What Must We Do?

I propose the following:

Option A:

We should stop arguing about whether or not Our Revolution and Brand New Congress are worth a damn. I think everybody knows, from my comments, where I stand on these organizations, and on the current direction of the Sanders movement. However, the division caused by this argument, and the energy wasted on it, are far worse ills than any we'd encounter by simply allowing those who want to work for those organizations to work for them, and allowing those who don't to move on to other work.

This means that those who believe these organizations are a waste of time will have to live with the fact that some here are wasting their time and resources working there. And those that believe that these organizations are our greatest hope will have to live with the fact that some here refuse to join in, thus making it a weaker effort than it otherwise would be.


The fact that some people here will support those organizations and some won't is not something any amount of discussion here can change.
Until or unless new information comes to light, the argument over Bernie's organizations is worse than useless.

The same goes for arguments over Bernie's character and motives. Later in this essay, I'll get to what I think of Bernie right now, and my comments over the past few days tell you what I think motivated his choices. But that and a quarter will buy me a phone call (maybe). I think we've come to the point where, barring new information coming to light, the argument over Bernie's character and motives is worse than useless.

I can understand that some people might be pissed off at the notion that I'm telling them to stop talking about their topics of choice, so I have a 2nd option:

Option B:

Let's have a weekly window of time when we DON'T talk about Politicians on High. For instance, how about Friday mornings? Let's say from 6 a.m. Pacific to 3 p.m. Pacific. (I thought of calling 'em Hackless Fridays, but that might be needlessly negative). People will commit to do one diary on something that involves nobody famous, and preferably involves something positive that you've seen, heard, or want to do.

Here's my first contribution, which could serve as an example of what I'm talking about:

(I might republish this as a stand-alone diary, apart from the meta, if it seems to need it, because it's a GREAT idea!)

I got this from WindDancer13 last night on EB, so a mighty and massive hat tip to WD!:

Please watch this starting at 5:16
[video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHgkD6Gle_g]

Here is the website the guy (Sam Husseini) set up: http://www.votepact.org/

This is a magnificent idea, even if it fails to dislodge Hillary Clinton from the throat of the country, where we're currently choking on her. It brings the people together. It reaffirms bonds of trust across political lines, and in particular reaffirms the fact that we trust each other--the people we know--a hell of a lot more than we trust any of those bastards who are providing us with our current political "choices." It creates the basis of a movement against the system that produced these rotten choices in the first place. And who knows where a movement like that could go?

So I propose we spread this idea far and wide. My thoughts so far:

1) Town hall-style meetings between us and Republicans who are sick of their own party's BS and the corruption of the country, as much as we are. If there are 2,000 members here, that could be 2,000 meetings. If there are people who can't do the organizing, for health reasons, or whatever, take 50% off that number--and 1,000 meetings still sounds pretty good to me.
Even 500 would be a nice start.

2) A hashtag #IllVoteWithYou

3) A webpage where people can register their pledge--two by two--to vote against the major party candidates, with the ability to upload photos of the fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, neighbors, brothers joining together across party lines.

4)Or perhaps a Tumblr, like We Are the 99 Percent. Perhaps Mr. Husseini would like to put such pictures, or even video, up on his site, or perhaps we could put it up here.

5) Perhaps we could use the Web to find people with whom to make a VotePact, but I worry that might dilute the strength of the idea, which is connection and trust between people who know each other. (I have the idea both of a website where people would come to find such a person, and also of an app that one could use--but I'm very unsure of whether this is a good idea.)

6) If people know how--I wish I did!--we could make videos of people who are making a Vote Pact in our community and put them up on YouTube and here. Imagine this happening around the country. And it would be completely independent of *any* politician.

7)If there are celebrities who could use their visibility to popularize the idea, that might be a good thing (Susan Sarandon? Tim Robbins?)

I think this is a solid idea, with much to recommend it. What do you think?
---

Background/rationale:

Some might notice I'm ganking Lenin's title (which I guess might be better translated What Is To Be Done?) I'm doing this to emphasize the fact that we are in revolution. We are in revolution because we're facing some terrifying political and material conditions, which are a result of what some identify as late-stage capitalism, some as disaster capitalism, some as corporatism or fascism, and some just as corruption. The most evident of these conditions is the complete lack of accountability of the government to the people, with the result that laws are used primarily to protect the rich, and public policy to facilitate the movement of more and more power and money into their hands, no matter the cost. And whoa, Nelly, the cost is getting astronomical. Insane, in fact, so much so that some of the .01%, even some whose job it is to defend capitalism--the type that hangs around Davos intermittently--are starting to worry: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/22/davos-oligarchs-fe...

My aim here is not as ambitious as Lenin's, my scope isn't as wide, and, given the fight I was having on Twitter the other night with a Marxist I respect, I might not come to Lenin's same conclusions (I'm too liberal for some kinds of Marxism. I find myself simply unable to give up the idea of freedom of discourse, or to think that the only way to combat a bad idea is to suppress it. As an intellectual, I just can't go there. Though I admit the issue is more difficult than it appears.)

How does this relate to discussions on caucus99percent?

Well, I'd wager that one of the reasons we talk so much about political celebrities--those we hate, and those we love--is that we don't want to ask the question What Must We Do? I know I don't! At this point in history, it tends to be an ugly question. But I believe we must ask it, now.

The aim of this essay is to make a case for moving some of our energy off of the focus on politicians. But I want to acknowledge that it's not only avoidance, or desire for a savior/messiah (what hecate calls Daddy/Mommy) that has spurred our latest focus on Bernie. At a deeper level, the community is trying to process what just happened and why we failed. In my opinion, the impulse to take stock and do a strategic analysis after a defeat is sound, and when you lose a strong ally and a leader, it's a bad enough blow that people want to figure out why and how it happened. In the absence of evidence, people speculate. This is natural. But it also tends to put way too much focus on one person, and on the personal generally, so that you end up with people angry at each other either because they're attacking or defending the former leader. This is a waste of time, and if I were working for Hillary Clinton, I'd be delighted to see it, given that her strategy can be summed up as the three D's: Demoralization, Division, and Despair.

She works like a dementor, or a ringwraith. It's useful to remember this.

In my opinion, we have, on the left--and perhaps in America generally--a real problem with understanding corruption. Sometimes I feel like my mind is gripping my copy of The Lord of the Rings in a death grip, desperate to hold onto the understanding of corruption that text gives me--because we don't have a hell of a lot else to rely on, in this devastated culture we now inhabit. We were never very good at this question anyway, in the United States. The idea that a meritorious individual can be corrupted, and change from being Good to Bad, or at the very least change from serving good purposes to serving evil ones, is not one we can hold in our head very well. We in the United States deeply need to believe in the Victory of the Meritorious Individual Over Bad Circumstance. Thus, when we're confronted with corruption, there's an incredibly strong tendency to retroactively make the person bad from the beginning, insincere from the beginning, because we just can't handle the notion that someone who previously acted consistently for the good could become someone who serves evil. Instead, we want to believe we were duped from the beginning, so we don't have to face the fact that nobody is strong enough or good enough to be safe from corruption.

This is not the same thing as saying that no one can ever refuse to be corrupted. Heroism exists in the world. It's probably more prevalent than we know, because mass communications are largely devoted to spreading the messages of Demoralization, Division, and Despair. Of course, it's possible to defy the forces of corruption, and even to do so successfully. You can be Faramir, and refuse to even look at the Ring; you can be Bilbo, and successfully say no with the help of a friend; you can be Frodo, and carry the damned thing for months and months without using it.

But nobody is good enough or strong enough to be able to say with certainty they won't be corrupted.

Perhaps if we incorporated this idea into our thinking, we could organize ourselves so that we do not rely so utterly on one visible leader. Perhaps if we did, we could look at our warriors who have fallen with pity, rather than with either a sense of angry betrayal or a defensive refusal to acknowledge that anything is wrong.

Because this is a battle. We are in a war. I know some of you will object to this framing, and if you can suggest a better frame that doesn't violate the material facts of our current reality, I would be delighted to stop looking at this as a war--because that's exactly how Hillary Clinton and the forces she represents look at it, and it's always better not to adopt your enemy's frames. But until somebody helps me out by providing me a convincing alternative--this looks like a war to me.

So when I see Bernie Sanders, since the New Hampshire endorsement, what do I see?

I see a beloved veteran officer who's been taken captive. And as he stumps around the country for Clinton, it doesn't look any different to me than an enemy army parading that beloved veteran in front of his former troops, with the clear aim of destroying their morale.

Obviously, the first order of business under the heading of What Must We Do is to preserve our morale and stick together, and not allow this tactic to work. In order for it not to work, we need, IMO, three things:

1)We need to stop attacking each other.
2)We need meaningful work to do that draws us together.
3)We need to have fun together.

That's my take. If you disagree, I hope you'll put your own ideas for how we could move forward into the comments--or perhaps a diary of your own.

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Big Al's picture

better way for the people to protest than to gather together and do it. It's a basic right protected in the Constitution - 'the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances'

I've long felt we need to find a way to give more people a voice, outside of voting for politicians to make their decisions for them, but protests are still a very valuable tool.

Relative to VotePact, after perusing a number of articles at the site, it appears the goal is to try not to elect Clinton and not to help Trump. I'm not sure what else they're after. I agree that both are unacceptable and that we should reject them which is why I've been an advocate for a boycott of the Presidential election. But I'm not sure how this is going to prevent one of them from becoming President and what impact it has after that.

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riverlover's picture

A non-vote (if counted, but I will bet not) is the same as a vote for a "minor" party. We have no sense that going to the ballot box location in November makes any difference at all now. NBC, and rest may declare (as predicted now) a landslide for Clinton and just forget to mention that 100K went out and had their votes counted.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

of control that the parties are using on people: fear. Fear of the so-called "greater evil." There needs to be a way out of that.
The more long-term impact is that, deprived of that fear, which is their only remaining justification, they will lose even more than the 43% of the electorate that's already left the parties. A majority of the population, and even of the electorate, would be outside the parties, and working together, expressing their support for other options. The more that happens--especially with a parallel movement to increase the power of indie media--the more the Inevitability Doctrine of the Clinton/Bushopoly falls apart.

In fact, this would--or could--represent a political realignment on behalf of the people. Which it would be nice to have, since a political realignment is currently happening On High on behalf of the Bastards.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Otherwise the government will rightly assess that the protest can have no impact, because what can those little people do to stop the powerful anyway.

Here's the thing: protest could be very powerful, but not unless somebody is willing to re-think the strategy of protest: why it works, what's not working, what could work better.

So far, pretty much almost nobody I've met is willing to re-think any strategy or even any tactics--not since Occupy.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

New thinking is vital to the next step in the movement. Occupy tried street protest and was thumped by the jackbooted thugs. Bernie tried working within the party system and was comprehensively cheated. New approaches are needed.

In a materialistic, oligarchic system, the pressure points may be financial and the illusion of legitimacy of the political system. Organized corporate boycotts have proven effective in some cases, particularly when aimed at progressive values-based campaigns. That might be an avenue to explore, because corporations are more sensitive to majority opinion than political parties.

