What is Freedom?
OK, what if we do get Trump? A super majority, close to 70% view him unfavorably. I'd guess most of those view him not only unfavorably but with disgust. For me, I'm completely aghast. AGHAST I tell you! I consider Trump one of the least favorable persons on the planet and I have done my homework on the little twerp.
If he gets elected it will be because around 50-60 MILLION people will have voted for him. Think about that. Fifty-sixty million people will willingly (I assume) vote for Donald Trump to be President of the Untied States. Voter turnout will probably be just over 50% (55% in 2012) which means about 25% of voting eligible citizens will elect the President.
Twenty five percent of the country will elect Trump as President and the rest of us will have to live with it. You tell me this isn't a fucked up system.
But what if we get Clinton? A solid majority also view her unfavorably and with the same level of disgust as with Trump. I view Clinton with more disgust than I do Trump. The kicker for me is that Clinton is a serial killer, a murdering war criminal who should be in prison. If Clinton wins the same 25% or so of American citizens will be who have caused it. Think about that. Twenty five percent of Americans will vote for a serial killer.
We're talking historic unfavorable ratings here at a time when the country and it's political system has been sold to the highest bidders. A vast majority of citizens believe (know) this country is going in the wrong direction and here we are presented with the two most unfavorable presidential candidates in U.S. history. Two candidates that literally disgust most of the citizens they're going to "lead", to "represent". Two candidates that literally represent war and fascism, one of whom is set to lead a country in distress.
What a place in history.
So back to the question. What if we get Trump? What if we get Clinton? I for one reject either one as my "president". I do not accept their authority over me. I will not have voted for whichever one wins, I will have protested their places on my ballot. I don't even want a president. I don't need one. I don't want or need a Congress. I don't want them to make my decisions for me anymore. I want to make my own decisions.
But it doesn't matter does it. What I think does not matter because it's going to happen anyway. I have no choice, not unless I wanted to leave the country. Twenty five percent of the citizens of this country could elect Satan as president and there would be nothing I could do except accept my eternal damnation.
FREEDOM!! Ya right, what is freedom? Where does it start and where does it end?
Comments
FYI, in the video of Richie
the people collectively realize what they're seeing at the 3:10 mark.
The Hippies Were Right
We were right about everything. Nixon, Vietnam, No More War, The War on Drugs, Earth Day and the environment . . .
Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out; a modern perspective:
http://www.freemansperspective.com/turn-on-tune-in-drop-out/
Communes and living with the environment; Small Is Beautiful:
http://www.centerforneweconomics.org/content/small-beautiful-quotes
Love, Joy and Music. Sex, Drugs and rock and roll all seem to be as popular as ever.
So naturally we were demonized.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Ya, we still are right.
Interesting links, thanks. There's one thing that makes me not want to tune out. Turn on ya, tune out, I can't, not now. I know too much. The criminals have to be stopped, they are hurting people. Simply put, we have to help people from being hurt by our own government and those behind it.
Cali Kush, only one bowl?
That's a minimum daily requirement
I encourage everyone to make frequent burnt offerings to The Kush Gods in order to maintain cosmic karmic balance.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Here's An Old Hippy on Skid Row
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
This has been what it is all about ...
from the start.
We can't let the hippies know they were right all along.....
pretty soon, nfl players will start revolting, then, militia types will
start revolting....then, we will be saying that the peasants are deplorable. ...
someone might catch on....
Peace -
Murph
And then the peasants
And then the peasants will be deplorable and revolting. (Apologies to Mel Brooks.)
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
Revolting? Whooo, they stink on ice.
Who doesn't love Mel?
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
Schumacher,
a resident of Vt and old friend of Bernie Sanders, was interviewed when Bernie announced he was running in the primary. He said he was glad Bernie was voting, although he thought Bernie "too conservative." I think S influenced Bernie a lot over the years.
Sorry, I can not support
anything with a link to libertarian "freeman". It is a faux religion, imo. I may be delusional in thinking we are better than Atlas Shrugged anarchy.
Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. Stephen Hawking
Big Al, may I modify your text?
Your essay about our dilemma is as accurate as it is disheartening.
Right on Ed.
Very good point.
Viva Marijuana!
My hustle is panhandling aka pannin. I use 2×3 No Parking signs put up for special events. I cut then in half so I get 2 messages per sign. Here is the hustle:
1 & 2 back to back - Viva Marijuana!
