[Peace] Mark Blyth interviews on Jimmy Dore are well worth watching

Tue Apr 14 23:47:36 UTC 2020

On Tue, Apr 14, 2020 at 6:08 PM Karen Aram <karenaram at hotmail.com> wrote:

John
>
> If one only looks at the surface and assumes we can push Biden to do the
> right thing, if we continue to bend the knee to power, taking whatever
> crumbs of cake the ruling elites throw at us, it’s going to be very bloody.
> Wait until the economy crashes, crime escalates, gangs roam the streets as
> starving people become really angry. People are already dying in record
> numbers from the pandemic and our government owned by corporate
> capitalists.
>
> Why do you think FDR gave us the New Deal, because he’s a nice guy?  He
> did it to save capitalism as he feared a revolution, due to the many
> people, workers, socialists etc. in the streets protesting, striking, sit
> downs etc.
>

Well, I think he was probably a pretty nice guy, a person of genuine
integrity, as was his wife.  And yes, they were desperate times which
called for desperate measures.  Intelligent desperate measures.

> Why did Johnson de-escalate the war in Vietnam 1968? Because the many
> people in the streets was an embarrassment internationally, for the ruling
> elites, and Johnson’s advisors. The revolt by the soldiers and veterans was
> the final step.
>
> Gandi utilized non violence and it was effective at driving out the
> British, but the people did take action, sit ins, strikes, blocking
> traffic, rail transport, putting their lives on the line.
>
> The civil rights movement, led by MLK, and started years before by CORE
> and others with sit-ins, is an example of that which works, with
> nonviolence.
>

Yes.  And there are those who believe that the implied violence of Malcolm
X, Stokely Carmichael, the Black Panthers, and others played a role also.

> Why did Nixon end the draft, and give us the EPA? He feared the people in
> the streets, he feared a revolution.
>
> People don’t have healthcare, jobs, or a living wage, and the Democrat
> Party isn’t going to give us anything more than what Obama did, because the
> insurance cos. and pharma cos. own our government, along with our weapons
> manufacturers, oil cos. etc.
>

More than they did in the FDR era?

> As awful as Trump is, he isn’t the disease he is a symptom of the disease
> of rot and decay that is our system.
>

That is true.  He is a logical culmination of the disease that started at
least with Reagan.  So we need a cure for the disease.  And that's what we
need to be discussing.  I'm not sure we quite agree on what the disease is,
let alone how to eradicate it, but we would agree on most of the symptoms.
But even that is just you and me and a few others.  Many of our fellow
citizens are still in elementary school, politically and philosophically.

> Unless we have system change the decline will continue. Global warming and
> nuclear war are the two major threats facing us and the Democrat Party is
> doing nothing about it, or providing a veneer and watered down versions of
> what we need.
>

Sadly, that's true.

> We get a Democrat in power and the liberals all go to sleep, they only
> wake up when there is a Republican in power. Even then I have to ask what
> are they doing about anything, other than here in our own little community.
> We can put on our pink hats and get on buses to DC anytime the DNC provides
> us, and we feel insulted, or disrespected. Never mind, the people we have
> slaughtered in our eight wars in less than twenty years, they don’t count,
> they aren’t white and we only care about the people of color in our own
> neighborhood.
>
> We will only have system change when the people insist upon it by getting
> off the treadmill of insanity, expecting our corrupt electoral system to
> put in place another individual, who might be kinder to us, if we ask
> nicely. The Republican and Democrat Party’s both represent the ruling class
> and the working class ain’t a part of it.
>

Again, the working class WAS a part of the equation with FDR, and with
maybe a handful of other leaders.  But overall, the poor are never, never,
never on this earth going to be a major consideration for long.  Hell, all
most of them want to do is become the rich so that THEY can run things for
their own advantage.

> Violence occurs every day when our militarized police shoot us down in the
> streets, our incarceration of huge numbers of people, with our prison
> system of for profit, prevents many of the poor from rising up. And, our
> most profitable business next to financial services is weapons of
> destruction and war which will be worse, much worse under Biden, or anyone
> of the current system for that matter.
>
> The problem today, is we lack a strong labor movement, we have a lot of
> people who are unemployed thus lacking power. Which is why its up to the
> many Americans who are politically active to focus on what needs to be
> done, and its not focusing on elections.
>

A strong labor movement again would certainly be nice.  But that's only one
factor.  And  when we DID have a strong labor movement, what were most of
the rank and file union members doing?  Certainly not advocating for
radical change.  They were not Dave Johnsons.  Quite the contrary.  They
were luxuriating in their nice new mortgaged homes, driving their shiny
cars, watching their color TV, consuming way too much useless crap while
enjoying their newly-possible middle class lifestyle.  No revolutionaries
they!  I know this intimately.  I was there.  I was one of them.

> Occupy had the right idea, as to focus, and if they had been better
> organized, had stronger cohesive leadership, and a plan, they might not
> have given up so easily when the police dispersed them in Zukotti park.
>

Well, that's what I've been waiting for my entire life - strong cohesive
leadership, good organization, and a plan.  Not seeing it, either inside or
outside the Democratic party.

Interestingly enough, the Koch-funded Tea Party Republicans HAVE had strong
cohesive leadership, good organization, and a long-range plan for the past
40 years.  They've worked the plan ruthlessly, but at the cost of their
souls.  Perhaps we should learn from them?

John

> On Apr 14, 2020, at 15:14, John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 7:15 PM Karen Aram via Peace <
> peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>
> My thoughts on one of the links:
>>
>> Aaron is a great journalist and interviewer, but Jimmy is a better
>> analyst.
>>
>> Aaron’s suggestion of going with the lesser evil and pushing to the left
>> is very disappointing given we don’t have time for that nonsense, people
>> are dying without jobs, without housing, without healthcare, the last thing
>> we need is another administration subject to the capitalist ruling elites.
>
>
>
>   So four more years of tRump then, Karen?  Or is now the time for that
> violent, bloody revolution we've been dreaming of our whole lives?
>
>
>
>
>> The Intercept maybe good on domestic issues, but they lack credibility on
>> foreign policy, which is critical, is one of the reasons I don’t pay much
>> attention to them anymore.
>>
>>
>> > On Apr 13, 2020, at 16:27, J.B. Nicholson via Peace <
>> peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > and Aaron Mate is live now in
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dETLYyxgP5g (archived copy is coming
>> soon, no doubt).
>> >
>> > -J
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> > Peace at lists.chambana.net
>> > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
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