One reader's rave

"Thanks for the newspaper with your book review. I can’t tell you how impressed I am with this terrific piece of writing. It is beautiful, complex, scholarly. Only sorry Mr. Freire cannot read it!" -- Ailene

Cassie Jaye, the day before I met her at the _Red Pill_ world premiere

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Proof of Election Fraud!

Investigators have found that the Democratic National Committee lied about their involvement in the Iowa caucus debacle. Read the Intercept article here:

Investigator: DNC “Directly Involved” in Iowa Caucus App Development (theintercept.com)

Watch this interview with author Jordan Chariton:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKB0H_SFoAg%20https://theintercept.com/2020/12/23/dnc-iowa-caucus-app-shadow/

Sunday, December 20, 2020

The Insurrecto Cult

In his latest Dark Horse Podcast, Bret Weinstein interviews investigative journalist Jeremy Lee Quinn about the role of insurrectionary anarchists in co-opting the Black Lives Matter movement for their own purposes, and the history behind this. My comments on this movement, and especially its cultic features, are below.


Chris Hedges is even more unambiguously a radical than Bret, being an unabashed socialist. Anarchists could consider him a "reformist" only on the basis of the ultraleft notion that revolutionism means trying to tear things down before you've got something better set up to replace them with. This is what's always differentiated them from the position of Marx, for whom the prerequisite of a socialist transformation was the working class constituting itself as a historical subject, i.e., organizing itself to govern society.

When Bret says none of those involved has a vision of how they're going to create something better, he's only describing those self-identified Marxists who have chosen to align with this movement. Those with a better understanding of Marxism have known for a long time what to do: first organize working people on the political and industrial fields to build power in the workplace and society at large, so that the next time the existing order faces a crisis of legitimacy, structures that can replace it -- structures of workers' democracy -- are ready to take over. This is the situation of dual power in which revolution becomes possible. That some people calling themselves Marxists today don't understand this is just an example of the perennial tendency of youth to be in a rush to change things and want to think it can be done in a hurry, lacking the patience for long-term organizing. Indeed, I remember how, when I was in high school in the late '70s, I seriously thought there might be a revolution within the next five years. I don't think that now, yet because I have more patience, I think that my actions now serve better to make a (hopefully peaceful) revolution possible within my lifetime.

I'm also struck by the many cult-like aspects of this movement. They focus on recruiting youth from high school and even younger because they want to exploit youth's typical excess of eager idealism over critical thinking, often compounded with a need to find something to identify with outside of their families. My own excessive short-term optimism at that age was encouraged by a socialist group that I only later realized had strong cultic characteristics. Fortunately, thanks perhaps to my autism (only identified last year), I was constitutionally incapable of not thinking for myself and got effectively kicked out when they realized this. And, thanks to my parents' still identifying as socialists even though they hadn't been members for decades, this expulsion didn't cause any existential crisis for me. I knew I could remain radical while taking my time finding another group worthy of my membership.


To the above, I might add the use of language loading to effect milieu control. Among themselves, insurrectos use the term reformism, which might sound positive to the average person, to denigrate and reject any approach to social change that to any degree involves working "within the system" rather than attempting its violent overthrow. In this way, realistic, non-destructive efforts to make things better are summarily rejected as "supporting the system." (Note: although Leninists also use this term pejoratively, they mean something different by it. A campaign isn't automatically considered "reformist" merely because it's conducted peacefully or because it advocates for change within the framework of the existing system. This word is reserved specifically for approaches that reject independent working-class activity in favor of subordinating the class movement to demands supported by elements of the ruling class, and to organizations or coalitions dominated by those elements.)

By "milieu control" is meant "the control of information and communication both within the environment and, ultimately, within the individual," which can be accomplished by language loading among other means.

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Pressure Is Building to Force a Vote for Medicare for All. All In -- Sign the Petition!

Sign to tell House progressives: this is the time to use your leverage to win health care for all!

I just signed a @theactionnet petition: House Progressives: #ForceTheVote on Medicare for All Now. Sign here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/force-the-vote

Socialism for Beginners

This video I discovered the other day, along with the channel it's on, offers a good jargon-free introduction to what socialism is and isn't.

A Future Beyond Capitalism? Socialism Explained. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hactcmhVS1w

Monday, December 14, 2020

Quote of the Day

I now try to avoid using the English idiom "I just don't understand how..." to express indignation.  If I genuinely don't understand how, then my model is being surprised by the facts, and I should discard it and find a better model. -- Eliezer Yudkowsky, "Think Like Reality"

Sunday, December 13, 2020

Discussion with Diana Davison: The Lighthouse Project and Due Process Issues

Diana Davison, founder of The Lighthouse Project in Canada, is working on a handbook for the falsely accused. Listen to her on this latest podcast from Honey Badger Radio, then visit her website and make a donation!

