Don’t Let the 1 Percent and the Corporate Media Divide Us Anymore

A liberal met up with her conservative neighbor and discussed politics. Needless to say, they parted ways disgusted with each other. Here’s what I have to say to both of them.

“We’ve been divided sliced and diced by the major political parties, think tanks of the 1 percent, corporate propaganda machines, and the corporate news media for over thirty-five years. Your experience with your neighbor is the result. Bear in mind that if you think they’re boorish and completely wrong in their positions, that they many think the same about you. Find common ground in your political discussions instead of opposition.

I’ve seen people from the John Birch Society and Black Lives Matter find common ground in opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is heavily backed by the Republican Party and Corporate Democrats like Barack Obama. The TPP is Obama’s baby, but it’s what the Republicans want, because it will redistribute trillions of dollars from the 99 to the 1 percent on a yearly basis. Obama knows this too, and his connections to Wall Street are heavy, which is why he supports it. Hillary Clinton publicly stated her support for the TPP 45 times before Bernie Sanders began his run for the Democratic nomination, even going so far as to call the TPP “the gold standard” of trade agreements. Will the real Hillary please stand up?”

I’ve also talked with conservative Republicans who have voiced sympathy for Black Lives Matter because the police can be quick on the trigger. I’ve met Republicans who agree that Wall Street should be more heavily regulated, and have voiced support for the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall. A decade ago, a Republican Party member was opposed to the US occupation of Iraq. I’ve met a Tea Party member who believes income had become too unequal in favor of the rich, and that international trade agreements are the primary cause of this. Note that person knows the Democrats are a primary force behind these agreements.

I’ve met liberals who are New Deal Democrats and gun owners. I’ve met liberals who were against undocumented immigration, and lower government regulations on home builders. I’ve met liberals who stand together with conservatives in protests against the TPP. I’ve met liberals who are hunters and fishermen and environmentalists.

I’ve met conservatives and liberals who can drive you to frustration because they believe things they want to believe, even if they can’t cite their source of information, or even if they don’t make sense, except to themselves.

That frustration is precisely what the 1 percent and their corporate media want you to feel just to keep us divided. Don’t fall for it. Find common grounds in your political discussions with your neighbors. It’s easy.

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Why All American Citizens Should Support Bernie Sanders for President

A friend on the political right wrote me about my support for Bernie Sanders for US president. My friend had some objections about Senator Sanders positions. So I wrote the response below. I should also like to point out that Bernie is a US senator from Vermont, where large pockets of conservatism flourish, and Republicans are elected to statewide offices. Yet Bernie continues to win election after election, campaigning mainly on bread and butter issues.

Anyway, below is my reason why everybody should vote for Bernie, regardless of their political ideology.

“…the Democratic and Republican Party leaderships, and the big money that controls them, also controls the levers of political power. I am against any candidate supported by the leadership of either major political party. That’s why over the years I’ve been a supporter of such diverse independent minded politicians as Ron Paul, Pat Buchanan, Ralph Nader and Bernie Sanders. Besides, it doesn’t matter what Bernie wants, what matters it what he can achieve as president. If Bernie becomes president, with both houses of congress likely to be controlled by the twin party leadership, Bernie will likely only be able to limit their damage to the middle class in terms of economics.”

With the help of the corporate news media, which can better be described as the corporate propaganda machine, the Democratic and the Republican leadership rip the grassroots of both parties apart and against each other by inventing social issues, while raping the grassroots of both parties financially on behalf their billionaire and millionaire benefactors.

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Fast Track Authority are classic examples of how the leadership of both political parties team together in their financial rape of the 99 percent.The Federal Reserve estimates the TPP will cost four to five million US jobs. The difference between the old higher US wages, and the new lower overseas wages, will go straight into the pockets of the 1 percent via higher corporate profits, dividends and share prices. That money will be stolen straight out of the pockets of working Americans and redistributed into the already fat bank accounts of the 1 percent, much of which will find its way into the pockets and campaigns of the Democratic and Republican party leadership. The local and state tax dollars paid by the jobs losers will no longer support schools, police, fire, road maintenance and much more. In other words, the TPP will rape our schools and other public services.

The TPP will also steal money that should go to the social security trust fund because the rich only pay social security taxes on the first $118,000 of their income. Worse yet, the TPP will force China to manipulate its currency even more than is already the case, costing the US millions more jobs than the Federal Reserve estimates. This manipulation of currency will compel US corporations to ship more jobs overseas because Chinese currency manipulation increases the profits of those who manufacture in China. (See Four Graphs that Will Make You Boiling Mad About the Trans Pacific Partnership–Or Why President Obama, along with executives from Nike, Microsoft, Apple and other US corporations Steadfastly Support China’s Currency Manipulations–JohnHively.wordpress.com).

