Wakeful Video Weekend 2020-01-19 (16 videos)

Major focus of this week’s video collection: our system treating us like trash and how a new system could do the opposite. Part of this also: our mentality and culture. Some key issues: capitalism, socialism, Universal Basic DIVIDEND, warmongering & terror state…

Stars & Channels: Richard Wolff (Democracy At Work), Noam Chomsky, Meagan Day & Jimmy Henders, Michael Parenti, The Hill, The Intercept, Michael Brooks, Jimmy Dore, Yanis Varoufakis (DiEM25), NonCompete, and more…

Topics:

1. Our System Treating us Like Trash ***
2. The Worst Economy in Our Lifetimes **
3. Teacher Strikes = People Strikes (Kept Secret by the MSM)
4. Universal Basic DIVIDEND etc.: Insightful Yanis Varoufakis Conversation **
5. Historic Insight on Corporatist Fascism
6. Capitalism (narratives, fascism, $$wars, motives)
7. Noam Chomsky Describing Our Corporatist Manipulation
8. Fights to Get Money Out Of Politics
9. Socialism: Not Normally Being Linked to Government
10. France’s Uprising Against Neoliberalism
11. Iran: 1+ Hour of Informed Intellectual Discussion
12. U.S. Terrorism
13. Mentality: Are We Evil? Can We Change? ***

If Money Didn’t Rule Us

A brief video clip indirectly insightful of the flaw of our system (although the video hints that following your passion will become livable, which maybe once was partially true for a significant number of lucky folks… maybe during my parents’ generation… but which defintiely never worked in my life because our system had become way too rigged for profits at the top and gouging below). Still, the clip gives a hint of how or world SHOULD be:

What Would You Do If Money Didn’t Matter? | Short Film Showcase ~ National Geographic

And, by the way, this is the main reason of why a citizen’s dividend (often called a UBI, a fair slice of the economy unrightfully owned only by a few privileged rich folks when it should belong to us all)… why this would get us much closer to a humanitarian world for humans to live in, instead of a capitalist hamster wheel fueling the rich lords and wasting all our lives.

The video gives a glimpse of what our bright future, if we make it happen, could look like, without bothering with the details of how to make it happen… just giving a glimpse of the vision that should lead us.

Merry Christmas.

 

P.S.: Oh, and in case you are tired of standard X-Mess songs, The Revolution Continues shared some alternatives today. 😉

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Wakeful Video Weekend 2019-10-19, Part B (3 videos)

AOC’s Bernie endorsement and Bernie’s fantastic “Back” rally in New York after he is back out of the hospital:

 

I. AOC’s Bernie Endorsement

This is about a guaranteed advanced standard of living in the United States (the richest nation in hisory) with no ifs no no buts. Power to the people, and a Good Life for All:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Endorses Bernie For President
Bernie Sanders

Additional note: When we mention a people’s revolution, we should realize that this is simply a continuation of our famous 18th century American Revolution where the people shared these aims promoted again today but wealthy creeps subverted the outcome into the mess we are in today.

I hear the echo from the hopeful past: All people are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights – among these life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And the role of government by the consent of the governed is to reflect and protect these and other rights and promote the general welfare (a.k.a. a Good Life for All).  

Existential Assault

The following broadcast deeply struck a chord within me even though I have not been sexually assaulted (besides a failed attempt long ago, that is). Looking at the connection, I found that my existential assaults by soulless jerks ruining my original life’s career and later every new career and job, time and time again… led to the same feelings of grief and low self-esteem and constant fear, the being shrunk and driven into shame and made afraid to exist.

And when my appeals against profession denial based on declaring my education and job qualification invalid for totally unjustified and totally absurd and paradoxical reasons (rewriting history turning my outstanding study accomplishments into trash) were contemptuously dismissed, it gave me the same humiliation of standing up for receiving justice and getting virtually slapped into the face for it, assigning to me the guilt of others who had ruined my life. It makes me think that in today’s precarious life lived by so many of us, these kinds of results are suffered from way more people than sexual assault victims. So many of us are time and again under existential assault suffering precarious lives for no fault of our own and being denied any hope or worthwhile future.

This is the heart-wrenching report on the results of a sexual assault (often considered a dismissible minor issue) that chimes so closely with the existential assaults suffered by a huge portion of humanity:

The Stanford Sexual Assault Case Made Her “Emily Doe.” In New Memoir, Chanel Miller Tells Her Story
Democracy Now!

Indeed. Such an assault has much longer, deeper, and farther reaching consequences than commonly recognized. But, not to overlook, so do the existential assaults suffered by so many of us. 

Economics: Shorter Work Hours vs UBI

Richard Wolff gives lots of awesome speeches and explanations, but sometimes he also skips over vital points like probably all of us. Here is one such case:

Economic Update: Beyond Universal Basic Income
Democracy At Work

Comment: Richard Wolff is probably right that reduced full-time workweek hours could be used less well by sociopathic demagogues than a UBI to divide people because the current weird ideology of our right to live deriving exclusively from us working paid jobs would continue as before. No shaking of the boat. There would be less risk of misleading people into thinking that they work shabby jobs and pay painful taxes only to keep lazy other people from having to work (while always overlooking that this is exactly what we are doing in the current system, although not really for under-supplied poor people who get very little help, but rather for all those super-rich people who own most of what can be owned and swim in a huge stream of money flow they do NOT earn by work). 

