (at this writing I have 1-yr remaining).

Post Script:  Being essentially a he-said, she-said testi-fest without any viable evidence, my only defense before the jury (aside from denial) was a political one…why were they really prosecuting me? Among others, we subpoenaed the FBI, DEA and the CIA.

The FBI, admitting to some 16-yrs of files on me, testified that they never had any information that I was ever involved in dealing drugs. I made the assumption that they–at least the political division–”did not wish to be involved” in my prosecution (which would have also involved further “discovery” by my defense).

The DEA refused to disclose their files at all, which they claimed was based upon an “Executive Order by the president (Bush Sr.)”. When one of their agents revealed in court (outside of the jury) that they had already given the files to the US Attorney, the AUSA jumped up and said that there was nothing in the files that they didn’t already have and that they had “returned the files to the DEA.”

Nevertheless, this mandated that they disclose the files to the defense.  Upon my attorney’s argument, Judge Friedman abruptly closed the matter with a patriotic speech and quashed the subpoena.

The CIA claimed to the court to have no files on me at all. When my attorney supplied the court with CIA-FOIA files already obtained, the judge gave another patriotic speech, questioned the loyalty of the attorney himself, and quashed that subpoena as well.

Again, these matters were all outside of the jury’s presence and knowledge.

PPS: After my first year in prison, still appealing the case and the relevant files, the CIA informed me that pursuant to another Executive Order all of the files had been destroyed.

That about sums up the case…and justice…

Dr. Publico (Nick Medvecky, PsyD)

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

Texas was a conservative opportunity in the diversion of blame regarding their continuing destruction of “big gov’t,” to wit: all corporatist responsibility in addition to any regulations regarding public safety and service.

Perhaps the former is simply serendipity, but the latter? Direct causality. In both cases, adding ethnic and class alienation, we can expect a whole more…

*     *     *

In 1994, while serving a 25-yr prison sentence on a drug conviction (an archival conspiracy), I found myself with a new cellmate at FCI McKean, PA…the former Chairman (Chief) of the Navajo Nation, Peter MacDonald.

Peter MacDonald (85)…

From day one I used my time to pursue studies in historical knowledge and a Doctorate in Forensic Psychology (PsyD).

My attitude was to thoroughly study the American gulag from inside the beast, as it were, and to avail myself of all the knowledge and experience possible from those around me…prisoners, staff and contractors.

My cellmates included Mafia figures, a bankster ($200 million rip), an airline pilot, a Cuban gusano commandant, an IRA officer, an Air Force general, a Medellín Cartel pilot, a Grateful Dead-Head, a Nigerian gov’t official, a PA state rep, a US Congressman  and a variety of other interesting characters.

The U.S. federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a unique living laboratory. With more than 118 facilities, it now holds almost 220,000 prisoners. Some 27% are designated as “aliens,” mostly Hispanic, but quite representative of an international population. Imperial Rome was not built in a day….

If one adds the populations of state jails and prisons, juvenile, military, Native American, immigrant, possessions et cetera, we’re looking at a total of some 2.5 million world citizens.

If you add all those who are under criminal justice control (parole, probation, etc.) the number reaches over 7.5 million. Add former felons, well, you get the idea….

America is the largest “criminal” gulag empire in human history.  Ironically, only 3-to-8% of these populations are considered violent predators. The incapacitation of criminal predators in the general population is the least of its tasks.

One might reasonably argue that the capitalist enterprise fosters–if not requires–the warehousing of a large surplus labor force.

Peyote Art…

Just over 50% are drug prisoners, mostly for reefer. (During alcohol Prohibition, that percentage rose to 75%.) The percentage convicted of moral, consensual and public order “crimes” designated as victimless is 86% of the total prison population.

Contrary to the conservative algebra of the corporate media, if one were to release 1% of the predators, the impact on society would be significant; on the other hand, if over half the consensual prisoners were to be released one would hardly score a blip on the reported-crime graphs. Well, that’s my experiential opinion….

But for these “criminal” designations (overwhelmingly weighted toward racial, ethnic and class factors), the federal prison population is in fact a reasonable microcosm of the general US population. (Give ‘em time, they’ll get around to the rest of y’all…)

In all-too-many respects, the police, prosecution and court systems are themselves predatory, parasitic agencies imposing racial and class rule for the direct benefit of a corporatist/political elite.

