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freshwest
freshwest's Journal
freshwest's Journal
July 4, 2015
That didn't even mention climate change. But they just won't listen. I also think they are working to make sure they escape the worst of it. Since I don't believe the misery is going to be equally distributed, it never has been.
It will be the end of representative or any other kind of democracy. Corporations, theocracies, etc. are hierachical and all power is at the top, no matter what mistakes are made, and never democratic. Never.
We're galloping to neo-feudalism. And climate change will make it all seem necessary. Desperation makes people give up their rights, and they can be 'dog eat dog' which is exaclty what the RWNJs are training for all the time. Those guns aren't just for looking at, their racism and sexism has a goal as well - power and the control of territory.
No individual rights, which is a western construct for the most part AFAIK, except natives had it, too. But many countries never had that, so sex slavery, chattel slavery and treating their population like animals and bowing to the warlords or priest s or whoever is normal to them.
I'm sure you remember Obama's great talk in Jamaica. He talked about that to those whom I hope will be future world leaders. They will face many challenges that we have not concieved of yet.
Corporations have more net worth than most governments. Of course he'd create disasters.
Just like so many have - great cycle of wealth there. Romney, Paul, etc. all want to run the government as a business. The mantra was force fed to Americans when Reagan was in office.
Here's a video by Russell Means about corporations and how this isn't sustainable:
That didn't even mention climate change. But they just won't listen. I also think they are working to make sure they escape the worst of it. Since I don't believe the misery is going to be equally distributed, it never has been.
It will be the end of representative or any other kind of democracy. Corporations, theocracies, etc. are hierachical and all power is at the top, no matter what mistakes are made, and never democratic. Never.
We're galloping to neo-feudalism. And climate change will make it all seem necessary. Desperation makes people give up their rights, and they can be 'dog eat dog' which is exaclty what the RWNJs are training for all the time. Those guns aren't just for looking at, their racism and sexism has a goal as well - power and the control of territory.
No individual rights, which is a western construct for the most part AFAIK, except natives had it, too. But many countries never had that, so sex slavery, chattel slavery and treating their population like animals and bowing to the warlords or priest s or whoever is normal to them.
I'm sure you remember Obama's great talk in Jamaica. He talked about that to those whom I hope will be future world leaders. They will face many challenges that we have not concieved of yet.
July 4, 2015
By David Auerbach - July 2 2015
The Greek prime minister’s faceoff with Europe is something new: a bold, imperfect, high-velocity form of mass democracy made possible by the Internet.... Whether Tsipras is a bold contrarian or a foolish nihilist, his political approach heralds a new kind of digital democracy, one that’s as scary as it is revolutionary...
Tsipras and Syriza have made use of the Internet to circumvent media intermediaries and exhort their supporters in far more direct ways than one might expect from a ruling party. Whether putting out daily YouTube videos or posting the creditors’ austerity demands online, Tsipras has aggressively pushed the impression that it is not just him but the Greek people themselves who are negotiating with the creditors. He has drawn on Twitter to bid for national and international support: “Our people have remained calm in face of blackmail,” he tweeted Monday. “Outside attempts to sway them only strengthens their resolve.” That fire-breathing didn’t let up this week even as he appeared to flinch, telling creditors that he is open to accepting a version of their terms: “After the #referendum was announced, better proposals were received- especially in regards to restructuring the debt,” he tweeted with a note of self-congratulation. Even if Tsipras is exaggerating in order to save face, it reveals Tsipras’ strategy of bolstering his negotiating position by invoking the weight of the Greek people, as well as appealing to international supporters.
The stakes are unprecedentedly high for both Greece and the EU as a whole. Wolfgang Münchau wrote in the Financial Times that the referendum risks showing that “a monetary union without political union can only exist in violation of basic principles of democracy.” Tsipras is appealing to that fundamental power asymmetry here: Greece owes national debts, yet it does not autonomously control its currency, leaving its monetary policy in large part in the hands of Europe’s leaders. Tsipras’ objection is that Greece should not be forced to adopt further austerity measures when it has already been running a surplus, but on account of the euro, it cannot directly control its own monetary policy, through which it could devalue its currency to spur exports and growth. Imagine if, in the U.S. the Federal Reserve were really as unaccountable as conspiracy theorists think it is. It’s like that...
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2015/07/greece_referendum_the_standoff_couldn_t_have_happened_without_the_internet.single.html
I think what you linked will take me a while to read. This link is a story that seems like a fluff piece but really isn't. Reading the last paragraph I posted brings up important questions.
There is a lot more there. I'll get to reading the links you made through the thread, but can't say I understand the meanings to people on the ground in Europe. They pay more in taxes taken from them for their work and resent the more lax policies that have been in Greece for years.
Greece is a volatile nation that is in a crucial area of Europe and been invaded more times than one can count. The simple answer was 'let them go and join with Putin's economic union.'
But I'm betting the rest of Europe is also feeling 'terrorized' by the thouht of an even more unstable Greece with ISIS blustering at them, killing people through stochastic terrorism, and ISIS refugees on their doorstep. There is no infinite wealth nor are there infinite 'resources.'
I've read the Greeks were already making concessions to Putin and their own oligarchs. I don't hold socialism or faux socialism in the regard I once had when they are now playing footsie with oligarchs under the table and out of sight like Putin, making him more wealthy than the Koch brothers. I regard a lot, from Yanis and any other source, a diversion from real wealth being transferred.
People seem so eager for a hero to take care of them, and complain when they don't give them all they wanted. That's magical thinking. A faith based belief on the 'evil' others with more stuff that 'are why my life sucks.' Yeah, there are some evil rich fuks.
But are regular folks in Europe who are angry about Greece rich? I really doubt that.
The people have to work with each other, some are telling us they will. Whether they will or not, or if they align themselves with a rich patron to fleece others, and history has shown some certainly will, is an unknown thing. Then above it all, there is climate change. The pressure is not going to let up.
It appears other Europeans - you are not the only one, others have, for several years now - say they were being taken advantage of by Greece. There will be bad feelings.
But I thought this might be an interesting add to your thread. The picture isn't so clear from this side of the Atlantic, we just don't know how you guys really live.
Surya Gayatri, I was surprised to read this piece yesterday:
The Digital DemagogueBy David Auerbach - July 2 2015
The Greek prime minister’s faceoff with Europe is something new: a bold, imperfect, high-velocity form of mass democracy made possible by the Internet.... Whether Tsipras is a bold contrarian or a foolish nihilist, his political approach heralds a new kind of digital democracy, one that’s as scary as it is revolutionary...
Tsipras and Syriza have made use of the Internet to circumvent media intermediaries and exhort their supporters in far more direct ways than one might expect from a ruling party. Whether putting out daily YouTube videos or posting the creditors’ austerity demands online, Tsipras has aggressively pushed the impression that it is not just him but the Greek people themselves who are negotiating with the creditors. He has drawn on Twitter to bid for national and international support: “Our people have remained calm in face of blackmail,” he tweeted Monday. “Outside attempts to sway them only strengthens their resolve.” That fire-breathing didn’t let up this week even as he appeared to flinch, telling creditors that he is open to accepting a version of their terms: “After the #referendum was announced, better proposals were received- especially in regards to restructuring the debt,” he tweeted with a note of self-congratulation. Even if Tsipras is exaggerating in order to save face, it reveals Tsipras’ strategy of bolstering his negotiating position by invoking the weight of the Greek people, as well as appealing to international supporters.
The stakes are unprecedentedly high for both Greece and the EU as a whole. Wolfgang Münchau wrote in the Financial Times that the referendum risks showing that “a monetary union without political union can only exist in violation of basic principles of democracy.” Tsipras is appealing to that fundamental power asymmetry here: Greece owes national debts, yet it does not autonomously control its currency, leaving its monetary policy in large part in the hands of Europe’s leaders. Tsipras’ objection is that Greece should not be forced to adopt further austerity measures when it has already been running a surplus, but on account of the euro, it cannot directly control its own monetary policy, through which it could devalue its currency to spur exports and growth. Imagine if, in the U.S. the Federal Reserve were really as unaccountable as conspiracy theorists think it is. It’s like that...
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2015/07/greece_referendum_the_standoff_couldn_t_have_happened_without_the_internet.single.html
I think what you linked will take me a while to read. This link is a story that seems like a fluff piece but really isn't. Reading the last paragraph I posted brings up important questions.
There is a lot more there. I'll get to reading the links you made through the thread, but can't say I understand the meanings to people on the ground in Europe. They pay more in taxes taken from them for their work and resent the more lax policies that have been in Greece for years.
Greece is a volatile nation that is in a crucial area of Europe and been invaded more times than one can count. The simple answer was 'let them go and join with Putin's economic union.'
