Transparency:
January 2010 archive
Jan 12 2010
The Role of the Two Party System
The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to the doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can “throw the rascals out” at any election without leading to any profound or extreme shifts in policy. – Carroll Quigley
Carroll Quigley, esteemed professor of Harvard, Princeton and Georgetown, spilling the beans on his favorite subjects, the oligarchs. What he was describing in this passage was how the super wealthy saw the two party system way back in the 1920s.
It has evolved. They have gotten much more ruthless since then. Much more clever. And the devices of their control, television, radio, academia, are much more sophisticated than they were.
The role of the two party system is to keep the lower classes equally divided against themselves.
The role of the two party system is to keep the lower classes equally divided against themselves.
That hasn’t always been the role of political parties of course. But that is their primary purpose now.
The thing to understand is that the power control group, or whatever you want to call them, needs both parties. But for different reasons.
They way they’ve been using the Republicans is to push them, and the nation, farther and farther to the right. The old Overton Window trick.
The need for the Democrats is to appease the left, keep us from rioting in the streets like we should be. Ultimately, the Plutocrats would like to eliminate the “left” altogether. But until then, we are to be managed. That’s what Barack Obama was brought in for. To give us lefties a sense of empowerment, but to also show us the error of our ways. And how all of our political demands are just not serious.
They groomed and prepped him from the beginning. They stuck a presidential label on his head before he even won the Senate. Then they packaged him, branded him, and threw him into the big leagues.
And what a success he has been. Sure, not as many lefties have fallen for his act as they had hoped. But at least all the fighting between the two camps means the left has been divided and effectively neutralized.
And, despite the Republican’s severely damaging their brand under Bush, the reconstruction is going nicely.
As I’ve said before, once you ascend to the Senate or the White House, party affiliation becomes pure facade. We’re all Republicans now could be the Senate motto. As you descend down the power tree, the more real party affiliation becomes. All the way down to the loyal plebes.
This is how the control works. Half are loyal to Red and half are loyal to Blue. Red gets inflamed over their pet culture war issues and Blue gets inflamed over their pet culture war issues. So the corporate controlled media, the Plutocrats plaything, spends it’s days inflaming and pushing buttons.
Then they mix in a bunch of horror stories about common people gone mad (never a horror story about ruling elites going mad) and voilà – you never even notice them carrying your furniture out the back door.
While we’ve been obsessing over relatively minor issues, rich people’s issues, they have transformed our country, wiped out the middle working class, and begun the process of turning most Americans into poor laborers. That is their endgame. They are in the process of changing America into a different kind of country and society. And it isn’t the country the overwhelming majority of Americans want.
They have gutted our public services. (I called the police the other day to report a dead deer in the middle of the Hwy and I couldn’t reach anyone.) They have turned us against our own democratic government. The very government that our founders fought, died, and killed for.
We have been looted. We have been robbed. The elite power crowd are nothing but thieves and murderers. As Howard Zinn said, “They will kill you.” And that’s what they are doing. Piece by piece.
If we are to stop them, we have to do it soon. We are running out of time.
Jan 12 2010
Torture In Your Own Backyard
Cell Block D, Alcatraz
If Dostoevsky was right, that “the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons,” the United States has ceased to be civilized. When a country imprisons more than 2 million people, and when it manages to be torturing more than 20,000 of those prisoners through long term solitary confinement, something is wrong. Very, very wrong. And remarkably, the torture is thoroughly overlooked.
Torturing? Yes. Not waterboarding. Not stress positions. No. I’m talking about long term, unrelenting solitary confinement. Solitary confinement not for days, but for years, even for decades. Solitary confinement that literally drives prisoners crazy. Solitary confinement that is torture plain and simple.
Join me in Special Housing.
Jan 12 2010
Afternoon Edition
Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Aide to ex-British PM denies ‘sexing up’ Iraq dossier
by Katherine Haddon
2 hrs 4 mins ago
| LONDON (AFP) – Tony Blair’s former chief spin doctor Alastair Campbell fiercely denied Tuesday “sexing up” a dossier which claimed Iraq could launch chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes ahead of the 2003 war.
In a defiant appearance before a public inquiry on the conflict, Campbell said that while the highly controversial document could have been “clearer”, he still defended “every single word” of it — and the invasion itself. “I think Britain as a country should feel incredibly proud of the role it played in taking on one of the most brutal, barbarous regimes in history,” said Campbell, one of the former prime minister’s closest allies. |
Not only a liar, also a War Criminal just like Joachim von Ribbentrop (who was executed by the way).
Jan 12 2010
Welcome to the Ponzi Economy
You’ve heard the term Ponzi Scheme. Well now I want to introduce you to the term Ponzi Economy.
Here’s the problem that the U.S. Fed’s “exit” poses in simple English: Our fiscal 2009 deficit totaled nearly 12% of GDP and required over $1.5 trillion of new debt to finance it. The Chinese bought a little ($100 billion) of that, other sovereign wealth funds bought some more, but as shown in Chart 2, foreign investors as a group bought only 20% of the total – perhaps $300 billion or so. The balance over the past 12 months was substantially purchased by the Federal Reserve. Of course they purchased more 30-year Agency mortgages than Treasuries, but PIMCO and others sold them those mortgages and bought – you guessed it – Treasuries with the proceeds. The conclusion of this fairytale is that the government got to run up a 1.5 trillion dollar deficit, didn’t have to sell much of it to private investors, and lived happily ever – ever – well, not ever after, but certainly in 2009. Now, however, the Fed tells us that they’re “fed up,” or that they think the economy is strong enough for them to gracefully “exit,” or that they’re confident that private investors are capable of absorbing the balance. Not likely.
Jan 12 2010
Reality Check: You Are Not a ‘Person’
Not to them. Not to the Ruling Class. Not to The Powers That Be.
WE all know how special and wonderful you are…..they, however, just don’t care
To them you are merely….a unit.
A demographic unit, a production unit, a consumption unit, a vote unit, a contribution unit, and if you are the right age etc, a military unit.
Sorry to be the one to tell you, but ……… They just don’t care about you. They don’t like you and they don’t hate you. It is not personal. It’s about production and consumption ONLY. You, to them, do not exist, except as an entry on a spreadsheet.
They don’t care how you feel, what you want or what your dreams and aspirations are….except so far as it helps them sell stuff to you. And they don’t care about how you feel about them not caring about you.
They do care about what scares you though, so they can use your fears to manipulate you.
But it is decidedly not personal.
As long as you continue to produce for them, everything is fine. You have nothing to fear. You can be comfortable, and they can be comfortable. The deal, the bargain, works. They get the fruits of your labor, and you get the illusion of security.
Until you don’t.
Then they REALLY don’t care.
Until through some “glitch’ in the System, you lose your job or can’t make your mortgage or credit card payments or don’t pay your taxes….or until you stand up to ‘them.’
Then you change into a ‘problem unit,’ something that must be ‘dealt with.’
Jan 12 2010
Feingold considering asking Reid to step down
Crossposted at Daily Kos
Where is Joe Lieberman to save you now, Harry?
Or maybe C Streeter Jon Ensign can come to Harry’s rescue again
Add John Ensign’s parents to the list of Republicans for Reid.
Michael and Sharon Ensign donated $4,800, the maximum donation, to Nevada Sen. Harry Reid during the third fundraising quarter, according to a report from political newspaper Roll Call.
Bold added by the diarist
More below the fold.
Jan 12 2010
Bank Holiday Jan 15,2010
OK honestly, it is a “minority report” coming from one of those “CT” sources. A well known character Benjamin Fulford reported on high level meetings and plans to devalue the dollar 6 to 10 to one. Now I know mainstream isn’t going to give me real news so search elsewhere is a given.
The confirmation search leads to other sources.
Jan 12 2010
The Betrayal By Barack Obama
It has been reported now that Obama officially received over $20 million from health insurance industry in 2008 campaign: Obama pockets $20 milllion from the enemy
While, I’m sure this surprises no one, all that money has been well spent on getting Obama to totally betray the public interest.
The tragedy is that Obama is all too willing and happy to do this.
Here’s the money quote:
Historian and media critic Norman Solomon, who was also an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention, called the president’s transformation on healthcare since taking office “shameful.”
“Overall it’s been a very corporate friendly healthcare approach from Obama as president,” Solomon said in an interview with Raw Story. “Corporate friendly in a way that I believe is injurious to public health.”
