I simply refuse this false equivalency, that the Republicans are somehow 'controlling the narrative,' just as I refuse the idea that the Republicans can continue to 'blackmail' our own Democratic Presidents and our party. Some may call it 'compromise,' but I will not.
The only result of this buying into this delusion, is that we as a party, refuse to see exactly how the two party system, has failed, and continues to gut the Middle Class, the poor, Unions of our own nation.
The new code words such as 'competitiveness,' and 'shared sacrifice,' simply proves to me once again how seamlessly the two-party Oligarchy Neo-Liberal, Neo-Con propaganda machine works hand in hand (and very successfully) to create the illusion, as America which is sliding into a Banana Republic and fully corrupt, 'has it's best days ahead of her.'
And that is exactly the kind of 'delusional,' message that I believe we are about to hear from President Obama in his SOTU address. One of those 'fake JFK moments,' whereby for an hour or so, the blind leading the blind in our own party, and across the nation will get all teary-eyed and full of that old, 'oh yes we can fire and brimstone,' rah rah rah feeling again.
But then of course, it will be back to business us usual, and the Middle Class and poor, the Unions will continue to be openly fleeced, as the Neo-Liberal, Neo-Con Governmental, Corporate, MIC elite, attend fund-raisers, flying around the world on their Gulf Stream Jets, having long 'serious commission type, serious people discussions,' while neither Ben Bernanke, Wall St./the Banks or the Corporations lift one single finger to help out those Americans who have paid the greatest price in the last century, to keep them all rolling in the dough, making out like the bandits and Robber Barons they are.
President Obama will continue his fabulously successful rope-a-dope Presidency, by doing what he does best: Remaining silent, sending up trail balloons, leaving us all guessing at to who and what he stands for, (if anything besides the fact that his best friends are all from Wall Street, and of course, he'll continue to give tons of amazingly charmingly photogenic speeches, that say all those warm fuzzy 'things' he believes he wants us to hear, while behind the scenes he will be as duplicitous as he has always been. It will continue to be the same old, "the Republicans made me do it," routine.
But then that is exactly what I mean, when I am talking about how this fake two party system Propaganda machine works.
One of my favorite diaries this year was from OPOL, and one particular quote from that diary goes like this:
Change is driven by discontent. And what do we have to be content with? A rogue government hijacked by the biggest assholes in the world? The climate deniers, warmongers, torturers, tax-cutting tinkle-downers in a dumbed-down fake democracy drunk on greed whose only priority in the face of unprecedented challenges to our continued existence is to despotically squeeze the last few drops of wealth from the lower 99% into the coffers of the already obscenely wealthy who refuse to do anything useful with their money? The fall of Rome wasn't this fucking ugly.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Amazing diary OPOL, and that last sentence, 'The fall of Rome wasn't this fucking ugly.' Has been rolling around in my old burned out hippy brain for months now.
And I suppose, what makes me feel this way, is that I know the ugly brutal truth, when it hits you deep down, like an arrow in your heart, that has been broken into, because many of us Democrats were naive enough to believe, that we might have one last chance, to 'get it right again,' when Teddy Kennedy passed the torch to President Obama. And millions and millions of young people, that next new generation of Democrats swarmed to the polls to cast their vote, to give their hearts and souls to the belief, that President Obama was that last new shining moment to uplift the Middle Class, the poor, the disenfranchised, the Unions and to get us the hell out of all the 'dumb wars.' Our new FDR or JFK, our new LBJ, our new Bobby Kennedy, our new MLK? Not even close. Obama is more like Ronald Regan and Bill Clinton on steroids. Oh, sure we get a few bones thrown our way, but none of this has to do with any real support for the Middle Class, the poor, the Unions, the completely destroyed housing market, or at least demanding the Banks/Wall St, meet us even one third of the way to help out the same people who bailed their asses out.
