The defenders on the TPP: "You don't know that" and "It's just speculation". Bullfuckingshit.

[dotymed]

49. AnotherMcIntosh we do.

Most people do not realize that it was the strength of "3rd parties" like the Socialists, the Unions, the Communist party All of which were "allowed" to exist and wield power due to their expanding "bases" of disenfranchised (99%er) Americans, played a huge part in FDR's decisions.
He realized that the masses would no longer tolerate the (similar to present day) economic conditions created by the robber barons (todays 1%).
The major difference between then and now:
Americans were "allowed" to be active members of these "3rd parties" (they were labeled subversive and terrorist organizations at the time).
This was also during the time-frame that the FBI and other government organizations meant to repress freedoms were still organizing.

The elite (1%) did not have the technology and the infrastructure currently wielded by the police state (ie. NSA, CIA, etc.) to combat the 99% who had been so marginalized by the robber barons.
Therefore "the people" decimated by the monopolies, etc. which created The Great Depression ( which we have been in again for the last 12 years or so) fought back by joining the opposing political parties in an attempt to right the wrongs inflicted by the ruling class.

FDR, encouraged by his aristocratic wife/cousin realized the damage already inflicted by the aristocrats (robber barons) and empathized.
The world was already in chaos due to world war and an impending one. He realized that if America was going to survive as a "superpower" then the people (99%ers) had to be treated fairly.
FDR didn't just talk after this revelation, he acted. IMO, the more he did, the better he felt, until he realized that all people should be invested in the "American Dream", not just the elites.
While he made mistakes, his legacy of empowering all Americans was the turning point in our history. He strove (and fought coup
attempts by the 1%ers).

Possibly his initial attempts to create an actual just society stemmed from lack of ability to control the average person (no technology or established control network) FDR eventually realized that everyone deserved a life free of parasitic state control and a guaranteed
minimum level of stability in each persons life was "the right thing." He spent his remaining years working to establish a world where people were not chattel, they were guaranteed an "anti-fascist" existence.
Unfortunately, since his demise the cancer of the aristocrats, slowly at first, has returned more malevolent than ever.
Fortunately (I pray) many Americans (and a few politicians) remember and agree with FDR's work on the side of humanity,
against greed.
That is why I am an FDR Democrat not a dlc democrat. I hoped that our historic first black President would (as his campaign speeches indicated), throw off the yoke of tyranny that has regained world-wide prominence. I was wrong.
It is going to take a United, relentless effort by the oppressed (99%) to thwart the "security apparatus" of control that now has the technology to monitor all and secure the supremacy of the few.
Humanity is quickly disappearing along with empathy, even among those who do not realize how closely their futures are
intertwined.