Follow The Money

Follow the Money
by Cindy A. Matthews

 

When things don't make sense
And the world isn't as sweet as honey
I've found the fastest way to find life's answers
Is to simply follow the money.

All Americans need basic health care
To think otherwise really isn't funny
What good reason is there to deny folks such vital help?
Three short words: Follow the money. 

Our precious planet needs tender care

In extreme heat, glaciers become runny
Can't we save flora, fauna, land, water and air?
Ha, ha! Just follow the money.

Eternal wars for non-endless oil
While the sun shines free on days when it's sunny
Why sacrifice sons and daughters for dead end fossil fuels?
You got it--follow the money.

Things can't be all that simple, or so you say
I must have the brains of a daft bunny
But to connect the dots on what's going wrong in our world
Is easy--I just follow the money.

Click here to read about this outrageous price gouging for Muscular Dystrophy medication.

I didn't know what topic to cover this week--there are so many--but a thread that seemed to tie everything together came to me in a dream. Our world isn't  all that complicated when you look at people's motivations and you realize what is driving their decision-making. Once that's exposed, everything falls into place. 

It's not a million things going wrong in our economy, it's only one--and it's a pretty basic one. A  small handful of people are hoarding all the resources and money for themselves. If we can prevent them from behaving so selfishly with our resources and redistribute their unimaginably large stashes of wealth (primarily in non-taxable offshore accounts) back into our economy, things would improve immeasurably for all of humanity. 

Yes, this is a progressive democratic socialist idea, but then this is a blog created by supporters of a progressive democratic socialist. What did you expect? We like government of the people, by the people and for the people. (And we mean people not corporations.) We want to create a welcoming, compassionate society where all are cared for and wanted just because they're our fellow human beings, and it's the right thing to do. The idea of making money off of the sick and dying like Mr. Aronin does (see article link above) is anathema to us. Our philosophy isn't, "He who dies with the most toys wins!" It's along the lines of, "He who shares the most toys with his playmates wins because everyone wins."

My fellow blogger, Dirk Droll, takes a look at a controversial recent event and spots this underlying thread. By following the money, the DNC's choice of Tom Perez makes sense, doesn't it? Progressives leaving the Democratic Party in droves makes sense, too, doesn't it? (#DemExit is trending as well as #GreenEnter). Many Americans are following their hearts and working to build a better world for all. That way everyone wins!

***

The Bankster Bundle: Trump-Perez
by Dirk Droll


Back in November, I wrote the establishment had won the election. It’s nothing new, of course. The oligarchs have owned our politicians for decades and will continue to do so if we – the people – don’t start fighting back effectively. Rubber-stamping the establishment’s candidates on election day isn’t the way to fight back. Neither is losing ourselves in their dog-and-pony shows such as the current anti-Trump hysteria, which deflects us from the anti-establishment war we should be waging. Not that there aren’t terrible Trump deeds that need opposition, mind you; we just shouldn’t lose sight of the main target or let neo-liberal sell-outs place themselves at the front of our protests and marches to co-opt us.

Naturally, where the presidency was concerned, the establishment had already won the election back on July 26th when the cheating DNC installed the vastly unpopular establishment candidate Hillary Clinton as the “Democratic” nominee over the very popular people’s candidate Bernie Sanders. From that moment onward our country’s course was set for yet another establishment president (Clinton or Trump). Only a massive voter shift to the Green Party’s Jill Stein could have turned that ship around. 

But we voters apparently aren’t yet smart enough to break out of the Dem-Publican voter jail without a popular leader showing us the way. It’s time  we grew some brains — for example to build a third party for Bernie Sanders (or his close associates) to pull in millions of awakened voters who used to be part of the “Democratic” base but now know that the “Democratic” party has abandoned them. On the down-ballot ticket, we could still have accomplished a great deal in November by, for example, using the Berniecrats List for informed voting, a list I recommended repeatedly. It didn’t happen. 

Bloggers like Cindy and me, we spend our nightly hours trying to inform our fellow Americans, to share knowledge the corporate mainstream media denies us. Yet, so many people who could subscribe to our blogs and recommend them to their friends just don’t. Imagine if more people did, creating a chain reaction which would make all of us so much better informed... But I digress.

With the establishment winning our elections, the question arises if there are parts of the establishment rising above others. It's a question also instrumental in understanding the trends of change in our economy where traditional capitalism has moved on not only to crony capitalism (which buys up our government and uses it as a cash cow) but also casino capitalism. Rather than profiting from the building and running of productive industries, the biggest capitalists – who are top investment bankers – merely shift investments around, gamble with them on the stock markets, and manipulate commodity markets. The result is it sucks ever more prosperity and wealth out of every aspect of people’s lives until life itself becomes unaffordable to more and more of us. (There is a short article which illuminates one of the many dirty tricks they use. It’s a good entry into the subject to help open people’s eyes: Parasite Capitalism: The Economic Model of the 21st Century.)

