At long last, I simply do not care
I've come to the conclusion that the corner of the internet into which I have been shoved is the practical equivalent of a fantasy role playing game. That is, my impact on politics in the real world from posting here (and c99p is the best) is about the equal of the impact I would have playing Fortnite. That is, zero. This lack of impact has been caused by the purchase and consolidation of both news outlets and political parties by the billionaire class. In case you hadn't noticed, this is no longer a democracy. Public opinion only matters these days when they're burning automobiles and trashing stores.
Today, the Empire is out in the open with the fact that the corporate media are nothing but propaganda shops. The "news" that is offered to the public proves it. For example, since its remake a year or so ago, Google's newsfeed is a bowdlerized pile of pap and scaremongering. I can't block Entertainment or Sports. The Technology section is nothing more than product placements for useless/dangerous tech crap like Alexa. The Health section blows up every case of the measles into the Black Plague.
Skipping Google's subtlety, Facebook and Twitter are openly censoring and deplatforming people, using inputs from far right black propaganda shops like the Atlantic Council and New Knowledge.
Its also obvious that our political system is owned by the billionaire class who see America as just another shitty country to be looted. Its that attitude which drives the propaganda campaigns, which include the bipartisan Forever War of the US MIC and its coup in Venezuela, the floundering Russiagate/Skripal nonsense, the unending brawl about Trump's Wall, the avoidance of impeaching Trump for real cause - like violating international law, the blackout on the Yellow Vest movement, the continued denial/avoidance of Climate Change, and the promotion of fake liberals like Harris and Booker, coupled with the demonization of genuinely center-left politicos like Sanders and Gabbard.
The instantaneous, coordinated trashing of Gabbard and the instantaneous twitter pushback should have heartened me, should have made me feel there was some hope. Instead, a random posting in the sewer that is the comments section on Zero Hedge was what resonated with me.
Lol @ all the fuckwits discussing candidates as if they themselves have a voice or matter a damn to the Empire steering committee. It's hilariously delusional.
medium giraffe @ ZH
My intellect fought with my gut feelings, and my gut won. This guy is right. We simply do not matter. And because the media is nothing but propaganda, we are arguing based on tainted information. Further, the outcome of our argument will have no impact. Having watched Bernie almost upset the billionaire applecart in 2016, TPTB have increased their vigilance and proactive sabotage of even slightly left-leaning candidates. We are seeing that already.
Case in point, the current Great White Hope (a boxing reference, not a racist comment.), Tulsi Gabbard. Of course, we all recognize the attempt to smear her right out of the race. The same treatment is being applied to Bernie who, at least, is a truly known, albeit, damaged human being.
However, the (genuinely rabid) conspiracy nuts at ZH keep pointing to Tulsi's membership in the Council on Foreign Relations - the original Establishment club - and asking whether her entire persona isn't a carefully crafted legend. Of course, such a legend would be way more credible than "community organizer" Obama or "Cop-mala" Harris or Wall St./Charter School whore, Booker. Tulsi actually went to Iraq and was on the front lines as a medic, IIRC. But, the media is so corrupt, and the (now legal) domestic psyops so sophisticated, that I have to admit the ZH CTers have planted a seed of doubt.
But, to return to the topic of this essay, none of this really matters. And all of it has become as convoluted, inconsistent, and unresolvable as a TV soap opera. It is all a sideshow, an endless distraction, while the Empire continues to steal anything left of value in the United States, and now the entire Western hemisphere. I look back over literally decades of posts that have accomplished absolutely nothing. When I actually involved myself in politics, volunteering for Howard Dean and Bernie Sanders, I fell for the "ghost dance" that forms the core of the non-radicalized left in America today.
I think that I'm finally viscreally feeling what I knew intellectually years ago. Chris Floyd summed it up best:
Modern politics can be hard to fathom, a bizarre mix of mind-bending complexities and bone-stupid banalities coming at us in a howling sandstorm of chaotic noise. How to sift the relentless, contradictory arcana of current events and make sense of it all? I find that a simple phrase helps thread the labyrinth – four little words that capture the grand, overarching political philosophy of the age:
Fuck Off And Die.
...To put it plainly, the elites don’t need us anymore -- or not many of us, anyway. And thanks to runaway population growth -- and the greasy mobility of global capital -- those few of us they do still need to keep the machinery going can be easily replaced, at any moment, by some other desperate chump trying to avoid destitution. So there is no longer any reason for elites to concern themselves with the wearisome creatures out there beyond the mansion gates and the penthouse glass. No need to worry about workers’ rights: if they get out of line, sack them, or even better, send the whole operation overseas, where sweatshop fodder is thick on the ground and comes dirt cheap. No need to worry about communities, the personal, social, economic and physical structures that gave a richer embodiment to ordinary life: just strip them, gut them and leave them to die -- and when the rot gets bad enough, as in Detroit, send in an unelected “manager” to pick the carcass clean.
And no need to worry about mass uprisings of the dispossessed, debt-ridden, insecure, angry, overwhelmed, isolated, media-dazed rabble. With hyper-militarized police forces, cameras on every corner, spies and provocateurs infesting every possible base of dissent, and gargantuan data-harvesters mining every public move and private click of the populace, repression is a piece of cake. And if by chance some pocket of protest does reach critical mass somewhere, your hi-tech, heavily armored goons can easily beat it, tase it and pepper-spray it into submission.
So the elites no longer need us or fear us. We are superfluous to their requirements. And their policies are now ever more nakedly geared to hammering this truth home.
Pay in Blood - May Day and Modern Politics
----
I feel like I have turned some kind of corner - a major corner for me. After five decades of political awareness, I feel that tracking the barrage of lies, propaganda, distraction, and celebrity cults is simply not worth the effort anymore.
What is worth the effort is preparing, on a personal basis for the impact of onrushing climate change, the implosion of the dollar, the looting of Social Security and Medicare, the erection of electronic surveillance and tollbooths across every aspect of our increasingly Panopticon society. The future is coming and it is really ugly. I'm going to check out that movement that calls for preserving knowledge in rural retreats, sort of like monasteries - so that when it all goes smash, there is some record to rebuild from the Nuclear Dark Age.
Perhaps this mood will pass, but for today I am done.
Comments
I feel ya.
I think 2016 was the end of a process for me that began in 2000. (I’m a slow learner, what can I say?) I used to “yeah, but” my way through arguments about how the Republicans and Democrats were two sides of the same coin. Even though I was one of those cursed Nader voters, I still had hope the Dems could get it together. As I watched the Gore v Bush fiasco, I just couldn’t believe my lying eyes that the Dems didn’t want to get it together. I know what I saw, but I just couldn’t accept it.
Fast forward to Obama. I wasn’t buying what he was selling but I remained cautiously optimistic that he would prove me wrong. A whole lot of people seemed to think he was the real deal. Well, eight years of 11th dimensional chess, winning by losing and keeping the powder dry put those thoughts out of my mind for good.
I doubt I even need to recap 2016. It’s pretty obvious to me Bernie was a fluke. I don’t think even he expected to catch fire as he did and once that fire started, all hands were on deck to tamp it down. They’d rather lose to Trump than win with a progressive.
Anymore, I still keep up on this stuff but I treat it like the pro wrestling equivalent it is. It’s all entertainment and I just can’t take it seriously. TPTB are going to get what they want and the only question is, will it be delivered with the stick or the carrot?
I’m trying to focus my energy on making my small plot of the world a better one. I’m trying to make time to voulnteer more. I’m researching more causes to donate to. I’m trying to focus more on just bringing more positivity into the world.
I know that sounds hokey, but I see how so much of politics is designed to keep the 99% fighting each other. Like you, I feel politics is a dead end so my resistance is to not give in to the negativity towards the people around me. I figure the only way things will ever change is if the rest of us look out for each other, because the politicians aren’t.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Back to "act locally, think globally"
Its important to go local, because we need to start all over from scratch. The elites have hijacked and neutered democracy at the national and political party level. The only politics that still works democratically is local - teacher's strikes, minimum wage laws, preventing environment destruction (e.g., California Delta project - thanks a lot, Governor Moonbeam).
At least locally, one can engage with the political actors, find out who they are, what they really believe - without the distorting intermediation of corporate media.
Amen!
I also think working at a local level helps people realize how much they truly have in common. That’s the way to make a difference, not othering people as the two parties do.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
I agree arendt
I was just discussing the same thing last night with a friend of mine. We both came to the same conclusion that you have stated ( they don't need us and they don't care about us ). So as frustrating and depressing as that is I will continue to keep on keepin on as they say. If nothing else I will keep spreading the word of what I learn here at c99 to anyone that will listen while preparing for that ugly future the best I can. On a side note I listened to Bernie's rebuttal of the SOTU address and he is still talking a good game, for the life of me I can't figure out why.
Stochastic camouflage
Its all part of what I call "stochastic camouflage". That is, in order to keep some fig leaf of credibility, each politician is given a "pass" to vote against TPTB on a certain number of non-critical issues. Those votes are then touted as the politico's "commitment" to his cause, while all the times he sold out are ignored. This game has been played in Congress for decades, as part of standard "logrolling".
In the end, just about any politician who is not a complete ideologue can compile a list of "good" things he has done.
Don't get me wrong. I think Bernie tries hard, and TPTB are wary enough of him that he can get away with these "gestures" that have no impact. But, IMHO, his and Schumer's bill to tie stock buybacks to corporate behavior is a deliberate sabotage. The only solution to buybacks is to make them illegal again, like they were until 1983.
The Buybacks bill is the stochastic flip side to his SOTU comments. People who still believe in politics are left to parse exactly where Bernie stands. Me, I know where he stands - he will do what he can, but he will constantly sell me out.
I've been there since 2016.
The last presidential election started me on my way to communal involvement. Local is my new pastime. I couldn't care less about the national political scene. I'm only concerned with local doings which I can make a greater effort at influencing.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
The one thing about local is...
in non-yuppie districts, most people don't have the time or the money to play local politics.
Local politics is as it always has been, the playground of real estate developers, local and state elites (rich folks), and well-funded rightwing agitprop groups.
The only people predicatably helpful at the local level are school teachers and nurses. Environmental groups often come off as privileged elitists to folks just barely getting by.
I think I've made a difference.
I'm a retired many things including nursing. Right now I'm working on my district regarding recreational marijuana shops.
As many know, the new legalization law permits district laws against facilities opening.
I'm already off to a good start to hopefully overrule such a law if it's proposed.
Damn strait.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Our political/economic system is a car crash
but car crashes are entertaining.
At least that is my attitude.
if it burns, it sells, wonder how entertaining that is
if you sit in the burning car, after it crashed.
Sigh. I am with Arendt. But as long as one is alive, one can be stubborn and pretend with the camouflage outfit that them heros "getting our rescue work done" properly.
https://www.euronews.com/live
...are entertaining. --- If you're not in the car.
Right now America is in Thelma and Louise mode, and have probably already driven off the cliff.
When it crashes at the bottom, you won't want to be in country because it is going to go primitive and nasty. Most people haven't a clue and live hand to mouth. Push is going to come to shove really fast. Only localities that have some semblance of organized democracy are going to survive.
If you are in the car then a car crash
is extremely exciting.
Either way, it's not dull and not something you'll want to tune out, even if you don't control the car.
That's all I'm saying.
It’s taken me my whole adult life
to reach a similar perspective regarding the reality of politics in the USA. The last few years I’ve teetered between grasping at straws of hope and complete hopelessness. What I’m feeling now is both a form of deep resignation and at the same time a new, and completely unexpected, sense of freedom.
Having resigned myself to the fact that our broken democracy will never succeed in voting its way out of its death spiral, I now find myself more available to inhabit the rest of my life with family, friends and neighbors, a realm where helping, sharing and loving stand on their our merits. We’re all in this together, starting at the local level.
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
Floyd nailed it didn't he
This is why our social safety net is going to be gutted as the elites continue stripping all the assets left before they move on to the next country. I read that this has been the plan for a very long time. This country will be hollowed out of every thing good and the corporations will just move into a new country to prop up.
Then there's all the silly crap that is on Twitter and Facebook to distract the masses from their crappy lives. After Obama broke up OWS few people have the guts to rise up again. A few brave souls have, but then they have been met with basically a military group and beaten down. What's happening with the BLM. Cops are still murdering blacks on a routine basis, but I haven't seen anyone protesting. But then maybe it's just not being covered?
