It's interesting. There are people out there explaining, but people need to
listen to the explanations. On my stream today, I discovered the continuation,
Part 2, of Democracy Now's interview with the Muslim Professor who lives in
England, I think. And he was trying to say, repeatedly, that whatever the
ostensible reasons given for all the US wars are, the real reason is for people
to make money. Then, on the Real News Network, there was this extended
discussion about Trump's plans for Afghanistan. Larry Wilkerson was explaining
that the US will remain in Afghanistan for 50 years, as it has in Germany and
South Korea, etc., and there are geo-political reasons for this which means,
after you listen to the explanations, political states make decisions for
commercial reasons, based on the requirements of corporations. And then, Paul
Jay, I've added him to my list of heroes, explained in response to a viewer's
question, that the purpose of wars has nothing to do with spreading democracy
or the welfare of people. It all has to do with the welfare of corporations and
the military people who benefit from war, financially. So the explanations are
there. But what percentage of people watches Democracy Now or The Real News
Network, or listens to radio stations on the Pacifica network? There's social
media, but remember, there are right wing websites and radio and TV programs
and podcasts. People choose what attracts them. A lot of people on the VR
Stream Users email list have listed the podcasts to which they listen. Some of
them have 100 podcast feeds on their streams. Not one of them has listed any
politically left of center podcast. One person said she was collecting
suggestions because she wanted to listen to podcasts of all political
persuasions in order to be fair. The people who consider themselves to be
"liberals", listen to NPR podcasts.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2017 2:33 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Americanisation Fragile
Miriam,
No argument with what you point out. But it is exactly the way these
differences are used against us that causes me to focus on our "sameness".
Someone more articulate than I am needs to convince the majority of Americans
that we are being brain washed by the Ruling Class. Donald Trump is now
leading the way in driving wedges and trash talking different groups. In part
however,it goes beyond just focusing on our differences and playing them
against one another. This administration is creating alternative news(lies)
and then using them as straw men to make certain the pot is stirred. And so we
have a hall filled with sneering,smug Working Class/Middle Class men and women
kissing the Emperor's ring and trotting after the Empires Pied Pipers, just
singing and dancing along that yellow brick road.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/25/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Granted, if you are not super wealthy, you are in jeopardy. But if
you lump together, the homeless, the people working for minimum wage
for fast food restaurants, the people working for Uber or Lift as
contract workers, the people working for law firms as paralegals, the
people working for law firms as well paid attorneys but, nevertheless,
workers with no power in those firms, the people working as home
health aides, the people working as nurses, the people working as
physicians' assistants, the people working for Google or Microsoft as
cafeteria workers or high paid tech workers, the people working as
teachers employed by school systems, the people working as pilots for
airlines, doctors, professors, bank employees, and so on, what you are
doing is hiding the distinctions in terms of life style, education,
degrees of economic ssecurity, degrees of opportunity for pleasureable
activity, degrees of access to medical care, degrees of respect given
to them as people, etc. Actually, after I tried to express this to
Roger in a private conversation that we recently had, I saw it written
by someone, much smarter and more politically sophisticated than I am,
in an article. I'm certainly not trying to deny the power relationship
between the elites and the rest of us. But there are vast differences
among the rest of us. Yes, you are insecure because your life is
shaped by those who are in power. But you have a beautiful home on 10
acres where you've been living for quite some time. If you truly
comprehend what it means to live as a black person in, say Baltimore,
where they celebrated last weekend because with tremendous community
effort they had only two murders during that weekend, then you can't
equate your situation to that black Baltimore resident. In other
words, there are degrees of powerlessness, and degrees of misery. Our
world is composed of differences and subtleties. Generalizations help,
but sometimes, they obscure reality. NFB has done this same thing
regarding blindness. They insist that someone who has very good
useable partial vision but fits within the definition of legal
blindness, is the same as someone who has been totally blind since
birth. That's the philosophical framework to which members are, or
perhaps, were, required to adhere. The divergence from reality of this
point of view should be obvious to anyone, but it is an article of faith.
Take any philosophical framework and require rigid adherence to it, whether
that be Marxist theory or Capitalism, and you end up with distortion.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2017 11:13 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Americanisation Fragile
You are exactly right, Miriam. Except that we'll most likely never
agree on this Working Class/Middle Class thing.
But just to beat the dead horse one more time, trying a different
club, I do understand that part of the working class fancy themselves
as "Middle Class". I know that people around me would tell you that
the Jarvis' are middle class folk. Middle of what? Certainly not
midway between the poverty level and the billionaires. Not even
close. We are not independently wealthy, which, if we were, could
make us part of the American Oligarchy, the White, Male over 21 Land
Holder. We live on Promises. Promises that once said, "Your
retirement is secure. You will never be in poverty". Those once firm
promises are now in jeopardy because our Ruling Class desires to
declare eternal war on the world. Our small rehabilitation business
could not support us if our retirement and social security were cut, or
worse. We clear less than ten dollars an hour, each.
