Let me tell DUers why people love America

[malaise]

For all the racism, for all the attacks on African-American men, citizens come out and stand up to the cops and insist on their constitutional rights. It's nine days now and people are still on the street. Sure the National Guard are there, sure there was tear gas and rubber bullets; sure they're attacking the press, but the curfew is gone and people refuse to stop protesting.

Now it's true people have to do more than protest - they have to vote - they have to lead their own change, but they are willing to face tear-gas and whatever else and stand up for their rights.

[msongs]

1. people who don't want to be oppressed can try voting out their oppressors instead of 12% turnout nt

[malaise]

2. Yes - democracy is hard work

You have to participate and that takes time and dedication.

[pinboy3niner]

9. Isn't that a lot like victim-blaming?

If you give people reason not to trust the system, don't be surprised when they don't trust the system.

[flamingdem]

3. Great post

It makes me feel optimistic

[malaise]

5. I listen to Irie FM in the mornings and this morning

Ron Mushett was comparing MIke Brown's death with the death of a young Jamaican man in the lock up.
The kid was arrested by cops for a ganja spliff (despite the government announcing that the law is coming off the books) and beaten to death either by cops or other inmates).
Mushett was asking people how come the people of Ferguson are still on the street, but the people in Jamaica are no where to be seen after three days? It's so true.

[Boreal]

4. Thousands of innocent Americans have been

murdered by psycho cops and hardly a news story breaks and very few demonstrations. America is a militarized police state and it's getting worse every day.

[malaise]

6. Way more folks are murdered by cops in Jamaica

and there are even fewer demonstrations

[Boreal]

7. I don't know what the stats are in Jamaica

but would be interested in seeing them. In fact, I'd like to see them for the whole world. Anyway, the US is not what you think it is. It's fast becoming a very scary place. It's not just about race, either. Nobody is safe from psychotic cops and they beat and kill whomever they please. Google "Kelly Thomas".

[malaise]

8. Here

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140817/cleisure/cleisure2.html

Whether or not so-called police death squads really exist, it is a matter of record that extrajudicial killings in Jamaica are alarmingly high. In 2012, 219 Jamaicans were killed by the police, nine more than the 210 killed by the police in 2011. And in 2013, 245 Jamaicans were killed by police.

Police abuse

Think about reported beatings and verbal abuse at the hands of the police, and even death of persons in police custody. Hark back to the case of Agana Barrett in 1992 who died of suffocation in the Constant Spring lock-up after being crammed into a small cell with 16 other men. It took the State 11 years to award his mother $3.5m.

Fast-forward to 2014 where Mario Deane was arrested and taken into custody for possession of a ganja spliff. He died days later as a result of the beating he experienced while in the custody of the police. It took six days after Mario's death for the personnel on duty to be interdicted. Can our authorities really be deemed legitimate?

[Boreal]

12. Thanks, Malaise

It's terrible. We need a world wide revolt against the psychos oppressing the rest of us.

[HipChick]

10. Phuck America....

How can US go about trying to be the world's policeman, when they have so obvious human rights violations at home? Double standards..

AI and UN need to go to MO

[BlueCaliDem]

11. Lately, I've been asking myself the same thing, HipChick.

Then there's that Princeton University study wherein researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page explain that in the past twenty years, the U.S. has gone from being a democracy to an oligarchy.

Using data drawn from over 1,800 different policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, the two conclude that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of or even against the will of the majority of voters.

TPM Interview: Scholar Behind Viral 'Oligarchy' Study Tells You What It Means

"The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy," they write, "while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/princeton-experts-say-us-no-longer-democracy

They've confirmed what we've been having gut-feelings about - that the U.S. is no longer a democracy. It is an illusion of being a democracy in order to fight for votes in those districts that haven't been gerrymandered (yet), and to advance the financial interests of the wealthy and well-connected (through wars, hundreds of millions in government grants and tax cuts, and policies that allow the rich to continue to hide their ill-gotten fortunes in other countries in order not to have to pay taxes).

This is why people can get away with gunning down twenty 6-year-olds behind their desks in school, and nothing happens. This is why they can cut food assistance programs to the poor and still get re-elected. This is why they can eliminate public unions (except the police and firefighter unions) with impunity. This is why passing any policy that benefits the "unwashed masses" is always an uphill battle and IF we get anything through, it's so watered-down that it's unrecognizable.

Elections matter, and since they've successfully gotten rid of civics lessons in our education cirriculum, well, it's benefited them immensely because the majority of Americans don't understand how powerful their vote is to keep the oligarchs and wealthy in check.

America is only the "world's policeman" in order to shovel more millions of taxpayer dollars into the coffers of the MIC, and for no other reason.

[Boreal]

13. Some things are not what they seem

AI is an intelligence agency front for the war machine. That's why they never accomplish anything.


http://consortiumnews.com/2012/06/18/amnestys-shilling-for-us-wars/

[Quayblue]

17. the UN has known about our shit for a while

Not sure why they're over there acting like they don't have decades of write ups. Lulz

[freshwest]

14. Plus a million, malaise!

[jtuck004]

15. Because we are perpetually at war? With each other if no one else is available?

We should be building and growing shit, not cleaning up burnt tires and burying people and watching our climate sour.

I am not clear that this is a path toward something better.

Guess we will see. Make friends.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. Actually, we love the PROMISE of America....

We are NOT there yet and getting there is NOT half the fun.

[robbob]

18. And the reason some people hate America?

Last edited Tue Aug 19, 2014, 01:17 PM - Edit history (1)

Nothing ever seems to change.

Schoolchildren massacred by an armed mentally ill teenager?
Unarmed black men and children gunned down with no consequences?
Armed conflicts around the world that waste billions (trillions?) of dollars and puts that money directly into the pockets of arms manufacturers?

And nothing seems to change.

Hope this time it's different, that we are nearing some kind of critical mass. Wish I could say I believed that.

[JayhawkSD]

19. They have to vote for, or against, what?

The Governor of Missouri is a Democrat, as is the Secretary of State and the Attorney General.

The legislature is Republican controlled, but the executive branch is more in charge of the execution of law enforcement, especially the Attorney General, and they are all Democrats.

So what pattern of voting is going to bring a stop to young black men getting shot by policemen? Please tell me, because I would like to stop the shooting of young black men by policemen and I'm unclear what vote I should cast to do that. I'm inclined to think that letting cops know that their lives will be endangered if they continue shooting young black men is a somewhat more effective deterrent than some vague "they have to vote."

[flamingdem]

20. Umm. Having spent many months in Cuba

and some time in communist East Germany I think some people here need to consider what a REAL police state looks like! I tripped out at the Germans - in this case WEST Germans and the Cuban police for the shit they pulled. You have to have your ID in other countries or go to jail, or it was that way in Germany, you had to have your Ausweiss and they didn't buy my US passport claim. And Cuba, well forget it if you want your rights you had better be well connected.