Archive for the ‘Ted Becker’ Category
Monday, November 12th, 2012
By Ted Becker
I had just finished the first edition of The Last, Lost Empire in November of 2008, when Barack Obama was elected to his first term as President of the United States. So, I had to integrate this event into the history of American Empire and evaluate his ascendance to power within the confines of “The Imperial Presidency” and the toxic, oligarchic culture of Washington, D.C. Thus, I produced a list of what he could NOT accomplish, no matter what.
So, now Barack Obama has been re-elected to the presidency and will serve in that office until January 2017. I’ve reviewed what I wrote about the historical and political limitations in December 2008…and I am confident that these very same restrictions will apply until 2017—barring some unprecedented man-made or natural calamity or unpredictable series of them.
Here they are. See for yourself. No amount of political “hype” from the American mainstream media and punditry will alter them:
- “He cannot easily alter America’s deeper political, economic, genetic code of expansionism and missionary overzealousness.”
- “He cannot dislodge the American Corporate Oligarch from its unassailable constitutional perch.”
- “He cannot neuter the military-industrial complex.”
- “He cannot stop global warming and climate change and their inexorable calamities.”
- “He cannot ‘bail out,’ borrow and spend his way out of a failed “American Corporate Oligarchy” model at home (via some weird hybrid of Reaganomics, The New World Order and The New Deal”).
- “He cannot disrupt the gathering momentum of a global political and economic meltdown and for an emergent replacement that will greatly diminish the former American financial and economic supremacy of Bretton Woods and the Old “New World Order.” (pp. 394-395)
Not a bad set of predictions from December 2008, huh?
As for 2013-17, we can expect the exact same general results as Obama tries to maintain an unsustainable status quo. Here are a few probable developments beyond Obama’s power to avoid, that, when they occur, will actually lead to an acceleration of general global chaos:
- An escalation of the as yet unrecognized ultra-hi-tech World War III plus The Pentagon’s explicit plan to “pivot” our military might to Asia, otherwise known as China.
Related Article
Cyberspace, the New Frontier – and the Same Old Multilateralism
- A further deterioration of the Eurozone’s stability and strength and the flight of capital and wealth from West to East.
Related Article
Investment Expert: Eurozone Is ‘Slowly Crumbling’
- An illusory fairness applied to the American tax code while imposing even harsher central banking style “austerity” on the American people.
Related Article
Obama insists on tax hike for rich as part of fiscal deal
- Taking a few too-little-too-late stabs at upgrading the American capitalist infrastructure:
Related Article:
Obama: Let’s Spend Billions to Fix What the Stimulus Was Supposed to Fix
- The rise of the BRICS, and its new global currency that has the capacity to disrupt the U.S. economic hegemony.
Related Video
BRICS: Dollar No Longer Reserve Currency?
- Ever increasing small intensity (but endless) wars in Africa, South or Central Asia, or Latin America (Mali, Burma and Honduras) that will continue to have negative unintended consequences for the U.S.
Related Articles
U.S. looks to effort in Somalia as model for Mali solution
US opens door to military ties with Burma
Honduras: Which Side Is the US On?
- Unimaginably horrific new hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes floods, droughts, fires, famines, tsunamis in greater intensity, length and breadth than in recorded human history in every part of the world.
Related Article
Climate Change Worse Than We Thought
So, if you’re counting on Obama’s second term to turn things around, you’re likely to be quite disappointed, yet again. It’s not time to head for the hills. It’s time to get real.
Tags: American Corporate Oligarchy, Barack Obama, climate change, Oligarchy, political economy, Presidential Election 2012, The Last Lost Empire 3rd Addition 2012
Posted in Ted Becker | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
The Last, Lost Empire: 3rd Edition 2012
by Ted Becker
What follows is a fair presentation of a wide variety of well proved practices—both in the United States and throughout the world—that are ways to engage and empower the citizenry to make critical decisions about the direction they want the nation to go and about pressing policy matters, including budget priorities.
