United We Stand . . .
Everyone that reads this knows that success is in fact possible. Everyone that reads this knows that one person has demonstrated the ability to attract large numbers of people to rallies across this country.
It is not too late to take advantage of what "Everybody that reads this knows . . ."
I could try to present an analysis of why Progressives will not rally behind Bernie Sanders, but to do so would require I delve into the realm of say, "Game Theory" or some other theoretical structure. But then, a sizable subset of readers would take exception to the analysis for various reasons. Thus is the nature of Progressives.
While it is not too late to act, I think I have already seen many proofs that we will not carpe diem. One feeble example: Not long ago I posed a challenge, and the results were discouraging, by any objective measure.
While it is not too late to act, I think Progressives will not seize the opportunity they have before them: Simply put, Progressives should act as the powerful force that they can be and send a clear message that we will elect Bernie to be President as a first step toward creating the change that we need.
Sigh . . .
Comments
Don't just do something, Stand There!
This is not comedy, this is reality:
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrDVsprWRCQ]
This keeps running through my head:
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp5JCrSXkJY]
You'd have better luck herding cats.
I'm not discouraged, but it seems to me Progressives should rally on a couple of really, really important issues, and band together. Again, since I'm not that well informed, (and which would include most people for whom politics isn't a burning interest), concentrating our efforts would (and has - see:$15) we produce results.
Improve the Resilience Resource Library by adding your links.
Vote Smart - Just the Facts - 40,000 politicians by name or zipcode
This is the way it has been for 40 years.
Many now find the online petition to be ineffective
and simply one more way to fill their inbox with junk spam emails, including requests for money, and sometimes dozens more emails and sources axing for this or that, sign this, do that, send money here.
Throw-away email addresses? Anecdotal - most people I know don;t want to manage a secondary/tertiary email address just for this or that. As a few friends have put it. My throwaway email address is equivalent to the throwaway petitions I would sign.
There are aplenty of people who just won't bother because of the expected outcome of a do nothing group of representatives who don't actually bother to do anything but represent the wealth and business class anyway. Anything running counter to those groups is going to generally be received poorly and then later ignored overall.
Even many of the benign petition sites will put you on their mailing list and create one more source you have to opt out of. And opting out, unsubscribing carries the usual pitfalls as many places will acknowledge a request, but somehow, a few days or weeks later, more emails are arriving.
I've had my fill of the online petition as well. I know others who ignore them, seeing them as pointless endeavors for the most part. Even the well meaning, and wouldn't it be nice if everyone signed this petitions carry little weight or meaning to those who could effect change.
Our dear political leaders, our elected nobility, over we the commoners of the US are already pretty much only representing the one percent anyway, so why should they bother to pay attention to a bunch of online signatures demanding anything?
They roll their eyes and they dismiss things quite easily. And then they have meetings with lobbyists, and their real constituency while they condescend to we the commoners.
The beatings will continue until morale improves. Most people are just trying to maximize the time they can have to enjoy a few things and spending 'just a few minutes every day' managing spam adds up.
Years ago I swore off using Microsoft products. Just not using their OS on my primary system wound up saving me at least an hour a week, if not more. It doesn't sound like much maybe, but that hour of maintaining things for that lousy OS was anywhere from 52 to 100 hours a year of my time, over the last 6 years, that's given me back at least 300 hours if not a lot more.
As a friend put it when - The little things do add up to huge amounts of time, and some people would rather spend their time and effort on things that won't add up to bullshit.
I've gotten back two to four weeks of free time in the last six years to do other things since doing away with Microsoft in my personal life. Even if it's only an hour or two a month signing ultimately irrelevant petitions and dealing with the spam, that's half a day to a day of time per year that most people will want to spend doing something else. I can't say I blame them.
And we continue to fail.
Ah sure, people won't sign an online petition thus
- tears - 'we continue to fail'. Talk about some drama...
Maybe petitions was it…sure. That must be it. Zounds! It was petitions all along! We missed our window. Petitions would have done it and solved EVERYTHING.
This has been, the lamentation of the online petition. Tune in next week when we'll lament something else, same lamentation time, same lamentation channel.
----
Or
- And we continue to fail.
Yoda voice: Sign petitions you have not. That is why you fail.
Ben: Petitions are not going to solve this Yoda…
-----
Leia: Aren't you a little short for a Storm Trooper?
Luke: I'm Luke Skywalker and…
Leia: You're here to save me?!!!?
Luke: Er, no. I have this petition I want you to sign demanding the Empire let you go
Leia: Oh…
Vayle, you are a jerk.
You have not bothered to be anything but superficial with this shit:
You are the whiny prick here, so fuck off.
…this gets spouted 'And we continue to fail.'
after my reply to you.
I discussed time and how people prefer to spend it.The ineffectiveness of petitions in general, and how I'd gained time personally, but did you reply on any of that.
No. You posted 'And we continue to fail.'
