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So, there’s this guy. He’s a really nice guy, a smart guy, a gentle guy, a very thoughtful guy. He did some serious organizing in the 60s around MLK and such. He’s a bit older than me, but not much. He’s part of our climate group.
We now do our weekly climate organizing meetings on zoom.
We do check-ins, mostly about how we are surviving the shut-in / pandemic.
His check-in was a meltdown. A royal meltdown. He’s freaking out because Trump.
So here is what I do not understand…
We are all thoughtful people. And yet, every fucking time there is another outrageous policy pronouncement, often delivered by a tweet, people freak out, a hair-on-fire freak out, a we’re-all-gonna die freak out.
But it’s not. It’s another little drop of water torture.
Torture, by definition, is an intentional act of inflicting severe physical or psychological suffering. It is used by this administration and is intended to manipulate social behavior. It is not unlike Bernays’ use of the media to influence consumerism.
It is designed to keep us off balance and in shock. This is the point, the whole point and nothing but the point.
Each diktat is more radical and cruel than the last. Because that is the best way to keep us off balance, in a state of flight-or-flight psychological chaos. Before we can regroup there is another.
They knew the virus was coming and did nothing. We were surprised. They did not get PPE. We were shocked. They told the states to fend for themselves. We were angry. They said dying didn’t matter, so what. We did a meltdown.
We are being bludgeoned by criminals. There is no federal government. It’s a monopoly game and we are losing. They own the government, the elections, and the media.
When does it stop? When do we wake up? When?
Comments
I don't know about you...
...but I've been at the "Can we use violence NOW?" threshold for at least 15 years.
It's perverse, and I don't get it. These people think they are more valuable than the entire rest of the planet's biosphere (and that being more valuable means they are entitled to abuse and dispose of the less valuable, a dubious belief in and of itself even if one were to grant the former conceit), and so long as we sit by and let them do what they do, we're just validating that belief.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
We can not use violence now
We don't know how. They do. They can hardly wait.
My take is that after WW2 there were something like 3.5 million combat veterans, and another 3 million trained in weaponry and combat. So many of these were died in the wool FDR democrats. If there was a right wing/capitalist streak salivating at taking America back to pre depression days of bosses ruling everything, they had every reason to fear being put down hard if they tried. After the draft ended we lost that edge. The standoff ended. We disarmed and disavowed even the threat of violence. We can threaten, but we can't back it up.
I would like to see a poll that says more lefties own guns than righties, that we wave the flag harder, that we out 2nd amendment the wingnuts and start our own NRA to piss on theirs and take the whole thing away from them. And, maybe give the politicians something to really worry about.
hola tlm
I get what you are saying but I am not sure how that would work. I personally am not prepared to step up that way. Something needs to happen soon or there will be a lot of people in dire straights. Zapatistas.
Thanks for your comment. Food for thought. Take good care and have a good one.
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My energies are going into constructive utopianism.
We need to be out there asking people what they think the world would be like if it could be like they want it to be. And getting them to imagine something different than this world.
Maybe a utopian reading group would be a good idea in the time of the coronavirus. It would keep your panicky friend's nose in acts of positive reflection. They could start with Ernest Callenbach's "Ecotopia." Or maybe Cory Doctorow's "Walkaway." A tough audience could go for Marge Piercy's "Woman on the Edge of Time." Or maybe Kim Stanley Robinson has something good cooked up. Tell me if this is any good.
And there's always the piece I donated to Lilia Monzó -- I told you about this.
https://www.addletonacademicpublishers.com/search-in-kc/2975-climate-cha...
Password: AddletonAP2009
Your group has read this, right? It's the most consequential thing I've ever written. It will be the basis for two books. It should answer questions about what "the right thing to do" is.
I figure that eventually people will wake up. Oh, sure, it will take a lot of death first. But now we get to understand what it will be like in Iraq during Bush Junior's tenure as President. Firsthand. Actually Bush Junior killed a lot of people and it will be hard for the Donald to kill as many Americans as Bush Junior killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. But anything's possible.
As for the election, what I've been saying in the diaries is that the Presidential election is out of our hands. Why spend a lot of time worrying about something you can't affect? If the Biden bullies invade your group, ask them if they'll be moving to swing states once the quarantine period is granted a hiatus.
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
Excellent notion.
And not a new one for you.
I'm coming along behind you--just finishing up a few things. Thought I was done, but Kate thinks I have one more essay to write about the election. (She heard me talking to our other life partner in the kitchen about it and said "Have you written about this?" "No." "You should." "Damn.")
