Refugees in our own country
The only way to understand America today is to realize that the non-professional American middle class has been kicked out of its homes and is living in refugee camps.
Flint, Michigan is a refugee camp. The trailer parks that 50-somethings live in as they chase Amazon warehouse jobs across the country are refugee camps. Flyover country, and all its abandoned, gutted factories and dying cities are refugee camps. Black ghettos have been at the level of the Gaza Strip open-air panopticon for the last thirty years with mass incarceration, invasive police harassment, and a revenue-source justice system. There was something ironic about John McCain, instead of a genuine Democrat, choosing "You don't have to live like a refugee" as his campaign song.
TPTB have simply grabbed the loot and kicked the middle class out of what used to be America and into Frank Capra's Pottersville. We squat in our camps, the same way Syrian dentists squat in camps in Greece - only Syrians have a better chance have of getting their country back than American New Dealanders. And that's because the Syrians have some solidarity; they understand who is screwing them; and they have some support from people opposed to being plantation slaves for the globalists.
The 1% have looted America the way Stalin looted East Germany. Backed by the overwhelming financial resources of recycled Saudi oil-shock dollars, instead of Soviet tanks, the 1% gained political control under Reagan by buying the media and the government. They installed their compradors in power, and they literally started packing up the factories and sending them to China. The asset stripping of America by reactionaries rejoicing in the defeat of the New Deal was every bit as thorough and vindictive as the Stalinist asset stripping of Germany. Both cliques of ideologues felt they were owed those resources. (Stalin, at least, had Nazi destruction of the USSR as justification; our oligarchs only had spleen.)
The results of this asset stripping and deindustrialization are dire. Instead of the majority of Americans being middle class, as they were from the New Deal until the neoliberal takeover, we are well on the way to recreating the middle class of the Victorian Era. That class amounted to about 10% of the population and was made up of professional servants of the oligarchy - people like doctors, lawyers, bankers, propagandists, lapdog politicians, and providers of luxury services. The 40% of America that used to be the non-professional middle class, the middle class created by the New Deal, are squatting in refugee camps, with no hope of good jobs, financial security, or middle class opportunities for their children.
Refugee camps are notorious for breeding violent ideologues, and that is already well established in our "New Dealanders" refugee camps. Victim blaming is rife. Racism is back, with blacks, Hispanics, and Moslems being the scapegoats of choice. Ghost dance religions/cargo cults abound, from Aryan Nations to Prosperity Gospel charlatans fleecing the desperate suckers, who predictably voted for the MAGA nonsense because they still think they are "temporarily down on their luck".
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
― Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress (misattributed to John Steinbeck)
Until Americans see their political situation correctly, see that they are powerless refugees, we will make no progress.
LIBERAL CHICKENS FOR COLONEL CLINTON
As refugees, they must ask, who are the agents sent among us to keep us divided and fighting. And, to give the Trump crowd credit, the Clintons are top of the list for wrecking middle class solidarity
The neoliberal Clintons, funded by Wall St. from Day One, shattered Democratic Party solidarity the same way Hamas, funded by Israel, shattered Palestinian solidarity.
Israel "aided Hamas directly -- the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization)," said Tony Cordesman, Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies.
Israel's support for Hamas "was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative," said a former senior CIA official.
It was no accident that the Clintons showed up in the late 1980s, just as the union-busted middle class was beginning to respond to the deindustrialization of America under Reagan/Bush. It was no accident that Clinton came from Arkansas and was quite cozy with WalMart - the company that started sending our factories to China. Hillary actually sat on the board of WalMart.
During six years (1986 -1992) as a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors, Hillary Clinton remained silent as the world’s largest retailer waged a major campaign against the labor unions seeking to represent store workers.
It was no accident that Identity Politics was the meat and potatoes of the Clinton social program, even as he increased race-biased drug sentencing and cut welfare. IP was the polarizing distraction while Clinton gave Wall St. everything they wanted. IP was a perverted version of the liberals "old time religion", only instead of class solidarity, it offered nothing but divisiveness and splintering.
In retrospect, the Clintons and their DLC/DNC/Third Way agents have been poison for the Democratic Party, pushing rightwing neoliberal economics while destroying left wing class solidarity. Obama merely followed in their footsteps, but more openly, with his bank bailouts, drone assassinations, and CIA-led destabilization/insurgency campaigns. Yet, despite 25 years of disaster, a large percentage of Democratic voters still believe the Democratic Party leadership and their few remaining office holders are somehow representing the interests of the 99%. But, this cognitive dissonance is not really surprising. It is the kind of mindset one often finds among refugees who idolize their lost land and its last leaders - who have usually been failures and/or sellouts.
