CONFORM CONSUME OBEY

From the 1988 classic "They Live". Great movie, you should totally stay in and snuggle up on the couch and watch it.  Or better yet

TV in bed is the best. Why ever get out of bed, really? Oh yes, work.

But hey at least the shopping is good downtown.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise: Selling out is the best!

Not War

Make love, man.

For all mankind - it's how humanity reproduces after all.

Communism applies to all vertebrates!

Not war, and not even cheap shots. Brother fighting brother is never the right way of it.

Nor kicking dogs. Even super protest dogs.

Push a dog too far, push a man too hard, push a people against the wall, and there's no choice:

When your cause is just, your strength is endless. When you are bound with your family, no power can stop you. Alone and apart, easily opposed. Organize or die!

Action!

There's also a booming business in "private" security up to and including mercenary armies for rich people. Yay! Wait till drones become even more widespread - rich guys with robotic armies will be grand. Till then:

Friendly neighborhood police officers, protecting local business. As they should - it's part of the job. Is this?

Every society is different to differing degrees, and so too the reactions to authority. As in The Authority. The protest as a form of political expression is mostly gone in America. Another victim of the 60's. But it's alive and well in Europe and South America. I don't condone violence, but in some countries, at some times, the pressures are so great, the corruption and oppression so great, that violence is only inevitable. It doesn't have to be this way - though I sometimes wonder if protesting is a collegiate sport in France.

Anyway, here's a bunch of cool protest pictures with snappy captions.

Bravery unto foolishness.

Changing hearts and minds through nonviolent protest.

Kids are always so sweet at protests - and it's educational!

Throwing rocks is proven to bring people together. Try it out sometime - just start hucking rocks at shit. Friends will follow.

Bring Kanellos. Every protest is better with a dog.

Art is PROTEST. Art IS expression. ART is freedom.

The Man can use art, too. You know those ink bombs they put in money stolen from the bank? Abstract Expressionism.

The Man can look fabulous!

And never forget, protestors of the world, that the police, SWAT, Guard, Army, and all the rest are folks just like you and me. Most everyone likes cats, right? Let's focus on what connects us, rather than divides us.

Grandparents! Everyone loves grandparents.

Put it on my MarxCard

Debt, comrades, is the ball around your chain, keeping you enslaved into their system. It has always been so, but refined to an art today. Consider the so called American Dream - go to a private High School (60K), Ivy League college (120K), Grad School (80K), get married, have kids (150K each), buy a house (450K), and of course have a lot of toys and cars and awesome vacations (300K?). Add it all up, and it's a lot of debt. Chains that bind you, forever.

This has been the macro plan of the Republican party as well. To put America so into debt we have no choice but to cut back/eliminate any program that might attempt to promote the general welfare, at the expense of rich people. Can't have that!

And here's how, coupled of course with obscene bursts of spending. But remember! The Republican party is the part of fiscal responsibility! Even better, if a Democrat takes over, do nothing but badger them over the debt. Hilarious!

If you're in debt, you're working for the Bank and the State one way or another. Consider an average American of 50 years ago - how much debt do you think he had? Now, same guy, today? Whole different ballgame. We've been bought lock, stock, and barrel. By our own choice!

Workers of the World!

Class is in session, teaching today is Lenin Cat.

Please keep in mind Lenin Cat does not approve of the Lenins, Stalins, or Maos of the world, as they are totalitarian dictators who used the ideas of Marx to brutally control vast countries/populations, killing millions. Communism sucks. But Marxism is something else entirely, and that's what Lenin Cat is talking about: Power to the workers through freely chosen collectivism and a redistribution of wealth across the entire population fairly. Free food, free housing, free education, free healthcare for everyone, no exceptions.  For we, the 99%, are all workers, and run this world - literally - and always have.

Power to the people! Who else is going to fix/run something like this?

Another sweet Prokudin.

Who, I ask? It is the teachers, the nurses, the bakers, the mechanics, the drivers, the haulers, the sorters and pickers and sewers and stitchers who run this world, who make it possible. Not the uber-wealthy, who always have and always will be an anchor weighing down entire societies. Witness today's Royalty:

Just a quick weekend trip on my plane and yacht! From Rich Kids of Instagram. Witness the bar tabs:

And this shit just goes on and on. It's disgusting. 120K for a bottle of alcohol? Obscene.  Yet he we are, in this reality. What are you going to do about it? Not care? Keep your head down? Join in and help the rich keep everyone down? Your choice, of course. Mine? Hipster War.

