I'm one of those people that always look for stories, about the human cost in our nation and across the world as to perfectly legitimate 'believers,' in our Democracy and other nations have gotten simply tossed aside and forgotten, like those same people on the Titanic were unable to fit into the lifeboats as that great ship went down.
These are the the stories I gravitate to everyday because in the end, that is what matters to me. How my fellow men and women and their own families, across the board played by the rules all their lives, worked hard, duly sacrificed on a daily basis to uphold the American Dream, and got fully screwed and thrown overboard but for whom, and why that has happened, has yet to be fully addressed by our nation, our Congress, our own President and remains, the one issues that refuses to be addressed:
Accountability. How we got here, why we got here, and who should be truly held responsible for those Americans (and international citizens) who are now being again, and again and again, told that it is they that are (again) expected to sacrifice even more. That is unacceptable on all accounts.
There is a wonderful and heart breaking story of yet another American that exemplified this today up and running on Huffington Post, and over the past few years, I've read so many of these stories, and each one of them is just as real as the truth can get, as to where we are in our nation, as I watch those same Americans being thrown aside, as if they were nothing more than 'road kill,' by both parties, as no one in our own government including our own Democrats refuse to put the petal to the metal of how we got here, why we got here, and who should pay the check after the 'Dubya and Obama Party of the Century,' continues to be ignored and carried on.
Shit, no one more than me, wants to believe in our Democratic Party Platform, but how can I when the empty and meaningless soaring rhetoric, is never back up with action by our own party? That is unacceptable.
I urge you to read it about a simple American couple, who played by all the rules, and still got totally fucked in the end, through no fault of their own. And here is yet another duplicitous soaring rhetorical speeches that is meaningless for our own party, by President Obama:
President Obama, in his 2011 State of the Union address, talked about how most people could remember the good old days, when getting a job meant showing up at a factory after finishing high school. "If you worked hard, chances are you’d have a job for life, with a decent paycheck and good benefits and the occasional promotion," the president said, adding that he understood "the frustrations of Americans who’ve seen their paychecks dwindle or their jobs disappear -- proud men and women who feel like the rules have been changed in the middle of the game." "They’re right," Obama continued. "The rules have changed."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
But the real question is this: Why have the 'rules changed?' Could it be what most of the decent and truthful financial blogs in and honest economists have been saying for years, since the Great Heist of 2008? I mean let's not go there. That would be too horrifying to admit about our own party.
This is what is known as a the huge 'black whole that is sucking us all dry' in our own party, that no one dares to face and deal with. That would mean we all had to admit why the feckless AG Holder who has every damn reason to prosecute Goldman Sachs as presented by Senator Carl Levin and his Senate Panel, including the Fake Pecora Commission, gave the same information and proof to AG Holder on a silver platter.
Here is how it is all working out:
The basic premise of this diary, as to the real issue here is why the 'Rules Have Changed,' but no one is more on the dime than William K. Black has been who sent thousands of Bankers to jail in the 1980's.
Still Banking on Fraud
Reforms Fail to address the “control fraud” that caused the financial crisis.
By William K. Black
A truly amazing thing has happened in banking. After the worst financial crisis in 75 years sparked the “Great Recession,” we have
Failed to identify the real causes of the crisis.
Failed to fix the defects that caused the crisis.
Failed to hold the CEOs, professionals, and anti-regulators who caused the crisis accountable—even when they committed fraud.
Bailed out the largest and worst financial firms with massive public funds.
Covered up banking losses and failures—impairing any economic recovery.
Degraded our integrity and made the banking system even more encouraging of fraud.
Refused to follow policies that have proved extremely successful in past crises
Made the systemically dangerous megabanks even more dangerous.
Made our financial system even more parasitic, harming the real economy.
And pronounced this travesty a brilliant success. The Bush and Obama administrations have made an already critically flawed financial system even worse. The result is that the banking industry’s future is bad for banking, terrible for the real economy, horrific for the public—and wonderful for the top executives at the largest banks. This is significantly insane, especially given that over the past 30 years, the savings-and-loan fiasco and other crises provided ample opportunity to learn about those flaws. It appears that we will need to suffer another depression before we are willing to put aside the crippling dogmas that have so degraded the financial system, the real economy, democracy, and the ethical standards of private and public elites.
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/...
What could be clearer than that last statement, in this amazing article by William K. Black, that Yves Smith, and Simon Johnson and Joe Stieglitz ,Paul Krugman, Robert Kuttner and Robert Ried simply keep pointing out day after day. And these people actually represent a very small list of other people in our nation that are all saying what William K. Black is saying.
Damn right the 'rules have changed,' but let us understand this central reality (as we dare to call ourselves a reality based community) it did not just happen because of the Republicans, the same New and Better Blue Dog Democrats, are the same voices that are now drowning out the real deal, of why we are at this point in our nation:
We've come to the very end our our rope as a Democracy and a true belief in our government for many reasons, and I know the history behind it and why we got where we are today.
This is the reality: the so called Austerity movement in our nation (by both parties) has become a huge, huge fail. Where the rubber meets the road, is where our own party is failing us. And I for one, am sick and tired of just blaming the horrifying cut throat Republicans.
Just to go back to the 'New Rules' that was presented in this heartbreaking reality of how our own party has under minded our own party platform, understand these realities from the same Huffington Post article:
1. Don’t Be Old.
2. Don't Be Unemployed.
3. Don't Pin Your Hopes On College.
4. Don't Expect To Make More Money At Your Next Job.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
In this great article, under each of those categories are the realities of where we have come to as a nation, and why we are where we are today.
I for one would add my own new rules to that list:
5. Don't expect the Democrats to stand up against the endless wars that are draining us dry, they will not.
6. Don't expect the Democrats, to finally 'get out their comfortable shoes to stand up for all the States and march with the Unions members' of this nation, because they are not, and I don't expect that to happen. BTW, stop with any fucking excuses for this, ok?
7. Don't expect the Democrats to re-negotiate any NAFTA or so called Free Trade Agreements with any countries, for the continued 'Globalization,' that keeps selling our jobs overseas, because that is delusional at best. No more excuses, again.
8. Don't expect any Democrats to end the 'fake bullshit filibuster,' or the new bullshit fake Supreme Court agreement to make the Corporate take over of our nation of political contributions anything different than what it is: a total totalitarianism 'sure deal' that gets all of them 'off the hook,' to continue their Oligarchy and Plutocracy, while they continue to divide us on social issues and fake Christian family values.
9. Don't expect any Democrats to stand up for real Gay Rights, or Immigration or civil rights, because they continue to let that slide by year after year. And finally:
10. Don't you ever dare to believe that any of the Democrats or the Republicans will ever hold those that led out nation into total despair and ruin: Wall St./the Banks, the Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan's of the world, that are still being allowed to illegally throw people out of their own homes, will ever be addressed. TOTALLY NO MORE EXCUSES.
There is a lot more I could add to that list, but the crux of what I am trying to get across is very clear here: The rules have changed because we have no other rules that are being held as true, honest that uphold the laws of our nation, or our party platform. It really is that simple.
We need to move away from the insanity of the destroyed Republican Party, that is going down in flames, (fireworks from the 4th of July on this in Boston Harbor) and hold our own President and our own party accountable.
Number 10 on my own list is probably the most important issue of all. If we have no faith in our own financial markets, then what does that mean? It means we all know that every thing is rigged, everyone got paid off in our government, and there are no laws that are protecting those that:
THEY PLAYED BY THE RULES AND THEY GOT SCREWED. GET OVER IT. That is unacceptable under either party. That is what is at the heart of our Democracy. Without that, we have nothing.
