a little rebellion is a good thing
Posted 9 years ago on Feb. 16, 2015, 8:06 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
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PresidentsDay
PRESIDENTS' DAY 2015
“God forbid we should be twenty years without a rebellion. What country can preserve its liberties if the rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?” — President Thomas Jefferson (1787)
“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember, or overthrow it.” — President Abraham Lincoln (Inaugural Address, 1861)
<p>a little rebellion is a good thing: http://t.co/QmOVwkOruY #PresidentsDay</p>— Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallSt) February 16, 2015</blockquote>
“The right of Revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of the oppression if they are strong enough, either by withdrawing from it, or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable.”
— President Ulysses S. Grant (1885)
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
— President John F. Kennedy (1962)
''The Walton Family which owns Walmart, is the wealthiest family in America and it is absurd that thousands of its low-wage workers are forced to use programs like Food Stamps, Medicaid and subsidised housing. Wal-Mart should raise their minimum-wage to $10.10 now and move it to $15 over the next several years. Struggling working families should not have to subsidize the wealthiest family in the country.'' - Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
I know that its 'The Year Of The Sheep' and all that but we don't have to be meek as lambs going to the slaughter, especially as - ''a little rebellion is a good thing''!
I wonder if the increase to wages that the Walton's are giving their WalMart employees will have a net negative effect because it will possibly throw some or maybe all of the worker's off of food stamps but not be enough to make up the difference. Just a thought. The media is making such a big deal about it, like it is some kind of benevolent action on the part of the multi billionaire Walton family.
The 'Living-Wage'/'Minimum-Wage' dichotomy is a huge point. WalMart's management would've made their many calculations about bottom line, net-cost; the minimum requirements for employee retention; staff morale; media/PR value etc. and they have not made their decision without co-ordination with the Federal Government.That their workers could actually be worse off is the last of the Waltons' concerns, if indeed - it be any concern at all. + http://livingwage.mit.edu/
"Empire - Rise of the Oligarchs," an Al Jazeera documentary, has a very good segment on WalMart and it's low wages:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN8esxNb1t0
In the end, though, all the excuses and reasons in the world can't explain the absolute immoral reduction of wages in the United States over the past 40 years and the fact that Americans are living in financialized debt because of it.
The immorality and amorality of the 0.01% is a psychopathology and its effects are global and so must be the remedy of resistance against them. For example Professor Michael Hudson says that Greece's Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is proposing austerity on the banking class, rather than the working class, to balance the budget - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMKdR1jxSu0 and thanks for your excellent video too. I can't recommend both these You-Tube links enough.
May Greece hold tight and be courageous enough to be the guinea pig for the global 99%. Austerity will still be imposed but on the wealthy instead of the regular people. And, believe me, the tycoons and oligarchs will still not suffer in any way under Varoufakis' plan.
The banks absolutely do not want this. They want the global 99% to be frightened and think that Greece will sink if they leave the Euro and say f-you to your Odious Debt. But, the truth is, Greece will survive and the world's economic system could possibly get back on track to working for the 7 billion people who live on this beautiful planet and not just the 400 greedy bastards that hoard all the wealth for themselves while controlling everyone else. Greece, you gave us democracy, now give us a working economy. Don't give up!
And, thanks for the Hudson video. Excellent!
"European Banks vs. Greek Labour" is the title of Dr. Hudson's video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMKdR1jxSu0 ) and I can't recommend it enough to those who want to see through and beyond, the Troika's spin and media management/manipulation. It is Very Important for the rest of us to really try to understand this situation and also fyi - http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/27/showdown-in-athens-2/
Interesting that you raise the point of Greece being the 'home of democracy' - as the word ''economy'' comes from the Greek ''oikos'' meaning 'house' and so ''oikonomia'' meaning to 'manage one's home'. ''Odious Debt'' is another concept worth learning about too - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odious_debt
"In international law, Odious Debt, also known as illegitimate debt, is a legal theory that holds that the national debt incurred by a regime for purposes that do not serve the best interests of the nation, should not be enforceable. Such debts are, thus, considered by this doctrine to be personal debts of the regime that incurred them and not debts of the state. In some respects, the concept is analogous to the invalidity of contracts signed under coercion."
And, therein lies the crux of what has happened to Greece....and, um, we Americans too, and um, the 99% all over the globe! Time to break free of ODIOUS DEBT!
The IMF knows about Odious Debt as God knows, they have actively enabled so much of it, so see http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2002/06/kremer.htm and cringe at their duplicity and hubris.
I really believe that we will be hearing much more about Odious Debt and Jubilee in the days, weeks, months and years to come. Here are two links http://journal.probeinternational.org/odious-debts/ and http://www.globalresearch.ca/cry-for-argentina-odious-debt-fiscal-mismanagement-or-pillage-financial-mechanisms-which-spearhead-nations-into-bankruptcy/5395691 Time to break free of ODIOUS DEBT!
I personally feel that the U.S.'s debt is odious debt because it was taken in order to wage perpetual unjust wars that I have no interest in. Instead I would prefer my tax money and any debt my government takes on to provide me with things that can better my life such as universal healthcare, free higher education, affordable housing, a living wage, pension, etc.
"Time to break free of ODIOUS DEBT!" - and with a reference to your clear reply, and the subject of this News-Post, I'll recommend "Obama’s Selma Song: America Is Not Racist – It’s Just Ferguson" by Glen Ford - http://www.blackagendareport.com/node/14716 - for pointing out some bridges we must all cross.
"For Obama and Holder, the routine killing of unarmed Blacks by police is “tragic,” but not evidence of anything endemic in American society – certainly, not something for the U.S. Justice Department to worry about."
Here's a better link to the Glen Ford piece, "Obama’s Selma Song: America Is Not Racist – It’s Just Ferguson"
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41219.htm
Actually, in some ways, the insipid, quiet racism of today is worse, because since it is so stealth, little is done to stop it. That is why it is so important that we address it when it is uncovered such as it was with the disgusting song on the Sigma Alpha Epsilon bus.
''Kshama Sawant, the socialist on the (Seattle) City Council, is up for re-election this year. Since joining the council in January of 2014 she has helped push through a gradual raising of the minimum wage to $15 an hour in Seattle. She has expanded funding for social services and blocked, along with housing advocates, an attempt by the Seattle Housing Authority to allow a rent increase of up to 400 percent. She has successfully lobbied for city money to support tent encampments and is fighting for an excise tax on millionaires. And for this she has become the bête noire of the Establishment, especially the Democratic Party.
''The corporate powers, from Seattle’s mayor to the Chamber of Commerce and the area’s Democratic Party, are determined she be defeated, and these local corporate elites have the national elites behind them. This will be one of the most important elections in the country this year. It will pit a socialist, who refuses all corporate donations—not that she would get many—and who has fearlessly championed the rights of workingmen and workingwomen, rights that are being eviscerated by the corporate machine. The elites cannot let the Sawants of the world proliferate. Corporate power is throwing everything at its disposal—including sponsorship of a rival woman candidate of color—into this election in the city’s 3rd District. Sawant’s fight is our own.
''“Something important has changed,” she said. “The hostility to socialist ideas is not present now because we have a majority of young Americans who are experiencing the deep failures of capitalism. Red-baiting does not work on them. As a socialist, I have never experienced any hostility, except from the Establishment. This does not necessarily mean all those people who support us are socialist. But it means people are infuriated about income inequality, about the pillaging by the big banks. They are burning at the entrenched racial injustice in America. They want a solution to climate change. They are looking for something radically different.”
''The call for a national party is, in the end, a call to educate. It is a call to put forth a program that offers an alternative to global capitalism. And it is a call to empower the citizenry to break the corporate stranglehold to make this alternative possible.
“We must convince people that we need an alternative and we must convince them about what that alternative is,” Sawant said. “We need to stand up for the hundreds of millions of lives devastated by global capitalism. The abuses we saw in 2008 will happen over and over again as long as capitalism survives. And it is our job to break the cycle of capitalist exploitation of people and the ecosystem and save ourselves. This will only come about if we organize mass movements, if we build a radical political party and if we refuse to accept a system designed to subject the immense majority to misery so that a minority can pile up untold wealth.”
From - http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_most_dangerous_woman_in_america_20150315 by Chris Hedges. Looks like someone has hacked the 'Black Agenda Report' site but from the same site as your replacement link see - http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41252.htm and also see http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41258.htm and thanks for your replacement link above.
3/16 Edit: http://www.blackagendareport.com/ is back + http://www.blackagendareport.com/node/14716
“Something important has changed,” she said. “The hostility to socialist ideas is not present now because we have a majority of young Americans who are experiencing the deep failures of capitalism. Red-baiting does not work on them." Quote from Sawant.
Truth there. We see this with Bernie Sanders and the amazing support he is getting from millenials who see the world differently than other generations. They see a world where an economy based on sharing and caring and love is needed and those are the things at the heart of socialism.
''The hostility to socialist ideas is not - AS - present now..'' perhaps but alas Corporate MSM Deep Propaganda remains! Thus fyi .. http://www.thenation.com/article/how-socialists-built-america/ and http://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/ by Albert Einstein! Viva OWS & Ouch re.Matt!
too bad sanders supports bombing other nations
''The Left Matters - Now, More Than Ever'' - http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/30936-the-left-matters-now-more-than-ever - Ideas are what makes any revolution, so also consider: http://www.leftforum.org/
Without Occupy, Hilary Clinton wouldn't be saying things like "We need to topple the 1%," "Let's end mass incarceration," and "The fight for $15 is my fight too." And, Bernie Sanders wouldn't even be in the race. The Occupy movement has changed the mindset of the American people and if the Democratic party has awakened a little bit to the fact that their move to the right has failed them, then ok, we'll all benefit from that.
From the truth out piece "Clinton's campaign is taking a decidedly different tone this time around, which is both judicious and welcome. Secretary Clinton seems to have recognized that idealism and leftist ideals are part of the essential DNA of her party - and of American politics."
Exactly !!! bw :) ...now if we can only get Bernie to switch his support from socialism to support of Social Wealth building ... he might stand a chance !!
aaAHHAaahahaha - yeah sure - and yet she takes no stance on the TPP - so sorry that you are so easily soothed. She hasn't said one damn thing of any worth - unlike Bernie Sanders who has continually said substance to the people as well as to his fellows in office - for over 40 years now.
''Capitalism and the Global Police State - Crisis of Humanity and the Specter of 21st Century Fascism"
http://www.globalresearch.ca/global-capitalism-and-the-global-police-state-crisis-of-humanity-and-the-specter-of-21st-century-fascism/5444340 - By Prof William I. Robinson and hugely abridged below ...
''The world capitalist system is arguably experiencing the worst crisis in its 500 year history. World capitalism has experienced a profound restructuring through globalisation over the past few decades and has been transformed in ways that make it fundamentally distinct from its earlier incarnations. Similarly, the current crisis exhibits features that set it apart from earlier crises of the system and raise the stakes for humanity.
''If we are to avert disastrous outcomes we must understand both the nature of the new global capitalism and the nature of its crisis. Analysis of capitalist globalisation provides a template for probing a wide range of social, political, cultural and ideological processes in this 21st century. ''The need for dominant groups around the world to secure widespread, organised mass social control of the world’s surplus population and rebellious forces from below gives a powerful impulse to projects of 21st century fascism.''
The debt is a tool to prevent the people from asking for too much.
The people in this country ask for and get nothing. We are the only nation in the developed world with no universal healthcare, no mandatory vacation and sick days, half of our school age children living in poverty, our Social Security at risk, a broken infrastructure, and, yet we pay for ongoing unjust wars.
I think you mean we don't get enough, like I said the debt is a tool used by the 1% to keep it so. This is why the GOP run debt up so much, war is just an easy way to do it, the goal for the GOP is not so much the war as it is the debt they can create with it, then use that debt as an excuses to cut roads, healthcare, education and so on. If we were not so divided if there were not those on here like yourself who attack with vile language those that suggest we look at the real world and take real action. If the truth is told about the GOP they will lose every election except in the reddest of places, and the Dems will have no where to hide then Elizabeth Warren, Robert Reich and Barry Sanders along with others can push and get some progress, the alternative is to let Jeb Bush pick up where his bother left off.
If Hillary Clinton is smart, she'll move to the left and she'll mean it and she'll speak about the 99% and the planet as if she really cares. She won't need to measure her words if she really believes what she is saying. So, let's see her start talking about a living wage, universal, non-profit, single payer healthcare, ending the wars, building infrastructure and jobs and easing student loan debt. The GOP took in and coddled it's far right. It's time the Democrats wake up to the fact that they used to be left, not moderate, and time for them to embrace their far left. Then, they might get somewhere.
No secretary of state that oversaw the bombing of 7 nations
For a little while at least and I hope for longer I get don't have to think of someone as just a tool to keep the GOP from winning, Bernie is running, it would be awesome for him to get the support I think is out there for someone like him, but I will get to vote for him in the primary and in the general too I hope.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/30/bernie-sanders-socialist_n_7182752.html
hudson - well done
http://michael-hudson.com/ :)
''Spain's Indignados could rule Barcelona and Madrid after local election success'' +Inspire many others! http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/25/spains-indignados-ada-colau-elections-mayor-barcelona
things haven't gone well in egypt
But - 'Democracy Is Coming To The USA''... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBVaqrqb3bk
Ridding ourselves of the monopoly as well as bringing back unions are a more solid solution...when wages are raised so are product prices , rents, and everything else...your raise goes back into ws pockets . With access to our fico information and credit history ...they know how far they can stretch us. They surely devise pricing based on our data. I predicted electronic shelf stickers and now I'm seeing them. Companies can change pricing every hour now...depending on data and competitors. We get individualized pricing much like comcast already does. One price for you, another for me, and we have even more difficulty trying to plan or budget while they take advantage of our helplessness against their ever consolidated growing power. Wages aren't the answer. Breaking down multinational conglomerates with access to all our financial data should be the first order of business. Even unionization is not exactly going to help when eventually businesses will be like Amazon ...display houses who then just order and deliver you a product as a middleman to China or third world factories.
Ridding ourselves of the monopoly as well as bringing back unions are a more solid solution...when wages are raised so are product prices , rents, and everything else...your raise goes back into ws pockets . With access to our fico information and credit history ...they know how far they can stretch us. They surely devise pricing based on our data.
I predicted electronic shelf stickers and now I'm seeing them. Companies can change pricing every hour now...depending on data and competitors. We get individualized pricing much like comcast already does. One price for you, another for me, and we have even more difficulty trying to plan or budget while they take advantage of our helplessness against their ever consolidated growing power.
Wages aren't the answer. Breaking down multinational conglomerates with access to all our financial data should be the first order of business. Even unionization is not exactly going to help when eventually businesses will be like Amazon ...display houses who then just order and deliver you a product as a middleman to China or third world factories.
This wide ranging, though-provoking and insightful reply deserves a longer reply than I've time to do now but I hope that you'll excuse my tiny edit into three (more readable) paragraphs and I hope to reply later.
Taking one initiative to curb the inequities in our society, like raising the wages of low paid workers, does not preclude us from taking another, more difficult comprehensive one that truly brings us more justice, with fewer negative consequences. I view this as an attainable stepping-stone that we can build on, not an end-all. There is little that we cannot achieve with a populace that has awakened and realizes the power that they have.
True it can't hurt...I just hate the corpirate / corrupt geo political whack a mole cat and mouse games..aren't we all just sick of it? Minimum wage service workers are so far behind the 8 ball when it comes to cost of living ...it is akin to giving a homeless person a penny and we think we're making strides...oh then the government wants half the penny to boot.
The populace I encounter thinks I'm too negative and think that "it's always been this way "debbie downer" so quit whining and let's discuss something more meaningless that makes me feel good and doesn't make me want to go numb or swallow my tongue."
Having a $15 dollar minimum wage will have repercussions, both good, and bad as you have pointed out. For anyone making minimum wage or close to it...now, it's a profound difference. The bigger picture that will evolve from having won this battle ...the sense of empowerment that it will instill in people and hopefully an awakening... is even more important though. This is a baby step in learning how to walk again, or in realizing that we have the ability to make systemic change happen.
Higher wages incentivize capitalists to seek ways to invest for productivity improvements which lead to the possibility of more profits AND more financial support for the higher wages, starting a virtuous cycle for both workers and the capitalists. Henry Ford tried that and created the U.S. auto industry's global dominance for decades. It lasted until the industry succeeded in impeding adapting to higher gasoline prices by capturing the political system so well that legislations would let the industry slack off in innovations. Aiming low yielded mediocrity.
Germany had strong unions (on the board), lots of paid time off, and high wages. It sure lit the fire under the capitalists to innovate for global competitiveness.
Since the 1980's, the U.S. gained access to billions-strong really cheap labor from China and India and got gigatons of "feed-Mikey" shoddy goods and quasi-indentured tech workers. It became the land of the half-ass-exposed aworkers and bloated-corpse financiers. It was obviously a vicious cycle for the U.S. populace. It is not surprising that productivity growth stalled and there was nearly no inflation-adjusted wage gain.
So you propose keeping the low-wage workers at their current level so as not to throw the system out of wack.. Or that we should take a different tack in advancing our movement? I'm not here to argue the negative effects of increasing wages (there are positive ones too, if only temporarily), Nor do I want to debate you on the overall economics, and the historic parallels that you brought up. I don't know enough to do so. I am suspect of some of your conclusions though.
Many people could closely relate, FIRST-HAND to this issue becauase... day-in and day-out they tragicaally experience the negative effects of not being able to make ends meet. It's not just the *working poor" who suffer either, as I think you know.
Yesterday, thousands of people (including me) throughout the country were out there protesting for higher wages for low-paid workers. Many people who were more aware knew that it was not the true answer though, and that very different approaches, ones that elf accurately pointed out, would be needed to achieve real success..
The differences that I have with you and elf are not in the fact of not knowing that there are better solutions to bring about economic justice in our society. Without wanting to sound pompous...again; Do you think very many people would support those issues, and do you think they would have rallied like they did yesterday? You, me and a few others may have been there, but not all that many more.
This movement needs to grow. Yesterday was just an early step toward that goal. Many more people, both of whom particiapated in those low wage protests, and people who witnessed and empathized with them have been awakened, and now have a feeling of empowerment. To say that it "..can't hurt" (the protests) is condascending from my POV, and it's erroneous. However, once again...granted, I do agree, they are not the end-all.
TURN! Reign in corporate rule! A raise isn't a raise if at the same time collectively ...prices are raised. We need price controls, monopoly enforcement and new laws preventing subsidiaries using separate tax id numbers while they remain part of a father group. Raises also push people into higher tax brackets which is the spent back in the gov corp private industrial complexes ( military, insurance, prisons, medical, pharmaceutical Vaccine programs, car manufacturing, airlines, drill baby drill, factory farm....and on and on)We get taxed again when we purchase goods, and then again on property. Meanwhile corpirations are getting loopholes where they don't contribute. We exist now to serve monopoly owners who view workers as liabilities and seek newer and better ways to get more and more productivity while virtually eliminating pay and opportunity decreasing overhead and outsourcing to slave labor. We pay our government to service monopolies. Then we let them fine and fee us at every corner so they can give themselves raises and pensions for life, free insurance, perks, perks, more perks (shareholdings, insider bill maker trading, parachute retirement positions) ...etc etc. While we beg for a raise to maintain our stations of barely subsisting. We must abolish landlord capital gains and tax as income as well as crack down on corporate REIT scams!!!! Do not accept token wage raises ! Demand service sector unions...( which higher wages will spill over into all fields...as it creates competition for workers)....demand wages match the cost of living! Prevent 5 year downsizing where employers restart the wage scales back to entry level. Union protection ! A raise doesn't prevent downsizing! Nor corporate land monopolies that kill small business entrepreneurs from having access to store fronts. Limit land ownership by monopolies! Limit corporate renting! Rent control what they do own! Get rid of corporate personhood! Time to take back our country from these pigs...time to demand freedom from the Wall Street Tories! Its gotten away from us ( our power is dwindling year after year) ....disgusting. Are we going to fall in line on the corporate conveyor belt....or rebel? Service sector Unions are a better first step. I spit on a dollar more an hour...it is a joke! Give me dignity or give me death!!!!! Liveable wages now ...not one more year on the treadmill!
As a side note on this Marathon Monday Insurance won't cover most prosthetic limbs ...and why are they insanely so expensive? Better yet why arent we growing them from cells and curing blindness when the technology exists?....Evil corporate pig corporate tories!
I agree with most of what you say, elf. How can anyone who is here for the right reasons, not? Are you aware that in large part, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) sponsored the Fight For $15 protest in NYC? To my knowledge, they are the ones who had the stage set up, provided the audio equipment, and the big visual screens (at least one that was further away) on Central Park West. That stage is where NY's AG Eric Scheiderman, and NYC's Comptoller, Scott Stringer spoke (de Blasios just tweeted his support), and several far more radical speakers gave presentations there too, before we left there for Times Square (actually very near it). And there were a lot more than a few hundred of us as was reported in the first below link, when we left. I suspect that the SEIU supported other cities in the Fight For $15 in a simular way. This is no longer just an Occupy or Kshama Sawant movement.
EDIT; There were more protests in NY earlier in the day, both in Manhattan and Brooklyn (see bottom link), and most likely some of which, I am not aware of.
Our struggle might not be going the way either of us think is the best way, BUT the fact remains; The April 15th protests awakened a lot more people. They realiize that they are not alone, and that there is power in numbers. And that is true, not only for the people who took part in these protests, but people who read about them, who witnessed them and who can empathize with the protesters, on a very personal level.
http://pix11.com/2015/04/15/fight-for-15-protests-in-brooklyn-over-mcjobs-low-wage-work/
Another EDIT; Here, students from two of NYC's most elite universities joined forces in the Fight For $15.
http://www.nyunews.com/2015/04/16/protest-held-for-minimum-wage-hike/
Never underestimate the power of a ''little rebellion'' - http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/how-swedes-and-norwegians-broke-the-power-of-the-1-percent/ Solidarity to all those who strive for better over time.
If the U.S. allows Volkswagen, we should allow Volkskapital representation on all boards of directors. Raising wages of workers steadily will pressure capitalists to seek new business and better ways of doing business. Over the long term, it will lead to BOTH increased profits for the capitalists and better living for the workers. Labor knows well how to improve existing business and Capital knows market conditions and the Big Picture better. Both need to look after each other.
Are you here to obfuscate the issues, and show off what you believe to be fact? I'm certain many experts would disagree with you. And how would you apply your thoughts into tangible steps that we could use to move forward, or is that not of interest to you?
If the industrial North did not win the U.S. Civil War, would the U.S. have emerged as the industrial superpower of the 20th century? I don't think so. If the cotton plantation owners were profitably making cotton using slave labor, we would likely still be picking cotton by hand to this very day in the South. Yes, slave jobs WERE lost but I haven't heard any slaves' descendants complaining about their forebears having lost their jobs as slaves.
Transitions are by their very nature tough but starting from a very bad place increases greatly the chance that a better place will be found. Our ancestors said, "Shove it!" to the Old World. I think that we Americans have done them proud.
The first step is obviously redress for the decades of stagnant wages eaten away by government-mandated inflation. $15 per hour was what I believed to be reasonable one-time adjustment that can be done immediately without much disruption to anybody. Don't fall for the "jobs will be lost" crap from Goop and Slick. Where there is profit to be made, there will be capitalists. Sometimes, increasing wages can spur productivity growth and curb marginal abusive labor practices at the same time. When the workers are paid enough to buy the products of their labor, the business takes off like a rocket. Hook up the firehose to the fire hydrant properly and prosperity shall gush at everyone to their delight.
Henry Ford's workers made black model T's for themselves and everyone else and they were paid enough that they could afford the cars. Workers being the customers lets the money go round and round making everyone happier.
Thanks, I can agree to most of that. I see the low wage protests as one of the first steps to curb the banana-repulic-like wage/wealth disparity. We are the masses who have gotten screwed for a long time, in a plethora of ways. We should, and we do use our numbers to our advantage to fight this corrupt system in a multiple of ways .
See... ''Fight for $15: Tens of Thousands Rally as Labor and Civil Rights Movements Join Forces'' -
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/30284-fight-for-15-tens-of-thousands-rally-as-labor-and-civil-rights-movements-join-forces
''Low-wage workers in the United States have staged their largest action to date to demand a $15-an-hour minimum wage, with some 60,000 workers walking off the job in more than 200 cities. The "Fight for $15" campaign brought together fast-food workers, home-care aides, child-care providers, Wal-Mart clerks, adjunct professors, airport workers and other low-wage workers. Organizers say the action was held on Tax Day to highlight that taxpayer funds are needed to support underpaid workers.A new study says low wages are forcing working families to rely on more than $150 billion in public assistance.''
We cannot have economic justice without having social justice, and we cannot long have either without enviromental sustainabilty. Many of the people who took part in the low wage protests, and those who empathize with them have awoken to that fact.
We are "under oppressive occupation of a troll army - otherwise known as Western corporate "news media" from - http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20150420/1021135202.html - ''All of our plights are connected''... is THE Deepest Truth of Our Times and more and more of us are realising exactly that.
All one has to do is extapolate the lack of coverage of the discontent here, to know the the media has just become a tool of the government. Left unchecked, there are no limits to how far we will devolve. It saddens me. Good link.
Social, Economic and Environmental Justice are totally codependent - despite the fact that Bankers and Corporations want us NOT to question the ''externalities'' of their psychopathic behavior! Please consider
https://twitter.com/PositiveMoneyUK/status/531078056749060097/photo/1 and then also this reply -
http://occupywallst.org/forum/bs-or-not-meet-the-secretive-group-that-runs-the-w/#comment-1058281
The major part of 'social justice' is; We cannot have justice at all until we, the people expose their abuses and regain our rights. It is only then that we can bring about the sea change that we so desperately need. All of our plights are connected to that. Good links.
''If the very presence of a black woman in power causes you to fear for your safety, you shouldn't be a public servant.''... http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/20/1378904/-Missouri-town-elects-first-black-mayor-80-of-the-police-city-attorney-water-supervisor-resign and I'm really not sure that the opposite of 'evolve' is ''devolve'' as ''stupidify'' sounds more appropriate and in 21stC you couldn't make this shit up!
no one has any work anyway
people need money
I'm tired of having to take your money to give it back
The whole US is kinda reminiscent of the company towns in the early 20th century. The inhabitants then, were kept in perpetual debt too.
Edit; Here's a link that I foumd. Chris Hedges wrote about it too.
http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/company-towns/
Yes, numbers can help but only representation and exercise of Volkskapital on the boards of directors can watch over things in the long term. It's preferable to strikes.
If you want to organize a letter writing campaign to all the share holders of corporations so that their "board of directors" are held accountable...PLEASE do.
The other thing that you may want to do is to study the history of mass movements for justice.
the earth is a closed system
except for the light that pores in and the heat that escapes
Imagination is for all practical purposes not a closed system. If the Earth is closed for you, look up to the starry sky on a clear night. There are many many other worlds there. The ones which do not blink offer close-by visits or living. There are methanogens on Mars' poles. There will be cloud-top cities on Venus. Lagrangian points will host near-earth space cities with programmable hulls made out of designer atoms, beaming solar power to Earth. Closed yes for the Earth but not really if the configuration can be changed.
I am not the one that has to "believe"
this is a practical understanding that we must acknowledge as a species
there is no profit that can be made holistically
We invented profit so we can make it into whatever. The only refrain is we may have problem realizing it en masse. Like the stock market wealth, paper profits must remain on paper for most. Where do you think the several trillions of dollars our federal reserve created went? Remaining on hard-drive "paper."
Resources are limited on Earth but what we consider as resources depends on our technology and there is no reason that we should remain Earth-bound permanently. Abraham's descendants will be "as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore" (Gen. 22-17) so it is reasonable to claim some stars as our very own, starting with Sol's neighborhood. There will be sufficient material such as sand (silicon and oxygen) to build our space and star cities.
rent food misdemeanors late payments interest taxes
everyone should have access to to financial interaction information
'Corruption is Legal in America - Does The Government Represent The People'' (Video) -
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41897.htm Watch, read and then reflect.
How do you think electing the GOP as you do, will spur the Walton's to raise wages?
Your consistent support of the GOP and your pleasure at their recent huge victory is well known.
A lie repeated a thousand times, can still never be true. As you do know - yet are unable or unwilling to compute, I have nothing to do with the GOP. If anyone is curious about what I said and think, they need only to read our exchanges here http://occupywallst.org/forum/its-time-to-take-our-country-back-tax-the-rich/ and here http://occupywallst.org/forum/at-minute-38-this-film-explains-rich-people-are-ri/ and so you can stop seeking attention from me now and just continue proselytizing for your own preferred half of the ruling paradigm that you think passes for 'politics' in the USA.
You may want to ask yourself though, just how The Democratic Party can be made more responsive to the things that The 99% need and want (like they once tried to be, btw) and... how they can be rescued from the co-opted control of greedy bankers and corporations?
Try this for some insights... ''Rise of the Oligarchs" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN8esxNb1t0
You might ask yourself if W Bush delivered all you really wanted before you run off full steam and elect his brother.
Do you think that the neurotic anxiety and constant fear of the GOP is now allowing them to set the Democratic Party's agenda, so that Democratic Party politicians are now ever further from The 99%?
So again.. "You may want to ask yourself though, just how The Democratic Party can be made more responsive to the things that The 99% need and want (like they once tried to be, btw) and... how they can be rescued from the co-opted control of greedy bankers and corporations?'' And please try to see this http://occupywallst.org/forum/at-minute-38-this-film-explains-rich-people-are-ri/#comment-1057388
The dems are trying to figure out how to service wallstreet while still earning votes of those who are against a society that serves the needs of one percent while banishing all of us to the service sector. You see they need us to elect them so ws will have a reason to line their pockets...a tricky edge to balance on. Both parties serve wallstreet but they are elected by us...wallstreet spends money to convince us to vote for whichever one secretly offers them more but backs both in case we elect one over the other. They court both parties...then the parties job is to court us...problem is we are starting to see through it and they are trying to divide us along racial lines so we don't notice...the banks run our country...politicians just want their piece of the pie you know like noblemen...we are the peasants/ serfs. Id theft for example...minorities are very predominately involved in these thefts...white people are predominately affected. The governments failure to enforce or control it is creating a quiet storm. It is the equivalent of allowing someone to go in your place and rob you each day...when you call the police they tell you oh whatever we don't deal with that. This begets vigilantism. Eventually someone will deal with it on their own. Easy enough to find these idiots. They use their info on the applications...we know where they live, who they are, and even all their goings ons. When someone robs you day after day with no government intervention ...where is that going to go? Lots of pissed of fucking white people honing in on their minority assailants...quiet storms are brewing across this nation. It is coming...a hard thing to report...but truth in it....and in between banks are profiting off it lapping like cats with a milk bowl. Pay up butter cups ...or you can stay off the financial grid forever...goodluck in your cardboard box. The credit bureas are fascist human farmers...using our issued numbers to categorize and work us. Pull the rope little slaves ...equifax owns you. Hope it backfires their plan to create a racial war...and breaks the credit system instead. Nazis categorized people too...even scored them. Hyphenated them. Gave them symbols. Divided people ...let the anger brew...we know how this ended. We have to be careful...people don't change. The failure of the government to intervene is building the start of quiet hate ...fear. paranoia. Blame. While we are plotting out revenge and ways to fuck eachother...noone will notice the kings that have taken the thrones above us. We are the same down here. When will we start respecting eachother instead of fighting and clawing eachother for the crumbs of their cake?
"On White Privilege" (and class solidarity) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Xe1kX7Wsc
I agree with most of what you say so well and as for... "Both parties serve wallstreet but they are elected by us...wallstreet spends money to convince us ..." - that they are substantively different!
However we can see ever more clearly, that.. whatever their historical differences once were, both primary political parties are now compromised, co-opted and controlled by bankers and oligarchs.
Pretending otherwise like Mr.(subjective)"factsrfun" is a delusion at best and a Pro-1% lie at worst. Perhaps we need some "vigilantism" in relation to the Massive Wall Street Financial Uber-Crimes?
Future Islands "Seasons (Waiting On You)" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ee4bfu_t3c
I can't say I agree with vigilanti-ism what I think we needare more people to stand up and ask ...simply- what the fuck is happening to our freedom? Look at the sheer amount of data breaches...equifax leaked over 200 million identities of Americans...meaning social security numbers are no longer valid. Our credit system can't be trusted anymore as such. Meaning why is equifax, trans union, or experian still allowed to pretend they can hold the credentials to an id that can't be validated? These three companies are holding our freedom in their hands ( thanks to ws bribing government) finances are now what we construe as freedom..(financial mobility)...and imprisoning people in their scoring system. We are not data...we are humans...we are not the number we wear. It is a legalized caste system. Banishing those who have faltered and now those who are compromised to a dust pile on the back burner of freedom. NPR did a story on big data recently ...yes we are being broken down into numbers while at the same time wallstreet is being flagged as human beings with more rights than us. And street greed is laughing while Cashing our checks at the wallstreet bank...thugs of the same cloth. And you know who is caught in the middle...working people. Whatever color they are...bail out the banks ...bail out a street thug courtesy of your taxes and now your credit cards...which when bank takes a tax loss you pay for again. Crooks get a shopping spree, stores get a boost, bankster thugs file the loss. They are all business partners and we foot the bill. What a scam they are all running together. And we say...ok sir let me get the notarized police reports, paperwork, make 3000 phone calls, try to track down the thieves while the police shrug at me and say it happens as you try to prove your innocence...and yes sir...may I have another? What kind of patsies are we? What the fuck?!!!!!!!!
So do you know why it's called 'The American Dream'? .. Because you have to be asleep to believe it! IF Moodies, Fitch and Standard and Poors were the Credit Ratings Agencies.. before, during and after The 2008 Global Financial Crisis (ie Ponzi Scheme Banking Systemic Collapse), then just how can Equifax, Experian and f**k knows who, be trusted to do anything? They and their ilk are actually Private Financial Intelligence Agencies, who hold and sell our whole purchase and credit histories, right?
"What the fuck?!!!!!!" indeed and I hope others will read your reply too. It left me breathless - and in need of some drugs now - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpH-HwtPD-I
Our frustration on this is the key though right...because mainstreet shares it...we need to focus this movement towards the credit rating companies ( let's not call them agencies- which implies they are agents of the people when in fact they are agents of multinational conglomerates and banks) we've entrusted our lives to them, they have failed, and we the people must pull ourselves out of their nets. Without credit, prices will come down. Identities are no longer verifiable...it has already happened...they are just keeping it hush so the public goes along....if you tie up an elephant when it is young on a thick heavy chain...later in life it stops trying to pull and can be tied with a shoelace. This is the shoelace.
It's true that "if you tie up an elephant when it is young on a thick heavy chain...later in life it stops trying to pull and can be tied with a shoelace." and that what we are all suffering from is a combination of what you describe so well, with 'Stockholm Syndrome' and Democracy Deficit. We are being kept (..farmed?) ignorant and divided and alienated and atomised. It need not be like that IF we realise and communicate and act in our common interests and so meditate upon the 'General Welfare Clause' in The Preamble of The US Constitution. + https://www.popularresistance.org/issues/ We resist and organise. Or we wither.
the shoelace is the current money obligation the course of our lives insist we fulfill ?
''Every day, corporations are connecting the dots about our personal behavior—silently scrutinizing clues left behind by our work habits and Internet use. The data compiled and portraits created are incredibly detailed, to the point of being invasive. But who connects the dots about what firms are doing with this information? The Black Box Society argues that we all need to be able to do so—and to set limits on how big data affects our lives.
''Hidden algorithms can make (or ruin) reputations, decide the destiny of entrepreneurs, or even devastate an entire economy. Shrouded in secrecy and complexity, decisions at major Silicon Valley and Wall Street firms were long assumed to be neutral and technical.
''But leaks, whistleblowers, and legal disputes have shed new light on automated judgment. Self-serving and reckless behavior is surprisingly common, and easy to hide in code protected by legal and real secrecy. Even after billions of dollars of fines have been levied, underfunded regulators may have only scratched the surface of this troubling behavior.
''Frank Pasquale exposes how powerful interests abuse secrecy for profit and explains ways to rein them in. Demanding transparency is only the first step. An intelligible society would assure that key decisions of its most important firms are fair, nondiscriminatory, and open to criticism. Silicon Valley and Wall Street need to accept as much accountability as they impose on others.''
From... and you really do need to see and listen to this elf - http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674368279
It really won't help your mood or cheer you any but I think it is both very important AND totally in tune with what you (and we) should be concerned about. IF ''a little rebellion is a good thing'' .. then a shed load of ''rebellion'' after getting informed - is a better and more desirable thing if humans want freedom!
I know we had the lowest turnout in 70 years and got the biggest GOP win in 87 years, so you will get the government you have worked so hard for, you won your great victory and ran the evil Dems from office so as the year develops we will see the sort of policies your guys, the GOP put forth.
Your strategy is apparently fully laid out here - http://occupywallst.org/forum/ok-non-voters-dems-dont-netanyahu-the-con-potus/#comment-1057334 but I say people are better off reading our exchanges on your post here http://occupywallst.org/forum/at-minute-38-this-film-explains-rich-people-are-ri/ So your mendacity is strategy it seems. It won't work. Occupiers are wiser then that. Change tack and join us. A tip for you if you want to differentiate RandD... focus on Nutjobyahoo more and don't mention Hilary!
You are so stupid you elect the GOP need I say more?
I checked that first link, I didn't see any response from you, but yes please will anyone explain why they think it is OK to let the GOP win? anyone? anyone?
What will be your excuse for inertia at best OR, at worst - more of the Neoliberal/Neocon US policies, when Hilary gets in next year? + http://occupywallst.org/forum/it-is-important-to-remember-those-that-came-before/#comment-1057670 Please straighten your back, breath slowly and deeply and think on.
rhythm is working
For 'natural' birth control? Perhaps a mantra will help.
Or try this https://www.popularresistance.org/issues/
What is your excuse for what the GOP, who you work to elect, do while in office?
Remember 2000 and the W Bush years do you want to repeat that again?
By being trapped in the past and constantly looking backwards whilst trying to move forward, you end up falling on your (overly padded?) ass and staring at the sky for explanations why! You actually need counselling, imo. + see.. http://occupywallst.org/forum/this-will-be-the-lowest-maximum-for-arctic-sea-ice/#comment-1058277 Btw with your 'GOP-lite', you're far closer to The Bushes than I could ever be!
Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Doing the same thing, (voting third party and letting the GOP win, ie 1980, 2000) and expecting a different result is sometimes called insanity.
Places where people vote in much higher numbers as they do in Denmark, have government that prevent the wealth inequality we have in America and as a result the people are much happier.
0f course you are simply a hack here to tear down and destroy in order to make room for your power base, for your glory so that all can see how smart you are, that is so much more important to you than keeping Jeb Bush from winning the White House and appointing the next few Supreme Court Justices.
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10th track: (Tossing Shit)
As We have nothing to back-up our stated positions (opt-out fiction) - We will do our best to throw it back on ( put a lie on) any who would ask for details of our non-existent action plans (Ya know......those who put the lie - "to shine the light" - on our bullshit).
11th track: (We erroneously conflate)
We erroneously conflate the dems and reps - as it provides us with cover as being against the system - while it throws mud at those who do not deserve it - and basically works to help people to choose to opt out of the process rather than make any united attempt to remove the actively evil from government - and so we support the status quo - "of this country being given to the 1%" - while hiding behind a claim of being revolutionary supporters of the people.
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It never ended you blabbering mongrel.
Best comment " it never ended"
Correct. Not for the 99..... End corporate rule, party rule,
Dems are the GOP " light " ..... like miller light. Yes some difference, but country needs some real fairness
They are light in some regards, heavy in others. We've never seen 6 straight years of banker bailouts, so thats pretty heavy haha.
We've also never seen 8 nations being bombed at one time, so thats certainly the heaviest foreign bombings we've seen, in terms of raw scope. I guess being that they can use drones instead of sending our people to die in it makes Dems feel its not as bad, not as nuts, and not as a disastrous foreign policy.
Watching FOX and MSNBC the other night, they are both already into full blown horse race announcer style on who is going to make this move, what does this mean for campaign ABC, etc etc etc. So freakin stupid.
well the GOP is the GOP and they won big in 2014, thanks to folks like you, so if more of the same is what you are looking for then you are doing all you can to get it,
I could go into the many changes made by Obama compared to Bush but ego whores like you only crave power of your own, you care nothing of truth.
turbo the con working to elect the GOP what a shock!?!
want to tell me again about how upset you are about all that spending congress is doing that they said they wouldn't, I know government spending really upsets you.....
''Some leading Democrats seem to have a love-hate relationship with the left. Sure, progressives seem to have more influence than ever in the party this year, at least rhetorically. But it doesn't look like the friction will be going away any time soon.
''President Obama has been escalating his war of words with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and her allies, reigniting a burning resentment he last let slip in 2010. Hillary Clinton has adopted more progressive rhetoric, but her unwillingness to fight for specific policies has left activists frustrated.
''Clearly, the left matters. Why, then, is it so difficult for progressives to get a seat at the table?
''Wall Street, the largest source of mainstream Democratic financial support, is comfortable with socially liberal initiatives like gay marriage. But it is largely opposed to some of the specific measures that would reduce wealth inequality and encourage economic growth, especially in the areas of taxation, stronger regulations and the criminal prosecution of banker fraud.
''How have the top Democrats responded to growing calls for economic populism? President Obama recently moved to increase the minimum wage for federal contractors, and has increased the hourly minimum wage he endorses. But he has not cracked down on Wall Street fraud and did not move to break up the big banks when he could have done so.
''The left hasn't just been right. It has also been popular. Some centrist Democrats like to say they'd govern more liberally, but the United States is a "center-right" country. There is very little truth in this. It's true that relatively few Americans describe themselves as liberal or progressive (although that number is rising), but Americans hold progressive positions on many issues.
''The independent left may not be an important voting bloc. But it holds the key to energizing disaffected voters across the political spectrum. They're the voters who believe that neither political party is speaking to their most deeply-felt needs: for a living wage, a secure retirement, a chance to put their kids to college and keep their family healthy.
''For economic populists, those views have cohered into a "left" political perspective. For millions of other Americans, they remain little more than a vague and inchoate disaffection. They know that today's political debate isn't addressing their issues. They're sick of candidates who eat hotdogs at Iowa barbecues while telling them they know what they're feeling. They've heard a lot of rhetoric, but not much in the way of specifics.
''The activist left isn't important because of its numbers. It's important because its members are the canaries in the coalmine for an unresponsive political process. A Democratic Party that patronizes them will also fail to reach the disaffected majority.
''The left shares something else with that majority: it's heard a lot of empty promises. Many (though not all) progressives will vote for the Democrats once again in 2016, even if they're dissatisfied. But it will take more than rhetoric to win millions of other alienated voters. It will take commitment - and action.''
Abridged fyi, from - http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/30936-the-left-matters-now-more-than-ever
The problem is the same as it has always been the American people refuse to support public funding of elections, or at least that's what they want us to think here in red state AZ public funding passed no problem but the Robert's Court gutted it, Bernie supports public funding of elections, support people like Bernie and change the world
It is The People’s Struggle Over Time that has injected what little life there is in the walking corpse that is 'democracy' in America. The Citizens United case; the gutting of the Voting Rights Act; the epidemic of state-level laws passed to suppress democratic participation; felony disenfranchisement Paired With Racist Policing and then McCutcheon ruling, ALL signal that a Democratic Zombie Apocalypse is upon the USA now.
McCutcheon is a wealthy Alabama businessman who had contributed to the campaigns of 16 federal candidates in the 2011/12 election cycle and he argued that any aggregate contribution limits - which prevented him from contributing to the campaigns of 12 other politicians (as well as a slew of political action committees), limited his right to free speech!
He is not actually a constituent of many of the politicians to whom he donated and wished to donate to. That is exactly the goal McCutcheon had in mind. He wants his (Pro-Business/Pro-1%) voice to be not just heard and brought up the chain by his political representatives (which is how American democracy theoretically functions) ... but he wants the ability to exert his outsize financial influence over as many people as possible!
Perhaps most disturbing is The Supreme Court’s contention that almost any type of Campaign Finance Regulation, short of barring outright bribery ... is somehow, 'unconstitutional'! This is just so fukt up and proves that The SCOTUS is right at the heart of the problem that afflicts US Democracy and that is why ''Money Out Of Politics'' was and is such a core OWS tenet.
Corporate Big Money In Politics - is a system that is excellent at perpetuating, replicating and building on itself. The more money any one candidate gets - the more his/her opponent needs. Candidates who ride into office on the backs of the big donors are thus unduly sympathetic to those donors’ interests ... in policy and potentially more dangerously - in Court Appointments!
Decisions such as McCutcheon and Citizens United .. were a long time coming and part of a very well-funded, predominantly Republican-led, Corporate Strategy - to ensure that judges across all the federal courts would further open the door for a handful of wealthy influencers.This insidious corruption has now metastasised in many places and forms and now underpins the influence of The Banker; Corporate; Mil-Ind-Complex in The U$A and see http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/ - for more context.
Finally, you may wish to consider... http://forward.com/news/308582/who-the-jewish-billionaires-are-backing-in-2016/ Bernie Sanders' and others' call for Publicly Funded Elections - is VERY important.
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"Wall Street Pays Bankers to Work in Government and It Doesn't Want Anyone to Know"
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120967/wall-street-pays-bankers-work-government-and-wants-it-secret
Now for the spin and propaganda from an apologist...
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/12/01/encouraging-public-service-through-the-revolving-door/?_r=0
Finally...
"If Inequality Is So Bad Why Are No Americans Taking to the Streets?"
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/02/inequality_and_american_protest_history_why_are_no_movements_rising_up_against.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_top
BUT - ''Iceland convicts bad bankers and says other nations can act"
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/13/us-iceland-bankers-idUSKBN0LG2O420150213
Strange times indeed!
And a lot of ''rebellion'' could be even better! Try https://www.popularresistance.org/ for size :)
“God forbid we should be twenty years without a rebellion. What country can preserve its liberties if the rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?” — President Thomas Jefferson (1787)
both the House and Senate budgets do is produce “huge transfers of income” from the poor and working class through “severe benefit cuts” to the rich who will get huge tax cuts. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/20/opinion/paul-krugman-trillion-dollar-fraudsters.html?_r=0
''How America Became an Oligarchy'' by Ellen Brown - http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/07/how-america-became-an-oligarchy/
''Look, I know that it’s hard to keep up the outrage after so many years of fiscal fraudulence. But please try. We’re looking at an enormous, destructive con job, and you should be very, very angry.'' - says Paul Krugman and he's totally right. Further to my link above, your excellent NYT link also puts the following into context too... http://www.alternet.org/rahm-emanuel-symbol-sick-america-0 and...
''Eleven Eye-Opening Facts About America’s Militarized Police Forces'', by Alex Kane : http://www.alternet.org/print/civil-liberties/11-shocking-facts-about-americas-militarized-police-forces
I assume this article is in part referring to Baltimore. However,wouldn't it be better to line up all those angry people into a political party intent on getting elected next time around?
as if that's how our government works
I would suggest the wise use of the thing that Jefferson, Lincoln, Grant and Kennedy gave their lives for and wisely use ours votes to bring about the peaceful revolution Kennedy speaks about. Of course many would try to make that impossible, and as we see from the last election where we had the lowest turnout in 70 years and got the largest GOP majority in 87 years, many American do not harken to Kennedy's call for peaceful revolution and drive us toward a violent one. I hope that more Americans will wake up and start making wise choices before that.
Are you kidding me? The American people won't even take a day and go vote and you think they are ready for revolution? You do know they elected Republicans in huge numbers because most Americans don't have time to even vote or notice that the rich do have a Party.
People need to learn some stuff and get in the game before it's too late:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxgBPsRmUgE
Throughout Human History great and powerful civilizations failed.
"Obama is one of the Greatest Failures in Leadership of a Great Nation in History" This is stated by me: James Peter Evanhoe - 2/16/2015
In the 21st Century and when compared throughout History, he will be shown to have prolonged, chaos & corruption deliberately, through endless wars, drug distribution by the CIA and corrupt US Military leaders. Distributing Heroin and other drugs through and with the largest distribution organization on the Planet, Trucks, Boats and Planes - Vertol.
Obama has again allowed Wall Street to again promise huge returns on pieces of paper so over rated only a fool cant see through them and their fraud. Obama's buddies such as Blankfein at GoldmanSachs go free for their Fraud the largest Securities Fraud Scam in Global History destroying millions of lives, businesses here in his own Country "America" and entire Nations globally: Spain to Greece to Iceland to Ireland, destroying trillions. And not one of Obama's buddies went to prison! The bad guys profit and Obama is one of them, Obama protects them from current prosecution.
Same for the global racketeering by the global bank HSBC owned by the Windsors of England....yes....the so-called queen herself and heir Kate Middleton-Windsor....for they launder deadly drug cartel profits via HSBC....for more than 30 years....this is a Fact....do your research!!!
After 12 yrs. of U.S. Kids dying in Afghanistan and now thousands more at home via Afghan Heroin...8,000 alone in 2014, as Stated on PBS by the Huffington Post. WHY.... to setup the largest Drug Rack - Heroin ...globally... again Obama lets these criminals go free.....but We will prosecute them ,convict them and put them to Death for killing Americans mostly Young Americans our future our families. Obama has directly or indirectly allowed 10,000s of Americans from all walks of live to die in Our Towns, Neighborhoods, in Our Homes, they are Our Friends, relatives, neighbors from rich middle class and poor walks of life....and he has killed more and more American Kids via BS created Wars. Wars in large part created by Saudi Arabia and the Bush Buddies Society of Deliberate Chaos...corrupt US military officials - starting in Iraq through "Coin Diplomacy" promoted by the corrupt US General Petraeus and the deliberate loss of over a Billion Dollars in Weapons, as audited by the GAO.....see audits by the GAO during the Bush lead Iraq War. HOW does the US Military lose a Billion Dollar worth of Weaponry? Their Idiots to began with.....Bush and Obama weasels "Do Your Research" 1. on "Coin Diplomacy in Iraq", 2. Audit by the GAO. 3. On who feed ISIS the funds to raise to power - Saudi Arabia.....they didn't get the millions by selling Bill Gate's X Box games or did they??? Gates another Bush weasel of the 20th and 21st Centuries.
Bush & Obama, buddies in Wars, going on 15 years in length, have added up to what???....a US Military Leadership of failure, after failure, after failure ....by design....again the Society of George HW Bush....and his deliberate Society of Chaos........creating needless wars.....setting up drug cartels and drug rackets.....killing thousands of American Kids! through illegal drugs and endless needles wars...taking the profits and hiding the money via HSBC and Panama Banks and We watch as Our Country Fails and Our Kids Die!
WE the People Lose Everything, Our Friends, Our Kids, Our Future via Obama treason and George HW Bush's endless Society of Deliberate Chaos....and the Windsors profit ........their killers of American Kids, they are traitors and foreign enemies!
They have lead a Great Nation only to destruction through failed economies 1988,89,90,91.....and....again in 2008,09,10,11,12,13, 14 to War after War leading no where but setting up Drug Cartels and Money Laundering ....Panama - Iraq - Afghanistan - Iraq.........!
"It is time to End the Society of Deliberate Chaos" - "it is time to bring down Obama before he destroys this Country"
"Congress must not give this Traitor any War Powers
It is past time to take out Saudi Arabia once and for all.....destroy their kids, destroy their homes, destroy their industry, destroy their future.
For it was Saudi Arabia who financed ISIS. In my opinion I would move that the new President in 2017 destroys Saudi Arabia once and for all, as well the other Gulf so-called Kingdoms. History will show that a Black Man tried to destroy his Country "America", killing thousands of His own People Black & White and did nothing to stop the injustice, but instead assisted in prolonging chaos.
..............Obama is a Traitor...................
So "destroy their kids, destroy their homes, destroy their industry, destroy their future.'' - huh? What?! Just like we've been doing to Iraq, Syria and Libya you mean? Because overturning the secular tyrants is better than to do it that to monarchies allied to the US.. right? WRONG! You need to get your head out of your ass before you can get it out of the sand...
Gee what a shock. Yet another attempt by the sold-out operator of this site to limit our range of thought and focus. As if the government were the only corrupt force worth rebelling against. Not that I find the specific quotes as relevant today as they once were.
Of the four, only one, the most recent, allows, depending on interpretation, for the possibility that society can be oppressed by a force other than it's government.
Damn right it can. It has been.
Overall wealth of the richest 1% will outpace that of the other 99% by next year "The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering," Oxfam director says
Turns out, the rich really are getting richer. And they'll soon own more than the rest of us put together.
So says a new report, which estimates that the richest 1% will have as much wealth as the other 99% combined by next year.
"The richest 1% have seen their share of global wealth increase from 44% in 2009 to 48% in 2014," Oxfam says in a report Monday.
At that rate, the wealthiest will own more than 50% by next year, according to the report.
"Do we really want to live in a world where the 1% own more than the rest of us combined?" asked Winnie Byanyima, executive director of the international aid agency.
'Global inequality ... simply staggering' Byanyima will co-chair the annual World Economic Forum in Davos this week.
She plans to use the platform at Davos to call for urgent action on the rising inequality.
The 80 richest people on the planet have the same wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people, the report says.
"The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering; and despite the issues shooting up the global agenda, the gap between the richest and the rest is widening fast," she said.
"It is time our leaders took on the powerful vested interests that stand in the way of a fairer and more prosperous world."
Call for action While 1% of the population owns 48% of the world's wealth, a majority of the remainder follows the same trend.
"Of the remaining 52% of global wealth, 46% is owned by the rest of the richest fifth of the world's population," the report says.
The remainder of the population only possesses 5.5% of global wealth.
Their wealth last year? An average $3,851 per adult, the report says.
'Global elite' Meanwhile, the "global elite" members had an average wealth of $2.7 million each last year, it says.
The report comes a day before President Barack Obama is expected to unveil proposals that close tax breaks on the wealthy.
Obama will discuss his plans to help the middle class during his State of the Union Address on Tuesday.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/19/world/wealth-inequality/
And the people make it so incredibly easy for them.
http://occupywallst.org/forum/it-truly-amazes-me-his-incredibly-naive-the-masses/