Sunday, August 30, 2020

The People's Convention?

I watched the MPP People's Convention tonight - or a lot of it, anyway. Much as I like Marianne Williamson, I had to turn it off when she started shilling for Biden. But by that point I was starting to feel suspicious. It was all too moderate; they pretty much seemed to be talking about reform rather than the fundamental Revolution that we have to have if humanity is to survive.

Over the decades I've developed a very good sense for opportunists. Something felt off to me here.

And they pushed UBI pretty hard. That alone is simply nowhere near enough. But when they started talking about a wealth tax, that really set off some alarms. A wealth tax implies the continued existence of great wealth. Didn't say a damn thing about abolishing billionaires. And as long as great wealth exists, a universal basic income is just more for the billionaires to take.

So I'm not buying the MPP. I still believe that it's going to come down to a real Revolution, not some political solution.

Monday, August 24, 2020

Revolution Is Not About Violence

Revolution does not take place on the battlefield, and it's not a matter of arms against arms. It's primarily economic in nature. When a sufficient percentage of a population (approximately 3.5%, in most cases) takes to the streets, and when general strikes occur (sufficient to seriously impair the normal functioning of the economy), the regime is generally doomed.

And as for the military, in EVERY revolution a substantial portion of the military refuses to attack their own population. And some actively side with the Revolution. After all, they're generally from the working class themselves.

Violence and weapons aren't completely irrelevant to revolution. But those who suggest that revolution is unrealistic because the US military is far better-armed than the US population are presenting a false argument.

Sunday, August 23, 2020

Why the Revolution Is Inevitable

Ready or not, the Revolution is coming. The oligarchy itself is creating the conditions which make that inevitable, although they don't seem to realize it.

It's not a matter of a trained cadre of professional leftist revolutionaries. It's a matter of people who are desperate and on the streets. And of those, we have an abundance.

Unemployment is at record highs. Many of those same newly-unemployed Americans have also now lost their health insurance, in the middle of a pandemic. Unemployment benefits have been slashed, and they weren't adequate to begin with.

Tens of millions of Americans will shortly be evicted from their homes. Any of those who are still employed are likely to be unable to keep their jobs as well. We are talking about whole families on the streets by the millions.

Meanwhile the GDP has crashed to a low heretofore unheard-of in America. Covid-19 is going to be increasing again in the fall, doctors predict. The jobs that have been lost will not be coming back anytime soon. All this can only drive the economy further into the ditch, increasing the number of unemployed and desperate even more.

These are the conditions which came within a hair's breadth of creating a socialist revolution in America during the Great Depression. FDR was only able to forestall that revolution with the New Deal, but in this case the elite have blocked the only politician who was aiming to take FDR's role. Which means this time, the revolution is GOING to happen.

Unless you think that millions of desperate, starving Americans are going to quietly and politely crawl off and die somewhere? The recent protests show that that's not likely to happen.

The Revolution is coming whether you like it or not, and whether you think you're ready or not. Because it's not up to us. The conditions for revolution have been forced upon us by the oligarchy itself. With any luck, they will die for it.

Friday, August 21, 2020

Leftist Refugee Camp

I've been posting this on leftist groups on Facebook. Please feel free to share it anywhere that's appropriate.


We've been seeing an increase in hostile activity by DNC trolls recently. This is normal for this point in a Presidential election year. Based on what happened in 2016, we can expect to see escalating attacks and attempts to compromise, buy out, or destroy leftist discussion groups online - particularly large ones.

On top of that, Mark Zuckerberg has been getting more proactive about banning political groups that he objects to - the most recent being anarchists.

I've set up an online refugee camp for leftists who get banned from compromised "progressive" groups, or whose groups are shut down or rendered toxic. It's on an older, very stable social media site that's both free and ad-free. While I hope that it won't be necessary, it is a place where leftists can congregate, share contact information, and discuss ideas in a troll-free environment.

We've all made good leftist connections online here. This is a backup option, just in case.

https://leftistrefugees.dreamwidth.org/

Saturday, August 15, 2020

Why Biden Is Worse Than Trump

Lately I find myself needing to refer back to text I've already written about people - correction, alleged people - like Joe Biden. I've stored some of these in emails to myself, and here.

But it would make sense to organize those writings, and to polish them for that purpose. Add citations and links. Make them more powerful. And maybe make them a public resource, not that many people come here. What could I call them, though?

Anyway, here's something I posted in a response to an advertisement on Facebook for Joe Biden. It's based on previous stuff I've written about Biden, but each time I've used it I've polished it a bit more. It still needs a lot of work, and you may recognize a lot of it as something I posted here earlier (my probably-mythical reader), but here it is.


Joe Biden is actually WORSE than Trump, which takes some doing. He's more of a warmonger; he voted for every war he could in the Senate, and he has made it clear that he will attack Venezuela and Syria as soon as possible. He has also blatantly given Israel a green light for the genocide of the Palestinians.

His vote for the Iraq war helped kill over 182,000 Iraqi men, women, and children. It also killed 4,425 American servicemen and women, while another 31,952 US servicepeople were wounded. The number of suicides among returned military personnel isn't available, but surely isn't negligible. That's a hell of a lot of blood on Senator Biden's hands. And yet he doesn't seem to have any trouble sleeping at night.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/joe-biden-iraq-war-veterans-george-bush-a9380076.html

Biden's 2005 "Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act" (BAPCPA) made student loan debt inescapable even by bankruptcy. It put millions of American families into financial ruin. But then, that's what Joe's corporate donors wanted.

https://www.gq.com/story/joe-biden-bankruptcy-bill

Joe Biden co-wrote the 1994 Crime Bill (
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act). That bill literally made SLAVES out of millions of poor, black, and brown Americans in for-profit private prisons. How many uncounted American children were deprived of their mother or father so that Joe could say he was tough on crime? But the corporations that run those prisons have rewarded Joe with millions in campaign donations. Apparently enslaving millions of Americans was a price Joe was willing to pay for that sweet campaign cash.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/20/18677998/joe-biden-1994-crime-bill-law-mass-incarceration

Joe Biden has gotten the best free health care for over 50 years now, paid for with our tax dollars. But he proudly asserts, in the middle of a pandemic no less, that he will veto Medicare for All. Nothing but the best for Joe, but the rest of us don't count. He is condemning millions of American men, women, and children to sickness and death. "Sacrifices have to be made" according to Joe! But he and his campaign donors are never the ones who have to make the sacrifice. Funny how it's always working Americans who get stuck in the neck, isn't it?

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/10/biden-says-he-wouldd-veto-medicare-for-all-as-coronavirus-focuses-attention-on-health.html

Joe has been trying to slash Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare for his entire career. We paid for those benefits, but Joe wants to privatize or cut them. Is that what a "man of the people" would do? Steal from working Americans?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylgqKg41hxg

Ah, but what about the Supreme Court? some might ask. Really? That's a reason to vote for the man who voted to confirm Antonin Scalia? The man who silenced Anita Hill and the witnesses who would have backed her up to ensure that "Silent" Clarence Thomas would have a lifetime seat on the SCOTUS? Joe Biden's record on the Supreme Court is the worst imaginable. And with his constant fetishisation of "reaching across the aisle", there's absolutely NO reason to expect that to change.

https://theintercept.com/2019/04/27/anita-hill-joe-biden-non-apology/

Lastly, Joe Biden's fossil-fuel friendly climate policy will render this planet uninhabitable. In seven years or less, the planet passes the point of no return and human civilization will be doomed. It will literally kill off the human race. 

https://climateclock.world/

But Joe wants to seek a "middle way". He won't even ban fracking. It's kind of like cutting someone's head half off, but not in a funny way like in Harry Potter. It'll kill us just as surely as Trump's policies. But if you think that one version of extinction is better than another, good luck with that.

https://theintercept.com/2020/08/07/joe-biden-climate-policy-advisers/

They are both rapists, they both have dementia, and they both work for the same oligarchs who are killing off humanity. A vote for either of them is a vote for extinction.

If you have children or grandchildren, think about the kind of world they are going to grow up in - and die in. Think about what it will be like for them, knowing that they have no future. Think about the billions of children, born and unborn, who will grow up in a world on fire and drowning.

More and more people are seeing every day that if we want to survive, we only have one option. And it isn't playing the oligarchy's political game.

We have to take to the streets. The only way we get to survive is if we do what the founding fathers did. We HAVE to revolt.

And it starts with a #GeneralStrike.

Tuesday, August 4, 2020

Joe Kennedy III, Tool of the Elite

Every time I've seen an ad for Kennedy (and I've seen a LOT of them), I post this comment:

Joe Kennedy III opposes Medicare for All, even though HE gets free healthcare at our expense. He opposes the legalization of pot, even though the people of his state repeatedly voted to make it legal. And he receives more money from Big Pharma than anyone else in Congress.

His run against Ed Market violates the DNC's own rules against challenging a Democratic incumbent. Nonetheless the DNC is pushing him HARD in order to punish Markey for co-sponsoring the Green New Deal. This spoiled son of privilege serves himself and the oligarchy only.

"Joe Kennedy III opposes Medicare for All, even though HE gets free healthcare at our expense. He opposes the legalization of pot, even though the people of his state repeatedly voted to make it legal. And he receives more money from Big Pharma than anyone else in Congress.

His run against Ed Market violates the DNC's own rules against challenging a Democratic incumbent. Nonetheless the DNC is pushing him HARD in order to punish Markey for co-sponsoring the Green New Deal. This spoiled son of privilege serves himself and the oligarchy only.

"Rep. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) might be pharma’s favorite Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, given that he’s received more than $57,000 from the pharmaceutical/health products industry in this current election cycle alone. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, that’s approximately four times more than pharma’s average contribution to House Democrats. Over the course of his short Congressional career, Kennedy has received more than $348,000 since 2011."

- Center for Responsive Politics

https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary?cid=N00034044