Recording and Reporting on the Damage, Deception and Absurdity Produced Daily by the Prevailing Culture of America and the World

A Socio-Cultural definition of Prevailing Culture

In accordance with emergent culture theory, any modern Western-modeled cultural group can be subdivided into 3 primary classes according to the type of power each class wields.

There is the Governor class of political lawmaking (design-engineering specifications-coercive force) and law enforcing power (police-military-brute force). In other words comply with our demands or get thrown in jail.

Closely aligned with the governor class is the corporate class whose primary attribute is unrivaled economic power.

Working together the corporate and governor class (US-GORP) design the laws to conduct the behavior and channel the surplus effort(“taxable” income & commercial exchanges) of the third class known as the general public or more specifically the subject class.

The power base of the subject class lies in their numerical superiority.

I refer to subject class as such because we are subjected to the brunt (approaching 100%) of the negative consequences that result from the legislative directives (laws or design-engineering specifications) co-designed by the governor-corporate class alliance.

Additionally, there are non-legislated abuses of the subject class that result from US-GORP practices(i.e. toxic waste dumping into air, water, soil & living organisms) that are not yet moderated or eliminated by laws despite the evidence that such practices are harmful to all living organisms and the ecology they are a part of.

Despite the subject class’s quantitative advantage, the aforementioned condition has persisted since the dawn of Western civilization–about 5500 years ago.

The subject class has yet to organize sufficiently enough to realize and assert its power in order to counterbalance the catastrophic extremes of US-GORP.

The Internet represents the public’s best tool with which to counteract the prevailing strategies (misinformation) of the US-GORP. Emergent culture (the social dynamic) arises in the outer edges of the subject class.

Emerging cultural values i.e. environmentalism, socio-economic justice, gender equality etc. are in direct opposition to the goals of the prevailing culture.

In summary: A prevailing culture is a minority social group comprised of the most powerful political and economic classes working together to coercively extract (taxation & induced consumerism) the greatest amount of monetary value from the subject class through almost any means possible and at the expense of human lives, human suffering, social chaos, cultural decay and environmental degradation.

They accomplish their goals through their maze like lawmaking-law enforcing powers and through their ability to manipulate the mass mind through the use of continuous and sophisticated mis-information broadcasts or US-GORP sponsored TV, radio & print messages and commercials.

Prevailing culture can be used interchangeably with other terms such as:

• Aristocracy
• Corporatocracy
• Bourgeoisie
• The Establishment
• Oligarchy
• Plutocracy
• Ruling class
• Upper Ten Thousand
• GORP
• Ruthless Class
• Leadership Class
• Current Cultural Leadership
• Current Global Leadership
• The Matrix
  
• The Menace

The Predominant Legacy

Western Civilization

thus far

INDEX

Note: Click on any index topic and then click on any image to take you back to the index.

• Top
  
• Brutal & Careless Government
• Corporate Capitalist Menace
  
• Corporate-Government Collusion
• Corrupt & Covert Government
• Dissent Suppression & Domestic Surveillance
• From the Horses Mouth
  
• Inept or Purposeful Government?
• Geo-Politics
• Israeli-Jewish Political Involvement in the US
• Militarism or Legalized Rape, Pillage & Plunder
• State Secrecy & Censorship
• International
• Site Wide Index of Subjects & Themes

Brutal & Careless Government

Stop the Campaign to Loot Social Security William Greider, The Nation.com Although Obama has stated his support for Social Security, progressives need to fight against private interests who will push him to compromise……..

Soldier Suicide Rate Keeps Growing
“‘Why do the numbers keep going up?’ Army Secretary Pete Geren said at a Pentagon news conference Jan. 29. ‘We can’t tell you.’ The Army announced a $50 million study to figure it out.” The two reporters find a wealth of evidence of military misdiagnosis, mistreatment, and plain, outright lack of desire to face a plague of suicides……..

[This is how they welcome home and care for our mentally and physically ruined soldiers who risk thier lives for armchair commanders and boardroom planners? This article could be sub-categorized under SHEER OUTRAGE!!!]

