Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1840. “I am of opinion, upon the whole, that the manufacturing aristocracy which is growing under our eyes, is one of the harshest which ever existed in the world… …Friends of democracy should keep their eyes anxiously fixed in this direction; for if ever a permanent inequality of conditions and aristocracy again penetrate into the world, it may be predicted that this is the channel by which they will enter.”
MY TWO-BITS reiterated:
Obama’s pretty much been off on the wrong course. He sprinkles “public goodies” up to and including the health care insurance act, which achieve limited but not system change, while shoving our government ever more firmly into corporatist pockets. He still listens to Robert Rubin, Ben Bernowski, and Timothy Geithner, the corporate tools who crafted and executed the big rip-off that plunged our country into near-receivership for Bush Jr. and the Koch brothers consortium of Fortune 500 “masters of the universe.” Jack Lew, Obama’s new chief of staff, used to work for the giant banking conglomerate Citigroup. His predecessor as chief of staff is Bill Daley, who used to work at the giant banking conglomerate JP Morgan Chase, where he was maestro of the bank’s global lobbying and chief liaison to the White House. Obama seems hellbent on using the same old tools to craft and execute a brand new disaster.
No special foresight or vision is necessary to see the probable outcome of Obama’s already failed – before even implemented, in some cases – policies and programs: too little, too late. Perhaps our asses will be held up a short while longer so Obama can get safely through his presidency and out of office, before we fall on them. His actions are, however, without future, and there is no posterity in them. He plays for the moment, little reforming and much protecting the corporate base with increasing stiffness. Perhaps the candidate of change has been replaced by a corporate android, and the real Obama is locked up in the Whitehouse basement. Perhaps.
Obama’s corporatist allegiance is more significant now because of the time in earth’s history. We are experiencing massive change that we cannot control, but only modify and ameliorate, if possible. In the midst of crisis, he is tolerating if not facilitating, throwing buckets of gasoline onto the fire. If he capitulates to the worst corporatist thieves every time, we’re screwed blue and tattooed. We might as well give up, but “I hope for the best,” as Jacques Cousteau once said, “although I can’t say why.”
What must be done? Three signs are in my office: “Persevere;” taped to a nearby bookshelf; the phrase “Eschew Surplusage,” Mark Twain’s advice for successful writing – also life as it turns out; and, “Plan your work; work your plan,” self-explanatory: choose a direction and go there.
All sorts of suck-swampwater things need immediate attention. How should we grapple with them? First we list them, then we figure out what to do about them. We will call this our Progressive Agenda. Let’s come together on a Platform statement that really means something, then develop the legalese and workplans needed to implement it. We will actually have an action plan. Let’s tell everybody what we’re all about. We must also raise a Progressive Party the likes of which cannot be stopped by the tricked voting machines of the corporatist economic elite who would be our new aristocracy. They may be surprised to know this, but there are a lot of us who really despise and will actively resist the elitist, racist, selfish Corporate States of America. MoveOn.org is working on just that; take the time to take a look to see if you want to join the cause: MoveOn.org
Our people must really galvanize, recruit and organize. We are fighting a desperate struggle for our republic. It has been battered, watered down, sullied and insulted, corrupted and trashed, but it is ours and we must do what we can to save and make it whole and free again. What is a higher long-term priority? It is the solid base that will allow us to continue to feed and clothe our children without corporatist interference, or ideological and superstitious negativism.
No short-term priority is higher than freeing our airwaves from the rightwing blitz on our democratic debate.
Which brings back Obama’s unfortunate corporatism. The corporatist agenda does not favor human survival any more than it does the rest of creation. It is by its very nature “consuming,” and once having consumed without having sufficiently conserved or reserved, it will eat itself out of house and home, and starve to death in the wasteland. End of species. We’ve changed the planet so much that the scientists declared a new geological epoch; we passed from the Holocene to the Anthropocene, an epoch in which human activity is a major factor in changing the planet’s climate and geology. Humanity as a terrestrial disease is about to climax like a great festering boil on the face of the earth, yet the president appoints a leading pesticide lobbyist and opponent of environmental regulation to chief agriculture negotiator in the office of the U.S. trade representative and appoints agribusiness, mining, oil and timber baronies “best friend” as Secretary of the Interior.
Not to worry, we’ve got the problem in the new Toyota fixed. Bio-diesel too. We’re making it out of corn, which is the least cost-effective and most polluting bio-diesel source available, but feeds a lot of Repuglicon babies in Iowa or wherever. Of course, it costs three times more to feed beef cattle now since cheap corn is gone for inefficient fuel. We appear to favor the stupid decision over the smart one. STUPIDOLOGY, a serious subject – reprise
Climate change is accelerating. The outlook is grim. Oh, look who’s on the Kardashians! Pass the Muscatel.
- A wine for every reason.
“Play it again, Sam!”
American financial crisis, periodically crippling bank failures, is an embedded scam in the United States. Historically the Boom and Bust cycle is well known. It persists because of lack of regulation, enforcement and punishment. The criminal is joined to the businessman in a climate of expediency and greed. The Greed creates, informs and directs the bubbles that always collapse, producing yet another profit opportunity for the exploiters. America would not experience Boom and Bust if it had honest and adequate regulation and independent enforcement powers with teeth. Despite the old saw, business has repeatedly shown that it CANNOT “police itself.” Contrary to belief monopolistic corporations do NOT have the consumer’s best interest at heart.
Posters at: RAGTIME ENTERTAINMENT at TheAttic Gallery
- True Progressives
Eugene Victor Debs (1855 – 1926) was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the International Labor Union and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), as well as candidate for President of the United States as a member of the Social Democratic Party in 1900. Later he was a presidential candidate as a member of the Socialist Party of America in 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920. Debs helped motivate political opposition to corporations. He is honored for his compassion. “Years ago,” he said, “I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” He fought vigorously for the labor movement, but as he told an audience in Utah in 1910: “I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition.” His running mate was Emil Seidel, the mayor of Milwaukee from 1910 to 1912, the first Socialist mayor of a major city in the United States. Reproduction of public domain campaign poster.
We the People need each other. GET INVOLVED: MOVEON.ORG
Tags: american financial crisis is scam, boom and bust is business tool, corporatists are stealing America, democratic socialism can restore America, eugene victor debs, greed creates boom and bust cycle, habeas corpus still not restored, kardashians, obama's corporatist leanings threaten nation, progressives want action
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