Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 11.16.05

[David Shove (shove001]

           P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R     11.16.05

1. Counter recruit    11.18 12noon
2. Somali/book        11.18 3:30pm
3. Palestine vigil    11.18 4:15pm
4. RCTA open house    11.18 6:30pm
5. WalMart/film/UFCW  11.18 7pm
6. WalMart/film/UU    11.18 7pm
7. Frances M Lappe    11.18 7pm
8. Sultan/Beirut      11.18 7pm
9. Writers festival   11.18 7pm
10. Iraq war/film     11.18 7:15pm
11. WalMart/film/Olds 11.18 8pm

12. Fitrakis/Wasserman - Democracy dead via Ohio 2005's referenda defeats?
13. Michael Doliner    - Soup of the evening, beautiful soup
14. ed                 - The conversion of Henry Ford

--------1 of 14--------

From: sarah standefer <scsrn [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Counter recruit 11.18 12noon

Counter Recruitment Demonstration
Our Children Are Not Cannon Fodder
Fridays   NOON-1
Recruiting Office at the U of M
At Washington and Oak St.  next to Chipolte
for info call Barb Mishler 612-871-7871


--------2 of 14--------

From: "Krueger, Rodney" <rodney.krueger [at] frontiercorp.com>
Subject: Somali/book 11.18 3:30pm

Author Visit @ Franklin Library
Panel Discussion with Dr. Hassan Eibakar

Join Dr. Hassan Eibakar and a panel of guests for a discussion of the
issues and topics in his newly published book, "Beyond the Rainbow" on
Friday, November 18, 2005, 3:30 pm, at the Franklin Community Library.
Beyond the Rainbow is Dr. Eibakar's look at the diaspora of the Somali
People as seen through a series of short "episodes" or chapters. This
event is free and open to the public.

Friday, November 18
3:30-5:30pm
Franklin Library 1314 E Franklin Av Minneapolis


--------3 of 14--------

From: peace 2u <tkanous [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Palestine vigil 11.18 4:15pm

Every Friday
Vigil to End the Occupation of Palestine
4:15-5:15pm
Summit & Snelling, St. Paul

There are now millions of Palestinians who are refugees due to Israel's
refusal to recognize their right under international law to return to
their own homes since 1948.


--------4 of 14--------

From Mary Turck mturck [at] americas.org
Subject: RCTA open house 11.18 6:30pm

November 18 6:30-9:30pm. Open House Join us for our annual evening of
good music, good food and good company AND an opportunity to preview our
annual holiday fair trade craft sale!  $15 per person, two people for $25.
No one turned away for lack of funds. Resource Center of the Americas,
3019 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis 55406 FFI: 612-276-0788.


--------5 of 14--------

From: stpaulunions.org <llwright [at] stpaulunions.org>
Subject: WalMart/film/UFCW 11.18 7pm

Brave New Films presents Robert Greenwalds latest movie:
"WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price"
On Friday, November 18th at 7pm
UFCW Local 789 Hall
266 Hardman Ave North in South St. Paul


--------6 of 14--------

From: ERALLIS [at] aol.com
From: Metro Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance
Subject: WalMart/film/UU 11.18 7pm

UU Showing of WAL-MART: The High Price of Low Cost, Robert Greenwald's
eye-opening documentary on Wal-Mart. 95 minutes. Includes refreshments and
a brief discussion of reactions and local follow up actions.

Friday, November 18
7-9pm
First Universalist Church
3400 Dupont Avenue S, Minneapolis
For more information, contact Betsy Allis at erallis [at] aol.com or
612-871-6946.


--------7 of 14--------

From: Diane J. Peterson <birch7 [at] comcast.net>
Subject: Frances Moore Lappe 11.18 7pm

The Land Stewardship Project presents author and activist:
Frances Moore Lappe

Ms. Lappe discusses her latest book, "Democracy's Edge"
Friday November 18
7pm
Saint Joan of Arc Catholic Church
4537 3rd Avenue South
Minneapolis

Lappe is the author or co-author of fifteen books, including the
bestseller "Diet for a Small Planet" and her latest work "Democracy's
Edge;" the co-founder of two national organizations that focus on food and
the roots of democracy; and the fourth American to receive the Right
Livelihood Award (sometimes called the "Alternative Nobel").

She will be discussing her new book and her pioneering work on the global
issues of food, land, and democracy - and why there is real hope for
progressive change.

The event is a fundraiser for the Land Stewardship Project, a Minnesota
based grassroots organization whose mission is to foster an ethic of
stewardship for farmland, promote sustainable agriculture, and organize
for social and economic justice in Minnesota's farm communities.

