Dear Black America

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Saturday March 23, 2024 · 3:34 PM PDT

2024/03/23 · 15:34

I did not comment on Black History month this year. I celebrated instead by reading “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story” created by Nikole Hannah-Jones. Practically none of what I read was taught in several high schools and the few colleges I attended culminating in a degree from The College of William and Mary. All that education varied little from the Nikki Haley version of an American Civil War not caused by slavery.

Apologies

Iam a 76-year-old white man born and raised in Kentucky, the last state to ratify the 14^thamendment... in 1976. At age 36 having been married and divorced, served in the Navy, and gotten a degree from the second oldest institution of higher education in America without looking back, I sold my meager possessions, climbed into my friend’s1961 Chevelle with him, his brother, and his brother’s girlfriend headed to California. I was moving out of the South for the first time in my life. Everything I owned was in that car.

Unbeknownst to me the trunk, the invisible cartop carrier, and every crevice of our metallic pickle colored conveyance was filled to overflowing with racial baggage, mine and theirs. Since then, I have worked to unpack and jettison the contents of those invisible bags. Along the way, just when I thought I had finally rid myself of my last valise of bigotry, I would whiff that familiar musty rancor of intolerance my family, without knowing it, so lovingly passed along to me. Again, it would be time to disconnect those prejudicial feelings from the reality where I lived. I would like to apologize to African Americans everywhere for not making more progress in erasing my bigotry.

Thank you for your service!

It has become a fashionable way to acknowledge people like me who have been in the military. My belated response to Black History month 2024, then, is to thank Black America for their service to this country and to the lofty ideals I was taught in every American history class I attended.

To our country

I learned Crispus Attucks, a Black man, was the first to die in the American Revolution. Many more African Americans would die before Independence was won. You have served in every armed conflict in American history. You even served in five major American wars before being declared citizens by the 14^thAmendment ratification in 1868. You have taken up arms and died in every campaign since then even when white military personnel on the same side refused to serve with you.

To our ideals

When white soldiers, sailors, marines, and aviators returned to their families after warfare, they came home to a peacetime America filled with promise. You returned to a different America where some of you were murdered by white Americans for daring to wear our uniform.

In slavery, you were denied ‘humanity,’ then, in freedom, citizenship and the right to vote. The First and Second Amendments did not apply to you in the presence of white America. Yet you continued to believe in the promise.

When African Americans were better educated and more qualified than any white person in the room, the only jobs available to you were cleaning homes, washing clothes, and mopping floors. You were redlined into ghetto neighborhoods with inadequate schools and denied credit to make improvements on those conditions. Still, you pressed toward the freedom and equality touted in our founding documents.

You were mistreated, marginalized, and suppressed. Your homes were destroyed. Your communities and churches were bombed. You have been beaten, mutilated, dismembered, and burned alive. You, African Americans, have been lynched and left hanging from anything that could, conceivably, hold your weight. Yet, you marched on in pursuit of what our founders proclaimed for its citizens.

Without your constant striving, there would be no Constitutional Amendments 13, 14, or 15, no Civil Rights Acts of 1964, ‘72, ‘87, or ‘91. Your efforts have driven America forward toward all our ideals. Without you, the soaring words of Jefferson and Madison would be little more than propaganda for rich white men like them. By standing in lines at too few polling stations, by navigating myriad voter restriction laws, by wielding your right to vote you kept a wannabe dictator from being reelected in 2020. Amid Women’s History Month, let me be specifically clear. It was Black Women voters that preserved democracy in 2020 and it is they who will save it again in November 2024.

You, Black America, are the primary reason the world sees us as the beacon of democracy, freedom, and equality. For enduring the brutality of our past, for your present sacrifice and ongoing anguish and distress in this righteous quest, for the freedoms I enjoy today, tomorrow, and beyond, I, and all Americans, owe you a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. Please accept my deep felt thank you for your service.

Let us celebrate with action!

White America, it is time to stand up, shoulder-to-shoulder, arm-in-arm with Black America to demand financial Reparations for the horrific crime of slavery and the appalling treatment unto this day. Let us narrow and close the discriminatory wealth gap between us, ferret out and demolish all remnants of systemic racism pervading our daily lives.

We must secure commitments from those who represent us locally and nationally to act on our behalf rectifying these injustices for all time. We must return President Biden to the White House in November and elect Democrat majorities at local, state, and national levels so we all have the power and control needed to dispatch the sins of our past, to proudly declare, “Promises delivered at last!”

Dear Democratic leadership: Do you want to win in November?

40ford

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday February 11, 2024 · 7:57 AM PST

2024/02/11 · 07:57

Death of Republican Party concept of tombstone with Republican symbol of Elephant on a grave marker (Democrat version also available). Vector file is eps 10 and uses transparency blends and gradient mesh — This may be in our near future Illustration by Chris Gorgio

The 2024 campaign has begun. Joe Biden, despite his accomplishments, is flagging in the polls. We Democrats have 20 Senate seats up for re-election and the Republicans in charge of the House holding the nation hostage over the budget and trying to impeach this entire administration. It would not surprise me if they started hearings to remove Commander, the president’s dog. But you already know this.

Do you want to win in November?

When I ask if you want to win in November, I do not mean simply keep Biden/Harris in the executive branch. Nor do I mean keep a one seat majority in the Senate and pick up a few House seats. I mean clean sweep WINNING: A Biden/Harris blow out re-election win, a comfortable majority in the House, and half-dozen more seats in the Senate?

Fundraising that will yield enormous results in November.

Asking me 4 or5 times a day whether I am voting for Biden, not Trump, will not help us win. Do you know how many of those emails/texts I have opened? Two! The hundreds more you sent I deleted unopened. What a waste of campaign effort?

How many more campaign dollars could you collect if every email/text you sent was opened? A simple modification will achieve those results while, at the same time, finding out what we, on the streets, suburbs, and in the countryside, really support. Instead of obsessively incessantly offering us a Biden poll, ask “Do you favor taxing the rich?” In the next email ask, “Is healthcare a right?” Then, “Should abortion be legal everywhere?” “Do you support unionization?” “Raise the minimum wage?” “LGBTQ+ rights?” “Should America remain a democracy?” “Is our economy working for you?” “Did the Infrastructure bill affect your community?” You have also not asked about gerrymandering, taking donations from corporations, trading stocks in Congress, Washington D.C. or Puerto Rican statehood, childcare, student loan forgiveness, or tuition free public college. This list is endless.

At your current fundraising pace send every Democrat and left leaning Independent at least two hundred differently titled emails/texts before a repeat. We will open all of them because, more than anything, we want you to know how to best represent us. Tallying the results will give you a real platform and effective talking points.

More than 40% of Americans are no longer registered Democrats or Republicans because both parties stopped listening to the people. We need you to hear us.

Speaking of talking points

While negotiating the budget, every hearing and budgetary press conference should feature these talking points.

1.The Republicans are not/cannot be serious about our debt/deficit if taxing the rich is not on the table.

2. If the Republicans want budget cuts, start by ending subsidies, tax loopholes, and tax credits for the wealthy and rich corporations.

Cuts to the IRS, CFPB, Medicare, or Social Security are not on the table. If they threaten to shut down the government, let them. Dare them to do so.

I have been a Democrat for more than 50 years. I know you Democrats in charge are shuffling around staring at your feet, running your fingers through your hair, mumbling, “What if we make a mistake? What if we lose?” There is no time for that nonsense.

Stop it.

The Republican Party is already doing everything in their power to hand us an election landslide by threatening to shut down the government, banning books (including the dictionary), arresting women for having miscarriages, balking at support for Ukraine... the list is extensive.

There are two issues that certainly garner more than 50% support among voters: legalized abortion and democracy in America. Spend more of our campaign war chest making sure the abortion question is on the ballot in all 34 Senate races, especially the toss-up states. Meanwhile, run TV and social media ads that embrace, “Voting for any Republican is voting for a national abortion ban.” and “A vote for any Republican, is a vote to end democracy in America.” If you cannot bring yourselves to adopt this ‘take no prisoners’ attitude, fix that by hiring those who have and do. Embrace the unthinkable: invite the Lincoln Project to craft your messaging.

Address immigration with action.

I do not agree with Governors Abbot and DeSantis sending migrants to cities run by Democrats. It has, however, brought attention to the crisis at our southern border. Unless we can magically end all global conflicts and human rights abuses, people arriving at the border will continue. All these negotiations and press conferences should include the labor shortage in America and what Republicans support: putting children to work and keeping all immigrants out. Citizenship for DACA should be in every negotiation. Do you want to blunt Republican immigration talking points? Publicly encourage every Democrat run city in America to take in as many immigrants as they can while negotiating for funds to make that possible.

We can have a substantial victory this November! We will have a substantial victory in November… if you stop worrying and start daring to act!

I sent this letter via snail mail to Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Jaime Harrison, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Henry Munoz III, Rep. Cedrick Richmond, Ken Martin, Virginia McGregor, Chris Korge, and Hillary Clinton. If you wish to send any a letter here is the address:

430 South Capitol Stret, Southeast

Washington, DC 20003

Follow me on Twitter: @40ford2

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Election 2024 is at hand

40ford

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday January 14, 2024 · 2:55 PM PST

2024/01/14 · 14:55

If we are to prevail, we must be more visible!!!

Last November I posted “The Visibility Initiative Project” that pointed out Hitler’s rise to power in Germany as the result of good people being silent and invisible. Since then, Donald Trump has threatened to corral immigrants in concentration camps like vermin and promised to be dictator on day one of a second term while denying he had read Mein Kampf, the source of these talking points.

As Trump supporters go about their daily lives, everywhere they look, they see only MAGA hats and shirts and yard signs. To them this confirms what they saw today on Fox News: They are the voting majority in the United States and election 2020 was stolen.

They are visible! Meanwhile, resistance to the rise of Hitlerian fascism in America remains invisible outside the media.

Democracy is on the Ballot...

A vote for any Republican is a vote for a Trump fascist government, a national abortion ban, and an end to progress on Climate Change. There will not be a box to select that says “democracy.” There will only be names of candidates and ballot initiatives. Choose wisely.

Being visible is a key part of not allowing us to slip into that authoritarian government. My site, BlueWavePolitcs, is one of a multitude of sites that can provide you with apparel and kitsch so you can be seen. Stand up. Stand out. Be visible.

New designs on my site can help you speak volumes without saying a word. In your everyday comings and goings people will notice and say they like your sweatshirt or tote bag. That idea will be planted. It will germinate and bear democratic fruit for the coming election!

Here are innovative designs that scream “democracy” now available on sweatshirts and tote bags:

There is a slim possibility that Democrats will make a clean sweep in November capturing both the Senate and House of Representatives... but not if we remain invisible!

