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Opinions/Editorials Title: We Can Still Change the World It's hard to imagine stranger times than these, though stranger times surely lie ahead. It seems that before we had much of a chance to perfect it our civilization entered its inevitable period of decline. That it happened just when it did of course was not inevitable at all IMHO. No, I believe it could have all been very different. I won't elaborate on that theme, I've beaten it like a drum for years. I'll just refer the curious to this previous diary, The Dirty F@#*ing Hippies Were Right! Midnight-in-America-650px * One Pissed Off Liberal's diary :: :: * I think our founding fathers, for all they got right, erred horribly when they intentionally designed a system resistant to change. It seems that for all their prescience they could not anticipate how quickly the need for change would present itself or how desperate that need would become, but the sad fact is that we are left with a status quo that most of us hate but can't change. And what's not to hate about the status quo? The Military Industrial Complex fully in charge, complete with two senseless, immoral and devastatingly expensive wars – and if you believe the war in Iraq is over, you're not thinking hard enough. (50,000 US troops and unlimited market opportunities for Xe is not the same thing as peace or withdrawal.) And the nightmare in Afghanistan just gets worse every day...and our government cannot be trusted to do the right thing. That's pretty much the last thing they're going to do. Goldman Sachs and the Wall Street Banksta Gangstas are still firmly in charge of our economy. War profiteers, torturers and financial bandits run free at the upper echelons of society unrestrained by laws or consequences. The House, the Senate and the Federal Courts are firmly in the hip pocket of corporate America. We labor under a government that has turned on its constituents. They have the balls to come for our social security but they won't dare tax the rich, much less the corporations. Goldman Sachs paid 1%. 1 fucking %, but they need our social security to fund their bullshit wars. And in fealty to their corporate overlords our government avoids doing the right thing about anything and the consequences for the rest of us have grown enormous. American citizens are condemned to suffering and death for not being able to pay exorbitant medical fees and insurance premiums, and in writing this I am thinking of dear friends in this actual situation. Insurance "reform" was not the answer for them. Our civil rights are eroding before our eyes. The government now claims the right to secretly GPS track any one of us everywhere we go without warrant or probable cause. Our futures are being attenuated by the greed and corruption in our culture, and the middle class is on its way out. If you don't see it, you're not looking hard enough. Who'll take a stand these days for restoring America's founding ethic of the common good? You won't get this leadership from Washington -- and damned sure not from those in the corporate suites who're ruthlessly pushing an ethic of uncommon greed, saying to the middle class, "Adios, chumps." Jim Hightower: If You Don't Fight for the Middle Class, Kiss It Good-Bye The mechanism for change was never meant to actually work and it has functioned as designed. Just look at how many have struggled, suffered and sacrificed to effect the most modest progress. The reality I am pointing to here is nothing less than a crying shame. Thousands of people have died to make even the tiniest changes to this stupid, unjust, selfish and greed-driven system that favors robber barons and pisses on people. The system itself is antithetical to progress. It's amazing that we've put up with it for so long. The entire system is now collapsing beneath the weight of its own greed, corruption and mendacity. I can't say I'll be sorry to see it go. It never worked as advertised. It never served the people of the United States of America. The people who still believe in the system are trapped in its myopic bubble. The system has impeded progress for 50 years, if not longer, and still people look to it for meaningful change – even in the wake of HIR and Citizen's United, the one legislative sleight of hand and the other a judicial coup, but it's all the same fucked-up system. "It's a big club...and you ain't in it." George Carlin Daily Kos is an interesting mix and among us are many party loyalists who bristle whenever any of us criticize the democrats. But we're the only honest feedback the democrats have. We love them (or have) and want them to succeed but don't mind telling them when they have failed – and they have failed miserably. They have failed most miserably it seems to me by straying from the values that once made them great. They are no longer the party of the people it seems fair to say. These are not Tom Joad democrats. These are not champions of the working class. These are not fierce advocates for the American people. These are corporate sellouts and rightwing shills. Not all of them of course...but most of them. If they lose in November it will be no great wonder and it will be no one's fault but their own. They could have fought for single payer or raised hell for the public option...but they did neither. They didn't even try. They could have prosecuted the torturers and thieves but they didn't. They could