Saturday's Protest ...and Counter Protest

I know it becomes rather tiresome to compare the United States to aspects of the Roman Empire (or even more tiresome, Nazi Germany, oh wait, we use that for Iran) but Saturday's protests and paid for protests couldn't help but evoke images of Rome in decline - when politicians would have paid thugs who would riot and provoke civic unrest and 'democracy' no longer became civic discussion but violent blocks competing for power.

The purpose of the paid Union and other "protesters" was not to promote civic discourse, or more transparency in government. In fact it was exactly the opposite; The crude tactics of Forest City and its paid for 'protesters' was the latent threat of intimidation and violence, and in fact, physically trying to prevent people from really protesting.

As with the stunt Ratner pulled at the ESDC hearings - the purpose of these 'protesters' is to shout down and drown out any reasonable debate or objection to his pilfering the public coffers. He then can take the spin to the paper 'look more people came out in favor of my project'. Of course, his buddies at the Daily News, in addition to providing him column space, are perfectly willing to pass on his half-truths.

It now becomes obvious why big corporations and the mega wealthy promote seemingly 'progressive' policies of open immigration and 'diversity'; both give them cheap, easy access to segments of the population who are perfectly willing aid them in breaking the power of the civic class- and literally, support the legalized theft of property from others. A large middle class is essential for any democracy - it is no accident that is whom Ratner and his cronies are both stealing from and trying to undermine, by shamelessly exploiting the poor with false promises. But hey, Ratner's progressive, after all, he told us so.