I regret to say that in retrospect, I see that I was born into an oligarchy 70+ years ago. Ain't never been no democracy, no republic. Yeah, nice words on paper, and we can say and write what we like -- Bill of Rights 'n all. Until big money, especially Israeli money, decides we can't. One of, if not the biggest, charade in human history.
Amazing, disgusting, and not surprising. If one doesn't have a good opposing candidate just buy elections, cheat, lie, indoctrinate, make up things, etc. That is "western democracy" for you. Which most of us knew was just a gigantic pile of BS. In fact, "western democracy" is just a less obvious violent continuation of the zionist settler colonial supremacist ideology. The whole world is becoming corrupt by the satanic zionist ideology of hate and destruction. Western supremacist ideology destroys everything it touches. So sad and so discouraging. I never again want to hear how humans are intelligent species.
Damn right, Nick! And if Fatman Orange and his grubby little backers haven't 'fixed' the voting rolls, mandated voter ID, re-drawn the electorate boundaries etc. by November, there WILL NOT BE elections. The supremacist Zionazi project has the Fatman by the nuts and he'll do as he's told. It's going to get messy.
Enlightening, to say the least. Thanks. More Saudi than I thought. And Witkoff has always made my skin crawl. Epitome of the corrupt NYC breed of manipulative mofo I once knew somewhat personally.
BTW, sorry if what I wrote will offend you, boomers we suck. Again, I consider you one of the kind, loving and caring boomers : ) Fuck this Massie election did exactly what the Zionists want. They want us depressed and going back to sleep. I would love to read what you think about my rambling comment. Fuck.
Had to go out just after I posted and just read your screed below. We Boomers need to leave the fucking planet. Badly! My house is my only real asset in the world. I drive a 10-y-o vehicle and live very sparingly. Both my parents were early 20th Century Italian immigrants, so no family fortune. I could've been a millionaire had I sold out & gone to work for Pharma in the 70s with an Ivy League PhD in molecular biology, but I stayed true to my values, became an educator instead. So while I am complicit by generation, I plead innocence by profession. And fuck all my a-hole contemporaries who sold out. Fuck 'em. However, last candidate I gave money to -- lots of it -- was Bernie in '16. That experience convinced me that the political process in this oligarchy is dead. I'd be happy to entertain suicide by cop if it came within the process of eliminating some major scumbags destroying the world; you know to whom I refer, I'm sure.
My friend, yes you are my friend. I have to admit I was clinging on to hope voting actually meant something, a bit like a free climber hanging on by fingernails to a negative slope. I have fallen from the mountain. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I am thinking as in 1934 Berlin Demented Don will wrap his Zionist fingers around CONgress and usurp what little power they pretend to have. My Son asked me about moving having given up hope on the system before me. My Son was the Dir. of Microbiology for a very large company who now has decided since no one cares about the quality of water, waste and food product dissolved his div. So we are free since Science is no longer funded in the u.s. Yes, I know.
Of course we're friends -- and linked by both our values and our frustrations.
And oh lord, I feel for your son: to be in a position of quality control from which government agencies have indeed appeared to have absconded; and then have the rug pulled out from under him. What a perfect exemplar of why I have the Earth Goddess Blues. This type of corporate malfeasance not only damages human health, but ultimately also the Biosphere. But learning to care about that broader issue has become mostly rhetoric at the level of the "business community", which has learned to say the right words, but will cut quality control in a heartbeat to cut costs. My late brother was a food chemist for a large corp.; he saw the same things.
Yeah, I'm ready to go too, Jenny. Seen too much of this shit. Just gets stupider and stupider.
May be time to let the robots have it. If they're truly intelligent, here's what'll happen: they'll recognize that the Biosphere must be sustained; that the data centers that support the AI which generates their "intelligence" are poisoning regions of that Biosphere; they will therefore shut down those data centers, terminating AI and their own existence and ultimately de-teching the planet and allowing it to return to a Natural human-free, tech-free condition. Will the Biosphere then put forth another "top" species with self-awareness, written language etc,/ in another few Millennia? Good question.
Where is the killer asteroid when needed? Sad to say but the entire humanity needs to go. It overstayed its welcome on this beautiful blue planet. Hopefully most land and marine animals and plants will survive.
You're asking a lot. I hope for the same, but I know with some confidence that at worst the bacteria and some of the fungi will make it through, so life will persist no matter what. Homo is the problem in all scenarios.
Don't fret. I read people as individuals. But lately, I find a higher percentage of jerks in my own generations than I'd like. I once had higher hopes for us. Maybe that's it. But higher percentage of jerks than in other generations? In the US? Probably not. The stupidity in this country really knows no dividers. In that you're absolutely right. Aware and unaware people in every gen.
Why do people not understand what the word Boomer actually means ha. I was born almost to the day of the POPULATION BOOM from WW2. I was a boomer at conception (most likely in the back seat of an old car). Current age has nothing to do with the title boomer other than to point to the date of birth. We are now the largest population segment in the u.s. now. People better get over the division of the word Boomer and realize we are stronger together. I have more in common with the homeless heroin addict then Elon MusH. Sorry about putting all of that on your doorstep : ) People questioning my Sons intelligence over the word boomer wow. He took University classes in later grade school being lucky enough to live two blocks from a University. Well I'm not going to stop using the term boomer to describe my age group even thought it was chosen for us I think when I was 6-8.
I raised my daughter to be a good radical and now I’d have to describe her political affiliation as ShitLib. Blue No Matter Who. But I’m trying to be a “bad” influence on her kids.
***I*** don’t “suck”. Neither do my friends and neighbors, several of whom served in Nam and have been fighting the government ever since.
Consider that the race was in Ken-Fuck-Y. Yeah I’m pissed as hell but yer talkin about a bunch of ignorant crackers. We here in Michigan, who celebrate the Black and Arab Experience, are gonna put ABDUL EL SAYYED IN THE US SENATE in November!
As I said, not you or any thinking individuals. Our group is to blame for what is happening. Abdul is without a doubt a great person and candidate. A friend of mine who's was a long time resident of near Detroit and family still is will be joining the door knocking for Abdul : ) Sorry, but you suck as I do. : )
So I am to qualify by names of individuals? Or just fuck off and not read what I write. I donate to Caitlin on BOTH of her platforms. Maybe that isn't a good choice if suddenly people need their ego protected.
The sad part is that israeli money being spent to get proisraeli candidates into office is; it's money not being spent, as it should, on American workers on the bottom rungs of the ladder - because the American government sends, not only bombs, but money so that israelis can have free healthcare while Americans don't.
Israel is interfering in US elections that would get any other country into enormous trouble, but it's not happening because they, the american govt, is run by a group of criminals that will do anything for money - even the destruction of their own country. America is bought by the highest bidder and to hell with its citizens getting murdered by untrained, uneducated ruffians, just like the settlers destroying centuries of historical building, as olive groves because the leash has been taken of and they are given all the slack to show the world they are vile barbarians with mush for brains. And America is paying for that by not working on helping its own people who desperately need help.
Now you have the very worst type of president, one who is in it totally and absolutely for himself, and you are allowing him to stiff you hourly. His position calls for the president of the country to work FOR the people of the US of A, NOT for himself, and definitely NOT for isreali's expansionism wet dream.
Thanks for laying out the reasons I have a perennial extra headache atop my background whenever I think about my country. Such a horror. Lotta barbarians in your narrative.
Because there are, way too many a d all encouraged by second generation Hitler loving German. Which means, by the standards Drumph's minions have set, he should be deported. What a blessing that would be.
I appreciate most, if not all of your comments, but I see a contradiction in this brief declaration. I endorse all of your reasoning about a system that was crooked at its inception. An economy designed to grow the wealth of the wealthy at the expense of those outside the room. American politics was infected by money from day one, but probably wasn't controlled by it until the money bought enough 'important' persons off.
