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Racist Killing Fields

Wage Stagnation Explained

Wage Stagnation Explained

Independence Day

Let's look beyond the flag waiving a little shall we? Think beyond the obligatory fireworks, military hero worship and sales events to what this day should and could mean. Our democracy has been reduced to an illusionary choice between two political parties who are bound completely to the whims and wishes of multinational corporations of all stripes. By law, these same corporations have just one interest; their bottom line. Hint- this may or may not be in line with yours or my best interests. I think, more often than not, people's interests conflict with bottom lines of ledgers. Somewhere, somehow we have handed over our responsibility as citizens to banks too big to fail, oil giants, insurance companies and those who see healthcare not as a way to help people live better but to make money. We are now mere consumers of products. I cannot give you a date for when this happened. It may have always been this way "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" as the old song goes. So my question to you on this Independence Day is, can there be any other way?

Yes, in fact there has to be and there will be one way or another. Let's look at the hard way first. We simply keep screaming down the tracks business as usual. Remember no one is driving the train and it is rapidly accelerating into a fog of ever more dangerous wars (the wars of this century may make the wars of the last look like a quiet day at the beach), catastrophic climate change, utter despair for millions (billions?) crammed into ghettos ans shanty towns the size of states. (Bottom Billion anyone- exists already) Presiding over this chaos will be a tiny group living in relative luxury and security. If history is any judge, this will last only so long. Basically, everything sill be smashed to pieces and we'll start all over (if any of us survive that is). Then there is the easier way.

 
We start using the last bits of freedom we have to take control of our government(s). Remember of the people, by the people and for the people? Now is is of the corporations, by the big banks for the billionaires. This cannot end well. People get all hung up when I say not to vote. I've explained before having no real choice renders voting all but meaningless. VOTE but VOTE with meaning. Voting for candidate A because candidate B is even worse is what we've been doing for my whole lifetime. It has not worked. For too many things are worse. We can and must find a way to get money out of our political system. Otherwise, even a guy like Bernie Sanders  will be little more effective than Obama. We have to find a way to get politicians who are accountable to people and not monied interests. So how can we make it so?