Who Runs America?

Who Runs America?

A lot of interesting reading. 

A new game called real democracy

It is easy to get on here and whine about our crumbling democracy here in the USA. Finding solutions is harder. I have no magic bullets to fix everything, seems I've ran out but how about a few starting points?

1. If we are ever to have a real democracy here in the USA, we have to find a way to get the massive sums of money out of our political system. I have no secret Swiss bank account and cannot buy influence in the current political system. I think this is the root of much of our troubles and also the hardest problem to solve. But it is not totally hopeless. Check out Move to Amend. Sooner or later, we must stop giving our support to political parties that do nor support us. We the people cannot win when the fix is in.

2. Recreate democracy starting at the most local level possible. The Occupy movements popping up all over are a good start and give me a much need ray of hope. We in the movement and who support it must be careful not to start playing the game the state does so well. Let's all be leaders and work through consensus and not allow ourselves to get bogged down in positions, personalities and power structures. When that happens, Occupy becomes just another failed movement assimilated by the most powerful. Here in Greensboro, NC our local Occupy movement has many sub-working groups; Healthcare, Employment, Arts and Education Enrichment. Each is actively seeking real solutions. The Employment group for example is researching how to set up employee owned co-ops to create jobs. This is the meaning of being the change we want to see in the world.

3. Delegitimize the current two party system. In other words, stop playing the game controlled by the powerful for the powerful. Let Washington continue to play games while we rebuild democracy one community at a time via consensus building. 51% should not be able to hold tyranny over 49%. We need to develop ways beyond the current win / lose oppositional politics that serve only the few. There are alternatives!

4. BE WARNED. If the any of the above starts to show signs of real success, the state will use its favorite tool, direct violence. Once the myths of freedom, land of opportunity, the American dream and the rest evaporate, direct violence will be the state's last card. If we meet violence with violence, we the people will lose. As we have seen the state is very good at violence. What they are not good at is non-violence. This may be a way to transform the game. It is not without cost.

In short, what we have to do is create a new game called real democracy, while we still have a legal means to do so.

Reform, My Ass!

I'd like to think we can somehow take our democracy back via he current two party system but I fail to see how it could be possible. Average everyday citizens, the 99%, don't have the deep pockets it takes to influence most politicians. We now find ourselves with the finest democracy money can buy. Which is not a democracy at all. It is something more like this. As of this writing, we still have more or less freedom of speech (unless you talk about talking to so called terrorist groups and wind up in a cell at an undisclosed location as a guest of the US military, for example). There are other taboo topics where the punishment is not as obvious but still bad enough. Those who question the the on going War on Terror, invasions of other countries and bombing those we label rouge and or terrorist organizations often face ridicule, humiliation, job loss or marginalization.

The same can be said of anyone who questions capitalism or Neo-liberalism. "What are you, some kinda commie or socialist?" Try to get a job with this label. Hell, this may be worse than doing time in the American gulag. I think we still feed prisoners and let them have shelter which is more than I can say for our ever shrinking social safety net. But if you are a massive financial intuition who has paid BOTH political parties failure is not an option. Read 'em and weep; here here and here. How can average citizens compete?

Financial deregulation under former President Bill Clinton helped pave the way for mega-mergers and big banks gone wild. Did they really expect this industry to police itself? Those who say the market will weed out the dirty players may have been correct but some how they became "Too Big To Fail" and we the tax payers got stuck with the bill. Thus the cycle begins again. For an easy to understand explanation of what's driving the financial crisis check out the documentary, "The Greed Game". The super rich are building wealth on a massive scale while people in so called wealthy western countries are being stuck with "austerity". Those cashing in spend millions on our elections and rake in billions. That's a damn good ROI (Return on Investment)! Are the Republicans any better?

Republicans are all about pro business at the expense of the ever growing underclass. They confuse being a good business man with being a good political leader. Romney offers his business skills as a big qualification to be president but is a good businessman the right person to be president? I think business are two different things. Well duh! Business is all about making money. It is the whole point. Government should be about protecting liberty, providing defense (not an empire) and seeing to it every one's basic needs are being met. What happens when doing the work of good government clashes with making money? Now it seems money wins out every time, no matter the party in power. For a good objective article on Romney click here. Republicans play on people's fears to protect business interests. Government run health care is bad! The old lady on TV says "Big government stay out of my Medicare!" GROOOOAN. Death panels under your bed! They want to take away your guns! The Mexicans are taking our jobs! The list is almost endless but people buy in. Both parties do a hell of a job on selling us on war!

In the beginning George W. had me sold on the Iraq war but I started to listen to those opposed to it and woke up. "War made Easy" is a documentary which exposes the same script presidents use to sell us on war for more than fifty years now. "They are a grave threat to us.", "We must protect freedom." 'We must prevent genocide." Bla bla bla... Neither party questions the fact that a president can start a war and now has a private army in both the CIA and Contractors such as Dyncorp and Academi (formerly known as Xe, Formerly known as Backwater).

There are others who feel this way.

Stan Goff "Why I wont vote (and you shouldn't either)"

Ted Rall Blog

Chris Hedges "This is what revolution looks like"

Chalmers Johnson Read here!

I hope I'm full of shit and those who want to change the system / game from with in are right but how? If not, what are the possible alternatives? Let the dialogue begin! Keep it positive.