I've lost all patience with moderates, centrists, incrementalists and mainstream establishment democrats who think the status quo is not so bad, just needs a little tweaking around the edges. They'd be satisfied just getting rid of Trump – which is fine as far as that goes, it just doesn't go nearly far enough.

Anybody with a clear-eyed view of the status quo understands the horror of US foreign policy and the shameful neglect of US domestic policy. The system has failed us. The duopoly has frustrated all serious efforts to change things for the better. The owners of the USA, the billionaire class, like things just the way they are. There is no profit in peace or taking care of the needy or delivering justice to the masses. America is owned and dominated by greed monsters who don't care that their money comes drenched in the blood of patriots and innocent victims of US war crimes.

I'm still furious with the DNC for ripping off Bernie and his millions of supporters and ushering in the Trump presidency.

Mainstream democrats have failed us. They like to claim to be progressives, liberals and/or part of 'the left' but in truth they are none of those things.

I'm done with those who think war is okay or that the Military Industrial Complex is just a conspiracy theory or that the wildly unfair distribution of wealth in this country is remotely okay. I'm sick and tired of those who insist that the Main Stream Media is equivalent to the “free press,” and NOT the propaganda organs that lied us into Vietnam, Iraq, Libya and Syria (among others) and now Venezuela and Iran while helping to undermine anything smacking of true change or real reform of our screwed up and hopelessly corrupted system. That is not to say that they don't occasionally say something that is true, just that they can't be trusted not to lie for the oligarchy, as that is their top priority.

MSNBC Yet Again Broadcasts Blatant Lies, This Time About Bernie Sanders’s Opening Speech, and Refuses to Correct Them

"MSNBC IS A dishonest political operation, not a news outlet. It systematically and deliberately refuses to adopt a defining attribute of a news outlet: a willingness to acknowledge factual errors, correct them, and apologize. That they not only allow their lies to stand uncorrected but reward their employees who do it most frequently — especially when those lies are directed at adversaries of the Democratic Party — proves that they are, first and foremost, a political arm of the Democratic establishment."

I am gobsmacked that so many Americans seem blithely unaware of the extent to which we are lied to and who have no clue about our own sordid history of assassinations, coups, torture, death squads, etc. throughout Central and South America – and much of the rest of the world. Or how the main stream media has fed our blood thirsty empire by manufacturing consent for war and propagandizing the public with sinister intent in the interest of the corporate elite and America's uber-wealthy owners - the very same folks who own the media.

Who Owns the Media?

The trend of media conglomeration has been steady. In 1983, 50 corporations controlled most of the American media, including magazines, books, music, news feeds, newspapers, movies, radio and television. By 1992 that number had dropped by half. By 2000, six corporations had ownership of most media, and today five dominate the industry: Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany and Viacom.

Mega-Corporations controlled by the super-rich determine what information is broadcast to the world and how it is framed. Sandwiched in-between the straight news are poison pills of rank propaganda meant to shape the thinking of the entire culture - such as the present daily drumbeat for war on Venezuela so our rich guys can take their oil, or how they're all attacking and smearing Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. The corporate-owned media consciously manipulates the public mind to get people to think and believe what the elite wants them to - which all ends up supporting and enabling their robbing, raping and pillaging of the world. The worst thing about all of this is how appallingly effective it is.

A Century of U.S. Intervention Created the Immigration Crisis

“The liberal rhetoric of inclusion and common humanity is insufficient: we must also acknowledge the role that a century of U.S.-backed military coups, corporate plundering, and neoliberal sapping of resources has played in the poverty, instability, and violence that now drives people from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras toward Mexico and the United States. For decades, U.S. policies of military intervention and economic neoliberalism have undermined democracy and stability in the region, creating vacuums of power in which drug cartels and paramilitary alliances have risen. In the past fifteen years alone, CAFTA-DR — a free trade agreement between the U.S. and five Central American countries as well as the Dominican Republic — has restructured the region’s economy and guaranteed economic dependence on the United States through massive trade imbalances and the influx of American agricultural and industrial goods that weaken domestic industries. Yet there are few connections being drawn between the weakening of Central American rural agricultural economies at the hands of CAFTA and the rise in migration from the region in the years since. In general, the U.S. takes no responsibility for the conditions that drive Central American migrants to the border.“

When we overthrow governments, assassinate leaders, run death squads and torture people, it devastates the societies to whom we do these things. The CIA and other nefarious agents of our government sow the seeds of mayhem and chaos and destroy whole cultures. Now that the victims of our unspeakable evil are seeking the only relief they can conceive by making their arduous way to our border and asking for our help, we shun them, smear them, stir up irrational fear and hatred against them, imprison them and kidnap their children.

Things are NOT normal when the US has fifteen-thousand children ripped from the loving arms of their impoverished and desperate families (who came to us begging for help) locked in cages on the Mexican border. Things are NOT normal!