Author w/Peter MacDonald
FCI McKean, PA ’95

Back to Peter MacDonald. Pete was born to the Navajo in 1928.  He was among young native children wrenched from their parents by Congressional decree and installed in Christian Missionary facilities to be whitewashed (forbidden their dress, language, religion, long hair, even their original names).

In 1944 Pete was laboring on the railroad. Being only 15, he falsified his birth status and joined the U.S. Marine Corp. After boot camp he trained as a Navajo Code Talker and was sent to the Pacific. When the US nuked Japan and ended the war, Pete was sent to China to help repatriate Japanese troops.

After military service, he completed high school and used his GI Bill to attend Oklahoma University, acquiring a degree in electrical engineering. Working for Hughes Aircraft, he became a Project Manager of the Polaris (Submarine) Missile Program. Pete eventually returned to the Navajo Reservation and served as the elected Chairman (Chief) of the Navajo Nation for a total of 20-yrs.

In 1989 in a tribal election dispute, two local sheriff officers were “kidnapped” and two of Pete’s followers were killed. While Pete was not present, he was convicted (like Leonard Peltier, another Indian leader) of conspiracy to riot along with fraud and racketeering and sentenced to 14-yrs. After serving most of his sentence the remainder was commuted by Clinton in 2001.

In our cell, Pete was one busy beaver. In addition to his full-time prison clerk’s job, he was constantly writing letters to correspondents, working on another book following up on his autobiography, working on a Navajo dictionary and other projects.

The Navajo are the largest Native American tribe in the United States. Their tribal lands of over 27,000 square miles occupy significant parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. Navajo land is comparable to the size of Ireland.

True to other historical aspects of Euro-American racism and nativism, the Navajo were treated as sub-humans by many colonial settlers. As with other tribes, the Navajo suffered a variety of massacres by colonists and the Army, one of them was the Long Walk in 1863. Even birthing mothers who “straggled” were shot.

Like other Native Americans they would no doubt have been dispossessed and mostly wiped-out had their lands been more fertile. Given their often cruel wardship by the US, the Navajo remain among the poorest of populations in America.

Navajo Code Talkers
Eventual Recognition…

Nevertheless, the Navajo saw their military service as a source of great pride. One might be able to imagine young men coming from such a victimized culture becoming Marines, given such critical jobs as Code Talkers and being respected for the first time in their lives by the ruling culture.

The Navajo Code Talkers participated in all 14 of the Pacific Island campaigns, from Guadalcanal to Okinawa during World War-II.  They were credited with saving many thousands of American lives.

After the war, they were considered so secret (to be used in future conflicts) that for 24 years (1969) they were prohibited from divulging what they had done, even to their families.

Pete is a curious blend of Navajo and Christianity (as are most colonized peoples).  He explained to me that the actual name of the Navajo were the Diné, the original people, and that they were the first people in the world and were bounded by the four sacred mountains.

One Planet…One Human Family…

To me–a secular humanist–his belief is perfectly in line with the other world religions.  They all believe that they alone were “chosen” by their respective god(s).

On the other hand, scientists have found that the genesis for modern humans was Africa some 200,000 years ago.

Eventually humans spread throughout the planet.  Asians traveled into the Western Hemisphere thru the Bering Bridge. DNA studies today confirm these hypotheses.

For me, other confirmation came from Sally McClain’s 1994 book on the Code Talkers, Navajo Weapon.  The Japanese themselves–a highly ethnic-conscious race–supplied an interesting form of confirmation.

During the War in the Pacific, the Japanese were very keen on cracking the Navajo code. One of their highest priorities was to capture one of these elusive “Navajo.”

What they never realized until December of 1944, was that they already had a Navajo that they had captured in 1942 in the Philippines at Corregidor. He was Joe Kieyoomia who had joined the Army in 1941 and had survived the Bataan Death March not long after Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese were convinced that Joe was hiding his true Asian ancestry (even his name to them was Japanese-sounding: “Key-oh-me”). All of his protestations that he was an American Indian only further pissed-off his interrogators.

