Zorra
Zorra's Journal^This^ is truth set in stone. This is why we need to start organizing for non-violent
revolution right now.
Mass economic resistance by the 99% is a the only form of protest and direct action that can effectively strip the plutocrats of their position and power over us. We are their milk cows, and if we don't allow them to them milk us, we starve them.
A massive general strike, boycott, moratorium on paying bills, etc, and simply staying home and doing nothing, is the only plausible method I can think of that can remove the plutocrats from power. The cops cannot brutalize us with impunity if we are simply staying in our houses not working or buying anything, These types of actions on a mass scale would either lead to an opportunity for negotiation, or we will cause the markets to permanently collapse. Billionaires will lose billions in a matter of days or weeks. They can't imprison us if we refuse to work, buy things, or pay bills.
Yet.
If we do nothing, or rely on this political system that they totally own to make the changes necessary for our comfortable survival, we will lose everything, and end up living in a box by river until they decide it is time to euthanize those of us they haven't starved to death.
The current system will inevitably lead to "Elysium" on earth. This is the logical progression of the current political and economic processes, unless we kick the 1% to the curb, take over the factors and means of production, and begin to govern ourselves in a way that supports life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for everyone.
Cuba managed to defeat the most powerful empire the world had ever known
in a revolution.
And then, Cuba managed to keep the most powerful Empire the world has ever known from controlling their affairs for 52 years.
I believe that they will find a workable balance from which they will maintain full autonomy while at the same time make improvements to their systems which will be of benefit to all of the people of Cuba.
"I believe that there is no country in the world including any and all the countries under colonial domination, where economic colonization, humiliation and exploitation were worse than in Cuba, in part owing to my country’s policies during the Batista regime. I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will even go further: to some extent it is as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries. That is perfectly clear."
— U.S. President John F. Kennedy
Washington, D.C. – On October 9th, 1967, Ernesto "Che" Guevara was put to death by Bolivian soldiers, trained, equipped and guided by U.S. Green Beret and CIA operatives. His execution remains a historic and controversial event; and thirty years later, the circumstances of his guerrilla foray into Bolivia, his capture, killing, and burial are still the subject of intense public interest and discussion around the world.
The Death of Che Guevara: Declassified
Primarily working outside the system appears to me to be our only option.
Things really are far worse than they were in 1968.
Our primary direct action power, at this time, lies in not giving the shitheads our power. They need to control us in order to control us, they need us to run their unequal, unjust profit system in order for them to maintain and increase their power.
The way for us to manifest our power is to simply not participate in their game. I see organizing and engaging in a massive general strike and boycott, and flash protests as our only real option for bringing about change at this point. If we are simply staying home, not buying anything, not driving, not buying anything, not paying any bills, not participating in the system at all, we can collapse it. The billionaires will rapidly lose billions of dollars. The system will collapse, and there will have to be a plan in place that will enable the 99% to survive tolerably until our demands and goals are met.
When I was participating in Occupy actions, it occurred to me that the major flaw in sustaining our action was exposing ourselves to police brutality, and that eventually this brutality would force us out of the parks and off the streets. And naturally, it did. it's not rocket science, there simply are not enough people in the US who are willing to risk getting beaten up and imprisoned to support and sustain a non-violent movement that is countered by authorities who can commit acts of violence against protesters with impunity.
We tried to shut down the ports on the west coast, but by that time the media had perfected its propaganda attack brainwashing of the general public, and they successfully turned public opinion against us at this time. Here at DU, the mouthpieces for the status quo were busy denouncing us, in every way possible, day after day. This is something we will have to deal with if we organize, and act.
However, if we are simply staying home and shut down the talking heads, taking some extended family holiday time as a form of protest and non-violent resistance, it would be quite a while before the 1% owned government mandated that the police could legally force us out of our homes and go back to work. By the time they got to that point, terminal damage would already be done to the system.
If we could sustain the strike/boycott long enough, the PTB would be forced into negotiation long before things got to the point where the police would be forcibly taking people from their homes, and forcing them to go back to work.
Two weeks of a focused, dedicated, truly massive general strike and boycott would collapse the markets. The overall effect on the economy would be devastating; we would have to have some type of hopefully workable plan in place in order to ensure continuity of supply lines after transition. If necessary, the 99% might have to assume control of the factors and means of production. etc. Drastic, necessary, critical change will require pain and sacrifice at first; there's no way around this.
A non-violent revolution of this nature would take long term careful planning,critical mass support, massive numbers of participants, and dedicated organizers.
I believe you are correct, starting to organize now is what will make non-violent revolution successful when circumstances deteriorate to the point where enough people realize, and are done with, putting up with having no other options for ending the corruption, injustice, inequality, and oppression that is imposed upon them by the PTB with impunity.
This is a simple idea for developing complex plan. If anyone has a better idea, I'd love to hear it. Whatever the case, it is crystal clear that things must change, because our government is publicly supporting torture with impunity, and the torturers are practically bragging about their accomplishments in the torture arena on public television nationwide.
And not only have our leaders not taken any action whatsoever to punish the ghouls who sanction and commit acts of torture, they make excuses for them similar to justifications such as "they were just doing their job".
Organization.
On January 1, 1994, the NAFTA free trade agreement entered Mexico with vigor, promising foreign investment and economic prosperity at the expense of the plunder of natural resources. NAFTA is largely credited for flooding the Mexican market with subsidized corn from the United States, which decimated farmers' livelihoods and provoked massive migration to the United States. Two years prior to NAFTA's implementation, former President Carlos Salinas opened the floodgates to land privatization by reforming Article 27, which had protected communally owned land known as ejidos, created during the Mexican revolution. Thus, the introduction of NAFTA provided the perfect context for the uprising of the indigenous guerillas who formed the EZLN.
However, the 1994 uprising was not a spontaneous endeavor. Twenty years before, Marxist-inspired guerillas arrived in the Lacandon jungle in Chiapas to unite with members of marginalized indigenous communities. In 1983, they formally created the EZLN. They drew inspiration from Emiliano Zapata, who fought in the Mexican revolution in the early 20th century, declaring that the land belonged to those who worked it. Continuing his revolutionary tradition, the EZLN rebelled to demand work, land, shelter, food, health, education, independence, democracy, freedom, justice and peace for all the Mexican people. Their ideas rapidly gained traction as a confluence of indigenous cosmo-vision, Marxist philosophy and progressive theological thought to counter dispossession and poverty. The EZLN germinated the seed of "Ya Basta - Enough Already!"
Chiapas, is rich in flora and fauna, containing between 50 and 80 percent of Mexico's biodiversity, water reserves and mineral resources. However, the richness of natural resources has never translated into prosperity for the population, especially the indigenous people who often live in extreme poverty in marginalized communities. It is estimated that 40 percent of the state's population speak an indigenous language, and the EZLN is composed of Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Chol and Tojolabal communities. The Zapatistas denounced their marginalization in the first declaration of the Lacandon Jungle: "We have been denied the most elemental preparation so they can use us as cannon fodder and pillage the wealth of our country. They don't care that we have nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a roof over our heads, no land, no work, no health care, no food nor education."
In the communiqué released by the Zapatistas to celebrate the 20th anniversary, Subcomandante Marcos described the motivations that prompted their rebellion: "It was not the struggle to survive, but a sense of duty that put us here, for better or for worse. It was the necessity to do something in the face of millennial injustice, the indignation we felt was the most overwhelming characteristic of humanity."
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/21427-from-fire-to-autonomy-zapatistas-20-years-of-walking-slowly
"The global power of the financial centers is so great, that they can afford not to worry about the political tendency of those who hold power in a nation, if the economic program (in other words, the role that nation has in the global economic megaprogram) remains unaltered. The financial disciplines impose themselves upon the different colors of the world political spectrum in regards to the government of any nation. The great world power can tolerate a leftist government in any part of the world, as long as the government does not take measures that go against the needs of the world financial centers. But in no way will it tolerate that an alternative economic, political and social organization consolidate. For the megapolitics, the national politics are dwarfed and submit to the dictates of the financial centers. It will be this way until the dwarfs rebel . . " ~ Marcos
Third Way, Elizabeth Warren, And The Real Battle In Our Party
However, this isn't really mainly a battle between progressives and "centrists" for the soul of the Democratic party, although there is certainly an element of that, and it is certainly understandable for reporters to talk about it in those traditional political battle terms. But what this is more fundamentally about is a battle between the biggest special interest corporations in the world, who tend to have overwhelming sway over everything in Washington, and those of us who want to confront and rein in their power.