If you have ideas for designs or would like to help with this project, contact me.

Dear Rich People, your money will not save you

40ford

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday December 13, 2023 · 8:34 AM PST

2023/12/13 · 08:34

According to last April's Forbes Magazine there are 2640 billionaires in the world. There are an additional 128,000 people who control $50Million or more. These 130,000 (.016% of population) account for more than 50% of all the wealth and income in the world, more than the 4 billion people combined at the fiscal bottom.

Climate Change

You, that comprise the global economic top 10%, cause 48% of the greenhouse gases changing our climate. American oil and gas producers knew about climate change in the 1970’s. They could have started then investing in green energy technology and, by today, the entire world would be much closer to mitigating the climate disaster that is upon us. Those corporations could have been the heroes and would now be more valuable than Amazon.

Instead, the leaders of those companies denied the science. They waged a disinformation campaign designed to discredit the evidence so they could continue to make short term profits. Air pollution kills 7 million people every year.

Now we are careening toward the cliff of our own extinction in a flaming Lamborghini of your making, gas pedal to the floor, spewing our own demise from the tailpipe.

As if that is not enough.

The Sackler family knowingly continued to sell and distribute OxyContin claiming it was non-addictive while it laid waste to our lives and our families. They continued to hawk this narrative until massive lawsuits forced them to stop. More people died in America last year from opioid overdose than by guns and traffic accidents combined.

The NRA, as the lobbyist for gun manufacturers, has stymied, for decades, common sense legislation that would prevent the growing epidemic of gun violence in America. Last year guns were the leading cause of death in children.

A Norfolk Southern train filled with toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, OH because safety measures were cut back to increase profits. They set fire to the derailed train cars spewing deadly pollution over the entire area. They first offered the town $1Million to let them off the hook. Pressure from the Department of Transportation and public outcry forced them to commit to complete clean up and compensation for the residents. Class action lawsuits are in the works. It will take decades to know how many residents will die. Regardless of the number of Norfolk Southern derailments since, they continue to lobby against more stringent rail safety regulations.

These are just a few examples of your egregious callousness toward your fellow homo sapiens. You do not care how many people you slaughter to enrich yourselves and your stockholders.

Poverty

According to the UN World Global Compact, a full 10% of the world’s 8.1Billion people live in extreme poverty on what amounts to less than $1.90 per day. That number is encompassed within the 25% of population the World Bank says live in social poverty.

Poverty exists, not because people are lazy or refuse to work, but because you refuse to pay the very people generating your enormous income a living wage. Without regulatory restraint, you would still be working 6-year-olds 7 days a week 12 hours a day for a pittance, no paid time to heal while sick or contagious. When they got too old or feeble to work, you would toss them off your payroll without means like unwanted food scraps. “They should have thought about this day,” you will say. That is not creating wealth. It is simply theft combined with the insensitivity it takes to intentionally sentence people to slowly die.

Poverty provides you with a workforce willing to work very cheaply without time off, take abuse without quitting, and on any bizarre schedule you impose. You do everything within your power to make sure poverty continues because it is good for your bottom line.

Rather than stop stealing us blind and killing us incrementally with poverty and poisonous pollution or murdering us rapidly with your carelessness and disregard, you spend enormous sums bribing politicians, buying elections, supporting wanton dictators, and backing repressive governments around the globe to make sure you continue to enrich yourselves at the expense of absolutely everyone else. You are the deep state, the swamp that must be drained.

As everything, everywhere gets hotter without mitigation, one or more of three scenarios will boil to the surface.

Scenario 1

Global tempers will rise like the temperature. With each temperature uptick the probability increases that a rapacious dictator or an American fascist you financially support will mistakenly conclude that using nuclear weapons is necessary. Apocalypse will ensue.

Scenario 2

Goaded by climate disaster with underlying greed driven human activity, we face a dwindling fresh water supply and a rapid decline in the insect population whose continued coupled crises will cause a collapse of the global food supply. The collapse of civilization will follow.

Scenario 3

As temperatures rise, the wealth gap continues to grow. When a modern-day Robespierre becomes sufficiently annoyed by the weather and that gap, he will direct a wholesale slaughter of you, your family, and your friends. It will render the French Revolution an insignificant skirmish. This is not a matter of if, but when.

Any of these storylines will make your money and assets worthless, your opinion empty of influence. If you do not turn your focus to our collective situations, some of you may die naturally but your children certainly will not. If humanity survives the coming cataclysm, your only enduring legacy will be that you caused this to happen.

This may be your last opportunity to become part of the solution instead of the entire problem.

Respectfully yours,

Thomas Crown

Visibility Initiative Project

40ford

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday November 05, 2023 · 1:34 PM PST

2023/11/05 · 13:34

If we do not become more visible, we lose and democracy disappears

People like us, living in a vibrant liberal democracy, remained quiet, in the shadows. They, in their silence, in their invisibility, allowed Adolph Hitler to rise to power in pre-WWII Germany. Hitler came to this position after being imprisoned for attempting to overthrow the government of Bavaria. He accomplished this feat by manipulating the narrative about political and economic issues confronting Germany, and riding on the voiceless timidity of the citizenry.

Sound familiar?

Perhaps they didn’t want to have a brick through their window or to be yelled at on the subway or to be threatened or bullied at work. As a result, 6 million jews were slaughtered, all of Europe became a conflagration, then the entire world caught fire.

Here we are again.

A man, who by election 2024 will have been convicted of attempting to overthrow our government, could once again be elevated to our highest office. Are we going to remain silent? In the shadows? If we do, abortion will be completely banned, the LGBTQ+ community will be marginalized and imprisoned, trans people will continue to be murdered in the shadows, the rich will own America. Democracy here will vanish.

Please join the Visibility Initiative Project. As with my continuing bumper magnet project, I believe that when enough of us stand out in a crowd, voter turnout goes up. Democracy survives.

Go to my store front, Blue Wave Politics, (or a similar one) and become conspicuous. Pick an issue you support and suit up for the coming battle. Give these outstanding items to friends, family, and neighbors who share your vision for a better America. You may get your car keyed. You may get yelled at or confronted, even shunned by some, but the only way to deal with MAGA bullies is to stand up prominently. As the holiday season approaches, overtly commit to continuing democracy beyond the next holiday season.

The holidays are a great time to give gifts that distinguish. Be bold!!

Support the Visibility Initiative Project.

I have added many more ways to express how you feel. More items will appear. Additional designs for other critical issues are on their way.

Subscribe to my blog: The View From Here. Follow me on Twitter (X)

Kevin and the no good, very bad Republican Agenda (Part 2)

40ford

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday September 04, 2023 · 1:44 PM PDT

2023/09/04 · 13:44

waving flag, us republican party elephant emblem, background, 3d illustration

This is the third in a series of articles. In “Kevin McCarthy and the Republicans and the Debt Ceiling, Oh My!” I showed that Speaker McCarthy did not believe any of his rhetoric about the debt ceiling. “Kevin and the no good, very bad Republican Agenda (Part 1)”, revealed, by their actions, the Republican party caters to the desires of the rich to enable them to act with impunity without interference by government. There are two other ways in which Republicans act for us to examine.

Culture Wars

Unless you live in a cave... without Wi-Fi, you must be aware of America’s culture wars. Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis are in the news daily. Government, abortion, gun control, LGBTQ, library books, African American history, climate change. The Republicans have acted to pass numerous laws at the state level banning abortion, green energy, AP American history, and LGBTQ citizens in sports in many states recently. They have banned books in several states. Currently they are trying to muster the votes to pass a national abortion ban in the House of Representatives.

Who benefits from the culture wars?

I am sure some politicians and media celebrities are anti-abortion, against gun control, or think climate change is a hoax. But as we learned from the Fox News v Dominion lawsuit, what they say and what they genuinely believe are two different things. Look at what any Republican candidate said about Trump in 2015 compared to what they say today... 91 felony counts later.

Their current rhetoric is windsock morality designed specifically to gin their base audience into a frenzy daily. With each indictment Donald Trump goes up in the polls matched by increased donations for reelection. There is a similar reaction when any Republican politician mouths any culture war narrative from LGBTQ bathrooms to banning books by African American writers.

Since Republicans make up less than 30% of registered voters, this is a ploy by them and right-wing media outlets to turn out enough voters to be a political majority... where they will continue to serve, you guessed it, the rich.

Privatization

From the Great Depression through WWII until 1980 our American story had been President Roosevelt and Keynesian economics had saved us and initiated a wave of prosperity that created the largest middle class in the world. When Ronald Reagan became president, the narrative started to change. He once famously said,

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

His approach was that if a service isn’t used by every taxpayer, it isn’t a public good and should not be part of a government budget. It is something ‘customers’ who use the service should pay for. Therefore, it is something that can be done for profit.

Privatization is the process of selling government assets to for-profit businesses or contracting private enterprises to provide government services. Although Reagan was not as successful at privatizing the U.S. Government as Thatcher was in the UK, presidents who followed him embraced these policies.

The sales pitch for government privatization emphasizes shrinking the government and reducing spending. How successful is this?

Who benefits?

When assets are sold, like the Naval Petroleum Reserve, the government no longer has control over them. We now must pay whatever the owner demands to tap the reserve in an emergency such as spiraling gasoline prices. When services are contracted out the same is true. We no longer have control over the quality, amount, or price of those services or employees.

Under President Bush private enterprise began feeding and housing our military personnel. President Trump tried to privatize the Veterans Administration. His education secretary, Betsy DeVos, spearheaded the idea of school vouchers started by George W. Bush. These are the most prominent examples involving the federal government. There is a great deal more privatization at all levels of government.

Federal employees

Today, more than 40% of all federal ‘employees’ are supplied by private contractors. Some are direct hires, while most are provided by private companies. Microsoft, for instance, provides a substantial number of employees to our government. The average contract employee costs taxpayers 17% more than hiring a federal employee. Those 1,400,000 private contract employees are not part of the federal government. The government is technically smaller but more expensive... by $23Billion annually some of which is profit at taxpayer expense.

Military weaponry

Over the years the number of federal defense contractors consolidated down to only five major players. More than 50% of the entire $886Billion military budget for the coming year will go to private contractors. It is voluminously documented that they regularly overcharge for their wares reaping 40% to 50% in excessive profits. The annual cost is in the billions annually. Once again, private enterprise is being enriched while making government more expensive... and not any smaller.

Education

School vouchers nationally account for between $66B and $203Billion in education funding annually. Republicans present this as a program to improve educational opportunities for parents in underfunded school districts. Currently 15 states offer school vouchers. Of those nearly half have no qualifying income cap allowing wealthy parents to subsidize private education for their children at taxpayer expense. The number of states offering vouchers is expected to increase dramatically in the next few years.

