This online video compilation for enriching weekend watching presents news and sharp analyses over a wide spectrum of issues, among these: wrongful government spending; oligarchy; disaster capitalism (such as is currently ravaging Puerto Rico); better health in China than the U.S.; burial of the Bernie Bro Myth; the establishment’s smoke and mirrors; the race to the bottom; voting, guns, and healthcare in Australia, and an expert analysis of the “Democratic” Party’s psychology.
I. Government Spending
Bernie speaking in the Senate about “our” government’s blank-check war industry spending ($716 billion – more than the next ten countries combined while always whining about the deficit when it comes to helping American families in trouble):
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Our National Priorities: Endless Defense Spending or Working Families?“)
A comment left on Youtube: »“Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.” Psalms 82:3-4«
Why we “Can’t Afford” Nice Things. When billionaires and their politician shills tell us we can’t afford nice things like healthcare for non-billionaires, it’s not because the government is poor (after all, it spends avishly on the war industry and on tax cuts for the billionaires) but because the billionaires siphon off the government money into their own coffers and they don’t want it to go elsewhere:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Billionaire Says We “Can’t Afford” ‘Medicare for All,’ Bernie Sanders Responds“)
II. Disaster Capitalism
The pillaging of Puerto Rico:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: ““The Battle for Paradise”: New Intercept Doc Goes Inside Struggle over Puerto Rico’s Future“)
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Puerto Rico, “Playground for the Privileged”: Investors Move In as Homes Foreclose & Schools Close“)
III. Empire
Bernie warms up to the fight for a responsible foreign military policy:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Bernie’s Amazing Foreign Policy Smackdown Excites Progressives“)
The U.S. Empire’s heavy hand in Venezuela explained in a nutshell:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “[114] Abby Martin & The Neo-Liberal Plan To Bring Down VenezueIa“)
IV. Bernie Bro Myth
Burial of the Bernie Bro Myth
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “New Poll Completely Demolishes the ‘Bernie Bro’ Myth“)
V. Smoke & Mirrors
Fake Charities and Humanitarian Foundations. The thieving oppressive oligarchs like to make themselves look good with charities and also appease and co-opt people by pretending that organizations are in place that take on humanity’s problems when in reality they only white-wash the oligarchy and its cruel empires. So, is it any wonder that only crowd-funding supports truly helpful organizations, candidates, and alternative media (sadly way too little, in part because of these false flag organizations giving the impression that we underprivileged folks don’t have to sacrifice our few hard-earned dollars)?
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Garry Kasparov Unhinged! – His Human Rights Scam Exposed w/Thor Halvorssen“)
VI. Economy
China now has better health than we do, the race to the bottom with systematic tactics to impoverish working people, and more:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Economic Update: Standing Up“)
VII. Oligarchy
As Bernie Sanders says, this is what oligarchy looks like:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Amazon & Bezos Screw Homeless In Seattle“)
VIII. Elsewhere in the World
Voting, guns, and healthcare in Australia:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “What America can Learn from Australia’s Progressives“)
IX. System Analysis
Today’s America: a system where nobody in power does anything for working people anymore. The disease of the “Democratic” Party:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Frank : “Trump won because Clinton and the Democrats dismissed the concerns of working people””)
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Ending Note:It takes me at least 100 hours of spare time eachmonth to research and write news updates and analyses and work on my book. Please widely share links to these articles, so this work is not for naught. You can alsohelp in other ways(including much needed financial support). Only together can we change this messed-up world. Let’s do it! 🙂
Here, again, is an online video compilation for the weekend to save you from having to waste your little bit of spare time on watching adults chasing balls or accepting the intravenous drip from the propagandist establishment media. It sports a great podium discussion on moving forward from our mess, as well as news and analyses of the mess: for example on how we are getting exploited and betrayed to the extreme, the American poverty nightmare, the issue of people’s lacking awareness and moral standing allowing this mess (and animals showing us the finger), the continued raid on our healthcare, U.S.-conducted world terrorism, a deep system analysis, and a reminder that the universe is lurking in ambush while we fight among each other.
I. Moving Forward
Brilliant Podium Discussion
(from which the title pic above was taken)
A very important point is the abolition of scarcity. In his marvelous speech (starting ~40 min in), Nick Braña points out that, in the past, humans were pitted against each other over limited resources, but modern technology has abolished these outside limits. Soaring inequality is now artificially created by our outdated thuggish system (as I have written before).
