The Sanders- and Trump-led (for now) political rebellion is not going to go away. There are only two questions going forward:Why is this rebellion permanent, at least until conditions improve? Because life in the U.S. is getting worse in a way that can be felt by a critical mass of people, by enough people to disrupt the Establishment machine with their anger. And because that worsening is seen to be permanent.
- Will it remain a political rebellion, one that expresses itself through the electoral process, or will it abandon the electoral process as useless after 2016?
- Will it be led by humanitarian populism from the left, or authoritarian populism from the right?
Bottom line, people are reaching the breaking point, and we’re watching that play out in the 2016 electoral race.…The Tea Party and Occupy live on.
Naked Capitalism
Gaius Publius: The Rebellion Will Not Go Away
It will most certainly go away. If the demise of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement was not enough proof that the game is rigged and the establishment will use every trick, including violent force, to quell uprisings, then this election will make everyone see that it's a losing battle. It's so rigged it's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteBetter off to watch vapid reality shows and sing the national anthem while watching fighter jets fly overhead at sporting events. (And telling soldiers, "thank you for your service.")
Whether it's stealing delegates from Trump and his own party using every trick in the book and then some to block him and deny the millions who voted for him, or the DNC's shady use of "superdelegates," the whole thing is a mockery and corrupt AF and everyone can see that.
There is no chance. O-V-E-R. Done.
This isn't a war about ideology as much as a war between sides that are forming in the kleptocracy. I see it as a long process that has been building roots and perfecting strategy to form clear industrial lines in the party structures that began with Perot, Contract on America, Howard Dean, Obama, Occupy, now Bernie and Trump.
ReplyDeleteObama promised to bankrupt coal while promoting education, media and tech industries -- that is his "base". It was a good strategy. The latest don't really offer much different just slightly stronger approaches to the same old corporate-kleptocracy.
The parties need to be explicit and go after competing industrial interests.
Republicans need to not only promise to help agriculture, resources and industry, " the carrot" but also use a stick, promise to bankrupt Google, Microsoft, Monsanto, and Pfizer and maybe prosecute educators and close schools who load kids and local governments up with debt to fill their pension funds as an extra flourish. Dems need to promise to shut down Exxon, close Dodge, tax Koch and Waltons into Oblivion and throw Blankfein in prison.
This is about regular people, we're in a war over industry and people are the collateral damage.
What Mike said.
ReplyDeleteMike: "And telling soldiers, "thank you for your service."
ReplyDeleteThe way these poor bastards are treated, that's one of the most offensive thing you'll ever hear come out of a politician's mouth. It makes you physically ill.
Mike and Malmo, there's only so much people are willing to tolerate and this is another smack in the face. They're at breaking point already. Americans won't put up with this Greece-style shit. If a Tunisian vegetable seller can spark a revolution...
Ryan, all really good policies. Enforcing the law would be another good one, and it's as traditionally conservative as it comes! Some bankster breaks the law, you throw all the senior management in prison for the rest of their lives, refuse to clear the bank's account at the Fed and bankrupt them! I think the rest of Wall Street will get the message: there's a new sheriff in town, and he's a bad motherfu**er!
ReplyDeleteTake the bank who laundered $378.4bn of Mexican drug money and got away with it! http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs
What Mike and Malmo and John said.
ReplyDeleteThe discontent will not go away, but it may express itself as the occasional protest or riot, or it may be directed toward minorities. I mean, look at how bad things are in Greece yet Greeks go no further than the occasional strike or Molotov cocktail.
The 1% will not allow change to happen through the system. If worse comes to worse voting machines will be tampered with and/or a crazed lone gunman will eliminate the problem.
It will take a revolution to change things, and that won't happen until people are starving. Add climate change and stir.
TO DEFEAT THE CORPORATE CONFEDERACY TAKES PATIENCE AND GUILE
ReplyDelete“Do not expect to defeat The Corporate Confederacy at the ballot box. Big Money can power its way through almost any election cycle. That is not however a call for Revolution. Big Money can power its way through those as well and rather unpleasantly.
Instead it must always be remembered that by its conscienceless and rapacious nature, the thing sows the seeds of its own destruction. Therefore what is required is both the ability to survive its collapse and to have another functional structure extent to replace it. Anything else is empty rhetoric.”
Some bankster breaks the law...
ReplyDeleteJohn, came across this tweet today:
emptywheel @emptywheel:
"Imagine if the FBI seized all the property Wall Stret banks were suspected of using in pursuit of their crimes."
+1000!