To my mind, as good as your writing is here, you and the others seem stuck in the same Bernie finger-wagging trap. Surely this election cycle should have put to rest any lingering evidence-free hopes in the Citizens United electoral sham, but no, the same warmed-over 60s-style folk music singalongs with oldster Bernie singing the same ignored minstrelsy.
Bernie's been saying the same thing for 50 years in public, without a thing except this insane political reality to show for it.
Oh the Bernieisms - "billionaires" and "oligarchy" - and that is the extent of "resistance"? He was elected to the world's most anti-democratic club of eugenic morons in the western world, and that is supposed to represent something?
He was a one-off- a once-progressive mayor of a small bantustan city elected to the 100 person Toastmasters Club by a tiny handful of voters cycle after cycle. He listens to no one, nor does St. Ralph, and he affiliates with no one. Nothing can ever come of a Children's Crusade except the Red Guard example, and nothing will ever come of a gerontocratic talk bore shuffle.
Let go of this US electoral politics fixation. Party's over. Movements will arise, from the effects of dead bodies, no jobs, no money, no housing, evil dummies flailing in charge.
Capital just means 'personal wealth'. Capital"ism" means you keep the spoils of your labor. The fruit from your garden is your personal wealth. The bicycle you bought is your personal wealth. The computer you custom built is your personal wealth. The wage you *earned* that was paid out of your employer's *profits* is your personal wealth. So is the profit from your own family business selling cotton candy at the local spring festival. It's a good thing.
Socialism means rulers/govt stealing that wealth, often in the form of taking our (fiat) currency and "redistributing" it ..mostly to themselves.
It's time to stop pretending stealing is ok as long as a tiny fraction of it "goes to a good cause". We will KEEP our wealth and be generous with it as we see fit.
If *you* need tax "law" to force you to give, then that's on you. The rest of us are done with the socialist thing. It's over. Let the federal reserve end and our money gain its value back. Kick out the govt-controlled ins companies. Then we will be able to pay for far cheaper medical procedures no problem and even chip in on the rare cases where someone is having trouble affording it.
You have to take out your backward brain, turn it around, and plop it back in the right way.
Excellent post, Thomas. I'm a proud and unrepentant Berniecrat. He's been right all along.
And the Clintonistas, especially Her fans, still nurse a mis-placed grudge for 2016 and his daring to run when it was Her turn. They'd rather keep fighting him than fight Republicans. That his supporters voted for Her in the general at far more than Her supporters did for Obama in '08 matters not a whit. They still hate Bernie.
Hard to believe it’s been over was over a decade since you wrote about an embryonic “Open Rebellion” caucus forming among the Senate Democrats over Obama’s nomination of Antonio Weiss. Of course, the Democratic Party, “progressive” Democrats, and the entire party have shown their true colors since those more innocent days when the base believed in their heroes.
I don’t know what people were taught in their US history classes but when I taught the modern US survey I always emphasized that one of the New Deal’s objectives was not only ending the crisis of the Great Depression but also to create a political economy where authoritarian political movements would be unable to gain any traction in the American political landscape.
There has been a bipartisan political to repeal those New Deal reforms dating back fifty years to Jimmy Carter, through Al From & the DLC, Clinton, and Obama. Much has been said about Bernie Sanders’ “socialism,” but make no mistake the Democratic establishment hatred was due to his “old school” FDR/LBJ “liberalism.” The Democratic purge of New Deal liberalism was completed decades ago.
The GOP has even more enthusiastically embraced neoliberalism than the Democrats. Generations of politicians doing the bidding of their billionaire donors have led us to this moment.
It will be interesting and chilling to watch the next several years unfold.
Wow. The Open Rebellion Caucus — what a fine, hopeful, doomed idea. Too bad Democrats had no taste for that (anti-Donor Class) battle. Thanks for the trip down the lane, Brian!
You can't fix the world's problems until you fix the billionaire problem. But how? In the past, it was done through very large, organized strikes, but can that be replicated now?
Ralph Nader often talks about the 'fire in the belly' that is a sine-qua-non for every citizen who strives to keep our political class on the straight and narrow. A fire that motivates constant organizing and activism that regularly exposes corruption by the political class. Warren used to have that kind of fire. It was probably what motivated her to write her very seminal, "Two Income Trap" that made her famous and put her in the Senate. Unfortunately and Nader probably knows this now, the best antidote to a Citizen's fire in the belly is winning an election. That is what happened to Warren and probably many others. AOC is a prime exhibit. Once they enter DC they are irresistibly drawn to that "Moderate" Piper who is paid by his owners on K-Street and plays lovely "Moderate" tunes that permanently douse any "fire in the belly" drums that might have sounded in their ears. It is crushing and depressing. Last evening I saw the great Illhan Omar ascending the stage along with such brilliant Corporate Dem worthies as Chris Van Hollen and Jamie Raskin to protest heaven forbid of all things the demise of USAID. Yes she was personally ensconced by the many healing hands of USAID in Somalia where she once lived in a refugee camp. Would you believe it, that experience made her become suddenly obtuse and forget the many rivers of blood USAID has let run in so many other countries with its other set of not so healing hands. You are in America, right? Do you read Chris Hedges? Do you read Aaron Mate? Chris, who? Aaron who?
It's both always too late for the untold millions consumed by their appetite, and never too late to begin the inevitability of their demise. It's just a question of what the rest of us are left to work with after their blowtorching of everything they touch.
To my mind, as good as your writing is here, you and the others seem stuck in the same Bernie finger-wagging trap. Surely this election cycle should have put to rest any lingering evidence-free hopes in the Citizens United electoral sham, but no, the same warmed-over 60s-style folk music singalongs with oldster Bernie singing the same ignored minstrelsy.
Bernie's been saying the same thing for 50 years in public, without a thing except this insane political reality to show for it.
Oh the Bernieisms - "billionaires" and "oligarchy" - and that is the extent of "resistance"? He was elected to the world's most anti-democratic club of eugenic morons in the western world, and that is supposed to represent something?
He was a one-off- a once-progressive mayor of a small bantustan city elected to the 100 person Toastmasters Club by a tiny handful of voters cycle after cycle. He listens to no one, nor does St. Ralph, and he affiliates with no one. Nothing can ever come of a Children's Crusade except the Red Guard example, and nothing will ever come of a gerontocratic talk bore shuffle.
Let go of this US electoral politics fixation. Party's over. Movements will arise, from the effects of dead bodies, no jobs, no money, no housing, evil dummies flailing in charge.
Capital just means 'personal wealth'. Capital"ism" means you keep the spoils of your labor. The fruit from your garden is your personal wealth. The bicycle you bought is your personal wealth. The computer you custom built is your personal wealth. The wage you *earned* that was paid out of your employer's *profits* is your personal wealth. So is the profit from your own family business selling cotton candy at the local spring festival. It's a good thing.
Socialism means rulers/govt stealing that wealth, often in the form of taking our (fiat) currency and "redistributing" it ..mostly to themselves.
It's time to stop pretending stealing is ok as long as a tiny fraction of it "goes to a good cause". We will KEEP our wealth and be generous with it as we see fit.
If *you* need tax "law" to force you to give, then that's on you. The rest of us are done with the socialist thing. It's over. Let the federal reserve end and our money gain its value back. Kick out the govt-controlled ins companies. Then we will be able to pay for far cheaper medical procedures no problem and even chip in on the rare cases where someone is having trouble affording it.
You have to take out your backward brain, turn it around, and plop it back in the right way.
"Winnings clutched in withering hands"...better and better!
Excellent post, Thomas. I'm a proud and unrepentant Berniecrat. He's been right all along.
And the Clintonistas, especially Her fans, still nurse a mis-placed grudge for 2016 and his daring to run when it was Her turn. They'd rather keep fighting him than fight Republicans. That his supporters voted for Her in the general at far more than Her supporters did for Obama in '08 matters not a whit. They still hate Bernie.
Hard to believe it’s been over was over a decade since you wrote about an embryonic “Open Rebellion” caucus forming among the Senate Democrats over Obama’s nomination of Antonio Weiss. Of course, the Democratic Party, “progressive” Democrats, and the entire party have shown their true colors since those more innocent days when the base believed in their heroes.
I don’t know what people were taught in their US history classes but when I taught the modern US survey I always emphasized that one of the New Deal’s objectives was not only ending the crisis of the Great Depression but also to create a political economy where authoritarian political movements would be unable to gain any traction in the American political landscape.
There has been a bipartisan political to repeal those New Deal reforms dating back fifty years to Jimmy Carter, through Al From & the DLC, Clinton, and Obama. Much has been said about Bernie Sanders’ “socialism,” but make no mistake the Democratic establishment hatred was due to his “old school” FDR/LBJ “liberalism.” The Democratic purge of New Deal liberalism was completed decades ago.
The GOP has even more enthusiastically embraced neoliberalism than the Democrats. Generations of politicians doing the bidding of their billionaire donors have led us to this moment.
It will be interesting and chilling to watch the next several years unfold.
Wow. The Open Rebellion Caucus — what a fine, hopeful, doomed idea. Too bad Democrats had no taste for that (anti-Donor Class) battle. Thanks for the trip down the lane, Brian!
Thomas
all their lives sheep fear the wolf, but in the end they are eaten by the shepherd
Very clever, Dave. Well done.
Thomas
This guy takes my breath away: Good job!
If you mean me, thanks!
Sir, yes I do mean you! Excellent piece. Again, thanks.
You can't fix the world's problems until you fix the billionaire problem. But how? In the past, it was done through very large, organized strikes, but can that be replicated now?
Ralph Nader often talks about the 'fire in the belly' that is a sine-qua-non for every citizen who strives to keep our political class on the straight and narrow. A fire that motivates constant organizing and activism that regularly exposes corruption by the political class. Warren used to have that kind of fire. It was probably what motivated her to write her very seminal, "Two Income Trap" that made her famous and put her in the Senate. Unfortunately and Nader probably knows this now, the best antidote to a Citizen's fire in the belly is winning an election. That is what happened to Warren and probably many others. AOC is a prime exhibit. Once they enter DC they are irresistibly drawn to that "Moderate" Piper who is paid by his owners on K-Street and plays lovely "Moderate" tunes that permanently douse any "fire in the belly" drums that might have sounded in their ears. It is crushing and depressing. Last evening I saw the great Illhan Omar ascending the stage along with such brilliant Corporate Dem worthies as Chris Van Hollen and Jamie Raskin to protest heaven forbid of all things the demise of USAID. Yes she was personally ensconced by the many healing hands of USAID in Somalia where she once lived in a refugee camp. Would you believe it, that experience made her become suddenly obtuse and forget the many rivers of blood USAID has let run in so many other countries with its other set of not so healing hands. You are in America, right? Do you read Chris Hedges? Do you read Aaron Mate? Chris, who? Aaron who?
It's frustrating, isn't it. We live without a real community, those who see these things.
It's both always too late for the untold millions consumed by their appetite, and never too late to begin the inevitability of their demise. It's just a question of what the rest of us are left to work with after their blowtorching of everything they touch.
It is easier to imagine the end of the world, than to imagine the end to today’s capitalism. How sad.
That's a helluva thought. And you're right.
Thomas