$2 short of a buckle bag
3 & 4 back to back -. A Few Dollars for . Munchies would be nice
Brother can you spare
. A Dime Bag?
My goal aka "bank" is $20. Once I get $20 or sometimes $15 it's time for a Kush break. I'm kicking back in the shade enjoying the rest of the day.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Here's an interesting article about how Clinton's
Former treasury secretary Robert Rubin was cited by a special congressional panel to be criminally charged for his role in the 2008 financial meltdown.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/37638-bill-clinton-s-treasury-secreta...
It's a good thing that Obama appointed Holder as his head of the DOJ. He came from a law firm that defends the banks from prosecution and after 6 years covering their asses he is back at that law firm who had kept his job open for him.
Snip
Snip
Hillary has repeatedly said that just because she has gotten paid over $750,000 by the banks to give speeches doesn't mean that she won't hold them accountable if they break the law.
After all she had told them in 2007 to cut it out when she found out that they were being naughty.
The banks financed Obama's campaigns and we can see that he didn't feel beholden to them and held them accountable for crashing the global economy, right?
And his BFF Penny Pritzker who had also financed his entire political career didn't receive special accommodations for doing so.
Except wasn't she given a special position in the chamber of commerce or something like that? Commerce secretary? It's hard to keep track of all of the special favors that people got or get.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Why "former" CEO et al?
Were they fired or did they finally decide they had enough money after the big ripoff?
It's hard to believe they know what enough money might be. Never enough, gimme more seems to be what is failing to fill the empty holes inside themselves.
CEO is a lofty position making the titled a VIP
That is approved as an entry point and later landing spot in our fascist government Rolodex. The rest of us toil for taxes and fees to fund the operations. Our only connection to the special people.
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.
In answer to your Essay title's question
The absence of fear!
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
We still have existential fear. And neither candidate can quell
that. We also have fear for our children and grandchildren, I can't see worries beyond that because I think that will be the bitter end. And with
lucktiming I personally will not see the beginning of realization that human life on this planet has screwed it all up for most life. I already see that, others do not, but are beginning to become suspicious.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.
My son is 16 and is beginning to apply to college.
The whole process has a sense of the surreal to me because the future seems so very .... : (
One has to be in a constant state of denial just to put one foot in front of the other.
My son is 22 and beginning to apply for a job.
He says he may marry but will not reproduce. He says that having kids in this environment is "irresponsible." He is not alone, many of his friends share this view.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
It's unspeakably horrible.
Freed-om
Or the capacity of the inner sound of the soul to sing its beautiful, unique song outwardly into a world that welcomes this song of love instead of repressing its divine note.
absence of fear is a result, correct answer is below
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Freedom is our worship word!
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGO-SldLrNA]
/giggle
Sorry, just had to do it.
Now going off to compose a serious response....
"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
Not sure why you think over 50% will turn out to vote--
my guess is it won't crack 45%. But it's hard to tell in a world of so much rigging.
"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 wish those who were disgusted with the two major candidates
would vote third party instead of staying home. With those kinds of numbers, we'd actually see a third party win this thing (if the major parties don't hack the machines).
Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.
asdf
Two candidates that literally disgust most of the citizens they're going to "lead", to "represent". Two candidates that literally represent war and fascism, one of whom is set to lead a country in distress.
That's why it's not gonna crack 45%.
A heel-on-heel match doesn't put butts in the seats, as they say.
OTOH, there do seem to be a number of people responding to Hillary's "OMG Trump! Trump! Trump!" strategy, so I guess maybe that fervent hysteria might outstrip the country's natural disgust at being presented with these choices.
"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
You're getting at the deepest question.
The one that even the Founders, with all their faults/sins/crimes, put into the founding documents, and it's a doozy:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —
"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
"Whenever any form of government becomes destructive
of these ends". Why are Americans so afraid to take them up on it? Why do so few even question this form of government? Why are those that do question this form of government basically ridiculed for doing so?
Says right there, "it is their duty".
Because we're afraid of being bankrupted, imprisoned,
tortured, or killed.
Or having those things happen to our families.
It comes down to that. Doesn't it?
"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 don't know. For demanding a new form of government?
I think to when I was calling for a boycott of the Presidential election and was basically lambasted because I couldn't properly explain how that wasn't helping "them". That if I didn't vote, i.e., participate in this form of government, then I was just doing what "they" wanted. I think many people are so tied into this system of government they believe it's almost sacrilegious to question it, to not vote in it. That's certainly evident to me on these political blogs.
