The Big Squeeze Play

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No, this is not about baseball, though this writer as a youth participated in many squeeze plays. Sometimes they were actually ‘ Suicide Squeezes’, so apropos to this current political climate. No, this is about  millions of us working stiffs who consider ourselves Socialists or Socialist thinkers. Some in the sadly corrupt Democratic Party call themselves ‘ Progressives’ , but… they rarely go ‘ The Full Monty’ and support  viable socialist themes. Too many of them actually voted to increase the already obscene military spending under the false label of ‘ Defense Spending’. Almost all of them got involved politically and publically in supporting the Neo Nazi infiltrated Ukraine government. True socialists like this writer, if in office, would decide to sit that war out while pushing for negotiations to end it. Russia was wrong in attacking Ukraine and Ukraine was wrong in harassing ethnic Russians in the Donbas and Crimea regions. Oh, and Ukraine stuck its finger at Russia by lobbying for NATO membership. Both parties should not be supported in their actions, or their war.

Of course the long list of Democratic Party missteps ( mostly on purpose ) voting against working stiffs is not so recent. It seems the Dems have a sorry history of, when push comes to shove, in supporting the Super Rich Military Industrial Complex. Just look at what has been transpiring in the area of residential housing , now actually worse than ever. The ‘ Invasion of the Absentee Landlords’ is only growing as over a hundred million working stiff Americans are subjected to outright Feudalism! Large blocs of corporate landlords own thousands and tens of thousands of rental property ( and don’t forget that great news talk celebrity Sean Hannity and the spoiled super rich kid and Trump son in law Jared Kushner). Most of this sad scenario came from the massive home evictions and foreclosures during the orchestrated Sub Prime bubble of 2008-09. Remember good ole Henry Paulson, former CEO of the piggish Goldman Sachs and then current Sec. of Treasury under the Bush/Cheney Cabal? Recall how he stood in front of the cameras, almost choking back the crocodile tears, and told the world how ‘ We have to save our financial system from destruction’. By the way, Paulson retired from Goldman with a compensation package of…are you sitting down folks, $ 500 million!! Henry then pushed for what was later known as TARP, a $ 700 billion bailout of his Wall Street cronies, when folks like Ralph Nader, joining with many fiscal conservatives, demanded that those toxic firms be placed into ‘ Receivership’. That meant that Uncle Sam would pay for those septic Wall Street firms’ assets at like 10 cents on the dollar and own them. That measure would allow the tens of thousands of employees to stay on their jobs earning their regular pay.  Then when Obama took office he made sure to satisfy his own corporate donors to continue this obscenity  subsidized by our federal tax dollars. Go and watch the 2012 Marc Levin documentary ‘ Lost on Long Island’ to see how damaging those Wall Street layoffs were in 2008-09.

Now we see the utter epitome of what Ralph Nader labeled ‘ Twiddle Dum and Twiddle Dee’, the current Two Party/One Party system. Lately the right hand of this fist of empire has quickly transformed itself into an outright Fascist Menace, thanks to the snake oil salesman former president. Behind the curtain that he stands in front of are a slew of borderline Neo Nazis, some very super rich and many just plain ole lower and middle class fools. This must be stopped before we have an actual ‘ Coup de tat’ attempt that makes the January 6th one look ‘ants at a picnic’, which will then ferment a real Civil War. No kidding folks. This is what the movers and shakers of the other hand of the fist of empire, the Democratic Party, are actually counting on… Sadly. The Democrats really don’t have to do much to help us working stiffs at all. They just play the oldest game of ‘ Lesser of two evils’ . I don’t know about you but sometimes I cannot catch my breath, the squeeze is so tight! And I most likely will push that Democratic Party voting lever to stop that approaching  monster! We working stiffs need to join together when the election cycles are over and formulate a new socialist mindset. Better late than never!!

Philip A Farruggio is regular columnist on It’s the Empire… stupid website. He is also frequently posted on Nation of Change, Countercurrents., Smirking Chimp and Independent Australia sites. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn NYC longshoremen and a graduate of Brooklyn College, class of 1974. Since the 2000 election debacle Philip has written over 400 columns on the Military Industrial Empire and other facets of life in an upside down America. He is also host of the ‘ It’s the Empire… Stupid ‘ radio show, co produced by Chuck Gregory. Philip can be reached at [email protected]

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