High-Stakes Blackmail: "Malefactors of Great Wealth"

High-Stakes Blackmail: "Malefactors of Great Wealth"

www.truth-out.org

". . . [these men] combine to bring about as much financial stress as possible, in order to discredit the policy of the government and thereby secure a reversal of that policy, so that they may enjoy unmolested the fruits of their own evil-doing. . . I regard this contest as one to determine who shall rule this free country—the people through their governmental agents, or a few ruthless and domineering men whose wealth makes them peculiarly formidable because they hide behind the breastworks of corporate organization."

(visit the link for the full news article)

Dang it! You know, I was just gonna sit down and watch "The Dark Knight", but my cat sat on my keyboard over here, prompting me to check that my laptop hadn't crashed....and this is the healine I saw .....

Lord above, Deities in the cosmos, ....whatever you want to call them.....this is

this is

hell.

Not a bad description of the political class war being waged by Wall Street and the extremists of the Right against the majority of us a century later.

So why can't a Democratic President talk about the "Malefactors of Great Wealth" who are responsible for the economic catastrophe we face today? Could it have something to do with the fact that wealthy individuals and corporations fund the expensive electoral campaigns of both political parties, and so ensure that the solutions supported by the majority of people – raising taxes on the wealthy and the corporations, putting people to work, ending the wars, protecting Social Security and Medicare -- are simply off the agenda

Guys! (includes gals)....


www.truth-out.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

Folks, please, please read this:

Here's a truth: when people cannot identify the source of their troubles they are much more likely to accept a bad situation as a kind of natural disaster with no fault and no solution. That's why it is important to name the agents of our economic meltdown and the obstacles to common-sense budget policies: the big banks, the corporations and wealthy individuals who pay hardly any taxes, the profiteers and cheerleaders for endless wars -- and the politicians who serve them.

I know I'm supposed to give some really insightful, intelligent personal thoughts on this.....and if one were to look at my post history, one would find it.

This just seems to say it all....
sigh. cry.

It's time for American's to take back our country from the welfare state. We won't do this by rioting, picketing, protesting or complaining. We will do this by reminding our friends and neighbors of the Pride which we once took in ourselves as American's. Pride. Hope. Patriotism. These are the ideals that we have sacrificed. These are the ideals that will see us through the dark times to come. Teach them to your children and encourage your friends before it is too late.

reply to post by Kicking2bears

We will do this by reminding our friends and neighbors of the Pride which we once took in ourselves as American's. Pride. Hope. Patriotism. These are the ideals that we have sacrificed. These are the ideals that will see us through the dark times to come.

So....great advice, but... pride, hope, patriotism. How do those sterling qualities stop what is happening before our very eyes?
What is your proposal? I'm all ears. I WANT this to happen. I just don't know how to do it....
I have taught my kids, to the best of my ability, responsibility, frugality, satisfaction with what one has...
but it doesn't seem to be the common thought process.

I just got done ranting about this elsewhere.

The welfare state actually exists but it is not geared towards the poor or the down-on-their-luckers. Pennies of your taxes go to those who have never contributed to our society. The vast majority goes to banker welfare, wall street welfare, defense contractor welfare, etc.

A why not? Those making the legislative decisions come from those circles:

www.rollcall.com...
www.huffingtonpost.com...
www.cnn.com...

...just as examples. Blaming the poor and the non-producers is just deflection with just enough grains of truth to be digestible.

If the 545 or so folks in Washington and their sponsors did not want it to be this way, it would not be this way.

www.snopes.com...

I live near DC. Last time I went up there I do not recall armies of lobbyists with guns to politicians heads making them take the money and then look the other way. Those politicians go there because of the lucrative environment.

Originally posted by ABNARTY
I just got done ranting about this elsewhere.

The welfare state actually exists but it is not geared towards the poor or the down-on-their-luckers. Pennies of your taxes go to those who have never contributed to our society. The vast majority goes to banker welfare, wall street welfare, defense contractor welfare, etc.

A why not? Those making the legislative decisions come from those circles:

www.rollcall.com...
www.huffingtonpost.com...
www.cnn.com...

