Paris Jihadi Shootings and?

Events like the Jihadi shootings in Paris, the anti-Muslim demos and movements in Europe (and corresponding prejudice here among white reactionaries), are one sign of the instability that's becoming endemic in global civilization.

Another is the fall in oil prices, created by the fracking boom here and the intentional continuation of production as usual in Saudi Arabia. Bankruptcies in Venezuela, Russia and Iran, could visit us, through bank failures caused by collapse of the trillions of dollars in fracking derivatives held by US banks. We could revisit 2008, but with oil derivatives instead of mortgage derivatives as the cause. And the new Republican Congress has just made it possible for the big banks to seize depositors' money if they're in danger of collapse!

Obvious, who funded their campaigns, isn't it?

There is no such thing as class war, except as waged by the terrorists--and that's not class; it's culture, religion, race hatred, anything but what generated it: the exploitation of the whole world by a tiny, rapacious elite.

It isn't the usual suspects of rightwing conspiracy theorists; it's the corporate class, worldwide, that has captured democracy and autocracy alike: from the US to China. Some of the elite are US bank leaders, some are CEO's of huge corporations; some are speculators riding the tide of triumphant capitalism. With few exceptions, they appear to be in 'the game' to carry off as much wealth as they can, by almost any means. Think how powerful you feel, when you make as much in an hour as an ordinary worker makes in a decade. It doesn't seem to occur to them that they are killing the goose who lays golden eggs. What will sustain an economy when there are only the wealthy and the desperate?

But, hey, there's no Marie Antoinette around here!

Are the lives of the rich and famous an open book? Celeb followers are entertained by the show biz stars: rich enough, but hardly the billionaires behind their private mansion walls: celebs are mere servants of the Rich, but intentionally not so Famous.

I've often asked the question: what will the billionaires do, when everyone else is driven to give up, or cannot survive traumatic climate change? Will they retreat to underground bunkers?

Apparently, someone is building a bunker world in Kansas; it will include everything, including a pet park, and you only need about $3 million to buy into it, not that you'd want to live in it, unless the apocalypse is imminent. After all, who would want to live in Kansas, if you can live in San Francisco, or New York, or…?

In the dark ages, when I was in graduate school, I read a piece about the possible lifestyle of the world's managers: they would live in any "beautiful place in the world," from which they could manage multi-billion dollar corporations--to exploit people all over the world. That future seems more likely daily, unless some among the politically aware can persuade the unaware and Fox-crazed to resist being ripped off by the filthy rich.

Icelandic Style Revolution

Iceland's revolution should be old news--if our media actually covered important international stories not involving violence and war. Iceland, in 2008-2009 went through the most dramatic financial collapse of the sub-prime induced banking crisis. Its bankers had speculated many times the value of Iceland's GDP, and their ventures crashed, bankrupting the nation.

Maybe, we didn't hear much because of the smallness and remoteness of Iceland, although Mali is as remote and in population almost as small (Iceland's population: 319,000; Mali's 14.5 million).

Furthermore, Iceland is a positive story compared to Mali, where the former colonial power was welcomed enthusiastically because the Malian state is near collapse and vulnerable to Muslim extremists.

Iceland's banks collapsed in 2008-2009 and Icelanders threw out the conservative government through popular outrage and clanging kitchen pots, not gales of machine gun bullets.

Not only did a new, leftist government take office but a popularly elected body of non-politician citizen members, randomly selected, is helping to write a new constitution.

Further, the collapsed banks were nationalized, and although the left-wing government intended to pay back the banks' private, international debts through taxation--as per IMF instructions--the people again rebelled, and defeated the proposal by 93%.

Yet, Iceland is not an international pariah, despite refusing to pay international speculator debts, and despite bringing criminal charges against a whole raft of bankers and speculators.

The IMF noted that Iceland is experiencing positive growth (ca 2.5%), better than the US, much better than the recession-bound EC, yet it chose not to follow IMF policy. It inflated its currency, launched an aggressive home mortgage relief program, and, instead of austerity, has embarked on development-led growth.

Granted, Iceland is small, homogenous and the first democracy (founded 930), but it offers a model for recovery from the debt crisis that is completely the opposite of Europe's failed austerity policies, or Republican/Tea Party proposals. Furthermore, it appears to be successful. The Icelandic model demonstrates just how far the Obama administration has departed from what the US really needs: real homeowner relief, real control (or nationalization?) of the financial sector, criminal indictments, not just slaps on the wrists of banker-speculators and demand-led growth promoted by government.

The instigator of the popular (kitchenware) rebellion in Iceland has authored a Youtube piece with Greek subtitles: his message? Greece would be better off renouncing its debts and going on its own, like Iceland.

Why haven't we heard more of this? The story is complicated (I've oversimplified hugely), and it's counter to the narrative the powers-that-be, our contemporary Roman Senators, want us to hear. They are afraid they won't be paid, or might actually go to jail. Instead, they can flood the airwaves with the Super-bowl, stories of stars, international disasters like Mali and Greece and their own demands for austerity. Why? They'd rather avoid taxes just like their Roman forebears--which is why Rome "fell."