Calling or writing isn't enough. They know what we think.

[woo me with science]

Last edited Fri Apr 5, 2013, 06:32 PM - Edit history (2)

Let's be clear, and finally honest, about why Obama proposes Social Security cuts.

Forget the psychological explanations. It's not about "impressing" anyone. It's not timidity or a lack of backbone. It's not gazillion-dimensional chess.

It is corporate purchase of our electoral system, government, and media. Corporate money runs our elections. They choose our candidates. Their money floods both parties. They control our media. In 2016, in the absence of systemic, legislative change, we will get more of the same: two more corporate candidates selected by those who own this country, and the transformation of America into a corporate State will continue. Change is not coming from inside. Change will require a massive citizen outcry that cannot be ignored by the media and propagandized away.

The corporate-political propaganda is heavily geared toward encouraging passivity. The Third Way will pretend to encourage speaking out for liberal policies, but always and only in a quiet way, such as writing letters.

The PTB don't really care about invisible protest by phone or mail. The faith in writing letters is based on the antiquated notion that our "representatives" want to hear what we think and will adjust their behavior accordingly once they are told.

That's not what's going on at all. Our government is purchased by a monied elite. They have an agenda in mind that will make them trillions of dollars, and their goal is to keep us as quiet and passive as possible while they implement it.

They are not interested in hearing what we think, but in managing our anger so that it does not spread into something louder and more visible that they can no longer propagandize away.

Their greatest fear is that we will wake up together to realize that the two corporate parties are colluding on this agenda, and that we will unite as the 99 percent, visibly and publicly, to stop them.


This is an article from the UK, but it's relevant to us:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/04/04-4

Where Are the Activists as Austerity Bites? They Have Been Beaten Back
Protesters face violence, arrest and serious charges. Only the brave dare face this savage suppression

by Laurie Penny
Published on Thursday, April 4, 2013 by The Guardian/UK

(Photo: Daniel Hadley/flickr)
First they came for the students. This week, 12 vanloads of police arrived at Sussex University, in collaboration with management, to evict students who had been occupying a room on campus for eight weeks. They had been taking a stand against privatisation of services at their university, creating a militant "pop-up union" and attracting support from all over the country: they had to be got rid of. Photographs from the day show police in antiseptic yellow uniforms swarming in as if to disinfect a wound in the body politic where the rage was bleeding through.
....
Right now, as millions of people stare down the barrel of job losses, benefits sanctions, destitution and desperation and the rich are given tax cuts, I hear a lot of people asking why there isn't more resistance going on. Well, here's why. There was resistance, and it was brutally and systematically put down. The students, the street-organising anti-cuts campaigners, the Occupy movement. When people speak about the Occupy camps and anti-austerity protests of 2010-12, it is with a tone of regret, as if somehow those grassroots movements just fizzled out because those involved didn't know what they were doing. On the contrary: they were cleared out, arrested and beaten back by police, just like the students at Sussex.
....
Sadly, many of the liberal-minded folk now wondering aloud where all the anger on the streets has gone were the same people who condemned the students and anti-cuts protesters for being just a bit too noisy, too rowdy, too "violent". As soon as the frustrated kids of Britain and their allies started smashing up bus stops and lighting bonfires outside Tory HQ, that was too much: throw the selfish brats in prison, teach them to mind their manners. First they came for the students. Now they've come for the rest of us, who will speak out?

Any government trying to push through austerity against the will of a large proportion of the population is going to have to rely on force to deal with dissent. That's exactly what this government, which had the support of just one in seven of the population even before it started tearing up the welfare state, has done. New movements to resist austerity must expect to meet the same wall of state violence as soon as they become effective, because that's how the Tories operate. It's how they've always operated. And shame on us, even in these cowardly times, if we don't support those with the courage to take a stand.

[HiPointDem]

1. They have an agenda that will make them trillions; their goal is to keep us passive while they

implement it = exactly.

The other part of that agenda is that we will be rendered politically powerless, because the levers of power will be removed elsewhere than at the level of national governments.

They will be at the supra-national level, and it won't matter who the hell you vote for.

[antigop]

20. +100 nt

[woo me with science]

47. +10000

Yes, we are watching the systematic takeover of democratic systems of government by multinational corporations that have no loyalty except to profit.

From the city level to the level of a continent, power over human lives is being transferred from democratic, representative systems to corporate rule that has only profit as its goal.


Austerity's Cruelest Cut: Democracy Denied in Detroit
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022566078

Obama's EU Trade Deal Would Include New Political Powers For Corporations
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022608263

TransPacific Partnership Will Undermine Democracy, Empower Transnational Corporations
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022593470

Corporate power grows stronger as government wanes
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2347950

The Goldman Sachs Project to take over Europe nearly complete
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021889630

[HiPointDem]

73. +1

[tpsbmam]

99. Exactly. Definite +1!! nt

[Autumn]

2. They are going to do what they want to do.

Calling, writing, signing petion after petition hasn't seemed to work so far.

[KoKo]

6. Agree...BUT....one last time is important. If Obama chooses

to use "Chained CPI" rather than lifting the Payroll Cap on SS Deductions (which would mean the wealthy would pay in more to the system) then we know for sure that he doesn't stand for the people but for the 1% and corporations.

He could allow some lowering of tax for the Repugs in another area as the trade off for getting the money into SS by eliminating tht Payroll Deduction and that would be a compromise that would be fair.

We shall see.

But....I've done my effort and signed Sherrod Brown's Petition because he said he would take it to the Senate. The Senate is where the final vote will be...and, I will probably call the White House when Obama announces his Compromise Plan next week. Then I'm done with him if he compromises away SS/Medicare/Medicaid.

Here's the link:

***Preserve SS & Medicare & No Chained CPI!-- Two Actions You Can Take!***
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022614332

[Autumn]

7. I've signed that one too.

As you said, We shall see.

[PETRUS]

3. K&R for direct action

[calimary]

46. Here's something we can actually do:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022619428

[MADem]

4. If that's their greatest fear, you'd think "they" wouldn't piss so many people off.

Particularly people who vote. I honestly don't know if enough people are pissed off sufficiently about this matter to do a "critical mass" protest over it. Not wag a finger and write a "strongly worded letter," but take to the (increasingly littered with gee-gaws) mall.

People are lazy nowadays. They don't protest because it involves WORK. Physical effort. Walking. Organizing. Travelling. Standing about in the cold, wind or rain without wi-fi access and a nearby crapper.

A good single-issue protest (not one of those stupid United for Peace and Justice/Free Mumia/Save The Rainforest/Insert Cause 99% of Attendeees Don't Care About or Don't Support efforts) with everyone massed for one purpose and one purpose only might not be a bad idea.

Takes will, though. No amount of "Shame on you" exhortation is going to make it happen. It has to come from an internal place, like when the "Silent Majority" that supported Nixon for so long finally said "This war is bullshit and we've had enough" and turned on him.

And violence? That's just DUMB. Violent protest is a ready excuse to dismiss any efforts as the acts of a few "troublemakers." The most effective protests are large, large, LARGE, with a singularity of purpose, a collective intelligence about the issue at hand, and dignified.

There's nothing scarier than overwhelming numbers showing up to be serious about an issue.

[ProSense]

12. 60 million people voted for Romney

Change is only going to come when Democratic members of Congress are pressured. Of course, this requires a majority, and the Senate qualifies.

[marions ghost]

15. Answering to your points:

1. People are profoundly pissed off but don't see mass protest as effective.

2. Working Americans are not lazy. Most don't have the leisure time to make a hobby of standing out in front of town hall with a sign. (Bless the ones who do).

3. Save the Rainforest. It's not hurting large single issue protests. Large single issue protests are being ignored. Ecological issues are economic.

4. We don't live in the Nixon Era. Overwhelming numbers used to be scary to politicians. Now they love it--gives them even more sense of omnipotence. They take it as a sign they are doing something RIGHT if people are squeezed enough to protest. And nothing changes.

5. "Dignified" protests are laughed it. Even mildly confrontational protests are suppressed by force. Violence isn't worth discussing. We will need to be more creative.

[zeemike]

26. Protest is not the answer, it is a distraction.

The only thing that really works is what Gandhi did ....non cooperation with evil and civil disobedience....which requires you to be willing to go to jail or be shot...

We are all scared little puppies...and with good reason, because we have been job scared into submission's and threatened by heavy handed cops...

Perhaps the only way to overcome this is to do what the hippies did...drop out...tune in, but not turn on....and march to DC with the intention to stay as long as it takes or go to jail...
Fear is the weapon they use to control us with.

[marions ghost]

58. We have every reason to be scared

--the consequences are dire for civil disobedience.

The question remains--the ethical question:

Why should we be fighting all the time for the basics? Why should we be abused, alienated, treated like children? Why should one percent of the population exploit the rest? Why should we call America a democracy anymore?

The worst of it is feeling like we don't live in a country we can identify with, trust, feel bonded with. No sense of community, no sense of investment in our society. Why bother? We liberal progressives (whatever label you like) have no voice in this country. We are disrespected and exploited. If we don't get more political power, we will just die out. Right now it is a fight to the death. We need to support anyone who is --really, truly--speaking our language.

[zeemike]

66. Which is the whole point of the dire consequences.

Let's face it, if you drop out you will get fired from your job and then how will you make your car payment and pay the rent?
They don't need for bars to keep us in this prison...we are afraid of being kicked out.

People are poor because they have no land....with land you can live without money if you know how to grow food and make things from the land that you need...that is no longer possible...we are dependent on the system, and without it we can't live.

[marions ghost]

67. Even if you suffer dire consequences

for civil disobedience--it won't change anything. You might as well go down the tubes in the pot we are slowly boiling in. Civil Disobedience was a noble tool of the past. I'm not sure it can be effective anymore.

I'm not a believer in any "back to the land" idea. Just because you have land does not mean you can successfully grow food. Doesn't work for urban millions. It is no longer possible, as you say.

I wish we had a planet to exodus to.

[zeemike]

68. Well Gandhi and MLK made it work.

And we could too...But it would not be easy.
What stops us is the ability of the PTB to keep us separated and interested in our own issues that don't mean shit to them.

And you don't have to go back to the land...if you lived in the city and you owned your own business and home it would be the same thing....or worked for a business that was owned by the workers.

The real truth is that is 30 percent of the working people walked off the job this country would grind to a halt...and something would change when the 1% could not find the services they like.

[marions ghost]

70. They have us where they want us

because not enough people will risk their jobs. A massive strike would speak to the PTB, but I don't think we have enough solidarity to pull it off. England has a better chance of making that work. Even so there would be "consequences."

We could use a Gandhi--someone who could lead the way morally and ethically. Someone who could reveal the corruption at the core.
We have to be more creative. We need an uncompromised leader. I don't know how you do that in a secular society.

[zeemike]

72. Yep

And I don't have the answer to that...but we need a leader like you said that can lead and inspire us,

But it probably will not come from our liberal organizations, cause they have mostly all been compromised.

[MOMFUDSKI]

82. It is called . . .

. . . a GENERAL STRIKE and it is all that will work. But so very hard to organize and TPTB count on that. I want the fifties back.

[AverageJoe90]

87. The problem is, we practically ARE in the Fifties now.....

Courtesy of the GOP.

[abelenkpe]

101. That is the only thing that would get attention. Nt

[marions ghost]

118. You can't have the fifties back

not much that worked then will work now.

[whathehell]

111. +10 n/t

[sikofit3]

120. Bingo!

You got it exactly right, this is the answer and the problem. People, including myself, have to be willing to lose everything, be shot, jailed etc.... and this is a very uncomfortable thought, however, this is already happening but at a slow pace. These parasites are already taking everything from us, killing us and looking to jail anyone to fill those for profit jails. What is it going to take for us? We see on the DU what those in Greece and Spain recently did to protest austerity but as we know, it was not really on the main stream media for most of the American public to see lest we get any ideas and start asking questions and draw parallels. They have us, we are consumers and that's what we do, worry about our next consumption purchase until one day we get ill or lose a job and are too broken to do anything but worry about survival. These people have the best on their teams and we are and have been profiled en mass to how we can be manipulated and controlled and it has worked! We are left to talk about it and look elsewhere for inspiration but it seems just so far away from us because we close our computers and get into our cars and go do what it was we had planned to do that day. I think they got us, and they are still trying to keep the illusion so as not to wake the beast which is their base, because they may not have all the pieces in place yet but when they do, even that won't bother them cause they will crush us in an instant and in fact will probably do it anyway, who wants to look at starving, ill and desperate people when your the 1%?

[zeemike]

122. And welcome to DU.

And that is pretty much the situation...And they count on us being distracted by shiny things to keep us from waking up to reality.

[xtraxritical]

35. So how many more months until November 2014? Nineteen!

[marions ghost]

50. Elections

---important to participate if only to stem the tide of "the worst." And living through the Bush hijacking--we know it can be worse.

But that doesn't give us what we really want--a real voice.

Elections are not bringing about the kind of systemic changes we really need.

[xtraxritical]

127. So what does that leave, Occupy?

[marions ghost]

134. No idea what it leaves us

but you have to face the reality. They are attacking on so many fronts. We are not winning by the usual methods. Because our opponents have no ethics, respect no boundaries. They will take all they can get and then some.

THIS is what we are not facing as we pretend that Democracy is alive and well in America. Our thinking needs to start from the premise that Democracy is on life support in America. If it hasn't failed already.

Whatever you think about Occupy, it was/is an effort to confront them. I can only applaud Occupy. It's not either/or. Not either Elections or Occupy. Too much black v white thinking there.

I am in favor of ALL efforts to oppose what the hijackers are doing in this country. Local elections are important but when you have so many with no scruples in control, it is very hard to "win" at the ballot box. Look at the latest efforts to disenfranchise. Not that we roll over and play dead, but the ballot box is not THE solution--when fascists cheat at every opportunity.

We have a problem with massive corruption and lack of ethics in leadership. People cannot trust the government to be working for the people.

We need a direct meteor strike to reboot the planet.

[xtraxritical]

136. I occupied Washington D,C. 2011/11/11 Freedom Plaza.

[marions ghost]

139. Thank you

[MADem]

74. I haven't seen an effective protest since the Vietnam War.

The closest thing was the Million Man March--but that was a One and Done.

During the Vietnam War, protesting was a sustained, organized, grassroots, weekly activity. The only question was where is "it" going to be held this week...and that was before computers. You found out through phone trees and bulletin boards--the real ones, made of cork with tacks in them, that one found in laundromats and dormitories. Oh, and flyers--they'd be stapled to telephone poles.

They were usually held on weekends, when most (not all) could get away from their minimum wage jobs (more often than not) to hitch a ride, take the bus, bum a lift to the protest location.

It wasn't retired quakers with their signs--and yes, they are adorable. It was seas of people, old and young, who knew how to keep a crowd motivated. Hell No, We Won't Go! Simple, rhythmic, effective. Week after week after week. In cities across the country. I'm not talking about people camping out for weeks or months at a crack, either. I'm talking about people taking the time to leave their homes, travel to a location by bus or car, demonstrate, and then haul ass back home to go to work. Week in, week out.

The only "big" protests I have seen lately (and by lately, I mean the last decade or so) are those hodgepodge umbrella things. All of the signs are pre-printed, and assholes who don't share MY perspective take up way too much of the stage time. There's no motivation to go to those.

Save the Rainforest is great. But don't try saving the rainforest, freeing Mumia, and protesting vivisection along with trying to save Social Security. It's too much stuff thrown into the bowl, and too many competing priorities. Save the rainforest on Friday, and save Social Security on Saturday. Separation is of issues is good.

I think you're entirely wrong about large numbers not scaring politicians. And I don't think dignified protests are laughed at--I think they are effective.

Shenanigans and high drama just can't be sustained--determined resolve, if accompanied by critical mass, can be, though. I just don't think that young people have the patience for it, and it's their future (not mine--I'm at the end of the ride, they're just getting going) that's at stake.

Things might have to get much worse before the young people decide they need to raise their voices in organized, specific fashion. Tens of thousands had to die before the Vietnam protests really got rolling--no one cared until the draft started expanding to include...well, if not everyone, many young men. People started getting upset when they realized they knew someone over there, and they got really upset when they realized they knew someone who had DIED over there.

So maybe things need to get worse, still, before they get better. I dunno. I think there's enough motivation to do a little demo-ing, especially since the weather is getting nicer....that's just my view, though. The people who are "next up to bat" need to lead on this issue, get up and out and make a plan.

It's their turn.

[marions ghost]

119. You are living in the past

--you make a good argument for how it worked then, but it doesn't work as well now.

How are mass protests effective? There have been some big ones in the last couple of decades. They weren't televised. And you completely leave out Occupy.

