Showing posts with label guillotines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guillotines. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Resolved: Capitalism Must Die

Resolved: Capitalism Must Die

by C. A. Matthews   

  

Most New Year’s resolutions aren’t kept for more than a month. Six weeks tops. Those resolutions to lose weight, get more exercise, quit bad-mouthing the boss behind his back will all be forgotten by the time Valentine’s Day rolls around. It doesn’t mean they aren’t noble goals. It just means we’re human, and we humans tend to forget things and move on to deal with other, more pressing challenges as time goes by.
 
There are some resolutions, however, that aren’t so quickly forgotten. This is one of them: Capitalism must die.
That capitalism, the corrupt economic system of dealing with each others’ basic needs, must go away for the good of all is a no-brainer. A heating planet inundated with greenhouse gases caused by ceaseless pollution to maintain growing profit margins for capitalists won't be able to sustain any of us forever. Haunting images of millions of our fellow human beings struggling to feed themselves and their loved ones isn’t something most moral individuals can ever forget. Driving by a person sleeping rough on a city sidewalk in the middle of a frigid winter isn’t something easily ignored.


At least it shouldn’t be.


You’d be amazed at how many Americans do just that—ignore the horrific suffering surrounding them like it’s an everyday occurrence of no consequence. Well, it is an everyday occurrence, as the number of homeless and hungry grows daily in the US, but it’s not an occurrence of no consequence that should be forgotten as easily as a New Year’s resolution to play more tennis or take up golf. The suffering of others should be seared into our minds, branded onto our subconscious, melded into what little conscience some of us still possess.

Why? Why should people living comfortable lives in comfortable homes with comfortable jobs and hobbies be forced to think of others who aren't as "blessed" as they are? Think about what happens to those who have plenty. They live their luxurious lifestyles in the midst of those who have little to nothing, those who live an evermore precarious existence. At some point something’s going to give—and a starving person with no place to call home and holes in their shoes has nothing left to lose.

That’s when the pitchforks and guillotines (or their modern equivalents) come out. That’s when things get extremely messy and not-so-pretty. It won’t be a casual day on the tennis court or a drinks at the club after a round of golf, in other words. People will get hurt. Badly hurt. Many will be killed.


“Sure,” you say. “I’ve got my AR-15 and plenty of ammo in the closet. I know the cops will always be on our side because I live in a gated mansion-fortress on the right side of town with those of my kind, the ones who always remember to tip their bodyguards and support the ever-increasing police-military industrial complex budget. We can ride out the invading storm of millions of malnourished, under-armed, tent city bums in our nuclear bunkers in New Zealand if we have to. What can the poor do to us, the rich, the powerful, the ones perpetually on top?”
What indeed. I’m sure King Louis and Marie Antoinette felt the same all the way up until the moment they heard a swoosh! and felt a bit of a breeze on the back of their necks.


That capitalism is failing and will fail isn’t even argued anymore by most economists. They just argue over the timing and the effects the turn-around to another system will bring to our society. A failed capitalist state can easily fall into a fascist dictatorship as it can transform into a more democratic, socialistic society. 
Billionaire capitalists can use brute force to ensconce themselves and their corporations into the police-military-industrial complex and rule from there with an iron fist. The masses dying of disease, hunger, and as cannon-fodder in endless wars for oil, lithium, farmland, silicon chips (i.e., “resources”) is to be expected and actually is considered desirable by capitalists.

"Well, they (the poor, the disadvantaged) should hurry up and die and rid us of the surplus population," says Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens' A Christmas Carol.


Sound familiar?
 
But a failed capitalist state doesn’t have to go that route if it’s directed toward a more peaceful and just path. One of the first and biggest steps those of us dedicated to end this unjust system must take is taking up the cause of peace. All wars—covert, overt, coups d'etat, civil wars, police violence against the public—must be stopped. It’s the only way to shut down the police-military industrial complex. If there is no need to build more weapons of death and no hunger for building more instruments of destruction, then resources wasted on such inhumane pursuits can be directed toward more constructive purposes.

