We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Wall Street Lobby and Campaign Cash Tops $2 Billion for 2016 Elections

Click here to access article by Carter Dougherty from Americans for Financial Reform.
During the 2015-16 election cycle, Wall Street banks and financial interests spent more than $2 billion to influence decision-making in Washington, according to a report released today by Americans for Financial Reform. That total, derived from an exclusive data set, works out to more than $2.7 million a day, and over $3.7 million per member of Congress.

Since 2008, the financial services industry has spent more money on contributions and lobbying than it did before the crisis, and the total in this cycle is the highest yet. The numbers reflect the industry’s relentless efforts to roll back financial regulations put in place after the crisis, lobby Congress to weaken the rules, and to forestall deeper changes to the financial system.
It's clear that people in the financial industry are heavily invested in keeping the facade of "democratic" government in place. You will notice that the major banks are not at the top of the lists for either campaign contributions or lobbying, but that is simply because they are solidly represented in the secretive Deep State (see my description here ) which in reality influences all major policy decisions pursued by the democratic facade of the three official branches of  government (Executive, Legislative, and the Judiciary). In his new administration Trump has directly appointed many bankers to his official cabinet.

Once you understand how capitalists rule, you will understand that at stressful times they are tempted to eliminate the huge costs of maintaining the fiction of democratic rule and opt to directly rule by fiat. The latter form of rule that derives from capitalism is known as fascism. But you won't find definitions that link fascism directly to the rule of capitalists. This is another illustration of how even the meaning of words is influenced by their rule--in this case they go to extreme lengths to hide the relationships between the rule of the capital class and fascism.