This is why I wanted to take a minute again, to repeat the great article that Matt Stoller did recently, because it speaks power to the truth:
Matt Stoller brings it all home to me, so if you care to listen up: BTW, Matt, who I consider a great friend an mentor, gave me full permission to publish this entire article on Daily Kos:
Matt Stoller: Understanding the Strategy of the Democratic Power Class
Yves here. I took the liberty of lifting this comment by Matt Stoller from a recent post, since it is informative in its own right and relevant to the piece today dissecting a mortgage proposal advanced by a think tank with close ties to the Administration.
By Matt Stoller, the former Senior Policy Advisor for Rep. Alan Grayson. His Twitter feed is @matthewstoller
Since the 1970s, Democratic elites have focused on breaking public sector unions and financializing the economy. Carter, not Reagan, started the defense build-up. Carter, not Reagan, lifted usury caps. Carter, not Reagan, first cut capital gains taxes. Clinton, not Bush, passed NAFTA. It isn’t the base of the Democratic party that did this, but then, voters in America have never had a lot of power because they are too disorganized. And there wasn’t a substantial grassroots movement to challenge this, either.
Obama continues this trend. It isn’t that he’s not fighting, he fights like hell for what he wants. He whipped incredibly aggressively for TARP, he has passed emergency war funding (breaking a campaign promise) several times, and nearly broke the arms of feckless liberals in the process. I mean, when Bernie Sanders did the filiBernie, Obama flirted with Bernie’s potential 2012 GOP challenger. Obama just wants policies that cement the status of a aristocratic class, with crumbs for everyone else (Republican elites disagree in that they hate anyone but elites getting crumbs). And he will fight for them.
There is simply no basis for arguing that Democratic elites are pursuing poor strategy anymore. They are achieving an enormous amount of leverage within the party. Consider the following. Despite Obama violating every core tenet of what might have been considered the Democratic Party platform, from supporting foreclosures to destroying civil liberties to torturing political dissidents to wrecking unions, Obama has no viable primary challenger. Moreover, no Senate Democratic incumbent lost a primary challenge in 2010, despite a horrible governing posture. Now THAT is a successful strategy, it minimized the losses of the Democratic elite and kept them firmly in control of the party. Thus, the political debate remains confined to what neoliberals want to talk about. It’s a good strategy, it’s just you are the one the strategy is being played on.
A lot of people think that Obama is a bad poker player, but they miss the point. He’s not playing with his money, he’s playing with YOUR money. You are the weak hand at the table, he’s colluding with the other players.
There are parts of the Democratic elite that don’t believe in neoliberalism, but they are a modest portion of that structure. So often what comes out of the party is garbled. Most Democrats support our reigning institutions, they believe in paying taxes, they believe in government power. Given a choice, they’ll grumble, but they are more willing to believe that this government is good than to support structural change. By contrast, the Republicans are unified in their desire for a more brutal and more plutocratic though otherwise unchanged institutional arrangement.
This makes the GOP seem more committed, more professional and more change-oriented. This isn’t poor strategy or coordination from Democratic elites. The lack of willingness to fight on behalf of the public isn’t the same of an unwillingness to fight. It’s just their unwillingness to fight anyone but you.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/...
That old saying, 'the sin of omission' (and I'm not saying that in a religious connotation, but in a moral connotation, and in having the courage to note this central fact):
In my heart, at least, it not what President Obama is saying in all of his wonderful speeches and rhetoric, (lord knows, he sure as hell is great at the part of being a politician), but it is fact more to me exactly: What he is is not saying, and where he truly stands, and leading our party into has nothing to do with a clear concise agenda and vision, or plan that makes sense, with the basic tenets of his strength as a President as to what he is willing to do, what his plans are, how he intends to carry these plans out, and what legislation he is willing to back and perhaps (god forgid) have some of his own advisers present in writing, to hand over to the House and Senate, as a 'leadership vision and agenda, with substance, and direction.'
