The revolution has begun. We just hit the tipping point.

Gore and Moore are showing us the way. Moore has just dropped his bombshell movie on America, and people are getting the message loud and clear, despite whatever attempts the corporate media might make to silence him. I'm sure the insurance companies are holding top-level strategy meetings right now and mapping out their counterattacks. But they have already lost; the genie is out of the bottle, and the Zeitgeist is passing them by.

Gore--first the movie, then the Oscars, and now Live Earth, and with a plan for the future laid out in Assault on Reason. Billions of people are now aware that their pop-culture idols stand with Gore. Gore is cool, concern for the world is cool. That happened overnight. Having invented the Internet, Gore is now using it to distribute Power to the People in ways undreamed of a decade ago.

The corporate power structure has been winning throughout most of American history because they have owned the battlefield and got to set the rules, but now, for the first time in history, Moore and Gore have taken the battle onto new grounds. Gore gets it. He has just proved he knows how to fight, and knows how to win. While "Bush"-league players like Clinton and Obama snipe at each other over who's financing whom, Gore just took over the world.


I can't believe it's happening so quickly.

or like my sigline suggests:

Wouldn't that be a change of pace!

I want him roaming free- free to do what he does best.

...one of the few that would ensure 4 more years of Repub dictatorship.

Experience, empathy, earth-friendliness -- and lots of cross-over potential.

about this out of control Bushco and their threats to the Constitution.

Transcript here:
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0116-34.htm

I had found audio of it a few weeks ago, I'm not finding it now, I thought it was also on Common Dreams.

Just tried to access Live Earth - they are having technical difficulties. Perhaps more people today will access the site than the record-breaking 9 million from yesterday?

They are so over.
Kaput.
Finis.

i bought the tickets but couldn't go because i had surgery..so i gave her the tickets..she is now a true blue Gore fan!!..i heard all about it from her today..with the excitement only a college age kid could have!! she was on a Gore high!! a Huge Gore high!!

fly

Our collective energy and focus can overwhelm them and their agenda, and Gore has managed to focus it extremely well. I'm very impressed!

Sure, there's a big buzz now, but give it a month and the sheeple will be back to worrying more about American Idol and whether they won the lotto. Live Earth will wind up enjoying the same status as Farm Aid.

Yes, I'm desperately cycnical, I fully realize that. Sadly however my cynicism has been passed by reality time and again over the years. Sure, I would love to see the wonderful overnight blossoming of enviromental conciousness that you wish for, but it isn't going to happen.

and wait for the corporations to come and harvest us.

That right?

There is the momentum, but unless one gets involved, then things stay the same. The Corporations are hoping that the storm passes over, and by that time NFL training camps are open, or the latest Harry Potter(for the record I don't have anything against these two items personally) and the sheep will be back in sleep mode. Revive the spirit of Saul Alinsky, get involved with your community.

I didn't take Madhounds post in quite that way. I think that this is one positive step in a series of steps, a long series of steps. Reality has a way poking its ugly head into the most positive situations. I am not going to underestimate the opposition as these people are powerful and utterly ruthless. They are not going to let a single moment destroy their kingdom. Can we win? Absolutely! but it is going to be a long struggle and we are not going to have control of all the events. Thats enough, I don't want to ramble. Peace.

I KNOW THAT TOMMORROW MORNING ... WE ARE GOING TO DO BETTER THAN THAT...........

I KNOW THAT MONDAY MORNING WHEN WE ALL GO BACK TO WORK

WE're GONNA BE LOOKING FOR TRUTH



AND TRUTH IS WHAT SETS US FREE ..AND TRUTH IS WHAT RISES TO THE TOP



AND WHEN JUSTICE , WHEN JUSTICE IS BEING OBSTRUCTED AMERICANS RISE UP AND SPEAK THE TRUTH..



I KNOW THAT ABOUT MY COUNTRY.........



IMAGINE THAT !!!!!!!!

fly

With so many powerful companies who stand to gain from increased investment in global stewardship and climate change, (even CHEVY was a sponsor of Live Earth), this movement will not die.

