Tag: Political Change

Economic Inequality

The Dems should be all over this situation but instead they want to mess around with Epstein and other such nonsense none of which will improve the lives of Americans on iota.

Economic inequality should be the priority as elections start coming into view…for instance…

On Saturday, data shared by The Kobeissi Letter highlights a stark divergence in wealth growth since 1976.

According to the post on X, the real wealth of the top 0.001% of U.S. households has surged roughly 3,500% over that period.

By comparison, the top 0.01% and 0.1% saw gains of about 2,200% and 1,200%, respectively, while the average household’s wealth increased by just 200%.

The post also noted a sharp rise in ultra-wealthy households, estimating that about 430,000 U.S. households now hold at least $30 million in net worth, including roughly 74,000 worth more than $100 million.

A large share of wealth at the top is tied to financial markets. “~72% of wealth for the top 0.1% is concentrated in corporate equities, mutual funds, and private businesses,” the post said.

In contrast, lower-income households have struggled to build wealth.

“The bottom 50% of US households had more debt than assets for nearly 2 decades,” the post stated, adding that their net worth turned positive only after 2020, aided by stimulus checks and rising home values.

Summing up the trend, the post concluded: “Asset owners are the only winners.”

https://www.benzinga.com/news/politics/26/04/51903117/us-wealth-inequality-hits-record-high-as-top-0-001-gains-3500-since-1976-while-average-households-lag-at-200

Let’s be honest the plan is to pay workers as little as possible to keep the CEOs rolling in bonuses….

Janine Jackson interviewed Institute for Policy Studies’ Sarah Anderson about “successful” corporations paying poverty wages for the April 17, 2026, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

Janine Jackson: In 2024, Forbes asked, “What Is the Secret to Walmart’s Success?” The answer:

Walmart’s strategy is boring but reliable. The foundation is provided by the scale of the business, creating the fuel necessary to maintain cost leadership.

In 2025, the Economist explained to readers “How Walmart Became a Tech Giant—and Took Over the World.” The answer, well, founder Sam Walton, a “trucker-capped, pickup-driving penny-pincher,” had a simple idea: “Keep costs low, pass savings on to customers, win market share, harness scale to further lower costs, and listen as the cash registers sing.”

Early this year, Inc. Magazine gave us “One Bold Decision Helped Make Walmart a Trillion-Dollar Company.” That story says:

Early this year, Inc. Magazine gave us “One Bold Decision Helped Make Walmart a Trillion-Dollar Company.” That story says:

Most experts see the company’s tremendous growth as a triumph of technology, including AI, and that’s certainly true. Walmart has used its heft, highly efficient warehouse network and the ubiquity of its stores as a competitive advantage.

But oho, the shocker, the big reveal, is that former CEO, Doug McMillon, “visited Walmart stores and asked the people working there what they needed. He listened to their answers and he started paying them more.”

Well, I hope you’re sitting down for this: “To begin with, every associate, as Walmart calls employees, would earn at least $9 an hour and soon move up to $10 an hour.” McMillon took home $27.4 million in 2024.

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-all-about-keeping-wages-at-poverty-levels-to-overpay-their-ceos/

There you have a simple plan….give the voters something that will help make their wallets fatter and you have hit on a winner.

But instead the Dems crawl back to the high dollar donors and become their representatives not those of the people….they will be losers as long as they lay with the dollars.

You can change that but instead you had rather stand on the sideline and wish for change….and whine about your plight.

Not coming as long as you have that kind of attitude.  PERIOD!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What Of The Democrats?

Another day of doctors and such….I will not be around for most of the day and I shall try to catch up as soon as possible….thanx for understanding.

College of Political Knowledge

This is part of the series I write looking at the Democratic Party and the upcoming election.

After the ass kicking the Dems took in 2024 they set about to change the way they approach elections (that was the lie they told then)….I wrote about it so I went back into my archives (that is why I have them) and found what I had written then….this from about a year ago….

What Happened To The Democratic Party?

After a year of lip service and lies things are not going well….so far all they have done is theatrics for the media and accomplished very little….some Dems have even sided with the GOP on some spending bills…..not much has changed….