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Looking forward
Thanks, Creo.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
hi cass
Lots to digest. No I have not, nor has our group read the article you referenced. I will read it and will forward it to them. As far as ByeDone is concerned - we are not SC4ByeDone. We are SC4Bernie and have decided as a group to move on to local issues which will ramp up. Different people signed up to take different sections of the county and different campaigns. As Co-convenor I get to set the agenda and call on people and shut the meeting down last time because we did not have time to decide if we were going to endorse (fucking) ByeDone. Not that I have strong feeling about that or anything. So the next meeting is in a couple of weeks and I have determined we cannot endorse because he does not support our plank issues which are Bernie's plank issues. So there. Still pissed off, I guess. Thanks for the links. I will read them as I do all your links. Thanks for all you do.
Take good care and have a good one.
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Good morning, magi ~~
I feel a sense of calm in all of this because I feel I know what is going on. I trust in the work of the universe to bring unification, kindness, and love to humanity. The source has brought this intelligent virus to us to shift society to a higher consciousness level. We will reach the fifth level of consciousness by the 2030's but how else would we get there if not for the universe to stop the earth - to give us, as you noted, a time-out.
How else will people learn to live in the present if they are not on lockdown figuring out their lives on a daily basis? How else will our economy get restructured in a more equitable fashion if we do not tear the current economy down? How else will we be able to restructure our government to represent the people and not the 1% unless we expose it for all it is and allow the people to rise up? The source has brought us this virus to answer these questions.
Let us all learn to embrace the perspectives of others. Let us all learn to embrace the differences of our fellow human. Let us all offer forgiveness to those that are unaware they have harmed us. Let us all be grateful that we are witnessing a great event in our lifetimes. Let us all learn to love one another, unconditionally.
Breathe. Live. Love.
Have a marvelous day, everyone!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Amen
Very, very well said!!
Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets
I love your take on all this . . .
For me, it is very healthy and hopeful. Thank you!
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
hi ra
Yes, I feel calm too. I feel at one with what is unfolding and am consciously participating in moving the energy towards peace and equity. I think that educating people is an important piece of the puzzle, because as more people are able to see what is, the more they will be able to see and move towards what can be. For the planet to heal, we as caretakers, walk a fine line between holding the planet in light and holding the reality of what is.
Thank you for you clarity and kindness. Take good care and have a good one.
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I wish there
were more people like you in this world.
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
Yes, blame us of course
but then again who can blame us? We have seen with our very own eyes, the brutal and sadistic police state that is very effective in tamping down any dissent to the status quo. To put it bluntly, we are afraid for our lives. And we should be. TPTB are salivating at the chance to beat our heads in if we show the slightest bit of challenge to their authority.
Of course, things will only change when we reach the conclusion that we have nothing left to lose. People are staying put in hopes that someone else will step up to make our lives better. Well no one but ourselves can make this change, we just haven't collectively realized it yet.
Well done is better than well said-Ben Franklin
hola snode
Indeed. How far and how long will that take and will it be to late because we have lost our footing, so to speak. As long as people can maintain some level of comfort perhaps they will do nothing. By the time they have lost that perhaps they will be so busy surviving that they have no energy to organize. That is my worry. It appears that homo sapiens sapiens are not very good at planning ahead. I waffle between stark realism and angry anticipation. I want people to wake up. Sooner than later. Hurry, hurry, the sky is falling. Really!
Take good care and have a good one.
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The only power we have is our pocketbook
The system depends on consumption. Stop all mortgage and rent payments. Stop buying gas. Grow a garden and supplement food from local producers. Boycott Amazon, Wally world, and box stores and only shop with local small business. Boycott all MSM. This year I'm boycotting voting in Nov....there are no lesser evils, just evil. COVID has made this a possibility now.
They have militarized police but they can't make you support the system with your dollars. It would take solidarity. If it is just a handful of folks they will foreclose or kick you out of your rental.
I also think we need to develop a plan....re-inventing the world to promote peace and prosperity. A world based on sustainability not consumption. Where value isn't about profit. For example local organic produce should be subsidized and cheap whereas processed foods that make us sick should be really expensive. Gas should be really expensive, and rapid public transportation common and cheap. Quality education should be universal as well as health care. The two go together, we are an unhealthy country because we've been mis-educated about diet. We now have technology which would allow for at least some direct democracy.
So rejecting the old and offering a positive vision for the future might turn things around. People are ready (for the most part).
I'm not sure how that happens in the age of COVID. A digital convention? Perhaps the developing People's party could be a vehicle. One thing's for sure, if we continue on our present course, extinction WILL be our fate.
As to TDS (Trump derangement syndrome) - it is a distraction from the systemic problems and Obummer is as big a threat to maintain the old as the Donald (maybe more so because of the accompanying blindness).
Like the saying goes, freedom is a constant struggle.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Not so!
We can withhold our labor-power. Actually that's our most important power.
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
Many people are at home now
And unemployment is at record highs. Work strikes could be part of it.
If you don't think when and how we spend our dollars is a effective tool we will just have to disagree. Sorry you feel the need to say I'm wrong rather than we disagree.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Hoping the rebellion morphs from
bucking self imprisonment to us gathering at our own risk.
Freedom of expression is worth it. They want us to stop working
for them. OK, lets start working for ourselves. Have many short
stories to tell of locals and friends that are saying - basically -
f*ck your restrictions and fines and threats. We have families to feed.
It's now or never. Turn up the protest to 11! Fire the managers!!
My most important point --
was that withholding labor is going to be our biggest tool amidst the impending too-early end to the stay-at-home period. They want to open things up so they don't have to pay unemployment insurance, and they don't care how many people die as a result. Let's enforce labor discipline in the middle of a plague! Looks to me like a good time for a strike.
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
hola lo
What to do and how to do in the time of The Virus. Big problem. Things now are harder for the 99% so maybe, just maybe, something will happen. I agree that it must or we are fried. Sadly. All your ideas are great but I keep coming back to the how. How do we organize?
Take good care and have a good one.
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mind-boggling to me
why so many folks just won't Go Green, but would rather re-invent the wheel.
I voted green in 2016
Thinking of not voting at all this round. Seems pointless here in Trumplandia.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Me too, voted green
Lo - what is the recipe for gopher repellent
It’s Castor Oil and soap - but I do not have the proportions
Thx
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Here's one recipe...
Homemade Castor Oil Vole and Mole Repellent
1/4 cup of castor oil
2 tablespoons of eco-friendly/biodegradable dish detergent
1 gallon of tap water
Spray bottle or a hose sprayer
The first thing you need to do is combine the top three ingredients into your spray bottle or hose sprayer. Because castor oil does not combine well with water, some people prefer to mix it up in a blender before they begin. When you finish, make sure to pour the entire mixture into your spray bottle.
Take a few minutes to wet your lawn using sprinklers or a garden hose before you get started. The ground should be damp before you start to spray your mole tunnels.
Using the spray bottle or hose sprayer, start to concentrate your efforts on the entrances to the current tunnels that you see. Spray all along the tunnel in order to saturate the most popular areas of your yard with your new vole and mole repellent.
https://castoroil-guide.com/homemade-castor-oil-mole-repellent-recipe/
This one is about the same...
A repellent concentrate with castor oil as the main ingredient combines three ounces castor oil and a tablespoon of liquid dish soap in a half gallon of water. Mix an ounce of this per gallon of water; each gallon covers approximately 300 square feet of lawn. The entire lawn or affected area should be sprayed. Reapply after a rain or once the scent fades. Pouring a bit into their holes and tunnel runs won't hurt either.
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/natural-mole-vole-repellent-76853.html
Good luck. Garlic powder and cayenne pepper helps too. With all of these you have to re-apply after a rain.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
thanks for the gopher recipe
like, as in repellent not food.
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Does it work for woodchucks?
Does anything work for woodchucks?
I don't think so
Trapping or shooting them is the common solution.
https://pestkill.org/rodents/groundhogs/how-to-trap-tips/
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Green here too
When they fucked Bernie, I was all in for Jill.
[video:https://youtu.be/Y-wdHNhDV0A]
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
Good morning magi, having trouble waking up today.
Provoking hair-on-fire meltdowns, whether intentionally or not, is a great tactic. Back in the late fifties or early sixties it was discovered that if you shocked rats at random, they became apathetic, possessed of a sort of anomie, and didn't even strive for food or sexual reward. (This was, btw, to some extent used as a basis for tactics used against the student movement). There is a spectrum for just about anything, probably usually somewhat bell curved, gullibility, compassion, empathy, privilege, fear, and on and on and on. If you poke at the tails, somebody will flare, which will provoke others to follow suit, or counter, it doesn't matter which, because the goal is no specific objective, but simply to keep things churned up. That prevents any successful goal seeking activity by the populace as a whole.
There was a time when, iirc, the grange movement of all things looked to unify the people and in some very surprising areas found blacks and whites working together in unity to achieve certain goals. The first reaction, of course, of tptb was to sow racial divisiveness and discord, fragmenting the movement and thereby stalling it. Simply one of an infinitude of examples.
Yet, in defense of your organizer friend, back then there was a real focus on standing up and being counted, our watchwords were or included:
**************************
qui tacet consentire videtur
****************************
'A time comes when silence is betrayal,
--- Martin Luther King, Jr.
************************
“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.”
-Oscar Wilde-
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With a background of immersion in trying to live out those directives, today's constant barrage of unanswered and largely unanswerable provocations could easily push one to the wall or over the edge, repeatedly even. About all one can do for those who fall into that trap is to say "yes, it is horrible, but we get nowhere by raging against the storm among ourselves, and must roll with it and ignore it until we can work out a way to alter it."
