Amen! We used to talk about publicly funded elections! Now, that’s never even considered. Money in politics is a fundamental cancer on our society. All elections should be publicly funded. The Supreme Court should not be allowed to operate as an oligarchic institution with no real checks on their authority and power. No political party should be allowed to draw congressional boundaries. These are fundamental changes that would help to curtail the open usurpation of democracy in this country and would slow the growth of Americans who yearn for authoritarian leaders to “protect” them. Economically insecure people are people who can be convinced to follow authoritarian con men like Trump and DeSantis. Corporate Democrats and DINOs like Manchin, strip the already disenfranchised and disaffected populace of the feeling that they are being heard and that their leaders are actually advocating for their best interests. Once that happens, they are much more likely to turn to Con men who use fear and division to keep the working classes (I include in this the “middle class” which is a BS term used to divide the working class against itself) fighting* amongst itself so that they don’t rise up against the wealthy, who are the ones that are ACTUALLY stealing jobs, suppressing wages, and destroying economic mobility. Money in politics is the root of all evil.
Totally agree on the mainstream media that most view. They are now resorting to entertainment style news for ratings, viewership and $. Marianne had a good piece on this: encouraging independent news outlets, like OptOut.com. As a former active journalist and advocate, I applaud these outlets!
As someone who has engaged in the process of a Presidential campaign Marianne of all ppl should know that everything, and i mean EVERYTHING, is about the almighty dollar.
Do you actually believe that Biden analyzed this deal down to the detail of sick leave benefits? C'mon.
He and his spxperson couldn't even agree if he was directly involved.
The beat goes on, rage against the Left, rage against the Right, but the ppl pulling the strings are both and neither.
It’s also about control and population control. First either the poisonous Covid shots, then the food shortages, then the gasoline shortages, then the digital money, then the climate change social credit scores, then the transhumanism and then if anyone is still alive we will be the slaves of the global ruling elite totally dependent upon them. We need to resist now for any hope of freedom.
Chris: I tried to click on the "like" heart several times, but no such luck.
You have correctly pointed out many of the ways by which We The People are being "magically" transformed from the status of citizens to one of mere subjects/serfs.
The dernier cri of "FREEDOM" by the Scots patriot about to get the axe for fighting against British imperialists needs to be taken up by each and every genuine American such as yourself and a growing majority of the awakeners amongst us.
Carstie, ditto! I have a strong Scottish background and side with what you say. Too many though are still caught in the web of, well, I cannot do this or that since I need to survive and work, etc. So the status quo remains and widens with more and more inequality too! Ugh.
The compliant sheep continue to believe they are saving the world and fighting for democracy, when in reality they are forfeiting freedoms. Calling others "fascists" while espousing bigger and more severe govt control, which is the very definition.
Unions are obsolete because they so controlled govt for so long that the benefits they once provided are now govt regulations (FLSA, OSHA, ADA....the list is endless)
My politics are 90% "leave me the hell alone" and 10% common sense.
"The entire system needs to be challenged." And those changes must start in the American home. Where the potential of all our children to live deeply meaningful lives is nurtured and no longer squandered.
So grateful for your wisdom, intelligence, deep understanding of the truth and your responsiveness to your call to speak it. may you be held and kept and blessed mightily "until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream".
poverty, homelessness, under employment, mental illness and other realities have been criminalized. We are not sitting by and watching, we write, we march, we send money, we vote, we volunteer and we pray endlessly and yet it the circus is always in town when it comes to serving the people. There are glimmers of hope here and there, so we grab on to them and say, "Well if not today, perhaps tomorrow". Thank you Marianne.
Perla, it seems to me that we must go beyond the "hope stage" to "knowing" we can turn this titanic around. Otherwise, we are just dribbling along to nowhere--en masse action required.
I'm struggling not to be pessimistic. I feel so inadequate to combat the dismal state of affairs here and everywhere. Yet my parents didn't survive the holocaust so I would give up. Doing my best.
Hi, the fact you responded on this substack tells me you are doing your best. I wish for you to see that you are working to make our world better in your unique way!
Economic inequality has gone viral, because politicians can easily be bought and controlled. Unless we have election finance reform, nothing will change. We must also reform our department of justice, which is controlled by the same self-serving people who own our government. Just follow the money.
One of the non-profit organization I support provided this definition of Corporate Capture\ n: the means by which an economic elite undermine the realization of human rights and the environment by exerting undue influence over decision-makers and public institutions.
“Today, the poor, the near poor, and the afraid-of-becoming poor make up a third of our population. 63 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck” … (The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little) … “The entire system needs to be challenged … SOON!'
I'm an Englishman but I love America- or rather I love the TRUE America. I'm very concerned as things are and I see Biden as a stumbling idiot. Paradoxically the USA was founded on Republican principles and those core fundamentals made America a wonderful nation. Corruption and greed always destroy purity, love and truth. There have only been a handful of Presidents that had the grit and the ethical standards badly needed to set America free. All I can do is pray. I'd love to see Marianne Williamson as president, That would definitely "drain the swamp" forgive the Trumpism, but he was right.
Unfortunately, Trump loved to tell lies as if he isn't part of "the swamp"! Marianne is safer and better off NOT running for office since they would trample her as they did when she ran before. Her greatest gift from the Cosmos, IMHO, is her total bravery to speak truth when too many are holding back. She has the capacity, it seems to me, to galvanize a change of our pathetic system of governance and corruption that started on the wrong foot with slavery! We can and must do better to help make our planet thrivable again--we
are failing now. I am glad Mr. Kelly that you still love the TRUE America now buried under the ashes of anger and despair! Please don't give up on us!
Hey Joan- the factor that is rarely taken into account is the spirit and will of the people. Look at Ukraine!! We must do all we can individually to turn the Titanic around. If enough of us do that we will prevail (a Bushism-LOL) I BELIEVE in the American people and whenever I visit the US there's a LOT more palpable spirituality wherever I go. Putin thought he could have an easy victory by force of arms alone but he gravely miscalculated the immense power of the Ukrainian people. It's inherent in American culture and the sheer grit and will created by the individualism that very few nations have that will inevitably overcome this rotten, greed and corruption and restore America to the pure-spirited beautiful and gracious land once again. BTW Mr Kelly makes me feel old -LOL Chris is much better. XO
Chris, as you like, well, individualism got America in trouble! Too much me, me, and me. It seems the people will only find peace and comfort when they recognize they are not separate from each other: seeing the oneness reduces conflict and division too. Carry on! Thanks for caring.
Marianne: Solidly researched and brilliantly presented, this exquisitely and heartfelt composition is deserving of my full congratulations/kudos.
By referencing the current shit, sad, sorry state of the Democrat party (no longer democratic, I mourn) and comparing this compound of bribery, blackmail and greed to the forthright messages (and frequently actions) by FDR for the two-thirds of the American people who are NOT benefiting from contemporary economic reality, is in MHO totally spot-on and deserves far broader circulation than on this, your blog site.
The precipitative action which tore the Democrat party away from its previously democratic roots was the utterly egregious "ruling" by the "Supreme" Court in the terrible "Citizens United" case, where corporate interests, masking themselves as "citizens" rather than stooges for the ultra-rich investor class, succeeded in bribing and/or blackmailed a thin majority of the Nine BlackRobes to make this contra-Constitutional ruling which allowed corporations (including non-American ones) to throw uncountable millions into election campaigns.
All that filthy lucre, inveigled the alway suspect DNC (Democrat National Committee)...reminding me distinctly of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...to go whole hog for all those nice campaign contributions. Those contributions even included tens of millions from wet behind the ears Bankman-Fried of FTX infamy to become the second most prolific contributor to the DNC cause to none other than Little Georgie of Our $orrow$.
If one considers the supposedly independent three branches of the federal government: Congress, Administration and Judiciary to be mutually balanced against each other rather than becoming a unified juggernaut on behalf of Big $$$ interests; one would become extremely disappointed.
"Our" government is totally out of the control of We The People and has become nothing more than a cash-cow for a myriad of special financial and corporate interests. Unfortunately, those who have been (s)elected by the voters to become our civil servants, as representing the American people; have instead grabbed and clutched onto the Big Brass Ring. When Congresspersons like Nancy Pelosi and Senators like Mitch McConnell become bipartisan grifters whose net worth, well into the hundreds of millions, could never have been accumulated via their government compensation for their participation in the Congress and the Senate; all awakened and aware Americans should have come to the realization that (quoting Shakespeare's "Hamlet", that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark". Unfortunately for we Americans, the rotten state is these days not that little land on the Baltic Sea, but right here in "the land of the free and the home of the brave".
There are precious few brave individuals amongst our office-holders and unfortunately, very few amongst the administrative bureaucrats. As for freedom....fill in the blanks.
Carstie, what you write is true and painful. Will it take a seismic shift of horrible events on our planet to get people awake enough and no longer unafraid to truly see that we are one and need each other? I ponder this maybe too much. We must remain brave as future ancestors! Take care.
I watched CBS Sunday Morning today and was shocked how a black woman’s child wad taken away and the corruption of Child Welfare in The United States! It’s horrible what they have gotten away with towards the poor and minorities. This woman lost custody and was studying to be a nurse and this too was taken from her!
I am an elder--the Dems have not been the party of the 'working class' for a long time. Our 'belief' structures and loyalties die hard. And, of course, in a lock-down imposed by one unelected official. no one will be going to work--sick or not! The bottom is falling out of this system.
Kleckofan: Unfortunate but true: The largest and most powerful unions today are those made up of government employees including both federal and state bureaucraps and also the two massive school-teachers' unions, right on down to the local level.
On a personal basis I do not consider government employees of any make, model or shape to be "working class". Some of them are dutiful public servants. I get that. But all too many of them are time-servers who could not get decent paying positions in the private sector.
A good many of those people, likely a solid majority, are educated beyond any possible balance by elementary common sense. As you note, regulatory agencies are chockablock with these unaccountable administrative bureaucraps who are all too often self-serving, power-grasping types who hold those positions due to various civil-service laws and regulations.
Then there's the minor matter of basic intelligence levels. Most of the aforementioned folks are quite good at studying rote material to the point where they are efficient test passers. In most instances these people cannot be considered as learned...merely edjumacated.
What can I say? just please don’t stop speaking truth to power. Thank you!!
Amen! We used to talk about publicly funded elections! Now, that’s never even considered. Money in politics is a fundamental cancer on our society. All elections should be publicly funded. The Supreme Court should not be allowed to operate as an oligarchic institution with no real checks on their authority and power. No political party should be allowed to draw congressional boundaries. These are fundamental changes that would help to curtail the open usurpation of democracy in this country and would slow the growth of Americans who yearn for authoritarian leaders to “protect” them. Economically insecure people are people who can be convinced to follow authoritarian con men like Trump and DeSantis. Corporate Democrats and DINOs like Manchin, strip the already disenfranchised and disaffected populace of the feeling that they are being heard and that their leaders are actually advocating for their best interests. Once that happens, they are much more likely to turn to Con men who use fear and division to keep the working classes (I include in this the “middle class” which is a BS term used to divide the working class against itself) fighting* amongst itself so that they don’t rise up against the wealthy, who are the ones that are ACTUALLY stealing jobs, suppressing wages, and destroying economic mobility. Money in politics is the root of all evil.
*edited to fix an autocorrect error.
Your right on all counts! Now we need more to understand in order to reform this madness that's totally taken over America since the early 1970s.
I Listen to Pink Floyd again & again.
am not tired of watching them..
and the same goes for Kitaro, and my favorite "It's a Beautiful Day"
Music can restore one's ability to live!
Totally agree on the mainstream media that most view. They are now resorting to entertainment style news for ratings, viewership and $. Marianne had a good piece on this: encouraging independent news outlets, like OptOut.com. As a former active journalist and advocate, I applaud these outlets!
Yeah! Glad your accessing good material!
As someone who has engaged in the process of a Presidential campaign Marianne of all ppl should know that everything, and i mean EVERYTHING, is about the almighty dollar.
Do you actually believe that Biden analyzed this deal down to the detail of sick leave benefits? C'mon.
He and his spxperson couldn't even agree if he was directly involved.
The beat goes on, rage against the Left, rage against the Right, but the ppl pulling the strings are both and neither.
It’s also about control and population control. First either the poisonous Covid shots, then the food shortages, then the gasoline shortages, then the digital money, then the climate change social credit scores, then the transhumanism and then if anyone is still alive we will be the slaves of the global ruling elite totally dependent upon them. We need to resist now for any hope of freedom.
Chris: I tried to click on the "like" heart several times, but no such luck.
