Slashing Medicaid is this CR bill’s main focus. Medicaid is only available if your income is virtually nil, i.e., your prove that you are very poor. Republicans have not heard Blessed are the poor. We are responsible for these people. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/the-25-trillion-annual-deficit-plan?r=3m1bs
Liberté, égalité, fraternité words engraved on the guillotine, and chanted from the throngs of angry people before the uber wealthy sciolist met their fate… we could only be so lucky Michele!!
Certainly not advocating for any violence (I don't think you are, either) but I'm hopeful that the public reaction to this bill and its fallout will usher in a new era where the needs of the many outweigh the desires of the few. A girl can dream. 💙
Violence is an integral part of politics and always has been. The confusion is a contemporary phenomenon created by the ruling class to convince people that peace above all considerations is the most important consideration in any political process. This has never been true, but it is how the ruling class manipulates the working class to bear the most unbearable things.
What has happened is that today, we ignore the violence of the pen and only focus on the violence of the public. This is the currency of mass media to convince the public to acquiesce to the most egregious infringement of human rights (a form of violence) in the name of peace.
Here are some historical pithy quotes to buttress my assertion.
As Thomas Jefferson once said that "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
There is the famous quote by Mark Twain, who had the talent of getting to the heart of a matter. "When the rich rob the poor, it's called business. When the poor fight back, it's called violence."
Which kills more people across the planet, the pen or the sword? Of course the pen because it legitimizes violence against those that the state deems against its agenda that many times has very little to do with the best interests of the public.
America is the most violent nature on earth, both domestically and in foreign policy and has been for many decades.
"The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things." - John Stuart Mill
Since we are in the midst of fascism, this is from George Orwell's 1942 essay "Pacifism and the War", Orwell wrote:
"Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me'."
This is the evils of extremism because it forces a dichotomy upon society in order to prevail against tyranny. That doesn't mean that people have no choice, you always have a choice. To be peacefully resistant and still be effective, you have to be creative and intimately understand the weak points of what you are fighting.
In the case of fascism, the peaceful solution has always been unions because fascism must have enormous capital reserves and enormous cash flow. Corruption is very expensive and if the accumulation and consolidation of capital is stopped, fascism typically implodes from within. The consolidation of capital continually since the 1970's is why we are in the present situation.
Instead of paying wages, firms have hoarded the excess capital to engage in stock buy backs and corrupting the political process so thoroughly that the public has been disenfranchised. The revolution should have happened with the 2010 SCOTUS decision in Citizens United vs FEC. That was the nail in the coffin of democracy because it made corporate dollars free speech, dollars are now simply political expression, so the legislatures were flooded with special interest money.
To seal the deal of an ineffective democracy, SCOTUS rendered its 2019 decision in Russo vs Common Cause, which made gerrymandering of state voting districts the right of the winning party.
These are just two out of literally hundreds of bits of legislation that have brought us to this point. SCOTUS is the bedrock of fascism today. That statement is believable only if you know the case law that has brought us to where we are. That case law began way back in 1886.
We’re at a point where violence is being doled out on “we the serfs”, although neither of us support violence! It appears likely, there will be some strong resistance to the Billionaire class and their GOP allies if this bill is passed, if history has taught us anything!!
Inspiring. We need some drums at the next No Kings Rally. I have to figure out how to rig my djembe for carrying. Or maybe I'll just bang a spoon on a fry pan. At any rate, this reminded me of the 'mujers' who donned white head scarves and stood on the steps of the government juntas in Argentina and Chile, screaming into the faces of armed guards at times, demanding, "Where are they?" about their children, husbands, fathers and brothers and sisters and mothers who had been 'Disappeared' as many of us now are. Time for a general strike, major boycotts, nonviolent but noisy and definitive action in the streets.