SEEING THE SITUATION CORRECTLY
The U.S. is no longer a democracy. (Two Princeton scientists demonstrated that the 99%'s votes don't matter; only the 1%'s.) We are no longer citizens, but mere refugees. The U.S. is merely another territory being fought over by oligarchic gangsters for the loot it provides the winners - most prominently, our massive full spectrum dominance MIC establishment, with which more loot can be extracted from the victims of our many wars of choice. The combatants fighting for control of the U.S. are Nationalist Oligarchs (NO) and Globalist Oligarchs(GO) - neither of whom believe in democracy or desire a strong middle class. As oligarchs, all the combatants are filthy rich and have deep ties to Wall St. The weapons in this fight for control of our (formerly democratic) government are various, constantly shifting factions of the military industrial intelligence/Silicon Valley complex. The factional spokespersons are various corporate-owned media rags who pump out nothing but propaganda.
The fact that we are no longer a democracy is quite obvious in the wake of the 2016 election - Bernie sabotaged, Hillary and DWS not prosecuted for anything, Russia-hating inflated into hysteria, internet censorship (the fake news witch-hunt) in place. Meanwhile, loose cannon Trump, while being pitched this way and that by the various Deep State factions, always manages to get just enough DINO support to hit what little is left of our middle class - tax cuts that instantly turn into stock buybacks instead of jobs, tariffs that will hurt our economy more than they will help it.
Another "tell" that we are not a democracy any more is that the oligarchs are out in the open today. The President is a billionaire. Other billionaires and centi-millionaires compete for governorships. The Clintons became centi-millionaires peddling influence. Obama will be paid off by the same crowd for his loyal service to Wall St. and the MIC. Anyone who thinks an honest person who genuinely cares about the 99% can get elected to anything more important than mayor of East Podunk under the current Kabuki duopoly is delusional. We are living in the second Gilded Age, where all the politicians are either oligarchs or bought and paid for. Here are two oligarchs battling to loot the last drop of blood from the state of Illinois:
Recognizing that our so-called democracy is a scripted farce makes it much easier to understand recent developments. For example, the slate of CIA operatives that the Democrats plan to run in the 2018 elections is hardly surprising after two years of Russia-bashing. Great, I get to choose between neo-Fascist GOPers and Deep State spook Democrats who specialize in destablilzing governments. What a choice - would I rather be hung or shot.
One quarter of all the Democratic challengers in competitive House districts have military-intelligence, State Department or NSC backgrounds. This is by far the largest subcategory of Democratic candidates. National security operatives (57) outnumber state and local government officials (45), lawyers (35), corporate executives, businessmen and wealthy individuals (30) and other professionals (19) among the candidates for Democratic congressional nominations.
Of the 102 primary elections to choose the Democratic nominees in these competitive districts, 44 involve candidates with a military-intelligence or State Department background, with 11 districts having two such candidates, and one district having three. In the majority of contests, the military-intelligence candidates seem likely to win the Democratic nomination,
Another telling example is the ridiculous Democratic pushback to John Bolton - wait for it, he's not hawkish enough about Russia.
Count on Democrats to oppose the most virulent neocon in Washington by accusing him of not being hawkish enough.
“John Bolton once suggested Russian hack of DNC may have been a false flag operation by Obama Admin,” fretted lead Democratic Russiagater Adam Schiff, mistaking brazen partisan hackery for actual skepticism about a likely intelligence community false flag.
There are of course many, many, many extremely legitimate reasons to criticize John Bolton, and none of them involve being too soft on Russia...But Democratic opposition to Bolton, even when it doesn’t get sucked up into idiotic Russia conspiracy theory, appears to be receiving a relatively lukewarm response from mainstream America. ... And why should it? Propagandists have been pacing rank-and-file Democrats into embracing Iraq-raping Bush-era neocons for more than a year now.
Dems Kept Cheerleading Bush-Era Neocons – Now There’s One In The White House
The Democrats (formerly the party of the New Deal, labor unions, and peace) are now hysterical anti-Russian warmongers, doctrinaire neoliberals, deliberately feckless legislative incompetents, unrelenting pushers of failed Identity Politics instead of economic reforms, and cats' paws for a CIA takeover of Congress. But what else would one expect nine years after the Citizens United green light to anyone, anywhere in the world being able to secretly fund candidates?
In closing,
WAKE ME UP WHEN AMERICA WAKES UP
If Americans wake up to their status as refugees, there are some avenues that could at least embarrass TPTB. (Their grip on power and their police state apparatus are too strong to be displaced by anything short of economic meltdown, environmental catastrophe, or nuclear war.) Recognizing their situation, Americans can start to behave genuinely; and this will begin to grow some solidarity that bridges the fake CorpoDem/GOP duopoly.
Such behavior has begun to happen in places like Flint, MI. IIRC, they called in the U.N. to document the governmental failures. Other jurisdictions have tried to call in U.N. election monitors. As I said, none of this is going to change much; but opening peoples' eyes to their true situation is the first step to remedying that situation. It would be hilarious for some bankrupt city or state to beg the Chinese for some BRI money. The theater alone would be corrosive.
Comments
Can someone please explain this to me?
I am having a difficult time reconciling the fact that we have lost our middle class due to the shipping of good living wage blue collar jobs over seas but to impose tariffs on strategic materials such as steel is bad for our economy.
