Comments on: Obama’s Unprogressive Foreign Policies

By: Max Shields

Max Shields — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:21:41 +0000

Robert David STEELE Vivas

You’re about half way there in determining what’s up.

First, “restoring” the republic is hardly the issue. The republic is and has always been a plutocracy led republic. What we don’t have is democracy.

As far as what “Obama” should do, why waste time. You’ve already acknowledged that he is part of the system that put him and the line of POTUS before him in power. What’s the point?

The only reasony why we keep obsessing over Obama is because he is everywhere being foisted as the messiah. That needs to be refuted on the one hand, but on the other, we’re wasting precious time.

He is the alternative to Bush which is Clinton III. It’s that simple. What are you expecting, surgical removal of his brain and replacement with a “progressive” agenda?

Please…so much work to be done locally. In DC we’ll continue to be an imperial empire driven by corporate elites and plutocrats.

Are we going to talk about Obama as if he’s going to become something else over the next 4 perhaps 8 years!!!!

Get real!!!!

By: Robert David STEELE Vivas

Robert David STEELE Vivas — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:17:39 +0000

I agree with the above. Obama has been captured and the election was theater. See the free book, ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig at http://www.oss.net/PIG.

The antidote is a citizens alternative government and open money that does not pay taxes to support a bloated military, an aggressive imperialist foreign policy, and secret intelligence against We the People. You all may be interested in the Citizens Summit in Denver in February 9009, details at http://www.transpartisan.net.

Below is an Op-Ed on what Obama would do if he were seriously interested in restoring the Republic.

—

Intelligence for the President—and Everyone Else
How Barack Obama Can Create a Smart Nation and a Prosperous World at Peace

By Robert David STEELE Vivas

Today’s secret intelligence community costs the U.S. taxpayer over $60 billion a year, and yet, according to General Tony Zinni, USMC (Ret), provides less than 4% of the decision support needed by a major government executive. The appointment of a Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is a turning point for the President-elect, but cannot as yet be said to be a constructive one. Absent firm direction, the incoming DNI is likely to continue the status quo ante, making changes on the margin. Absent a more open mind and respectful attention to what the iconoclasts—including General Al Gray, USMC (Ret), then Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps—have been saying since 1988, here are three things the incoming DNI is NOT expected to do:

1) Create the Open Source Agency as recommended by the 9-11 Commission on page 413

2) Create the Multinational Decision Support Center to replace the Coalition Coordination Center (logisticians) with intelligence managers and analysts from up to 90 countries.

3) Fund the office of the Assistant Secretary General for Decision Support at the United Nations, with a US Ambassador as the Deputy and also Director of the U.S. Department of State Office of Information Sharing Treaties and Agreements.

In other words, we carry on with secrets for the President at grotesque expense with marginal result, and ignore both the needs of the President for truly multinational insight (using sources in 183 languages we do not speak) and also the needs of Congress, Cabinet officers, commanders, and action officers at every level of government.

In 2000, after a decade of articles and chapters on the subject of reinventing intelligence, I published ON INTELLIGENCE: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World, with a Foreword from President David Boren of the University of Oklahoma, past Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). In 2002 I published THE NEW CRAFT OF INTELLIGENCE: Personal, Public, & Political, with a Foreword from then Chairman of the SSCI, Pat Roberts (R-KS). Other books followed, on peacekeeping intelligence, on information operations, on creating a Smart Nation, and most recently, with 55 contributors, COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace. Impact? ZERO.

Why? Easy. The current Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and past leaders operate on the Washington paradigm: maximizing budget share and managing inputs. They do not manage to achieve outcomes, and past Presidents have been content to let them be. Presidents, Cabinet officers, and Members of both the Senate and the House are abysmally ignorant of global reality and they are also ignorant of how national intelligence need not be federal, secret, nor expensive. We can fix that.

President-elect Barack Obama has an opportunity, within a week of inauguration, to create a Smart Nation virtually overnight, and in the next eight years, to lead all other nation-states, corporations, non-profit organizations, and publics at large, in creating a prosperous world at peace. Here’s how.

1) Sponsor the Smart Nation Act (now the Smart Nation-Safe Nation Act) as developed by myself in partnership with Representative Rob Simmons (R-CT-02), one of America’s most faithful legislators and retired military officers with an appreciation for intelligence. Here is a snap-shot of the differences between what we have now (20th Century intelligence, 1950’s mind-sets with 1970’s technology) and what we could have.

20th Century Intelligence (TIRED) 21st Century Intelligence (WIRED)
Secrets for the President Decision-Support for every official and citizen
Obsession with Seven “Hard Targets” Global Coverage—all information in all languages
Management of Inputs or Budget Share Management of Public Interest Outcomes
Reliance on centralized secret analysts Reliance on distributed public intelligence
Support to military plans for armed actions Support to President in building the right military
Ignore Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Provide decision support to every element of OMB
Ineffective in support to state & local government Create 50 community intelligence networks
Excessive expense on secret technical collection Focus on public processing & multinational sharing

With this one Act submitted and passed the first week in office, President-elect Obama will reinvent America and position America to lead and empower all others in creating a Prosperous World at Peace.

2) Direct the next Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to support all of the provisions of that Act from the very large secret intelligence budget. The three most important provisions are those calling for the creation of the Open Source Agency (OSA) a badly-needed capability recommended by the 9-11 Commission on page 413; and within the OSA network, the creation of a Multinational Decision Support Center relying only on unclassified information and providing decision support to the United Nations and all parties engaged in peace and stabilization operations; and the creation of a diplomatic Office of Information Sharing Treaties and Agreements whose Director, an Ambassador, also serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations for Decision Support, an office to be funded by the OSA.

With this one enterprise, completely open, transparent, and accountable, the President can bring to life the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison:

A Nation’s best defense is an educated citizenry Thomas Jefferson

A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. James Madison

National Intelligence in this era cannot be about “secrets for the President.” It must be about empowering the President—and everyone else—with the extraordinary personal and organizational power that comes from information that has been discovered, discriminated, distilled, and converted into actionable intelligence—decision-support.
Operating under this new paradigm, the DNI would be the President’s chief aide in harnessing the distributed intelligence of the Whole Earth, and in creating a “Smart Nation” that will be secure as well as competitive in what is clearly the age of intelligence.

A truly inspired DNI would ask that the OSA, while funded by the DNI and totally responsive to the DNI’s severely deficient access to global multilingual open sources of information, be a completely independent agency, a virtual “fourth estate” willing and able to ensure that every citizen has access to real-world, real-time intelligence, arming America with the power unique to an informed citizenry.

The author is a 30-year veteran of government service across intelligence, information technology, military, and policy support functionalities. He is the founding CEO of OSS.Net, and of the Earth Intelligence Network, a 501c3 Public Charity devoted to creating public intelligence in the public interest.

By: Petronius

Petronius — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:07:42 +0000

ok I got it bozh ! yes states (countries) are an anomaly by now. the fake globalism spouted by neo-liberals is pure bosh (no pun intended). and
the bailout, like you write with the civil war, killing of american indians and slavery were all done ‘for the good of this country’, but resulted in many deaths of innocents, torture and enslavement for others, eradication of a whole population and the coming impoverishment of many. what country would become ‘better’ by these means ? statehood is a perversion of human societies.

By: bozh

bozh — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:57:08 +0000

petronius,
i have said that in nature there is no such entity as a “country”
and i have clearly stated that bad thing r done in name of s’thing for misleading purposes, of course.
the two agressions going on now, the bailouts, killing off indigenes, slavery, civil war in US, etcetc., were done for the good of the country.
that’s what 98% of Usans believe.
perhaps, i shld have stated that according to 98% amers, it was done for the good of the country.
in actuality, it was hoped bailout wld be good for some people but not hobos or working people.
i think i have clarified what i meant. but i can see also that it was possible to misgrasp my intent. thnx

By: Petronius

Petronius — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:53:41 +0000

yes, language is extremely important and it is the basis for much misunderstanding. just the word ‘freedom’ has been misused for so many different interpretations. I also do not believe that any -ism is part of dis-enslavement. I do believe that worker’s solidarity is at the bottom for a change of the social contract (solidarity is the keyword in the struggle against seeing through a glass darkly and is not an empty slogan at all). old fashioned and often discarded ideas from marx do have power still and so one should read his books as well as articles by engels. surplus value theft is at the bottom of american society and poisons everything flowing from it. what we need to look for is a new model of society inclusive of all. the despair of bozh will not help and he surely cannot be serious writing that the bail-out was done for the good of the country ? these discussions on dv are useful in so far as it brings people together in searching for alternatives to the present very destructive structure within we try to survive.

