Forum Post: The Corporate Masters of the Universe

The Corporate Masters of the Universe

Saturday, 03 November 2012 10:58 By Thom Hartmann and Sam Sacks, The Daily Take | Op-Ed

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12512-the-corporate-masters-of-the-universe

First the corporate masters of the universe came for Greece, and we here in the United States did nothing.

We watched with silence as corporate technocrats toppled the democratic government of Prime Minister George Papandreou and forced austerity on the Greek people against their will. We said nothing as unemployment rates spiraled out of control and suicide rates shot up 40%. We didn't flinch when a Greek pensioner walked up to Parliament and shot himself in the head, leaving behind a letter blaming austerity that read, "I cannot find any other form of struggle except a dignified end before I have to start scrounging for food from rubbish bins."

This week, the Conservative Greek government unveiled a new round of austerity cuts for the Greek people, who've already lost their universal healthcare system to the bankster masters. Pensioners and public workers will again be hit the hardest, just so these corporate masters can collect their returns on their failed investments. And none of us here in the United States are asking any questions as Greece descends into chaos. The main question being, "What's the point of austerity?" As influential Canadian lawyer Demitri Lascaris exposed recently on TRNN.com, austerity has nothing to do with paying down Greek's debt.

After these new austerity measures, Greece's current debt ratio will soar from 165% of GDP to 190% of GDP, making it even more difficult in the long run to pay down any debts. On top of that, the economy is projected to contract 4.5% in 2013, compared to previous prediction of 3.9%. And this is all happening six years after the economic crisis began.

What most Americans fail to understand - and some Europeans are just starting to realize - is that the goal of the corporate masters and their austerity regime is not to make life better for the Greek people. Instead, the goal of the globalists pushing these austerity agendas is to bust up organized labor and privatize the assets of the country – to turn Greece into a libertarian paradise with no pesky organized labor and corporate fat cats profiting from what used to be public places and services. If they're successful, Greece will be run by transnational CEOs via the European Union. The collapse of Greece and the privatization of its commons will be Globalism's first takedown.

But, unsatisfied, the corporate masters of the universe have also turned their sights on resource-rich and cash-strapped nations, including Portugal, Ireland, and Spain. And again, we here in the United States did nothing.

Spain now has the highest unemployment rate in the Eurozone topping 25% and they, like the rest of the nations hit with austerity, are being dragged down that road to collapse, even though it's paved with civil unrest, economic despair, and radical politics. You'd think the world would have learned the lesson of the Treaty of Versailles. In the face of all this, the EU has been silent, too. The EU was created as a bulwark against fascism and to strengthen democracy, prosperity, and peace across the continent. The EU just recently won a Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in that direction.

Unfortunately, though, now their corporate masters are threatening this mission with their austerity demands. In Greece and Spain democracy is dying, prosperity is withering away, and radical fascistic parties are gaining traction in government. If the Germans and the rest of the "creditor" nations in Europe continue to ignore this, then they will be next.

We continue to say nothing about this destruction. We're ignoring this collapse that's happening just across the Atlantic Ocean. "It can't happen here," we think.

Not only are we ignoring it, we're empowering those same corporate masters of the universe here in the United States. In 2010, as austerity really bit hard in Greece, we elected a caucus of Republicans hell-bent on doing the bidding of American corporate masters and bringing austerity to the United States.

And two years later, with Greece and Spain in full collapse, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan might win the White House on an austerity platform that explicitly wants to privatize our commons and hand Social Security and Medicare over to the corporate overlords.

First they came for the Greeks, and we did nothing. Then they came for the rest of Europe, and again, we did nothing. On Election Day, these corporate masters will come for us, and, if Romney's elected, it may soon be too late to stop them.

The United States will be the corporate masters of the universe's "big get."

It's time for all of to wake up before we live in a one-world government ruled by the corporate masters of the universe.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license.

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Gimme Shelter: Government Policies Fail Homeless Mothers and Kids

Saturday, 03 November 2012 00:00 By Eleanor J Bader, Truthout | News Analysis

http://truth-out.org/news/item/12458-gimme-shelter-government-policies-fail-homeless-mothers-and-kids

Along with the immediate causes - disability, addiction, inadequate income, exorbitant housing costs, foreclosure, domestic abuse - government policies at all levels contribute to homelessness among mothers and children.

Three years ago Daphna Browne [a pseudonym] was living in the Bronx with her then-10-year-old daughter. Life was difficult. Browne was on Social Security Disability because of severe depression and an anxiety disorder; still, if she was thrifty, she could pay her $650 monthly rent and support herself and her child.

Her life began to unravel, she says, when her landlord told her that she had to leave the one-family house she'd called home for more than two years. The reason? He didn't need one. Under New York state law, tenants in buildings with fewer than six units can be evicted whenever an owner decides that he or she wants them out. Browne tells me that she was aghast when she received legal papers directing her to move - after all, she had always paid her rent on time - so she immediately headed to Housing Court to contest the order. Although the judge gave her 60 days to find a new place to live, she and her daughter ended up in a shelter for homeless families when her search failed to turn up anything affordable. "I receive $1600 a month from Disability," Browne says. "I've filled out many, many applications for subsidized housing, but so far, nothing. All these applications have gone nowhere. Meanwhile the staff in the shelter wants me to take an apartment for $1100 a month. How are two people gonna live on $500 a month for food, metro cards, utilities, clothing, a phone and personal items? Believe me, me and my daughter want out of the shelter. People there make problems." Browne suddenly stops speaking, then shakes her head furiously, before rattling off a list of indignities, from security guards who are verbally abusive to constant antagonism and fighting between residents. "It's not a healthy environment for a 13-year-old to grow up in and it's bad for me, too," she concludes.