Thursday, August 20, 2009
“The Real War Is Not Between the Left and the Right. It Is Between the Average American and the Ruling Class ...Who Would Make Us Their Slaves”
Sometimes the message is great, no matter what you think of the messenger.
Larry Flynt - yes, that Larry Flynt - wrote today on Huffington Post:
The American government -- which we once called our government -- has been taken over by Wall Street, the mega-corporations and the super-rich ... Both Democrats and Republicans dance to the tune of their corporate masters. In America, corporations do not control the government. In America, corporations are the government.
This was never more obvious than with the Wall Street bailout, whereby the very corporations that caused the collapse of our economy were rewarded with taxpayer dollars. So arrogant, so smug were they that, without a moment's hesitation, they took our money -- yours and mine -- to pay their executives multimillion-dollar bonuses, something they continue doing to this very day. They have no shame. They don't care what you and I think about them. Henry Kissinger refers to us as "useless eaters"...
The reason Wall Street was able to game the system the way it did -- knowing that they would become rich at the expense of the American people (oh, yes, they most certainly knew that) -- was because the financial elite had bribed our legislators to roll back the protections enacted after the Stock Market Crash of 1929.
Congress gutted the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial lending banks from investment banks, and passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which allowed for self-regulation with no oversight. The Securities and Exchange Commission subsequently revised its rules to allow for even less oversight -- and we've all seen how well that worked out. To date, no serious legislation has been offered by the Obama administration to correct these problems.
Instead, Obama wants to increase the oversight power of the Federal Reserve. Never mind that it already had significant oversight power before our most recent economic meltdown, yet failed to take action. Never mind that the Fed is not a government agency but a cartel of private bankers that cannot be held accountable by Washington. Whatever the Fed does with these supposed new oversight powers will be behind closed doors...
The real war is not between the left and the right. It is between the average American and the ruling class. If we come together on this single issue, everything else will resolve itself. It's time we took back our government from those who would make us their slaves.
It is well worth your time in reading Flynt's article in full. He gives some valuable history lessons (including the context of a quote by Thomas Jefferson being bandied about today) and proposes a concrete plan to effect change: a one-day national strike.
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Kick those evil bankers, kick them again for me ...
ReplyDeleteThe cause of all our troubles is ourselves.
Our consucmption has painted us into a corner, Our businesses cannot afford primary inmputs anymore.
Wah!
Now, we can (and probably should) hang the bankers but this will not bring back our resources or make them cheap, again.
Do you want economic growth? Bring back $20 oil
It is unfortunate, but Larry Flynt hit the nail on the head.
ReplyDeleteOur government was hijacked many, many years ago by the "robber barons" which FDR referred to as the country was in the Great Depression of the 1930's.
These corporations are in fact the real rulers of the country.
In a conversation with a friend several years ago, I told him this country of ours is no longer the United States of America, it has become the "corporate" States of America.
God help us... hopefully it isn't too late!
One thing that I have liked about Larry Flint is that despite his way of making a fortune, I have never read what I considered a stupid statement.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who goes around screaming "democracy" is stupid.
america is ruled by oligarchs, plain and simple.
Take a look at Bill Gates, multi billionaire, whose fortune will enable all of his descendants to never worry about food, medical care or housing for the next 20,000 years.
The interest on the interest on the interest on his fortune will assure that his descendants are fully provided for 1,000 years.
Just how greedy can you be seems to be the new mantra of the super rich.
1
it's not ourselves Steve. with more intellectual programming, we could all be a better self. but those in power fund our misguidance so we do not make sound decisions. news doesn't even try to find out the truth anymore, they just report rumors. they love to talk about unconfirmed reports. if money was of proper value, both mom and dad wouldn't HAVE TO work. they could better raise their children. the wars we've fought, on the motivation of making profits, would decrease dramatically. some of the biggest parts of our recent american history were fabricated and taught to us to keep this ship running as is.
ReplyDelete"If there is a class war, my class is winning." -Warren Buffet
ReplyDeleteyou say its time to take back america? are you saying it can be done at the ballot box? no sir....i think its way too late for that. what other options are there? well we could pull a france on the rich and politicians and start chopping heads. or we could rise up in arms. but i think either of those options would result in military action. remember posse comitatus has been suspended just so cesaer can bring troops into rome. i'm open to suggestions.
ReplyDeletealthough i agree with him, this is the same guy who lobbied for a govt bailout earlier this year:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/07/porn-bailout-larry-flynt_n_155878.html
Great catch, GW. I agree, Larry has articulated the real issue. If the political partisans can step away and see the plutocracy with altitude, and see that oligarchs' strategy would certainly include only an illusion of choice while controlling both parties and using money to prevent any more than two parties in politics, then we might have a chance of policies for the American people and global community.
ReplyDeleteTo remind your readers, because prosecution is impossible in such an owned and corrupt system, Truth and Reconciliation seems to be our best policy option. This would peel-away those wanting a "Scrooge conversion" and exchange truth/cooperation for a life of peace. For those interested, look-up GW's post on Truth and Reconciliation and share it as our policy to attract consensus.
Slaves. Isn't that the status of being forced to work for another who confiscates your earnings for the massa's benefit while he allows you to subsist on the pittance ?? That almost sounds like the income tax and SS tax.
ReplyDeleteWhat were the words of Patrick Henry ??
And who loans money to corporations when they need it?
ReplyDeleteThe bankers are most of the problem. When finance cartels suck up 40 percent of the economy they have metastasized to a point that they are killing the host. We can handle expensive oil as long as it reflects real supply and demand. We cannot handle the endless demands of speculators and predators who take the best for themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe ultimate insult is when the bankster sneers at the man who built the goods and wealth which was stolen. The financier then tries to represent himself as having produced the wealth he took by chiseling.
Steve from Virginia:
ReplyDeleteWith fellow human beings like you, who needs the Elite enemy?
The problem is NOT our consumership, because in fact, it has been the Grassroots all along that have seen the danger for the Planet, we, the People are the ones trying to hold back the tide of pollution, etc. And it has been the Feds, military & police that have done everything possible to override us. The effort to save the Planet, has been so vast, that even little village women at the foot of the Himalayas, Nepal and India, have tried to prevent loggers from cutting down trees.
It has been the International Corporations, vicious and greedy that have polluted the waterways with chemicals and drugs. It is the Oil Companies, with their oil spills, which they indifferently allowed to spread. And it has been the Grassroots that have come to the rescue of wildlife. It is the huge corporation Monsanto, who is developing unnatural seeds and contamination the earth. The Auto industry that prevents the development of alternative power. And there have been so many other cases of this sort.
So, if you want to speak, speak for yourself. Don't bring the rest of us as scapegoats, of what the Elite do.
Stop blaming us.
ReplyDeleteBlame the Fascists and their dupes.
Come on. The bailout was not a bonus to failing executives. Did opportunists take advantage of it? Yes. Does it mean we shouldn't have done it? No. If banks would have failed, everyone would have failed. Small businesses, Larger corporations, and yes, the average American.
ReplyDeleteDan,
ReplyDeleteThe banks' depositors could have had their deposits protected while the banks themselves went through bankruptcy or nationalization. The bailout is insult added to injury. The banking system IS THE FAILURE; that's what needs to be restructured. You should educate yourself with how money and credit (two different things) are created and the trillion dollar/year benefit of ending bank-created credit and starting government-created money. If you'd like, read my brief, "The Heart of Economics" by clicking on my name.
It's been too late for quite some time now. The international bankers ARE the enemy. (They also control communications.) They tell us what they want us to know, truth be damned. They sow the seeds of resentment and divisiveness and hatred and profit from the wars they help to create. They've been leading us around by the nose since the advent of television. They finance both sides of every war so they make their money either way. They have entrenched themselves so deeply in our government for so long now, it's time for us to come to grips with the fact that's it's just too late now. BTW, they own Republicans and Democrats alike so any illusion that one Party is more corrupt than another is just that, an illusion.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, Larry Flynt, average American. LOL.
ReplyDeleteHow rich is this jerk?
How is his trade any less enslaving than the that practiced by the bankers? Undermining the family, corrupting sex, producing impossible standards of beauty, and lowering the standards of morality to encourage infidelity, exibitionism, prostitution, and sexual assault?
This guy probably has regular dinners with the banksters where they applaud his efforts, and he supplies the whores. They have bankrupted the country, but Flynt has bankrupted our souls.
ok, anon, so larry's whores are doing the banksters while the banksters are doing us in finance and larry is doing us with a part of our soul's attention.
ReplyDeleteat least in this article, larry stopped doing us in his way to point to the banksters doing us their way. i applaud his shift in attention.
A annual tax on accumulated wealth, . . say 25-33% on anything in excess of 5 million dollars (cash, stocks, property, personal possessions).
ReplyDeleteNo exemptions, exclusions or waiting for wealth to pass from one generation to the next-in fact no inheritance tax at all.
Automatic and total forfeiture of any assets hidden abroad.
Extreme? Yes-to anyone worth more than 5 million.
Pseudolus
Obama's is turning into a REALLY BIG DISAPPOINTMENT ... bring back the Glass-Stegall act and fix the financial markets, before you start tinkering with the medicare, you moron.
ReplyDeleteYes, the real struggle is between the Haves & Have-Little-or-Nothings. They constantly try to distract us with specious dichotomies---Left vs. Right, Black vs. White, Religious vs. Non-Religious, etc.
ReplyDelete"Divide & Conquer" is the maxim of the greedy elitist. Keep the populace divided and arguing amongst themselves so that they never look up and realize who is reaping the massive benefits that society is generating for the top 1%.
OMG STOP with the new tax ideas. STOP BORROWING/SPENDING! This is a thought that seldom crosses anyone's mind. And at a certain point, the citizens themselves need to be blamed. Look at how easily people were herded into their two superficially different choices last election. Look at how Ron Paul was marginalized and with millions of grass roots dollars and efforts, we still weren't able to make a dent. We'll just have to keep stabbing at the beast.
ReplyDeleteI have not read the full article but I am wondering if the Thomas Jefferson quote was this one, "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed
ReplyDeletecorporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a
trial of strength and bid
defiance to the laws of our country."
Thomas Jefferson, 1812
Source:Liberty Quotes
I am well versed in all of his published quotes since Jefferson and Madison are my political
heroes.
The fact that Corporate control of our governments is in fact neither politically left or right but rather total and complete Fascism. Corporatism is just another way of saying Fascism. Ever since Andrew Jackson got rid of the central banking system they, the "moneyed aristocracy," conspired to pave the way for it's return until J.P. Morgan and others found a way to cause the complete collapse of our banking system and bring back what is now The Federal Reserve. Who are the members of the Federal Reserve? The "moneyed aristocracy" that Jefferson warned us all about. Flynt is completely correct. Steve from Virginia doesn't have a clue as to this problem. Unfortunately most Americans are like Steve from Virginia, they want cheap oil and think that it will solve our economic problems. Sadly, it will not. I saw mention of Bill Gates and his great wealth and some could point out his philanthropic "gestures" which are in fact good but one needs to look deeper into what the Gates Foundation is really upto and you will find that it is deeply involved in Monsanto's conspiracy to control all of the food production worldwide. Think about it, the production of everything that is grown both for human consumption and feeding the livestock for meat controlled by one corporation. We are in the long run doomed because developing a grassroots movement to take back control of our governments is beyond the realm of possibilities. Cheap oil won't fix this problem.
Complete and total overhaul of our governments will but I believe it is no longer possible. A Revolution of that magnitude is beyond any imaginable means at the disposal of "We The People." Why? Well the on the right want everything to follow some "Biblical Vision" and those on the left want everything "provided by the government." How can everyone agree with any singular vision when they are so many diverse opinions to be dealt with? Corporatism needs to be smashed and it needed to be smashed in the beginning when this "experiment in governance" was first initiated. It is too late to heed Jefferson's warning. By the way Jefferson had a quote for those that believe that this country was founded on some "Christian Foundation" and it certainly was not but rather the bricks and mortar of a collection of people looking for a new life without the tyranny of a repressive government. This "experiment in self governance" is failing because "We The People" have allowed Corporations and The "Moneyed Aristocracy" to usurp control of what was supposed to be ours and that is our "government."
The beginning of the end occured beginning year 2000 (the benchmark year of the new revolution)
ReplyDeletewhen the Supreme Court ruled to have Bush be
president of the United States. The beginning of the minority rule. The end of the majority rule.
The control of the media; the people and the country....
"Organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy..." That about sums it up...
ReplyDeleteI think a man named Marx was on the right track over a century ago, to nipping this problem in the butt.
ReplyDeleteToo bad we didn't listen.