So lets start at the begining. What the hell do you people want?

[nadinbrzezinski]

Yeah we have the group that sees the world through the corporations want to control the world, and they do... but still... we also saw some dramatic changes today.... in other places, see IMF and Haiti and canceling debt.

Then we have a group that sees nuthing wrong with the system as long as WE control it... whatever that means. Sport analogies to come forth shortly.

Of course these are the two major cliques round here. But... WHAT THE HELL DO YOU PEOPLE WANT TO DO? HOW DO YOU PLAN TO RESIST?

I have already reduced consumption and shop at my local market, and try to shop local and buy local. Hey a little here or there. And have considered more than once just turning my TV off... but analyzing agenda driven journalism is kind of fun. Soon it will become propaganda of gag inducing quality... but that is another story... oh wait, it already has.

What about you?

I know I'd love to cancel my credit cards but it's been ensured I need one... But there are things you need to do. First things first... MISSION STATEMENTS.

Second, education.

Third, waking people up.

Fourth: Action, and I am of the Gandhi school ok. Seen enough blood and violence in my life.

So WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT? This first thing, and until you get a damn mission statement we are well, spinning our wheels.

Me, I think we are getting close to that point some of us have been warning you about... retreating from this space, keeping a diary and a history... for future generations. Some of us would like to like be witnesses to history.

By the way, one person here asked, if this decision was Ft. Sumpter? Perhaps... as in one of the causes... but only time will tell.

[eleny]

1. Starving the beast is a start

And there are a lot of drops in that ocean.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Again I want a mission statement

until then we are just spinning wheels.

[eleny]

8. At this time of night when I'm getting ready for bed, this is all you'll get from me

Mission statement after 10 P.M. - indeed.

You could at least thank me for the thread kick. :rofl:

G'night.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Good night but you know what I am asking

[notesdev]

2. I want

my government to see me as something other than an economic unit to be exploited on behalf of wealthy interests.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. THere is one, so how do get from where we are to where

we need to be?

that said, on the down side, all members of a society ARE political units.

[frazzled]

5. I want people to stop freaking out and hyperbolizing everything

In the meantime, I do shop locally (as much as possible); I haven't watched the "agenda-driven journalism" for the last several months. Instead of reading all the doom-and-gloom prognosticating on the Internet, I went to the Symphony tonight (Pierre Boulez conducting), and got far away from all of it all--though I did think: damn, I miss the 20th century (the program was Boulez, Bartok, Stravinsky). I'm reading a book about the Dreyfus affair. I made some lavender honey madeleines yesterday, and I played some solitaire on my computer. And I finished a little work on a crappy writing project that I really don't want to be doing but I need the money.

But really folks ... everybody is spazzing out worse than when Bush was president the last 8 years. Honestly, some twerp who posed naked and doesn't know shit from shinola won and gave the Republicans a 41 seat minority. Every interest group, from left to right, predicts mayhem and blood in the streets every time a provision they don't like is put forth. The Supreme Court thing is bad, but it ain't quite over: there's a lot of ways Congress can pass laws to stem the effects of this.

We've lived through worse, honestly. If everybody would just calm down and stop predicting the apocalypse every five minutes, we might actually be able to get something done.

In the meantime, I think I'll go zone out by playing another game of solitaire. Wish me luck.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Good luck with solitaire but this is that serious

this is the moment that determines whether we remain a democracy or become an Erzats democracy... and we are very close to the latter.

[frazzled]

14. You can start by urging your legislators to pass a disclosure law.

In the opinion today, "Eight of the justices did agree that Congress can require corporations to disclose their spending and to run disclaimers with their advertisements, at least in the absence of proof of threats or reprisals."

So there's a start. Require the corporations to disclose their spending on political advertising. That will be a start to stanching the ill effects of this, because corporation want to do this surreptitiously, under front groups. Make it impossible for them to hide. At least when people know that Bank of America funded the advertising attacking a candidate who supports regulating the size, capitalization, and activities of banks ... we'll have the devils out in the open.

There are a number of other legislative solutions that various senators have already brought up. This ain't over.

You see, I do read the news. I just don't listen to the advocacy journalism anymore.

What I was trying to say is that if you freak out, you can't make sensible choices about how to proceed in reversing big setbacks like this. This is what happened to health care reform: the grandstanding on provisions was so over-the-top that we have the entire idea of universal access on the chopping block now. Which, of course, is a great big fat present to the .... health insurance industry. Congratulations.

I mentioned playing solitaire because I think the most important thing is for people to step back and find a way to cleanse and calm their minds. Because if you don't step back, you can't move forward. You just get paralyzed.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. I did not freak out

I just asked what is it that people want to do?

You know very well that people DO NOT do more than just spin wheels. I am on a first name basis with the staffers. Hell gotten to the point that I even considered sending them a Christmas card for the grief I cause them.

So I just brought it to basics, what is it that people want?

[jtuck004]

6. 4 things please (we are under brainstorming rules, right?)

1 - The end of allowing business entities such as corporations the rights of the individual. Those should be reserved to real people, or at least to non-profit making organizations that represent flesh and blood people.

2 - Work for everyone. Profit making jobs if possible

3 - Liberal Education, at no cost to individuals.

4 - At least primary health care for everyone in the country. And that includes people who are visiting us without government permission.

Thanks for starting this.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. I am actually thinking of a single sentence as a mission statement

I'll add mine in a second

[Octafish]

7. There's ALWAYS a way, Nadinitsita.

That's how Jeeves approached it and that's how must we who want to control our own destinies.



We can't limit ourselves to two scenarios or future possibilities.
You mentioned jubilee, education, awareness, action.
All those are possible and things that we must do if we want to move forward as a nation.

We must find our own way, as in Borges' "Garden of Forking Paths."
If we want to, we can find cures for what ails our planet, people and souls.
The great DUer Opihimoimoi has talked of building floating cities, self-contained tropical utopias.
Of course building stuff that solves the world's problems costs money.
They know, government is the only organization that can tackle these problems.
So, those who have it, control those who can ask for it, our beloved Uncle Sam.

Harvey Wasserman says it will be the grass roots' doing. Each of us plays a part.
Apart from children, each of us is master of his or her own destiny -- or would be if we were free.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. My mission statement

To preserve the Republic that was bequeathed to us, by reforming it for the 21st century, with freedom and liberty for people.

(All else follows from this actually, needs such as education, emphasis on a liberal broad education etcetera, are a requirement of of that republic)

[hfojvt]

13. except that seems vague and redundant

freedom and liberty? and what does it mean to preserve the Republic?

I would perhaps, off the top of my head, characterize my goals as 'less'.

I want a society with
less greed
less waste
less haste
less hatred
less cruelty
less injustice
less poverty
less stupidity
less ignorance
and
less sports

Some of that is vague and redundant too.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Well a nation of hte people, you know the rest

means a nation with a different set of morals, and we need to get away from consumerism... which means less sports, more readying, and more work in the public square.

We need a change that is deep, and moving away from number one and the ME to the WE.

Of course I am looking at what could have been...