I’m in the mood to rant this weekend. Bigtime. Pretty much have been all week, in fact. But, luckily for you, my dear readers, I’ve been busy in the real world.
I really don’t think many in our country are connecting the dots between the just-passed CRomnibus government spending/funding bill and the administration’s fervent support of those “big three” agreements currently on our nation’s “foreign trade” agenda: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA a/k/a TTIP), and the Trade In Services Annex (TISA) to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). But, in my heart of hearts, and if you’ve been listening carefully to—not to the spin, but to the substance of--these developing travesties, I truly believe we may be hearing the ringing of the virtual death knell for the maintenance of any semblance of real democracy in America, as you read this. (After clicking upon the links, above, and reading the material therein, I believe readers will find that this is not an exaggeration; it really is that bad.)
Frankly, even Matt Taibbi didn’t bring up the inherent nexus between these two matters in his latest piece over at the Rolling Stone website, published on Saturday, “Dodd-Frank Budget Fight Proves Democrats Are a Bunch of Stuffed Suits;” but he did do a hell of an incisive job telling it like it is as far as the CRomnibus Bill’s passage—and the bullshit theatrics surrounding it--are concerned.
(For the record, according to Princeton University Political Science Professor Emeritus Sheldon Wolin’s definition of “Inverted Totalitarianism,” a key characteristic of the inverted totalitarian state’s public political discussion is that it reverts to a purely theatrical mode devoid of actual substance and reality. But, I’ll let Taibbi and Moyers explain how that is so. Since they both do a far better job spelling it out for us than I ever could.)
Friday, in the episode of his show titled, "Democrats Bow Down to Wall Street," Bill Moyers, along with Harper’s Magazine President and Publisher John R. MacArthur, spent a substantial amount of time explaining how the CRomnibus bill’s passage and draconian U.S. foreign trade policy are, indeed, joined at the hip as far as failed, status quo, neoliberal economics and politics are concerned.
(Again, please click upon the link to my “rant” in the first sentence of this post, for a little more on this.)
Taken together, Taibbi’s, Moyers’ and MacArthur's analysis get my vote for this weekend’s must-reads/must-see tv.
Dodd-Frank Budget Fight Proves
Democrats Are a Bunch of Stuffed Suits
By Matt Taibbi
Rolling Stone
December 13, 2014
Gosh, the Democrats are really pushing hard to save a key portion of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill, aren't they? Like tigers, or Siamese fighting fish they battle! Thrilling to watch!
Oh, wait, that's what they aren't doing. Actually what we're watching in the "Cromnibus" budget fight, is a stage-managed surrender that was inevitable pretty much from the moment the ink began to dry on the so-called sweeping reform of Wall Street the Democrats passed years ago…
…
… If the Democrats actually stood for anything other than sounding as progressive as possible without offending their financial backers, then they would do what Republicans always do in these situations: force a shutdown to save their legislation. How many times did Republicans hold the budget hostage to rescue the Bush tax cuts?
But the Democrats won't do that here, because they're not a real party. They're a marketing phenomenon, a big chunk of oligarchical Blob cleverly sold to voters as the more reasonable and less nakedly corrupt wing of a two-headed political establishment.
So they'll punt on this issue in the name of "maturity" or "bipartisanship," Wall Street will get a nice win, and Hillary Clinton or whoever else is being set up as the Blob candidate on the Democratic side will receive an avalanche of Financial Services donations to stave off Warren (who will begin appearing in the press as an unhinged combination of Lev Trotsky and Spartacus). A neat little piece of business all around. I don't know whether to applaud or throw up.
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Democrats Bow Down to Wall Street
BillMoyers.com
December 12, 2014
Negotiators from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are in Washington this week for a new round of talks which they hope will lead them closer to agreement on the trade deal. President Obama has called passage of TPP a “high priority.”
This week, Bill speaks with outspoken veteran journalist John R. MacArthur, president and publisher of Harper’s Magazine, about the problems with TPP, which is being negotiated in secret, behind closed doors. MacArthur says that the “free trade” agreement will take jobs away from Americans: “I guarantee you, this is a way to send more jobs [abroad], particularly to Vietnam and Malaysia.”
Obama’s commitment to trade is just another example of his indebtedness to Wall Street for massive campaign contributions. Hillary Clinton, who MacArthur describes as to the right of Americans’ political beliefs, may be scaring off progressives looking to run in 2016 as she is “very much in harmony” with Wall Street.
“There are a lot of people who would make good candidates, but they’re intimidated by the Clinton fundraising machine.”
Transcript is linked
HERE.
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A sincere question for everyone reading this, including the management of this website: Whom do the bought-and-paid-for, elected officials in both major parties in this country think they’re fooling at this point?
And, perhaps more importantly: How will blind obedience and support of our own, captured political party--which directly and tacitly IS the prime directive of this community, whether the management of this website will admit it or not--change anything as far as that greater reality's concerned?
For starters, I would humbly suggest that people stop referring to voting for (fill in the blank: Warren, Sanders, Webb, etc.), and then, in the same sentence/paragraph/breath, obediently stating they'll be "voting for Hillary in the General Election." (I read that multiple times per day, every day in this community.)
Dare I say it, but, perhaps--just maybe--we should discuss and blog about supporting these other people via language that doesn't even include discussion of voting for someone else, at all?
In other words: Frame it like you mean it! Because if you don't mean it, you're definitely not going to be able to successfully sell it!
Of course, if you're focused upon placating the management of this website--who've gone far, far out of their way to shove Secretary of State Clinton's Presidential campaign down our throats as being "inevitable," all freaking year--that is your prerogative.
Or, is this the Democratic Party's slogan for 2016, "Status Quo Is The Way To Go!"?
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