Arendt, I am not picking on your essay because it is not the first time I have read that the tariffs (on steel and aluminum) are bad here at C99%. What I am searching for is a realistic answer of how we balance American workers' interests against free trade. I would also say that I believe that steel in particular is of vital national interest in ensuring that we have control over the quality of the steel being produced because of its use in infrastructure and military applications.
If we are to continue to total free trade, we are doing exactly what the globalists have wanted. I need someone to help me understand what I am missing about this issue.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Another point.
By doing it wrong and having it fail, Trump is either deliberately or stupidly reinforcing the case for free trade.
Hence people who are sick of free trade are in a box. Support Trump and be discredited when he fails; or oppose Trump and wind up in bed with the free traders.
Its the kind of "heads I win, tails you lose" situation that TPTB excel at creating.
So, is your point: no pain, no gain OR just don't try?
Examining NO's would require that the recognition is needed for secondary gain to the 99%. If internal markets are used to satisfy nationalist strengthening, then the 99% will be thrown more, not less, bread crumbs. Bread crumbs but more--not what should be the case. Asset stripping will be replaced by asset diversion, leaving a more intact national infrastructure, even if privatized. "Come the Revolution", if any, the chance exists that some local strengths will enable a change--probably not (s)elective.
With the Globalists in charge, there is simply no way out. With the NO's there might be one way out.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr1dPUoLqMM]
@Alligator Ed
Read my response "How to help workers" first.
I understand where you are coming from, but you are choosing the lesser (NO) of two evils (NO/GO). In the post I referenced above, I said we need to do more work domestically by direct government purchase and mandating of domestic purchase. Handing out prizes (tariffs) to lucky winners who happen to cross Trump's path is not anything I want to support. Neither is continuing to let the neoliberals drain our industry into third and fourth world sweatshops.
As usual, with the Democratic neoliberal sellouts blocking the way, the sensible, historically obvious, economically sensible path is off the table.
I understand your points and agree
In this case, denied an effective alternative, the lesser of two evils is the way to go. Can you suggest a third way to deal with with this this horrible rape and pillage alternative, whether international or national?
There is no short term third way
The third way is to bring some democracy back so that we can put all the financial crooks in jail and confiscate their ill-gotten gains. But that is a long way off.
My attitude about choosing between political parties at this point is that a) if voting accomplished anything, it would be illegal; and b) I'd rather keep my honor than get the chump change on offer from the lesser evil.
Both parties are rotten. I don't support either one of them; and I think its delusional to think that anyone can rescue the Democratic Party from the grasp of billionaires and neocons.l
If I understand it
the abrupt imposition of tariffs won't help because out domestic industry has been dismantled and there is no mechanism to rebuild except private investment, which has already chosen it's path. The end for us is higher steel and Aluminum costs. It was the one thing about Tpp, having gone this far in realignment, that made sense. Except for all the parts where the American worker AND consumer AND taxpayer got screwed.
Also, great imagery and writing.
Yes. There would have to be true capital investment
And who in their avaricious, short-term profit mind is going to invest in spending a couple of years building a steel mill that will make maybe a five percent amortized profit when they can run out today and make 10% in a week playing financial games on margin with other people's money.
A financialized economy does not invest, it extracts.
When tariffs are good.
Tariffs are good in some circumstances.
1) To shelter infant industries, whether they are new tech or just trying to industrialize in the face of entrenched competition. Tariff walls against British goods were a large part of the "American system" that allowed the US to industrialize in the late 19th century. These tariffs were also promoted by a German economist named List for the same purpose. The South Koreans and other Asian "tigers" used tariffs to industrialize after WW2.
Its quite clear that China is good at industrial espionage, or simply enticing the Chinese engineers working in the US to return home. They basically grabbed the photovoltaic and wind power markets right out from under us. Perhaps legitimately, perhaps with excessive subsidies and by ignoring polution cause by mining the rare earths needed for wind mill magnets. (see next cause). So infant industry protection is vital.
ON EDIT:
1A) Item 1 explains why Trump's choice of tariff is counterproductive. Steel is not an infant industry, it is an industry that any 3rd world country can master. If the US can't compete with low wage low skill workers in steel, it should exit the industry, not reward the people who run it with fake profits.
END EDIT
2) To legitimately punish unfair subsidies and dumping. For example, many governments (including our own) have indirect subsidies that assist their export industries. For example, the Department of War provides immense funding to Boeing, some of which is used to defray the cost of developing commercial products.
Another kind of subsidy involves regulations. If China allows its manufacturers to pollute the crap out of the local environment, then the US could legitimately calculate the cost of producing and cleaning up any pollution and set that as a tariff. Of course, the Koch brothers pollute here like crazy, so we would be total hypocrites.
How to help US workers.
First, see my "When tariffs are good" response.
Now, how to help workers?
1) Pass a law saying that US infrastructure projects (roads, bridges, tunnels) shall be operated by US companies and built with US materials.
Our infrastructure is literally falling down. Infrastructure spending is a classic government program that goes back to Roman times, yet the goddamn neoliberals block it because they want to privatize the government and the infrastructure. So they let if fall apart so that people will give in and sell the asset.
