Jonah

Swallowed Up, but....
(http://www.politicususa.com/2015/02/20/report-msnbc-ditch-liberal-hosts-move-left-wing-tv.html)
...We can still be spit out, if We are Distasteful enough . (Budong)

You can kill my source, if you want to...
It doesn't matter.
It's happening in spite of your Belief.

I watch Rachel Maddow online in the morning with coffee.
Since the merger, the online part of MSNBC has gotten steadily worse....as if they had purposefully hired the worst IT People they could find.
If I were a giant media company, I would be embarrassed to put my name to such a poor product.

Reckon that Comcast is Post-Officing Msnbc.
Making it Clunky, so that the Bean Counters will be justified in re-arranging things in a less Liberal manner, blaming the Market(holy,holy) all the while.
Why would a business that is interested in Profit above all other things (world without end), do such a thing?

It will be 2016 sooner than you think.

Comcast is taking one for the Team.

In order to Fight Bernie Sanders.

(see?!...they do know what “compromise” means)

Msnbc , for good or ill, is the ONLY thing that passes for Liberal Cable/Satellite News in America, right now.
And it's just Center-Left....maybe even Center right!
“Moderate”, we would have named it, 40 years ago.
“Centrist”.
But it uses the Right's Narrative, not Ours.
The Actual Liberal Media is scattered and leaderless...in the wilderness.
From Save the Whales to Medicare for All to Eat the Rich....
Disparate leads to Lonely Dispair.
Collectively, such creatures have only tacit connection to one another.
Little Kingdoms, on widely separated little hills, mere threads in between them.
Because We have no Narrative of Our own....instead We use Theirs';
Designed to Belittle Us. Field Tested to Deride any Alternative without Thought(Luntzed)

Sitting in the middle of all of this, is the moribund Democratic Party.
They have a lock on all things official, on what remains of the Liberal Side(like stats and demographics and databases), but they are not really liberal, themselves.
Clinton's Folly still holds them to the Oaths they took to the Corporate State.
They are ineffective, mostly....and often on purpose.
Thralls to Moloch.
'It costs money', they insist, on bloody knees.
'And all the money is in the Corps(e).
So we must worship the Machine therein.'

All the while, outside, lost and alone,
or in little groups, spread like gossamer across the land,
are what used to be the Liberal Base.
Some have sworn fealty to the Right-- while holding their noses, or not...gotta live, after all...and the System Selects for Psychopathy.

Some are lost in Distraction...tv sports clubs and trade days/the Mall.
All the things we do to divide ourselves from one another.
Some have given up....or started Fighting in another way...
Burning Man, Firefly.
Marleyfest.
Living out loud.....but quietly, so as to sort of blend in-- on the margins, flouting convention.
But all alone, or in far-flung little groups ...again, just barely connected,
like gossamer.

Ranting on Facebook ain't gonna get it done,
this Great Work.


This will take emerging from the back yard...from the living room....from the Closet. This will take Front Yards, and Parks, and Streets.
(plant Vegetables in yer front yard and Give them away)

It will also take: either 1.overwhelming our own damned Party...2.going, en masse, with the Greens...or 3., forming something New to better Represent Our Interests.
Polite Disagreement, and the Veiled Rhetoric of Mild Outrage, can
no longer be accepted.
It simply hasn't worked.
Not good enough.
The People...those I haphazardly enumerated above—that great amorphous mass...including those who pay no attention to such trifles as Politics....
They are Legion.
They are Waiting.
We are Legion.
We are Waiting.
Waiting til that time that We know that We are not alone....in our outrage, and in our Frustration.
Hiding in the proverbial, if not the Literal, Hills. Waiting to be a Part of Something...a Tribe a Clan or a Nation.
We must find a Narrative to coax...even shock...them out.
To Wake them.
Enrage them , even>
Let them know that they are not alone.
We have the Negative Theology down pat....we can spell out, with fervor, what we are not.
We need to figure out what We Are.
And then Speak it.
To whomever will Listen.

