The people who own this country predictably still don't want Bernie to help the American people

They seriously don't someone who is going to end their gravy train or gasps raise their taxes to pay for any of the dozens of things Americans need, healthcare, education, infrastructure, or any of that hippy socialist bullshit.

Over Christmas break this became the case as a series of articles calling for Biden, or Beto, or Harris or anyone and everyone that isn't Bernard Sanders. This is because Bernie is the only potential candidate that represents an actual threat to capital. As Bernie Bro and renowned Journalist David Sirota pointed out Beto votes with republicans a lot of the time. Far too often to be considered "real change" (a threat to capital). Biden's record speaks for itself, the dude is creepy and corporate and he's wanted to run or has flirted with running or has actually ran for the presidency so many times that I think he can be placed gingerly on the shelf without too much fuss. As for Harris, had she rightfully prosecuted Steve Mnuchin, he wouldn't be the Secretary of Treasury taking a direct siphon from public treasury people rely on and shoving it directly into the desired orifice's of the masters of mankind.

The democratic donors and therefore the mass media are pushing for people they know won't rock the boat. This is going to be as natural as the sun rising and setting going forward.

Elizabeth Warren has entered the fray. She announced this today and I started writing this last night and went to sleep before I finished. But this is interesting, because Bernie just said a few days ago that he and Warren talk nearly every day. Now I would think that Bernie and Warren would not want to split the "progressive" vote. So that leads me to think that he won't run for president, maybe as Warrens VP. I would vote for Warren, but I'd prefer Bernie, specifically over policy positions, Bernie's platform is clear and concise. We know Warren is at least not completely beholden to Wall Street like other people who are definitely running in 2020. But other than some good rhetoric we don't know where she stands on a lot of issues. She is definitely preferable to Bernie from the Masters of Mankind point of view thats for sure.

I think the fact Bernie legitimately scares them is exactly why we need to at the very least build the mass movement thats going to outlive Bernie (as Bernie has always said "not me, us") and push the policies that will in the short run help the American people as well as be in line with what the majority of Americans want anyway, but will also lay the foundations of eventually overthrowing capitalism and if we're lucky, save our planet before its too late.

Free Speech and Israel

Okay, I was led to believe that free speech warriors were people who... like fought for free speech, right? Dave Rubin, Ben Shaprio, Steven Crowder, Jordan Peterson, Tucker Carlson and co. These are the folks I think about whenever I see a violation of free speech. I know Jordan will make a video about it, Steven will put on a dress, ironically of course, and rant about it. Shapiro will mention it on his podcast while not looking directly at the camera and Dave Rubin will stick his ear to the stack of cash to feel the vibrations in the free speech continuum.

So I checked their respective platforms for anything on this new piece of legislation congress passed regarding boycotting Israel and not even the crickets chirped. So this isn't surprising, anyone who can rub half a brain cell with any various plant or animal cells they have lying around the house knows that these guys are full of shit. They're grifters using the rhetoric of free speech to push an ideology that would have us deep throating the boots of the nearest billionaire.

But back to Israel, this shit is real. I read Haaretz from time to time, and they actually have more of a range of discourse and criticism regarding their governments occupation and slow motion genocide of the Palestinians and their apartheid state. Theres no where in the main stream outlets where you can find dissent on the standard "Israel can do no harm narrative." This just gives you an idea of the climate we're operating in here. To complete that picture now consider the degree which Israel along with its settler colonial project is funded by the U.S.

This anti-BDS law isn't the first of its ilk to drag its sad decrepit body into the congress floor, as of 2018 half or more states have anti-BDS laws in place, hell in Texas right after hurricane Harvey people who wanted to get aid had to agree not to support BDS! So clearly, we care deeply about free speech in this country, it just better be speech that lines up with the ruling class' ideology which states that Israel is hands off of any criticism. 

