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How America Became an Oligarchy
How America Became an Oligarchy
The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. . . . You have owners. — George Carlin, The American Dream
According to a new study from Princeton University, American democracy no longer exists. Using data from over 1,800 policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page concluded that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of – or even against – the will of the majority of voters. America’s political system has transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where power is wielded by wealthy elites.
“Making the world safe for democracy” was President Woodrow Wilson’s rationale for World War I, and it has been used to justify American military intervention ever since. Can we justify sending troops into other countries to spread a political system we cannot maintain at home?
The Magna Carta, considered the first Bill of Rights in the Western world, established the rights of nobles as against the king. But the doctrine that “all men are created equal” – that all people have “certain inalienable rights,” including “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” – is an American original. And those rights, supposedly insured by the Bill of Rights, have the right to vote at their core. We have the right to vote but the voters’ collective will no longer prevails.
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Peter Thiel Blasts: The American Political System Is “Not A Democracy Or Constitutional Republic”
Peter Thiel Blasts: The American Political System Is “Not A Democracy Or Constitutional Republic”
The obvious conclusion that the U.S. is neither a democracy nor a constitutional republic has been a key topic of conversation here at Liberty Blitzkrieg over the past several years. One of the most powerful representations of this unfortunate fact came from an academic study highlighted last year: New Report from Princeton and Northwestern Proves It: The U.S. is an Oligarchy.
A couple of days ago, Peter Thiel sat down with Tyler Cower at George Mason University’s Mercatus center for a chat about all sorts of interesting things. The Washington Post picked up on some of his thoughts regarding the American political system, which I think deserve some additional commentary.
On the one hand, he accurately identifies the U.S. as nothing resembling either a democracy or a constitutional republic. He then goes on to point out that the system we have is one in which the power is increasingly concentrated in undemocratic, “technocratic” agencies. Where I think he falls way short is with a failure to ask what interests are driving the decisions of these undemocratic entities. Any unbiased observer can clearly see that it is oligarchs driving the oligarchy, as opposed to independent thinking bureaucratic technocrats driving a technocracy. I have published countless articles proving this to be the case. Naturally, a billionaire might have a harder time recognizing this.
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Regime Change: US’ Failing Weapon of International Deception
Regime Change: US’ Failing Weapon of International Deception
For years, Winston Churchill’s famous quote, “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried,” has served as Americans’ last word in any political discussion which requires validation of the US government, no matter how corrupt or flawed in its behavior, as the best in the planet, comparatively or by default. Never mind the meaning that Mr. Churchill had intended back in 1947, or how the international political panorama has changed during the past seven decades.
These remarks were made by Britain’s prime minister before the House of Commons a few months before there was a changing of the guards in the “Anglo-Saxon Empire” as the Brits gave away their colonial hegemony in favor of the super-influential economic and military power represented by the United States. And that was symbolically marked by Britain’s relinquishing its mandate in Palestine, and the creation of Israel.
Such reference to democracy in the quote, explicitly defining it as a “government by the people,” basically applied to Britain and the United States at the close of World War II; but such condition has deteriorated in the US to the point where the “common people” no longer have a say as to how the nation is run, either directly or through politicians elected with financial support provided by special interests, undoubtedly expecting their loyalty-vote. Yet, while this un-democratization period in our system of government was happening, there were many nations that were adopting a true code of democracy, their citizens having a greater say as to how their countries are governed. Recognizing such occurrence, however, is a seditious sin for an American mind still poisoned by the culture of exceptionalism and false pride in which it has been brainwashed.
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How the Public Are Deceived by the ‘News’
How the Public Are Deceived by the ‘News’
If the public is systematically lied-to by the Government and by a virtually uniformly cooperative press suppressing key facts in order to pump that lie, such as was the case during 2002 and 2003 in the lead-up to America’s invasion of Iraq, then there can’t possibly be an authentic democracy, because democracy is founded upon a truthfully informed public, and so any ‘news’ institution that violates its solemn public trust of reporting the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is traitorous to democracy itself.
That’s why the press has been called “the fourth estate” of government. The first three “estates” are the aristocracy, the clergy, and the public. If the press represent not the public, but instead one of the two other classes — the aristocracy and/or the clergy — then what exists is a dictatorship by that actually ruling class against the public, not a democracy by the public. The public cannot rule in such a country. They instead are manipulated in it.
They may be manipulated to believe that they rule, but it’s only a manipulated illusion then; it’s not real; it’s a fraud, of the most massive type. Such a country cannot possibly be a real democracy; it’s a fraudulent ‘democracy.’
Evidence will be presented here that democracy no longer exists in the United States. Part of this evidence is personal, something that I always prefer to avoid, but which happens to be integral to this particular news-report and analysis. So: it’s necessary, in this case.
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Global Conflict Intensity Spikes To 7-Year High
Global Conflict Intensity Spikes To 7-Year High
If it’s not one geopolitical concern these days it’s invariably another. If today’s story isn’t weak-handed Greece escalating the rhetoric in its hopeless game of chicken with eurozone creditors, it’s ISIS ratcheting up the shock factor in a campaign to scare U.S. coalition partners away from an increasingly ineffectual bombing campaign in Syria and Iraq. If it’s not an escalation of tensions between Russia and Ukraine, it’s logrollingbetween the U.S. and Saudi Arabia with the fate of the Assad regime, Gazprom, and the Russian economy at stake. As we’ve seen over the past several months (e.g. crude in a veritable tailspin) and over the past several days (e.g. hourly news out of Greece raining on the BLS’s non-farm revision parade), markets are becoming increasingly tethered to the vagaries of geopolitics — and don’t expect that trend to abate any time soon.
Fortunately, BBVA is on the case, noting that “geopolitical analysis is becoming a key element on the agenda for 2015.” Indeed. That’s why the bank has just launched their first ever “BBVA Research conflict & social unrest monthly update.”
From BBVA, on conflict:
During January, the presence of ISIS in the Middle East continued to be a threat while the Russian-Ukrainian crisis escalated, increasing geopolitical worries in the region. In contrast, territorial disputes and geopolitical tensions eased in South-Eastern Asia. Social unrest related to demands for democracy (North Africa), together with terrorism and economic demands (Europe), have also increased……key hot spots continued to be the Russia-Ukraine and ISIS conflict. The Russian-Ukraine crisis escalated again in January (see our previous hot topic) after a relatively calmer period during October-November. This triggered a new meeting in the EU level to discuss new sanctions. The situation in neighbouring countries (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia…) also remained tense. In the Middle East, the International coalition forces regained some ground in Northern Syria (Kobane) and were able to stop the advance of ISIS in Iraq. However, it will take more time to secure peace in the region. Tensions also increased in Western Europe after the attacks in Paris and in Belgium.
And on protests:
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5 Ways to Unf*ck the World
5 Ways to Unf*ck the World
“I rebel; therefore we exist.” –Albert Camus
Here’s the thing: the earth is not fucked. The earth will go on evolving with or without us. In fact, in many ways it is better off without us. No, it’s the human world that’s fucked. Either we adapt and overcome by making cooperation primary and competition secondary, or we’re fucked. It really is that simple. Unfucking the world will not be a walk in the park. It will be a complete upheaval of what we think we know about how human beings are “supposed” to live on this planet. We’ll have to turn the tables on our egos, our so called leaders, and even our loved ones. We’ll have to outgrow being indifferent and get used to being different. We’ll have to awaken and clear outdated, multigenerational patterns that need interrogation and then integration at a higher vibration. Here are five ways to attempt unfucking an otherwise fucked up world. Without further ado, let the unfucking begin.
1.) Unfuck Yourself
“To be human is necessarily to be a vulnerable risk-taker; to be a courageous human is to be good at it.” –Jonathan Lear
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So How Do We Ever Reach Political Reform?
So How Do We Ever Reach Political Reform?
QUESTION: okay Martin,
We will be given that opportunity to overthrow the Oligarchy in our system ONLY when we crash and burn. The career politicians protect the Oligarchy as we just witnessed with overthrowing Dodd-Frank. Career politicians left or right are simply always for sale. That is why ONLY a form of Direct Democracy stands a change.
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2015: The War on Our Intuition That Something Is Fundamentally Amiss
2015: The War on Our Intuition That Something Is Fundamentally Amiss
In 1967, the rock group Buffalo Springfield recorded a song titled For What It’s Worthwhich speaks not just to the late 1960s but to the present.
Consider the opening lines:
There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
The ambiguity is not coincidental.When the song was recorded in December 1966, America was in the beginning throes of a full-blown national nervous breakdown that would endure for 15 years until 1981.
The fundamental narratives that had sustained the previous 20 years of apparently limitless prosperity and moral certitude were breaking down.The primary narrative of American foreign policy–that the U.S. defended liberty and always won its foreign wars over evil totalitarianism/ fascism/ colonialism was being destroyed on a daily basis in Vietnam, an intrinsically political (and thus unwinnable by military means) war defending a hopelessly corrupt state created by quasi-colonial Great Powers fiat.
The primary political narrative–that democracy and the rule of law were sacrosanct–were undermined by the Watergate affair a few years later.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Why are people giving up on democracy? – RN Breakfast – ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
New research shows an increasing level of discontent among western democracies, with a diminishing number of people in Australia who believe voting makes a difference. Matt O’Neil and Tim Roxburgh investigate what this growing disenchantment will mean for world politics in 2015.
Despite huge differences between countries, surveys of political attitudes around the western world consistently demonstrate one thing: voters feel let down by the democratic system, and many lay the blame squarely at the feet of the political establishment.
In Australia, just 60 per cent of voters prefer democracy over other forms of government.
The Lowy Institute’s director of polling, Alex Oliver, has been studying this drop in voter confidence, and says the figures are surprising.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Things To Do In 2015 When You’re Not Yet Dead – The Automatic Earth
Things To Do In 2015 When You’re Not Yet Dead – The Automatic Earth.
America has managed to construct an entirely one-dimensional political system. There’s no discernible difference left between left and right, other than in spin language pre-cooked for the sole purpose of faking the concept of elections. There’s very right and ultra right. America is living proof that once money is allowed into politics, the accumulation of it, and of the power it can buy, will and eventually must fully control a democratic system, which in the process, of necessity, suffocates and dies a painful death.
What once was a proud American democracy has been turned into a circus that rolls into town every four years, filled with clowns that pretend to fight each other with over the top grotesque contraptions, but sleep in the same bed once the show is over and the audience has gone home.
In Europe that process has not yet been completed, but with the inception of the EU it is well on its way. It is a predictable process, in that the concentration of power, and of money, is irreversible as long as it’s allowed to continue its course, and the system succeeds in making people believe they still have a say in their own lives. As long as that belief is in place, it’s just an ongoing – relatively – slow corrosion that sets in and then takes its time, but never stops.
Quo Vadis, America? – The Automatic Earth
Quo Vadis, America? – The Automatic Earth.
Where are you going, America?
I don’t like to discuss politics too much. There are not enough smart, kind and honest people in politics wherever I look in the world for me to want to have anything to do with that game. I’d just spend all my time wondering what kind of mindset it takes to want to tell other people what to do, and be in control of the millions, billions and trillions of dollars that are taken from these people on a daily, yearly, basis.
Not that all of them politicians are bad, but those who have genuinely good intentions get drowned out, within seconds, by the ones for whom the need to have power over others is more important than anything else. And as I said, on the whole they’re not very smart. It’s for instance a very bad idea to let you countries’ economic policies be decided by the very people who make the decisions today.
They have no clue what they’re talking about. So they get advisors who they feel do know, and these advisors all come from the same small niche of society that steer everybody’s hard-earned cash towards that same small niche of society. 99% of economists are religious nuts who do even the Roman Catholic church one better because they chart graphs to ‘prove’ their beliefs are true -or even provable-.
oftwominds-Charles Hugh Smith: What Choice Do We Have?
oftwominds-Charles Hugh Smith: What Choice Do We Have?.
The bottom line for the vast majority of us is that there is an extremely high price to be paid for independence from fealty to the State or Corporate America.
It’s jolly good fun to discuss alternatives to the doomed status quo, but what choice do most of us have to participating in the current system, even if we loathe it? The lack of choice is of course a key characteristic of the status quo– if alternatives were plentiful, how many would opt out of Corporate America and the Financial Nobility’s manor house of debt servitude?
Democracy or The Rule of Law – Ludwig von Mises Institute Canada
Democracy or The Rule of Law – Ludwig von Mises Institute Canada.
One of the most heated topics last month was the protest in Hong Kong, led by students who were later joined by other Hong Kong citizens. The main issue between the government and the protesters is the Chief Executive Election method for 2017. The Basic Law states that “the ultimate aim is the selection of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee in accordance with democratic procedures.” As of right now the Chief Executive was nominated by a committee of 1200 people, which is not via universal suffrage. Protesters are concerned that democracy and freedom in Hong Kong will be lost, and that their interests will not be represented.
This protest, otherwise known as the “umbrella revolution” by some media outlets, lead people to focus on the possible outcomes of these events, namely, to vote or not? However, voting (or democracy) is only one part of liberty, and the focus on change should include reforms of all institutions. The improvements of all these institutions will take time and great effort.
According to the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, Hong Kong ranked no.1 with an overall score of 90.1 (The Heritage Foundation, 2014). This index consists of four major parts: the Rule of Law, Limited Government, Regulatory Efficiency, and Open Markets. According to the Heritage Foundation, Hong Kong scored its highest ever score this year. The lowest scores are Monetary freedom, under regulatory efficiency, which is 82; and Freedom from Corruption, under “Rule of Law”, which is 82.3.
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EU imposes sanctions on Ukraine rebel vote organizers | Reuters
EU imposes sanctions on Ukraine rebel vote organizers | Reuters.
(Reuters) – The European Union has imposed sanctions on the organizers of rebel elections in eastern Ukraine this month, the bloc said on Saturday, hitting the separatists and their organizations with asset freezes and travel bans.
As reporting by Reuters on Thursday, EU governments decided to add 13 Ukrainian separatists and five of their political organizations to a sanctions list that already covers 119 people and 23 entities.
Rebels in eastern Ukraine held their elections on Nov. 2, arguing that the vote was the next step after local referendums in May calling for independence from Ukraine.
The United States and European Union have denounced the vote as illegitimate, but Russia has said it would recognize the result, deepening a crisis that began with the popular overthrow of Ukraine’s Moscow-backed president in February and Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in March.
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Want to See How Governments Are Making Real Progress? Look to the Cities Tackling Our Biggest Problems by Sarah van Gelder — YES! Magazine
If you’ve been looking to the federal government for action on big challenges such as poverty, climate change, and immigration, this has been a devastating decade. Big money’s dominance of elections, obstructionism by the Tea Party, and climate denial have brought action in Washington to a near standstill. But while the media focuses on the gridlock, a more hopeful story is unfolding. Cities are taking action.
Climate change is a case in point. Cities are already experiencing the damage caused by an increasingly chaotic climate. Many are located along coastlines, where rising sea levels coupled with giant storms bring flooding and coastal erosion. Some low-lying areas are being abandoned.
Others cities face protracted water shortages due to diminishing rainfall and shrinking snowpack. And cities are subject to the urban heat island effect that can raise temperatures to lethal levels.
Cities can’t afford to wait for the ideological wars to play out.
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