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N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 0 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 21 about the assassinationsofJackandBobby,MartinandMalcolm.ButwhenIreadJFKand theUnspeakable(originallypublishedbyOrbisBooksin2008),thefirstfruitsofadecadeof labor,Ibegantofathomtheprofounddepthsthismentorisprobingonourbehalf. Last year my wife and I visited Jim and Shelley at the Catholic Worker center in Birmingham, Alabama. We toured the ramshackle little house where Jim researches and writes,locatedbesiderailroadtrackswhere,inapreviousnonviolentcampaign,theytracked the nuclear “White Train.” Sitting at one of the many desks overflowing with books and papers,Jimpatientlyyetpassionatelyexplained(yetagain)whyJFK’slifeanddeathmatter. ThebookarguesthatMerton’sUnspeakableispre-eminentlyincarnatedintheCIA’sdoctrineof “plausibledeniability,”whichliesbehindhalfacenturyofcovertoperations(notleast JFK’smurder),andwhichremainsalethalthreattoourdemocracy.Douglass’sgreatestcontribution to the formidable corpus of JFK literature is his persuasive account of how the president, shaken by the apocalyptic implications of the Cuban Missile Crisis, slowly abandonedhisColdWarworldview .Becausehesubsequentlydaredtotrytoendthedefactorule of bipolar politics, endgame militarism, and the National Security establishment, this “peacemakingpresidentcouldnotsurvivethewarmakingState.” It is, insists Douglass, “a story that encircles the earth … whose telling can transform a nation.”If,thatis,itanimatesustoembracetheworkofnonviolentrevolutionthatalonecan secureafuture.IcommendthisbooktoTikkun’sreadership.Itcouldnotmattermore.I Obama:TheFearofAssassination andWhatYouCanDoAboutIt byJohnPerkins P resident Barack Obama has occupied the Oval Office for more than oneandahalfyears.ThepassingofthebatonfromaconservativeRepublicanto a liberal Democrat raised high hopes among people longing for change, people who dreamt of an America that walks its talk of “government of, for, and by the people,”dealscompassionatelywiththeworld’sdowntrodden,andoffersamodel for a sustainable and just society. As those hopes meet the reality of an escalated war in Afghanistan, oil spills, corporate bailouts, CEO pay raises at corporations with the highest layoffrates,adepressedanddecliningmiddleclass,andthedramaofthelastelection,many areleftwonderingwhathappenedtothepromisemadeduringthatcampaign. Why has President Obama let us down? How come he lied to us? Why has he not kept his campaign promises? These are questions I frequently hear from people who attend my speeches and book signings. There are several geopolitical facts that help formulate the answer: 1. Nations have become almost irrelevant, and the U.S. presidency has been severely weakened. It’s naive to think that a new president is in a position to reverse the trend of John Perkins is former chief economist at a major international consulting firm and bestselling author of many books, including Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Subscribe to his newsletter at www.johnperkins.org or follow his tweets at @economic_hitman. Editorial input for this article was providedbyNettieHartsock. Change has come to America. —President Obama, November 2008 Politics_2.qxd:Politics 10/12/10 1:27 PM Page 21 the last decades of profit-making from war and to escape the stranglehold corporatelobbyistsholdonourbodypolitic . 2. The form of capitalism espoused by Milton Friedman and embraced by President Ronald Reagan and every president since—what I call “predatory capitalism”—is based on the single goal that the only responsibility of business is to maximize profits,regardlessofthesocialandenvironmentalcosts.Replacingthemorecompassionate economic theories promoted by John Maynard Keynes, it has now becometheglobalmodel. 3. We have entered a time of realignment not unlike that when city-states joined together to form nations. Except this time it is global. The emerging rulers are corporateCEOs,membersofthecorporatocracy. 4. DemocratsandRepublicansalike,aswellasthemainstreammedia,fallunderthe thumbofthecorporatocracy. 5. Thenthereisanotherfact—onenoneofuslikestocontemplate,butthatisamajor factorincontemporaryU.S.politics:PresidentObamafearsassassination. Historical Perspective Likehugecloudsswirlingaroundtheglobe,multinationalconglomerates reach every continent, country, and village. They are restricted neither by national borders nor by any particular sets of laws. Although many are headquartered in the United States and call upon the U.S. military to protect their interests, they feel no sense of loyalty to any one country. They form partnerships with China and Taiwan, with Israel and Arab nations, with Brazil, Indonesia, and Congo—with anyone who possesses resources or offers markets they covet. As we have seen with Halliburton, they think nothing of relocating to places like Dubai whenever that seems to serve theirgreed-driveninterests. The leaders of these corporations—members of the corporatocracy—have tentacles that stretch far and wide. They hire a vast army of lobbyists who influence every majorpoliticianinWashingtonandothercapitals(morethan30,000ofthempatrol the corridors of D.C. alone). They own the mainstream media—either outright or through their advertising budgets. Increasingly, they control the U.S. military, and their privatized armies are now replacing government soldiers in war zones such as Afghanistan. Political Assassinations As James Douglass writes in this issue of Tikkun...

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