The Political Thread

[Modern Panther]

Whilst our political betters squabble over devolving power in a way that doesn't inconvenience those in charge, ordinary people try to make the world a slightly better place by providing food for their hungry neighbours:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-29307940

[Proudhuff]

and the YES parties membership rises:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-29311147

and rumours abound of the LP gaining a massive 37 members over the last few months.

[Frank]

A Telegraph columnist asks why we aren't rising up in armed revolt against our economic and political masters:

My current fury is occasioned the Phones4U scandal (and it really is a scandal). Phones4U was bought by the private equity house, BC Partners, in 2011 for £200m. BC then borrowed £205m and, having saddled the company with vast amounts of debt, paid themselves a dividend of £223m. Crippled by debt, the company has now collapsed into administration.

The people who crippled it have walked away with nearly £20m million, while 5,600 people face losing their jobs. The taxman may also be stiffed on £90m in unpaid VAT and PAYE. Instead of shrugging and saying, "This is the world we live in" you should be on the streets, you should be calling for this sort of thing to be a jailable offence, and you should want to see these guys up in front of parliament (or, better yet, in stocks) explaining why they made around £3,500 for every person they put out of a job.

It's just another example of people who build and make nothing gutting businesses, privatising the profits and socialising the losses. Slowly, it makes us all poorer. All these guys care about is money. They don't care about society. They certainly don't care about jobs and they don't care about you.

OK, you might say, but this has always been going on. But it hasn't. This sort of utterly amoral screw-everyone capitalism has become much more prevalent in the last 15 years. Our financial elite is now totally out of control. They learned nothing from the crisis, except that the rest of us were stupid enough to give them a second chance. And, now, having plucked all the "low hanging fruit," they're destroying the middle classes for profit.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11109845/Why-arent-the-British-middle-classes-staging-a-revolution.html

[Dog Deever]

Good article on the campaign, Sauchie.
Certainly didn't feel empowering- quite the reverse. They will give us nothing and when Boris comes, he will screw us for even more, and the rUK too. We've been here before.

[The Legendary Shark]

He's right but open revolution won't work - it rarely does when the opposition has all the firepower.
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The most important thing is to understand the above problem and spread the word. I think Babylon 5 said it best, "he knows he can't fight his way out, he has to understand his way out" or something.
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Anyway: Politicians/Celebrities = Vorlons.  Bankers/Corporatists = Shadows. The dumb schmucks caught in the crossfire = us.

[Dog Deever]

He's right but open revolution won't work - it rarely does when the opposition has all the firepower.

The state would happily gun us down in the blink of an eye at the merest hint of insurrection- take a look on you tube at the ruthless brutality of militarised US cops. Unemployment down, housing problems eased, introductions of even more controls. It's only when the armies (funded discreetly by foreign powers with corporate interests) join in revolt that the state is defeated, even then- it could go either way and its just a shitload of misery that no-one wants. Then some other bastards take over and it all begins again.

They who have the cash, call the shots- that's how kings came into being through paid warbands, how kings lost power to businessmen and the church with  more money than them and now businessmen have lost out to the big corporations, who now call the shots on governments through economic pressure and the fact that the governments are all in hock to them. History just repeats and repeats- utterly shambolic.

[TordelBack]

Anyway: Politicians/Celebrities = Vorlons.  Bankers/Corporatists = Shadows. The dumb schmucks caught in the crossfire = us.

So you're saying a surprise nuking might be just the ticket? 

[The Legendary Shark]

Figuratively speaking - a surprise nuking might be a very good idea.

[TordelBack]

Figuratively speaking - a surprise nuking might be a very good idea.

"If you go to Bil'Der'Berg, you will die".

[The Legendary Shark]

Heh, I'm stealing that!
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The kind of figurative nukes I had in mind were rolling strikes, applications and boycotts. For example: Monday - potato farmers strike, apply for a passport, boycott Tesco. Tuesday - toll booth workers strike, apply for driving license, boycott BP. Wednesday - taxi drivers strike, apply for a fishing license, boycott MacDonalds and so on.
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When applying for stuff, don't enclose a cheque or photo - be deliberately awkward.
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This way, everyone can do their bit separate from but in concert with everyone else, nullifying the dangers of organised demonstrations and mobs. The enemy is concerned only with money and control, so that's where we must attack. People need not be attacked or even shouted at in this form of peaceful rebellion. We have the power, not them.
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Organise it right and we can eventually tell these elite muppets to get the Hell out of our galaxy - we don't need their "help" any more.
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We live for them gone, we die for them gone.

[The Legendary Shark]

It's 5:15am and I'm watching BBC News 24. The anchor is interviewing John Garmendi, a US congressman, over the 'phone about his country's continued "Bomb Your Way to Peace" strategy in Syria.
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Playing over this interview are "library pictures" - clips of rockets being launched from warships in the night, jet fighters screaming off carriers, radar screens, computer readouts and, I shit you not, the American flag fluttering in the rocket's glare. It looks like a US armed forces recruitment ad or a trailer for a new Steven Segal film.
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I wonder how appropriate these kinds of images are on a news channel. I understand that current wisdom indicates that you have to keep audiences interested but I worry that such blatant bias, but so subtly done, harms our perceptions. To be impartial, should not these "library pictures" also show the aftermath of this glorious attack, the ruined communities and broken people?
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By sensationalising these attacks there is a danger that the BBC, and all of us in the world's eyes, appear to condone and/or support them.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

We tried revolution and it was a disaster. I for one am not keen to have another Lord Protector.

Democracy is the only way forward. IMHO, a devolved English parliament would be the most democratic solution to the current constitutional crisis. Boris could be English FM, and Ed the UK PM.

Or possibly we could elect somebody good instead.

[Proudhuff]

as the Genie says; its the Golden Rule, you know the golden rule? he who has the gold makes the rules. 

[TordelBack]

To be impartial, should not these "library pictures" also show the aftermath of this glorious attack, the ruined communities and broken people?

If I was to make one request of news media it would be this. 

It's the single greatest element of national (corporate) bias in reporting, where we see with horror every tragic second of (say) 9/11, but then when it's the other side's turn to bowl we are shown what are the effective equivalent of Al Qaeda fanatics gleefully piloting airliners across the blue skies accompanied by bombastic music, and marvel at their bravery and audacity in bringing God's justice to the benighted of a faraway land.  If 24-hour news gave us the human results of each drone strike anc aerial/missile bombardment with the same enthusiasm it gives us milporn, we'd think, and vote, very differently about the things done in our name.  I understand the impulse of government to present a one-sided view of conflict in their attempt to keep support and manpower flowing, but I despair at mainstream media's eagerness to play along.

[The Legendary Shark]

Word.