The Duopoly - Watch What They Do In Power, Not Without It
In my opinion it is never worthwhile judging what either party does or says when out of power.
In congress
- Republicans spent eight years spoon feeding the base.
- Trump spent a whole campaign throwing blood in the water for them.
- Democrats before them spent years pretending they were against the wars they voted for.
- Obama promised less bellicosity then expanded the "war on terror" and pardoned war crimes.
Both parties have spent decades ignoring what the American people actually want when they have had the power to change it. Their propaganda machines [and the MSM] have been in constant operation ready to provide what the American people want to hear, they have spent billions of dollars spoon feeding their respective bases utter garbage.
It's funny how the votes are never there in congress when actually pretending to do what they were voted in to do, Republicans have a right to be royally pissed off at this moment in time.
The democrats are now using the exact same tactics as the republicans have used for eight years, at some point I expect Republicans to call uncle and call for bipartisanship.
Anything that has the potential of helping the poorest, that avoids Americans getting deeper in debt but reduces the profitability of the rich and their corporations are then watered down until the richest walk away with pretty much everything not nailed down.
It's easy to motivate the base with objections and hatred than actually changing the playing field when in power, so much easier. Oppositional bullshit I call it, it's all a bloody bipartisan game. If you can work conspiracy theories into the mix the important stuff is easier to hide. Fudge the reality.
For god's sake stop buying what the duopoly sells, especially when they are out of power. They'll make up rules that prevent them doing what they promised to do when they have it. I bet the primary rules will change over the next few years to avoid any real challenge to the parties authority, no more Bernie's or Trumps. It'll avoid the stench of the "fix"/Russians!!.
I don't buy for one second the Democrats pretences, good god, the whole "hopey changey" circus cured me permanently of that one, why the hell I "hoped" still beats the hell out of me, I should have known fucking better.
Until the oligarch's duopoly is shattered the results will be essentially the damn same. Back and forth over the wedge issues we will go, war and profitability expanded, asset stripping assured.
Vivat Imperium.
Comments
What does "out of power" mean to Soros or Mercer?
Those are the only two billionaire puppet masters I can name, one dangles Clinton the other makes Trump do stuff. Two assholes, no conscience. Bernie doing outreach for Soros, that is sad. Bombs away!
I love Bernie, he's a good egg on the wrong plate. My hopey denial is he doesn't realize how many voters were opposed to his Clinton campaign, when she was so clearly on the edge if not deep in to, corrupt activity. I am guessing he never read wikileaks either, but did he not even read an aide report on the evidence? Dereliction is what that sounds like.
Again, the Clinton Global Foundation went where now? When? Why? My brain does funny math with too many coincidences. And, the DNC lying liars* are still spewing bullshit on TVs and screens worldwide, they are allowed to speak. So is Bernie, if he never talks about their lies? I think it is dereliction of duty to STFU about corruption, but go on.
* The practice of communicating lies is called lying, and a person who communicates a lie may be termed a liar.
Peace & Love
see my reply below
Great phrase
Great phrase
Koch Brothers, Tom Steyer,
Koch Brothers, Tom Steyer, Sheldon Adelson, George Soros, Rupert Murdoch, Bill and Melinda Gates, John and Laura Arnold, Penny Pritzker, Warren Buffett, Mark Dayton, Walton Family, any of the richest 400 on Forbes listing have the potential..either personally or through their businesses and media ownerships, some even join the political fray itself.
Of course don't forget the Goldman Sachs crew that uses both parties.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/katiasavchuk/2014/07/09/are-americas-riches...
If asked to lend a hand
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/02/trumps-rich-pickings-pre...
Of course congress is fully in touch with the rest of us.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/09/how-did-members-of-...
Politics is a money game, policy and serving the people a mere distraction.
Interview with Tom Frank link, yo Lookout!
Just finished listening to the interview posted in yesterday's Weekly Watch comments:
the truth. I now must go medicate for Clinton PTSD, some people actually lived through that hell, protesting Clintons rolling over for eight years. Just watch RATM play across the street from the DNC 2k convention to know what it felt like,"all sold out".
