GIVES A WHOLE NEW MEANING TO... 'TAKE A LOOK INSIDE' ;)
So here, in no particular order, are my Top Ten Stories of the Naughties, the ones that really matter.
1) Iraq was all premised on lies, yet we're still there. Saddam Hussein wasn't pursuing Weapons of Mass Destruction. He wasn't involved in 9/11. He wasn't engaged with Al Qaeda. We know all these things. And we know they were false at the time they were proffered. Yet, there we are, with no intent to leave, our very presence spitting in the face of International Law and the international community we so unctuously pretend to respect. [To read a newspaper editorial showing the blatant lies of top US leaders used to promote war in Iraq, https://www.wanttoknow.info/disappearededitorial
2) The fact that 2/3 of all economic growth went to top 1%. John Kennedy's social contract had a rising tide lifting all boats. But over the last decade 2/3 of all economic growth has gone to the top 1% of income earners. Meanwhile the middle class has suffered a $13 trillion writedown in wealth as a result of the housing collapse. The banking bailout and the health care "reform" debate showed as never before the extent to which corporations have captured government and use it to redirect national wealth to themselves and their owners. [For revealing media reports on startling income inequality, https://www.wanttoknow.info/incomeinequalitynewsarticles
3) The Global War on Terror [GWOT]. Or more specifically, the ease with which the "GWOT" has replaced the Cold War as the justification for the ever-increasing militarization of society. What happened to the post-Cold War "Peace Dividend"? The U.S. continues to spend more on the military than all the rest of the world combined.https://www.wanttoknow.info/usmilitaryspending It continues to maintain over 700 military bases around the world. And it continues to manufacture excuses for foreign interventions whenever weapons makers and military logistics companies need more profits — which is forever. [For a top U.S. general's highly revealing two-page essay exposing the roots of war, https://www.wanttoknow.info/warcoverup ]
4) Bush knew of 9/11 long before it actually happened. Three years before Bush took office, the neo-cons' Project For a New American Century called for a "new Pearl Harbor" to galvanize the nation into a war to seize Middle East oil.https://www.wanttoknow.info/9-11timeline60pg#pnac And even before the event itself, Bush-as-president was warned dozens of times of the imminent attack, the most notorious being the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing titled, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." https://www.wanttoknow.info/9-11timeline60pg#briefingAmazingly nothing was done to prevent the attack. But even less is it advertised that Bush knew. [For more powerful information on this, click here to read the two-page summary of major media reports with links raising serious questions about 9/11https://www.wanttoknow.info/9-11cover-up
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5) The surrender of civil liberties. Despite the Fourth Amendment supposedly protecting us against unreasonable searches and seizures, the government can now read your email and listen to your phone calls without any probable cause. The Obama administration has gone to court to prevent the re-institution of Habeas Corpus, suspended during the Bush administration. We are much less free, much less protected from brutalization by our own government than we were just ten years ago. [For key major media articles revealing major erosion of privacy, https://www.wanttoknow.info/privacynewsarticles ] 6) The Supreme Court hijacking the 2000 presidential election. This isn't even a historical controversy anymore. Al Gore won the national popular vote by 570,000. And we now know he would have won the Florida vote as well if the vote counting had not been stopped by the Supreme Court. This was literally a right wing judicial coup d' etat, so it's understandable that it's never mentioned in the "right" kind of circles. [For more critical information on this, read a BBC reporter's story available here https://www.wanttoknow.info/massmedia#palast ] 7) The Neo-Feudalization of the American economy. The top 1% of wealth holders own 41% of all the assets in the country while the bottom 40% own absolutely nothing. Meanwhile, workers are saddled with $12 trillion of national debt, an effective indentured servitude that will bind them to their corporate masters for the rest of their lives. This is the working definition of feudalism, where the rich own everything and everybody else has nothing but their proffered labor and their obligations to their masters. The Hapsburgs, the Tudors, and the Bourbons would be jealous. [For intriguing major media articles on powerful secret societies intent on keeping the rich in power,https://www.wanttoknow.info/secretsocietiesnewsarticles ] 8) The failure of "the free market" to sustain prosperity. The "free market" has long been an ideological dodge used to resist real government regulation of the economy. Still, the ideal was supposed to deliver prosperity in a stable, sustainable matter. Now we have the greatest global economic collapse since the Great Depression, with the government transferring $11 trillion to the banks to cover their sociopathically greedy bets that went bust.https://www.wanttoknow.info/a-bailout-trillions All in the name of deregulation, with future regulation vigorously resisted. Is this a deranged country or what? [For amazing media articles showing blatant greed, secrecy, and manipulation by top banks and bankers, https://www.wanttoknow.info/bankbailoutnewsarticles ]
9) The collapse of the media. We once imagined it would guard the hen house. Yet that was an anomaly, a freak event around Vietnam and Watergate when it slipped its leash. Since then, sixty independent media outlets have consolidated into five, all retailing the ideology of the powerful, the perpetrators, laundering their lies, covering up the truth, and harassing the truth tellers. In every story mentioned above, the mainstream media have worked to ensure that the people didn't know the truth about the forfeiture of their government, their wealth, their security, and their rights.https://www.insightcourse.net/lessons/02b_media_deception [For concise summaries of 20 award-winning journalists revealing how vitally important news stories are shut down by corporate media ownership,https://www.wanttoknow.info/mediacover-up ] 10) The meaninglessness of elections. This is the most embittering revelation of all. Despite the greatest electoral majority since Johnson crushed Goldwater in '64, Barrack Obama has betrayed everything he ran on. In nearly every case where he had the opportunity to confront power — in financial bailouts, financial regulation, health care, wars and military spending, utilities and global warming, national surveillance — Obama has sided with the rich and powerful against the interests of the American people. He has probably engendered more cynicism, more disaffection with government than any president since Richard Nixon. It will deal a staggering blow to the hopes of mobilizing masses of people again for a real takeback of government. And he's not even one year into it. [To understand why this has happened and what you can do to make a difference,https://www.wanttoknow.info/brighterfuture ] History paints decades with broad brushes – the Roaring Twenties, The Depression, World War II. Historians will look back on the Naughts as the time when Americans Lost Their Country. It was the decade when all the institutions that they believed would protect them – the media, the courts, Congress, the market, a messianic new president – in fact betrayed them. It will forever more be a different country. Robert Freeman writes on history, economics, and education. Email to:robertfreeman10@yahoo.com.
Dear Frog,
Do you notice that the watter is getting hotter?
Do you notice that there is steam rising from the water?
Do you notice that there are bubbles forming around you?
I know that the water started off nice and cool . . .
And then it got pleasantly warm . . .
And then it wasn't really so bad . . .
I know that you're getting sleepier and sleepier, and that the warmth and gentle rocking motion of the bubbles are making you dream happy dreams . . .
BUT YOU BETTER WAKE UP AND DO SOMETHING RIGHT NOW
OR YOU'LL BE BOILED ALIVE AND EATEN BY SOME BIG FAT GLUTTON!
This has been a public service announcement from Americans Against Fascism.
"A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself": Joseph Pulitzer