The Latest Offensive From U.S. Imperialism: The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, by Pete Dolack

JohnEditor132, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Mar. 29, 2023
March 30, 2023

As production is moved to ever more distant locales, with ever lower labor and environmental standards, the corporations behind these moves want all barriers to the movement of raw materials and finished products removed. Thus the era of so-called “free trade” agreements. These agreements, which are written to elevate corporations to the level of national governments (and in practice, actually above governments), have become so unpopular thanks to the efforts of grassroots activists to expose them to public scrutiny that governments have become cautious about embracing new ones.

How Does An Economic System So Hostile To Life Endure For Centuries? by Pete Dolack

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Feb. 28, 2023
March 2, 2023

When we conceptualize the power that maintains capitalism, violence and ideology readily come to mind. Despite the vast inequality, grotesque exploitation, contempt for life and the environment, chronic instability and the rebellions that repeatedly arise and sometimes take power, capitalism seems firmer in the saddle than ever, spreading its suffocating tentacles to virtually every place on Earth.

The World Bank — Underneath The Rhetoric, The Usual Right-Wing Prescriptions, by Pete Dolack

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Feb. 1, 2023
February 4, 2023

Every so often, the World Bank puts out a paper that calls for better social protection or at least a somewhat better deal for working people. The public relations people there evidently believe we have very short memories.

Central Banks Are A Symptom, Capitalism Is The Cause, by Pete Dolack

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Jan. 5, 2023
January 7, 2023

Wishing for central banks to act in the interest of working people rather than the financial industry is about as fruitful as hoping a starving wolf won’t eat the chicken that was just placed next to it. Pigs will fly, the Amazon will freeze over and Wall Street will give all its money away before a central bank in the capitalist core goes against its raison d’être.

Right-wing Attempts To Eliminate Constitutional Protections Are No Joke, by Pete Dolack

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Dec. 8, 2022
December 10, 2022

Donald Trump’s recent rant that the U.S. Constitution should be “terminated” so that he can be installed as president for life merits no response, given the Orange one-man crime wave’s tenuous connection to reality. Laughter is the appropriate riposte as Trump’s futile attempts at becoming the fascist dictator he clearly aspires to be become ever more futile.

COP27 Continues the Climate Summit Ritual of Words Without Action, by Pete Dolack

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Nov. 23, 2022
November 26, 2022

This has become, sadly, a yearly ritual by now. The world’s governments gather together to discuss what should be done about global warming, and finish their time together by issuing statements of concern while doing little concrete to actually solve the problem. And so it is with COP27.

There Is No Country On Earth That Fully Protects Workers’ Rights, by Pete Dolack

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Oct. 12, 2022
October 13, 2022

There is no respite from class warfare. Past annual Global Rights Index reports issued by the International Trade Union Confederation have invariably shown that there is no country on Earth that fully protects workers’ rights and the 2022 edition is not only not an exception but finds that repression of labor organizing is increasing.

Yes, Gorbachev Was A Failure But Other Hands Helped Bring Down The Soviet Union, by Pete Dolack

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Sept. 7, 2022
September 8, 2022

The reasons for the fall of the Soviet Union are myriad and can’t be laid solely at the feet of one person. Mikhail Gorbachev is widely despised by Russians as well as by activists and partisans of the Left. There are good reasons for that. It is impossible to imagine the collapse of a superpower and the catastrophic effects of imposing capitalism via “shock therapy” that immiserated a vast country without him.

The Financial Industry Is A Lot Bigger Than A Giant Vampire Squid, by Pete Dolack

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Aug. 31, 2022
September 1, 2022

The size of the financial industry bears no relation to the economy. Self-mythological panegyrics aside, the finance industry confiscates money; it doesn’t create it. How much? Get out your calculators, and maybe you’ll have to find a way to add a couple of digits to what your screen can hold.

Must Collapse Be Inevitable? Imagining A “Half-Earth” Sustainable Economy, by Pete Dolack

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, July 6, 2022
July 9, 2022

It seems vastly easier to imagine the future as a dystopian nightmare than as a time when today’s problems are mostly behind humanity. For every work of optimism, such as Star Trek, there are dozens of works imagining a nightmare world of deprivation, environmental destruction and severe repression amidst a world of people scrambling to survive anyway they can in a war of all against all.

Capitalism Is Working As Intended: The Madness of Capitalist Inequality, by Pete Dolack

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, June 15, 2022
June 19, 2022

Many well-meaning people lament that our economic system is “not working.” But that isn’t true if we apply some historical context. What has capitalism wrought since its earliest days?

Rents Will Continue To Rise As Long As Housing Remains A Capitalist Commodity, by Pete Dolack

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, May 25, 2022
May 26, 2022

Capitalism marches on. And thus housing, because it is a capitalist commodity, has resumed its upward cost, putting ever more people at risk of homelessness, hunger, inability to access medical care and medications, or some combination of those.

Banks Fueling Global Warming Is Business As Usual, by Pete Dolack

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Apr. 27, 2022
April 28, 2022

The gap between what needs to be done to save the Earth from the environmental disaster of unchecked global warming and what is actually being done continues to widen. Yet another exemplar of this gap is the funding practices of the world’s biggest banks.

Corporate Greed Keeps The Pandemic Alive, by Pete Dolack

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, April 12, 2022
April 13, 2022

More than two years on, it is hard to imagine there could be someone who is not sick of the pandemic. Although we can point to multiple reasons for the inability to bring Covid-19 under control, a prominent factor is corporate greed.

Another Global Warming Worry: Parts of Earth Could Become Uninhabitable, by Pete Dolack + A Dire Warning About the End of Human Civilization

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Mar. 9, 2022
March 11, 2022

When we think of the coming disasters of global warming, rising sea levels, disruptions to agriculture and disappearing species come readily to mind. We don’t necessarily think of the livability of the Earth’s surface. But if global warming continues to worsen — and every indication is that will be so — there will be places on Earth that could become uninhabitable.