But the next time someone tells you that they think free speech is the most important thing in the world and they like people like Jordan Peterson or anyone from the so called Intellectual Dark Web (oh yes, they profess ideas so counter to the mainstream that their ideas just happen to align with the ruling class in every case, fucking fancy that!)ask them where they stand on the completely blatant assault on free speech regarding Israel. Thats a good way to see if you're dealing with someone who is consistent and intellectually honest, or if you're dealing with a fraud who definitely isn't a cross dresser in his spare time (not that there's anything wrong with that Steven, just don't go on your platform bashing LGBTQ the next day after you do a skit in a dress, its a bad look).

Trump Shuts down the Government, Pulls Troops from Syria and Afghanistan. Gearing up for 2020.

President authentic tan and real hair decided to pull all 2,000 (some estimates as high as 5,000) troops from Syria and cut the number of troops in Afghanistan in half from 14,000 to 7,000. While this was going on the president also refused to sign any spending bill that didn't put at least 5 billion dollars (American).  Despite being totally on board with the spending bill just last week. President strong and stable genius changed his mind after he came under fire from totally not Nazi's Ann Coulter and co on Fox news. Ann Coulter insisting that Trump needs to build the wall to stop the browning of America and to bring joy to all the good white people in the heartland.

These are all things that have dominated the news cycle, with war hawks in both right wing parties accusing President very big and strong hands of putting national security in grave danger. While this criticism is mostly ridiculous (there is a genuine concern of what happens to Rojava once the US pulls out of Syria). The criticism regarding the border wall is completely warranted and somehow, I will bet you all of my gold chocolate coins (6 1/2) that the media will find a way to blame Democrats for not kowtowing to their baser fears and supporting President totally works while he's golfing absurd border wall.

Its no secret that Trump started his reelection campaign just days after he was sworn in and with the newly released Democratic debate schedule released (that start in just 6 months) we can see that the presidential campaign is starting earlier than ever. So it makes sense that Trump, as his predecessor Obama did, is reducing troop levels just enough to brand himself as "anti-war" just months  (December 2011) before a campaign. 

The war criminal Mad Dog Mattis has resigned, angering Trump who has fired him forcing him out by January 1st, two months ahead of Mattis' planned resignation. 

This has sent shock waves across the ruling elite from the media to politicians from both parties. Fuck them, honestly. Fuck Mattis too. For the purposes of calling out war criminals, I don't mind ending a sentence with a preposition. If we lived in a more sane world that was dictated by US hegemony we wouldn't cheer a war criminal as an "adult in the room."

But back to Rojava. The Kurds face literal genocide if the US gives Turkey the go ahead to invade. Which would continue the century old tradition of helping a people that exist in three different countries and then selling them out when it becomes convenient. 

Meanwhile back at home the Democrats have blocked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's plan for a green new deal, dooming us all hellfire and apocalypse in the name of corporate capitalism. The person Pelosi put on the climate change committee said that blocking democrats from talking fossil money would violate free speech, because fuck you and fuck your children and fuck the planet, that's why.

The government has shut down, leaving hundreds of thousands without pay going into our consumer driven holiday of Christmas because the president is a fucking child. The one good thing he does that is for completely dubious reasons, pulling troops out of the middle east, gets his defense secretary to resign and gets all of Washington shaming him. It is likely going to be the action that sets in motion a genocide in the case of Syria but that's not why they're upset. They're upset because they think this weakens US hegemony, the same hegemony that makes them all absurdly powerful and wealthy. So in short, fuck us. Fuck us.

Conspiracy theories: Mass shootings and guns.

Conspiracy theories are all the rage nowadays, I have a theory that because we are taught  conspiracies about the nature of our world and our nation from a young age in public school that primes us to use conspiracy theories to fill in gaps when we're trying to explain the world to ourselves and others.

So what do I mean by this? here's an example:

A big conspiracy theory that is popular amongst the masses is that a lot if not all of the mass shootings in recent memory, let's say since the 1960-something Texas tower shooter, are actually perpetrated by the FBI or CIA or lizard people if you go deep enough into  4chan. The purpose of these mass shootings being to get the American public to renounce their gun rights so that the government can finally swoop in and totally take over everything whereas they could not before because all of the guns that people own.

Now you can't actually understand this massively complex problem without knowing some history so get ready to get learnt.

gun ownership has been a big thing in the United States since before we were the United States. Guns help a lot when you are settling on land that is already being used by native Americans. Guns are just way better than tomahawks or bows and arrows.

That's the core of our obsession with guns in this country, the genocide of native Americans.    Also, catching escaped slaves guns was a big part of the early laws that mandated the man of the house own a rifle.

fast forward to today where we have wealth inequality not seen since the time of the Pharaohs of Egypt. We are in a day and age where we are more isolated from each other than ever before. And I'm not just talking out of my ass, as usual when I make these posts they are backs by the facts and between a quarter and a half of people who go to doctors in America, their biggest ailment is loneliness.

Because capitalism demands wealth accumulation above all else which goes back into that wealthy quality thing I mentioned earlier, the way the 24-hour media cycle covers Mass shooters glorifies either intentionally or not, these monsters.

So you have a population of poor alienated lonely people who have access to guns because our history has made it so, add in the total lack of healthcare and the promise of glorification if you go out with a bang, and it's no surprise that we have 30,000 gun deaths a year with an obscene number of mass shootings.

There's no easy answer to this other than we have to start thinking collectively in a way that puts human needs above the profits of corporations.

All human needs, not just white landowning men.

So it's a lot easier to fit a conspiracy theory into this particular slot rather than understanding the big picture and that is why I think Americans are so in love with conspiracy theories across the board right now, but especially when it comes to mass shootings.

Basically if we had better education I think we would see that great diminishing of conspiracy theories.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk I'm going back to reading my book.

Addendum: so the conspiracy is not that the government is perpetuating mass shootings to ultimately take away American's guns, that conspiracy is that it's incredibly profitable for gun manufacturers to keep everything the way it is right now. I had a throwaway line in the original post where I said the only way to fix this problem is to start thinking in a way that puts human needs above profits this is what I was referring to. The actual conspiracy is the gun manufacturers lobbying Congress to not Acts and pass gun reform.

The Never Ending Iraq War and Middle East Occupation

The lives of soldiers mean little in the face of geopolitics and increasing corporate profits

I am 26 years old. My country has been at war with no less than two nations or otherwise militarily involved which now just means bombing without an official declaration, for more than half of my life. Not that the two "official" wars of Iraq or Afghanistan have an actual declaration either. Its all under the now 17 year old AUMF. There is so much to unpack here, lets start with some fun facts to better acquaint ourselves with what is actually going on with our tax dollars in our name. 

America Has Been At War 93% of the Time – 222 Out of 239 Years – Since 1776, i.e. the U.S. has only been at peace for less than 20 years total since its birth.   

The US Commenced Plan To Dominate ‘Grand Area’ Of The Globe After WWII. 

The Neoconservative wing of the US government, after 9/11 decided to "Invade 7 countries in 5 years"

On the oil reserves in the middle east during World War II “It’s a stupendous source of strategic power and the greatest material prize in world history.” “It’s strategically the most important part of the world”

That is all to say that, whatever you think you know about US Foreign policy- its bullshit. Unless it begins with or contains something along the lines "geopolitical strategical importance and/or natural resources." That might be news to some, but it really shouldn't be, this is pretty out in the open if you pay even the slightest bit of attention to the news.

U.S. soldiers are fighting and dying for the bottom line of fossil fuel companies. That's what this is. Its not about "spreading democracy" or "liberating" people in the region. In a day and age when we could convert the worlds energy grid to green technology in a matter of months, this whole ordeal of permanently occupying the middle east is just a bad joke.  It really is, there's just no other way to put it, you have a small number of incredibly powerful wealthy people who are playing a chess game with with planet and peoples lives simply so they can keep playing the chess game and maintain their status as players, while the rest of us are expendable pawns.

