More and more people are becoming aware of how screwed we the 99% are with no help

[Dragonfli]

to be expected from anyone on the political horizon, no matter the party.

We have allowed the party of the people to devolve into a co-conspirator that would have us all as slave labor feeding the wealthy, a country where those that have nothing to contribute to the wealth of the few are left to perish as useless eaters. A country where bloody empire for the profit of of an out of control military industry and a thriving new mercenary industry are gorged on the blood of those that are no threat to us in any military sense. A modern form of feudalism that is developing before our eyes.

Without a party to protect us from the unwavering desire of some to re-create this nation as a neo-feudal fascism it's rebirth will continue unabated on it's course toward the neo-feudal goal.

The 99% are beginning to see that they are on their own now against the purchased post-partisanship that will lead us to that goal faster or slower, but on the same course, ever rightward ever more cruel and ever more a threat to their well being and happiness.

We are almost there and there appears to be nothing to stop it.

I blame us that are on the front of liberal thought for allowing our party to so easily be taken over by the republican castaways that dare claim to be more than what they are, purchased lackeys of the wealthy elite.

I blame myself for allowing myself to be used as shamelessly as any poverty stricken GOP member that would support and vote for what is demonstrably against their best interests and the interests of over 99% of the citizens of this country.

I blame the party faithful for so easily adopting and even cheering well known and deeply damaging right wing policy simply because they follow the party line (policies that they are well educated about and once fought against).

I blame the party itself for being so easily bought and co-opted by the policies of the Heritage Foundation and The Chamber of Commerce simply for a pittance in campaign contributions.


Without a party to oppose the neo-feudalists, what is left to stop them?
What can we do?
What can YOU do?

WHAT THE HELL CAN I DO!

The last sentence describes not only my feelings, but also the feelings of a growing number of citizens that can not help but see what is happening because it grows more blatant every day.

[reformist2]

1. We must adopt a zero tolerance policy toward corporatism.

[Dragonfli]

7. Our survival may depend on just that

Not to be dramatic, but we find ourselves in some pretty deep shit.

[2naSalit]

21. I think

it's not "may" it's actually "will" ...

[Fumesucker]

2. There are only two ways we can all be equal, we can pull everyone up or ..

[Dragonfli]

3. That is one I have never seen

It describes well the direction we are headed by carrying it to its full extreme.
The one rich guy even looks like the recurring rich guy character on the Daily show. LOL

[Fumesucker]

5. I think of it as The One Who Walks Towards Omelas

Kind of a bizarro world or opposite day version of the classic story, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ones_Who_Walk_Away_from_Omelas

PDF of the story.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww-rohan.sdsu.edu%2Ffaculty%2Fdunnweb%2Frprnts.omelas.pdf&ei=Q7FyU9W5Fs6jqAbn0oDICg&usg=AFQjCNGuGzgmpuzsL8l6CFtwi-NW_Yp5_Q&sig2=UiaAK05ijp8Kt_c4KDdz5w&bvm=bv.66699033,d.b2k

[Dragonfli]

11. Yes, I can certainly see it as the "One That Walks Towards Omelas"

What strikes me is how easily the population is led not to a Utopia for them fueled by the hardship of the one sacrificed, but led instead to a Utopia that is only for the few (or the one) as a result of THEIR lemming like drive towards their OWN sacrifice. I think the last panel describes the thinking of many that support their own downfall, they may one day be the one leading the Utopian existence.

Most of us are guilty of this of course, myself included, I voted for the Dem corporate elite that are leading my state, my district, and my country towards what is currently resulting in my own deep poverty. I did so not because I felt I will be the wealthy one someday, but because part of me is still living thirty five years in the past when such votes would have helped me and my neighbors, I am old enough to remember our party's war on poverty before it became the war on the poor.

[nomorenomore08]

25. Fantastic cartoon. And the ignorant assholes need it thrown in their face over and over and over

again until it finally sinks in!

[KoKo]

4. There is a view that it will have to Implode Under it's Own Weight.

Some think it will take a move to dystopian society to wake up. I think we are seeing the effects of these policies all over the country (except NYC and Silicon Valley and Fracking Montana) and that it will come sooner than us falling into dystopia. But, then...I tend to try to be optimistic.

Things are not so well out there in USA these days. though...for the Average Person who are experiencing Climate Change (more weather threats to deal with) after effects of Walls Street and Housing Meltdown...Foreclosures and such and Student Loan Dept higher than anything we've ever seen and more. There's certainly a bit of a break with passage of the ACA...but, then...there are still so many who aren't being covered. And it's a decline that we don't have jobs who can give us affordable health care...so the Govt. had to step in. So there's a bit of that.

