ESTRAGON: Well, shall we go?
VLADIMIR: Yes, let’s go.
[They do not move.]
Curtain.
So ends both acts of the Samuel Beckett play Waiting for Godot. One of the two main characters suggests leaving, the other agrees, followed by the stage direction that both remain motionless until curtain.
This is also the entire role of the Democratic Party. To enthusiastically agree with American support for movements calling for real changes which benefit ordinary people, while making no actual moves to provide no such changes. The actors read the lines, but remain motionless.
Barack Obama made a whole political career out of this. People elected him because he promised hope and change, then for eight years whenever hopeful people demanded changes he’d say “Yes, we all need to get together and have a conversation about that”, express sympathy and give a moving speech, and then nothing would happen. The actors remain motionless, and Godot never comes.
Democratic Party leaders are currently under fire for staging a ridiculous performative display of sympathy for George Floyd by kneeling for eight minutes while wearing Kente cloth, a traditional African textile. The streets of America are filled with protesters demanding a total overhaul of the nation’s entire approach to policing. The Democratic Party’s response is to put on a children’s play using black culture as a prop, and advance a toothless reform bill whose approach we’ve already established is worthless which will actually increase funding to police departments.
Meanwhile it’s blue states with Democratic governors and cities with Democratic mayors where the bulk of the police brutality people are objecting to is occurring. The Democrats are going out of their way to spin police brutality as the result of Trump’s presidency, but facts in evidence say America’s violent and increasingly militarized police force would be a problem if every seat in every office in America were blue.
I don’t know what will happen with these protests. I don’t know if the demonstrators will get anything like the changes they are pushing for, or if their movement will be stopped in its tracks. What I do know is that if it is stopped, it will be because of Democrats and their allies.
Bloodthirsty Senator Tom Cotton recently took a break from torturing small animals in his basement to write an incendiary op-ed for The New York Times explaining to the American public why using the military to quash these protests is something that they should want. We later learned that The New York Times op-ed team had actually come up with the idea and pitched it to the senator, not the other way around, and that it was the Times itself which came up with the inflammatory headline “Send In the Troops”.
https://twitter.com/PatrickCoffee/status/1268947229907259393
The op-ed understandably received severe public backlash which resulted in a senior staff member’s resignation. But if these protests end it won’t be because tyrants in the Republican Party like Donald Trump and Tom Cotton succeeded in making the case for beating them into silence with the US military. It will be because liberal manipulators succeeded in co-opting and stagnating its momentum.
Watch them. Watch Democrats and their allied media and corporate institutions try to sell the public a bunch of words and a smattering of feeble, impotent legislation to mollify the masses, without ever giving the people the real changes that they actually need. It remains to be seen if they will succeed in doing this, but they are already working on it. That is their whole entire purpose. It’s much easier to control a populace with false promises and empty words than with brute force, and the manipulators know it. That is the Democratic Party’s role.
It is true that there’s a difference between Democrats and Republicans, in the same sense that there’s a difference between the jab and the cross in boxing. The jab is often used to keep an opponent at bay and set up the more damaging cross, but they’re both wielded by the same boxer, and they’re both punching you in the face.
Don’t let them disguise that jab as anything other than what it is. Don’t let them keep you at bay with a bunch of impotent performances and word magic. If they have it their way they’ll keep that jab in your face all night until the knockout punch leaves you staring up at the arena lights like it always does, wondering what the hell happened and why Godot never came.
__________________
Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics onTwitter, checking out my podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following me on Steemit, throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my books Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.
Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
80 responses to “The Democratic Party Exists To Co-Opt And Kill Authentic Change Movements”
Democratic politicians to Democratic voters: “And I love you, and the check is in the mail, and I promise not to [redacted for decorum] in your mouth.”
Did you get excited about Bernie, AOC, and the Squad? About Tulsi Gabbard? About the Justice Democrats? Did you feel hopeful when Pramila Jayapal reintroduced a pro-forma Medicare for All bill and everyone in the Congressional Progressive Caucus rushed to cosponsor it? Well — and I know the Russian-reversal meme is getting tired — I have news for you: In democracy, progressives take over Democratic Party; in plutocratic America, Democratic Party take over progressives!” Did you check out the CARES Act that every last one of the SOBs voted for? In the middle of a pandemic that presages a Second Great Depression? Where are your progressive Democratic Gods now?
For what it’s worth, my opinion of Republicans isn’t any better (nor indeed markedly worse). Two wings of the same bird of prey, playing bad-cop/bad-cop with different identity-politics constituencies. At this point telling me I have to vote for Biden to beat Trump is like telling me I have to vote for Quisling or Pétain because otherwise, Hitler!
Finally, one of the biggest disservices independent news-and-opinion sites have done is their failure to ever — EVER — mention third parties and their platforms and candidates, and to discuss how different voting systems at the state level could help break the Democratic/Republican duopoly. Maine’s ranked-choice voting, achieved by citizens initiative and fought at every stage by the duopoly, is the first step toward the possibility of change, but is it ever mentioned? Anywhere? [Crickets.]
Ha, Ha! The three most common lies…I love you, the check is is in your mouth, and I promise not to come in your mailbox.
In a democratic electoral system, when a large population peaceably assembles to protest what the government is doing, the government will respond to the grievances of the people.
In an autocratic, privately funded, two-party electoral system, the government does not respond to the non-violent protests and demonstrations of the people. It only acts to dampen or crush the movement until it fades away.
