From the summer of love to the summer of hate
As predicted by perhaps a large number of observers, this summer is going to be violent. In fact it already is violent. And becoming more so.
Here is an eloquent analysis by Holly Seeliger on the recent Portland OR rioting between alt-right (previously known as skin-heads) and antifa (currently known as Soros stooges). The video is 12:48 long and worth watching for her analysis.
Samples from her video that appealed to me as quite prescient are as follows. Obviously I probably omitted some.
Two groups come together of angry young persons on the streets of a major city. One group wears black and helmets as a uniform. The other group wears hardly anything. There is no attempt made nor sought to reason with each other. The purpose is clear and simple: beat the crap out of the other side. The message believed by each group is to teach the other group a lesson, i.e., beat some sense into their heads--by beating their heads.
The only message that can be derived from this physically violent and morally vacuous confrontation is to further self-delude each group that their ideals are true and worth fighting for. The real message is that this country is being torn apart. But don't think this is an inevitable clash that must occur at a level of physical violence based on ideology. What ideological message is there in "I'm going to beat the crap out of you"?
No, the puppet masters have a somewhat more covert reason for provoking this. Maybe 25 years ago people wouldn't have understood what was going on--before the internet. But now the true purpose is evident: to divide, weaken, and shatter this country.
One of the chief, if not the prime, provocateurs of this is George Soros and his purple revolution. George is used to buying his way to get what he wants. His personal wealth could probably equal the bottom 4 or 5% of the population's combined wealth. But, no matter what proportion of his money equals what, it is no secret that this Open Border Oligarch wants to promote obliteration of nations, all nations eventually. He is not the only one pulling strings in this affair but he certainly is the most prominent one.
In my opinion Soros is hedging his bet, by encouraging both sides to conflict. There are plenty of neoliberal Oligarchs (old term: robber barons) anxious to get in on the action. Some are from the "left" (there are no leftist Oligarchs) and some are from the right (Republicans, Neocons). Many in fact, being denizens of Wall Street are, like Soros, hedging their bets by backing both sides.
Those of us who are infuriated by the events unfolding (which by far is only a small percentage of the masses) know what's going on and why. The aim ultimately is to destroy the United States and other States. Thus, they plan to simultaneously impoverish the masses even further and bring about drastic and sudden population reductions. Population reductions may well be necessary but the oligarchic-envisioned reduction will be neither gradual nor gentle. For a historical example, look no further than Josef Stalin's forced collectivization of Russian agriculture in the 1930's costing at least 20 Million lives. All for the greater good? No. All for the good of the state: L'etat c'est moi (Louis XIV, J.S. and now G.S. he hopes).
Some may be wondering why the Portland Police did not intervene until the fighting was almost ended. I am not wondering this at all. Look at the police forces of urban areas. Their job is to protect the rich, not service the poor. The rich WANT and NEED the violence to continue in a crescendo of destruction. The more disorganized an opponent, the easier to defeat it. Hence the lack of police intervention. Of course, they had to intervene before real property damage occurred to corporate holdings--you know, just prior to the Molotov cocktail parties soon to erupt without police intervention.
What has changed in the 50 years between the summer of love "with flowers in your hair" and the summer of hate with helmets on your head? There are many probable reasons. I'll name a few with which some may agree or disagree. The answer to this basic question is essential in solving it.
The answer is not to elect more-and-better Democrats (an oxymoron to be certain). The answer is not $15 per hour, although that would cool things down a little bit. The answer is not how to label toilet facilities by gender properly. A much deeper SYSTEMIC cleansing or purging is needed.
Many essayists and commentators here have proposed facets of remediation needed. In fact, I think a thorough search through the 12,000+ essays and the 100,000+ comments may yield, when melded, the answers (and not answer singular) necessary.
Step 1: end the American Empire, which is now slowly grinding to a halt and will be in reverse within a decade.
Step 2. return to the concept of the common good and mutuality. This does not mean abolish individualism 1984-style but to control it so that your individuality does not threaten mine.
Step 3. consider disuniting the United States formally. It is currently a failing experiment. I am unsure as to how the current melange of 50 states can hold together, given the profound selfishness of the ruling classes. Though the Oligarchs are united in their endless self-aggrandizement, they each have their own niches that often conflict with one upon another.
