I’m fantasizing that I’m the recognized leader of a movement for the blue states to secede from the union due to what’s going on with the latest Presidential election. In this fantasy a number of states have already voted to secede. We have composed a bullet list of demands that the Republicans would have to agree to in order for the blue states not to secede. I am composing what I think this list should say.
1. The President, Vice President, Cabinet secretaries and under-secretaries must reveal their tax returns and put their assets in blind trust in order to serve
2. There must be no federal legislation restricting freedom of the press
3. No highly placed official, e.g. anyone on the list in point 1, shall be allowed to institute a personal or public lawsuit against any individual for criticizing the government or government officials, either in their public or private capacity. Any such existing lawsuits must be dropped.
4. Plurality take all elections must be eliminated and replaced either with a runoff system, as they have in France, or a ranked voting system, such as they have recently adopted in Maine.
5. The electoral college must be eliminated and the president must be elected by direct election.
6. No scientist may be penalized for having pursued a course of research, merely because the Republicans don’t like the research results.
7. The second amendment must be changed to clarify that states can have gun control laws
8. The EPA must not be eliminated; and most especially lead must not be allowed in gasoline.
9. Social Security shall not be changed to a voucher system
10. Medicare benefits shall not be cut
11. Any Obama federal court nominees who have been pending for 6 months and not voted on shall be considered approved.
12. Some variant of Obamacare must be preserved, so that general access to health insurance is also preserved — which is not to say there couldn’t be some changes, but not wholesale evisceration
13. Pennsylvania and Michigan must be recounted. Broken seals on voting machines must be thoroughly explained.
I’m still working on this list
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Monday, December 19, 2016
Analysis of Trump
A friend of mine wrote this, but didn't want to post it publicly for fear of later personal and personal repercussions. He authorized me to copy it and post it unattributed.
It's not a hyperbole when people say the idea of American democracy is in jeopardy, but even a quick look into our history will show that we've never actually been a democracy and it's always been something we've been working towards.
Voter suppression, Russian hacking, one-sided document leaks, fake news, disproportionate representation, gerrymandered districts, obstructionism, and now this unconscionable bullshit that's happening in North Carolina -- these things are all an outrage, but this country has never actually been an ideal, shining democracy.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was only signed 51 years ago, and voting rights at that time were violently resisted by state governments. The presidential primary system that we know today, where people vote for the candidate of each party, only began forming in 1972 and it's still not complete; before that, candidates were chosen in smoke-filled rooms that probably saw much shadier shit than we saw in the DNC email leak.
A lot of us were hoping for the best on election day and we got very much the worst, but we can't pretend that our electoral process is all of a sudden some messed-up thing we have to fix. It's arguably just as bad now as it's ever been.
This being said, if you are not outraged right now, I'm willing to say you don't care about democracy. The candidate who received almost 3 million more votes is not the president; the party that received more overall votes for congress does not control congress; and the party that will now control the government has made it clear that they're going to push for the most hard-line version of their agenda despite much of it being deeply unpopular even among their own moderate constituents. This is an outrage. We do not live in a democracy and anyone who tries to convince you that we do is lying to you.
If Trump has his way, the next four years will be ruled by a small minority of extremely rich, old, white men (and a couple of wives of extremely rich, old, white men) with demonstrably close personal financial ties to the very things they will be given executive authority over. This does not bode well for our country but it's ultimately not too different from the way things have been since the founding of our nation.
Those of us who believe in a free, democratic society will need to be vigilant these next few months. It is a mess and it's an ugly one.
It's not a hyperbole when people say the idea of American democracy is in jeopardy, but even a quick look into our history will show that we've never actually been a democracy and it's always been something we've been working towards.
Voter suppression, Russian hacking, one-sided document leaks, fake news, disproportionate representation, gerrymandered districts, obstructionism, and now this unconscionable bullshit that's happening in North Carolina -- these things are all an outrage, but this country has never actually been an ideal, shining democracy.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was only signed 51 years ago, and voting rights at that time were violently resisted by state governments. The presidential primary system that we know today, where people vote for the candidate of each party, only began forming in 1972 and it's still not complete; before that, candidates were chosen in smoke-filled rooms that probably saw much shadier shit than we saw in the DNC email leak.
A lot of us were hoping for the best on election day and we got very much the worst, but we can't pretend that our electoral process is all of a sudden some messed-up thing we have to fix. It's arguably just as bad now as it's ever been.
