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Tax Payer-Funded Oil Cops Commit War Crimes at Standing Rock

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Stephanie Keith/Reuters

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Image by Tomas Alejo

In scenes reminiscent of 1960’s Birmingham, authorities have been using water cannons & attack dogs on water protectors in North Dakota. The story of Standing Rock is everything wrong with America: Following hundreds of years of dehumanization and genocide, we’re breaking our treaty with indigenous tribes and ripping up their burial grounds. Armed thugs are bashing skulls of water protectors at the behest of oil companies. Spineless Democrats like Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton have barely been bothered to offer tepid remarks. And corporate media is ignoring the entire thing.

stand_with_standing_rock_sf_nov_2016_11For a quick overview: the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie states that a large area, including Standing Rock, belongs to indigenous people. Then, in 1877, congress decided to ignore our treaty and seize much of the land. In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the government was in the wrong, and ordered a $102m settlement. The settlement money has been accruing interest ever since – now worth $1.3b. But the Standing Rock Sioux don’t want our money; they want their land.

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Image by Ashoka Jegroo

Now, an oil company wants to build a pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois, which has been bankrolled by Wall St. It was supposed to pass by Bismark, but the nice, white people there didn’t want their water poisoned, so Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) decided to use Sioux land instead. After all, it had been taken from them long ago.

Image by Carl Wycoff

Image by Carl Wycoff

Some of the needed land was privately owned, so imminent domain was applied. The federal government issued permits where they had authority, but the Missouri River is controlled by Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps have yet to issue permits to dig under the river, so the Obama administration asked ETP not to dig within 20 miles. This request was of course ignored, and they’ve since dug a drilling pad within a half mile of the Missouri. ETP CEO Kelcy Warren, perhaps emboldened by the election of Trump, insisted that the pipeline would be completed regardless. (Days later, ETP was acquired by Sunoco – the most leak-prone energy company in the country.)

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Image by Desiree Kane

Water protectors, well aware of the tendency of pipelines to leak, established Sacred Stone prayer camp at Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in April. Unarmed and peaceful protectors were initially met with attack dogs unleashed by oil mercenaries. An agent provocateur – a bandanna-faced ETP employee armed with an assault rifle – was unearthed by water protectors, which culminated in a tense standoff.

Those sickening scenes should have been enough to coax a reaction out of docile Obama. But au contraire – the president said he’d wait and see. Governor Dalrymple declared a state of emergency, and cut off water and sanitation services. Five states allocated millions of dollars to sic militarized, skull-cracking  cops on peaceful protectors.

standingroock-arminjury4Armed thugs with badges descended upon the prayer camp in bomb-resistant war vehicles. They beat women and children. They used tear gas and sound cannons to physically torture unarmed people. They shot a young girl in the eye with a rubber bullet. They blew a young woman’s arm apart with a concussion grenade, and blamed the water protectors. When the concussion grenades resulted in fires, cops blamed protectors and let the fires burn without allowing the fire department access. When the weather began to freeze, cops paired tear gas with water cannons to increase the physical torture. Oil cops placed burning vehicles in the roadway which blocked emergency vehicles from reaching people suffering from mass hypothermia. Fires built by protectors for heat were targeted by oil cops operating the water cannons. Cameras, footage, and storage devices have been confiscated by oil cops. Social media feeds have been disabled by complicit Silicon Valley companies who feign ignorance.

The UN is formally observing the situation for human rights abuses, but the view of Amnesty International observers who arrived was blocked.

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Image by Pax Ahimsa Gethen

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Image by Pax Ahimsa Gethen

Mainstream corporate media parrot the lies of law enforcement when not actively engaged in see-no-evil. Despite the corporate media blackout, social media feeds have filled with sentiments of support for the water protectors.

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Image by Pax Ahimsa Gethen

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now went to report on Standing Rock and was arrested, as were documentary film maker Deia Schlosberg, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, actress Shailene Woodley, and numerous Unicorn Riot reporters – who’ve supplied a steady stream of video throughout. Reporter Jordan Chariton of the Young Turks has gone numerous times to document the ugliness. New York Daily News writer and civil rights activist Shaun King has offered eloquent words. In early December, hundreds of veterans will offer themselves as human shields.

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Image by Pax Ahimsa Gethen

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Photo: FOSNA Solidarity Statement

We must stand in unison and declare that we will not abide the atrocities and war crimes being committed in our name, with our tax dollars, and on our watch: Attack dogs ripping flesh from peaceful protesters. Water being weaponized against water protectors. Oil police pointing their guns in the wrong direction. Multinational corporations bullying the people via the US government. Obama standing with the corporation and opposed to the only ethnic group who’ve been mistreated by the United States more than Black folks. And an acquiescent corporate media who’ve been paid billions in hush money by Big Oil in the form of ad buys.

Republicans Promising to Kill Supreme Court if Hillary Wins

Dr. Jill Stein Source: CC-BY, RAHurd

Dr. Jill Stein Source: CC-BY, RAHurd

I’m a radical leftist. I went from an Elizabeth Warren 2016 bumper sticker to a Feel the Bern 2016 model and I’m voting for Jill Stein. Not because we are spirit animals but because I want federal funding for the Green Party. And being one who is #neverHillary – the candidate who repeatedly scoffed at the notion of courting the left and instead cozied up with war criminals and Wall Street – I’m experiencing a bit of schadenfraude.

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Lt. Cmdr. John McCain

Lt. Cmdr. John McCain

Senator John McCain – feeling a bit of re-election pressure – hinted that Republicans would block any and all of Hillary Clinton’s Supreme Court justice nominees. And really, President Obama basically gave them permission when he nominated a conservative justice in Merrick Garland – a guy who was unanimously confirmed to the federal bench – and Senate Republicans refused to even meet with him, let alone hold confirmation hearings. Obama utterly failed to communicate to the public the unprecedented Republican obstructionism.

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Chuck Grassley

When Senator Chuck Grassley was asked about McCain’s outrageous comments, he doubled down on the threat.

I don’t know if Obama was afraid to be seen as an angry black man or if he is simply a classic, spineless Democrat (I’d like to see the internal emails). Either way, he allowed Republicans to take an inch with Garland (and their blocking & delaying of hundreds of federal & district court nominees), so now they’re threatening to strangle one of our three branches of government to death. Republicans, after all, don’t believe in government, so it fits their messaging when they break it.

That’s just the SCOTUS and the Senate, where Republicans will likely not even enjoy a majority.

paul_ryan_carroll_university_4Assuming Republicans retain control of the House, Hillary will be investigated by numerous GOP-led committees from the day she is sworn into office. House Speaker Paul Ryan and likely-House Oversight Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz have already assured it will happen.

Under the cloud of investigation, why hold confirmation hearings on her Supreme Court nominee? Why can’t they drag out investigations (and impeachment hearings) for three years then go back to saying the election should determine who gets to fill the court? Why would they pass any legislation that she proposes? That will likely be their message. And since corporate media has traded objectivity for neutrality…

uncle samIt’s insanity. It’s incorrigible. It’s un-American. But Republicans are in the minority. They are a withering, essentially regional, political party. They are lashing out in fear. Fear of a browning populace embodied in a black president with a Muslim name. Fear of losing culture wars over queer acceptance. Fear of feminazis and alimonies culminating in a woman in the Oval Office. A woman who – having been convinced over the course of 30 years is the devil – united them in hatred.Nazi_Hillary_-_September_15,_2007

Oh, but they were going to call Bernie a Socialist… Neoliberals are pathetic.

Rejecting Lesser-Evilism

The two-party false-binary is dead to me.

Sharia-law-BillboardConservatives live in an alternate universe where black folks and the lgbtq community have extra special rights that poor, unfortunate whites do not enjoy. They believe that the US military has been purposely & thoroughly depleted; and Muslims are on the precipice of instituting Sharia in Sheboygan. They’ve gone so mad that Democrats – needing only to seem slightly less evil – have lurched further & further right. In doing so, they force Republicans to take more extreme positions for contrast.

