Resistance and Solidarity
Election fever season seems to be heating up to a level unprecedented in recent cycles and the hype is getting pretty thick relative to the significance of the election.
Not that you asked for my opinion, but, this is probably the least important election of my lifetime. That is not to say that other events are not consequential, we live in precarious times with the sands of change shifting under our feet. The thing is, it's quite unlikely that this election will make any difference in addressing the urgent situations that humankind is facing.
We have gotten to the point in the cycle where we can say that (excluding the occurance of a miracle) the winner of the election will either be an unhinged, deeply corrupt, war-mongering, McCarthyite, racist, austerity and globalization-promoting, fracking queen - or it will be an unhinged, austerity-promoting, tax-chopping, racist, ego-driven, narcissistic, climate-change-denying, loose cannon, con-man.
In other words, the Democrat or the Republican will probably win.
But the good news is that the 1%'s game is more transparent than ever:
For much of the last century the illusion of social progress sold through the New Deal, the Great Society and more recently through capitalist enterprise ‘freed’ from the bind of social accountability, if not exactly from the need for regular and robust public support, served to hold at bay the perpetual tomorrow of lives lived for the theorized greater good of accumulated self-interest. ... Being three or more decades in the making, the current political season was never about the candidates except inasmuch as they embody the grotesquely disfigured and depraved condition of the body politic. The ‘consumer choice’ politics of Democrat versus Republican, Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump, poses the greater-evilism of an ossified political class against the facts of its own creation now in dire need of resolution— wars to end wars, environmental crisis to end environmental crises, economic predation to end economic predation and manufactured social misery to end social misery.
The liberals and progressives in the managerial class who support the status quo and are acting as enforcers to elect Hillary Clinton are but one recession away from being tossed overboard by those they serve within the existing economic order. The premise that the ruling class will always need dedicated servants grants coherent logic and aggregated self-interest that history has disproven time and again. A crude metaphor would be the unintended consequences of capitalist production now aggregating to environmental crisis. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are both such conspicuously corrupt tools of an intellectually and spiritually bankrupt social order that granting tactical brilliance to their ascendance, or even pragmatism given the point in history and available choices, seems wildly generous. For those looking for a political moment, one is on the way.
This election cycle more than previous ones, the 1% parties have shown their hand rigging the primaries behind the scenes to deliver us the "choices" for the November election.
It is fairly obvious that elections as a means of making positive change for the US is foreclosed as a means for the people.
Even the sainted Bernie Sanders says so, as David Dayen notes in a recent essay about the launch of "Our Revolution" :
When Bernie Sanders stepped to the stage on Wednesday to announce the launching of “Our Revolution,” a political organization dedicated to keeping the momentum of his presidential campaign going by supporting candidates at all levels of government, he inadvertently admitted that it wouldn’t do much good. “Real change never ever takes place from the top on down. It’s not some guy signing a bill,” Sanders said at the live-streamed launch event. “It always takes place from the bottom up when millions of people come together and demand fundamental change in the country.” ...
The truth is that what boosted the Sanders campaign from irrelevance to prominence did come from the bottom up—not just from $27 donations, but from millions of moments of personal expression, using tools as old as leaflets and as new as Facebook. A cultural and political transformation brought Sanders, and more precisely his message, to the forefront. And the people who did it don’t need to be told how to continue the mission.
We’re in an era of leaderless political engagement at the street level, where exercising power and expressing outrage frequently mirror one another.
The opportunity that is upon us is an unparalleled opportunity to resist the system as a largely united people. There are social forces stirring - from football players protesting social injustice, police brutality and inequality to average people who have been energized by the possibility of radical change during this election cycle.
These agendas don't need a political candidate to carry them forward, they need the people.
Left/progressives can use the same tools that they used to turn the Sanders election campaign into a political force to mount a resistance and change campaign to further a more radical agenda which is needed to deal the many urgent issues that we are facing. We can create an alternative culture of change with the media tools that we have at hand and build a movement.
The challenge we face is in achieving solidarity both amongst ourselves and with a larger community.
We are a fractious bunch that falls easily into argument about everything from elections and candidates to what sorts of language is proper to be used by activists. These arguments tend to split up our groups and make us less effective in spreading an agenda.
My $.02. Your mileage may vary.
Comments
republishing...
this seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle of the site problems.
This one was worth the trouble
Couple of others, not so much....
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
the only question left I have ...
