The supply of similar observations of the corruption in our system seem endless, but solutions escape us. The root of the evil is the pervasive civic ignorance among so much of the voting population. Add to that, the baseless economic theories bandied about as if they were proven facts, such as the classic theory of inflation FED Chairma…
The supply of similar observations of the corruption in our system seem endless, but solutions escape us. The root of the evil is the pervasive civic ignorance among so much of the voting population. Add to that, the baseless economic theories bandied about as if they were proven facts, such as the classic theory of inflation FED Chairman Powell follows in sabotaging the economy. The greatest enemy in this struggle is the media, all but a remnant owned and controlled by five mega-corporations. The shining example is how Fox News made Roger Ailes the effective head of the Republican Party, and he made the Republican Party the handmaiden of the corporate elites. What is needed now is a way to penetrate that corporate wall between the working class, which is the overwhelming majority, and the corporate power that continues to consolidate.
President Biden has been praised for his maintaining calm in the face of this latest banking crisis. I'm beginning to doubt the wisdom of that. Perhaps it would have been better to be shouting, "Repeal that Trump era weakening of Dodd-Frank before more of us get burned!" None of us has the president's bully pulpit, so who else can get the message out with adequate force? I fear that the media will move on as soon as the next disaster porn event comes along, which climate change is sure to provide, and the banks will again escape accountability.
Our two-party system of Government was designed to be a Government of Checks and Balances. It’s looking more and more like just a lot of Checks, Big Checks! 🤑
meanwhile, anyone who does point out systemic flaws, weaknesses, and corruption is marginalized, ridiculed, and/or ignored by corporate media. For example, Bernie, Chomsky, Warren, Dr. Reich, Varoufakis, Hedges.
Postal banking could be one solution for the common people.
Chomsky and Hedges are brilliant, yet I think they go too far; they're overcritical. I guess they want heaven on Earth, populated with angelic humans. Reich is much more reasonable: Let's fix the egregious problems and not try for utopia.
However, maybe we need gadflies, too. It's just that I can't see Hedges or Chomsky ever being satisfied. Your other recommendations are spot-on, especially Bernie; however, he may be overdemanding, also. Let's face it: We're dealing with selfish, violent, low-IQ'd animals here, not wise saints.
Every single person doing their part makes progress possible. That means everyone -- from the most brilliant utopian linguist, to the most practical politician, from the fund-raiser to the speech writer, from the phone bank volunteer to the person who mops the floor at campaign headquarters.
We're alll in this together. No one is too idealistic, no one too pragmatic.
It is great to see your thoughts again Jerry. Thank you for doing all the things that need to be done and for doing them in digestible bites so they can finally become a successful meal of change.
Thank you for being out there for all of us. Whether we are up for the big steps or the little steps, your breadcrumbs give us hope along the journey’s path.
No, we need the right hands on deck doing the right thing at the right time. The right road map is thus essential. Bernie, Liz, and AOC have it; millions of Americans are following the wrong road map, cf. Jan. 6.
well all the saints and prophets went too far, (as did jesus - he paid the roman price, didn't he?). I don't know what the answer is. yes, the bulk of humanity is damaged, willfully ignorant, selfish, easily manipulated, and unethical. However, all that being said, I do believe we are all complicit. i like my pension, warm house, good food, clean water, etc. I'm not sure I care anymore that it's at the expense of others. Ghandhi said poverty is the worst form of violence, and also that there is enough for all our needs, but not all our greed. so i harden my heart as i drive by homeless, mentally ill, and those without my white privilege.
Not a saint myself, but from your comment, I conclude that your mind is strong, your body content, and your heart weak. A happy person, a self-actualized person, a fully developed person would have his tripartite being in balance.
Or am I wrong? Are you indeed happy? You may be; I'm trying to figure out this stuff as I go along, and this is where I have most lately arrived. (What choice do I have? We get no Life Instruction Manual at birth.)
Not to be Dr. Phil or Gautama Buddha, but you have the right stuff in you right now, but your mind and body have created a caricature, if you will, a distortion and diminution of your real self. Your natural innate compassion is strong and can push the other two parts of your personality back down to their appropriate size and strength just by asserting itself. Psychotherapy might be necessary, but if you let yourself be who you really are, you can do it on your own. All change ultimately comes from within, but outside help can indeed provide the push you might need in order to turn you back into the wonderful creature you were born as and should be. So, relax. Find your real self and choose to be your real self. It's a question of balance; you will still have your mind and body as sources of legitimate energy and influence, but after the rebalancing of inner forces, putting them in their correct alignment, you will have a full-strength, powerful heart. We need all such people we can get; and it's usually not one-and-done; it's a recurring struggle to get it right and keep it right. I'm certainly no saint, nor sinner either, really. Just a fallible human being. My body daily demands things it doesn't need; when it dominates, I can indeed be a jerk. So the mind and heart have to restrain it and put it back in its rightful place; two against one always wins. Your humane batting average will improve.
We should aim for utopia and maybe we will get a little more equality and justice for the masses. If we just tinker with a rotten system we just put off the next crises.
Well for starters, re-frame the question. What are the solutions?
We can't just expect that Bernie or AOC, or Joe Biden for that matter, will be our savior. There's work to do at every level. Aside from electoral campaigns, there are dozens, no hundreds, of organizations of all sizes working for progress. They all need support and help.
For example, there's a movement to spread the use of ranked-choice voting which counters the effect of gerrymandering (www.FairVote.com).
Practically speaking, whatever you can get through Congress is better than nothing. The evildoers do just that, Glass-Steagall falls to Dodd-Frank falls to Trump's repeal (I don't know the name of it).
Yes Dennis! This “ blather “ by an unscrupulous “business bore” about what “socialism “ is. Aren’t we sick to death of all of this? Even Obama who lives right up there on that “socialism” disinformation has sailed away in his buddies yachts. Oh my God! Save us from Creeping Corporate hand jobs!
I am exhausted . Can’t “ come again” for this lying fraudulent fiendish BIG BUSINESS that American business deems “better than socialism”! Really?????? Rage is starting to creep up my leg into my heart!
Your's is a really good response. I totally agree. We need to be shouting from the rooftops against what the greed in this country is doing to "We the people".
The solutions do not escape us - if the problem is corruption then observation alone is not enough; if the problem is something else, such observations only belie the contempt with which the American public is treated (Robert Mueller did his job - but each of us must do the same, no differently).
I am not convinced that mueller did his job. i think he should have adhered to his oath to put country before politics, that is, he should NEVER have kept silent about Barr's obstruction. He should NEVER have accepted that a sitting president could not be indicted based on a corrupt memorandum from decades prior, about a corrupt president. What did he have to lose except his self-respect (I hope he can't' sleep at night). He's rich, retired. Above the law like all the rest of them. What a farce that was. He was also involved earlier in his career in something less than scrupulous, but I'll leave that to your investigation if you're interested.
It's hard to disagree - but one has to wonder what kind of world would necessitate such considerations (what kind of party would compromise about its standard-bearer not only to the effect of that memorandum being authored - but then extended upon with questions of international justice a la unprecedented "pre-emptive" warfare?)...
truly the enormity of these questions is really beyond my ability to comprehend. we live in a tangled web of causes/conditions, sordid histories and players. I'm 71, so born 6 years after ww2.
we had a generation of men (raised/influenced by a previously shattered generation of men victimized by the oligarchs who created ww1.) who came back from war to pick up the pieces of their lives, while trying to do the "correct" political things, (being influenced by several different strains of demagoguery that they fought against) and, I think for the most part, were sincere in not wanting to see that carnage and demagoguery reoccur. these men started the flowering of a successful middle class, educated, literate and with a fairly high number of critical thinkers. but it ended when oligarchs in charge of the military industrial complex got disturbed by critically thinking students demanding an end to an illegal and immoral vietnam war, and the profits accruing thereto. (anyone notice how much manufactured goods come from vietnam today?)
anyway raygun started that attack on education, labor, and continued the war on people of color.
my readings in buddhism suggest that until each of us has a strong, ethical inner life, not much can improve. a possibly nihilistic view might be that consider the 8 billion people on this planet. In 100 years, most of them will be dead. what did it all mean?
I agree Rishi, observing and reporting corruption is not enough. Corruption requires action, It is the action that is difficult for the American public. Action requires an attorney. According to Google 0.036% are attorneys (less than 1.5 million Americans - approximately 1 for every 300) Of those (less than 1.5 million attorneys less) than 8 thousand practice criminal law and even fewer are in Constitutional law. Adding to that difficulty, such cases would have to be either pro bono (free) or class action as none of us in the 90% are millionaires. And the really corrupt bankers, brokers, corporate CEO's, Boards or directors, insurance companies, etc., and corrupt politicians are willing to spend several million (if not billion) dollars to purchase attorneys, judges and even jurors to maintain the level of corruption they now enjoy. We, and the honest, honorable politicians missed the boat when McConnell et al, stacked the courts against us from 1998 to 2020.
If that wasn't enough, add the fact that litigation is a contentious process - meaning people walk away with hurt feelings and an aversion (not to mention what the system loses to mistakes, e.g. wrongful prosecution - for which there are even fewer practitioners); a keen insight - but also the reason we say "Barbara Lee speaks for me!" in the local area (as Guantanamo Bay wouldn't be open to this day if such concerns were practicable for a given individual).
The supply of similar observations of the corruption in our system seem endless, but solutions escape us. The root of the evil is the pervasive civic ignorance among so much of the voting population. Add to that, the baseless economic theories bandied about as if they were proven facts, such as the classic theory of inflation FED Chairman Powell follows in sabotaging the economy. The greatest enemy in this struggle is the media, all but a remnant owned and controlled by five mega-corporations. The shining example is how Fox News made Roger Ailes the effective head of the Republican Party, and he made the Republican Party the handmaiden of the corporate elites. What is needed now is a way to penetrate that corporate wall between the working class, which is the overwhelming majority, and the corporate power that continues to consolidate.
President Biden has been praised for his maintaining calm in the face of this latest banking crisis. I'm beginning to doubt the wisdom of that. Perhaps it would have been better to be shouting, "Repeal that Trump era weakening of Dodd-Frank before more of us get burned!" None of us has the president's bully pulpit, so who else can get the message out with adequate force? I fear that the media will move on as soon as the next disaster porn event comes along, which climate change is sure to provide, and the banks will again escape accountability.
Our two-party system of Government was designed to be a Government of Checks and Balances. It’s looking more and more like just a lot of Checks, Big Checks! 🤑
meanwhile, anyone who does point out systemic flaws, weaknesses, and corruption is marginalized, ridiculed, and/or ignored by corporate media. For example, Bernie, Chomsky, Warren, Dr. Reich, Varoufakis, Hedges.
Postal banking could be one solution for the common people.
Chomsky and Hedges are brilliant, yet I think they go too far; they're overcritical. I guess they want heaven on Earth, populated with angelic humans. Reich is much more reasonable: Let's fix the egregious problems and not try for utopia.
However, maybe we need gadflies, too. It's just that I can't see Hedges or Chomsky ever being satisfied. Your other recommendations are spot-on, especially Bernie; however, he may be overdemanding, also. Let's face it: We're dealing with selfish, violent, low-IQ'd animals here, not wise saints.
James, we need all hands on deck.
Every single person doing their part makes progress possible. That means everyone -- from the most brilliant utopian linguist, to the most practical politician, from the fund-raiser to the speech writer, from the phone bank volunteer to the person who mops the floor at campaign headquarters.
We're alll in this together. No one is too idealistic, no one too pragmatic.
.
It is great to see your thoughts again Jerry. Thank you for doing all the things that need to be done and for doing them in digestible bites so they can finally become a successful meal of change.
Thank you for being out there for all of us. Whether we are up for the big steps or the little steps, your breadcrumbs give us hope along the journey’s path.
🤗🎶👏🏻🦋
No, we need the right hands on deck doing the right thing at the right time. The right road map is thus essential. Bernie, Liz, and AOC have it; millions of Americans are following the wrong road map, cf. Jan. 6.
You have a point there, James.
When I said "all hands on deck", I meant our deck. Obviously, I'm not cheer-leading for the the pirates.
.
well all the saints and prophets went too far, (as did jesus - he paid the roman price, didn't he?). I don't know what the answer is. yes, the bulk of humanity is damaged, willfully ignorant, selfish, easily manipulated, and unethical. However, all that being said, I do believe we are all complicit. i like my pension, warm house, good food, clean water, etc. I'm not sure I care anymore that it's at the expense of others. Ghandhi said poverty is the worst form of violence, and also that there is enough for all our needs, but not all our greed. so i harden my heart as i drive by homeless, mentally ill, and those without my white privilege.
Not a saint myself, but from your comment, I conclude that your mind is strong, your body content, and your heart weak. A happy person, a self-actualized person, a fully developed person would have his tripartite being in balance.
Or am I wrong? Are you indeed happy? You may be; I'm trying to figure out this stuff as I go along, and this is where I have most lately arrived. (What choice do I have? We get no Life Instruction Manual at birth.)
accurate analysis. too selfish, too self indulgent, but working on it.
Not to be Dr. Phil or Gautama Buddha, but you have the right stuff in you right now, but your mind and body have created a caricature, if you will, a distortion and diminution of your real self. Your natural innate compassion is strong and can push the other two parts of your personality back down to their appropriate size and strength just by asserting itself. Psychotherapy might be necessary, but if you let yourself be who you really are, you can do it on your own. All change ultimately comes from within, but outside help can indeed provide the push you might need in order to turn you back into the wonderful creature you were born as and should be. So, relax. Find your real self and choose to be your real self. It's a question of balance; you will still have your mind and body as sources of legitimate energy and influence, but after the rebalancing of inner forces, putting them in their correct alignment, you will have a full-strength, powerful heart. We need all such people we can get; and it's usually not one-and-done; it's a recurring struggle to get it right and keep it right. I'm certainly no saint, nor sinner either, really. Just a fallible human being. My body daily demands things it doesn't need; when it dominates, I can indeed be a jerk. So the mind and heart have to restrain it and put it back in its rightful place; two against one always wins. Your humane batting average will improve.
We should aim for utopia and maybe we will get a little more equality and justice for the masses. If we just tinker with a rotten system we just put off the next crises.
Okay, what's the solution
Well for starters, re-frame the question. What are the solutions?
We can't just expect that Bernie or AOC, or Joe Biden for that matter, will be our savior. There's work to do at every level. Aside from electoral campaigns, there are dozens, no hundreds, of organizations of all sizes working for progress. They all need support and help.
For example, there's a movement to spread the use of ranked-choice voting which counters the effect of gerrymandering (www.FairVote.com).
There's Jessica Craven's substack publication with its daily menu of who to contact about which issues (www.ChopWoodCarryWaterDailyActions.substack.com).
There's a movement for a Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United (www.MoveToAmend.org).
And of course, there's the network I represent, working to help remove and replace Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House (FeathersOfHope.net)
The point is, no one can do everything. Everyone can do something.
.
Remember how Katie Porter took Dimond to task w/her white board? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlJnznzkSf4
Repeal Citizens United, a misnomer of epic proportions!
Money is NOT free Speech!
Practically speaking, whatever you can get through Congress is better than nothing. The evildoers do just that, Glass-Steagall falls to Dodd-Frank falls to Trump's repeal (I don't know the name of it).
Precisely! They get it, we need to as well.
Small steps result from large visions. The vision remains and leads to more small steps. The vision remains and . . . That's how progress happens.
.
How do Paul?
Yes Dennis! This “ blather “ by an unscrupulous “business bore” about what “socialism “ is. Aren’t we sick to death of all of this? Even Obama who lives right up there on that “socialism” disinformation has sailed away in his buddies yachts. Oh my God! Save us from Creeping Corporate hand jobs!
I am exhausted . Can’t “ come again” for this lying fraudulent fiendish BIG BUSINESS that American business deems “better than socialism”! Really?????? Rage is starting to creep up my leg into my heart!
rage 😡 has crept so ⬆️ past my legs that I AM PRENANT
WITH RAGE !! I'M IN FLORIDA & AM WELL-PAST
6 WEEKS !!
Your's is a really good response. I totally agree. We need to be shouting from the rooftops against what the greed in this country is doing to "We the people".
kinda why i email these to
Fox, Atlantic, cnn, msnbc,
ceo-s of big banks--etc
depending on topic--earlier,
musk got a hit--
Great response, Dennis. I agree the "media" works against the best interests of America.
The solutions do not escape us - if the problem is corruption then observation alone is not enough; if the problem is something else, such observations only belie the contempt with which the American public is treated (Robert Mueller did his job - but each of us must do the same, no differently).
I am not convinced that mueller did his job. i think he should have adhered to his oath to put country before politics, that is, he should NEVER have kept silent about Barr's obstruction. He should NEVER have accepted that a sitting president could not be indicted based on a corrupt memorandum from decades prior, about a corrupt president. What did he have to lose except his self-respect (I hope he can't' sleep at night). He's rich, retired. Above the law like all the rest of them. What a farce that was. He was also involved earlier in his career in something less than scrupulous, but I'll leave that to your investigation if you're interested.
I have always wanted to know the content of his phone call with Barr. He knew it was coming and you know he recorded it .
It's hard to disagree - but one has to wonder what kind of world would necessitate such considerations (what kind of party would compromise about its standard-bearer not only to the effect of that memorandum being authored - but then extended upon with questions of international justice a la unprecedented "pre-emptive" warfare?)...
truly the enormity of these questions is really beyond my ability to comprehend. we live in a tangled web of causes/conditions, sordid histories and players. I'm 71, so born 6 years after ww2.
we had a generation of men (raised/influenced by a previously shattered generation of men victimized by the oligarchs who created ww1.) who came back from war to pick up the pieces of their lives, while trying to do the "correct" political things, (being influenced by several different strains of demagoguery that they fought against) and, I think for the most part, were sincere in not wanting to see that carnage and demagoguery reoccur. these men started the flowering of a successful middle class, educated, literate and with a fairly high number of critical thinkers. but it ended when oligarchs in charge of the military industrial complex got disturbed by critically thinking students demanding an end to an illegal and immoral vietnam war, and the profits accruing thereto. (anyone notice how much manufactured goods come from vietnam today?)
anyway raygun started that attack on education, labor, and continued the war on people of color.
my readings in buddhism suggest that until each of us has a strong, ethical inner life, not much can improve. a possibly nihilistic view might be that consider the 8 billion people on this planet. In 100 years, most of them will be dead. what did it all mean?
OMMMMMMMM! The only certain thing in life is change.
Everybody wants to get "Theirs" and Devil take the hindmost.
In the words of John Slater and music of Andrew Lloyd Weber (:-)
I agree Rishi, observing and reporting corruption is not enough. Corruption requires action, It is the action that is difficult for the American public. Action requires an attorney. According to Google 0.036% are attorneys (less than 1.5 million Americans - approximately 1 for every 300) Of those (less than 1.5 million attorneys less) than 8 thousand practice criminal law and even fewer are in Constitutional law. Adding to that difficulty, such cases would have to be either pro bono (free) or class action as none of us in the 90% are millionaires. And the really corrupt bankers, brokers, corporate CEO's, Boards or directors, insurance companies, etc., and corrupt politicians are willing to spend several million (if not billion) dollars to purchase attorneys, judges and even jurors to maintain the level of corruption they now enjoy. We, and the honest, honorable politicians missed the boat when McConnell et al, stacked the courts against us from 1998 to 2020.
If that wasn't enough, add the fact that litigation is a contentious process - meaning people walk away with hurt feelings and an aversion (not to mention what the system loses to mistakes, e.g. wrongful prosecution - for which there are even fewer practitioners); a keen insight - but also the reason we say "Barbara Lee speaks for me!" in the local area (as Guantanamo Bay wouldn't be open to this day if such concerns were practicable for a given individual).