Reagan_BoraxoIn many respects, Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton are more conservative than Ronald Reagan. As governor of California, Reagan signed the Therapeutic Abortion Act, and the Mulford Act which banned the open-carry of firearms. Besides, Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency; and George H. W. Bush referred to trickle-down as “voodoo” economics.

Hillary has called herself a moderate. Obama said he would have been a moderate Republican in the 80’s. They agree with Republicans because they are in effect, Republicans. Yet they head the Democratic Party, because both represent the moneyed donor class as one.

It’s been forty years since the Democrats represented the interests of the working class. It’s by design.

Lewis Powell

Lewis Powell

The Supreme Court ruled in the mid/late Seventies that corporations are people & money is speech ergo political bribery has 1st Amendment protection. Corruption had always been around, this allowed them to openly and legally purchase our government at auction and use it to enrich themselves at our expense. This put Democrats at a disadvantage since Republican economic and tax policies favor billionaires and multinational corporations.

jimmy_carter_joggingDemocratic President Jimmy Carter was (is) an Evangelical. But Reagan proposed a marriage between the chamber of commerce and the religious right which endures to this day.Donald_Spitz_holds_anti-abortion_sign

Democrats were seen as weak, having been anti-war in respect to Vietnam. Anti-poverty programs and progressive tax policy were framed as socialism. Social liberals were framed as godless pinko commies and feminazis. Liberal had successfully been branded a slur.

bill_clinton_al_goreIn response, liberal elites decided that they too would sell out to corporate interests in order to level the playing field. They formed the Democratic Leadership Council. New Democrats would employ triangulation by being tough on crime, espousing hawkish foreign policy, and catering to Wall Street – whose interests are in direct opposition to those of working people. Neo-liberals stress compromise and – outside of gay rights and the bodily autonomy of women – generally agree with Republicans.

dnc_protest_27930237093When Democrats and Republicans agree it’s usually bad for the American people. They agree that we should embrace austerity, imperialism, mass surveillance, mass incarceration, prohibition, fracking, off-shore drilling, new pipelines, TPP, cutting corporate taxes, cutting social insurance programs, continuing corporate welfare, a permanent tax holiday on overseas earnings, and the repeal of habeas corpus. They are jointly opposed to a two-state solution, breaking up the banks, single-payer healthcare, campaign finance reform, $15 minimum wage, universal pre-k, free college, student debt forgiveness, expanding Social Security, and meaningful gun safety measures.

OWS.Box2.Change_Obama._Joy_Leftow._David_Everitt-CarlsonBill Clinton deregulated Wall Street & corporate media, slashed welfare rolls, and oversaw the imprisonment of more black people than any other president. Obama bombed at least seven majority-Muslim nations, made the Bush tax cuts permanent, implemented the Republican version of universal healthcare, accelerated the use of drone wars, enshrined legal framework for assassinating American citizens, nominated a conservative for the SCOTUS, and even went so far as to offer to gut Social Security benefits in his dogged pursuit of the ever elusive grand bargain.

Forty years of neoliberalism – of Democrats acting as Republican-lite – have meant wage stagnation and the disappearing of a once-robust middle class.

Donald_Trump_-_Riding_the_Wrecking_BallEconomic (and demographic) frustration birthed the rise of authoritarian fascist Donald Trump. Faced with the threat of cheeto-Mussolini, Democratic Party elites purposely rigged the primary in favor of the most hated Democratic candidate in US history. Rather than risk implementation of a real progressive agenda, they gambled our nation’s future on a widely-distrusted corporatist. In a time of economic frustration which saw the rise of both Bernie and Trump, Democrats cast their lot with the establishment. So out of touch with the everyday struggles of the working poor, Democrats lifted up the protector of the status quo.

donna_brazile_1Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned after being caught using the DNC to tilt the scales against Bernie Sanders. She was replaced by Donna Brazile, who used her position at CNN to funnel Hillary a primary debate question.

Hillary assured Wall Street executives that the public statements she makes have no bearing on her actual, private beliefs which she shares with them. It was confirmed that she is pro-TPP and was pro-Keystone XL (and hasn’t said a word about DAPL). With an audience of Wall Street executives, Hillary scolded environmentalists, telling them to “Get a life, you know?”

We saw unethical coordination between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department. We saw quid pro quo – meetings with Bill, ambassadorship appointments, and approval of arms deals. We saw illegal coordination between Hillary’s presidential campaign and pro-Hillary Super PACs.

This is the person who democrats chose as their standard bearer. And rather than try and court the hundred million Americans who will choose not to vote this November, they instead scolded progressives for daring to challenge Democrats’ deal leader. Hillary scoffed at the notion that she should court the left. She instead cozied up to neocons and Jeb donors – garnering the endorsement of war criminals and establishment Republicans.

bern14Hillary and her acolytes spat in the face of progressives. Her campaign tried to frame the most progressive candidate in history as a sexist. They tried to frame a guy who was at the March on Washington and was arrested protesting segregation as a racist. They tried to frame Bernie Sanders – a Jew – as an anti-Semite. They cast progressives as sexist Bernie Bros and Jill Stein voters as white privileged Trump enablers. Anyone who dared speak on the contents of the Podesta leaks was labeled an agent of the Kremlin. They would rather initiate World War III than admit that their favored candidate might be flawed.

That’s who Democrats are.

Dr. Jill Stein Source: CC-BY, RAHurd

Dr. Jill Stein Source: CC-BY, RAHurd

Image by Becker1999 via flickr

Image by Becker1999 via flickr

They don’t have to earn the votes of people whose loyalty is without question. I don’t care that our first-to-the-post Electoral College system favors two major parties. I reject lesser-evilism. I’ll vote Jill Stein in hopes that the Green Party reaches 5% and earns matching federal funds. And I’ll continue to fight against Hillary Clinton’s neoliberal agenda every step of the way.

Roger Goodell is Terrible

Roger Goodell is a terrible commissioner.

kam_chancellor_vs-_rams_2014howard_cosell_1975To be clear: that he is terrible at his job has no bearing on whether he will keep it. Football reigns supreme atop the sports mountain. Superhuman athletes adorned with body armor and shiny head-gear collide at high rates of speed. Time in between allow time to break down individual plays for the viewer. Story-lines are easily followed with weekly  held contests. Which are held on the weekend, until the eyes of the nation unite on Monday night. Fantasy games make each and every contest from coast to caost – not just the home team – of great import. And of course, the addictive nature of gambling.

mini_mite_redskins_defeat_dolphins_141025-m-th981-001The game of football is great shape, and will remain so until American culture views each and every play as cumulative, sub-concussive trauma resulting in permanent cognitive effects on the players. That’s the only way for mothers to keep their sons from playing or their husbands from watching. Until then, the money will be substantial, and poor kids will keep playing in search of a better life. And that’s great – I love football!

In a sense, Roger Goodell’s only job is keeping the whole concussion thing under wraps. But that has more to do with the long-term health of the sport. And his title is not Caretaker of the Sport. He is the Commissioner of the NFL. His employers are the 32 team owners. They are not caretakers either (well the Maras or the Rooneys, but I digress).

Dan Snyder

Dan Snyder

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Team ownership has evolved over time. It used to be that wealthy individuals, such as newspaper owners, would purchase teams as status symbols. It was understood that yearly profits from operating teams were relatively minimal; the real money was in eventually cashing out on the sale given the strength of the brand. That dynamic has completely changed. Today, most owners are in it because they’ve made billions in business, and they expect the same yearly profits and on the field success from their teams. And now they’re the buying newspapers as status symbols.

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Jerry Jones

In that sense, Roger Goodell’s only job is to keep the money rolling in. League revenue is roughly $13b/yr and the least valued team is worth approximately $1.4b. The owners are mostly old, white, wealthy, Republicans who gladly pay Roger Goodell $40m/yr to take their lumps all the way to a 28% approval rating.

It’s well deserved.

The initial portrayal of Roger Goodell was of a longtime league employee and understudy of Paul Tagliabue. The first decision which brought scrutiny was Spygate. The New England Patriots had been caught filming their opponents’ (Jets and Packers, at least) sideline signals from the stands during a game. They were accused of systematically matching plays to illegally obtained footage of signals which were memorized in the week leading up to the game by a designated individual in order to decipher the opposing team’s plays in real time during games.

bob_kraft-george_bush-bill_belichickPatriot owner Robert Kraft was a league heavyweight. Craft and Coach Bill Belichick had led the team to three league championships (and were accused of spying on Rams practices in 2002). Throwing a dynasty into question would be crippling, if not a death knell, for a league.

Goodell ordered the evidence destroyed. Fines and a lost draft pick.

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Sean Payton

Then came Bountygate. The Saints were accused of rewarding players financially for big plays and hits. The practice was technically banned, though it was a long held league-wide practice and the rewards were often from the proceeds of player-led kangaroo courts. Coach Sean Payton was suspended for an entire season. Anthony Hargrove’s career was unjustly taken from him.

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Jim Irsay

Though there have been no work-stoppages, Goodell and the players maintain a strained relationship. The contracts are not guaranteed, so injury can mean financial ruin. The league has demanded unilateral powers for the commissioner in bargaining agreements. Goodell is seen to have a firm hand with the players, and uneven in other areas. Craft and Jim Irsay, for instance.

monday_night_football_game_121210-n-bj178-322The league forces players hand when it comes to press access and interviews. The league uses the military and breast cancer awareness as props. Yet they are unbending on player expression when it comes to celebrations and tributes on their cleats.

ricky_williamsThe NFL will unflinchingly discard players for the use of cannabis. Ricky Williams had a rapper for an agent and signed a questionable contract, and they took all his money back for using cannabis. Josh Gordon had one of the best seasons at wide receiver in league history at 22, and his on the field career may’ve sadly ended at 23 – because of the way the NFL under Roger Goodell treats the use of cannabis.

ray_rice_smiling_100817-f-8678h-031In contrast, when video of Ray Rice dragging his unconscious wife out of an elevator and callously stepping over her, the response of the NFL was to suspend him for two games. The man knocked his wife out cold in public! And the league gave him seemingly the least punishment possible. When video emerged of the incident Rice was suspended indefinitely (and the league kept selling ladies versions of the batterers’ jersey). Only when faced with public backlash did Goodell take the matter seriously. And in his haste brought about by his own ineptitude, Goodell went above his authority and punished Rice a second time for a single crime (and we learned the league had the elevator footage the entire time).

a-_peterson_2013It fits a pattern. Adrian Peterson was initially to receive a two-game suspension; until pictures emerged of the welts on his children and he was instead suspended a full season.

tom_brady_vs-_vikings_2014The league, owners, and Goodell will go to the Supreme Court to exert their authority. Deflategate may have been on purpose. The Patriots have a long history of shenanigans. But it had zero to do with their trouncing of the Colts in the playoffs. Tom Brady was suspended for four games for slightly deflated balls no one ever cared about before or since. Greg Hardy threatened a woman’s life and threw her on a bed covered in guns; he received the same four-game punishment.

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Josh Brown

It’s just another example of in a long line of questionable Goodell decisions – one after another. He claims he has learned from his missteps in regards to domestic violence and proportional punishment. He’s proclaimed a standard six-game suspension. Yet Josh Brown was given a one-game suspension.

Colin Kaepernick is reviled and scorned. Yet Josh Brown – who admitted years ago to treating his wife like a slave and viewing himself as her god – is called a good man by the team owner and given seemingly the least punishment possible.

image by au kirk via wikimedia commmons cc-by-2.0

Once again, public backlash has pressured the league into doing the right thing. Josh Brown will likely never play again. He’s had a long and financially beneficial career at 38. Like Rice, his skills have eroded to the point he is no longer worth the hassle. Hardy was welcomed back because they still viewed his talents as worthy – so he returned until his skills rendered him expendable. Because the league, and Roger Goodell, don’t really think domestic violence is a threat to their brand.

josh_gordon_2014_browns_training_camp_3

Josh Gordon

But cannabis and social justice issues? Conservative owners have no time for that. So Josh Gordon is exiled and Colin Kaepernick is compared to Rae Carruth. And Roger Goodell makes $40m/yr to take their lumps.

Email Leaks Prompt Hillary to Ratchet Up Cold War Rhetoric

Hillary Clinton is dangerous.

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Pinochet & Kissinger

She was the leading Democratic advocate for the Iraq War. Yet that alone did not compel war criminals Henry Kissinger & John Negroponte to endorse her candidacy for president:

She supported the 2009 Honduras coup which caused enough violence to result in a refugee crisis we shamefully & simultaneously ignored & fear-mongered. Libya is a shambles since the assassination of Gaddafi, which Hillary supported and defiantly insists is a success story. She supports opposing sides of the civil war in Syria. She threatened to attack Iran. Her position on Israel/Palestine is to the right of every single current and former US president.

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Senator Joseph McCarthy

Rather than confront the substance of leaked emails, Hillary, her campaign, and much of a parroting corporate media are employing McCarthy-ite, Red Scare antics. They are waving the contents off as Russian propaganda unworthy of dissemination. Those reporting on the damning leaks have been castigated as complicit agents of the Kremlin.

David Sirota

David Sirota

Just the New York Times, the Intercept, The Young Turks, the International Business Times, and a few others are reporting the leaks without caveat.

Despite Wikileaks’ 100% record of authenticity – and Clinton’s own admission of the emails’ authenticity during a presidential debate – the Podesta leaks have been brushed off by Clinton surrogates as Kremlin-doctored fakes.

Worse, Cold War flames are being fanned for partisan & personal political gain. Without providing a single bit of evidence, Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama have accused Russia of meddling in our presidential election. They are claiming that Donald Trump, Vladamir Putin, and Julian Assange are in cahoots to undermine Hillary’s ascent to power. And that Russia is behind all of the hacks –Hillary’s campaign staff emails, the DNC, and dozens of state voter databases.

Here’s their case: Guccifer 2.0, who claimed responsibility, is Romanian (Russia-adjacent?). The hacker(s) utilized tactics used by Russian hackers in the past. Ex-KGB Agent Putin is the marionette of dimwitted Trump, who is vulnerably indebted to Russian banks, having been black-balled for defrauding many in the US. Trump-henchman Roger Stone has ties to Julian Assange of Wikileaks, who clearly has disdain for Hillary.

Julian Assange

Julian Assange

Also, Assange lost journalistic free speech rights when he conspired to hold onto the emails for maximum impact on the presidential election, and thus should face extradition (or worse). John Kerry didn’t pressure Ecuador to cut his internet. John Podesta is a private citizen whose privacy was violated. And Russia committed a cyber attack against the US.

Whether any or all of that is accurate – given WMDs & the Gulf of Tonkin their claims deserve scrutiny – is completely separate from the substance of the emails. No one cares that the Pentagon Papers were stolen. Or Donald Trump’s tax returns.

john_podesta_before_the_u-s-_senateJohn Podesta – of the Podesta Group, the third most influential lobbying group in the world – is one of the most powerful men in the world.

Hillary Clinton is on the verge of becoming the Leader of the Free World.

While I personally disagree with Wikileaks’ publishing of everything up to and including Podesta’s risotto recipe, many revelations in the emails are of great public import and very much need daylight.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz Source: CC-BY, US Congress

Debbie Wasserman Schultz

After all, former-DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was pressured to resign as result of the DNC hack. She used her political position to tilt the primary election against Senator Bernie Sanders (before going back to work for Hillary’s campaign).