Step 4. Modify the "fiduciary" rule. Currently, the fiduciary rule only seems to pertain to monetary concerns, such as make money for the stock holders and other investors. We, all of us, not only at c99, not only in the U.S., but in the entire world are stake-holders in our present and our future. The actions on scales both small and large must be undertaken with the goal of improving, or at least preserving, the common welfare. Welfare is not a social handout. Welfare is a civil right. Welfare is the gift of a beneficent society to its stake-holders.
After a forest fire, the established species are destroyed. A new succession of species occurs as the forest reconstitutes itself over years, decades, centuries. New species appear but are then succeeded by a second generation and a third and how many others before stability in the forest, an equilibrium, is achieved. Eventually equilibrium is always achieved through the process of decreasing entropy. The drunkard's walk is one such example of decreasing entropy. Eventually the drunkard winds up in the gutter, no matter how strenuously he tries to avoid doing so.
The U.S. is on a drunkard's walk. Too intoxicated to know it. The fall started when the allegorical forest of our government began to fall with the institution of slavery.
Think about that for a while. Slavery is a direct contradiction to the theory of common welfare, the common good, the fiduciary rule of society to all humanity. Since the alleged abolition of slavery in 1865, we have instituted other forms of indenture, while throwing off some others. We now have universal suffrage. But so too do we have wage slavery.
We still have dreams of betterment for ourselves, our families, our communities. But these dreams are being relentlessly crushed. Get an education? For what? For whom? To what gain, what satisfaction?
I shall now posit a purposefully incendiary idea, to which many may take offense. Argue against this hypothesis as you may. The denizens of our country and indeed most others, are responding just like trained fleas. Fleas are trained that they can jump to a certain height and no further, by placing them in a jar with a transparent lid. After thousands of repetitions of trying to jump out of the jar, the fleas stop jumping--even after the lid is removed.
I don't wish to strain this metaphor further, but it is suitable for expansion, perhaps in a comment thread.
Comments
I believe the cops
were on the side of the skinheads and wanted to see a bunch of hippies being punched. THEN they broke it up by ARRESTING HIPPIES( excuse me, dupes) and enlisting skinhead help in doing so.
The Psychopaths That Be control all the levers of power; the power grid, the delivery of food, water, etc. . . except one.
People Power.
And they've militarized the police(security forces-for whose security?) to nullify this power. People are going to die. Let me say that again.
People Are Going To Die.
Look south of our border, the people rise up and are beaten and shot and crushed.
Until they're not. Until they win. It has happened. It IS happening. But we(the ephemeral we) are encouraged and exhorted to be nonviolent, to turn the other cheek, to work within the system.
Yet, we all here(C99) realize the system is broke, it is rigged against us.
I've been informed that 'violence is NEVER the answer' as only a passionate 19 yr old could scream in my face.
BULLSHIT.
I subscribe to the practice of 'Don't start none, won't be none' school of thought. So if you(they) start it, I'm coming.
The Best way to stop a bully is a punch in the face. It works for a reason. It cause Pain to the bully. Sure, the bully might hand you your ass in that fight, but the one good strike you got in Will make him think twice Next time.
People in Amerkkka will not punch the bully in the face for fear of having their ass handed to them(killed). But I honestly feel that THAT is what it will take.
And the merry go'round continues.
Stop These Fucking Wars
peace(for now)
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
As to when the police intervened, your idea is sound
Of course, it doesn't really matter who they picked on, although picking on antifa certainly makes sense, the point is that the police did not quell the disturbance as it was beginning. This demonstrates tacit encouragement for the dissension and violence.
Police Forces everywhere
are by their very nature authoritarian, quasi-military, and conservative. Their purpose is to preserve the social order, whatever that order might be. They also need to maintain a functional solidarity with one another for purely practical reasons. None of this means that all or even most cops are right-wingers, though clearly many of them are.
native
This is why the Israeli military are training our cops
This has been happening for quite some time and it can be confirmed with a quick search.
Most of the protests aren't violent until the police show up.
The OWS, BLM and DAPL protests confirms this.
