Tweet
I’ve been asking numerous people what Obama could do now, without needing the approval of Congress, to address many of the serious problems facing the country.
Bill Black responds:
1. Appoint (on a recess basis) Michael Patriarca as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
[Mike was the OCC wunderkind who was in charge of supervising the largest national banks then served as head of the OTS' West Region where he served with even greater distinction. He has worked since that time in banking and insurance as a senior manager and consultant. He is known for his competence, integrity, and courage.]
The FHFA remains under the control of the (second) acting director. Both acting directors had served as the senior leaders of FHFA’s predecessor (OFHEO) and failed dramatically as regulators. FHFA is in a superb position to provide decisive leadership on a wide range of critical issues (e.g., finding the true losses on CDOs, the true incidence of fraud, and the true incidence of foreclosure fraud and abuse).
2. Appoint Paul Volcker (on a recess basis) as Secretary of the Treasury. Accept Secretary Geithner’s resignation.
3. Appoint James Galbraith as the Comptroller of the Currency.
Here are things that could be announced tomorrow and are critical, but couldn’t be completed in a day:
1. Direct the FDIC and the FHFA to conduct a scientific sample of the incidence/extent of losses, mortgage fraud, and foreclosure fraud and criminal referrals (and failure to file criminal referrals) by the regulatory agencies and institutions.
2. Create a national “hot line” to report mortgage and foreclosure fraud.
3. Direct each financial regulatory agency to make the filing of appropriate criminal referrals (by the agency and the industry) a major priority. Create a national interagency task force composed of the regulators, the FBI, and the Department of Justice to coordinate and prioritize investigations and prosecutions. Create a “Top 100″ list of the most significant cases.
Bill Black is an Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri – Kansas City (UMKC). He was litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, deputy director of the FSLIC, SVP and General Counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and Senior Deputy Chief Counsel, Office of Thrift Supervision. He is also the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry.
158 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL Action
4. Put William K. Black in charge of finding and bringing to justice these ‘financial terrorists.’
Can we back our arses out of la-la land, already?
The states are cutting services for the most vulnerable. 15 million children in the US are going to sleep hungry. Obama’s Banking Cartels are waking away with 144Billion in taxpayer hard earned money, and the left is waiting for Godot. – I have nothing but contempt for Democrats and the self emasculating Left.
A civil war is percolating and even FDL seems oblivious to it’s surroundings.
WTF?
I was impressed with these responses yesterday, and now that I’ve had some time to mull it over, I’m even more impressed.
Pull back the experienced financial agents that were sucked into the ” homeland security fraud” PDQ.
This is the moment for Superman 0 to rip off the pretend business suit and come out fire breathing PROGRESSIVE reformer we think he should be.
Times up, S**t or get off the pot dude.
Where? Can you provide a link to one instance of targeted violence? One instance of sabatoge or revolution?
Take it down a notch. Yes, our country is in a state of near hopelessness. Yes, people in the US are losing their homes, kids are starving for food AND education. Yes, we’re almost all miserable. But does your spastic response about civil war and emasculating democrats help anything?
Again, an exercise in hopeful thinking. Didn’t Harry Reid and his DINO’s, with GOP support and glee, set a mechanism in place to prevent Obama from making recess appointments, just as he did to Bushco in 2007 +/-? As to mortgage/trust deed fraud, the Administration has come out in favor of status quo and defacto the MERS program, even as 40 States are investigating said fraud. Move along, nothing to see here.
Forget it!
It’s the people who need to get off their asses, Obama is fine where he is.
Jobs Every container and product should be inspected on entry to the USA.If we don’t make it here we should hands on inspect it.Home Land Security and product safety.
Wow @ a 90% old time republican income tax rate on that $ 144 billion would have financed $ 127.6 billion of 0′s $ 50 billion green project with some left over to do more. Those bastards can live on 14.4 billion in unearned bonuses.
Excellent recommendations. Any chance the WH will pay attention and act accordingly?
It certainly doesn’t help when people like you are blind to their surroundings.
You just want to wait until it’s happening in the Streets before you acknowledge the need to start pouring out into the Streets while such mass mobilization now could still avert violent confrontations later?
anecdotally, given that this is the same WH about to lift the ban on offshore drilling (really, what could go wrong ?) I’d say no
Oh, my.
All great ideas.
When was the last time Obama consulted with FDL though?
You’re organizing mass protests in your city, right?
I’m not blind to my surroundings at all, fuckno. I believe that civil war, or a second revolution, is the only thing at this point that can truly change our government. But we’re DECADES away from that, if ever.
Yep, I just want to wait until it’s happening in the streets. I’m raising two small children and have a beautiful wife and a decent job. Why the fuck would I take up arms against the government? Why would I leave my job to protest in the streets, and lose my job and home as a result? I can’t afford to do those things. If you can, good for you.
Enjoy running around in the street by yourself.
Thank you!
Kris, you are doing just fine. Pay no attention to the man under the tarp.
Not a chance.
Jane,
I would like to one other item to the list, which should be the first thing he does. RESIGN!!
With all due respect, people exactly like you are the ones who would need to join the revolution for it to work. I’m not talking about violence, I’m talking about general strikes and/or civil disobedience on a massive scale. I am self-employed with a decent job too and I would endanger that job in a second if my fellow citizens were to take to the streets. I can’t think of a better lesson you could teach your children, nor a better way to ensure them a future as something other than wage slaves in a third world country.
The question isn’t “what should Obama do?” (by now everyone has a pretty good idea of what he would do) but what should WE do?
Bluetoe you nailed in another thread. The people are on whole victims of the Stockholm syndrome. The majority love their abusers and will celebrate much further abuse. No civil war in my view.ahead. Just fasten your seat belts.
Re the financial industry, that’s where your ignorant lazy slobs live and Sixpaxk Joe will pay the price no matter how the mortgage crisis is reconciled or who is appointed to supervise it.
Who the fuck is talking about taking up arms? Am I, where?
Decades away? – get out your bubble and start protecting your kids and wife, before you’re reduced to living in Third World America, without public services, police, firefighters, teachers, etc.!