The American public were shown proof that Hillary’s State Department gave political favors, such as ambassadorships and approval of arms deals, to Clinton Foundation donors.

donna_brazile_1

Donna Brazile

The Podesta leaks continue to roll out by the thousands. We’ve thus far learned that Hillary was provided, in advance, a primary debate question by CNN contributor and now-interim DNC Chair Donna Brazile.

We see the Clinton camp feeding stories to friendly journos and being given final approval of stories in advance; and given interview questions in advance with final approval.

There is evidence of illegal coordination between the Clinton campaign and pro-Hillary super PACs Correct the Record and Priorities USA Action.

Hillary assured Wall Street executives that her public stances do not necessarily reflect her real, private positions which she shares with her fellow monied elites.

Hillary, along with her surrogates in the media and her online army of mercenary trolls, do not wish to deal with uncomfortable truths about their favored candidate. Rather, they obfuscate and saber-rattle.

This is extremely dangerous and will have effects long outlasting this particular political campaign. An adversarial relationship with Russia is the path toward mutually assured destruction. We’ve been (rightly) accusing each other of human rights abuses and war crimes. Our plutonium reprocessing deal was cancelled. Our Syrian cease-fire was broken.

Ronald Reagan promised Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not move an inch toward Russia. In a bold move of aggression, we offered NATO membership to Russia’s neighbor Ukraine. Estonia and Latvia are already NATO aligned. We essentially occupy the Russian border. We are in a constant state of reverse-Cuban Missile Crisis and most Americans don’t seem to know or care.

trump Tronald_DumpDonald Trump is a fascist mad-man. He says Japan & Saudi Arabia should have nukes. He may be a belligerent bumbler, but he is not actively pushing for WWIII. Trump says he wants to work with Putin to defeat ISIS (Daesh). We cannot work with them while busily fear-mongering and threatening retaliation. Let them burn their money bombing peace into the Middle East for a while – we could use a break.

Hillary wants a no-fly zone in Syria, enforcement of which would require boots on the ground. Besides, Daesh doesn’t have any planes in Syria – they don’t have any planes at all. Russia does. Would Hillary have us shoot down a Russian pilot and instigate Word War III for inevitably violating a nonsensical no-fly zone in Syria?

Hillary Clinton has called for a military response to a cyber attack. They are calling these leaks a cyber attack and blaming Russia! Thanks to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, we are closer to nuclear war than at any time in at least a generation.

The Cold War is resurrected. For political expediency.

Echo Chambers: A Brief History of US Media

We live in a society where conservatives and progressives have differing sets of facts. It’s not just a matter of interpretation – such as why it is that black people are incarcerated and unemployed at higher rates. We cannot agree on basic facts like what the unemployment rate really is.

The cause is plainly obvious: We live in separate echo chambers in which we consume our news from sources that reinforce our political biases. We eliminate sources which disagree with our partisan beliefs and become intellectually siloed.

 

Tolstoy

Tolstoy

The solution is also obvious: Don’t do that. Consume news from sources with which you generally disagree. (If only to hear the other side of the argument so you know how to respond in a debate setting.)

kim_kardashian_4Thankfully, we have the whole of human knowledge at our fingertips. It’s on us whether to read Tolstoy or to Keep Up with the Kardashians.

Cronkite

Cronkite

If we want to be politically informed it’s not easy since there are no widely trusted sources. There are most-watched cable news networks and programs. There are most-viewed websites and youtube.com channels. But we no longer have newsmen (and women) like Walter Cronkite who we believed would portray the news honestly. So we retreat to our echo chambers.

How did we get here?

Joseph Pulitzer & William Randolph Hearst

Joseph Pulitzer & William Randolph Hearst

The first thing to understand is that the Cronkite-era trusted news source was an anomaly. We’ve had freedom of the press since the inception of our nation. But when the 1st Amendment was written all of the news was politically biased. Print media was partisan seemingly by definition. Sensationalized yellow journalism came about in the late 1800’s.

When television sets invaded our homes we demanded that in exchange for the privilege of utilizing our publicly owned airwaves networks were required to broadcast an hour of factual news. They were required to feature topical political matters in a truthful manner – completely separate from entertainment. It was understood that broadcast networks would take a loss for an hour of public service in exchange for using our publicly owned utility. In doing so, they slowly earned our trust.

On the other hand …

In the 1950’s Sylvester Weaver of NBC created Today, a chummy morning show which was…newsy. ABC & CBS eventually responded in the 1970’s with their own newsy morning shows in Good Morning America & This Morning, respectively. Local news stations had been raking in cash with sensationalized if it bleeds it leads news since the 1960’s. Then, Don Hewitt of CBS created 60 Minutes. It was the first prime-time news program to turn a profit. It utilized a formula of journalists as protagonists. Soon, Roone Arledge of ABC News provided competition in 20/20 & Nightline. Cable and CNN then emerged in the 1980’s. GE bought NBC and the news media which informs our public was fully morphed into a profit-driven venture.

No longer did we have a Big Three of trusted networks with trusted anchors. Suddenly there was a glut of options, creating stiff competition for eyes and ad dollars.

Bill Clinton statue in Ballybunion, Ireland

Bill Clinton statue in Ballybunion, Ireland

Thankfully, we had laws restricting ownership of media. A person or company could own print media or network media in a given market, not both. As such, our media was provided by dozens of sources. Until President Bill Clinton deregulated the media with the Telecommunications Act, which brought about media consolidation. Today, ninety percent of our media – from newspapers and magazines and books to movies and television – is owned by six corporations: Comcast, Viacom, CBS, Time Warner, Disney, and News-Corp.

Roger Ailes

Roger Ailes

We used to trust our media and it used to serve us well. Brutal images of the Vietnam War caused public backlash and compelled us to eventually pull out. The Watergate scandal was exposed by Woodward & Bernstein, and finally hitched to President Richard Nixon by David Frost. Nixon, (along with media consultant Roger Ailes) realized that public opinion could be molded by creating entire news packages which mainstream news media would faithfully display unedited on their behalf.

Ailes expanded that model with Fox News. MSNBC emerged in kind.

Jimmy Dore

Jimmy Dore

leno-obamaToday, cable and network news personalities pretend to play it down the middle – the Leno model, as imitated by Jimmy Fallon. He says the sky is red, she says the sky is blue – I guess we’ll never know! They’ve traded objectivity for neutrality. In doing so, they’ve squandered any and all credibility.  Our news anchors have become mannequinian script-readers who hope only not to offend by telling an uncomfortable truth or admitting to having an informed opinion.

They cannot offend any audience lest they lose ratings. They cannot offend any politician lest they lose access. They cannot offend any ad buyer lest they lose their platform.

So we flock to the internet. The multinational corporations funding television haven’t yet figured out how to monetize social media or web-based news. And we still have net-neutrality, for the time being, so that those in power are not able to slow access to unfavorable sites.

Ben Franklin in a fur hat

Ben Franklin in a fur hat

We have the ability to seek out reliable and varied news sources. We have the responsibility of being an informed citizen and voter. We have the luxury of self-governance – if we can keep it.

“Free” Country

The United States is neither a free country nor a democracy. As we are reminded quadrennially, we elect our president not by popular vote but with the electoral college system. We pretend to vote for president while we are actually voting for a delegate who then votes – hopefully – on our behalf. Same with our governing system – we elect officials who theoretically act in the interest of the people they represent.

Unfortunately, our democracy has been lost. A recent Princeton/Northwestern study showed that the will of the people is reflected in public policy only when the wealthy happen to agree. A country whose laws are determined solely by the opinions of the wealthy is not a democracy but an oligarchy. As such, our laws are written – whether in the letter of the law or in practice – to protect those in power & defend the status quo.

