There’s an old saying, “If you don’t know you’re in a war, you’ve already lost.”
Americans seem to know that corporations and the wealthy are accumulating the power and wealth of this nation for themselves. They seem to be aware that politicians are bought off and serve their corporate backers’ wishes, doing all they can to pass laws that enrich the wealthy and blocking legislation that doesn’t (ie, benefit 99.5% of Americans).
And yet, this awareness seems totally disconnected for many Americans from the concept of class warfare. Somehow, through the onslaught of conditioning we’ve been subjected to since childhood, hyping materialism, capitalism, the American Dream and “You too will be a millionaire one day!”, many Americans still seem to stop short of recognizing that they are in the midst of a war that they are losing. Yet, it is the case and the proof is in the news every single day.
It is not difficult to understand for some who are living in crisis and have to be most concerned with the immediate, trying to cope with paying their rent or mortgage this month, finding a job, buying food for the week, paying for health care they can’t afford, or scraping up enough to send their children to a local college. They don’t necessarily have the luxury of time to reflect on and recognize the systematic assault over the last 30 years and see that the most recent events are actually a part of a long term battle plan to rob and subjugate the American People.
And to be frank, many people just take life as it comes, taking each incident on it’s own and not looking for patterns of behavior or how the latest incident fits in with past ones. The problem with that is that when powerful and wealthy entities want something, they create an overall strategy. They work with and pay professionals to design and develop “war plans” that identify the desired goals, the projected obstacles and how to overcome those obstacles. They recognize the power of media and public opinion and have over the years bought up the media and put a facade of “personal responsibility” and “freedom for all Americans” over their true motivations of greed and dominance.
They have sown social conflict and discontent among Americans, both to profit off of it financially and polarize Americans. As long as people are lured into playing their game of division, the “peasants” can be fooled into going at each others’ throats while the wealthy quietly steal their homes, jobs and futures right out from under them. Divide and conquer, especially when the armies are 306 million vs. 1 million. As long as The American people continue to see the enemy as other Americans, who do not have a great share of wealth or power in this nation, the wealthy who do have that wealth and power (and are increasing that) remain safe.
The only fear that the wealthy and corporations have…is of Americans acting in their own best interests. The one vulnerability they have is that they are less than half of a percent of America’s population and we still hold elections where majority rules. It only takes 51% of Americans in 51% of districts to say, “We will only elect someone who will tax the wealthy their fair share and prevent laws from passing that only benefit the wealthy!” and things could change dramatically. That is the power of a democracy, that is the power of a united people.
We don’t have to live with diminished expectations, we don’t have to give up on handing our children a better standard of living than we had. We don’t have to give up on good schools, unpolluted air and water, peace, equality for all or economic justice. We can have all of these things but only if we are willing to throw off our Snuggies and open the door and get into the streets to stand up for The American People.
As I said at the outset, Step One in winning this war is to say loud and clear and accept in your heart, “There is class warfare going on right now against us.” The advancing armies of the wealthy have invaded and annexed our Media, our Politics, our economy and they are marching on our public services and safety nets now. They can’t be appeased, they live only to conquer and pillage. We have the numbers, we muct join together and go to the streets to defend our democracy and nation.
One aspect of this class war is so Orwellian. As the wealthy conduct their assaults on the American People, anyone who stands up to complain is pilloried by them and their MSM cronies as “calling for class warfare”. They have redefined the term “class warfare” as applying only to those who try to defend themselves from the class warfare being marshaled by the wealthy against 99.5% of Americans. And to their discredit, politicians and talking heads are often cowed by this label, quickly backpedaling from taking on the wealthy’s war on America and retrenching to say, “I just want fairness.”
That’s bullshit and needs to stop. IMO, the correct response, when asserting that the wealthy are at war with Americans and being asked by an MSM drone, “Are you advocating class warfare?” , is, “Hell no, I’m trying to fight against it as all Americans should! The wealthy have been conducting class warfare against The American People for 30 years and that’s long enough! Americans have to come together to win this war because we are indeed in the midst of class warfare and if we don’t unite and fight back, we’ll lose!”
War was officially declared on 99.5% of Americans when Trickle Down/Supply Side economics was promoted and implemented under Ronald Reagan. One need not be an economist to understand the basic theory here: Wealthy people should get money from the rest of us because they are more powerful and wiser and will spend it in a way that will bring a fraction of it back to us after they have taken a share for themselves. From there, the destruction of our infrastructure and the middle class and class warfare was intentionally begun by the wealthy and Republicans.
As an example, let’s consider tax cuts for the wealthy. It is a simple see-saw. Sitting on one side are the social services and commitments of the federal government that benefit nearly all Americans. On the other side are tax revenues. When a huge chunk of tax revenues are removed from one side of the see saw, the other side comes crashing down unless one of two things happen, more tax revenue is placed down or services are removed.
