Goethe Girl
Wall St seems a bit too comfortable with “the Redditors did it” narrative. Somewhat, but on a much smaller scale, like the '08-'09 narrative that ordinary scofflaws took out mortgages they couldn't possibly afford and that tanked the housing market and by extension banks and Wall St. It wasn't that their was no truth in over-extended housing buyers, but they were the bit players and had been played as suckers.
Not Us...but THEM!
I think we are purposefully set up to fight against our own interests...red/blue, gay/straight, libertarian/socialist, BLM/Boogaloos and an array of other divides. As a result we fail to see the real impediment to a functioning society benefiting most people and protecting the planet is the oligarchs. This week the rigging of the market by the elites to limit the people's investment was made obvious with the Gamestop fiasco. I suspect that soon, designed distractions will insure we're pitted against other working people while the oligarchs laugh all the way to the banks they own. This became plain to me this week when Jimmy was attacked (45 min) for daring to speak to a boogaloo boy (40 min). There are many views we hold in common with this person. The idea we should not even talk with people who have different ideas is absurd. For my perspective we must learn to focus on policy issues NOT identity politics designed to keep us apart. TPTB assassinated MLK when he dared to try to unite blacks and whites in a working class coalition. Since that time, we've failed again and again to rebuild that working class movement...in part because we are divided or thwarted whenever that becomes a possibility (OWS and the 2016 Bernie campaign come to mind).
“White grievances” supplant “moral values” as a major impetus to get out the vote for the Republican Party.
Data gathered after the 2020 Presidential Election show that “moral values” as a motivation to get out the vote has greatly decreased. Only 3% of voters said abortion was the most important issue facing the country according to the AP VoteCast Survey. Same-sex marriage wasn’t even a consideration.
A couple minutes after emerging from the chrysalis.
I choose to call myself PhillyBluesFan out of a great appreciation for that earthy American musical tradition and because my wife and because I spent 15 good years living just on the edge of metropolitan Philadelphia. You could reach our former home by taking the second exit off I95 just across the Delaware state line. It is interesting that we were sandwiched between Chester, Pa on one side and Swarthmore, Pa on the other.
Among my fondest memories of that experience would have to be the evenings I spent teaching decision making to one inmate at a time inside a prison in Chester and the days I spent helping put together a small independent magazine that was published on a shoestring in what used to be a North Philly rowhouse ... the original location of THE SIMPLE WAY.
One of the other unique to Philadelphia paces I used to frequent was the Quaker retreat center at Pendle Hill. I'd sit in their quiet library, listening to a podcast on my smartphone or reading books from the stacks.
After this bit of personal introduction, I invite you to listen in on a recorded Zoom conversation with Shane Claiborne. He lives in the neighborhood where we assembled CONSPIRE
Howdy everbody, just poppin’ in to say stuff I’m afraid to post at the “other site”
- Arousing your base also arouses your opponent’s
- All politicians are dishonest some of the time
- Some politicians are dishonest all of the time
- Demonized people will act demonically
- Social unrest can be used to distract from wealth inequality
- Like electricity and magnetism, greed and power drive each other
‘It’s not dark yet…but it’s gettin’ there.’
‘Democratic Fascists Prepare to Drop the Hammer’, Glen Ford, Jan. 28, 2021, blackagendareport.com (w/ permission, some excerpts)
“Democrats are determined to snuff out freedom of speech and assembly to protect the corporate ruling order – while pretending it’s to safeguard Black people.
“The militants seeking social transformation and peace under the Black Lives Matter umbrella must weigh the full implications of the Black Democratic Misleaders’ deal with the devil.”