We are loyal worker bees who sit patiently at red traffic lights at 3am when no traffic is present out of fear we’ll be caught and ticketed by law enforcement, yet those in power have little fear of legal woes. Poor folks are locked away in privatized debtors’ prisons, while the wealthy go scot-free. Prosecutors overcharge and threaten maximum sentences to coerce poor suspects into taking plea deals while the wealthy employ pricey lawyers to flout our unjust system of criminal justice.

President Ronald Reagan Source:  By Dino at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

President Ronald Reagan Source: By Dino at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

We celebrate Christopher Columbus – a guy who wrote with braggadocio about how easily he raped and murdered in the “New World.” We put a genocidal maniac (Andrew Jackson) on our twenty dollar bill. Not only did Richard Nixon go uncharged for his felonious role in the Watergate scandal – he should have been executed for high treason for negotiating to keep the Vietnam War going until he was president. Henry Kissinger & John Negroponte were never held accountable for death squadsgenocide, and toppling governments. Oliver North went to jail for his role in Iran/CONTRA, but only as Ronald Reagan’s eager fall-guy.

George_obamaGeorge W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Colon Powell – all should have been jailed for lying us into an illegal war of unprovoked aggression in Iraq. Barack Obama, in explaining why he would not hold investigations of the Iraq War architects, argued that we should look forward – as though crimes are only committed in the future and past criminal activity should be forgiven on general principle.

Image by GageSkidmore via wikimediacommons

Image by GageSkidmore via wikimediacommons

Obama himself is hoping to not be investigated for the callous murder of civilians with our drone army. Rod Blagoyavich went to prison for trying to sell Obama’s vacated senate seat – yet no one is investigating Hillary Clinton for handing ambassadorships to political/foundation donors. No one is investigating Donald Trump for using his foundation to duck taxes and pay his legal fees, or using campaign funds to enrich his personal businesses.

Jamie Dimon

Jamie Dimon

Wall Street brought the entire world economy to its knees with their fraudulent activities; HSBC was caught laundering money for drug cartels. Yet the only person who went to jail was Bernie Madoff – a guy who made the grave mistake of scamming fellow rich people. Wells Fargo fired 5000 hourly-wage salespeople while multimillionaire executives escaped unblemished. We knowingly bombed a Doctors Without Borders hospital for an hour despite distress calls and we blamed low-level servicemen for “procedural” errors.

We live in a country where a black man (Eric Garner) can be choked to death for suspicion of selling loose cigarettes, yet a rich white kid is given probation for killing four stranded people (including a pastor) with a stolen car while drunkenly driving following a beer-run (affluenza teen Eric Couch). We lock people away for the victim-less crime of smoking cannabis while pharmaceutical companies are allowed to bribe doctors to push their drugs off-label, resulting in an epidemic of heroin overdoses among former opioid prescribees.

Our free country features a secretive government which uses executive privilege, white papers, and over-classification to shield public policy from public knowledge. Our free country features one quarter of the entire worlds’ prison population. Our free country institutionalizes racism in the form of our racial profiling, our racist drug war, racist stop & frisk, racist broken windows, racist mandatory minimums (crack/powder cocaine disparity).

Our Bill of Rights is an utter sham:

ferguson111st Amendment: Politicians brazenly flaunt their disregard for the separation of church/state. We explicitly promote Christianity on our money. We profile Muslims at our airports and deny them permits for houses of worship. We imprison journalists and whistle-blowers who expose government wrong-doing. We label protests unsanctioned by the government as “unlawful assemblies.”

Snowden_ASYL_(15186216900)4th Amendment: Our government spies on our communications without warrant – all of our emails, phone calls, text messages, social media, chat rooms… They use our webcams and video game consoles to watch and listen to us. The FBI writes National Security Letters to itself when it wants to violate the constitution. The NSA goes to a secretive FISA court to get classified rulings on mass surveillance.

5th & 6th Amendments: We suspended habeas corpus so we can lock people away without charge – people who are not allowed to face their accusers, let alone at a speedy trial before their peers.

ferguson10Abu_Ghraib_538th Amendment: Not only do we torture prisoners of war, we torture our own people. Our government purposely murders its own citizens with lethal injection – sometimes with hellfire missile via drone strike (Samir Khan, Anwar al-Awlaki, Abdul Rahman al-Awlaki, Jude Kenan Mohammad – sense a pattern?). We ravage the minds of our prisoners with solitary confinement. We thrust our prisoners into a gang culture where they are violently raped without recourse. Phone call costs are prohibitive. Pell Grants and all sorts of reading materials are banned. Prisoners often die from denied medical treatment. Cops kill unarmed citizens literally every single day without punishment. New York pays out millions every year in police brutality settlements; Chicago cops have a literal black site.

13th Amendment: We have private prisons with built-in factories paying pennies on the hour for the slave-labor of inmates.

WBC_protest14th Amendment: We refuse to provide equal protection to our LGBTQ communities (employment, housing, parental…), effectively rendering them second-class citizens.

15th Amendment: Voter suppression efforts run rampant across the nation, largely thanks to the SCOTUS’ gutting of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. We have voter purges (interstate crosscheck; felon bans), Voter ID laws, electioneers shuttering polling stations in minority communities, cutting early voting and the hours of operation on election day, giving false information to voters, threatening prosecution of voters, banning same-day registration,  utilizing provisional ballots which go uncounted…

We live in an unjust and imperfect country. Although we live in a nation of self-governance we’ve fully ceded the power of the people to plutocrats who’ve created differing sets of rules for the wealthy and for the masses. We must wrest control of our nation by political means before the blinding capitalistic greed of our ruling oligarchic elites set us on a downward spiral from which we cannot recognizably emerge.

Fight for $15 is Asking Nicely

statue5

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/File:Libertymendota.jpg#file

The US – as with our planet – is reaching a boiling point. For the first time in US history, kids are worse off than their parents. We can sense that the American Dream is a fantasy – whether or not we’re familiar with the term economic mobility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa6kdRuBYfA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa6kdRuBYfA

ferguson10Natives are being attacked by dogs & cops for protecting our water. Muslims & Hispanics have seen a spike in violent hate crimes. Blacks are being killed in the streets by cops who go unpunished while the first black president is delegitimized. Whites, nervous of browning demographics, are lashing out in economic frustration.

Donald_Trump_and_Boris_Johnson_Street_ArtSince our public education is shoddy, and society pressures us into being loyal worker bees, most of us don’t have the luxury of time to learn about economic & tax policy. So we vote for Trump (or Brexit in the UK) because we’re at our wit’s end with forty years of wage-stagnation and a recovery that hasn’t. And while we might not know the solution, we know that the status quo is the problem.

Donald_Trump_-_Riding_the_Wrecking_BallTrump has argued that American workers are paid too well, and questioned the very concept of a federal minimum wage. President Barack Obama has called for $10.10/hr, while Secretary Hillary Clinton has called for $12, and Bernie Sanders has led the Fight for $15. Had the federal minimum wage kept up with inflation & increased productivity since the 1960s, it would be roughly $22/hr today. Having been raised but once in twenty years it sits at a paltry $7.25. Since $7.25 doesn’t cover the cost of living anywhere in the country, the government subsidizes corporations paying slave-wages with food stamps & welfare.

The_Subsidised_MineownerThat fifteen dollar difference is still being made, mind you; it’s just going into the pockets of our corporate overlords. It’s essentially being stolen from us. Since we’re nice people we’ll split the difference and take $15/hr. We’ll do it gradually over a number of years, giving small businesses more time to adapt, with consideration of the urban/rural cost of living disparity, and tied to inflation so we don’t have this fight every ten years.

bern14But the truth is…$15 isn’t enough. $22 isn’t enough. Free college & single-payer aren’t enough. If the US is to climb out of this death spiral we will require guaranteed basic income. We already do it in Alaska. We should have a negative income tax rather than simply expanding Social Security to everyone – though it’ll be more difficult politically. But it must be done.

war at all costsMillennials, who’ve known nothing but war time & economic despair, favor socialism over capitalism. The truth is that every country maintains a balance. We have Social Security and public roads, but we don’t take over entire industries. Even when working toward universal healthcare, we forced people into the private, for-profit health insurance market. Guaranteed basic income leaves capitalism intact. It simply ensures that everyone participates. It’s a compromise.

Paul_Ryan,_official_portrait,_111th_CongresskrugmanEveryone knows – from Pauls Ryan to Krugman – that the key to economic growth is getting money into the hands of more people so they can go out and spend it at local businesses which will have to hire more people who will have money in their hands… Rather than food stamps, welfare, section 8 – we should simply give people money for the necessities, plus enough disposable income as needed to keep the economy humming.

We’ll continue the transition from a manufacturing-based economy to a consumer-based one. Besides movies & music, all we make anymore are bombs & financial transactions – and those are done by robots & computers. Due to automation, globalization, corporate-authored free-trade deals, and the erosion of union rights – our manufacturing jobs have been disappeared (consciously). We’re being forced to compete with slave-labor in third world countries – and that’s a race to the bottom that cannot be won.

care-o-bot_grasping_an_object_on_the_table_5117071459Basic human greed & fiduciary responsibility to shareholders insist that we replace as many employees with machines as possible; dealing with humans will become a luxury of sorts. We already have driver-less Uber cars in Pittsburgh. We have restaurants with iPads for ordering and big box stores with self-checkout. Robots mimic chefs and construct bridges.

Atlas from Boston Dynamics

Atlas from Boston Dynamics

Kilobot swarm

Kilobot swarm

The robots won’t be taking over – since they can’t repair or create better versions of themselves – but they will be taking our jobs. Most of them, at least. And that’s a good thing. Automation increases productivity. We’ll free ourselves to do other jobs. We need more teachers and more doctors. We’ll still need people to write code & repair machines. We’ll need surgeons, counselors, police, engineers, architects, designers, chemists, scientists, theorists, writers, musicians, comedians, actors, inventors, entrepreneurs, investors…

We’ll still have people who are motivated by their desire to have the most and have the best. But rest assured – the robots (along with Indonesia & Bangladesh) are taking our jobs. And we can’t have hordes of jobless, homeless people wasting public resources getting arrested and sent to the emergency room every time they pass out drunk. There would be massive crime and open revolt. We need people to contribute as opposed to a drain on the economy. We don’t want people to turn to crime for the things humans desire. By giving people money to spend, they go out and buy things, thus contributing to the economy.

pregnant Geschenk_fig.1Quality of life: We’ll free ourselves to spend time with our families. We’ll end poverty & homelessness. We’ll remove the poverty-induced stress that leads to physical maladies and increased healthcare costs. We’ll have funds for nutritional foods and time to spend on physical activity. We’ll have time to pursue creative endeavors – the arts will flourish like never before. We’ll have time to ponder and explore. We’ll provide entrepreneurs a fertile market in which to sell their wares. We’ll be healthier and happier and we’ll remain an economic superpower.

We just have to stand up and demand it.

twilight_zone_optical-svgOr, we can continue the status quo. Forty years of wage stagnation can turn to 50 and 60 years, our economy can grind to a halt, and we won’t be able to afford our costly military anymore – let alone address climate change. Wealth inequity can keep the rich getting richer and economic immobility can result in a permanent class of elites.

us_productivity_and_real_wagesThing is, no one explicitly says they want to cater to the wealthy and punish the poor. Donald Trump and Paul Ryan want to reduce poverty and grow the economy. But their solution is more of the same supply-side, trickle-down Reaganomics we’ve been trying for 35 years. Thirty-five years which coincide with the divorce of wages from productivity.

Volunteers_of_America_Soup_Kitchen_WDCWe must stop pretending that businesses hire people out of the kindness of their non-existent hearts. We must get money into the hands of regular people instead of lavishing the wealthy with more tax cuts. We must use our vast consumer base as leverage to enforce our economic & tax policies rather than simply a natural resource to be exploited by multinational corporations. We must learn from our mistakes and strive to replicate our successes.

the_protectors_of_our_industrieschild_labour_cartoon_hine_no_2871Corporations took over the country post-Civil War. We had robber barons & child-labor & labor organizers being murdered. Then the Great Depression. In response, FDR implemented Keynesian economic policy, social insurance programs, labor protections, and reigned in reckless behavior of financial institutions. The top federal income tax rate was between 70-94% for the forty years between the mid-1930s and ‘70s. The American Dream was alive & well and was a product of public policy.

Reagan_BoraxoSince Reagan, the top tax rate hasn’t gotten back to 40%. People who make money having money pay a lower rate than wage earners. CEOs used to earn a handful or a dozen times that of the lowest paid worker – now they take home thousands of times the average worker. Scant inheritance tax creates a dynastic, unmotivated ruling class. They hide their wealth from taxation in offshore accounts. Corporations have trillions in profits stashed overseas as well, biding their time in expectation of yet another repatriation tax holiday. They pull fancy accounting tricks like the double Irish and the corporate inversion. Corporate taxes used to represent a third of US tax revenue. They now pay roughly one tenth due to our insufficient effective corporate tax rate.
Eric_Holder_official_portraitWe’ve gutted IRS funding, slashing the number of agents who investigate corporations & rich folks cheating on their taxes. The FEC is at a stalemate, so lax campaign finance violations go unpunished. The DoJ has determined banksters too big to jail. We allow multinational corporations to pollute our atmosphere and our waterways – privatizing the gains while socializing the losses. We found trillions for war in the Middle East but we can’t get clean water to poor black folks Flint, Michigan.

Lewis Powell Source: CC-BY, Library of Congress

Lewis Powell Source: CC-BY, Library of Congress

The elites have fixed the system so well that it’s broken. The Supreme Court decided, through a string of disastrous decisions, that money is speech & corporations are people so political bribery = free speech. The dam was broken in the late-Seventies with Buckley v Valeo followed by Bellotti – then exacerbated recently with Citizens United and McCutcheon. Amoral corporations and immoral, wealthy donors are our politicians’ real constituents. They used public policy to usher in a massive upward wealth redistribution.

George_obamaWall Street was deregulated as the laws which protected us from their irresponsibility and greed were removed. Financial institutions created a mortgage bubble using predatory lending practices, packaging loans they knew to be worthless as gold, and betting against the market. The homes they didn’t foreclose lost significant value and the world economy was brought to its proverbial knees. Instead of making homeowners whole & jailing criminal & fraudulent banksters we rewarded them with hundreds of billions in a tax payer-funded bailout.

We’ve enjoyed 70-plus months of artificially enhanced growth featuring $80b in quantative easing and near-zero interest rates – a record period of growth that will inevitably come to a halt. The stock market has doubled and the unemployment rate halved, but literally all of the gains since the Great Recession have gone to the top one percent.

Jamie Dimon

Jamie Dimon

Unfortunately, we still haven’t addressed the cause of the last crash – they’re still allowed to gamble with our deposits and our mortgages. Now they’ve caused bubbles gambling with our vehicle and student loans. We haven’t done a thing to address our regressive tax policy, strengthen labor rights, encourage small businesses, or get money into the hands of consumers.

Image by GageSkidmore via wikimediacommons

Image by GageSkidmore via wikimediacommons

Both Trump and Clinton would further supply-side, trickle-down economic policy. Neither would reign in Wall Street nor address money in politics. One would jail journalists, round up minorities, intentionally target civilians with our military, and cavalierly threaten nuclear first-strikes in response to verbal barbs. The other would protect the domestic status quo at all costs and actively pursue World War III against (China,) Russia and Iran.

occupy wake upWe were asking nicely with Bernie Sanders and the powers that be tilted the scales. We are again asking nicely with the Fight for $15. And we’ll keep on asking until we fulfill the promise of a more perfect union.

mlkarrestMLK said that “pent-up resentments” and “latent frustration” must have release. “If his repressed emotions are not released in non-violent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history.”