Agree, Leigh – it's well past time for a general strike. And I quite like the idea of pots and pans. The image of thousands of women marching to Versailles with kitchen knives and household implements is a stark one. And there's something poetic about women making noise with the very items that often keep us quiet and busy. 💙
Indeed we do, Hans. I'm so angry that we are in this place, but grateful at least for the clarity of purpose. And of course, as always, for the company. Solidarity, friend. 💙
I enjoyed reading your article about this pivotal moment in history. I just wanted to add a bit of context. The social upheaval in Europe was initially caused by the arrival of capitalism sometime around 1550 and by 1700 was in full swing. The problem was that wage capitalism had not taken off until the late 1700's so there were perhaps hundreds of thousands that were separated from the land that had no way of earning a wage.
They were displaced and if you could not find a way to earn a wage, you were part of the poorhouses, workhouses, orphanages, insane asylums, prisons and streets. During this time, London became known as the hanging city because the roads leading to and from London were lined with gallows for miles because the offenses for stealing, and all manner of things you can think of were very harsh. Peasants literally had no rights when separated from land, so they were easy targets to be taken advantage of and brutalized.
Again, this created a very bad situation for the peasant class. When the land was enclosed and sold, the people that were thrown off the land literally had no rights whatsoever. The justice system had no provisions for people that did not belong to an "owner" as chattel, it was a very difficult time for people.
It was in this environment that the bad luck of weather, bad planning of storing food etc., created famine all across Europe but most famously France. The notion that men did not participate or were reluctant or were in any way a lesser factor than women in the French Revolution is not born out by facts. It is however very romantic and very French.
That said, who participated and how was not a homogenous affair across all of France, so it is entirely possible that in the instance you refer to, it was women who led the fight. This would not be an unusual thing in the history of the fight for human rights because women were quite often at the forefront of conflict. I say this because I do not want to give the impression that I am in any way casting shade on anyone.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s "Confessions" is where he mentions that a young princess said, "let them eat cake" and it was written in the 1760s but published posthumously in 1782. Marie Antoinette was born on November 2, 1755, so in 1760 she was 4 or 5 years old and was living in Austria, not France at that time. Jean-Jacques took the excesses and largess of the Royalty to create a metaphor that would portray the callous attitude the ruling class had towards the plight of the peasant. Clearly, this was very effective because we still recognize, to this day, what Rousseau meant.
To add a bit more, sometime in the late 1600's (I can't remember off the top of my head) a company was formed with the name of The Virginia Company. This firm approached the British parliament with a proposal that would rid the streets of the white trash that was everywhere (that is what they were called and where the term originated), expand the British Empire and reap a return on the Kings gold if parliament and the King agreed to an investment proposal. This was classical mercantilism, which was the economic system in place before and during the transition to capitalism.
The crown would clean the streets, the poorhouses, the orphanages, the workhouses, the asylums and all the street urchins and The Virginia Co ship them off to the New World to expand the empire and enrich the coffers with gold. So many problems all solved at once, it was a brilliant idea. This is how my family arrived in the colonies, sometime around 1740.
The conditions on the ship were horrific and many died in the crossing and their bodies were thrown overboard. People were piled on top of one another in the ship's hold which was wet, dark, filled with rats and human refuse.
For years, everyone who landed in Jamestown, died the very first winter of exposure and starvation. It was only when a shipment of 700 children died the first winter that King George heard that something was amiss and realized that he had not received any return on his investment. It was then that King George took over the operation and improved the conditions of those that were in fact fleeing a very bad situation.
This experience of early American's with the Virginia Company and the infamous stories of the East India Trading Co. which was granted a charter in 1600, shaped the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Early American's were terrified of corporations, and the laws of the land in 1776 were very different from today. Corporations originally had very little power and were completely subservient to the public agenda. Things have changed greatly.
Here’s a link to the MET painting showing the women leaving the village. Wonderful story and an inspiration. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/699652.
Thank you!