In other words, the TPP has been negotiated specifically to redistribute income from the 99 to the 1 percent, and since 2009, the 1 percent has stolen 95 percent of all US income growth. Their share of the total national income has risen from 8 percent in 1980, to 21 percent in 2008, to 37 percent in 2015.

The TPP has also been negotiated to undermine US laws and democracy.

Hillary Clinton has stated publicly on 45 occasions that she is for the TPP. All of the Republican candidates are for it. Bernie would veto the TPP if he was president. Ergo, damage to the vast majority of US citizens would be limited.

Here’s something to think about. Opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership brought together unusual allies, such as the John Birch Society, the Tea Party, Black Lives Matter, and the AFL-CIO. We need more, not less, of that kind of cooperation among US citizens. Bernie understands this, and his candidacy is encouraging this. That’s precisely what the leadership of both political parties and their billionaire benefactors don’t want: Americans of all colors and political persuasions united together in opposition to the billionaire class and their complete corruption of the US government for their own ends.

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Why Grassroots Americans are Overcoming the Political Divide, the Dividers, and the Haters

At a recent protest in front of Democratic Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden’s Portland Oregon office, a gentleman from the Tea Party clapped his hands and cheered with the rest of us as the speaker from Black Lives Matter said, “We’ve got to stop President Obama and Senator Wyden from pushing through Fast Track Authority and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.” These two issues embody what’s wrong with our political system and major political parties, and what’s right about them.

What’s right with one of the most corrupt political systems in the world in the USA?

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Fast Track Authority (FTA) have united much of the grassroots of both parties against the leadership of both parties: Tea Party Republicans, right wing Christian groups, anti-abortion groups, National Rifle Association members, and John Birch Society associates are teaming up with progressive Democrats, labor union leaders and members, Sierra Club members, left wing Christian groups, gay rights organizations, and Black Lives Matter to stop Fast Track and the TPP.

Unfortunately, a large segment of the grass roots of both parties are behind the eight ball on these issues, and that’s one of the things that embodies what’s wrong with our political system, and what’s rotten to the core about the Democratic and Republican parties, especially on the national level.

There are the people who remain ignorant of the issues. They vote Democratic or Republican via name recognition and party affiliation mostly, but these people can be educated to understand the political duopoly controlled by Wall Street currently ruling the USA. Unfortunately, there are the political party patriots.

For example, Josh Winter Bookseller lives somewhere in Illinois. He has a Facebook page and enjoys writing that Tea Party members are stupid, are racists, and vote against their interests. Bookseller would never in his right mind be seen hobnobbing with Ben Carson, although a lot of Tea Party members would love to shake Carson’s hand, but Josh doesn’t consider himself racist. Josh also posts news about the evils of right to work for less laws, and the evil that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker embodies.

No doubt Josh is correct about some members of the Tea Party, but those certainly are not the Tea Party people who were cheering on the speaker from Black Lives Matter.

Josh also likes to post things about the evils of only white racism, the great wonderful Democratic Party, the awesomeness of labor unions, and he will never say a bad word about President Obama.

Because of these emotional predilections, or you could say pig-headiness, Josh will not mention on Facebook the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Fast Track, or the fact that labor union leaders are livid over President Obama about the TPP and Fast Track. Josh doesn’t want his Facebook followers to know this stuff. In fact, Josh can’t believe the lies of the right-wing media that Obama would do such a thing via the treaty as;

1. Take away his right to vote on state and local levels when it comes to health, food and safety laws.
2. Ship away hundreds of thousands of jobs, perhaps millions, many of them labor union jobs.
3. Raise the prices of pharmaceutical medicine.
4. And a myriad of other negative things.

In other words, Josh is the mirror image of the stereotypical Tea Party members he rants against on Facebook because he votes and posts against his own interests, making himself look stupid, by his own definition. He’s not only supporting President Obama on the TPP and Fast Track, he’s also siding with arch Republicans such as Wall Street Senators Orrin Hatch and Mitch McConnell. Josh must be confused and can’t figure out life.

Josh is neither a Democrat nor a Republican. He’s a cheerleader, “Go Democrats! Go! Get them Republicans!” Or more simply put, based on his Facebook timeline going back a few years, his attitude is simple; Democrats good, Republican’s bad.

There are plenty of Republicans who have the same attitude; Republicans good, Democrats bad.

Josh insults anybody who tries to entice him to see beyond the false labels of Democrat and Republican, and to write something about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. “You’re stupid,” he’ll tell you.

Republican and Democratic Party? Those labels are meaningless because Wall Street investment banks and other rich businesses and individuals control the leadership and most of the representatives and senators of both parties in Washington D.C., and increasingly so on state and local levels.

