Response to a Democratic Supporter

Eventually you'll realize that you've been played. The Democrats aren't the progressive party they were in the 1930s and 40s; they sold out to the oligarchs long ago. They're NOT "failing" to represent the people; they're doing exactly what they intend to do. Which is to lose. Lose elections, or lose legislative battles. Haven't you noticed that when they're in the majority they're helpless, and the Republican minority blocks everything the Democrats claim to support? They meekly bow to the parliamentarian, or to whichever right-wing Senators are playing the bad guy role that week. The most they'll do is pass weak-tea Republican policies such as RomneyCare. And when the Dems are in the minority, they're HELPLESS - except when it comes to begging us all for money and stabbing progressive candidates in the back. 

They don't even pretend to try to keep their promises any more. Student debt forgiveness? Intentionally undermined by using an approach that experts warned in advance wouldn't make it past the Supreme Court. A $2000 check for every American? They didn't even offer an excuse for that one. Ditto for the public option; Biden promised it, and then never mentioned it again after the election.

Their job is to keep people like you constantly trying to kick that football, even though they pull it away EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. They occupy the left/populist spot on the political spectrum to co-opt any real populist left movement, but their policies are cosmetic at best and always right-wing. They discredit the whole concept of leftism by pretending that it's purely a matter of identity politics carried to extremes, and spitting contempt at the vast majority of the American people who are dying under the boots of the health insurance "industry", the oligarchs, and inflation. 

That's why people voted for Trump. Believe it or not, they're smarter than you think; when offered a choice between hypocritical fascists who support the status quo and a fascist who at least acknowledged that the people are being screwed (even though he's just going to make it worse), they chose the option that recognized that there was a problem.

Stop playing the game. Recognize that we're being slowly exterminated by the upper class. We had it better under King George the Third. The political parties will NEVER allow a solution, because THEY'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM. It's time to work towards overthrowing this murder-suicide of a political system. A better world is possible, but no politician is going to hand it to us on a silver platter. We have to make it happen for ourselves.

Looking at reality

What amazes me is that both Democrats and Republicans are united in ignoring the climate cliff that we're headed for. Oh, the Democrats pretend to "listen to the science", but Joe Biden has repeatedly said that he will not ban fracking - and has already shown that the fossil fuel industry will be heavily represented in his administration, while progressives and environmentalists will be completely frozen out.

 

Here's the thing. Climate change will pass the point of no return by the end of 2027 - and that's if we're lucky. So far every time new data has come in, the amount of time we have left has gotten shorter. And once we pass that point of no return, human civilization is doomed. The oligarchs retire to their luxury underground bunkers in New Zealand, and end up eating each other within 5 years - because let's face it, they won't survive on a dying planet without millions of slaves to support them. The rest of us will end up living briefly and dying in a post-apocalyptic world.

 

Maybe you think that's bullshit. That's your privilege, although if you have kids or grandkids they might disagree. But you owe it to them - and to all the children of the world - to take a hard look at the data. It's freely available on the Climate Clock.

 

There's no time left for political games. We have seven years at most. The only option if we want to survive is revolution. Now, that's not up to any one of us. But the elite have been creating the conditions which make revolution almost inevitable. Cops killing people with impunity. Congress serving the interests of the oligarchy exclusively. Covid-19 being completely botched while BOTH parties refuse to consider universal health care. Millions of Americans unemployed (and even more underemployed) while unemployment benefits expire. Topping things off, tens of millions of Americans will be evicted in the next several months - and again, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans will do a damned thing to stop that from happening.

 

Tens of millions of desperate, starving American families in the streets. In winter. What the hell can we expect but revolution?

 

So get ready. Network with neighbors. Be ready for the mass protests and the general strikes. Stock up on essentials. Learn basic first aid, and get enough supplies to help others. Look up protest techniques and equipment. Because either the revolution is coming...or hell on earth.

Astroturf

Justice Democrats, Our Revolution, Brand New Congress, the Sunrise Movement...any time a shiny new progressive organization appears, it's a safe bet that it's another astroturf project to sucker leftists into wasting our energy and time by working within the system. The oligarchy is happen to spend money to keep us from the only thing that might save humanity: Revolution.

A Response to the Signatories of the "Open Letter: Dump Trump, Then Battle Biden"

It comes down to this: in ten years or less, climate change will pass the point of no return. Billions of deaths will become inevitable, and human civilization will not survive. But Joe Biden won't even ban fracking.

And we don't even have ten years. The fossil fuel industry must be shut down as quickly as possible. Worldwide action on a scale never before seen in human history is an absolute necessity if we're to have even a SMALL chance for humanity to survive. The signatories of this letter know this.

We don't have time to support Biden and then protest Biden. It won't work. The media will ignore the protests. Biden will use his enhanced powers to crush protesters, just as he and Obama did to the Occupy Movement and the water protectors of the DAPL. This letter is a recipe for human extinction.

I don't know how old many of the signatories are. Maybe they're all of an age where extinction doesn't matter to them, because they'll die before it happens. But I have a child, and I care about what happens to the children of the world. As a parent, I will not accept the murder-suicide of our species.

Our only hope for human survival is revolution, beginning with a #GeneralStrike. As for the signatories of this letter, they've shown themselves to be either hopelessly unrealistic, or simply cynical and manipulative. I'm sorry to have to say that, because I've admired some of them in the past. But if they've decided to give up on humanity, it's incumbent on them to get out of the way - not to try to take down the whole species with them.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/09/23/open-letter-dump-trump-then-battle-biden

https://commons.commondreams.org/t/open-letter-dump-trump-then-battle-biden/82463/105?u=pmaranci

Rage Junkies

 

Have you noticed the rage junkies?

They're self-described leftists who prefer a feeling of moral superiority and hatred towards the ignorant and poor who've been taken in by the right, rather than reaching out to try to convert those among them who can be reached. Even though our power is numbers, and increasing those numbers (without diluting our principles) is the most effective thing that we can do.

They prefer to fight fellow leftists rather than take effective action. A favorite tactic is to come up with some label that they feel renders some person or group an irredeemable enemy, and then attack anyone who questions their logic.

It's a very absolutist attitude. Sometimes I wonder if these rage junkies realize that they're helping the oligarchs. And sometimes I wonder if they're all (or almost all) working for David Brock.

Joe Biden, Man of "The People"

Joe Biden's crime bill literally made slaves out of millions of Americans. How many of them died in prison? Nobody knows.

Biden's support for the Iraq war caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, including many thousand American troops.

Biden's credit bill financially ruined millions of American families. How many people died early of diseases of despair? How many committed suicide? Again, nobody knows.

What we do know is that Biden apparently doesn't give a shit. He still insists that he will veto Medicare for all. He still supports fracking, which will kill off most if not all of the human race along with uncounted numbers of other species.

Does that mean that Trump is good? No. He's vile and evil and stupid. But it does mean that many people have successfully been tricked into supporting blue Trump out of fear of red Trump. They  have been played. Too many Americans have been played. And until enough people wake up and take to the streets, none of us will have any hope for the future.

I hope to God they wake up soon.

Necessity

 

Realistic UBI?

The only way that Universal Basic Income would work would be if it was pegged to a realistic standard of living - and NOT dependent on Congressional approval for adjustments. Otherwise it would quickly end up like the minimum wage: completely out of date and gutted by inflation.

It's like any other proposed fix. As long as the current corrupt system of capitalism continues to exist, it will swiftly corrupt and destroy any proposed reforms. Assuming that any reforms even make it through the legislative process.

In other words, as long as the oligarchy and capitalism exist, humanity has no hope.

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.

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.

Time

 

The Great America Robbery

Toys R Us went bankrupt today. I Heart Radio filed for Chapter 11. This is just another stage of what historians of the future (if there are any) might call The Great America Robbery.

Private equity firms - Bain Capital is one of them - have been taking out loans to buy control of many major retailers and other companies. Then they have their new acquisitions take out massive loans. The borrowed funds are used not only to pay off the loans that the equity companies took out to acquire the business - meaning that they effectively buy control of the business at the business’s expense - but the rest of the funds are taken by the equity company as profit.

The business is left with the debt, And even if it’s a profitable business (and they usually are, or they wouldn’t have been targeted in the first place) the debt they’ve been saddled with by the equity company is so huge that they simply cannot pay it off. So they go bankrupt.

Often the equity company still owns the real estate. So they’re left with massive profits and empty stores. You might think that they’d rent those stores out. But these are private equity companies. So they set the rent so high that NOBODY could possibly make a profit in those locations. And then they write them off as losses on their taxes.

The result? It's being called the Retail Apocalypse. More and more empty stores. Economic deserts, that can never be used for retail - and all at our expense. Deserts that will keep expanding, because the private equity companies just keep doing the same thing: taking out loans, buying companies, and destroying them. It won’t stop until there’s nothing left for them to take.

Or if the people wake up and stop them.