You probably can name a few of those purposes: ending world hunger, ending homelessness, meeting the challenge of the climate crisis, extending health care and education to all in need…


If your New Year resolution is to help to bring about positive changes in the world, then join me and millions of others working for a day when capitalism and endless war is no more. March in the streets. Demand peace. Campaign to end suffering through meeting basic human needs. Share your knowledge and compassion with those unlike yourself. 
 
Sure, your tennis courts or your golf courses might eventually become full of people not all one color or ethnic background, but it will at last reflect the magnificent diversity found on our planet Earth.

Related Links:

Free Audio Book--Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins https://youtu.be/ySefPIZaYT0 

Free Book--War is a Racket by Major Gen. Smedley Butler https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

Rage Against the War Machine -- Rally in Washington DC, February 19, 2023  https://rageagainstwar.com/

Defense Contractor Shares Surge as US Doubles NATO Arm Sales https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/12/30/glzw-d30.html

On the Influence of Neo-Nazism in Ukraine https://scheerpost.com/2022/12/30/on-the-influence-of-neo-nazism-in-ukraine/ 

How the War in Ukraine Could Have Been Prevented Decades Ago https://scheerpost.com/2022/02/24/not-one-inch-eastward-how-the-war-in-ukraine-could-have-been-prevented-decades-ago/ 

The Understated Effects of Nuclear War on the World https://scheerpost.com/2022/08/15/the-understated-effects-of-nuclear-war-on-the-world/ 

The Boot https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-boot.html

The Benefits of World Hunger https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-benefits-of-world-hunger.html

The Business Model of Empire https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-business-model-of-empire.html 

I'm Sorry You Can't Afford to Be Alive https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2021/08/im-sorry-you-cant-afford-to-be-alive.html 

Exploited People https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2022/01/exploited-people.html

Seen on Twitter:

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

The Top Ten Things That Could Trigger The Revolution

 


The Top Ten Things That Could Trigger The Revolution

(In No Particular Order)

The Price of Gasoline Hits $25 Per Gallon in the US

This often-mentioned scenario seems a sure bet to bring about an uprising of the workers against the bourgeoisie. The trigger doesn’t even necessarily have to be gasoline or heating costs or the price of bread or milk or medicine like insulin, either. Some consumer item that the vast majority of Americans need and can’t go without for long will hit an all-time record high price and nobody will be able to get to work or school or feed their families or simply stay alive. Surely that sort of deprivation would make people angry enough to get them off their couches and out into the streets to start a revolution, right?

Combined with a General Strike, an outraged populace that demands the means of production and the public utilities, such as water, natural gas, electricity, and even internet access, be placed in the hands of the people has all the markings of a successful revolution causing the complete downfall of our current corrupt economic system. The end of for-profit enterprises that control basic human rights, such as the right to health care, the right to food and shelter, and the right not to freeze in the winter or bake to death in the summer can’t come soon enough.


A Wide-Scale Plague or The Complete Destruction of Our Environment Kills Millions

Too late—this trigger has already occurred. Look outside your window. Do you see anyone protesting about how over a million Americans needlessly have died (and are still dying) due to COVID-19 or Long COVID? No, you’re more likely to see people staring at you if you continue to mask-up for your own protection in crowded public places. You’re more likely to read social media posts complaining about the “Vaccination Conspiracy” than you are to see Americans livid about how we still don’t have universal health care. Family members and friends dropping over dead prematurely obviously doesn’t make the majority of Americans mad at America's for-profit/for-the-people's-suffering healthcare industry.

Extinction Rebellion is working hard to make more Americans aware of just how dire a state our environment is in, but the mainstream media outlets choose to ignore those stories. Instead, we’re more likely to see and read stories about how hard-working the fossil fuel and nuclear power industries are, and that it’s okay to pay $5 or more a gallon to fuel your car because it means “freedom and democracy” in another God-forsaken, fossil fuel-filled country. TV weather-persons smile and casually pronounce statements such as, “This temperature breaks our record for most days above 100 degrees in a single summer,” without batting an eyelash. Until more Americans actually suffer and die because they can’t afford air conditioning or home heating, climate change will never be “real” to them. Alas, by the time they do become angry enough to revolt over the destruction of our environment because of the capitalists’ insatiable greed, we'll all be totally screwed. Which leads us to our next trigger...

The Petrodollar Totally Collapses, Green Energy Reigns, and the Beauty of MMT Shines Through

Saudi Arabia doesn’t care if it sells the US oil anymore—at least not in the way we want them to buy and sell oil to us and others. Few Americans realize that there is nothing backing up our currency except what we say it is worth in regards to—yeah, you guessed it—petroleum. There is no gold or silver in our vaults backing up the cash that our treasury prints or simply puts into zeroes and ones on a bank computer. It’s just so much worthless paper. (Read up on MMT or Modern Monetary Theory to see what I mean.)

When the Earth becomes too warm or too stormy because of Western nations burning fossil fuels for the past two hundred years, we will have to kick the fossil fuel habit. Petroleum will be worthless as will our money. Americans will be freed from a market economy that works only for the very rich. This could very well bring about a semi-peaceful revolution if those in charge graciously give up the game that somehow human beings come with price tags, and we all agree to work together in order to feed and nurture each other and build a society based upon green energy sources and practices instead. But then...

Somebody in a Position of Power Will Say Something Really, Really Stupid

I can see how Marie Antoinette saying to the French masses “Let them eat cake!” could piss them off and cause them to get out the pitchforks and guillotines. “Let them eat cake!” is insulting, and it rubs salt in the wounds of those who are hungry and struggling. But many powerful people say stupid, insulting, wounding things on a daily basis in the US, and the revolution hasn’t begun yet. 

Just recently, Joe Biden sent billions of dollars to a proxy war in Ukraine so that ordinary Ukrainians could “have something in their pockets” without once blinking an eye at how that stupid, cruel statement sounded to poor, struggling Americans. He and his friends in their half of the duopoly claimed that they would give all Americans “$2,000 relief checks” but only $1,400 was forthcoming. The guillotines are still in their sheds. So saying stupid things, doing stupid things, and outright gaslighting and lying is nothing new. No one marches in the streets for very long about anything any American politician says. Maybe something else is needed?

The War Machine Will Figure It’s Time to Drop “The Bomb”

This could start—and end—the revolution in one day. I’ll say the threat of starting a nuclear war is more likely to upset a lot of people and possibly stir things up enough to get a multitude of protesters into the streets. But lately there are some pundits who state that nuclear war is winnable or claim that radiation isn’t all that lethal—at least it’s not lethal to them and theirs they figure. That’s probably because they are part of the elites who own underground bunkers in remote places like New Zealand. When you have such a vast disparity between “haves” (with bunkers) and “have nots” (the rest of us) does it make revolution impossible or inevitable if any country intentionally or accidentally drops a nuke on another country?

The War Profiteers Decide That Class Warfare Is Good for Business

This unsettling scenario takes the reality of our world and allows the war machine to twist it into its own sick and greedy end. And it’s the ultimate in cynicism. The capitalists figure that it’s easier to make money by watching the class divide widen and the poor and the rich become even more antagonistic and violent toward one another. The arms manufacturers sit back on the sidelines and sell arms to everyone… Because money is money and capitalists know no morality.

The revolution that takes place in this case most likely won’t be one where the working classes end up on top. War Profiteers won’t let their class lose. This means those with the most armaments and mercenaries will force their viewpoint upon the losers using violent and oppressive means. A military dictatorship would form and the corrupt system of capitalism will flourish the way it has for the past several hundred years in the West. Really, it’s just more of the same. We won’t know any different unless...

The Mainstream Media Pundits Tire of Shoveling Bullsh*t at Us (and Everyone Wakes Up to the Propaganda and Revolts)

I’m hopeful this scenario will happen sooner rather than later, but I’m a realist. When you have talking heads on TV news channels like Rachel Maddow making $30 million plus yearly, you’ve got a lot of greedy people who are willing to put their journalistic integrity to sleep. Can you blame them? It’s so easy to let the CIA and the Ministry of Truth give you your talking points, isn’t it? 

