The Gainesville Iguana September 2012 Vol. 26, Issue 9 Security Overkill in Tampa at RNC Protesters at the Republican National Convention in Tampa on Aug. 27-30 were met by a militarized city. Chants addressed issues head-on: “This is what $50 million dollars looks like!”* and “Take off that riot gear, there ain’t no riot here!” Protests were peaceful and diminished in size by a hurricane threat that canceled buses from around the country. Despite the police's overwhelming numbers and equipment, relations were largely cordial; one activist reported cops clapping along as marchers sang “Solidarity Forever.” Participants who attended the protests will give a report-back at the Civic Media Cen- ter on Wednesday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. Photo courtesy of Rob Shaw. * $50 million is the price tag for this authoritarian overkill, with another $50 million spent for the Democratic Convention in Charlotte Sept. 4-6. Noam Chomsky: Too big to fail INSIDE ... Publisher's Note ..............3 The following is the conclusion of an recovered from the devastation of the Civic Media Center Events ......9 article by Noam Chomsky from Tom- war and decolonization took its ago- Dispatch.com and reprinted by Com- nizing course. By the early 1970s, the Directory ................ 10-11 monDreams.org on Aug. 13. The entire U.S. share of global wealth had de- Monthly Event Calendar ....12-13 article is highly recommended with a lot clined to about 25 percent, and the Ask Mr. Econ ................14 of historical background, but space only industrial world had become tripo- General Election Information ...16 allowed the last third to be run. lar: North America, Europe, and East Asia (then Japan-based). Oral History Program .........17 ... The peak of U.S. power was after Alachua County Budget ........20 World War II, when it had literally half There was also a sharp change in the Election Resources ...........21 the world’s wealth. But that naturally U.S. economy in the 1970s, towards fi- declined, as other industrial economies See CHOMSKY p. 2 CHOMSKY from p. 1 That has been the regular process the participating countries. since the Reagan years, each crisis nancialization and export of production. As NAFTA was rammed through A variety of factors converged to create more extreme than the last -- for the public population, that is. Right Congress over popular objection in a vicious cycle of radical concentration 1994, Clinton also initiated the mili- of wealth, primarily in the top fraction now, real unemployment is at De- pression levels for much of the pop- tarization of the U.S.-Mexican bor- of 1 percent of the population -- mostly der, previously fairly open. It was CEOs, hedge-fund managers, and the ulation, while Goldman Sachs, one of the main architects of the current understood that Mexican campesi- like. That leads to the concentration of nos cannot compete with highly political power, hence state policies to crisis, is richer than ever. It has just quietly announced $17.5 billion in subsidized U.S. agribusiness, and increase economic concentration: fis- that Mexican businesses would not cal policies, rules of corporate gover- compensation for last year, with CEO Lloyd Blankfein receiving a survive competition with U.S. mul- nance, deregulation, and much more. tinationals, which must be granted Meanwhile the costs of electoral cam- $12.6 million bonus while his base salary more than triples. “national treatment” under the mis- paigns skyrocketed, driving the parties labeled free trade agreements, a into the pockets of concentrated capital, It wouldn’t do to focus attention on privilege granted only to corporate increasingly financial: the Republicans such facts as these. Accordingly, pro- persons, not those of flesh and blood. reflexively, the Democrats -- by now paganda must seek to blame others, Not surprisingly, these measures led what used to be moderate Republicans in the past few months, public sector to a flood of desperate refugees, and -- not far behind. workers, their fat salaries, exorbitant to rising anti-immigrant hysteria by Elections have become a charade, run pensions, and so on: all fantasy, on the the victims of state-corporate poli- by the public relations industry. Af- model of Reaganite imagery of black cies at home. mothers being driven in their limou- ter his 2008 victory, Obama won an Much the same appears to be happen- award from the industry for the best sines to pick up welfare checks -- and other models that need not be men- ing in Europe, where racism is proba- marketing campaign of the year. Ex- bly more rampant than in the U.S. One ecutives were euphoric. In the busi- tioned. We all must tighten our belts; almost all, that is. can only watch with wonder as Italy ness press they explained that they complains about the flow of refugees had been marketing candidates