They transferred him to Nagasaki, Japan and tortured him repeatedly, breaking a number of bones over time to get him to admit he was Japanese. At one point, they made him stand over night in the cold, freezing his feet to the ground.

When they finally figured it out and had him listen to some recordings of the battle-field code, Joe was amazed to hear his own language. While he could easily understand the words, they were in a code that made no sense to him. This led to even greater torture.

In August of 1945 the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Joe survived. (One of the war secrets is the number of POWs killed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.)

After the war, it took another four years of hospitalization for Joe to recover. He was grateful to the code-talkers…having a remote chance of breaking the code is the only reason the Japs even kept him alive.

Today Peter MacDonald is the president of the Navajo Code Talkers Association. I believe there are 39 (out of some 385) still living. They’re trying to raise funds for a Navajo Code Talker Memorial in New Mexico.

As stated…I cherished my time with Pete…  Even great empires create the conditions for their own eventual fall…

P.S.: A response I’ve since rec’d from Peter MacDonald: There were a total of over 400 Navajo Code Talkers in WW-II; 13 were KIA and more the a dozen WIA; and only 38 remain alive, Pete being the youngest at 85.

Dr. Publico  (Nick Medvecky, PsyD)

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

Puppets & Jackals…

In 1990, Secretary of State James Baker had basically had it up to here with the Israeli government. The Bush administration [George the Elder] had been trying to entice Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir into negotiations with the Palestinians, but he kept adding new conditions to get the US off his back.

To be acceptable to Shamir, any Palestinian [negotiator] had to have no connections with the PLO, none with any associates of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and could not be from Jerusalem. The Israelis would decide which Palestinians were acceptable as negotiating partners.

Baker was fuming but held his tongue until he went before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to discuss Middle East prospects. But then something happened and, for perhaps the last time ever, a top U.S. government official told the Israelis what he really thought.

First Baker said that he had intended to say that he was ready for a new start with the Shamir government but he changed his mind on the way to the hearing. ”I have to tell you, that before I came to this hearing this morning, I was given a copy of some wire reports, one of which quotes one of the ministers in the newly formed government,” he said.

Those “wire reports” cited top Israeli officials announcing new conditions for negotiations, according to Thomas Friedman of the NY Times.

“Earlier today, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir added an additional condition: that Palestinian negotiators must formally embrace Israel’s idea that negotiations would be about autonomy for the occupied territories and nothing more before talks could begin. The American position is that the talks should open with a discussion about autonomy, but then eventually move on to issues of final status.”

In other words, [Shamir’s position of] “autonomy” would have meant that Israel could keep all the land, but Palestinians would have the responsibility for municipal services like schools, sanitation and health. It was the perfect solution…for Israel.

Baker blew up. He told the committee, “If that is going to be the Israeli approach, there won’t be any dialogue and there won’t be any peace, and the United States of America can’t make it happen.  You can’t. I can’t. The President can’t.”

He then said that until the Israelis changed their attitude, the Bush administration was going to disengage from the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

He told the Israelis, “When you’re serious about peace, call us. The telephone number is 1-202-456-1414.” And that was that. The first Bush administration never reconciled with Shamir.

Shamir later admitted that he had no intention of ever accommodating the Palestinians in any way.  In an interview after leaving office, he said: I would have carried out autonomy talks for 10 years, and meanwhile we would have [settled] half a million people in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]. Baker’s approach was totally vindicated.

Yesterday, Shamir’s protégé Binyamin [Bibi] Netanyahu, openly adopted Shamir’s strategy. We need not wait for his retirement to realize that, like Shamir’s, it is designed to prevent negotiations not advance them.

Ha’aretz [Israel's afternoon newspaper] reported that the Netanyahu government has informed Secretary of State John Kerry that Israel is not interested in discussing land and borders.

A senior Israeli official, who asked to remain anonymous, expressed…“Kerry believes that he can bring about the solution, the treaty and the salvation,” he said. “He thinks that the conflict is primarily over territory…and that is wrong.”

Wrong? No, that is what the conflict has been about since the occupation began in 1967 and certainly since Israel and the PLO agreed that both sides have the right to peace and security. So we are back to Shamir and the bad old days before Itshak Rabin [who was assassinated for his “pro-Palestinian” negotiations by an ultra-Zionist, 04Nov’95].