Reclaim Liberty from the Right.
For They have abused it.
Reclaim Patriotism, while we're at it.
For They have soiled the flag, and what it stands for:
Radical Inclusion.
Us.
We.
(!! Let them keep their Narrow Little Worlds!)
Those who oppose us are not the Enemy....merely the Fooled; Cousins, lost in the Fog.
The Enemy is the Gospel of Greed...of Dog eat Dog....of Kick the Burning Ladder Down!
Piss on Our Heads.
Of “I got Mine”.

Together we can find a cure.

{You Christians among us...please Reclaim Christ!!....(Matt.25!!)The Philistines have stolen Jesus from you!}

Reciprocity (the Golden Rule) is a fine place to start.
Our Society...Our Civilisation...should be a Reflection of Us.
Not the eldritch shadow we see today....where Avarice is the Highest Good, and Money the only Ideal Metric of Worth.

Eudaemonia is a Joint Endeavor!
How do We define Our Civilisation?!
Happiness? Fullfillment? Let Us Think about these things, for
This is Ours to figure out...Not have it dictated by the Boss, the Agent, or the Preacher....let alone the Congresscritter(Our employee)....or the Cop(also Our employee).
We are the Sovereigns.
They all work for Us, and are meant to embody Our Values.

I tire of being a Square Peg in the Round Hole of their Dysfunction....
Is there nothing that they advocate that does not involve Punishment,Suffering and Death?

Surely a Better World can be had, in the here and now....(“let him who has ears to hear...”)
I am more than an “Economic Unit”;
So I want to talk about Economics...about how People live their Lives.
Shorn of the Esoterica.


Not Big Government, but Better Government.
Less intrusive but more helpful.
Smarter, and with clearer goals and mechanisms.
And Limits.
With a Care for the actual People...the Human Beings-- who are supposed to be it's Masters.

Let Us frelling Incorporate, if we have to.
Let Us go head to head with those who have purchased Our Damned Government in a back room, somewhere.
Let Us be a giant Paper Manifestation of Americans, to counter the Numerous Paper People who are arrayed against Us.
.
America Incorporated, with each of Us...and yes, each of Them, too...All of Us a Shareholder thereof.
We Outnumber the Regressives, Three to One.
If We would only wake, and get Together.

Barriers to Entry, redux.

Behold:(http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/05/the-largest-grocer-in-the-texas-is-now-rationing-eggs/?tid=sm_fb)

Entirely predictable, given the Egg “Industry's” penchant for animal abuse, close quarters, terrible conditions and the prophylactic over-use of antibiotics and growth hormones.
And yet, I cannot sell an Egg(save “on farm”) laid by our happy and healthy chickens.
We have on any given day around 50 dozen brown eggs, both regular size, great big(and sometimes double yolked), and the Banty eggs(takes 2 to make one regular).
But since we are not licensed and permitted, we are illegal for all but “on-farm” sales...which means that folks have to drive way out here, make a special trip.
In order to justify the costs involved in getting licensed and permitted, we would, ourselves, need to expand into an Egg Factory.
That's how the rules are written...by the Egg “Industry”, itself.
The Rules are promoted as having everything to do with health and safety...but here we have the event that gives the lie to that idea.
It was only a matter of time before there was an outbreak in the Industrial Egg Factories.
The Egg “Industry” also has another effect on little guys like me...I am unable to sell such eggs as folks are willing to drive for at a price that is sustainable.
The Economies of Scale mean that the Industrial Eggs can be sold for an artificially cheap price. But I can in no way compete...since I can't buy scratch grains and whatnot by the Ton.
Here is Neoliberalism, again...fucking things up: Price is all that matters...quality be damned.
My Eggs are consistently Better, hands down, than any of the weak and runny and flavorless Industrial Eggs.
But folks have been trained to go for the Lowest Price.
In the same way that the California Megadrought will make produce scarce...this is making Eggs scarce.
The rush to Hugeness....to concentration of the Means of Production into the hands of a handfull of gigantic immortal fictions, leads inexorably to weakness in the supply lines.
When there's only a couple of Corps(e) who produce eggs, and something bad happens to them,then there are no eggs.
Wouldn't it be better to Democratise the Production of Food?
To spread the Means of Production as widely as possible?
There is no good reason, any longer, for this rush to Hugeness....to Hyper-Concentration.
We should do Food...and Energy...like we do the Internet(as originally constructed). Instead of one big farm...a million little ones.
Diversity is Strength.