And what? People wanting to do things that are effective with their time is why we continue to fail? People recognizing that these petitions are nothing more than marketing scams half the time are bad?
Whiny? I'm not the one whining here. That you perceive whining speaks more to your own projection than any ability of you to actually gauge how I feel.
I already did! Thanks. example: Petitions. Microsoft.
Good advice there. I think original response even suggested why people 'fuck off' certain things - pointlessness, ineffectiveness, a way to retrieve more personal time.
You should take your own advice too. I do sincerely mean that. LOL
Have a great day!
Bless your heart.
That was not the point !!!
The "petition" was not the point !!!! The point is totally lost on you, so fuck off!
You assume the point is lost.
I think I made a rather decent point discussing the aspect of petitions.
Acknowledge that, or don't. I don't care. The larger point I was making is about doing things that are effective, and that people are more than willing to dispense with what is not effective if it means their personal benefit and time, as we all well know, is a valuable commodity.
An even larger take on all of this is that petitions, or any group action, has to be seen to have a value, or the effort is going to be seen as a wasted one. Globalism as a group action, seems to be hurting a lot of people, and the elites don't like that the know nothing unappreciative voters don't want to support their free trade endeavors.
But instead of seeing any of that, or even discussing an aspect of your post and linked post, you reply with some trite drivel about why we still fail. The attempt at sounding wizened and sagely or whatever that was…well, again…whatever.
Do have a good day though.
Thank you, PriceRip! eom
Agree. I've never signed
an "online petition" for the same reasons. Who cares if 20 Million of us online basement dwellers "sign" a "petition?" If I were a congress critter, senator, lobyist, whatever and received a "petition" with 20 million "signatures" I would toss it in the trash without even having read it. Whatever the issue might be important to 20 million, but it took those 20 million all of 2 seconds to "sign" the "petition." And, that much "effort" isn't worth my time no matter how many sigs.
Now, on the other hand, if I got a mail bag full of snail mail... that says people took the time to print something off the 'net, put it in an envelope, find a stamp and put that in a mailbox... that would get my attention. Becuz, Millenials have probably never sent snail mail, wouldn't have the foggiest notion how it even works.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
The do gooders and the say gooders
It's good to whittle our actions down to what's most effective in our day to day lives. Sounds like you've got the right idea, putting action into what will really matter. Seems to me in this country, the only language with any weight is $$$$, for good or ill.
I cut the cord on TOS updates awhile back, like most of us here. Recently unsubscribed from moveon.org, as soon as they want all Rah Rah Hillary, Trump bad, stand with Liz, yada yada. Never mind that their membership overwhelmingly supports Bernie, per internal polling. Never mind the obvious election fraud. Should have seen that coming from the start, but I'm a sucker for progressive messenging, and obviously a slow learner. I'm the Charlie Brown to Lucy with her football. Working on it.
Same with the Democratic Governors Association. Answered a few polls from them, but the questions were more frequently leading (or I stopped ignoring the inner voice, and took notice finally). Things like, How are the candidates performing on campaign finance reform? That's not an answerable question, because there IS no "the candidates". One is performing beautifully, the other might as well be a republican. I've seen way too many polls like this, designed to extract the appearance of consent from unwitting respondents, so they can go on to report some consensus that doesn't actually exist.
Anyway, I guess this comment is only related tertiarally (is that a word?) to yours. It just got me thinking about all those petitions, their relative ineffectiveness (such as the white house petition to investigate Arizona election fraud, which was answered with the predictable "the white house can't get involved in partisan politics", or some such nonsense), and just what actions we CAN take instead. I think we're all just going to have to do what feels right individually, and let the cards fall where they may.
That last part isn't very comforting, really.
Yet another typo edit.
Change is the end result of all true learning. ~ Leo Buscaglia
Sadly, I think you are right.
Unfortunately this is what we (I) did in 1970 with limited success. 29 April 1975 was not as it should have been. Letting the cards fall where they may just isn't a real good option.
A bit of Hilarity Ensues
A short time ago I was asked to participate in a landline poll. At the third question, I said,"Wow! that's loaded." He replied,"They all are." we enjoyed a bit of the old wink-wink-nudge-nudge and agreed to proceed with the "survey". By the end I was in "stitches" and the employee on the other end was having difficulties completing his script.
A good time was had by all (principal characters).
This happens over and over
I have lost count of the number of times I have seen this scenario. There seems to be no way to break the cycle because so very few seem to really give a shit. Just when it seems that we are about to grab the brass ring, the carny tweaks the controls, the carousel lurches, and we miss yet again.
Paradigmatic Shit Shifting
I think you're despairing because people appear to not give a shit, when in reality, a great many do. We're in the midst of an awakening of the masses, which is good. But there's one problem. There are those who are happy (or think they are) in their little dream bubbles, and those who've only recently been rudely shaken from their slumber, and now must spring to action. But spring to action doing what? People know there's a big emergency looming, but they have no direction on what to do about it. Sign petitions and pledges, take to the streets in protest, fall in line for the "lesser evil"? People just don't know, and how would they? Most are still on that first cup of coffee.
It's like we've jumped out of our collective beds and right into the arms of the opportunistic wolves in sheep clothing. The Trumps of the world don't bother putting on the sheep suit, though.
Alright, enough of my silly analogies. Do those bother anyone here? Sometimes I wonder if my comments are annoying.
Change is the end result of all true learning. ~ Leo Buscaglia
I do not despair
Words typed as text fall short, and disappoint: Such is the nature of discourse in the "matrix". I am very concerned that few are willing to take a collective deep cleansing breath, focus on the center of balance, and strike with determination.
At every point in time there is an opportunity to do the one best action, I know this because I have passed through many such points in my life. I know there is that one action we (collectively as Progressives) can take at this time, I am frustrated by the fact that I cannot articulate what that might be, nor can I sense the answer in anyone else.
Over and Over
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C4NLfKb5VQ width:500 height:400]
Spot on mate!
There Are Others
Discussing this. I followed a link from Reddit Sanders multi-sub. There is a plan. They have the same idea you do, Price Rip.
http://www.usasupreme.com/bernie-sanders-mightl-join-progressive-voting-...
First thing we do is kill all the lawyers!
I'm not condoning or encouraging violence, but am coming to the conclusion that the global and American elite will not respond to anything short of a massive display of destruction and violence.
The LAPD cop who murdered Africa: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Skid-Row-Shooting-Death-LAPD-Afr.... is now a training officer on Skid Row. How can this be interpreted in any other way than an outright license for cops to commit first degree homicide?
After Ferguson #we will shoot back was circulating in the community.
It looks to me like the political elites have decided to keep pushing full steam ahead until violence is provoked.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Mindless mob violence plays right into their hands
Intelligent violence, like destroying all their evoting machines in their warehouses, preemptive strikes on police infrastructure prior to protests, not targeting well protected political figures, but the less protected cogs in the machine, like the ones in selected counties who oversaw voter suppression, these types of organized, thoughtful strikes against the elites in ways that actually harm their control mechanisms is the only way a violent revolution will succeed.
Nice idea
It would be a far better approach. ELF had a good run, but lacked focus.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
My Daughter the Lawyer was just here.
As I have not yet proved I am a human, I do not have access to my FaceBook account. But, that is okay as I don't really care to waste my time in that silly venue. So, I have no real sense of the general mood "out there".
My daughter (a lawyer) tells me that she is aware of a rather large amount of online chatter suggesting a large number of people will be voting not-Hillary and not-Donald in November. Her suggestion is that if Hillary could get no more than 33% of the vote, Donald could get not more than 33% of the vote, and the rest of the vote went to various other candidates, maybe that would be enough to discredit the general election.
While prefer a positive statement of protest, perhaps a negative protest might suffice.
Ok. We can skip one lawyer
I sincerely hope we can get dissident energy focused on effective political opposition. I have strong MLK tendencies, but wonder if Malcom X was a necessary foil to peaceful protest. Not to mention the Black Panthers, Weathermen and any other niche groups I forgot about.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
These are of my kind:
I had great respect for him then and do not fault him for any of his journey:
Circumstances, rather than temperament, prevented me from being a Black Panther, or a Weathermen. We can talk of such, but I suspect such a digression would be a distraction.
I saw simple truth through a childs eyes during those days
Everyone marched and marched and got killed and got beaten.
Then blacks destroy whole cities and voila! They got rights instead.
Was pretty obvious which tactic had actually gotten the work done.
We don't kill anybody. Good lord!
Your sig line reminded me of a story in the Houston news. The cops are called to Memorial Park every single week because of Kush. Last week a shit ton of people had to be taken to the hospital because of it, from Memorial Park. That shit can kill you.
They're killing us now
I think the count in Compton is 12 or 13 so far this year.. L.A. shoots more blacks, but Chicago has more deaths from shootings by cops. I'm personally surprised more cops are not getting shot.
A buddy of mine is looking at 10 years for knocking out two highway patrol officers. They shouldn't have pissed him off.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Kush is just a breed of cannabis plant
It can't kill anyone. If people are going to hospitals, more than likely the CIA/FBI is adding toxic elements to a perfectly safe weed.
They WANT to stir up Reefer Madness.
What is referred to here as Kush is like potpourri
Only with chemicals sprayed on it, apparently to get people high. I'm not afraid of weed (bring on the Northern Lights or some cheap Mexican Shwag); and unless the news shots of people being wheeled onto ambulances were staged, you're wrong.
People die from shit they ingest every day. Here, there, wherever. Ask Prince - oh wait, and he likely KNEW what he was ingesting. And NO, I'm not saying Prince died because of Kush. He died because of what he ingested. These people don't know what some asshole sprayed on the whatever leaves and called it Kush.