Does Capitalism vs. Socialism even exist in America or are we living under Corporatism?

Fascism should be more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power. ~ Benito Mussolini

We are continually told that America is a Capitalist country where anyone can become a millionaire through hard work.  We are continually told Socialism is evil, just look at what Socialism has done to Venezuela, people are starving to death.  We are told Capitalism is the best kind of government and we need to preserve Capitalism in America.  But does true Capitalism exist in America?  Is Socialism a threat in America?

Maybe we need to look at what Capitalism is and what Socialism is.  Capitalism is an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.  Socialism is a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

On the other hand as Mussolini said “Corporatism a/k/a Fascism is the merger of State and corporate power meaning it is the merger of State and Corporate power to benefit the few at the expense of the masses.  That is what we in America are living under.

There is no greater example of the merger of State and Corporate power to benefit the few than the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos.  Newspapers in America have been disappearing due to lack of revenue from ads and loss of readership due to the internet.  When newspapers began losing revenue, the first thing they did was to slash spending on investigative reporting.  Then began the massive mergers resulting in all media being in the hands of a few billionaires. 

In 2013 the “Newspaper of Record” the Washington Post on the verge of bankruptcy.  Amazon’s Jeff Bezos swooped in and bought the failing newspaper for $250 million dollars.  One would wonder why would Bezos buy a failing newspaper in a dying industry?  How will Bezos recoup his investment and turn the paper around and make a profit? It didn’t take long to find out.

Almost immediately after Bezos swooped in to buy the revenue losing newspaper, the state swooped in and endowed Bezos with a $600 million dollar, no-bid contract from the CIA.  In other words, Bezos received $600 million dollars from American taxpayers to become the Newspaper of Record for America’s top spooks.  Bezos’ Washington Post now does not have to compete with other newspapers, hell they don’t even need reporters all they need are stenographers to print as fact CIA propaganda. 

Once the Washington Post was “purchased by the CIA” they immediately began printing stories/leaks from unnamed sources claiming Trump was a Russian agent, that Russia had damning evidence to bribe Trump, evidence of “golden showers” and hookers but it was to no avail.  Even with the power of State behind the CIA/Washington Post they were unable to convince the voters that Trump was a Russian asset.  However they were able to embed CIA agents into the Trump Administration, hence the 2-year Mueller Russia-gate investigation and the current Ukraine-gate witch hunt.  

The point is that Jeff Bezos’ acquisition of the Washington Post is not an example of Capitalism, it is an example of Fascism.  The State funneled $600 million dollars of taxpayers’ money into the pockets of a private individual to disseminate propaganda to the masses in order to promote the interests of a private, for-profit Corporation.  The worst part is that the $600 million has been added to America’s debt which we must pay interest on.

Another example of Corporatism/Fascism is Student Loan Debt.  According to NPR:

Excerpt:

Sallie Mae WAS a government-affiliated corporation whose board was made up in part of public officials. When it first came into existence, it was supposed to help create a market for the student debt that the feds were issuing. BUT AFTER PRIVATIZATION, it became a full-service, for-profit corporation that really "verticalized" its involvement in the student debt industry, everything from issuing loans to running collection bureaus.

The concern now is we replaced a program whose real purpose was to help people go to college with something where that's kind of a secondary goal. The primary goal, of course, for for-profit institutions is the bottom line.

Yes, a government program that was created to enable students to borrow money from the government in order to obtain a higher education was privatized and turned into a for-profit corporate program whose profits are protected by the State. 

Privatization of Sallie Mae was a key victory for banking and financial industry lobbyists when the Republicans controlled Congress in the mid-'90s, yes? President Clinton tried to maintain his new direct-lending program, which made Uncle Sam the lender — not just insurer — of the loans…

Suddenly, hedge funds, investors, lots of banks had a more direct role, not just in lending, but in the fees, services, in the collection. And Sallie Mae and other financial organizations began marketing private loans with higher interest rates and fees and with fewer relief options?

