Carl,
So now that I've secured your agreement on that point, let me try to push my
luck on another point, the one that you and I keep circling round and round. If
we look at Marxist theory, the intellectual framework which you are using in
order to define a ruling class and a working class, you'll see that there is
another class mentioned, the petit bourgeoisie. That class consists of
professionals, small business people, and managers. Now you and I both came
from the working class. And you did work in a factory for a while, if I
remember correctly. But then you got a college education, and worked as a
rehabilitation professional. I went to college and graduate scool and worked as
a social worker. At the point that you began working in rehabilitation and I
began doing social work, we left the working class and joined he petit
bourgeoisie, or in modern American terms, the middle class. And when you
retired from your state rehabilitation position, you and Cathy began your own
business as contractd workers with the state which means that you are small
business owners. Now, I am not suggesting that either your or I became wealthy
or part of the ruling class. But I am suggesting that our life styles and
values, are very different from those of a home health aide or fast food
worker or janitor. All of us who aren't part of the ruling class, may share an
interest in changing our economic and political structures. But I strongly
believe that one of the reasons that people on the political left are not doing
as well as they ought to in political organizing, is that they are not being
honest with themselves and with poor and working people about the differences
among us. There is no way, for example, that you could ever have convinced my
father who hadn't attended high school and who had worked in a factory for most
of his life, that you as a college graduate who owned your own home and other
property, were in the same situation as he, who always rented an apartment and
bought his first car when I was ten years old. My father was not an angry or
resentful man. He was friendly to everyone. But he recognized social and
political realities. Carl, you and I, given our education and the work we have
done, according to the ideas that your parents had, are not members of the
working class, even if our sympathies and concern are with the working class
and even if the ruling class passes laws that impoverish us.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, June 12, 2017 9:52 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: American Wonderland: Trump World Is Much
Stranger Than It Seems
Miriam,
Given the fact that we, the working class people are at the mercy of our
two-headed corporate American party, and nothing we can do to change the
direction toward the loss of what freedom we still have, from outside the
System, short of revolution, I suppose that I too, despite my bluster, would
choose to live on a slow, more gentle downhill slide rather than to be clinging
to the edge of the high cliff above the cruel rocks of destruction, as we now
find ourselves.
As much as it's worth, there is still a big difference between the private
Corporate Sector and the Political Sector. The leaders in Corporate America
have the bottom line as their objective...and the end justifies the means. The
Political Sector are just as ruthless, but understand that there must be some
concessions if they are to carry forth the demands of their more Greedy
Corporate Masters. So, with this buffer in place we had 8 years of slow
decline under Barack Obama. But when Corporate-Like leaders dabble in
politics, we come up with the likes of George Bush...both I and II. And of
course, the Mother of All Greed driven Corporate Idols, Donald J. Trump.
In Fairy Tale Land, if Donald Trump were King Midas, eagerly turning everything
he touched into gold, Hillary Clinton would be the Old Woman who Lives in a
Shoe, with so many children she wouldn't know what to do. But at least she
would feed them some broth, and send them to bed...albeit after soundly
spanking them. But the difference is huge, if we have no choice but to endure
it for the time being.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/11/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I've been thinking about that today, about voting for Hillary, after
listening to Chris Hedges. If I'd lived in a swing state, I would have
voted for her because she would not have demolished the safety net as
quickly and because she would not have made speeches that invited the
most racist and prejudiced sectors of our society to openly attack
Muslims, African Americans, and immigrants of Latin American descent.
We would have maintained a more civilized discourse, even if that
civil discourse is just a veneer. The tone set by our political
leaders, matters. I'd rather have an elitist female President than a sexist,
Fascist, meglomaniac.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2017 2:31 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: American Wonderland: Trump World Is
Much Stranger Than It Seems
Yes! Yes!
In my personal opinion, we are being led by the noses by the Corporate
Pied Pipers. While our attention is focused on the side rings and the
side show, the Main Event in the Center Ring is named, "The Rape of a
Nation". As we are being "entertained" by the Reality Master, Donald
Trump, the Corporate Elite are feasting at the public trough. I
honestly believe that Donald Trump, acting as the Hit Man, will
dismantle most of the public protections fought for and put in place
over decades of hard work. Down sizing Government, without down
sizing Corporations, is tantamount to opening the doors to the Hen house and
inviting the foxes in.
Still, in knowing all of this, I would not have voted for Hillary Clinton.
We would have gone down the same road, just at a slower pace. We are
living in a dysfunctional nation, in so far as the needs of the
Working Class is concerned. And if the Working Class is not cared for
and nurtured, the entire house of cards will fall in.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/11/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Do you get the impression that there's this big show going on, lots
of articles commenting on it, lots of hearings, money being spent,
and somewhere in the background a whole other reality is taking place?
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl ;
Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2017 12:48 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: American Wonderland: Trump World Is
Much Stranger Than It Seems
Strange, but still, I don't see mention of the Queen of Hearts or
Fiddle Dee and Fiddle Dum.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/11/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally. (photo: Chip
Somodevilla/Getty
Images)
American Wonderland: Trump World Is Much Stranger Than It Seems
By William Boardman, Reader Supported News
10 June 17
The spring blizzard of the bizarre shows no sign of letting up
When was the last time we had a sitting president and a former FBI
director calling each other liars? And something like 100 per cent
of the population seems to believe that at least one of the accused
liars is a real liar.
That's the new American normal.
The Comey circus produced a holiday atmosphere in DC, with bars open
for business before the live hearings came on. And the TV audience
for the Comey show was an apparently impressive 19 million-plus viewers.
But that's pallid next to the presidential inauguration's 30
million-plus, or the Super Bowl's typical 110 million-plus in the US.
Here you may insert the appropriate comment about how these numbers
reflect American priorities, with football being five times more
engaging than a game where the republic is an underdog.
In this kind of carnival atmosphere, it is little wonder little
attention is paid when the director of National Intelligence
stonewalls the Senate Intelligence Committee rather than answer
questions about presidential law-breaking. Little attention was paid
when the director of the Central Intelligence Agency stonewalled
rather than answer questions about presidential law-breaking. Even
the Senate Intelligence Committee's Republican majority paid little
attention to the stonewalling by top national intelligence community
officials, both Trump appointees. Some Democrats paid a little
attention, albeit decorously.
Republicans will not entertain pointed questions from uppity black
women
The hearing didn't begin to get close to testy until Deputy Attorney
General Rod Rosenstein, who was instrumental in getting Comey fired,
refused again and again to answer a simple question. The question
from Democratic senator Kamala Harris of California (where she was
state attorney general) was whether Rosenstein would assure the
independence of the independent counsel, former FBI director Robert
Mueller, who is investigating the relationship between the Trump
campaign and Russian power brokers. Rosenstein would not give a
direct answer, choosing to stonewall by filibuster. Senator Harris
interrupted:
Sir, if I may, the greater assurance is not that you and I believe
in Mueller's integrity . it is that you would put in writing an
indication based on your authority as the acting attorney general
that he has full independence.
Again Rosenstein rambled unresponsively and again Harris intervened.
At that point, two Republican senators, chairman Richard Burr of
North Carolina and John McCain of Arizona, intervened and curtly
lectured the senator from California on the need for "courtesy." It
looked for all the world like Republicans playing to their base by
trying to put the uppity black woman in her place. As a result,
Rosenstein was granted the courtesy of being allowed to stonewall
like the others, not even giving lip service to future independence,
integrity, or justice.
Senator Burr, by insisting on "the courtesy for questions to get
answered,"
made sure the questions would not get answered. Or rather,
Rosenstein's refusal to say he would do what he could to guarantee
the independence of the independent counsel was tantamount to
warning Robert Mueller that he was on a short leash. Insofar as that
warning is the real message, that is also tantamount to obstruction
of justice.
Isn't it high time to get the FBI working for Trump interests?
And if that weren't enough to reassure the president that the noose
wasn't tightening around his neck any faster than senators who swore
an oath to protect and defend the Constitution could obstruct, the
president nominated a new FBI director. That's a little like the
Gambino Family picking its own prosecutor.
The White House's tweeted choice for James Comey's successor is
Christopher Wray, who has been greeted by largely respectful, if
muted acceptance, in the words of The New York Times:
In choosing Mr. Wray, the president is calling on a veteran
Washington lawyer who is more low key and deliberative than either
Mr. Mueller or Mr.
Comey but will remain independent, friends and former colleagues say..
[He] would bring a more subtle management style to the FBI.. [He] is
a safe, mainstream pick..
To emphasize that point, the Times ran a picture showing Mueller and
Comey, with Wray slightly behind them. The picture was taken in
2004, when Wray was in the Justice Department helping to craft
torture policy for President Bush. Wray is overtly political, having
given consistently and only to Republican candidates. In 2004,
Wray's testimony about the homicide of a CIA detainee was
characterized as "less than truthful" by Senate Judiciary Committee
chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont. Wray's most recent high-profile
success was helping to keep New Jersey governor Chris Christie from
being indicted for the criminal closing of the George Washington
Bridge as political payback.
A court allowed Wray to withhold potential evidence against his
client.
If being a dishonest Republican torture-promoter isn't enough to
disqualify, maybe his legal work as a partner in the 900-lawyer King
& Spalding international law firm would serve. His clients have
reportedly included Trump family members. Another partner is the
ethics advisor to the Donald J.
Trump Revocable Trust. And then there are Wray's apparent Russian
connections reported by USA Today (but not the Times). Wray's firm
has a Moscow office. It "represents Rosneft and Gazprom, two of
Russia's largest, state-controlled oil companies." Rosneft also has
ties to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who, as Exxon CEO made a
$500 billion oil drilling deal with Rosneft, a deal suspended by
sanctions imposed by the Obama administration.
Conflicts of interest, dishonesty, torture, corporatocracy, Russian
connections - why shouldn't those be the standards of American law
enforcement? It's the new American normal.
William M. Boardman has over 40 years experience in theatre, radio,
TV, print journalism, and non-fiction, including 20 years in the
Vermont judiciary. He has received honors from Writers Guild of
America, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine,
and an Emmy Award nomination from the Academy of Television Arts and
Sciences.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work.
Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
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