Why should young people have to get hurt and die to bring Democracy to America?

We need more creative strategies.

[KoKo]

130. The Keystone Pipeline protest in DC was Massive and no "Free Mumia"

or Screamers about issues that some feel were distracting in the Coalition Marches.

C-Span covered the Keystone Protest and it was "creative" with a huge Pipeline carried by protesters which went almost completely around the White House. Obama delayed his decision on Keystone shortly after that massive protest.

The reason many don't know about it is that the Mainstream Media only covered snips of it...and that Obama and Michelle and the girls were out of town that weekend. Otherwise it would have been news when they and the girls looked out the White House windows upstairs and saw that mass of people with the gigantic pipeline ringing the WH. (It would have reminded some of the mass protest outside the White House where LBJ was there and the protesters were there all night with the lights burning in the White House) He decided not to run again. Who knows if it was that protest that made Johnson's decision..but it was one that he was aware of along with the many other protests which were done in DC and hard to ignore.

There were huge peaceful protests before the Iraq Invasion all over the US including Cities and States you wouldn't think...like North Carolina.. and the Media (including local) focused on 50 Freepers standing in front of Porta Potties ...saying there was "large presence" of those supporting the Invasion. Ignored were the masses of people who were protesting...WITH HOME MADE SIGNS.

It's the Mainstream Media that doesn't show the protests and have a discussion about the issues. Even here on Democratic Underground there was a "YAWN" about the Keystone Protest while when Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert had their "200,000" strong "Stop the Insanity" (I think that was what it was called) Protest in DC there were photos, videos and rolling reports here on DU. Much more interest over the Celebrity Protest than "Issue" protests.

Just saying..

[marions ghost]

133. First of all C-Span

is not coverage. It is documentary. Most people don't watch.

As good an idea as a huge pipeline carried by people is, it's not what I mean by "creative strategies."

The peaceful protests re the Iraq wars did nothing to stop them. Protests ARE useful in providing solidarity to participants, inspiration to those who can't participate, and "witnessing" to injustices--but the powers that be pay little attention to them if other political pressure can't be brought to bear...

Yes it's all about the media. But we are losing the battle with mainstream TV coverage because it's owned by Murdoch et al. Local protests, such as the collective bargaining thing in Ohio, did have some effect. I think local protests can help, but large mass demonstrations in Washington--not so much. The semi-trailer load of petition signatures was effective in Ohio (but the Corporates will still keep fighting it).

It's probably true that we need to use everything we've got that is peaceful in this cold civil war, but I get tired of the whine that people have to get out in the streets (with or without home-made signs) as THE solution, the way to be heard. It's part of it but certainly not THE answer. As I said, Rethuglicons are happiest when there are protests--that way they know they're squeezing people hard enough.

As you say, the media ignores --and does not make these mass demonstrations seem important, so that avenue is less effective than it used to be. The mainstream media has control. We have to work around this.

So what do we do if they build the Keystone Pipeline anyway? Nothing we can do. Except witness the stupidity and destruction.

[KoKo]

138. I think Keystone moves to Local Protests. Some landowners

have been already been protesting in Texas and Oklahoma and when the pipeline affects people Directly....they can make a difference.

I still think that Mass Protests serve a purpose because they are backed by people who have a common interest who take the time to organize buses or other transportation and even if the coverage is light there's a common bonding that is important in the organization and the spreading of information to the folks who couldn't attend back home.

Protesting has to be on many levels and creatively ...but, also targeted to the Lawmakers, Corporations and Media. Why Faux News local stations haven't had sustained protests outside for years is a puzzle. I imagine as things get worse with the "Austerity" programs in the country there will be more targeted protests. How they will evolve will be different than those in the 50's for Civil Rights and the 60's against Vietnam war.

But, I do believe there will be enough unrest that new coalitions will find new solutions to our current problems. The danger is APATHY...not how people protest or the way they protest or engage, though.

[marions ghost]

140. Targeted local protests can be effective

but there is perhaps more risk. Yeah, you have to get to the "what have I got to lose" point. Where you are wiling to risk being seen.

Mass protests are mainly about bonding & solidarity, right. But they are also more easily ignored by those in government, especially because of lack of media coverage.

I know we have to keep fighting but I think we have to think outside the box. We are dealing with ruthless criminals who have hijacked corporations and much of what we define as government. They want it all and they will take it all. They do not answer to us.

We are in a battle for Democracy & have been for quite awhile. I'd like to think people are waking up but they are also downtrodden. You see it on faces everywhere.

[MADem]

143. Maybe, but I haven't seen anyone come up with a better idea.

Those "big protests" were not televised way back when, either--they got a minute or two on the nightly news, but that didn't stop people from protesting without any coverage.

Those "big protests" too, were run by organizations with a curious pedigree. They weren't grass roots efforts and they didn't protest Just One Thing. If you showed up against the Iraq War, you were tossed into the Free Mumia mix--a lot of people don't go for that kind of thing.

I didn't leave out Occupy. Camping out doesn't work--I think that's been proven. The best "Occupy" protests were organized by....unions.

When someone comes up with a plan, I'll listen.

[woo me with science]

77. "We need to be more creative."

I think you are right.

[dotymed]

126. We have a whole generation who have been militarized, not educated.

I think this is a part of "their" plan also. Of course the young people who wanted a decent paying job and the promise of a future education, "volunteered" for the military. They had no choice, they were (are) poor, were (are) not a part of the elite. They were thrown into a few illegal wars and taught how to degrade and kill humans on a daily basis. (just call them hadji's, they are trying to kill you, of course you have invaded their country and treated them worse than dogs) this will make it much easier for those same military people to quash dissent in their own country. We see it all the time as these ex-military are hired as law enforcement and taught to kill and dehumanize our citizens (they must have each others backs).
"TPTB" are depending on those soldiers and cops to protect their plutocracy, no matter what it takes. a good soldier (cop) doesn't question orders even when it comes to hurting and killing their fellow citizens. We have seen this before but not on the scale which it will eventually (if everyone will stand for their rights) happen. "They" have trained (brainwashed) this generation to be sociopaths that they hope will not hesitate to brutalize anyone who defies oligarch authority. They have had years of "it's either them or us" indoctrination never realizing that they are destroying people who only want to be treated fairly and/or left alone.
Hopefully the (eventually) inevitable demonstrators in America will be non-violent. These indoctrinated protectors of the oligarchs will be told just the opposite and ordered to kill or violently subdue Americans who are just trying to get some justice in their country.
I guess we will eventually see if our American soldiers and cops will kill and harm their fellow Americans. We see daily the police brutality committed on our citizens. I think it will be even worse when/if average Americans finally decide to take action (non-violent) to depose the tyrants who have taken over our country. It would be nice to think that these people whose actual job is to serve and protect will do that to their fellow citizens. They have been trained to destroy whomever they are instructed to. Their compassion has been deliberately (and effectively in most instances) erased from their consciousness. I guess we and "they" will find out if their deliberate desensitization extends to their fellow citizens. So far, it has.

[MADem]

144. Your remarks are inaccurate. The military is drawing down, even as we speak.

PT test results are being enforced, advancement exams are getting harder, early outs are being offered.

This is why Wal-Mart and other businesses are doing all that feel-good "Hire a Vet" stuff--because they're coming into the civilian economy at a rapid clip.


The 21st century paradigm for the US military is not the same as the Vietnam War conscript model. We now rely on reservists--well trained ones, now--to do most of the heavy lifting. And we're many decades into an All Volunteer Force, the draft went away when Vietnam did.

A very TINY percentage of our youth are in the military. As a group, they are most certainly not being "militarized." In fact, three quarters of young people are ineligible for military service, even if they wanted to join up--why? They are overweight and very unfit. They can't pass the entrance physical. They can't pass the ASVAB test. They're medicated or have pre-existing conditions.

Most kids' "experience" with the military is limited to GI Joe and Gomer Pyle.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/usmilitary/a/unabletoserve.htm

[dotymed]

147. Yes, our military is currently "being drawn down."

This was certainly not the case for the previous 12 years which as defined by the Merriam webster dictionary (a group of individuals belonging to a specific category at the same time: Chaplin belonged to the generation of silent-screen stars) makes up a generation.

Honestly, your opposing o.p. did not seem to follow my points. Perhaps you don't feel like militarized young people who have had
a lot of compassion driven out of them (necessary to adapt in a war-zone) are susceptible to mercenary positions...actually I did not really seem to find that counter argument in your post.
Because we are NOW getting rid of "their" cannon fodder, doesn't meant that for a generation of young people, their lives have been altered in a war/military paradigm that has hurt them/us more than helped.
The military being "drawn down" in this economy adds insult to injury but should TPTB feel like they need that skill-set for their protection (from us), they will have a large pool of militarized, under-employed people to choose from.

[MADem]

148. Most of our young people have never served in the military.

They don't know a hand salute from a hand sanitizer.

This was true EVEN during the Bush years.

Did you not read the material I offered? Most kids can't pass the physical. They're too fat, they can't run. And way too many can't pass the test--they aren't smart enough. Even during the height of the Iraq War misadventure, even lowering standards to let overweight kids in, they didn't recruit very many as a percentage of the entire population. In fact, because they couldn't find enough "kids" who weren't too fat or not smart enough, they raised the eligible enlistment age and took in older candidates.

At the HEIGHT of the military recruiting effort, the military only comprised a minute percentage of the nation's population. I know this doesn't suit your argument, but it is the truth.

Very few people serve in uniform. Our youth didn't have the compassion driven out of them because they served in a war zone, because the vast majority of young people never got anywhere near a war zone, unless they were playing "Gears of War" or "World of Warcraft" or "Call of Duty." We don't have a "nation" of "militarized youth" unless you're including video gamers. We have a nation of youth who are good at video games and like Hot Pockets. The numbers don't lie.

Since you are apparently questioning my veracity, let me offer you this link--I think it makes what I am telling you very clear:

http://www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=66253

Just one-half of 1 percent of Americans served in uniform at any given time during the past decade -- the longest period of sustained conflict in the country’s history -- the report says. Meanwhile, as the military shrinks in size, the connections between military members and the broader civilian population “appear to be growing more distant,” the report says.
The report was based on surveys of more than 2,000 civilian adults and almost 1,900 veterans, more than 700 of whom served after 9/11.
Among the respondents, most said they have family members who are serving in the armed forces or have served in the past. However, older Americans were considerably more likely to have close military ties.
More than three-quarters of civilian adults ages 50 and older reported having an immediate family member -- a spouse, parent, sibling or child -- who served or serves in the military. For many, that service took place before the end of the draft and the introduction of the all-volunteer force in 1973.
Only 57 percent of civilian respondents ages 30 to 49 said they had an immediate family member who served. The percentage dropped to one-third among respondents ages 18 to 29.

Let's break it down another way: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-veterans-numbers/story?id=14928136#3

According to the 2010 Census, the population of the United States is 308,745,538. Including active duty, national guard and reserves, the population of Americans in uniform is 2,317,761, meaning that less than 1 percent, .75 percent to be exact, of the country's population is a member of the military.

While only a fraction of a percent of the country's population is currently serving, 7 percent of the population is veterans. There are 22,658,000 veterans in america today, just 8 percent of which are female.

As of September 30, 2011, there are about 1,981,000 living veterans of World War II, a war that more than 4 million Americans were deployed to fight. About 800 of those veterans die every day.

There is a growing disconnect between civilians and military personnel. Most Americans don't serve. It's not like the days of WW2, Korea, and Vietnam, where conscription ensured a measure of shared sacrifice. It's less than ONE PERCENT of the population on active duty--and those "young people" of which you speak are staying away in droves, and at least three out of four that do bother to apply are NOT QUALIFIED. Can't say I blame them, but it's just not factually accurate to suggest otherwise.

[tblue]

5. K&R! EVERYBODY needs to read this.

I always said and believed the nice polite rallies are allowed to happen because they pose no threat whatsoever to the PTB. Likewise letter-writing and petition campaigns. They make us feel like we've done something. Fwiw, I always supported Occupy and I don't have much time for people calling people 'whiners.'

[marions ghost]

8. I agree

we have little political power against these corporate forces. Americans continue to put up with economic exploitation to a ridiculous degree. We don't even get good preventative healthcare out of the deal. Get sick?--there's always someone to take your place as you drop out and struggle to get treatment. Many jobs gone overseas. We worry about losing everything we've worked for, even retirement security. We should accept "austerity" as they continue to make billions and pay no taxes? And accept such a huge waste of human resources and positive potential.

We worry whether our children will have a life worth living. We put them through college and watch them work for minimum wage. We worry and we worry. The more stress, the more treatment for stress related illnesses, more big business profits. I don't see Americans as a happy population. I see average Americans and English both as oppressed by the conservative wealthy hijackers of democracy. So we go on putting on a brave face for the children, but not feeling it. We know that we are being abused in the name of democracy. It hurts and it sickens us.

Not much we can do. Just keep on, day to day, and encourage those who do speak out against the injustices we see. Just keep talking, expressing, validating others who think like us. At least we go down in history as trying, to the best of our ability. Healthier to keep fighting. We don't have a history of martyrdom--not too many people want to set themselves on fire in the National Mall. We commit suicide privately in this country. For those of us who don't want to quit --but know how limited our power is--all we can do is just hold hands across cyberspace and sing kumbaya. Facing evil takes a support group.

[Myrina]

9. They know what we think - and want - and don't give a shit.

They are a club unto themselves, we're just the suckers supporting the facade by playing the voting game every 2 or 4 years.

[xchrom]

10. du rec. nt

[ProSense]

11. Are you

That's not what's going on at all. Our government is purchased by a monied elite. They have an agenda in mind that will make them trillions of dollars, and their goal is to keep us as quiet and passive as possible while they implement it.

They are not interested in hearing what we think, but in managing our anger so that it does not spread into something louder and more visible that they can no longer propagandize away.

Their greatest fear is that we will wake up together to realize that the two corporate parties are colluding on this agenda, and that we will unite, loudly and publicly, to stop them.

...proposing a revolution? Better hurry, 2014 is right around the corner. In fact, something needs to happen before then, and clearly Congressional Democrats aren't to be trusted.

"We will wake up together..."

Who is "we"? Are you anticipating that Republican voters will join the revolution?

[99Forever]

17. You will know them by what they do.

[ProSense]

25. Mass protest

worked to stop Bush. If people are serious about protesting the President's budget, they need to organize and get to it before this is voted on. Still, I wouldn't leave out pressuring members of Congress, specifically Senate Democrats

[marions ghost]

30. What mass protests "worked to stop Bush" ?

Please, give us your list so we can study how that worked.

[ProSense]

31. Maybe, I'm

"What mass protests 'worked to stop Bush'?"

...I'm wrong to characterize it as mass protest, but there was push back on Social Security and immigration reform.

Do you think mass protest would work in this case?

[marions ghost]

63. I don't think there was mass protest

during Bush. Since then, what mass protests have been effective?

Don't get me wrong I do think they have value in terms of solidarity & inspiration--and this is one important effect of Occupy--but not in terms of immediate political results. Because the PTB is not paying attention. Wall Street believes it has won. They are so out of touch with the American people it's unreal. But they believe they control everything.

So when will things get so bad that abused Americans will stop the infighting, join together and say "no more?"

I have no idea. Meanwhile we just go on treading water.

[Bake]

141. Sadly, what Wall Street believes is reality.

It HAS won. They DO control virtually everything.

If we believe otherwise, we're fooling ourselves. Even our President has been bought and paid for by his Wall St contributors. Otherwise, why would SS be on the table at all?

Sadly, FDR isn't around when you need him.

Bake

[99Forever]

39. Already have.

Don't intend to stop. Not that it's likely to make any difference to the tone deaf crowd inside the Washington DC Bubble. In case you haven't noticed yet, they really don't give a shit about what We the People want or need, they're too busy taking bribes... errrr i mean "campaign contributions" from their Corporate Masters.

[demwing]

18. So whats your solution?

you are a confirmed Obama supporter, everyone know you carry the water.

But what solution are you offering?

[ProSense]

21. The best way

is to pressure Democratic Senators to reject this. The President's budge is a proposal. If Senate Democrats are serious, they should include one of the alternative proposals (http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022475178 http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021871773) in any package.

At the very least, they should filibuster any package that cuts benefits.

Sanders Statement on Chained CPI
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022618445

[demwing]

27. "If Senate Democrats are serious"

That's still a big "IF" - but the pressure is ongoing. Brown's petition to save SSN and Medicare has about 55K signatures. A start, but not nearly enough. We need 10 times that many names.

