Midnight Special - Musings on the current situation (kind of like the State of the Union but different)

My take on a few things.

The 116^th Congress is underway and it’s clear the two oligarchy controlled political parties will accomplish nothing that will substantively help the working class of this country (the bottom 80% that lives paycheck to paycheck) nor even attempt to solve any of the crucial issues facing this country and the planet.  

For those that give credit to some duopoly politicians like Sanders, Gabbard and Ocasio-Cortez for “talking about socialism and antiwar”, and give any legitimacy to the duopoly shenanigans, talk is cheap, especially when it comes to American politicians.  Look at your history, some have always talked about it.  If you haven't figured out by now how our national political system really works, then I don't know what to say.  It was well known more than a hundred years ago and actually since it's inception. 

As Wikipedia puts it:

“The One Hundred Sixteenth United States Congress is the next meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It is scheduled to meet in Washington, D.C. from January 3, 2019 to January 3, 2021, during the final two years...”

So they're "meeting" now for two years, until 2021, with Trump as President.   Two years, particularly in duopoly bullshit time, goes by pretty quickly.  There won’t be any “Green Deal”.  There won’t be Medicare for All.  There won’t be an end to imperialism and any of the currently 195 wars the U.S. is waging across the planet in a frantic attempt at pursuing it’s Manifest Destiny to rule the world. 

Ridiculously and shamefully, the next election “season” has already started in the form of the democratic party primary.  Most progressives, who should at least be working to pressure the current Congress to get it’s shit together (like they've all said needs to be done), are lining up to debate who’s going to run, who are the front runners, who is getting the shaft, who can beat Trump?  Battle lines are  being drawn between the Bernie/Tulsi supporters and the Harris/Booker/Warren supporters as exhibited by the partisan infighting between those at the conservative democratic party blog the Daily Kos, i.e., the Clinton wing, vs. the various offshoot Bernie/Tulsi blogs, same as last election “season".  I think it's a soap opera effect for most, they get off on the daily bullshit about their favorite politicians, even while complaining about it.  It’s truly a never ending charade because we don’t live in a fucking democracy and most claim to know it.  Somehow, that always seems to be forgotten when they trot out their next great white/black/brown hopes for a position, the Office of the President, we should fucking abolish before it drives us all to the grave. 

Nick Brana is the national director of the Movement for a People’s Party and organizer with the Labor-Community Campaign for an Independent Party. Brana was a big Bernie Sanders supporter involved in his campaign for the Democratic party’s selection to run for president.  As he puts it, 

“When the dust settled in November of 2018, it turned out that the “Blue Wave” had been a corporate wave. The party establishment had successfully blocked all but two of the progressives who challenged incumbent Democrats. Only two progressives unseated House Democrats in all of 2018: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley. There are 435 members of Congress.

The other two progressives who are often discussed in the media basically swapped seats with progressives who used to sit there: Rashid Tlaib took John Conyers’ seat and Ilhan Omar took Keith Ellison’s seat."

Brana goes thru Seven Major Ways that Progressives have Sought to Reform the Democratic Party Since 2016. And how the Party has Thwarted them All.  Worth a read but he summarizes as follows. 

"Over the past three years, progressives have engaged in various efforts to gain influence in the Democratic Party, democratize the Party, and elect progressives to office — and the Party has thwarted them and consolidated its power at every step of the way.

In the midterms, the Party that came back to Washington looks virtually indistinguishable from the one that existed before the midterms. In fact, there the Democrats are more corporate than ever, as they were the ones that the DCCC picked to run. The DCCC in turn worked with the finance-friendly Blue Dog Democrats on candidate recruitment.

The “Blue Wave” was another corporate wave.

So here we are three years after progressives embarked on this venture to try to reform the Democratic Party, and we’re back to square one essentially, with many saying, “Well, let’s try and run a presidential candidate again and hope for the best.”

