Today, I have more than a few uncomfortable thoughts slowly swirling in my cerebral cauldron.
The Jews did, and in the West they still mostly do, their best to assimilate into their host nations.
Then certain people in those same nations said, no, Jews can never be assimilated. Because we are 'pure white' and they are 'black', all they can do is pollute and defile our blue-haired blond-eyed oh-so-eugenical bloodstream. And as Jew-hatred grew in openness over Europe, not only Germany, but much of Europe (especially Eastern Europe) was primed for the Shoah. This had nothing to do with religious difference; one Christian saint (and another?) were murdered because their DNA was Jewish.
In an all-too-similar way, haven't most African-Americans done the best they knew to do in terms of being peaceable and hardworking citizens? And how much more have they got, if anything more, than did the Jews for all their efforts to assimilate? Their most prosperous towns and neighborhoods were burned to ashes when enough peckerwoodies got jealous enough. And in the case of Greenwood in 1921, the Oklahoma National Guard even participated by bombing Greenwood from the air! Not to mention Rosewood, Florida, two years later! And in no case did the law lift a finger to save any black life or smatch of black property; they were usually among the lawbreakers!
Islam has little to no right to speak in this. Maybe (and this is highly questionable) they didn't make a difference between Islamized Jews and native Arab Muslims, but that difference will likely be shown to be more marginal than Islamists want to make it out to be. And they certainly have no right to present themselves as the Black Man's Champeen. Not after being the original, largest-scale and probably still going slave-traders with by far the largest casualty number. John Azumah Adembillah writes about this in his Legacy of Arab Islam in Africa. As to present Arab racism, look no further than what bro Eldridge (Cleaver) had to say about Algeria after living there for eight years!
The realization that, whatever we do or try to do to please our 'majority' hosts, they still want to kill us and too many of those that say they don't want to will turn their heads when our murderers do their dirty work, is something that Jews and African-Americans have in common in this country. God knows how many groups have that in common over the globe!
This is why there is a Nation of Islam today. This is also why majorities of Israeli voters (most of whom, or their parents or grandparents, have now returned from elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa) consistently vote Likud or further right. This is why The Cheltenham Kid, aka Bibi Netanyahu, has such an adoring mob still at his heels. Both groups know that their host majorities are only comfortable with them so long as they are at those majorities' mercy--and why the 'Palestinians' will never accept Jewish sovereignty at all until and unless they are left with no.other.choice.
It's also why GOP legislators in 1967 California became pro-gun control with remarkable speed once the Black Panthers started carrying in order to keep today's slave catchers from getting homicidally brutal with their people! And it's also why the armed thugs in Lansing were treated with kid gloves while the peaceful protestors this past week were met with weapons of war!
It is true that the work of ending racism in all its systemic manifestations is work we palefaces need to do. It is also true that, in sharing real power, we palefaces will be, at least partially, putting our fates into the hands of Outsiders to Our Tribe. I hope, at this point in our history, our collective consciousness of crimes committed by our ancestors and, arising from that, the still-mostly unarticulated terror of having the same measure meted unto us, will prove not quite as strong as the two things which I see as having led the West to its still-current, albeit seriously challenged, summit.
The first of these two things I see as a vigorous tradition of self-criticism. Someone once wrote that 'Western Civilization was born in the creative tension between Jerusalem and Athens' and I for one would say there's a very good case to be made for that! The Jews had, and still have, just such a vigorous self-critical tradition from the prophets even unto this day. The ancient Greeks were sticklers for accurate observation and careful recording of those observation. The idea of 'citizenship' also begins with the ancient Greeks and was underlined and amplified by the ancient Romans who conquered the Greeks and Jews. And if anyone still reads the ancient Romans forward from the time of the Gracchi, they'll find a lot of critical writings! Finally, I defy any and all my readers to find us any civilization so openly critical of itself as Western civilization is. Seriously. And good luck in trying to find such a society; I think you'll need it.
The second is allied to this. Medieval Europe was actually remarkably open to new technologies and didn't much care whence they came for the most part, although it was a bit of a struggle to get Christendom to adopt what was originally called the Hindu-Arabic system of numbers. We need to hold onto this willingness to try new ways of doing things. Especially as the need to re-green our earth and at least slow down climate change grows more and more urgent.
In the USA, we at least say anyone who's willing to live by the rule of law and the ways of democracy (including passionate but civil discussion of issues and ideas) can be a full citizen. It's past time for us palefaces to do what is needful to make that as real as we possibly can--while we still are a majority. Trump and his idolaters have chosen the way of darkness--the way of naked tribalism. We need to make a one-eighty and not go the Trumpery way again; at least not within the lifetimes of those now drawing breath. Amen and amen.
Monday, June 1, 2020
Sunday, May 24, 2020
OUR 'PRESIDENT' IS AURIC GOLDFINGER AND A LOGICAL END TO THE PAST 40 YEARS
Apart from the first part of the title, and perhaps other snippets in this post, I'm not saying anything in this post that has not been said aforetime. Although I haven't seen anyone else besides my good self draw attention to this little tidbit: In 1980, not only was there far less of a gap in wages and salaries in private industry but even less of a gap in healthcare and educational pay grades.
In the last forty years, we seemed to think we could improve both healthcare and education by opening them to the profit motive. What we have really done is almost completely gutted and ruined both! In both areas of endeavor, the profit motive should be at most secondary as long as we want to attract those most suited to them. And we've continued to 'parrot' that truth as an excuse not to pay either secondary medical personnel (I'm not sure about doctors) or classroom teachers nearly enough! The stories of teachers buying supplies for their students out of their own pockets are no less than legion and are one factor making us the shame of the civilized world, to which we now only partially belong! It's past time to put a swift and ruthless end to the profit motive, aside from reasonable salaries for all, in both fields and to also thus end the especially pernicious private-prison business!!
We are now at the point where rich con men who sell nothing, nothing, NOTHING of real value may be more admired by a too-large portion of our population than such self-sacrificing teachers and millionaire medical celebrities whose real medical knowledge might be a bit on the sketchy side are more respected than the doctors, nurses and others who do the hard day-in day-out work in the clinics, hospitals and labs! This has something to do with why Democrats, liberals and progressives mostly lose even if the measures they back are favored by large majorities: we seek to develop and cultivate critical understanding while the GOP and further right only wants to brand efficiently!
Efficient branding is Twain's lie that can be halfway around the world before the truth of critical understanding can put on its boots!
And in either exalting the most lucrative and neglecting society's mostly unrespected but indispensable humble helpers, or acquiescing in that exaltation, do we have anyone to blame but ourselves? I for one say 'no'!
If we strive for economic and social justice by allowing and encouraging labor to organize, by starting to make real restitution for stolen land and coerced unpaid labor, if we start to really respect the 'helping professionals' among us by paying them adequately and establish a firm limit to how much wealth any individual, family or other small group can hold (enough to render it impossible for any oligarchy to rise again) and if we start to heavily invest in replacing, renewing and regenerating common resources, we may yet save ourselves. But we cannot save ourselves without doing these things! And we can only do these things working together and with our collective future (and the threat of no future looming over us) very much in mind!
If my words don't wake up at least a few people, I hope they at least hearten those already awake. And I've enlisted Shirley Bassey to help in this. If Trump is Auric Goldfinger (and I maintain he is) listen to this and think about who the Golden Girl Goldfinger kisses might be!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D1nK7q2i8I
And if Shirley Bassey doesn't wake you up--go drink bleach!!!
In the last forty years, we seemed to think we could improve both healthcare and education by opening them to the profit motive. What we have really done is almost completely gutted and ruined both! In both areas of endeavor, the profit motive should be at most secondary as long as we want to attract those most suited to them. And we've continued to 'parrot' that truth as an excuse not to pay either secondary medical personnel (I'm not sure about doctors) or classroom teachers nearly enough! The stories of teachers buying supplies for their students out of their own pockets are no less than legion and are one factor making us the shame of the civilized world, to which we now only partially belong! It's past time to put a swift and ruthless end to the profit motive, aside from reasonable salaries for all, in both fields and to also thus end the especially pernicious private-prison business!!
We are now at the point where rich con men who sell nothing, nothing, NOTHING of real value may be more admired by a too-large portion of our population than such self-sacrificing teachers and millionaire medical celebrities whose real medical knowledge might be a bit on the sketchy side are more respected than the doctors, nurses and others who do the hard day-in day-out work in the clinics, hospitals and labs! This has something to do with why Democrats, liberals and progressives mostly lose even if the measures they back are favored by large majorities: we seek to develop and cultivate critical understanding while the GOP and further right only wants to brand efficiently!