If worse came to worse and our retirement funds were taken away, what
we earn in our business would cover the rent on a shack. And even
that money is on shaky ground. We have funding through next June, but
no idea if there will be an Older Blind Program after that. We could
well be sucked down with all those being "drained from the swamp".
So regardless of our color, or our education, or our ability to have
saved enough to buy, cash in hand, a 2017 Toyota Tacoma, or the fact
that currently we are Land Owners with our ten acres of gorgeous,
forest/farmland. It all depends upon the whims of the Oligarchy, the
Ruling Class, the Masters of the Corporate American Empire. And
whether we are a handyman or a real estate broker, a small business
person or a clerk at Safeway, working or standing on the corner with a
"help me!" sign, we are all of us seen as a "natural resource" to the
Empire. Everything we have can be taken legally, because we have no
laws that truly protect the Working Class. Our sons and daughters can
be taken from us and put in harms way, with a gun in their hands,
ordered to kill other nation's fathers, mothers and little children,
in order to survive. And all in the Lie of "keeping America Free".
So no, I refuse in these times to agree to the Middle Class
distinction that has been sold to so many Working Class Americans. It
is merely one more, "Divide and Conquer" tactic of our Masters.
I have no control over Black Americans viewing my White skin as part
of their problem, their never ending oppression. I can't deny my
maleness, which does give me an advantage, privileges denied Women,
even after so many years of efforts and tears, seeing their small
victories being sneered at and dismissed by the Oligarchy. I could go
on, but I am simply saying that we are so caught up in the spider web
of Corporate Capitalism and the Greed that drives it, that we allow
ourselves to be manipulated, to believe that somehow if we are in this
group or that group we will be just a little safer. Can't Americans
see that just as in Europe during the 30's and 40's, that there is no safe
place, unless you are a member of the Ruling Class.
I understand the desire of folks to be safe, but I still become angry
when I see a hall filled with mostly White people who don't have a pot
to pee in between them, all yucking and cheering, snorting and
shouting their approval over the words of a man who holds them in
abject contempt. A man who believes he is so clever that he can
manipulate us to allow him to have his way. But even the Master manipulator
is not so safe as he might believe.
While he is busy turning the People against the government, and the
people against the press, and the people against the other people,
behind him stand his collection of Generals. Generals who are now
advising the Emperor and his Lackeys, the Billionaire Cabinet, how to
conduct their eternal war. 54 cents of every tax dollar now goes to
the Pentagon. In my book, when you have 54% of the control, you are in the
driver's seat.
And as I've said before, this 54 cents of every tax dollar is only the
tip of that financial iceberg. One of the benefits about being the
Ruling Class is that you get to name the game and write the rules and enforce
it all.
And when the game goes badly, or when you move onto a new game, the
People, Lower Class, Working Class, Middle Class, Upper Middle Class
will all join together to pay for the cleanup. Clear cut the forests
and pocket the profits and when the rains come and the mud slides over
the roads and blocks the creeks and shoves homes off their
foundations, tell the People that you have no responsibility to pay
for an act of Nature. Over and over we see examples of the Ruling
Class giving us the finger. And we take it, even crowding into some
hall in Phoenix so we can pretend that we have touched the hem of His Royal
Robes.
The Ship of Fools has an insane captain at the wheel. The waves are
driving us toward the rocks, and our captain is too busy Twittering to
notice that the generals are already in the life boats and plan to
leave the captain behind.
Sorry about such a long rant. But hey, I do feel better!
Carl Jarvis
PS. Did anyone reach the end before hitting "delete"?
CJ
On 8/25/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl,
All of those old folks who moved to Arizona, they are members of our
middle class whose existence you deny. They moved there to have a
retirement in a warm climate, devoid of problems, problems like the
ones they had to deal with where they lived previously. Of course,
they didn't reckon with all of those Mexican Americans and
undocumented Mexicans who happened to be living there. The white
middle class and some really wealthy people, have had the political
power in Arizona. John McCain is pretty right wing. Even that
Democratic congresswoman who was shot several years ago, was centrist.
So no, they're not the traditional white racist southerners, but one
can certainly understand why someone who doesn't live in the US and
is unfamiliar with the subtleties of our society, might confuse the
folks in Arizona, the people who tried to outlaw Chicano Studies,
from our typical white racists. That's why people are confusing
Washington with Lee.
Washington was involved with starting our country. Lee was involved
with committing treason against it. But from the outside, looking in,
both of them were white slave holders and that fact seems most
important if you're the ancestor of a slave.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl ;
Jarvis
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2017 1:18 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Americanisation Fragile
Actually Bob, Phoenix is made up from people around the entire Nation.