...just as examples. Blaming the poor and the non-producers is just deflection with just enough grains of truth to be digestible.

If the 545 or so folks in Washington and their sponsors did not want it to be this way, it would not be this way.

www.snopes.com...

I live near DC. Last time I went up there I do not recall armies of lobbyists with guns to politicians heads making them take the money and then look the other way. Those politicians go there because of the lucrative environment.

I agree that blaming the poor is a deflection, but I'm not so sure that lobbyist don't hold guns to their heads, (so to speak) with regards to directing policy that may adversely affect the corporation being represented. Have you ever heard of the book entitled "Confessions of An Economic Hitman" authored by John Perkins? If not, it's well worth checking out. There was also a documentary made based on the book that is quite enlightening with respect to the actual tactics utilized by economic hit men, much of which can now be viewed on Youtube.






Now I never heard John Perkins claim to have utilized these tactics on U.S. congressmen but after hearing how they manipulated and/or assassinated the leaders of several foreign countries in the name of corporate profits, I can't see why they wouldn't use the same tactics on our legislators here a home, at least to some degree. According to Perkins, it doesn't take an army of lobbyist to get the job done, it only takes one economic hit man and in the event he is unsuccessful in persuading the person in question, they would call in the "Jackals" to either orchestrate the coup d'etat and/or assassination. Either way, it was a relatively small number of people involved.

reply to post by wildtimes


...The best lack all conviction, while the worst
are full of passionate intensity.

W.B. Yeats....The Second Coming

reply to post by Flatfish


Good book. Indeed, there may not be a gun but nefarious tactics in use anyways.

Still those forces have been at work for ages. Those 545 or so folks can demonstrate character or they can demonstrate otherwise. I would argue those invertebrate qualities are selected by the current conditions. It is much easier to twist arms when the politicians have no skeletal system. It is much easier to leverage a slime ball than an individual with little of interest in his/her past. Not that you can't do it, mind you, but it takes more effort.

I disagree protest and "voting them out" is a viable solution. Protest all day, no one is listening. When is the last time a peaceful protest changed anything? Your vote matters little. How many politicians claim on the campaign trail they will do this or that to fix the system? When they get to Washington, they turn into a Stepford Wife. What does it matter who you vote for? Same s*** comes out the other end.

Maybe actual prison for lawbreakers inside the beltway? Maybe no more post federal service jobs for team players? Maybe no more K Street loophole rangers? I could go for these things.

reply to post by ABNARTY

...just as examples. Blaming the poor and the non-producers is just deflection with just enough grains of truth to be digestible.

This societal trend frightens me because Hitler began his human 'hygene' with the disabled. The most powerless are just that, which means they (and I am one of those they) are the most easy convenient targets for mass blame directed by the corporate warhawk propagandists.

Heres a great way to ensure the whole thing resolves itself. Emergancy laws passed equal to this...


1) Buying a vote will get you shot, on the day you are accused, assuming there is even the remotest chance you were involved.

2) Selling a vote will get you shot, on the day you are accused, assuming there is even the remotest chance you were involved.

3) Threatening , coercing, or any other form of stimulation aimed at achieving a political aim which is not specificaly requested, and desired by sixty or more percent of the voting public is a treason offence, and will see you shot within the HOUR of your being accused, assuming there is the remotest chance of your guilt.

Over veiw: Every official in power behaves as if they have the people of the country with a gun to the officials head, threatening to empty thier brain pans unless ABSOLUTE fealty to the people, before the dollar, is consistantly given by the official in question. Those who seek to alter the balance of government away from the people and toward corperate interests will be eliminated with great vengance and almost zero cost to the people, with no BS about courts and lawyers and crap. All penalties for treasonous (wresting power from the people) behaviour are final and mortal. If an industry seems to be more guilty of perversion of the course of reasonable government than another, that industry will be fined, in its entirety , exactly half its market worth, or behave itself decently. Very simple black and white stuff. No grey areas , no loop holes, just right and wrong and no line dancing across the middle.

reply to post by TrueBrit


Gosh, I had to read that post a few times. I'm still not sure what to say.
First.....Are they to be "taken out back" and shot? Or is it a public execution.

Second....."Assuming even the remotest chance you were involved"....this leaves enormous power in the hands of anyone who is capable of speech or is literate... Lying liars and the lies they tell...you know...
it would be perfect if everyone on earth had no ability to lie. Or everyone was implanted with a remote lie detector system (which seems more plausible every day, with modern tech)

Third....
I completely appreciate the swift and mortal consequences that are deserved by those who collude or contrive to control goverment.
However, if one substitutes the personae dramatis in this scenario --

it sounds like your workaday mafia status quo.
Or the day JKF was ....shot.

I think this system already literally exists, but it's not in the hands of the righteous of the champions of the people. It's in the hands of the corrupt. But, they'll get theirs.

We still don't know what's the truth about karma and cosmic or universal justice -- but considering that there is not one known extant or extinct civilization that hasn't had a deep and abiding sense of it, well, I tend to think there is something to it. The frustrating part is that we won't know what the punishment is, only the guilty deceased will suffer it, entirely alone. They won't come back and tell us -- or if they do, they won't be believed, because it would be entirely hearsay and we all know how much water THAT holds anymore. No matter how many have tried to enlighten the unaware, they never convinced EVERYONE.

So, just like in corporations today, if -- and that is a giant italicized bold IF -- offenders are held accountable by HR or their department heads or whoever is the disciplinarian, the rest of the staff generally doesn't get to know what was "done" to them. A fact about which I complained at the corporation where I worked. I was systematically driven out but that's another story. Kinda.

reply to post by TrueBrit


On the surface this sounds Draconian but in reality you are just offering an equal balance to what the other side does.

We offer a public tongue wagging when those on the other side offer character assassination, destruction of family, blacklisted for employment, or worse.

The public acts like school teachers and TPTB act like the mob. Which way would anyone bend?

reply to post by Flatfish


I finally sat down and watched the video links of John Perkins. Wow.
I guess he's not really brand-new news, apparently, but it was news to me. Thanks.

I went to his webpage then www.johnperkins.org...
and started reading through it.

Really makes me wonder. I had read "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright a while ago, which purported to explain Al-Qaeda and the decades of history behind it. Yet now Perkins says it is fiction. I find that no matter how much information I get, I am further from the truth. How does one choose which to believe?

reply to post by ABNARTY


I just get sick of the way the powerful, soft handed workshy scum that run the world, get to do what they want , and even when they get caught with thier hand in the cookie jar, or in the secretary , or the affairs of government or whatever, they usualy get away with just a slight to thier character.

When your average man in the street attempts to improve his lot , using less questionable , but still amoral means, he can expect serious time in jail, and to have his family starve half to death in his absence.

There is a huge disconnect between the definition of justice for the common man, and the definition of justice as it applies to those who can afford to avoid it. Until politicians have to abide by the law in ABSOLUTE terms or face serious, scary , and yes, violent consequences, nothing will change , and all you will get , is variously moraly retarded critters like you have now.

The choice is simple... You want power? Fine, then you behave yourself perfectly, or get terminated.

reply to post by wildtimes


You're right wildtimes, it isn't the common thought process. However the only way to influence and change the common though process is through training the new generation and attempting to persuade the current. Teaching your children the fundementals of a good work ethic will help keep them off of welfare (hopefully). Persuading adults through simple reinforcement of these ideals will help also. I don't want to simply end our problems immediately, I want to end them forever. You can't make lasting changes by adjusting the rules; you have to adjust the moral concept behind the rules.

Have you ever heard of something known as a "witch hunt?"

The problem with targeting a whole class of people as the cause of some situation is that you open the door, in a society like ours, for mass slaughter of innocent people. And no resolution of the problem!

So of course there are some very wealthy people who are involved in creating the current economic situation. But that doesn't mean that taking economic power away from a bunch of wealthy people, or even all wealthy people, will solve the problem. You have to get enough true data about the situation so that people can start figuring out what to do about it.

I am sure Teddy Roosevelt knew what he was talking about. But his speech was just political rhetoric. Why didn't he name names, release incriminating documents, or forsake his own wealth? That's what this world needs. Not more rabble rouse.