Recent polls show approval of Donald Trump hovering in a deep unlit trough around 40 percent. Yet his dismal ratings have done little to bolster the reputation of the opposition party. Commentators across the political spectrum have overwhelmingly agreed that the Democratic brand is shot. The American Prospect called it “damaged.” NBC said it was “weak.” Rolling Stone said it was “cooked.” Semafor announced that “left-wing ideas” had “wrecked” it, and Bill Maher compared Democrats to has-been companies like Sears or Kodak that had “screwed themselves out of relevance.” The pejoratives aren’t confined to the armchair critics. Arizona Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego lamented, with only slightly more finesse than the news outlets, the “national brand problem.” Michael Bennet, a Democratic senator from Colorado, delicately agreed that the branding is “problematic.”

Is all lost for the Democrats, or is there opportunity in the shambles? When the only party offering a bulwark against Trump’s murderous, crackpot regime appears to be losing the vibes war—and as we approach the midterm elections that offer our last best chance to rein in the madness—these questions are not merely of political interest; they are a matter of existential importance.

And so, in a survey of 2,421 Democratic voters, conducted January 7–16 by Embold Research, The New Republic sought to explore what rank-and-file Democrats want to see from their candidates and elected representatives. Is it true, as one popular strain of criticism goes, that some of the party’s more liberal social ideas are a liability? How important to voters are housing, prescription drug prices, trans rights? How should we approach economic policy, foreign policy? How conciliatory or aggressive should party leaders be toward their foes? What, in other words, do Democrats want from Democrats?

https://newrepublic.com/article/206015/new-republic-opinion-poll-democrats-leaders-results

Not much is changing because the Dems are still in corporate pockets….the people mean nothing to these politicians no matter how much manure they spread none of it is true.

The Centrists are leading the way…..

Centrist Democrats led by Cheri Bustos, a corporate lobbyist who previously headed her party’s campaign arm in the US House, are launching a policy and advocacy organization aimed at pressuring Democrats to embrace the kind of “pro-growth” deregulatory agenda associated with the so-called “abundance” movement.

The new organization, named Next American Era, was formed “with an eye toward 2028” as Democrats work to recover from their crushing defeat to President Donald Trump in the 2024 elections, Axios reported Sunday, noting that the group describes itself as a “hub for center-left policy and advocacy.”

Bustos, whose lobbying client list in 2025 included OpenAI and Larry Ellison’s Oracle, said Next American Era plans to “air issue-focused ads during the midterm elections and the 2028 presidential campaign, but it won’t endorse candidates,” Axios reported.

Bustos said the founders of Next American Era share “many of the same principles as the Abundance movement,” a loose assortment of organizations and individuals—including large corporations and prominent billionaires—broadly supporting views expressed by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in their 2025 book Abundance.

“She said cutting red tape, streamlining regulations, and supporting workforce training are among the top policy goals of her group, which is structured as a 501(c)(4) political nonprofit,” Axios reported

https://www.commondreams.org/news/cheri-bustos-next-american-era

Their aims are the aims of the GOP so how do these fools still wear the Democrat name tag?

I wish I could say that these fools are a minority….they are not even the minority leaders of both houses are wishy washy….

Democratic leaders in Congress are already backing down on one of their key demands in the fight to reform the federal immigration agencies terrorizing Minnesota and other parts of the country.

On Wednesday, Democrats laid out a list of 10 “guardrails” they said they wanted to see put in place to protect the public from abuses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, before agreeing to a new round of funding for their parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

https://www.commondreams.org/news/jeffries-schumer-ice-masks

Was this an attempt at some form of bi-partisanship?  Or was it just cowardice?

Now look at the protests around Minneapolis….the Congressional Dems were quick for lip service but have done nothing to join the protests.

One Democratic lawmaker to whom Axios granted the veil of anonymity suggested that Democrats expect the base to “get upset” but believes the discontent will wash away because “then you’re going to have the real fight in two weeks.” Whether or not that period ends with any meaningful change in the status quo remains to be seen. Much of what Democrats seek would merely require various federal agents to obey rules and regulations that they’re already supposed to follow as a matter of agency directive—though enshrining these policies as laws would be a step in the right direction.

That said, there’s still the thorny matter of enforcing any new constraints that are imposed on ICE and Border Patrol. I hope I’m wrong about this, but by the time all is said and done, I don’t expect much in the way of material change where the president’s paramilitaries are concerned. At best, perhaps, people will see the faces of the thugs who are beating them—though not always, if Schumer has his way.

https://newrepublic.com/post/206262/democrats-join-civil-resistance-midterms

The Dems should be out there let the people see that their lives matter to them…..so far empty words and ill promises is all we have got.