This picture is making the rounds on Twitter, but like everything else it's bullshit because it's just a moment in time that doesn't show the whole picture. First look makes it seem that Nancy was smirking Trump, but watching the whole thing shows that she is actually congratulating him on his speech. She clapped when he said that the USA will never be socialist. In fact most of the capitalist pigs did.
I respond with this:
I don't care that Bernie is being called a Russian stooge because he's been pushing the Russia nonsense since it started.
Guess who else is on the CFR? None other than the new darling of the democrats. But guess what else? Stacey Adams. For those who don't know who she is, she gave the SOTU rebuttal last night.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
I knew she was rich, but $100 M?
In her Wikipedia bio, it never once mentions what her husband does/did for a living. It claims their money comes from "heavy investment in stocks"
This is starting to sound like LBJ - never had a private sector job but was a centi-millionaire in the 1960s. Can you say corruption/insider trading?
Also, her father was mayor of Baltimore - where corruption is a major pasttime.
And this filthy rich 79 year old is the leader of the Dems? No wonder politics is a joke.
Sure can
This is where DiFi's husband's wealth came from. Not insider trading, but she sent him lots of business through the years she's been grifting off her position in congress. Congress should have to disclose everything that they get for "representing" us. Just how much do their perks cost us every year? It's much more than $174,000 that's for sure. And I think Nancy's Wikipedia page needs updating. She definitely has more than it's showing.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
Will Twitter ban this user?
Griffin got lots of crap piled on her when she posted the picture of her after cutting off Trump's head so I want to see what happens here with this.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
In her defense,
Nancy is a lot poorer than most of her core constituency.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
I'd disagree
In aggregate we have impact, just not always in the ways we choose. A lot of the impact is unexpected and occurs irregularly, but it's there. Keep at it, we all should.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Yes, keep at it; but skip national politics and the duopoly
Its organization that moves things. Local teachers unions. Local environmentalists, who can become a national focus like the Dakota Access Pipeline without involving the national parties. (Note that the Dems did ZERO to help the DAP from being assaulted.) Local nurses actions against for profit hospital corner cutting that puts patients lives at risk.
Occupy Everywhere n/t
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
"Conspiracy nuts" for pointing out Gabbard's membership
in the CFR? I guess I need to shut up about that around here. Of course, I knew that but haven't been able to help myself.
As far as not caring, entirely up to you. It's kind of like the parents of murdered children. Some people remain angry and seek justice til the last day of their lives. Others can't handle it for some reason and let it go. Some even forgive the killers.
But I think part of your essay made the case that we can't not care, at least not all of us. Like the famous lines from the movie network, "first you have to get mad", what the people at the top have done and are doing requires justice and they have to be stopped. I have six grand kids now, most who will live this entire century. Damned if I'm going to stop at least trying to do something to stop these fuckers from robbing and killing everybody. They're killing people as we type, some of us can not NOT care.
When I get frustrated, all I have to do is go read a couple articles about what they're doing to people around this planet and I can't help but get mad. And I can't help but want to do something about it. But you're right, it won't happen here at this blog or any blog.
Relative to Gabbard, a democratic party politician, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, one of the most evil organizations on the planet directly responsible for much of the imperialist foreign policies and wars over the last nearly 100 years, you call those who point that out "conspiracy nuts" and point out her smearing as an example of why we can't do anything about our plight? Well, I'm one of those conspiracy nuts pointing out that this democratic party politician is a member of the CFR and that it is a strong indicator that she is nothing but another Obama like politician who can say pretty things in between the truth (like her supporting the war OF terror) and people will fall for it every time. We don't need the same bullshit, we need radical change.
I think by using the supposed smearing of a dem party politician as one of your disappointments and calling those who criticize said dem party politician conspiracy "nuts", as well as using said dem party politician's experience in the oligarchy's military as a positive marker, as a possible answer to our troubles (if only they'd give her a chance and not smear her?) seems contrary to your overall position.
Re: Gabbard
I'm sorry. I didn't make my position clear.
If she's a CFR member, she is highly suspect. Its just that I had to go to a CT site, like the comments section of ZH, to even have that pointed out.
So, contrary to what it sounded like, I recognize that CT is always potentially true and must be taken seriously. I believe in a lot of CTs, starting from JFK onwards. You just have to take them on a case by case basis and watch out for traps set to discredit genuine CTs.
