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TechnoratiBanksters on the War Path: How Wall Street Is Fighting Back and Winning Their Fight for the Status Quo
Dick Durbin knows his way around the Senate. He's been there a long time, long enough to know how things really work. Over the years, the man from Illinois has come to realize that it's not the elected officials who are in charge. Last week, he said it was the bankers "who run the place" acknowledging that Senators may be in office, but not necessarily in power.
Usually, the people who pull the strings stay in the background to avoid too much public exposure. They rely on lobbyists to do their bidding. They prefer to work in the shadows. They may back certain politicians, but coming from a world of credit default swaps as they do, they hedge their bets by putting money on all the horses.
They have so much influence because they have been reengineering the American economy for decades through "financialization," a process by which banks and financial institutions gradually came to dominate economic and political decision-making. Kevin Phillips, a one time Reagan advisor and commentator, says our deepest problem is "the ascendancy of finance in national policymaking (as well as in the gross domestic product), and the complicity of politicians who really don't want to talk about it."
Curiously, despite the journalists like Bill Moyers and Arianna Huffington who have been blowing the whistle on the role of the "banksters" in our political life, criticizing the Republicans and Democrats who deregulated the financial system, this issue seems to float above the heads of most of the public, much of the press, and even the activist community more drawn to punishing the torture inflicted on a few by a former Administration than the economic duress being imposed on the majority of Americans by a minority of the super rich.
Demonstrators are still drawn more to the White House than the banks that have proliferated on every corner of the country.
Last week, a Zogby poll found that a majority of the public believes the press made things worse by reporting on the economic collapse. Not only is that blaming the messenger, it also overlooks the fact that much of the media was complicit in the crisis by not covering the forces that caused the collapse when it might have done some good.
Exacerbating the problem is that the Obama Administration has, in Robert Scheer's words, enlisted "the very experts who helped trigger the crisis to try to fix it."
"Obama," he writes "seems depressingly reliant on the same-old, same old cast of self-serving house wreckers who act as if government exists for the sole benefit of corporations and executives."
The team of Tim Geithner and Larry Summers has been carrying Wall Street's water as Robert Rubin did before them. No wonder that Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder told the Street last February, "We're not going to go on any witch hunts."
That was before we learned that Wall Street forced US regulators to delay the release of stress test results for the country's 19 biggest banks until next Thursday, because some of the lenders objected to government demands that they needed to raise more capital. They are trying to rig the results.
That was also before the public learned of the obscenely huge bonuses the firms benefiting from the TARP bailout were shelling out to their executives. That was before we saw how the bankers with help from Democrats, including new convert Arlen Spector, managed to kill a bill to help homeowners stop foreclosures.
"The Senate on Thursday rejected an effort to stave off home foreclosures by a vote of 51 to 45. It was an overwhelming defeat, with the bill's backers falling 15 votes short -- a quarter of the Democratic caucus -- of the 60 needed to cut off debate and move to a final vote. Across the United States, the measure is estimated to have been able to prevent 1.69 million foreclosures and preserve $300 billion in home equity."
Commented the Center for Responsible Lending, "Instead of defending ordinary Americans, the majority of Senators went with the banks. Yes, the same banks who have benefited so richly from the TARP bailout."
There was one small victory with the House approving a bill to protect consumers from credit card abuses. It's not clear if the Senate will pass it too. "It's one step forward and one step backward," said Travis Plunkett, of the Consumer Federation of America. "Congress is moving in fits and starts to re-regulate the financial services industry and the banking lobby still has tremendous clout."
"Tremendous clout" is an understatement.
In this past week, we also saw how a few hedge funds undermined the attempt to save Chrysler from bankruptcy by holding out for more money even after the unions and big banks agreed to compromise to save jobs.
The President was furious but apparently powerless: "A group of investment firms and hedge funds decided to hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout," Obama said. "They were hoping that everybody else would make sacrifices, and they would have to make none. Some demanded twice the return that other lenders were getting."
Explains the blog Naked Capitalism, "the banksters are eagerly, shamelessly, and openly harvesting their pound of flesh from financially stressed average taxpayers, and setting off a chain reaction in the auto industry which has the very real risk of creating even larger scale unemployment than the economy already faces. It's reckless, utterly irresponsible, over-the-top greed."
Will they be allowed to get away with it? A "captured" Congress is doing their bidding. There is no doubt that class antagonism is stewing, says the editor of the blog. He expressed a fear of a reaction that will go way beyond flag-wavng tea parties.
"... I am concerned this behavior is setting the stage for another sort of extra-legal measure: violence. I have been amazed at the vitriol directed at the banking classes. Suggestions for punishment have included the guillotine (frequent), hanging, pitchforks, even burning at the stake. Tar and feathering appears inadequate, and stoning hasn't yet surfaced as an idea. And mind you, my readership is educated, older, typically well-off (even if less so than three years ago). The fuse has to be shorter where the suffering is more acute."
One is reminded of the title of that movie, "There will be blood." Rather than show contrition or compassion for its own victims, Wall Street is hoping to jack up its salaries and bonuses to pre-2007 levels. The men at the top are oblivious to the pain they helped cause. And so far, they've only occasionally been scolded by politicians that have mostly enabled, coddled, bankrolled, funded, rewarded, and genuflected to their power.
Wall Street's behavior may be predictable, but how can we account for the silence of so many organizations that should be out there organizing the outrage that is building? Knock, Knock, Obama supporters, bloggers, trade unionists, out of work workers and fellow Americans. Will we fight back or roll over?
Pitchforks anyone?
123 Comments so far
Show Allinstead of being the sheep you are,
Set up a web-site CITIZENS WHO DEMAND THE GOVERNMENT STOP ALL FUNDS GOING TO BAILOUT BANKS AND INSURANCE COMPANIES. GET FUNDS BACK THAT HAVE BEEN DISTRIBUTED.
REQUIRE BERNANKIE AND PAULSON TO RELEASE INFORMATION AS TO WHO GOT THE FUNDS AND WHAT THEY DID WITH IT.
LIST 52 STATES ON THE WEB SITE HAVE PEOPLE FROM CORESPONDING STATE LIST NAME AND ZIP-CODE WHO WANT THIS LEGISLATION ENACTED.
GO TO EACH SENATOR AND CONGRESSPERSON TELL THEM THIS IS WHAT YOUR CONSTITUENTS WANT VOTE FOR IT OR BE RECALLED.
ANY PROBLEMS WITH THIS??????????????????????????????????
What is Revolution? That is when all the wealth that has become concentrated in the hands of a powerful few is taken back by the many from whom it was expropriated.
Quickly our descent into new poverty parallels the breathtaking updrafting of wealth we are watching and living through.
The Revolution will happen when enough complacent dynamically ignorant don't tell me I don't want to know Americans begin losing what they can remember having.
When the average American is losing what he had before his very eyes. He. will. kill.
Evictions, savings gone, no jobs, forget college, 1 car not 2 then 1 w/ repairs they can't afford, no Dr., can't afford dental care, now it's their mortgage pament late.....
When the average American begins losing what he has, he will fight with guns to keep it. We are closer than many think. Thirty years? As far as peaceful revolution? Never. Ghandi's beautiful Walk and accomplishment was this-He and what he inspired ended an occupation. A miracle. But not a Revolution as defined by concentrated wealth and class warfare.
Do We See The Truth Before Us?
Or Beyond That Illusion To What Is?