Excellent suggestions! Unfortunately, no way in hell any of them will be enacted.
Who, me? Disillusioned, pessimistic and cynical? Naw….
Really fucking helpful, arn’t cha?
Actually, KrisinCA, let me revise that: the very best thing you could do for your family is to get them out of this country. If I had small kids and any means of escaping, that’s what I would do.
I’ll continue to talk to my mayor, my city council members, my police chief, and my county and state government officials to try and affect change. I donate time and money to my kids’ school, my local politicians who have a clue, and places like the ‘Lake and their causes. I make phone calls, I campaign, and I try to change the future for my children. I hope you didn’t get the idea from my posts above that I do nothing.
I was simply challenging the troll because the troll cries for revolution and does nothing.
Axelrod on Face the Nation:
“The posture of the Republican Party from the moment we got here has been basically to deprive the president of bipartisan support so they could accuse him of not being bipartisan,” Axelrod said.
“So I’m hoping that with more seats, the Republicans will feel a greater sense of responsibility to work with us to solve some of these problems,”
Obama. Stop it.
Hope? Dream on…
LS
A nationwide general strike would bring the system to it’s knees in less than 2 weeks. The plutocrats would be on their private jets headed for Brazil, Switzerland and the Caribbean.
Unbelievable isn’t it? The ruling class is totally clueless.
The indications are that the PTB in DC don’t care what we do. I also get angry and frustrated but it’s just not possible for people who are dealing with no jobs, losing their homes, no health care etc. to plan a mass demonstration. There also are millions of us who are just too damned old. So please stop yelling at us because WE are not doing anything.
We all know about the problems but honestly even in the 20s and 30s people didn’t act until all other options had been explored. Americans will do what is right when all other options are not available. Protesting right now will be both ignored and ridiculed. Right now the majority of Americans are waiting for the boom days to return and nearly nothing anyone could say will convince them that it won’t happen. Protests work when Americans identify with the issues – right now they identify with whatever is popular on the teebee.
In order to organize a general strike the country needs to have a hell of a lot more union members than we do. Overqualified people are working dead end jobs just to have a job. You may be willing to go into the streets but how about the folks who may have families to support via that dead end job and you’re asking them to give up what little they have? Any type of strike by federal, state, county or city employees is cause for instant dismissal. This isn’t France.
Read my comment at 28.
Umm, here
You’re the one sellin’ woof tickets.
Worked like a charm for Clinton.
It’s all the black guys fault, we didn’t have any of these problems under Bush. Take up arms? WTF, with the largest police force in the world occupying a country the size of Texas with a population of 22 million the Iraqi “revolution” has turned out well these 7 years on. Life is a video game where the losers get stomped and the winners get the gold. If you take it down what goes up in its place?
I was underwhelmed also. The worst economic times since the depression and the first order of action is to appoint a new head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency?
Point to it! Put it in quotes.
What better way to keep the masses under control?
Keep them working at low paying jobs and deeply in debt and you’ll never hear a peep from them
Jane Hamsher thanks for pushing back against the common “Obama isnt a magical unicorn and he cant grant all your wishes” trope by pointing out for the record all the things he might do if he wished. That is, if he were morally, politically and ideologically predisposed to taking progressive action, which we all say he is not.
I didn’t think that for a minute. And I suspect you would identify me as a troll as well, because I believe that all the actions you just listed are mostly fruitless on a national scale. If you’re lucky you can make things better in your community for another year or five years but the whole of America is going to come crashing down pretty fucking soon. My opinion is the sooner, the better. And I say that as the mother of a 29-year-old son, and a hardcore Democrat who has walked precincts and phone banked and run local and national campaigns and donated money and time to the party for his entire lifetime. I wish I could believe that would work to make the future better for my son and for your kids but the evidence seems to be that it won’t.
Slightly OT, O has just lifted the offshore drilling ban. The smell of a high octane gasoline is the smell of, well, power.
I’ve been here before, being castigated and derided by you , Jane and the ‘community’ as I was attempting to point out that Obama and the Dems. were total scheisters, – haven’t I?
In six months, after QE2 and austerity measures will be trotted out including cuts to SS and Medicare, you’ll be eating your words again.
Speaking of war implies armed conflict, no?
Mr. President,
Actions speak louder than empty campaign slogans.
Good ideas….how many jobs created? None.
Didn’t used to be that way until Reagan started union busting. Just the threat of a trucker’s strike by the Teamsters in the 50s prevented Congress from passing some bullshit legislation. Now we’re all consumers, attracted by all the shiny toys we just can’t live without. Given the times there are enough people to cross a picket line and take the jobs previously held by those on the line. Americans have voted against their own best interests for decades and now we’re all paying the price.
Point taken, but I don’t think the Repubs will change a thing this time. “No” works for them. There is absolutely nothing that Obama can do now, it is what he should have done already that matters. Besides, everything he has done is what a Repub would do. He loves “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”…only I thought he meant sting the Repubs like a bee. Nuh Uh.
and when the leadership of any opposition is weak and fractured it’s that much easier.
I support my entire family (three adults) too and I have zero – zero – employment security. No contracts. I have several clients who might put up with my absence for a day or two but that’s probably it. We have no health insurance, no retirement funds. We’ve just been through a foreclosure and a bankruptcy. We are two paychecks – or one moderately serious illness – away from homelessness. We’re just like a whole bunch of other Americans right now and let’s face it, we have very little left to lose. You’re right, this isn’t France.
Me too. I would move to Italy or France in a New York minute if I were younger.
It’s going to be downhill in this country for I think generations. We haven’t even figured out, much less begun to make the changes that will reverse the direction.
Without a doubt…
OBAMA IS A REPUBLICAN
Makes me want to pewk.
I think O has proved just what he can do. Say no to foreclosure moratorium. Run a ‘the other guy’s suck worse’ campaign. Raise money from his wealthy ‘electors.’ Send Big Dawg to do same.
It’s going to be downhill for the working and middle classes. For the ruling class it’s going to be paradise guaranteed by the public and private military.
Circular argument as usual and here’s a newsflash for you: it’s been a long time since there’ve been many Obamabots here on a steady basis. Just because I don’t agree with your smoke blowing doesn’t make your crystal ball any better than any other soothsayer’s. If and when you want to deal with this stuff on a reality based level I’ll stay out of your shit.
Does it? Should we then burn all history books? How about you read Chris Hedges for starters.
at some point thats going to have to be accepted. Badgering people online who more or less agree anyway isnt helpful, but there is a point to what fuckno is saying even tho fuckno seems to presume, at times, that no one else can see how bad things have gotten. Yes resisting them will hurt, but not resisting will hurt worse in the end.
Paint me a picture of your reality, so I can file it.
How many people do you know who are willing to join you? If you’ve discussed it with them what was their response?
Got any other tangents you’d like to explore?
It sure isn’t France. In France they still have viable and effective unions that are not intimidated by the government. The politicians know that they are always massive demonstration away from a repeat of 1968.
With you?
French unions are threatening wider strikes. It’s getting closer to a general strike in France. American workers and students have been neutered and made docile. I guess the ruling class has figured out that the U.S. public makes excellent lap dogs.
Let’s drag you back to my original question. What are you doing in your own backyard to make what you want to happen happen?
Sometimes it’s hard to know exactly where the thread will take you, isn’t it, Jane? :-)
do you remember DeGaulle? French workers did not win their famous benefits by writing letters to parliment, or threatening the bourgeoise with their mighty mighty votes.
Australia’s nice, and they speak English. “She be fine.”
That’s a good list, and if you add it to the suggestions folks have made concerning gay rights, the wars, and civil liberties, it’s pretty clear that there is plenty Obama could do if he were interested.
Yes. They will have their fantasy of paradise. But it will only create more misery. Even if wealthy I wouldn’t want to live in a country that has deified plunder and self-indulgence.
That says it all. Obama is working to get Republicasn elected so he
can ram through a far right agenda and call it bipartisan.
What a tool. He’s getting ready to grind us into dirt.
Oh, he’s gonna stand out in history alright, and it isn’t cause he’s black. Books will be written on this president’s betrayal of the nation; far surpassing the most infamous traitor in US history, Benedict Arnold.
Talking trash about Republicans while insulting gays and the “professional left” is all part of his strategy.
Wonder if any of the Dems figured this out yet?
Not that it matters. Obama is taking us down with
or without the Democrats.
Man, we’ve had some serious Executive liars in the past, but nobody
holds a candle to this guy. His entire package is a complete fraud.
Well, it can be enlightening. What’s on the tip of my tongue is It sucks to be you, not you econo…I hope you know. And, that’s in reference to how people treat each other, not the specifics of their circumstances.
I work alone, at home. I don’t pretend to be the one who can call up an army of workers. However, I live in Oakland – a place where people put their money where their mouths are – and most people I know would most certainly join a general strike. Your badgering aside, my personal inability to start a general strike does not mean we can’t talk about it. Or does it?
This is my back yard.
Obama has a very strong track record of putting people who create disasters in charge of fixing them. This can be seen in the way he handled the financial disaster as well as the oil disaster. This undoubtedly makes Obama an aider and abettor to many of our nation’s worst disaster capitalists. Now if we can only figure out a way to redefine those who engage in disaster capitalism, in business as well as in government, as criminals of the worst sort, up there with serial murderers and serial bank robbers, then we can say with a great degree of confidence that the rule of law has finally made its way back into the US. But until then, the US is well on its way to becoming a full-blown lawless state no different from Sudan or Somalia!
*g*
I don’t need to read Chris Hedges, just the dictionary.
Jobless America threatens to bring us all down with it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeremy-warner/8057069/Jobless-America-threatens-to-bring-us-all-down-with-it.html
Jane – none of the suggestions will have any effect on the election, even if they can be implemented before 11/2.And if the polls are correct, he will have an even more difficult time implementing anything with the new congress.
He needs something way more dramatic to influence next months results, and I really doubt that there is anything that will help and that he will do.
I’ve demonstrated in the streets, against war. Had no effect. Forget that. Anyhow this battle isn’t being fought in the streets, it’s being fought in people’s minds. Which is why we’re here, isn’t it, on a widely-respected and quoted blog. Call it Strategic Communication.
Strategic Communication
RICHARD HALLORAN
http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/parameters/Articles/07autumn/halloran.pdf
Great ideas and in a fantasy scenario they could happen. Unfortunately most of us have to live in reality.
“A civil war is percolating and even FDL seems oblivious to it’s surroundings.”
Where in that sentence do you hear me advocating for a violent revolution?!
you may not need to read C.H. – you do need to learn to read.
I didn’t say you wanted to start one, I asked you if those you know would join you in one. If you say that someone you know who works at Wal-Mart, for example, would join you I have no reason to not believe that. My question is, realistically, how many workers in Oakland would be willing to do the same thing? How many people would be willing to shut Oakland down, because that’s the purpose of a general strike?
{emphasis mine}
And therein lies the problem. With each passing day Obama demonstrates over and over and over again that he is not interested in progressive solutions to any problem we face.
How many times have we gone through this exercise of “if (Obama and/or Congressional Dems) do this, then…”? Jon Walker is a particular master of this art form. And yet not once have any of “our” Dems followed the advice of their lefty base.
It’s still a fun exercise, like the Times crossword puzzle, but at the end of the day it accomplishes nothing.
Tim Geithner is still Secretary of the Treasury. Ben Bernanke is still Chairman of the Fed. Goldman Sachs is still laughing all the way to the bank. Obama shoulda coulda woulda, but he won’t.
Ho, boy. Sayonara.
Right, we have 3000 years of history to ignore. and Colonel Tu won by petitioning the U.S. to leave.
The most readily available people to take to the streets are university students and labor groups.
Since labor leaders have been colluding with Obama since he took office, that leaves college students.
Considering they know there are no decent paying jobs out there, I’m wondering WTF is going on with them?
The difference between us, bucko, is I’m not being personally insulting. Enjoy your spaghetti, you’re very rude.
An interesting discussion, with both “sides” feeding each other. Roughly, we need militant masses in the streets. (we do)
That would be suicide. (it would)
What’s missing is some kind of transitional strategy, a non-suicidal way of getting from here to there. Let me be appallingly brief (rather than writing a series of books).
