Could the Gall of Oligarchs be Any More Brazen?

The following is largely based on the broadcasts of Democracy Now! yesterday and today.
Here are just a few examples of the unmitigated gall of Oligarchs and their puppets---

1.  In regard to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the deceit of Mitch McConnell and President Obama is appalling.  Mitch announced that the President was "willing to work together" with him on the issue of Trade.  Presently, that means the TPP.  The implication was that they don't agree on the subject.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Oligarchs and their puppets are about the only people in the entire world who are wildly in favor of the TPP and all other so-called Free Trade Agreements.  For the reason why, do a search for TradeWatch.org/TPP; that Agreement especially is little about Trade, but a whole bunch about making Mega Transnational Corporations the economic rulers of the world.  [The TPP is anti-Free-Market-Capitalism, and pro-Crony-Capitalism.  The difference between the two is crucial.]  If it becomes a U.S. Treaty, its rules will trump all U.S. laws (all Treaties do that), including those in the area of Environmental-Health-Safety.  It will allow any corporation that feels its profits have been impinged upon by a U.S. law to sue in an international tribunal...to potentially get tax dollars from you & me in court.  Any judgement is enforceable by Trade sanctions against the U.S.

Obama has been trying to get so-called "fast-track authority" for approval of the TPP for some time now.  Of course he's willing to work with Mitch on Trade; they both want the same thing.  One of the reasons that Mitch wants it is because he married into a wealthy family that has an international shipping business.  He's both an Oligarch and a puppet of other Oligarchs.  Obama wants it because, as I've said over & over, he's a Corporatist, a Crony Capitalist.  His record clearly shows that... no question about it.

After they "work together" for the TPP, Obama and McConnell probably will tout the whole thing as a bipartisanship victory... and breaking the DC gridlock.  What a farce.

2.  Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone reporter & long-time investigator of the Financial Sector, and Alayne Fleischmann, JP Morgan Chase whistleblower, have shown that Chase knowingly sold faulty mortgage securities to investors such as pension funds.  Not too long ago, the Bank and the Gov't reached a multi-billion dollar settlement in the case of this civil fraud.  No criminal charges.  Other mega banks also have settled for a large fine.  No criminal charges.  The Gov't claims the cases are too complex to prove criminality.  Alayne Fleischmann, an attorney, says that the securitization of mortgage loans may be complex, but proving criminal fraud regarding the sale of those faulty securities---at least in the Chase case---could have been a slam-dunk.  It's fairly clear that Obama and his Crew protect mega bankers from criminal prosecution.  Eric Holder came from a private practice law firm that defends corporations from prosecution; in my view, that automatically should have disqualified him from consideration as Attorney General.  Now we know why it didn't.

3.  Shortly after the Chase Bank was fined billions of dollars for fraud, the bank's Board of Directors gave Jamie Dimon (Chase's CEO) a 75% salary increase.  Any reasonable person would think they would have fired him.  Investors in the bank should have demanded it...those billions to pay the fine come from their pockets.  The same scenario has been repeated with other mega banks and their CEOs.  It's truly incredible.  Chase Bank alone has weathered about $30 billion in fines in only 4-5 years.  I can't believe that any business could survive that kind of financial hit unless that business is ripping off its customers in big and small ways.
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In general, the super rich and their puppets consider the rest of us to be the "little people"... of consequence only as wage slaves, a source of money, and spectators in the Rigged System.  We're viewed pretty much as one would view livestock...a means to an end.  Their Institutions, and for the most part the highest levels of the Fed Gov't, support that view.  Essentially, the Fed Gov't is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the super-rich and their mega corporations.

Yesterday, Obama announced (as a conversational "aside") that two-thirds of U.S. eligible voters did NOT vote in Tuesday's election.  I say, great!  Too bad it wasn't three-thirds.  That would have been a powerful message.  The Rigged System, the Dystopian Machine, the Oligarchy... they all need to be shaken up, but peacefully.  Not voting is the easiest protest there is... and there's no criminal penalty.  Who knows what it would accomplish if many, many more didn't vote, but one thing is certain--- it would get the attention of the Establishment's Rotten System, and the Oligarchs would be shaken up.

In this day & age, in this country, violence is no solution... that would be both stupid and suicidal.  Just as importantly, it would increase the severity of the U.S. Police State exponentially.  We don't need that.  On the other hand, there are many ways to peacefully and effectively protest the current 1984.  If we continue to drink the Propaganda Kool Aid, though, nothing effective will take place.

Not just my opinion.  Be Well

The Mega Corporation Election Circus is Over...For Awhile

Street-level Republicans are happy... just as they were in 1994, when pretty much the same thing happened in the mid-term elections.  Since then, after Corporate Clinton completed his gig, we've had Bush & Obama...SSDD.  Starting with Reagan and Thatcher, Neoliberals and Neoliberalism have prevailed to this very day.  [If you're not well-versed in Neoliberalism, you'll have a very difficult time grasping politics in this day & age.  It's a term well known by educated people throughout the world...except in the USA. There's nothing new and nothing liberal about it.  That's according to Noam Chomsky.  He's right.]

According to CBS News, about four billion dollars was spent on the recent election cycle.  That's truly an obscenity...and all for Propaganda Kool Aid.  Do you think that the bulk of that money came from donations by people like you and me...for mid-term elections?  Hardly.  The overwhelming majority of it was so-called "Dark Money"...from mega corporation "citizen" organizations.  Surely no one any longer can doubt that elections are bought by mega transnational corporations, the ones who don't give a damn about any country, much less the USA.  The ones who backed Reagan, Poppy Bush, Clinton, Dubya Bush, and Obama...they won again.  The Neoliberals still prevail.  They have taken over our politics, our military, our corporations, and our economy.  All of that was accomplished with Edward Bernays style Propaganda...and we're still drinking the Kool Aid.

So, what's it all about?  It's not a "conspiracy".  It's about Globalization, and that essentially means nothing more or less than monopolistic, Mega Transnational Business.  [It's anti-Free-Market-Capitalism.]  The objective is to make that as smooth as possible for the super-rich.  To those people, politicians-governments-common folks-countries-economies-Democrats-Republicans essentially are all irrelevant.  Oligarchs simply have similar goals, and they work sometimes independently, sometimes cooperatively to attain mutually beneficial objectives.  Just because they don't always make their methods for getting richer "public" does not make the whole thing a conspiracy.  They're out to do whatever it takes to get richer & richer in order to secure the maximum comfort & security for themselves and their families.  Ethics and morality rarely ever get in the way of that.

"Voting", at least under the current corrupt system, will not change any of the above.  Instead, voting aids and abets it.  There are peaceful ways to oppose the present dystopian Machine; I've enumerated a few here & there recently in this Blog.

Not just my opinion.  Be Well