Here is the recording of an incredible speech held by one of our political rulers:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Israel Lobby Doesn’t Want Al Jazeera to Spill its Secrets”)
So… according to Chuck Schumer, I could appoint myself dictator of the United States by inventing a religion whose holy book declares me the owner of America. My almighty God gave me the lands of our – uhm, no, my – nation as a gift, and therefore all of you must unquestioningly serve me from now on, accept any kind of horrible treatment I subject you to, allow me to drive you from your homes into exile, and you must not dare to complain because it’s all fair and square and justified by my holy scripture. Done deal. I win. You lost. And all nations of Earth must support me in this.
Independent media have come under all sorts of attack by the establishment which doesn’t want us to tell you the truth or strategies to make things better. There are smear attacks and criminalization, online censorship through the elimination of Net Neutrality, as well as online revenue defunding schemes you certainly have heard about. Let’s spend a few minutes on this issue. I’ll mostly let two well-known youtubers do the talking.
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Progressive YouTubers Are In Danger…Do You Care?”)
Heap limitless money on the already rich with one hand (including by financing genocide and mass murder abroad) and claw away spending on the people (including those in desperate need) with the other. That’s our current governing system, and too many regular Americans are still way too OK with it, voting for and supporting the kinds of thugs (from both major parties!) who do this (one of the two major parties usually acting as the enabler for the other):
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Bernie Sanders Spars With Mick Mulvaney Over Trump’s Immoral Budget “)
Can you see now why it is so important to support independent media like this site any way you can so that sanity may spread among the people which must wake up of its stupor and blind trust to corrupt politicians and oust them from their thrones? Please help this site (and others like it) anyway you can. One way that won’t cost you anything is to share links to our articles and videos in your social media. Thanks for helping us all get out of our dark and rotten hole.
This weekend video compilation spans a bow from a look at the mentality of the rich, through system analysis and news, to principles for a good world, and even some music. Sorry for being so late. I have been very sick. But hopefully, the idea of better late then never still applies.
Justification of Inequality at the Top (interviewing the rich)
Some System Analysis (Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky…)
The Jimmy Dore Show (Commented News)
Homage to Immigration (achievements and… music)
I. Justification of Inequality at the Top
In case I soon start my mini-series on the mindset and lifestyles of the rich (important because they determine how most of our resources are spent), here is an interesting piece on interviews held with rich people and their self-perceived morality:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Does Being Rich Change Your BRAIN?! “)
II. Some System Analysis
Long interview of Noam Chomsky by Chris Hedges telling about the advent of wage slavery among other things:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Chris Hedges (Jan 31, 2018) – interviews Noam Chomsky, The Best Speech Of All Time “)
Mental awakening beginning to happen in liberal communities:
The revelations of this investigative reporter on our current kakistocracy (government by the worst) are in themselves worth hearing about, but I was also intrigued by the verbal arm wrestling in the Q&A section (the last third of the video), as it indicates an awakening among the traditionally self-satisfied liberal Dems that has made them drink the “Democratic” Party’s Kool-Aid as eagerly as the Republican constituency has been drinking theirs.
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “David Cay Johnston, “It’s Even Worse Than You Think”“)
The constantly overlooked but very important gentry in our plutocracy:
Thinking about the issues presented shines a light on the fact that the nature of our inequality and the suffering it causes for so many is systemic, making it necessary for us to analyze the flaws of our system and fix the system to be good for everybody. Having built less wealth and income inequality built into our system, would do wonders:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “How the upper middle class keeps everyone else out “)
Good point: Upward mobility is one side of a coin the other of which is downward mobility. The elitists’ mantra that all we need is more upward mobility opportunities has always been flat-out wrong (to the point of making me suspect flat-out lying). You don’t help a huge section of underpaid people by giving them a better chance at rising into the privileged layers of our societal pyramid because it will force the same number of people down from those privileged layers. The true fix is to make all layers good to live in.
Along these lines goes the next video:
A Just Society:
Too bad this video has a loop problem at 12:08 min in, but the stated principles should be taken to heart by all of us:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Nick Brana On Our Potential As a Society With Jamarl Thomas Part 3 “)
To dig deeper into the woman tossed from a hospital in a gown, check out last week’s Video Weekend, where the multi-layered systemic forces coming into play in such cases are revealed.
