The Fait Accomplis of History

"I think history is going to show that in so many ways [Biden's presidency] was transformative" -- Kamala Harris

Harris' statement is correct, yet nobody, least of all her, wants to deal with the actual transformation. What is that transformation?

1) Let's start with Harris' proposals to, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, throw the bums a dime. It is now public knowledge that all Dem promises of doing anything for the mass public are retractable. How do we know this? It's easy: look at what the Democratic Party let Manchin and Synema do with the Build Back Better Act before they shot it down. So that's changed. Even Obama was able to do something about the health insurance crisis.

2) Democratic Party primaries are now transparently empty gestures. Want to know who will win? Ask the DNC chair. Don't bother voting in any of them. Just vote for whomever they choose, and if 7/8ths of the way through, they happen to choose someone different in a totally kewl palace coup, vote for that person.

3) Inflation/ dedollarization. With neoliberalism, the banks were so tightly in control of the economy that inflation was minimal. But 2021 and 2022 inflation was high by American standards, and it will probably return as the rest of the world ditches the US dollar.

4) War is now much hotter, and much more global, than it once was. This is especially apparent in Ukraine, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Niger, Burma, Taiwan, and elsewhere. Maybe it will be nuclear war -- we are closer to nuclear war than we have EVER been, and we were mighty close under Kennedy. Let that sink in.

5) Genocide is now the party line, among both major parties and among the elites of US, Canada, Europe, Australia. Yeah, raw, Armenian-level, genocide. Free speech against genocide may cause you to lose your job. And god forbid if you try to be anti-genocide while attending or teaching at a university!

6) Trump, the main raison d'etre of the Democratic Party, now appears as the lesser evil, mostly because he promises to end the Ukraine atrocity, and largely because of his general laziness. But Trump will be evil, so vote for Stein.

7) Europe is in steep decline now. The UK is becoming an authoritarian Hell. France is a mess. Europe has demilitarized, and is now deindustrializing, while maintaining an anti-Russian stance it can't afford. Mostly this is because all of the CIA-picked "leaders" of Europe bought into the Ukraine scam.

8) America is now transparently an oligarchy, spreading anti-democratic sentiment around the world. Do not think the legal enshrinement of your rights and freedoms will protect you if you offend this oligarchy in the least and if they can be bothered to notice you.

9) BRICS is expanding, and will at some point create a global currency to replace the Dollar.

So, yes, Biden has been a transformative President. And the transformation continues!

There are two things though.

1) Whomever becomes President next January will be confronted with the vast legacy of the Biden administration as a fait accompli. We might say "oh gee, we need to stop all this stuff from happening!" but the horse has left the barn on that option. The bigger problem is that nobody is talking about this fait accompli. Rather, what we can expect, regardless of who wins, is a deep re-militarization of American society, complete with military draft. So that's what we'll be getting. Harris has promised it, and you know the Donald wants it. Perhaps this reality will be more clearly evident if Ukraine collapses before the election.

2) The greater fait accompli, of course, is that fifty years of neoliberalism has given us a world completely dominated by corporations and their billionaire owners. The public needs to confront the fact that it no longer lives in a world in which any official "leadership" will support them when the chips are down.

So we are no longer in the land of The Internationale, nor the Billy Bragg version, nor are we in the world of Jefferson Airplane's We Can Be Together nor of Volunteers. And democracy is certainly not coming to America, at least not yet. Rather:

And that's what we have to work with. Thanks, transformative President. You da man (though probably not for much longer).

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snoopydawg's picture

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since he arrived in congress. The senator from MBNA passed so many bills in favor or the parasite class whilst screwing the Lower classes.

I just read how he put on controls for censoring social media back in 1991. He definitely put them into play.

The public needs to confront the fact that it no longer lives in a world in which any official "leadership" will support them when the chips are down.

The people are asleep and they have no intention of wanting to wake up. Half sees their team as w working for their best interests while both teams join together to screw us. Biden's history was well known before the election, but shitlibs said they’d push him left. They didn’t even try.

Obama ruined healthcare in this country. Did 500,000 people go bankrupt before Obama Care?
His electronic record’s system has caused hundreds of thousands doctors to sell their practices which are being bought up by hedge funds which thought doctors now work for a they have to put profits before patient's health.

