I used to tell people that BushCo was wrecking the US economy, but now I recognize that that was an over-simplification. What we are witnessing is a precise, controlled demolition. America is being efficiently demolished and sold for scrap. The wreckage will collapse neatly on those who are least prepared to bear the suffering, and the looters and scoundrels will largely be spared.

Consider Bush himself. His nest-egg and retirement benefits will pay his bills while his book deal (a guaranteed sale among Kool Aid drinkers) will earn millions. If things get really rough for him, he may bug out to Paraguay or some other refuge, but in terms of assuring his own future comfort, it’s MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Consider the war profiteers. The next (Democratic) President may slow the tempo of the Iraq war, but US defense spending has been locked into the highest levels seen since the cold war. More importantly, the concept of meaningful oversight has vanished from defense contracting, as more and more projects are funded irrespective of their functionality (e.g., Osprey, missile defense, and next-generation spy satellites). Only national bankruptcy can stop the weapons gravy train.

Consider the corporate elite. The outsourcing of everything that can be pushed through a high speed data line will continue unabated, resulting in the steady emptying out of the US service economy. Manufacturing has already been decimated. Companies like GM and Ford will succumb to bankruptcy and takeovers, then pay huge severance packages to their incompetent former managers. Each payout to a failed CEO is more shocking than that last. But there will be no parachutes for ordinary Americans, just very hard landings.

Consider the media moguls. The sinking fortunes of the average citizen will keep entertainment a booming industry. Just as in the Great Depression, movies and electronic diversions will be popular escapist medicine for the sickness of declining living standards. Perhaps we will even see a revival of voyeuristic fixation on the rich, just as drab depression era movie-goers watched films of the wealthy cavorting at their lavish parties. (Just substitute billions for millions.)

In short, when predators rule the nation, they never suffer. Just as they swindled and stole on the way up the economic cycle, they will swindle and steal on the way down. The rest of us are simply their fodder. Those who expect America’s “leadership” to pull us out of an economic slump will soon learn that the nature of leadership has changed for the worse. Our leaders will compete with each other to see who can grab what remains to be stolen.

Something is happening here but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mister Jones?
— Bob Dylan

Powerful corporations now dominate the governments of the world. Their global empires extend across all continents and supersede all nominal forms of government. Although most people believe them to be marvelous cornucopia of enticing goods and services, there is a growing understanding among informed individuals that something has gone badly wrong. The collective activity of the multinational corporations is not bringing us an earthly paradise. Instead, it is bringing us environmental devastation, growing inequality, endless war, and the curtailment of freedoms.

This three-part essay explains the necessity of subduing the corporations and returning them to a politically subservient role in which their efficiencies can be harnessed to the public good rather than pernicious institutional aggrandizement. In my view, the struggle between the networked people of the world and ruthless, malignant corporations will be the defining conflict of this century. Part II of the essay explains how a growing revolt against the corporations is taking shape on the Internet, and how it will ultimately harness their power for the welfare of mankind.

This has been a long time coming, and it is here now. — Cormack McCarthy, “The Road”

Powerful corporations now dominate the governments of the world. Their global empires extend across all continents and supersede all nominal forms of government. Although most people believe them to be marvelous cornucopia of enticing goods and services, there is a growing understanding among informed individuals that something has gone badly wrong. The collective activity of the multinational corporations is not bringing us an earthly paradise. Instead, it is bringing us environmental devastation, growing inequality, endless war, and the curtailment of freedoms.

This essay explains the necessity of subduing the corporations and returning them to a politically subservient role in which their efficiencies can be harnessed to the public good rather than pernicious institutional aggrandizement. In my view, the struggle between the networked people of the world and ruthless, malignant corporations will be the defining conflict of this century. Part I of the essay states the case for action.

Progressives had high hopes when Jim Webb was elected. Surely this upright man would help end the war, even if he had to use military swagger to win the election. But the reality of Jim Webb’s politics has been a cruel disappointment. Jim Webb’s idea of responding to the agony of Iraq is to work relentlessly to make American soldiers more comfortable.

You see, for Jim Webb, Iraq is all about the suffering of Americans. But it is the Iraqis who are dying of cholera. It is the Iraqis who are being gunned down by Blackwater cowboys. It is the Iraqis who lack electricity. It is the Iraqis whose cultural legacy is being crushed and looted. It is the Iraqis who are being ethnically “cleansed.”

So what is Jim Webb’s solution? We need to make sure that US troops are adequately rested between tours in Iraq. This is Jim Webb’s courageous response to the agony of the Iraqi people.

As the prospect of an attack on Iran grows more likely, nobody has arrived at a rational explanation for why our nation would undertake such a foolhardy adventure with such a high probability of disastrous consequences. If reason cannot be our guide, we must look elsewhere. The only explanation that fits all the available evidence is that Americans wish to expunge their sins in Iraq through a catastrophe.

Like the guilty murderer in “Crime and Punishment,” Americans cannot carry the pain of what we have done to Iraq. We have effectively destroyed a nation of 20 million people that was the cradle of civilization. Close to a million civilians have died in the war; two million have fled; much of the country’s institutions have been looted and burned; and cholera is ravaging refugee camps.

We did this to Iraq, and we know that we did it. No moral person can carry responsibility for this enormous transgression without atonement. Here is what form I believe the atonement will take.