Do  I need to even get into the fact that 15 out of the 19 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia? Perhaps our 2nd closest ally after Israel? No, I don't think I need to, but that information exists as well, and it adds to this picture, this real world picture that the occupation of the middle east has nothing to do with 9/11 or Terrorism (btw the US is the largest sponsor of state Terror and it has been since the end of WWII) or freedom or democracy. It has everything to do with maintaining a monopoly on the worlds primary energy source as well as making sure the folks who run that monopoly fatten their wallets while they do so.

I'm even sure where I'm going with this anymore, but lets recap if only for my own sake: We're there for oil. Everything else said besides that is a lie. Okay. Cool.

So what can we do? We the people? Organize. Push renewable energy. Demonstrate against the wars. Vote for anti war candidates or at least people who will begin the process of unraveling the empire. Aside from being aware, make other people aware of this too. We live in an age where people have the entire accumulated knowledge of human kind on their tiny little fucking rectangle, I believe the colloquial term is "phone". Use that, educate yourself, educate others. Its going to take solidarity on a national if not global scale to undo these things we're doing but its the right thing to do, not just morally but fiscally as well.

I'm going to stop here before I keep going into different tangents. Stay strong, keep fighting.

Democratic Leadership falling All Over Themselves To Compromise The Progressive Agenda With Republicans

Why the Democrats' New "Debt-Free" College Plan Won't Make College Debt-Free

So the reality of mainstream politics in the United States thats known by anyone but right wingers is that the democratic leadership is wholly right wing and just trips over themselves to sellout to the donor class, much like the republican leadership. Ask your typical self described republican or listen to a talking head on the telly and you would walk away with the impression that the democratic leadership; Pelosi, Schumer and the like, are closeted socialists that actually want to tattoo the Soviet hammer and sickle where a tramp stamp would go and twerk on the floor of the house and senate respectively because they're just godless commies. 

Now I'm a lefty, if you looked at this blog it would take less than a second to realize that. However, I am a lefty precisely because I live in the real world and I deal with facts and data and as far as my politics are concerned, I'm an empiricist. So it was no surprise to me when I read the article I'm basing this post on, that the Democrats new "Debt-Free" college plan is just a group of flowery words  stringed together in attempt to pull the veil over the average persons eyes. 

I don't really need to breakdown the democratic policy plan, the article already does that, just click the link under the cleverly picked picture by yours truly.

What I'm interested in writing about is the broader picture here; That the Democratic leadership that is completely beholden to the 1% are still firmly in control of the party, and they are already trying to compromise with republicans on the core issues of progressive and left leaning candidates. 

I'll just cut to the chase and make the point: They are doing it to preserve the levers of power that the government provides in the hands of the wealthy elite. Medicare for all, college for all, the peoples platform are all easily within our grasp but one or two of two things need to happen for this vision to come to past- raising taxes on the wealthy, and/or cutting the military budget. Both of these things take away power and wealth from the ruling class. Whether they know it consciously or not (and believe me, they do) the democratic leadership is part of ruling class and they'll be damned if they see their taxes go up to pay for social programs that are overwhelmingly popular with the American people. 

One last point, FDR sold out to the working class to win 4 presidential elections, a feat that prompted the party of big business (the GOP) to enact term limits to a measly two per person. If the democrats were actually interested in winning elections, they have all the knowledge to and resources to make that happen. Their actual interests are maintaining the status quo that made them rich and powerful in the first place. 

#RebootBangladesh

What started out as a #PeacefulProtest for #SaferRoads has turned into a nightmare for the students of #Bangladesh. The government is sending goons to attack the students and disrupt their protests which has led to a lot do injuries, death and rape. #RebootBangladesh

— Shihab (@notshihab) August 6, 2018

On the 29th of July, two bus drivers were racing to pick up passengers and killed two students who were waiting for a bus. Since then, high school and college students took to the streets and have been protesting peacefully against dangerous road conditions (i.e. no driving and traffic regulations and poor enforcement). They took it upon themselves to manage traffic (creating emergency lanes; arranging them according to vehicle size) and checking licenses of every passing vehicle (including police vehicles) on major roads.

