Oh, yeah, let's continue to try to completely bury Bernie's chances

fer god's sake, it's enough to gag a maggot...

This Is How Hillary Loses the Primary

Bernie Sanders will never be president. But unless Clinton changes her strategy—and soon—he can still wind up toppling her.

(emphasis added)

you can almost smell the big take-down a'comin'... somebody's going to dump something out there to try to destroy bernie's candidacy or bernie himself is going to trip up somehow... gay-ron-teed...

let's say bernie does get elected... what we ought to be talking about is, if that happens, how can we, as an electorate and as a nation, keep bernie from being totally co-opted by the ptb... the last thing we want is to see another "hope and change" debacle... we also desperately need to remember that electing a president isn't the same thing as awaiting the savior and the second coming...

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CISPA heads for a vote in the House

sopa, acta, pipa and now cispa... our rulers keep bringing this shit back in different guises, thinking that eventually we'll grow tired of fighting and let them have their way... it's a timely reminder that our super-rich elites will stop at nothing to control the internet and to make sure that absolutely nothing we do, whether it's on the internet or anywhere else, no matter how small or innocent, escapes the notice of the ptb... 

from democracy now...

As it heads toward a House vote, critics say the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) would allow private internet companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft to hand over troves of confidential customer records and communications to the National Security Agency, FBI and Department of Homeland Security, effectively legalizing a secret domestic surveillance program already run by the NSA. Backers say the measure is needed to help private firms crackdown on foreign entities — including the Chinese and Russian governments — committing online economic espionage. The bill has faced widespread opposition from online privacy advocates and even the Obama administration, which has threatened a veto. "CISPA … will create an exception to all existing privacy laws so that companies can share very sensitive and personal information directly with the government, including military agencies like the National Security Agency," says Michelle Richardson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "Once the government has it, they can repurpose it and use it for a number of things, including an undefined national security use."

still more from democracy now...

Computer security researcher Jacob Appelbaum argues the measures included in the proposed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) would essentially legalize military surveillance of U.S. citizens. "When they want to dramatically expand their ability to do these things in a so-called legal manner, it’s important to note what they’re trying to do is to legalize what they have already been doing," Appelbaum says. He is a developer and advocate for the Tor Project, a network enabling its users to communicate anonymously on the internet, and has volunteered with WikiLeaks.

as much as i hate to repeat myself, i've been saying for years that you can be sure that anything and everything you do on an electronic network of whatever variety, whether it's using an atm or swiping your supermarket affinity card or making a phone call or even driving your car down the road in range of surveillance cameras, is being at minimum sniffed and most likely recorded for possible later retrieval... and when i say years, i mean at least since the early to mid 90s... 

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We shall have a nation by, for, and powered by the people once again

i know several folks who have traveled to d.c. for this... i wish them and everyone involved all the best... it's time we reclaimed our rightful place as empowered citizens of our nation and of the world... things can no longer proceed as they have been... the time for sitting on the sidelines and hoping for the best is over...

AMERICA OCCUPIES THE CAPITAL

January 17 at 9 am
Capitol Hill

Washington, DC—On January 17 Americans from across the nation and the world will assemble in the shadows of a broken system to participate in real democracy.

At 9 am on the opening day of Congress, Occupy Congress will convene for a day of action against a corrupt political institution. Actions include a multi-occupational General Assembly, teach-ins, an OCCUParty, a pink slip for every congressional “representative” and a march on all three branches of a puppet government that sold our rights and our futures to the 1%.

This is an illegitimate system. Around half of the nation’s population doesn’t participate in electoral politics. More than 6 million Americans who want to vote are disenfranchised, including the entire populace of the District of Columbia. There is consensus that we are on the wrong track and that our “leaders” do not have our interests at heart.

All “elected” officials bought their way into gerrymandered seats with Wall Street money. These bankers’ henchmen have shown themselves both unwilling and unable to take on the tremendous, systemic issues in our country, our place in this world.

In the face of this endemic corruption, the Occupy movement is about organizing locally to discuss and change these problems from the ground up. We came to show the 1%’s Congress what democracy looks like.

Our nation, and our world, is in crisis and our “elected” officials have failed us. They refused to hold their bankrollers—Wall Street—responsible for the financial crimes that bankrupted our nation and destroyed the global economy. This last legislative cycle was the least productive in recorded U.S. history; 90% of the country disapproves of these “elected” officials.

We refuse to accept the grim future that Wall Street’s cronies have designed. We refuse to be the 1%’s captive citizenry. We stand together to show that the 99% are creating a better world.

The 99% will no longer be complacent. Our many voices will be amplified on the steps of Capitol Hill. We shall have a nation by, for, and powered by the people once again. We are building it.

i hope the turnout is so huge that it causes the ptb to literally quake in their expensive shoes...

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The state would like us to be violent

rebecca solnit posting at common dreams...

The state would like us to be violent. Violence as cooptation tries to make us more like them, and if we’re like them they win twice—once because being unlike them is our goal and again because then we’re then easier to imprison, brutalize, marginalize, etc. We have another kind of power, though the term nonviolence only defines what it is not; some call our power people power. It works. It’s powerful. It’s changed and it’s changing the world.

[...]

The powers that be are already scared of the Occupy movement and not because of tiny acts of violence. They are scared because right now we speak pretty well for the 99%. And because we set out to change the world and it’s working. The president of Russia warmed at the G20 Summit a week or so ago, "The reward system of shareholders and managers of financial institution should be changed step by step. Otherwise the 'Occupy Wall street' slogan will become fashionable in all developed countries." That’s fear.

[...]

This movement is winning. It’s winning by being broad and inclusive, by emphasizing what we have in common and bridging differences between the homeless, the poor, those in freefall, the fiscally thriving but outraged, between generations, races and nationalities and between longtime activists and never-demonstrated-before newcomers. It’s winning by keeping its eyes on the prize, which is economic justice and direct democracy, and by living out that direct democracy through assemblies and other means right now.

i truly wish that this movement was indeed "winning"... unfortunately, i think it's got a very long way to go... it's most distressing seeing the occupy folks kicked out of oakland and portland and other cities... it's also distressing when i attend gatherings at occupy reno and see people floundering... it's been a very encouraging start, perhaps the most heartening thing i've seen in my lifetime, but right now it feels very, very fragile to me... there needs to be something really big happen to stimulate things to go beyond where they are at the moment... i'm certainly not talking about violence or anything cataclysmic but something big nonetheless...

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