The best we can hope for at the present time is to wake up as many people as possible by introducing them to independent journalism and refuting the lies put out by the MSM. Rad Indie Media is one such website where you can find links to many articles and podcasts that the mainstream media can’t be bothered with. But without an open mind will those who have been spoon-fed government propaganda for decades be able to learn to think for themselves? It might take a miracle or...

Aliens or Time Travelers from an Alternate Reality Arrive and Bring About World Equality and Peace

Wishful thinking, but maybe, just maybe, there’s somebody out there who wants us to survive as a species and are willing to come here and do all the heavy lifting. You wouldn’t believe how many people are hoping and praying for this to happen. Then again, maybe you’re one of them. Keep the faith but also keep fighting. If I were an alien (the thin, gray, big-eyed kind, not the undocumented kind likely to be deported) I would skip Earth and go elsewhere to find intelligent and compassionate life. Because until we demonstrate that we humans really care about each other, why should other life forms from other worlds give a sh*t about us?

Mutual Aid Networks and Other Community-Based Organizations Support the Working Classes as the Ruling Classes Fade Away

This is the sunniest of all scenarios when it comes to a peaceful revolution that replaces the death-worshiping, capitalist society in which we currently reside. The workers work around the dysfunctional system and take care of each other via mutual aid networks while the society of the 1% gradually falls apart through their own lack of cooperation. 

Don’t worry, though. It’s possible that some of the super-wealthy will catch on and join the rest of us in sharing food, shelter, clothing, medicines and other aid. Maybe they feel trapped in those big mansions and yachts? You'll never know unless you try to liberate them from their prisons of wealth.

And number ten? That’s where you come in. Tell us what you think will be the defining moment, the trigger, that will lead Americans into a second revolution, a revolution of the proletariat, the workers, bringing about a more just and equitable society. Leave your comments below and don’t be afraid to come up with more positive scenarios. We could all do with some cheering up in these dark autumn days.

Power to the people!


Related Articles:

How America's Descent Into A Failed State Will Happen, Step by Step https://rainershea.substack.com/p/how-americas-descent-into-a-failed  

The Chris Hedges Report: Trauma, Addiction and Illness Under Capitalism  https://scheerpost.com/2022/10/16/the-chris-hedges-report-dr-gabor-mate-on-trauma-addiction-and-illness-under-capitalism

Patrick Lawrence: The Non-West Coalesces  https://scheerpost.com/2022/10/16/patrick-lawrence-the-non-west-coalesces/

The Profoundly Stupid Narrative That Nuclear Brinkmanship is Safety and De-Escalation is Danger https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-profoundly-stupid-narrative-that 

The Capitalist State Is Deathly Afraid of Losing the Information War  https://rainershea.substack.com/p/the-capitalist-state-is-deathly-afraid

 

Seen on Twitter:

 

Tuesday, June 21, 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:

*** 

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.

 

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

What Value Human Life?

What a time to be alive! What a time to have a government that cherishes you so much that it's willing to do whatever it takes to keep you safe and well! What a time to be sold a line of complete and utter bull hockey!

That's our guest blogger's take on recent events. What value human life? And if human life has no intrinsic value, what then?

https://youtu.be/4IrZbcwRLKM 

What Value Human Life?
by Redd Phlagg

Before I go into my usual rant mode, I just want to say one thing: If you think it's a good idea to share your coronavirus germs with others because you believe something invisible couldn't possibly be lethal or it simply doesn't exist in your reality, then get the hell off this page right now. This blog piece is for intelligent individuals who understand the basics of germ theory and know how to come in out of the rain during a thunderstorm. 

Are the anti-masker "covidiots" all gone now? Good. Now let's talk freely, we the intelligent adults left in the room.

How much is a human life worth? After I read an article or watch something put out by the mainstream media lately, my best guess is "not a whole helluva lot." Human life is cheap. And plentiful. Obviously it is, or else our government would be taking this pandemic business a whole lot more seriously than they have since the start of it in the US.


I'll be honest here--if you've been labeled an "essential worker" in the US, then that means you're essentially screwed because you work a job that puts you at risk for catching the coronavirus and for spreading it to others. Your life only has "value" in so far as it helps your bosses make profits. And don't kid yourself--if the bosses could replace you with a robot or an android they probably would, but we're not quite there yet in 2020.

