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Democrat Death Panels Are Real

November 4, 2014, 7:35 am
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Dubyah Encourages Jeb To Run

November 4, 2014, 7:37 am
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Contemporary Conservatives Relationship To Racism

November 4, 2014, 7:53 am
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Capitalism's View Of "Communism"

November 4, 2014, 7:57 am
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Why We Frack: Appearance And Reality

November 4, 2014, 8:33 am
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Republican Poster Boy For Stricter Voter I.D.

November 4, 2014, 8:37 am
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"The Daily Show Interviews Republican Party Official, Don Yellin, 
Who Spills Beans On Deliberate Voter Suppression 
Masquerading As Prevention Of Voter Fraud"

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Alan: The nation's newspapers can perform a crucial public service by creating a central repository to report all cases of voter fraud in the 2014 (and all future) elections.

I have no doubt that the actual number of cases will be tiny.

The number of cases that are successfully prosecuted will be vanishingly minute.

Bill Maher: The Zombie Life Cycle Of Republican Lies. 
They Never - Ever - Die

Conservatives "believe" that "principled perfection" is sufficient justification for voter restriction when in fact "Principled Perfection" is The Problem.

"Is Perfectionism A Curse? Paul Ryan Tells The Truth"

"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.  The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization.  We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”  
"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton


More Merton Quotes

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Violence: The GOP's Political Preference

November 4, 2014, 8:51 am
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The Puerile Impatience Of American Consumer Units

November 4, 2014, 9:44 am
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Alan: Obama rescued the national and global economies from free-fall meltdown.

"Inside Job"

The stock market is now at record levels and the unemployment rate -- over 9% at the bottom of Bush's recession -- is now 5.9%.

Just last week, Moody's credit rating agency said there is now no need to worry about The National Debt. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/10/29/why-you-can-stop-worrying-about-the-national-debt/

Each of the last two years, the deficit has declined substantially.

The only economic metric that has not improved during the Obama administration is income/purchasing-power.

On the flip side of this same coin, income for The 5% is soaring. 

Through the roof. 

Astronomical.

"Plutocracy Triumphant"
Cartoon Compendium


Obama -- like Pope Francis -- calls for wealth redistribution.

"Pope Francis Links"

With the current election cycle drawing to a close, political analyst Mark Halpern notes (to his amazement) that not one national candidate -- Republican or Democrat -- has made a single concrete proposal to grow jobs, and with the exception of a slightly higher minimum wage, no candidate on either side of the aisle has proposed a significant way to or moderate wealth inequality.

"Founding Fathers Profit-Sharing Remedy For Inequality. 
Even Ronald Reagan Likes It!"
("The History Of Corporations In The United States. A Return To Roots?")

The upshot?

Blame Obama. Derogate  the person whom history will judge as having forfended multi-decade paralytic decline for the U.S. economy.


"Brazen Lies About Obama"

"Obama Hatred"

The American Conservative: "Obama Is A Republican"

"Politics And Economics: The 101 Courses You Wish You Had"

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Tom Toles Cartoon: Your Tax Cuts At Work

November 4, 2014, 10:13 am
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The Party Of Platitude

November 4, 2014, 11:00 am
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"The Imperative Of Revolt," Chris Hedges

November 4, 2014, 11:25 am
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TORONTO--I met with Sheldon S. Wolin in Salem, Ore., and John Ralston Saul in Toronto and asked the two political philosophers the same question. If, as Saul has written, we have undergone a corporate coup d'etat and now live under a species of corporate dictatorship that Wolin calls "inverted totalitarianism," if the internal mechanisms that once made piecemeal and incremental reform possible remain ineffective, if corporate power retains its chokehold on our economy and governance, including our legislative bodies, judiciary and systems of information, and if these corporate forces are able to use the security and surveillance apparatus and militarized police forces to criminalize dissent, how will change occur and what will it look like?

Wolin, who wrote the books "Politics and Vision" and "Democracy Incorporated," and Saul, who wrote "Voltaire's Bastards" and "The Unconscious Civilization," see democratic rituals and institutions, especially in the United States, as largely a facade for unchecked global corporate power. Wolin and Saul excoriate academics, intellectuals and journalists, charging they have abrogated their calling to expose abuses of power and give voice to social criticism; they instead function as echo chambers for elites, courtiers and corporate systems managers. Neither believes the current economic system is sustainable. And each calls for mass movements willing to carry out repeated acts of civil disobedience to disrupt and delegitimize corporate power.

"If you continue to go down the wrong road, at a certain point something happens," Saul said during our meeting Wednesday in Toronto, where he lives. "At a certain point when the financial system is wrong it falls apart. And it did. And it will fall apart again."

"The collapse started in 1973," Saul continued. "There were a series of sequential collapses afterwards. The fascinating thing is that between 1850 and 1970 we put in place all sorts of mechanisms to stop collapses which we can call liberalism, social democracy or Red Toryism. It was an understanding that we can't have boom-and-bust cycles. We can't have poverty-stricken people. We can't have starvation. The reason today's collapses are not leading to what happened in the 18th century and the 19th century is because all these safety nets, although under attack, are still in place. But each time we have a collapse we come out of it stripping more of the protection away. At a certain point we will find ourselves back in the pre-protection period. At that point we will get a collapse that will be incredibly dramatic. I have no idea what it will look like. A revolution from the left? A revolution from the right? Is it violence followed by state violence? Is it the collapse of the last meaningful edges of democracy? Is it a sudden decision by a critical mass of people that they are not going to take it anymore?"

This devolution of the economic system has been accompanied by corporations' seizure of nearly all forms of political and social power. The corporate elite, through a puppet political class and compliant intellectuals, pundits and press, still employs the language of a capitalist democracy. But what has arisen is a new kind of control, inverted totalitarianism, which Wolin brilliantly dissects in his book, "Democracy Incorporated."


Inverted totalitarianism does not replicate past totalitarian structures, such as fascism and communism. It is therefore harder to immediately identify and understand. There is no blustering demagogue. There is no triumphant revolutionary party. There are no ideologically drenched and emotional mass political rallies. The old symbols, the old iconography and the old language of democracy are held up as virtuous. The old systems of governance -- electoral politics, an independent judiciary, a free press and the Constitution -- appear to be venerated. But, similar to what happened during the late Roman Empire, all the institutions that make democracy possible have been hollowed out and rendered impotent and ineffectual.

The corporate state, Wolin told me at his Oregon home, is "legitimated by elections it controls." It exploits laws that once protected democracy to extinguish democracy; one example is allowing unlimited corporate campaign contributions in the name of our First Amendment right to free speech and our right to petition the government as citizens. "It perpetuates politics all the time," Wolin said, "but a politics that is not political." The endless election cycles, he said, are an example of politics without politics, driven not by substantive issues but manufactured political personalities and opinion polls. There is no national institution in the United States "that can be described as democratic," he said.

The mechanisms that once allowed the citizen to be a participant in power -- from participating in elections to enjoying the rights of dissent and privacy -- have been nullified. Money has replaced the vote, Wolin said, and corporations have garnered total power without using the cruder forms of traditional totalitarian control: concentration camps, enforced ideological conformity and the physical suppression of dissent. They will avoid such measures "as long as that dissent remains ineffectual," he said. "The government does not need to stamp out dissent. The uniformity of imposed public opinion through the corporate media does a very effective job."

The state has obliterated privacy through mass surveillance, a fundamental precondition for totalitarian rule, and in ways that are patently unconstitutional has stripped citizens of the rights to a living wage, benefits and job security. And it has destroyed institutions, such as labor unions, that once protected workers from corporate abuse.

Inverted totalitarianism, Wolin has written, is "only in part a state-centered phenomenon." It also represents "the political coming of age of corporate power and the political demobilization of the citizenry."

