Category: Democracy

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Democracy

The Snowflake Presidency

When are Americans going to wake up and realize that Donald Trump is like any other guy in a bar with an opinion and limited facts? That he’s essentially a guy who went into dad’s business, spreading his money around to anyone who would spell his name correctly in big neon letters, and that he knows virtually nothing about how the American political system works or the ideas on which it is based? As for his defensiveness and inability to take blame, that makes Trump not just the first snowflake president; it makes him a virtual blizzard.

Realizing this makes it easier to dismiss 95% of articles that are written about him, articles that register shock–shock!–at the things he says and the things he does.

I have no doubt whatsoever that Trump asked, indeed demanded, that James Comey stop the investigation into Micheal Flynn. I have no doubt that Trump knew virtually nothing about how his travel ban violated basic American values and legal norms. I have no doubt that he is unschooled in any of the vital public issues that confront our nation at this moment, including, but not limited to health care, the environment, taxes, job creation, roads, bridges, airports, technology information systems, the Internet, immigration or foreign relations.

He, and I assume many of his shrinking support base, sees himself as the great disruptor, when in fact he is clueless about how his words and actions damage him and even more, damage the country. Just in the past few days Trump has finally affirmed that the US stands firmly behind our NATO allies and that we will defend them under every circumstance. And he has said that he will address the issue of whether there are Oval Office tapes of his conversations with Comey and others.

But why wait? In the first case, Trump’s waffling and non-commitment in Italy only served to heighten mistrust of the US as a staunch ally. In the second, and under the same circumstances, you or I would immediately be accused of withholding evidence in a criminal investigation. What Trump is doing is not disruption or draining liquids or statecraft. It’s an ignorant guy in a bar watching cable news and spewing his uninformed opinion.

And it’s not going to stop.

The White House staff was able to keep Trump occupied throughout Comey’s televised testimony, which, if you have any experience with children who have been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, is a Herculean task, and he generally stayed off Twitter for the day. But he came roaring back with venom, calling Comey a liar and offering to testify himself under oath with nothing more than…himself. And he’s his own worst enemy. Comey has witnesses and written notes. Trump has…beer and pretzels.

As I’ve said, my life has become lighter and less fraught since I committed to the obvious and judged Trump, correctly, to be nothing more than an uninformed blowhard.  The real problem with my assumption, though, is that the other people in the White House and in Congress must step up and make sure that Trump’s worst excesses do not become law.

What happens when Rex Tillerson and others with some modicum of knowledge resign because Trump has contradicted them one too many times? What happens if Senate moderates can’t defeat the ruinous Trumpcare bill now in front of them? What happens if Paul Ryan continues to excuse Trump’s behavior because, essentially, he doesn’t know any better?

Obviously, the first thing is that I will become heavier and more fraught, but it will also mean that the country will be in an even more spectacular danger. That’s why those who oppose the administration’s direction must organize and coalesce around candidates that will take back the House and/or Senate in 2018. That’s got to be the one indivisible goal for those of us who see the danger that’s plainly in front of us.

Otherwise, we will continue to be buried under the billions of snowflakes already descending upon us.

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Democracy Featured

Hey! New Jersey’s Electing A Governor! Pass It On

And you probably thought that Chris Christie had appointed himself governor-for-life. Of course, I wouldn’t put it past him, but his approval ratings are even lower than Trump’s, so he’ll need to leave next January. And with all the fun and excitement going on in DC these days, I can’t really blame you if you haven’t been paying attention to the upcoming election here in the Garden State. The primary is on June 6, though, so it’s time to wake up.

Remember that just last year at this time we were considering the idea that Governor Christie might be the Republican vice-presidential nominee or some other important appointment in case (never happen) Donald Trump got elected president (shudder). Now the governor is scuffling toward the exit with little more than a final-year push to address opioid addiction. You know, the kind of help that people desperately need but that won’t necessarily be covered in a Trumpcare health plan. It’s a remarkable fall for such a large personality and for someone who craves the attention, affirmation and fealty from those around him.

As usual, though, there is no shortage of contenders, And the Republicans and Democrats do differ sharply on the issues. Christie’s Lieutenant Governor, Kim Guagdano, has the unenviable task of hoisting the successor’s flag, all the while running away from Christie and towards Trump. Sort of. Guadagno can’t run as an outsider because she’s been an insider for 8 years, and over that time she really hasn’t made much of a public impact. On the Democratic side, the race will likely come down to one between Phil Murphy and John Wisniewski, although Jim Johnson was impressive in the debate earlier this month.

The big issues are property taxes, which continue to increase despite Christie’s cap on municipal spending, and the increasing difficulty of getting from one place to another in the state dues to a crisis in infrastructure. All of the candidates are suggesting that the school aid formula needs to be addressed, with the Republicans saying that public workers need to pay more for their health insurance benefits and that schools in the suburbs should get more state aid at the expense of urban districts. The Democrats, especially Murphy, are trying to protect benefits, and all of them support cleaner energy and higher taxes on high earners. The Democrats also favor legalizing marijuana and taxing it to get more money for the state.

The most immediate need, though is money to improve the state’s roads and rails because both systems are at their breaking points. Traffic in the Garden State has always been terrible, but road repairs are needed to keep what’s moving moving. The trains are going to be a nightmare this summer as Amtrak shuts down tracks in New York’s Penn Station after the derailments of the last few months. This will cost billions and will remind people that Christie vetoed the plan for a new tunnel to Manhattan early in his term because, as a potential national Republican candidate, he couldn’t be seen as raising taxes or spending on anything that’s necessary.

The train problem is also likely to make the car problem worse because people still need to get to work, so they’ll get into their cars if mass transit is spotty. And it will be. The other answer is to take the bus, but that would mean more buses, more gridlock and more traffic. It doesn’t look as though federal help will be arriving anytime soon as health care, taxes and defending oneself against legal attacks will be keeping Washington busy until at least the beginning of next year.

As for the schools and property taxes, the divide in New Jersey pretty much mirrors the divide in Washington. The Republicans want more money for school choice programs and Charter Schools, and they want public workers to pay more for their pensions and benefits because, well, they have better benefits than everyone else. Of course, the real benefit would be to get every worker the type of benefits that public workers have, rather than taking a livable retirement away from them. But you know Republicans; they think that unions are destructive and that management knows best.

Of course, Democrats were not much better, especially those who sided with Christie in the benefits reform bill of 2011 which resulted in a massive reduction in take-home pay for public workers who were already employed when the bill was passed. This is a main reason why middle class recovery has been slower in New Jersey than in other states. The Democratic candidates running now say they will protect worker’s benefits and improve the pension system, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

New Jersey should be a Democratic pickup come the fall, but I’ll also hedge that bet a little until I see who wins the primaries.

Get out and vote on June 6.

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Democracy

Witch Hunting for Nuts

The good thing, and perhaps the only good thing, about the Trump Administration (shudder) is that you never really have to wait very long before the real story becomes apparent. This is decidedly not a regular presidency or White House where the shrouds of secrecy and intrigue hide covert actions for months or years at a time. They do try, the people with some political experience, to navigate Trump through what should be safe political harbors, but then he slams his foot on the speedboat’s gas and heads towards the bathers. And the bathers are the ones who voted for him.

Such has been the previous, tumultuous week in a fast-moving storm that seems to have no sunshine behind it, only darker clouds.

It’s clear that the president dismissed James Comey for delving too deeply into the matter of Russian interference in the election and the extent to which Trump campaign/ administration workers involved themselves in that contretemps. Trump also clearly believe(s)(d) that firing Comey would lessen the pressure the FBI guy was putting on the administration. Calling Comey “nuts” was just Trump projecting his fears and insecurities.

Which he does a lot.

In fact, I’ve come to believe that when Trump uses words like nuts and witch hunt, he’s actually referring to himself because that’s the type of behavior he’s exhibiting and the type of management style he’s using in the White House. Further, the country seems to be turning a corner on the president and his credibility. People like Trump, who think that they’re always right and are bolstered by people who are loyal to him, tend to believe that those who disagree with them must have something wrong with them. It’s difficult to run an administration on that, as we’re learning. And the worst part is that it’s getting even more difficult to see anything the president says as having the weight of probity or thought (if it ever did).