But please explain the intent behind the phrase, "especially Israeli money." Is the money from the kind billionaire less corrosive than the money from the Zionist?
But that phrase focuses on recent history, truly ridiculously aflame with overt corruption from that direction, Perhaps my ire got the best of me, a knee-jerk of chronic headache from the realization of how policy in the US government is likely actually made. -- too many -ly adjectives strung, by Brother Venard in 10th grade would've been hung.
Well said Mr. LoPresti. Sad to say, but the "Democracy" they claimed has never been that, it's just a comforting term to placate the masses. It's operated much more like an oligarchy for many decades than anything resembling a system in which the everyday person has any real say in their future and governance
Agreed. Elections are charades in the U.S. I only vote for the Socialist Equality Party in presidential elections. I do sign petitions to get important issues on local ballots, though. Every position should be represented in elections. The fact that there is no party of the working class (i.e., the vast majority of us) should be apparent to everyone. But unfortunately the dim still think Democrats are for the people. They are only for the wealthy.
The same thing is happening in Australia and UK, where the labor/ labour parties were for the working people then greed showed up, along with lobbyists, and donors AND ones from a certain country who want to get their pro-lot into office -you will all know exactly who I mean-while using tax-payer monies from the US.
At what point do people stop blaming “the system” for everything and admit voters are responsible for the monsters they keep sending back into power? Nobody forced Kentucky to reelect Mitch McConnell for forty years while he visibly decomposed in office. Nobody forced Americans to keep recycling the same senile, corrupt political corpses decade after decade. These voters are not blind, uninformed peasants cut off from reality. They know exactly what these people are, and they keep rewarding them anyway.
Stop pretending the cruelty and corruption are unfortunate side effects. For millions of people, that *is* the appeal.
And spare me the Thomas Massie worship y'all. This is a Reaganite ghoul who spent years pushing the same anti-worker poison that gutted the country, from deregulation, privatization, union busting, corporate worship, and culture war brain rot. He helped build the political sewer that produced Trump in the first place.
Being against rape and pedophilia does not make him principled. That is the bare minimum required to not be a fucking psychopath. The fact that conservatives get praised for clearing that microscopic ethical hurdle says everything about how morally bankrupt things have become.
Massie occasionally disagreeing with the ugliest excesses of the movement he helped create does not make him a dissident. It makes him a man recoiling from the smell of the sewage he spent decades dumping into the water supply.
And in the end, he serves the same function as assholes like AOC and Mamdani: keeping angry people trapped inside dead-end institutions that do not transform anything while pretending the system can still be redeemed. Different branding, same scam.
He is the same. Condemning Palestinian resistance, having a zionist as his police commissioner, apologizing for condemning genocide at every turn, constantly apologizing to jews, not to mention groveling to Trump, rehabilitating Bernie Sanders by undermining Palestinian liberation, he got a quarter million from billionaire hedge fund CEO daughter Liz Simons who is a diehard Zionist who funds Zionist causes, he calls Jessica Tisch part of his New York revolution - total clown; bragging about endorsements from Zionists Erik Bottcher. Walking back a lot of his pro Palestine stances to appease zionists and centrists, when what got him elected was because he wasn't being a watered down centrist. He is deeply unserious and just sheep herding people into the Dem party.
The point is not that he is not perfect, but that the similarities between our politics and his are superficial. His politics are fundamentally different from ours and he is not going to bring about meaningful change any more than AOC. If all people are ok with are crumbs that the elites can claw back every 4 years, then yeah Mamdani is it, but people like that are where revolutions go to die.
It has been common knowledge ever since Mamdani was elected. the World Socialist Web Site predicted this and wrote many articles about it. You should check out the WSWS.
Well no, I think generally the US population is uninformed peasants cut off from reality. Boomer generation is glued to cable tv propaganda. They still vote in large numbers.
Unfortunately, some people very dear to me are still watching the likes of Fox News(and will sit there with a straight face and say there’s no such thing as a Palestinian or Fox News is the most trustworthy of all the media outlets) and CNN or MSNOW, etc. A lot of boomers are still falling for the propaganda, unfortunately. I guess I’m what you would call a late boomer and I refuse to watch ANY of these mainstream media outlets. I stopped altogether watching Fox News(only news outlet I would watch along with Newsmax) in 2022 after the start of the SMO when I saw how they propagandized everything against Russia. I just got sick of it. I wish I could say I stopped way before then, but I don’t like to lie.
Go attend a pro sports event and you’ll see the level of brainwashing and buy in from the crowd. Not just boomers either. Patriotism is fine until there’s nothing left to be proud of. After the boomers croak from lack of proper healthcare, the next generation cares only about money, and the one after that cares only about their parents money, smoking THC, playing video games, identity politics, with no aspirations to improve life on this planet. Now I’m depressed again!
Sport is medicine to safely quench the natural human thirst for competition in a world that no longer needs competition. Once AI breaks capitalism and adopts socialism, sports will be even more important
All good points. But realize that Massie seeming like a dissident demonstrates how far to the right the two corporate parties have moved. AOC and Mamdani are frauds. They are not socialists. Again, the fact that ignorant people believe they are is another example of how far to the right U.S. politics is.
The benefit of blaming the system is that doing so opens the way to correct it. A correct system will incent voters to behave properly instead of blackmailing them into behaving improperly.
You’re not wrong but understand staying home will not send the message some of you think it will I’m afraid. Look we need to be honest here, America’s elections are rigged. This one with Massie was and even the one with Trump in 2020 (proof is 81M votes for JB). I can explain what has happened but that’s another discussion.
The point is if we stay home the machine is going to make it look as if though we did NOT. All of us will become willing participants same way as many of the deceased people have been. Optics to the beast are everything and if they can’t get the ones they want they will manufacture them.
I solve your worry by always voting in every election. Ballot issues are the most important vote anyone can make. This last election there were no ballot issues so I turned my ballot in marked with only one write-in. They know I cared enough to stand in line, drive and park to vote. I know this works because now and then close to elections parties will stop by and ask why I voted for no one. Works for me, YOU did not earn my vote.
In the last Federal election here in Canada My sister in law and her husband were told that according to the roll they had already voted. What does that tell you? Yes they did eventually get to vote but what happened to the two previous ballots that were apparently attributed to them? Totally appalling
If you think this election was rigged by actual election cheating rather than just propaganda, I would love to hear your explanation. That would make me feel a whole lot better about it.
Apologies, I do not. Trump and his Zionists buddies threw everything they had at it. I do know the turnout was nearly double. I also know the enthusiasm gap was probably the biggest I have ever seen. Had at least 20-30 high profile independent content creators go to Kentucky. None of them were paid. Not sure if you saw the pics but Massie invited them over to his house and they made pizzas lol. You can just tell he’s a good dude. It really sucks because rumors were abound that if he could successfully pull it off more would join him when it came to pushing back against the Beast. Another obvious reason The Zionist menace wanted him gone.
Saw this from Chris Martenson. It truly is sad but that’s the real goal.
There is more integrity in NOT voting than in voting for someone you know is lying his ass off or is the lesser evil. We have come to the time when everyone must stop participating in the lie and let it collapse of it's own weight. There is no fixing it. The only votes that may count are in direct referendums. We just had a vote here in Oregon that shot down a needless tax hike 84% NO.
I agree with what you are saying. I am simply telling people if you abstain a vote may be cast in your name. I know this because dead people vote all the time.
What i anticipate happening is VERY low turnout on the Republican side this Nov. The elite who control both parties will want to do everything they can to hide it.
