by GLEN FORD
Saved, once again, by gridlock! In the absence of any serious social democratic presence in the U.S. Congress – a Progressive Caucus that went poof! years ago, a Black Caucus rendered ridiculous by Obamaism – glorious gridlock was the only force that could derail the SuperCommittee, just as gridlock saved us from Obama’s $4 trillion “Grand Bargain” with House Speaker John Boehner, this past summer.
Gridlock is not a dependable ally. It’s what the condemned hope happens to traffic on their way to the execution site. But, with Occupy Wall Street only a very recent phenomenon, gridlock was all that stood in the way of Barack Obama finally consummating his long sought marriage with the GOP over the past year. Had the Republicans not repeatedly spurned The First Black President’s offers of matrimony – for their own narrow reasons – the disgusting union would have long ago been accomplished.
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The “problem” menacing all humankind is the rule of finance capital, backed by the imperial armament of the United States and its allies, who together account for 70 percent of all the military spending on Earth. The Sword of Damocles that hovers over the planet, is Wall Street’s $600 trillion-plus derivatives, financial nuclear bombs invented to satisfy the capitalist system’s demand for ever-increasing rates of return on investment.
“Obama and the Democrats are part of the problem, not the solution.”
In May of 2008 – far too late to avert the impending catastrophe – a virtual Who’s Who of European social democratic leaders, including former heads of state and ministers of treasury, posted an Open Letter in the French newspaper Le Monde, proclaiming that “Mad Finance Must Not Rule Us.” They were speaking of the $750 trillion in derivatives at large at the time:
“Financial capital currently represents 15 times the gross domestic product (GDP) of all countries… The world of finance has accumulated a gigantic mass of fictitious capital that does very little to improve the human condition and the preservation of the environment.”
Black Agenda Report for more