"I don’t think $3.5 million is a heck of a lot of money" - Supreme Court Justice Antonin "Fat Tony" Scalia. And in comparison to the people with whom Antonin rubs shoulders it isn't.Americans are mad. The 1% have always tried to funnel that anger at the Government. By and large the Rich have successfully duped conservatives into believing the Government is the source of their woes.
Look over there! That teacher has a pension! Look over there! That postal employee has good retirement options! Look over there! That Poor person is eating food and has air conditioning!The Rich and the Republicans have spent years destroying Americans' confidence in Government by deliberate sabotage, demagoguery over "blaah people's lives getting better" from white Iowa farmers money which they use to eat steak, work out and drive Cadillacs.
The fact is the wholly-owned Republican Party and Pro-Business Democrats do the bidding of the Rich and Powerful. That Government act as the Economic Hitmen and Goon Squad enforcing the will of the Rich upon the Nation.
Even now, during the Republican enforced Shutdown, P90X Ryan offered up his Death to the Poor Budget Plan as "an olive branch".
Ryan's plan is, of course, nothing more than the same Right-Wing gibberish and contains the same-old Republicans canards; Raise taxes on the Middle Class ("broadening the tax base"), eliminate medicaid and make medicare more expensive (if you were wealthy you'd be healthy), increase retirement contributions by federal employees (eliminate the middle class), “opening up America’s vast energy reserves to development.” (Drill Baby, Drill!!!)
Nonetheless, the Republicans Coup attempt is not the endgame. The endgame is "Smaller Government". The Smaller Government they want is one just Small enough to fit into the pockets of the Super Rich.
But, it seems the Koch Brothers are a little skittish about the anger they've helped to foment. Koch Industries public relations arm released a memo denying any involvement in the Republican Government Shutdown.
However, Koch has not taken a position on the legislative tactic of tying the continuing resolution to defunding Obamacare nor have we lobbied on legislative provisions defunding Obamacare.
We believe that Congress should, at a minimum, keep to sequester-level spending guidelines, and develop a plan for more significant and widespread spending reductions in the futureMeanwhile, the McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission SCOTUS case is clearing the way for Unlimited Campaign Contributions. So, the Rich can choose the 536 politicians in DC who they will instruct to steadily turn the nation into a Neo-Feudalist hellhole wherein 99% of Americans will be born into Wage Slavery and have no recourse and no friend in Government.
But, the apologists for the Rich will tell those slaves that they are free.
So, Grover Norquist will tell those slaves they don't need the damned government for anything, and when Koch Industries turns the nearby stream into a slurry of coal slag or when ExxonMobil oil pipeline befouls an entire rive and marshland, those American slaves Grover dreams of creating will simply shrug and accept it as the way things ought to be.
Update:
What Corporate Behemoths and Plutocratic Thieves want is a Government in which 99% of the American people literally can not petition for a redress of their grievances. It's the whole point of Privatization, Deregulation and Outscouring to make a Government that does not respond to the 99% but caters to the whims and directions of the Super Rich.
Excellent rant. Koch sent a memo to the thousands busting their hump in the corporations basement, "insurance OK this year, next year to be determined". These fucks are going to end up asking/telling their employees to go on the very evil communist plan that they fight against.
ReplyDeleteGEG: But, the apologists for the Rich will tell those slaves that they are free.
ReplyDeleteIndeed they do. I've debated one such apologist on this topic before. According to him "Wave slave is one of those phrases made up by people completely ignorant of economics" and that it "trivializes real slavery, by implying that experience of real slaves isn't any worse than that of some kid from a well-fed family working at Starbucks whose only worry that he might not be able to afford trading in his iPhone 4S for an iPhone 5".
I don't think an individual who qualifies as working poor would buy an iPhone. Statistics show that the children of Wage slaves frequently go hungry, not that they are "well fed". But this is how the Conservative mind works... sympathy for wage slaves? Hell no... they don't even exist!
W-Dervish,
ReplyDeleteOh yes, the Right are skilled in their dismissal of Wage Slavery by equating it with a petulant privileged white kid being unable to the latest apple gadget.
And that hides their truly evil motive which is to make American labor put on a world market with Americans pitted against nickel-a-day workers in Indonesia or Nigeria.
And it's because the Republicans Masters see no country and have no ties to American labor, we're just super expensive unnecessary costs which a skilled CEO can cut.