Nothing has changed, especially in Washington. 

It's the same revolving door power elite, doing the same disastrous things or worse, while enriching themselves, repeating the same failed policies.  

Take the current pro-democracy demonstrations in Egypt and President Obama's response.

Pepe Escobar at Asia Times writes:  "United States President Barack Obama sends a "secret" emissary to tell President Hosni Mubarak to abstain from seeking a sixth term in the next elections - on the same day that almost 2 million people yell in the streets for him to just go. The president of Egypt then duly hits state television to announce to the Egyptian people what the U.S. president told him to do.

"Predictably, the street exploded in anger. Al-Jazeera (yes, the revolution will be televised ...) just ran a split screen, no comments, with the sound of the street in Cairo and Alexandria for all the world to hear. "Leave." "Leave, have some dignity." "Get out."

"Obama's "messenger" in the latest Mubarak pantomime was Frank Wisner, a former diplomat and former AIG executive very close to the Mubarak system oligarchy, and whose brother Graham has represented their extensive business interests. Wisner has lately been a de facto lobbyist for the Mubarak regime among Middle East experts in Washington......Without a mere hint of irony, the US State Department had announced that Wisner would press the Mubarak system to "embrace broad economic and political changes" - the same ones never embraced over the past three decades."

A more in-depth look at Wisner by Vijay Prashad at Counterpunch describes him as a "bagman of Empire, and bucket-boy for Capital", a former Enron director who [like others of that ilk] used the full power of the US state to push the private interests of their firms, and then made money for themselves. 

President Obama seems very comfortable being "in" with the corporatist, power elite crowd.

Nothing has changed.

And Jonathan Tasini at Working Life echoes that Nothing Has Changed when he writes:

"Sometimes, I wonder whether we all live in a grand farce. But, actually, it's a real-life story about a robbery of the people that continues every day--and today is no different. The robbers grow richer.

"From The Wall Street Journal a story headlined: "On Street, Pay Vaults to Record Altitude":

"When it comes to paychecks, Wall Street's law of gravity is back in full force: What goes down must come back up.

"In 2010, total compensation and benefits at publicly traded Wall Street banks and securities firms hit a record of $135 billion, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal. The total is up 5.7% from $128 billion in combined compensation and benefits by the same companies in 2009.

"The increase was fueled by a revenue rebound as the financial crisis recedes in the rearview mirror. At 25 large financial firms that have reported full-year results, revenue rose to $417 billion, another all-time high, even though last year's 1% increase was just a fraction of the industry's revenue jolt from 2008 to 2009 as trading and investment banking sprang back to life.

" 'Things are shifting back to where they were before,' " said J. Robert Brown, a law professor at the University of Denver who studies compensation and corporate-governance issues.

"In some respects, this is reaffirming news--reaffirming in that, for those of us who have argued that nothing much has changed, this is concrete evidence.

 "Let me make three points here.

 "First, the notion that the "financial crisis" has receded is a perspective that millions of Americans do not share, and do not live. Those people are still coping with joblessness and homelessness and bankruptcy precisely because of the crisis caused by many of the people who are now being rewarded. Rather than jailing a lot of these folks, or at least firing them, the financial "community" rewards them.

 "Second, the escalating pay serves notice that we are back to business as usual. The next bubble is just over the horizon.

"Third, and maybe most important, any "reforms", particularly those in the Dodd-Frank bill, are honestly toothless for this reason: we have not truly made an effort to SHRINK the size of Wall Street and its influence on our economy.

"Much of the financial sector's money was tied up in leveraged buy-outs and corporate takeovers--this is precisely the kind of behavior, along with foolish so-called "free trade" deals and union busting, that has undercut the middle-class and set us on a course of a declining standard of living. None of that mindset has changed as we embark on that mission to "win the future".

 "That is the more dangerous message from the pay hikes:

 "NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

 "Seems to me that the next Tahrir Square should be around the Wall Street bull on lower Broadway in Manhattan."