By: bozh

bozh — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:31:51 +0000

max, but what happens when we think of socialism as long laborious process w. mighty enemies constantly trying to villify/destroy it?
natch, a better structured society wld be almost impossible to achieve.
let us entirely for the moment forget ab isms.
there r many isms but only one structure of society; in US also.
we can never end defining/undersatnding/elucidating any ism or any religion.
we can never understand what “fredom”, “free market”, “corporatism”, etc., is or shld be because we can’t see, hear, taste, smell, not touch them.
but we use the 5 senses to experience people and to learn how each tier functions.
eg, we have doctors. almost al r right wing; look dwn on us. the same observation applies to entertainment, advertising, clerical, political, and teaching people.
all of these look dwn of us and repress us; commands us to kill, (ab)use us, etc.,
a soldier will kill an unarmed civilian in name of his country; which by the way doesn’t exist (in nature); only people exist and only people order a soldier to kill unarmed people.
of course, always in name of s’mthing.
the bailout was done for the good of the country. but how ab hobos, housepeople?
so let’s stop hunting for the snark; one won’t find it. one will never ever find any ism or any religion, either. thnx

By: Max Shields

Max Shields — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 05:26:02 +0000

I think the kind of economic framework we can agree on does not have to be a contrast of what we think we don’t want.

What causes our dilemma is important. If we just think we’re going to knock off the ruling structure by yelling socialism in their face, it’s just not going to work. We have demonstrable evidence.

The failure is to understand that the language of empire is about forcing one side to win over another – to struggle and win. But the way to change, I think, is not to confront power with power but to create the alternative and let it become our reality.

One can readily create workers’ cooperatives, and local change such as deep living democracy that is truly an alternative to the power structure, while never confronting the empire head on.

My point is that we have inherited the legacy of the “battle” between capitalism and socialism. I say we need to think outside that legacy to achieve real deep sustainable change.

By: Deadbeat

Deadbeat — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:59:56 +0000

Max says …

I’m not defending capitalism. I don’t think any “ism” is worthy of defense. I do think economic principles of exchange and the relationships created are key. The “isms” are just ideologies that keep us from understanding and acting appropriately to solve the problem (once we’ve clearly defined it – which is far too infrequent).

Max makes an interesting point by saying that “corporations” predates capitalism and that “corporation is a function of empire”. I won’t debate his claims to knowing the history of corporations. But what does relate to his remarks is that “language” is also a function of empire.

My point is that if cooperatives threatens the ruling elites then “cooperatives” will be redefined and propagandized as a negative. This is why terms such as “socialism” and “anarchy” has become tainted. I recall that Michael Albert used a similar explanation (or excuse) when he defined his Parecon ideas of socialism being a tainted term.

My argument would be rather than abandon “socialism” is to fight the empire by reclaiming language and the true meaning of words.

By: Petronius

Petronius — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 03:53:12 +0000

please let me repeat: ‘there is no strength in being uninformed’. max and bozh understand that and knowledge is a fierce weapon because
it is unassailable. that is why the school system is so deplorable in america: keeping the public uninformed is an industry here and murdoch makes millions off it. and kahar, I understand your rage, but your simile of obama (as yet an unproven entity) and hitler is not
correct and unproductive. anger is good only if it is directed well and
not at random, then it becomes powerless. crimes against afghanistan and iraq go back a long way, well from before the full flowering of the american empire. barbarian europe has always envied the arab culture which transfered the best of ancient mediterranean civilizations over into europe via spain. the early crusades were fought over spoils in constantinople and jerusalem. later colonializations were for strategic reasons (to keep european competitors away from easy plunder) and
for cheap materials and goods to be found in the east and in africa (humans included as free labor). that dates from the capitalist expansions in the late eighteenth century to this day. once one can re-arrange the social contract at home, those cruel and rapacious excursions into other lands will cease. that is why it is imperative to join and educate, to free people from their accepted shibboleths and to deny the state its authority by invalidating consent.

By: bozh

bozh — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:38:00 +0000

if my memory serves me correctly ‘education’ in US get’s a short shrift from almost all posters and journalists.
yet education is as powerful or even more powerful than the abuse of money.
i find astounding that people don’t talk ab. it. look, there must be by necessity an ideal societal structure.
certainly at least a better one than what we have now in US and many lands.
so, i suggest we study the existing social structures in all lands.
by doing this we wil discover that in many lands it had not changed an iota.
one of the structural members of a society is education; if people do not obtain it but get only disinformation, ‘promises’. etc.,
only a few people will rule.
and recorded history proves that only few rule; their will be done.
before i married i made only one promise: i said to my love that if she marries me she’l have lots of trouble. and she did!
and also made a statement, I came to make mistakes.
obama is not saying this; he plays god but he came to make mistakes.
as for promises, they r lies. even gods don’t make promises. thnx

By: Max Shields

Max Shields — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:38:55 +0000

nothing “abstract” about a workers’ cooperative – and nothing particularly capitalistic or socialistic about it either.

By: kahar

kahar — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:37:08 +0000

“Afghanistan…, one of the poorest and most miserable on earth”
This being 100% wholly attributable to the hard work of the Anglo-American morons.

Obama makes Hitler look like a little schoolboy.

By: Jason Oberg

Jason Oberg — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:04:38 +0000

Okay, Jeremy, I should have said “stand up for ourselves” instead of “yourself.” I agree with what you’re saying. And Max, I realize you’re a very good abstract thinker, but “Socialism” is fine with me. I believe in the basic precepts of socialism, and I believe that every human society should live by them. Easier to talk about something if it has a name. I do understand what your getting at, though. Labels are often counter-productive and pigeon-holing. They limit where one can go from this place or that. Irrespective of being bought and sold by their corporate masters, I think this is what has also limited the duopoly parties from way back. If you’re a Republican you have to believe this; if you’re a Democrat you have to believe that; conservatives are “pro-life;” liberals are “pro-choice” and all that crap. Parties, labels, and rigid ideologies hamper all progress and just keep us divided. But again, that’s what they want, isn’t it?

By: Max Shields

Max Shields — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 22:18:21 +0000

I must laugh, we talk about “capitalism” as if it’s a thing. It’s merely a word. Capitalism and Socialism (or Communism/Marxism) are words which provide some idea of an economics. These are human devised terms to lay forth a means of exchange and relationships. They are old and mostly outmoded to reflect what is called for.

Let’s start with what Mr. Wells suggested (I think an excellent suggestion) a couple of posts back when he talked about cooperatives. Coopertive models frame a particular relationship between people. Depending on how they are structured, they are meant to operate on democratic principles. Workers’ cooperatives are optimal for the workers involved. Than there are community owned cooperatives which have roots in the community and are, again, democratically operated. There are successful hybrids. Obviously the people involved are key to the governance that keeps this an open system of exchange is critical; but the business structure sets the stage for a non-hierarchical organization with a sense of community integral to its existence.

This is neither a capitalistic nor a socialistic form of economics. What makes this model different – and significant (while certainly not new) – is the relationship created and sustained between all of the participants. Such a model makes unions superfluous. A workers’ cooperative is by its very nature owned, operated and worked by its “employees”.

What we seem to miss as we bash capitalism is that it is the preditory and corporatization of capitalism which has been brutal. Corporatizm as I tried to explain is an extention of empire. All of our main stream organizations reflect the structure of empire. Corporations are a special extension of empire. The privatization of the commons is NOT a capitalistic creation; it is a empire/corporate creation. Let’s be clear otherwise we’ll be fighting windmills.

Again, behind the words socialism and capitalism is a legacy which most seem not to understand or to have studied. Marxism is in many respects passe beyond some of its critique of capitalism. The captains of industry are not the creation of capitalism per se. They are the creation of an elitism. The principles governing that elite is ownership of capital and production. To do that they must own land (natural resource) rights. The notion of land owners is not, in and of itself, a capitalistic precept.

