Peace, love and revolution

The most obvious political reality of the past fifty years is that the status quo needs to be changed. It does us little good to tinker with a system so deeply flawed as the one our history has saddled us with. We don't need better leaders of the same old system, we need a new system.

The hippies and other non-conformists saw in the 60s that the path we were on was leading to ecological devastation, world wide pollution and natural resource depletion. While we have watched these dynamics play out, political and corporate defenders of the status quo have stalled, obstructed and lied about any and all efforts to change the underlying fundamentals that are driving us to our doom. Changing any of these things would interfere with the profits of the rich. The profits of the rich, it is reckoned, are more sanctified and important than the survival of our species. What matters, in the establishment's thinking, is short term profitability, long term consequences be damned. Who cares about posterity?

Well, we all should. If humans don't care about humanity, who will?

Would I ever vote for Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi or any other establishment democrat for anything? Not in a million years, and I don't care if they arrange to run their guy against Satan himself. Take your Pied Piper strategy and shove it! I've had it up to here with manipulation, fear mongering and lesser evilism. The lesser evil is still evil.

How the Hillary Clinton campaign deliberately "elevated" Donald Trump with its "pied piper" strategy

An email released by WikiLeaks shows how the Democratic Party purposefully "elevated" Trump to "leader of the pack

Many, if not most, politically engaged people think of politics as something akin to team sports. The system encourages that view. It's our guys against their guys. Blue vs Red. Pick a team and back them, is what they'll tell you. I've got news for those people: both teams are playing for the same side – and the name of the game is preserve the status quo and quash any serious attempt to change anything.

Because of money.

Politics in the modern era boils down to money, greed and corruption. Anyone who plays that game becomes tainted. Politicians get rich in office (just ask Pelosi, the Clintons, Paul Ryan – or really any of them) and spend all their time raising money and hustling their supporters. All pretense at working for anybody but their own best (short term) interests is a giant scam and we're fools to believe any of it.

The only thing our status quo system is good for is protecting and enriching corrupt politicians and their owners/donors. Relying upon it for change is a fool's errand. We should know this by now.

Exxon Knew about Climate Change almost 40 years ago

A new investigation shows the oil company understood the science before it became a public issue and spent millions to promote misinformation

Because of our 'leadership' the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy has been stalled for decades. Likewise the attempts to better care for the weakest and neediest of our human family, and other humanitarian and common sense reforms have been stalled, exploited, misdirected. If it impinges on the profits of the rich, it dies a slow death under the present system. The opinions or needs of the people are not even a factor except when it comes to manipulating them for votes or money. People are chattel under our system and only as good as their bank account.

We've been enslaved by money and debt. We have been betrayed by our 'leaders.' We have been cheated out of a reasonable and desirable future for our children and grandchildren.

Johnson & Johnson knew about carcinogens in baby powder for decades: Reuters

The company reportedly has known about the asbestos in its signature product since the early 1970s.

They're only babies, right?

In addition to the horrors of American corporations poisoning us for profit and obstructing all efforts to make things better, the great American war machine, Eisenhower's Military Industrial Complex, has been doing even worse for the same base motive – money. They bomb the world for the likes of Raytheon and Dick Cheney's Halliburton (the immoral and unjustifiable war in Iraq ginned up on fake evidence cost us trillions and hundreds of thousands of lives but Cheney's Halliburton made $39 Billion in profit). And our wanton slaughter in multiple countries goes on and on. Does anybody really think any of this is justified?

US bombs are killing children in Yemen. Does anybody care?

The lack of outrage at the US’s key role in this humanitarian disaster raises troubling questions

American corporations and the MIC are poisoning, slaughtering and destroying the world for short term profits for their billionaire owners. And they're doing it with the full support of our hopelessly corrupt government (whom they also own).

We don't need better 'leadership,' we don't need to tweak or improve upon the system, we need an all new and much better system. We need a system that empowers us to meet the demands of the future. We need a science-based, sustainable and efficient grand mechanism for managing the converging catastrophies that the present system has caused, exacerbated and protected from all serious efforts to resolve.

'Planetary emergency:' After 30 years, leaders are still fighting about basic truths of climate science

The United States, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Russia -- among the leading producers of fossil fuels, which cause climate change -- stated publicly that they did not want to "welcome" the findings of a report the UN head had called an "ear-splitting wake-up call."

We don't need 'reform' and we don't need any further bullshit. What we need is a revolution. It should be peaceful - but it should be serious and definite.

I'm so glad to see the example being set by the French people. To be clear, when I praise the French uprising, I am not praising or advocating riots or violence. I am praising and advocating the rising up. I am advocating peaceful but overwhelming public protest. Because nothing in the past fifty years is more obvious than this: Our leaders have abandoned us and nothing's going to change in any serious way until we rattle their cages and replace the tools of the oligarchy with people who really care about humanity, the American people and the world at large.

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." - Frederick Douglass

We must dramatically change the status quo in the near term for there to even be a long term.

Republicans and democrats are not going to lead us out of this nightmare, they led us into it. We can't vote our way out of this dilemma. We are going to have to hit the streets, demand change and stop taking NO for an answer.

We've tried this before and failed. If we fail this time it will have devastating consequences for our entire species. If we are to survive, we must rise up now.

The billionaires and their mega-corporations have bought our government and our politicians. We can lie down and be killed by their irrational greed or we can stand the hell up and fight back.

Peace, love and revolution...for my grandchildren and yours.

Peace-Out-OPOL-Not-One-More-Dead
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Time has come today.

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Lookout's picture

...as much as possible. Garden and grow at least some of your own food. Ride a bike and quit guzzling so much gas. If you have a place and money set up pv panels and generate your own electricity.

Imagine if we quit buying gas for a week in the US. We need a national fossil fuel boycott and hit 'em where it hurts...their pocketbook. Our gas production costs more than it makes...and the fracked fields are heavily indebted. This is one of their weaknesses.

People are trying...
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/12/14/grassroots-momentum-surges-...

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/this-radical-plan-to-fund-the-green-ne...

...and I like the idea of a global movement...
https://www.progressive-international.org/

The corporate overlords are global...so must be the new movement.

I've been singing this song for decades, and I appreciate your chorus/essay!
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh7vFFjK0rc]

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout Thanks for reading. I appreciate and admire your comment as I do all of your work. Keep fighting the good fight (as they say).

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divineorder's picture

@OPOL
I agree with Lookout, we should starve the beast as much as possible.

But we also need solutions at the government level. I started a comment but it got too long, think I will turn it into an essay response.

Thanks for doing what you do best and posting this here. Helps turn thoughts away from despair toward action.

Namaste, bro.

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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.

ZimInSeattle's picture

@Lookout each and every person on the planet below 3 tons per year by 2025 to avoid civilization collapse and possible human extinction soon thereafter. Talk about a deadline. Every person on the planet has to do whatever they can to lower their carbon footprint ASAP. Government, especially the knuckle dragging troglodytes we have here, aren't going to do squat. It's up to individuals.

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

divineorder's picture

@ZimInSeattle @ZimInSeattle

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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.

ZimInSeattle's picture

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

Big Al's picture

I've got 6 grandkids now, plus another 4-5 who call me grandpa.
People talk about how it's up to the young to challenge the power. But there's a thing called knowledge and experience that comes with age. That can be quite helpful too.

The more people that call for changes in this political system, or a complete replacement, the better. It doesn't work for most of us, if that's not clear by now then people just aren't thinking.

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@Big Al Thanks Big Al and thanks for all your work.

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detroitmechworks's picture

because the people who are obsessed with money and corporate power trumping all humanitarian concerns and values continue to proclaim that it is not their will, but the will of the people. They are... "Only Following Orders."

Ugh. Wish it was a forge day. I have a lot of aggression that would greatly be assuaged by beating on metal.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvRZxn7e3hc]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@detroitmechworks

Ugh. Wish it was a forge day. I have a lot of aggression that would greatly be assuaged by beating on metal.

Why isn't this a forge day?

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

detroitmechworks's picture

@thanatokephaloides Unfortunately I live in a residential area and do not own a forge of my own, therefore must use others, and most workspaces charge premium prices. My last forge day was my Christmas present. Smile

(And it was awesome. Got Deja Vu and everything the first time I banged on metal.)

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

we need a new economic system (i.e. corporate self-interest is not a sustainable environmental model).

To get a new economic system we need a new political system (i.e. corporate self-interest is not a sustainable economic model).

To get a new political system we need a new media system (i.e. legalized bribery is not a sustainable political model).

So to get this started, we must first reach people and convince them that there is a better way.

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@gjohnsit as much as I hate "Citizens united"; *if* corporations are people, then maybe a good place to start would be sentencing Exxon, Johnson & Johnson et al. to death.

I would think that "Crimes against Humanity" resulting in such premeditated death and destruction merits such a sentence. CEOs and complicit congresspeople? Guilty as well.
It's an open and shut case. What's the holdup?

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lotlizard's picture

@peachcreek  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johns_Manville

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Radium_Corporation

Corporations have sometimes been held to account — but it takes forever — and while investors lose, executives don’t go to jail.

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Dragonkat's picture

Long as you are part of the system you are part of the problem. No matter how much you claim to be on our side. Talk is cheap. And as the saying goes where I live. If you claim to want a green new deal with one side of your mouth then back Nancy Pelosi with the other (looking at you AOC) Then "Don't piss in my hair and tell me it's raining."

Though I'll admit you're nicer about it than I am. If these planet destroying sociopaths and their political collaborators deserve anything it's their backs against the wall if the revolution comes. And I for one can't wait to see it happen.

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See, their morals, their code... it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be.

-The Joker-

lotlizard's picture

@Dragonkat  
Khmer Rouge 2.0 —> Khmer Vert

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earthling1's picture

for a while now;
We must destroy the Democrat Party in order to save it.
Your essay has convinced me that;
We must destroy our democracy in order to save it.
A clean sweep across partisan bounderies. All levels of governmemt.
The entire military officer corp must go.
And all alphabet agencies.
There is just no other way forward.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@earthling1

The entire military officer corp must go.

"The entire military must go." Not just ours, but everybody's.

Wink

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

thanatokephaloides's picture

Would I ever vote for Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi or any other establishment democrat for anything? Not in a million years, and I don't care if they arrange to run their guy against Satan himself. Take your Pied Piper strategy and shove it! I've had it up to here with manipulation, fear mongering and lesser evilism. The lesser evil is still evil.

And we've had our fill of evil. And then some.

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@thanatokephaloides Right on.

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As I said on FB, buddy, one of your best. Let's get a plan together to get in the streets in the Summer of '19 and '20. We need to get the ball rolling soon. The greedy mofos won't ever change until they forced to. We need to light a fire under them, figuratively speaking, of course.

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@stagehand099 I'm with ya man. Let's get together soon and talk about it.

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Daenerys's picture

I'd rather vote for Satan. I mean, Bible God killed more people than Satan ever did.

Cheers OPOL.

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This shit is bananas.

snoopydawg's picture

@Daenerys

My favorite saying is after a natural disaster someone says that "gawd so loves me that he protected me and my house."

Doesn't that mean that gawd deliberately destroyed other people's houses?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Daenerys

Given the choice between them I'd rather vote for Satan.

Or some of his followers. And the best one of those, Lucien Greaves, can run for President!

Greaves is the founder of The Satanic Temple. Check out what TST believes in:

There are seven fundamental tenets.

  • One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
  • The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
  • One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
  • The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own.
  • Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs.
  • People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one's best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.
  • Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.

bulleting in original
source

And Greaves' published words and actions agree with these Tenets.

Would I vote for Lucien Greaves over Hillary Clinton?

You bet your sweet ass I would!

Wink

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Daenerys's picture

@thanatokephaloides Heck yeah, I'm down with that.

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This shit is bananas.

EdMass's picture

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Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

magiamma's picture

Turn 180 degrees at breakneck speed. People are beginning to recognize that but how fast it can happen is the question. Life as we know it must change radically. But much of it will it not change willingly as well change will continue to be fought. So the change we seek must be forced. Not only do we need to be in the streets but also we need to stop consumption in a massive way. People who go into the streets not only need to be willing to stop consuming but also, at the very least, impress on others that they must. And probably much more. So yes. And thank you.

