Using Your Vote In Our "Destroyed Democracy"

Using Your Vote In Our "Destroyed Democracy"

by C. A. Matthews  

Readers might have noticed that TRC has spent very little blog space on the US midterms this time around. There are a couple of reasons for this. First off, since we’re open to guest bloggers expressing whatever is on their mind at the moment, we let our readers/bloggers set the pace in regards to posts about elections. We haven’t had anyone really interested in writing about the 2022 midterms, so there’s that.

Secondly—and perhaps most importantly—is this reason: Why bother?

Really, what difference will it make to ordinary working class Americans which of the establishment factions has the majority in the US House or Senate? What difference will our votes make one way or the other when study after study (starting with the infamous Princeton Study) demonstrate that our elected officials completely ignore the bottom 90% of American voters and only listen to those with the most money?

Just get a load of these figures:

According to a report released Thursday by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), just 465 American billionaires had donated an unprecedented $881 million by the end of September — even before last-minute campaign pushes in the last five weeks before Election Day. This is already more than the amount that billionaires spent in the entirety of the 2018 midterm election.

 

Further, the vast majority of this spending — $643 million, or 73 percent — comes from just 20 billionaire households, including prominent figures like the Koch family, Peter Thiel, George Soros, Michael and Susan Bloomberg and Jeffrey Yass.  --465 Billionaires Have Pumped An Eye-Popping $881 Million Into the Midterms

 

In past elections, reading an article like the one above showing how many millions—excuse me, billions—are being spent by the oligarchs/billionaires to influence US governmental policy, our planet’s health, and our general welfare would have made me extremely irate. I might have suggested that you make a plan to go to the polls and vote for an independent or third party candidate to send the duopolists a strong message that we’re on to them and their corporate puppet masters. I might have led everyone in a chant of, "We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore!"
 
Nowadays, I’m more resigned to our fate. Those with the money will get their agenda passed with no problems, and there’s nothing we the poor and struggling workers can do about it. It's not like we can come up with over one billion dollars every election to bribe the candidates and take the reins away from our true masters and rulers, the billionaires, can we?

Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges puts it very well:

The bipartisan project of dismantling our democracy, which took place over the last few decades on behalf of corporations and the rich, has left only the outward shell of democracy. The courts, legislative bodies, the executive branch and the media, including public broadcasting, are captive to corporate power. There is no institution left that can be considered authentically democratic. The corporate coup d’état is over. They won. We lost.

The wreckage of this neoliberal project is appalling: endless and futile wars to enrich a military-industrial-complex that bleeds the U.S. Treasury of half of all discretionary spending; deindustrialization that has turned U.S. cities into decayed ruins; the slashing and privatization of social programs, including education, utility services and health care – which saw over one million Americans account for one-fifth of global deaths from Covid, although we are 4 percent of the world’s population; draconian forms of social control embodied in militarized police, functioning as lethal armies of occupation in poor urban areas; the largest prison system in the world; a virtual tax boycott by the richest individuals and corporations; money-saturated elections that perpetuate our system of legalized bribery; and the most intrusive state surveillance of the citizenry in our history.

In “The United States of Amnesia,” to quote Gore Vidal, the corporate press and the ruling class create fictional feel-good personas for candidates, treat all political campaigns as if it is a day at the races and gloss over the fact that on every major issue, from trade deals to war, there is very little difference between Democrats and Republicans. The Democratic Party and Joe Biden are not the lesser evil, but rather, as Glen Ford pointed out, “the more effective evil.”  --The Politicians Who Destroyed Our Democracy Want Us to Vote for Them to Save it 

All this is not to say that I’m not voting this time out and that you shouldn’t vote, either. It's just that, with what I know now, I’m not wasting my time voting for either the Republican or Democratic Parties’ candidates. Both establishment factions accept plenty of money from the billionaires, so their loyalty will always be pledged to the top 1% and not to bottom 99% of Americans. 

I’m willing to vote for any and all independent and third party candidates who don't take corporate cash, and I will voice my opinion on all local and state issues. In my case, that’s about one page out of several of the printed ballot. I will make my opinion known on these ballot issues since they are important to my community and directly affect our lives together. 

If there’s no electronic diddling with the vote count, then at least some form of democracy will occur in regards to those ballot issues. I see that as a “win” for the ordinary people. We might still have to put up a while longer with a corrupt system that blithely calls itself a “representative democracy” (watch this video for more about how easily corrupted that is), but at least we’re not running away scared with our tails between our legs. We are buying ourselves time to figure out how to rebuild our destroyed democracy.

We ordinary American voters should stand proud. We’re interested in our local communities' well-being. We don’t have to explain ourselves to anyone about why we didn’t waste time rubber-stamping a vote for a bunch of corporate candidates to make their billionaire bosses happy. There's no need for us to feel shame about not supporting the status quo with our votes. We proudly can leave these corporate sell-outs twisting in the wind, desperate to come up with a good excuse to explain why no decent hardworking American wanted to vote for them. 

