To many, Joe Biden represents the feelings of normality and reconciliation. Many Americans seem to like this mix of nostalgia and reconciliation, a kind of tranquilizer-patriotism. Whoever listens to Biden will hear vague promises, conjurations and Obama anecdotes. But Biden is only doing what Hillary Clinton tried unsuccessfully to do: positioning himself between leftists and right-wing Republicans.
Translator Marc’s note: Oct 22
Biden must surely drop out. He was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, a nonstop cheerleader for the Iraq War back in 1988. He kept warning of Saddam’s weaponsof mass destruction and they never appeared! Delaware (and NJ) are tax havens according to my research. There’s a building at 1208 Orange Ave in Wilmington with 10,000 mailbox firms. Obama even mentioned that. Then there’s the disastrous Crime Bill with the three strikes you’re out in the Clinton time. Uncle Joe is also called Creepy or Folksy Joe. Try researching that on Google! Couldn’t a moment of remorse or honesty break into folksy Joe’s life?
Bernie wins in a landslide with Elizabeth, Tulsi or Stephen Colbert as VP! Colbert could be the new face and his spirit and humor could surely shame the Twitterer or “Embarrassment-in-chief”. The self-styled “Chosen One” is now a bundle of profanity. That’s what happens when impeachment meets the thin-skinned pathological narcissist and pathological paranoid! Tulsi will get great support after being called a “Russian agent” by Hillary. But would people know that? The corporate media and the way they reduce the campaign to a horse race is just our reality.
Justin Trudeau leads a minority government- after yesterday’s narrow victory!. If he hadn’t conceded on the terrible pipe line, the conservative Sheer would probably head the minority government.
The future is the social state and the poor need a strong state. The state’s public function includes fighting poverty, market failures and market distortions (tax havens, micro-second trading, insider trading and stock buybacks). Bernie speaks of how the richest three men have more wealth than half of the population. Jeff Bezos makes $235 million a day, a half-million a minute and Amazon pays no tax on $12 billion in profit. Bezos makes more in 12 seconds than five or six Amazon workers in a whole year!
Taxation pays for schools roads, hospitals, community centers, water quality, food safety and airwaves. Life goes donwhill when only six corporations own 1500 broadcast stations, 1500 newspapers, 700 publishers etc. We need a political and fiscal revolution from top to bottom and not from bottom to top. The young should have more job choices than the Amazon assembly line or driving Uber cars!
Marc’s note Oct 23
The way forward is opposition!
Unlike a chair, an idea can be shared by a whole people!
What are the arguments against a 4-day work week?
If we knew how to use resources, ten hours a week would be enough!
Rejoice, post-materialists!
Elizabeth, Tulsi or Stephen Colbert would be super VP candidates for Bernie! Why can’t we all rejoice over his speedy recovery? Can’t we let corporations and the rich pay their fair share and not shift their profits to tax havens like Switzerland, Cayman Islands, Delaware and Lichtenstein?
New thinking and new priorities for the era of Nebechednezzar!
Opposition
or contradiction is the way forward! With Bernie, we will have a labor
policy, a social security policy, a housing policy, an environmental
policy, a peaceable foreign policy, an education policy, a health care
policy, a science and technology policy and a technology assessment
policy!
Unlike a chair, an idea can be shared by a whole people! The future could be open and dynamic and not closed and static!
Translator Marc’s note Oct 24
Time for new ideas, for an active and social state, not an activating and punishing state!
The US could lead the way to a more human future with the 4-day work week, the “Happy Revolution,” a Marshall Plan for Journalism, Education and Research, exchanging roles, future-friendly economics, massive redistribution and post-material qualitative growth!
When Trump returns free school lunches for the one million children, we can negotiate and compromise. Until then, we face Nebachednezzar or Hitler who fills every day with insults and threats, fear mongering, scapegoating, tax fraud, and growing cynicism.
Outwardly we fall apart but inwardly we are renewed. There’s no renerwal when the poor, children, disabled and students are attacked. The Repubs should fade away or face the music for their insider trading, stock buybacks, tax havens and micro-second trading!.
The country needs a progressive revolution after 40 years of corporate rule, tax favors and the enrichment of the top 1%
Why not make Stephen Colbert President and Bernie, Elizabeth or Tulsi the VP choice?
more at www.citizen.org, www.freembtranslations.net, www.academia.edu, www.openculture.com, www.therealnews.com, and www.onthecommons.org
The Greening of the New Deal – The Great Depression and the Climate Crisis, New Deals Then and Now
by Steven Kramer
https://portside.org/2019-10-24/greening-new-deal-great-depression-and-climate-crisis-new-deals-then-and-now
Of the two New Deals — the one from the 1930s and today’s Green one — only the first was treated in its time as a response to the economic equivalent of a category five hurricane.
Within months of his death, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR, would launch a “New Deal,” a wide-ranging set of programs to promote economic recovery that would recreate the American political universe. From that moment to this one, it has served as ground zero for the country’s political imagination, the Rosetta Stone for understanding every enduring political development of the last 75 years.
President Harry Truman’s “Fair Deal” (including proposals for universal health insurance and federal aid to education) and Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” were conceived as elaborations and extensions of what the New Deal had wrought in the 1930s. “Neo-liberalism” and the “new conservatism” were invented to undo what their creators considered its damage.
Today, the “Green New Deal” — a 10-year plan introduced by New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey to transition to 100% renewable energy, while embarking on major social reforms — marks the far horizon of the left-liberal imagination. For those opposed to it, the Green New Deal, like the original one, is already considered little but camouflage for a program to introduce socialism to America.
