Sanders, Hoh, and Finding The Ability to Act

Hey, happy saturday !

This video was suggested by Mathew Hoh, who I will feature below.

Published on
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
by
Common Dreams
The Divine in the Resistance

The fight to end racism, greed and militarism that foster America’s wars at home and abroad.
by
Matthew Hoh https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/09/12/divine-resistance

But first a few thoughts/observations I would like to share.

We live in an error/era where speaking out has increased risks.

We spend a great deal of time here analyzing history, current reality, and futuring, which often leaves us with little hope for the future.

This can be debilitating. As jakkalbessie and I were told in the 80's during a personal growth training by an Israeli immigrant: "There is no hope, so fck it and let the good times roll.' He also posited that the Universe rewards Action, Not Thinking.

In some respects are we not a little like the end of the worlder that says this is it, this weekend? Smile Nah. Not that bad.

But I think some might agree that it is a depressing way to live, this life of the 'realist' .

Sometimes I long for the heady days of my youth, back in the 60's where we knew war was wrong and though we were up against unimaginable odds, we had a vision and a song for the future and we acted. Ah well.

So much for 'my thoughts.'


Run Bernie Run? Bernie Sanders Hires a FP Advisor

Today I went back and looked at the comments in gjohnsit's essay on Bernie Sander's foreign policy speech.

Sanders disappointed many with his lack of FP emphasis during the primary and disgusted many with his support for warmonger Clinton afterward.

Still I find myself feeling glad that he made this speech. I found myself musing, 'If he is doing this in the lead up to another run would I vote for him? '

If you have not already done so, would like to recommend this The Intercept article:

Snippet:

His discomfort with the topic is palpable, but the truth is that the 76-year-old Sanders is far from a foreign policy neophyte. In the 1980s, as mayor of Burlington, Vermont, he was an outspoken critic of U.S. interventions in Latin America, becoming the highest-ranking elected U.S. official to visit Nicaragua and meet with President Daniel Ortega (which earned him the soubriquet “Sandernista”). He even went on honeymoon to the Soviet Union in 1988, as part of his effort to establish a sister city program between Burlington and Yaroslavl.

Since 1991, Sanders has served in Congress, as a member of the House and then the Senate, debating and voting on military action, foreign treaties, trade deals, arms sales, international aid, and climate change agreements. Few critics have paused to consider the fact that a President Sanders would have arrived in the White House in January 2017 with far more foreign policy experience under his belt than Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. (Oh, and of course former reality TV star Donald J. Trump.)

Nevertheless the impression persists that Sanders is out of his depth when it comes to the outside world. Perhaps in anticipation of another presidential bid in three years time, the Vermont senator has been taking steps to correct that impression. So far this year, Sanders has hired Matt Duss, a respected foreign affairs analyst and former president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP), as his foreign policy adviser, and has given speeches at the liberal Jewish lobbying group, J Street, where he condemned “Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian territories” as being “contrary to fundamental American values,” and at the centrist Carnegie Endowment of International Peace, where he rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin for “trying to weaken the transatlantic alliance.”

The interview the day before his FP speech is complete with interesting links and well worth the read imo.

So Sanders goes there, calls out US regime change history and argues for diplomacy going forward except in cases of genocide.

Have to hand it to Sanders, that took some courage imo.

The Republicans have already chosen Sanders at the new whipping target after Obama for introducing improved Medicare for All. They are probably now jumping for joy that he has had the audacity to publicly challenge the duopoly's endless war paradigm. How many have done that? Does it matter that Sanders did?

Hopefully he stays safe!

"The Divine in the Resistance"

Several years ago I remember being surprised and then elated to read that a State Department official resigned over Obama's surge in Afghanistan.

Matthew Hoh is a member of the advisory boards of Expose Facts, Veterans For Peace and World Beyond War. In 2009 he resigned his position with the State Department in Afghanistan in protest of the escalation of the Afghan War by the Obama Administration. He previously had been in Iraq with a State Department team and with the U.S. Marines. He is a Senior Fellow with the Center for International Policy.

Climate change, kleptocracy, you name it, there is much to be cynical, depressed and feel hopeless about.

So for me it's good to read about people like Sanders and Ho who continue to take action rather than just giving up on the future.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/09/12/divine-resistance

This past year, through my work with Veterans For Peace I was given the opportunity to stand in solidarity with resistance movements in Okinawa, at Standing Rock and in Palestine. Veterans For Peace sends delegations of former military members, including combat veterans like myself, to stand with, learn from and assist indigenous movements that are struggling and fighting back, non-violently, against the policies, occupations, degradations and attacks that are the consequences and realities of American militarism and imperialism, both in the United States and abroad. Where, as veterans, we once worked on behalf of the United States military and government, enforcing its claims, policing its overseas possessions and conquests, and violently subjugating those unwilling to submit, we now seek to add our voices and bodies to those who, undeterred and in pursuit of their own self-determination and dignity, are challenging the American Empire, its war machine, and its allies and proxies.

For someone like me, who had professionally studied war and insurgencies for years, and then executed such knowledge on behalf of the US government in support of the occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq, being on the other side of the rifle was heartbreaking and difficult, as seeing the military and police enforcing the racist occupations, political oppression and environmental destruction in Okinawa, at Standing Rock and in Palestine was a mirror held up to me, reflecting my own past, my own mistakes, my own collaboration with greed, hate and subjugation. Being allowed the opportunity to stand with these resistance movements was rewarding and it was healing, as it was a form of recovery for my moral injury and guilt from the wars. I can never undo or repair what I took part in in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I can, going forward in my life, live a life working with others for peace and justice, both at home and abroad.

The commonness and similarities that exist between these resistance movements are many: a firm belief in and understanding of non-violence; the use of music and song; and the graciousness and openness to outsiders, like myself and other white veterans of the American military whose relationship to the occupation forces and powers cannot be ignored or dismissed, but are understood by those resistance communities as the actions of the colonial and imperial powers and not the actions, will or soul of the individual soldier.

However, there is also something that runs very deep and very true, and that exists within all these resistance movements. Something prime and underlining, a force, one that is infinite and enduring, is the intangible reality that exists in all of the men, women and children who are struggling for their society’s freedom, for the preservation of their land, water and air, and for the chance for their children and their children’s children to live lives not held in obeyance to the guns and violence of a foreign power. I have no other choice for my description of what I witnessed and stood among than to use the word divine to explain what it is that moves, sustains and carries forward these movements and people. Words like justice, peace, freedom, and safety have their well deserved places as descriptions of what these movements strive for, but it is the word divine that I come back to when I think of what it is which motivates, maintains and upholds these movements and what it is that links them together across continents, religions and races, and, ultimately, time.

I have stepped out there a bit from time to time in my life. During the Cold War I quit teaching for a few years and with my wife jakkalbessie's support promoted and helped to organize US/USSR citizens diplomacy projects on trips to Russia, Ukraine. Volunteered with Beyond War. Got involved with Model United Nations when I had relatives who believed that the UN was coming for them. Served on the teacher's union board. Worked on education projects with the Center for Non-proliferation Studies of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Marched with Occupy Santa Fe.

Little things, really, compared to Bernie Sanders and Matthew Hoh.

Still, taking action, even though seemingly futile, has been good for my soul.

As I struggle with current reality and the bleakness of the future, it seems to help me keep on keeping to read of others taking bold action.

Namaste.

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divineorder's picture

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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.

The world shall not end this weekend. (-:

If Bernie ran for President again, I would certainly vote for him again.

I agree about action being preferable to inaction. The big question for me is, which action(s)? (I don't believe anyone is going to change an important vote because of some online petitions, calls, emails or letters. Not sure I would, if I were an office holder.)

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smiley7's picture

@HenryAWallace

been missing you, your diaries and comments; welcome back.

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@smiley7

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smiley7's picture

@HenryAWallace

most sincerely; your voice is one of fresh air, experience and articulation and you are missed when not participating.

BTW, have a fresh trout in lime juice as i write. Smile

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@smiley7

So many voices here, including your own and your wonderful poetry. I confess to envying creativity. I don't bedgrudge you yours or anyone theirs. I just wish I had some kind of my own, too.

Ah, seafood in lime juice. Reminds me of eating ceviche on the beach in Cancun. Lovely memories.

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divineorder's picture

@HenryAWallace @HenryAWallace

I agree about action being preferable to inaction. The big question for me is, which action(s)?

We all know that the wars are inextricably tied to oil company profiteering.

A while back y wife and participated in a march here in Santa Fe in front of bank branch offices at rush hourwhose goal was to link Wells Fargo and Bank of America which invest in pipeline projects to the horrible actions taken against the natives involved with stopping the Dakota Pipeline. Mostly whites, but also NM native american groups as well. What difference did it make? Perhaps it contributed to a growing movement toward stopping teh unstoppable. There is a map of efforts across the country and around the world where actions are being carried out and they are impressive.

We found out about this action because we had signed an online petition. This is how movements grow these days. Have we stopped anything yet? Some have, and like to think we have been part of raising awareness and encouraging future action. Some things have changed, but now are being changed back.....

At any rate I thought at the time that action was better than sitting around screaming at my keyboard! Smile

Learning of actions around the world are encouraging to me, keep some modicum of hope alive.

Thanks for commenting.

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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.

@divineorder

When we allow ourselves to be trampled without protest, it will be assumed that the trampling is acceptable and larger jackboots will be purchased at public expense.

If nothing else, let's whimper loudly as the gang-bang takes us down. It makes it harder for them to pretend that we really wanted it in the first place.

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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.

@divineorder

By all means, stop yelling at your keyboard, unless you enjoy that.

I do engage in many things, even if I believe they won't change a singe legislator's vote. But, I am looking for more.

The internet could be a very powerful tool for the citizenry of this country and of the world, but I don't think we've figured out yet how to use it effectively. For me, posting is a hobby, not activism. It's also something to do when, physically, I am unable to do anything more.

This morning, I wrote a post about the NFL hysteria that began with "Take a breath, focus and prioritize." After I finished, I realized I had not taken my own advice. I don't care about the NFL or the hysteria. I have never voluntarily watched a single pro game in any sport.* But, that is an example of how I can get distracted too easily.

If we could focus, really unify and really organize, we might have power. I have some ideas, but they are still inchoate.

*Not that there's anything wrong with that.

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smiley7's picture

i take heart in my son's generation, he's 35, a minimalist, solid thinker and sees the BS for what it is. The youth must rally as i was sharing with MarilynW a couple of weeks ago, i feel guilty not being active in the play, but i've so much on my plate the past three years, i've had little energy or time to contribute.

As to Sanders, in a NY heartbeat, he's never lost my support, we need many more like him and most importantly he does connect to younger generations, motivating them in ways i've seen few politicians do in my lifetime.

No answers, but, to keep on trucking.

Thanks for posting this good and thoughtful read.

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divineorder's picture

@smiley7 information like that is so important for those of us who immerse ourselves in so much negative info.

Thankful that you contributing here! Your work is a valued part of this place.

This was such a trip, no? :

As to Sanders, in a NY heartbeat, he's never lost my support, we need many more like him and most importantly he does connect to younger generations, motivating them in ways i've seen few politicians do in my lifetime.

Free college, accepted in Germany but a revolutionary idea here.

Love it.

Brand New Congress was spinoff from his campaign and they have recently added Foreign Policy to their platform. Good to see.
Brand New Congress Retweeted

Have a good one!

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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.

@divineorder

http://college.monster.com/news/articles/1064-whatever-happened-to-when-...

Whatever Happened to When College Was Free?

Anya Kamenetz

April 12, 2010

These days, tuition at public colleges commonly rises five, seven, or even 15 percent in a single year, and students shoulder five- and six-figure debts to pay for their degrees. It’s easy to forget that it hasn’t always been this way: Many public colleges and universities were once tuition-free.

In 1847, Baruch College, now part of the City University of New York system, was founded as the Free Academy, the first free public college in the country. In 1862, the first Morrill Act established public universities through federal land grants, many states opted to charge no tuition or nominal tuition. California’s public-university system, still the largest in the nation, abolished tuition three months after it was founded in 1868, implementing instead a fee for additional services, such as health care, that at first was tiny.

The era of free tuition ended, ironically, with the student movement of the 1960s, just as campuses were getting more populous, diverse, and democratic. Ronald Reagan made the University of California a major punching bag of his 1966 campaign for governor of California, with the encouragement of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who saw campus peace activists as dangerous subversives. Upon taking office, Reagan managed to have UC president Clark Kerr fired—he had been the architect of mass higher education not just in California, but across the country—and hiked fees at the UC colleges to the approximate levels of tuition charged elsewhere. ...

Oh, right, America just can't do anything nowadays. Not since Reagan.

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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.

divineorder's picture

@Ellen North Sickening to contemplate. It was slow in developing and spreading, but now..

At least Sanders campaigned for an alternative. Hopefully that work will move forward.

