Three Reasons Why Politics in the US Are Doomed by Joseph Natoli

by Joseph Natoli
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Crossposted from josephnatoli.com and Truthout
November 5, 2013

Image by Fibonacci Blue via Flickr

“The society that loses its grip on the past is in danger, for it produces men who know nothing but the present, and who are not aware that life had been, and could be, different from what it is.” — Aristotle, Politics

The title is an unapologetic P.T. Barnum hook. The three reasons? Why not a sacred ten? Or 350 million? Doesn’t everyone have his or her own take on Twitter? Isn’t reason what is behind our opinions, or my “whatever” about your reasons?

The Democrats Can’t Defend the Country from the Retrograde GOP by Ralph Nader

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
October 18, 2013

Image by Fibonacci Blue via Flickr

The Congress, that polls show the American people would like to replace in its entirety, has “kicked the can down the road” again, putting off the government shutdown until January 15th and another debt ceiling showdown until February 7th.

The polls also show, convincingly, that people blame the stubborn Republicans more than the Democrats for the adverse effects of the impasse on workers, public health, safety, consumer spending, recreational parks and government corporate contracts.

Robert Borosage: Totally Self-Inflicted Damage

Dandelion Salad

Image by Stephen D. Melkisethian via Flickr

democracynow on Oct 16, 2013

Chris Hedges: Beware the Tea Party Dominionists

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

Image by Andrew Aliferis via Flickr

stateofbelief on Oct 15, 2013

A Recipe For Fascism by Chris Hedges (repost)

Repost of A Recipe For Fascism by Chris Hedges.

by Chris Hedges
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
November 8, 2010

Chatting with Chomsky — The Occupy Movement by Sebastian Meyer + Chomsky: Obama is Worse

Dandelion Salad

An interview with Noam Chomsky

by Sebastian Meyer
inthesetimes.com
August 14, 2012

Image by Obiemad via Flickr

[…]

The social movement of the day camps at public spaces and calls itself Occupy. You’ve called it the first major popular response to 30 years of class war in the United States. What do you think has Occupy achieved so far?

It achieved a lot, in two aspects. It very significantly affected public sensibility and public discourse. The imagery of the one percent versus the 99 percent, that’s spread over right through the mainstream, that’s now standard discourse. And that’s not insignificant. It brings to public attention the massive inequality and the striking maldistribution of power.

A Voters’ Rights Amendment To Unify Occupiers and Tea Partiers by William John Cox

used with permission, image copyright by Helen Cox

by William John Cox
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.thevoters.org
November 29, 2011

Unification of the Tea Party and Occupy movements for a common goal – a Voters’ Rights Amendment – will reestablish the United States as a democratic republic and will restore control of its government to the voters.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised … But There’s a LiveStream by Joseph Natoli

by Joseph Natoli
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
Oct. 17, 2011

“You wouldn’t be able to get your message out there without us.” — Griff Jenkins, Fox News producer

“If you put every single left-wing cause into a blender, this is the sludge you’d get.” — Sean Hannity Show, Fox

“Here we don’t think of prohibition. Because the ruling system has even suppressed our capacity to dream. Look at the movies that we see all the time. It’s easy to imagine the end of the world. An asteroid destroying all life and so on. But you cannot imagine the end of capitalism.” — Slavoj Zizek, address October 9, 2011 to Occupy Wall Street protesters

Ralph Nader: Obama is a Dictator! + Nader, Ron Paul, Kucinich Speak to Occupy Wall Street

Image by SS&SS via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Updated: Oct. 12, 2011 added another video

With Ralph Nader

MOXNEWSd0tCOM on Oct 7, 2011

October 07, 2011 News Corp
http://MOXNews.com

Against the Institution: A Warning for #OccupyWallStreet by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
October 3, 2011

Image by Adrian Kinloch via Flickr

While I fully endorse the efforts and actions of the Occupy Wall Street protests, now emerging internationally, there are concerns which need to be addressed and kept in mind as the movement moves forward.

The process through which a potentially powerful movement may be co-opted and controlled is slight and subtle. If Occupy Wall Street hopes to strive for the 99%, it must not submit to the 1%, in any capacity.

How the Most Dangerous Game Is Being Played by Joseph Natoli

Image by Sterneck via Flickr

by Joseph Natoli
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
Sept. 11, 2011

There’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. — Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World”

Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns – or dollars. Take your choice – there is no other. — Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged “

By the Democrats, the Game Has Been Played Like This Since the ’60s

Congressional Tea Party Downgrades America by Ralph Nader

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
Aug. 8, 2011

The Boston Tea Party in December 1773 threw the East India Company’s tea overboard. The Republican Tea Party in August 2011 threw America overboard.

Only in Congress, with its rules for minority rule, can a minority of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives impose its havoc on the American people there, then on the Senate side and on Obama

The Coming Second Civil War in the United States: Will We be Enslaved by Corporate Governance?

by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on Buzzflash.com
August 4, 2011

Image by sandy_sanders via Flickr

History never repeats itself exactly.  But it makes some pretty decent copies.  As I write this on March 29, 2011, we are winding down to the end of the so-called “debt-limit crisis,” or the possible end, or the continuation of it, or what have you.  Of course what is going on is not really about the debt-limit.  It is about the future of the federal government in the United States and its appropriate role.  As I wrote in my BuzzFlash@Truthout Commentary on Grover Norquist’s wet dream his 25-year campaign is focused only at the secondary level on taxation.  It is primarily about his stated goal of “shrinking the federal government to the size of a bathtub and then drowning it in the bathtub,” or as he used to more simply state it: “starve the beast.”

Would the DC Republicans Really Prefer to Have Obama in the White House? by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on Buzzflash.com
July 19, 2011

The GOP faces a major dilemma in the upcoming presidential election. Before I get into that, let’s define what I mean by “The GOP.” First, I don’t mean most of their public figures. Their elected officials for the most part are bought and paid for employees by those who run the Party. They have neither an independent voice nor independent power (as much as certain Tea Party GOP front men and women may think they do, this is not the case).

Ideological Inebriation on Capitol Hill by Ralph Nader

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
July 26, 2011

Image by joetta@sbcglobal.net via Flickr

Legislating while under the influence of ideological inebriation is not yet a statutory offense. It is only a multi-directional menace to much of what anxious Americans hold dear for themselves and their children.