Therefore, the only action that works to change an autocracy is massive NON-VIOLENT civil disobedience.
a.k.a.
The U.S. labor occupation during the 30’s of GM factories in Flint MI, to get union recognition.
Gandhi’s salt protest movement against Britain’s monopoly on profits from selling salt.
Occupying segregated lunch counters during the 60’s, to rescind legal apartheid in the U.S.
Occupying University buildings during the 60’s to require administrators to respond to student grievances.
French farmers occupying the streets of Paris with their tractors to have their grievances addressed.
–
‘ ‘smash, loot and burn’ ‘ tactics against private property only invite lots of public support for police violence against the mob action including against the non-violent participants.
–
Therefore the most effective tactic will be mass occupation of government buildings until grievances are addressed. Even the small handful of those who occupied the Venezuelan Embassy in D.C. where somewhat effective. Imagine if there had been 10,000 occupying the Embassy.
–
Peace out.
Trump has been in office 3 years and the others 30 -40 years yet it’s his fault. He has done more for Americans of color than any other President. The Democrat laws that have given Americans of color life behind bars for first time offenses. Trump has changed those Democrat laws and has pardoned those incarcerated for 15 -20 years for a first time marijuana arrest. Bill Clinton removed the ethic laws and Obama the propaganda laws pertaining to our new sources. So they could create people like you with their non stop lies. Why would a President remove those laws ask yourself and be honest in your answer. I remember what a real news cast was we watched it around the dinner table every night. What we have now is a nonstop Trump fest and anything you get watching televised news is Propaganda just like those poor people in China the only difference is they’re smart enough to know their being fed a narrative to achieve the goals of the dictator.
Sherrie Augusta, i think you’re missing something crucial. Sure the Democrats are corrupt and purposefully ineffectual, but the Republicans are exponentially worse, and trump is even worse than that. You speak of propaganda– you might want to check your own take on reality.
Kevin, can you refute any of Sherrie’s points? She’s correct about Trump doing more for black Americans than Obama ever did. If you have any evidence to refute that, let’s see it.
——————–
https://www.ajc.com/news/opinion/opinion-yes-donald-trump-the-most-pro-black-president/xy15nDwDFpDeirQyEque2K/
——————-
https://www.politifact.com/article/2019/aug/01/donald-trump-said-hes-done-more-african-americans-/
You might want to check in with Candace Owens. A highly intelligent young black woman today (leading the Blexit movement), she will tell you exactly why black people have done much worse under the Democrats.
Much truth here, Sherrie Augusta. Trump is routinely labeled racist, sexist, homophobic and antisemitic but, for all his other faults, he is none of these. Reagan’s FCC ended the Fairness Doctrine, while Bill Clinton’s gift to the corporate media was the 1996 Telecom Act which eliminated media ownership caps, opening the door to the current immense, impermeable media monopoly.
A Comment About Police, Political Parties, and “Change Movements”
I wonder how far I can contradict ole Caitoz before she gets a snit on and blocks me? These internet ideologues are so touchy.
I am responding to her blog post titled “The Democratic Party Exists To Co-Opt And Kill Authentic Change Movements”. It is found at https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/06/09/the-democratic-party-exists-to-co-opt-and-kill-authentic-change-movements/
Also, to a twitter post she did that went as follows;
“If these massive protests look suspicious to you, it’s because they don’t match your expectations. If they don’t match your expectations, it’s because you’re out of touch with the zeitgeist. If you’re out of touch with the zeitgeist, you need to revise your media viewing habits.”
To which I twittered;
“These protests look suspicious to me because they match my expectation of what a “color revolution” op looks like. I am not interested in being in touch with any “zeitgeist”. All this is because my media viewing habits are exactly right.”
Since I am about to do a blogging about the latest “black lives matter” commotion, I might as well make it a response to these utterances of Caitlin.
What never ceases to baffle me is the inability of seemingly sincere ‘left’ commentators on class war politics to notice that there is no monolithic ruling class. There are factions fighting each other as much as us proletarians. Most of the commotion we have been seeing lately, and which will accelerate through the next decade, is a war between the two main oligarchic factions within western civilization.
We have the financial capitalists. These are the people who just want to own everything and charge rent and dividends for it. They talk about “yields”, not “profits”. They are in control of issuing the money.
They are responsible for the “climate” nonsense. In other words, neoMalthusianism. They think a much smaller world population would supply them with everything they need without them having to reduce their standard of living in any way. The rest of us are just using up resources they want reserved for themselves.
In the USA they control the intelligence deep state, “Wall street”, and most of the media. When the masses get restless, they favour cooptation over suppression, but will not hesitate to suppress what they cannot control.
Of course, they own the Democratic party and have spun up this tumult about police violence for their own purposes. They have been in control of American foreign policy and use proxy wars and colour revolutions to maintain global control. They want a one world government and want to obliterate Russia and China because they are in the way.
In the other corner we have the industrial capitalists. These are the people who want to run everything and make “profits”,and are generally in control of actually making, moving, and running things. They do not understand money or economics at all and believe economic expansion can go on indefinitely.
Toward that they want the largest possible human herd to exploit. They are utterly intolerant of uppity commoners and will look to suppress us. They control The Pentagon but tend to shy away from destructive warfare. Their heyday was in the postwar period. They have lost out since 1980 as the financialists regained control and moved production offshore where possible.
In recent years the industrials have been trying to make a come back. Of course, the Republican Party is their vehicle. Trump is mostly on their side, although he is a loose cannon. The “MAGA”s and such groups are their pampered proxies in the growing conflict between the two elites. Of course local police in the USA tend to be “MAGA” type people.
The “Antifa” type of people are of course the Financialist/fake left’s proxies. It is a safe bet that the present “Black Lives Matter” eruption is brewed up by the financialists and the intelligence services as part of a campaign against Trump and the right wing industrial faction.
Black and brown people are murdered by police in the US of A every day. Horrifying videos are constantly emerging on the net and ignored outside closed circle internet groups. That is, until the killing of George Floyd suddenly began to be played up by establishment media.
Many people have expressed disgust at the sudden rush of Democrat hacks to “take the knee” and other demonstrative nonsense. Some people are even curious as to why people in foreign countries, who are quite indifferent to their own government’s abuses, are falling all over themselves to demonstrate against treatment of a minority in another country.
The problem is that Trump is getting in the way of the globalists various plans. They are not gong to be able to get him out of office in the next election. So they need to use their patented Color Revolution methods to force him out.
This entails using the Antifa hordes to help clear MAGA off the streets. The Globalists\Democrats also need control over local police who are mostly MAGA until now.
Some sharp eyed little internet gnomes observe that most of the police violence being reported is in areas controlled by Democrats. Of course it is! An old trick in the colour revolution playbook is to influence the targeted authorities from within to crack down brutally, thus discrediting the police and laying the grounds for their “defunding” and “reorganization”.
Some internet chumps squawk that police forces are actually being given more money. Well, of course! They have to be retrained, regrouped, often restaffed, to serve new masters.
How will all this turn out? My crystal ball does not go that far. Two classes of despicable people are having a fight for control of a shrinking space. They will mangle the hapless peons in the space, while using them as proxies in their fight.
Nothing will change until this system falls and, hopefully, a system more beneficial to normal people is raised up. Until then the cops will continue to be what they are; the Pretorian guards of whatever clique is in control. This will be especially true in the US of A, where government is so fragmented and police are controlled by often very corrupt and ignorant local governments.
Police will be a problem in Canada, in Australia, in France, and everywhere while there is not a real democracy, meaning almost everywhere. The problem is and will be, that they have a dual and conflicting role. They have to keep public order at the same time as they enforce an unjust social order.
Only a flake imagines we can do without some sort of police force in a complex urban society. That is total disregard of human nature. But if there is no longer an oligarchy, no longer an unjust order, the dual role problem of police disappears. Good people would want to join the police and the police could be trusted.
No “change movement” is going to change the police in any fundamental way. The social/political/economic system must change. But toward that, and as a way of wrapping this up, I am amused at those who are indignant at right wing industrial capitalist types demanding “call out the troops”.
It is not likely to happen this time around, but it is something to be wished for. Often the collapse of the regime comes when the police are insufficient and they call in The Troops. The Troops will be much more inclined to “turn their guns around” rather than shoot at civilians.
And by the way, all political parties exist to coopt and kill change movements. That is why they were invented.
The original of this is in my own blog at https://blog.burble.ca/2020/06/10/a-comment-about-police-political-parties-and-change-movements/
You’ve nailed it, Tim! Glad to know that other people can see this. Don’t forget the most valuable tool of the globalists at the moment — tech companies. Social media, search engines, payment processing, 5G (designed to collect detailed data about everyone’s most intimate actions — it’s all about data collection, surveillance, and control of all resources and people on the planet), etc.
————–
I wish more people would wake up to what’s really happening. The most frightening thing about all of this is the globalists’ ability to so effectively brainwash and control the masses. As Caitlin so eloquently states: “Whoever controls the narrative controls the world.”
——————–
Everybody needs to see this. The globalists aren’t even trying to hide it anymore — here’s a video that the World Economic Forum produced about their “Great Reset.”
https://www.weforum.org/great-reset
“The problem is that Trump is getting in the way of the globalists various plans. They are not gong to be able to get him out of office in the next election. So they need to use their patented Color Revolution methods to force him out.”
— Yep, this is how I see it too, Tim. Trump, with his antipathy toward NAFTA, TPP, regime change in Syria, attempts to pull out of Afghanistan and Iran, is a globalist’s nightmare. He gets in the way of their carefully laid plans. Hillary would have gladly helped usher in their new world order, as would/will Biden.
Correction — “HIS attempts to pull out of Afghanistan and IRAQ” (Not enough sleep last night.)
There’s something very unsettling and ominous about the kneeling gesture. Isn’t that how Mr. Floyd was murdered in the first place? Someone kneeling on his neck. Some people raised their fist while kneeling. That too is a very ambiguous gesture used by the Black Panthers but also White Supremacists. It’s a very subconscious thing but people’s true motivations always come out. Give it some time and we’ll know where these people really stand. Actions speak louder than words.
I know people who live in Australia don’t care (at least not until next summer when their own Trump burns the place down around them), but in America we are stuck with a two party system. Only a Republican or a Democrat is going to be the President after Jan 2021.
If you sit and do nothing but constantly attack one side, then you are supporting the other side. If you work constantly to depress and decrease the Democrat vote, then you are working to re-elect Trump.
Trump must Go!
if you do not attack the democratic side as well as the republican side, you are participating in the scam. we need to defund he system, for the planet. trump is an utter incompetent, and he will probably lose to the senile and corrupt biden, and the train will slow as it still approaches the cliff at a high rate of speed, just a bit more slowly. silicon valley billionaires will gain an advantage over fossil fuel billionaires.