If the steel and concrete needed to bring our infrastrucuture up to par were domestically sourced and adequately funded, it would be a huge shot in the arm to low tech industry and labor.
2. Have the government pay for massive solar power installations instead of subsidizing environment wrecking fossil fuels.
Here, there may be some opportunity for infant industry tariffs, because there are so many opportunities in alternative energy, energy saving construction techniques, low CO2 concrete, etc.
The bottom line is that we need to get off the "race to the bottom" globalization outsourcing track and start becoming more self-sufficient in BASIC products and infrastructure.
The problem is it's too late.
The US plants that produced the steel that won WWII have been shut down and frequently torn down. The US produces small quantities of high end steel alloys, but not much basic steel. How long do you think it would take to build new plants and get them operational? What do American industries that use large quantities of steel do in the meantime?
The first step when your in a hole is to stop digging. There are a number of areas where the US still has significant advantages from agriculture to aircraft manufacturing. We could come down hard on countries that exploit our markets without buying from us. We could also make it a crime to transfer technology to other countries without government approval. This proposal is not going to be pain free either because the Chinese now sell parts to the companies that gave them the technology. Also, globalization does produce benefits in terms of lower prices. The US has never made a serious effort to make those feeling the most pain whole.
It makes sense to restrict the ability of investors from countries where the government has major stakes in most corporations from buing interests in American corporations.
This mess took decades to develop and wealthy Americans reaped large rewards. It's going to take a long time to reverse without causing a global recession.
Ultimately, I think we need to reexamine the nature of work. I'd prefer to see a substantial cut in the work week to a guaranteed income. The latter, predictably, will become a wedge issue as those who work are pitted against those who don't.
Its not that tariffs are bad, its THESE tariffs
These tariffs are on 19th century technologies: metal working.
Bringing back steel and (another favorite) coal in 2020 is stupid. As many have pointed out, the manufacturers in other countries not affected by the tariffs will buy their steel cheaper, thereby producing cheaper cars, refrigerators, heavy equipment, etc. The market hit from higher priced cars and appliances will be much greater than the market gain from domestically producing a low tech product.
It could make sense to protect our semiconductor industry - except that Intel has foundries in Israel, AMD has foundries in Germany, and many people use Taiwanese foundries like
TMSCTSMC. Note the word "foundries", because being skilled in working silicon, not steel, is critical in the 21st century. Still, silicon is a very mature technology with very high barriers to entry. A state of the art "10 nanometer" production fabricator can run from $200 M up to $500 M. There are one or two suppliers of such gear in the entire world, and their tech relies on international consortia for new ideas. I would guess there are less than 25 10 nanometer lines in the entire world. The industry is what it is, and tariffs are not going to have much of an impact.Another crucial industry is biotech - and that is much tougher to tariff, because you don't need the kind of capital investment as for semiconductors. If you are not producing pharmaceuticals at scale, you can get buy with university laboratories or corporate laboratories to supply enough material to make breakthroughs and gain patents.
IMHO, the real thing we need to keep at home are smart people, educated people. Neoliberalism is all about globalizing everything. It is like the old Soviet Union. They put electronics in the Baltic States, and steel in the Donbass, and nuclear work in Novosibersk. Then they told each region that, on their own they were helpless, that only the central planners could coordinate the economy. That is how Moscow kept control. The neoliberals on Wall St. and in the City run the same racket.
Meanwhile, the US is hemorhaging Chinese engineers and scientists, despite the horrible environmental issues in China. We are getting a lot more Indian engineers and computer people, but their quality is decreasing as family ties and corrupt cartels ship us second raters while billing us top dollar.
Bottom line is that countries do compete economically via policies and tariffs and sneaky slowdowns like the Japanese used to pull about inspecting incoming products for conformity to local rules. The trick is to do it cleverly and strategically, not stupidly and with a sledgehammer like Trump.
I recognize I did not directly address how to help US workers
I have to run out and do some things. Maybe later I will have time.
Thank you
for your thoughtful answer above.
I am still trying to reconcile in my mind if there is a solution to the economic damage done by the neoliberal globalists and their war mongering neocon cousins. The depravity of these people knows no limits. The world is being run by sociopaths.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I agree about coal, but I don't agree about steel.
You single out all of the high tech industries and products like they are the only job creators on the planet worth having. They are not. Just look at what and how much people consume and none of it is made in the USA. We are the only country that doesn't impose tariffs or VAT on products in order to protect our workers and industries.
Don't even get me started on the big H2B visa lie and that there are no qualified Americans for the jobs. Companies get all kinds of training funds, and all they want to do is train their existing staff. They won't even hire and train the unskilled working poor, Uber and pizza delivery drivers with a HSD and no degree, let alone the homeless and millions in poverty depicted in the video below.
I don't care if Trump does it right or wrong. At least he is putting the conversation on the table, which is more than any of the other professional elites and academics have done. The same came be said for Bernie on income inequality. Maybe he should have "kept quiet" in case he fails. Funny how policies that help people are always a disaster in the making, but policies that help billionaires and CEOs are always going to be great - once they trickle down on us. "We are never ever going to have single payer health care!"
Tariffs will win Trump reelection. People are sick of their problems being created and then ignored by the ruling class. I didn't risk everything to vote for Stein in Michigan just to throw in the towel and vote for some lying Democrat because they aren't Trump.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Interesting comments
I thought VAT was sort of an internal tax, not a tariff-like tax. It was supposed to stop tax-avoidance schemes that pushed the profits into low-tax categories. Now, perhaps that was done via routing the product through a shell company in a foreign country - like Apple and the other were doing with the Irish/double Dutch scam.
Can you give me a little more info?
----
As for steel, I think I read the following statistics;
1) we already produce about 80% of our needs domestically.
2) we produce that steel with less than half the workers needed 50 years ago.
That says to me that steel tariffs will not have much impact because there isn't that much off-shore production to displace and that more capacity doesn't mean more jobs.
Of course, as you say, the psychology of it will be very effective, because most low-info voters do not have these numbers, nor do they have a grip on what part of the economy steel is vis-a-vis other industries. They are working off 50 year old social ideas. I mean, besides your vehicles and some heavy appliances, how much steel do you use? These days its all cheap plastic crapola, which does have the virtues of being much lighter and not rusting. (Hell, car bumpers used to be steel; now they're plastic.)
I completely agree about H1B, and would love to see someone crack down on that paycheck stifling scam. It goes hand in glove with the refusal to train. Recruiters simply demand that you be able to step into a job and be productive from day one, hour one. The whole job market is a demeaning, humiliating hazing.
I suppose its like Al Capone putting organized crime on the map. But, as I said elsewhere in this thread, if his solutions can be shown to fail, then he will have reinforced the free traders arguments. So, I think he has to do it right or he is just screwing us in a different way.
Thanks for the comments and the video.
Wikipedia notes that plastics are most commonly derived
from petrochemicals. They are therefore a result of fracking. Tiny particles of plastic waste are present in our drinking water. Plastic waste is killing our oceans. We need to get off plastic.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
@arendt
I thought that the VAT was a regressive tax on consumers, who have to pay it? As I thought I understood it, it was collected from people when they bought things?
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.
Even the Wikipedia summary confuses me.
That's sort of clear. Its the international payments that are confusing (and the source of these tax dodges):
That is not clear at all.
This may be a silly question, but
would steel be one of the industries likely to become pretty much mechanized in the near-ish future?
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.
Its already automated
Here's one in Austria:
How Just 14 People Make 500,000 Tons of Steel a Year in Austria
Capitalism must die.
This won't end otherwise. Even if some Second New Deal were implemented at some point, we'd be right back here 40 years after that.
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.
Yeah, but we can't have "son of capitalism" in its place
Its becoming obvious that, if we manage not to poison or incinerate the human race in the next decade, automation is going to a) replace a lot of labor; b) generate a lot of profit.
The battle lines are already being drawn about "Universal Basic Income", about who gets a share of the automation bonus that our collective engineering talent has produced. If its the same two dozen super rich assholes, there is going to be Luddism on a scale never seen before.
Another point made, even by Harvard Business School types, is that we have a surplus of capital - generated by game playing on Wall St., but generated nevertheless. All these holders of paper wealth are trying to cash it in for real assets; but the bottom line is that we don't need capitalism anymore to create capital. Wall St. showed us that all you have to do is push a button at a central bank, and voila, there is capital.
The problem is, given easy capital creation plus UBI or some other scheme, how to get rid of capitalism without it turning into Robespierre and the Directorate or Lenin and the Politburo.
We need an alternative mechanism; we need a mechanism that recognizes that automation can make life better for everyone (not just the super rich and their flunkies) and finds away to distribute that bonus and the remaining workload equitably. We need to find a way to clawback the looting of the last 40 years that doesn't look like mere vindictive counter-looting.
But, now you're off into sci-fi scenarios like "birthright lotteries" and other ways to prevent people from gaming such a system.
Do you have any thoughts on what an alternative to capitalism would look like?
There are no easy answers
But to find answers we must first identify and accept we have a problem.
Our media keeps telling us the problem is not our economy but who sits in the oval office.
It's a useful lie.
Thanks for this essay.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
@Steven D Mostly it's us they blame
Mostly it's us they blame. We're not savvy enough, we want to much, we won't retrain for high tech on our own dime, we're not entrepreneurial enough, we won't just move at the drop of a hat. For some job where you've never been, just up and leave your support network and friends. How deplorable of us.
Economic, ecological, and nuclear.
probably all three are coming to save us.
The US (and to a lesser or greater extent Europe) will economically break down soon. (There is some hope for Europe because their parlimentary syatems allow more room for the expression of subversive opinion - subversive to the oligopoly, for good or ill)
The ecological meltdown is going to hit even sooner and harder, exacerbated by the fact that global warming will hit harder and sooner in the third world. (the exception will be China)Poor people fleeing death from heat and pollution will flood Europe, America, Canada and Australia. This is already under way in Europe.
As for war, if Syria isn't the next Serbia (actually Israel or perhaps Saudi Arabia, as Serbia was the instigator of something that got out of hand) then it will be Iran, or an oil producer TBA, unless China tries to conquer a place to send its dying billions.
In the coming years about 6 billion people will die - if we're lucky it will only be 6 billion, and the sooner the fewer I know I will not be one of the survivers.
On to Biden since 1973
The CIA Congress is coming our way
Republican love for veterans with conservative views is well-known. No news on that front by their candidate choices. But the Democrats, formerly the people's party, is about to become the Big Brother Party, quite openly, in fact brazenly. Not only will the big money donors continue to exert lots of power vis a vis Wall Street and all the Derivative Detritus, but the spooks will be directly empowered--no more need to utilize dark money and covert ops. The New Democratic Exceptional America will have no shame* as its imperialistic plots kill millions more in the attempt to save humanity from itself by exterminating most of them.
*It is doubtful that any of them feel shame at all, as psychopaths do not have that emotion in their repertoire.
This will be, or should be, the wake-up call to all Berniecrats, progressives, independents to realize that they cannot reform the Democrats. Cannot. Do. It. Bernie, are you listening? The Democrats must be allowed to die by having all progressive candidates form a third party, such as the talked about Union Party or Labor Party.
The idea, I believe, is to replace them
with people who believe in democracy. Not to try to reform the corrupted and turn the psychopathic into human beings.
The roadblocks against other parties are insanely high and will continue and, if necessary to keep any real grassroots out, worsen - until a party gets in which will tear down the roadblocks.
The best thing to try is everything, replace the corrupt Dems with Progs, build up a Prog Party or 3 and vote only Prog.
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.
Apparently, this weekend, there was a massive . . . .
. . . . demonstration in D.C. protesting current gun policy. I heard (though I do NOT follow closely what the corporate media wants me to think is important) that as many as 500,000 people showed up to demonstrate.
If these things are true, think about this: One half million people showed up, with their bodies, to make a political statement.
And yet, where are the half million bodies showing up to protest endless war, which drains resources that could be used for good of the domestic population and siphons those resources off into the corrupt and murderous war machine?
Where are the half million bodies showing up to protest the bipartisan neoliberal consensus in D.C., or the fact that our whole political class is captured by moneyed interests?
If someone reads Livy's early history of the Roman republic, one sees that the only way the "little people" ("the plebians") got a foothold into the affairs of state, and somewhat allayed the monopoly of the patrician class on political power, was when, on two occasions, they held general strikes and forced the ruling class to come to terms with them by giving them REAL representation in the government (Thus, the office of the "tribune" was created and given substantial power.)
But here, in the United States, the "little people", for whatever reason(s), are not capable of even bringing 500,000 bodies to the mall in D.C. to protest their economic fleecing by the political system.
Reflect on these things.
Until we correct
our refugee status I see little traction on the gun issue either. It hit me this weekend that it really is not the guns per se, but the despair that drives people to use them that is the elephant in the room. It's also a sick warmongering culture that says all things can be solved by violence that perpetuates it. Our owners are fine if we kill each other off, in fact I think for many that is a goal of theirs to cull out the herd.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Next month there is going to be an effort
http://noforeignbases.org/
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
general strike planned for 1 May 18
not sure where it's coming from, but know where it needs to go.
Who is doing the general strike?
Can you provide more information about this? Por favor ..
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Yes, many foreigners commented on that disconnect.
It shows that the status quo has made it quite clear that anti-war demonstrations are hazardous to your career, your freedom, and your physical well-being. The message has been heard.
So we get these "flea circuses" in which people have internalized exactly what they are allowed to protest. It is as Chomsky said, a very narrow spectrum of allowed opinion that is vigorously disputed.
@arendt That's the Free Speech
That's the Free Speech Zones. The place you can protest, under guard, where no one can see or hear you.
Out of the most propagandized population on Earth,
how many do you think have any idea about what's going on, considering what the corporate media's telling them?
How many people do you know of who believe - due to this propaganda - that Putin is evil and the one invading other countries, the one who stole America's 'democracy', the one who bombs civilians for fun and drinks the blood of children and must be droned by democracy-spreading Americans and replaced by Americans edict and replacement choice of 'American business interest-friendly' for the good of all US citizens, nobly paying for 'the world's militarized policemen' - at home as well as abroad?
Speaking of America's 'democracy':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBYNDy56NIs
Edit to add:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po34gJEJwfE
Just listening to this, it's 15 minutes, about the same length as the other 20-min one.
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 U.S. as refugee camp.
This is a very powerful image. The banks came for the family farm and our neighbors came to buy our possessions for a pittance. The banks blew up our economy and we went to war to rebuild it. The banks sent our jobs overseas and we worked two jobs. The banks stole our pension plans so we moved in with our kids. The banks stole our homes so we shared a place to pay the rent. The banks stole everything else so we called them names. There is no problem here: just a society adjusting to the life that they have forced on everyone else. We all have it coming, kid, but on a different scale, of course.
The efficacy of tariffs has been debated for four hundred years. The answer is that they are good when they work, bad when they don't, and are always enforced until they go bad.