How can it be effective to use the media tools at hand, if those can be used so effectively to split up the movement in a fractious bunch of groupings by constantly throwing around complaints about "censorship of free speech" and "inciting emotional havoc" by purposefully using racial, tribal, ethnical and gender speech in ways that are designed to destroy a community movement of solidarity and resistance instead of working for and building one?
That's the only question I still haven't found a convincing answer for myself. And I am getting tired of not be able to come to a conclusion about it in my mind.
https://www.euronews.com/live
It's up to us
Frittering away our energy on fruitless arguments about tactical details, or letting ourselves be diverted by drama queens will sabotage anything we try to build, no matter what tools are available to us. The Left has traditionally done this, and marginalized itself more effectively than the forces of reaction could hope to do.
Perhaps the greatest legacy of the Sanders campaign is the first draft of a new leftist political agenda that can be meaningfully promoted through peaceful political change. It is not finished, and is not as radical as many would like, but it's a start. As the movement gathers pace, it is something to revisit and refine, and may provide a manifesto people can begin to coalesce around. We don't necessarily need a Leader, but we do need a common agenda to continue moving forward.
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And, preferably, a plan.
A lot more to say about this, but the realtor is coming in 1/2 hr!
"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
Dallasdoc, in your view, what is that agenda?
"All Life is Problem Solving" - Karl Popper
There are a lot of possible agenda items
Some obvious ones:
1. Single payer universal health care
2. Expanding Social Security payments
3. Minimum income support for all citizens
4. Living wage legislation: minimum wage set at a level that lifts a 40 hour a week worker with a family of 4 out of poverty.
5. Turning back "free trade" corporate giveaways, with tax structures to bring manufacturing back to the US.
6. Incentives for expanding affordable housing construction; limits on large corporate portfolios of rental properties.
7. Restructuring corporate incentives to make social welfare aims as important as maximizing profit for shareholders.
8. New ways to empower workers -- collectives, workers earning shares of ownership in corporations, etc.
9. Radical restructuring of the energy grid to achieve carbon neutral national status in a short window (e.g. 20 years)
10. Cutting the military budget in half, and then in half again.
11. Turning back our empire, letting people engage in self-determination and fighting their own fights.
12. Public financing of elections.
13. Rewriting bribery, influence peddling and other corruption laws to cover modern-day forms of corruption currently considered legal.
14. Increasing estate taxes on the wealthy, and instituting a wealth tax on billionaires.
15. Changing the international corporate tax structure to ensure corporations pay significant tax on profits.
16. Financial transaction tax on all financial transactions, including derivatives contracts.
I could go on and on and on.... What are your ideas?
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morning mimi...
what dallasdoc said.
it is time for the left to get itself together and figure out a way of moving from a debating club to a culture of concerted action.
there are some things that lots of us agree upon and we need to focus on those and build a larger constituency for those changes. it's important, our habitat is degrading whilst we debate.
Thanks for the excellent essay, Joe--you nailed it,
when you said,
Also, IMO, progressive communities generally need to become less risk adverse; and, attempt to shed the need for a messiah, or mighty leader [for lack of a better term]. Especially important, I believe, is not looking to folks in the system to lead the way.
I was pretty young during the Civil Rights activism era, but I knew many adults engaged in activism activities. As I recollect, no one in Washington D.C. was directing their civil disobedience actions, organized protests, etc. IMO, it's fantastical thinking to believe that the status quo will truly work against itself. And, like you said, there shouldn't have to necessarily be a leader or figurehead, to proceed.
Hey, this essay gives us much food for thought--I appreciate your effort!
Mollie
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and, therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
National Mill Dog Rescue (NMDR) - Dogs Available For Adoption
Update: Misty May has been adopted. Yeah!
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
One recession away...
It is unclear how long the string-pullers will be able to levitate financial markets at their current levels, since fundamental economic indicators don't support those valuations. Once one ball gets dropped, they'll all come falling down again, and it's going to happen in the not too distant future. Perhaps not long after the election. At that point the fraud of "financial reform" will stand naked and exposed, and President Hillary will be left hiding in the Oval Office screaming at Bob Rubin and Gene Sperling to do something. Which they will, of course, to save themselves and their cronies.
Once the economy comes crashing down again, a short decade or so after the worst recession since 1929, the moment for grassroots led change will have arrived. Hillary Clinton should come under intense demand to release all her speech transcripts for those well-paid appearances on Wall Street. The Clinton Foundation influence peddling should get close scrutiny. Her Highness' many corruptions should be placed front and center, to show her complicity and her servitude to the authors of the next recession. Corner her, and force her to get behind an agenda of real economic justice. The only thing that motivates her more than money is power. Threaten to dump her ignominiously, and make her pretend to be a progressive. And do the same with the party she runs, or kill it off once and for all.
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I share your hopes but people have put up with periodic
and severe downturns. 1880 to 1897; the Great Depression; 3 recessions during the Eisenhower administration; "stagflation" under Ford, Carter, & Reagan; the panic of 2008...each time workers were made to suffer while the rich didn't find the situations as dire for themselves.
Under under-regulated capitalism, periodic economic dislocations are the norm and popular uprisings during the worst of them are severely dealt with by the police, military, and the courts. The recessions do provide an opportunity but the state is more repressive than ever and breaking the cycle is daunting.
I am amazed that workers put up with this ill designed and operated system.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
The panics of the late 19th century
Coincided with the rise of populism and the labor movement. The Progressive era turned this anger and unrest into solid political advances, though it took decades and a Great Depression to see them all come to pass. Now those advances are ebbing as the forces of reaction have kept up a sustained counterattack.
I hope we remember our history well enough to repeat the best parts and hurry the process along. We don't have many decades to get it right this time.
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"The French aristocracy didn't see it coming either."
Ah, privilege. Bernie flew coach on Southwest Airlines. Hillary? Hillary done got herself her own big ol' jet aeroliner:
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
Gosh. She's Really One of Us. nt
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Don't carry me too far away.
Heh.
"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
That slogan keeps reminding me of Agent Smith in “The Matrix”
Unexplained powers are exercised, and suddenly Neo’s lips are “stronger together” — melting into one another, fused together, seamlessly, so he no longer has a mouth.
Remembering history
Email from Grayson on point imo.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
I have tried to get Blair Mountain made a national monument
with letters and personal contacts. There are 411 units in the National Park System - many are historic sites - and Blair deserves to be another one of them.
If you visit Matewan, there are still bullet holes in some of the old buildings that are easy to see.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
The Paint Creek Mine War was a precurser to
the Battle Of Blair Mountain. Mother Jones (Mary Harris Jones), who was organizing miners at the time, was convicted of inciting a riot and conspiracy as a result of her efforts in that strike/war. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but served only 85 days when W. Va. Gov. Hatfield simply ordered that she be released. No commutation or pardon, he just let her out (reduced the paperwork that way, I guess).
I'm pleased to let you know that a friend of mine has filed a petition with West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, a lame duck, demanding that Mother Jones be pardoned, albeit posthumously. I will let c99 know how it goes.
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
I am pleased to know that - many thanks. Another attack on
the working people of West Virginia was the Hawk Nest tunnel. It was to divert water from the New River(?) to a manufacturing plant. The three+ mile long tunnel was through a mountain of almost pure silica. Workers were not given any breathing protection and many died of silicosis, some within 90 days. (When execs toured the site they had filter masks.) Local West Virginians leaned that it was suicide to work on this tunnel so African Americans were brought in with the same loss of life.
This was during the early years of the Great Capitalist Depression so people were more desperate than usual for work.
(I seem to remember reading that the company was, or was a precursor to, Union Carbide which killed thousands in India a couple of decades later. Anyone know if this is true?)
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
I hope so too. Our ancestors were brave because many lived
in company owned housing policed by company thugs(misnamed "detectives") so if you lost your job you lost your house. With a family that was doubly tough.
The Mollys in the four PA anthracite regions had a positive effect on the coal companies.
Yes, people need to recover worker history and learn.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
According to some scientists our present life-style
can continue for about 20 years. After that we will be forced to change or cease to exist.
To thine own self be true.
It is worse than that
The events of the past few months argue that climate scientists have been too conservative in their estimates of the effects of greenhouse gas increase. The carbon dioxide levels in the air are high enough that fairly severe climate change is more or less guaranteed even if we stop burning fossil fuels this afternoon. Every year that we pretend that we are going to do something about it, but don't really tackle the problem, makes it much worse. The cognitive problem is that since the Earth is such a massive system, it takes decades for the full effects of greenhouse gas emissions to manifest themselves. That said, each of the past 15 months have been the hottest on record since accurate record keeping was started in the 1880s and thousands of people died in India and Pakistan from the heat this summer so we are beginning to get a taste of what we are in for.
Yes. That's mu understanding also. It seems the concerted war
on climate science has caused the scientists to be too conservative in their forecasts.
I don't see enough on the looming global "methane bomb." It will come from two sources: the methane sequestered in the cold ocean deeps; and the methane in the muskeg, or tundra.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
This is much less periodic.
There's no "up" to counter the down. Not really. And it's getting to where people can see 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
From the Trains Running On Time...
When the ball drops and our highly complex and expensive society siezes up from lack of monetary lubrication, who will make the trains run on time?
Disaster Capitalism... What ideas are lying around?
What institutions are trustworthy?
Government is not, and will not be, barring some kind of miracle third party victory. It will either be Hillary, the 16th year of Failed Democratic and Socialist Economics (how painful it is to write) or it will be Herr Drumpf, the Don of Con.
Government will be completely discredited. Corporate will be the knight in shining armor. While corporate is not trustworthy, it is believable -- it's reality... best of all possible worlds and whatnot.
Who has the money and organization?
Corporate has a near monopoly on global assets.
Corporate will step right in, seamlessly, to transition to market based freedom and will make the trains run on time and stay out of the affairs of it's citizens.
That's super fucked up, but I'm pretty sure that's what's going to happen, I think when the next hand of global poker features a round of calls and knocks with no bluffers left to raise.
It freaked me out when I realized that the collapse of government and civil unrest hits us here in America. We're not going to have some popular revolution. Corporate will just assume the functions of government.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
they could, but I don't think they will.
that will be the talking pt though, as it has already been for 40 years--
government can't do things efficiently; we need a businessman
"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
The trains, they were replaced by long-haul Uber drivers
around the same time supermarkets and grocery stores disappeared and were replaced by Amazon Food home delivery.
seriously scary thought
because it is beginning to look like this.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Just to mention, 'trade deals
Just to mention, 'trade deals', such as the TPP, establish corporate rule by off-shoring the domestic law of involved countries to corporate/billionaire-serving-only courts where law is determined on the basis of law existing of, by and for corporate/billionaire interests and on the theory that democracy, countries and the people to whom these belong can be handed over - by whoever happens to be in public office (intended to serve the public interest) at the time - to hostile outside interests as properties existing only to serve the maximized profiteering of these destructive self-interests.
This hostile corporate take-over is already in process and the people are to be regulated by industry, with any regulation in the health, safety and interest of the people and environment forbidden in a private agreement claiming a right to allow the people to be sued into bankruptcy and servitude for any attempt at self-protection. There's not a chance that corporate interests will '... stay out of the affairs of it's citizens. ...' who will no longer, in any event, be citizens, merely either corporate assets or liabilities with no protections whatsoever where potential for corporate/billionaire profit increases/decreases may be involved. And anyone potentially in the Presidential running but a President Bernie or a President Jill will go with this grossly traitorous betrayal.
The function of legitimate democratic government is to serve the public interest and to protect the public and country against those who would predate upon upon them by acting as the unified voice and force of the people.
The function of corporations has essentially been set at the low bar of gaining the highest possible profit, with predation upon the country and people permitted by public officials acting instead as corporate management.
The two functions are diametrically opposed, although corporate interests have warped the US government into their bond-servant; at this point, neither has any interest in assuming the actual functions of government.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Sounds like we still have to get through a lot of disgust
and never-ending Clinton scandals to get to where we need to be. Oh joy.
Beware the bullshit factories.
Honestly, until this past weekend
I was starting to lean that way--even though I'm still voting #Green. Because, IMO, #noDAPL has some serious potential to unite all of us. I hope someone's essaying more on that here today (I'd do it if I wasn't remiss in getting some work done this morning, lol!)
But seriously, even if it ends up not uniting any more than we are, it also looks to me like a whole lot more people just woke up to the general con artistry on some level in the last 3-4 days....
What is #noDAPL?
“No Dakota Access pipeline”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakken_pipeline
Thanks I did not connect
This story with the hashtag acronym. I've been following in detail the Native American pipeline resistance. Another example of the pig enforcers coming down openly on human beings. Yesterday they literally sicced the dogs on these people. They have bulldozed the tribal graveyards. Even my relatives who are not activists are horrified about what's happening. The owners of the place may control and own the corporate media online and off but the cat is out of the bag in the sense that people find away to get the real stories out there. Another reason why this site is important we are part of the resistance and help cut through the censorship and newspeak going on.
