The End of Empire

Dec 15

Too soon?

All tears are justified. Lack of tears is not.

Oct 21

The Other 9/11 - Chile 1973

BBC 4 documentary

On September 11, 1973 a military coup was started by General Augusto Pinochet that ousted the democratically elected President Salvador Allende of Chile. Allende’s was the first democratically elected Marxist government in the world. This documentary produced by BBC Four is a chronicle of the event from witnesses and archive footage. A chilling and moving account of the day by perpetrators, as well as those at receiving end, who survived to tell this story of a defining moment in Chile’s history. It changed Chile forever. It is the only full length (almost 1 hour) documentary in English on it. Also, it is the only documentary that takes into account both sides of the story.

About every documentary I’ve found on Allende skips 1970-1973, and just glosses over the economic problems, causes of strikes, inflation, role of US pledge to “make the economy scream”

If anyone can recommend a little reading, or another documentary or something, I’d be very grateful. Thanks!

Jul 20

“I was caught in a rainstorm last week. I was sitting in my car watching the rain fall on my windshield. I see rain different from you. I see the rain as the tears from the people who are suffering and I need to help them throughout these economic crises. I am here to help those who are hurting.”

Jimmy McMillan, Rent Is Too Damn High Party

from an interview with isidewith.com on his presidential campaign

Jul 19

“I represent The Rent Is Too Damn High party. People workin’ 8 hours a and day 40 hours a week and some a third job. Women can’t afford to take care of their children, feed their children breakfast lunch and dinner. My main job is provide a roof over your head, food on the table and money in your pocket. This is politics as usual, playing the silly game, but its not gonna happen. The Rent Is Too Damn High movement, the people I’m here to represent can’t afford to pay their rent. They’re being laid off right now as i speak. They can’t eat breakfast lunch or dinner. Listen! Someone’s stomach child stomach just growled, did you hear it? Gotta listen like me. Let’s talk about the issue! People can’t afford to pay the rent are starving. Rent is too damn high.” Jimmy McMillan III, Rent Is Too Damn High Party

My favorite Republican Communist.
Get ‘em Jimmy. Seriously. I’m behind you all the way.

Jul 16

Guardian: Obama himself has never challenged the kind of rapacious capitalism he is desperate to associate with his opponent

Thanks again to Critical Reading

Just a couple of months into his presidency he called a meeting of banking executives. But instead of representing the interests of those who voted for him and had been hardest hit by the crisis – the poor, union members, black people and Latinos – he sided with those who funded him and precipitated the crisis: “I’m not out there to go after you,” he told them. “I’m protecting you.”

As one of the bankers told Ron Suskind inThe Confidence Men: “The sense of everyone after the meeting was relief. The president had us at a moment of real vulnerability. At that point, he could have ordered us to do just about anything and we would have rolled over. But he didn’t – he mostly wanted to help us out, to quell the mob. And the guy we figured we had to thank for that was [Treasury secretary] Tim [Geithner]. He was our man in Washington.” This is what makes Democratic attacks on the business record of Republican presumptive nominee Mitt Romney so difficult to swallow. While their substance is sound and their target deserving, the source makes them hypocritical and opportunistic. The poor do not have “a man in Washington”. Romney deserves to be taken to task. However, it’s not a task the Democrats can credibly undertake since they have been complicit in the very practices for which they criticise him.

Jul 1

He’s a great guy

I would like to have a beer with him

His family dog is great/important

May 13

“There is nothing more unequal, than the equal treatment of unequal people.” Thomas Jefferson, closet anti-capitalist

May 4

$thepeoplesrecord: The Obama administration bows down to oil companies - yet again. Obama announced a proposed rule that would require companies to disclose chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking). However, in a compromise with corporations, such as ExxonMobil and XTO Energy, companies would only have to disclose such information after the well has been drilled, not before. The original policy would have required companies to disclose chemicals at least 30 days prior to drilling. But Obama cracked under pressure by oil industry lobbyists to loosen regulations on oil & gas drilling. Fracking has been known to contaminate groundwater, cause tremors & earthquakes, pollute at incredible rates, cause cancer from mishandling of waste & cause other health concerns from contaminated water, such as headaches, nausea, coughing & even memory loss. Source So freaking ironic. Obama’s crew just released an add against the Romney campaign, painting them as slaves to Big Oil, and Obama as all squeaky clean and green.If we do a few minutes of homework and record checking, it’s easy to see that the Obama administration has indeed “bowed down to big oil”, as thepeoplesrecord pointed out.So, like the Obama campaign suggested in their add, I’m gonna get on “Tumblr or whatever that is”, and call their bluff. Incredible hypocrisy Class A bullshit$

thepeoplesrecord:

The Obama administration bows down to oil companies - yet again.

Obama announced a proposed rule that would require companies to disclose chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking). However, in a compromise with corporations, such as ExxonMobil and XTO Energy, companies would only have to disclose such information after the well has been drilled, not before.

The original policy would have required companies to disclose chemicals at least 30 days prior to drilling. But Obama cracked under pressure by oil industry lobbyists to loosen regulations on oil & gas drilling.

Fracking has been known to contaminate groundwater, cause tremors & earthquakes, pollute at incredible rates, cause cancer from mishandling of waste & cause other health concerns from contaminated water, such as headaches, nausea, coughing & even memory loss.

Source

So freaking ironic. Obama’s crew just released an add against the Romney campaign, painting them as slaves to Big Oil, and Obama as all squeaky clean and green.

If we do a few minutes of homework and record checking, it’s easy to see that the Obama administration has indeed “bowed down to big oil”, as thepeoplesrecord pointed out.

So, like the Obama campaign suggested in their add, I’m gonna get on “Tumblr or whatever that is”, and call their bluff.

Incredible hypocrisy

Class A bullshit

Apr 30

“I have not seen ‘The Hunger Games’, not enough class warfare for me.” President Obama at the White House Correspondence Dinner

:) …have there been ANY good movies with class war recently?

Apr 26

Obama “Slow Jams” a Campaign Ad

Here’s a little propaganda for you. President Obama announcing his policy on student loan intrest rates on a comedy show.

What’s that policy, you ask? Is he gonna make government loans free of interest to student? Is he going to forgive some, or maybe all of current student loan debt?

Nope.

Well, is he planning to at least IMPROVE the current policy somehow?

Nope.

Well what the hell? What does he have to say?

“Republicans want to increase the intrest rates on student loans. I think that’s a bad idea. We need to keep college affordable.”

Wait, what? Was college affordable? Ok, hold on…

You went out of your way to appear on a comedy show to announce that you’re just going to DEFEND and already oppressive STATUS QUO?!?!

Looks like you just bought yourself roaring applause, circulated to tens of millions of (young) voters, and the tacit endorsement of Jimmy Fallon and all of hip-youth-ery.

Well played, sir. Strong propaganda. Well played.

“Remember to vote for me, cause those Republicans over there are freakin crazy. I’m all you got. REMEMBER that. Criticizing me is futile.”

I’m impressed, but even more disgusted. This is our more progressive option.

No, I’ve forgotten again. He’s never said he was a progressive. He’s a “consensus maker”. Bridging divides, and placing himself right in the middle: between right-center and fascist neocon.

I’m no Bolshevik, but I recently read a quote from Lenin. He was asked whether British revolutionary workers should support the Labour Party candidate in the elections. He called on them to support the candidate “in the same way as the rope supports a hanged man”. Should he win, workers across Britain would become dissolution with parliamentary system, and chose more radical routes.

I would not chose to endorse such a violent metaphor about the president. I would, however, like to suggest we stop cheering for our president. We don’t need the “audacity of hope” that a presidential election will be sufficient. We need the audacity to condemn, defy, and organize.

How cheap and disgusting the applause… how empty and, yes, audacious the rhetoric, as if there was still hope that we can make significant progressive gains, or EVEN STAND IN DEFENSE of the gains won by past progressive struggles, by throwing all our support behind this president.

The audacity indeed.

He has the audacity to woo us again.

We need the audacity - the resolve, the ingenuity and the courage - to move beyond this system.

The End of Empire

Dismantle oppression. Deepen democracy. Destroy tyranny.

Guardian: Obama himself has never challenged the kind of rapacious capitalism he is desperate to associate with his opponent