Grab your whetstone and tinder box

Welcome to Pitchforks and Torches. The name is designed to set a mood; a mood for encouraging working-class Americans to take back their economic power, their liberty, and their dignity. By "working-class" I mean those not in the top 10% or so of earnings - line workers, hourly employees, office staff, and even mid-managers. While not literally encouraging you to take to the streets and drag shameless robber-barons from their McMansions and set those palaces on fire, I find the correlation between our current situation and the events leading up to the French Revolution to be...interesting.

I hope to help you understand just exactly what has been done to We The People over the past 50 years or so, and continues to be done. This is neither a Democrat nor Republican site. Both those parties have sold us down the river at times, and both have actually had our collective backs on occasion. Rather, this is a blog that intends to point out that you and I have steadily lost buying power and economic clout while those at the top of the heap have increased their wealth disproportionately and at our expense. We have often been duped by great phrases ("Trickle-down Economics") and sleight of hand misdirection (Health care reform means death panels), that take our eye off the real beneficiaries of the status quo or proposed change.

I will turn over news rocks and look past the headlines and see if I can find the rest of the story. I will point out the alternative news that dovetails with the headlines. It is my intent to have no sacred cows, no untouchable topics or persons upon which I will not shine my light. I will not always get it right. I will argue points that turn out to be wrong. For that I apologize in advance, and promise that when it is clear that I am wrong, I will blog that correction as well.

Your voices in the comments will let me know if I am on the right track or not. For now the comments will remain open and not moderated. I reserve the right to turn on some filtering if those leaving comments cannot be civil (attack the topic not the person) or routinely try to divert the topic to a talking point (trolls).

Stay tuned!