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The
Politics of Chaos or
Chaotic Politics
Is
the purpose of Bush to rule by chaos? The way things are going that seems to be his principle,
policy and program.
For
instance, under his rule, the economy is faltering on the edge of national
bankruptcy, wages are stagnating or declining. A continuing unfavorable balance in international
trade that is threatening to increase an increasing budget deficit with no end
in sight. Tax cuts for the rich and more subsidies for corporations, notably
for oil while Exxon-Mobil rakes in profits more than $8 billion per quarter, is
policy number one. Meanwhile, welfare programs are cut to the bone
and Social Security is threatened by a phony idea of having workers invest in a
shaky stock market gamble. And economists are predicting an economic slow down
the rest of 2005.
The
environment is being destroyed in spite of convincing scientific evidence of the
need for extreme measures to save the planet.
International
treaties of long standing to promote peace and democracy are shoved aside in
order to promote U.S. imperialism, and continuous warfare for oil in Iraq and
elsewhere.
Promotion
of fundamentalist Christianity in violation of freedom of religion, continuing
subtle discrimination against African-Americans,
women and other minorities, continued assaults on democracy by such laws as the
Patriot Act and the attacks on liberals as "elitist'', upper class snobs
all show a threat of political
chaos endangering national welfare.
These
and other lies, distortions and propaganda to promote corporate power are
convincing evidence that Bush is undermining the future of the country, if not
the planet.
In
order to carry out his subversive scheme, Bush needs another Al Queda
strike such as 9/11, another major terrorist attack. If
a dirty bomb, a poison gas or disease attack were launched by Al Queda before
2008, the end of Bush's term, he could declare a national emergency, rule by
decree and make wholly "legal" any dictatorial law or measure he
desires - of course, "in the national interest."
This may all be fantasy on the order of worst-case scenario.
Even Bush,
you might say would not be willing to go that far. That may also be true.
But Bush is
not a free agent. His record shows beyond a shadow of doubt that he is a willing tool
of corporate power. He has had long training in how
to promote
corporate interests. What are corporate interests? They are bottom line profits - the
country, the planet and the environment be damned.
They
show this in many ways. One is off shoring jobs. Another is off shoring profits in phony
tax shelters that exempt them from taxes. The
Seattle Times reports, 04/04/05 in a column by Molly Ivins, Austin, Texas:
"The
Tax Justice
Network recently reported the world's richest individuals have placed $11.5
trillion in assets in offshore tax havens to avoid paying taxes, a sum 10 times
the GDP of Great Britain. The most authoritative study yet done shows that rich
people clip $860 billion in coupons a year off this money."
. . .
"The
ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay reached 301-1 in 2003. The average worker
takes home $517 a week, while the average CEO earns, $155,796 per week,
according to Business week. In 1982, the ratio was 42-1 . . .
"The
data shows that the share of real income growth that as gone to wages and
salaries been smaller than during any comparable post-World II recovery period,
while the share of real income growth that has gone to corporate profits has
been larger than during all comparable post-World War II recoveries. . . .
In previous recoveries, workers got an average of
49 percent of national income gains, while corporate profits got 18 percent.
This time,
the workers are getting 23 percent and the corporations are getting 44 percent -
about one half as the share that has gone to corporate profits."
All this stealing from everyone else being promoted by the corporate program
designed to impoverish workers,
unemployed and poor, we have the
whole highway
robbery being promoted internationally by such pacts as CAFTA - the Central
American free Trade Agreement. This pact would enlarge on the already passed
NAFTA - the North American Free Trade Agreement that included Canada, U.S. and
Mexico.
Under its
policy according to Rick S. Bender, President of the Washington State labor
Council as quoted in The Seattle Times, 5/9/05:
"Over
the past decade following the passage of the North American Free Trade
Agreement, the United States lost 900,000 jobs and job opportunities.
NAFTA, which devoted page after page to safeguarding corporate interest,
left workers' interests with virtually no protection at all." . . .
"So-called
free trade, under the rules Grafted by corporate lobbyists, has devastated
communities, Companies close or export their jobs, sending millions of skilled
workers to look for low paying service jobs at such places as Wal-Mart.
And CAFTA won’t bring it back." . . .
"
. . . These restrictions would limit Washington's right to enforce living wage
investment ordinary investor contracts with local businesses.". . .
"Forty
percent of Central America's workers earn less than $2 a day and workers' rights
are routinely abused. CAFTA does
absolutely nothing to protect workers' rights. Under the CAFTA system,
multinational corporations will speed up their global race to the bottom on
wages and workplace protection."
So
there you have it. It goes on and on
with no end in sight.
We
could list many examples of economic abuse.
But
we will close with the
quote from Molly lvins from
the beginning of this article,
"The
Tax Justice Network recently reported the world's richest individuals have
placed $11.5 trillion in assets in offshore tax havens to avoid paying taxes, a
sum
ten times the GDP of Great Britain. The most authoritative study yet done shows
that rich people clip $860 billion in coupons a year off this money."
Well, as President LEO GERRARD of the Steel Workers Union said at the
convention combining the Steel Workers with PACE, said,
“What we
need is a new economic system. Let's hope we get it before it is too late.”
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