There are several students now dead and missing; all they did was demand safer roads in a country where people die from road accidents every single day. They took to the streets and checked licenses, regulated traffic, exposed an incredible number of people including government and ministry workers for driving without valid licenses. They had been doing a better job than traffic regulation and law enforcement officers in the city, and all they wanted was an assurance of safety.

This protest was entirely peaceful, wholesome and supported by most citizens. The government’s reaction to this was to send out student political parties to also don school uniforms and partake in the demonstrations. These “students” infiltrated the protests and initiated violence both on the students and public property, followed by law enforcement doing the same: opening fire and using anti-riot equipment such as tear gas, aimed at protesters who were 13-20 years old.

This event has gained traction on international media recently, and has been covered by multiple media outlets such as the New York Times and BBC. However, they’ve stated multiple times that the government claims these were instigated by the opposing party, while other parties have been trying to twist the narrative to fit their own agendas. However, that is NOT true. These are young students protesting PEACEFULLY against law-breakers and unsafe roads, they have no political affiliations whatsoever.

The government has also shut down mobile data in the country and slowed down internet speeds. They have been arresting and detaining people for posting things online that implied dissent, and multiple journalists have been attacked, detained and had their recording equipment seized and destroyed. The media was made to withdraw many of their previous statements and say their sources were wrong, and some hospitals are being pressured into turning away students who were injured at the protests.

Today, Bangladesh is a battleground. These "student politicians" have turned the streets into a hunting ground, chasing down these peaceful protesters and brutalizing them. They're literally hunting anyone that looks like a student and murdering and mauling in the most inhuman ways... And these monsters are supported by the government. Law enforcement and these thugs (who are all armed beyond their pay grade) have murdered multiple people already, committed other crimes like rape and also attacking those trying to help the children.

This is a copied and pasted reddit comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/bangladesh/comments/94rgz9/can_anyone_summarize_or_help_me_understand_what/e3n7pxd/?context=1

Toys R Us, Vulture Capitalism and Worker Cooperatives.

Giraffes just want to live in dignity!

This hurts to write about. Before I get into what I have to say about this whole shit-bag of a situation I'd like to first express my fondness I have of Toys R Us. I grew up in a middle class family, I come from a level of privilege that makes me wonder why I ever started paying attention to world affairs. I could easily not give a damn and live a life of selfishness. If anything my life would probably better off, I'd still have close friendships without giant wedges and more money to my name from not donating to charities and progressive campaigns and so on.


But I digress, I really enjoyed Toys R Us as a child. Who wouldn't? Its a building full of bright colorful toys and parents to buy you one if you've been a well behaved child or whatever. Some of my fondest memories include Seeing the Nintendo 64 on display for the first time and playing the Mario demo with my brother. Or seeing the GameCube on display and playing Smash Brothers Melee or Luigi's Mansion (depending on when you went there of course). Its where I got my first Razer scooter that quite noticeably increased my mobility around the neighborhood. I could go on but for everyones sake I'll stop here and summarize with: Toys R Us is....was fucking dope.


Okay, so Toys R Us is a thing of the past, merely a memory now, but why? How? Surely its because they just weren't making enough money right? They got cocky and put too much stock into Beyblades.


Well, no. What had happened was, Toys R Us was bought by Bain Capital and KKR in 2005 and they do what vulture capitalists do: they loaded the company with debt to the point of bankruptcy. That was the goal from the 2005 buyout, to load the company with debt so the investors could cash out in a few years.


The workers were given 60 days notice as "severance pay". Over 180 stores closed and 31,000 people lost their jobs because a small group of people far above those 31,000 on the economic ladder wanted to get just a little bit higher on that ladder. But hey, investors gonna invest right?


