Ok, Anarcissie, coops, but two things.  There has to be a critical evaluation as to how they functioned in the past.  This may exist somewhere but I’ve never seen it, not that this means much because I’ve never looked for it.

Second, indivudual coops must link up ideologically around the world to unite against the capitalist authority that will try to crush them.  This was the major problem with siege socialism. 

When the 15 capitalist countries invaded the Soviet Union with three hundred thousand troops, causing 14 million casualties, they had no support from other countries.  That is how socialism in one country began; to a large extent there wasn’t a choice.

Anarchists just appear to ignore the problem. When Berkman and Emma Goldman criticized the Russian Revolution, they were in the middle of a civil war.  they would all be massacred if they lost, as ten thousand were when the Paris Commune fell.  You have to understand that if you theaten the power system, you are going to be attacked, and there has to be some kind of defense.  Not necessarily military, but some kind. 

So there is not alternative to building an alternative power system.  With the same power commondities- violence, money, and truth, arranged and exerted differently.  And since there are no viable historical models, this still has to be worked out.

Folktruther: ‘You’re right, Anarcissie, it’s something of a problem, a Big problem.  But I can’t believe that somehow people can’t solve it. ...’

My current idea is that the problem of the elites can be mitigated, although not solved, by shifting the culture of the people in the direction of local autonomy.  For example, I was recently bugging the Freelancers’ Union to look into forming their own credit union and their own medical insurance co-op (or even HMO).  Unions in general should be doing this, instead of begging the elites for a better government.  I understand that they are now looking seriously into the credit union part, at least.

If that general attitude had been more widespread 20 and 30 years ago, we would not have the diastrous financial situation we observe today because there would have been a demand for transparency and accountability.  Even greedy people should be aware that mystification portends a con game.

Hm, transparency is glasnost.  Maybe perestroika is at hand, too.

cann4ing—I am well aware that you are not Lenin.  I was pointing out only that you were apparently making an argument similar to his, what one might call the No True Socialist argument along the lines of No True Scotsman. 

If you start talking about politics and economics being local, you’re going to sound like an anarchist.  Take care!  I think Folktruther was talking about something on a larger scale, however, and that’s what I was speaking to.

By Anarcissie, September 23 at 4:15 am #

  cann4ing:
  ‘… This entire concept of elites “controlling” the citizenry is based on the capitalistic need to act in self-interest rather than the concepts of co-responsibility to one another, to society and to a planet that makes life sustainable sans exploitation.  Direct democracy is not required when representatives are devoted to the egalitarianism of true representative democracy. ...’

Lenin gave a similar argument when someone, probably an anarchist who later wound up in the Gulag, complained that the system he was setting up would turn into a dictatorial bureaucracy.
________________________

1.  I am not V.I. Lenin.
2.  Lenin advocated a dictatorship of the proletariat from the beginning.
3.  There is a fundamental distinction between Marxist/Leninist Communism and Democratic Socialism.  It’s usually the capitalists who try to conflate the two, but it is intriguing when a self-described anarchist does so as well. 
4.  Representative democracy succeeds best under egalitarian principles, and
5.  Your 6 billion people having to meet to control anything is absurd.  You ignore fundamental principles of representative democracy, socialism, and the basic fact that politics are local.

Got any other bright dime-store anarchism ideas?

Giving 7 billion dollars with no strings attached, seems like a novel idea. Just like our great Congress did for the Iraq war, so why not now?  After all it is only money and corporate interests which always come first, for they are equal to citizens only with more money and more power, they need the money to pay their lobbyists and CEO salaries, but most of all it costs money to send their factories overseas.

cann4ing:
‘... This entire concept of elites “controlling” the citizenry is based on the capitalistic need to act in self-interest rather than the concepts of co-responsibility to one another, to society and to a planet that makes life sustainable sans exploitation.  Direct democracy is not required when representatives are devoted to the egalitarianism of true representative democracy. ...’

Lenin gave a similar argument when someone, probably an anarchist who later wound up in the Gulag, complained that the system he was setting up would turn into a dictatorial bureaucracy.  (And so did Marx, responding to Bakunin.)  Lenin said that because the directors were working-class and informed by socialist ideals, they could never become like the capitalists they were replacing.  Alas, it was not so.

By Anarcissie, September 22 at 7:48 pm #

  Folktruther: ‘… This would require that the people CONTROL the primary economy ....’

Now, that is something of a problem.  Six billion people cannot meet to control anything, so they would have to select a set of representatives—an elite—to do it for them.  That elite would have to have state powers.

_____________________

Typical dime-store, anarchistic nonsense which ignores the value system of socialism.

“The immensity of this crisis demands an alternative that goes far beyond new regulations on the banks and government interventions to save whichever band of corporate parasites is failing this week. Ultimately, it demands a vision of a different kind of society altogether—a socialist world dedicated to the principles of solidarity, democracy and liberation, rather than the wealth and power of a tiny minority.”

http://socialistworker.org/2008/09/19/capitalism-on-trial

This entire concept of elites “controlling” the citizenry is based on the capitalistic need to act in self-interest rather than the concepts of co-responsibility to one another, to society and to a planet that makes life sustainable sans exploitation.  Direct democracy is not required when representatives are devoted to the egalitarianism of true representative democracy.  And true representative political democracy is possible only where there is some degree of economic democracy.  Money becomes an evil only when it translates into unequal political power, which, in turn, exacerbates the disparity in wealth.

Folktruther: ’... This would require that the people CONTROL the primary economy ....’

Now, that is something of a problem.  Six billion people cannot meet to control anything, so they would have to select a set of representatives—an elite—to do it for them.  That elite would have to have state powers, because otherwise there might be recalcitrance.  But let us suppose such an elite is somehow selected and given powers, and that the elite enjoys its powers, as powerful elites usually do.  Now it will be in there interests of the elite to increase its importance and therefore its powers, so it will find reasons to run the economy harder and harder.  These could be war, imperialism, repression, gratuitous destruction, ecological disaster, consumerism—the ways are myriad, for they have been an important product of just such a system, capitalism.

Soon, there will be no time for secondary economies.

Alternatively, people who care to can create the secondary, distributed, autonomous economy first, and walk away, so to speak, from the primary economy.  But only if they can do without 54-inch high-definition TVs for a while.

Good lord, Jackpine, do you suppose that is what they are thinking, a Russian solution to the American problem.  This shock and awe in Russia apparently killed millions of people, because the population drastically decreased.

I have the feeling that you are on to something.  Adam Smith said that the rich want it all, and that would be a way to get it. That is why they would need a police state.
                ***
You are right, Anarcissie, if people wanted more stuff.  But it is also the case, although shrouded in silence in liberal economic textbooks, that people can take increaed growth in productivity as increased leasure.  If we have to work less and less in the primary economy, a secondary economy could develop which consists of volunteers doing what they liked, just as we are doing now.

This would require that the people CONTROL the primary economy, in order to allow this, and this has not happened yet historically.  But if people want to garden, or write books, or induge in political theory or chitchat, or devise new forms of mythology, all of which is useful to people but not economically viable in the primary economy, it could be done in the secondary economy, if and it is a big IF, people controlled the primary economy.

I can’t wait until the corporatist fraud that is Pelosi loses her seat to Cindy Sheehan.

Day Late and ...What about 5 trillion short now?
Heads up Politicians We have been watching you all fuck US up for the Last 30 Yrs.
You failed to follow Our instructions to get off M.E. oil,and end any financial arrangement with a region that Hates US (Only made worse by the Oil ‘Royals’ using US as their scapegoats for their oppressive regimes).
Who did not see 9/11 coming down the pike?(‘70’s Iran Hostage, highjackings,and WTC ‘93)
Who hasn’t seen that Trickle Down proved to actually mean ‘Shit rolls Down Hill’ - In the late ‘80’s!
Who still thinks Mccain can balance abudget or reduce Taxes while he continues an Unjust War in Iraq at 10 Billion a Month, and beating his Oil Drum for Military actions In pakistan, and/or against Iran and Russia.talking shit about Venezula, and SPAIN!
So Nan, I realize you are somewhat a new comer, but you must realize these economic and Foreign affairs Disasters had taken The Corporationist Decades to bring US to our knees!So when faced with a profusely hemoragging Gunshot wound , If all you have is a dirty rotten rag to stop the bleeding- you use it!
but then you find the SOB’s Who did it; Arrest, Prosecute and Punish them.they have not just had ONE Victim- These are Mass, Serial murdering Predators.

“The business world has been struck by a man-made earthquake, and people will be paying for this economic disaster for years to come in a number of ways—higher prices for food and other necessities, millions of foreclosures and evictions, greater unemployment, growing poverty, government programs cut back or eliminated, and rising tensions throughout society.

“The claim will echo around the corporate media that this was the inevitable consequence of all Americans ‘living beyond their means.’ Don’t believe it. The vast majority of people who will have to pay the price for this disaster are blameless. They did nothing wrong.

“The crisis was caused by an irrational free-market system and the insatiable greed of a small class of rulers who continually seek greater wealth and power, without regard for the costs.
Wall Street’s meltdown is an indictment of the capitalist system…

“AIG got into trouble almost entirely because of an obscure part of its business—selling what are called ‘credit default swaps,’ which amount to an insurance policy on investments in bonds. Basically, AIG was selling financial protection to investors and companies that bought bonds—if the seller of those bonds defaulted on the promise to pay back the principal, plus interest, investors could cover their losses.

“Credit default swaps are pretty much an invention of the last 10 years. Yet these financial insurance policies today may cover as much as $62 trillion worth of debt…

“No one could possibly claim that Wall Street’s high-stakes casino contributed anything to the good of society as a whole. The entire world of credit default swaps, hedge funds, collateralized debt obligations and the rest of the alphabet soup concocted by Wall Street in this latest boom was directed toward one thing—make a tiny group of people rich beyond most people’s wildest dreams.
“The financial catastrophe unfolding on Wall Street is the product of blind greed and arrogance. And now that the house of cards is collapsing, the U.S. government’s series of rescues carry another lesson: The bigger the bet and the wider the potential damage if it loses, the more likely the Feds will have to come to the rescue to stop the whole game from coming to an end.”

http://socialistworker.org/2008/09/19/capitalism-on-trial

Folktruther: ’.... No, Anarcissie, a central control of the eoonomy is essential in modern times, indeed, a central controltral control of the world’s economy.  Such a central power must be accountable to the population and serve its interests.  This was partially, and inadequately, done by the govenment under Roosevelt. ...’

It depends what you want to do, how you want to live.  If you want to have more and better stuff all the time, while kicking butt all over the world, you have to run your economy very hard and enforce close cooperation between all sectors, institutions and personnel.  You set the work week to maximize production-consumption.  You make the workplace a balance between totalitarianism and atomism, whatever makes the workers work harder.  You create a steep economic hierarchy where the people on the bottom are constantly ground down so that the people in the middle will struggle and work hard to climb up.  And, of course, you fiddle with the money.  It has nothing to do with living well and enjoying your life—that’s irrelevant to the cause.

All this would be great for those who wanted, above all, more and more stuff, and the butt-kicking of foreigners.  But it does leave itself open to the kind of chicanery we’ve just observed.  Also, like all positive-feedback loops, it will eventually blow up one way or the other.  But until it blows up, or crooks get into the works, it does produce what people want: more and more stuff, and a nation-state that can kick butt.

Incidentally, I have no trouble predicting what will happen with the current scheme: since it is more of the same thing that produced the present crisis, it will produce another crisis, only bigger.  For capitalism fans, the choice is between biting the bullet now or biting a much bigger bullet later.  However, it is politically impossible for a mainstream politician to say this.  That is why Pelosi isn’t balking; she is holding out for a cut of the poisoned meringue for some of her constituencies.  She’s going to offer to move your deck chair closer to the rail where it’s breezier and you can see the sun glittering on the ice.

Let the banks fail!  Recognize housing as a human right per the UN declaration, and regulate/tax the casino capitalists into a better future for our dying planet!  Do not use our money to prop up the criminal, parasitic speculative banking industry.

Some people may remember about 15 years ago when some third world nations could not repay the debts they owed to the developed nations they were placed on very stringent regulations by the IMF and World Bank.  They had to completely eliminate all government spending for social programs, even the most meager welfare programs for their poorest people.  We may be looking at something like that here. ~Troublesum

A very good point that bares repeating.  The major difference is, of course, that third world debt in the 90’s was generally denominated in dollars.  A strong dollar made it difficult for those nations to repay with a weak national currency.  US debt is dominated in US dollars.  The worst case scenario in this plan is that the toxic “assets” that we’re taking on will do to us as they have done to the super banks.  The first catastrophe would be the downgrading of the US’s credit below Aaa, making it difficult to borrow the money we need to prime the economic pump.  That catastrophe would almost certainly lead to a whole lot people dumping dollars as fast as they could.  That scenario will tear America apart.

But here’s the “good” news: a crash in the dollar would basically nullify the silly amount of debt that we carry.

The end result (and, unfortunately, i wouldn’t put such a plan beyond our current crop of leaders) would be to have America debt-free AND as collapsed internally as those third world nations in the 90’s.

I imagine that the goal would be to do to the US what was done to Russia.  I was inside Russia during that time, and i can tell you that it was not pretty.  The People got shafted and nearly starved, while a few, well-positioned crooks got just about everything.  The big difference is that we’re not sitting on a pool of oil that can erase those loses over the long term.

Civil and criminal penalties should be exacted from the corporations and their managers. Those in government positions charged with oversight and regulation should face similar charges for criminal negligence and dereliction of duty.  The folks that took the risks which drove our overburdened economy over the brink should not be allowed to retire with their millions.

This is the mood of the folks I’ve talked with—friends and strangers.

This is a continuation of the practice of converting taxes into corporate profits.

Now we’ll see if these corporatists will take care of the country of simply write another check to the corporate looters.

Fahrenheit 451, correction:

You are right, the American public is like waiting for Godot, we see Samuel Beckett’s connotation especially the last eight years. Now we know who Godot is; Wall Street.

Americans should avoid being suckered again. Check out the article noted below.

“Let’s bail out the greedy, the crooks, the suckers”

AmericanChronicle.com
September 22, 2008

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/75078

By Anarcissie, September 22 at 9:12 am

•  “If laissez-faire were being practiced things wouldn’t have come this far—a breakdown would have occurred a long time ago.  Remember that since the 1980s at least the government has been manipulating the money supply and interest rates, driving interest rates down to abnormally low levels and thus creating huge bubbles in the stock and real estate markets……No private party could have done these things to the extent of squandering trillions of dollars. “

That’s what you miss here Anarcissie, since it’s probably not happened before, at least not in my own memory or study of history. It’s why most of us have had a difficult time explaining this, (to ourselves) or as Fahrenheit 451, says, just trying to get a grip on HOW this could in fact happen.

Private parties (several) DID do these things because the private parties BECAME the government, or at least so co-entangled as to be inextricably combined.

Again, Sheldon Wolin explains this better than anyone else has managed to do yet, in “Democracy Inc.: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism.”

Fahrenheit 451,

You are right, the American public is Godot, we see Samuel Beckett’s connotation especially the last eight years.

