"What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"
4th of July. Fireworks. Hotdogs, parades, veterans, flags, songs, parties, illusions, delusions.
Go ahead and party Americans. You are the king of the world, the purveyors of righteousness and democracy. The "exceptional nation" gets to throw down it's hair and tell the world, "look at us! we're free! and you're NOT!!"
Slaves. Paul Craig Roberts had an article up yesterday, "Once Only Blacks Were Enslaved, Now We All Are".
"Democracy does not exist in America. All the bombast you will hear on the 4th is designed to keep you locked in The Matrix.
The talk about “taking back your government” is nonsense. The government doesn’t belong to you. You can’t take it back.
Chris Hedges says that your only alternatives are to overthrow the criminal class in Washington or to accept your slavery."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/once-only-blacks-were-enslaved-now-we-all-a...
"the only alternatives are to overthrow the criminal class in Washington or to accept your slavery."
That's right, we are being RULED by a criminal class.
There's an old rock song by the Who called "Don't get Fooled Again". Most people have heard it, many use it as a descriptor of current situations, especially around election time.
"Don't get fooled again". We have no fucking idea how true that is. I like to point out a quote by the famous Eugene Debs to show how we keep banging our heads against the wall even though many before us have provided ample warning.
“The Republican and Democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the Republican-Democratic party, represent the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles.”
―Eugene V. Debs
Here we are over one hundred years later and we're still chained to a corrupt political system, always waiting for the next election in hopes that this time it will be different. We were told about these two political parties long ago, why are they still here?
There are many other examples of past humans warning us of that which we still struggle against, like Ike's "military industrial complex" speech or JFK's Secret Society speech or MLK Jr's Vietnam war/U.S. imperialism speech.
We tend to think things are different now. They aren't. It's just bigger. Old sayings became old sayings because they're true, like "the more things change, the more they stay the same." We aren't any smarter now.
Take this one for example. Tell me this couldn't have been written yesterday.
“To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.
“Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.”
Frederick Douglass
Go out and party America, you've had enough fucking warnings.
Comments
39 Whitehall Street
This link starts near the end 3m5s: Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant 1970 then finishes with Arlo talking decades later. It is a segment from a Dutch interview (I think):
first time I posted about that it went kerplunk, 'cause Arlo's a libertarian or something. I still think what he says at the end is perfect. Nothing much has changed, violence begets violence. I don't know if the 60s did anything more than "Hope other hopes" for those generations. Did anyone else think "and their beards have all grown longer overnight" reading the essay "Democrats are now the party on the right".
1971
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2017
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peace
As a perennial placeholder
Of the Group W bench, thanks for the reminder.
Tha American people are in a bad place. Our Defense has collapsed. We've been rendered helpless.
All that stands between freedom and serfdom is Offense.
Go Offense!
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Morning Al...
Happy 4th of July
Celebrating rights we no longer have, like a fading firework. Poof!
KaBoooom! Look, there goes another one!
FDR and the Dems
I honestly think the only reason the FDR and the Dems (And by extension the Repigs under Eisenhower) of his day did what they did was because they were scared shitless of rebellion. Hell, the only reason they pretended to care about workers from 1940 to 1970 was because the Soviet Union was on their asses.
Now with nothing left to challenge them, the Dems and Repigs are free to be what they always were: Self serving corporate sychophants. And too many of the 'electorate' seem all too willing to stay on the political 50 yard line while the team owners sell them out at every turn.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
No, we're not free
We'll never be free until religion is banished from our bedrooms and classrooms.
We'll never be free until healthcare becomes a right, not a privilege.
We'll never be free until access to clean & healthy food & water becomes a right, not a privilege.
We'll never be free until all elections are publicly financed with no outside money.
We'll never be free until corporations are no longer superpeople and pay their fair share of taxes.
We'll never be free until we value environment over profits.
We'll never be free until our justice system treats all races the same.
We'll never be free until our media is ruled by ethics, not run by corporations.
I'm thinking we'll never be free.
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
We Are All Wage Slaves
Of course some wage slaves are more equal than others.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xJglaqH5Tno
"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
First we were physical slaves.
Then we were emancipated to become wage slaves. We've now evolved into debt slaves.
The one constant - the common man has always been chattel. One's value to society is a producer, a consumer or a debtor. Failing these one can still have value as prison or canon fodder.
The proof? Eight men now own half the world's wealth.
Shackled & Drawn
"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
A client state? (says Netanyahu)
Just being a smartass by answering the question; What be it to this slave, me are one.
http://www.defensenews.com/articles/netanyahu-on-israel-a-mighty-aircraft-carrier-of-the-us
Can't get any more Chomsky than that I'd say. Brazen times, fascist fcks flat out say it. "Mission Accomplished". "common civilization"? Where does that leave me? I don't know.
Love, not War
Peace
Itching to kick the Palestinians off the Israel aircraft carrier
This paean to ethnic cleansing (invoking Churchill, yet!) came out in the summer of 2003, when neocons were still patting themselves on the back and thinking “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq.
https://townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/2003/08/27/transfer-is-not-a-...
The one exceptional thing about America is
its undaunted belief that it is, in fact, the "one exceptional nation in the world". This is why it is congenitally incapable of seeing the world around it other than through a red, white and blue lens.
What other nation in the world can destroy the lives of untold millions of innocent men, women and children, time and time again, then publicly stand up and declare "We did this for their own good - to bring them freedom and democracy."
America's military might and its intransigent belief of global moral superiority are intimately intertwined.
At one time the British thought of themselves
as "the one exceptional, indispensable nation". Later on, the Germans convinced themselves of something similar. Mass delusions like this erupt from time to time, but they don't last forever.
native
It seems there is a direct correlation between
military power and notions of exceptionalism - might makes right.
There sure is.
Bob Dylan concurs in a more vernacular style,
However the power of brute force isn't the only kind of power. It can be, and occasionally been, superceded by superior intelligence and strategy.
native
There's also the fact that brute force
is inherently stupid. Inevitably, it tends to trip over its own combat boots, sooner or later.
native
Very true. They all eventually go down.
Unfortunately it is usually on slopes made slippery from blood and tears.
Thanks for the Debs quote, Al
It is all about spoils, isn't it?
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
What is slavery..
Half of American workers earn less than $30k a year.
My feeling is that they (me included) have relatively the same resources as plantation "workers" of the early 1800's. As far as economic inequality...today's 1% may even greatly exceed that of antibellum Master and slave. I'm sure someone has done that comparison.
I want a Pony!
I think one of the main reasons slavery was eventually abolished
was because supplying room and board plus rudimentary health care to the workers became more costly than paying wages.
That's exactly it.
[video:https://youtu.be/uxRSkM8C8z4]
Not to mention that then you can
use those former slaves to break up any labor strikes or even the idea of one. Worked very well for our owners and keeps on working for them the longer we're trapped in our delusions of grandeur.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Personally, the 4th is rough and keeps getting worse.
Loud detonations, ALL OVER THE PLACE.
I tend to spend the day with headphones on and lots of pot in my system. Because, I don't need to be a raging, paranoid veteran screaming at people to stop blowing up things around me.
Every time we do... the reaction is always... this type of crap:
http://www.breachbangclear.com/signs-of-veteran-entitlement/
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn shared these words with us back in 2006. They ring more true today than they did over a decade ago because as noted in the comments here, we are no longer a free nation and we haven't been for a very long time. It is just an illusion that the USA is a free country.
A free country wouldn't have over 800 agencies that are spying on everything we write or say.
A free country wouldn't be met with an out of control militarized police force when people gather to protest against their government.
A free country would still have their Habeaus Corpus rights.
A free country wouldn't have an hidden amendment that states that the military can arrest anyone for any reason and hold them indefinitely without charges, access to a lawyer and a speedy trial.
A free country would still have all of the rights that the Founding Fathers granted them when they signed the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Howard Zinn shared these words with us back in 2006.
Today seems to be a good time to re-read Zinn's A People's History Of The United States
Hopefully, people read today's Open Thread by Mark from Queen where he writes about his experience with a town that has more American Flags (made in China) than people.
Whatever ya'll are doing today, have fun.
I'm off for a walk with my little dawggies in close to 100 degree heat. Now, 100 degrees isn't that bad. Especially when it is going to be even hotter tomorrow. Yippee, we have been breaking heat records since April here in the land of Zion.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
A free country wouldn't require citizens to have a passport
just to leave.
We could probably do this all day snoopydawg. But that's enough, we know.
Have a great day in the heat. About 90 here in the Portland, OR area, beautiful day.
@Big Al Thought you were a
Thought you were a Floridian? I know the Gator is, but for some reason thought you were as well.
It is a good time to read Rev. Wright's speech too
for those so inclined. If you remember, the news media butchered his speech so they could take it out of context and say that this minister hated America. What he hated was what America stood for. I have often stated that I agree with him.
Jeremiah Wright's speech to NAACP
Just for fun, let's never forget what Ben Carson, a Black man had to say about the Slave's good luck after being stolen from their home and made to work for far too long.
In a March speech, Carson did, indeed, bizarrely describe slaves as ”immigrants,” saying they came to America and “worked even longer, even harder for less” than other immigrants.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Well I wont be celebrating
my independence from one tyrannical government to another one just as bad or worse, but as a functioning debt slave I will take the day to celebrate my friends and family with my friends and family. I hope all of you can do the same. Happy 4th.
Somebody had a Man-On
the-Street vid asking (mostly) 20-somethings questions about the 4th of July. Most didn't have a clue the year it was signed or who the colonists were fighting for their independence. Does the school system even bother to teach American history, or was this crowd a bunch of D students?
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.