So the Wall Street profit-driven student loan industry is guaranteed their profits by the State.  It wasn’t enough to throw students with loans to the Wall Street wolves, the State went further with the vulgar 2005 Bankruptcy Bill that prohibited students from filing for bankruptcy protection.  A student will carry their student loan debt to their grave and if their parents co-signed for the loan, they also carry that loan debt even in the event the student dies.  From Time Magazine:

Excerpt:

Why Can’t You Discharge Student Loans in Bankruptcy?

If you’re struggling to pay credit card debt, car loans or even gambling debt, you can wipe the slate clean in bankruptcy. Struggling to pay your student loans? Sorry, you’ll just have to figure that one out on your own.

In an effort to shed light on a policy they say “doesn’t make any sense,” a group of bankruptcy lawyers issued a report on Tuesday that highlights the need to change the U.S. bankruptcy code so that it offers college grads relief from inescapable debt loads. In the report from the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA), four out of five of the 860 lawyers surveyed said the number of potential clients they encounter with student loan debt has “significantly” or “somewhat” increased over the past 3 to 4 years.

It’s no surprise that student loan debt is a major concern. Federal and private student loan debt surpassed credit card debt for the first time in 2010 and is expected to hit $1 trillion this year. At the same time as college graduates are experiencing record-high debt, they are offered little opportunity to get back on track…

Which is why the group is calling on Congress to pass legislation that would allow graduates to discharge loans they took out from PRIVATE LENDERS, INCLUDING for-profit companies like banks and STUDENT LOAN GIANT SALLIE MAE…

Changing the nation’s bankruptcy code wouldn’t just give the group of lawyers more work, it would offer an option for students to get rid of debt that, at its core, is not really any different from other types of debt that the government does allow borrowers to discharge. “It’s kind of strange that credit cards are dischargeable when private student loans aren’t,” said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of the financial aid websites, Fastweb.com and FinAid.org. “They should be treated the same.”

They used to be. Before 1976, all education loans were dischargeable in bankruptcy. That year, the bankruptcy code was altered so loans made by the government or a non-profit college or university could not be discharged during the first five years of repayment. They could, however, be discharged if they had been in repayment for five years or if the borrower experienced “undue hardship.” Then, the Bankruptcy Amendments and Federal Judgeship Act of 1984 made it so all private student loans were excepted from discharge too.

Two decades of further tweaks to the bankruptcy code ensued until 2005, when Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, which made it so that no student loan — federal or private — could be discharged in bankruptcy unless the borrower can prove repaying the loan would cause “undue hardship,” a condition that is incredibly difficult to demonstrate unless the person has a severe disability. That essentially lumps student loan debt in with child support and criminal fines — other types of debt that can’t be discharged…

Private loans are a different story. Basically, THE ONLY OPTION WITH PRIVATE LOANS is to repay them — and to repay them on the lender’s timetable. They do not allow deferment or income-based repayment. Extensions often don’t lower the monthly payments by much and, while they do allow forbearance, they often offer much shorter terms and sometimes charge fees.

“There is a genuine problem here that needs to be addressed,” Kantrowitz said. “Too many people are struggling with no light at the end of the tunnel. They are basically stuck in purgatory their entire life, just because they made a mistake and borrowed too much money…”

Yes, just how is it Capitalism when the State enacts laws to protect private industry’s profits at the expense of an entire generation of Americans?  Where are the consumer protection laws?  Just like Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post cannot lose, the student loan industry is ensured unbridled profits by the State.  That is putting America’s students into Debtor’s Prisons something our forefathers fled Europe for railed against ever having Debtor’s Prisons in America.  This is not capitalism. 

Obamacare is the merger of State and Corporations as it was written of, by and for the insurance industry.  From Counterpunch:

Excerpt:

The Truth About ObamaCare

It’s not a government takeover of medicine. It’s the privatization of health care. If you took George H. W. Bush’s health plan and removed the label, you’d think it was Obamacare. If you thought a single-payer advocate would say these words, you’d be wrong. It was Republican lobbyist Tom Scully speaking to a room of fifty large Wall Street investors as quoted in a recent article by Wall Street-funded business journalist Adam Davidson, in the New York Times Magazine.

Davidson continued, writing that Scully promised that  millions would sign up for insurance, and that “the law was going to make some people very rich…With the…savvy investors could help underwrite innovative companies specifically designed to profit from the law,” while he still personally was “ambivalent about the Affordable Care Act.” [2] Davidson added that “billions could flow from Washington to Wall Street.” This seemed like a rich guy’s dream come true.

Stewart Alexander, Socialist Party USA’s presidential candidate for 2012 went even further, saying the law was the “corporate restructuring of the healthcare system in America, that the “the Supreme Court upheld the bad healthcare reform that will insure the profits of private healthcare companies,” and argued that “Obama’s policy was based on the original sin of allowing the pharmaceutical companies off the hook…

This is an insurance company’s dream, this bill. This is the Washington scramble, and I think it’s ill-advised… a whole bunch of bureaucracies and a lot of promises…at this point, the bill does more harm than good…”  

Obamacare will protect drug company profits by maintaining the Bush ban on bulk purchasing of prescription drugs…Obamacare means a giant taxpayer-funded life-support system for private for-profit corporations, while Americans spend more money for less access…[while] Insurance, pharmaceutical, and other big-business lobbies pumped millions of dollars into both Democratic and Republican campaigns in the last election to buy influence...”

This is only a small piece of the puzzle. In September 2009, an article by Huffington Post reporter Ryan Grim surfaced, noting that a memo “obtained by the Huffington Post confirms that the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby secretly agreed to [a] wide-ranging deal…   

It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government’s leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada — and also agreed not to pursue Medicare rebates or shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Medicare Part D, which would cost Big Pharma billions in reduced reimbursements.

The corporate nature of the bill has come up other places as well.  Marshall Auerback of the Roosevelt Institute wrote in March 2010 that Obamacare “entrenches the centrality of private health insurance companies and contain no serious proposals to limit costs…[while] largely promot[ing]…the status quo by pulling more people into an expensive health care system that is managed and funded by private insurers with no countervailing government option…”

The health care industry was very pleased, too…the Senate and the White House cut deals that protected the interests of the health care industry, especially insurers and the pharmaceutical companies. Lobbyists beat back such popular proposals…and a requirement that drug companies negotiate the prices they charge.”

Let us not be taken in for fools. Obamacare is not for our benefit, as it keeps the insurance company profiteers in business, and makes them strong… 

How was Obamacare a capitalist endeavor when it enslaves the American people forcing them to purchase health insurance with the full force of power of State behind it?  Obamacare funneled taxpayer funds directly into the pockets of the big insurance and big pharma while forcing taxpayers to purchase expensive, inadequate policies under the threat of being fined by the State for failing to do so.

Jeff Bezos’ CIA/Washington Post is appalled by the immense popularity of the Socialism-lite presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders.  Before the Nevada caucus, a two-pronged attack was launched by the CIA’s Newspaper of Record.  An unnamed “intelligence” source claimed that Russia is helping the Bernie Sanders campaign to win the Democratic nomination.  Not because Russia wants a Sanders Presidency, no, Russia wants to reelect Donald Trump.

What a joke, the WaPo smeared the Sanders campaign while stating as fact that Russia wants Trump reelected.  From Gold Goats and Guns:

Excerpt:

RussiaGate Claims Its Next Victim – Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders is done.  He had a chance to help effect the changes needed to keep the United States from sinking into political depravity. But he blew that chance.  At the first sign of push back by the intelligence agencies Bernie rolled over like my five pound rat terrier, Ginnie, who’s literally scared of her own shadow.

After more than three years of ridiculous allegations of Russian meddling into the 2016 presidential election the story refuses to die.  The latest iteration is Russia is not only working to get Donald Trump re-elected (along with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg) but backing Bernie as his opponent.

No matter who loses, the narrative goes, Russia wins.  Now, if Bernie’s response to this wasn’t the new dictionary definition of weak sauce I’d be laughing uproariously.

Actually, who am I kidding? This is hilarious.