Many have lots of Google pages. I am not trying to write the definitive package. However, any several of these would have the desired effect of making America’s national government responsive to its citizens wishes. In addition, and this opinion is based on decades of personal and professional experience in testing and practicing several of them, THE CITIZENS ALWAYS AMAZE!! (more…)
Tags: "Occupy Movement", Occupy the Constitution, Occupy Wall Street, The Last Lost Empire 3rd Edition 2012
Posted in Ted Becker | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, July 10th, 2012
The Last, Lost Empire: 3rd Edition 2012
by Ted Becker
So What Role Does the Internet and Social Media Play in the Democratic Amendment Process?
The early days of the Egyptian Revolution, in Tahrir Square
The photo at the top of this blog shows the early days of the Egyptian Revolution, i.e., “The Arab Spring” in Tahrir Square. Notice the laptop as one of the weapons of choice of the revolutionaries. Another was the cell phone plus its camera. One of those Egyptians who the Western mass media dubbed as a “leader” was an Egyptian Google executive living in Cairo. No surprise there.
A professor of Communications at the University of Washington did a quantitative analysis of the role of social media before and during this massively popular uprising and here is part of what he found: “During the week before Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, for example, the total rate of tweets from Egypt — and around the world — about political change in that country ballooned from 2,300 a day to 230,000 a day. Videos featuring protest and political commentary went viral – the top 23 videos received nearly 5.5 million views. The amount of content produced online by opposition groups, in Facebook and political blogs, increased dramatically.” Read more about this here: New study quantifies use of social media in Arab Spring
So does this translate into pro-democracy movements in the West, such as the “Occupy Movement” in the USA and elsewhere? Obviously. Here’s an article from the May 1, 2012 edition of (ironically) Bloomberg News on the use of social media by #Occupy Wall Street in its planning and organization of various protest activities throughout the United States and all the way to Sydney, Australia. Occupy Wall Street Plans Global Protests in Resurgence
(more…)
Tags: "Occupy Movement", #OWS, citizens, Direct democracy, Occupy the Constitution, Occupy Wall Street, participate, The Last Lost Empire 3rd Edition 2012
Posted in Ted Becker | Comments Off
Saturday, July 7th, 2012
The Last, Lost Empire: 3rd Edition 2012
by Ted Becker
The Fourth Democracy Amendment Movement Is ON
A recent article by Steve Chapman of The Chicago Tribune, for many years a a leading conservative newspaper, details all the proposed constitutional amendments in the past few decades (balanced budget; anti-abortion; term limits for Congress; repeal of the income tax and direct election of Senators; put prayer back in schools, etc.). It is factually correct. You can read it for yourselves here…Amend the Constitution? Presidential candidates don’t mean it
(more…)
Tags: "Occupy Movement", #OWS, citizens, Occupy the Constitution, Occupy Wall Street, Oligarchy, participate, The Amendment Process., The Last, The Last Lost Empire 3rd Edition 2012
Posted in Ted Becker | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, July 4th, 2012
The Last, Lost Empire: 3rd Edition 2012
by Ted Becker
The Populist and Progressive Amendments
Women’s Right to Vote
Women voting? Ridiculous!!! They don’t have enough brains or serious intellectual education to be able to understand the complicated business of politics.
Women should be kept barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen and not take men’s jobs. That was the commonly accepted view of most male voters in the United States for most of its history.
The struggle for women’s rights (including the right to vote) began formally at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. Although the Wyoming legislature gave the women of that “territory” the right to vote in 1869, the issue of women voting in national elections finally became an actual political party platform in 1892 when the Populist Party included it. “The Women’s Suffrage Movement,” in which many women were imprisoned during public demonstrations and marches took a long and hard road before it finally succeeded.
