Once again, lots of highly informative videos that take a long time to search out like needles in a haystack. Major issues: declining jobs quality, the faulty mentality enjoyed and preached by the plutocrats (and boosted even still today by demented sociopathic Ayn Rand), overcoming it with thinking and language of change, the need for a wealth tax, and recent political battles (Warren/Biden/Pelosi/Bernie/Tulsi…), good and bad populism, and recommendable strategy for The People to win…
Stars & Channels: Bernie Sanders, Bill Moyers, Richard Wolff (Democracy At Work), Chris Hedges, Jimmy Dore, New Hampshire Public Radio, Redacted Tonight, RJ Eskow, Rolling Stone, Secular Talk, TED, The Hill, The Humanist Report, The Rational National, The Real News Network, Vox, and more…
Topics:
- Pointless Work Economy (Declining Job Quality)
- News: NAFTA 2.0 – No Significant Difference from 1.0
- Todays Weirdness (produced by capitalism)
- Wealth Tax
- Warren’s Smear of Bernie (+ the Media Malpractice)
- Bernie
- Economic Update: Capitalism Loves and Enforces Poverty
- Candidates (+ data and insights on our country)
- Grassroots Populism = Real Populism
- Robber Barons Plutocracy & its Disastrous Self-Justification
- Ayn Rand’s Antisocial Elitism
- Time For Thinking Rather than Impulses
- Language of Change
- Dennis Kucinich: Bring America Home
- Medicare for All
- Humor: Another Political Aristocrat (Chelsea Clinton)
1. Pointless Work Economy (Declining Job Quality)
Declining Job Quality
Less and less jobs make a reliable living (and that’s all about maximizing the profits for the rich):
The fight to make bad jobs better ~ Vox
One thing the mentioned employment numbers tell us that is not mentioned here is that people who oppose fundamental structural change in our economy or anti-poverty/anti-precariousness measures like a UBI by sticking to an outdated mentality of “all hands on board or we all won’t have enough” are dead wrong. When the retail workers outnumber manufacturing workers (and food service jobs are almost as numerous as manufacturing jobs), this speaks for itself that the productivity we need to produce all the things we need is easily taken care of by only a fraction of working people. That’s all part of increasing use of machines, software, and robots; and this trend can keep going until very little work will still have to be done by people.
So, we really must rethink how we arrange the labor market and distribution of living resources. Main strategies to research, mull over, and discuss (for instance here) are:
- cap-taxing excessive wealth and income to create a UBI-type financial security floor for all
- a Universal Basic Dividend from asset-based big businesses to make us ALL stockholders of the economy (starting out small but gradually growing)
- and canceling the currently insane debts created by theft from the top
Working for what?
The Economy is NOT Growing! (w/ Richard Wolff) ~ Thom Hartmann Program
2. News: NAFTA 2.0 – No Significant Difference from 1.0
Surprise! Surprise! (satirical sic)… Trump and his fellow corrupticians from the “Rep” & “Dem” Oligarchy-Party have (of course!) done nothing along his campaign promises to bring good jobs back to Americans:
Bipartisan NAFTA 2.0 Is Still Fatally Flawed ~ The Real News Network
3. Todays Weirdness (produced by capitalism)
Set to start at the interview’s high point:
Prof. Richard Wolff on Journalism, Globalism, Capitalism, Brexit ~ The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow
4. Wealth Tax
Beginning to talk about this long ocerdue issue:
People Want a Wealth Tax, but Many Politicians Oppose It ~ The Real News Network
Comment: Because of its early stage, the conversation does not, of course, go as far as addressing the really needed goal of not just a higher tax rate on the rich (who currently enjoy LOWER tax rates than us working-to-make-ends-meet people), but a cap-tax on wealth to put a kind of speed limit on wealth like we have on our roads to prevent terrible accidents. We mst do the same with wealth to prevent Big Money in politics that ruins the whole world for us. And we can use this taking back of the resources the rich stole from the rst of us to place it under everyone’s feet so that their will be no more financial calamities for any of us. THAT would be a healthy economy! And a much healthier society.
5. Warren’s Smear of Bernie (+ the Media Malpractice)
Warren (and the malpracticing media) Smearing Sanders (2020-01-15)
Warren Doubles Down on Sanders Attack and Utterly FACEPLANTS ~ The Humanist Report
Summary of the Recent Smear Attacks on Bernie (2020-01-17)
Krystal Ball: The polls are in, Warren’s ploy backfires spectacularly ~ The Hill
Commentary on the Oligarchy’s Sabotaging of Bernie (2020-01-20)
The Fake Sanders V. Warren Fight (Web Exclusive) ~ Redacted Tonight
6. Bernie:
Killer Mike: ‘I’m With the Revolutionary. ’
Killer Mike: ‘I’m With the Revolutionary.’ ~ Bernie Sanders
Pretty Good Interview with Bernie
(except for the Russiahhhgate crap)
Bernie Sanders – 2020 Candidate Forum at NHPR 1-19-20 ~ New Hampshire Public Radio
7. Economic Update: Capitalism Loves and Enforces Poverty
Only one point pointed out (the political warping). Others left out in this short address (cutting jobs and wages for profits, driving people into poverty to better control them, etc.)
Economic Update: Independent Media ~ Democracy At Work
8. Candidates (+ data and insights on our country)
Warmongering Biden
Kerry Lies about Biden’s Iraq War Support ~ The Jimmy Dore Show
Challenger of Pelosi
Starting the video where it marches into its high points (nifty issues like whistleblowers, people-presenting congressionals and media, privacy–>dissent–>democracy, crimes by the ‘leaders’ and their henchmen…):
The Progressive Who Can Beat Pelosi! ~ The Jimmy Dore Show
Notes:
- “Center vs Periphery” is kind of cute, basically looking at the power and prosperity pyramid from the top. 😉
- Quote: “The leading cause of homelessness is medical bankruptcy. The people that we see sleeping in the street are not people who made bad choices. They’re not people who were addicts and then they lost their place. These are people who got sick. And we kick sick people into the street. I’m not okay with that. Universal health care (Medicare for All) will do more than any single policy to prevent homelessness.”
- In the earlier part I skipped over, he also mentions “bipartisan co-optation of our democracy”.
Tulsi Sues HRC
Suing Hillary Clinton, Tulsi Gabbard stands up to the Russiagate smear machine ~ The Grayzone
Bernie vs Biden (Honesty vs Lies)
Bernie Sanders FINALLY Hits Back At Lyin’ Joe Biden ~ Secular Talk
Bernie’s National Lead
Krystal Ball Dominates CNN Appearance With Facts As Sanders Takes National Lead ~ The Rational National
Bernie’s 12pts New Hampshire Lead
Bernie Sanders Leads By 12pts In New Hampshire Poll ~ The Rational National
Political Strategy: Oligarchy Scam against Bernie Eligibility (& Need to Fight Back)
Poll Shows The Argument Bernie MUST Make! ~ Secular Talk
9. Grassroots Populism = Real Populism
Grassroots Populism (and the need for alt media)
… versus demagoguic fake populism from the top:
Krystal Ball: We’re Populists and We’re OK! ~ The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow
Real Populism
Phillip Agnew’s ‘With These Hands’ – Powerful Bernie Rally Moment ~ Bernie Sanders
10. Robber Barons Plutocracy & its Disastrous Self-Justification
A 2012 report that’s still very revealing. Trump way back getting huge public subsidies, Russia when the USSR ended getting split into sudden undeserved oligarchs and their slaves (like a caricature of today’s U.S.), the fight not just between the 90 (or 99) and 10 (or 1) percent but between the millionaires and billionaires (for example, 37% of the Great Recession bailout going to the top 0.01%, yes a tenth of a tenth of the 1%!!!) so that small Wall Street predators are upset with the solidly bigger aristocratic privileges of the big Wall Street predators whose failures get bailed out then giving them an even bigger market share. The unfairness of our dungheap society even aggrieves those merely one layer down from the top. The mentality of the oligarchs: I am good, the other ones are bad. Disastrous self-justification.
Matt Taibbi and Chrystia Freeland on the One Percent’s Power and Privileges ~ Moyers & Company
Note 1: And Bill Moyers is probably always excellent to share with our elder fellows who may still be stuck in old thoughts and political affiliations.
Note 2: If you think that only fascist dumbos have a childlike mentality, listen to the examples of the childish mentality of the rich at the top.
11. Ayn Rand’s Antisocial Elitism
How to turn adolescents on the antisocial road:
On Contact: Ayn Rand with Prof. Lisa Duggan ~ RT America
12. Time For Thinking Rather than Impulses
The unforeseen consequences of a fast-paced world | Kathryn Bouskill ~ TED
13. Language of Change
Starting at 1:24:11 where this podcast video rises above lots of otherwise similar ones (namely addressing the language we use when struggling for much needed change):
Ep. 9: Please Let Me Rob You, I’m Woke (feat. Anand Giridharadas) ~ mmflint
- Note 1: Redefined Patriotism, the language of justice not being the only language on hand; patriotic and transformation language are popular and have long been used to distract people away from the things we must stand up for. It is time we correct this co-opting and co-opt these terms back, like I have been working on, too, by for instance connecting patriotism to the grand vision of our founding fathers and pointing at the great outcomes of necessary change rather than only at the disaster we are currently in.
- Note 2: The story at 1:14:41 is also a (smaller) high point, namely about a paid evildoer waking up and flipping his stance.
- Note 3: If you have the leisure and time to listen to the whole hour and fifty minutes, you can also hear more about the rich ruling class’ mentality and trickery.
14. Dennis Kucinich: Bring America Home
Nifty conversation with an earlier Bernie equivalent who ran for nomination when sooo many Americans were apparently still asleep (and I liked him a lot back then, would have preferred him to win, but was sure he couldn’t win because he was bodily too short in size for the sleepy American sheeple back then):
Dennis Kucinich on Surviving Assassination Attempts, Plus a Glenn Greenwald Update | Useful Idiots ~ Rolling Stone
Quote: “Everyone should be able to share in the bounty of the country. And … [means-testing] is just a way to divide people.” And a summary on what he continued to say: To be one nation, we need to be one, not a split between haves and have-nots.
15. Medicare for All
… now endorsed by the 2nd largest American doctors association, the ACP (American Medical Association):
Medicare For All Just Got It’s Most Important Endorsement Ever ~ The Humanist Report
16. Humor: Another Political Aristocrat (Chelsea Clinton)
Chelsea Clinton Got $9 Million Job From Hillary’s Friend ~ The Jimmy Dore Show
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