Friday, October 21, 2011

My favorite take on current events


Locally, we're having Occupy SF, Occupy Oakland, and even Occupy San Rafael. I believe there's a real change happening in the national dialog. But sometimes I need to remind myself to calm down. We're acting our parts in that old Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."

But it's great seeing the idealism in kids coming out again. They're waking up.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

I so wanted to go to a gathering of protesters in the little town of Rough and Ready last Sunday. I'm stoked seeing people in all walks of life,unorganized, just showing there will......just hope it stays peaceful. I want Bob to go and play Woody Guthrey songs.

Rik Elswit said...

I just heard the Pete Seeger and his grandson Tao are joining the marchers in New York. The man continues to walk his talk.

I hope it stays peaceful, too. But make no mistake about it. The plutocrats are scared and are busy looking for ways to discredit this. But I think it may already be too big for that. The conversations that we've been having in private about what's gone wrong, and that the press has been able to ignore for 30 years, is not public. And I'm beginning to think this leaderless format is working in or favor. The press is having to dig for the reasons and sort it out for themselves instead of having it fed to them.

The kids are alright.

Gary and Susan Mullen said...

Delighted to see the people finally take some kind of a stand, even a disorganized one. I've been predicting this for the last 10 years or so and here it is. I too hope this can be a peaceful statement but I think we may be well past that with whats been happening on the world stage. An oppressed and suppressed population will eventually wake up with "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna' take it anymore" I can't help thinking about the French Revolution and they should be running scared. The media has been doing there usual work of attempting to trivialize this but it's not going to work this time. We have some very media wise young folks involved.
Did anyone see the Marine Sargent stand up to the cops for attacking unarmed civilians with clubs and pepper spray? The piece was all over CNN. In the end the cops backed down. It was a beautiful display of courage, honor and patriotism on his part.

Rik Elswit said...

That was amazing. He was shaming the police. You could see it in their faces.

Initially, the NYPD was well-behaved. But Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan made a donation of $4.6 million dollars to the New York Police Foundation, and suddenly the cops, led by their white-shirted managemant, started cracking heads and macing defenseless coeds.

Gary and Susan Mullen said...

Funny how 4.6 million works! In a perfect world It would be interesting to see the prison industrial complex tables turned on those responsible for the corruption of the "American Dream". Thousands of newly released political prisoners could find jobs as the new jailers.

Rik Elswit said...

I like your style.

Gary and Susan Mullen said...

I'm hoping this movement doesn't get hijacked by one of the establised political parties. It may be our first real hope for a legitimate third party. We can dream!

Rik Elswit said...

There won't be a third party. There's no way for that to happen in our system. Any third party that arises in any given election cycle inevitably siphons off votes from the party whose views are closest to it. Any third party that arises from disappointment with the Democrats will assure a Republican victory in the same way that disappointment with Republicans led to the rise of Ross Perot, and the election of Bill Clinton. They won't be that stupid again for a generation.

The ONLY way to sanity is for progressives to take over the Democratic party in the same way that the conservatives took over the GOP. It's a long slog that will take many election cycles, but it's the only way that will work. It begins with taking over the school boards, moving on to the city councils, the state legislatures and finally the national party.

The question is whether, in our I want it all now society whether people will go for the long haul, or if we will just keep hoping that we can elect a savior for president and he'll clean thing up in four years.

Gary and Susan Mullen said...

We could go with a another constitutional ammendment or maybe it's just time to consider a re-write for the 21st century.That goes for the tax code as well. We've all seen what happens when they ammend the tax code. We wind up with a patchwork mess full of loop holes for the corporations & attorneys to stick it too us a little deeper. Do I sound pissed and bitter?

Gary and Susan Mullen said...

I think this was one of the greatest quotes of our time.

"We have met the enemy and he is us" :Pogo author, Walt Kelly

Rik Elswit said...

He got that right.

I fear another constitutional convention. The corporate grip on media is a lock. The fact that half the people in this country can't be bothered to vote, and a significant percentage of the ones that do are only casually aware of the issues and really have no idea how our government works.

Gary and Susan Mullen said...

Maybe we should start smaller with:
1.Reverse corporate personhood.
2.Reverse lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court.
3.Term limit reform.
4.Just for fun lets legalize pot.

Unknown said...

If Mary Jane was handled like Jim Beam, our state wouldn't be so broke....

Carol said...

well that didn't take long.....we now have the first serious head injury from a tear gas cannister thrown by the Oakland police at an Iraq veteran.