Showing posts with label Democrats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Democrats. Show all posts

Saturday, June 01, 2019

Can the Corporations Ever be Corralled?

Among the archives at Daykeeper Journal, website of the late Maya del Mar, astrologer, I found this article which, though written in 2002, is even more relevant today. We are now just a year or so away from that key date mentioned in her last paragraph: 2020. The "democratic movement" has shifted towards the left in recent years, but the establishment, corporate Democrats will be loath to let go of the reins and allow such candidates as Bernie Sanders to take over. I suspect a few more years will still have to pass, after 2020, before the final exit of the corporate Democrat clan.

Why Corporations Rule the Nation
Ms del Mar began thus:

"Corporations provide the matrix for our lives.

Our lives are shaped and governed by corporations. The consumer culture, the sea in which we live, is run by corporate image-making, advertising, and media control. Corporate values become cultural values. Corporate politics become government politics. Every area of our lives is fashioned by the dominant corporate culture.

The corporate movement grows implacably, like a giant amoeba, and threatens to take over the world, and destroy it in the process. As it grows, it shuts out democracy and effective decision-making. It is no wonder that people have quit voting and quit paying attention to civic life. We feel disempowered—and in many ways we are.

How can astrology shed light on this growth of corporate power?

She explains the cycles of the outer planets and the relevance of those current at the time of writing. She then goes on to look at the chart for the birth of the USA using 4 July 1776 at 5:10 PM, Philadelphia.


The United States has a lucky chart. The U.S. Declaration of Independence chart (7-4-1776, 5:10 p.m., Philadelphia) is blessed with a grand earth trine, which means material success comes easily to this nation........... We have the resources to enable us to develop models for harmonious, bountiful living.

However, this great gift of earth energy has been co-opted by corporations, and much of it transformed into toxins and garbage. The early idealistic political vision of Americans has been gradually subverted by the corporate bottom line of making profit for the corporation. Earth, tangible goods, is also the raw material of corporations.

The U.S. chart is also fortunate in having a Sagittarius Ascendant. This makes Jupiter the chart ruler, governing all U.S. expression of energy. Jupiter is the greater benefic, and shows good fortune and expansion. It is also especially associated with corporations (and old boys’ groups).

20-year Jupiter-Saturn cycles show the social-business character of our everyday lives...........For most of this nation’s history, we have had Jupiter and Saturn joining every 20 years in earth signs.... This earth phase really went into full gear in 1842, as the Civil War was building up...... We have just experienced our last Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in earth signs for the next 600 years, in May of 2000. This one was at 23 Taurus. Taurus is the most fixed, determined, and possessive of the earth signs. It is loathe to let go. The last conjunction in Taurus was in 1881, which began the "gilded age," the time of millionaires, consolidations, mansions, and high living. Corporations came into their own then.

Now we are closing the long earth cycle with Taurus. Will corporations extend their power, as they have in the past? Will we, the people, look at their excesses and corruption, and decide to take charge of them again? Will we reclaim democracy? Or will it be that the 200-year earth period was the time for corporations to grow into ruling the world — regardless of who and what gets hurt and destroyed?

This last Taurus conjunction in May 2000 ties in very nicely with the U.S. chart. It helps U.S. corporations move ahead with the steamroller effect until 2020, when we begin the air cycle in Aquarius. In the meantime we can begin to rebuild a democratic movement, and be ready to emerge with some sovereign infrastructure by 2020.

Saturday, July 14, 2018

Saturday & Sundry Pieces of Interest


 Mabel Lucie Attwell's illustration
Why the Democrats Are Also to Blame for Brett Kavanaugh by Joshua Frank at Counterpunch this week:

Snips
If the Democrats cannot cobble together a solidified opposition to Trump’s most egregious policies, why would the Kavanaugh nomination be any different? Instead of drawing up a visionary blueprint that aims to excite a true grassroots movement against the corporate establishment, they continue to shiver in the face of internal upheaval as they have with the recent victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York.


The Democrats don’t control the Senate for a reason. They have not galvanized the majority of Americans who oppose the Wall Street takeover of our government and the perpetual wars that prop it up. Why? Because the Democrats don’t actually oppose either. They aren’t inept, Democrats are simply professional defenders of the status-quo................

Remember, this is the same party that demonized Bernie Sanders’ supporters and believed the movement he sparked and the issues he raised were unworthy of recognition.

This is the same party that rubber-stamped the endless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, the slaughters in Libya, Yemen, and more. This is the same party that backs Israel’s brutal occupation of Paletine. This is the same party that overwhelmingly backed the PATRIOT Act and the ongoing evisceration of our civil liberties. This is the same party that dismantled the welfare system while increasing corporate welfare. This is the same party that claims to believe in climate change but hasn’t done a damn thing to stop Big Oil. This is the same party that supports the death penalty, mass incarceration and a militarized Police State. This is the same party that claims to support women’s rights in the US but outright ignores the horrible working conditions and abuse their neoliberal policies inflict upon the women, many of them girls, who toil away in sweatshops around the globe in the name of profit.

They will whine that they’ve been steamrolled by Trump and the Republicans, but shed no tears for the Democrats. You can’t be steamrolled if you aren’t even standing in front of the machine that’s about to crush us.




The New Age of Astrology
In a stressful, data-driven era, many young people find comfort and insight in the zodiac—even if they don’t exactly believe in it. An interesting piece by Julie Beck in The Atlantic earlier this year.

It begins:

Astrology is a meme, and it’s spreading in that blooming, unfurling way that memes do. On social media, astrologers and astrology meme machines amass tens or hundreds of thousands of followers, people joke about Mercury retrograde, and categorize “the signs as ...” literally anything: cat breeds, Oscar Wilde quotes, Stranger Things characters, types of french fries. In online publications, daily, weekly, and monthly horoscopes, and zodiac-themed listicles flourish.
This isn’t the first moment astrology’s had and it won’t be the last. The practice has been around in various forms for thousands of years. More recently, the New Age movement of the 1960s and ’70s came with a heaping helping of the zodiac.

In the decades between the New Age boom and now, while astrology certainly didn’t go away—you could still regularly find horoscopes in the back pages of magazines—it “went back to being a little bit more in the background,” says Chani Nicholas, an astrologer based in Los Angeles. “Then there’s something that’s happened in the last five years that’s given it an edginess, a relevance for this time and place, that it hasn’t had for a good 35 years. Millennials have taken it and run with it.”
Lots more at the link!





A recent challenge at Quora brought about many answers, all entertaining: Remove one letter from the name of a TV show or movie. What's the premise of the new show or movie?
Here's one of the first, and more compact answers I stumbled upon, it's by a Quora friend Charlie Anne Excell, who gave her permission for its use on my blog.

I enjoyed the chuckles:

••NOW••SHOWING••

Mad Ma - Crazy mother of a hero takes the car keys, for pimpin' her car again. Gets to bingo quicker tho..

Forrest Gum - Mentally challenged son learns to blow impressive bubbles, which rise & save him after falls off shrimp boat. Mum likes it, she really really likes it…

One With The Wind - Frankly, people not giving a damn about openly farting during their public meditations.

Lord Of The Rigs - Tall hatted magician helps hairy-footed kids, hairy-faced equestrians and pointy-eared models drive an evil semi-trailer smack into a fireplace.

0 Shades Of Grey - Smartass guy and oddball chick sit round knitting, reading the phonebook and yawning. (I know.. I removed a number, not “a letter!” Sheesh, CHILL!, hava cold shower..)

Crocodile Undee - ‘Tables are turned' as U.S. journo chick pervs at reptile wrangler's bum cheeks in U.S. thong undees, as he gratuitously bends to look in water for a croc.


Star War
- Basic type space movie. Doubt there'll be a sequel.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Harry Otter; Py Kids; The Leg Movie; SharkNad!; When Harry Et Sally; Fiddler On The Roo; and, Itchcock.

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Mini-rant, Politically Motivated.

I seldom, these days, blog about anything relating to U.S. politics, or manage to find an article which echoes, nearly, my own feelings about everybody's favourite Demon of the Day, Month, Year, Decade: President Donald Trump.

I've become so disgusted with online pundits, reports of late night hosts' constant jokes and derisions, and the same old same old stuff, day after day, about Trump, and his wife (who can do nothing right, while Saint Michelle Obama could do no wrong!)

