Those coming from Central Asia, Bahrain, Qatar or Saudi Arabia to the Olympics, interested to see what life in a democracy feels like, will find it seems exactly like life at home in their dictatorship. 17,000 soldiers will be glowering over the venues, checking identity documents, stopping and searching. The mlitary will occupy residential buildings, be buzzing overhead, rolling down the streets and patrolling the river. There will be missiles on land, sea and air, though nobody knows what the threat is that this is supposed to counter.
What will make our dictatorship resident visitors feel especially at home is the contempt for the ordinary citizen. Not only will they have the military all over them and be subject to frequent stopping and questioning, they will be expected continually to get out of the way of their betters. Special VIP lanes on the road will allow officials to sweep by, while normal citizens will simply have to sit in gridlock and stew. Who cares? The military will stick missiles on your roof if they wish. What they are going to shoot down, and which bit of London it will land on, is not to be questioned.
Here in Ramsgate we are losing our regular train service to London completely for the duration. All the HS1 trains are being commandeered to run a shuttle service between Ebbsfleet and Stratford. 22 trains a day from Ramsgate are simply cancelled. Slow trains are available, but a journey normally 70 minutes will become – at the fastest possible – 2 hours and 35 minutes. A large number of commuters will simply be unable to get to work anything like on time, and have to spend door to door over seven hours a day in travelling as well as their working day. Nobody was consulted. Quite a few don’t yet know – there has been no determined effort to tell people. Leaflets are available in the ticket office if you ask for one.
But the leaflets might as well just say, “You are fucked, and we don’t care”.
The extra 3,500 military personnel it was today announced will be used at the games cover a shortfall in Group Four personnel. Group Four were providing 4,000 paid staff and 6,000 unpaid volunteers. It is the unpaid volunteer numbers which are short by 3,500.
Most people are not stupid. They may volunteer happily for sport or for charity, but to work for nothing to make tens of millions of pounds of profit for Group Four as it exploits them, plainly does not have universal appeal. Those 2,500 who have volunteered to work for nothing for G4S are the idiots in this story. How gullible can you be?
Bob Russell, MP for Colchester, today in parliament made the excellent point to Teresa May that Group Four (or G4S as they now call themselves) should not be employed because of their role in aiding and abetting Israel’s illegal activities in the West Bank and human rights abuse there. With breathtaking chutzpah Teresa May replied that it was this kind of valuable international experience that made Group Four the right company to provide security for the games.
Which brings me back to my point at the start. Those visiting from oppressive regimes will feel absolutely at home. That is the one and only thing you can trust Teresa May to ensure with grim efficiency.
Another slaughter in Amerika, this time in a Denver cinema where a premiere of a Batman film was being showm at midnight. 14 people have been killed including a 6 yr old child and over 50 injured. A gas canister was thrown into a cinema and then shots were fired by a lone gunman who had multiple weapons. One asks what were the parents of young children thinking of? There were even babies there too.
“In my understanding British households pay TV licence in order to get impartial news, but yet we only receive pre-selected news.”
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Uzbek, from Medialens this morning:
The BBC asks: ‘Is it time to intervene in Syria?’
But look *WHO* it asks: http://t.co/bkYp7eS4
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Unbelievable!
Interesting info from shitipedia wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_anthropogenic_disasters_by_death_toll
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Interesting assessment of Soviet Genocide. Whereas there is no doubt that Soviet Communists killed many millions, it is suspiciously interesting how ‘European Colonisation of Americas’ and ‘African Holocaust’ ranked much lower in term of death toll. Check it out, interesting assessment and comments on how assessment was made.
Uzbek in the UK, have you looked at Wikipedia in other languages? You’ll find that the articles are different. Wikipedia is always looking for translators.
Well Mary
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Getting to the VERY bottom of this it is fair to say that Olympics is NOT Muslim idea at all.
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It first appeared in Ancient Greece and was brought from dead by Frenchman at the end of 19 century.
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Around the world at present there are hundreds of different religions each with their own rules and traditions. Considering religious traditions such as fasting it would be almost impossible to arrange Global sporting event that would suit everyone.
