Time for a U.S. Revolution - Fifteen Reasons

www.commondreams.org...

Quote from source:
It is time for a revolution. Government does not work for regular people. It appears to work quite well for big corporations, banks, insurance companies, military contractors, lobbyists, and for the rich and powerful. But it does not work for people.

The 1776 Declaration of Independence stated that when a long train of abuses by those in power evidence a design to reduce the rights of people to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it is the peoples right, in fact their duty to engage in a revolution.

Martin Luther King, Jr., said forty three years ago next month that it was time for a radical revolution of values in the United States. He preached "a true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies." It is clearer than ever that now is the time for radical change.

Look at what our current system has brought us and ask if it is time for a revolution?

Over 2.8 million people lost their homes in 2009 to foreclosure or bank repossessions - nearly 8000 each day - higher numbers than the last two years when millions of others also lost their homes.

At the same time, the government bailed out Bank of America, Citigroup, AIG, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the auto industry and enacted the troubled asset (TARP) program with $1.7 trillion of our money.

Wall Street then awarded itself over $20 billion in bonuses in 2009 alone, an average bonus on top of pay of $123,000.

At the same time, over 17 million people are jobless right now. Millions more are working part-time when they want and need to be working full-time.

Yet the current system allows one single U.S. Senator to stop unemployment and Medicare benefits being paid to millions.

There are now 35 registered lobbyists in Washington DC for every single member of the Senate and House of Representatives, at last count 13,739 in 2009. There are eight lobbyists for every member of Congress working on the health care fiasco alone.

At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that corporations now have a constitutional right to interfere with elections by pouring money into races.

The Department of Justice gave a get out of jail free card to its own lawyers who authorized illegal torture.

At the same time another department of government, the Pentagon, is prosecuting Navy SEALS for punching an Iraqi suspect.

The US is not only involved in senseless wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the U.S. now maintains 700 military bases world-wide and another 6000 in the US and our territories. Young men and women join the military to protect the U.S. and to get college tuition and healthcare coverage and killed and maimed in elective wars and being the world's police. Wonder whose assets they are protecting and serving?

In fact, the U.S. spends $700 billion directly on military per year, half the military spending of the entire world - much more than Europe, China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea, and Venezuela - combined.

The government and private companies have dramatically increased surveillance of people through cameras on public streets and private places, airport searches, phone intercepts, access to personal computers, and compilation of records from credit card purchases, computer views of sites, and travel.

The number of people in jails and prisons in the U.S. has risen sevenfold since 1970 to over 2.3 million. The US puts a higher percentage of our people in jail than any other country in the world.

The tea party people are mad at the Republicans, who they accuse of selling them out to big businesses.

Democrats are working their way past depression to anger because their party, despite majorities in the House and Senate, has not made significant advances for immigrants, or women, or unions, or African Americans, or environmentalists, or gays and lesbians, or civil libertarians, or people dedicated to health care, or human rights, or jobs or housing or economic justice. Democrats also think their party is selling out to big business.

Forty three years ago next month, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached in Riverside Church in New York City that "a time comes when silence is betrayal." He went on to condemn the Vietnam War and the system which created it and the other injustices clearly apparent. "We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing oriented" society to a "person oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

It is time.

Bill is legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. [email protected]

I thought I would post this as it is true.

Interesting read with interesting facts. Good to see how corporations flourish and the trouble it creates for all the 'regular' people.

It needs to be stopped.

Any thoughts?

Pred...

It's coming. It'll be too late, but it's coming... Perhaps the next generation will do better, after they pick up the pieces of the disaster we're headed for.

Originally posted by warpcrafter
It's coming. It'll be too late, but it's coming... Perhaps the next generation will do better, after they pick up the pieces of the disaster we're headed for.

Naaah. Wont be no better. What youre seeing is the beginning of the end. Oh yeah, it sucks, fo' shizzel. I'm here for it, consider me an observer, if you wish.
Best regards....