But I'm betting the rest of Europe is also feeling 'terrorized' by the thouht of an even more unstable Greece with ISIS blustering at them, killing people through stochastic terrorism, and ISIS refugees on their doorstep. There is no infinite wealth nor are there infinite 'resources.'
I've read the Greeks were already making concessions to Putin and their own oligarchs. I don't hold socialism or faux socialism in the regard I once had when they are now playing footsie with oligarchs under the table and out of sight like Putin, making him more wealthy than the Koch brothers. I regard a lot, from Yanis and any other source, a diversion from real wealth being transferred.
People seem so eager for a hero to take care of them, and complain when they don't give them all they wanted. That's magical thinking. A faith based belief on the 'evil' others with more stuff that 'are why my life sucks.' Yeah, there are some evil rich fuks.
But are regular folks in Europe who are angry about Greece rich? I really doubt that.
The people have to work with each other, some are telling us they will. Whether they will or not, or if they align themselves with a rich patron to fleece others, and history has shown some certainly will, is an unknown thing. Then above it all, there is climate change. The pressure is not going to let up.
It appears other Europeans - you are not the only one, others have, for several years now - say they were being taken advantage of by Greece. There will be bad feelings.
But I thought this might be an interesting add to your thread. The picture isn't so clear from this side of the Atlantic, we just don't know how you guys really live.
July 4, 2015
The video is long, but worth it to hear all that Baldwin says to Buckley:
James Baldwin Debates William F. Buckley (1965)
Published on Oct 27, 2012
Transcript and comment:
Baldwin goes on to eloquently state the affirmative in what has to be one of the most encompassing and moving soliloquies I have ever heard. Excerpts follow, but do not sell yourselves short, watch it in its entirety:
“The white South African or Mississippi sharecropper or Alabama sheriff has at bottom a system of reality which compels them really to believe when they face the Negro that this woman, this man, this child must be insane to attack the system to which he owes his entire identity.”
“In the case of the American Negro, from the moment you are born every stick and stone, every face, is white. Since you have not yet seen a mirror, you suppose you are, too. It comes as a great shock around the age of 5, 6, or 7 to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance, along with everybody else, has not pledged allegiance to you. It comes as a great shock to see Gary Cooper killing off the Indians, and although you are rooting for Gary Cooper, that the Indians are you.”
“From a very literal point of view, the harbors and the ports and the railroads of the country—the economy, especially in the South—could not conceivably be what they are if it had not been (and this is still so) for cheap labor. I am speaking very seriously, and this is not an overstatement: I picked cotton, I carried it to the market, I built the railroads under someone else’s whip for nothing. For nothing.”
"The Southern oligarchy which has still today so very much power in Washington, and therefore some power in the world, was created by my labor and my sweat and the violation of my women and the murder of my children. This in the land of the free, the home of the brave.”
“Sheriff Clark in Selma, Ala., cannot be dismissed as a total monster; I am sure he loves his wife and children and likes to get drunk. One has to assume that he is a man like me. But he does not know what drives him to use the club, to menace with the gun and to use the cattle prod. Something awful must have happened to a human being to be able to put a cattle prod against a woman’s breasts. What happens to the woman is ghastly. What happens to the man who does it is in some ways much, much worse. Their moral lives have been destroyed by the plague called color.”
“It is a terrible thing for an entire people to surrender to the notion that one-ninth of its population is beneath them. Until the moment comes when we, the Americans, are able to accept the fact that my ancestors are both black and white, that on that continent we are trying to forge a new identity, that we need each other, that I am not a ward of America, I am not an object of missionary charity, I am one of the people who built the country—until this moment comes there is scarcely any hope for the American dream. If the people are denied participation in it, by their very presence they will wreck it. And if that happens it is a very grave moment for the West.”
http://bacanisays.tumblr.com/
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
~Thomas Jefferson
These things must be discussed!
James Baldwin debates William F. Buckley Jr. at Cambridge University | The Resolution: “Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?”The video is long, but worth it to hear all that Baldwin says to Buckley:
James Baldwin Debates William F. Buckley (1965)
Published on Oct 27, 2012
Transcript and comment:
Baldwin goes on to eloquently state the affirmative in what has to be one of the most encompassing and moving soliloquies I have ever heard. Excerpts follow, but do not sell yourselves short, watch it in its entirety:
“The white South African or Mississippi sharecropper or Alabama sheriff has at bottom a system of reality which compels them really to believe when they face the Negro that this woman, this man, this child must be insane to attack the system to which he owes his entire identity.”