"Back to square one".  It's like Ground Hogs Day, all we need is Bill Murray playing some progressive who cognitive dissonances himself to death. Obviously the democratic party establishment let the dogs loose as early as possible to distract their followers from the fact that they won't accomplish anything. Progressives are lining up behind their favorites, taking straw polls, dissing each side. Same old bullshit, different day.  Meanwhile, progressive heroine AOC goes on tour to promote the Green New Deal which isn't hers, even thought the democrats, the oligarchy media. and AOC herself,  pretend it is.

Brana's epiphany could have been earlier if he had just read this quote from Eugene Debs in the year 1904.

The Republican and Democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the Republican-Democratic party, represent the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles.

Eugene V. Debs 

"The Socialist Party and the Working Class". Eugene V. Debs' opening speech as Presidential candidate of the Socialist Party in Indianapolis, Indiana, www.marxists.org. September 1,1904.  

Or this quote from W.E.B. Dubois in 1956, from his famous essay, "Why I Won't Vote". 

In 1956, I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no “two evils” exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say. There is no third party.

http://www.blackeconomicdevelopment.com/why-i-wont-vote-by-web-du-bois-the-nation-20-october-1956/

Or any of a great number of comments and commentary on the fabled political system our rulers insist we call democracy.  

People of great stature have been saying the same basic things that Brana has concluded about this duopoly party political system since this UN-representative system was begun, and particularly since the great capitalist surge via the industrial revolution. It should be settled, but the masses are trained, indoctrinated, lied to, whatever it takes to keep them from challenging the ruling class setup.  It works, it keeps working.  Believe me, even when you tell people over and over, they won't get it unless they really want to.  It's the illusion thing, destroying ones illusions is a difficult thing.  You have to want it. 

Brana’s approach is another political party.  There’s a lot working against that under the circumstances, the biggest being time.  We’re well into the 21^st century, a century and a half since the industrial revolution and getting toward eight billion people on the planet.  Even if one doesn’t believe the world is going to end in 12 years like Ocasio-Cortez if we don’t stop flying airplanes and cow fart, time is not on our side.  Building another political party up to the point of having an impact in the Congress and Senate, i.e., by having politicians from that party elected, could take decades if it can be done at all.  Since WWII, there have only been 4 non duopoly politicians elected to the Congress and Senate.  Four, in 75 years. 

And that’s going to change now?  I just saw some news about how the Democratic party is promoting some legislation that would slash funding for the Green Party.  The duopoly will do everything it can to prevent competition from other political parties.  

Maybe it’s worth an effort, far better than the ridiculously time tested waste of time of trying to “reform” the democratic party, or move it to the left, or “start a conversation”, which Bernie, Tulsi and AOC supporters like to trot out to justify their continued attachment to a political system, and thus a political party, they can't envision differently.  Like, even if you grant credit to them, it's not going to matter, the democratic party is fully controlled by the money makers. 

In the end however, it’s going to take a movement of some kind independent from the election process.  Along the lines of the Yellow Vest movement in France (and now elsewhere) which is focused on democracy, or even an Occupy II with all the demands whittled down to one.  There has to be a clear objective – democracy.  Whatever we do, a Green New Deal, Medicare for All Improved, an end to U.S. imperialism and global militarism, it has to be done democratically.  Democrats don't get the final say, republicans don't get the final say, the duopoly doesn't get the final say, the People should have the final say. That should be the first order of business for any Revolution.  Any efforts otherwise won't cut it.  Any efforts otherwise, like for a third party or for the democratic party, are taking resources away from what should be done.  

We're in a class war as well as a war for humanity.  As Warren Buffet said, 
“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”. 
They're kicking our ass more like it.  The democratic and republican parties represent Buffet's class. They have to be considered opponents in the class war of the rich against everybody else.  It's only with resolve like that can the people challenge the oligarchy.  

Is the AOC Green Deal a a ploy to prevent Medicare for All Improved?