[edit on 7-3-2010 by thatredpill]

Yes.... VOTE

Vote for a candidate that will push the ultimate "anti-corruption" legislation that makes government service exactly that... SERVICE.

Take profit out of politics. period... to late tonight to go through the fine points.

Term limits are not enough. It would just make them steal (oh I mean take care of their special interest in exchange for board seats, speaking tours, etc.) faster.

We must push complete anti-corruption legislation that is simple, common sense language...

Politics is Service, YOU and your family cannot profit from your position in any way while in office (to include stocks, sweetheart land deals, etc.) and for a term of Years after you leave office..... Sound Draconian? Make civil servants exactly that... servants of the people they represent, the voters who voted them as representation and NOT a position of profit and power. Our founding fathers knew the "nature of man" and tried to frame a system of checks and balances. Now we need to put a bit more "regulation and oversight" on that system of checks and balances with anti-corruption legislation that limits and holds accountable these positions of power that have been abused and corrupted.

[edit on 7-3-2010 by infolurker]

I think a revolution is imminent. Maybe in the summer, latest in two years. We only need a second economic crisis - or another Middle Eastern war with US assistance. Americans are fed up with their regimes just as the world is fed up with US policing that guards corporate interests only.
The fabric has been coming apart at the seams. 911 was only the start. The body politic is simply unable to control the internet. Technicaly and humanly. And there will be a time when their own people will turn against them and expose them. It is easy to foresee - they do not treat their own people well.

The Middle Eastern wars are just as unjust and inhuman and causeless as the Vietnam War was. Only, they are bigger. (Looking at DU, the future casualties are even more horrific.)
And the dividends are shared only by the aristocracy. This is unwise. They should have created their middle class if they wanted to rule long-term.

If this situation does not bode a revolution, primarily in America, nothing in history did.

Originally posted by infolurker
Yes.... VOTE

Vote for a candidate that will push the ultimate "anti-corruption" legislation that makes government service exactly that... SERVICE.

Take profit out of politics. period... to late tonight to go through the fine points.

Term limits are not enough. It would just make them steal (oh I mean take care of their special interest in exchange for board seats, speaking tours, etc.) faster.

We must push complete anti-corruption legislation that is simple, common sense language...

Politics is Service, YOU and your family cannot profit from your position in any way while in office (to include stocks, sweetheart land deals, etc.) and for a term of Years after you leave office..... Sound Draconian? Make civil servants exactly that... servants of the people they represent, the voters who voted them as representation and NOT a position of profit and power. Our founding fathers knew the "nature of man" and tried to frame a system of checks and balances. Now we need to put a bit more "regulation and oversight" on that system of checks and balances with anti-corruption legislation that limits and holds accountable these positions of power that have been abused and corrupted.

[edit on 7-3-2010 by infolurker]

Wonderful sentiments, history suggests it wont happen though. Govt service should be service, not a profit center, but look around, there you are. Want to make a diff? Make any lobbying or any benefit form govt connections illegal, make them go home an live under the laws that the passed, but it never happens, people make a habit of politics of personality, always forgetting that personalities are used to replace facts and realities. The clever, devious and irresponsible will always exploit the need fo the weak to find their avatar in politics, Poliicians are all sociopaths, if not at the outset, certainly at the end...

One big problem (and countless smaller problems) with all these revolution threads.

Who is going to be your targets?

In the original revolution...the target was clear...the English.

In the civil war...the target was clear...Union vs Confederate.

There are no defined "sides" here...just a bunch of radicals (yes...RADICALS), trying to stir up a violent revolution. So who would their targets be??? Probably anyone they thought disagreed with them.


Is it time for a revolution...no...people need to stop being so dramatic and realize that you really don't have it all that bad.

