Who's Really In Charge?

Capitalism functions very efficiently without democracy. --Chris Hedges

You'll never stop depraved agendas as long as propagandists can manipulate a critical mass of people into consenting to those agendas. Propaganda is enemy #1. --Caitlin Johnstone

Who’s Really In Charge?

by C.A. Matthews

Americans worry about a lot of things that they have no control over. They also worry a lot about other people of whom they have no control over.

One recent example of this excessive worrying for naught can be seen in the numerous attempts to elect a Speaker of the House of Representatives. In the end, will it really matter to you personally who’s put into that position? Be honest with yourself. If the Speaker is either a Republican or a Democrat, then it won’t make much of a difference to you and yours, assuming you’re a member of the bottom 90% of Americans, a.k.a. the “working class.” Your life will continue along similar lines tomorrow as it did today no matter who is made Speaker.

Don’t believe me? Read our end of the year review The Year Nothing Fundamentally Changed—Again. The federal minimum wage hasn’t changed. COVID-19 is still spreading, and we still don’t have universal health care in the US. The migrant kids are still in cages. The hideous Title 42 and “Remain in Mexico” anti-asylum policies are still being enforced. Cops are still shooting people of color at an alarming rate and not reporting all of these shootings. There were only 12 days in 2022 where a police officer did not shoot someone in the US. Twelve whole days working class Americans didn’t receive a phone call telling them about the police killing one of our loved ones.

Looking at how things remained the same or worsened for the working class or bottom 90% of Americans, one could come to the conclusion that no real change occurs whenever a member of either faction of the corporate uniparty (a.k.a. “the duopoly”) sits in that top seat in the House of Representatives or the White House. Both “major parties” accept (some say they demand) corporate cash through various lobbying organizations and PACs or political action committees. PACs are a fantastically clever way to hide “dark money” or money that no one knows where it comes from. It could come from a foreigner, gangster, or banker—which could all be the same person. 

“Who cares where it comes from?” say American politicians. “Our bank accounts certainly don't!”

It has become apparent in recent times that politicians are essentially being hired to do the bidding of those who have given them the biggest checks. And they don’t seem to have any moral qualms about accepting money with strings attached, since they are often rewarded with big book deals and swanky board memberships with perks upon retiring from office.

So, who’s really in charge? It’s easy. Follow the money.

“It can’t be that simple!” some of you are screaming at this point. “Just because politicians accept huge sums of cash from PACs, corporations, and lobbying groups for corporations, it doesn’t mean they’re simply puppets for those who paid them that money.”

Are you certain about that? The infamous “Princeton Study” demonstrates that American politicians only listen to and do the bidding of those who give them the most money. That excludes those of us at the bottom. Unless you’ve been giving a politician regular sums—very large sums—of cash, the statistics prove what you as an ordinary American worker have to say to that politician is of no consequence whatsoever. They will do as their real bosses, the corporations, tell them to do anyway.

Face it—money is speech. Corporations are people. The US Supreme Court deemed it so in the oddly named Citizens United case. Since Citizens United became law in 2010, money has been firmly equated to speech in political realms. Until the law is repealed, corporations will continue to be the richest and most influential of all people in the United States of America.

Americans have really got to stop worrying about who won this or that election like it’s somehow going to be the end of the world if their preferred candidate doesn’t win. If the race is “won” by either a Republican or Democrat, we poor folks of the working class have essentially lost out to the fat cats of the corporations. We have no control to begin with since we don’t have the billions of dollars needed to buy that candidate’s allegiance, and now that the corporate-owned candidate is in office, the Princeton Study tells us that they'll completely stop listening to us.

Game over. The billionaire CEOs won the contest right out of the starting gate.

If you’re starting to feel anxious because you realize now that we little guys can never have the control over our destinies that we desire under this corrupt political-economic system, take a deep breath. Let’s repeat the Serenity Prayer together:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

It’s time now to get wise and learn about the things we can change.

The real power on this planet is wielded not by so-called “elected officials,” but by those who run the massive corporations, most of them multinationals. (Yes, other countries are in the grips of Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Agriculture, Big Chemical, and the like, too. May Americans take some small comfort in the fact we aren’t the only humans on the planet being screwed over by billionaires.) But what are these corporations’ motives for co-opting our governments? Let’s follow one particular money trail to see what’s happening.

The US spent over $858 billion dollars in military spending this past year. Possibly it was closer to $1 trillion dollars (that’s trillion with a “t” not a “b”), but we may never know the exact amount since the Department of Defense has never passed any of its audits in the past five years since they first started doing them. Plus, most experts count money that is credited to other agencies like the Department of Energy as being part of the US military spending as well, because money that goes toward nuclear power includes the making of radioactive materials to construct nuclear warheads for bombs. The total sum going towards the manufacturing, perfecting, maintaining, storing, and then using of these weapons is probably unknowable in any given year. It’s mind-boggling how great a bookkeeper’s nightmare the US DoD accounting system is and how confusing the actual costs of hidden expenditures (such as nuclear bombs) are.

Is this done on purpose or by accident? You tell me. The CEOs of the military industrial complex that gladly accept US taxpayers’ money don’t discuss it with us—and why should they? It’s their money in their opinion, and it’s their puppets who are foisted upon the American voters every election via a really cool trick called propaganda.

I’m certain you’ve been a victim of propaganda before. The US is well known for its propaganda tactics. If you have ever been told that you had to vote for Blue Candidate because Red Candidate is the devil himself and Blue is marginally better because he doesn’t have a Twitter account, then you’ve probably been a victim of propaganda. Because when the truth is revealed, the voters will discover that both Blue and Red accepted large sums of cash from the very same corporations. The corporations tricked you into thinking somehow these two candidates were actually different when the only meaningful differences were superficial ones.

Taxpayers’ money keeps flowing into the coffers of the military industrial complex. Corporations such as Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and the like made record profits in 2022. And why is that? Could it be something to do with whatever particular Red or Blue person is in office? Or could it simply be because the US political-economic system is set up to allow our tax money to continually flow into the coffers of military industrial complex machine because corporations in reality own and run our government?

I go with the second conclusion. Why? US government policy toward private corporations hasn’t changed in any significant way since the last century (except to collude more closely with them), so whoever holds office is immaterial. But I’ve analyzed the proxy war propaganda over the past year and concluded that if ordinary Americans actually understood how the Minsk Agreements were violated by the US and NATO in order to start another endless war to generate even more business for the arms manufacturers, investment firms like BlackRock, and Big Oil/LNG, they would have never been supportive of throwing billions of dollars worth of weapons into the hands of a corrupt political puppet whose name appears in the Pandora Papers over and over again.

The U.S. power alliance could very easily have prevented this war with a few low-cost concessions like enshrining Ukrainian neutrality, rolling back its war machinery from Russia’s borders and sincerely pursuing detente with Moscow instead of shredding treaties and ramping up Cold War escalations.  --Caitlin Johnstone, Unprovoked!

Read Caitlin's entire article and click on the links. It's amazing how clear you see things when you blow the dust of propaganda away. Feel better? Let’s repeat the last line of the Serenity Prayer together:

And the wisdom to know the difference.

It’s time to wise up to how you’ve been played. The system is rigged against you if you’re a working class American, in the bottom 90%. The politicians/puppets use propaganda and lies to make you feel like you have some modicum of control when, in reality, you don’t. The corporations of the military industrial complex and Big Oil are pulling the strings and reaping the monetary benefits from sanctions and endless wars that starve, kill, and maim our fellow workers in far away places. The corporations don’t care how blood-stained the reputation of the US becomes as long as they continue to profit from it.

Now that you’re wiser, it’s time to start building up your courage to fight back against these inhuman injustices like the civil rights activists of the 1950s and 60s did. You're going to speak out boldly like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did, even if does cost you dearly because you know our children deserve better.

You're going to fight like hell for the positive change you want to see. You have to in order to exert some control over what goes on in this world. Stand up so that ordinary, working class, little guys like yourself don’t keep getting lied to and hurt by sociopathic CEOs who will never have our best interests at heart. You realize now to sit on the sidelines and let the corporations win is to sign your own death sentence.

Related Articles/Videos:

McCarthy Finally Elected House Speaker https://www.commondreams.org/news/mccarthy-elected-house-speaker

The Year Nothing Fundamentally Changed--Again https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2022/12/2022-year-nothing-fundamentally.html 

Biden's Expansion of Title 42 Takes Us Further From Humane Border Policy https://truthout.org/articles/bidens-expansion-of-title-42-takes-us-further-from-humane-border-policy

More Than Half of Police Killings are Mislabled, New Study Says  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/us/police-killings-undercounted-study.html 

OpenSecrets--find out how much and where your elected officials are getting their money from https://www.opensecrets.org/

Princeton Study: Congress Literally Doesn't Care What You Think https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba/

Move to Amend (How to fight Citizens United) https://www.movetoamend.org/

Why the US is Losing the Fight to Ban Toxic Chemicals https://www.propublica.org/article/toxic-chemicals-epa-regulation-failures

US Now World's Top LNG Exporter as Europe Boycotts Cheaper Russian Gas https://popularresistance.org/us-now-worlds-top-lng-exporter-as-europe-boycotts-cheaper-russian-gas/

The High Cost of Blowing Up the World https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/high-cost-blowing-world-ukraine-2023-ndaa 

Pentagon Can't Account for Half Their Assets, Fails New Audit https://youtu.be/Jkb-pTQLERw

Proof Twitter Censored Anyone CIA & FBI Told Them To https://youtu.be/Vyva84KG-nA

Dems Demanded Twitter Find Phony Russiagate Evidence https://youtu.be/tWleLq4h4qk  

Silencing the Lambs. How Propaganda Works https://www.mintpressnews.com/john-pilger-silencing-lambs-how-propaganda-works/281884/ 

Europe and the Legitimization of Deception  https://scheerpost.com/2023/01/08/patrick-lawrence-europe-and-the-legitimization-of-deception/

Unprovoked! https://scheerpost.com/2023/01/09/caitlin-johnstone-unprovoked/

Despite Outcries about Inflation, Major Arms Makers Are Doing Just Fine https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhartung/2022/10/28/despite-outcries-about-inflation-major-arms-makers-are-doing-just-fine/

BlackRock Accused of "Trying to Cash in on the Disaster..." https://www.commondreams.org/news/blackrock-ukraine

Ukraine Prepares to Give Free Rein to Property Developers https://scheerpost.com/2023/01/03/ukraine-prepares-to-give-free-rein-to-property-developers/

Revealed: "Anti-Oligarch" Ukrainian President's Offshore Connections https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/revealed-anti-oligarch-ukrainian-president-offshore-connections-volodymyr-zelenskiy

US Spreads Misery Across the Globe Imposing Sanctions on a Third of Humanity https://popularresistance.org/u-s-spreads-misery-across-the-globe-imposing-sanctions-on-a-third-of-humanity/

Seen on Twitter:

The dark blue line after 1973 is theft. They stole that money from their workers. But nothing happened, because capitalism legalizes theft from the working class by the capitalist class. pic.twitter.com/U0t3vQkrST

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) January 5, 2023

The sad thing about this quote is how intelligence agencies convinced the American "Left" to goosestep on behalf of the Military Industrial Complex, the Deep State, Blackrock, The Bank of International Settlements, Big Pharma, World Bank, IMF, Big Tech, etc during the Covid War. pic.twitter.com/mM6jSuyLB3

— Information Retrieval (@ArchaicRevival4) January 5, 2023

Money Is Not Speech (Except When It Is)

After a month of posts covering issues surrounding the current proxy war in Ukraine, it's time to take a little break and think about what's really behind all the unpleasantness in the world. 

"What is that?" you wonder. I'm glad you asked.

It's money.

"That's a bit simplistic," you may retort. Well, sometimes keeping it simple gets right to the heart of the matter. Without billionaires desiring even more profits from fossil fuels such as natural gas, and from military armaments/equipment/training, we wouldn't have this current mess in eastern Europe. Without money being promised to politicians to do the bidding of these billionaires, we wouldn't have this current nightmare of being less than two minutes from midnight on the Nuclear War Countdown Clock.

"Money makes the world go round," the old saying goes. And it could very well end all life on this planet if we allow it to continue enthralling billionaires and Neo-Nazis alike. 

"Money is not speech!" is a slogan shouted by Move to Amend supporters. By amending the US Constitution to counteract the damage done by the Citizens' United  Supreme Court ruling since 2010 (when the justices declared that corporations could spend as much as they like to buy off politicians since it was "free speech"), it is hoped actual free speech and less wars and less profiteering off the poverty, health care, and student loan debts of the American public would occur.

