Do you see the system now?
I'm writing this after surgery yesterday so I may still be fogged a bit. If so, I like the fog for it helps see things more clearly.
Do you see the consistency in the system now? Do you understand that Trump is a logical continuation after Obama? They both won by lying to the people. The difference is interesting. Obama and his rhetoric about hope and change. Trump the ultimate con man in that you know he is yet somehow he can snare you if you are of the right mind (pun intended). They both are tools of a system that produces "leaders" which are suited for their time and serve the system in the way needed at the time.
These are bad times for the system not because some bright human has told the people about it but because it is running its course to a logical end point.
Deny climate change and create still more refugees and persecuted people because authority always wins over rhetoric. The good guys never really had answers but were willing to pretend they did. Pointing your finger at problems and offering good sounding solutions is useless without a very real and concrete plan for getting from here to there.
Bernie Sanders said so many good things but he clearly has no clue about how to really get people involved in the political process in a meaningful way simply because there is none!
History has a continuity to it and this latest phase is just that - a phase and nothing else. Wealth and power have always won and seemingly always will until we get to that point the Native People predicted when we realize we can not eat wealth and power nor use to reverse irreversible changes.
Yesterday's surgery makes it clear to me that I will not see too much more of this saga. As a scientist that disappoints me but as a compassionate human being I'll be glad to end my awareness of the pain and suffering this system is bringing. Good luck to those who will remain.
Comments
Always
with the negativity, Moriarity.
Yeah, we're chucked.
Love one another.
peace
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
there is nothing more positive than a correct analysis
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
STILL laughing. . .
N/f
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
others have lauughed...they too were wrong
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
To clarify,
I was laughing at the utter and complete wit in your reply, Not any of the conclusions you have drawn in the post. Indeed, I concur with pretty much All of them.
My only quibble is my misguided and naive hope that humanity(such as exists) will wake the Fuck up before it's too late.
I did say naive and misguided, yes?
peace
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
you've got it down don
Acceptance of what we are up against ain't no joke. The struggle is not always a happy means to an end. The struggle remains, as does the inevitable (or sometimes regrettable) end.
God speed
I'm sending hugs and hope for
I'm sending hugs and hope for miracles for both you and the threatened world. May we all come to heal!
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.
Woof woof
"Kelly's heroes" one of the great b movies.
They are not even trying
any more. There is no room in our system for the people who are being governed.
I hope you are doing well after your surgery, Don, and will recover completely very soon.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
And I can't help noticing
that this final indifference to the 99% occurs at the time when automation is set to eliminate the need for much of the human workforce. A high birth rate and a high death rate reigned during much of civilization. Once unskilled workers were past their prime they died and were easily replaced with the young, with the destitute providing a cautionary tale to any that questioned their lot and a promise of a reward to finally come after death. With a rising need for skilled labor came some grudging rewards in this life, including health care to extend life. With the prospect of replacing much of the workforce with automation, and no obvious new work on the horizon for the masses, we see the naked face of social Darwinism once again.
Or it could just be a big coincidence.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
We are now
seen as disposable. This the sociopathic nature of our economic system which seeks profits at the expense of everything else, including humanity. It is social Darwinism.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
An example from history and a grim forecast.
In the years 1346 to 1353 the Black Death devastated much of the world's population. In Europe the estimates of deaths are between 75 to 200 million people. Before 1346 European serfs were bound to the lord's domain and had little or no freedom of movement. After 1353 serfs were able to move fairly freely because they were needed by the nobles to do the work on the fiefs. The nobles were competing for the labor of the small population of surviving serfs and this made them willing to ease the legal restrictions on movement, wages, and other social duties. As soon as the birth rate had replaced many of the dead, the nobles once again tightened the vise on the underclass. Since then our experience has been variations on the same theme usually substituting war and its associated ills for plague but always leaving the oligarchs with the levers of power.
We are in a similar position to the serfs pre-1346: more people than the planet can bear plus automation plus climate change. At the same time we are ruled by a class of selfish, privileged, psychopathic oligarchs. I'm afraid that I see nothing good coming down the pike. Our corporate masters will continue doing more of the same. This set of circumstances is a recipe for chaos and, probably, a large die off of many life forms including most or all of us. When I look at history, I'm not convinced we will learn anything from this if we survive as a species.