And if there is an attempted revolution...I hope it is thouroughly and quickly squashed by the military. Yes...I truly do hope so. Yes...I would side with the governemnt if a violent revolution uprising started right now. Why? Because there is no consensus or real agreement as to what the REASONS would be for a revolution right now...so yeah...I would stick with what I know...even if it isn't perfect.

[edit on 7-3-2010 by OutKast Searcher]

Revolution = bad

western Medieval feudalism

staple food crop: wheat
ratio of knights to peasants: approx 1:50



eastern Medieval feudalism

staple food crop: rice
ratio of nobles to peasants: approx 1:1000



We are already under an eastern system.



What is the population of your town. How many mayors do you have. What is the ratio of Police to civilians? About ten thousand, or a hundred thousand to one.



[speculation]

In the old days a peasant may actually get to meet the lord over him. Talk with them, even voice an opinion. Currently our relationship to our leaders is more like a rock concert. No one interrupts the Rolling Stones to ask McJagger a question. The person self elects not to intrude on the other fifty thousand people in attendance. They can just act out and hope they get noticed.

America has quietly expanded it's population without giving us an appropriate number of increased representatives.

Wana make a change? Demand more representatives. Particularly at the local level. If fifty families pool money they can hire a corporate law firm to represent them. Real change will be in reach.


David Grouchy

double post

[edit on 7-3-2010 by davidgrouchy]

A revolution is the only way that change is going to happen as what ever we vote they decide that we do not know what is good and override our wishes.

The Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitutions all have been stepped over tossed aside because we have become complacent to be politically correct as we are afraid to take criticism about standing for righteousness.

We have dropped the ball and now it is time for us to crap or get off the pot.

no need for violence until proven to be a last resort at any time, still other peaceful means of getting this country back and if they dont work out then im sure whatever happens will happen

We are long overdue for a revolution, after all the people of america get no bailout except for money grubbing banks and other interests. Can't wait to get out of the army so I can make a difference back home.

The revolution is happening now
The revolution is coming at you live, televised
It is a giant wheel that rolls back to its start position, controlled by a nexus of dogmatic faith coupled to the love of money. The revolutionary wheel crushes women and children. It's spokes are named threat, intimidation, imprisonment, and violence. The ruts of it's passing take centuries to heal, if at all. The revolution defaults back at a demolished land, where the survivors reinstate a hierarchy of control, and perhaps a two party system.
Lets perhaps wish for an evolution, for a consensus that accepts violence only as a last resort of defense of home and family. Where has the golden rule gone, "Do unto others...". Where lies the right for consenting adults to engage in whatever activity they choose, in private.
Crowley said "Do what thou wilt shall be the law and the whole of the law". In recognizing that you have this ultimate freedom maybe a time will come when you will grant this freedom to others as well. Together we may even come to honor the bill of rights and the universal declaration of rights; these truly being the greatest gifts won from the misery of interminable revolutions.
Regardless of our revolutionary actions, there is a feeling across the land that our planetary system has instigated its own process to bring this to conclusion. Lets hope its an evolution!

Let's have a peaceful revolution before we run amok in the streets with our AK47's.

Try this: STOP ELECTING DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS!! These greedy bitches are the reason we are in the spot that we are. And while we are at it, we should make lobbying a capital crime. Our elected representatives do not need to listen to anyone but the constituents who elected them. That is the way it was supposed to work in the beginning.

Originally posted by OutKast Searcher
One big problem (and countless smaller problems) with all these revolution threads.

Who is going to be your targets?

In the original revolution...the target was clear...the English.

In the civil war...the target was clear...Union vs Confederate.

There are no defined "sides" here...just a bunch of radicals (yes...RADICALS), trying to stir up a violent revolution. So who would their targets be??? Probably anyone they thought disagreed with them.


Is it time for a revolution...no...people need to stop being so dramatic and realize that you really don't have it all that bad.

And if there is an attempted revolution...I hope it is thouroughly and quickly squashed by the military. Yes...I truly do hope so. Yes...I would side with the governemnt if a violent revolution uprising started right now. Why? Because there is no consensus or real agreement as to what the REASONS would be for a revolution right now...so yeah...I would stick with what I know...even if it isn't perfect.