You have correctly pointed out many of the ways by which We The People are being "magically" transformed from the status of citizens to one of mere subjects/serfs.
The dernier cri of "FREEDOM" by the Scots patriot about to get the axe for fighting against British imperialists needs to be taken up by each and every genuine American such as yourself and a growing majority of the awakeners amongst us.
Carstie, ditto! I have a strong Scottish background and side with what you say. Too many though are still caught in the web of, well, I cannot do this or that since I need to survive and work, etc. So the status quo remains and widens with more and more inequality too! Ugh.
Amen.
The compliant sheep continue to believe they are saving the world and fighting for democracy, when in reality they are forfeiting freedoms. Calling others "fascists" while espousing bigger and more severe govt control, which is the very definition.
Unions are obsolete because they so controlled govt for so long that the benefits they once provided are now govt regulations (FLSA, OSHA, ADA....the list is endless)
My politics are 90% "leave me the hell alone" and 10% common sense.
"The entire system needs to be challenged." And those changes must start in the American home. Where the potential of all our children to live deeply meaningful lives is nurtured and no longer squandered.
So grateful for your wisdom, intelligence, deep understanding of the truth and your responsiveness to your call to speak it. may you be held and kept and blessed mightily "until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream".
poverty, homelessness, under employment, mental illness and other realities have been criminalized. We are not sitting by and watching, we write, we march, we send money, we vote, we volunteer and we pray endlessly and yet it the circus is always in town when it comes to serving the people. There are glimmers of hope here and there, so we grab on to them and say, "Well if not today, perhaps tomorrow". Thank you Marianne.
Perla, it seems to me that we must go beyond the "hope stage" to "knowing" we can turn this titanic around. Otherwise, we are just dribbling along to nowhere--en masse action required.
I'm struggling not to be pessimistic. I feel so inadequate to combat the dismal state of affairs here and everywhere. Yet my parents didn't survive the holocaust so I would give up. Doing my best.
Hi, the fact you responded on this substack tells me you are doing your best. I wish for you to see that you are working to make our world better in your unique way!
thanks you too
Economic inequality has gone viral, because politicians can easily be bought and controlled. Unless we have election finance reform, nothing will change. We must also reform our department of justice, which is controlled by the same self-serving people who own our government. Just follow the money.
Annemarie,
Of course, your right but I wish it weren't so!
Joan
One of the non-profit organization I support provided this definition of Corporate Capture\ n: the means by which an economic elite undermine the realization of human rights and the environment by exerting undue influence over decision-makers and public institutions.
“Today, the poor, the near poor, and the afraid-of-becoming poor make up a third of our population. 63 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck” … (The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little) … “The entire system needs to be challenged … SOON!'
WONDERFUL WRITING!
I'm an Englishman but I love America- or rather I love the TRUE America. I'm very concerned as things are and I see Biden as a stumbling idiot. Paradoxically the USA was founded on Republican principles and those core fundamentals made America a wonderful nation. Corruption and greed always destroy purity, love and truth. There have only been a handful of Presidents that had the grit and the ethical standards badly needed to set America free. All I can do is pray. I'd love to see Marianne Williamson as president, That would definitely "drain the swamp" forgive the Trumpism, but he was right.
Unfortunately, Trump loved to tell lies as if he isn't part of "the swamp"! Marianne is safer and better off NOT running for office since they would trample her as they did when she ran before. Her greatest gift from the Cosmos, IMHO, is her total bravery to speak truth when too many are holding back. She has the capacity, it seems to me, to galvanize a change of our pathetic system of governance and corruption that started on the wrong foot with slavery! We can and must do better to help make our planet thrivable again--we
are failing now. I am glad Mr. Kelly that you still love the TRUE America now buried under the ashes of anger and despair! Please don't give up on us!
Hey Joan- the factor that is rarely taken into account is the spirit and will of the people. Look at Ukraine!! We must do all we can individually to turn the Titanic around. If enough of us do that we will prevail (a Bushism-LOL) I BELIEVE in the American people and whenever I visit the US there's a LOT more palpable spirituality wherever I go. Putin thought he could have an easy victory by force of arms alone but he gravely miscalculated the immense power of the Ukrainian people. It's inherent in American culture and the sheer grit and will created by the individualism that very few nations have that will inevitably overcome this rotten, greed and corruption and restore America to the pure-spirited beautiful and gracious land once again. BTW Mr Kelly makes me feel old -LOL Chris is much better. XO
Chris, as you like, well, individualism got America in trouble! Too much me, me, and me. It seems the people will only find peace and comfort when they recognize they are not separate from each other: seeing the oneness reduces conflict and division too. Carry on! Thanks for caring.
Marianne: Solidly researched and brilliantly presented, this exquisitely and heartfelt composition is deserving of my full congratulations/kudos.
By referencing the current shit, sad, sorry state of the Democrat party (no longer democratic, I mourn) and comparing this compound of bribery, blackmail and greed to the forthright messages (and frequently actions) by FDR for the two-thirds of the American people who are NOT benefiting from contemporary economic reality, is in MHO totally spot-on and deserves far broader circulation than on this, your blog site.
The precipitative action which tore the Democrat party away from its previously democratic roots was the utterly egregious "ruling" by the "Supreme" Court in the terrible "Citizens United" case, where corporate interests, masking themselves as "citizens" rather than stooges for the ultra-rich investor class, succeeded in bribing and/or blackmailed a thin majority of the Nine BlackRobes to make this contra-Constitutional ruling which allowed corporations (including non-American ones) to throw uncountable millions into election campaigns.
All that filthy lucre, inveigled the alway suspect DNC (Democrat National Committee)...reminding me distinctly of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...to go whole hog for all those nice campaign contributions. Those contributions even included tens of millions from wet behind the ears Bankman-Fried of FTX infamy to become the second most prolific contributor to the DNC cause to none other than Little Georgie of Our $orrow$.
If one considers the supposedly independent three branches of the federal government: Congress, Administration and Judiciary to be mutually balanced against each other rather than becoming a unified juggernaut on behalf of Big $$$ interests; one would become extremely disappointed.
"Our" government is totally out of the control of We The People and has become nothing more than a cash-cow for a myriad of special financial and corporate interests. Unfortunately, those who have been (s)elected by the voters to become our civil servants, as representing the American people; have instead grabbed and clutched onto the Big Brass Ring. When Congresspersons like Nancy Pelosi and Senators like Mitch McConnell become bipartisan grifters whose net worth, well into the hundreds of millions, could never have been accumulated via their government compensation for their participation in the Congress and the Senate; all awakened and aware Americans should have come to the realization that (quoting Shakespeare's "Hamlet", that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark". Unfortunately for we Americans, the rotten state is these days not that little land on the Baltic Sea, but right here in "the land of the free and the home of the brave".
There are precious few brave individuals amongst our office-holders and unfortunately, very few amongst the administrative bureaucrats. As for freedom....fill in the blanks.
Carstie, what you write is true and painful. Will it take a seismic shift of horrible events on our planet to get people awake enough and no longer unafraid to truly see that we are one and need each other? I ponder this maybe too much. We must remain brave as future ancestors! Take care.
I watched CBS Sunday Morning today and was shocked how a black woman’s child wad taken away and the corruption of Child Welfare in The United States! It’s horrible what they have gotten away with towards the poor and minorities. This woman lost custody and was studying to be a nurse and this too was taken from her!
bullseye
I am an elder--the Dems have not been the party of the 'working class' for a long time. Our 'belief' structures and loyalties die hard. And, of course, in a lock-down imposed by one unelected official. no one will be going to work--sick or not! The bottom is falling out of this system.
Amen!!!!
Kleckofan: Unfortunate but true: The largest and most powerful unions today are those made up of government employees including both federal and state bureaucraps and also the two massive school-teachers' unions, right on down to the local level.
On a personal basis I do not consider government employees of any make, model or shape to be "working class". Some of them are dutiful public servants. I get that. But all too many of them are time-servers who could not get decent paying positions in the private sector.
A good many of those people, likely a solid majority, are educated beyond any possible balance by elementary common sense. As you note, regulatory agencies are chockablock with these unaccountable administrative bureaucraps who are all too often self-serving, power-grasping types who hold those positions due to various civil-service laws and regulations.
Then there's the minor matter of basic intelligence levels. Most of the aforementioned folks are quite good at studying rote material to the point where they are efficient test passers. In most instances these people cannot be considered as learned...merely edjumacated.