Yes, we know, and have known since 2016, that Donald Trump should never be anywhere within a thousand miles of the US presidency. Enough US citizens did put him there, he didn't get there by magic! I do wish some people would start dealing with this eventuality in a more adult way! I sometimes feel, reading, or hearing things political, as though I'm in a flippin' high school classroom!

President Trump's latest adventure, in Singapore, has brought down, as expected, more sneers. While there's no guarantee anything positive will eventually come of it - who could deny that it was a step in the right general direction - albeit a baby step? It's still more than Saint Obama managed in his two terms - he was too busy sending out drones!

Anyway, back to my first remark: here is a piece I can agree with. Maybe I'm turning Libertarian in my old age? That was the way I voted in 2016, anyway - to avoid voting for either Clinton or Trump. T'was our only alternative in Oklahoma. I've never been a Democrat anyway, always Independent, from first registering to vote, in 2008. The Democrats have been sliding further and further downward in my estimation since then - not least due to their dastardly efforts to stop Bernie Sanders from gaining the Democratic nomination over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

North Korea: Pelosi Versus Peace
by Thomas Knapp


It begins:
Which is worse: The specter of nuclear war, or giving US president Donald Trump credit for a significant diplomatic accomplishment?

In her official statement on Trump’s Singapore summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, US House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi makes it clear that a few million incinerated human beings are a small price to pay to keep the 68-year-old Korean War going. Maybe not forever, but at least until there’s a Democrat in the White House.
And ends:
A genuine and durable peace on the Korean peninsula may or may not be achievable, but Trump seems to be giving it the old college try. Pelosi and her party, having proven unable to lead and unwilling to follow on the matter, should at least have the decency to get the hell out of the way.

Bravo Mr Knapp!

Afterthought:
Link to a post I wrote about the North Korean situation in 2013:
North Korea - The Unknowns

Postscript - After drafting the above I came across a couple more pieces whose authors are thinking along similar lines to Thomas Knapp - and your friendly ranting Blogger:
By John Laurits: Brand Marketing a Political Party: Inside the Democrats’ Fake Opposition.

And, The Democrats Out-Right the Right on North Korean Summit by Ajamu Baraka.

Thursday, October 19, 2017

With bells on...

I'm at a loss how to comment, with any good sense, about US politics (or even about British politics, especially Brexit) these days. "Sometimes the only thing you can do is stare blankly."* For now, I'll rely on anyone remaining more clear-headed than I'm feeling:
(*A line from "The Long Earth" by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter - my current read.)

Jim Haygood, a regular in the comments section at naked capitalism, on 17 October wrote, in the afternoon "Water Cooler" segment:

Truthdig has posted an awesome interview of Chris Hedges by WSWS.

Excerpt:
Cris Hedges: Politicians like the Clintons, Pelosi and Schumer are creations of Wall Street. That is why they are so virulent about pushing back against the Sanders wing of the Democratic Party. Without Wall Street money, they would not hold political power.

The Democratic Party doesn’t actually function as a political party. It’s about perpetual mass mobilization and a hyperventilating public relations arm, all paid for by corporate donors. The base of the party has no real say in the leadership or the policies of the party, as Bernie Sanders and his followers found out. They are props in the sterile political theater.

These party elites, consumed by greed, myopia and a deep cynicism, have a death grip on the political process. They’re not going to let it go, even if it all implodes.
Bring it, Lord!

INDEEDY! (With bells on!)

I'll add a little more from the Chris Hedges interview, this on identity politics:
Chris Hedges: Well, identity politics defines the immaturity of the left. The corporate state embraced identity politics. We saw where identity politics got us with Barack Obama, which is worse than nowhere. He was, as Cornel West said, a black mascot for Wall Street, and now he is going around to collect his fees for selling us out.

My favorite kind of anecdotal story about identity politics:
Cornel West and I, along with others, led a march of homeless people on the Democratic National Convention session in Philadelphia. There was an event that night. It was packed with hundreds of people, mostly angry Bernie Sanders supporters. I had been asked to come speak. And in the back room, there was a group of younger activists, one who said, “We’re not letting the white guy go first.” Then he got up and gave a speech about how everybody now had to vote for Hillary Clinton. That’s kind of where identity politics gets you. There is a big difference between shills for corporate capitalism and imperialism, like Corey Booker and Van Jones, and true radicals like Glen Ford and Ajamu Baraka. The corporate state carefully selects and promotes women, or people of color, to be masks for its cruelty and exploitation.....The new form of feminism is an example of the poison of neoliberalism. It is about having a woman CEO or woman president, who will, like Hillary Clinton, serve the systems of oppression....

Thursday, December 08, 2016

Bernie's Long Game ?

Many commenters around the internet are still holding a grudge about Senator Bernie Sanders' support for Hillary Clinton, after his defeat in the primaries. Whenever his name is mentioned in a news piece, on certain websites, a chorus of, in my opinion, highly inappropriate and thoughtless derision ensues.
It was good to read this exchange on naked capitalism.com this week.

Fiery Hunt - December 5, 2016 at 3:11 pm:
Re: Bernie
I don’t care that he endorsed or campaigned for the Almost-Queen. He’s still the only politician talking about what’s really going on in America. And he’s not shy about calling it what it is. A big festering corruption cesspool. And he’ll always have my respect for that.

Reply - uncle tungsten - December 5, 2016 at 11:46 pm
All the more power to his mind and voice, I say. I perceive he plays a long game and immediate issues do not stampede him to hasty judgements/actions. There is much water and tears to flow along the stream in the next two years and I am sure Bernie Sanders and supporters will be there to move the stepping stones deftly into position where and if they can.
He has an aura of the aikido master about him and we would be wise to learn the moves and hear the strategy.

The exchange was prompted by a link at the website to a piece about Senator Sanders' recent speeches including one in San Rafael.

Snip:
For people who are distressed by Trump’s election, Sanders had some disturbing news: things could get worse if campaign finance laws are weakened further.

“The reality is that this country both politically and economically is moving toward an oligarchic form of society where a small number of very wealthy and powerful people control our economy and our political life,” Sanders said.

“So what we have to do,” Sanders said, “is create a strong grassroots movement where we bring people together to fight not only for social justice, not only for environmental justice, but for economic justice as well. But here is where it becomes difficult.

"It is very easy for many Americans to say, I hate racism, I hate homophobia, I hate sexism", Sanders said, but it is a little bit harder for people in the middle or upper middle class to say, maybe we do have to deal with the greed of Wall Street.

“One of the things I’m trying to do,” Sanders said, “is to figure out a way to radically transform the Democratic Party from a party led by a liberal elite to a party led by working people and young people and people who really want to transform society.”

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Will she, won't she, will he won't he....?



Bernie Sanders is to address his supporters by video streaming this evening. I guess Bernie is going to explain his plan for coming months, having met Hillary Clinton this week to discuss how they might find areas of agreement...will they, won't they, will they, won't they? I received an invitation to the streaming for RSVP, but when I tried to respond I was asked for my cellphone number. I don't have one. My husband has our single, very basic cellphone, which I've almost never had the need to use, and in any case dishing out its number to who knows where didn't appeal to me. I must rely on others to report what Bernie has to say tonight, as to whether he and Hillary will dance together, or continue stepping on one another's toes.

Ted Rall had a good piece up at Smirking Chimp yesterday :
What Hillary Must Do to Win Over Bernie Voters

SNIP

What do Bernie Sanders supporters want? As Trump says, everything is negotiable. So let’s negotiate!

“Add back the public option to the Affordable Care Act,” Howard Dean suggests to Hillary in the New York Times. “Let Americans vote with their feet about whether they want to be in a single payer or the current system.”

The problem with that is, big insurance companies bribed her with $13 million in campaign contributions to get her to say that single payer “will never, ever come to pass.”

Dean wants Clinton to back Sanders’ “massive overhaul of the criminal justice system, starting with emptying for-profit prisons and juvenile detention centers.”

Nice idea, except that here too, she’s owned: she collected as many big donations from lobbyists for the for-profit prison industry as Marco Rubio.

He also wants her to embrace Bernie’s push for reforming Wall Street – but how likely is it that someone who made over $100 million giving speeches to scumbags in the financial services industry will turn against her backers?

“She should release the transcripts of her speeches and explain any of the objectionable things she said in them,” says Stephanie Rioux. If Clinton were going to show us her speeches, it would already have happened.

It may not feel like it now, but Hillary Clinton is in a pickle.

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Shattering

I guess congratulations are in order to all supporters of Hillary Clinton, presumptive Democratic nominee. Why though? What's to congratulate, I ask myself. Because she's a female, shattering that legendary glass ceiling? Not from where I'm standing - I was unfortunate enough to have experienced Margaret Thatcher's reign in Britain. I know exactly what shattering effects to expect from the wrong kind of woman. In my view Hillary Clinton is the wrong kind of woman to hold the breathtaking amount of power attached to being President of the United States of America.

A few thoughts from recent articles online:

The author of the list below, at naked capitalism responded to an enquirer: "feel free to share" - so I'm sharing it too -
Lambert [Strether] here:
Clinton’s presumptive nomination comes with a number of key policy decisions that liberals must own “going forwards,” as we say:

1. Corruption. To protect Clinton, liberals have adopted the majority doctrine in Ctizens United: Only a quid pro quo is proof of corruption.

2. Transparency. To protect Clinton, liberals maintain that high government officials can, at will, privatize their communications to shield them from FOIA.

3. Militarism. To protect Clinton, liberals minimize her AUMF vote, ignore Libya, ignore Honduras, ignore Ukraine, and treat unwavering support for Israel as an unqualified good.

4. Health. To protect Clinton, liberals reject Medicare for All.

5. Working Class. To protect Clinton, liberals deny that there is or can be a working class electorate. The electorate is only to be viewed through the prism of identity politics. Two category errors follow: The “white working class” is deemed to be racist, by definition, and the non-white working class is erased. Consequently, it’s impossible to think through the universal effects of the FIRE sector on the working class, nor its differential effects on particular working class identities. This is not an accident.

That’s quite a platform. And if you’re thinking the Democrat Party isn’t the Democratic Party you knew and loved, that’s not an accident either. This has been a wonderfully clarifying primary, for which I congratulate all the players.

A couple more shared thoughts on this "historic" event of glass ceiling shattering we are supposed to celebrate.

Robert Parry - Democrats are now the aggressive war party

Amid the celebrations about picking the first woman as a major party’s presumptive nominee, Democrats appear to have given little thought to the fact that they have abandoned a near half-century standing as the party more skeptical about the use of military force. Clinton is an unabashed war hawk who has shown no inclination to rethink her pro-war attitudes.

Lauren McCauley: Despite Historic Achievement, Feminists Grapple with Clinton's Deeply Troubling Record

"As a feminist, I should feel a thrill right now. I grieve that I don't," lamented author and activist Naomi Klein.

"We are asked to celebrate the breaking of glass ceilings this week, as the possibility of a female president is hailed as long-overdue feminist triumph? But just what kind of a feminist is Hillary Clinton?" asked author Liza Featherstone on Tuesday during a panel discussion on her recent book False Choices: The Faux Feminism of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

While some pointed to Clinton's hawkish foreign policy and lackluster environmental record, others, like Klein, noted that the win was only possible because of her elite status, particularly taking issue with her promise of "trickle-down feminism," as some put it.

We're stuck with Hillary Clinton now though, unless her poor judgment in e-mail management catches up with her. We're stuck, also, with her loud band of obnoxious media surrogates, at least until November. What happens then could well depend upon how many former Bernie supporters obediently fall in line.

From Andrew Levine at Counterpunch

In truth, Hillary’s problem has never been that she is a woman; it is that she is the woman she is........

But compelling evidence and sound arguments are useless in the face of ideologically fixed ideas; and so, the Gloria Steinem types are happy too. However, for everyone whose moral compass is sound and whose head is screwed on right, this final “super Tuesday” was, and always will be, a day of infamy.




On a more shallow note, something I've commented to my husband whenever Hillary Clinton has appeared on a debate stage or during her speech-giving: those peculiar jackets ! I was amused to note, in a piece yesterday, that even a male writer was commenting on this :

Ken Carman at Smirking Chimp: Inspection - Ms Hillary

As she spread her arms to welcome the Tuesday's results I must admit, I kept thinking, "What the hell are you wearing and why would anyone keep choosing this look?" If someone chooses for her they need to be assigned another task.

I understand how that comment may seem sexist, but this Chairman Mao look just undercuts all she says. It would be like Bernie sporting a Hitler mustache: a visual oxymoron. And she seems to have so many blouses, overcoats or... whatever the heck they are, like that.

Women of a certain age, or of any age and certain size, prone to feeling sensitive about lack of lithe body, lovely legs, tend to embrace trousers for the latter lack, and loose fitting tops for the former problem. I understand this well - it's not so much the loose tops as the really boringly awful styles she chooses - or has chosen for her. I'm no fashionista, but I do pretend to have "an eye for a good thing", at least to satisfy my own taste - which, admittedly, is probably not hers. Those necklines are so unflattering - a neckline opening to a "V" (not too low of course) would be much kinder, even if she wore a round neck top under the jacket, or at least left the top button of the round necked style unbuttoned. The line of the jacket's "V" would help soften her roundish face, instead of emphasising it, and always looking, to me, too buttoned-up and vaguely uncomfortable.

Sarah Palin, for all her flaws as a political candidate, did sport some really great jackets during her much ridiculed VP escapade. Hillary couldn't get away with the same kind of jacket, but she could improve on those awful outfits we've seen lately. I also read that one of those monstrosities (the reddish one above) cost $12,495 originally - an Armani job, made from lambskin cut into strips, coloured and woven; more about it, and the exact price, which she may or may not have paid at Snopes, HERE.

Tuesday, June 02, 2015

Another Democrat Steps Up ~ Martin O'Malley

Martin O"Malley, former Governor of Maryland (2007-2015); Mayor of Baltimore 1999-2007, joins Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in the race for Democratic nomination; Jim Webb (featured in this post) still hasn't formally declared his intention to run.

Martin O'Malley was born in Washington DC on 18 January 1963. No time of birth is known. Below is his natal chart set for noon. Moon position will not be exact; ascending sign and degree remain unknown.


Transiting Saturn will conjoin his natal Venus late this year/early 2016. Transiting Mars will be conjunct his natal Sun during the first week of November 2016 (time of the presidential election). I'm not sure what significance there is there, but it'll be something to keep in mind as stories unfold.

Mr O'Malley's "credentials" aren't nearly as well-known as those of Ms Clinton and Senator Sanders. There's a 7-paragraph run-down HERE. Headings of the 7 paragraphs are:

1. O'Malley got his start in politics working for Gary Hart.
2. O'Malley endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2008.
3. O'Malley has a rock band.
4. O'Malley loves data.
5. O'Malley's mom works for Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md
6. O'Malley is a practicing Catholic.
7. O'Malley presided over the introduction of casinos in Maryland.

#3 might be reflected in his Moon - likely in Scorpio with creative Neptune and in harmonious trine to Jupiter in Pisces (Neptune's rulership).

#4 reflects the Aquarius in him - especially Saturn in Aquarius!

I'll wait until the debates begin to form a proper opinion, but Martin O'Malley, to prejudiced me, already seems a less-presidential character, by far, than Bernie Sanders, whose voice has long been raised on issues important to We The People.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Peering Through The Overton Window

The Overton Window is a political theory which describes as a narrow "window" the range of ideas the public will find acceptable, and states that the political viability of an idea is defined primarily by this, rather than by politicians' individual preferences. It is named for its originator, Joseph P. Overton, a former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. At any given moment, the "window" includes a range of policies considered politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being considered too extreme to gain or keep public office.

A selection of comments I've read this week follow. These relate, broadly, to the "chained CPI" Social Security issue (mentioned in Thursday's post) which might turn out to be the first proposal to find trouble squeezing through that Overton Window. What will it take for the people of the USA to finally wake up? Maybe we shall find out soon. Links to relevant article is included, where still available. The Digby piece has, oddly, disappeared from Common Dreams, where some of these comments appeared so a link to Digby's own website - Hullabaloo, instead.

Obama is presiding over the single biggest shift in the Overton Window in history. He's doing far more damage in that capacity than Romney would have done. At least with Romney everyone would know who to blame. But this master propagandist and manipulator has a lot of people fooled, and those who are not fooled are scared into voting for him by virtue of the corps putting up even crazier more far right people as the alternative. It's classic and expected and all going according to plan.(Steve Purcell's comment from Digby article, when published on Common Dreams).

Obama slaughters a bunch of Afghan children, and lefties turn a blind eye because he might support gay marriage or appoint a "liberal" supreme court justice like the pro-Monsanto Kagan or the former prosecutor and corporate lawyer Sotomayor. Obama decides to cut social security and democrats accept it because why?

When millions of so-called "liberal" democrats won't stand up against the mass murder of innocent Muslim children, women, and men, how can you expect them to have any political impact? Same with social security.

I also agree with Mr. Faux's observation of a seething cauldron of resentment among the lower classes that will explode one day. And I agree that because we have no functioning left in this country, when it explodes it could explode in a nasty far right wing way.
(One of Tom Carberry's comments on piece by Jeff Faux "Where's the Change?" at Common Dreams.)

It's hard to imagine what Obama and the Democrats in Washington could do to finally persuade liberals and some progressives that they never gave a crap for a truly liberal and progressive agenda. If you take away his speeches, all you have left in Obama is a non-Tea Party Republican and a hardcore liar.

Liberal and progressive supporters of Obama: wake up. It's one thing to say that you have to keep the Republicans out of the White House, but if you think Obama actually cares about what you care about, then you are deep in self-delusion. On war, whistleblowers, support of dictators, drone killings, indefinite imprisonment without charge, enriching Wall Street and corporations, and just generally sticking it to the working class, I defy you to tell me that Obama is actually better than your regular garden variety Republican.

Yes, his speeches are progressive. But there's only one word to describe someone who believes Obama speeches are more real than his actions: delusional.
(Comment from Geez Jan also on Digby piece, when at Common Dreams)

Commenter, "Jimbo" at Common Dreams a few weeks ago presented a list of some of the achievements of the Democrats during what he termed "Obama's Lesser Evilism Reign of Terror Traveling Road Show." The list is not exhaustive by any means.
The Overton Window has proved no barrier to any of the following:
Used an Executive Order to create a Cat Food Commission stacked with anti-Social Security/SocialProgram corporatists.

White House was opposed to bringing back Glass Steagall

Possibility for a Public Option or Universal Health Care killed off for at least another generation

Blocked re-regulation of big banks and credit cards

Expanded Drone assasinations

Reinforced provisions of the Patriot Act

Warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, Indefinite detention
without charge or trial, Targeted killings of suspects by drone,
without any pretense of due process (even if they are US citizens)

Bernanke - Geithner - Holder

Monsanto @ FDA

Linking Social Security to the Deficit

Attacks Whistleblowers, a la Bradley Manning & WikiLeaks

Employee Free Choice Act killed in the crib

Shielded BP after its Gulf Disaster

Pushes through the Trans Pacific Partnership

Supported the right of mining companies to strip mine everywhere, including on government lands

20,000 Airstrikes in the President's First Term Cause Death and Destruction From Iraq to Somalia

Signed the NDAA into law - making it legal to assassinate Americans w/o charge or trial.

Initiated, and personally oversees a "Secret Kill List"

Waged war on Libya without congressional approval

Started a covert, drone war in Yemen, escalated the proxy war in Somalia, CIA drone war in Pakistan

Sold $30 billion of weapons to the dictatorship in Saudi Arabia

Signed an agreement for 7 military bases in Colombia; opened military base in Chile

U.S. troops sent to Niger to set up drone base

Approved $50 million to assist France in Mali.


I'll include this final comment because it's food for thought:

The plan that was in place all along. If you don't believe that "Package O" was put in office by the corporate elite, you have you head somewhere the sun doesn't shine. He was sold like last year's i-phone. A billion dollars buys a lot of mind washing advertising propaganda.

Election 2008 was designed for him to win, running against a worn out Vietnam vet and an airhead ex-governor that quit her job.

Election 2012 was a sure thing as his 'opponent' this time was a Wall Street Millionaire and a radical conservative. Exactly what was NOT going to be elected.

