The real revelation came with the Citibank emails. This
wasn't even so much about the corruptions of the Clintons as it was the
compromised nature of the system itself.
The fact that someone associated with Citibank is emailing
lists of suggested cabinet officers to the incoming Obama administration is
itself telling. One must ask why highly connected figures in American finance
feel the need or would even dare to do such a thing?
But then the fact that virtually all the selections ended up
in the Obama cabinet demonstrates that his 'Hope and Change' was all a fraud.
Obama was bought and paid for indeed owned by Wall Street. These lists all but
prove it. So does his Wall Street friendly health insurance reform. Sure, there
are multiple options offered for some cabinet posts but in almost every case
one of the options was selected.
While Wall Street doesn't normally micromanage political
affairs, this indicates something as to what might be called management style.
Suggestions are made. Options are floated. The Hillary Clinton speeches reveal
a lot in this regard. There's reciprocity but it's clear who the real master
is.
For years conspiracists have pointed to the bankers as
wielding all the power in society. The investigatory trails always seem to lead
back to those who hold the reins of the money and then affairs are managed by
powerful agents who act as liaisons, who float between the worlds of government,
finance, military and industry/technology. These are the masters of the world
it would seem.
Conspiracists often fail in their assessments and lose
credibility by ascribing too much direct power to these figures that sit on top
of the pyramid. We're often led to believe that they call all the shots.
Everything, every noteworthy event and story in the news is somehow
manufactured. Obviously that view is unrealistic and goes too far in ascribing
monopolistic power.
While this is ridiculed and dismissed by many these emails
and leaks indicate there's more truth to that notion than many would have
acknowledged.
Yet, the conspiracists often fail to realise there are real
factions, internal squabbles and battles and (within the consensus) ideological
struggles. Other figures who gain wealth can force a seat at the table and/or
disrupt. One thinks of the Koch brothers. The Power Elite as Mills identified
them are not a monolith and it would be a mistake to think in those terms.
While the news is certainly manipulated this does not mean that events such as
the Sandy Hook shooting were fictitious and that actors were employed. Such a
view can only be described as infantile.
If I might expand on some of the Biblical imagery, the Beast
is portrayed as a multi-headed hydra, a monstrosity known well to the
Hellenistic world. The heads of the hydra are 'kings' or powers. The Beasts of
Daniel and Revelation come in a succession, destroying and replacing one
another but the 'Beast' as it were keeps coming back. In Revelation the Beast
is revealed as in reality a single entity and this is depicted by the multi-form
beast in chapter 13. The heads are therefore symbolic of this succession of
powers working both in concert and often against each other.
While venturing beyond the text is it too much to suggest
this paradigm is repeated on the micro-level? While Revelation may take in
something of the big picture in providing a spiritual lesson for the nature of
power in This Age and its course, we might suggest that this reveals something
as to the very nature of power itself. Might not each hydra head, each crown be
viewed as a Hydra-Beast in itself? Might not each Beast suggest a series of new
smaller heads, so to speak? Each Beast is made up of what we might call
sub-beasts.
The hydra is made up of smaller and smaller hydras. This
imagery is also portrayed in the concept of circles or degrees of power and CS
Lewis' concept of inner rings.
This
is how power works. Is it a conspiratorial? Undoubtedly, and these revelations
give a great deal of credence to previous conspiracy theories about the power
of the bankers. And yet I continue to insist the wielded power is not
monolithic and the conspiracy is basically open. There are certainly aspects to
it that are very secretive and hide malicious agendas but for the most part
it's in the open if anyone cares to look and understand.
There will be more to consider as the emails are filtered by
actual journalists. As Obama's presidency ends some will begin to talk and more
will come out. The Right-wing will rejoice and make as much hay as they can out
of all this but if anything it reveals that the Democratic-Republican divide is
largely a false one.
The Right-wing street will believe they now understand the
evil machinations of the Democratic Party and its operatives. But there is
nothing happening here that is not equally true of the Republican side of the
spectrum. This window isn't limited to the Democratic machine but the system
itself.
Following is a link to the emails themselves in Wikileaks,
but I have also pasted in the attachment that provides the list in case anyone
doesn't want to visit the site.
Of course a final note is the irony in the deliberate and
false 'diversity' displayed by the final tally. Nixon himself and Reagan
Interior Secretary James Watt were lambasted over their crass listing off of
minorities in their administrations and yet this list shows the thinking isn't
all that different on the other side of the aisle.
Ironically George W. Bush had a very diverse cabinet but this
is not a demonstration of GOP cosmopolitanism or largesse. It was pure optics
and a political move as the GOP is desperate to promote every minority possible
into government and media. Their future depends on it.
From the attachment
email id 8190:
Cabinet Example
Position Candidate Examples Diversity Example
Probability of Choice
WH COS Daschle/Emanuel
WH Counsel Kagen/Holder 1 Holder
NSC Jones/Steinberg
State Kerry/Dodd
Defense Gates/Reed
DHS Napolitano/Bacerra 1 Napolitano
DNI Steinberg/Blair
CIA Blair/Steinberg
USUN Rice 1 Rice
Justice K. Salazar/Holder 1 Salazar
NEC Tarullo/Schlosstein/Sperling
Treasury Rubin/Geithner/Summers
OMB Orszag/Spratt/Pryce/Sperling
CEA Goolsbee/Henry/Collins/Farrell .5
Commerce Pritzker/Mulcahey/Parsons/Williams 1 Pritzker
USTR Tysons/Parsons 1 Tysons
Labor Sebelius/Gephardt/Cisneros .5 Sebelius
USDA Clyburn/Nelson/Schwietzer/J.
Salazar .5
SBA Hightower/Fong/Nesbitt 1 Fong
Performance Farrell/Gupta 1 Farrell
Energy Council Steyer/Inslee
Energy Rogers/Bryson/Harris .5
EPA Adams/Nichols 1 Adams
Interior Browner/Richardson/J. Salazar 1 Richardson
DPC Barnes/Jarrett 1 Barnes
Transportation Kirk/Sims/Ford 1 Kirk
HUD N.
Rice/Sims/Cisneros/Booker/Jarrett 1 N.
Rice
Education Powell/Simmons/Reich/Duncan .5 Powell
HHS Gayle/Sebelius/Dean .5 Gayle
VA Duckworth/Shinseki 1 Duckworth
Urban Affairs Jarrett/Canada 1 Jarrett
Total 31
Non-Hispanic White Men 13
Women 11
African American 8
Latino 2
Asian American 2
Native American 0
Disabled 1
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