A week long vacation ! They are allowing Trump is inflict more damage on the American people and federal workers. This is the MAGA Mike Shutdown. A normal leader would be speaking with his counterparts and end this quickly. It might not come quick, but there would be effort. MAGA Mike needs to lose his seat in addition to his Speakership.
The GOP absolutely WANTED to shut down the government, already a few months ago when Schumer was wise enough to NOT cave to them and keep it open instead.
This time, however, it's Obamacare itself that is at stake. Since the GOP needs Democrats in the Senate, it HAS to compromise. Moreover, most GOP voters want to keep Obamacare, so the GOP doesn't have any mandate to destroy it at all.
As we know, however, Republicans have always want to destroy the New Deal and everything that benefitted the 99% thereafter.
Neoliberalism was invented precisely as a reaction to the New Deal. Its founders already claimed that it was incompatible with democracy. And Peter Thiel, one of the main billionaires pulling the strings behind the scenes today, has been saying for years that capitalism and democracy are incompatible.
Why would that be true? In their minds, "capitalism" means the freedom to do with you money whatever you want. Or to be more precise: they want the government to pass bills that shift most of the money produced by workers to CEOs and shareholders, and then use their stolen wealth to dictate all the new laws of the land, and dictate them entirely in their own favor. THAT is what they've always meant when they said they wanted the government to be "run like a business". In a savage capitalist business, employees are not allowed to unionized and don't have any power over how their work is organized and what they are paid. The GOP wants the entire country to be run in this way too. By and for billionaires only - or rather, by and for NEOFASCIST billionaires only, since pro-democracy billionaires are seen as their worst enemy...
I’m wondering now if it’s some kind totalitarian capitalism and if it would even sustain them for long since it would require a communism-like closed up country which Americans would not stand for. And as soon as attempts to close up begin, all income production for them in terms of our vast consumerism would die away. Maybe they wish to sustain their wealth on corruption and stealing from the masses. But once the masses lose any form of disposable income, what’s there to steal? That’s why their continued grift especially of the maga folks and crypto folks is only a short term greed fix for them, so addictive that they cannot see the end.
Killimg the goose that laid the golden egg comes to mind. If the Cannibal capitalists eat everything and destroy their proleteriat, who will generate and who is going to buy their surplus?
"Communism" is what Marx proposed AFTER socialism was fully developed, which can only happen, he wrote, after capitalism is fully developed. But those are three ECONOMIC theories/modes of functioning.
Democracy versus dictatorship (a closed society) is a POLITICAL issue. It has to do with how the three branches of government relate to each other. In theory, there is no reason why communism (in which the government decides how to invest the benefits produced by companies) couldn't be taking place in a democratic country. In that case, it would be people who represent us who decide what we want to invest in next. No one ever tried that out, so we don't know yet whether it would work or not.
In the meantime, in a dictatorship you never have real capitalism either. It's always a form of kleptocracy, in which oligarchs limit the freedom of entrepreneurship to their own club and exclude everyone else... as you already see the GOP doing today. It's precisely what makes dictatorships so weak.
The crisis we’re currently facing only requires simple math to recognize that we’re being robbed by the mob! I normally enjoy lively discussions around Economics and Sociology (to include historical data). I guess I need a third martini to lighten up a bit😉
My thoughts exactly and the answers to questions that have been bumping around my brain. Seems they haven’t thought that far ahead. Or they plan to deal with it when it happens….but there will be nothing left to deal with.
Why are they getting a Paid vacation? I’m a federal worker that’s not getting paid even though I’m still working. I was told that I can’t take time off or I could loose my job/position. This is BULL SH!T !!!!!
Republicans Congress needs to do their job or step aside.
Right Charlie ! Those SOB ‘s just returned from a 6 week vacation, right?
No wonder they want to keep those do-nothing, bitch about everything the Dems do,lie about 99% of what they want us to believe is happening, (Medicare/healthcare for illegal immigrants…NOT) jobs WITH paid vacations every 3 weeks, healthcare for life in retirement. I despise every last one of them and are so FED UP with this mountain of 🐂💩!!!!
Here's something fun, while our flimflam government is hitting the road - taking another little jaunt - vacay -getaway. Seems like the Regurtitans are on permanent R&R at taxpayer's expense.
We frame economic power as a contest between capital and labor, but the real star of the American economy is consumer spending, which accounts for 68% of GDP. The Great Recession saw a 3.4% drop in consumer spending — at the time, the most severe year-over-year decline since World War II. The U.S. economy registered a 9.8% drop in consumer spending during the second quarter of 2020, when Covid shut down the world as we knew it. In both instances the U.S. government responded aggressively, spending hundreds of billions, primarily on bailouts, to pull us out of the Great Recession, and trillions, primarily in direct aid, to get us through the pandemic. The lesson? When consumers stop spending, American leaders start listening. As Geo Hussar explained to his YouTube followers at the end of September, “this is not seizing the means of production, but seizing the means of consumption,” adding that if every American dropped their consumption, on average, by 2%, “that would be the most loud and potent form of protest.”