2008-2012 was to set up the Police State by Executive Orders and Midnight New Years legislation.

2012-2016 is to take down the social safety net which could only be done by a handsome, intelligent, black Democratic president that didn't have to be concerned with re-election. And to finish the takeover of the internet and all banking activities prior to the collapse.

If there is an 'election' in 2016, the winner has been already selected. If O succeeds in his part of the project, the next prez will be a Republican who will finish off what O started. The alternate plan is a world war - and O never leaves office in 2017. Wait and see. (Comment by Makati1 on the Digby piece when at Common Dreams.)

Friday, December 14, 2012

A BIT OF A RANT

Another tragedy, this time involving the deaths of many very young children as well as adults. My heartfelt condolences to anyone directly or indirectly involved in the shootings in Connecticut, who might, accidentally, stumble upon this page.

Rant :
Too many beloved "celebrities", actors, musicians, writers or speakers with a popular public voice, loyal listeners and fans, who could do a great deal of awareness raising and encouraging the holding of feet to fires remain silent or continue to ass-kiss the President and his party. They effetely cling to their precious Democrat label and loyalties, will avoid speaking up about the more than obvious shortcomings of their party and their President. There are numerous issues outstanding crying out for the "feet to fire" treatment - not least this latest tragedy when yet again a deranged person found easy access to powerful weapons, resulting in the cold-blooded murder of 20 small children and 6 adults, including, allegedly, the victim's mother. Tragic as these murders are, no less tragic are the continuing murders of children and innocents by US drones abroad....let us never forget that point!

I find those "limousine Democrats" who fail to speak out, who fail to criticise and fail to do what the President has, more than once, told citizens to do i.e. "make him do it" (whatever the "it"), to be thoroughly reprehensible. The need for raised voices increases almost by the hour on: gun control, against indiscriminate drone use, the serious measures needed to address climate change, all of these are far more important than gay marriage laws and abortion laws, even more important than that darned fiscal cliff - they really are; these are issues of life and death.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

The Week That Was: Another Broken Reed

This was the week when another of my American heroes proved to be "a broken reed". It's not a habit of mine to quote the bible, but it's appropriate for once. In English translations of Isaiah XXXVIII,6:

"Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him."

Dennis Kucinich. A quick look for his name in the sidebar Label Cloud will lead to several archived posts which prove in what high regard I'd held this congressman. I'm sorry to have to admit to myself now that he has been "all talk and no trousers". In caving in to President Obama's lobbying this week to vote "yes" on the upcoming Health Care Bill (or as some bloggers more aptly name it The Corporate Wealthcare Bill), Kucinich has, with that single act turned me away from the Democrats for good. I'd gathered that most of 'em were what Brits look on as conservative, but I'd thought there was a handful worth supporting. I was wrong.

For any stray astrology buffs reading this: that's my natal Mars in Scorpio kicking in! It doesn't happen often, but when it happens it happens for good....I'll turn around and walk away. I can't even bring myself to look at Kucinich's chart to find any possible astrological excuses.

Dennis Kucinich has stated time and again that without the absolute bare minimum of a Public Option insurance choice included in the bill he would vote "no". His first choice was single payer, which would be the best of all plans, but naturally, the insurance corporations would not stand for that, President Obama already capitulated on that front very early in the game, and with that action showed us what are his true corporate colors.

It was all too good to be true, that 2008 election result and the euphoria in January 2009. There was I singing to myself "Let The River Run". I was sincerely elated. It has taken me a while, but I've now landed back to earth with a bump.

Some admire Kucinich for what he's done, taking the view that this is a small step forward. I can't go along with them. He has further enabled the hold the corporations have on the government of the USA, and has proved to his former supporters that he can not be relied upon when push comes to shove.....on any issue. He has lost all credibility. His integrity is now compromised.

It now is clearer than ever that the corporations are in charge of the USA, with nobody in "opposition" that cannot be, ahem, persuaded to mend their ways.

Seminal third party now badly needed. Actually what the USA really needs is a credible second party. Democrats and Republicans are not two different parties, but branches of the Corporatist Party. It has taken me a while to get it, but now I'm up to speed.