This past week supporters of the Move to Amend met together in the Toledo, Ohio, City Council chambers to celebrate Democracy Day 2022. The pandemic had put it on hold for two years, so it was great to see old friends and face down the city officials in person as we once again presented our requests for building a world not based on money but free speech for human beings, not corporations.

Here's what I had to say:

Single Payer Action Network tabling at Democracy Day.

Health Care Is A Human Right--Democracy Day 2022

by C. A. Matthews

Toledo City Council has bravely enacted Democracy Day and each year stands with Move to Amend members in boldly declaring, "Money is not speech!" and "Corporations are not people!" 

But is this a complete and adequate response? If a corporation is not a person, then who qualifies as a person?  Is a flesh and blood human being considered a "person" in a legal sense? If money is not considered "free speech" then why do wealthy individuals and corporations have more influence and wield more power over politicians and governmental policy than mere individual human beings?

To give a little background on this topic, corporations are not mentioned in the US Constitution. Not once. They are so-called "legal fictions" or creations of government, intended to provide useful goods and services. No voter, citizen, social movement or elected official has ever granted corporations constitutional rights – those were intended exclusively for human beings. Corporate entities have gained constitutional rights and "personhood" solely through the rulings of activist Supreme Court Justices. The 14th Amendment in particular has been reinterpreted to mean that corporations have the rights to free speech and personhood. It was argued that formerly enslaved persons--who were once thought of as merely "property" and not as human beings created in the Image of God--were to be granted rights under this amendment. They were given the right to be considered "people," in other words. And if "property" or former slaves could be considered as persons with the right of free speech, then why not corporations as well?

Nowadays, it can be argued that once again our Constitution is under attack and that those who once were considered "persons" by the fact that are flesh and blood human beings have lost the right to claim that status. Consider this all-too-common scenario: A person has an accident--he's hit by a car crossing the street let's say--and is rushed to a local hospital for treatment. Once there, it is discovered that this person doesn't have private health insurance, doesn't qualify for any kind of government health care, and has little or no money in the bank to cover necessary treatment. Unless someone or some organization comes to this person's rescue and pays all his medical bills, this person doesn't legally have the right to expect health care. There is no law saying that health care must be provided to him no matter how much he pleads to be treated for his injuries. His speech is "free" but it is not heard in this instance as he is sent home without treatment.

So the question again is raised, "Is a flesh and blood human being legally a person with all the rights of personhood?" Under our current health care system in the United States and in this scenario, it can be argued that this injured individual is not legally a person. Just as a slave master of the pre-Civil War period wasn't legally obligated to treat an injured slave--who was considered his property--our health care system has no obligations to help every individual who asks for medical assistance.

What good is to simply say, "Money is not speech!" and "Corporations aren't people!" if actual human beings have no free speech and aren't legally persons?

Speaking to a handful of city council members (and the mayor).

If Toledo City Council really wants to make a bold statement, then it must add to that mantra, "Human beings are persons, and as persons, they have the human right to health care!"

It is a simple statement, but it packs quite a punch. According to the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- Article 25, Section 1:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services...

By stating that corporations are not people, but that human beings are most certainly people, City Council would be stating for the record that Toledo is a place where all its residents will enjoy the human right of "a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of themselves and their families" which would include access to food, housing, medical care and necessary social services as stated in the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I believe by making this simple statement and reaffirming it yearly on Democracy Day, Toledo City Council will create a caring and compassionate community that will become noteworthy worldwide, creating an image that corporations will find attractive, encouraging them to locate their businesses within our city limits to everyone's benefit. After all, a population that is housed, fed, and has the certainty of access to health care, whatever their socio-economic status may be, makes for a strong and healthy workforce and a happy living and working space. More businesses and more employed Toledoans also means more property and sale taxes. It is the ultimate win-win scenario where human beings are free to speak and to grow and prosper in the assurance that their city government protects their human rights and wishes only the best for all persons--human beings and corporate alike--who dwell in Toledo.

 Please support Medicare For All and together with all of us as persons--as human beings--proudly state, "Health care is a human right!"  

Article links about what money does to our free speech, how it endangers our world, or how health care is a human right:

UN General Assembly to Recognize the Right to a Healthy Environment https://www.abajournal.com/web/article/aba-encourages-un-general-assembly-to-recognize-right-to-healthy-environment

Poorest US Counties Suffered Twice the COVID Deaths of the Richest https://truthout.org/articles/poorest-us-counties-suffered-twice-the-covid-deaths-of-the-richest/

Facing An Attack From a For-Profit Health Super PAC  https://jacobinmag.com/2022/03/pa-democratic-senate-primary-fetterman-lamb-pac 

Medicare For All Is Not Enough  https://popularresistance.org/medicare-for-all-is-not-enough/

IMF Admits US Dollar Hegemony Declining Due to Rise of Yuan and Russian Sanctions https://popularresistance.org/imf-admits-us-dollar-hegemony-declining-due-to-rise-of-chinese-yuan-sanctions-on-russia/

This War Is Really About Central Banks and the Petrodollar (video) https://www.rokfin.com/post/80658

Meet the New Resource Based Global Reserve Currency https://popularresistance.org/meet-the-new-resource-based-global-reserve-currency/

Russia Invades Ukraine: A Timeline of Broken Promises https://www.breakthroughnews.org/post/russia-invades-ukraine-a-timeline-of-broken-promises 

US Imperialism's Proxy War With Russia in Ukraine https://popularresistance.org/us-imperialisms-proxy-war-with-russia-in-ukraine/

If you need a dose of revolutionary optimism, check this video out: https://youtu.be/XO_FXkxJVj4 

 Seen on Twitter:

Food is profit-driven.
Housing is profit-driven.
Healthcare is profit-driven.
Water is even profit driven.

When people's basic needs are profit-driven, the most vulnerable among us die UNNECESSARILY.

Capitalism is a disease.

— Lumpy Louise 🍎🥄 The US are the Baddies (@LumpyLouish) April 4, 2022

They didn't give you universal basic income during a pandemic. You actually think they care about fair wages? #Midterms2022

— 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑎𝑛⋆ (@undrcvrbrothr) April 4, 2022

***

BREAKING: The Center for Disease Control just announced it will end the racist Trump-era Title 42 policy –which weaponized the pandemic to expel millions of people seeking safety— by May 23. 

For months we’ve been pressuring the CDC to end the draconian Title 42 policy. Today’s decision is a huge testament to our activism, calls, and emails, but it also calls us into action – because, of course, it’s not that simple. 

Until Title 42 ends on May 23rd, the Department of Homeland Security will continue expedited removals, a devastating mass deportation system that sends people back into danger without due process. If we can open our borders to Ukrainian families escaping the horrors of war, we can do so for the Black and brown children, families, and adults who have been fleeing similar violence and waiting at the border for months, or years, because of this policy.

Every day that DHS Secretary Mayorkas allows these expulsions, we put children and families seeking safety at risk of kidnapping, rape, and murder. Will you join us in demanding Secretary Mayorkas end all expulsions now and welcome families with dignity?

take action

In only two years, U.S. immigration officials have carried out over 1.7 million expulsions using Title 42 as an excuse, primarily against Black and brown asylum seekers at the border. Yet, when Ukrainians and Russians show up at the border, we have found a way to let them through, as all people should be.

We have the capability to grant exceptions and let people fleeing violence through. We just refuse to use it for “certain” people. Title 42 has uplifted the inherent racism of our immigration system — another six weeks of expelling Black and brown families without a chance to go through a legal process is another six weeks of racism, unnecessary pain, and hardship.

Today’s news shows us that our pressure is working, and we have to keep it up. We can’t allow DHS immigration officials to cherry-pick who gets to access asylum in this country based on race.

Every day that the administration continues to allow Title 42 expulsions to continue is hypocrisy. Let’s make it clear that we won’t back down until we get a clear commitment from DHS to end all expulsions immediately.

Take action now to tell Secretary Mayorkas to end all expulsions and welcome children and families with dignity: 

take action

From Ukrainians to Afghans to Haitians to Venezuelans, people are forced to flee their countries because they have no other choice. Everyone seeking protection deserves a warm welcome here.

We can, and will, rise to the task of fixing our broken asylum system.

Thank you for taking action,
Erin Mazursky, Interim Managing Director

 ***

From Public Citizen:

Asthma.
COVID-19.
Diabetes.
Hepatitis C.
HIV.
Prostate cancer.

Millions of Americans who suffer from these conditions (and others) can’t afford the medicine they need.

Why?

Because of sheer greed on the part of pharmaceutical companies.

• For the 20 top-selling drugs, Big Pharma made more in the U.S. than in every other country on Earth combined.

• That’s particularly outrageous given how much research and development is paid for by the American people. (The taxpayer-funded National Institutes of Health alone spends $40 billion a year on R&D.)

• In essence, we are paying through the nose not once but twice!

But We the People can fight Big Pharma’s immoral price gouging.

The federal government can overcome patent monopolies by authorizing generic competition — either for products it will pay for (like medicines purchased through Medicare) or for publicly-funded medications.

Generic competition is a game-changer: The FDA has found that the introduction of generics can lead to price reductions of 95%.

And, crucially, the federal government *already* has the power to do this — which would be transformative in making essential medicines affordable for millions of Americans.

To proceed, we don’t need Congress to do anything. The Biden administration can act on its own.

Tell the Biden Administration:

Use your existing authority to introduce generic competition for medicines. By doing so, you can lower drug prices, improve the lives of millions of Americans, make progress on confronting the epidemics of our time, and improve health equity.

Add your name now.

Thank you for taking action.

For progress,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen 

*** 

In a near-future dystopian world, hope blossoms where mutual aid and democracy begins...

Zonta’s world is turned upside down when Jake arrives at the commune to investigate the disappearance of agents of the Authority. Can she persuade him to switch sides before the Protectors (antifascist fighters) take action?

Available now: https://www.extasybooks.com/Where-the-Bodies-Lie

A great tale of how love, cooperation, and socialism will ultimately save us all. -- Redd Phlagg

(Read and review Where The Bodies Lie and you'll get a mention on the blog.)

What Did You Expect?

Our guest blogger asks the obvious question after the fiasco in DC this past week. No, it's not, "What happened?" or even "What now?" but it's a great question. See if you don't agree with Redd's question and answer.

What Did You Expect?
By Redd Phlagg

The amount of whining and groaning emanating from social media platforms this past week has been beyond measure.  Even when I stick my fingers in my ears and hum loudly I can still hear: “We need witnesses! Why aren’t they allowing witnesses to be called? You can’t have a trial without evidence or witnesses, can you?”

And the worse moan of all: “I thought we were going to get rid of Trump. I believed this impeachment stuff was really going to work. Checks and balances, right? Why doesn’t the system work the way it’s supposed to?”

Taking my fingers out of my ears, I will now reply to your cries of bewilderment. My dear children, the system is working the way it’s supposed to. It has protected one of its own—a rich, white, cisgender male who owns lots of property. The system was created to protect these individuals and not the community as a whole.  

The system is working perfectly as it was designed because it’s fooled you into thinking it was “fair” and “balanced” all along. Am I right? If it were a system of fairness and balance, then ten years ago we wouldn’t have had the Citizens United ruling that states in effect, “Money is speech,” because that would mean the poor have no voice whatsoever in the affairs of our governance, and a “fair” system wouldn’t allow that sort of thing to happen. But it did, and it still does.
 
We are a nation of property laws. Property owners have rights. The more property you own, the more rights you have to use and abuse it as you see fit. The more money you have, the more influence you have on those who make and defend the property laws. Thus, you can mold and bend the law to work in the way that’s in your best interests. 

What does the Trump trial in the Senate have to do with property and wealth? Everything! Those senators didn’t get elected without a lot of money to campaign on, most of which came from Super PACs and billionaire donors. Most of those billionaires inherited their wealth from their family’s property or business and then used that seed money to buy even more property/natural resources and businesses to become even wealthier and more powerful. 

After all, if  “Money is speech” then billionaires have the most powerful speech on earth. These billionaires (and their boot-licking supporters) want to keep things the way they are so they can continue to prosper financially and have things their way. To allow the system to become “fair” overnight in order to punish a wrong-doer such as Trump would mean they could be next. And they can’t have that.

We poor folks might actually expect a “fair system” of government to hold billionaires hiding behind corporation logos accountable for not telling us about the climate warming potential of burning fossil fuels or the radioactivity caused by drilling and fracking for oil and gas. We poor folks might tell these “citizens with rights” that it’s their responsibility to clean up their messes and stop polluting our lakes and rivers with animal factory effluence and chemicals because we drink the water and we live here. 

But we can’t tell them that—we’re speechless without vast sums of money, remember? And it wouldn’t matter much if we could speak anyway. The current system of laws tells property-owners they don’t have to listen to us whiny poor folks. We can’t threaten their right to use and abuse their “property” such as our lakes, rivers and streams as they wish unless we want to be thrown into jail—which essentially what Ohio House Bill 33 and similar laws in nineteen other states say. It says that by protesting “infrastructure” (as defined by the property-owners and our property laws) we can be deemed “terrorists” and thrown into jail for a very long time. 

If laws like HB33 don’t shut down the speechless, this will: the federal Environmental Protection Agency loosened its laws recently that protected our waterways in order to help the property owners to use and abuse their property. Face it, everything belongs to the billionaires because they say so. Their puppets in the White House, courts, and statehouses do as they’re told with no questions asked because they’re salivating at the chance to own a piece of that property alongside their billionaire friends.

We have the right to sit in silence and take it up the backside if we agree to continue living under this system. We have the right to sit and moan about how “unfair” it is for our elected representatives to not allow a trial to go forward in the Senate against a corrupt president. But there’s one thing we don’t have the right to, and that is, we don't have the right to act ignorant that this was going to be the outcome all along.

What did you expect? A democracy? Wake up, America! You’ve never lived in one!

A democracy is where everyone’s rights are equal—the rich, the poor, the black, the white, the male, the female, the gay, the straight, the young, the old… Under our current laws and system of government, billionaire property owners are definitely “more equal” than either you or me.

As long as the corrupt duopolists remain in power, we will have more of the same. It’s why both establishment parties keep protecting the system at all costs and won’t allow any third parties to have a say so in it because—heaven forbid!--these independent-minded people might just want to institute democratic reforms, such as ranked choice voting.

But now is not the time to sit and moan—now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their fellow countrypersons, to save the planet from the impending climate emergency, and to stop wishing for a different or “fair” outcome from the same corrupt system. 

Doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different outcome… You do realize that’s the definition of insanity, don’t you? 

Act sane. Act differently. Think outside the box. Create a better world.

BIO: Redd Phlagg's crystal ball predicts the future. No one believed Redd's prognostication that Trump would serve out the full length of his term outside of a prison cell, but once again Redd has been proven right. It's tough being right all the time says Redd, especially when it comes to how the corrupt system will reward people like Trump and his cronies, but there you go. When you vote for the lesser of two evils, evil always wins.

Related articles:

Corporations Would Literally Kill You To Turn a Profit
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/01/corporations-profit-values-murder-culture-boeing

The United States is a Nation Under Minority Rule, a Perversion of Democracy
https://mavenroundtable.io/theintellectualist/news/the-united-states-is-a-nation-under-minority-rule-a-perversion-of-democracy

Dems Getting Republicans to Run as Dems (video): https://youtu.be/S2e4H03lXIY

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Freedom of Speech Isn't Free!

It's getting tougher with each passing day to express and share an opinion that doesn't jive with the status quo. Anti-progressive algorithms actively block this site and others like it from being found in online Google searches or posting widely on Facebook. Hence, readers can't find us or share us like they have in the past.

So, please share this blog with others and encourage them to do the same. Thank you. And if you're able, a donation to the cause would be appreciated. You can use the link below to do so swiftly and painlessly.

http://paypal.me/camatthews

We'll keep speaking out and sharing progressive news and views until they lock us up, and it's great to know you have our backs. Thanks again for your help in these trying times. Power to the people!

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We should be making it easier for workers to claim the Social Security benefits they’ve earned with every paycheck, not harder. So why has the Trump administration proposed a new rule that’s designed to rip benefits away from hundreds of thousands of Americans with disabilities?

That’s the Republican strategy. Uphold capitalistic greed at the expense of working people.

While Social Security is best known as a retirement program, disability and survivor’s benefits are equally essential. That’s why we’re rallying with our allies across the country to fight back against this proposed rule change and save the lives of thousands of Americans.