There is absolutely no reason, why President Obama could not at least take the time to call upon his own advisers to give his own party (the Senate and House) as to the following visions, ideas forward towards real answers and progress):
- A real Jobs Bill putting Americans back to work, and of course, he could call a national summit inviting the Republicans and all the greatest Business members of the community in our nation in the world to follow suit. In my opinion, this kind of a summit should last no longer than a week at the White House, with a deadline of two weeks, for a honest plan, with every single Union invited to put in their own ideas, not to mention the Bankers/Wall St. who are directly responsible for destroying our economy. Invite the Republicans to present their own plan, but let the Democrats present their own, at least have the damned decency to put out a plan on both sides of our nation.
- An honest and open answer to the complete collapse of the housing market and what little equity in what is left in our homes. No more, bullshit: schemes to figure out how to make the MERS legal, by the lobbyists, and create yet another bail out for the Banks, and destroying centuries of basic property rights. Thank god, 4 States, are leading this effort: Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia and New York. Let the Banks clean up their own mess, and restore some kind of accountability to financial sanity.
- An honest and open answer to our own Democrats, led by President Obama, to make an honest pledge, to protect Social Security, and Medicare, and instead, to face the fact the most Americans want the Defense budgets cut, and the endless wars to stop stripping us down to the bone. And this goes into my fourth point:
- At what point, should any decent President, including most of all a Democratic President, does not own up to the fact that: Americans have already paid the greatest price of all?
A. We already bailed out the insolvent Bankers/Wall Street who were simply allowed to get away with economic terrorism, and the fact is, they are still making huge profits on the the backs of our tax dollars, with no help, and in fact, a complete disruption of any protection for the illicit Foreclosure processes.
B. Whereas, the Federal Reserve has willingly given the Banks/Wall Street virtually interest free funds, the Federal Reserve, had made it clear, there will be no help whatsoever, for the States/Cities that are (going down, with the new fake Bankruptcy laws in the works, for the first time in the history of this nation) as millions of police forces will be cut to the bone. If you do not understand that his alone is a gold graved invitation to deep civil strife, and riots, not to mention, how the disabled and pensions are being gutted, then think again.
C. Whereas, there is no true plan, by either party to rebuild our own manufacturing base, that simply keeps many American families working two or three part time jobs, with no benefits, just to keep a roof over their heads, and whereas, although there have been made some decent strides in Health Care, what happened to the idea that the Democrats, would fight, to make it better? Oh right, crickets, as we find the Health Insurance Companies, once again getting away with raising their rates to astronomical and outrageous rates.
D. Whereas, Obama (who is well on his way to understanding that the only way he is probably going to refund his new billion dollar campaign for 2012, is that he has now hired William Daley (of JP Morgan) and Gene Sperling (of Goldman Sachs) not to mention this great news:
Obama Hires Mr. "I'm a nut on China" Immelt as Jobs Chairman (*Update2) Hotlist
ShareNew 0
by joanneleon [Subscribe]
Fri Jan 21, 2011 at 09:05:44 AM PST
Jeffrey Immelt is the guy who Bernie Sanders was talking about in the famous "China China China China China, five Chinas" part of his "filibuster" speech last month. Immelt has enthusiastically described himself as "a nut on China."
President Obama just hired Immelt to chair the new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, which is the new name for the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, chaired by Paul Volcker, Volcker being not exactly progressive but still one of the very few in the White House economic circle who was trusted by progressive leaning folk, IMHO, and who is now, of course, out the door.
Immelt is also the CEO and Chairman of GE, and a protoge of the Morning Joe darling, Jack Welch. The company's stock has lost "58% of its value since he took over, while the S&P 500 fell 22%."
* joanneleon's diary :: ::
*
Is this a pattern? Larry Summers was awarded with a top economic job in the White House after he lost billions of Harvard's money and was a person who didn't make unemployment a top priority.
Oh, and by the way, Immelt isn't quitting his job. He will remain in his job at GE while serving. Yes, you heard that right. He isn't quitting his job at GE.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
(BTW, thanks joanneleon....loves you to death, and your are damned right, not only it is a pattern, it is a concerted effort on his part to fund his campaign for 2012.)
