BlockedOutLights

Friday, June 1, 2012

Corruption: 'American Idol' on a Electorial Scale

 The Corporate Talent Show:  Your 'Party' Isn't One


There is a continuing sad devotion to the hologram mirage of 'Party',  still pervasive even in this mediocre election cycle. I have often made the statement with great frequency since 2009,  that millions of Americans will come out during the General Election on November 6th 2012 and cast their 'vote', believing quite adamantly they're exercising their right to 'choose.'

 It is kabuki theater at best, as well as a den of inequity for those who are in the 7%, and really the only solution is for the last two groups who've offered resistance to collectively join forces: The Tea Party and OWS

As further evidence elections haven't any basis for being a true exercise in democracy, one only needs to take a close look at Mitt Romney, as it is not due to his being Mormon, nor being a 'Republican' (these two items have no importance in as far as the exact nature
 of this reality). It lies in his shareholder role through his company, BAIN Corporation, which is a product and direct beneficiary by legacy  via  the 1999 repeal of Glass Steagall , being further aided through  deregulation of oversight of the toxic Credit Default Swaps in the financial sector,  re-solidified  by the 2010 ruling of Citizens Group vs. FEC.  


As being an advisory and business strategy company, Romney's corporation has only one soluble purpose: to make paper, whether having a client company readjust its workforce
 to help it render itself profitable, or help foreclose a client company through asset and stock liquidation. Most telling was his unintentionally honest disclosure as to his position about Corporations achieving 'person-hood' through the 2010 Supreme Court decision, during a stump speech in Iowa back in January. In response to a question involving Corporations lack of legal accountability in their practices posed by a member of the audience, he gleefully interjected

"Aaah..wait, wait..Corporations are 'people' too, my friends!"

BAIN's sole purpose is generate revenue: They don't 'make' nor manufacture anything, nor add employment opportunities and incentives for innovation of any kind.  Whether clients gain some revenue through their services, or completely lose their asses, BAIN's sole purpose is to just make money.

Either way. 


Without skill, work ethic, imagination or talent, and with all the incentive and Constitutional right recently bestowed them to continue 'doing business' in this manner at the detriment of the working class and the modern economy.

Just. Make. Paper.

This has been the modus operandi of the American financial sector since the 1980's, which was accelerated through the Clinton Administration under then-Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Allen "let-the-markets-decide' Greenspan ( a best friend of Ayn Rand). After Brooksley Born's  career was summarily detonated into oblivion by Greenspan and  fellow  consort Larry Summers, by 1999, the self-starting, highly educated and ethically imperial Ms. Born was sent  packing after trying to do something that was counterproductive to higher revenue within the financial sector:

Attempt regulation and monitoring of those exotic CDO's and 'black box' derivatives.

The CFTC has been a joke ever since, as they have become Wall Streets little bitch, which they slap round at will (even sending some of their former colleagues to work for them, just to make sure the 'bitch' stays' in line'..). As there is absolutely no rules or oversight of any concrete measure, the money manipulation goes on without interruption, fully sanctioned, supported (and even duplicated) by President Obama, a product himself of corporate lobbying and malfeasance, as he has recently started his own superPAC for his re-election campaign, allegedly as a protest to Romney's sizable campaign superPAC, under the caveat of  "if you can't beat 'em, join  'em": duplicating the 'evil deeds' as a metaphor of the unfairness of utilizing these non-regulated lobbyist borne entities. A message insincere due to his personal ties with Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorganChase

Both men committing the same acts of greed, narcissism and self promoting and preservation in many respects, much  akin to their Corporate contemporaries and backers.

Politicians, through the support of lobbyists, can virtually 'buy' their way in to office by proxy,  any real contenders outside the corporate lobbyist system is summarily marginalized, and what remains in  the General Elections every 4 years since Nixon boils down to Product 'A' verses 'Product B' (and  sometimes 'Product C'): a 'choice' that isn't one. 


And that is exactly what is suppose to happen, as corporations such as the massive 
Pharmaceutical  and financial sectors create and own this process. The American voter is a hapless consumerist spectator believing itself sincerely engaged in a fair Democratic process , doing their 'patriotic duty', and, in the end, it is left more akin to a nationally televised talent show than it is determining a new direction for the nation by the will of the people. It has morphed into an elongated competition replete with its sponsors , (the conglomerate mainstream media), and coordinated by multinational Corporations themselves.

The designation of 'party' thus becomes further meaningless, as lobbyist will throw money at the candidate most likely to win and that will push legislation in favor of their practices, irrespective of whether they deem themselves "liberal', "Democrat' , 'Progressive',  'Conservative', 'Republican' or 'Nationalist'.
 

The associated nomenclature is used as a divisive distraction to impart derision among the masses, as they will divide themselves accordingly along 'party lines'.  It is within this derision that the US has perpetually fucked itself since 1970, as for every candidate that has been elected , working wages among the lower to middle class never rose, and the revenue of the affluent kept expanding without contest. conjecture and (in latter years) oversight.

This corrosive, disdainful and corrupted process was fully sanctioned by the American public. During the last 'expansion', many of us were too busy getting careers , making money, and, especially during the 80's, existing on credit over-extension going beyond our means to acquire 'The American Dream'. 


 We, as a culture, have been willfully participatory in this confluence so long as we had what we wanted, so long as  none of this ever-expanding greed and corruption of our Democratic system was visible from our backyards. All for an illusion that would sink many of us into joblessness, homelessness, and poverty.

We are every bit to blame for its current outcome through blind patronage. When one becomes fat, dumb and happy, it is hard to shift gears when your suddenly dumped in the street. A direct result of a financial system that has decided that very jobs they help to inflate are no longer profitable, and by deregulation have decided to further continue building their own wealth at the expense of the rest of us..Creating nothing, manufacturing nothing, and aiding in no innovation of any stripe..

Just. Make. Paper.

And we helped them by getting chubby off our own materialism and greed alongside sanctioning theirs. We've participated and supported, honoring psychopathy as desirable if the individual attains incredible wealth through paper chasing and graft masquerading as 'good business acumen'. 


And now, not only are we as a society out of the 'game room' between the Federal Government and Corporations, they have showed us the door while driving their foot in our collective asses. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being wealthy a la Bill Gates or even being a media icon such as Oprah Winfrey. 

There is something demonstratively amiss when the wealth is willfully attained by fucking private investors and institutions out of there money through unethical and deliberate misinformation and advise, and, to those ends, hedging bets against them to score a larger amount of profit for yourself via a complicated fee structure. 

There is something insidious happening when such institutions are still pulling down revenue when their own clients' portfolios tank, and there is no regulatory control to circumvent such insider trading the precipitates the process, making only a small group of exceptionally wealthy more wealthier at the expense of an entire nation's GDP. Further, it is not a 'democratic process' when said institutions can outright  confluence an election dynamic by moving billions of dollars without proper accounting or reporting of  such funds, and able to do it with great frequency to enhance, even, to a certain degree, control the outcome.

So, self-describing 'democrats', 'republicans', 'independents'  I have some seriously bad news for you: this election cycle means nothing so long as the lobbyist system, coupled with the crooked financial sector's insatiable greed doesn't become absolved and regulated. 


By proxy, all the candidates and all the elected glitterati are all ready bought and paid for Corporate products;  'products' of an illusionary system of 'democracy' that , at one time, any regular working man (or woman) had the chance to run for office, irregardless of what was in their pockets, and despite their background, could achieve election. The 'common man'
now is shut out; one has to be a schill for lobbyists if one expects to advance their political agenda. There is no 'will of the people' anymore, and as such, your 'party' hasn't any real or meaningful vision....

Because your 'party' does not exist.

The only party is the one currently making billions of dollars, not creating, not innovating nor expanding the economy or adding value and service to sectors that are increasing in working opportunity...

They're just making paper, running the 'talent show'...and the U.S. legislative process.







Below is an individual who forsaw what was to become the New Age of Corruption. The last true representative of the people from the district he once represented. There are too few of his kind left..watch.






1 comment:

  1. Well said. Not sure how we can fix this without some kind of re*olution....

    ReplyDelete