Many of us are having to drop our consumption just because of the tariffs but I support the idea of cutting down all we can. I don't have much disposable income so my cutting down won't make a big difference but if we ALL cut back 2-5% it will. I think corporate America is giving us a great opportunity with Halloween coming up. Estimates vary but it seems in the past around 10-11 Billion is spent on that one holiday (including maybe 700 million on costumes for pets). Obviously it's a favorite holiday but maybe just this one year we could cut back a whole lot (again, I already don't spend anything on Halloween, so I can't contribute much but I think others may be able to).
It's just another Hallmark holiday anyway! When we were kids in the North of England you made your own costume, cut out your own pumpkin head, persuaded your gran to make parkin or bonfire toffee and ran about like mad things. No 'trick or treating', no paying for costumes or bollix like that.............goodness I'm turning into my grandad. I'll be pontificatimg about 'jumpers for goalposts ' next (possibly a reference only British people will know) 😀
Thoughts on how to do that? I literally have no friends or family to suggest this to ( I know that might make me sound like a loser but I'm not...lost best friends to covid and other "friends" to trump and my family doesn't do much on Halloween anyway) I think I will try to sneak in a recommendation to not spend on Halloween when I make comments on MTN or the few other places I sometimes comment. I'm open to other suggestions! Can I use the quote you posted from Professor Galloway?
How much do you want to stop His Royal Heinous and the fascist takeover of the country?
Enough that you’re willing to make a small sacrifice? Like altering your spending habits for a month or two or three? That could be all it would take to get the attention of the oligarchs (formerly known as The Robber Barons in the first Gilded Age, also The Fat Cats, The Greedy Bastards).
A brief demonstration of We, the People’s, power of the purse could persuade them to quit supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
We quit spending, except on essentials, businesses lose money, stock market goes down, Greedy Bastards pay attention to our demands.
Greedy Bastards own most of the politicians of both major parties. GBs start losing money, tell politicians to change course and do what We, the People want.
We are running out of peaceful options. The legislature and Supreme Court are controlled by HRH. He controls the executive branch, including the Military, Justice Department, FBI, ICE, the IRS. He controls all levers of power.
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. When all else fails we can go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports HRH.
Stop participating. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. All of us. Hobble the economy and the stock market. Mahatma Gandhi drove the British from India by peaceful civil disobedience. We can stop the fascist takeover in the same way.
We can keep rehashing past and present atrocities until our access to the internet is taken away by the regime, or we can DO something!
Now is the time for this Peaceful Solution.
Why a Spending Strike is the Best Option
TINA: There Is No Alternative. There is no peaceful alternative.
Other proposed peaceful options:
Soft Secession
Federal funds make up 35% of California’s state budget, with $173 billion in federal grants awarded in Fiscal Year 2021 alone, making up a significant portion of state and local budgets for programs like health, education, and infrastructure.
Are they really going to pissoff HRH to the extent that he cuts off their federal funding?
Soft secession? Only to the point when HRH feels threatened.
He will move in with all his resources and stop it.
This soft secession idea is a political ploy by state officials to get their constituents to believe the officials are doing something to stop the takeover.
It’s also another distraction to the resistance in that it keeps us from organizing and uniting around what must be done and what will work. It’s another example of hoping for an easy fix, one that will not take any sacrifice.
In addition, soft secession is divisive, pitting blue states against red states, playing into the narrative of the Rat, who wants to start a civil war. MAGA not only wants to “own the libs”, they’d like to kill as many as possible, to eliminate the opposition.
Targeted boycotts
Why targeted boycotts are ineffective
Boycotts often fail because they require massive, sustained participation to create meaningful financial pressure, lack clear alternatives for consumers, generate insufficient negative media attention, and are easily weathered by companies waiting for the protest to fade. Additionally, the complex nature of modern capitalism and the proliferation of corporate conglomerates can make it difficult for boycotters to effectively target and impact a company's bottom line or reputation, especially when companies have multiple revenue streams, like real estate, that aren't affected by consumer boycotts.
In 2020, Goya Foods praised President Donald Trump on social media, which caused those in opposition to Trump to boycott their products. Trump loyalists simultaneously initated a counter-boycott, where consumers bought mass quantities of their products, in response. The boycott caused Goya profits to increase dramatically because Trump supporters started an opposing campaign.
The midterm election
Will it be free and fair? It won’t be. Will it occur at all? HRH has already said that if we’re at war there’ll be no election. Guess what? If it’s looking bad for him, we’ll be at war to stop the election. The election is important to him because having the majority in the legislature gives the fascist regime the look of legitimacy.
People are putting too much faith in what the midterms will do. They may have a beneficial psychologic effect but in reality the outcome will have little or no practical effect, unless the Dems can get 2/3 majority in the house and senate, which they won’t. They will not be able to undo anything HRH has done or pass new legislation because of his veto power.
SCOTUS members Roberts and Barrett may have an epiphany and save the country from civil war, but it’s doubtful. It’s going to be up to us to stop this.
Time is running out for a Peaceful Solution. Please spread the word.
How to accomplish a Spending Strike
“It’s the economy, stupid” as James Carville famously told Bill Clinton. It was then, and still is, in politics. The reelection of His Royal Heinous is largely attributed to the misperceived state of the economy. That’s what must be attacked, not individual corporations. The overall economy must suffer before the Greedy Bastards will pay attention.