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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.

struggles are lightened by sharing. the more the hands, the lighter the load. thanks! Smile

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divineorder's picture

@QMS

struggles are lightened by sharing. the more the hands, the lighter the load. thanks! Smile
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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.

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mimi's picture

your essay gives me some sense of hope. Grateful for your voice and thoughts here.

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divineorder's picture

@mimi

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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.

@mimi

Me, me grateful for your voice, too! So glad to see your post!

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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.

Big Al's picture

that's not radical. Radical would be denouncing the illegal and criminal U.S. economic and military imperialism, calling for an immediate end and justice for the criminals like Clinton, Bush, Obama, and now Trump to be put on trial for crimes against humanity.
Sanders is milquetoast and like I said earlier, only serves to allow his followers to continue their own milquetoast approach to imperialism, I mean, "foreign policy".

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divineorder's picture

@Big Al stated views do seem radical compared to the overwhelming majority of his colleagues. That's a fact.

As to his followers, well, time will tell.

BA, correct me if I am wrong, but often sounds to me like you are looking for a miracle moment by a 'Jesus throws the the moneylenders out of the Temple' type leader. String up the imperialist one per cent in the national mall. That's not Sanders.

Who is that, BA? Have we ever had one like that? Even close?

Still waiting. Maybe that leader is a composite of us.

But keep that vision. I would love to see it materialize as well.

Til then I will keep taking some pleasure from the Hoh's and the Sanders' actions like those described above.

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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.

Big Al's picture

@divineorder All I know is the people at the top are committing massive crimes, more sinister and despicable than the combined crimes of our entire 2 million plus prison population, and they get away scot free. Not only that, they get rich off of it. So color me Pollyanna, idealistic, unrealistic (I know you're not doing that), I firmly believe some of us have to call out these crimes and try to get justice and we can't accept anything less. Millions, maybe billions of lives literally depend on it.

We did have someone pretty close to that and they killed him, MLK Jr.
I don't know if we need that one person, we are simply going to have to do it by committee. Somehow. I think there are enough people who could do it, some already are working hard at it, but we need those who can have this type of vision to get their heads out of the democratic party and electoral system and into the global movement. I don't think you can do both.

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divineorder's picture

@Big Al We do know what the problems are. What is our part to play now that we know, if any?

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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.

Wink's picture

@Big Al
not working as fast (or aggressive, maybe) as we'd like. But he is working.
Hell, compared to or with the other 40-something Dem Senators, Bernie working triple time! None of them have the nads to speak out against Any of this RW Oligarchy horse$h!t, and if any of them joined Bernie to take them (Oligarchy) on it would be stopped. Dead. In its tracks.
But nope. Only Bernie got the nads to take on the futhermuckers.

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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.

Big Al's picture

@Wink But you know it's still not good enough relative to what's happening and why. Like the essay I posted earlier about the powers that be trying to starve the people of N. Korea and Venezuela to death so they can have their power and wealth. Sick people doing sick things that we just can't dance around any longer.
Maybe Bernie is starting a convo, but some of us are going to have to take it farther. And if Bernie is the man some think he is, he will surely accept that.

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@Big Al

...Maybe Bernie is starting a convo, but some of us are going to have to take it farther. And if Bernie is the man some think he is, he will surely accept that

.

Isn't that what Bernie's always said, that one man can do nothing against this (descriptive terms mine, lol) global fascist monstrosity and that change has to be brought about by a sufficient percentage of the population acting cohesively?

And we've had great advice on how to run a pacific revolution with a greater degree of success than the practically-none-in-any-real-sense of most, more-violent revolutions, mostly from a participant in the successful Bolivian revolution: Alex Occana, whom I've been missing and who I'm hoping is OK...

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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.

Wink's picture

@Big Al
I don't think Bernie ever thought about being the leader of some movement or resistance or whatever this is. It's more like he's the guy spreading the word, hoping someone (or a bunch of someones) picks up the baton. He's always said, "it's not about me." It's more about Bernie supporting us, really, than us supporting Bernie. Or, maybe it's more a two-way street, support working both ways. Becuz he knows he can't do it alone. Hell, he gets Zero support from Senate Dems, House Dems. I think the big reason he ran in 2016 was becuz he had no support in Congress. "Well, fuck them! Watch THIS! I'll take this to the streets, see what happens!" Well, one thing that happened was Her Highness lost, opening the door for Bernie. Had she won Bernie would have disappeared, the media totally ignoring him.
So, the question everyone is asking is, where do we go from here. Good question. But, at least we have the ball. At least we're still in the game. What we do with our good fortune is up to us. Bernie the Only one has our back.
And, granted, maybe Bernie should be doing more about N. Korea, Venezuela... There's always more one can do! But at least he's doing something. The other 40-something Senate Dems... not so much.