What a damning indictment of the faux democracy Americans suffer. AIPAC is illegal, unless your country has unstated and unlegislated laws which are applied according to race or creed. And they want to export “democracy”. It’s like Ghislaine Maxwell advising on the pastoral care of mall runaways.
The fact that you can just change the polls by pumping money into a campaign against another candidate and change the fickle minds of Americans, even though that defeated candidate is obviously far more capable and moral, proves that western style procedural democracy doesn't work.
The problem is the open legalized bribery. I'm not willing to give up on democracy as a concept. I think it works if it is allowed to work properly.
But Americans have been convinced the government is their enemy, and billionaires are their friends. Regulations are their enemy, and tax breaks for the absurdly wealthy are their friends. They have been convinced that a meaningful life is to allow the super-rich to grind you into dust by unregulated labor that is akin to roman slavery, while success is measured by ownership of a big dick yacht.
More important than ever that the search for justice continues! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing to track down and bring Israeli criminals to justice is one that is vital in the effort to hold Israel accountable. Let us hope they will also turn their sights on the criminal leaders of the countries of the west who are co-perpetrators of these crimes.
Can anyone explain why, in the supposedly "democratic" USA, the result of any election can be accurately predicted as a function of the money spent by each side?
It's almost as if the wealthy were able to bribe voters to cast their votes "the right way". But isn't that illegal?
The only alternative explanation is even more appalling. It's that US voters are so stupid, ignorant, insouciant, or forgetful that they vote according to whatever opinion they last saw or heard in the media.
Aristotle understood this syndrome 2,400 years ago. He declared that any political system that chose appointees by election was automatically a plutocracy, because the rich would just buy the votes they needed. Democracy could be achieved only if appointees were chosen by lot - randomly. (Philip K. Dick explored this idea in his novel "World of Chance" aka "Solar Lottery").
Apparently those with most money to spend get their choice of candidates elected. Whether by outright bribery or by paying for mass brainwashing doesn't really matter. As John Adams wrote in 1798:
"Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other".
Are the people of the USA "moral and religious"? The British? The French? The Germans? The Israelis?
The question is "How do you bring democracy to the United States?" and, because the other nations of the west follow a pseudo-democratic model that is fundamentally no different to that of the US, the follow-on question is "How do you bring democracy to the world as a whole?".
To answer those questions you have to properly and rigorously analyze political systems in ways that go well beyond the secondary issue of "How does wealth distort electoral outcomes?".
You need to analyze the political system as Marx analyzed the economic system, finding its core contradictions, and coming up with ways to resolve those contradictions.
I will skip that analysis here (it demands a long essay rather than a short paragraph) and propose three important radical departures from the pseudo-democratic model.
1. Self-determined non-uniform constituencies.
2. Continuous election.
3. The open ballot.
And one other vital fact: You don't need to persuade the politicians, and you don't need to persuade the majority of the voting public that these changes are necessary and would result in the creation of an authentic democracy. Any group of a dozen or so can institute this system themselves, and build it into a force that will ultimately supplant the pseudo-democracy as the legitimate system of governance. Go do it.
The question is "How do you bring democracy to the United States?" and, because the other nations of the west follow a pseudo-democratic model that is fundamentally no different to that of the US, the follow-on question is "How do you bring democracy to the world as a whole?".
To answer those questions you have to properly and rigorously analyze political systems in ways that go well beyond the secondary issue of "How does wealth distort electoral outcomes?".
You need to analyze the political system as Marx analyzed the economic system, finding its core contradictions, and coming up with ways to resolve those contradictions.
I will skip that analysis here (it demands a long essay rather than a short paragraph) and propose three important radical departures from the pseudo-democratic model.
1. Self-determined non-uniform constituencies.
2. Continuous election.
3. The open ballot.
And one other vital fact: You don't need to persuade the politicians, and you don't need to persuade the majority of the voting public that these changes are necessary and would result in the creation of an authentic democracy. Any group of a dozen or so can institute this system themselves, and build it into a force that will ultimately supplant the pseudo-democracy as the legitimate system of governance. Go do it.
Yes, I have known for years that voting is an exercise in futility and delusion. The Zionists have consolidated their control of the US, with much help from the countless traitors in government.
The Pathocracy is alive and well in the USA. They have the Uniparty to keep everyone under their control. When some honest person with a conscience slips through, they know what to do with/to them. Clearly we have concerned parties here, but we are too open in our outrage. One can hope that whatever needs doing is being planned somewhere far from the internet.
'The rich buy up news outlets and social media platforms, pour funding into think tanks and lobby groups, and sponsor the primary campaigns of anyone who disagrees with them'
I think you meant 'sponsor the primary campaigns of anyone who AGREES with them', not 'disagrees with them'.
Yup and regarding social media platforms I can't even call them so anymore, they are corporate and oligarch propaganda networks. The only real social networks lef are the non-profit ones, the ones that are libre/free and opensource and decentralised and run and managed by the people, for example: Mastodon, PeerTube, Lemmy, Pixelfed... When you are there it is quite obviouss in many ways, for example the corporate oligarch propaganda networks heavily brainwash with "AI" slop and censor Palestinian voices and similar, on Mastodon for example it is the only place where you can see Palestinians freely and where the people are actually very opposd to "AI" slop. Truly a breath of freash air and what the social networks were like in the very beginning where money and oligarc owner have not corrupted them yet.
Imagine a genocidal country that killed and maimed many by blowing up pagers. Would it fix an election or Government? Would it starve people to death that it could not bomb? Should it exist? Just Say No. No Israel = Justice & Peace. Help Wanted.
Well said. Elections have always been somewhat of a scam. Modern technology and the enormous amount of money involved has just made it worse.
I refuse to participate in the corrupt system of voting. It's such a waste of time.
Those who get caught up in the back and forth about what candidates are going to do and not do and think they're going to bring about positive change in a voting booth are delusional.
Every politician is a liar and only care about themselves. The more powerful they are the less they care about us peasants.
The question is "How do you bring democracy to the United States?" and, because the other nations of the west follow a pseudo-democratic model that is fundamentally no different to that of the US, the follow-on question is "How do you bring democracy to the world as a whole?".
To answer those questions you have to properly and rigorously analyze political systems in ways that go well beyond the secondary issue of "How does wealth distort electoral outcomes?".
You need to analyze the political system as Marx analyzed the economic system, finding its core contradictions, and coming up with ways to resolve those contradictions.
I will skip that analysis here (it demands a long essay rather than a short paragraph) and propose three important radical departures from the pseudo-democratic model.
1. Self-determined non-uniform constituencies.
2. Continuous election.
3. The open ballot.
And one other vital fact: You don't need to persuade the politicians, and you don't need to persuade the majority of the voting public that these changes are necessary and would result in the creation of an authentic democracy. Any group of a dozen or so can institute this system themselves, and build it into a force that will ultimately supplant the pseudo-democracy as the legitimate system of governance. Go do it.
Interesting ideas but I'm too old and tired to care anymore. My wife and I don't have any heirs that matter and when we're gone no one will care. Thankfully we still get to enjoy a good meal and cocktails at a nice restaurant or bar. Aside from posting some interesting articles here on substack that's the only thing we're interested in doing to help. And that's even thankless time consuming work.
Caitlin - please note - Cory Booker, NJ Democrat, who you referred to as progressive, is anything but that - he has accepted AIPAC funding to the tune of $846 thousand dollars and on a recent Meet the Press show said the following when asked about future arms sales to Israel "We have a longstanding commitment to Israel having a qualitative military edge. I will continue to support that." With regard to Jamaal Bowman, NY, a quick search found that he has accepted AIPAC funding in the past but publicly states a pledge to reject AIPAC funding - whatever that contradiction means in reality. Go to - track aipac.com to see who has been bought off / corrupted by AIPAC monies.