He’s also making it difficult for the Republicans to project a unified message on their agenda because Trump’s tweets keep getting in the way. And besides, the conservative agenda is not widely popular anyway, as the fight against the ACA repeal proves. Add in the other components such as huge tax cuts for the wealthy, and you have a real problem. And when James Comey makes his public testimony, the country will stop and listen.

Trump will not be impeached, and I would urge those who are calling his behavior and words treasonous to redirect their energies to 2018 and to confronting legislators who support his agenda. Let the Mueller investigation run its course and see where it leads. In the meantime, Trump will continue to hurt himself by trying to explain his actions and contradicting his aides, and his aides will leave because it’s really the president who can’t be trusted.

And just remember what types of people invoke witch hunts.

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Democracy Featured

100 Days of Ineptitude

With sincere apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. After all, Marquez knew it wasn’t easy to write a book, which is more than we can say about how easy Donald Trump thought (?) being president was going to be. It’s really a stunning admission given that, well, almost everyone else in the country over the age of 12 has an inkling that being president is a terrifically difficult job if you want to do it well, which clearly Trump has no interest in.

What’s not so easy is realizing that Trump has only been in the White House for 100 days. Maybe that’s because the first two weeks of bumbling and blathering seemed like a year in Roosevelt time. And only three years and change to go.

If this past week solidified anything, it’s that President Trump (shudder) is on course to be one of the least effective, least visionary and least truthful presidents in, um, a long, long time. There isn’t an issue he’s given little thought to including health care, taxes, deficits, infrastructure, foreign relations and the environment. On the unthinking agenda of the future is surely human rights, disaster relief, an economic downturn and a full-blown foreign crisis. Note to the president (shudder): these are not easy eventualities.

It’s clear by now that Trump also has little idea about how health care works or what kind of plan might be helpful to the greatest number of people. The conservatives in the GOP just want to help the insurance companies and make the plan as cheap as they can. Their plan will let the states cover what they can afford which isn’t going to be much. Plus, a law like that will have no chance of passing the Senate, so it doesn’t look like Trump is going to get the extra billions he needs to fund a tax cut.

Which now doesn’t seem to be a problem because the new tax plan plows through every assumption that makes a functioning, rational economy work. It’s a giant sop to the already wealthy and it comes with the promise that history has never justified – that we can make up the budget shortfall through…growth. As if Donald Trump’s crack team of Goldman Sachsers and Paul Ryan can guarantee us 3% economic growth for…ever? And this is going to get done despite the fact that Trump’s insular trade policy and his hounding of immigrant laborers will likely lead to a backlash against American goods and services. Add in the global competition from other low-wage countries, and how exactly are we growing so fast?

But again, the whole plan comes from the mind (?) of someone who hasn’t really thought about much since he became president. And given that he hasn’t released his tax returns so we can learn how this new plan will benefit him, it’s unlikely that he’ll get anywhere near what his original proposal calls for. That’s a good thing, because this plan will hurt the very people who voted for him. It’s irresponsible at best and destructive at worst.

Now that Trump is unshackled from the 100 day expectation, it will be interesting to see how he approaches the long slog that is the presidency. The tweets will continue, as will the bragging and misdirection that has already buried the Russia hacking from the news headlines. Some in the media have reported that Trump started out as horrible, but that he’s become a rather predictable Republican president. Honestly, I don’t see the difference.

But I did make a decision a few weeks back that has made my life infinitely easier I’m just not going to take anything Trump says at face value. If he says it, I immediately disbelieve it and look to find independent, verifiable information. Which I do in the responsible press.

You know, the one Donald Trump doesn’t believe.

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Democracy Featured

Wrong Way Flows The Don(ald)

I imagine that to a Trump supporter, the president’s moves seem like a new direction for the country.

For me, we are taking giant steps backwards.

It’s not just the denial of climate science or the reversal of protections for LGBTQ citizens, or the hounding of Muslims or threatening North Korea with a ship that was going the wrong way. Or any of the other executive orders undoing any number of worthwhile things like protecting consumers from financial advisers who might value commissions over investors, or net neutrality, or allowing cable television companies to continue to monopolize set-top boxes, or trying to repeal a health care law and replace it with a law that covers 24 million fewer people.

