Monday, January 06, 2014

Charlie Pierce Ponders The Coming Kochocracy


From Esquire:
...
This is what Citizens United hath wrought. It has infested our politics with money-whipped italics. Two freaking guys. One election cycle. This is the power or organized money. It has bought virtual plutocracy in state governments from Wisconsin to North Carolina. It has bought itself the single worst Congress in the history of the Republic. And it is growing in strength, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it, because Citizens United was decided in such a way as to choke off any regulatory solutions, and then Shelby County came along as the hook off the jab and what electoral remedies could not be buried under the floodtide of money could be washed away by the state legislatures in those virtual plutocracies. (Watch the states. That's where the real mischief happens, and that mischief makes the "loss" in the 2012 presidential race more than a little irrelevant.) At least in our last Gilded Age, enough of the ruling oligarchs hated each other as to leave something of a political opening for the Progressive movement to exploit. This time around, they've all learned. They work together, in secret, with the blessing of the Supreme Court of the United States, and they've managed to set this rigged game in cement.
...
If I had the dough, I'd start setting up a library on Trantor.

Since I don't have the dough, I'll just do what little I can with what little I have.

I'm not a quitter.  But now that Team "Worse Than Boosh!" has kicked me out of the movement for insufficient ideological purity, I'm taking a little holiday from being a joiner too. Sticking with my job as Tom Bombadilhere on the edge of the world, running my single-shingle, pie-and-coffee shop , serving my own hot, home-cooked essays with a scoop or two of hand-made graphics.


One post a day, every day, more or less.


Maybe one day our internet billionaires will tire of buying media empires to play with and will bankroll a Liberal political infrastructure just for goofs.  Now that would be entertaining: like watching Vedic gods beating each other with giant bags of cash.

Until then, I wish the Purity Caucus the best of luck on 2016.   I'm sure after they take the White House and establish working majorities in both the House and Senate, things will start to get better.

9 comments:

JerryB said...

I was kinda sorry Tom Bombadil didn't make the movie. I always liked that part of the story.

Horace Boothroyd III said...

But now that Team "Worse Than Boosh!" has kicked me out of the movement for insufficient ideological purity, I'm taking a little holiday from being a joiner too

Sadly, there's a lot of that going around these days.

Fortunately for me, and the country, GOP sacrificial lambs in my neck of the woods count an 80-20 ass whuppin' as a respectable showing. This affords me the luxury of placing my resources where they can do the most good.

It is tiresome, then, having to fend off sabotage from the Purity Trolls and the "not a dime's worth of difference" crowd. Like President Gore would have given away trillions of dollars to his rich buddies, and wasted trillions more on pointless invasions of the desert.

gratuitous said...

Oh, just put on your big boy pants and deal with it. Lots of people have disappointments, lots of people have to get by on something other than their native talent, which by all accounts (yours, for sure) is so freakin' huge, you should be able to set up a library on Trantor.

Enough with the "nobody appreciates me and my enormous talent" nonsense. You want unconditional approval? Buy a dog.

Monster from the Id said...

In case it helps, Drifty:

In the very long run, the Malefactors Of Great Wealth are preparing their own ruin. Their continuing wealth, and thus their continuing power, depends on their being able to plunder the poor countries of the world of their labor and material resources at cut-rate prices, with impunity.

That impunity depends on their tame pet US Govt. being able to maintain its huge, and hugely expensive, military, covert-action, and intelligence apparatuses {apparati?), as the final resort for the plutocrats when their local proxies are too weak or incompetent to suppress the exploited masses.

Maintaining that huge "security" apparatus, in turn, depends on the continuing health of the US economy--the same US economy which is slowly being gutted by the very policies the plutocrats favor--which means the day will come when they can't maintain that security apparatus any more.

No other country can substitute for the USA in maintaining the plutocratic world order, but the plutocrats are slowly destroying the USA.

Babylon's own lords are chanting down Babylon, and they're not smart enough to know it.

Selah.

Jerome R. said...

For me, the Professional Left IS the library on Trantor. It contains a record of the political history of the past 40 years, which pretty much covers the ongoing collapse of our Republic. It isn't galactic in scope like the Foundation, but it is a brave effort to preserve what liberal/progressive principles remain against the galactic tide of ignorance that closes in around us.

Jerome R. said...

For me, the Professional Left IS the library on Trantor. It contains a record of the political history of the past 40 years, which pretty much covers the ongoing collapse of our Republic. It isn't galactic in scope like the Foundation, but it is a brave effort to preserve what liberal/progressive principles remain against the galactic tide of ignorance that closes in around us.

Anonymous said...

Is your graphic from the Bulletboys first album cover? I haven't seen that since 1989. Oh and gratuitous... Have a look at the graphics, they're practically perfect and have a fucking word with yourself because you're coming across as quite the twat.

Spoontastic said...

Terminus not Trantor, unless I am missing some in joke.

Spoontastic

Read Meet !!~ said...

Yes , one of five post Reaganomgimics Democratic victories.