oligarchy

Democracy Rebellion Begins To Roll

July 4, 2014 Bill Moyer, www.BackboneCampaign.org Organize! Corporate Personhood, Democracy, Elections, Money As Speech, Net Neutrality, oligarchy, Plutocracy

Rolling Rebellion actions have begun. Light Projections around the Capitol by Backbone Campaign, Popular Resistance's "Which Side Are You On Tom?" musical asking FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to stand with the people and declare independence from the telecoms, and Money Out of Politics projection actions across Baltimore by the Rolling Rebellion for a Real Democracy Luminous Intervention. The US Democracy Movement is growing. It is creatively Declaring Independence from the oligarchy and their corporate state. Getting Money Out of Politics is one essential component of battling the corruption of our political, legal and economic systems. People around the country are embracing and insisting upon the self-evident,endowed by creator, unalienable rights which the Declaration of Independence celebrated and promised to uphold.

World Of Resistance Report: Inequality, Injustice And The Coming Unrest

June 29, 2014 Andrew Gavin Marshall, www.occupy.com Strategize! Democracy, Inequality, oligarchy, Poverty, Unrest

In Part 1 of the World of Resistance (WoR) Report, I examined today's global order – or disorder – through the eyes of Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former U.S. National Security Adviser and long-time influential figure in foreign policy circles. Brzezinski articulated what he refers to as humanity's "global political awakening," spurred by access to education, technology and communications among much of the world’s population. Brzezinski has written and spoken extensively to elites at American and Western think tanks and journals, warning that this awakening poses the “central challenge” for the U.S. and other powerful countries, explaining that “most people know what is generally going on... in the world, and are consciously aware of global iniquities, inequalities, lack of respect, exploitation.” Mankind, Brzezinski said in a 2010 speech, “is now politically awakened and stirring.” But Brzezinski is hardly the only figure warning elites and elite institutions about the characteristics and challenges of an awakened humanity. The subject of inequality – raised to the central stage by the Occupy movement – has become a fundamental feature in the global social, political and economic discussion, as people become increasingly aware of the facts underlying the stark division between the haves and have nots.

Inside The Koch Brothers’ Secret Billionaire Summit

June 23, 2014 Lauren Windsor, www.thenation.com Educate! Elections, Koch, Money As Speech, oligarchy

Charles and David Koch wrapped up their annual summer seminar on June 16 in Dana Point, California, at the St. Regis Monarch Bay resort—a fitting location for two men whose combined net worth is more than $100 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The highly secretive mega-donor conference, called “American Courage: Our Commitment to a Free Society,” featured a who’s who of Republican political elites. According to conference documents obtained through a source who was in attendance, Representatives Tom Cotton (AR), Cory Gardner (CO) and Jim Jordan (OH) were present, as were Senators Mitch McConnell (KY) and Marco Rubio (FL). Cotton, Gardner and McConnell are all running for the Senate this year; Jordan for re-election in the House. Rubio is widely considered a major contender for a 2016 presidential run. According to the documents, the conference attendees discussed strategy on campaign finance, climate change, healthcare, higher education and opportunities for taking control of the Senate. (The draft agenda is available for viewing here.) According to another source who also attended the conference, 300 individuals—worth at least a billion each—were present. This source said that the explicit goal was to raise $500 million to take the Senate in the 2014 midterms and another $500 million “to make sure Hillary Clinton is never president.”

Money Talks And Those Without Money Have No Voice

June 23, 2014 Margaret Kimberley, www.globalresearch.ca Educate! Democracy, Money As Speech, oligarchy

A new study confirms the obvious: the will of the people carries no weight in the United States. Within the nation’s borders democracy is everywhere proclaimed but nowhere to be found. These truths we hold to be self-evident: “ordinary citizens have virtually no influence over what their government does in the United States.” Too many Americans love to boast that the United States is a democracy. That idea is accepted uncritically and celebrated as proof of this country’s superiority. Every public activity and event is an opportunity for the false narrative to be repeated and indulged. Events as disparate as elections, holiday celebrations, advertisements, school commencements and religious worship are all used to propagandize and create false belief about the degree of power the average citizen has vis a vis their government. Of course all evidence shows that this narrative is and always was a lie. Dictionaries define democracy as government representing the citizens through elected representatives, or as majority rule, or a society which provides equal rights to all.

Join The Rolling Rebellion for Real Democracy

June 7, 2014 Staff, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Corporate Personhood, Democracy, oligarchy

Our Democracy has been corrupted. Billionaires flood our politics with money, special interests control our politicians, and corporations are afforded the same rights as real people. A series of court decisions that equate money with speech, corporations as persons and allow unlimited spending on electoral campaigns has led to deep corruption of the government. It’s time for ‘We The People’ to rebel against corporate rule and claim a real democracy. From July 5th – July 12th Americans across the country are rising up in a week of colorful, creative rebellion to reclaim the promise of government – of, by and for the people. From New Hampshire to Seattle we’ll draw on our country’s revolutionary spirit and showcase a movement ready to overthrow corporate rule. Join the democracy rebellion.

