I don't need any more proof
The Democratic Party is corrupt. I don't need any more smoking guns. The Establishment, including the Corporate Media, is corrupt. We are living in an oligarchy. I don't need to discuss that because Bernie Sanders' campaign ripped the curtain from the Establishment and showed us what was behind it in stark terms a three-year-old could understand.
Seeing as I don't need any more proof, what then do I do?
I agree with Bernie about Hillary's email investigation. Let the process continue, as it will with more investigations on the Clinton Foundation in process, and don't make it the issue in political struggle.
I saw briefly on Twitter that, I believe, Jason Leopold (who I follow) is putting forth more FOIA requests (and his work alone on FOIA is its own "rip back the curtain" activity), the Repubs are going to "interview" Comey and Lynch, there'll be more news coming out from both progressive and conservative rightwing sources.
By the way, Dave Sirota, who did some of his own curtain ripping when it came to the Cigna merger has been laid off from IBTimes, which is a shame. Seems the good investigative reporters make very little money and often get canned - whereas the big media Celebrities make millions and are happy to chomp away in the veal pen, every now and then getting momentarily outraged (I'm looking at you, Anderson) and throwing a bone to We the People. A very small bone.
The issue is corruption. If the laws broken by Hillary Clinton weren't that serious to the FBI to prosecute, then perhaps they should be less zealous in going after people with far more integrity than Clinton, who went around the law for her own personal gain.
Perhaps the FBI shouldn't have been so zealous when it came to Thomas Drake. And many more like him, who clearly didn't have a motive to hurt our country by stepping forth and standing up for the truth.
Perhaps the Espionage Act shouldn't really be used when it comes to our Justice system. It was a propagandistic Act from its inception.
Income inequality. Black Lives Matter (and right now there's a lot of Progressive Black activists whose hearts are breaking because of the latest police murder, this time of Alton Sterling). Bernie accepted as his platform Black Lives Matters' Campaign Zero, and we still need that kind of legislation desperately. To me, Black Lives Matters gave Bernie's campaign what I needed it to have when it comes to matters of social justice.
To link the oligarchy, the corruption, to these urgent issues, is the task ahead for any citizen or activist, in my opinion. Not that Hillary is a nasty person, but that our justice system is broken if she can get a pass on laws others less powerful are prosecuted severely for. Either punish her or change laws that are too tyrannical, you can't have it both ways.
The issue is then our justice system and Hillary does not become the distraction from that issue, but only one of many illustrations of it.
The activists haven't stopped and they won't. There was a protest at the double-date of Obama-Hillary in North Carolina over the obscene deportation policies under a Democratic president.
The issues are our shield and sword, I think. The corruption and scandal should be used to highlight those issues, show how regular people are suffering and that we know by now how to begin solving those problems, if only we have the political will, that the majority of Americans feel the same way.
It's very hard to wade through the intense sorrows of this battle and find a place to stand.
I still feel that love trumps hate, even now, when I have,really negative feelings towards scores of people. I guess that's just another part of this struggle.
Comments
Couldn't agree more!
Come on, don't you want to
#CrimeLikeAClinton
When I was a kid, Republicans used to red scare people, now it's the Democrats. I am getting too damn old for this crap!
what then do I do?
The political revolution needs leaders, to create and wield political power at every level.
FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.
Truth. nt
Beat in the USA.
We find and we support them
but we also hold them accountable. We play an inside and an outside game. That's what the conservative movement did, and that's the only way we will get what we want, leaders and parties (Because the Dems may be in a death spiral right now imo, so third parties have to be an option) that rely on us more than they rely on money to get elected.
I think we are witnessing a unique period in our political history, one as fraught with potential danger, division and tumult as the 1850's were, but one that I believe is not destined to go end in violent upheaval. But it's our choice, and we must all act now, regardless of the tactics we employ and the strategies we choose, with on single goal in mind - taking back the power from the political, media and corporate eleits before it is too late to literally save the planet.
I respect what you are doing very much Roger, but as I said, we need those parties and leaders, but we also need people committed to acting to keep them accountable to us. The people who are the Dem establishment now, not all of them were sociopaths or narcissists or people in it only for what they could get out of the system when they started. Many of them no doubt believed what they were doing was the only way to save us from domination by a very energized and active conservative movement that had taken over the GOP and was moving it ever father to the right in economic and social issues. But as we all know, most of lose the ideals of our youth and become corrupted by the institutions and organizations with which we have chosen to become involved, until we simply accept the prevailing culture that corruption is just the way it is and cannot be challeneged, cannot be changed. Most of su, not all.
This the need to be watchful those who work within whatever political, institutions arise or evolve in the coming months and years. Not trust but verify but always verify and verify and verify again. Even the best people can fall victim to this systemic corruption of our souls, as the famous Stanford study by Philip Zimbardo first demonstrated.
People like Bernie are rare birds. He's given people so many of us the understanding and the motivation to fight the current system, but that isn't enough by itself. We will need to put in place checks and regulators, outside of the political parties themselves, to keep a close watch on whomever become our "new leaders" and to monitor whatever new parties (or revisions to the old parties) that may arise to champion our agenda in the future, both near term and long term, outside forces with the power to reign them back in when necessary, and also to remain vigilant.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
WE CAN'T HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE.
That's what is so sickening.
We can and do
Here in Washington State. It is even possible to control our republicans this way. We have one state rep in my district that is a republican. Her popularity is she spends a great deal of time making sure she knows what she is voting on. Many times if she is unsure she gets on facebook and ask for our opinions. Her current competition is a guy who thinks we should put a 15% tax on food. That will be a no go in this state. Conversely we have a old democrat who is retiring. He felt he had the right to ban marijuana sales in spite of his voters being for it. Stood in the county council and told us he knew better. Much to his surprise it made him about as popular as toxic waste. So at least on the state and local we have it. We will see what happens on a federal level. We have a hill bot senator that is not representing our best interests.
great. Now I have to rip up tomorrow's OT and start over!
well said, npk. Pretty much what I was thinking, expressed more elegantly than I would have.
Like you, npk
I do not think I can forgive. And we certainly cannot forget.
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Yah.
I guess you can move forward anyway, even without forgiving. Maybe it works itself out in the struggle, I don't know.
Beat in the USA.
I think in this case it is both saner AND righteous
to not forgive these fuckers. Because in addition to all the wrongs against the people of the US, the actions of the DNC in support of Clinton (and who knows, Trump too?) guarantee more wars, and the destruction of the human species in favor of capitalism/oil, all for her/their short-term financial gain and power trip.
In the past, I've always taken comfort in the fact that somehow, somewhere, the struggle can continue even if our little lives are ruined...but the stakes now are literally global. The cockroaches who will no doubt adapt to a methane-rich atmosphere and the planet itself will endure, but likely not much else if the oligarchs prevail. I take no comfort in the fact that they will eventually succumb to their own evil policies, because they will have wiped out most everyone else first. So yeah, I can neither forgive nor forget. And I think that is a good thing.
Shaylors Provence
Sirota
Not so sure David Sirota was laid off. International Business Times (IBT) did lay off many people, but I think David escaped it.
Also, he has an article up at IBT dated yesterday.
I gathered this from reading his Tweets.
Hope I'm wrong.
Beat in the USA.
"... not that Hillary is a nasty person ..."
except that, as her entire, well-documented professional history, the arc of her campaign, selection of campaign staff, choices regarding messaging, and general demeanor of her disciples all have demonstrated -- The $hill really IS a nasty person.
Sorry to have to disagree with you, kitty -- your piece otherwise is very good. Just keep in mind that WORDS REALLY DO MATTER -- and we need to continue pressing the TRUTH about The $hill --
When Cicero had finished speaking, the people said “How well he spoke”.
When Demosthenes had finished speaking, the people said “Let us march”.
Won't get an argument from me there.
I agree she's a nasty person - what I was trying to say is that her being a nasty person isn't the main issue once you realize that's the case.
Beat in the USA.
This is sorrowful.
My heart aches. I am looking through the eyes of a 63yo. What has happened? When did it happen?
It is happening to us!
What took us so long to recognize it?
Are we too late?
IMHO, we, too, must be accountable for trusting them and continuing shopping, watching teevee, fucking around with our electronic devices. We've had all the fun they hoped for while they railroaded our country right into an oligarchy.
Are we awake yet?
Are we?
If we are, will we act accordingly? Will we protest, loudly? If we do not protest loudly, we allow them to continue down this path. We must squeal like pigs caught under a fence.
We ARE under the oligarchical fence, are we not?
They must be quite pleased with themselves. The media is going along nicely, and all the militarized police are waiting for us in Philly. They are anxious to quash the last vestiges of dissent.
Will we succumb?
I also have thoughts about the people who loved Obama. I did, once, but he let me down, so I had to let him go. Imagine the conflicting feelings those folks are having; knowing hrc is getting away with a criminal act and him hoorahing it up with her in NC.
How are they rectifying that within themselves?
What is the justification?
Heads are exploding everywhere and it's only just begun.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
"When did it happen?"
Now that the curtain has been pulled back and we see how corrupt the Dems are, the Repubs are, the 1% is, it's easy to start believing it's always been this way, just that these people are blowing their good thing by being so obvious.
But I don't think it's always been like this, not to this degree. I'd say it started, unabated, with Reagan's adminstration, continued by Bush Sr., continued by Clinton, by Bush Jr., by Obama and has gotten progressively worse in all those 36 (!) years because nobody who could do anything about it said "no!".
Yes, indeed.
We do have Reagan to thank for selling us out. The first dictator, who flexed his muscles and crushed the Air Traffic Controllers unon. I knew some of them.
I agree, no one that could, tried to stop it, and here we sit, destruction all around us, and sucking us in.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Call it a gift but I saw
This coming during Reagan and decided to go into farming because of it. I had a fleeting hope Clinton could turn it around but my hopes were dashed quickly. I am most surprised it took this long.
And then there was a September day
Which fully cemented the direction of governance and the treatment of most citizens.
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Reagan also started
the me,me, me attitude (it's all about Me fuck everyone else) and by taking on lots of debt, second mortgages, credit cards, etc. which we were told was ok because the good times were never gonna end and so many were doing so well it was easy to overlook what the pols were doing and the inequality and forget about everyone else. Then came NAFTA, Outsourcing of jobs, The 08 crash and the 1% taking everything that's left and our elected rep's letting and helping them. Imo too many of us let way too much go unchecked for so long that it's going to be a very rough road back and our trip is just beginning.
That was the plot
The easy credit tracks with the stagnation of wages so smoothly it had to have been planned. Raising interest rates are probably the next rug to get yanked out from under us. Credit card debt seems to be mostly variable tied to the prime rate.
Wasn't it Reagan that took away
our ability to use car payment interest, credit card interest and other things we paid interests on to be claimed on our taxes? Didn't we used to be able to deduct those interests from our taxes? And we had to pay a higher amount in medical bills before we able to deduct them from our taxes?
Was it him or his congress?
I have heard that they are trying to take away the interest that we pay on our mortgages and the child tax deductions.
Anyone know if I'm right or wrong on this?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
I'd forgotten about these. There is another tax item which has
gone away: income averaging. There was a time when you could use a four (?) year average of your income to calculate taxes. So if for some reason (like the year we sold my husband's family home, which we had hoped to keep as a rental) we had a huge spike in income, and put us in another tax bracket.
Or the year my disability was re instated, caused a huge bump in our tax bracket. No relief. Living month to month on a fixed income really becomes painful when things like this happen.
I don't know when that little perk which really helped small business, sole proprietorships ended.
You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce
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I agree with you, shah
It started under Reagan and the others continued it. When the people in this country was at a boiling point because of the Bush administration's lies about the Iraq war and the obscene tax cuts for the wealthy, tptb knew how to calm us down by running a charismatic black man that promised us that he'd end the war in Iraq, close gitmo, offer us an affordable health care plan, roll back the tax cuts for the wealthy, the unconstitutional spying, and all the other promises he made.
And it worked. The anti war movement shut up even though he increased the use of drones in 7 countries that had nothing to do with the war on terror.
Or when he destroyed Libya because they told us that he was killing his citizens. (WMDs, babies being thrown out of incubators, and the other propaganda that the government tells us why we need to go to war).
The tax cuts were extended.
The spying was expanded.
The ACA certainly got people more insurance, but at a very high price. People weren't cut off of their insurance just when they needed it most, but the premiums and deductibles are so damned high that people are paying through their noses for insurance they can't afford to use and many couldn't continue to see their doctors anymore.
He didn't end the Iraq war but tried to stay in after the deadline set by Bush, and now there's troops back in Iraq over the government's objections.
He held no one accountable for the bank's massive fraud that saw millions lose their homes and pensions.
And now he's pushing for the treasonous trade bills that will see our national sovereignty erased as well as other countries.
Just imagine if he had worked that hard for the ACA.
And with this election we have seen the rest of the blinders come off of what the Democratic Party really stands for. The same thing that the republicans do, except on social issues that don't hurt the elite's pocket books.
We have seen this election blatantly stolen from us and they know that there isn't a damned thing we can do about it. (maybe)
And now Hillary has gotten off with using her private email server that I believe was set up that way so that people from the Clinton foundation could have access to it, and probably a lot of those people didn't have security clearance to read the classified information.
Many people in the government were aware that she had done that and didn't have a problem with it.
Nor did they have a problem with her using her foundation profit from weapons sales, interfering with financial institutions charges and again seeing her foundation profit from that.
How many people in the government know that she intervened so that Boeing could sell Russia jets, or that Russia was allowed 20% of the US's uranium mines? And plenty of other interventions that profited the foundation and of course the many speeches that bill got paid to give before she did those things.
How the hell that is legal is beyond me.
And the FBI told us that if anyone else does what Hillary did then they would be prosecuted.
And now he's flying Hillary around the country on Air Force one and letting her stand behind the podium of The President of the United States.
Gulfgal's essays on neoliberalism has shown us what the United States and many other countries stand for as well as our congress.
And even with all this information, people say that Obama has been the best president since FDR and Hillary is going to continue his legacy.
It's too bad that people didn't take what Bernie offered us.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
GreyWolf is unhappy, GreyWolf is becoming rabid
And here we are:
This is the very essence of what has gone so wrong for Americans — across the boards: Social/political laws written by dead people who lived in another universe that was entirely clueless about the evolution of consciousness and social justice.
After the constitution was written, Thomas Jefferson was horrified by the idea that it might not be re-written every 20 years or so. The greatest evil, as he expressed it, was that there would be a generation of Americans that didn't write or re-ratify their own laws, but mindlessly submitted to the tyranny of dead people, whose increasingly irrelevant and vague laws would then be used to enslave them. It was the perfect formula for a revolution, like the one he had just experienced.
He would demand that the people of America exercise "Generational Sovereignty" every step of the way into the future. But Americans failed their civic duties so thoroughly, intellectually honest people cannot say the words = "...a government of the people, by the people , and for the people…" without embarrassment.
The lack of Generational Sovereignty is unique to the American people, alone. It explains our Plantation economy without a commonwealth, and explains our Banana-Republic absence of basic human rights.
I am mystified that USians believe that modern social justice can somehow emerge from a Slave-Owner's Constitution.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
I can remember a better time in this country
From about 1950-1980, there was much less income inequality in this country, so it doesn't have to be this way. Many of us are still around who remember a fairer system. Also, only during the last 20 years have federal electoral races become so expensive, although the curve starts to tilt upward in the 1980's.
Source: https://represent.us/action/theproblem-3/
The corporate media is one of the biggest obstacles since they are the propaganda machine for the politicians. I saw a big change in the media in 2000 and it's been downhill ever since. It's not an impossible task to change, though. The corporate media have been hideous, but there are ways to overcome that. Many people want change in this country and it will happen. There are a lot of unhappy people out there.
During that 20 years of prosperity
…tax rates on the highest bracket of income was 93 percent. Income inequality was at an historically low level.
At the end, Reagan revoked the Fairness Doctrine, so media no longer worked for the people. It became a propaganda engine for the plutocrats. The single paycheck family ended and ketchup became a vegetable.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Our Elections Should Be Run Like France
They can only even start campaigning like 90 days before elections. Not 4 years like here
Jefferson lived in the Age of Reason
He had no reason to doubt that people would get smarter. Instead, here we are.
No surprise
Never underestimate human stupidity.
Speaking of Justice for Alton
Speaking of Justice for Alton Sterling - if anyone doesn't get these/hasn't yet signed, I hope they will now. Insane that people must petition to have blatant murder discouraged. Again and again. To no effect...
http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/justice-alton-sterling/?sp_ref=2119347...
Why has this been effectively accepted for so long, while corruption and the notion of 'a right to get away with murder' festers into every pore of the political pimples and becomes 'normalized' as a pathological corporate culture infecting officialdom?
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
And one in St Paul, also caught on video
by the driver girlfriend in the car with her daughter in the back seat. I feel queasy, sad, angry watching two more get shot, multiple times by police. I would avoid watching, but I think it is important to witness.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.