Another example is evidenced by the statement: “The truth is that our capitalism and our self governing democracy are beyond repair or reform. Both are terminal, and dysfunctional.”

Many industries do work. Many government institutions do work. Please allow for exception in these articles. The only generalization that is always true is the exception in every rule.

More % of people in US approbate its classful society than any other people. It can be seen that the greater gap in wealth btwn classes, results in greater participation of the highest class in ruling a country.

And that had always brought us enormous iniquities. And as long as US is ruled by its highest class to the degree that it is, we can expect it to do what every other high class had done over millennia: wars, slavery, torture, killings, imprisonment, oppression, etc.
Such a class does not stop from anything when it comes to defense of its interests. It is called, as we know, defense of US interests.
Even slavery alone proves that. We can also add to that 170 wars US had waged, nuking japan, use of other wmd, etc.
I suggest strongly that the top US layer of society wld wage at least 50 more wars; most likely use chemical, biolgical weapons as well in quest for riches.
tnx

Why doesn’t a reform-minded Congress make campaign finance reform a top priority? After all, one might think, once this was passed, the rich and their lackeys would lose much of their power over Congress. The fault in this reasoning is that the rich still control the mass media and can thus fool the public into punishing Congresspeople who prioritize the common good ahead of private interests.

The top priority is really reform of the mass media, starting with a breakup of the monopolies and oligopolies therein.

Suzanne Phillips, Editor

The American people hated G.W. Bush and the entire criminal agenda of the neocons. They went to the polls and elected “hope” and “change” exactly because they aren’t mindless, brainwashed sheep. But the ruling class was one step ahead. Obama is Bush. White Bush is out and black Bush is in.

The crisis facing the underclass isn’t that we are sleeping-walking through a brainwashed existence. The crisis is one of leadership. The underclass goes completely without any political representation. The ruling class capitalists own and control both major political parties, the mainstream media and the labor union hierarchy. The people only appear to be brainwashed due to this lack of leadership.

We already knew the Republicans represented the interests of the wealthy-elite. But the entire Bush agenda would have been impossible without the complicity of the Democrats. The only reason that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzalez and a host of others aren’t in prison today is due to their close friend and life-long associates, the Democrats.

Is there any doubt that were Obama to have his yang attended to by an intern that the mainstream media would be all over that story 24/7 for months? Yet the bankers loot the economy, destroy our jobs, award themselves trillions of dollars of our money, borrow billions more from us at less than 1%, subsequently raise credit card interest rates to near 30% and then gloat over their huge salaries and bonuses; and the mainstream media hardly gives such crimes a mention.

The union hierarchy long ago became the partners of the corporations. For decades now the function of the union hierarchy has been to sell out labor actions and inflict layoffs and concessions upon the workers they ostensibly represent.

I read a lot of stuff and this was very well written harder to do in the strangeness. Remember so far there is no plan just more of the same and that’s called insanity. One more time

On the contrary. You made MY point.

We will have to accept a lower standard of living because of the depletion of oil and live like Cubans.

I understand what Mr. Page is saying but my disagreement is with semantics. I would argue that living cooperatively would in fact RAISE our standard of living. With improved transportation, affordable housing, accessible health care, child care, education, the end of usury, we would see a renaissance of creativity and improved living standards for the majority.

It is the high level of inequality that lowers that standard of living for all.

Your analysis is just as juvenile as Max Shields.

Any in cold blood observer [icier the better] can see the naked components of the US sytem of rule. And not only that but also people who solely rule or rule much more than lower layers of society.

One does need no schooling nor to read any media to see what is happening. One eye or ear will solely do. But most of us have two eyes and two ears. And we can see structure of atom, heart, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, governance, polio, etc.
Once we see all that we can at least attempt to change the structure. This how we have eradicated polio and some other diseases.
Poverty is also wrought by the system of rule and not just riches. Causative factor for poverty then being the system; which does not exist without people.
It is the people who set up the system. The people who set it up were slave owners, feudal lords, warlords and not just in US but in almost all lands and for millennia.

Wihout significant change in the system and with world getting daily poorer, poorer people and poorer countries can expect to become even more wartorn and poorer.
tnx

The vast majority of conservative capitalists are are indeed against the regulation of Wall Street. This is because they have little to no interest in the day-to-day happenings on Wall Street. The fact of the matter is that Wall Street brought the financial collapse upon themselves via naked short-selling and similar immoral business practices.

It should be noted that short-selling is actually a practice that should be disallowed by standard common sense, (you can’t sell what you don’t actually own – gasp!) but was actually made possible through legislation. And it is (mostly) because of this practice that financial Armageddon is upon us.

People who invested in the market knew (or at least, should have known!) the risks involved in investing… And now their money is gone. :-(

But that’s how it works…..

So keep looking to your legislators to protect you from the “Jungle.” I’ll be stocking up on food and ammo ;-)