None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free
—Goethe
When I heard that Barack Obama had named William M. Daley to be his chief of staff, I was reminded once again that the owners of this country, the elites that have run it into the ground while enriching themselves, aren't going anywhere. They're still here, still running the show, still doing damage. The Wall Street Journal tells us everything we need to know about William M. Daley. Crucial facts are underlined and italicized. Spin (propaganda) is indicated with the red font—
WASHINGTON—William M. Daley has long straddled the worlds of business and politics.
The 62-year-old Mr. Daley, named President Barack Obama's new chief of staff Thursday, has never held elected office. But his father, Richard J. Daley, and his brother, Richard M. Daley, created a dynasty, together serving more than four decades as Chicago mayor.
For the president, the selection answers critics who say he needs better relations with the business community, but it also brings an outside influence to a White House peopled with longtime aides to Mr. Obama. And it sends yet another signal that Mr. Obama is serious about looking for pragmatic compromises with resurgent Republicans.
Mr. Daley now oversees Midwestern operations for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., serving as the bank's public face in Chicago. He also works a lot in Washington helping Chief Executive James Dimon navigate the political landscape, especially during the debate last year over financial regulation that will cut the bank's bottom line by billions.
Before going on, you need to understand the spin. Does anybody really believe the "financial regulation will cut the bank's bottom line by billions"? So-called "financial reform" is being gutted even as I write this. Paul Volcker, who apparently has been kicked out of the owners club, or resigned voluntarily, knows that "reform" was a ruse. See The Greatrest Trick The Devil Ever Pulled. Let's go on.
Mr. Dimon, a newcomer in Washington politics, was incensed by the political bashing of the banking industry. Mr. Daley, known for having a calm exterior, encouraged his boss to temper his anger when dealing with legislators, insiders say. Indeed, friends say Mr. Daley is known for keeping his cool and pushing to move things along—insisting that decisions get made, not postponed, and preventing meetings from going longer than needed.
His banking job also gave Mr. Daley a chance to use his Chicago connections to build business for the bank, without having any direct responsibilities to any specific businesses. Within the bank, he is credited with helping J.P. Morgan win a role to advise Exelon Corp. in its ultimately unsuccessful bid for Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.
The White House said Mr. Daley won't deal with anything related to J.P. Morgan for a period of two years, and said officials would work through other issues, such as divesting his stock holdings, before he gets started.
Mr. Daley also sits on the boards of Boeing Co. and drug maker Abbott Laboratories. And he once served on the board of Fannie Mae and as president of the Amalgamated Bank of Chicago and SBC Communications Inc., now known as AT&T Inc...
Some liberals are wary. Mr. Daley has said his party went too far to the left in the health-care debate. Labor unions remember his hard push as commerce secretary for the North American Free Trade Agreement through Congress in the early 1990s.
More recently, when asked to endorse Mr. Obama's push to create a consumer-protection agency for financial products, he declined. He wrote an op-ed essay advising the party take a "moderate, centrist course."
OK, that's enough. The fact that Daley will not deal directly with J.P. Morgan Chase and is divesting himself of his stock holdings is meaningless. His stock money and his job (or some similar position) will be waiting for him when he quits this new round of "public service" (he served as Clinton's Commerce secretary).
The spinmeisters at National Public Radio were working overtime yesterday when the announcement was made. I'll sum it up: Obama's choice of Daley was (literally) "a move to the center," an attempt to reach out to the business community, and an attempt to appease the Chamber of Commerce. Notice that NPR's spin echos Daley's own rhetoric. Move to the center? Hiring a banker from J.P. Morgan Chase who wouldn't endorse a Consumer Protection Agency is a move to the center? The center of what? The gullet of some Giant Vampire Squid? I hope you can see just how outrageous that is. Yet, we're expected to swallow this nonsense hook, line and sinker.
As George Carlin says in the video below, the elites that run this country own you. You should not think of the owners as a small, monolithic group of people who run this country day-to-day. Rather, they are a diverse group of extremely powerful people in various industries (defence, banking, pharmaceuticals, etc.) or in the government (the Treasury, the Fed) who ultimately make all the important policy decisions in America. I have called this The Money World (and see part II). The owners have the corrupt politicians in their pockets. These policy decisions always enrich the owners at your expense. You are merely property to these people. Carlin is a little more blunt: they don't give a fuck about you. At all.
Here at DOTE, I don't offer you hope, at least not in the conventional sense. I'm not an activist, and neither was Carlin, who passed away in 2008. Carlin is not kidding when he says the fix is in, and there's nothing you can do about it. If Obama's choice of Daley doesn't convince you of that, I don't know what would.
I want you to know the truth about our declining Empire. The rigged game exemplifies and signifies that decline. The owners want you to participate in their rigged system. As long as you do so, you will remain enslaved. The only liberation available to you is to reject their phony politics, and the idea they want you to believe that the owners only have your best interests at heart. Understanding and rejecting this nonsense is the first, crucial step toward true freedom. And now here's George.
Perfect post. I love that Carlin clip, always have.
"""Mr. Daley has said his party went too far to the left in the health-care debate."""
What complete bullshit.....and he knows it...they know it. The debate was never a debate. The fix was in on healthcare reform from the very beginning. All of the hubbub was Kabuki Theater to provide cover for the fact that the bill was written by the insurance and pharma industries. Wendell Potter provides the transparency for those who have eyes. Single Payer was locked out of the debate.
In fact, maybe the healthcare reform bill was a strawman from the very beginning....meant to be unthreateningly unpopular so it could be repealed by the new Repub-controlled Congress.
Posted by: Morocco Bama | 01/07/2011 at 02:36 PM