A summary of "Democracy's Edge"
by Frances Moore Lappe
"Democracy's Edge" is about hope - not sappy, wishful thinking but hope
grounded in a grasp of the root causes of spreading misery.  I propose
that we are in the midst of an extraordinary historical moment - one in
which anti-democratic forces appear to be in ascendance while at the same
time, invisible to most of us, a powerful current is stirring that may
well take us to democracy's next historical stage.  I cast aside the
gloomy view that Americans are hopelessly divided left vs. right and
secular vs. religious, and uncover widespread shared sentiment and common
democratic innovation across these supposed barriers.

For more information or to RSVP: Mike McMahon at the Land Stewardship
Project office in Minneapolis. Phone:  612-722-6377 Email:
mcmahon [at] landstewardshipproject.org


--------8 of 14--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Sultan/Beirut 11.18 7pm

Friday, November 18:
- Cathy Sultan introduces her new book "A Beirut Heart: One Woman's War"
@ Border's, Calhoun Square (3001 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis), 7pm.
(612)825-0336


--------9 of 14--------

From: warren park <wapark [at] mn.rr.com>
Subject: Writers festival 11.18 7pm

Hello again from the Powderhorn Writers Festival, an on-going celebration
of the literary arts. This Friday, Nov 18th at 7:00-9:00 PM at the May Day
Cafe (35th and Bloomington Aves. in South Minneapolis, five blocks south
of Lake street), PWF is presenting a literary cabaret featuring area
writers presenting their own original poems and prose inspired by and
connecting with our untraditional "Thanksgiving theme," namely:

THANKS/NO THANKS A LITERARY CABARET OF GIVING, RECEIVING AND BLOWING OFF
STEAM!

This event promises to be an entertaining and exciting showcasing of some
of our neighborhood's best writers. Who knows what they'll come up with?
Support your local writers and have fun too. Please come! Admission is by
donation of $5. Some snacks will be available too.


--------10 of 14--------

From: Adam Sekuler <adam [at] mnfilmarts.org>
Subject: Iraq war/film 11.18 7:15pm

OCCUPATION DREAMLAND
November 18 - 24
At 7:15 & 9:15pm nightly 3:15 & 5:15pm Sat. & Sun also
AT THE BELL AUDITORIUM

Occupation: Dreamland offers a rare and intimate window into the daily
life of one group of US soldiers stationed in Iraq to ³keep peace² less
than one year after President Bush announced mission accomplished. The
film follows one squad in the US Armyıs 82nd Airborne deployed in the
doomed Iraqi city of Falluja during the winter of 2004. Featuring a series
of remarkably candid interviews with the squadıs soldiers who detail their
sometimes shocking daily life and the creep of disillusionment with their
mission, Occupation: Dreamland brings a first hand view of the moral and
operational complexities inherent in American warfare in the 21st century.

As low-intensity conflict proliferates, distrust between the Iraqi
civilians in Falluja and the US soldiers stationed there increase leading
to greater confusion and skepticism on all sides. The film presents a
fascinating look at the last days before a final series of assaults in the
spring of 2004 effectively destroyed Falluja.

Tickets to this screening are $8 general, $6.50 students/seniors, $5 MFA
members

The Bell Auditorium is the nationıs only dedicated year-round non-fiction
film screen. It is located at 10 Church Street SE in Minneapolis inside
the Bell Museum of Natural History. More information can be found at
www.mnfilmarts.org/bell or by calling 612.331.7563


--------11 of 14--------

From: Larry Olds <lolds [at] popednews.org>
Subject: WalMart/film/Olds 11.18 8pm
info on the "premiere" screenings of the new film about  Wal-Mart

Dear Friends, Neighbors, and Acquaintances,
I am joining over 7000 others across the country and participating in the
Premiere of the new film WAL-MART: THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICES by offering
a free screening.  I will be show the video projected on my home movie
screen.

Friday, November 18 at 8 pm.

The screening is free.

If you can, bring snacks to share.  RSVP by return email or by
calling 612 722 3442

If you can't come Friday night, join the University of Minnesota
Labor Education Service (LES) on Wed, Nov 16 at 7:00 in Rm 125 Wiley
Hall - info at <http://www.workdayminnesota.org/>www.workdayminnesota.org .

Or there are at least 30 other free screenings of the video in Minneapolis
or St. Paul during the week.  Check
http://action.bravenewfilms.org/event/wm_search.jsp?zip=55407&track= to
find one that suits you.

Larry Olds 3322 15th Ave S Minneapolis MN 55407 USA 612/722-3442


--------12 of 14--------

Published on Saturday, November 12, 2005 by the Free Press
Has American Democracy Died an Electronic Death in Ohio 2005's Referenda
Defeats?
by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

While debate still rages over Ohio's stolen presidential election of 2004,
the impossible outcomes of key 2005 referendum issues may have put an
electronic nail through American democracy.

Once again, the Buckeye state has hosted an astonishing display of
electronic manipulation that calls into question the sanctity of America's
right to vote, and to have those votes counted in this crucial swing
state.

The controversy has been vastly enhanced due to the simultaneous
installation of new electronic voting machines in nearly half the state's
88 counties, machines the General Accounting Office has now confirmed
could be easily hacked by a very small number of people.

Last year, the US presidency was decided here. This year, a bond issue and
four hard-fought election reform propositions are in question.

Issue One on Ohio's 2005 ballot was a controversial $2 billion "Third
Frontier" proposition for state programs ostensibly meant to create jobs
and promote high tech industry. Because some of the money may seem
destined for stem cell research, Issue One was bitterly opposed by the
Christian Right, which distributed leaflets against it.

The Issue was pushed by a Taft Administration wallowing in corruption.
Governor Bob Taft recently pleaded guilty to misdemeanors stemming from
golf outings he took with Tom Noe, the infamous Toledo coin dealer who has
taken $4 million or more from the state. Taft entrusted Noe with some $50
million in investments for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, from
which some $12 million is now missing. Noe has been charged with federal
money laundering violations on behalf of the Bush-Cheney campaign. Taft's
public approval ratings in Ohio are currently around 15%.

Despite public fears the bond issue could become a glorified GOP slush
fund, Issue One was supported by organized labor. A poll run on the front
page of the Columbus Dispatch on Sunday, November 6, showed Issue One
passing with 53% of the vote. Official tallies showed Issue One passing
with 54% of the vote.

The polling used by the Dispatch had wrapped up the Thursday before the
Tuesday election. Its precision on Issue One was consistent with the
Dispatch's historic polling abilities, which have been uncannily accurate
for decades. This poll was based on 1872 registered Ohio voters, with a
margin of error at plus/minus 2.5 percentage points and a 95% confidence
interval. The Issue One outcome would appear to confirm the Dispatch
polling operation as the state's gold standard.

But Issues 2-5 are another story.

The Dispatch's Sunday headline showed "3 issues on way to passage." The
headline referred to Issues One, Two and Three. As mentioned, the poll was
dead-on accurate for Issue One.

Issues Two-Five were meant to reform Ohio's electoral process, which has
been under intense fire since 2004. The issues were very heavily
contested. They were backed by Reform Ohio Now, a well-funded bi-partisan
statewide effort meant to bring some semblance of reliability back to the
state's vote count. Many of the state's best-known moderate public figures
from both sides of the aisle were prominent in the effort. Their effort
came largely in response to the stolen 2004 presidential vote count that
gave George W. Bush a second term and led to U.S. history's first
Congressional challenge to the seating of a state's delegation to the
Electoral College.

Issue Two was designed to make it easier for Ohioans to vote early, by
mail or in person. By election day, much of what it proposed was already
put into law by the state legislature. Like Issue One, it was opposed by
the Christian Right. But it had broad support from a wide range of Ohio
citizen groups. In a conversation the day before the vote, Bill Todd, a
primary official spokesperson for the opposition to Issues Two through
Five, told attorney Cliff Arnebeck that he believed Issues Two and Three
would pass.

The November 6 Dispatch poll showed Issue Two passing by a vote of 59% to
33%, with about 8% undecided, an even broader margin than that predicted
for Issue One.

But on November 8, the official vote count showed Issue Two going down to
defeat by the astonishing margin of 63.5% against, with just 36.5% in
favor. To say the outcome is a virtual statistical impossibility is to
understate the case. For the official vote count to square with the
pre-vote Dispatch poll, support for the Issue had to drop more than 22
points, with virtually all the undecideds apparently going into the "no"
column.

The numbers on Issue Three are even less likely.

Issue Three involved campaign finance reform. In a lame duck session at
the end of 2004, Ohio's Republican legislature raised the limits for
individual donations to $10,000 per candidate per person for anyone over
the age of six. Thus a family of four could donate $40,000 to a single
candidate. The law also opened the door for direct campaign donations from
corporations, something banned by federal law since the administration of
Theodore Roosevelt.

The GOP measure sparked howls of public outrage. Though again opposed by
the Christian Right, Issue Three drew an extremely broad range of support
from moderate bi-partisan citizen groups and newspapers throughout the
state. The Sunday Dispatch poll showed it winning in a landslide, with 61%
in favor and just 25% opposed.

Tuesday's official results showed Issue Three going down to defeat in
perhaps the most astonishing reversal in Ohio history, claiming just 33%
of the vote, with 67% opposed. For this to have happened, Issue Three's
polled support had to drop 28 points, again with an apparent 100%
opposition from the previously undecideds.

The reversals on both Issues Two and Three were statistically staggering,
to say the least.

The outcomes on Issue Four and Five were slightly less dramatic. Issue
Four meant to end gerrymandering by establishing a non-partisan commission
to set Congressional and legislative districts. The Dispatch poll showed
it with 31% support, 45% opposition, and 25% undecided. Issue Four's final
margin of defeat was 30% in favor to 70% against, placing virtually all
undecideds in the "no" column.

Issue Five meant to take administration of Ohio's elections away from the
Secretary of State, giving control to a nine-member non-partisan
commission. Issue Five was prompted by Secretary of State J. Kenneth
Blackwell's administration of the 2004 presidential vote, particularly in
light of his role as co-chair of Ohio's Bush-Cheney campaign. The Dispatch
poll showed a virtual toss-up, at 41% yes, 43% no and 16% undecided. The
official result gave Issue Five just 30% of the vote, with allegedly 70%
opposed.

But the Sunday Dispatch also carried another headline: "44 counties will
break in new voting machines." Forty-one of those counties "will be using
new electronic touch screens from Diebold Election System," the Dispatch
added.

Diebold's controversial CEO Walden O'Dell, a major GOP donor, made
national headlines in 2003 with a fundraising letter pledging to deliver
Ohio's 2004 electoral votes to Bush.

Every vote in Ohio 2004 was cast or counted on an electronic device. About
15% - some 800,000 votes - were cast on electronic touchscreen machines
with no paper trail. The number was about seven times higher than Bush's
official 118,775-vote margin of victory. Nearly all the rest of the votes
were cast on punch cards or scantron ballots counted by opti-scan devices
- some of them made by Diebold - then tallied at central computer stations
in each of Ohio's 88 counties.

According to a recent General Accounting Office report, all such
technologies are easily hacked. Vote skimming and tipping are readily
available to those who would manipulate the vote. Vote switching could be
especially easy for those with access to networks by which many of the
computers are linked. Such machines and networks, said the GAO, had
widespread problems with "security and reliability." Among them were "weak
security controls, system design flaws, inadequate security testing,
incorrect system configuration, poor security management and vague or
incomplete voting system standards, among other issues."

With the 2005 expansion of paperless touch-screen machines into 41 more
Ohio counties, this year's election was more vulnerable than ever to
centralized manipulation. The outcomes on Issues 2-5 would indicate just
that.

The new touchscreen machines were brought in by Blackwell, who had vowed
to take the state to an entirely e-based voting regime.

As in 2004, there were instances of chaos. In inner city, heavily
Democratic precincts in Montgomery County, the Dayton Daily News reported:
"Vote count goes on all night: Errors, unfamiliarity with computerized
voting at heart of problem." Among other things, 186 memory cards from the
e-voting machines went missing, prompting election workers in some cases
to search for them with flashlights before all were allegedly found.

In Tom Noe's Lucas County, Election Director Jill Kelly explained that her
staff could not complete the vote count for 13.5 hours because poll
workers "were not adequately trained to run the new machines."

But none of the on-the-ground glitches can begin to explain the impossible
numbers surrounding the alleged defeat of Issues Two through Five. The
Dispatch polling has long been a source of public pride for the powerful,
conservative newspaper, which endorsed Bush in 2004.

The Dispatch was somehow dead accurate on Issue One, and then staggeringly
wrong on Issues Two through Five. Sadly, this impossible inconsistency
between Ohio's most prestigious polling operation and these final official
referendum vote counts have drawn virtually no public scrutiny.

Though there were glitches, this year's voting lacked the massive
irregularities and open manipulations that poisoned Ohio 2004. The only
major difference would appear to be the new installation of touchscreen
machines in those additional 41 counties.

And thus the possible explanations for the staggering defeats of Issues
Two through Five boil down to two: either the Dispatch polling - dead
accurate for Issue One - was wildly wrong beyond all possible statistical
margin of error for Issues 2-5, or the electronic machines on which Ohio
and much of the nation conduct their elections were hacked by someone
wanting to change the vote count.

If the latter is true, it can and will be done again, and we can forget
forever about the state that has been essential to the election of every
Republican presidential candidate since Lincoln.

And we can also, for all intents and purposes, forget about the future of
American democracy.

Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman are co-authors of How the GOP Stole
America's 2004 Election and is Rigging 2008 available at
http://www.freepress.org/ and http://www.harveywasserman.com/, and, with
Steve Rosenfeld, of What Happened in Ohio, available from The New Press in
spring, 2006.
 1970-2005 The Columbus Free Press

==
[Will we put up with stolen elections and blocked reforms? Will we just
hand the country over to the corporations and the fascism they seem to
favor? Will bourgeois respectatility make us keep quiet until they come to
get us? This latest coup in Ohio is blatant - a finger right in the face,
Whaddya gonna do about it, boy?? intended to make us back down the one
last time before we admit we're nothing. As someone has said, those who
make peaceful change impossible make violent revolution inevitable. Will
the Ohio elections be declared invalid and re-run, this time with only
paper ballots and open counting? Or do we let the crooks keep whatever
they've stolen?

And if we don't fix it, what point in the 2008 elections? Not fixed, we
KNOW the Republican (Jeb) will win, the Dem (Hillary) will lose. And then
all the voting for Hillary as the lesser evil is irrelevant. Screaming at
the Greens for any independence is worse than irrelevant - it forecloses
on perhaps the only way to begin to get out of this approach to fascism.

BushCo and the corporations we've let steal the country have now taken us
so far the wrong direction we have to do more than cast a vote every four
years. We now have to be active all the time - just like our enemy masters
are - or we will lose it all. -ed]


--------13 of 14--------

Soup Of The Evening, Beautiful Soup
by Michael Doliner
Swans

In the long run, the existence of this intensely elitist society in the
ancient Near East was of enormous importance to the history of Western
civilization. As late as 1700, the prevailing European social system was
still one in which vast power, the greater part of landed wealth, and the
prime control of political life belonged to the hereditary landed
aristocracy.  - Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages

(Swans - October 24, 2005)   In the history of Western civilization
democracy has prevailed for only a few slivers of time and even then only
in a few places, most notably the shining example of the fifth century in
Athens and the last 300 years on and off, more or less, here and there.
The complacency with which most Americans assume our democracy will
continue is unjustified given democracy's brief tenure in what we can see
of the last 5000 years. The democracy of fifth century Athens and all its
shining achievements ended with Athenian defeat in the Peloponnesian War.
At the start of the war Pericles warned his fellow citizens not to try to
expand their empire, but a defeat in the expansionist Sicilian Expedition
destroyed the Athenian navy and led eventually to the end of the
democracy.

Empire seems to be a hard temptation for democracies to resist. American
history is a history of aggressive expansion and empire building. Now
empire building has led to the end of our own democracy. Paul Craig
Roberts has eloquently demonstrated the point in a recent article. Here is
a quote.

"Two and one-half years after the March 2003 invasion, the U.S. Congress
and the American people still do not know the reason Iraq was invaded. The
U.S. is bogged down in an expensive and deadly combat, and no one outside
the small circle of neoconservatives who orchestrated the war knows the
reason why. Many guesses are rendered - oil, removal of Israel's enemy -
but the Bush administration has never disclosed its real agenda, which it
cloaked with the WMD deception.

"This itself is a powerful indication that American democracy is dead...

"In the U.S. today nothing stands in the way of the arbitrary exercise of
power by government. Federal courts have acquiesced in unconstitutional
detention policies. There is no opposition party, and there is no media,
merely huge conglomerates or collections of federal broadcasting licenses,
the owners of which are afraid to displease the government.

"The collapse of the institutions that confine government to law and bind
it with the Constitution was sudden." (1)

For anyone who knows the plans of the Leo Strauss educated "philosophers"
now in control of national policy, the end of democracy is not surprising.
Their hope is to erase the Enlightenment and its subsequent history of
liberal democracy and restore the Middle Ages, albeit with some modern
conveniences. (2) Their hatred of liberal democracy is the impetus for
their program, and their plan is to gain control of the United States and
transform it from a liberal democracy into a Straussian state they and
their successors can rule in perpetuity. Given the long history of elitist
government in the West they have good chances.

But if we read on in Cantor's The Civilization of the Middle Ages we
discover a tale of one elite after another gaining power and then losing
it through arrogance or moronic incompetence. According to Cantor, when
the Visigoths menaced Rome a general named Stilicho held them back until
jealous Roman aristocrats, with the connivance of the emperor, murdered
him. (3) The Visigoths had no interest in conquering Rome. They were just
trying to escape from the Huns. But two years after Stilicho's death the
Visigoths under Alaric stumbled almost unimpeded into the city. Here is
another good example.

"The Merovingian rulers did nothing for the people except to lead an
occasional military expedition. They spent their time satisfying their
gross desires and enriching their relatives and dependents. When there was
more than one king, as was frequent in the century following Clovis's
death, the rulers' chief interest was in fighting and killing each other,
so the history of the Merovingian family in the sixth and early seventh
centuries is mostly a bewildering tale of carnage and dishonor." (4)

The Merovingian power quickly waned as the Frankish and Gallo-Roman
nobility coalesced to oppose them.