So far the only ones that are stepping up are the true Progressives, not those that use the term to appear important, and I agree that working class politics is where this party should be centered not in the pockets of billionaires.

Speaking at a panel at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said that decades of government failures such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the 2003 Iraq War had opened the door for demagogues such as Trump among working-class voters.

The only way to defeat this, she said, is to reorient progressive politics around social class.

“We have to have a working-class-centered politics if we are going to succeed,” she said, “and also if we are going to stave off the scourge of authoritarianism, which provide political siren calls to allure people into finding scapegoats to blame for rising economic inequality, both domestically and globally.”

Elsewhere during the panel, Ocasio-Cortez elaborated on the way economic inequality fuels the demand for authoritarian leaders.

“We’re seeing, in economy across economy around the world, including in the United States,” she said, “that extreme levels of income inequality lead to social instability and drives in a sense in authoritarianism, right-wing populism and very dangerous domestic internal politics. And that is a direct outcome of, not just income inequality, but the failure of democracies over decades to deliver, the failure to deliver higher wages, the failure to rein in corporations.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-munich

I agree!

The DNC has tried to eliminate any dissenting voices and embraced the corporate policies that Clinton championed.

This is not what the people of this country needs we already have a big business party, the GOP, we need a party of the people that will work tirelessly for the betterment of people’s lives……something we have not had for a generation.

Time to stand up and bring this party back to where it belongs….on the side of the working masses.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Donny, What’s To Become?

Note:  This post is about the possible demise of Little Donny….I am by no means wishing for such a scenario (I write that to protect my ass)….it is just a basic ‘what if’….that’s all.

I know there has been lots written about the health of Donny….some have even speculated that he will not make his 4 years in office but I would like to look into this subject and what we could expect if he does not make it.

First let’s look at his life expectancy…..

It’s tough to scroll through social media without hearing opinions (and dire predictions) about Donald Trump’s health, but what are the clear facts? Will the twice-elected POTUS continue to receive “excellent” medical reports like the one released by the White House in April 2025, or is it more complicated than that? Are troubles looming?

To determine whether he’s likely to have life-threatening health problems, we should first look at what he does right, and a good place to start is his decision to swear off drinking alcohol. Trump reportedly chose to be a teetotaler because his older brother died from alcoholism in his early 40s. He even admitted at a National Faith Summit (via The Independent), “I think I have the type of personality where I probably would have a problem.”

Is having a little alcohol now and then really bad for you, though? A 2022 study in Scientific Reports looked at the health records of more than 400,000 adults and discovered that those who drank alcohol regularly could expect to shorten their lifespan by 6.9 years. Although people who drank just one alcoholic beverage a day seemed to gain one year of life, they were at higher risk of cancer, which negated the benefit. Consequently, Trump’s refusal of alcohol may give him a win.

Read More: https://www.healthdigest.com/2090598/trump-life-expectancy-what-is-in-his-favor-versus-what-is-not/

There you have the pros and cons of his life….

But let’s say he passes while in office….what will be the first thing we hear?

What Happens When a President Dies?

The U.S. Constitution is clear on the matter of presidential succession. If a president were to die, the vice president would step into the role immediately, per the Mirror.

Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution states: “In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President.”

In practice, this means the Vice President becomes the acting President right away, taking the oath of office at the earliest possible moment.

This ensures there is no leadership vacuum during a national crisis or transition.

So the first thing you will hear, should Trump pass away within the next three years, is JD Vance taking the oath.

There is more to happen if and when…..

https://vt.co/news/us/what-happens-donald-trump-dies-in-office

Let’s say Uncle Donny craps out while in office….what will happen?

he US Constitution has clear instructions for what happens when a president dies or is incapable of continuing to do the job: their vice president takes over.

It states: “In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.”

Basically, that means if Trump croaks it, then the power of his office passes to his VP JD Vance, who will take over as president.

This has happened several times in American history as eight presidents have died in office, four of natural causes and four were assassinated and in each case their VP succeeded them as president.

So Donald Trump’s continuing health is the only thing between the US and President JD Vance.  (There is another scary thought)

The new president is sworn in as soon as possible and gets to pick his cabinet, they could keep their former colleagues or replace them with whomever they like, and they can also choose a new vice president since that job will available in this situation.

Both houses of Congress have to approve the new VP pick.

If Donald Trump happened to die between now and 1 August this year then JD Vance would become the youngest US president in history.

That accolade is currently held by a former vice president whose president died in office, as Theodore Roosevelt was 42 when William McKinley was assassinated.

Vance is currently 41, so he could still become the youngest person ever to be US president.

Oh there is more…..

https://www.ladbible.com/news/us-news/everything-happen-donald-trump-die-president-130027-20260202

That is about everything you need to know when the day comes a callin’….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is The “Groove” Gone?

For years Uncle Don has had his groove on and convinced the mentally challenged that he was somehow invincible but in the last month or so that air is slowly eroding.

Much has been written about his mental lapses (the best word to keep with civility)….but all that is hearsay and as such needs to be studied….but since the last election when his candidates took it in the butt Donny has been reverting to old tactics.

President Donald Trump’s iron-fisted grip on his party appears to be slipping in ways unseen since the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Back then, he quickly reasserted himself as the singular, dominant force within the Republican Party, and he may do so again.

But the extraordinary rebukes and headwinds the president is now facing — much of it from within his own party — are revealing a GOP beginning to reckon with a post-Trump future. That dynamic crystallized after voters surged to the polls to support Democratic candidates for statewide races in New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia and Pennsylvania, shattering expectations of close contests and signaling that even Trump can’t defy political gravity forever.

Trump has spent the days since recycling old grievances, berating members of his own party and choosing sides in a burgeoning intra-MAGA debate about antisemitism and bigotry within the GOP coalition.

Asked about the momentum shift, a White House spokesperson said Trump had “delivered on many of the promises he was elected to enact” — from border security to ending taxes on tips to “affordability issues.”

“As the architect of the MAGA movement, President Trump will always put America First. Every single day he’s working hard to continue fulfilling the many promises he made and he will continue delivering,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson said.

In addition to the election romp, here’s a look at some recent brush-offs, brushbacks and breakups that have threatened Trump’s aura of invincibility.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/18/donald-trump-epstein-vote-00654761

Is this a good sign?

Is this a sign that sanity is slowly returning to the political discourse?

Does this bode badly for the upcoming mid-terms?

Your thoughts will be appreciated.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is It Too Late?

There is lots of talk on social media (so I am told) that we are losing the democracy that we all care so dearly about….the GOP has worked tirelessly for over 50 years to take the people out of any decision making situations

Now with Donny in charge their true colors are exposed and they can move as quickly as possible before the next election.

The one thing that makes democracy so desirable is….the people….

When the ancient Greeks came up with the concept of democracy, they envisioned a form of government in which the power rested with many, and not just a monarch or some other potentially despotic tyrant.

That’s quite literally what “democracy” means — “rule by the people.”

Of course, “the people” only meant Greek free men. After all, who knows what kind of craziness women, slaves and non-citizens would have come up with if they had been given a say in running ancient Greece.

Therefore, it is a bit unfair to criticize Republicans as “threats to democracy.”

Sure, when viewed through the lens of modern democracies, that label is certainly valid. After all, they are methodically trying to destroy the type of democracy that took more than 200 years to establish and improve in the United States until it was mostly inclusive (with more work to be done all the time).

However, the GOP very much embodies the spirit of the ancient Greeks by constantly trying to limit who gets a say in the government… and it ain’t “the people.” At least not if they vote for stuff Republicans don’t like.

Take Missouri, for example

Last year, voters there emphatically backed Proposition A, a ballot initiative that increased the state’s minimum wage, indexed it to inflation, and required employers to provide paid sick leave.

While these are the kind of policies Republicans like to dismiss as “socialism,” the people in the deep-red state (Donald Trump won it by 18 points in 2024) liked them quite a bit and passed the initiative by a wide margin.

As it turns out, they shouldn’t have bothered, or gotten excited about a minimum wage increase that was going to benefit a quarter of the state’s workers. That’s because Republican legislators in the Missouri General Assembly swiftly passed a bill to reverse the changes.