Today, neoclassical economists (think M. Friedman), free market fundamentalist (who don’t believe in free markets unless the odds are stacked in their favor) and Wall Street hustler/gamblers have contrived a new version of capitalism that Adam Smith would find quite foreign.

By: Jeremy Wells

Jeremy Wells — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:51:24 +0000

Jason — “It comes from taking control of your life and standing up for yourself.”

Individualism such as expressed here is completely impotent in struggling against the vast economic and political power of capitalism. Impotent individualism is all too often an escape mechanism of individual working people and their families to try to ssurvive economically where their is little or no help in society.

The barbarity of existing capitalism must be confronted by all working people as a collective political struggle at every level of existence, nationally and internationally. There is no realistic individualistic escape in “green” consumerism, religious fanaticism, racism, etc. that doesn’t tend in destroying the humanistic values of the individual.

When 45 million people cannot afford health insurance in this country, Thus 45 million individuals try to solve poorly their own health needs as best they can. But if the 45 million were to regard themselves as a collective with a common interest, then perhaps a national solution could be accomplished promptly.

“Divide and Conquer” is the key practice of capitalists to maintain their class rule. Thus working people are forever being artificially divided by religion, race, language, national origin, immigration status, political parties, etc. to prevent their common majority interest from asserting itself against the capitalist minority.

No meaninful “reform” of capitalism or “change” of the corporate controlled Democratic Party is possible, especially as an “individual” such as Nader, Kucinich, or McKinney. Perhaps no change is possible as long the organized
labor movement views itself as a “business partner” of corporate capital and
supports the Democratic Party.

A new internationalist and socialist political party is needed to bring millions of individualised working people together to demand the end of run-amok gangster capitalism. Socialism is now essential for the survival of humanity.

With this perspective, see the Socialist Equality Party at http://www.socialequality.com

By: Jason Oberg

Jason Oberg — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:51:54 +0000

I think we’re all in agreement that this corporate empire needs to be toppled. A good start would be to boycott these monstrous entities, starting with the more monopolistic ones. Microsoft would be very difficult, since it is a monopoly (one of those things that used to ne unconstitutional), so let’s try Wal-Mart. Everyone says that the poor have no choice but to shop at Wal-Mart. Why is that? I look around and see dollar stores everywhere. Everywhere. There’s at least five just where I live, where you can get anything you need, other than furniture. So what good is Wal-Mart? It’s more expensive than these places, and you’re getting cheap crap made in China. Twice I’ve bought a DVD player there and got screwed. The first one lasted a few weeks; the second one didn’t work when I got it home. The guy at the customer service desk said, “Yeah, that happens a lot.” I am dumbfounded by America’s love affair with Wal-Mart. Boycottee #1, I say.
The point is the only way to take back the power from these corporations is for dumb Americans to stop giving them all their damn money. I know, we’ve been told that we have to keep consuming to keep the economy going. Well, that did loads of good, didn’t it? No, in fact it merely perpetuates the corrupt system, and gives the corporations greater and greater influence over the politicians and over us.
So, this is how I try to live my life. I buy my books at the used book shop in town, for far better reading material and humanly affordable. To hell with Border’s. I eat only at small-business restaurants, and eat much better food than the garbage at Applebee’s. So on and so forth. This isn’t, of course, the ultimate cure-all for our ills, but definitely step one in the right direction. Ending this idiotic fascination with professional sports and talentless celebrities would help, as well. Everytime I flip by the “Today” show in the morning and see all those directionless people standing outside, behind Matt Lauer and whatever brainless actor, staring in the window for hours, I just want to vomit. Such damn sheep they’ve turned people into. Americans need to reclaim their pride, and realize that pride doesn’t come from being able to blow a few hundred dollars at Wal-Mart, unlike those poor wretches in Africa. Nor does it come from an ugly flag flapping in the breeze. It comes from taking control of your life and standing up for yourself.
If I’ve gotten a bit preachy here, sorry, choir.

By: Max Shields

Max Shields — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:02:33 +0000

Deadbeat, you can believe what you want. It is not simply a movie that makes clear the role of corporations and their tie with the British empire and how that empire was extended at the birth of the American empire.