Public vs Private

A Libertarian Free Market Fundamentalist was arguing with me the other day.
I took exception to the statement that “the American Left is fighting for less Freedom...” or something to that effect.
Oh, those Leftsts...marching in lockstep.

He indicated that More Government always equals Less Freedom.
I rebutted with a question:” Why did Teddy Roosevelt and FDR expand the powers of the Fedgov the way they did?”
The answer of course, is to curtail the abuses of Giant Piles of Money.
Robber Barons, Trusts, Carnegie and Standard Oil.
These entities and personages were deleterious to Liberty...so the Fedgov took them on...on OUR Behalf!...in order to put them within a fence, so that they could be controlled, and restrained where necessary.
I asked:” What other mechanism is there for such a Task?”
….and got silence.

Libertarians have learned the Gish Gallop.
He moved on to another few topics, tangentially related to the topic at hand...and then:” There have been Private Fire Departments” ….and:”Volunteer Fire Departments are not Government”.
As is the primary feature of the Gish Gallop, I was compelled to quickly locate links, or give a five paragraph rebuttal to this...citing evidence.
While I am doing this, they move on to the next weasel worded “point” or outright strawman, which also requires a five paragraph response.

Here are the appropriate responses to those two specious “points”:
“There have been Private Fire Departments.”
Indeed, there have!
...and they were a Failure for two entangled reasons...(1)if your neighbor doesn't pay his Fire Protection Subscription, his house burns down...and then (2)your house burns down, because there are no building codes(lol) and it matters not that you have paid your extortion money to the Fire Brigade.
This has actually happened...quite recently...and it was the main reason that Benjamin Franklin pushed for Public Fire Departments that would protect Everyone...by protecting Everyone.
It's not hard to understand.

”Volunteer Fire Departments are not Government”

Maybe not technically...but they receive considerable Tax Payer Money...and could not function without it.
Fire Trucks are expensive, as are Jaws of Life, and other sundry and interrelated equipment.
Bake Sales and Bar-B-Ques aren't going to cut it.
If an activity relies fundamentally on Public Money, it is essentially a Public Enterprise.
(it can also be called “socialism”, but that may be too much for my Libertarian friends)
If it's Public, that means Government.
In this country, Government is supposed to be Us...We the People.
To the extent that that is not the case, we have no one to blame but Ourselves, for abdicating our virtual throne as the seats of sovereignty.
In our form of Government, we get what We work for.

Of course, they will never read this...and if they do, they will likely ignore it.
I see this often.
They have no answers that don't rely on platitudes backed by air, and condemnation backed only by Unreason.
Hence, Gish Galloping.

VOTE

“”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, “”- U.S. Declaration of Independence

I hear, quite often, from my friends on the Right, that we are a Constitutional Republic...and “Not a Democracy”...
I counter with the perfectly obvious, that we are Both....we choose who will Represent Us Democratically.
How else to measure what the Governed Consent to?
In the last couple of years...longer if you want to include the Purges in Florida, in 2000...Republicans have been very busy attempting to gut the Right to Vote.
They do this with a Straw Man: the Myth that there is widespread Voter Fraud(hey, it works against welfare,lol)
Of course, they can provide no evidence of such widespread Voter Fraud, because there is practically None...save for the shenanigans that the GOP has engaged in, in 2000, in 2004(Ken Blackwell, I'm looking at you) and in the various scandals regarding “Voting Machines” that suddenly “Flip” to the GOP side.
Now, there are various groups(Right Wingers love their “Grass Roots” Groups) whose sole purpose is to agitate and spread manure all over Voting Rights.
In one highly ironic instance, the Right found a few “Activist Judges” on the Supreme Court(Shelby) who did their bidding and gutted the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1964.
The reason given, in a nutshell, was that Racism is over.(yay)
Immediately, various Republican controlled States implemented draconian Voter ID laws and engaged in other sundry suppression techniques.
I think everyone would agree that showing an ID at the polls would be just fine...but these states simultaneously restricted which ID's were acceptable and limited(due to budget cuts) the places where such ID's were to be had.
This had the predicted effect: Democratic Voters were hardest hit.
This was the Intention of all these laws and rule changes...to limit Democratic Suffrage.
Turns out that Republicans' electoral successes are inversely proportional to the number of people who turn up to vote...so it's in their interest to limit the number of folks who do so.
They simply cannot compete without cheating...which says a lot.
Here's a few overviews of what has happened...it's shocking, really:
http://rolandmartinreports.com/blog/2012/04/roland-s-martin-gop-voter-suppression-is-real-and-must-be-stopped/
http://billmoyers.com/2014/10/24/voter-discrimination/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/26/jim-greer-florida-voting-laws_n_2192802.html

