De werkelijke machthebbers in de VS, waar Bernie Sanders geen deel van uit mag maken

Chris Hedges heeft een artikel geschreven waarin hij waarschuwt voor de macht van de oligarchen/plutocraten, ofwel de super welgestelde miljardairs. Hij betoogt dat de belangen van de welgestelden niet de belangen zijn van het gewone volk en zegt hetzelfde over de waarheid en het leven van de welgestelden, ook deze 2 zaken zijn bepaald niet hetzelfde als die voor de grote onderlaag.

Om de macht van de oligarchen te bestendigen hebben ze legers van advocaten tot hun beschikking, dit nog naast het in de zak hebben van publicisten, politici, rechters, academici en journalisten, alles om hun belangen te beschermen......

Hedges betoogt dat deze plutocraten voorts het neoliberalisme en de volgende zaken gebruiken om hun macht te bewaren: 

• het verplaatsen van industrie naar lagelonenlanden
• het vernietigen van vakbonden
• het verlagen of zelfs opheffen van belastingen
• vrije handel
• globalisering (daar ben ik het overigens niet mee eens)
• een totale veiligheidsstaat (dus zoveel mogelijk cameratoezicht, inbreken op computers van de alternatieve media en hun aanhang, plus de computers van milieugroepen en hun activisten, daarnaast het totaal teniet doen van het recht op privacy)
• eindeloze oorlogen (goed voor het bedrijfsleven en oliemaatschappijen)
• bezuinigingen, die altijd weer de grote onderlaag het hardst treffen..... 

Verder heeft dit geteisem bijna de gehele voedselvoorziening in handen, dus de: -doodsindustrie die men intensieve veeteelt noemt, -de gentech zadenbedrijven en hun kankerverwekkend gif, plus -bedrijven die palmolie- en soja produceren, waarvoor de laatste oerwouden op onze kleine aarde worden gekapt en verbrand......*  

Alle aangehaalde zaken worden aan het grote publiek gepresenteerd als waren het natuurlijke processen en wetten waar nu eenmaal niet aan is te ontkomen.... In werkelijkheid zorgen deze zaken ervoor dat de fundamenten onder de democratie worden ondermijnd en dat er geen of amper maatregelen worden getroffen tegen de klimaatverandering en de enorme luchtvervuiling, die zelfs een eind aan de mensheid kunnen maken...... 

Het zal je niet verbazen dat deze plutocraten een uiterst belangrijk onderdeel vormen van wat men 'Deep State' noemt, de werkelijke machthebbers van vooral de westerse wereld....... (als men over Deep State spreekt, heeft men het meestal sover de VS, echter het is in de rest van het westen niet veel anders....)

Deze plutocraten (of oligarchen) willen overal over spreken behalve over klassen, immers dan zouden ze wel heel snel door de mand vallen en zou het gewone volk opstandig maken..... Hedges haalt een uitspraak aan van Aristoteles, die stelde dat wanneer de oligarchen de macht hebben gegrepen, de maatschappij nog 2 mogelijkheden rest: tirannie accepteren of kiezen voor een revolutie....

In een kort verslag beschrijft Hedges het beleid dat Roosevelt voerde en waar de welgestelden zelfs 91% belasting betaalden, dit was nog het geval in de 50er jaren, terwijl ze nu praktisch geen belasting meer betalen.... (vergeleken met het enorme kapitaal dat ze bij elkaar hebben geroofd, in het merendeel van de gevallen figuurlijk en letterlijk over de rug van arbeiders.....) De Trump administratie heeft er zelfs voor gezorgd dat de superwelgestelden er nog verder op vooruit zijn gegaan, o.a. door belastingverlagingen....... (VVD leugenaar Rutte heeft hier eenzelfde beleid gevoerd en doet dit nog steeds, al is het met minder succes dan in de VS......)

Gezien het voorgaande is het geen verrassing dat deze topgraaiers Bernie Sanders vrezen, immers hij zal op zeker deze miljardairs aanpakken. Niet vreemd ook dat Sanders al een paar jaar lang wordt afgemaakt in de media, voor zo'n 90% in handen van deze oligarchen, waar de laatste 10% in handen is van investeringsmaatschappijen, die al evenzeer geen belang hebben bij een presidentschap van Sanders.....

De top van de Democratische partij zet ook alles op alles om te voorkomen dat Sanders aan het bewind komt, precies zoals de Republikeinen dit vrezen. Er is dan ook amper verschil wat de top van de Democraten wensen in vergelijking met de Republikeinen, beiden hebben ze grote belangen in de financiële wereld, de farmaceutische industrie, de oliemaatschappijen en de wapenindustrie...... Beide partijen stonden en staan achter de illegale oorlogen die de VS is begonnen en voor het meer dan belachelijk grote budget voor 'Defensie' (lees: oorlogsvoering)..... Hedges noemt nog een aantal zaken die door zowel de Demoraten als de Republikeinen worden gekoesterd, zoals de militarisering van de politie, en de eerder aangehaalde censurering van de sociale media en het inperken van de privacy.....

Deze zaak vertoont opvallende gelijkenissen met de Britse Labour politicus Jeremy Corbyn, die voor de laatste verkiezingen in Groot-Brittannie door de reguliere media daar, inclusief de zogenaamd onafhankelijke BBC, werd gedemoniseerd, zo erg dat men hem zelfs antisemiet noemde........ Als bij Sanders nu, werd ook Corbyn door de top van zijn eigen partij besmeurd......

Verder merkt Hedges op dat hij al in 2016 wist dat Sanders de voorverkiezingen en zeker de presidentsverkiezingen niet zou winnen en hetzelfde zegt hij over de huidige verkiezingen en zoals je wellicht weet, ik ben van hetzelfde overtuigd. Sanders moet en zal de verkiezingen verliezen, in 2016 gebeurde dit door de top van de Democratische Partij en dan m.n. Hillary Clinton die op een smerige manier de Democratische voorverkiezingen won en toen dat uitkwam werd Russiagate verzonnen, om de aandacht af te leiden van de mails die door een klokkenluider werden geopenbaard en waaruit bleek dat Clinton en haar team een smerig spel hebben gespeeld met Sanders..... De klokkenluider was een lid van haar campagneteam, t.w. Seth Rich die vanwege frustraties over het misdadige gedrag van Clinton e.e.a. naar buiten bracht.....**

Het artikel van Hedges werd geplaatst op Information ClearingHouse (onder het volgende artikel kan je klikken voor een Nederlandse [Dutch] vertaling, dit neemt wel enige tijd in beslag):

Class: The Little Word the Elites Want You to Forget

By Chris Hedges

March 03, 2020 "Information Clearing House" - Aristotle, Niccolò Machiavelli, Alexis de Tocqueville, Adam Smith and Karl Marx grounded their philosophies in the understanding that there is a natural antagonism between the rich and the rest of us. The interests of the rich are not our interests. The truths of the rich are not our truths. The lives of the rich are not our lives. Great wealth not only breeds contempt for those who do not have it but it empowers oligarchs to pay armies of lawyers, publicists, politicians, judges, academics and journalists to censure and control public debate and stifle dissent. Neoliberalism, deindustrialization, the destruction of labor unions, slashing and even eliminating the taxes of the rich and corporations, free trade, globalization, the surveillance state, endless war and austerity — the ideologies or tools used by the oligarchs to further their own interests — are presented to the public as natural law, the mechanisms for social and economic progress, even as the oligarchs dynamite the foundations of a liberal democracy and exacerbate a climate crisis that threatens to extinguish human life.

The oligarchs are happy to talk about race. They are happy to talk about sexual identity and gender. They are happy to talk about patriotism. They are happy to talk about religion. They are happy to talk about immigration. They are happy to talk about abortion. They are happy to talk about gun control. They are happy to talk about cultural degeneracy or cultural freedom. They are not happy to talk about class. Race, gender, religion, abortion, immigration, gun control, culture and patriotism are issues used to divide the public, to turn neighbor against neighbor, to fuel virulent hatreds and antagonisms. The culture wars give the oligarchs, both Democrats and Republicans, the cover to continue the pillage. There are few substantial differences between the two ruling political parties in the United States. This is why oligarchs like Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg can switch effortlessly from one party to the other. Once oligarchs seize power, Aristotle wrote, a society must either accept tyranny or choose revolution.

The United States stood on the cusp of revolution — a fact President Franklin Roosevelt acknowledged in his private correspondence — amid the breakdown of capitalism in the 1930s. Roosevelt responded by aggressively curbing the power of the oligarchs. The federal government dealt with massive unemployment by creating 12 million jobs through the Works Progress Administration (WPA), making the government the largest employer in the country. It legalized unions, many of which had been outlawed, and through the National Labor Relations Act empowered organizing. It approved banking regulations, including the Emergency Banking Act, the Banking Act and the Securities Act, all in 1933, to prevent another stock market crash. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration provided the equivalent in today’s money of $9.88 billion for relief operations in cities and states. The Democratic president heavily taxed the rich and corporations. (The Republican administration of Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s was still taxing the highest earners at 91%.) Roosevelt’s administration instituted programs such as Social Security and a public pension program. It provided financial assistance to tenant farmers and migrant workers. It funded arts and culture. It created the United States Housing Authority and instituted the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which established the minimum wage and set a limit on mandatory work hours. This heavy government intervention lifted the country out of the Great Depression. It also made Roosevelt, who was elected to an unprecedented fourth term, and the Democratic Party wildly popular among working and middle-class families. 
The Democratic Party, should it resurrect such policies, would win every election in a landslide.

But the New Deal was the bête noire of the oligarchs. They began to undo Roosevelt’s New Deal even before World War II broke out at the end of 1941. They gradually dismantled the regulations and programs that had not only saved capitalism but arguably democracy itself. 
We now live in an oligarchic state. The oligarchs control politics, the economy, culture, education and the press. Donald Trump may be a narcissist and a con artist, but he savages the oligarchic elite in his long-winded speeches to the delight of his crowds. He, like Bernie Sanders, speaks about the forbidden topic — class. But Trump, though an embarrassment to the oligarchs, does not, like Sanders, pose a genuine threat to them. 
Trump will, like all demagogues, incite violence against the vulnerable, widen the cultural and social divides and consolidate tyranny, but he will leave the rich alone. It is Sanders whom the oligarchs fear and hate.

The Democratic Party elites will use any mechanism, no matter how nefarious and undemocratic, to prevent Sanders from obtaining the nomination. The New York Times interviewed 93 of the more than 700 superdelegates, appointed by the party and permitted to vote in the second round if no candidate receives the required 1,991 delegates to win in the first round. Most of those interviewed said they would seek to prevent Sanders from being the nominee if he did not have a majority of delegates in the first count, even if it required drafting someone who did not run in the primaries — Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio was mentioned — and even if it led to Sanders’ supporters abandoning the party in disgust. If Sanders fails to obtain 1,991 delegates before the convention, which appears likely, it seems nearly certain he will be blocked by the party from becoming the Democratic candidate. The damage done to the Democratic Party, if this happens, will be catastrophic. It will also all but ensure that Trump wins a second term.

As I wrote in my Feb. 17 column, “The New Rules of the Games,” “Sanders’ democratic socialism is essentially that of a New Deal Democrat. His political views would be part of the mainstream in France or Germany, where democratic socialism is an accepted part of the political landscape and is routinely challenged as too accommodationist by communists and radical socialists. Sanders calls for an end to our foreign wars, a reduction of the military budget, for ‘Medicare for All,’ abolishing the death penalty, eliminating mandatory minimum sentences and private prisons, a return of Glass-Steagall, raising taxes on the wealthy, increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, canceling student debt, eliminating the Electoral College, banning fracking and breaking up agribusinesses. This does not qualify as a revolutionary agenda.”

“Sanders, unlike many more radical socialists, does not propose nationalizing the banks and the fossil fuel and arms industries,” I continued. “He does not call for the criminal prosecution of the financial elites who trashed the global economy or the politicians and generals who lied to launch preemptive wars, defined under international law as criminal wars of aggression, which have devastated much of the Middle East, resulted in hundreds of thousands of dead and millions of refugees and displaced people, and cost the nation between $5 trillion and $7 trillion. He does not call for worker ownership of factories and businesses. He does not promise to halt the government’s wholesale surveillance of the public. He does not intend to punish corporations that have moved manufacturing overseas. Most importantly, he believes, as I do not, that the political system, including the Democratic Party, can be reformed from within. He does not support sustained mass civil disobedience to bring the system down, the only hope we have of halting the climate emergency that threatens to doom the human race. On the political spectrum, he is, at best, an enlightened moderate.”

The Democratic Party leaders are acutely aware that in a functioning democracy, one where the rich do not buy elections and send lobbyists to Washington and state capitals to write laws and legislation, one where the danger of oligarchic rule is understood and part of the national debate, they would be out of a job.

The Democrats, like the Republicans, serve the interests of the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. The Democrats, like the Republicans, serve the interests of the defense contractors. The Democrats, like the Republicans, serve the interests of the fossil fuel industry. The Democrats, along with the Republicans, authorized $738 billion for our bloated military in fiscal 2020. The Democrats, like the Republicans, do not oppose the endless wars in the Middle East. The Democrats, like the Republicans, took from us our civil liberties, including the right to privacy, freedom from wholesale government surveillance, and due process. The Democrats, like the Republicans, legalized unlimited funding from the rich and corporations to transform our electoral process into a system of legalized bribery. 
The Democrats, like the Republicans, militarized our police and built a system of mass incarceration that has 25% of the world’s prisoners, although the United States has only 5% of the world’s population. The Democrats, like the Republicans, are the political face of the oligarchy.

The leaders of the Democratic Party — the Clintons, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Tom Perez — would rather implode the party and the democratic state than surrender their positions of privilege. The Democratic Party is not a bulwark against despotism. It is the guarantor of despotism. It is a full partner in the class project. Its lies, deceit, betrayal of working men and women and empowering of corporate pillage made a demagogue like Trump possible. Any threat to the class project, even the tepid one that would be offered by Sanders as the party’s nominee, will see the Democratic elites unite with the Republicans to keep Trump in power.

What will we do if the oligarchs in the Democratic Party once again steal the nomination from Sanders? Will we finally abandon a system that has always been gamed against us? 
Will we turn on the oligarchic state to build parallel, popular institutions to protect ourselves and to pit power against power? Will we organize unions, third parties and militant movements that speak in the language of class warfare? Will we form community development organizations that provide local currencies, public banks and food cooperatives? Will we carry out strikes and sustained civil disobedience to wrest power back from the oligarchs to save ourselves and our planet?

In 2016 I did not believe that the Democratic elites would permit Sanders to be the nominee and feared, correctly, they would use him after the convention to herd his followers into the voting booths for Hillary Clinton. I do not believe this animus against Sanders has changed in 2020. The theft this time may be more naked, and for this reason more revealing of the forces involved. If all this plays out as I expect and if those on the left continue to put their faith and energy into the Democratic Party, they are not simply willfully naive but complicit in their own enslavement. No successful political movement will be built within the embrace of the Democratic Party, nor will such a movement be built in one election cycle. The struggle to end oligarchic rule will be hard and bitter. It will take time. It will require self-sacrifice, including sustained protest and going to jail. It will be rooted in class warfare. The oligarchs will stop at nothing to crush it. Open, nonviolent revolt against the oligarchic state is our only hope. Oligarchic rule must be destroyed. If we fail, our democracy, and finally our species, will become extinct.

Chris Hedges, spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years.

https://www.truthdig.com/author/chris_hedges/

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*  Palmolie dat tegenwoordig in heel veel levensmiddelen is verwerkt, olie die slecht is voor het lichaam, maar ja deze plutocraten hebben schijt aan de volksgezondheid, terwijl ze ook die 'tak van industire' in handen hebben en hoe meer chronische en dodelijke ziekten, hoe beter het is voor de farmaceuten en de geprivatiseerde gezondheidszorg.....  

** Seth Rich werd vermoord, kort nadat hij mails van Clinton had gelekt naar WikiLeaks..... Volgens de politie een roofmoord, terwijl hij werd gevonden met al zijn zichtbare sieraden en zijn portefeuille, waaruit geen geld was ontvreemd........

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