GOP: When the Billionaires Get Edgy

The None Too Promising Strategy of the Desperate GOP

A Quick Visit to Ancient Rome

How to transform a Republic into an oligarchy

and then into a perpetual dictatorship.

Naturally, when contemporary events seem to have risen to a state slightly more dynamic than the norm, we find ourselves roaming about through history in search of precedents -- similar situations which have occurred before -- in the hope of "tuning" our speculation about likely outcomes in our modern times. As MeanMesa watches the quite unusual "turn of events" with respect to contemporary American politics, it becomes clear that the evidence may be, shall we say, "begging for mis-interpretation."

Although the progressive "agenda" has definitely scored a few notable "wins" in the past few weeks, the "combat arena"  which defines strategic conditions in the on-going campaign to convert the democracy into an oligarchy hasn't really changed much. Rather than becoming ecstatic and foolishly emboldened by a couple of unexpected Supreme Court decisions, MeanMesa suggests that the tactical outlook may well have become even less stable than before.

Why make such a gloomy prediction?

The billionaires are becoming restive -- and, they should be.

To sew a little flesh on these bones, let's take a quick look at the history of the ROMAN TRIUMVIRATES. Don't groan. This may be more relevant than it appears at first glance.

In the late [Roman] Republic, two three-man political alliances are called triumvirates by modern scholars, though only for the second was the term triumviri used at the time to evoke constitutional precedents:

Rome's First Triumvirate [image]

The so-called First Triumvirate was an informal political alliance of Julius Caesar, Pompeius Magnus ("Pompey the Great") and Marcus Crassus. The arrangement had no legal status, and its purpose was to consolidate the political power of the three and their supporters against the senatorial elite. After the death of Crassus in 53 BCE, the two survivors fought a civil war, during which Pompey was killed and Caesar established his sole rule as perpetual dictator.

Rome's Second Triumvirate [image]

The Second Triumvirate was recognized as a triumvirate at the time. A Lex Titia formalized the rule of Octavian, Mark Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. The legal language makes reference to the traditional tresviri. This "three-man commission for restoring the constitution of the republic" (tresviri rei publicae constituendae) in fact was given the power to make or annul law without approval from either the Senate or the people; their judicial decisions were not subject to appeal, and they named magistrates at will. Although the constitutional machinery of the Republic was not irrevocably dismantled by the Lex Titia, in the event it never recovered. Lepidus was sidelined early in the triumvirate, and Antony was eliminated in civil war, leaving Octavian the sole leader.   

 [Read the entire article here:  TRIUMVIRATE/WIKI]

Of course there have been many volumes of scholarly histories written about this period of Rome's politics, but MeanMesa sees one way to look at these events which has a chilling relevance to today's politics in the United States.

Rome had, among its citizens and other residents, an impressive collection of the extremely wealthy, powerful. Some were Senators [from the WIKI article, "senatorial elite"], but beyond even this prominence we see the Roman nobles whose ambitions would place them as "triumvirs" in the Triumvirate. Of course perhaps the most commonly known was Julius Caesar. When he led his 13th Legion, the Gemina, south across the Rubicon in January, 49 BC, the act effectively ended the old Roman Republic. The "senatorial elite" famously murdered him 5 years later on the Ides of March, 44 BC. [The first Triumvirate - above - had ended with the deaths of Crassus and Pompey a few years before the Rubicon crossing.]

The Second Triumvirate began almost at once after Caesar's assassination and last for ten years, 43 BC to 33 BC. [Read the WIKI articles here: First Triumvirate and Second Triumvirate]

This class of "problem Romans" was populated by successful generals, extremely wealthy oligarchs and noble men. Once the Rubicon "had been crossed," the old restraints of the Republic faded away rather quickly, leaving these ultra-powerful types to either "make a deal" with each other or "fight it out" with each other in civil war. Ultimately, at various times they did both. Apparently one of the few issues they agreed on was that the Roman Senate had to be castrated to secure the concept, durability and safety of this new position of "Roman Emperor" as a valid form of future government.

Of course there were a few complaints about the "new order of things" flying around Rome for a while -- especially from the Senate, but after some serious "pre-Imperial house keeping" and a few funerals things quieted down nicely, and the Romans had one Emperor after another for the next five hundred years. The "Roman Plan" for this "housekeeping" usually included confiscating the entire wealth, land, slaves and everything else from the "estates" of the deceased complainers, making the Triumvirs continually richer and more powerful as they went along.

Now, on to the "chilling relevance" part of the post.

Twenty or Thirty Greed Crazed Billionaires Are Simply 

Too Many for a Well Behaved Triumvirate

Plus, it's not likely that US oligarchs are inclined to...uh..."share."

So -- is it "pig skinin' time" in the old US Republic?

Will the Oval Office become the "Emperor's Chair"...

There are around 20 billionaires [FORBES' count as of 2013] in the US with more than $22 Bn in personal wealth. They tend to be a little secretive -- especially those exhibiting the worst behavior. Four of the twenty are Waltons of the WAL-Mart dynasty; two of them are the Koch brothers of the John Birch Society dynasty; there are Blomburg and Buffet with their respective investment dynasties; Israeli war monger and Las Vegas thug Adelson from his gambling dynasty; and finally, Gates, Ellison, Bezos and Page from the Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon and Google dynasties in that order.

When the field is "opened up" to additional US billionaires with wealth less that $22 Bn, around eighty or so more join the list. [Source: FORBES - US billionaires 2013] This part of the post is titled, "Twenty or Thirty Greed Crazed Billionaires..." because in the United States MeanMesa estimates that it  will require stable dynastic wealth of at least $20 Bn or more to claw and scratch one's way up from every day oligarch to potential Triumvir.

While there is no means for MeanMesa to "read the minds" of these plutocrats so as to determine their "favorite hobbies" in terms of modifying the nation even more as they search for their "advantages," we can speculate quite comfortably about what a few "possibilities" might be.

The Wal-Mart Waltons, for example, have a real appetite for not becoming snarled in a bunch of expensive labor regulations about minimum wages, benefits, unions and so on. The allegedly "libertarian" Koch brothers hate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and every environmental regulation ever written. Sheldon Adelson, aside from his geriatric wet dreams of American H-Bombs plummeting out of the skies over Iran, would cut off his right hand for legalized, international on-line gambling. The "quiet Cuban" billionaires of Florida [If it's Havana, it's usually the US Mafia...one of the primary reasons the Castro revolution became popular in the first place.] would like a resurgence of the Caribbean Cold War -- an opportunity the parasitic military procurement corporatists would also find "appetizing."

When we look at these "junior Triumvir wanna'bes," it's not too difficult to pin point a few "favorite interests" for each one based on what information about them has been allowed to reach the media. It must be added, here, that a few of the names of our list really don't have such despicable notoriety at all. [In 1933 FDR's name would have been included.]

Nonetheless, we are, more than likely, headed for the "great divvying up" period as the most "potent" among the oligarchs gradually commence "thinning the herd." Perhaps the "big boys" are already planning for these more healthy types to have futures running more along the lines of "deceased Senators."

Of course both the reputations and reliability of these plutocratic "puppet masters" make void any possibility of their becoming Triumvirs in persona if anything akin to an election is involved. This means that as they select their personal "race horse" to become a well financed candidate, they must also take tactical steps to manage the great power which accompanies the Oval Office.

There can be no "gentleman's agreement" when there are no gentlemen. No matter how wealthy and powerful the oligarch might be, an elected President could theoretically overwhelm him with his civil authority. As a result there will be no "hand shake" on the way up. Instead it will inevitably become an issue of dependable and continuing "leverage," and that "leverage" will be exceedingly material. A threat of physical assassination can be countered by the White House Praetorate [Secret Service], and raw extortion or black mail could be frustrated by the FBI on executive orders to the DoJ. 

Continuing oligarchic control of a President, once elected, will be woven from dark thread indeed.

Having posed these arguments of "chilling similarity," it's clearly time for this post to begin discussing Republicans -- and especially the antics of billionaire controlled Republican Presidential hopefuls. Such a topic will, unavoidably, also include the picturesque, although occasionally terrifying, interplay between the billionaires and the few Democrats who are also aspiring to be candidates.

We needn't strain ourselves much at all to see these "structural similarities" unfolding before our eyes in this democracy.

Settling On the American Triumvirate:

Sorting Out the Finalists

Shelter in Place - Basements and Deep Wilderness Best Choices

Proposed Puppets [FOX]

Although clearly a bit shabby, these are the thoroughbred "ponies" US billionaires have selected for the big race from herds at the corporate "equestrian plantations." These steeds have been chosen above all the other "lesser hay burners" based on their obedient natures and manageability.

Once the "faces" had been chosen, it was to be simply a matter of applying enough billionaire dollars to re-frame individual cases of unquestioned incompetence into a  convincing "Presidential image" which could effectively focus the Super PACs' propaganda efforts and resources.

While the old Romans apparently only had few "five star" oligarchs vying for the top job in the ancient city, the modern United States is even richer and more populated, hence, capable of producing a far larger clutch of ambitious billionaires. Further, the Romans of Triumvirate days relied primarily on public speeches to communicate the persuasive "desirability" of autocratic rule, but this new US bunch enjoys a saturating industrial media -- all conveniently under corporate, oligarchic control -- to twist facts, incite outrage and instill fear.

Competing Puppet Masters
Whose Pony Will Win? [Brookings_Inst.]

Regardless of their individual 10 digit "port folios," this Patrician collection is actually growing quite "concerned" about how things are now going in their take over bid. As recently as two or three years ago everything seemed to be humming along "roses, just roses" for them, but the GOP's zombie-like, narcotic unanimity in which they had invested so heavily seems to be "blowing off a few fenders" now that they are realistically facing the prospect of competing with each other for total ownership of the final grand prize.

Murdoch's FOX emerged as the "unwilling spoiler" when it announced that there were simply too many for one stage in the FOX staged [and choreographed] "debates." What was a unified conservative "issue matrix" has been repeatedly fractured by conflicting ambitions among the oligarchs.

The more closely the "dream prize" approaches, the more the degree of cooperation and unity among the king maker hopefuls declines. Now, each individual billionaire is frantically trying to regain control of the luxury cruise ship even as its stern finally begins its descent below the waves of a cold ocean. Odds are good that the current oligarchic control of the Senate has become a lost cause, and even control of the House of Representatives -- now infamous under the brilliant bungling of Speaker Boehner -- may also be on the table.

As always, "joyfully uncontrollable," the Democrats have finally stumbled in on the scene of the slaughter. Let's have a look.

The Oligarchs' Horror Movie Begins

Hillary was just a warm up,

next comes Bernie.

Darn. Everything seemed
to be going so well. [image]

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.

Winston Churchill

Even the utterly disaffected voters are considering the possibility of trying it just one last time.

As recently as a few months ago the hill billies and bigots of the GOP's base were reassuringly apoplectic in a continuing state of media induced, life threatening outrage. The current mouth pieces for the oligarchs' scheme were happily blathering about "the will of the people" as they nursed their 2014 "mandate" from 19% of the country's registered voters. Their in-house [network media], "puppy farm" opinion polling [Breaking News! THIS is what the puppies think!] was hinting at something close to a whimsically blissful 50%-50% chance for them in the 2016 election only last April.

Oh what a difference a few weeks can make!

For starters the oligarchs' obedient media which was supposed to be ushering in the final stages of the take over was, instead, slowly rotating blindly in the equivalent of a modern "editorial quandary." They had promised that they were prepared to handle Hillary, but handling Bernie was a "horse of a different color." Two months ago the media moguls, already salivating at the quadrennial prospect of receiving billions in political advertising dollars, envisioned this a no more than a dreamy, uneventful repetition of every other election since Eisenhower.

The network moguls were stunned as they realized that there was definitely not going to be enough "media lipstick" to turn this thing into another make-believe football game. Politics had suddenly become "real" again, and politics apparently intended to remain that way. The "voice" of oligarch check books had abruptly become much quieter.

Inside the artificial "conservative" political machines the command structure is faltering. Those reactionary "ground troops" which had once seemed so promising were now turning on one another -- so are their bosses. As usual in times of stress the order had been given to the Catholic Supremes to dole out a "little something" to quiet the masses [while not injuring their billionaire masters...], but this time it didn't seem to be having the desired effect. Even with same sex marriage and health care they just seemed to just be getting even wilder.

Everything appeared to be "rolling along" relatively well for the reactionaries for a while. The presumptive Democrat, Mrs. Clinton, was not only popular but also irritatingly "off target" as far as converting the country to an oligarchy was concerned, but these "short comings" only posed a temporary obstacle. The billionaires' take over scheme had run into this sort of thing before, and it had always turned out to be little more than a passing cloud.

Then came the actual "bull in the China closet" - Sanders. Worse, at least worse for the now trembling plutocrats, he didn't arrive alone, and he didn't arrive quietly. The Vermont Senator is giving speeches to crowds double the size of any attracted to anyone else -- Republican or Democrat -- so far.

Sanders, unlike Hillary, is not just an irritant. He looks much more like a dragon slayer. MeanMesa predicts that this "dragon slaying" status is only going to become even more terrifying as the days come and go now, and that would be terrifying to not only Mrs. Clinton's campaign but also to the dog food cart of Republicans, and especially to the Owners of the Republican Party, that is, to the oligarchs lurking in the shadows beyond the political "lights."

Frantic Wall Street CEOs are renting U-Haul vans to deliver their checks to any Republican candidate who promises to save them from Sanders. Some of them will soon even be desperately considering pumping their millions into Hilary's campaign.

These hedgies, banksters and other anti-democracy riff raff are feeling disturbingly un-sheltered, that is, naked. The usual hired media coverage which has toiled so valiantly to make the denizens of the clown car seem somewhat legitimate is fracturing. Oh sure, as ordered the networks have avoided Sanders' existence to date, but the scale of the story is rapidly escaping the alphabet networks' capacity to squelch it.

The industrial corporate media moguls are completely befuddled -- they have no idea what to do now. Their stale, repetitive pattern of re-imaging political contests into symbolic football games has suddenly become irrelevant. They may attempt to solve this by increasing the RPMs of their "rotating wheel" style of editorial coverage, but the media will realize soon enough: "The jig is up."

No one will be pleading with these network executives "not to jump."

MeanMesa's advice to the billionaires. Offer Bernie Sanders $100 Mn for a promise that he'll quit scaring you. It'll be a great investment! Good luck. Just think of it as a test for your old maxim: "Everyone has a price."

Hmmm. What an absolutely delightful turn of events.

Maybe we should be talking $200 Mn ... or maybe more. Why not $200 Bn?

Sanders - Is An Earthquake Coming?

Sanders Campaign: The Media "Responds"

Corporate Instructions: "Ignore"

Commonly prevailing logic dispatches this "new face" in the Democratic Party primary to the status of a  political "curiosity." Visitors to this blog have heard every corporate "opinion" pundit obediently parrot the inane collection of think tank talking points about the Senator's announcement, each one attempting to plunge the Sanders' campaign further down the "rabbit hole" which has been so painfully excavated by the comic desperadoes from the perennially failing Republican clown car of Presidential "dreamers."

[MeanMesa makes a distinction between even the comparably fuzzy designation of "Presidential hopeful" and the cold, tedious realism of "Presidential dreamer." The corporate media is, apparently, under orders to continue the use of the designation of "hopeful" until the last possible moment when -- frantically jumping from a flaming, private jet over Iowa -- the inauthentic "star" of one of these billionaire-driven fiascoes officially becomes a "dreamer."]

The established bastions of "free speech," that is, the corporate American media industry, at first, no doubt, considered pitching a "broadcast tantrum" over the stark, anarchic "unfairness" presented by the possibility of a candidate such as the only narrowly known Sanders whom has not been defined by their relentless, commercial bias. [Don't kid yourself. The media moguls get paid plenty to create "name recognition -- and, of course quite selectively, "even more" about the candidates they have also been paid to publicize.]The heavily soiled US media has long considered "candidate definition" to be an exclusive privilege for which only the sold out networks are "uniquely qualified" to handle "for the democracy."

"If voters want to know something about a candidate, they should just go along with the information and opinions that we've broadcast for them."

Of course the corporate media's interest in "candidate preparation" is not driven solely by back room phone calls from the billionaires who own them. Once the amusing "dust up" of the primaries is completed, huge advertising buys to promote the survivors will be waiting just around the "electoral corner."

So, where does this leave Senator Bernie Sanders amid the chaos of all this monetized, manipulated, corporate media PR muck and maelstrom?

Sanders himself is a remarkable candidate, but what if we are seeing the faint first glimmer of something destined to become orders of magnitude greater than his candidacy?

All the "Important" Reasons

 Why Sanders Isn't REALLY Important

Pay attention..."Believe..."

this message is from your media.

Literally moments after the Senator announced his candidacy, the far right, "wing nut" pundits were already receiving "important management editorial guidelines" upon which they were ordered to base their commentary -- or "non-commentary" -- concerning the "news." Not surprisingly, the folks who own the US corporate media and control its broadcasting content already absolutely detested exactly everything that has absolutely anything to do with Bernie Sanders' platform.

Even the tediously relentless litany that "Hillary couldn't be trusted" was interrupted briefly -- just long enough to insert a few dozen repetitions of the urgent new talking points. A veritable legion of right wing "scandal hunters" were immediately unleashed from the corporate skyscrapers. The old bird had to hiding something somewhere -- something that could gain traction with the trailer park crowd of the GOP base.

The talk show prep gangs were frantically struggling to locate the most intimidating portrait of Joseph Stalin they could find in the FOX research archives. Meanwhile, the "psych-handlers" responsible for anchoring sarcastic one liners in the nearly brain dead, Pavlovian, FOX blond "hostesses" scrambled with their "now, repeat this back to me" demands while fumbling threateningly with their cattle prods.

The Wing Nuts Spring Into Action! [image MeanMesa]

Interestingly, the right wing "mouth junk" experts completely skipped over any of Sanders' policies in their instantaneous derision of his candidacy, instead focusing very strictly on politics and dogmatic ideological talking points -- many of them only narrowly removed from the glacial anti-Soviet US propaganda of the 50's and 60's.

The "detail free" nature of all of the GOP campaign points to date is an interesting one. The Republicans have been consistently weak on policy proposals for decades, turning, as an alternative, to constantly repeated strings of "political rhetoric" to replace the more normal approach of describing "policy proposals."

Listen carefully to what the GOP's candidates are saying as they campaign. 

Much of the GOP's jingoistic, Christian "heartland narrative" is derived directly from fundamental features of that same old anti-Soviet propaganda. The government's investment in promoting that material so effectively during the Cold War was astronomical, and the oligarchs have plainly come to consider its continuing durability in their information challenged GOP base to be a cost savings opportunity, replacing the expense of generating any hazardous, newer propaganda narratives to replace it.

What is so blankly missing in the right wing political narrative is any direct counter or contradiction to Sanders' policy propositions. This is what a block of hastily organized, "corporate, ideological, ad hominems" looks like when the script's authors have been shoved beyond the established boundaries of their field. Still, very obviously, "the show must go on..."

Insightful Observations from the Alphabet Networks. [image MeanMesa]

The "non-FOX" -- albeit more and more "FOX-like" -- corporate media networks are having their own embarrassing crisis with the Sanders announcement. The networks' corporate business plan for "reporting" election campaigns is easily discerned.

Their "idea of a good time" is to sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of time to sterile opposing candidates primarily arguing with each other over either raw, half-baked ideology or fabricated scandals and gaffs.

To some extent this under-cutting propaganda flood is working. Even those who whole-heartedly agree that Sanders' platform is exactly what the country needs, preface statements describing their enthusiasm with "Of course he can't win..."

Sanders doesn't fit into that scenario at all, and should his populist campaign platform trigger the response from voters that MeanMesa is anticipating, the network "cookie cutter" approach to monetizing the 2016 election -- just as they have monetized previous elections for decades -- may be unraveling at the seams as we speak.

The billionaires hate -- and fear -- "real politics."

What the Earthquake Will Look Like

It may not be quite the earthquake we first imagined.

While it may be quite socially amenable to speak of politics' capacity to be "full surprising," it would be a mistake to proclaim that politics is "full of surprises." In this case, although "the dog has been waiting under the dinner table since before the meal began," there is no reason to proclaim "surprise" when, given the opportunity, the dog treats himself to the untended chicken thigh resting at the edge of the table cloth.

The point? The missing chicken thigh is not really a surprise...or an "earthquake."

We will have to look beyond the candidate to get a glimpse of the "earthquake" to which we refer, here. In fact, we will also need to look beyond that candidate's political platform in our search for the "earthquake." Granted, Bernie Sanders has already established himself as a candidate quite removed from the contemporary "norm" -- representing an entirely new phylum and species of primate so far as the clown car is concerned, but even with respect to the already announced Democratic candidate, Sanders may be literally light years distant.

When we come around to Sanders' campaign, we are already -- unavoidably -- noticing an important new "political direction." He is speaking in a almost brash, undeniable way about his plans and about his policy proposals. While this rather bold trait of his may be a shocking departure from politics as we are accustomed to it, a clear view of the actual "earthquake" to which MeanMesa is referring may still remain elusive if not out rightly mysterious.

So, it's clearly time to move ahead --  that would be to move on to the "earthquake."

As Americans we have been very patiently, very tediously, fed a very carefully fabricated myth regarding the vast bulk of the American electorate. Further, the fabric of that myth was not a mere coincidence any more than the "weaving" of that myth was simply an understandable accident or innocent over sight.

The myth?

This was the myth that a strong, stable majority of American voters were driven exclusively by right wing ideology. The myth repeatedly painted a grisly picture of a violently reactionary, maniacally religious, raging, screaming, tea bagger majority. At least millions, but more likely billions, of dollars were pumped into obedient, wholly owned media corporations to "install" the  myth -- as a sort of "default reality" -- in as many minds as possible, including those far afield politically from the right's information challenged base.

As a result this toxic myth's credibility has inched toward a flimsy, undefined, yet unilateral materiality to the extent that far too many American voters have passively grown to accept it without actually examining its "inauthentic credibility."

Now, the oligarchs who have been calling the tune for so long see the very real possibility of a very expensive -- at least for them -- federal government "lurking in the shadows" just beyond the 2016 election which may be slipping out of their monetary grip. They have invested heavily in the "care and maintenance" of that myth, and they have also become equally heavily reliant on its continued domination of the US "political mind."

Unfortunately, for those with ambitions to even further reduce the struggling electorates' already flickering hope for some sort of "recovery" from the most recent Republican looting spree, the environment for frustration and distrust is ripe with opportunity. These are the "years of pain," economically -- the perpetually lingering "toothache stage." Wall Street has recovered beautifully, but everyone without a lobbyist remains stuck at the bus stop.

The oligarchs, having already ordered their obedient media to strip away any inconvenient facts, intended to simply "fuel the fires" of malcontent while cleverly directing "the blame" for this economic mess at any political adversary they chose. Obama, himself, foolishly uttered a prescient note to this effect years ago:

"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," Obama said. "And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."   [Read more  here - HUFFINGTON]

Notably, however, for the oligarchs to actually use this sentiment effectively for their take-over scheme, it must be re-framed into an ideological and abstract media package which can gain traction among the otherwise disinterested, grumbling GOP base.

Concerning that base, what has looked increasingly like an insurmountable wall of distrust and discontent in the past years represents the tectonic fault. If, indeed, there is to be an "earthquake," it is precisely the fracturing of this tenuous PR thread which will finally trigger it.

Those billionaires still actually able to perceive the events around them have suddenly become quite nervous. However, although the large remainder of billionaires not in this first set are still relying on Rupert Murdoch to tell them "everything they need to know" about modern reality, they may look back at these times to realize too late that they were simply continuing to pour big cash into buggy whip futures.

To the distress of apparently both parties in the coming election, the "earthquake" will not be another political "love affair" with a smooth talking "alternate" candidate. Instead. its foundation will lie deep below the current "fist fight in the parking lot's" visible asphalt surface, and its "action of motion" will be occurring directly beneath the heretofore remarkably stable enmity the billionaires have worked so hard to create.

  The "Obama hating," "government hating," "don't trust anyone," "everything is hopeless" crowd is getting ready to change its collective mind in a big way.

THAT will be the "earthquake."

The actual cause will not be anything as startling as, for instance, the prosecution of the last administration for war crimes or the banksters for the damages they inflicted during the 2008 "correction." Rather than such dramatic "water shed" events, this shift in the minds of the GOP's base demographic will resemble the proverbial "pork chop pared by a dozen knives."

It's going to "drift" into the consciousness of those erstwhile outraged, unsettled, intentionally suspicious, perpetually incited Republican voters like the fog at an autumn dawn in Maine. Although Bernie Sanders -- as a man, a Senator and a candidate -- may very well prove to be the "mechanism" which instigates this shift, it will be his message which actually moves the political soil under our feet.

Sanders has no intention of proffering up an alternate ideology, one which might compete with the road weary, heavily armed "death march" on the right or the whimsical yet "less than reassuringly pragmatic" idealism of the loudest voices currently claiming to represent the "left." [MeanMesa considers this element of the "leftist" demographic as little more than stoic eschatologists, bravely marching forward to certain doom but offering very little by way of plans or proposals which might actually "exist" in this universe much less mitigate our difficulties.]

Ironically, we've seen an excellent example of the "collapsing side" of this prognosis this week. The cataclysmic train wreck on the Washington - New York route makes this point. 

Just as the news was being reported, the Republicans controlling the House of Representatives cut the additional funding from the AMTRAK budget which might have paid for the necessary safety equipment. [Boehner snapped at the reporter who attempted to get him to concede this connection.] 

First, this isn't ideology, at least not pure ideology. But second, this is exactly the kind of "news" which can reach through the craftily induced fog protecting the oligarchs' position with the right wing base. It deals with them.

It turns out that this troublesome Republican base understands train wrecks much better than the ALEC authored, fantastical liturgy about drowning "small government" in a bath tub.

Political Fracking - Sanders Style

Oooops. The earth is moving under our feet!

Think of examples such as this train wreck as "fractures." It is typical of the precise type of weak points where Sanders' down to Earth, populist policy proposals can enter the political discussion -- even on the right. To the chagrin of the billionaires and their networks, Sanders is "full to the gunwales" with an almost limitless supply of such points -- every one of them focused on a "fracture" fastidiously constructed by those same worried billionaires.

Heh, heh. Importantly, a reminder -- because it's been such a long time since we've heard such things, these "points" are called "populist points." And, at least for the time being, those "populist points" are planted in a garden very, very distant from the ideological "weeds" being juiced up to counter them. The usually eager and obedient network "news" rooms are beginning to spin out of control. They have no idea what to do with this.

Added to the "unpleasant chowder" already boiling in these networks' "head offices," all this attention to "POPULIST POINTS" is introducing the serious threat of a "bottom line" problem with the profit centers in their "election season business plan!" It turns out that the networks' dream of peddling the usual truck load of meaningless election campaign "got cha'" doesn't really work when a bunch of nasty "populist points" have penetrated the normal "foot ball game" reporting.

In the eyes of the networks this is probably even far more threatening than being drenched with a tub of ice cold Gatorade that's "turned" from the hot sun.

The Republicans have now developed a long, embarrassing history of elevating politics far above policy. The advantage of this approach is that it eliminates any need for proposing any actual "risky policies." Instead, GOP politicians and pundits focus on rhetoric about ideology as the highest possible priority when measuring the effectiveness of their attempts at communication.

It would be nice to say that Democrats do exactly the opposite, but that would clearly be stretching the facts. MeanMesa will go as far as saying that Democrats are inclined to do this less. This means that the Democrats have, actually, proposed new policy on a frequent basis even though in some cases that policy really did turn out to be quite risky politically.

Sanders is introducing a new campaign "business model." Whatever the outcome of his efforts, he will not be beholding to a "pocket billionaire," he won't be funneling hundreds of millions into media buys and he won't have to pay additional millions to put "paid for" campaigners and canvassers on the street.

He is already counting 100,000's of "ready to go" volunteers and a few million dollars in his war chest from campaign contributions averaging $43 each mere days after his candidacy announcement.

Keep track of the voices who hate him the most. That should be more than ample evidence to convert you if you're still undecided.