In a week, it will all be over — except for the shouting.
Ah yes, the shouting. If anything marks the current midterm election, it is the unending, ear-busting din of shouting from all sides of the political spectrum.
In this election of extremes, the shrill volume of attacks, counterattacks, claims, counterclaims, threats and counter-threats would have drowned out the real messages of the election is any such messages had actually existed.
Most political campaigns are built around sound bites but this was a collection of sound screams — ones that will continue right up until election day.
Normally, we don’t expect smart people as candidates — those with an IQ above that of an average plant know better than to run for office — but the shrill incompetence of this year’s crop of wannabes have driven the bar of expectations to sub-terrain levels.
Christine O’Donnell needs a brain transplant to just rise to the level of moron. Sharron Angle proves the American education system is turning out illiterates. The list goes on…and on…and on.
But some — too many — of these incompetents will win because the average American voter is too dumb and stupid to think past their own anger and frustration. They won’t consider what effect their choices will have down the road. They just want to throw the bums out and they don’t care that the clowns they elect will turn the normal political circus into a second-rate carnival.
There’s no doubt that the current Democratic leadership of Congress is a miserable failure with equally corrupt and morally-bankrupt leaders in both the House and Senate.
But the crop of challengers that will replace many incumbents — and probably give control of at least the House back to the Republicans — will answer to the same, failed GOP leadership that ran Congress before the 2006 midterm elections.
The influx of loudmouths and demagogues spawned by the phony grassroots operation called the tea party “movement” will just add to the noise in the already debate-stalled House while gains in the Senate will just add to the gridlock that has turned that body into a meaningless chamber.
The problem cannot be solved by switching back and forth between two corrupt political parties that put their agendas ahead of the nation’s needs. It’s the system that must be changed and without drastic, history-changing upheaval, nothing will change.
This election, more than any in recent memory, shows the corrupting influence of big money in politics. The Supreme Court opened the doors by allowing unlimited spending by corporations — both real and those “created” as a sham to pump money into elections.
Both parties have become pawns of billionaires — George Soros on the left and the Koch brothers on the right. The tea party is just a front for Charles and David Koch to force their private agenda on a gullible electorate. Soros did the same thing in 2006 but he had more restrictions then. Now the restrictions are gone and those with the most money to burn control the agenda and — ultimately — the nation.
Didn’t this kind of situation spawn a revolution back in 1776?
Back then it was kings and profiteers. Now it’s industrialists, political consultants and profiteers.
Those are the bums we have to throw out — and that action can’t be taken at the ballot box.
Related articles
- The Caucus: Soros Donates $1 Million to Media Matters (thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com)
- The tea party: A conspiracy by the uber-rich to control America (capitolhillblue.com)
- Stanley Kutler: THE TEA PARTY: DUPED SERVANTS OF POWER (huffingtonpost.com)
- The Scandal of 2010 (themoderatevoice.com)
20 thoughts on “It’s still the system, stupid…”
Or as the late Joe Sorban (I think) said: “Why don’t they call it shout radio?”
😀
Phil
LMAO!
Yep Woody, the bunch in the photo have a “Jesus-slapped” look on their faces, except they are enraptured with the religion of politics, now gone bad. / : |
Carl Nemo **==
Good Lord!! Normally 98% of congress is re-elected each election but “ONLY” 90% will be re-elected Tuesday. So, is there really going to be any change?
If you like great books then this one is a thriller to read cause it’s about Americans actually taking a stand against Washington. It could be that destiny is calling us to make our history.
http://www.booksbyoliver.com
Just don’t anticipate too much change after 11/02 cause it’s the same political parties & those in the background pulling the strings. Take a stand.
Hey Doug,
I used to enjoy your Alton Telegraph commentaries way back when. It’s good you’re still ranting!
“It’s the system that must be changed and without drastic, history-changing upheaval, nothing will change.” Doug T.
Sooo…what upheaval do you envision that might do the trick? I (cautiously) hope for something along that line, but jeez-loo-eez I fear the American people are generally ignorant, lazy, and too timid to stand for themselves even if a history-changing upheaval gives them the opportunity.
Brian
Alton, IL
So what happened to those of us who protested at Berkeley and UW-Madison? We let the cheerleaders(W) and ‘turds'(Rove) win? Have we all sold our souls to the Koch brothers.?
When Russ Feingold the only ‘true patriot’ probably loses his seat, we’ll know that the plutocrats have won. Don’t blame MSM, they own that along with the RW shouters?
Where are today’s Mario Savios and Paul Soglins? Bring back the draft and they’ll emerge.
Thankfully I don’t have many years left on this planet and no grandchildren to reap the whirlwind. I’m reminded of Louis XV, “and after us the deluege.”
Honestly, the Republic died with the selection of Junior by the Supreme Court back in 2000. What we have now is more a fascist plutocracy than a republic, where money and greed set the agenda and men are law.
“We the People” fight over the scraps and against each other and our own well-being via a false left/right paradigm perpetuated by ignorance and corporate propaganda.
Short of a general strike by all the middle and lower classes, we have already lost and will continue our slow descent into the depths of tyranny. Given the corporate “4th Estate” is now wholly owned by the “2nd Estate” and does their bidding, what are the chances of us common folk of the 3rd Estate banding together and regaining our freedom?
Pretty much, none, nil, zilch, nada, zip. Time to batten the hatches and prepare for the inevitable collapse.
Superb post Woody. Thanks for honoring Mario Savio who most younger folks would not know or even have heard of in their lifetime. I’m that old. ; )
Savio was one bright guy with a mission in life; ie., exposing “the man” for what he is…!
Here’s a handy liink so folks can read of his life and accomplishments. The most fascinating part is how intensely he was monitored by authorities. Those were the days of presidential assassination, the Nam debacle, and crimpols like LBJ and Mr. FBI, J.Edgar Hoover running the show unchallenged, no questions asked…period!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Savio
Since then we’ve spiraled ever more deeply into the abyss of tyranny. I sincerely believe the mass dispensation of antidepressants, the fluoridation of water along with the intense, daily “brainwashing” people receive from the “one-eye” as they passively sit in front of their HDTV, totally opening their passive consciousness to subtle, yet intense “driving techniques” that most can no longer engage in constructive dialogue concerning the issues of the day. They generally have the attention span of chickens; i.e, none. : |
The Yahoo link I supplied in my reply to Eve best sums up the sloven-thoughted, ‘party animals’ we now have for a younger generation. Everything is one big laugh for them now; but it won’t be so, once in our face roundups begin at some time in the future when society breaks down due to hyperinflation, national insolvency and the collapse of the welfare network. I’m not paranoid or joking either.
Carl Nemo **==
Hi Carl –
Happened across the interesting piece…
https://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-tipping-point-has-arrived
Predicting permafrost thawing???
Thanks Almandine for the link. I enjoyed the imbedded link to Bill Gross’s comments too.
The oligarchs won’t give up easily. In fact a host of Executive Orders are geared to specifically crush any opposition from the unwashed masses through declaration of martial law. Our modern military and policing tactics have merged with one intent; ie., to summarily and totally crush opposition engaged in public dissent. I no longer matters if you are a civilian on the streets of Baghdad or hometown anywhere USA; it’s going to be equally ugly.
Our government now employees hundreds of contractors each employing thousands of ex-military, now “goons” engaged in ‘security’ that can be unleashed on the citizenry no different than during hurricane Katrina’s aftermath.
To make the necessary changes outlined in this article and even proposed by Gross isn’t going to be a cakewallk or done via the ballot box or endless internet based discussionals. No matter, it will be so and it’s also “necessary”. : |
*****
“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.
The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is
wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts
they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions,
it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. …
And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not
warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It is its natural manure.” … Thomas Jefferson
*****
Carl Nemo **==
“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.” – George Washington
“The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.” – George Washington
“It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.” – John Adams
“Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interest, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.” – Thomas Paine
Thanks Griff for the great quotes courtesy of our founders. What amazes me most is that 18th century intellects were able to express themselves both thoughtfully and eloquently concerning the maintenance of freedom, their ideas standing the test of time.
Obviously our nation as strayed from their admonitions ‘bigtime” and we are soon to pay the price for letting avaricious mattoids take over our government.
*****
“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” …Edward R. Murrow
*****
Carl Nemo **==
Soon, I’m afraid.
Indeed. I remember seeing that speech (on YouTube, I wasn’t born yet when he made it) and feeling the chills run up my spine.
Gut check time, America. Will you put your bodies upon the gears?
Yeah, it’s much better to hear and watch, rather than read the words. He has so much passion.
Linkin Park’s new CD “A Thousand Suns” has this and excerpts of Rev. Martin Luther King’s speech Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence on it. It’s a pretty good album, but much more like “Minutes to Midnight” than their previous work.
“We must speak.” Pretty much sums up why I am still lurking around here.
The problem is trust, or lack of it. This current mortgage mess sums it all up really.
The financial system has been abused beyond all repair; all that remains is the (profitable) cannibalisation of the middle class by the TBTF (with the nod of government) – which has been well underway for some time now.
One day we can tell our grandkids what democracy used to be like – they probably won’t believe us.
Ha! Nice picture. I hope that guy knows some one with the last name of Moran. I knew a few myself, so perhaps he was rightfully referring to them.
I could take issue with any number of your minor points in this one, but the first step in solving a problem is actually admitting that there is one. Between Bush and Obama, most Americans now realize that there is a problem. A real, systemic, ingrained problem.
Identifying exactly what that is may be an insurmountable task for the average American.
No, the problems we have won’t be solved at the ballot box, but it’s the only place we have to start. The anger is good, because it exposes our fraudulent system and the “people” that both run it and benefit from it.
“The problem cannot be solved by switching back and forth between two corrupt political parties that put their agendas ahead of the nation’s needs. It’s the system that must be changed and without drastic, history-changing upheaval, nothing will change.”
– Doug Thompson
Well said Doug, and sadly … the truth. You sir, hit the nail on the head.
There are a great many “agendas” which are put before American values and safety.
The MIC, zionist pro-Israeli firsters, oil barons and the list goes on and on.
When I look at the picture of the man with the misspelled sign I am extremely concerned for the future of this nation.
As Carl Nemo points out, the man in the pic should get an effort for the protest, but also hasn’t done his homework. More than likely, the MSM did his homework (and candidate selection) for him (whether he realizes it or not)!
The MSM is a great evil of propaganda complicity, using all of the octopus tentacles it can (TV, talk radio, internet, magazines etc…) to deceive the “well-meaning” but intellectually-lazy US populace.
Carl, it pains me to hear your negative assessment on the current state of this once great nation. I do not say this in an opposing opponent’s view but rather in a “more likely true than not” kind of way.
I agree with a great many of your posts Carl but for all our sakes, I hope this time you’re mistaken.
As I write this Benjamin Franklin’s words “A republic if you can keep it” are constantly going through my mind.
Hi Eve,
I’m not negative simply for being so. I base my assessment on all the datapoints (intel) concerning our national state of affairs gathered to date. My being a seeming “permafrost cassandra” is based on what I and no doubt many other savvy Americans are witnessing; ie., the dissolution and ultimate failure of our Republic all with the facilitation of elected, entrenched crimpols in D.C. and terminally gullible electorate.
Here’s a somewhat humorous, but at the same time “depressing” link concerning younger folks in our nation who are now coming on line to hopefully ‘lead’ us out of the valley of the shadow of national death…NOT! : |
https://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_askamerica/20101025/pl_yblog_askamerica/who-is-the-vice-president-ask-america-stumps-voters …courtesy of Yahoo.com
Carl Nemo **==
With human propaganda ‘receivers’ such as the clown with the sign in the photo, “morons” spelled wrong, says it all. He gets an A for effort in terms of protestng, but obviously an F in terms of seriously educating himself over the years as to the incremental destruction of his nation. It’s too late buddy!
People truly end up getting the government they sorely deserve paraphrasing Jefferson.
*****
“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” …Benjamin Franklin
*****
Carl Nemo **==
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