American Crimes Against Humanity Slowly See the Light of Day Former Guantánamo prison guard Brandon Neely has come forward to air his feelings of guilt about how he and some soldiers treated the prisoners shortly after 9/11……..

You Have Moved on, But the Injured and Burned Children of Gaza Have Not; Call for Cyberspace Aid Convoy Informed Comment (Juan Cole)
The demonstrating crowds have gone home. The blog postings have tapered off. The pundits have moved on. Congress is back to its old tricks, ignoring public opinion in favor of the lobbyists and money men. The US public is worried about losing its job or getting back the one it lost. Gaza here is a dimming memory, a momentary nightmare now past……..

Corporate Capitalist Menace

Genetically Modified Seeds: Monsanto is Putting Normal Seeds Out of Reach

Theft of Life: A story of the struggle against Monsanto and the corporate takeover of our genetic inheritance
[Here are the details of Monsanto contracts you should know as well as their various means of control over farmers.

Goodbye farmers markets, CSAs, and roadside stands.
The "food safety" bills in Congress were written by Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, ADM, etc. All are associated with the opposite of food safety. What is this all about then?

Eli Lilly and the Case for a Corporate Death Penalty
At this point, the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is basically a public menace.

10 Dirty Tricks Wall Street Con Artists Will Pull to Keep the Rip-offs Going
How traders, lobbyists, PR hot shots will try to limit reform and brainwash America.

American Citizens in Appalachia Are Living in a State of TerrorLike sitting ducks waiting to be buried in an avalanche of mountain waste, we are trapped in a war zone within our own country.

Corrupt & Covert Government

Amy Goodman: Two Former PA Judges Took Bribes to Send Juveniles to Private Prisons
The judges allegedly got $2.6 million in kickbacks to railroad thousands of youths to prison without representation........

Calif. crisis blamed on 'Republican infection'
Calif. crisis blamed on 'Republican infection'

Is the U.S. Paying Off the Italian Government for Forging the Niger Documents?
Evidence suggests a payoff to Italy for supplying the forged documents Bush famously used to justify launching the Iraq war.

Role of Alleged CIA Asset in Mumbai Attacks Being DownplayedThe role in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month of an underworld kingpin that heads an organization known as D-Company, has known ties to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and who is alleged to have ties with the CIA is apparently being whitewashed, suggesting that his capture and handover to India might prove inconvenient for either the ISI or the CIA, or both.

PAULSON WAS BEHIND BAILOUT MARTIAL LAW THREAT
Senator James Inhofe has revealed that Henry Paulson was behind the threats of martial law and a new great depression prior to the passage of the bailout bill, having made such warnings during a conference call on September 19th, around two weeks before the legislation was eventually approved by both the Senate and Congress.

On October 2, Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman gave a stunning speech on the House floor during which he decried the fact that, "Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday that the sky would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day, another couple of thousand the second day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no."

Corporate-Government Collusion

Bank accused of fraud gave big bucks to Congress; members duck, skirt calls from our investigative reporters.

Inept or Purposeful Government?.....Both

Greenspan says recession will be 'longest and deepest' since '30s The lifelong free marketer,(Greenspan) who ran the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006, has been rethinking his assumptions about how financial markets work best since the U.S. economic crisis deepened sharply last year; he now sees a much larger role for government regulation........

[You mean economics is not science? And the grandmaster made assumptions. One could not build a working bicycle on assumptions. No wonder some call the financial system a house of cards.]

Environment: Leading Dems Are in King Coal’s Pocket
Despite their inspiring speeches on global warming, they’ve bought into the sham of coal’s reemergence as a “clean” source of energy.

The Persistent Myth of “Intelligence Failure”
[In sum, the notion of an "intelligence failure" is a convenient myth for all who propagate it.

Spending on Iraq 'poorly tracked'
The inspector general for the Defense Department said yesterday that the Pentagon cannot account for almost $15 billion worth of goods and services ranging from trucks, bottled water and mattresses to rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns that were bought from contractors in the Iraq reconstruction effort...