like Teachers are a particularly good target, from Libya, the scene of the first post- other commodities since Ronald as part of the deliberate effort to de- World War I genocide, in the now- Reagan, but 2008 was their greatest stroy the public education system from liberated East, at the hands of Italy’s achievement and would change the kindergarten through the universities Fascist government. Or when France, style in corporate boardrooms. The by privatization -- again, good for the still today the main protector of the 2012 election is expected to cost $2 wealthy, but a disaster for the popula- brutal dictatorships in its former colo- billion, mostly in corporate funding. tion, as well as the long-term health of nies, manages to overlook its hideous Small wonder that Obama is selecting the economy, but that is one of the ex- atrocities in Africa, while French Pres- business leaders for top positions. ternalities that is put to the side insofar ident Nicolas Sarkozy warns grimly of as market principles prevail. While wealth and power have nar- the “flood of immigrants” and Marine Le Pen objects that he is doing noth- rowly concentrated, for most of the Another fine target, always, is immi- ing to prevent it. I need not mention population real incomes have stagnat- grants. That has been true throughout Belgium, which may win the prize for ed and people have been getting by U.S. history, even more so at times of what Adam Smith called “the savage with increased work hours, debt, and economic crisis, exacerbated now by injustice of the Europeans.” asset inflation, regularly destroyed by a sense that our country is being taken the financial crises that began as the away from us: the white population The rise of neo-fascist parties in much regulatory apparatus was dismantled will soon become a minority. One can of Europe would be a frightening phe- starting in the 1980s. understand the anger of aggrieved in- nomenon even if we were not to recall dividuals, but the cruelty of the policy what happened on the continent in None of this is problematic for the is shocking. very wealthy, who benefit from a gov- the recent past. Just imagine the reac- ernment insurance policy called “too Who are the immigrants targeted? In tion if Jews were being expelled from big to fail.” The banks and investment Eastern Massachusetts, where I live, France to misery and oppression, and firms can make risky transactions, many are Mayans fleeing genocide then witness the non-reaction when with rich rewards, and when the sys- in the Guatemalan highlands carried that is happening to Roma, also vic- tem inevitably crashes, they can run out by Reagan’s favorite killers. Oth- tims of the Holocaust and Europe’s to the nanny state for a taxpayer bail- ers are Mexican victims of Clinton’s most brutalized population. out, clutching their copies of Fried- NAFTA, one of those rare govern- In Hungary, the neo-fascist party Job- rich Hayek and Milton Friedman. ment agreements that managed to harm working people in all three of See CHOMSKY p. 4 PAGE 2, IGUANA, SEPTEMBER 2012 GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA From the publisher ... Subscribe! Election: pivotal nationally, locally The Gainesville Iguana By Joe Courter is Gainesville's progressive events calendar & newsletter. Okay, the primary elections are behind us, and come November the voting begins. Individuals: $15 (or more if you can) This election is pivotal on both the national Low/No income: What you can and local levels. With the selection of Paul Groups: $20 Ryan as Romney’s VP, this presidential race Iguana, c/o CISPLA may be a referendum on how government P.O. Box 14712 should work in America; in the words of Gainesville, FL 32604 Ryan, individualism vs. collectivism. Comments, suggestions, contributions This Ayn Rand inspired libertarian ideology (written or financial) are welcome. To has been bubbling, some might say festering, list your event or group, contact us at: below the surface of American politics for decades. It opposed FDR’s (352) 378-5655 New Deal from the get-go, and still seethes at the welfare system, and any [email protected] thought of a national healthcare system. It hates regulation on business, be it www.gainesvilleiguana.org banking, energy or commerce. It wants privatization of the public sector, from facebook.com/gainesvilleiguana government programs like Social Security to drilling by corporations for oil and gas in our National Parks. The Iguana has been published Its adherents have been very successful in using their money and connections monthly or bimonthly by volunteers to get their ideology into the mainstream, creating the Heritage Society and the for 25 years. Circulation for this Cato Institute and many other “think tanks,” which the docile corporate media issue is 4,500. has come to accept as the third voice in our political debate.