The good news is that Netanyahu has made everything so clear. He has no interest in peace, negotiations, any kind of territorial withdrawal or even freezing settlements. Like Shamir, he just wants to buy time until it will be absolutely impossible to create a Palestinian state, if it isn’t already. Netanyahu is not interested in what the US wants.

Apartheid Settlement Construction…

The only question left is what the Obama administration will do in response. It could follow Baker’s example and take a walk. Even better, it could tell Netanyahu that future aid from the U.S. will be linked to its occasional compliance with U.S. wishes regarding the occupation.

Or it could say it won’t keep following Israel’s dictates on sanctions or Palestine’s right to recognition by the United Nations. Or it could, as Bush Senior and Baker did, squeeze the Israeli prime minister until the Israeli public dumps him.

It could do any of those. Will it? I’m taking bets.

But here is a sure one. There is no possibility of serious negotiation so long as Binyamin Netanyahu is prime minister of Israel.

None.

MJ Rosenberg, Tikkun Daily, April 11th, 2013.

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

Detroit: A Fixer-Upper…

From time to time, as capital-corporatism is confronted with its own Ponzi-like profiteering, these privateers either accept a compromise from their unbridled predatory practice or seek to place the full burden of their theft on the “lower” classes. Today, they’re going for the Full Monte…again.

Without information (public education and an independent media) class consciousness of corporatist predation is mixed.

Six corporations own and control over 90% of the media. Their overall strategy is eminently successful at convincing and confusing the role between gov’t and business, two entirely different enterprises with vastly different goals. There’s always been systemic tension between democratic and corporate rule.

The fact of such tyranny is nothing new to human relations; alpha-male/sociopathic rule has plagued humankind from the beginning of civilization; it comes with the territory.

What worked for our hominid forebears in primeval conditions is applied today to the privileged role of a ruling elite over the rest of humankind. As Pogo discovered: “We’ve met the enemy and he is us” (assuming of course that by “us” one includes an infected or cancerous appendage).

Click on image to enlarge…

An anthropologist would observe that while class rule has served a survival and socio-technological role in human socio-political development, such relations are increasingly becoming the problem, not the solution.

Heretofore, such systems met their destiny thru either self-destruction in competition with other systems (usually the more predatory one winning), or thru resistance and revolution by those being exploited. Competition having been all but foreclosed by corporate-state power, I’d guess only revolution or our mutual self-destruction remains.

In any event, if fascist-corporatism “wins,” it will destroy the planet thru its own systemic dynamics, there being little left to stop it. As the super-technology of science is being increasingly exploited around the world to privatize war for corporate profit and rule, all that tech comes home to control its own populations.

What’s left of the nation’s neo-liberal leadership still believes that appeasing these sociopaths is a viable strategy (assuming that they’re not simply junior partners). The corporatist strategy remains demand, demand, demand. They know that appeasers will ALWAYS capitulate “a little bit.”

Obama’s history shows that his end-strategy to power-conflict resolution has been to always side with corporate conservatives, assuming the continued support of his own liberal base (figuring: Where else can they go?).

As a thought experiment, one might wonder what he would do should his opposition demand that he be castrated (which, metaphorically, is the case).

After his initial shock, what would be his position? Negotiate for an inch? Hey, ‘Bam, here’s a pregnant idea: How ’bout just a quarter inch…off the back end? The Boehner might go for that…

I recall when Reagan & Company were making demands of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua back in ’89, the revolutionaries agreed. Caught off guard, Reagan then added more demands. The Sandinistas agreed again.

This went on for some time with the Sandinistas always agreeing (in order to end the murderous US Contra-War against their people). Finally, in frustration, when the media asked Reagan’s representative what would they accept, he replied, “They could all go shoot themselves!”

There is no way to appease sociopaths, nor their psychopathic goals. To them, every compromise is simply another step in their strategy. How many more millions must be sacrificed?

Welcome to Detroit, the current front-line in the Class War:

In March of 2013, Governor Rick Snyder (R-MI) appointed corporate lawyer Kevyn Orr as “Emergency Financial Manager” (EFM) to act as overseer for Detroit. Orr was given full dictatorial powers over the entire city, including the elected Mayor and City Council.

Proof (should one need it) that no longer do corporateers intend to allow their “disaster capitalism” to be ameliorated a la FDR or even satiated with neo-liberal “bailouts.” They want it all. Massa has come home to roost…

Their counter-revolutionary strategy includes shifting the weight of their Ponzi-like economic schemes to the masses by breaking labor contracts, slashing services, selling off public assets and, should they choose, disincorporatizing the city itself (as prelude to all gov’t).

In other words, they intend to impoverish the mass of population to the level of third-world wage-slavery and privatize every aspect of commerce. Gov’t–after it’s been drowned in their proverbial bathtub–will then only serve corporate edicts.

This is the world they envision, and this is the world they’re well on the way to creating. Detroit is only the latest stage in that quest.

Not to be outdone by the governor, Detroit’s Mayor Bing also appointed Kevyn Orr’s “former” mega-law firm, Jones Day, to represent Detroit in this charade. EFM Orr, needless to point out, controls Bing’s salary.

Even Hollywood would find the hypocrisy of this scenario simply too fantastic to use in a script. A corporate governor appoints a corporate lawyer to rule Detroit, while his corporate law firm (which also represents Detroit’s corporate creditors) to be Detroit’s “restructuring counsel.”

“The only winners in the financial crisis that brought Detroit to [a] state takeover are Wall Street bankers [Jones day clients] who reaped more than $474 million from a city too poor to keep the street lights working.” Business Week.

If only…

Of course, all of these profiteers and quislings believe that in the New Detroit the “trains will run on time” and the citizens will behave more profitably under corporatism for its creditors. The demise of its mass of population is simply “the cost of doing business.”

Is money the “measure of all things”? Corporateers and their conservative schutzstaffel (shock-forces; Klan, Tea Party and other Joe Malarkey followers) believe so, albeit, many for racist and other motivations (thus further serving corporatism).

For the moment, Orr & Company are biding their time. Soon enough the Great Property Grab and looting of what remains of the public treasury will commence.

Us natives, relegated to oblivion by a parasitic economic system, will pass quietly into the night…or perhaps not…

(Special thanks to Detroit’s senior activist-attorney Tom Stephens for some of this material. My use of it is of course my own responsibility.)

Dr. Publico

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

Sixto Rodriguez at 70 in Paris…

Watching the Academy Awards I was surprised that “Searching for Sugar Man” won. I assumed that it would go to the Israeli documentary, “The Gatekeepers,” or the Palestinian, “Five Broken Cameras.”

However–for Sixto as well as Detroit in these times–that selection was no less than a cosmic act of justice and synchronicity.

Although an acquaintance of his, I don’t recall ever seeing  Sixto actually perform. Not that he made any secret of it; in conversations he referred to his successes elsewhere (apparently little realizing just HOW successful). He never indicated to me any desire for local work.

As a political activist, often booking talent for benefits, I should have been more keen, we ALL should have been…  As co-denizens of Detroit’s Cass Corridor since the 1960s, I’m quite familiar with his ubiquitous presence. And we’re the same age, born in the Summer of ’42.

The Corridor is much like the Village in lower Manhattan—music, art, academic, drugs, political, poor, gentrified, et cetera—and they all overlap to one extent or another. It’s a small community… In fact, while not an organic part of that community, Cass Corridor was anchored on the south for a number of years by Barry Gordy’s Motown studios.

Joni in the Corridor ’66…

In retrospect his music and lyrics are actually quite talented.  Sixto picked up early on what I would characterize as the post-folk scene. (But then, I’m no music aficionado…) I would guess a genre of Joni Mitchell (who lived for a hot minute at Cass and Ferry) and the street poetry of Bob Dylan, NYC.

Sixto had a unique Detroit working-class foundation to his music/poetry.  Probably why it so successfully struck a chord, literally, with the South African scene.

Perhaps the Fates saved him for his home Detroit in these times…we damn sure need it…

Detroit and its population has today been scoured, impoverished and finally placed under a corporatist dictatorship for sale to the highest bidder. In a very real sense, this is uniquely what Sixto addresses.