Political Awakening Video Weekend 05-12-2019 (18 videos)

A great discussion on UBI, great political satire, class warfare and the dying middle class and poor, healthcare racketeering, political awakening, media corruption by the rule of money, a people’s revolution, the real (capitalist!) entitlement in our market society… 22 cool videos. Stars: Nick Brana, Chris Hedges, Kim Iversen, Richard Wolff, Tulsi Gabbard, Ralph Nader, Jimmy Dore, and more.

Topics:

1. Nick Brana & Scott Santens Discussing UBI
2. Satire: Neoliberal Slavery
3. Class Warfare: OMG, Reality is Real! Who Knew?
4. Middle Class Struggling — But still Half Asleep?
5. Market Society: Infinite Greed, Inequality, Non-Living Wages, Life Depression, The Poor…
6. Awakening of a Hillerite
7. Media: The Dying Free Press & Anger Sales
8. Candidates: Debate-Qualified Ones & Tulsi Interview
9. A Political People’s Revolution
10. World: Venezuela Analysis & How Castro Became an Empire Asset
11. Humor: Hillary’s 2020 Advice & Joe the Sniffer
12. Capitalist Entitlement

The Camouflage of Authoritarianism

In the interview clip shared below, a caller makes an important point about authoritarian regimes, namely that authoritarianism can camouflage in any present economic or political system. Therefore socialism gets easily smeared by pointing at the Soviet Union where an authoritarian undemocratic regime hid behind the facade of socialism (or communism, depending on which representative or critic was speaking). It’s almost funny considering that the Soviet Union’s economic system wasn’t really socialist or communist but a form of state capitalism where the ruling capitalists aren’t private owners of everything but bureaucratic members of a regime controlling everything, making workers as ruled from above, voiceless, and possibly exploited at their places of work as in any private ownership style capitalist system. If you research the history of the term socialism you will find that it was created around the idea of democracy in our economy, the workers owning the means of production, not an authoritarian regime acting out as the workers’ alleged representative and thus painting itself as socialist. But I digress…

Proper Tax vs. Iɯdɹodǝɹ ┴ɐx

As the Tax Day is about to hit us over the head or under the belt line again, it makes sense to give a thought or two about how proper or improper our tax system is.

Clearly, lots of people across the political spectrum hate taxes, or at least their own taxes, or would like others to be taxed more, or – in some cases – gladly pay their taxes as a contribution to the society that grants them a civilized life. (I once belonged to the latter group.)

But how many of us have actually thought this through? What our taxes are for and what they could be used for instead?

Since many of us are busy meeting the deadline, I want to keep this article as short as possible, only throwing out a funny historic remembrance and some food-for-thought seeds for our future.  

Political Awakening Video Weekend 04-07-2019 (20 videos) — Biggest Topic: UBI

This weekend’s video collection of political, economic, and societal issues – both problems and their solutions – is mixed with significantly more written commentary than usual, basically merged with an article. The writing is added to tie the clips together and also enhance the understanding they bring. This particular compilation is also dominated by a heavy focus on one big major theme that is growing in popularity and public discourse: the concept of a Universal Basic Income. Here are many of the pros and cons and how a UBI fits into the big picture. Other topics: an ethical society, news on the corporate media, healthcare, Tulsi Gabbard, liberty, whistleblowers (Manning & Assange), top-run dividedness of the people, Venezuela’s economic reality, and a political comedy session.

Topics:

1. UBI: Introduction
2. UBI: Active & Passive Incomes, Taxed or Not
3. UBI: Just Printing Money for a UBI is not the Correct Way
4. UBI: Social Context and Effects of a UBI
5. UBI: A panel discussion with further insights
6. UBI: Here is another pretty good discussion
7. UBI: The UBI-Scam-Worry on the Left
8. UBI: Well Made Point Concerning the Ethics in Our Society
9. Lee Camp Exposes Our Ayn-Rand-Style Corporate Media
10. Healthcare: An American Tourist’s Healthcare Experience in Europe
11. Tulsi Opposes Torture and Regime Change Wars
12. Where is our Freedom Party?
13. Talk: Chelsea Manning, Grand Juries, College, Mega Corporate Non-Free Market
14. Our History: The Divided Poor Utilized by the Rich
15. World, Corrupticians, & Media: Backstabbing Assange
16. World: Venezuela’s Economic Crisis Explained
17. Comedy: Jimmy, Graham, Ron, Stef…

Political Awakening Video Weekend 03-30-2019 (12 videos)

Once more an enlightening video compilation so we can spend time on our weekend to educate ourselves for desirable change rather than letting ourselves be dumbed down by the corporate media. Enjoy!

Topics:

1. Society: The Crippling Corporate Culture
2. Isms: Socialism vs Fascism
3. Corruption: Law Run by the Thieves – The ‘Big Four’
4. Revolutionary History: What to learn from the Bolsheviks
5. Unions: Top Middle-Class Unionizing Against its Decline
6. News: U.S. Election Rigging, Venezuela, Yellow Vests, Social Media Censorship
7. Media: ‘The Cleaners’ Who Scrub Social Media
8. World: U.S. Sabotage of Venezuelan Power Plant?
9. Capitalism: Greed Ends the Age of Antibiotics
10. Change: Government is a Tool
11. Democracy: Our Fraudulent Elections
12. A Good Life for All: The Citizen Dividend (a.k.a. UBI)

 

I. Society: The Crippling Corporate Culture

Here is an old, yet outstanding, speech by Chris Hedges. It’s from April 3, 2013. If you are certain to have heard most of this before and are short on time, you may fast forward to 1:05:32 where his wrap-up starts and hits hard: https://youtu.be/KJ9nvAX-S1g?t=3932 Otherwise, here the clip starts from the beginning:

(Note: If the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Chris Hedges – America from the Outside – How the World sees US – 2013”)