The only way humans seem to manage is in small groups that realize how much they need each other in order to survive individually. My hope is that enough history of this time survives to make clear the folly of unrestricted growth of any kind and the folly of following the "lordly" as has happened for all of human history. Pre-history may show a better pattern but we will never know that so we can only hope. Hope may spring eternal, but I'm not sure we will even make it to 2075.
-Greed is not a virtue.
-Socialism: the radical idea of sharing.
-Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962
Greed is the opioid of the rich
It blinds them from the folly of their endless acquisitiveness. Unlike the lords of medieval manner, we serfs will have less arable land and water to maintain their greediness, let alone our own. And as we die off, will the oligarchs be able to find enough robots to till shrinking fields, to reap diminished harvests, to serve dwindling water supplies to home and field? No, it will not happen because their life-constricting selfishness will choke them too but they are not smart enough to teach themselves and they will never listen to the 99%.
They continue to fiddle
as America burns. Ironic yet not surprising.
Get well soon, Don. We need your voice around these here parts!
"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
I also hope for good recovery, Don.
And you may be correct that rising through the anesthesia fog works. Last time, I popped right out, dead to alive for me. I got permission from my new neurologist for surgery with anesthesia. I want 2 things done, they do not like 2 surgeons working on 2 sites at the same time. Chaos in the OR. Now I confront surgeon #1 who refused to remove my gall bladder because I had had only one attack, now I have had two more. But I have a sick liver. The other is removing the plate in my arm, to help bone fragments reconnect. I do not want the implant, screw heads I can see is too much. One is right at elbow bend. She is willing. Two surgeries. I have great expectations for both as far as my health. Toss of the dice.
I saw some Medium article about how to protest Trump. Written by a DNC leader in NC. Paltry. Silly little things, which could at the end only benefit the DNC which has already shown their colors. Entrenched.
Fly off, let's come up with Actual Real Hope and Change, from the ground up. Cut off the $$ from not-rich. Protest peacefully. It will come to more.
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.
Many years ago
when I was a real athlete (long distance runner), I had to have surgery for a lower inguinal hernia. I was terrified of being put under a general anesthetic. Also knew I had a very high pain threshold simply from training. I met with the surgeon and asked if I could have it done without general anesthesia and he said yes. He said that in his experience, patients under a local recover faster. This was before they did the thing with the mesh where apparently they require hospitalization and a general anesthetic.
Then I met with the anesthesiologist and he said that there was no way I would want this surgery under a local. Even though he tried to talk me out of it, I fought with him and won. Long story short. I went in the morning to a same day surgery center. Had the hernia surgery done under a local, recovered from the local very quickly, and was home in time for lunch. No nausea, less pain including very little need for painkiller, and a much quicker recovery. Now that I am old and wimpy, and no longer an athlete, I am not sure I would do it that way again. But for that time in my life, it was the right decision.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I have a friend of my cousin's who had a lumpectomy
with no general anesthesia. She had bad reactions to one, which got amplified to all. They did the surgery with her under hypnosis.(!) I have a very high pain threshold according to nurse daughter. What I call a 2 most call a 10. But no. Versed for fast stuff like cataract surgery. There was some discussion with the anesthesiologist about doing just a nerve block before opening up my arm and screwing in a plate, so glad they knocked me down for that. Just the thought makes me shudder.
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.
hi don, very good to read you once again,
as in days gone by
on dkos, before it became hillaryland
can't remember my user name and don't want to go there to see it
always felt we were on the same page in this life
don't forget there are substances that will help that you won't get from the doctor
hear here
I have never gone back...Markos is a corporate hack just like
Trump and HRC
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
Good luck with your convalescence, Don
I hope we all may benefit from you clarity and wisdom for a long time to come. There is no one around these parts quite like you. Feel better soon, and may the fog lift so you can find a little comfortable numbness.
Please help support caucus99percent!
That's why god invented drugs.
To speed up evolution.
I see we have a similar outlook . . .
Come what may, I fear not for myself, but for the other I · · ·
Always enjoy your posts Don
For me, I survive by creating my own reality. I live a pretty small life and just watch all the insanity that is humanity. Occasionally I go out and get dirty.
Peace Don! And out...
I'm starting to aspire to be a peasant again.
At this point, we have as much influence as peasants, so we should act like them.
Fuck the MSM, the Elite Entertainment, and the Political System.
We have more fun at our parties, our gatherings, and our small press runs anyway.
Let the "Elite" have their effete tastes and their 11th Dimensional chess.
Peasant doesn't mean uneducated. It just means that we have a different way of life.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
If "they" will just leave us to it . . .
the next bastard that chases a fox through my yard will get a good drubbing, I swear.
I hear they want to put a king's road through our village!
I suggest we all pretend to be madmen when the assayers arrive.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
No Trump is not a continuation of Obama
I will never buy into this narrative. We will all be wishing Hillary won. We are now about to plumb new depths of depravity and authoritarianism. The mouth breathers run the show. These are the folks that will bring back lynchings and dissident gulags.
I didn't vote for Hillary. I didn't vote for PBO the second time. I have never joined the Democratic Party. But salting down Trump to Clinton as no difference, or Trump as the logical extension of Obama is ridiculous.
I hope you recover quickly.
Peace.
And who gave them all the tools to do it, with a nice smile?
And we live in an age where the state of politics is already ridiculous.
Didn't matter who won, the fix was in as to who runs the show.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
you really can't seeit can you?...think about systems
not pr
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
No I get it
The monied interests, the erosion of individual rights for the corporate greater good. A system that always protects and supports them not us. The illusion that Democrats are the party of opposition etc.
Now we have no illusions. We will see the deterioration turn into free falls with a severity previously unknown. Now I suppose one can take the argument that this is inevitable. We have to see everything burnt to the ground before we see the rising Phoenix of justice and equality. But to equate an HRC Presidency to Trump is absurd. White working class weren't gonna get shit either way and our propensity for war won't change, I will grant you that. But what people of color, LGBTQ, the elderly and women's rights will now endure is unprecedented.
Hopefully you'll stick around and suffer with the rest of us!
Heal fast wise one.
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
Not sure that I agree, but it doesn't matter. Get well soon!
(and then fix your typo in the title, please!)
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"They both won by lying to the people."
Of all of the Presidents of my lifetime, starting with Eisenhower, only Jimmy Carter ever promised not to lie to the American People. But in a sense, even he lied to us.
Eisenhower's lie was one of omission. He waited until he was leaving office to warn us about the Military Industrial Congressional Complex rather than do something about it while President. So much for defending the United States from domestic enemies!
Kennedy's lies were mostly behavioral on a personal level. He did announce he was removing American troops from Vietnam shortly before he was assassinated.
Johnson's lie was Vietnam.
Nixon was nothing but lies.
Ford lied about his promise not to run for re-election once he was elevated to the presidency - then announcing his candidacy for 1976. I also include his convenient pardon of Nixon, and his participation in the Warren Commission.
Carter's lie was professional. He listened to terrible advice from terrible advisers. He hurt the nation enough that Reagan had an easy time taking over.
Reagan: see Nixon.
Bush I lying about "No New Taxes" was the only lie he was roasted over. There were many others dating back to before the Bay of Pigs.
Bill Clinton never really felt our pain, did he? And so very much more which only begins with NAFTA.
Dubya: The original weapon of mass destruction himself, he claimed he couldn't find them after he'd gone to war for oil. He should roast in hell just for releasing Dick Cheney with power.
Anyone disagree or want to amplify?
Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.
I get a kick out of their campaign rhetoric
And their administration record:
Reagan: campaigned on balancing the budget; He tripled the debt.
Bush I: His campaign was, "I'm not liberal." So what. He did tell truths, e.g. we're in a New World Order and Iraq One is about oil.
Clinton: I voted Perot (That giant sucking sound!)!
Bush II: campaigned against nation building (at the time I didn't know what he was talking about); He destroyed and then created new governments in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Obama: campaigned on Change; He changed nothing.
Trump: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Hope you have a speedy recovery, Don! Yes, I see it. ;-) EOM
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.