What needs to be understood is that the wealthy’s goal is different than 99.5% of Americans. They do not want the see-saw balanced, their goal is to get rid of it, removing every penny of theirs from the tax revenue side and fuck everything else. They don’t need public schools, they don’t need aid for the poor, they don’t need Medicare of Social Security. If it all collapses, so what? More opportunity for private industry to pretend to be the answer and suck even more money out of Americans’ pockets while delivering worse and corrupt services.
They profited from the destruction of our economy. They will profit from the destruction of our standard of living. They want to see effective government that benefits the majority destroyed. This has been a long term strategy, demonizing government and unions which stand in the way of their plutocratic utopia. Each crisis that results from a previous crisis they created, they use to carve off rights, freedom and finances from the majority that they then shove in their own pocket.
What’s happening in WI makes this crystal clear. The same people who profited from and caused the economic collapse, are now saying that because the economy is troubled for some unknown reason, the solution is giving them more tax money and taking it from working Americans (from whom they’ve already robbed of home equity and retirement money).
Meanwhile, most Americans can’t afford not to have government and a fully funded social system, public schools, Medicare, SS, etc.
There is not a morally acceptable argument for Exxon and Bank of America to take advantage of this nation’s infrastructure and all of its citizens (i.e., heavy Exxon tanker trucks use and destroy our federally funded highways) while paying $o in taxes but there is a rational one. Greed, camouflaged as “capitalism”.
So, using the issue of taxes just to illustrate, we are in a mercenary war with the wealthy. They want to horde and build greater piles of money for themselves and have planned to accommodate that by crushing social funding such as education. Meanwhile, they want to bleed “the peasants” by making them pay a greater and greater share of total tax revenues to fund everything while also forcing them to subsidize their wealth and that of their corporations through tax cuts just for them.
And consider the outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries. This works two-fold in their war against Americans. First, the wealthy slash their expense of manufacturing and greatly increase their profit margin, then have all of this subsidized by the workers they’ve fired because on unemployment income, they can only afford to buy cheaper things made in China and sold at Walmart. Secondly, the exporting of jobs has created a huge pool of available workers which allows the wealthy to offer lower wages and worse or no benefits for jobs that can require twice the work as before (“Hey, if you don’t want this job, there are plenty of people out there who would.”)
So, in this aspect of the Class War the wealthy are engaged in, they have weakened unions, made their workers more compliant and desperate to work at lower wages for providing more labor. Shrinking wages have also forced people to bury themselves in debt so by buying things on credit cards, they end up giving more and more of what pay they do get back to the wealthy in the form of interest and fees. And the kicker is that by becoming buried in debt, they become even more willing to be treated and paid poorly to keep their job and pay their ever-growing bills. A vicious cycle indeed, created by some very vicious people.
This is a war and we have been losing it. Now, it has reached a new and more dangerous phase. The wealthy now have control in many states and in the House. They are now totally free to spend unlimited billions to fight and win this war and though some Americans are stepping up, the American People by and large are just looking around bewildered as their wealth and power in this democracy are being annexed by the wealthy.
The attacks on our society by the wealthy can’t be stopped by individuals acting alone, the wealthy have too many resources as well as the whole commercial and much of the political infrastructure to use against Americans. We MUST come together to push them back, on the internet through this site and others, through social networking like Facebook and Twitter but ultimately as we witnessed, Egypt only overthrew their domination by taking physical action and getting in the streets. We need to do it all.
Our fellow citizens in WI, OH and elsewhere are fighting this war with limited resources, they need us to join their ranks because they ARE us. This same attack on working Americans is coming to your state soon and if the wealthy get momentum from crushing The American People in WI and OH, they will come to your state with even more confidence, energy and force.
Previous generations had their moments to put aside what divided them and come together to fight for this nation and it’s future. Now is our time to make the decision and make the commitment, to accept our duty to past generations of Americans who fought for the freedoms and the benefits we stand to lose now. It’s time for us to do the same as they did for our future generations, to invest our time and energy in protecting what America is, spending a day joining a protest here and there, reaching out in person or over the internet to others to inform them and encourage them to become involved, communicating with our elected officials about what we expect of them if they want to continue representing us and much more.
Though it was not of our choosing, we are in a war with a force that seeks to destroy the America that has been and that we believe in. This war is real and being fought each and every day. If we choose at this moment in history to step up and confront this threat together as fellow Americans, there is no question that we will prevail and so will all the aspirations and values we all share.
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Information Education Inspiration Action
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For those who haven’t seen the Citibank memo, here’s the first page and a link below to the entire document:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6674234/Citigroup-Oct-16-2005-Plutonomy-Report-Part-1
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Do you see how they are trying to make the IDEA of it common place? accepted as the norm…forget the poor create an economic model that has only the top earners considered…
One can only hope they start to devour themselves..