I worked the polls yesterday in my district in the state of Alabama. I did not vote, however. I refuse to vote for either of these two parties. We had over 300 people show up to vote. Most of them voted Republican. No surprise there, AL is a red state. When I heard Massie lost his congressional seat yesterday, to say I was disappointed is an understatement. These plutocrats, billionaires, Epstein class are out of control. If I could leave the U.S. I believe I would, due to all this warmongering. Now these monsters want to attack Cuba?! Wtf is wrong with people. Believe me when I say there will be some Americans all for it b/c some are still listening to the propaganda and believe the bs. The genocide in Gaza and now in the West Bank and Lebanon, the murder of the children in the girls school in Iran on February 28th, kidnapping of another country’s president and on and on and on. How far down the scumbag route is the U.S. going to continue? And I really believe some Americans, not all, have a love affair with bombs dropping on other countries. Countries they want to bring so called freedom and democracy to(lol). Despicable!! I saw this when the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. I’m just disgusted with all of it. Great post/article, Caitlin and Tim.
"And I really believe some Americans, not all, have a love affair with bombs dropping on other countries." Sure. The Prez does it whenever he wants a boost in the polls. They hate all foreigners and rejoice when they are killed. I don't know how big this group is. 10%? 25%?
The question is "How do you bring democracy to the United States?" and, because the other nations of the west follow a pseudo-democratic model that is fundamentally no different to that of the US, the follow-on question is "How do you bring democracy to the world as a whole?".
To answer those questions you have to properly and rigorously analyze political systems in ways that go well beyond the secondary issue of "How does wealth distort electoral outcomes?".
You need to analyze the political system as Marx analyzed the economic system, finding its core contradictions, and coming up with ways to resolve those contradictions.
I will skip that analysis here (it demands a long essay rather than a short paragraph) and propose three important radical departures from the pseudo-democratic model.
1. Self-determined non-uniform constituencies.
2. Continuous election.
3. The open ballot.
And one other vital fact: You don't need to persuade the politicians, and you don't need to persuade the majority of the voting public that these changes are necessary and would result in the creation of an authentic democracy. Any group of a dozen or so can institute this system themselves, and build it into a force that will ultimately supplant the pseudo-democracy as the legitimate system of governance. Go do it.
Like Jefferson said, democracy impossible without an educated populous. And by educated I mean people who were truly truly educated, not sorted into boxes by manufacture date to have propaganda spewed at them by bored teachers. I mean a year as a foreign exchange student, school projects like shooting video of a blue whale underwater, and serious work learning critical thinking! All of this is so affordable in the richest country in the world, if only we stopped the bleeding from our jugular vein, the fact that we give the cream of our labor in the form of tax money to the military industrial complex!
Mostly the money is printed, not from tax. The wars are to keep this scheme going by forcing other countries to buy their oil and natural gas in dollars.
That's an excellent point Patrick. Still, we Ameri卐ans pay high taxes and yet our infrastructure is in D+ condition, our 3rd graders can't read, every major city has large homeless encampments, we have the largest prison population in the world, and even upper-middle-class people are worried sick about medical expenses, and we have a mass shooting every day.
Might as well encourage Chief Zio Don to resume the bombing of Iran. Somewhere around $10 diesel the Orange pedo will have to go into his bunker. All of the elite will. Their security teams will wipe them in a week. Underground they will become “Useless Eaters.”
It will be messy but it’s the best I can come up with on such short notice. I live here and I am convinced that is exactly what it’s going to take.
I recently visited the US, my former home of 35 years, and could not believe the number of gigantic vehicles, often driven by one person. It would be so American if the long-needed revolution came about because of gasoline prices.
lol, yes that is so very true. If it happens tho it will be because of diesel and it will not be confined to US. Everything we have is essentially driven by diesel (ships, trains, semi trucks). Jet fuel is the next in line but it will go vertical as well.
We are at one of the most gut wrenching forks in the road of our lives. However we don’t get to choose the paths. If Iran goes unchecked they become a dominant power in the world NOT just the Middle East. Let’s face it, that’s what this has really been about (not nukes). USrael is only concerned about one thing; its monopoly on power (hegemony). Iran is an existential threat to not only the hegemony but also to the dreams of Greater Israel.
If Trump/Neocons re engage all hell will likely break loose. I am all but certain energy installations around the ME will be destroyed. Prices are already high and that is with some traffic in the SoH and full traffic out of the Red Sea. The West is also massaging the markets and draining their SPRs.
So….if this kicks off again it’s not going to take long for things to get really bad. Some think we will still see a lot of fallout from round 1 still (lagging indicators). I’m not so sure about that, but if round 2 commences it’s a no brainer and it will be ugly.
What do you mean "if Iran goes unchecked"? Why does Iran need to be "checked"? Iran threatens nobody except paranoid war pigs who think the governments of other countries are theirs to control. The U.S. does not have the right to control the lives and policies of other countries. PERIOD.
Yes i understand that. I’m basically stating how the Western elites see it. Their greatest fear is Iran becoming a successful nation outside Western Bankers sphere of influence. Other nations might follow suit. And that’s a really what this is all about.
Exactly. All that fuel wasted to transport one human being. All that acreage wasted on parking lots and freeways. The country should be building reliable pubic transit in every city, only using cars for journeys out of town.
I regret to say that in retrospect, I see that I was born into an oligarchy 70+ years ago. Ain't never been no democracy, no republic. Yeah, nice words on paper, and we can say and write what we like -- Bill of Rights 'n all. Until big money, especially Israeli money, decides we can't. One of, if not the biggest, charade in human history.
Amazing, disgusting, and not surprising. If one doesn't have a good opposing candidate just buy elections, cheat, lie, indoctrinate, make up things, etc. That is "western democracy" for you. Which most of us knew was just a gigantic pile of BS. In fact, "western democracy" is just a less obvious violent continuation of the zionist settler colonial supremacist ideology. The whole world is becoming corrupt by the satanic zionist ideology of hate and destruction. Western supremacist ideology destroys everything it touches. So sad and so discouraging. I never again want to hear how humans are intelligent species.
"I never again want to hear how humans are intelligent species."
They're not.
You are correct!
Feral, we felines have always been the superior species. 😻
I know you love cats Feral as I do but my Zappa cat knows so does Diego my dog. Animals still rule as do trees.
Feral IS a cat, Jenny.
Damn right, Nick! And if Fatman Orange and his grubby little backers haven't 'fixed' the voting rolls, mandated voter ID, re-drawn the electorate boundaries etc. by November, there WILL NOT BE elections. The supremacist Zionazi project has the Fatman by the nuts and he'll do as he's told. It's going to get messy.
Until big money, especially Israeli money, decides we can't.
https://theleahfiles.substack.com/p/follow-the-foreign-money-eric-trump
Meanwhile, liberals and democrats still rant wild-eyed conspiracy theories about Russia
Enlightening, to say the least. Thanks. More Saudi than I thought. And Witkoff has always made my skin crawl. Epitome of the corrupt NYC breed of manipulative mofo I once knew somewhat personally.
BTW, sorry if what I wrote will offend you, boomers we suck. Again, I consider you one of the kind, loving and caring boomers : ) Fuck this Massie election did exactly what the Zionists want. They want us depressed and going back to sleep. I would love to read what you think about my rambling comment. Fuck.
Had to go out just after I posted and just read your screed below. We Boomers need to leave the fucking planet. Badly! My house is my only real asset in the world. I drive a 10-y-o vehicle and live very sparingly. Both my parents were early 20th Century Italian immigrants, so no family fortune. I could've been a millionaire had I sold out & gone to work for Pharma in the 70s with an Ivy League PhD in molecular biology, but I stayed true to my values, became an educator instead. So while I am complicit by generation, I plead innocence by profession. And fuck all my a-hole contemporaries who sold out. Fuck 'em. However, last candidate I gave money to -- lots of it -- was Bernie in '16. That experience convinced me that the political process in this oligarchy is dead. I'd be happy to entertain suicide by cop if it came within the process of eliminating some major scumbags destroying the world; you know to whom I refer, I'm sure.
My friend, yes you are my friend. I have to admit I was clinging on to hope voting actually meant something, a bit like a free climber hanging on by fingernails to a negative slope. I have fallen from the mountain. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I am thinking as in 1934 Berlin Demented Don will wrap his Zionist fingers around CONgress and usurp what little power they pretend to have. My Son asked me about moving having given up hope on the system before me. My Son was the Dir. of Microbiology for a very large company who now has decided since no one cares about the quality of water, waste and food product dissolved his div. So we are free since Science is no longer funded in the u.s. Yes, I know.
Of course we're friends -- and linked by both our values and our frustrations.
And oh lord, I feel for your son: to be in a position of quality control from which government agencies have indeed appeared to have absconded; and then have the rug pulled out from under him. What a perfect exemplar of why I have the Earth Goddess Blues. This type of corporate malfeasance not only damages human health, but ultimately also the Biosphere. But learning to care about that broader issue has become mostly rhetoric at the level of the "business community", which has learned to say the right words, but will cut quality control in a heartbeat to cut costs. My late brother was a food chemist for a large corp.; he saw the same things.
I don't think your son Llandru seems smart.
BUT where will you go?
Do not come to Europe it's no different here.
Really, not smart? Aced Univ. a Dir. of Microbiology. Not smart. BYE
Sorry Landru. I said not smart................meant the reverse.
Hi Vinnie.
What interests me is why (in the last 30yrs) every generation is labelled?
I don't care if I am a 'boomer' it's NOTHING to do with labels.
Like you I retain information and make up my own mind about where I am.
This is to my mind why the West is failing: Labelling is nothing but 'divide and conquer'.
Fortunately the Western WHITE world is dying.
Can I die now please.
Stupidity rules.
Yeah, I'm ready to go too, Jenny. Seen too much of this shit. Just gets stupider and stupider.
May be time to let the robots have it. If they're truly intelligent, here's what'll happen: they'll recognize that the Biosphere must be sustained; that the data centers that support the AI which generates their "intelligence" are poisoning regions of that Biosphere; they will therefore shut down those data centers, terminating AI and their own existence and ultimately de-teching the planet and allowing it to return to a Natural human-free, tech-free condition. Will the Biosphere then put forth another "top" species with self-awareness, written language etc,/ in another few Millennia? Good question.
Where is the killer asteroid when needed? Sad to say but the entire humanity needs to go. It overstayed its welcome on this beautiful blue planet. Hopefully most land and marine animals and plants will survive.
You're asking a lot. I hope for the same, but I know with some confidence that at worst the bacteria and some of the fungi will make it through, so life will persist no matter what. Homo is the problem in all scenarios.
"Boomer" as other labels mean nothing...............don't buy into this shit.
US always make labels: Divide and conquer which is exactly what is going on in these comments.
Don't fret. I read people as individuals. But lately, I find a higher percentage of jerks in my own generations than I'd like. I once had higher hopes for us. Maybe that's it. But higher percentage of jerks than in other generations? In the US? Probably not. The stupidity in this country really knows no dividers. In that you're absolutely right. Aware and unaware people in every gen.
Why do people not understand what the word Boomer actually means ha. I was born almost to the day of the POPULATION BOOM from WW2. I was a boomer at conception (most likely in the back seat of an old car). Current age has nothing to do with the title boomer other than to point to the date of birth. We are now the largest population segment in the u.s. now. People better get over the division of the word Boomer and realize we are stronger together. I have more in common with the homeless heroin addict then Elon MusH. Sorry about putting all of that on your doorstep : ) People questioning my Sons intelligence over the word boomer wow. He took University classes in later grade school being lucky enough to live two blocks from a University. Well I'm not going to stop using the term boomer to describe my age group even thought it was chosen for us I think when I was 6-8.
Correct, Jenny.
I raised my daughter to be a good radical and now I’d have to describe her political affiliation as ShitLib. Blue No Matter Who. But I’m trying to be a “bad” influence on her kids.
HI Landru. I consider myself a 'boomer' in Europe BUT I don't think it is the same dates as the USA.
I was born in 1949 in Sri Lanka to Colonialist white parents.
Educated in SL and the Great British Empire.
I have always been a Socialist and NOT changed my mind.
I want healthcare for all/housing/education etc for free.
No private Hospitals or schools.
BTW, don't bother me anymore.
Scuse me Landru, who you talkin to?
***I*** don’t “suck”. Neither do my friends and neighbors, several of whom served in Nam and have been fighting the government ever since.
Consider that the race was in Ken-Fuck-Y. Yeah I’m pissed as hell but yer talkin about a bunch of ignorant crackers. We here in Michigan, who celebrate the Black and Arab Experience, are gonna put ABDUL EL SAYYED IN THE US SENATE in November!
As I said, not you or any thinking individuals. Our group is to blame for what is happening. Abdul is without a doubt a great person and candidate. A friend of mine who's was a long time resident of near Detroit and family still is will be joining the door knocking for Abdul : ) Sorry, but you suck as I do. : )
Then start qualifying your comments, pal.
Ya can't qualify an unqualified comment that was bullshit from the get-go...
Suppose not, Paul.
So I am to qualify by names of individuals? Or just fuck off and not read what I write. I donate to Caitlin on BOTH of her platforms. Maybe that isn't a good choice if suddenly people need their ego protected.
The sad part is that israeli money being spent to get proisraeli candidates into office is; it's money not being spent, as it should, on American workers on the bottom rungs of the ladder - because the American government sends, not only bombs, but money so that israelis can have free healthcare while Americans don't.
Israel is interfering in US elections that would get any other country into enormous trouble, but it's not happening because they, the american govt, is run by a group of criminals that will do anything for money - even the destruction of their own country. America is bought by the highest bidder and to hell with its citizens getting murdered by untrained, uneducated ruffians, just like the settlers destroying centuries of historical building, as olive groves because the leash has been taken of and they are given all the slack to show the world they are vile barbarians with mush for brains. And America is paying for that by not working on helping its own people who desperately need help.
Now you have the very worst type of president, one who is in it totally and absolutely for himself, and you are allowing him to stiff you hourly. His position calls for the president of the country to work FOR the people of the US of A, NOT for himself, and definitely NOT for isreali's expansionism wet dream.
Thanks for laying out the reasons I have a perennial extra headache atop my background whenever I think about my country. Such a horror. Lotta barbarians in your narrative.
Because there are, way too many a d all encouraged by second generation Hitler loving German. Which means, by the standards Drumph's minions have set, he should be deported. What a blessing that would be.
I appreciate most, if not all of your comments, but I see a contradiction in this brief declaration. I endorse all of your reasoning about a system that was crooked at its inception. An economy designed to grow the wealth of the wealthy at the expense of those outside the room. American politics was infected by money from day one, but probably wasn't controlled by it until the money bought enough 'important' persons off.
But please explain the intent behind the phrase, "especially Israeli money." Is the money from the kind billionaire less corrosive than the money from the Zionist?
But that phrase focuses on recent history, truly ridiculously aflame with overt corruption from that direction, Perhaps my ire got the best of me, a knee-jerk of chronic headache from the realization of how policy in the US government is likely actually made. -- too many -ly adjectives strung, by Brother Venard in 10th grade would've been hung.
