Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Peace Economics Perspective
"In war, truth is the first casualty." Ancient Greek philosopher Aeschylus said. If war starts the lying, empire makes it much worse and can institutionalize lying. Just as military spending increases drive down manufacturing jobs and economic growth, it drives up crime and murder rates and general corruption. The corruption of empire hurts our health, mental health, and captures control of our politics. The general decay of empire is reversible if you can reverse the military budget (there is hope), hence empire decay is not inevitable, just all too likely. The Republican party is drunk with the power of military spending, locally and long term. Both parties fail to see the trade-off with manufacturing, although it is obvious in the jobs' statistics. The international financial service sector booms with a global economy (tenfold % GDP growth since the seventies) as the technology loaded manufacturing sector withers at home. Lies have emerged as one strategy to help white nationalists win despite the looming non-white national majority. Lies are part of the corruption of empire in America since the 1945 war of empires. In research, the truth is my North Star.
Public Relations Industry
John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton wrote Toxic Sludge is Good for You and started the Center for Media and Democracy (1993). John cites World War I as the beginning of the modern public relations industry. David Brock wrote The Republican Noise Machine (2004) and according to Brock and Wikipedia "conservative and Republican strategists 'concoct smears, distortions, and outright lies', and then disseminate the product as 'talking points' to right-wing radio and Fox News, which Brock says set a narrative echoed by more mainstream news sources. Heritage Foundation (founded 2-16-1973) is cited as the leading think tank on the right. CATO Institute (founded 1974) and ALEC (1973) were founded by the Koch brothers. Following the 1971 Powell memo, this begins the modern conservative reaction after the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements of the 1960s. Manhattan Institute (1977) and Bradley Foundation (1943) and Hoover Institute (1919) all founded in war or postwar all contribute to conservative propaganda today. Note that five of the ten dates were in the seventies, the strong anti-Vietnam reaction that elected Ronald Reagan and doomed the middle class ever since 1980. When do the lies stop? Never.
Extremism and Democracy
US Senate Filibuster was an accidental development in the early nineteenth century and only used about once a two-year congress in the middle of the 20th century. But since the arrival of Mitch McConnell as Republican leader in 2007 the filibuster has been abused by Republicans to the point of constant use for all major legislation, today. This is an absurd change from majority to 3/5ths majority rule at a time when tolerance and forbearance, key necessities for a healthy democracy have all but disappeared. Like the Roman Empire's evolution from a republic to a dictatorship, excessive militarism is steadily destroying the democratic fabric of American society. The engine of this development is the propaganda media of the right wing developed from the 1987 repeal of the equal time doctrine that once required equal time to both sides of an issue. Never mind that there are more than two sides to many issues, the right to outright lie and radically distort information has gone too far without some check and balance mechanism. Free speech does not extend to the right to holler "fire" in a crowded theatre, and normal TOLERANCE for other points of view and FORBEARANCE from taking advantage of power to use any means necessary to reach your goals must be parts of democracy; that without those two attributes democracies die. Trump and today's Republican Party have "jumped the shark" in that respect. The sedition caucus operates today in today's Senate and House Republican Parties. Finding new ways to dominate the other side is a recipe for fascism. Demanding unconditional surrender may have been necessary to win World War Two, but it shows a disastrous tendency of intolerance for the other side in a healthy democracy drifting deeper and deeper into a state of empire, dictatorship, and the "Big Lie" tactic of Donald John Trump (26,000 lies and 400,000 COVID-19 deaths).
End the Filibuster
The US Senate is no longer the world's greatest political body, it has almost been destroyed by extremism on the right as they pack the courts. Before our democracy completely dissolves, the left must take this opportunity to correct course on democracy. The start is to repair the voting rights act by outlawing irresponsible states from employing all manner of voter suppression measures without pre-clearance from the Justice Department. It is time to guarantee the right to vote once and for all. It is time to end gerrymandering, like the locked in majority for a decade Republican legislative control of the Wisconsin Legislature since 2010. Several times the shift back to Democratic Party and voter control have been thwarted in the last ten years, with the extreme example of the Supreme Court refusing to correct on a pretext of "standing". DC needs to become a state, not governed by a committee in the national legislature, not thwarted from asking for reinforcements from Maryland for 90 minutes when the capital was under siege January 6th. Finally the Secretary of the Army approved national guard and special police. Two more blacks in the US Senate would make the Senate look more like America. A 51-star flag would be symmetrical (eight nine eight nine eight nine). Sixty votes would make a farce of such plans to restore democracy. Red states already have eighteen more Senators and Electoral College votes, two Senators would give better balance desperately needed.
Seventeen Key Findings About Military Spending and Long Cycles:
https://www.academia.edu/37217512/Findings_and_Special_Claims_November_2017_2_pages
Please cite this work as follows: Reuschlein, Robert. (2021, January 20), "Where Do 'Lies' Come From?" Madison, WI, Real Economy Institute. Retrieved from: https://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/Where-Do-"Lies"-Come-From?,2021241343.aspx
Dr. Peace, Professor Robert Reuschlein, Real Economy Institute, Nobel Peace Prize nominee 2016-2020 with accelerating interest from the deciding Norwegians. A consistently growing pattern shows intense interest in my work on my expertclick.com website, daily "hard looks" per year have gone from 2 to 3 to 48 to 128 to 200 to double last year's pace (83/41) so far, this 102 days.
Contact: bobreuschlein@gmail.com Info: www.realeconomy.com