(Written by an American expat living in the European Union)
While the United States of America is distracted momentarily transfixed on the announcement of Mitt Romney's VP selection of Paul Ryan, a globally obscure posturing, pontificating little person's darling of the far right! A political and economic seismic activity that has grabbed the world's attention, wherein German Chancellor Angela Merkel from Berlin announced her support that Germany the economic powerhouse of the European Union, the world's second largest exporting nation, the economically strongest and richest nation in the European Union must support a referendum in the foreseeable future on the issue of transferring power to Brussels. Therein by de facto creating a new European superstate (which offers cradle to grave healthcare for all as a human right. By contrast America has 59 million medically uninsured persons which must be seen as an international badge of shame which can be attributed to the rise of America's nouveau poor.).
This in a clear case where the economic superpower of the European Union with a population that is greater than that of the United States, whose currency the Euro rivals the power of the US dollar. The EU citizens today are supported by arguably the strongest social safety net of any economic sphere in the world, now has started moving in lockstep, pushed along by the global debt crisis to referendum to the pending, in fact inevitable ramrod push to political union in the creation of a new European political superpower state. This doubtlessly will have Germany as its centerpiece.
Yet in our dear nation these United States of America which boasts to having a free press lacking public ownership, ergo by de facto controlled by unaccountable private tyrannies. Wherein by contrast public broadcaster ownership as is allotted in a BBC type model, the US media fails to report on this political indeed economic seismic activity in favor of covering the globally obscure announcement of Paul Ryan as Romney's VP choice! Because they are beholden to the shrill wooting screeches of Ann Coulter and the Tea Party haters. Clearly the last thing that the American plutocrat owned media wants to cover in the 2012 Presidential contest, wherein the American elections are essentially bought by private capital, primarily financial capital in elections. The US elections have been essentially depoliticized much to the anger of the American public, wherein millions in confusion no longer know the way out. Certainly against this backdrop the last thing that anyone would want to talk about in the for profit American plutocrat owned media is a freely held national referendum, where the public instead of the parties hold sway. In a clear case where parties are much more easily bought than is the individual American voter, and where ergo private capital becomes neutered in the paradigm of one person, one vote for freedom. Obviously this is an issue than American journalism doesn't want to talk about, because colloquially put they don't want to bite the hand that feeds them cash, in this case $2 billion dollars of private capital.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...
Though Greece only comprises about 1% of economic activity in the Euro zone it has managed to grab American headlines producing sad and defamatory pictures in its press, wherein Angela Merkel is depicted wearing a Swastika, which is offensive not only to the German people, but also to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. There in commentary to that Swastika photograph American right wing editorial pages like to grab those headlines in playing to the devolution of the base instincts of humanity in order to sell papers. However when Ms Merkel announces the need to empower the public through self-determination employing the facilitation of referendum, then the American plutocrat owned media strangely falls silent, as they are drowned in a sea of private capital in the 2012 election cycle of over $2 billion dollars. Of course they don't want to talk about the fact that unlike America, modern day Germany is led by a woman who comes from the economically oppressed former East German state in a modern Germany, which is rapidly becoming the economic and democrat envy of the world. A Germany which is turning its back on nuclear energy and embracing green technologies. Now to be clear this diary does not espouse that American progressives ought to support conservative governments in Europe or elsewhere in the world. Whereupon we should note however that most of those conservative governments around the world are well to the left of the American Democratic party on many issues, such as supporting socialized medicine as a human right.
Please note Germany which has recently set a world record for solar powered creation in a Reuters story virtually ignored by the American press, who seems to be in bed with dirty coal and other heavily subsidized polluting fossil fuels. In an America that doesn't even have real hi-speed rail, wherein Germany and the rest of Europe are leaders, along with China, Japan and other leading Asian powers. American trains by contrast move at 1950's speed which is on par with the GOP mentality time warp present in the 2012 Paul Ryan and his Tea Party constituents.
Go on Ann Coulter shriek your heart out! But somewhere there is something called the truth, although it's clear the only people in American journalism left to tell the truth are comedians such as Jon Stewart, Colbert and Bill Maher along with the late George Carlin. Because just like in the days of old in the neo-feudalist state of America, only the jester may tell the truth to the King and still keep their head. For anyone who doesn't believe that there is a long litany of great American journalists who have lost their jobs such as Phil Donahue, Keith Olbermann, and many others. What is the truth?
The truth is that low wage slavery in the American neo-feudalist state of 2012 reigns supreme. Wherein America is the only major industrialized nation in the world that doesn't offer universal medical care from cradle to grave to all of its citizens as a human right! The only major industrialized nation in the world that doesn't offer job protected paid maternity leave to parents by right of law, that has no statutory requirement for paid annual leave; paid sick leave; that unlike its counterparts in the European Union offers no standard subsidized childcare; subsidized elder care. In a clear posture where in Continental Europe the amount of tuition that college students spend annually is less than what the American students pay for books on average. Clearly additionally in Germany under the Hartz IV system they have jobless benefits that never run out, wherein the unemployed, head of households and their family members are medically insured with a generous prescription plan and dental care, because they choose to invest in a social safety net instead of choosing a punitive American style response of putting the poor in prison. In a clear posture where America though we have 4% of the world's population have a quarter of the world's inmates! In fact we have more inmates in America than we have military members on active duty. What a horrifying loss of human potential! Clearly in the depoliticized elections of 2012, these issues won't be raised, as in the shell game of the plutocrat owned media we will instead be treated to character traits of the candidates and their spouses.
So it is that America pays the price for the media is beholden to unaccountable private tyrannies, which is strongly criticized by President Bollinger, who in a Wall Street Journal announced his support of an American style BBC system under public ownership, that would ensure that America's elections are not sold to unaccountable private tyrannies ever again. Where the people who actually own the airwaves in America today have lost control of them. For anyone who doesn't believe that I invite them to read all about the conservative press bias in the American media as exemplified in The Republican Noise Machine by David Brock, which busts soundly the mythology of a liberal bias in the press by virtue of the fact that hard right wing journalists are supported by think tanks, foundations and political action groups from the right, whereas progressive journalists are left unsupported to sink or swim in the free market for the most part, and how we should more accurately be talking about a conservative press bias in the for profit American plutocrat owned media.
Here's how it works. Right-wing tycoons give to tax-exempt foundations, which support a network of scholars, pundits, and talking heads. Their opinions, in turn, are propagated by talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh; publications like the Washington Times and New York Post; and, of course, the Fox News Channel.
Organization counts, too, and here the Noise Machine excels. It stays relentlessly on message, which it hones down to a handful of talking points, repeated over and over. That strategy can push even discredited stories.
http://www.paulruschmann.com/...
The Reichstag building in Berlin.
Chancellor Angela Merkel wants Europe to move toward an ever closer union in a bid to solve the euro crisis. But she is already pushing at the limits of what is possible under the constitution. The debate about holding a referendum on transferring power to Brussels is gathering momentum in Germany.
http://www.spiegel.de/...
In a recent ARD television interview, Helmut Schmidt who is Germany's most senior former living Chancellor (at the age of 94) said that Germany will not be allowed given the weight of what Germany went through during World War 2 to ever lead Europe. This is the sad truth. A truth which the inept American media will not report because it's too much like real news. The kind of news that Dan Rather used to report when America had a functioning system of journalism. Instead now we'll all be talking about Paul Ryan because that's who the American corporate media is paid to write about.
Therefore I will stop writing here, so that we can all get back to talking about the globally obscure Paul Ryan and the depoliticized issues surrounding him, his wardrobe and other depoliticized issues that really don't matter.