This is not comparable to the 1930s. We have the Trump State Media-verse, X, dark money, unlimited campaign contributions, gerrymandering, voter suppression and voter roll purges, and a Trump compliant press. FDR had the radio for messaging, and it was powerful. We face formidable odds. We do not even have any certainty that there will be an election in 2028. But I will do as President Biden asked—stand guard, resist, and hope.
I see a lot of parallels with the Roman Empire, although Trump reminds me more of Caligula & Nero than Julius or Augustus. I also see a lot of parallels with both the 1860s & 1930s, but 1930s Germany, whose leader Hitler Trump has been emulating practically every step of the way.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson, Timothy Snyder, Rachel Maddox, Lucian Truscott IV--and now those on Substack and other forceful, courageous voices for reality in an insane MAGA world--would agree and/or have similar thoughts. Thank you. We are not alone, as Joyce Vance says.
Clearly the parallels exist to Rome, and the threat real. President Biden in his last address was explicit. There are some counter factors. First, our Country revolted against the authoritarian. Resistance to monarchical/autocratic rule is still alive. In fact, I argue the MAGA con tapped into it very well. What is different, our strength is a free press. Certainly oligarchs can corrupt media (WaPo/Bezos comes to mind). But Thomas Paine succeeded with flyers. Today, we have the Substack, social media, and the internet—communications. No doubt there are major bumps ahead. But we still can vote, that’s how we emerged from the Robber Barons.
Since we're conditioned in contemporary society to view all things in a single linear dimension (political spectrums, time, etc) it's no surprise when we take that horizontal line, tip it up 90° and realize we've been staring at a circle on edge.
I hope someone understands what I'm *trying* to show here.
Jon, I understand what you are saying...while we believe society develops in a singular fashion,that is not true. History repeats itself, as you describe the 90° tilt from the horizontal plane.
And.. Diametrically opposed points (as we view extremes in the left vs right mirage) are a distraction.
Without getting too deep in a rabbit hole full of weeds, I'm pulling from the x,y,z planes of orthographic technical drawings in a premature attempt at illustrating the possibility that we may just be looking at things from a less accurate perspective. I really need to iron out some of the details before I post things. This one still needs a lot of work, but there's something here.
As always, personal interpretation is more than welcome. Thanks for enduring my rambling.
Jon, diametrically opposing viewpoints are not a distraction, nor do I consider the differences in viewpoints as less than an accurate perspective. Just the opposite...this is why critical thinking and analysis is so difficult for people who want to be told what they see. If a viewpoint differs from my perspective, it be omes an opportunity to inspect why it is different. So, I welcome opposing perspectives moreso than the dogmatic following of so many. They question very little and they analyze very little.
A plus 1000 upvote Billy. Well said and so true. For those interested in how communism leads to oligarchy, read Milovan Djilas, The New Clahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milovan_Djilasss
Djilas published abroad The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System, which he had already sent to the American publisher Praeger before he was jailed.[ In the book he argued that communism in Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was not egalitarian, and that it was establishing a new class of privileged party bureaucracy, who enjoyed material benefits from their positions
Do you really think there is equal concern about the USA oligarchs being influenced in any way by thoughts of communism? There is truly zero chance of institutional communism being an issue in the USA. But those who yell 'communist' loudly at people who care about people first is a true problem here. When those in official positions don't just yell, they label as communist and then apply violence, sometimes to the death. So yes, our education should include information about communism, capitalism, socialism, fascism, and oligarchy too. We obviously do not have satisfactory education as a nation to recognize and understand the machinations of politics and corporations. Hence we are to such a place that we all must now learn to understand what and how Fascism works to understand the news of the day here in the good ole USA.
Serena, of course I don't think that the oligarchs are influenced in any way by communism. Where did you get that idea from what I said. Gees.
This whole bugaboo about communism goes back to the Bolshevik Revolution. The industrialists like Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie, were scared shitless of labor organizing and demanding a say, decent pay and health and safety concerns in the factories.
Since Marx wrote of workers, and the Bolsheviks claimed that their revolution was a workers revolution, it wasn't hard for the organs of propaganda, the 4th estate which is owned by the entitled wealthy, to connect socialism to communism. And it wasn't communism that was scary, it was the tactics of the Bolsheviks, engaging in bloody slaughter of the Kulaks, the middle class, the ensuing starvation (Holodor) of the peasants, the gulags.
It wasn't so much the Soviets owning the means of production as it was the 100% gold standard which limited the printing of roubles, and caused a perpetual depression.
Although I will say this, any bureaucracy, government or private is conservative and inefficient.
Please, please, please - get your hands on the recent book by Gareth Gore - “OPUS - the cult of dark money, human trafficking and right-wing conspiracy inside the Catholic Church”. On page 32 we read how Charles John McCloskey III, a Wall Street trader turned Opus Dei priest, “was personally responsible for the conversion of Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich”. And Opus Dei has existed for decades with driven dedication against democracy and for authoritarian rule. Please educate yourself about this cult. Leonard Leo is an Opus Dei devotee and has ensured our Supreme Court has been taken over by authoritarians.
Julianne, thanks for this recommendation. When in Florence, Italy I had the stomach churning experience of seeing Newt Gingrich and his entourage walking on the same small cobblestoned street that I was formerly enjoying. The backroom groups who meet in Italy...... to plot how to make the world "a better place" more to their liking and pocketbooks.
We have seen this story over and over for thousands of years. We have not learned to avoid the concentration of wealth and power. Power corrupts and.....you know the rest. Rise and Fall of........the list is long.
Despite our advances in science, technology, knowledge in general, human nature hasn’t really changed in thousands of years. Which is why we keep going through depressingly similar cycles. But if you would analogies to the fall of Rome’s Republic, at least its first emperor, Augustus, was one of its best, if not the best. We are starting with the equivalent of Nero—a man utterly besotted with himself, who will delight in fiddling while we burn. The difference is that we elected the faux orange grotesque. We, the people—those who voted and, maybe even more significantly, those who didn’t. Augustus and. Euro were recognized by a Roman Senate hardly representative of the plebs. So the fault lies squarely with us, and that includes the Democrats in bed with the morbidly rich as they have been for too long themselves. Maybe we are just too stupid, too venal, too greedy to be self-governing. I suspect we will soon find out what that means.
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; Was hardly great. He waged a ruthless civil war, slaughtered innocents, like the son of Cleopatra and Julius, and the children of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Then he levied the law of Pater Familia, which gave the father life an death control over wife and children,imposed moral codes, like adultery, which he did not follow himself.
And it is no stretch to say that Augustus law of Pater Familia, is the agenda of MAGA, Dominionism, the New Apostolic Reformaton.
The rest of your comment I agree with. none of this would have come to pass were it not enabled by the Democrats. Reagan started the ball rolling, but Clinton greased the slide.
I was being relative. Do I find humane anyone in history who was an emperor or the equivalent? No. Probably my favorite of the Roman emperors was Marcus Aurelius, whose “Meditations” were on my nightstand for many years. But he spent most of his reign in wars, and persecuted Christians to boot. And left his lovely heir Commodus to follow him. There have been many laudatory humans. In my rather dour mind, there have been many times more who have not been, and they have normally been in the ascendant. One could say we are regressing to the mean again in the world. And mean it assuredly is.
Roy Shultz—Agree, totally. Our species can’t seem to dig its way out of fear/lack/and greed. Beliefs and bad behavior just keep circling, unfortunately, not spiraling upward.
Biden never did enough to stop the MAGA march to victory. The 14th Amendment was available. He (and Garland) ought to have done A LOT more. Martial Law is still available.
Garland was a fifth columnist inside the administration, Biden because he was weak, and learned the wrong lessons in the Senate (comity, compromise, bipartisanship) had no moral center (he really didn't he was eager to form alliances with the "devil"). Set the stage for Co consuls Trump and Musk.
As a former "deep state" person, SCOTUS has fallen hook, line and sinker for specious legal theories that were rejected long ago, and foreiogn interests have take advantage of our open society and our national politics of hate. The votters are emotional, miss the forest for the trees. We've been in effect paying taxes (if not feasance) to OPEC since Nixosan let the dollar float.
The coup de gras will be when BRIC displaces the dollar as the world's currency.
The Trump-Paypal mafia regime will do exactly that, they will devalue the dollar, because there policies, cultural, political, financial, will demoralize the country, and thus wreak havoc on it's productivity.
This path of vengeance, self righteousness, religious apoplexy, intolerance,exclusion, racism that is the driving force of Trump, his minions and his supporters will destroy America.
Everyone will disagree with me when I say democracy and capitalism inevitably become oligarchies. Regulated capitalism can only be temporary because the regulated become the regulators. Maybe China's communism with Chinese characteristics is something we can learn from. A system where a central government informs the banking system where to lend to the common good may be something to consider. Our experiment in democracy brought us to where Russia and China have lower infant mortality than we do. Ok. I'm ready for everybody to hate me now. Can we have a thought experiment? I'm taking my dog for a walk now with a windchill of 24 and listening to Thom's recent book on audio.
No hate here Gloria. If one is honest and actually investigates national rankings we rate at the top in incarcerated, violent crime, gun deaths and down to the middle, hanging with underdeveloped countries when it comes to education, morality, infant mortality, women's health, and economic equality.
America maybe great for some, but not for all. Incidentally, I have played by the rules, but made good choices and took advantage of programs that benefited me, used my head, deferred gratification and am sitting pretty good at the moment. I personally have nothing to bitch about, but I do have eyes, ears, a brain and am capable of independent and critical thinking, and I see clearly where we are headed.
I doubt anyone here will hate you for expressing an opinion. However, I am not sure that anything is automatically inevitable. Our oligarchy certainly is to a great extent a feature of freedom, liberty, "free markets", etc. But it is the job of the people with the help of their leaders to design controls and defeat corruption. Once again, the people have not met the test because we have a system of compulsory indoctrination which favors free market fundamentalism, acquisitiveness, competition, and gross inequality. We could have fixed it decades ago if the over-schooled were not part of a cult.
All autocracies fail for two reasons. First, autocrats rule. They do not govern. Thus every edict is immediately implemented nationally without question. That seems very efficient, and it is. However, absolute power means nobody dares to point out to the ruler the possible unintended consequences of their edicts - often economic. That is why all autocrats embrace war. It distracts the rabble from questioning their fealty. It has recently worked for Bush (Iraq) and is working so far for Netanyahu, XI, and Putin. But, in the end, most autocrats wind up like Mussolini - dangling by their ankles in the public square.
I’ll take your point. But it isn’t new and reflects Marx’s comment. He referred to it as the fulminations of capitalism. Essentially a very Darwinian world of all against all. Certainly we are in a phase where oligarchs would disable or marginalize society’s controls such as banking regulations, EPA (clean air/water), food safety (USDA), and so on. These came into being when the public revolted against the Darwinistic capitalists (profit above social responsibility). Sinclair Lewis, as an example, wrote his book The Jungle to capture the ills of meat packing leading to laws. Rachel Carson, the Silent Spring, in part led to increased environment laws.
Now, it might seem a more centralized, socialistic government is the answer. Well, early on we did move from a confederacy to a federal government. Our Constitution captures it. But the narrow course is enough regulation to assure the general welfare but not so much to stifle the market place. My observation (travels to Russia post Soviet) was their communism/socialism attempted to control in full the creation, distribution, and consumption of product. Ultimately it was unworkable. The ‘classless’ society had the nomenklatura. Shopping (as I observed) epitomized the large. One could find clothing style, the size, or the color. They just couldn’t find one with all (size, style, color). Surplus, a great thing in our society, didn’t exist (surplus assures supply and choice). And military spending dominated their economy.
Turning to China. Some years ago they went for economic reform. As one put it: black cat, white cat who cares so long as it catches mice. Notionally communist, their economy has a vibrant market with growing individual wealth.
You noted infant mortality. Let me expand to health care. I am a proponent for universal health care. But it isn’t free: taxes or insurance. A problem I see is we have a dearth of medical personnel and facilities. As long as there are short falls, health care will either be rationed (equitable but limited) or disproportionate (wealth has greater access). Infant mortality is a symptom of systemic issue.
In the USA, some have argued for industrial policy to guide production. IMHO, regulations to assure the general welfare are spot on. Those to regulate production (quantity or type) stifle innovation (a strength of capitalism). Social programs to provide a safety net are good. Those to achieve equity ala a Kropotkinesque society are ill conceived. Even the communists knew it wouldn’t work.
I think we are in the sturm and drang of political discourse. To assure we continue as a democratic republic we have our voice (the 1st Amendment) and ability to change government (our vote). To give up either would be the great disaster. In short, speak up and vote.
Good analysis but a correction is needed. It was the great muckraker Upton Sinclair who wrote The Jungle. I had the privilege of interviewing Upton Sinclair around 1966 and treasure the memory. I do wish in hindsight that I had guided the discussion more to the issue of his views of the dirty side of American politics since he had been victimized by such in the race for Governor of California.
David, the USSR's economy was hampered by it's Marxist gold standard In homage to Marx, the USSR had a 100% gold standard. Where it defined a rouble as .981 grams fine gold, and put into circculation the number of roubles that were backed by on hand gold.
Rhe result was a perpetual depression, a shortage of money, It was so bad that Soviet Customs searched outbound luggage and goods for roubles, and if caught then the perp was facing serious charges, and if a Soviet Citizen, a trip to the gulag.
The citizen could not present a rouble at the GosBank or one of the trust banks and demand gold, but a foreigner could present roubles at the NordBank in Paris and demand gold, thus reducing the money supply and exacerbating the depression, the result was that the USSR was obsessed with gold.
The shortage of roubles created by their Marxist gold standard, was conveniently explained by the cold war. Invoking patriotic feelings, the Kremlin told the people and the west that their suffering was necessary because their industrial capacity had to be used to build defense against the capitalist west.
The end of the USSR was foretold in the annual report of the Bank for International Settlements of 1983/84.
A one sentence paragraph" The Soviet Union is a failed ecnomic experiment and needs to be reorganized. It took another 5 years before the right person and situation appeared.
Gorbachev was roundly rewarded by provided a healthy pension, a dacha on Lake Geneva, and a non profit created especially for him,the Green Cross.
We went to an essentially petrodollar standard. All the gold in California and Ft. Knox can't compete with Saudi.
Today, China is amassing gold and wants BRIC to be backed by gold.
The other day I laid out modern alchemy where we can make anything from subatomic partices. CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and ISOLDE are examples of modern alchemy because they use particle accelerators to transmute elements and study the fundamental structure of matter.
Plus the space race has really always been about mining.
Sci fi has always been ahead of "reality". So many of the sci fi books and movies are about space mining, there is even a name for those work on the asteroid belt. Belters.
Gold is a fraudulent standard, which the 19th Century Economist Arthur Kitson deconstructed in A Fraudulent Standard.
Gold bugs love to talk about inflation, but seem to be unaware of the gold and silver inflations. That have taken down the Spanish Empire, caused Rome a problem after they opened the silver mines of Dacia, the Spaniards after the conquest of Mexico and Peru, then the knife in the heart was the silver mines of Potosi, Colombia.
America had a bimetallic standard (gold and silver) until the Comstock Lode was discovered and exploited. Silver flooded the market and caused an inflation. Congress responded by demonetizing silver, and that launched a seven year depression, which culiminated with William Jennings Bryan and his Cross of Gold Speech.
There just is not enough gold to serve as a form of exchange.
When Gold was cash, we sttil had depressions and bankruptcy's
in the 19th and early 20th Century banks printed their own notes, a Note is a liability, they were called bank notes. The bank would loan money to buy a home or to a business, and the fiction was based on a lie, that the Bank had in its vaults, enough gold to redeem it's bank notes. It never did, it still doesn't.
The History of modern banking starts with the East India Company.
Charles II was a reprobate, addicted to gambling, drinking and whoring he squandered the treasury, much of it on his mistress Barbara Viliers, the cousin of James I favorite courtier, George Villieres.
The bank set a condition, give them a monopoly charter as the Bank of England. Not long after opening their door and taking deposits of gold, a rumor (truth) circulated that the bank did not have enough gold to cover it's notes.
There was a run on the bank. The Board of Directors found a clever ,way of calming public fears. It hired the well know alchemist Isaac Newton as the 1st Warden of the Mint.
Alchemists had a reputation for transmuting base metals into gold, and that clever move assuaged the fears of holders of bank notes.
The Bank of England grew out of the East India Company, but didn't go away, the EIC had a monopoly charter and was as responsible for the American revolution, as was the expense of the Seven Years War (French and Indian war)
Following is a footnote of my 1984 paper
Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer (England) whose policies of money and taxation led to the American Revolution hired Adam Smith to tutor his stepson, Henry the young 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, because of his work "The Theory of Moral Sentiment 81. Smith penned "The Wealth of Nations" at a time when the mercantilist policies of England had proven antiquated and were no longer profitable. The Sovereign of England by this time was the Bank of England for whom the Chancellor of the Exchequer was employed. Sovereignity having passed during the reign of Charles II,who bankrupted himself to bestow favors on an unscrupulous Barbara Villiers, first to the Bullioneers and the India Company and subsequently to the Bank of England when it acquired that company 82. Charles also sired,illegitimately, James Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch whose grandson was the above mentioned 3rd Duke. Smith wandered the continent, especially France, spending much time with the "physiocrats" with young Henry in tow. Henry, 13 years later, paid his friend and tutor to write "Wealth of Nations" thus intellectually justifying a new era and a new philosophy to justify the change in methodology.
So Thom, what are we going to do? The minute President Biden hands over the keys fo the government to a convicted felon, racist, chronic liar, and insurrectionist democracy as we know will die. Once Trump has control the military the chances of getting rid of him in the next presidential election will be similar to that of the people of Russia getting rid of poop once and power dictators don't give it up. It took World War II for the people of Germany to be free of Hitler. It took violent protest and even Civil War to get rid of dictators in other countries. Our first Civil War it took Abraham Lincoln to unite the nation and free the slaves. Imagine that it was Donald Trump that was president of the Union. He would divide the country even more between the lower and middle class and his ultra- rich, swamp dwelling, cronies, and friends. Trump has a history of taking advantage of cheap labor. He would be one of the largest slave owner in the country. Freedom for this slaves would not even be considered. The first Civil War was a very destructive war, with mass casualties on both sides. It was brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, but Lincoln's effort to save the Union succeeded . Put Trump in charge of the Union for a Second Civil War and the results would be disastrous. With modern weaponry and the assault rifle the death toll would be enormous. With Trump in charge of the military those fighting to restore our democracy would surely fail. Democracy will have died just as it did in the Roman empire.
It took over 40 years for the Republicans to chip away at the Constitution until there is almost nothing left of the safeguards - the checks and balances that can protect us from a wannabe dictator like Trump. To accomplish this the Republicans lied and cheated, suppressed voter registration, pushed biased and slanted news to social networks and the major national news media, they bribed congressman and Supreme Court justices, and a brainwashed a large segment of voters to believe that Trump was the answer to all their problems. Biden and Harris had no chance of winning the presidential election. The system is so rigged in favor of the Republicans that even if Jesus Christ ran in the next election he would lose.
And now that Trump has won the election they expect the Democrats to follow all the rules - to ratify the Electoral College votes and to peacefully transfer the power on January 20th. Fox News says that Joe Biden is weak and that he should just roll over and surrender the keys to the government to Trump without a fight. But, that is just not the American way. Throughout our history, our veterans are great patriots fought to the bitter end to protect our Constitution. They knew that they had to fight like hell to save our nation.
Joe Biden ran for office to save the soul of our nation. He took an oath of office to protect the Constitution against foreign and domestic Invaders. When everything else has failed the Constitution provided Biden the presidential power to declare the nation is in a State of Emergency. He needs to postpone the transition of power until Trump has been tried for all charges, including the ones that the Supreme Court said he was immune of. The writers of the Constitution did so to prevent any would-be tyrant from taking over the government. Therefore the results of the 2024 presidential election are null and void. An election of eligible candidates will be held in 2025. If our country is not a country ruled by laws then we are not a country. If our country is worth saving, Biden must take these drastic steps to save it. History will remember Biden as a great president for his effort and legislation to help bring up the lower and middle class. But what he will be remembered most of all for is he DIDN'T do what was necessary to save our nation.
Sometimes Fox News and Donald Trump are right, even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Biden is weak, and shame on the Democratic Party that they are a part of wimps and pansies, and have never developed strong leadership, but how could they they were in competition with Republicans for slopping at the same trough.
Visit Open Secrets.org and search any corporation or individual and except for Musk, Mellon, Thiel this donors slop the same trough as feeds the Democrats and Republicans.
The correct rendition of James Carville's
It's the economy stupid" is "It's the donors stupid"
Jesus Christ was running, didn't you see him? All of the ideas regarding social issues are his, too.
Unfortunately, Joe Biden is protecting his family because if he goes there, 'they' will come after Hunter and Jimmy Biden. Biden has more or less made this known. In my opinion, he risks democracy for his own family. He is only human, but we need a president who can act and render the 2024 presidential election null and void.
I know people are sick of hearing me now, for more than two decades of 24/7 surveillance, crying out to make it stop. It has ruined my creative writing and my family, using my adult son, who has a mental disability, for their means. I have begged quietly, then louder and louder, that it stops. The massive nature of the assault should have been enough for the president and Congress to stop it. Yet they have woven my case of stalking and harassment into their gains year after year. This includes business, movies, TV, online media, and talk show hosts. Just last night on Jon Stewart's show last night made me fodder by coding the essence of his show. He is not the only one they all do. While my name is not spoken, they use code to represent those who have passed on slander in support of these individuals. The side effects on me are cumulative and numerous over the years. They ar abusing power.
Yes, this is dire. America is poised to go over the cliff. And yet, this is what the majority of Americans voted for. Joe Biden was spot on in his speech last night. The content was accurate and well laid out. But the majority of Americans observed only a weak old man, who didn’t make them feel safe. Democrats need a new game plan for public discourse if they want to save the country.
They absolutely needed "a game plan," and that was when Biden decided to run for a second term. The party's Pelosis had a task: not to allow Biden to run. They failed miserably by covering up Biden's age issues. Anthony Blinken needed to step in and make it happen. Blinken had too much deference for Biden as a friend and old man to step on his toes. Blinken traveled the world for America and knew how other leaders and the U.N. were aware of the crippling effect of Biden's intransigence.
So, just curious, what is the exact date of the Ides of March? And can anyone provide directions to the Pompey Theatre? Can't remember what's playing, but I figure it's worth a shot.
Thom, I would challenge the part of this statement in triple parentheses: "Here in America, a handful of rightwing billionaires have spent decades fighting to end the New Deal and Great Society programs (((that use their tax dollars))) to distribute “free bread” to Americans in the form of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, food stamps, quality free primary education, and cheap or free college".
It is NOT their tax dollars, but OUR tax dollars and they are less and less coming from the upper echelons as more and more loopholes and offshoring (which will soon likely not even be necessary as they emasculate the IRS to have no capacity to do their jobs). WE subsidize their industries, WE subsidize any losses they might put forth, WE subsidize them by educating ourselves which financially benefits them.
Most importantly, WE pay into the social security, medicare, medicated, unemployment that WE require. I am fine with that BUT not at all fine that they act like this is an entitlement that can be taken away to 'save money' or balance the budget! The pensions are already gone for most workers so the 'three legged' stool of retirement--savings, social security/medicare and pension is already on pretty week footing and the looting of medicare and social security leaves most with "savings" with no real way to secure those monies for the decades they might be needed.
People are truly just not paying attention. What a sham government can provide is NOTHING good for regular people. This specific Sham government proposes even worse, they will take anything we share, essentially the whole of the USA and sell it to the highest bidder and keep the money for themselves. That is what the next years hold for all of us, the bankrupting of the country as we know it.
I have always thought that the path of America's decline mirrored more that of the Roman Republic than that of NAZI rise in Germany. It was the mob that Julius Caesar rode to prominence. And it is the mob, now, that is Trump's power base.
And we now understand clearly that it will be the internet -- unbridled and insane -- through which Trump and his cronies will manufacture "consent" of the mob for whatever they wish to happen. Once determined, policy will be passed on to the administrative minions kept on in the old framework of government to put on the veneer of historical authority.
The mob can be fickle, however. And, as Caesar learned, any number of players can move in the shadows, carrying knives, as they work to be the next mob whisperer.
This is not comparable to the 1930s. We have the Trump State Media-verse, X, dark money, unlimited campaign contributions, gerrymandering, voter suppression and voter roll purges, and a Trump compliant press. FDR had the radio for messaging, and it was powerful. We face formidable odds. We do not even have any certainty that there will be an election in 2028. But I will do as President Biden asked—stand guard, resist, and hope.
I see a lot of parallels with the Roman Empire, although Trump reminds me more of Caligula & Nero than Julius or Augustus. I also see a lot of parallels with both the 1860s & 1930s, but 1930s Germany, whose leader Hitler Trump has been emulating practically every step of the way.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson, Timothy Snyder, Rachel Maddox, Lucian Truscott IV--and now those on Substack and other forceful, courageous voices for reality in an insane MAGA world--would agree and/or have similar thoughts. Thank you. We are not alone, as Joyce Vance says.
Oops, forgot one of the newest voices, Jen Rubin and The Contrarian contributors.
Clearly the parallels exist to Rome, and the threat real. President Biden in his last address was explicit. There are some counter factors. First, our Country revolted against the authoritarian. Resistance to monarchical/autocratic rule is still alive. In fact, I argue the MAGA con tapped into it very well. What is different, our strength is a free press. Certainly oligarchs can corrupt media (WaPo/Bezos comes to mind). But Thomas Paine succeeded with flyers. Today, we have the Substack, social media, and the internet—communications. No doubt there are major bumps ahead. But we still can vote, that’s how we emerged from the Robber Barons.
Laissez-faire capitalism and communism both lead to the same thing… oligarchy!
Absolutely.
Since we're conditioned in contemporary society to view all things in a single linear dimension (political spectrums, time, etc) it's no surprise when we take that horizontal line, tip it up 90° and realize we've been staring at a circle on edge.
I hope someone understands what I'm *trying* to show here.
Sorry Jon, I don't understand what you are trying to show there. And I am not stupid.Could you restate in plain language please.
Jon, I understand what you are saying...while we believe society develops in a singular fashion,that is not true. History repeats itself, as you describe the 90° tilt from the horizontal plane.
And.. Diametrically opposed points (as we view extremes in the left vs right mirage) are a distraction.
Without getting too deep in a rabbit hole full of weeds, I'm pulling from the x,y,z planes of orthographic technical drawings in a premature attempt at illustrating the possibility that we may just be looking at things from a less accurate perspective. I really need to iron out some of the details before I post things. This one still needs a lot of work, but there's something here.
As always, personal interpretation is more than welcome. Thanks for enduring my rambling.
Jon, diametrically opposing viewpoints are not a distraction, nor do I consider the differences in viewpoints as less than an accurate perspective. Just the opposite...this is why critical thinking and analysis is so difficult for people who want to be told what they see. If a viewpoint differs from my perspective, it be omes an opportunity to inspect why it is different. So, I welcome opposing perspectives moreso than the dogmatic following of so many. They question very little and they analyze very little.
Read Flatland. What happened to the man who saw a sphere.
Yes! I get it! We called it “Feminist Theory”!
Sounds like the book Flatland.
A plus 1000 upvote Billy. Well said and so true. For those interested in how communism leads to oligarchy, read Milovan Djilas, The New Clahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milovan_Djilasss
Djilas published abroad The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System, which he had already sent to the American publisher Praeger before he was jailed.[ In the book he argued that communism in Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was not egalitarian, and that it was establishing a new class of privileged party bureaucracy, who enjoyed material benefits from their positions
Do you really think there is equal concern about the USA oligarchs being influenced in any way by thoughts of communism? There is truly zero chance of institutional communism being an issue in the USA. But those who yell 'communist' loudly at people who care about people first is a true problem here. When those in official positions don't just yell, they label as communist and then apply violence, sometimes to the death. So yes, our education should include information about communism, capitalism, socialism, fascism, and oligarchy too. We obviously do not have satisfactory education as a nation to recognize and understand the machinations of politics and corporations. Hence we are to such a place that we all must now learn to understand what and how Fascism works to understand the news of the day here in the good ole USA.
Serena, of course I don't think that the oligarchs are influenced in any way by communism. Where did you get that idea from what I said. Gees.
This whole bugaboo about communism goes back to the Bolshevik Revolution. The industrialists like Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie, were scared shitless of labor organizing and demanding a say, decent pay and health and safety concerns in the factories.
Since Marx wrote of workers, and the Bolsheviks claimed that their revolution was a workers revolution, it wasn't hard for the organs of propaganda, the 4th estate which is owned by the entitled wealthy, to connect socialism to communism. And it wasn't communism that was scary, it was the tactics of the Bolsheviks, engaging in bloody slaughter of the Kulaks, the middle class, the ensuing starvation (Holodor) of the peasants, the gulags.
It wasn't so much the Soviets owning the means of production as it was the 100% gold standard which limited the printing of roubles, and caused a perpetual depression.
Although I will say this, any bureaucracy, government or private is conservative and inefficient.
T
Those oligharchs are marks for BRIC.
Please, please, please - get your hands on the recent book by Gareth Gore - “OPUS - the cult of dark money, human trafficking and right-wing conspiracy inside the Catholic Church”. On page 32 we read how Charles John McCloskey III, a Wall Street trader turned Opus Dei priest, “was personally responsible for the conversion of Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich”. And Opus Dei has existed for decades with driven dedication against democracy and for authoritarian rule. Please educate yourself about this cult. Leonard Leo is an Opus Dei devotee and has ensured our Supreme Court has been taken over by authoritarians.
Julianne, thanks for this recommendation. When in Florence, Italy I had the stomach churning experience of seeing Newt Gingrich and his entourage walking on the same small cobblestoned street that I was formerly enjoying. The backroom groups who meet in Italy...... to plot how to make the world "a better place" more to their liking and pocketbooks.
Wow… that is chilling. Please tell me, Serena - what year was that? Thanks!
"..polarization and elite gridlock, the erosion of democratic norms, and the concentration of power in the hands of a small elite.."
That's the foundational recipe, identified by Thom.
We have seen this story over and over for thousands of years. We have not learned to avoid the concentration of wealth and power. Power corrupts and.....you know the rest. Rise and Fall of........the list is long.
Despite our advances in science, technology, knowledge in general, human nature hasn’t really changed in thousands of years. Which is why we keep going through depressingly similar cycles. But if you would analogies to the fall of Rome’s Republic, at least its first emperor, Augustus, was one of its best, if not the best. We are starting with the equivalent of Nero—a man utterly besotted with himself, who will delight in fiddling while we burn. The difference is that we elected the faux orange grotesque. We, the people—those who voted and, maybe even more significantly, those who didn’t. Augustus and. Euro were recognized by a Roman Senate hardly representative of the plebs. So the fault lies squarely with us, and that includes the Democrats in bed with the morbidly rich as they have been for too long themselves. Maybe we are just too stupid, too venal, too greedy to be self-governing. I suspect we will soon find out what that means.
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; Was hardly great. He waged a ruthless civil war, slaughtered innocents, like the son of Cleopatra and Julius, and the children of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Then he levied the law of Pater Familia, which gave the father life an death control over wife and children,imposed moral codes, like adultery, which he did not follow himself.
And it is no stretch to say that Augustus law of Pater Familia, is the agenda of MAGA, Dominionism, the New Apostolic Reformaton.
The rest of your comment I agree with. none of this would have come to pass were it not enabled by the Democrats. Reagan started the ball rolling, but Clinton greased the slide.
I was being relative. Do I find humane anyone in history who was an emperor or the equivalent? No. Probably my favorite of the Roman emperors was Marcus Aurelius, whose “Meditations” were on my nightstand for many years. But he spent most of his reign in wars, and persecuted Christians to boot. And left his lovely heir Commodus to follow him. There have been many laudatory humans. In my rather dour mind, there have been many times more who have not been, and they have normally been in the ascendant. One could say we are regressing to the mean again in the world. And mean it assuredly is.
Thanks Roy, I do agree, Especially about Marcus Aurelius.
Mean is , in your instance, a double entendre, .
Roy Shultz—Agree, totally. Our species can’t seem to dig its way out of fear/lack/and greed. Beliefs and bad behavior just keep circling, unfortunately, not spiraling upward.
Biden never did enough to stop the MAGA march to victory. The 14th Amendment was available. He (and Garland) ought to have done A LOT more. Martial Law is still available.
Garland was a fifth columnist inside the administration, Biden because he was weak, and learned the wrong lessons in the Senate (comity, compromise, bipartisanship) had no moral center (he really didn't he was eager to form alliances with the "devil"). Set the stage for Co consuls Trump and Musk.
Sad to say.
The Russians are the modern version of the Visigoths. Rome fell in 467, hundreds of years after Ceasar crossed the Rubicon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_the_Western_Roman_Empire
As a former "deep state" person, SCOTUS has fallen hook, line and sinker for specious legal theories that were rejected long ago, and foreiogn interests have take advantage of our open society and our national politics of hate. The votters are emotional, miss the forest for the trees. We've been in effect paying taxes (if not feasance) to OPEC since Nixosan let the dollar float.
The coup de gras will be when BRIC displaces the dollar as the world's currency.
The Trump-Paypal mafia regime will do exactly that, they will devalue the dollar, because there policies, cultural, political, financial, will demoralize the country, and thus wreak havoc on it's productivity.
This path of vengeance, self righteousness, religious apoplexy, intolerance,exclusion, racism that is the driving force of Trump, his minions and his supporters will destroy America.
Everyone will disagree with me when I say democracy and capitalism inevitably become oligarchies. Regulated capitalism can only be temporary because the regulated become the regulators. Maybe China's communism with Chinese characteristics is something we can learn from. A system where a central government informs the banking system where to lend to the common good may be something to consider. Our experiment in democracy brought us to where Russia and China have lower infant mortality than we do. Ok. I'm ready for everybody to hate me now. Can we have a thought experiment? I'm taking my dog for a walk now with a windchill of 24 and listening to Thom's recent book on audio.
No hate here Gloria. If one is honest and actually investigates national rankings we rate at the top in incarcerated, violent crime, gun deaths and down to the middle, hanging with underdeveloped countries when it comes to education, morality, infant mortality, women's health, and economic equality.
America maybe great for some, but not for all. Incidentally, I have played by the rules, but made good choices and took advantage of programs that benefited me, used my head, deferred gratification and am sitting pretty good at the moment. I personally have nothing to bitch about, but I do have eyes, ears, a brain and am capable of independent and critical thinking, and I see clearly where we are headed.
I doubt anyone here will hate you for expressing an opinion. However, I am not sure that anything is automatically inevitable. Our oligarchy certainly is to a great extent a feature of freedom, liberty, "free markets", etc. But it is the job of the people with the help of their leaders to design controls and defeat corruption. Once again, the people have not met the test because we have a system of compulsory indoctrination which favors free market fundamentalism, acquisitiveness, competition, and gross inequality. We could have fixed it decades ago if the over-schooled were not part of a cult.
All autocracies fail for two reasons. First, autocrats rule. They do not govern. Thus every edict is immediately implemented nationally without question. That seems very efficient, and it is. However, absolute power means nobody dares to point out to the ruler the possible unintended consequences of their edicts - often economic. That is why all autocrats embrace war. It distracts the rabble from questioning their fealty. It has recently worked for Bush (Iraq) and is working so far for Netanyahu, XI, and Putin. But, in the end, most autocrats wind up like Mussolini - dangling by their ankles in the public square.
I’ll take your point. But it isn’t new and reflects Marx’s comment. He referred to it as the fulminations of capitalism. Essentially a very Darwinian world of all against all. Certainly we are in a phase where oligarchs would disable or marginalize society’s controls such as banking regulations, EPA (clean air/water), food safety (USDA), and so on. These came into being when the public revolted against the Darwinistic capitalists (profit above social responsibility). Sinclair Lewis, as an example, wrote his book The Jungle to capture the ills of meat packing leading to laws. Rachel Carson, the Silent Spring, in part led to increased environment laws.
Now, it might seem a more centralized, socialistic government is the answer. Well, early on we did move from a confederacy to a federal government. Our Constitution captures it. But the narrow course is enough regulation to assure the general welfare but not so much to stifle the market place. My observation (travels to Russia post Soviet) was their communism/socialism attempted to control in full the creation, distribution, and consumption of product. Ultimately it was unworkable. The ‘classless’ society had the nomenklatura. Shopping (as I observed) epitomized the large. One could find clothing style, the size, or the color. They just couldn’t find one with all (size, style, color). Surplus, a great thing in our society, didn’t exist (surplus assures supply and choice). And military spending dominated their economy.
Turning to China. Some years ago they went for economic reform. As one put it: black cat, white cat who cares so long as it catches mice. Notionally communist, their economy has a vibrant market with growing individual wealth.
You noted infant mortality. Let me expand to health care. I am a proponent for universal health care. But it isn’t free: taxes or insurance. A problem I see is we have a dearth of medical personnel and facilities. As long as there are short falls, health care will either be rationed (equitable but limited) or disproportionate (wealth has greater access). Infant mortality is a symptom of systemic issue.
In the USA, some have argued for industrial policy to guide production. IMHO, regulations to assure the general welfare are spot on. Those to regulate production (quantity or type) stifle innovation (a strength of capitalism). Social programs to provide a safety net are good. Those to achieve equity ala a Kropotkinesque society are ill conceived. Even the communists knew it wouldn’t work.
I think we are in the sturm and drang of political discourse. To assure we continue as a democratic republic we have our voice (the 1st Amendment) and ability to change government (our vote). To give up either would be the great disaster. In short, speak up and vote.
Good analysis but a correction is needed. It was the great muckraker Upton Sinclair who wrote The Jungle. I had the privilege of interviewing Upton Sinclair around 1966 and treasure the memory. I do wish in hindsight that I had guided the discussion more to the issue of his views of the dirty side of American politics since he had been victimized by such in the race for Governor of California.
David, the USSR's economy was hampered by it's Marxist gold standard In homage to Marx, the USSR had a 100% gold standard. Where it defined a rouble as .981 grams fine gold, and put into circculation the number of roubles that were backed by on hand gold.
Rhe result was a perpetual depression, a shortage of money, It was so bad that Soviet Customs searched outbound luggage and goods for roubles, and if caught then the perp was facing serious charges, and if a Soviet Citizen, a trip to the gulag.
The citizen could not present a rouble at the GosBank or one of the trust banks and demand gold, but a foreigner could present roubles at the NordBank in Paris and demand gold, thus reducing the money supply and exacerbating the depression, the result was that the USSR was obsessed with gold.
The shortage of roubles created by their Marxist gold standard, was conveniently explained by the cold war. Invoking patriotic feelings, the Kremlin told the people and the west that their suffering was necessary because their industrial capacity had to be used to build defense against the capitalist west.
The end of the USSR was foretold in the annual report of the Bank for International Settlements of 1983/84.
A one sentence paragraph" The Soviet Union is a failed ecnomic experiment and needs to be reorganized. It took another 5 years before the right person and situation appeared.
Gorbachev was roundly rewarded by provided a healthy pension, a dacha on Lake Geneva, and a non profit created especially for him,the Green Cross.
And Gorby wound up living here.
We went to an essentially petrodollar standard. All the gold in California and Ft. Knox can't compete with Saudi.
Today, China is amassing gold and wants BRIC to be backed by gold.
The other day I laid out modern alchemy where we can make anything from subatomic partices. CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and ISOLDE are examples of modern alchemy because they use particle accelerators to transmute elements and study the fundamental structure of matter.
Plus the space race has really always been about mining.
Sci fi has always been ahead of "reality". So many of the sci fi books and movies are about space mining, there is even a name for those work on the asteroid belt. Belters.
Gold is a fraudulent standard, which the 19th Century Economist Arthur Kitson deconstructed in A Fraudulent Standard.
Gold bugs love to talk about inflation, but seem to be unaware of the gold and silver inflations. That have taken down the Spanish Empire, caused Rome a problem after they opened the silver mines of Dacia, the Spaniards after the conquest of Mexico and Peru, then the knife in the heart was the silver mines of Potosi, Colombia.
America had a bimetallic standard (gold and silver) until the Comstock Lode was discovered and exploited. Silver flooded the market and caused an inflation. Congress responded by demonetizing silver, and that launched a seven year depression, which culiminated with William Jennings Bryan and his Cross of Gold Speech.
There just is not enough gold to serve as a form of exchange.
When Gold was cash, we sttil had depressions and bankruptcy's
in the 19th and early 20th Century banks printed their own notes, a Note is a liability, they were called bank notes. The bank would loan money to buy a home or to a business, and the fiction was based on a lie, that the Bank had in its vaults, enough gold to redeem it's bank notes. It never did, it still doesn't.
The History of modern banking starts with the East India Company.
Charles II was a reprobate, addicted to gambling, drinking and whoring he squandered the treasury, much of it on his mistress Barbara Viliers, the cousin of James I favorite courtier, George Villieres.
The bank set a condition, give them a monopoly charter as the Bank of England. Not long after opening their door and taking deposits of gold, a rumor (truth) circulated that the bank did not have enough gold to cover it's notes.
There was a run on the bank. The Board of Directors found a clever ,way of calming public fears. It hired the well know alchemist Isaac Newton as the 1st Warden of the Mint.
Alchemists had a reputation for transmuting base metals into gold, and that clever move assuaged the fears of holders of bank notes.
The Bank of England grew out of the East India Company, but didn't go away, the EIC had a monopoly charter and was as responsible for the American revolution, as was the expense of the Seven Years War (French and Indian war)
Following is a footnote of my 1984 paper
Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer (England) whose policies of money and taxation led to the American Revolution hired Adam Smith to tutor his stepson, Henry the young 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, because of his work "The Theory of Moral Sentiment 81. Smith penned "The Wealth of Nations" at a time when the mercantilist policies of England had proven antiquated and were no longer profitable. The Sovereign of England by this time was the Bank of England for whom the Chancellor of the Exchequer was employed. Sovereignity having passed during the reign of Charles II,who bankrupted himself to bestow favors on an unscrupulous Barbara Villiers, first to the Bullioneers and the India Company and subsequently to the Bank of England when it acquired that company 82. Charles also sired,illegitimately, James Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch whose grandson was the above mentioned 3rd Duke. Smith wandered the continent, especially France, spending much time with the "physiocrats" with young Henry in tow. Henry, 13 years later, paid his friend and tutor to write "Wealth of Nations" thus intellectually justifying a new era and a new philosophy to justify the change in methodology.
All ideas in good faith are on the table. At least my insignificant table.
So Thom, what are we going to do? The minute President Biden hands over the keys fo the government to a convicted felon, racist, chronic liar, and insurrectionist democracy as we know will die. Once Trump has control the military the chances of getting rid of him in the next presidential election will be similar to that of the people of Russia getting rid of poop once and power dictators don't give it up. It took World War II for the people of Germany to be free of Hitler. It took violent protest and even Civil War to get rid of dictators in other countries. Our first Civil War it took Abraham Lincoln to unite the nation and free the slaves. Imagine that it was Donald Trump that was president of the Union. He would divide the country even more between the lower and middle class and his ultra- rich, swamp dwelling, cronies, and friends. Trump has a history of taking advantage of cheap labor. He would be one of the largest slave owner in the country. Freedom for this slaves would not even be considered. The first Civil War was a very destructive war, with mass casualties on both sides. It was brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, but Lincoln's effort to save the Union succeeded . Put Trump in charge of the Union for a Second Civil War and the results would be disastrous. With modern weaponry and the assault rifle the death toll would be enormous. With Trump in charge of the military those fighting to restore our democracy would surely fail. Democracy will have died just as it did in the Roman empire.
It took over 40 years for the Republicans to chip away at the Constitution until there is almost nothing left of the safeguards - the checks and balances that can protect us from a wannabe dictator like Trump. To accomplish this the Republicans lied and cheated, suppressed voter registration, pushed biased and slanted news to social networks and the major national news media, they bribed congressman and Supreme Court justices, and a brainwashed a large segment of voters to believe that Trump was the answer to all their problems. Biden and Harris had no chance of winning the presidential election. The system is so rigged in favor of the Republicans that even if Jesus Christ ran in the next election he would lose.
And now that Trump has won the election they expect the Democrats to follow all the rules - to ratify the Electoral College votes and to peacefully transfer the power on January 20th. Fox News says that Joe Biden is weak and that he should just roll over and surrender the keys to the government to Trump without a fight. But, that is just not the American way. Throughout our history, our veterans are great patriots fought to the bitter end to protect our Constitution. They knew that they had to fight like hell to save our nation.
Joe Biden ran for office to save the soul of our nation. He took an oath of office to protect the Constitution against foreign and domestic Invaders. When everything else has failed the Constitution provided Biden the presidential power to declare the nation is in a State of Emergency. He needs to postpone the transition of power until Trump has been tried for all charges, including the ones that the Supreme Court said he was immune of. The writers of the Constitution did so to prevent any would-be tyrant from taking over the government. Therefore the results of the 2024 presidential election are null and void. An election of eligible candidates will be held in 2025. If our country is not a country ruled by laws then we are not a country. If our country is worth saving, Biden must take these drastic steps to save it. History will remember Biden as a great president for his effort and legislation to help bring up the lower and middle class. But what he will be remembered most of all for is he DIDN'T do what was necessary to save our nation.
This will be the death of America as we knew it.
Sometimes Fox News and Donald Trump are right, even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Biden is weak, and shame on the Democratic Party that they are a part of wimps and pansies, and have never developed strong leadership, but how could they they were in competition with Republicans for slopping at the same trough.
Visit Open Secrets.org and search any corporation or individual and except for Musk, Mellon, Thiel this donors slop the same trough as feeds the Democrats and Republicans.
The correct rendition of James Carville's
It's the economy stupid" is "It's the donors stupid"
Jesus Christ was running, didn't you see him? All of the ideas regarding social issues are his, too.
Unfortunately, Joe Biden is protecting his family because if he goes there, 'they' will come after Hunter and Jimmy Biden. Biden has more or less made this known. In my opinion, he risks democracy for his own family. He is only human, but we need a president who can act and render the 2024 presidential election null and void.
I know people are sick of hearing me now, for more than two decades of 24/7 surveillance, crying out to make it stop. It has ruined my creative writing and my family, using my adult son, who has a mental disability, for their means. I have begged quietly, then louder and louder, that it stops. The massive nature of the assault should have been enough for the president and Congress to stop it. Yet they have woven my case of stalking and harassment into their gains year after year. This includes business, movies, TV, online media, and talk show hosts. Just last night on Jon Stewart's show last night made me fodder by coding the essence of his show. He is not the only one they all do. While my name is not spoken, they use code to represent those who have passed on slander in support of these individuals. The side effects on me are cumulative and numerous over the years. They ar abusing power.
The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome by Michael Parenti offers an interesting counter-narrative.
Yes, it’s a fabulous book and Parenti gives us insights no one else has covered.
Yes, this is dire. America is poised to go over the cliff. And yet, this is what the majority of Americans voted for. Joe Biden was spot on in his speech last night. The content was accurate and well laid out. But the majority of Americans observed only a weak old man, who didn’t make them feel safe. Democrats need a new game plan for public discourse if they want to save the country.
They absolutely needed "a game plan," and that was when Biden decided to run for a second term. The party's Pelosis had a task: not to allow Biden to run. They failed miserably by covering up Biden's age issues. Anthony Blinken needed to step in and make it happen. Blinken had too much deference for Biden as a friend and old man to step on his toes. Blinken traveled the world for America and knew how other leaders and the U.N. were aware of the crippling effect of Biden's intransigence.
So, just curious, what is the exact date of the Ides of March? And can anyone provide directions to the Pompey Theatre? Can't remember what's playing, but I figure it's worth a shot.
Thom, I would challenge the part of this statement in triple parentheses: "Here in America, a handful of rightwing billionaires have spent decades fighting to end the New Deal and Great Society programs (((that use their tax dollars))) to distribute “free bread” to Americans in the form of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, food stamps, quality free primary education, and cheap or free college".
It is NOT their tax dollars, but OUR tax dollars and they are less and less coming from the upper echelons as more and more loopholes and offshoring (which will soon likely not even be necessary as they emasculate the IRS to have no capacity to do their jobs). WE subsidize their industries, WE subsidize any losses they might put forth, WE subsidize them by educating ourselves which financially benefits them.
Most importantly, WE pay into the social security, medicare, medicated, unemployment that WE require. I am fine with that BUT not at all fine that they act like this is an entitlement that can be taken away to 'save money' or balance the budget! The pensions are already gone for most workers so the 'three legged' stool of retirement--savings, social security/medicare and pension is already on pretty week footing and the looting of medicare and social security leaves most with "savings" with no real way to secure those monies for the decades they might be needed.
People are truly just not paying attention. What a sham government can provide is NOTHING good for regular people. This specific Sham government proposes even worse, they will take anything we share, essentially the whole of the USA and sell it to the highest bidder and keep the money for themselves. That is what the next years hold for all of us, the bankrupting of the country as we know it.
A good article.
I have always thought that the path of America's decline mirrored more that of the Roman Republic than that of NAZI rise in Germany. It was the mob that Julius Caesar rode to prominence. And it is the mob, now, that is Trump's power base.
And we now understand clearly that it will be the internet -- unbridled and insane -- through which Trump and his cronies will manufacture "consent" of the mob for whatever they wish to happen. Once determined, policy will be passed on to the administrative minions kept on in the old framework of government to put on the veneer of historical authority.
The mob can be fickle, however. And, as Caesar learned, any number of players can move in the shadows, carrying knives, as they work to be the next mob whisperer.