Too many people are brainwashed into believing that they have no power. If people stopped participating in the system en masse, the system would collapse. Eventually it will get to that…
Actually, the Danish social revolution of the late 19th century was remarkably polite - the landowners gave their land to worker-owned cooperatives, which kick-started the middle classes, welfare state, and eventually one of the highest SOL in the World.
But how many times do the wealthy/elites ever do anything genuinely noble and sacrificing?
And how often do they double down on their privileges, and find willing poor people to use violence to maintain them?
You're right - those scales do not balance at all.
Maybe voting itself didn't get us into this mess, but accepting that voting is the way to change things might have done. We need another system. And if we insist on voting, we need to have moral people to vote for. We might get that if we work toward ending racism, sexism, ageism, poverty, war etc.
The “Dark Money” votes daily with “one dollar, one vote” via lobbyists, insider trading information, patronage of government officials and their families, etc.
The mostly unseen billionaires who own the mass media are persistently spreading propaganda to support their self interests, while suppressing news that doesn’t.
Then we need to educate ourselves to NOT accept that propaganda. It is obvious to anyone who looks and listens that it IS propaganda and that none of these wars, imprisoning of immigrants, raising rents etc benefits anyone at all but those who already have money.
Great idea. But, educating yourself is only the beginning. It’s necessary to educate several million more of the ignorant. Approximately 70 million MAGA cult members are uncertain.
CK, it's not just MAGA. It's 99% of the population. It's EVERYONE that supports this system of Capitalism that continues to exploit and oppress EVERYONE under it.
In fairness to the ignorant, millions of people have been indoctrinated into accepting the status quo without realizing that better alternatives can exist — and do exist for those who seek them.
I have been educating myself about this for a few decades. I have acquired some allies in the process. I have also been shunned by ignorant suckers, many of whom are racists, misogynists of various levels of income and wealth.
The current “voting” system only allows the voters to choose among the lesser of any two evil representatives. The “representative voting” never allows “the people” to vote upon specific issues or legislation.
Yes, and that is by design. So far in history, no democracy has been a TRUE democracy. Even Athenian democracy excluded women, slaves, and non-residents from political participation, which meant that only adult male citizens could vote and hold office.
Today's incarnations of democracy don't seem to be much better...
Hence for a few years now of late recognition on my dim bulb part do I add the pre-fix Pay2Play\Pay-2-Ply "democracy."
Changing that can happen on the cheap via Town Hall meetings & Public Forums. Yet it will be a heavy and sustained LIFT that gets that dream off the grounds of gravity....
Town Halls can be great, but getting serious people to attend them is a challenge. At the national level, the RNC and DNC are heavily “influenced” by “Big Money” and “Dark Money” to ignore or suppress the will of the Town Hall participants.
Public ignorance and apathy are in abundance. I also hear the complaints about “I don’t have the time. I’m too buy.” I might accept that from low-paid parents who work multiple jobs just to get by.
I am frustrated to hear that from retirees living on pensions or Social Security, with nothing better to do than complain, privately, but not at the Town Halls — which they usually don’t attend.
"This is one of the reasons why I have no patience for rightists who whine about immigrants. It is not legitimate to live in a civilization which bombs, destabilizes, exploits and extracts from the global south and then complain when the victims of the bombing, destabilization, exploitation and extraction move to your country to get away from the misery your society caused them."
I agree completely, and this should be as clear as day to anyone.
Also, unless we're indigenous, those we descended from were immigrants.
A neighbour of mine in one of her whines went on and on about immigrants taking everything from this country - she obviously meant those of colour, however slight. I stood there wondering when it would click that she was saying this to an immigrant, seems since I'm white with an accent -Scottish, I'm okay so it never entered her head yesterday she might be including the person to whom she was bitching.
In North and South America, even the “indigenous” are descended from immigrants. Their oral history says they arrived in those continents approximately 11,000 years ago, from Asia.
Migration with weather patterns, herds, etc. was the fluid nature of life on Earth for thousands of years until nationalism with it's borders and systems of power, control, barriers and hoarding spread and solidified.
Don't romanticize the pre-Nations\Nationalism situ...Constant migration is nothing I'd wish upon any neighbor or fellow human! Keep da condition of da Human Condition in mind, even if our vision tends to pick & choose beyond our consent or control...
Tio Mitchito
PS - There's always philosophy and other cold comforts we can heat up....Errr, can we heat anything up?
Immigration only applies if there are borders. Indigenous peoples had no borders 11,000 years ago, so they were simply moving around within the natural borders of the one “nation”, Earth. Granted our first common ancestors all started out in Africa, but no border, no immigration.
You mean the immigrants who are both impoverishing the welfare system by being unemployed, while also taking all the jobs? The immigrants who are taking all the social housing, while also living it up in ramshackle hotels?
I hope you are not saying it is the Western elites who are actually doing all of this to us, and are using an easy scapegoat!
Then we'd all see who the real enemy is, and could unite against them! Catastrophe!! Anarchy!!!
Activists from 44 countries have launched the largest civilian flotilla in history at the end of August in an effort to break Israel’s siege on Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to the starving population of the enclave.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, along with three allied initiatives, will send dozens of boats from Spanish ports on 31 August and Tunisian ports on 4 September, aiming to establish a humanitarian corridor and confront what organizers call Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.
The latest flotilla, with about 50 boats includes one with Greta T on it. I'm not sure about Media Benjamin. This seems to be the organization that has arranged this flotilla:
Just heard a panel discussion yesterday sponsored by LifelineforPalestine.com. The organization is preparing for the September 18 deadline set by the U.N. General Assembly and the International Criminal Court for Israel to end specific actions that constitute genocide. The General Assembly, under a provision called “Uniting for Peace” can bypass a veto by the Security Council with a two-thirds majority vote to hold Israel accountable for genocide. The remedies include: Comprehensive sanctions and a military embargo; a U.N. protection force to deliver humanitarian aid, protect civilians, preserve evidence of war crimes and facilitate reconstruction; Kicking Israel out of the U.N.; Reactivation of the U.N.’s anti-apartheid provisions; and Establishing a war crimes tribunal.
There is a toolkit for action in advance of the September 18 vote on the website. More than two-thirds of the General Assembly has previously voted to hold Israel accountable, but was deterred by the U.S. veto. So, again, the Uniting for Peace provision is a way to override the Security Council’s veto. Wherever you live, please visit the website for ways to pressure our governments in advance of the vote
The participants in the webinar included a former U.N. official, a former U.S. presidential candidate (Green Party), representatives of “Doctors against Genocide,” musician Roger Waters, and journalists. There are a couple of educational webinars scheduled before the vote.
Whatever happens on September 18 should be big news.
Good question, and I’m not qualified to answer it. What I got from the panel discussion was that the predicate for the Uniting for Peace provision is a vote by the General Assembly to enforce international law with respect to Israel, a veto in the Security Council and then an override. Apparently the first two things happened in the past, but the third, the override, did not. Craig Mokhiber, the former, high level U.N. official who was part of the panel resigned from the U.N. in protest in 2023 with an open letter as to why. (The letter is available online). Mokhiber predicted the genocide in his resignation. You can post questions on the lifelineforpalestine.com site. I think the people behind the Uniting for Peace effort are dedicated. One of them helped organize and spoke at the huge protest march in Washington in January of 2024. Obviously, these and other actions should have been taken at the beginning of the genocide, but the obstacles, e.g., the U.S. government, have been huge. I’m glad this group, among others, is still trying and I hope you can get your question answered on their site. We can also look for ways to help.
Evict Israeli weapons manufacturers, Easy Aerial and Crye Precision, from the Brooklyn Navy Yard and establish a policy of no weapons manufacturers.
“Since September 2024, a decentralized coalition of Brooklyn Navy Yard neighbors, workers, and community members have organized under the banner Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The landlord in question is the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC), a non-profit developer charged with managing business leases at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which is owned by the City of New York.” Story from Mondoweiss
On 25 August 2025, Israel struck Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis twice, killing 22 civilians — including journalists, doctors, rescue workers, and a 14-year-old child. Today, the Hind Rajab Foundation and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court, exposing the full chain of command behind the massacre. Our investigation proves that the Golani Brigade engineered and coordinated the attack under continuous drone surveillance, the 188th Armored Brigade executed it with guided missiles, and senior commanders up to Prime Minister Netanyahu authorized and enabled it. This was not crossfire, but deliberate killing with genocidal intent. Justice demands accountability.
"The US has placed so much money and so many weapons into terrorist hands that the vision of perpetual war of the Dulles brothers has become the reality. Allen Dulles convinced Dwight Eisenhower that covert regime change was the way to go, and Eisenhower, thinking that a bloodless coup was better than war, agreed to authorize covert operations. How a man like Eisenhower could be so fooled by such a sociopath as Allen Dulles is sad. The CIA as we know it is the Frankenstein monster created by Allen Dulles. He and his brother thought that no amount of death and killing was over the line in the furtherance of capitalism. The covert operations role has expanded exponentially to become the major activity of the CIA. The law authorizing the CIA is a ceding of the Constitutional powers of Congress to make and declare war to the CIA, at least as long as no one finds out. Secretly, clandestinely, the CIA funds student groups in “enemy” countries, stirs up the capitalist forces in politics, supports candidates who are willing to kiss US ass, and provides money and weapons to right-wing terrorists. These covert operations have expanded from bloodless coups (if ever a thing actually existed) to full scale military operations, sanctioned by their mandate under the law interpreted broadly. The CIA has authorization to call forth US military forces (special forces, WMDs, gunships, etc...) anywhere around the globe, and no amount of killing and slaughter is distasteful or enough."
Too many people are brainwashed into believing that they have no power. If people stopped participating in the system en masse, the system would collapse. Eventually it will get to that…
General Strike— carefully planned to be strategic to cripple the system with minimal harm to the poor and working classes.
The result may not be pretty when it does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kySDKESt3_M
No, it won't. But no revolution ever was polite.
Actually, the Danish social revolution of the late 19th century was remarkably polite - the landowners gave their land to worker-owned cooperatives, which kick-started the middle classes, welfare state, and eventually one of the highest SOL in the World.
But how many times do the wealthy/elites ever do anything genuinely noble and sacrificing?
And how often do they double down on their privileges, and find willing poor people to use violence to maintain them?
You're right - those scales do not balance at all.
I often wonder what Iran would be like today if the U.S and the Brits had not ousted Mossadegh in 1953 -- we all should.
Just like voting didn't get us into this mess, the system does what it wants with or without the people.
Maybe voting itself didn't get us into this mess, but accepting that voting is the way to change things might have done. We need another system. And if we insist on voting, we need to have moral people to vote for. We might get that if we work toward ending racism, sexism, ageism, poverty, war etc.
The “Dark Money” votes daily with “one dollar, one vote” via lobbyists, insider trading information, patronage of government officials and their families, etc.
The mostly unseen billionaires who own the mass media are persistently spreading propaganda to support their self interests, while suppressing news that doesn’t.
Then we need to educate ourselves to NOT accept that propaganda. It is obvious to anyone who looks and listens that it IS propaganda and that none of these wars, imprisoning of immigrants, raising rents etc benefits anyone at all but those who already have money.
Great idea. But, educating yourself is only the beginning. It’s necessary to educate several million more of the ignorant. Approximately 70 million MAGA cult members are uncertain.
CK, it's not just MAGA. It's 99% of the population. It's EVERYONE that supports this system of Capitalism that continues to exploit and oppress EVERYONE under it.
Chang Chokaski, I wish that I could disagree.
In fairness to the ignorant, millions of people have been indoctrinated into accepting the status quo without realizing that better alternatives can exist — and do exist for those who seek them.
one step at a time. we can only educate ourselves to start with. If we can make it look good, others will follow
Susan T,
Keep on trying.
I have been educating myself about this for a few decades. I have acquired some allies in the process. I have also been shunned by ignorant suckers, many of whom are racists, misogynists of various levels of income and wealth.
The current “voting” system only allows the voters to choose among the lesser of any two evil representatives. The “representative voting” never allows “the people” to vote upon specific issues or legislation.
Yes, and that is by design. So far in history, no democracy has been a TRUE democracy. Even Athenian democracy excluded women, slaves, and non-residents from political participation, which meant that only adult male citizens could vote and hold office.
Today's incarnations of democracy don't seem to be much better...
The elite “Founders” of the USA studied the history of Rome and Greece.
Hence for a few years now of late recognition on my dim bulb part do I add the pre-fix Pay2Play\Pay-2-Ply "democracy."
Changing that can happen on the cheap via Town Hall meetings & Public Forums. Yet it will be a heavy and sustained LIFT that gets that dream off the grounds of gravity....
Warmly and appreciatively to all participants
Tio Mitchito
Gracias, Tio Mitchito,
Town Halls can be great, but getting serious people to attend them is a challenge. At the national level, the RNC and DNC are heavily “influenced” by “Big Money” and “Dark Money” to ignore or suppress the will of the Town Hall participants.
Public ignorance and apathy are in abundance. I also hear the complaints about “I don’t have the time. I’m too buy.” I might accept that from low-paid parents who work multiple jobs just to get by.
I am frustrated to hear that from retirees living on pensions or Social Security, with nothing better to do than complain, privately, but not at the Town Halls — which they usually don’t attend.
Yes! We must de-nazify and de-zionize our nations! REVOLUTION!!!!!
