The Secret Aristocracy Emerges from Its Gilded Bunkers

[arendt]

Spoiler: no happy ending.

arendt

-----------------

The Secret Aristocracy Emerges from Its Gilded Bunkers
by arendt

"The difference between a kleptocrat and a wise statesman, between a robber baron and
a public benefactor, is merely one of degree: a matter of just how large a percentage of
tribute extracted from producers is retained by the elite, and how much the commoners
like the public uses to which the redistributed tribute is put...Kleptocracies with little public
support run the risk of being overthrown, either by downtrodden commoners or by upstart
would-be replacement kleptocrats seeking public support by promising a higher ratio of
services rendered to fruits stolen.

"Kleptocrats throughout the ages have resorted to a mix of four (ways to stay in power):

1. Disarm the populace, and arm the elite...
4. construct an ideology or religion justifying kleptocracy...

- Jared Diamond, "Guns, Germs, and Steel"

Last week, the public coronation of America's heretofore secret aristocracy began in earnest. The leader
of that aristocracy's shadowy government dropped the mask of democracy and dared anyone to do
anything about it. Dick Cheney simultaneously claimed un-Constitutional executive power to declassify
information, arm-twisted the Senate into not investigating the massive warrantless NSA wiretapping program,
and got off with nothing more than another demerit on his already abysmal PR report card for
stonewalling the police and the media for days about his shooting one of his fellow kleptocrats
at one of their gilded bunkers in the Texas outback.

It seems that the aristos have finally decided (based on their demonstrated ability to use the corporate
media to spin their way out of responsibility for any action or the need to tell the truth on any subject) to
turn Cheney's total contempt for democracy from a liability into an asset. It was time to announce that
they were saving America's democracy by destroying it. Henceforth, America will be an "anti-terrorist"
police state fighting a forever war against Emanuel Goldstein. And, in keeping with American tradition,
it will be the best police state that money can buy - complete with warrantless wiretaps by a dictatorial
executive, secret police, secret courts, not-so-secret torture, built-by-Haliburton "detention centers",
unaccountable mercenaries like Blackstone and DynaCorp, and a secret aristocratic government, with
Congress cavalierly demoted to the level of Caligula's horse. Given the fatal-for-democracy sodomizing
the democratic rump in Congress just took from Sam Elito, it is hardly surprising that the mask dropped
mere weeks after the last branch of Constitutional government fell to these lunatics.

As politically aware Americans already knew, and the rest of the couch potatoes may dimly realize someday,
secrecy is a seamless racket. After institutionalizing secrecy, so that people can't find out exactly how they are
being screwed, the aristocratic screwers add insult to injury by calling any victim who speaks out about
the secrecy a "conspiracy theorist". But, by definition, conspiracy theories are the political equivalent of
the hallucinations caused by sensory deprivation, i.e. darkness and the inability to obtain any sensory
input. Belief in conspiracy theories is a commonplace in a repressed society, where many of the theories are started
by the authorities to discredit inconvenient people. The infamous and immortal conspiracy theory "The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion" began its bloody march through modern history as a provocation by the
Czarist Secret Police.

But, since nothing is totally useless, the rest of this essay describes how the fall of the first American republic
was engineered as a case study in systems failure for future writers of Constitutions - should we be so lucky
as to ever have such people again.

----

America was a unique creation at the time of its founding - a democracy born free from aristocracy.
It took the Industrial Revolution to throw up the gangsters known as the Robber Barons to rule as
America's first aristocracy. The Robbers owned the government for roughly fifty years, until they ran
America into the ground in the Great Depression. That is when their rank indifference to the suffering
they had caused made them so unpopular that they basically were forced "underground" - that is,
into a lower public profile, into their gilded bunkers. But, they never forgave Franklin Roosevelt for saving
America from the Fascism they would gladly have allowed to happen and for giving "their" money to the
unwashed masses.

The Bush family is one of the charter members of the secret aristocracy. Bush, Sr.'s father was part of the
Brown Brothers, Harriman crowd prosecuted for dealing with the enemy in the middle of World War 2.