HRH will not destroy the economy on his own (TACO). He will find a way to prop it up (like lower interest rates) because the economy and stock market are his report card and key to keeping power. The key to keeping power, as it is in Russia, China, Hungary, Turkey. They give the people a somewhat decent standard of living, and in exchange, the people have no political power. Only the autocrat has that. Unlimited.
Our best chance of success lies in obtaining high profile, national leadership and spokespersons. Fragmented, unknown groups leading the charge might work but would take much longer, and time is of the essence. Since the Disney boycott there have been more “bigger” names taking up the cause.
There will have to be a great amount of grassroot support before a national “leader” will take up the cause. Most of our supposed leaders are really followers of movements. They’ll get out front after it’s shown to have popular support. So, we recruit more foot soldiers, like ourselves, and spread the word on various Substacks and other social media platforms.
After mustering much grassroots support we can then approach some Substack writers who have many subscribers and appeal to them to take up the cause and spread the word. Writers like Jen Rubin, Steve Schmidt, Robert Reich, Heather Richardson, Paul Krugman. Again, a good amount of grassroots support will have to be demonstrated.
We will need an organized effort to encourage those writers to concentrate on this method of opposition. Possibly coordinated mass emails to them promoting the idea, or coordinated posts to their Substacks.
Then, hopefully, one or more national leaders will take up the cause. Possibly a steering committee composed of left, center and right individuals, but not current office holders. It should be seen as non partisan.
This will be a tough sell. Americans are addicted to buying. We are brainwashed from the cradle by advertising, popular culture, peer pressure, to consume. If you want to be happy and fulfilled, you must have this or that product. To overcome this, our fellow citizens must be convinced that this is the only viable peaceful solution to stop and reverse the fascist takeover. And it is.
Defeating the fascists in WWII did not happen without sacrifice from the citizens of the Allied countries. We will have to sacrifice to stop and reverse the fascist takeover of our country. We can sacrifice a little now or a much greater amount later. What kind of world will our children and grandchildren live in if we allow this to continue? Spending Strike, Spending Freeze, Spending Suspension, Spending Pause, Economic Disengagement, Economic Warfare, Stop Spending!, even Boycott. Choose your favorite but Do It, and Spread the Word!
If a single dollar doubles every day for 30 days, it reaches a total of over $536 million ($536,870,912) at the end of the 30th day.
So, would it follow, that a single voice that doubled everyday would become 536 million voices after 30 days? That seems doable.
I beg to differ about the effects of boycotts…are you aware of what just happened to Disney after the exit/boycott with Jimmy Kimmel? Disney certainly righted their ship after millions responded!
I'm listening to Heather Cox Richardson, reporting on YouTube podcasts that Walmart, Target and Amazon are leaving the U.S. because of Don'ts tariffs - a $13 B Supply Chain Shock. Walmart has already begun closing stores.
Downsizing is happening on both sides of the coin.
I also read today that Canada has found other markets for minerals, chemicals, and other commodities - critical for our energy, tech and construction needs. Plus, Mark Carney, Prime Minister, is efficiently strengthening agreements and collaborations with countries, who used to be our valuable trade partners and allies.
Don't (his heinous lowness) produces tacky merch made in China, for sale in the People's White House, but China no longer buys our farmer's soy beans, because of Don'ts foolish economic policies. Tit for tat.
So, we're left with a faux president - who has now declared war against US!
It's so surreal - a comic tragedy, mixed with unbridled criminality, grifting, corruption and dereliction of duty.
Our beloved country is caught in the web of a gang of juvenile delinquents, and it's brain shattering.
As the World Turns....are we going to continue to stand by and stand back?
Don't forget the entire GOP Congress supports this war against America. Not one is saying it's wrong. My members of Congress are more trumpy than trump but I would like to think there are some (even one) old fashioned Republicans who believe in democracy but there are not, not even one. Massie may have stood up for sex abuse victims, but nothing else. Lisa Murlkowski is fine with war on America and I guess she's fine with trump being ok with russian jets flying in air space close to Alaska. Susan Collins isn't even concerned (but she might need to be since Maine is sort of purple and trump clearly does not like the Governor).
How many Maggot losers will be going out as failed drag queen JD Vance on Helloween??? Piss poor eye make-up sales are going to skyrocket in Oklahoma City!!!
That’s one half of the coin. The other side is to eviscerate FOX News for the win! If you believe as we do that MAGA fails without FOX and that destroying honest media like PBS makes it even worse defund the FOX rage and hate machine.
Eviscerate FOX with an indirect strategy that works fast. Deny FOX ad $ by denying the ad buying company CEO and execs bonuses. For example Home Depot. Boycott them for a full fiscal quarter and maybe more while keeping Wall Street analysts apprised. Get all on line influencers to post every day for the entire time ending every post every day with “Don’t forget - boycott Home Depot, they fund the FOX rage and hate machine.” See how fast CEO’s stop buying ads - do only ONE brand - do it implacably for an entire fiscal quarter. See how quickly you become the new sheriff in town and how fast other CEO’s quit buying ads. See how fast FOX changes content. All they care about is $. Oh - and next generation FOX CEO will be a decent human being if you do this.
Execution details matter. Talk to me. See Target, Bud Light and Tesla for examples. Companies are people, not paper. Make it personal.