The GOP Is Working Overtime to Take the People Out of Democracy

Such tactics as gerrymandering….where the party picks its voters not the voters picking the party…..and now we have a full body assault on voting.

So the question now is….is it too late to repair the damage that the GOP and Donny are doing to this country?

Will the voter finally see what many of us have seen coming for many years?

Can this democracy be saved?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Are We Entering The New Dark Ages?

2025 will be the beginning of a repeat of the Guiled Age (19th-early 20th century)…..

Too many once critical opponents of Trump are starting to change their tunes and basically asking….what could go wrong?

Heads up here…I AM NOT ONE OF THEM!

I have read all 900+ pages of Project 2025 and anyone that has been awake for the last couple of decades should see the problem that is rising on a dim horizon.

Personally, and I am not alone, I think the US could be entering into a new Dark Ages….

Donald Trump has moved at warp speed to nominate people to serve in his Cabinet and other important government posts who have chosen loyalty to him as their most important virtue, making a mockery of merit even as the nominees claim to uphold meritocracy.  

Moreover, like Trump himself, his nominees denigrate science and scientific expertise, subscribe to conspiracy theories, are eager to impose litmus tests in the arts and education, and seem hostile to the world beyond America’s borders.

Elections have consequences, so the saying goes.

And if that wasn’t enough to remind us that elections have consequences, the president-elect announced that on the first day of his administration, he will order a mass deportation of millions of immigrants and impose stiff tariffs on this nation’s most important trading partners.

While much of the post-election commentary has focused on its implications for American democracy,  there is another side to what will unfold starting on Jan. 20. When he takes office, Trump, who promised to Make America Great Again, seems determined to lead America into a period of scientific, cultural, educational, and global retrenchment, which collectively might be called the new “Dark Ages.”

Some see Trump as reviving the so-called Gilded Age of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, an era of great prosperity as well as technological and industrial growth. It was an era dominated by corrupt “captains of industry” or “robber barons” whose corrupting influence also extended to government and politics. 

However, leaders in the Gilded Age did not reject science and rationality. Quite the contrary, they embraced both because they saw them as essential to the growth of capitalism. And they invested in culture and the arts, rather than trying to make them hue to a particular orthodoxy.

https://www.salon.com/2024/12/07/welcome-to-the-new-dark-ages/

I am a person of meager means and I am not thrilled about the policies Trump has threatened the country with…..these policies will do nothing to make my life better if they are put into action.

Some of these ‘nominees’ are truly ‘successful’ business men…..but very very few have done anything to help this nation and its people….they have raped (metaphorically) and back-stabbed to get their millions and billions but that does nothing for me.

I want the people to lead my nation that look at the people and how to improve their lives not as a pack of peons to be exploited.

Do not fret far from finished with my criticisms.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

His First 100 Days

This is my continuing series looking at the possibilities from the new Trump administration…..

We have heard what he will do on day one, and the list is massive, but what about those first 100 days that all president aim for when they enter into the sacred seat of power?

President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have already articulated ambitious plans for his first 100 days in office.

He has promised on Day 1 — within the first few hours in fact — to close the U.S. border with Mexico and launch the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.

Trump has promised to gut President Biden’s climate subsidies and resume energy exploration, including offering tax breaks to oil, gas and coal producers.

“We’re going to drill, baby, drill,” Trump said in late October at his rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City. “And I will terminate the ‘green new scam’ and will cut your energy prices in half, 50%, within one year from Jan. 20.”

Trump’s main goal is to unwind Biden’s policies and resume where he left off after his first term in office.

It’s not going to be easy.

While presidents have broad powers over immigration, for example, there are real operational, legal and political challenges to carrying out mass deportations.

Groups like the American Immigration Council estimate it would cost billions of dollars for Trump to implement his deportation plan. It could also have a dramatic impact on the economy if industries such as construction, hospitality and agriculture lose masses of workers.

There is also a resource challenge. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement already must pick and choose where to focus its limited resources.

Carrying out mass deportation would require a massive increase in manpower to arrest and deport millions of people a year.

….there is more….read on….

https://www.npr.org/2024/11/06/nx-s1-5181800/2024-election-trump-first-100-days-agenda

It will be interesting to see how he goes about his agenda….but first the House count should be over and that will determine some of the ways he will approach these problems.