In addition to vouchers Republicans support ‘education savings accounts’ to help taxpayers afford private and religious education. This exists in 8 states currently. The idea is that you save money toward your child’s private tuition and get an equal tax credit for that amount. Once again this allows wealthy parents to receive tax dollars for private schooling.

These are winning strategies for Republicans and the rich. Expenditures for vouchers and educational tax credits reduce the budget for public education. Republicans, then, declare that public education is failing. Government doesn’t work. We need more vouchers and tax credits.

With both Culture Wars and Privatization a few people are enriching themselves at taxpayer expense. The Republicans have made sure that almost none of those tax dollars come from the richest among us. Hence, the budget goes up and tax dollars go down. Budget crises ensue.

You can trust the Kevin and the Republicans... to continue their No Good, Very Bad Agenda where the rich treat the U.S. Treasury as their own private piggy bank making them richer while the rest of us become peasants.

Kevin and the no good, very bad Republican agenda (part 1)

40ford

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday June 30, 2023 · 10:12 AM PDT

2023/06/30 · 10:12

This is the second in a series of articles. In “Kevin McCarthy and Republicans and Debt Ceiling, Oh My!” it was clear that Kevin and the Republicans did not believe what they were telling the American people about budgetary restraint. If we look beneath their rhetoric, we will find what their real agenda is and who that agenda serves.

Taxes

Rather than let the debt-ceiling deal begin closing the gap between revenue and expenditures, McCarthy announced his intention to cut taxes. How is that fiscally responsible? Simply, it is not.

Historically Republicans seek to reduce taxes. George W. Bush cut taxes for the rich twice and added a tax rebate in 2008. Donald Trump ‘reformed’ the tax code making another windfall for the rich. Both presidents billed these cuts for the rich as the way to stimulate the economy that would pay for themselves. Together their cuts contributed $11Trillion to our $31T national debt. They did not pay for themselves.

Imagine receiving one of the above tax cuts for your widget manufacturing company that has already laid off half its employees because no one is buying your wares. Would you use that tax relief to re-hire workers to make more widgets that are already NOT selling? Of course not! Your furloughed employees will spend their tax relief on food, clothing, and housing, not widgets, further reducing demand for your products.

Since the lion’s share of tax cuts accrues to the top 5%, what do businesses, large corporations and the rich do with their tax rebates? One thing large corporations do with significant tax cuts is stock buybacks, something that was illegal until the Reagan administration. Buybacks cause the stock price to rise, thereby increasing their wealth and that of their rich shareholders.

Tax cuts for the rich and large corporations do not stimulate the economy. They ONLY make them richer and the poor more so, increasing the wealth gap in America.

Regulations

Cutting regulations has been a mantra of the Republican party for my entire adult life. Recently, Norfolk Southern lobbied the Trump administration to get reduced safety regulations. The wheel bearing failure that caused the derailment and subsequent disaster in East Palestine, Ohio is the product of those hamstrung regulations.

In fact, it is more profitable to ignore safety rules. Just as it is cheaper for a company to dump waste into the nearest river than to dispose of it properly, cheaper to spew air borne waste into the atmosphere, cheaper to use inexpensive nonfood fillers in our food. It is more profitable to build whatever you want, wherever you want than to go through an expensive approval process and follow building codes. It is more profitable to pay workers as little as possible, not offer health benefits, nor provide safe working conditions.

Cutting regulations increases profitability and mostly benefits the richest among us while endangering the lives of the rest of us.

Small Government

Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform once famously said:

“I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

What is so appealing about a smaller government? In the recent negotiations over the debt-ceiling Speaker Kevin McCarthy initially asked for a 22% across the board reduction in spending (not including the military). The bill specifically targeted an increase to the IRS budget from the Inflation Reduction Act passed by the Biden administration. Some of that IRS increase was meant to restore cuts by previous administrations. Most of it, however, was earmarked for collecting taxes from the rich.

Lopping 22% off federal funding would reduce the enforcement power of every regulatory agency, not just the IRS. If you cannot curtail or diminish regulations through legislation and lobbying, the second most effective means, achieving comparable results, is to make the rules impossible to implement by making government small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Slashing funding, in addition to crushing enforcement capabilities, reduces the effectiveness of our social safety net. This translates into less money available for unemployment insurance, SNAP benefits, Veterans benefits, Medicaid, child tax credits, school lunch programs, Pell grants, and other programs for the poorest among us.

In the end reducing the size of government becomes a downward spiral feeding on itself. Smaller government is less effective. Now Republicans can tout that our government is not working, therefore, more cuts should be made.

The difference between cutting regulations and reducing the size of government is that, by circumventing laws and regulations, one can be prosecuted for doing so... if only there were funds for that.

Smaller government benefits only the rich while forcing the poor further into poverty.

Kevin and the no good, very bad Republican agenda

Republicans, regardless of their rhetorical misrepresentation, enact tax cuts, eliminate regulations, and make government smaller to benefit the rich. They support the same actions at state and local levels, as well, to the same effect. The rest of us do not economically matter.

One more thing

The richest among us will support whatever form of government that best supports them whether it is a dictatorship or a democracy. If we are to continue our American experiment with Democracy, we must take our country back from the rich. We must force them into their proper place in a democracy: Serving the Common Good.