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
hi el
So, how do we now come together to alter it? ( I have no answers but feel it is crucial to do so.)
Take good care and have a good one.
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That's the 64$ question. For the moment, more or less beats
me. We have one universe here inside the bubble, but I look outside and listen to what I hear out there and it seems that we are still a pronounced minority. Think of even the Bernie movement, a sizeable chunk of a minority, among those who give a shit about electoral politics and belong to the D party, a serious chunk preferred Bernie to the other contenders. Right now I'm seeing a ton of folks really much more concerned and anxious to get back to normal shopping routines and eating out than to bring about systemic change. Somehow we have to really change the focus and destroy the prevalent narratives. The "entertainment industry" does more to subvert progress and rational thought in one night that we seem to accomplish in a month and I really don't have a solution.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
more people need to understand this
Same with climate change. Lots of people know now and are slowly changing.
Root cause is the same. Capitalism which is based on consumerism which is dependent on resource extraction. Full Stop.
Link the two? A bunch more people are not going to be consumers now. I seriously want to organize people and money to stop this ( ).
Thanks for all you do and have a good one.
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I'm lucky in someways
I was raised to understand the difference between my wants (desires) and needs, (must have for survival).
Baby doesn't need a $150 pair of Nike, Air Jordons, baby "need" shoes. When I was ten years old, there was no such thing as voice mail. Why does a ten yr old need a $400 iPhone? Heck video games didn't exist either, GiJoe and Barbie were fine, but parents today buy their kids $1,000 gaming consoles and then complain they kids never go outside.
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
Attacked from the right and the left last week . . .
I got majorly scolded for being a "No Joe" and later for posting a NYT article on Facebook. It was upsetting. I almost canceled my Facebook account but instead am taking the advice of others.
My husband said, "You post too much political shit. You're bound to piss off someone." My daughter said, "Post Otter videos instead." (I love otter videos!)
A good friend sent me the following pic that printed out and taped to my monitor.
Like someone said in an up comment. The election is out of our hands. It is. So I am trying not to think about it. And just watch otter videos instead.
[video:https://youtu.be/QrmV-G5mjMQ]
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Engaging with the system is toxic.
One must draw boundaries, and if the boundaries you need are not to engage, I respect that. I even respect that when it results in friends leaving here, much as I miss them (and man, I do).
I'm still trying to find the right balance, myself. I don't go on FB, though; the very mechanism of that place feels like poison to me and always has.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
BTW, if you got attacked from both right and left,
then you're doing it right.
That's what happens to people who value the truth.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Thanks!
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
I never watched an otter video before.
Thanks! Now I love otter videos, too.
Edit: I left FB a long time ago when I realized it was not making me happy.
I had no idea people had them as pets . . .
These guys are even toilet trained. Otters have so much personality!
Facebook . . . sigh . . . I find it very annoying. The only thing that keeps me on it is the fact I live 1000 miles from home and family and good friends from younger years. It is a means of connection. And for the past couple of years, I have had the attitude, "to hell with it . . . I am going to post a shitload of progressive and climate change stuff to educate everyone." But I am done with that now. Doesn't seem like it did anything positive anyway.
Glad you like otter videos now!
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
A lot of my diaries of recent --
Against unity and Defeat Trump! URGENT! and The Biden campaign is achieving its intended objectives. and The Trump-as-dictator narrative and To the Biden Supporters and Sales Ethics and the Democratic Campaign '20, are all about what one might say to the Biden supporters to get them to SHUT UP. It's a bit of a curiosity to me because they all seem to be bringing so much bullying energy to something which 1) isn't really a cause (Biden's cause is his rich donors) and 2) isn't really something we ordinary plebes can affect (given that Biden's main winning strategy involves Trump's implosion, and I'm in favor of Trump's implosion). We really do need to think about how we got to this point, and not about election-year hustle. I do have at least one friend who says "yes I'm voting for Biden" just so they won't target him.
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
hi mh
I think you are doing something right if people are pushing back. We do not organize to win friends but to influence them.
Well, I too am now a fan of otter vids and who knew that they were pets.
Good to 'see' you. Take good care and have a good one.
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This is key:
But it’s not. It’s another little drop of water torture.
Torture, by definition, is an intentional act of inflicting severe physical or psychological suffering. It is used by this administration and is intended to manipulate social behavior. It is not unlike Bernays’ use of the media to influence consumerism.
You're absolutely right and it's an important insight. But, of course, it's not new to this administration. This sort of political shock and awe was very much in evidence during the 2016 election. It became obvious that people were psychologically tortured by the process, so much so that the American Psychological Association had to put out guidelines for how to deal with the election--their therapists were getting overwhelmed by people in pain.
It would be easy, and typical of thinking in this era, if that history were revised so that it was only the final outcome of that election that hurt people. But it was not so. The pain started early; the APA was talking about it by September.
