My Starting Point

[degringolade]

 

Impressionism / Edgar Degas/ Portraits at the Stock Exchange

"Over the last thirty years, the United States has been taken over by an amoral financial oligarchy, and the American dream of opportunity, education, and upward mobility is now largely confined to the top few percent of the population.  

Federal policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful (though sometimes badly mismanaged) industries.  These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, namely the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of America’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry. 

If allowed to continue, this process will turn the United States into a declining, unfair society with an impoverished, angry, uneducated population under the control of a small, ultrawealthy elite.  Such a society would be not only immoral but also eventually unstable, dangerously ripe for religious and political extremism."

Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation, 2012

Comments

double wow

[chefxh]

What a concise and prescient 3 paragraphs. 100% agreed as a first thesis. No specific mention of mobs of armed proles, but yeah.

And what a great and timely Degas!!!

SPEAKING OF CON JOBS

[mschmidt]

Another example of putting the nation first.
Nice Con:

Friday filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show Trump and the GOP raised at least $207.5 million in the 19 days after the November 3 election, with donor solicitations utilizing false claims about widespread voter fraud. The RNC's online contribution platform, WinRed, reported raising $68 million, which it then funneled directly into Trump political action committees and Republican campaign coffers. On January 6, the same day that Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, the Trump Make America Great Again group pled for donations, claiming the election had been "stolen."