He underscored the subtle but substantive change in healthcare language used by Obama and the White House.
“We don’t hear so much now about ‘healthcare reform,'” Solomon said. “We’re hearing a lot more about ‘health insurance reform.’ And that is absolutely in large measure driven by the White House.”
“The funding from the healthcare industry to the Obama campaign, in retrospect, was not misplaced,” Solomon said. “It appears, based on policy, that those funders are getting what they would’ve hoped for.”
“Let me put it this way,” he added. “Single-payer advocates literally couldn’t get into the White House. And you have [chief pharmaceutical industry lobbyist and former Republican congressman] Billy Tauzin and Big Pharma and all of these in-depth strategy meetings in the White House in mid-2009 cutting deals. And I think it’s shameful.”
Jan 12 2010
Full Court Press: Creating the Points, Part One
After taking time out from blogging, I decided that it’s time to start crafting the points discussed by Jeff Roby in his entry, “For a Full Court Press“. This obviously isn’t going to be completed overnight. It should be designed with as much input as is reasonable and with time enough to include all the relevant details while listening to all interested parties. But we do need to get the ball rolling now. Already, some states have seen their filing deadlines for Congressional races pass. If we’re to lay the groundwork for the Full Court Press, and test it out on at least a smaller scale this year in preparation for 2012, this is the time to do it.
And so, without further adieu…
Jan 12 2010
Proposition 8: Marriage Equality Day 2 (Up Dated)
The second day of testimony challenging Proposition 8 will begin at around Noon EST. The first day seemed to go well for the plaintiffs who are saying that Prop 8 violates their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.
There is live blogging from Rick Jacobs at Courage Campaign’s Prop 8 Trial Tracker and by Teddy Partridge and David Dayen at FDL
Here are some highlights and observations from yesterday’s opening statements and testimony.
Judge Vaughn Walker questions defense attorney Charles Cooper’s contradictions
Walker: If the Prez’s parents had been in Virginia when he was born, their marriage would have been unlawful. Doesn’t that show a TREMENDOUS change in the institution of marriage? doesn’t that show evolution? Isn’t that correct?
Cooper: Racial restrictions were never a feature of the institution of marriage. (laughter in our courtrtoomm)
Cooper: These restrictions were loathesome, and a detail. “Man and woman” has been universal, across time and all societies.
walker: Is the evidence going to show these racial restrictions are different than the restrictions imposed by Prop 8?
(like a bug pinned to a piece of wood)
Cooper: Naturally procreative instincts….
Walker: Only purpose?
Cooper: Basis of marriage is procreation. It is a pro-child societal institution.
Walker: Many things attend marriage, will your evidence show that those are all secondary to procreation?
Cooper: This is about deinstitutionalizing marriage…
Walker: Yes, you say that. But will your evidence show that?
Up Date From FDL h/t to Dayen
Geoff Kors, the Executive Director of Equality California, which led the opposition to Prop. 8 in November 2008. He was excited about the first day of testimony, particularly the words of the four same-sex partners who took the stand, the first time in a federal trial that same-sex couples have testified. “Their testimony was really moving. You heard them say that marriage is not just about rights and benefits but about love and commitment.”
Kors also singled out Ted Olson’s opening statement as the conservative case for marriage equality. Olson said that allowing certain couples a separate status despite similar rights and benefits creates a stigma without a compelling rational basis for doing so. “To have a conservative legal scholar take that position is very powerful.”
Before the trial began, Kors released a statement calling on the Obama Administration’s Justice Department to issue an amicus brief in favor of their position in Perry v. Schwarzenegger.
“The time has come for elected leaders to empower all Americans, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Once again, we call on the Obama administration to join Equality California and others in urging the federal courts to strike down this grossly unjust law. In doing so, we will bring our nation one step closer to realizing its promise of equality for all. Our country’s bedrock principles of democracy and freedom are at stake.”Kors elaborated on that after the first day of testimony. “This is the civil rights trial of the decade,” he said. “We’re asking the Justice Department to weigh in on a basic principle. This doesn’t only apply to the LGBT community, but all minorities. And to be silent is unacceptable.”
(emphasis mine)
I’m certain Kors isn’t holding his breath