What lotilizard said
Oh, my, I can see we've all got some catching up to do--I've been glued to this all weekend long:
I spent a lot of time searching social medias, to see if The Left and The Right disagreed here, and guess what? It looks to me like there's a lot of agreement, and all are on the side of these Native Americans and their treaties they have with this federal government. Ain't nobody real impressed by the Federales sitting back while these private companies sicced vicious dogs on these peaceful protestors and bulldozed an actual ancient burial site.
If nobody has anything up by later on, I'll see what kind of justice I can do the subject. Because it seems to be waking a lot of folks up, and we need all of that we can get...
Here's a link to #NoDAPL that Lookout
left in a comment in Sunday's Weekly Watch:
http://heavy.com/news/2016/09/dakota-access-pipeline-protests-video-phot...
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
Thanks for posting that
People across the spectrum were just gobsmacked over the nerve--these companies deliberately and with malice aforethought, waited until a holiday weekend to do what they did, when they know a hearing is scheduled for this Thursday.
A little bit about the billionaire
behind this pipeline, one Kelcy Warren:
If you google his photo, he looks like a heavyweight UFC fighter. A money addict. A power junkie.
native
I copied my comment
from yesterday when it would not post, so here goes.
For some time, I have been preaching here and at the other place that all real change comes from the bottom up in the form of social movements. It does not take a majority of people to effect a real change in popular attitude, only about 10%. I honestly believe we are at that tipping point and that is why we must continue to promote real change. The Occupy Movement was beginning to get way too close and that is why the Obama Administration had to coordinate its shutdown. At some point in the near future, I do not believe they can shut down what is a growing social movement. It has already started to cross partisan political lines and that is a very good thing. (note: my bolding)
The key is commitment to this change. One of the big reasons why this site was originally formed was to provide a vehicle for the discussion of issues and policies which will help promote a social movement committed to positive change for the 99%. We can do this!
Thank you for this great essay, Joe!
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Heartily concur, gg!
Thank you for that wisdom.
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morning gg...
i'd add to your excellent point that change not only bubbles up from the bottom, but that it moves on the back of culture and then enters the politics. the antiwar movement of the 60's was a cultural phenomenon. the attitudes and political beliefs were transmitted through art, music, theatre, movies, hell, even fashion trends. a cohesive culture was created around some particular ideas and they, over time, became the politics of the larger culture.
Totally agree Joe!
Have I told you lately that You have a wonderful way with words too?
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I shouldn't be so pessimistic
but I suspect Orwell was right. I think we are at a point where peaceful means will never again work; those in control don't give a half-shit about any of that. We are at the end of the possibility for violent revolution, as they array all their various technologies against the people. If something doesn't happen fast we will have their boots on our necks forever.
the violence in resisting will be met by the violence
invisible control. If people resist on the streets, they will be "put down" by the police forces with their military-style equipment and unlawful prosecution of those they arrest.
But I fear more the invisible violence happening through the digital media, which might just crumble spirit, mental health, and the belief that we might be able to have influence against the oligarchy and MIC and the financial banking industry.
I do belief though that simple old fashioned hunger, miserable health, lack of available food, uncontrollable environmental desasters and crumbling of the value of money the poor have so little anyhow will lead to resistance to "the system".
Boycotts of the oligarchs of the digital world and the international oil and military industries won't happen before the poor haven't understood what they have to boycott against to influence political change.
Just ask yourself if you could "resist" and "boycott" the intertubes to the point it's not functioning anymore and stops making money for all those, who wouldn't earn money without the intertubes functioning perfectly for them.
Man, I hope the politicians and justices come to their senses and realize what kind of responsibilities they have.
https://www.euronews.com/live
I read an article that 50% of Americans
have gotten into an argument over this election. My thought was is that all? The election is relevant, which one of the duopoly wins is not.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
That's all--because probably the other 50%
think the whole thing is shit and there's nothing to argue about.
Bet most of those arguments were some Hillary supporter trying to convince somebody to vote Hillary b/c TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP!
"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
Most of which went nowhere, as arguments tend to do when
one party’s unspoken premise is, “I’m morally superior to you, which entitles me to make absolute judgments about you and your candidate.”
Edited to add: looking back on almost threescore years and ten of life, certainly I’ve been as guilty of this as anyone.
Wrong verb there.....
Wrong verb there.
The "other 50%" know the whole thing is shit and there's nothing to argue about. They know it because it isn't an "opinion", but a fact.
As our Essayist so brilliantly points out, Hillary is Trump; Trump is Hillary, in all essentials. The only differences relate to packaging; the contents of the packages are essentially identical: shit.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Unless you trust Trump's isolationism
and his "America First" stuff--which is evil, but which is slightly preferable to "Oligarchic Death Cult First," which is Hillary's unofficial campaign slogan.