Back to my original point:
The 'narrative is not being stolen from President Obama,' and that is a complete and utter delusion on all our parts (if you believe that). Just like Filibuster Reform is a delusion, just like Campaign reform is a delusion. Silence, and no agenda, or leadership, or vision and plan is in fact an abdication of responsibility. So, let us at least have the courage to face that singular truth at the feet of President Obama.
President Obama not only has the full value and strenght of the 'bully pulpit,' but he also has the full value of picking the most amazing public relations team (if he would, but he will not) to be on top of the 'narrative' every single day in the MSM. Get over that delusion.
God forbid we should have the courage to face up to the fact, that the Oligrachy is working on the same team: Cut taxes, cut government, cut the so called entitlement programs: Social Security, Medicare, any help for the States/Cities, the disabled, the poor, do not address the destruction of the housing market and the equity in our homes, do not address, how our jobs will continue to be outsourced, and our own manufacturing base being decimated, continue to support the MIC, never addressing how we are now in the longest and most needless wars of our nation, (and of course let's not pretend how Gates keeps wanting to cut the Vet's Medical Benefits or how JP Morgan are illegally foreclosing on the Military Family or how the same Insurance Companies for death benefits, are screwing the same military families).....and of course we have that ass hat Darrel Issa (used car man of the century waiting in the wings to investigate the fact (OMFG after Bush/Cheney) how the Obama Administration is the most corrupt of all....lots of investigations on the way....but remember this: Row Vs. Wade is the biggest decoy of them all.
The only people that are stealing the narrative is the Republican controlled media, after the demise of Keith Olbermann, right before the SOTU, and the 2012 elections, that is nothing more than exactly how the Oligarchy, the Plutocrats, the Corporate Overlords, are in more in control than ever before. This demise of Olbermann was not a coincidence people, get over that, will you?
One of the many reasons, that I've always been so proud about being a Democrat, is that we were never, and never will be haters or low information voters. We are smarter than most people on the web, or in the feckless MSM news. We are smart enough to go all over the web, and take time on all the international news sites, we are smart enough to know that Julian Assange is no different from Daniel Ellsberg, or Bob Woodward and Epstein of Watergate.
Remember this story? I do:
The My Lai Massacre (Vietnamese: thảm sát Mỹ Lai [mǐˀ lɐːj]; English pronunciation: /ˌmi:ˈleɪ, ˌmi:ˈlaɪ/ ( listen),[1] Vietnamese: [mǐˀlaːj]) was the mass murder conducted by a unit of the U.S. Army on March 16, 1968 of 347–504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam, all of whom were civilians and a majority of whom were women, children (including babies) and elderly people.
Many of the victims were sexually abused, beaten, tortured, and some of the bodies were found mutilated.[2] The massacre took place in the hamlets of Mỹ Lai and My Khe of Sơn Mỹ village during the Vietnam War.[3][4] While 26 U.S. soldiers were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at My Lai, only William Calley was convicted. He served only three years of an original life sentence, spent on house arrest.
When the incident became public knowledge in 1969, it prompted widespread outrage around the world. The massacre also increased domestic opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Three U.S. servicemen who made an effort to halt the massacre and protect the wounded were denounced by U.S. Congressmen, received hate mail and death threats and found mutilated animals on their doorsteps.[5] Only 30 years after the event were their efforts honored.[6]
The massacre is also known as the Sơn Mỹ Massacre (Vietnamese: thảm sát Sơn Mỹ) or sometimes as the Song My Massacre.[7] The U.S. military codeword for the hamlet was Pinkville.[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
But the carnage keeps going on unabated, by either our parties:
On September 16, 2007, Blackwater military contractors shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square, Baghdad.[1] The fatalities occurred while a Blackwater Personal Security Detail (PSD) was escorting a convoy of US State Department vehicles en route to a meeting in western Baghdad with United States Agency for International Development officials. The shooting led to the unraveling of the North Carolina-based company, which since has replaced its management and changed its name to Xe Services.
