Where We Go from Here: Two Years in the Resistance by Bernie Sanders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's always refreshing to read the writing of someone from the political class who is grounded in reality. The title of the book is a little misleading, it really should have been titled what Bernie Sanders has been doing since the 2016 election. Which is pretty much the entire book, if you've watched a stump speech of his from the 2016 campaign you get an idea of what he has been up to in this book. All that being said it's definitely still worth your time and it might be a good gift for someone who is just Awakening in to the political process.

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Just noticed there was an option to link my goodreads account and my blogger account. This is happening.

Worker Cooperatives and Revolution: History and Possibilities in the United States by Chris Wright
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A wonderfully detailed breakdown of work coop's, what they are, their history, and how they will be essential in moving toward a post capitalist society. Also a nice balance of real world praxis and theory with a lovely revision of Marxism which I think makes sense, its pretty much what most modern lefties think about Marxism, that it less of a state seizing vanguard party (using both meanings of the word party there, heh) and more of a "do all the above" approach. Worker Coop's need to be active politically and show solidarity with every an any leftwing movement. Chris' logic is sound, read this book, grow your brain wrinkles.

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The Attacks on Bernie Are getting absurd, they will only get absurder

Okay, I didn't know absurder was actually a word.

But it seems like the major outlets are cranking out the Bernie is sexist, Bernie already won because his policies are now mainstream so there's no need for him to run! Bernie is this! Bernie is that! He's too old but Biden isn't!

It's seriously insane if you don't exist inside the establishment bubbles. These attacks don't even make any sense. Lets break them down one by one:

Bernie is sexist.  Says the New York Times. Okay they didn't actually say that but they heavily implied it, the headline and photo they used set the tone of the article. But we're talking about a guy who has been arrested multiple times and at least once that I know of for chaining himself to black women.

Debunked! 

Okay, next: Bernie doesn't need to run because everyone already adopted his policies. This is one is especially shallow. Its thinner than gift wrap with an eating disorder. To believe this argument, you have to also believe that Corey Booker, Kamala Harris, and everyone (first time I've used my own page as a source, boy that feels good)  that isn't Elizabeth Warren are better than their actual voting records and campaign finance records suggest. Everyone that the mainstream is encouraging, Biden, Beto, Harris, Booker, and so on, everyone that isn't Bernie or Warren, simply ask yourself why the New York Times or CNN or MSNBC is supporting those candidates. Because they will play ball with the democratic donors. That's it. Its not complicated. Sanders and to a lesser extent Warren threaten the power structure that has made so many people so undeservedly rich and powerful and they would prefer that a democratic socialist with a wonderful haircut doesn't stop that gravy train. 

Debunked! 

I haven't seen a Bernie is too old article in a while, but trust me its going to happen. The people writing these articles are so far up their own ass (or bubble, whichever floats your goat) they can't see that Bernie is by far the most popular politician in the country (because of his policies) with the most name recognition. If you want to understand why the media is doing this, read Manufacturing Consent. The mainstream media are not watch dogs to power, they're lap dogs. 

If there is one argument for why Bernie shouldn't run that actually makes sense, its because Warren has already thrown her hat in the race and it will split the progressive vote. Other than that, its all hogwash. 

Being a Rogue Nation has drawbacks, increasing number of countries looking to drop the Dollar.

Today I actually just want to focus on one article from popularresistance.org.

TOP 5 COUNTRIES OPTING TO DITCH US DOLLAR & THE REASONS BEHIND THEIR MOVE

I'm not going to go into the list of countries or their motives. But what I want to do is highlight why this is a huge deal, for quite literally everyone alive. But first, to understand that, we must first understand the nature of the dollar as the worlds currency.

You see, when a man loves a woman, and both have 10 minutes left on their respective lunch breaks...

I mean, when a country loves oil and they have the worlds largest most powerful military with the good ol' "if we can't rule the world, no one can!" nuclear arsenal as the ultimate fallback plan... it leads to one nation having an untold empire with vast amounts of wealth and power.

Enter: the petrodollar. What is a petrodollar you might ask? Well, even if you didn't ask, and I know you didn't because thats a pumpkin spice latte in your hand and I know that shit is too good to be drinking and pay attention to what some jerk-wad on the internet thinks.

But anyway, the petrodollar is simply put: any U.S. dollar that is used to pay oil exporting countries in exchange for oil.

The U.S. history with Saudi Arabia goes back about a century but it doesn't look like what it does today until after WWII when U.S. planners  called the oil in the region “a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history”. 

In the 1970's the relationship between the two governments (read: ruling classes) became even more intertwined when President "not a crook" Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard. 

Essentially, the dollar is hinged on global oil trade. As I pointed out above, many nations are doing what they can to circumvent this. I don't really know how the U.S. will react to this, my guess is with unnecessary force and war.  The only thing that is certain is that the world order is shifting and its largely due to U.S. actions since it took the imperial mantle in 1945.

Nancy Pelosi enacting paygo, telling people who give a damn to fuck themselves.

In case you weren't aware, Nancy Pelosi, in her infinite wisdom has said and is now following through with her plan to institute "paygo" which is the practice of the government not spending more money than it takes in. Which means no big government deficit spending for programs that would help the vast majority of Americans. It's an outdated notion that flies in the face of modern monetary theory as well as anyone looking to use the powers of congress for good instead of greed. This is a move intended to stifle the left once again. It would be near impossible to get medicare for all, or college for all, or most importantly a green new deal. I mean, if it were me in congress I would say okay, but we're cutting the military budget by however much we need to fund a green new deal, medicare for all and so on. 

But taking even a cent from the military industrial complex is a big no-no. Unbelievably, the generals want even more money because they want to be able to "counter Russia and China" They need every last copper coin to kill people who make the equivalent of 200 copper coins a day. There was some writer dude who wrote a book that explained why empires wage war... if only I could...

"The war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continuous. The essential act of modern warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labour. A hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. In principle, the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects, and its object is not victory over Eurasia or Eastasia, but to keep the very structure of society intact." -George Orwell, 1984

But back to contemporary American politics (god help us all) Nancy is nearing the end of her life, what does it mater if she doesn't fight for her voting constituents? Who cares if the planet is spiraling into a death cycle as late stage capitalism is stoking the flames of fascism across the globe write large? Not Nancy Pelosi, she'll be free of this mortal coil soon enough. As Pelosi stated very clearly last year when asked if she thinks the Democrats should move towards socialism because more than half of millennials are sick of this hell zone:

"We're capitalist's that's just the way it is." - Nancy Pelosi

As we can see, that really sums up everything wrong with the democratic party. We can't tackle climate change, or health care, or endless war when at the end of the day everything is being done for profit and not for human needs. Its going to take massive amounts of people pressuring the democratic party and their donors with demonstrations and walk outs and strikes if we want to see anything but Mad Max as a future.

We have a few super Stars in congress on our side, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ro Khana, Bernie Sanders, and about ten more blessed souls who we will need in our struggle against the forces of capital. But we're always going to be outnumbered in congress as long as money controls the system, that's why its ultimately going to fall upon us ordinary folk to do anything.

 Call your representative, demand that paygo go the way of the dodo-bird, careening off a cliff into the loving embrace of extinction.

The Media's framing of Fascist Bolsanaro and what we can learn from it

Its no secret that the United States has and does and will continue to meddle in other countries elections and it will do so as long as it is able. So right off the bat, when I say that Brazil's election has the CIA finger prints on it, know that there is historical (hell, even contemporary evidence show that this is the truth. It must also be known before we get into what I want to talk about, that Lula (head of the PT party) is a political prisoner. In fact, he is the worlds "most prominent political prisoner" as Noam Chomsky has rightly pointed out. The circumstances of his arrest and imprisonment make this abundantly clear, click on the links above if you think that the "corruption scandal" has any merit.

Jair Bolsonaro is a fascist. That is a pretty tame assessment of his character and rhetoric, if you don't work for the mainstream media. He has promised to sell off the Amazon forest to the highest bidder (that thing thats going to be extremely important in sucking carbon out of the air, thus averting planetary extinction), has expressed disdain for anyone even remotely marginalized, gays, indigenous people, blacks, you name it, Jair has shat in their faces. I source the hell out of these posts because I don't want people to take my word for anything, click the links if you think anything I say on this page sounds whack, find out for yourself.

So that's the background that today's inauguration has happened, the CIA worked with Brazil's ruling elite to elect and fascist after the head of the worker party (the only person in the country who could have realistically beat Jair in an election)  was imprisoned on completely inane charges.  So surely our free and independent media™ in the West shine a light on all of this so people can make rational and informed assessments on the matter.

Sorry I was laughing so hard, I had to stifle myself before I could continue.

So no, of course that's not how things work. The media is falling over themselves to paint Bolsanaro in the least negative light possible because he's their boy. This is an all to common pattern in United States foreign policy. Crush the left anywhere and everywhere by any means necessary and work with fascists to prevent even mild reforms that benefit the working class.

Here are some headlines today about the inauguration:

Bolsonaro: Brazil 'liberated from socialism' with him in power -Reuters

Bolsonaro sworn in as Brazil's president on wave of conservative enthusiasm- The Guardian 

Right-Wing Populist Jair Bolsonaro Sworn In As President Of Brazil- NPR 

And the one that made my blood boil, that made me want to write about this today. Dare I say, that this NEWS made me OUTRAGED (couldn't resist)

Trump praises Brazil's new President Bolsonaro after he vowed to 'strengthen democracy'- CNBC

Now that's just fucking peachy. Seriously. CNBC just running that headline is infuriating, but more importantly, its predictable. This is how power works. The bottom line here is that Jair is going to play nice with U.S. based multinational corporations (that's a nice way of saying he will gladly let a small number of people completely destroy the country and rape the land and people for the profit of the aforementioned small number of people) so the media sees fit to paint this bastard with the most flattering array of colors that they can muster from their shitty little pallets.

This is why its so goddamn important that we use and support independent media. Corporate media will doom us all into a fiery oblivion if it means they can profit from it.

If you want an accurate picture of want Bolsonaro's inauguration really means for the future of Brazilians and really the world writ large, because of the amazon forest- and I'm going to quote one of my favorite authors: "Imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever."