A Tale of Two Narratives

Yesterday my buddy said he was concerned about the election. Given the two options at the top of the ticket, I can't get too concerned one way or the other. Just look at the number of neocons throwing in with Biden. As I drove home I thought about the nature of the parties and elections as a coin toss. Some like heads, others tails, but it is the same corporate coin either way. Another example of two narratives is the ongoing protest. Listen to MSDNC, or the Clinton News Network, or National Propaganda Radio and it is peaceful demonstrators protesting police violence countered by right wing militias. Listen to Faux News and it is violent rioters looting and destroying small businesses and faithful veterans come to town to protect them. No wonder we are so divided. No wonder we are so ill informed with a totally captured media. Bill Binny was on Jimmy's show this week. He suggest operation mockingbird isn't just alive and well, but on steroids (at the 9 min mark).

They discuss this recent ruling...

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion on Wednesday that ruled illegal the US government surveillance program that collected metadata from every international and domestic phone call and was exposed by Edward Snowden in 2013.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/05/snow-s05.html

The second part of their conversation was good too and is worth embedding as well (10 min)

If you're not familiar with Bill Binny, he was the subject of the film "A Good American".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=666wsDcoNrU (1.5 hours)

We are purposely distracted by the division in order to make it easy for TPTB to run the show. The mafia branch of government is really the primary actor as the people are entertained by the political circus. And as Jimmy says in the first clip, the hands pulling the puppets strings (either Biden or Trump) are big banks, fossil fuels, Boeing, Raytheon et al, big pharma, and so on.

The ruling elites no longer have legitimacy. They have destroyed our capitalist democracy and replaced it with a mafia state. What the Roman philosopher Cicero called a commonwealth, a res publica, a “public thing” or the “property of a people,” has been transformed into an instrument of naked pillage and repression on behalf of a global corporate oligarchy. We are serfs ruled by obscenely rich, omnipotent masters who loot the U.S. Treasury, pay little or no taxes and have perverted the judiciary, the media and the legislative branches of government to strip us of civil liberties and give them the freedom to commit financial fraud and theft.

https://scheerpost.com/2020/06/02/the-treason-of-the-ruling-class/

Though the two parties are really one corporate party conducting a charade to create the illusion of a democratic system, there really are two America's...one for the professional class who has telecommuted to work during the pandemic, watching their stock portfolios grow, and the other waiting in food and unemployment lines wondering what they will do when they are evicted, maxed out on their credit cards.

The evictions have begun (17 min)

Rick Wolff and Chris Hedges discuss the decline of the US empire. (15 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euDYgYDXJHg&t=15m
And a couple more of Chris' articles with more detail...

The terminal decline of the United States will not be solved by elections. The political rot and depravity will continue to eat away at the soul of the nation, spawning what anthropologists call crisis cults — movements led by demagogues that prey on an unbearable psychological and financial distress. These crisis cults, already well established among followers of the Christian Right and Donald Trump, peddle magical thinking and an infantilism that promises — in exchange for all autonomy — prosperity, a return to a mythical past, order and security. The dark yearnings among the white working class for vengeance and moral renewal through violence, the unchecked greed and corruption of the corporate oligarchs and billionaires who manage our failed democracy, which has already instituted wholesale government surveillance and revoked most civil liberties, are part of the twisted pathologies that infect all civilizations sputtering towards oblivion. I witnessed the deaths of other nations during the collapse of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and later in the former Yugoslavia. I have smelled this stench before.

https://scheerpost.com/2020/08/10/chris-hedges-americas-death-march/

These elites have no intention of instituting anything more than cosmetic change. They refuse to ask the questions that matter because they do not want to hear the answers. They are systems managers. They use these symbolic gestures to gaslight the public and leave our failed democracy, from which they and their corporate benefactors benefit, untouched. What we are watching in this outpouring of televised solidarity with the victims of police violence is an example of what Bertram Gross calls “friendly fascism,” the “nice-guy mask” used to disguise the despotism of the ultra-rich and our corporate overseers. Whatever you think about Donald Trump, he is at least open about his racism, lust for state violence and commitment to white supremacy.

https://scheerpost.com/2020/06/15/chris-hedges-gaslighted-by-the-ruling-...