All of us as behind President Obama, but he has got to give us more to believe in, and that is a viable question for everyone in this nation now. The impetus is on him as a leader to lead us out of this wilderness, and to be willing to step away from the Corporate takeover of the American people who elected him into office, who depended upon him, to answer the great call, of all the people of this nation is a once in a century calling. That is not a hallow argument, that is a real calling.
How many others have to call on him? Matt Taibbi got it right on this video I've included: he said specifically: this is the last opportunity, we have to get it right.
In a video interview with RT America, Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi, the author of Griftopia, says that as of now, and until the government more aggressively prosecutes financial fraud, Wall Street has a continued incentive to bend the rules in their favor. (Hat tip to Naked Capitalism.)
Since the financial crisis, Taibbi has been one of Wall Street's most outspoken critics. Earlier this month, Taibbi wrote "The People. vs. Goldman Sachs," a sweeping investigation into the Senate report on Goldman Sachs that accused the investment bank of profiting by misleading investors.
"There's really no incentive going forward for people on Wall Street not to commit crimes," Taibbi says in the interview. "The number one thing that came out of this whole period is that there were absolutely no consequences for any of the people that committed this widespread fraud."
And that last paragraph completely explains this diary I have written:
Damn Right the Rules Have Changed.
So my dear friends on this site (and I know who you are), we can be brave enough, we can be tough enough, and we can be honest enough to know, that this 'racket' and 'duplicitous,' crap has worn itself out in both parties, and no one is buying that anymore. The failed end to Medicare and cutting Social Security is all done, by both parties, to pay for the sins of Wall St./the Banks. It's a done deal.
We are at a moment in history, like no other in our own party. Our President has now regained the most amazing political capital he and another new mandate he has had since he was elected. I have deep questions about how we got there, at this point in time, as to the MIC and the Imperial Presidency, but I am more than willing to admit, when the fire is very hot, and ready, then that is an opportunity that should not be missed or ignored or totally wasted for those that stood by him from the very beginning.
Every single really great President in our country had their own decisions and their own faults, and I'm more than willing to give them all that. I do not envy their jobs, but I do know this much: If President Obama turns away from the American people now, the Middle Class, the Unions and to truly stand up against the cut throat Republican Machine, to allow them to all take down what is left of the Middle Class who put him into office, then I suppose that all I have left now is knowing that our last true hope is all gone.
The great thing I've always loved about this site, is that we still have (despite our total pie wars) is that we keep fighting for that same hope together. We keep trying to figure it all out. We keep holding true to our own party platform, which I still believe is why more important than any President we can elect.
It is perfectly viable argument to 'agree to disagree' on this site, with civility and respect for our different beliefs. That is what Democrats do. What is not ok, is to give our own President and our own Democrats a pass when the 'Rules Have Changed,' and not to own up to why they have changed, and to hold them all accountable. And most of all to stop just blaming the now 'Jokes of the entire nation,' the Republicans who are blowing themselves up day after day.
Our only impetus should be upon our own President, and our own party Leaders. This is their time, and this is their moment. Let us not waste that time anymore.
So with love for all of you, and for the party that I love, I say carry on, be respectful, try to give compassion to each person that is in despair, and understand the truth. We are in a deep paradigm shift not of our own making. When others on this site are just reaching out for compassion, and even if they want to rant, well shit, let them rant a bit. I made a promise to myself this year, to try to be more giving and understanding, but still to hold my own party accountable. Strangely enough other people on this site, and digging in my own garden gave me back that perspective, but still. We are a lot stronger than we think we are. Don't lose faith and hope, and don't remember the fact, that President Obama now has the upper hand, and to steal the Bully Pulpit back, and to be a great President of a lifetime. That is up to him now, but it is also up to all of us to remind him that our votes and money and power behind him in 2012, is not a 'done deal.' It is way past time for him and our own Party to earn those votes and our support back. We've done our part, and we've done more than that. I'm so proud of you all for sticking by that, but now 'the rubber is meeting the road,' and there is no shame in that. That is how real changes happens in our nation.
I'm just saying....
Thanks as always.
Ms. B.