Will America's billionaires start a second Civil War to protect their wealth and power?The stakes co

[applegrove]

Will America’s billionaires start a second Civil War to protect their wealth and power?The stakes couldn’t be higher.

THOM HARTMANN at Salon

NOVEMBER 24, 2019 11:59AM (UTC)This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

https://www.salon.com/2019/11/24/will-americas-billionaires-start-a-second-civil-war-to-protect-their-wealth-and-power_partner/

"SNIP.....

This is a crisis point for our nation as real and critical as those we hit in 1776, 1861, and 1932. In each of those three cases — roughly four generations apart — the oligarchs lost the battle. This time they could win.

America needs an honest discussion of what’s reallygoing on in this country right now, what the real conflict is, and who the real players are (and why they’re playing). The conflict is playing out on a series of meta-layers (race, class, religion, regionality), all designed to conceal the real war the oligarchs are waging against democracy itself, and those conflicts will continue to intensify until one side or the other has won what is now still a “cold war.”

Then comes the threat of a real Civil War breaking out, and an informed populace is the best defense against it.

If the forces of democracy can succeed in seizing enough power to temporarily hobble the oligarchs, then they need to immediately restore local control to the media (undoing the 1996 Telecommunications Act and breaking up the media conglomerates) and reinstate a ban on the “right” of oligarchs to own politicians and political parties by overturning several Supreme Court decisions since 1976. Repairing the damage done to our court systems will take longer, but needs to begin immediately.

......SNIP"

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Yeah, right. Undo tons of crap from undoing the 1996 telecommunications act and...

breaking up media companies, undoing supreme court rulings, etc. Such a idiotic article and proposals to resolve a so called potential civil war.

The better way would be to elect more responsible legislators then those representing party and not country (the republicans), outlaw the republican party (because of gross and highly illegal acts to stuff the ballots and/or rig election results), increase temporarily the size of the Supreme Court to counterweigh Moscow Mitch's refusal to weigh in on Barak O's supreme court nominee, to dilute the stuffing of the Supreme Court by Moscow Mitch.

Limit the role of money in our campaigns and stiffen the penalties for dirty or dark money in our elections. Start implementing a better system of taxing and start implementing a tougher system of checks and balances to eliminate the role of politicians policing themselves (they don't).

The list could go on and on.

[Nitram]

11. No, America's billionaires will not start a civil war.

[Hoyt]

2. No, Thom, they won't. Their wealth is on paper. The last thing they would want to do is start

something like that which would destroy the current economy and take decades to rebuild (if ever). That would reduce the value of stock, land, future earnings, etc.

There's plenty of room for change, but the wealthy aren't stupid enough to start a civil war.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. You're absolutely right. Anyone would be nuts to wipe out the value of their paper holdings...nt

[krispos42]

7. Prior to the outbreak of WW1, nobody thought Germany and France would fight

They were each other's largest trading partners. Surely it would be the utmost insanity for them to wage war and wipe out all that economic activity!

Well, some things are driven by collective stupidity

[SWBTATTReg]

8. Good (but scary too) point. Did not know this, but with the long shared border, not too ...

surprised.

[krispos42]

9. For some issues, people solve them by combining their intelligence

Other issues, people "solve" them by combining their lack of intelligence. Or their hubris.

[applegrove]

4. I don't think the right would start a hot war. But they will stop at nothing to

win the current cold war between democracy and oligarchs.

[Kurt V.]

5. Millionaires and now billionaires started a civil war decades ago. so far they're winning.

Convincing Americans across the board they are the gas in the engine.

[Cartaphelius]

6. Of course they will!!!

They've nothing to lose and only gazillions
in profits and total control...

All we have to lose is everything.

[sigpooie]

10. Wow, it's really going to be interesting to see which billionaires win this climb since the trillion

Trillionaires will control to fuel needed for protection. The millionaires will be like Sargents and those lazy shits wont do that job well. So this civil unrest is going to be a cluster that ends pretty quickly.
Another issue i think will really screw the bastards is the flow of information, they don't really work well with others, and most are alphas at the top. So that machine of protection they Would need to keep us from eating their young is just as weak a flawed as they are.
Think how hard it is to fight in nam or pak. The us is a lot more scattered than those places and much more protected .

[YOHABLO]

12. The whole concept of a hot Civil War is ridiculous.

[applegrove]

13. Agreed.