No, despite all of those gems and more, I see the country going back to a time when it was fine to say terrible things to women and minorities and to create groups that deserve protection and those that do not and the ones that do not are usually weaker or vulnerable.

But then there’s the light that illuminated the swamp that is FOX News, resulting in the toppling of Chairman O’Reilly and, perhaps, more executives who tolerated his abuse. And there’s the energy in Georgia and Montana and the other places where Democrats will be challenging Republicans on their own turf. After all, Trump went into the Midwest and won the election. Surely, Democrats can go into the South and the Plains and win some races there.

The big plus, though, is that Republicans are actually in charge and they are proving the point that it’s very difficult to run a government when you want that government to disappear. Yes, the GOP is making noise about reviving the health care bill, but the problem of cost and coverage, especially for those who voted for Trump but still need Obamacare, will doom any attempt to gut the bill, which is really what the rank and file want. They will rue the day.

And tax reform? Show us your returns, Mr. President, so we know how you benefit from the system. Then maybe we’ll support an overhaul that actually helps the middle class. But I don’t see that being a priority for the right. Get rid of the mortgage and state tax deductions? Slap an import tariff on my Kohl’s clothes sprees? Get into a trade war with Canada over milk? Good luck with that.

So maybe things are looking up? A monosyllabic chief executive can only say “great” so many times before he actually has to do something, or get Congress to pass some actual laws. In the meantime, the country will continue to slip backwards, harking back to a time that might have been great for some, but not for all.

It’s a shame that we’ll have to wait to move forward.

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Democracy Featured

Who Knew It Could Get So Dangerous?

On the (months ago) heels of a 40 watt light bulb going off in the president’s head about how complicated health care could be, comes another revelation – unstated, about how dangerous the world could be.

Perhaps Donald Trump believed that throwing 59 missiles at Syria would startle Presidents Assad and Putin to the point that they would give up the fight and flee. Or maybe Trump giving his generals the green light to MOAB the Afghani desert would cause ISIS to run a white flag up a flagpole like the Vietcong did (not) when Richard Nixon decided we had too many leftover bombs in our arsenal and thought that Christmas would be a fabulous time to send a message of peace war.

In any case, this is now getting dangerous.

Never mind that North Korea’s attempts to rattle us ended in a failure that can be traced back to President Obama’s program to disrupt Kim Jong-un’s military through cyber-warfare. President Trump (shudder) will try to take credit for waking up in the morning and thinking that his actions will solve any and all real world problems. This is the kind of diplomacy we’ve seen before from politicians who believe that sending a military message without any diplomatic follow-up will yield meaningful fruit. It will not. Add the yeasty smell of a candidate who questioned the validity of NATO, and you have the makings of a loaf of something that makes matzah seem like a 7 layer cake.

For three months we saw Donald Trump’s attempts at domestic policy and the utter failure that resulted from his ineptitude. Foreign policy is much trickier and, as we’ve seen, can kill far more people than repealing the ACA. Rex Tillerson has his work cut out for him.

Gee, wouldn’t it be nice to have a president with some foreign policy and diplomatic experience? Like…

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Democracy Donald Trump Donald Trump Featured

Trump Has a Good Week: The World and Country Suffer

Some in the media are hailing this past week as Trump’s best as president, so let’s take a look at the highlights:

  1. The chair of the House committee looking into the Russia scandal had to recuse himself.
  2. The Republicans had to alter Senate rules to get their Supreme Court nominee into a seat that was wrongfully denied to President Obama.
  3. The number of new jobs dipped substantially in what could be considered the first real Labor Department report of the Trump Administration.
  4. The president and House negotiators tried to revive their failed health care bill by adding provisions for states to deny people insurance who have pre-existing conditions and raising rates for the elderly.
  5. The president threw some missiles into Syria after a dastardly and cowardly attack by President Assad. The endgame? Like much of Trump policy, it depends on what’s on FOX News tonight.
Compared to the utter helplessness of the first few weeks of the Trump presidency, last week was fairly orderly. And yet…
To be fair, I thought that President Obama should have backed up his red line comment with a military response in 2013, because that’s when it could have had more of an impact on the Syrian Civil War, and Trump was justified in responding last week. The issue is what will happen now? Will it take more attacks on children for Trump to respond? If only adults are hit, will we stay silent? And what about the Russians, who I believe are responding disingenuously to something they should have seen coming.
Is Donald Trump having his George W. “No Nation-Building” Bush moment?

As for the other events of the best week of Trump’s presidency, it’s really par for the overused course. Representative Devon Nunes used information given to him by executive branch sources and then ran and told the president rather than sharing said information with his House colleagues. So now we are in the unique position where only the Senate has the moral authority to investigate the Russia allegations.

On the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation won’t mean too much for the balance of the court as it replaces one conservative with another, but that seat should have belonged to President Obama’s nominee. Changing the filibuster rules will eventually favor Democrats, but by that time the real damage could be more conservatives replacing more liberal voices on the Court. Somehow I think the republic will survive, but Congress will need to step in and pass laws to mitigate some of the legal damage.

And the health care bill? Right now it’s pretty dead, but you know how much the GOP loves science. They will try to revive it and make it worse, even though the data suggests that the ACA is healthy enough to keep the insurance companies in green for the foreseeable future. The simple fact is that the GOP needs the money from a health care repeal to pay for their tax cuts, otherwise, it won’t have the splash they’re looking for, but it’s looking more and more like they won’t get it. I guess they’ll have to soak the middle class even worse than they thought they might.

The Trump presidency is fast approaching its 100th day, the usual, if outdated, benchmark of presidential accomplishment, and it hasn’t done much in the way of legislation. Most of the action has been done via formerly-hated-by-conservatives executive orders, and there don’t seem to be any grand laws in the sausage grinder at the moment. The believable media has made a great deal about Trump’s unpredictability and his penchant for reacting when personally affronted or moved, as evidenced by the Syria gambit. It’s really only a matter of time before this manifests itself in something far more dangerous, and darker.

If you can fathom it.

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Democracy Featured

Beware the Idiocies of March

Yes, my friends, this is getting frighteningly Shakespearean. And we have a variety of dysfunctional, murderous, illegal and psychologically damaged examples to choose from. Is the Trump White House Macbeth? Hamlet (soon to be starring Jared Kushner as the prince)? Othello? Any of the histories? We know there’s no Falstaff because this really isn’t funny. The field is wide open.

As for reality, we have a mucking mess. President Trump (shudder) gave what many distracted and fooled pundits called a presidential speech last week where he created false realities and set himself up as the only person who could solve them.

  • Mexicans swarming the border? False, but let’s build a wall.
  • Public education failing? False, so let’s funnel money to private, religious and charter schools.
  • Unvetted radical Muslims crashing our shores? False, so let’s forget that we vet asylum seekers for two years and claim that our porous borders are swarming with terrorists.
  • Health care law failing? False, so let’s make sure that everybody has the freedom to have to pay for their care, whether they can afford it or not.
  •  Foreign policy failures from the Obama Administration? False, so let’s cut money to the State Department because, really, the only policy we need is what Trump tweets in the morning.
  • Anti-Semitism? True, though wait 6 months before tepidly denouncing the longest hatred, but only after you dress down an Orthodox Jewish press reporter who’s actually on your side at your head-scratching press conference.

Trump might have delivered his speech without devolving into a red-faced, spitting mess, but is that really our expectation from the leader of the free world? He then followed up for a few days with policy-laden tweets and pronouncements that sounded rather…normal. But that’s what this presidency is all about, has been all about and will be all about: Vacuous pronouncements and personality-driven drivel. The words of the speech came out well; the words themselves were hateful, deceitful,  and troubling.

And then came Jeff Sessions and the Trump Administration Two-Step: Lie at your hearings and hope the real media doesn’t pick up on it or hope that the leakers have taken a public sector job sick day. Looks like that’s not going to happen so much. When the Attorney General shades the truth (benefit of the doubt) or baldly lies (probably the truth), then your administration is in trouble. And the Russia stories just keep on coming, like bottomless cups of coffee at the diner. Served with a smile, but hyper-inducing nonetheless.

But the week couldn’t end without the president reverting to form, accusing President Obama of tapping his phones. Which is ludicrous. And not based on reality. And even more troubling because if Trump is basing his information on some security briefing, then he’s compromising national security. There’s always a source for his anger, and in this case it’s likely a Breitbart story he read. And now he’s calling for a Congressional investigation as part of the Russia probe to show what a fair-minded person he really is. Trump is going to do these types of things for the rest of his term, and they are decidedly not normal. He just can’t help himself.

Or the country.

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Democracy Politics

America Has A Secret…. and it’s not Democracy

Yes, America has a secret… America’s secret is that we are exhausted. We are exhausted from the mind numbing and energy consuming denial of who and what we are, and until we come to grips with the truth of who and what we are our exhaustion will continue to lead us down the path of a punch drunk fighter and more of our current delirious actions.

As we as a Nation attempt to move towards being a true Democracy, a very vocal minority has invested much energy and resources in trying to convince “We the People” that we have already arrived at Democracy, so much so that we should go around the world and make others Nations into our brand of a Democracy. They would like us to believe that we are a shining example of what Abraham Lincoln said in his ‘Gettysburg Address’, referred to as “A Government for the People, by the People”.

That’s simply not true. Not yet.

If ‘one man, one vote’ is an ingredient of the principle of Democracy I challenge the reader to attempt the exhausting task of defending the position of our “arrival” at Democracy. When were we ever a true and complete Democracy?

The Native Americans, all but totally wiped out by genocide did not see it. Was it when the 13 Colonies won their freedom with the assistance of slaves who fought and died on behalf of others yet after the Revolution was won continued on as subjects of the most brutal slavery system on record for another hundred years?

Was it when Women weren’t seen as fit to vote? How about during Jim Crow laws when certain segments of Society would be lynched for even thinking about participating as a full and complete Citizen? Or maybe now? Now that that Corporate monopoly over the perception altering media and “Elected” Political so called Leaders clearly do the bidding not of “We the People” but of the Puppet Masters that fund their worthless campaigns to nowhere?

Trying to uphold a lie can be pretty exhausting, it goes against the grain of what is natural and there is nothing as powerful as nature. She is undefeated. No lie can last forever.

If “We the People” can be convinced that we have somehow arrived at an acceptable expression of Democracy then we stop striving towards the true meaning of this great principle. Any Country that is a Prison Industrial Complex has NOT yet arrived at Democracy. Any Nation that is a Military Industrial Complex has yet to reach true Democracy. Be be not deceived America, we have a long way to go so conserve your energy for a long struggle to true Democracy.

The Son of Man says, keeping up a lie is an exhausting waste of your natural human essence and power. We can’t cure a disease that we have yet to acknowledge. This disease is killing us. For those that have an ear let him/her hear.

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Democracy Tid Bits

Women and N’s Need No Voice!

Because they are already spoken for. There is no need for Ni**ers and Women to speak because they are not qualified to speak. They are not equipped with the right proportions of aggression, angry intellect or love of war to participate fully in our “Democracy”.

I mean, heaven forbid there be a display of  feminine energy to temper, check and balance the superior male mind. After all, the examples of the balance of masculine and feminine principles that is found in all things natural couldn’t possibly be a lesson to a mind that’s clearly superior even to the laws of nature itself, no way!

So we don’t need the participation or input of a woman, when we want your opinion…we’ll give it to you. What could they possibly bring to the table other than dinner? And you ni**ers, oh you ni**ers…we’ve tolerated you for over 400 years in our beloved country.

We’ve pulled you down from the tree’s in the jungles of Africa. We’ve taught you about Jesus, made you christians, what more could you possibly want negroes?

We’ve given you plenty. If it were not for our loving Christian hearts you would have never known the glory of civilized folk!

We’ve provided an entire industrial complex of modern prisons that your children are steered towards.

We have given you welfare, we have clothed you, we have protected your foolish and backwards minds from the rabblerousers that attempted to rise up from among you to influence you, to pursue independence from the salvation we’ve provided.

