Peaceful Freedom

Trump Dumped

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 06:47:00 +0000

Failing to inspire enough voters to win re-election, failing to reverse the results with over sixty failed lawsuits, failing to strong-arm the chief vote counter in Georgia into giving him enough votes to win the state, failing to persuade the nation that the election was stolen, failing to stop the House of Representatives' tallying of the electoral votes of the states by raising a violent mob that invaded Congress, failing to begin to raise a mob that could block the inauguration, former United States President Donald Trump is once again a plain citizen.

In New York, both the state tax people and the federal tax people want to have a long talk with him about his creatively inventive tax filings.

In Florida, there's only a federal prosecutor over in Georgia who will be wanting to have him talk to them about his phone call asking the vote counter to give him votes he didn't get.

If he does travel abroad, he may have a problem with Interpol. Trump killed an Iranian politician he didn't like, just out of the blue. Iran has filed a "Red Alert" with Interpol. They want to have a long talk with him about it. In person.

Mr. Trump has been impeached a second time by Congress. If the Senate confirms the impeachment, then he will lose the protection of his lifetime Secret Service detail. He will never be able to run for office again.

His reign has been like continuous grand opera. Dramatic with flourishes, glamorized performers, pizzazz and lots of baloney hiding underneath it all. Never-ending, like Wagner's "Ring Cycle".

But now the opera may come to a final act, where a light comes on down a hall behind some bars, and a voice asks, "Sir, it's suppertime. Would you like your beans with or without the hot sauce tonight?"

The curtain falls.

Trump Self-Indicts

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 15:23:00 +0000

As Marie Yovanovich, ousted Ukraine ambassador, was testifying to the House Intelligence Committee this week, Trump trashed her in a tweet. Showing the world what will happen to you if you testify against Trump.

Not the most legal sort of thing to do. Intimidating a witness.

Trump made it clear how important the truth is to him. It must not be told.

There is some possibility his attempt to intimidate future witnesses will itself become an article of impeachment against him.

His tweet was, of course, immediately shown to the committee and to the watching world even as testimony continued, and, asked what influence it might have on future witnesses, Yovanovich in her testimony said,

“It’s very intimidating. I can’t speak to what the president is trying to do, but I think the effect is to be intimidated.”

Trump's tweet blamed her for the already failing conditions in countries she was sent to. He didn't realize that the State Department sends its best diplomats to its toughest countries.

Pelosi Pulls The Plug

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 15:36:00 +0000

It's been a long wait. Yesterday afternoon, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi pulled the plug on the Trump presidency. She called for an impeachment inquiry.

This could have happened sooner, and there were many who hoped it would. Pelosi wanted to wait until she had the firmest possible grounds for impeachment. Following on a week of gross defiance of Congress by presidential aides, a whistle-blower report surfaced that the President had attempted to coerce the Ukraine government into tainting the reputation of the Biden family. The President's lawyer in the matter, Rudy Giuliani, at first denied and then affirmed that this was true.

So this morning, the President called Ms. Pelosi,

“The president actually said to Nancy Pelosi, ‘Hey, can we do something about this whistleblower complaint? Can we work something out?'”

“And [Pelosi] said, ‘Yes, you can tell your people to obey the law,'” she added, “so she quickly swatted that down and made it clear that it is full steam ahead.”

The President's personal lawyer, former NY mayor Rudolph Giuliani, was an active participant in the crime -

"President Trump’s attempt to pressure the leader of Ukraine followed a months-long fight inside the administration that sidelined national security officials and empowered political loyalists — including the president’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani — to exploit the U.S. relationship with Kiev, current and former U.S. officials said."

This morning the White House released a transcript of a call between Trump and the Ukrainian President where Trump had pushed for a Biden investigation. It confirms he broke the law.

More to come...

When Trouble Is A Step Away

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 14:18:00 +0000

The President of the USA, a dear TV memory to many still-loyal fans, appears to be on the verge of indictment for lying under oath.

His sworn answers to written questions from the Mueller investigation may have included lies. Lies told by his campaign chairman Paul Manafort to Mueller's investigators, lies which weren't challenged by Mueller. So Manafort's lawyers told Trump's lawyers about them. And Trump's lawyers told Trump that this was a story line that Mueller accepted.

Fish bite hooks like these.