We shouldn't expect the old power structure in Washington to just go away in a few months. It is still largely the same group of Senators and Congressmen as before. Corporate lobbyists and their money still hold sway. The House has been doing their part, but let's face it, the only way to get Senators to do the right thing is to threaten their reelection or embarrass the hell out of them with bad press which threatens their reelection).
After their sorry vote on bankruptcy, the growing number of them who won't support EFCA, and now who don't want to make meaningful healthcare reform, I'm ready to grab the pitchforks and take to the streets.
snydly
THE HUMAN UNION---HU ARE YOU.
Membership---Everybody is already in it. Call the 800 # for your Chamber of Commerce to opt out. Rejoin at any time.
Dues---Pay it forward with solidarity and good will.
Leadership---Apatche nantan, talk it up, see what happens.
Tactics---Peaceful, Speaking Truth to Power, Resist, Occupy, Produce.
Goals---Fair pay, Fair play, Justice under the Law, Benefits to the Seventh Generation. No War.
One Planet, One People.
IF NOT NOW---WHEN?
Corporatism floats the wrong people to the top of our system for the wrong reasons.
STRIP CORPORATIONS OF LEGAL "PERSONHOOD"!!
You all will like "The Obama Deception".
The uber rich keep accusing anyone suggesting such things as trying to foment class warfare. That's really rich (no pun intended) since the uber rich not only restarted the class war a few decades ago, they appear to have won it.
Their tactics this time? Buy the media as well as the politicians. There're relatively cheap in comparison to the returns delivered on the investment.
And, once the media and politicians are in the pocket of the uber rich, they've not only bought it all, but they can get more than their investment back by stealing everything else.
Their only risk is going too far because at some point, violent revolutions will seem the only alternative to the losers in this particular war.
Signed: Lawlessone [for more irreverence, see resistence-is-possible.blogspot.com]
OBAMAS "CHANGE" SHOULD INCLUDE GETTING RID OF THE DEMOCRATS TOO.........
I FEEL THERE IS A TIME AND PLACE FOR VIOLENCE........NOTHING ELSE HAS SEEMED TO WORK -----WHISTLE BLOWERS GO TO JAIL----TERRORIST STATE OF ISRAEL IS CONSIDERED THE VICTIM---THE THIEVING BANKS ARE GIVEN BONUSES FOR DOING SUCH A GREAT JOB----CORPORATIONS ARE GIVEN MORE RIGHTS THAN CITIZENS-----OUR MILITARY FIGHTS AND DIES TO SUPPORT CORPORATIONS AND MAKE THEM RICHER...........A TIME AND PLACE FOR EVERYTHING...............
Don't be fooled by the small stuff.
Get a bigger picture, a paradigm shift of history.
It is not everyday that you read something and it changes your whole conceptualization of the world.
The two documents below do that.
The implications will challenge how you look at politics, economy, history, finance, war and terrorism. Many persons in the documents are well known; many are right now in pivotal positions of politics and finance. These people do shape YOUR life and that of our children right now. The details are researched and referenced. The consequences would be beyond belief.
The two documents are long and some parts not easy to follow and to digest. Don’t give up, just read on. They provide the most interesting information (and some parts read like a thriller) and at the end of the second part you might be able to make much more sense of what is happening with this world.
Read it. It's worth it.
It will be one of the most important reads you'll ever have.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/9442970/Collateral-Damage-US-Covert-Operations-and-the-Terrorist-Attacks-on-...
http://www.scribd.com/doc/9421535/Collateral-Damage-Part-2-The-Subprime-Crisis-and-the-Terrorist-Attac...
There's only one possible solution to the constant interference in, and buying off of, our government by special interests. LOBBYING our congressional and government personnel in any form from which they gain a personal benefit must be OUTLAWED and made into a CRIMINAL OFFENSE!
It's the only way to return our country to a "government by the people and for the people." Our congressional personnel are currently operating under a distorted belief that they are both the masters and beneficiaries of a "government by the elite and for the elite" (special interests) of which they are, de facto, a part.
Our political leaders are not stupid - "you don't bite the hand that feeds you." And they are constantly being fed plenty (in the form of money, privileges, and notoriety by every special interest imaginable). When are we going to wake up and DEMAND a return to the government that was fashioned by our founding fathers (who were common people) - a government by the people and for the people?????
Creating a third party is NOT the solution. It would be only a matter of time (and probably a very short time) before that third party would be just as dirty as the others.
MAKE LOBBYING A CRIMINAL OFFENSE!!!! (It unfairly robs American Citizens of the right to be treated “equally!”)
FrankS-I agree, Lobbying & Political Action Committees are at the root of the disconnect between politicians and the people.
Criminalize lobbying & PAC's. Establish a cap on wealtlh, a mill a household. And an enforced minimum wage of fifteen bucks an hour and this country would work.
OK, your suggestion is to outlaw lobbying.
On the surface, that sounds very reasonable. However, the reason there's such a thing as lobbying is that it helps businesses to increase profits. And almost by definition, it helps the most powerful businesses the most.
The US is unapologetically a capitalist society. That means that maximizing profits is the society's core organizing principle. Almost all economic activity is aimed at maximizing profits, & almost nothing is permitted to stand in the way of this objective.
In a capitalist society, those who control the most powerful businesses belong to what we might call "the ruling class." Both big political parties are devoutly capitalist, and no other parties are really permitted to exist.
Therefore, to call for lobbying to be outlawed is to expect that a law shall be passed by members of the 2 capitalist parties, which would hurt the profit interests of those parties' most important & powerful backers. There is zero chance of such a law ever being passed.
What you are calling for is reasonable, but has the same weakness as, for example, calls for IRV or campaign finance reform. Those ideas are nice. But they will never be passed, because they'd adversely affect the interests of the most powerful sections of society.
The US is not a "Golden Rule" society. It pretends to be, but it's not. When any suggested policy conflicts with maximizing profits (especially the profits of the already-privileged), that policy will never be adopted. This is an inherent weakness in capitalism. Even when restrictions ("regulation") are placed on business, under the pressure of a crisis (ie, the Great Depression), it's only a matter of time before those restrictions are done away with -- because capitalists don't like them, & will always eventually organize to get any such restrictions repealed.
The only way out of this is through building mass support for a conception of society that is not capitalist. To live under capitalism is to agree to submit to rule by the rich -- which means that no policy that harms or limits the capitalists can ever be passed, NOT EVEN if it would be very helpful to the other 99% of society.
I don't disagree with anything you say. However, in no way do I believe that what our founding fathers, many of whom were farmers, had in mind when America was born is what we have sadly devolved into at the present.
The devolution came gradually as elected officials allowed their personal greed to completely subsume their love of country. Capitalism is not a bad thing until it becomes the "be-all, end-all" of the purpose of a government and society. We have arrived at that point.
Only a return by our governing officials and we Americans to the purity of belief and actions held by our founding fathers will our country begin to rise to the definition of freedom held by those forefathers.
It's perfectly true that we as a society have substituted capitalism for our founders' definition of democracy/freedom. They are not equivalent terms any more than kingdom (rule by the rich) and democracy. It's only when we allow it to continue by failing to point this out to our current government through our "no" votes that we have to bear personal responsibility. I do that consistently through my votes and voice. I believe that FAIR capitalism and democracy can co-exist with the right government.
