Smash the Duopoly, End Oligarchy and Plutocracy
Here's what we're dealing with regarding the United States of America national political system of government.
How the hell can we not be divided when we have a political system that literally divides us into two halves. The system allows the oligarchy that rules over us to remain in power. The only question is which part of the oligarchy gets to make the rules. They think it's a game, and it is. It's just a game. Most of us are just fucking game pieces.
The goal the next two elections should be to smash the duopoly. That can't be done by a third party. It has to be done by a boycott of the duopoly. Some might be attracted to one third party or another, but many people will be attracted to saying fuck you to the republican and democratic political parties.
Third parties cannot compete in this system, it has to be changed FIRST. Trying to elect third party politicians into this system to try to change the system to allow for honest third party competition will not work. We need a movement to demand the end to the duopoly and rule by oligarchy and plutocracy.
Say it again. Oh ya, I will.
Comments
I'm looking to get a loan for fifty million,
kind of like what Pierre Omidyar gave to Glenn Greenwald, only for a revolution instead of another outlet to facilitate the continued immobility of the serfs.
Anybody know anyone? Fifty million isn't shit in the scheme of things, we can't come up with that for a measly revolution?
Hell as soon as JB and I can gather the 50 mil together
your check is in the mail.
Thanks, brother. Good one.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Ok, well, I was trying to write about this strange
phenomenon I've been seeing on the tubes relative to the conservative right wing complaining about how violent and warmongering the left and liberals are and how they need to counteract that with peace and antiwar. The left to them are the democrats.
I couldn't do it justice, might try it again later. It comes from the Trump supporters who believe he's being stopped from doing good because of the deep state. I think they're wrong on that but in effect, we're basically on the same side on many things, but the two parties and how it's played are what keeps us divided and able to agree on certain things.
All in BA.
I'm kinda game for a Pirate Party. Hell. Call it what you want.
We need the plowshares turned back into swords, guillotines, pitchforks and torches in this nation. We need a war against the warmongers. We need a war against those who could care less.
The alternative is more of the same.
By the way, I don't have fifty million, but I have a life to give that's not worth shit to the powers that currently be.
The less important I become, the less they care and the more powerful I believe I am.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
The alternative IS more of the same.
After reading vociferously for ten years what those at the top are doing and have done, I can't see any other solution than to try to take them down, take down the entire system. I, like you, can offer myself to the cause.
The hidden agenda.
They can't defend against what they refuse to see.
We don't have to hide in the darkness. We have to show others how much light there is before the dawn.
Always forward. Never straight. Much like the curve of an arrow or the unusually well tempered blade.
Always forward.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Right on ...
[video:https://youtu.be/fDQIGraR3aI]
HELL to the yes!
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Impeach the US Constitution - that says it all, no?
Impeach the US Constitution
I read this yesterday or may be the day before. I forget which day I am on with the timeline hopping. Will read it again to see if I still like it like I did the same way I did the first time. May be you give it a try, Al.
Have a good day, all.
Thanks mimi, for the link to “Impeach the Constitution.”
How inflexible and absurdly rigid the US’s constitution is in context of the ever-changing times.
Also probably also true …
Careful what you wish for.
Would you like a new constitution that defines marriage as between a man and a woman? Or a constitution that defines a human being as beginning the moment a sperm unites with an egg? How about a provision that requires the income tax to be a flat tax on earned income, no capital gains or dividends? And let's get rid of the death tax once and for all.
The right is actively involved in persuading states to support a review of the constitution. They are well on their way. Either you know something that they don't or they know something that you don't.
Exactly! This is a pet project of ALEC.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Don't return the ballot
That is easy enough to do, but what's the point again? Boycott means to withhold money, so I am down with that for sure. Don't vote either? Okay. Anything else? An ELECT NOBODY booth at the farm market? lol I would love that, but ours is only three hours on Tuesday and it is Chamber of Commerce insured so pretty pretty expensive. And ridiculous. I am extremely grateful for the ridiculousness because why not. Fresh veggies.
You all should look at a satellite view of Cloverdale some day to get an idea what food desert looks like amidst disgusting wealth of wine-grapes. We just opened a new Grocery Outlet woo hoo! "That's the system." Crap tourism industry catering to wealth, export most water out of state, deplete the watershed, permanent homeless population in the county that grows ever more murderous under strain of street life. What a mess. Electric cars are not going to solve any of our transportation problems, but go on. At last the freeway parking lots will become less noisy. Think positive.
good luck
The age of anger
Not just the US, but a global issue
The Age of Anger
I just finished reading Age of Anger, myself.
