oligarchy ← Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

Writings of J. Todd Ring: Obama’s Vision and Legacy: A retrospective look at the Obama presidency – before we lose all sight of recent history, as our culture is wont to do

Feb

25

2016

Here are three short articles which I wrote between 2011 and 2015 which sum up the Obama presidency, and the Obama vision and legacy. We should remember, those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Let us review now the torturous two terms of “Mister Hope and Change” – the man ...

Writings of J. Todd Ring: Prospects for America: Sanders vs Civil War

Feb

15

2016

(And that is not a threat, of course, but a prediction) An analysis of the present state of future prospects of the nation ~ An open letter in response to Daily Kos, and to anyone concerned with either justice, or peace The article I recently wrote and published on Daily Kos, Prognosis for America: Sanders ...

Writings of J. Todd Ring: New Poll: Sanders Leads Clinton In Iowa

Jan

26

2016

Substance begins to overtake slime. Whoops….did I say that? I meant to say, an honest candidate who has defended and worked for the people, consistently for over 30 years, and the only candidate who is standing up to Wall Street and the corporate elite, is beginning to outpace the oligarchs’ number one draft pick and ...

Writings of J. Todd Ring: Bernie Sanders: The backlash is on – surprise, surprise!

Jan

26

2016

Bernie Sanders was effectively silenced and blacked out of the media, by and large, for a long time, until he became too popular and too prominent to ignore. Now, the only candidate who is not a Wall Street hireling, hack or shill, the only candidate who is willing to take on the central problem of ...

Writings of J. Todd Ring: The Paris Attacks In Contex

Nov

20

2015

Propaganda, hysteria, ultra-violence and imperialism, as usual “A people unaware of its myths is likely to continue living by them.” – Richard Slotkin I have been too horrified by the predictably violent and insane reaction of the Western powers to the violent and insane attacks in Paris to delve deeply into them until now; but ...

Writings of J. Todd Ring: New Leadership Urgently Needed For The US, Canada and Britain

Oct

22

2015

Imagine if Martin Luther King Jr., Tommy Douglas and Tony Benn were President of the US, and Prime Ministers of Canada and Britain, respectively. The world would certainly be a far better, more just, freer, more peaceful, and safer place. But we do not. In all three of these “leading” nations we have neoliberal corporate ...

Writings of J. Todd Ring: New Leadership Urgently Needed For The US, Canada and Britain

Oct

22

2015

Imagine if Martin Luther King Jr., Tommy Douglas and Tony Benn were President of the US, and Prime Ministers of Canada and Britain, respectively. The world would certainly be a far better, more just, freer, more peaceful, and safer place. But we do not. In all three of these “leading” nations we have neoliberal corporate ...

Writings of J. Todd Ring: Bernie Sanders: socialism, anarchism, corporatism and democracy

Oct

17

2015

I support Senator Bernie Sanders in his candidacy to become the next US president. I would very much like to see him win, and I think he very may well. Now, some people will say, but Bernie Sanders is a self-declared democratic socialist. I see no problem with that. And 49% of Americans, and a ...

Writings of J. Todd Ring: Bernie Sanders: socialism, anarchism, corporatism and democracy

Oct

17

2015

I support Senator Bernie Sanders in his candidacy to become the next US president. I would very much like to see him win, and I think he very may well. Now, some people will say, but Bernie Sanders is a self-declared democratic socialist. I see no problem with that. And 49% of Americans, and a ...

Parchment in the Fire: Is America an Oligarchy? – The New Yorker

Aug

16

2014

Is America an Oligarchy? – The New Yorker. From the Dept. of Academics Confirming Something You Already Suspected comes a new study concluding that rich people and organizations representing business interests have a powerful grip on U.S. government policy. After examining differences in public opinion across income groups on a wide variety of issues, ...

Dead Wild Roses: Oil Companies Need Their Profits – The Summer Gas Gouge.

Jun

24

2014

Oh Canada! Producer of so much oil and making strides to export it to other countries just had its first jump in gasoline prices. One question to contemplate is that rather than exporting oil to other countries wouldn’t it be nice to stabilize the domestic market supply and give Canadian consumers a break at the ...

Dead Wild Roses: Oil Companies Need Their Profits – The Summer Gas Gouge.

Jun

24

2014

Oh Canada! Producer of so much oil and making strides to export it to other countries just had its first jump in gasoline prices. One question to contemplate is that rather than exporting oil to other countries wouldn’t it be nice to stabilize the domestic market supply and give Canadian consumers a break at the ...

The Cracked Crystal Ball II: On "Toll Lanes" In Calgary

May

7

2014

I see that the geniuses at the Manning Foundation have put on their thinking caps and burned some extra wood to come up with this idea. The Manning Foundation is recommending tolls on some Calgary roads, such as Glenmore Trail, Crowchild Trail and Deerfoot Trail. “Folks are spending more time in traffic than being in the ...

Dead Wild Roses: The Mad Dash Toward Oligarchy – Bill Moyers

Apr

24

2014

We’re running out of canaries people, wake up and smell the system you’re living in. Filed under: Politics Tagged: Bill Moyers, Oligarchy, Political Influence

Dead Wild Roses: The Mad Dash Toward Oligarchy – Bill Moyers

Apr

24

2014

We’re running out of canaries people, wake up and smell the system you’re living in. Filed under: Politics Tagged: Bill Moyers, Oligarchy, Political Influence

The Cracked Crystal Ball II: If You Love Canada … Read This

Apr

22

2014

I don’t usually use this space to promote posts at other blogs, but at iPolitics Michael Harris has an excellent column that summarizes what Harper is doing to Canada. http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/04/20/harper-sees-role-as-protector-of-the-richest-few/ Read. Take it to heart, pass it along.

Politics and its Discontents: Guest Post: The Mound Of Sound On Oligarchy

Apr

19

2014

I am pleased to present to you this second guest post by the Mound of Sound, a.k.a. The Disaffected Lib: When the “Greatest Democracy on Earth” closes up shop and re-opens as an oligarchy every other supposed democracy, including our own, better sit up and take notice. The United States of America has proven that ...

Bill Longstaff: The United States—democracy or oligarchy?

Apr

11

2014

Last year, Iran held an election to choose its president. Many in the West mocked the election because the candidates were vetted by the Guardian Council (a group appointed largely by the Supreme Leader). This, however, is not so different from American presidential elections. In the U.S., candidates have to get approval from the corporate ...

Dead Wild Roses: The First Honest Cable Company…

Feb

10

2014

A big thanks to Moe over at Whatever Works for finding this short video on our ISP’s. Just watch the free market in action… Filed under: Rant Tagged: Cable Providers, Free Markets?, ISP, Oligarchy

Parchment in the Fire: Let’s Get This Class War Started – Chris Hedges – Truthdig

Oct

22

2013

Chris Hedges: Let’s Get This Class War Started – Chris Hedges – Truthdig. By Chris Hedges “The rich are different from us,” F. Scott Fitzgerald is said to have remarked to Ernest Hemingway, to which Hemingway allegedly replied, “Yes, they have more money.” The exchange, although it never actually took place, sums up a wisdom ...

The Disaffected Lib: The GOP War on Working Class America

Aug

5

2013

Freshmen GOP – 2010 Paul Krugman recently questioned the sanity of Congressional Republicans who, he contends, have inflicted such a level of dysfunctionality on the federal government as to leave America ungovernable. Robert Reich, however, seems method in the madness of the “Party of No.” The real answer, I think, is they and their patrons ...

The Disaffected Lib: Waging Class War is One Thing, Winning It Before the Other Side Knows About It is Everything

Mar

24

2013

Bad news for working class America, white and blue collar – the class war they never really understood had been waged against them for the past three decades is over and they lost. A team of researchers from the U.S. government and Brookings Institute pored over 350,000 tax returns from 1987 to 2009 has led ...

The Disaffected Lib: Living in Automated Times

Feb

20

2013

We are steadily, inexorably it seems, leaving the world of manual labour. Even the Chinese are beginning to turn to robotics to replace low-wage workers. So, how do entire societies live when machines have taken their work? An interesting problem that invites interesting solutions. During the Industrial Revolution, working hours increased by 20% as factories ...

The Disaffected Lib: They Are Not Of Us

Jan

29

2013

An interesting essay from George Monbiot today on the grooming of oligarchs and why, even though they govern in our name, they don’t rule on our behalf. They rule as they were born and raised to rule. An excerpt. In the Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt explains that the nobles of pre-revolutionary France “did not ...

The Disaffected Lib: To the Big Picture, Does the White House Matter?

Oct

8

2012

A substantial majority of Canadians want to see Barack Obama re-elected. Why? To be sure, the Republican offerings of late have been unpopular here and pretty much around the world, Israel perhaps excepted. It could be that Ike was last truly popular conservative president of the United States on the world stage. Nixon, Ford, Reagan, ...