Trump’s lawyers were briefed on what Manafort told investigators, inflaming tensions with Mueller: NYT report

The story of the President's downfall has been unfolding rapidly. Trump's sworn answers to several questions were submitted to Mueller on November 20th. On November 26th - after the Thanksgiving holidays - Manafort's prison sentence was raised to ten years for lying.

And now today, the 28th, the connection between Manafort's lies and Trump's probable echoing of them is shown. Did Trump tell the same lies that Manafort is now receiving a ten-year sentence for swearing to?

Mueller is laying his evidence out before the public, piece by piece.

He's also concerned about Manafort's interactions with Julian Assange and Wikileaks, and their connection to Russia's pilfering of Hillary Clinton's emails. So the story could unfold many times more.

The world is his jury. Sitting in rapt attention.

The Tide Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 14:16:00 +0000

The elections are over. The House of Representatives is now owned by Democrats. Committees can subpoena and examine Trump's tax returns. The story-line has shifted.

Congressman Trey Gowdy spent 41 million taxpayer dollars investigating Hillary Clinton, hoping to pin a violation of email security protocols on her. No indictments resulted. The attack was an attempt to lower Clinton's stature in the world. Two years under Trump has created a garden of horrors. Indictments will almost certainly result.

Congress has a lot to examine. Trillions of dollars in military spending that was off the books. Corporate favoritism that threw away pollution standards as a gift to car makers.

Several major races had an almost equal number of votes for each side. This could be the signature of hackers. How often this voting pattern happens may be explored.

Several more state governorships were won by Democrats. The new governors can appoint secretaries of state who will ensure that all voters have easy access to voting booths and that everyone who can legally vote is registered. Voter suppression will be examined.

The crowd-funding groups that provided a relief from corporation funding may look to see what else they can fund using their mailing lists.

The Mueller investigation into Russian influence in the presidential election will file indictments that it has been deferring during the campaigns.

Not a good time ahead for the dark side. The sun is rising.

People-power beat the dollar.

President Confesses

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 21:49:00 +0000

After claiming for months and months that no collusion with the Russians occurred, Trump has admitted that in fact it did - and his son may go to jail for it. The Russians presented the son with some intelligence information. He looked askance at it and asked if they could bring him Hillary Clinton's emails. The next day, that's what the Russians tried to do. Clinton's servers were attacked.

Accepting help from a foreign power to win an election is illegal. Discussing the idea is not. But as soon as one of the parties takes a step to implement the plan, a conspiracy is proven. Collusion.

Will Crowd-Funding Bring A Return To Democracy?

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 15:34:00 +0000

To win office, a candidate needs to campaign. Campaigns cost money - for advertising, for staffing, for people to man the phone banks and to hang reminders on doorknobs. To get enough money to run for office, a candidate has needed to solicit well-to-do donors, people who live on invested money. And to fulfill their legislative needs. Until now...

Now, a dozen or more internet sites let people raise money for their own causes. A Facebook ad can be shown to 5000 people for a dollar. As funds are raised, mailing lists are bought and traded. If the cause is just - like fighting a case up through the courts, or running for office - then it can get funded if enough people support it. From a donor list, a candidate can build a mailing list, and from this he can recruit dedicated staffers and eager volunteers.

In last November's US elections, the voters who disliked Hillary Clinton acquired more electors than the voters who disliked Trump, so we didn't get Clinton for President. Bernie Sanders, whose more positive platform is built out of what people say that they want, what they like rather than dislike, was shoved into the background by the Democratic leadership, who needed the party platform to reflect what corporate donors had said they wanted.

Bernie's group is still around, still hanging out in the background, as the Republicans collapse in place.

The Democratic Party asked Bernie for his mailing list the other day. His "Revolution Now" group responded that while the list worked to bring lots of money into the Bernie camp, it wouldn't do the same for the Dem Party. People who gave to Bernie wouldn't be very likely to give to the corporate puppets.

Here and now the split begins. The split between corp-funded politics and crowd-funded politics. Corp-funded politics has turned both parties into echo-chambers. Crowd-funded politics may rescue them both.

The Democratic Party will need to adopt Bernie's platform if it wants to do crowd-funding.

Day 101

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Tue, 02 May 2017 04:09:00 +0000

Day 100 of the Trump Administration has come and gone.

Two grand juries have convened to investigate Russian influence on the election. One of them is about ready to return the first indictment. How deep the corruption of our government goes awaits discovery.

Mr. Trump has begun making a public debacle of his confusion:
... 7 Baffling Moments From Donald Trump’s AP Interview
... Trump Takes Latest Stab At Historical Analysis: ‘Why Was There The Civil War?’
... Trump makes puzzling claim about Andrew Jackson, Civil War

Fox News is in disarray, having lost mainstay Bill O'Reilly to lawsuits from abused women, losing today the corporate vice president who told female employees to suck it up, and predicted to be losing by the end of the week, Sean Hannity.

The President will be welcoming a mass murderer, the president of the Philippines, to the White House:
Human Rights Groups Denounce Trump’s White House Invitation To Murderous President Of The Philippines

The President's hotel properties constitute a vast 'tip jar'. He is over half a billion dollars in debt:
A Guide to Donald Trump's Huge Debts—and the Conflicts They Present

The Republican Party has split in two between diehard conservatives who care more about pushing their own agenda than the future of the party and moderate conservatives who might find themselves voted out of office if they were to follow the diehard agenda. The replacement for Obamacare that one of them favors is unacceptable to the other, and vice versa. So it stalls.

The people are demonstrating massively. If this same energy gets invested in the 2018 elections, the de-corporatizing of America may have begun. The general welfare - as mentioned in the preamble to the Constitution - is not to be disregarded. Despite what Ayn Rand wrote.

The times, they are a-changin'.

Trumpocollapse

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 17:19:00 +0000

The 'divide and conquer' strategy used by Mr. Trump works when both parts can then be conquered. This worked for Stalin - first he got rid of the non-revolutionary Mensheviks, then the Leninist Trotskyists, then anyone who wasn't Stalin.

Trump is dividing off those who differ with him and condemning them to the outer darkness of 'no more Presidential Press Conferences for you' space. And the like. Shunning those who criticize. Threatening supporters who might. This is a formula for a leaky bucket.

Perhaps Trump's father used the threat of separation from the family wealth as a way of keeping his son in line. Today, being shunned by Trump allows conservatives to stand aside while his empire collapses.

Teaching Survivors

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 13:26:00 +0000

It seems quite wonderful that we whites are now digesting the notion of white privilege. It’s very subtle. Next, can we look at ‘intellectual privilege’?

Can we look at a grading system in schools that brands the slower learners as ‘D-students’, making them want to contend physically for that which they can’t yet do mentally, and to bully their way through life? Can we look at competition in schools that allows the weakest to feel ashamed?

We are told that this models the world, that we will need to compete with our peers to survive, but survival in the world today requires the ability to cooperate and adapt to other peoples’ needs to create fertile spaces where we all can be nurtured.

Re-seeding The Center

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 03:11:00 +0000

I'm concerned about whether a rational two-party system can survive.

Two feet make us mobile. Two eyes let us see depth. Two parties - if they meet at the center - convey the best ideas from all directions into the decision-making process.

Meeting at the center depends on agreeing on what is true, and on what is good. If a center could be defined by asking what principles we all have in common and what facts we all agree on, perhaps we can build from there. A majority on all sides might agree on...

The sacredness of life.

The right to autonomy.

The right to associate equally with others.

The right to build a common good.

Trumpocalypse: The Forward View

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 06:23:00 +0000

What may happen, now that Trump has been elected...

Continuing klutziness. The gaffes will continue. His tweets will drive the news on slow days.

He will continue to change the subject quickly and belligerently when he is being criticized.

The internet will have more than one working group tallying Trump's impeachable offenses.

A dis-investment campaign. Foreign investment in US businesses may dwindle.

A stock market slump as things begin to fall apart. Maybe short sellers will drive it quite a ways down.

For each candidate in Trump's cabinet, a campaign to block their confirmation in Congress. An internet work-group profiling them in depth.

Struggles on the issues will continue. The fight for a national $15/hr minimum wage. The fight to end police brutality. The Bernie platform. The right to safe water.

Further Russian involvement in the Middle East.

China raising its credit rate. We owe them so much. We may need to start paying more interest.

Growing interest in non-violent solutions.

Possible further false-flag military incitements.

Possible alignment with Russia, turning the world against us both.

Possible oil-igarchy, carbon's last stand. Government by Koch Brothers. Scientific truth redefined.

Distributed power generation from alternate sources will continue to take hold. Sun power now cheaper than wind.

Any program that strengthens the safety net will be a battleground.

Validated voting systems will be an issue. Paper ballots will be a desirable.

Voter suppression will be an issue.

Corruption will be a continuing issue. Corporate corruption. The ownership of the world.

Human rights will be a continuing issue. Civil rights. Equal rights. The right to nurture a common good.

The cost of militarism will be a sore thumb for a long time. Pro-active peacemaking may ensure its disuse and dwindling.

Internet architectures will become ever more adaptive, ever more esoteric.

The truth of things will become ever clearer, ever faster.

Man 's perception of man will become ever more subtle.

Trumpocalypse

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 16:10:00 +0000

The president-elect has become a nightmare for Republicans. An embarrassment that grows and grows.

As a candidate, Trump called for Russia to hack his opposition. Russia hacked his opposition. He sent fund-raising letters to the heads of major nations. Told it was improper, he sent more of them.

Told to divest himself of his business interests, he has failed so far to do so. He must convert to cash. Given that his business runs on credit (from a German bank) he might wind up owing money. So he will never do so. His business will then always be in place for anyone seeking favor.

His choices for members of his cabinet include four billionaires and three retired generals. His choice for Secretary of State, announced yesterday, is an oil man who is a friend of Putin.

Trump has stumbled over diplomacy, upsetting applecarts in the Far East. He said he is too smart to listen to daily intelligence briefings. Trashes the CIA for saying that there was a Russian influence in the US elections.

He is, after all, the smartest man he knows, as far as he knows.

How soon will he blush?

Ten Days To Shake The World

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Sat, 10 Dec 2016 18:12:00 +0000

The votes against Hillary Clinton outnumbered the votes against Donald Trump - except that they didn't. In ten days, the Electoral College will be deciding if this matters. Mrs. Clinton is now ahead by 2.7 million votes. However, Mr. Trump has acquired enough electoral votes from low-population states to perhaps decide this election.

Meanwhile, Trump is wasting no time in showing the world what kind of president he will be. He cut his daily intelligence briefing to once-a-week. Called the president of Taiwan, upsetting decades of delicate far-eastern tiptoe diplomacy. He's appointed four billionaires and three retired generals to his cabinet. A good formula for a coup, someone noted.

It appears that Wall Street overplayed their hand by courting Hillary Clinton so aggressively. So visibly. These things are usually done on the QT. The result was a kick in the balls to Goldman Sachs by the working class. Who now own the presidency.

An era of 'neo-liberalism' - of letting the market determine fiscal policy - appears to have ended. Trade deals that move jobs overseas are about to be undone. The feeding of taxpayer dollars to big businesses may end.

Given that Trump is considered by many to be a psychopath and is facing a child rape case, he may not make it to inauguration. Pence, who has a major history of homophobia, may not be a whole lot better. But he's governed, and will probably be our next president.

Wall Street has lost control of the government. Where we go from here is up to the people. An issue-driven electorate can build democracy from the bottom up. Or trash it.

As of morning 12/10/16, Trump has just now put the CIA on his enemies list for exposing the Russian influence on his election. He's doing his best to offend enough people and break enough eggs in the next nine days so that the electoral college will turn him down.

He has nine more days to get himself out of this presidency thing.

The Third Debate

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 03:22:00 +0000

Good fortune allowed me to view this evening the third and final U.S. Presidential debate.

The difference in personal style between the candidates was pronounced.

The depth of detail in the responses was much greater in those given by the candidate who has had prior government experience.

Candidate Trump was called again and again on his behavior. The character of his responses to these questions confirmed his behavior. Rough and abrupt, oversimplified, free-associative, with little overall plan. At one point he began a run-on sentence that ran on and on for a minute or more with asides, stand-alone phrases and mottoes all strung together, a data dump of words, a vast word salad. He had forgotten the question.

Candidate Clinton described plans and programs.

Several good zings were gotten in in both directions, with Clinton delivering one-two punches, occasional knockout blows, and continuing to talk while Trump talked, just as he had talked over her in the first debate.

Candidate Trump failed to confirm that he would accept the results of the election. He's not really going to be in a position to deny them. If he promotes the overthrow of the government, he may run into some problems.

Trump's followers may need missionary help.

How To Help Republicans Think

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 12:46:00 +0000

One curious trait that leads Republicans to stumble is that they often cannot foresee the results of their own actions. Their inability to foresee results may be linked to the fact that they cannot see that they have this weakness.

Suppose someone were to ask a Republican "What would happen if Hillary were unable to continue her campaign? What would the Democrats do, then?"

The obvious answer is that the Democrats would nominate Bernie Sanders. Who was running 14% ahead of Trump a month ago, when Hillary was running only 7% ahead of Trump. Would Repubs rather Trump run against Hillary or against Bernie?

Question Republicans. It will do them good to think.

'Periscope' Shares U.S. House Sit-In With The World

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 02:25:00 +0000

Forget cable. Forget network news.

The information revolution has just subsumed it.

Today, the leadership of the House of Representatives, faced with a sit-in by Democrats demanding action on gun safety laws, turned the House cameras off. Normally, several video cameras feed the action in the House to CSPAN. The House leadership is said to be hostage to the gun industry. They are not able to look a gun law in the eye. They don't want to risk damaging their cozy cash relationship to the NRA. The Dems, on the other hand, are appalled at the casual availability of almost every type of gun, and at the way, time after time, semi-automatic rifles are used to commit mass killings. They want guns only in the hands of the sane.

Where once this act of turning off the video might have been damaging to a demonstration, today it simply led to a re-routing around the blockage:

"In the absence of cameras, Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) broadcast clips on Twitter of members speaking. C-SPAN then broadcast Periscope and Facebook Live streams of the action."

"Up Periscope", Mr. Speaker.

Freedom To Kiss

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 14:16:00 +0000

As I gave my boyfriend a quick kiss before he hopped on the uptown bus yesterday, it shook me to realize that the sight of two guys kissing as we just did was what had lit the fuse of last night's broken-minded killer in Orlando.

I will still publicly kiss my friend good-bye every time he comes to visit. It is my freedom. Yours, too, if you ever need it. You don't have to use a freedom to have it. But sometimes you need to use a freedom in order to keep it. So we kiss.

"On March 29, 2016, Farrokh Sekaleshfar — a British-born medical doctor and Shi’a Muslim scholar — was invited to speak at the Husseini Islamic Center just outside Orlando, Florida.

During his sermon, “How to deal with the phenomenon of homosexuality,” at the Sanford-based center, the scholar and sheikh described in characteristically sotto voce what it meant to do the compassionate thing for gay people:

“Death is the sentence. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about this. Death is the sentence.”

He continued: “We have to have that compassion for people. With homosexuals, it’s the same. Out of compassion, let’s get rid of them now.”

He.Actually.Said.That. That.

He gave God's permission to a maniac so that he could kill. It was surely not the first time Sekalishvar has said this, nor is he the only one among his crowd saying such things. The maniac was prepped to kill gay people.

This supposed wise man has certainly made a target of himself. There are crazy gay people, too. With guns. Inciting a killing can kill the inciter. A thought that must be on many people's minds today.

Does killing God's creation make you holy? If you think that gayness is not part of God's creation, then why do thousands of species have gay members? There are gay penguins, for heaven's sake. They kiss. Self-righteousness is not righteousness. Prudery is not propriety.

Islam is not the only religion with preachers who call for the killing of gays. Christian pastors do it, too.

Here are four of them. In the last video, one can see a pastor calling for the execution of gays and then introducing presidential candidate Ted Cruz.

Pastors put their sermons up on YouTube. Some of them must now be frantically combing their collections, making sure that every mention of killing gays is deleted before unfriendly forces discover them. The links above may not last forever.

Hindus and Buddhists seem a little less worried about variations in lifestyle. Their cultures are a little more mature.

So it is that gay people need to celebrate our own happiness, and to celebrate the advances in human rights that now allow us to be married and which protect us in some places from losing our jobs for being gay. The wisdom of Socrates, the plays of Shakespeare, the music of Tchaikovsky would not be ours if there were no gays.

We are, we always have been, we always will be.

We kiss.

Feeling The Change?

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Sun, 22 May 2016 13:51:00 +0000

In 1953, when George Jorgensen had his genitals snipped and became the media darling Christine Jorgensen, my 11 year-old schoolmates, on seeing one of us with his hand in his pocket would ask, "Feeling the change?"

