Everything you need to know- Honest!
By Lee Burkett (with his permission), Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 1:08pm
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We need to stop seeing what happens in Washington through the bipartisan looking glass. It is patently obvious that neither party are representing the will or the interests of the American people. The difference between the two is a matter of rhetoric.
This whole debt-ceiling skit is absolutely engineered. The right gets to play to their base, the left gets to play to their base, and in truth the agenda of the wealthy will once again be promoted and protected.
Much needed social services will be gutted- The Republicans will cheer about it, the Democrats will put on a sad face about it. End of story.
The tax breaks for the richest of the rich will remain in place- The Republicans will cheer about it, the Democrats will put on a sad face about it. End of story.
According to the 2010 Forbes magazine issue “The Top 400,” in that year 400 people earned as much as the bottom 50% of all American wage earners. It is beyond ignorance to pretend that this very wealthy, very powerful handful of elites have nothing to do with “business as usual.” Throw in Citizens United, the do nothing DOJ and the two tiered economy that provides historic levels of profit for Wall Street while Mom & Pop America are thrown into poverty and forced into homelessness and you not only have the smoking gun, you have the forensics, the finger prints and all the motive you’ll ever need.
You don’t need a vast, underground conspiracy in order to explain all of this. It’s simplicity itself: When wealth and resources are gathered into a very small number of hands the needs of that small number overlap. In essence, what’s good for one of them is good for all of them. These are smart people, who can afford to hire even smarter people to represent their interests. Profit is the motive, simple, mindless profit. Morality, long lasting cause and effect, and any damage caused by their actions are not a factor.
Let’s put the issue of massive election fraud to the side for right now. As long as the only option to “enforce” the will of the People on our elected representatives is to threaten to “vote them out of office,” the vote IS meaningless. The real powers that be couldn’t care less which puppet steps in. Compound that with the massive wisdom that dictates we have to accept the lessor of two evils, and you have no tool to address the problem. None.
Imagine for a moment that you, personally, control 10 billion dollars. Got that? Now ask yourself, not “What could I do with all that money,” rather ask yourself “What couldn’t I do with all that money?”
Want to create a Tea Party candidate? Think 10 million is enough? Twenty million? One hundred million?
You want a lock step ideology? You want a candidate to sign a pledge- ANY pledge? Want to buy an election? Want to subvert the Justice System? Want to inform and control public opinion?
Think big, bigger than you ever have before- cause next year you’ll have another 10 billion or more to play with.
Now imagine that are 1,000 other people playing god with the same amount of money, year after year.
Don’t make the mistake of confusing “money” with “wealth.” Poor people have money, and they use it buy stuff like food and a home and a car. Rich people have wealth, and wealth is far beyond mere money- it is literally power. Wealth is used to buy up and control resources, information, people and institutions.
Citizens are nothing more than a resource, and like any other resource they are here to be used for profit, or dropped and forgotten about when the profit flow is less than wanted.
There is a growing underclass of poor, elderly, sick Americans who have officially “disappeared. Look into the real unemployment figures- millions are not counted because their unemployment compensation has run out: They are no longer able to file a claim so they are off the radar, uncounted. Look into how many social service programs are still “officially” up and running but have no funding available. When you are in need what good does it do to have programs in place that have no funds available.
In fact, scratch the surface in ANY area, spend a small amount of time seeking alternate news sources and you’ll soon see that the current situation is far, far worse than even the most “alarmist” of media talking heads will dare to talk about.
The manipulation, once so well hidden, is on a daily basis becoming more and more obvious. The “reality” as presented bears no relationship to the realities of 21st century America. The cognitive dissonance is wearing thin. When it is you who find yourself without a job- and no jobs to be had, when it is you who need foodstamps or cash assistance just to survive, when it is you who is losing a home, being forced into homelessness, when it is you who are sick with no health care- reality will slap you in the face. Hard.
I’m calling it The American Holocaust. We are subjected to violence on a daily basis, but we don’t see it as violence. When there is food and you are hungry and that food is not given to you- it is violence. When there are homes and you are homeless, that is violence. When there is health care and medicine available but you are denied access to it, that is violence. When a billionaire gets tax breaks while we who have nothing are forced to pay for that billionaires life style- that is the supreme violence.
Look around. It’s happening right now, today people are hungry, homeless, sick. The elderly are being forced to chose between food or medicine …
… in the richest nation on Earth.
What we all fail to understand is that we are buying into a dual morality. This is the morality that allows a corporation to go into debt repeatedly, to default on the debt, and to be bailed out by the government/tax payers. This is, for some reason, accepted.
On the other hand, there is a heavily reinforced social morality that enforces “responsibility” on the lowly poor, that imparts the acceptance that YOUR debt is a moral obligation, while a corporate debt is meant to be shed at any moment when profit is endangered.
I’m not suggesting that we all walk away from our debt forever. I am suggesting that if payments were withheld until such time as real, meaningful dialogues were engaged in then we could create the change we’re all talking about.
We have a two tiered economy, one that allows Wall Street to enjoy historic profit and bonuses while the rest of us are obliged to accept “shared sacrifice.” We have a two tiered system of justice that allows Wall Street to break the law with impunity while the rest of us are held to ever harsher judgements. Add the two tiered morality into that mix and you have America in the 21st century.
So … are we hopelessly lost, with no alternative other than to ignore the reality until it swallows us as it has the millions of others who thought it would only happen to someone else?
No.
We have two tools: Our money, and resistance.
Despite what they want you you to believe, money trickles up- not down. If this were not the case they would simply print all the money they could ever want or need and place it directly into their offshore accounts.
Understand, they don’t even want the money you have, or your home- they want your debt. Your debt insures many years of projected income, your debt far outstrips the real value of your cash or belongings.
Why do you think cell phone companies are willing to “give away” a $400.00 cell phone? Because once you have it you are locked in to years of debt for it’s use.
In the Corporate world there is nothing that creates a more immediate response than a loss of profit. Committees are formed, research is paid for, plans are laid to reverse the trend. Media is brought into the mix- issues are addressed, spin and public opinion are given top priority.
So how does resistance factor in to all of this?
I urge you to think big once again.
Imagine what might happen if a million of us, two million of us, just stopped paying the mortgage, the rent, the utilities.
Can you think that big? You’d better start, because our enemies are thinking bigger than that. In America in the 21st century the only effective resistance is to refuse to give them your money. It is possibly the single most radical, and dangerous, idea we can contemplate.
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Postscript…
Let’s put some perspective on this, and I hope using these examples is not off putting:
The number of card carrying members of the Nazi Party represented just about 5% of the total population of Germany.
The number of members of the Communist… Party in Russia was just around 3% of the total population.
What both had in common was that the State controlled all resources, all media, the military and the police.
I know I’m treading on dangerous territory here- Hell- we currently have people who somehow believe that President Obama is both a communist AND a fascist- which is an impossibility. The point is that it only requires a very small number of people to gain and maintain control of a government IF they also happen to control the economy, the resources, the production, distribution and the media.
It’s a recipe for Fascism and Oligarchy.
I’m sure you’re aware of this, but it’s worth repeating- according to the 2010 “Top 400” issue of Forbes Magazine the wealthiest top 400 Americans “earned” 1.5 trillion dollars. The bottom 50% of all American wage earners earned 1.6 trillion combined.
Knowing this, if you can’t see the power this handful of people wield, if you can’t look around and see the connection between what’s happening to us and how it’s been engineered- then nothing could ever convince you.
This debt ceiling bit of theatre is designed to allow both parties to appeal to their base while the agenda of the wealthy is carried out before our eyes, openly. The Democrats can fall back on compromise, the Republicans can fall back on “NO-” in the mean time BOTH parties have essentially agreed that the crippling military budget is a hands off, that there will be no tax increase for the wealthy, that corporations will NOT be made to pay any taxes at all, and that the social safety network will be plundered.
All out in the open. It’s a neat trick that’s growing old, but so few of us seem to be catching on that the rabbit has always been in the hat.
For some time I’ve been of the opinion that the Wealthy were simply using this issue in order to rape and plunder the social safety nets, and that in the end they would not allow the government to default.
Recently I’ve changed my mind, for this reason. In the past week there has been a great deal money moved into short selling the default- at a 10 to one return ratio. Big money seems to be betting on a default, and this is the same money that short sold the housing market, the junk bond market and the insurance market to massive profit.
Think about it- Social Security, which is completely solvent and is not in any way a factor in the deficit has become THE key issue. Why?
Because it’s the “gut level” button, because it’s the “emotional remote control” that’s being used to manipulate, distract, and obscure what’s really going on. I need hardly point out examples from the past where focusing on emotional issues that bore no real connection to the issue at hand has been used to further the agenda of the Elite.
Stop looking at Washington- that’s NOT where the action is, and it’s NOT what the looming default is all about.
It is a mistake to assume that the enemy is stupid, or insane. I’ll grant that most of the ultraconservatives are gullible pawns being used for purposes beyond their understanding, but only if we also agree that progressives are also being used in the same way. They are shadows, a distraction, a dead end.
Neither the conservatives nor the progressives are the motivating force, they’re simply the machine. The real enemy is Big Money, the top 2% who willingly sacrifice either party in a New York minute if it suits their agenda.
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Postscript #2 (in response to a comment re. compromise)…
compromise- n (kam-pra-miz) – (a) a state or condition that allows rich people to get their own way. – (b) v- the act of convincing a nation or a group of people that you are not doing what rich people tell you to do. See also: ass hat, corporate tool, traitor
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