Many older folks retire there because of the dry heat. Around 2001
my wife and I began visiting my sister and her husband. They lived
in Sun City, which is in the same large valley as is Phoenix. At
that time we learned that when folks first began settling in the
Valley of the Sun, the water table was about four feet down. By
2000, the water table had been sucked down to 112 feet. When the
water table drops so radically, it may never return to its former
level, and the land will become a fully engaged desert.
But this population you mistakenly call Southerners, are not your
typical long time residents. Still, the state votes very
conservatively. I personally find that odd. People voting against
their own interests. But whether conservative or liberal, the
working class has no say in the affairs of this American Corporate
Empire(ACE) Donald Trump will either be the last president or the
first American Emperor...or both. And with the federal government
spending 54 cents of every tax dollar to support the Pentagon, the
infrastructure is collapsing. The nation will soon be a dried up hollow
shell.
Personally, I believe that we have undergone a quiet military coup.
Donald Trump has gathered about him several Generals, along with his
billionaire cabinet. Since Ronald Reagan, the Middle Class has been
in decline, and Donald Trump will leave no trace of it behind, as he
and his Privateers rape and plunder the Land.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/24/17, Bob <ebob824@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello, this is my post to you succeeding Trump’s ultraconservative
rally in Phoenix Arizona. I do not destine to ridicule with the
subsequent segment. I just have to comment on Trump’s explosive and
fiery remarks.
Trump is petulant, megalomanic, misanthrope, prurient, poltroon and
a direly warmonger. He constantly talks about retaining pride. This
hellion in oval office resembles American fascism and bigotry. White
supremacists endorse this dissembler because he acts according to
their own agenda. It has commenced with the controversial
forbiddance of Muslims entering the United States. Lastly, it has
been clearer than ever before with Trump's rhetoric of explicitly
declaring farther transgression on Afghanistan & south Asia.
His conciliatory message contrasts sharply with his raucous rally
the night before. His turbulent disposal in Phoenix proves exactly
what I have constantly been warning against. What is Phoenix? It is
The state capital of Arizona. It is the largest city located in
south central Arizona, situated in a former desert that has become a
prosperous agricultural region, thanks to irrigation. So, he mainly
addressed southerners. I do not intend to prejudicially extrapolate,
but it seems that southerners are easy to fool with cheap and
counterfeit sentiments of alleged patriotism. Mister Trump
fallaciously claims that hatred, bigotry and violence have no place
in America. It is easy to say I love people despite their religious,
ethnic, gender or political orientation. However, actions speak
louder than words. I will not bait you with how terrible Americans
are. I am just expressing my genuine concern. As for Trump’s
recently announced new strategy in Afghanistan & south Asia, the
United States has been fighting a counterfeit war on terror for
approximately seventeen years.
Nothing has been produced but disruption, uproar, sectarianism,
domestic conflict and fringe elements.
Therefore, it is a vital necessity to unitedly confront American
transgressive military force and flawlessly defeat it. Vengeance
against American military must persistently be enacted. I urge the
global declaration of obligatory combative Jihad against unwished
transgressors.
America doesn’t transgress to win, but rather to miserably lose.
Neither their motive nor their fraudulent pride will protect them.
They will desperately be chased in each and evry corner across the
globe to decisively be shot dead. This call is not intended toward
innocents and noncombatants.
I will never threaten people like Jacob, Alison, Pia, Carl, Kane,
Frank, Jessica, or Charlie. They are my friends or at least, truly
harmless acquaintances. I won’t address them with such uncongenial
manner unless they engage in transgression. They won’t do so for
certain. Therefore, they surely aren’t addressed with this strident
rhetoric. I urge you to hasten in advising your military chiefs,
that withdrawing from Muslim countries will save American people.
Otherwise, it is nothing but extremely predictable and unwanted
consequences of grief, misery and grave loss of American people. I
urge you not to heighten hate toward you. It is already there. So,
attempt
to eliminate it. No one will tolerate transgression even if he
happened
to be the faintest. He will find a way to resist, and will resist
sharply.
This is how courageous Egyptian obstructors ousted Great Britain.
Despite
their incomparableness with British invaders, they withdrew them. I
talk for the sake of your safety and security. I myself have got
nothing to lose. Martyrdom is gracious in Islamic faith. It is
either Martyrdom or triumph for us. As for you, you have got nothing
but this temporal life to live. Do not open hell on yourselves.
Trust me, you won’t ever win with enacting belligerence. You will
only win with implementing peaceful initiatives. Instead of just
talking about peace, please, show us any sign that you really want
peace. Our reaction will precisely match with your inception. Thus
far, it is all up to you. The way you will greet, you will be
greeted back. I wish you plainly fathom the unbearable consequences
of obstinately enacting transgression. Thank you for carefully
pondering, please, take this absolutely serious. Bob Evans.
---
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