The incompetence of the Merovingians is not nearly as surprising as the
even more stunning incompetence of the Straussian cabal in charge of the
Bush administration. Iraq, Katrina, the economy, peak oil, the huge
federal deficit, and looming ecological disaster all come to mind
immediately when thinking of their accomplishments. They too seem
preoccupied with enriching their friends, leading military expeditions,
and doing nothing for the people. Apparently they count on maintaining
their power through propaganda, Evangelical Christianity, and military
repression. They rely on the public's mindless acceptance of free-market
ideology and docile obedience to the cronies the philosophers have managed
to insinuate into the husk of the structure of what was the American
democracy.

Technology is democracy's art, so it is only natural for a child of
democracy to ask, "Will it work?" Can the philosophers hold power after
they get it? The average American is going to be in hot water. Of the
207,000 jobs created in July not a single one provides a tradable good or
service. (5) The United States of America is rapidly entering third-world
economic status. Neo-liberal free market ideology has allowed American
corporations to export most good jobs to China or to some other low
labor-cost site. At the same time steadily growing oil depletion will
increase prices of food, fuel, and just about everything else.

Americans simply won't be able to afford their suburban lives much longer.
But what better way to force the population back into serfdom or even
slavery than to impoverish them. The well-educated philosophers surely
know that poverty, already here for many, is just over the horizon for
many more. Clearly, it is part of the plan. The architects of our new
order do not fear a disillusioned population, for there is really nothing
that the mass of helpless citizens can do. On the contrary, a population
in reduced and perhaps desperate circumstances, will, they hope, accept a
new role as servants for the band of bookworms now in control. Indeed,
impoverishment of the population is, from their point of view, a good.

The picture doesn't look rosy for the America's traditional rich masters
either. Industrialists and international financiers who until so recently
have had everything their own way are now finding things going
inexplicably wrong. Four airlines are in bankruptcy and Ford and General
Motors are deadbeats, their debt reduced to junk status. (6) Leftist
leanings are knocking down what were once easy pickings in Latin America.
Instead of owning a gusher in Iraq, oil companies are threatened with
eviction from the entire Middle East. Public exposure has stripped the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, once ideal tools for
plunder, of their rhetorical altruistic cloaks. Peasants in the boonies
who were supposed to give up their loot without a fight are questioning
the wisdom of the free trade agreements, NAFTA and GATT. CEO's like Ken
Lay have supplied big business with a criminal mug. Massive foreign debt
threatens to incinerate the value of the dollar in a holocaust of
hyperinflation.

The philosophers have tried to help the poor rich, but have enriched only
a small number of them, putting others at risk of losing fortunes.
However, life is still very good and the rich are not inclined to do much
about the philosophers. Although a number of the members of Bush pre's
entourage objected to the war on Iraq on practical grounds, Bush fils
ignored them. Sure that the younger Bush is one of them, they can't bring
themselves to turn against him. They don't seem to have any way to deflect
the philosophers from their career before the end of the presidential
term, and they really don't want to. The philosophers can count on the
rich; there will just be ever fewer of them.

What about a military coup? Controlling the military poses a far greater
problem. In the history of the West most of the leaders have been
barbarian thugs or their progeny. Savagery was their game. What is to
prevent some Colonel, annoyed at the philosophers' destruction of the
military, from launching a coup d'tat with a little help from his friends?
Impossible in America? Why? It is unlikely that the smoke the philosophers
blow intoxicates military men as it does civilians. The draft-evading
philosophers must infuriate generals who have to obey their absurd orders.
There have been grumblings in the military about the incredible bungling
of the Iraq War that they never wanted. Surely it gave other generals
pause when Rumsfeld fired General Shinseki for offering reasonable advice.
When the Army, in a highly unusual move, also relieved General Kevin
Byrnes of his command for adultery just before war games at his post at
Fort Monroe, some thought they fired him for more political reasons. (7)

Until now the democratic architecture of the United States of America has
restrained the military. According to the Constitution the military is,
after all, subordinate to the civilian administration. But as it becomes
more and more apparent that the American democracy is ritual gesture, the
restraining writ of the Constitution will pale. The philosophers might ask
themselves why the generals would continue to obey them when the
philosophers have no more right to power than the generals do.

Unlike in some two-bit country, the military cannot rule in the United
States through fear. The Iraq war has busted the American army and what
military power remains resides in its whiz-bang technology. This
technology is expensive and the population has to pay for it through taxes
without effective complaint. In a more primitive country the military can
gather taxes through force. In such countries wealth resides in land,
crops, visible things. But here you need accountants to track down wealth
in its lair. Electrons shift wealth from account to account and from
country to country. And if the population does not think the tax
collection is legitimate it will certainly try to evade taxes. Military
force will not help in collecting them and will tear the economy apart in
trying.

The American population has great affection for the Constitution even
though it is mostly empty rigmarole that recalls an already supplanted
regime. "Democracy" is a handy totalitarian ideology. Whereas most
ideologies are complex structures of ideas that obscure reality behind a
utopian veil, Americans, who like to cut to the chase, need only this one
word. For this reason an American military coup will only endure in the
United States if the population is ready to abandon this nostalgic
attachment. The American military cannot rule the country by force for any
length of time. It is public affection for this Constitutional paper ship
of state that the military, and the Bush regime, still must respect.

How long can propaganda blow wind into the sails of this craft? Who knows,
but if propaganda fails perhaps religion will succeed. Religion is more
effective in hard times, just when propaganda isn't. Evangelical
Christianity might bind minds even more tightly in extremis. Perhaps the
philosophers hope to jump from the sinking ship of American liberal
democracy onto the ark of Evangelical Christianity? Liberal democracy
holds no allure for believers now, and they seem more than ready to sail
off from American democracy into a glowing sunset of rapture. The
Faithful's loyalty to Pat Robertson and his brethren rather than to
American liberalism is likely to remain through any deprivation.

If the philosophers, through support within the government for
fundamentalism can expand the powers of the Evangelicals, and the
Evangelicals can expand their already substantial flock so that it can
dominate American cultural life, then perhaps the philosophers can
maintain control even in the face of peak oil, monetary collapse, and
environmental degradation leading to food scarcity. Strauss encouraged
state Religion (almost any religion will do) to control the masses down
below while the philosophers steer on the bridge. Perhaps the union of
Evangelical Christianity and Straussian political science can land the
ship on a new Plymouth rock and, like lichen, which is an obligate
symbiotic relationship between green algae and certain fungal species, (8)
the philosophers joined with the Evangelicals can grow there.

To recapitulate, with the end of the American democracy the philosophers
can continue to rule only as long as they can maintain the public's
support for the now illusory democracy or for a substitute based upon
Evangelical Christianity. The philosophers hope to sail off to another
state of their own making, even though they know that their paper ship is
not on a wide sea, but in a tub of soup over a fire of greed. In the tub
the American consumer, like a frog slowly heated in this soup they call
"the economy," will remain, they hope, until cooked. If instead they heat
him too quickly he might jump out, capsizing the boat. Then power would be
out in the streets, and who would pick it up nobody can say. Only at that
point is a military coup, like the one that transformed Rome from a
Republic to an Empire, possible. But at that point the military will also
likely be in the soup.

To maintain power the philosophers will try to prevent such sudden
overheating. The somnambulant American must remain asleep at the wheel, in
front of the TV, and in Wal*Mart. The philosophers will run the economy on
debt, hide all bad news, manipulate equity markets, and offer false hopes
for circumventing looming disasters. They will offer bread and circuses.
They will deflect blame onto shadowy enemies. They will concoct
pseudo-sciences to deny ecological decay. They will launch wars for
"Democracy." They will do anything to try to hide the real disastrous
state of affairs behind their own faith-based fantasy. Their illusion
weaving will make it almost impossible for them to actually address real
problems, and the availability of resources the military needs will
diminish. As long as they can extract these resources from the ever more
desiccated population, all will be well. When it no longer can, something
will have to give.

The generals will not be happy with that situation, but, in spite of
having military power, they will be unable to use it in a coup d'tat so
long as the philosophers can cloth themselves in the trappings of
legitimacy. The generals, philosophers, super-rich, and Evangelicals are
stuck with each other in a kind of farcical death dance on the poop of the
paper ship. The philosophers need the generals, and like them, but want
them to be different. The generals dislike the philosophers but need them
and cannot free themselves from them. While they Charleston, the
Evangelicals and the super-rich, like debutantes along for the ride, bask
in the moonlight on deck chairs expecting their every whim to be
satisfied. The rest of us swim as best we can as the soup bubbles. So
sails the paper ship, but the superstructure is soggy with debt and moldy
with ecological degradation, and the ship is sinking.

Aside from these sea creatures there is no political organization within
the United States. The winner-take-all provisions of the Constitution have
guaranteed a two party system, and the importance of money within the
political process has made this two party system into a single party with
two money-grubbing heads. All other political organizations have
disintegrated, leaving the United States as a scattering of atomized
individuals. We cannot expect a revolution even from an awakened populace.
Soon Mother Nature will kick out the plug on the tub and the soup will
drain. The draining soup will douse the fire and the boat, all soppy and
moldy, will lie like a used napkin on the ground. If anyone is left alive
she might then build something new.

If not, not. In one, at most two, hundred million years all will be well.
The planet will heal the damage, new species will evolve to replace those
we exterminated, and even new warm seas will breed algae whose remains
will mix with sand and, over time, supply fossil fuels. As Kafka put it,
"There is plenty of hope, an infinite amount of hope - but not for us."

Being Americans, we can not leave it at that. "Surely, something can be
done!" "It's a crisis, but..." As Americans, we know that any problem has
a solution. In fantasy, the United States of America can be saved if the
Constitution again becomes a legal document. Since no one has noticed its
absence, perhaps someone could slip it back into place without anyone
being the wiser. Someone would have to prosecute those who violated it,
including the president, the philosophers, and their cronies. Someone
would have to reprimand Congress for unconstitutionally relinquishing its
war-making powers. Those who voted to do so should be forced to resign.
Laws such as the Patriot Act would have to be repealed. Treaties such as
the UN Charter would have to be respected. Those in the Supreme Court who
abetted Bush's unconstitutional installation after the first
pseudo-election should also be invited to resign.

If we can revive the Constitution as a real legal document we need to
modify it with a constitutional convention. Such a convention is extremely
perilous for the United States of America. Unlike France, Germany, and
most other countries, the United States has a founding moment and a
founding document. Without the Constitution it has no existence because
the Constitution created it. The Soviet Union was similar to the USA in
this respect. It was born in a founding event and did not survive the end
of the government created in that founding. But the Constitution as it
stands is just too flawed to support the kind of government we need now.
The political problems we face are largely institutional even if the Bush
administration is a true monstrosity. If left as it is, the Constitution
will simply revive the rigid two-party one-party system controlled by the
very rich. Our present government is institutionally delusional. It will
not be able to solve any of the real problems.

We have about two weeks to get all this done, and get a new real leader in
place, for we need real leadership before winter begins. Katrina and Rita
have done far more damage than the spinmeisters are letting on. Oil and
gas supplies were very tight before the hurricanes and the damage was
enormous. Repairs are moving slowly or not at all. Natural gas price
spikes and shortages are certain this winter. We need gas to make
electricity. Months of rolling blackouts would destabilize the country and
cause panic. Running out of gas (not completely impossible) would be a
disaster. A real leader would have to have the power to inaugurate radical
policies to conserve energy, policies that somnambulant Americans will not
willingly accept.

Much of the grain harvest came through the port of New Orleans, now
closed. As things stand, a lot of the harvest of corn and soybeans simply
won't get to market. (9) Both farmers and consumers will be hurt badly.
The leader will have to figure out a way to get this harvest in or prepare
for rapidly rising food prices.

A global influenza pandemic is brewing and we are totally unprepared for
it. If it is a major pandemic it will destroy all the social structures of
support. (10)

In March, Iran promises to launch its oil bourse, which will sell oil
priced in Euros and might encourage countries that have loaned us billions
to call the loans by selling dollars. If so, you can use those dollars to
stuff your shoes. The United States must find some way to begin paying
down this debt. Drastic cuts in the military budget would be a start.

The war...who needs to say more about the war.

This is the beginning of what James Kunstler calls "the long emergency."
Once hard facts finally tear the veil of illusion to reveal the ominous
situation and hysteria clouds minds we won't be able to set policy
rationally. Demagoguery is likely to prevail. Because this is a world
problem we need a leader who can persuade both Americans and foreigners.
That leaves out two classes of people, Republicans and Democrats.

And that is just the beginning. Smooth sailing fellow citizens!


--------14 of 14--------

 The Conversion of Henry Ford

 Henry Ford
 motors down the street
 in his 1910 Ford
 black black black
 then up the street
 shifting
 blowing his horn
 at the geese and
 pigs and dogs
 ooogah ooogah
 bang ka-pow
 a princely backfire
 geese and pigs
 and dogs jump
 and curse in unison

 God damn you Henry Ford
 and your goddam 1910 Ford
 black black black
 going down the street
 then up
 can't you
 for Christ's sake
 turn that damn thing off
 and walk
 like a real goose
 or pig or dog?

 By God
 you know
 you're right

 And he gets out
 of his 1910 Ford
 black black black
 and walks
 down the street
 like a goose
 up the street
 like a pig
 across the street
 like a dog.


 impromptu class poem 04.06.04


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   - David Shove             shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu
   rhymes with clove         Progressive Calendar
                     over 2225 subscribers as of 12.19.02
              please send all messages in plain text no attachments