MEDIA ROOTS — The number of deeply impoverished Americans has exploded since Obama took office, according to Panorama,  BBC’s weekly investigative news program.  In fact, the U.S. is more unequal now than any other time since the Great Depression.  Three million are newly unemployed while one-fifth of the wealth is earned by just one percent of the population.  Additionally, nearly 50 million are now uninsured, up from 46 million in 2008.

BBC Host Hillary Anderson takes viewers inside the storm drains of Las Vegas to meet some of the hundreds of formerly middle-class Americans now living below one of the richest cities on Earth.  She continues to interview a few of the 1.5 million homeless children in the U.S., where one child tragically explains how her family once had to eat rats because no other food was available.  Anderson also stops by Tent City outside of Detroit to meet those who have been surviving the harsh elements for over a year after losing their homes.

The once idealized American Dream is now an out of reach distant memory.  Social mobility in the U.S. may be the lowest it’s ever been—half the poor, about five million families of four, now earn less than $11,000 a year.  Yet, in one of the world’s richest lands it’s even more difficult for those that are impoverished to fully admit their situation. 

MR

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BBC’s Panorama: Poor America

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Photo by flickr user nyrk03

MEDIA ROOTS — Last month, President Obama claimed that there has not been a significant amount of civilian deaths in Pakistan from unmanned US drones.  Yet, more than a dozen Pakistani families of dead civilians have petitioned to the United Nations for an intervention to immediately cease U.S. drone attacks.  The UN’s Human Rights Council (HRC) is expected to review the complaint soon.

Considering the fact that Pakistan possesses nuclear weapons, this issue is of great concern for human rights as well as international security.  Last year, the UN HRC recognized that while 40 countries have drone technology, the United States is the dominant user of drones for targeted killings.  Additionally, the Government of Pakistan has previously stated that the continued use of drones in their airspace, without prior consent, is a direct violation of their sovereignty.  Imagine Pakistan, or any other foreign military, flying drones, without consent, over U.S. airspace.

Reprieve, a UK-based legal charity, is formally delivering the complaint.  Activist Shahzad Akbar explains, “the international community can no longer afford to ignore the human rights catastrophe which is taking place in North West Pakistan in the name of the ‘War on Terror.’”

Shockingly, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals that, during the year the United States increased its drone operations, multiple civilians were specifically targeted as, either, rescuers or for simply attending the funerals of the slain.  The Bureau adds, since Obama took office three years ago, 60 of these victims have been children.

The increased use of drones is the latest example of industry fueling military expansion.  Earlier this month, Congress approved a $63 billion spending bill for the Federal Aviation Administration to test and license domestic drone use.  As many as 30,000 drones could be in use over U.S. skies by 2020.

Oskar Mosquito is a writer for Media Roots and producer at truth-march.

Photo by Flickr user the US Army

MEDIA ROOTS — Doubtless, many have heard of the U.S. targeted killing of U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki under Obama.  But many may not know that al-Awlaki wasn’t the last U.S. citizen arbitrarily killed by the state, as investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill recently reported:

“You know, President Obama authorised strikes that resulted in three U.S. citizens being killed within less than a month in Yemen:  Anwar al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico; Anwar al-Awlaki’s 16-year-old son; and then Samir Khan, who was another U.S. citizen from North Carolina and was the editor of Inspire magazine, the English-language publication of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.  All three of those U.S. citizens were killed within one month.” 

Obama drone strikes have arbitrarily killed hundreds of civilians worldwide including three U.S. citizens without conviction, trial or due process.  One might expect more public outcry.  Yet, in light of a recent Washington Post ABC News poll revealing that 77% of self-proclaimed liberal Democrats approve of Obama’s drone policy, it seems most progressives are prepared to re-elect Obama or sit idly by as he purchases a second term. 

But while we’re all indignant about the profoundly disturbing killings by the U.S. under Obama in Yemen and elsewhere, we forget the U.S. establishment is killing many more in the U.S.  Many U.S. citizens, such as Kenneth Harding and Oscar Grant, are gunned down daily by the state, igniting uprisings of a different sort in this country. 

Jeremy Scahill recently joined Amy Goodman to discuss U.S. intervention in Yemen and the arbitrary state killings of U.S. citizens.  However, it seems important to broaden discussions to allow investigative journalists to reflect upon U.S. violence abroad as well as state violence domestically.  The state killings of Anwar al-Awlaki and Oscar Grant are related, because they are all manifestations of the police state violence necessitated by U.S. imperialism under capitalism.

Mickey Huff, of Project Censored, has recently noted how the rise of U.S. targeted killings stems from the rise of torture perpetrated by the U.S., as the citizenry becomes increasingly complacent toward its continued use in a post-9/11 sociopolitical climate.  It may also be argued the rise of torture is, really, a continuation of poorly reported domestic torture of U.S. citizens, particularly people of colour and/or low-income.

The bold-faced tyranny of the state shows itself quite plainly, if we observe the historical record against labour, civil rights, and activists throughout U.S. history.  As Naomi Klein noted, it’s important to look at history and roots to survive the shocks intended to derail nations.  But then what are the people to do?  Protest or petition our masters?  Petitions are easily ignored, but also part of proving the futility of working through the system.  Protests are ignored, downplayed, or distorted by the United States’ mostly corporate-owned media machine, which reaches the most U.S. minds.  Protesters are intimidated, bullied, beaten, arrested, and worse for exercising their inalienable rights.  Yet, they must endure. 

Voltaire wrote:

“So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannise will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.”

Something is glaringly amiss beyond the Election 2012 hyperbole—our political discourse sorely lacks a culture of resistance to the two-party electoral system underpinning U.S. imperialism.  Today, many seem to enjoy an apathetic stance toward electoral politics because the only two choices are owned by the same corporations.  Yet, political parties rule this nation, in the Legislative and Executive branches, some would even say in the Judicial.  And although the people need a grassroots people’s party to pose a serious Left challenge, U.S. progressives throw their lot in with their chosen political organisations, which may focus on advocacy but leave electoral politics in the unchallenged hands of Wall Street. 

A serious debate about U.S. democracy must be undertaken.  Virtually everyone says they want democracy, but few vote and less do so from an informed perspective.  Progressives put their faith in the Democrat Party and get swindled every time.  We lack a culture of reflection to learn from the past.  Perhaps, new generations of progressives are fooled by Democrat Party promises because older generations do not own up to the consequences of supporting the two-party system.  We have a captured political system or, perhaps, a subservient and brainwashed body politic.  Both yield similar results.

Observing the U.S. in its youth, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote:

“The instability of the administration has penetrated into the habits of the people: it even appears to suit the general taste, and no one cares for what occurred before his time. No methodical system is pursued; no archives are formed; and no documents are brought together when it would be very easy to do so.”

They say, in a democracy, the people get the government they deserve or allow.  If one doesn’t like the choices one can work to change them, or open up the process to consider alternative candidates like Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party in 2012.  Otherwise, how can one complain about the next Democrat’s policies when one supported, or acquiesced in, that candidacy?  In the U.S., too many are more committed to their favourite celebrity or sports team, than they are to the political candidates or parties they choose or ignore and which impact their working lives. 

Progressives must analyse this question of apathy towards electoral politics or leave the task of influencing electoral politics to the highest bidder, which always hedges its bets between either side of the same two-party coin.

Written by Felipe Messina for Media Roots

Photo by Flickr user Mark Z

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MEDIA ROOTS – Several hundred psychologists, as well as numerous psychological associations around the country, are united in calling for the annulment of the American Psychological Association’s report on Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS).  The 2005 report is an APA endorsement of the highly suspect intelligence-gathering procedures used in US military detention sites such as Guantánamo Bay and Bagram, Afghanistan.  The demand for its immediate suspension and public review is called not by the APA Board or Ethics Committee, but by its general membership as well as several scholar-activists such as Daniel Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky.

Flaws in the PENS process have been apparent from its inception.  The creation of a presidential task force consisting of nine psychologists was specifically assigned to adopt the official psychological guidelines for interrogation by US intelligence agents.  Unfortunately, the task force was composed primarily of psychologists already working within the military and intelligence communities, and many have been involved in instances of suspected prisoner abuse.  Additionally, PENS was never offered for discussion among the APA membership, the press, or the general public, and it was approved in a highly suspect emergency vote that deviated from standard APA procedures.

The closing of Guantánamo Bay is on hold, and Bagram is expanding in size to incarcerate up to 5,500 suspected ‘terrorists’ by the end of 2012.  Both detention sites do not offer detainees due process as outlined in the Constitution and violate international laws, such as those outlined in the Geneva Conventions.  As these criminal gulags continue to operate unabated, psychologists worldwide are becoming increasingly aware that the APA was simply used as a promotional propaganda tool by the White House in order to justify its rendition and torture program.

MR

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COALITION FOR AN ETHICAL PSYCHOLOGY – Over the decade since the horrendous attacks of 9/11, the world has been shocked by the specter of abusive interrogations and the torture of national security prisoners by agents of the United States government. While psychologists in the U.S. have made significant contributions to societal welfare on many fronts during this period, the profession tragically has also witnessed psychologists acting as planners, consultants, researchers, and overseers to these abusive interrogations at Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, Bagram Air Base, CIA “black sites,” and elsewhere. Moreover, in the guise of keeping interrogations “safe, legal, ethical and effective,” psychologists were used to provide legal protection for otherwise illegal treatment of prisoners.

The American Psychological Association’s (APA) 2005 Report of the Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security (the PENS Report) is the defining document endorsing psychologists’ engagement in detainee interrogations. Despite evidence that psychologists were involved in abusive interrogations, the PENS Task Force concluded that psychologists play a critical role in keeping interrogations “safe, legal, ethical and effective.” With this stance, the APA, the largest association of psychologists worldwide, became the sole major professional healthcare organization to support practices contrary to the international human rights standards that ought to be the benchmark against which professional codes of ethics are judged.

Read more about the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology’s call for annulling the APA’s PENS Report.

© 2011 Coalition for an Ethical Psychology

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Photo provided by Flickr user The National Guard.

MEDIA ROOTS — Film director Michael Winterbottom has adapted best-selling author Naomi Klein’s book Shock Doctrine in an excellent feature documentary.  Winterbottom, who has directed such films as Welcome to Sarajevo, The Road to Guantanamo and Code 46, produces a compelling treatment of Klein’s book.

The shock doctrine thesis maintains elites have taken draconian shock therapy ‘treatments’ (inflicted upon individual psychiatric patients during the 20^th century) and applied them economically, politically, and psychologically to nations where leaders have exploited crises in order to push through elite policies against the interests of the people.  

The film also takes a look at U.S. imperialism and its consequences for humanity.  If you haven’t heard of it, it’d be no surprise.  This is not the kind of film corporate America loves to promote.

Messina

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The Shock Doctrine directed by Michael Winterbottom

“The thesis of the shock doctrine is that we’ve been sold a fairy tale about how these radical policies have swept the globe, that they haven’t swept the globe on the backs of freedom and democracy, that they have needed shock.  They have needed crises.  They have needed states of emergencies. 

“Milton Friedman understood the utility of crisis.  ‘Only a crisis, actual or perceived, produces real change.  When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.’” —Naomi Klein

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Photo by Flickr user david_shankbone