Something else that for me lifts Nick Braña to the very top of today’s political activists is his deep understanding of “technology and the pace of modern change” which he addresses in his speech. I have marveled all my life how my fellow humans could be so blind to things like our rapid perfection of surveillance and public mind controlling technologies, automation, and the tension between aging and genetic engineering and gene therapy about to turn our oligarchs into veritable physical gods and condemn the rest of us into permanently huddled masses of the utterly hopeless never again able to revolt against cruelty… Well, he only hints at some of this, but then who is really ready to hear the full scope, yet?
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Left Forum 2018 Session 1 – Independent Power: Towards a Party for Working People“)
Notes:
And, as Nick also points out, the DP is teetering giving this generation of Americans an opportunity to unite for a major new party for working people.
Tim Canova’s speech (following Nick’s) is also great. And he is right in that, by his running independent this year, independent voters, always blocked from (rigged!) “Democratic” primaries are empowered to throw in their weight. They don’t have to ponder whether it’s worth to bother with rubber-stamping establishment-picked “R” or “D” candidates. When we vote independent or third party, we are no longer forced to chose between cholera and gonorrhea.
Great term: Fusion Politics (ignoring party lines, focusing on working people’s needs and violated rights and a genuine way forward)
1:10:55: Nick brings up the 2nd Bill of Rights, which reminds me to remark that ideas like a UBI are just ways of bringing it to pass.
Nick Braña quote:“Our economic and political systems will act as threat multipliers and they will determine whether we fall on the abundance side of that potential given to us by our technology or on the self-annihilation side. If we remain in a conflict driven society characterized by soaring inequality, sweeping deprivation, and sectarian intolerance, the risk of catastrophe will be extreme. Applying our potential to create an abundant and harmonious world is not just a moral imperative, it’s a matter of survival for all of us.”
II. American Nightmare
Today’s American “Dream”: Rich to the Riches, Rags to the Ditch .
These are Facebook videos… so, no hints on how to find them if they get deleted…
III. Where is our Humanity?
Let’s delve into our psychology and compare with our wild cousins…
The biology of fairness, empathy, sympathy, and lack thereof…:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “The Age of Empathy by Frans de Waal“)
Can we really not measure up to our animal cousins?
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “MUST WATCH THIS VIDEO ABOUT ANIMALS HELPING EACH OTHER!!!!“)
The plutocrats have driven much of our compassion and solidarity out of our human society. It’s time we reassert those principles, don’t you agree? It strikes me as a little odd that we tend to call them human or humanitarian principles, even in an age when we have put them aside and are getting shamed by our animal cousins.
And, clearly, I am not the only one thinking this way:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “”Charity Is The Opiate Of Capitalism” – Nellie McKay”)
The interview continues here (discussing Bernie and 2020, among things).
IV. Economy
“Disruptive” Tech as an additional thumb screw and bloodletting on the people:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “How Tech Giants Feed Off Capitalism’s Failures“)
The Mechanism of Rich-and-Poor:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Scumbag Amazon Swimming In Taxpayer Subsidies, Pays Food Stamp Wages“)
Myth and reality:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Are the Rich White Boomers Taking of Millennial Wealth?“)
And the biggest economic unit, our government, which used to spend on us (FDR’s New Deal), today spends on the billionaires instead (who keep telling us that it can’t afford to spend on us):
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Starbucks Billionaire: You Can’t Have Healthcare Or College“)
V. Healthcare
Once again, corrupt politics aims at benefiting the rich (health insurance owners) at the expense (ruin, pain, and death) of non-rich Americans (you and me and our friends and families):
This is, once again, a Facebook-only video, so it has no title which I could use to give clues for searching for it. So, good luck finding a copy if this video gets deleted. (Youtube may be working to skew things on behalf of the establishment, but if one posts videos only on Facebook (which isn’t trustworthy either), then the lack of titles makes deleted or re-pathed videos all the harder to find again, which is why it keeps boggling my mind why certain information sources only or mostly post on Facebook neglecting other ‘tubes’. Also, Facebook video streaming is cumbersome, feature-poor, and buggy on the viewers’ end. Oh, well… Enough of my ranting.)
VI. The Terror Empire
No, it’s not ISIS. It’s the U.Sis:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “~199~ 121 Bombs A Day, Poor People Get Angry, Death Of Local News”)
Also: more on other things like healthcare.
VII. System Analysis
A structural system analysis surely giving a high percentage of listeners a lot to think about if the highly intellectual language presents no barrier. The clip, in so many words, agrees with my regularly made claim that our corrupt politics and lousy lives both derive from our rigged economic system which in turn depends for its continuation on our manipulated mentality that has our perceptions and priorities being all wrong:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Critique: Bernie Sanders “Inequality in America” Town Hall from 3.19.18, by Peter Joseph”)
Comment: Bernie may or may not think this deeply, but – running for office – he naturally has to focus on the things that touch people more unquestioningly (the symptoms) rather than a deep system critique (the causes) which many still struggle to comprehend due to the lifelong system propaganda we have been exposed to (unlike the animals shown earlier).
VIII. The Real World
Why humanity cannot afford a corrupt system:
Nature isn’t friendly. Our primary human defense is sticking together, preparing for disasters, and changing our environment to be more supportive of our lives. When we create and maintain a socio-economic-political system that adds more problems, like our current system does (albeit it also still provides some improvements, e.g. running water and groceries), it’s like we are shooting ourselves in the foot.
As a graphic reminder of nature’s threats, here is footage of people fleeing from a pyroclastic flow belched up by a small volcano in Guatemala last week:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Videos Impactantes Captados Durante La Erupción del Volcán en Guatemala 04/06/2018“)
If the locals were better educated, their government more responsible, and our global society geared towards optimizing human life rather than squeezing and suppressing everybody on behalf of the rich, people might have been evacuated on time or not lived so dangerously close to their active volcano in the first place.
And if you succumb to the idea that we are so much more advanced as a society a thousand miles north here in the U.S., ask yourself did we properly prepare the levees for Hurricane Katrina? Did our government provide proper help after Katrina hit, or did it rather enable corporate raiders to take people’s homes away from them to convert them into money-making investments for the rich? Has our government done anything to help our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico devastated by another big hurricane last year, or is it leaving the door open for disaster capitalism again (a form of vulture capitalism) same as in New Orleans? Is it smart of us to ignore nature’s curses and constantly fight among ourselves because we can’t get our act together and dethrone the pillaging oligarchs and abolish the greed-driven, inhumane, anti-human system they imposed on us generations ago, the system which incentivizes inhumane acts and is ruining our country?
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Ending Note:It takes me at least 100 hours of spare time eachmonth to research and write news updates and analyses and work on my book. Please widely share links to these articles, so this work is not for naught. You can alsohelp in other ways(including much needed financial support). Only together can we change this messed-up world. Let’s do it! 🙂
This weekend’s collection of politically instructive videos not only addresses a variety of issues (more than easily shows in its titles) but also sports a large collection of notables: Chris Hedges, Jimmy Dore, Lee Camp, Abby Martin, Mike Figueredo, and Kyle Kulinski, to name the best known.
Plutocracy and Patient Dumping
The Fight to Retake the “Democratic” Party
Class Warfare, White Male Fury…
The Base of the Far Right
Medicare for All
Tell Tale World Politics
I. Our Toxic Plutocratic Civilization (case: Patient Dumping)
Plutocratic, profit-driven, me-me-me-mentality-polluted societies treat people like commodities and trash:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Video Shows Baltimore Hospital’s ‘Patient Dumping’ | NBC Nightly News”)
Like most of us, when I saw one of the original videos about this case, I was outraged. I also couldn’t help but wonder if it was real or staged. So I searched around and found the mainstream media agreeing that it was real. I asked myself, what were those security guards thinking. Were they thinking of their paycheck and the video games awaiting them at home? Had they been reluctant but ordered by their boss, threatened with being fired? Had the patient been violent endangering hospital staff and other patients?
So, I kept digging and came across this video. It reveals a lot about our broken healthcare system and our broken society on the whole. The bigger picture is always worth looking at. Yes, we should be outraged, but not just at a particular hospital staff dangled before us by people who don’t see the big picture or by media moguls who are only into making money and status from their position on our TVs. Do watch this doctor telling about the big picture and ask yourself if there isn’t indeed a lot more to be outraged about, a lot more needing to be fixed:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “The REAL Story Behind That Baltimore Patient Dumping Video | Incident Report 135”)
II. Update on the Fight to Retake the Democratic Party
Maybe, just maybe, not all hope is lost for a Democratic Wing of the “Democratic” Party. This is a follow-up to Thursday’s article ( The Poisonous Duopoly):
I guess, this year will show how this plays out:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Signs Revolution Happening Inside Democratic Party w/Nomiki Konst “)
Here is another possible indication that corporatist “Democrats” may be breaking, but at the same time it is a reminder to be cautious in believing their smooth talk. Do the actions confirm the words? We have been lied to by forked-tongued politicians before, hence we must keep a close eye on their actions:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Kirsten Gillibrand Names Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren as Leaders of Democrats “)
Comment: Before anybody dissolves in a warm, fuzzy assurance that the “Democratic” Party is about to start representing us (the people) to any extent, please keep in mind that the party bosses will have no reason to buckle unless we have somewhere else to go, meaning a growing people’s movement and coalition that has third parties and independent candidates cooperate with each other and become a strong alternative to the Repucratic-Dempublican duopoly (a.k.a. Twin Party Tyranny). A new party that’s a true people’s party may take some time to build, but a coalition of existing third parties and new parties can produce a powerful people’s voting bloc quite fast, not to forget that independent voters are our largest voting bloc these days. Without the coalition they (just like the twin party lemmings,too) just rarely know who truly deserves their vote. A people’s coalition could do even more than provide an alternative to the duopoly. It could present us with entire cabinets running for office instead of just a single nominee, and it would bring ideas and issues to the table that the duopoly and establishment media have kept taboo. Oh, I can’t wait…
III. MISC
Insights on a mix of subjects:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “[95] Class Warfare, Alienation, & Real Origins Of #MeToo With Dr. Harriet Fraad”)
IV. Societal Cancer: The Unreasonable Far Right
The populist powerhouse of the American fascist right:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Chris Hedges 2018 (Jan 13, 2018) – Abby Martin Trump, Fascism & the Christian Right “)
V. Medicare for All
The healthcare and media war:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Over 1 Million Watch Bernie’s Medicare For All Town Hall, Media Yawns “)
VI. The Media War
The Media wars and more:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Is Rachel Maddow Dangerous To Journalism? W/Abby Martin “)
Oh, dear Abby… more power to your words of citizen journalists and people’s media needing to build each other up and creating networks. Just likewhat I keep saying.
Media war & American Empire:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Abby Martin Exposes Untold History of U.S. Empire”)
An idea just occurred to me. I haven’t been keen on a Trump impeachment because I fear that Mike Pence, taking over from him, will be even worse. The silver lining that just occurred to me is that if those who are working their evil behind Trump’s front would then be more exposed…
VII. World Politics
Thanks to Facebook’s increasing blocking, word of yesterday’s post hasn’t gone out as much as it should. OK, none of our articles here do, but this one was stymied more than past ones. It provides a really important insight into the oligarchy’s trickery, though, and the lies fed us on the corporate mainstream media, so I am reposting the featured video report here:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Smuggled Crisis: Who’s crashing Venezuela’s economy?”)
Have a restful weekend if at all possible, my friends.
APPEAL: I need your help to share links on social media. Facebook is blocking me from sharing them, treating me like a spammer if I share to more than a tiny handful of groups, effectively locking me out of groups I have participated in for years and always been welcome in. It’s getting worse every day. Soon nobody but my few subscribers will know when I publish a post. Please contact me if you wish to join an outreach team over which we can scatter the sharing.
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Ending Note: It takes me at least 100 hours a month to research and write (and draw) for this site and work on my book. If you find value in what I do, please consider becoming a patron and supporting this site with an automatic monthly donation of $1 or more. If you can’t afford this, then don’t, but please share my posts, tell folks about my online course offering, refer others to this site, refer me to paying outlets or companionable fellow blogs, partake in discussion, or contribute articles of your own. Or help my book get out there when it’s finished. Thanks. Only together can we change this world. 🙂
It’s the gist of 2017, but it’s also been true for a very long time. The thing to add is that some thirty years ago the “Democratic” Party joined in this feeding frenzy of the rich upon the poor. The Dems try to save face by sometimes standing up for one or the other safety net program when the Reps are attacking it. However, in the long run, both political gangs are set to steal from the poor to give to the rich. It’s the millionaire minions working for kickbacks from the robber billionaires. And whenever we, the people, turn a blind eye because the current raiders are affiliated with the party we believe to be ours, we enable them.
The below video describes the current raids:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Donald Trump & Republicans Want to Cut Social Safety Net Programs in 2018 “)