In addition to booking talent for political benefits, for several years in the ‘70s I worked on film editing and distribution (Director of Black Star Productions, the film division of the League of Revolutionary Black workers), and even represented some select talent as an agent.

Ironic: Sixto was right in front of me the whole time…

However, there is no shortage of talent in the Corridor. Aside from the obvious media-success stories, among the more notable to my mind are Phil Marcus Esser, ‘Fredo Salazar, and a 15-yr-old (1970?) I tried my best to convince into a professional career, Sylvia Inwood. She sang like Nora Jones wished she could and as I imagine Jenny Lind may have (before recording was invented)…

Otherwise, believe me, the list of not-fully-recognized corridor talent is far too long for this article.

Hart Plaza, Detroit, circa 1986…

Sixto Rodriguez was never the “homeless, schizoid character” that some may have imagined given his occasional appearance and behavior. But he could give that impression…

The last time I saw Sixto was down at Hart Plaza, circa 1986. He was walking thru in a suit and carrying a guitar bag.  I now presume that he was on his way to play somewhere…at the time I simply noted his unusual dressed-up appearance.

I said hello and snapped a couple of photos, but he went off about taking a photo of him without his permission. Ah, back in character…

To mollify him, while I refused to “strip the film from my camera,” I did promise to destroy those particular negatives. Per my archival mentality, when the roll came back from the photo shop, I taped them to a page in my working file.

(Disclosure: Given certain underground activities, I ended up serving a 20+yr conviction in federal prisons between 1990 and 2010. So I was absent from the Corridor scene.)

Prior to the Academy Awards, 60 Minutes did a profile on Rodriguez and the film. It pretty much captured the Sixto we know in the Corridor as well as profiling the City and community to which he’s connected.

Given Detroit as the victim in the latest corporatist quest for total wealth, property, privilege and power in America, Inc., I expect we’ll be hearing a lot more from Sixto Rodriguez…not a minute too soon…

Dr. Publico  (Nick Medvecky, PsyD)

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

Atty. Kevyn Duane Orr (55)…

Snyder, a venture-capitalist CPA who made his $millions as a Gateway board-director and other enterprises that exported jobs overseas, has appointed Attorney Kevyn Orr to lead point in the latest phase of the corporatist plan: America, Inc.

In an act of ironic synchronicity, Orr is a younger lookalike to another racial quisling, Clarence Thomas, one of the Gang of Five on the US Supreme Court.  

Kevyn Orr is a partner at Jones Day, a mega-lawfirm with 37 offices and some 2,400 attorneys serving the world’s largest vulture-capitalist enterprises.  Despite his “resignation,” you can bet that Orr remains a reserve officer of the firm. No front-line duty goes unrewarded.

One of their reasons for the rule of an “Emergency Financial Manager” (EFM) instead of bankruptcy, is to prevent the spread of losses into corporate boardrooms.

“The only winners in the financial crisis that brought Detroit to [a] state takeover are Wall Street banks [Jones Day clients] who reaped more than $474 million from a city too poor to keep the streetlights working.”  Business Week.

The Republican governor and state legislature was elected in the off-year elections of 2010. These are often occasions when many voters demonstrate their dissatisfaction with politics in general by voting against the party in the White House.

Detroiters voted against Snyder for governor 20-to-1, but he was carried in the out-state districts.

Once in power they gerrymandered certain Democratic districts out of existence and the legislature passed a number of ALEC-created “model” laws for the power to appoint EFM’s over cities they deemed “out of line” with their political rule. Disenfranchising progressive voters is a part of that strategic package.

Michigan citizens put a referendum on the ballot opposing the EFM law and it passed in 2012. The governor and legislature simply re-wrote the law and reenacted it. That’s how they rule now when in power, by edict. That’s how all anti-democratic systems rule.

As I write this article (28MAR), ”Right to Work” laws go into effect in Michigan. This is another oxymoron to destroy unions (eliminating collective bargaining, dues check-off and more). These are another example of the ALEC-model legislation now passed in 24 states.

While Democrats and others have diddled with electoral politics, the Republican Party has taken political power in 30 states, the US House of Representatives and the US Supreme Court. Their current strategy employs a form of Weimar-Nazi methodology, they have no intention of allowing future “democracy” to challenge that power.

