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Related: About this forumDetroit and Iraq: Both Devastated by the Same Thieves
http://www.alternet.org/economy/detroit-and-iraq-both-devastated-same-thieves?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmarkDETROIT, MICHIGAN - NOV 21: Abandoned Packard factory ruins on a sunny afternoon on November 21, 2012. Abandoned in 1958, the buildings still stand in a decayed state of beauty.
Detroit and Iraq: Both Devastated by the Same Thieves
Black Agenda Report / By Margaret Kimberley
June 27, 2014 |
The ugly face of empire and disaster capitalism is visible all over the world. Detroit, Michigan, was once a thriving city but was sent into a tailspin by the deindustrialization of the United States, white flight, and institutional racism which blamed black people who were in fact the victims of catastrophe. The coup de grace was delivered by big banks like UBS, Bank of America and Barclays, which sold risky derivatives schemes to corrupt Detroit politicians. When the financial deal inevitably headed south, the banks were the creditors first in line for a payout.
~snip~
President Obama and his cohorts in the Democratic and Republican parties will go to any lengths to prop up the empire, but do little to help people in need. American allies in Ukraine or Iraq and other countries receive astronomical sums of money in order to help maintain Manifest Destiny. Poor people in Detroit and the rest of the country are not so lucky. They are seen only as obstacles to putting the rule of capital firmly in place.
Iraq was invaded with soldiers, guns and bombs. Detroit was invaded by the corporate suits who made a fast buck for themselves. The end result is the same for Michiganders and Iraqis alike. They end up suffering in a plundered society while other people make out like the bandits that they really are.
The organizations which reached out to the U.N. took an important step in changing the Detroit narrative. Politicians and the corporate media dismiss the citys troubles as the fault of incompetent black people. All of former mayor Kwame Kilpatricks incompetence could not have created the ongoing occupation of Detroit by the thieves in high places. The outreach to the United Nations is important for another reason. It points out that millions of Americans live an existence far from the myth of the great country. They are struggling to survive just like millions in the so-called third world. It is the gangsters who run the show in Baghdad and in Michigan too.
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Detroit and Iraq: Both Devastated by the Same Thieves (Original Post)
unhappycamper
Jun 2014
OP
Too Big To Fail/Too Big To Jail. Gotta "look forward," except for whistleblowers and medical marijua
blkmusclmachine
Jun 2014
#2
merrily
(45,251 posts)1. Sell art works from public museums at bargain prices to the 10%.
Meanwhile, playing now at a theater near you: Monuments Men.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Godwin. Fuck him. The Reich had many aspects and not all comparisons to it disrespect the 12 million Holocaust victims, nor are all comparisons to it invalid. There were lots of warnings for future generations and inventing a rule that discourages comparisons only serves to silence those warnings. Moreover, who is served by that rule? No one I want served, that's for damned sure.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)2. Too Big To Fail/Too Big To Jail. Gotta "look forward," except for whistleblowers and medical marijua
-na patients, and Occupy Wall Street. In all those cases, it's all hands on the filthy perpetrators!
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)3. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations!
cerveza_gratis
(281 posts)4. this is astute
comes from blind pursuit of profit - which is what we expect out of our businesses now a days.