More basic shit

Posted on July 19, 2024 by camelotkidd

Neoliberal capitalism doesn’t work for average Americans.

To paraphrase James Madison, if bankers on Wall Street were angels there would be no need for government regulation, but you may have noticed that there is a distinct shortage there. And neoliberal economists are basically sock-puppets for capital, where their prescriptions always involve lowering your wages, preventing labor unionization and letting the wealthy people run our economy.

Heterodox economist Michael Hudson keeps it succinct when he explains that every economy is planned, it just depends on who gets to do the planning.

By empowering banks and corporations, we’ve put the reproduction of American society in the hands of sociopathic owners motivated purely by profit. Today instead of a government that works for the average American we have an oligarchic government that enslaves the public.

The short version is that the wealthy hated the New Deal and succeeded in overthrowing it, while building a second, high-tech Gilded Age, complete with robots, AI and total surveillance. See the Powell Memo for their assembly blueprint.

Architect of the New Deal, President Franklin D. Roosevelt warned, “The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself.”

Last week I wrote that “we live in a world of deceit, hypocrisy and bad faith,” and it well describes the overthrow of the New Deal. You can’t have a world of honesty and straight dealing while carrying out a vast project that’s impoverished the vast majority of Americans. You absolutely require the deceit, hypocrisy and bad faith to accomplish such a project.

Not to mention propaganda and lots of it. Edward Bernays describes the thought behind American propaganda in his 1928 book – Propaganda. “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …“

The most detrimental (and brutally effective) propaganda sells the idea of individualism rather that the social or collective. The insidious concept of “human capital”, where you alone are responsible for literally everything with the market as the ultimate arbitrator. All of this combined with the exhortation for endless competition represents the intellectual kindling for an oligarchy rather than a republic, and has had a profound effect on American society.

High marginal tax rates, vigorous anti-trust and high corporate tax rates with laws forbidding stock options, brought about by New Deal reforms, produced the best economy in US history. But now that the US has financialized its economy there’s no way that it can somehow rebuild industry without de-financializing the economy, without getting rid of the whole debt overhead and without raising the wages and the living standards of labor.

In other words, we’re talking about a revolution, which is precisely what our feral elite are determined to prevent, as the latest revelations from Democratic insiders reveals.

When Joe Biden was running for president in 2020 he told a group of wealthy donors that if he was elected nothing would fundamentally change. At the time many of us argued that the Democratic Party was less interested in stopping a second Donald Trump term and more focused on crushing the ascent of socialist Bernie Sanders and the movement behind him. Yet now, as the president fights for his political life, centrist Democrats are just coming out and saying it.

“I’ve said this over and over again,” Rep. Adam Smith, who had days earlier publicly called for Biden to step aside, told MSNBC last week: “Joe Biden was not picked in 2020 because he was the only person that could beat Trump. He was picked because he was the only person that could beat Bernie Sanders, rightly or wrongly. … That conclusion was made, okay? “Oh my gosh, coming out of Nevada, Bernie Sanders is going to be the nominee!” And people, just like they are now, said, “Ahhh, I don’t think that’s going to work,” so they were looking for an alternative.”

As the Democrats continue to show us exactly who they are, the Republicans are posing as the party of workers (go figure) with their change in economic rhetoric and with Trump’s selection of Vance to be VP, even as they are all in on the continuation of neoliberal capitalism.

There seems to be a pattern emerging from all of the background noise. Times, as they say, are a changing. Although we’re living in a time of normalcy bias, all of the previously inconceivable scenarios have come to pass. As such, we can no longer dismiss the possibility that literally anything can happen.

Posted in feral elite, neoliberalism, propaganda | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Basic shit

Posted on July 12, 2024 by camelotkidd

As the Democratic Party freaks out over Biden it’s probably a good time to review some basic shit.

Maybe the funniest thing has been how the political lemmings immediately began arguing over who should be president even as Biden’s condition demonstrates that it doesn’t matter who is. The American empire runs on autopilot, sanctioning, bombing and murdering around the world all by itself. Meanwhile liberals insist that it’s imperative that Trump not win the 2024 election because if he does America will descend into fascism–circling the planet with military bases, backing genocide and engaging in dangerous nuclear brinksmanship.