Bernie wins an inconsequential state like New Hampshire and the desperation to stop his momentum going in Nevada graces the front pages of not only the Washington Post but the New York Times.

U.S. officials have told Sen. Bernie Sanders that Russia is attempting to help his presidential campaign as part of an effort to interfere with the Democratic contest, ACCORDING TO PEOPLE FAMILIAR WITH THE MATTER.

President Trump and lawmakers on Capitol Hill also have been informed about the Russian assistance to the Vermont senator, THOSE PEOPLE SAID, SPEAKING ON THE CONDITION OF ANONYMITY TO DISCUSS SENSITIVE INTELLIGENCE.

It is not clear what form that Russian assistance has taken. U.S. prosecutors found a Russian effort in 2016 to use social media to boost Sanders’s campaign against Hillary Clinton, part of a broader effort to hurt Clinton, sow dissension in the American electorate and ultimately help elect Donald Trump.

Honestly, this attempt to discredit Bernie Sanders is so ham-fisted, so thoroughly unprofessional, that we shouldn’t even be discussing it. This story is nothing more than an intelligence agency hit job on Sanders and Donald Trump to keep alive a narrative thoroughly discredited in the minds of every semi-rational person left in America.

Trump did what he does best in these situations, he attacks. First, he fires his acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire for briefing the House Intelligence Committee and Trump’s nemesis Rep. Adam Schiff and replaces him with Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell.  Then he states that he hasn’t been briefed on this issue at all and is backed up by his National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien.  Lastly, he openly mocks the Democrats and anyone else buying into this story.

Donald J. Trump

✔

@realDonaldTrump

Are any Democrat operatives, the DNC, or Crooked Hillary Clinton, blaming Russia, Russia, Russia for the Bernie Sanders win in Nevada. If so I suggest calling Bob Mueller & the 13 Angry Democrats to do a new Mueller Report, Democrat Edition. Bob will get to the bottom of it!

Because it is just that, a story. It’s a fairy tale promoted to throw shade on Bernie, pre-position him to be smeared with the same pro-Putin brush that Trump has been.  This preempts any moves by him to change U.S. foreign policy in the unlikely event he wins the election (and is not first cheated out of the nomination) and becomes President.

After Trump goes on the warpath, Bernie responds by validating it in the same way he has done in the past. Because Bernie can’t validate Trump’s antipathy to the intelligence agencies who have been working nonstop to oust him from power. 

But, if there was ever a time for him to break with DNC orthodoxy, show some cojones and call out the lie for what it is, it was now.  Instead, he verifies the lie saying he was briefed “a month ago” and then has stern words for Vladimir Putin.  Like Vladimir Putin would look at President Sanders as anything other than my dog Ginnie. Then again Putin likes dogs, he’d probably treat Ginnie better than Bernie.  And that’s why Bernie’s done… 

Bernie made the tactical mistake of reflexively doing the opposite of whatever Trump does. Trump fought this story so he much embrace it while playing coy about being skeptical of the WaPo.

Bernie hasn’t realized yet that he can’t have it both ways. He knows this is the handiwork of Hillary Clinton and the intelligence agencies. Saying it would make him a serious threat to Trump.  So why didn’t he? 

Tulsi Gabbard went right after Hillary and continues to do so. How is it that she can’t catch fire but Bernie can?  It’s a good question.  Maybe it’s because Hillary and the DNC know that keeping Bernie’s campaign alive is the best way to ensure they keep control.

Tulsi won’t play ball. If she did she’d be on the debate stage.  Bernie has a price.  But this reflexivity against Trump has been the Democrats’ Achilles heel since he entered the political arena. By always ab reacting to take the opposite position Trump does it makes them easily manipulated into staking out politically poisonous positions.

Bernie had the opportunity play outside of his base and broaden his appeal. This would have made him a much more viable opponent for Trump in the fall. So, of course, he didn’t do this.  Sanders is weak because he’s been revealed to be a fake reformer. By not standing up to Hillary and Wall St. all he is doing is running against Trump. And Trump will eat him alive.

He rolled over to Hillary in 2016 and he’s in the process of doing it again in 2020.  Because the real narrative isn’t whoever loses Russia wins.  The real narrative is that whoever loses, Wall St. wins.  And isn’t that the ultimate irony. Bernie Sanders, pride of the Occupy Wall St. set, leads progressives back down the path to ensuring a victory for Wall St.

I’ve told you for weeks that Hillary is prepping the ground for her return at the convention. Now even long-time Clinton strategist and political ne’er-do-well Dick Morris agrees with me that Hillary is playing puppet master behind the scenes.  The Wall St. duo of Hillary and Mini Mike Bloomberg put Bernie in this bind and he fell for the trap hook, line and sinker.

By contrast, I was there when Ron Paul’s Revolution began. The night he tangled with Benito Guiliani I realized they were scared of him and that was the moment containment broke.  Ron didn’t flinch for four years even though they stole the nomination from him in 2012. But he never validated the terrible things they said about him.

He never gave them an inch while both sides circled the wagons and defended The Swamp from the imperious outsider.

In the end he didn’t cuck out like Bernie did. The Republicans embarrassed themselves nominating Democrats like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan while Ron’s shadow convention set the stage for Trump to run an insurrection campaign in 2016.

And, in fact, Bernie’s as well.

Bernie knows the stitch-up is real, so why did he do this? I don’t buy the line that he’s getting bad advice from his staff. Rather I firmly believe Bernie isn’t committed to anything except Bernie.  You don’t get on that horse a second time and hoist that saber if you aren’t ready to truly lead people. This isn’t a game.

You’re asking for the top job in the world and you can’t outmaneuver a broken-down, inconsolable twat who is the antithesis of everything you are supposed to stand for?

For all of his faults Trump leads. He’s brought the Republicans, for better or worse, together. He may lead in ways I disagree with but there’s no arguing he stakes out bold positions and, in many ways, sticks to them.

So, Bernie supporters what is Bernie actually offering you? Do you really think he has the stones to push through Medicare for all, gun control, ending the wars and all the rest?  In your heart of hearts is this the guy you believe will win you a war against the Swamp, a war a mobster like Trump has barely made a dent in?

He had the opportunity to truly put RussiaGate to bed and end Hillary’s latest charade but he’s now extended it another three months.

I think Bernie is a terrible candidate and the wrong choice for America, but that’s beside the point. I would respect him if he sacked up when things got hard. I respect Tulsi Gabbard. She’s made of iron, that lady. Bernie doesn’t deserve her as his running mate. 

Here’s the cold truth. Russia didn’t elect Trump, y’all. We did.  Hate us, mock us, and argue with us but stop avoiding the reality that TRUMP WON IN SPITE OF AN ELECTION RIGGED AGAINST HIM NOT BECAUSE OF IT.  Because once you do that you can be honest about the state of your revolution and the man who leads it.  Because he may just be leading you right back to the same prison you think you’re breaking out of.

And the guy most disappointed in all of these false prophets is the guy who really does want the animosity between the U.S. and Russia to end, THE GUY YOU THINK YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO HATE, VLADIMIR PUTIN HIMSELF.

Tom Luongo is right, Bernie has the right message, he’s just the wrong messenger.  When Hillary Clinton called Tulsi Gabbard a Russian asset, Tulsi kicked her in the teeth because Tulsi is a warrior.  While Bernie has good ideas and truly wants to advance the interests of the American people, he brings an ice cream cone to a gun fight.   Trump brings a cannon to a gun fight.

So the question is “Does Capitalism vs. Socialism even exist in America or are we living under Corporatism?”  Is it Capitalism when the political agents of the state step in and subsidize their corporate donors and eliminate all competition?  It is pretty clear that there has been a merger of corporate and government power to beat down and crush the American people.  That merger was accommodated by politicians in both parties, and they want to maintain the status quo. 

The American people need to win this fight.  Bernie is the only Democratic candidate that can deliver but he has to man up.  Trump has begun the fight so perhaps we should stick with a proven fighter, either way, it’s Socialism vs. Fascism.