Is it hyperbole to compare these monsters to Nazis? Increasingly, no. I'm not saying they are equal to the Nazis in terms of sheer evil but who can say they're not headed that way? They're trying awfully hard. They are normalizing that level of hate. Certainly nothing good can come from it.

Those who support the status quo are complicit in the crimes against humanity that the global elite have committed. You don't get to call yourself “progressive” if you have propped up the status quo and worked against any meaningful change. Having some moderately liberal social ideas doesn't make up for all the rest. The lesser evil is still evil. The Establishment is still the Establishment.

Establishment dems are only superficially better than establishment republicans. At the deepest level they are functional equivalents. Both groups serve the empire and the wealthy elite. They all take the dirty money. They are all okay with war and corruption as long as they get theirs. Anyone who doesn't understand that by now, understands very little.

The type of society we live in has a huge bearing on our happiness and well-being. The following article goes back to 2015 but is still valid and relevant.

The Global Elite’s Crimes Against Humanity

From Bernays to Albright: ‘their’ happiness, our misery

Virtually every government in the world creates an illusion for its people. Take economic policy. Government policies might hurt us in the short term, but we are all on a one way route to the ‘promised land’ of happiness, or so we are told by the politicians, the corporate media and spokespersons for the ones who make us suffer to ensure they never have to – the privileged elite, the ruling class.

Western governments set out to con ordinary working folk by bringing us war in the name of peace, austerity in order to achieve prosperity and suffering to eventually make us happy. Is there any room for truth? Politicians never like to tell the public the truth. The feel-bad factor is never a vote winner. Best to keep the public in the dark and rely on positive spin. If people knew the truth, they just wouldn’t be happy.”

People wouldn't be happy if they knew the truth. Well, no kidding, the truth is ugly. But some people would rather be falsely happy than suffer the painful truth. Ignorance is bliss and all that. Mainstream establishment-supporting democrats are a fine example of people who don't want to understand what is actually true. They are willing to settle for that which confirms their own biases and that which makes them feel good: Democrats, team blue, those with Ds next to their name. They reduce governmental and social policy to a simplistic team sport and juvenile popularity contest, never noticing that the outcome is always the same: Democrat or Republican, it's all war all the time, austerity for the people, tax cuts for the rich, bonuses for banksters and crimes against humanity dressed up in pretty rhetoric and a big fat NO to any effort to reform this despicable system.

The outcome is always the same.

We should be tending to the needs of our people and improving lives here at home and around the world. Instead we lavish all our treasure on warmongers and war profiteers, building the most lethal modern weapons possible to sic on the rest of the world. The undeveloped world, especially where they have resources like oil that our rich guys want, wade in the blood shed on their land by our tax dollars and our government's anti-humanitarian gangster policies.

That the American people want peace and a better life for themselves and the rest of the world matters not one whit to our so-called leaders.

"We've become now an oligarchy instead of a democracy. And I think that's been the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards of the American political system that I've ever seen in my life." ~ Jimmy Carter

We've descended into oligarchy and fascism. The billionaires and millionaires at the top don't care about us. To them we are merely pawns to be manipulated and preyed upon. Everything else about our government is sheer kabuki, slight of hand and rank bullshit.

The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes

"The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.”

Establishment democrats are every bit as corrupt as republicans. They are not serving the public interest, only their own. Corruption is rife from the bottom to the top.

Nancy Pelosi is worth $16 million and Dianne Feinstein is worth 58.5 million. (According to Wikipedia.)

"You can't get rich in politics unless you're a crook." ~ Harry S. Truman

Now the mainstream dems want us to all pull together, which would be fine but what they want is for us to unite behind some neoliberal, war-mongering, elitist millionaire who will only betray us to Wall Street and the great American war machine on day one while they cheat any real change agent out of the opportunity to serve the people and history. We've seen this movie before.

It didn't work in 2016 and it won't work now. Even some of the dead-enders get it now.

A Clinton-era centrist Democrat explains why it’s time to give democratic socialists a chance

“The baton rightly passes to our colleagues on our left.”

The result, he argues, is the nature of the Democratic Party needs to shift. Rather than being a center-left coalition dominated by market-friendly ideas designed to attract conservative support, the energy of the coalition should come from the left and its broad, sweeping ideas. Market-friendly neoliberals, rather than pushing their own ideology, should work to improve ideas on the left. This, he believes, is the most effective and sustainable basis for Democratic politics and policy for the foreseeable future.

IMHO, we shouldn't be trying to unite or make nice with those who still don't get it. We should be uniting with all of those who DO get it and who have been ignored, belittled, preyed upon and shut out of the process for forever. It's time for a new deal - and a great big giant new deal. All those people who have been sitting at home on election day need to be given real reasons to come out and choose a new and better destiny. The same old tired crap wrapped in a shiny new box won't get it. We need a new deal.

The Green New Deal isn't outlandish — it's a necessity

We’re not talking about a bit less emissions; we're talking about a phaseout of emissions by 2050 in order to have a fighting chance to hold Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5-degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level, a rise that should not in any way be construed as “safe,” just potentially not catastrophic. 

How do we get to zero by 2050, not only in the U.S. but also in Europe, China, India and the rest of the world?  We need to move rapidly to zero emissions while keeping the energy system functioning robustly and reliably during the transition. It’s a massive transplant operation requiring the greatest skills of our top engineers and power-grid operators.

Now is the time to get serious about real change in America because humanity itself is at stake. We have to change now or forever hold our peace. It's time to get on the right side of history and bring desperately needed change to the world. We need to stop taking NO for an answer, stop making excuses for the corrupt government and media and stop swallowing the propaganda. It's time to stand up, not acquiesce. If we continue to roll over and hide our heads in the sand, this story is not going to end well.

'Call It the Oppression of the Supermajority': Americans Eager for Bold Change, So Why Can't They Get It?

"Entire categories of public policy options are effectively off-limits because of the combined influence of industry groups and donor interests," argues law professor Tim Wu.

Most Americans support Medicare for All, higher taxes on the rich, a Green New Deal, and other major items on the progressive agenda—so why has Congress failed to enact them?

The reason, Columbia University Law School professor Tim Wu argued in an op-ed for the New York Times on Tuesday, is that the influence of corporations and the donor class on the American political system has drowned out the policy desires of the public.

There is a weird strain of political thought in this country that most people are moderates and only by pulling to the center can we garner enough support to win elections and guide the ship of state. This is the thinking of mainstream democrats and also why most people stay home on election day. They have little to no interest in which group of elitist millionaires and billionaires get to screw America for the next four years while lying through their teeth and changing absolutely nothing - and who can blame them?

I've long believed that nothing short of a bold departure from the conventional wisdom will change anything – and most people, when they aren't being freaked out by propaganda boogymen, want change: better living conditions, greater opportunity, a brighter future for posterity, a viable ecosystem, less violence, more peace, greater equality, less hate, a more benevolent and less corrupt government, a friendlier and more supportive society, etc.

A world of hate and war, fear and loathing, resentment and strife are not what people want and not what they deserve.

The tide of history seems to be turning at long last.

It's time to get radical and force the changes that are needed – and we should have less than zero patience for anyone who stands in the way – whether it be through ignorance, incompetence, misplaced loyalty, gullibility or malevolence. Too many of these people are impervious to education or reason, they simply need to be defeated or left behind.

It's time.

Are Bernie, the Green New Deal and the leftward movement in our political system the revolution we need? No, not by a long shot, but they are baby steps in the right direction. As I have often said, show me a better revolution and I'll sign right up. In the mean time, baby steps are better than none. They are baby steps compared to what we need but giant strides compared to what we've had up till now.

And yes, I know Bernie has his faults and shortcomings. I do worry that 'here we go again' and that we will once again be sheep-dogged and ripped off by the establishment in the end. Still, as by far the best of a sorry lot and the only politician who actually listens to constituents or makes sense when talking about virtually anything, he has my vote.

To give credit where credit is due, Bernie has profoundly changed the national conversation. He brought Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and many other actual progressives into the process and they are (arguably) making a huge difference. He has inspired and given hope to the young who face the dire consequences of decades of tragic policies that serve only the short term interests of the hideously rich at the expense of everyone else - especially the young.

Thanks to Bernie and his supporters, people are not so utterly freaked out by the word socialism in this the most highly propagandized society in the history of the world as they consider alternatives to the capitalist nightmare with which we are all so familiar. Bernie's “radical” ideas have become mainstream: Medicare for All, a living wage, tuition free education, paid family leave, the notion that government should actually serve the people and so on. These ideas have caught fire, which is a fairly stunning fact, and Bernie deserves the credit.

It's time to reform our society from the prisons to the presidency. Don't listen to the status quo defenders who will tell you that the only thing that matters is beating Trump. That's the tune the establishment dems will be singing. We need to be rid of Trump to be sure, but getting rid of the present establishment is paramount. If we shed ourselves of Trump but are still saddled by the same old establishment, we'll still be just as screwed.

Remember that things have been screwed up in this country since long before Trump came along. His ridiculous reign has simply brought it all into sharp focus – but Trump is a symptom of a much older disease, the logical end result of a corrupt and hateful rightwing government that serves only the myopic, greedy, selfish mega-rich. We are all out of time for putting up with this greed, corruption and madness.

"Don't let the greedheads win." ~ Hunter S. Thompson

It's time.

Time to do the right thing.