Oh, wait.

US has demonstrated its benevolence and humanitarianism for the last three decades by launching invasions and waging wars supposedly to protect the weak and vulnerable – from Kosovo to Ukraine, from Afghanistan and Iraq to Libya and Syria. What’s savagely ironic is that democracy and women’s rights have supposedly been the US’s concern in the countries it has destroyed. But in truth, as Gaza demonstrates only too clearly, those claims were always bull-shit. It was always about treating the world as the empire’s corporate playground, where “full-spectrum dominance” was the driving principle, not protection of the vulnerable.

We live in a world of deceit, hypocrisy and bad faith. We live in a world where the powerful pretend to care about human rights and international law, and where they profess to aid the weak even as they assist in their slaughter.

Meanwhile, in domestic affairs, a new study, entitled The Great Neoliberal Burden Shift (Part I) – How Corporate America Offset Liability Onto the Public, underscores how much power US corporations have over our lives, making a mockery of our noble democratic rhetoric–“land of the free,” “home of the brave”, etc. .

This is Part I of a two-part series on what we’re calling “The Great Neoliberal Burden Shift,” a process in which corporations deflect blame onto the relatively powerless. On this episode, we examine how corporations have shifted the burdens of liability onto “consumers” and other individuals, examining how the auto, fossil-fuel, and food and beverage industries have orchestrated media campaigns to frame the people they harm, whether directly or indirectly, as responsible for their own misfortunes.

Sure, everyone must bear some level of personal responsibility in matters of health and safety, obviously. But corporations from Chrysler to Nestlé, in concert with a compliant US media, have taken advantage of this truism to place a disproportionate level of obligation onto the people who work in their warehouses and buy their products. At the same time, they’ve been able to fend off even the most minor of structural changes–say, using less plastic or healthier ingredients–with often dangerous, even deadly, consequences.

“Choose the product best suited for baby,” Nestlé urged in a 1970s baby formula ad. “What size is your carbon footprint?” wondered oil giant BP in 2003. “Texting, music listening put distracted pedestrians at risk,” USA Today announced in 2012.

These headlines and ad copy all offer a glimpse into a longstanding strategy among corporations: place the burdens of safety, health, and wellbeing on individuals, in order to deflect responsibility and regulation. Whether in the areas of transportation, climate, or nutrition and food safety, individuals, namely “consumers,” are increasingly expected to assume full responsibility for their own wellbeing, and are blamed, shamed, and punished–or worse, made ill or injured–when they can’t live up to these unrealistic expectations.

All of this is a reminder not to get distracted by clickbait headlines and stay laser focused on the basic shit. Don’t let Whoopie Goldberg or George Clooney or Nancy Pelosi gaslight you into giving two shits about the presidential circus. To make sense of our modern world–follow the money, weapons and resources while ignoring the propaganda.

Posted in anti-imperialism, deep state, feral elite | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Who’s minding the launch codes?

Posted on July 5, 2024 by camelotkidd

Democrats are rightly freaking out over Biden’s debate performance but I want to know who’s minding the launch codes?

The bigger question is who has the authority to launch the nukes?.

If it is Biden, then, God forbid.

And if it’s a deep state apparatchik, then who gave them the authority?

The person who debated Trump absolutely does not seem capable of going through such a launch procedure. 

 All of this raises a great many questions, starting with: why did the Democratic Party and the corporate media pretend that Joe Biden was capable of serving another 4 year term?

More importantly, Biden appears to be a figure head that has little affect on policy, while the alphabet agencies and their many intel blob subsidiaries conducted a silent coup and have been running the US’s affairs disastrously behind the “Joe Biden” wooden Indian. Going further, it’s become obvious that Biden’s rule is at the behest of an oligarch class, who are now in a panic. All we hear is that the donors have decided this or are going to replace Biden, and it becomes clear that the so-called democracy story we’ve been subjected to is nothing but an elaborate con.

Meanwhile, all the concern over Biden’s fitness to run against Trump raises a larger question. Is Joe Biden competent to serve out his term which ends in January 2025?

What’s infuriating is that Biden’s condition was obvious to anyone not ensconced in the “Blue bubble”. Yet after Biden’s debate performance everyone seems to be shocked. I’ve come to believe that Biden was chosen as the Democrats’ candidate in 2020 precisely because he was already senile and therefore completely controllable. The Democratic Party, deep state and shadowy oligarch cabal that calls the shots wanted someone who’d do whatever they demanded on domestic and foreign policy fronts. 

 Of course they’re circling the wagons. The elite will do everything to cover up for their knowledge of Biden’s senility. Acknowledging that they knew about this would leave little doubt in the minds of many that the 2020 election was actually the elite’s latest coup.

And what about the other branches of government? Well Congress, if Representative Thomas Massie is to to be believed, has an AIPAC babysitter ensuring their compliance with Israeli interests. And the Supreme Court’s latest rulings should leave little doubt as to their subservience to capital.

So much for the myths we learned in civics class about separation of powers and the virtues of a representative republic.

In light of Biden’s debate performance the deep state conspiracy theory seem way more plausible. If the president and congress aren’t running things, then who is?

Posted in anti-imperialism, deep state, propaganda | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Gunboat Diplomacy

Posted on June 28, 2024 by camelotkidd

The US doesn’t do diplomacy. Instead we send in the gunboats or, to be precise, the aircraft-carrier-battle-groups.

Like everything else these days the price of a modern aircraft carrier is astronomical. America’s latest carrier class, the Gerald R. Ford, costs $13 billion per unit. And so far, the entire Ford program has cost taxpayers $120 billion.

Due to the cost of the Ford-class carriers and the rest of America’s gold-plated weapon systems this imperial behavior has reached its pull-by-date. Advances in missile and drone technology allow a poor country like Yemen to essentially close the Red Sea to Israeli bound traffic. Conflict is, at the base level, about bang-for-the-buck, and when adversaries like the Houthis can fire hypersonic missiles and suicide drones that cost a fraction of expensive American carriers, the sort of gunboat force projection is a thing of the past.

Another reason is due to our Middle East proxy–Israel. The balance of forces in the world is shifting in favor of the Axis of Resistance as the entire Global South is appalled by this genocide and appalled by the American empire’s collusion in that genocide.  

And we’re also seeing that due to the stupidity of the managers of the U.S. empire, which of course is dominated by Zionists, that the war in Ukraine is actually playing out in favor of Palestine. As they attack Russia with long-range weapons, Russia is going to be offering similar long-range weapons to other forces, including presumably the Axis of Resistance. And there have been some reports along those lines. The Houthis, who are happily messing with Israel-related Red Sea shipping and even US naval vessels, have proven that insurgents, armed with drones and missiles can deny the effective use of carrier-battle-groups.

But, of course, the Pentagon hasn’t gotten the memo, or if they did they are resistant to change because the US military/industrial/complex (MIC) doesn’t do defense they do corporate enrichment and stock buybacks.

What’s ironic is that advances in missile technology is nothing new. By the 1980’s Soviet missile development had changed the calculus of Cold War conflict. US naval doctrine mandated carrier-battle-groups staying well away from Europe in the event of conflict due to the lethality of Soviet anti-shipping missiles.

And here we are, back to the essential conflict between neoconservatism and neoliberalism. The American (MIC) was originally conceived as a make-work program to prevent a recurrence of the Great Depression after WWII ended. However, beginning in the 1980s, private equity was used by MIC insiders to buy Federal assets for pennies on the dollar and load them up with debt to resell them to the public in order to enrich insiders. Wages were cut and production processes ‘streamlined’ in the companies bought by private equity, thereby erasing the public benefit of the MIC, such as it was. Neoliberal myopia went so far as to outsource military production to China, (go figure). And now, the same neocon politicians and intellectuals who thought outsourcing a great idea are today declaring China to be enemy number one.

And now the chicken have come home to roost. A new report warns that the United States is incapable of producing essential, high-tech weapons without continuing support from China: “If we were in a war with China and it stopped providing parts, we wouldn’t be able to build the planes and weapons we needed,’ he said.

A startling report released earlier this year revealed Chinese firms have a stranglehold across 12 critical technologies that are vital to US national security, including nuclear modernization, hypersonic and space technologies.“

The problem for gunboat diplomacy is that it’s impossible to manage an empire with neoliberalism as your operating system.

Update: Heterodox economist Michael Hudson writes–“Wars could only be financed by running into debt, because populations would not support wars if they had to pay immediately the taxes needed to defray their full costs on a pay-as-you-go basis. But the commercial consequences of war debts would burden the economy and slow its economic growth, ultimately driving the nation bankrupt.”

Sound familiar?

Posted in anti-imperialism, neoconservatives, neoliberalism | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Source Documents

Posted on June 20, 2024 by camelotkidd

I’m fascinated by the history of ideas and ideologies, and no ideology has captivated me quite like neoliberalism. In our secular era, ideologies, like neoliberalism, with its admonishment that there is no alternative, take on articles of faith. Indeed, neoliberalism’s technocrats, market fundamentalists, and liberal authoritarians have all the trappings of religious deities.

Similar to the study of religions the best way to examine the history of ideas and ideologies is by reading source documents, articles and books. A lot of reading. The internet makes sleuthing far easier than poring over dusty religious manuscripts in the catacombs.

Thanks to the erudite and prolific Alastair Crooke, I have new insights into neoliberalism. “In 1970, Zbig Brzezinski (who was to become National Security Adviser to President Carter) published a book entitled: Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era.

In it, Brzezinski wrote: “The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society…dominated by an élite, unrestrained by traditional values…[and practicing] continuous surveillance over every citizen … [together with] manipulation of the behavior and intellectual functioning of all people … [would become the new norm].”

Sound familiar?

Brzezinski further argued that “the nation-state as a fundamental unit of man’s organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force: International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation-state”. 

David Rockefeller and the rest of the Trilateral Commission, a loose confederation of national security and financial elite, seized on Brzezinski’s insight to represent the third leg to ensuring the hegemony of the American empire. The other two legs were control of oil resources and dollar supremacy.

And, here we are. What Brzezinski, Rockefeller and the rest of the technocratic neoliberal elite plotted has become our reality, and average citizens are not thrilled about it. (See Brexit, Trump’s surprise 2016 election, the rise of the “populist Right” the Yellow Vests, and the latest European election results, etc.)

Kind of how the average Catholic wasn’t all that thrilled about the Spanish Inquisition.

Brzezinski’s book, a valuable source document, confirms the basic dishonesty of neoliberalism’s promise. Neoliberalism has been disastrous for America’s political economy, as austerity, privatization, and deregulation have led to crippling wealth and political inequality. More insidious though equally damaging, neoliberalism has also created a sort of cultural sickness; hyper-individualism and the ever-present narratives of deservedness, productivity, and merit have infiltrated our psyches, warping our sense of self, how we view others, and how we move through the world. It’s no surprise that we are facing loneliness and suicide epidemics, that overwork and burnout are commonplace, and that our society has become atomized.

 Brzezinski’s, Between Two Ages, like Lewis Powell’s infamous Memo, provides a clear window into elite thinking. After the turmoil of the 60’s with multiple demands for democratic participation there was a “crisis of democracy”. These documents demonstrate that democracy was for the oligarchy and freedom was to be reserved for capital.

Posted in deep state, feral elite, neoliberalism | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Hundred Year War

Posted on June 14, 2024 by camelotkidd

The US has been at war with Russia for over a hundred years. Technically it started out as a war against the Soviet Union, but the enmity remained after we defeated the godless communists.

There was a brief interlude during WWII when we joined forces against Hitler and the Nazi’s but even before the war was over US officials like Alan Dulles were already plotting further conflict. Today we treat Russians worse than the Soviets during the darkest days of the Cold War. We ban Russian musicians, artists, athletes, literature, impose sanctions, insult the President of Russia, and foment war. 

Like many observers, Putin was under the illusion that the US were against the USSR for ideological reasons. He thought, “Sure, they dislike communism, like any good capitalist would.” He believed they would be happy now that Russians are enjoying the fruits of private ownership. But it turns out that the Brits and Yanks were never interested in theory. They hated the communists because they kept Russian commodities out of Western bankers greedy hands. Now that it is Putin who is defending the Russian state, the global banking system has declared him to be the man of evil. 

Russian author, Israeli Shamir contends that the antipathy towards Russia can be traced to the City of London and British bankers, specifically Lord Rothchild. In my study of history, I’ve come around to that point of view, in that when the US assumed the British empire at the end of WWII, England and especially the bankers in the City of London, were secretly controlling it.

The main problem for the capitalists in the US and Great Britain was that the Soviet Union and the communist bloc prevented them from accessing their resources, labor and markets. Thus when the Wall came down the West wasted little time pilfering post USSR Russia. Its enterprises were intact even if suffering from underinvestment. And not only did the Yeltsin government enable the plunder, but many well-placed Russians believed the con that neoliberal shock therapy would be salutary, so there was no pushback.

Another reason for the support for privatization was the fact that well placed Russian oligarchs were poised to plunder Russia. And, who were the Russian oligarchs who seized all of the state controlled wealth in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s demise? Shamir call them the “Dirty Seven [semiboyarshina] oligarchs who seized control of Russia during Yeltsin’s feeble rule. They all were more or less Jewish, and their solidarity and destructiveness could only compete with their ruthlessness and greed. These seven men practically destroyed millennium-old Russia. They pauperized its people, reduced its industry to ashes, they sold the factories for scrap; they stole all private bank holdings. They even ruined Russian democracy when they shelled Parliament in 1993 using Yeltsin’s tanks, and then, with the assistance of American advisors, by faking the re-election of President Yeltsin in 1996.”

The dirty little secret behind all of the hatred for Russia and Putin is that losing all that fabulous Russian wealth outraged the oligarchs and their western banker allies. This is why they call Vladimir Putin “the bloody tyrant”, because he took away the Russian oil and gas, gold and wheat that they felt they deserved. It’s nothing personal, it’s just business, similar to other countries and rulers who thwart US designs for imperial control.

The foreign policy establishment in the US always saw the present proxy war in Ukraine war (which can be traced to 2014) as a way to bleed Russia of resources. They only understand a unipolar world which revolves around Washington, Wall Street and the City of London. The goal in Ukraine was less to take back the Russian speaking territories for the fascist regime in Kiev and more to unite Europe in a single goal of endless war while establishing a repressive regime in both the USA and Europe for the foreseeable future.

It appears that George Orwell was correct in that–“Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.”

But, but, the idea that Jewish bankers in the City of London control the world is just a conspiracy theory, like lizard people, right?

Right?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A declining empire run by bad people

Posted on June 7, 2024 by camelotkidd

In a recent poll young Americans were pessimistic about their future, describing the US as a declining empire led by bad people. “Young voters overwhelmingly believe that almost all politicians are corrupt and that the country will end up worse off than when they were born,” according to new polling from Democratic firm Blueprint obtained exclusively by Semafor.

They are not wrong, and it’s surprising how fast the American empire is melting, almost like the Wicked-Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz when Dorthy doused her with water.

And as far as bad people, the Biden Administration is chock full of them. Maybe the Israeli genocide in Gaza caused glitch in the Matrix? Or that the Biden administration has reset the doomsday clock to 90 seconds to midnight through their deranged Ukrainian proxy war? Or that this type of delusional thinking is virtually universal among US foreign policy elite? 

And Trump seems to have been educated by the deep state on the realities of the American empire. The best thing about his 2016 presidential campaign was his harsh and all too accurate criticism of the neocon loons and their deranged foreign policies but Russia-gate and two impeachment attempts later he seems to have gotten the message. His new hat might as well be spelled MAEGA for make American empire great again.

So the young-un’s are right to be concerned. The only problem is that the maniacs mismanaging the American empire did not get the memo, or if they did they are disregarding it and doubling-down.

Here’s President Biden’s recent interview with Time. “Is America still able to play the role of world power that it played in World War Two, and in the Cold War?” Biden: “Yes, we’re planning even more. We are, we are the world power.”

See what I mean?

Furthermore, the powers-that be are past any sort of accountability and I’m increasingly concerned that they will resort to violence inherent in the latest police crack-down on the college protests. Then there’s the creeping censorship, surveillance and heavy-handed authoritarianism. In the latest manifestation, on June 3rd the State Department forced former Marine intelligence officer, Chief UN weapons inspector, journalist and author Scott Ritter off a plane headed to Russia by way of Istanbul and confiscated his passport. His crime? Ritter has been an activist who calls for dialogue, negotiation and diplomacy to avoid wars. He’s a fervent critic of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and US proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, and was planning on speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, in Russia.

What gives me hope is that more and more young Americans are seeing through the propaganda narrative of the US as a “bright shining city on the hill”, spreading democracy and freedom. The US empire needs us to consent to nonstop militarism and war, so it propagandizes us into thinking this is normal and anyone who questions them is un-American or some kind of freak. It appears that young Americans have now grasped that instead the US is a murderous empire directly aiding Israeli genocide in Gaza while risking a nuclear war with Russia so that a small segment of plutocrats can maintain power.

How much loyalty should young Americans, or any Americans have for such an empire?

In the months ahead we’re about to find out.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Neoliberal Realism

Posted on May 28, 2024 by camelotkidd

It’s become apparent that the pious rhetoric about “liberal democracy” and “rule based international order” is simply a cover story for the promotion and ferocious defense of neoliberal capitalism. And, to paraphrase Mark Fisher–“It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of neoliberalism.” In fact, the maniacs who manage the empire appear prepared to end our world rather than surrender to a multi-polar one.

Update: I’m off on a mountain biking adventure. Here’s couple articles that elaborate on my thesis.

The Brink of Dissolution: Neurosis in the West as the Levee Breaks, by the inimitable Alastair Crooke.

And, Craig Murray’s: The Drive for War, where he states: “In the West, any deviation from any point in the architecture of neoliberal beliefs is a challenge to the entire system, and thus must be eradicated.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

It’s a mean, mean world

Posted on May 24, 2024 by camelotkidd

We live in a mean world organized by sociopaths.

America is run by people who are both evil and stupid, and they are acting on the associated impulses, attempting to reestablish a unipolar world dominated by the United States, and doing so in a fashion that is maniacal and bound to end in catastrophic failure of some sort.

Then there’s our neoliberal-economic operating system, which admonishes that there is no society only individuals, resulting in a selfish and cruel environment dominated by assholes.

It’s no wonder I’m crazy and I bet so are you.

Perhaps we have reached the end state of neoliberalism that was always destined to be fascism. I’ve always thought that fascism is when liberalism reaches crisis, where oligarch control of the society can no longer be hidden under the comfortable veneer of a representative democracy, and more extreme measures must come out into the open to enforce their control.

Does this sound familiar?

The crucial development is that the US imperial dominance is in rapid decline and our ruling elites are panicking at their obvious loss of influence and legitimacy. How will they hold on to power?

They certainly aren’t going to regain legitimacy by giving voters what they want and with sensible, realistic economic and foreign policies so they have to be authoritarian. All of this has made the possibility of using violence and brute force more likely in relation to many situations. Most recently, of course, militarized police have swarmed campuses to help quell largely peaceful student protests over the war on Gaza.

Back to that crazy thing. Looking around it’s become apparent that we are dealing with an epidemic of trauma in this country on both a personal and collective level. People are traumatized by Covid, the crazy inflation, our dysfunctional healthcare system, the failure of educational and religious institutions, the endless war and genocide our government is supporting. The fucking 2024 presidential election, where both choices are odious. Add to that increased isolation from other people which predates Covid, as we’re increasingly trapped in our own tribal siloes. Everything is falling apart and one has to be braindead not to recognize it. We are on our own, indeed, and much worse off for it. We feel helpless and powerless, adrift in a mean world.

Update: In this milieu, creating community is a revolutionary act. If we’re honest, it will be up to us regular folks. Lets get to it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sensible Center

Posted on May 17, 2024 by camelotkidd

I’m going to miss my senator Mittens. Not because he’s a good legislator, in fact he’s terrible, but because he blurts out things our feral elite keep on the down-low. When Mittens ran for president in 2012 against Obama he told a heckler who was bitching about the domination of the US political process by corporations–“Corporations are people too, my friend”. And in a private fundraiser he complained that “47% of Americans are takers”.

Mittens is retiring because his feeling were hurt by MAGA voters, but his story is illustrative. Mittens is portrayed as a “sensible centerist” Republican but the only reason that he’s portrayed as “slightly more moderate” is that he came out against Trump. What’s ironic is that private equity vampires like Mittens helped create the economic devastation that made a Trump presidency possible. Donald Trump’s value to the American people in 2016 was in shining a light on the political and economic power in the US that has impoverished the majority of us.

Mittens is nothing if not shameless. He epitomizes the financialization of the American economy, where an ethic of “productivity” was replaced by one of “looting.” Romney’s career at Bain Capital is an example of this phenomenon. His father got rich building cars at American Motors. Mitt made his millions buying existing companies—such as a now-defunct Toys R Us,—loading them down with debt, then collecting profits and management fees even as workers were turfed out onto the street.

Does Romney sound like a “maker” or “taker”?

I’ve long wondered at the motivations of our leaders. Is it money, ideology or blackmail that keeps the evil flowing? Mittens is representative of a certain kind of striver that seems to make up a sizable portion of our putative elite. Many of us strive because it gives us a certain kind of pleasure. Whether we strive for good or bad unfortunately seems to be highly choreographed. In earlier days, the most intelligent strivers among the 0.1% were to be found in the Ivy League schools ergo the CIA and FBI recruited from them almost exclusively. The theory was that if you caught them young and indoctrinated them well then they will take their places in the deep state. 

Mittens and the so-called “sensible centerists” that manage the American empire have never met a war of foreign intervention that they haven’t cheered on. These are the same class who promoted the Iraq WMD and Russia-gate frauds, which were both politically motivated, state-sponsored, psy-ops. Their implied goals were to deceive the American public into supporting the foreign policy goals of the deep state. And they have all been rewarded and advanced by lying endlessly about terrorists, spies and fake threats to the republic. It’s illuminating that no one from the FBI or CIA has been arrested or charged for the Russia-gate fraud.

What’s striking is the shrill doubling down of support for Israel by the US political and media classes. In his latest reveal, Mittens, said that banning TikTok has such strong support in Congress because the social media platform has hurt Israel’s public relations battle. “Some wonder why there was such overwhelming support for us to shut down, potentially, TikTok or other entities of that nature,” Romney said at the McCain Institute this past Friday. “If you look at the postings on TikTok and the number of mentions of Palestinians relative to other social media sites, it’s overwhelmingly so among TikTok broadcasts.”

The official justification for targeting TikTok is the thus far unfounded allegation that it’s a Chinese spy tool because its parent company, ByteDance, is based in China. But Romney’s comments suggest the real purpose of the renewed push to ban the app after a similar effort failed years ago was to censor news coming out of Gaza and pro-Palestinian content.

And it’s not just Mittens, our political system has been sabotaged. For years the corporate media has been running a series of clueless articles wondering why Trump won the 2016 election, and why Americans continue to support him. Trump won because Republicans like Mittens are presented as respected job creators and a moral counterpoints to the president, while in reality they’re both criminals who’ve looted the republic under the watchful eye of the corporate media.  Trump also won because of the behavior of the so-called opposition party.

The ultimate takeaway is that Mittens can pose as a “sensible centerist” because the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party also support the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment