Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, blandly admitting that his cruel denial of direct cash aid to Americans has led to the two sleazy Georgia GOP candidates getting so "hammered" by desperate voters that his majority power is threatened, appears to be relenting. He reportedly has agreed to try and cheaply bribe people with a new round of one-time stimulus payments of about $600. If it comes at all, this monetary relief will not come in time to buy the kids Christmas presents this year.
It will, however, come just in time to justify imposing a new round of austerity on people in the new year in collusion with a new administration - a/k/a the third term of Obama, which itself was the third term of Clinton. Forget moving on from Donald Trump. We're right back to the Trump Prequel.
Octogenarian House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who ensured last year that the so-called "Paygo" rule requiring that all new government spending be offset by cuts to other programs, will remain in charge of the lower House despite a campaign led by comedian Jimmy Dore to shame the progressive Democrats to vote her out unless she agrees to bring a Medicare For All vote to the floor. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, despite agreeing that the current conservative party leadership has got to go, pleads that there is nobody willing, able or qualified to take Octomomma Bear's place. It's a pitiful rationale of StayGo as far as the unpopular Pelosi is concerned. They hate her but they'll vote for her anyway because she is less evil than a vacuum. Plus, she is the one who vacuums up all the money from the oligarchic donor class and holds it tightly in her designer handbag for disbursement to only those Democratic politicians willing to do the bidding of the donors.
Meanwhile, tens of millions of people are getting hammered financially, physically and emotionally. It's elected officials like Pelosi and McConnell, in thrall to the ruling oligarchy, who are willfully wielding the hammer and crushing the bodies and spirits of their constituents in a veritable orgy of violence. With the "official poverty" rate increasing by another couple of percentage points, this is by far the worst pandemic of political malpractice and manufactured misery in modern American history.
And the evil is being perpetrated with breathtaking cynicism. An app that actually calls itself Robinhood only got a friendly little wrist slap of a warning fine from the Securities and Exchange Commission for bilking mainly young members of the Precariat out of millions of dollars in an online stock trading scam. Although the trades were advertised as being commission-free, the SEC complaint said, customers were never advised that this upfront savings then translated into them paying higher prices for the actual stocks that they were betting on. The price difference was then funneled from Wall Street trading firms right back to Robinhood, whose owners, as of now, are stunningly not being criminally charged as individuals.
Are we going on a general strike yet? Or is everybody too hammered on booze, drugs, despair, or just plain old boredom to even realize how badly our elected "reps" and their owners are hammering us, all day and every day?
5 comments:
"to even realize how badly our elected "reps" and their owners are hammering us, all day and every day?"
Keeping our powder dry. The new boss is same as the old boss.
There will need to be a lot more than a mere general strike. Efforts at reform by elections were defeated, betrayed, and now we are left with only the other options.
Don't talk about how it is the fault of McConnell. That is past. The betrayal happened recently, and the reforms were prevented. It is McConnell-like for the foreseeable future, all with a (D).
I think general strikes could be effective, since unions don't exert the power they once did in the 1930s. Also a consolidation of all the different movements is necessary. I know that will be difficult to achieve, although the common enemy is capitalism.
Are we not yet desperate enough for a general strike? We all know Biden won't initiate any progressive solutions. Capitalism is on schedule to eventually destroy civil society. We're in a slow death spiral. The so called proud boys want a civil war? And I'm sure there will be more violence in 2021. But what would violent protest from the left bring? More military/police action. Maybe it's unavoidable.
We have to show that a corporate owned Biden administration is definitely not the answer. How we do that remains to be seen. But action is needed, ASAP. We can't wait a year to see how things turn out. Any ideas?
I mean, after all, "Trump is trying to break our Democratic Republic" (MSNBC). Good ol' liberal speak.
Forget the Democrats as a sometime provider of economic justice. They are in league with Republicans in supporting the super rich and their well-paid professionals who will never relent in screwing the bottom two-thirds of the population. It’s a class war, stupid. Act accordingly.
Agreed, strikes are the first tactic of lower classes against the plutocrats and their functionaries. I would add boycotts, which directly weaken the targeted corporations. Elites must be made to fear, physically and economically, the pent up anger of the united poor, near poor and lower middle class.
I think the Democrats are going to play it safe until the two Senate seats in Georgia are voted upon. If by some great bit of whimsy, we are able to turn the Senate in favour of the Democrats, THAT would be the time to replace Pelosi with a moderate/progressive Democrat. I would favour Elizabeth Warren but the Conservatives have managed to smear her as a Leftist Pinko Liberal so I don't know if she would get in. What about Sherrod Brown? I don't know too much about him but on the handful of issues I care about, he seems to be reasonable. Does anyone know much about him? There is always a "hidden" politician acting on self-interest. What is in his closet?
I also think, after the Georgia Senate election, if Democrats win, Progressives can't give Biden the honeymoon we gave Obama while he sat on his hands waiting for the Republicans to re-win so he had someone to blame for his neoliberal policies.
I feel like I am in this weird state of political limbo. First, waiting for the Electoral College to confirm a Biden win and now with the Georgia election.
Season Greetings and Well Wishes to Everyone,
Valerie
Sherod Brown is solidly labor and will not be bought off by $$$
He's not real progressive but an old fashioned dem
His wife is a blue collar journalist
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