Your explanation for everything says life began in 1948 and everything else is just a fairytale.

Your arguments are superfluous because that start with a simpletons dismissal of facts so you can trumpet your usual zionism/left shit.

By: Jeremy Wells

Jeremy Wells — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:00:51 +0000

“Total US military spending per year is now over $1.4 trillion. That’s enough to solve every major material problem of humanity.”

“Progressives” are forever making these observations as if this is a great discovery.
But the article stops here. NEVER is there any attempt to go beyond this truism to analysize WHY this is the case and has been the case for decades!

To go to the root cause of “every major material problem of humanity” is to finally to examine the nature of U.S. and global capitalism. This critical and scientific examination of capitalism, first carried out by Karl Marx, has gone on for over 150 years. Marxism today provides this understanding of WHY the U.S. foreign policy is forever a reflection of the interests of the capitalist ruling elite.

Obama is a perfect facilitator to continue the same foreign and domestic economic policies of class war against working people here. His election to President was promoted by these same corporate interests to disarm and diffuse the massive opposition to these economic policies.

For a Marxist understaning of the anti-capitalist, socialist perspective check out the World Socialist Web Site, http:www.wsws.org

In particular, check out this multipart series which gives a quick introduction to the basic Marxist understanding of capitalism.

The questions which PROGRESSIVES are forever ignorant are answered below.
————————————————————————————————————
(The following is the first part of a lecture delivered by Nick Beams, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) and a member of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site, to audiences in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney in November and December, 2008. Part 2 will be published tomorrow and subsequent parts over the next few days.}

A lecture by Nick Beams
The World Economic Crisis: A Marxist Analysis
Part 1
By Nick Beams
19 December 2008
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/nbe1-d19.shtml

Lecture by Nick Beams
The World Economic Crisis: A Marxist Analysis
Part 2
By Nick Beams
20 December 2008
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/lect-d20.shtml

By: bozh

bozh — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 19:45:55 +0000

nobody promised us a bed of roses. there is no promise in US constitution that a son of a laborer will be equally powerful w. a son of kennedys or bushes.
and son’s father is a dirty commie or socialist, he’l lose what little respect/love/power he hade unless he joins the crowd.
an editor of the msm may boast, That’s democracy. i got that retort decades ago.
in a crowd of 1K people 2,3, 4 well-organized people can take control over them by, among many other ruses, just one lie.
just one; it’l suffice.
but when u have a million+ fraudsters, they can easily grab by the balls 200mns.
and all it takes to that is by simply using the language. u, having money, hire a speaker. and who wldn’t speak or write for easy money?
and it’s not just editors who r speaking volumes for the uncle. entertainers, advertisers, ‘educators’, clergy, generals heap accolades on the uncle and proclaim coming of genghis, attila, mohammed, who r now flying on flying persian carpets towards US in order to destroy it.
anyhow, the fraud had been going on for millennia.
just a curioso? wld the fraudsters in US have succeded to this degree if amers were mostly of one ethnos; let’s say, english, german, norwegian only,
i think not. but in US w. so many aliens: blacks, latinos, asians, e. euros, it is easy for one folk to take over not only america but also the planet. thnx

By: Deadbeat

Deadbeat — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 19:15:27 +0000

We should all understand the history of corporations, modern day empires, and their confluence with the privatization of the commons. Understanding this is critical. No real change can happen until a thorough understanding of these powerful forces that drive everything that happens is grasped. There is an excellent movie called The Corporation that presents and excellent analysis of the corporation and its origins. In fact they abused laws that were passed to protect the freed slaves in order to allow corporations to become quasi-humans. But the issue is NOT just about corporations. Corporations is just an institutional form constructed under our capitalist system. In many areas you have rich families and plantation owners controlling everything. So corporation is only one way that the rich and elites control the means of production. If corporations were outlawed tomorrow the wealthy would just construct new forms. In addition there are other detrimental forces in the U.S. Economy that has to be challenged in addition to "corporations". The Left's focus on "corporations", IMO, is another way to obscure Zionism's powerful influence on the U.S. political economy. IMO, racism and capitalism has to be confronted holistically rather than compartmentalizing issues like Liberals often do in order to confuse the public into "reforming" the system.