Downsizing and Investing Green is where the money is going, and those too slow on the uptake, or trying to "spin the system" back in their direction (IE: Republicans), have a rude awakening coming if they haven't had it already.

later (just like those other corporate sponsors) be part of the pack wolfs to subvert your trust. As a mechanic i can guarantee you that the upper crusties of GM's management will always be one of most heartless groups on earth. It's not that all the people are exactly or inherently evil but the way the corporation is structured and what it produces forces that type of behavior. Wake up and smell the coffee

If they are trying to spin this back into their pockets without "producing the goods", it will backfire.

The L.A Times, some development tycoons, the petroleum and auto companies put the kabots on the Red-Car or any form of mass transportation out here many decades ago and we have been paying for it ever since. It was the model to what most of rest of the country came accustomed to also. We here in California get the rap for what was just small group of profiteering greedy little men. They wanted what ever they could get and subverting the public good for quick profit sounded like a good idea to them

Who Killed the Electric Trolley?
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2006/12/who_killed_the_.html
(if you read further down the reply posts, the real juice starts flowing)

I think also there is a movie with same title and subject

bastards.

And if that's what it takes, so be it. Let's just save the earth please.

i get a bit of a kick out of the people who honestly think that a day of concerts is somehow going to translate into a world consciousness-changing event.

ain't gonna happen folks.
for the VAST majority of people in this country and on the planet- it wasn't even a blip on the radar.

i don't know anyone personally who saw even one minute of any of the shows. i know i didn't.

9 million of those were online streams.

I think you're 100% wrong.

Let's see...

9 million watched the various online streams.

There are over 9 billion people in the world.

Less than one tenth of one percent of the world's population actually watched it via online streams.

Factor in most probably watched for their fav bands/singers, and not for the message.

Yeah... you should get the picture by now.

The 9 million figure was JUST online streaming. It was also on millions of televisions throughout the world. Plus, this weekend was just the first event in the movement.

We managed to get a lot of social reforms passed and change awareness on a lot of issues and in a lot of areas. Remember Woodstock? More people now say they were at Woddstock than there were people who actually attended.

And remember Al said this was only the beginning. This was the kick-off event of a 3 year campaign. It will be much more than just a single concert. It is the beginning of a new movement.

So don't equate this with the naivete of youth. This movement is being led by people who know how to lead - Al Gore is only one of them.

...so I would say no, the 60s' did not result in long-term change. Hell, "the lessons of Vietnam" weren't even enough to keep us out of an utterly unnecessary and obviously fraudulent war in Iraq.

Awareness of child abuse & drunk driving, broader rights for gays and more opportunities for women - yeah, we've made SOME progress. But on the big things - poverty, income equality, preventing unnecessary and unjust wars, the last 40 years have been disastrous, IMO.

unless your generation wants to take credit for what we as a nation have become in the eyes of the rest of the world:shrug:?

the norm. In fact, I am fiercely on the side of those promoting Live Earth--I just didn't bother watching any of it. My life is full of too many other things I need and want to do.

it was vietnam.

... I don't see a huge tipping point where it all gets easy from here on out, but I do see a steady, slow but certain chipping away at the Republican power as well as the power of the media and corps to control public opinion.

I think the Iraq war, in the future, with the relentless cheerleading it got from the press, spells a permanent loss of the credibility of the "4th estate" in America as it becomes clear to all but the thickest Americans that there was an organized effort to deceive all of us about the realities in Iraq. And that is good.

That's about it.

If you realize you are desperately cynical, why do you portray your beliefs as factually incontrovertible? Why do you say "it isn't going to happen." Is this the only thing that a cynic can be sure of? You have a number of other options that are less condemnatory toward what other people believe. You could say "I don't think it's going to happen," or "I wish it could happen," or "I'm skeptical of that happening," etc.

I'm not asking you, and cynics like and unlike you, to stop saying what you mean, but it seems unlikely that you could possibly know exactly what is going to happen. Please be more realistic, and express your emotional attitude as that, rather than expressing it as a factual certainty. Getting momentum toward political change is slow, piecemeal work, and your word choice can help or hinder convincing a larger percentage of people to act on their convictions.

My cynicism has been surpassed by the events unfolding in reality on a regular basis. Therefore you can say I'm even giving a "better case" scenario with my predictions:shrug: This is what has made me so desperately cynical, watching my worst fears and predictions surpassed by the events of reality.

that is a problem. But are you actually saying that your experience is infallible, that is, that you can infallibly predict the future, as long as you pull back some from the worst you could imagine?

In such a case, my feeling is that it doesn't help either you or anyone else to portray a negative future as a factual certainty. It certainly doesn't seem to have helped so far, and the compensation of "being right" seems just like a bitter pill. In the meantime, some percentage of the help that the situation needs is probably being quashed by such confident proclamations of hopelessness.

that saw it, it was very powerful and did point the finger at this admin for all the failures.
But yea! Moore and Gore! :thumbsup:

give it a few weeks, maybe a couple months even...football season will be starting up- and the country will be right back in it's regular rut groove.

...I can say, however, that it is nonexistent here in Japan. I also remember a lot of excitement over Live Aid around 20 years ago, everyone watched, millions were raised, but people are still starving today.


It may just be that "Sicko" will bring enough momentum to bring about SOME change in the US health system, but the insurers will spend billions to see to it that whatever that change is, that they are included at the hog-trough.


As for the impact of Live Earth, and the notion that "pop culture heroes" are on Gore's bandwagon, it's nice, but this doesn't amount to a political endorsement of Gore himself, it's just a call for action.

And I don't see how it would have this profound effect, when everyone has known for years that Leo DiCaprio drove a Prius, and that Ed Begley composts, etc.


The most naive notion is that the corporations have somehow loosened the death grip they have on the American political process. They run it, plain and simple, and if reductions in emissions are to come about, it will be with their blessing, or not at all, and you can take that to the bank.

how long has that been? How many times they ran that show? Africa is still the most effed up continent on Earth...Bono still working on it.

To claim that the revolution is happening quickly because of a US movie or a concert series is ridiculous

whatever helps you sleep at night...

1.billions of people? 4 times as many dont read, write,think,care, or have access to the internet.
2. Bombshell of a movie? See #1. Wishful thinking. Plenty of people have their $10 co-pays.

Completely missing the elephant in the room: the Iraq war has a much more broad reaching effect, and the worm is starting to turn here at home. The bigger problem, the worm has already turned on that note world-wide.
That's your bombshell, there's your billions...

:)

control what we see in the theater. And in secret.
Everyone should see this movie.

and how they use the ratings system to suppress indy films.

Did your jaw drop when they showed that 1950s newsreel clip of the guy actually using the phrase "...they hate us for our freedom"?

They won't revolt until it is too late. My greatest fear is that major powers are watching us implode with their mouths watering.

start rounding up dissidents and placing them in interment camps for "processing".

Sorry. I don't mean to burst your bubble. Part of the disconnect in this country is when a group of people experience something that changes how they view the world and how they relate to the world they think everyone has experienced the same thing. I've seen that phenomena over and over again with the Christian community. When it becomes obvious that not everyone has been affected and transformed then disillusion and depression set in.

While many people may have been touched by Live Earth I don't think it has the impact of starting a revolution.

If we all REALLY organize and help the grocery unions make this strike BIG so that it empowers grocery union employees to win this time around rights for themselves and therefore for labor unions in subsequent strikes, that will help carry this energy over into other areas and keep it going!

Brave New Films is seeing this too and is trying to promote ways to deal with this. I'd already adjusted my shopping behavior since the last strike, and pretty much only shop for groceries at Costco and Trader Joe's. If everyone did this, and perhaps everyone carried "Live Earth Concert" cloth bags to these strikes, and told anyone trying to cross the picket line.

"Hey, I'll give you this bag to help planet earth and not use plastic bags they'll give you here, if you go shop at Stater Brothers, Trader Joe's, Henry's, or Costco instead".

That would help send both Live Earth's message, and help perhaps people realize that their small actions can empower them against Corporate America's malfeasance towards us.

reminds me of this movie.

