This may be worth noting:
It is apparent to most people across the globe that organizing political and social behavior around the dictates of the marketplace has proved to be a disaster for working men and women. The promised prosperity that was to have raised living standards through trickle-down economics has been exposed as a lie. The corporate state, understanding that it has been unmasked with the rise of unrest, has formed militarized police forces, stripped us of legal protection, taken over the legislative bodies, the courts and mass media, and built the most intrusive system of mass surveillance in human history. Corporate power, if unchecked, will suck every last bit of profit out of human society and the ecosystem before collapse. It has no self-imposed limits. And it has no external limits. Only we can create them.
Chris Hedges, here:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/make_the_rich_panic_20150503
Not agreeing with all of his specifics, but the general principles, yeah. Re: specifics, for example: unlike Hedges I am somewhat more optimistic about changing parties from within (i.e. if Sanders actually wins, that would be friggin awesome, & I am not entirely convinced that Hilary couldn't transform into a good candidate who would be a sufficiently good president under the right circumstances*).
(Parenthetical Addendum since I didn't post this when I wrote it, which turns out to be a good thing:
GO NDP IN ALBERTA!!!!!!!
Thankfully people in Canada are less easily manipulated than Americans, and don't vote based only on who the media tells them can win, and would rather spend their energy investigating reality & see good policies enacted than spend on all their time justifying why had to vote for who the media told them to or else someone even worse woulda won.)
Also wanted to point those who, like me, find the general discussion of the election to be almost entirely couched in completely useless horse racing terms (and I like horse racing, but this is not the point, elections are not horse races and have an entirely different set of consequences, or at least should and if they don't, that's something that needs to be changed immediately, or else quit pretending and quit having them) like "will the changing demographics that favor the democrats win out over the one party fatigue that favors the republicans?" or "is Hilary** likable enough?" (cos ... she's not but Ted Cruz is? oooookaaaaay . . . ) toward some places that cover actual issues.
My personal favorites at the moment are Ian Welsh & Naked Capitalism. Anyone else wanna recommend anything?*** & ****
*Disclaimer: I am highly, highly unlikely to vote for Hilary unless she runs a very different campaign than I expect. Vague platitudes in the right direction will be insufficient. (see: Obama's last 8 years. If you think these have been a good eight years, I . . . will refrain from saying what I actually think in case someone I actually like has not been paying attention) What is needed will be a commitment to several courses of action I feel necessary, with some actual specifics, that is so firm it will be more or less impossible to back out of without an immediate fall from grace. I do not expect this to happen.
** Further Hilary thought: When I read the people who don't like her, I generally think they are stupid & awful & highly sexist and it makes me want to defend her. When I read the people who support her by way of trashing all possible other ways of voting, I think they are stupid & awful & it puts me in mind of less enthusiastic but equally nasty Obamabots from 2008 and it makes me think nearly everyone is hopelessly stupid and easy to manipulate. The majority of both groups make wonder if the dude who got on the plane at the end of 12 Monkeys had the right idea. Don't be one of those people.
*** If you are not American, neither is Ian. & Naked Capitalism covers Europe quite a lot, in addition to the US.
**** It should go without saying that I am not in lockstep with either place, or any candidate, and do not endorse everything said by anywhere, but the world being what it is these days, maybe it needs to be said. So, said. There.
Chris Hedges, here:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/make_the_rich_panic_20150503
Not agreeing with all of his specifics, but the general principles, yeah. Re: specifics, for example: unlike Hedges I am somewhat more optimistic about changing parties from within (i.e. if Sanders actually wins, that would be friggin awesome, & I am not entirely convinced that Hilary couldn't transform into a good candidate who would be a sufficiently good president under the right circumstances*).
(Parenthetical Addendum since I didn't post this when I wrote it, which turns out to be a good thing:
GO NDP IN ALBERTA!!!!!!!
Thankfully people in Canada are less easily manipulated than Americans, and don't vote based only on who the media tells them can win, and would rather spend their energy investigating reality & see good policies enacted than spend on all their time justifying why had to vote for who the media told them to or else someone even worse woulda won.)
Also wanted to point those who, like me, find the general discussion of the election to be almost entirely couched in completely useless horse racing terms (and I like horse racing, but this is not the point, elections are not horse races and have an entirely different set of consequences, or at least should and if they don't, that's something that needs to be changed immediately, or else quit pretending and quit having them) like "will the changing demographics that favor the democrats win out over the one party fatigue that favors the republicans?" or "is Hilary** likable enough?" (cos ... she's not but Ted Cruz is? oooookaaaaay . . . ) toward some places that cover actual issues.
My personal favorites at the moment are Ian Welsh & Naked Capitalism. Anyone else wanna recommend anything?*** & ****
*Disclaimer: I am highly, highly unlikely to vote for Hilary unless she runs a very different campaign than I expect. Vague platitudes in the right direction will be insufficient. (see: Obama's last 8 years. If you think these have been a good eight years, I . . . will refrain from saying what I actually think in case someone I actually like has not been paying attention) What is needed will be a commitment to several courses of action I feel necessary, with some actual specifics, that is so firm it will be more or less impossible to back out of without an immediate fall from grace. I do not expect this to happen.
** Further Hilary thought: When I read the people who don't like her, I generally think they are stupid & awful & highly sexist and it makes me want to defend her. When I read the people who support her by way of trashing all possible other ways of voting, I think they are stupid & awful & it puts me in mind of less enthusiastic but equally nasty Obamabots from 2008 and it makes me think nearly everyone is hopelessly stupid and easy to manipulate. The majority of both groups make wonder if the dude who got on the plane at the end of 12 Monkeys had the right idea. Don't be one of those people.
*** If you are not American, neither is Ian. & Naked Capitalism covers Europe quite a lot, in addition to the US.
**** It should go without saying that I am not in lockstep with either place, or any candidate, and do not endorse everything said by anywhere, but the world being what it is these days, maybe it needs to be said. So, said. There.