Happy Independence Day, Brainwashed Americans

The silence of good people is more dangerous than the actions of bad people. --Martin Luther King Jr.

Happy Independence Day. These  photos are of wide awake Americans  taking action and not keeping silent. They are speaking out on the current state of health care in the USA and what can be done to ensure all have access to it. They held a recent rally in downtown Toledo, Ohio and made their voices heard to their community and their elected representatives. 

That very afternoon, they learned Republican Senator Rob Portman (one of the thirteen on the Senate health care committee) had come out on the record as not being in favor of the bill as written. It's not a done deal yet, but it is encouraging to see that the actions and "non-silence" of good people can make a difference and sway a politician's vote until it aligns more with his constituents' wishes.

But so many Americans just turn off their minds and allow themselves to be brainwashed into apathy. Even worse, they actually claim to support the perverted causes of evil rich men. How does this sort of thing happen? Read the next piece and share it with friends who might not realize they're falling for an elaborate brainwashing program orchestrated by a group that doesn't have our best interests at heart. Persuade them to consider the issues from all sides and put themselves in their fellow Americans' shoes--or wheelchairs.

 We can't lose heart, and we don't want to lose our heart (empathy) like so many supporters of Trumpcare have. Speak out and share your own health care story with others. If the ACA has made a big difference in your life, your story might make another see things differently.

***

In order to give equal time to the 1%, The Revolution Continues blog occasionally publishes  pieces to show our oligarch leaders' side of the issues. In the spirit of  How to Build a Better Slave--er, Worker, here is this week's offering.

 
Face it--the US is an oligarchy: https://youtu.be/JvJ1ZuJDNbQ

Three Ways To Brainwash Americans 
(of the 99% Persuasion)
overheard by C.A. Matthews

1.)    Start young--the younger, the better.

An excellent example of this is the fossil fuel industry's attempt to indoctrinate elementary school children into the beauties and joy of unabated petroleum consumption. What could be more fun than fooling youngsters into destroying their planet and their possible futures by reading them Petro Pete's Big Bad Dream and convincing them green energy is "bad"?

 
Follow up on young students' indoctrination in the upper grades with "free lessons plans for high school science teachers" from the Heartland Institute. These include a textbook called Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming full of citations from the Heartland Institute’s own papers. The institute has received unfair criticism for decades for taking anti-regulatory positions on public policy beneficial to their corporate sponsors (such as Reynolds Tobacco and the Koch Brothers) while attacking scientific research that contradicts their policy stances, but it's all circumstantial. (They'll never find the pay stubs in our offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands--we've made certain of it.)

Of course, commie-pinko detractors say all the Heartland Institute does is "take real research deliberately out of context in an attempt to mislead people," and noted climate scientist Micheal Mann has called the science curriculum “so amoral it's difficult to put in to words.” But what do we care? We own the politicians, and we'll soon own the souls of the under twenty crowd, too.

2.)   Convince the sheeple (the 99%) that whatever we say is for their own good.

This can be tricky, but it's not as difficult as it sounds. We oligarchs are simply a superior breed of people. We can out-think and confuse the sheeple at every turn. Take the recent universal health care/single payer health care fiasco. S0me of the 99% (like Bernie Sanders) will argue that Trumpcare will kill thousands of uninsured/under-insured Americans per year and kick 23 million off of insurance they currently have through the ACA, but we know that first figure is way too low. (It could kill upwards of 200,000+ in the next decade.) But let them rest easy and think they and their families won't suffer--we know they will--just like we know Trumpcare is basically a great tax break for us at the top. (Heck, we deserve those millions in tax savings even if we're not paying any taxes now.)

How many sheeple will bother to take the time to watch a short documentary that explains the American health care situation simply and validates their cries of "Medicare for All"? Answer: Very few, and we can always confuse any of those tempted to learn more on the topic by posting a few good fake news pieces on our media outlets claiming universal health care isn't in the public's best interests. (Isn't that a laugh? Shows you just how dumb they are. Check out how obvious it is that Obamacare helps the health outcomes of the poorest in Texarkana, Arkansas, compared to similar folks right next door in Texarkana, Texas without Obamacare Medicaid expansion. There's cold hard fact staring them right in their faces, and Texans still voted for Trump. Stupid!)

