@snoopydawg

And instead of telling the government that "No! No you can no longer do that to us we kept voting for them so they could continue to do that. I'm having a hard time coming up with the right word for what we have let them do.

It's called "kakistocracy". Government by the worst possible inhabitants of a country.

(Same Greek root as the word cacophony.)

When the elites and corporations aren't offshoring factories and jobs, when the banks aren't throwing people out of their homes and repossessing their cars because of higher loan rates because of bad credit or charging excessive fees, when corporations aren't poisoning their lands, water and air, when states aren't increasing gas taxes, property taxes and sales taxes, when congress isn't taking people's money to fund their illegal invasions so that corporations can strip them off their resources or when they are planning to steal people's retirement savings either through excessive fees while managing their accounts, when the money people had to pay into their social security, when congress gives people who don't need it huge tax cuts and then tells us that there isn't enough money to fund social programs, when congress isn't passing legislation that gives $40 billion a year to immoral insurance companies so that they can sell people junk insurance at higher rates every year that have high premiums and ever increasing copays, when our money goes to secret companies that are illegally spying on us, when cops can murder people in cold blood and get away with it, when ... well I'm sure that there are a lot more when's and it's sad to know that we just watched as they did those things.

And instead of telling the government that "No! No you can no longer do that to us we kept voting for them so they could continue to do that. I'm having a hard time coming up with the right word for what we have let them do. But when people did try to express that their actions were unacceptable they released their goon squads on them and many people cheered what they did to people.

Dawgs don't poop where they lie so why are the PTB making this country unlivable for the rest of us? Because they all have bug out places that are pristine, have access to water that is more crucial to them than oil.

I heartily agree with you, Amanda on this:

I think it’s gonna be impossible to get our lives back from these people.

And still some people are relying Mueller to save them from the things that Trump is doing and on the democrats to take back congress to reverse the things that the republicans have done. But instead of them talking about how they will do that if people will give them the chance they are spending their time and our money on Russia Gate.

But don't worry. The elections are coming up and we will once again have the chance to change the direction of the country. Right?

@Tak
Nothing will change without bottom-up upheaval - IMHO. It’s too far gone.

Many years ago, of course, and on the northern edge of what was then called the Santa Clara valley. Cow pastures, big oak trees to climb, streets with no sidewalks (and sometimes no pavement), and good union jobs for most (white) folks - the Black population was mostly consigned to crappy jobs and the other side of the 101, and I ended up spending much of my senior high school year agitating for school desegregation (which we eventually won), and after that for an end to that little bloodbath in Viet Nam. We managed to get rather noisy over that, organizing rather large peace marches in what was basically the suburbs, though the war dragged on for many years after I'd split for the big city at the north end of the peninsula.

What happened to Santa Clara valley is basically just neoliberal, imperialist capitalism, with no coherent opposition. The old family home was eventually bulldozed to make room for McMansions for the new rich, and now there is no room for the working class at all.

Unfortunately I don't see much of anything happening to change this crap, mostly because of that lack of coherent opposition. Too many people now are living isolated and atomized lives, fed bullshit pseudo-news, and disgusted with the only politics that seems to be available to them. The electoral politics of both parties is now entirely neoliberal with no real dissent allowed, and what non-electoral politics that is allowed to exist is only allowed within the narrow boundaries of neoliberalism.

I've long been convinced that real change can only happen with a real break from conventional political forms, organized from the bottom up. How you get there from here is still a mystery that eludes me, so maybe somebody a bit brighter than me will come along and figure it out.