III. The Jimmy Dore Show (Commented News)
We may be winning Net Neutrality faster than expected:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Bombshell: Montana Implements Net Neutrality – Cable Companies Are Scared “)
Dems, the enablers:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Democrats DOUBLE CAVE On DACA! Trump Mocks Them “)
Dems standing up for their wealthy donors against the people:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Democrat Stuns CNN Host With Her Stupidity”)
And since we have once again come across the topic of mistreatment of immigrants and those with human ties to them, here is an homage to them:
IV. Homage to Immigration
The benefits America has had from immigration have always been huge. Irish built our canals. Chinese built our railroads. Germans, Poles, and Italians built and worked many of our factories. But there are more benefits than the massive labor and the young, healthy hands that the rest of us need when we age. There is also the cultural enrichment, whether it be in cuisine, music, or all the other arts (the man seen by many as the Father of Science Fiction was a an immigrant from Luxembourg).
Also not to overlook: many immigrants have seen the horrors of tyrannies and bring their own experiences with political struggles. They value a just society. The very man who took full advantage of people’s power to lead the movement for consumer protections that we benefit from every day, and who in his day became a widely celebrated American hero (now heavily smeared as a vote spoiler by our establishment) was the child of immigrants, from the MIDDLE EAST, at that! Under our current administration his parents might never have been let in; or if he had been born a little earlier he might have been deported as a Dreamer if his parents didn’t do all the paperwork correctly. That’s how fickle our immigration laws have become. The man I mentioned is Ralph Nader, by the way.
But now a look at the political culture of Hispanic America:
The revolutionary hymn from Chile (not of the war of independence from Spain which only freed the Chilean oligarchs) but in the middle of the last century when people’s movements for a good life for all swept across the globe only to be mollified with concessions (and later betrayed) here in the U.S. and Europe, and violently crushed elsewhere (which much help from the U.S. – for shame!). If you don’t understand Spanish, just enjoy the music:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Quilapayún (con Victor Jara) – Plegaria a un labrador”)
Victor Jara was the Chilean combination of the likes of Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger, inspiring and adulated during Chile’s people’s movement. After the U.S.-directed military coup of Pinochet he was dragged from stage and tortured to death. The likewise politically “tarnished” band Quiliapayun which Jara smuggled on stage against the organizers’ will so they could accompany him on this song’s debut, later had to live and work in exile, like other famous Chilean bands as well.
The song is a derivative (or, in the eyes of some, a parody) of the Lord’s Prayer, asking that God finally fulfill his will here on Earth, save the people from their oppressors, and give the people the strength they need for their fight.
Back in those days, the U.S. had its own folk music revival with political activism. Rather than cultivating a mindset of circling the wagons, pull up ladders after us, and excluding fellow members of society’s economic bottom, the idea of solidarity and strength derived from joining forces had not yet been lost. So, Pete Seeger made it a point to adopt Cuba’s revolutionary song and sing it in Spanish(!):
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Guantanamera – sings young Pete Seeger “)
How far have we sunk since then, letting our brains be washed by the corporate mass media working for the oligarchy. And, by the way, when you realize how much Central and South American people have suffered from our Deep State’s imposing one cruel, military dictatorship on them after another, as we – the American people slept through it all with our heads in the sand and lapping up cold-war propaganda – where exactly is our moral standing denying any of them entry? … Just something to mull over, all right?
It is also said to note how our protest songs have deteriorated and become co-opted by now. Hip-hop and rap not only are musical abominations because melody-free recital simply isn’t music, but while they started out with some degree of social protest, now all we here is materialist “gangsta” rap that actually endorses a social system driven by unscrupulous greed, but the recent shift of some protest-type pop-music towards outing sexual abuse is just all too convenient in its timing when the establishment currently wants very badly to distract us from its class war on us. Forget about money in politics and rigged primaries. Forget about us still not having universal healthcare or an economy that works for all of us. Instead let’s have white nativists fight immigrants and women fight men, while the establishment crooks laugh on their way to the bank. Divide and conquer, an old game not to fall for anymore. Guess what? If we had a socially responsible society, such as people like me are fighting for, we could do a lot more to prevent and treat sexual abuse. When looking at the larger picture, the current Me-Too “Movement” is just another astroturfing used by the establishment to divide us, just like the Tea Party “Movement” was.
Let’s fight such ills without letting the establishment use those fights to distract us from the larger fight: the fight for a socially responsible society of a sustainable good life for all!
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Maybe I wrote too much. Too many words. I am still very sick. I just hope I managed to stay coherent. I may take a break tomorrow…
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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:Being an independent media outlet is a lot of work. Please help any way you can. (sharing links to this site is a great, no-cost way to help) :-)
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. 🙂
So, after the Panama Papers, the latest leak, called Paradise Papers, once again reveal how the rich “legally” (but not legitimately!) avoid paying their taxes and make play with their money in even illegal ways, well hidden behind aiding and abetting global institutions. Meanwhile, working Americans are getting squeezed out of their last drop of blood and persecuted like criminals when they have any foreign income, for instance when our jobless economy drives them out of the country or they are married to a foreign spouse.
I. Intro
First, in case you haven’t heard about the recently published Paradise Papers, here is a TV report (sadly with a dubious focus on laying bare even the flimsiest Russian connections to the Trump cabinet, as if we really needed those to realize that practically all current big-time politicians and their Big Money associates are utterly corrupt):
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Paradise Papers: Millions of Leaked Docs Reveal Shady Ties & Tax Evasion by Trump’s Inner Circle”)
When we saw the video recordings of police brutalizing supposed pro-secession voters, we all had the knee-jerk reaction of condemning an anti-democratic Spanish government oppressing an occupied people yearning for freedom. However, as large anti-secession demonstrations by CATALONIANS showed last weekend, the situation in Catalonia isn’t as clear-cut as we outsiders thought.
For one thing, Catalans are split on the issue. In fact, the MAJORITY seems to be AGAINST secession, a.k.a. “independence.” What’s going on in Catalonia, may, in fact, represent a kind of coup supported by a noisy, hate-filled, or even violent minority whipped into action by self-serving, manipulative, dishonest politicians who get themselves cozy elected positions of power and high pay that way. Continue reading →
This weekend’s anti-corporatist, pro-democratic video collection has two parts. The first starts with some news — one on healthcare sabotage, the other on our kleptocracy’s failure to help the hurricane-ravaged U.S. colony Puerto Rico — and then ends with a somewhat humorous bit on a sane view of reality. The second part is about the last element in the unholy trinity of oppression by the 1%: censorship. (The first two elements of this unholy trinity are economic enslavement and political manipulation, and you can read yesterday’s article about those if you haven’t already.) Today, I am adding insights into the third element since censorship is sharply on the rise in America this year.
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Part 1 – News & Miscellaneous Stuff
News: Obamacare Gutted
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Trump Guts Obamacare With Executive Order “)
News: No Help for Puerto Rico
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Where Are Puerto Rico’s Supplies Going? (You’ll Be Shocked!) “)
A word to the wise adapted from a comment made in this interview by New York State Senator Gustavo Rivera, as he explained his motivation for working to help Puerto Rica recover: Let’s never let the mix of sadness, anger, and frustration shut us down!
Sanity:
A cure for Bill Maher? I doubt it. But this one is for a cherished friend of mine:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Russell Brand Educates Bill Maher On Neoliberal Failures “)
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Part 2 – Censorship
Why we need non-US-government-allied foreign media to publish in the U.S.:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “These 5 Censored Books Tell a History the Establishment Wants Hidden “)
…and, what’s worse? Fake news, which will never go away, or censorship?
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Facebook decides censorship is better than fake news “)
… and to draw a line under it:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Punishing Reporters for Truth in a Censored Media | Abby Martin & Amber Lyon “)
… Does anyone need another reason why this is important?
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Abby Martin Discusses Her Arrest At The DNC – The Ring Of Fire “)
Just so you know, our corporate government last month officially permitted US networks censorship of RT (and any other content that is “owned or controlled by the Government of the Russian Federation”). This assault on free speech has been buried deep inside the 2018 defense budget to make it less conspicuous. The oligarchs of today have become very sneaky. They manage to raise their resurrection of the former Soviet iron curtain quietly and in the dark. This is why we need independent media more than ever.
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Independent media are critical!Help us help you!Share articles. Submit guest posts and comments. Help with outreach, operations, or finances (find out more here).Or snatch scientific literacyor the successful passing of science classes from the jaws of defeat in high school or college herewith Beanstock’s help for a mutual win-win!
Defeats happen every once in a while, more often at the start of a struggle than in its later phase. We are still at the start of fixing our corrupted system, so defeats are still common. On Monday, the Senate voted 52-41 to confirm Ajit Pai, the sworn enemy of Net Neutrality (i.e. free speech on the Internet), to another term as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Senate Confirms FCC Chairmen Effectively Killing Net Neutrality “)
This is a disaster that we must not take lying down because Net Neutrality is one of the last, and perhaps the most essential, of hold-outs of democracy in our country. Continue reading →
The media are once again alive with sensationalist news of a dramatic event: a horrible sniper attack on day-to-day Americans at an open air concert, presumably by another day-to-day American acting alone for no known reason — at least 59 reported dead and 527 injured at the time of this writing. As usual, most of the reports flooding the airwaves and Internet contain little of real importance. Titillation rates much higher in the corporate media than substance. Well, here you shall get more: Continue reading →