So, whatever you do, do not allow your slaves (i.e., "employees") watch Fix It: Healthcare at the Tipping Point online. We don't want to trouble their puny little brains with facts, do we?

 

Of course, we all know Fox and other media outlets we own put out utter nonsense constantly, but studies prove poor ignorant crackers will believe anything a rich white male says. (It explains Trump in a nutshell. This article shows how they'll even go along with the cruelty and switch off their brains for us--amazing!) Rich white men can lie and lie and lie, and as long as they're wearing an expensive suit and tie, the 99% believes every word they say. (The "Strict Father Worldview" it's called.) This has been proven true even if their homes are taken back by the bank, their cars repossessed and their health care coverage ended for no good reason other than we want to make more money off of them. (The stupid is strong in the lower classes.)

Feel confident one-percenters! We've been using this tactic for centuries against the 99% in America, and it works wonders. It helps in particular to keep "people of color" in their place by constantly stirring up jealousy and hatred in the poor white trash class who like to kiss our butts to prove they're "white enough" to join our country clubs. (We all know they can't, but isn't it a laugh to watch them try?) By defunding all of their public schools--along the lines laid out by one-percenter Betsy DeVos recently-- we prevent unusually intelligent, poor white trash writers like Jonna Ivin from being able to verbalize our tactics and see through our smokescreen. (You gotta admit it, she wrote a hell of a piece that explains our elite class's brainwashing methods perfectly: I Know Why the Poor Whites Chant Trump, Trump, Trump)

Don't be afraid, brave oligarchs. We can shut her type down easy enough by labeling them  "socialists" and "communists", and claiming, "God is on our side, and if he wants poor whites, blacks, illegal Mexicans, gays and heathen Muslims to die, then it's his will." Yeah, we can say these incendiary things and get away with it as long as we invoke this "god" person frequently and blame everything we do on his will. (Whoever the hell this "god" and his will is, we don't care. We know billionaires are truly in charge of this world. We realize there's no need for a god of any kind but ourselves. The 99% don't get this and never will.)

It's so easy to divide and conquer poor redneck hillbillies and get them to work for us, roughing up the savvy intellectuals who have caught onto our brainwashing tactics, especially if these smart asses are of a darker skin color or different gender identity than your typical poorly educated klansman. The white supremacists are the easiest groups in America to brainwash since most have been brainwashed since birth to hate without ceasing and to not be open to learning anything but more ways to hate others. The Klan will never see they are more like the people they hate than they are like us, the true gods of the world, the mega-wealthy.

Beware: Never allow the 99% to read anything by Marx, Lenin, Bernie Sanders or Chris Hedges--or watch Lee Camp or Jimmy Dore on You Tube, especially this interview where they discuss what's really happening in the world.
 
Never allow the 99% to discover Jesus commanded his followers to love everyone. It could make the mindless rubes stop fighting for us in our wars for natural resources and profits. We can't have them walking out of our cannon fodder factories whenever they see photos of decimated, bombed-out villages and dead babies, so always bring up that "God's will" bullsh*t and blame the deaths on the fact these villagers are heathen brown persons who don't deserve to live. We want the "ordinary Americans" to endlessly fight among themselves and against our "villain of the week" so we can continue to steal oil, minerals, land or other wealth from said villain and others. Remember, endless wars and squabbles are the best ways to keep the 99% ignorant of their lot so our brainwashing can take hold permanently.

3.)   Use your vast wealth to influence sycophants in office to do your brainwashing for you.

At the end of the day, you want your brainwashing tactics to become sustainable--sort of like these Green Party types who promote sustainable agriculture and sustainable green energy like solar power so the planet doesn't heat up and kill off the 99%. Since we know we'll survive no matter what (and at whatever costs--we can afford it, after all; we're billionaires), we don't want the sheeple to get excited about having an actual say in their own governance. They'd only want to enact sustainable environmental policies and fight for social justice.