TPTB went even further with the DAPL protests. They allowed a mercenary company to be in charge of it. TigerSwan was able to illegally and unconditionally spy on the leaders of the protests.
This was the second time that mercenaries were allowed to operate in this country.
Blackwater patrolled New Orleans after Katrina and got away with killing people.
IIRC, they were charged, but the jury found them not guilty.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Yes. Legitimate policing operations are being
frequently augmented, or even superceded by quasi-legal or extra-legal forces that are brought in to quell various popular uprisings. They increasingly resemble Mussolini's Blackshirts, though their motivations are probably more mercenary than ideological in nature. In any event, they have been allowed to operate in a legalized shadow-land where chain-of-command has been deliberately obscured or obliterated -- in most cases by elected officials who are beholden to one corporate interest-group or another.
I think there will always be a certain tension, a certain inevitable conflict-of-interest between police forces and the populations they are tasked to patrol and regulate. It's a fine balance that a good cop must walk -- because when we need the police, we really do need them, and when we don't need them, they are liable to show up anyway.
native
It's been obvious for
awhile now that TPTB have had zero intentions of upgrading the lifestyle of the 47%, instead wishing them all dead. "They" justify all this by saying that's not the job of capitalism, that capitalism rewards people that use the system to their advantage while, at the same time, fucking everyone else. So, if you're not in the upper 5% or so that's your fault, not capitalism's.
Just 45 years ago one could graduate HS, apply at the nearest Big Company factory, get themselves an entry level floor sweeping job for about 30% more than minimum wage, then climb that corporate ladder according to his or her skills picked up along the way. No college degree reqired. You were on your way to the middle class, baby! In 15 years or so, your HS diploma would pay off to the tune of three, four times the minimum wage - enough to buy a starter home, become a "real American," and live like most everyone else in the "working class." House, 4 year old car, decent job... life is good.
The problem for the Oligarchy was too many of us HS grad jagoffs were living too large. Way large! Why, they asked themselves, should we be paying some HS grad jagoff $20 an hour in the U.S. when we're paying the same worker in Timbukthree $2 an hour? And, just like that, jobs started moving "offshore." Overseas. Becuz, God forbid we, the Oligarchy, pay some HS grad jagoff what s/he's worth. That is Not the
Ayn RandCapitalist way!Well, it was, for a long stretch after WWII, until Ronaldus Magnumus Reaganus came along. Hell, Corporations even paid local taxes back then! I know! Sacrilege!
I don't know how we Boomers missed it for so long, becuz it's been evident for a long time now that, "what's good for the masses is Not good for the Oligarchy."
I thought it was just the motto of the Repub party. We should have seen it coming with Bubba's presidency. "Welfare as we know it" erased. In fact, damn little (if any) legislation from the Bubba admin helped the 47%, to say nothing of the 99%.
And, THAT can be said, really, for ANY legislation since Reagan, including Bubba and Obama. Damn little if any legislation passed since Reagan has been passed to benefit the country or the 99%. So much for Obo's "Hope and Change." I don't know why it took so long for the lights to switch on, but I eventually picked up that Obama wasn't using eleven dimensional chess, he just wasn't bothering to help the 99% at all. Almost the opposite, in fact. And, if he wasn't... well, it finally sunk in that "they're ALL out to fuck us. Every last fucking one of them."
The problem is damn few of us know this. One has to follow politics relatively closely - and even then it's easy to miss. We missed it. It's safe to say 90% of the 99% don't have a clue. Lucky them. They won't know what hit them. As for the rest of us... I have no clue. I've been thinking about it for 6 months. At least. "Just how the hell do we educate the masses?" To the point where thinking about it has paralyzed any chance of action. It sucks. I usually work just the opposite - work first, just to get anything going, then figure it out as I go. But, this Oligarchy crap has paralyzed any action becuz I have no idea how to start or where to start. We need a bumper sticker: "You Are Fucked" or some such. The problem is most people earning $60K, $70K think they're still doing just fine. And they are. For now. So, it's hard for them to "buy" something from somebody making $22 Large (me) telling them about how bad it is, and getting worse, becuz, one, they don't see it and, two, "quit your whining and get a job if you want to make more money." So, that's where we are. Dead in the water. But there is zero doubt that what Ed is telling us in his post is absolutely true. "They" are out to get us. "They" look at countries - including this one - as "Markets," not as sovereign states. "They" don't give a damn about "governments" - "They" are the government. You? You're just in the way. Taking up space "They" want. "They" want you dead, and are finding ways to do that so that it happens sooner rather than later. All kinds of ways, including "Their" police force shooting citizens for damn little reason - or none at all. "They" want you dead. And me, too. We're taking up Way too much space, consuming "Their" resources. "They" are sick of it, sick of the masses taking up their space, and "They" are doing something about it, very proactive in "Their" pursuit to off the masses. Hell, "They" don't even bother to hide that fact, becuz "They" know we can't do a fucking thing about it.