There is a second solution required...a solution to the problem of what to do with our President. Obama is a very sharp man. He must know that cutting SSN will not affect the deficit, and that it is very unpopular. Why is he still proposing this path?

What's your solution for that issue?

[ProSense]

28. I have

"There is a second solution required...a solution to the problem of what to do with our President. Obama is a very sharp man. He must know that cutting SSN will not affect the deficit, and that it is very unpopular. Why is he still proposing this path?

What's your solution for that issue? "

...no idea, but clearly calling and writing the WH should be part of the push.

The Morning Plum: Why Obama wants a Grand Bargain
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022618395

[demwing]

33. Yes...the "Grand Bargain"

I'm now of the opinion that the sequestration wasn't intended to get Republicans to agree to revenue increases. Rather it was to get the 99% so fucking scared that they'll accept the piecemeal dismantling of the New Deal and the Great Society.

[ProSense]

40. Maybe that's

"I'm now of the opinion that the sequestration wasn't intended to get Republicans to agree to revenue increases. Rather it was to get the 99% so fucking scared that they'll accept the piecemeal dismantling of the New Deal and the Great Society."

...true, but clearly it's not working. People still overwhelmingly oppose cuts to Social Security.

Also, does that mean that Senate Democrats are in on the plot?

Like I said, he best way is to pressure Democratic Senators to reject this. The President's budge is a proposal. If Senate Democrats are serious, they should include one of the alternative proposals (http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022475178 http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021871773) in any package.

At the very least, they should filibuster any package that cuts benefits.

Sanders Statement on Chained CPI
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022618445

Senator Sanders could lead the effort.

Do Not Cut Social Security

September 20, 2012

A major bloc of 29 senators took a strong stand today against any cuts to Social Security as part of a deficit reduction deal. "We will oppose including Social Security cuts for future or current beneficiaries in any deficit reduction package," the senators said in a letter circulated by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the founder of the Senate Defending Social Security Caucus. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Charles Schumer, the Senate's No. 3 leader, signed the letter. So did Sens. Mark Begich, Sheldon Whitehouse and Al Franken, who joined Sanders at a Capitol news conference.

Social Security has not contributed to the deficit or to the national debt, the senators said. The program that benefits more than 50 million retirees, widows, widowers, orphans and disabled Americans has a $2.7 trillion surplus and, according to actuaries, will be able to pay every benefit owed to every eligible recipient for the next 21 years.

"Contrary to some claims, Social Security is not the cause of our nation's deficit problem. Not only does the program operate independently, but it is prohibited from borrowing," the letter said. "Even though Social Security operates in a fiscally responsible manner, some still advocate deep benefit cuts and seem convinced that Social Security hands out lavish welfare checks. But Social Security is not welfare. Seniors earned their benefits by working and paying into the system," the letter added.

Social Security has not contributed to deficits because it has a dedicated funding stream. Workers and employers each pay half of a 12.4 percent payroll tax on the first $110,100 of a worker's wages. The tax rate for employees was reduced to 4.2 percent in 2011 and 2012, but is scheduled to return to 6.2 percent in January.

To read the letter, click here »

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=066FB085-5798-4E6C-ABA2-85549D84DFA6

Signatories:

Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.)

This doesn't include Elizabeth Warren and other new Senators.

[zeemike]

32. Let me predict what will happen your way.

We have a massive campaign to pressure the dems...it goes to the house where it passes with most dems against it...then to the senate where it passes by one vote and becomes law.

Then we get a ton of emails from Dems wanting donations so they can "fight" those evil GOPers...(same thing with the GOP supporters, to keep the socialist at bay)...and we continue the march to the right...

When will we ever wise up to that old game of good cop bad cop?

[L0oniX]

45. "good cop bad cop" is exactly what is going on. n/t

[starroute]

44. Even the Tea Partiers aren't happy about the Monsanto Protection Act

At least some Republican voters could join a revolution that focuses on corporate overreach and the corporate takeover of government. Not all of them are such radical free market supporters that they believe big business can do no wrong, and as they see their actual freedoms being traded away in the name of corporate profits, they may at least be open to a marriage of convenience with the left.

http://rt.com/usa/tea-party-monsanto-act-281/

[woo me with science]

79. +10000 Becoming the 99 percent is our only hope.

What we face is a bipartisan corporate assault on 99 percent of us. We must come together as the 99 percent to stop it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2620923

Corporate money and power is the problem.

Our government, both parties, was purchased by the one percent, and 99 percent of us have been disenfranchised. They are not running Republicans and Democrats for office anymore. All major party candidates are corporatists, or they do not have the money to compete.

Nobody in the 99 percent is being represented. We are all being played, Democrats *and* Republicans, and we are all fed with lies about each other to keep us fighting each other instead of the ones who are doing this to all of us. The big ugly secret on DU is that Republicans across the country are just as angry as we are.

Just as our politicians lie to us about wanting to protect public education and the social safety nets and unions and the environment, their politicians lie to them about wanting to stand for small government, limited government interference in private lives, and the defense of civil liberties.

If we could agree across party lines on just one thing....that our representation has been stolen from ALL of us by the corruption of money in the system....we could join together as the 99 percent to get the corporate money out and demand our representation back. When elections are for the people again, and corporations are not allowed to select our candidates, we can have a real fight in the public square about Democratic versus Republican philosophy. And real Democrats will win.

Right now, we don't get any choice at all. We get two candidates pushing essentially the same corporate agenda, by and for the one percent.

[tpsbmam]

104. ^^^THIS^^^

Another excellent post, woo!

[forestpath]

13. I know when I call and write that it won't do any good. The fix is in.

[Skittles]

78. CORRECT

WE THE PEOPLE are now treated like annoying flies who keep landing on the money elite-backed politicians

[Marr]

14. Quite true-- in fact, this President has worn our anger like a badge.

He started before he was even inaugurated the first time. The fact that liberals were upset with his appointments and willingness to "compromise" on certain issues was supposed to proof that he was oh-so-serious and adult. That is to say, corporate-friendly.

And that attitude permeates the party leadership. There's a pretty effective filter of money in place, and the only people get beyond certain levels of influence are people chosen and groomed by Wall Street.

[notundecided]

16. This Sucks

We need a General Strike now!

[OnyxCollie]

19. The mass public needs to be managed

by responsible adults with loud voices.

"Democratic mass parties are bureaucratically organized under the leadership of party officials, professional party and trade union secretaries, etc.... Of course, one must remember that the term 'democratization' can be misleading. The demos itself, in the sense of an inarticulate mass, never 'governs' larger associations; rather it is governed, and its existence only changes the way in which the executive leaders are selected and the measure of influence which the demos, or better, which social circles from its midst are able to exert upon the content and the direction of administration activities by supplementing what is called 'public opinion.' 'Democratization,' in the sense here intended, does not necessarily mean an increasingly active share of the governed in the authority of the social structure. This may be the result of democratization, but it is not necessarily the case.... The most decisive thing here- and indeed it is rather exclusively so- is the leveling of the governed in opposition to the ruling and bureaucratically articulated groups, which in turn may occupy a quite autocratic position, both in fact and form." -Max Weber

[Herlong]

92. We don't need a leader. We need a movement.

Leaders can be managed. Movements can be marginalized, but large enough can move the nation to the democracy we need to see.

Critical mass. When polls show the propaganda does not work, when show up at the polls. when we voice our concerns, when we protest. International corporations need Americans at the moment. The sun may set, today we have the eye of the needle.

And I also agree, we have to be creative.

Herlong.

[antigop]

22. 2016: " two more corporate candidates selected by those who own this country,"

Yep.

[antigop]

23. k&R. Thanks, woo. nt

[xiamiam]

24. we cant change it if we keep voting for it and falling for the dems vs repubs propaganda

its all distraction...keep the wars, the drones, the profiteers, wall street etc rolling and screw everyone else...and if we dont like it?..well then they have new laws in place to stop us from assembling and protesting...

[truedelphi]

109. Agree very much. And the whole notion that

Awakening Democrats cannot find Awakening Republicans and unite for a common cause is false one. Does it make sense to hear RW people say, "The only thing Dems care about is the right of women to have abortion?" No that doesn't make sense. Because Democrats care about a lot of other things in addition to the right to have choice when it comes to the personal matter of pregnancy. And neither does the supposed rallying cry of "Republicans only care about their guns" make sense. As a matter of fact, they too care abut Civil Liberties lost through the Nine Eleven scheme/scam to keep us all willing to give up our freedoms for endless surveillance and continual hassle of being disrobed, felt up, and shoved around.

