"The wealthy, not only by private fraud but also by common laws, do every day pluck and snatch away from the people some part of their daily living. Therefore, when I consider and weigh in my mind these commonwealths which nowadays do flourish, I perceive nothing but a certain conspiracy of rich men in procuring their own commodities under the name and authority of the commonwealth.
They invent and devise all means and crafts, first how to keep safely without fear of losing that which they have unjustly gathered together, and next how to hire and abuse the work and labor of the people for as little money and effort as possible."
"A few weeks before announcing his re-election campaign, President Obama convened two dozen Wall Street executives, many of them longtime donors, in the White House’s Blue Room. The guests were asked for their thoughts on how to speed the economic recovery, then the president opened the floor for over an hour on hot issues like hedge fund regulation and the deficit..."-NYT (aka Stenographers of Record)
You can rest assured that no one would cheer on such a development here in my home state of Illinois more than the jackass who ran the city of Chicago for more than two decades. Recently, former Chicago mayor-for-life Richard M. Daley cashed in his chips so to speak after 22 years on the throne by accepting a paid advisory position with the law firm of Katten Muchin Rosenman which served an instrumental role in the sell-off of city assets such as the Chicago Skyway (short-cut to northern Indiana, formerly a public highway), the city parking garages, and parking meters. This firm also negotiated the attempted sale of Chicago's Midway Airport (third-world style) that fortunately fell through with the 2008 financial crisis.
For his tireless work in transforming the city into a reliable source of economic rent-extraction for Big Business and major investors Rich Daley can expect to be richly rewarded. This of course is the expected trajectory of those who faithfully serve Capital at the expense of the public (think Bill Clinton). King Richard certainly isn't unique in this regard but his legendary lack of sophistication (no brief stopover in academia for the sake of appearances) brings the practice into unseemly bold relief given the realities of Chicago's cratered economy.
No city embraced the neoliberal model with more fervor than Chi-town and Daley relished his role as the Pied Piper. To pick just one example, under Daley's tutelage Chicago helped pioneer the privatization of public schooling with the charter school scam now being pimped across the country by the Obama administration, tellingly with the same hack as the spearhead: Arnie Duncan. The overall purpose of such schemes being to transform that which the public holds in common, be it railroads, airports, toll roads, forests, or... school systems into privately held entities from which tribute in the form of access fees may be charged to the very public for which these resources were developed at taxpayer expense generations ago. We can expect Daley's successor Rahm Emanuel to accelerate this process as opportunities present themselves. Only committed and organized popular resistance can prevail against the coming onslaught.
Enjoy Prison, Peter Navarro!
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Just last week, Peter Navarro was officially ordered to report to prison on
Tuesday, March 19th to begin a 4 month sentence for his failure to testify
be...
Profits: margins and rates
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US corporate profit margins are at record highs, despite slowing price
inflation and rising wage increases. Looking at the whole US economy,
non-financial...
Assange Truth and UN Shenanigans
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I spent the last week at the UN, trying to ram home some truths about the
Assange case as input to the UN’s Periodic Review (every 7 years) of the
UK’s h...
Rectified and Readymade
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The idea that “anything can be art” is adestructive notion that devalues
art:equating pop-cult’s levelling Cuisinartwith masterpieces like that Mona
Lizza:...
Biden in Distress: the Gaza Albatross
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Everywhere Joe Biden turns he faces political landmines. They all are
marked “Made in Gaza.” 100,000 Michigan voters
The post Biden in Distress: the Gaza...
In Solidarity with our brother Aaron Bushnell
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Solidarity maximum with the oppressed for whom you sacrificed your life
will resonate forever, my brother. One day, the people will rise up
against, as y...
Media Say ... Gloom And Doom In China
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The New York Times, and other western media, are running a 'doom and gloom
in Xi's economy' campaign. The latest entry is this piece: China’s Economic
Pain...
Baddiel, an ignorant, arrogant charlatan
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If Twitter obsessed David Baddiel's book, *Jews Don't Count* was a
*Wikipedia* entry it would be flagged as having "multiple issues".
The first problem ...
The Great Student Loan Ruse
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These appalling figures don't fully capture the cruelty of the reality to
which they refer.
The post The Great Student Loan Ruse appeared first on The Co...
Moving Interruptus, and Why Hospitals Suck
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In the event, June turned out to be the horrible month I had expected --
but June also proved unexpectedly resourceful. It was horrible for reasons
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Taking our final steps
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From the ISO
Members of the leadership team responsible for carrying out the decisions
made by current and recently resigned ISO members in voting to diss...
On Fetish
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God creates Adam and immediately—sooner than we thought—He speaks to him.
This first address, according to the midrash, is a seduction:
*“And the Lord ...
Responsibility Is For The Poors
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*Paul Ryan fixing Obamacare.*
Let's talk about responsibility.
When you break something, you have a responsibility to fix it. When you do
your damnede...
Yoshie Furuhashi, "After MRZine"
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[image: MRZine]Today MRZine comes to an end, after over a decade's run.
Thank you for your past support. . . . My next project is to establish
Movement Tra...
Trump Era Fresh
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For those who still swing by to see if I'm around, you might want to go here.
Yes, it's a new site for a New Day. Let's learn together.
The Return on My Investment
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By: Aaron Datesman
It's easy to recognize a win when it comes with a trophy at the end (or, in
the case of politics, an inauguration). It's harder to rec...
It's really very simple
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[Note: I am pushing this article live two days early because ZeroHedge
somehow managed to get a hold of it and post it before I did. Needless to
say, I do...