Corporate power works in secret. It is unseen by the public and largely anonymous. Politicians and citizens alike often seem blissfully unaware of the consequences of inverted totalitarianism, Wolin said in the interview. And because it is a new form of totalitarianism we do not recognize the radical change that has gradually taken place. Our failure to grasp the new configuration of power has permitted the corporate state to rob us through judicial fiat, a process that culminates in a disempowered population and omnipotent corporate rulers. Inverted totalitarianism, Wolin said, "projects power upwards." It is "the antithesis of constitutional power."

"Democracy has been turned upside down," Wolin said. "It is supposed to be a government for the people, by the people. But it has become an organized form of government dominated by groups that are only vaguely, if at all, responsible or responsive to popular needs and popular demands. At the same time, it retains a patina of democracy. We still have elections. They are relatively free. We have a relatively free media. But what is missing is a crucial, continuous opposition that has a coherent position, that is not just saying no, no, no, that has an alternative and ongoing critique of what is wrong and what needs to be remedied."

Wolin and Saul, echoing Karl Marx, view unfettered and unregulated capitalism as a revolutionary force that has within it the seeds of its own self-annihilation. It is and always has been deeply antagonistic to participatory democracy, they said. Democratic states must heavily regulate and control capitalism, for once capitalism is freed from outside restraint it seeks to snuff out democratic institutions and abolish democratic rights that are seen -- often correctly -- as an impediment to maximizing profit. The more ruthless and pronounced global corporate capitalism becomes, the greater the loss of democratic space.

"Capitalism is destructive because it has to eliminate customs, mores, political values, even institutions that present any kind of credible threat to the autonomy of the economy," Wolin said. "That is where the battle lies. Capitalism wants an autonomous economy. It wants a political order subservient to the needs of the economy. The [capitalist's] notion of an economy, while broadly based in the sense of a relatively free entrance and property that is relatively widely dispersed, is as elitist as any aristocratic system."

Wolin and Saul said they expect the state, especially in an age of terminal economic decline, to employ more violent and draconian forms of control to keep restive populations in check. This coercion, they said, will fuel discontent and unrest, which will further increase state repression.

Chris Hedges spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years.
Hedges was part of the team of (more...)



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Congressional Seats Sell for Record Four Billion Dollars

November 4, 2014, 11:29 am
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Alan: For perspective, Americans just spent $2.2 billion on Halloween candy.
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Congressional seats are on pace to fetch a whopping four billion dollars on Tuesday night, a record-smashing sales figure that has exceeded the expectations of even the most optimistic insiders.
The seats, which include four hundred and thirty-five in the House of Representatives and thirty-six in the Senate, have attracted buyers from a broad spectrum of industries, including investment banking, energy, pharmaceutical, and gun.

“With all of the uncertainty in the world today, the United States Congress is considered a very safe place for the rich to invest their money,” said Charles Michollot, of the auction house Sotheby’s. “Congressional seats are like Manhattan real estate—they aren’t making any more of them.”
But Anton Pickardin, of the rival auction house Christie’s, sounds more skeptical. “I hate to be a wet blanket, but these sales figures lack rhyme and reason,” Pickardin said. “When someone is willing to pay millions of dollars for a pre-owned Mitch McConnell, you know that people have lost their minds.”
But Sotheby’s Michollot remains confident that, even at these hefty prices, congressional seats are a wise investment. “When these seats go up for sale again, in 2016, four billion dollars is going to look like a bargain,” he said.
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Georgia's Voting Procedures And Obfuscation Of The State's Political Will

November 4, 2014, 11:30 am
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Pax On Both Houses: Compendium Of Voter Fraud And Voter Suppression Posts

Georgia is the only state with both a truly competitive Senate race and a stringent law on voter identification. Political scientists and the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office have found generally found that voter ID laws reduce turnout by 2 percentage points or a little more, though there is obviously variation in the results. The law may have less of an effect in Georgia, which implemented the law in 2008, so election workers, organizers and voters may be better prepared for it by now. That said, Nunn doesn't need to erase Perdue's advantage entirely to get to a runoff. She just needs to keep the race close enough that Perdue doesn't take more than half of the vote. Recent polls show it will be close. If Perdue wins outright, Nunn's campaign will be able to make the case that voter ID prevented her from getting enough voters to the polls to dilute Perdue's share of the vote and force a runoff (although even in a runoff, she would face long odds).