We want to keep the current inequalities in the 99%'s society and have them all fighting over clean water, air and food sources. We want to keep a growing slave population (who works for practically nothing) in our for-profit prison system. What better way to keep our hands clean of these unsavory parts of our agenda than to train those eager for affection (a.k.a. politicians) to do the hard work for us?

Bribing--or should we say lobbying--politicians gets them on our side with minimal effort. One recent example is California where we shut down their state single payer health care bill even when the majority of their legislature passed it. Even more effective is the wholesale buying out of political parties or factions. (Does it ever work! The election of 2016 proved it worked with the Democrats, didn't it? And you can't say it hasn't worked with the Republicans--they crafted Trumpcare, and all it took was a few "donations" from our friends in Big Pharma.) Once we have the politicos eating out of the hand of the corporate cash machine, they'll pass the necessary laws (or have them scrapped, such as the scrapping of the Dodd-Frank banking rules) anytime we snap our fingers. Paid-off politicians are more loyal and dependable than a Saint Bernard and have less fleas.

This is such a simple and easy brainwashing technique, and it's almost undetectable by the 99%. We've worked hard to keep the American public ignorant of true facts (via fake news) and made them apathetic to their situation over the last forty years, that it works automatically now. The big corporations always get their way, right? The "little guys" will get rubber bullets and mace in their faces if they protest like they did at Standing Rock, North Dakota. (Anti-Native American politicians did our bidding via the militarized police/mercenaries for oil we set up there. So easy to encourage their hatred of Indians!)

The ordinary, ignorant and demoralized American voter simply stops voting and gives up and gives in. Problem solved for us; populace thoroughly brainwashed and docile; less dissenters and people of color in the world; we get the oil pipeline profits. You can't get any better than that, can you, one-percenters?

Of course, sometimes we have to force our flunkies (political representatives) to work harder at keeping the 99% from wanting to vote, wanting to change the corrupt system and make their country an actual "democracy." (It's hysterical they think they live in a democracy, isn't it? Didn't the DNC during the 2016 primaries demonstrate it's not?) That's where our friends at Crosscheck come into play, suppressing those uppity minority voters and purging voter rolls right and left of independent thinkers, preventing any changes from occurring that we don't want. (Unfortunately, the 99% might have caught on to us. That pesky investigative reporter Greg Palast has a lot to answer for!)

These three main brainwashing tactics--start young, convince them we're on "their side" and keep them squabbling among themselves, and buy influence to keep our agenda in tact--are guaranteed to work. Just look out your penthouse window at the suckers below and you'll see the truth of my statement. 

The mindless rubes are still driving polluting, gas-guzzling vehicles, eating GMOed, processed fast foods and drinking $10 billion worth of bottled tap water every year. (Ha! What a scam!) They send their children to fight and die in our oil wars, and believe it's good for cops to kill black people for driving with a burnt out tail light and don't blink at depriving Native Americans the control of their own lands. They do all these deplorable things and more while thinking they live in a "free country," right? 

I rest my case. 

***

Now for some good news from Nina Turner and Our Revolution:

I am extremely humbled to announce a new chapter for Our Revolution. Following a vote by the Board of Directors, I have agreed to become the next President. Please watch a personal message from me about the next steps in our journey together.

From being a board member to now fulfilling the role of president of an organization with you at our heart, I could not be more excited. There is no doubt that we have the will of the people on our side. Let us lift each other up and achieve what we've all been fighting for—ending corporate greed, expanding health care coverage, and building an America that is good and just for everybody.

In solidarity,

Nina Turner
President
Our Revolution

 ***

From Climate Hawks:

On June 1, 2017, Donald Trump announced his decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement, the ambitious global framework to tackle climate change agreed to by President Barack Obama in December 2015.

How did Congress respond? We did the work to find out.

Here’s the good news — we found that over 95 percent of Democratic members of Congress, both House and Senate, expressed disapproval of Trump’s decision. Although we expected to find cheers on the GOP side, we found that over half of the House Republicans had nothing to say, and a handful even disapproved of Trump’s decision.

But now we're at risk of Trump's climate crime being forgotten. The best way to make sure Congress takes the health of our climate seriously is to have their constituents show that they’re paying attention to what Congress does. We need to support our climate hawks, challenge the ducks, and criticize the ostriches.

