undertow

Mike Pence has stepped in it.
He went along with the craziest, most backwards politicians in his state in pandering to the craziest, most backwards people in that state, and signed a law legalising discrimination against gays....and anyone else that a business owner, or(presumably) anyone at all, deems “lesser than”.
...or worthy of discrimination...or something.
It's all rather muddled by the back-flips and hmmms and haws and euphemism.
What is not muddled, is that there has been an immediate backlash.
Business groups and businesses and ceo's and various trade groups have risen up to excoriate Indiana's leaders, and to pull out a bunch of business activity in the state.
This outcome is great, of course.
Such assholery as that of Mr Pence and his idiot windbags should rightly be vilified...and there should rightly be consequences.
But there's another angle, here.
Before Pence signed this odious legislation, there was already an outcry...by The People.
….and nobody cared...at least nobody in a position to stop this mess from being born in the first place.
It took the Business Lobby to have an effect...namely, making Pence and the gang reconsider...even scramble around to try to undo the damage.

A similar phenomenon is happening in the Texas Capitol, right now:

(http://progresstexas.org/blog/texas-businesses-choose-education-healthcare-over-gop-tax-plan)

The Texas Business Lobby has now weighed in on the Radio Preacher's plans to implement a Teabilly Budget, wherein Texas can continue down the path towards dysfunction and theocracy.
Big Business says “No”.
Now watch them scramble around.
I have long insisted that the true constituency of our Governments, state, local and federal, are Corporations, Hedge Funds and Big Banks—that we live in an Oligarchy, not a Democratic Republic any more...
Here is one more plank in my porch.
We, the People, can holler and scream...write letters to “our” supposed employees, and to editors...we can sign petitions, and even light ourselves on fire...and it doesn't matter, because We, the People don't matter.
“Corporations are People, my friend...”(Mittens)
I expect Texas to attempt to enact a similar Hate on Gays Law, and I expect a similar backlash.
From Business....because it's bad for business to be discriminatory, not because it represents a backwards and harmful, anti-enlightenment worldview that is best left in the past.
I expect Tea People in Texas to continue to attempt to cut taxes to the bone, and further destroy the public school system.
I expect continued aversion to reasonable accommodation to Obamacare(close the gap).
I expect all of the hurtful and hateful nonsense that we have become accustomed to from “them people”.
The new thing, is that Big Business seems ever more likely to balk at this...to pull their money out from from under Teabilly Politicians and would-be Politicians.
Big Business, the true constituency, is done with the Tea Party....and maybe even with the “Religious Right”.
They're bad for business, you see.
And Business are People, my friend.
This time, Corporate Persons are on the side of Regular People(Homo Sapiens Sapiens(sic)).
They will not always be so.
That is what worries me.

I got yer small government, listening to the people, right here...

(Wherein Amfortas quotes Ted Cruz...)

“You and I both know that the ‘Big Government crowd’ isn’t just the Left, it also includes some on the Right. An excess of power and government is always, always, always, a fundamental threat to liberty.” 
- Ted Cruz, Messiah.

(http://www.texasobserver.org/committee-hears-bill-to-allow-ken-paxton-to-toss-local-ballot-initiatives/)

It was entirely predictable.
As soon as the Voters in a few cities began passing referendums outlawing Fracking in Their towns, it was a good bet that this day would come.
As soon as other cities passed other referendums that raised the minimum wage in those places, it became inevitable that this day would come.
Now, a couple of Tea Party Politicians...who ran campaigns touting their love of the Constitution, of the Republic and of the People...these guys have decided that the People cannot be trusted, after all.

This is a direct quote from Mr Paxton's campaign site:
”“In recent years, the US Constitution has been under assault from liberals that seek to centralize power, expand government, and disregard the rights and privileges that the Constitution seeks to protect; this document empowers citizens and limits the government's power and authority.”
--and here's a quote from Phil King's page(philking.com/about):
”Local control and limited government must be the first resort and not the last.”

...and yet here they are, in power, attempting to subvert the Will of the People.
Can't trust the People of those cities, let alone of this state, to make “the right decisions”, I guess.
Texas Referendum and Initiative Laws are already weak, limited to Home Rule Cities...It's difficult to get past the hurdles. Texas has no Statewide R&I Law, the Masters in Austin having saw fit to keep that power from the People, at least twice, save for Amendments to the Texas Constitution.

Let me take a minute to head off the usual suspects:
Them:”But we're not a Democracy, we're a Republic”.
Me:” We are both...we democratically elect our representatives in the various levels of government(except Michigan, who have fallen into a sort of Imperial Consulate System in recent years...also under Republican Hegemony.),...we also have a long, long history of more Direct Democracy, from the New England Town Hall, beginning circa 1630, to the Post-Civil War Progressive Movement, uniting against the abusive Crop/Lien System, and a Two Party stranglehold on Power, enabled(then, as now) by Big Business.

Rep. Phil King(R. Weatherford) and Mr Paxton are attempting to subvert that history, and those Rights and Privileges. They are not alone. The newly minted Governor also seems to have sudden issues with Local Control, which used to be a Third Rail of the Right. Joining them in the Capitol were the Real Constituency: the Texas Oil & Gas Association(now run by Todd Staples,lol), Texas Association of Builders, the Texas Restaurant Association and the Texas Association of Business.
I can guarantee that they will be listened to...which is exactly why Texas needs I & R...not just in big cities, but statewide....because Our Employees are deep in the pockets of wealth and power.

(Please see:(www.ethics.state.tx.us/php/filer.php?acct=00036483COH) for Rep. King's particular record of pocket warming)



“We need an Attorney General who will stand up for the US Constitution and the individual liberties it protects, and that is why I'm running for Attorney General.”
From (kenpaxton.com/issues)

Amygdala, On Fire.

Another facet of what I have learned about the American Right:

I am continually amused, and yet at the same time horrified, by what the most extreme variety of Righty thinks about “Libruls”.
Perusing this, from a couple of years ago:
(http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/07/groundswell-rightwing-group-ginni-thomas?page=1)

Came across Ginni Thomas' recommendation to her fellow lunatics to watch this “documentary”:

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDo8xAQGrI8)

The Lizard Brain, lobotomized.
If you are interested in the Fevered Id of the Right, here is an important insight: what they believe We are up to...have been up to..and what they believe that We want?
No less than total destruction of Amurca!
Lol.
As is my habit, I dug around in the comments...there's no shortage of folks(our neighbors) who swallow this terrifying doom whole.
One tidbit that leaps at me is that it is regarded as unconscionable when Commies(sic) want to overthrow the US Government(in my opinion, it is)...but it's Patriotic when the Rabid Right wants the same damned thing(Cliven?).
Another is the idea that there is a many-headed hydra...tentacles and all..of liberalism/socialism/communism busy “undermining” and “subverting” America.
I've been searching for the Vast Liberal Conspiracy for my whole frelling life!
I have yet to find it.
I look at stuff like this as Projection.
If you read what Groundswell says it wants to do, is it not what this “documentary” says that the nonexistent Pinko Conspiracy wants to do?
“they wanted to infiltrate the institutions of America to influence us in the direction they want us to go”
Please Google “Seven Mountains”,lol.
The craziest thing is that so many “leading lights” in Movement Conservatism believe this stuff...that should be a concern.
Here's a couple of handy Beckian charts, lifted from the Red State review of the “documentary”:

(http://www.redstate.com/2013/02/28/agenda-how-marxists-are-grinding-america-down/)
Again, Projection.
These could be charts of the Right Wing Revolution, circa 1971- present, Think Tanks, Mailing Lists and Townhall Meetings.
That may sound like “I know you are but what am I”...but there is actual documentation of this, From Buckley and the Powell Memo, all the way up to the Tea Party.
Assertions of Christianity on the run, and “Liberal Media” Hegemony, and Lefty Indoctrination in Public Schools and the “Gay Agenda”...stand back and view the state of the world, and it is almost the exact opposite of what this film presents.
I personally know many folks who believe this sort of thing.
They are quite dangerous, when cornered.


From an adherent:
”Most importantly, Russia and China are not enemies. They may hate each other on racial lines, but they jointly despise the United States even more. In terms of ideology, economics and military strategy, Russia and China are firm allies. China doesn’t want Siberia – who in their right mind would? China wants to move large chunks of its population to the American heartland – by war if necessary. If that involves losing 30 or 40 million of its surplus young male population – so much the better. One less problem to worry about.
If it comes to war, one joint Russia/China plan is for Russia to nuke the hell out of the continental United States. After Obama has finished decimating what is left of the US nuclear arsenal of course. The Russians will then invade Alaska and parts of Canada, but not the lower ’48. China will then invade across the Pacific. They will lose millions of troublesome young men, but they eventually get a foothold. Then their allies in Latin America will invade across the Mexican border… and the Red Dawn will break.
(http://www.therightplanet.com/2013/01/agenda-grinding-america-down-countering-gary-norths-criticisms-part-1/)
The collapse of the USSR was a nefarious hoax?
The American political Center has moved to the Left?
Hitler was a Lefty?
Great Googly Moogly!
I spent many years lurking in Righty Fora (virtual field study). This sort of hysterical nonsense is more widespread that we'd care to believe.
Witness the attempt to rehabilitate Joe McCarthy in the Texas curriculum, for instance.
Or the hysteria surrounding Common Core, Obamacare and so many other bits and pieces of the Democratic Platform. Sure, it's ludicrous...but it's alive and well on the Right.
A google search shows almost nothing about this bunch, but that doesn't really mean anything. Secrecy is important to Paranoids.
Reading the emails and such that David Korn published, my first impression is that this is merely an asylum of disgruntled nutters, lamenting the End of America at the hands of the Evil Librul Onslaught.
The problem with that first impression is that these particular nutters have real, verifiable influence on the political landscape...As odious and insane as I find folks like Gaffney, Boykin, Schafly and others, they are listened to.
I encounter their ideas and talking points all over the place, from comments sections throughout the web, to the feedstore.
Our nation really is in peril, not from some reanimated golem of Comintern, but from those who wrap themselves in flags and throw Bibles at everything they fear, all the while supporting the Corporate Hegemony that is actually implementing the very things they are so terrified of.
It's sad, really.
Pathetic.
But there it is.

a letter to my Texas Representative

To Texas Representative Murr.

Some thoughts:
I note that you're on the Transportation Committee.
While I understand that Public transportation is not all that popular in Texas, these days, I'd be remiss if I didn't flog it, any way.
When a place like Croatia has a better Public Rail system than us, I reckon we should be ashamed.
I'd like the Freedom to take the train.
Rail takes less energy, for moving both goods and people.
There is also the growing issue of Traffic...so many vehicles with one or two folks in them, making it increasingly harrowing to get from point a to point b.
Even way out here.
I recognise the challenges in the way of any comprehensive Rail plan, but I think it's worth looking in to.

I also note that you're on the Subcommittee on Long Term Infrastructure.
There are two things I think about, in that regard.
1. The Grid. It is my understanding that we lose around 40% of the electricity generated in Transmission...it just “evaporates” into the air.
This is one of the major drawbacks of having an overcentralised Power Generation...all those wires!
With current technology, we could build a better Grid...distributed generation, along the lines of how the internet is constructed.
The way we do it, now looks like Hydraulic Despotism, to me.
I understand that there are very powerful folks who like it just the way it is, but their vested interest should not curtail at least looking at alternatives.
Instead of a few giant power plants and nuclear facilities and gigantic wind farms...we could have 10 million small, individual, or even neighborhood-level
power sources, all inter-tied. This would be more robust and sensible than the current paradigm...a tree limb in one place would be less likely to cause outages in another. Democratise Electricity.
2. I have long been an evangelist for Sewer Gas,lol.
Every living thing is a potential source of energy.
Methane=”natural gas”.
From landfills to municipal sewer systems to septic tanks to feedlots, we allow how many btu's of energy to just float up into the atmosphere?
I'm planning on building my own methane digester, as proof of concept...and because I'm rather hard-headed.
Instead of relying only on Fossil Methane, we should look into the Fresh Kind.
This, too, will have many powerful interests rallying against it...Big Oil and Gas will crow that it's nasty and unworkable.
But the Fossil Variety will not last forever: the Fresh Kind will last as long as there are creatures with stomachs.

Just a few thoughts from a Liberal Constituent.

Ego sum, Intrepidus,
Josef

credit, where due.

To Texas Representative Sarah Davis.

Congresswoman,

I just wanted to say thank you for your courage for standing up to the whole “Foetii Uber Alles!”-crowd regarding Womyns' Health. As a Skunk Throwing Liberal, it's refreshing to learn that not everyone in your party has abandoned Reason.
Appearing on Maddow took guts, as well.
Healthcare in general in Texas is a travesty; and for Womyn, even more so.
Thanks for stepping up.

Ego sum, Intrepidus,
Josef

Sinvergüenza

On the Cotton Letter.

If Democrats had done something similar to this in the run up to the Illegal and Immoral Invasion of Iraq, they would have been (rightly) Pilloried.
Foreign Policy is the purview of the Executive Branch, per the Vesting Clause in Article 2 of the US Constitution.
The role of Congress in such matters is limited. In some cases, such as ratifying Treaties, Congress has the responsibility to “Advise and Consent”. In hammering out the details of such Treaties, Congress sits in the back seat...they can bitch and moan, but they have no Constitutional Authority.

“...The (vesting-ED)clause also accords the President those foreign-affairs authorities not otherwise granted to Congress or shared with the Senate. Thus, the President can control the formation and communication of foreign policy and can direct America's diplomatic corps. Because the Constitution nowhere assigns or shares these foreign-affairs powers, they remain part of the executive power granted to the President by the Executive Vesting Clause.”- (http://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/articles/2/essays/76/executive-vesting-clause)
….......................................................................................
Seems pretty clear, to me.
The Supreme Court decided, definitively, that this was so in 1936:
“It is important to bear in mind that we are here dealing not alone with an authority vested in the President by an exertion of legislative power, but with such an authority plus the very delicate, plenary and exclusive power of the President as the sole organ of the federal government in the field of international relations–a power which does not require as a basis for its exercise an act of Congress, but which, of course, like every other governmental power, must be exercised in subordination to the applicable provisions of the Constitution.”-Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland, writing for the Majority in United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp., 1936 (from the Wiki)
Of course, in Goptea-land, it depends on who sits in the Oval Office:
“"In the aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate," Cheney recently told the Wall Street Journal, "there was a concerted effort to place limits and restrictions on presidential authority." There were "a series of decisions," he explained, "that were aimed at the time at trying to avoid a repeat of things like Vietnam or ... Watergate."

"I thought they were misguided then," he continued, and "given the world that we live in [today] that the president needs to have unimpaired executive authority." Cheney said the only restraint on the president should be "the Constitution." He did not say, however, as he has on other occasions, that it is the president who says what the Constitution means, as far as his own duties and responsibilities.”-the Dark Lord, Cheney.(http://liberalcatnip.blogspot.com/2006/06/cheney-on-unitary-executive-theory.html)

Put aside our almost total Ignorance of History, especially regarding our History with Iran/Persia, from World War 1, to the present.
Put aside the blatant Hypocrisy of such shenanigans as this letter, and the recent Netanyahoo(sp-2) speech to Congress.
Congress simply does not have the Authority to form and negotiate Foreign Policy.
For all of the love of the Constitution that the Right purports to have...for all of their admonitions that Liberals “read the Constitution”...
for all of the insinuation that this President is, somehow, “Lawless”, and a “dictator”...it turns out that, like everything else, it depends...
When Lil' George was trampling on the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights, it was fine and dandy. How dare a Hippie in the Hills criticize our dear leader.
When St. Ronnie was doing secret deals with Iran, from before he was Inaugurated, it was fine and dandy.
How dare the Liberals take umbrage.
But let a Center Left, Democratic President with a funny name exercise his Constitutional Authority over the Foreign Policy of the USA, and the Right explodes into apoplexy.
Both “my” Senators saw fit to sign on to this idiotic and ill conceived letter, as they both also supported the recent meddling of Bibi in our governance and policy: The shameless corporate whore, Cornyn ,(https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00024852),
and the shameless Messiah in Waiting Cruz, (http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/rafael-cruz-declares-son-ted-cruz-anointed-) have pandered to their rabid and terrified and ahistorical “Base”...lying through their teeth about this President's “lawlessness” and “overreach”...
Now that the letter, and the Bibi hate-speech, have been pilloried and pooh-poohed by all and sundry...now that such banal and ridiculous posturing have been so roundly condemned...now the signers of that letter are saying it was “just a joke”.
Such irresponsible behaviour is likely funny in Cut-n-Shoot, Texas, and other such holes of superstition, ignorance and hate...it is to be condemned in more civilised places.

Wandering through Current Events

Surreality ascendant



I know I tend to go on and on about Surreality replacing Reality of a more objective kind.
I believe that it is one of the most important and even Profound threats that We, as a still sort of Free Civilisation, face....and it still goes all but unrecognised and un-acknowledged. Lakoff, Berlett, Alterman and a few others also hammer away at this particular nail, but they remain, apparently, quite esoteric in regards to what passes as mainstream Liberal Discourse...and it is totally ignored on the Right.
Have we no Liberal-ish billionaires?
How are we then to compete?
Or to be heard, at all?
We should have never allowed so called “Democrats” to get away with enabling the Telecommunications Act during Clinton's time, like Origen castrating himself on the temple steps.
We handed Big Money our own megaphone, and ensured that we would never be able to stop them from invading the Mind of America.
The Results?
What Rachel says, up there, is yet further proof that Facts do not matter to a rather large portion of America...that Ideology and mythology matter much more...and that, finally, the Mindfuck is complete.
(http://www.republicanradio.org)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Thus: “Shut down the ACA, cut off nutrition programs, eliminate social welfare programs, and INCREASE our massively bloated military budget. Is there ANYTHING the GOP wants that won't result in death and suffering? The GOP is a death cult.” by Captain Frogbert on Kos(http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/09/1369597/-Republicans-now-poised-to-govern-from-budget-crisis-to-budget-crisis) Indeed. A Brand New World ™ is busy being birthed, Right there, all around us, within and without us. We are surrounded, enveloped, as well as penetrated, by this Fog-- This dark mist of sewer gas and brimstone... “The Dark Side clouds Everything!”, said Master Yoda-- Make no mistake, this is 90% the doings of the GOP(tea), and the Sith in the shadows behind them...and the remainder is the fault of whatever percentage of Dems that have pawned their spines;such sad creatures enabled this situation: The Appearance, at least, of Government by Shenanigan. The Puppet Show is ever more shabby and sordid, frayed cotton brains, and faded tinsel...but it doesn't matter. The Cryptocracy crawls on. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
“Wars are being sold as effectively the same as game consoles and cell phones.  I'll go even farther and add the the marketing is even more nefarious because it's presented by what masquerades as news media.  We have accumulated defenses with regards to advertisements and subtle product placements, but apparently are unwilling to recognize marketing via a combination of media spin and fear.
by JohnnySacks on Daily Kos:(http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/08/1367711/-Be-very-afraid)

Occupy Madison Avenue, along with Wall and K.
...and whatever Universities and Fellowships produce Mass Psychologists and Social Engineers.
And the frelling Media.
Occupy Every damned thing.

I fear that it's too late...that the damage is done...that the Mind of my country is overthrown.
I fear that we must now go through the burning darkness, rather than around.


…....................................
(Republicans cause earthquakes.)
(Yer damned Fracking right, they do...)
…...........................
Light still gets in through the cracks....
I was approached at a wedding reception by someone my Wife identified as a “hard core Republican”.
He sidled up to me, shook my hand, and said, “ I enjoy your articles in the paper...very thought-provoking...thank you.”
This was in reference to my last letter to the editor(the majority of folks who approach me thus call these “articles”, which I find very interesting and endearing):(http://amfortasthehippie.blogspot.com/2015/02/on-teaching-of-history.html)
I thanked him...said,”well, somebody's gotta stir the pot...”

I have no idea what variety or vintage of GOP this fellow is....Reaganite?
A Goldwater Republican?
That he appeared Thoughtful sort of leans away from the usual Teasterical Neo-Birchean Back-To-The-Cave crowd.
There is a thin reed of Hope, there-- that thoughtful and circumspect Republicans still exist...
That there are folks on the Right who worry about the hysterical, often violent turn that their politics has taken...
That they are not entirely monolithic in their craziness and will to destruction.
This is on the ground evidence of the splits we see in national media that hint at fault lines and fractures within the American Right. Perhaps the more rational parts of that lot can put the “Rough Beast” of Paroxyst Anti-Enlightenment Crusaders, and the Randian, “Libertarian” Anarcho-Capitalists, back into the box.
(Hope...the Greeks reckoned it the most dangerous of worldly ills)

…..........................................................
Meanwhile, Hillary is the apparent nominee...the litany sez that we can skip the whole messy democracy stuff, and just get behind the Queen.
While I have always found Her Highness very interesting...I'd like to drink beer around a campfire with her...I have serious misgivings about her.
Too friendly with Wall Street and with Third Way Triangulators.
Primaries are for forcing such issues into the light.
I'm for a Bernie/Liz Ticket...with Grayson as Secretary of the Treasury...and Willie Nelson as Drug Czar.
Hillary certainly has a Spine...and Big Brass Balls...and all that has been sorely lacking on the Left...but she needs some social democratic leavening, Moyers and Hightower and the like, to gain my support.

