Rule by the Rich
Damn, could it be more obvious? What is it with humans?
I've been railing against rule by the rich for some time now. That is THE problem, that and our pathetic political systems that allow them to rule us. Everyone knows it, everyone has always known it, most everyone anyway. It's everywhere with this global capitalist greedfest occurring right in front of our broke little eyes.
"The centrist party of Czech billionaire Andrej Babis has scored a victory in the country’s parliamentary elections, winning almost 30 percent of the votes, amid allegations of fraud and a corruption scandal."
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/10/22/539463/Czech-billionaire-Andrej...
I went to Czechoslovakia a couple times in the eighties when it was still under communist rule. I was with a German basketball team and I remember when we pulled into Bratislava in the evening and tried to find a place to eat. We (about 20 of us) walked around the downtown area and kept getting turned down for entry into restaurants because we were all wearing jeans. We tried waving wads of cash (krones) at the proprietors but that didn't impress them at all even though each restaurant was barely occupied. You see, they were communists and didn't care about the almighty profit. We did finally find a place that would let us in and had some of that famous Czech beer along with a fine slovakian dinner.
Now they'll have a billionaire prime minister to go along with their Trump fan president. Isn't it great everyone wants to be just like us? They can wear jeans now too and listen to rock and roll music.
I saw something earlier about Mark Zuckerberg considering running for president. I know Mark Cuban has also expressed some interest. I'm sure there are more than a few others out there who have that running through their sociopathic minds. There are a lot of billionaires now and more joining the club on a weekly basis. Putin has billionaires itching to buy his prize and China has billionaires coming out its ears.
You see what's happening here? With money comes power and this global capitalist system is creating wealth at the top like never before in human history which in turn is creating a power structure at the top like never before. What do those that have everything want next? More power. Our illogical need to elect one person to have power over the rest of us is turning into a contest among the billionaires. Castles, yachts, professional sports teams, dictatorships. You too can have it all.
It's getting worse. We're gonna need a bigger boat.
Comments
The corporate media loves these bombastic assholes
They are the perfect distraction from the problems of the world which none of these same assholes wanna fix because there's no profit in it.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
IMO
The whole system needs to come down because there is no way to dismantle the political system without dismantling the economic system.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Capitalism and democracy don't fit together
very well. Some smart person said something like that way back when. Seems like a whole bunch of smart people said stuff like that way back when and yet here we are, still quoting those smart people.
Mark Twain quote
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Another quote by Twain on patriotism
Our gubmit doesn't deserve it. It all must come down. A new system is in order.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
For sake of argument, Lenin probably said that too
and then Stalin came along. Ideologies, like strident communism, or whatever the heck that was that knocked over all those "dominoes", are pretty hateful towards democracy as well even though they motivated people to initially revolt against exploitation. Some deeper flaw in humans has been causing oppression since agriculture was developed. The Athenians maybe had a start on something good with their direct democracy for male non-slaves. The internet, for all it's problems, does have the potential to evolve into a tool for a real direct democracy where everybody participates in all big decisions.
Beware the bullshit factories.
The Bourgeoisie would never allow such a thing re:
They would kill such a thing in its infancy precisely because democracy is anathema to the plutocrats.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
I believe we in the USA could
live quite comfortably on as little as half our present wealth. The problem is not poverty but maldistribution.
Mary Bennett
@gulfgal98 Yes, yes, yes, THIS! The
Yes, yes, yes, THIS! The whole system does need to come down. We need to move to a Cooperative Democracy. If we democratized the enterprise we would have a more educated and involved populace all while removing the power that the 1% have stolen from everyone.
Seriously, if you could get all of your power from solar (for free) would you ever be willing to pay a company for power again? NO! you wouldn't. Hence why we need to work together to throw off the shackles of the middle man class. What reason do we need CEO's?
Cuban said he'd run
as a Republican.
Taxes you know are just too high.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Agree, Big Al
There have been push-back forms of human existence--even here in the US of A--where the rich weren't able to exercise that all-pervading power. Though I'm not big on religion per se, the communities that come to mind are the Moravians and the Hutterites, that are/were both religiously-based. Perhaps also the Amish. At any rate, these communities were able to get rid of wealth by getting rid of private ownership. FWIW the Moravians arose in Prague, and, since tradition is generally slower to die in Europe than here, I imagine that there are plenty of very unhappy Czechs following their latest elections.
"I was homeless."
"But I didn't want to live or die under a bridge."
Michael Nelms - The Big Lonely
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
"We're gonna need a bigger boat."
Except it is a ship. And it's the only one we've got.
As I think you are alluding to, our spaceship has finite resources. It is illogical that so few should be able to capture for themselves so much.
Walkin' the plank seems the reasonable solution to such as them.
The season is here. Such a nice time of year.
... Our illogical need to
They are not supposed to 'have power over us', no matter what they tell you.
They are public servants, in the public service, paid by public funds to hold a public office existing to serve the public interest, maintain public properties and to administer all such in serving the freaking public interest.
A country consists of its people, not just the wealthiest few - regarding which, democratic government also exists to be the united voice and force of its people in enforcing public-protective law in the public interest and preventing the predations of the more powerful against those less so.
The neos twist everything to suit their purpose, and it's long past time that we stopped accepting their propaganda and their language/concept distortions.
In this case, as with other countries and people, America belongs to Americans as a Commons, this entailed in perpetuity for those to come. And nobody has or can ever claim any right to dispose of, destroy or damage the other people of their country, their rights or any portion or the whole of their country, whether or not that individual transiently holds any public office serving that people and country, which are presumed to exist in perpetuity, and for those generations to come.
The government owns nothing; individuals holding public office do not own what they administer or whomever they may politically represent; the public owns their government, their public property, public services and public moneys, etc. as a Commons and the government exists only to govern in the public interest.
That's the real American Dream - the real universal dream of many countries, some of which have come far closer to that in many ways than ever has America, only to have (it seems typically) foreign corporate interests, often backed by a massive military, move their corruption in to rot the whole, as has occurred in so many places.
If TPTB don't like this interpretation, they shouldn't have kept promoting this whole sane, civilized and sustainable democracy idea as false advertising, because the closer any country came to it, the better everything worked. Which makes it the pragmatic way to go.
Waaaaaay past time to fire off fraudulent and abusive administrators and get in those actually of, by and for the people, to ensure equal rights, treatment and opportunity for all, with none claiming to be 'above the law' and 'entitled to abuse the public trust' but working in and for the public interest at all times, as their basic, universal job description of 'public servant in the public service' demands.
It's 99 to 1, baby. And the world is running out of time for that last-minute, miracle save before the fatal tipping point is reached.
Once those pollinators go, so do the rest of us.
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.