have kept their promise not to play footsie with lobbyists instead of just hiding it at Starbucks. They could have sided with the people but they sided with their corporate masters. They could have listened to their avid supporters on the left, but they told us to sit down and STFU. After 8 years of Bush, we didn't elect democrats to get republican lite. RFK Lives summed up our prospects for the fall as follows: U3/U6 is only rumination that matters (1+ / 0-) As SilverOz notes, those #s are, as expected, not good. There are 2 relevant truths here: 1. Dems won in '06 and '08 b/c people didn't like status quo; and 2. GOP will win in '10 b/c people still don't like the status quo. 3. Any other ruminations are detail. Some men see things as they are and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not? by RFK Lives on Fri Sep 03, 2010 at 06:05:40 AM PDT So now the republicans will get swept into power due to dissatisfaction with the democrats, where they will merrily proceed to screw things up even worse. So then the democrats will be swept back into power where they will do nothing to actually change the status quo (which they secretly, or not so secretly, work to protect and perpetuate), and the cycle will go on and on all the way to the bitter end. Battered and bruised, with no apparent way out, the American electorate has plunged into a political state of learned helplessness. They've voted Democratic to punish rapacious Republicans. They've voted Republican to get rid of do-nothing Democrats. They've tried staying home on Election Day. Nothing they do helps their condition. They're flailing. The great mass of Americans works longer hours for less pay. Until, inevitably, they get "laid off." Is there a working- or middle-class American who hasn't lost his job or been close to someone who got fired during the last few years? Even in 2009, when global capitalism entered its final crisis and millions of Americans were losing their homes to the same banks their taxes were paying to bail out, the world's richest people--those with disposable wealth over $30 million--saw their assets soar by 21.5 percent. Go ahead, little leftie: smash the windows at Starbucks in Seattle. It won't stop transnational corporations from raping the planet and exploiting you. Enjoy your Tea Party, little rightie. It sure is cute, listening to you talk about the wee Constitution. "Your" government and the companies that own "your" leaders have your number. In Dire Straits, Americans Whimper Instead "Your" government and the companies that own "your" leaders have your number. The unmitigated gall of these assholes! They have the balls to come for our social security but they wouldn't dare tax the rich or make corporations pay their fair share. Goldman Sachs paid 1% in taxes...and our idiocracy is cool with that - but they need our social security to fund their bullshit wars. Our 'leaders' need to be tarred and feathered if you ask me...and that's just for for starters. Many of them, past and present, as we all know, belong in prison. And that's not something I say lightly about anyone. Republican Leader John Boehner explicitly called for cutting Social Security in order to pay for the war in Afghanistan. The article reports: "Ensuring there's enough money to pay for the war will require reforming the country's entitlement system, Boehner said. He said he'd favor increasing the Social Security retirement age to 70 for people who have at least 20 years until retirement, tying cost-of-living increases to the consumer price index rather than wage inflation and limiting payments to those who need them." In principle Boehner gave the Democrats as much ammunition as a serious political party could want. (snip) That would be the case, unless of course the Democrats actually hold similar views. After all, several prominent Democrats have been saying in public recently that we will have to cut Social Security benefits (benefits workers have already paid for). These prominent Democrats also support the war in Afghanistan. Dean Baker So are we ready to march yet? Many have acknowledged in recent years that too many of us are too comfortable and/or afraid to rock the boat. During the Bush years when there were kossacks trying to rally our side for marches in DC, we heard a lot of excuses and rationalizations for not participating. Markos didn't support street protests, marching was passé, there are going to be those Mumia people there (or Code Pink, etc) and I absolutely refuse to march with them. On the other hand there were many brave kossacks who showed up in Washington and we marched with thousands of other Americans who'd had enough...and it felt good. It felt damned good. And those memories for me and my son are among the most precious that we will ever have. I can't tell you how glad I am that we went to the trouble to go to Washington DC to make our objections known - to stand up for ourselves. And I'll never forget those precious friends and compatriots who stood up with us and marched for everything that was right, good and true. I expect there will be those who say, 'so you marched and it felt good, in the mean time we were electing more and better democrats.' IMHO it's kind of hard to tell at this point whose actions were more futile. I will, however, venture this opinion: you'll never elect enough better democrats to make a difference in that cesspool in Washington, but if we march big enough we will change the world. It's the only thing that will. It's time for America's velvet revolution. It's time for us to stand up for ourselves. The only real power you've got left is out there in the street. And it's only yours if you get out there and claim it. Progressives have been losing ground left and right for as long as I can remember. We are losing. The right wing and their corporations are trouncing us and destroying our nation – not to mention the earth. This is something that should be clear to everyone by now. We are losing the middle class, our unions, our civil rights, our homes, our jobs, our social safety net and our hope for our children's future. And we have long ago lost our rightful representation in our own government. Our leaders have abandoned us in favor of the know-nothing greedhead, fat checkbook crowd. It's no longer about anything but money. Our only hope at this point is to rise up and put the fear of the American people back into our government. We can't let them get away with this blatant screw job any longer. It's time to take it to the streets. It's high time we exorcise the corruption and evil from our government, force our country to live up to its billing, and start taking proper care of the earth and its people. mlk-NEW-650px Martin Luther King Speaks for Me "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom." "A right delayed is a right denied." "Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better." "An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity." "Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent." "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." "Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." "History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people." Martin Luther King, Jr. So will you good people remain appallingly silent or will you meet us and march with thousands of the best friends you never knew you had in Washington DC on October 2, 2010? And if you just can't come to the march, will you support it in some other way? Spread the word? Help someone else get there maybe? Of course not everyone can go, but everyone can help. There comes a time when silence is betrayal. This is our time.
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#1. To: A K A Stone (#0)
What this bunch of Pleasure Island donkeys at Daily Kos do not reralize is that everything they complain about here is an example of how the Constitutional System changed from what the founders intended despite the idea they promote taht it is some type of status quo resistant to change. As a forinstance on the military side of the Military / Industrial Complex the only organized federal military force the founders intended to have was a NAVY and a Marine Corps for boarding captured ships, islands and the like. The equivalant of the army in the founder's military system was to be militias made of people who provided their own uniforming and more importantly PRIVATELY OWNED ARMS. Local Police duties were to be done pretty much by the same mmechinism under elected marshals and sheriffs only in this case temporary citizen cops were called a posse rather than a militia. Avoidence of a standing domestic / imperial army was one but not the ONLY one as liberals and "progressives" think for the Second Amendment being in the Constitution. The irony of all this is that Anti War "Progressives" by fighting for "gun control" laws and the end of the militia / posse system of national defense and local policing may be just as responsible for the Military / Industrial complex and professional police brutality as any Pro War Pro Police Neo-CON. No, the "Progressives" at places like Daily Kos do not really want to get rid of the Military / Industrial Complex because doing it means OF NECCESSITY an end to "gun control" and a genuine revival of the hated by "Progressives" militias and posses. They simply want to use it to obtain power for THEMSELVES. Boy Scouts have to buy their own uniforms and equipment and meet in local troops. Why not bring back that same system THE FOUNDING FATHERS INTENDED for adult Citizen Soldiers or Peace Officers. Now we will look at the "Industrial" side of the complex or more accurately the corporate side. Believe it or not parts of the Constitution were intended to control the monopoly power of corporations and banks as well as that of the state. Two of these were designed to keep ANY Privete banking corporations from issuing money by making COINED money issue a perogitave of CONGRESS ONLY. (The department of treasury, the bereu of engraving and printing and the mints should actually be a department of the CONGRESS, like the Copyright and patent offices are, not the executive branch where it is now. This was changed in favor of corporate issuance of money in the form of debt / ususy "credit" through the Faro Reserve Bank in 1913 by Woodie Pinocchio Wilson and his Stromboli, "Colonel" Edward Mandel House. Indeed Copyright and Patents have become another place where Corporate Power has changed in a way that was against the expressed will of the Founders as written in the constitution. This is because the Constitution controlled permanent corporate control over ideas in the sciences, technology and the arts by STRICTLY LIMITED TERMS for copyrights and patents after which the ideas would return to the public domain for use or even re copyrightable and patentable improvements by later authors, artists and inventors but with the ORIGINAL work on which the improvements were based remaining in the public domain. Also the stricter Patent protections were limited strictly to new HARDWARE inventions like a new type of gun, car, sprinkler system, etc. However Corporations have bribed Congress into making Copyright virtually permanent and this is the basis of virtually ALL modern "entertainment" and "news" monopoly empires today. This permanence is hidden as "extensions" added on to "limited" copyright terms whenever a key piece of "Inrellectual Property" Like Micky Mouse, Popeye or Superman comes near to the expiration time of the current "extension". This has virtually ended genuine Constitutional Copyright as the founders intended it. And who was it who ended constitutional copyright in this nation. On the Republican side the chief proponant of Permanent Copyright is Orren Hatch, a "moderate" (read Rockefellar Republican "Progressive" Neo-CON) "Conservative" (read "PROGRESSIVE" DONKEY pretending to be a Conservative). On the Democratic side the main proponant of Perminent Copyright is Dianne Feinstein a "Progressive" Gun Grabber. Once again it is YOUR DONKEY BOYS who have given the power of permanent copyright to the CORPORATIONS Daily Kos and fellow traveling "Progressives". Constitutional Patents have taken a similar drubbing at the hands of the "Progressives" and the Military / Industrial complex that that the afore mentioned "Progressives" claim to hate. Not in duration this time but scope. As we remember the Founders intended this stricter level of protection be available only to HARDWARE based inventions. However nowdays largely thanks to the same outright "Progressives" and "Progressives" pretending to be Conservatives and Libertarians patents can cover software, business models, life forms and even parts of the HUMAN GENOME, areas which the Founders NEVER intended for them. This extension of patents into places where they do not belong has led to many of the depopulationist monstrosities of our time such as With Monsanto's genetically enhanced patented "Frankenfoods" and seeds being the leader in this sort of thing. The main way through which the Corporation AND THE STATE expresses its power these days is through our electronic communications systems. Once again here it was the "PROGRESSIVES" who gave away the store to the corporations through licensing what should have been a FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT to use these electronic communication systems then bitched about it after doing so to get even more power for themselves creating monstrosities like the "Fairness Doctrine" as a result. Basically what should have resulted from the invention of radio and television was hundreds of low power independent broadcast operations broadcasting either public domain material that "fell" out of copyright or their own original programs and with news operations open to any political view the opperators held. However Broadcast LICENSING an invention of the "PROGRESSIVES" along with their other inventions such as permanent copyright prevented this model of television and radio from happening and gave us the brain erasing corporate communications media monstrosity we have today. Once again the "Progressives" claim to hate the media monopoly within the Industrial side of the Military / Industrial Complex. But watch the howls from "Progressive" Hollywierd and the "Progressive" Software and Genetically modified food and seed giants like Microsoft and Monsanto of "Legalizing Piracy" if anyone suggested returning to the Founder's 24 year maximum copyright term. Limiting Patents to spacifically hardware inventions and droping Broadcasrt licenses for low power local broadcast operations all three of which are a NECCESSITY for reducing the power of the Industrial side of the Military / Industrial Complex. I want to end this comment with my ideas about the newest idea that the "Progressives" seem to be pushing concerning the only communications media to still be operating by First Amendment principles, the Internet. A big topic of conversation in the Internet area for "Progressives" is Net Neutrality. Basically I think Net Neutrality is good as long as it is based on FIRST AMENDEMENT PRINCIPLES of such neutrality meaning all political, entertainment, shopping and educational information is still welcome. However knowing the history of the "Progressives" I think they have something else in mind for "Net Neutrality" this is LICENSING WEBSITES, supposidly to insure "Net Neutrality". Knowing the history of licensing broadcast television and radio we can predict the result of LICENSED "Net Neutrality" would be exactly the same as no Net Neutrality at all. TOTAL CORPORATE OWNERSHIP OF THE SYSTEM. Of course the "Progressives" will bitch about the total corporate Internet that will come from THEIR licensed "Net Neutrality" system as being "status quo" and the Military / Industrial Complex while not admitting to the surrender to that complex that the "PROGRESSIVES" themselves have caused again with their licensing scheme. However just like with Television and Radio Licensing, Permanent Copyright, Anything Patent, The Faro Reserve Bank, "gun control" and the Professional Military and Police "Progressives" will also bitch against anybody who seeks to truely bring these things back to what the founders intended.
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