Activists Rally Outside David Koch’s NY Home

June 7, 2014 Jodie Gummow, www.alternet.org Resist! Koch, Money As Speech, New York (NY), oligarchy, Protest

“America Has a Koch Problem!” That was the hard-hitting theme of a block party protest hosted by New York activists and concerned citizens outside David Koch’s Park Avenue apartment on Thursday night, aimed at exposing the Koch Brothers' extremist right-wing political agenda. A Facebook campaign launched prior to the protest called upon those who were “tired of our democracy being sold to the highest bidder” to stage an intervention to address America’s growing Koch problem undermining democracy in America. At the demonstration which was crawling with police, handouts of 2014 political candidates who have taken money from the Koch Brothers were distributed along with pamphlets revealing how the Koch funded group, Americans for Prosperity, plan to spend $125 million on this election to benefit conservative candidates and have flooded the airwaves with misleading campaigns in states with key Senate races. Darius Gordon, organizer of Citizens Action explained to AlterNet that the more people who became aware of the Koch brothers extremist right-wing agenda, including running campaigns to raise taxes on clean energy and do away with the minimum wage, the greater the opportunity to rise up and challenge it. “We’re here today to protest against the Koch Brothers and let them know democracy is not for sale. They cannot buy our elections, they cannot buy our elected officials and we’re here to protest against that. This is a democracy! We want to educate and inform the people of New York about exactly what is going on for those who are not aware and ensure that our leaders are doing things democratically by stressing the message that our elections cannot be bought," he said.

Elite Interests vs. Public Priorities

June 7, 2014 Michael DeVore, www.plutocracytoday.blogspot.sg Educate! Democracy, oligarchy, Policy

Why are the opinions of the majority so widely misreported or overlooked? Perhaps it is that the emerging populist attitudes of the Populist Majority contrast starkly with those of American elites. The following contrasts elite opinion with that of majority opinion on a range of issues, in a recent survey funded by the Russell Sage Foundation. 1 Unless otherwise stated, elites are defined as at or near the top 1 percent of U.S. wealth-holders and have an average income of more than $1 million annually. Public opinion was calculated by averaging polls together from various mainstream firms, such as Gallup and Pew, on a wide range of issues: We live in a populist moment. The populist debate has only just begun, and as long as this economy is not working for working people, majority support for the new populism is likely to build, not dissipate. Politicians in both parties are likely to find it necessary to appeal to those attitudes, not scorn them.

The United Corporations Of America

June 6, 2014 James Woods, www.dcmediagroup.us Educate! Corporatism, Money As Speech, oligarchy

Earlier today, someone asked me to explain why corporations have so much more power than the American people. The easy answer is that now, in America, money is free speech and corporations can speak far louder. And while the sentiment is true, I thought a viable example of how it works was required to validate my statement. So I did a little research and discovered just how intertwined large corporations are and how much power they wield. Citigroup, Inc. was formed in 2008 after Citicorp and Travelers Group merged into the largest financial services network in the world. Their current 13-member Board of Directors feature financial giants who also sit on the Board of Directors of 25 other corporations. This practice is called “Corporate Interlocking,” and it allows one “parent company” the ability to control Congress and dictate the direction of future state and federal legislation any time it chooses. For example, let’s say that a state like Oregon has a public referendum, and the people vote overwhelmingly to ban GMOs (genetically modified organisms). Now, in a democracy, where representatives are sworn to uphold the will of the people, this would become a state law. However, Pepsi uses GMO beets to make the sugar that goes in their product, which is sold globally in every Taco Bell and KFC (owned by Yum Brands), as well as all Target stores. The members of the Board of Directors of Yum Brands, Pepsi, and Target go back to Citigroup and explain that they need the will of people ignored, because using non-GMO sugar would increase their unit price of Pepsi by 2 cents and shrink their shareholders’ quarterly earnings.

Toward Total Paralysis Of Unequal Society

June 3, 2014 Paul Buchheit, www.commondreams.org Educate! Inequality, oligarchy, Organizing

The severing of our society into a plutocracy and a peasantry is so far along that statistics almost cease to have meaning. But the facts have to be told, to help explain the sickening sense that we're becoming a nation without a middle class, paralyzed by the inequality deniers and excuse makers who refuse to admit there's something wrong with their free-market capitalist system. The extremes are becoming almost intolerable. 1. A Broken System of Compensation: The Combined Salaries of 350,000 Pre-School Teachers is Less Than That of Five Hedge Fund Managers Pre-school teaching may be our nation's most important job. Numerous studies show that with pre-school, all children achieve more and earn more through adulthood, with the most disadvantaged benefiting the most. Hedge fund managers, at the other extreme, are likely to bet on mortgages to fail or on food prices to rise. It's a frightening commentary on our value system that the total income of over a third of a million pre-school teachers is less than the combined income of just five big-money speculators.

‘Revolutionary Movements’ Fear Of Money Helps Oligarchy

June 2, 2014 Carl Gibson, www.occupy.com Educate! Mass Movement, Money, oligarchy, Organizing

This is the second part in a two-part series looking at ways that social movements inadvertently help the oligarchy. Part 1 challenged the non-profit industrial complex for duplicating and fundraising off the work of revolutionary organizations. Part 2 challenges revolutionary movement culture for stoking an irrational fear of money and making our efforts impotent in the process. Ask yourself these three questions: Who has more money – us or them? Who is more organized – us or them? Who’s winning – us or them? If you aren’t independently wealthy, want to work full-time helping the real movement get concrete wins, and don’t want to work for the D.C. nonprofit-industrial complex, then you’re shit out of luck. And if you are one of the few truly revolutionary movement organizations doing important work with enough of a budget to hire a staff, your workers are likely underpaid, overworked and burned out. All of the blame for these situations can be laid at the feet of revolutionary activist culture that teaches people to be afraid of money, to never ask for it, and to never openly say you want it or need it. And because of our own counterproductive views about money, the oligarchy continues to kick our ass and run laps around us.

A National Call to Link Arms for Democracy

June 2, 2014 Victoria Collier and Ben-Zion Ptashnik, www.truth-out.org Organize! Democracy, Mass Movement, oligarchy, Wall Street

"When I despair I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall, think of it - always!" - Mahatma Gandhi For Americans, these are dangerous and momentous times. We have only a small window of opportunity to break the grip of moneyed interests on our government, before an advancing oligarchy consolidates power and locks in tyranny. This article is an urgent call to organize a mass-based political movement in the coming months and through the 2016 elections. If we rise to the occasion and fight, we can reclaim democracy, regain control of our future, and preserve the dreams of our children, and for the coming generations. Without a sweeping grassroots movement, loudly pushing and protesting for reforms, populist candidates, or coalitions in Congress will never have the power to defeat the forces of a corrupt ruling class. Robber barons have resurfaced with a vengeance in the past four decades, openly attacking our democratic system, while buying power to extend and protect their privilege in perpetuity.

How Wealthy Elites Are Hijacking Democracy

June 2, 2014 Sonali Kolhatkar, www.truthdig.com Educate! Democracy, Egypt, oligarchy, Thailand, Ukraine

Mass street protests are usually seen as a hallmark of democratic aspirations. And elections are meant to be a culmination of such aspirations, affording people the opportunity to choose their own leaders and system of government. But in country after country these days, the hallmarks of democracy are being dangerously subverted and co-opted by powerful elites. The question is, are we recognizing what is happening under our noses? Three examples unfolding right now are indicators of this trend: Thailand, Ukraine and Egypt. Thailand has just witnessed its 19th coup in 82 years. Although coup leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-Ocha has promised “genuine democracy,” he has given no timetable for an end to martial law. The U.S. State Department initially refused to call the takeover a coup, insisting that martial law is consistent with Thailand’s constitution. It then changed its tune to issue a strongly worded condemnation. In Ukraine, voters elected a pro-Western leader after President Viktor Yanukovych fled following mass protests over his refusal to sign an accord with the European Union. Although the incoming president, Petro Poroshenko, has promised democratic development, the U.S. has openly sided with pro-Western forces inside Ukraine and raised the tensions of the conflict to near Cold War era levels, rendering any promises of true democracy ineffectual at best.

Oligarchy: As American As Poisoned Apple Pie

May 25, 2014 Rivera Sun, www.truthout.org Educate! Democracy, oligarchy

In the 1770s to '80s, something revolutionary was stirring in the colonies. It wasn't a war. It was a people's movement called democracy. In public meetings and town halls, ordinary citizens were gathering to discuss how to govern themselves. In the Journal of American History, Joyce Appleby wrote: "Foreign visitors in the 18th century invariably commented on the vitality of public discussions and on the political confidence of ordinary men." Although these ordinary men did not include African-Americans, women or indigenous tribes, these assemblies were not as divided by wealth and class as were the aristocratic governments of Europe. This gave rise to a culture that was virtually unknown at the time: that of commoners sharing the responsibility of self-government. Yet, after the war, the revolutionary notion of democracy produced a counter-revolution.

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