We’ve educated you so that you don’t need to identify with the other Ni**er savages in Africa, we have our own plans to carry out for the “Dark Continent”… never you mind your little black head about that jungle land, our brilliant ‘Africom’ program will see to it that Africa is taken care of. So you see? All is well… all is well…

……………

Ladies and Gentleman,

The prevailing mindset that sets forth agendas in this great land, if it we’re honest, would probably sound something like that above. But let not your heart be troubled, “The arc of the Universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

Balance is a principle found in nature and can’t be avoided for too long. The voice of the war mongering fascists, imperialistic racists, materialists and power addicts is dying a natural death.

So on your way to hell, take this lesson from the Son of Man with you…when you cut off the participation of a Woman, you cut off the part of nature that gives you balance. After a certain point in time the feminine manifestation of nature that is woman shows her power by producing a generation that will reject and remove your unevolved state of mind and send you back to the earth to start over because you are unfit for the coming time of spiritual awakening. The new inspiration for the new world will be breathed into the dust of the earth, the people and Nations that have been reduced to nothing.

As it was in the beginning … so shall it be now, here in the end. The womb that is destined to produce that generation is the womb of the voiceless.

(((FOR HE/SHE WHO HAS AN EAR… LET HER/HIM HEAR)))

Son of Man

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Democracy Politics

David Plouffe – The Rich Are Buying The White House for Mr. Romney

White House senior adviser David Plouffe on Tuesday explained that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney had raised massive amounts of money in June because rich people were “trying to purchase the White House.”

During an interview on ABC, host George Stephanopoulos asked Plouffe if President Barack Obama was on track to lose after Romney raised $35 million more than him last month.

“Money matters in politics,” Plouffe said. “We’re running a great campaign. We have millions of volunteers out there registering voters, donating 25 or 50 dollars. But you have to have enough money to run and win your campaign.”

“And our big concern is these super PACs,” he added. “You’ve got a few wealthy people lining up trying to purchase the White House for Mr. Romney.”

Over the weekend, Romney raised millions of dollars in a single day by holding three fundraisers at the homes of wealthy donors in the Hamptons, including a mansion owned by conservative billionaire David Koch.

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Democracy Egypt Foreign Policies Syria United States

Where Democracy Lives

If 2011 will go down in history as a terrible year economically, it will also be known as a turning point year for participatory and representative democracy in many countries throughout the world. True people power, spurred on by technology, second-to-second communications, and defiance of imposing police/military power proved more resilient than even the craftiest dictators. The movements that succeeded in overthrowing one-party, one person or one-ideology governments were not always smooth, and in many cases there is far more work to be done in order for the revolutions to hold onto their gains, but the people who have changed governments are now living in an altered world.

Consider the promise of democracy (the United States still needs to work on some of these):

  • Where democracy lives, citizens do not fear the state.
  • Where democracy lives, the press is freer, but must be more subservient to the truth than ever before.
  • Where democracy lives, the military belongs to the people.
  • Where democracy lives, women, ethnic and religious minorities, and people of all sexual orientations have full civil rights.
  • Where democracy lives, economic and educational opportunities are available to all levels of society.
  • Where democracy lives, the political process is messier, more susceptible to special interests and harder to corral, but power rests with the people.
  • Where democracy lives, justice systems must restore or establish the rule of law, not the rule of the open palm.

As for the countries that are under the most serious political pressure from their citizens,

Democracy now lives in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya

It’s knocking on the door in Syria.

It’s at a turning point in Russia, Hungary, Iraq and Ukraine

This will not be easy, and it’s not clear if the citizens of these countries will eventually taste the fruits of new-found freedom, or if the benefits of democracy will touch their lives. But they are well on their way towards a more productive, politically freer future than they were 12 months ago. The United States has a responsibility to help nurture these democratic movements, even if we aren’t supportive of the groups that are elected under their new political realities.

My hope is that over the next 12 months, more people in the United States and the world over will become involved in their country’s political process from every band of the political spectrum. It’s essential that we have vibrant debate and a full airing of the issues that face us if we are to progress and solve our problems.

So in addition to losing weight, resolve to do one thing that will make the country and the world a better place for all of us. Register to vote. Join an organization. Contact your representative and establish a working relationship with them on an issue. Start a social media site to highlight a concern you have. Be part of the solution.

And join me daily on facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives

Happy New Year!

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