Discussion with Diana Davison: The lighthouse project and due process issues | HBR Talk 162 – Honey Badger Brigade

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Free Rebekah Jones!

Rebekah Jones has been arrested in Florida for exposing profit-driven, homicidal government policies relating to COVID-19.

Stop government attack on COVID-19 whistleblower Rebekah Jones! - World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)

I've sent the following message to Gov. Ron DeSantis and the assistant to Judge Joshua Hawkes:

Stop the assault on science and free speech! Free Rebekah Jones, drop all the charges, and return all her technology and data! No witch-hunt for whistleblowers!

Tuesday, December 08, 2020

Don't Be a Slave to a Meme

I just watched this video by Arielle Scarcella about the harm being done by confusion about what transgender means. I've copied my comment on it below the link.

Trevor Moran Transgender : Fans Push Him To "Be Trans"                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juWcalDWveQ


The meaning of words matters, but it matters because people agree on that meaning. Since this video came out, we see _transgender_ being overtly defined as any kind of deviation from gender norms. But the point is not how any particular term is defined -- which is in principle arbitrary -- but that the necessary distinctions are being made. You can define _trans_ the way Arielle does here, or you can define it in the broader way; what matters is that you also have a term like gender dysphoria so that that vital distinction can be made.


This point about the arbitrariness of labels also applies on the level of the individual. There's no reason to feel any need to "define" yourself with a label in the first place -- "the map is not the territory." Just be yourself, as long as you aren't hurting others. The only label you need is your name! (And you can change that too.) When words start being our masters instead of our servants, that's pathology.

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Boys' and Men's Issues: The Magazine

In a video released on International Men's Day (November 19), Chris Votey has announced that he and Catherine McLain will be publishing a magazine dedicated to boys' and men's issues. To keep it true to its mission, it will be an entirely volunteer effort supported by readers and donors; only advertising by people affiliated with the men's movement will be accepted. The first issue is planned to be published next summer.

Here's the website: boysmenissues.com

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Happy International Men's Day!




A message from the Canadian Association for Equality:

On International Men's Day, Support Canada's Most Effective Champion for Boys, Men & Fathers.

And Have Your Donation Doubled Today!

Today is November 19th, International Men's Day, an opportunity to celebrate the progress you've helped us achieve at the Canadian Association for Equality and the Canadian Centres for Men and Families, and to take stock of the monumental work that remains to be done for boys and men.




Yes, I will mark this occasion by renewing my support for boys and men, and please double my donation so we can open the new Family Shelter in time for the Holidays!



Despite it being a challenging year, here's what we accomplished in 2020:

We received intervenor status in the Supreme Court case of R v Langan, and argued before Canada's highest court that male gender stereotypes can lead to wrongful convictions.

Our Suicide Prevention Billboards attracted public and media attention in Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa.

The first Family Shelter for Men and Children is on track to open for the Holidays following our purchase of a beautiful home in Toronto.

We completed our first government funded research project, "Studying Male Homelessness as a Consequence of Domestic Violence."

On December 10th we'll host MOMENTUM 2020, the Canadian National Men's Issues Conference.

Erasing Family, a CAFE-produced documentary, was released to critical acclaim, and we hosted premiere screenings at 15 Canadian venues.


But there's so much more to do for men and boys. Here's the Plan for 2021:

As a result of COVID, our charity is facing serious financial hardship. Please help keep Canada's champions for boys and men strong and sustainable.





Yes, I'll contribute now so we enter 2021 with the resources we need to continue fighting for boys, men and fathers - and thank you for matching my contributions dollar for dollar!





Thank you for your leadership in joining with us on behalf of men and boys!


Justin Trottier
Executive Director
Canadian Association for Equality







Saturday, November 14, 2020

Caitlin Johnstone: Unelected Officials Override The President To Continue Wars (But Only Kooks Believe In The Deep State)

Unelected Officials Override The President To Continue Wars (But Only Kooks Believe In The Deep State)


Outgoing US envoy to Syria James Jeffrey stated in a recent interview with Defense One that US officials have been “playing shell games” about the number of troops in the region to deceive the Trump administration into thinking there has been a military withdrawal. Here are some excerpts:

“We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there,” Jeffrey said in an interview. The actual number of troops in northeast Syria is “a lot more than” the two hundred troops Trump agreed to leave there in 2019.

“What Syria withdrawal? There was never a Syria withdrawal,” Jeffrey said. “When the situation in northeast Syria had been fairly stable after we defeated ISIS, [Trump] was inclined to pull out. In each case, we then decided to come up with five better arguments for why we needed to stay. And we succeeded both times. That’s the story.”

