The #MeToo Democrats have hit a snag with Joe Biden. His creepy behavior towards young women doesn’t play with his 2020 Democratic front-runner status.
Yeah, this is creepy behavior, a US VP abusing his power– no question. But that’s what he is, so what did you expect? Of course, no feminist said anything at the time, but now it’s an issue for them.
The contradictions & hypocrisy of the #MeToo witch-hunt are coming into sharper focus. The #MeToo campaign forever diminished itself during the Kavanaugh Hearings last summer, when much of the already skeptical public saw through the #MeToo lies, which served to promote an arch-reactionary judge to the US Supreme Court– giving it a permanent 5-4 hard right-wing majority.
This reactionary form of feminism is also how Donald Trump became US President, to his surprise on November 8, 2016. Today, the #MeToo campaign’s coordination with “Russiagate,” is best personified in Rachael Maddow. I admit, this video below is painful to watch, but it is instructive.
Maddow has lost over 500,000 viewers since this broadcast on March 22, 2019. That was when the Mueller Report was released, exonerating Donald Trump from any charges of “collusion with Russia.” Yet, this MSNBC air-head still holds her longstanding position on “Trump’s ties to the Kremlin.”
Both these campaigns (#MeToo & Russiagate) are linked to censorship of the internet & blacklisting of socialists, which fascists (Republicans/Trump) approve.
ICE raids that violate the human & constitutional rights of those who have immigrated to America are also systematically ignored, as are US foreign wars-of-aggression. There is no longer any hard news coming from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, etc.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered a brutal murder & dismemberment of a dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, on October 2, 2018.
Khashoggi even wrote for the Washington Post, but events that shock & horrify the world get buried in the US media, as Saudi oil must keep flowing, and always remain traded in US dollars. Saudi Arabia is the world’s leading oil exporter, and linking crude to the US dollar makes the US-Saudi relationship “special.”
Like Israel, Saudi Arabia can commit any war crime it pleases, short of nuclear war, and not be sanctioned internationally– due to US support. This assistance from Uncle Sam comes militarily, economically & politically. These are the deep state interests, which make up the centrist faction of the Democratic Party.
The Democrats have split themselves with this #MeToo Frankenstein they created. The “progressive” faction of the Democrats are insisting on a woman presidential candidate for 2020– in Elizabeth Warren. The centrists prefer Biden.
In earnest, both factions are fascist, and offer nothing for working people & disenfranchised youth. This ideological battle among powerful Democrats promises to get ugly, in the media and behind-closed-doors. All of this reactionary filth plays into the hands of the Trump team, which is why Marxist analysis is so important.
Another critical issue that is never honestly discussed in the corporate news, is the ongoing financial crisis for ~85% of Americans. The stock & bond markets are booming for the ultra wealthy, but the real economy has stagnated. There are fewer good-paying jobs than ever, despite the great need for qualified workers everywhere.
Ailments of US capitalism include an obesity epidemic, an opioid crisis, and a lack of access to basic health care. Health care is now run by insurance conglomerates, hospital chains & big pharmaceuticals. Privatization & equity capital have gutted work forces in every industry, taking all the profits for themselves in the forms of stock options, buybacks & exorbitant bonuses. Today, per capita, fewer Americans than ever are defined as healthy.
On the macro-economic level, global debt is now $244 trillion. Global GDP in 2016 (latest figure) was $75.4 trillion. Global debt is now over 3 times global GDP, which signals a bankrupt global economy. There is no way this level of global indebtedness can ever be paid off.
Interest rates have been kept ultra-low for ten years now, so there only one direction they can move significantly. When rates rise, the interest payments of this massive mountain of debt will be unpayable. That is why the Fed, US government & big banks had to intervene in late December 2018, with its plunge-protection team which reportedly pumped over $500 billion into the markets to prevent a collapse that had started when the Fed began raising interest rates. The US dollar overnight bank lending rate is now at 2.25-2.5%, and can’t go any higher without precipitating another crisis.
The derivatives market are the best example of this giant Ponzi scheme. Derivatives are bets on future earnings of a tradeable asset. They are used in every industry, with some going 20 years into the future, or more. Most of this estimated $1.2 quadrillion market has made bets that are going to fail, yet are still being counted as assets. This is so traders (and everyone else involved including: bankers, investors & insurers) get their bonuses.
When this derivative market crashes, the world economy will instantly collapse. Such massive amounts of toxic assets can’t be covered by any of the central banks (US, EU, etc.) because they are already leveraged to the hilt. Credit will dry up, and there will be no liquidity. What’s about to happen came to be through 10 years of quantitative easing (QE), which is money printing for the rich, who then speculate in derivatives and stock buybacks to further enrich themselves at the expense of everybody else.
That’s capitalism in it’s death throes, and its contradictions are everywhere. We now have a global economy which is capable of being more productive than ever, but barely moves because: 1) there is no (very little) innovation, and 2) fewer consumers than ever can afford to buy– because of their indebtedness. Only the super-rich & big banks get bailouts and free money to waste
The most recent orgy of speculation has been in cryptocurrency, as Bitcoin trading recently went from ~$3,600 to now over $5,000– for no explainable reason. Bitcoin/crypto is likely the final frontier of bubbles before the next economic crash. Wealthy investors are looking for alternatives to fiat money, which has become devalued through inflation by money printing under QE capitalism.
Bitcoin (and any cryptocurrency) have no legitimate use value, and are massive energy wasters. They are all Ponzi schemes, marketed as the future of global currency, by Libertarian cyber-capitalists who are rabid anti-socialists.
To summarize, QE was the US Federal Reserve buying up toxic (worthless) derivatives, which have now ballooned into a $1.2 quadrillion market– meaning they’re entirely fake, and big enough to crash the global economy.
Instead of a debt jubilee for the indebted masses, which would have stimulated a real economy back in 2008-09, it’s been more easy money for the rich to speculate in fake assets. Our options now are: 1) more of the same, until world war breaks out; or 2) revolutionary socialism.
Today’s world is still shaped by the key social, political & economic world events that occurred around 1990, which were: 1) the Tienanmen Square massacre of June 1989, 2) the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, and most importantly 3) the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991.
These events shook & shocked the world, as new markets were being opened for capitalist exploitation. This is when (& why) Wall Street speculation & US militarism started going really crazy, as they saw an open playing field. In Iraq & Serbia, for instance. The only way we can get out of this mess, is to understand how we got into it.
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