Here is a short YouTube video from a 2005 HBO movie called “Iron Jawed Angels” that gives a dramatic view of how women braved male scorn and violence in the early 1900s to march for a Constitutional Amendment to give them the legal right to vote. (more…)
Tags: "Occupy Movement", #OWS, American democracy, Occupy the Constitution, The Amendment Process., The Last Lost Empire 3rd Addition 2012
Posted in Ted Becker | Comments Off
Monday, July 2nd, 2012
The Last, Lost Empire: 3rd Edition 2012
by Ted Becker
The First Two American Democracy Amendment Movements
The ONLY way to transform the current overwhelming dissatisfaction with American politics and American political economic institutions into a much more democratic system of governance at the national level is to pass a SERIES of Constitutional Amendments to accomplish that goal.
A series of amendments? Is that even possible?
Ahem. Please. It’s been done several times in American history. When did this happen? How about right at the birth of this nation? (more…)
Tags: "Occupy Movement", #OWS, Occupy the Constitution, Occupy Wall Street, The Last Lost Empire 3rd Addition 2012
Posted in Ted Becker | Comments Off
Thursday, June 28th, 2012
The Last, Lost Empire: 3rd Edition 2012
by Ted Becker
Protests, Demonstrations and Occupations Do NOT Change the American Political System
Alright already!! I think I’ve heard just about every “Occupy” idea there is: Occupy Wall Street,” “Occupy the Banks,” “Occupy Congress,” “Occupy Foreclosed Homes,” “Occupy College Campuses,” “Occupy Factories,” “Occupy Your Conscience,”—yes—even “Occupy Mordor.” From Barcelona to Bahrain to Berkeley: Occupy was the key word…for a while.
But no, “The American Occupy Movement” is not dead. If you want to read an excellent analysis of that, here’s Chris Hedge’s article: “Occupy Will Be Back” in the Daily Kos of June 18, 2012. (more…)
Tags: "Occupy Movement", #OWS, American democracy, Occupy the Constitution, Occupy Wall Street, The Amendment Process., The Last Lost Empire 3rd Addition 2012
Posted in Ted Becker | 1 Comment »
Friday, April 20th, 2012
The Last, Lost Empire: 3rd Edition 2012
by Ted Becker
Don’t Let Your Eyes and BP and Government Propaganda Fool You
The Gulf of Mexico is “Open for Business.” Why it’s a miracle. It’s like there never was anything that BP ever did to harm it. The water is sooooo clear and blue and the jellyfish, sharks, snappers and tasty little shrimps are as healthy and happy as can be. Here’s one of their “C’mon Down and Enjoy” ads. It’s short, but very good public relations.
(more…)
Tags: Boycott BP, gulf oil spill, The Last Lost Empire 3rd Addition 2012
Posted in Ted Becker | Comments Off
Monday, January 2nd, 2012
The Last, Lost Empire: 3rd Edition 2012
by Ted Becker
Think the 2012 elections in the USA will be all about Obama and Republicans? Think again. You’re in for some BIG surprises.
American presidential elections have harbored within them virulent viruses that have caused severe mutations within the presidential election process from its infancy and throughout its life cycle. (more…)
Tags: #OWS, American Corporate Oligarchy, Election 2012, Occupy the Constitution, Occupy Wall Street, Oligarchy, Reaganomics, The Last Lost Empire 3rd Addition 2012, The Presidential Election 2012, “The Protester”
Posted in Ted Becker | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, December 27th, 2011
The Last, Lost Empire: 3rd Edition 2012
by Ted Becker
I’ll bet you didn’t know that President Obama has dispatched troops to Uganda in October and that their number will grow into a compact force to be deployed there, and in The Congo, South Sudan and “The Central African Republic”—wherever THAT is. Right? Well, here’s the isolated story from ABC News.
“Obama Sends 100 US Troops to Uganda to Help Combat Lord’s Resistance Army”
Why are they there? Can you spell C-H-I-N-A? Sad, but true. (more…)
Tags: American Empire, American imperialism, American intervention, Election 2012, Iran, militarism, Neo-Cons, The Last Lost Empire, The Last Lost Empire 3rd Addition 2012, war, WWIII
Posted in Ted Becker | 2 Comments »
Planning for Survival by Ismail Rifaat
