Image by Democracy Chronicles via Flickr
with Abby Martin
teleSUR English on Oct 16, 2016
With just weeks until the U.S. presidential election—and with both mainstream candidates embroiled in unprecedented scandal—Abby Martin interviews one of the progressive alternatives, socialist candidate Gloria La Riva.
La Riva is a long-time organizer in the anti-war and social justice movements, a union leader and much more.
In this election special, Abby Martin and Gloria La Riva discuss her plan to “seize” all U.S. banks, Hillary’s “feminism,” and why supporting the “lesser evil” out of fear of Trump is a losing strategy.
from the archives:
Podesta’s Leaked Emails Show Excerpts of Hillary Clinton’s Paid Remarks to Wall Street
Chris Hedges: Corporations Have Seized All Levers of Power + Rap News Special
Ralph Nader on Two-Party Tyranny, Trump Cheating, Bernie Sanders, and Corporations Kill
What Will A Socialist Society Be Like? by Jessica Hansen-Weaver
Dandelion Salad 
Pingback: Abby Martin: Capitalism Cannot Be Reformed–Seize All the Banks – Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Saving Illinois by Ellen Brown – Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Which Is Safer, a Public Bank or a Private Bank? by Ellen Brown + The Savings and Stability of Public Banking by Ralph Nader – Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Michael Hudson: Taxes Were Shifted Off the Rich and Onto Homeowners – Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Michael Hudson: Donald Trump Wants to Make the 1% Even Richer – Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Michael Hudson: The Orwellian Turn in Contemporary Economics – Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Chris Hedges: Political Passivity + Costas Lapavitsas: Transforming Capital – Dandelion Salad
What I find so perplexing, is the deafening silence of a desperately needed ‘intelligentsia’ ~ if I dare invoke such a contested term. Is there such a group of people any more? A stratum of educated individuals who value civilization, and are in possession of some sort of aspirational morality, who deem it their business to be both fully informed but also to inform ~ only responsibly?
I mean, how can this be happening in America, this sense of total mesmeric surrender to the inevitability of looming disaster; utter submission and complicity in the most grotesque violence abroad whilst witnessing total betrayal at home? I just don’t understand it.
Are many intelligent people just too terrified to dare to speak their minds, or maybe just don’t know how to communicate effectively? Do they expect banishment to gulags? Do they believe their fellow citizens are so averse to coherent dialogue?
Are the institutions of participatory government, foundation think-tanks & academies so paralysed by patronage, that nothing can happen, because the prevalent narrative has turned to gibberish? Seems to me its just all about clinging to the money.
OK we have witnessed great public demonstrations, thousands participating in climate marches and related protests; the Internet heaving with exponential opinion….but the US population is something in the order of 320 millions. Divide by a thousandfold and that still leaves 320K plausibly cognizant human beings, of mixed age of course; but how many thinking adults does it take to really start a powerful movement and influence events?
What percentage is needed to kick-start a cultural earthquake? Maybe the numbers are already there, only nobody quite realizes it yet or has figured out how it may actually be possible to join it all up.
We see these huge political rallies being televised and covered by the press, but in fact they are relatively small numbers compared to the actual population. People seem to be living in this totally fabricated bubble house of alienating media mirrors, that multiplies the illusion of large numbers, fabricates preposterous statistics & totally misrepresents the actuality.
This is engineered social manipulation on a vast scale. I don’t think there has been anything like it since the Nuremberg Rallies of the 1930’s.
It takes anywhere from 3.5% to 15% to make a huge change in society.
The universities are being co-opted by the corporations, very unfortunately.
Thanks Lo. Exactly! patronage is the name of the game ~ actually bribery & intimidation leading to degradation and the suppression of real facts.
The percentage you cite seems entirely plausible to me; of course the question is how that minority influence should be exercised, its agency & leverage.
Hence the colossal difficulty of establishing robust consensual laws and implementing ‘accepted’ international protocols; because we have to define and also exemplify the morality we wish to promote and codify its ethics in pragmatic ways. Our ‘political science’ just isn’t up to it yet.
These are deep philosophical and empirical questions that have been struggled with for centuries. The great difference these days is the role of women, also our authentic advances in knowledge ~ particularly ecology and biology ~ and the technical advances in communication.
Moreover, there is a far greater & growing understanding of indigenous culture…..notwithstanding the cynical ‘weaponization’ of anthropology that was practiced with sinister cunning by the Russian establishment long before the revolution ~ but then, the RC church in the Philippines was equally, and earlier, diabolically masterful at appropriating myths and demonizing women. Every European power has practiced genocide and ecocide without compunction and with virtually no redress.
I think education is really the supreme key. Personally, I am appalled at the tenure politics & sexism that prevails in so many institutes of ‘higher learning’ ~ particularly in the US where the wealth and largesse (or waste) is embarrassingly gargantuan. Besides, it is not good enough to focus on adult experience ~ it needs to start from day one, even before; hence the critical relevance of women’s issues….
Splendid observation, David! You cannot imagine the “willful ignorance” of the American people regarding politics, current affairs, history, and most things that really do matter not only in their life and affairs but for the betterment of society as a whole.
Give them access to sports and entertainment venues, big gas-guzzling pick-up trucks and SUVs and Smart Phones, and they are contented beyond belief.
Not to mention the belief in American “Exceptionalism” by a perpetual liar, where justification of his bloody violent regime has been the continuation of the bloody Bush Jr. regime, the Slick Willy Clinton regime, the rather lackluster (thank god) Bush Sr. regime, the pro-fascist, Reagan regime, .and on and on, or backwards in time to A-Bomb Harry’s regime.
Mind you, with ALL the information available here in the USA, ignorance, or perhaps “avoidance” in discerning truth or facts from fiction, reigns supreme for at least 95% of the American people who go back and forth every election cycle between this evil and that evil – the Democrats & the Republicans, rather than looking for a progressive alternative candidate and party to choose from.
You mentioned the Nuremberg Rallies. As you know, after Germany’s 9-11, which I call 2-27, (Feb 27, 1933, the Reichstag Fire), the new Chancellor and his Cabinet wasted no time in taking absolute power and in a relatively short time, controlled 100% of the press, radio, and what movies were to be seen or not shown. Then the policy indoctrination began. 24/7. Joseph Gobbels had his own copy of “Mr. Madison Ave,” Edward Bernays book, titled, ‘Propaganda,’written in the 1920’s, and used it to mold the thinking of the average German to believe in the dictates of the Fuher.
As I told some folks at Code Pink several years ago, Phillipe Petain was more deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize than the current Liar-In-Chief presently occupying the White House, and explained my reason for it. Needless to say, I was ridiculed and scorned for it.
England has become a vassal state of the U.S, and Boris Johnson is in need of a rabbie shot in my opinion.
WW111 may just be unavoidable as Putin and the Russian people are seen as the evil monsters of the world and must be destroyed at all costs. Well, if the war (and it will be full-scale nuclear) comes, Russia will use (as will we) hydrogen-tipped bombs, and the northern Hemisphere will be in radioactive ruins, and the NATO countries of Europe will have preferred a German victory in WW11, including the hundreds of thousands of inmates renditioned to the infamous Nazi detention camps and/or enhanced labor facilities, and be thankful that “moderate” Waffen SS security guards let them live, compared to being vaporized by radiation.
Jill Stein for President!
Pingback: Tariq Ali: Is Trump Any Worse Than Clinton? I’d Vote For Jill Stein | Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Chris Hedges: A Tax System Rigged for the Rich | Dandelion Salad