“In the case of the American Negro, from the moment you are born every stick and stone, every face, is white. Since you have not yet seen a mirror, you suppose you are, too. It comes as a great shock around the age of 5, 6, or 7 to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance, along with everybody else, has not pledged allegiance to you. It comes as a great shock to see Gary Cooper killing off the Indians, and although you are rooting for Gary Cooper, that the Indians are you.”
“From a very literal point of view, the harbors and the ports and the railroads of the country—the economy, especially in the South—could not conceivably be what they are if it had not been (and this is still so) for cheap labor. I am speaking very seriously, and this is not an overstatement: I picked cotton, I carried it to the market, I built the railroads under someone else’s whip for nothing. For nothing.”
"The Southern oligarchy which has still today so very much power in Washington, and therefore some power in the world, was created by my labor and my sweat and the violation of my women and the murder of my children. This in the land of the free, the home of the brave.”
“Sheriff Clark in Selma, Ala., cannot be dismissed as a total monster; I am sure he loves his wife and children and likes to get drunk. One has to assume that he is a man like me. But he does not know what drives him to use the club, to menace with the gun and to use the cattle prod. Something awful must have happened to a human being to be able to put a cattle prod against a woman’s breasts. What happens to the woman is ghastly. What happens to the man who does it is in some ways much, much worse. Their moral lives have been destroyed by the plague called color.”
“It is a terrible thing for an entire people to surrender to the notion that one-ninth of its population is beneath them. Until the moment comes when we, the Americans, are able to accept the fact that my ancestors are both black and white, that on that continent we are trying to forge a new identity, that we need each other, that I am not a ward of America, I am not an object of missionary charity, I am one of the people who built the country—until this moment comes there is scarcely any hope for the American dream. If the people are denied participation in it, by their very presence they will wreck it. And if that happens it is a very grave moment for the West.”
http://bacanisays.tumblr.com/
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
~Thomas Jefferson
July 3, 2015
I'm sick of the Democratic nomination horse race. I want to beat the Republican, not another Democrat. That's the goal for me, talking against another Democrat, isn't what I'm here for at all.
Many won't forgive when another tries to reconcile later after they feel personally disrespected and their issues disregarded. I'll be voting for the Democrat, not holding my nose or not voting to make a point when lives are at stake.
I no longer care who is nominated after what I've seen at DU. I don't think many care about anything but this horse race. It's not a game to some of us. The Democratic Party can run this guy, for all I care:
I stated it is BS in another reply. I didn't know David Swanson OP'd that at DU.
Those who liked DK knew he was a long shot.I'm sick of the Democratic nomination horse race. I want to beat the Republican, not another Democrat. That's the goal for me, talking against another Democrat, isn't what I'm here for at all.
Many won't forgive when another tries to reconcile later after they feel personally disrespected and their issues disregarded. I'll be voting for the Democrat, not holding my nose or not voting to make a point when lives are at stake.
I no longer care who is nominated after what I've seen at DU. I don't think many care about anything but this horse race. It's not a game to some of us. The Democratic Party can run this guy, for all I care:
July 2, 2015
Oh, that makes me cry... I feel bad for being so hateful about that messed up person. n/t
And Obama does pray everyday to humbly do the right thing for everyone, including those that hate him so much.
Unlike those enjoy mocking and want to get their reward with their false religiousity, and 'compassion' that ruins the lives of so many.
They have now been revealed for the evil spirits they are. I do believe they are afraid of what he is because he is a better man.
Awed by the people of Charleston.
July 2, 2015
8. The mods have made their decision.
Calling a candidate a Republican is not appropriate. In fact, they felt that it was pretty much the definition of "extreme and inflammatory" on a progressive message board.
That was DU2. While DU3 has degraded to that kind of name calling, people have had hides for calling others GOP or accusing them of being GOP. There is more than one kind of name calling, and the ideological, rather than vulgar or bigoted, is what kind that is.
Quote from Skinner:
Skinner ADMIN - Jan-15-048. The mods have made their decision.
Calling a candidate a Republican is not appropriate. In fact, they felt that it was pretty much the definition of "extreme and inflammatory" on a progressive message board.
That was DU2. While DU3 has degraded to that kind of name calling, people have had hides for calling others GOP or accusing them of being GOP. There is more than one kind of name calling, and the ideological, rather than vulgar or bigoted, is what kind that is.
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