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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.

@Wink

Yeah, Bernie's the small, inundated, partial dam on one side of the propaganda flood, bringing up a few of the things most essential to the American people, making a decent or at least bearable life possible for them, such as a living wage, universal health care and other basic public investment in the education and welfare of the people of whom the country is formed.

Such would otherwise never be mentioned in the corporate media, to remind the public restricted to this disinformation source of what democratic government should be - of, by and for the people, not the pathologically greedy already having stolen much of the people's wealth and power and intent on scraping out what little remains to them, in order to 'have it all' before running through the ruins they've created to their luxury bunkers, where they think they'll be safe. Despite their vast, accumulated wealth then becoming useless...

But Bernie knows what a slippery tightrope he walks, and what monster troll lurks, drooling, just below, better than most Americans seemingly understand and he walks carefully in order to continue doing what he can to give Americans whatever chance of improvement he knows he can try for, never giving up, never giving in, always trying another tactic and, as it appears to me, based on his life-long character and record, using the strategies of the bravest of the Resistance, used the last time this situation occurred.

They also were accused of being collaborators with the enemy and sacrificed even the outspoken integrity perhaps most essential to them to carry the fight into the most dangerous territory, even with every citizen's hand against them, to work from within for the hope of freedom for their countries and people.

The 'impossible' did happen and that monster was defeated, but the seeds were carried, in the form of Nazi scientists and others smuggled away by the Bush family and other fascist/industrial interests then spreading into politics/policy, into government and industry in America, Canada and other countries, to spread their pathological culture there.

Some of the most fertile ground was in capitalist America, the ground they're now salting with industrial poisons as they drain its wealth from the people to again attempt to conquer the world, using a larger and more wealthy country and the bizarrely-bloated military built up both to further enrich themselves and deprive all others of their countries and resources in their long-planned global hegemony.

But this time, we apparently cannot agree or organize even to save ourselves, instead criticizing our pathetically few allies having a public presence for not being Supermen to single-handedly save the world... and to argue about voting in rigged selections where the corporate pick will somehow always win and all actual democratic parties need not apply.

I believe that this is due to a propagandized mind-frame regarding the war against citizens and the world being waged by the Psychopaths That Be, where through conditioning we accept their murders-for-profit-and-power, both fast and slow, the blatant dispossession by outright theft of the very land and homes of Americans by 'above-the-law' banksters and other corporate interests and increasingly closer to that of everyone, everywhere, by international banksters and corporate/billionaire-serving, publicly funded and supplied military around the world, the conditioning of public acceptance of the illegal stripping of citizen rights by illegitimate government in violation of not only the US Constitution but of every human decency and at the ultimate cost of planetary life.

But reality is breaking through the propaganda, despite their best efforts - and some few among the wealthiest are beginning to realize that they're carving away the ground on which they stand: the real, ground-level-based economy and people, without which and whom business cannot survive, as it exists to produce and make a reasonable profit from selling goods and services to people, (even where actually fictional scams, as in stealing trillions of fractions of pennies from other traders in high-speed transactions) as none of this can function once the real economy and their unsupported 'cloud' economy both crash.

So, they apparently plan to run to their shelters, where they'll be trapped in the dystopian disaster they're creating, thinking they'll be happy forever, counting on that vanished data-dot wealth and the murdered supply chain and a somehow still-habitable earth with a life support system destroyed for the endless increase of that then-useless wealth.

Psychopaths are not good planners - time for them to step down and let more efficient humanity and smaller, local business take over while any of us, super-rich or super-poor, have anything left to lose.

And we need every ally we can get in whose basic character we can trust, because there are damn few of them showing in American politics or, indeed, politics anywhere. And the smart ones are lying low, so that the party line won't strangle them and any possible good they might try to promote.

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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.

smiley7's picture

@Ellen North

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Wink's picture

@Ellen North
if anyone here doesn't get it you need to. And, if you didn't get it you need to read it again.

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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.

divineorder's picture

@Ellen North essay based on this for further discussion.

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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.