Sorry..this post is jumbled...

[Dragonfli]

6. Not so jumbled, I know how you feel.

I feel the same way, I just had to post something about at least a bit of the serious problems that have gone ignored here of late in favor of new and ever less interesting debates designed it would appear to focus the 99% against itself, dividing us in various factions while the whole damn thing burns down around us.

Maybe, just maybe if we the 99% come together rather than ripping each other apart we can do something to protect ourselves from ever deepening povery and the very destruction of the portion of the environment that supports mammalian life.

It's a long shot, but what the fuck, maybe a few here still care about the larger problems that we all face rather than deepening the divides that keep us apart and out of the hair of the oligarchs.

[KoKo]

9. Understand what you say....

and the trivia that divides us seemingly to constantly appear. Distracting from the core problems.


"It's a long shot, but what the fuck, maybe a few here still care about the larger problems that we all face rather than deepening the divides that keep us apart and out of the hair of the oligarchs."

Maybe the new DU website "Disscussion" (whatever) will allow those who don't see what we see to frolic. The serious can be here. (somehow things don't always work out the hopeful way...though)

We shall see.

[2naSalit]

23. I wouldn't be too quick to

include "fracking Montana" in that group. Most of Montana is in at least the same boat or worse than the rest of the country. i live in MT and it's not peahces and cream, even up in the Bakken where the fracking is. It's like a dystopian boomtown up there where the working population outweighs the carrying capacity for the infrastructure and rent - should you actually find housing - is at NYC rates. The pay sounds good until you realize you have to spend it all to work there, high crime etc. The rest of the state is just lack of jobs that pay anything... you have to work for the state or a fed agency to have a living wage... and then you usually have to know someone or wait for somebody to die. I don't know any part of the state that is actually doing as well as broadcast in our truthful media outlets.

Just sayin'

On all other points, I agree wholeheartedly.

[KoKo]

40. Thanks for that info on Montana.

I guess like those old Boom Towns in the days of the Gold Rush. They come in and work..and some make money but most get scammed for the groceries and housing...then when the gold peters out the place is abandoned and the still healthy, able workers move on to the next place. The others are left behind in squalor.

[2naSalit]

41. Yup.

That's still the "way of it" out here. Tourism is doing okay but it only makes money, mostly, for the business owners and bar tenders. The mining operators are making a killing but the workforce is not, as usual.

Climate change is making tourism an issue along with the rising cost of transportation. We might be producing a lot more oil and NG here but the prices never went down all that much, still paying $3.60 -$4/gal for the cheapest gas.

[dilby]

8. Brother we have only one soltution.

And no one wants to hear this but it's for the truth, 1% of the US is treating us like serfs and guess what there is not one person in Government who is a member of the 99%. Not one person on any ballot anywhere is part of the 99%, yeah they can use our key words and they can cry on camera to our plight but they have no idea what its like to go hungry, no idea what it's like to worry about losing your job, health benefits, house, telling your kids at night that you will have food for them tomorrow when you don't know how you will do it. Then being asked to fork over money because you barely made enough for diapers, food, rent and now healthcare. Wealthy people do not look at the ACA as a savior because they could afford it, poor people look at it as the hope they made enough to afford it. When in reality it could easily be covered by the bombs we drop on children in the hopes we killed a terrorist. But you know what, the ACA does not make money for the industrial military complex, bombs do.

My solution is go to your neighbor, the one right next to you, the one who has kids and ask them do they love their children more than they hate America. Because if they love their children they will want healthcare for them, they will want them to have an amazing education and most importantly they will not want them dying on foreign soil so some guy they never heard of can see his stock rise by 1%.

[KoKo]

10. Well said....

But, for those of us who have Tea Party Neighbors or RW Fundamentalists....it's not so easy to approach them in discussion.. They have their entertainments which keep them from thinking...and they aren't so welcoming of confrontation.

But, I think some are waking up...and engaging them (as long as you are sure you are comfortable) is a good idea...but, I've learned from hard experience...one doesn't really always know even with the most friendly of them..how they will react.

But, understand what you are saying that is hopeful.

[2naSalit]

24. +1

[Dragonfli]

13. That is part of the solution, I speak often to my neighbors and they are as poor as I am

They are in fact convinced enough to be willing to devote everything to a solution, but as you said, all those chosen to represent us are wealthy and most have begun to realize that no help is coming from that front, many have grown bitter and distrustful due to broken promises of the past.

We, they, so many of us, are still primed to support a populist that will fight for us for a change, I believe, if they can feel one can be trusted again and such were to appear on any level, from local, to state, to national, they have an invisible army waiting and ready.

I can only speak to the feelings of those around me, in red states they may be hard to convince they need to think of their own fate rather than the fate of those that support what they are brainwashed into thinking of as "job creators"

[denbot]

12. Two words.

Wolf PAC

http://www.wolf-pac.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_PAC

[bvar22]

14. That is exactly how my wife & I felt after Kerry's 2004 Campaign,

....and refusal to contest the vote in Ohio.
We could not come up with a plan that will keep this boat from sinking.
Simply voting for "Democrats" has proven to be ineffective.


[font size=3]Hold onto you Memories, SUCKERS,
'cause we're TAKING everything else,
and NOBODY is going to stop us!
Hahahahaha[/font]
.
.
.
.
In 2006, we sold everything and moved to The Woods.
We live there now,
grow most of our own food,
and focus on local Humanitarian Issues.

[Dragonfli]

18. Strange, but that is the election when I first began to feel the way I now do

That was also the last election my wife voted in before her death, she was quite ill at the time but refused to stay at home no matter what I said to her. She had a natural talent for bringing people together, the type of person we so desperately could use right now.

You were around here back then, maybe you remember her, she posted under the name of Ruby Phoenix (but did not post very often so perhaps not)

[bvar22]

47. Sorry to hear about your wife.

It is difficult to imagine how I would live without mine.
Her name is Starkraven, and she doesn't post much either.

The first stolen election in 2000, I can forgive the Democratic Party.
But the 2nd one?.... they was no denying that the game was rigged.


The only way to WIN is not to play.

[Dragonfli]

49. Thank you, she has been gone 8 years now and I still don't know how I manage to

get through each day without her.

We have, I think, much in common. My wife and I were simple counter culture type people that liked organic food, peaceful thoughts and dreams of a world that would someday exist where money and power were not sought after so much as love and peace which would be plentiful.

The thing is, if she didn't get sick we would now be on a small plot of land living simply and as independently as possible. The very plan you and your wife made a reality for yourselves. We had already begun research looking for a place with a good growing climate and plentiful clean water where we could settle down.

Perhaps in another life my sunshine and I will be reunited and living in such a place, and again dreaming of peace, love and a world where all are equal, happy and well fed. We always felt that if enough people dreamed of such a world it would eventually grow into being by mutual consent and cooperative work.

I guess I am just one of those dirty freaky hippy people after all.

[grasswire]

15. solidarity, brother

Use the Civil Rights movement as a model.

The people united cannot be divided.

[grasswire]

16. The Low Road

The Low Road

What can they do to you?
Whatever they want..

They can set you up, bust you,
they can break your fingers,
burn your brain with electricity,
blur you with drugs till you
can’t walk, can’t remember.
they can take away your children,
wall up your lover;
they can do anything you can’t stop them doing.

How can you stop them?
Alone you can fight, you can refuse.
You can take whatever revenge you can
But they roll right over you.
But two people fighting back to back
can cut through a mob
a snake-dancing fire
can break a cordon,
termites can bring down a mansion

Two people can keep each other sane
can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope, sex.

Three people are a delegation
a cell, a wedge.
With four you can play games
and start a collective.
With six you can rent a whole house
have pie for dinner with no seconds
and make your own music.

Thirteen makes a circle,
a hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity
and your own newsletter;
ten thousand community
and your own papers;
a hundred thousand,
a network of communities;
a million our own world.

It goes one at a time.
It starts when you care to act.
It starts when you do it again
after they say no.
It starts when you say we
and know who you mean;
and each day you mean
one more.

- Marge Piercy

[Dragonfli]

17. United we do indeed have a shot at survival, but most of what I see in GD

Last edited Tue May 13, 2014, 10:37 PM - Edit history (1)

as well as the nation as a whole revolve around deepening the artificial divisions between us.

The oligarchs are getting plenty of help by those that should be joining together but choose instead to foster division with a glee and enthusiasm I find rather shocking.

Decades ago I lived in a time where we found a common voice, and they had no choice but to bend somewhat to our will, nowadays, our differences are pointed out and fed upon by those that choose to be bitter and fight each other rather than our common enemies.


How do we defeat the enemy that seeks to divide us and split us into groups of those people and our people rather than the people?

That poem should be pinned to the front page for reflection as it shows the only way forward for those of us not in the elite.

[adirondacker]

19. Thanks for writing this!

Excellent discussion and wish I had something to add with the exception of solidarity.

[Dragonfli]

20. Solidarity is what is needed most right now!

[FrodosPet]

22. I realize 99% vs 1% is an empowering concept

But is anybody in the top 10%, even 20%, suffering?

Not attacking the legitimacy that there is a serious imbalance of power. I just want to be accurate. And to keep the 80% on point that there are 60 million enemies, living lives free from hunger and deprivation, not just 3 million.

[Dragonfli]

26. They are not suffering yet which explains their lack of concern

and support of neoliberal policies.

I do not have the numbers, but I believe at least the 80% to 90% are dwindling in number as they are forced down the ladder, we will here from them shortly when they are forced down close enough to the most of us to start feeling the pain they largely deny exists. I could be wrong.

The numbers are posted here from time to time, I will make a point of bookmarking them next time they are posted, that is after a much needed break from this place until it becomes less hateful and divided than it has become of late.

[DeSwiss]

27. K&R

''...and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.''

-- from the American Declaration of Independence.

- When we finally decide for it to stop, that's when it'll stop.

K&R

[MannyGoldstein]

28. k&r for the basic truth.

We need a single point to rally around, to pull us together. I suspect that Elizabeth Warren will be it.

[Dragonfli]

30. There is I think a growing army of desperate people yearning for someone

Last edited Wed May 14, 2014, 12:54 AM - Edit history (1)

To provide the leadership they know they need to restore balance and a hoped for reprieve from their growing poverty.

Someone they can believe will not betray them, that will help enable them to fight for themselves and the life they were promised in their youth, before the wealth began to be drained from them and into the coffers of the Oligarchs.

Perhaps she will step up, if she does I believe the army that had hoped Obama would be that one, will follow her, and this army will be even larger, having grown in the shadows just as desperation and poverty have grown from then until now.

If she does not "sell them out" as so many now fear of all politicians, even the oligarchs will not be able to stop them or her.
With the right leadership, a return to the values that grew this country from the mid thirties until the seventies can be reborn.

There are many ifs, and much to be placed on any leaders shoulders, but she may well be the right person at the right time just as FDR was in his time.

Not to be an alarmist, but if someone does not lead us in a positive fashion it will only be a matter of time before too much poverty and injustice will be visited upon us, and what will happen is what always happens when a population grows too hungry and desperate - revolution and bloodshed that only a sociopath would prefer.

Let us hope brother, things are getting pretty bad out here, we need leadership and a fair deal for the discounted majority in this country.

[brooklynite]

29. So, you'll be leaving DU then?

You've apparently decided that the Democratic Party has sold you out and can't be shifted to reflect your position. Not much point sticking around a Democratic Party oriented blog, is there?

[MannyGoldstein]

31. It's kind of like our house was occupied by a band of grifters

while we weren't paying attention. I suppose we could just move, but probably better to toss the grifters out and move back into our house.

[Dragonfli]

33. LOL said much more plainly and succinctly than my rambling reply Manny

But yeah, what you said.

[redqueen]

43. Nothing about reforming the party in the OP. Just stuff about how we don't have a party anymore

and how we are all so helpless and WHAT CAN WE DOOOOO.

[Dragonfli]

32. I don't like Republicans, that is true, even when they masquerade as Democrats while they laugh

at our expense with their banker criminal buddies as they steal everything wrought by the labor and resources of the majority that they despise and ignore.

The party leadership has sold all of us out, if needs be I will leave rather than play sycophant to the criminals that are bleeding us dry. That all depends entirely on the individual Democrats that are in the district, state and federal jurisdictions over me during various elections.

As for this site, there are a great many traitors to the party and working people here, but also many allies of the people, my staying here depends entirely upon if it remains viable as a vehicle to promote the party values I have cherished for thirty five years, and also whether it remains a vehicle that can still be helpful to the working class people that I am determined to help because of the loyalty I feel for my class.

My position has already been revealed and explained

I do intend to take a break from here until (if ever) the divisiveness and hatred that divides the people that should be united die down and I am not despised as "white trash" by a few that do not care for unity but are currently attempting to divide us.

Perhaps people will realize very soon that we are stronger united than we are divided by superficial differences. In any event you will be getting a break from my crazy FDR ideology for a time while I take that break, this post was an attempt to discuss something important amidst all the divisive threads popping up all over, one last argument for what really matters before I take my break if you will..

[Unknown Beatle]

34. But,

if I mention that Obama has a hand in this, I will be called out on it. Yet, Obama has shown that he's with the rich elite by his appointees.

[Dragonfli]

35. I think that if you make it a personal thing about him you would be called out

But really, it should not be personal.

He has appointed many, many, many people that appear to be the enemy of those that do not have hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars they would like to hoard and continue stealing from the rest of us. That fact is an important one and those appointees and the damage they are doing specifically should be pointed out and put under a microscope, but the trickle down and steal from the rest of us policies are what need to be attacked, not the personalities involved.

If you stick to pointing out the damage being caused, to whom, by what methods, and propose some of the countless populist counter theories that once were a staple of this party you should be safe. Even if there are those so blinded by a belief in trickle down theory or personality cults they feel that they must attack you. It will only be because they can't see anything beyond what helps their wealthy idols or because they feel they must protect the heroes they love as one might a teen idol or star athlete. Such people will always exist, but most others will see the importance of what is being criticized and agree bad policies need to be changed if it is the policies that are the core of your critique.

You will never be fully insulated from those that think these life and death matters are a sport, or you are picking on a personality they have grown to love, but sticking to criticism of bad policy makes it hard for people to gain any traction attacking either you or any valid criticisms you may offer, take comfort in that and don't be afraid to point out bad decisions when they are bad.

[Octafish]

36. Organize and Mobilize.

We still got the Internet. When that's gone corporate, we'll tell one another the Truth.

Thank you for an outstanding OP and a great thread, Dragonfli!

[Dragonfli]

38. Indeed, we are legion! United, organized and mobilized only extreme violence could stop us.

Their are several million people all getting screwed and feeling the need to throw off the numerically very few that are feeding off us, as we grow more desperate they grow more fearful of us.

The only ingredient left that is needed IMO is solidarity of number and purpose which is where organization and mobilization come in.
I do not think it is an accident that the free and open internet is currently under attack, nor do I believe it is all about the usual corporate take over and control simply for profit, sure, the revolving door and greed are a huge part of it but control is also a part of it even if not everyone sees it.

Thank you for the compliment Octafish, I have long respected you as one of the most important and intelligent voices in this online community, your encouragement means a great deal to me.

[mmonk]

37. I have learned since I've become gerrymandered that the street

is now my ballot. That wherever the corporatists meet to discuss their plans for state or nation, that is where to show up to voice displeasure. Only a movement will work. It's time to start the heavy lifting of being one. I plan to march in every Moral Monday I can possibly make. Every protest to save public schools, someone's right to vote, and everyone's right as a citizen to some sort of floor to which they cannot fall through. Every protest in order to protect the water I drink and the air I breathe. I'm only here for a short while. It's time to be useful.

[raouldukelives]

39. K&R It only ends when enough of us demand it does.

Just like anything else we ever had to fight for. It ends when enough of us refuse to be pawns in an unethical and unmoral system.
Slavery didn't end because we voted for it. It ended because good people could no longer abide the practice. They themselves preferred being a little poorer than to have others suffer for their wealth.
For every person who legitimately cares about the direction of this nation and our natural world there are ten Wall St investors funding the attacks against it, against us, day in and day out.

[FiveGoodMen]

42. "We have allowed the party of the people to devolve into a co-conspirator"

And this site bears some of the blame.

Every time a legitimate criticism of a Dem is met with 'I suppose you would rather have Palin/Romney/etc/etc' it helped the party of the people turn into ... well ... what we've got now.

[xiamiam]

46. i was thinking that the new discussion site mentioned by Skinner yesterday may actually be a more

legitimate discourse since every time one mentions here how corrupt the democrats are, some hall patrol is bound to roll out the site rules. 40 years of voting dem and while I haven't changed, I find the the bulk of our current politicians loathsome..few exceptions which I can count on one hand

[boston bean]

44. oh, come on now, pull yourself up by your boot straps.

Go dig a ditch with others you feel are the cause of your woe. Then have a beer with them. That'll fix it.

There's other people a lot less privileged than you are, I'm sure. Hell, there are democrats and republicans both that probably have it worse than you, what are you complaining about. They have money and you don't. It's not their fault, they have that.

The above is sarcasm, but the same types of arguments are used against other groups that have issues for different reasons.

I'm only playing devils advocate in trying to get others to realize how those arguments are unhelpful and in fact are harmful.

[xiamiam]

45. the only good news is that after obama many of us realize the truth of both sides of same coin

before obama we could blame bush and the repubs...