This being said, if you are not outraged right now, I'm willing to say you don't care about democracy. The candidate who received almost 3 million more votes is not the president; the party that received more overall votes for congress does not control congress; and the party that will now control the government has made it clear that they're going to push for the most hard-line version of their agenda despite much of it being deeply unpopular even among their own moderate constituents. This is an outrage. We do not live in a democracy and anyone who tries to convince you that we do is lying to you.
If Trump has his way, the next four years will be ruled by a small minority of extremely rich, old, white men (and a couple of wives of extremely rich, old, white men) with demonstrably close personal financial ties to the very things they will be given executive authority over. This does not bode well for our country but it's ultimately not too different from the way things have been since the founding of our nation.
Those of us who believe in a free, democratic society will need to be vigilant these next few months. It is a mess and it's an ugly one.
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Why Trump Won't Hold a Press Conference
Quoted from FB
"Wondering why Trump won't hold a press conference? In the last two days alone, Newsweek published a damning article about Trump's conflicts, Democrats demanded that DeVos pay $5.3 million in fines for her PAC, the GSA has said Trump must sell DC hotel or be in breech of contract, Michael Flynn deleted fake news tweets about Clinton, Tillerson's Russian Order of Friendship Award was edited out of his Wikipedia entry, and 54 electors have signed a letter demanding an intelligence briefing before they vote, and Preibus has threatened to alter press access to the White House. I wouldn't want to answer press questions either."
"Wondering why Trump won't hold a press conference? In the last two days alone, Newsweek published a damning article about Trump's conflicts, Democrats demanded that DeVos pay $5.3 million in fines for her PAC, the GSA has said Trump must sell DC hotel or be in breech of contract, Michael Flynn deleted fake news tweets about Clinton, Tillerson's Russian Order of Friendship Award was edited out of his Wikipedia entry, and 54 electors have signed a letter demanding an intelligence briefing before they vote, and Preibus has threatened to alter press access to the White House. I wouldn't want to answer press questions either."
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Response to an encounter
She was speaking at a Friends' Meeting. I didn't at first register that she was a POC, because she was fairly light skinned. She almost could have passed, but then she said she was a POC, so I knew.
She was raising money for a trip she was taking, so I gave her $20, but then we started talking. I was still reeling from the election. I wrongly assumed that she would agree with my support for Hillary, but she didn't. She didn't like liberal, white women. She thought a more open racist, like Trump might actually be easier to deal with than a sneaky racist, which she perceived liberal white women to be.
She started talking about having some Native American as well as black ancestry. She started angrily saying that we live on stolen land and should give it back. Everything I said seemed to annoy her. Eventually, she called me arrogant.
Then I said maybe she should give back the $20. She did, with an obscenity.
I didn't say more, but afterwards I had many thoughts of things I might tell her. I figured I would write them down.
First, I thought of prominent people with Native American ancestry, Elizabeth Warren and Michael Jackson. Then I thought that God is gradually giving the country back to Native Americans, one child at a time.
Second, I wondered whether this individual truly wanted to live in a Stone Age lifestyle the way the Native Peoples did prior to European invasion. My guess is no, that she wants the infrastructure and technology we have now without the white people, which doesn't necessarily seem all that equitable.
Third, I thought about how I'd love to find a cute, well behaved Native American guy and share my home with him.
And then I thought about how her face looked more white than black or red, and how odd it is that we think of people like her as not being white; or think of President Obama as black, when he's half white. Why shouldn't he be regarded as as much of a white man as a black man?
Also, some Native American tribe recently amnestied us, at least as immigrants.
And then I thought of my father. He came to this country as a penniless immigrant and died upper middle class. He was white. I recognize that he had advantages because he was white, but, his story demonstrates that the reason that so many Native Americans live in poverty is not that white people took their property in the 19th century, but other factors.
Another thing I thought about was statute of limitations, a concept that limits recovery for damage to a certain period of time after the alleged wrong. But the statute can be tolled in some cases where the complainant has been under coercion and disabled from litigating.
Still, it certainly is true that the land was stolen from Native Americans and white people are all immigrants. And, no, I'm not donating all of my property to Native American causes. There isn't really any moral justification. That's just how it is.