Slashing Medicaid is this CR bill’s main focus. Medicaid is only available if your income is virtually nil, i.e., your prove that you are very poor. Republicans have not heard Blessed are the poor. We are responsible for these people. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/the-25-trillion-annual-deficit-plan?r=3m1bs
Liberté, égalité, fraternité words engraved on the guillotine, and chanted from the throngs of angry people before the uber wealthy sciolist met their fate… we could only be so lucky Michele!!
Certainly not advocating for any violence (I don't think you are, either) but I'm hopeful that the public reaction to this bill and its fallout will usher in a new era where the needs of the many outweigh the desires of the few. A girl can dream. 💙
Violence is an integral part of politics and always has been. The confusion is a contemporary phenomenon created by the ruling class to convince people that peace above all considerations is the most important consideration in any political process. This has never been true, but it is how the ruling class manipulates the working class to bear the most unbearable things.
What has happened is that today, we ignore the violence of the pen and only focus on the violence of the public. This is the currency of mass media to convince the public to acquiesce to the most egregious infringement of human rights (a form of violence) in the name of peace.
Here are some historical pithy quotes to buttress my assertion.
As Thomas Jefferson once said that "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
There is the famous quote by Mark Twain, who had the talent of getting to the heart of a matter. "When the rich rob the poor, it's called business. When the poor fight back, it's called violence."
Which kills more people across the planet, the pen or the sword? Of course the pen because it legitimizes violence against those that the state deems against its agenda that many times has very little to do with the best interests of the public.
America is the most violent nature on earth, both domestically and in foreign policy and has been for many decades.
"The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things." - John Stuart Mill
Since we are in the midst of fascism, this is from George Orwell's 1942 essay "Pacifism and the War", Orwell wrote:
"Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me'."
This is the evils of extremism because it forces a dichotomy upon society in order to prevail against tyranny. That doesn't mean that people have no choice, you always have a choice. To be peacefully resistant and still be effective, you have to be creative and intimately understand the weak points of what you are fighting.
In the case of fascism, the peaceful solution has always been unions because fascism must have enormous capital reserves and enormous cash flow. Corruption is very expensive and if the accumulation and consolidation of capital is stopped, fascism typically implodes from within. The consolidation of capital continually since the 1970's is why we are in the present situation.
Instead of paying wages, firms have hoarded the excess capital to engage in stock buy backs and corrupting the political process so thoroughly that the public has been disenfranchised. The revolution should have happened with the 2010 SCOTUS decision in Citizens United vs FEC. That was the nail in the coffin of democracy because it made corporate dollars free speech, dollars are now simply political expression, so the legislatures were flooded with special interest money.
To seal the deal of an ineffective democracy, SCOTUS rendered its 2019 decision in Russo vs Common Cause, which made gerrymandering of state voting districts the right of the winning party.
These are just two out of literally hundreds of bits of legislation that have brought us to this point. SCOTUS is the bedrock of fascism today. That statement is believable only if you know the case law that has brought us to where we are. That case law began way back in 1886.
We’re at a point where violence is being doled out on “we the serfs”, although neither of us support violence! It appears likely, there will be some strong resistance to the Billionaire class and their GOP allies if this bill is passed, if history has taught us anything!!
Inspiring. We need some drums at the next No Kings Rally. I have to figure out how to rig my djembe for carrying. Or maybe I'll just bang a spoon on a fry pan. At any rate, this reminded me of the 'mujers' who donned white head scarves and stood on the steps of the government juntas in Argentina and Chile, screaming into the faces of armed guards at times, demanding, "Where are they?" about their children, husbands, fathers and brothers and sisters and mothers who had been 'Disappeared' as many of us now are. Time for a general strike, major boycotts, nonviolent but noisy and definitive action in the streets.
Agree, Leigh – it's well past time for a general strike. And I quite like the idea of pots and pans. The image of thousands of women marching to Versailles with kitchen knives and household implements is a stark one. And there's something poetic about women making noise with the very items that often keep us quiet and busy. 💙
In the absolute best sense of poetry. Thanks.