AT&T is phasing out landlines. I have a grandfathered in land line, because I live isolated in a rural area and keep it for emergency communication needs. With one old phone, which plugs directly into the phone jack, and doesn't require electricity like our portable residential phone system or our rechargeable cell phone, we can receive and make calls when there's a power outage.
If the objective is to change the narrative - do ONE brand. The rest will fall in line immediately. Boycotts generally fail due to lack of focus and the inability to keep people’s attention. So one, and implacably drive it home every day until corporate leadership personally pays.
Trump apologists make me sick, like Scott Jennings on CNN. I still watch Nicole Washington and Lawrence O’Donnell when time permits. Meidas is the king.
I had understood that everyone in Congress and in the executive branch had to remain in Washington DC during government shutdowns to take part in meetings, negotiations, and possible votes called.
If Sergeant at Arms McFarland can’t get the missing republicans back to Washington DC, maybe he can at least enforce protocol by making Mike Johnson swear in Representative Adelita Grijalva as he is required to do.
Sadly, no longer. It also used to be that the expectation was that they do good things for their constituents....the Dems still try, but the GOP has totally abandoned that concept.
Need to attack from all legal directions we'll get through to find the cowards weak point, then remove and hospitalization, to solitary padded cell, lock& lose key!!!!!
Yes, bullies can't take the heat. The maga reps and Trump are bullies and cowards. Thank you Ben and MTN for continuing to report the truth fearlessly.
Keep on keeping on guys, y’all are making a huge difference in the messaging war. I just hope Dems will take your advice and follow your lead in this moment!
The age of ... mass production, mass distribution ,,, combined to bring forward a new civilization and with it a new problem for those who sought to remain free. For out of this modern civilization, economic royalists carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things. Through new uses of corporations, banks and securities, new machinery of industry and agriculture, of labor and capital-all undreamed of by the fathers—the whole structure of modern life was impressed into this royal service.
There was no place among this royalty for our many thousands of small business men and merchants who sought to make a worthy use of the American system of initiative and profit. They were no more free than the worker or the farmer. Even honest and progressive-minded men of wealth, aware of their obligation to their generation, could never know just where they fitted into this dynastic scheme of things.
It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over Government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property. And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man.
Throughout the Nation, opportunity was limited by monopoly. Individual initiative was crushed in the cogs of a great machine. The field open for free business was more and more restricted. Private enterprise, indeed, became too private. It became privileged enterprise, not free enterprise.
For too many of us, the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people’s property, other people’s money, other people’s labor, other people’s lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness. The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the Government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody’s business.
These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the Flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the Flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.
But the resolute enemy within our gates is ever ready to beat down our words unless in greater courage we will fight for them. There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected.
This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. [In] America we are waging a great and successful war. It is not alone a war against want and destitution and economic demoralization. It is more than that; it is a war for the survival of democracy. We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world.
Everybody who shares, likes and views MTN are very important. MTN have been the only truthful news on the daily. I watch all kinds of news, MTN is getting stories that MSM would never touch. Good job! You're beating the big guys at their own game.
ACA (Obamacare) was a lifesaver for me when I was old enough to have "pre-existing conditions" but too young to qualify for Medicare. Senators and representatives whose health insurance is provided by taxpayers have little or no idea what we regular humans go through to have our health needs met. This effort to cut budget expenses by throwing people off Obamacare and Medicaid is short-sighted and unnecessarily cruel.
A week long vacation ! They are allowing Trump is inflict more damage on the American people and federal workers. This is the MAGA Mike Shutdown. A normal leader would be speaking with his counterparts and end this quickly. It might not come quick, but there would be effort. MAGA Mike needs to lose his seat in addition to his Speakership.
🎶 I'm gonna take two weeks, gonna have a fine vacation
I'm gonna take my problem to the United Nations
Well, I talked to my Congressman and he said, quote:
"I'd like to help you son, but you're too young to vote"
Sometimes I wonder what I'm gonna do
'Cause there ain't no cure for the Trumpistan blues! 🎶
Bad Bunny! You gotta sing this at the Super Bowl….😂
I don't think that is the "real" Bad Bunny, do you?
Heck I am going to ask.
😂
He does not want to sing to an empty Alligator Alcatraz........let the dude get the fc#k out of this Maggot-ICE hellscape
Are you the real Bad Bunny from Puerto Rico, and the famous singer?
I ask because you have liked many of my comments so I am kinda wondering about that now.
I'm a reggae musician from Hawaii. Same vibe, just different music and different island. Wouldn't mind a cut of his Super Bowl paycheck though.
Smile. An oldy but goody!
❤️✌🏼
Follow them. Corner the Congressional Republicans from Dem majority states that MAGA has targeted. Get them on the record.
Do they cut off their noses to spite their own pusses?
Well that ended in a surprise! Well done.
The GOP absolutely WANTED to shut down the government, already a few months ago when Schumer was wise enough to NOT cave to them and keep it open instead.
This time, however, it's Obamacare itself that is at stake. Since the GOP needs Democrats in the Senate, it HAS to compromise. Moreover, most GOP voters want to keep Obamacare, so the GOP doesn't have any mandate to destroy it at all.
As we know, however, Republicans have always want to destroy the New Deal and everything that benefitted the 99% thereafter.
Neoliberalism was invented precisely as a reaction to the New Deal. Its founders already claimed that it was incompatible with democracy. And Peter Thiel, one of the main billionaires pulling the strings behind the scenes today, has been saying for years that capitalism and democracy are incompatible.
Why would that be true? In their minds, "capitalism" means the freedom to do with you money whatever you want. Or to be more precise: they want the government to pass bills that shift most of the money produced by workers to CEOs and shareholders, and then use their stolen wealth to dictate all the new laws of the land, and dictate them entirely in their own favor. THAT is what they've always meant when they said they wanted the government to be "run like a business". In a savage capitalist business, employees are not allowed to unionized and don't have any power over how their work is organized and what they are paid. The GOP wants the entire country to be run in this way too. By and for billionaires only - or rather, by and for NEOFASCIST billionaires only, since pro-democracy billionaires are seen as their worst enemy...
I’m wondering now if it’s some kind totalitarian capitalism and if it would even sustain them for long since it would require a communism-like closed up country which Americans would not stand for. And as soon as attempts to close up begin, all income production for them in terms of our vast consumerism would die away. Maybe they wish to sustain their wealth on corruption and stealing from the masses. But once the masses lose any form of disposable income, what’s there to steal? That’s why their continued grift especially of the maga folks and crypto folks is only a short term greed fix for them, so addictive that they cannot see the end.
Killimg the goose that laid the golden egg comes to mind. If the Cannibal capitalists eat everything and destroy their proleteriat, who will generate and who is going to buy their surplus?
"Communism" is what Marx proposed AFTER socialism was fully developed, which can only happen, he wrote, after capitalism is fully developed. But those are three ECONOMIC theories/modes of functioning.
Democracy versus dictatorship (a closed society) is a POLITICAL issue. It has to do with how the three branches of government relate to each other. In theory, there is no reason why communism (in which the government decides how to invest the benefits produced by companies) couldn't be taking place in a democratic country. In that case, it would be people who represent us who decide what we want to invest in next. No one ever tried that out, so we don't know yet whether it would work or not.
In the meantime, in a dictatorship you never have real capitalism either. It's always a form of kleptocracy, in which oligarchs limit the freedom of entrepreneurship to their own club and exclude everyone else... as you already see the GOP doing today. It's precisely what makes dictatorships so weak.
The crisis we’re currently facing only requires simple math to recognize that we’re being robbed by the mob! I normally enjoy lively discussions around Economics and Sociology (to include historical data). I guess I need a third martini to lighten up a bit😉
My thoughts exactly and the answers to questions that have been bumping around my brain. Seems they haven’t thought that far ahead. Or they plan to deal with it when it happens….but there will be nothing left to deal with.
Absolutely agree, James. He is worthless!
And didn't they already have the week of the Jewish holidays off? 😡
Keep standing straight and tall with a spine. It is such a contrast to their spineless bullying behavior!
Why are they getting a Paid vacation? I’m a federal worker that’s not getting paid even though I’m still working. I was told that I can’t take time off or I could loose my job/position. This is BULL SH!T !!!!!
Republicans Congress needs to do their job or step aside.
AGREE.
I'd say the vast majority of Americans agree with you....just not one GOP member of Congres...not one.
Right Charlie ! Those SOB ‘s just returned from a 6 week vacation, right?
No wonder they want to keep those do-nothing, bitch about everything the Dems do,lie about 99% of what they want us to believe is happening, (Medicare/healthcare for illegal immigrants…NOT) jobs WITH paid vacations every 3 weeks, healthcare for life in retirement. I despise every last one of them and are so FED UP with this mountain of 🐂💩!!!!
Here's something fun, while our flimflam government is hitting the road - taking another little jaunt - vacay -getaway. Seems like the Regurtitans are on permanent R&R at taxpayer's expense.
It's our turn! It's dance time! It's our time! - enjoy!
VERA 'Step Aside' ｜Official Music Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh8uwpzQhMc&list=PL85enAI8pCpvVgymya1a4cPrq4V5ppipF&index=3
From No mercy/No malice
By Professor Scott Galloway
We frame economic power as a contest between capital and labor, but the real star of the American economy is consumer spending, which accounts for 68% of GDP. The Great Recession saw a 3.4% drop in consumer spending — at the time, the most severe year-over-year decline since World War II. The U.S. economy registered a 9.8% drop in consumer spending during the second quarter of 2020, when Covid shut down the world as we knew it. In both instances the U.S. government responded aggressively, spending hundreds of billions, primarily on bailouts, to pull us out of the Great Recession, and trillions, primarily in direct aid, to get us through the pandemic. The lesson? When consumers stop spending, American leaders start listening. As Geo Hussar explained to his YouTube followers at the end of September, “this is not seizing the means of production, but seizing the means of consumption,” adding that if every American dropped their consumption, on average, by 2%, “that would be the most loud and potent form of protest.”
I’m down with reducing spending starting right now.
Please Spread the Word!
Many of us are having to drop our consumption just because of the tariffs but I support the idea of cutting down all we can. I don't have much disposable income so my cutting down won't make a big difference but if we ALL cut back 2-5% it will. I think corporate America is giving us a great opportunity with Halloween coming up. Estimates vary but it seems in the past around 10-11 Billion is spent on that one holiday (including maybe 700 million on costumes for pets). Obviously it's a favorite holiday but maybe just this one year we could cut back a whole lot (again, I already don't spend anything on Halloween, so I can't contribute much but I think others may be able to).
It's just another Hallmark holiday anyway! When we were kids in the North of England you made your own costume, cut out your own pumpkin head, persuaded your gran to make parkin or bonfire toffee and ran about like mad things. No 'trick or treating', no paying for costumes or bollix like that.............goodness I'm turning into my grandad. I'll be pontificatimg about 'jumpers for goalposts ' next (possibly a reference only British people will know) 😀
Excellent. Spread the Word!
Thoughts on how to do that? I literally have no friends or family to suggest this to ( I know that might make me sound like a loser but I'm not...lost best friends to covid and other "friends" to trump and my family doesn't do much on Halloween anyway) I think I will try to sneak in a recommendation to not spend on Halloween when I make comments on MTN or the few other places I sometimes comment. I'm open to other suggestions! Can I use the quote you posted from Professor Galloway?
The last part may be of most interest to you.
How much do you want to stop His Royal Heinous and the fascist takeover of the country?
Enough that you’re willing to make a small sacrifice? Like altering your spending habits for a month or two or three? That could be all it would take to get the attention of the oligarchs (formerly known as The Robber Barons in the first Gilded Age, also The Fat Cats, The Greedy Bastards).
A brief demonstration of We, the People’s, power of the purse could persuade them to quit supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
We quit spending, except on essentials, businesses lose money, stock market goes down, Greedy Bastards pay attention to our demands.
Greedy Bastards own most of the politicians of both major parties. GBs start losing money, tell politicians to change course and do what We, the People want.
We are running out of peaceful options. The legislature and Supreme Court are controlled by HRH. He controls the executive branch, including the Military, Justice Department, FBI, ICE, the IRS. He controls all levers of power.
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. When all else fails we can go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports HRH.
Stop participating. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. All of us. Hobble the economy and the stock market. Mahatma Gandhi drove the British from India by peaceful civil disobedience. We can stop the fascist takeover in the same way.
We can keep rehashing past and present atrocities until our access to the internet is taken away by the regime, or we can DO something!
Now is the time for this Peaceful Solution.
Why a Spending Strike is the Best Option
TINA: There Is No Alternative. There is no peaceful alternative.
Other proposed peaceful options:
Soft Secession
Federal funds make up 35% of California’s state budget, with $173 billion in federal grants awarded in Fiscal Year 2021 alone, making up a significant portion of state and local budgets for programs like health, education, and infrastructure.
Are they really going to pissoff HRH to the extent that he cuts off their federal funding?
Soft secession? Only to the point when HRH feels threatened.
He will move in with all his resources and stop it.
This soft secession idea is a political ploy by state officials to get their constituents to believe the officials are doing something to stop the takeover.
It’s also another distraction to the resistance in that it keeps us from organizing and uniting around what must be done and what will work. It’s another example of hoping for an easy fix, one that will not take any sacrifice.
In addition, soft secession is divisive, pitting blue states against red states, playing into the narrative of the Rat, who wants to start a civil war. MAGA not only wants to “own the libs”, they’d like to kill as many as possible, to eliminate the opposition.
Targeted boycotts
Why targeted boycotts are ineffective
Boycotts often fail because they require massive, sustained participation to create meaningful financial pressure, lack clear alternatives for consumers, generate insufficient negative media attention, and are easily weathered by companies waiting for the protest to fade. Additionally, the complex nature of modern capitalism and the proliferation of corporate conglomerates can make it difficult for boycotters to effectively target and impact a company's bottom line or reputation, especially when companies have multiple revenue streams, like real estate, that aren't affected by consumer boycotts.
In 2020, Goya Foods praised President Donald Trump on social media, which caused those in opposition to Trump to boycott their products. Trump loyalists simultaneously initated a counter-boycott, where consumers bought mass quantities of their products, in response. The boycott caused Goya profits to increase dramatically because Trump supporters started an opposing campaign.
The midterm election
Will it be free and fair? It won’t be. Will it occur at all? HRH has already said that if we’re at war there’ll be no election. Guess what? If it’s looking bad for him, we’ll be at war to stop the election. The election is important to him because having the majority in the legislature gives the fascist regime the look of legitimacy.
People are putting too much faith in what the midterms will do. They may have a beneficial psychologic effect but in reality the outcome will have little or no practical effect, unless the Dems can get 2/3 majority in the house and senate, which they won’t. They will not be able to undo anything HRH has done or pass new legislation because of his veto power.
SCOTUS members Roberts and Barrett may have an epiphany and save the country from civil war, but it’s doubtful. It’s going to be up to us to stop this.
Time is running out for a Peaceful Solution. Please spread the word.
How to accomplish a Spending Strike
“It’s the economy, stupid” as James Carville famously told Bill Clinton. It was then, and still is, in politics. The reelection of His Royal Heinous is largely attributed to the misperceived state of the economy. That’s what must be attacked, not individual corporations. The overall economy must suffer before the Greedy Bastards will pay attention.
HRH will not destroy the economy on his own (TACO). He will find a way to prop it up (like lower interest rates) because the economy and stock market are his report card and key to keeping power. The key to keeping power, as it is in Russia, China, Hungary, Turkey. They give the people a somewhat decent standard of living, and in exchange, the people have no political power. Only the autocrat has that. Unlimited.
Our best chance of success lies in obtaining high profile, national leadership and spokespersons. Fragmented, unknown groups leading the charge might work but would take much longer, and time is of the essence. Since the Disney boycott there have been more “bigger” names taking up the cause.
There will have to be a great amount of grassroot support before a national “leader” will take up the cause. Most of our supposed leaders are really followers of movements. They’ll get out front after it’s shown to have popular support. So, we recruit more foot soldiers, like ourselves, and spread the word on various Substacks and other social media platforms.
After mustering much grassroots support we can then approach some Substack writers who have many subscribers and appeal to them to take up the cause and spread the word. Writers like Jen Rubin, Steve Schmidt, Robert Reich, Heather Richardson, Paul Krugman. Again, a good amount of grassroots support will have to be demonstrated.
We will need an organized effort to encourage those writers to concentrate on this method of opposition. Possibly coordinated mass emails to them promoting the idea, or coordinated posts to their Substacks.
Then, hopefully, one or more national leaders will take up the cause. Possibly a steering committee composed of left, center and right individuals, but not current office holders. It should be seen as non partisan.
This will be a tough sell. Americans are addicted to buying. We are brainwashed from the cradle by advertising, popular culture, peer pressure, to consume. If you want to be happy and fulfilled, you must have this or that product. To overcome this, our fellow citizens must be convinced that this is the only viable peaceful solution to stop and reverse the fascist takeover. And it is.
Defeating the fascists in WWII did not happen without sacrifice from the citizens of the Allied countries. We will have to sacrifice to stop and reverse the fascist takeover of our country. We can sacrifice a little now or a much greater amount later. What kind of world will our children and grandchildren live in if we allow this to continue? Spending Strike, Spending Freeze, Spending Suspension, Spending Pause, Economic Disengagement, Economic Warfare, Stop Spending!, even Boycott. Choose your favorite but Do It, and Spread the Word!
If a single dollar doubles every day for 30 days, it reaches a total of over $536 million ($536,870,912) at the end of the 30th day.
So, would it follow, that a single voice that doubled everyday would become 536 million voices after 30 days? That seems doable.
I beg to differ about the effects of boycotts…are you aware of what just happened to Disney after the exit/boycott with Jimmy Kimmel? Disney certainly righted their ship after millions responded!
That worked on one company. We’re trying to stop the fascist takeover of an entire country. We’re targeting the economy not individual companies.
Absolutely. I regard anything I post or see on Substack as public domain. I copy and paste anything I think is usable.
I'm listening to Heather Cox Richardson, reporting on YouTube podcasts that Walmart, Target and Amazon are leaving the U.S. because of Don'ts tariffs - a $13 B Supply Chain Shock. Walmart has already begun closing stores.
Downsizing is happening on both sides of the coin.
I also read today that Canada has found other markets for minerals, chemicals, and other commodities - critical for our energy, tech and construction needs. Plus, Mark Carney, Prime Minister, is efficiently strengthening agreements and collaborations with countries, who used to be our valuable trade partners and allies.
Don't (his heinous lowness) produces tacky merch made in China, for sale in the People's White House, but China no longer buys our farmer's soy beans, because of Don'ts foolish economic policies. Tit for tat.
So, we're left with a faux president - who has now declared war against US!
It's so surreal - a comic tragedy, mixed with unbridled criminality, grifting, corruption and dereliction of duty.
Our beloved country is caught in the web of a gang of juvenile delinquents, and it's brain shattering.
As the World Turns....are we going to continue to stand by and stand back?
Don't forget the entire GOP Congress supports this war against America. Not one is saying it's wrong. My members of Congress are more trumpy than trump but I would like to think there are some (even one) old fashioned Republicans who believe in democracy but there are not, not even one. Massie may have stood up for sex abuse victims, but nothing else. Lisa Murlkowski is fine with war on America and I guess she's fine with trump being ok with russian jets flying in air space close to Alaska. Susan Collins isn't even concerned (but she might need to be since Maine is sort of purple and trump clearly does not like the Governor).
Splendid idea Pat!
Maybe everyone can dress like The Tramp - shouldn't be too hard to find some worn-out clothes that don't quite fit. Swarms of hobos on Hallowe'en.
Halloween is more fun, anyway, when costumes and decorations are DIY.
How many Maggot losers will be going out as failed drag queen JD Vance on Helloween??? Piss poor eye make-up sales are going to skyrocket in Oklahoma City!!!
Professor Galloway is very wise.
That’s one half of the coin. The other side is to eviscerate FOX News for the win! If you believe as we do that MAGA fails without FOX and that destroying honest media like PBS makes it even worse defund the FOX rage and hate machine.
Eviscerate FOX with an indirect strategy that works fast. Deny FOX ad $ by denying the ad buying company CEO and execs bonuses. For example Home Depot. Boycott them for a full fiscal quarter and maybe more while keeping Wall Street analysts apprised. Get all on line influencers to post every day for the entire time ending every post every day with “Don’t forget - boycott Home Depot, they fund the FOX rage and hate machine.” See how fast CEO’s stop buying ads - do only ONE brand - do it implacably for an entire fiscal quarter. See how quickly you become the new sheriff in town and how fast other CEO’s quit buying ads. See how fast FOX changes content. All they care about is $. Oh - and next generation FOX CEO will be a decent human being if you do this.
Execution details matter. Talk to me. See Target, Bud Light and Tesla for examples. Companies are people, not paper. Make it personal.
They made it personal already by attacking the working class
Boycotts work
Look at US tourism
Maybe consider going back to a landline and throw the cell phone away..
AT&T is phasing out landlines. I have a grandfathered in land line, because I live isolated in a rural area and keep it for emergency communication needs. With one old phone, which plugs directly into the phone jack, and doesn't require electricity like our portable residential phone system or our rechargeable cell phone, we can receive and make calls when there's a power outage.
And Chik-fil-a and Hobby Lobby; Publix, Kroger, Albertson’s, Sonic, Hardee’s, Jack’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Wendy’s, KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Longhorn Steakhouse, Domino’s, Papa John’s, Little Caeser’s, Food Lion, Ford vehicles.
Who needs all of that overpriced junk food anyway? I boycott ALL of them.
I like that plan David!
It’s a plan that can work. We need a leader with the skills and contacts to implement it!
If the objective is to change the narrative - do ONE brand. The rest will fall in line immediately. Boycotts generally fail due to lack of focus and the inability to keep people’s attention. So one, and implacably drive it home every day until corporate leadership personally pays.
Trump apologists make me sick, like Scott Jennings on CNN. I still watch Nicole Washington and Lawrence O’Donnell when time permits. Meidas is the king.
Nicole Wallace…😉
The Orange mushroom must grow from 1 inch to 1 and a half inches each time Cankles watches Nicole Wallace.
Mike, if you watch The Weeknight with Michael Steele, Simone & Alicia, you will get the best reporting. They are on MSNBC @ 7pm EST.
Taco Trump on full display. Run and hide when stuff isn't going the way they want.
I had understood that everyone in Congress and in the executive branch had to remain in Washington DC during government shutdowns to take part in meetings, negotiations, and possible votes called.
Apparently maga Mike didn’t get the Memo! He needs to be reminded of this everyday or removed as Speaker.
If Sergeant at Arms McFarland can’t get the missing republicans back to Washington DC, maybe he can at least enforce protocol by making Mike Johnson swear in Representative Adelita Grijalva as he is required to do.
I also thought that was the expectation of our elected representatives.
Sadly, no longer. It also used to be that the expectation was that they do good things for their constituents....the Dems still try, but the GOP has totally abandoned that concept.
Invoke the 25th Amendment!!! Don’t whisper it, shout it from the rooftops. Post it every day.
Need to attack from all legal directions we'll get through to find the cowards weak point, then remove and hospitalization, to solitary padded cell, lock& lose key!!!!!
Yes!
Well,this is where we find ourselves, but could be worse!hope everyone is getting some rest and charging up for the next onslaught
Yes, bullies can't take the heat. The maga reps and Trump are bullies and cowards. Thank you Ben and MTN for continuing to report the truth fearlessly.
Keep on keeping on guys, y’all are making a huge difference in the messaging war. I just hope Dems will take your advice and follow your lead in this moment!
FDR at Franklin Field: A Rendezvous with Destiny, June 27, 1936 https://tinyurl.com/ywtjar9h
The age of ... mass production, mass distribution ,,, combined to bring forward a new civilization and with it a new problem for those who sought to remain free. For out of this modern civilization, economic royalists carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things. Through new uses of corporations, banks and securities, new machinery of industry and agriculture, of labor and capital-all undreamed of by the fathers—the whole structure of modern life was impressed into this royal service.
There was no place among this royalty for our many thousands of small business men and merchants who sought to make a worthy use of the American system of initiative and profit. They were no more free than the worker or the farmer. Even honest and progressive-minded men of wealth, aware of their obligation to their generation, could never know just where they fitted into this dynastic scheme of things.
It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over Government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property. And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man.
Throughout the Nation, opportunity was limited by monopoly. Individual initiative was crushed in the cogs of a great machine. The field open for free business was more and more restricted. Private enterprise, indeed, became too private. It became privileged enterprise, not free enterprise.
For too many of us, the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people’s property, other people’s money, other people’s labor, other people’s lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness. The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the Government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody’s business.
These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the Flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the Flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.
But the resolute enemy within our gates is ever ready to beat down our words unless in greater courage we will fight for them. There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected.
This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. [In] America we are waging a great and successful war. It is not alone a war against want and destitution and economic demoralization. It is more than that; it is a war for the survival of democracy. We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world.
Great words from a Great President! Thank you for sharing.
Everybody who shares, likes and views MTN are very important. MTN have been the only truthful news on the daily. I watch all kinds of news, MTN is getting stories that MSM would never touch. Good job! You're beating the big guys at their own game.
Well said, and true. We have to control the Story.
if they are non essential workers (can all go on vacay at same time) then they must be furloughed like everyone else 😡
ACA (Obamacare) was a lifesaver for me when I was old enough to have "pre-existing conditions" but too young to qualify for Medicare. Senators and representatives whose health insurance is provided by taxpayers have little or no idea what we regular humans go through to have our health needs met. This effort to cut budget expenses by throwing people off Obamacare and Medicaid is short-sighted and unnecessarily cruel.