What's your opinions? :shrug:

Looks very interesting.

FOR LIVE EARTH!! Zeitgeist tells the whole story. Surely a DUer put it together.
:kick:

Not sure on the DUer thingy, lol.

We don't want our country run by a bunch of crooks and cons who are bleeding and selling Our Precious Country.

The United States of America should be run BY the people For the People.


Come take us home again.

and we are on a roll! I :loveya: Jackpine Radical!

willing to continue this trajectory/manifestation. Freedom, Unity, Truth, Justice, Love are Soul yearnings. Humans are hard-wired to seek the Light - to move out of pain and suffering.

Thank you Al Gore, Cindy Sheehan, Keith Olbermann, Dennis Kucinich for being our most obvious Freedom Fighters....

Arrest Cheney-Bush!! Take away their Nuclear Football--stop their insane destruction, death and perversion!!!

Let's make it happen. You and me and him and her and everyone we know. All we have to do is be more careful what we buy. Stop buying things from criminals. Where do you start? How about with Dunkin Donuts?

They're owned by the Carlyle Group.

Think about it...

Maybe it's time for a Consumer's Evolution.

They won't buy anything from the corporates-
they only shop in thrift stores, drag thrown out
furniture home from the alley and buy food from
the local markets. And they like dumpster diving too.
They call it recycling food.
They came home with some really good produce too
when I went to visit her last week in Chicago.
More young people "get it" than we know.
BHN

Will we the people stand by while they dominate the internet and simply make it too expensive for "undesirable sites" to exist? The FTC or FCC just dropped Net neutrality the other day and only time will tell from here.

"Confessions of an Economic Hitman" was first, and now...
"The Secret History of the American Empire"

If you haven't read these books, do yourself a big favor and read them.

Mind blowing.

I haven't read either yet myself. They're on my "When I get time" list.

And, I was even happier that I have a Prius when I read 'em. That's two tanks per week I'm no longer buying from those monsters!

At least 8 tanks I DON'T buy per month! And, 96 additional tanks I don't buy per year. Let's just round it up to 100. That's $6,000 I now don't spend with them (Big Oil). If a bunch of us did the same ... their bottom line would soon hurt - greatly.

And, we're getting my hubby a Prius, so, soon, it will be $12,000 we're not giving to Big Oil.

As I recall, Perkins concludes "Secret History" by telling us to both put intense pressure upon offending corporations, and to, ultimately, force them to change - and to work with them in getting that done.

The books were mindblowing, though.

Other than that I am hopeful that things will continue to get better. Tipping point, I don't know. But their is reason to be optimistic.

Yeah, I wrote that. I also know exactly what Gore actually said, and what he actually did in regard to advancing the development of the Internet as a public medium.

;)

are you smoking?

Over the top, but wouldn't that be nice. :thumbsup:

You're fucking nuts. I'll believe it when I see it, not until.

has been made before.

Hell, I don't know if I'm right.

The thing I do know, though, is that in all the past instances of apparently revolutionary times and incidents that have been cited in this thread--be they Woodstock Live Aid or the antiwar movement in its various incarnations--there was no overall plan, there was no concerted and sustained program. The events just happened, and then everything fell back into some semblance of their prior patterns. That isn't what's going on this time. Live Earth is the opening front in what promises to be a long campaign with clear goals. That's what I believe will make the difference. I don't think Live Earth will do it by itself, I don't think Live Earth plus Sicko will do it. I cite those events as remarkable exemplars of what is beginning to happen. People chimed in with their own nominations for the list. The Economic Hitman books, other things.

And as to being nuts, yeah, OK. Years ago I faced the choice of going to a psychologist and having my problems fixed, or becoming one and having the problems excused. I chose the latter alternative. It was cheaper.

Not to imply that they aren't worthy causes.

Live Earth, on the other hand, deals with the source of our problems, as does nationalizing health care. It's an open ended effort that will have to include the entire world to be successful. Saturday was just a kickoff event for changes needed to save the environment, changes in our energy use, developing renewable energy technologies. We need to establish a global consciousness to be successful, and Gore is leading that effort.