Dear Libertarians: The Radical Violent Revolutionaries Are Winning

Originally Posted at PopularResistance.org



This may be a shock to those who have heard me say, in some of me less than kindler, gentler moments, that Libertarians are Ayn Randian Regressives who more often that not parrot faux liberty talking points literally spoon fed them by some Koch Brothers inspired think tank, talking points that in fact serve as a pillar that upholds the empire of the ruling elite even as they espouse to tear it down. The truth is, however this view ignores the fact that on the surface, we agree on many issues- Libertarians and I.

While the two party duopoly spins a narrative that wants us to believe that we are on opposite sides of a linear spectrum, outliers, freaks, a fringe minority, the fact is that those in all 3 branches of government represent a ruling class whose worldview and means of pursuing it are in fact the minority view, the radical, fringe view. The radical violent revolutionaries are already in power. I’m not talking about Obama, or any other elected official; I’m speaking about the global corporate elite. The same force that is at work here in the US green lighting the pornographic expenditures on weapons and devices for war that make up the military industrial complex while claiming there is no money for education, health care or programs that would benefit the social good is also at work all over the world, notably right now in Brazil, where it is somehow justified to brutally displace entire poor communities in order to build multi billion dollar, FIFA quality soccer stadiums, and to pay for the armed brutal suppression of protestors outraged that in a country where 20% of people who live below the poverty line watch in horror as money is poured into the construction of a brand new soccer stadium in the Amazon that will only play host to 4 games and likely never be used again.

It is the global neoliberal agenda at work here in the US, that is responsible for the NDAA, the spying of the NSA, the threats to net neutrally, the list goes on and on. How to get free from the reign of violent radical revolutionaries who now rule our lives? My guest today, Adam Kokesh, has written a book that attempts to answer that question. Adam Kokesh did a tour in Fallujah, Iraq with the Marines in 2004 and came home to become an anti-war activist. He ran for Congress as a Republican, had a radio show, a TV show, and has gone to jail for his civil disobedience. He is the host of the ADAM VS THE MAN YouTube channel and podcast, and just released his first book, FREEDOM!

Throwing Your Vote Away?

'Why Voting for a Third Party is NOT Throwing Your Vote Away' by Jason Marianna

You hear them every election year, those five little words, strung together to make up the biggest lie in politics: "You're throwing your vote away." The media even has a name for the candidates who get the "throwaway" votes: "spoilers." Why? "Spoilers" ruin the whole two-party myth. They evince that there are more choices than Tweedledee and Tweedledum.


Tweedle D and Tweedle R

The two major parties are beginning to realize this, too. No longer can they sit back as the Greens, Libertarians, and independents take a percentage of the votes. The major parties can't rely on people to automatically disregard third parties anymore as "fringe groups," because the "fringe" is getting awfully big. Instead, each major party tries to scare you into believing that a vote for a third party is a vote for the opposition.

Unfortunately, in the effort to score as many votes as possible, the two major parties often forget one thing: principle. How much do they really believe in their principles if they are willing to sacrifice them so freely for a vote? For years, the major parties have followed the same model of getting elected. They run to the left or right during the primaries, and run to the center in the general election campaign. What we are left with are two candidates essentially saying the same thing, but disagreeing in name only, and occasionally on implementation of the same policies. This year is no different.

When you ask people why they vote for a candidate, they give you a few basic answers. For one, they may actually truly believe in the candidate and his policies. This is rare in the two-party system. Another reason many people give is that the candidate is the lesser of two evils. Some say that although they disagree with the candidate on some things, "At least he's not the other guy." With this thinking, they imply there are no other choices, despite the emergence of viable third parties for both the left and the right.

Since when is voting for evil a good thing? Does it matter if you drive a car off a cliff at 55 MPH or 80 MPH? Either way, you're driving off a cliff. How many Americans grumble every year that all politicians are only in it for their own interests? Yet, these same Americans who complain about the hole we're in get out their two-party shovels on Election Day and dig us further into the hole by perpetuating the heart of the problem: The two-party system itself. If you want to change government, change how you vote.

Recently, I spent a week campaigning for my candidate to my circle of friends and acquaintances. I got the same response over and over again: "I would vote for him if I thought he had a chance of winning. However, even though I agree with nearly everything he says, he can't win, so I'd be throwing my vote away." What they don't realize is that if they all vote for him, we would be that much closer to having someone we actually want in office, instead of someone we barely tolerate.

Why do we base our votes on what polls show? You wouldn't let anyone look over your shoulder and tell you what to do when you fill out your ballot, so why let pollsters tell you how to vote? Look at the big picture. If all people actually voted for who they wanted, we would have a four-horse race for the presidency. How hard would it be for any of those candidates to get 25% of the vote if everyone voted for who they wanted, instead of who they were scared or manipulated into voting for?

The two major parties don't care about you. They care about power. They care about winning elections, no matter the cost. They've abandoned the American people and our needs. The major parties have forgotten that the rights Americans enjoy are to be protected. The major parties don't care to hold to the Constitution's limitations. This must change, but won't if we continue to give the major parties our support. If you want for our government to reflect your principles, vote for candidates who reflect those principles, without exception.

The only result of holding to principle is government changing for the better, one ballot at a time. Changing government for the better is not throwing your vote away. Quite the contrary, it is using it properly.

