The United States of Greed and Bullies

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An Essay of the Man From the North by Rivera Sun A nation built on greed is not a nation; it is just a legal framework for rape and pillage, slavery and exploitation, theft, murder, and genocide. A nation whose primary function is to protect the exclusive right of the rich to engage in those […]

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The Tools of Nonviolent Struggle Should Never Lose Their Edge

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An Essay of the Man From the North by Rivera Sun The tools of nonviolent action and the skills of struggle are as vital to these times as reading, writing, and arithmetic. Training to use them is as essential as learning how to use a computer. The ability to boycott and strike is as important […]

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Constitution 2.0

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An Essay of the Man from the North by Rivera Sun If we, the people, wrote a constitution now, what would go in it? Equal rights for women, men, non-binary, and undefined? Caps on wealth tied to poverty levels? Rights of nature? Reparations for past crimes, wrongs, and thefts? Limits on military spending? A free […]

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Protect the Net!

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Stop Crony Capitalism: Protect the Net! by Rivera Sun Pretty soon, we’ll all be paying a whole lot more money for Internet service. A few days ago the FCC’s repeal of Net Neutrality went into effect. If nothing is done, it easy to see the handwriting on the wall. After a waiting period of no […]

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The Rule of the Rich and the Last Hurrah

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An Essay of the Man From the Northby Rivera Sun Rich people rule, make no mistake. They have ruled for centuries, and the toll of their reign has been high. At their feet can be laid the bodies of every child starved in a world with surplus food; every person who freezes to death in […]

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The Laboratory of Democracy

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The United States is a laboratory for democracy – a centuries-long experiment in what does and does not work for people making decisions together. Moments of abject failure and soaring success punctuate long periods of disruption, shut-downs, and the regular ransacking of our laboratory. Our experimental efforts have often been thwarted by undemocratic interests. The […]

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Corn Syrup Nation – An Essay of the Man From the North

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Reject the glossy and sensational for the gritty and educational. Wean your mind from corn syrup and eat your vegetables. We have become a diabetic, cancerous, obese, depressed, anxiety attack ridden culture from the consumption of glitter-sugary corn syrup politics, sound-bite news, vacuous entertainment, and catch-phrase economics. We are commercialized right down to our souls […]

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Radical Love

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I used to think of love as a side dish to social political change – the green beans next to the meat and potatoes of power and struggle. But, the more I live in the gritty world of honest humanity, the more I suspect that love is the essential mineral lacking in our nation’s veins. […]

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Schoolyard Bullies on Capitol Hill

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An Essay of the Man From the Northby Rivera Sun Politicians have devolved into nothing more than schoolyard bullies stealing lunch money from small children, harassing the defenseless, and expecting to receive rewards and gold stars of approval. They plunder the public coffers, destroying shared wealth that we, the People, have worked arduously to build. […]

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Corporate Demons Possess Our Nation

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An Essay of the Man From the Northby Rivera Sun Corporate demons possess our nation’s soul. They crept in stealthily, full of trickery and deception, but now they’re lodged in place, as surely as if they had stormed our homes and halls of power with guns and tanks. Perhaps we’d recognize their coup if they […]

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Countering Hate and Discrimination

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by Rivera Sun for Campaign Nonviolence and Peace Voice Many people in the United States are expressing concern over the rise of hatred, hate crimes, bigotry, racism, sexism, and Islamophobia. At the same time, a number of creative nonviolent responses have arisen for addressing discrimination and hatred on the ground. Here are a few stories […]

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Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution: Know Your Nonviolent History

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Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution in 1989 —  Campaigners sought to end the Soviet occupation of the country, as well as shifting from communist rule. They wanted to remove the laws of state-mandated censorship and demanded free elections. Just eighteen months before the November nonviolent revolution, Czechoslovakians organized their first public mass demonstration since 1969. Roman Catholic […]

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Disrupt! Interrupt! The Ground of Resistance is Ours!

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An Essay of The Man From the North A smoothly functioning society is created and maintained by the people. Children go to school, workers show up at their jobs, shipments are made, groceries and purchases are bought, bills are paid, goods and services are delivered; and so on. In times of justice, when the workings […]

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Old Toads and Millennial Votes

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I am an old millennial, one who just barely squeezes into the age category.  I graduated high school in 2000. My first presidential election was Bush vs. Gore – a rigged election with widespread allegations of electoral voting machine manipulation and a dubiously-legal intervention of the Supreme Court to stop the pivotal Florida vote count, […]

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Health, Safety, Toxicity . . . and Elections

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Caring for the health and safety of our children and families is common ground where Americans on the left and the right meet. Yet, during this election cycle, few candidates seem willing to talk about the health and safety risks caused by toxic industries. Instead, the false split between environment and jobs is used to […]

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Sing the Body Politic, Electric

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Recently, I traveled by train across the US in a swaying, creeping journey that took me through the backyards and forgotten corners of our country. Here, you see the America that doesn’t make it into the slogans of presidential campaigns. These back alleys are not evoked by the statistics and demographical jargon politicians use to […]

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Thrown Under the Automated Bus

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Automation isn’t coming. It’s here. At the airport, the public library, the grocery store, and dozens of other places, touch screens are rapidly replacing human bodies, especially in basic service industry positions. In a time when service industry jobs represent 80 percent of all employment in the United States, and when a presidential report on […]

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Dignity and Respect During an Election Year

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During election years, pent-up frustrations, simmering animosities, and the toxic legacy of countless hours of hate talk radio erupt from the seething volcano of the American public. Injustice left festering explodes into anger and hatred. Defensive arrogance and condescension drips down the pyramid of privilege. What should – and perhaps someday could – be a […]

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We Can’t Bomb Our Way to Better Schools

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“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” ~ Dr. King From the left and the right, policy proposals are flying fast and furious. It is an election year, after all.  But one topic is completely off the agenda […]

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Oligarchy: As American As Poisoned Apple Pie

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by Rivera Sun The current struggle between democracy and oligarchy in the United States traces its roots back to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention where the wealthy elite pulled off a counter-revolutionary coup to stifle democracy. Oligarchs are as American as poisoned apple pie. Their wealth and power look mouth-wateringly good, but with every bite, democracy […]

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Rich People Rule: Struggle Lies Ahead

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by Rivera Sun Occupy Radio cohosts Rivera Sun and David Geitgey Sierralupe interviewed Ben Page, coauthor of the new study on how politicians ignore the people. Listen here. If a dictator moved into the White House and condemned the populace into servitude, the US political situation might be a lot clearer. But beneath the lies, […]

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The Sabotage of Division OR Revolutionary Respect

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Enough! Enough of this senseless criticizing of one another. A Dandelion Insurrectionist who is imprisoned and beaten by the police is no more revolutionary than the mother who gets up in the morning and feeds her child. We all have tasks that are imperatives of our times and we must do them with humility. Those […]

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“Food Politics At the Family Table”

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In other years, Thanksgiving has found me ranting about Black Friday’s commercialization of greed during a holiday of gratitude. I have written historical exposes of the historical Thanksgiving and the genocide of the native tribes. I have explored the inner convolutions of emotions that come along with being an American. This year, I chose to […]

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“Meet Me at the Bill of Rights: America’s Common Ground”

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Note: Usually this blog post features a companion article to our weekly Occupy Radio interview. This week, however, Radley Balko, senior writer and investigative reporter for the Huffington Post, hit upon a concept so powerful that, with all due respect, I had to detour from discussing his bestselling book about the militarization of our police […]

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