It should go without saying that of course no employees were consulted about the 2005 buyout or the debt that was loaded onto the company or any of the other very important decisions that were made by a tiny little shitty minority of people who "worked" at the company. What if there was another way? What if workers had a say in the decision to sell the company they worked at to vulture capitalists?


This is where Worker Cooperatives come swooping down in their stylish union made capes and Chinese slave labor free spandex. Why good golly gosh O.P. what in tarnation is a Worker Cooperative? Well, since I'm here I may as well you: A worker cooperative, is a cooperative that is owned and self-managed by its workers. Simply put, instead of having investors and shareholders and CEO's run the show, the workers run the show. The people who work and make the profits that the investors and shareholders actually have self determination under a worker Co-op.


You may be sitting there, slack jawed, wondering if I've been infected with brain worms or some other nonsense. Well, aside from being extremely sweaty from self-driven exertion, I'm actually quite fine.


But yes, worker Co-ops exist, even right here in the motherland! Over 300 with over 3,500 employees that together make an estimated $400 million annually. But surely they don't work as well as the top down structure of a corporation, surely a privileged few dictating decisions that effect the lives of every worker is the proven model. Its whats everywhere! Its I'm familiar with.


Well, call me bubble bursting Bartholomew because bam: Worker Co-ops are more productive than normal companies.


But as I'm sure you can imagine, there is in fact a reason why worker co-ops are not the norm. To state it bluntly, when workers can make decisions about their workplace and how things are done, inequality at that company shrinks considerably.

I really just felt it was time for another picture, for pacing sake.

I think I'll wrap it up here with a quick summary. A beloved store by myself and children everywhere is no more and those workers are without jobs because a small group of people with all the power to make important decisions made the decision in 2005 that led ultimately to the companies demise in 2018. Perhaps if Toys R Us were one of the 300 worker cooperatives the company would still be around today, making kids smile with their inventory of joy.

Ocasio-Cortez and Obrador, populism from the Left

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

If you're paying even a little bit of attention to the current political climate you would see its warming up along with the planet. All across the globe working people are starting to realize that establishment politics and establishment economics that essentially function as siphoning wealth and resources from the poor to the rich. The inequality has reached a comical level and its getting worse, not better.

For that reason movements have been popping up world wide on the left and right. From the left its all about unions and improving the quality of life for people and making sure the wealthy elite pay their fair share of taxes. On the right its a much uglier beast based primarily on stoking peoples fear of the other whether they be minorities or immigrants or whatever, and crucially, this misdirects the anger from themselves (the wealthy elite) to people on the bottom of the economic ladder, the people with no money and no power.

Just think about this for a moment, how in the great googly moogly are the people with no money and no power the cause of the problems we're faced with? It doesn't add up, I'm exceptionally poor at math and even I can calculate that. The migrant family fleeing from CIA funded paramilitary groups in Honduras or Guatemala didn't have anything to do with the massive transfer of wealth -from the bottom to the top- that just took place under a completely republican dominated government. The migrants, the poor, the blacks, gays, women, trans folk, none of them are the reason why we spend the most on healthcare with the worst results. These people aren't the reason why we don't have high speed broad band across the nation. They aren't the reason that our infrastructure gets a grade of D+. I can go on but I think I've made my point.

So with the basics out of the way, we've established that populism is popping up everywhere from Italy to Greece to the US to Mexico, some from the left, some from the right. We know the "populism" on the right isn't really populism, its the age old "fear of the other" being stoked by the powerful in attempt to save their own hides.

In the Bronx, Cortez literally wore shoes down to rags organizing and campaigning in her district. She completely rejected corporate PAC money on principle so as to stave off the ever encroaching corruption that comes with campaign contributions from the corporate and billionaire sector. Contrast that to her opponent; corporate Democrat Joe Crowley who raised 10 times as much as Cortez from a myriad of corporations you probably buy things from everyday and had no ground game or volunteers to speak of. This was a true grassroots campaign of the left.