I think the biggest joke this midterm election is on the billionaires. They think they’ve successfully bought off American “democracy.” Ha! We all know it doesn’t exist, and we're not keeping silent. We've got the perseverance to keep working toward building a government that doesn't include the likes of them.

Of course, the billionaires will be laughing all the way to the bank in the short term as their politician-puppets gift them billions of our tax dollars to produce weapons, weapons to pass on to another corrupt government under the guise of a proxy war. These Daddy Warbucks will then sell their leftover weapon stockpiles directly to the US war machine. The US war machine will bomb even more countries in our collective good name until these decimated countries are overflowing with “freedom and democracy” and a whole lot less of their natural resources and citizens. 

It's why the billionaires bought out the US government in the first place. How else are they supposed to make so much money? Work for it with their own hands like we peons do?

I hope you can see now that voting alone isn’t going to get us out of this mess. Voting isn’t going to stop the endless wars for oil and liquefied natural gas at the expense of innocent human beings’ lives. Voting red and blue and red and blue will do nothing because of you-know-who! Billionaires and their bought off cronies have a lock on our corrupt system of government. The only way We the People can take back power is by refusing to play along with their abusive games.

It’s like that well-worn adage that the Dems seem to enjoy shouting every couple of years: “This is the most important election of our lives!” These midterms are the most important elections of our lives but only because now we understand that we no longer need waste our time putting check marks in front of the red or blue candidates on the ballot. We know now how much a real democracy is worth and that it can’t be bought by anyone. It's priceless, and it's worth fighting for until we get it. 

So, whatever you decide to do this midterm election or in elections to come, feel proud. You're mad as hell, and you're smart enough not to fall for the duopolists' propaganda. That makes you a "winner" in my book. Don't let a bunch of soulless billionaires' puppets tell you otherwise.

 

Related Articles:   

UPDATE: Total Cost of 2022 State and Federal Elections Projected to Exceed $16.7 Billion https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/11/total-cost-of-2022-state-and-federal-elections-projected-to-exceed-16-7-billion

Congress Literally Doesn't Care What You Think https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba/

465 Billionaires Have Pumped An Eye-Popping $881 Million Into the Midterms https://truthout.org/articles/465-billionaires-have-pumped-an-eye-popping-881-million-into-the-midterms/

Chris Hedges: The Politicians Who Destroyed Our Democracy Want Us to Vote for Them to Save it  https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-politicians-who-destroyed-our

AIPAC Had a Banner Year in Election Meddling and We Should All Be Concerned  https://truthout.org/articles/aipac-had-a-banner-year-in-election-meddling-and-we-should-all-be-concerned/

US Again Isolated on UN Vote Against Its Cuba Blockade https://popularresistance.org/us-again-isolated-on-un-vote-against-its-cuba-blockade/

Why the US is Not a Democracy (video) https://youtu.be/srfeHpQNEAI 

Chris Hedges: Betrayed by Liberals (video) https://youtu.be/a-aVr6H0c3U 

The Racism of the Supreme Court Supermajority Was on Full Display This Week  https://scheerpost.com/2022/11/05/the-racism-of-the-supreme-courts-supermajority-was-on-full-display-this-week/

Seen on Twitter:

Democrats were never on our side for decades. We're all on our own. So not voting for either party won't do us any more damage than voting for them.

— Jaybefaunt🏳️‍🌈 (@Jaybefaunt) November 5, 2022

Didn't we vote Blue in 2020 to "save America" or is my brain misremembering that?

— 🛠T.M.Poe MSc 🆘️ (@Tyler_M_Poe) November 5, 2022

Where do I go to vote out the USA military industrial complex?

— REVOLUTION IS THE ONLY SOLUTION (@jorymicah) November 6, 2022

You are lucky if you live in a nation that has little natural resources. Your people didn’t get bombed, sanctioned or displaced because the US Govt just didn’t see any value in destroying your country. Congratulations.

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) November 5, 2022

If Democrats gave a sh*t about Democracy they wouldn’t be trying their damned best to stop Greens and independents from running.

— nuno marqs ☭ (@marqsism) November 5, 2022

Weapons manufacturers run US foreign policy for both parties and they cannot be voted out.

— Blue Check Beth! (@torstrick) November 5, 2022

You don’t have to comply and vote for more corruption. In fact, the best way to vote in a duopoly that’s controlled by two corrupt parties who serve Wall Street and the War Machine is to open your ballot and vote for any candidate who does not have a D or an R next to their name.

— Ryan Knight ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) November 6, 2022

God Save The King?

God Save the King? It's More Like God Help the British People!
by Coast Watcher

Tradition is a strong force in Britain. The "British way of doing things"is often at odds with the rest of the world and is probably the major factor in the Brexit vote that saw the UK leave the European Union.

