Thursday, May 19, 2016

The Strange Face of 21st Century Democracy

The Perils of Proceeding Without a Name
US oligarchs are attempting to imitate the tiger that changed its stripes.
[It's understandable that they don't wish to continue in their present image...]

History is littered with exciting anecdotes describing the transition from one form of governance to the next. Some of these accounts are a record of years or decades filled with unrest or unrealized ambitions, but others, usually with much briefer time spans, record events which unfolded rapidly -- and usually quite violently.

In each case "once the smoke cleared," the rubble had been tidied up, the dead had been buried and a "fresh, sparkling" new name was painstakingly coined to "identify" whatever had emerged from the transition. Of course both these "alterations" themselves and the "sparkling" new name were far more palatable as "matured" historical concepts than in the immediate reality of what had actually "happened on the ground."

In most cases these "high born struggles of conflicting ideals" were, when viewed in the cold light of day, painful episodes of mass chaos where thousands or millions of cases of "getting even" unfolded in the bloody wreckage once the stopper had been removed from the bottle. No matter. In the end happy destiny rose from the blood and ashes to provide "absolutely every fact" required to justify the next generation of history texts [even if  they bore a "not a too accurate" account of the events], and that is also, of course, history books written by the victors.

There are plenty of exquisitely painful examples. 

The Reich movement transformed Germany into a war hungry national socialist state. Hungry Russians rejected Nicholas' gold plated sink faucets and transitioned the country from a Czarist autocracy into the USSR. More recently, Ukraine, Thailand, Arab states, Serbia, Egypt and a dozen others have violently abandoned the "old thing" and adopted a "new thing." Each of these transformations included more than a few violent missteps along the way.

However, and it is an important point for this post, these transitions all emerged from the blood, dust and wreckage to embrace a new name, that is, there were already names handily awaiting what emerged from the process. The particular bunch of the involved parties who managed to scratch and claw their way up to the top of these brand new, blood soaked things which had been created had names already prepared for them, too, names such as the NAZIs or the Soviets.

In no time newspaper reporters and other "experts" on such matters were able to refer to the NAZIs or the Soviets, and everyone who read their newspapers knew not only exactly what they meant but also had a pretty good idea about what they intended to do -- all this because of these shiny new names.

In the United States, the Russian Federation and a good number of "quieter" countries, the parameters and players in the modern types of transition are freshly empowered oligarchs who are, predictably, validating their machinations as necessary measures to "unleash free enterprise," "unfetter the captains of industry" or simply to obliterate troublesome, profit gobbling laws and regulations. Historically, raw, parasitic oligarchies are usually not christened with the formal name "oligarchy" until much later, decades after they have actually "conquered" their host economies.

Nonetheless, once the establishment of these oligarchies has been completely accomplished, the name, "oligarchy," is all ready on hand to name such amazing "new things" the moment they have been created. Of course, right up to the very last moment prior to the full "live birth" of such dynasties of avarice, the official  new title necessarily remains obscured. This is not too much the case in the US where education has faltered to the extent that 98% of the newly created "servant class" has no idea what such a word might even mean.

This post is about the latest form of such "transitions" or "take overs." This introduction is necessary because this most modern bunch...has no name! Worse, it also lacks any particular "validating" principle or mission which might, more or less, automatically provide even the foggiest insight into its intentions.

Well, yes. Now that we're here, we would all like some sort of "forward glimpse" of what we can expect from "rule by party elites." After all, the take over and transition of our post-democracy government is, apparently, now complete.


The history written to describe this episode will leave students wondering "Wait! Why did they do THAT? This is so confusing that I can only hope that this isn't on the test!"



The History of Screwing Over 
Constitutional Elections for Fun and Profit
Not much has changed except that the myth
 that they weren't always screwed over is now collapsing.


We're Americans, so if we do it, it's democracy, right?
(Don't start with the "divine right" stuff until she passes out.)
[image]
We can quite confidently count on US political seasons to "bring out the worst" in us. The stakes are high, and the system through which the decisions will be made is leakier than the beer keg after a shoot out at a cowboy bar.

The part of the US Constitution which sets the structure for elections, although really dated, did a fairly good job of designing the process and explaining how it was to be done. What it has morphed into through the years is a grisly mix of shockingly outdated measures to accommodate the technology of the 1700's and a relentless deluge of annual intercessions in favor of everything from comforting desolated ex-slave owners to modern industrialists with a penchant for dumping their pollution into rivers providing drinking water.

Since the Constitution was originally written there has been a constant stream of chicanery, deceit and other Constitutional mischief made in efforts to twist the thing into something which could be looted. This effort has exploded into a "sperm frenzy" in the last few years as the emboldened oligarchs have finally felt safe publicly displayed their insane sociopathy. This began to surface quite openly after they purchased majority control of the Congress and the Supremes. Now that one of their staunchest, most dependable servants on the Court has dropped dead, they are panicked with the prospect of losing the rather vast profits they've enjoyed to date.

Bilderberg Group - Logan Act Violations
Don't worry about us, we own the DOJ. [image]
Still, in the past, the Owners of the Republican Party have all been creepy but identifiable billionaires as they gathered for a quick one in the bar downstairs from their annual Bilderberg Conferences. US voters are grudgingly accustomed to the expectation that these well heeled, not particularly stable, trust fund children will, in fact, probably decide the outcome of the next election -- except for the White House. "Loading the dice" for the Presidential election has, at least until recently, been too visible and too risky. [This is, obviously, changing -- in both Parties.]

These rich ones have always concluded previously that meddling with democracy while everyone was watching simply exposed them to an unacceptable level of danger. As for conducting such sabotage on the Constitutional system "from behind the curtains," however, the ROI [return on investment] for such schemes easily outweighed the risks. This is not an exaggeration. The visible parts of this "return on the George W. Bush investment" saw $600 billion dollars flow into the pockets of the 400 top income earners in the country during that disastrous 8 years.

For the mathematically challenged, $600 Bn is $100 Bn more than half a trillion.

This time around is apparently going to be even worse. The Koch brothers have already announced their plan to "invest" $900 million in the 2016 race in the pursuit of electing a Republican President.

[The brothers -- their father financed the John Birch Society and the Heritage Foundation -- while quite comfortable with a crack pot religious Dominionist such as Rafael Cruz, aren't quite reactionary enough to back the Trumpy. Perhaps they'll just have to go shopping and buy something else with their $900 million. Perhaps, say, Argentina.]

Now, Eat the Nice Dog Food
No Need To Bother Voting
It's Time For democratic Rule By the "Party Elites"
Crushing democracy from behind the curtain
[The lower case "d" is necessary because both parties are hard at it.]



No, no, no.
All this voting only confuses things. Plus, elections

 cost money. Right now,we clearly
need to focus on our "gift" list. [image]

Party Elites. Who are they? 
Where'd they come from?

Don't worry. This is the way we always do it.
And besides, we promise that they're definitely not oligarchs, okay? So just relax.

Let's take a look at exactly what is confronting the Republic, that is, voter registration "mysteries" in numerous US states. This has become necessary because both sides of this 2016 election are vaporizing the democratic process before our very eyes.

When MeanMesa states that "both Parties are hard at this electoral mischief," don't assume that it is simply another case of overly dramatic geriatric rambling. They are. They REALLY are.

1. The Republican Party elite are planning to trash the democratic process during the Republican National Convention.

With the previously troubling "Voters Rights Act" nicely trashed by the oligarchs' men in Supreme Black, and unlimited cash intervention in elections ruled to be a "free speech right" by the same Supremes, 2016 really, REALLY is going to amount to a drunk in the clown car headed for the well lubricated political whore house of looted money and power. Don't be shocked. It's basically been this way for most of the time since Reagan.

In the 31 states currently suffering under GOP control, there has been a similar systematic attack on voter enfranchisement by every possible method -- restrictive voter identification requirements at polling places, extensive gerrymandering of Congressional election districts and suspiciously targeted purges of non-GOP voter registration records.

It's "yesterday's news" that sold out Republican candidates can't even come close to holding their own in national election, and that all the anti-democracy moves by these red state governments, actually, amount to an embarrassing display of frantic political desperation. In the US it is widely assumed that most of these red state governments were only able to gain control with the "generous" contributions to state campaigns by the Republican Party's billionaire Owners. A few million dollar "contributions" funneled through ALEC to state level GOP candidates can usually deliver an election.

The Republicans discovered that state legislatures and governors' mansions can be purchased at a bargain price in the US.

Even today, Republican "policies" are being exposed by these red state basket cases -- in bankrupt Kansas, in violently bankrupt Louisiana, in the festering wreckage of anti-union Wisconsin and elsewhere. These examples alone should present an essentially insurmountable political obstacle to the Party's ambitions for national office.

Nonetheless, the GOP "elites" are publicly exposing their now quite insatiable appetite for even more wealth. Terrified with the prospect of nominating Trump and, hence, utterly losing the 2016 Presidential race, the billionaires in charge are now laying out their scheme to sabotage the nominating process at the GOP National Convention.

Happily, even though this scheme of theirs could have a variety of final outcomes at the Convention, none of the specific outcomes contained in that list of possibilities even remotely portends an optimistic result. The billionaires in charge are, apparently, so incredibly out of touch with current attitude of the Party's foot soldiers that they are still assuming Trumpy's already unstable followers -- even after they have watched these aristocratic power brokers from the hated Republican establishment ignore the electoral results of Trump's primary victories -- will simply calm down and eat the dog food.

If the GOP base were more educated or more informed, this Convention subterfuge might prove to be sufficiently outrageous and incendiary to actually even initiate some sort of civil war -- Duck Dynasty-style, of course. Don't count on. The GOP's expendable, brain modified foot soldiers are now lining up in hordes to head for the polling stations to elect The Donald.

2. The Democratic Party elites are also planning to trash the democratic process during the Democratic National Convention

The Democratic Party "danced with this devil" at the Chicago Convention in 1968 -- with politically disastrous results. [MeanMesa was there -- in the streets.] The "burning question of the day" concerned the conflict between Democratic primary victors solidly proposing an end to the Vietnam War and Democratic Party elites just as firmly committed to continuing with the wildly profitable southeast Asian "meat grinder." There had already been tens of thousands of Americans killed by this time, and no end was in sight. Neither was there any sign of progress, making the question quite political.

In this case the Democratic Party elites -- after effortlessly dumping the anti-war primary victors at the 1968 Convention -- shoe horned pro-war Hubert Humphrey into the nomination even though he had not won a single delegate in the Party's primaries or caucuses. The results were so explosively destructive that the Democratic Party modified their nominating rules within months after losing the election.

Unhappily, these labyrinthine modifications were essentially only cosmetic. For the 2016 contest the arcane "rules" provided Bill Clinton with every sort of dirty trick needed to secure the nomination for his wife -- and once again place him in the Oval Office.

Even though it would require cleverly subverting the safeguards installed after 1968, the Democratic Party elites are already scheming to guarantee the nomination of Ms. Clinton -- probably regardless of the primary election cycle's outcomes. Although the progressive media is focusing on the Convention nominating mischief made possible by the Party's poorly lit, ultra-fickle and ultra-sinister "super delegates," there has been plenty of mischief already inflicted upon the primary outcomes.

These shadowy super delegates are, indeed, ultra-fickle and ultra-sinister, and they are that way by design. They represent the last "fortification" of the Party elites to retain control of the nominating process, and they are hardly the product of an innocent oversight -- the provisions in the Democratic Party nominating process which created them were originally written in 1968 with precisely this future situation in mind.

Still, MeanMesa is seeing a much wider and much more sinister "Party Elite" scheme unfolding in state primaries. In case you're not up with the latest progressive reporting, what went on with the Democratic primary in Arizona and Nevada is an excellent case in point. It is evidence of a "multi-pronged," albeit regulation conformable, political attack on what is, at least cosmetically, a representative process. It seems that even the previously credible 538 is now in on the scheme. Have a look at Hillary's claim to have 3 million more primary votes than Sanders: Counting Up Sanders' Votes - Hillary Style.

Fighting For Air in The Democracy's Election
Yes, it's rigged, and, yes, you lose.
The new rule: No dreaming allowed.

As democracy loving Americans we've probably lost this one, but the dreams of the Democratic Primary voters were not crushed in time by the Clinton dog food salesmen. Don't be discouraged. When the American dreams are left to mature with the scars and bruises added, it marks a dangerous time for the political dinosaurs.

Of course this mischief isn't limited to the Clinton machine on the Democratic Party side of things. The wholly owned Republicans simply take care of this same dirty business in the cold light of day. Afterward, standing among the dung they've just created from the old democracy, the billionaire owners of the Republican Party aren't even embarrassed, but this time, they do seem a little concerned. 

However, the Democratic Party's meat handed involvement in skewing primary election results in favor of Bill's wife are becoming as equally "difficult to ignore" as the proverbial red headed step child. Of course this animosity is most visible between supporters for the respective candidates, but the electoral mischief referenced here has been occurring as a rather shockingly brazen conspiracy undertaken by the "old style" Clinton loyalists and orchestrated by "someone" situated extremely close to the Clinton campaign. 

[MeanMesa cannot avoid the almost automatic impulse to direct this suspicion to powerful DNC Chair, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. She was Clinton's campaign manager back in the Clinton/Obama contest. Debbie had already been placed squarely on the "usual suspects" list when the DNC forbade candidates from debating in unsanctioned debates and intentionally scheduled the official, sanctioned debates for the darkest, loneliest, late weekend hours offering hardly any television viewers -- all of which benefited the Clinton campaign unfairly.]

When we cool off enough to have a glimpse at the big picture of the 2016 election, we see two very likely, equally unappealing candidates with roughly equal "unfavorable ratings" in the 60's to 70's. Before you resign yourself to a stoic groan, try to remember. This is a democracy. That means that we theoretically elect leaders whom we want -- that is, leaders who are popular because we think they would be effective, successful Presidents.

Most Americans are disgusted with the conduct of the paralytic government we have now. Yet, we seem doggedly determined to continue with an almost exact replica of the current catastrophe.

Don't bet on a high voter turn out for this one. We CAN bet on this, though. The lower the general election turn out, the more likely that Donald Trump will be our next President. The lunatics are already planning to show up at the polls.

And, here's a secret.

All those nameless delegates who are preparing to deliver the respective nominations are thinly disguised tools of the same oligarchs who are already firmly in charge of running everything. 

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