The Google Machine turns up lots of information on the Right to Vote.
It is only Implied in the Constitution.
But it is Implied very Strongly...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consent_of_the_governed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_rights_in_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/08/what-does-the-constitution-actually-say-about-voting-rights/278782/

Ergo...I (and others, it turns out) propose a Constitutional Amendment Guaranteeing the Inalienable Right to Vote.
There is simply no reason not to, unless you don't like fair elections, for some reason.

http://www.fairvote.org/reforms/right-to-vote-amendment/

https://www.aclu.org/aclu-factsheet-voting-rights-amendment-act-2015-house

Here's one of the founders of the Right Wing Counter-Revolution, saying very clearly, and without subterfuge, that the Right doesn't want folks to vote, because they can't win that way:


https://action.aclu.org/secure/congress-repair-voting-act
http://www.fairvote.org/reforms/right-to-vote-amendment/
http://www.fairvote.org/assets/FairVotes-Perspective-on-a-Right-to-Vote-Amendment-03.13.2014update.pdf



I am pleased as pudding that Hillary has had the Stones to come out so forcefully on this issue.
I'll still vote for Bernie in the Primary, but it's good to see some spine in the Democratic Frontrunner.
Let the Republicans squirm.
Let them come out and explain why an Amendment to the Constitution Guaranteeing the Right to Vote is a bad idea...and why We the People cannot be trusted with such a Right.
The GOP...especially their Governors...have been soft-balled on this issue for long enough.
They say confusing things, like how they want “Free and Fair Elections” and talk at length about “the Integrity of Our Elections”...But at the same time, they present no evidence that the Voter Suppression, Anti-Suffrage Laws they have signed will do anything to ensure such Integrity.
Indeed, I allege that they don't really want that, at all.
What they really want is for folks who tend to vote for Democrats excluded from Elections.
Again, there is no Evidence of widespread Voter Fraud.

Come clean, Republicans.
All the rest of you...hold their feet to the fire.
The Right to Vote should be Sacrosanct...you cannot have a Legitimate Representative Republic without it.
It should be easy and automatic.
At 18, you get an ID that is also your Voter Registration Card.
The President could probably make Passports function in this way, and make it cheaper and easier at the same time.
It should cost next to nothing.
Let there be Fingerprints to please the Rabid Right.
So that there is no question.

In Wesberry v Sanders, 376 U.S. 1, 17; 84 S. Ct. 526; 11 L. Ed. 2D 481 (1964) , Justices said:
“[N]o right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live. Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined.”3
Here we are, once again, fighting for the maintenance of the Social Contract...which is not even in the Curriculum where I live.
(“sounds like socialism” )
Representative Government requires that Our Representatives be chosen by the Majority of Voters in a given District.
It's how We choose County Commissioners, and City Council Members and Mayors, and who shall be in various and sundry Governmental and even Quasi-Governmental Offices.
It is how We in Texas Ratify the numerous Amendments to the Texas Constitution that come before us every so often.
“Consent of the Governed” means just that...you have to ask the People.
This is most effectively done by Elections, wherein the People Vote.
Otherwise such Government has no Legitimacy.
“True the Vote” should mean, “Make damned sure that the People can be Heard”.
Enough with the Doublespeak!
Let the GOP defend themselves.