I don’t understand why the uber wealthy think that the French Revolution can’t happen again.
We need a drumbeat now, and possibly for quite a while ahead. Thanks for the reminder of our shared power in a time of cruelty toward the vulnerable.
Indeed we do, Hans. I'm so angry that we are in this place, but grateful at least for the clarity of purpose. And of course, as always, for the company. Solidarity, friend. 💙
I enjoyed reading your article about this pivotal moment in history. I just wanted to add a bit of context. The social upheaval in Europe was initially caused by the arrival of capitalism sometime around 1550 and by 1700 was in full swing. The problem was that wage capitalism had not taken off until the late 1700's so there were perhaps hundreds of thousands that were separated from the land that had no way of earning a wage.
They were displaced and if you could not find a way to earn a wage, you were part of the poorhouses, workhouses, orphanages, insane asylums, prisons and streets. During this time, London became known as the hanging city because the roads leading to and from London were lined with gallows for miles because the offenses for stealing, and all manner of things you can think of were very harsh. Peasants literally had no rights when separated from land, so they were easy targets to be taken advantage of and brutalized.
Again, this created a very bad situation for the peasant class. When the land was enclosed and sold, the people that were thrown off the land literally had no rights whatsoever. The justice system had no provisions for people that did not belong to an "owner" as chattel, it was a very difficult time for people.
It was in this environment that the bad luck of weather, bad planning of storing food etc., created famine all across Europe but most famously France. The notion that men did not participate or were reluctant or were in any way a lesser factor than women in the French Revolution is not born out by facts. It is however very romantic and very French.
That said, who participated and how was not a homogenous affair across all of France, so it is entirely possible that in the instance you refer to, it was women who led the fight. This would not be an unusual thing in the history of the fight for human rights because women were quite often at the forefront of conflict. I say this because I do not want to give the impression that I am in any way casting shade on anyone.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s "Confessions" is where he mentions that a young princess said, "let them eat cake" and it was written in the 1760s but published posthumously in 1782. Marie Antoinette was born on November 2, 1755, so in 1760 she was 4 or 5 years old and was living in Austria, not France at that time. Jean-Jacques took the excesses and largess of the Royalty to create a metaphor that would portray the callous attitude the ruling class had towards the plight of the peasant. Clearly, this was very effective because we still recognize, to this day, what Rousseau meant.
To add a bit more, sometime in the late 1600's (I can't remember off the top of my head) a company was formed with the name of The Virginia Company. This firm approached the British parliament with a proposal that would rid the streets of the white trash that was everywhere (that is what they were called and where the term originated), expand the British Empire and reap a return on the Kings gold if parliament and the King agreed to an investment proposal. This was classical mercantilism, which was the economic system in place before and during the transition to capitalism.
The crown would clean the streets, the poorhouses, the orphanages, the workhouses, the asylums and all the street urchins and The Virginia Co ship them off to the New World to expand the empire and enrich the coffers with gold. So many problems all solved at once, it was a brilliant idea. This is how my family arrived in the colonies, sometime around 1740.
The conditions on the ship were horrific and many died in the crossing and their bodies were thrown overboard. People were piled on top of one another in the ship's hold which was wet, dark, filled with rats and human refuse.
For years, everyone who landed in Jamestown, died the very first winter of exposure and starvation. It was only when a shipment of 700 children died the first winter that King George heard that something was amiss and realized that he had not received any return on his investment. It was then that King George took over the operation and improved the conditions of those that were in fact fleeing a very bad situation.
This experience of early American's with the Virginia Company and the infamous stories of the East India Trading Co. which was granted a charter in 1600, shaped the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Early American's were terrified of corporations, and the laws of the land in 1776 were very different from today. Corporations originally had very little power and were completely subservient to the public agenda. Things have changed greatly.