Yeah, it is pretty obvious to the aware observers
This "power elite" has managed to buy and control the 3 branches of US government, the pentagon, banksters, spooks and the media. What is left? They are coming for information technology next, well underway. Fear, poverty and destruction are the crumbs of undie-modacracy. The term refugee has even been co-opted, interchangeable with terrorist and undocumented aliens. Guess we are all aliens on our own Planet? Don't believe so. This parasitic layer of greedy money grubbers are the aliens. Most of the rest of us prefer peace and progress.
I hear you about refugee being coopted
Its bizarre that when refugees drown its a tragedy; but when they make it to land in the First World, its a problem.
I will grant that there are scum who overpack leaky boats for outrageous payments and leave the suckers to sink or swim. But, that's because the First World refuses to admit that its wars, climate change, and economic race-to-the-bottom are the causes of the refugees in the first place.
I thought that by getting people to recognize that refugees are just plain folks that it might humanize things a bit.
Oh, I think many get it
Your effort to meld the disconnect twixt the 'scary' refugees and the people next door: neighbors, family and friends who are kicked out of the murican dreamscapes is spot on. Until we shut down the hucksters and back up our neighbors, we are in a third world kinda way. Friend or foe?
This is an awesome comment
You pretty much summed up the history of the banks screwing generation after generation and congress just gave them permission to do it again. Bastards!
How much money is enough for the sociopaths? They can't possibly spend even half of what they have now. To be able to see the human suffering caused by their actions and not doing anything to help people. I can't begin ....
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
During Obama, 5 million *families* lost homes cause foreclosure
So let's say four people per family. That means roughly 20 million souls lost their shelter.
Image if the head lines in the NYTimes was "20 Million People Forced From Their Homes".
The UN would have declared a major refugee crisis. Aid camps would have been set up. Humanitarians would have asked the EU and Canada to take in as many refugees as possible.
This shows the desperate "refugee status" that many Americans currently live under.
BTW, Obama did nothing to stop these foreclosures and instead supported the banks.
Edit title: It was 5 million families that lost their homes. And then muliply by four and you get 20 million American refugees.
Exactly. Thanks for doing the numbers. n/t
"If you don't get some democracy, you can't have any
socialism. How can you have any socialism without any democracy?"
rightgeous rant
Great read you have it NAILED!All my bro in laws (5 of them)are rightwing nutjobs that feel sorry for millionaires,they worship these FUCKING health insurance cos and ALL of them have shitty no future jobs with no bennys.I'm a retired union electrician that was lucky enough to squeak out 30 years of steady work to earn a decent pension and a stable retirement although from 2008 to 2015 work was pretty spotty and i spent alot of time on the road to chase work.The point is my in laws NEVER got the concept of the NEW DEAL,now they all are younger and grew up during the Reagen years and UNIONs were LONG GONE by the time they were at the age to start their careers but the thing is they look at things WAY different than a UNION MAN.I cant get through to them how supporting these RICH ASSWIPES will ever get them anything but pissed on,they believe that someday they are going to be RICH themselves a sad dream that will never happen,I feel sorry for them cuz they are no longer middleclass none of the own their homes or have a nickel in the bank but they just keep voting for these fucking repugs anyway,I just dont get it....But Im starting too,the DEMs folded like cheapsuits after Reagen and the babyboomers failed the nation that was given them
DW
Truly the past is another country
They have erased the memory of the New Deal, and the current generations are on the fast track back to the serfdom that Hayek falsely claimed the New Deal was sending them to.
I am happy for your survival. You have more fortitude with righteous dumbasses than I do. I would have given up on them long ago.
Sad story about them. They are refugees who think they are on their way to collect their winnings. So dumb. Thanks for sharing.
They were very patient doing what they have done
By not immediately revoking the new deal that would have seen people in the streets, they slowly rolled back parts of it and now after they got their tax bill passed they are going to dismantle what's left of the safety net.
Yep, very patient.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
There was a commentary on the death of "Pete" Peterson
who must have had a heart transplant from Ayn Rand
https://www.alternet.org/economy/pete-petersons-ghost
that talks about our recent democratic Presidents;
"Politicians of both parties embraced the Peterson agenda for years. Bill Clinton, who received Peterson funding on the road to the White House. turned the Democratic Party in a more Peterson-friendly fiscal direction. Clinton emphasized deficit reduction, privatization, and means-testing as president, while over-praising the skills of the private sector.
Reaching the Summit
Clinton was a regular highlight at Peterson’s Fiscal Summit presentations, which feature the self-satisfied musings of privileged individuals who think they’re being brave for proposing policies that would pummel other Americans. These events typically treat even the worst political hacks, like John Boehner, as if they were statesmen. Paul Ryan, that empty-headed master of the Potemkin PowerPoint presentation, owes much of his undeserved “policy wonk” reputation to his hobnobbing with the Peterson crowd.
As president, Barack Obama followed in Clinton’s footsteps. As the nation grappled with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Obama began his presidency by appointing Peterson acolytes Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles to co-chair a commission. That commission wasn’t tasked with addressing soaring unemployment, or lost middle-class wealth, or the foreclosure crisis brought on by Peterson’s colleagues on Wall Street.
Instead, the Simpson/Bowles Commission was charged with reducing government deficits—and cutting Social Security, too, even though that program is forbidden by law from contributing to the federal debt."
We have few friends on either side of the aisle.
Wow, that rotten fucker is finally dead
He and Thatcher are the only two people whose graves I would piss on.
What a foul, entitled, relentless bum Pete Peterson was. He spent his filthy rich life taking away what little ordinary folks had.
May he rot in hell.
Pete Peterson is dead!
[video:https://youtu.be/PHQLQ1Rc_Js]
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Maybe it's the start of a trend?
Perhaps The Psychopaths That Be - almost invariably well past retirement age but still trying to make sure nobody else has anything at all that they can suck out of them - will now suddenly all discover that, in the absence of their having any souls, their conscienceless consciousnesses have rotted them through from the inside and are now immediately required of them before they actually complete the destruction of the rest of life on Earth? It would be fitting.
What a happy omen - Alligator Records!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syx5RE2dtPo
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.
Thank you for this thoughtful and intriguing essay
Not only have you written a great essay that has inspired numerous comments and questions, but you have tried to address every issue and comment made here. This is what makes for a great discussion, regardless of where we each fall along the lines of the issues you have raised. We all need to challenge ourselves to use our critical thinking skills to both question and propose solutions to the issues that face us today. This essay has made us do just that. Thanks again.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I appreciate your compliments
but it is the fact that there is civil discourse and intelligent questioning at c99p which makes me post these essays and respond to well-put replies. I am always blind-sided by what part of an essays generates discussion. My throwaway reference to tariffs was certainly not a primary focus of this essay; but it did generate an interesting discussion.
I am groping my way to understanding what the demonized, leftwing rump of the party formerly known as Democratic can accomplish in corporatized, financialized America. Currently, I think the first thing we have to accomplish is to admit that democracy is pretty much a farce in this country; and to stop friends from thinking that voting Democratic can accomplish anything important. Only by acknowledging that voting for candidates hand picked by billionaires accomplishes nothing useful to the 99% that we begin to ask how we can throw sand in the gearbox of the corporate state.
I do think that the only course for people without a party is to try to embarrass TPTB, although that's pretty hard when dealing with filthy rich sociopaths. And to do so without being tarred with the Putin-lover brush.
I always appreciate your input. Thanks for contributing.
One more thing
Words DO matter, particularly in how they are used to frame an issue. Your use of the term "refugees in our own country" is brilliant. Snoopydawg below expands on that subject far better than me.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
What's interesting about "refugees in our own country"...
is that such a situation is completely common in the parts of the Mid East we have trashed. A lot of Syrians are internal refugees. Same is true in Iraq. Both situations due to people fleeing US/KSA-sponsored ISIS in fear of their lives.
And, at least in our camps, we are not breathing depleted uranium dust. Just eating toxic McDonalds chemburgers and getting diabetes from all the corn syrup.
My point is that First World folks simply refuse to believe that the shit we have done to Third World countries could possibly happen to them. But I wrote about this in 2011 at GOS:
I have gotten tired of trying to wake people up. The jail door slammed a long time ago, and people still think they can walk out anytime.
Refugees in our own country
Can't get any more dramatic than that. This is exactly what the PTB have been pushing us towards and by golly they are succeeding. The bastards!
Thanks for this excellent essay. I've read it a couple times so I can understand how far we have fallen and how many people are going along for the ride. I don't understand how so many others can think that this is the greatest county on earth.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Yes, extremely powerfull
imagery. Went to sleep on it, woke up to in. A refugee in your own country. Fits way better than "I didn't leave the x party, the x party left me". Nobody left, we were pushed out. Politically dispossessed, economically displaced. For all of us one major medical or family emergency away from the street, for all those already there, surplussed out of the economy, it fits so well. I hope this framing makes it into the political/election discussion, it resonates on what it means to be an American citizen in the 21st century for a lot of us.
you write well
I like how you write,it is a gift...you should see how long it takes me to try to express myself.I cant type so I chicken peck with my glasses hanging off my nose,sure wish i would have took typing in hi school.People who write like you are blessed,you know how to put out a good message and believe me that aint easy.keep it up!
DW
Its all relative
When I look at someone like Will Pitt (who can type faster than I can talk) or the late Christopher Hitchens (who could write better drunk than most Oxford graduates could write sober), I have the sentiments that you have.
In truth, it takes a lot of time for me to write this stuff. I have some vague idea where I'm going. Igenerate sentences, then paragraphs, then I move those pieces about like jigsaw puzzle pieces and throw in some connectors. Producing the finished product is not an elegant, effortless process for me. But, I guess I'm old enough to have had good grammar, sentence structure, and composition drummed into me in high school. God help today's distracted, multi-tasking, web surfers.
Bottom line: there's always someone better than you and worse than you. I just try to stay centered and honest.
Thanks for your kind words.