I saw some news that AOC is going on some kind of a nationwide tour promoting the Green New Deal.  Really weird.  Something that has no chance of happening under this political system and the democratic party is pursuing this while basically doing nothing about healthcare.  They have two years of controlling Congress and they're doing this?

Talk about a national emergency, I think our health care system qualifies.  Over half of all bankruptcies are caused by medical bills.  People are fucking dying, costs are skyrocketing, horror stories abound. And all the democrats want to do now is talk about a Green deal that will not happen and promises that the price of drugs will go down.  That's all they can handle this "meeting" of Congress because there's another election to get ready for.  We all know by now that 24 out of 30 days of a sitting Congress or Senate member, and their staffs, are consumed with trying to get reelected and/or set themselves up for their well deserved bounty from their corporate sponsors.

I wonder why the democratic party and AOC herself don't give credit where credit is due - to the Green Party, which had a far better Green Deal proposal well before this new one.  If they're so concerned with climate change that they believe we need a WWII type society mobilization to address it because we only have 12 years, why not seek to join forces with the Green Party?

Looks to me like it's a planned 2020 election gambit to recruit young people to the democratic party. They're using AOC as the lead cheerleader like they used Bernie Sanders previously.

Rolling healthcare into this whole totally unrealistic and unachievable plan will only serve to neuter any efforts for Medicare for All Improved during the 116th Congress. That appears to be the plan.

More reason to oppose and boycott the duopoly.

Tulsi Gabbard, Manchurian Presidential Candidate

Interesting article about Tulsi Gabbard and her ties to Hindu nationalist organizations in India.  It was posted on the Organization for Minorities of India website.  

The analyst, Pieter Friedrich, traces her congressional career from 2011 connecting the funding and backing, and much of her success, to these right wing Hindu organizations and people. 

She’s obviously quite ambitious for a 37 year old human. She’s also a slick politician very similar to Obama who has shown she’ll SAY whatever it takes to get where she wants to go.  

“Gabbard’s links to Hindutva organizations have nagged her for years, but they became a major issue last year during her campaign for reelection to a fourth term in the U.S. Congress.”

“In June 2018, U.S.-based human rights outfit Organization for Minorities of India (OFMI) began protesting Gabbard’s announcement that she would chair the World Hindu Congress (WHC). Held in Chicago in September 2018, the event was organized by the VHP-America and featured as its keynote speaker RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. “They are linked to every major pogrom in India in the past 30 years — all of which occurred during Bhagat’s active years in the organization,” explained OFMI spokesperson Arvin Valmuci at the time. “There is no place in the USA for a terrorist group like the RSS.” Subsequently, the group issued an open letter to Gabbard suggesting that she was “standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the fascist element of Hindu nationalists of India.”

“In August, OFMI produced a video questioning: “Why does she turn a blind eye to the atrocities of India’s fascists? Is Tulsi bought and paid for by Hindu supremacists?” Thereafter, Friedrich conducted an interview with Hawaiian radio show host Irminsul in which he stated, “Gabbard is spending her time working as hard as possible to bring the Hindu nationalist agenda to American soil. Her stance is not only empowering extremists in India to continue engaging in violence against ethnic minorities there, but she’s also using her political platform to deliberately conceal the reality of the situation for Indian minorities.” Later, a coalition of 11 South Asian diaspora groups signed an open letter calling on Gabbard to publicly sever ties with Hindu nationalist organizations and detailing her “association with extreme right wing hate groups.”

“Finally, after months of protest, Gabbard issued a September 4 statement — on the eve of the WHC — in which she said, “Due to ethical concerns and problems that surround my participating in any partisan Indian political event in America, effective immediately, I respectfully withdraw myself from serving as Honorary Chair of the World Hindu Congress.”

According to Freidrich, it’s not that simple.

“Representative Gabbard’s deep ties to agents of a violent religious nationalist political party and the paramilitary groups which control it suggests that India’s supremacists have infiltrated America and are using her for their own ends,” remarks Valmuci. “She only backed out of WHC because of political pressure from people and groups around the country, but she continues to associate with and receive funds from the same Hindutva outfits that hosted the WHC. We hope that her presidential campaign provides a platform for exposing this infiltration and also the vast number of past and ongoing Hindutva crimes committed with impunity against India’s Buddhists, Christians, Dalits, Muslims, Sikhs, and non-fundamentalist Hindus.”

Freidrich rounds it out with this warning to early left wing progressive Gabbard supporters.

“Her congressional career exists because of financing from and free promotion from Hindu nationalist organizations in the U.S. which are directly linked to Hindu nationalist organizations in India which currently control India’s government and which, there, are directly implicated in repeated pogroms and other atrocities against minorities.”

“She shouldn’t be president, but she shouldn’t even be in Congress,” said Friedrich. “She should be, if not investigated on a criminal level, at least deeply investigated on a journalistic level…. If we’re going to talk about Russia hacking our election and we’re going to talk about foreign political interference in the American political scene, how about we look at Tulsi Gabbard. While we’re all distracted with the Russian political interference, maybe we should turn our focus and pay a little bit of attention to the Indian political interference.”

http://www.minoritiesofindia.org/analyst-alleges-tulsi-gabbards-congressional-career-created-hindu-nationalists/

Here's a short one. 

Peace Train

People need to get on board more than ever.

"I've been smiling lately, thinking about the good things to come."

Well, I have to, we have to.  It's funny, I've had conversations about voting for the duopoly political parties, particularly the democratic party, with many of the so called "progressive" branch of the party about whether to vote for politicians from that war and imperialism party.  A political party against peace.  I and others have been accused of "giving up" because we refuse to vote for them. 

I was thinking about that.  You know what IS giving up, continuing to vote for those duopoly politicians in this system.  That's giving up.  And giving in.  

Demexit Bullshit

The demexit thing started because of the Bernie Sanders fan boys/girls perceived slight from the democratic party (perceived because Bernie was in on it all along) in favor of Hillary Clinton.  They were pissed their favorite establishment politician, imperialist and fake socialist Bernie Sanders, didn't get the nod over Clinton for THEIR democratic party presidential nomination. 

That's it. 

I got to thinking tonight.  I've never been a democrat, never been affiliated with either of the two duopoly political parties and never will be.  But I did get fooled by Obama.  That was near the beginning of my "truth odyssey" whereby after retiring from 30 years with the federal government, I started at what is now a 12 year research effort (I was an analyst with the fed so I know how to research) to learn as much as I can about how "things really work".   A big reason why I went on that odyssey was because of what Bush and the republicans were doing, the imperialism and wars, the fucking lies, the right wing ideology.  They had to be stopped and Obama came along with his what I believe now to be, psychopathic lies (because to lie at that level, it has to be psychopathic) that literally had people weeping and praising the lord.  I fell for it along with a long list of those who should have known better. 

But I remember distinctly, at that time I was frequenting the Daily Kos blog, after about the first 80 or so days of Obama, I wrote a "diary" basically stating it was all a fraud, Obama was just a continuation of Bush, and fuck that.  I think I called it "Contrast and Contradiction."

It didn't taking a fucking rocket scientist to figure that out. 

So why didn't all these demexit people do that after Obama's first 100 days?  Why didn't they see at that time the entire system was fucked including the democratic party and we had no choice but to overthrow the fuckers and institute a new government? 

Ya, we know why don't we.  They aren't really demexiting, which is proven by their fawning over the imperialist and fake socialist spawn of Saint Bernie, Alexandria Cortez-Ocasio, the silver spooner Manchurian candidate pretending to be a working class bartender.  What a joke. 

The "progressive" wing of the democratic party, the Sanders and Cortez-Ocasio fan boys and girls are as hypocritical as they get, pretending to demexit but ready and willing to join the sick ass game for a 28 year old fucking plant. 

Well, it ain't no different on the other side, the Trump supporters are one upping the Obama supporters in believing his and the republicans line of shit. 

Obviously, it's going to take a large people's movement, probably global, independent from these corrupt western political systems, to save humanity.  The sooner more people come to that conclusion the better. 

The 99% Fallacy

The 99 Percent Fallacy

I was chided (mildly) the other day about a comment I made to a fairly fervent Trump supporter who felt Trump might turn into one of the best presidents ever (would that be a Trumpbot?).  My pushback to the commenter was evidently seen as contrary to the site's non-partisan, all views are welcome policy.  The theory is we're all part of the 99% who have a common opponent in the One Percent.  It follows with the "divide and conquer" concerns voiced by many whereby the ruling elite endeavor to create conditions to divide the public, making it easier to "conquer" us.  It's like, "don't let them divide us, man".

Reality is different.  

It isn't as simple as the very rich versus the rest of us, it's also about goals, agendas and ideology.  If person A wants the Republican party to win and person B wants the Democratic party to win then they have different goals.  They can't work together toward the same goal.   If person A, the republican, and person B, the democrat, both want to work toward a common goal, then they can work together, unless other goals get in the way.  

It's all about the goals.

If my goal is to try to enact a single payer health care system but someone else supports the republican party which does not support a single payer health care system, we could still work toward that goal if the republican person also supported single payer. 

But it doesn't usually work that way.  The reason Person B, the republican, supports the republican party is because of the goals, agenda and ideology of that party.  So you generally are not going to find many republicans who you can work with toward that goal of single payer because of their ideology.

It's all about ideology.

If my goal is to oppose the duopoly (democratic and republican parties), seek a more democratic political system, and end Rule by the Rich, while another person's goal is to support Donald Trump and the republican party, that makes it difficult to work together.  We don't want the same thing and in fact, Person B the republican, by virture of supporting Trump and the republican party, is in effect opposing my goal.  The same could be said with a supporter of the Democratic party.  By virture of their support for the Democratic party they are opposing my goal.  How do people with competing goals work together?

Take war and imperialism, it's the same thing.  If I want to end the wars and U.S. imperialism and you support the Democratic/Republican party that wants to continue the wars and U.S. imperialism, then we can't work toward that same goal.  You can't honestly say you are against the wars and U.S. imperialism while supporting a political party that does. 

Well, you could but how many republican/democratic party supporters are really against the wars and U.S. imperialism?   And if they are, why are they supporting a political party that supports U.S. wars and imperialism? 

If I want a revolution and you don't, can we work together?  Aren't we then working AGAINST each other?  If you are supporting one of the oligarchy's political parties who are gravely against a real people's revolution or movement, then you are in effect opposing a real people's revolution or movement. 

We've got many divisions in this country.  Based on class, race, religion, gender, but also based on ideology.  We're never going to get 99% of the people to join together toward a common goal, that's impossible.  The only possible common goal at that level would be ending Rule by the Rich and implementing an actual democratic political system.  Everything else would have to be decided by democracy, how it should be.  

That's not to say there can't be changing sides.  Someone supporting the republican/democratic party could decide they will no longer support the party and instead will support the people's revolution.  But there's that ideology thing. 

For example:

" A new website is asking students and others to “expose and document” professors who “discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.”

The site, called Professor Watchlist, is not without precedent — predecessors include the now-defunct NoIndoctrination.org, which logged accounts of alleged bias in the classroom. There’s also David Horowitz’s 2006 book, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America. But such efforts arguably have new meaning in an era of talk about registering certain social groups and concerns about free speech.

Professor Watchlist, launched Monday, is a project of Turning Point USA. The group’s mission is to “identify, educate, train and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government.” Its national college and university field program works to “identify young conservative activists, build and maintain effective student groups, advertise and rebrand conservative values, engage in face-to-face and peer-to-peer conversations about the pressing issues facing our country,” according to its website.  The group’s founder, Charlie Kirk – a millennial who has emerged in some conservative political circles as a major player — did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Professor Watchlist, but he promoted it on social media."

 http://www.globalresearch.ca/anti-american-leftist-professors-being-watched/5558821

Does that sound like someone who radical leftists could work with to change the capitalist system and overthrow the establishment?  I don't think so, I would bet they would actively work against such a Revolution.  I would imagine most of them are not of the One Percent but of the 99 Percent.  What if they visited C99?