I notice they've ditched "I"m With Her" for "Stronger Together." Too late, guys.
"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
Isolationism isn't necessarily evil.
N.B.: I'm talking about the American flavor, where we traveled and traded, but we produced nearly everything we consumed here, and stayed aloof from everybody else's business. Fuck, I think we could use a little of that kind of "isolationism" today! (The North Korean flavor, where the nation lives in a self-imposed tin can, is evil.)
But that doesn't mean I trust The Chump to get that for our nation -- not as far as I can hurl Pikes Peak in one piece and sans technology.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Oh, and you're right about the verbs.
"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 meant to add that the one thing that might work
is a massive general worldwide strike that pretty much shuts down everything, including the income of the oligarchs. But I'm not even sure that will work as they will begin killing people with impunity when that happens.
when the money of the oligarchs is threatened they will
do anything to secure it. Whether that means killing the strikers or acquiescing I don't know. But I don't think oligarchs like to acquiesce. But they need the people to do their work... so I dunno
Don't believe everything you think.
They don't need *so many* people any more
Robots are doing more and more of the work, jobs of all kinds are going away never to return, and before long - we are nearly there already - the only need for the proles will be as a source of "prestige" labor ("see, I can afford to hire a real person as a secretary") and personal service to the .01%.
The ones they don't need? They can just fuck off and die, the sooner the better.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
heh, their money is being threatened...
it's a lot less secure than you'd assume, because it's mostly just 1's and 0's stored in cyberspace.
i can't remember where i read it, but there was a statement from the "shadow brokers" hackers that stole the nsa's crown jewels and are auctioning them off that implied that they might use those tools against large aggregations of money and banking.
This is a global screw
and peoples resistance will have to be global. They are already are killing people with impunity both economically and with violence. Americans do not have effective unions because 'the right to work' but even here were seeing the worker unrest and strikes. Solidarity with each other globally is important. Many people here in the USA, USA, USA do not like civil disobedience and are afraid of civil unrest. I think it's coming regardless of the denial many complacent American's have. Telling the underclass, poor and homeless to 'get a job' in the global economy we all have to live in is not only denial, fear but cruelty of the worst order. These people are not the majority and as things get worse which they will it will be harder and harder to deny what's going down.
New Zealand, because of its ‘National’ (Republican equivalent)
government, is also suffering from the government’s impunity, but so far without the violence. There’s a major discussion here about immigration policy and we have a fairly racist government, who uses race-bating and lies.
Choking communication...
I'm concerned about the nature of the net -which is our organizing and information hub.
We all know about facebook's manipulation and censoring...as well as google's. Well google is now cracking down on alternate news media on youtube. Many content creators are getting this message -
TYT had 10% of their clips de-monitized. Jimmy Dore isn't happy either (9 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSPOz80PyvA]
After Bernie's success, I figured they would go after the few honest on-line news sources. I wasn't sure how, but this seems to be one strategy.
I'm in agreement with you Joe - the movement is driven by the people not politicians (they follow when they have to). But if they take away our ability to communicate and organize they will certainly harm our progress.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
We just need to
build our own YouTube. Simple as that. End of story. If we build it they will come, leaving YouTube looking like an old dried up Drive-In.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Yes. And We Need Our Own Advertising Network.
Mom & Pop, local business, artisans, etc.
People and companies who are being abused by the system. The network would not require profit, so the costs could be minimal.
We need small and local businesses to survive in order challenge the global corporate oligarchy. They should be our advertisers.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Eliminate the Digital Divide - Community Broadband Bits Podcast
https://muninetworks.org/
Something on this order?
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Yes, excellent.
"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
My ideas on this--
http://caucus99percent.com/comment/166650#comment-166650
"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
My ideas on this--
http://caucus99percent.com/comment/166650#comment-166650
"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 like it
my only concern is that it not be partisan or hooked in anyway to the mainstream Democratic political orgs. and partisan blogs. People who are into working and revitalizing the Dems and like the politics of pols, persona and such could do that t on their own but I would prefer like this site to partner up with groups and people who are willing to look for solutions outside the duopoly. Yesterday I went and though my e-mail inbox and unsubscribed to all orgs, like move on or Our Revolution and when these political orgs. or candidates would not allow me to unsubscribe, I put them in my spam filter file. I left some political stuff that is not related to the party fund raising for better Dems or to orgs. that preach the party line. Perhaps I'm being reactionary but it would eliminate a lot of bs. internecine left fighting and get right down to real nitty gritty of solidarity and coalitions.