I don't see the people being stopped from questioning this form of government because of threats, I see it because they've been conditioned to believe it's the only way.
Of course, that's true too.
Despair is the other side of the coin; despair that gets inculcated into the very processes of people's thoughts. It creates an inability to imagine anything other than what the oppressor doles out. It creates a vending machine sensibility.
Depends on where you are--I've already rejected the vending machine, so for me, the control mechanism is fear.
"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
Despair. Yes. When the spectrum of possibility is so very narrow
…and thinking outside the spectrum is blocked by social norms or confusion. I learned this well watching the election drama play out, and saw how neutered People were toward their combined power if used "unofficially." Those considerable powers had been surrendered apparently after the 1960s, without a struggle. I imagine when boycotts become a felony conspiracy in the near future, it will go just as smoothly. But there will be existential despair that rises from a sense of limitation; the People's sense that their lives are ever diminished.
I wonder what happens when you are no longer afraid? What changes?
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
Because ,,,
Because we are afraid of losing our credit rating, even.
The credit rating is a method of social control
that is used to prevent people, in some cases, even from being considered for a job.
So sure, people are afraid of that.
"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
What makes it even more
What makes it even more nefarious is that the credit rating system is based on arcane formulas that are constantly changing. What was considered desirable by the credit industry 20 years ago (paying off accounts and then closing them, so as not to have a lot of open lines of credit, for instance) will now pull your credit rating down.
Added to that craziness, there is almost no wiggle room allowed, no margin for human error. When I worked in the credit business while going to college 40 years ago, being a week late on a payment was not an occasion for shock and horror. Now if you pay online and miss the payment deadline by 2 seconds, you run the real risk of late fees, increased finance charges, and a ding on your credit rating.
And the potential consequences are serious, since credit ratings are used for everything from finding a job to renting an apartment. People are encouraged by the financial industry to obsess over their credit scores, and to purchase services that will continually monitor their credit files and let them know if something goes awry in this entirely made-up and insane system.
It is truly and literally repressive. One more thing to keep the lower 99% on edge and afraid, and thus in line.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
Yet there are some sayings
Yet there are some sayings that fit the situation here. "Fortune favors the bold" so why should we the People not be bold and make said changes? Throw the bums out!
And to answer the fearful minded, "He who risks nothing wins nothing"
In other words, with the old government having shown itself along with the parties who allowed themselves to be ensnared by the corruption from the Billionaires an corrupt corporates showing as dangerous to the governed, why not run the bums out BEFORE they take all your stuff away? So far the voters who have stayed the same bad course have seen nothing good for us, but just the good for the wealthy classes.
There was a reason the founding fathers also taxed the wealthy heavily, distrusted central banks, and corporations lasting more than their time to do a job and disband themselves. Now that we have allowed the deregulation/lowered taxes for the wealthy and other fun stuff, the pigeons are all home to roost and we all suffer for it, (some more than others), and now we see the culmination of them showing us how unafraid as yet they are with the blatant corruption and chicanery.
It may be time for more than a passive revolution, but I would hope we see the biggest, most massive protest vote that slides home our anger with overwhelming Jill Stein victory(whisper of a dream).
I also feel politicians as "public servants" should have limited time as such, and have a pay that reflects that they are at the beck and call of the people, as well as make them live with the same health care as all of us, then we might see great single payer care finally passed. Cut down on the graft and pork of the MiC so that we can once more properly fund social safety nets, and education as once happened, lowered taxes for those who need it, the poor, working poor, and the middle class making less than 50k a year. Heavier taxation for the wealthy as well as those wallstreet gamblers. (It would help end the attempts of the wealthy to be so generous with their money to steal elections and gov't dismantling).
Hey mister war-bucks and mr fat-cat, we have roads, bridges and water supply systems need fixing don't you know? you want your goods and such shipped on them? better help make them safer and workable! Even with a 70% tax rate, you still make over a million a day for your own spending? well that beats out a ton of folks working hard for you and your pals, so I have a tiny violin for you.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
George W Bush was down to 20 percent
George W Bush was down to his core 20 percent support before it was over. We didn't think another President could be so unpopular, yet here we go again.
"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
Ahem! Seriously? Everybody knows that
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --