These are familiar words related to political power in the U.S.: incumbency (and its power); partisanship (party over policy); and though perhaps a bit less familiar, corporate dominated systems (the Corporate Duopoly / Legacy Parties; or as I still think makes sense, the Two Party Front for the Oligarchy). I came across two reports that [...]
Tag Archives | oligarchy
“It’s Good to be a Banker” (VIDEO)
That’s the analysis of Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital: “It’s good to be a banker.” With the DC self-created financial crisis of the moment, it seemed like a good time to consider a bit of the context of the Super Sequestration sequel to Fiscal Cliff, Grand Bargain, etc. The video below is of [...]
The ‘People’s House’ When ‘Corporations Are People’
It isn’t fair to focus on the House of Representatives, since the SCOTUS decision on Citizens United, popularized as “corporations are people,” is just as evident in the Senate and the White House. But that whole “People’s House” description of the House of Representatives makes it an excellent example of how the meaning of “people” [...]
Chris Hedges on ‘Debt Peonage’: That 1% – 99% Chasm Didn’t Disappear With the Corporate State Suppression of Occupy
“Stop beating the dead horse,” I was chastised when I kept paying attention to the Occupy movement beyond that sliver of attention deemed newsworthy. The movement evolved, still continues in various projects. I’ve never stopped paying attention. And for good, or really bad, reasons: the inequalities it helped reveal remain. Chris Hedges has also continued [...]
The Duopoly Has the Middle Class Wrapped Around Its Middle Finger
And the Oligarchy has the Duopoly wrapped around its middle finger. In both cases, Duopoly and Oligarchy regularly use that finger to signal what they think of all of us who don’t live at the top. The response of We the People, We the Electorate, We the Used and Manipulated very often includes participating in [...]
Compromising with Medicare and the Top Tax Rate
Yesterday Ezra Klein, at the Washington Post, wrote a piece that’s gotten a lot of attention. (emphasis added throughout post) The fiscal cliff deal comes clearer: a 37% top tax rate and a higher Medicare eligibility age Right now, the fiscal cliff negotiations are proceeding on two tracks. One track includes the press releases, public [...]
The ‘Fix the Debt’ Coalition of the Very Wealthy: The Rest of Us Need to Pay Attention
The Fix the Debt coalition is gaining more attention, no doubt in large part because its members are being very vocal and public. They are not shy about making known their interpretation and solutions of what ails the economy. And of course, another neat crisis – replete with “fiscal cliff” and “doomsday” gamemanship – is [...]
Austerity, Imposed From the Top To Bottom: The ‘Fix the Debt’ Spin
Some information and analysis follows, as we continue considering the DC created “fiscal cliff” (for example, see Fiscal Cliff & Shared Sacrifice: If You Build It, They Will Come), the debt/deficit, austerity, shared sacrifice, and all the other spins, going on for decades, on why the tiny number of people at the very top deserve [...]
Estimated 8000 Protest Austerity in Dublin: ‘Come Back St. Patrick. It’s Still Full of Snakes’
The quote in the headline is from a sign held by one of the thousands who participated in an “anti-austerity” march in Dublin on Friday. Follow the link to The Journal article that provides details and some great photos. The demonstration, organised by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions, is protesting cutbacks ahead of the [...]
Fiscal Cliff & Shared Sacrifice: If You Build It, They Will Come
These were all built by and for those who will profit from them; our job is to come to accept what we’re told about them: deficit reduction; fiscal cliff; shared sacrifice; entitlements; Grand Bargain; austerity; disemployment (Lambert Strether’s excellent term); privatization; too big to fail. That’s just a partial list, of course. Feel free to [...]
The ‘Brilliance’ of Occupy’s Rolling Jubilee Consumer Debt Cancellation Project (VIDEO)
The “brilliant” description of the Rolling Jubilee project is from Charles Eisenstein at The Guardian. At The Nation, Pat Garofalo introduces the initiative this way: Members of Occupy Wall Street — various branches of which have recently been saving families from foreclosure and aiding victims of Hurricane Sandy — have launched a new initiative. Coined [...]
Power to the Plutocracy, Austerity to the People! Or, Four More Years of Obama Being Obama
“Fiscal Cliff” has replaced “Grand Bargain” as the Elected’s and Media’s favorite term, and spin on the stories from above. The election is done, it’s a few months too early to scream about the vital importance of mid-terms in 2014, and besides: this is another made-to-scare-distract-and-direct-the-Electorate from any but the choices pre-approved by the corporate [...]
Who Holds the Electorate Accountable?
We the Electorate regularly complain, with excellent and multiple reasons, about Electeds who don’t fulfill even some sliver of campaign promises. We fairly often talk about “accountability,” about that “holding their feet to the fire” thing. It’s a kind of campaign promise in reverse, Electorate to wannabe Electeds: I’ll be watching you. If you don’t [...]
An Election Eve Story: Responding to Superstorm and Electoral Disasters
This really isn’t a non-election story, just one from a practical, grass-roots, real life perspective, focused on people elections should be about. One consistent response from Electeds and those they serve to a disaster is making use of it to further their own, oligarchic, privatizing agenda. Electeds and those for whom they work will, to [...]
Climate Change and U.S. Weather Related Fatalities Since 9-11: 6,408
Yesterday I considered the questioned raised by Mark Hertsgaard, Can Sandy Help Jolt America Out of Climate Change Denial?. As I was thinking about this, I began wondering about another kind of catastrophic event, and the “jolt” it delivered which stays with us today: 9/11. It was a very different kind of thing, of course, [...]
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