She was raising money for a trip she was taking, so I gave her $20, but then we started talking. I was still reeling from the election. I wrongly assumed that she would agree with my support for Hillary, but she didn't. She didn't like liberal, white women. She thought a more open racist, like Trump might actually be easier to deal with than a sneaky racist, which she perceived liberal white women to be.
She started talking about having some Native American as well as black ancestry. She started angrily saying that we live on stolen land and should give it back. Everything I said seemed to annoy her. Eventually, she called me arrogant.
Then I said maybe she should give back the $20. She did, with an obscenity.
I didn't say more, but afterwards I had many thoughts of things I might tell her. I figured I would write them down.
First, I thought of prominent people with Native American ancestry, Elizabeth Warren and Michael Jackson. Then I thought that God is gradually giving the country back to Native Americans, one child at a time.
Second, I wondered whether this individual truly wanted to live in a Stone Age lifestyle the way the Native Peoples did prior to European invasion. My guess is no, that she wants the infrastructure and technology we have now without the white people, which doesn't necessarily seem all that equitable.
Third, I thought about how I'd love to find a cute, well behaved Native American guy and share my home with him.
And then I thought about how her face looked more white than black or red, and how odd it is that we think of people like her as not being white; or think of President Obama as black, when he's half white. Why shouldn't he be regarded as as much of a white man as a black man?
Also, some Native American tribe recently amnestied us, at least as immigrants.
And then I thought of my father. He came to this country as a penniless immigrant and died upper middle class. He was white. I recognize that he had advantages because he was white, but, his story demonstrates that the reason that so many Native Americans live in poverty is not that white people took their property in the 19th century, but other factors.
Another thing I thought about was statute of limitations, a concept that limits recovery for damage to a certain period of time after the alleged wrong. But the statute can be tolled in some cases where the complainant has been under coercion and disabled from litigating.
Still, it certainly is true that the land was stolen from Native Americans and white people are all immigrants. And, no, I'm not donating all of my property to Native American causes. There isn't really any moral justification. That's just how it is.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Call the Department of Justice Today #auditthevote
This is a copy of a post I received on FB
**note please copy+paste, don't share, copy/paste is more effective!
Thank you Karen Kohlhaas URGENT: Everyone, I just got this updated info. Call the Department of Justice about auditing PA, WI, MI, NC, and FL. They are tallying the calls they receive, and the calls must be done by 11/23. Here's the info. Pleas pass it on. I just did this. Took 1 min. to leave a message. Worth a try folks.
CALL TO ACTION - IMPORTANT:
The Department of Justice is tallying phone calls regarding those who want the 2016 Vote Audited. A shift of just 55,000 Trump votes to Hillary in PA, MI & WI is all that is Needed to Win.
They are starting to recognize there really is something off about the election results as they come in. Considering everything that is at stake, a vote audit should be done.
Call the DOJ at 202-514-2000 and wait for options then choose 4 for Comment Line. Tell them you want the votes AUDITED! Even if it's busy, keep calling. It takes a few times to get through because of all the calls being made.
**note please copy+paste, don't share, copy/paste is more effective!
Thank you Karen Kohlhaas URGENT: Everyone, I just got this updated info. Call the Department of Justice about auditing PA, WI, MI, NC, and FL. They are tallying the calls they receive, and the calls must be done by 11/23. Here's the info. Pleas pass it on. I just did this. Took 1 min. to leave a message. Worth a try folks.
CALL TO ACTION - IMPORTANT:
The Department of Justice is tallying phone calls regarding those who want the 2016 Vote Audited. A shift of just 55,000 Trump votes to Hillary in PA, MI & WI is all that is Needed to Win.
They are starting to recognize there really is something off about the election results as they come in. Considering everything that is at stake, a vote audit should be done.
Call the DOJ at 202-514-2000 and wait for options then choose 4 for Comment Line. Tell them you want the votes AUDITED! Even if it's busy, keep calling. It takes a few times to get through because of all the calls being made.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Afterthoughts about the election
It's easy to focus on negative aspects of Trump:
These were the reasons I supported Hillary.
But we shouldn't assume that everyone who voted for him endorses all this long list of bad characteristics. There were actually some issues:
People who cared about these issues may well have been holding their noses when voting for him.