There’s no “if” — she is a CFR member
According to their own membership roster.
https://www.cfr.org/membership-roster-g-k
I actually learned about her involvement with CFR right here at c99% — thanks to Big Al mentioning it several months ago.
(Side note: George Clooney is also a member. Scanning the roster of members is interesting.)
Anyway, that was just for reference.
I’m right there with you on the pointlessness of duopoly politics.
George Clooney, another complete disappointment
He seemed to be on a career arc from TV to Cohen Brothers movies, to his own serious movies (Syriana).
Then he turns out to be a major neoliberal dude, whose Tequila company somehow is worth a billion dollars? A billion fucking dollars for another brand of hootch? Something doesn't smell right about that.
Wow was I unclear
Once again, I find the CFR membership extremely disqualifying.
As for her military experience, its damned if you do and damned if you don't. The right blows off non-veterans as cowards or wimps. But, if one joins the military, the left blows you off as some kind of fascist. If the lines are that rigid, there will never be any dialogue.
As I said a few days ago, I vote for policies, not personalities. Anyone criticising our out of control military will get a listen from me. I will repeat good arguments wherever they originate. That doesn't mean I vote for the person who made them.
I really feel like you are creating distance here out of misunderstanding me. Not your fault. I was unclear.
Understand,
fwiw, I've pointed it out here many times, first in an essay in late 2016. I'm a little sensitive to the topic of conspiracy theories, seen it used too many times as a barrier to the truth.
Talk about wanting to give it up, the continued hope placed on duopoly politicians and the lack of interest in changing this political system works pretty good on me. But like I said, then I read something about what "they've" done and I go right back to wanting to take the bastards down.
As for military service,
many on the left like to use it for or against whatever they're arguing. In Gabbard's case, they're playing her service up as a means to bolster her supposed "antiwar" cred, like her service, particularly as a medic, shows that she knows the true costs of war, therefore she's against war. Of course, that's bullshit. But if it's a republican politician, then it shows they're a warmonger imperialist. But if they didn't serve, like Trump, then they're criticized for that.
As a veteran, I reject all of it. Like Smedley Butler said and the bottom line, we were nothing but gangsters for capitalists.
The volunteer army
Ever since they made the army all volunteer, I completely agree. Before then, there were draftees.
But, the volunteer army? Gang-bangers looking to get training to take back to the hood. Mercenary wannabees who want to do a tour of duty and then cash out to scum like Blackwater or whatever those murderers call themselves these days. Today's army members have no excuse.
But, the rest of the country is completely brainwashed. Sporting events increasingly resemble Nuremberg rallies. Movies constantly stereotype our "brave" soldiers and CIA gangsters.
If you said what you just said in a public forum, you wouldn't find many willing to defend the truth you are speaking.
Not all volunteers are warmongers.
Since our owners now require massive debt to get an education many join for money to go to school. I did, although my own GI Bill covered most of mine, it would not anymore. My own niece is Air Force, I hate what she does now more than ever. But I also know why they do it, and how badly many would rather not have to. Not fair to lump them all in as unrepentant warmongers. It's the shitty policies that make many make that choice, just like shitty policies that produce many of those bangers...
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
I recognize what you say is true
but what can I say?
Its sort of like being in a Communist country and joining the party to get ahead. I understood why people did that under Communism. Same reason as here. There were no other equally good or better choices on offer to the bottom 80%.
I don't want to think of my country being as ideologically awful a place as the old Soviet Union, but its headed more that way every day.
Just like to say
that it doesn't matter what the intentions were, volunteer, drafted, whatever, we were all the Butleresque "gangsters for capitalism". That's why this country has this huge military, to protect "American interests", which of course isn't necessarily all of our interests but those of the big banks and corporations, thus the gangsters for capitalism label. The amazing thing to me is Butler was describing his experiences of the late 1800's, early 1900's, particularly in South America. Now look what's happening in Venezuela (which has actually been happening for 17 years like the other neocon wars). And look what's happening with the American people. They still don't know shit.
After Obama I don't understand why people would believe
anything a politician says. Was it Shar... here who said that he ruined it for everyone who comes after him? That people still don't see how much damage Obama did in 8 years is just damn mind boggling. And this goes for the people who think Trump is destroying the country. Nah. He's just continuing the things that were started long ago. But damn if he isn't doing a lot of damage to the environment with his letting corporations do whatever the hell they want. And I still haven't heard one democrat speak out about this.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
Yeah, Obama, the Empty Suit, Mr. Bait and Switch
The big money boys at the DLC/DNC took over the party with Bill Clinton in 1992. The Dems have been nothing but neoliberal wolves in sheep's clothing ever since. A 25-year bustout on the good reputation of liberals and the party of FDR. They trashed it.
Then, Obama, who was even slicker than Clinton. Nobel prize before he ever did anything. That really killed the Peace Prize for me.
So, I really am not about to be swept away by a few words from Gabbard. I have also long since made up my mind that AOC is another corporate plant. But, you can hardly offer a 28 year old part-time bartender admission to the CFR after only six months on the public scene. You have to wait until a billion dollars of free publicity raises her up to that level. Give it a year.
Seems alot of people are believing what
Tulsi Gabbard is saying, even to the point of calling her antiwar even though she's a strong supporter of the fake war on terror. So believe it, nothing changes.
Fuck off and die. Sums up
the attitude of our owners perfectly. While I won't yet look totally away, not real sure I could do that, I see more and more every day politics is simply a marketing scheme. Pick your product and go all in for it. Relentlessly bring up the defects of the other product but never look really close at that piece of shit you just bought. And keep that outrage going every day and pretend that in the end the shitty product is really going to get better.
It's a great diversion from the theft our owners have always gotten away with and I completely agree, they've tapped out this country and will only use us to prop up a shitty product for the rubes who haven't seen through them yet. They want every single thing any of us might have and they'll not stop until they get it. WWIII and nukes might be necessary and I really do think these people are insane enough to think they'll somehow survive it and come out on top of the product pile. They are insane. And I am every bit as cynical as you are now. I find myself always looking at them as props in a game we're all supposed to play and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
I gave up on politics...
for the same reason I gave up video games. In the end, I realized that nothing I did mattered in meat space.
SO, went to the library today and my therapist. The two places where things make sense to me. Got books on Flint Knapping, Hand tool Gunsmithing, and Blacksmithing. Also did a bunch of research into the history of the Wheel Lock pistol/rifle. Because it's interesting and fun to pick over the discarded pieces of the past.
The rich have become insects, squatting in their hives, and expecting the drones to serve their every whim. Let them eat gold if they can.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Well, this is all very encouraging...
makes me wonder what the hell I'm doing this for.
Because truth-telling is a good in itself.
This site is a bastion, a rebel base. Not in the political fight, but in the fight over human perception. Those two fights intersect, so it's easy to confuse them. One of them has not been won by the elites. We are in that fight.
There are other things we could use this site for, but we would have to put more energy into it than simply showing up and reading or talking.
"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
I'm in the position...
to see first hand the consequences of negativity. Folks are giving up, folks are leaving, operational funding is drying up, two more monthly accounts were cancelled today. It is existential.
What do you mean by the negativity?
It's on this blog or the negativity happening in the world? I know quite a few people who have stopped doing anything related to politics since the way the last election went. After Bush and then after Obama not doing anything about the global economic crash and then what happened during the primary people have seen how corrupt things are and how they can't do anything about it.
But you'd think that crashing the global economy by committing fraud would cost people something wouldn't you? Instead it cost some people everything, but those that did the deed got bailed out to a tune of $16 trillion. Think about that number and ask what good it could have done for us regular Joe's. "I'm the only thing standing between you and pitchforks."
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
As always...
and always will be, my primary concern is with the health of this site.
I appreciate your efforts...
perhaps the political system has failed, but we continue to need a means of communication to build a survival network. Thanks for keeping on keeping on. Onward through the fog.
Perhaps we should change the focus of the conversation to survival? Between climate and political collapse we may need a venue of exchange? Politics seems a dead end. Are there more fruitful ways to move forward? I think so.
I for one thank JtC for his efforts to keep the conversation flowing.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
@ JtC - existential for keeping up this site running
JtC, may be, you underestimate the stupidity or laziness of readers here at C99p. At least I know I am one of them.
I don't like paypal. But if I want to make monthly donations to C99p, I am forced to use paypal. So, once I was mad and I actually seem to have been capable of cancelling my paypal account. In addition I have forgotten, if I paid still on a monthly basis or not, or if the payments didn't come through, because my paypal account doesn't serve me anymore.
I tried to get my paypal newly set up, but that didn't work either, because them paypal people did set up their website without giving people who live outside the US a method to put in their address from overseas. In their smartiness they think, if you ain't liveing in the good ol US of A, you don't count. Can't put in another country or another country's zip code. So, I say, ... well nothing, my mom told me that my thoughts are free, but not my words.
Anyhow I wished there were another way of setting up a monthly donation, not using paypal, for whom them foreigners don't seem to exist. Many website designers forget to put on their sign-up pages methods to put in an address for people living overseas. There needs to be a choice of country and in addtion a choice for US states and their zip codes. Germany has something like zip codes, but their format is different from the US ones and if I can't tell them from which country my address is, I am cut out of the game, because my ZIP is also not accepted. The same thing is true for telephone numbers, especially mobile ones. You just can't put them into their web pages, when you try to sign up for an account.
I have talked to other Germans, who lived and worked a long time in the US and returned in their older age to Germany. They all kept a US address and and their US telephone numbers, because otherwise they feel they would have been electronically disabled for many activities on the intertubes. Seems to be true.
Lordy, is life wonderful, or what?
https://www.euronews.com/live
Mimi, send a check or use a bank card to send payments.
click on the donation button to see choices of payment methods.
hmmm ... thank you ... I can read a little at least ....
1. We don't have checks in Germany the way you have them in the US.
2. I was talking about recurring donations to c99p, they force you to use paypal.
3. I don't want to use paypal
4. paypal wants a US address and a US telephone.
5. I don't have my own US address and US telephone anymore.
6. So I get frustrated ... you understand, right?
https://www.euronews.com/live
Yes, I do understand your frustration, Mimi.
I hope you can find a way that works for you to send money to Jtc.
oh, I always can, no worries, and I do /nt
https://www.euronews.com/live
Monthly accounts? Do you mean donations, or
something else?
"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
Apologies. I thought about you, but I felt...
this was more honest than keeping my feelings to myself and being a hypocrite.
I still think there is a place for blogs like this. They just need to remind themselves constantly that the real-world action is local, and that national outcomes favorable to the 99% come from local organizing, not from throwing our few coins into national duopoly races.
I wrote this because I felt that the focus on the Kamala Haris, SOTU, the ongoing Russiagate nonsense, Brexit, etc. was scattering our resources. Blurring our focus. Perhaps we could have a separate category for sharing ideas about local politics, instead of just General Discussion. I don't know how that fits with your philosophy of the site.
The basic issues of neoliberalism and neoconservatism do show up at the local level. Every cut to social programs can be traced back to neoliberal politicians. They need to be named and shamed locally. Our recently militarized police are the result of neoconservative machinations to bring Israeli tech and training to the US. That is hard to trace on the local level, but the fact that prison spending outpaces school spending is a place to start. The Unitarian Church has had a prison-outreach program for decades. The public is waking up to the evils of a huge prison population, witness the Florida referendum to give the vote back to prisoners who have served their time.
Any way, I respect what you are doing here. I just feel temporarily defeated at the national level.
I haven't given up.
Just because some have stopped supporting the national stage show, doesn't mean they've stopped making a difference in their local political affairs.
This site is invaluable in gaining insight to how others feel and applying that to everyday political decisions.
Don't give up.
[video:https://youtu.be/wZCPiTf721w]
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
I find that truth-telling is a good in itself.
As I've said elsewhere, there are two fights going on, and one of them hasn't been fully won: the battle for control of human perception. I'm still fighting that battle. Can't stop, apparently. There are reasons for that, both personal and professional.
"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
Yeah, I really need to collect all of Caitlin Johnstone's...
pieces on "controlling the narrative".
It is about perception; and, to retroactively try to justify my pessimism, figuring out that all these national issue fights highlighted by the corporate-media are just wasting my time.
Shake things up in Germany?
It’s terrible, but in the absence of a Yellow Vest movement here, at the moment probably the most anti-establishment thing a person can do in terms of parliamentary politics is, visit the local right-wing populist “Stammtisch” in their neighborhood and get to know those people.
A strong populist showing in the upcoming E.U. election this May is one of the few things ordinary citizens with no voice can bring about, but German Atlantic Council types truly fear.