That means that your representatives need to hear from you! Please take a few minutes to take action:

1. Look up your Congressional officials’ Trump-Paris responses (two Senators, one Representative)
If you need to look up your representative, you can do so at the link below.

2. Tell your Congressional officials what you think
This link lets you look up the phone number of all of your officials’ offices, and includes a sample call script to thank, criticize, or ask for a response.

3. Email me back to let me know how it went.

I’m asking that you make the call whether you have Democratic or Republican senators and representatives. We are still in for Paris, and every politician in Washington needs to know their constituents haven’t forgotten a matter as important as global climate change. If they won't take a bold stand against Trump’s climate denial, they need to know we will make them pay at the ballot box.

You can read our full report, Leaving Paris, here.

Your fellow climate hawk,

RL Miller

P.S. If it’s hard to reach your Senators, that’s good news. It means people are calling Congress to fight the Trump’s deadly agenda of padding billionaire profits at the expense of our health, life, and liberty. We’ve joined forces with other climate/environmental groups writing to the Senate to oppose Republicans’ attacks on public health.

References

Leaving Paris: Congress Responds to Trump, Climate Hawks Vote
http://climatehawksvote.com/leaving-paris/

Full Listing of Congressional Responses to Trump’s Withdrawal from Paris Climate Agreement
http://climatehawksvote.com/leaving-paris-congressional-responses/

***

From Rainforest Action Network: 

We warned banks, and they didn’t listen. 

22 banks have just agreed to finance Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion to the tune of $5.5 billion Canadian. The expansion will be a disaster for Indigenous rights and the environment. It would make the pipeline able to transport more oil than either the Dakota Access Pipeline or the Keystone Pipeline.

Email the CEOs of these banks and tell them to stop financing Kinder Morgan’s pipeline and all tar sands projects. 

The Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and Sto:lo First Nations, whose territories cover most of Metro Vancouver Area, are among the nine First Nations and Tribes currently in litigation against the project. The Coast Salish, Sto:lo, Nlaka'pamux, and Secwepemc Nations, whose territories cover more than half the length of the pipeline, have also filed legal challenges to the project. The Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion, which comprises more than 120 First Nations and Tribes, stands in committed opposition to all tar sands pipelines crossing their traditional lands and waters, and has called for an international campaign to divest from any financial institution that funds them.

At the TD Bank shareholder meeting in March, Chief Serge Simon of the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake said "Coordinated Indigenous opposition from Quebec to British Columbia to North Dakota will stop the Kinder Morgan oil pipeline one way or another." But TD Bank didn’t listen to this warning — instead they poured more money into the project. They weren’t counting on resistance to tar sands pipelines across North America growing stronger every day.

Tell bank CEOs to stop violating Indigenous rights and stop banking on climate change.

This pipeline would cut through the Canadian Rocky Mountains, crossing and threatening countless watersheds that feed into the Fraser River. It would dump out on the Burrard Inlet near Vancouver, meaning a sevenfold increase in oil tanker traffic — from five to 34 ships every month — threatening marine life, including the endangered orcas of the Salish Sea.

The tar sands oil that this pipeline would carry is one of the most carbon intensive fuels on the planet. Studies show that the Trans Mountain expansion would add 8.8 metric tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere a year — making catastrophic climate change more of a reality every day.

And the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline already has a disgraceful track record — 82 leak incidents, including four major oil spills. 

Send a message to bank CEOs that we won’t back down until they defund Kinder Morgan’s pipeline expansion and all tar sands projects. 

Your voice is needed more urgently than ever.

For people and planet,

Ruth

Ruth Breech
Senior Climate Campaigner
Rainforest Action Network

Sources:

1. 28 major banks warned not to finance Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, Rainforest Action Network
2. The Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion
3. B.C. First Nations unite in fight against Trans Mountain pipeline, The Globe and Mail
4. Kinder Morgan Canada completes IPO for Trans Mountain Pipeline, FuelFix / The Houston Chronicle
5. Spill History, Trans Mountain
6. Big oil v orcas: Canadians fight pipeline that threatens killer whales on the brink, The Guardian