I don't support Gary Johnson. And here's why:

Gen. Smedly Butler and "The Business Plot"

The fascist plot to overthrow FDR by american business elite

Globalized Capitalism is Stateless Fascism

The Punk Patriot interviews Ayn Rand

There was an audio problem with the original, and I finally got around to fixing it.

Ayn Rand has been dead for nearly 30 years, making her quite the "get."

Seeing what consequences her philosophy has had for the world, will she recant?
Watch and find out!

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Link to Nathaniel Branden's rebuff of Ayn Rand's cult: http://bit.ly/muKj
Also, Ayn Rand had a serious crush on a serial killer who kidnapped & brutally dismembered a 12 year old girl and modeled the protagonists in her stories after him:
Article 1
Article 2

Lee Camp: Life, Liberty, and Indefinite Detention Without A Trial

It's seems that Obama and Congress have finally agreed on something! They support the indefinite detention of American citizens WITHOUT charges or a trial. Hurray! Cheers to cooperation!! [Also on today's Moment of Clarity podcast - NY Times bestseller GREG PALAST]

Subscribe to Lee Camp's YouTube channel here.

Talking Points on Welfare #4

Talking Points on Welfare Part 4

Taxation is theft, why should I have my pay stolen to pay for a free ride for other people?

This one is going to take a while to unpack. It requires some knowlege of recent economic history, which is going to mean explaining. I hope I don't bore you.

In 1960, the average household worked half as many hours. Adjusted for inflation, the Cost of Living was a third of what it is today. Yet, the average household income for a person in the lower 85% of income brackets, in terms of real dollars, has remained stagnant for the past 40 years.

That’s right, 85% of the population has seen their cost of living triple, has had to double their hours they spend working, and as a reward for working twice as much have LESS expendable income than we did 40 years ago.
To recap really quickly- [drawings] the dollar cost of living has tripled, but the actual stuff we’re getting for that cost isn’t three times better. We’re still buying pretty much the same houses and the same wonderbread and the same Jif peanut butter as we did 40 years ago.
So we’re paying three times as much today for the same things we had in the 1960s.
The Average American household had one income earner working 40 hrs a week in 1960, and that was enough to maintain a comfortable standard of living.
For twice as much labor today, 85% of Americans still have an income gap of a third. That money has to come from somewhere. Some households have two adults working 80 hours a week, and still struggle to make ends meet.
For 85% of Americans, we’ve been slowly eased into a starvation diet over the past 40 years.
That income gap, for many people, who thought that going on welfare was irresponsible, had to borrow their wages. Where did they borrow their wages from? From the wealth they already had. We’ve borrowed against our houses, and we’ve used credit cards to fill our income gap. We were told that this was the responsible thing to do. The fiscal reality of it, is that we’ve been cannibalizing ourselves.
If you look at this through another lense, by indexing things to the value of labor-- the value of the labor you produce has been devalued by two thirds. You have essentially been getting paid a third of what your labor is actually worth. That income gap of a third should rightfully be paid by our employers. And where has all that money gone?
Check Wall Street. While the value of our labor has been cut to a third of what it was, the value of labor of the average CEO has skyrocketed, from just 30 times the lowest paid employee at their company to 300 times the lowest paid employee.
So while the 85% of Americans who work our asses off just to get by, we’ve seen the value of our labor be devalued, fraudulently, by 300%. We’ve seen the value of labor of CEOs increase, fraudulently, by 1000%. What are they doing differently that they need to be compensated at 1000% more than they were back in the 1960s? Well, there’s a short answer and a long answer:
The short answer: Nothing.
The Long answer: Absolutely NOTHING whatsoever, at all.
Now, who has been deciding what everybody’s labor is worth? The invisible hand of the market? Bullshit. It’s been those CEOs. Of course they are going to give themselves raises and reduce the value of our labor by 2/3rds. They’re greedy, shortsighted people. You would probably do the same. Right? No, actually you probably wouldn’t, because that would be THEFT, and THEFT is wrong.

So let’s get back to our initial conservative talking point: Why should you allow somebody else to get a free ride from your labor? You shouldn’t. Which is why we need a maximum wage.
Is taxation really theft? Well, if you’re taxing that top 15% of people who have increased the value of their own labor and decreased the value of everybody else’s labor, we’re not stealing from them by taxing them to pay for welfare. The lower 85% earned that income, but were not paid that income.
The *real* problem is that those richest 15% aren’t PAYING what the 85% is earning by their labor leaving an income gap. How the hell are people supposed to fill that gap through working more if their labor just keeps getting further and further devalued?
With welfare. Welfare is just the lower 85% of people getting what their labor earned them.
If we don’t reverse this trend of the rich getting richer, and the poor getting poorer, eventually there will be no way for the lower 85% of Americans to feed themselves by our own labor.
At which point, we will be forced to kill the top 15% and eat THEM.



One source: http://20somethingfinance.com/american-hours-worked-productivity-vacation/

Another one I didn't specifically use, but has a lot of the same info as a presentation given at the Commenwealth Club of California two years ago, by an economist whose name I can't remember:
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

Jim Chappelow :: Veterans for Peace 25th Annual Convention

Jim Chappelow served in Iraq, and is now a member of IVAW and Veterans for Peace.

The Punk Patriot Interviews AYN RAND

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