Who’s to stop them? Most people don’t even recognize the strategy of class conquest. They believe it’s simply “politics as usual.” Had the 30 states that Republicans now rule not gerrymandered congressional districts, they would not today hold ANY federal power. The ONLY elections they “won” on the federal level were those that they usurped thru voter theft in various guises.

This next phase, EFMs, has the total power to ignore all city and county appointed and elected officials, remove their pay, ignore all city contracts and unions, privatize any and all city services, including police and fire, and sell any and all assets that the city possesses, all in the name of “fiscal responsibility.”

To underscore this corporatist hypocrisy and strategy, Mayor Dave Bing (a Republican anywhere but Detroit) hired Orr’s lawfirm, Jones Day, to represent the City. Jones Day also represents most of the City’s creditors, such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America, CitiGroup and JP Morgan Chase. Already, the vultures are positioning themselves to feast on the carcass of Detroit…

All of this comes in the midst of the Republican-corporatist war on gov’t services and spending, which itself is a strategy for impoverishment and privatization.

Since Monday, Overseer Orr has been meeting with individual members of Detroit’s Common Council, the mayor and various department heads, like police and fire.  This is all prelude to the greatest garage sale since the last Depression.

One need not be a fly on the wall to figure out the deal: To paraphrase Malcolm’s speeches, Kevyn Orr is only the modern version of the plantation house-nigger working for the new corporate Massa.

Dr. Publico

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

Walking a couple of blocks to the ancient Saginaw Trail cum Woodward Avenue–the white man’s first paved-concrete road in the world–Detroit’s Finest lost no time picking me up. I could hardly blame them…

I wore a cut-off, coarse white shirt with a faded “P” on the back, white pants of the same material and a pair of well-worn Beatle boots with no zippers. No socks, no underwear, no ID. After 23-yrs on Earth and six years in the Old South, that just about summed me up.

I spent that final year-and-a-half bustin’ rock in a quarry to work off a $600 fine at $2-a-day. I had been one of the last who failed to, “Stay north and mind your own Damn Yankee business.”

It didn’t take long for the Detroit police to figure out that I wasn’t an escapee from a Georgia chain-gang. After hearing my story, they had a good laugh, took up a collection and let me go. Today, I’ve come full circle…back to those political roots.

I’m close to finishing off a 28-yr federal prison sentence (25 in prison, 3 on Supervised Release) for what we call in prison-speak, a political humble. Or as my erstwhile Southern compatriots might observe as…Hi-Batry: Snatchin’ Shit from a Flying Goose’s Ass.

I live in an ancient downtown Woodward apartment building on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the VA. My total earnings are $768 a month and I’m in good health for a 70-yr-old. (The FAA even cleared me to get back my pilot’s license, but who can afford to fly?)

My expenses are $400 a month rent, another $125 for power, maybe $100 for food, and $35 for Internet. Fortunately, bus service–what remains of it in Detroit—costs seniors 50¢.  They’ll no doubt soon be cutting that “charity” off.

I publish this blog, now over 385 indexed articles on a variety of subjects I find of interest (for which I have never received a dime), and I’m 18 chapters into writing a bio-sci-fi novel. I quit smoking back in ’63, quit all drugs in ’71 and alcohol in ’90. I occasionally play the Lottery and I like jelly-beans.

As I sit before this computer (a gift from a comrade), I consider myself no worse off than most of Detroit and the majority of people in America who work, produce and perform services for their bare survival and the pleasure of the ruling elite…who apparently consider most of us to be little more than sucker-bait.

When I arrived in Detroit back in ‘65, the City was a thriving metropolis approaching 2 million. The minimum wage was $1.25. Given the Vietnam war economy, I soon had a union job (UAW Local #212) that soared to $2.93 in ’68. Thereafter, I attended Wayne State University on the GI Bill.

Lest one pity that pay, bear in mind that it purchased MORE than today’s wages. The working class has been increasingly going backwards…assuming one can even find a job.