Oh NO NO NO DEAR GODS NO.
Hooked into the Democrats?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfyZUCWDEnc]
"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
The trick, of course,
is to make it all work. The RW has built a Machine over the last 50 years that continues to kick ass, get D.C. and down ballot candidates elected. Especially down ballot. We got nuthin'. What we got is 3 or 4 former Bernie Bro groups out there trying to do the same thing. And, really, all that does is water down the "revolution."
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
The RW also suppresses voters
The RW also suppresses voters and otherwise generally just cheats like... Clintons... Two sides of the same 30 pieces of silver coins in traitor's pay...
Edit: hit the wrong number key.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Well put joe shikspak.
Good read to start the post holiday week with.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
thanks do! n/t
Been saying for some time, solidarity for what?
That seems to be the major problem, agreeing on what the movement or revolution is for, what is the goal, the agenda? Like with Bernie's instigated movement or revolution, that's about electing more and better politicians. So relative to that agenda, the goal for that movement or revolution, count me out.
That's how it's going to work. Depends on what the solidarity is for.
then there is the question
of whether we even want to be solid. Why not liquid? Or gaseous? I vote for all three. Simultaneously. As well as plasma. Four. On the floor.
Then we'd have that covered. Now if we can just figure out
what to do in our solid, gaseous, liquid, plasma state.
i think
we should do whatever we want.
let's be free
let's see
who cares
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGURVK9bMbw]
November Group
Anne Prim and Kearney Kirby from back in the day...
well al...
the solidarity can be about whatever we want it to be about. given that the general public is pretty damned tired of endless wars, i'm pretty sure that we can schedule that pretty high on the agenda, don't you think?
i don't know
that the general public is pretty damn tired of endless wars. Else they would not still be funneling their children into the militaries, and the mercenaries. Nor would there be a Mad Bomber, or a Hairball. Both of whom have made it abundantly clear. That they are fully on board. With bomb and shoot and strafe and slit. And all over the world.
people get tired of war, when the bombs have
continuously fallen on them. That hasn't happened in the US and probably never will, because the MIC will make sure the US will stay above all. At the same time dear oligarchs and politicians make sure that the US families' kids stay well poor, get no education unless the get themselves into deep shit debt and pay their dues to the oligarchy funded educational system, so that people have not many choices to not funnel their kids into the military and allow them to become mercenaries or take a "secure" job in the police.
Of course it would be nice if all enlisted military started a resistance movement to their civilian overlords, who want them to bomb brown kiddos all over the world or help those brown dicatotors, who like to put their greedy fingers on some US dollars, help killing other brown kiddos.
I remember that when I was new here, we had a clash over that issue. Can you really blame those, who enlist in the US military, because there are no other choices to make a living for them?
https://www.euronews.com/live
Yes!
I agree with this.
Whole areas of this country have had their economies hollowed out. When there are no jobs available, the military looks like a good option to those who are desperate.
One thing I learned from my Peace vigil days is that we should never blame those who go into the service. If you talk to many of them, you understand that it was their only realistic option. We at the Peace vigil never blamed our soldiers. We blamed those who decided to fight these unnecessary wars in the name of empire.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Absolutely
I think that was a huge mistake of the Vietnam war protests.
Beware the bullshit factories.
i will
always blame soldiers. Always. For without them, there can be no wars.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A50lVLtSQik]
Killing people, is never, a "realistic," option.
and without cops there would be no crime?
There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams
hmmm...
maybe if we got rid of the lawmakers we could make a dent in that crime problem.
lawmakers
And the base training of a vast majority of lawmakers is.....
Oh, yeah: lawyers!
Maybe Shakespeare's Dick the Butcher (Henry VI part 2, act IV, scene 2) wasn't that far off.......
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Behind every crime there's a cop
An old saying with a lot of truth to back it up. American cops are the largest organized crime syndicate in the history of mankind. What other criminal syndicate was ever able to get away with homicide of unarmed men,women and children over and over again? Civil forfeiture under RICO is a scandalous system of armed robbery.
The war on drugs is a massive criminal operation. The prison industrial complex is a syndicated criminal operation. From top to bottom our entire "criminal justice system" is a crime against the American people.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
logically you are right, but it will never happen.
Your so-called alien immigrants in the US, you know, they want work and so they are advised and told it's good to become a US citizen. They are very well seduced, manipulated, cuddled or pushed to enlist for their "own good", because citizenship often is the "reward". And dare you not wanting to become a US citizen, if it's offered to you. How many 18 year olds, who barely know the US and don't speak the language well, would follow your logic? Because, if you don't want the "reward", that's suspicious, especially if you are brown. OMG, you could be someone with weird ideas like those closet terrorists, who want to do us peace-loving and innocent Americans harm... Sorry for my "tone".
Quite frankly, I would first make sure that the US doesn't need their soldiers, because, you know, if the political overlords would decide to engage in peaceful diplomatic relations and not into imperial ones, there wouldn't be that much need to have all those "boots on the grounds" and "butts and doors to be kicked in" and not so many geeks on the joystick trained to drop the bombs from drones from the comfort of their centers somewhere in Nevada to guide, target and shoot on some wedding party folks or kiddos on the streets or in hospitals. They just end up with nasty PTSD and guilt feelings and become a burden to your own country. Too bad, how dare they are so weak to get PTSD fits. Bad soldiers.
So, you are unable to forgive someone to have been a soldier? Quite a lot of people you would be unforgiving to, may be more than 60 percent of the male world population? Just a guess. I understand your feelings, but their is something that blocks your mind from getting over something, and my hunch is that it is a very bad experience.
I put myself in my father's shoes. He would have had a lot of reasons to be unforgiving. First to Hitler and the Nazis, who forced him into military and labor service in 1937/38 at age 18. No way to escape that without risking his own incarceration. Then he could have been unforgiving to the Russians, who managed not to kill him, but almost starved and freezed him to death and all his best friends of his school year as well. Then he could have been unforgiving to the Americans, who shot off his arm of and put a lot of splinters in his lung.
He has never shown any signs of resentment to Americans or any hate to the Russians. He said he was betrayed by Hitler and used. The only time he broke down was when he tried to talk about the moment when the medical people didn't want to amputate his arm and then forced him to dig his own grave. At that point we never asked him to continue to talk.
I do remember though, when he visited the US in 1966 that he was quite shocked about the strange ways Americans accepted their health care system. Heh, when you get sick and get fired because of it, too bad, told him some nice guy he traveled with. Funny, huh?
So, now here we are, with the third generation in their twenties, going into wrestling verbal fights about those damned soldiers, the sinners today, as they were the sinners of our ancestors, who simply don't want to deal with the realities that "killing" people is never a "realistic" option.
May be you are right, they seem to forget when enlisting, that killing people is actually is a very realistic possibility to happen. But of course "possibility" and "options" are two different things, easily overlooked.
Yes, I am angry, not about my son, who was so "discouraged" to be able to make a living that he was seduced by an old recruiter to enlist, but by those, who are responsible for 9/11 and all the decisions resulting out of that during the Bush administration and for some frigging reasons continued by the Obama administration and going on for sure in the future under a Hillary Clinton and/or Trump administration.
Today I would get a hissy fit and shout and make a hell of noise to protect my child from enlisting in the US military, but I will not blame those, who did in the past, for their misjudgements. I couldn't imagine the developments. I had no "experience" of the Vietnam War through the eyes of Americans, who were drafted and used, back in the sixties and seventies.
What I now have learned and observed in this country for some time, as much as I dislike it, I would not blame soldiers for having been drawn into wars that were unrealistically illegal. Who would have thought?
What I have learned is that most of things are much worse than one can imagine. Thus the misjudgments.
Peace.
https://www.euronews.com/live
During the Vietnam war, young males were being drafted -
involuntary servitude into an authoritarian system of killing and ecocide.
No one is being drafted now - the military for one doesn't want it (you know the fragging thing) - so everyone is a volunteer who is in it for the money and the military welfare after they get out.
Buffy Saint-Marie wrote universal soldier, Donovan had a good version of it, and the heart of the message is that if no one enlists, the system is either hampered or ceases to exist.(Buffy was also hounded by the FBI for this and her work on behalf of American Indians and had her career truncated.)
I place a fair share of blame on those who enlist - they help to perpetuate the neoliberal system.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
the draft
in the US ended in January of 1973. Everyone who has entered the United States military since then has volunteered to become a serial killer. They have no excuse. None.
I suppose a very common
excuse would be, "If you can't beat em join em". You get money, you get respect, and you get security - three thing that are increasingly hard to come by if you happen to be a young have-not.
native
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