All of the middle class wants to have jobs, decent schools, and a way to take back the current economic "fix is in for the Too Big To fail" crowd." Are there right wing people out there that are too loony tunes to talk about anything with? Sure, but they are in the bottom fifty percent of logical perception abilities. That still leaves enough people that they can be talked to and persuaded to be part of a movement to get things changed.

When Mike Moore's movie on our health care system came in, many of my neighbors were RW'ers at the time. And they all liked what Moore was saying about the need to have Single Payer Universal H C.

[fredamae]

29. It doesn't matter what PBO

says or does--It's a matter of how congress votes.

Watch the Dems on this. If one goes back in time, reviews the votes over say the past decade, you'll discover a LOT of the factors leading us to the mess(es) we're in today are as a result of Dem votes "getting them there"...
Votes matter. Votes either deliver a law to the presidents desk or not.

[Jakes Progress]

34. Ever wonder why the repubs ran such heinous candidates?

Come on. mccain. palin. romney. ryan.

Those with the money wanted Obama. bush 1 and bush 2 tried to cut SS. Neither mccain nor romney had a chance of doing so. No republican president could ever get away with this. They needed a neo-dem, a charismatic one, to pull this off.

Privatizing public schools and protecting banks are just gravy.

[woo me with science]

36. +1

[antigop]

37. "Privatizing public schools and protecting banks are just gravy. " --you forgot to add

outsourcing of jobs.

[Herlong]

97. Privatizing schools

A bad idea that is failing badly.

[Jakes Progress]

149. Bad idea for teaching children.

Great profit train for corporations. Hence, it gets the backing of arne and his boss.

[Nite Owl]

60. Actually

I thought of that scenario. It seems very possible.

[whathehell]

110. Yep. "It took Nixon to go to China" = "It takes Obama to cut Social Security".

[Stonepounder]

38. Y'all don't understand. Its over.

Its all over and we've lost. There are a few left in Congress, like Bernie Sanders and Alan Greyson, but basically its over and we've lost. We are basically a one-party state. The Dems have moved so far to the right that you can't recognize them as Dems any more while the Repugs have become Fascist. Nobody cares about the vast majority. We can line up like sheep and vote - for Right wing candidates or far-Right wing candidates. The 1% has won. We are like a patient with end-stage cancer. Dead men/women walking. They are killing our schools, our jobs, our way of life and there ain't a damn thing we can do about it.

When the West Virginia coal miners tried to organize in the 1920's, the President sent in the troops. Look at the arms they had in the 20's and compare it with what the army has now. Writing and calling doesn't work, voting doesn't work, and mass demonstrations don't work. We're done for. But it really doesn't matter, since we are destroying the planet as well. Between deforestation of the Rain Forests, GM crops, fracking, overfishing, global warming, and the lot, there ain't gonna be much to save in a couple of generations anyway.

I'm glad I'm old and I won't live to see it all happen, but I feel sorry for my grandchildren, or at the latest, their children who will witness the collapse of human civilization. We can't go on this way, but the PTB are bound a determined that they have to have that next billion, and to hell with everything else.

[davidthegnome]

52. Sadly, I agree with you.

There is an overwhelming sense (particularly among people within my age group and younger - late 20s through early thirties) that we have no real power to create change. Our votes make a difference, yes... but it is increasingly seeming that it is not enough of a difference.

No one wants perfection, I don't think. What we want is a government that isn't so hopelessly corrupt and ignorant that we're forced to throw up our hands and heave a mighty, resigned sigh when we deal with our political leaders.

I don't think we CAN turn things around at this point, not without some kind of enormous shift of perspective among the rich (cold day in hell), or an anger among the poor and working class that inspires us into action (maybe if they turned off the electricity...).

I can't really say I'm sorry about it (the likely collapse of human civilization) though. All things considered, if this is the best that humanity can collectively do, then perhaps we deserve to perish. We've let selfish greedy pricks and their enablers hold our Country hostage, we've let them turn a democracy into a game of monopoly. We've polluted the earth to such a great extent, poisoned water and air, obliterated many of the species of animal that we share this earth with. We terrorize each other with bombs, missiles, even drones... we use our great and advanced technology to create better ways to kill. We torture our prisoners. We praise football players over teachers, "job creators" over humanitarians - and worship celebrities instead of giving our praise and our gratitude to the real heroes of the world.

Well, all that said, I'm off to watch the Walking Dead... it may be an apocalyptic world, but I enjoy it a great deal more than the one I live in. Maybe it's because people are forced to interact with each other, instead of a damn box. As long as we have computers, internet, television, x-box, all this great technology to keep us quiet... I don't expect change.

Perhaps humanity will eventually evolve (whatever of it survives our attempt at civilization) into something smarter. I can only hope.

[AverageJoe90]

86. I'm sorry, but unfortunately that is EXACTLY what TPTB want us to think, fellas.

They want us to believe that human civilization is going to collapse. They want us to believe that we are all irrevocably doomed, and that things will never get better.

Don't you get this? They feed on this kind of extremist pessimism. They love it! They love it because it doesn't do a damn thing to them and only comes back to harm us in the end, and this truth doesn't just hold for politics, but for many other things, including climate change(especially climate change), nuclear disarmament, etc.

I'm sorry, but this is too important for me to keep quiet. If I'm the only one that ends up speaking this vital truth, then so be it. But I will be darned if I ever stop challenging these defeatist attitudes, on ANY issue.

[Bluenorthwest]

124. I agree with you. Those messages might as well come from the other side

nt

[davidthegnome]

145. No one is telling you to be quiet.

On the contrary, we need to speak out - and I try to do it when I can. I just don't think it's going to have much effect. Our civilization IS headed for collapse, this isn't simply my pessimism - consider the ice caps in the arctic, melting at an alarming rate. Consider the sink holes opening up, the earth quakes, the increasingly greater hurricanes. It's not just our political atmosphere or our social problems (though those play a big role) it's simply that we've destroyed - and are continuing to destroy our environment. Eventually, there is a price to pay for such things.

The truth IS vital, unfortunately, too many people don't recognize it when they hear it. We live in a Nation where a large number of our elected officials do not believe in proven science, from evolution to climate change. These nitwits believe in money magically "trickling down" from the rich, so of course they don't believe in science.

Don't get me wrong, I may be a pessimist, but I still want to change things. I WANT to turn things around, and I do what I can (like supporting Obama in 2008 and 2012) to make a difference. I just feel defeated, because I'm broke and unemployed, because I'm in school, borrowing thousands of dollars I can't pay back any time soon, if ever. Because not only am I about to lose my apartment, but they're shutting off the electricity on Monday - and I've already borrowed too much from family.

There are reasons I'm pessimistic, chances are I won't be posting here in another few days, because I'll have no way to do it. Corporate profits are at an all time high... the economy is turning around, so everyone keeps telling me... the problem is, the economy is turning around in such a way that that the rich are getting richer than ever before and the poor and working class are stagnant, or worse off than before.

I wish I could be more optimistic. I wish I had reason to be. Everywhere I look though, I see lies, greed, destruction and cruelty. Everywhere I look I see people who apathetically go about their daily lives and have just stopped caring about the big picture. I consider my pessimism to have a strong element of realism attached to it. Perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps I'm deluded. Maybe my own issues have painted a darker world than the reality. I hope that's the case.

I hate my defeatist attitude, but no one has given me a reason to change it.

[AverageJoe90]

146. I'm just speaking the truth as it is, that's all. We can't let our pessimism rule us.

Maybe my own issues have painted a darker world than the reality.

I'm sorry, but that does seem to have been the case: Civilization is NOT headed for collapse, not in our lifetimes(that is, perhaps barring a global thermonuclear conflict, asteroid impact, extreme pandemic, Yellowstone eruption, or even a combination of two or more of these). That much is for certain.

I'm no shining optimist myself, and there are, I must admit, times where I've gone down the same road you have in terms of thought processes. But it's that strong element of realism present in my own thinking that always brings me back from the edge every time.

Good luck with dealing with your apartment problems, by the way. DU is here for support whenever you need some.....

[datasuspect]

53. the only thing that will work is dragging them out into the streets.

the 1% is terrified of ONE thing and ONE thing ONLY:

coordinated, grass roots effort and direct action undertaken by the great majority. you know, the people they used to call the mob, the great unwashed, the vulgar.

but sometimes i really think the majority of Uhhhhhmericans really LIKE and ENJOY getting their faces rubbed in shit.

or they are really just truly lazy and dumb.