Yes w e are definitely a fascist oligarchy and have been for many decades.

I don’t see how voting will change anything until people see what’s right in front of them.
Plus we have to get Israel’s control os government stopped. How? Dunno…

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A leftist is someone with morally correct politics. A liberal is someone who wants to feel morally correct w/o ever putting themselves at odds with power or costing themselves opportunities or experiencing the uncomfortable emotions that truth causes.

Cassiodorus's picture

@snoopydawg is that, back in early 2021 at least, the Dems used to claim that "Biden has moved to the left." This was, of course, when BBB was still in play.

I don't think they're saying that anymore.

I don’t see how voting will change anything until people see what’s right in front of them.

Yep. It's sure not happening now.

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“One of the things I love about the American people is that we can hold many thoughts at once” - Kamala Harris

snoopydawg's picture

@Cassiodorus

The MOST progressive president since FDR….lol. Do they actually believe that?

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9 users have voted.

A leftist is someone with morally correct politics. A liberal is someone who wants to feel morally correct w/o ever putting themselves at odds with power or costing themselves opportunities or experiencing the uncomfortable emotions that truth causes.

protestors win

Students for Gaza SFSU announced Thursday that San Francisco State University has pulled investments from three companies the university claims do not meet its human rights standards following demonstrations from pro-Palestinian activists and groups.

In the agreement reached with students, the university will sell its corporate bond position in aerospace and defense company Lockheed Martin, stock positions in Italian defense company Leonardo, and U.S.-based data analysis enterprise Palantir Technologies.

The move shifted SFSU’s $163 million investment portfolio after pro-Palestinian student protesters made headways in meeting with university leaders to discuss demands. The university became the first in the county to hold public negotiations with students.

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Cassiodorus's picture

@gjohnsit spent the summer strategizing to suppress student activism. Here is their plan.

Key sentence:

Bans on encampments, temporary structures, amplified sound, chalking, freestanding signs, flyering, outdoor displays, and event tables are among the measures introduced to curtail political expression.

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“One of the things I love about the American people is that we can hold many thoughts at once” - Kamala Harris

usefewersyllables's picture

certainly been successful in transforming the US into a failed state.

I was discussing our upcoming nuclear annihilation with a like-minded friend. He was convinced that Putin would employ tactical nukes in Ukraine at any moment. I told him that I thought that unlikely: the Russians are winning handily, without having to go to those extremes. When the final phase of WWIII starts, it will start because of the Israelis using their nukes on someone, or because we decide that we need to do that somewhere to look tough. Or, most likely of all, because of an accidental launch or some sort of weapons-handling failure. In that respect, we've been on borrowed time for decades. In any case, once one goes off, they'll all go off, of course.

I pointed out that Putin is merely returning the favor bestowed upon the Soviet Union by Reagan: he is perfectly happy now to bide his time and let us bankrupt ourselves with our military adventurings, and fall into financial and existential chaos. That'll be the fait accompli of the ages, won't it?

He's following Sun Tsu's advice, to wit: "Never interrupt your enemy while he is busy making a mistake". At this point, every move the US makes is either a new mistake, or a doubling-down on a previous mistake.

It boggles the mind that our "leaders" and Owners can be this unutterably stupid...

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Cassiodorus's picture

@usefewersyllables Let's give it an accurate name: destroying democracy.

It's why they're there, it's what they're good at, and so they'll continue to do it until they're stopped.

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“One of the things I love about the American people is that we can hold many thoughts at once” - Kamala Harris

QMS's picture

@Cassiodorus

you can almost bet the opposite is true
'saving democracy' while destroying it
'working for peace' while selling bombs
protecting freedoms, but for who?
most normal people do not need to
lie, steal and cheat to maintain power

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lotlizard's picture

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/03/jewish-groups-mino...

… which, however, is evidently nothing but a big joke now, because almost all these groups and communities, either vocally or through their silence, back the soon-to-be fait accompli of outright genocide in Gaza and, soon, the West Bank as well.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/09/03/there-is-no-argument-for-supp...

https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-minister-calls-for-declaration-of-...

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-stands-by-israel-as-its-reason-of-state-wi...

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