Bob Scheer interviews author Barbara Freese about how the corporatization of the United States has allowed unfettered greed to cause irreversible harm and an astounding loss of life. (audio or text) https://scheerpost.com/2020/08/21/somethings-rotten-in-the-corporate-sta...

there’s a common theme in all this, which is a systemic denial of both, as I said before, causality and responsibility. They didn’t do the damage, they didn’t intend to, it would have been worse without them. And then even when there confronted with the disaster, there’s a denial they have a big responsibility, or a major responsibility, to set things right.
...
I think it’s very clear that they’re institutions that are designed to reward the profit motive–we could call it greed–and to suppress our natural instinct to not cause harm to others, our natural prosocial instincts. So you have, you know, among these incredibly powerful organizations, exactly the wrong set of incentives if you’re trying to create a society that is fair, and not taking crazy risks, and honest.
...
So suddenly the corporation is trying to undermine the credibility of its critics, not just an individual’s reflect, but a corporate strategy. Then I think an industry forms to serve that corporate strategy–the public relations industry, advertisers, lawyers. And then it goes from reflex to strategy to industry, and finally into an ideology. And then you know it’s really taken deep roots in your culture, and it’s going to start having lots of political impacts, quite independent of the original denial.

In fact, if you think about this in the context of climate denial, you had the oil majors being, you know, raising all kinds of doubts about this for a very long time. Now they’re actually sort of accepting that this is a real problem, and we have to do something about it. But they’ve raised so many doubts, and they funded all of these groups that were so anti-regulatory, and those groups essentially took over the Republican Party and now control the White House and the Senate. So you know, ExxonMobil can say, yes, we support the goals of the Paris Accord–but at this point, it’s kind of too late, because the denial that they fostered for so long has taken such deep root that we just have these enormous barriers to overcome.

Chris explains the nature of corporate tyranny in his recent article - https://scheerpost.com/2020/08/25/how-corporate-tyranny-works/

On his show this week, he interviews Steven Donziger about the reach of corporate power.

Donziger battled corporate oil giant, Chevron, over environmental pollution and destruction in Ecuador and won a settlement of $9.5 billion for indigenous communities. Since then Chevron has waged a campaign against Donziger to try and destroy him economically, professionally and personally. He is on trial in federal court in New York on September 9 for contempt charges, which could send him to jail for six months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDpNcJcVqxA (28 min)

There's no more telling abandonment of law than the US persecution of Julian Assange...for exposing US war crimes....
Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg and Alice Walker take part in this Courage Foundation panel discussion moderated by Jimmy Dore ahead of Julian Assange’s extradition hearing beginning on Monday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BncaMgqr2gw (1 hour)

Julian Assange faces extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States, where he will face a potential sentence of 175 years prison. The WikiLeaks editor and publisher’s extradition is being sought for publishing U.S. government documents in 2010, which exposed war crimes and human rights abuses. The indictment marks the first-ever use of the Espionage Act for the publication of truthful information in the public interest, and it represents a gravely dangerous attempt to criminalize basic journalistic activity, threatening journalists' right to publish and your right to know.

Political comedian Jimmy Dore will host a panel featuring Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, and Daniel Ellsberg, preeminent experts on free speech and the fight to protect it, for a discussion on Assange's persecution just 2 days before his extradition hearing resumes in London. They will examine the implications of his indictment and explain why they have joined up as co-chairs of a new U.S. support group for Assange.

WATCH: CN Live! —The Media Trial of the Century—at 8 pm EDT Sunday Today Sept. 6
a preview show on the resumption of the extradition hearing of imprisoned WikiLeaks’ publisher Julian Assange at Old Bailey in London.
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/09/06/watch-cn-live-the-media-trial-of-t...

Hell, we even sanction the International Criminal Court for investigating US war crimes.

The White House opposes the Hague-based court’s investigation of not only Afghanistan but also alleged crimes committed by Israeli officials against Palestinians.

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/09/03/trump-sanctions-top-icc-officials-...

I've wondered how the Religious right can support the pussy grabber in chief. Max has investigated that question and found the Council for National Policy (CNP), a hyper-secretive Christian Right powerhouse that helps set the movement’s agenda,
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/09/02/election-2020-the-rise-of-the-coun...

What is the alternative? Is there a way to jump off this sinking ship? I don't want to get my hopes up, but I'm willing to grasp at straws...
Lee Camp explores the peoples convention from last Sunday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=244RtKMiVtg (17 min)

The Movement for a People's Party Convention provides US voters with a refreshing alternative to the jingoistic conventions of the US's corporate parties. Lee reviews the speeches of the activists and celebrities who're backing the establishment of a new political party including actor Danny Glover, journalist Chris Hedges, politicians Marianne Williamson and Nina Turner, CodePink founder Medea Benjamin, & more.

So what's their platform? (5 min)

Will this fall flat or grow? I don't know but it is something...and something is better than nothing. https://peoplesparty.org/

What's the news with COVID this week?
Nationally cases and deaths are trending down.

There are variations among the states. You can check your states stats here...
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

Chris look at a new supercomputer model that suggests the virus mode of action...which explains the benefit of Vitamin D and Zinc. It is a bit of a slog so I'll cut to the conclusion part of the clip, but you may enjoy the whole thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOxRfNCTV6U&t=37m46s

As we discussed a couple of weeks ago, reopening schools is a bad strategy. There is some pushback.
Opposition to school reopenings mounts across Florida as spread of COVID-19 deepens
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/05/flor-s05.html

John Campbell looks at COVID in children and the declining death rates. He touches on Russia's new vaccine as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82OV9YA-u_M (28 min)

It isn't all good news. We'll see how well this projection plays out.
New pandemic projections place US death toll at over 400,000 by end of the year.

IHME bases their estimate on the change to the autumn and winter seasons as well as “declining vigilance of the public” to adhere to recommendations to wear masks and maintain social distancing. By December, they forecast that daily deaths will approach 3,000 per day.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/05/pand-s05.html

So the two Americas are not the red - blue division sown by our captured press, but the division between haves and have nots. Just look at who is supporting Biden...like the chamber of commerce and the Bush neocons in the first link in the introduction. No the two Americas differ in wealth.

In a 2004 speech, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina said there are two Americas, “the America of the privileged and the wealthy, and the America of those who live from paycheck to paycheck.” There are differences, he said, in the schools, in the loan rates, and in opportunity.

The one we see on TikTok, with cookie-cutter mansions, multiple car garages, two six-figure income households with housekeeping support, a landscaping service, located a short drive from big box discount retailers and sprawling pedestrian village-style malls. On the other end of the continuum, large, multigenerational families living in small, rent-subsidized apartments in giant, run-down complexes, usually in the innermost parts of large cities, underserved by retailers and essential services.

https://policymagazine.ca/inequality-in-the-time-of-covid-a-narrative-of...

The article concludes...

We saw the inequality on display post-Katrina, nearly four decades after the Civil Rights Act. We see it now, in that same city and others. The question, as it has been for most of our history, is how much evidence do we need that a change is necessary? How much death will it take for us to understand that our fellow Americans are not living in our same America? And do we have the political and societal will to make that change happen. We fail each other time and time again. Social safety nets and equal access to the world-class health care that is available in America is critical. Not just for the success of our neighbors, but for the ideals that define our country.

This is the narrative that needs to be discussed rather than the endless election chatter. It is at the heart of our problems. Well, I hope you are all doing well and riding out the pandemic without income panic and fear of infection. I look forward to your comments below.