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Common place and a good Equity Strategy. It’s sick.
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Everytime I read it I get disgusted.
It’s truly amazing.
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Fabulous post, Adlib.
What Americans need to wake up and realize is that the wealthy kleptocrats have an entirely different view of the American Middle Class than how it was presented to us, as “the cornerstone” of American prosperity. Lovely words, very true, even, but the Greed Kings have considered the middle class, we now realize, to be a moveable feast. Once the American Middle Class became the American Consumer Class, its goose was basically cooked. Companies could use American disposable income to seed OTHER middle classes, elsewhere. A Japanese middle class, and a German middle class. The two countries we defeated in a war became the “winners” in an economic war, and that was only the beginning. From cheap imports we went to outsourcing, and now GIGANTIC middle classes have emerged in China and India. There was no special treatment accorded to Americans. The American Middle Class was allowed, encouraged even, to shrivel up and perish as people all over the world have now become able to gobble up the goods that keep corporate titans wealthy.
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Keep in mind, this has not been a completely bad thing. There was definitely imbalance in the 1950s when Americans lived fat while much of the world was in desperate poverty. A shift was necessary and good. Global capitalism HAS lifted many out of poverty and wretched conditions. But the problem has been the unfairness, the accumulation of wealth at the top, not to mention the destructiveness to the environment as the old technologies refuse to make way for the changes the world needs to survive. Chinese air pollution and Nigerian oil spills that make acid rain and even the Gulf spill seem relatively benign in comparison.
America was spoiled. We trusted our corporate titans because they DID, for a while, provide us with the good life. We didn’t ask too many questions. We wanted to be Oscar Meyer wieners and Charlie the Tuna WANTED us to catch and eat him. Intuitively, perhaps, we recognized that we were being fattened for a feast. The feast is now. “To Serve The Middle Class….it’s a COOKBOOK!”
Cheers WTS!
Very clever and funny (not a surprise!).
Maybe we could call the last 30 years, “The Soylent Greening of The Middle Class”?
I wonder, if we had built in an aspect of social responsibility to corporate charters (state by state), maybe over the last 30 years we could have grown middle classes elsewhere without making it a zero sum game. There could have been more pieces of the middle class pie if we hadn’t given into such excess.
It was just several years ago that there was a $5,000 tax credit for buying a Hummer that got 8 miles to the gallon. Corporations told us to roll around in oil and debt and like the story of the grasshopper and the ant, we just frolicked in it never thinking about tomorrow.
And today…is tomorrow.
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I am convinced there could have been a way, but it ultimately wouldn’t be very capitalistic, I’m afraid. The aim of capitalism, to always expand, has thoroughly harmed the biosphere. As many have pointed out here and otherwise, the planet CAN’T endure a billion Chinese and another billion Indians living like we live here.
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So I’m not sure what the ultimate better way would have been, but I am certain we could have found it with clearer heads and bigger hearts.
You made me think..
We are still living with the “feel” of the 50′s good life…we have the conditioning but not the reality any more…we have the left over residual patriotism of a bygone day. Add that to the mind numbing MSM propaganda machine turning people into corporate cubical zombie drones and you end up with a society of people suffering from corporate Stockholm syndrome..they now sympathize with their captors…
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That’s exactly right, the “feel” without the reality. In the 50s and 60s, there was a saying, “what’s good for GM is good for America”, and another, “the business of America is business”. Even people who found that distasteful saw a kind of truth in it. People didn’t necessarily expect corporations to behave like angels, but they did, in a way, depend on them and trust them to make life comfortable in the U.S. of A.
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The game has changed completely, while the mindset still lags in the past and longs for a “nicer” corporatocracy.
Exactly……man the smarts on this site are off the hook…you guys n galls are great!
HP {SPIT}
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There is an underlying weakness to the plutocratic forces today, namely, that they have abandoned the free market in favor of outright theft. Through history, the free market has proved to be the strongest, most durable form of economic organization. True, it has had its breakdowns (such as the Great Depression in the 1930s), and it must be supplemented by needed government programs to help the weak and defenseless, promote education, safeguard the environment and the consumer, and supplement the economic infrastructure through public investments in transportation, communication, and basic research. (A strong, socially-progressive, proactive government is a friend of the market, contrary to right wing propaganda).
Despite its inadequacies, and its consequent need for supplementation, the free market has proven over time to be superior to any other system, emerging victorious in its historical struggles with feudalism, communism, and state-controlled fascism.
What we have in America today is not a free market. We have a government that has stolen trillions of taxpayers dollars and transferred them to the largest banks and other financial institutions. We have a system completely rigged against small businesses and small investors, a system where most Americans are facing a constantly declining standard of living as a result of large businesses enacting anti-people policies hand-in-glove with governmental authorities. We have a government that is, in its essence, coercive against the vast majority of Americans.
Because the present government of the wealthy stands in basic opposition to a free market, it is vulnerable to effective popular protests. I believe the Wisconsin popular uprising, as underreported as it has been in the major media, has shocked those in power with their momentum and power. This protest has already greatly strengthened rank-and-file, progressive forces within the Democratic party (note how the Democratic Wisconsin State Senators are following the lead of the protesters). Wisconsin has the potential to be a real turning point in our history.
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Some replies to the comments I have received. First, I did not say that taxes are theft. I said that the massive transfer of taxpayer money to private uses for the largest private financial institutions was government-directed theft (massive) of public money. Second, it is incorrect that the total transfer was less than one trillion, and that a large share (or all, according to some reports) has been repaid. Total transfers from all sources amount to many trillions, probably considerably more than 10 trillion. I am not making this up, I have read it in many reliable sources. The U.S. Treasury s letting the large financial institutions borrow at essentially zero percent interest. The institutions can then take that money and purchase government bonds at 3 percent plus interest. The institutions are NOT using this money to invest back in the economy. They are hoarding it. However you look at it, this is an enormous transfer of government funds. It is crippling in itself to the continuation of needed government programs and, as Cher correctly says, has caused government cutbacks far beyond what is necessary.
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Complete nonsense that taxes are “theft”. Rich and corporations don’t pay their fair share of taxes and even the middle class and working classes pay one of the LOWEST tax burdens in the western world.
As bad as things are trending including entitlements still over half the budget goes out to pay for Medicare, Medicaid and SS.
It’s not all going to mega-corporations by a long shot.
The thought that government is the biggest force restricted markets is also nonsense. It’s the oligarchies that corporations have become that has stifled free markets. The biggest thing government has not do is enforce trust law.
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Hey caleb36!
I would agree with Cher that it’s inaccurate to say the government stole money from taxpayers, both for the facts she described and that taxation is not stealing.
They did loan it to these Wall Street sleazes but out of $$564 billion that was disbursed through TARP, $293 billion has been returned so far. That leaves $271 billion outstanding but the US still has shares and assets of many of these companies.
I agree with you that TARP was a rip off and I opposed it but having $271 billion outstanding but avoiding a Great Depression, which Wall Street was more than happy to provide until their extortion act brought them our tax money, is arguably not the worst of all possible worlds.
As you say, true free market principles would be part of healthy economy but government is needed to intervene to protect citizens from the excesses and lack of social responsibility corporations inevitably exhibit.
I do believe that these greedy plutocrats have over reached in WI and energized a movement against them. It seems to be growing day by day and I want to do whatever I can to support and grow it.
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Just one correction: The government didn’t raise our taxes to pay for the bailouts. In fact, taxes stayed the lowest in decades. Further, most of the bailout has been repaid. So where dis that almost-trillion dollars come from? The government printed it. It didn’t come out of anyone’s pocket. But now, having printed that money we still have very low inflation, yet we added to the deficit. (Which, BTW is mot at a critical juncture.)
So actually– the real “transfer of wealth” is not that the banksters got bailed out; it occurred when they told us that WE need to give up programs that WE depend on to balance the budget–which is a lie from the get-go. We are not broke! The transfer of wealth was NOT the bailout–it is the steady decline in wages and benefits and unions ever the -ast 30 years.
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Interesting take Cherny..Think your on to something.
I guess its hard to keep up with those accounting tricksters huh?
So it seems its another wag the dog bait and switch maneuver our government have become so adapt at playing with the real purpose of striping more peoples rights from them effectively creating the eventual plutocracy..(takes breath)
Oh and HP {spit}…….HA i just love that!
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Gawd. I just re-read my comment with all the typos and am amazed you could figure out what I said at all!
If you are interested:
http://planetpov.com/2011/01/17/stoner-question-what-is-money/
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How’d the double post happen? Sorry!
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That happened to me earlier.
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Just one correction: The government didn’t raise our taxes to pay for the bailouts. In fact, taxes stayed the lowest in decades. Further, most of the bailout has been repaid. So where did that almost-trillion dollars come from? The government printed it. It didn’t come out of anyone’s pocket. Having printed that money we still have very low inflation, yet we added to the deficit. (Which, BTW is not at a critical juncture.)
So actually– the real “transfer of wealth” is not that the banksters got bailed out; it is the steady decline in wages and benefits and unions over the past 30 years. And it occurred when they told us that WE need to give up programs that WE depend on to balance the budget–which is a lie from the get-go. We are not broke! The transfer of wealth was NOT the bailout.
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Nice work AdLib. Jesus, where does one begin in trying to understand just how divided we have become and the difference between the activism of the 60s and the complacency of the last 30 or more years.
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Beginning in the early 70s, our freedoms were slowly and steadily chipped away. Incremental encroachments on the people of America have been slow, but steady. So slow and steady that any movement toward what we have now has been barely noticed by the majority of Americans. It’s like waking up in a strange place after a real bender and asking one’s self, “damn, how in hell did I get HERE?”
In the 60s, we still had a news media that actually adhered to honest journalism, for the most part. And I think there are two main reasons why the call for changes in our lives came about. The Vietnam war and LSD. People began to realize that they didn’t want to live, “the old way.” People developed more of a collective conscience regarding what was being done in their name. Any male reaching the age of 18 was faced with the possibilty of having his life snuffed in jungles over half a world away, and for no clear reason.
Minorities began to demand the equal treatment that all people should have. Women stood up and said, “Hey, I’ve got a brain and much more to offer than just making babies and doing house work.”
What you wrote is right on the money. I think the 60s scared the crap out of those in government. Both parties. Back then there wasn’t so much a war between democrats and republicans as there was a war against our corrupt government.
And people in government and big business ridiculed and debased those in the counter culture to such an extent, they made such ideas and struggles seem like only the nuts would engage in such behaviors, thinking and acting. They successfully demonized the counter culture to the point of absurdity.
This was the beginning of the people’s downfall.
Thanks KT!
Yes, if there was a draft right now for the Afghanistan War, if the news reported what was really going on over there and over here, if technology hadn’t contributed to disconnecting us from the physical presence of others and if there was a true desire for enlightenment and community, it would be a very different world.
We have to get people to fight the complacency that materialism and an obsession with entertaining oneself brings. And of course, the division promoted by our opponents, the legitimacy of intolerance the MSM has marketed for profit and to protect the status quo.
The paradox is that people do seem more in need now of community and spiritual purpose than even back then but nowadays, instead of seeking enlightenment and compassion, many seek distraction from these feelings through entertainment, prescription and non-prescription drugs, denial and blinding themselves from reality with petty resentments and hatreds of “the others”.
We can’t change things by playing into any of that. We do have to create a new center of gravity and that is under way. What happened in Palm Springs, what’s happening in WI and OH, what happened last weekend, there is a coming together and as we all remember from science, a greater mass creates a greater attraction.
As tempting as it may be at times, it would behoove us not to be thrown off course by disagreements with otherwise like-minded people, we need to keep our eye on the big picture and not expect to agree on all issues with everyone.
On this issue, we have the majority of America on our side. If we can dedicate ourselves to cultivating that, we can succeed.
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I always said if the people could drop all that R vs D BS facade and come together on common ground it would be something the plutocrats have NO match for..
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Its funny the people perpetuating the R vs D battle are not the average people that have to live it they are the well taken care of politicians and plutocrats themselves that do not believe a word of the crap they spew…
They know its a ruse to keep people divided….
I have a respect for the Anonymous people for having no clear leader to take out..its a collective..seems a possible idea?
I do think some clear idea of what to use to rally people together is a good move..redefine the adjectives..
What phrase or title to put on the movement..
Something that both sides can agree..granted many far right people are far too gone but a lot of people that have no clear direction for their own angst over the systems abuse i think need something that is a universal battle cry in the class war we are in…
Any thoughts?
This really says it all AdLib, Excellent!
Like Cher, I will have to read it again myself, but after the dinner hour.
This pic is a left over from last week..
They were getting a lot of attention…
What have we said about street theater ?
Yep, it does say it so clearly and amusingly. I am keeping the street theater idea in mind, a lot of other ideas percolating too!
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When people consider other people’s situations as no relations to themselves then it is the true disconnect we are experiencing in our society.
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1. No man is an island.
2. We are all in this together weither you like it or not.
3. What you do can affect me and others.Yes, it will impact me and others.
4. What I do can affect you and others.Yes, it will impact you and others.
5.If you do not want to get involved, when you need help no one will be involved for you.
Absolutely 2garden, this is one reason I believe it’s critical for people to get out there and physically join others in rallies and protests.
Our electronic society has connected us so much in virtual ways but has disconnected us from concrete connections. Standing among fellow citizens at the last two rallies I attended, meeting people of all kinds who are earnest and committed to this country makes a huge difference.
I wasn’t seeing strangers rallying on my tv or computer, I was part of a community that was real and human and sincere.
We need real connections like that to our fellow citizens. That’s not to say that what we can do on the internet isn’t important and valuable but shaking the hand of a complete stranger who shares your values and commitment, being surrounded by many people who stand on principle, gives you a connection to our community that makes a big and profound difference.
After that, it’s hard to view the troubles of strangers who share your values as disconnected from you…and when the Kochs come to your state, the support you will receive from others who feel a connection to you will be invaluable.
I used to think of the Beatles song, “All You Need Is Love” as being quaint and a bit naive. But now…I think that the more empathetic we can be of each other, the more power we have as a community and citizenry and we can accomplish big things.
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What unity and solidarity mean in practice, is that I can no longer allow someone who claims there is “no difference” between the two Parties to inflame me. If their issue is income inequality, we can agree on that. (Unless they are nihilists, and then they are just a waste of time)
It means that I have to ignore and close my ears to unionists who are against immigration reform if we are to stand together against the plutocrats. (I just hope they don’t say anything racist.)
And that I should not mention gay rights when if I work with some church groups who are also fighting for income redistribution.
It means I can’t lose it with people who have some blind spots I abhor if we are to focus on how corpulent interests are intent on enslaving us.
I think I can deal with all that. The only ones I refuse to deal with in either Party are those who are willfully ignorant and intransigent. The ones who are only concerned with spouting their version of anything and who really are not interested in change anyway–just in bitching.
I mention all of the above because I agree with you, AdLib, that we must stay united until we are able to declare a measure of victory in this war. And I wanted to acknowledge how tough it can be to do that, for me anyway. It means I will have to learn to compartmentalize up to a point. And as the old Negro spiritual said, “Keep your eyes on the prize. Hold on!”
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Right with you Cher! We don’t have to compromise our values on the fewer issues we disagree on to focus on the majority of issue we do agree on.
And I also agree, it’s unrealistic to expect that one’s allies are only those who agree with everything we believe.
We can debate other issues with our colleagues another time, we should not let our differences put us in conflict though with fighting these plutocrats for our democracy.
Without a democracy, what does anyone’s position on any other issue matter?
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I tend to agree with that Cher. THAT was a point I raised the other day…we have to be united against the our mutual enemy…the plutocrats…AFTER we have WON that fight than we can address the others.
What has me scratching my head, is when did an employee go from being a valued part of the organization to a liability? Even service organizations, whose Only product is service, don’t have any regard for the skills of those providing the service for them..
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Absolutely. And then there’s the ominous trend towards self-service and automation from filling stations to grocery checkout lanes to not being able to find help in your local department store. If no one is hired, who is supposed to have money to buy “services-which-aren’t”??
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Shaming them is one way to keep them in line. Making them feel like they aren’t good enough, so they’ll never leave while taking more and more…abuse.
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Many years ago, Customer Service or Customer Care positions were well paid, the philosophy used to be that you needed sharp people to problem solve and retain customers.
Now, as we all know, customers too are seen as necessary annoyances and Customer Service positions are outsourced to pay as little as possible to people who just read scripts off of computer screens.
As for employees, you are so right, the corps have successfully convinced American Workers to look at others as being a problem but some disconnect in their heads omits them from being included in such generalizations. So when they are treated or paid poorly, it is an injustice. But when it happens to others, they deserved it or are just greedy.
Come on, who other than the wealthy and corporations would accuse teachers of being greedy as an excuse to strip them of pay and unions?
Yet, those on Wall Street who destroyed the economy got billions in bonuses? And they decry the greed of teachers making $50,000???
We need to re-establish reality, their propaganda has been very effective but it can be exposed.
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You are ringing clear as a bell Adlib. You have etched out the mandate.
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It is a strange concept, isn’t it jkk? Especially in a service industry. I don’t understand the concept either.
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A great cri de coeur for a cri de guerre, Adlib. It is astonishing to see how “class warfare” has been used preemptively, as you say, as a negative term; as if stating the problem is more of problem than the problem itself.
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Cheers Q!
This is a case where Dmes have played into the Orwellian use of “class warfare”. As I mentioned, we should reclaim it as a rallying cry and slap with angry retorts any MSM or GOP tool who tries to apply the Orwellian version on us.
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John Kasich and his GOP minions are attempting to do the same in Ohio, however with less fanfare. It’s been proven Walker sold his soul to the Kochs, but the same (albeit similar) cannot be said of “John Boy.”
Back in the day, Mr. Kasich was a phenomenal Representative in my district; neither of us is from the same party, but I voted for him. Then his parents died, he joined Lehman, he sold his soul to Wall Street and, God forbid, Fox.
Now, we have a “born again Christian” as the Gov. of the State of Ohio, refusing to live in the official Gov’s. residence, and sending his twin daughters to private Christian School. His choice, and I don’t hold it against him.
However, for him to attempt to balance the State of Ohio budget on the backs of the public sector, including teachers, is a crock of shit.
There’s more to this than meets the eye, and it isn’t right. It isn’t right!
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Indeed Boomer, something stinks. Tax revenues are down because of the wealthy running our economy into the ground…and now their solution is to go to those whose homes they’ve taken away and whose retirement savings they’ve robbed…and take more money away from them instead of returning some of the billions they’ve stolen from the majority through higher taxes?
We need to build a coalition that says, “You’re not stealing more from us, you’re paying us back what you stole!”
Tax the rich so we can educate our children, keep our streets safe and keep our society from self-destructing. It’s not much to ask to simply raise tax rates to where they were under Reagan.
Walker and all of these corrupt pols say, “It takes sacrifice from all of us” yet the rich and corporations only get more public money and tax cuts. That’s a load of BS, time for them to sacrifice to keep our states and fed government from failing, raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires to 50% of income and watch how fast the deficit shrinks. That’s what it was under Reagan and they loved him and name everything after him, so why not have the Dems propose in Congress, “The Ronald Reagan Tax Plan” which would return rates on the wealthy to 50%.
And let states follow that example. Watch how quickly state deficits shrink.
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Great article ADLIB….you said basically everything i have been trying to crowbar out of my skull…
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The thing that does not make a lot of sense is that they are reducing the peoples ability to even pay them.. But i guess the idea is a slave is an expendable resources that when one drops there is always a replacement. (thus the anti abortion thing)…
It really is strange that the people don’t get it. that YES it is a WAR..Or if not a war an abusive relationship between the powerful and the people…
I worked for an ogar of a boss once in a studio…He was very disrespectful of “the help” and sucked up to the clients..He was so two faced it was sicking..I thought about why and figured that I cost him money, they made him money…My stock line was i am just an expensive tool that lives in the tech department. Its all the mindsets and attitudes that are the core sickness. And our cultural indoctrination into the “trickle down” belief system… Americans are loosing the war becasue they have adopted this corporate cultural belief systems as true, and adopted it into the society at large…its cool to be a corporate dick these days, Its cool to figure out how to game people, how to undermine them, this way you don’t need to succeed by your own merit but by the tripping up of a fellow human being..this is the core sickness the wealthy warriors have used as a cleaver psychological warfare tactic…
Chaz, I agree, the Henry Ford theory of paying people a high enough salary so they can afford to buy a Ford has been eschewed for killing the golden goose.
When it became clear that theeconomy was going to crash, Wall Street didn’t stop supporting the selling of mortgages that they knew were worthless and that people wouldn’t be able to afford, they just bet against them, making a fortune but accelerating and deepening the crash.
Remember when, just before the economic crash, gas prices skyrocketed to $5/gallon? All the top corporations including oil companies saw what was coming and the oil companies decided, “The crash is coming so let’s grab all we can now before it happens!”
What this too did was accelerate and deepen the crash.
That is the mentality we are dealing with. The wealthy profit from good economies, they profit from bad economies (because government will bail them out) and when they see disaster approaching, instead of trying to avert it, they see it as a deadline for accelerating as much moneymaking as possible…speeding up and making more certain the disaster.
They are saboteurs of the American economy and society. They have no sense of social responsibility which makes them the most dangerous types of people to hold power over others. They don’t care how many lives are destroyed by their actions, they have only one allegiance, to their acquisition of more money and power.
They need to be booted from having such concentrated power over our economy and democracy. Government does need to step in, in a big way.
We’ve seen what happens when corporations are in control in this country, what sociopaths they are. Time to reign them in and take this country back from being just another subsidiary of the Koch’s.
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I so Agree…..I loath the lot of them..they are soulless shit in human skin…
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The problem i see is the culture they have created creates more of them…
This article below i don’t agree with totally but its an interesting take on identifying them and removing them…We do not have a clear idea what is a sick mentality or a way to identify that and remove it…its a difficult thing that can be too easily abused so we ignore that and the psychopaths roam free..
http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/05/beware-the-psychopath-my-son/
Exceptional post, AdLib. I need to read it a few more times, but this is my first thought. You rightly speak about the divisiveness fomented by the Corpulent. No question, but there are real differences that we can and must overcome once we realize our similarities and ignore the rest –at least for unity on the single issue of income disparity.
The Republicans are primarily the Party of straight, white, Christian, married, non-poor and non-unionized plurality. We Dems are all the “others. We are not homogenous, and it’s wonderful, but also a problem, because most of the ways Democrats organize–the internet organizations, unions, in urban centers, and via minority organizations and churches—don’t have too many shared goals. At least on the surface—where too many of us live.
There are cultural differences for our apparent disorganization. The netroots is different from unions, unions are different from church groups and from urban organizers, yet they all make up the traditional Dems strongholds. We have little in common, but we need to ignore those cultural differences–at least a little in order to form coalitions.We need to in effect put on blinders and use tunnel-vision to see where we are exactly the same: we are all being screwed and we all feel helpless about it.
But if we could work together on at least this one common goal of wealth redistribution, like this labor uprising is doing, we could seriously kick ass! And we must. Look at how much solidarity the coalition of labor (union and private), the Left-leaning media (such as it is), the netroots and the Dem Party have shown. The result has been amazing activism: tens of thousands of people at non-stop rallies, NATIONAL rallies, coverage from the media, Progressive ad campaigns, and Democratic lawmakers willing to fight for a change.
Even if Walker’s bill passes in WI, we are starting to WIN. Protests are spreading and the more we stay involved and on the streets, human nature dictates that more will come aboard. If what happened in Wisconsin is replicated elsewhere, the Right is endangered and they see it coming.
I read this email today: “Friends, new polls coming out in Wisconsin show that the Obama-Labor Union ad campaign against him is having an impact,” the e-mail says. “Governor Walker has started losing ground, even though polls had previously shown him winning the “public relations war.” Oh, how the worm has turned! Let them fear us for a change, and shake their heads at OUR rise as we did at them.
It’s so interesting to me to see how public opinion shifts; how memes take hold. Momentum makes attitudes change—or more accurately, makes people understand what’s really going on, where before they tended to be in twilight-sleep. It truly is waking a sleeping giant. We have to make sure it is WIDE awake and doesn’t fall back asleep. I hope so fervently that we really seize this moment.
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Nicely written, Cher. I would argue though that in fact we have most things in common with each other and only a small set of items most Americans disagree on.
That’s why the MSM and Repub politicians focus on those issues, keeping us fighting over Choice or Gay rights when we agree on at least 80% of everything else.
Historically, the thing that seems to divide folks on the Left is their independence. On the right, you have a built-in reverence for authority figures so they are happy to march like worker ants. Dems are not by nature mindless followers. So we all chart different directions and head off in them.
The wealthy exploit this and have poured fuel on the Frustrated with Obama Dem – Pro Obama Dem conflicts. It is not in any Dem’s interest to allow the manipulation and division to continue, while we feud, the Kochs steal collective bargaining rights from all of us.
Time to come together and reject debates about what divide us, the stakes are just too high to allow them to cut our strength by destroying our unity.
As you describe, it seems like this is happening, we are seeing a common enemy rise up and The American People do seem to be coming together to fight back. But that only means we have to step up our organizing and energizing of our fellow citizens, this needs to be a tidal wave that sweeps the greedy out of power.
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I had the same thought moments before i read your post…
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It is interesting to watch peoples perceptions shift. First an inkling of hay somethings wrong here, then they reach a critical mass the shift takes place… We are still in many ways like a school of fish or flock of birds that follow the pack…That is how the power structure exploits the people, they know to use the collective tendency to all move as one if prodded just so…This can also be a danger to their control as they know that if the people ever found out they have been manipulated and conned the shift would be hard and devastating to their power.. What i do find bizarre is when things like the CITIBANK stuff comes out or the Military abuse of civilians is released the people seem to be still catatonic to it.
But i suspect they still take it in and it will have an effect…
Its like when i tried to explain something to my young son and he looked at me like i was out of my mind, it was the seed i planted..then latter he said something that i realized OH he got it..it just took some time to process.. I am hoping this is the case with the People..the shift will take place eventually when it becomes to hard to ignore the weight of the chains they are waring.
Perfectly stated, Chaz. That’s what I was trying to say there at the end.
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I thought so.It was a great post!…glad i could add my two cents…:>)
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We feel no shared responsibility or common bond because we only focus on our differences. Whatever can be used to divide us. Race, religion, money,politics,sexuality, culture, etc. Using the media to just beat you over the head with it all day every day.
That’s how the upper class gets away with everything. They keep the middle and lower class bitterly fighting each other while they truck away all the money. The rich don’t even fight this war. We do it for them. Why should they dirty their hands in such things when the peasants will serve everything up for them?
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So true, AD but it’s no accident. The politicians and MSM that are part of this corporate class promote division and intolerance of opposing views. Fox does it, so does CNN and MSNBC. And need I mention HP?
It is orchestrated, people are inundated with the concept that the way you deal with others who dare to have opposing opinions is to attack them. On every issue from most every perspective, it’s the Bushism, “You’re either with us or against us!”
This is fucked up and participating in it is giving aid and comfort to the true enemy. Fighting amongst ourselves amuses them, 1/2% controlling 99.5% amuses them. We have to quit playing this game and focus on the many more values we have in common.
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I keep thinking the one defining factor in helping us come back together is if it serves the common good…that is to say the whole common good..mankind’s common good, not a small percentage of gaming strategists wealthy elite that only seek to enslave and exploit everything and everyone for the shear joy of the power feeling they get from it…the psychopaths have taken over and that is the real war…
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I agree, we need to focus on the positive, not just yell, “Plutocracy”.
We need a fair tax on the wealthy to force them to help finance the nation they take advantage of for free, through off shoring, tax loopholes, etc.
Warren Buffet says his secretary pays more in taxes than he does.
That needs to be corrected and a lot of other problems will start to get solved, including the deficit and declining schools.
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AdLib… I believe that the GOP sees it in their best interest to have a NonEducated Society. The happenings in WI are a perfect example. I am not sure that Warren is losing any sleep at night with reference to his secretary, but I could be wrong.
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