Required reading, in my book. It accurately outlines our situation. What will be necessary for change to come about? What will that tipping point be? When will the scales tip? What proverbial straw will break the momentum of the bullet train we are on?
We are all talking about it because we know what is happening now is unsustainable. We are talking circles around it because the solution has not yet been revealed, yet we know change will come. We must just be ready for anything; we must prepare.
"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 still have this quibble with your argument. . . .
How, again, does not voting not leave the duopoly still in charge?
Don't get me wrong, I want them -- the two parties and the oligarchs who own them -- to be the desiccated corpses of political history. I want their names to shame their children and grandchildren and great-great-great-grandchildren, the way Germans still have to endure the shame the world heaps upon them for a decade of unremitting evil.
But how does not voting achieve that? How is it you don't need revolutions or external invasions or crippling economic sanctions/crises or hundreds of assassinations to get those fuckers out of power?
Maybe I'm just a little slow, but I don't perceive the steps between here and there that you seem to envision.
I gave that a shot with this essay.
https://caucus99percent.com/content/unrepresented-party-or-how-start-rev...
I'm not trying to persuade anyone more than just saying there are others who are looking at things differently. Those that want to continue to vote should do so. A boycott of the duopoly doesn't mean not voting.
@dance you monster The people who support
The people who support the duopoly will vote. They sure as hell won't stay home. After all, they view elected officials as their business assets.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
The enemy of big business
Is no one to do business with.
Stop consuming on a national scale. Yes, we have to eat. But we can eat less and cheaper foods. Wouldn't hurt us to lose a little weight.
Stop buying from corporations, buy local. Keep the money local.
If you are still doing business with a bank, your part of the problem, not the solution.
Credexit. Stop borrowing from them. At the least, save longer for a larger down payment.
Reuse, recycle, repair, or repurpose when possible.
Start a garden. Carpool. Anything that saves energy hurts them.
These creatures survive off of our consumption.
This is all non-violent and un-unstoppable.
We just have to figure out how to get everyone on board.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
@earthling1 Yet they also push
Yet they also push ordinances that prevent some from making their yards a garden instead of the show off the frivolousness called a "Lawn", part of the consumption constantly mentality is "Everything must look pretty!". No ugly old cars, and windmills and solar panels must look nice, lawns are frivolous as they show your ability to own the lawnmower(more gas bought), or pay some crew to do it for you. Your house must look pretty(even blandly so),,In fact I think this conformity to some bland "Normalness" pushed by these "normal" types is a form of crazy in itself.
All I use my bank for,,,,I must research who of the bigger banks owns or is affiliated with mine, is for disability to come in and go out with.
Land here is too hard and useless to garden,,,the property managers just want cut lawns(UGH!) as a veggie garden would be better than some lawn.
As for local, sadly all they have here are big chains for food and clothing as the state I am in let them come in and take over the economy, killing the more local stores and commerce.
As for:
, do what we can when possible.
Sadly West Virginia let itself become a haven for the corporates, and is a state that voted solidly for Trump in the Presidential elections, I was one of the Stein voters, more voted for Johnson(ugh). But corporates are pretty much king here and few special local food places exist here..
So long, and thanks for all the fish
I was born in West Virginia buddy
In Appalachia. My family lived off the land for generations. Sure we were dirt poor, but we survived. Even if you live in the city you can use raised beds to grow food, as I do now.
I still have family that live frugally back up in those hollars.
They don't complain like you do. They are free from the establishment.
And the establishment hates them for their freedom, like they have for hundreds of years.
Mountain folk. Hillbillies. Whatever you want to call them, they are freemen.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
@earthling1
Let me reiterate, the hill I rent a lot from has hard, rocky soil that the prairie grass thrives on, they only want us to mow the lawn here. Personally, I cannot work the land like that, I am disabled, and have difficulty standing over 10-15mins. I cannot easily get on or off my knees w/o help. IF and I say If I were healthy, I may be able to crack that soil and try to make truck gardens. Thanks to leg issues, I cannot go out stalking game.I pay rent on the double wide, and then we pay rent for the lot, and the managers dictate what they want from the renters as far as the lawns go. Yes I may complain, but it is because I cannot do as much for myself as I used to. Thanks though for jumping on me without first asking what is my personal situation? How is my health? what can I do or can't do anymore? I thought here was safe from the assumptive attacking of ToP we fled from?
As for your family that can escape much of the issues, I mentioned? that can hunt/fish/and farm their own crops? more power to them! But I would also like to see folks go for green energy here, and drop the dead end that coal is. I would love to see the municipalities here also have us do sorting trash so we can put glass to glass, cardboard to cardboard and plastics to plastics and send recyclables where they ought to go.
There is much I would like to see changed in the entire nation but at the rate politics goes in this nation, I doubt I will live to see it all done.
Oh and to get a better understanding, I posted this at age 52 when I first came here to Cauacus99. https://caucus99percent.com/content/posted-well-kos-wanted-make-sure-fol...
So long, and thanks for all the fish
That's a cop out.
There is no such thing.
I started with the dead soil of a herbicide killed clay. Nothing lived. Now I have gardens, a greenhouse and wild trees and plants.
Never say never.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
@Pricknick
Please read my response to Earthling1 above.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
Where'd you buy your bootstraps buddy?
I wonder where you think people will get the money to rehabilitate the sick planet? It's all good if you already have the land, the money and or a job, plus be physically fit enough to work hard enough for food production.
More and more the words on this site do not seem to include all 99% as the name claims. The bootstraps fallacy is absurd in the 21st century, there are way too many people without resources and support already.
$27 Snap On Face - Tie Your Boots Tight
Let's think about this.
I bought the land on the hardship of someone else. Taxes owed.
I did nothing but let the land go fallow for five years while only cutting it down and letting it compost.
I planted nothing except my gardens. The weeds, trees and wildflowers were provided courtesy of mom nature.
All I said was there was no such thing as land that is too hard and useless to garden.
That is a fact.
And please look at the response of the kind person who i was responding to. You might find that those at c99 have more common sense and courtesy than most.
And please. Shove that bootstrap out of your nether regions. That, or piss off and be gone.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
...The goal the next two
Nation-wide organized strategic voting would be great - but first, you'd have to free up elections by such actions as eliminating the unconstitutional Homeland (In)Security and its unconstitutional monopoly grab of purportedly 'National Security' secrecy-from-the-public -cloaking authority over all having to do with the electoral infrastructure and by initiating mass quantities of eager independent/citizen overseers of every aspect of every US election from here on in, with a handy guillotine as a grim warning for cheaters, just for starters.
(Not to mention enforcing the essential point that 'private' political parties claimed to be not answerable to the general voting public have no right to select/control what candidates citizens are to be permitted to vote for. And that the same general point goes double for the elections/elected governments of other people in those other people's countries.)
Otherwise, your vote may somehow only seem to count - at least in the manner intended - if the counters like the way you did it and/or you may only be allowed to vote at all if they believe that you're in a demographic they think likely to vote the way they want.
Both parties now seem to benefit from low voter turn-out, whether Republican or Demuglican, at least with the Clintons running under the Dem
bummerbanner and having formed such an addiction to power as the running footmen of the .01% that they can't seem to stop. So, while a no-vote boycott would play into the various paymaster's hands of either wing of the corporate political vulture pooping digested carrion all over the world, a strategic nation-wide vote for some specific party (the very phrase '3rd party' catering to the propagandized ideology of Ye Olde Two-Party Trade-Off con, which requires a fair voting system to overcome, as well as actual fair elections) might be the best bet to show public disapproval, even if it wasn't officially recognized or announced.But it would be really cool if tons of people across America turned up to vote, hereafter, all wearing No Corporate Party T-shorts, in solidarity with that survival thing and each other. Assuming, of course, that they weren't simply shot by mercenaries supplied by the illicitly ruling corporations. Not that the corporate media would report that part, either way...
So, ultimately, it boils down to: how to eliminate the rotten eggs without first removing the chickens producing and financing them? It's the billionaires/corporate interests running policy and politicians which really have to go first, before their disastrously destructive political puppet-show can be yanked off-stage. This is a seriously yuuuuuge mess.
It's hard to try to keep track of all of the layers of corruption involved, but we have to try, so that we don't waste energy on merely trying to sweep out the shadows cast, rather than the grasping hands creating the figures of a shadow-play, just out of immediate sight.
Nobody voted for fascism; it just gradually moved in and took over the whole neighbourhood. And it seems that none of us knows exactly what to do now, even though the survival of planetary life itself depends upon an immediate and constructive change...
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.