History doesn't know cases where pro-social movements that has been popping up where able to sustain themselves, and the reason is one, namely the bed habit of incorporating the same structure they've been raising against. So far no one is talking what does it take to grow and maintain a movement. My tip: commitment to equality that removes elite decision making system.
"much of the press, and even the activist community more drawn to punishing the torture inflicted on a few by a former Administration than the economic duress being imposed on the majority of Americans by a minority of the super rich."
Ah yes. Torture let's not pay attention to torture, as long as it is used against the "bad" guys.
No pitchforks, just torch carrying angry mobs with moilotov cocktails marching on trhe gated communities of privilige to liquidate the toxic tangible assets of the priviliged. Till they start whinning "can't we all just get along?"
Poet
Think it'll ever happen?
A "captured" Congress is doing their bidding............
Captured? Am not sure that is the word I would use. They are fully invested in the financial institutions and are eager to make ever more profits, if that is what you mean. Have you looked at your Congressman or woman at Follow the Money?
They range in net asset worth from over $440,000,000. on down to those who have only been there a couple of years and are only up to $9,000,000. but working in it.
Do these people, in any sense, represent the voter? Surrrrre that doooooooo.
They do everything in the interest of Citicorp, Exxon, Wachovia, Bank of America, etc. want.
It is time for a real change, people: legal rebellion!
Timothy, good post! Social Studies 101, page 1...Representative government for the common people is a myth. The politicians do the bidding of the rich and the super-rich. Every so often, the real creators of wealth: the working class, is thrown a few pieces of stale bread to keep them happy.
Divest. See www.greenamericatoday.org Scroll down to "Breaking Up With Your Bank" You will find a link to a link(botom of page) to an article which, at the end, lists credit cards that do not provide profits for Wall St. When they're charging 2-4% on every purchase, the more redirected the better.
Poverty and Wealth in America: Senate Millionaires Kill Citizen Mortgage Relief
by Michael Collins
Global Research, May 2, 2009
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13467
"The United States Senate took a swipe at the spirit of May Day in a spectacular show of callous indifference when it voted down a bill to provide limited assistance to citizens at risk for losing their homes. The final vote was 45 in favor, 51 opposed to Senator Richard Durbin's (D-IL) mortgage assistance bill. The original version of the bill covered some but not all of those requiring assistance. The final version was even more restricted. It applied to only homeowners currently in foreclosure as a result of actions prior to the start of 2009.
The denial of assistance to citizens by Senators is ironic given the fact that the origins of the current economic crisis came from Senate legislative actions in 1999 and 2000.
While their avarice knows no bounds, their memory suffers.
Apparently these multimillionaire aristocrats of the Senate "gentlemen's club" haven't been watching the news. The International Monetary Fund declared that the United States is in a depression almost three months ago. Delinquency and foreclosure rates around the country are rising at spectacular rates. Unemployment has jumped by 3.3 million in the last five months. Economic growth has declined at a rate of 6.3% in the first quarter of 2009.
What part of economic crisis can't they understand? Apparently all of it.
Memo to stingy Senators: Workers and their families are in serious trouble or about to be in trouble. That means they lack the money to pay for their homes (also known as shelter, a basic human need). These citizens did nothing to bring on this crisis.
You, the members of the Senate, are largely to blame and you know it.
One of the most revealing remarks came from Democrat Ben Nelson (D-NE) who said:
“Do I want to have my rate go up so that somebody else might be able to cram down” their mortgage payment?" asked Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who voted against the bill. Associated Press, Apr. 30, 2009
Nelson has never been regarded as the sharpest tool in the shed but he's set a new standard for ignorance with this remark. Nelson was worth at least $7.0 million as of reporting in 2008. Obviously he needs to skimp on every penny to stay afloat. He'll offer no breaks for financially strapped citizens on the brink of ruin even if they are in trouble as a result of his support of Wall Street welfare. The bill would have no impact on his or anybody else's mortgage rate unless they qualified for help. In those cases, the rate would go down.
The Durbin bill offered a reasonable change in bankruptcy law that would allow those in foreclosure to ask (simply ask) bankruptcy judges to invoke a "cramdown." In that process, the bankruptcy court would set a lower interest rates and longer terms on loans. This takes the case out of foreclosure and allows citizens to keep their homes and the lets banks collect the money owed at a lower rate over an extended period. (See this for a real cramdown to benefit all citizens)
The Durbin bill provided limited options since it presumed that homeowners at risk had the money to get in bankruptcy court; that the courts would be able to handle all those in need; and that the judge would accept the request for a cramdown to keep people in their homes. But the bill might have helped as many as 1.7 million homeowners.
Even with those limitations, Sen. Durbin was forced against the wall and had to negotiate the bill to a lower level of protection. The final bill rejected by the Senate. Associated Press reported: "The latest proposal would have restricted eligibility to homeowners already in foreclosure whose lender had not offered better terms. Homes would also have to be worth less than $729,000 and apply to mortgage loans originated before 2009." Apr 30, 2009
Durbin's last stand would have provided protection some homeowners but no there's now protection for anyone.
William K. Black is the chief fraud investigator who untangled the 1980's Savings and Loan fiasco. His comments on the current economic meltdown are instructive and assign blame: William K. Black: 'We need some chairmen or chairwomen … in Congress, to hold the necessary hearings (on banking fraud) and we can blast this out. But if you leave the failed CEOs in place, it isn't just that they're terrible business people, though they are. It isn't just that they lack integrity, though they do. Because they were engaged in these frauds … they're not going to disclose the truth about the assets." Bill Moyers Journal, Apr 3, 2009
Senators, you allowed changes in banking regulations that turned Wall Street in to a big casino for the "in crowd" and wiped out millions of small investors and retirement funds.
You failed to monitor the new freedoms you gave the banks and Wall Street after you stripped away citizen protections in law since the Great Depression.
You created the current depression.
And now, you're so stingy you won't even help a few of the many people victimized by the massive corporate fraud schemes, Ponzi schemes according to Black.
Is there any reason why even one single Senator of the 51 who voted down this assistance should remain in office to complete his or her term?
Is there any reason to hold back from recalling them where allowed or demanding their resignations in every state that they represent?
I can't think of one. Can you?"
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Namaste
Fret not, my friend, refusing to give an inch now will cost them a mile later.
Be_nspired, Very good information!
I can't think of oneeither.
The banks are being preserved because the money-flow of society has to continue for daily life, and unfortunately, the banks are the vehicles for this as of now. But the banks could be turned into Credit Unions, just as the Resolution Trust in the Reagan/PapBush era had the fortitude to shut down and convert the (same-old-story!) corrupt and criminally-run savings & loans into banks, after the exact-same hyper-leverage bank fraud debacle.
The executives, shareholders, bondholders, and creditors of the banks would be wiped out, but as these were the people that immensely benefitted from the Great Greenspan Fraud of the last decades, they were as good as embezzling money from the American people.
Currently of course, these same people are trying to be made whole instead, by government largesse in their direction, which, being good capitalists, they don't mind at all. To try to disguise this fact, financial accounting games are being played - like the AIG bailout money that passed through AIG like shit-through-a-goose to the bigboy players behind it - lo and behold the same old names, Gold Sacks, U-BS, etc. Which is why, no matter how much money is shoveled in, AIG is STILL BROKE!
However, Congressman Dick Durbin just admitted that Congress is Owned by the banksters. So good luck with any other plan than one which gives trillions of dollare to the rich, and provides socialism for those Ultimate Welfare Queens, the banksters and the capitalists.
As far as giving cash to people in foreclosure to pay off their mortgages, well, the people who are curently up-to-date with their mortgages would raise a great furor, as would also those without a mortgage, i.e. renters and owners. This plan would Definitely not be fair to these groups, and it would STILL serve the banksters in the end more than anyone else.
Hell, the banksters would be very much FOR giving people money that then goes Straight To Banksters and PROPS UP HOME (DEBT) PRICES, as the banksters would greatly benefit - just exactly the same as the bankstes benefit when they give third-world countries LOANS THAT HAVE TO BE PAID BACK (instead of grants or gifts) - and thus ENSLAVES the country to the banksters. How would you like it if your job paid you in LOANS instead of outright grants? You would work harder and harder, and simply fall deeper and deeper into debt. That is the banksters' idea of a perfect world.
What might be acceptable in the current situation however is re-settting ALL mortgages drastically downwards to fair, realistic, area-income-dependent values, and re-configuring payments based on those realistic prices. This is essentially what is going on in the real, uncontrolled world anyway, which is why the banksters are frantically trying to make the government PROP UP THE DEBT owed to them - because ALL the banks in America are in reality bankrupt. The assets they claim to own are false. They are values based on fictions, and are delusional.
So then, break up and smash the banks 'too big to fail', turn all the banks into credit unions, and reset ALL mortgages down, and ALL payments down. No more average home prices of many hundreds of thousands of dollars in areas where the average wage is tens of thousands of dollars. Yes, people who bought homes for $10,000 and that are now claimed as worth $1,000,000 would 'lose' that 'equity', but it is DEBT SLAVERY that is the difference.
In the end, it was profit that was not really there to begin with. And the banks would 'lose' those artifice-ially hyper-inflated values, as the banksters are REALLY THE OWNERS of any home with a mortgage, and banks claim so right on their windows with printed 'assets of...' declarations. But the banks are now losing those 'values' anyway, and are currently being made whole ONLY by massive government and Federal Reserve intervention, with the costs passed on to All Americans for the sole benefit of their slave-masters, the capitalists and the banksters.
FVHorn, Excellent post.
"Allow me to issue and control a nation's currency, and I care not who makes it"s laws."
Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild,
London, England, 1826
Democrats, Repulsivists, they all march to the same drummer.
I shall punish my bank by withdrawing my money starting on Monday. I will request the limit of one thousand per day in cash until my money is in my savings. They will understand only when they loose their power, which is our money. The people must take away their power and stop this fraud NOW!
Let the Run begin.
Billyone
Why is their no $1000./day/person limit on the banks to take deposits?
Wall $treet doesn't have to do jack. They can count on the partisans on both sides and the brainwashed masses who are conditioned into believing that there are only two choices to keep electing and reelecting the same pols who will stir them up on those silly culture issues and then go to Washington and sell us out yet again. Then again, even within the Republican and Democratic parties, the good ones are relegated to minor positions. Just ask Paul and Kucinich.
Mr. Durbin, we already know that. You pols are just making excuses for lack of leadership. When will the electorate start realizing that even in a democracy, it is the job of a leader to lead and not tell the voters "make me do it" ? When the country dies down for good ?!?!? Go on, make us weep some more. 99+ % of the electorate is ready to have more of the same !
Jennifer, I do agree with you!
We may be a long way from violent revolution, but notice how the possibility is constantly hyped in the right-wing press. An excellent example is the coverage of the G20 summit during which the demonstrators were constantly referred to as "anarchists" and a loop of a demonstrator smashing a bank window was played over and over to the practical exclusion of any other demonstration image. It appears that the ruling elite may be trying to turn up the hysteria so that a police state can be imposed. Any act or incitement to violence in these circumstances plays directly into their game plan.
Gandhi showed that one who truly practices nonviolence has the world at his feet. While hatred binds us tightly to our exploiters, nonviolence can break both their bonds and our own. "In its positive form, ahimsa means the largest love, the greatest charity. If I am a follower of ahimsa, I must love my enemy." - Gandhi. This attitude must be coupled with total clarity regarding how opposed our interests are to those of the ruling elite if our tactics are to be effective.
Why would you think that the MSM, one of the main co-conspirators in the current war by the Banksters to take over our country, would even think of portraying an encounter between the Banksters and the people in an honest and competent manner. It'll never happen. It's obvious which team the MSM is on and its propaganda will never contain anything that doesn't further the cause of the takeover of our country by those fraudulent bastards!
A violent revolution will occur when the level of desperation exceeds the fear of retribution (i.e., when the participants feel they have little or nothing to lose, and/or much more to gain). Refusing to cooperate with darkness is a different matter; it requires a certain level of awareness. And those who attain this awareness understand that one cannot use an 'evil' means to attain a 'good' end.
And of course any acts of revolution from the left will be called terrorism by the MSM, while acts of revolution from the right will be called patriotism.
zmann has exactly grasped my point. It has been a common tactic for the last hundred and fifty years to infiltrate progressive movements with agents provocateurs to incite violence, then use that violence to eliminate the movement's leaders. That's why I keep the writings of Dr. King and Gandhi constantly at hand - the real battle is the battle of the spirit, but it must not remain purely spiritual, but must spread to economic, political, and psychological fronts.
Sioux Rose
BOYD: These realms are NEVER separate! It's only that our minds, trained by an educational system that's all about "a separation of disciplines" incline us NOT to connect the dots, or in many instances recognize the overlap between these areas of shared interest and experience.
Boyd Collins: So glad to have you posting on CD.
I love your clarity of thought and insistence that non-violent civil unrest is the only answer, but the non-violence must be very emphatic. There can be no public misinterpretation.
Demonstrators will have to go to extremes of discipline to clearly demonstrate total non-violence, like thousands of people lying face down in the street. I think this would be a powerful demonstration that would set apart those of violence and those who are non-violent. It would stymie the national guard and local black booted storm troopers.
I so often remember my frustrations at the WTO in Seattle and the World Bank demonstrations in Washington, DC At the time, I wondered whether the anarchists were infiltrated by undercover FBI and police.
Stephen, thanks very much for your generous words. Your emphasis is right on target. You may be aware of the recent FBI infiltration of demonstrators in St. Paul during the Republican convention where a "movement leader" incited college students to violent acts, then turned them in to the FBI. When we listen to words of Gandhi, we understand the level of discipline necessary, "In its negative form, it [ahimsa] means not injuring any living being, whether by body or mind. I may not therefore hurt the person of any wrong-doer, or bear any ill will to him and so cause him mental suffering. This statement does not cover suffering caused to the wrong-doer by natural acts of mine which do not proceed from ill will. It, therefore, does not prevent me from withdrawing from his presence a child whom he, we shall imagine, is about to strike. Indeed the proper practice of ahimsa required me to withdraw the intended victim from the wrong-doer, if I am in any way whatsoever the guardian of such a child." Such a level of discipline is hard to imagine these days, but to attempt it would strengthen our movement in unimaginable ways.
Pretty much all of Latin America is in revolutionary mode and none of them, except for Columbia, is advancing through violence. Now that Cuba has shown the world, and history, what can be accomplished by a Socialist people, there is hardly any need for violent upheaval because the peoples realize that their strength in numbers is key, that and solidarity.
Uh, Cuba didn't undergo a violent upheaval to get to where it is today?
To Boyd R. Collins and zmann, Very good comments.
Thanks to both of you.
Consider the words rebellion or revolt
This is usually seen as minor upsets, compared to really world class and pervasive changes that occur for paradigm (BIG contextual) changes, as we are poised on the precipice of one during these turbulent times:
Now consider the word _ R E V O L U T I O N _
The popular use and drastically revised meaning of the word REVOLUTION was the direct public reaction to the (from the Vatican’s point of view, 400 some years ago) “heretical and reprehensible” ideas of Galileo about the Earth not being in the center of the solar system (it was the earth system before). HERETICAL: unorthodox, unconventional, dissident, radical
Prior to Galileo’s attempt to stand out, and to be 100% against the Pope and Catholic church’s established “world” view, the words REVOLT & REBELLION were used for similar types of insurrections against the powers that be. Recall that Galileo was his time’s equivalent of Einstein or Newton, and that he was placed under house arrest (by the church) and threatened with torture until he recanted his misguided theories and published books.
Sometime after Galileo had died, the church had to roll out the “new” sun centered solar system, which used the proper word to denote that the Earth revolved around the Sun: this concept was literally REVOLUTIONARY meaning going around something. Initially, there was no figurative meaning (for revolution) about overthrowing (shifting) the Pope’s paradigm, or anything else Earth shattering.
It was *gradually over hundreds of years that the new meaning of REVOLUTION was ingrained into the psyche of all common European people, and it is noteworthy that the American Revolutionary War made use of this new meaning of REVOLUTION, such that the literal meaning now does coincide and include the concept of insurrections. I suspect that Ben Franklin knew this history, and made use of this “new definition”, some 200 years ago (which made it even more clear cut for us = USA).
In other words, the people really did get the idea of how major of a concession that the Pope had to make to science, such that it forged a completely different word into one that means and is used now to refer to REVOLT & REBELLION !
* Etymology - The study of semantic change of meaning of particular words .
which is definitely not about similarly sounding Entomology - The study of bugs.
Viva la Revolucion! as occurred July 14, 1789
“Is it a rebellion?” asked Louis XVI of the count who informed him of the fall of the Bastille.
“No, sire,” came the reply.
“It is a revolution.”
Namaste
Thank you for bringing up a discussion on revolution, be_nspired. Revolution means 'radical' or rapid change, no? Generally, it refers to change of 'authority' by violent means. You may be interested to know that J. Krishnamurti wrote much about this subject, primarily about a revolution in 'psychology' or a psychological revolution:
"One can observe this taking place when the mind of man is being taken over, is being collectivised - if I may use that word - , is being forced to conform much more than ever before. The mind is no longer free. It is being shaped by politics, by education, by religious, organized belief and dogma. Everywhere throughout the world, freedom is becoming less and less, and the individual is becoming less and less significant. You must have observed this, not only in your lives but also generally, that freedom has withered away - freedom to think quite independently, freedom to stand up against something which you think is right, freedom to say `no' to established order, freedom to discover, to question, to find out for yourself. More and more, leadership is becoming important, because we want to be told, we want to be guided; and unfortunately, when this takes place, corruption is inevitable, there is deterioration of the mind - not the technical mind, not the capacity to build bridges, atomic reactors and so on; but deterioration of the quality of the mind that is creative. I am using that word `creative' in quite a different way. I do not mean creative in the sense of writing a poem or building a bridge or putting down, in marble or in stone, a vision that is being caught - those are mere expressions of what one feels or what one thinks. But we are talking of a creative mind in quite a different sense: a mind that is free, is creative. A mind that is not bound by dogmas, by beliefs; a mind that has not taken shelter within the limits of experience; a mind that breaks through the barriers of tradition, of authority, of ambition, that is no longer within the net of envy - such a mind is a creative mind. And it seems to me that in a world where there is the threat of war, where there is general deterioration, not technologically but in every other way, such a creative, free mind is necessary."
--Society, the social structure molds our minds and hearts, confines them through various methods of conditioning, and this is reflected back; hence, the structure, the edifice is maintained and enhanced through an unconscious (and mostly 'mechanical') feedback loop, which leads to greater confinement and further devolution (or evolution within darkness and despair if you prefer). When seeking security in any belief or dogma, fear and insecurity increase, manifesting themselves in cruelty and violence, and the corruption of Spirit that must, of necessity, accompany it. Krishnamurti says that without a free and creative mind it is impossible to create a better world.
He goes on to say:
"It is absolutely, urgently necessary to alter the whole course of human thought, of human existence, because it is becoming more and more mechanistic. And I do not see how this complete revolution can take place except in the individual. The collective cannot be revolutionary; the collective can only follow, can only adjust itself, can imitate, can conform. But it is only the individual, the `you', that can break through shattering all these conditionings and be creative. It is the crisis in consciousness which demands this mind, this new mind."
--That is why the problems we face--or real change--cannot be brought about by outward reform devoid of an inward understanding (or a 'free' mind). There must be a PSYCHOLOGICAL REVOLUTION if mankind is to resolve the mess it finds itself in.
Thus, if Obama legislates within a corrupt system without transforming it (which requires that he transform himself as well), he will only advance that same corruption, albeit in a slightly modified or refined form.
For those interested in more of what "K" has written on these and other relevant subjects check out this site:
http://tchl.freeweb.hu/
Yes, and how long ago did KM die, and how long ago did he say those words, and how much more so are the words true, and how little chance any of his 'hopes' shall come to pass before this planet is rendered incapable of supporting human life...
Good words? We've had train carloads of 'good words' back to the Shurpu Series of the Sumerians and none of them have meant a damn. And that's including all the "good words" written by Thomas Jefferson while he raped little Sally and beat her and raped her again and used her children to serve his white family dinner. How American can you get?
Sorry, good words without actions are like tiny air fresheners in an Abattoir.
I think the point is that we cannot 'save' the planet without awakening first, given that we are even interested and willing to do so; it cannot be forced upon anyone. If you awaken, you naturally spread that Light, simply by being. Others will see in you what is possible for them as well. Some will want it, some won't, but is their affair.
Hi __ C H E S S G A M E S,
Beautifully said, thank you.
Namaste
Sioux Rose
CHESSGAME: Excellent post! I would only add that there are specific astrological cycles that support authoritarian phases. All the rousing razzle dazzle around terrorism or now swine flu makes FEAR the dominant emotion, and when people are ruled by fear, they accept external authorities under the promise these usually uniformed figures will keep them safe. The escalation in warfare in large part fueled by the insatiable dark greed of the U.S. MIC has led to fear and terror, and of course that BEAST feeds on itself.
Over the course of the next 5-7 years we will see much tension between those who wish to retain what precious liberties we still can claim and those who intend to place them covertly under the radar. A break with this cycle that has used terrorism to spy on citizens and build up armed forces will not entirely emerge until 2020. Our generation is not used to struggles that require a decade or more, not with instant gratification the mantra of our mainstream media. Patience is a difficult virtue, one many of us will be grappling with.
be_nspired, A good history lesson and the meaning of the word revolution. Thanks!
namaste
All the time I have been just trying to make it plain that the lobbyists and the conservative press are responsible for this FINANICAL TERRORIST ATTACK on america, after all' what chance does ordinary john q. public have to contact his senator or represtative to discuss legislation that would help or correct situations that are overburdening and harming the people versus the lobbyist who is allowed to carry a sack full of money into an electorate's office with legislation that benefits the entity he represents at the expense of the taxpayer.
Now Danny Schechter has made a very good defined case of points of why at over 100 days into a new administration that was supposed to make people relieved that things would 'turn around' or 'change', that the only change we see is that the president is now a democrat and a black. A most perfect choice of ostensible change concealing the actual retention of the 'status quo'. What is depressing and outragous is that how much more and how many more times before the people, actually through lack of any real help from those we elect(at least 90% of them), do what may be a plan to create real violence so the new police state can send their thugs in to dish out the cure?
I may have to agree with Chalmers Johnson when he stated that: 'the people are scaried, they don' know what to do, and that it maybe too late'. And that brings the culpability of the press into this. The conservative msm will and does put on the airwaves anything to take attention away from the real issues and the people have been so duped into believing that it is far to better to look at anything from the msm that pleases and tweaks those emotions that only the airwaves are capable of doing to these 'veggies'. These may end up being the 'winston smiths' of '1984'.
The Status Quo is a big party on a train headed for the wall.
Not only did the following Senators vote against relief for homeowners, but they also for the bailout for Wall Street. Remember that when you go to vote:
Alexander (R-TN)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Burr (R-NC)
Byrd (D-WV)
Carper (D-DE)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Ensign (R-NV)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Isakson (R-GA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (D-PA)
Thune (R-SD)
Voinovich (R-OH)
VAGreen, Thank You for this list. It's All Good,
24 Republicans
8 Democrats. A difference of sixteen, was it NOT defeated by fifteen votes? It is not that DC reps the corporations. It is the corporations. Of course any potus reflects this.
Some more, bush, some less, Obama. I voted for him and things are not as good as I'd hoped. I still see stark and clear positive change though. 12 months ago 'the decider's' contempt, cheney's desire to attack Iran, and McCain hoping to continue the free-fall were real.
I feel like a free-fall into madness stopped with the GOP's exit.
Now it's just a healthy rapacious plutocracy eating itself alive once again...Boyd R Collins said, "I believe we are in a pre-revolutionary situation"
BRC is right. It is simple math=The population is exploding so more people share the pie. Updrafting of wealth at ever faster rates outscourced jobs tax havens the pie is shrinking. The standard of living is falling through the floor into the dirt. Homes, jobs and and lives are being lost in waves of millions as we race to Our Fate.
A Pre-revolutionary State.
But 24 versus 8....that IS a difference. As I see it, it made THE difference, and ONCE again the GOP HURT or prevented help for millions. Once. A. Gain.
Yes the dems suck, but clearly, if not for the gop again, The Homeowners would now be getting the relief they deserve and need. So they "are not the same" in my opinion, the dems merely suck!
Nice posts all. True all.
We all want light in the darkness,
differering pov's re the location of
the lightswitch are Natural, All good. It's All Good.
Mel Martinez (R) Florida is retiring in 2010...hopefully we can get a real Dem to replace him.
A**hole Voinovich from my state of Ohio is retiring in 2010; nice of him to give us all a fine F You on his way out.
Hopefully we can get a real human to replace him.
So much for the filibuster proof majority for Democrats. Who needs to filibuster against nothingness?
Joe
With the 12 Democrats who crossed over to help out the GOP, it looks like there have to be more than 70 Democrats to get a filibuster-proof majority! So much for "Elect More Democrats".
The real hold we have on these institutions is money. If we vote for one thing on election day and another every time we pull out our wallets, guess how folks tally the vote?
Banks, banking, and most investment services offer almost no difference in interest rates and charges from one institution to another. Brokers differ, but resemble one another in one thing: they are ultimately in business for themselves.
Therefore most consumers have no reason to be loyal to financial institutions.
At the same time, any money one gives to or invests with a large financial institution allows that financial institution to purchase political support.
Switch your loans! Finance or refinance with smaller local institutions, like credit unions. If we can't immediately get obvious things nationalized -- like student loans, where the government takes 100% of the risk and the banks just scoop up the loot -- then we should at least deny the profits to the large companies that can actively lobby Washington.
You're on the right track. Can you put together this program? We need a set of criteria for the credit unions to meet for membership in the club, amounting to a divorce from the "laissez-faire" status quo, and much more coop-orientation. Then get Soros to fund publicity (internet, flyers, person-to-person, not TV) so the people can seek out club members to do their banking with. The club will instruct the member credit unions to first show customers ways to do far more with far less credit. It's a great opportunity to make a difference. Build it.
Get real. Third parties can't make a difference. Vote the least worst of the two in the gilded cage, cuz that's REAL progress, heh heh. If a third party got 15% of the vote, or actually won an election, the gilded establishment would assassinate him/her. Yipee!
Ross Perot got 19% of the popular vote in '92 and he wasn't killed. Stop exaggerating or speaking out of ignorance, i.e. get real.
The elites were not so drunk, desperate and ornery then as they are now. Their future is grim today and they know it. So the assassination risk is very real today for anyone who challenges them. The other thing is Perot is one of their own.
As for Schechter's article on the bankster elite, his complaint that "this issue seems to float above the heads of most of the public" despite Moyers and Huffington's warning, really poses a deeper question: How did Moyers, Huffington, or for that matter Schechter and the many other pundits, actually fail to articulate compellingly the risks imposed on the people by Gramm's Casino Royale?
The format of Schechter's article itself illustrates part of the answer. He might have articulated how well off the USan people will be when the elites are finally caged. Comparison with their current situations would be quite compelling but this doesn't get any publicity. Schechter and the gang were busy writing about all the other problems, which was useful but nowhere good enough, because they failed, then as now, to put the problems in an over-arching context, that is the grand-daddy of all wars, the class war.
But convincing USans they will be three times more prosperous after they finally slough the elites off their backs is not good enough actually, because USans do not need to be three times more prosperous. Instead, USans need to do that in combination with great reductions in their fossil and general consumption and useless economic activities. The result is a sustainable, stable economy and a healthy, prosperous society. Schechter and the gang should drive the point home, starting now.
And Ross Perot was no leftist.
I bet there are those in other areas of the economy watching carefully as to how the banksters get their way. Soon the health insurance industry will be on the "warpath" too, in their own fight for the status-quo.
A corrupt system never reforms itself.
Baader Meinhof knew how to deal with bankers...But we could have at LEAST a "three strikes " law for wjhite collar crime..
But dont look to the government, maybe AMERICAN IDOL meets DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER meets LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS..
make it entertaining, thats how we do it , bread and circuses. kill the messenger.
"It's reckless, utterly irresponsible, over-the-top greed."
Which is, basically, the definition of a mental illness.
Would you let a reckless, utterly irresponsible, over-the-top pervert babysit your kids?
Would you let a reckless, utterly irresponsible, over-the-top burglar guard your house?
But we allow those suffering from severe Greed-aholism to run "our" finance sector? How f@#king stupid are we again?
Maybe we should administer a psyche test to all "finance sector" management to see if they're mentally stable enough to handle their positions without indulging in reckless, utterly irresponsible, over-the-top greed...
"Maybe we should administer a psyche test to all "finance sector" management to see if they're mentally stable enough to handle their positions without indulging in reckless, utterly irresponsible, over-the-top greed..."
Their behavior indicates a lobotomy-like malfunction of their brain's frontal lobe. The empathetic element of community and being bound together by a common meaning or purpose is clearly lacking in these people. They view anything or anyone as irrelevent if it/he/she doesn't strategically assist them in reaching their personal goals.
It's a sad and rampant state of affairs.
F R A N K
THe Ponerology of Politics ( Science of Evil ) has been elucidating this collective psychopathy run pathocracy ( gov't by sociopaths ) for at least a decade now.
Of course the majority of CEOs, board of directors, and politicians are outright crazy -- the truth is that psychopaths easily pass for normal people with their intelligence and creative charismatic subterfuges.
Their inability to feel emotion, sense shame, or remorse -- is exactly why their disastrous self-destructive imperatives have brought us to this point.
This is actually good news,
to finally become aware of these denizen of terror, snakes in suits, or wolfs in sheep clothes.
One must first become aware in order to act effectively.
Namaste
As the great Lennon used to say: "What is to be done" with these Banksters?
First off, someone should collar the white collar pirates--
"Why are you a pirate?" "That's where the money is," said the young Somali native.
"Why do you turn toxic sub-prime mortgages into AAA rated securities?" That's where the money is, answered the young Wall Streeter.
--From Dr Wu's latest book: "Your Pirates and Mine
Sadly, prison time won't happen anytime soon given how the BushCO criminals got off the hook.
But, here's the good part: the ship of Anglo-Capitalism, free market Double-Bubble lunacy is Sinking! ("hear what I'm saying")
The Wall Street-Geithner-Obama nexus:
When Finances replaced Manufacturing as the largest part of GDP (21% vs. 12%)and is our biggest sector for corporate profits (50%), our best and brightest minds made more money flipping papers on Wall Street than they do making planes in Seattle or cars in Detroit. Most of Harvard and Yale headed to Wall Street!
But even Yale grads know you cannot maintain a world class empire on computer clicks and paper flipping. Once you have finances dominating the economy, the country becomes slack with the easy ways of easy money. In other words, capitalism is killing itself. Remember, it was one of the Marx brothers who said that capitalists are so greedy that they will sell the rope to kill themselves with! How true. By taking the easy money path, instead of the work hard path, we're following the path of other empires that went down the tubes with finances--Spain, the Dutch and the Brits. They all survived the fall as second-tier powers. That's probably in the cards for us. Summers and Geithner may know people in powerful places but they can never bring back what made this country supreme: manufacturing.
Crazy as America is, is there a way out before we reach 2nd tierdom? Possibly. Energy wars have been and will be our undoing. That and our continuing policy of salvaging banks that are too corrupt to exist. Three simple ideas: cut our carbon-based energy use in half, cut our military in half (we already have a nuclear submarine fleet that is armed with enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world many times over AND these subs are impervious to a first strike)and let the BIG BANKS go down the tubes.
I'd like to add another simple idea: Eliminate the economic system that cannot exist without financial crisis.
We need to start with a fundamental question, "Why do the actions of our leaders contradict their words, particularly their words about the seriousness of global warming?" Why do they seem so determined to abandon their children and grandchildren to a world of floods and droughts and escalating climate disasters? Why do they continually sabotage efforts to create sustainable energy sources?
Because they cannot act in the interests of humanity as a whole without calling the entire system into question. They realize that the changes needed to halt climate decay are directly contrary to the needs of capital, so their only choice is to fund illusions - that climate change is not real or could be beneficial or can be addressed with market incentives, in descending order.
Corporate interest has only one imperative: it has to grow. If capital stops growing, the system collapses. As Joel Kovel says, "Capitalism can no more survive limits on growth than a person can live without breathing."
re Boyd R. Collins May 2nd, 2009 4:58 pm
3 thoughts:
*those who don't care what happens after they're gone are nihilists of the worst kind, and they have no business anywhere near sharp tools;
*maintaining homeostasis should be the business of economists, not promoting endless growth like a malignant earth-eating tumor;
*besides withdrawing our business, do you have any concrete suggestions for "Eliminat(ing) the economic system that cannot exist without financial crisis?"
3 replies:
1) Those who currently dominate our economic system are mostly decent, hard-working people who are sincerely concerned about their children's and grandchildren's future. These are not greed-crazed nihilists. Unfortunately, the nature of our current economic system requires them to put short-term profit ahead of their children's future. This is not a matter about which they have any choice.
2) It is a long time since mainstream economists constructed theories for maintaining economic homeostatis. Most economists argue forcefully for the need for growth.
3) My concrete suggestion is to work for an eco-socialist future (the works of Joel Kovel, John Bellamy Foster and others provide excellent guidance). Look to the new economic models being pioneered in Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, and Ecuador as starting points for the developments that must take place.
"'Obama,' he writes 'seems depressingly reliant on the same-old, same old cast of self-serving house wreckers who act as if government exists for the sole benefit of corporations and executives.'" "As if"? Is there any shadow of a doubt here? The election of Barack Obama was one of the most effective marketing campaigns in recent history and has many lessons for activists. The first is the longing people have to subordinate their personal interests to an extra-personal cause. Trained by decades of subordinating our interests as workers to those of the employing class, we instinctively see their interests as our own. Notice how closely rage tracks the health of the stock market, though most workers benefit very little from such fluctuations.
We see ourselves as means to ends that are determined by experts and owners. Our neglect of our own interests is determined by the conditions of our employment. Those who identify most closely with the interests of their company advance the fastest. Obama and his administration know exactly who their employers are.
The question Schechter raises and many posters echo is how to arouse effective resistance. Though I believe we are in a pre-revolutionary situation, I see the proliferation of calls to violence as playing directly into the hands of the financial elite. Violence tracks their interests so closely that I suspect their minions behind much of the vitriol.
As always, their purpose is increased profits and faster accumulation of capital. The current Western democracies with their social supports and environmental protections, however anemic, have become inadequate profit vehicles. Bank bailouts have several beneficial effects for the elite. Beside direct access to Treasury funds, they can extend long-term domination by imposing unsupportable debts on the majority of the U.S. population, using access to credit as an irresistible means of political control.
We may be a long way from violent revolution, but notice how the possibility is constantly hyped in the right-wing press. An excellent example is the coverage of the G20 summit during which the demonstrators were constantly referred to as "anarchists" and a loop of a demonstrator smashing a bank window was played over and over to the practical exclusion of any other demonstration image.
Gandhi showed that one who truly practices nonviolence has the world at his feet. While hatred binds us tightly to our exploiters, nonviolence can break both their bonds and our own. "In its positive form, ahimsa means the largest love, the greatest charity. If I am a follower of ahimsa, I must love my enemy." - Gandhi. This attitude must be coupled with total clarity regarding how opposed our interests are to those of the ruling elite if our tactics are to be effective.
history doesn't know cases where pro-social movements that has been popping up where able to sustain themselves, and the reason is one, namely the bed habit of incorporating the same structure they've been raising against. So far no one is talking what does it take to grow and maintain a movement. My tip: commitment to equality that removes elite decision making system
history doesn't know cases where pro-social movements that has been popping up where able to sustain themselves, and the reason is one, namely the bed habit of incorporating the same structure they've been raising against. So far no one is talking what does it take to grow and maintain a movement. My tip: commitment to equality that removes elite decision making system
You're so right; if one substitutes "for whom" in place of "who act as if", the comment acquires the veracity of which it is devoid as written.
· Yr Obd't Servant
"Who act as if" are Robert Sheer's words, not mine. Please expand your comment a bit.
Sorry, I was just agreeing with you, and phrased it in a very convoluted way.
"As if"? Is there any shadow of a doubt here?
I meant that I see no shadow of a doubt both that Obama is indeed "depressingly reliant on the same-old, same old cast of self-serving house wreckers who act as if government exists for the sole benefit of corporations and executives", and that said self-serving house wreckers embrace the essential Hollow State dictum that government exists to protect and serve wealth.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Thanks for the clarification - glad to see that the Obama illusion is fading for some. One other thing I was trying to do is show that just as most of us realize that our career success depends on identifying with the interests of our companies, so Obama's success also depends on his accurately perceiving and acting on the interests of his most powerful constituents.
There could be another aspect to all of the troubles that are culminating in the present dilemma, and that could be that his most powerful constituents are not only preparing to suppress a revolt but have been working for some years to get the masses to revolt. And that would make your observation, "I see the proliferation of calls to violence as playing directly into the hands of the financial elite.", a sectional stage in their master plan. Of course, that is thinking a little out of the box but the capitalists have prior schemes hidden in their stage-managed histories.
One example is when, in WW1, the British emptied their male prisons and sent all those men to the front and told them to stand up straight and walk forward across the field of no man's land. At a walking pace! Into pillboxes filled with machine guns which the Germans had many times proven the efficiency of. Using the very same technique of slaughter that the British themselves had used, and perfected, on many peoples in Africa, India and other places in the East.
The way those capitalists think, is that they have to have wars fairly regularly so that they can reduce the number of able young men in the nation who are not in their standing police army, their military or any of their security organizations. Because they always fear revolt and no more so than in the U.s. where the owners of the nation have seen the writing on the wall for some years.
Violence plays into the hands of the economic power centers because it allows them to impose to military discipline on the work force. If there was an outbreak of militant violence in the U.S., the official response would be an immediate declaration of martial law followed by a round up of dissidents. Any pretense of habeas corpus would be dropped. The violence of the rebels would be wildly exaggerated by the MSM to justify the suspension of legal rights. Torture of American citizens would be back on the table as a means of crowd control through state terrorism. The current media coverage of "anarchists" and "eco-terrorists" is part of the set up for these possible scenarios. I know that some will see this as a "conspiracy theory", but it's just an extrapolation of current trends. Take a look a Naomi Wolf's recent work to compare the current U.S. trends with Nazi Germany and other fascist takeovers.
"Which side are you on?"
"Click on Hyperlink for each Senator below for their e-mail address so that you can let them know how you feel about their vote and their vote yet to come."
Hyperlinked Senators' email addresses on hyperlinked page below:
http://www.wilypython.net/Which%20side%20are%20you%20on.asp
As he writes, "Last week, a Zogby poll found that a majority of the public believes the press made things worse by reporting on the economic collapse." THAT hasn't changed in 50 years and may be equally applied to every nasty aspect of our society from cops doing 12 volt interrogations on Black and Brown men to "race relations" to our policies on torture, the ways we used human slavery to build this country and the reasons why our subdivisions are built on mass graves and our freeways are paved with the bones of our victims both from here and from around the globe.
Next stop, preliterate 12th century corporate techno-feudalism ruled by feral oligarchy - just like the good old days with all mod cons for the 3%.
White people already know how to kiss the whip. Now they're going to learn how to take it up the ass, and like it.
AmeriKKKa the beautiful, Abu Ghraib writ Large. We're gonna bounce the rubble, in Denver, Miami, Topeka, Phoenix,....and good white folk gonna do it all, while they blame any surviving messengers. It's only Justice folks, toxic land for a toxic population of feral bestial animals.
Oh, yeah, before I forget; Is this the same majority that favors Single Payer?; The same majority that wants to join a Union?; The same majority that.....
No, I didn't think so. Couldn't be the same ones. That must have been a different majority of Amerikkkans.
Peace.
My name may be an indication of how I feel. I have always considered myself loyal opposition, having been content to hold minority opinions on almost everything, only asking that it be heard. Well, having the very people who have run our country into the ground being given my money, my children's money and my grand children's money seems like indentured servitude to me and is the last straw. Government derives its legitimacy from the consent of the governed, and I WITHDRAW MY CONSENT.
Pitch Fork: My name may be an indication of how I feel. [...]
Government derives its legitimacy from the consent of the governed, and I WITHDRAW MY CONSENT.
_________________________________________
Bravo, Pitch Fork! You ably and eloquently prove that what Bob Dylan presciently sang so long ago remains just as true today:
" ♫ The tines, they are a-changin' ♬ "
· Yr Obd't Servant
We all thought that Jack Kevorkian was Dr. Death. In fact, it is Obysmal, riding with the Dos Caballeros of the Apocalypse: Summers and Geithner. When their best laid plans go awry, how does Obysmal plan to save his political ass? Borrow more money? Start acting like FDR? It'll be far too late for that. Right now, Obysmal must think he continues to lead an utterly charmed life. He becomes president against all odds. He kills the pirates. Specter becomes a Democrat. Everything he touches turns to gold. This is when he needs to watch out. But like any ordinary politician in our time, he will do no such thing.
The banksters will have to live in the world they create. Look at how many of the filthy rich live in fear in Brazil, with kidnappings and being sent part of an ear or finger sliced off from a loved one. However, they might not even get that far here if they continue along their 'merry' hoarding way. Sooner or later these gross imbalances will have to rectified. Continued resistance will likely put them in peril as more and more people scramble to get their needs met. Perhaps large scale hunger will be the trigger, but once the dam breaks, watch out!
I have felt a tremendous weight lifted from me.
I realized indubitably and inevitably that the bankster's own 'honest' and unbridled avariciousness will be their own " petard. "
They are arrogant beyond measure and their hubris isolates then into thinking that 'they be kings', while forfeiting their ability to see their feet of clay.
It's a perfect blend of theater and the absurd,
the 'dancing of the flowering turds'
Namaste
When one of the world's major religions virtually excommunicates so many of its devoted followers and hangers-on, then trouble will follow. The Wall Street Pontificate (piece be upon them) seems to believe that upping the tithe is the one, true ladder to heaven. After all, if one can't afford one's own Lear Jet, then how can one truly slip the surly bonds of Earth? And surely most Americans understand that Wall Street Middle Managers (pbut) must be allowed to ream the initiate at will, for how else to truly appraise future vestmental hierarchy? Yet just as the Catholic Church over indulged several centuries back, we do move closer to a point of reckoning when gluttony and impoverished anger have their day in the streets.
"I have been amazed at the vitriol directed at the banking classes. Suggestions for punishment have included the guillotine (frequent), hanging, pitchforks, even burning at the stake. Tar and feathering appears inadequate, and stoning hasn't yet surfaced as an idea....The fuse has to be shorter where the suffering is more acute."
With the major increases in gun/ammunition purchases lately, I suspect that we will be seeing more violence in this country. With 600,000 - 700,000 jobs being lost on a monthly basis, 'fuses are getting shorter and suffering is becoming more acute'.
While politicians continue to genuflect to and vindicate the Wall Street casino players who are responsible for destroying the financial system, they are essentially setting up the perfect storm for increased violence in this country.
Real wealth comes from actual production - not from credit default swaps!
"The World Trade Organization is run by the rich, for the rich. The bylaws of the organization supersede our own Constitution. If America is to recover economically it must either renegotiate or completely withdraw from the WTO." http://www.economyincrisis.org/articles/show/2811
Let's not forget that our political leaders have taken an "oath" to uphold our Constitution and protect & defend the citizens of this country.
Sioux Rose
GAIL: Excellent analysis. I fear the truth of your words!