Carl, this is why I have said that capitalism has been on life support for many
years. When do we pull the plug?
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2016 11:43 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] FW: Party's Over, Quarter
Billion Dollars on Bernie, Now What?
Speaking of elections, David Swanson said it right when he said, "...I'm in
favor of them! I think we should have one some day!"
We did understand that Bernie Sanders was always tolerated as a member in fair
standing in the Establishment. Didn't we?
If not, it's time to wake up and smell the gun powder. Bernie made a strong
case for what he called, "A revolution". In truth, he looked more like a
defender of the FDR reform of the 1930's. Remember, FDR was not attempting to
raise up a revolution. FDR was doing his best to save Capitalism for the
ingrates who whined and sniped at him. And carried their hatred past his
death, to continuously snap at the heels of Eleanor Roosevelt. As Roosevelt
once said, commenting on the insane level of the attack upon him and his
family, ..."they now include my little dog, Fala".
Make no mistake. What Bernie Sanders proposed was no revolution, but instead
was a reform that, like those of FDR, would save the Corporate Capitalistic
Empire. But, like the Cancer it is, the Empire will eat itself for the last
Piece of Gold, the last breath of fresh air, the last cup of clear water, and
the last drop of the Working Classes blood.
Certainly we owe Bernie Sanders a vote of thanks for raising the issues that
would never have surfaced otherwise. But it is time to shake his hand and wish
him well, and move past Sanders to begin planning the real "revolution". It is
actually preparing itself, but we can join in, if we hurry.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/26/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
_____
From: David Swanson via WarIsACrime.org
[mailto:david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2016 9:14 AM
To: miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Party's Over, Quarter Billion Dollars on Bernie, Now What?
Party's Over, Quarter Billion Dollars on Bernie, Now What?
By David Swanson
http://davidswanson.org/node/5193
Well meaning people just spent a quarter billion dollars on the Bernie
Sanders campaign which continues operations while its candidate says
he will vote for Hillary Clinton for president.
Let's put that in a little perspective. Iraqis fleeing Fallujah yet
again, as wars that Hillary Clinton pushed
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gmrgqiZA/h0/f0FIP9WI3-2F6-2BQzOLFbaI6W10sSvVmAaftYxsMlH1jOfQfVJO3T98Sz
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o0kjEmVHe6MMEjcwVBb2lOwH-2F0FBGqHisHUefjQ8A-2FfzRr-2BvgrXkmkVaJvBx6P64
YEz9b4U3yYNXP7JPksowhNs6qXtG7u95yhYqJKT0ERIlNRxZaVEUO-2FLpXm8ITXSVs8XH
3P> for roll on, are in need, according to the United Nations, of
$17.5 million for survival.
I work for an organization opposing war, called World
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gmrgqiZA/h2/Jb9ZUZ-2BHBLFAkQw-2FQ1kTOl3geL9PmLlAz6s04TuLxeCcGiI-2B4LuP
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NUx81Zczvxc4gxnv8HIzwuiBJV-2FBZepyoy3V5OoZEmn5JLn68lVHnpxo4hGLx5m-2FZN
3rvFJO2uEuH-2BoYF1G-2BjZK97JEAPVPwFSzvDcNqZLSz-2F748O15Y3UyKcrpibZHw98
7Mb5tVU-2BsRQr2YW-2FKWN6v8AOxPF6C9F-2B4kDoScvasPobhiVQDerhgewRM30TIw>
Beyond War, which runs on less than $50,000 a year. Many good
organizations pursuing just what this world needs run on less than
that, but you could fund 5,000 organizations at the level of World
Beyond War's current funding for what's been spent on Bernie.
Has Sanders for President been a wise investment or not?
Certainly Bernie's campaign inspired people. But I see no reason not
to expect most of them to become despondent and despairing now that it's over.
If past experience with failed and successful campaigns alike is any
guide, that's where we're headed.
Certainly Bernie's campaign educated people. But it's reasonable to
assume that establishing or expanding major new media outlets to the
tune of
$250,000,000 would have educated people too, and that they might have
gone on providing the same funding next year and the year after, if
their interest were in education rather than election. (First Look
Media, publisher of The Intercept, was created with just that amount,
but not to all be spent in one year.)
Certainly Bernie should go on trying to somehow make the Democrats'
Platform (which, if the past is any guide, they will ignore anyway)
slightly less rightwing and disastrous.
It's unclear that investing in Bernie was a reasonable gamble toward
winning something more. The rigged nature of the election was clear from the
start.
Bernie's commitment to promote Hillary Clinton in the end was clear
from the start. And her commitment to warmongering, environment
destroying, oligarchy enhancing policies was clear from the start.
What else could have been done or could be done now or could be done
next time? No, of course you should not vote for the fascist golfer
clown. Yes, of course you should vote for Jill Stein. But the system
is as rigged against her as it was against Sanders.
Let me ask the question a different way. Why is it that corporations
will now take a public stand for LGBTQ rights? Why will even a
conscience-free corporate hack like Hillary Clinton defend LGBTQ rights she
used to oppose?