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.
Wink, you nailed one core message of mine
not to imply that you didn't grasp others. Your following quote says very succinctly what I was trying to illustrate:
My daughter and her husband both have good jobs and live in a nice Orange County CA community, which although close to Hawaiian Gardens, is relatively well to do. She knows I write political essays but does not wish to see them. My son, living in NYC voted for HRC (oh, the shame!) even though he knew she was a crook "because she can get things done". Ouch! He also makes a comfortable living, 6 figures. Yet even living in southern Harlem hasn't given him a feeling for what the 99ers deal with.
People power starts at the bottom--not in the middle--and certainly not at the top.
Yes we missed it. I think most of us did.
At least, I certainly missed it. Obama had me totally bamboozled, from the moment he gave that wonderful speech in 2004, right through the banking crisis and beyond, I believed the guy was actually being sincere. Obviously I had not been paying close enough attention. To exactly who and what Obama represented. Unfortunately, too many Democrats are still not paying close enough attention.
But what has been revealed since then is far more than just Obama's perfidy. What's been revealed is the nearly total corruption of the Democratic Party as a whole. The Party that many have regarded as a lifeline of hope for a reasonably equitable society has been exposed for what it actually is: A Party that is clearly dominated by a gaggle of warmongering, corporate-controlled opportunists, whose idea of leadership consists of having expensive lunches with defense contractors, banking executives, and Big Pharma CEOs. And when they're not busy making deals with lobbyists and Saudi Princes, they like to endorse bills designed to expand the Empire and fund the Pentagon's latest project. And then they blame it all on the Republicans. Hell, they're not only in bed with the deep state, they're getting fucked royally by the deep state, and enjoying every minute of it.
When do we say enough is enough? Or rather, when do we realize that it's already been far too much.
native
I too bought the hope and change bs
but I think I woke up earlier than others. I saw that he wasn't going to change anything around the 6 months point. His going back on filibustering the FISA bill was the first sign, his cabinet picks and his pre-caving to the republicans was the final straw.
I would just read the comments in his weekly address and see people gushing about what he said he was going to do next which never came to pass.
There were others who woke up too and we tried telling people what he was doing. This went over as well as what we tried telling Herheinous' supporters.
These people still haven't woken up because they are pining for Obama to be president again.
The damage he did to this country is going to felt for decades. His was the last mask to be removed and we are finally seeing TPTB's all out war against us.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Yep, the last mask to fall...
or perhaps to disintegrate. Though you have to admit, it was a fairly convincing and attractive mask while it lasted. Maybe not convincing to you, but convincing to millions of other people. These folks (many of them my friends) are still clinging to its remnants, trying to patch the thing back together again. Which is kinda hard to do, while Obama is busy jet-setting around the world, partying with billionaires and movie stars on their private yachts, and all the Party's bigshots are raving insanely about Russia.
native
Yep, Obama's got his and yours and mine
and generations unborn. I just can't imagine why, long after his charade has ended, some people still think he is/was wonderful.
You are probably not as willing
to be hypnotized as most people are. Hypnosis is a far more prevalent phenomenon than most people realize, and television in general is a particularly hypnotic medium. In order for a hypnotic suggestion to take effect, the subject must first be willing to accept being in the trance state. This is exactly what a tv viewer does, by temporarily suspending disbelief in the reality of whatever appears on the moving screen.
native
native, you are perfectly correct on hypnosis
Electroencephalographic (EEG) studies have revealed sleep-like patterns in persons watching television, even those persons were awake. This is the mental state conducive to hypnotic suggestion.
