By Simon Johnson
The shadow primary for the Democratic Party is in full swing. What will be the ideas, themes, and messages that win support in 2016 – and will they carry the day in the presidential election?
You can vote now at the Big Ideas project on almost every viable proposal from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Expressions of interest will feed into conversations on Capitol Hill and with presidential candidates. Nearly 1 million votes have already been cast.
Voting ends Friday at noon. Currently, in the section on the Economy & Jobs, the proposal to restore Glass-Steagall is in third place; breaking up Citigroup is close behind. (Vote now for these or for your own priorities.)
I suggested Break Up Citigroup, but it is based directly on Elizabeth Warren’s December 12, 2014, speech on the Senate floor. (The Restore Glass-Steagall idea was proposed by Byron Dorgan, former Democratic Senator from North Dakota; Senator Warren has also proposed bipartisan legislation along these lines.)
Senator Warren made another powerful speech last week laying out what has gone wrong in America – and what can be done better in the future. She covers a lot of ground and lays out a compelling statement of the issues, including how to raise incomes for most Americans.
But everyone has to start somewhere, and this is where she begins,
We know that democracy doesn’t work when congressmen and regulators bow down to Wall Street’s political power – and that means it’s time to break up the Wall Street banks and remind politicians that they don’t work for the big banks, they work for US!”
You could start by reading Senator Warren’s recent speech and, if you agree with what she says, vote for her Big Ideas.
The Baseline Scenario 
I am more of the feeling that a Constitutional Convention is needed before then to resolve the country’s political issues, if you keep electing the same type of persons as politicians, you can never see real change on the street. They have broken the Constitution, can’t even do their own taxes, and the time for paying consequences is nearing.
I would be a supporter of Warren if she weren’t such a lockstep supporter of the apartheid-practicing, civilian-bombing government of Israel. That’s no small issue, especially given the endless war the U.S. is engaged in to deal with the resentments caused, in part, by the injustices that we facilitate there.
While I will be happy to support her ideas, I don’t want her to run for President this time. We need Progressive Senators on the Hill now more then ever, and someone really ought to find a way to make her stay where she can be more effective. and no, I have no desire to see Hillary run either.
N O T * G O I N G * T O * H A P P E N * ! * ! * !
1) Constitutional Convention to reform “the system”
2) The Senator’s foreign policy positions are sketchy at best, but closer observers say Senator Warren’s overall political positions (but necessarily her personal views) are more moderate/conservative leaning than one is led to believe from her current views on Finance, Banking, U.S. Domestic Economic policies.
3) Possible, but not probable… a guess would be that Senator Warren could still hold out for a presidential run if the issues that she seems to care and advocate, are insufficiently addressed by other presidential candidates. As a Senator in Congress, you are only One Vote out of 100. As POTUS, you have the bully pulpit, great influence, and actual power.
Of course more bad news on the horizon. Last week, John Podesta (who was in charge of President Obama’s transition team in 2008) has now accepted a campaign manager position with Hillary Clinton, should she make her formal, declarative announcement for all the world to nod in agreement with her.
In the meantime, Hillary is still crafting a universal theme and message that won’t appear too hypocritical, double-speak, cynical, out of touch, pandering, and other favorite buttons politicians like to push when trolling for votes.
Better yet, why not have Hillary’s fan base speak on her behalf, all the way up to and including the 2016 elections. Her fan base is so far made up of Howard Dean, Bob Frum, most (but not all of) the high profiled MSNBC commentators. How does MSNBC commentator Rachael Maddow view a Hillary candidacy? Perhaps in the same manner and way Rachael does many of her nightly MSNBC commentary – silly, goofy, with a light dash of sarcasm. It’s truly annoying (if not rather shocking…) to hear some of the analysis from a person who possesses a Ph.D. Don’t know if she’s a “sell out” but her media colleague Chris Hayes has certainly turned out that way from all observations.
The best distinction seems to be that Senator Warren acts (votes) on her words. Whereas Hillary Clinton has so far only made speeches, enjoying the celebrity until the media starts turning on her, her campaign, voting record as a Senator from New York, and her diplomatic actions taken as Secretary of State.
Who best to come up with a joke about Too Big To Fail….. for real…. Jimmy Fallon (from The Tonight Show NBC) teams up with Senator Warren in his monologue, broadcasted on January 13, 2015: unable to find the video link but search through google to find.
Well since we know it never happened before, we know it can never happen again. And again, there are no political solutions in 2016.
The socalled political, judicial, and economic systems, – particularly here in the land of Oz, – but globally are irreparably broken and cannot be fixed through, or by traditional political, judicial, or economic means. All these systems are infected with the same nefarious, toxic, lethal, and incurable disease that is rooted in the metastasizing cancers of greed and fascism.
