Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Eric Holder Returns as Hero to Law Firm That Lobbies for Big Banks

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

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Eric Holder Returns as Hero to Law Firm That Lobbies for Big Banks

Click here to access article by Lee Fang from The Intercept.

After failing to criminally prosecute any of the financial firms responsible for the market collapse in 2008, former Attorney General Eric Holder is returning to Covington & Burling, a corporate law firm known for serving Wall Street clients.

This article reports on a phenomenon that is now business as usual in the US and in Western style "democracies" in general. As such it once again illustrates that government does not represent the general public, but only the ruling capitalist class--people who claim private "ownership" of a society's economy.

At the beginning they seduced working people into aiding them in the overthrow the rule of monarchies and aristocracies by promising freedom from arbitrary rule and democracy. They have had to pay lip service to these promises ever since. However, over the past several centuries of rule by this class they have been slowly increasing their accumulation of ownership, wealth, and power. Now we see the results: they have also been increasing the integration of government with their rule so that government decision making bodies are now performing a purely fake democratic drama for the public while simultaneously serving the very real capitalist interests of profit and power.