[edit on 7-3-2010 by OutKast Searcher]

I agree with this.

Mainly because of the military part. I don't want to have to fight my own people. If you crazies really want to start a revolution and get it going in full motion at least wait about a year and a half until I'm safely out of the military and living in Japan. Or dead. Either way it's better than having to turn my weapon on Americans even though I guess they wouldn't really be Americans anymore.

Originally posted by groingrinder
Let's have a peaceful revolution before we run amok in the streets with our AK47's.

Try this: STOP ELECTING DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS!! These greedy bitches are the reason we are in the spot that we are. And while we are at it, we should make lobbying a capital crime. Our elected representatives do not need to listen to anyone but the constituents who elected them. That is the way it was supposed to work in the beginning.

Smartest idea I've heard so far. But then again it would take a lot more than an internet community to get that done. In fact, it's near unpossible. But I would like to see the dems and reps get their butts handed to them by a third party elect that'll actually give a crap about the American people. Another thing that stands in the way is the fact that corruption, lies and idiocy are very rarely not found in politics. Hehe, I remember in my german class in high school learning that rathaus was the name for the city hall type building. Fitting isn't it?

[edit on 1038 by Echo3Foxtrot]

reply to post by Echo3Foxtrot


Great post!

In the mid sixties my dad was stationed on Okinawa and I had many great experiences growing up there. We were constantly turning up munitions and such from the war and I watched the ground move like the ocean during one of the earthquakes. I used to listen to Art Bell when he was a dj there. Do they still sell the tubee bombs that look like a firecracker, but you strike them on a matchbook and they smoke yellow for 8 seconds before blowing up? We use to throw them in the benjo ditches.

Back on topic I cannot help but feel that the "party mentality" is part of the problem. We need politicians who can stand on their own two feet and not find themselves beholding to a party.

[edit on 3-8-2010 by groingrinder]

Actualy evolving is far better in the long run than revolving, which basically is begin where you have started.

It should be a spiral rather than a circle

[edit on 8-3-2010 by Dynamitrios]

reply to post by predator0187
History is always doomed to repeat itself... that's true with every revolution thru history... people deal with injustice and eventually they get tired of it... a person can only push so far until they have had enough... we already see this happening in the news now with people going into government buildings and opening fire. Kharma has a funny way of crapping on people. This entire country was built on two colors... red and green... that's blood and money... where does god come in? America has become an abomination before god and it's only a matter of time before judgement comes to those that deserve it. I think that a war with Iran will expose everything about our government to our people... this country will revolt if things continue this way... it's history... it's human nature... but for some reason I think our government is well prepared for a revolution and once they gain complete control over us... we won't be able to stop this monster from destroying the world

I agree that this country is heading in the direction of a Revolution, but the time is not here yet. It is bad in America right now in a lot of different areas as stated by the OP, but it isn't bad enough yet for bloodshed.

All peaceful means of making a change in our country has not been depleted yet. This fall we have a chance to turn it all around by voting out all the scumbags and hopefully vote in people who will head the country in the right direction, although we won't be able to get Obama out of the White House until 2012.

Revolution might be inevitable someday, but like I stated, the day is not upon us yet.....

So many " Observers", so many people waiting on the change to come and so many looking to their neighbours to change things for them.

I remember saying these very words in 2008. While you wait, while you observe and while you seek saviour from your neighbours and kinsmen, the removal of your freedom is going to continue to spread like a cancer.

Has the media and your own fear paralyzed and dumbed you down so much?

If everyone waits for someone else to "fix" the wrongs, saddly its not going to happen.

Before I get flamed for my sentiments....yes I stood against thatcher, yes, I spent time at Faslane, yes, I was in London for the summit, yes I know it wont change unless I continue to make my voice heard and my actions witnessed.

Respects