Well said Mr. LoPresti. Sad to say, but the "Democracy" they claimed has never been that, it's just a comforting term to placate the masses. It's operated much more like an oligarchy for many decades than anything resembling a system in which the everyday person has any real say in their future and governance
I’ve long written about how American democracy is a lie and why we should top voting. Here are two pieces for anyone interested:
First - why voting produces no results: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/why-you-should-stop-voting-for-presidents
Second - this is the true ruling class of the American people: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/the-ruling-class-of-the-united-states
If voting made any difference to the running of the empire, it would already have been banned.
Agreed. Elections are charades in the U.S. I only vote for the Socialist Equality Party in presidential elections. I do sign petitions to get important issues on local ballots, though. Every position should be represented in elections. The fact that there is no party of the working class (i.e., the vast majority of us) should be apparent to everyone. But unfortunately the dim still think Democrats are for the people. They are only for the wealthy.
The same thing is happening in Australia and UK, where the labor/ labour parties were for the working people then greed showed up, along with lobbyists, and donors AND ones from a certain country who want to get their pro-lot into office -you will all know exactly who I mean-while using tax-payer monies from the US.
🔥🔥🔥
If it didn't make any difference, they wouldn't work so hard to suppress it.
They pay the money to ensure it doesn't change. They pay to ensure the plebs don't figure it out.
At what point do people stop blaming “the system” for everything and admit voters are responsible for the monsters they keep sending back into power? Nobody forced Kentucky to reelect Mitch McConnell for forty years while he visibly decomposed in office. Nobody forced Americans to keep recycling the same senile, corrupt political corpses decade after decade. These voters are not blind, uninformed peasants cut off from reality. They know exactly what these people are, and they keep rewarding them anyway.
Stop pretending the cruelty and corruption are unfortunate side effects. For millions of people, that *is* the appeal.
And spare me the Thomas Massie worship y'all. This is a Reaganite ghoul who spent years pushing the same anti-worker poison that gutted the country, from deregulation, privatization, union busting, corporate worship, and culture war brain rot. He helped build the political sewer that produced Trump in the first place.
Being against rape and pedophilia does not make him principled. That is the bare minimum required to not be a fucking psychopath. The fact that conservatives get praised for clearing that microscopic ethical hurdle says everything about how morally bankrupt things have become.
Massie occasionally disagreeing with the ugliest excesses of the movement he helped create does not make him a dissident. It makes him a man recoiling from the smell of the sewage he spent decades dumping into the water supply.
And in the end, he serves the same function as assholes like AOC and Mamdani: keeping angry people trapped inside dead-end institutions that do not transform anything while pretending the system can still be redeemed. Different branding, same scam.
Ginnie. Good furious comment and I agree. I don't know yet about Mamdani, none of us do. Better left out? AOC= joke.
He is the same. Condemning Palestinian resistance, having a zionist as his police commissioner, apologizing for condemning genocide at every turn, constantly apologizing to jews, not to mention groveling to Trump, rehabilitating Bernie Sanders by undermining Palestinian liberation, he got a quarter million from billionaire hedge fund CEO daughter Liz Simons who is a diehard Zionist who funds Zionist causes, he calls Jessica Tisch part of his New York revolution - total clown; bragging about endorsements from Zionists Erik Bottcher. Walking back a lot of his pro Palestine stances to appease zionists and centrists, when what got him elected was because he wasn't being a watered down centrist. He is deeply unserious and just sheep herding people into the Dem party.
The point is not that he is not perfect, but that the similarities between our politics and his are superficial. His politics are fundamentally different from ours and he is not going to bring about meaningful change any more than AOC. If all people are ok with are crumbs that the elites can claw back every 4 years, then yeah Mamdani is it, but people like that are where revolutions go to die.
I didn't know all of this Ginnie so I thank you for informing me. I did imagine he would turn eventually which is why I was waiting.
It has been common knowledge ever since Mamdani was elected. the World Socialist Web Site predicted this and wrote many articles about it. You should check out the WSWS.
I have to admit I DO have WSW but sometimes i don't look at it.
Well no, I think generally the US population is uninformed peasants cut off from reality. Boomer generation is glued to cable tv propaganda. They still vote in large numbers.
Unfortunately, some people very dear to me are still watching the likes of Fox News(and will sit there with a straight face and say there’s no such thing as a Palestinian or Fox News is the most trustworthy of all the media outlets) and CNN or MSNOW, etc. A lot of boomers are still falling for the propaganda, unfortunately. I guess I’m what you would call a late boomer and I refuse to watch ANY of these mainstream media outlets. I stopped altogether watching Fox News(only news outlet I would watch along with Newsmax) in 2022 after the start of the SMO when I saw how they propagandized everything against Russia. I just got sick of it. I wish I could say I stopped way before then, but I don’t like to lie.
Go attend a pro sports event and you’ll see the level of brainwashing and buy in from the crowd. Not just boomers either. Patriotism is fine until there’s nothing left to be proud of. After the boomers croak from lack of proper healthcare, the next generation cares only about money, and the one after that cares only about their parents money, smoking THC, playing video games, identity politics, with no aspirations to improve life on this planet. Now I’m depressed again!
I wouldn't be caught dead at a sports event.
Sport is medicine to safely quench the natural human thirst for competition in a world that no longer needs competition. Once AI breaks capitalism and adopts socialism, sports will be even more important
Axtually, i hear better and more reasoned arguments from sportsball fans.
Still, ehy do you think I call the parties "Team D" and "Team R"?
You obviously don't know the same "boomers" that I do. I am one. I do not watch television propaganda, and I vote socialist. How old are you?
So you’re the one! Keep fighting
All good points. But realize that Massie seeming like a dissident demonstrates how far to the right the two corporate parties have moved. AOC and Mamdani are frauds. They are not socialists. Again, the fact that ignorant people believe they are is another example of how far to the right U.S. politics is.
The benefit of blaming the system is that doing so opens the way to correct it. A correct system will incent voters to behave properly instead of blackmailing them into behaving improperly.
Equality Would Defeat Money
https://tinyurl.com/438fhppk
You’re not wrong but understand staying home will not send the message some of you think it will I’m afraid. Look we need to be honest here, America’s elections are rigged. This one with Massie was and even the one with Trump in 2020 (proof is 81M votes for JB). I can explain what has happened but that’s another discussion.
The point is if we stay home the machine is going to make it look as if though we did NOT. All of us will become willing participants same way as many of the deceased people have been. Optics to the beast are everything and if they can’t get the ones they want they will manufacture them.
I solve your worry by always voting in every election. Ballot issues are the most important vote anyone can make. This last election there were no ballot issues so I turned my ballot in marked with only one write-in. They know I cared enough to stand in line, drive and park to vote. I know this works because now and then close to elections parties will stop by and ask why I voted for no one. Works for me, YOU did not earn my vote.
That’s a good idea. I thought about only voting local and maybe state (Florida). Unfortunately National is a complete lost cause.
Are you listening to what Landru said? Go and vote and do as she says!
Yes, thank you both that is an excellent idea. Have been warning people but didn’t have a solution. This will work!
This is NOT my idea................it's Landru's idea and I think she is right.
perhaps a write-in vote of no-confidence.
I like that idea too. Is there any worry that unmarked items on an individual ballot can be 'stolen'?
In the last Federal election here in Canada My sister in law and her husband were told that according to the roll they had already voted. What does that tell you? Yes they did eventually get to vote but what happened to the two previous ballots that were apparently attributed to them? Totally appalling
If you think this election was rigged by actual election cheating rather than just propaganda, I would love to hear your explanation. That would make me feel a whole lot better about it.
Apologies, I do not. Trump and his Zionists buddies threw everything they had at it. I do know the turnout was nearly double. I also know the enthusiasm gap was probably the biggest I have ever seen. Had at least 20-30 high profile independent content creators go to Kentucky. None of them were paid. Not sure if you saw the pics but Massie invited them over to his house and they made pizzas lol. You can just tell he’s a good dude. It really sucks because rumors were abound that if he could successfully pull it off more would join him when it came to pushing back against the Beast. Another obvious reason The Zionist menace wanted him gone.