This is all speculation for he has not become president yet only president-elect….for now.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is War Coming?

There seems to be a war a week these days…..Ukraine, Russia, China, Taiwan on and on….but this war that I am referring to is a war within our own society…..a Civil War….yet another civil strife that tears this country apart.

We are told that all this could change if we just get out and vote….I do not believe so….the political divide is getting deeper and deeper…..

Our country is in a crisis. On a near-daily basis, evidence mounts implicating the former president of the United States in a coup attempt against our republic. And in just the past two weeks, a spate of extremist Supreme Court decisions have gotten rid of a woman’s fundamental right to make decisions about her own body, our government’s ability to regulate clean air and water as required by law, and the separation of church and state, all while curbing our ability to regulate deadly weapons.

The legitimacy of a democracy rests on the consent of the governed, on the premise that decisions made by civic institutions reflect the will of the citizens and noncitizens they impact. From the January 6 insurrection to the increase in voter suppression, it has become increasingly clear that our country is in the midst of a legitimacy crisis, with the Supreme Court at the heart of it.

But the court’s recent rulings signify more than just a curtailment of our rights. As an immigrant who has seen countries descend into civil conflict, I recognize a familiar trend here: These are the latest signposts in the frightening backsliding of US democracy into authoritarianism.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/democracy-scotus-radical-reform/

Is change coming with the next election?

David Brooks of the NYT has some thoughts on this…..

Look at the conditions all around us:

First, Americans are deeply dissatisfied with the way things are going. Only 13% of voters say the country is on the right track, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll published this week.

Second, Americans are deeply dissatisfied with the leaders of both parties. Joe Biden has a 33% job approval rating among registered voters. About half of Republican voters want to move on from Donald Trump and find a new presidential candidate for 2024.

Third, inflation is soaring. Throughout history, inflationary periods have often been linked to political instability. As economist Lionel Robbins wrote about Weimar Germany, inflation “destroyed the wealth of the more solid elements in German society; and it left behind a moral and economic disequilibrium, apt breeding ground for the disasters which have followed.”

Fourth, the generational turnover is coming. The boomer gerontocracy that now dominates power is bound to retire, leaving a vacuum for something new.

Fifth, Americans are detaching from the two political parties. Far more Americans consider themselves independents than consider themselves either Democrats or Republicans, and independents may be growing more distinct. And there’s some research that suggests independents are increasingly not just closeted members of the two main parties but also hold different beliefs, which puts them between parties. Sixty-two percent of Americans believe a third party is needed.

Sixth, disgust with the current system is high. A majority of American voters believe that our system of government does not work, and 58% believe that our democracy needs major reforms or a complete overhaul. Nearly half of young adult voters believe voting does not affect how the government operates

Things are not looking good for this social situation to right itself……so is there another Civil War in our near future?

50% of the Americans polled think that we are headed for another messy and possibly bloody correction in our republic….

A shocking new study has found that half of Americans expect to see a second civil war within years, while nearly a fifth say they would be armed with guns at a political skirmish themselves.

Distressing levels of “alienation,” “mistrust,” and a growing tendency to resort to violence were uncovered by researchers at the University of California, Davis, in their recent survey of 8,620 adults across the US. They found that more than two-thirds of respondents said they perceived a “serious threat to our democracy,” while more than half agreed that “in the next few years, there will be civil war in the US.” Over 40 per cent noted the importance of having a “strong leader” over democracy, while also agreeing that “native-born white people are being replaced by immigrants.”

According to the study, there is a growing tendency to settle political disagreements with violence. Almost a fifth of respondents told them that it was likely they would be “armed with a gun” at a political flash point in the next couple of years, while four per cent admitted it was likely they would “shoot someone with a gun.”

https://meaww.com/50-per-cent-americans-think-second-civil-war-is-coming-uc-davis-survey

I fear that I may live long enough to see the final disintegration of our republic….it, the republic, is slowly going the way of the dodo.  The slow erosion of civil liberties has been finalized by the Supreme Court.

Is this it for the great American Experiment?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

The Politics Of Change

We are looking at a change in politics as we know it.

Personally I am SICK of this pathetic promise.  CHANGE my ass!

I remember in 2008 the country was hoping for a change…we voted for change when we voted for Barak Obama and we got zilch…the status quo remained.