Or not. Regardless, workers of the world must unite, for to not is to be individually enslaved. And perhaps we all are already, via debt.  Even if, we still must fight back in whatever ways we can. For instance, don't shop at Wal Mart. Fun fact! The Walton children's collective wealth represents something like 42% of the entire USA population - the lower part, obviously. How can anyone argue extremes like this are in any way good for a society, a country? Trickle down? Jerbs? Tell me more.

This Machine

With the Industrial Revolution came an entirely new level to the crushing burden workers would bear for the sake of the Owners. Early factories were death pits of torture and suffering, far worse than toiling in the fields previous generations of serfs and slaves endured. And yet, people organized, and with numbers came strength:

Indeed, strength enough to make even Republicans sane. But those days are gone, replaced with greedy morans hell bent on destroying this country and most of its people for a few quick bucks - for them. A lot and lot of bucks for a very small percentage. Let's call them the 1%

You can accept this or deny it, but that matters little. What does matter is whether you are aiding the effort to crush human rights, decent pay, health care, etc, or are fighting it. If fighting, then you must do two things ASAP. Let's cover the first here:

Speak up!

Make your voice heard!

Do whatever it takes to communicate what you think is right and wrong, using whatever medium you can. It matters, in large numbers and by one single person. For example, there are many Americans still vaguely convinced the Republican Party is similar to the party that put out that ad above in 1956. The entire MSM lives this general delusion. We must correct this dangerous misunderstanding.

Like the Weekend?

Thank a Union Member. Through blood, sweat and tears, Unions brought us the weekend, healthcare, pensions and retirement plans, disability insurance, everything that makes the Western, industrial world great.

Rest assured, well and truly proven over the history of humanity, the rich and powerful do not want you to be overly happy or particularly healthy. As long as you do their bidding, as cheaply and with as little fuss as possible, than all is good. Demand your human rights? Have some thugs.

Better yet, use the police as your goonsquad and thug brigade. Let the man being truncheoned pay for his own beating, though taxes. Brilliant!

Alas, we seem eager these days to give back all the rights these folks fought for. And for why? Because of insanity. Thanks Republican Party and supporters!

Back The Way It Used To Be

A tidy Hooverville, 1922 Seattle. Looks cozy and inviting, right? Oh for those good old days when you knew your neighbor and lent a hand, after a good day of honest work for honest pay. Every man had his castle. His luxury penthouse in Hollywood.

The shack with stove is a pretty common housing choice around the world, even today. It's affordable and Green. Time to bring it back to America!  Or if you're truly a Fiscal Conservative, simply live out in a tent in the middle of the prairie - that will stretch your dollar for luxury items like tea, and socks, and awesome gowns.

Vote Tea Party! They'll solve America's housing crisis!

Always Forget

You'll recognize this photo if you focus on the woman on the right, with the baby. This was in the 1930's. Not so long ago, poverty stalked the American countryside, just like it stalks/ed most countrysides. Yet we've found a way to banish it - Socialist Democracies with mild forms of Capitalism. See all the Nordic states for proof.

We knew this in America, yet we somehow forgot, and now live in direct opposition to the idea that working folk should have decent lives. Amazing turn of events, really. Good job, evil guys.

60-70 years from a nation starving to old people protesting teachers making any money above the poverty line. LOL America!

Rebuilding

Fun fact! The White House was internally gutted during the Truman Administration and rebuilt with a steel frame to remove the pressure from the outer walls, which were near failure. And so it goes with America today - a country of facade, and a crumbling infrastructure, both physical and civic. Successful attacks by the Republicans over the last 40 years have weakened the country greatly, and yet, still there is strength. Still there is hope. Evidence:

From 2003, the Obamas and the Ng family, with Grandma Dunham in front. This is our future, our way forward - welcoming all people to America, and aye, welcoming all people into the world. Xenophobia, fear, hatred of the Other might be useful political tools, but ultimately are poison. We need to rebuild first our trust in each other, as citizens of a country, and the world.

Let go your hatred, Wingnuts, and love the future! Of Obama-Soetoro-Ng-Dunhams!