@AnnMorris @MattMastodon In some ways we are further along than the UK being the center of what Sen Whitehouse calls #TheScheme . The shortest form is a corporate lawyer rallied the richest in the US to wage political warfare to wrest the republic into their hands. They work collectively to that end and for 50 years. They have largely succeeded and the US is a plutocracy

@TonyStark I want to stress though that the animating spirit for this is US business and US wealth. They started down this path in the 70s with their coordinated effort to capture gov. To do so they have founded and funded an entire ideological industry of “theory” and policy and propaganda to spread it. They hired legions of lobbyists to promote their policies and have spread them in business and economic fields.

This is the legacy of the Powell Memo, also labeled #TheScheme

@politicalpunk Reagan however was an enthusiastic acolyte the effort big business organized through the Powell Memo (which Sen Whitehouse labeled #TheScheme ) A chunk of wealth were rallied to undertake capture of the gov. The did this by setting non profits to manufacture ideology to that end, then others to make policy and promote it. An army of hired lobbyists and media was drawn into that promotion.
Neoliberalism was the main economic theory crafted to that end (more..)

@ResonantMuse Gee I wonder why Nixon and Gov Reagan killed debt free college. #TheScheme was just getting underway in the 70s and 80s, as the Bircher crowd were in full rage over the 60s and 70s.

@jimstewartson everyone in the conservative orbit and by this I mean the entire social strata affiliated or adjacent to the industry of influence of #TheScheme

The effort Powell Jr's Memo launched has simply grown from gov capture to a full treason. Leading wealth like Theil Musk Zuckerberg along with the old guard of the Koch family and that crowd firmly view they dictate the gov of the US. The reality is they have largely succeeded. See GOP/Fox/SCOTUS and the federal circuit.

We live with the product of The Powell Memo (#TheScheme) which rallied US wealth to wrest gov into their hands. This is the “lite” part we live with. Through decades of effort, by constructing an entire industry of influence in non profits like the Heritage Foundation, ALEC, Cato, Federalist Society, they generated theory (neoliberalism), then policy (GOP) and propaganda (Fox) that enabled them to capture gov. Bork’s anti trust doctrine is one example . Citizens United is another.🧵

Democracy at Work (D@W) Economic Update: Surging US Labor Activism

30min video

Some very interesting events in unions, especially with respect to rail workers. Mention of Biden’s forced contract on rail and abridging their fundamental economic liberty to strike. The current state of rail matches the Gilded Age.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okJ7i-uo3Og

My own comment is: This is the consequence of #TheScheme as Sen Whitehouse names it. Wealth has succeeded seizing gov.🧵

#unions #labor

@mog7546 It is an oxymoron.

US conservatism is wholly a function of #TheScheme an effort to dominate US government in every way and slave it to the will of US wealth.

They have succeeded in binding the GOP, the Dems in many ways, business culture and the courts to that end. Also known as the Powell Memo, it’s a One Ring, the device of despotism. It is wholly evil and none can touch it without being corrupted

@pkrugman the proponents of #TheScheme reject that Mr Krugman. In every age of mankind wealth has a chance to turn away, but the never do. The proponents of Powell Jr's Memo have dedication themself to domination by any means they can get away with. They have done well for a half century; the GOP, the courts and media are servants. They see no reason to relent

@newz 😂 It is in these moments of establishment outburst that I tend to fall into despair

This kind of idiocy that we can or even should parley with fascism/terrorism must be roundly ridiculed. The GOP are wholly servants of #TheScheme itself literally a campaign to use every means Chamber of Commerce members of US plutocracy to pour the cruelty, malice, contempt and will to dominate the US, its people, economy and government.

#TheScheme is wholly evil. We cannot parley with it.

@davetroy

One thing that I have been pondering is the occasionally noted strength of conservative media in fashioning narratives. This may be considered natural to “them” at least in the sense of palingenetic ultranationalism is defined by the construction of mythical narrative.

It is touched on here (paywall warning)
https://www.ft.com/content/89c2f5ef-573b-43f2-a975-95b57095672e

This is in no small part from being a fan of Tolkien’s imagination and his constant recrafting of legend; #TheScheme feels like epic like Morgoth’s lies

@itsfullofstars Back then, and with a far more limited problem, policy actually followed science.

#TheScheme has grown ever more effective and vain over the decades. Never deterred, their outrages grow just as big business’s excesses did in the past, Oil Barrons, the meat packers, but now they have seized control of our republic and destroyed its function and has made to serve them.

@hankg @1finekitty

The GOP takes it seriously because #theScheme donors want their pet Federalist Society jurists on the bench. That scheme is the origin

These pie holes will do anything to clear a path for the greater glory of plutocratic domination, which they have largely succeeded in.

see rant that starts with a guy who never made to SCOTUS but none the less fabricated the theory, the GOP and pet judges have used to deliver economic domination to US wealth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ96Rsopi6w

@qjurecic Team ”normal” are #TheScheme ‘s army of darkness

It is wholly evil and only functions to destroy the republic

@juddlegum It’s sort of crazy that the family made a mint off of fossil fuel for decades, first with the USSR. A family inured of authoritarianism whose facade of media scream liberty and howl about communism. The circumstance of that family, at the forefront of #TheScheme, a plot for domination built on lies, is Tolkienian DarkLord material but apt. Everything touched by it, jurists, the GOP, media is wholly evil.

A man is known by the business he keeps.

@kims Near as I can tell because conservative values. 🤪 Todays GOP is carries water for plutocracy and they embody every single value of wealth: mendacity, cruelty, brutality.

In some way I think this is the ultimate product of #TheScheme set in motion by Powell Jr. Every aspect of its purpose is bent towards domination and they are shaped by this effort

“And into this ring he poured his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life.”

@SpockResists This episode reflects the international nature of tyranny. US billionaires are an anathema because #TheScheme they pursue is nothing less than the destruction of the republic and they ally with nations that seek our ruin. The GOP and its funders are a lethal cancer to all our lives.

@JimSwift It’s a empty swipe.

Pete is a neoliberal kid, so in the sense that neoliberalism has eroded our transport system because plutocracy tends to wreck everything it to use, sure. But that job started in the 70s with #TheScheme and every GOP admin since. Wealth has gotten their hands on our infrastructure and bled it dry.

@Teri_Kanefield

Conservative talking heads are given funding and an outlet (Parler etc) of which billionaires like Peter Theil and Koch back. #TheScheme mafia are 50 years intent to bend the US to their desire. The upper strata of wealth globally consider it their right to dominate and direct the world’s nations. Those of them in the US have methodically worked their contempt for ordinary people to end the republic and rule on its ashes.

@tofugolem @MattMerk ! That explains much. Wikipedia remarks how Kennedy's (iirc) excoriation wasn't "technically" true because Bork complained he ruled "liberally" often. Yet his own leanings towards originalism and ultimately pro tyranny has proven the enmity valid. The rightwing forces that formulated and engaged in #TheScheme are those in thr age old struggle of tyranny v public liberty.