Dare I point out Nations & Nationalism are the golems we all build to defend US from our neighbors and trading partners....
Tio Mitchito
"This is one of the reasons why I have no patience for rightists who whine about immigrants. It is not legitimate to live in a civilization which bombs, destabilizes, exploits and extracts from the global south and then complain when the victims of the bombing, destabilization, exploitation and extraction move to your country to get away from the misery your society caused them."
I agree completely, and this should be as clear as day to anyone.
Also, unless we're indigenous, those we descended from were immigrants.
Thanks for spelling this out so clearly, Caitlin.
A neighbour of mine in one of her whines went on and on about immigrants taking everything from this country - she obviously meant those of colour, however slight. I stood there wondering when it would click that she was saying this to an immigrant, seems since I'm white with an accent -Scottish, I'm okay so it never entered her head yesterday she might be including the person to whom she was bitching.
In North and South America, even the “indigenous” are descended from immigrants. Their oral history says they arrived in those continents approximately 11,000 years ago, from Asia.
Migration with weather patterns, herds, etc. was the fluid nature of life on Earth for thousands of years until nationalism with it's borders and systems of power, control, barriers and hoarding spread and solidified.
Don't romanticize the pre-Nations\Nationalism situ...Constant migration is nothing I'd wish upon any neighbor or fellow human! Keep da condition of da Human Condition in mind, even if our vision tends to pick & choose beyond our consent or control...
Tio Mitchito
PS - There's always philosophy and other cold comforts we can heat up....Errr, can we heat anything up?
Immigration only applies if there are borders. Indigenous peoples had no borders 11,000 years ago, so they were simply moving around within the natural borders of the one “nation”, Earth. Granted our first common ancestors all started out in Africa, but no border, no immigration.
Semantics!
Then, let’s say “migration” that doesn’t need manmade borders. 😀
I've been saying this for years: Don't want immigrants then don't make wars and people would not want to flee their countries.
IF the USA starts yet another 'regime change' in Venezuela and it turns nasty where are the people who are terrified going to go?
One of the few countries which MIGHT get away without being bombed is the USA.............so?
Jenny, you got it!
You mean the immigrants who are both impoverishing the welfare system by being unemployed, while also taking all the jobs? The immigrants who are taking all the social housing, while also living it up in ramshackle hotels?
I hope you are not saying it is the Western elites who are actually doing all of this to us, and are using an easy scapegoat!
Then we'd all see who the real enemy is, and could unite against them! Catastrophe!! Anarchy!!!
Great sarcasm 😀
Exploit the exploiters. Wake up, educate,agitate,organize and shut them down. Cancel the abusers.
Freedom for Palestine can mean freedom for many from the Terrorist exploiters.
Take action today
Tell FIFA, ban Israel from playing in the 2026 World Cup
https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/ban_israel_from_the_world_cup_2_0/?bezdetb&v=169237&cl=22311971612&_checksum=6d83a36799686c95d03116e8c556125ab456e12a3f0eebd7c7cf7b35a91a2184&utm_source=email&utm_medium=blast_email&utm_campaign=169237
Activists from 44 countries have launched the largest civilian flotilla in history at the end of August in an effort to break Israel’s siege on Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to the starving population of the enclave.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, along with three allied initiatives, will send dozens of boats from Spanish ports on 31 August and Tunisian ports on 4 September, aiming to establish a humanitarian corridor and confront what organizers call Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.
https://scheerpost.com/2025/08/07/largest-civilian-flotilla-in-history-to-set-sail-for-gaza/
Join them, support them:
https://freedomflotilla.org
What happened to the one with Greta T. and Medea B.?
The latest flotilla, with about 50 boats includes one with Greta T on it. I'm not sure about Media Benjamin. This seems to be the organization that has arranged this flotilla:
https://globalsumudflotilla.org
Just heard a panel discussion yesterday sponsored by LifelineforPalestine.com. The organization is preparing for the September 18 deadline set by the U.N. General Assembly and the International Criminal Court for Israel to end specific actions that constitute genocide. The General Assembly, under a provision called “Uniting for Peace” can bypass a veto by the Security Council with a two-thirds majority vote to hold Israel accountable for genocide. The remedies include: Comprehensive sanctions and a military embargo; a U.N. protection force to deliver humanitarian aid, protect civilians, preserve evidence of war crimes and facilitate reconstruction; Kicking Israel out of the U.N.; Reactivation of the U.N.’s anti-apartheid provisions; and Establishing a war crimes tribunal.
There is a toolkit for action in advance of the September 18 vote on the website. More than two-thirds of the General Assembly has previously voted to hold Israel accountable, but was deterred by the U.S. veto. So, again, the Uniting for Peace provision is a way to override the Security Council’s veto. Wherever you live, please visit the website for ways to pressure our governments in advance of the vote
The participants in the webinar included a former U.N. official, a former U.S. presidential candidate (Green Party), representatives of “Doctors against Genocide,” musician Roger Waters, and journalists. There are a couple of educational webinars scheduled before the vote.
Whatever happens on September 18 should be big news.
If this is possible, why didn't they do it two years ago?
Good question, and I’m not qualified to answer it. What I got from the panel discussion was that the predicate for the Uniting for Peace provision is a vote by the General Assembly to enforce international law with respect to Israel, a veto in the Security Council and then an override. Apparently the first two things happened in the past, but the third, the override, did not. Craig Mokhiber, the former, high level U.N. official who was part of the panel resigned from the U.N. in protest in 2023 with an open letter as to why. (The letter is available online). Mokhiber predicted the genocide in his resignation. You can post questions on the lifelineforpalestine.com site. I think the people behind the Uniting for Peace effort are dedicated. One of them helped organize and spoke at the huge protest march in Washington in January of 2024. Obviously, these and other actions should have been taken at the beginning of the genocide, but the obstacles, e.g., the U.S. government, have been huge. I’m glad this group, among others, is still trying and I hope you can get your question answered on their site. We can also look for ways to help.
Thank you, Nancy.
Exactly. People have been screaming for them to do something since the start of this present genocide.
Evict Israeli weapons manufacturers, Easy Aerial and Crye Precision, from the Brooklyn Navy Yard and establish a policy of no weapons manufacturers.
“Since September 2024, a decentralized coalition of Brooklyn Navy Yard neighbors, workers, and community members have organized under the banner Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The landlord in question is the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC), a non-profit developer charged with managing business leases at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which is owned by the City of New York.” Story from Mondoweiss
https://mondoweiss.net/2025/09/activists-and-residents-are-banding-together-to-force-companies-complicit-in-the-gaza-genocide-out-of-the-brooklyn-navy-yard/?ml_recipient=164884890941130665&ml_link=164884848201172892&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2025-09-07&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines+RSS+Automation
See also:
https://www.instagram.com/demilitarizebklynnavyyard/
Support the Hind Rajab Foundation
https://donate.stripe.com/cN228hbY5g7jaM84gg
On 25 August 2025, Israel struck Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis twice, killing 22 civilians — including journalists, doctors, rescue workers, and a 14-year-old child. Today, the Hind Rajab Foundation and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court, exposing the full chain of command behind the massacre. Our investigation proves that the Golani Brigade engineered and coordinated the attack under continuous drone surveillance, the 188th Armored Brigade executed it with guided missiles, and senior commanders up to Prime Minister Netanyahu authorized and enabled it. This was not crossfire, but deliberate killing with genocidal intent. Justice demands accountability.
"The US has placed so much money and so many weapons into terrorist hands that the vision of perpetual war of the Dulles brothers has become the reality. Allen Dulles convinced Dwight Eisenhower that covert regime change was the way to go, and Eisenhower, thinking that a bloodless coup was better than war, agreed to authorize covert operations. How a man like Eisenhower could be so fooled by such a sociopath as Allen Dulles is sad. The CIA as we know it is the Frankenstein monster created by Allen Dulles. He and his brother thought that no amount of death and killing was over the line in the furtherance of capitalism. The covert operations role has expanded exponentially to become the major activity of the CIA. The law authorizing the CIA is a ceding of the Constitutional powers of Congress to make and declare war to the CIA, at least as long as no one finds out. Secretly, clandestinely, the CIA funds student groups in “enemy” countries, stirs up the capitalist forces in politics, supports candidates who are willing to kiss US ass, and provides money and weapons to right-wing terrorists. These covert operations have expanded from bloodless coups (if ever a thing actually existed) to full scale military operations, sanctioned by their mandate under the law interpreted broadly. The CIA has authorization to call forth US military forces (special forces, WMDs, gunships, etc...) anywhere around the globe, and no amount of killing and slaughter is distasteful or enough."
https://griobhtha1.substack.com/p/x-rubicon-lies-and-damned-lies
Thank You Caitlin
Right on about the immigrant issue. I expressed similar thoughts in a letter to then President-Elect Obama in 2008.
Is it true that Trump does not allow Palestinian refugees to enter this country?
Yes, I read that. The United States of Israel would never allow that.