Cassiodorus's picture

At any rate, I had an immediate and visceral response to the opener:

This can be debilitating. As jakkalbessie and I were told in the 80's during a personal growth training by an Israeli immigrant: "There is no hope, so fck it and let the good times roll.' He also posited that the Universe rewards Action, Not Thinking.

Everyone thinks the universe rewards action, not thinking, which is why their thinking is so dysfunctional and their actions so thoughtless.

Theodor Adorno: "Philosophy, which once seemed outmoded, remains alive because the moment of its realization was missed."

Climate change mitigation in fantasy and reality (the password is: AddletonAP2009), from the abstract:

Current attempts at climate change mitigation do not amount to physical climate change mitigation because they are trapped in a logic of commodity fetishism, which is the dominant fantasy of the utopia of money. Policy options such as cap-and-trade schemes and carbon taxes, corporate ‘strategies’ such as the triple bottom line, and economic ‘solutions’ such as decoupling are all products of environmental accounting, which projects ‘sustainable’ fantasies at the global climate change problem while conforming to the fetishistic logic of the utopia of money.

That's got to change. If we want to live here, that is, on planet Earth, and not just in our minds.

And I did think about the conclusion to this piece as well:

As I struggle with current reality and the bleakness of the future, it seems to help me keep on keeping to read of others taking bold action.

I would settle for engaged thought not tied down with commodity rationalizations. Thought today is about money, property, commodities, and exchange-value. War? War's a matter of money these days. They fight them to keep the weapons pipelines going, because there's money in that. Racism? Racism is about the profits to be made through the exploitation of an underclass, to keep the Black male descendants of slaves in (profitable) prisons and the Mexicans working for peanuts.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

@Cassiodorus

I couldn't agree more. The pen is mightier than the sword - and ideas/ideals can be most dangerous to the control of those discouraging informed thought.

The ideas must be translated into unified action to do good, but the lack of respect for the need of informed long-term critical thinking before action among 'expedient' (and greedy) policy-makers has brought us here...

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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.

divineorder's picture

@Cassiodorus

Everyone thinks the universe rewards action, not thinking, which is why their thinking is so dysfunctional and their actions so thoughtless.

We here have analyzed current reality, the duopoly, etc. to death. Where's our plan?

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Cassiodorus's picture

@divineorder We have adopted none of the efficacious ones because we are convinced already that we are "doing something." Here are our plans of action:

Environmentalism: Cap and trade schemes! Carbon taxes! Green mission statements! Buy a Prius!

Economics: A kinder, gentler capitalism!

Politics: More and better Democrats!

Yep, we analyzed reality to death y'know, and this is the best we could do.

Now's my turn to call bullshit.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

divineorder's picture

@Cassiodorus That was then. What now?

Yep, we analyzed reality to death y'know, and this is the best we could do.

Now's my turn to call bullshit.

What now?

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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.

Cassiodorus's picture

@divineorder Action is cheap. Efficacious thought is priceless.

As a freebie, here's a plan for ending fossil fuel use while keeping the roads around:

1) Have the government start a car company.

2) Have the car company put out non-fossil-fuel-burning vehicles in every make and model.

3) Give everyone a certain amount of time to trade their vehicle in for a non-fossil-fuel-burning one.

4) After a certain time, shut down the gas pumps.

5) Do this sort of thing for all fossil-fuel applications.

Have we considered the ins and outs of making this happen? Have we thoroughly weighed its advantages and drawbacks? No. So, no, we haven't thought it to death.

Go --

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

divineorder's picture

@Cassiodorus government was moving to prohibited new mfg. fossil fuel powered vehicles.

If you think I am advocating no more critical thinking or discussion you are wrong. I am searching for more action items rather than wallowing in my depression over things as they now stand , and looking for inspiration as well.

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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.

@divineorder

I dunno, but it's The Psychopaths That Be funding and operating that duopoly that have to go, as well.

Trimming the leaves off the poison ivy won't get rid of the problem; it has to be dug out by the roots, with no seeds left behind. And a sharp watch kept out for regrowth.

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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.

divineorder's picture

@Ellen North efforts of Brand New Congress for now. I know, I know , they could be part of a gaslighting or veal penning clandestine effort but for now I am giving them the benefit of the doubt.

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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.

@divineorder

Yup, the more potentially viable possibilities we support, the better the chance that one will bear fruit.

And has been pointed out, the only successful party in America's history to replace a duopoly party was one where a popular politician left a corrupted one and took many of its supporters into the new one.

Presuming that this party gets in, and that it's all that it should be - concerned with the welfare of the people and country, rather than party status and self-enrichment and self-empowerment - it becomes possible to set up a publicly funded electoral system with sanely-regulated media supplying equal amounts of media time for discussion and debates in the interest of accurately informing the public of their options, and to implement a fair voting system, where all votes count and the most popular direction in which people vote can determine which candidates of multiple parties gain office, so that the least desirable candidates and parties never again get in on a split vote between better choices (and small parties with good ideas can grow and help to prevent political monopolies susceptible to outside self-interest control from again taking over) giving people a real choice among parties gaining votes on policies benefiting the people and country they exist to serve.

Wouldn't it be cool to finally bring democracy to America?

Shutting off any potential for such options to actually occur would just be wasteful.

Edited to add a missed letter and 'of'. I am so going for coffee - at least then maybe I'll increase the odds of my noticing some of my typos before posting, for an interesting change... maybe...someday...

And again editing now that I have that coffee and realize that, having reached a different stage in my thoughts, I'd skipped over any written mention of the potential success of a Dem takeover by actual democrats outweighing and removing the corruption, probably in part because as it stands now, I'd very much like to see both corporate parties flushed and strongly believe they'll cheat again, but one never knows, does one?

And I also don't think that any other party will be allowed to officially win enough votes to even gain entry to the debates, even in a cross-country land-slide (unless perhaps made much too obvious to be covered over, with mass peaceful protesting by millions of any such attempt) so that Bernie's strategy seems the only way to get around that - but the complete Top Secret !!National Security!!! control exerted over the electoral apparatus by Homeland Security and those unnamed 'private interests' who get seats at the electoral discussion table (where information may be withheld from the American public expected to take their word on results and any anomalies that the public might get wind of) makes me doubt that any result not desired by The Psychopaths and Parasites That Be will be possible.

But if we don't try all potential pacific paths, we'll never know what might have worked, or at least have improved the situation a little.

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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.

divineorder's picture

@Ellen North not post partisan focusing 9n issues 8n common.

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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.

MsDidi's picture

In the collaboration between the Deep-State and the MSM, I think it's hard for many to comprehend what the Deep State is and how it works. But the DS might be better uncovered if the MSM were dismantled first. Everyone knows who Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow are, but there's little energy invested in direct criticism of them and the role they play in propping up the oligarchy. Maybe there should be more active resistance directed at targeting a few of the propaganda artists who deceive so many. A bit like knocking down the wall surrounding the castle and leaping over the moat created by these Info-minders (and apologists for the 1%) before storming the Castle itself. The sense of powerlessness and loss experienced by so many people today is reinforced by the moat of these pubic opinion ministries -- whose questions and comments reflect only one side: eg., how will we find the money to pay for your healthcare -- not how could we spend $70 billion dollars on the war machine? Or with Her, how can we ever forgive the Russians and James Comey for preventing her coronation -- not why did the Clinton Foundation collaborate with the Russians -- and what about the absolution that Comey provided in July which enabled Clinton to enter the Dem convention as innocent and pure as the driven snow -- wearing her white costumes and raising her hands like an evangelical minister? Colbert on late night TV - Maddow, Hayes, Todd - these are the figures who want to focus their audiences on the grave injustices committed toward Her -- not the injustices experienced by everyone else that would occur regardless of whether Trump or Her were elected. They would have us all believe that resistance against Trump is the only action possible. Her Royal Highness would have operated more in the mode of Obama -- pretty speeches and lip service to human rights while fueling the war machine and singing the songs of how we can't afford health care and free college. Time to actively protest the media itself for its shameful role in beating the drum for the neolibs and for refusing to tackle the real issues that concern the people whom they herd like sheep into the corral of misinformation and one-sided reasoning. The prevalence of counter-cultural work in the 60's -- of protest songs, street theater, plays and even TV shows questioning the ruling order -- had a lot to do with changing people's minds. We are not prepared to win direct battles against the militarized state -- but can we succeed in bringing down it's minders?

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@MsDidi

This is so brilliant, now-obvious and essential - I hope that you're going to open a brain-storming thread on this, where it can be seen, discussed and acted upon!

This still sitting here spinning the whole time I was out with the dog - trying again, and sorry if this is a duplicate!

And it appears at the bottom of the page, unposted, lol. Trying again...

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0 users have voted.

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.