Department of billion-dollar bungling
Project On Government Oversight
Complaints are beginning to pile up against the U.S. Interior Department. And they're coming not just from outside critics but also from people in the agency. The problems surfacing are serious: managerial incompetence, bureaucratic snafus that are costing taxpayers billions of dollars, and a pervasive forgive-and-forget attitude toward senior department officials who cross ethical lines.

Dissent Suppression & Domestic Surveillance

RNC Protesters Tried on Terrorism Charges Despite Acknowledgment They Didn't Commit Alleged Acts The criminal complaints reportedly do not allege that any of the defendants personally engaged in any act of violence or damage to property. Instead, authorities are seeking to hold them responsible for acts committed by other individuals during the RNC’s opening days. We speak to one of the defendants, Luce Guillen-Givins, and RNC 8 Attorney Jordan Kushner........

Report: U.S. Surveillance Society Running Rampant
If you think you're being watched, you're probably right.  The American Civil Liberties Union posted a websiteMonday showing that government-financed surveillance cameras are running rampant across the United States.
All the while, studies suggest they do nothing to cut down on violent crime. San Francisco, for example, has spent $700,000 for dozens of public cameras, but a University of California study(.pdf, 187 pages) just concluded there was "no evidence" they curtailed violent crime......

ABC: NSA agents admit spying on Americans’ private calls
New World Order Truth 10/9/08 2:13 PM Philip Dru Big Brother Comments
The Bush administration has repeatedly defended its warrantless surveillance of Americans as being directed only against “people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations.” Now two intercept operators who worked for the National Security Agency at Fort Gordon in Georgia have come forward to tell ABC News that isn’t true. David Murfee Faulk described [...]

MARYLAND CLASSIFIED 53 NONVIOLENT ACTIVISTS AS TERRORISTS
Washington Post – The Maryland State Police classified 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists and entered their names and personal information into state and federal databases that track terrorism suspects, the state police chief acknowledged. Police Superintendent Terrence B. Sheridan revealed at a legislative hearing that the surveillance operation, which targeted opponents of the death penalty and the Iraq war, was far more extensive than was known when its existence was disclosed in July.

From The Horse’s Mouth

Ron Paul: ‘Pretty sad’ Rush Limbaugh is ‘leader’ of GOP

BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY CHALLENGES WAR ON TERROR
UNDERNEWS
Guardian, UK – The foreign secretary, David Miliband, argues that the use of the “war on terror” as a western rallying cry since the September 11 attacks has been a mistake that may have caused “more harm than good”.

In an article in today’s Guardian, five days before the Bush administration leaves the White House, Miliband delivers a comprehensive critique of its defining mission, saying the war on terror was misconceived and that the west cannot “kill its way” out of the threats it faces. Foreign Secretary says concept of ‘war on terror’ is misleading.

Rep. Pete Visclosky: ‘We are now in the golden age of thieves. And where I come from we put thieves in jail, we don’t bail them out’
Indiana congressmen vote 6-3 against bailout bill Following is reaction from the Indiana congressional delegation to the $700 billion emergency rescue package for financial markets, which defeated Monday in the U.S. House of Representatives on a 228-205 vote. The Indiana delegation voted 6-3 against the bill. Democrats Joe Donnelly and Brad Ellsworth and Republican Mark Souder voted [...]

Hedge fund head: Idiots made me rich
“May meritocracy be part of a new form of government, which needs to be established,” wrote a multimillionaire retiring in his 30s in an open letter to those “stupid enough” to make him rich, which condemns the practices that did so and the system whose injustices he struggled with to get to where he is

Geo-Politics

The Nightmare in Somalia Another US Sponsored Catastrophe

Kyrgyzstan Expels US, Endangering Afghanistan Logistics for US Troops: Major Victory for Putin….In a major blow for the US and NATO military effort in Afghanistan, the parliament of Kyrgyzstan voted Thursday formally to end US use of Manas Air Force base to resupply troops in nearby Afghanistan. With the effective closure of the Khyber Pass route into Afghanistan from Pakistan, this step endangers the logistics supply line to the US and NATO troops.

The move comes in part as a result of Russian aid to Kyrgyzstan. Russia and the Shanghai Cooperation Council have long been concerned about the expansion of US military and political influence into Central Asia.

Dirty Business, Dirty Wars: U.S.-Latin American Relations in the 21st Century
Rather, what is happening is blowback from Washington’s continued meddling in the economic and political affairs of an area arrogantly referred to as the United States’ “backyard.” Latin America’s growing unity in rejecting the Washington Consensus remains fragile in the face of U.S. opposition. Washington has been quietly using the war on drugs, the war on terrorism, and a neo-cold war ideology to institutionalize a militarism in the region that risks returning us to the not so far off days of “dirty wars.”

The Destabilization of Congo
Ethnic divisions are being stoked by client states of the US who arm both sides

Israeli-Jewish Political Involvement in the US

AIPAC, Israel’s American Lobby, The Second Most Powerful Interest Group in Washington

AIPAC’S STRANGLE HOLD ON U.S. CONGRESS

” AIPAC is the leading player in what is sometimes referred to as “The Israel Lobby” — a coalition that includes major Jewish groups, neoconservative intellectuals and Christian Zionists. With its impressive contacts among Hill staffers, influential grassroots supporters and deep connections to wealthy donors, AIPAC is the lobby’s key emissary to Congress:” Ari Berman / The Nation

If you are wondering why the 65% of Americans who believe that the United States should not take a stand on the current conflict between Israel and lebanon ( Gallup ), and instead be an honest broker ~ follow the money which reveals that the majority of Congress are feeding at the AIPAC money trough and could care less what their constituency wants when it comes to Israel.

As such, It’s impossible to talk about Congress’s relationship to Israel without highlighting AIPAC, the American Jewish community’s most important voice on the Hill. The Congressional reaction to Hezbollah’s attack on Israel and Israel’s retaliatory bombing of Lebanon provide the latest example of why.

AIPAC’s Hirelings Rush to War
Perception is often the stepchild of ignorance, especially when controlled by those with the most to gain. It is especially difficult for our Congress to perceive clearly when it grovels at the feet of AIPAC. America’s Knesset, servile hirelings of Israel’s lobby, rush to pass yet another resolution conceived by AIPAC and authored and co-signed by Ackerman and Ros-Lehtinen in the House and Lieberman and Bayh in the Senate, Resolutions H. Con. 362 and S. 580, the “Iran War Resolution.” Virtually all Congressmen with the exception of Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich and all Senators, including McCain and Obama, will vote to support this resolution.[...] Read more!

The Politics of An Israeli Extermination Campaign: Backers, Apologists and Arms Suppliers.….Israel’s sustained and comprehensive bombing campaign of every aspect of governance, civic institutions and society is directed toward destroying civilized life in Gaza. Israel’s totalitarian vision is driven by the practice of a permanent purge of Arab Palestine informed by Zionism, an ethno-racist ideology, promulgated by the Jewish state and justified, enforced and pursued by its organized backers in the United States.

IS ISRAEL SPYING ON AMERICAN CITIZENS’ PHONE CALLS?.…Virtually all US voice and data communications and much from the rest of the world can be remotely accessed by these companies in Israel, which Bamford describes as “the eavesdropping capital of the world.” Although there is no way to prove cooperation, Bamford writes that “the greatest potential beneficiaries of this marriage between the Israeli eavesdroppers and America’s increasingly centralized telecom grid are Israel’s intelligence agencies.”

Militarism or legalized Rape, Pillage & Plunder

Iraq Funding Ponzi Scheme Bigger than Madoff’s Informed Comment (Juan Cole)
The US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) has issued a report on as much as $125 billion unaccounted-for reconstruction and military equipment money in Iraq. Patrick Cockburn at the Independent quotes a US businessman active in Iraq after the US invasion who observed that Iraq was looted alright, but the big looting did not come at the hands of poor urbanites but rather at that of US officers. Although immense peculation was engaged in by Iraqi government and military figures, it seems unlikely that their US military minders were not complicit in the corruption……..

Obama OKs 17,000 troops for Afghanistan

The Military-Industrial Complex: Impacts on the Third World

Militarized capitalism: The military-industrial complex

What is the military-industrial complex in 2008? Where is it? What does it look like? I am not even sure if the phrase, used so famously by former US president Dwight Eisenhower3 in 1961 is the best descriptor to encompass the many tentacles and facets of the war and security industry and the links and connections between capital and its political allies.

Do terms like ‘defence industry’ and ‘arms trade’ adequately encompass the face of today’s war profiteers, whose devastating impacts can equally be found in the high-tech apartheid wall being built by Israel to seal off the West Bank and Gaza4, and its Western Hemispheric counterpart on the US-Mexico border5, in the computer flight simulation programs provided to US and British military by Canada’s CAE6, in private corporate mercenary armies like Blackwater, DynCorp and Aegis7 in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere8, in the outsourced intelligence, IT, interrogation and translation services of L-3/Titan9, in the massive military aid budgets which the US gives to the governments of Israel, Pakistan, Egypt and Colombia10, among others, and in the ‘hearts and minds’ operations of US Special Operations Forces based in the Philippines doing ‘humanitarian work’ – medical, dental and other social services, including infrastructure projects in many remote communities – services which should be the function of a government, in Mindanao11, as much as it is in weapons production and arms exports.

State Secrecy and Censorship

Human Rights Watch’s Kenneth Roth on Obama’s Use of State Secrets …….Kenneth Roth, executive director at Human Rights Watch, criticizes Obama for continuing a Bush administration policy of invoking “state secrets” to dismiss a lawsuit accusing a Boeing subsidiary of helping the CIA secretly transport prisoners to torture chambers overseas……..

Secrecy Outweighs Public Interest at DOE
In the December 9th edition of the Federal Register, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced a proposal to remove a discretionary clause governing Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) exemptions. The “extra balancing test,” as written at 10 C.F.R. 1004.1, allows a FOIA officer to make records public which might otherwise be withheld if they deem it to be in the public interest. DOE claims that eliminating this rule would “streamline” the FOIA process, speed request responses, and get rid of “unnecessary administrative requirements.” They say that this rule is more or less vestigial anyway since it is not covered in the Justice Department’s guide for FOIA exemptions.

Science & the Public: EPA Gagged
Environmental Protection Agency officials have been directed not to talk to the
news media without prior authorization. That’s according to a memo that was allegedly
issued by Robbi …

LA School Teacher Fired for Being Too “Afrocentric”; Arizona Bill Proposes to Prohibit Teachings Critical of Western Civilization…..We look at two cases of free speech in the classroom: Karen Salazar speaks out about her dismissal from the Los Angeles School District; historian Rodolfo Acuna discusses the Arizona bill that would ban schools from using some books, including Acuna’s Occupied America: A History of Chicanos. [includes rush transcript]

Army doctored dead soldier pics
Army file photos of two fallen soldiers were altered, Associated Press retracts.

International: Other GORP’s  in action around the World

Dumped in Africa: Britain’s toxic waste

Distressing Dispatches from Gaza Utne Reader- The United Nations reports that, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israeli attacks killed 1,440 (pdf), injured 5,380, and displaced hundreds of thousands in Gaza……..

Mercenaries Playing Increasingly Prominent Role in Latin America
Mercenaries hired by private military and security companies are playing an increasingly broad range of roles in Latin America.

Hundreds of Brazil’s eco-warriors at risk of assassination
Twenty years after the killing of Chico Mendes, one of the world’s most prominent rainforest defenders, hundreds of human rights and environmental activists still face the threat of assassination in B

Plundering the Congo
Wayne Madsen: Congo has fallen prey to a lot of people that want to loot its natural resources

Communities in El Salvador Threatened by Mining
Social organizations and religious leaders campaign against mining.

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