Efficient branding is Twain's lie that can be halfway around the world before the truth of critical understanding can put on its boots!
And in either exalting the most lucrative and neglecting society's mostly unrespected but indispensable humble helpers, or acquiescing in that exaltation, do we have anyone to blame but ourselves? I for one say 'no'!
If we strive for economic and social justice by allowing and encouraging labor to organize, by starting to make real restitution for stolen land and coerced unpaid labor, if we start to really respect the 'helping professionals' among us by paying them adequately and establish a firm limit to how much wealth any individual, family or other small group can hold (enough to render it impossible for any oligarchy to rise again) and if we start to heavily invest in replacing, renewing and regenerating common resources, we may yet save ourselves. But we cannot save ourselves without doing these things! And we can only do these things working together and with our collective future (and the threat of no future looming over us) very much in mind!
If my words don't wake up at least a few people, I hope they at least hearten those already awake. And I've enlisted Shirley Bassey to help in this. If Trump is Auric Goldfinger (and I maintain he is) listen to this and think about who the Golden Girl Goldfinger kisses might be!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D1nK7q2i8I
And if Shirley Bassey doesn't wake you up--go drink bleach!!!
Monday, March 9, 2020
LENTEN MEDITATION: 2020
Lord have mercy.
Have
mercy on me, my God, as I wake this morning with such bitterness in my
heart as I have rarely felt: bitterness toward my fellow palefaces, the
majority of whom look to be lurching toward turning our country into a
land of Judases, each of whom might well horrify the original with their
treachery. ‘The brave’ are a decreasing number among us and too many,
when they return here, wind up a shameful on-the-street testimony as to
how this majority-coward nation treats the few brave among us!
Most of us appear to be cowards who don’t even want to imagine lives different in some really important ways: less filled with ‘stuff’ and more filled with nurturing relationships with one another, animals and, yes, whole ecosystems as well. Economic systems that put back into the earth at least as much as they extract. Indeed, too many of my fellow aging male palefaces seem to feel their manhood depends on maintaining and even on doubling down on destructively extractive ways with the earth’s resources.
Jesus, I believe you forgave even Judas, for wasn’t he also one who ‘knew not what he did’ until it was too late? Do I then need to forgive today’s Judases who seek to betray our country and our planet on the same ground? And yes, I do remember that forgiveness is as much for the forgiver as for the forgiven.
Most of us appear to be cowards who don’t even want to imagine lives different in some really important ways: less filled with ‘stuff’ and more filled with nurturing relationships with one another, animals and, yes, whole ecosystems as well. Economic systems that put back into the earth at least as much as they extract. Indeed, too many of my fellow aging male palefaces seem to feel their manhood depends on maintaining and even on doubling down on destructively extractive ways with the earth’s resources.
Jesus, I believe you forgave even Judas, for wasn’t he also one who ‘knew not what he did’ until it was too late? Do I then need to forgive today’s Judases who seek to betray our country and our planet on the same ground? And yes, I do remember that forgiveness is as much for the forgiver as for the forgiven.
Christ have mercy.
A
majority of this country, Father, still calls itself ‘Christian’. Too
many of them act like anything but. They’re interested not in Your
Gospel, not in living and sharing it. They want worldly wealth and
power, and to get it they use Your holy Name as a stalking-horse. Listen
to them! Such routine violations of Your Third Commandment are part of
their stock-in-trade, not to mention the same of Your Ninth Commandment!
They delight not in mercy but in cruelty!
They are your enemies, Father! Arise and scatter them into the wind!!
But such crimes are by no means peculiar to Christendom. Islam has more than one saying which urges the hearers to look behind outward ‘signs’ of piety such as long beards, shawls and phylacteries, a bumped forehead or, indeed, a niqab or hijab.
I think I need to read Jon Meacham’s recently published book about how he sees real religion making a comeback and regenerating our country. I literally pray that it may be so. Jesus, guide us, even if it be into fashioning cats-o’ nine and driving the profaners and their money-changing enablers from Your House!
Trouble is, that way’s too easy. Much more sure (of a connection with You, I mean) will be the non-violent action of masses of us. To do this, we shall need massive amounts of courage. Plant in each of us all we’ll need in this; help us remember that courage is never the absence of fear but the transcending of it!
They are your enemies, Father! Arise and scatter them into the wind!!
But such crimes are by no means peculiar to Christendom. Islam has more than one saying which urges the hearers to look behind outward ‘signs’ of piety such as long beards, shawls and phylacteries, a bumped forehead or, indeed, a niqab or hijab.
I think I need to read Jon Meacham’s recently published book about how he sees real religion making a comeback and regenerating our country. I literally pray that it may be so. Jesus, guide us, even if it be into fashioning cats-o’ nine and driving the profaners and their money-changing enablers from Your House!
Trouble is, that way’s too easy. Much more sure (of a connection with You, I mean) will be the non-violent action of masses of us. To do this, we shall need massive amounts of courage. Plant in each of us all we’ll need in this; help us remember that courage is never the absence of fear but the transcending of it!
Lord, have mercy.
I
guess domestic pets are not the only ones who need to adjust a bit when
we ‘spring forward’; I got up this morning (after returning to bed
after giving the dogs their first outing and breakfast) at 9:04 Central
Daylight Time!
Glad I woke up then as I was in the middle of yet another nightmare which I have now, thankfully, forgotten.
As the Rascals once sang, it’s a beautiful morning. The sky is a pastel blue dappled with thin white clouds and the doggies are very happy to be outside. The puppy, who we’ve named Bonita, actually ‘goes’ outside. She is still only partly toilet-trained and I’m glad to see signs it might be working.
Later, as I shower, I pray. I discuss my feelings with God. I feel the need to express these feelings, but in a way consonant with what I understand to be real manhood. That is to say, expressing them, not stifling or sublimating them, but also carefully patrolling my expression for any whiff of self-pity and being ‘merciless’ in so doing.
Thank you, Father, for such reminders of your mercy as pretty, quiet mornings and happy puppies. Not to mention that our house is still standing after a tornado, and probably an F4 at that, ripped through Nashville (which is 95 miles to our west) and screamed east as far as Cookeville which is about thirty miles to our west. Monday night a week ago, we and the dogs spent about forty minutes in the basement after the weather radio urged us to ‘take cover NOW’. Like millions before me and (I hope) after me, it’s the everyday, small things — including prayer and contributions for the tornado’s victims — which can bring me back to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Especially when the bigger picture looks as bleak as it can too easily these days.
I’ve heard more than one person say, God is not in the tornado but in our, and our neighbors’, response to it. Amen and amen, say I.
Glad I woke up then as I was in the middle of yet another nightmare which I have now, thankfully, forgotten.
As the Rascals once sang, it’s a beautiful morning. The sky is a pastel blue dappled with thin white clouds and the doggies are very happy to be outside. The puppy, who we’ve named Bonita, actually ‘goes’ outside. She is still only partly toilet-trained and I’m glad to see signs it might be working.
Later, as I shower, I pray. I discuss my feelings with God. I feel the need to express these feelings, but in a way consonant with what I understand to be real manhood. That is to say, expressing them, not stifling or sublimating them, but also carefully patrolling my expression for any whiff of self-pity and being ‘merciless’ in so doing.
Thank you, Father, for such reminders of your mercy as pretty, quiet mornings and happy puppies. Not to mention that our house is still standing after a tornado, and probably an F4 at that, ripped through Nashville (which is 95 miles to our west) and screamed east as far as Cookeville which is about thirty miles to our west. Monday night a week ago, we and the dogs spent about forty minutes in the basement after the weather radio urged us to ‘take cover NOW’. Like millions before me and (I hope) after me, it’s the everyday, small things — including prayer and contributions for the tornado’s victims — which can bring me back to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Especially when the bigger picture looks as bleak as it can too easily these days.
I’ve heard more than one person say, God is not in the tornado but in our, and our neighbors’, response to it. Amen and amen, say I.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Saturday, February 22, 2020
WRITER'S BLOCK & THE RULE OF LAW
"For my friends, everything. For my enemies, the law."
That is the viewpoint of the current usurper of the Oval Office. With that attitude he shows how ILLEGITIMATE a president he really is--and I for one say he knows this dam' good and well!
Among my fellow palefaced 'Americans', almost none know what it is like to have the authorities use the law as a cudgel against any group to which they might belong. A few more, I am afraid with decreasing force, remember tales from their elders about that condition. I'm sort of like that. While no family elder ever told me of such a thing happening to them, I read of how, on one side of the family, the law in Eastern Europe was never a friend of the Jews. And on the other side of my family, it's easy to see that the law would have been no friend of theirs either--at least not in the antebellum South. Suffice it to say my paternal ancestors were the Southern whites who the ex-planters termed 'scalawags' during Reconstruction.
Well, fellow palefaces, unless we turn out in unprecedented numbers and give the formerly 'Republican' party a bigger, and much more down-ballot, shellacking as they'll have never experienced in all their history (only 1936 and 1964 should even come close) a good many more of us will be experiencing that particular condition of existence in the years to come!
Our fellow citizens who actually do know what such a condition feels like (and how to go on living nonetheless) are almost entirely those of color: African-American, Latinx and/or Native. We may be under the necessity of learning this from them. There's a lot more we should have learned, and should still, learn from them regardless!
I gave this post its particular title because, for a few weeks at least, I've had a writer's block. I've felt as though I have a lot churning inside me but my attempts to articulate it have fallen flat, at least until now. And that block, plus that it's been cloudy and rainy almost nonstop here on Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau, has made me a bit more melancholy than usual. But after taking a good look at said block, I think I know the crucial element: Trump's nonstop assaults on the rule of law and anything remotely resembling 'justice for all'. I believe I actually may feel such assaults as internal blows on my mind and soul.
Understand this, fellow palefaces: those who have told us that there's only so much 'justice' and 'freedom' to go around have been deliberately lying to us in order to keep us under the illusion that we're somehow better than those with duskier complexions! We need to invest equally in ALL our human capital of ALL colors in order to solidify and strengthen that investment for all of us! More for African-Americans, Latinas and Natives does NOT mean less for us; in the end it means more for ALL of us! It's really true that, when we all do better, we ALL do better!!
But even with breaking this block, I could use some encouragement from my friends also engaged in this struggle. If the worst happens this November, I will at least think of decamping to some country where I need never soil my tongue with what will have been my cherished native and (on dad's side) ancestral speech again! For such an outcome in November will show it to be today the speech of Judases who have deliberately turned their backs on the best in our heritage! And then I'll think of those who can't leave and be ashamed of myself that I ever thought of deserting my friends and comrades in arms!
I can't say often enough that this November, we must turn out in record numbers and sweep the former 'Republicans' out of office at ALL levels from federal to local; yea, even neighborhood level!
Also, keep your pitchforks sharp, have (non-Tiki) torches and a noose or two ready. Buy a firearm, learn how to use it and groups of us should buy plenty of ammo as well. Even if we bring forth a 'blue tsunami', I don't put it past the current usurper to cry 'foul' and refuse to leave the house he now usurps!
That is the viewpoint of the current usurper of the Oval Office. With that attitude he shows how ILLEGITIMATE a president he really is--and I for one say he knows this dam' good and well!
Among my fellow palefaced 'Americans', almost none know what it is like to have the authorities use the law as a cudgel against any group to which they might belong. A few more, I am afraid with decreasing force, remember tales from their elders about that condition. I'm sort of like that. While no family elder ever told me of such a thing happening to them, I read of how, on one side of the family, the law in Eastern Europe was never a friend of the Jews. And on the other side of my family, it's easy to see that the law would have been no friend of theirs either--at least not in the antebellum South. Suffice it to say my paternal ancestors were the Southern whites who the ex-planters termed 'scalawags' during Reconstruction.
Well, fellow palefaces, unless we turn out in unprecedented numbers and give the formerly 'Republican' party a bigger, and much more down-ballot, shellacking as they'll have never experienced in all their history (only 1936 and 1964 should even come close) a good many more of us will be experiencing that particular condition of existence in the years to come!
Our fellow citizens who actually do know what such a condition feels like (and how to go on living nonetheless) are almost entirely those of color: African-American, Latinx and/or Native. We may be under the necessity of learning this from them. There's a lot more we should have learned, and should still, learn from them regardless!
I gave this post its particular title because, for a few weeks at least, I've had a writer's block. I've felt as though I have a lot churning inside me but my attempts to articulate it have fallen flat, at least until now. And that block, plus that it's been cloudy and rainy almost nonstop here on Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau, has made me a bit more melancholy than usual. But after taking a good look at said block, I think I know the crucial element: Trump's nonstop assaults on the rule of law and anything remotely resembling 'justice for all'. I believe I actually may feel such assaults as internal blows on my mind and soul.
Understand this, fellow palefaces: those who have told us that there's only so much 'justice' and 'freedom' to go around have been deliberately lying to us in order to keep us under the illusion that we're somehow better than those with duskier complexions! We need to invest equally in ALL our human capital of ALL colors in order to solidify and strengthen that investment for all of us! More for African-Americans, Latinas and Natives does NOT mean less for us; in the end it means more for ALL of us! It's really true that, when we all do better, we ALL do better!!
But even with breaking this block, I could use some encouragement from my friends also engaged in this struggle. If the worst happens this November, I will at least think of decamping to some country where I need never soil my tongue with what will have been my cherished native and (on dad's side) ancestral speech again! For such an outcome in November will show it to be today the speech of Judases who have deliberately turned their backs on the best in our heritage! And then I'll think of those who can't leave and be ashamed of myself that I ever thought of deserting my friends and comrades in arms!
I can't say often enough that this November, we must turn out in record numbers and sweep the former 'Republicans' out of office at ALL levels from federal to local; yea, even neighborhood level!
Also, keep your pitchforks sharp, have (non-Tiki) torches and a noose or two ready. Buy a firearm, learn how to use it and groups of us should buy plenty of ammo as well. Even if we bring forth a 'blue tsunami', I don't put it past the current usurper to cry 'foul' and refuse to leave the house he now usurps!
Saturday, December 7, 2019
A 'STEALTH' CAMPAIGN AS INSURANCE
A week or so ago, I wrote a semi-serious post about launching a ‘stealth’ campaign for president. As I watch Biden’s campaign find its footing and contemplate the immense war chest of Bloomberg, I wonder if my ‘campaign’ ought not to be a good deal more serious.
Because of how too much of the press is far too bedazzled by anything resembling Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, I still think it necessary for my campaign to be a ‘stealth’ one — on social media and person-to-person. It will be up to those who agree with me to collect the signatures for me to be on the ballot and so forth. This is still a job about which, for myself, I’m dubious, but I also feel it more necessary than ever to at least step forward and say, as did Isaiah, “Here I am. Send me!”
And why should I think myself at all qualified? Three things with which I start: I agree with most of the progressive Left about what urgently needs to be done. I don’t know if Malcolm Nance or David Cay Johnston consider themselves progressives but I mostly agree with them too.
Second, I know just how ignorant I am about how we get from point A to point B. Third, I know whose help I will want and need in order to get us from one point to the other. Leaders on that list are Malcolm Nance, Robert Reich, David Cay Johnston, Charles Eisenstein, Esther Dubos (what’s her name again? She and her hubby just won the Nobel Prize for Economics)Laurence Tribe, Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, Nina Turner and, yes, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders as well. Fourth, I have watched politics since I was just short of twelve, which is just over half a century ago. And let me ask my readers this: who sees the most of any competitive game? Isn’t it the spectators and the cameras that put the pieces together?
If either Warren or Sanders wins the Democratic nomination, that will render this campaign unnecessary and I can happily retreat back into the woodwork of the progressive resurgence. But if we wind up handing the nomination to one of the Tammany Bourbons, I suggest that renders a campaign like mine all the more urgently necessary. We must, repeat MUST, have a candidate who is 1) not an oligarch nor a servant of theirs, 2) a strong anti-racist with some understanding of the roles race, sex, etc., still play in our society coupled with a determination to do all s/he can to transcend that and 3) really does love democracy, the earth, and the rule of law as written in the Constitution and interpreted in such a way as to expand the voices of ALL the people.
Bloomberg said recently he expects Trump will wipe the floor with anyone but himself. I guess that’s what too much wealth and power does to any individual; they believe in their hoard much more than they believe in people at the grassroots. When I heard him say this, I thought, “What a Bourbon!”
