Our government is supposed to be the one place where everybody gets the same fair shot, no matter how powerful or powerless they might be. But thanks to the revolving door between Capitol Hill, K Street and Wall Street, powerful people have more and more influence in Congress. Thanks to Citizens United, corporate money slithers through Washington like a snake. Washington works great for the rich and powerful, but for everyone else, not so much.
Yes, the system is rigged – and if you don’t feel like anyone in politics is doing anything to un-rig it, well, that’s how a lot of folks who should have been with us last November wound up voting for Donald Trump.
~ Elizabeth Warren, in a speech today at Netroots Nation
Once again it’s time for a Saturday night $27-group / Political Revolution open thread, featuring some inspiring quotes, good music, and (most importantly) a picture or two of foresterbob’s cat Noble Fur.
In recognition of Daily Kos preference that diaries focus on what Trump has said and done recently (Exciting! Click-baity!), rather than what Democrats are up to, I’ve been trying to at least work Donald Trump’s name into the diary titles. But Elizabeth Warren gave a great speech at Netroots Nation today which I couldn’t resist featuring in tonight’s title and in an opening quote. (And there’ll be more further down.)
Before any of you get too angry about not getting a dose of Trump, please permit me to distract you with some music:
For many Americans, it isn’t news that the balance of power in our country has seriously tilted away from them. African Americans. LGBTQ Americans. Immigrants. Muslims. Women. Poor people.
No, I have not personally experienced the fear, the oppression, and the pain that many of my fellow Americans endure every day. But I do know this: For a lot of our fellow citizens, the system is rigged now and it has been rigged for a long, long time.
Don’t take my word for it. Just look around.
- When women aren’t invited to the debate over our own health care and health insurance must cover Viagra but not birth control.
- When we’re almost two decades into the 21st century and we still don’t have equal pay for equal work.
- When a man running for President of the United States can get caught on tape bragging about sexual assault and Republican party leaders turn a blind eye.
Yeah, the system is rigged.
~ Elizabeth Warren, in her speech today
Those of you who have read one of these $27 Quotes diary before know that I generally encrypt new quotes before I post them. That way you get to enjoy the fun (and mental exercise) of cracking the encoded messages before contemplating what they say.
But I thought it might be nice to include some unencrypted quotes from Elizabeth Warren’s speech so that even those of us who weren’t able to attend and hear it live can enjoy it today.
I don’t know if video is available of her speech yet, but an advance transcript is available here, for those who would like to read the entire speech, but here’s another taste of it:
Keep going.
- When the black-white wealth gap triples over the past three decades.
- When racist voter ID laws and voter suppression tactics sprout like weeds all across the country.
- When a man too racist to become a judge in the 1980s now runs the Department of Justice
- When communities like Flint are living with poisoned water and polluted air.
- When there’s still no justice for, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile and so many more.
Yeah, the system is rigged.
Keep going.
- When you can still be fired from your job because of who you love.
- When you can’t use a public restroom or serve in the military because of your gender identity.
- When you’re afraid to report a rape because ICE could split up your family.
- When you’re treated like a suspect every minute of your life.
Yeah, the system is rigged.
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You know what else might be nice to read in unencrypted form? Plain-text versions of last week’s crypto-quotes, for the benefit of anyone who didn’t decode and read them then.
The reality is fraud is the business model of both Wall Street and the pharmaceutical industry. It's not the exception. It's the rule.
God didn’t decide on 65 as the Medicare eligibility age. We should make Medicare available for every single person in this country.
Fracking contributes to the climate crisis, increases earthquake risks and threatens our drinking water. Fracking is not the answer.
It's never easy to stand together and try to form a union. I applaud the Nissan workers in Mississippi fighting for workers' rights.
Wells Fargo has shown that almost a decade after the crash, fraud still appears to be the business model on Wall St.
All five of those were tweets sent out recently by Bernie Sanders.
How about one more unencrypted quote before we get down to tonight’s crypto-quotes? This one’s from September 2016:
I have history with this party. This party has a varied history as well — and certainly in this country’s history was not the party that we are today. This party was the party of the slave owner; it was the Dixiecrat party. We changed over time...
We are the party that’s gonna fight for Social Security. And we are the party that’s gonna fight to increase the minimum wage in this country. We are the party that was gonna restore the Voting Rights Act. All of those things, all of the reasons why I am a Democrat — that stuck with me. And so I believe that there has to be dedicated dissenters within this party and I am the ultimate dedicated dissenter.
I think the party is worth fighting for. I believe that the Democratic Party is worth fighting for.
~ Nina Turner
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Since Bernie Sanders was well-represented in last week’s quotes, I’ve selected several other people to feature in tonight’s crypto-quotes. But before I post tonight’s crypto-quotes, I should probably post the usual reminder about how these things work:
Before I post the week’s new quotes I encode them so that you folks can have fun solving them.
But be warned. These are not regular cryptograms. Those can be solved by online programs which run through every possible set of letter substitutions until they find the answer. These can’t.
These are Crypto-Gremlins, a special kind of cryptogram which computer brains at present find virtually impossible to solve but human brains find very easy to solve.
If you’re not familiar with how Crypto-Gremlins work you can findcomplete instructions in this previous $27 Quotes diary. (And you can find some helpful hints on how to solve Crypto-Gremlins there as well). You’ll also find a demo for how to solve one in tonight’s diary.
Don’t be afraid to play with these puzzles. Solving these really is very easy.
PS: You can find a very useful online tool to help you play with making letter substitutions here.
All right, on to tonight’s quotes.
This first one is about someone who is quoted above:
Ainhs As hisruc hinhe (McxxVttps) wheol asrpsgnhtwl rswt Rsrn'wt htvvtghsktrtwwn rnwc an btnptoe. Wit rswt an btnptoe. Unrpc dektdtrhe btnptowe fnot fnbanlwt fcrpton fnhhngul. Htwytgsnbbl mbngut dektdtrhn btnptowe. We hit rnoonhskt rswt he hol unrpc dnut hitds beeun wcrisrftpt, usdmnbnrgtpt -- osh'wc he dnut anrlert aie wytnuwc hochin he yeatos beeuc fcrwhnmbt.
~ OewtNrre PtDeoe
This second quote is by someone who is quoted above:
My body rush say posy fdonaydne muck suloe’ne Lygufdoskfy Iodse.
My body rush bo mkrph muck suloe’ne Lygufdoskfy Iodse.
My body say ayodsu borlu nuhto muck suloe’ne Lygufdoskfy Iodse.
~ Lytkxowysao Moddyrk
Your attention, please:
Due to circumstances beyond our control — namely an irresistible urge to take a quick peek at Noble Fur again — we interrupt these crypto-quotes for a short photo break. Crypto-quotes will resume momentarily.
Well, all right: here’s a little more from Elizabeth Warren’s speech to Netroots Nation this morning:
We’ve been warned off before. Give up, keep your heads down, be realistic, act like a grown-up, keep doing the same old same old.
But here’s what’s interesting: instead of lots of lots of ferocious back-and-forth and piling on, this time, no one cared. Big yawn. Why? Because the Democratic Party isn’t going back to the days of welfare reform and the crime bill. It is NOT going to happen.
We’re not going back to the days of being lukewarm on choice.
We’re not going back to the days when universal health care was something Democrats talked about on the campaign trail but were too chicken to fight for after they got elected.
And we’re not going back to the days when a Democrat who wanted to run for a seat in Washington first had to grovel on Wall Street.
We now resume tonight’s crypto-quotes, already in progress:
Upon urewy upon cpoilehp gruldlnts bpwrs iron arehlehr ipel vs banlor glehnoerldts flep fr kpyebos clbay frel vnkpepus urewy fr hpxnoeunebp barbl cpoitr cpeds gpoy baptn frby ban xnos bpml.
Baltn koltlts wlwe’bn tbroby caner Wperdwy Boyumy crdinwr flebp ban Cpxrd Cpgglkn. Urewy flbs cpe’bn zytbp urhlkrdds wltrmmnror ban wrs an crditp cpybn cpgl flbs.
Fndlfrvnbay Crooner
And here’s one from someone you may not be familiar with. It’s from something they wrote back in January, but it’s (unfortunately) spot on again this month in relation to something the person this quote is about said about one of the people quoted above:
Iebg be bag btobsbg mgtkgme: It reeks ytl be bgccn inxe oehgeig inoe itdbstccl it vmermgoonwg, itikn iebn fsobn bmlnirt be de-evbt bag bgmhs, inoe yagbagmt bagl ovgikn bagnms bnhg zeit oedntcg hgknt octikgmnirg itdbstcg vmermgoonwg cgtkgmon.
~ Oatig Mltis
(Here’s a link to the story that quote comes from. It’s well worth reading.)
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Speaking of things well worth reading, here’s one more excerpt from the speech Elizabeth Warren gave this morning:
Yeah, the system is rigged.
And if you don’t feel like anyone in politics is doing anything to un-rig it, or it’s too broken to un-rig at all -- well, that’s what a lot of folks felt last November, a lot of folks who should have been with us on election day but who stayed home.
So spare me the argument about whether we ought to be trying to bring back folks who voted for Donald Trump or trying to turn out folks who just didn’t vote.
Because we can’t do either of those things until we can show that things CAN change – and that WE will fight to change them.
~ Elizabeth Warren
I hope a video of that speech will be available soon, because as good as it is in writing I bet it’s even better out loud.
But since I can’t post a video of Elizabeth Warren delivering that speech, here’s a different video which I hope you’ll enjoy instead: