100% Complete ████████████████████████████ -FREEDOM-

(John Moore/Getty Images)

Uninstalling Dictator ... 99% Complete ███████████████████████████░ -ERROR-

A sign of the fundamental changes that are coming to our world because of technology.  Also, emblematic of the generational standoff that's taking place across the globe, as the two largest generations ever (think baby boomers and millennials in the U.S.) increasingly find themselves wrestling with one another for relevance.    

The Digital Revolution

(A protester in Egypt. Photo by Sarah Carr.)

The internet is the most truly democratic institution man has ever created. The main problem with governments that suppress political opposition  within their country (non-democratic institutions) is that the government  never has an understanding of how deep or widespread public support for a political opposition is. This is often a central reason revolutions are successful, this is often why repressive regimes appear so flat footed and caught off guard moments before they fall. The government finds it wasn't able to appreciate how many people were truly unhappy at any given time because it always dedicated itself to making any small amount of political disturbance disappear. The threat of the opposition is of course an old feature of any political reality, but the internet is a rather new feature of all political reality and it's only making life much more difficult for oppressive regimes. The democratic nature of the internet has always posed a major threat to autocratic, secretive, and oppressive regimes, but as a young generation across the globe comes into its own armed with social media, many world leaders now have reason to seriously worry. The internet and social media are forcing the will of the people upon many unsuspecting figures in the world. That is to say the internet is starting to bring down governments and there is nothing anyone can do…except watch as it all unfolds 140 characters at a time on Twitter.

International Diplomacy

A snapshot regarding the state of global politics, starring apparent friends Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and former Russian President current PM Vladimir Putin (via Julia Inhoffe:)

Their favorite activity, however, seems to be holding joint press conferences. At one of their most memorable appearances together, in Moscow, in 2008, a Russian journalist named Natalia Melikova asked Putin about his apparent marital trouble and rumored romance with the young and indecently plastic gymnast-cum-parliamentarian Alina Kabaeva. When asked about the liaison, Putin's face hardened. "There is not a word of truth in this story," he said. Berlusconi, giggling, regarded the exchange. When Putin had finished answering, Berlusconi cocked his hands, and, imitating a gun, fired with a silent "Pow! Pow!" at Melikova. It had only been a year and a half since Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist, had been shot in her Moscow elevator, and Melikova was reduced to tears. On the dais, Berlusconi laughed, and Putin nodded. 

Talk about wildly inappropriate.  That's pretty messed up.

Obama Saves GM

(Photo via Motortrend)

In Washington D.C., Barack Obama is the only grown up in the room and GM is just the latest evidence of that fact.  Many now admit he was right, but it may already be too late.  Palin 2012, anybody? (Updated)

Speaking Wealth to Power

"Mr. Paul you've just been elected United States Senator, what are you going to do?" "Well, Wolf, I'm going to stop this God awful war that's being waged against America's wealthiest citizens." We'll find out later this week he misspoke, I'm sure. American conservatives have been waging a philosophical war in this country since Ronald Reagan became president that is focused on letting the rich man run free and giving him a chance to spread his beautiful wealthy wings. Central to this war is the belief that government is smothering the invisible hand of the free market, capitalism, freedom of choice, I support the troops, God bless America, blah blah blah. ..The central philosophical strategy employed in this philosophical war were elegant terms developed in the Reagan administration such as "trickle down economics" and "starve the beast." Which in practice simply means cut taxes, particularly for the wealthy, allow the money of the wealthy to slowly trickle down to middle America and starve the federal government of money, forcing it to shrink in size. In practice none of this works. The government has at no point since and including Reagan shrunk in size, however conservatives have been masters at bankrupting the country. Reagan and Bush I quadrupled the debt, and we all know how W. Bush faired. Starving the beast amounts to nothing more than a magnificent way to make the government financially insolvent. The trickle down part? I'll let you figure out for yourself why rich people don't start "makin' it rain" on the rest us. 

Commence the Economic Recovery

The one bit of good news that can be taken from this week is that I think the economy is now likely to begin picking up.  The overwhelming majority of the money in America is now on Wall Street and in the highest income levels, and after they caused the financial crisis I think there was a genuine fear that the general public was going to institute "wealth spreading programs" aimed squarely at creating more economic balance.  Similar to what happened after the Great Depression.  Business, and banks, have been raking in profits for the last year, but they've been holding out on the fear that the freshly impoverished American citizen was coming after their money, with various taxes on the rich that would provide people with free healthcare, pay for some of these wars, etc...Obama had the unique ability to do what FDR did the last time wealth concentration brought the system down, but alas he didn't.  And now more importantly, given the make up of congress he can't.  The money will begin to trickle down to the rest of us again, now that we can all be sure the bulk of it is safely secure at the top.  The healthcare debate taught the American public a valuable lesson.  Concentrated corporate wealth will determine what and how much the general public deserves, not the other way around.  If we even debate tinkering with that system, 1/5  of us will be unemployed while the wealth concentration at the top financially rewards itself at record levels.  But that threat is over with so the economy will now begin to recover, from the top down of course.  The larger point: we're all poor now so we'd all be wise to start acting like it.  There is no middle class pathway to the top anymore, just get there however you can.  I don't know what you're doing, but my album will be dropping next month. 

Republican Party Wins Big in 2010 Midterms!?!

George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party. Correction. George W. Bush nearly destroyed the United States of America and the Republican Party was more or less collateral damage. However you choose to arrive at that conclusion it's fairly clear that whatever it is the Republican Party is selling, it's unwanted by the American people and maybe even more important it just doesn't work. More than doesn't work, after eight years it actually produced negative outcomes. Thus President Obama was handed a country in uniquely perilous economic conditions and he has attempted throughout the beginning of his presidency…….Wait a minute, what? ....Uh,……this is awkward….I guess the Republicans are back.

Dylan Ratigan: It's Complicated

Dylan Ratigan’s really good “rant” should make us all think.  How is it that the entire foreign policy of the most powerful country in the history of civilization is directed around the actions of a small and scattered group of people tucked into the mountains and deserts in the Middle East? You want the short answer or the long answer?

Artistic Abstraction

Ever wonder what happened to realist art? That is, art that depicts real people or real situations etc... Probably not. Nevertheless, what did happen to it, and why do we live in a world dominated by abstract art. The art many people look at and think, "a child could have painted this." The art that draws the reply most people think of when they think of art nowadays,..."I don't get it." Well we live in a world dominated by abstract art because the CIA made it that way. There's no political point here, just a fascinating story. Something to think about the next time you happen to be looking at an abstract piece of art and the person next to you is raving about how it makes them feel, or is proffering their deep intellectual insight to the beauty of some abstract piece and how it *ahem* speaks to them. You don't have to feel bad if you don't get it. Maybe it has less importance as a work of art, than it does as a symbol of history. After all, much of the works of the Renaissance say just as much about the Catholic Church during that era as they do about art as an art form. If that last sentence (like abstract art) even makes sense. Fascinating.