After that war, the secret aristocracy founded the CIA as an old-boy network of lounge lizard
Ivy Leaguers, led by fanatics like Alan Dulles and fruitcakes like James Jesus Angleton, and
populated by princelings like George Bush, Sr. The CIA set about overthrowing democracy wherever
it dared to question the prerogatives of the local toadies of the American secret aristocracy. It made
Iran safe for American oil companies, Guatamala safe for United Fruit, and Chile safe for ITT. At
the moment of overthrow, these countries were all democracies with democratically elected leaders
who happened to be left-leaning. The CIA's contribution to building democracy in South Viet Nam
was the murderous Phoenix assassination program. By the time Nixon was president, the CIA
had earned a reputation for out-of-control violence and concentration-camp-doctor ethics.

There was much theorizing to the effect that the CIA overthrew Nixon for poaching on their turf
with his secret gang of burglars and spies. But the real Deep Throat turned out to be the number
two guy in the FBI - the long-time competitor of the CIA in the secret power struggle to stifle
Americans' civil rights in the name of anti-Communism. And, the outcome of Watergate was to
momentarily shine daylight on the egregious nature of CIA covert actions, including political assassinations
and LSD experiments.

Unfortunately, it was too late to stop the CIA. Protected by ranking members of the secret aristocracy,
the "wet boys" simply moved their covert operations from the public sector to the private. They became
contractors for the secret aristocracy and began to directly undermine the American government.
The 1980 elections, like Nixon's election in 1968, were corrupted by the Republican party's
illegal entry into foreign policy - intriguing with a foreign government to embarrass the opposition
party. Anyone who thinks that the Iranian release of embassy prisoners on the day of Reagan's
innauguration was merely a coincidence is too stupid to have the vote, especially in light of the
subsequent Iran-Contra scandal. Anyone who thinks it a coincidence that George Bush Sr was
elected Vice President within three years of running the CIA and apologizing for its excesses is
too stupid to live.

Through the 80s, under William Casey at the CIA, the secret aristocracy ran the illegal Contra Wars
through their increasingly well-coordinated network of CIA fronts (like Southern Air), private militias
(like the notorious Miami Cuban soldiers of fortune), massive drug sales, and ties to Israeli intelligence
all over Latin America. They also built from scratch a network of Islamic fundamentalists to attack the
Soviets in Iraq, ironically doing heavy fundraising among fundamentalist Christian anti-Commuist groups
in America.

But, all of this far away activity was really just covering fire for the assault on American democracy.
These wars provided patriotic cover and wedge issues for the increasingly well-funded conservative
propaganda organs to paralyze any investigation of the increasingly outside-the-law acitvities of the secret
aristocracy's criminal hirelings. The 80s witnessed the neutering of the liberal press, the repeal of the Fairness
Doctrine, the beginnings of a media consolidation even more extreme than that documented in the 1980
classic "The Media Monopoly", and the subverting of the Democratic party by the corporate apparatchiks
of the so-called Democratic Leadership Council.

In the 90s, the aristocratic program was seemingly derailed by Bill Clinton (the only genuinely popular
candidate the DLC has ever fielded in the twenty years of its corporate sponsorship). But, in reality, the
assault on democracy continued to gather speed. Clinton got away with postponing another Great
Depression (which will soon land on us) by actually daring to tax the rich, balance the budget, and raise
the minimum wage. He got away with it because he had the good luck to be in charge as the Internet bubble
and the beginnings of corporate off-shoring put fantastic profits into the pockets of the secret aristocracy.
As long as the economy held, Clinton and the sane aristocrats managed to bail the water out of America's
financial bilges. But, he did nothing to restart the engines of democracy. Instead, he threw the lifeboats
overboard. He signed GATT and NAFTA, effectively giving away self-government to faceless aristos in
Switzerland. He continued to spend Cold War levels of cash on a military without a mission, unless you
count preparing for the looming aristocratic/theocratic coup as a mission.

But worst of all for democracy, Clinton allowed the conservative grip on the media to tighten. He gave
away tens of billions of dollars of free airwaves to TV broadcasters for HDTV without extracting any
concessions in the way of fairness or community service. He rewrote the Telecommunications law in
ways that allowed Cable monopolies to continue to twist programming to suit their self-declared
anti-liberal owners, such as the ruthless John Malone and the big-table player Ruppert Murdoch. And, he
allowed himself to be tortured by the Richard Mellon Scaife-fueled Ken Starr Inquisition. Ken Starr
was a walking, talking recruiting poster for the kind of guilty-until-proven-innocent legal system that
the aristos intend to impose. It brought the Stalinist show trial home to America, where it hadn't played
since Joe McCarthy.

By 2000, the secret aristos had won. They owned the press, which printed lies and slanders against
Democrats, failed to report on massive GOP corruption, had complete amnesia about Bush's NG
record and the impeachment wringer the GOP fire-eaters had put the nation through for nothing.The aristos
had also totally perverted a large segment of so-called Christian voters by illegal partisan activity. And, in a
new twist, they controlled the new electronic voting machine companies, whose suspicious behavior
along with the even more suspicious "failure" of exit polling was completely whitewashed until just
before 911, whence it was permanently deep-sixed.

So, what is the bottom line for democracies that want to stay democracies?

....1) Term limits for covert intelligence agencies.
........Keep the records. Fire everyone after no more than ten years. Hire in the top administrators under the
........most stringent of surveillance. Set up another intelligence agency to keep track of the term-limited for the
........rest of their lives. Secrecy is the enemy of democracy. Secret wars will inevitably blowback against those
........who start them. (See Algeria, Afghanistan, Nicaragua.)

....2) Absolute caps on media concentration.
........Otherwise, there is a Silivio Berlusconi in your future, and soon after that, a foreign-engineered seizure
........of power. In this day of self-publishing on the Internet, media concentration makes absolutely no
........sense to writers and readers, only to corporations.

....3) Proportional Representation
........Since coup plotters use every aspect of the target society against it, we must recognize that the antiquated,
........gerrymandered, winner-take-all voter system of the US is one of the easiest locks for political thieves to
........pick. The GOP have less than 50% of the vote, and yet the Democrats have absolutely zero leverage
........over any legislation, any executive action, and any judicial appointment. The spineless cowards running
........the Democratic Party could certainly do better; but the institutional obsolescence of American voting
........laws are an invitation to manipulation.

....4) Government-financed elections, media time in proportion to previous vote totals
........These laws are in effect in Europe, and they are the best that can be done in the face of the de-politicization
........and low turnout engendered by the force-feeding of celebrity, sport, and consumption as the only uses
........of one's leisure time in a corporate-dominated society.

....5) Election machines in government hands with open software and paper trails
........Nuff said.

....6) Absolute separation of Church and State, including taxing Churches as normal businesses
........Again, Europe leads the way, under the buzzword "secularization", a word which has already been pre-emptively
........demonized in the U.S. The covert operatives have done a masterful job of hiding their coup inside of
........authoritarian religious organizations that are exempt from many important laws. Then they carefully
........expanded the de facto definition of what was "non-political" activity until the Southern Baptist Convention
........began to resemble the Ho Chi Mihn trail.

Well, so much for fantasy. None of this is going to happen in a country that is happily dismantling its science
establishment, shipping its manufacturing base overseas, and gleefully bankrupting itself. Maybe in my next
incarnation.

In case you don't understand reality yet, Dick Cheney is not on the ropes. Dick Cheney is winning. He is publicly
declaring that he is above the law in every way, from the personal to the international. And no one has laid a glove
on him. The opposition is fucking useless. The media are fucking traitors. I just want to scream.

Leonard Cohen said it better than I could ever scream it:

....Everybody knows that the dice are loaded.
....Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.
....Everybody knows the war is over.
....Everybody knows the good guys lost.
....Everybody knows the fight was fixed:
....the poor stay poor, the rich get rich.
....That's how it goes. Everybody knows.

....Everybody knows that the boat is leaking.
....Everybody knows that the captain lied.
....Everybody got this broken feeling like their
....father or their dog just died.
....Everybody talking to their pockets.
....Everybody wants a box of chocolates
....and a long stemmed rose. Everybody knows.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. k

[Clara T]

2. K & R

War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact. The very word 'war', therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist.
-Orwell

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre."

~ Frank Zappa, 1977

[arendt]

6. I'd forgotten that Frank Zappa quote - thaks

The one I remember is about how all religions are real estate scams and tax dodges.

Regarding your Orwell quote, the reason it is true is because there is now ONE international ruling group of absentee
landlords. They just move their assets from country to country, grazing like cows on the grass of the working people
and leaving little piles of crap known as abandoned factories behind when they depart.

Welcome to the age of economics as crop rotation - one year fallow, one year clover, one year wheat. Or in our
case: ten years recovering from the last IMF-induced depression, five years building up some kind of capital, one
year for that capital to be looted by financial manipulation.

Corporations are now "geographically-agile" and evade any governmental regulation the same way combat radios
are "frequency-agile" to evade enemy listening or jamming.

My only consolation is that Peak Oil is going to destroy the global system real soon. Otherwise, I would be terminally
depressed. Instead, I am busy researching alternate energy and finding a house near a farming community.

arendt

[Clara T]

8. Here's Some Food for Thought

Alexis de Tocqueville wisely observed, "I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America."

Always look forward to your insightful posts. Best to face up to the dirty truths than live with the delusions of the pretty lies.

"Millions of us know we owe our fruitful and gluttonous lifestyles to war, to the suffering of billions and the imperialist mechanisms controlled by us, yet many of us refuse to change our ways, refusing to act in opposition to the Empire, refusing to acknowledge that our lifestyle was born in sin, in human misery and in the invasion and colonization of alien lands. Living inside the belly of the beast, using and exploiting its many riches, living its comfortable reality, yet refusing to alter our standards of living or our comfortable existence, refusing to amend our crimes and stop our exploitation of the planet, we remain, as always, fully complicit in the crimes and destruction and misery unleashed by our government. Remaining silent, indifferent and ignorant to this reality does not absolve any of us."

-Manuel Valenzuela

[arendt]

10. It is really hard to be "awake" in a society of sleepwalkers

Re Valenzuela, he really needs an editor. His stuff is way too long. Good heart, good ideas,
but it will put all but folks like you and me to sleep.

Thanks for the quotes, they will go in my quote file.

arendt

[Burried News]

13. Had never read Valenzuela before. He's on my reading list now.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0503/S00072.htm
Land of ‘Murka’

An Inside Look at George W. Bush’s ''Murka''
By Manuel Valenzuela
From:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8210.htm


Excerpt from above:
"Through the television the Establishment not only controls what it wants us to buy and how it wants society to evolve but our subservience and acquiescence to the system as well. When it wants war it bombards the channels of propaganda with the images and pundits that will best mobilize an entire nation. Corporate media will distort, deceive and manipulate so-called news to suit the needs of a government and corporate world trying to convince a mostly placid citizenry of the significant need for war. Taking the form of blatant propaganda, the Establishment formulates a cocktail of lies, fantasy, emotionally-charged and psychologically-manipulative jingoism, over a period of time pushing the right buttons that will mutate a drone-like population, concerned only for their daily lives, into a reincarnated manifestation of past generations, creating a frenzied, rabid, blood-thirsty, scapegoat-searching war culture under the hypnotized grip of the television and the powers that control it. " END of excerpt

[BlueEyedSon]

42. My guess is that the dislocation caused by Peak Oil will make things worse

the elite with tighten their grip, having used the last vestiges of the oil-fueled economy to concentrate their wealth.

Everyone else will lose their jobs, go broke, starve, freeze.... whatever!

[arendt]

44. Has anyone seen the elite buying alternative energy gear?

Once the global supply network collapses, how are they
going to get enough oil transported to keep their nasty
police state going?

If they are counting on keeping the supply lines open to
the elite, they haven't been paying attention in Iraq.
Oil is a big, bulk target that burns easily. Ditto refineries.

When the chaos starts, which is any day now, if the elite
doesn't have its police stations running on solar or geothermal,
those police stations are going down.

Even worse for them, how the hell do you run armaments factories
on solar?

They do not understand that the systems crisis they are pushing
and exploiting will bite them as hard as anyone else. Stupid,
dinosaurs. Plundering idiots. Fricking barbarians sacking Rome.

arendt

[Selatius]

3. You won't uproot our electoral system without radical changes

Constitutional Amendments will fail to get rid of our system that is open to sophisticated gerrymandering. If holding power and enacting laws is the purpose of a political party, then they would most definitely oppose a system of proportional representation because it would represent a threat on their grip on power.

Take it as a lesson not to put too much faith in political parties and that one should deal with them "at arms' length." George Washington and others already knew this.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. True.

However, I believe a dedicated public can remove anyone from office.

We're nowhere near dedicated.

[arendt]

12. We are dedicated because we are constantly distracted by the media...

because the job of the corporate media is to confuse and demoralize the opposition.

Hence point 2 of my fantasy program for democracy preservation.

arendt

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

45. There currently are caps on the media.

It's just now at 60% instead of 35%. :grr:

-No more than 1 media outlet in any market, be it radio, TV or print.

-No more than 2 media outlets in any given state.

-No more than 10% media concentration in any one entity's hands.

-As a precondition for receiving a broadcast license, over the air media must offer free media for qualified political candidates.

[arendt]

47. Ah yes, when is a regulation not a regulation?

When it is a total abuse of the language.
As in, the speed limit on this highway is
10,000 mph. Or, no one can own more than
100% of the media.

The Constitution has been destroyed by lawyers
and deconstructionalists who say black is white,
my fees are fine, your taxes aren't. Another
course of leeches is just what the middle class
needs.

These are the people who turned legitimate zoning
into "takings" of private property, who regularly
invent Orwellian BS to cover their crimes.

We must have control of the meaning of law or we
shall constantly be hijacked by expensive lawyers
and ranting demagogues.

The Republic was founded on rational government,
and it died when political discourse became dominated
by irrational, power-mad lunatics.

So, I offer:

Point 7 - When x% of the population objects to the
use of certain terminology in political rhetoric, that
terminology must be abandoned. Note that I am not saying
the issue must be abandoned, merely the use of certain
distorting/inflammatory/wedge issue rhetoric.

Now if you set x to 40%, you could wipe out just about
any polarized political discussion, as the center could
say "pox on both of you". If you set x to 70%, it won't
work because we already have 40% die-hard cultists.

So, it seems like 50% is the only logical number to use.
Essentially, we get to call binding referenda on political
terminology.

What do you think?

arendt

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

48. Not for me.

Legislating language is way beyond the pale.

I believe that you'll find that by limiting control of media you'll also limit the "memeing of America."

[arendt]

50. I respectfully disagree with your hypothesis

The bad memes can be materialized anywhere. All it takes
is money and a good ad agency.

Look at Intelligent Design. It came out of a fruticake
think tank in Seattle.

If the elite wants a meme to happen, they can make it happen.
Witness the absolutely manipulative "product placement" campaigns,
where they have someone go into a bar and order Brand X liquor
and sing its praises.

Money is like some an electric field. Turn the field up high
enough and you can burn through any insulation.

Government is the non-rich person's only way to limit the application
of that field.

I say that just as you can't say "fire" in a crowded theatre;
you can't say "liberals must die" on TV like Ann Coulter does
repeatedly.

arendt

[arendt]

9. That;s why I said its a fantasy...

30% of the country just wants a dictator who will kick ass and take names.

Self-government requires more education than most people are ever going to
get under the current war on education.

Could you please expand on how one "deals with a political party at arms' length"?
I am unfamiliar with the reference. Is it in The Federalist Papers?

arendt

[Selatius]

19. You support candidates based on merit, not on political affiliation

I've seen the argument that you should vote for the Democrat from a tactical point of view to deny the Republicans another seat. It makes sense from a tactical point of view, but strategically it doesn't make sense.

If you're simply voting "D" to keep the Republicans from the seat, you're potentially voting for a "cure" that's worse than the "disease." You could end up with another militant war hawk like Joe Lieberman or a credit card industry whore like Joe Biden.

With that plan of attack, either way you vote, you're probably going to get screwed the longer time goes forward. The only difference is that the Democrat here in this example uses lubricant before drilling you. You'll never truly address the problem of corruption and graft in government if all you do is adopt solutions that attack the problem at the margins.

You vote for the best candidate for the job. If what the Democrats and the Republicans have to offer you at the polls does not meet your standards, then you have a right not to vote without fear of being attacked or railed for "being lazy" by not voting and, as a result, not having a right to speak out. If you want to cast a ballot anyway, write in "Jesus Christ" or "Mahatma Gandhi" or somebody else you want.

"I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want, and get it."

--Eugene V. Debs

[arendt]

20. I get the concept, thanks. Where is the G Washington reference? n/t

[Selatius]

21. George Washington

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=george+washington+on+political+parties&btnG=Google+Search

[arendt]

22. Many thanks. Do you think the founders will get Trotsky-treatment...

airbrushed out of history under Bush's dictatorship?

Or will they keep their faces but send people who actually read what
they wrote to the Gulag?

arendt

[Selatius]

29. Keep the faces as a convenient weapon against the left.

To prevent your opponents from accusing you of eroding the Constitution, project. Accuse them of trying to erode the Constitution before they accuse you. Call them unpatriotic and invoke the faces of those Founders to better drive home the point about how unpatriotic they are.

If I were working as an advisor to Bush Co. and let my darker half dominate my life and sold my soul to greed and power, this is what I'd suggest to them. How ironic would it be to subjugate the names and faces of people who opposed tyranny for one's own tyrannical pursuits?

[mom cat]

31. More likely they will be magically morphed into those "valliant

founders of the neo-capitalist fantacyland.

[Iowa]

26. You nailed it...

Every Tom, Dick, & Harry pretends to be an armchair political strategist and votes accordingly - they've got the "tactics" all figured out - all puffed up like Barney Fife. Meanwhile we slide further into the abyss and the status-quo goes unchallenged.

[neweurope]

4. Nothing to add - k & r

---------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Me.]

7. K

& R

[Burried News]

11. We cannot proceed without massive doses of the truth ... no matter

how much it hurts.

[arendt]

14. I agree, but consider America as a hypothermia victim...

someone floating in freezing water to the point of death.

If you pull that person out of the water and throw him directly into a
hot bath, he dies. The cold blood flows from his extremities into his
body core, lowers his core temperature even further, and its tits up.

To save such a person, you have to slowly warm the extermities first
(I believe extermities first. Its complicated enough that I know its non-intuitive.)

My point is that America is so far gone that it will have to brought back
very carefully.

arendt

[Burried News]

16. Those of us that Love, know there are no quick fixes. Peace

[Karenina]

17. I frankly don't believe there's enough time left for all that.

Greenland and Siberia are melting and the neocons got wood on to bomb Iran...

[bigbrother05]

37. Perfect analogy for local activism.

Concentrating on the "extremities" has been often advocated here. School boards, city councils, and precinct organizing is the way to bring the process back to life. Knowing that the folks that do the voting at the local levels are paying attention will be the only way to get the Nat'l leaders to respond. When it's clear that they will lose their cushy lifestyle, they will respond. Also, with a bottom up process, true leaders will emerge to replace the Corpotocracy of party politics in our country. There are plenty of Paul Wellstones out there, they just have to be found.

[arendt]

54. Problem - local governments are BROKE...

they haven't got any energy to resist Bush. They've had their
funding cut beyond the bone. They are just shriveling up and
dying.

If you manage to control local government, all you will be doing
is performing triage on the helpless victims. As a liberal, you
will be ethically bound to get some kind of help to these victims.
You will be so busy helping people you won't have time for politics.

And, if you do somehow manage to raise political consiousness, the
Bush Crime Family will just fund some bullshit Homeland Security program
to act as goons in your locale, recruiting the local knuckledraggers.

Local politics is not going to save anything. Its like bailing
out the ocean with a million spoons. It may be a million, but
its still a drop in the bucket.

OTOH, if 90% of the locale hates Bush and you give them a place to
get together and organize, then its a positve thing. It all depends
on the locale.

arendt

arendt

[jaysunb]

15. Excellent Post !

:toast:

[sandnsea]

18. Pretty much

Nothing to add or amend. Even your solutions are spot on. And yes, everybody knows. This is the literal elephant in the living room.

[starroute]

23. A couple of nitpicks

An excellent post -- but I think your proposed list of remedies could use some jumping up and down on to see if they all hold air. I have questions in particular about proportional representation. I had never thought about it much until recently, but I saw an excellent argument somewhere a few weeks ago suggesting that proportional representation tends to give undue power to extremist splinter parties, which then have the ability to demand concessions from mainstream parties which can't form governments without them -- Israel being the prime example.

It's bad enough having the theocrats and racists lurking within the Republican Party -- but at least their positions have to be soft-pedaled somewhat for the GOP to win elections. Do we really want a Dominionist or Neo-Nazi party, each with a double handful of Congressional seats and the ability to make or break coalitions?

The other thing that caught my eye was the idea of government-sponsored campaigns with parties being funded in proportion to their votes in the previous election. It strikes me as something that might give a continuing advantage to the party already in power -- which at the present time is the last thing we'd need. I'd be more inclined to give the losing party an advantage in the next go-round, as a more likely means of preserving checks and balances.

If it were possible to do it on purely mathematical grounds and without corruption, I'd even be in favor of regularly redrawing electoral districts in such a way as to maximize the political and/or ethnic diversity within each district and to minimize the possibility of "safe seats." Something like that strikes me as far closer to the true spirit of democracy (not to mention local empowerment) than proportional representation.

[arendt]

25. Your points certainly merit consideration...

I think most proportional representation (PR) schemes have a cutoff, like 5% or 10% of the
vote. This means that a "splinter" party actually does represent more than the lunatic fringe.
(You could argue, based on US behavior recently, that the fringe authoritarian lunatics make
up 25% of the electorate - how are you going to keep that many people out? )

The problem with two party systems is that they bundle too much stuff together. For instance,
Connecticut voters have to deal with a bum like Lieberman just because he calls himself a
Democrat.

I think, in the current situation, multi-party voting would have kicked Bush out in an honest vote.

All of this is certainly debatable.

----

Again, I understand about airtime in response to votes gives an incumbency advantage. But,
there are alternatives: one channel for each party (again, some 5-10% minimum) - but this
gives advantage to the smaller parties.

The whole point is that the need to raise tens of millions for TV buys is at the root of the corruption
of politics. We have to have some kind of free airtime or we will continue to sell our government
to the highest bidder.

I will debate the rules for public financing, but not the necessity of getting money out of politics.

----

You raise the important issue of re-districting. I'm not certain, but I think in European PR, you vote
for the party nationally, and representatives are portioned out according to national totals, with
the first guy on the party's list getting the first seat. So, re-districting is less important in this scheme.

That's why I said the US scheme is antiquated. The UK regularly redraws entire political regions -
the so-called "New Counties". They don't let outmoded state boundaries dictate national politics.
Its all tied in with the ten year census.

I didn't intend to get into all the government redesign issues that the death of our Republic brings
forward. There won't be a chance for redesign for a long time.

But thanks for respondiing to the positive part of my essay positively. I just can't muster any optimism
for gradual reform at this point.

arendt

arendt

[Laelth]

24. K&R

Nicely done! :applause:

-Laelth

[Iowa]

27. Excellent post. K&R

[arendt]

28. Front page kick for the late night crowd n/t

[Clara T]

30. Neo-Conservatism

In essence, the Straussian philosophy and teachings are now known as Neo-Conservatism. Below are some of the more interesting and perhaps surprising or even disturbing aspects of Neo-Conservatism as taught by Strauss:
• Nations cannot consider collective action and multilateralism unless it is 100 percent in line with their own selfish interests
• Strong leadership is required
• Military power is essential
• Leadership ought not be encumbered by human rights discourse or a moral conscience but nonetheless must "appear" to advocate such ideas.
• Rulers need not observe the laws they impose on the ruled.
• A ruler can cheat and lie and do all sorts of things but should at all time maintain the outside appearance of adherence to human rights and caring for people.
• Leaders can use religion as one of many tools to ensure the nation keeps on course as formulated.
• Outside threats help ensure social cohesion under domestic leadership

Machiavelli’s political doctrine serves as the foundation of Neo-Conservatism and it denies the relevance of morality in political affairs. It states that that craft and deceit are justified in pursuing and maintaining political power.  It implies that when it comes to achieving or maintaining power the end justifies the means. This is essentially the core of Machiavellianism and serves as the foundation for Neo-Conservatism: The priority for the power holder is to keep the security of the state regardless of the morality of the means. Machiavelli discusses frankly, the necessity of cruel actions to keep power. He was in the business of power preservation not piety. According to the originator of Neo-Conservative ideology the leader of the state must stick to the good so long as he can, but, being compelled by necessity, he must be ready to take the way of the evil.

http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/the_truth_about_george_w__bush.html

[Twist_U_Up]

32. Everybody knows....

everybody knows

Kick and Rec.

[BeHereNow]

33. arendt!!! You're back!

Thank GOD!
How I've missed you.
Just in time too...
The DU shores are swelling with posters
still clinging to the thought that the
"democrats" will save us...
LOL!
BHN
Kicked and recommended with the
BHN seal of REALITY Stamp.

[arendt]

40. Peace be with you, BHN. The fact that you think I've been gone...

indicates what a low impact my once a week or so postings have had here at DU.

Two out of three of my essays sink like a stone. Its the third one, like this, that sticks
around long enough for you to catch it.

I'm really busy at work, which is sooooo frustrating. I get a good job, and the
country goes completely to hell. Of course, the marching morons at work (very
smart people all) are completely depoliticized and don't see any problem, as
long as they are getting paid.

what have you been up to?

arendt

[BeHereNow]

55. Clinging to the last shreds of my sanity!

As is any thinking person.

Sorry I've missed your other threads-
Again, I'd like to suggest you compile all of
your essays into a book. I'd buy it.

As far as what I have been up to?
Plotting how my family is going to
survive the coming third-world Amerikkka, naturally.

I am working with /teaching special needs kids in
my local school district, not much of a paycheck
but being with the kids is a far greater joy than
the financial end. What other job can you think
of that allows you to spend the whole day
getting hugs form the most beautiful people
on the planet? Besides, as far as I can see
teaching and mortuary work are the two jobs
that CAN'T be out sourced and I'd rather
spend my day with the kids than the stiffs.
Heh-heh.

BHN

[ClayZ]

34. K and R

[rman]

35. k&r

[bridgit]

36. welcome...

http://www.constitution.org/shad4816.htm

[arendt]

39. Good site!! Thanks for the URL. n/t

[malaise]

38. A superb read

You nailed it.

[BlueEyedSon]

41. Alito with an "a".... goood stuff

[arendt]

43. Its a Slam - Elito, as in E-litist. n/t

[BlueEyedSon]

52. LOL Elite-o or Elit-o would have been easier on my caffeine-deprived brain

[arendt]

53. I can go with Elite-o. In any case, the bastard is off to a flying start..

bringing a 35 year old Justice Department ideologue in as
a "law clerk".

I love the respect these guys have for tradition.
Like the tradition of using kids fresh out of law school
as clerks. Like the tradition of not using ideological
people as clerks. Like the tradition of not cross-linking
into the executive bureaucracy.

Just another plantation overseer, and the Dems handed him
a whip and a gun and said please hurt me.

Idiots.

arendt

[Roland99]

46. Very intriguing.

[PleadTheFirst]

49. Perfect summary of our situation. K&R

[arendt]

51. To complete the metaphor of my title...

The Secret Aristocracy Emerges from Its Guilded Bunkers
after a Successful Nuclear First Strike on Genuine Democracy.

The Strangelovian dynamic of the whole pack of Trotskyite
bastards just makes me sick.

arendt

[Burried News]

56. The Strangelovian dynamic of the whole pack of Trotskyite

bastards just makes me sick.

Some things need to be said twice :)

[linazelle]

57. kick

[Clara T]

58. Biggus Kickus

[Roland99]

59. And what hath the CIA (and this admin) been doing of late? REclassifying

documents as secret. Some documents as far as 60 years old!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/politics/21reclassify.html?ei=5065&en=3d2d327cc1d44a52&ex=1141102800&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print