To illustrate my thoughts on this con job I offer a few of my earlier posts…..

https://lobotero.com/2008/11/22/where-is-the-change/

https://lobotero.com/2010/07/19/change-you-can-believe-in/

https://lobotero.com/2011/08/25/you-want-change/

https://lobotero.com/2017/12/06/time-for-that-change-yet/

There are others but I did not want to bore you…..

We could always listen to the pundits tell us about Obamacare or financial improvements or the consumer stuff or…..on and on…..and yet the economic inequality continued, the wealthy got wealthier, still no political progress….in other words change did not come….empty promises…the same empty promises as we always get.

And now we are in the 2020 cycle and change once again is on the tongues of Americans….and promise they cannot keep are on the tongues of the candidates that hope and pray they make it to the White House to see that things remain the same.

Keep in mind that the Dem presidents since Clinton have been big into the lie of change…..they promise and deliver nothing like progress.

The very mention of change is silly….they are the typical political lies of every election…”tell the voter what they ‘want’ to hear not what they ‘need’ to hear”…..

A paradox was created within the partisan frame: the last two Democratic presidents were the most successful Republican politicians of the neoliberal era. Bill Clinton oversaw the emancipation of capital and the final destruction of the idea of the polity. Barack Obama oversaw the resurrection of the neoliberal order, with the wealth and power of the oligarchs and corporate chieftains his central concern.

In the present, this tendency can be seen in the Democratic establishment’s favoring of Republican-like candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris over closer representatives of the nominal party ethos, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. In fact, were one to set aside the prior’s party affiliations to judge them by their political acts, both would clearly fall into the Republican purview. It is only by this skewed measure that Mr. Sanders and Ms. Warren aren’t mainstream Democrats.

This distance between the Democrat’s nominal ethos and its governing practices is alternatively explained as that between electoral marketing and service to power. Modern Democratic presidents have enacted truly radical programs. Mr. Clinton officially ended the New Deal in favor of giving capitalists free reign over American political economy. Mr. Obama resurrected neoliberalism following the massively disruptive circumstances it created.

Democrats and the Politics of Change

My point is stop believing the liars and start making the change you want.  Voting for the most “electable” candidate is NOT the way to get that elusive change.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

VOTE!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

“et Certa Apud Verbis”

The “Green New Deal”

This is why I dislike the Dems so much….the Progressives have come up with a plan for a “Green New Deal”………

We understand the problem ― we can’t allow temperatures to rise by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change gives the world 12 years to make substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to avoid severe climate effects later this century ― including in the United States. The urgency of the situation can’t be overstated.

We have momentum ― incoming Democrats, like Reps.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, are building support for an ambitious climate plan, and more than 15 members of Congress are calling for a select committee with a mandate to draft comprehensive legislation: a Green New Deal. We have the outline of a plan: We need a mass mobilization of people and resources, something not unlike the U.S. involvement in World War II or the Apollo moon missions ― but even bigger. We must transform our energy system, transportation, housing, agriculture and more.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/11/30/we-can-pay-green-new-deal

This is a great idea….the problem is that it is NOT a Dem idea…..this was first proposed 8 years ago by the Green Party USA…….

And if you like facts then read this fact……http://www.gp.org/green_new_deal

But at least I am not alone knowing where this “idea” came from……

This week progressives nationwide are talking about a Green New Deal and, while mainstream media is saying that insurgent Democrats came up with this, we beg to differ! We applaud the efforts of Democrats for finally adopting what the Global Greens began to work on in in 2006 while noting that the delay of 12 years is very significant when it comes to climate change.

The Green Party has been advocating for a massive jobs and public works program to transition our energy infrastructure rapidly over to renewable energy for more than a decade [1]. The project truly began with a Global Greens ‘Green New Deal Task Force’, first formulated in 2006. It was brought into American Green political campaigns by Howie Hawkins when he ran for governor in 2014 [2]. Next Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka highlighted it in their 2016 presidential campaign [3] while many more American Green candidates have run campaigns using it since that time.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/29/sorry-democrats-the-green-party-came-up-with-the-green-new-deal/

Time to give credit where credit is due….and bring in the people that thought this idea up as part of the team to pass this policy.

To be honest I do love all these grand plans…..knowing that they will probably go nowhere….but it does make good optics and slogans…that be bitchin’