So, in the economy banksters have risen to the top. The point I wish to make in

this article is  the same is true in our politics. Trump, the “swamp drainer,” has not only appointed so many billionaires that their combined net worth exceeds that of the bottom two-thirds of Americans, but he has literally stuffed cabinet positions and other appointments with banksters, especially from the one of the most criminal of investment banks, Goldman Sachs, whose Wikipedia entry looks like an FBI rap sheet.

Trump is clearly a close friend of the big banks or their straw man or even their puppet. That’s bad enough. But what about the alleged opposition, the “Democratic” Party? Well, we just had a new DNC chair elected for the “Democratic” Party—not democratically elected by the party’s base, of course— don’t ever expect democracy from the “Democratic” party or the GOP—the little known Tom Perez. 

What do we know about Perez and the banks? Personally, I haven’t been following his career, but there are some red flags. For example, ex-president Obama threw his weight around to shoe him into the contest when it looked that the Sanders-friendly Keith Ellison would get the position in spite of the fact  our oligarchy prefers Clinton-friendly, establishment operatives like Perez for the last three decades. That, if you recall Obama’s relationship with the big banks, is a clear link to the banksters. 

Remember how Obama adopted and continued George W. Bush’s bailout of the big banks (rather than bailing out the people) after they tanked the world’s economy? And how he used our (the people’s!) hard-earned tax dollars to do so? So  many of us lost our homes, jobs, pensions, and careers and he did next to nothing for us--and that wasn’t all! Unlike in prior bubble bursts, none of the culprits went to jail. Obama’s administration saw to that. Indictments were not even attempted. 

Obama, who had received massive campaign contributions from the banksters in 2008 as the banking crisis was brewing, and who – just like Trump – made many bankster appointments, and who gave Goldman Sachs a $20 billion tax dollar gift (a handsome return on their 2008 campaign investment of $994,795 wouldn’t you say?), was a straw man of the big banks in the Oval Office just like Trump is now. The banksters are holding the new administration and the DNC’s chairmanship in their hands. Winners across the board. And we, the people, have once again lost across the board.

Oh, and if you think that the link I just described is weak, a brief internet search quickly reveals more links of Tom Perez to the banks. He has an established record of not taking on the banks, both at the Department of Justice and the Department of Labor. An article in The Intercept goes over Perez’ record and concludes: “Both Perez and Ellison support pro-labor policies. But Ellison shows that he also wants to oppose concentrated financial power. Perez represents the finance-friendly status quo that has relegated Democrats to minority status.”
 
 I hope you will keep the fire in you burning to fight our corrupt establishment, and that you will share information like this with your friends and family and anyone else you have political conversations with. Let them know what is happening behind the scenes. This blog, and mine, are regular sources for information and analysis which can keep us all informed and shape our strategy for pushback as well as a vision for a better world. I urge you to revisit (better, yet subscribe or follow by email) and refer your friends and family as well.

Bio: Dirk Droll blogs for a better world on his own Beanstock’s World and other sites.

***

The Cynical Optimist -- Lee Camp Live!

wobbly words and photos by C. A. Matthews

If you ever get a chance to see comedian Lee Camp perform in person, I highly recommend you take it and go. Raise money by selling your comic book collection or recycle metal car bumpers thrown away because their owners couldn't get the Trump stickers off them, but do anything you have to in order to get there. Better yet, go to Lee's web site, LeeCamp.net, and vote for Lee to come to your city and perform for you and your friends. (This is the direct link: LeeCamp.net/schedule. )Be sure to tell a few dozen of your friends to vote for your city as well. (If you can't think of a particular city to vote for, vote for Toledo. We'll be eternally grateful if you do.)

Most progressives know Lee from his TV show Redacted Tonight and his podcast, Moment of Clarity. If you've never experienced his humor before, you are in for a treat. Lee and company's weekly compendium of news and views is hysterically funny and extremely informative. In other words, you can laugh and cry at the same time and feel great afterward in spite of the fact an idiotic, Cheeto-faced, tiny-handed Twitterer currently resides in the White House (when not in Florida).

We saw Lee perform in Cleveland, and his opening act was a fantastic young comedian named Krish Mohan. I have to say I really relate to Krish's experiences as an immigrant on a playground at age eight. I was an immigrant of sorts myself at that age, having moved to the North from the South, complete with Southern accent, cross-eyes and lisp. (At least I didn't have the beard.) Kids can be so cruel at times. 

 

Lee took command of the stage after Krish and didn't let up on the hilarity for over an hour. Nothing is sacred. Things might sound bleak, yet Lee is a self-professed "cynical optimist." He points out the insanity in our world in order to to help us all become just a bit more sane. After going through an intensely personal pat down by T.S.A. security at the airport, Lee wonders why they can't at least trade emails. Also, why don't politicians discuss "hamster wheels"?  And what really was in that Elmer's glue in art class we as kids enjoyed consuming? Does eating paste and our manipulative corporate media explain the dumbing down of Americans?

 Progressives need to share Lee's insights with others to help them remain awake and aware of what is going on in our country and on our planet. We need more commentators like Lee and company to keep us all on our toes, so be sure to like and subscribe to Redacted Tonight at You Tube and vote for him to come and perform in your city at LeeCamp.net/schedule. 

To quote Lee: Keep fighting! 

Not Another Brick in the Wall

Not Another Brick in the Wall

by Cindy A. Matthews

"All in all, you're just another brick in the wall." --Pink Floyd

2016 was a year of protest in the US. Every week there was some kind of a protest--from Democracy Spring to Ferguson to Standing Rock... 2017 promises more of the same. A helluva lot more. With Trump's narcissistic personality disorder, we're assured of  protests from day one.

This is a good thing. It demonstrates that more Americans are awake and aware of what is going on in their government and their society. It demonstrates people care passionately about causes, and they are willing to sacrifice their time, energy and safety (and possibly their lives) to make a better world for all people. It exemplifies the old adage: "When the going gets tough--the tough get going."

But how do we continue to fight the good fight when day after day the forces of the evil empire of oligarchs seem to grow?  The wall of the oligarchy's wealth grows higher and higher, until one day it might actually manifest itself in a physical wall, such as the one they want to build along the US-Mexican border. They want to wall all others out and wall us, the slave laborers, in. They want us to become the lowly bricks in their wall of conglomeration and incorporation, to bolster the endless profits which fly into their tax-free, off-shore bank accounts. 

We ordinary workers are to become passionless and faceless as bricks, without the means to see the whole structure of the oligarchs' greed and selfishness. Once we're cemented into their "wall of shame," we will become like their stone hearts, cold and unfeeling. We won't ever strive to change our world. We will become dead to its and our own suffering. That's the way the oligarchs like it. 

A recent speaker at Our Revolution in Northwest Ohio told us the story of an individual who refused to become yet another brick in the oligarchs' wall. Tish O'Dell lives in a nice suburb of Cleveland, Broadview Heights. This small city is fortunate enough to have ninety fracking wells and their accompanying fracking wastewater ponds full of toxic chemicals. (Yes, that's 90 fracking wells and not 9!) Residents reported many illnesses and earthquakes, but no one in government took their side against the frackers. Tish didn't give up. She organized community members, and they protested and worked hard to amend their city charter to ban fracking within the city limits. The charter initiative passed. 

Of course, a higher court later struck the amendment down, but its legacy remains. There have been no new fracking wells drilled in Broadview Heights since their charter was amended.  The fracking industry knows the people of Broadview Heights won't take another invasion of their town lying down. The people of Broadview Heights have built their own "wall" and together they stand as "living bricks" to prevent further degradation of their town by the oligarchs of the fracking industry. 

Better still, other Ohio cities have followed their example to ban fracking. The spread of fracking has been slowed. While it may not be seen as a total victory, it's a battle won in the opening salvo of a war to protect the people's health and safety.

In this coming year of protests, keep the example of Tish and her community in mind. Your small steps can make a difference, so get out there and protest and work for change. Start fighting the battle your town, group or organization truly believes in. Build a "wall of resistance" against the greed of the oligarchs. 

To quote Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party: "We are the change we've been looking for." That means us. We've gotta change things for the better. Remember what Bernie Sanders said? Not me Us.

Don't let the fascistic oligarchs use you and cast you onto the faceless brick pile of their wall of avarice. Throw your brick of community through the window of their souls. Smash their greed! Expose their corruption! Fight for the greater good! The political revolution needs all the bricks of change it can get. 

Be the change, and we'll see you on the front lines.

And now, we take a look across that mythical wall proposed by Trump and what we could learn from our fellow human beings south of the border...

A Look Across Trump’s Wall
by Dirk Droll

a.k.a. Beanstock

http://bibliolist.com/candidate-financials/

  
Are you dreaming about Trump’s proposed wall on our southern border? In the light of our dying or dead democracy up here in the United States, it can be quite interesting to look south.