Back to working with Trump and republican party supporters. I understand all viewpoints are supposedly accepted on this blog, the only rule being DBAD (don't be a dick).  However I've seen more than a few run off because their views didn't fit in with the majority here, i.e., Clinton supporters.  Trump supporters seem to have been treated a little differently based on the perception from some that Trump and his republican party administration might not be that bad, certainly not as bad as Hillary Clinton. 

I can't stress enough, a REPUBLICAN PARTY administration that is for war and imperialism, unregulated capitalism, privatizing Medicare and Social Security, a fascist police state, and serves the top .001% that rule over We the Serfs.  A party that will work to KILL any working class or Serf's revolution or movement.  

No, for me there's no working with that.  Anyone who supports that is not on my team, they are my opponent.  There is no room for discussion or debate, the only way to change that would be for them to come over to my team.  If not, that's how it will stay. 

This isn't a time for Pollyanna "Imagine all the People" chants, we're in a war of ideologies.  Those of us wanting truth, justice and real democracy are getting creamed.  There's no room for niceties when considering the stakes.  The existence of the planet and the human race is at stake.   I've got kids and grandkids, screw these people who want to take away their futures. 

We need solidarity for a people's movement against the oligarchy.  It won't be the 99% that does it.  Those that want it will have to join in with others around the planet to form a global people's revolution against the global oligarchy.  We'll have many opponents but our cause is just and that's what will win in the end.  It has to.

Donald Trump is a Delusional Sick Bastard

First a caveat:  Obama and Clinton are war criminals that should be in prison, so don't take this as progressive/liberal/democrat attack from the left. 

To me, Trump is exactly what my title indicates, a delusional sick bastard.   I can understand the tribal attachment from many on the right and the outright ignorance to attack themselves to such a psychopath, but it really irks me to see people of the left persuasion give him even a little credit for anything.  Number one, he has committed numerous war crimes and belongs in prison alongside Obama, Clinton and Bush.  So to give him credit for anything in effect exonerates him from his crimes.  It also illustrates the problem with most of the left in opposing imperialism.  Most just don't take it seriously enough, they can't equate the murders and other crimes committed by our elected officials as "real" crimes that should be punished just the same as the crimes committed by ordinary  citizens.  It's a serious lack of judgment and logic. 

Anyway, here's Trump about North Korea:

"President Trump on Tuesday brushed aside questions over whether his assertion that he “solved” the crisis with North Korea was premature amid reports its leader, Kim Jong Un, is trying to conceal parts of its nuclear weapons program.

“Many good conversations with North Korea — it is going well!” Trump tweeted. “In the meantime, no Rocket Launches or Nuclear Testing in 8 months. All of Asia is thrilled. Only the Opposition Party, which includes the Fake News, is complaining.”

"If not for me,” he added, “we would now be at War with North Korea!”

https://www.yahoo.com/

There are so many things wrong with that statement and the thinking behind I can't cover them all.  But to not recognize it as purely delusional is a gross mistake.   Here's a man that was basically threatening to kill the 26 million people in North Korea and cause a possible global extinction chain of events, which was a war crime in and of itself, saying that if it wasn't for him, he would have carried through with his threats.  There was never a chance it would happen anyway because we know Congress would never approve a war against North Korea, there is and never has been any justification.)

Unfortunately, this too will pass without any pushback from the left which has been and continues to be neutered by the democratic party, with the progressives new Democratic party fake socialists of Amerika politicians like silver spoon Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  How soon they forgot about Obama?  Well, depends, 80% of democrats still believe he did a great job as president, war crimes and all.  They obviously wouldn't know a war crime if it hit them in the ass.