I kind of like this 10 point manifesto put out by the BLM a few days ago.
Friday, July 15, 2016
My Draft For Hillary's Convention Speech
Fellow Americans. Democrats, Independents, Republicans, and everyone in between. We are gathered to decide if a woman can be president after all. We are gathered to decide if sanity matters for the top job. We are gathered to decide if diversity is only America's past or also its future.
After a lifetime of having looked at politics in this country and this world from every possible angle in ways nobody before me has, I present myself to you in sharp contrast to someone who would be lost at the City Council level in our shared city of New York. Competence matters. Policy homework matters. Having read the constitution matters. Good manners matter. Love of God matters.
Grand challenges lie ahead of us. Anyone who denies climate change is in cahoots with Satan himself. But if this country's history gives us one lesson it is that the greatest of challenges are always accompanied by the greatest of promises. The greatest days America has ever seen are right in front of us. The very determination that will help us steer away from the worst of climate change will also allow us to tap into cutting edge technologies that promise to take us into an Age Of Abundance. But it will not happen on its own. We have choices to make. We all have a big choice to make on November 4th.
I ask that you give me not only the White House, but also the Senate and the House so I may give the best first two years this country ever saw in terms of concrete political action.
Divided government was never meant to be a paralyzed government. Senators were never supposed to try to put the country's constitution into the acid tank. It should not matter if your elected officials are black, white or Hispanic, male or female. Lunatic hysteria, facts free racism and sexism, ideological masturbation completely unhinged from facts, data and clear evidence were never supposed to rule the day, in power or in opposition.
And so I ask for your nomination and your willingness to reach out to your neighbors and your vote. The most honored title in a democracy is that of a citizen and I proudly share that with you. The work we will do we will do together. Come be my comrade for eight years.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Ginsburg Need Not Apologize
Why Ruth Bader Ginsburg regrets her Trump comments
This is an amazingly insane election year. Donald Trump is not running to be president. He is running to be a Hitler, or at least a Putin, or a Saddam, by his own admission. Democracy is in danger. Separation of powers has been in grave danger since Trump went after the "Mexican" judge, and someone from that branch of government needed to call him out on it, and she is the only one who did. Kudos.
Her mind is shot? This from the same guy who called Hillary a mosquito.
Authoritarian government experts will tell you, those in power start referring to people as insects before they get ready to kill in large numbers. First you strip away the humanity, then you do your deed.
These are not harmless words from someone lunging for the nuclear code.
The country should be afraid. Very afraid.
Snowden, Hillary And Emails
Hillary Has No One to Blame But Herself
A few years back this country got all riled up with the Snowden thing. I don't know all the details but Wikileaks was forced social media on the government. Departments that were not blogging and tweeting found leaks left, right and center. Politicians in distant lands got exposed and went on the defensive, some of them.
With Hillary the country has been riled up in the other direction. Again, I don’t know all the details. But now a former Secretary Of State is being hammered, Why are you not as transparent as Julian Assange wants you to be?
A country that doesn't care if Trump will make public his tax records or not. His medical record has been a non topic.
These are triple standards.
A population that could not load Windows onto the computer is riled up about the intricacies of one email server that has caused zero harm.
When Your House Is On Fire
"When Your House Is On Fire, Don't Call An Arsonist. Donald Trump Is An Arsonist."
--- Elizabeth Warren
One black guy trained as an armyman under the cover of Texas' "liberal" gun laws in a despicable act snipers away five cops and public opinion in this country swings towards Donald Trump. What kind of country is this?
People who have voted for a party whose only policy has been total obstruction are now claiming the government has not been delivering and are threatening to vote for the same party and a mad man candidate. Donald Trump is the American Boris Johnson, down to the hair.
2009 asked for a $3 trillion stimulus. But the crowd that voted for a party that fought all economists and instead paved the way for a much much larger monetary stimulus with all the money going straight to the banks is now complaining the recovery did not happen hard and fast enough.
The crowd that voted for a trillion dollar tax cut in 2000, and a trillion dollar destruction of Iraq, and a subsequent trillion dollar reconstruction of the same Iraq, and taking the cops off their beats on Wall Street acted surprised about 2008.
Madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. That was not Warren, that was Einstein.
The fastest way for America to lose its number one status would be to put Donald Trump in the White House. No matter the Chinese bought hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real estate from Trump Inc. over the years.
The crowd that is worried America might be slipping wants to vote for Donald Trump. Go figure!
The uneducated white folks who also tilt racist claim we are like the white La Raza. Excuse me, but La Raza does not claim we hate white people. You can also take pride in Polish heritage. I hear Poland has good culture.
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Hillary Looks White To Me
Trump is supposed to be riling up a lot of what is being called white nationalism.
Really?
Hillary looks white to me. But apparently her being a woman makes her unqualified to represent white people.
Trump is not riling up white nationalism. He is riling up sexism.
South China Sea: The Nine Dotted Lines
China's ridiculous claim in the South China Sea is proof it is a dictatorship. Every dictatorship needs an external enemy to survive. Saddam did not have the option to not invade Kuwait. North Korea needs to act belligerent.
South China Sea is first and foremost an ideological tussle. Free speech is sacrosanct. In thoroughly stifling free speech the Chinese Communist Party is saying it is so brittle it might not survive if the people truly started speaking their mind.
The Chinese regime needs to keep making its ridiculous claim in the South China Sea because it needs to stay in power in Beijing. It is a diversion tactic for the home audience.
The Chinese military is not as bad as the Pakistani military in that it does not think it is a parallel power center. The political leadership is supreme. But that political leadership is a monopoly situation, kind of like the too big to fail banks in America.
Formula For 50
Hillary Clinton has the option to win all 50 states. She already has the White House and the Senate in the bag. She can also grab the House. Hillary has the option for a total sweep. And as president she gets to appoint three justices to the Supreme Court. That pretty much clears the deck to 2050. Appoint them young. Appoint them progressive. Don't apologize for being right.
But her victory is not a given. It still has to be earned.
She has to pick Elizabeth Warren. For one, Warren seems to be the only one in either party who seems to know how to go after The Donald, sucker punch for sucker punch. With Warren batting, you get a total demolition of The Donald. In the Republican primary The Donald's 18 opponents never were able to figure out what hit them. Warren seems to know how to put The Donald in the exact same predicament. When Warren hits The Donald, he knows he got hit, but he does not know how, he does not know where. And Warren does so without discussing policy, just like The Donald.
Warren is a democrat and a free marketeer who gets labeled a Democrat and a socialist by her opponents. In a free market economy there are no monopolies. Too big to fail is a monopoly situation. Warren has called out on the big technology giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple as potential monopolies that might get in the way of the next technology wave. That takes guts. But more likely it just takes a commitment to basic principles.
The 2000 Bush tax cut was money that should have gone into investing in human capital, namely education, health, child care. Bill Clinton has the option to recreate the magic. Give it to Al Gore to walk away from a president with a popularity in the 60s.
The Bernie crowd is actually the Warren crowd. Warren was the original want of that crowd. This is not a socialist crowd. This is a crowd that has needed to google the word socialism. This crowd can smell the Universal Basic Income right round the corner. UBI will not be socialist rabble rousing. It will be evidence based decision making. It does not need an ideological label.
Hillary has to go into the South with the intention of sweeping it. She has to move to own the abortion issue. You could not make poverty illegal and thus end it. Abortion is the same way.
The way to keep hubris in check is to raise the money and build the organization. Another way is arithmetic. Be the party of low deficits and perhaps balanced budgets. Create the surplus to then plough into human capital. Fight the good fight and usher competition into all sectors of the economy. Stop subsidizing dirty energy. Clean has market momentum.
Both Hillary and Warren have to blow the dog whistle to women across party lines. I think some time in October a ton of Republican women are simply going to break party ranks. It will be a flood. It could be a tsunami.
Women need to ask, why has there never been a woman president, or vice president?
America lags behind Germany and Britain. And South Asia for that matter.
The (G.O.P.) Party’s Over
I hope Hillary Clinton wins all 50 states and the Democrats take the presidency, the House, the Senate and, effectively, the Supreme Court.
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Trump Is Running To Be Rush Limbaugh
Trump Is Running To Be Rush Limbaugh
This explains it. Trump is not running for president. He is running to build the audience around which to launch the Trump News Network. And he has it. The people who voted for him in the primary are big enough a number. TNN is a viable business proposition. Losing all 50 states would give him the purest, most loyal audience. 20 million people? That's a lot. It's a sufficient number.
Varanasi: Modi's Adopted City
Varanasi: Urban Chaos Or Urban Energy
I was just reading this article by a journalist friend. A few things struck me.
In the south east Nepal I grew up in the "progressive" farmers were those that were learning to use fertilizers. I come to America and "progressive" farmers here are those moving towards organic farming.
Varanasi seems to have what a lot of cities in the west wished it had: large, excited crowds, urban energy.
Progressive cities in the west are building bike lanes and paths for dedicated foot traffic. Public transportation is the in thing.
If those attempting to transform Varanasi were to tune into some of the global conversations taking place, very easy to do online, they might realize they are starting out on a solid ground. There are positives to preserve. And what they call urban planning is too much unthinking imitations of models that are no longer thought great in the west.
The idea that the best way to build a city is by starting out on an empty plot of land is not true. The people are the city. And Varanasi seems to have that number one ingredient in plenty.
The number one thing to do would be citywide municipal WiFi. Then build a ring road around the city and make all roads inside toll roads, to relieve congestion. Turn into a city of 24/7 public buses, buses every 15 minutes. Turn it into a city of foot traffic and bike lanes. Build satellite cities outside the ring road. In a second phase build an elevated metro to criss cross the city.
Focus on WiFi, water and sanitation. Focus on safety. Focus on 24/7 electricity. Focus on public transportation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)