I think I know exactly what they don’t want us to see. What is so mysterious that we all wonder what ties could there possibly be to Russia? What abomination could have corrupted our national purity? Could it be that we just do not get it yet, that the machine that drives corruption there is the same machine as here, the same as in Africa and the Middle East, in Latin America and Asia and Europe, the same that invested in Nazi Germany’s war, modern decades of empire building and violent regime change, the same that foments chaos everywhere to justify going in to squelch it, and then contracts out the appearance of fixing the destruction it caused? When will we recognize this insidious heist pulled over and over again, that hides behind business as usual, with government complicity?
Under our noses, as citizens dutifully question collusion of top government officials, corporate giants Bayer and Monsanto, Dow and DuPont, plan mergers to totally take over our food supply, we’re talking globally. Note the alarm sounding one of many predicted side effects; with these mergers we will see the certain demise of the already depleted worldwide populations of bees plus attendant devastations of our whole ecology as we know it, global ecology.
Eisenhower saw the machine, Bernie Sanders sees it, Oliver Stone wrote a twelve-part series on it. Certainly Noam Chomsky and Rachel Carson, Chris Hedges and Cornel West and countless others have tried to educate us. US corporations invested in Germany in WWII: Ford, General Motors, DuPont, IBM, Pfizer, Standard Oil, Wall Street. While we are worrying about Trump’s hotels, luncheons, and personal dossiers, do we notice which multinational corporate deals are currently on the table?
We shouldn’t need to be reminded that pipeline, fracking, mining, chemical, pharma, insurance, prison, and weapons industries don’t thrive only within the purview of one political party; clearly their agendas cross the isle as often as possible. The parties are in collusion to the extent that money can be made, favors granted and objectives obscured. Candidates on both sides are funded by the same corporations that drive the destruction we protest.
The machine rides roughshod over all concerns about civil justice and sustainability. It cares nothing about us, our wetlands, forest or coral reef habitats, disabilities or gender crises, culture or arts, health or seniors or kids, wolf pups, monarchs or bees. It uses religion and race, division and chaos, consumerism, poverty and fear to distract us while it takes what it wants, erases opposition, writes its next war narrative, contracts the weapons and taxes the poor to pay for it.
Beware that the politics tend to obscure the deals going down.
Excellent! Always follow the money. You might like to read (they have a book on CD too, it’s a little dry with all the details and foot notes and naming names), Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon. Shows how this was complete greed and corruption and it is still going on. I guess we should be glad we don’t live in Greece… cause there, the World Bank came in and told the leaders to pay back their usury loans to the detriment of all the peoples of Greece. Where is the outrage?! When our leaders made bad bets on their investments (derivatives), they simply printed more money out of our treasury to pay off the loans… but then got the people to pay back the bad bets (tax payer guaranteed Freddie Mac and Banks). They didn’t care that they put millions out of their homes and wouldn’t loan anything further.. or that they put the whole world into near collapse. Only that they keep getting their bonuses. In my opinion this was the Coup d’etea of the United States. Here’s something to ponder… In 2008 the Derivatives market (where billionaires gamble) was $6 Trillion dollars. Today that number has grown to an astonishing $700 Trillion dollars!! And Trump and his cronies are stripping what little regulations we had put in to protect the taxpayer after 2008. Maybe we should all agree to stop paying Federal Taxes !!
Thank you, Nola. $700 trillion they are gambling with currently!
From Justice Malala, a political commentator in South Africa:
“We’re headed for a predator state where a powerful,corrupt & demagogic elite of political hyenas use the state to get rich.”-Vavi, Aug2010
Among the replies in his blog:
A friend asked me, when is armed struggle justified.
A question that seems to be out there a lot these days.
Will the corporate oligarchy underestimate the people and generate the same kind of widespread revolution that Lenin did in overthrowing the Tzar? I hope not. I hope we are able to make them back off without that.
Nobody I know wants that. I would distance myself from that. I will join the peaceful protests. What chance of success would there be anyway? Perhaps the young generation could succeed at guerilla tactics; older citizens would have no chance. Most of us are older and untrained in dealing with dire circumstances. Yet I could envision a militant swing in the opposite direction. If the resistance proves to be at all effective, what form of policing becomes necessary in order to reign in the ‘predator state’? Thanks Tom for informing me regarding applicable terminology: I would prefer the midpoint of synthesis to the pendulum of thesis/antithesis, an intelligently crafted blend of regulated capitalistic endeavor with socialistic goals and programs firmly in place. Wresting the power from their grip needs to be done lawfully, democratically, not militantly, though the urgency of our impending demise can easily call to mind the specter of civil war.