We imagine freedoms, rights and protections that no longer exist. We hold to old ideas and ideals of democracy, the socalled ruleoflaw, of that nebulous thing called justice, of basic human rights, of the dim hope of whatever freedom means, – but none of these tattered and shredded arcane ideas, ideals, or hopes remain in this world, and particularly here in the land of Oz. The only hope for true freedom is to strangle the last king, (or oligarch, or mega corp executive) with the entrails of the last priest, (or imam or cleric or rabbi). All these foul, brutal, and ruthless systems, and the malevolent psychopathic individuals who control and perpetuate them are work in concert and collaboration to dominate, subjugate, or exterminate, those they deem lesser, – the 99%. There will be no end to the horrors until the horrormakers are redressed and forced out of positions of power. There are no political, judicial, or economic options available to the people, to the 99% here in the land of Oz, or globally to fix these horrorshow problems or redress these horrorshow crimes. All these systems must be “altered and abolished”, and the fascist overlords and mastersoftheuniverse, and all the thieving, pillaging, polluting, destructive oligarchs must be excoriated from the face of the earth. Out of the rubble and ruin, new worlds and systems will arrive, and only then will the hopes and dreams of the 99% live and flourish. It couldn’t be worse. Burn it all down. Reset. It’s the only option left for the 99%.
The technicians of politics are tasked with finding out what people want to hear and then crafting the bs so that they may believe that they actually heard what they wanted to hear, but they didn’t.
Do we really want to play that sick game again? That’s why having a Bush vs. Clinton match up is a blessing in disguise – it can be used as Prima Facie evidence in the new Declaration of Independence.
People have been brainwashed into believing that it is NOT a FOUNDATIONAL Law in the USA – the right to re-create a better situation because “power” corrupts….we are actually breaking the law by playing the game as the psycho has it set up now…
“….When in the Course of human events, it becomes NECESSARY for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…..”
I will NEVER bend my knee to GLOBAL War, Drug and Slave Lords. ANd I want their SLAVES – green card IT spies – to not be the actual “data” collectors – why should such people have ANY access to me and my live via e-communication and who are they distributing it to….? Do THEY plan to “copy” what the enronistas pulled off?
Well, guess what, there is nothing left – 480 people have 2.08 TRILLION….
I want Nihilists and torturers hauled out of the “meta data” spy collection agencies and given over to freakin’ crazed mob justice (think the lynching of Moussalini)
because the first thing those hooligan perverts ABUSING RELIGION did when I became an early adapter of the internet was to use all that information to STEAL my job and good reputation and everything I ever bought with my honestly earned FIAT $$$$s to PAY their salaries and purchase of fetishistic gizmos – rob Peter to pay PERVERT PAUL
And, really, all you political geniuses? After the concocted high-C aria of the first black President, the next step is a Clinton vs a Bush??!!
Or complete insane horror like CHRISTY who just STOLE the Teacher’s Union’s retirement fund and gave it to his pay-your-pal buddy at a HEDGE FUND – “Blackrock”?
How can money placed in funds during the 40+ previous years during the time when those people grew the USA economy to TRILLIONS – how can their/my money NOT have grown along with the economy that they/we/I grew??
How can anyone not gag on their own argument that raising minimum wage would crash and burn “the economy” when “the economy” crashed and burned while C-suite got what they wanted – paying themselves 6000 times more than the rest of the minions with green cards spinning the derivatives of delusion FOR them…?
I want to dissolve those political bands – any SANE person would!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/19/world-wealth-oxfam_n_6499798.html
cut and pasted:
In Congress, July 4, 1776,
THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That, to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed. That, whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such Principles and organizing its Powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the right of Representation in the legislature; a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the People.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws of Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of Peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens, taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions, We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in GENERAL CONGRESS assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions, DO, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly PUBLISH and DECLARE, That these United Colonies are, and of Right, ought to be free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Bri tain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that, as FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. AND for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
JOHN HANCOCK, President
Attested, CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary
New Hampshire: JOSIAH BARTLETT, WILLIAM WHIPPLE, MATTHEW THORNTON
Massachusetts-Bay: SAMUEL ADAMS, JOHN ADAMS, ROBERT TREAT PAINE, ELBRIDGE GERRY
Rhode Island: STEPHEN HOPKINS, WILLIAM ELLERY
Connecticut: ROGER SHERMAN, SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, WILLIAM WILLIAMS, OLIVER WOLCOTT
Georgia: BUTTON GWINNETT, LYMAN HALL, GEO. WALTON
Maryland: SAMUEL CHASE, WILLIAM PACA, THOMAS STONE, CHARLES CARROLL OF CARROLLTON
Virginia: GEORGE WYTHE, RICHARD HENRY LEE, THOMAS JEFFERSON, BENJAMIN HARRISON, THOMAS NELSON, JR., FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEE, CARTER BRAXTON.
New York: WILLIAM FLOYD, PHILIP LIVINGSTON, FRANCIS LEWIS, LEWIS MORRIS
Pennsylvania: ROBERT MORRIS, BENJAMIN RUSH, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, JOHN MORTON, GEORGE CLYMER, JAMES SMITH, GEORGE TAYLOR, JAMES WILSON, GEORGE ROSS
Delaware: CAESAR RODNEY, GEORGE READ, THOMAS M’KEAN
North Carolina: WILLIAM HOOPER, JOSEPH HEWES, JOHN PENN
South Carolina: EDWARD RUTLEDGE, THOMAS HEYWARD, JR., THOMAS LYNCH, JR., ARTHUR MIDDLETON
New Jersey: RICHARD STOCKTON, JOHN WITHERSPOON, FRANCIS HOPKINS, JOHN HART, ABRAHAM CLARK
He (the king) is dead, long live the king.
11 hours and 38 minutes to spare…..?