The death of HM Queen Elizabeth II saw a surge in royalist sentiment, and a matching anti-monarchist/republican feeling that has led to protests and demonstrations across the country. King Charles and his wife Camilla were booed on their arrival in Cardiff, Wales. One man in the crowd demanded to know why the taxpayers had to fork out much needed cash to pay for Charles' parade. Protesters have been arrested for holding signs reading "Not MY King" and even for holding up a blank placard as a royal motorcade passed. Given that the Conservative government recently passed a law banning protests "if they cause annoyance" with a penalty of up to eleven years in jail, this is no light matter.

Reaction across the whole country has been mixed. At some soccer matches the crowd lustily sang the national anthem. At other venues the mere mention of royalty drew equally lusty booing. Sentiment abroad has also varied. Last year Barbados got rid of the monarchy as the island’s official head of state. Now fourteen other nations including Jamaica, Barbuda, and Grenada are also talking of following suit. Chief among the reasons given is that the British royal family has not taken the commitment to formally own up to and acknowledge their family’s history of slavery.

Recent inept handling of the economy by the Tory government has even led to renewed calls for Scotland to leave the United Kingdom. The passing of the Queen has only added fuel to this fire.

Prince Andrew, brother of Charles, is now Counsellor of State. He is in effect the monarch’s deputy whenever he/she is out of the country. Everyone knows how Andrew bought off the woman who accused him of raping her as a young teen—a woman he claims he never met—for £12 million. The fact that his mother the queen and his older brother bailed him out to the tune of several million pounds more is also well known. Had Andrew been anyone else, the UK would’ve deported him to the US to stand trial for statutory rape.

As of September 18, a five miles plus long queue has formed to see the queen’s lying in state. People are camping out overnight to retain their places. It's said to be the longest queue in British history, eclipsing even those that formed for Princess Diana, but this claim isn’t true. The longest queue is, in fact, composed of 6.8 million people waiting for NHS treatment following the Tory government’s determined efforts to privatize Britain’s cherished healthcare service.
 

Speaking of the National Health Service, hospitals throughout the UK will suspend cancer treatments for patients on Monday, September 19, the day of the funeral. All burials will also be suspended, which will come as a blow to people of the Jewish and Muslim religions whose faiths decree burials must take place within 24 hours of death.
 
What’s not so well known is that homeless people—who have to spend every night on the streets—are being moved by police so they won’t interfere with the optics of this outpouring of national grief.

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan walked in the funeral procession. For some reason, elements of the British media are virulently against Meghan. She and Harry were roundly criticized for holding hands as they walked. Snobbish critics say it "isn’t protocol." Seriously? The man lost his grandmother. Why should he not hold hands with the woman he loves both to give and take comfort? Add to that the establishment at first denied Harry, a man who served two tours in Afghanistan, the right to wear military uniform during the funeral and commemorative events. 

You can see how rotten the protocol system surrounding the British monarchy is. The ban was subsequently lifted following public protest. Yes, protest does work.

British law requires members of the public pay 40% tax on any property inherited over the value of £340,000 under the 1993 memorandum of understanding. However, King Charles III is exempt from inheritance taxes. The British monarchy's total wealth is estimated at around $34 billion in assets, but Charles won't have to pay the UK's 40% inheritance tax-or indeed any tax unless he volunteers to do so. He inherits his mother’s personal £641 million estate without having to pay the government a single penny. Charles was also gifted the Duchy of Lancaster, a royal prerogative worth over £750 million. 

See where this is going?

When Charles became King of England, he no longer needed the staff who served him during his tenure as Prince of Wales. They were all given redundancy notices while a service of commemoration was being held for his mother.
[Editor's note and American translation: Charles' personal staff members, who had been with him for decades, were all fired while he was at a his mother's memorial service. This wasn't just a handful of people losing their jobs through no fault of their own, either. He employed a lot of full-time staff.] 

Those with long enough memories will recall how unpopular Charles became with the public because of his negative treatment of Princess Diana, both during and after their marriage. One Ipsos poll taken in April 2022 showed that nearly half of Britons thought Charles should step aside and cede the throne to his oldest son, Prince William. Among millennial-age Britons, Charles ranks twelfth in popularity.

Couple all of the above with a Conservative government that is deeply unpopular over the Brexit disaster and its gross mishandling of the economy in general, and you have an explosive mix. Add to that a Parliamentary Labour Party that is nothing more than "Tory Lite" in its policies, and there really isn’t any prospect of change any time soon without a radical uprising.

The royal family may be at the center of all the ceremony and tradition, but they’re not the only ones, or even the driving force behind the throne. That honorific goes to the people behind the scenes—the chamberlains, equerries, private secretaries, general hangers-on, and those who aspire to gain from being in the royal presence. I can speak from personal experience as to what it’s like to be on the receiving end of a royal visit.

In 1976, then Prince Charles established a charitable foundation called The Prince’s Trust. Aimed at helping disadvantaged young people aged 11-30 all across Britain, it does a lot of good. The trouble is, it provides a nice venue for all those wannabes who crave the glamor of the royal presence.

In the 1980s, I worked in the tourism/hospitality industry. One of the places where I worked hosted the Prince’s Trust for several years. One year Prince Charles came to visit. The site owners had accommodation set aside for his use, which included a brand new toilet installed expressly for him. (The Royal Wee? Quite.)

We working peons were ordered back and forth between venues on the site until finally we were told by functionaries to wait up on a mezzanine level of the first building we’d come from and to stay out of sight while the High and Mighty formed a reception line about fifty feet away. Charles came in, walked along the line shaking hands then departed without even so much as a nod at us workers who had done the brunt of the work to make the venue shine. We were then told to remain on the site until he left. I and several others voted with our feet and walked out. We gave up an afternoon’s pay, but we had better things to do with our time.

Oh, and the toilet accommodation set aside for Charles’ use? He never used it, and it was ripped out completely the next day!

The overall impression I got was of a crowd of teenagers vying to catch the eye of the cool kid, and they were not afraid to shove and push away anyone who might have stolen a bit of the reflected glory. It was all rather sickening.

Will Britain become a republic? I doubt it. As a Briton who grew up with the whole tradition of monarchy and the "British way of doing things" I know my people. We’ll keep buggering on even as the world burns. An admirable trait in many ways, yes, but I feel we can change and modernize for the better without throwing away everything in our culture that’s of value. 

And the one thing that’s in dire need of an overhaul? The monarchy. We’ll see what happens in the meantime to help relieve the British people of these injustices, shall we?

Learn more at:
https://www.princes-trust.org.uk/

https://time.com/6212008/king-charles-iii-controversy-past/

https://moneywise.com/taxes/king-charles-to-dodge-estate-taxes

https://www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/20220915151185/prince-andrew-prince-charles-counsellor-of-state-reason/

BIO: Coast Watcher is our resident British commentator and world historian at TRC. As a survivor of a royal visit, he seemed the best to give his opinion of what life is like living in a country where you have a hereditary monarch as your head of state. As you can tell, it's complicated. But does it have to be? The future will tell.

 

Related Articles:

Not Everyone Mourns the Queen. For Many She Can't Be Separated From Colonial Rule https://www.rsn.org/001/not-everyone-mourns-the-queen-for-many-she-cant-be-separated-from-colonial-rule.html

Former British Colonies In Caribbean Consider Cutting Ties to the Monarchy https://truthout.org/video/former-british-colonies-in-caribbean-consider-cutting-ties-to-the-monarchy/

Antigua and Barbuda Announces Referendum to Become a Republic
https://popularresistance.org/antigua-and-barbuda-announces-referendum-to-become-a-republic/

Chris Hedges: Monarchs Belong in the Dustbin of History
https://popularresistance.org/monarchs-belong-in-the-dustbin-of-history/

Lizzy's Face https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/lizzys-face 

It's a Big Club and You Ain't In It https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/its-a-big-club-and-you-aint-in-it/comments

The Queen's Death Brings Growing Hope for Irish Unification https://truthout.org/video/the-queens-death-brings-growing-hope-for-irish-unification/

Steven Donziger: How the Royal Family Helps Normalize Oligarchy
https://stevendonziger.substack.com/p/how-the-royal-family-helps-normalize

How Rich Is King Charles? He Built His Own Property Empire Long Before He Inherited His Mother's https://www.irishtimes.com/life-style/people/2022/09/13/how-rich-is-king-charles-he-built-his-own-property-empire-long-before-he-inherited-his-mothers/

Queen's Death: Colonial Legacy and Media Hysteria
https://youtu.be/mcotClf4omY (video)

Queen's Funeral Shuts Food Banks Amid Cost-of-Living Crisis
https://scheerpost.com/2022/09/16/queens-funeral-shuts-food-banks-amid-cost-of-living-crisis/

Luring Doctors from Poorer Countries Is the UK's Quiet Scandal
https://scheerpost.com/2022/09/17/luring-doctors-from-poorer-countries-is-the-uks-quiet-scandal/ 

Decolonizing the Mind https://popularresistance.org/decolonizing-the-mind/

Seen on Twitter:

Why aren’t people raiding Buckingham Palace and taking all that money that the royal family didn’t earn??

— BerningMama412♻️ (@berningmama412) September 10, 2022

The world should take a moment of silence in honor of the people who died under the boots of the crown all over the world.

