Quote
john vanlandingham
Big difference between Communism and Socialism, big split at the Second International back in 1892 when the French Socialist look at polling trends and saw they would certainly get a majority in Parliament in the '94 elections (which they did).
The Socialists said "Hang on, Marx said before workers can control the Government there must be a violent revolution, but we're going to get it by the ballot, what does this mean?"
The Communists said "Its a scam, they'll never let you excercise power blah blah blah--Marx said you have to have a violent revoltion, then ya gotta have a violent revolution"
They were wrong, the socialists were right.
Hell the gawddam Rooskie Bolshies shot Socialists and Anarcho-syndicalists.
Be that as it may, there should be a party to counterbalance the unrestrained power of trans-national corporations...
If its about power, there's more of us then there are them.
But the main point I thought was the thing about "theoretical and abstract thought and speech".
There's more of us, but they have all the money and peddle all the influence. Sure wish I could figure out a non-violent way of changing the system. With only two major political parties, unlocking the dysfunction is gonna be damn near impossible.
The only two national legislators I think are worth more than what my dog expels from his rectum are Bernie Sanders and Ron Paul (yeah, he's out, and his son seems to be a tea bagging hack). Largely different philosophies, but both seemed to stand for personal freedom (keeping the government out of your affairs). Maybe add in Kucinich, is he still in?
The Republicrooks and Kleptocrats are probably colluding on the hot button social issues like abortion (don't want one, don't get one); gun control (if you want to own massive firepower, please show mental and physical capability of operating, handling, and storing your hardware); LGBT rights (if you are consenting adults, please enjoy yourselves how you see fit and if you want to get married, rock on. If you don't want to do these things and they're against your personal belief system, then don't do them); and healthcare (medical science has advanced tremendously in the past century, but that shit's expensive, and the capitalist model the US runs with marginalizes anyone who doesn't have a good health plan, and the corportocracy we have is marginalizing more and more people every day. My new part-time job wants to work the part-time staff 30+ hours a week at random shifts...and does it in a way to ensure they aren't full-time benefits eligible, but they do 90% of the work of a full-timer at 70% of the pay without bennies and 125% of the hassle with rotating schedules at the whim of corporate minders).
OK, that was a wall of text.
Unfortunately, the Syria thing is a shitty situation. Poisoning civilians with chemical weapons is horrific, but here we are with (at least) 60 years of the US meddling in the middle east, and once again one group of primitive screwheads is fucking with another group of primitive screwheads. Yeah, that may be harsh, but damn those middle easterners like to hold grudges for millennia.
OK, I'm going to shut up now. Will look again later.
Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY
