In the largest case of identity theft since the Communist Party cashed out the Soviet Union to the Oligarchs, the Democratic Party, led by Barack Obama, has stolen the full faith and CREDIT of the loyal Democratic voters and used it to buy a bunch of bling for his billionaire friends on Wall St.
In an instant, he zeroed out the goodwill value of the Democratic brand-name. He destroyed the ability of the party, as it is currently constituted, to have any more claim to the loyalty of the bottom 99% of America than the Tea Party.
But wait, there's more!
He has, by his deliberate refusal to even think about using the 14th Ammendment, changed our system of government from democracy to blackmail by minority veto - the same system of government that led to the bloodless partition/termination of the Commonwealth of Poland in the 18th century.
The Partition of Poland used to be taught in high school as the example of how minority rule can destroy a country.
During the reign of Władysław IV (1632–48), the liberum veto had evolved. This policy of parliamentary procedure was based on the assumption of the political equality of every "gentleman", with the corollary that unanimous consent was needed for all measures. A single member of parliament's belief that a measure was injurious to his own constituency (usually simply his own estate), even after the act had already been approved, became enough to strike the act. It became increasingly difficult to get action taken. The liberum veto also provided openings for foreign diplomats to get their ways, through bribing nobles to exercise it. Thus, one could characterise Poland-Lithuania in its final period (mid-18th century) before the partitions as already not a completely sovereign state: it could be seen almost as a vassal state, or in modern terms, a Russian satellite state, with Russian tsars effectively choosing Polish kings.
-Partition of Poland
Make no mistake, Obama's absolute refusal to stand up to GOP terrorism has ended democracy in this country. Our government will be paralyzed by filibusters, funding denials, and intransigent sabotage at every turn. This stinking Super Congress just amplifies the problem.
It basically hands the Liberum Veto to six Democratic politicians. (You know how the GOP are goiing to vote.) All it takes is for Reid or Pelosi to appoint one Blue Dog and we are done for. That Blue Dog will be bribed instantly, and it will be perfectly legal under Citizens United.
The GOP program of the last 30 years has been to destroy simple majority rule. They always insert super-majority rules, fast track rules, and use the filibuster as a common tactic - anything to veto the process. When this kind of political sabotage gets to a certain level, you have a carbon copy of the Liberum Veto.
As was the case in Poland, these traitors do the bidding of outsiders. Our country is now a vassal to international corporations and billionaires. They dictate the terms to Congress. They select and fund our "candidates". Our government is owned by these foreigners - foreign to 99% of Americans.
They will "partition" (read privatize) our government one agency at a time. They have already privatized prisons, fire departments, education, and large parts of the military logistics organizations. Obama just took the first bite out of social security by cutting FICA taxes; and now he has proactively thrown that entire program open to GOP priviatization. Our oligarchs will just keep chewing and swallowing until they own every last bit of our government. Who is going to stop them?
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That question raises another: who is feeding us this satan sandwich? Why none other than President Passive Aggressive, President Plausible Deniability, President Trojan Horse. Its as if the 18th century Russians had sent a phony count into Poland and got him elected to the Parliament so he could do the Tsar's bidding. (Probably happened.)
Plausible deniability is a CIA tactic designed to allow a politician to do something illegal or distasteful without taking the heat for it. Obama's entire presidency has been one long charade of plausibly denying that he and the Blue Dog Democrats are not Republicans in disguise.
But after betrayal after sellout after lie, it finally seems like the emperor has no clothes:
..."It is one thing to suspect that something is rotten in Denmark, quite another to have proof. Ever since Obama appointed his Rubinite economics team, it was blindingly obvious that he was aligning himself with Wall Street. The strength of the connection became even more evident in March 2009, when Team Obama embarked on its “stress test” charade and bank stock cheerleading. Rather than bring vested banking interests to heel, the administration instead chose to reconstitute, as much as possible, the very same industry whose reckless pursuit of profit had thrown the world economy off the cliff.
But now we see evidence in a new paper by the think tank Third Way of an even deeper commitment to pro-financier policies. The Democratic party has made clear that it supports institutionalized looting by banks, via the innocuous-seeming device of rejecting the idea of writedowns on bonds they hold."...
- Naked Capitalism finds a Third Way Document
And...
"Financial strategists do not intend to let today’s debt crisis go to waste. Foreclosure time has arrived. That means revolution – or more accurately, a counter-revolution to roll back the 20th century’s gains made by social democracy: pensions and social security, public health care and other infrastructure providing essential services at subsidized prices or for free. The basic model follows the former Soviet Union’s post-1991 neoliberal reforms: privatization of public enterprises, a high flat tax on labor but only nominal taxes on real estate and finance, and deregulation of the economy’s prices, working conditions and credit terms.
What is to be reversed is the “modern” agenda. The aim a century ago was to mobilize the Industrial Revolution’s soaring productivity and technology to raise living standards and use progressive taxation, public regulation, central banking and financial reform to distribute wealth fairly and make societies more equal. Today’s financial aim is the opposite: to concentrate wealth at the top of the economic pyramid and lower labor’s returns. High finance loves low wages. "...
- Michael Hudson The Financial Road to Serfdom
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The one good thing about the nakedly plutocratic, anti-worker tilt of this stinking deal is that I no longer can be shamed into supporting "Democrats" based merely on the assertion they are the good guys. Or even that they are better than the GOP. Both statements can no longer be defended. At this point, the choices on offer are corporate dictatorship and looting from the Democrats versus theocracy and looting from the GOP. Hung or shot.
We may also serve as an object lesson to the First World that umnlimited money in politics, winner-take-all voting, and the lack of votes of confidence are too dangerous in the modern era. Parliamentary systems may be dull, but they are somewhat harder to hijack.
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For what its worth in this sunset of democracy country, I intend to support politicians who are progressive in Democratic primaries. If someone will primary Obama, I will support that challenge. We need to take the House back and hold the Senate - with real Democrats. The first order of business, should that miracle come to pass, is to repeal the Debt Ceiling law. Then, on day one, the Senate should drastically limit the right to filibuster. Then we can go after Clarence Thomas.
Freedom is turning out to be nothing left to lose.