The Existentialist Cowboy: Che Guevara

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Thursday, October 02, 2008

The Twilight of the GOP on the Eve of Great Depression II

I have blogged for years, much of it spent blasting the endemically crooked GOP to the best of my ability. Now --when even the GOP ponders its own imminent demise --I suspect that the sharpest critiques of gop-ism are coming from the GOP.

This generation of political leaders is confronting a similar situation, and, so far, they have failed utterly and catastrophically to project any sense of authority, to give the world any reason to believe that this country is being governed. Instead, by rejecting the rescue package on Monday, they have made the psychological climate much worse.
George W. Bush is completely out of juice, having squandered his influence with Republicans as well as Democrats. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is a smart moneyman, but an inept legislator. He was told time and time again that House Republicans would not support his bill, and his response was to get down on bended knee before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
...
Now they [the GOP] have once again confused talk radio with reality. If this economy slides, they will go down in history as the Smoot-Hawleys of the 21st century. With this vote, they’ve taken responsibility for this economy, and they will be held accountable. The short-term blows will fall on John McCain, the long-term stress on the existence of the G.O.P. as we know it.
--David Brooks, Revolt of the Nihilists, New York Times

These are the words of a party on the eve of eclipse and the Great Depression II that they will have helped bring about. Brooks misses the point, however, when it comes to 'free market principles'. The 'bailout' ought to have been rejected. It's probably the only thing the GOP has done right in years.

As for 'market principles', Brooks errs again. He still believes in them as many still believed in them on the eve of the Great Depression. He was willing to 'interfere' with the 'free market', however, when it was thought the bailout would save the fat cats' ass on Wall Street.

I wonder if Brooks' recent chagrin may be due to the fact that Brooks cannot resolve his hypocrisy, that he knows but will not admit that he has been betrayed by the 'free market' ideology. Pssst, David. There is NO 'invisible hand' but the the thinly disguised jerk off we got from the GOP leadership for as long as I've been able to read a newspaper. There were, I am sure, many like David Brooks on the eve of Great Depression I.

Brooks may be right in the sense that the GOP, as a monolith, an institution, as the primary opposition to Democrats, may go the way of T-Rex. The nation might benefit, however, if the GOP were to break up into its natural factions, one of which is correctly described as being to the right of Genghis Khan. The term 'moderate Republican' has been an oxymoron at least since the party tried to pin on Bill Clinton an act that was not even a crime. There are rumors that there were--at one time in the dimming mists of history --'liberal Republicans'! Your chances of finding one are probably less than your chances of finding a beached mermaid or a tamed Chupacabra. There was, of course, a 'libertarian' streak and under the 'leadership' of Ron Paul, it already shows signs of bolting a party that has shown little interest in them.

The upside is this: as Bush runs out of juice, as the GOP limps off to licks its wounds, some sanity might be restored to our relations with the rest of the world. An Obama Presidency must be influenced to roll back Bush's assaults upon the Constitution. In the longer term, it would be hoped that Scalia will retire. GOP dominance since 1980 has resulted in an extremist court typified by Antonin Scalia who hardly bothers to conceal his contempt for the rule of law and the Constitution. He claims to be 'too smart' for the court. That being the case, he should be 'urged' to quit and find a another job more in keeping with his talents, perhaps, 'mafioso'.

In broader terms, there may very well be a window of opportunity in which we may

restore the separation of powers
restore the supremacy of the Constitution as the source of US law
restore Due Process of Law, indeed, the Bill of Rights
restore habeas corpus
restore US treaty commitments --Kyoto, Geneva, the Nuremberg Principles
restore the principle that the 'President' is answerable directly to the people of the United States.

Obama may find himself, like FDR, in the position of having to save America from itself. As was true in Roosevelt's first term, a 'counter-revolution' may be on the agenda.

Government, under Franklin Roosevelt, got serious about regulating financial markets after the first cycle of financial bubble and economic ruin in the 1920s. Then, as now, the abuses were complex in their detail but very simple in their essence. They included the sale of complex securities packaged in deceptive and misleading ways; far too much borrowing to finance speculative investments; and gross conflicts of interest on the part of insiders who stood to profit from flim-flams. When the speculative bubble burst in 1929, sellers overwhelmed buyers, many investors were wiped out, and the system of credit contracted, choking the rest of the economy.
In the 1930s, the Roosevelt administration acted to prevent a repetition of the ruinous 1920s. Commercial banks were separated from investment banks, so that bankers could not prosper by underwriting bogus securities and foisting them on retail customers. Leverage was limited in order to rein in speculation with borrowed money. Investment banks, stock exchanges, and companies that publicly traded stocks were required to disclose more information to investors. Pyramid schemes and conflicts of interest were limited. The system worked very nicely until the 1970s -- when financial innovators devised end-runs around the regulated system, and regulators stopped keeping up with them.
--Only a Roosevelt-Scale Counterrevolution Can Prevent Great Depression II

If FDR had not restored confidence in the White House, there might very well have been a revolution in the US in the 30s. The threat of FEMA camps notwithstanding, millions of people robbed of homes, hope and jobs will find a way to speak. Enriched and compromised power would do well to learn the lessons of history.

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it.
--Georges Santayana, American Philosopher

And there is likewise a warning.

People must see clearly the futility of maintaining the fight for social goals within the framework of civil debate. When the forces of oppression come to maintain themselves in power against established law; peace is considered already broken.
--Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Guerilla Warfare

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Sunday, September 21, 2008

The Big Bush 'Bail Out' Blackmail

It is called the 'final stages of the coup'. I call it blackmail and extortion! A man already culpable for the crimes of high treason and mass murder now blackmails the congress and the people of the United States. The result is not just another case of corporate welfare benefiting AIG, it is an unprecedented, coup-completing, fascist power grab.

Larisa Alexandaronva is referring to the coup began with Bush v Gore in which corrupt judges awarded to Bush an election that he most certainly did not win.

I would guess that this has to be one of the biggest peacetime transfers of power from Congress to the Administration in history. (Anyone know?). Certainly one of the most concise.
The Treasury Secretary can buy broadly defined assets, on any terms he wants, he can hire anyone he wants to do it and can appoint private sector companies as financial deputies of the US government. And he can write whatever regulation he thinks are needed.
...
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
--Adam Davidson, NPR, Re: the so-called bailout bill

Alexandrovna charges the Bush-Cheney cabal with deliberately abolishing all the financial regulations put in place by the Roosevelt administration in the wake of the 1929 crash. Bush will be shown to have deliberately provoked the crisis for the purpose of assuming complete GOP control of the US government and its treasury. One is at a loss! Is this the biggest heist in world history? Or --is it the ultimate coup d'etat? Or both?

The GOP will not address the crisis of their creation --they will exploit it and discard the last vestiges of our Democracy in the process.

The Bush regime is a heist! What's just one more grand theft for the road? Already, the Bush admin, like Reagan earlier, looted the US Treasury and again, like Reagan, wiping out the American middle class. The US government is the enforcement arm by which the corporate establishment rules America. The proper word for this is 'fascism'. For some time now, the government of the US must be properly described a fascist dictatorship!

As I write this, in a real sucker punch, the FTSE is up 10% so far today. Hooray, the world is saved!

Or not.

What could be behind this insane, hysterical reaction?

One reason is that late yesterday, the FSA called a halt to short selling of financial stocks in the UK. As a result, many (t)raders have had to get themselves out of short positions. That musta hurt!

The second, much bigger, reason is that the US Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, in collusion with the US Congress, is about to commit an act of blatant treason.

Instead of doing the right thing, which would have been to place the system in administratrion (bankruptcy reorganisation), he has decided to make the United States itself bankrupt.

The bankers are laughing up their sleeves.

What Paulson has announced is this: he will establish a Federal agency to buy up what will amount to trillions of dollars of bad debt. The debt will become the liability of the US taxpayer. The bankers will get off scot free. The US will also insure investors in US money-market funds, which have seen significant withdrawals in recent days.

The idea is that, in a reflection of the Resolution Trust Corporation, the debt will be warehoused so that it can get the chance “for much of it to recover a portion of its value.”

But make no mistake, as far as the financial system is concerned, this will achieve nothing, other than delay the inevitable once again.

The real benefit for Paulson’s controllers, is that long held goal of the financial elites - the end of the United States, and that pesky Constitution.

What about us, here in the UK? For us, there’s the small matter of the spectre of hyperinflation which will make Weimar Germany pale into insignificance.
--UK Column, The End of the United States, Mike Robinson

How convenient for the GOP that the passage of this bill makes it impossible to fund everything that is hated by the GOP --health care, education, alternative energy sources, infrastructure, new job creation! A new fascist America will outsource everything. We have already seen how the likes of Wal-Mart have destroyed jobs and lowered wages. We have seen how 'outsourcing' robbed a vibrant nation of its steel, electronics and automotive industries. The fascists have destroyed America.

What of the millions who might have worked had there been jobs?

Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

--Ebeneezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

There are the FEMA camps, and, eventually, there will be death camps! A fasicst government that will not support education now will not support the preservation of life in an economy in which they have destroyed the jobs, its viability, its sustainability. HItler did not hesitate to commit mass murder on an industrial scale and neither will the heirs apparent to Henry Ford et al who openly espoused eugenics.

This is not the first time that the murderous Bush crime family has tried to install a fascist dicatorship in the US. It was Prescott Bush who tried to pull off a fascist coup d'etat, in fact an act of high treason, prior to America's entry into WWII. Bush's act of high treason was called "the Business Plot," involving some top brass and Wall Street big shots, men who openly supported fascism. This administration now blackmails the nation and congress, threatening the total collapse of the economy if the powers demanded by this administration are not ceded to Bushco. America, you have been held hostage since the election of 2000.

I will be surprised if Obama is allowed to take office. McCain will lose a fair election but that has not stopped the GOP in the past. Those working for Obama must understand that it may be necessary to enforce his innauguration with arms should he win the election. Those supporting Barack Obama must understand that "...the peace is considered already broken'.

Now --when you are all but prostrate before the emperor who has betrayed you and your nation, you are blackmailed! Whaddya gonna do about it? All peaceful means of resolution have been denied us.

It is the nature of totalitarianism that it will not seek peaceful resolutions. Rather, a totalitarian regime invariably forces a resort to arms, having robbed the citizenry of every, legal recourse. It is an established principle that people are lawfully entitled to rise up against despotic governments that give them no other choice but revolution. The people have a moral obligation to revolt against tyranny! It is the responsibility and the duty of the people to overthrow the tyrant, the self-proclaimed dictator.

Che Guevara spoke of such a 'government' when he said:

When the forces of oppression come to maintain themselves in power against established law, peace is considered already broken

Che Guevara, Chapter I: General Principles of Guerrilla Warfare

Thomas Jefferson put it this way in the Declaration of Independence:

...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.
--Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence

The Bush administration has committed to writing and presented to Congress its intentions to permanently nullify the powers of Congress, to make permanent numerous alterations to judicial powers, many of which were effected with unlawful 'signing statements'. There is a word for that: tyranny!

Quoted by Alex, 'Confederate Yankee' writes:

The other option, the one I have long prayed we would never need to even consider, is a total revolution. But, If Congress won't act in its own self-defense, in the defense of democracy, in defense of us - the people who have elected them to protect us from this very danger - then what is left for us to do? I don't want to see it come down to this, but I fear that it will.

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