INTERESTING TIMES

You don't know me.  I'm from Tennessee and I was born in the 1960's.  I've been an independent as long as I've been politically aware, because it is clear to me that both of our dominant parties here in the United States of America have become corrupt.  Both are overly influenced by big money, favors and whatnot.  Political figures on both sides have found ways to work the system to stay in power and enrich themselves.  Both parties have become more extreme because our voting systems including closed primaries cause that.  The incentives in our system are all wrong.  It might seem to be time to blow it up, to clear the slate in a dramatic way.

I would argue there's a right and wrong way to clear the slate.  Blowing it up is the wrong way because so much useful stuff gets destroyed in the process.  The right way would be to update our voting systems so that no one population gets to decide for all of us.  Open primaries, non-partisan districting, and ranked choice voting would fix our problems immediately.  The far left wouldn't be stuffing wokeness down our throats.  The far right wouldn't be trying to set up an authoritarian who will rule without regard for the Constitution.  We would have more options, instead of always having to choose between extremes that are both awful.

The beauty of the American system of government and its Constitution is that it was designed to keep any one faction from gaining absolute power.  That saying about power corrupting, and absolute power corrupting absolutely--that's absolutely true.  Our government was designed to keep anyone from having too much power.  The plan is to force us to compromise for the good of the people.  Compromise is hard work. 

Our government is supposed to be OF the people and FOR the people.  Not OF the academics, Christians, rich people, minorities, white people, men or any other single group.  OF THE PEOPLE.  FOR THE PEOPLE.   This is why America is a beacon on a hill for people all around the world.  A place where regular people have a chance.  A place where you won't get killed because you look different or celebrate a different totem.  THIS is the greatness of America.  Our forefathers had a vision and we have carried it forward for over 200 years.

Democracies usually fail before 200 years.  It's rare for a democracy to last as long as this one has.  And it is riddled with imperfections.  It needs work, a big update, a major overhaul.  Those who pretend it's perfect are totally nuts.  We made a lot of changes early, and the civil war forced us to make a bunch more changes.  We're about to have to get busy again.  If this democracy doesn't fail this November because too many people vote for a DICTATOR, we still have a lot of work to do.  The Democrats aren't autocrats like DJT, but they aren't going to give up power easily either.  WE THE PEOPLE must force the changes needed, and those changes will disempower BOTH of our dominant political parties and return the power TO THE PEOPLE.  Ranked choice voting.  Open Primaries.  Non-partisan districts for voting. 

Democracies require work!  They don't work if the people aren't paying attention or doing the work.  A failing democracy is not a reason to give up, it's a reason to get after it!  If we let Trump win it's because we gave up, we were too lazy and too ignorant to make the updates needed to keep rulership in the hands of the people.  Or return it there, really.

If we let our government fall prey to a dictator who ditches the Constitution, we will have lost all that we've fought and died for, for so long.  We'll be right back where we started when those rich Brits and the king were bossing us around.  Don't remember that?  It's because it was 200+ years ago!  History seems real boring until you start repeating it.  The LAST thing we need is to let Trump destroy all the democratic systems in our government in order to glorify himself.  It will take hundreds of years to dig ourselves back out of that pit.  Autocracy is a very bad trap. 

If we let the Dems take this next election, we might live to see the changes that would actually help!  We'll be fighting against them too, but at least they aren't about to ditch the Constitution and ignore federal law to deport a whole bunch of people.

There are LOTS of other changes that we need to work on, but our voting systems must come first.  I pray that NO DICTATOR gains power before we are able to hit the RESET button on our systems and keep working toward a more perfect union.

 If times were ever interesting, these are getting right up there.  In America, the Executive Branch sent an attack mob to the Legislative Branch of our government.  Marched them right down the avenue from the White House and up the Capitol steps.  One week ago.  That mob overwhelmed all barriers and invaded the Capitol through the windows, during a session.  The building was under lockdown for hours, with our representatives hidden in a subterranean chamber.  You can see the patriot invasion on youtube.  According to potus his mob looked "low class".  But then later he pronounced "we love you" to the same crew.

Then today the president is impeached for the second time.  How interesting.  Twice. May that be followed by a Senate trial and prompt Removal.  

The inauguration is planned to be a "hard target" so attacks may divert to state capitols which are considered "soft".  White supremacists have been booted to the backroads of the internet and are developing clandestine communications to sort out their next grand move.  They would enjoy a chance to kick some ass; a race war would do nicely.

The Executive Branch has been subverting the Judicial Branch by filling benches with sympathetic judges, but it is still a very separate Branch of power.  Lawyers and especially judges tend to be smart and willful and develop their own thinking rather than adopting half-baked ideology.  They see the obvious bogusness of the Big Lie.  The election wasn't stolen.  Those Attorney Generals, all 17 of them that signed on to a Texas lawsuit trying to flip the election, they aren't stupid.  They have been corrupted.  They must be getting rich.  Or have their nuts in a vise.  Or both.  Barr is probably still trying to get his nuts out.

Oh yeah and the pandemic.  Isn't that interesting?  What fascinates me the most is how utterly ignorant most people are about how the body works, and how a virus works, and why some people live and some die from the same virus.  The TERRAIN matters, my friends.  If your organs are sick, you can be weakened and susceptible without knowing it.  Science is really cool, too, it explains so much.

Ignorance about our government and institutions is also prevalent.  Broad ignorance is the terrain on which half-baked ideologies grow.  The difference is education.  But our schools have gotten as lazy as our Capitol defenses.  Believing that America truly is the greatest nation on earth has led to complacency and then denial.  What?  No problems here, we say, but the world knows better.  America was a great experiment in government, still is as of this moment. 

There is the possibility that Trump will function like a vaccine.  Just a tiny dose, well four long years.  Maybe that will autocrat-proof America.  Or maybe the booster shot will be worse.  And on top of that there is the possibility that this Republic will fail.  Trump tried to bring down this government and to date has failed.

Interesting, huh.

Trump is the first antidemocratic president in modern U.S. history.  On too many days, beginning in the early hours, he flaunts his disdain for democratic institutions, the ideals of equality and social justice, civil discourse, civic virtues, and America itself.  If transplanted to a country with fewer democratic safeguards, he would audition for dictator, because that is where his instincts lead.  This frightening fact has consequences.  The herd mentality is powerful in international affairs.  Leaders around the globe observe, learn from, and mimic one another.  They see where their peers are heading, what they can get away with, and how they can augment and perpetuate their power.  The walk in one another's footsteps, as Hitler did with Mussolini--and today the herd is moving in a Fascist direction.
--Madeleine Albright in Fascism: A Warning, page 246 (in what I think is the final chapter).

To Americans: Have you been following the debate? Do you know where you stand? Have you communicated your opinion to your representatives? If the answer to any of these is no, it is time to get on the ball. This matters. Congress is being influenced more by insurance companies and pharmaceuticals than they are by regular people. Even if you are no expert, you must have some basic values that you apply to the question of healthcare. If congress is supposed to represent us, we need to let them know what we believe. We have got to get more people to have an opinion and say so, including ourselves if we're not used to doing it. If we don't, our nation is headed into the deepest fascism. If you have children, or care about the young ones of others, this legislation matters even more.

Now you may think that I am a Republican. I am currently registered as one. I have been registered as Democrat and Independent too, and as far as I can tell it makes little difference what label is applied. You certainly won't be correct if you align me with Palin or Limbaugh. The neocons would label me a socialist. I support single payer healthcare for the US. My positions are not based in belief in anyone's platform, but in my own synthesis understanding of what would be most helpful to us as a nation and a people relative to where we currently stand. The labels don't apply to me because I would like us to take tools from different toolkits depending on the situation and the time. I want us as a people to be flexible enough in our thinking to avoid suicide. But right now we're headed down a dangerous path. Together.

Behind the cut is information from The Pen, which is mainly Dem in slant but often independent and insightful. This time they are working to support an option by which states can put together their own single-payer systems, and opt out of the federal plan of mandated insurance. It sounds reasonable to me. There's some info in here about how to make noise about what you believe---even if you don't agree with The Pen, or with me. I hope that you will get involved. We need you. All the people of America need you.
( Straight from The Pen )

OCO = overseas contingency operations budget = the new way of referring to war spending in the Obama administration. These appropriations are officially in the US budget, and will no longer be slipped in as "emergency spending", as the Shrubbery did throughout their reign. Obama's getting hammered for his big budget but those so-called Republicans (more like fascists in my view) are having a hard time getting honest about how much was spent that was not in the budget in the past.

This chapter, entitled Why the worst Get on Top is from Hayek's book The Road to Serfdom. He provides a convincing argument as to why fascists keep getting control of great countries.
( read Hayek's chapter )

I thought I posted a link to Naomi's article earlier, but couldn't find it, so here it is! This is the same lady from the utube clip (previous to this entry).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/ten-steps-to-close-down-a_b_46695.html

( here's the full text )

He was quite a writer and philosopher, that Mussolini. Much brighter than our Shrub. He expounds on his philosophy here and says "The Fascist conception of life is a religious one."
http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Germany/mussolini.htm

On my walk today I met another German of the same name as the German that I met in Portland. Gunther. Gunther was pruning a young apple tree that had extended limbs into the sidewalk. He asked a lot of guilty questions when I approached. "Are you the neighbor" and "Do you know these people?" but I had no connection to the apple tree or its owners. He had been unable to get permission to prune the apple tree from the homeowner because they are never home. So he decided to take care of it, for the good of all. And I caught him in the act.
( Sidewalk Tales )