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Olympics are traditionally organised in summer and it is a choice for Muslim athletes to either ignore/postpone fasting (for which there is suitable excuse in Holly Quran) or fast and quite possible loose to others.
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There are more serious issues with this Olympics and bringing religiousity takes attention from such issues like dirty sponsorship, security paranoia, failure of proper organisation, use of scientific/technical advancement to get better sporting results and so on.
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And Ramadan Mubarak to you too.
Branding bollocks:
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A butcher near the Olympic sailing venue was was asked to remove a sign displaying a ring of sausages and saying, ‘fantastic 2012’, and a cafe on the torch relay route was asked to stop advertising a “flaming torch breakfast baguette”.
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Independent, today.
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Also, apparently, the oversized cigarette lighter’s carrier is to abseil from a helicopter into the Tower of London. Someone please tell me why.
A man opened fire on Eritrean refugees sleeping in a garden last night in Tel Aviv
So far this is the only English Israeli media (or any other media?) report available
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4258167,00.html
I guess “flaming ring” is also owned by Locog:
http://www.arrse.co.uk/naafi-bar/68519-burns-burning-ring-fire.html
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There’s a sponsorship opportunity for the Bangalore Takeaway here…
Kate Middleton’s Family Slammed for Cashing In on the Olympics
(but they weren’t fined, naturally)
http://olympics.time.com/2012/07/19/london-2012-kate-middletons-family-slammed-for-cashing-in-on-the-olympics/
Just few days back friend of mine who lives near West Ham received a flayer in his mail box from estate agency Stuart Knight asking to get in touch with them asap if they think that their property is suitable for short term corporate rent out as they have few corporate clients who are required accommodation for a premium rent during Olympics. As friend of mine lived in rented accommodation, he obviously for some reason decided not to share this wonderful news with his landlord.
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WTF I ask. I am tempted to call Stuart Knight and pretend to be a landlord who is interested in kicking out my tenants and letting to their corporate tenants. Talk to them for about 30 minutes and arrange a meeting, for which I obviously will not show up.
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Is anyone else tempted to do the same?
The story of the Burgas bomber is turning out to be a can of worms for the crazy psycho in charge of the asylum in isreal. The chap a 33 year old Algerian born Swede goes by the name of Mehdi Alghezali. He also was subject to enjoying the hospitality of uncle sam in Cuban resort of Gitmo, in fact he spent two years there getting tortured daily and probably made to wear a garland of used sanitary tampons in the fashion after Hawaii hospitality.
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Needless to point out as usual he was not of any significance and let out and handed over to the Swedes who did not prosecute or imprison him as is the case with the other
toadiesallies of the uncle sam.,
Where does this revelation put the psychotic hallucinations episode (“Iran wot done it”)of the chief psycho in charge of the asylum in that tel aviv? Will the duty psychiatrist of the cabinet, put up the dose of the tablets, or will he prescribe the more potent powder, along with some suppositories?
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Mark Golding you really think no one is going to stand up to the Yanks? FFS they cannot deal with a shooting in Denver and their emergency services are incapable of responding to forty or so injured and shot M’urrcans, yet you expect Russia to fold over, and China turn inward?
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Having often read you around the place I won’t be rude as to advise you to; stop watching too many Hollywood movies.
Jonathan Cook once worked for the Guardian but got out. His views here on Greenwald joining up.
Jonathan Cook on Greenwald joining the Guardian
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here are some of my thoughts on the GG deal:
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1. it shows how the guardian desperately needs to corner a section of the US online market, the american left, which is relatively poorly served domestically, to reap the potentially lucrative ad dividends. this is a very corporate/commercial decision from its POV, and integral to its business strategy.
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2. reading his responses to the talkbacks on his latest column, he’s obviously got the paper to agree to jump through many “editorial independence” hoops before signing. that’s very welcome and will be good for his journalism. but it highlghts how aware he is of the threat the corporate media, including the guardian, pose to the freedom of writers. i’m sure the paper’s assange coverage reiterated that danger to him. it should remind us too that every other journalist – or certainly almost every other journalist –on the guardian’s books doesn’t have such independence and is therefore not “free” in the way GG is.
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3. however much i love GG’s work, the two points above do seem to emphasise the inevitable fig-leaf nature of his presence at the guardian. the paper will get lots of extra credibility and new readers, and income if its business model works, while he will be offered up as proof that the paper provides a real plurality of independent voices on the left. and yet in truth his role will be exceptional.
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(btw, i notice that many people on the board take the description “fig-leaf” to be criticism of the journalist concerned. i’m not using it that way. i think GG has made a decision that will be generally good for his journalism and increase his readership. given the circumstances faced by western journalists, who live in societies controlled by corporations, he probably has no better choice if he wants to remain an influential journalist. i don’t criticise him for his decision. but as bystanders engaged in media analysis, we should not shy away from identifying what is happening.)
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4. the real test for GG, as a guardian staffer, will be whether he dares to make his employer the target of his frequent media criticism. he did it over assange’s asylum bid and, earlier, he did it more tentatively over david leigh’s falling out with assange. but doubtless the pressure on him, despite his editorial independence, will be to self-censor when it comes to the issue of the guardian’s failings and instead concentrate on other US media. that, of course, would be a bonus for the guardian – they must hope that in signing up GG they’ll ensure they’re ringfenced from his barbs. but if he does self-censor, then he’ll be in the same emotional terrain as the many journalists here who, presumably aware at some level of their complicity, respond to all criticism with indignation and self-righteousness. media lens has become a bete noire for these kinds of journalists because it points out the very thoughts they dare not entertain. it would be a terrible shame if, as a result of the guardian deal, GG ended up joining them.
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Other thoughts here, at length!
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1342768895.html
Uzbek in the UK,
Don’t complain this is the system that you love most and keep on singing its praises, you want capitalism, capitalism is what you have, fuck the consequences, and the fall out, all that matters how much is made, and profitability is high!
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Also I see paying the beeb’s license has brought tears into your eyes, now so far as none payment goes, the magistrates will let the shoplifter off with a suspended sentence, but any none payer to beeb will be sent down for a stretch.
Unless you yearn for a lecture form the bench: “young man you may do this sort of thing in your country where you come from but not in this country, we don’t do such things in this country. Then perhaps you best keep the none payment to the beeb, as a sort of fantasy in fact the same goes for council tax, and any other scam to do with the wonderful capitalist government. The none payers and also the rioters, whom as we all know were all hoodlums and thieves, and cut throats and everybody should hate them, unless they are in Syria, then those rioters will be the heroes and the downtrodden masses under the jackboot of Assad personally whom incidentally wears high heels just for the very reason of walking on the downtrodden!
Well Mark
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Another perestroika/glasnost would do some good for current Russian politics which can only be compared to stagnated soviet economy under Brezhnev but without soviet benefits for citizens. It is believed that around 25-30% of Russian budget is emptied to foreign account of some 200-300 Russian officials every year. It is not only Putin but also people behind him (KGB) who benefit enormously from current political formation of Russian government.
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As for China, it is only a matter of time before Chinese Communist party engages in battle for survival. It is rumoured that some kind of internal tensions are already going on between modernisers (sort of Gorbachevs of China) and conservatives. Who wins now matters less than who will be engaged in the battle later. Historical analysis demonstrate that society that riches certain level of economic and social development will for certain get to the point when it will demand certain their rights to be respected.
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As for Iran, certain perestroika/glasnost there would also benefit Iranians more than current stagnated and corrupt and also cleptocratic regime.
Passerby
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Living in both socialism under stagnated communist government, then under authoritarianism of ONE crazy and blood thirsty man, and now under capitalism in the UK I feel that capitalism is better than what I have experienced before.
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It is not perfect, but it is better/wiser to improve system than destroy it. Evolutionary way (where possible) is always better than revolutionary.
It was a psychological prod Passerby, but yeh perhaps too many ‘M.A.S.H’ body bags and bloodied operating tables. Of course the rot had begun a lot earlier with the splicing knives of the cold-war Hollywood studio crack-heads’ severe cuts to the John Huston adaptation, ‘The Red Badge of Courage’…
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I’ll take your advice and stick to movies like ‘The African Queen.’
Heroic members of the RAF Regiment (one with his sniper board upside-down) preparing to defend hard-working families from al-Qaeda. From their helicopter.
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http://i.huffpost.com/gen/685296/thumbs/s-OLYMPIC-SNIPERS-large640.jpg?4
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The gentleman on the left is carrying an automatic 12-bore shotgun with a video camera attached. The maximum range of a shotgun, with solid shot, is about 200m, with no claims made for accuracy. With, say, BB or No 1 shot, it’s nearer 60m, and the shot spreads out a lot.
Question: Is said gentleman after
(a) aircraft intruding into Macdonalds/Coke-owned airspace?
(b) duck, attracted by the Lea Valley cleanup? And selling the video to David Attenborough?
(c) people on the ground?
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Answers on a Macdonalds’ obesityburger wrapper please.
The death toll in Denver is revised down to 12. Injured number 38. The canister contained smoke. The name of the film that was being shown – The Dark Knight Rises!
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1345836/
You weren’t paying attention, and neither was I. The dude on the right is the one with the shotgun, sorry.
Uzbek, Passerby, this isn’t “capitalism” or a “market economy”. It’s corporatism. Under capitalism, rule of law is supposed to keep things fair between commercial competitors. The benefit of the system is that commercial competition increases quality, decreases prices, caters to the buyers and puts the incompetent out of business.
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But corporate power has increasingly subverted supposedly democratic government, and increasingly laws are designed to benefit powerful corporations at the expense of the populace and smaller businesses.
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Even some Conservatives are beginning to realise this. The Kett’s Alliance that Nevermind has been linking about include many disappointed Conservatives. Their votes were ignored in favour of vested interests.
Well, Uzbek, your vision may well be right a couple of decades on.
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Meanwhile most will admit Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin is a man of charming insight, inspiration and penetrating English slang, who refuses to be ‘duped by Western humanitarian rhetoric’ and geopolitical cravings. His Ph.D in history serves him well and renders Hillary Clinton to that of SS-Lagerführerin who adjures to ‘pay the price’ comments and actions.
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Peace to those Syrians blown to pieces by Washington’s proxy executioners.
Sorry – Link
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http://www.rt.com/news/syria-russia-diplomacy-resolution-630/
Clark
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Well, you are right in sense that capitalism must be distinguished from corporatism, which in turn is just a step away from fascism.
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But then you are slightly mistaken to state that under capitalism rule of law is supposed to keep things fair between commercial competitors and that competition increases the quality. Corporatism (as I understand it) is the apogee of capitalism. The system (capitalism) sole aim of which is benefiting destined to turn into corporatism. There is/will be a point when a company/business turns into corporation and allies with a government for its own benefit.
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The role of public is to insure that this does not happen. Public needs to influence government to pass antitrust laws, tighten financial regulations, to force private businesses to reveal their financial information regularly etc.
Uzbek in the UK,
Stagnating communist government, was too busy looking after its butt in fear of capitalists renting it to some corporation, and never manged to do so (look after) properly, and lost the game. The authoritarian despot you mention is the best friends of capitalists and he enjoys the protection of the capitalists who are only interested in the cheap cotton and unruly Uzbek kept in line, thanks to the deals, and the “free trade” (my foot) he is getting richer by the second, and as with every petty criminal is aspiring for recognition and seeking the invite to sit at the big table.
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So all the roads lead to capitalism, or some would have it all the ills are because of capitalism. However you advise for evolution and not revolution in the capitalist system, despite that fact that you have prescribed the destruction of the Russian, Uzbek, Chinese and Iranian systems. that is despite the shortcomings of the capitalist system you have admitted to.
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This brings us to, Uzbeck might it be that you have found which side puts butter on you bread to have a proper butterвread? Hence the playing up to the gallery.
Mark Golding
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Churkin might be fluent in English and charming indeed, but as it is traditionally was/is a case in USSR/Russia Foreign Ministry (to which Churkin formally attached) is just a proxy of more influential and (traditionally) more powerful KGB. It is traditionally allowed for Soviet/Russian embassy attaché (who is traditionally attached to the KGB) to block any decisions and proof read anything in the Embassy. So, translating it to English, Churkin is doing what he is told to do, from Kremlin (or to be more precise) from Lubyanka (KGB headquarters).
