How Do You Take Your Poison?
By Chris Hedges
Truth Dig
September 24, 2012
We will all swallow our cup of corporate poison.
We can take it from nurse Romney, who will tell us not to whine
and play the victim, or we can take it from nurse Obama, who
will assure us that this hurts him even more than it hurts us, but
one way or another the corporate hemlock will be shoved down
our throats.
The choice before us is how it will be administered.
Corporate power, no matter who is running the ward after
January 2013, is poised to carry out U.S. history’s most savage
assault against the poor and the working class, not to mention
the Earth’s ecosystem.
And no one in power, no matter what the bedside manner,
has any intention or ability to stop it.
If you insist on participating in the cash-drenched charade of a
two-party democratic election at least be clear about what you
are doing.
You are, by playing your assigned role as the Democratic or
Republican voter in this political theater, giving legitimacy
to a corporate agenda that means your own impoverishment
and disempowerment.
All the things that stand between us and utter destitution
—Medicaid, food stamps, Pell grants, Head Start, Social Security,
public education, federal grants-in-aid to America’s states and
cities, the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program (WIC),
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and home-delivered
meals for seniors—are about to be shredded by the corporate
state.
Our corporate oligarchs are harvesting the nation, grabbing as
much as they can, as fast as they can, in the inevitable descent.
We will be assaulted this January when automatic spending
reductions, referred to as “the fiscal cliff,” begin to dismantle
and defund some of our most important government programs.
Mitt Romney will not stop it. Barack Obama will not stop it.
And while Romney has been, courtesy of the magazine Mother
Jones, exposed as a shallow hypocrite, Obama is in a class by
himself.
There is hardly a campaign promise from 2008 that Obama has
not broken.
This list includes his pledges to support the public option in health
care, close Guantanamo, raise the minimum wage, regulate Wall
Street, support labor unions in their struggles with employers,
reform the Patriot Act, negotiate an equitable peace between
the Israelis and the Palestinians, curb our imperial expansion
in the Middle East, stop torture, protect reproductive rights,
carry out a comprehensive immigration reform, cut the deficit by
half, create 5 million new energy jobs and halt home foreclosures.
Obama, campaigning in South Carolina in 2007, said that as
president he would fight for the right of collective bargaining.
“I’d put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself, I’ll … walk on that
picket line with you as president of the United States of America,”
he said.
But when he got his chance to put on those “comfortable pair
of shoes” during labor disputes in Madison, Wis., and Chicago
he turned his back on working men and women.
Obama, while promising to defend Social Security, also says he
stands behind the planned cuts outlined by his deficit commission,
headed by Morgan Stanley board member Erskine Bowles and
former Sen. Alan Simpson, a Wyoming Republican.
The Bowles-Simpson plan calls for cutting 0.3 percentage points
from the annual cost-of-living adjustment in the Social Security program.
The annual reduction would slowly accumulate. After a decade it
would mean a 3 percent cut. After two decades it would mean a
6 percent cut.
The retirement age would be raised to 69. And those on Social
Security who continued to work and made more than $40,000
a year would be penalized with further reductions.
Obama’s payroll tax cuts have, at the same time, served to
undermine the solvency of Social Security, making it an easier
target for the finance corporations that seek to destroy the
program and privatize the funds.
But that is just the start.
Cities and states are frantically staving off collapse. They cannot
pay for most pension plans and are borrowing at higher and higher
interest rates to keep themselves afloat.
The country’s 19,000 municipalities face steadily declining or
stagnant property tax revenues, along with spiraling costs.
Annual pension payments for state and local plans more than
doubled to 15.7 percent of payrolls in 2011 from 6.4 percent a
decade ago, according to a study by the Center for Retirement
Research at Boston College.
And local governments, which made some $50 billion in pension
contributions in 2010, face unfunded pension liabilities of
$3 trillion and unfunded health benefit liabilities of more than
$1 trillion, according to The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of
Government.
State and local government spending fell at a rate of 2.1 percent
in the second quarter of this year, according to the Commerce
Department. It was the 11th consecutive quarterly reduction in
expenditures.
And in the past year alone local governments cut 66,000 jobs,
mostly those of teachers and other school employees, reported The
Wall Street Journal, which accumulated this list of grim statistics.
The costs of our most basic needs, from food to education to health
care, are at the same time being pushed upward with no control or regulation.
Tuition and fees at four-year colleges climbed 300 percent
between 1990 and 2011, fueling the college loan crisis that has
left graduates, most of them underemployed or unemployed,
with more than $1 trillion in debt.
Health care costs over the same period have risen 150 percent.
Food prices have climbed 10 percent since June, according to the
World Bank. There are now 46.7 million U.S. citizens, and one in
three children, who depend on food stamps.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency under
Obama has, meanwhile, expelled 1.5 million immigrants, a number
that dwarfs deportations carried out by his Republican predecessor.
And while we are being fleeced, the Treasury Department and
Federal Reserve Bank has since 2008 doled out $16 trillion to
national and global financial institutions and corporations.
Fiscal implosion is only a matter of time. And the corporate state
is preparing.
Obama’s assault on civil liberties has outpaced that of George W.
Bush.
The refusal to restore habeas corpus, the use of the Authorization
to Use Military Force Act to justify the assassination of U.S.
citizens, the passing of the FISA Amendments Act to monitor and
eavesdrop on tens of millions of citizens without a warrant, the
employment of the Espionage Act six times to threaten whistle-
blowers inside the government with prison time, and the
administration’s recent emergency appeal of U.S. District Judge
Katherine Forrest’s permanent injunction of Section 1021(b)(2)
of the National Defense Authorization Act give you a hint of the
shackles the Democrats, as well as the Republicans, intend to
place on all those who contemplate dissent.
But perhaps the most egregious assault will be carried out by
the fossil fuel industry.
Obama, who presided over the repudiation of the Kyoto Accords
and has done nothing to halt the emission of greenhouse gases,
reversed 20 years of federal policy when he permitted the
expansion of fracking and offshore drilling.
And this acquiescence to big oil and big coal, no doubt useful
in bringing in campaign funds, spells disaster for the planet.
He has authorized drilling in federally protected lands, along the
East Coast, Alaska and four miles off Florida’s Atlantic beaches.
Candidate Obama in 2008 stood on the Florida coastline and
vowed never to permit drilling there.
You get the point.
Obama is not in charge. Romney would not be in charge.
Politicians are the public face of corporate power. They are
corporate employees.