While we are held hostage by a bee's nest of corruption, built and upheld by robber billionaires and their utterly corrupt minions in the political and journalistic classes who are part of the gentry and middle nobility in our quasi-feudal society, our neighbors in the south are showing us what can happen when the people get utterly disgusted and angry enough to act.

In recent years,  our war-mongering and regime-changing oligarchs were preoccupied elsewhere (especially the Middle East because of its delicious oil--yum!), although one must note our Hillary-supported 2009 military coup of a democratically elected government in Honduras [article 1][article 2][article 3] . Some of our southern neighbors managed to make progress on the path to democracy from which we could learn something. 

Two examples: Recently, Guatemala’s corrupt president was forced out of office and jailed, and, at the moment, Venezuela (much decried as a commie country under Chavez in our corporate media) actually has it written in its constitution that the people (yes, the people, not unreliable representatives on a gravy train) can impeach the president and trigger an automatic election. All they need is enough signatures. Imagine that!

If you examine just how much our oligarchs and their wholly-owned government meddle south of our border, one has to essentially look upon Latin American nations as unrecognized states in our union. And, impressively, despite of our federal government’s reprisals, these southern brothers and sisters in our jointly suffered plight make advances towards democracy we could learn from. 

Perhaps, instead of Trump’s wall, we should build a highway?

BIO: Dirk Droll writes the thought-provoking Beanstock's World blog. Read it and follow him at https://beanstocksworld.wordpress.com/

The following related news items will raise eyebrows and blood pressure...

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/41231-sources-trump-will-ask-congress-not-mexico-to-pay-for-border-wall 

 From The Guardian:
"In Trump we see a perfect fusion of the two main uses of celebrity culture: corporate personification and mass distraction. His celebrity became a mask for his own chaotic, outsourced and unscrupulous business empire. His public image was the perfect inversion of everything he and his companies represent. As presenter of the US version of The Apprentice, this spoilt heir to humongous wealth became the face of enterprise and social mobility. During the presidential elections, his noisy persona distracted people from the intellectual void behind the mask, a void now filled by more lucid representatives of global capital."   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/20/celebrity-corporate-machine-fame-big-business-donald-trump-kim-kardashian



It's time... 

We'll be seeing you in the coming weeks in the streets, in the state houses, at the inauguration, on the pipelines routes... The time is now. We are the change we've been looking for. We are the Revolution. Don't become another brick in the wall--smash it! (And be sure to share your stories and photos with us at Our Revolution Continues. We like to know what all you've been doing.)

The following parody of Pink Floyd's The Wall gives us a fuller picture of "Trump's wall" and why we need to stop it before it can be built. 

Power to the people--not the oligarchy!

 

America Is An Oil Company With An Army

photo by Anthony Curi

America Is An Oil Company With An Army

by Cindy A. Matthews
color protest photos by Adrian J. Matthews

It's Election Day--but we're not going to talk about the election this week. By the time you read this, you probably have voted already, so what's left to say? If by chance you're waiting in line to vote or haven't left home to do so yet, and you're looking for some guidance, please go to the sidebar and hit the "Home" link and scroll down and read numerous pieces written by progressive thinkers over the past year. We've shared our thoughts with you, but now you're on your own.

 Good luck and remember to always vote your conscience. Don't let the bullies tell you you're "wasting your vote." Think, perhaps it's the bullies who have wasted theirs by voting for a fellow bully?

This week we're concentrating on what sort of America we'll have in spite of  the person who sits in the Oval Office.  We're looking at who is truly calling the shots in our government. Surprise! It's not the president, it's not the Congress, and it's not the Supreme Court, either.  As a very insightful meme says: "America is an oil company with an army."

Our corporate masters of the one-percent are our true leaders, and they've decreed that drilling or fracking for oil and gas is the most important thing in the world. It's even more important than the lives of the people they wish to sell their products to, which makes no sense really since once we've gone extinct... Theirs is truly a warped philosophy. Big Oil must make trillions in profits at the expense of the planet and its climate, at the expense of the people's health and safety, and at the expense of the peace of the nations. Once you've come to accept this as your Gospel, nothing else matters. 

Not all accept this "religion of oil," however. A group of fifty Ohioans braved the rush hour traffic and the car exhaust and took a stand against Big Oil's twisted logic recently. They stood on a busy highway in front of an Ohio State Highway Patrol office near Toledo Express Airport, carrying signs indicating their displeasure with Ohio Governor John Kasich (a former Republican presidential candidate) and his decision to send 37 Ohio state troopers to North Dakota to terrorize the peaceful water protectors at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. 

The protestors didn't know how their message would be received by the general public, but they boldly stood up for the civil rights of their fellow Americans anyway. In the end, they were rewarded with quite a few honks of agreement and thumbs up. Plenty of  reporters showed up and taped interviews and snapped photos. Even the local troopers were polite and accommodating of the protest. Not everyone has drunk the Kool-Aid of Big Oil it seems after all.

Our Revolution is in its early days still, but now isn't the time to hesitate. Now is the time to start making those signs and marching in those parades and chanting slogans to passers-by. Now is the time to win the hearts and souls of our fellow citizens, to shout at them to stay awake and remain vigilant. Now is not the time to simply turn over and go back to sleep and allow the oligarchs to continue their stranglehold on hurting peoples everywhere and our planet's very existence.

Forget the election and the villains it gave rise to. They're worth forgetting. But never forget what our purpose in life truly is--it's to take care of each other. Get out there and take action to make the world a better place for all. 

To quote Jill Stein: "It's in our hands." To paraphrase Bernie Sanders: "Let's make it a future to believe in."


There are many ways to help the water protectors at Standing Rock. The video below gives you some ideas, and the next story provides contact information for you to let those responsible for this travesty know how you feel.

  

Mni Wiconi--Water is Sacred: 

A Peace Gathering for Standing Rock

A crowd of about 80 turned out on a sunny autumn afternoon in the college town of Bowling Green, Ohio, to send prayers and well-wishes to the people of Standing Rock.  Native Americans, college professors, environmentalists, students, and an environmental lawyer and a city council member shared their thoughts about what is happening on the reservation. They gave insights, history, science and legal information we can act upon to close down the Dakota Access pipeline and others like it, such as Ohio's Nexus pipeline (planned to cross under the Maumee River), once and for all.

The irony of the DAPL is that its original route was to go north of the Standing Rock  Sioux Reservation, but the residents of the capital city of Bismarck didn't want it routed their way. It was seen as "unsafe," and so an alternate route near the reservation was chosen instead. History repeats itself as rich whites in Bismarck avoid the threat to their water supply, and they put their poorer Native American neighbors' water supply at risk. To date this year, North Dakota alone has experienced 273 uncontained oil spills and 908 contained spills, demonstrating the water protectors' very real fear of contamination of the Missouri River by a possible pipeline accident.

More than 250 tribes have traveled to the camps at Standing Rock to show their solidarity with the Sioux nation. UN monitors and the ACLU have also traveled there to watch and note any excessive use of law enforcement against the activists, including the use of pepper spray, water cannons, rubber bullets and attack dogs.

Navajo nation flag

Everyone is encouraged to keep sharing Standing Rock information and news on all social media platforms, since the mainstream media is ignoring what is happening to the water protectors. Contacting our government officials, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the pipeline builders, Energy Transfer Partners, is also encouraged.

Protests, parades and fundraising concerts to help out Standing Rock's legal and other expenses were discussed after the program.  Donations of camping equipment, food, hygiene products and clothing are being accepted for the camps and will be transported there by volunteers leaving soon. Winter is coming, and the supplies will be needed. More information on how to help out the water protectors directly can be found at www.standwithstandingrock.net
 

Let your voice be heard! Please contact the politicians and business leaders listed below and let them know how you feel about the treatment of the water protectors at the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Governor John Kasich (Ohio): 614-466-3555 and request the 37 Ohio State Troopers sent to Standing Rock be brought home immediately.

The White House: 202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414. Tell President Obama to rescind the Army Corps of Engineers' Permit for the DAPL.

 

Jack Dalrymple, governor of North Dakota: (701) 328-2200, www.governor.nd.gov/contact-us    

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, 701-667-3330, kyle.kirchmeier@mortonnd.org    

 

Army Corps of Engineers (demand that they reverse the permit allowing the Dakota Access Pipeline): (202) 761-5903

 Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary of the Army Corp of Engineers: joellen.darcy@us.army.mil, (703)697-8986
 

Energy Transfer Partners (Builders of the DAPL):
 

Lee Hanse, executive vice president: (210) 403-6455, Lee.Hanse@energytransfer.com  
 

Glenn Emery, vice president: (210) 403-6762, Glenn.Emery@energytransfer.com  
 

Michael Cliff Waters, lead analyst: (713) 989-2404 

Seven things to do for Standing Rock:
www.thenation.com/article/seven-things-you-can-do-to-help-fight-the-dakota-access-pipeline/
   
Sign up to go to Standing Rock--they need you there!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSef4Xjn-tckbx7dgpIub9PiuXIGwPxEUdfZ9ih2kwwr0BeslQ/viewform?c=0&w=1.