Exiting the two major political parties and voting for alternate candidates is another promising avenue for protest. That's why I love your idea here. If it went viral on social media the media might be forced to pick it up. If we could see Johnson and Stein getting upward of 15% of the vote, then the LOTE lie could start to break down. I'm not sure if the Republican Party is ready to reform after a probable Trump debacle, but the Democratic Party rot isn't so far advanced yet that the party sees the need to change. It needs to be seriously wounded, if not marginalized and replaced.

I assume that the need for an economic populist, climate radical political movement will continue to exist. Momentum has built since the 2008 economic crash, although there have been periods of retrenchment, as we're in now. We have to learn how to strike the oligarchy where it hurts. Hopefully the next phase of the movement will get a,lot better at that.

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Please help support caucus99percent!

where it hurts.

Marcy Wheeler at emptywheel.net is the only infosec/natsec commentator I've run across who has paid attention to the final paragraph of the Shadow Brokers' announcement of their auction of NSA's "keys to the kingdom" for spying on and installing malware on all the Big Boys of Silly Valley and all those dependent on their hardware and software.

Read the Shadow Brokers' final paragraph (the added emphases are my own) and see what you think:

We have final message for “Wealthy Elites”. We know what is wealthy but what is Elites? Elites is making laws protect self and friends, lie and fuck other peoples. Elites is breaking laws, regular peoples go to jail, life ruin, family ruin, but not Elites. Elites is breaking laws, many peoples know Elites guilty, Elites call top friends at law enforcement and government agencies, offer bribes, make promise future handjobs, (but no blowjobs). Elites top friends announce, no law broken, no crime commit. Reporters (not call journalist) make living say write only nice things about Elites, convince dumb cattle, is just politics, everything is awesome, check out our ads and our prostitutes. Then Elites runs for president. Why run for president when already control country like dictatorship? What this have do with fun Cyber Weapons Auction? We want make sure Wealthy Elite recognizes the danger cyber weapons, this message, our auction, poses to their wealth and control. Let us spell out for Elites. Your wealth and control depends on electronic data. You see what “Equation Group” can do. You see what cryptolockers and stuxnet can do. You see free files we give for free. You see attacks on banks and SWIFT in news. Maybe there is Equation Group version of cryptolocker+stuxnet for banks and financial systems? If Equation Group lose control of cyber weapons, who else lose or find cyber weapons? If electronic data go bye bye where leave Wealthy Elites? Maybe with dumb cattle? “Do you feel in charge?” Wealthy Elites, you send bitcoins, you bid in auction, maybe big advantage for you?

https://www.emptywheel.net/2016/08/19/wealthy-elites-and-blowjobs/

Would turning the bank and market accounts of all the oligarchs, their institutions, and their managerial elites (politicians) to zeros in less than the blink of an eye ... affect things?

Captain Keith Alexander certainly thought it was worth $1million/month per client when he retired from heading up the NSA and promptly set up shop selling his insider know-how to defend banks, insurance companies, and other wealthy entities from cyberattacks with the potential to zero-out their accounts.

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

terriertribe's picture

New thinking is vital to the next step in the movement. Occupy tried street protest and was thumped by the jackbooted thugs. Bernie tried working within the party system and was comprehensively cheated. New approaches are needed

Someone always gets thumped in revolutions, one way or another. The public usually doesn't wake up to what the revolution is about until the people getting thumped are people they see as being like themselves, and the thumping is shoved in their faces.

This time around maybe the thumping will be more jail time and exile and fewer body bags, fire hoses and dogs. Maybe instead of clogging the streets we need to clog the media and find out Just How Much Evidence Do You Need to See Before You Do Something? Manning, Assange and Snowden may turn out to be among the first heroes (or martyrs) of the new revolution.

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Now interviewing signature candidates. Apply within.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

ends up producing little or no change--kind of like the end of a Star Trek episode--everything just resets for the next episode. There's no continuity, no sense of impact from our actions.

When a guy with a broken back gets dragged across the ground by cops at Occupy Seattle (I think it was Seattle, maybe Portland...) and another guy gets beaten till his spleen bursts at Occupy Oakland, I'd like that movement not to be simply erased at the end of the day. There needs to be a way for the movement to continue, to persist, to be visible--if not on the MSM, then somewhere. Multiple local holdings across the US (and maybe the world), is what I envisioned, networked together by Global Rev or somebody. But that didn't happen.

It's harder to take people getting thumped when their sacrifice doesn't seem to make an impact.

I like your idea of going after the media--that's a big pressure point. But I'd rather replace them than anything else.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

lotlizard's picture

and their billionaire backers made sure that the status quo remained in place. The previous administration’s policies were allowed to become routine precedent, cemented in place.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StatusQuoIsGod

Resist the Deep State — upset the status quo. But how?

Each of us asking ourselves what principles — what acts — which votes — which tactics, and so on — have the most potential to do that?

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josb's picture

Try to get everybody except for vital services to stay home one day. Or for a week, as a stretch goal. See if we can get a large enough number of people to act as one in a way that cannot be ignored. If nothing else, it would show people the power of unity.

I can dream...

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Much more effective than demonstrations. It will have to be planned months in advance, with state of the art messaging...
A game changer. etc...

I think it will come to be..

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divineorder's picture

I LOVE NNU !

Also up with

Win Without War is a coalition of roughly 40 organizations that promotes a progressive, demilitarized U.S. foreign policy.

Lot of work underway to think about and act on a different way

Right/Left Coalition Proposes $38.6 Billion Worth of Pentagon Savings

http://winwithoutwar.org/pentagon-savings-letter/

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Thaumlord-Exelbirth's picture

is make a lower voter turnout. What good does that do? How does that prevent Trump or Clinton from gaining power? They lose nothing by your not voting for anybody. Instead, it just further cements their power.

Think of it this way: would it be more effective to refuse to buy gas, or to be like the protesters in South Dakota standing in direct opposition to the oil companies?

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Big Al's picture

I no longer try to do that here.

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hecate's picture

weirdnesses, al, I openly advocate voting for a duck, or for Annabella Piugattuk, or for no one at all.

And, no one there, most usually, foams at the mouth, and/or climbs up my ass.

These are—how you say—"safe spaces."

Just sayin'. ; )

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Big Al's picture

I'll try to frequent the safe spaces more often. You have a way hecate.

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hecate's picture

has to be a president, she would be Good.

She is native, to this continent.

Unlike all these foreigner invader white-people candidates.

She is an Inuit throat singer, she can fish, hunt seal and walrus, and make clothing out of caribou hides.

Fuck The Hairball, and The Mad Bomber, and The Cranky Brooklyn Deli Man, and Dr. Frankenstein 2.0. They are freaking flaming white people. They don't belong here. And, they can do, none, of the—Real—shit.

Let's see a debate. Where these hapless, hopeless, white people. Demonstrate a necessary skill. Like making clothing. Out of caribou hide.

Most importantly, she does not want, to be the president.

No one. Who actually wants. To be the president. Should ever. Be allowed. To so serve.

So let it be written. So let it be done.

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riverlover's picture

We should select a President who does not want the job, someone smart enough to manage daily tasks there, and run away as soon as allowed. A normal human American (there is that) who never dreamed or groomed their resume, cv, or friggen appearance to get to be Pres. Rhymes with rez. Probably done with 350 million bodies here, break up the banks while breaking up the US. Amicable divorce, but no passports required.

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mimi's picture

on those safe places. It's fun but really exhausting.
18021917663_f135939f51_z.jpg

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hecate's picture

we try to wring the life out of you there. So that then. You can rearrive. In new life. ; )

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mimi's picture

never stops to amaze me. I love me my breeze of fresh hecate air.
Kiss 3

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hecate's picture

totally prompted by you, mimi, let's, totally, despoil this thread, by, embedding, here, "The Air That I Breathe."

; )

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e-Sy5mwnmA]

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

If we're despoiling, here's my self-immolation:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rAGt8XXzBM]

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

hecate's picture

pumped out, one of the decade's, simply best, white-people, fucking, songs.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkyA3F_gmZc]

But: Hucknell: he did: he evinced: a soul. After all.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbsz7nVTHoE]

that's all i have today
it's all i have
to say

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mimi's picture

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Thaumlord-Exelbirth's picture

I call "safe spaces" what they are: echo chambers. Ideas are meant to clash with other ideas. That's how the world is supposed to become a better place over time.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

and way more complex than it at first appears.

Not everyone engaged in debate is honorable or truthful. Some are not there to win for their position, even; they are there to destroy the conversation itself.

Calling this phenomenon "trolling" was probably a mistake, as it encourages people to trivialize it, or view it as frivolous.
A friend of mine once tracked some trolling tactics back to things spies did behind enemy lines to demoralize and destabilize communities during WWII.

This shit is not frivolous, it's now automated and sockpuppeted, and it's all over the damned place. It makes it difficult to maintain the intellectual dueling that you and I both, I think, value, because there's a bunch of assholes running around not playing by the rules. If we each draw out our swords, salute each other, and start fencing--and then three guys come into the room and throw cherry bombs at our feet--it makes it hard for us to have a real duel. If they're only throwing cherry bombs at one of us, it could decide the duel for the other. If it happens too much, everybody gets sick of the whole thing and leaves. We just watched something very like this happen at DK. Protecting the cherry-bomb-throwers with ideas like freedom of speech and clash of ideas misses the point. They're the linguistic version of arsonists.

Problem is, they pretend to be simply in disagreement. And there's no foolproof way to distinguish them from good-faith actors.

The idea of safe space, for me, is an answer to them, but the problem is that safe space itself can also be turned to nefarious purposes.

Real, serious strategic work needs to be done on this. We need some kind of counter for this, and it's not an easy thing to conceive.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Thaumlord-Exelbirth's picture

We need some kind of counter for this, and it's not an easy thing to conceive.

Over time, I've come to a realization about a problem with free speech: Us. While the idea is great in theory, in practice, it's a complete mess, ruined by those who seek to gain an advantage for themselves or for those they favor. In a way, it's like when communism or libertarian ideology is put into practice. Good people get screwed over.

The internet gives us the freest speech around. Virtually no regulation or accountability. And look at how big a mess that's given us. Sure, anonymity is important. But accountability is equally important.

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riverlover's picture

Snow Cloud is a creepy dystopia that gives nightmares but can be used as a manual for computer-driven life. Always be aware that things are not what they seem. RL, or online?

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thanatokephaloides's picture

I call "safe spaces" what they are: echo chambers. Ideas are meant to clash with other ideas.

Echo chambers -- until they become their inevitable end product: dead, silent voids.

Example: There's a Yahoo! Group called INDOPAGAN which is supposed to be about modern Western Pagans who are drawn to worship the Deities of Southern and Eastern Asia. However, due to Admin ruling that it must remain a completely safe space, there has been no traffic in the Group other than the monthly rules posting for over three years. When the Admins are questioned as to why this is, they blame Facebook. (NOT!)

Diablo

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

and the kind of shitshow DKos has become is a little like the discursive version of being given a choice between Hillary and Trump.

It's all about escaping the binary, these days.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

with any of the following options:

1)Not voting.
2)Voting Stein--especially with the Vote Trade/Vote Pact idea attached
3)Writing in Bernie.

I prefer 2, for two reasons: there's a chance to get Stein over the 5% threshhold--or maybe one of the higher threshholds, even--and it potentially brings people together in opposition to the system, which neither of the others does (#1 and #3 are both isolated activities).

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

k9disc's picture

I think I might be giving this a shot with a buddy.

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Spread the word.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

riverlover's picture

people, now cast asea. I would like the Left to continue spearhead without the point(man). Maybe we are all personality-driven. I have no answers or solutions.

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Big Al's picture

politicians to make OUR decisions for us. Maybe we the Serfs need a complete change in our mindset, one away from relying on politicians (ill termed as leaders) to relying on ourselves. The best example is direct democracy practiced in over half the states via a referendum or State initiative process. Voting to legalize marijuana, gay marriage, raise taxes to pay for schools, roads, etc. We the Serfs are in effect making the decisions. There's plenty to improve with those state systems as well, but it's a step forward to real democracy.
I see no reason why we couldn't do that nationally to approve or reject war, regime changes, changes in Social Security, Medicare, deciding on Single Payer, whether to create a Department of Homeland Security, enact the Patriot Act, etc.
That would only be part of a new political system.

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mhagle's picture

resilience is up to us.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

waiting to explode, and HRC is getting ready to light the fuse. We are balanced now, right on the edge of something very ugly and wicked.

And it's all tied together: The plutocracy's stranglehold on US media... the neocon and neoliberal collusion in a globalist program of full spectrum dominance... the NATO overreach to squeeze Russia til she either surrenders or fights back... the so-called "Long War" aka war forever.... the billionaire-funded DC "think tanks" that all but dictate US foreign policy... the massive "defense" industry that promotes and exports war in exchange for enormous profits... all these elements and more are working in tandem to maintain and expand an American Empire that is rotten at its ideological core, and murderous at its extremities.

To be "anti-war" is to denounce this monstrous machinery of death and aggression, and to oppose all of its moving parts.

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native

Big Al's picture

and yet we can't get the antiwar movement rev'd up. This election takes the air out of it. I read earlier where these offshoots of Bernies' "revolution" are hardly even mentioning militarism and war in their whatevers. Same thing we saw during the Dem party primary, very little focus on that.
We could be doing the world a great service by starting something.

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I think most Americans are still under the illusion that the US military serves primarily to "protect" the nation... while in fact it is being used to do anything and everything but that. It's not easy to separate the respect and honor a nation's military forces deserve, from the various depredations they are being ordered to carry out. I'm afraid much of the top US military brass has been corrupted by careerism - along with lucrative enticements and career paths that the MIC has on offer.

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native

thanatokephaloides's picture

Yes Syria is a powder keg waiting to explode, and HRC

...... along with most of our other so-called "leaders", has been hurling lit cigarettes into it as fast as they can!

We really need some peace and principally domestic policy only political leaders, but we can't seem to get any such to run.....

Diablo

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

The discombobulation that followed the primary season is understandable, and probably a necessary step in moving forward. But the arguments around here and elsewhere about the relative value of the Sanders campaign's pieces can become a distraction, one more example of the splittist tendency that disempowered the Left over and over again. They should and will go on, but putting them in perspective is more important. Kudos to the essayist for doing this.

I love the idea of grassroots efforts to create an alliance between disaffected voters on the right and the left. Many people around here know that I think the essential difference in our politics is not Right vs. Left, but Up vs. Down. Right-Left has become one more way to keep voters divided and conquered, distracting us from the economic agenda of the oligarchy. The great unrealized promise of the Sanders campaign was to reorient politics around the Up-Down axis, to beak down the divisions the ruling class use to keep us powerless and easily manipulated.

The reorientation of politics is the unfinished work of the Sanders campaign, and the central mission of the movement that started with Occupy. Arguing over Jeff Weaver or the Green Party can perhaps help us identify the vehicle for moving the movement forward, but there is at least as great a chance that the arguments can turn into a diversion from the main goal.

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mimi's picture

I love the idea of grassroots efforts to create an alliance between disaffected voters on the right and the left. Many people around here know that I think the essential difference in our politics is not Right vs. Left, but Up vs. Down. Right-Left has become one more way to keep voters divided and conquered, distracting us from the economic agenda of the oligarchy.

Who are the disaffected voters? Those who are in pain and don't believe anymore in any social changes coming from both parties. Who really believes that either party will promote and implement equality and social justice? Nobody, I assume. I would think that those voters simply don't vote.

If the essential difference is between "Up vs Down" to "Right vs Left" I assume that those who are down, ie the powerless and poor masses, will not trust the ones who are "Up". I assumed from what little I know about history that the "UP" people were capitalism loving profiteers, oligarchs and corporations' CEOs and their lobbyists and that the "Down" people were socialism loving exploited folks, who had all the "hope and faith". AFAIK, those "UP" people were the "Right" flank and those "Down" people were the "Left" flank.

The Social Democrats imo have betrayed the "Down" folks, over and over again, world wide. They have betrayed the Left's mission. The became "UP" folks and they played around with the humane desire of the DOWN people to become less "DOWN" and dropped their interests like a hot potato, while telling them they will serve them nice mashed potatoes with gravy.

Nothing is easier than divide the "Down" folks. You can bring any identity issue into the discussion and off they are fighting each other. If you a VERY DOWN person you hope to become a little LESS DOWN person, even if you stay still in the "DOWN" category, they are being used to fight one group of "DOWN" vs. the other group of "DOWNs".