Flesh and blood is still cheap and easy to get, but who knows if that'll be the case in the next few years. With fewer human beings on the planet due to COVID-19, the value of human life might go up. The bodies of the working classes might just become the spare parts supplier for the rich and comfortable who are in need of a new kidney or liver or heart or lungs. And lung transplants will become even more commonplace in the future since coronavirus causes severe damage to the lungs. And hearts. And kidneys. And livers.

I think you understand what I'm saying here. We have about the same value as livestock does. Today's cow is tomorrow's hamburger.

Surely our children's lives have worth you say, right? We would never put our babies in harm's way. No, never! You think not? Let's take a look at what's happening in a place where apparently the devil loves to fiddle and steal souls according to the popular Charlie Daniels' song.

Simply reporting unsafe conditions in your very own high school has become a hot topic in the state of Georgia (and probably elsewhere--particularly in the south and west, a.k.a. "Trumpistan"). Georgia State House Representative Beth Moore's recent Twitter feed attests to this uproar after brave high schoolers took photos documenting conditions in their school.
I've set up a whistleblower email - reportmyschool@gmail.com - for #Georgia students, teachers & admins to share photos, videos & testimonials of unsafe conditions at school. I'll give you the anonymous cover you need if you've been threatened w/ "consequences." #gapol #paulding
I'm going to start sharing copies of the emails I'm receiving from verified teachers who wish to remain anonymous. This teacher adds, "My principal is wonderful and I feel she is being pushed to do things that she knows aren’t right or feasible either."

Worst testimony so far - from a verified teacher in a North #Georgia School District: "I am planning for 27 students in my tiny classroom. They are not making masks mandatory. My principal is joking to people that this is 'god's cleansing plan'."
Excuse me? Did a principal say "god's cleansing plan" in regards to the life and health of their students and teachers/staff? I think it might be part of  "god's cleansing plan" to kick this heartless principal to the curb and make sure they  are never allowed to be responsible for the health, safety and education of children ever again.

Here's Rep. Moore tweeting again after a parent went on a rant about wanting to send their children to school in person and labeling those advocating coronavirus safety measures as extremists:
https://twitter.com/MooreForGeorgia/status/1292321503057518598?s=2
Ok let's try this again: Those who want to keep their kids in face-to-face instruction should be *the most furious* about schools not following safety protocol. Why shame and silence the very people trying to keep your kids safe & our classrooms open? I don't get it. #Hypocrisy 
https://twitter.com/MooreForGeorgia/status/1292321503057518598?s=20
https://twitter.com/MooreForGeorgia/status/1292321503057518598?s=20
See what I mean about only conversing with intelligent adults on this topic? The parents who want to put their children at the most risk of contracting this virus are the ones yelling the loudest for the relaxing of rules implemented to prevent the virus from spreading.
 
Maybe these anti-mask parents don't give a rat's ass about their children's health and safety? Maybe they'd rather take less tax deductions next year? I don't know--and I don't get it. Surely if there's any chance of their child becoming ill or bringing home a virus that could cause another family member to contract a potentially lethal or debilitating illness they'd want to prevent it from happening in the first place, and they'd be okay with their kids doing online schooling for another few months.

But I guess not, if the covidiots are to be believed. "Masks kill! You'll die of carbon dioxide poisoning! It's child abuse to make my student wear a mask!" they shout in all caps on their Tweeter feeds. Their actions betray their beliefs. Human life has no value to them, whether it's an elder in a nursing home, a working person in a factory or hospital or school, or a young adult attending college or high school or children and toddlers in grade school and daycare.

 
We know there are lots of Americans out there who don't love their neighbors, but I just wished the current administration wasn't salivating at the thought of burying so many of us so early as well.



The only solution to this problem is to demonstrate to the cretins in power how much we value ourselves--even if they don't value us in return. We value our lives so much that we're willing to risk them in order to restore some semblance of democracy to our beleaguered nation.  And if we don't get justice in the form of universal health care, UBI for the millions of unemployed, and safe schooling for our students and teachers, then we show the oligarchs just how little we value their lives by giving them a close shave with a guillotine. 