Our corporatist rulers have found that buying what remains of the media, the political system, Ponzifying their financial networks, looting the public treasury, privatizing the gov’t, criminalizing surplus labor and exporting most manufacturing jobs to cheaper wage-slavery arenas is more profitable…and fun. Their contract players in politics allow them to amass and keep their wealth by eliminating corporate-related taxes.

History will show that what Karl Marx coined as “capitalism” is nothing more than a catch-all title for criminal conspiracies by corporatist privateers who would otherwise be perceived as what they are: infantile-fixated sociopaths. Would we elevate rape, for instance, to the level of legitimate human intercourse?

Okay, that’s a bad example; that’s precisely the conservative mentality.  Blaming the victim is a major foundation to their pathology.

Why the world largely accepts this behavior–both individual and socio-economic rapaciousness–as a legitimate enterprise will no doubt be the subject of future academic research (assuming there’s a free world in which to do so).

To me, the answer is no more baffling than why human embryos have tails and gills. We evolved from ancient forms and this includes related social systemics. I don’t believe that the continued predation of each other disguised as a socio-economic ideology is viable over the long term.

Today, down to some 700,000 souls, Detroit is a microcosm of America’s immediate future. We are today witnessing the next phase in the corporatist quest for total wealth and power.

An earlier privateer, Mssr. Antoine Laumet (Cadillac), envisioned Fort Pontchartrain in 1701 (Detroit) as the choke-point between the upper lake’s beaver trade and the markets to the south (as highly profitable plush hats for Britain’s aristocracy and landed-gentry).

Today’s corporatist pirates envision the example of Detroit as the future of the American and world economy. Detroit is a test case; Detroit is the next stage toward fascist-corporatism. The-State-that-Koch-bought has all-but-gerrymandered what remained of democracy out of existence in Michigan.  Once in political power, conservatives no longer even bother with the semblance of democracy.

Detroit and several other Michigan cities and school districts have been taken over by “Emergency Financial Managers” (EFMs), their latest oxymoronic ruse.

Those who helped create Detroit’s impoverishment are precisely those who now rule its final privatized gentrification. That remains their goal. There are only two potential solutions for the future, assuming that a third is not the common ruination of humankind and the planet. I wouldn’t bet against the latter.

Even by the standards of conservative predatory practices, some ancient rulers (i.e., the Sumer Empire) perceived that amassing monopolistic wealth and property in the hands of a few is a form of mutually assured social destruction.

Recognizing the criminality of the practice, the ancient Cuneiform record shows that some rulers came up with a means to deal with it…at least temporaneously. They created what came to be called: The Jubilee Year.

For almost a thousand years they periodically wiped the slate clean of all major debt, loans, interest, slavery and property ownership. Self-described Hebrews (jumped-up Sumerians née Abraham), memorialized the practice in Leviticus 25:10.

The Liberty Bell is inscribed in part with: Proclaim liberty throughout all the land and unto all the inhabitants thereof. (Except, of course, Indians, slaves, women, debtors, prisoners, et cetera.)

The remainder of the quote did not make its appearance on the bell: “and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and…unto his home.”  I don’t see the current crop of felonious corporateers and their political flunkies as being that smart.

That sums up the “revolutionary” hypocrisy of America’s early ruling elite. We are both a nation founded on slavery, genocide and theft as well as a nation which proclaims largely unrealized ideals…at least for the masses.

The other alternative is revolution itself, or in America’s case, the completion of the initial revolution. History shows that ruling elites rarely have enough sense to cut their losses (that is, their greed).  Given the power that the corporatist elite already have–that is, the domination of their wealth and systemic rule–it is the only viable alternative…assuming there is any at all.

Humans are remarkably adept at perceiving their lives thru others. It’s an inevitable evolutionary  side-effect of language and “civilization.” This is both misunderstood and misinterpreted by those in power as a product of their own fame, fortune, talent…whatever.

People buy into the psychic illusion of vicarious living.  They largely don’t rebel because they fallaciously perceive achieving such a position themselves.  Sorry, while “anyone” might so achieve such a goal, there are–by the nature of the system–only a few slots available.

For 97% of humanity, vicariously “experiencing” such living thru others is the best it’s going to get.

Its long past time for the sans-culottes and Mssr. guillotine.  What have we got to lose…

Dr. Publico

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune