wall street

How Wall Street Screws AmericaWhat do these 13 Democrats have in common?

The 2016 presidential election presents the American working class with a historic moment.  No, I am not talking about the possibility of the first rich, neoliberal woman president.  Nor am I talking about the social democrat masquerading as a socialist.  Nor am I talking about the arrogant, racist, borderline fascist Donald Trump.

In his quasi-concession speech last Thursday, broadcast without a live audience (probably due to the fear of loud boos), Bernie Sanders began with the observation: “Election days come and go. But political and social revolutions that attempt to transform our society never end.”
In other words: Even if I concede, I want the movement I generated to continue.
Citing various ongoing mass movements, he declared: “And that’s what this campaign has been about over this past year. That’s what the political revolution is all about.”

As the wizard Gandalf declared during the darkest hour: “There never was much hope… Just a fool’s hope.”
The narrow thread of hope now rests on the Justice Department investigation into Hillary Clinton’s illegal concealment of her emails from the State Department she headed from 2009 to 2012. If she’s hit by a true scandal between now and the Philadelphia convention in July, all bets could be off.

Legal double standards are the norm in the U.S. – no jail for law-flouting Wall Street bankers but mass incarceration for average citizens, especially minorities, who get caught up in the prison-industrial-complex, as Michael Brenner describes. By Michael Brenner Illicit financial…Read more →

Over half the US electorate views the two leading candidates for the 2016 Presidential elections with horror and disdain.
In contrast, the entire corporate mass media, here and abroad, repeat outrageous virtuous claims on behalf of Hillary Clinton and visceral denunciations of Donald Trump.
Media pundits, financial, academic and corporate elites describe the prospects of her presidency as one of responsibility, national security, business prosperity and political normalcy.

Some questions for the moderate left
Are you a Bernie supporter and wondering if you will or can vote for Hillary if he loses the nomination? Or have you already decided that you’re for Hillary – either because she’s a woman or because we have an obligation to do anything we can to keep Trump out? Do you believe that it’s your obligation to vote and you would not be upholding your responsibility as a citizen if you didn’t vote?
Looks like hell is going to be a pretty crowded place

An old friend, the guy who made the video above, came over for a visit Sunday. It reminded me of what Bernie has been having to go through as he tries delivering his message about the corruption that has gripped the transpartisan Beltway establishment. I want to ask you to watch that short video clip. I want you to see it so you can watch how the same ugly, deceitful and divisive tactics the Clinton Machine is using to destroy Bernie comes right from the playbook she used against Obama in 2008.

Writer Shaun Kingby Gaius PubliusI'm looking ahead to the next stages of this unfolding drama, and setting up another installment in that series (Look Ahead part one here, Look Ahead part two here).

The crooked politicians who take money from the payday lenders have offered to sell their own constituents-- poor ones with little influence-- to the industry in return for campaign contributions. There has been a lot of talk about how Debbie Wasserman Schultz has bolstered the position of payday lenders and given them a green light for their predatory practices. Generally-speaking, though the payday lending industry goes to Republicans for support.