(1) We need to agree upon the principle that human need comes before corporate wealth. Not if it’s convenient. Not if it wouldn’t break the system. Not if they’ll let us.
(2) With that principle in need, build organizations on the basis of human need. Safety net. Jobs programs. Unemployment extensions. Healthcare as a human right. Opposition to Obama’s extensions of presidential powers.
Some might say such organizations already exist. They don’t. Not that are rock solid around point 1, human need comes before corporate wealth. Not that don’t hold their fire if it’s inconvenient for the Democratic Party.
(3) Do 1 and 2, you get organized forces demanding answers for those human needs, we confront the politicians, we confront the corporate barons. Etc., etc., etc.
At that point, there can be intelligent discussions about taking to the streets, general strikes. Meaningful discussions. So I’m not against bold talk and revolutionary rhetoric. But we have to respect the reservations of those who are not suicidal.
There’s a very human principle involved here. I may believe that revolutionary action is necessary. But I’m not dumb enough to go charging into the street when it’s painfully obvious that I’ll be doing so alone.
We talk about movements. But the essence of a movement is the development of expectations, that more people will be inspired by our actions, that it will grow, that it will make a difference. People aren’t just this or that in a vacuum. Those people who have made revolutions were just as afraid and conservative and even cowardly and venal as anybody here or elsewhere. But there are historic moments when a new world starts to become visible, when these former cowards perform the most incredibly heroic feats.
As the result of a process. So how do we engage politics in terms of the development of such a process?
Obama, his administration and the majority of Congress are neoliberals. That’s the agenda they’re going to follow. To think they’ll act against those interests is unrealistic.
Whenever I think about leaving, I think about how much I’ll miss the great pizza here, so I stay.
The working and middle class folks couldn’t be satisfied, or is it satiated? Everyone in the family worked, so everyone ‘needed’ a car. Mostly they needed the ‘job’ – not yet a career – to pay for the car’s huge expenses.
Union members – from coal miners to steel workers to teamsters to teachers – could earn enough to buy a second home for vacation time and weekends. Those second homes also needed plug-in room deodorizers, didn’t they? And the wood-gathering for the fireplace and wood stove needed a chain saw, which means you need a pick-up truck to hold you over until the sport utility van can be conceived.
No one listened when smart folks were saying we need to cut back voluntarily. You know, share a lawn mower with our neighbors, share a washing machine, things like that.
“You know, you never defeated us in a kinetic engagement on the battlefield.” Colonel Tu: “That may be so. It is also irrelevant because we won the battle of strategic communication—and therefore the war.”
The Large American anti war movement which captured and dominated media attention, was creating the narrative. Demonstrations and taking direct action absolutely have “effect”. Its ridiculous to suggest that we can win merely online
I don’t know anyone who works at Walmart. And Oakland has crazy high unemployment. But Oakland citizens have a long history of shutting things down when they get fed up enough with injustice.
Let me ask you: what, very specifically, are you doing – or even talking about – instead that would have the impact of a general strike? What do you believe we can do to change the course of events in our own lifetimes? I look forward to minimizing and making personal every single one of your ideas, so please proceed. This kind of dialogue makes for really pleasant interaction, and even better results, so let’s go.
Max Keiser, Cynthia McKinney & Peter Carty talk about the foreclusure scandal in the U.S.
http://maxkeiser.com/2010/10/12/max-keiser-cynthia-mckinney-peter-carty-talk-about-the-foreclusure-scandal-in-the-u-s/
I live in the Austin area, and while listening to the local news the other day when
the ACL concerts ended….a couple of young people were interviewed about their experience. They had perfect weather, all of the fun of the concerts….But!!!! They were pissed because, God Forbid, their texting and cell service wasn’t working fast enough for them. That’s what’s on their minds. Texting and cell phones. Without those services, they most likely wouldn’t show up for protests for a cause. /s
(Sorry for the length, but it’s time for Obama to be called out, not coddled.)
In response to Jane’s question and Mr. Black’s answer I repost part of the same answer I gave yesterday because in total, I think Obama ‘could’ have done a lot.
It’s the fact that he chose then and now not to do many things makes the question an impossible one to take seriously. He hasn’t ‘changed in two years, and in fact is getting worse. Ceding his Presidential recess authority over to the Minority right before an election crucial to Democrats retaining power, is a blazingly clear indicator of his loyalty to his interests, not the country’s – and certainly not ours.
A number of my peers have moved out of the country, mostly to Central America. They have a good life and the people are wonderful. But I fear they are exploiting the people’s poverty more than contributing.
Those who understand the imperatives for balance with what the planet can provide were shouted down by supply side economics coming from the man behind the curtain. Just follow the Yellow Brick Road.
Part of the problem is that only the wealthy kids can afford to go to
capitalist factorycollege and they’re not worried about the rest of us.I don’t know of anything else that has the effect of a general strike.
I used Wal-Mart as an example, not saying you actually knew someone who worked there, hypothetical for discussion purposes.
Exactly.
Like I said, it’s an interesting exercise and useful to the extent that it helps in arguing with the “Obama is doing his best” camp, but I’m not holding my breath for anything that might actually help the Dems next month. It simply isn’t in the DNA of the current Dem leadership to put the public interest ahead of business interests.
Back to work.
Namaste
Could be, but these young people could just as well not be college students. Although Austin is a college town, there are tons of young people who go to ACL concerts who have jobs, etc. The young people are pretty myopic these days…they don’t get drafted but they get Itunes.
thats what blogs CAN do, they can challenge media tropes and “conventional wisdon” and to a small extent build consensus and provide counter arguments. Thats what Jane does to such great “effect”. She painstakingly deconstructs the crap by giving them them the benefit of the doubt. If the PO is the reasonable “middle ground” then why not? If Obamas “hands are tied” by republicans, then what can he get done without thier consent? We very strongly suspect what the outcome will be but now it is a matter of record. As Jesus said to John the Baptist “Let all righteouness be fulfilled” or not…..
Hey, I never claimed that Obama was likely to appoint William K. Black to a powerful position where he could solve some problems. I was just giving a shout-out to a person I really admire. He and Jamie K. Galbraith are our Cassandras–no way in Hell will they be allowed to have any power to pull us out of this mess.
wal mart employees have been trying to organize for years. why hasnt the entire progressive community gotten behind that worthy cause?
Right about now, it’s like morality has been tossed out. It’s all about political survival.
How many people on here think that IF Obama could come up with something that would keep our losses to half of those big (Little used…like new!) congressional majorities, that would move Obama to the left, in the last half of his only term in office?
Currently, FDL is the most honest, reality-oriented, blog going, and I think the answer to the above question, is “not many”.
Some time about 6 months ago, I think the “salvage” boat left the station. Now, with the Titanic kicking up at about 30 degrees, it’s time for us to start thinking about which lifeboat to get into.
At this point, I like the one with Grayson sitting by the tiller. :o)
Thanks for the thoughtful response.
Am I distorting your meaning if I suggest it points to peer pressure and conformism as chief agents in the masses’ bargain?
“..the U.S. public makes excellent lap dogs.”
I didn’t think they were lap dogs. I thought most just feared or didn’t know how to adapt to the least bit of change. They’ve been eatin’ white bread all their lives and don’t take kindly to any strangers throwin’ a little wheat into their dough.
And then they get hacks like Beck or DeMint tellin’ em that anyone who says wheat is healthier are commie liberals pushing junk science.
So because it’s easier not to change, even it’s better for them, their children, their country or the planet, they chose to play a bunch of dumb-ass lap-dogs.
(No dis to real dumb-ass lap dogs.)
The American people have been brainwashed into thinking they’ve been
free to choose how to live their lives, but that’s bullshit.
Once Reagan opened the door for corporate empowerment over citizen empowerment, it was just a matter of time.
Mr. David Rockefeller, Bilderberg Group, April 1992:
“We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years……..It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supernational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries.”
you know what carrol? college has become a near complete waste of money. you were right to call it a capitalist factory, but maybe capitalist farm would be more appropriate. since reagan made college aid money a loan to be repaid with interest college tuitions haveprobably increased 10 fold or more.while salalries for the college educated are now dropping (for those that can find work). If i had it to do over again i would have worked my ass off to get into aUnion plumbing apprenticeship.
I agree, that is the power of the blogs and it is clear that we are having an effect on moving the terms of the debate. If we weren’t the WH wouldn’t be routinely insulting us : )
My point was that there is a vast difference between what Obama can do and what he will do, so sometimes I get peevish over wishful thinking.
However, it is essential that we continue to make it abundantly clear that there is a lot Obama could accomplish if he chose to. Then it makes a stronger case for recruiting and promoting a primary challenger to take him out in 2012.
So I’ll bite my peevish tongue and let the documentation carry on in earnest ; )
It’s sad that Jane’s post, which is after all about what could be done, is followed by about a hundred replys describing various way that our feet are nailed to the floor.
Bill Black has given us a fantastic list of actual options that if nothing else define the factual refutation of the “Oh No I Can’t” meme being pushed by our president.
Bill Blacks recommendations are all good.
I agree with other posters who think that Obama will not do these things. Still, it’s good to hold up some champions like Bill Black who do have effective solutions which would do much to turn this boat around.
If we could choose just one of Dr Black’s suggestions to really push, which would it be? I’d choose getting rid of Geithner.
yes thats extremely important because it gets right to the heart of the phony left right scam thats being run, to create the illusion that voters have two choices. There is one choice-vote or not. Either way the plutacracy wins. The more people that understand that, the better chance we have going forward. And the more that gets documented the more ability we will have to persuade.
The United States was fighting not to lose in Vietnam, rather than to win. But it was simply a losing cause. Anti-war activism was not a major factor. The narrative of being in a losing cause combined with events on the ground (e.g. a broken army) determined the outcome.
(We’re trying to do that with Afghanistan — change the narrative.)
Compare that to the present administration. Obama has given up trying to win — or “change” — and is merely trying not to lose, hoping that the opposition in 2012 will be even worse (a familiar situation in US politics).
The only way to change policy is to change the narrative, which is what blogs are good at. (There were no blogs in 1970.) “Hey Dude, you hate us and you expect us to vote for you?” — has more power, as it reaches millions of people on the airwaves, than any street demonstration.
That’s why we’re here.
Because there is no such organization as “the entire progressive community”! The entire progressive community as constituted isn’t capable of getting fully behind anything. IF such a cohesive entity could be built, we could get behind all sorts of things. That’s what I keep trying to address in my various obscure ways.
Polish Solidarity movement says it ain’t enough. I marched in Gdansk, I know.
Then perhaps stepping out from behind obscurity might be in order.
Yet you cite:
as though they existed in a vacuum. The anti-war movement was no small part of why it was seen as a losing cause, why the army broke, why the Vietnamese fought on with such determination, why the politicians didn’t fight to win (like using nukes). You’re just buying the right-wing revisionist line if you believe that.
Reagan was the guest Old Ranger on Borax’s Death Valley Days in the early 50′s when General Motors conned every municipality to rip up their electric trolley tracks to make the country more progressive. You could ride the bus to the appliance store in the 1960s and watch General Electric Theater on a 21-inch color TV, with Ronnie reminding you that “at General Electric, progress is our most important product”.
He was always an emcee.
Ugh, well that is pretty depressing.
They’re like coddeled androids.
I don’t have a roadmap. I don’t believe a roadmap is possible at this historic moment. I personally think Dump Obama is one such attempt, as it draws lines in the sand.
What needs to be done, in my humble opinion, is to begin finding ways to organize those most directly being destroyed — the homeless, the unemployed, the hungry, the poor. Can’t have confrontation without better organizational foundation. I’m just one guy. If I can get more people to support the notion that human need comes before corporate profit, and SAY SO WITH SOMETHING AKIN TO ONE VOICE (ay! there’s the rub), that’s success for one day.
But part of my obscurity is that I’m just one guy. If I owned the New York Times, I’d be less obscure.
How true.