Second, I know just how ignorant I am about how we get from point A to point B. Third, I know whose help I will want and need in order to get us from one point to the other. Leaders on that list are Malcolm Nance, Robert Reich, David Cay Johnston, Charles Eisenstein, Esther Dubos (what’s her name again? She and her hubby just won the Nobel Prize for Economics)Laurence Tribe, Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, Nina Turner and, yes, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders as well. Fourth, I have watched politics since I was just short of twelve, which is just over half a century ago. And let me ask my readers this: who sees the most of any competitive game? Isn’t it the spectators and the cameras that put the pieces together?
If either Warren or Sanders wins the Democratic nomination, that will render this campaign unnecessary and I can happily retreat back into the woodwork of the progressive resurgence. But if we wind up handing the nomination to one of the Tammany Bourbons, I suggest that renders a campaign like mine all the more urgently necessary. We must, repeat MUST, have a candidate who is 1) not an oligarch nor a servant of theirs, 2) a strong anti-racist with some understanding of the roles race, sex, etc., still play in our society coupled with a determination to do all s/he can to transcend that and 3) really does love democracy, the earth, and the rule of law as written in the Constitution and interpreted in such a way as to expand the voices of ALL the people.
Bloomberg said recently he expects Trump will wipe the floor with anyone but himself. I guess that’s what too much wealth and power does to any individual; they believe in their hoard much more than they believe in people at the grassroots. When I heard him say this, I thought, “What a Bourbon!”
A bas toutes les Bourbons, mes freres et mes soeurs! C’est l’heure!
(Down with ALL Bourbons, brothers and sisters! The time is NOW!)
I might recommend the ‘stealth’ approach for campaigns for lesser offices as well. It depends on how much the ‘mainstream’ press is watching. If the campaign is already absent from their radar, make the most of that. If they are watching, then a ‘stealth’ approach may well be necessary.
(Down with ALL Bourbons, brothers and sisters! The time is NOW!)
I might recommend the ‘stealth’ approach for campaigns for lesser offices as well. It depends on how much the ‘mainstream’ press is watching. If the campaign is already absent from their radar, make the most of that. If they are watching, then a ‘stealth’ approach may well be necessary.
And one thing is certain about any such campaign: if the candidate(s) who launch them wind up winning on Election Night, the people who voted for them and did the hard work to put them on the ballot and spread the word will be able to say, more than ever, “We did it ourselves.”
And isn’t having the people say that of any great collective task point out the truly great leaders among us? Think about that! So, come and ask your questions of me, one and all!
And isn’t having the people say that of any great collective task point out the truly great leaders among us? Think about that! So, come and ask your questions of me, one and all!
Saturday, November 30, 2019
TO PRESERVE, RENEW AND EXPAND DEMOCRACY
What
I now write is not new. Nor am I anywhere near the only one saying it,
thanks be to God. Indeed, more and more voices are saying basically the
same thing as I am (for which I’m also thankful). However, I haven’t
seen anyone say it in this particular way, and here it is.
If
we want our governments and our societies around the globe to gain
and/or retain more of democracy than is currently the case, private
stores of wealth (which are always privately held political and economic
power) can be tolerated only up to a point. There has to be a ceiling
for private wealth as well as a floor below which we allow no one to
sink. Private wealth can never be allowed to the point that one fortune,
or a few fortunes, can effectively ‘buy out’ the voices of those of
middling and/or little or no means from the government by blatant or
‘legal’ bribery — that is to say, such ‘bribes’ as campaign
contributions and/or a ‘revolving door’ whereby the paymasters keep the
money flowing to their present or former political slaves!
This
is what has happened in the USA over the last forty years or so and it
must be reversed if we are to save not only our democracy but, indeed,
the very planet itself! It is a ‘given’ that there will be rich, middle
and lower in any human society but the rich should not be so wealthy as
to be able to both ‘opt out’ of the common wealth and/or privatize it
for their own benefit. Nor is there any need for the ‘poor’ to be
abjectly so. The market is not doing the job for either; we, through our
elected representatives and/or directly as citizens, must do this.
As
I said before, many have said much the same thing at greater length and
with more particularity than before. I believe my gift to be more like
taking in the big picture and paring it down to its essentials. I hope I
do that effectively in this post and in others as well.
I
hope and pray we can start to put more than one Green New Deal in place
even as we renew democracy to include more different voices than ever
before, as democracy will always be a work in progress. And we badly
need some serious progress on that work right now!
Saturday, November 23, 2019
A SORT OF A CAMPAIGN
First,
let me clarify something. ‘Politically unorthodox’, for me, includes
serious respect for our Constitution, the rule of law and even, where
it’s not being used to stifle voting rights, the right to protest or
other guaranteed-to-all Constitutional rights, political precedents. The
unorthodoxy kicks in with this particular way of sort-of campaigning
which is geared in part to those with wisdom enough to realize that the
persons most worth electing to political office can often be the ones
who want it the least. P. J., I’d say you have a serious point there.
It also kicks in with more realization that what has become custom or precedent should not be allowed to forestall the urgent needs of both the present and the future, such as racial justice coupled with a far-reaching Green New Deal. Finally (and in some circles, this is actually pretty orthodox) the realization that a lot of necessary things need to be built, rebuilt or refurbished from the ground up, not from the top down! Although putting in honest government may have to be top down; many of us still remember the saying ‘a fish rots from the head down’. Get it?
Bernie has the right idea when he says, “It’s not about me. It’s about us.”
I couldn’t agree more. Indeed, this sort-of campaign takes his ideas a couple more steps further as follows: I do not intend to do any traditional campaigning (at least while primary season lasts and maybe even thereafter).
No speeches, no rallies and above all, no constant begging for money for TV and radio spots. I figure if my platform https://nopartyline.blogspot.com/2011/06/to-all-my-fellow-americans-especially.html gets you moving in the right direction, then you can 1) share it with everyone you think will be receptive and even some who may not be and 2) collect signatures to put me on the ballot in your state.
In any case, as I’m not at all sure I really want this nutty job, it will be up to you, my readers and the people at large, to put me there. And let me say that my mixed feelings about having the job does not mean in the least that I won’t do my level best for all of us and the planet itself. I will do my best as God strengthens me. And I have no private interests for which I would or even could use the office, unless getting my songs recorded and produced is involved somewhere in this.
Finally and most importantly, I was always be open to questions about my platform and about other political matters and some personal ones too. If I think something’s no one’s business but my own, I’ll say so and say why I think that. If I’m asked what I consider a downright loony question, the questioner can expect a ROFL, but I’ll try and say why the question comes across to me as pretty wacko. That’s mostly how I mean to campaign: answering your questions about what I would do as POTUS and how I would push it along!
I hope this gets more people going, especially considering how many of us are pretty tired of politics as currently practiced. I’m pioneering what looks to me like a new way of doing that. Let’s hope it at least takes off.
It also kicks in with more realization that what has become custom or precedent should not be allowed to forestall the urgent needs of both the present and the future, such as racial justice coupled with a far-reaching Green New Deal. Finally (and in some circles, this is actually pretty orthodox) the realization that a lot of necessary things need to be built, rebuilt or refurbished from the ground up, not from the top down! Although putting in honest government may have to be top down; many of us still remember the saying ‘a fish rots from the head down’. Get it?
Bernie has the right idea when he says, “It’s not about me. It’s about us.”
I couldn’t agree more. Indeed, this sort-of campaign takes his ideas a couple more steps further as follows: I do not intend to do any traditional campaigning (at least while primary season lasts and maybe even thereafter).
No speeches, no rallies and above all, no constant begging for money for TV and radio spots. I figure if my platform https://nopartyline.blogspot.com/2011/06/to-all-my-fellow-americans-especially.html gets you moving in the right direction, then you can 1) share it with everyone you think will be receptive and even some who may not be and 2) collect signatures to put me on the ballot in your state.
In any case, as I’m not at all sure I really want this nutty job, it will be up to you, my readers and the people at large, to put me there. And let me say that my mixed feelings about having the job does not mean in the least that I won’t do my level best for all of us and the planet itself. I will do my best as God strengthens me. And I have no private interests for which I would or even could use the office, unless getting my songs recorded and produced is involved somewhere in this.
Finally and most importantly, I was always be open to questions about my platform and about other political matters and some personal ones too. If I think something’s no one’s business but my own, I’ll say so and say why I think that. If I’m asked what I consider a downright loony question, the questioner can expect a ROFL, but I’ll try and say why the question comes across to me as pretty wacko. That’s mostly how I mean to campaign: answering your questions about what I would do as POTUS and how I would push it along!
I hope this gets more people going, especially considering how many of us are pretty tired of politics as currently practiced. I’m pioneering what looks to me like a new way of doing that. Let’s hope it at least takes off.
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