The Revolution Continues blog is news, views, opinion and other expressions of hope from a leftist point-of-view. (We are not affiliated with any candidate, political party or organization. All are welcome.)
Most New Year’s resolutions aren’t kept for more than a month. Six weeks tops. Those resolutions to lose weight, get more exercise, quit bad-mouthing the boss behind his back will all be forgotten by the time Valentine’s Day rolls around. It doesn’t mean they aren’t noble goals. It just means we’re human, and we humans tend to forget things and move on to deal with other, more pressing challenges as time goes by.
There are some resolutions, however, that aren’t so quickly forgotten. This is one of them: Capitalism must die.
That capitalism, the corrupt economic system of dealing with each others’ basic needs, must go away for the good of all is a no-brainer. A heating planet inundated with greenhouse gases caused by ceaseless pollution to maintain growing profit margins for capitalists won't be able to sustain any of us forever. Haunting images of millions of our fellow human beings struggling to feed themselves and their loved ones isn’t something most moral individuals can ever forget. Driving by a person sleeping rough on a city sidewalk in the middle of a frigid winter isn’t something easily ignored.
At least it shouldn’t be.
You’d be amazed at how many Americans do just that—ignore the horrific suffering surrounding them like it’s an everyday occurrence of no consequence. Well, it is an everyday occurrence, as the number of homeless and hungry grows daily in the US, but it’s not an occurrence of no consequence that should be forgotten as easily as a New Year’s resolution to play more tennis or take up golf. The suffering of others should be seared into our minds, branded onto our subconscious, melded into what little conscience some of us still possess.
Why? Why should people living comfortable lives in comfortable homes with comfortable jobs and hobbies be forced to think of others who aren't as "blessed" as they are? Think about what happens to those who have plenty. They live their luxurious lifestyles in the midst of those who have little to nothing, those who live an evermore precarious existence. At some point something’s going to give—and a starving person with no place to call home and holes in their shoes has nothing left to lose.
That’s when the pitchforks and guillotines (or their modern equivalents) come out. That’s when things get extremely messy and not-so-pretty. It won’t be a casual day on the tennis court or a drinks at the club after a round of golf, in other words. People will get hurt. Badly hurt. Many will be killed.
“Sure,” you say. “I’ve got my AR-15 and plenty of ammo in the closet. I know the cops will always be on our side because I live in a gated mansion-fortress on the right side of town with those of my kind, the ones who always remember to tip their bodyguards and support the ever-increasing police-military industrial complex budget. We can ride out the invading storm of millions of malnourished, under-armed, tent city bums in our nuclear bunkers in New Zealand if we have to. What can the poor do to us, the rich, the powerful, the ones perpetually on top?”
What indeed. I’m sure King Louis and Marie Antoinette felt the same all the way up until the moment they heard a swoosh! and felt a bit of a breeze on the back of their necks.
That capitalism is failing and will fail isn’t even argued anymore by most economists. They just argue over the timing and the effects the turn-around to another system will bring to our society. A failed capitalist state can easily fall into a fascist dictatorship as it can transform into a more democratic, socialistic society.
Billionaire capitalists can use brute force to ensconce themselves and their corporations into the police-military-industrial complex and rule from there with an iron fist. The masses dying of disease, hunger, and as cannon-fodder in endless wars for oil, lithium, farmland, silicon chips (i.e., “resources”) is to be expected and actually is considered desirable by capitalists.
"Well, they (the poor, the disadvantaged) should hurry up and die and rid us of the surplus population," says Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Sound familiar?
But a failed capitalist state doesn’t have to go that route if it’s directed toward a more peaceful and just path. One of the first and biggest steps those of us dedicated to end this unjust system must take is taking up the cause of peace. All wars—covert, overt, coups d'etat, civil wars, police violence against the public—must be stopped. It’s the only way to shut down the police-military industrial complex. If there is no need to build more weapons of death and no hunger for building more instruments of destruction, then resources wasted on such inhumane pursuits can be directed toward more constructive purposes.
You probably can name a few of those purposes: ending world hunger, ending homelessness, meeting the challenge of the climate crisis, extending health care and education to all in need…
If your New Year resolution is to help to bring about positive changes in the world, then join me and millions of others working for a day when capitalism and endless war is no more. March in the streets. Demand peace. Campaign to end suffering through meeting basic human needs. Share your knowledge and compassion with those unlike yourself.
Sure, your tennis courts or your golf courses might eventually become full of people not all one color or ethnic background, but it will at last reflect the magnificent diversity found on our planet Earth.
Your right to be alive shouldn’t be conditional on your contribution to society. No one should ever have to prove they are “deserving” of their humanity. Whether unhoused, unemployed, or unable to work — capitalism shouldn’t get to decide whether your labour makes you human.
How capitalism"works": (1) employers underpay wages to boost profits, (2) squeezed workers cannot afford what employers need to sell, (3) employers lend their boosted profits to underpaid workers, adding debt to their problems.
Socialism: Everyone, no matter who or where you are deserves a basic level of existence. We are all Human. Food, warmth, health, and shelter...basic rights.
Capitalism: Greed. I deserve more than you. I'm worth more than you.
— @ Vincent Rowlatt. (Peasant) (@VincentRowlatt) January 2, 2023
Is there any
use writing about the impeachment trial that's come and gone in record time? We all
knew what the outcome would be before it began, so there's no real need to waste
words on it, is there? It's time to concentrate energy on things that matter to
us, the working people of this great land.
A recent study
determined that forty percent of all Covid-19 deaths in the US could have been
prevented. Yes, prevented.
There was no need for so many American families to lose so many loved ones. Our
alleged public servants simply lied and fudged the numbers instead of spending their
time and energy on sharing life-saving information with us in a timely manner so
we all could have dealt better with this pandemic and suffered a minimal loss of
life.
Our country's
ham-fisted handling of the coronavirus threat is a perfect example of pointless
violence being committed against the population. Yes, violence as in needless deaths and pointless
as in there was absolutely no point in our government treating its citizens so
abysmally. If the public's health and well-being had been put ahead of
"the economy," or large corporations' profits, we wouldn't have lost over 188,000 human beings needlessly and
destroyed the happiness of millions of others.
According to Paul
Blest of VICE News:
The
Lancet report alleges that Trump’s impact on public health was disastrous even
before the pandemic. There were 22,000 extra deaths related to environmental
and occupational factors in 2019 than there were in the last year of former President
Barack Obama’s presidency, which the commission attributes to federal
regulatory rollbacks.
But
the report’s authors say the problem goes way beyond just the former president.
“We
started out really looking at what Trump had done, and he has certainly done a
lot wrong,” Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, another lead author on the report and a
distinguished professor at the Hunter College School of Public Health, told
VICE News. “But we looked at the health of the American people...and what we
found is that it’s been four decades of government failure to support policies
that support human health.”
The
authors suggest an overhaul in the country’s public health infrastructure to
fix the problem. In addition to giving the CDC more tools to fight systemic
racism, they recommend transitioning to a Medicare for All system like the one
championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The experts are clear. There has been "four decades of government failure to
support policies that support human health." There was no point to this violence of ignoring the public's
health and safety during this pandemic other than to make wealthy people even wealthier by denying
us an adequate public health infrastructure and not fighting systemic racism.
Lee Camp considers the problem--and its solution-- in his opening monologue:
Our capitalist system's worst sins could be lessened simply by taxing and
then redistributing the billions of dollars sitting in billionaires' bank
accounts to the rest of us, leaving these hoarders with ten million dollars
each. Our government would have no more excuses for not providing health care
or an adequate education free for all Americans once this hoarded money is
released into circulation.
Why won't our elected representatives promote this fair and equitable
plan to help 99.9% of Americans, especially the most struggling? Could it be career politicians take
their orders from these same undertaxed billionaires and their corporations?
Could it be they don't care what pointless violence is brought upon us, the workers, as long
as they please their corporate paymasters and are rewarded in turn?
As we wait in hope for the long promised $2,000 stimulus check--bargained
down to only $1,400--to arrive so we can cover our past due rent, let's not forget how
we got into this mess. As we wait for Medicare For All to be passed into law so
we no longer go bankrupt whenever huge medical bills arrive, let's not
forget who made us suffer the loss of our homes and so many of our loved ones.
Above all,
let's not remain quiet any longer. Let's make our point loud and clear--we're not going to stand for such pointless violence being perpetrated against us ever again. We need to voice our anger to everyone in public office, at all levels of government. The politicians have made it crystal clear they can't be bothered to stand up for our rights, haven't they? It's high time they understood how serious a crime it is to deny life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to the majority.
Related Articles:
Here's How Many Deaths We Can Blame On Trump's Terrible Response
The Revolution Continues is now in our sixth year taking on the propaganda of the fauxgressives and their friends in the corporate-owned duopoly. We need passionate revolutionaries like you to help us provide progressive insights that are being actively censored elsewhere. If you can donate a little to the cause, please do so at the Paypal.me link below.
Bulldozers for the Line 3 Pipeline in Minnesota have
arrived to plow through sacred wild rice watersheds, over 800 wetlands,
and 200+ bodies of water in Ojibwe treaty territory.
Indigenous water protectors are fighting to protect their land, but the drones are overhead and the police are militarizing.
President Biden has the power to stop this project. He can
review the permits granted by Trump and halt Line 3 construction
immediately.
This
will be the first climate test for his administration and we are making
it clear that the Keystone XL, Dakota Access, and Line 3 pipelines must
be stopped.
Minnesotans submitted 68,000 public comments against Line 3,
they've marched in the streets, attended the hearings and engaged in
every step of the process.
The USPS Board of Governors, which appoints the Postmaster General, has four vacancies.
That means Joe Biden can nominate members who can FIRE Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, and undo his sabotage of the USPS.
We must fill these vacant seats with members who will
defend the USPS's universal service obligation, and defend our Postal
Service from privatization.
Throughout
this pandemic, postal workers have risked their lives as essential
employees, while the Postmaster General removed sorting machines and
wreaked havoc on delivery times.
If you're as tired as we are of delayed holiday cards and packages in Shangri-La, take action today.
The United States Senate was not just the jury in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.
Senators themselves were among the targets of the attack he provoked and the trial was conducted at the scene of the crime.
Yet 43 senators — all Republicans — CHOSE to disregard the obvious
truth that Donald Trump incited a violent insurrection in an attempt to
overturn the election he lost.
Whether they did this
because of political cowardice or because they have joined the Trump
cult, these 43 senators have invited further political violence and
imperiled the American experiment in democracy.
These
43 senators have brought America to the brink of authoritarianism by
licensing the use (or at least the threat) of violence by those seeking
to achieve or retain political power.
These 43
senators will have blood on their hands the next time Trump or some
other political extremist provokes an attack on a government building or
elected officials.
These 43 senators have affirmed
their allegiance (or, at best, deference) to the proto-fascist,
white-supremacist “politics” personified by Trump.
These 43 senators have forsaken any claim to love of country and even the most basic tenets of democracy.
These
43 senators have violated their oath to “support and defend the
Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and
domestic.”
These 43 senators will go down in history as political cowards who put rank partisanship before real patriotism.