Their personal narratives, their promises, their rhetoric and
their idiosyncrasies are meaningless.
And that, perhaps, is why the cost of the two presidential
campaigns is estimated to reach an obscene $2.5 billion.
The corporate state does not produce a product that is
different. It produces brands that are different.
And brands cost a lot of money to sell.
You can dismiss those of us who will in protest vote for a third-
party candidate and invest our time and energy in acts of civil
disobedience.
You can pride yourself on being practical.
You can swallow the false argument of the lesser of two evils.
But ask yourself, once this nightmare starts kicking in, who the
real sucker is.
Chris Hedges, spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent
in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He
has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The
Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning
News and The New York Times.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/how_do_you_take_your_
poison_20120924/?ln
Monday, September 24, 2012
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Mitt Tells the Truth
Mitt Tells the Truth
By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
Common Dreams
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Like everyone else, we watched the movie of the week – that clandestine video from Mitt Romney’s fundraiser in Florida.
Thanks to that anonymous cameraperson, we now have a record of what our modern day, wealthy gentry really thinks about the rest of
us -- and it’s not pretty.
On the other hand, it’s also not news.
If you had reported as long as some of us have on winner-take-all politics and the unenlightened assumptions of the moneyed class, you wouldn’t find the remarks of Romney and his pals all that exceptional.
The resentment, disdain, and contempt with which they privately view those beneath them are an old story.
In fact, the video’s reminiscent of our first Gilded Age, back in the late 19th century.
The celebrated New York dandy Frederick Townsend Martin summed it up when he declared, “We are the rich. We own America. We got it, God knows how, but we intend to keep it.”
And so they do, as that glitzy gathering in Florida reminds us. You could see and hear one of the guests ask Mitt Romney what they
could do to help.
The governor answers, “Frankly, what I need you to do is to raise millions of dollars, because the president’s going to have about
$800 to $900 million. And that’s – that’s by far the most important
thing you could do."
He’s being truthful there, because money rules these campaigns.
And if there were more secret videos from other candidates, we would see them in equally compromised positions, bowing and scraping in their infernal pursuit of campaign cash, bending over backwards to suffer the advice that the privileged think their
money entitles them to give.
And we mean both parties.
Not far from us the other night, at a Manhattan fundraiser hosted
by Jay-Z and Beyoncé, President Obama joked, “If somebody here
has a $10 million check -- I can’t solicit it from you, but feel free
to use it wisely.”
At least we think he was joking -- Obama and Romney alike now shape their schedules as much around moneymaking events as rallies and town halls.
Even though a state may be a lost cause when it comes to votes, if there’s money to be made they’ll change the campaign jet’s flight plan and make a special landing, just for the cold hard cash.
This is a racket, plain and simple.
A new report from Moody’s Investor Service says that all that
spending by the parties, corporations, Super PACs and other
outside groups will push political ad spending up this year by
half a billion dollars -- 25 percent higher than 2010 – the biggest
increase in history.
That prompted the CEO of CBS, Leslie Moonves, to lick his chops
and tell an investors conference last December,“There’s going
to be a lot of money spent. I’m not saying that’s the best thing
for America, but it’s not a bad thing for the CBS Corporation.”
Yes, the media giants and the TV stations they own are in on
the racket.
So are all those highly paid political consultants who as part of
their fees skim a percentage of the cost of local TV airtime,
usually around ten percent.
The pickings are better than ever, thanks to all the dark money being thrown around since the Citizens United decision.
One Democratic consultant has called it “the greatest windfall
that ever happened for political operatives in American history.”
You bet it is: By the time the primaries were over this year, the
top 150 political and media consultants already had raked in an
estimated $465 million – or more.
When Election Day finally rolls around, chances are that number will have at least doubled.
So we can’t stop reporting on this, even though we’re often told:
“Please change the subject. Everyone’s tired of this one.”
Don’t be so sure.
There’s a groundswell for rooting the money out of politics, as Americans come to see that this is the one reform that enables
all other reforms.
Two polls released in the last few days report large majorities
as many as eight in ten – are in favor of clamping down on the
amount of money that corporations, the super-rich, and those shadowy outside groups are pouring into the campaigns.
It’s up to all of us to put a sign on every lawn and stoop in the land:
“Democracy is not for sale.”
Journalist Bill Moyers is the host of the new show Moyers & Company, a weekly series of smart talk and new ideas aimed at helping viewers make sense of our tumultuous times through the insight of America’s strongest thinkers.
Michael Winship, senior writing fellow at Demos and president of
the Writers Guild of America, East, is senior writer of the new public television series Moyers & Company, premiering in January 2012.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/09/22
By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
Common Dreams
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Like everyone else, we watched the movie of the week – that clandestine video from Mitt Romney’s fundraiser in Florida.
Thanks to that anonymous cameraperson, we now have a record of what our modern day, wealthy gentry really thinks about the rest of
us -- and it’s not pretty.
On the other hand, it’s also not news.
If you had reported as long as some of us have on winner-take-all politics and the unenlightened assumptions of the moneyed class, you wouldn’t find the remarks of Romney and his pals all that exceptional.
The resentment, disdain, and contempt with which they privately view those beneath them are an old story.
In fact, the video’s reminiscent of our first Gilded Age, back in the late 19th century.
The celebrated New York dandy Frederick Townsend Martin summed it up when he declared, “We are the rich. We own America. We got it, God knows how, but we intend to keep it.”
And so they do, as that glitzy gathering in Florida reminds us. You could see and hear one of the guests ask Mitt Romney what they
could do to help.
The governor answers, “Frankly, what I need you to do is to raise millions of dollars, because the president’s going to have about
$800 to $900 million. And that’s – that’s by far the most important
thing you could do."
He’s being truthful there, because money rules these campaigns.
And if there were more secret videos from other candidates, we would see them in equally compromised positions, bowing and scraping in their infernal pursuit of campaign cash, bending over backwards to suffer the advice that the privileged think their
money entitles them to give.
And we mean both parties.
Not far from us the other night, at a Manhattan fundraiser hosted
by Jay-Z and Beyoncé, President Obama joked, “If somebody here
has a $10 million check -- I can’t solicit it from you, but feel free
to use it wisely.”
At least we think he was joking -- Obama and Romney alike now shape their schedules as much around moneymaking events as rallies and town halls.
Even though a state may be a lost cause when it comes to votes, if there’s money to be made they’ll change the campaign jet’s flight plan and make a special landing, just for the cold hard cash.
This is a racket, plain and simple.