Like some Republicans, Mr. Bookseller worships an empty shell of a political party, as well as the leader of that party, even as his team pushes the TPP.

Still, there is hope. Despite Josh and his kind, Americans are coming together as US citizens and in sizeable numbers for the first time since 9-11. I’ve been standing with it all around me at protests against the TPP and Fast Track. Dividers and haters like Josh Bookseller on both sides of the political aisles will always exist, but they will be overcome.

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The Grassroots Rally Against the Trans-Pacific Partnership

About 150 protestors rallied yesterday against the looming Trans-Pacific Partnership, the largest income and political power redistribution scam in US history, which is falsely called an international trade agreement by government plutocrats and corporate hacks. The protestors voiced their disapproval of Fast Track Legislation which might be introduced to congress as early as next week.

Representatives from diverse grass roots organizations converged on the meeting places, which included the Oregon offices of Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden, and Wall Street US House Representatives Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici and Kurt Schrader. Labor organizations, religious groups (First Unitarian Church) and environmental groups (Sierra Club), as well as human rights groups, such as Black Lives Matter, sent representatives.

The fast track negotiating authority for trade agreements is the authority of the President of the United States to negotiate international agreements that Congress can approve or disapprove but cannot amend or filibuster. Debate is also limited. Fast track negotiating authority is a temporary and controversial power granted to the President by Congress. The authority was in effect from 1975 to 1994, pursuant to the Trade Act of 1974, and from 2002 to 2007 by the Trade Act of 2002. Although it expired for new agreements on July 1, 2007, it continued to apply to agreements already under negotiation until they were eventually passed into law in 2011. In 2012, the Obama administration began seeking renewal of the authority.

As for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), we know from leaked documents the TPP is a massive income redistribution scam. The TPP has almost nothing to do with international trade. We know that;

* TPP will give incentives for US corporations to export millions of US jobs. The Federal Reserve estimates that 28 million US jobs were exported between 1990 and 2010.

* TPP will increase US income and wealth inequality. The 1 percent have already taken 95 percent of all income growth in the United States since 2009. Currently, the 1 percent are stealing 36+ percent of all income produced in the USA, compared to only 8 percent in 1980. International trade scams and other federal legislation have brought inequality about. For example, when the above jobs were exported, the difference between the old higher US wages and the new lower wages will go straight into the pockets of the 1 percent via higher corporate profits, rising dividends and surging share prices.

* Those lost jobs will no longer be paying the taxes for our infrastructure, K-12 education, higher education (tuition and fees will go up), social safety nets, schools, fire, police, public transportation, social security taxes, but those lost jobs will push the stock markets higher.

* TPP will effectively eliminate your voting rights on local and state issues since it will unconstitutionally grant investors of the 0.01 percent special privileges to challenge labeling and health and safety local laws and regulations of the 99 percent, which most people call voter suppression, but in this case it should be called voter elimination,

* TPP will offer new monopolies for Big Pharma to raise medicine prices they charge you (which redistributes income from the 99 to the 1 percent),

* TPP will limit food safety standards (which redistributes and transforms your health into the profits of the 1 percent),

* TPP will block financial regulations aimed at preventing the next financial crisis (which will make it easier for Wall Street to redistribute your income and wealth to the 1 percent). Bank of America Stands to Gain From This. The bank will be able to steal more money from you with less regulations, which will increase its profits, dividends and share prices, not to mention CEO bonuses. Bank of America is also spending millions of dollars on lobbyists in support of Fast Track and TPP.

* TPP will destroy millions of jobs in Latin America (230,000 in the textile industry of El Salvador alone) forcing millions of undocumented immigrants into the United States.

Yes, believe it or not, Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden supports this massive income and political power redistribution scam, as well as Fast Track, and corporate plutocrats such as Oregon Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, and Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and Kurt Schrader keep saying they haven’t made up their minds. What a corporate plutocrat shocker!

* The result of the above will be to depress wages in both North and South America, all to the benefit of the 1 percent, and all at the expense of the 99 percent.

* And we can’t forget that TPP will increase the already massive US trade deficit with other nations, which is supposed to be a bad thing. The exported jobs will be producing goods overseas rather than here, and then US corporations will export their products from China and Vietnam into the United States, exacerbating the current trade deficit.

In other words, the TPP has almost nothing to do with trade. It’s about taking away your money, your voting rights, and giving them to the 1 percent.

TPP, in other words, is designed to put more of your money in the hands of the 1 percent, and this money will be used to corrupt government even more while impoverishing you, and redistributing your future and the future of your children to the 1 percent.

You can rest assured, if Fast Track passes, and the TPP passes with it, profits, as well as the tax rebates Bank of America receives, will become greater, and at your expense.

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