Stand with us to stop the Trump administration’s cruel policy before it’s implemented.

SUBMIT AN OFFICIAL COMMENT

We know what the effects of the Trump proposal would be, because Ronald Reagan implemented a very similar benefit cut back for over 200,000 Americans in the 1980s. 

The New York Times reported that during the Reagan administration “people with obvious physical and mental disabilities” lost their benefits “without having been interviewed” by the Social Security Administration. This led to the loss of 21,176 lives of people who relied on their Social Security benefits to survive.

And, while Reagan was eventually forced to reverse his attack on Social Security after massive public outcry, the Trump administration is bringing back this cruel policy with no regard for history or human life.

The Trump administration proposal would require millions of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries to re-prove their eligibility for benefits as often as every six months—far more frequently than is currently the case.

Join CPD Action and allies like Social Security Works, the AFL-CIO, Demand Progress and more to fight back against the Trump administration’s brazen cruelty. Submit an official comment to the Social Security Administration to oppose the proposed rule change that will result in hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries losing their earned Social Security benefits.

We must stop Trump’s plan. The Social Security Administration is collecting comments on the proposal until January 31, at midnight. Click here to submit your official comment now.

Thank you for fighting back against attempts to undermine and destroy our Social Security system.

In solidarity, 

Jennifer Epps-Addison
Network President & Co-Executive Director, CPDA

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We’re only a month into 2020 and it’s already been a crazy year. Between Trump almost taking us into a war with Iran, deploying Easy Fire Nukes, and circumventing diplomacy with nuclear-armed countries in favor of antagonistic threats — all while he has his finger on the nuclear red button — our small but mighty team is just as busy as ever. We can’t stress enough that activists like you are what keeps us going and why we will be successful in the fight to prevent nuclear violence. Here are your monthly actions to help win that fight.

Your action steps on No First Use:
Our main priority in 2020 is driving momentum toward No First Use legislation in Congress. There’s some easy steps you can take to show your representatives that you support No First Use and want them to as well.

1) Sign the petition for No First Use;
2) Share the petition with a friend;

3) Click to tweet in support of No First Use!

How you can prevent war with Iran:

On January 3, the U.S. killed the top Iranian commander, Qasem Soleimani, in a drone strike, representing a major escalation of a crisis manufactured by Trump. Then, Iran predictably retaliated against the U.S. by launching missile strikes at Iraqi bases housing American forces. While it’s good news that we have avoided a war thus far, our work is not yet over. Here’s what you can do to prevent an Iraq 2.0:

1) Sign and send the petition to call on Congress to not allow the U.S. to enter into a war with Iran;
2) Share the petition with a friend;
3) Follow our friends at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), who are doing incredible frontline work to fight for the rights of Iranian-Americans and stop a war with Iran;
4) Click to tweet in support of #NoWarWithIran!

Uplifting the voices of impacted communities:
New year, same focus on centering the voices of frontline communities.
Rachel Traczyk, Fellowship Associate and former BombSquad fellow, has been focused on uplifting the forgotten stories of those directly impacted by nuclear weapons testing. In November, she visited the Trinity test site to bear witness to the damage done to the people and the planet by the first nuclear test to ever occur. Rachel also wrote this piece in Inkstick Media on the story of Cecilia Romero, a New Mexican Downwinder.

We will win through intersectional organizing:
We again joined the Women’s March as partners to raise our voices against war, nuclear weapons, and the patriarchy. Partnerships Manager Yasmeen Silva represented Beyond the Bomb at the Poor People’s Campaign day of action in Washington, D.C. this week to challenge the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. And don’t forget to join us for the Mass Poor People’s Assembly & Moral March on Washington June 20, 2020!

2020 is going to be a big year:

A reimagined anti-nuclear movement for the 21st century — led by young people and giving voice to those most impacted by nuclear violence — is rising. We need your help more than ever this year to fight for justice and raise awareness of the dangers of the undemocratic nuclear system.

This is why we’re starting off 2020 with a Make Love Not War campaign during the month of February! As we get closer to the 2020 election, we need to make sure every candidate and representative knows we’re putting our #FutureFirst, and breaking up with nuclear weapons. Stay tuned next week to see how you can get involved!

Donate to Beyond the Bomb

In solidarity,
The Beyond the Bomb team