Oil companies have owned Congress for 100 years. Why do you think we never had another viable energy choice? Congress has made damn sure of that. But flying killer robots? No problem.
Auto makers definitely influenced the destruction of mass transit, but the oil companies were the real force behind ripping out the trolley’s. Naturally they were behind the auto makers.
.
I agree with you on the need to mobilize, organize and channel the growing despair of the unemployed, foreclosed, uninsured, etc, into civil disobedience, before it takes a life of it’s own in a uncontrolled frenzy of reactive mayhem.
I certainly think peer pressures, style or the “narrative.” are powers that move the most of us. Carter and the environmentalists and the scientists don’t tell as attractive a story as did Reagan.
As has been pointed out here. He was a masterful shill. The shill is really all that supply side economics is about.
Ah, more rhetoric. That will certainly solve our problems.
I find it interesting-this world many of you live in where revolution is not a real thing, not a serious thing, not an effective tool to bring about change.
Whereas in the world where I live, revolutions-people actively confronting their oppressors-have been required to bring about pretty much every significant social/political change in recorded history.
Is he out of his ever-loving mind? The only thing more seats will encourage the Republicans to do is to be even more entrenched in their obstructionist practices, not less. And these guys are supposed to be experienced national politicians? What fucking turnip truck did they just fall off of?
Yup, and that’s a problem. Neoliberal is a funny word, it means something which is very old and illiberal.
But on the other hand, most politicians change thier beliefs about as often as they change thier underwear. They just need the right incentive.
Many many facets of the prism. One that comes to mind is that we probably have outgrown the genuine usefulness of an executive president, given the complexity and size of our society and the problems of its governance. Are we really capable, as individuals or groups, of contemplating anything smart as long as one person (and a man, at that) has the exclusive authority over, um, things like launching a nuclear attack? Never mind. Go to the next line.
When the WTC attacks served as a proof of concept, namely that our infrastructure and in many ways our ‘way of life’ is vulnerable (with a capital V for vendetta?), we woke up, got scared straight, and probably don’t know yet how to displace all the fear and worry. We are rather different for it all.
Similarly (!), when the financial collapse of late 2008 happened, it was also a kind of proof of concept. Instead of feeling that we’re held hostage to violent psychopaths, we learned (some of us learned) that we’re held, if not hostage, then certainly captive, to a fairly large group of financial brokers. Without their funding, there are no funds.
Bush & Cheney acted their way to the violent uprootings. Obama & his folks are reacting their way to these other ‘violent’ and sudden uprootings. He’s in no position to piss off the brokers. There is nothing he can do. You can’t unchop a tree, you can’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again either.
You jump a little fast. I think it reckless to organize directly for civil disobedience, because the critical mass for that wouldn’t come into being immediately. Again, the word is transitional. Build organization that would entail less risk, and you can build larger organization. With larger organization, then you have a wider range of tactics — including civil disobedience — at your disposal.
There’s no mechanical formula for this. Part of my obscurity is embedded in my method. Vygotskian tool-AND-result. Make a move, see if it transforms the situation, use that as the basis for the next move. I like the military term “reconnaissance in force.”
The word transitional assumes a long time slot, I just happen to think that we’re running out of the luxury of time.
Wow! Yes, that’s precisely how they operate. Anyone who has observed what the Reps have done in Congress over the past generation or so (via Gingrich, DeLay, Abramoff, Boehner, et.al.) would arrive at Axelrod’s conclusion. Even as a concession speech, this is unbelievable. Who was Axelrod talking to?
Suppose tomorrow you as a young man were drafted into the army, went through basic training and were sent to Afghanistan in an infantry unit, along with similar young men. Your company commander directs that your unit is supposed to move down a road and across an ag field where guys you knew were recently blown to pieces, and as far as anybody knows that area is still infested with enemy.
Do you say “Oh, there haven’t been any anti-war demonstrations in Chicago or New York, so I guess I’ll just go along and see what happens.” Or do you and your buddies seriously consider rolling a live fragmentation grenade under the CO’s cot (which happened in ‘Nam).
That’s why some people want the draft, because they believe it would stop wars which can only be conducted now with mercenaries.
Okay — say the anti-war demonstrations had an effect. Which came first, the demonstrations or the narrative that the war was bogus? I say the narrative. The reason there haven’t been demonstrations against Afghanistan is that the popular narrative has been (as from Obama) that this is a good war, a necessary war.
It’s the narrative. That’s why we’re here, because Jane’s good at it and we want to be just like her. (sucking up)
Meh.
I’m probably not young enough, but myself and my friends are all in our late 20′s and early 30′s. Almost all of us are politically active, though all of us have utterly abandoned petitions (unless they’re for ballot measures), political donations, calling into elected officials, writing letters, etc. It’s too obvious that all of that is completely useless. It’s just symbolic victory of self-delusion.
When you give money to run ads, it just ends up in the pockets of big media conglomerates. Petitions are more easily thrown in the shredder than they are read and reviewed. There’s almost no political action more worthless than calling into a congressional office (TARP proved definitely that it doesn’t matter at all). Maybe it’s precisely because we’re younger, and all we’ve ever known is Reaganism, but we’re rejecting representative democracy generally, because it is clearly (logically and empirically) a failed means of social organization. All ballot measures all the time, full stop.
Maneuvering and massaging politicians is an unmitigated waste of time, they’re not accountable to us, and their incentives personally and professionally are in direct contradiction with our interests. For whatever reason that’s a very, very hard concept for most of the old-guard liberals to comprehend. The primary focus of political action is still to talk about politicians, what they can do, what they aren’t doing, etc. I imagine it’s the draw of the soap opera nature of the thing, but it’s still pointless. People talk about the ways that politicians use various issues and scandals to distract us from the crux of our problems, but it seems like any reasonable person should be able to conclude politicians are the distraction.
It doesn’t really matter what politicians should do, or what they could do. They won’t do it. They won’t. They’re no more likely to seriously address any issue from the perspective of the public than a Klan member is likely to marry a Jewish woman and adopt three African orphans. Just assume they’re doing the worst possible thing you can think of to get more for them and less for you; all the time. Assume they have teams of people working tirelessly to find all new creative ways to make that happen. Because that’s what they’re doing. Every single second anyone spends supporting a politician is a wasted one. Every single nickel spent supporting a politician is a wasted one. The best thing this community ever did was get behind Prop 19. It marked a turning point to focus FDL on an issue, and not on a bunch of bullshit pandering horse races. This nation’s greatest problem is that it has fully ceded governance to politicians, and the result has been utterly predictable. The politicians and their peers in society benefit at the expense of everyone else.
Take control out of the hands of politicians, and you no longer have to be concerned about their whims and machinations.
I’ve been reading some Civil War history, i.e., the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania. God, the things people are capable of when they believe in what they’re fighting for! Consider the things the Vietnamese did against the U.S. One NVA would throw himself onto the barb wire so his comrades could climb over his body to get across.
What troops will do is very connected to morale, political motivation. In large part the anti-war movement strongly impacted morale and thus combat capability. Even the most gung-ho were undermined by the “ingratitude” on the home front.
I was there. They proceeded simultaneously.
The U.S. public polls against the war, and the headlines proclaim more unease with the Afghan war than they did through most of the Vietnam war. There are fewer demonstrations because the system has learned to ignore them, and the demonstrators have been trained to stay on the sidewalk.
The shorter version is, the youth don’t engage, because all the ways to engage that are trotted out in front of them are obvious and known losers. If they were actually effective, then things wouldn’t be as shitty as they are today.
At least in so far as the ones I’m around are concerned.
I suspect two terms of bad cop requires at least one term of good cop. You know, to keep up appearances and provide the illusion of choice and difference. What Obama can do now–as several folks have pointed out–presupposes not only some freedom to act (which is where blaming the obstructionist Reps comes in on one end and being beholden to corporate interests on the other), but also motivation to deviate from the status quo. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Mind if I pile on?
A falling object is among the most stable forms of energy. If the momentum to the bottom persists with our political governance, our economy, and our financial conditions, it’s not impossible to contemplate that a state or two, or ten, will secede from the Union, or try. Then Obama will have his Lincolnesque identification tested.
Perhaps this skews the results.
“Take it down a notch?” Why the fuck should “fuckno” take it down a notch?
One does not need to provide a “link,” to make a point or assert a position based upon his/her reading of history given events today. This is called opinion. So when your “ass” is thrown out into the street, your opinion might change. Self interest is a very strange thing!
BTW concerning America’s next civil war! Corporations vs People! You see, servitude to a government or corporations who buy law now have a legal decisions like Citizens United, to provide legal cover and advantage to corporations, surely as Scott vs Sanford protected the economic and property rights of slave-owners over the rights of people. No parallels in history here at all as the interests of corporations are protected at the expense of life and liberty? None at all? The systemic deprivation of property and wealth achieved via scams perpetrated on America is worthy of a civil war. Like jacking energy cost up which raise all cost and then betting that those increased costs would force property owners to default on loans when all the money has been “sucked up” by a giant energy cost vacuum cleaner? No link needed to assert this reality. It has been my life via first hand experience. How about yours? The ultimate test of a democracy is when the rule of law is challenged at every turn by wealthy aristocrats, hell bent on perpetuating profit at all costs. That Jefferson thing again……
Yes, indeed. Don’t lose the text. Repost it again next week. Please? It would be valuable if someone here can think of an exception to your blanket covering. I’ll be surprised if a decent sort is exposed.
“For the next two years, it will be open season on what’s left of the Democratic party.”
Perhaps this . . . ?
“America is a One-Party State: Today’s hard right seeks total domination. It’s packing the courts and rigging the rules. The target is not the Democrats but democracy itself.” –Robert Kuttner “The American Prospect” 2004
I’m sure that it does, but in the overwhelming majority of cases I have no direct interaction with them on the matter. They’re just students at the college I live three blocks from (PSU), or kids in coffee shops that I’ll work out of from time to time (downtown, inner east side, N Portland), or they’re the viewpoints expressed by high school students being taught by myriad friends of mine.
The selection bias would be urban and suburban Portland-Metro Oregonian, more so than by my impression. The trend doesn’t follow lines of liberal or conservative either. The tenor is simply that they get that they can’t change the way things work, they’re subject to the restrictions, not a party to creating them.
That was very good.. Thank-you.. :)
Fair enough. My two cents on what WE can do along the lines of TalkingStick and AitchD’s conversation:
1. Stop being afraid
2. Unionize
3. Under-consume
4. Stop joining and supporting the military
The less the Feds (Congress and/or Obama) do the better. They really can’t do much anyway and, given their horrendous track record already, you can be sure whatever they do decide to do will only make things worse.
The AGs, on the other hand, are smelling a big payday a la the 90′s tobacco settlement. With their states in such bad debt trouble, you can bet the AG’s will be more thorough in their investigations and far less likely to cut the banks any slack.
Well you went from
to
so I’ll just assume that if pushed you’d go all the way, and leave it there.
Back to blogging, eh wot?
Sorry, I find your comment incomprehensible.
Exactly.
Your first item is probably the best because it trumps the message we’re being handed by the WH.
The banksters tell Obama that the world will end if he doesn’t help them get their way, and then he passes the fearful message on to us.
Maybe we can convince our president that we’ve got his back if he decides to find some spine, that is, if we make it plain that we’ve decide not to be afraid anymore.
Of course the MOTU are deathly afraid of your other suggestions too, which proves they’re all very good ideas in my book.
Items 2,3, and 4 also contribute to one’s ability to truly impliment #1.
It’s a fantastic list ottogrendel, thanks.
“we probably have outgrown the genuine usefulness of an executive president”
Have you read William S. Burroughs’ bit “No More Hitlers, No More Stalins”?
Here’s a link to a You Tube video that features it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C5XuylNFLo&feature=related
Well, they are simplistic and they look a little naive written down (hell, they probably are).
But there are other means of democratic expression besides voting–and based on the state of the federal government, I find that path . . . fruitless. Or, as Doug Stanhope said, “I don’t want a leader. I don’t want to be led. Where does that vote go?”
However, all four of the items on the list can affect a lot of the things many of us are after (e.g. jobs, solving energy crisis/oil dependence, reduction of pollution, ending wars, redressing power imbalances, etc.). 1 and 3 can be worked on as an individual. 2 and 4 require more group effort: Unions, that only serve their function as a collective entity, have been wrecked and discredited; and when you are faced with either less than a living wage or joining the military, that sure as hell ain’t no choice.
Glad you found it useful. Please amend at your discretion! :)
x2
I’m late to this thread and just starting to read through the comments. I’m going to jump in quick and support fuckno’s comment about a revolution “percolating.”
The Reverend Martin Luther King led a non-violent revolution seeking civil rights for all Americans, not just African-Americans, and the massive support that he raised for the cause by reaching the hearts and minds of the vast majority of Americans led to President Johnson supporting and Congress passing the Civil Rights Act. Although he advocated for non-violent change, there was quite a lot of violent resistance to what he was trying to accomplish and, as we all know, he was murdered. Other members of the civil rights movement also were murdered. Forty-six years later people are still getting killed for seeking equal justice under law for all Americans. The front today is about the LGBT community’s demand for equal rights, a basic concept that all Americans should support because there is no legitimate argument against it. Prejudice fuels the opposition and even President Obama, who should know better because he is African-American and the right wing verbally assaults him every day with their racism, opposes equal rights for the LGBT community as evidenced by his opposition to gay marriage and his refusal to repeal DADT.
There are many other fronts in the continuing struggle for equal rights for all Americans. Although not enshrined in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, every American who is ready, able, and willing to work, should be able to find a job that pays a reasonable wage. The U.S. economy has lost eight million jobs in the past several years. At least 15 million people are unemployed or underemployed, according to the Labor Department’s U-6 number, and five people are competing for every available job. Six and half million people have been unemployed for more than a year, people fifty years old and older cannot find jobs because employers won’t hire them regardless of their qualifications, and many employers refuse to hire anyone who is unemployed. Minorities and young adults have much higher rates of unemployment.
The vast majority of people who lost their jobs lost them through no fault of their own because their employers outsourced their jobs to foreign countries where they can get away with exploiting a cheaper labor force. Other jobs were lost because employers went bankrupt or had to substantially reduce the number of employees to survive in this moribund economy. And now the public sector is eliminating jobs because it doesn’t have sufficient money to pay their employees. Most of the new jobs pay little more than minimum wage and offer no health insurance benefits.
Meanwhile, President Obama and other government leaders in both political parties talk about an overriding need for austerity to reduce the federal deficit and an absolute necessity to cut social security and Medicare to show the rest of the world that the U.S. is serious about getting its finances in order. Creating another tier of unemployment benefits beyond the current maximum of 99 weeks has no support in the White House or Congress. To make matters worse, there appears not to be any support in the Senate to re-fund existing unemployment compensation beyond the initial 26 week period. Despite the desperate need for jobs, President Obama has little more than vague proposals about establishing an infrastructure bank to fund public works projects and giving more money to businesses to hire more employees even though there isn’t much demand for the products that businesses sell because no one, except the rich, has any money to buy anything. And then there’s the real estate forfeiture mess that we’ve been reading and getting sick about.
If this government doesn’t do something dramatic to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, create jobs, save people’s homes, assist those who cannot find work by providing them with shelter, food, and basic health care, this country is going to explode. People are not going to passively allow their children to freeze and starve to death this winter and that should be obvious to everyone here.
Those of you who still have jobs or who live with someone who does need to take your heads out of the sand. Even normally peaceful people will turn violent to survive. Revolution is indeed percolating and all Americans need to recognize and support the right of their less fortunate brothers and sisters to survive. Time is running short. Winter will soon be upon us. By acting together and demonstrating solidarity now, Americans can mobilize and win this battle non-violently for the basic human right of every human being to survive.
Surely, no decent and loving human being can turn their back on this coming life and death struggle for so many innocent people, including millions of children, whose lives and health are compromised and endangered.
As Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, “When one of my brothers and sisters is diminished, I am diminished.” We are all the same despite differences in gender, sexual preference, skin color, the language we speak, the culture to which we belong, the religion in which we believe or don’t believe, and how much money we make or don’t make.
It’s long past time for all Americans to speak with a single voice and tell the kleptocrats and the government, corporations, and military that they control that they must respect and honor fundamental human rights for everyone in the world, not just Americans. Basic human decency demands and will settle for nothing less. We are sick and tired of hearing about corporate personhood, multi-million dollar bonuses, free markets, and the greater glories of unfettered predatory capitalism that privatizes gains, socializes losses, and concentrates all wealth in the hands of the few. In the eyes of God, not one single member of the obscenely rich and privileged kleptocracy has a superior right to exist to that of the homeless, poorest, sickest, least educated, and least privileged person on the planet.
My friends, the struggle to secure fundamental human rights is constant; the struggle has been going on since the beginning of time and it will continue until all people recognize that the least among us enjoys the same fundamental rights that the rest of us have. The time to decide which side of this epic struggle we are on is upon us once again. Opting out is a choice to side with those who oppose equal rights for all. The only way we can win is if all of us act and speak with one voice, for we are the many, our cause is just, and together we cannot be denied.
What will you do?
If not now, when?
Agree with Mr. Blacks all of the suggestions.
Mr. Volcker is somebody who good, non-scamming part of wall street respects and also main street respects and I do not know if anybody is more qualified than him to be the treasury secretary and we know if he implements some policy we might not like still we will take it since it will be in the best long term interests of the country.
There is nobody more qualified for this than Mr. Black himself. He already did this once and can do once more if requested.
In addition there was a comment on post #8 for inspecting every container entering the country. This is a good suggestion and If this happens at-least 50% of the imports will go to junk yard directly for having material in the carcinogenic list etc instead of our super markets and this by itself will create more jobs since the local industries have to take up the slack to fulfill local demand.
Yes, until we throw the money changers out of the temple.
Our government is sovreign in it’s own currency. It can create all the funds which are needed without involving itself with these financial brokers.
In other words, the problem isn’t that these financial brokers have all the funds(they don’t), the problem is that they have our politicians in a state of capture.