It's a now or never moment. If we don't value human life, we will lose it. We can't afford those who don't value human life to have the upper hand anymore. It's killing us. It has needlessly killed so very many of us in these past five months. What more can I say to convince you?

Related articles:

School That Suspended Student Documenting Lack of Social Distancing Goes Virtual
https://truthout.org/articles/school-that-suspended-student-documenting-lack-of-social-distancing-goes-virtual/

Nearly 100,000 Children Test Positive for Coronavirus in the Past Two Weeks https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8609847/Nearly-100-000-children-test-positive-coronavirus-past-two-weeks.html

New Zealand Marks 100th Day With No Reported Cases of Coronavirus
https://abc13.com/6362502/


BIO: Self-described "Rant Master" Redd Phlagg has come to the conclusion that our government exists only to enrich the lackeys of the corporations. Redd isn't taking it lying down anymore, either: "Fight back. Your life does have worth. The rich bastards' lives are forfeit. Don't let them forget it at the voting booth, in the streets, or at their front doors."


 
***
Sen. Nina Turner and Dr. Cornel West to Keynote The People’s Convention

Contact:
media@peoplesparty.org


Detroit, MI — One week after the Democratic and Republican national conventions, Bernie 2020 National Co-Chair Sen. Nina Turner and Bernie 2020 surrogate Dr. Cornel West will join the Movement for a People’s Party to headline The People’s Convention. Turner will deliver a speech titled: Choice, Challenge and Change: The Necessity of a People’s Movement.

On Sunday, August 30, from 4-6 pm EST, thousands of Americans from all walks of life will gather to discuss the state of the nation at The People’s Convention. At the conclusion, participants will vote on forming a major new political party free of corporate money and influence.

The Convention will be digital and broadcast live on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter pages with well over a million followers, including The Jimmy Dore Show which will carry the convention to its nearly 800,000 subscribers on YouTube.

The convention will ask: “What kind of world do we want to build from the devastation of the pandemic and economic depression?”

It will feature speakers and a regional breakout session. There will be montages of the short, heartfelt videos recorded by hundreds of MPP’s 80,000 members across the country. Speakers will discuss plans to become the largest party in America in four years, including building local hubs and state parties, sending representatives to Congress in 2022, and winning the presidency in 2024.

Sen. Turner is the host of the Hello Somebody Podcast and former president of Our Revolution. She is a former Ohio State Senator and professor of African American history. Dr. Cornel West is the Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. He is the author of 20 books, a frequent commentator on CNN, and co-host of the Tight Rope Podcast.

“It looks as if the system cannot reform itself,” said West of the American political and economic system on CNN in May. “Yes we must vote the neofascist catastrophe out of the White House but the neoliberal disaster who enters the White House must be fought with a people’s movement and party,” he said, accepting the invitation to The People’s Convention.

Turner and West will be joined by political commentator Jimmy Dore, host of The Jimmy Dore Show and Comedy Central specials, and Ryan Knight, activist, Medicare for all advocate and host of the podcast “Amped Up.” 

Also in attendance will be fellow Bernie 2020 leaders, including climate scientist and campaign surrogate Dr. Peter Kalmus. “Climate and ecological breakdown is a planetary emergency, but corporate influence over both parties has blocked action for decades. We need a party free from corporate corruption – a people’s party,” said Kalmus.

Former Bernie 2020 volunteer national high school director, and national coordinator with Students for a People’s Party, Amaya Wangeshi, will speak. “There is no more compromise, there is no more reform, we have to stop waiting. People are dying right now, people are facing injustice right now; I don’t believe in sacrificing millions of lives just so you can play politics,” said Wangeshi of the corporate parties. The 16-year old daughter of Kenyan immigrants is also the founder of Beyond Bernie and founding director of Our Time, Our Revolution’s student organization. “The world better get ready, change is coming, and it’s coming like you’ve never seen it before.”