The primary answer is that activists changed the culture. The role of
voting in their work was minimal. As Emma Goldman said, if voting ever
changed anything they'd ban it. As Howard Zinn said, it matters less
who's sitting in the White House than who's doing the sit ins.
Why so down on elections? I'm in favor of them! I think we should have
one some day! That will require some of these changes that cannot be
voted in under the broken system that lacks them: public funding of
elections, no bribery, free air time for candidates, automatic voter
registration, open debates and ballots, no gerrymandering,
hand-counted paper ballots, international monitors, no electoral
college, no delegates, no superdelegates, and a three-month election
season with a bit of actual governing before the next one.
If I were drafting a party platform, it would add to those the following:
take military spending back to 2001 levels, tax corporations and
billionaires at 1960 levels, restore the minimum wage to its 1968
level, and guarantee everyone top-quality free education preschool
through college, healthcare, job training as needed, vacation, family
leave, retirement, transportation, childcare, clean energy, public
parks, sustainable agriculture, and significant aid to the rest of the
world. Yes, that's Bernie's platform, or could have been if he'd been
willing to mention cutting military spending or investing in foreign
aid. It's also Scandinavia's reality. But a party platform is not the
most important place for these commitments.
The place for our passion and even our "unity" is not in a political
party that destroys everything we hold dear and calls our continued
subservience "unity." We have 60% of the U.S. public that simply
cannot stand Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. That may increase as
we're forced to endure more and more of the pair of them. If all of
those people, or even half of them, backed Jill Stein she might win.
But that requires imagining a fair system of elections and of communications
that does not exist.
And what if she were elected president? Or what if Bernie Sanders were
elected president? We'd still be up against a corrupt communications
system, an ill-informed public, a reactionary Congress, a medieval
Supreme Court, and the absence of a major independent movement for
change. It's good to see Congress Members staging a sit-in to demand
that other Congress Members back some ridiculously weak if not
counterproductive gun control measures, but what we need is a massive
movement of independent people sitting in and surrounding the Capitol
until both parties act on the basic lessons learned around the world: ban the
guns and stop bombing people.
Does that sound dreamy and utopian? The point is not to expect it to
succeed entirely and immediately. The point is that the most strategic
way to achieve a partial, compromised solution is to build momentum for a
real fix.
When your best Congress Members are openly bragging that their opening
negotiating demand is for the very least that could possibly be done,
the predictable result is less than that. When people fall in behind
those so-called public servants, failure is guaranteed.
So what should we do? Even if you believe in dumping most of your
energy and money into a broken election system, please consider saving
a little for independent activism. We should organize, educate, march,
rally, protest, sit-in, disrupt, create alternatives, create media,
and find local, state, regional, and international solutions.
Here's one example of what I'm working on. World Beyond War is
planning an event called No War 2016 that will happen in Washington,
D.C., in September and involve panels, workshops, and nonviolent civil
resistance. Speakers will include Dennis
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Kucinich, Kathy Kelly, Miriam Pemberton, David Vine, Kozue Akibayashi,
Harvey
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jhMto9xbaIvI9P0z2OetE61hfeWl6R62Ebwnk6QySLQnJYwcUL3iGDvUOW1HHPGqBW9>
Wasserman, Jeff Bachman, Peter Kuznick, Medea Benjamin, Maurice
Carney, David Swanson, Leah Bolger, David Hartsough, Pat Elder, John
Dear, Mel Duncan, Kimberley Phillips, Ira Helfand, Darakshan Raja,
Bill
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gmrgqiZA/h24/nR03tqdpS4cGI6tkOOnBz8sDWvu0ivxLTaj-2BLpx6eycYRKTDvrBdJ5x
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Fletcher Jr., Lindsey German, Maria Santelli, Mark
<http://click.actionnetwork.org/mpss/c/5gA/ni0YAA/t.1yd/aUqvEsidQCyA3z
gmrgqiZA/h27/-2Bdfnsb1U4mery-2B0nZkkkzGLgvQ4PU2xk-2FetZLPAqcRB1qKOQA10
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nVnNUGbPOM5aOVYWZG5NZL9AIX-2FLicd7mRvrrwtXG5fCnf2UJENOgBKgpR9YOG6ed>
Engler, Maja Groff, Robert Fantina, Barbara Wien, Jodie Evans, Odile
Hugonot Haber, Gar Alperovitz, Sam Husseini, Christopher Simpson,
Brenna Gautam, Kent Shifferd, Patrick Hiller, Mubarak Awad, Michelle
Kwak, John Washburn, Bruce Gagnon, David Cortright, Michael
McPhearson, and Sharon Tennison (none of whom necessarily agrees with
me on anything in this essay, and some of whom certainly disagree
passionately).
We can help you plan a conference or a nonviolent action or both in
your part of the world, and you can find lots of events here. I
particularly recommend sit-ins in Congressional offices now, pointing
to Congress's willingness to use the same tactic itself, and pointing
the media to your own live video feed of your own teach-in on the
floor of the plush office of your senator or misrepresentative.
The truth is that we have far more power than we're told, we just
don't have it where we're told to look for it.
Help support DavidSwanson.org, WarIsACrime.org, and
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