A new report from Moody’s Investor Service says that all that
spending by the parties, corporations, Super PACs and other
outside groups will push political ad spending up this year by
half a billion dollars -- 25 percent higher than 2010 – the biggest
increase in history.
That prompted the CEO of CBS, Leslie Moonves, to lick his chops
and tell an investors conference last December,“There’s going
to be a lot of money spent. I’m not saying that’s the best thing
for America, but it’s not a bad thing for the CBS Corporation.”
Yes, the media giants and the TV stations they own are in on
the racket.
So are all those highly paid political consultants who as part of
their fees skim a percentage of the cost of local TV airtime,
usually around ten percent.
The pickings are better than ever, thanks to all the dark money being thrown around since the Citizens United decision.
One Democratic consultant has called it “the greatest windfall
that ever happened for political operatives in American history.”
You bet it is: By the time the primaries were over this year, the
top 150 political and media consultants already had raked in an
estimated $465 million – or more.
When Election Day finally rolls around, chances are that number will have at least doubled.
So we can’t stop reporting on this, even though we’re often told:
“Please change the subject. Everyone’s tired of this one.”
Don’t be so sure.
There’s a groundswell for rooting the money out of politics, as Americans come to see that this is the one reform that enables
all other reforms.
Two polls released in the last few days report large majorities
as many as eight in ten – are in favor of clamping down on the
amount of money that corporations, the super-rich, and those shadowy outside groups are pouring into the campaigns.
It’s up to all of us to put a sign on every lawn and stoop in the land:
“Democracy is not for sale.”
Journalist Bill Moyers is the host of the new show Moyers & Company, a weekly series of smart talk and new ideas aimed at helping viewers make sense of our tumultuous times through the insight of America’s strongest thinkers.
Michael Winship, senior writing fellow at Demos and president of
the Writers Guild of America, East, is senior writer of the new public television series Moyers & Company, premiering in January 2012.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/09/22
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
America Come Home
It Is Time For All People of Conscience To Call America
To Come Home
By Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Jesse's Crossroads Cafe
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question
the fairness and justice of many of our present policies.
On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan
on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act.
One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must
be changed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten
and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway.
True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar.
A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring
contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation.
It will look across the seas and see individual capitalists
of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa,
and South America, only to take the profits out with no
concern for the social betterment of the countries, and
say, "This is not just."
It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America
and say, "This is not just."
The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach
others and nothing to learn from them is not just.
A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and
say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just."
This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our
nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous
drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending
men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped
and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom,
justice, and love...
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on
military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching
spiritual death.
We are presently moving down a dead-end road that can lead to
national disaster.
America has strayed to the far country of racism and militarism.
The home that all too many Americans left was solidly structured
idealistically; its pillars were solidly grounded in the insights of
our Judeo-Christian heritage.
All men are made in the image of God.
All men are brothers.
All men are created equal.
Every man is an heir to a legacy of dignity and worth.
Every man has rights that are neither conferred by, nor derived
from the State--they are God-given.
Out of one blood, God made all men to dwell upon the face of
the earth.
What a marvelous foundation for any home! What a glorious
and healthy place to inhabit.
But America's strayed away, and this unnatural excursion has
brought only confusion and bewilderment.
It has left hearts aching with guilt and minds distorted with
irrationality.
It is time for all people of conscience to call upon America
to come back home.
Come home, America.
Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving finger writes, and having writ
moves on."
I call on Washington today. I call on every man and woman of good
will all over America today.
I call on the young men of America who must make a choice today
to take a stand on this issue.
Tomorrow may be too late. The book may close.
And don't let anybody make you think that God chose America as
his divine, messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole
world.
God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it
seems that I can hear God saying to America, "You're too arrogant!
And if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the
backbone of your power, and I'll place it in the hands of a nation
that doesn't even know my name.
Be still and know that I'm God.
Now it isn't easy to stand up for truth and for justice. Sometimes it
means being frustrated.
When you tell the truth and take a stand, sometimes it means that
you will walk the streets with a burdened heart.
Sometimes it means losing a job...means being abused and scorned.
It may mean having a seven, eight year old child asking a daddy,
"Why do you have to go to jail so much?"
And I've long since learned that to be a follower of Jesus Christ
means taking up the cross.
And my bible tells me that Good Friday comes before Easter.
Before the crown we wear, there is the cross that we must bear.
Let us bear it--bear it for truth, bear it for justice, and bear it
for peace.
Let us go out this morning with that determination. And I have
not lost faith.
I'm not in despair, because I know that there is a moral order.
I haven't lost faith, because the arc of the moral universe is long,
but it bends toward justice.
I can still sing "We Shall Overcome" because Carlyle was right:
"No lie can live forever."
We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant was right:
"Truth pressed to earth will rise again."
We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell was right:
"Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne."
Yet, that scaffold sways the future.
We shall overcome because the bible is right: "You shall reap
what you sow."
With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of
despair a stone of hope.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church,
April 30, 1967
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/03/martin-luther-
king-it-is-time-for-all.html
To Come Home
By Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Jesse's Crossroads Cafe
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question
the fairness and justice of many of our present policies.
On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan
on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act.
One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must
be changed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten
and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway.
True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar.
A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring
contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation.
It will look across the seas and see individual capitalists
of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa,
and South America, only to take the profits out with no
concern for the social betterment of the countries, and
say, "This is not just."
It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America
and say, "This is not just."
The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach
others and nothing to learn from them is not just.
A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and
say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just."
This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our
nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous
drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending
men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped
and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom,
justice, and love...
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on
military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching
spiritual death.
We are presently moving down a dead-end road that can lead to
national disaster.
America has strayed to the far country of racism and militarism.
The home that all too many Americans left was solidly structured
idealistically; its pillars were solidly grounded in the insights of
our Judeo-Christian heritage.
All men are made in the image of God.
All men are brothers.
All men are created equal.
Every man is an heir to a legacy of dignity and worth.
Every man has rights that are neither conferred by, nor derived
from the State--they are God-given.
Out of one blood, God made all men to dwell upon the face of
the earth.
What a marvelous foundation for any home! What a glorious
and healthy place to inhabit.
But America's strayed away, and this unnatural excursion has
brought only confusion and bewilderment.
It has left hearts aching with guilt and minds distorted with
irrationality.
It is time for all people of conscience to call upon America
to come back home.
Come home, America.
Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving finger writes, and having writ
moves on."
I call on Washington today. I call on every man and woman of good
will all over America today.
I call on the young men of America who must make a choice today
to take a stand on this issue.
Tomorrow may be too late. The book may close.
And don't let anybody make you think that God chose America as
his divine, messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole
world.
God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it
seems that I can hear God saying to America, "You're too arrogant!
And if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the
backbone of your power, and I'll place it in the hands of a nation
that doesn't even know my name.
Be still and know that I'm God.
Now it isn't easy to stand up for truth and for justice. Sometimes it
means being frustrated.
When you tell the truth and take a stand, sometimes it means that
you will walk the streets with a burdened heart.
Sometimes it means losing a job...means being abused and scorned.
It may mean having a seven, eight year old child asking a daddy,
"Why do you have to go to jail so much?"
And I've long since learned that to be a follower of Jesus Christ
means taking up the cross.
And my bible tells me that Good Friday comes before Easter.
Before the crown we wear, there is the cross that we must bear.
Let us bear it--bear it for truth, bear it for justice, and bear it
for peace.
Let us go out this morning with that determination. And I have
not lost faith.
I'm not in despair, because I know that there is a moral order.
I haven't lost faith, because the arc of the moral universe is long,
but it bends toward justice.
I can still sing "We Shall Overcome" because Carlyle was right:
"No lie can live forever."
We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant was right:
"Truth pressed to earth will rise again."
We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell was right:
"Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne."
Yet, that scaffold sways the future.
We shall overcome because the bible is right: "You shall reap
what you sow."
With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of
despair a stone of hope.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church,
April 30, 1967
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/03/martin-luther-
king-it-is-time-for-all.html
Monday, September 17, 2012
I Will Occupy
I Will Occupy
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed
September 17, 2012
When the history of this age is written - if there are people left to
write it, and if there is technology left to hold it - it will speak of a
generation on the brink.
Financial calamity combined with economic collapse combined with
endless warfare and bottomless greed united to create a beast with
hot breath and blood-red eyes that stares us dead in the face.
It is an age on the edge of doom, and yet we persist in the suicidal
madness of deliberate ignorance.
If that history is written, the first line will be, "They were fools."
That history will remember Occupy, and a year when a chance was
held forth to seize on the idea that this looming collective calamity
can be sidestepped.
History will remember Occupy as having offered one last, best
chance to be more than we are, to see the beast for what it is,
and to slay it once and for all.
But Occupy is over, right?
That is what they would like you to believe in the board rooms,
and in the newsrooms that do their bidding.
The camps are gone, there was no message, there were no leaders,
and now there is nothing left.
Why cling to an idea that went nowhere?
Because an idea never dies, because this idea is not dead, because
Occupy lives on all across America and all across the world.
Occupy lives in every American city and in every national capitol
on the planet.
Occupy continues to fight against the greed and violence of the
powerful.
Occupy continues to fight against those who are murdering our
world with pollution and the profit motive.
Occupy continues to fight unfair foreclosures and evictions, to
stand with Labor and the rights of workers, to push back against the
perpetual wars that suck the life out of everything and everyone.
Occupy continues to stand in England, in Canada, in Mexico, in
Chile, in Greece, in Spain, in Russia, in India, and in so many
other places besides; in every place where there are people,
there is Occupy.
Occupy continues.
Occupy has given us the concept of the 99% vs. the 1%, and
that has stuck.
Now, in America, the entire political discussion holds as its
center of gravity this simple, undeniable description of
staggering inequality and unfairness.
In America, the Republican Party has selected Mitt Romney
as its presidential nominee, and in doing so has given us
the perfect avatar for who and what the 1% truly represents.
But Occupy is not about parties, or politics, or leaders. Occupy
is about people, and their individual power to create change.
The camps were a means to an end, a way to grab the
news media by the throat and demand attention.
Most of the camps are gone now, but the people remain,
and within them lives the knowledge that they do not
need to follow parties or leaders, but can act on their
own to collectively drag this old, dying, deceitful way
of things back from the precipice to create a better world.
One year ago, Occupy began. One year from now, I will be
a father for the first time.
My child will be six months old, and living in a world fraught
with peril.
It does not have to be how it has been, and for my child, I will
Occupy.
I will Occupy for an end to greed, for an end to war, for an end
to savage inequality, for clean air and water, for safe food and
fair work, for the new day that awaits my child if we all, right
here, right now, come together and put an end to this madness
before it puts an end to us.
Our history is not yet written.
Write it.
Occupy.
William Rivers Pitt is a Truthout editor and columnist. He is also
a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of three
books: "War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know,"
"The Greatest Sedition Is Silence" and "House of Ill Repute:
Reflections on War, Lies, and America's Ravaged Reputation.
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11573-i-will-occupy
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed
September 17, 2012
When the history of this age is written - if there are people left to
write it, and if there is technology left to hold it - it will speak of a
generation on the brink.
Financial calamity combined with economic collapse combined with
endless warfare and bottomless greed united to create a beast with
hot breath and blood-red eyes that stares us dead in the face.
It is an age on the edge of doom, and yet we persist in the suicidal
madness of deliberate ignorance.
If that history is written, the first line will be, "They were fools."
That history will remember Occupy, and a year when a chance was
held forth to seize on the idea that this looming collective calamity
can be sidestepped.
History will remember Occupy as having offered one last, best
chance to be more than we are, to see the beast for what it is,
and to slay it once and for all.
But Occupy is over, right?
That is what they would like you to believe in the board rooms,
and in the newsrooms that do their bidding.
The camps are gone, there was no message, there were no leaders,
and now there is nothing left.
Why cling to an idea that went nowhere?
Because an idea never dies, because this idea is not dead, because
Occupy lives on all across America and all across the world.
Occupy lives in every American city and in every national capitol
on the planet.
Occupy continues to fight against the greed and violence of the
powerful.
Occupy continues to fight against those who are murdering our
world with pollution and the profit motive.
Occupy continues to fight unfair foreclosures and evictions, to
stand with Labor and the rights of workers, to push back against the
perpetual wars that suck the life out of everything and everyone.
Occupy continues to stand in England, in Canada, in Mexico, in
Chile, in Greece, in Spain, in Russia, in India, and in so many
other places besides; in every place where there are people,
there is Occupy.
Occupy continues.
Occupy has given us the concept of the 99% vs. the 1%, and
that has stuck.
Now, in America, the entire political discussion holds as its
center of gravity this simple, undeniable description of
staggering inequality and unfairness.
In America, the Republican Party has selected Mitt Romney
as its presidential nominee, and in doing so has given us
the perfect avatar for who and what the 1% truly represents.
But Occupy is not about parties, or politics, or leaders. Occupy
is about people, and their individual power to create change.
The camps were a means to an end, a way to grab the
news media by the throat and demand attention.
Most of the camps are gone now, but the people remain,
and within them lives the knowledge that they do not
need to follow parties or leaders, but can act on their
own to collectively drag this old, dying, deceitful way
of things back from the precipice to create a better world.
One year ago, Occupy began. One year from now, I will be
a father for the first time.
My child will be six months old, and living in a world fraught
with peril.
It does not have to be how it has been, and for my child, I will
Occupy.
I will Occupy for an end to greed, for an end to war, for an end
to savage inequality, for clean air and water, for safe food and
fair work, for the new day that awaits my child if we all, right
here, right now, come together and put an end to this madness
before it puts an end to us.
Our history is not yet written.
Write it.
Occupy.
William Rivers Pitt is a Truthout editor and columnist. He is also
a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of three
books: "War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know,"
"The Greatest Sedition Is Silence" and "House of Ill Repute:
Reflections on War, Lies, and America's Ravaged Reputation.
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11573-i-will-occupy
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
10 Signs That You're Fully Awake
10 Signs That You're Fully Awake
By Activist Post
September 12, 2012
Isn't it obvious that there is a significant global awakening
happening?
Just as the Mayans predicted so many years ago, the apocalypse
would become apparent in 2012.
But many misinterpret the apocalypse to be the end of the world,
when in fact it actually means an "un-covering, a revelation of
something hidden."
As many continue to argue the accuracy of the Mayan calendar,
it can no longer be argued that a great many people are finally
becoming aware of what has been hidden from them for so long.
Of course this awakening is not an overnight process. It takes
time to peel away the many layers of lies to get to the core of
the ultimate truths.
It would be beyond pretentious for us to claim to know all of the
secrets of the universe. We don't. Everyday we are humbled by
what we don't yet know.
However, it is becoming clearer by the day what isn't true. And by
that measure alone, it is possible to determine if you're one of the
people beginning to wake up.
Here are ten signs you may be fully awake:
1. You know there's no meaningful difference between major
political parties (Democrats and Republicans):
It's so easy to get caught up the left-right debate and believe
there's a difference between the two major political parties.
However, debate is one thing, while actions are another.
By their deeds you shall know them, and it is indisputable that
there is no significant difference between political parties when
it comes to action on the most important issues.
2. You understand that the Federal Reserve, or international
central banking more broadly, is the engine of our economic
problems:
Debt slavery is the totalitarian force that threatens all of
humanity, not some temporary political puppet or some
greedy Wall Street trader.
When a small group of people have the ability to create wealth
out of nothing and charge interest on it, they have the ability
to enslave the planet to their ownership despite what type of
government a country claims to have.
3. You know that preemptive war is never necessary:
When we realize that self-defense is the only acceptable form
of violence, then we become awakened human beings.
To suggest war because someone is different from you, or they
may pose a threat in the future is simply ludicrous.
And when did the idea of bombing civilians become humanitarian?
No one wants war except for the immoral creeps that benefit from
it.
4. You know that you're being systematically poisoned, how, by
whom, and why:
Admittedly, there's a lot to learn in terms of how we are secretly
being poisoned.
But the fact remains that we are being systematically poisoned,
and it is likely for the deliberate purpose of dumbing us down
and, ultimately, culling the population.
Who could believe anyone is so evil to do that to innocent people,
you may ask.
Well, once you begin to seek the answer to that question, you're
one step closer to enlightenment.
5. You understand that government can never legislate morality,
nor should they:
When you realize the role of government is only to protect
your liberty and work for the well being of the citizens,
you're awakened.
There should be one simple law regulating morality: Do no harm.
Thus, it's impossible for the government to enforce morality with
guns, cages, and taxes because those clearly cause severe harm to
your liberty and our well-being.
6. You know that the mainstream media is wholly owned and
manipulated by the ruling elite:
A dwindling number of people still actually believe what they hear
coming from the establishment media as if it's gospel, even when
they already accept that they are bought and paid for by the elite
controllers.
Yet, recognizing that they are nothing more than a propaganda
machine and a form of mind control are the first steps in being
able to critically think beyond the scientific messaging they
broadcast.
7. You know that your neighbors are not your enemy even if
you have fierce ideological disagreements:
This is perhaps the most difficult thing to overcome in the
awakening process.
But it's vital to understand that your neighbors have been
indoctrinated and hypnotized like the rest of the us, until
someone helps shine a light on inconsistencies in our
thoughts and beliefs.
Most of their ideas are not their own. They are suffering just
like the rest of us.
It's okay to condemn their actions if they're harmful, but those
who are awake will not give up on spreading information that
can enlighten those who might still be in the dark.
None of us were born "awake" and all of us can learn even more.
8. You know that the endgame is one-world control of planet Earth:
Once you understand that the endgame for the ruling elite is
to have complete control of all vital facets of society through
a global government, one-world currency, international armed
forces, and so on, it is simple to see through the lies and
propaganda surrounding even the most confusing world events.
You will never go back to sleep when you fully accept this reality.
9. You recognize that there are esoteric powers manipulating our
physical world:
Whether you're a religious or spiritual person, scientific or just plain
curious, there are many theories about an invisible force at play in
all of this.
Obviously it's impossible to prove exactly what it is. You may
not want to believe it, but the ruling elite takes their occult
rituals deadly serious. And they likely know something we don't.
Just by keeping an open mind about this possibility, you'll forever
keep an open mind about the things we can actually see, hear,
taste and touch.
Current science has shown that we can only "see" what the visible
light spectrum reveals, which amounts to the tiniest fraction of all
that can theoretically be seen within the full spectrum of energy.
Part of any awakening is realizing that there is much more that is
possible than impossible.
10. The power to change the world rests with you and you alone:
For too long people have believed themselves to be weak, or relied
on others to change the world for them.
You'll know that you're fully awake when you realize that you have
infinite power to change the world by simply living the change you
want to see.
First, you have to identify the principles that you believe in and
then go out and live by them.
If just a small minority took steps to do this, it would shake the
establishment to its core.
What kind of world do you want to live in?
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/09/10-signs-that-youre-fully-
awake.html
By Activist Post
September 12, 2012
Isn't it obvious that there is a significant global awakening
happening?
Just as the Mayans predicted so many years ago, the apocalypse
would become apparent in 2012.
But many misinterpret the apocalypse to be the end of the world,
when in fact it actually means an "un-covering, a revelation of
something hidden."
As many continue to argue the accuracy of the Mayan calendar,
it can no longer be argued that a great many people are finally
becoming aware of what has been hidden from them for so long.
Of course this awakening is not an overnight process. It takes
time to peel away the many layers of lies to get to the core of
the ultimate truths.
It would be beyond pretentious for us to claim to know all of the
secrets of the universe. We don't. Everyday we are humbled by
what we don't yet know.
However, it is becoming clearer by the day what isn't true. And by
that measure alone, it is possible to determine if you're one of the
people beginning to wake up.
Here are ten signs you may be fully awake:
1. You know there's no meaningful difference between major
political parties (Democrats and Republicans):
It's so easy to get caught up the left-right debate and believe
there's a difference between the two major political parties.
However, debate is one thing, while actions are another.
By their deeds you shall know them, and it is indisputable that
there is no significant difference between political parties when
it comes to action on the most important issues.
2. You understand that the Federal Reserve, or international
central banking more broadly, is the engine of our economic
problems:
Debt slavery is the totalitarian force that threatens all of
humanity, not some temporary political puppet or some
greedy Wall Street trader.
When a small group of people have the ability to create wealth
out of nothing and charge interest on it, they have the ability
to enslave the planet to their ownership despite what type of
government a country claims to have.
3. You know that preemptive war is never necessary:
When we realize that self-defense is the only acceptable form
of violence, then we become awakened human beings.
To suggest war because someone is different from you, or they
may pose a threat in the future is simply ludicrous.
And when did the idea of bombing civilians become humanitarian?
No one wants war except for the immoral creeps that benefit from
it.
4. You know that you're being systematically poisoned, how, by
whom, and why:
Admittedly, there's a lot to learn in terms of how we are secretly
being poisoned.
But the fact remains that we are being systematically poisoned,
and it is likely for the deliberate purpose of dumbing us down
and, ultimately, culling the population.
Who could believe anyone is so evil to do that to innocent people,
you may ask.
Well, once you begin to seek the answer to that question, you're
one step closer to enlightenment.
5. You understand that government can never legislate morality,
nor should they:
When you realize the role of government is only to protect
your liberty and work for the well being of the citizens,
you're awakened.
There should be one simple law regulating morality: Do no harm.
Thus, it's impossible for the government to enforce morality with
guns, cages, and taxes because those clearly cause severe harm to
your liberty and our well-being.
6. You know that the mainstream media is wholly owned and
manipulated by the ruling elite:
A dwindling number of people still actually believe what they hear
coming from the establishment media as if it's gospel, even when
they already accept that they are bought and paid for by the elite
controllers.
Yet, recognizing that they are nothing more than a propaganda
machine and a form of mind control are the first steps in being
able to critically think beyond the scientific messaging they
broadcast.
7. You know that your neighbors are not your enemy even if
you have fierce ideological disagreements:
This is perhaps the most difficult thing to overcome in the
awakening process.
But it's vital to understand that your neighbors have been
indoctrinated and hypnotized like the rest of the us, until
someone helps shine a light on inconsistencies in our
thoughts and beliefs.
Most of their ideas are not their own. They are suffering just
like the rest of us.
It's okay to condemn their actions if they're harmful, but those
who are awake will not give up on spreading information that
can enlighten those who might still be in the dark.
None of us were born "awake" and all of us can learn even more.
8. You know that the endgame is one-world control of planet Earth:
Once you understand that the endgame for the ruling elite is
to have complete control of all vital facets of society through
a global government, one-world currency, international armed
forces, and so on, it is simple to see through the lies and
propaganda surrounding even the most confusing world events.
You will never go back to sleep when you fully accept this reality.
9. You recognize that there are esoteric powers manipulating our
physical world:
Whether you're a religious or spiritual person, scientific or just plain
curious, there are many theories about an invisible force at play in
all of this.
Obviously it's impossible to prove exactly what it is. You may
not want to believe it, but the ruling elite takes their occult
rituals deadly serious. And they likely know something we don't.
Just by keeping an open mind about this possibility, you'll forever
keep an open mind about the things we can actually see, hear,
taste and touch.
Current science has shown that we can only "see" what the visible
light spectrum reveals, which amounts to the tiniest fraction of all
that can theoretically be seen within the full spectrum of energy.
Part of any awakening is realizing that there is much more that is
possible than impossible.
10. The power to change the world rests with you and you alone:
For too long people have believed themselves to be weak, or relied
on others to change the world for them.
You'll know that you're fully awake when you realize that you have
infinite power to change the world by simply living the change you
want to see.
First, you have to identify the principles that you believe in and
then go out and live by them.
If just a small minority took steps to do this, it would shake the
establishment to its core.
What kind of world do you want to live in?
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/09/10-signs-that-youre-fully-
awake.html
Sunday, September 9, 2012
What Obama Has Wrought
What Obama Has Wrought
By Glen Ford
Black Agenda Report
September 09, 2012
Most people don’t want to be a perceived as party-poopers –
which is why the principled folks that have protested the evil
antics of the corporate, imperial parties, in Tampa and Charlotte,
are so much to be admired.
Frankly, who wants to be the one to point out, in the middle
of the festivities, that Michelle Obama was just a Chicago Daley
machine hack lawyer who was rewarded with a quarter million
dollar a year job of neutralizing community complaints against
the omnivorous University of Chicago Hospitals?
She resigned from her $50,000 seat on the board of directors
of Tree-House Foods, a major Wal-Mart supplier, early in her
husband’s presidential campaign.
But, once in the White House, the First Lady quickly returned
to flaking for Wal-Mart, praising the anti-union “death star”
behemoth’s inner city groceries offensive as part of her White
House healthy foods booster duties.
She also serves on the board of the Chicago Council on Global
Affairs, the corporate foreign policy outfit to which her husband
dutifully reported, each year, in his pucker-up to the presidency.
The Obamas are a global capital-loving couple, two cynical
lawyers on hire to the wealthiest and the ghastliest.
They are no nicer or nastier than the Romneys and the Ryans,
although the man of the house bombs babies and keeps a kill list.
Yet, former “green jobs” czar Van Jones, a convention night
chatterer on CNN who was fired by Obama for no good reason,
chokes up when he speaks of the Black family that fronts for
America – a huge act of national camouflage.
It is as useless to anchor a serious political discussion to this
year’s Democratic and Republican convention speeches, as to
plan the liberation of humanity during Mardi Gras.
Truth is no more welcome at the former than sobriety is at the
latter. So, forget the conventions and their multi-layered lies.
Here are a few highlights of what Barack Obama has inflicted on
the nation and the world:
Preventive Detention
George Bush could not have pulled off such an evisceration of the
Bill of Rights, if only because the Democrats and an aroused street
would not have allowed it.
Bush knew better than to mount a full-court legislative assault
on habeas corpus, and instead simply asserted that preventive
detention is inherent in the powers of the presidency during
times of war.
It was left to Obama to pass actual legislation nullifying
domestic rule of law – with no serious Democratic opposition.
Redefining War
Obama “led from behind” a 7-month Euro-American air and proxy
ground war against the sovereign nation of Libya, culminating in
the murder, after many attempts, of the nation’s leader.
The president informed Congress that the military operation was
not subject to the War Powers Act, because it had not been a
“war” at all, since no Americans were known to have been killed.
The doctrine was thus established – again, with little Democratic
opposition – that wars are defined by the extent of U.S. casualties,
no matter how many thousands of foreigners are slaughtered.
War Without Borders
Obama’s drone war policies, greatly expanded from that
inherited from Bush, have vastly undermined accepted
standards of international law.
This president reserves the right to strike against non-state
targets anywhere in the world, with whatever technical
means at his disposal, without regard to the imminence of
threat to the United States.
The doctrine constitutes an ongoing war against peace – the
highest of all crimes, now an everyday practice of the U.S.
The Merger of Banks and State
The Obama administration, with the Federal Reserve functioning
as a component of the executive branch, has funneled at least
$16 trillion to domestic and international banking institutions,
much of it through a virtually “free money” policy that could
well become permanent.
This ongoing “rescue” of finance capital is unprecedented in
sheer scope and in the blurring of lines between Wall Street
and the State.
The routine transfer of multi-billions in securities and debts and
assets of all kinds between the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve
and corporate accounts, has created de facto structures of
governance that may be described as institutional forms of fascism.
These are world-shaking works of Obama-ism.
Even Obama’s “lesser” crimes are astounding: his early calls
for austerity and entitlement-axing (two weeks before his
inauguration) and determined pursuit of a Grand Accommodation
with the GOP (a $4 trillion deal that the Republicans rejected, in
the summer of 2011) reveal a politician intent on ushering in a
smoother, more rational corporate hegemony over a thoroughly
pacified civil society.
Part and parcel of that pacification is the de-professionalization
of teaching – an ambition far beyond de-unionization.
Of course, Obama begins with the delegitimization of Black
struggle, as in his 2004 Democratic Convention speech
(”…there is no Black America…only the United States of America.”)
To the extent that the nation’s most progressive, anti-war
constituency can be neutralized, all of Obama’s corporate
and military goals become more doable.
The key to understanding America has always been race.
With Obama, the corporate rulers have found the key that
fits their needs at a time of (terminal) crisis.
He is the more effective evil.
The meticulously scripted spectacles of the two corporate party
conventions are very poor backdrops for clear thinking – but luckily,
the ordeals are over.
What remains after the tents are folded, are the crimes of this
administration and its predecessor: both horrifically evil in their
own ways.
History will mark Obama as the more effective evil, mainly because
of the lack of opposition.
Mr. Glen Ford is the Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report.
http://blackagendareport.com/content/what-obama-has-wrought
By Glen Ford
Black Agenda Report
September 09, 2012
Most people don’t want to be a perceived as party-poopers –
which is why the principled folks that have protested the evil
antics of the corporate, imperial parties, in Tampa and Charlotte,
are so much to be admired.
Frankly, who wants to be the one to point out, in the middle
of the festivities, that Michelle Obama was just a Chicago Daley
machine hack lawyer who was rewarded with a quarter million
dollar a year job of neutralizing community complaints against
the omnivorous University of Chicago Hospitals?
She resigned from her $50,000 seat on the board of directors
of Tree-House Foods, a major Wal-Mart supplier, early in her
husband’s presidential campaign.
But, once in the White House, the First Lady quickly returned
to flaking for Wal-Mart, praising the anti-union “death star”
behemoth’s inner city groceries offensive as part of her White
House healthy foods booster duties.
She also serves on the board of the Chicago Council on Global
Affairs, the corporate foreign policy outfit to which her husband
dutifully reported, each year, in his pucker-up to the presidency.
The Obamas are a global capital-loving couple, two cynical
lawyers on hire to the wealthiest and the ghastliest.
They are no nicer or nastier than the Romneys and the Ryans,
although the man of the house bombs babies and keeps a kill list.
Yet, former “green jobs” czar Van Jones, a convention night
chatterer on CNN who was fired by Obama for no good reason,
chokes up when he speaks of the Black family that fronts for
America – a huge act of national camouflage.
It is as useless to anchor a serious political discussion to this
year’s Democratic and Republican convention speeches, as to
plan the liberation of humanity during Mardi Gras.
Truth is no more welcome at the former than sobriety is at the
latter. So, forget the conventions and their multi-layered lies.
Here are a few highlights of what Barack Obama has inflicted on
the nation and the world:
Preventive Detention
George Bush could not have pulled off such an evisceration of the
Bill of Rights, if only because the Democrats and an aroused street
would not have allowed it.
Bush knew better than to mount a full-court legislative assault
on habeas corpus, and instead simply asserted that preventive
detention is inherent in the powers of the presidency during
times of war.
It was left to Obama to pass actual legislation nullifying
domestic rule of law – with no serious Democratic opposition.
Redefining War
Obama “led from behind” a 7-month Euro-American air and proxy
ground war against the sovereign nation of Libya, culminating in
the murder, after many attempts, of the nation’s leader.
The president informed Congress that the military operation was
not subject to the War Powers Act, because it had not been a
“war” at all, since no Americans were known to have been killed.
The doctrine was thus established – again, with little Democratic
opposition – that wars are defined by the extent of U.S. casualties,
no matter how many thousands of foreigners are slaughtered.
War Without Borders
Obama’s drone war policies, greatly expanded from that
inherited from Bush, have vastly undermined accepted
standards of international law.
This president reserves the right to strike against non-state
targets anywhere in the world, with whatever technical
means at his disposal, without regard to the imminence of
threat to the United States.
The doctrine constitutes an ongoing war against peace – the
highest of all crimes, now an everyday practice of the U.S.
The Merger of Banks and State
The Obama administration, with the Federal Reserve functioning
as a component of the executive branch, has funneled at least
$16 trillion to domestic and international banking institutions,
much of it through a virtually “free money” policy that could
well become permanent.
This ongoing “rescue” of finance capital is unprecedented in
sheer scope and in the blurring of lines between Wall Street
and the State.
The routine transfer of multi-billions in securities and debts and
assets of all kinds between the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve
and corporate accounts, has created de facto structures of
governance that may be described as institutional forms of fascism.
These are world-shaking works of Obama-ism.
Even Obama’s “lesser” crimes are astounding: his early calls
for austerity and entitlement-axing (two weeks before his
inauguration) and determined pursuit of a Grand Accommodation
with the GOP (a $4 trillion deal that the Republicans rejected, in
the summer of 2011) reveal a politician intent on ushering in a
smoother, more rational corporate hegemony over a thoroughly
pacified civil society.
Part and parcel of that pacification is the de-professionalization
of teaching – an ambition far beyond de-unionization.
Of course, Obama begins with the delegitimization of Black
struggle, as in his 2004 Democratic Convention speech
(”…there is no Black America…only the United States of America.”)
To the extent that the nation’s most progressive, anti-war
constituency can be neutralized, all of Obama’s corporate
and military goals become more doable.
The key to understanding America has always been race.
With Obama, the corporate rulers have found the key that
fits their needs at a time of (terminal) crisis.
He is the more effective evil.
The meticulously scripted spectacles of the two corporate party
conventions are very poor backdrops for clear thinking – but luckily,
the ordeals are over.
What remains after the tents are folded, are the crimes of this
administration and its predecessor: both horrifically evil in their
own ways.
History will mark Obama as the more effective evil, mainly because
of the lack of opposition.
Mr. Glen Ford is the Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report.
http://blackagendareport.com/content/what-obama-has-wrought
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Did you vote for George McGovern?
Did you vote for George McGovern?
By Peter Breschard
Dissident Voice
September 05, 2012
Did you vote for George McGovern?
Would you have voted for George McGovern instead of
Richard Nixon if you had the chance?
If you had the opportunity would you pull the lever for
someone you were fairly certain would lose rather than
voting for a criminal like Nixon?
After all, everyone knew Richard Nixon was going to win.
After all, Nixon was evil.
Wouldn’t that be throwing away your vote if you voted
for George McGovern?
How could anyone vote for someone they knew was evil?
Millions of people voted for George McGovern in 1972
even though they were fairly certain he was going to lose.
Those millions of Americans knew that casting a vote for
someone they knew was evil was the wrong thing to do.
Politically. Morally. Anyway you want to think about it.
Those Americans didn’t stay at home on election day.
They went out and cast their vote against evil even
though they were fairly certain they wouldn’t win.
They knew they had to fight the evil.
They knew you always fight evil.
Once again Americans are faced with a choice.
The Democratic/Republican Party claims it is choice
between the lesser of two evils.
The Democratic/Republican Party is lying.
What do the Democrats and the Republicans have in common?
Let’s take a quick look.
Both parties agree the United State should continue waging
war against lots of countries in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Both parties agree that thieving scum corporations should be bailed
out of their financial difficulties while private citizens are hung out
to dry.
Both parties agree that the for-profit medical insurance industry
should be propped up by legislation which supports the vampire
private medical insurance industry.
Both parties agree that trade agreements, like NAFTA, are a good
thing even though the end result is massive job loss in the U.S.
Both parties think new oil pipelines running across the heartland
of America are just swell.
Both parties agree that the President of the United States should
be given legal authority of life and death over every individual in
the world.
Both parties agree that self-confessed orderers of torture should
not be prosecuted, and they should be allowed to conduct national
book tours where they brag about their war crimes against
defenseless prisoners.
The list is quite possibly endless.
When you vote for the Republican/Democratic Party you are
endorsing all of the above.
You have a choice the Democratic/Republican Party doesn't want
you to consider.
You do not have to vote for evil.
Remember George McGovern.
Vote Green.
Peter Breschard is the author of "Circus Rider" and other lesser
works of fiction and history.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/09/did-you-vote-for-george-
mcgovern/#more-45749
By Peter Breschard
Dissident Voice
September 05, 2012
Did you vote for George McGovern?
Would you have voted for George McGovern instead of
Richard Nixon if you had the chance?
If you had the opportunity would you pull the lever for
someone you were fairly certain would lose rather than
voting for a criminal like Nixon?
After all, everyone knew Richard Nixon was going to win.
After all, Nixon was evil.
Wouldn’t that be throwing away your vote if you voted
for George McGovern?
How could anyone vote for someone they knew was evil?
Millions of people voted for George McGovern in 1972
even though they were fairly certain he was going to lose.
Those millions of Americans knew that casting a vote for
someone they knew was evil was the wrong thing to do.
Politically. Morally. Anyway you want to think about it.
Those Americans didn’t stay at home on election day.
They went out and cast their vote against evil even
though they were fairly certain they wouldn’t win.
They knew they had to fight the evil.
They knew you always fight evil.
Once again Americans are faced with a choice.
The Democratic/Republican Party claims it is choice
between the lesser of two evils.
The Democratic/Republican Party is lying.
What do the Democrats and the Republicans have in common?
Let’s take a quick look.
Both parties agree the United State should continue waging
war against lots of countries in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Both parties agree that thieving scum corporations should be bailed
out of their financial difficulties while private citizens are hung out
to dry.
Both parties agree that the for-profit medical insurance industry
should be propped up by legislation which supports the vampire
private medical insurance industry.
Both parties agree that trade agreements, like NAFTA, are a good
thing even though the end result is massive job loss in the U.S.
Both parties think new oil pipelines running across the heartland
of America are just swell.
Both parties agree that the President of the United States should
be given legal authority of life and death over every individual in
the world.
Both parties agree that self-confessed orderers of torture should
not be prosecuted, and they should be allowed to conduct national
book tours where they brag about their war crimes against
defenseless prisoners.
The list is quite possibly endless.
When you vote for the Republican/Democratic Party you are
endorsing all of the above.
You have a choice the Democratic/Republican Party doesn't want
you to consider.
You do not have to vote for evil.
Remember George McGovern.
Vote Green.
Peter Breschard is the author of "Circus Rider" and other lesser
works of fiction and history.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/09/did-you-vote-for-george-
mcgovern/#more-45749
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