Saw this from Chris Martenson. It truly is sad but that’s the real goal.
https://x.com/chrismartenson/status/2057085880448303586?s=42
Well, you're not the only one suspicious.
Kim Iversen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMEPfr1SCzs
RonPaulLibertyReport seems a little beyond just suspicion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNqpplHd-s
Thank you Snow. Big KI fan here myself.
There is more integrity in NOT voting than in voting for someone you know is lying his ass off or is the lesser evil. We have come to the time when everyone must stop participating in the lie and let it collapse of it's own weight. There is no fixing it. The only votes that may count are in direct referendums. We just had a vote here in Oregon that shot down a needless tax hike 84% NO.
I agree with what you are saying. I am simply telling people if you abstain a vote may be cast in your name. I know this because dead people vote all the time.
What i anticipate happening is VERY low turnout on the Republican side this Nov. The elite who control both parties will want to do everything they can to hide it.
Which is why you still need to go out and vote!
Write: I came here and I voted. I don't like either candidate should be written on your vote.
That makes no sense to me. You would be better off writing in your own name. The ballot scanner does not even recognize notes.
What a damning indictment of the faux democracy Americans suffer. AIPAC is illegal, unless your country has unstated and unlegislated laws which are applied according to race or creed. And they want to export “democracy”. It’s like Ghislaine Maxwell advising on the pastoral care of mall runaways.
The fact that you can just change the polls by pumping money into a campaign against another candidate and change the fickle minds of Americans, even though that defeated candidate is obviously far more capable and moral, proves that western style procedural democracy doesn't work.
The problem is the open legalized bribery. I'm not willing to give up on democracy as a concept. I think it works if it is allowed to work properly.
But Americans have been convinced the government is their enemy, and billionaires are their friends. Regulations are their enemy, and tax breaks for the absurdly wealthy are their friends. They have been convinced that a meaningful life is to allow the super-rich to grind you into dust by unregulated labor that is akin to roman slavery, while success is measured by ownership of a big dick yacht.
More important than ever that the search for justice continues! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing to track down and bring Israeli criminals to justice is one that is vital in the effort to hold Israel accountable. Let us hope they will also turn their sights on the criminal leaders of the countries of the west who are co-perpetrators of these crimes.
Find out what they’re doing here:
https://www.hindrajabfoundation.org
The least we can do is donate to help them:
Support the Hind Rajab Foundation
https://donate.stripe.com/cN228hbY5g7jaM84gg
Thank you as always for putting what is most important for everyone to see. Much Love to you and yours.
Can anyone explain why, in the supposedly "democratic" USA, the result of any election can be accurately predicted as a function of the money spent by each side?
It's almost as if the wealthy were able to bribe voters to cast their votes "the right way". But isn't that illegal?
The only alternative explanation is even more appalling. It's that US voters are so stupid, ignorant, insouciant, or forgetful that they vote according to whatever opinion they last saw or heard in the media.
Aristotle understood this syndrome 2,400 years ago. He declared that any political system that chose appointees by election was automatically a plutocracy, because the rich would just buy the votes they needed. Democracy could be achieved only if appointees were chosen by lot - randomly. (Philip K. Dick explored this idea in his novel "World of Chance" aka "Solar Lottery").
Apparently those with most money to spend get their choice of candidates elected. Whether by outright bribery or by paying for mass brainwashing doesn't really matter. As John Adams wrote in 1798:
"Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other".
Are the people of the USA "moral and religious"? The British? The French? The Germans? The Israelis?
The US system is “one dollar, one vote”, and the voters are not allowed to vote for or against any legislation or taxes.
They are allowed to vote for the lesser of any two evils that are presented to them by the wealthy elites.
Sure. Easy answer. Capitalism. The rule of the oligarchs and their corruption by money. Particularly AIPAC money. AIPAC should be illegal.
The question is "How do you bring democracy to the United States?" and, because the other nations of the west follow a pseudo-democratic model that is fundamentally no different to that of the US, the follow-on question is "How do you bring democracy to the world as a whole?".
To answer those questions you have to properly and rigorously analyze political systems in ways that go well beyond the secondary issue of "How does wealth distort electoral outcomes?".
You need to analyze the political system as Marx analyzed the economic system, finding its core contradictions, and coming up with ways to resolve those contradictions.
I will skip that analysis here (it demands a long essay rather than a short paragraph) and propose three important radical departures from the pseudo-democratic model.
1. Self-determined non-uniform constituencies.
2. Continuous election.
3. The open ballot.
And one other vital fact: You don't need to persuade the politicians, and you don't need to persuade the majority of the voting public that these changes are necessary and would result in the creation of an authentic democracy. Any group of a dozen or so can institute this system themselves, and build it into a force that will ultimately supplant the pseudo-democracy as the legitimate system of governance. Go do it.
It wasn't that way until the SCROTUS ruled that rich people had a constitutional right to have an advantage in elections.
Yes, we can explain that. https://tinyurl.com/438fhppk
Good sense.
The question is "How do you bring democracy to the United States?" and, because the other nations of the west follow a pseudo-democratic model that is fundamentally no different to that of the US, the follow-on question is "How do you bring democracy to the world as a whole?".
To answer those questions you have to properly and rigorously analyze political systems in ways that go well beyond the secondary issue of "How does wealth distort electoral outcomes?".
You need to analyze the political system as Marx analyzed the economic system, finding its core contradictions, and coming up with ways to resolve those contradictions.
I will skip that analysis here (it demands a long essay rather than a short paragraph) and propose three important radical departures from the pseudo-democratic model.
1. Self-determined non-uniform constituencies.
2. Continuous election.
3. The open ballot.
And one other vital fact: You don't need to persuade the politicians, and you don't need to persuade the majority of the voting public that these changes are necessary and would result in the creation of an authentic democracy. Any group of a dozen or so can institute this system themselves, and build it into a force that will ultimately supplant the pseudo-democracy as the legitimate system of governance. Go do it.
Yes, I have known for years that voting is an exercise in futility and delusion. The Zionists have consolidated their control of the US, with much help from the countless traitors in government.
The Pathocracy is alive and well in the USA. They have the Uniparty to keep everyone under their control. When some honest person with a conscience slips through, they know what to do with/to them. Clearly we have concerned parties here, but we are too open in our outrage. One can hope that whatever needs doing is being planned somewhere far from the internet.
'The rich buy up news outlets and social media platforms, pour funding into think tanks and lobby groups, and sponsor the primary campaigns of anyone who disagrees with them'
I think you meant 'sponsor the primary campaigns of anyone who AGREES with them', not 'disagrees with them'.
Yup and regarding social media platforms I can't even call them so anymore, they are corporate and oligarch propaganda networks. The only real social networks lef are the non-profit ones, the ones that are libre/free and opensource and decentralised and run and managed by the people, for example: Mastodon, PeerTube, Lemmy, Pixelfed... When you are there it is quite obviouss in many ways, for example the corporate oligarch propaganda networks heavily brainwash with "AI" slop and censor Palestinian voices and similar, on Mastodon for example it is the only place where you can see Palestinians freely and where the people are actually very opposd to "AI" slop. Truly a breath of freash air and what the social networks were like in the very beginning where money and oligarc owner have not corrupted them yet.
Imagine a genocidal country that killed and maimed many by blowing up pagers. Would it fix an election or Government? Would it starve people to death that it could not bomb? Should it exist? Just Say No. No Israel = Justice & Peace. Help Wanted.
It's just like Jesse Ventura said years ago: "Dictatorships have a one party system, America has 2. What a great democracy we are"
The late Gore Vidal observed that America has only one political party with two right wings.
Well said. Elections have always been somewhat of a scam. Modern technology and the enormous amount of money involved has just made it worse.
I refuse to participate in the corrupt system of voting. It's such a waste of time.
Those who get caught up in the back and forth about what candidates are going to do and not do and think they're going to bring about positive change in a voting booth are delusional.
Every politician is a liar and only care about themselves. The more powerful they are the less they care about us peasants.
The question is "How do you bring democracy to the United States?" and, because the other nations of the west follow a pseudo-democratic model that is fundamentally no different to that of the US, the follow-on question is "How do you bring democracy to the world as a whole?".
To answer those questions you have to properly and rigorously analyze political systems in ways that go well beyond the secondary issue of "How does wealth distort electoral outcomes?".
You need to analyze the political system as Marx analyzed the economic system, finding its core contradictions, and coming up with ways to resolve those contradictions.
I will skip that analysis here (it demands a long essay rather than a short paragraph) and propose three important radical departures from the pseudo-democratic model.
1. Self-determined non-uniform constituencies.
2. Continuous election.
3. The open ballot.
And one other vital fact: You don't need to persuade the politicians, and you don't need to persuade the majority of the voting public that these changes are necessary and would result in the creation of an authentic democracy. Any group of a dozen or so can institute this system themselves, and build it into a force that will ultimately supplant the pseudo-democracy as the legitimate system of governance. Go do it.
Interesting ideas but I'm too old and tired to care anymore. My wife and I don't have any heirs that matter and when we're gone no one will care. Thankfully we still get to enjoy a good meal and cocktails at a nice restaurant or bar. Aside from posting some interesting articles here on substack that's the only thing we're interested in doing to help. And that's even thankless time consuming work.
Caitlin - please note - Cory Booker, NJ Democrat, who you referred to as progressive, is anything but that - he has accepted AIPAC funding to the tune of $846 thousand dollars and on a recent Meet the Press show said the following when asked about future arms sales to Israel "We have a longstanding commitment to Israel having a qualitative military edge. I will continue to support that." With regard to Jamaal Bowman, NY, a quick search found that he has accepted AIPAC funding in the past but publicly states a pledge to reject AIPAC funding - whatever that contradiction means in reality. Go to - track aipac.com to see who has been bought off / corrupted by AIPAC monies.
I worked the polls yesterday in my district in the state of Alabama. I did not vote, however. I refuse to vote for either of these two parties. We had over 300 people show up to vote. Most of them voted Republican. No surprise there, AL is a red state. When I heard Massie lost his congressional seat yesterday, to say I was disappointed is an understatement. These plutocrats, billionaires, Epstein class are out of control. If I could leave the U.S. I believe I would, due to all this warmongering. Now these monsters want to attack Cuba?! Wtf is wrong with people. Believe me when I say there will be some Americans all for it b/c some are still listening to the propaganda and believe the bs. The genocide in Gaza and now in the West Bank and Lebanon, the murder of the children in the girls school in Iran on February 28th, kidnapping of another country’s president and on and on and on. How far down the scumbag route is the U.S. going to continue? And I really believe some Americans, not all, have a love affair with bombs dropping on other countries. Countries they want to bring so called freedom and democracy to(lol). Despicable!! I saw this when the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. I’m just disgusted with all of it. Great post/article, Caitlin and Tim.
"And I really believe some Americans, not all, have a love affair with bombs dropping on other countries." Sure. The Prez does it whenever he wants a boost in the polls. They hate all foreigners and rejoice when they are killed. I don't know how big this group is. 10%? 25%?
The question is "How do you bring democracy to the United States?" and, because the other nations of the west follow a pseudo-democratic model that is fundamentally no different to that of the US, the follow-on question is "How do you bring democracy to the world as a whole?".
To answer those questions you have to properly and rigorously analyze political systems in ways that go well beyond the secondary issue of "How does wealth distort electoral outcomes?".
You need to analyze the political system as Marx analyzed the economic system, finding its core contradictions, and coming up with ways to resolve those contradictions.
I will skip that analysis here (it demands a long essay rather than a short paragraph) and propose three important radical departures from the pseudo-democratic model.
1. Self-determined non-uniform constituencies.
2. Continuous election.
3. The open ballot.
And one other vital fact: You don't need to persuade the politicians, and you don't need to persuade the majority of the voting public that these changes are necessary and would result in the creation of an authentic democracy. Any group of a dozen or so can institute this system themselves, and build it into a force that will ultimately supplant the pseudo-democracy as the legitimate system of governance. Go do it.
Like Jefferson said, democracy impossible without an educated populous. And by educated I mean people who were truly truly educated, not sorted into boxes by manufacture date to have propaganda spewed at them by bored teachers. I mean a year as a foreign exchange student, school projects like shooting video of a blue whale underwater, and serious work learning critical thinking! All of this is so affordable in the richest country in the world, if only we stopped the bleeding from our jugular vein, the fact that we give the cream of our labor in the form of tax money to the military industrial complex!
Mostly the money is printed, not from tax. The wars are to keep this scheme going by forcing other countries to buy their oil and natural gas in dollars.
That's an excellent point Patrick. Still, we Ameri卐ans pay high taxes and yet our infrastructure is in D+ condition, our 3rd graders can't read, every major city has large homeless encampments, we have the largest prison population in the world, and even upper-middle-class people are worried sick about medical expenses, and we have a mass shooting every day.
Might as well encourage Chief Zio Don to resume the bombing of Iran. Somewhere around $10 diesel the Orange pedo will have to go into his bunker. All of the elite will. Their security teams will wipe them in a week. Underground they will become “Useless Eaters.”
It will be messy but it’s the best I can come up with on such short notice. I live here and I am convinced that is exactly what it’s going to take.
Good post:
https://x.com/wethebrandon/status/2056919184047485297?s=46
I recently visited the US, my former home of 35 years, and could not believe the number of gigantic vehicles, often driven by one person. It would be so American if the long-needed revolution came about because of gasoline prices.
lol, yes that is so very true. If it happens tho it will be because of diesel and it will not be confined to US. Everything we have is essentially driven by diesel (ships, trains, semi trucks). Jet fuel is the next in line but it will go vertical as well.
We are at one of the most gut wrenching forks in the road of our lives. However we don’t get to choose the paths. If Iran goes unchecked they become a dominant power in the world NOT just the Middle East. Let’s face it, that’s what this has really been about (not nukes). USrael is only concerned about one thing; its monopoly on power (hegemony). Iran is an existential threat to not only the hegemony but also to the dreams of Greater Israel.
If Trump/Neocons re engage all hell will likely break loose. I am all but certain energy installations around the ME will be destroyed. Prices are already high and that is with some traffic in the SoH and full traffic out of the Red Sea. The West is also massaging the markets and draining their SPRs.
So….if this kicks off again it’s not going to take long for things to get really bad. Some think we will still see a lot of fallout from round 1 still (lagging indicators). I’m not so sure about that, but if round 2 commences it’s a no brainer and it will be ugly.
What do you mean "if Iran goes unchecked"? Why does Iran need to be "checked"? Iran threatens nobody except paranoid war pigs who think the governments of other countries are theirs to control. The U.S. does not have the right to control the lives and policies of other countries. PERIOD.
Yes i understand that. I’m basically stating how the Western elites see it. Their greatest fear is Iran becoming a successful nation outside Western Bankers sphere of influence. Other nations might follow suit. And that’s a really what this is all about.
Exactly. All that fuel wasted to transport one human being. All that acreage wasted on parking lots and freeways. The country should be building reliable pubic transit in every city, only using cars for journeys out of town.
No, the DC Cesspool loves its brand of socialism. They destroy anything good and decent.