Aside from the abdications of the Bumbler-in Chief in the face of the COVID pandemic, already much was being imposed on Americans. Added to this are the manifold incidents within the past six months of freak climate occurrences throughout the planet, Including floods in Ohio, catastrophic fires in Washington, Oregon and California, hurricanes in the Gulf states, collapse of the Greenland glacier twice Manhattan’s size, floods and mass starvation in Yemen, Zionist genocide in Palestine, and war, and occupation throughout the globe, and the immiseration of millions.
Piled on top of these many whammies, are the White House occupant’s phobia for calling the moving men, the support of his enablers in Congress, many of them Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, and that segment of the American public willing and itching to re-elect an incumbent who has done more to destroy this country and dismantle any of our ecological protections than any foreign agency could possibly have done (that includes whipping boy nations like China and Russia) and now, the icing on the cake, the passing—and the possible final extinction of our democracy— of Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
Before anything else is said, we should be reminded that RBG has worked so hard throughout her life to protect us, to defend us from the depredations of forces either aiming directly to destroy our lives, or whose activities work to destroy our lives and our pursuit of happiness, she deserves her rest now. We must always hold her dear in our hearts and honor her memory. That comes with the obligation to take on and intensify her fight for social justice not only in the face of our enormous repression, but in the face of an outright war, an economic war by the elites against working people that has seen a massive transfer of wealth within the past four and a half decades, an actual theft from the working classes of 50 trillions, not millions, not billions, 50 trillions of dollars.
(Note: social media doesn’t want you to know about this. Here’s one notification following such a post: Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators of r/politics.)
If there are people who once worked in California’s Kern county now living in tents in the hundreds of thousands all along the railroad right of way from Fresno to Hanford, if there are people living along highway underpasses in the millions, that is what the theft of 50 trillions of dollars looks and smells like: like all war zones, that detritus, that misery, that near-starvation, that smell of urine and feces. Let us never never overlook the connection. It is a connection that extracts payment in the starvation of children, and in disease, misery, and death of millions.
Debs, Rebel In US Colonies
Already in 1888, Eugene Debs bent over pencil and paper, drawing calculations. “If a grandson of Cornelius Vanderdbilt started out with $2 million, from father and grandfather, if a locomotive foreman would work 4,444 years, 300 days each year, at $1.50 per day, he would be in a position to bet Mr, Vanderbilt $2.50 that all men are born equal.” Debs left school at 14 to become a scraper on the cars of the Vandalia Railroad for 50 cents a day. He graduated to fireman shoveling two tons of coal an hour, 6 days a week, 16 hours a day. Eventually, he was to found the American Railroad Union, although he had not yet embraced socialism, He still clung to the shibboleths of the two-party system. The American Railway Union voted to strike, a strike which paralyzed transportation west of Detroit for more than a month. From then on, Debs dedicated himself to the struggle between what he identified as the “producing classes and the money power.”
Eventually indicted for leading the strike, he was sentenced to 6 mos. in prison, from which he was given certain privileges: allowed to run his union, allowed to leave jail on his honor, and allowed to dedicate most of his time to reading, which included reading Das Kapital.
From then on, with Debs, an ideological shift had to take place. Although he endorsed Bryan, business-funded McKinley won election, and in 1897, for the first time, Debs declared himself a socialist. “Money constitutes no basis for civilization,” he wrote. In 1900 a Massachusetts delegate nominated him to the presidency, for which he ran in 1900, and twice afterwards, until 1912, his fourth time, when he won nearly a million votes. By 1914 and the outbreak of WW I, he wrote, ”The working class who fight the battles, the working class who make the sacrifices, the working class who shed the blood, the working class who furnish the corpses, the working class have never yet had a voice declaring war.”
Standing trial during the war for his socialist beliefs, he stated, “If the Espionage Law stands, then the Constitution of the United States is dead.” But his speech during his sentencing to ten years is best remembered. “While there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” His sentence was commuted to three years, but jail killed him. He emerged little more than a shell of his former self. So America dispenses with the greatest amongst us.
But what is notable is that at the height of his struggle, the United States embraced the progressive reforms long advocated by the socialists: women’s suffrage, trust-busting, economic reform, maximum hour and minimum wage laws, the abolition of child labor, and the direct election of U.S. Senators, all reforms espoused by both the Democratic and Republican parties of that time.
I Can’t Breathe
Regrettably, no such sign of bi-partisanship has yet been applied to the planet’s greatest task at hand, one that threatens to rob our children of their future, namely the mitigation of global warming, whose latest manifestations are not only the intensity of Gulf hurricanes, Mid-West flooding, the melting glaciers and, under its horrifying pall of chocolate skies, the catastrophic fires engulfing the entire West Coast States brought on by drought, but the threat, one yet more alarming in this writer’s view, of violence brought on by the diminished ability of people to think clearly because they can’t breathe.
Repeated studies over many years have revealed the link between the presence of lead in gasoline and house paint with the rise of violent crime, its so called “controlled experiment,” the removal of lead in gasoline, to be the clincher.
As we slowly asphyxiate and our skies turn repeatedly to chocolate, can we anticipate a cultural collapse brought on by human inability to grapple thoughtfully with world-shattering problems, and a resort to mass violence and global warfare, shown to be the greatest fossil fuel release of all?
Are we there already?
SHUT DOWN Senate and STOP #45 pick
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DONATE to MoveOn in honor of RBG
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DEMAND your Senators oppose #45 Supreme pick
With planet and future on line, Sunrise Movement doubles down on 2020 after RBG death.
As COVID spreads, global peace builders call on governments to re-commit to peace.
Russia bans Wi-Fi.
New Simón Bolívar institute for peace and solidarity among people established Sept. 6.
Venezuela foils CIA terror clot., arresting agent Matthew John Heath and 3 others..
UK Israeli drone-manufacturing factory occupied.
Although you’d never know it from the media: in London over the weekend, thousands come out peacefully to protest medical fraud and wacko BioSecurity State takeoverlula.
Opposing deals to set up diplomatic relations bet. Israel, Bahrain and Emirates, Palestinians declare the self-determination not for sale.
UN Assembly approves pandemic resolution with objections by twins, US and Israel.
US China tariffs ruled illegal by WTO.
New York judge blasts US prosecutor’s conduct in Iran sanctions case.
Minnesota’s prosecutor, John Choi quits #45 law enforcement commission.
After more than 50,000 people tell CDC to extend no-sail order for cruise ships, environmental good news: No cruises in US until after COVID.
Movement for Black Lives and Working Families Party form coalition to protect election and fight for their communities, regardless of election outcome.
Federal court pauses anti-voter changes made by Postmaster DeJoyless.
Federal judge suspends #45 administration’s move to end 2020 census early.
Red States only: #45 to block oil drilling of Fla, GA, and S. C. coasts.
Politicians from 27 different countries such as Lula, Rosseff, Zapatero., Corbyn, Paul, Galloway Gravel, and Varoufakis join 189 independent international judges, lawyers, legal academics and legal associations endorse open letter to UK government calling for Assange immediate release.
Top Green group aims record $100 million to ditch #45 and Republicans.
New report underscores Clean Energy would create more jobs than fossil fuels, and that fracking is not a sustainable pathway to prosperity.
Landslide vote by NC nurses delivers biggest hospital unionization win in South in 45 years!
Sanders and Gillibrand unveil postal banking act to provide alternative to predatory Wall St. banks.
Morgan Stanley greenwash: A commitment to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050.
Good riddance party held for Silicon Valley Pallantir, ICE and cop enabler, moving to Denver.
AOC urges Dems to prevent #45 filling RBG vacancy,
According to ActBlue since 8 Pm Friday until yesterday, $100 million added to war chest investing in candidates up and down ballot and organization on front lines of impending confirmation fight.
Reuters/Ipsos polls: 62% adults (including half Republicans) believe the SCOTUS vacancy should be filled by winner of 2020 election; 20% disagree. (I guess that rosemissing 18% are so busy with their cells phones and Facebook, they don’t know.)
Backlash against GOP power grab is seen in fundraising numbers: in less than three days, more than one million people sign petition demanding that RBG seat not be filled until 2021.
See it when I believe it department: several Repubs promise to oppose any replacement confirmation before election (but not inauguration?)
House passes historic legislation protecting pregnant workers from discrimination, prompting Senate to follow suit.
Progressive hit back after DOJ designates New York, Seattle, and Portland ‘anarchist jurisdictions.’
Lots of luck with that department: as #45 sows chaos, Sanders and Schumer call on Mitch to hold public hearings, help restore confidence in election integrity.
ACLU launches voter preparedness campaign.
New York Senate attacks monopoly crisis.
“just tax the rich,” to avoid austerity, patriotic millionaire tells N.Y. Gov. Cuomo after Mayor de Blasio cuts city spending.
First ever endorsement; Scientific American backs Biden.
Indigenous stewardship of landscape, 57% federal, and 3% California might help prevent raging climate fires.
Student Debt Crisis officially endorses Biden.
Warren and Schumer unveil plan to cancel $50,000 for fed student loan borrowers.
Kenyon College students organize first campus-wide undergrad union.
City of Oakland looking to buy more than 20 buildings for homeless and COVID housing.
Redwood City CA approves $1.7 RV parking program.
San Francisco new safe sleeping village opens in Mission to include 40 tent sites.
San Diego looking to convert hotels to house the homeless now berthed in Convention Center.
Important measure for climate voters in Berkeley and Albany appear on ballot: Berkeley’s Measure HH exempting low income households from utility tax., Albany’s Measure DD to provide funds for climate action and emergency response.
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