Electing Democrats is the only way forward for democracy. Show your ‘followers’ as you drive around your community where you stand. Put one of these on your car:

Nothing is more important than anything else

40ford

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday May 22, 2023 · 2:33 PM PDT

2023/05/22 · 14:33

the woman hides holding a mirror in front of her face; introspection path concept — Credit: fcscafiene

A Footnote in a picture book.

In 1978 I was working at the Nashville Public Library as a live character in four puppet shows a week for school children with Tom Tichenor who created the puppets for the Broadway show “Carnival”. On Saturdays, together, we performed marionette shows in the library auditorium for walk-in families.

The remainder of my time was spent making puppets and shelving books. At that time the Children’s Division had one of the largest collections of children’s books in America. It included every Caldecott Award and Newbery Award winner.

One afternoon I noticed a Caldecott winning picture book illustrated by Remy Charlip– The Seeing Stick (Yolen,1977). The illustrations were remarkable. Standing there by the book cart between two sets of shelves I read through the pages. About halfway through there was an asterisk by one of the lines. It referred to a footnote. Footnote? In a children’s picture book? Unheard of.

Nothing is more important than anything else.

At the bottom of the page next to a quantum entangled asterisk were the words, “Nothing is more important than anything else.” A Separate Reality (Castaneda, 1974). I immediately went downstairs to the main library, located, and checked out the book.

I read it. Then I read all Castaneda’s books.

I have passed 75 years in this place called earth. I have pondered that phrase for decades, while I experienced a varied and colorful life, some good, some not so good. That statement is unassailably true. By any measure what we say and do here means little to the universe where we live. All that lay before us will be swept away by the winds of time and forgotten. One seemingly enduring thing, the earth, will one day, too distant for us to fathom, be consumed by the dying star that conspired with earth and water and air to breathe life into all that surrounds us. Everything within our purview is unimportant. It is folly.

If everything in our domain is folly, what is one to do?

I see a different truth in that statement now than when I first read it. Now that I see ‘more than anything else’ more clearly, I continue to keep a running list of the ‘important’ things in my life which have only as much significance as I choose to give them. I act on what I have given meaning to as if my life depended on it, knowing full well that it means nothing. That is my controlled folly.

I live surrounded by the incredible beauty of life that springs from the ground as if it cannot be contained, where some creatures fly through the air, others burrow in the soil, swim in the water, or roam the earth. I have chosen nurturing and caring for this place and its inhabitants to the best of my ability as important. What you are reading now and in the rest of my blog are expressions of the essence I have given to this task. My political merch site is another. My family, my friends, my modest garden, my bird feeder are among my momentous list conveying aspects of my ‘path with heart’ too long to name here.

If I could go back in time and change anything in my life, I would not. Every single moment of my life, every decision I have made, has led me to this instant, writing these words. Even when I am in pain or frustrated or having a ‘bad day’, I am learning how to be better, make better on my meaningless quest. There is joy in all of that. If one iota of my past changed, I might not arrive here, now. I would not trade this moment for anything in the world.

Preface to "Personal Experience: What it is and why we have it"

40ford

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday May 09, 2023 · 3:50 PM PDT

2023/05/09 · 15:50

birth of a small plant with surreal shadow of a large tree, concept of life — credit: fcscaffiene

Personal Experience: What it is and why we have it (a treatise on consciousness)

By Thomas Crown

A non-fiction book that solves some of the hard problems of consciousness

150 pages

Preface

I am not qualified to write this book… on paper. I am not a scientist, do not have the right letters behind my name. There are only two… from the beginning of the alphabet. However, I have been conscious all my life. I have wondered about this since I was a child. I could read at a 12^th grade level when I was 8 and since fiction was emotionally outside my ability to grasp, I read books with limited emotional and social content: nonfiction. That is what I have read ever since.

The journey to writing this book began in 2014 when my stepdaughter gave me a copy of Nick Bostrom’s “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies.” I have always been interested in science and technology following threads about advances in the study of the brain, artificial intelligence, and how we, the human animal, came out on top. The thing that impressed me most about the book was his insistence on the dangers of a neurotic, conscious, Strong Artificial Intelligence. Why would a manmade AI be neurotic in the first place, let alone neurotic enough to continue, for instance, unabatedly manufacturing paper clips until the world was overwhelmed by the drain on materials and the consumption of living space?¹ This made no sense to me, but I did not know why. I followed that book with Kurzweil’s “The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology”.

Since then, I have read all the major contributors to the subject of consciousness from panpsychism—consciousness is in everything (The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory by David J. Chalmers) to brain centric consciousness (The Case Against Reality: How evolution hid the truth from our eyes by Donald D. Hoffman) to consciousness being an illusion we all share (Consciousness Explained by Daniel C. Dennett).

The single difference between the legion of philosophers and scientists that have expounded about consciousness and me is the number of letters behind our names. They have no better clue about consciousness than I do, than any of us do, if we are paying attention. They are so flummoxed by personal, subjective experience they have dubbed it one of the hard problems of consciousness. They have no definition for it, nor any idea why we have it. One of the reasons the scientific community is so perplexed, simply put, is century after century of wondering about consciousness and personal experience, there is no provable scientific evidence that either exists.

I am, however, convinced that those philosophers of consciousness have accurately recorded what they observed. What I do not agree with is how they interpreted their observations.

Because I am a generalist, not a specialist, I have read and still read in many fields of study, spending a great portion of my time on this planet digging into what exactly consciousness is. I have researched the fields of evolution, biology, haptics, epigenetics, and physics because each field addresses consciousness peripherally.

My research has led me to the conclusion that consciousness is a feature of life, that every single living cell on this planet and in this human organism is conscious, that awareness and volition are aspects of consciousness. Those aspects have transformed earth from a barren, poisonous rock without an atmosphere to a biosphere that supports at least one living species capable of questioning its consciousness. Those aspects have driven evolution forward, producing the diversity we see around us and in us. Without consciousness there would be no life and we would not exist.

We are all conscious. We all personally experience consciousness and are mystified. Therein lies the caveat. What we experience is ours alone and cannot be shared no matter how hard we try. Language is not up to the task. When we die, all that experience will leave with us. No one will have really known us or experienced anything in exactly the same way we have.

In the chapters that follow I will set forth a theory of consciousness that allows us to see the exact definition of Personal Experience. Having that definition makes plain why we have it. The what and why solves the hard problem(s) of consciousness as well as most of the easy ones. Along the way we will discover the origin of the 5 senses and the beginnings of the ego and tweak Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.

1. Bostrom, Nick, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies; (Oxford; Oxford University Press 2016) 150-153

Kevin McCarthy and Republicans and the Debt Ceiling. Oh, My!

40ford

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday May 01, 2023 · 10:36 AM PDT

2023/05/01 · 10:36

Kevin and the Republicans

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy continues to hold the full faith and credit of the United States hostage in exchange for federal budget cuts by the Biden Administration declaring that our deficits are too big, our national debt is going to burden our children and grandchildren, and adding the old saw that, if I/we ran my/our household budget(s) the way they run the government, I/we would go broke.

By their actions neither Kevin nor the Republican Party, now or ever, has believed any part of that position except that we individuals would go broke if we ran our households the way the government budget does. Republican administrations run budget deficits by spending money on the military, big business subsidies, and tax cuts for the rich, all of which run up the debt and cause inflation (Why do you think the stock market kept going up during Covid lockdown while the economy tanked? Stock price inflation). The national debt nearly tripled under Reagan and doubled again under George W. Bush. Since Reagan’s election, Republican administrations have accounted for 57% of our entire national debt that, already, encompassed debts from a civil war, two world wars, the conflict in Korea, and Vietnam War spending.

Kevin and Modern Monetary Theory

Republicans only complain, becoming self-righteously the party of fiscal responsibility, when Democrats run the government. By their actions, the Republican party practices and believes the tenets of a liberal/progressive economic theory: Modern Monetary Theory. MMT is a neo-Keynesian economic theory that has its roots in the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, a British economist whose economic ideas were used during the Great Depression in the New Deal by the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration. Simply stated:

“MMT asserts that monetarily sovereign countries which spend, tax, and borrow in a fiat currency that they fully control, are not operationally constrained by revenues when it comes to federal government spending.” (Modern Monetary Theory: [MMT]: Definition, History, and Principles)

In other words, if you can print acceptable currency in your basement, you cannot go broke or go catastrophically into debt. This is exactly how the Republican Party treats federal spending when they control the government.

Kevin and the Debt Ceiling

Hence, the Speaker’s rhetoric on government spending is empty and meaningless. This is nothing more than a hostage situation. If we do not pay the ransom (make the cuts), they promise to kill the hostage (the full faith and credit of the United States).

When the government is no longer contractually able to pay its bills (in default), the federal government will shut down. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, tax returns, and student loan payments stop. Military personnel will not be paid. SNAP benefits will end. Pell Grant installments will not go out. The CDC, NIH, National Parks, National Museums, passport offices and most other government offices will close. Most government employees, not just nonessential ones, will be furloughed without pay (the government is the single largest employer in the country). Interest rates will spike. Steep inflation will hit fast. It will damage our credit standing around the world. It will weaken foreign faith in the value of the U.S. dollar. If they hold out for only a few days, it may throw our economy into a deep recession.

Kevin and H.R. 2617

If his goal really is not about ‘fiscal responsibility’, then, what does Kevin hope to achieve by kidnapping our credit standing? If we look at HR 2617, the debt ceiling bill just passed in the House of Representatives, it will give us a clue to the Republican agenda.

If we make this deal with the devil as it stands now, it will mean steep cuts in social programs (veteran programs by 22%), tougher work requirements for SNAP benefits and other government aid, a roll back on climate change initiatives, no student debt relief, cutting the newly raised IRS enforcement budget to catch rich tax cheats, limit rural America getting broadband, cut payments to farmers for disasters and supports for rural tenants, and more. It would roll back spending to 2022 levels and cap spending increases to 1% per year for the next decade. Two-thirds of the bill is dedicated to ramping up oil and gas production.

In other words, it is pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps for the poor and welfare for the rich and big corporations with an enormous shout out to the oil and coal barons, two of the many patron saints of the Republican Party. Regardless of their claim to be the party of ‘working people’, consistently, they support only what is good for the richest among us. H.R. 2617 is perfectly in line with their true aims.

Kevin and Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

President Biden should treat this situation like any other hostage situation... and not pay the ransom. Do not give an inch. Do not make budget cuts. Do not negotiate.

After all, Republican government shutdowns have worked so well in the past. Their shutdown under Clinton only helped his reelection. The one to stop the Affordable Care Act under Obama failed spectacularly. Plus, two more shutdowns to build Trump’s wall in 2018/19, not only failed to get the wall built, but ensured Trump’s election loss in 2020.

The longer the shutdown, the closer we will get to Election 2024, the steeper the electoral price will be, the clearer it will be in a vast majority of voters’ minds who should be in charge after the election: Democrats.

We are calling your bluff, Kevin! Shut the whole place down!

What to do with those who knowingly denied election results for their own political/personal gain?

40ford

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday December 18, 2022 · 4:37 PM PST

2022/12/18 · 16:37

January 6th Insurrection — Credit: Douglas Rissing

I recently saw the movie “Amsterdam.” It is a fictionalization of actual events in the 1930’s. It is about a time we came perilously close to replacing FDR with a dictator. The ordinary Americans and a retired general who stymied the plot were disgraced and forgotten. None of the guilty parties were prosecuted. I had never heard this story. It is a well-produced film. I highly recommend it.

Most of America seems oblivious to how close we have recently come to losing our democracy, how close we still are. The Lincoln Project was one of the first to declare that our democracy was in danger. In the final campaign days of this year, President Biden and some prominent Democrats joined the chorus.

In the last election, most election deniers running for reelection won while a large majority of similar challenger candidates lost. The exceptions were one governorship, five seats in the Senate and nine in the House. Most of those wins were for empty seats in Republican states/districts or where Republican incumbents lost in the primary. In battle ground states ‘Big Lie’ candidates were mercilessly routed. The ongoing plot to subvert our election process received a serious blow this November but continues, focusing efforts on Election 2024.

Nationwide 168 election deniers will enter elected office in January. Until none of them any longer hold office, our fragile democracy is in danger of ending. What is the fitting punishment for those who knowingly denied proven election results for their own political or personal gain?

To the extent that any/all can be proven guilty for related illegal acts, they should be banned from involvement in local, state, or federal politics for life. They may not run for or hold any elected or appointed office from dog catcher to President of the United States. Further, they should be banned from employment or volunteer positions government/politics adjacent, i.e., lobbying, consulting, news anchor/correspondent, all campaign activities, book deals, aired interviews about politics, etc. This behavior will continue unless we...

Let the punishment fit the crime.

The January 6th Committee has presented sufficient evidence to convince me that, at the very least, our last president should face a grand jury, be indicted, and prosecuted for his hand in the insurrection and our present situation. The committee is going to refer Mr. Trump for criminal prosecution to the Department of Justice on Monday, December 19, 2022. His recent call for the nullification of parts of the Constitution to overturn the results of the 2020 election should be enough for us to understand where he stands on America and democracy. If not fully prosecuted, whether convicted or not, our democracy is a sham and we, glaringly, do not live in a country based on laws. Obviously, some people are above the law.

What would be the fitting punishment for someone who is willing to destroy our entire system of government in pursuit of power and financial gain? Many have expressed their desire to see Mr. Trump put behind bars. I think prison is too easy a sentence in these circumstances,

Do you remember reading a short story by Edward Everett Hale called “The Man Without A Country?” It is the story of Philip Nolan who, while being tried for treason, wished to never see this country again. His wish was granted. This sounds like a more fitting punishment for what Donald J. Trump has done.

“Is that even possible?” you may ask. First, Mr. Trump would have to be stripped of his citizenship. Once stripped, he can be banished. If convicted, all his U.S. assets should be dissolved. He should never be allowed to own property or cross into America, even for a visit, for the rest of his natural life.

Let the punishment fit the crime.

On this Thanksgiving, give thanks to the most important people in America

40ford

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday November 21, 2022 · 6:03 AM PST

2022/11/21 · 06:03

Top view of Thanksgiving concepts on dark background, orange pumpkin, yellow pumpkin, white pumpkin, Knitting sweater, pinecone, dry leaves and writing Thanksgiving on black board with copy space for text. — Credit: Zania Studios

Thanksgiving will be here in a couple of days. Most of us will spend time with friends and/or family feasting together. While we thank our lucky stars for who loves us, where we live, what we have, how much we know, we really need to thank the most important people in America.

A well-deserved thanks goes to my fellow Democrats, Independents, and others who cast their ballots in this election. We voted for women’s rights, gun control, climate action and democracy itself. We ignored the inflation chewing on our wallets. Our democracy continues to work because we voted.

Historically speaking the Trumpublican Party should have a comfortable majority in the House of Representatives and a slim one in the Senate. Let the spurious impeachment hearings and trials begin! Bang that gavel Kevin! I am thankful that did not happen.

Instead, Republicans performed more poorly than the results reveal. They did not ‘win’ a majority in the House. Redistricting favored Republicans with more than enough new districts to ‘take back the House.’ (12 more new districts than the Democrats). Republicans will hold so tiny a majority it will require unanimous Republican support to pass anything. The Senate remains under Democratic control. The MAGAGs (pronounced ‘ma gags’) convinced no one that they were the better choice. For that, I give thanks.

We also owe a big thank you to the January 6th Committee for exposing the ‘stolen election’ myth for what it was – a con to steal an election by claiming it was stolen by the other side. The con included a real-life insurrection! The committee had a hand in causing losses for election denying candidates from coast to coast. I give a special thanks to Liz Cheney for heroic actions beyond the call of duty.

Thanks to the efforts of so many ordinary people our democracy continues...

Happy Thanksgiving.

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