Certainly, things are going slowly from bad to worse but I don’t see a cliff ahead. Our children or grandchildren will be riding the derelict train when it eventually comes off the rails.
Defund the President!
See this:
https://www.madcoversite.com/mad493.html
“…The entire role of the Democratic Party. To enthusiastically agree with American support for movements calling for real changes which benefit ordinary people, while making no actual moves to provide no such changes.”
…
They do have other roles. Those include cozying up even further to the rich and powerful and to do even more things to sell out the Working Class and those of the Middle Class that supported them over the years. The Dems are doing such a good job of this, the Working and Middle Classes are now on the Nearly Extinct List.
…
“Barack Obama… promised hope and change.”
…
Much like those who advertise, “We Serve and Protect” never go on to identify who and what they are serving and protecting, Obama did in fact deliver hope and change. He gave hope and brought changes that served and supported the Hidden Hands who were just waiting for someone to come along with his cool look and polished voice to lead us further into the abyss. It was the fault of those listening to him who assumed he was there to bring hope and change for THEM. Suckers. Just like the guy who’s in the Big Chair right now. Same outcome, different deliverer.
…
“Democratic Party leaders are currently under fire for staging a ridiculous performative display of sympathy for George Floyd by kneeling for eight minutes while wearing Kente cloth, a traditional African textile”.
…
Empty meaningless gestures as photo ops? Trump with Bible, done. Democrats wearing ethnic clothing and kneeling? Done. But a much more authentic action would be for Dems to get on their knees and re-enact a different kind of action from that posture that they do every day on their true owners that will not be further described here…
Like.
There’s no like tap, so…
The reason for never-ending wars, debt-slavery, oppression, violence, growing incidence of chronic diseases and drug use, depression and alcohol dependency is that the majority of voters and non-voting public believe their governments are honest and benevolent. Such implicit but misplaced public trust gives state officials and their puppet masters the freedom to do what suits them and then to convince the public that everything they do is in the best interest of everyone. In reality, state officials and puppet masters do everything to increase their personal wealth, pride, surveillance, and control over their loyal citizens and they are highly skilled in making sure that their populations only receive just enough information (propaganda) and can barely afford enough goods and services to keep the well-informed people from revolting. Sociopaths invent political systems which allow them to control their naïve voters much like the way zoo-keepers and animal trainers in circuses only give their animals enough food and freedom on their leashes to keep them docile and contented. Fortunately for state officials and puppet masters, most citizens are content to be managed like animals. People who work for change must share the Great Liberator’s Vision and Mission and this must become a grass-roots, social, spiritual, tactical movement, networking around the world. The revolutionary Liberator I refer to is Yeshua, a Hebrew name which means LIBERATOR. Unfortunately, His revolutionary strategy and tactics are so brilliant, exceptional and powerful that this is way above the mental abilities even for highly intelligent and well-educated people who fail to grasp what Yeshua said and meant. Read more of this here: http://www.wisdompage.com/2013%20Articles/Molyneaux%20essay.pdf
The reason for never-ending wars, debt-slavery, oppression, violence, growing incidence of chronic diseases and drug use, depression and alcohol dependency is that the revolutionaries got tired and stopped being active and now instead just constantly re-post the same link to the same rather useless essay.
Tell me why you think the strategy in that article is useless.
I don’t know about the Yeshua part, because I’m skeptical about Bible / Hebrew interpretations but apart from that you absolutely nailed it. Gonna read that wisdompage essay now.
All of this conveniently passes over the fact that any legislative progress must go through both houses of Congress, including Mitch McConnell’s Republican Senate majority. Blame the Dems if you wish, but it come to nothing if you all don’t figure out how to elect 51 (really 60, given filibuster rules) non-Republicans to the US Senate.
I get that it is extremely frustrating to talk about always electing the lesser of two evils, but this is the reality. The US Constitution is a document that reinforces the status quo, with a bicameral legislature, and 3 branches of government with checks and balances. You can support the Libertarian, Green, SWS or SEP parties. But know that they have a 0.0000000% chance of winning a presidential election, or anything resembling a bloc that is large enough to effect legislation in the Senate. If you don’t win elections, you can’t change laws, and the systems they govern.
Ssssshh…. the one thing the left absolutely refuses to do is to win elections.
They’d much rather stay divided into little ideologically pure groups where each is the Big Fish in their Tiny Pond. Winning elections would require joining together and actually having to acknowledge people who don’t agree with everything you say.
If you watch the tactics of the left on the internet, the left does not want to win elections. It is far, far better to support the candidate who loses with 1% of the vote than it is to actually win.
Sorry, after more than 4 decades of being, voting, and volunteering “Blue”, and almost the same length of time as a community activist, organizer, leader for democratic ideals such as fairness & justice for all, civil rights, protection of the environment and public commons, and, well, democracy, I’ve stopped holding my nose and enabling those who promise hope and change EVERY SINGLE ELECTION and then collaborate with their so-called “opponents” to make sure that the wealth & income gaps grow, fossil fuel companies remain profitable, the state of perpetual war becomes the new normal, defense budgets swell and the national debt grows to levels that will almost guarantee an end to national autonomy, civil liberties and any kind of social safety net.
The point is, Dems have indeed won elections- Obama had a Democratic Congress and still took single payer/ M4A off the discussion table, still filled his cabinet with status-quo-defending Wall Streeters, still spread war and the surveillance state and persecuted whistle blowers who dared try alert the public about it. So please, enough with this lesser-evils, “if only D’s were in power” b.s. Oh, but we would probably have a bigger national celebration of MLK (now that that troublemaker is gone).
So, what alternative to the Dems do you propose that will be able to enact the change you seek right now, keeping in mind that you need something like a majority of Americans to go with you?
the democrats had that filibuster proof majority and did nothing with it. that’s why people talk about the lesser of 2 evils. the president has a lot of power to affect the country, which is why trump has been able to do so much to screw it up over the last few months, and why obama’s inaction and deference to the elite had nothing at all to do with congressional majorities.
Remember, don’t vote Democrat. Der Fuhrer must be re-elected!
The Democratic Party did the most damage to our black population when they overthrew black elected representatives in Congress and revoked the black vote in 1898. Wilmington, NC was yet another thriving black community, like Tulsa, OK (1921), Rosewood, FL (1923), Seneca Village, NYC (1857), and many others that were destroyed by a racist mob.
Today, both parties are responsible for the 40-yr. collusion to dismantle the entire middle class. Until we reverse the bankers coup of the mid-70’s and restore fiscal investment in the public good, we will continue this erosion of economic justice.
“The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.”
~ Thomas Jefferson
Of course, this is back after the Civil War. During the Civil War, the Democrats were the pro-slavery party opposing Lincoln and the abolitionist Republicans. For a century after the Civil War, the southern states were literally one-party states where the winner of the Democrat primary always won the general elections. This was the racist party that was home in the 60’s of people like George Wallace and Lestor Maddox standing in school doorways with clubs vowing no black child should pass.
————
But, this all changed in the 60’s. As the Democrats became the party of the Civil Rights movement, all of the southern racists left the Democratic Party and became Republicans. This was the great shift begun by Nixon and finished by Reagan by which the south became Republican country on the basis of Republican support for racism. Today Republican support of Trump in Trump country is a strongly racist and white supremacist movement.
Sometimes, pulling events from over a century ago can be very misleading. Anyone who says the current Democrats are the same as the racist, fascist Trump movement isn’t paying attention. No electing Joe Biden will not be the same as electing Martin Luther King Jr. But, its a whole lot better than electing Trump.
I disagree. Research LBJ/Pres Johnson’s trick in 1964…. “War on Poverty” to win the Dem votes for “the next 200 years”. Note that Senator Gore voted against Civil Rights. Sen Brid was a leader of the K- K. The parties did not flip as I am understanding you to say. Remember, Rev. Jesse Jackson presented DJ Trump with an award. If you don’t know about that award (since the MSM does not want you to know) , search YouTube, hard….hopefully it is still there.
Here’s an article in the New York Post about Jesse Jackson’s praise of Trump, and they include a link to the video. Interestingly, Youtube appears to have pulled the video. Wow.
https://nypost.com/2016/08/31/jesse-jackson-once-sang-donald-trumps-praises/
Very good Caitlin! This calls for my own rant… I seriously doubt that many of those bogus overblown photo-op creating mercenaries seen in the accompanying photograph kneeling in silent prayer behind their worshipful cult leader for eight minutes have any precedent of ever having actually done such a thing within the closet of their own minds. How does one scream about needing changes in government while at the same time running for re-election for the umpteenth time? Thirty to forty years in power? God grant us term limits! Down with the American Royalty Class for whom the laws of the land apparently do not apply! Such can be accomplished very simply by actually enforcing the laws of the land and prosecuting long rampant serious political corruption. This would pretty well throw out anyone having “served” in Congress for 12 years or more, effectively draining the swamp that is D.C. Follow the money! This is not rocket science guys. Throw out those old farts (speaking as an old fart)!
However the picture of the kneeling Democrats was particularly cringeworthy. In generally the bujis have been falling all over themselves about the demonstrations and ‘riots’, trying to distance themselves from the ugly, ugly state they have created. But this particular exercise was the lowest point I have seen yet. At least Tom Cotton just admits he wants to kill people. And the _Times_, of course….
Turns out that the Times editor who approved Cotton’s fascist rant is the brother of current US Senator and former Presidential candidate Michael Bennett. Bennett was of course ushered onto debate stages despite having little real support, not even in his home state. While of course anti-war voices like Gabbard were banned from speaking.
Both are the son of a father who headed the known CIA front at the State Dept’s AID (Agency for Intl Development), and then put in charge of corporate propaganda service NPR. NPR is National Public Radio, but its funded by corporate partners and has never met a war it didn’t like leading to its description as ‘National Pentagon Radio’.
Don’t you just love the way that the sons of a former CIA spook have their lives made easy with promotions to prominent and influential positions despite neither showing any real talent or judgement?
I didn’t realize that these Bennets are related. I live in Colorado… and Bennet is 2nd probably only to former Gov. Hickenlooper (now trying to win the Dem nomination for Senate) among the corporate Dems loathed by much of the electorate. M.Bennet got his seat only because of his $; Among those who voted for him there’s now a lot of buyer’s remorse. As for “Frackenlooper”, the national Dem elites effectively gave Coloradans the finger, promoting him instead of the far more progressive and publicly palatable Andrew Romanoff
It is also of course wise to remember to not make their jobs any easier—never forget we all exist in an echo chamber. The left’s strategic planning has largely (always?) sucked.
