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Tuesday, July 26, 2016

TRNN - The European Revolt Against The Neoliberal EU Part 2

4 comments:

Glynn Kalara said...

Has little bearing on US politics since here the left has little organization and NO power whatsoever. I think what Elizabeth Warren said in her speech at the DNC last night was dead on in this regard. She basically said it's a BIG LIE that the PTB in DC don't get things done. They do, whatever the BIG $$ wants they get and both party elites are on board this arrangement. If however, any attempt to give anything to "the People" in general is attempted it gets nowhere or it only goes forward because it fattens the pockets of enough of the elite Corps. and individuals to get enough votes. The GOP drug so called drug benefit program added to Medicare and Obamacare are primary examples of how this happened. Both these programs have massively enriched Big Pharma and the health Ins. and Health Corp. sectors. The public however has been basically dragged into these programs and are paying these Corps. for very meager benefits. The new arrangement has only had one really Progressive feature and that was the expansion of Medicaid in those States where the Gov. and ruling party allowed it. ( Mostly blue states.) Missions of poor people in the RED states still have little or no Healthcare under this extremely flawed law. Plus, the cost for the policies is high and increasing and the policies are shitty poor on the benefit side. The drug benefit the BV$H admin. got through Congress is worse and doesn't even allow the US Gov't to negotiate prices with the Drug companies. Every other Gov't on the planet does this tyo keep prices lower for it's population. Not here and it's even worse then that. Individuals aren't even allowed to buy drugs on the Int'l so called free market. This essentially has given these companies monopoly power in the US ONLY!! So, this is what Warren was screaming bloody murder about. The Gov't is rigged totally for the wealthy totally the rest of us get the tax bills and little else. The GOP is totally on-board this arrangement.

Jim Sande said...

Thanks for taking the time and effort to spell this out. It's not really much of a democracy is it. People come forward to run for office but there's a catch, they have to measure up to big corporations or else they get outspent by someone else who is willing to play ball with corporate America especially now with all the big money that is pumped into political campaigns. This is the American way. A few people squeak through the door now and then. We've been scratching our heads forever to figure out how to circumvent this mess, someone like Bernie comes along and excites people who get it for the most part. There are a lot of people out there who are beyond sick of the political arrangement, another figure, another Bernie person has to come forward that can go even further, really excite a wide swatch of people across the political divide. I like the way Bernie did it within the Democratic party and that may be the way it has to happen, just not this year.

Glynn Kalara said...

For all practical purposes we have a Corp. Oligarchy / Plutocracy. It's essentially a variant of 20th Century Fascism ( with elections and quasi-Representative legislatures.) In reality only the very rich get to play in this game. Neither HRC or DJT are actually anything unusual in this kind of set up. It's also closer in spirit to what the founders wanted. They feared popular Democracy and did everything they could to limit it. The Republicans are operating in the spirit of the founders in that regard. They only want a limited franchise, because they believe unless you own property or stock ( large amounts) your not a stakeholder. They'd prefer a political system modeled after the way Corps. are run. Those with the most shares / $$ have the most influence. The Roberts Court is responsible for the infamous Citizens United ruling that kind of enshrines this idea and basically makes bribery level corruption legal.

Jim Sande said...

Well said well said - I like this a lot - "They'd prefer a political system modeled after the way Corps. are run. Those with the most shares / $$ have the most influence."

It makes a lot of sense, a limited democracy, a democratic republic. Interesting how the science of how to get elected has been so refined over the years - Citizen's United, FOX news and the rise of misinformation, mass amnesia as it were, divide and conquer politics based on racism and religion, sexual orientation, marriage etc etc.