— Lockridge Wesley (@GuterManne) September 9, 2022

I’m not emotional about the queen one way or the other. But I’m shocked by how many people think the Potato Famine was due to crop failure and don’t know the English EXPORTED food from Ireland to England during that time - enough food to feed all the Irish who died #irishtwitter

— Hannah Wanebo (@hannahwanebo) September 8, 2022

The British royals stole about $45 trillion in wealth from India, including this sweet little diamond. One person's queen is another person's thief. pic.twitter.com/rpL6hJSR1g

— Prof Zenkus (@anthonyzenkus) September 9, 2022

The Boot

People who are ideologically prohibited from seeing capitalism as the obvious source of society's ills are forced to make up other things to blame those ills on like elite pedovore cabals, Jews, immigrants, the LGBT community, and Satan.

Vastly outnumbering your rulers but choosing not to overthrow them because you think the status quo might someday make you wealthy is the same as having all the power in the world and trading it away for a lottery ticket.--Caitlin Johnstone, For Warmongers It's Always 1938

The Boot

by C.A. Matthews

Have you ever felt like you had the weight of the world on your shoulders? How about the weight of the world resting upon your neck like a giant yoke? A yoke you're forced to wear in order to keep pulling and pulling a heavy load uphill without ceasing?

Most Americans have learned since the BLM Summer of 2020 just how dangerous having an immense weight resting on your neck can be. But can you imagine having this weight resting on your neck, crushing your shoulders, breaking your back without reprieve since the day you were born, perhaps even before you were born? Can you imagine never experiencing freedom from this immense weight in your lifetime or even in your children's or grandchildren's lifetimes?

That's what "the boot" of capitalism feels like for most Americans. We realize as we grow older that we can never escape the boot's weight no matter what we do. We discover through life experiences, for good and for ill, that we'll never be rich enough or white enough or the "correct" gender or connected to the movers-and-shakers of our society enough.

We learn that there's no way for a poor worker to get ahead of the day-to-day grind to survive in a society run by insanely wealthy oligarchs (or billionaires if you like to think of them that way). There is no one in a position of leadership who can stand up and plead our case, either, because these self-same oligarchs own the vast majority of our political leaders. It's a most effective form of slavery, too.

Our political leaders love to be owned by these capitalists. Cash passes freely from the briefcases of the corporate lobbyists and into the pockets of our elected representatives at all levels--federal, state, and local. The oligarchs, emboldened with how easy it is to own the US government, openly mainstreamed this activity through a Supreme Court ruling known as Citizens United. The courts state that spending massive amounts of money to influence politicians is "free speech." We who struggle find now that we have no voice.

Money--or capital--talks. And many people who are struggling seem to listen to the money/capital rather than to their own insights or those of  their fellow strugglers. These misguided folk somehow think that they're what John Steinbeck called "temporarily embarrassed millionaires." Tomorrow they'll be flying around the globe in their own luxury jet or sailing the seas on their own $500 million yacht just like Amazon's Jeff Bezos. Just you wait and see.

 Whether they realize it or not, American workers have much more in common with each other than they do a billionaire clown like Bezos.  No matter where or how they work--white collar, blue collar, no collar at all--all workers are powerless to raise the federal minimum wage, which hasn't increased in decades and remains at $7.25/hour. Workers are powerless to move it even one red cent. The Haves make sure the Have-nots will never get ahead or even get close to their level of financial security. The Haves knowingly and without empathy for the workers' plight maintain their superiority in capital and political power at our expense.

 And still, some struggling American workers idolize these tormentors, praise their persecutors. Perhaps you're one of them. I've got to ask you a question then: What has a billionaire ever done for you personally? Why do you think they'll care about you enough to do anything for you in the future?

Has Bill Gates ever walked up to you and given you food when you were hungry and didn't have a penny to your name? Has Elon Musk ever offered to make good on your past due rent or mortgage payments? Is Jeff Bezos currently paying off your medical debt or student loans?

If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, then I could see why you'd sincerely love that person. They were kind and helped you out when you needed it. Otherwise, why do you assume oligarchs (or Haves) like Gates, Musk, or Bezos give a rat's ass about you or any other working class American?

Wake up and smell their stinky foot fungus!

The Haves wear "the boot" of capitalism. They will continue to rest that boot heavily upon your neck until you do something to stop them from doing so. What can you do? You must learn to work together with your fellow strugglers to throw off the billionaire class that oppresses all workers everywhere.  

Stop pretending you're better (or worse) off than others who live under the tyranny of capitalism. Reach out and join or form a union with your fellow workers. Propose and establish workers' co-ops and the like. Be creative!

Practice caring and support for one another through mutual aid societies. Don't leave anyone behind. Why? you ask. Easy--would you like to be left behind? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Workers organizing and coming together to demand fair pay and fair treatment is what the oligarchs fear the most. United, workers have the power and ability to kick "the boot" off each others' necks. Freed from tyranny, they can build a fair and just society for all.

Together we can create a beautiful and healthier planet where the weight of the world will be shared by all, not only by those without capital.

Very revealing quote of the week: 

"A Bank of America executive stated that “we hope” working Americans will lose leverage in the labor market in a recent private memo obtained by The Intercept. Making predictions for clients about the U.S. economy over the next several years, the memo also noted that changes in the percentage of Americans seeking jobs “should help push up the unemployment rate.”

The memo, a “Mid-year review” from June 17, was written by Ethan Harris, the head of global economics research for the corporation’s investment banking arm, Bank of America Securities. Its specific aspiration: “By the end of next year, we hope the ratio of job openings to unemployed is down to the more normal highs of the last business cycle.” (...)

The memo is an uncanny demonstration that the economist Adam Smith was right when he described the politics of inflation in his famed 1776 work, “The Wealth of Nations.”

“High profits tend much more to raise the price of work than high wages,” Smith argued. “Our merchants and master-manufacturers complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price. … They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people.”

Thus, exactly as Smith would have predicted, Bank of America complains loudly about the bad effects of high wages in raising prices, but appears to be silent about the pernicious effects of high profits.

This is especially remarkable given the role that corporate profits have played in the recent increase in inflation. After-tax corporate profits stood at 8.1 percent of the economy at the beginning of 2020 but have since shot up to as high as 11.8 percent of the GDP. In an economy the size of the U.S., that equals an increase of more than $700 billion in profits per year. These higher corporate profits have been the cause of over 50 percent of recent price increases.

Instead, the memo is focused on the enticing prospect of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, slowing the economy, and bludgeoning workers back into line. (...)

The memo therefore tells us what we suspected all along: The most powerful economic actors in the U.S. — entities like Bank of America and its clients — do not like working people to have power. But it’s nice to have it in their own words." --from  Bank of America Memo, Revealed: “We Hope” Conditions for American Workers Will Get Worse

Related Articles:

Bank of America Memo, Revealed: “We Hope” Conditions for American Workers Will Get Worse https://theintercept.com/2022/07/29/bank-of-america-worker-conditions-worse/

For Warmongers It's Always 1938 https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/for-warmongers-its-always-1938-notes

Moby Dick and the Soul of American Capitalism https://popularresistance.org/moby-dick-and-the-soul-of-american-capitalism/ 

Europe's "Apocalypse of Heat" Highlights Capitalism's Climate Crisis https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/07/19/aesc-j19.html 

Child Labor Is Alive And Well in the US  https://popularresistance.org/child-labor-is-alive-and-well-in-the-united-states/

The Age Old Wealth Problem:The Rising Age and Bank Accounts of the US Congress  https://jesseventura.substack.com/p/the-age-old-wealth-problem  

Trapped in the Slaughterhouse https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/trapped-in-the-slaughterhouse 

Almost No One Trust the US Media After Decades of War Propaganda and Lies  https://popularresistance.org/polls-show-almost-no-one-trusts-us-media-after-decades-of-war-propaganda-and-lies/ 

 Seen on Twitter:

We deserve a better economic system than capitalism, which has produced 14 recessions since 1929 and averages 1 recession every 7 years. We deserve an economy that is sustainable, eco-socialist, and puts the needs of the people over the greed of corporations.

— Ryan Knight ☭ (@ProudSocialist) July 28, 2022

Yes, but that’s HIM. It’s different for us worker-bees. pic.twitter.com/eAFkyJZ3c7

— Aimee into the Sun🌹 (@AimeeTomato) July 28, 2022

there should be a law that requires all doctors to accept Medicaid. it's so wild that doctors can turn away patients for being too poor for predatory private insurance.

— angie 🌼 (@angelavixii) July 27, 2022

Under U.S. capitalism we’ve had 14 recessions since 1929—which is an average of 1 recession every 7 years. These boom-bust cycles enable the ruling class to extract as much wealth as possible while any gains the working class makes during a “boom” are erased after the bust hits.

— Ryan Knight ☭ (@ProudSocialist) July 28, 2022

Over a billion people around the world do not support communism because they love having their freedoms stripped away, or love being controlled. You’re thinking of capitalism. That has always been capitalism.

— 🅹🅾️🅴🆈աrecκ ☭ (@joeywreck) July 31, 2022

Capitalists be like, “mental health comes first” then exploit the shit out of your labor while working you to death

— Revolutionary Blackout Network🥋 (@SocialistMMA) July 29, 2022

We’ve become a people who are under complete and total control of giant corporations and sociopathic billionaires who exploit our labor, plunder our wealth, bribe our politicians & destroy our planet all under the guise of “freedom.” This is what capitalism has done to humanity.

— Ryan Knight ☭ (@ProudSocialist) July 29, 2022

When did it become normal for poor people to go hungry and cold to save the economy?

— Sir Norman of Nowhere, KBE, CSE.🏴‍☠️ (@Normanjam671) July 30, 2022

How capitalists plan to manage late stage capitalism:

-Push Christian extremism and social issues to divide the workers and keep them fighting

-Drastically expand the police to fight social unrest

-Push for endless foreign conflict so people can focus on fighting the "other"

— Revolutionary Blackout Network🥋 (@SocialistMMA) July 29, 2022

We are on track to be the first species to cause our own extinction by destroying our own habitat for something that is not even real. pic.twitter.com/oaZ2Ew5tbc

— Ryan Knight ☭ (@ProudSocialist) July 31, 2022

Eat The Rich, Feed The Poor (And Other Revolutionary Recipes)

 

"When the people shall have no more to eat, they will eat the rich." —Jean Jacques Rousseau, 1793

Eat The Rich, Feed The Poor (And Other Revolutionary Recipes)

by Redd Phlagg

So many depressing headlines hit my inbox this past week that they not only made my head spin, they made my entire worldview spin. It became ever more apparent to me that we can no longer afford to wait for the bought-off ruling establishment to take action to save our planet and its peoples. It's time. We the Workers, the little people, the 99% must get off our backsides and grab the reigns of our runaway climate catastrophe and social collapse before it's too late.

Americans need to feed our poor, tax our rich, and make certain that the narcissistic behavior that got us in these desperate straits in the first place doesn't ever return. We need to stop allowing ourselves to become distracted by the silly antics of the duopolists in DC who do only as they're told by their corporate masters. And we need to start yesterday.

A recent study found that 338,000 Americans died due to COVID-19 because our government couldn't take steps to implement Medicare For All or a similar universal single-payer system to provide them needed health care. That's one in every three of the one million plus Americans who contracted and died from the coronavirus and its variants. That's roughly the population of many medium-sized US metropolitan areas, including the one where I live, all gone. Needlessly.

COVID-19 has caused a million and counting deaths in the US. Since these deaths are spread across the country, you might not have noticed so many missing persons yourself but future generations most definitely will. American children will ask what happened to their parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, teachers, friends, babysitters, and even siblings as they grow up. What will we tell them?

Out of the one million plus Americans who have died since 2020 because of the pandemic, what percentage of them could have been saved? If the public's health and safety were the main priority of the ruling establishment rather than making profits for shareholders in the health insurance industry, Big Pharma, and the like how many could have lived? I feel that almost every American who caught COVID could have been saved if they could have received immediate treatment, free of charge, and weren't forced into situations that put their health at risk. There was no scientific reason to stop the lockdowns and force workers back out into low-paying service industry jobs (such as restaurant workers and hotel maids) so soon. In doing so, the politician-puppets of the oligarchy also forced these struggling workers' children back into daycares and public schools where the virus is extremely transmissible and proven deadly for teachers and students alike.

Universal Basic Income (UBI) could have been given to all American families to stay home and stay safe with their children until the virus died out. In countries that implemented such policies, the spread of COVID and its variants was much less, and their death tolls practically non-existent. Putting people over profits means that people win at least another day to live.

But, once again, the establishment duopoly sat on their backsides in Washington DC and moaned about how keeping people safe at home was hurting "the economy." They said this with a straight face while spending billions on the most bloated military budget ever passed in the history of humankind. They continued saying this while starting a proxy war to flush even more money down the drain so they could get rid of a natural gas competitor in Europe (i.e., Russia). No matter what label they give themselves--Republican, Democrat, "The Squad", Bernie Sanders even--these politician-puppets demonstrate by their actions that the profits of the military-industrial complex are infinitely more important than the lives of the vast majority of Americans.

Insult upon insult is dumped upon the poor and working classes' shoulders. We're forced to suffer the consequences of the duopolists' bad decisions to take on a fellow nuclear power with oil reserves and resources the Western powers envy. We're paying for it every day at the gasoline pump, grocery store, and pharmacy. But to "red and blue" alike it's okay if the working classes grow poorer trying to survive because… well, "democracy" is at stake. Democracy in an already corrupt corner of the world ruled by fascists who took over in a coup in 2014 with the help of our CIA? What larks!

Why do We The People, the working classes continue putting up with this disgusting behavior? Why are these millionaire-idiots still in office wearing smug smiles on their faces? Could it be they've militarized our local police departments to such an extent that they know they can keep us poor folks in our place if we rise up?

I realize now that not every American realizes who is putting them through each and every fresh hell because our freedom of the press has been seriously curtailed. Revealing the dirty secrets of American war crimes put one Australian journalist, Julian Assange, into jail with a threatened 170 year sentence for treason. Yes, it's treasonous to publish news stories that reveal American politicians and officials for the war criminals they are. And if the war criminals in DC can slap an insane charge of treason on a journalist doing his job, you can imagine the charges they've cooked up to slap on us if we dare take our pitchforks to the streets in protest.

 When the French rose up at the end of the 18th century to protest numerous injustices inflicted upon them, they didn't let the fear of the militarized police stop them from punishing the aristocracy who had created the hell they were living in. Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake!" while the French people couldn't even afford to buy a loaf of bread. (Sound familiar?) The commoners responded with the right idea--they built the guillotine and deployed it. Yes, it's bloody and violent, but the detached head of a obscenely wealthy sociopath made their point quite well, don't you think?

Should struggling Americans do likewise? The guillotine dispatched quite a few members of the French establishment along with Marie Antoinette, but it saved many more who saw it as a symbol of how the workers wouldn't take any more shit from those who thought themselves "superior" to the working classes. These smart aristocrats buckled down and cooperated with the common folks, and France was changed. So the guillotine doesn't have to be used indiscriminately and widely to make its point. Just the thought that the abused people have no problems getting rid of their abusers can bring about change.

It's time for Americans to let the money-grubbing, duopolistic puppet-politicians know that our patience is wearing thin. It's time to stop wasting time arguing over "the lesser evil" and being distracted by their idle rich antics that have nothing to do with us and our lives. Whatever symbol We The People choose--the guillotine, the pitchfork, tar and feathers (our founders' favorite means of singling out sociopaths)--we need to post it everywhere. We need to post it along with the message that we are not inferior to those who hoard wealth and play God with our health and safety--and the health and safety of the planet and everyone else on it.

We The People, the workers, the commoners, the 99% are, in fact, their bosses. They need to do what we say or else. And we let them know in no uncertain terms they're going to be a head shorter if they don't.

Related Articles:

UN Food Chief Says Hell on Earth Looms From Hunger Crisis Triggered By Ukraine War  https://scheerpost.com/2022/06/18/un-food-chief-says-hell-on-earth-looms-from-hunger-crisis-triggered-by-ukraine-war/

"A Chilling Message to Journalists": UK Approves Assange Extradition to US https://truthout.org/articles/a-chilling-message-to-journalists-uk-approves-assange-extradition-to-us/

Medicare For All Could Have Prevented 338,000 Deaths in the US https://truthout.org/articles/medicare-for-all-could-have-prevented-338000-covid-deaths-in-the-us/

100 Million People In America Are Saddled With Health Care Debt https://popularresistance.org/100-million-people-in-america-are-saddled-with-health-care-debt/

"No Place For A Child" (The horrors child immigrants experience when they cross the southern border.) https://scheerpost.com/2022/06/18/no-place-for-a-child/

  "Revolting": Senate Panel Raises Biden's Bloated Military Budget By 45 Billion https://truthout.org/articles/revolting-senate-panel-raises-bidens-bloated-military-budget-by-45-billion/

US Secretly Reviews and Approves Israeli Airstrikes in Syria https://scheerpost.com/2022/06/17/report-us-secretly-reviews-and-approves-many-israeli-airstrikes-in-syria 

Chris Hedges: American Empire Is Finished (video) https://youtu.be/OW52qqlQiJQ 

The State of Politics From An Anti-Establishment Perspective (Direct Left Callin podcast) https://www.callin.com/episode/the-state-of-politics-from-an-anti-gQcWTfYQHQ

The Smear Campaign Against Independent Journalism (video) https://youtu.be/nkoIfWt4Z2k

New Global Movement Against Capitalism For Socialism https://popularresistance.org/international-peoples-assembly-new-global-movement-against-capitalism-for-socialism/

Seen on Twitter:

Trump didn't save shit. Biden isn't going to save shit. Wake up already.

— Brutal Regime Apocalyptic Dreams (@brutal_regime) June 18, 2022

Capitalism's instability hits us. Over centuries, crashes and inflations follow each other. No reforms, monetary or fiscal policies ever ended them. System change: now we need it more than ever.

— Richard D. Wolff (@profwolff) June 18, 2022

Some of the most dangerous and corrupt organizations in the world, like the DOD, the CDC, the IMF, the World Bank, the CIA and the FBI are hailed as pillars of safety and justice.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

— Just.A.Thought 💭 (@e_galv) June 18, 2022

Governments will do anything to preserve themselves in power.

— Just a communist who lives in Outer Space (@LizzieCosmos) June 18, 2022

We're cutting school lunches while expanding the military budget.

Make it make sense. https://t.co/VrKNEhBW2e

— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) June 18, 2022

This is the United States without any embargoes or sanctions. pic.twitter.com/7PaBEM9fQK

— 🅹🅾️🅴🆈աrecκ ☭ (@joeywreck) June 16, 2022

Poverty wages are violence.

— Communist Special Agent Dana Scully (@CommunistScully) June 19, 2022

*** 

In a near-future dystopian world, hope blossoms where mutual aid and democracy begins...

Zonta’s world is turned upside down when Jake arrives at the commune to investigate the disappearance of agents of the Authority. Can she persuade him to switch sides before the Protectors (antifascist fighters) take action?

Available now from Extasy Books: https://www.extasybooks.com/Where-the-Bodies-Lie 

Please buy direct from the small publisher and not via Amazon. Why? Amazon takes a huge percentage of the book's price and leaves very little for the publisher and author to share. Thanks.