Omar Fernandez, President of the American Postal Workers Union of Vermont, which has endorsed MPP, will speak about the labor movement’s need for a party for working people. Jerry Perez, field director with Our Revolution Los Angeles and a U.S. Marine who was deployed to the Iraq and Afghan wars will speak on behalf of Veterans for a People’s Party. Cuban-American Eynelys Vinson, the vice-chair of Our Revolution Los Angeles, will share how Democrats block progress even when they have full control of government, and why Latinos need a party that speaks for them.

The People’s Convention comes as more than 700 National Sanders Delegates have drawn the line with the Democratic Party, stating that they will vote against the party platform unless it includes Medicare for all. It also arrives as the DNC Rules Committee overwhelmingly voted to allow the party to accept corporate PAC money and permit corporate lobbyists to sit on the DNC.

The Convention also takes place in the middle of a raging pandemic and unprecedented cascading economic collapse. Two avoidable catastrophes that the Democrats and Republicans knowingly chose when they spent trillions of dollars bailing out Wall Street while giving insufficient relief to the tens of millions who lost their jobs.

As a result, child hunger is at record levels, breadlines are overwhelmed, five million people have lost their employer-based health insurance, and up to 28 million people face eviction. Forty percent of small businesses may close forever and 42 percent of jobs may never return. Conditions that were just made dramatically worse because Congress let expanded unemployment insurance benefits and an evictions moratorium on federally-backed properties expire.

MPP partnered with Andrew Yang’s Humanity Forward, the Humanity First Movement, the Income Movement, Move to Amend, and other groups to lead more than 50 marches and car caravans to the homes of members of Congress across the country and demand a People’s Stimulus on July 11, 18, and 25.

“Four years from now, at the People’s Convention of 2024, when The People’s Party stands poised to win Congress and the White House, we will look back and celebrate this gathering as the moment that our nation turned the page on the Second Gilded Age. The moment that we took fate into our own hands. The moment that we gave rise to a new progressive era,” said Nick Brana, national coordinator with the Movement for a People’s Party. Brana was the national political outreach coordinator with Bernie 2016, and a founding staffer and former electoral manager with Our Revolution.

***
From MoveOn:

The new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, is disrupting the mission of the U.S. Postal Service, which is to deliver mail to Americans in a timely fashion.1

In the last month, mail delivery has dramatically slowed down at the hands of Postmaster General DeJoy.2 This right-wing conservative and Trump megadonor, who has no prior expertise pertaining to the Postal Service, was appointed by Donald Trump to the position of postmaster general in May, and his actions are hurting Americans across the country—and pose a threat to our election.3,4

Tell the board of governors to remove Louis DeJoy as postmaster general.

The board of governors of the United States Postal Service must remove Louis DeJoy from the position of postmaster general because he is undermining the mission of the U.S. Postal Service.
On Friday, there was a major shake-up at the Postal Service, and twenty-three executives were reassigned or displaced. As The Washington Post reports, "The reshuffling threatens to heighten tensions between postal officials and lawmakers, who are troubled by delivery delays — the Postal Service banned employees from working overtime and making extra trips to deliver mail — and wary of the Trump administration's influence on the Postal Service as the coronavirus pandemic rages and November's election draws near."5

With a federal election less than three months away, and in the midst of a global pandemic, it is imperative that the timely delivery of mail be made a priority.

The board of governors must remove Louis DeJoy as postmaster general.

Thanks!
–Patrick Chaffeur

Sources:
1. "Trump-backed postmaster general plans to slow mail delivery," Fortune, July 24, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/141438?t=10&akid=270963%2E34981449%2ESuYbLU

2. "Does the mail seem slow? You're not imagining it," The Morning Call, August 1, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/141833?t=12&akid=270963%2E34981449%2ESuYbLU

3. "Trump ally Louis DeJoy named next postmaster general," CNN, May 6, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/141412?t=14&akid=270963%2E34981449%2ESuYbLU

4. "How Trump's war on the Postal Service could create an election nightmare," The Washington Post, July 15, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/141414?t=16&akid=270963%2E34981449%2ESuYbLU

5. "Postal Service overhauls leadership as Democrats press for investigation of mail delays," The Washington Post, August 7, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/141835?t=18&akid=270963%2E34981449%2ESuYbLU