On Every Level...

If only it were as simple as electing a President.  Yes, we need a President with the correct ideals but on its own that is only a small part of the problem.  Without a Congress willing to work on the REAL issues we have not done enough to fix what is wrong.  We need Governors, legislators at the state level, City Council Persons, Mayors and all the rest that hold to the better values.  Even then there is no consensus of what "correct" is on every issue. 

It is the strong debate and vigorous engagement in the process that produces what is correct.  We need the continuous engagement to arrive at a Good Place.  When we are not looking the wrong policy takes hold.

The definitions we now use are so heavily redone by "think tanks" that it is difficult to have a conversation without starting at the very beginning (of the country) and trying to agree on what we mean when say something.  There is little agreement on what history means or what history is correct.  There is far less understanding when the tangential discussion gets to more complex things that need to be understood to understand what is attempting to be discussed.  Economics comes to mind.  In any event, that is what makes us seem to stand on either side of the room and yell at each other.  It accomplishes little.

Just another day in Paradise. 

More Interesting Every Day

The reaction to the Democratic debates have subsided a bit and the FB folks are settling in for a longer run finally.  There is still a lot of Republican fumbling and mumbling about how the Dem's don't have the cures for the country but they are now being more ignored than usual.  The reason is that the Democratic debates showed a reasoning group focused on answering the real questions of our time.  The definition of Socialism has grown to include an understanding that it is not anti-capitalism but, rather, a system that seeks to make more fair the rules of capitalism for the average person.  There has always been socialism in America... we just didn't always call it that.  When the richest among us have tried to take over the government we have always fought back.  Eventually we break up the huge interests that attempt to buy government and rule making for their own benefit.  It is not always pretty.  Right now it is amazing just how intensely the 1% is pushing back.  Because they own the media they are putting malformed ideas out there or lying about who is even in the hunt for the Presidency.  They are telling us that our vote doesn't count.  They are doing everything in their power to convince us that everything is fine... just fine.  They cringe at those who point out that they have rigged the game.  They whine when they are called out for their lies.  It is all very interesting.

The idea that corporate welfare even existed has been slow to catch on and to be understood, but it is real and we can now more clearly see the tendrils of the 1% sucking the economy dry.  They will move on to another country to ruin when this one is a carcass.

Which sums up this week in MemeLand.

See you later.

A Meme a Day?? A Meme a Minute

Following American political thought is an interesting exercise these days.  The difference in how Democrats actually debate versus the donnybrook that is a Republican "debate" is a special look into brains versus brawn.  The Republicans use bullying tactics and yell louder while hurling insults at the opponent of choice.  The Democrats, while not perfect, actually talk about issues that are current and offer real solutions.  At the end of the debate there should be a shake of the hands all 'round and more discussion.  That is what you see from the Democrats... and not so much what you see from the Republicans.  It is the difference between strict talking points and carefully considered, still open to continued discussion and new ideas, answers to question of policy.

Here is the interesting thing to me.  We still tend to condense the broader ideas to short bumper sticker representations.  It is just how we inform ourselves in the onslaught of media misinformation.  

This pushes back on the Jeb Bush nonsense about he won't give away Free Stuff.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz has given us a series of bad decisions and there is a call for her to step down.  What bad decisions you ask?  There is no 50 state strategy for this election cycle.  The debates are limited to six for the Democrats and she will not listen to anyone wanting to increase that number.  Those are just a few.  The hash tag #ResignDebbie is a reflection of this.

  
The end of the problem for Bernie Sanders is in how Americans come to understand the meaning of Socialism.  We tend to be fairly uninformed about what it really is.  I have seen many versions of this meme.  It leads to a discussion of what goals and policies would work for us... rather than the one percent of richest Americans.

While there are many broader memes there is a distortion of of what "Freedom" actually means.  The Right seems to think that wrapping themselves in the flag and saying the word "Freedom" is the same thing as being free.  Franklin Roosevelt had explained that being free from want and need is the basis of real freedom.  That idea is mostly ignored by the Right-wing.

Distortions of our history seem to be another tool of the Right to discourage discussion and discourse.  What do we do when faced with this incredible (un-credible) version of history?  Often, because it is yelled at us, we just stop talking.  Truly this is the result the Right wing bullies want.  I got tired of this a long time ago and feel that pushing back is required in our system of government.  Hunting down the perpetrators and pushing back again and again is absolutely necessary.

There is a lot of feeling here about what is right for the country instead of what is Right for the country.

Until next time.

Meme America

Ha!!!  The meme wars are on.  It is part of American culture that we understand bumper sticker/sound bite logic very quickly.  We love political cartoons and we enjoy fast minds that can translate political thought into humor.  The memes are busily showing the way to the coming election.  Studying them from a specific viewpoint with a lens of the pulse of who will be a positive influence on the culture and reality of America is a fascinating past time for many of us.

Here are a few samplings from this last month or so:

The first one is an expression of what ticks off most of us.  Capitalism in unrestricted mode is as tilted a system as was the old feudal system. It shows the top as the small cross section of the populous that it is.  We are stuck in that in every aspect of our lives.

The second is about the problem we face when we allow "free speech" to be based on ignorance.  If knowledge and facts can correct ignorance, that is, if they are allowed to surface in the discussion without being shouted down by the bullies, we have free speech.  If not what we have is the fewest people shoving their ideas down our throats via bumper sticker logic.

The third meme is just a display of what the left is seeing clearly and is a reflection of the last 40 years of Reaganism.  The dismantling of the good the government can do is replaced by the Republican party following the pattern of breaking government, then pointing to the dysfunction that happens and lastly attempting to privatize the things that they broke.  It is as if we are stuck in position and will transfer the money and the power to the top without saying, "Enough is enough".

The last is an expression of distrust of what politicians say versus what politicians actually do and why they do it.  Money IS the issue in politics these days.  Anyone that says otherwise is not paying attention.

The underlying problems are recognized, assigned a value and spread across Social Media (SM).  Today we trust SM more than Main Stream Media (MSM) and we have selected lots of friends based on whether we can learn from what they post.  The saying is, "The revolution won't be televised...", "...it will be tweeted".  The distrust of MSM is heavy on the Left but since the MSM is now owned by six (6) major corporations that bear to the Right it is mouthed by the Right.  It no longer matters if you watch Fox, NBC, CNN, CBS and so on.  Some people have turned off their cable altogether and have gone to other means of watching TV... the rise of Roku and Hulu and other means is increasingly a signal that we do not wish to or want to be so heavily influenced by MSM and the Right.

The only campaign to understand this change so far is the Bernie Sanders' campaign.  Strangely the others have a sense that this is so but have yet to "get" it.   More memes to follow but I think that is a pretty good front end assessment for now.

A New Season

     Ah yes, it is the political season again… well, sort of.  It is always the political season but in America we actually pay more attention at certain times than others.  Strangely we ignore the subject as much as we can in “off-season” mid-term elections.  The negative ads, designed to discourage voters from voting at all, have the effect of inoculating us against the scourge of voting.

     In any event, the Republicans have trotted out the immense slate of potential candidates and has begun its flavor-of-the-month process of vilifying each in turn.  The Churchy people on the Right have made a religion of hate and destruction on social issues.  The Small Government righties have a No-More-Government mantra.  The deceivers on the Right are sliming everyone in sight and the heart of the GOtP party are very busy spinning tweaks and lies on every day events so that all the oxygen is depleted for each news cycle. 

     Of course the news media is no longer the trusted Fourth Estate it once was.  It has been corporatized and compromised to the point of spewing what its 1% owners want you to hear.  Watching ABC, for instance, gets you all the update on what the Disney conglomeration wants you to hear about what they are doing.  Fox (so-called) News bends the facts to the breaking and unrecognizable point while pushing you toward Right-wing ideology.  NBC is dismantling any Left-wing stories and shifting to a Right-wing twist.  CBS, CNN and others are taking on the non-story and promoting the art of Not-News.  

     On the Left the Democrats are trying to act as if Hillary Clinton is the only story while she falls further in the polls.  Since they have, thus far, kept the debates at bay and the name recognition for others in the race a secret it appears that Hillary wants an automatic no controversy path to the nomination.  The best voice for the people, Bernie Sanders, is drawing huge crowds and climbs in any poll where his name is actually mentioned.  Chaffey and O’Malley are there but without a way to attract the national media to tell their stories it is assumed that they do not exist at all.

     What is most fun, for me, anyway, is the meme war on Facebook.  The cartons and the complete nonsense that passes for political discourse these days is an added bonus.  I have often said in posts of various sorts and in questions trying to point out bad logic that “If you repeat a lie doesn’t that make you a liar as well?”  It falls on deaf ears but at least it is out there for those of us to see that lying has become a sort of political reality all its own today.

     Having gone to a Bernie Sanders rally and listened to him for quite a while on the radio I have come to understand that his brand of political revolution is one I can relate to.  The founding fathers would appreciate that we need a periodic shake up.  America is, finally, coming to a momentary awakening and should provide that shake up this political season.  When the Democratic debates get started Bernie Sanders will have access to the microphone and the process should show what America actually believes as opposed to what the 1% want us to believe.  Appointing a “Blue Ribbon” panel is what punditry is about… it’s is a way to distract you from the facts.  It is a way to push you in a direction you can feel is wrong but the arguments are so convoluted you often can’t quite put your finger on what is wrong about them.  Senator Sanders steps to the microphone and you hear the unfiltered, unvarnished facts.  It is disturbing.  It is awakening.  It is a breath of fresh air.

WalMartians and the Lunacy of Less

This week it was announced that WalMart would cut back on the number of employees that would be covered for health insurance.  The number people affected is in the neighborhood of 30,000 people.  That is thirty thousand lives worsened by the owners of Walmart.

The largest shareholders are the Waltons… arguably some of the richest people in the country, if not the world.  The money “saved” by this change will mostly go to the bottom line, which is then the income line for the Walton's. 

Without the ability to organize, that is, to strike against their employer the employees are essentially cheated by the rules out of what they had up until now.  It is noted that part of the decision to discontinue coverage was that WalMart is now going into the healthcare business.  They cater to the least financially sophisticated populous in the U.S. and have shown an ability to exploit that population repeatedly.  Concentrating on having the cheapest price they sell substandard products manufactured in substandard conditions abroad.  They cheat the drivers that transport those goods and they hammer the producers on price.  The WalMart model is to exploit the tax payer as well.  It is said that each store costs the tax payer in excess of $900,000 per STORE in the state and local benefits needed by employees to live at a near subsistence level due to the starvation wages paid by the company.  The company has further violated laws in Mexico (for instance) by bribing local officials in order to by-pass local laws and build stores where none were wanted.  There is a long and growing list of reasons that WalMart is not a good citizen wherever it exists.

We might want to ponder system that allows this.  We might want to consider the possible ways to change the course of this slide toward feudalism.  It is not just WalMart but it is useful to see and understand their model.

On one level there is problem involving the employees themselves.  They need the job, even as low paying and inferior as it is, they cannot do without it and therefore cannot strike or create a UNION to better their situation.  WalMart's history of union busting and illegal actions to pressure employees against forming any union are extensive but let’s just focus on part that is within what the employees can do for themselves first.  You cannot join a picket line if you are going to be fired.  It is necessary to have the job, remember.  You would others, by proxy, to stand in create the protest for you.  You need some way to keep them on the line.  Since there is no union you do not have the ability to have dues paid into create a fund.  But, in this day and age, it is possible to create on-line funding for a group that could fulfill the function of striking the employer.  I won’t go into the history of unions or the laws that now are currently used against the unions.  I would mention that protection of the middle class is the business of unions.  Our legislators have been co-opted, bought out, by businesses or organizations representing businesses.  The pendulum has swung so far to the Right that unions represent fewer than 7% of non-public employees today.  This, in wake of 30 years of Reaganomics (undisputedly bad for the middle class), has devastated the legal standing of most of the country’s working people.  The New Feudal Order (NFO) has positioned the employee without recourse, without a voice in the workplace.  The worker tends to feel that he/she should be doing the “right” thing and working ever harder.  Increases in productivity have been absorbed by the company and redistributed to the shareholders rather than the employees who made it possible.  Wages have decreased in real terms over the last thirty years.  The wealth of the nation has not been spread across the spectrum of people who have made it possible.

So, a first step in recharging the middle class could be creating a way for the worker to strike without leaving the workplace.  Creating a mechanism, a fund, targeting the worst abusers of workers for actions to get the public to understand the menace of, “Low prices always,” being the start of a downhill slide that needs correction.   

Drawing a Line

So much has happened in the last many months that show the consistent attack of the middle-of-the-road and Left-ish leaning of the U.S. populace.  Every single issue has a full attack mode slash from the Righties out there.  But, and this amazes me somewhat, the constant barrage from the Right has moments that make me cheer wildly.  Exposing stupidity and seeing the lies about the economy, science, education, immigration and so forth tumbled down is heartening at a time when I feel the attacks ever more personally.  In attending a Gun Violence conference recently it was clear that lobbying efforts can be overcome by ardent and consistent work on the part of those who can counter the NRA nonsense enough times but that the opposition is well positioned with money, now called free speech (Citizens United, thanks a bunch SCOTUS), is going to make this a long hard battle ground.  Action on a local level is what is needed and that is going to take a long time... even when the matter can be put to any sort of vote.

Along comes an issue that is very local but with large implications.  Our local government, the city council of Vancouver, has recently voted to allow a WalMart to go ahead with development of a store very near us.  I am concerned with everything from downward pressure on property values to job losses by local businesses and general degrading and the trash accumulation in the area now that the council has voted.  Because of the way that WalMart scams the system by creating employees on food stamps (by not paying a living wage), using corrosive scheduling so there are fewer full time employees and demanding tax concessions from the governing bodies where they locate stores while offering cheap off shore products it is impossible to feel that they will be good neighbors.  

Here's the thing of it though.  We don't have a vote in the matter.  We live a few blocks outside of the city.  We are in an area that will one soon probably be in the city but because it is not yet we do not have a real voice in this process.  

It is all about where a line was drawn and it's too late, probably, to effect the outcome.  We are late comers to the neighborhood so we were not "in the know" about the location of this WalMart nor its march toward completion but that's where activism, win or lose, comes in.  I do vote and I can attend future city council meetings.