I have never really understood the meaning of Sander's "political revolution". What is political in the UP vs. DOWN divide, when it is not reflected in a party system that would clearly represent the interests of the "UP" folks vs the interests of the "Down" folks? You still can just vote for parties and there ain't one, who represents the interest of the "DOWN" folks.

I know only revolutions. They were always violent, civil unrest was unavoidable. Of course, I don't promote violence or am waiting the social movements turn in civil riots. But then it looks like "political revolution" is just a nice word that is supposed to give you some hope for movements to have an influence. Doesn't look like they will ever have.

But to be frank, if I meet people, which I am supposed to trust, I can't see or know, where they stand on social justice or for how long they will stand to their own expressed self-identification. The trust ain't there and if it's there it is not as stable as it would be needed.

If a political system can afford to ignore the voices of at least 70 percent of its people then you live in a country that is authoritarian, totalitarian and oligarchic. And NOBODY trusts ANYONE in such a system, imo. Dependent on how deep you are fallen in that shitty system, people don't trust their neighbors, friends and family members.

That are the lessons of Nazi Germany and the DDR. Distrust among people has been at its peak in those regimes. And with no real party differences in the US and nothing to vote for that represents your "DOWN" folk's voices, the trust is just going downhill.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

The problems are 1)how to get people to know about it, 2)how to get people to be willing to give at least a few hours' time to it (like coming out to one meeting, and 3)how to get people out of total despair.

2 and 3 are connected, of course.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

mimi's picture

not in specific detail as it relates to the US), so that I have more doubts. Number 2.) I have done 3.) that's tough. I am German, that doesn't lead easily to be trusted by many Americans and I don't know to find the right words to help people get out of despair.

I never meant to say that one should not try and work hard on trusting each other. I kind of think it's hard to trust 'online friends". And in real space meetings it's a completely different situation. At least you get a feeling for the other person. But being confronted with what each single person is up against, it's easy to feel helpless.

To me the best cure against that kind of discouragement is humor among people, who try to connect to each other. I find that a lot here. So, I am not giving up on it.

I do like your essay as much as dallasdoc. But I have seen too much distrust among folks over the long run. That's were my "negative" attitude comes from that is represented in my above comment. It should not bother you at all. One voice among millions.

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Alphalop's picture

that the majority of Americans actually LIKE Germany and Germans in general.

Not like those damn dirty Icelanders... Wink (I was trying to think of a group that nobody ever complains about and they and the Finns are the only ones I could think of, lol!)

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Alphalop's picture

get around to it.

It's been in my Netflix queue for ages.

I may have to check it out now, that was kinda funny, I feel that way sometimes too when I travel, but I still love to do it (at least back when I had that thing they call money, lol!). Smile

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

and I'll just tell you that the last 1/2 season was...disappointing. But it's well worth watching anyway.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

I think American political cultural references are different from German ones, although the basics of class-based political dynamics are common. How they're perceived differ, based on our history.

Dividing the 99%, as we call the Down class now, is both easy and necessary to maintaining any oligarchic system, whether an aristocracy, a party despotism or a corporate oligarchy. The reason to push the 99% meme is that it directly counters divide and conquer efforts, identifying the perpetrators in the process. The 99% meme also avoids dividing the "middle class" from the poor. Americans don't really understand class divisions, and won't get the distinctions between the petit bourgeoisie, artisan classes, peasantry and the urban or rural poor. Lumping all of these classes together under a fundamentally democratic-sounding moniker like "99%" is a great way to reintroduce class-based politics to a country like this one.

Up vs. Down is basically class politics, and that's the fundamental reform we need to impose to fight the oligarchic system. Anything that fosters alliances between left-leaning and right-leaning people who aren't wealthy is a good thing, if you ask me. Directing anger at billionaires rather than Muslims, or black people, or working class whites, is how we can bring the movement to success.

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mimi's picture

Anything that fosters alliances between left-leaning and right-leaning people who aren't wealthy is a good thing, if you ask me. Directing anger at billionaires rather than Muslims, or black people, or working class whites, is how we can bring the movement to success.

I have just not seen it much, yet. But I do believe that the younger generation is beyond that "hating the other" group kind of thinking. (the twenty plus year olds). Let's just hope.

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Citizen Of Earth's picture

but I hadn't noticed any bitter discussions over Our Revolution. Sure people were arguing different viewpoints about what the hell just happened -- between the Bernie's endorsement and OurRev rollout and reorganization. But I felt it was all healthy debate and I personally learned a lot of new things. And it took a few days for me to reach my own personal conclusions.

So I guess, IMHO C99 is running just fine. I don't see any reasons to change its format.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

frustrated either by "negativity" on the site, or else by a relentless focus on the politicians (or occasionally, both). So I thought I'd put out a couple of options that should increase a positive focus and break up some of the concentrated focus on politicians.

That was the genesis of this essay--that, and the fact that I noticed people getting mad at each other over Bernie, which seemed not the greatest path to go down. It doesn't seem Bernie is going to be directly involved with any movement stuff going forward, beyond writing a book. He's certainly not involved with OR. Will he be involved with Brand New Congress? Don't know. It seems likely he's not going to be in a position of active leadership. It seemed to me we were risking real division over someone who may not even be involved at all from here on out. So it's not great to become divided by our opinions of Bernie, and I think even Bernie himself would agree.

However, like I said at the beginning to Raggedy, if we just want to let things ride, that's fine too. I'm not in a position of authority over anybody, and the suggestion I made was made with the assumption that we're all peers here. Or, perhaps "equals" is a better word! ("peers" comes from feudal language--aristocrats are peers of each other)

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Citizen Of Earth's picture

in the past couple days, so that's a home run in my book. Hahhaha. But yeah, there's a bit of tension about the whole 'What happened to Bernie' subject.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

gendjinn's picture

There is no peaceful turn. The 1% have decided that vacuuming up all the wealth will give them lifeboats for the coming ecological catastrophes. The 99% will just have to die.

It's violent revolution or extinction. The longer you take to realise this the more likely it is to be the latter.

Study your 19th century. At the end of it we made a deal not to guillotine the aristocratic/criminal families and they agreed to inheritance taxes and high marginal rates (90%+) to transfer the wealth they had stolen back to the people over a few generations.

They have broken that deal.

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BrutallyHonest's picture

JFK said it correctly; "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

The sociopaths in our society have been waging war on us and on empathy itself. They believe that money has more value than life, that they have theirs so go fuck yourself, and if you don't agree with their society then you should just fucking die.

There actually are only 4 ways we can move forward:
1) Roll over and die/ give up
2) Fight back and kill everyone who has been, and is trying to kill us
3) Create a parallel society/ economy that is better to live with/ in that people just follow.
4) use the 1% propaganda and their old party ( the GOP) against them.

The last 3 seem to not be in the character of many 99%/ progressives that I do not have high hopes for our society, country, or species anymore

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Raggedy Ann's picture

I live in a somewhat parallel society/economy - on a small scale, of course. Raggedy Andy has bartered his whole life. I can't tell you the things he's swapped for that we could never have afforded. We have solar and wind - not tied to the grid - he installed it himself through dedicated study and research. We grow garlic. We're on a mission to grow 1/2 acre. We'll be at 1750 plants next year and 8000 or so, the following year. We will sell some, but we will also trade it with other gardeners/growers. We grow greens all winter and have a small garden in the summer. We want to put up a greenhouse in a few years, which will enable us to be more self sufficient and have more to trade, sell, and give away.

It's a start, for us. Pleasantry

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"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

mhagle's picture

essays on your work!!!

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

mhagle's picture

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

gendjinn's picture

A co-op of local gardeners could each focus on a different crop for trading. The production boost from a little bit of mono-culture could go a long way.

Why garlic?

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Raggedy Ann's picture

We live in the high desert and garlic requires less water than anything else we've planted. It is labor intensive only when planting and harvesting and you grow your own seed. It is a very medicinal plant, as well. It is a great crop and goes for $10-12/lb at the farmer's markets within a 75 mile radius of us (we live in a rural area with metropolitan areas 50-70 miles west and north of us).

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"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

gendjinn's picture

Garlic is a great plant alright. There are few dishes that don't benefit from it, that's for sure.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

but it's hard work, and an effort of the imagination/faith that it's hard to do when you're in despair. Much easier to imagine 1 or 2 when you're despairing. And a lot of folks are in despair, or near it.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Alphalop's picture

only way anything will change.

Historically very little major political change has happened without at least modest amounts of blood shed to oil the the gears of revolution.

It's sad and unfortunate but I am becoming increasingly convinced that it will indeed take us setting up a scaffold in every town square....

Keep your powder dry, your knife sharp and your head down, because I truly believe at this point things are going to get a LOT uglier before they get even remotely better. (And that better may never actually be realized if we don't get moving soon.)

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

gendjinn's picture

#3 is what the Irish did with the results of the 1918 elections. Set up Dáil, courts, police, army, etc and finally when the British refused to leave peacefully the war of independence began.

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BrutallyHonest's picture

We come together, take over our local police station, and use the power of police/ armory to take back the wealth stolen from us... yeah like that will happen

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Alphalop's picture

absolutely end in bloodshed, their is not a doubt in my mind that the feds and local governments would step in with a quickness to destroy everyone involved to prevent any other uppity peons from getting the same idea elsewhere.

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

gendjinn's picture

By stealing their weapons from their police stations. Sure my own uncle stole guns with Mac Stiofain from British army bases in England for the Border Campaign.

Rome fell because the citizens opened the gates to the besiegers because the Roman rulers would be destroyed.

Take a look at James Diamond's Collapse for other inspiring tales of the rulers getting theirs as the SHTF.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

And then they broke it again.

There are also a few rule-of-law things that they agreed to, which they also broke.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

gendjinn's picture

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food for thought in your essay... Bravo. Amazingly, it's been only one year since Bernie Sanders' campaign started to gain serious momentum. In the very short period of time since then, several important political paradigms have shifted drastically and irreversibly.

Now in the aftermath of Bernie's concession to the Party, we see a great deal of disorientation in what had been a relatively cohesive (and growing) force. People are left trying to establish a firm footing on new political ground, but the ground is still moving, and will probably continue to move for some time to come. There's plenty of energy and will to build something, but not much that is stable enough to build on.

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native

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

I still see an election ahead, one in which voters who support both the Greens and the Libertarians need to make eligible for matching funds for the 2020 election. Delaying the effort of Our Revolution and Brand New Congress until after the election is not going to harm either. Anyone participating in the kerfuffle right now is only ensuring that the duopoly will continue. Let it be, for the time is not right for that particular battle since we are still bemired in a much more vital one with an end date.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

that Big Al and others do have a point about voting.

My feeling is that we need a place from which to organize, and also need a movement focused on corruption--a big one. Right now, the ire/disgust of the American people is largely directed at the duopoly: its corruption and horrible indifference to human need. Americans are disgusted with the election and both parties, so let's organize there.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Wink's picture

my barcalounger, clicker deeply entrenched in hand, had elected Dems done their job - which is to act and govern like FDR Dems (in my opinion). They didn't and haven't (in a long time), so... so here I am. [sigh] At 64, soon to be on Medicare (and get off ObamaCare - thank the gods) - the last thing I expected to be doing is this. What gives me some hope is there aren't just geezers like me at our semi-weekly Meetups. There are a few 20-somethings, and more than a few 30-somethings and 40-somethings. But, it is the 20-somethings that give me hope. They get it. No need for us old Vietnam war protesters to tell them what's what. They're on it! And, they ask the right questions. So, here's to the Millenials! Maybe they can save this place.

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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.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

I was about 7 when the Vietnam War ended. So it's more like "old apartheid protesters," heh.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

mimi's picture

the elderly (65 and up) are, dependent on their own experiences in life, a bit more doubting. The next generation (40 years an up) have way more energy and as far as I am exposed to some in that age range, way more energetic to fight on.They get into lots of thinking and discussions, but want to change things desperately. I am not clear about the third generation (20 years and up), according to what I hear from the second generation, they are way over some real bullshit and get it too. So, I really am happy if I meet some younger folks, like I did during the Sanders campaign. They are not that easily discouraged and that gives me hope and joy.

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shaharazade's picture

need others of like mind to join them. Solidarity and coalitions that move beyond partisan politics can and do work. I don't think it's a matter of demographic breakdowns but more about peoples willingness to let go of fear and the devils they know. I belong to a group here in Portland called Stop Demolishing Portland. It was organized on facebook. It has moved into real life local actions.

It has no ties with any pol or party. We do try to figure out how to un-elect the so called progressive Democrat's we voted in. We also demonstrate and witness/document the destruction of this city by the ungodly mix of investors, realtors, developers, lobbyists and city state Democratic pols who call this destruction progress and green.

I'm saying at this point I'm not interested in meet-ups that involve Democratic pols and want no part of partisan party orgs. which usually end up in veal pens for the protestors. Acts of civil disobedience and actions aimed at issues like pipelines or bulldozing cities for profit are more likely to get disillusioned people to coalesce. Occupy comes to mind as although it never went partisan it made a huge impact by waking a lot of people up.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

you're not into third-party stuff?

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

riverlover's picture

with no guilt and do not want to sponsor a Johnson vote unless they are in another state. Many still are too scared or asleep. But the pressure is on me. Heh.

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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.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

which I think is too bad, but ideas are just ideas; I'm sure a more popular one will come up.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

mhagle's picture

This is a great idea. We just need to tweak it and make it accessible.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

The post had just gotten a lot of negative response to the idea and not much positive, at that point. I shouldn't jump to conclusions.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

good and unpopular. They might just need to percolate for a while.

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native

dance you monster's picture

. . . I feel, is an excellent idea for some, and not necessary or pertinent for others.

Those who have no compunctions against voting third-party do not need a pact and can decide for themselves whether they can or should pursue one with another voter from the other side of the spectrum. For them, it's a strategic question: do we increase our numbers with alliances, however small?

Those who fear being spoilers, or just want to avoid being typecast by party apparatchiks as Naderite baby-eaters, would, with VotePact, have a way to feel confident they were expressing their discontent with the choices while not throwing the election to the worser-of-two-evils. For these voters it's a comfort question. And comfort is not a negligible element of the voting equation. Once a voter sees himself/herself voting third-party without guilt or blame, he/she is more likely to vote third-party again in another context in another year, and as that number of instances grows, the power of the two mainstream parties is diminished until the third-partiers are ascendant and create their own entities that outstrip the two parties we have now. There is potential value in that, quite a bit, in fact. The VotePact idea has a lot of merit to make the unthinkable thinkable.

In the end, what will bring success is both paths: the unrepentant third-party voter, and the enabled third-party voter. Anyone can choose which camp feels most appropriate to him/her.

Thanks for sharing the VotePact idea with us.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Thanks for getting at the heart of what I like about the idea--I wasn't able to put it so clearly into words as this:

Once a voter sees himself/herself voting third-party without guilt or blame, he/she is more likely to vote third-party again in another context in another year, and as that number of instances grows, the power of the two mainstream parties is diminished until the third-partiers are ascendant and create their own entities that outstrip the two parties we have now. There is potential value in that, quite a bit, in fact. The VotePact idea has a lot of merit to make the unthinkable thinkable.

There's a colonization of the mind, and the political imagination, going on. I want to fight it.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

I could not care less about what party apparatchicks on either side think of me. Those careerists, whether Dumbocrats or Rethuglicans, need to know, to have it made plain, that they are not respected, not liked, that in fact they are despised and held in contempt by a majority of their fellow citizens.

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Mary Bennett

Alphalop's picture

movement and the country going forward.

I WANT to spoil the election for the Democrats. the mid-term election losses of the previous cycles by the Dems didn't wake them up, so maybe if we cause ALL the corporatist 3rd way DLC'ers to lose their elections by my "Spoiler" vote is a good thing.

I am even considering voting for the republican at the state level if the party rejects Grayson, as his opponent would be no more damaging than the Republican since they share a virtually identical agenda.

If we can't break the Duopoly maybe we can at least replace one of the players in it with our own by breaking one of the parties down and reducing it to irrelevancy.

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

exactly that. Part of the population is still cowering in fear of the threat of the "other"--defined in partisan terms. This fear of the other is the only justification the system has left for itself. Attacking that pathetic justification by giving the frightened a path out of fear is a good thing, IMO.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

riverlover's picture

Ithaca NY. Students at Cornell and IC are back, paired voting might work for cooperative roomies, etc. My sister, as I say elsewhere lives in a bigger urban area and has friends with who she plays cards. This could be a new parlor game--trade a vote, if you are scared. Better direct market needed there.

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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.

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