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

lotlizard's picture

@magiamma  
Well, maybe a milder, yet still firmly forced, rollback of consumerism, returning to an East-German style culture of reuse, make-do, and “do it yourself” self-sufficiency . . .

Oh boy, living here in Saxony, for once in my life I may be in the right place at the right time . . .

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"Not only do we need to be in the streets but also we need to stop consumption in a massive way. People who go into the streets not only need to be willing to stop consuming but also, at the very least, impress on others that they must."

It is all well and good to ask that individuals act responsibly, but that will not solve our environmental problems as long as corporate society continues to massively pollute.

Link:
These 100 companies are to blame for 71 percent of the worlds greenhouse gas emmisions.

The linked article appeared in 2017. The situation it describes has not changed and will not change so long as the economic and political basis of our society remains the same. The problem is SYSTEMIC and cannot be solved by individuals just "consuming less". A quote from the article:

"What's even more crazy is the fact that a mere 25 corporate and state-owned entities have produced over half of all industrial emissions in the time period between 1988 and 2015.

The top emitter amongst these is the Chinese state-owned coal industry, followed by the Saudi Aramco. The third biggest emitter is the Russian Gazprom, with the Russian state-owned coal industry not far behind.

Amongst public investor-owned firms, Exxon-Mobil, Shell, BP and Chevron are responsible for the most industrial greenhouse gases."

It's the fossil fuel industry that is the major offender. We have to put them out of business, nationalize them, change over to renewable energy on a massive scale. That is what needs to be done to save the planet for our civilization. Anything less won't do it.

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Thanks for laying it out. I'm with you on this. It is a fight to overcome momentum. Both necessary and pressing. Fight back for our survival.

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By morphing into Republicans, but Republicans who try to avoid using certain ugly words in public, they have left Americans with no realistic choice. And, because they shifted almost imperceptibly at first, they duped the left into continuing to vote for them.

Not everyone follows politics daily or posts on political message boards. Political message boards did not even exist when the Clintons rode into Washington, D.C. in the Trojan Horse.

Most of the left did not wake up until Obama or, worse, until the 2016 Democrapic primary, when the stench of the Clinton-owned DNC/DLC and establishment media assaulted nostrils from NYC to California.

Some of the left that have caught on will still vote for Democrats anyway because, as Democrats have been snickering cynically for years, "The left has nowhere else to go." And who made sure the left had nowhere to go, other than to the more p.c. in public Demlicans?

Republicans, on the other hand, have never made a secret of wanting out of public programs or loving of the wealthy. However, it was New Democrat Clinton who actually ended "welfare as we know it;" and it was Obama who, after election but before inauguration, told the Washington Post that "entitlements" had to be reformed, then tried his damnedist to get get political cover: forming both the Cat Food Commission and the Grand Bargain Committee, coming up with the sequester, just in case the Grand Bargain Committee failed him, as had the Cat Food Committee; and finally trying for cover from Republicans.

Those on the left still shaking their fists in the general direction of Republicans and only Republicans desperately need to catch up.

And anyone who writes a story about how, in June 2016. Obama changed his mind about cutting Social Security is either a shill or a maroon. By then, Obama had run out of ideas on how to get political cover. He had also noted the ascendancy of Sanders's ideas (mostly FDR's). And he had been a lame duck since January 2013, looking toward his legacy.

Democrats are talk far more left when they are out of power than when they are in power. In January, 2009, Obama was riding in on a tide of decisive victory over McCain, with a very strong Democratic majority in the House and sixty Senators in his caucus. I believe what he did then, not what he said in June 2016.

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@HenryAWallace
social slaves

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WaterLily's picture

I missed this in real time yesterday, but want to say: Count me in.

And I always appreciate seeing you here. We need your voice and perspective, as well as those of your fellow hippies like @BigAl, to spark this peaceful but necessary revolution. Enough is enough.

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