It was that long ago. 63 years ago. Trans women have been using the ladies room for 63 years. Trans men have been using the mens rooms. And suddenly Republicans have a problem. Six decades of no problems and suddenly Republicans have a problem.

One would think that they had run out of things to attack. Attacking gays is so gauche these days. Global warming, torture, US support for oppressive governments - a person would think they'd attack these things. But they can't. They own these things.

So, to prove that they are brave fighters in God's holy army, they attack transgender people.

How sterile the vanities. How sad the souls that must compete for darkness.

Can Democracy Be Seeded?

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 12:26:00 +0000

I was raised in a home where we would discuss things at the dinner table and hold a vote. Would we go to the little lake up the road tomorrow and picnic and swim? Or stay home and work on projects? What is the best name to call the new dog?

When grown, I entered the world expecting my opinions to be taken seriously. I discovered that peoples' opinions weren't taken seriously. I became an activist.

Nowdays, in my email comes a dozen petitions a day to be signed, sent from Credo and a slew of do-it-yourself petition generator sites.

Activists abound. Activism is alive and well. The forces for democracy that produce democratic government are alive and well.

Suppose every family had discussions in which everyone's opinion was heard and where a majority ruled? What would the children become? Every child would have unmet expectations for democracy.

America tried to mandate a democratic government for Iraq in a world where people were comfortable with dictatorship. Didn't work very well. Democracy can't be built top-down.

But if the yearning for democracy can be built, perhaps democracy will come. Perhaps the survival of democracy can be ensured.

The Mathematics Of The Mix

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Sat, 30 Jan 2016 04:58:00 +0000

Eleven candidates for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Presidency have been competing with one another. The very mathematics of it - the arithmetic - assures that success is not with them.

Each candidate has ten others doing their best to keep him down. Each feels a need to outdo all ten of the others in jingoism and chauvinism. Each candidate must be more unique than ten others.

Running perhaps for the Republican ticket is Donald Trump, who is having one heck of a time. He has captured about 40 percent of the Republican vote, as of this writing. Ted Cruz, whose foreign birth gives many cause for pause, is next below him at 19 percent. All the other candidates are in the single digits. But they have their supporters.

The Democrats are almost equally tied at this point between two candidates - Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Sanders' support is slowly building among the people. Clinton's support is slowly growing among the rich and powerful. Either of them could beat Trump in the general election.

It would not be surprising to see a lot of corporate support switch from Republican candidates to Clinton. She's the more conservative of the two possible winners. At the same time, Sanders may inherit some tea-partiers who believe in "government of the people, by the people, and for the people" - an old Republican motto, not honored in recent years.

The election for President may then be, within the primary of the party most likely to win, a race between corporate institutionalism and populist humanism.

A Metric for Totalitarianism

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 22:31:00 +0000

Censorship, to the extent a government can get away with it, is the beginning of totalitarianism.

Remember Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451", the book about book-burning?

An international standards group has just designated "Error 451" as the symbol to be returned when your attempt to visit a site has been blocked by a government:

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/12/22/error-451-new-dystopian-internet-code-very-important-meaning

As a standard error related to the functioning of the internet, this code's usage will probably be tabulated and will appear in reports. It's a new data point.

This is an instance of an information age structure, "The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), a global body which reviews internet standards" exercising control over its domain that quantitatively monitors, and, by publicizing wrongs, now controls, the polity.
You may remember the principle of 'working to a metric'. Pay programmers by the number of lines of code they write, and you get a lot of really short lines. By introducing this information blockage measuring device, the IESG has created a similar metric.

Which countries will be the ten worst blockers of internet information flow? Who's the most total totalitarian?

The totalitarian totals. Another circus has come to town.

Racial Terrorism In America May Not Work Too Well

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 15:10:00 +0000

In Minneapolis, white supremacists who had previously been counter-protesting a Black Lives Matters demonstration over the police killing of Jamar Clark, last night shot five BLM demonstrators. Thankfully, no one was killed.

"... last week Jamar Clark was shot during a "struggle" with the police. Witnesses to his death are stating he was handcuffed and shot execution style in the head. "

Demonstrators had been calling for release of the video of the Clark shooting. The shooters had been threatening them.

There is a strong chance that the identities of last night's shooters are known to those who can turn them in. So here will be something for America to digest.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/several-protesters-shot-near-minneapolis-police-station/

They intended to inspire terror. With weapons. Organized as a team. And they attempted to kill.

The brother of Jamar Clark thanked the demonstrators for their support and encouraged them to end the demonstration

"... in light of tonight's shootings, the family feels out of imminent concern for the safety of the occupiers, we must get the occupation of the 4th precinct ended and onto the next step."

The act of terrorism succeeded in pausing the demonstration. For now. The struggle for justice for Clark's killing will undoubtedly continue. The terrorism by gunfire certainly brought national attention to it.

Here we are.

The NY Daily News depicted the head of the National Rifle Association as a terrorist a day ago. War is going on. War on the addled warriors right to own guns. War on the marketers of guns designed for mass killings.

Given the intrusive nature of the American security apparatus, the perpetrators are surely already in the system. Now, so also is anyone six handshakes away from them. Digital dossiers on all of them are being pulled from data warehouses and cross-linked into a walkable terrain.

A new database exists. "Armed White Supremacists And Friends In The Minneapolis Area." For some organizations, it may have been around for years.

It will be a race to see who discovers the perpetrators' identities first. The police? Anonymous? The Southern Poverty Law Center? Anonymous members have probably had these people under observation for a while. They have interesting little hobbies like that. SPLC keeps a close eye on racist groups. They all inform the authorities when they see something illegal happening.

A simple google on "Armed White Supremacists And Friends In The Minneapolis Area" finds 398,000 results. Anyone can play this game. Finding the perps should not be very difficult.

Nothing like being the center of attention.

Bernie Sanders Files Bill To Legalize Cannabis

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 14:06:00 +0000

Senator Bernie Sanders, contending with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to become the Democratic presidential candidate, has introduced a bill in the Senate that would legalize marijuana, putting its governance into the hands of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Just as anyone who wants to can brew wine, I would imagine that soon anyone who wants to can also grow weed. Fifty-eight percent of Americans think cannabis should be legal. There is a similar bill in the House. This bill will be in the news until election day.

Bernie's agenda calls for a lot of things that a majority of Americans want but which both parties have been ignoring, mired in the glory of internecine warfare. His agenda calls for:

Rebuilding Our Crumbling Infrastructure
Reversing Climate Change
Creating Worker Co-ops
Growing the Trade Union Movement
Raising the Minimum Wage
Pay Equity for Women Workers
Trade Policies that Benefit American Workers
Making College Affordable for All
Taking on Wall Street
Health Care as a Right for All
Protecting the Most Vulnerable Americans
Real Tax Reform

His take-down of the drug war's favorite football comes as a surprise. But a majority of Americans wanted it.

From now until election day, Bernie may introduce bill after bill that will bring about what a majority of Americans want. He may present his agenda to the American people as a series of Senate bills.

How can Hillary top that?

Charm School For Cops?

noreply@blogger.com (Dan McIntyre) — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 17:23:00 +0000

This would be a great way to make money. Send law enforcement officers to charm school. The reduction in risk of lawsuit payouts for bad policing could fund it.

Charm schools teach how to get what you want graciously. They teach equanimity under stress. How to be gracious in the middle of difficulties.

The idea could even make for a TV series, where cops who have learned quiet grace outclass their grosser peers. Education - and TV shows - like this may improve police-community relations. Police would learn how to solve problems without becoming an emotional participant.

Even if only a few officers - perhaps senior officers - receive the training, the understanding of how to accomplish difficult tasks without losing composure could filter down through the ranks. So it's really a cheap investment for a city. Taking a class in these skills could be part of a policeman's training. Failing a class in social skills should be a cause for concern. Failure may screen out recruits who are innately unsocial and could become liabilities.

If someone were to negotiate with finishing schools on one hand and law enforcement organizations on the other, acting as a middleman, there could be fees and commissions. The reduction in risk of lawsuit payouts would fund it.

Charm school for cops.

Implementation:

1) Identify jurisdictions that have already paid out large sums for police misconduct.
2) Determine what funding is available for risk reduction.
3) Identify finishing schools in those localities that work with adults and could hold seminars and week-long study sessions.
4) Contract with the schools to act as their agent.
5) Sell the plan to the aldermen.