Like its predecessor, it arrives on the scene at a fateful moment. There is no way to exaggerate the gravity of the Great Depression in its time or the looming prospect of climate catastrophe in ours. The question is: Could the Green New Deal do what the first one did to stave off the worst — or even do more? In this case, facing the reality of a fast-heating planet in a country whose president is Donald J. Trump, looking back is a way of looking forward.
The Greening of the New Deal – The Great Depression and the Climate Crisis, New Deals Then and Now
Steve Fraser
October 17, 2019
Tom Dispatch
https://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176617/tomgram%3A_steve_fraser%2C_existential_threat_versus_existential_crisis/
Of the two New Deals — the one from the 1930s and today’s Green one — only the first was treated in its time as a response to the economic equivalent of a category five hurricane.
Steve Fraser, Existential Threat Verrsus Existential Crisis – The Great New Deal and the Green New Deal, Oct 17, 2019
https://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176617/tomgram%3A_steve_fraser%2C_existential_threat_versus_existential_crisis/print
and Twisted Tunes by Bob Rivers
https://bobrivers.com/where-have-all-the-weapons-gone/
Music can soothe and revitalize!
Ministry – Victims of a Clown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1iBiqnAbcc
The Merry Thoughts – Second Generation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dctNYYwtlc
Killing Joke – Eighties
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1U1Ue_5kq8
Bob Rivers – Chipmunks roasting in the open air
https://youtu.be/3xj-jGAJgZY?t=4
Twisted Tunes
Bob Rivers Radio
Twisted Christmas
1. The Twelve Pains of Christmas 3:37
2. The Chimney Song 2:06
3. We Wish You Weren’t Living With Us 0:46
4. Wreck the Malls 2:02
5. A Visit From St. Nicholson 4:30
6. O Come All Ye Grateful Deadheads 1:24
7. I’m Dressin’ Up Like Santa (When I Get Out on Parole) 3:08
8. The Restroom Door Said, “Gentlemen”
9. Foreigners 2:09
10. Joy to the World 1:23
11. A Message From The King
Walkin’ ‘Round in Women’s Underwear (Winter Wonderland)
12. Jingle Hells Bells
13. He’s So Jolly Parody of “Hello, Dolly!”, as performed by Louis Armstrong
14. There’s Another Santa Claus Parody of “Here Comes Santa Claus,” performed by “Gene Autry”
15. 12 Days Of Layoffs Parody of Twelve Days Of Christmas
16. White Trash Christmas Parody of “White Christmas”
17. Twisted Chipmunk Song, The Parody of “The Chipmunk Song” as performed by Alvin and the Chipmunks, featuring David Seville
18. Seasick Asian Man
https://bobrivers.com/seasick-asian-man/
19. Enron
https://bobrivers.com/enron/
20. Drivers On the Phone
https://bobrivers.com/drivers-on-the-phone/
21. King Trump
https://bobrivers.com/king-trump/
22. AOL Song https://bobrivers.com/aol-song-the/
23. Can’t Afford to Drive My Car https://bobrivers.com/cant-afford-to-drive-my-car/
24. Man Who Constantly Borrows
https://bobrivers.com/man-who-constantly-borrows/
25. Newt Gingrich Does The Hanky Panky
https://bobrivers.com/newt-gingrich-does-the-hanky-panky/
26. Just a Big Ego https://bobrivers.com/just-a-big-ego/
27. Chipmunks roasting on an open fire https://bobrivers.com/chipmunks-roasting-on-an-open-fire/
28. Carol of the Bartenders https://bobrivers.com/carol-of-the-bartenders/
29. Little Hummer Girl
https://bobrivers.com/little-hummer-girl/
30. Walkin’ ‘Round in Women’s Underwear
https://bobrivers.com/walkin-round-in-womens-underwear/
31. NAFTA Anthem, The https://bobrivers.com/nafta-anthem-the/
32. Stuck in the Sixties https://bobrivers.com/stuck-in-the-sixties/
33. I Want to Be a Woman
https://bobrivers.com/i-want-to-be-a-woman/
34. Burgers On The Grill
https://bobrivers.com/burgers-on-the-grill/
45. Read It In the Tabloids
https://bobrivers.com/read-it-in-the-tabloids/
46. Wreck Of The Ship New Carissa, The
https://bobrivers.com/wreck-of-the-ship-new-carissa-the/
47. Hello, I Love You (Let’s Get Tested For AIDS)
https://bobrivers.com/hello-i-love-you-lets-get-tested-for-aids/
48. School’s Out of Weapons
https://bobrivers.com/schools-out-of-weapons/
49. Elton John Plays for Bikers
https://bobrivers.com/elton-john-plays-for-bikers/
50. Visions of a Cheeseburger
https://bobrivers.com/visions-of-a-cheeseburger/
51. Gimme 12 Steps
52. Bush Leaving Town
https://bobrivers.com/bush-leaving-town/
53. Take Baseball and Shove It
https://bobrivers.com/take-baseball-and-shove-it/
54. Letter To Santa, A
https://bobrivers.com/letter-to-santa-a/
55. I’ll Be Stoned For Christmas
https://bobrivers.com/ill-be-stoned-for-christmas/
56. Stingy
https://bobrivers.com/stingy/
57. Let’s Own New York
https://bobrivers.com/lets-own-new-york/
58. America the Pitiful
https://bobrivers.com/america-the-pitiful/
59. Not That Easy Going Green
https://bobrivers.com/not-that-easy-going-green/