It doesn’t matter what gutless Nan and her cadillac liberal cadre cave into now. After all, it’s only another 700 billion! and heck, we don’t even have it!
This is borrowing money from one loan shark at 30% daily intrest, to pay your other loan shark, who charges you 20%.
Shit, we are already 10 trillion in the hole, and that doesn’t count state and local gov dept, or personal dept. We are fresh out of fingers and knees to break! Our car has been repoed, our house is in forclosure!
What does it matter what Nan does now. Just give the federal reserve the checkbook and tell them fill out whatever the hell they want. We can’t pay for it anyway!

If laissez-faire were being practiced things wouldn’t have come this far—a breakdown would have occurred a long time ago.  Remember that since the 1980s at least the government has been manipulating the money supply and interest rates, driving interest rates down to abnormally low levels and thus creating huge bubbles in the stock and real estate markets.  During most of that time it has also been borrowing huge amounts of money from foreigners while lowering taxes, i.e. not paying for the loans and not planning to.  And it has binged on extremely expensive and unnecessary wars.  No private party could have done these things to the extent of squandering trillions of dollars.  And regulation is not some kind of magic elixir that will make all the bad things coming down go away.

Please sign the petition to stop Paulson’s plunder.

http://us.mc585.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showMessage?fid=Inbox&sort=date&order=down&startMid=0&.rand=551850729&da=0&midIndex=0&mid=1_160368_AL7sjkQAAW+nSNfDngaV+Rkn9ZA&f=1&nextMid=1_159777_AL3sjkQAAGH4SNe7QwedxF70mCs&m=1_160368_AL7sjkQAAW+nSNfDngaV+Rkn9ZA,1_159777_AL3sjkQAAGH4SNe7QwedxF70mCs,1_159300_ALjsjkQAAJtWSNe2MAnGt0AiolU,1_158767_ALnsjkQAAIyeSNes/gHK5n56ds8,1_157897_ALrsjkQAAWnCSNeonAgcPhEJZmo,1_157364_ALrsjkQAAP8OSNdqeQA61CQKFPg,

We’ve had seen this before.  Time and again the Bush regime has utilized a crisis, real or manufactured, to come before Congress demanding emergency legislation in which Congress surrenders money or power or both.  We saw it in the post-9/11 rush to adopt the USA/PATRIOT Act.  We saw it in the resolution to authorize force in Iraq (pushed through in haste before Congress left for the 2002 mid-term) and now were are seeing it in the rush to raid the National Treasury to bail out the players at the Wall Street Casino—a proposed blank check with a claim that it is necessary to entrust Mr. Paulson, himself a former Wall Street insider with unsupervised and unchecked authority to dole out $700 billion to his crony capitalist friends.

While the financial crisis created by rampant speculation mirrors that which occurred at the outset of the Great Depression and while government intervention is essential to prevent a total economic collapse, progressives must view this crisis as an opportunity to expose the fundamental fallacy of laissez faire and to insist that any bail out come with some very heavy strings attached including a reinstatement of Glass-Steagall and all other New Deal regulations designed to foreclose speculative abuse, proportional government ownership of any bailed out industries, strict caps on CEO compensation, a repeal of the Bush tax cuts for everyone earning more than $250,000/year, a moratorium on home foreclosures (like the one provided by FDR during the Great Depression), strict Congressional oversight of Treasury and a mandate that targets predatory lending practices and usury interest rates.

A final note of irony:  Some months ago right wing posters like Marshall previously claimed I was an alarmist for stating that the U.S. was facing the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression.  Odd we haven’t heard from them lately.

Some people may remember about 15 years ago when some third world nations could not repay the debts they owed to the developed nations they were placed on very stringent regulations by the IMF and World Bank.  They had to completely eliminate all government spending for social programs, even the most meager welfare programs for their poorest people.  We may be looking at something like that here.

There is a video clip on this page with Naomi Klein and Bill Maher talking about Sarah Palin.  Also on that show Klein talked about the Shock Doctrine aspects of the current disaster.  She said that the cost of the bail out will be so great that they will use that as an excuse for cutting out what is left of the social safety net.  They’ll be saying that there’s no money for social securtiy, medicare, foodstamps, etc.

@ Anarcissie;

Lovely comment and right on.  Thank you so much; you get it!

Fahrenheit: ‘Well, things are developing quickly, and there is rising opposition to this bill.  I think people are realizing they’re on the Titanic and there are no life boats for the passengers.’

Quite so, but as the French say, “Hope is for the hopeless.”  Our great leaders have to hope that if they keep muddling and floundering, something will turn up, and the folk have to hope that they’re right.  However, the Great Bailout simply replicates the conditions that caused the crisis in the first place, only on a grander scale; it’s as if the Titanic ran into one iceberg and in order to correct the problem, deliberately ran into another one, harder.  And Ms. Pelosi is worried about the arrangement of the deck chairs.  Well, if you’re going under and you can’t do anything about it, I suppose you might as well line up the deck chairs nicely.

I hope they put some language in this bailout making it impossible for foreign investors to swipe up all our biggest and most important financial lenders. That’s my #1 concern about this idea. Throwing debt from one place to the tax payers backs, then pretending its all great while we sell America by the pound to China.

Good job, Wall Street. Next time, don’t even bother with the lube. Got any rock salt?

Sorry Nance, I’m still voting for Cindy Sheehan..

Well, things are developing quickly, and there is rising opposition to this bill.  I think people are realizing they’re on the Titanic and there are no life boats for the passengers.

We’ll see…

Yellowbird, please hit that “Enter” button once in a while, will you kindly? It would make your long bundle of information much easier to read.

By troublesum

“Now if every democratic congressman and senator had somebody running against him from the left…”

... kick their skinny ass down the road!

  ... gimme an Amen!

@ oldhip;
“We Are So Fucked”-

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’d have to agree.  Expecting something from Pelosi would be like “Waiting for Godot”.
I came across an interesting form of capitalism called Dirigisme.  This from Wikipedia; Dirigisme has been brought up as a politico-economic scheme at odds with laissez-faire capitalism…....  It seems to work well for France.
To say my understanding of economics is limited would be accurate if not understated; but I am struggling to get a grip on the situation.
I’m listing a link from “The Agonist” regarding the give-away.  If I understand the article correctly we can expect a further reduction in our standard of living regardless of the road followed.  Gee, thanks so much George.

http://agonist.org/sean_paul_kelley/20080921/thoughts_from_across_the_big_pond

I just wonder how long its going to be until people start going postal or strap on a bomb and give their favourite banker a hug.

watching a commentator on c span today explaining that it is all the “taxpayers” fault: it is NOT. Here in the Oregon this was done around 25 years ago; the developers came thru & almost bankrupted the VA; they specifically targeted vets: and come on down, let’s make a deal! the “down payment” was on paperwork only: no $ ever changed hands; they folks couldn’t make the payments: and so they were left with literally millions of homes across the USA; the Pentagon & Congress works this way: as does the St, County & Cities cuz THAT is the way it goes: in the “new” rebuild and renew USA as well: cuz they always had to “use it all” or learn well to “cook the books” & launder the $ back in; they have oodles of $ at both st, & fed, & county & city levels; for “ag workers”; and other things like 28% pay raises; and it is of course because of us being “broke” that they need to instigate these things: we will now pay tolls to go on any & all roads anywhere; we will have to change our thinking cuz THEY own the water: and of course, have given THOSE over to the “large Corps” who actually own the political parties; and for you thinking you have any RIGHTS; well, you have to CHANGE your mindset; THEY own the land, THEY own the water: and as for your internet, you will pay for everything you do. Oh, and multiple other things as well; sigh; you had it ALL and did NOTHING at any time for anyone. (reality: since my grandpa’s day down to mine to my daughters we have paid extra taxes for “aid” to so many countries so many times: there should BE no 3rd world countries: certainly none without water, sewers, electricity, etc; oh: the LAW that stated they had to LIST the actual cost of electricity: well, y’see it was less than $19 to get the electricity to you; and then usage & it was SET UP this way so they could “make” you pay far more by claiming “price hikes”; rather than meters where you pay for actual usage; when they discovered the error they raised it again & again til it was $80 JUST to get the electricity to you; and then usage; 8 different reasons why: then: for the PRIVILEDGE of HAVING electricity. WE are the “rich” who are nothing but spoiled, pampered, pets who cause all the problems of the world you see: and they are going to TAKE from us to give to everyone else; who has been UNDERpriviledged; and so it goes: getting away with it in the USA for years: they are ready to take it globally. As for the land: cut it all down, where it was zoned for 2 homes it now will be 6 homes built for all the people coming here; and the laws have been changed, altered, deleted, “expired” to give them what THEY want; figured it out yet that this is & always has been a DICTATORSHIP? Worse than Saddam Hussain ever thought of being: and the $ from the top siphoned off: well, our Gordon Smith bought golf clubs for 1.2m in 1996; Hillary spent $100m in 1 month: jan 08: while the vets lived in mold, squalor & mice: & no $ at all to pay for THEIR disability; still waiting some for 5 years to collect a cent.

Nancy

Be forthright, the future will take care of itself.

this has all been set up for a long time folks: not to worry these “elites” have all had THEIR funds set up in the new “amero”; it is the TAXPAYER, the American citizen who is targeted & has been for quite some time now: lou dobbs book War on the American Dream details clearly how the Pentagon, Congress, & special interest groups have very agressively been victimizing the citizens of the USA; and trillions of $ have been “sent out” supposedly to the “private contractors” who work so very well with the Pentagon & other groups to syphon the $ out of the country: to launder it back in for our “lawless leaders”; http://www.thetip.org; look for who is the real Paul Bremer; the list of take over of countries by the USA has been documented in numerous books including one by Amy Goodwin. It has been said that “expoitation” of citizens is the “democratic” way: it is the way of criminals. THIS is to make you & me “believe” yet again that our country is “broke”; to get you set up for the big change that was outlined during the conventions: & spelled out in Ronald Reagan’s day: it is NOT news to the Gov nor to multitudes of us who have been watching carefully & shouting to get folks attention to what is truly going on. License to steal is the name of a book exposing what goes on in Wall Street: they got it from following the examples from Capitol Hill. Also helps to watch the Mexico channel on TV; perhaps SOME folks might start listening a little better now. Hope so.

Old Hip..

“..One last cynical link…  -“We Are So Fucked”-

I was kinda thinking the same thing…

You have got to be kidding me?  Right?

Not let them away with it?!?

Can you name anything that the oligarchical corporatists
have not gotten away with in the last eight years?

Can you name one single thing?!?

Seriously - I’m asking, as I assume most reality-based
citizens are right now.

I know it’s a little dated, but you will find this short list
of interest?  “Got Away With It”

Also, (three years later,) I listed… “Yes - I’m Angry”

Which lead to… “Let’s See…”

Do not forget how Pelosi was not going to give BushCo
a blank check last time they asked for it?!?

Remember how she pontificated, ever so loudly, that
she wouldn’t do it, right up to when she did do it.

She, and ‘our’ co-congresspersons, did just that -
Gave them the blank check.

One last cynical link…  -“We Are So Fucked”-

Now if every democratic congressman and senator had somebody running against him from the left…

Finally some backbone..hopefully not just posturing…..I say dig in and fight, don’t let them rush it through, if you do we’ll all be sorry as hell…

She’s looking over her shoulder at Cindy Shehan.