Political Awakening Video Weekend 08-05-2018 (14 videos)

In this weekend’s video compilation, Paul Jay, Leo Panitch, Amy Goodman, Thomas Frank, Thom Hartmann, Chris Hedges, Barrett Brown, Stacy Herbert, Max Keiser, Aaron Maté, Stephen Cohen, Richard Wolff, The Rational National, Jimmy Dore and others go into astute System Analysis and discuss topics like Obama & Clinton Crap, the Putin Panic, cruel capitalism, climate change and its denial and anti-science-propaganda, Healthcare for All, the idiocy of the well-to-do, and how we can freak them out (real FUNNY!!!), and the deathblow to investigative journalism. (sorry for the delay, I was sick)  

Video Weekend 01-20-2018 (5 Videos & Commentaries)

… in 4 categories:

1. The Money Monsters (hedge fund politics and more)
2. Russia, Russia, Russia! (instilling some reality)
3. Celebrity Politics (lets take off the blinders)
4. Moving Forward (good strategy wins)

 

I. The Money Monsters

Money “Making” Money (in reality siphoning it away from those who earn it). The super-rich taking from the rich and turning our government into their puppet. A little explanation of index funds and the hedge fund scam, plus an additional little insight into the current tax “reform” gift to the rich:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Warren Buffett Wins $1 Million Bet That Hedge Funds Are a Rip-Off “)

 

How the Predatory Capitalists Crashed the World Economy. What’s sadly funny is that the makers of this documentary in 2011 still thought the mortgage banksters and Wall Street predators who with their self-enriching criminal gambles crashed the world economy and robbed millions of working people of their homes, jobs, and careers – in other words their chance at a tolerable life – were about to be held accountable:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “The men who crashed the world“)

 

II. Russia, Russia, Russia!

Some real info about Russia:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “American Journalist In Russia Tells Truth About RT“)

Note: 21:22 min in, a great point is made. Namely, if the Russian political elite had really wanted to boost Trump’s candidacy in 2016, all they would have had to do is publicize what they know about the Clinton’s uranium deal with them. No need for them to hack into the DNC’s emails to commit the oh so horrible “election hacking” of revealing important truths to the public. That was clearly done by others. Plus, the Russian political elite doesn’t care who’s in office in the U.S. because it won’t make a difference since ALL U.S. governments, R or D, have been hostile to them.

 

III. Celebrity Politics

For most people, politics has always been about particular personalities in politics. Not for me. I prefer to look at the big picture, find the faults, and design strategies to fix them. However, sometimes it is useful to review what the corporate politicians do to us and remove their false halos:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Obama Chose Wall St. Over Main St. – Thomas Frank on RAI (8/9) “)

Thomas Frank is someone with whom I don’t agree under the bottom line. He stays faithful to the treacherous “Democratic” Party, and he even endorsed Hillary if I recall correctly, an attitude which in my opinion misses the point that we will only go further down the drain if ALL the main parties (currently two) keep betraying the people, our country, and world to the robber billionaires because they can keep doing so as long as we keep playing into their hands.

It’s not some kind of impractical “purity” stance by me, when I insist we must create a new major party (or coalition of parties) to represent us. Rather, it’s an external pressure strategy combined with a fallback strategy. And it is also the simple reality on the ground, meaning it’s happenng and won’t just go away.

This strategy is not really in conflict with attempts to take over this duopoly party by flooding the base, either. In my opinion, it is a mistake to learn nothing from the past and continue to let any of the current two major parties get away with endless corruption and treason just because of many long years of habitual allegiance and unjustified trust in them. The time for such naiveté is over!

We are too close to the cliff now, to let corrupted politicians push us ever closer to it or – as has become ever more common in this century – sell us out at a rate that can only be described as a frantic fire-sale. We can’t expect different results by doing the same thing. We can’t expect the crooks in politics to go away if we give a pass to those crooks who rule a party we think we can take over. Taking over a party must include outing the crooks in it. And historically, it has always required massive pressure from outside the party, as well. Study up on what pressured FDR into going for the New Deal. Established political parties don’t change when the crooks running them feel assured that voters have nowhere else to go. Hillary and her machine were a blatant example of that attitude, as are Tom Perez and the lingering corporatist elite in the “Democratic” Party. They want their corporate money and figure we are helpless. Let’s prove them wrong!

 

IV. Moving Forward

Thoughts about breaking the corrupt party duopoly:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “People’s Party Founder Nick Brana, Live! Paradise Or Oblivion!?”)

Great points:

1. 57:15 min: “What’s the U.S. mission statement? ”
2. 1:43:38: “People get so normalized into the way the world is that they have a hard time seeing what it could be. In a weird way, they believe that society is organized in a natural way. They believe that the way we are organized is the natural way to organize. … No, these were policy choices that people made to advantage themselves while disadvantaging others. And all these policy choices can be changed. ”

Election Integrity:

I really do wonder why so many Americans seem to be so sold on electronic voting or electronic vote counts, and that in the face of massive election fraud in our country, a good deal of which made possible because of our electronic voting and vote counting. In other countries, much greater election integrity exists because they count votes by hand at the polling stations in the public and with opposing party members double-checking (recounting) each others’ counts. Simple and solid. The only chance of tampering exists up-chain in the count reporting. As long as that is handled in a transparent way, there can be no tampering with the cast votes.

So, why does Nick Brana seem to like block chain voting which is toted as a means of more tamper-proof electronic voting? Maybe because the American public isn’t yet ready to ban electronic voting and vote counting like, for example, Europe has done? Maybe he is looking forward to greater citizen participation in decision making by letting us all vote on issues rather than leaving them to corruptible delegates? The latter is something I toy with. I just don’t yet know if it can be done in ways that (A) eliminate tampering and (B) maintain voter anonymity. It’s another thing to research in the future. One question in my mind: can block chain voting really be transparent?

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Video Weekend 7-22-2017: Amazing Portents Some Years Back — Moyers, Bernie, Obama, Trump, NAFTA, Clintons, TPP, Drones, and More…

Sometimes it is useful to look a few years back to see where we and our conversation were back then and compare it with now. Which predictions came true? Which hopes were dashed? And which topics that were taboo are finally on the table? It gives us an idea of the process of change and the trends we are in, as opposed to the mere momentary snapshot we usually see every day. From this we can better tell how to move forward. Here are three astoundingly great episodes, three one-hour classics, of Moyers & Company, which can open our eyes a little more:

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(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Moyers & Company Show 141:Plutocracy Rising”)

Quotes (with comments):

Moyers: “Income inequality has soared to the highest level since the great depression, with the top 1% taking 93% of the income earned in the first year of the recovery.”

Chrystia Freeland: “Thirty-seven percent of the recovery went to the top 0.01 percent.” (That’s one in a hundred of them, the 1% of the 1%!)

Bill Clinton (according to Matt Taibbi): “You can’t attack these people [the super rich] for their success.” (Success?!? What success is it when you are born rich, as most of those at the top of our dunghill were? And how laudable is the success of those few who clawed themselves to the top of the dunghill by robbing the rest of us, just like the dynastic forebears of the born-rich ripped off our forebears?)

We must get over this idea that has been hammered into our heads that, if we are poor, we deserve to be poor and that the rich deserve to be rich. We were all born alike, bringing nothing but ourselves to this world; and none of us created the horribly unjust wealth distribution system of our lopsided economy and money market. This injustice machine grew over many generations through vile acts of crooks and goons who passed their loot, their advantage, and their abominable methods of screwing everyone else, on to their descendants. This created dynasties of economic and political aristocracy who keep doing everything in their power to uphold the vast wealth and income inequality that ruins the lives of almost all human beings, and even hurts the rich themselves — to some degree in their prime when they, for example, have to deal with gold diggers — but most especially as they get old and the biological curse with which we are all born comes to haunt them as it haunts all of us: with death of loved ones, with our own advancing decrepitude, and with our own death after just a few decades spent on Earth.

Why do I mention this biological curse? I do so because it is something that – in our scientific and technological society – we actually can do something about; but we won’t if we only keep spending our energies in a never-ending class war that – in contrast to what the corporate media’s propaganda machine keeps telling us – was never started at the bottom. It always started at the top, when crooks and goons began grabbing everything in their sights and ripping everybody off through either violent force or devious economic rip-off schemes, many of which we have become so accustomed to that we don’t even question their legitimacy anymore, although we darn well should!

Chrystia Freeland: “So, you know, if you want my dystopia scenario for the United States, it is that America’s moving into a more Latin American structure of the economy.” (Banana republic, anyone?)

The funny thing about the “good” plutocrats and the “bad” plutocrats (with each plutocrat always seeing himself as on of the “good” plutocrats) is this: Sure, some of them built their huge companies from scratch, but — putting aside that they usually started out with a head start in life plus friendly help from all sides that most of us never get — there remains the often overlooked fact that they didn’t do it alone! Just as no general has ever won a battle alone (he gave the orders, but his soldiers did the actual fighting!), no Bill Gates or Steve Jobs built his company alone! They were helped by all those who worked for them and didn’t even remotely get a similarly sized share.

In the 1950’s the top tax rate (for the richest of the rich) was 91% while today they pay a lower rate (15% max) than the working everyday Americans like you and me! Let that sink in! And that’s ignoring the rampant tax evasion at the top of our dungheap society!

The government hasn’t been doing its job which our founders defined in no uncertain terms when they demanded it “promote the general Welfare.”

The story of Russia, where – after the end of the Soviet Union – a division of its people into poor and rich was created instantly (by giving all the formerly state-owned companies to a few privileged folks, mostly former KGB officials) is really no different from what created our own dungheap society, only faster. In both cases we are looking at a self-perpetuating division into rich and poor through a never-ending chain of distorted property and economic rigging.

The carried interest tax break, by the way, explains why working in an investment firm is the lower rung on the ladder leading up to the divine world of plutocracy for those who covet wealth and live for money rather than for human values, and who unsurprisingly threat their fellow human beings accordingly.

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And here is a really interesting parallel to our current fight for Net Neutrality, and a chance to meet Bernie Sanders in a Bill Moyers interview a few years ago. And then, fascinating to compare, an interview with a former Republican congressman who is disgusted by what his party has become.

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Moyers & Company Show 148: Bernie Sanders on Big Media’s Power Play”)

Déjà vu: As with Free Speech on the Internet (usually called Net Neutrality), the FCC, with its boss imposed from above by corrupt presidents, acts as the enemy of the people trying to consolidate control of news and communications in the hands of a few billionaires. And obviously the FCC learned from the resistance back then since its current poll taking is utterly hacked.

As Bernie said in the interview, one way for officials to betray the public to the robber billionaires is to be moving quickly, quietly, and secretly. Doesn’t this remind you of the Trumpcare bill this year?

Consider this insanity: One out of four corporations in America doesn’t pay a nickel in taxes, but if I should try to make my living as a tutor selling my time to help students graduate from school, I’d have to pay business taxes on top of my income tax making my tax burden even higher!

And then the interview of Marvin Henry “Mickey” Edwards, a former Republican congressman, who – seeing our political system sink ever deeper into corruption – wrote a book titled: “The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans”

Watching this video, I can’t help but think that both Bernie and this life-long self-identified conservative (a former Republican congressman, at that!) might both agree with me that the political fight we must wage is neither “right” against “left”, nor “left” against “right”, but the people against public enemy #1: the political corruption and plutocracy ruling, squeezing, and oppressing us from atop the dungheap society they have created. Americans who have been traditionally grouped into the “Democrat” and GOP camps, disdaining or hating each other, should actually be able to unite and fight together for the America we both want, putting aside our comparatively minor differences in a struggle for justice and liberty for all.

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Here is yet another flashback to a few years ago, from back when basically none of us knew about the TPP, yet. Also, Bill Moyers exposed the inhumanity of our drone war which many of us are still innocently ignorant about. You really shouldn’t miss this recorded episode:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Moyers & Company Show 148: Bernie Sanders on Big Media’s Power Play”)

In conclusion, I think we can all see here that we have come quite some way in just a few years. Back then, only some were aware of Obama’s and Trump’s corruption. The TPP was still an unknown in the public mind. Yet the people participating on the Moyers & Company Show predicted or foreshadowed much of what we have woken up to — even the idea that our traditional political party divide is a thing of the past that we should leave behind to unite as Americans for a just and fair America with good lives for all. Some voices are always worth listening to.

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Who Is More Corrupt: Trump, Clinton or Obama? Surprising Answer! (Jimmy Dore)

A nice video for this weekend, if you haven’t seen it already — or perhaps even if you have:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Who Is More Corrupt: Trump, Clinton or Obama? Surprising Answer!”)

What Really Are or Aren’t Progressives

Different people have a wide range of notions as to what makes a progressive. Especially people warped by right-wing media often have an upside-down misconception which sees progressives as liberals and liberals as neoliberals, in other words: the very opposite of progressives. Even progressive-minded people are sometimes so confused, they don’t know they are progressives and perceive the term as a red flag.

Hillary Would Have Been WORSE For Us Than Trump

Let’s be honest. The “Democratic” and Republican Party are not extremes of one another! They are almost identical! No true alternatives, at all. And the same goes for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Yes, you read correctly. They all screw us (the American working class people) to enrich themselves and their wealthy cronies. And, there is at least one very critically reason why Hillary would have been actually worse than Trump!

Jamarl Thomas, an unusually smart video blogger who I rate highly, gave a very sharp analysis arguing that the confused ones among us should stop, once and for all, to perpetuate the canard that Hillary would have been better than Trump in the Oval Office. In fact, the exact opposite is true! The very sensible argumentation comes from someone situated on what we, in America, traditionally consider the political “left,” a term which in the past was synonymous with the “Democratic” Party, but today is anything but that. Listen or read (or do both). It’s well worth it.

Here is the video, and below it my own summary and commentary:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Verdict Segment. Is Hillary Clinton the Lesser Evil? For Once and For all, NO!”)

Video Weekend 5/28/2017: Bernie Sanders and Jimmy Dore on Fire

Best recent videos for you weekend pleasure…

1.) Recently, Bernie ripped the new budget:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Bernie Sanders SLAMS mick Mulvaney Trumps Budget plan, estate taxes”)

2.) Jimmy Dore on the dishonesty of our corporate mass media, the formerly “free” press, the so-called 4th estate which was supposed to keep a watch on governmnet for us. The case exposed: The Washington Post

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Washington Post Caught Blatantly Lying To Their Readers Yet Again”)

3.) Noam Chomsky agrees with Jimmy Dore and me (and you?) on the reprehensible election rigging of the 2016 “Democratic” primaries:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Chomsky’s Comments Give Support For DNC Lawsuit”)

4.) Jimmy Dore on our plutocrats’ horrible arms deals with the Saudi-Arabian terror regime (and thus ISIS, as well):

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Saudi Arms Deal Exposes Obama Administration’s Jaw Dropping Hypocrisy”)

As always, you are invited to comment below, and if you agree that the dishonesty of our corporate mass media is a problem, you can help independent media like this one, perhaps the only way to keep us all informed and the ideas flowing.

Trump’s First Hundred Days of War Crimes | CounterPunch

CounterPunch Magazine tends to have good articles. The just published Trump’s First Hundred Days of War Crimes is far more worth reading than the title suggests, as it is not yet another insincere resist-Trump-to-distract-us-from-the-source-of-our-problems “news” piece or op-ed.

Great Interview of Jimmy Dore by Tim Black: THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY!

Jimmy Dore and Tim Black are two great figures in the alternative media. When guys like these talk together, it’s always awesome:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY! Jimmy Dore (Full Show)”)

Remember, you can sponsor these guys… and since a few days ago, you can sponsor this blog and me, too. 😉

Video Weekend 3/30/2017: Some Videos for your Sunday Pleasure

Hello, friends. If you have enough of a life (or perhaps too little of a life left by your money-making work) to vet a lot of videos yourself, but you’d like to keep the political fire in you burning, here are some decent videos to watch this weekend. My time this weekend was quite short, too, but these videos I don’t regret watching:

Obama is the new Bill Clinton, making LOADSSSSS of money from his just finished presidency:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Obama Gives Finger To Country—Takes $400K From Wall Street”)

I wonder, is Obama really going to be this valuable as a future influencer for the banksters, or are they just paying him now for the favors he did for them during his presidency?