Complicating matters further is the dispute over the names of some 40,000 people who registered to vote, according to the New Georgia Project, a group aiming to mobilize Georgia's growing population of minorities. The New Georgia Project says those names haven't appeared on the state's voter rolls or on the list of pending registrations. The state says they have. Given that voters cast about 2.6 million ballots in the 2010 midterm, those 40,000 names represent another 1.5 percentage points or so of turnout.

There a good chance not only that Georgia's Senate race isn't decided for two more months, but also that the results of Tuesday's election won't give us a clear view of what Georgia voters really want. All in all, it's the most aggravating race in these midterms. And that's saying something.



Alan: Although voter fraud is insignificant in comparison with the disenfranchisement of voters promoted by "conservatives" as a remedy for alleged voter fraud, I nevertheless favor mandatory voter I.D. "phased in" over ten years. 


"Let's Make Photo I.D.s Mandatory For U.S. Voters"






The Daily Show interviews Republican official, Don Yelton, who spills the beans on his party's deliberate suppression of voters while masquerading this practice as prevention of voter fraud. 


















Republican Party Is "Full Of Racists," Colin Powell's Chief Of Staff





Bill Maher: The Zombie Life Cycle Of Republican Lies. They Never - Ever - Die

"American Conservatives And Oppositional-Defiant Disorder"

Jindal Criticizes The Stupid Party: "Simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys"


Why The New GOP Rationale For Voter Fraud Is False













Feel threatened?






"Let's Make Photo I.D.s Mandatory For U.S. Voters"










Didn't think it would be Ronald Reagan...




"Gun Cartoons and Gun Violence Bibliography"
































Alan: The nation's newspapers would perform a crucial public service by creating a central repository to report all cases of voter fraud in the 2014 (and future) elections.
The actual number of cases will be very small and those that are successfully prosecute will be vanishingly small.




Bill Maher: The Zombie Life Cycle Of Republican Lies. They Never - Ever - Die

Conservatives "believe" that principled perfection is sufficient justification for voter restriction.

"Principled Perfection" is in fact The Problem.

"Is Perfectionism A Curse? Paul Ryan Tells The Truth"

"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.  The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization.  We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”  
"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton


More Merton Quotes





"Martin Luther King Jr. On Hatred, Violence, Love and Jesus "The Way"

"Pax On Both Houses: A Compendium Of Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-favorite-martin-luther-king-quote.html





Editorial cartoon criticizing the usage of literacy tests for African Americans as a qualification to vote. Cartoon shows man “Mr. Solid South” writing on wall, “Eddikashun qualifukashun. The Black man orter be eddikated afore he kin vote with us Wites, signed Mr. Solid South.” An African American looks on. 
Illustration in: Harper’s Weekly, v. 23 (1879 Jan. 18), p. 52. 18 January 1879

"Voters In American History"
http://www.ushistoryscene.com/uncategorized/3327/





















"American Conservatives And Oppositional-Defiant Disorder"

Jindal Criticizes The Stupid Party: "Simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys"

Conservatives are nuts.
There will not be a single proven case of a dead person voting in today's election.

The nation's newspapers can perform a crucial public service by creating a central repository to report all cases of voter fraud in the 2014 (and all future) elections.

I have no doubt that the actual number of cases will be tiny.

The number of cases that are successfully prosecuted will be vanishingly minute.

Bill Maher: The Zombie Life Cycle Of Republican Lies. 
They Never - Ever - Die

Conservatives "believe" that principled perfection is sufficient justification for voter restriction.

"Principled Perfection" is in fact The Problem.

"Is Perfectionism A Curse? Paul Ryan Tells The Truth"

"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.  The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization.  We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”  
"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton



If the same penalty applied to those depriving citizens of their vote by creating obstacles that disproportionately impact Democratic constituencies, most Republicans would be in jail and the national debt would be paid.

How 'bout 3 and a half years for Willard?


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Weird Enuf Fer Ya? News From Barbaria #159

November 4, 2014, 11:38 am
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The Daily Show Interviews Republican Official Who Spills Beans 
On Deliberate Voter Suppression Masquerading As Prevention Of Voter Fraud
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Data Is Destroying American Politics

November 4, 2014, 11:43 am
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Candidates who rely too heavily on the quantitative techniques of pollsters and political consultants might sometimes produce majorities. But don't look to them for compelling, imaginative new visions of political life, and don't expect them to have any lasting effect on how voters think about public policy. The New York Times.



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Ronald Reagan's Record On Guns

November 4, 2014, 11:46 am
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M.Gerson: For Their Own Good (And The Nation's) Republicans Must Move Past Reagan

November 4, 2014, 11:51 am
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Gun Violence Is A Public Health Problem

November 4, 2014, 11:56 am
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"Gun Cartoons and Gun Violence Bibliography"

Gun violence, especially suicides, are a public health problem. Doctors can help keep people safe by talking to patients about their guns -- although doing so is illegal in two states -- and medical researchers can help us understand when guns are most dangerous. The New York Times.

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The NRA has blocked the use of federal funds to investigate America's gun carnage as a public health issue.

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"University of Utah Medical School: Guns, Public Health and Safety"

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GOP Voter Suppression And Disenfranchisement. A Cartoon Compendium

November 4, 2014, 11:59 am
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"Pax On Both Houses: Compendium Of Voter Fraud And Voter Suppression Posts"


Alan: Although voter fraud is insignificant in comparison with the disenfranchisement of voters promoted by "conservatives" as a remedy for alleged voter fraud, I nevertheless favor mandatory voter I.D. "phased in" over ten years. 

"Let's Make Photo I.D.s Mandatory For U.S. Voters"




The Daily Show interviews Republican official, Don Yelton, who spills the beans on his party's deliberate suppression of voters while masquerading this practice as prevention of voter fraud. 












Republican Party Is "Full Of Racists," Colin Powell's Chief Of Staff




Bill Maher: The Zombie Life Cycle Of Republican Lies. They Never - Ever - Die

"American Conservatives And Oppositional-Defiant Disorder"

Jindal Criticizes The Stupid Party: "Simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys"


Why The New GOP Rationale For Voter Fraud Is False












Feel threatened?
















Didn't think it would be Ronald Reagan...




"Gun Cartoons and Gun Violence Bibliography"







































Alan: The nation's newspapers would perform a crucial public service by creating a central repository to report all cases of voter fraud in the 2014 (and future) elections.
The actual number of cases will be minute and those that are successfully prosecuted will be vanishingly small.




Bill Maher: The Zombie Life Cycle Of Republican Lies. They Never - Ever - Die

Conservatives "believe" that principled perfection is sufficient justification for voter restriction.

"Principled Perfection" is in fact The Problem.

"Is Perfectionism A Curse? Paul Ryan Tells The Truth"

"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.  The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization.  We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”  
"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton


More Merton Quotes






"Martin Luther King Jr. On Hatred, Violence, Love and Jesus "The Way"

"Pax On Both Houses: A Compendium Of Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-favorite-martin-luther-king-quote.html





Editorial cartoon criticizing the usage of literacy tests for African Americans as a qualification to vote. Cartoon shows man “Mr. Solid South” writing on wall, “Eddikashun qualifukashun. The Black man orter be eddikated afore he kin vote with us Wites, signed Mr. Solid South.” An African American looks on. 
Illustration in: Harper’s Weekly, v. 23 (1879 Jan. 18), p. 52. 18 January 1879

"Voters In American History"
http://www.ushistoryscene.com/uncategorized/3327/


























"The Republican Party Is A Satanic Cult"

"American Conservatives And Oppositional-Defiant Disorder"

Jindal Criticizes The Stupid Party: "Simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys"

Conservatives are nuts.
There will not be a single proven case of a dead person voting in today's election.

The nation's newspapers can perform a crucial public service by creating a central repository to report all cases of voter fraud in the 2014 (and all future) elections.

I have no doubt that the actual number of cases will be tiny.

The number of cases that are successfully prosecuted will be vanishingly minute.

Bill Maher: The Zombie Life Cycle Of Republican Lies. 
They Never - Ever - Die

Conservatives "believe" that principled perfection is sufficient justification for voter restriction.

"Principled Perfection" is in fact The Problem.

"Is Perfectionism A Curse? Paul Ryan Tells The Truth"

"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.  The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization.  We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”  
"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton



If the same penalty applied to those depriving citizens of their vote by creating obstacles that disproportionately impact Democratic constituencies, most Republicans would be in jail and the national debt would be paid.


How 'bout 3 and a half years for Willard?



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Mexican Political Wife And Drug Kingpin Arrested For Disappearance Of 43 Students

November 4, 2014, 4:17 pm
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Things Fall Apart – Iguala Interrupts Mexico’s Moment

Posted on October 31, 2014by 
It only took one month for Mexico to go from model student to failed state. The media is fickle that way. But, the events in Iguala have only highlighted a reality that has persisted in Mexico for several years now (and worsened). I don’t know who was drinking whose Kool-Aid: was EPN convincing the journalists that Mexico had changed because he focused on structural reforms; or did the media’s love affair with the Pacto convince EPN that he was bulletproof? Either way, both are at fault.
What Happened in Iguala?
On September 26, student teachers from the Ayotzinapa Normal School in Guerrero state (normalistas) traveled by bus to the nearby city of Iguala, apparently to obtain three buses for transportation to surrounding towns for their studies and to Mexico City on October 2._77894295_mexicoiguala4640914Around 9:30 PM, the students were passing through central Iguala in three buses stolen from the bus station, when municipal police attacked them. Two to three hours later, police and members of Guerreros Unidos, a local criminal gang, opened fire on a group of the students who were protesting what had happened earlier. Some time later, a bus carrying the Avispones de Chilpancingo – a division 3 soccer team – was attacked on the Iguala-Chilpancingo highway. The aftermath: six dead; 17 injured; 43 missing.
The Mayor’s Wife is a Drug Kingpin
The Mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa, fled shortly after the events. The Mexican Attorney General (PGR) then announced that Abarca and Pineda were the ‘intellectual authors’ of the massacre.141011003456_sp_alcalde_iguala_esposa_624x351_ayuntamientodeiguala Why? One account has it that Pineda was giving a speech at the central Plaza of Zocalo when she was told some ‘outsiders’ were approaching. That’s when she told police to ‘teach the kids a lesson’. But the normalistas deny ever approaching the square, although they did drive by it.
More important, Pineda is the head of a criminal drug enterprise – i.e., the Guerreros Unidos mentioned above – that split off from the now-defunct Beltran-Leyva Cartel. And it’s not like she changed her name and dyed her hair – everyone kind of knew who she was. There’s even a blog from 2012 that makes all these accusations in great detail, including that Pineda financed the campaign of Abarca and Guerrero Governor Angel Aguirre. Not only is that true, but it also turns out that Pineda had a romantic relationship with Gov. Aguirre. Even worse, Abarca has allegedly done this before: in 2013, when three protesters were killed out of eight kidnapped.
It Gets Worse
After the story broke and the first couple of Iguala fled, the federal government launched an investigation with the following results so far:
  • Federal police took over Iguala and disarmed the local police
  • Federal police made a bunch of arrests
  • Gov. Aguirre resigned, but his replacement is an alleged former member of the FARC guerrillas in Colombia
  • An interim mayor was appointed, but he quit within hours after taking up his post
  • Search parties identified 11 unmarked graves with 38 bodies, but none containing the remains of the 43 missing students
  • EPN has not visited Iguala or delivered a ‘State of the Union’ style speech, just a brief announcement (see video below)
  • Government investigators still have not found the students
Were Normalistas Involved with Narcos? 
On Thursday, October 16, Federal Police apprehended another leader of Guerreros Unidos, Sidronio Casarrubias Salgado ‘on a highway outside Mexico City’. Casarrubias, who also goes by Santiago Jaurer Cadena, is a ghost online: nothing shows up for either name prior to his capture. Federal investigators questioned Casarrubias, and he had a different version of events from that night.
According to Casarrubias, 17 members of Los Rojos, a rival criminal gang at war withGuerreros Unidos, had ‘infiltrated’ the normalistas and were on the buses that came to Iguala. The purpose was to discretely enter Iguala and assassinate the Benitez Palacios brothers, also of Guerreros Unidos. Casarrubias indicated that he understands – he wasn’t present – that members of the Guerreros Unidos were able to locate and capture the infiltrators, but denied that his men took the students. Interestingly, Casarrubia’s timeline of events starts at midday on September 26, although it is otherwise undisputed that the students arrived at night. Most commentators in Mexico have dismissed Casarrubia’s version.
On October 31, a Guerreros Unidos member – ‘Corporal Gil’ – with whom Cassrrubia is in contact claimed that the normalistas are still alive and that Guerreros Unidos is prepared to return them in exchange for the federal government detaining 80 percent of a criminal group comprised of mayors in norther Guerrero and southern Morelos.
Who are the Normalistas?
Normal Schools are a collection of rural institutions set up during the 1920s right after the revolution. The idea of a Normal School is to serve the socioeconomic needs of the region. The students come from extreme poverty and will train to be teachers in the communities from which they came. The students do not pay tuition or board, and in principle the government supplies food and other items as well.
Over time, the Normal Schools have evolved into incubators of radical – usually Marxist – politics. At the same time, the federal and state governments have slashed funding for the Normal School system. The students of Normal Schools are known for their aggressive tactics to convey political messages – the main one being that they do not have enough funding.
These tactics include blocking highways, commandeering buses, and stealingnormalistas-desaparecidos-30092014_2 gas (thisaccount from inside the Ayotzinapa school provides a good account of their thinking). Sometimes, this leads to violence. Indeed, the night of the incident in Iguala, the students apparently injured a car wash attendant while passing through town. In 2011, policekilled two students from the same school in skirmishes when the students blocked a highway.
There is a lot of public sympathy for the normalistas right now. But before September 26 they were not well-liked by people in Guerrero. Some of the animosity came from their ‘political’ tactics. But, it is also well-known in Guerrero that Normal Schools historically have served as an intellectual training ground for guerrilla movements in the region. One of these groups – the Insurgent People’s Revolutionary Army (EPRI) – announcedthe creation of a brigade dedicated to punishing those responsible for harming the EPRI’s ‘normalista comrades’.
Pot Boils Over in Guerrero
The Iguala event represents the most dramatic expression to date of several forces that have been brewing for some time in states like Guerrero. The basic recipe is extreme poverty, an ideal geography for drug trafficking, and non-existent rule of law.
But many argue that the immediate cause was the Calderon administration’s strategy in their war on the cartels. Calderon focused on taking out high profile members of the leadership in the eight major cartels at the time. And they were successful. But the ‘perverse effect’ was to encourage mid-level cartel members to splinter off and form their own independent groups, as the map below illustrates.
evolution of OC groups
These new, smaller gangs engage in open warfare more often than the larger cartels of before. Also, they have expanded downwards into more ‘ordinary’ crimes likekidnapping, extortion, robbery, etc.   Guerrero is home to six of these smaller gangs:
carteles-droga-mexico--976x658
(see more impressive map)
When the former members of the large cartels splintered off into smaller factions and focused their efforts on non-drug revenue sources, in some cases the lives of ordinary people got worse. Again, kidnapping and extortion are the biggest sources of concern (Source: Drug Violence in Mexico):