God is Pro-Dope

Wow.
(http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2015/03/loosened-up-pot-laws-backed-by-conservatives-at-cpac-including-ted-cruz-suddenly-and-in-texas.html/)
(http://www.kltv.com/story/28244312/rep-david-simpson-files-bill-to-legalize-marijuana-in-the-state-of-texas#.VPXQDlKDaQc.facebook)
(http://tribtalk.org/2015/03/02/the-christian-case-for-drug-law-reform/)

I guess there's money to be made,lol.
The tribtalk comments are full of folks who would let the Perfect be the Enemy of the Good.
“Oh, he quoted the Bible, so we must oppose him!”
“He's a Teabilly nutter, so ...”
Rep. Simpson is actually proposing to NOT Regulate Weed...”regulate it like we regulate tomatoes and jalapenos...”.
That he justifies total legalisation with a bunch of God-speak is just fine, with me.
I commend him for his courage in even proposing this...in Texas, it takes balls to come out as Pro-Dope.
Of course, as the Dallas paper says, it's unlikely that this will go anywhere...too many old fogeys in the Base who still believe the whole Reefer Madness BS...but the tide does appear to be turning, even in Texas.

Minority Rule

Added to the ongoing Mindfuck, these sorts of shenanigans is how they keep winning.
Money helps, too.
The giant piles of data I've dug around in, over the last 14 years, indicate that the GOP(call it “The Right”) have some serious issues, going forward.
Their Ideas no longer have broad support...and their fatal flaw is their three legged Coalition: a Corporate Elite/Aristocracy, the so-called Libertarian Wing, and the Religious Right.
These three are fundamentally at odds on many, many things...but they continue to be held together by who they Hate and Fear: Liberals...Humanists...Secularists...and those who see Government as a Tool.
The Aristocracy has managed to keep the other two legs in line by a campaign of Rhetorical and Philosophical Obfuscation, retraining them, a la Pavlov, to respond to various Code Words. To people like me, the nuts and bolts of the Mindfuck seem patently absurd...and always have.
But those nuts and bolts continue to hold the whole rickety stool together, in spite of that Absurdity, which grows more and more obvious by the day.
In fact, they managed to overcome this, once again, in 2010, and 2014(http://www.alternet.org/story/148471/the_conservative_movement_is_poised_to_come_to_power%2C_just_as_it_runs_off_the_rails).
The Rhetorical Dog Whistle side of their continuing Triumph is where I usually spend my time.
But as Rachel indicates, and as we all know by now, it's in the actual Nuts and Bolts of Democracy that they have managed to embed themselves into like a collection of ticks.
Here is how the Gerrymandering was accomplished.
Here's how the Voter Suppression was made possible.
Surgical application of Money and Organisation.
Both of these fronts in this war, the Mindfuck and the Shenanigans, would not be possible, at all, but for the yawning Vacuum left by the Left.
From Triangulation to Blue Dogs to outright Spinelessness in the face of a supine Corporate Media, the Left has abdicated.
Wall to wall Ad Hominem and Gish Gallops only work so well, if you are afraid of your own positions.
Ignorance and Hatred can only become ascendant if We let them.
I'm sick unto death of Right Wingers.
I'm even more sick of the Democratic Party for failing to stop the Right, or even to challenge their ascendancy.
The Greens are hopelessly in the wilderness, due to circumstances beyond their control(a long standing Bipartisan policy of Exclusion).
There is nowhere to turn.
I've my own Party...the Fuck You Party.
The Skunk Throwing Liberal Party.
Anti-Authoritarian, Secular Humanist,Anti-Corporate, Anti- Dark Age.
Pro-Dope, Pro-Thought, Pro-Sex.
If it remains a party of One, so be it.
Fuck them all.

( https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/media/news/2005/05/26/1476/think-again-working-the-refs/)