The next day, Blackwater Worldwide's license to operate in Iraq was revoked.[2] The US State Department has said that "innocent life was lost"[3] while US military reports indicate Blackwater's guards opened fire without provocation and used excessive force.[4] The Iraqi government vowed to punish Blackwater after an Iraqi inquiry found that the guards were "not touched even by a stone" when they opened fire on the civilians.[5] The incident sparked at least five investigations, including a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe that found almost all of the shootings "were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq."[6][7]
The Blackwater guards responsible for the shootings never received sentences for their actions having been granted immunity in exchange for testimony from the Bush administration's Justice Department.[8][9]
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The reason I put up these few stories comparing Keith Olbermann, and our past history, is for perspective. How soon we forgot about this story, and stopped asking Congress, or our own President Obama about this story:
Billions over Baghdad
Between April 2003 and June 2004, $12 billion in U.S. currency—much of it belonging to the Iraqi people—was shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Some of the cash went to pay for projects and keep ministries afloat, but, incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing, unaccounted for, in a frenzy of mismanagement and greed. Following a trail that leads from a safe in one of Saddam's palaces to a house near San Diego, to a P.O. box in the Bahamas, the authors discover just how little anyone cared about how the money was handled.
by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele
October 2007
http://www.vanityfair.com/...
Each piece of these puzzles all add up: The MSM, and the takeover our our national airwaves, keep us all busy with inane bullshit, as does our Government and nation.
The pain and the resulting civil uprising have just begun:
A recent article in the New York Times did a good job of summarizing the financial pain that many state governments are feeling right now. Unfortunately, as bad as the budget shortfalls are for this year, they are projected to be even worse in 2012.... While state revenues — shrunken as a result of the recession — are finally starting to improve somewhat, federal stimulus money that had propped up state budgets is vanishing and costs are rising, all of which has left state leaders bracing for what is next. For now, states have budget gaps of $26 billion, by some estimates, and foresee shortfalls of at least $82 billion as they look to next year’s budgets. So what is the solution? Well, for state and local politicians from coast to coast, the answer to these financial problems is to impose austerity measures. Of course they never, ever use the term "austerity measures", but that is exactly what they are. The following are 22 signs that austerity has already arrived in America and that it is going to be very, very painful....
#1 The financial manager of the Detroit Public Schools, Robert Bobb, has submitted a proposal to close half of all the schools in the city. His plan envisions class sizes of up to 62 students in the remaining schools.
#2 Detroit Mayor Dave Bing wants to cut off 20 percent of the entire city from police and trash services in order to save money.
#3 Things are so tight in California that Governor Jerry Brown is requiring approximately 48,000 state workers to turn in their government-paid cell phones by June 1st.
So hold on to your wallets, because the politicians are going to be coming after them. We are entering a time of extreme financial stress in America. The federal government is broke. Most of our state and local governments are broke. Record numbers of Americans are going bankrupt. Record numbers of Americans are being kicked out of their homes. Record numbers of Americans are now living in poverty. The debt-fueled prosperity of the last several decades came at a cost. We literally mortgaged the future. Now nothing will ever be the same again.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/...
I hope you have the courage to read the rest of this article, all 22 points and more but then again, let us have the courage to face the facts, as to how we got here, why we got here, and who 'got paid off' for taking us here, and how they are all poised right again, to strip our bones down to the core of our beings....because that is what is what is really happening, regardless of your happy 'unicorn rainbow feather pillow Democracy' and how we keep saying the 'Republicans are stealing the narrative from President Obama.' As my old man used to say: total unmitigated malarky.
I just wanted to make my point. You ain't seen nothing yet. The Federal Reserve has not only refused their mandate, they have ignored it, and not one single member of our government is standing up for that.
Just stop calling it a partisan issue, that idea disappeared a long time ago. And now all we have left is to just destroy one another over arguments that no longer matter. Because our nation and our government is lost inside their own insidious state of deep corruption, and the last thing they care about are the working people of this nation.
Wish it were not so...but it is. What I find truly amazing about what is happening in our national politics is how we amazingly intelligent Democrats, who are just as deeply outraged and angry as most Americans are, are allowing our own party to be fractured, as we dare to call each other tea baggers and racists, when we all know damned well, we are not. Stop that shit, will you please? We are not. I know we get trolls, here, but most of us, are just trying to figure out an honest way out of this deep morass we find ourselves in.
BTW, there is no one, more than me, wanted President Obama to step up to the plate and fight the good fight, and succeed. But our nation simply got lost in a great global destruction, or not being fair to our citizens, our nation our own growth, and the basic accountability of the laws of this nation. Now we are paying for that. What I fail to understand is why, we as a party, are so deeply fractured with one another. I will always believe in human compassion and understanding, and empathy, but I refuse, to let our leaders get away with leaving this great nation behind, to fall into total chaos based on their own lack of integrity and responsibility to those, that elected them, and who put them into offices where they are, all in fact, living the fucking high life. That will not do for me.
We do in fact, have a Democratic Platform (a sacred contract or inner party 'constitution' of sorts, that is apparently being completely ignored). I read it twice a month, to make sure I'm still on course.
http://www.democrats.org/...
Not only do we deserve better, but I believe that most Americans are sick and tired of being pillaged, and the reason is clear: Who is the hell do these public servants think is paying for their pilfering and high life: We paid enough, President Obama. You ran on raising up the Middle Class and the poor, you told us all, this was 'our moment and our time' but everything that is happening, just makes you seem like a coat hanger for the Oligarchy, and we sure as hell are tired of that shit.
One of my favorite websites I read every day is this one, and I hope you will take the time to read this wonderful article, and again reminds you of all, of what I'm talking about: No one stole the narrative from President Obama or the Republicans, that is the ultimate lie of all time.
America Appears To Be Trapped in a Massive Cover up of Control Fraud and Corruption
The American government is acting as if it is involved in a massive coverup of a control fraud and corruption that could perhaps be the worst in its history. I think many people who are looking at this know in their hearts that all is not well, that there is something not quite right in the current situation. How else can we explain such massive and widespread financial fraud, with so few meaningful indictments, or even ongoing investigations with credible disclosures? And the worst perpetrators appear to be dictating the remedies and reforms to the system for this government sponsored recovery. Hank, Tim, and Ben alluded to the consequences of the discovery and uncontrolled disclosure of this fraud, and it frightened the Congress so badly that they immediately gave up and signed over 700 billion dollars, and many billions more, to facilitate the coverup of this under the guise of recovery and stabilization. I would like to imagine that those in charge are attempting to prevent a panic while they put out the fires, but I see little serious remedies designed to save the public, much less than to perpetuate the firetrap. And so the corruption continues to fester, and debilitate the nation.
More than an American scandal, this fraud reaches deep into the halls of power in Europe, some of whose national governments are already failing. What had been the Keating Five is now the Global Finance 500. People say they understand this, but they really do not understand the implications of it. They intellectualize and theorize around it, try to deal with it by smashing it down into something they can get their mind around and accept, and even turn to their short term personal advantage. But they are not dealing with it and certainly not facing up to it. And there are many whose goal is to distract and to change the subject away from it, and a great deal of money to be made by serving their desires to turn people's attention away from the problem to find someone else to blame, some other problem to focus upon, and some new victim class to absorb the public's anger. It is an old story, often repeated in tragedy.
Thirteen Ways to Hide the Truth: But unfortunately, confronting the truth and fixing the situation is key to any sort of sustainable recovery. And this is the trap of crony capitalism and control fraud, when it has nearly exhausted its victims, and is having difficulty finding new ones to maintain its growth and facade. Until that time there will be a procession of scapegoats, defaults, bailouts, and property seizures, both implicit and explicit, and a growing toll of innocent victims and systemic destruction, ending finally in the collapse of the US national currency and international trade. If it had not been that the US is so large, and for the time being controls the bulk of the world's reserve currency, it is likely this would have already come to some conclusion before spreading so widely and pervasively. But the situation remains highly unstable and threatening, despite assurances to the contrary. William K. Black is telling us something very important, as Harry Markopolos had been trying to tell some simple but important things to the investors in Bernie Madoff's investment scheme. The Madoff investors preferred to vilify and ignore him. It appears that the same thing is happening to William Black. And the final outcomes may be similar. What can one person do besides to spread the word, and demand the truth in their own place and their own way, to support those who stand and tell the truth sometimes at great cost? Insulate and remove yourself from the fraud as best you can, and above all resist the madness, and wherever you are make it clear that you will be neither a willing victim nor a silent bystander to the intoxicant of blame and hatred, and the victimization of others, be they Gypsy, Muslim, Jew or Christian, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, disabled, old, poor, ill or weak, any other variety of outsider.
More here:
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot...
(with a great video from William K. Black).
I've spent the past 45 years of my life, as a deep loyal Democrat, and I will not give up that spirit in my soul. I know exactly 'how we got here, and why we got here.'
From day one of President Obama's presidency, there has been absolutely no sense of 'fair play,' for the American people, let alone our own party. If there had been, jeeesum crow, even a honest, decent program demanding that Wall St/Banking cartel, help the homeowners out (not the bullshit HAMP program) but instead, Cram down, was thrown out the window, HAMP funding was thrown out the window, and when the illicit foreclosure mills got caught with their pants down, the lobbyist descended upon Washington DC like locusts, to change centuries of basic property right laws so that they could protect MERS.
One last quote, from OPOL's fantastic diary:
As for the WH, it's worse than tone deaf....they're not actually on our side. And it's not just Obama. No one who ever inhabits the WH is ever going to be on our side. We the people are the opposition to the oligarchy – and they own the White House. They act like they don't care about us because they don't. We're just the suckers in this game...the enemy.
Oligarchies have been tyrannical throughout history, being completely reliant on public servitude to exist. Although Aristotle pioneered the use of the term as a synonym for rule by the rich, for which the exact term is plutocracy; but oligarchy is not always a rule by wealth, as oligarchs can simply be a privileged group, and do not have to be connected by bloodlines as in a monarchy. Some city-states from ancient Greece were oligarchies.
wikipedia
Democracy is dead in the USA. Citizen's United v FEC finally dispensed with all pretense of democracy and enshrined the plutocratic/oligarchic frankenstein we are left with...a Wall Street Government. The best government money can buy.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Like I said in one of my own recent diaries: Let's clean up our own side of the street first.
Our beloved Democratic party members are not the enemies, and 'we' are certainly not your own party enemies. Our own solidarity, lays directly in our own original party platform, and regardless of which President we send to the White House in our own party, the idea that President Obama is having the 'narrative stole from him,' by the Rethugs, is the biggest bullshit cop out of all.
'Silence is not always golden, sometimes it is deadly and excuses the Oligarchy to make those same old back room deals' that has caused us all to simply fracture our own party principals, and who we are, and what we stand for, where we came from, and where we expect our own leaders to have the courage strength, committment and voices, to provide, direction, vision and certain 'lines in the sand,' that should, and must never be crossed is the only viable debate we should be having on this site: fuck Palin, and Beck, and Boehner, and Rush and the other total waste of time articles. Who cares? Those articles are not only a waste of time, but they are exactly how the Oligrachy dose their woo do woo do voodoo, decoy propaganda.
Since when did the ideal of 'accountability,' become a code word for, 'the Republicans are stealing the narrative?' Get a grip.
Our nation, is now at a point of the Deepest Shock Doctrine (that never sleeps) and a point of no return for our own party.
It is pretty damn clear to me, after his last few appointments, exactly what direction President intends to go towards, and if you think it is going to be standing up for Main St., the poor, the Unions, and the final safety nets, well think again.
Thanks as always, and a special thanks to OPOL, a great, great truth teller (like so many on this site, who I deeply care about). BTW, regardless of what you may think, I'm not a hater, I never have been, but I put my own party, and it's platform, way above anything or anybody who I support with my money and my tax dollars. I think that is a fair debate worth having.
Ms. B.