kidnapping and extortion
So violence has both worsened and impacted regular citizens more directly, and as the Iguala case illustrates: the government/police are not there to help. Most people in regions like Guerrero cannot move because they lack the resources. Thus, poverty, violence, and non-functional state = irregular, quasi-state organizations.
Autodefensas and Guerrillas 
Most famous have been the rise of so-called ‘community’ police or self-defense organizations (autodefensas). At first, people welcomed such groups because they took on the cartels and guerrillas. But after some time, they began to engage in the same extortionate practices. In some cases, they even allegedly entered the drug trade or were created by cartels as a ‘legitimate’ way to wage war on rivals. Currently, Guerrero hasseven autodefensa groups:
auto2
Guerrero is also home to eight guerrilla groups:
  • Ejército Popular Revolucionario (EPR)
  • Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo Insurgente (ERPI)
  • Movimiento Revolucionario Lucio Cabañas Barrientos
  • Movimiento Armado Revolucionario Ricardo Flores Magón
  • Milicias Insurgentes Ricardo Flores Magón (MIRFM)
  • Ejército Revolucionario de Insurgencia Popular (ERIP)
  • Ejército Popular Magonista de Liberacion Nacional (EPM-LN)
  • Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias del Pueblo (FARP)
The events in Iguala have seemingly ‘awoken‘ these groups, which had been dormant for over a decade until now.
A Failure of State-Making
As you can see, the Mexican southwest is a lot like the pre-Civil War western territories of the U.S. (i.e., the ‘Wild West’). Why? The Mexican government is lying in the bed it itself made over 70 years of corporatist PRI rule. Under that system, the PRI avoided challenges to its hegemony by organizing society into corporate ‘sectors’ through massive official organizations. The PRI could address concerns of these sectors through these groups and by doling out benefits via its control over most of the economy. Most people got what they wanted from this arrangement, and the development of organic civil society was stunted.
Then, the PRI system – and benefits from state-controlled economy – receded. But no institutions remained allowing citizens to self-organize and express demands to government. This was worse in the impoverished rural areas, which also happen to be ideal for cultivating and transshipping drugs. So, the cartels stepped in and replaced the PRI as patrons to the community, buying loyalty with cash. And the autodefensas stepped in to provide security.
What Should Mexico Do?
The entire state and local government apparatus is not trustworthy – this is not a matter of voting in better people next time. Guerrero requires a sustained federal military/police presence in the foreseeable future. There are already several military installations near Iguala – some of the normalistas tried to get help at one – but I’m referring to a force that is trained in military-civilian relations and acts like a police force.
The other piece is a new institution aimed at identifying and punishing those who have participated in past atrocities. Guerrero already has a truth commission, but this would be something with a broader mandate. As a model, Mexico could use the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala. The UN created the CICIG in 2007 at Guatemala’s request. Its mandate was threefold:
  1. Investigate existence of illicit armed forces
  2. Assist in the prosecution of individuals involved
  3. Help build capacity with local institutions for when CICIG’s mandate expires
By 2010, the CICIG had helped get rid of thousands of corrupt police, ten prosecutors, three supreme court judges, and an attorney general. CICIG also supported Guatemalan prosecutors with the trial and conviction of 130 criminals (e.g., a former President). The CICIG has been controversial – alternately accused of overstepping and holding back. Still, its successes by far outnumber its failures.
Mexico cannot rely on its existing institutions to solve the problems in states like Guerrero. Even the federal authorities often collude with local criminals – e.g., one of the late brothers of Pineda paid federal prosecutors USD 450K per month in exchange for information on their investigations. Mexico needs a new institution like the CICIG to cleanse institutions and bring closure to the families of the disappeared.


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