By Eric Ahlberg

It’s been a fascinating year. Yes good things have happened, so let’s step right into the New Year, on our lovely shiny cloud of progressive optimism.

Behold the ambitions of the social activist, storming the gate of heaven, and the gates of hell, Wall Street.

I have two friends running for California Governor, Cindy Sheehan and Luis Rodriguez. Cindy Sheehan is running with the Peace and Freedom Party, which is running a signature campaign to get Cindy on the ballot. Cindy is an internationally renowned peace and social justice activist.

Luis Rodriguez has been endorsed by the Green Party. He is an author, poet, and activist who I’ve known and respected for 40 years. Check him out.

The Peace and Freedom Party was founded in Venice, and, through the support of activists all across California, was able to mount a registration drive to get on the ballot in the late 60’s. It should be clear now that the Democratic Party is not representing us. With Obama’s failure to close Guantanamo, drone bombings, and NSA surveillance, with Jerry Brown’s support of fracking and privatization of prisons, with Democrats like Jane Harman having supported the Iraq war, it should be clear that Democrats are neoliberal fools, and that they are fooling you.

California’s open primary system means that there are no party-specific primaries for public office anymore. So you can register for the Peace and Freedom Party and it will not affect in any way the candidates you can vote for. “Grow or Die”  is the most basic and universal principle in behavior and evolution and social change.

Edward Snowden exposed the US Government’s illegal surveillance of domestic and foreign communications. Done deal, years ago. The nations of the world can see that even they have no secrets from the NSA. Their Internet infrastructure is riddled with backdoors installed by the NSA, at the factory or intercepted in shipping. There is no privacy on the Internet. There is a giant cloud of exhibitionism and voyeurism.  This giant blob is informing and expanding the reach of our minds, and there are international struggles for freedom of information. Humanity is coping with a new vision of itself, having your friends, your community, and the entire world in your pocket, in your desktop, in your bed.

Then Bill Moyers calls for an overthrow, because when poor people have nothing, they have nothing to lose.

Above: political cartoon by Khalil Bendib