As part of my social justice and anti-corruption activism, I often use bold language in many of my diaries, stating that our government institutions are corrupt to the core, which to me is a self-evident, empirical observation.
The reason I do so is because I think it's important to educate the population about the level of influence-peddling corruption infecting our government institutions, so they can understand the root of most of the social dysfunction afflicting the country, and especially average citizens.
The core of this problem is an institutionalized political bribery culture (that has swept the entire country, city by city) whereas business cartels and wealthy individuals use their influence and power to essentially buy off politicians on the take with a relentless flow of substantial amounts of campaign contributions as well as favors and passage through a revolving door of corruption, used by politicians and their staffers to cash in on their activities promoting and enacting laws and policies specifically-design to enrich their special interest paymasters, at the expense of the population, and the environment.
As this culture of corruption takes hold, what is clearly a nascent plutocracy starts to emerge, whereas wealthy individuals and their puppets in government continue consolidating their embrace, thus becoming a ruling elite.
As this happens, the wealth, benefits, good living, privilege, becomes their way of life, and they end up living in their own "reality bubble" which in many cases makes it difficult for many of them (within the bubble) to realize the truly horrendous consequences of their actions, on tens of millions of people.
This phenomena is at the root of the ongoing dismantling of the social safety net, the attack on public sector employees (in an attempt to pit low-wage, no-benefit workers, against public employees) with better benefits, the privatization of prisons, the militarization of the police forces around the country, the implementation of a total-information-awareness system, the pillaging of the national treasure with total impunity and under the protection of a Justice Department on the take, secret loans in the hundreds of billions of dollars by the FED to too-big-to-fail, too-big-to-prosecute financial institutions, the increasingly punitive and draconian legal/justice system for the majority of the population in a two-tiered justice system.
All these problems, in one way or another, are directly or indirectly caused by what is essentially an arrangement between corporatist cartels and their puppet politicians whereas the politicians use their power to enhance and protect the interests of their paymasters, at the expense of the population.
Because the ruling class lives inside their own perception bubble, they may not realize that as this grotesque influence-peddling system takes hold, they are helping bring about an increasingly fascistic regime which is impoverishing and subjugating a larger and larger segment of the population.
As part of my mission as an anti-corruption activist, in collaboration with an increasing number of activists around the country, I want to find ways to get this undeniable and self-evident message to as many people as possible.
The reason I think this is important is because in order to start thinking about ways to address the root problem of influence-peddling corruption, people need to come to a full and clear understanding of the situation.
Eventually, what I envision is to have a nationwide network of people building up intelligence about exactly how these corrupt relationship are being established? How they affect city councils, state houses, university boards, the Congress, federal agencies like the FDA, FCC, the Justice Department.
Which politician is in office now, and what are their relationship with these moneyed special interests, and do they have expectations to get lucrative positions with the same entities they are doing favors for (bribery).
This type of intelligence gathering would then be used to galvanize the citizenry to find effective, powerful, relentless, and strategic ways of dismantling the plutocracy, one city at a time.
With that in mind, I would like to ask readers to share any information or news about moneyed interest influence-peddling, nationwide. I will also ask for volunteer analysts and researchers to use the influence-peddling/corruption database to draft "messaging" that can be used to reach out to every corner of the country and recruit other citizens to the cause.
As I expressed in my previous diaries, my interest is on moving on from the echo chamber where we all agree with what's going on... When I drive and I'm at a busy intersection and I look around, and in my rear-view mirror, I'm thinking, "how can I reach those people?" When I look on and see a Starbucks full of coffee-lovers, I think "how I recruit every one of those people to join the movement?"
I do have a plan to eventually form a non-profit people's advertising and marketing organization that would be crowdfunded, but I'm aware that the concept may be a little too "abstract" at this point and it will take time to get it going.
In the meantime, I'll continue reaching out to people and we'll start this initiative one small step at a time...
With that in mind, please take a look at the database of "Malfeasance & Corruption" I'm putting together. I would like to ask readers to submit news about government corruption to the database: Please click here for submissions.
I would also like to get in contact with volunteer analysts and researchers, or anybody that can spend a few minutes here and there to help put together a cohesive narrative about the negative impacts influence-peddling corruption has on average people nationwide.
I'll be adding more information and resources to my website, including think tank forums, as I get move volunteers.
Each blue dot on the map below represents a member of a growing nation-wide network of social justice and anti-corruption activists committed to finding the best way forward. Join us in the effort!
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Ray Pensador |
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Here are some great quotes by Mahatma Gandhi, for inspiration:
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.”
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”