Sanders did introduce many to the fact the system is rigged.
But it has only gotten worse since he did.
https://bulletin.represent.us/hidden-provisions-wcr/
But this is not just a US thang.
Something to celebrate?
How about non-violence as an alternative to armed insurection ?
Thanks for the essay.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Why are skinheads wearing helmets now?
Wow there is a lot to unpack in this essay. An interesting journey to the end, with much to go back and ponder. Thanks AE!
a few random thoughts for now.
1. I like the trained flea concept. I had no idea how fleas were trained. I've read that elephants are trained similarly, tied up with a heavy chain around one leg while young, kept that way until they give up and stop trying to break it and get free. Eventually just a thin rope around the leg is all it takes to control them, they don't even think of running away anymore. I agree, people are like that too. We are trained. By our parents, schools, institutions.
2. I'm skeptical of these supposed anarchists wearing black outfits -- and helmets I really don't get. Radical anarchists who wear safety gear? These "riots" appear staged to me, from a distance which is my vantage point. I don't watch the news about them.
I had no idea Soros was involved or that he wants to eliminate all national borders entirely. I don't even know how I feel about that. I remember long ago looking at the first images we had of earth from space, and everyone talking about how artificial all the political borders were. One planet, one people was kind of an ideal in my youth and into adulthood.
Growing up in the days of Star Trek, it seemed inevitable that earth would eventually unite under a planetary government, and this didn't sound bad at all. Star Trek made us feel that was the way to achieve peace and prosperity for everyone on earth. Someday. In the very distant future, and only after we nearly destroy ourselves first.
I wonder how much of my training was wrapped up in such entertainments on the television? Sci fi is generally much more dystopian now. The Terminator is starting to look more likely than The Federation.
3. The American empire is in decline. One thing I think about now is how and when, is it going to be sudden, rapid, or slow and drip, drip... every day I wake up and wonder how long we have and what will happen.
Thanks for another thought-provoking essay.
When I was younger, I, too, was idealistic
That was an ideal I hoped for. The exploiters saw the same idea from a different perspective: no limitations imposed by "artificial" nations to impede their avarice.
The United States is too damn big, let alone the globe.
I want the country split into at least three different countries. Let the Evangelicals, skin heads, and conservatives go bash each other to death. The Wall Street crowd can have its quadrant of penthouses where they can defraud each other into bankruptcy. The rest of us can live in communal peace and progressivity.
Obama was an obvious liar from the git go. People who didn't see it, didn't see it because they didn't want to see it. I get that. Hope and change and all that. Lord knows we need it. Obama courting the young people while hippy bashing their parents was a huge tell. He did everything but wink at Michelle when he was lying his way across the country waging his campaign. Obama is by far the biggest slime bucket of the lot. So many people trusted him, pinned their hopes on him, and the louse sold them out.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
TPTB do want a one world government
it's just not in the way you were hoping for.
Bush Sr. first dropped the name for it in one of his state of the union addresses.
He called it the New World Order
Others have spoken about this since then.
I too was a Star Trek fan and one of my favorite episodes was the one where they find 3 people from this century in stasis pods. One person was so concerned about his money and couldn't believe it when Picard told him that they don't use money anymore.
Wasn't that the Rodenberry's premise of people waking up from two centuries of warring and decided to make peace happen?
Lennon's Imagine has great ideas for how we could achieve this goal.
Imagine if the amount of money spent on wars had been spent on space exploration instead. Would we be colonizing the moon by now?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Alas, I fear the lunar invasion would just ignite more war.
divineorder, you're welcome--and thanks for the following:
Problem is most serfs are either too damn tired from working 2 to 3 jobs or just find politics boring.
I think the 4 Steps you've proposed
are very good. They might work quite well as a basic outline for a "New Party" platform. They distill what's essential from the complexity of the current political landscape, and disregard what's peripheral. That's the ticket. Not an easy task, but these 4 Steps make a good stab at it. To draw as many disparate people & sub-groups together as possible, while avoiding quarrels over subsidiary issues.
native