been hijacked by the Clintons or that the DNC leadership is the problem, I remember quotes from the past on the duopoly. It's interesting how the demexiters, who didn't demexit under war criminal Obama, try to blame the current situation on the party leadership even after hearing these kind of quotes, of which there are many from the past. They literally do think the situation is new and can be resolved through electing better politicians.

"The Republican and Democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the Republican-Democratic party, represent the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles."

"The Socialist Party and the Working Class". Eugene V. Debs' opening speech as Presidential candidate of the Socialist Party in Indianapolis, Indiana, www.marxists.org. September 1, 1904.

... comes from a man I have a great deal of respect for. He was, arguably, the greatest Rennaissance man of the 20th century. Many years ago, I wrote a long, two-part essay about his life and struggles through the McCarthy era. I might dig it out and repost it at some point in the future here on caucus99 percent.

“The answer to injustice is not to silence the critic, but to end the injustice.”
― Paul Robeson

...there are many ideas just waiting to be entertained. In my comment in your first essay, I offered at least half a dozen outside the box ideas that could be unpacked and examined and tested for potential impact and effectiveness in returning the power to the people. Others here expressed the germ of ideas. I don't think you were reading comprehensively. I'm fearless when it comes to throwing out ideas. I wrote:

Thinking outside the election box has been mocked and rejected wherever people gather. Even after voting has become a mockery of democracy in recent elections, it remains the default political solution. It doesn't seem to matter that it cannot work at the Federal level where the real power is located, and where the institutional knowledge has been captured by "unelected authorities" who enjoy permanent positions. Voting still remains a ritual and an act of faith.

I think there are ways to use the system and turn democracy around to work for the people:

National voting blocks, strategic alliances, coalition alliances, election spoiler votes, demographic boosting through voluntary vote abstinence, the liberal use of referendums and recalls, buying laws and policies outright, going global through the UN with a national vote of no confidence, and as always, demanding a new people's constitution based on 21st century principles which also confer upon people the universal human rights established in 1948. It would be the first time Americans experienced the most basic of these rights.

Wait! Make than nine ideas. Thinking, of course, is required in each case.

For example, let's look at the idea highlighted in the list above: demographic boosting through voluntary vote abstinence. This idea seems to hold great potential for transformational populism. Here's how it works: As a moral principle, I propose that all Americans over 40 years of age take a public pledge to refrain from voting during the next general election. Let the country know that the young are empowered to choose the future that they will inherit — if they come out to vote. Let these younger generations know that they can hold their government betrayers accountable and we will help them to do so. We, the elders, should do everything possible to guide their considerably greater energies into seeking restitution if the policies they vote for are not promptly fulfilled. I believe this is an opportunity for new, revolutionary, inspired, non-party candidates to run for office and build their followings through the social media networks that they occupy. We can help with write-ins and ballots, legal strategies, and other initiatives to make their election choices work.

If they are then betrayed, there will be a new kind of hell for the establishment to experience. These are the digital generations, and it would be a mistake to cross them.

But that is just one idea out of many.

I also happen to know a truth: Change cannot come to the United States from INSIDE the United States. There is no mechanism that Americans can use to change their political system. This is not a hidden reality; anyone can see it if they think and look. But change is definitely coming, and intuitive people everywhere seem to sense it.

It will arrive and be felt economically. A second global economic system has been carefully constructed, in plain sight, over the past fifteen years. It is designed to replace every aspect of the current commercial system in use between nations. When executed, it removes all political control from the US Dollar, which will become a local currency for the use of Americans in their own country, only. All US imposed sanctions will end. The suffering of millions will be abated. Outstanding foreign accounts with the US will be settled using US Dollars where specified. These will be the final automatic uses of the US Dollar as a reserve or trading currency, outside of a pre-arranged currency swaps between nations. The United States will settle the current debts it owes with assets and real property. The transition can be slow or it can be rapid — but it is long overdue and ready to go. I hope we all live to see it and talk about it.

That will change everything, and give Americans a chance to take their country back and start over again, perhaps divided into smaller regional countries with much more responsive governments designed by the people. The entire continent lacks the infrastructure it needs for a sustainable future, and that should be the first focus. It's a very rich and abundant nation and should be cared for and shepherded into the future as it was meant to be.

Florence Reece, a shy, towheaded Kentucky miner's daughter, composed this song at the age of 12 when her father was out on strike. She sang it standing in front of the primitive hearth of a log cabin in the backwoods of Kentucky in 1937 and it has since become a national union song. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Reece

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iAIM02kv0g]

thank you for the great quotations and for all that you write here.

I think Pluto's Republic's ideas are worthy of action, and I think imagery is something worth applying to all the actions we take. I'm old enough to remember when knowledge of the Holocaust changed from belief that Germany had camps, holding people prisoner, to death camps. That change happened because photography and film of the "camps" were released widely, especially here in the United States. Seeing is believing.

At the present time, photography of our designer wars is not allowed in our mainstream media. The war industry knows full well that photography of children napalmed by American weapons in Vietnam changed the public understanding of the war and led to revolt against it.

And part of what I'm struggling with is that people who are deluded by the Russiagate farce seem not to understand what war is, much less what nuclear war would be. So I advocate making sure more and more photography and film of what we are actually doing to people, including to children, in war is actually seen online, in print, in the various media. Ignorance may be bliss, but right now it's downright dangerous.

And I think showing imagery of life in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and even France would go a long way toward showing to these same people that democratic socialism does render peace and prosperity. The apparent belief that democratic socialism would cause the standard of living in the United States to go downward is a joke, and I think seeing the reality of life in those countries would help to change that impression.