As the world watches its 40-year experiment with neoliberalism collapse, Republicans in the US and Putin in Russia are facing a crisis they once thought would be an opportunity
“Whenever 'A' attempts by law to impose his moral standards upon 'B', 'A' is most likely a scoundrel.” - H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (12 Sep 1880-1956)
The problem with running your country like it's a business is that it can be RUN out of business. That's what we did to Russia during the Cold War with the arms-race, and the people in the Kremlin are remembering why they lost that war.
So pop some corn and stay tuned on what Putin's fate is. According to recent research on psychopaths, it is not that they are fearless and keep fighting, it's that their brain doesn't "see it coming" before they are stopped. That is a big ditto for Trump and his crime family.
Putin is a war criminal. Now, he has gambled everything Russia has, and for what? His sick sorry ego? Even the Kremlin can see that's no way to run a business.
Just became a paid subscriber. I have learned a great deal from these posts. Much appreciated.
Agree that Clinton and Obama were bad for America, If the Dems think that two more senators will solve everything they are kidding themselves. Or that the House will pass progressive legislation if the Dems hold it. There are far too many "moderate" (corporate) Democrats in Congress. And the DNC will fight any attempts to change that. Unless there is a totally BLUE wave, America will continue to not have nice things.
Neoliberalism will be our downfall if we don't have a populous uprising to battle it.
But we can't have an uprising if we ignore who the enemy is. The Clinton and Obama administration did as much to strengthen Neoliberalism as Reagan and Bush.
"We have met the enemy, and he is us" Liberals need to focus on cleaning our own house before we think conservatives will care at all about what we are saying.
I appreciate the acknowledgement of neoliberalism's widening of the wealth gap leading to instablility and fascism, which is why since I don't have a show that needs to attract eyes and ears I focus less on Trump and more on the root cause of his rise to power. While there is certainly a recognition of the tools used to persuade Americans to make the wrong choices, the ease with which Americans (in this case today's liberals) can be convinced to celebrate the scraps being thrown to them by the Biden administration during a campaign cycle while that same administration makes deals to expand fossil fuel exploration in a bill counteracting the effects of climate change does not give me cause for optimism.
Pick up on a companion piece to this map of the path we've been on. Sally Goerner wrote
"An Oligarchy on the Brink of a Civilization-Threatening Collapse” https://suespeaks.org/?s=sally++oligarchy, for John Fullerton's Capital Institute. I'm all for alliances and you three would be good together.
What can be done to flip humanity into the positive way forward before we flip ourselves back to the Stone Age? That question should be our focus.
There was a temporary shift to the left with workers rights to organize and bargain as a collective after many decades of being declared anarchists and communists and men like Andrew Carnegie using Pinkerton thugs to machine gun striking workers at his factories. The elites wanted a return to business as usual after FDR and so the party bosses pushed out three term VP Henry A. Wallace and replaced him with the naive Harry Truman in 1944. Three months after the election when FDR died as expected, Truman became the president and a very weak one. Starting with the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 the pressure was on to destroy the unions which were the only political force able to oppose the bosses of both parties.
It is interesting to note that Hitler came to power with the support of the 25 wealthiest men in Germany by promising to outlaw unions which he did. He also needed the support of the Vatican which he got with the secret agreement with the pope. That Hitler wanted to eliminate all Jews was a bonus as the Vatican was primarily concerned about losing properties and revenues as it had when the Soviets came to power in Russia. Now it is men like the Kohn brothers and the right wing evangelical extremists that are putting Trump and Manchin in control.
The Neoliberals in the US are in full charge of all of the power in this country. The majority of Americans have no clue what the differences is between Neoliberal economic Policy and New Deal Economic policy..
Today we can debate the merrits of NeoLiberal policy vs New Deal Economic policy. When the revolution comes the debate will be over whether or not we even keep capitalism. Better to have the debate now than when the pitchforks come out.
“Whenever 'A' attempts by law to impose his moral standards upon 'B', 'A' is most likely a scoundrel.” - H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (12 Sep 1880-1956)
The problem with running your country like it's a business is that it can be RUN out of business. That's what we did to Russia during the Cold War with the arms-race, and the people in the Kremlin are remembering why they lost that war.
So pop some corn and stay tuned on what Putin's fate is. According to recent research on psychopaths, it is not that they are fearless and keep fighting, it's that their brain doesn't "see it coming" before they are stopped. That is a big ditto for Trump and his crime family.
Putin is a war criminal. Now, he has gambled everything Russia has, and for what? His sick sorry ego? Even the Kremlin can see that's no way to run a business.
Our Constitution is not a business plan.
Just became a paid subscriber. I have learned a great deal from these posts. Much appreciated.
Agree that Clinton and Obama were bad for America, If the Dems think that two more senators will solve everything they are kidding themselves. Or that the House will pass progressive legislation if the Dems hold it. There are far too many "moderate" (corporate) Democrats in Congress. And the DNC will fight any attempts to change that. Unless there is a totally BLUE wave, America will continue to not have nice things.
Neoliberalism will be our downfall if we don't have a populous uprising to battle it.
But we can't have an uprising if we ignore who the enemy is. The Clinton and Obama administration did as much to strengthen Neoliberalism as Reagan and Bush.
"We have met the enemy, and he is us" Liberals need to focus on cleaning our own house before we think conservatives will care at all about what we are saying.
I appreciate the acknowledgement of neoliberalism's widening of the wealth gap leading to instablility and fascism, which is why since I don't have a show that needs to attract eyes and ears I focus less on Trump and more on the root cause of his rise to power. While there is certainly a recognition of the tools used to persuade Americans to make the wrong choices, the ease with which Americans (in this case today's liberals) can be convinced to celebrate the scraps being thrown to them by the Biden administration during a campaign cycle while that same administration makes deals to expand fossil fuel exploration in a bill counteracting the effects of climate change does not give me cause for optimism.
Is this what they euphemized as 'trickle down economy'?
Pick up on a companion piece to this map of the path we've been on. Sally Goerner wrote
"An Oligarchy on the Brink of a Civilization-Threatening Collapse” https://suespeaks.org/?s=sally++oligarchy, for John Fullerton's Capital Institute. I'm all for alliances and you three would be good together.
What can be done to flip humanity into the positive way forward before we flip ourselves back to the Stone Age? That question should be our focus.
There was a temporary shift to the left with workers rights to organize and bargain as a collective after many decades of being declared anarchists and communists and men like Andrew Carnegie using Pinkerton thugs to machine gun striking workers at his factories. The elites wanted a return to business as usual after FDR and so the party bosses pushed out three term VP Henry A. Wallace and replaced him with the naive Harry Truman in 1944. Three months after the election when FDR died as expected, Truman became the president and a very weak one. Starting with the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 the pressure was on to destroy the unions which were the only political force able to oppose the bosses of both parties.
It is interesting to note that Hitler came to power with the support of the 25 wealthiest men in Germany by promising to outlaw unions which he did. He also needed the support of the Vatican which he got with the secret agreement with the pope. That Hitler wanted to eliminate all Jews was a bonus as the Vatican was primarily concerned about losing properties and revenues as it had when the Soviets came to power in Russia. Now it is men like the Kohn brothers and the right wing evangelical extremists that are putting Trump and Manchin in control.
The Neoliberals in the US are in full charge of all of the power in this country. The majority of Americans have no clue what the differences is between Neoliberal economic Policy and New Deal Economic policy..
Today we can debate the merrits of NeoLiberal policy vs New Deal Economic policy. When the revolution comes the debate will be over whether or not we even keep capitalism. Better to have the debate now than when the pitchforks come out.