Showing posts with label power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label power. Show all posts

Friday, November 6, 2015

SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN THE STATE



Now here’s an interesting video clip:


Poor guy; he’s toast.  His corporate bosses at MSNBC will have him and sack him for “losing his temper”  or “ranting.”  Now, you and I would call that,” being passionate” or “expressing his frustration.”  Regardless, the sad thing is that he’ll be sacked or sanctioned for expressing some real home truths that the corporate establishment don’t want you to know.

What did he mean, by “bought Congress”?  Well, these short videos sum it up beautifully;

"The American Dream" [3 mins 12]

What the newsman’s hinting at, is the fact that there is a real disconnect between what voters want and what Congress actually passes.  For example, most US voters want universal healthcare and gun restrictions.  Yet Congress seems to filibuster and block such legislation!  This is because the  respective health and gun lobbyists have told their bought-Congressmen to vote accordingly:


Congressmen are wooed - or blatantly bribed - by persuasive lobbyists representing various interests from America's corporations.  This bribery is actually legal and is labelled, "campaign donations" or "sponsorship." So, because almost every Congressman is addicted to the honey poison or actual money poured in from corporate lobbyists, a Congressman will vote with how his sponsors tell him, not with what his electorate wants.  Therein lies the state of democracy in the so-called “Land of the Free.”

If you look at the accompanying Facebook comments under the video, you’ll see a plethora of support and encouraging comments for the passionate newsman.  So, I would love to believe that something will change.  But it won't.  How can it?  How can you take money away from the establishment that runs our countries; the Congressmen, the chief executives, the excessively wealthy?  You can’t.  And yet, we actually elect that very same establishment!  

In becoming a whore to the US, John Key has taken New Zealand’s democracy to a dangerously similar state as that of America.  Right-wing money owns our media, who tell us who to vote for; through adverts, editorials and subtle messages.  After 30 years of this propaganda, “radicalism” and “social democracy” are now swear-words.  30 years ago, before monetarism, these words meant something; they reflected a desire for community betterment, not the betterment of the few.  

Our banks, the police, the Reserve Bank, the civil service also contribute to actually running the country, and so have no interest in real change, or being accountable to a thinking electorate.  So, none of these sub-strata have any interest in changing the current system.  

The current system is this:
  • Justification of tax cuts to the rich by giving broad tax cuts across the board ["Crumbs off the rich man’s table," Luke 16:21]
  • Clawing back that tax from the middle-income earners by regressive taxes; increasing the price of electricity, increasing GST and cutting government services.
  • Destroying communities by convincing middle-income New Zealand that, they’re fighting for their “individual rights.”
  • Keeping the mortgage whores fighting among themselves, as they wrestle each other for the same job promotions, the same prized school spots, or the same overpriced houses.
  • Keeping middle-income earners busy and distracted with dumbed-down television, paying off the mortgage, and changing the flag; so they don’t question en masse, political decisions.
Perhaps the police might question the system, or at least your average policeman might.  This is because the average policeman is concerned that the police force is systematically being starved of resources.   However, the Police Chiefs - politicians in uniforms - have their jobs dependent on their right-wing overlords.  As a result, I've never seen a police chief rock the boat.

I digress a little.  Let’s get back to the point of the video – it has relevance here in New Zealand, as I've highlighted.  As a result of years of corporate-orientated, business-funded, right-wing governments, we are more and more being consumerised.  We may be voters and taxpayers, but we are having less and less say in how our country is run and what our government does – supposedly in our name.  The conclusion of the secretive TPPA talks this month, as we are distracted by the bread and circuses of the Rugby World Cup, is a prime example;



Something is rotten in the state of our democracies.  Watch Norman Jewison's visionary, "Rollerball." Made 40 years ago, it's scary how close we are to that corporatised world.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

I WANT OUR DEMOCRACY BACK, JOHN

I was listening to Radio Live this morning, and contrary to my expectations, I heard an interesting article. Wallace Chapman was interviewing Michelle Boag on Obama’s efforts to put through some kind of gun reform. It prompted me to pour you another Cup of Vitriol.

Boag asserted that Obama could have a great legacy, should he choose to grasp this opportunity. At the very least, it should be for his ban on assault weapons. These are the kind of guns responsible for killing many kids in the long list of US school shootings. Boag expressed that Obama needs to make a distinction between the assault weapons that kill many people, and the guns used for hunting and personal defence. Of course, the gun businesses who fall back on the 2nd amendment are threatened by these current machinations. I would remind everyone that the 2nd amendment is over 40 years old, drafted in a time when such assault weapons were not as powerful or as freely available to the public as they are now. Americans are so wedded to their guns, culturally and commercially, that Obama has his work cut out.

Obama’s legacy could be to completely reform this issue, reform the Second Amendment, and certainly renew the ban on assault weapon sales. The recent poll seems to support Obama’s reform programme.

But it won’t happen.

It won’t happen, because this current Congress won’t let it happen. So, The People want gun reform, but their elected representatives are resisting gun reform. The powerful business-financed gun lobby has bought (figuratively or literally) too many politicians in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives.

“government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” [Abraham Lincoln]

Strange though it may seem, I’m not going to dwell on the US gun debate today. In fact, I want to talk about how we, in our sublime, utopian western “civilisations” have lost our democracy. Suffice to say, I use the gun debate as a perfect example of how America is not a democracy. America is a business-manipulated government of The People, loosely disguised as a democracy. And New Zealand, especially with the right-wing National Party in power, is little better:
  • This government announced a programme for business-orientated Charter Schools, despite their public unpopularity. Even though Charter Schools appeared NOWHERE in the National Party manifesto, the National government adopted the programme to secure the support of ONE MAN. Scarily, this cartoon (pictured left) has it spot on. 
  • 75% of voters in New Zealand were polled as NOT wanting our public assets sold. The poll was dismissed by the government as “too simple.” The government says it has a voter mandate to flog our public assets, by the very virtue of being in power. In other words, it doesn’t have to be answerable to the people whilst in power. 
  • The Earthquake Commission (EQC) bureaucracy hamstrings Christchurch’s residential repairs and rebuilds. Meanwhile, the business-dominated plan for the city centre goes on full-speed ahead.
To be fair to the National Party, we (New Zealand - not me personally!) voted for a National government in 2008 as we plunged into a recession. So, we greedily voted for tax cuts we KNEW we couldn’t afford.  We voted for a National government in 2011 when we KNEW asset sales would be sold.  And so, we also voted for asset sales by the same logic.  It would appear that, once this National Government gets into power, it has a mandate to do whatever it likes. In truth, you know that’s right, because we’ve all been through this with previous governments. However, that doesn't make the behaviour acceptable.  The problem is that a government, once it’s in power for its three-year-term, seems no longer answerable to the people. Our only recourse (or hope!) is at the ballot box after those three years, or that coalition partners somehow temper the incumbent. Yeah, how’s that working for you, New Zealand? What do you think are the chances of those in power adopting a Recoverable Proxy system for us proles? Well, there are in fact two chances; fat and slim.

Frankly, New Zealand’s stupidity and selfishness has enabled such business-financed parties to manipulate The People. That manipulation can be in the form of clever spin, or blatantly buying off the voters with “crumbs from the rich man’s table.” [Luke 16:19-31]. You could go so far as to call that abuse. It’s certainly abuse of power - and abuse of the intelligence of the discerning voters, at least!

When I was discussing this with my red-neck father-in-law, he commented that “at last we have the vote.” Well, that’s not good enough. Our blind acceptance of that fact, and our blind acceptance that we don’t need anything else, is exactly what lets government do what they want to do for three years. It blindly hands government to the unfettered machinations of the corporations. I hear my critics now; “But large businesses create goods, services, employment and tax revenue.”  Yes, and I’m sure some New Zealand large businesses would love us to go back to the laissez faire, unfettered days of the Industrial Revolution, free from government "interference." Big business with a foot in power worries me. However, big business without reins scares the runny crap out of me.

So, John, I’m not going to thank you for our right to vote. We fought for it, and you’re spitting on it. The Chartists would be turning in their graves right now.  John, I want our democracy back – before the next election, please?

FURTHER READING:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/19/obama-pressure-congress-gun-control
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/strengthen-gun-control-laws-obama-tells-congress/article4323147.ece
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/manukau-courier/6113614/Anger-at-charter-plan
http://www.ppta.org.nz/index.php/resources/ppta-blog/question-what-does-john-banks-know-about-charter-schools-answer-nothing.html http://www.aardvark.co.nz/rproxy.shtml