The Oligarchy's Non-Negotiable Demands

Some orders are instructions. Some orders are wishful thinking. But sometimes orders are demands for immediate compliance. No questions. No negotiations. "Do this or it's all over for you."

When the entire Democratic Party's teams in the House of Representatives and the Senate voted for the "CARES ACT" which was the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the United States of America and probably the human race, they did so because it must have been made known to them by the leadership that voting against it would have been the equivalent of political suicide. (At least in the party, which would stop at nothing to inflict whatever vengeance it could upon contrarians.)

To be clear: This piece of legislation effectively gave the Trump administration the power to dispense $4.5 TRILLION to the already super-wealthy with effectively zero oversight. At the same time it gave ordinary US-Americans rendered unemployed by the pandemic with a one-time cheque for $1,200 as well as $600 per week in unemployment benefits for those lucky enough to qualify and access their states' benefits programs. The states themselves have been left stranded, both financially and in their attempts to respond to the health emergency caused by the virus. 

As I recounted in a previous post (obviously based on real reporting done by others), the detestable Nancy Pelosi received some minor pushback for her stupidity, which clearly upset her and prompted a condescending demand to her interviewer to "calm down." Like the idiot she is, she said she'd "always" planned to give away the farm and then try to get things for people who actually need help later. 

Under her leadership, the Democrat-led Congress passed the "HEROES ACT" which Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has pointedly ignored. The oligarchy already has its money. The oligarchy doesn't care if ordinary people are suffering. The oligarchy inflicts suffering on ordinary people as its business plan.

The oligarchy isn't just the passive (but happy) recipient of policies crafted by politicians. It is usually the source of those policies. And you can bet the US Oligarchy was probably pretty insistent that it get the trillions and trillions of dollars that it was given. And the less debate the better. In fact, given the enormity of this theft, ANY debate was intolerable. Well, okay, ... there has to be some debate. Especially in the US Senate. The greatest deliberative body in the history of white males ever (or something like that). So Bernie Sanders was allowed to speak against some Republican fuckwit's desire to strip the expanded unemployment benefits from the ACT.  I give credit to AOC for pointing out the insufficient benefits for ordinary people. She says she voted against it. I'll believe her but point out that I heard the voice vote in a recording and did not hear her distinctive twang. Regardless, she hasn't spoken out against the continued brazen theft of the nation's money by the Wall Street banksters and corporate criminals.

AOC's lone-vote against the ACT (among the Democrats anyway, there was also one "libertarian" Republican Congressman voted against it as well) constitutes extreme political bravery. If other progressive Democrats voted for it, it was either out of craven subservience, fear, or ignorance. And ignorance isn't an excuse. Those people contested for the right to sit in Congress and vote on legislation. When you're talking about hundreds of billions in direct spending and potentially TRILLIONS in money creation, getting some experts to advise you is obligatory. And it didn't require an economist ("experts" such as they are) to see how this legislation was massive theft.

Of course, after the fact, the Democrats are complaining about Republican inhumanity for not extending unemployment or other benefits as the pandemic continues to rage. But the hollowness of their complaints can be seen in their refusal to find whatever leverage they can to insist on these extensions. All they are doing is providing the theatre of a fake opposition in an attempt to placate non-Republican voters. If they were really concerned about the harm to ordinary people caused by allowing the pandemic subsidies to lapse they could have held-up the "NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT." Instead of doing that, the majority of Democrats (sometimes having to vote with Republicans) actively worked to make sure that endless wars, endless support for Zionist brutality, and endless wasteful spending and profiteering remained the USA's policies. Once again, they had leverage and didn't use it. And this means that Nancy Pelosi is either incompetent or disingenuous.

It seems to me that giving Wall Street trillions with no strings attached and no oversight was seen as, ... well, not "vital" since that word implies that Wall Street needed those trillions to survive, ... so whatever word conveys some excess that an insanely greedy sociopath passionately desired. And that furthermore, the oligarchy sees spending money on making sure ordinary US-Americans survive the economic chaos caused by the pandemic as being a waste. In fact, I'm sure the oligarchy [insanely] plans on even more austerity on normal people to "pay for" the trillions that the oligarchs have taken for themselves.

These are the oligarchy's "non-negotiable demands." "Non-negotiable demands" is a term that leftists have employed from time-to-time (although at present the phrase inspires rueful laughter) for things they want from the governments/corporations they protest against. But we see the term employed correctly here. 

It's the same way that the Trudeau Liberals seem to prefer devastating the economy to allow banks to continue to extract money from households and businesses that have lost their means of income, and the way that the Trudeau Liberals choose to waste tens of billions to continue to subsidize the fossil fuels sector in times of austerity or massive COVID-19 deficits. They have been given their marching orders from their masters and they know better than to question them.