Unlike classical torture, however, people are to some extent participating in this voluntarily. What I mean by that is that it's possible to reduce the pain by drawing boundaries, by taking some actions rather than others. You can't eliminate the pain altogether unless you're a sociopath, but you needn't suffer anywhere near its full effects.
People are embracing their own (psychological) torture. When people do things like that, it usually means there's something worse they fear that they don't want to face. In other words, there's some kind of psychological payoff in the pain. In this case, I suspect the payoff is cutting the existential terror of being alive under these conditions to man-size. One man. Maybe one man and his personal minions. At most, one man and his one political party, although most people who freak out over Trump are fine with George W. Bush et al.
It's a hell of a lot easier to deal with a terrifying existential threat if it's just one guy, or even one guy and his particular supporters. For one thing, America has dealt with such threats before. It's possible to imagine winning. And the monster has a face. These things enable one to turn the fear into anger--and we're even provided with handy local targets for that anger, in the form of either deplorables, if you're a liberal, or liberal bureaucrats/socialists if you're a conservative.
I almost envy the people who are using their minds this way. Almost, but never quite.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
hi cstms
Good points. What is important is that more people see this. It's like the climate crisis in a way. For a long time people did not see it and then they did. So many more people need to recognize the abuse.
Then finds ways to address it straight on. People avoid the climate crisis often because they feel helpless. Same here. Except this will hit many people harder and faster.
I find it odd, interesting, peculiar that all this happened at such a convenient time. I am not one for conspiracy theories. But my guess is that there is more to this than meets the eye.
Thanks for all your comments. Take good care and have a good one.
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That's true--
and it might be worth some continued discussion. I have a tendency to throw up my hands and say "If they're watching tv news on a regular basis, probably not gonna reach them." But it may be worth more consideration than that.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
definitely worth more discussion
Needs to happen. Don't know quite how to get it beyond discussion but more discussion is a good place to start.
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It is the "System"
It's hard for people to get mad or freak out about a "system", it's much intellectually easier to blame some one or a party. These people freaking out over Trump, I reckon never really looked that closely at Obama or George Bush, or even Bill Clinton.
All three should be rotting in the Hague, along with Trump himself for Crimes Against Humanity.
Until the 1% feel the heat of poverty or death, nothing will materially change. We must recognize and admit, that what we have been doing (protests + electoral politics) isn't working.
We must disrupt the world of the 1% in new and creative ways, especially those that disrupt their economic stranglehold over our very lives.
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
hola rr
Good point. Protests and electoral politics have not worked. Organizing the number of people that would be need to impact the system will be very hard. And though capitalism has slowed a bit, I think the ptb fully expect things to get back up and running. No se si possible.
What has worked is taking over the media, the Congress, the judgeships, the state governments. Because those are the people who control the agenda. We do not have time to do that now. We need a way to stop the machine. Stopping consumption would help but not sure that enough people will get on board to do that. A strike would work but again, can we get enough people involved.
I really don't know.
Thanks for you comment. Take good care and have a good one.
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I've been following
Black Socialists in America and their sister organization Cooperation Jackson and their organizing efforts.
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
Thank you for the links
I am always looking for more. I feel that it is difficult to get real reports.
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We have enormous power, we are reluctant to do the obvious
The most dangerous force to the establishment is the consensus of ideas by the people. The corporate and political and the media establishment have inoculated the public against ideas that would bring about real change. We are scared shitless to allow ourselves to hope through truly progressive ideas. So we are left with no consensus of concepts and really bad alternatives for action. It's really clear that if we advocate for anything other than incremental change of capitalism, then we will be slammed. Look at Tulsi Gabbard in the sphere of war and peace. Yet if there existed a clear consensus amongst liberal voters, that the US establishment is possessed of endless military evil, then she would be the nominee today. Instead she was relegated to the fringes, by the Democrat party, the MSM and the Democrat base, although she is truly enlightened and accurate. We must become much more aggressive in visioning the end of neoliberal/neoconservative capitalism and embracing revolutionary change. FDR's reforms were incremental changes and saved capitalism. As he predicted, the establishment would endlessly attack those reforms. The latest is Trump's suggestion to cut the payroll tax. This is a backdoor way to kill Social Security (then "We can't afford it"). Did he originate this or did his wealthy ultra right wing backers suggest this? The answer is obvious.
The pandemic has ripped the veneer off of our capitalist nation. We do not have a nation, which is just OK for the elites, and the workers who buy the nonsense of American rugged individualism. We are nowhere and helpless because we do not have a political/economic philosophy. We need to do that first, and then everything else will follow. We absolutely need to deny the Democrat party of any political power as they are the firewall against real change.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
hi wizard
Agree. How?
Agree. How do we organize enough people? I am seriously looking for answers. Coalitions. You and I know there is not so much time now.
