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Category Archives: Sociology

Dr. Peter Phillips – “Wealth Concentration Drives a New Global Imperialism”

11 Sun Oct 2020

Posted by ztnh in Anti-Capitalism, Anti-Imperialism, Anti-Totalitarianism, Anti-War, Globalisation, Political Economy, Sociology

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Dr. Peter Phillips, global power elite

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LUMPENPROLETARIAT—The article below was shared publicly today by Dr. Peter Phillips via Facebook, a free essay on today’s US/NATO-led global imperialism and totalitarian nightmare led by a mostly-American global power elite investor class, perhaps, the ruling class.

If you haven’t already, check out Dr. Peter Phillip’s epic book, Giants: The Global Power Elite (2018), which goes into great detail about today’s global power elite, who really run the world.  About Giants, Dr. Noam Chomsky wrote:

Who exactly are the masters?  This remarkable inquiry lifts the veil, providing detailed and often shocking revelations about the astonishing concentration of private wealth and corporate power.

Dr. Noam Chomsky, linguist, political scientist, activist, humanist, philosopher, one of the most cited scholars alive

Messina

***

Wealth Concentration Drives a New Global Imperialism

  • By Peter Phillips

Regime changes in Iraq and Libya, Syria’s war, Venezuela’s crisis, sanctions on Cuba, Iran, Russia, and North Korea are reflections of a new global imperialism imposed by a core of capitalist nations in support of trillions of dollars of concentrated investment wealth. This new world order of mass capital has become a totalitarian empire of inequality and repression.

The global 1%, comprised of over 36-million millionaires and 2,400 billionaires, employ their excess capital with investment management firms like BlackRock and J.P Morgan Chase. The top seventeen of these trillion-dollar investment management firms controlled $41.1 trillion dollars in 2017. These firms are all directly invested in each other and managed by only 199 people who decide how and where global capital will be invested. Their biggest problem is they have more capital than there are safe investment opportunities, which leads to risky speculative investments, increased war spending, privatization of the public domain, and pressures to open new capital investment opportunities through political regime changes.

Power elites in support of capital investment are collectively embedded in a system of mandatory growth. Failure for capital to achieve continuing expansion leads to economic stagnation, which can result in depression, bank failures, currency collapses, and mass unemployment. Capitalism is an economic system that inevitably adjusts itself via contractions, recessions, and depressions. Power elites are entrapped in a web of enforced growth that requires ongoing global management and the formation of new and ever expanding capital investment opportunities. This forced expansion becomes a worldwide manifest destiny that seeks total capital domination in all regions of the earth and beyond.

Sixty percent of the core 199 global power elite managers are from the US, with people from twenty capitalist nations rounding out the balance. These power elite managers and associated one percenters take active part in global policy groups and governments. They serve as advisors to the IMF, World Trade Organization, World Bank, International Bank of Settlements, Federal Reserve Board, G-7 and the G-20. Most attend the World Economic Forum. Global power elites engage actively on private international policy councils such as the Council of Thirty, Trilateral Commission, and the Atlantic Council. Many of the US global elites are members of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Business Roundtable in the US. The most important issue for these power elites is protecting capital investment, insuring debt collection, and building opportunities for further returns.

The global power elite are aware of their existence as a numerical minority in the vast sea of impoverished humanity. Roughly 80% of the world’s population lives on less than ten dollars a day and half live on less than three dollars a day. Concentrated global capital becomes the binding institutional alignment that brings transnational capitalists into a centralized global imperialism facilitated by world economic/trade institutions and protected by the US/NATO military empire. This concentration of wealth leads to a crisis of humanity, whereby poverty, war, starvation, mass alienation, media propaganda, and environmental devastation have reached levels that threaten humanity’s future.

The idea of independent self-ruling nation-states has long been held sacrosanct in traditional liberal capitalist economies. However, globalization has placed a new set of demands on capitalism that requires transnational mechanisms to support continued capital growth that is increasingly beyond the boundaries of individual states. The financial crisis of 2008 was an acknowledgement of the global system of capital under threat. These threats encourage the abandonment of nation-state rights altogether and the formation of a global imperialism that reflects new world order requirements for protecting transnational capital.

Institutions within capitalist countries including government ministries, defense forces, intelligence agencies, judiciary, universities and representative bodies, recognize to varying degrees that the overriding demands of transnational capital spill beyond the boundaries of nation-states. The resulting worldwide reach motivates a new form of global imperialism that is evident by coalitions of core capitalist nations engaged in past and present regime change efforts via sanctions, covert actions, co-options, and war with non-cooperating nations—Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea and Russia.

The attempted coup in Venezuela shows the alignment of transnational capital-supporting states in recognizing the elite forces that oppose Maduro’s socialist presidency. A new global imperialism is at work here, whereby Venezuela’s sovereignty is openly undermined by a capital imperial world order that seeks not just control of Venezuela’s oil, but a full opportunity for widespread investments through a new regime.

The widespread corporate media negation of the democratically elected president of Venezuela demonstrates that these media are owned and controlled by ideologists for the global power elite. Corporate media today is highly concentrated and fully international. Their primary goal is the promotion of product sales and pro-capitalist propaganda through the psychological control of human desires, emotions, beliefs, fears, and values. Corporate media does this by manipulating feelings and cognitions of human beings worldwide, and by promoting entertainment as a distraction to global inequality.

Recognizing global imperialism as a manifestation of concentrated wealth, managed by a few hundred people, is of utmost importance for democratic humanitarian activists. We must stand on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and challenge global imperialism and its fascist governments, media propaganda, and empire armies.


Peter Phillips is a professor of political sociology at Sonoma State University. Giants: The Global Power Elite, 2018, is his 18th book from Seven Stories Press. He teaches courses in Political Sociology, Sociology of Power, Sociology of Media, Sociology of Conspiracies and Investigative Sociology. He served as director of Project Censored from 1996 to 2010 and as president of Media Freedom Foundation from 2003 to 2017.

***

[11 OCT 2020]

[Last modified on 11 OCT 2020 at 13:53 PDT]

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System Update: Explaining Ruling Class Contempt for Joe Rogan

09 Fri Oct 2020

Posted by ztnh in Civic Engagement (Activism), Democratic Party (USA), First Amendment (U.S. Constitution), Political Science, Presidential Election 2020, Republican Party (USA), Sociology

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Dr. Glenn Greenwald (b. 1967), Joseph James Rogan (b. 1967), System Update, The Intercept

What explains elite contempt for Joe Rogan? - System Update with Glenn  Greenwald - YouTube

LUMPENPROLETARIAT—It’s true that a big problem with mass media and journalism today is the atomization of the public into narrow media silos. So, we do our best to read a diversity of perspectives. But, I gotta tell ya, after listening to loads of right-wing rhetoric, tuning in to a Glenn Greenwald podcast is like a breath of fresh air. He simply makes so much more sense to me and, evidently, to his growing audience than many other legal or political analysts. With clear, sober, and articulate analyses and explanations of contemporary issues, Dr. Greenwald speaks sincerely.

On this episode of System Update, “What Explains Elite Contempt for Joe Rogan?”, Greenwald is in conversation with Shant Mesrobian, who was “formerly with the Obama 2008 campaign” and is the “current co-host of ‘The Backchannel’”.

Greenwald and Mesrobian discussed the social impact of Joe Rogan’s platform, which amassed over 15 million views recently with an Edward Snowden interview. That’s many times more than prime-time news on their best night. And the establishment seems to be taking note. Some even say Joe Rogan ‘sold out‘ by migrating his popular podcast exclusively to Spotify, just as his political clout and influence is growing large enough to wield electoral influence.

Yet, the Democratic Party is averse to allying themselves with someone ‘on the fence’, like Joe Rogan is, willing to switch his political endorsements from Bernie Sanders to Donald Trump, bypassing Biden on account of ‘senior mental decline’ and whatnot, also bypassing any ideological loyalties. Mesrobian argued that the two corporate political parties, within a two-party system, care less about winning elections or even holding the Oval Office, than they do about keeping control of their party and keeping the political cartel-like racket going: serving the corporate funders and banksters, whilst leaving the public hanging out to dry.

Democrats would rather push Biden to the presidential ticket, and watch him lose to Trump, than allow Bernie Sanders or any other more viable candidate to win and take control of the Democratic Party. Greenwald reminded us how we observed the same toxic two-party dynamic in the UK when the Labour Party bosses lost control of their party to Jeremy Corbin.

They preferred to destroy Corbin and retake control of the party, even if it meant empowering the Tories and making Boris Johnson prime minister because […] their top priority is insuring that they maintain control of their party, and secondary, or even more distantly, is actually winning elections.

Messina

***

Channel: The Intercept

Program: System Update with Glenn Greenwald, “What explains elite contempt for Joe Rogan?”, 22 SEP 2020

[Transcript excerpts by Messina for Lumpenproletariat and The Intercept.]

—snip—

SHANT MESROBIAN: (c. 1:02:08)

“I mean it’s the argument, that the left’s been making, you know, for years now. Right? Like, this is the guy to be studying. Right? [Someone like Joe Rogan’s] the one that we can kind of crack the code on.

“As for, you know, why that’s the case, I think it’s real, again, it’s really threatening. I don’t think—you know, the Democratic establishment, what I tend to tell people is that the democratic establishment, their main priority is not really to actually even win elections. It’s to keep control of the Democratic Party. Right?

“Like, that’s where most of their power comes from. It’s certainly where their most reliable source of power comes from; it’s keeping control of the party because as long as you can keep control, and you keep control of the cultural levers of power in the country, you’re always going to be able to command 50% of the political system. You’re always going to be able to command, you know, the entire media apparatus, that’s devoted to politics—Right? You’re good—or at least half of it. Right? You’re going to control the liberal half.

“And, so, I think it’s—I mean it’s—I’m sorry to say. But I think it’s a very cynical calculation that cultural elites and democratic party elites are making when they make these decisions because when you engage Joe Rogan, and you engage his viewers, you are bringing in a ton of people you can’t necessarily rely on to keep these clean lines of political and cultural engagement. You’re completely blowing up the political system.

“You’re blowing up the political racket. Right? And why would you want to do that because, at the end of the day, hell, Trump could get re-elected and they’d still control the party. They can still control the other half. They’d be raising hundreds of millions of dollars for their think tanks. And, therefore, you know, the media institutions and—so, it’s a great racket. Why would you risk that just for winning the presidency for maybe four years, eight years. Don’t get me wrong. Obviously, they’d like to win that, too. But I don’t think that’s the real game. I don’t think that’s ever been the real game.”

GLENN GREENWALD: “We saw that in the UK—right?—where the centrists and Blairites and moderates, who controlled the Labour Party, the levers of power forever, whether they were in power or out of power. When they lost control of their own party to Jeremy Corbin, they—it was very obvious, if you were just paying minimal attention, but we now know from documents, that have been leaked and reports, that have been issued—they were actively working against the Labour Party. They preferred to destroy Corbin and retake control of the party, even if it meant empowering the Tories and making Boris Johnson prime minister because, as you say, their top priority is insuring that they maintain control of their party, and secondary, or even more distantly, is actually winning elections. (c. 1:05:19)

—snip—

***

Follow Shant Mesrobian: https://twitter.com/ShantMM The Backchannel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBackchannel Follow Glenn Greenwald on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ggreenwald Read Glenn’s work: https://theintercept.com/staff/glenn-…

***

[9 OCT 2020]

[Last modified on 11 OCT 2020 at 22:41 PDT]

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NDTV: Muslim-American Woman Allegedly Thrown Out Of US Bank For Wearing A Hijab

14 Sun May 2017

Posted by ztnh in Anti-Totalitarianism, Mindfulness, Police State, Racism (phenotype), Sociology

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Jamela Mohamed, New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV), Sound Credit Union (Washington state)

LUMPENPROLETARIAT  Islamaphobia, and hood-phobia, has reared its ugly head again, this time (and yet again) in the so-called land of the free, at a bank in Washington state, according to a report by New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV), an Indian television media company.

Messina

***

NDTV—[14 MAY 2017]  Muslim-American Woman Allegedly Thrown Out of US Bank for Wearing a Hijab

Jamela Mohamed went to a branch of Sound Credit Union in Washington state on Friday to make a car payment.

Highlights

  1. Jamela Mohamed, recorded the incident on her cellphone
  2. The staff threatened to call the police if she did not ‘remove her hood’
  3. The bank admitted the situation was not handled well and apologised

New York: A Muslim-American woman was allegedly thrown out of a bank in the US for ‘wearing a hijab’ – with the staff threatening to call the police if she did not ‘remove her hood’. Jamela Mohamed went to a branch of Sound Credit Union in Washington state on Friday to make a car payment.

Ms Mohamed, an American and a member of the credit union, recorded part of the incident on her mobile phone, claiming it shows blatant ‘discrimination’.

She said she had been wearing a sweater and had the hood up because it was a Friday, which is when Muslims offer weekly prayers in the afternoon. The teller asked Ms Mohamed to take off her hood. A sign inside the Credit Union says hats, hoods and sunglasses are not allowed, ABC-affiliated television station KOMO-TV reported.

Ms Mohamed said she was following the policy so she went to her car to grab her headscarf, or hijab. She went back in with her scarf, while still wearing her hood, the report said.

While she was waiting, Ms Mohamed says she took some video of the sign and of two male customers wearing baseball caps because they were being helped without any issues.

“Why am I witnessing a man being serviced with a hat on and I’m being told to take off my hood?” she asked.

“This is my hood. My face is showing and so I currently do have an issue today. I’m being polite, I’m complying. I simply stated that I just need to pay my car note today,” she said to a teller again.

[snip]

Learn more at NDTV.

***

[Anti-mosque symbol by Albert Mestre, used via Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)]

[14 MAY 2017]

[Last modified at 14:06 PST on 14 MAY 2017]

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