Officially, Trump last year agreed to keep about 200 U.S. troops stationed in northeast Syria to “secure” oil fields held by the United States’ Kurdish allies in the fight against ISIS. It is generally accepted that the actual number is now higher than that — anonymous officials put the number at about 900 today — but the precise figure is classified and remains unknown even, it appears, to members of Trump’s administration keen to end the so-called “forever wars.”

Some mass media propagandists find it hilarious that the US war machine used deceit to thwart the president’s attempts to withdraw from its illegal occupation of Syria:

https://twitter.com/LizSly/status/1327137565288378370

This would not be the first time that Jeffrey, a foreign policy insider with the past three presidential administrations, has admitted to deceiving the public about what’s happening in Syria. Earlier this year he admitted at a Hudson Institute video event (these Beltway insiders always get extra honest in the company of fellow think tank denizens) that, contrary to the official public narrative of the US military being in Syria to fight terrorism, it’s actually there to create “a quagmire for the Russians”.

This would also not be the first time we’ve heard reports of the US war machine hiding the facts from the elected commander-in-chief of the most powerful military force ever assembled. Last year The New York Times cited anonymous US officials in a report on cyber intrusion operations against the Russian government that the US military had deliberately kept Trump in the dark about.

“Two administration officials said they believed Mr. Trump had not been briefed in any detail about the steps to place ‘implants’ — software code that can be used for surveillance or attack — inside the Russian grid,” NYT reports. “Pentagon and intelligence officials described broad hesitation to go into detail with Mr. Trump about operations against Russia for concern over his reaction — and the possibility that he might countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials.”

America's special envoy to Syria publicly admits that the continued illegal US military occupation of parts of the country isn't about fighting ISIS or other terrorists, as Washington claims. Instead the US aims to "make it a quagmire for the Russians."

https://twitter.com/jm_szuba/status/1260256224890826752?s=21 

Jared Szuba@JM_Szuba

Asked why the American public should tolerate US involvement in Syria, Special Envoy James Jeffrey points out the small US footprint in the fight against ISIS. "This isn't Afghanistan. This isn't Vietnam. This isn't a quagmire. My job is to make it a quagmire for the Russians."

 

Mainstream liberal US discourse has accomplished an amazing feat of Orwellian doublethink with regard to the notion that unelected power structures are running things without the consent of the nation’s official elected government. On the one hand there’s been a nonstop deluge of Daily Beast articles since Trump’s election saying anyone who dares to suggest the existence of a “deep state” in America is a conspiracy kook, but on the other hand there’s also been constant praise for the insider “adults in the room” who ensure from within the administration that Trump doesn’t demolish America’s precious norms while in office.

This cognitive two-step became even more reified after comments from the likes of Iraq war architect Bill Kristol tweeting that he’d “prefer the deep state to the Trump state”, and the famous anonymous New York Times op-ed authored by a “senior official in the Trump administration” (now known to have been former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security Miles Taylor) saying administration officials are working together against Trump to “thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations”.

The understanding of a deep state in America has become even more obfuscated by the other side of America’s fake partisan divide, with Trump supporters now using that term to essentially mean “anyone who doesn’t like Donald Trump”. That erroneous understanding has now become so prevalently associated with the term “deep state” that it has lost all use in meaningful discourse and is better off being avoided altogether if you want to point at something real.

In reality the term deep state is meant to refer not to anyone who opposes Trump, nor to a secret cabal of baby-eating Satanists, but simply to the tendency among government agencies and plutocrats to form loose alliances with each other and collaborate toward common agendas. It’s a term used for political analysis to describe large-scale power agendas that are largely playing out right out in the open, hidden in plain sight.

It doesn’t take a ton of investigative reporting and WikiLeaks drops to understand that there’s been a collective of operatives mostly running the Trump administration while the actual elected president yells at the talking heads on Fox News and tweets. It’s also not hard to brush away the insubstantial narrative fluff and see that US policies have remained more or less unbroken regardless of which elected officials have been in office, and it doesn’t take a Nostradamus to predict that that will continue to be the case after Trump is replaced by the next empty husk in the White House.

The US government simply is not what Americans were taught it is in school, and it is not what they tell you it is in the news. It’s a mostly unelected power establishment which operates in the interests of imperialist expansionism and oligarchic control, with the official elected government operating sort of like the unplugged video game controller you hand your kid brother to keep him from whining for a chance to play.

All this fuss over who really won the election is missing the point. People are bickering over which oligarchic puppet should be sworn in on January 20th when all the evidence we’ve been given shows that nobody gets to become president if they inconvenience real power in any way, and if they do inconvenience real power they are simply ignored.

That is the direction we should all be looking. Not at who’s president, but why things stay the same no matter who’s president.

Sunday, November 08, 2020

Autistic People Pathologized for Being More Moral

Autistic People Care Too Much, Research Says

https://neuroclastic.com/2020/11/07/autistic-people-care-too-much-research-says/ via @NeuroClastic

Friday, November 06, 2020

Diana Davison: Myths About Human Sexuality and Consent

In this video, Diana Davison discusses the question of what are true rape myths vs. what are rape-culture myths. "Our laws should not demand that human beings conduct themselves in ways not natural to human beings."

https://falseaccusations.ca/myths-about-human-sexuality-and-consent/

Please support the fight against false accusations with a donation to the Lighthouse Project!

Green Party of Philadelphia Statement on the Walter Wallace Shooting

Statement of the Green Party of Philadelphia concerning the police shooting of Walter Wallace, Jr. on October 26, 2020

We the Green Party of Philadelphia wish to express our deepest, warmest condolences to the family and friends of Walter Wallace Jr., another young Black man mercilessly gunned down by officers of the Philadelphia Police Department.
We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Philadelphia PD’s over reliance on lethal force and we unapologetically support the constitutionally protected right of protesters to rise up against yet another police murder. Despite the fervent efforts of Walter Wallace Jr.’s mother to calm her son, the whole world witnessed how Wallace Jr. was shot and killed in front of his mother, as she begged them not to shoot.
We are saddened to read that the police used such deadly force even though they had been to his home twice earlier that day, as he had a history of mental health challenges, which they should have been aware of. Additionally, we note that people facing a mental health challenge are 16 times more likely to be shot and killed in such a confrontation with police. Indeed, one of the questions among others is why police continue to be sent to contend with mental health situations.
Thus, in light of this history of deadly violence, not only do we demand a quick, yet thorough, and transparent investigation of this tragedy; but we also call yet again, along with so many others, for community control of the police. Community control over the police is a principle of democratic self-determination to end abusive practices. The community should have a direct say about who has the right to detain, arrest and use force. The community should have access to a process to help set policy, budgets, decisive action for misconduct, etc. The primary institution for this community control is an elected Civilian Police Control Board with subpoena power. We are proud to state we are the only party in this election year to call for community control of the police.
We call on communities to organize themselves to identify those mental health professionals who can be called in times of crisis, as opposed to the police. Additionally, we call on city leaders to make more of a priority, the fair and proper funding of resources in various communities, i.e., mental health services; substance abuse treatment programs; affordable housing; job training for living wage, union jobs; affordable, accessible child care; recreation and educational activities for youth, etc. Thisis where taxpayer revenues need to be going, and not for more—and bad—policing.
What happened Monday is just one more tragedy too many.
Sincerely,
The Green Party of Philadelphia
215-843-4256
gpop@gpop.org

Warner Brothers Is Being Fantastically Beastly to Johnny Depp

It's reported today that Warner Brothers has fired Johnny Depp from his role in the Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts. They are doing so because of Amber Heard's claims that he physically abused her during their relationship, in spite of a lack of physical evidence for these claims and despite evidence not only that she has faked evidence of abuse, but also that she was actually the aggressor in their relationship.

I have written WB today to let them know I won't be watching the movie unless they rehire Depp.

https://falseaccusations.ca/heres-the-audio-where-amber-heard-mocks-johnny-depp/

Monday, November 02, 2020

"Law Enforcement Is for the Braveheart, Not the Craven"

This video was shared by Olivia Faison, Green Party candidate for PA auditor general. Her comments follow. I would note that there's no reason to think the cop who shows how to do it right was able to do so because of her sex.


https://www.facebook.com/1682635196/videos/10215209751352091/?t=40


Law Enforcement Is a Job for the Brave, Not the Craven 



There is no doubt that the job of a police officer has potential life-threatening risks and dangers.  Unfortunately, part of their job is knowing that at any time, you could lose your life.  But the last I heard, this was a choice that people made freely, and that is to become LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers)/aka: cops.  No one asked, nor forced them to choose such a dangerous line of work.

Nonetheless, law enforcement is a choice that many courageous individuals happily make in order to serve the general public.  


Lately, police behavior has made it painfully obvious, and visibly clear, that they are afraid of some of the folks whom they are sworn to protect and serve.  In fact, when dealing with a disturbance that leads to the killing or death of black boys and men, these officers are always citing the fear of the threat of losing their own lives.  This seems to be the only reason necessary to justify the killing or murdering of mostly unarmed black men.  Sadly, it appears that they feel safe and secure, only after they have eliminated the source of their fright.


Not so with a female police officer in Arizona.  It’s funny how just about one month ago,  a lone female police officer was able to back away from a deranged man, who was not only brandishing a knife, but was aggressively approaching her with threats, taunts, curses, and screaming for her to shoot him and shouting how he was going to kill her.  Only when he ran towards her, shouting he was going to kill her, and rapidly closing the gap between them, did the female officer fire her gun one time to bring down her aggressor.  The entire incident was captured on video attached.  


One Facebook reader expressed that this guy was …“More disrespectful than Walter Wallace, more vulgar than Walter Wallace, more threatening than Walter Wallace, but this police officer, by herself, keeps her cool, lets off 1 shot and takes him down. Not 14 shots, not 5, but 1. She assessed the situation properly and took proper action. Heck she might have been too patient. Why couldn't the cops who shot Walter Wallace show contrition like this? Was it really necessary to shoot one person that many times? 2 cops, 14 shots, dead and gone vs 1 cop, 1 shot, down but alive. Makes no sense”. 


Supposedly trained in the many socially difficult encounters with the public, highly trained on firearms, martial arts and physical combat skills, the use of deadly force, armed to the teeth, and fortified with support and back-up units, and still, the craven law enforcement officers will panic, and will shoot to kill! Unbelievable!  


Clearly, people who quaver and react so violently in the presence of black skin, should not choose a career that fills them with such obvious fear and terror when they encounter one.  For clearly, the brandishing of a knife does not discombobulate all police officers, especially the lone female police officer in the video. The same cannot be said for the 2, 3, or however many police officers involved in the Philly shooting, or the many other police shootings of Blacks across the country.  It has become patently clear, and far too easy, for many of these men to hide their fears behind their badges, and then to rely on this status as a license to kill, and a power to take a precious life, that they have no right to take.    


Perhaps we should be utilizing many more female police officers with methods like the intrepid and intelligent LEO, who decided in a split second, that even though her own life was being threatened, she did not have the right to just take, and end someone else’s life, simply because she wore the badge that would have allowed her to justify that act.  She did not take the cowboy way out of “shooting first, and asking questions later”, (after someone lay dead).  


Bravo to her!  Police work in the 21st century is clearly a job for the intelligent Braveheart, not for the foolhardy craven! 

Friday, October 30, 2020

Quote of the Day: Wrong Questions

 "Mystery exists in the mind, not in reality....  Unanswerable questions do not mark places where magic enters the universe.  They mark places where your mind runs skew to reality." -- Eliezer Yudkowsky, "Wrong Questions"

Monday, October 26, 2020

This Despicable DA Would Rather Coerce a False Confession Than Admit a Wrongful Conviction

This information was shared by the Innocence Project.

Help free Ron after 30-year wrongful incarceration




https://www.mightycause.com/story/Ronjacobsen

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Krystal and Saagar: Maddow, Lincoln Project Caught Being "Useful Idiots" For Iranian Propaganda Scheme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6kDF-9UOiw

This reminds me of a rumor I heard once in junior high. I was told that on the last day of school, the scary Lex Street Gang was going to "come around and beat everybody up." I'd like to think I didn't need my high IQ to realize how ridiculous this was. I knew Lex Street wasn't in my neighborhood or anywhere close to it. So why would they single my school out to beat everybody up? For that matter, even if they did, how could they realistically beat up everyone at the school? And if they weren't singling my school out, it was even more ridiculous to think they could beat up everyone at every school in the city with its millions of inhabitants. So I paid no heed to the rumor, which needless to say didn't come true.

The suggestion that a group of modest size like the Proud Boys could realistically threaten every Democratic voter in the country should elicit the same kind of skepticism.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Mark A. Davis, Mental Health Advocate, Dies at 64

I've been participating in the Pink and Blues for the past few years, and will miss him.

https://epgn.com/2020/10/20/mark-a-davis-mental-health-advocate-dies-at-64/

Saturday, October 17, 2020

Labor Notes: Unions Are Beginning to Talk About Staving Off a Possible Coup

https://labornotes.org/2020/10/unions-are-beginning-talk-about-staving-possible-coup

In addition to preparing for a possible general strike, let's hope unions are advising members of the advantages of voting in person for staving off even an attempt at a coup, as discussed here among other places: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a34124703/vote-in-person-trump-attacks-vote-by-mail/ If it's already apparent by the end of Election Day who's won, legal interference with the vote will be preempted. And, despite what the Esquire article says, the health risk isn't great for most people, as it's no different from spending a few minutes in a supermarket.

Thursday, October 15, 2020

Upcoming Event: Root Roundtable

"Root Roundtable: A Talkback with RQ featured artist Nicole Michaud and an Ask-the-Editor Virtual Social Hour," Thursday, October 22, 2020, 8:00 PM-9:30 PM

I expect this will be just as stimulating as the magazine's content.




https://www.rootquarterly.com/new-events/2020/10/22/rq-update-and-talkback-with-nicole-michaud

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Support the Election Fraud Protection Act!

The ends-justify-means attitude is all too common in electoral politics. An example: during the '88 campaign, a coworker told me how he witnessed a man filling out a voter registration form at a table set up by Democrats, in the course of which he mentioned that he thought he would be voting for Bush (that would be G.H.W.). After he'd left, the guy manning the table tore up his application.


Stop Ballot Harvesting Before it Threatens the 2020 Election | Opinion https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/stop-ballot-harvesting-before-it-threatens-the-2020-election-opinion/ar-BB19HXzr

Sunday, October 11, 2020

Moralizers as Projectors

It's particularly ironic that these campaigners will describe BDSM as "culty" when it's they who deny submissives' agency and in effect invalidate their experience -- an example of Doctrine Over Person, part of Robert Lifton's eight-point description of ideological totalism. 

https://reprobatepress.com/2019/11/25/exploiting-the-dead/

Wednesday, October 07, 2020

"Pray for the ERA"

The requisite number of states have ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, which would prohibit sex discrimination by government such as batterer intervention programs based on the anti-male "Duluth model." And its advocates have a strong case for finding the supposed 1982 ratification deadline illegal and unenforceable. SCOTUS may take up the question shortly.

"Please note that this is a non-denominational event, all faiths and belief systems are welcome – we use the word “pray” [precari-Latin] as it was originally defined: to ask earnestly; address a solemn request; or to wish or hope strongly for a particular outcome or situation." Of course the time isn't really 5pm PST/8pm EST; it's 5pm PDT/8pm EDT. Daylight Saving Time doesn't end until November 1.



Friday, September 25, 2020

"What if all conspiracy theories were actually true?"

A comics writer's personal journey toward openness to more diverse views inspired him to write what looks like a very interesting fictional approach to conspiracy theories and false memories.


What if all conspiracy theories were actually true? Department of Truth investigates in new Tynion and Simmonds title

Friday, September 18, 2020

Krystal Ball: Can America SURVIVE Election Day?



Krystal Ball fears catastrophe, as do many of us. The way to prevent it is not to let either Biden or Trump win the election. And the way to do that is to offer an alternative that appeals equally to those on the left and the right, so it's not seen as a spoiler -- an alternative that actually models collaboration, not polarization across ideological lines. That alternative is the #Unity2020 Presidential Plan to Save the Republic. Eight thousand of us have nominated Tulsi Gabbard and Dan Crenshaw to govern jointly if elected, regardless of who heads the ticket (to be determined later by chance). Now we need to build a groundswell to persuade them to run and persuade one of the third parties to substitute them for its currently nominated ticket. Get the details at www.articlesofunity.org.

Friday, September 11, 2020

PA Greens for Unity!

As it meets this weekend, the Green Party of Pennsylvania faces a momentous choice: how we participate in the upcoming national election so as to maximize our impact for electoral reform and opening political space for alternative voices, at a time when a growing segment of the population, in fact a big majority, feels increasingly alienated by the corporate duopoly and the rapidly intensifying factionalism that it's fostering, a factionalism that may break out into civil war on November 4 if either Donald Trump or Joe Biden wins on November 3.

We like to say that a Green vote is a vote against this duopoly. The problem is that, in the context of first-past-the-post voting and as a party clearly identified with the Left, we are in practice inevitably seen as objectively helping one side of this duopoly, the side that is generally feared most by the very people who are most aligned with our values.

For a few years I've been suggesting, perhaps not as aggressively as I should have, that we should make an end run around this problem by proposing a joint campaign with the Libertarians for a Presidential candidate who'd pledge to stay out of legislative issues and commit to scaling the office back to the purely administrative role the Framers intended for it, such as by ending undeclared wars and dismantling the surveillance state -- positions that appeal equally to the politically disaffected on both the Left and the Right, and which consequently wouldn't "spoil" the vote by helping one corporate party over the other. Now, a strategically similar plan has been issued by someone a bit less diffident than myself (public intellectual Bret Weinstein), and it's attracted thousands of followers: the Unity2020 Presidential Plan to Save the Republic.

The Unity2020 plan (at www.articlesofunity.org): build a popular movement to draft two highly competent, courageous patriots, one from the Left and one from the Right, who would run and pledge to govern jointly if elected regardless of who was President and who was Vice President, which would be decided by chance and reversed come reelection time. By doing so, they would directly model the consensus-seeking process that a healthy democracy requires -- a model desperately needed as an alternative to the mutual dehumanization the duopoly is promoting today at great risk to the national peace.

By Ranked Choice Voting, nearly 8000 Unity2020 supporters, myself included, voted online the other week for US Reps. Tulsi Gabbard and Dan Crenshaw as the pair we want to draft. Some notable characteristics of this pair: each is quite clearly identified with their ideological side of Congress, yet has shown they're able to work collaboratively with those on the other side rather than demonizing them. In fact, Gabbard and Crenshaw are personal friends. They actually embody the open-minded, cooperative practice that must become the norm once again if this country isn't to fall apart or degenerate into some kind of totalitarianism.

Because of the late date at which the Unity2020 plan was conceived in response to this rapidly escalating crisis -- it was publicly announced June 29 -- it was always understood that the ticket couldn't win ballot access on its own line. That's where the Greens come in. The organizers of Unity2020 are proposing that our party, the Libertarians, or both agree to withdraw our current nominees in favor of offering our ballot line to the Unity2020 ticket.

I understand that people will be reluctant to do this after having gone through our own nominating process already. And I personally like Howie Hawkins, particularly since, like me, he's identified as socialist since long before our party did. But we have a bigger responsibility than simply raising an ideological standard that we know will not get us into the White House this time. Our country needs us to think outside of the box and do something different, something that gives us a real shot at ousting the duopoly and getting an administration that would actually push for electoral reform -- as well as, by its very existence, show that alternatives to the status quo are possible.

I also understand that people will object that if our state party does this, we could be disaffiliated by the national party. And my answer to that is that it's a risk worth taking, because our status with the national party is far less important than pointing the way forward to what our party can do to help save and regenerate our democracy. We should be content to let history judge us.

Based on the above considerations, I formally propose that the Green Party of Pennsylvania publicly declare its intention to withdraw the Presidential ticket of Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker when and if the candidates nominated by Unity2020, Tulsi Gabbard and Daniel Crenshaw, state their willingness to run on our ballot line.



Tuesday, September 01, 2020

The #Unity2020 Ballot Access Plan

Bret Weinstein lays out the ballot access plan for the #Unity2020 Presidential ticket of Tulsi Gabbard and Dan Crenshaw. It's surprisingly similar to something I've been proposing for a few years: that Greens and Libertarians should unite behind a campaign centered on issues that can appeal to anti-establishment people on both the right and the left, such as ending undeclared wars and dismantling the surveillance state -- and, by appealing to people on both sides of the spectrum, get around the "spoiler" problem. Much as I like Howie Hawkins, I hope the Greens will take up Unity2020's proposal. It's our best shot at breaking the corporate duopoly's death grip on our political life.


Unity2020 Ballot Access Plan https://youtu.be/InphL6kz0ZE via @YouTube

Saturday, August 29, 2020

Tell Twitter: Stop Stifling Our Voice!

T



witter is acting as cop for the two-party duopoly by censoring @ArticlesofUnity . I'm telling @jack what I think of this and I hope you will too!

Sunday, August 23, 2020

Fake News, or Fake Fact-Checking?

At a meeting last Wednesday, a friend shared an image of a newspaper or magazine clipping with a picture of Donald Trump with his mother, and under the picture a caption quoting his mother saying, "Yes, he's an idiot with zero common sense, and no social skills, but he IS my son. I just hope he never gets into politics. He'd be a disaster."


Preparatory to sharing this, I figured people would like to know which publication it's from. So I did a Web search for "Mary Anne Trump" + "idiot." And what I got was a bunch of pages calling it fake news because they say the quote couldn't be found in any media searches.

Curiously, though, they all show a different meme from the one above -- something much more easily photoshopped, and therefore much more easily dismissed as fake. I was going to post that image below but, strangely, every time I try to do so I get an error message saying the file "must be an image or video," the first of which is exactly what it is. But you can see it here: https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2019/12/mary-anne-trump.png

Concerning searches for the quote, my friend remarks, "Well upon further review it is not likely a newspaper clipping. More likely a magazine. If they searched newspapers and didn’t find it they would get a false negative. To date it I would suggest it’s mid-80’s, a long time before real online archives that include both pictures AND captions. It’s not formatted like a pull quote so it probably wasn’t in the story."

If anyone reading this knows where the first image is from, please respond in the comments.


Saturday, August 22, 2020

I'm voting now to confront a dual existential crisis. Join me?

This is an unprecedented situation: two exceptionally incompetent capitalist politicians competing to be head of what's increasingly looking like a failed state as a pandemic rages out of control and many think we're on the verge of civil war.


Unlike the previous one, there's no revolutionary class with the consciousness to give it a progressive resolution. The working class still doesn't even have our own party. Yet if socialists just continue operating as usual, following our customary symbolic electoral practices while waiting for that to happen, things could get much worse.


In this context, I'm supporting a different approach -- one that buys time for an ultimate socialist solution by avoiding the more immediate existential threat from a totally dysfunctional political system. I'm supporting Unity2020.


It's not a left campaign. It's more like an anti-corruption, pro-competence campaign. Its merit is that it may not only halt the course toward self-destruction we're currently on -- it may open up new possibilities by breaking the grip of the two capitalist parties and, by doing so, set an example that could finally make a workers' party look like a realistic idea to millions of people.


It avoids the spoiler problem by defining itself in terms of universal values instead of ideological or demographic checklists. So it draws support away from both capitalist parties equally rather than helping one of them over the other. This is already demonstrated by the composition of volunteers, who include as many conservatives as liberals or progressives. That's why I think it has a serious chance, this year. It may be a long shot, but it's more realistic than expecting that Howie Hawkins, or any left candidate, will be taking the Oath of Office next January.


Right now we're in the process of selecting a pair of candidates to draft from a shortlist of six, based on nominations (now closed) by the volunteers ourselves. I hope you'll go to https://articlesofunity.org and take a look at it. If you decide it's an idea that makes sense at this moment, you can become part of the process of selecting the ticket.


Tuesday, August 18, 2020

#Unity2020: Why I’m Leaving the Parties and Joining the People

Ryan McEnroe, a writer in Boston, gives this account of how he got involved in the Unity2020 Presidential Plan to Save the Republic, which I also support:


I don’t know exactly when it happened, but sometime in the last eight years I began to feel an intense fear whenever politics came up. I learned to studiously say nothing. I knew around certain family members not to mention that I agreed with President Obama on many issues. And if I said anything positive about a Republican, I knew I could be risking friendships or even my job.


As DNC backroom deals paved the way for Biden’s nomination just before Super Tuesday, it became clear that, as in 2016, I would again have to vote for the “lesser evil.” So I decided I’m not voting for President this year. I cannot vote for Trump but I cannot bring myself to vote for Biden. My vote won’t make a difference anyway. The corrupt parties always win. They can have the government, I will focus my efforts elsewhere. I give up.


Then about a month ago, I came across the website www.articlesofunity.org. It intrigued me. The idea is to try to bring the country together by joining one left-leaning and one right-leaning candidate on a ticket. Here’s the plan they came up with:


Nominate a ticket with two candidates that meet the following criteria: they must be courageous, they must be capable, and they must be patriotic. 
A coin flip will determine which candidate runs as President and which candidate runs as Vice President.
They must agree to work as a team, making all decisions together, wherever possible.
After four years, they switch roles, continuing until one has served twice and is ineligible to serve as President.

Just your simple every day plan to overthrow the corrupt two-party system and save the republic. They even have a failsafe to ensure that if it does not look like they can win, they will pull the plug and everyone can return to their corners. I had little confidence it could work, but I thought the website had at least earned my email address. 


Over the last month, I slowly became more involved. It started by listening to podcast episodes and Campfire discussions about Unity2020. Then I joined an online discussion forum consisting of thousands of Unity2020 volunteers. I have met hundreds of Unity2020 supporters in the last few weeks. Incredibly, these patriots come from all over the political spectrum, but we get together on Zoom calls and in chat rooms, put aside our differences, and work on a common goal: ensuring our next President is a patriotic functional adult that is not tainted by corruption. I learned that as of last week more than 30,000 people have provided their email address on www.articlesofunity.org. There are more of us than I thought, and that number is growing rapidly every day.


I’m still skeptical the plan can work. There are a million reasons not to try. I think the parties and the media want me focusing on those reasons. I have heard others describe a sort of “learned helplessness” we all feel, and I believe the media and the parties want us to feel it.


But there are also reasons to give it a try. I will finally be able to vote for a competent candidate that I can trust isn’t controlled by donors or the party. I will be able to hold my head up high when I exercise my sacred civic duty on November 3. Unity2020 has offered me a lifeboat, a way to avoid choosing between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.


For the first time in eight years, I have been able to bring up politics with Republican family members, as well as Democratic friends and coworkers, without fear that I will be labeled an extremist or a monster. In fact, many of them have also been intrigued and signed up on www.articlesofunity.org


If you’re interested, check us out at www.articlesofunity.org. If you believe the future of the republic is at stake, which I do, let’s try to do better than Joe Biden or Donald Trump.