However if we take a closer look at Almo as he is sometimes called, we see almost exactly the same thing. Obrador campaigned on ending corruption and giving the masses back their government, as did Cortez. Do you see the trend here? Of course you do, the elites in DC don't, they can't. But its obvious to anyone who lives in the real world not insulated by untold amounts of wealth.

The comparisons to Trump are laughable and as the most recent Citations Needed Podcast succinctly points out; they are an attempt from the establishment to paint anything left of the democratic party leadership as dangerous and unruly as the orange fascist clown we have in the WhiteHouse. This is to be expected from the lapdogs that are corporate media, it means that Cortez and Almo are doing something right.

It is of the utmost importance that we hold Cortez's feet to the fire and that the people of Mexico do the same to Almo, but for the time being, admist a slew of awful news regarding the supreme court or the state sponsored child kidnapping at the border, or the never ending hell that is Palestine or the holocaust times 3 that is the Yemen "civil" war... This is a positive trend we need to keep pushing for if we have any hope to salvage the experiment that is humanity.

 

Saudi-led US backed forces launch attack on port city of Hodeidah

Yemen's last port thats providing 80% of food and medicine is under siege, if destroyed 18 million could die. Thats the holocaust times three.

Right off the bat, what the media won't tell you about this Saudi Led US backed war is that its a proxy war against Iran. The Houthis seized control several years ago and Saudi Arabia doesn't like that. So with our blessing and tax dollars and bombs and planes the Saudi's have been decimating the country. Genocide is a strong word to use and its justified using it in this context.


Normally if there is a way to spin an ongoing crisis like this, it will be done. Look no further than Syria as a prime example. But on the crisis of Yemen? Which is poised to be literally 3 times as bad as the holocaust? Crickets. And thats because theres no angle to spin here. Saudi Arabia is committing a genocide with our tax dollars and the main stream media is being almost entirely silent on the issue.


Theres not much to say about this, both parties are complicit in supporting this genocide with only a few senators (Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul and a handful of others) calling for an end to US aid to the war. Ro Khanna in the house has also made a stink about this on Democracy Now! But without mainstream coverage its looking incredibly bleak.

This is what happens when we rent out our military to the ISIS that made it country. But we can't just let Iran have more power and influence in the region! Look, theres no overarching strategy here beyond controlling as much of the oil in the region as possible if only for the sole reason that other imperial powers don't get their hands on it. If we didn't want Iran to be a powerful force in the region we would have not invaded Iraq which made Iran stronger.

What can be done? Call your representatives and talk to your friends and family about the issue. MLK said it best, "be the change you want to see in the world".

Death Of Net Neutrality and What It Means Going Forward

A group of tools posing as respectable gentlemen

Net Neutrality is perhaps the single most important issue for our immediate future. Without the free flow and access to information, the ability to organize, or to even simply learn about the world- the hope for progressive goals plummets. 

Imagine not being able to load a certain dissident leftist blog because he was just some dude blogging in his free time and he couldn't afford to pay Comcast their bribe for the "fast lane." I know, it would just be the end of everything that matters. 

But seriously, imagine if the internet was a group of adolescent kids with paper strings and cups between tree forts to relay pertinent information between one another. Then along comes Ajit Pai with a big fat pair of scissors and his shitty little grin and says "if you boys want to keep communicating at the same lightning speeds that you've had forever (only enforced since 2015 under the Obama era regulation) you'll need to bribe us!"

This has been big on the agenda of the "masters of the universe" or the 1% if you will. Obviously you can't have a well informed critical thinking population if you want to maintain the status quo and keep your greasy little fingers on that ill gotten wealth from the exploitation of the working class and so on. So whats the solution? The same solution as always, transfer the power from the people to private power. So if you want to get your dose of dissident literature or podcasts you better hope that the content producers you're following can pay their bribe to the telecom giants.

Thats my own personal take on this, of course the more digestible and on the nose reason for all of this fuckery is simply to enrich telecom giants more so than they already are (and believe me they use 100$ as toilet paper and  they double ply that shit- pun intended). 

So what can you do to wrestle power back from these folks? Call your senators and congressman and tell them "hey! cut this shit out!" and you can do that at this number: 202-224-3121 

Happy Hunting. 

Poor People's Campaign Shuts Down Traffic in Boston To Protest For Higher Minimum Wage

Traffic Blocked in Boston 

In yet another example of growing dissatisfaction with stagnating wages that are not sufficient to live upon this time the Poor People's Campaign shut down traffic in Boston to raise awareness of the criminally low wages workers in the city depend on. Its worth nothing that half of the population in the richest country in the world are poor.

As people get more and more fed up with the status quo, we will see more and more attempts at unionizing and organizing to combat the increasing austerity that is happening all over the world . This is the most natural response to capitalism, and indeed why Karl Marx famously said Capitalism sews the seeds of its own destruction. 

To the onlookers who were annoyed that people were taking action into their own hand I'd like to remind you that that is the exact point of a protest. A protest isn't suppose to be a happy march around a block chanting, its suppose to get in your face and get your attention. Its suppose to disrupt your life and make you aware of injustice thats happening all around you. Dissent is the highest form of patriotism for a very real reason, to critique the system is to try and improve it. 

Your complacency in the grotesque inequality is the problem, not the people pointing it out.

I wish the Poor People's campaign all the luck in the world. They need it and so do we. 

Frito Lay Workers organizing for better labor conditions

Frito Lay workers organizing to form a union

In a trend that can be observed across Western society, Topeka Kanas is the latest in a domino line of workers for Frito Lay are banding together for better wages and working conditions.

If you spend even an hour a day reading into the history of labor and the owner class none of this will surprise you. Not unlike a game of civilization if you treat the general populace poorly, they begin to revolt. 

Since the late 70's worker hourly compensation has been decoupled from worker productivity. I think the interesting thing to note is how well the business class in the United States has been able to crush the labor movement that under FDR got us things like the weekend and the eight hour work day. 

As for the actual workers in Topeka, they have bought in Brad Schmidt, international representative for the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union to negotiate better wages, and he usually gets at least a 2% increase in wages for workers. However Frito lay wants none of that, as they only give out 1% bonus which is about 600$-800$ per year. Needless to say that will not suffice. Frito Lay is hoping they can resolve this without full on strikes. As of now the workers have been doing weekend picket lines to pass out information to passerby's. 

Needless to say I hope those workers get a raise and benefits and the keys to the whole damn castle. 

Trump Says North Korea will "denuclearize quickly".

Peace with North Korea?! Who is to thank for this?

Trump Says North Korea will "denuclearize quickly"

While the #MAGA crowd is quick to give all credit of this summit to their dear leader, it was not that long ago The president was threatening North Korea over twitter with more regularity than he mentioned the disaster that is known as Puerto Rico. 

But OP, even the South Korean president has said that Trump should get the Nobel Peace prize! This is true, but what is also true is that the commander in chief craves admiration not unlike people diagnosed with narcissism. But I digress, I think the work the South Korean President has been doing behind the scenes can't be overstated.

I hope this peace deal goes down, the people of the peninsula deserve it but its worth noting that Trump is alone in his aspirations for peace from the administration. We saw just how quick John Bolton was to sabotage the deal openly on national television. Even the democrats have put forth a list of demands to be met during the summit. Upon review they're even more strict than the conditions of the recently botched Iran Nuclear Deal. The Democrats need to stop "resisting" from the right and embrace their bases (and the general population of the country) anti war stance. But thats another story for another time. 

I will say I don't think its smart for North Korea to completely denuclearize without any consession from the United States which has a proclivity of overthrowing governments when they get dispose of their weapons. 

Peace is ideal, but there are so many war mongers in DC who don't want this to happen, including the companies who stock went down after word of the summit first broke out. 

UPDATE- Trump promises and end to war games

UPDATE 2- A full text of the agreement signed by the heads of North Korea and the US

UPDATE 3- Kim brings his own toilet...

Fingers crossed people!