Take good care and have a good one.
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we've had plenty of time to figure it out. We must be dumb.
Crooks are crooked out in the open yet 96% of the people still line up with "their" crooks.
Plenty of good candidates run in elections yet they consistently lose. Why? We can talk about money and guns but then we have the question: "how do we solve this problem?" and it's 2020 and we still haven't come up with an answer.
When we read through history we see people who were just like us, who were outside the norm, who saw the same problem and who came up empty. And we haven't learned anything from them. Sad, isn't it?
Sorry...I'm bringing myself down!
For a start
the main stream media are simply propaganda machines, and a lot of money is spent on persuading us to vote for bad candidates. People struggle to get by, and it is a lot to ask of people to go beyond the stream of propaganda they are deluged with.
This is not accidental. The Powell memo in 1971 was a call to reinstate corporate dominance (although using nicer terms) by taking over positions of real power. Corporate interests have very intelligently taken over the country. They have taken over the media, taken over much of organized religion, created "think tanks" that are nothing but PR firms for corporate capitalism, consolidated their control of the security establishment, etc. They also took over the Democratic Party. The left was marginalized and battle lines were drawn around things that are of secondary or no consequence to the corporate capitalists except as tools to divide people, like gay rights, abortion, race and guns.
hi rb
Excellent points. If you are not organizing money and people, you are not organizing.
They are consummate organizers. Control the agenda setting organizations and you win.
Take good care and have a good one.
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hi shahryar
Maybe not dumb. But it appears that homo sapiens sapiens are not able to plan ahead unless they are oligarchs. How is it that they have all the money and power?
Regarding guns, both Canada and New Zealand did it in days. So what is different about us. I have way more questions than answers at this point. Thanks for you thoughts.
Take good care and have a good one.
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End of Russiagate?
.
DOJ drops case against Trump adviser Flynn that started ‘witch hunt’
Good. Now heads must roll for those who tried to entrap Flynn on false pretenses of working with Russia while ignoring the fact that Israel actually DID INTERFERE WITH THE ELECTION and has been doing so for decades.
Much more information here
Heh Heh I just checked DK and heads are flipping off right and left.
- increasingly bizarre claims of agency wrongdoing.
- “Meh” is one of the stupidest internet thingies. It suggests people are all morans. We are not.
Guess no one watched the hearing when Horowitz ripped the FBI for LYING to the FISA court to get its warrants on Carter Page and when he said that he was working for the CIA at the time, not Russia.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
hi snoop
Thanks for the Russiagate info and the link. Such a boondoggle.
Take good care and have a good one.
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To the true believers
this will just be evidence of Barr's corruption. I have thought for ages that the US security establishment (Brennan, Clapper, Nuland, Comey, etc.) tried to rig the 2016 Presidential election in favor of Clinton, but Israel tried to rig it for Trump. Russia did nothing in an organized fashion, but some of the boys and girls at the Internet Research Agency probably had some fun creating political clickbait (including sending people to non-existent rallies). The idea of John Brennan or Benyamin Netanyahu selecting the President scares the hell of me.
So true
Take a look at what the professional Russia Gaters are saying. I respond to the ones on Twitter by asking them if they thought Horowitz was lying when he said that the FBI lied to the FISA court to get warrants. And if the court didn’t actually get ticked that they did that. I swear people really can stay blind when they hear the truth just because they believe something else.,
Strzok and Page should be charged for doing this, but let’s remember that McCabe got away with lying to the FBI about leaking stories to the media. Now ain’t that some irony for ya?
Yeah no kidding huh? Shivers.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Put that way, Clinton v Trump
makes total sense. Except I'm not sure why Bibi didn't sync with the Clintons, but I guess when you're that extreme, any little thing could alienate you from people.
but yeah: John Brennan=Clinton
and Benjamin Netanyahu=Trump
That's why we had the two least popular candidates since we started recording these things emerge from the primary "fray," which I guess wasn't real. Hell, even the Democrats' lawyers admit that their primary isn't real.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Everyone is raising good points, even when they are in some
disagreement.
Lookout sees the power of money, Cass sees the power of labor, and Ranting Rooster sees the futility of protest, and all are valid, and how do we organize with machine guns in our faces? Or do we turn it over to the universe to do the right thing?
I mentioned the Mexican method her last year, the method the majority (poor people) voted in Amlo.
Do not work. Do not consume. Do not pay taxes. Sit side by side
with your arms joined with other, sit in the roads, the sidewalks, just shut down the country.
Not working doesn't take a plan when you are unemployed anyway.
You do not pay taxes when you do not have income.
You do not pay local or state taxes when you do not consume.
This is similar to gilet jaune tactics.
The vote in Mexico is paper, more honest than our elections.
The Amlo election was perhaps not the kind of election we could expect here. (Think: Bernie.)
Joining in the not working/not spending actually started co-ops in Mexico. The people took care of each other.
They did have the hope of Amlo.
We have no inspirational figure here at all.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
afternoon otc
We could learn from the gillet jeaunes, from the Zapatistas, lots of others. Getting a majority of people to recognize this and act on it is the gating factor. I think the time is ripe. Great comment.
Take good care and have a good one.
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Michael Moore's rebuttle facebook 6 May
We are in a planetary emergency.
And I’m not talking about the coronavirus. Viruses are part of nature. This is their planet, too. They are a form of life. And like another species I know well, they are killers. The current pandemic is simply acting as a gentle warning from Mother Nature. Gentle?? Over 3 million infected worldwide, and a quarter million dead? Gentle?
Yes, it is truly awful. But take it as the Earth’s slap on our collective face: nature telling our species to back off, slow down and change your ways.
For many years, we have been in the middle of what scientists call the world’s Sixth Extinction Event. This planet can remove us all in a snap of its fingers. Thank god it doesn’t have fingers. Nonetheless, if you think Covid-19 has been a bummer, well, trust me, you literally can’t imagine just how awful Earth’s revenge is going to be against us for trying to choke it to fucking death.
Yes, we are in a serious, multi-level planetary emergency - and it involves climate, water, food, topsoil, overconsumption, missing species, ocean life and humans. Mostly humans, and our various nonsensical greed-induced behaviors and systems.
Now for the bad news. Many of the people and organizations who are working hard to save us, aren’t. It’s not that they haven’t tried. They have. And we are proud of them and ourselves and all the the work we’ve done in the environmental movement. We are very grateful to our environmental leaders. Brilliant research, writings, protests, successes.
Except it hasn’t worked. The climate battle has been lost or it’s being lost. We all know that we are WORSE off since the first Earth Day 50 years ago. Here’s what’s been achieved since 1970:
90% of the large fish (cod, halibut, salmon, etc) in the oceans are gone. We ate them.
60% of all the mammals are gone - and 95% of the mammals that are left are either humans, our pets, or our dinner.
Somewhere between 2,000 and 10,000 species are going extinct every year;
We have lost HALF of all our topsoil. Some predict it will all be gone in 60 years. It takes 1,000 years to regenerate just three centimeters of new topsoil;
Of the Earth’s 37 main aquifer systems (our underground fresh water), 21 of them are at near-collapse.
We lost 1.2 billion acres of rainforest in 2018. In just one year.
We were not supposed to go above 350 parts per million of the carbon we spew into our atmosphere. We are now at 415. Which means we are beyond the point of no return.
We will have no chance of even coming close to halting the coming collapse if we cannot first admit we have failed. We can no longer solar panel and windmill our way out of this disaster. I’m so sorry I have to say this, but friends, we are no longer on the right road. And if we don’t change course immediately, if we’re too proud to ask for directions, new directions, to start a bold new discussion of what must be done - and do so without “green” hedge fund managers at the table - then we might as well keep driving this electric Buick off the cliff.
I cannot remain silent about this any longer. I’ve devoted myself to the environmental movement since I was a teenager. I was part of the first Earth Day. I was 15 and had just made my first documentary with the exciting title, “Pollution in My Hometown.” It was my Eagle Scout project where I showed all the businesses that were poisoning our air and water. It deeply upset the local Chamber of Commerce and they tried to stop me from showing it around town at the churches and schools and Kiwanis clubs. Six years later I started my own alternative newspaper, “The Flint Voice.” One of our first cover stories was entitled, “Here Comes the Sun,” my full-fledged effort to get Michigan — a state in which only one in four days each year is considered “sunny” — to go solar. The next year I founded the Huron Alliance, a Flint-based anti-nuclear group. We organized massive demonstrations to block the building of the Dow Nuclear plant in Midland, Michigan. Remarkably we were successful in its cancellation.
All of that took place before I was 23-years old. I’ve spent the rest of my adult life trying to figure out how to stop those who are hell-bent on destroying our home, the Earth. I also came to sadly see that some of the Earth’s worst enemies were the people who claimed to be on our side but couldn’t resist taking corporate money, thinking this would help the cause. It hurt the cause. I began to believe little of what we were being fed. I subscribed to the motto of investigative journalist I. F. Stone: “All governments (and corporations) are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.” But soon after I started my newspaper, I had to confront some awful truths that I truly didn’t want to acknowledge: that some activist groups I supported, and some liberals who were my good friends and allies, were not always doing good for the people. Often they were well-intentioned, or occasionally misguided, or just simply wrong. And a few were up to no good. I saw unions hop into bed with management. I covered Democrats who were really Republicans. In my last film I called out Barack Obama for going to Flint and pretending to drink Flint water and telling people that their tainted water was safe — when it wasn’t. I love Obama. But there’s the rub of my quasi-lonely life as a citizen and filmmaker: I will never, ever cover for anyone who’s not doing right by the people, who is harming the least among us, who, even with good intentions, has contributed to the eventual death of this planet.
And now, 50 years after that first Earth Day, I have to stand here and tell you, with my support of Jeff Gibbs’ film, that we must ask the difficult questions of the people we love on our side of the political divide: Is “green” capitalism really our savior? Are we being manipulated with fear and forced anxiety so that we will buy more, more, more? To what ends? When the pandemic is over, do you want to go back to the old way of being wage-slaves, no real power over your own lives, accepting that the democracy is probably over, that you’re no longer citizens, you’re simply consumers, and that your contribution to the Earth’s decline is to continually feed the beast.
It is amazing that we have all put up with this for so long, and that we have been afraid to admit our losing record on our precious environment. Something has to change. And it has to change now.
Planet of the Humans has no personal bone to pick with anyone. We’ve all messed up and we’ve all been on the wrong road. What’s our way out? Besides planting a billion trees (yes!), ending capitalism/greed/the 1%, nationalizing the energy companies as a matter of national security, bring back teaching civics in our schools, instituting a guaranteed annual income, universal health care, and free child care — and how about we apologize to our children, our students, our young adults under 40 for the Destroyed Earth we’ve handed them and then let them lead us out of this madness. The youth have already risen up to create the new movements we desperately need. We, the adults, the lifelong environmentalists, have failed to stop climate change. The Western world uses too much crap, too much energy and eats too many cows and chickens. As Greta rightfully, angrily said to us adults: “You have stolen our future! You have stolen our youth!” Indeed we have. I’ve admitted it. I want the rest of the movement to admit it, too.
I am most heartened and encouraged by the bull’s-eye focus of youth-led movements on the real target. I totally agree with Greta’s condemnation, "People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosytems are collapsing. We are at the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”
I think that she was not just directing that at the oil, gas and coal industry. I believe she’s aiming it, rightly so, at all of us. Many on our side have told us that capitalism is the solution to the problem it created. That strategy has failed. While decimating the planet is “good business,” it is bad for the people and all the living creatures on it.
I urge you to join me in committing to support and fight alongside the Student Strike for Climate, Sunrise Movement, Black Lives Matter, March for Our Lives, Women’s March, Extinction Rebellion, etc. to change this world immediately. We need new blood! Fresh ideas! People who won’t be co-opted! We must commit to following their lead. Some of our beloved environmental leaders may have to step aside and help in other ways. We need these young people to do what we haven't had the guts to do: Slam the door shut on the “green capitalism” that funds and poisons the movement. The youth will refuse to participate in the eco-industrial complex. Let them lead!
That’s not a lot to ask for if it means that Mother Nature gives us one last chance to get it right. I’m hoping she sees, as I do, that the kids are all right.
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Great screed magi
Your passion is inspiring!
Thanks
Rx: ditch identity politics—which just divides the working class
Remove the barriers and inhibitions to “Left” populists and “Right” populists teaming up.
Seems like most of what claims to be “Left” today is a PMC (professional-managerial class)-dominated construct, rooted more in academia than among genuine workers—many of whom are the “POC” they claim to speak for, but many of whom are also the opioid-plagued desperate white deplorables they scorn.
The German Greens have certainly morphed into a cosmopolitan PMC urban elite with zero understanding of ordinary less-educated folk in the de-industrialized and/or depopulated eastern regions.
“Right” populism is only trending in Western countries because the “Left” populists never showed up for the contest. Instead of contending for all workers’ interests, the latter prefer to lecture the already overstressed majority of the working class on how insensitively sexist, racist, misogynist, antisemitic, and this-or-that-phobic it is being, taxing it with the prospect of paying reparations and so forth to sundry groups and claimants.
Note that I didn’t come up with this analysis myself—the above is just my attempt to put in my own words what I got out of this piece by a Swedish leftist, linked at Naked Capitalism / Water Cooler today:
https://tinkzorg.wordpress.com/2020/05/07/on-strasserism-and-the-decay-o...
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/05/200pm-water-cooler-5-6-2020-2.html
Political action on the climate ought to benefit the working class, not further burden it with yet another layer of regulations as impenetrable and gamed in elites’ favor as the U.S. or German tax code; yet another layer of PMC compliance officers, trainers, bureaucrats, and consultants. The costs should be borne by the class that profited from the earth’s destruction, starting with the billionaires. Let the capitalist class return to the earth the wealth they raped from it, eh? But of course the elites that meet at Davos will arrange for all the expense of environmental turnaround, if it ever happens, to come out of workers’ pockets.
Late hello, lotlizard
Great comment. Thanks for the links. So much to process and so little time.
Take good care and have a good one.
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