Those interests know they control the Republicans, because Republicans answer to money first and foremost. But Democrats have DNA and ancient roots from ancestors like Tom Paine, Tom Jefferson, Andy Jackson, William Jennings Bryan, FDR, Harry Truman, and the Kennedys -- people who distrusted the big financial firms based in New York, distrusted big corporate trusts in general -- and that DNA is a continuing problem for these Wall Street conglomerates.
The think tanks and political committees they fund on the Democratic side -- in the Clinton era their lead group was the DLC, now it's Third Way -- are asked by the big money guys to come to their defense when the populists start to rise up and upset their applecart, and they do. Yes, this is undeniably a battle between two different wings of the Democratic party, the people wing and the money wing. But it is even more centrally a fight between Wall Street and big business on the one hand, and the politicians who might threaten them -- like Elizabeth Warren.
snip---
And boy, do they hate the idea of so many people being excited about Elizabeth Warren's common sense populism, so they really needed their friends at Third Way to try and take her down a couple of notches (and throwing in a shot across the bow at Wall Street's new mayor was an important political message, too.) Just like during last year's campaign, when Wall Street was desperate to defeat Warren, so they got Third Way to issue a scathing statement against her that the Chamber of Commerce and other Republican hit groups immediately used against her, Wall Street needed Third Way to come through, and they did.
http://crooksandliars.com/mike-lux/third-way-elizabeth-warren-and-real
The Third Way is real, and they are right here. They are relentless, and they will lie, cheat, steal, and sell their mothers to the highest bidder if it would help them crush democracy before it has the slightest chance to get any sort of foothold.
A shameless "Let's Rewrite History" Third Way strawman post. "In June 1941, Roosevelt issued
(Emphasis mine)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_record_on_civil_rights
“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.” ~ FDR
If you simply don't have the money to pay the premiums, then you simply don't have the money
the premiums.
If they get a Silver Plan they can't afford, and then can't pay the premium, then they have no insurance at all.
People do what they can under their respective circumstances. Far too many hard working families in the US are struggling just to put food on the table right now.
Hence the analogy that has been used as an example for describing the conditions of class/wealth polarization that brought about the French Revolution:
"Starving Peasant": "Your Highness! The People have no bread!".
(Probably) Fictional "Royal Lady": "Why, then, let them eat cake!"
(Regardless of where, and how, phrase originated, the fact remains that the phrase is used as an allegory, and is still completely relevant as an allegory to describe circumstances that brought about the French Revolution, and other instances/events of obliviousness to injustice, inequality, oppression, and poverty brought about by polarized economic class systems).
Men of "royal" (snicker) lineages should not be surprised when they find out
that they are not related to their famous, (and usually infamous) "royal" (snicker) male (supposed) ancestors.
The pressure on women, the wives of the men of these "royal" (snicker) lineages, were expected, even often commanded, to bear male children. If they did not bear children, or especially if they did not bear male children, they were blamed for it, called "barren", considered inferior women, and were very often castigated, mocked, scorned, punished, and discarded (even murdered), if the "royal" (snicker) family was not pleased with a woman who did not bear children, or male children. Even when it was clearly the impotence or infertility of the "royal" (snicker) male that was responsible for a the royal "brood mare" not producing a male heir.
So...what's a woman to do in this "risky business"? The most logical solution is, of course, to go out, and, as often as possible, roll in the hay with another man, (or several other men), who is/are virile and/or fertile, until she becomes pregnant.
The "royal family" (snicker) is happy, and the woman/wife, the royal "brood mare" is safe, provided no one ever catches her in her completely understandable and justifiable "infidelity".
It's not rocket science.
Nowadays, however, thanks to easily available DNA testing for determining ancestry, a "royal (snicker) lady's" options in this scenario are severley diminished.