Had to google stammtisch
Is it originally rightwing? Or is that something new?
The link I read said "politics is discussed", but it did not give it a partisan coloring.
Old social-cultural phenomenon, not esp. right-wing or political
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stammtisch
so, my 'Stammtisch' is C99p, right?
or is it my neighborhood 'Kneipe', or my 'Pub', where everbody knows my name?
May it's the place where I go, drink my favorite Kool-Aid, get drunk, fall asleep and wake up in the morning to realize with a head-ache that appently I didn't sleep in my bed...
I like your precision in finding the correct links to explain something that confuses me.
Peace.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Welcome to the
'fuck you' tribe.
When they display TDS
When they scream russia
When they quote MIISC
When they defend the fbi
When they promote ever more war
When the bullshit just gets too deep
I have to tell 'em, fuck you.
Good piece, you ain't alone.
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
We need this place
Here we learn and share truths. I am convinced we do have an impact, probably more of one than we can guess. We talk to others. They talk to others. It spreads like ripples in still water when a rock is thrown in.
You are correct. It does.
Mostly a reader and late to this essay but today am sending another donation in appreciation of this site and in all the forms in which it manifests itself thanks to so many great writers and the leadership JtC.
Sirena
I thought about this all night.
I can see you are discouraged. Makes sense. We all are sometimes. But I think you are wrong. Things change, sometimes suddenly.
I want to mention Bernie Sanders. Regardless of what you think about him, there are some facts. He ran for president. He had rallies all over the country, attended by hundreds of thousands of people in total, at least. Many of his most enthisiastic supporters were young people. They have not forgotten what he said. They have not stopped wanting those things.
People are struggling. On the surface, it appears that little has changed. But it only takes a spark to start a fire. There is much smoldering in people's minds. I cannot guess what event or combination of events might set in motion the major changes we long to see.
I want to remind you of something. Police and military people are people. I do not believe they will shoot their mother, brother, neighbor who is protesting. The circumstances that set off a major uprising may have many of them just not obeying superiors or even joining us. Just as we have relatives who are Fox believers, they have relatives like us.
I'm sorry if this sounds all Pollyanna. I am not eloquent. And I feel hopeless too sometimes. But Damn it. I am not giving up! I have 8 grandkids who will live in the his world long after me. They deserve for me to fight, in whatever way I can, for them to have a future. So do all the other kids.
Discouraged is not the way I feel...
I feel that national politics has become hallucinogenic. It does not discuss reality, but rather discusses manufactured nonsense. TPTB have decided that they will just make politics completely irrelevant by making the national political discourse insane. Trump is perfect for that, so is Russiagate, so is the unending parade of Identity Politics witchhunts. Those three insane discussions preempt any meaningful national discourse.
The second gambit at the national level is to insert absolutely fake leftists to hijack any genuinely left conversation. We are all aware of clowns like Booker and Harris claiming to be "liberals" when they are really corporate bootlickers. Further, as I have opined on many occasions here, AOC is a plant. She is given more free publicity than Dems who have proven their worth for decades. She is given credit for the Green Party's Green New Deal. The fawning over her every utterance makes me ill.
Regarding Bernie, the people surprised everyone, not just Bernie. The people know they're being screwed, and they know about the hallucinogenic politics. But Bernie caved. I've been over that ground many times. People are on edge - because they watch their country, their life savings, their children's prospects being flushed down the drain. There is motivation for change; but the party apparatus twists all that into IdPol, into Russiagate, into immigrant hating, into bigger defense budgets because danger.
For all of the above, I am simply deciding not to waste my breath at the national level. Its time for the left to admit that the duopoly is Whigs(Dems) and Tories(GOP), with no one standing up for labor.
The only "victories" the left has had have been at the local level. Teacher strikes, nurses strikes, one day walkouts for $15/hr, blocking the Dakota Pipeline. These have actually produced results, instead of talking head gabble on the corporate media.
I feel like I am refocusing. I'm going where the victories happen. I feel the need to connect with flesh and blood people, local people, to build local solidarity on local issues. We have to re-organize the left from the ground up, and keep out the corporate money and the corporate weasels. Obama started out as a weasel, a "community organizer". We desperately need to build an organization free of such Cointelpro saboteurs and spies.