[fredzachmane]

93. From the Declaration of Independence...

Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

-Thomas Jefferson

[FiveGoodMen]

56. That's what I think, too.

I don't see that we have any leverage over our own government.

And they have ever-increasing power over us.

The American Revolution has failed.

[progressoid]

41. Angry Rec.

[starroute]

42. Laurie Penny, whose article you quote, was in New York at the height of Occupy

She knows what's going on, on both sides of the Atlantic, and she's been among the most eloquent in speaking out (often writing as "Penny Red.&quot

I suspect the people inside the system know their position is a lot shakier than they will admit publicly -- and that the savage crackdown on dissent is one sign of this. But when a tipping point finally comes, it is likely to come very quickly.

[green for victory]

43. ^^^nt

[creativebliss]

48. Very Well Said...

Thank you for your well thought out response and explanation of passivity and fear in the wake of a time when opposition is needed most.

[In_The_Wind]

55. Hello ~ creativebliss

[img][/img]

[creativebliss]

57. Thank you!

Very happy to be here and absorb so much insight!

[In_The_Wind]

59. If you have any questions lots of very nice DUers are always around to help.

Glad to have you here.

[OneGrassRoot]

49. K&R and bookmarked n/t

[watoos]

51. Let's look ahead

Let's say, ha ha, that the Senate gets a progressive budget passed. Well guess what the House passed a budget that is so far apart as the earth is to Pluto. What will next happen is that the House will demand the Senate change its Bill to suit them. So I'm saying it matters little if the Senate could even pass a decent budget. So what's next?
Bills are going to have to be passed to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling. Dems need to stick together when this happens. Let the Republicans shut down the government, I can get by many months without my SS check, but many cannot. Enough caving to austerity, our economy only grew 0.4% last quarter. It's time to take a stand. It's time to forget about compromise. It's time to save our country from the corporate elite. It's time to trash the Grand Bargain.

[Auggie]

54. "They are not interested in hearing what we think, but in managing our anger:" +1,000,000

[Nite Owl]

61. Have you noticed that there are

no ads that explains this to people? Moveon has a strongly worded letter to sign, AARP nothing on tv. They have a hard to find article. Alot of people that I bring it up to have no idea what it means. Even on MSNBC there is pretty much a silence. Some have at least mentioned it (Tweety thinks it's great, Obama should do it even without the other side giving anything). Ed is now relegated to Saturdays, Rachel-nothing, Chris Hayes-nothing. I think they have been told to be silent, don't let it out.

[woo me with science]

71. Yup.

I once spent nearly an entire afternoon online trying to find political cartoons that address the REAL problem we face...the fact that both parties are massively corporate-purchased by the one percent and that corporatists in both parties are colluding to implement essentially the same direction in policy at the expense of the 99 percent.

That message is simply not out there in the mainstream media. We are continually fed a false narrative of Red versus Blue and encouraged to take one side or another regardless of the policies being implemented. Even editorial pages are designed to facilitate the division...(Corporate) Left-leaning articles are presented on one page, and Right-leaning articles on another, and you're expected to read only your side. Our cable news does the same thing.

Our entire media is designed, first, to distract from the corporate agenda both parties are actually inflicting on us, and, second, to cover over the economic complicity of the two corporate parties and foment division among us by continually hyping wedge issue differences that the one percent could not care less about. They want us to choose a team and rally around that team even while our side is continuing to ratchet up the corporate agenda. They want us to hate each other so much that we will never be able to conceive of uniting to stop what they are doing to ALL of us.

[cer7711]

62. This Is One of the Best Posts I've Ever Read on DU.

Last edited Sat Apr 6, 2013, 03:05 PM - Edit history (12)

Exactly right: "Our government is purchased by a monied elite. They have an agenda in mind that will make them trillions of dollars, and their goal is to keep us as quiet and passive as possible while they implement it.

They are not interested in hearing what we think . . ."

Here's the other problem: Roughly a third of the population is actively hostile and/or indifferent to social-democratic causes and initiatives, another third is so blinded by Obama-worship (He's a nice guy! He's a black man! He speaks well! --all true but irrelevant to advancing a revolutionary agenda) that they refuse to acknowledge his center-right politics and proclivities, the remaining third is so fractionalized and intra-combative that they spend more time fighting amongst themselves them unifying to throw their bodies on the gears of the machine.

So what's the answer?

I wish I knew.

(Those of you in an optimistic, pleasant state of mind stop reading now.)

In my darkest moments I think: It's too late. The country has been strip-mined of its industry, seen its intellectual class neutered and broken on the twin altars of political correctness and access to power, had its stolen wealth concentrated in ever-increasing proportion amongst the plutocratic oligarchs raping the republic. The majority of the country is either woefully ignorant or actively stupid when it comes to educating itself about the causes that have sent us into an economic tailspin. (Thank you, right-wing radio!) Meanwhile, poverty, disease, hunger and gun violence march on unabated while scientific and cultural literacy decrease along with union membership, book reading (the average American doesn't get through a book a year and reads at a 6th-7th grade level), cogent conversation and substantive, systemic change.

So in my darkest moments I think: The only options left are either (1) violent revolution or (2) suicide as public protest/lurid theater, ala lotus-position monks immolating themselves on the steps of government buildings or in the middle of city streets. That's what I really f-ing think, in my darkest, despairing, most angry moments.

Since option #2 is ethically repugnant (unless you are suffering unbearable physical pain with no hope of improvement) and option #1 fills me with terror and dread (given the sanguinary body counts, out-of-control excesses and pain and suffering inflicted on all parties trapped in a revolutionary milieu) I throw up my hands and say: Eat. Drink. Fuck. Die.

Nihilism is all we have left now--or so I think--in my darkest, most angry, despairing moments. Of which this is one. (Obviously, eh? Heh!)

If those in Washington truly knew how the hyper-stressed and perennially-attacked middle- and working-classes of this country felt in 2013 they would tremble, tremble.

[KoKo]

128. I hear ya! But, I have some hope...

The hope I cling to is the people/citizens finally waking up as to what has been going on. It's gotten so overwhelming (the Corporate/Military/Industrial/Media Control) that it's now leaking out of the sewer caps and soon will be flowing down the streets of every town and city in America like that oil pipeline in Arkansas.

They've done well so far with the cover up...giving us distracting entertainment/theater of Faux News, Reality Shows and Distorting other distractions...but, it's reaching critical mass.

There's only so long you can hide the amount of Corruption, Lawlessness, Thuggery of Wall Street, Military and Corporate Control. The Supreme Court's decision to allow Corporations to count as Citizens and the loosening of Campaign Finance Laws (even allowing foreign countries to donate to Presidential Campaigns) has unleashed a force that cannot be hidden, because the consequences are and will be so dire for the citizens of this country in the coming years.

[antigop]

64. I think we have to hope that the 1% start turning on each other and start to eat their own. nt

[antigop]

65. greed has a way of doing that. nt

[Herlong]

106. Flip side. Happening always

both ends play against the middle and the one percent attack from the rear, maintain power and gloat.

[Herlong]

107. The one percent don't eat their own

With a feeding frenzy from the 99%? If you are a one percenter, sit back and watch the show. Duh.

[WillyT]

69. K & R !!!

[Cedric the Clam]

75. Absolutely Correct

You are right. Letting them know what we think accomplishes nothing. They already do know. Stronger measures are required.

I think nothing short of what happened during the French Revolution will have any impact.

Chain yourself to the XL Tar Sands Pipeline? They will physically cut you off the pipe, and they don't care if they have to cut your limbs.

March in front of the White House? They will go out of town to play golf with oil executives that day.

If we politely ask to have our country back, they will just say no. We are dealing with criminals.

[Nite Owl]

90. And if we march the complicit media will

will report that there was 500 people not the 500,000 that were there--if they cover it al all.

[marions ghost]

135. EXACTLY

"We are dealing with criminals."

THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE TO FACE.

------------------

We are not prepared to be ruthless, so how do we fight back against criminal hijackers who respect no rules and no boundaries???

[Lint Head]

76. Like it or not we are living under modern technocratic corporate-theocratic fascism.

Disagree if you like. People die from corporate pollution, denial of health care and powerful people who steal and murder without proper prosecution. We can flap our jaws and get carpal tunnel syndrome from writing Congress but nothing will be done until there is a paradigm shift. I am just one American among many who want change but I feel neutered by the options to foment change because the powerful have created a system of futility..

[KoKo]

129. It's hard not to sink into apathy. But, this is the MOMENT...

NOT to GIVE UP...but, to push back harder than we ever have before.

Our very future and our societal structure is at stake...and even our lives given the economic policies that are being pushed by BOTH parties. It's waking up to that which will create the REAL CHANGE...

My hope, anyway... Without hope...what is there?

[MotherPetrie]

80. K&R!

[Cleita]

81. I have noticed how easily the majority is ignored.

It's time for us to create an underground economy that bypasses the elite. When the money and more importantly, the tax money stops flowing in, they might take notice. I myself am starting a little cottage industry where I will take goods and services in exchange for my services. I say screw them. I'm that pissed off.

[leftstreet]

83. DURec

[UBEEDelusional]

84. They know what we think and event want, they just don't give a shit

OK not ALL of them some are very good and do the best they can fighting those who don't give a shit.

[decayincl]

85. We have been betrayed.

Just proposing this change will likely end Social Security. As years pass, SS will lose more and more support of the young as they realize that the Greedy Bastards got theirs and will take yours.

[socialist_n_TN]

88. Remember, Marx was right.....

nm

[ljm2002]

89. Nailed it.

But more and more of us are starting to see it clearly. I find that these days when I talk to acquaintances who are far to the right of me politically, this is one aspect of what's going on that we all agree on: the politicians are bought and paid for and few of them give a rat's patootie how things work out for the rest of us.

The question is what form that growing anger will take, and also, whether we the little people will continue to aim our anger at one another or whether we will unite around the bread and butter issues and tell the government to f*** off.

[fredzachmane]

91. Money spent on 2012 election 4.2 billion

Money spent by pharma 40 million

Money spent by ANTI gun lobby 12.2 million

Oil Lobby 139 mill

Bank lobby 112 mill

COC 136 mill

Unions 28 mill

GE 21 mill

Claim that NRA's 2.8 million is "running" Washington...priceless

[blkmusclmachine]

94. So, BHO is a Corporatist Trojan Horse dressed up in faux Populism. A wolf in sheep's clothing.

And his phony "bipartisan" schtick is as real as Romney's tan.

Hmm ..

[Babel_17]

95. I'll say this, there's little stomach to pay for Wall Street's screw ups

with Wall Street's money. Ditto that for the banks and the let's get rich by invading Iraq loonies.

Asking the little people to share the pain? There's lots of that.

[octoberlib]

96. Lee Fang of The Nation

wrote a good article on the proliferation of conservative think tanks in every state of the union since the passage of Citizens United/ corporations are people nonsense. There's one group in particular , State Policy Network, that serves as ALEC'S media/pr/social outreach arm and they've worked on right to work laws , privatization of education etc.

While progressive donors have also sought to fund targeted think tank and state media outlets in certain states—namely Colorado and, reportedly, Texas—there is no comparison in terms of size and scope, or in the underhanded tactics embraced by their ideological opponents.

Brian Rothenberg, head of ProgressOhio, notes that while family foundations exist on the right and the left, corporate money has flowed almost exclusively to conservative think tanks. “Especially after Citizens United,” he says, “the right is inherently better funded than the left.” In 2011, during the effort to repeal Governor John Kasich’s collective bargaining law, unions still provided less than 20 percent of ProgressOhio’s budget.

Meanwhile, at another Heritage Foundation gathering, Sharp and her colleagues said that their new strategy had been inspired in part by a Malcolm Gladwell article in The New Yorker called “How David Beats Goliath.” The piece, which details the ways that underdogs can win playing by their own rules, offers anecdotes on how insurgents have defeated well-equipped armies by harassing and weakening their opponents.

http://www.thenation.com/article/173528/right-leans?page=0,4
Getting rid of Citizens United would be a start.

[KoKo]

142. +1...a good read...and yes...getting rid of "Citzens United" is

crucial.

[woo me with science]

150. Thank you for this link.

I hadn't seen it before.

[a2liberal]

100. K&R

It's appalling how many people will continue to defend corporate sellouts no matter how clear the evidence becomes.

[jsr]

102. No truer words

[tpsbmam]

103. I love you, woo. This is spot on, as most of your posts are.

Cuts to the heart of the issue. You said much more eloquently and better what I said in response to the notion that the Dems have moved "right" on economic issues. It's not a move to the "right" -- it's part and parcel of the power elite ownership of not just our government, the world. Great post!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2622657

[locks]

108. Great posts

You are so right about the corporations. I have been feeling so hopeless about the media, not just tv, but the newspapers which are mostly owned by the right wing corps. We used to have some newspapers that spoke the truth, but in order to survive they have all sold out. Murdoch is now trying to buy the LA Times. But tonite on Democracy Now Amy Goodman was broadcasting from the National Conference on Media Reform meeting in Denver. The independent media hope they can stop the Murdoch and Koch-backed consolidation by getting the truth to more people. The documentary Shadows of Liberty is being shown which explores how corporate control of media has eroded freedom of the press.
Susan Green, editor of the Colorado Independent, was interviewed. She was with the Denver Post a long time and left because they stopped printing any negative stories about their advertisers, big oil, Anshutz etc. One thing we can do is try to read, listen to and support independent media.

[ProudProgressiveNow]

112. K&R nt

[H2O Man]

113. Recommended (#188)

It's time for Gandhi Power.

[KansDem]

114. The militarization of the police...

Any government trying to push through austerity against the will of a large proportion of the population is going to have to rely on force to deal with dissent.

Police officers, circa 1950--



Police officers, circa 2010--

[midnight]

115. Time to out rule private sourced codes to process our votes....

[myrna minx]

116. K&R n/t

[AnnieK401]

117. I am as concerned as anyone on this site - believe me.

Last edited Sat Apr 6, 2013, 12:52 PM - Edit history (1)

I depend on my small monthly check from SS (disability). However, is there any chance of this making it through the Senate? OK, I get that this shouldn't even be on the table, the POTUS is trying to make a point. And I understand that we need to start screaming and shouting about this even being a consideration. Just trying to keep my cool and be realistic about this becoming a reality.

[KoKo]

131. The worry is that even if it doesn't pass the Senate..It's on the Table

that there WILL BE SS/Medicare/Medicaid Reforms and that the Democratic Party is very willing to work with the Repug Crazy Paul Ryan Types to compromise. It's like a compromise with the DEVIL to use Paul Ryan's Budget, Petersen Foundation, Heritage Foundation Policy as a "negotiating point" give away for the Democratic Party's "CROWN JEWELS" and to put a stake in the heart of FDR's New Deal Policies.

It's a negotiation with the Devil... Corporate/RW Think Tank Negotiations with a Democratic President who has put this out there to them.

That's the worry.

[sabrina 1]

121. I love Laurie Penny, she hits the nail on the head. But it was predictable when

the brutal crackdown of protesters took place and we began to see so-called liberals fall for the propaganda and the lies about violence etc, that Wall St. was going to win.

Maybe now that people are seeing the deterioration of their various countries as predicted during those huge protests, more people will have the courage to join them.

One is certain, things cannot continue the way they are. Sooner or later the people will rise up en masse as they always have when the greedy become too confident that they have nothing to fear, that they have successfully broken the people down.

'Those who ignore history are destined to repeat it'.

[boomerbust]

123. True

Back when Wisconsin was fighting the fascist takeover of that state, I asked and I quote " Where the fuck is Obama". Followed by this statement, "He could have crushed the right wing just by showing up". That question was answered loud and clear this week with his so called budget proposal. I voted for the angry black man twice and this is what I got. Another corporate shill.

[nineteen50]

125. Our economic system switched

from production to finance. Finance has no patients for acquiring wealth through the process of development and production so it usurps existing systems of production and service and sucks the wealth out of them. Currently it is sucking the wealth out of everything of value in the public sector that is why we have an attack on S.S, Medicare, education, and pensions.

[socialist_n_TN]

132. This is easy to explain with a Marxian analysis......

The rate of profit (not overall profits necessarily, but the RATE of profit) is WAY down from where it was at it's peak in the late 90s for production. Since, under capitalism, investment will gravitate to the highest rate of return, that means that today it gravitates toward financial instruments BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE THE HIGHEST RATE OF PROFIT IS TO BE FOUND.

It's a problem of the system, not individual actors. And it won't change until the system is changed.

[marions ghost]

137. "almost medieval"