The term non-paternity event is used in law, sociology, clinical genetics and genetic genealogy on issues concerning paternity.[1] Genetic genealogists often use the term in a wider context than others, to denote a break in the link between a male’s surname and the Y-DNA he inherited.[2] Put another way, in genetic genealogy it is generally accepted that a non-paternity event is any circumstance since the lineage adopted a hereditary surname that has led to the surname by which a son was known to differ from that of his biological father.[3]
(more)
http://www.isogg.org/wiki/Non-paternity_event
Like JFK said, "those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution
inevitable".
Shortly thereafter, King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette took refuge in Versailles as the violent peasants pillaged and burned châteaux, and destroyed records of feudal dues—this reaction is known as the grande peur (great fear).
For the peasant class, the Bastille stood as a symbol of the hypocrisy and corruption of the aristocratic government - controlled mostly by nobility and clergy. This important event marked the entry of the popular class into the French Revolution.
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/99bastilleday.html
Maybe the 1% should get a clue. When there is no hope of improving intolerable conditions of injustice, equality, and ever increasing oppression, oppressed people become hopeless and angry, and they start to break shit The 1% should be wise and relinquish control of the government to the people, and allow a more just and equitable system to come into being.
Unfortunately, they believe themselves to be invincible in their gated communities and ivory towers; their greed and arrogance always supersedes any type of good judgment, so eventually, their heads are gonna roll, one way or another. They are surrounded, and there are very few of them, compared to a a 99% that grows more discontent and furious by the day.
The name Custer comes to mind.
I'm not advocating violent revolution. I'm just sayin', ya know?
Conservatives are natural born killers ~ ruthless, corrupt, and conscienceless.
They are self-centered and fearful, always want more than they could ever need, and will do whatever they can to get more, more, more.
Like two year olds with a terminal case of the terrible twos.
Liberals spend half their time trying to prevent conservatives from destroying all life on the planet, and the other half dealing with the messes that conservatives make in their all consuming greed.
We get sick of having to deal with our conservative "kids" who never grow up to be responsible adults. Responsible adults meaning adults who are ethically and morally developed to the point where they are conscious enough to do their best to cause no direct or indirect harm to others, who know how to share, and who take steps not to foul their environment.
I'm beyond fucking sick of having to constantly deal with the thoughtlessness, fear driven greed, neuroticism, deadly destructiveness, and total lack of real conscience that are the hallmark characteristics of conservatives.
I dream of a country that is free of conservatives, and also free from having to defend itself from being attacked by conservatives. But there is no way to prevent conservatives from attacking, because they would spend all their time developing ever deadlier weapons to make war on us so they could eventually take whatever we have, and then exploit and destroy the land, water, and air until it they can no longer support life.
Because that is their nature. It is what conservatives do, and it is what they have always done. They kill, steal, enslave, and destroy.
The fuckers are just flat out evil. It ain't rocket science.
They use the MSM, the media they own, to support their own candidates.
It's an obvious, and simple thing; one of the privileges of great wealth, ownership, monopoly, and control.
If there is a person, idea, or organization that they see as a threat, they use their media to squelch the threat.
They will try to squelch Bernie, just like they did Dennis Kucinich, and you are right here on DU, clearly doing your best to help them in this task. 
I have to go now; obviously, no one is paying me to do this.
“I’m giving some thought to it,” he said. “Taking on the billionaire class, and Wall Street, and the Koch brothers is not an easy task.”
“How are you going to get elected president if you take on the billionaire class?” CNN host Chris Cuomo snarked. “Don’t you watch the elections?”
“I’m going to be very honest with you,” Sanders replied. “We may have reached the tipping point where candidates who are fighting for the working class and the middle class of this country may not be able do it anymore because of the power of the billionaire class.”
“That’s the simple reality,” he continued. “And I have got to ascertain — if I do it, I want to do it well. If I do it, I know that I will need millions of people engaged in a real grassroots campaign to take on big money, and to fight for an agenda, a jobs program, raising the minimum wage, pay equity for women, dealing with climate change, all of these things.”
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Member since: Tue Sep 23, 2003, 11:05 PM
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