prima facie ...

  .. vs. the facts ...

    .. turns out I was correct

-=*=-

Is this just "Nyaa, nyaa, I told you so?" - no. A bit, of course - but on all the themes that I was right about - those things (and more) are still going badly wrong, most getting ever worse.

Preamble: I make no secret of the fact that I'm ju-u-st that little bit anti-US (regime, as anti-Israel). The US big-notes itself as the free(?) world's so-called 'leader,' and the Israeli regime is, per capita, the world's worst criminal - 60+ years long now and no end in sight. Free gets a "?" since I don't see much freedom anywhere - let alone in the US; 'leader' gets quotes since no sane leader would lead the world over a cliff, and the Israeli regime's criminality is Oh, so obvious - for any who can see through the filthy propaganda. The rabid US dog and the illegitimate Israeli tail (not clear as to which wags whom) are the joint source of most of the world's worst troubles - Oh! Only IMHO, as usual and of course. End preamble.

Some things that are obviously going wrong, in rough order of priority are: the ever-more threatening excess-CO2 caused climate change, the ghastly mass-murdering to enable resource-theft, the sadly now 'standard' commercial rip-offs and the associated still in slow motion financial crash, immorality in general - and the lies that surround us like a vile, stinking and suffocating shroud - err, cloud.

Thesis: It cannot be, that nothing can be done, because all of the things going wrong are not 'natural (out of our control) processes,' they are all the actions of people. What some can do, they can also stop doing - or, if required, be stopped from doing. After all, this 'stop or be stopped' is the principle behind having police - except for the only partly-cynical view, that police are there to protect the haves' property from the have-nots.

A quick, non-exhaustive list of things I've previously, in some cases repeatedly pointed out as going/gone wrong: most obviously, the profligate and largely irresponsible burning of fossil-fuel carbon, the US (UK, Aus) illegal invasion now brutal occupation of Iraq (of course; murder for oil), Israel (more of course; murder for land and water, 60+ bloody years looong), general, long-term US-regime criminality (I start partly along a disgustingly long time-line with the hideous double A-bombing war crime), the resource-rent rip-off (tip of a large & dirty commercial rip-off iceberg), general inflationary fiat-money printing with associated artificially low interest rates and discriminatory tax policies (Costello's halving of the capital gains tax being one particularly despicable low-point); that should be enough to go on with for now. Curiously perhaps, as I pointed out these problems I was far too often confronted by (lying!) blog-trolls attempting to contradict me; how funny is it that they all turned out to be completely wrong? (And exactly what's in it for them? No truth, no honour, no conscience - and no intelligence, except crooked.)

Most people reading this (trolls excepted - who may exit, go!) - most honestly enquiring minds would already know all about these problems, but for any who don't, no one need take my word for it; here is a short sampling of interesting articles:

1. Jul 9, 2003
THE ABDUCTION OF MODERNITY, Part 1
The race toward barbarism
By Henry C K Liu

  «China's most influential revolutionary, Mao Zedong, proclaimed in modern times his famous dictum: "Political power comes from the barrel of a gun." He was in fact condemning the obsolete values of Confucianism (ru jia) as much as stating a truism in barbaric modern realpolitik.
Confucian ethics notwithstanding, morality and honor failed to save China from Western imperialism, because morality and honor require observation from both opponents. It was not a clash of civilizations, but a clash between civilization and barbarism. Militarism is a race toward barbarism camouflaged by technology as modernity.»
[atimes/Liu]

Comment: Paraphrased, lots of the finest human principles in and following on from "The Enlightenment" have been ignored, violated or outright obliterated by neo-liberal this and neoCon that, and their idiot running-dogs. Savages - barbarians.

2. Jun 16, 2005
Into the valley of death ...
By M K Bhadrakumar

  «The events in Andizhan have further destabilized the Ferghana Valley - a hotbed of Wahhabism and simmering nationality questions. This may appear to be a limited space on the vast Central Asian landscape, but the valley accounts for a quarter of the entire region's population and is shared uneasily between Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Overthrow the Uzbek government and pass on power to an Uzbek oligarch living in exile in the US - this seems to be the latest American game plan, tragic as it might sound.»
[atimes/Bhadrakumar]

Comment: I was tracking 'what the US did wrong in Andizhan,' Bhadrakumar follow-ups here, here, here and following the 'hottest' of hot tips, here. What did the US do wrong? Oh, just tried to subvert the natives - as usual, of course and what else?

3. February 19, 2009
Lobby Whistles Up Cordesman to "Prove" Israel Waged a Clean War in Gaza
The Cleanser
By NORMAN FINKELSTEIN

  «If the carefully orchestrated p.r. blitz ultimately did not convince, the problem was perhaps not that the whole world misperceived what happened or that Israel failed to convey adequately its humanitarian mission but rather that the scope of the massacre was so appalling that no amount of propaganda could disguise it, especially after the massacre was over and foreign reporters could no longer be barred on spurious pretexts. Alas, this preposterous, barely literate “analysis” Cordesman cobbled together after his junket is unlikely to fool anyone, although in fairness to camp-follower Cordesman it must be said that he plainly did his best to please and the American Jewish Committee plainly got its money’s worth from him.»
[counterpunch/Finkelstein]

Comment: Ho hum - yet another criminal massacre (1300+ mostly innocent dead) by the risibly named (offensive!) IDF. Speaking of morality, Jews allow themselves to bald-facedly lie - if such lies are deemed in the interests of the Israeli Vaterland. Another 'of course,' a people who would mass-slaughter innocents in order to steal those innocents' land and water doesn't have much in the way of morality.

4. February 23, 2009
What "Nationalize the Banks" and the "Free Market" Really Mean in Today's Looking-Glass World
The Language of Looting
By MICHAEL HUDSON

  «Neoliberal denunciations of public regulation and taxation as “socialism” is really an attack on classical political economy – the “original” liberalism whose ideal was to free society from the parasitic legacy of feudalism. ... Shifting the tax burden off wages and profits onto rent and interest was the core of classical political economy in the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as the Progressive Era and Social Democratic reform movements in the United States and Europe prior to World War I. But this doctrine and its reform program has been buried by the rhetorical smokescreen organized by financial lobbyists seeking to muddy the ideological waters sufficiently to mute popular opposition to today’s power grab by finance capital and monopoly capital. Their alternative to true nationalization and socialization of finance is debt peonage, oligarchy and neo-feudalism. They have called this program “free markets.”»
[counterpunch/Hudson]

Comment: Basically, head shaking, hair pulling. One must read it all, as one should the other citations. There are statistics that show just how much richer the already obscenely rich fat-cats have become - obviously at our expense, and they, far from choking on their greed beyond avarice, along with all their pet politicians and other running-dogs, are leading the world over a cliff.

It's *someone's* job to stop the rot - and there're only us, we the truth and justice seekers.

Fazit: The articles above are only a small sample, but they all point in roughly the same direction - they illustrate the bankruptcy of the systems 'in play,' mostly crooked when not outright criminal. There's enough for all - just, and it has to be better distributed. Continuous growth in both resource usage (most notably burning carbon) and population must stop immediately; we must get sustainable. If having ultra-rich is unavoidable (why?) then tax them unmercifully; let them grasp after their ill-gotten 'gains,' but tax the $s right back off 'em. A special word to those who have provided the (erroneous!) ideology behind and/or support for the rip-offs, from the loftiest academics through the treacherous journalist 'water-carriers' to the lowest lying trolls: how could you be so bloody stupid?

-=*end*=-

Ref(s):

prima facie —adv. at first sight. —adj. (of evidence) based on the first impression. [Latin] [POD]