If the genuine left is smart, it will take a step back and see this for the gigantic opening it is. Lots of Trump voters are now up for grabs, and if they can come up with a genuine message of economic populism that avoids the typical leftist pitfalls — such as supporting misguided young people dressing up like ninjas, carrying flags and hurling rocks at people trying to give a talk — the opportunity to create a populist movement of immense national significance is there. People across the country are craving it, but they want nothing to do with antifa, political correctness, or aggression against free speech. Noam Chomsky gets it, and I hope others heed his words.
As such, here’s what I would recommend to any burgeoning populist movement wanting to unite the country against oligarchy, as opposed to just becoming a leftist echo chamber. It is the exact same thing I suggested to Trump, but he obviously didn’t listen....
An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
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Not one mention of banks in the article.
ReplyDeleteIs it too much to ask that citizens not have to work through private depository institutions (ie. "banks") or be limited to grubby, unsafe, inconvenient physical fiat, aka "cash"?
Or is the goal not true reform but merely who the new bosses shall be? Aren't we tired of that silly, vain game yet?
Superb article, the best thing I've read in ages. I shall plagiarise parts of it and put out on the Guardian CiF. There's a reason for this. I was putting out so much stuff from alternative news sites, like PCR I knew from experience that the Guardian moderators remove it so I stopped putting quotes and links to sites.
ReplyDelete... they could blame the 70 mile swathe of darkness from tomorrow's total solar eclipse (from Oregon to Sth Carolina - 375 cyclic year event) on Russia ...
ReplyDeleteThe first part about the Deep State takeover and the media is well thought out. The next bit - from Rand Paul "populism" is largely nonsense. It ignores the fact that the Deep State has been running the country for decades and that identity politics are simply a tool to divide the electorate and keep us fighting each other rather than uniting against the Deep State - which is the only thing they are really afraid of. Thus the militarization of the police, the PATRIOT Act, Total Information Awareness, etc.
ReplyDeleteThis also explains the response to Charlottesville that encourages radical divisions and is being used to vilify the "left" and further advance the Deep State agenda via "domestic security".
"militarization of the police,"
ReplyDeleteFake news.... stand down orders issued at every riot....
Police have training in military tactics and are armed with "surplus" military gear including weapons and armored vehicles.
ReplyDeleteOrders to 'stand down' can be (and have been) used to exacerbate rather than prevent violence. In Charlottesville for example ...
The point is that in arming and training the domestic security force militarily to "fight terrorism" has put all the apparatus for a police state in place and it has been legalized through legislation like the Patriot Act, as well as illegal action like surveilling citizens en masse and without due process.
ReplyDeleteThis is the basis for tyranny. The left seems mostly OK with it or ignores it, the so-called center welcomes the security it affords, and only the Libertarian right has been consistently opposing it.
and only the Libertarian right has been consistently opposing it. Tom Hickey
ReplyDeleteCareful. At least some so-called Libertarians want the liberty to enslave others via, for instances:
1) expensive fiat, e.g. a gold standard.
2) a Balanced Budget amendment. This enslaves the young as the population grows but the money supply doesn't, except as private debt.
3) the retention of positive yields on inherently risk-free sovereign debt, ie. welfare proportional to account balance, not need.
4) unlimited land ownership.
In other words, at least some so-called Libertarians are flaming hypocrits. Just because they are good on SOME issues doesn't change that.
If there is surveillance then why is the govt having to go to the ISP for IP addresses that accessed the server used to coordinate the Inauguration Day rioting?
ReplyDeleteIf there is surveillance then why is the govt having to go to the ISP for IP addresses that accessed the server used to coordinate the Inauguration Day rioting?
ReplyDeleteDifferent departments.
NSA runs the total information awareness operation. The whole government doesn't have access to NSA. The deep state has many levels and silos, and power structures that go along with this.
This whole "militarization of police!" is another one to add to you guys list along with "war deaths!" and "upward transfer of wealth!"
ReplyDeleteThis whole "militarization of police!" is another one to add to you guys list along with "war deaths!" and "upward transfer of wealth!"
ReplyDeleteMatt, you obviously haven't seen your first armored personnel vehicle rumbling down the street. I'd seen photos of these in the news, but seeing one up close on the street was quite different. It wasn't a riot or anything. I guess they were just test driving it. It was about as close to a tank as one can get.
War gear in civil police follows a precautionary principle, Tom. War would be devastating, so having good gear in plain sight, conditions and prevents problems by making sure subjects of the state know whom reigns with an iron fist. Tanks for peace. Strength through civil order. Harmony through subjection... And all that jazz.
ReplyDeleteTom if they are throwing chunks of cinder block normal automotive glass installed on police vehicles won't stop it ... it's not like they have 50 cal. Installed on top...
ReplyDeleteMatt, you are a conservative. Conservatives believe that security needs to be prioritized over liberty.
ReplyDeleteBen Franklin articulated the liberal view.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
BTW, my sighting of the armored personnel carrier was in Iowa City, IA, home of the University of Iowa, which is about all that goes on here of note. It is very liberal town, low crime, no SWAT team activity, and there has never been any social unrest to speak of. Why Iowa City needs an armored personnel carrier beats me.
ReplyDeleteHurricane Katrina as an example of militarization:
ReplyDeleteNew Orleans residents learned in the very first days but which is only beginning to become clear to the rest of us: What took place in this devastated American city was no less than a war, in which victims whose only crimes were poverty and blackness were treated as enemies of the state.
It started immediately after the storm and flood hit, when civilian aid was scarce—but private security forces already had boots on the ground. Some, like Blackwater (which has since redubbed itself Xe), were under federal contract, while a host of others answered to wealthy residents and businessmen who had departed well before Katrina and needed help protecting their property from the suffering masses left behind. According Jeremy Scahill’s reporting in The Nation, Blackwater set up an HQ in downtown New Orleans. Armed as they would be in Iraq, with automatic rifles, guns strapped to legs, and pockets overflowing with ammo, Blackwater contractors drove around in SUVs and unmarked cars with no license plates.
“When asked what authority they were operating under,” Scahill reported, “one guy said, ‘We’re on contract with the Department of Homeland Security.’ Then, pointing to one of his comrades, he said, ‘He was even deputized by the governor of the state of Louisiana. We can make arrests and use lethal force if we deem it necessary.’ The man then held up the gold Louisiana law enforcement badge he wore around his neck.”
The Blackwater operators described their mission in New Orleans as “securing neighborhoods,” as if they were talking about Sadr City. When National Guard troops descended on the city, the Army Times described their role as fighting “the insurgency in the city.” Brigadier Gen. Gary Jones, who commanded the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force, told the paper, “This place is going to look like Little Somalia. We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.”
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/08/secret-history-hurricane-katrina/
I don't think I am conservative... I'm authoritarian...
ReplyDeleteAnd btw MMT will only be implemented by people who understand authority...
Noah, what is the problem with any of that? Protection of property is govt job 1, and it also blows away Tom's false assertion that the police have been militarized if they have to bring in the Blackwater (truly militarized) people as the cops (non militarized) ran off...
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ReplyDeleteAnd the incompetent Democrat governor replied when Bush asked her what she needed was and I quote "everything you have"...
ReplyDeleteSo he sent including the Blackwater people as the locals were in over their heads...
ReplyDeleteTom nobody has freedom to riot or loot...
ReplyDeleteHow do you expect the HHFEA to be enforced if they won't even enforce simple law and order ?
ReplyDeleteLawlessness is rampant... it's a libertarian utopia forget MMT under these lawless and libertarian conditions ... and you guys think it's a "police state!" !?!
ReplyDeleteWhat planet are you living on?????
nFive New Orleans police officers sentenced in hurricane Katrina killings: Four officers, along with a fifth who helped cover up the 2005 crimes, are sentenced to between six and 65 years in prison
ReplyDeleteNew Orleans Announces $13M Settlement for Police Shootings After Hurricane KatrinaNew Orleans Announces $13M Settlement for Police Shootings After Hurricane Katrina
... to me it looks like unconsciousness and ignorance are rampant and you can't fight that with police or the military, or nosegays of flowers.
ReplyDelete