"We don't have to do anything: How the Democrats found their dead end."
https://thisishell.com/interviews/947-thomas-frank
What a bummer
Thanks a lot for writing essays that make me think more, even though it's just a muse I hope others think more too. You gotta look back to see forward sometimes. Thanks.
Peace & Love
He is correct
Hi eyo and LaFem
I listened to T. Franks interview too and enjoyed it. Azazello once again turned me on to a new media resource...This is Hell.
As to the essay, how do we get rid of the duopoly? Perhaps we support the socialists?
http://www.dsausa.org/ We are a political and activist organization, not a party.
This one is a political party http://socialistparty-usa.net/who-we-are.html
...and yet another - http://www.slp.org/facts.htm The Socialist Labor Party (SLP) is the original party of socialism in America. Organized as the Workingmen's Party in 1876, the Party was renamed in 1877.
I'm ready for something different. The democraps and rethugs are two sides of the same government-sachs.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I've been a socialist for many years at least over here
we have a choice, I'm supporting Benoît Hamon.
Upending the duopoly in the US is a massive undertaking the whole media and the party partisans with fight for it tooth and nail. Even this last time the Democrats basically tore down the only Democratic candidate for the Party.
You have to start somewhere and that somewhere is not DC it never has been it's too polluted with money and corruption of thought.
Grassroots is where to start, is there time, doubtful, otherwise wait for capitalism to implode during the upcoming climate disasters and their associated wars. I'm very pessimistic its been too long, the propaganda runs so deep and it will take one hell of a shock to break the duopolies hold. My belief is that the elite will hold out to the very end, they cant imagine/accept anything else, in other words history will repeat.
Two big articles about the French elections
in the current issue of The Nation. From one of them:
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Benoît Hamon believes in the EU with major changes as do I
and is the only one to realize and address the coming loss of jobs via automation.
He was wrong on Syria and Trumps bombings.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon lives too much in the past and is pretty anti EU. A supporter of the "lefts" crook in chief and authoritarian: Mitterand.
Hollande has been an unmitigated disaster.
None are perfect but at least Hamon lives in the present.
That was a great interview with Thomas Frank.
I'd never heard of This is Hell before yesterday. I got that link from Yves Smith's links at naked capitalism. I check those every morning.
To your larger point, what about Single-Payer as an organizing principle ?
See here: truthout
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
If power is the ability to get things done,
and money is the measure of one's power, it stands to reason that wealthy people will inevitably have more influence in determining policy than poor people. This seems almost axiomatic to me.
I fantasize a political system with two Houses of Congress, each of them having equal authority, but one of which must by law, be composed exclusively of poor people. Establish an income cap for it -- maybe $20K or $50K? Then maybe we could get some real debate going on in the halls of power.
Hey I can dream, can't I?
I don't object to extreme wealth per se. It has its uses and it can be very beneficial. The problem with extreme wealth, is that there are so few limits and curbs on its ability (and tendency) to bully and manipulate people who are not wealthy -- to determine policy singlehandedly, as it were.
native
It's getting more extreme every year and that is a problem
There need to be a counter balance and that used to be by taxes on earnings, capital gains and estates of individuals and proper corporate taxes on the corporations.
When automation/ai is fully applied this income inequality and wealth accumulation will get much worse.
Words are cheap. Obama proved that...
The proof is in the pudding. Obama proved that too.
I thought Obama was a flagrant liar. Hopey change until Jan. 2009 and boom, Goldman Sachs. His pudding was full of golden mouse droppings. 2009 and Obama was the end for me. I never "believed" in him. I didn't trust him. The berating and drum beat at dailykos convinced me to give him a chance. 2012 was better than Romney. 2016 was a giant FU to the Reagan's blue party. Bernie stepped all over himself.
Here's the latest love/hate piece on Bernie.
http://origin-nyi.thehill.com/homenews/campaign/329049-democrats-welcome...
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Hoped more than believed, heart over head
more fool me.
Charlie Brown + Lucy + Football
native
I keep coming back to that analogy too.
personally, I'm sick of playing football.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
That link is chock full of cheap words
thanks, here is the "money quote" conclusion:
Divest divest divest, that is the thing to do. To put it in terms they can maybe understand:
Starve the baby.
Purge baby purge.
Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
You get the idea, hit 'em where it hurts. And boycott that dumb-ass unity tour, or standup in their faces and be loud, don't be a corrupt tool for the DNC, just let it die. Time's up!
Thanks.
Peace & Love
Re "joining" the (D) party.
I thought Bernie had to register as a Democrat to run in the primary?
Or does "join" mean prostrating oneself to the Clinton goddess?
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Bernie used that (D-ATM), also known as ActBlue
a.k.a ShareBlue now too, I guess. Divide us divide us divide us. I thought it was pretty smart of Bernie to just sign up and start blowing open the Overton Window, like everyone wanted. But super-delegates are what wins in the end, and that hasn't changed enough to matter, in my opinion. We'll see if Berniecrats can overwhelm them.
To me it looks like dollars down a rat-hole, but go on. I can't wait for something to vote for, but more than that, some kind of action after I vote, preferably retroactive fixing of the constitution, the Bill of Rights? Restoring right to privacy, pursuit of happiness, freedom from theocracy, habeas corpus, that kind of democratic stuff. lol
Peace & Love
@eyo
The perps couldn't actually override the inalienable Constitutional rights of US citizens and the US Constitutional basis of law by simply ignoring it and writing contradictory law to it and to the Oath of Office to uphold that Constitution, which they must uphold in order to legitimately hold that public office - they disqualified themselves from all powers delegated by the people to that office, to be used for the public good, by so doing and conning the people into believing that they could.
The Constitution still holds - at least until the Dems lose enough to the Repubs that the latter get to rewrite the Constitution. Or rather, The Parasite Class rewrites it to suit themselves and 'legalize' all abuses. Of course, there may not be anything left by that time.
Edit for typo of a letter.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
The persistent Blue Dog song:
She had no message except I'm Not Trump.
Boycott the Duopoly.
No guts no glory.
and deliberately undermine them.
Get wrenchin' because why not?
undermine the DNC until it collapses. I have learned to be careful what to ask for, but really what could be worse than the current group of neo-libs running that racket? When the DNC bribe system collapses, there is Bernie left sticking out like a sore thumb. Or not. The alternative is status quo, more same same party-building bullshit. No thanks.
Peace & Love
& Monkey Wrenches
Undermine their elections.
Call them out for the farce they are. Force them to talk about oligarchy and imperialism. Something.
They're already there.
Now we just need to make sure everyone increasingly sees them as loser oligarchs and imperialists, while also tarnishing the brand of the oligarchy and imperialism they've chosen. The people need to grasp that the goal these bastards have chosen is the wrong one.
Wish I could rec this a thousand times!
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
In all directions
A problem I fear is going to happen is that there will be various micro movements that will move in all directions but individually won't have enough to make an impact.
People are clamoring for 3rd parties, some are jumping back into the Dem Den to somehow reform from within, some are just going outside political structures in general.
In the end it seems all these events will fight against one another, thus allowing the status quo to continue on uninterrupted.
Historically Empires implode and the results tend to be
quite horrible. What is for sure the rampant asset stripping by capitalism cannot go on forever, there must be balance. I have seen little evidence that the duopoly intends to deal in anyway with this imbalance and it will only get worse.
The implosion . . .
. . . that LaFem mentions also never sees the replacement of the dying empire with another of anywhere near equal size or power. Empires implode into those micro-entities you lament, and for all the havoc and suffering that takes place in the transition, and sometimes afterward, that rescaling into smaller forces is often better than the empire they succeed.
If this empire is indeed imploding, elections will mean nothing, even if they occur. Where our energies would better be placed in that instance is in creating micro-entities that are better, more protective, at whatever geographic or societal dimension, than what we have now.
In all directions
A problem I fear is going to happen is that there will be various micro movements that will move in all directions but individually won't have enough to make an impact.
People are clamoring for 3rd parties, some are jumping back into the Dem Den to somehow reform from within, some are just going outside political structures in general.
In the end it seems all these events will fight against one another, thus allowing the status quo to continue on uninterrupted.
Our democracy will always be imperiled
until all elections are publicly financed and politicians are barred from lobbying. The rich and their corporations are now superpeople and have the police and military behind them. Orwell's Animal Farm was truly prophetic, wasn't it?
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.