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I also could not join to your farewell to assassinated Syrian security chief and gang. I might not be standing on high moral ground here, but drawing parallel with this assassination, I would be extremely glad to learn that the same happened to Uzbek security chief everlasting head of SNB Inoyatov.
Passerby
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Well, as I mentioned (where possible) revolutionary way to bring change should be avoided. But then there are some changed that cannot be brought evolutionary. For instance KGB in Russia will not give up its power unless whole system of government is changed and made more democratic, or at least separated to legislative, executive and judicial with strong and (more or less) independent media. Today in Russia few people in close circle have access to virtually UNlimited power with NO checks applied. They can/will assassinate everyone who would stand on their way or at least try to bring some changes.
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In China Communists whose power is also unchecked, would not give up power and agree on multiparty system. The whole sole of Communism is in One party system and on power consolidated in few hands.
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In Iran yet again I see no real opportunity for any modernists to bring any changes to the system run by few UNelected governors who rule the nation hiding behind relict medieval religious writings mixed with Marxist thoughts of past century.
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And then the western system is capable of evolutionary improvements. Public here can (if really consolidated) push the government to apply stronger checks on the corporations, and gradually improve the situation. Keep Murdoch’s on a leash, kick Tory out of the N10 and N11, kick Blair out of the country and never let him back, kick Boris out of City Hall and things will gradually improve. This is not revolution, this is evolution.
Further to the above – sorry to interrupt – I learn that the device attached to the shotgun is a laser illuminator of some kind. Not a video camera. Not sure if that makes much difference to using a scattergun on a ground target from a helicopter, in a crowd.
Uzbek, yes, capitalism is more an economic system than a political system. The bit about “rule of law…” used to be just assumed without anyone saying it very much. It’s a shame it wasn’t mentioned more, because it slipped out of people’s minds and corporatism was permitted to develop.
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My use of corporatism doesn’t refer to the tendency for companies to become corporations. It’s about corporations becoming powerful enough to dominate government, and/or corporate media becoming powerful enough to dominate the way people vote.
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Are your criticisms of the USSR’s system more about its authoritarianism and corruption than its economic model?
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http://www.politicalcompass.org/
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Incidentally, the system of the USSR was always called communism here, not socialism.
Komodo, whatever next? Silencers on the launchers of rocket-propelled grenades, maybe?
Clark,
You bet you, the corporatism that you allude to, in fact is the soft fascism here, and the hard in your face militarist fascism in US; as any Yank movie will have the main actor wear camouflage to go buy a packet of gum from the ever expanding malls (preconditioning the population) shouting: “yes sir”, and “negative sir” to the questions of the cashier.
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Furthermore, the inherent corruption of the legislative structure through the sponsorship of the various political entities and actors, that in turn perpetuates the mis-education of the plebeians these step repeat instantiating a self breeding process resulting in the system limiting towards even more corruption.
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However as you know despite the apparent growth of the corporation due to the unhealthy and incestuous practices, these large organizations in fact are only large in size, and their huge structures cannot be sustained given any competition, which in turn leads to further degradation of their practices.
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Schumpeter’s theory ( yester years darling of the right wing and the capitalists alike) of “creative destruction” having been totally bastardized by the neo-tosspots still bears a sting in the tail; regardless of the efforts to sustain the decaying superstructures of the corp[orates, these will fail.
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However the current “wisdom” in addressing the failures of these superstructures (too big to fail, a diametrically opposite position to Schumpeter), is by the increasing austerity (less pay, less benefits, less rights, less of everything) and pressures to be born by the workers (that is everyone who earns a living and has assets of less that three million pounds).
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In other words the only way the artificial constructs of the failing corporations can be sustained is through repression of the worker and ever cheaper labor rates, this retrograde towards slavery as yet has not been fully understood by the plebeians at large.
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Finally capitalism as per Adam Smith, and not the first thirty pages of the Wealth of the Nations that evidently has been read by all and sundry is an incomplete system that does not address many needs of any human society.
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Further given the profit incentive; then serious questions arise as per the price of Mothers suckling their infants and changing their diapers, or fathers taking on the role of mentor and teaching their young, or expecting the youth of the nations to go to war to protect their own nations.