Our federal government is corrupted from top to bottom...

[CleanGreenFuture]

So, what are we going to do about it?

[Donnachaidh]

1. recced to zero. Must be something up with this. n/t

[CleanGreenFuture]

4. I noticed the un-reccers have nothing to say. Thanks for the rec, Donnachaidh.

[AndyTiedye]

17. To Say Anything We End Up "Kicking" The Thread, and…

…most of us want these contentless "Obama is no good" threads to just die.

They don't help move the party leftward, they only help the Repigs win.

If you think the party is too far to the right now, just let the Repigs
win and see how much further rightward it moves to try to keep up.

[Romulox]

2. A: suffer. nt

[FrenchieCat]

3. We ain't done shit yet,

other than to blame one man for years of fucked up policies,
that we demanded he change, while we throw darts at his back.

So then what did you expect, when folks don't even have the common sense
to march on Congress, and instead pick to march on the White House?

Doh! :crazy:

[CarmanK]

5. WE are going to let Obama do his job and keep exposing the rats!

Reagan hated govt, and he did everything he could to spread that hatred among the agencies. We know that BUSH/CHENEY are war criminals and that they would lie, cheat and steal as businessmen to get their way. They wasted no time in corrupting the federal govt agencies by appointing political hacks to positions of authority, politicized the DOJ with appointees from the Oral Roberts University and cannibalized govt reports and research to fit their political objectives. The FEDERAL govt is corrupt, because the PEOPLE ARE CORRUPTED and soulless. Recall that the BUSH WH would alter scientific reports before releasing them and CHENEY had his secret meeting with the energy folk. And of course we know there is widespread corruption on the solitary contracts for PRIVATIZED GOVT SERVICES that were awarded by the BUSHIES.
It takes time to clean out the rodents and to kill the rats. But, at least with Obama we see the beginnings of something good. Congress is deliberately holding up his agency appointments to delay the extermination of the departments. The KOCHROACHES and rodents are still embedded in the federal govt, but with a few good treatments, they could be gone.
Perry is the real threat to our govt. He hates federalism, he thinks the federal govt should be limited in its ability to govern and regulate.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. But the rats are donating to Obama's campaign, so we'll have to expose

them on our own.

[digitaln3rd]

9. One who is part of the problem..

Generally isn't going to come up with a solution.

Corrupt and broken government isn't just a Republican issues..

[CleanGreenFuture]

10. Please list the banskter prosecutions carried out by the DoJ since 1/20/10.

Please show me how corruption is being rooted out by this administration.

[Obamanaut]

21. The 'job doing' starts pretty soon, maybe? nt

[Nuclear Unicorn]

6. No easy choices

OPTION 1 - We risk TP gains by primarying our side where needed until we can get good people on the ballots. But then again we though Obama was good people. We'll never know until each inidiviual is elected.

OPTION 2 - We sit out elections to protest but then the TP definitely gains seats.

OPTION 3 - We keep electing our crooks and nothing changes but at least they're our crooks.

OPTION 4 - We focus less on the federal government in favor of states and local government we feed the TP narrative which allows them to dismantle federal education, health care, retirement, labor law etc.


Option 1 is my reluctant choice. It has risk but it has the lowest risk and at least I can look at myself in the mirror each morning.

[Sirveri]

36. Option 5 - We burn it down and start over.

Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

Sadly it might just come down to that.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. I don't know. I've tried. And even reaching out on a progressive blog for the last

9 years hasn't helped. Ralph Nader knew the problem as early as 2000, but went the wrong way. Frankly, I think we need a team of retired journalist and lawyers who aren't afraid of backlash to organize and help represent cases around the country that can expose the names from both parties who are clogging the system that's suppose to protect us. Maybe young bloggers can donate their time to report the information as it comes in.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

11. election reform.

[CleanGreenFuture]

13. You would think. But, it's a non-starter because it

depends on the corrupted voting for it and then enacting it.

Don't think that's going to happen.

[RegieRocker]

12. The insanity is this thinking it's only the federal government.

It's the whole damned society. Local, state and corporations. What are they made up of? People. While most in society are good people, you have those good at lying (psychopaths) controlling and running what matters most without conscious or remorse. This in turn is creating secondary psychopaths. Mob rule.

[CleanGreenFuture]

15. I don't think it's only the federal government. And I briefly considered

adding all the stuff that you mention. But I decided to focus on the federal level since we all have that in common. Also, fix problems at the federal level first, then what doesn't trickle down from that to the states and society as whole can be dealt with.

[RegieRocker]

16. The (insanity) part was a reference to rw's.

Doesn't it make sense to start at home first, then work our way up? Small first to big?

[Bragi]

22. I think your analysis is wrong

The problem isn't corruption, if by that you mean people in government on the take. The problem is America's democratic political structures are corrupted beyond repair.

This systemic corruption isn't accidental, it is a reflection of the fact that this is what the oligarchs who own and run things need to happen for them to stay in control and get richer.

[CleanGreenFuture]

26. My position is reflected more accurately by your second paragraph...

not the first.

So, what do we do about the oligarchs/oligarchy?

[Bragi]

27. Choices: revolution or withdrawal

I don't see a democratic way out of the mess.

Change requires something resembling an uprising, which seems highly unlikely given the levels of social isolation and the police state infrastructure already in place.

Without an uprising, survival will depend on building small, practical, self-sufficient, defensible communities where people who can and want to do so can look after one another.

[CleanGreenFuture]

29. Ghaddafi had a formidable machine in place to control his people. Those

people decided they wanted to break free of that oppression.

Libya: Land of the free, home of the brave. America? Not so much.

[Bragi]

34. Subject line apology

I can't change the subject line now, but it is unnecessarily abrasive. Sorry about that.

[Cool Logic]

14. The same thing we always do about it...

expect something different, from the same people.

[TatonkaJames]

18. Look to the activists of the 1960's

See what they did, out in the streets everyday, being arrested for protesting, locking themselves to
corporate and Washington buildings. Organizing marches, rallies, and more demonstrations.
When the Fed Gov. sees us bending over with each bailout to the wealthy and asking for more instead of
standing up and fighting back against these criminals, they will continue and become stronger.
Siting behind a computer asking questions and getting responses like mine do absolutely nothing.
We ended the war in Vietnam by making it an issue that divided the nation and caused some deaths.
Sitting on our collective arses since the Iraq War has only emboldened them. I think it's too late for asking
how.

[Bragi]

28. A relevant new book

The Making of an Elder Culture: Reflections on the Future of America's Most Audacious Generation

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Elder-Culture-Reflections-Generation/dp/0865716617

[GliderGuider]

35. Thanks for the recommendation. I have a sneaking suspicion..

that a generation that brought the world the Vietnam War protests, the growth of multicultural societies, women's and gay liberation, the civil rights movement, sexual freedom and environmental awareness ought to be able to leverage their experience into an elder wisdom that will find a place in the coming upheavals. We were the most privileged generation in the history of the planet, so it goes without saying that it's time for us to give something back.

The Movement wasn't actually "about" sex and drugs. At its core it was about equality, authenticity and community. Those are the values that can underpin an enduring wisdom.

[dgibby]

19. Short of some type of massive, non-violent

civil protest, such as a nationwide strike, etc, I don't think there's really anything we can do. The corruption is like terminal cancer. Once it's metastasized throughout the body, treatment may cause a temporary remission, but the disease will eventually kill the host. The question then becomes, when do we take the patient off of life support?

[hifiguy]

20. Rec'd up to 15. nt

[GliderGuider]

23. If the entire system is in fact corrupted from top to bottom, we're hooped.

What we're looking at is a fully interwoven, self-perpetuating, self-defending network of corruption that pervades the entire social contract. It penetrates and interlocks politics, business, economics and law as well as formal and informal education (i.e. schools and media) at virtually every level. The penetration is now thorough enough that this network (not a conspiracy mind you, but a network of power relationships and common interests) has full control over most of the levers of power. Along the way it has educated the population into a distorted view of reality that sees this situation as normal. Because of this, not only is the corruption unassailable, but most people see no reason to assail it - "That's just the way the world works."

If this Matrix-like vision is true, then the field of action against the system as a whole is extremely limited. If the entire system is corrupt, then only its wholesale collapse will clear the field for a renewal. Unfortunately, the system is now so well-entrenched that it looks to be impossible to challenge it directly. Fortunately, the system looks like it's on the verge of implosion due to economic and social justice problems, excessive social and technical complexity, growing resource scarcity and climate change.

I believe this vision is not only true, but is possibly even under-stated. As a result I've decided to simply withdraw from direct battle, track the system's self-destruction, and wake up individuals as best I can to the truth of what's happening around us.

The first thing we need to do is wake up from the dream of globalized industrial civilization with its devastation of nature and its desolation of the human spirit. Once we are awake we will figure out what we can do right around us, and start to fix whatever within our reach needs fixing.

[CleanGreenFuture]

25. Excellent post, Glider, as usual. Thank you.

[moondust]

24. Shoulda been done a long time ago:

Get the big money out of politics. Citizens United clearly shows that we're charging full steam ahead in the wrong direction.

[Rex]

30. What can we do about it?

[CleanGreenFuture]

31. I imagine about a year ago the people of Libya were whispering the same

question of each other.

[librechik]

32. yes, but don't count on help from NATO

they'd be bombing us, not liberating us.

[merkins]

33. The Man Who Wasn't There

[slackmaster]

37. What we SHOULD do is stop automatically re-electing incumbents of both parties

But people won't do that. To paraphrase something that FDR may or may not have actual said about Anastasio Somoza Garcia, most voters feel this way about their own members of Congress: "He may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch."

[Festivito]

38. Not just government, but corruption seems pervasive throughout American life.

Businesses, media, insurance, wall street, finance, health, drugs, ...

At least it seems to stop at family feudalism -- for now.

[bluedigger]

39. Top to bottom?

I think most civil service employees would take great exception to that. Our political process and patronage appointee system, however, I agree, are entirely corrupted.

[RagAss]

40. No offense but I knew this when I was 12.