Thankfully, our founders wrote revolution into our constitution. They picked up arms so we wouldn’t have to. But we must use the tools given us. Self-governance is both a serious responsibility and an amazing opportunity to create an egalitarian and equitable society. We cannot abdicate our duties, we must wrest our nation from the clutches of the oligarchs if we are to remain a free people and advance this great nation.

Hillary Underestimates Hatred of the Corporation

Donald_Trump_-_Riding_the_Wrecking_BallHillary Clinton, perplexed with news she was tied in recent polling with Donald Trump, lamented that she should be ahead by 50 points. This comical bit of hubris embodies perfectly the degree to which elites are disconnected from the American psyche. This disassociation is mirrored in the media, who initially scoffed, and remain befuddled, at the success of the Trump campaign. They flail away, pointing their fingers this way and that, looking for someone, anyone to blame: Fox News echo-chamber, dog-whistling politicians, racist rednecks, lefty-journos and Bernie Sanders for revealing Hillary’s flaws, Jill Stein for existing, those darned Millennials for not falling in line like they should… anyone but Hillary Clinton.

brian_williams_2012_shankbonePeople like David Brooks & Paul Krugman, Brian Williams & Geraldo Rivera, Mitch McConnell & Nancy Pelosi frequent the same fine dining establishments. They share elevator rides and their young attend the same private schools. They pat each others’ backs & chortle away over vichyssoise & beaujolais. Merrily, life is but a dream. The only regular people they deal with on a daily basis are low-wage workers who chuckle & grimace their way through awkward encounters.

uncle samWe grew up being sold an American Dream that meant we could have a picket fence, send our kids to cheap college, and retire in comfort -provided we put in the effort. We may not know the hows or whys, but we know that the American Dream is now a fantasy. We’ been beaten down and squeezed to the point of bursting. Yet the elites in their ivory towers remain blind to our frustration and the extent of our outrage at them for embezzling our nation’s wealth while feigning oblivion. Hillary Clinton represents, more than anything else, the status quo (and corruption and opacity and entitlement and…). While Donald Trump may be a bigoted buffoon, he’s anything but status quo. He is – as was Brexit – Do I have your attention now?!?

So yeah, the deficit has been halved under Obama. The unemployment rate, too. And the stock market has doubled. Wage growth last year was unseen in half a century. But following 40 years of wage stagnation; following the Great Recession and a recovery that has only reached the upper earners – we remain unswayed by abstract numbers which do not equate to our day-to-day experience.

Comcast-Time_Warner_Cable_LogoWe deal with Comcast on a daily basis, which raises rates 5%/yr on average. Poor folk like me invest upward of 20hr/yr on the phone with customer service & the loyalty department threatening disconnect unless promotional rates are applied. They take notes and make promises that the next agent somehow has no record of. They lie and obfuscate – anything to get you off the phone. We have to pay for a hundred channels when we only watch ten. Music Television doesn’t play music. The History Channel doesn’t show history. I never actually get the download speeds the tests show I should. The wireless connection is constantly interrupted. Thanks to government deregulation and lax oversight, they enjoy an effective monopoly with little incentive to improve service (let alone customer service). It used to be illegal to own a news paper and a television station in the same market. Thanks to the Telecommunications Act (Bill Clinton), 90% of all US media is owned by six (6!) companies who control the narrative and feed us lies. I hate corporate media. I hate Comcast.

Eff_spying_eagle

Image by Comcast Corporation via Public Domain

I hate the phone company. Like the cable company, I never get the data speeds I’m supposed and my device perpetually loses connectivity. On top of insanely expensive smart phones, the monthly rate is ridiculous. Again, there are only a few phone companies, so they can easily collude to keep prices high while providing terrible service. And they’re quick to hand over our phone records to the government without warrant. The marionettes pulling the strings of our spineless politicians won’t spend the money to bury the power lines, let alone fiber optic internet so we don’t have to worry about roaming charges, identifying wi-fi passwords, or searching for faint signals from unsightly cell phone towers.

Monsanto_condensed_death_soup©herve_joseph_lebrunI hate the grocery store. Soda is cheap but dairy products and meat is expensive. They pump the animals full of antibiotics for more product, leaving us susceptible to disease. We spray pesticides that kill the bees. Our method of commercial farming kills the soil. We have ag-gag laws which make it a criminal offense to record our mistreatment of animals. They are fed corn & soy since that is what is subsidized by the government (ie cheapest). As such, high-fructose corn syrup is in everything we eat, from ketchup to white bread. The labels on our food don’t mean anything. Half the seafood pulled from our polluted waters is mislabeled. Words like natural and organic have little meaning. Expiration dates are meant to trick us into throwing things away early and buying new. We’ve been convinced that GMOs are the devil, but they won’t put those on the labels.

martin_shkreli_house_committee_on_oversight_and_government_reform_2016I hate going to the doctor. It takes forever to be seen. Might be out of network. Insurance company got plenty money for ads but they’ll find an excuse not to cover the cost of my medical expenses. The hospital charges a whole box for a single tissue, but I never read the bill since the insurance covered it. Martin Shkreli and the jerks who jacked-up the price of Epi-Pens are price-gouging us. US Patents keep poor people from accessing relatively cheap generic drugs. It’s illegal to bring cheap prescription drugs from Canada or Mexico. Big Pharma bribes politicians to keep a prohibition on natural remedies. The government (Medicare, Medicaid…) isn’t allowed to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for cheaper prescription drug prices. Big Pharma pays millions for ads telling us to beg our doctor for drugs we don’t need. They bribe doctors to prescribe drugs off-label. We get addicted to pain meds and wind up addicted to heroin when the insurance runs out. We turn our kids into drugged-out zombies. We got granddads walking around with drug-induced stiffies. We pay twice what our EU allies pay for healthcare, which is not guaranteed, and the debt for which you cannot personally go bankrupt.

cabot_house_hdrI hate college. Tuition keep rising & rising while state governments keep cutting funds for state schools. Books are crazy expensive. I can get loans, but the cost is so prohibitive I’ll be paying for decades. Those monies could be going toward a car or a house, instead they fund new buildings and stadiums since universities are non-profits. And like healthcare costs, I can’t be unburdened of the debt through bankruptcy.

female_brown_pelican_being_rinsed_following_extensive_cleaning_at_the_theodore_oiled_bird_rehabilitation_center_in_alabama-_5015288134Exxon OilCleanupAfterValdezSpillI hate the gas station. The price is based upon the whims of oil speculators, stock market fluctuations, and the dictators controlling OPEC. We’ve been subsidizing oil companies for a century. We’ve been at war in the Middle East for decades to keep the Strait of Hormuz running smoothly. We’re killing ourselves with carbon emissions, despite having electric cars around for a century. Tesla sells electric cars, but owners of dealerships selling competing brands of vehicles bribed politicians in states like Texas & New Jersey to ban Tesla’s business model of direct sales to consumers. Because free market. We could have high speed trains like Japan, but we barely fund our shoddy public transportation since poor people use it.

charging bullPerhaps most of all, I hate the bank. Swipe or insert? We’re going through this clunky transition, but without requiring a PIN our system still won’t be as secure as our EU allies. They got fees for every little thing: too few transactions or too low an average daily balance. They charge us fees just to access to our own money. They hold onto our money for us day after day, but the second we overcharge by a few bucks they tax us to death. I’ve had bad experiences that led me to close accounts with every bank I’ve ever used. Heritage Bank turned a $200 bounced check into a -$1800 balance. Key Bank turned my balance into a debt with fees when I was away at Basic. Wells Fargo put a 15-day hold on my payroll check (which I cashed there every two weeks) because it “looked washed.” America’s Credit Union emptied my checking account, then savings, then closed them both because I left them idle for 180 days. Chase Bank charged me monthly fees when I switched jobs and direct deposit hadn’t yet kicked in. Key Bank (yes, again) would only give me $100 of my paycheck for the weekend…

Jamie Dimon

James Dimon

That’s just my personal experience. Instead of pensions, we have 401(k)s which are nickel-and-dimed with fees and subject to market fluctuations. We all saw the banks bring the entire world economy to its knees with their irresponsible, brazen, and fraudulent behavior. They practiced predatory lending, then sold bad, bundled loans as gold and bet against the market. Our homes lost their value and were foreclosed by banks. And instead of rescuing the economy by making home-owners whole, we bailed out Wall Street. Instead of locking Jamie Dimon in jail, he is paraded before a congress eager to provide a verbal fellating. The LIBOR scandal showed financial institutions were manipulating the entire world’s interest rates – and no one went to jail. HSBC was caught knowingly laundering hundreds of millions in cartel drug money – no one went to jail. Wells Fargo executives wanted to brag about sales figures so they pressured low-wage sales people into using the identities of their customers to set up fake accounts. Employees who complained of the practice were fired. Those who did as they were told were eventually scapegoated and fired. The CEO and the shareholders and the executives made their millions. No one went to jail. If the institution is fined, it will be a pittance relative to their quarterly profits, and since they write half of the fine off in taxes the rest of us pay for their criminal activity on both ends.

And as anyone who has been employed by the corporation surely knows – I hate my job. After three years at my first job I was fired, not for anything in particular, but because they were “sick of dealing with me.” I was fired from a job on my second anniversary with a store, for stealing a shirt that had been in the lost & found for weeks. I was two minutes late, was later sick on both Tuesday & Wednesday, and was fired since those consecutive work days fell on separate work weeks. I was once fired a week into an entry-level job for not having enough experience. I was once fired from a bar because two people I didn’t even know got into a fight when I wasn’t even there. I was once fired before I even started because my credit score was too low. I was once let go for breaking my finger at work. I’ve quit jobs over verbally abusive, and inept, management, over a lack of hours, over being transferred, over nearly severing my Achilles the first day…

We hate jobs that don’t pay enough to afford the rent. We hate jobs that won’t give us enough hours, or doesn’t give raises, or doesn’t tell you when you work until the last minute. We hate jobs that pay via prepaid debit cards. We hate nonsensical dress-codes and grooming standards that customers could care less about. We hate promotions with minuscule raises.

We hate cubicles. We hate meetings. We hate after-work emails.

Revolving_Door_SignWe hate the corporation. We hate the establishment. We hate the status quo. We hate bureaucracy. We hate crony capitalism & revolving doors. We hate congress. We hate both Democrats and Republicans. We hate the fascistic shyster who plays footsie white supremacists. We hate the neoliberal who touts the endorsements of war criminals, Jeb! donors, and cross-party establishmentarians.

James Brady - Brady Bill namesake

James Brady – Brady Bill namesake

Despite all they’ve done to our great nation – yet and still – the elites looking down their noses at us rabble wonder why it is that they are so widely despised.

Flashing Lights More Frightening Than a Gun to the Head

I knew the scum in my home with a gun to my head was there for what he was there for and would be on his way as quickly as possible. Sure, the guy was dumb enough to think stick-up kid a valid life choice, but I figured (perhaps stupidly) that he wouldn’t be dumb enough to think he’d get away with murder – he just wanted a little come-up. It went down in an apartment complex and there was a witness (who I suspect was in on it, but what was I really going to do – I’m no criminal). I lost a stack of Kevin Durant rookie cards and a nice digital camera and whatnot. But so long as I remained calm and did as I was told, things would be okay. And they were.

prison_bars_5997920696No amount of calm can soothe years spent in the system – let alone death by cop – if a traffic stop goes awry.

I’m an unassuming white guy who drives a rimless, tint-less commuter without so much as a moving violation in eight years. But those flashing lights, to this day, inspire more fear than any random ruffian in the streets possibly could.

Why? No matter how acquiescent, any encounter with law enforcement can result in death.

Had that guy pulled the trigger, I have little doubt he would’ve been caught and would’ve served a lengthy sentence. Cops are rarely, if ever, held accountable for their actions.

Ask Walter Scott or Terence Crutcher how interactions with cops can turn out. Let alone the countless who are remembered only by their survived. Some were framed with planted evidence and couldn’t afford a proper defense. Families of high-profile decedents often suffer posthumous character assassination at the hands of ass-covering law enforcement and parroting media.

police_chase_on_brooklyn_bridgeA number of years ago I was on my way home from the midnight release of the latest Madden football game when those flashing lights appeared. Unbeknownst to me, my license had been administratively suspended. The successful completion of five years probation had turned a DUI conviction into a reckless driving and so my license was suspended as though it were a new offense – my reward for good behavior. The cop was cool (whiteness at work!) so he didn’t impound my car, but I had to walk home at 2am. It was only a few miles, but I was wearing a dressy, collared shirt and boat shoes (sans socks, of course) along with earrings and a watch. I was carrying the bag containing my purchase, and my wallet and keys. I felt like a target. And these tweekers kept coming up to me asking me for a cigarette. By the third tweeker, for kicks, I figured I’d preemptively request of him a stoge to initiate the encounter so as to not exude vulnerability (I don’t smoke) and he was like Man, I was about to ask you. And that is considered to be a positive encounter with law enforcement.

My car was once broken into while I was swimming at the lake and I had a few hundred CDs stolen along with a set of still-in-the-box tweeters and the pants/keys/wallets of a few friends. I did some sleuthing and found the culprit along with the place of business my items had been pawned. I called the cops to the pawn shop and they wound up kicking me off the property and telling me I’d be trespassing should I return.

I once had a crazy old lady for a neighbor who kept egging my car and one day decided to sling a bowl of cereal at me when confronted on the repeated eggings. The cops eventually came and said they could smell bacon wafting from inside, but she wouldn’t answer the door and since I didn’t have video evidence…

Don_Knotts_Jim_Nabors_Andy_Griffith_Show_1964Cops are useless at best and a nuisance in general. Just the other day I was on my way to work when those flashing lights appeared. I hadn’t done anything wrong and my documents are squared away. But what if the cop was simply having a bad day?

In states where cannabis is legal, the legal threshold for DUI means anyone who medicates more than roughly once a month could be busted any day of the week.

It could be an old traffic fine that returned from collections and turned into a bench warrant.

Suddenly you aren’t just late for work or your car impounded – now that’s your job. That’s your rent. You could be homeless and you can’t put your previous employer on your resume to find a new one.

If you can’t afford bail or a proper legal defense, you’ll be coerced into taking a plea bargain by over-charging prosecutors who threaten maximum sentences.

We send people to private prisons where they are raped and subjected to gang violence. We ravage the minds of social beings held in solitary confinement. We charge exorbitant fees for phone calls with their families and community. We cut off inmates’ access to Pell Grants. We use them instead for slave labor.

The dehumanization inherent in our method of penance is reinforced by disenfranchisement upon release. The cost of post-release monitoring is prohibitive to the point of exacerbating ‘(crime-less) recidivism (some states even charge former inmates for costs related to imprisonment).

You can’t get a student loan because of your record. Your family can’t get food assistance if you live with them. You have to check a box for being a felon and as such can barely get a minimum wage job at a fast food joint.

Those flashing lights and all that they represent: Slave patrols and fire hoses. Rodney King and Tamir Rice. Generations of a terrorized people with pleas unanswered. Years in the system and perhaps death by cop. There are myriad solutions – beginning with justice and accountability leading to meaningful reform. But nothing can be achieved until we admit that we have problems with policing and criminal justice that need fixing.

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