I personally originally supported Bernie Sanders, because of these three issues
Hillary seemed less strong to me on these issues
Curiously, on drug legalization, it appears that red states area as progressive or more progressive than blue states
Of course there were also allegations of sexual assault and rape and philandering against Bill Clinton. I don't know if he did those things or not, but at least he apparently knows those things are wrong and tries to hide them, rather than boasting of them.
- Misogynist
- Allegations of sexual assault and rape
- Philanderer
- Bully
- Xenophobic
- Ignorant of issues
- Willing to provoke Mexico by putting up a wall
- Bully
- Calling people with problems losers
- Behaviors that would have gotten him expelled from kindergarten
- Racist supporters, giving impression of being racist himself
- Violent supporters
- Inciting violence
- Absurd insistence that Hillary was the most corrupt candidate we've ever had, when he was more corrupt. Focusing on minor errors and appearance of impropriety, when there seemed to be none
- Wanting to persecute Hillary when she had spent most of her life in selfless public service
- Accusing Hillary of being negative, when he was more negative
- Not paying contractors
- Seeking to undermine freedom of the press
These were the reasons I supported Hillary.
But we shouldn't assume that everyone who voted for him endorses all this long list of bad characteristics. There were actually some issues:
- Obamacare helped many people get insurance, but it doubled costs for the self employed ) like me) and small business owners. I personally lost my preferred health insurance, because the NYSBA was decertified as a group and could no longer provide insurance to its members
- Low interest rates helped the economy recovery and brought cheap mortgages, but for retired people living on fixed income securities they were a financial disaster
- Trump spoke out against war, while Hillary seemed to be a hawk
- Gun control, which is a very different issue in rural communities with no police than it is in urban communities
- Abortion: I personally am pro choice, but many people believe abortion is murder and this is important to them
People who cared about these issues may well have been holding their noses when voting for him.
I personally originally supported Bernie Sanders, because of these three issues
- Medicare for all
- Addiction is a disease, not a crime
- Voted against the second war on Iraq
Hillary seemed less strong to me on these issues
Curiously, on drug legalization, it appears that red states area as progressive or more progressive than blue states
Of course there were also allegations of sexual assault and rape and philandering against Bill Clinton. I don't know if he did those things or not, but at least he apparently knows those things are wrong and tries to hide them, rather than boasting of them.
Monday, October 17, 2016
Haiti and the Clinton Foundation
This alleged scandal irks me.
First, a private foundation, like the Clinton Foundation, is not required to take competitive bids, unlike the government. They can hire their friends.
Second, this deforestation issue in Haiti has been in the news for decades. It has presented a grave problem for Haiti from both environmental and economic perspectives. The mountainsides were eroding. Large portions of Haiti's land were not being productive in producing food, despite food scarcities in the country.
And no one was fixing the problem.
The Clinton Foundation did something. Perhaps it was suboptimal, but at least they did something, which was more than other people were doing.
Also, the fact that Bill learned about a possible solution to a longstanding problem during a paid speaking engagement does not mean that he is corrupt. He saw a possibility of synchronicity and he acted on it. This is a good thing.
By contrast, Trump was using his foundation as a personal slush fund.
http://www.smallholderfarmersalliance.org/home/2015/3/7/revitalizing-lime-production-in-haiti.html
First, a private foundation, like the Clinton Foundation, is not required to take competitive bids, unlike the government. They can hire their friends.
Second, this deforestation issue in Haiti has been in the news for decades. It has presented a grave problem for Haiti from both environmental and economic perspectives. The mountainsides were eroding. Large portions of Haiti's land were not being productive in producing food, despite food scarcities in the country.
And no one was fixing the problem.
The Clinton Foundation did something. Perhaps it was suboptimal, but at least they did something, which was more than other people were doing.
Also, the fact that Bill learned about a possible solution to a longstanding problem during a paid speaking engagement does not mean that he is corrupt. He saw a possibility of synchronicity and he acted on it. This is a good thing.
By contrast, Trump was using his foundation as a personal slush fund.
http://www.smallholderfarmersalliance.org/home/2015/3/7/revitalizing-lime-production-in-haiti.html
*****
I just found this, which I actually am having trouble understanding, but is relevant
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/clinton-foundation-statement/story?id=42653561
****
Intriguing article about the Clinton Foundation.
So I still think the Foundation does good work. If Bill makes money at the same time, does that negate the good work? Do means justify the end? He's accomplishing things that others don't accomplish.
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