.
There is a huge difference between a decent amount of the country getting outraged over watching someone have their neck kneeled on until they died and much of what else being pushed for. That doesn’t mean you have to settle for no neck-deaths and then stop, it means you have to actually do the hard work of `changing’ rather than `shaming’. Keep shaming power of course, but don’t lump poor Jim the Trucker into it, you’ll get much farther with him if you don’t assume he’s an ignorant racist. Does hidden bias against your “skin color” exist (despite race totally being invented)? Sure, just like we got some to believe a bush caught fire and talked to some dude in a desert awhile back, we got a bunch of folks to believe you’re black. But you know who the establishment loves? People like Michael Jordan—and he’s black as hell. Wonder what it is…probably something to do with his shoe empire which has resulted in many black deaths. Good thing Nike is giving back a small portion of the funds they vacuumed out of black pockets in exchange for overpriced sneakers—things are gonna change!
.
It has always been a class war. Always. The focus on the arbitrary separation of the human species into groups is playing right into their hands. We want ALL lives to be not-shitty—we do not care what color you are. You want to unite the working class against the elite and their professional enablers? Drop your genital-, pronoun-, and melanin-focused foolishness.
.
And Pelosi isn’t the only one peddling symbolic bullshit folks. Much of these organizers are nothing but drama kids with no outlet for their artistic inclinations. Oh look, let’s all symbolically lie (or kneel, or whatever it is this month) on the street for however many seconds it took for the latest death to occur while some walk around filming the silent scene. That’ll be so moving and powerful and allow us to stir up emotions in people that will make them more manipulateable. Then they’ll definitely accept our hollow, shallow narratives which will only tweak the system because we spent all our time on the spectacle and glamorous and outrage bits rather than the boring work of actually figuring out how we got here, why, and where we actually want to go (or, more charitably: as members of an oppressed class they were denied the time and/or skills to do so). Don’t worry though, we’ve got slogans to paper over that fact—and just like Eddie Bernays’s bullshit, the people will buy it!
.
We respect you far more than that. We’re not feeding you shallow bullshit—we’re at least feeding you a deep trough of well-aged artisan bullshit. But we’re also giving you more choice. We’re not interested in shaming you into doing something—that’s dangerous as hell. We want you to come out of this better and wiser than us, not followers who hang on our every word.
.
With us, you’re shapers of your own future, not parrots for someone else’s ideas. With us, you’re not pawns in some shithead’s game of Risk.
.
November 2024.
We are coming. Expect us.
(You want it faster? Make it possible.)
.
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2020/05/30/18833392.php
http://www.mediafire.com/file/k1omyaf0r73shvk/Twenty-Twenty-four.pdf/file
And dems are keeping the narrative at police brutality, so far it seems the people are falling for it. Even MLK knew economics was the problem so why are the American people even falling for it? Biden at a funeral for a black man? Why weren’t the protesters blocking him from even being there? Shit, do black lives matter or not? C’mon, don’t let the dems do this…
Boy, you really nailed this one Caitlin. The boxer analogy made me hoot my admiring approval so loudly my wife said, “What? What happened?” I sent her the piece and she did the same.
As I watch the protests and broaden and the violence recede while the Minneapolis city counsel takes bold, veto-overriding action to actually transform policing to real public safety while other cities move in the same direction, I think, “When are they gonna bring out the left hook? And what’s going to happen then?”
My fear, which I know is entirely rational, is that they will wait until the mass of energy has been spent, then they will crush–and then, when the rage erupts in response to the crush of the left hook, they’ll bring out the right hook, the knock-out punch. And we’ll all be told it’s 1984.
American national politics is the “Greatest Show on Earth,” hiring only the best actors and orators, financed by the Corptocracy for the Corptocracy, with one directive in mind: to mesmerize the populace into thinking they live in a democracy with actual choices, but in reality it is a unitary body which has one master – the Corporate State.
The Democrats specialize in meaningless optics. They are the faux opposition party.
I agree with much of what you wrote. This is why big business donates to both sides. They will win no matter who gets elected. Politics has been described as “The art of the possible.”No matter who gets to be president, he will not be able to anything without congressional support. (Sorry about the “he”, but America seems to be unable to support women. You would think we were all created in test tubes, instead of being birthed by our mothers.)
Perhaps you could offer a solution that has a chance of success. Not immediately, but maybe a long term program aimed at correcting the ills you have listed. As of right now, we are looking at the idea of putting a bell on the cat, but not having any idea who will “Bell the Cat.”
I may not have a solution, but I’ve got the precondition of finding one. In this customarily incisive post, Caitlin describes the current protest and civil disobedience in American city streets as “demanding a total overhaul of the nation’s entire approach to policing.” Certainly that’s a major theme of the action, but a much bigger agenda is being put forward by the chaotic protests, resistance, vandalism, looting, etc., which in combination (and triggered by the Floyd outrage) have rocked the American status quo already on a ventilator due to Covid Derangement Syndrome coupled with Trump Derangement Syndrome. That bigger agenda in the streets is the demand not only for humane policing but for a humane socioeconomic order, one which prioritizes people and planet over commerce and profit. This new and massive uprising will be defeated only if it fails to keep its eye on the prize of a better, more beautiful world and refuses to even dream of settling for slightly better cops. The key is to literally overwhelm the status quo, to pour into the streets in such numbers and locations and frequency that the system simply runs out of the cops, soldiers, prosecutors, judges, and jail cells required to put a substantial dent in the disorder, much less to suppress or quell it. If the young and others cruelly deprived of a viable future raise hell relentlessly with ruthless abandon, precious lives will likely be lost, but what war has ever been won without tragic sacrifice? The moment has arrived–and I mean RIGHT NOW–when America and humanity in general either ups its game and is forced to evolve by unyielding pressure from the masses, or the elites manage to re-stabilize things into an even more oppressive “normal” for average people (not to mention the poor) and resumes hellbent its trajectory toward nuclear war and/or ecocide. I saw a brief dress rehearsal of this play when I was a young man and enjoyed playing a bit part. Now as an old man, the curtain has suddenly risen again, and this time it’s the real deal, make it or break it, or better yet, break it to remake it. No more time, not another minute, to wait around for Godot.
Just make sure you go into battle backed by a truly robust narrative of WHY, or at least a good plan to figure it out along the way, because that vacuum is guaranteed to be filled with something, and we see very few good options currently available.
Spent many years thinking long and hard about this ultimate goal, this endpoint, which must be in our minds concretely enough to know at least in what direction we should move step-by-step. A lot of desire out there for a better, more beautiful world, a lot of vague ideas and glowing aspirations about it, but damn little in the way of specific proposals and comprehensive thinking covering all the bases of a viable alternative socioeconomic system. I’m checking out your ideas right now and will suspend judgment until I’ve done the homework. But as of now, this is BY FAR the best I’ve found in terms of a detailed description of an alternative system vastly superior to anything yet born, an alternative system in which I can easily imagine living and thriving along with most all of us. Certainly not the last word here (having been spoken in the late 19th Century), but an extraordinarily helpful and illuminating one, at least to me. Even the great Marx was amorphous when it came to describing the workers’ paradise. Bellamy isn’t.
https://newtonfinn.com/2018/07/12/on-earth-as-in-heaven-part-i/
https://newtonfinn.com/2018/07/12/on-earth-as-in-heaven-part-ii/
Destiny has a sense of humor.
i could care less what politicians say but I have noticed more demicrats yell, act like buffoons and are much nore theatric than the average republican politicisn. However there are exceptions.
LOL. Change is coming, it’s called slavery, and finally at long last we can stop beating around the bush and call it what it really is, “SLAVERY”, and the chains won’t just be figurative but they’ll be literal as well.
Fuck Trump.
Obama gave good oral err I mean “speech” but was a weakling his one “accomplishment” was the most minimal health care possible. He was about as dynamic as a butler while Biden was his maitre d.
Ah, the Buddha Ms Caitlin once again speaks the unsugar-coated truth! Mr. Barack Obama was a great ” hood ornament ” for the democratic party and the presidency. Some of his loyal voters still worship him even though he delivered absolutely nothing to them. As masterful con artist at work; he was. Horseshit and bullshit is all the ” democratic party ” has ever been. They are without a doubt hellbent on keeping ” the status-quo ” and their ” gestures and speeches ” are completely phony. The United States political system is only geared to respond to those with the money to buy it; everyone and everything else is ignored. The democratic party voters are the most brainwashed herd of humans in all the United States.
Poor Americans. Fighting in the wrong countries; for the wrong countries; in the wrong war; for the wrong cause. Then coming home and doing the exact thing at home.
I had a very different reaction to seeing the introduction of the Justice in Policing Act. I had the sense that the institution of government had actually responded to popular demands, for the first time in decades. I was profoundly moved by it. While I generally agree with Caitlin’s brilliant analysis and worldview, I see something hopeful here, something extremely rare.
BTW, I wasn’t fooled by Obama. I saw him for who he turned out to be.
The only provision of the Justice in Policing Act that serves any purpose is limiting Qualified Immunity. Wherein police are immune from civil action resulting from their actions. It should be eliminated in its entirety. It holds police to a lower standard when in fact they should be held to a higher standard. All other provisions are just feel good virtue signalling. Meanwhile, it completely ignores another problem. Police are not responsible to the public. While they are guilty of the same crimes as police, sheriffs departments are guilty of far fewer of them. Sheriffs are elected, and so are indeed responsible to the public. Chiefs of police are responsible to whichever Psychopath In Charge is elected as mayor. Either one of these changes would enormously reduce police brutality over night. Another issue is the police unions, which immediately reinforce the blue line any time it’s threatened, whether rightly or wrongly. Like most unions, they are also a significant influence in elections of Psychopaths In Charge.
Obama now hangs out in The Hamptons.
Chicago has been abandoned.
One wonders “Why?”
Well for goodness sake Catlin, you seem to have overlooked the point that we still live in a democracy and Sen Cotton can say what the hell he likes. There are more than enough liberal lefty idiots censoring free speech for you to start getting involved. It’s only the left that seem to be aroused by so called incendiary comments and perhaps it’s because they refuse to accept and or discuss anything that steps out side their agenda led hateful rhetoric.
“For example, the published piece presents as facts assertions about the role of “cadres of left-wing radicals like antifa”; in fact, those allegations have not been substantiated and have been widely questioned. Editors should have sought further corroboration of those assertions, or removed them from the piece. The assertion that police officers “bore the brunt” of the violence is an overstatement that should have been challenged. The essay also includes a reference to a “constitutional duty” that was intended as a paraphrase; it should not have been rendered as a quotation.”
Since when did the liberal censors hold anyone up for unfounded assertions, accusations of racist – biggot – fascist – alt right – fascist, blah blah blah. Never.
Double or no standards here as per usual.
You have to be open to free speech too!
LOL. This is no democracy, never was. Freedom of speech? No, we don’t have that either. You hear only what your masters want you to hear. Sure, a cow gets free food etcetera but in the end it pays the ultimate price for it.
Indeed Roy. I live in hope.
Hmmm
Sadly, placing limitations on our freedom of Speech has enjoyed wide spread bipartisan support for decades. Consider the unconstitutional and thus patently illegal anti-BDS laws on the books in 26 States which trample all over our freedom of speech. Laws which were passed with strong support from both sides of the aisle. Laws which remained unchallenged by both Obama’s and now Trump’s “Justice” Department. This despite the fact that the Supreme Court issued a definitive ruling in 1982 with NAACP vs. Claiborne Hardware in a unanimous 8-0 finding that “boycotting” is a protected First Amendment Right…
And then there is the blatantly unconstitutional “orders” (edicts) issued by President Trump unilaterally decreeing that exercising one’s freedom of speech to criticism jews/zionists/israel is no longer exists in the entire public and higher educational system. Not to mention the fact that being bestowing these special illegal “rights” (to be free from public criticism) he is literally inviting tyranny, manipulation and exploitation by those groups. And that is exactly what they have done. You can make that same case for every example of unequal treatment dictated by government fiat for special interest groups” which are all in flagrant violation of the 14th Amendment.
The assault on our Freedoms and Liberties has succeeded because of its bipartisan support by “our” elected officials, not the lack of it.
It was not suggested that Tom Cotton’s speech be suppressed, not around here, anyway, even though it recommended violent treason. Most of us understand that we have to put up with a lot of speech we don’t like as a condition of having freedom of expression ourselves. This doesn’t mean we can’t criticize it.
His speech was censored, edited and cleaned up by the ministry of truth so it towed the correct narratives line. Totalitarian rule is here.
Caitlin didn’t say his op-ed should have been censored. Why are you accusing her of that? And Cotton’s article was full of lies, as you state in your letter.
If you’re going to rant without thinking, try at least to understand what has occurred before you dish your vacuous waffle out. I won’t explain what has occurred as I think there is little chance you’ll understand it a second time.
It feels like either they’re gaslighting or mocking us.
Excellent article! Someone needed to shine a light on the fact that the majority of the bad cops are in blue states that have had dem leaders for decades! I am glad tonight’s article is short, as I am reading the ebook; “The Plan to Remove Donald Trump”. Per the ebook, the end game plan includes the 25th Amendment, Covid-20……
Not sure it is blue states so much as inner cities run by democrats. High populations of poor and often violent people. Nonpoor people are not inherently violent just a mixture of both. Violent people preying on the weak.
Caitlin you are Australia. Why do you care about the American Democratic Party?
Pardom me. Australian.
Seriously? Australia is basically the 51st state of the US. The world is a small place. We are all intrinsically affected by the shenanigans of the political muppets in the US, and also Caitlin has been commenting on US politics for eons. I mean, why wouldn’t she care?
Sometimes people forgot that Americans keep their coups and their weapons and their economic demands entirely to themselves.
Oh wait, no. It’s just that you’re a dumb-ass.
right on right on RIGHT ON! and POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!! RIGHT ON….
all our hard wok dodging police clubs and figuring out cointelpro to get us out of Vietnam.
who ven KNEW these people before that ugly war. we get drafted to go 180 degrees around the planet to kill 4 million total strangers with someof the prettiest females you’ll ever see….and the quaintest culter EVER. you wanna see heaven on earth…check out any rice paddy….the goats the carp the tilapia, the big ox. a couple cows grannies from all sides and your best grrrl cranking out a few little kids to make some noise for ya.
BLAM!
gone.
and all we ever did was end the Draft. now we got a more insidious draft. the draft of poverty. poor boys with bad grades choosing to see the world and then get a scholarshit to city college….it they can still walk.
very sick DOD, MIC, the lobbyists, the secret police everywhere…the latent fear, as we manufacture terroism upon terroism to terrify and control the American peephole.
i get physically sick pointing this out. Try Lincoln Park ’68 ’69 ’70. grrrls cant run faster than cops so they got whacked in the back of their legs…and taken in. if their BFs turned around to defend her they got beat up by baton and pepper spray all this pain just for trying to save a life in a place you never knew any other reason for knowing about than that we were killing everyone who lived there.
God damn, Jimmy! Your ground-level, gut-level reality check is very powerful, and much-needed. In a forum that’s all too often strangled by ego and intellect, it shines like a diamond in a goat’s ass. You got me, man. Thank you.
Brilliant essay, Caitlin! Magnificent! I’m sharing this widely indeed. I am glad to see someone like you calling out the Democratic Party for the phonies they are. I am a socialist and supporter of the SEP and WSWS and your description of the Democrats accords with ours. Glad you said it. Glad it is not just us. Thank you.
The Chinese Communists have a one party state with a “one country, two systems” theatre arrangement.
The American Capitalists have a “One Party with Two Names” theatre arrangement.
Vote America 2020-Mental Dotard versus Moral Retard. [apologies to any and all who in the 50s and 60s were hurtfully called retards, You had a justifiable reason for your limitations. Donald hasn’t for his.
The difference between Democrats and Republicans is when the Democrats come to fuck you, they bring balloons.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
nice!
The Republicans are evil.