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Declaring Independence Day From the "Fixed Market" Oligarchy that Runs D.C.

Submitted by mark karlin on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 11:29am.

EditorBlog

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

By Mark Karlin

The Civil War ended in 1865, but we are still two Americas.

The Republican Party is one – composed of Neo-Confederacy politicians, corporations and Wall Street titans who want fixed markets to cover their losses at the taxpayer’s expense, and fundamentalists who believe (in general) in a divine guarantee of white entitlement.

If the last century belonged to America dominance in industrial might and innovation, this century is turning out to belong to corporations and Neo-Confederates who want to stifle innovation and true entrepeneurship in order to return to a "fixed" world order a lot like the ante-bellum South: cheap labor (and you can’t get much cheaper than slaves) and a social order dominated by the wealthy white male plantation owners. The GOP and corporatists don’t want dynamic change and innovation; they want the guarantee of wealth to those who are already on top. If innovators enter the market -- let's say in relation to reducing oil consumption -- their gross profits are threatened. This you must understand: the corporations calling the shots in D.C. don't want progress and competition; they want a fixed dependency on their products.

While in the 1800s the North of the United States advanced and celebrated new inventions, industrialization, and the fruits of the enlightenment, the South lived in a delusional Biblical dream world in which God sanctioned owning other people to do your work and make you rich. It was an economy built on cheap labor and natural resources, not scientific advancement. (If this doesn’t sound like Dick Cheney to you, then you’re obviously not a BuzzFlash reader.)

Currently, the "fixed or rigged market" forces control Congress and the financial advisers that President Obama has chosen. Their goal is not to encourage innovation and the emancipation of the American worker through the creation of new industry; their goal is to stifle competition and thus prevent the unleashing of the creative American economic spirit. Their idea of a healthy economy is ensuring that they get rich and richer, not to advance the economic interests of the nation and create jobs.

Meanwhile, as the reactionary economic forces control D.C. through the power of money and the good old boys club, other nations (such as China and India) are racing ahead without the constraints of forces that are suppressing change and progress out of their own greed.

Right now, the three branches of the American government are appearing more and more beholden to the power of money, not to the people of the United States. And we are losing our economic independence more and more as our heritage of invention and creativity and economic progress is stifled by those who only want to preserve the status quo of their wealth at the expense of our nation’s future and greatness.

It is time to declare our Independence from the pernicious forces who undermine the American dream and our Constitutional right to a level economic playing field, it is time for a democratic revolution that will unleash another era of American innovation and job growth.

Yes, it is clear that the majority of our elected officials and the Supreme Court in D.C. are not running the show; they are just doing the bidding of the privileged "entitled" elite.

We the people must be the patriots of our own modern revolution. The government must once again belong to us.

Only then will we truly have the Independence that is at the heart of the American dream, Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

Only then can we once again celebrate Independence and rejoin the rest of the world as it advances forward; otherwise, reactionary forces will continue to drift our nation backward not to the 1900s, but to the South of the 1800s.

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

Oligarchs and Plutocrats

Submitted by godistwaddle on Sun, 07/05/2009 - 9:31am.

The "founders," the richest men in America, wished to be free of British influence on their predatory capitalism. Their "revolution" certainly didn't help common farmers (the majority of citizens), Indians, slaves, or, in fact ANYONE not rich and powerful. The war won, they legitimized their rapacity in the Constitution. The American Revolution is yet to occur.

practical suggestion

Submitted by hippieaglescout on Sun, 07/05/2009 - 3:06am.

We need to make it easier for the uninitiated to get basic, clear, unmistakeable and outrageous examples of journalistic malfeasance (e.g., letting big lies and fallacies be presented without challenge, omitting important and relevant perspectives and evidence, not asking obvious questions that lead to inconvenient answers, etc.) from big MSM journalism programs and articles on significant topics that people can relate to (for example, the MSM suppression of Cheney's turning away the police after his hunting accident--before which he was reported to have been drinking.) Sites like Media Matters might be excellent for the informed and involved, but they demand too much and are too overwhelming for people who are just wading in--the kind of people we need in order to grow the movement. All of the main sites that promote media reform--including Buzzflash--need to have a clearly marked "for new visitors" area that hits new people with concise samples of MSM perfidy that will grab them and make them want to wade in further--with links that are designed to make it easy for them to get more details and progress to more topics and examples, and facilitate their informing friends and taking action. Not trying to step on toes: just want to make sure we all are always asking of any of our efforts: "How will this increase consciousness and commitment among the masses?"

We are all victims of T-rex

Submitted by john jacob on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 10:46pm.

We are all victims of T-rex capitalism, the devastatingly rapacious and ruinously corrupt economic system practiced in the United States. Too few realize that this calamity is upon us.

If the people lead...

Submitted by cagey on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 9:07pm.

...the leaders will follow. Eff the OLD white male corporatocracy.It's in its death knell and we're all having to watch. Eff them. Create our own entrepreneurial system and grow our own economy. State by state if necessary. Independence from the mother ship in DC who has turned her back on her people.

action plans

Submitted by marty weiss on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 7:38pm.

Take it easy, folks. Those who take without contributing, i.e., the brokers and corporate slaves, are facing the end of easy resource extraction. Those who refuse to reason, i.e., the evangelists and bible literalists and other republicans, are indisposed to expose their ignorance and they are forced to defend it with strident attacks. The previous system is collapsing. While it might be fun to enlist progressives in a pogrom of the unthinking it would be violating our basic precepts. Yes, we could cleanse the republic of the vampires, but it might be even more satisfying to watch them grow ever more impotent. Imagine Cheney sinking into a pool of truth, crying, "I'm melting!" Because the truth will out. Sooner or later everyone will know everything. Secrets and lies will emerge, into the daylight of viable life systems. Perforce. As Fukuoka said in "The One-Straw Revolution": '..the farther we get from Nature, the more we have to do to get back..' Big fixes and major technological efforts have seen their day, but it is so over. What's next is the resurgence of community-- social without socialism. No more transporting strawberries from New Zealand for the palates of the rich, or even onions from New Mexico to Pennsylvania for the diets of the proletariat. No need and no cost/benefit. What works is inalienable rights and they won't be denied at any cost. What works is government by the consent of the governed and it is the only way government can work. Don't do anything foolish or destructive, just watch, as Dylan said, 'the river flow'-- or as Lennon said, 'the wheels go 'round and 'round...' Ayn Rand's rugged individualist survives at the mercy of the community. We humans survive by community. Stick to your ideals, love one another, it will not only save your life, but save biodiversity, save a viable planet. At the risk of ideologically sticking my neck out, "Love One Another" is not merely advice. It is how life works. It is a universal law of viability. Anything else is dysfunctional and doesn't know it is dying. It exists in a fantasy of self-importance. It is the source of the seven deadly sins. "Sin", by the way, is a word for error. "Sin" denotes the distance from the arrow to the bull's-eye. Not some cosmic crime against God or the Great Spirit or whatever. It was meant to correct one's aim, not to contribute to the wealth of priestly conglomerates and the subjugation of viable indigenous communities. The day of defensible mass murder ended with W. Fitting epitaph. We who are alive now are privileged to observe the death throes of the old paradigm and the birth of the information culture, and nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.

unless ...

Submitted by abmabardy on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 8:54pm.

"and nothing can stop an idea whose time has come"

... unless the idea never gets out to the people who need to hear it.

What we need is a good riot!

Submitted by Kevin Schmidt S... on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 6:22pm.

Not that there ever was such a thing. But soon, riots will be common place if the true unemployment rate (now over 16%) gets much higher.

To prevent these upcoming tragedies, we need the progressive groups to get better organized so we can have a massive peaceful assembly in D.C. Once we get a million or two sitting in the streets around the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court and around the Pentagon, then we can have our mutinous representatives address our grievances before we summarily dismiss them from our employ and kick them out of town for good.

When will WE THE PEOPLE stop being wee the sheeple?

It is ironic

Submitted by sulphurdunn on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 5:50pm.

that capitalism used democracy to destroy communism and fascism. Now it has destroyed democracy and resurrected fascism. I suppose it would destroy or create any order of things to better serve itself.

"Fixed Market" Oligarchy

Submitted by StevenWells on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 5:05pm.

I agree with abmabardy in spirit, although - and it may be just a matter of semantics - I have a problem with the concept of "get[ting] control of the media;" control itself is the problem, and it needs to be wrested away from the half-dozen plutocrats in whose hands it currently resides, so that more diversified independent ownership of media outlets can once again flourish as in days of yore. This will of course require action from both the FCC and Congress of the TR "trust-busting" kind. A tremendous task in itself, and it addresses only half the problem. The other half is getting private/corporate/union (yeah, them too) money out of politics, in favor of a true publicly funded campaign finance system; admittedly, also a thorny issue, riddled with obstacles, not the least of which is the currently-operative precedent from SCOTUS that money equals speech. I have an idea how that might work, but it would require too much detail to go into here. And again, action would be required from the very people who benefit from the current graft-ridden system. The only way over that hurdle is massive - and I mean MASSIVE - public pressure brought to bear on our representatives in the form of direct communication. I don't care how much corporate money and lobbyist pressure is involved; no member of either house of Congress can resist pressure mustered by large enough numbers of their constituents, no matter what the issue. Make those phone calls; write those emails. Don't give in to the "I'm just one person/it's pointless/the game is rigged" mindset. That's exactly how the oligarchy wants you to think. It'll only cost a minute or two, and we have everything to gain.

Progressives MUST take back the media.

Submitted by abmabardy on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 8:57pm.

"action would be required from the very people who benefit from the current graft-ridden system"

which is why no amount of calling or writing Congress will ever matter.

The power of numbers must come into play for anything to change. The masses must collectively become outraged enough to take to the streets if necessary, and that will only happen if the media is committed to getting the truth out.

Where is all the progressive money? Murdoch and his ilk have spent vast amounts of money over decades to buy up enough media to relentlessy advance a right-wing agenda. TV in particular, where most average Americans get their "news" manipulates via talking points designed to convince people to vote against their own self-interests. Like it or not, FAUX has been extremely effective.

I do not think control in and of itself is a bad thing. It depends how it is used. Control that uses lies to advance a corporate greed-driven agenda is neither morally nor politically equivalent to control that insists on truth, openness and fairness. Progressives MUST take back the media.

Given up before you start?

Submitted by StevenWells on Mon, 07/06/2009 - 4:00am.

"...no amount of calling or writing Congress will ever matter." And so, with that attitude, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and you've played right into the oligarchy's hands. And also, with that attitude, how do you think progressives - or anybody else - are going to "take back the media" - or anything else?

There is a solution

Submitted by kuni on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 4:29pm.

It’s called the Second Amendment. It worked just fine the first time around, and there is no reason for it not to work now.

NO SOLUTION HERE

Submitted by john jacob on Sun, 07/05/2009 - 8:46pm.

Unfortunately, Kuni, rifles and pistols do not stand up well against tanks and fighter jets. Actually, I'm in the market for a used tank myself. Any idea where I can find one? Thought I might form a tank club with the guys. You know, go down to the quarry on Sunday afternoon, lob a few shells into the rock piles, get drunk, shoot each other. Nothing like some good old fashioned male bonding. Think this would be protected by the Second Amendment. After all, tanks do fall under the category of arms.

Funny, the history books say different

Submitted by kuni on Sun, 07/05/2009 - 11:00pm.

I know where you can steal a tank, if you got the balls to pull it off. And the trick with high tech fighters is to nail them when they are still on the ground. But then it, as it has always has throughout history, comes down to how much you are willing to risk. I offered an option I know works. I don’t see your workable solution anywhere.

VIOLENCE WON'T WORK

Submitted by john jacob on Mon, 07/06/2009 - 12:08am.

Rebellion, as you seem to be proposing, isn't the answer. Any uprising would be crushed with the full support of the those who are targeted by the rebellion. A rebellion by the way is a failed revolution. Most rebellions not only fail, but are thoroughly discredited when they make it into the history books. The victors write the history. So you can put the pistol back in your holster. The fact is if we can't stop the corruption, or as I call it pay off money in the form of campaign contributions, we will never regain democracy in our country. Really don't want to steal a tank. Thought I might find one on a used tank lot, zero down, six year financing, zero per cent interest. Hey, driving one might be fun. Wouldn't have to take any guff from 18 wheelers on an interstate. Now there's a nice thought.

Violence works more often that it does not

Submitted by kuni on Mon, 07/06/2009 - 12:37pm.

And you’re right, he doesn’t have to steal a tank; Molotov cocktails are easier to procure and don’t require any skills in operating them. The Second Amendment was added for the very scenario that we face now.

What???

Submitted by Colleen Clark on Sun, 07/05/2009 - 12:11am.

Are you proposing armed insurrection? Or just shooting people we don't like?
Sorry, but the 2nd amendment cannot protect us against the corporatocracy.

We have to be smart and organized and persistent to regain and keep our democracy.

Colleen Clark
Cambridge, MA

Are you suggesting we start Necklacing them instead?

Submitted by kuni on Sun, 07/05/2009 - 11:07pm.

Well, if we are going to necklace them, we’ll need lots of old tires and gasoline. There is only one way said corporatocracy is going to be effectively dealt with. Whether you wish to acknowledge that is another story.

The Key to Breaking the Cycle?

Submitted by abmabardy on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 4:49pm.

Greed is a powerful motivator. Corporations donate huge sums of money to get politicians elected and thereby ensure a system that will perpetuate the legal/legislative means to continue to feed their greed at the expense of "the masses". With very few exceptions, politicians choose their careers and their individual needs over the needs of the many, i.e. the greater good.

FDR was an exception, and from his work came the middle class in America. Corporations have been working for decades to destroy the "abberration" FDR allowed to emerge (that middle class). They have shrewdly figured out that in order to keep the cycle going and their status secure, they must control the media and keep "the people" as uninformed and distracted as possible. Conversley, it is ONLY through regaining control of the media and thereby getting the truth out that this cycle can be broken.

The answer is to get control of the media and use that control to unleash the justifiable outrage that will surely come from knowing the truth. Unfortunately that answer raises another more significant question.

How?

fixed market

Submitted by jwarwick on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 12:39pm.

What? Not one tangible solution for the problems you made up?

Submitted by Madhavi108 on Sun, 07/05/2009 - 10:11am.

You've GOT to be kidding! "Problems you made up?" "Bleat Bleat Bleat!" Or is it "Bah, humbug"? Whatever the case, there's a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.

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