for democracy

we are for democracy, decency and humanity. We are free people and we care about each other and the common good.

things should be getting better for everyone. This is inequality in America, do not mistake it for poverty. Be aware of all the disinformation which is deliberately intended to mislead and affect public opinion.

they have their own purity test

the extremists are always complaining that the progressives are always talking $#i+.

2024 election turnout: 58%   US pop. 334M 
voting-eligible population: 244,666,890 
turnout: 155,803,701 
eligible voters who did not vote: 88,863,189 

smarter cabinets at IKEA
send no bombs to the bomber 
oil companies oppose plastic limits

extremist Project2025

Project2025 ... create an imperial presidency Center for American Progress

• voters are concerned about Project 2025 policies
• privatizing Medicare
• reducing overtime benefits
• repealing a policy cap on insulin at $35 per month
• cuttin spending on Medicaid
• placing Dept of Justice DOJ under direct presidential control
• eliminating the Dept of Education DOE
• lowering taxes on wealthy Americans and large corporations
• signing a national ban on abortion pills
• rolling back policies preventing climate change
• firing 1000 federal gov employees
• ending the right to collectively bargain for public sector unions
• banning transgender people from serving in the military
• implementing work requirements for food stamps
• conducting mass deportations of undocumented immigrants

we have a dysfunctional democracy.

Chris Hedges, American journalist, author, American Fascists 2007. The Chris Hedges report: chrishedges.substack.com

the Democratic party has failed in not dealing with the responsibility of the dispossession of the American working class, 30 million Americans have lost jobs in mass layoffs since NAFTA. And the deregulation of tax codes, the FCC, destruction of welfare, and the capture of the party by corporate power, creating a kind of corporate duopoly. In American politics, duopoly often refers to the dominance of the two major political parties, the Democrats and Republicans.

if a candidate like Bernie Sanders came out and offered new deal reforms he would have won. And the Palestine issue tanked Harris because the Biden-Harris policy was to continue sending weapons to Israel to sustain that genocide.

Daniel Ziblatt, American political scientist, How Democracies Die 2018.

John Locke refuted the theory of the right of kings to rule

John Locke rejected the concept of the divine right of kings; he argued that political power derives from the consent of the people, meaning that rulers can be removed if they fail to protect the natural rights of people, like life, liberty, and property.

common good

willing to give up privilege for the common good.

democracy is a system where people can change their rulers by voting. Democracy is equality, social equality and civil rights. voting rights, women's rights, immigration and healthcare. making a path out of poverty.

if you understand democracy and how narrow nationalistic interests threaten democracy, then you must consider the common good and put common needs ahead of private interests.

  
infrastructure 
transportation 
corporate taxes 
clean water 
green energy  
combat climate crisis      
revive global cooperation 

combat climate crisis and reduce emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to prevent the planet from warming to more extreme temperatures, manage forests, end border wall construction, end oil pipelines and drilling on federal lands and fragile environments like the Arctic.

common prosperity

entitled inconsideration vs common prosperity.

• public transportation
• affordable housing
• universal healthcare

consider what happened to the middle class, while the wealthy prospered. We have the money for public transportation, affordable housing, and universal healthcare.

Republicans: the Bush and Trump tax cuts have added $10 trillion to the debt. Republicans slashed taxes disproportionately for the wealthy and profitable corporations, severely reducing federal revenues. Tax cuts and jobs act of 2017, Trump, Nov 2, 2017. The middle class needs a tax cut Brookings

Democrats: President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act is driving historic climate action and investing in America to create good paying jobs and reduce costs.

Trump's tax breaks for his super-rich donors

cult of Trump, 2017 Tax Reform Act, enriched the super-rich and corporate sector at the expense of everyone else. Joseph Stiglitz termed the bill the U.S. Donor Relief Act of 2017 which "embodies all that is wrong with the Republican party, and to some extent, the debased state of American democracy."

Speak up

democracy really started when everyone was allowed to vote, in 1965. US voting rights

in the news eurasiagroup

the Lincoln Project is dedicated to the preservation, protection and defense of democracy.   lincolnproject.us   podcast YouTube

the rise of Christian nationalism and the unholy deal for money and power, against democracy. An organized group with a sophisticated agenda to take down democracy and install an autocracy of Christian elite.   Bad Faith badfaithdocumentary.com

blue 0015bc D

Biden won 2020

Trump lies to and betrays the voters. Trump sabotaged the peaceful transition of power after the 2020 election, and incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.   Jan. 6

on Trump: "He's a peach." Rachel Maddow

"... oathbreaking insurrectionist," quote from SCOTUS. He lies to and betrays the voters.

"He should not be allowed on any ballot because Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits anyone who has held public office and taken an oath to protect the Constitution from holding office again if they have engaged in insurrection against the United States. He cannot again be trusted with public office. He led an insurrection. " Robert Reich Dec 2023

the Constitution

what he did was treachery against the Constitution. An insurrection is a riot with a political purpose. It is not a simple riot, and it is not a revolution. Trump led a violent insurrection on Jan 6 to block the peaceful transition of power, and overthrow the constitutional order.

democracy rather than autocracy

autocracy, an autocrat is a ruler who has absolute power. Putin, President Russia and Orban, PM Hungary.

democracy involves a low level of control, "everyone has a vote." In a democracy there is a common role in the decision-making process. Whereas autocracy means a high level of control, "you are told how it is." An autocrat is a ruler with absolute power over a state.

the climate is being destroyed by a small group of oil salesmen. We need to do what the scientists say we need to do and transform our energy system away from fossil fuels. We need to end corporate influence on policy. And we need to pass universal healthcare.

Isaac Asimov 1980

"There is a cult of ignorance in the US, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" Isaac Asimov, 1980

Whitehouse

Biden administration passed an infrastructure bill. American Jobs Plan

collective goals and not so individualistic. "let's create a better world," and less "me, me, me, me, me."

Chomsky

Noam Chomsky, leading public intellectual: "That's normal in a political system mired in corruption. It's often been observed that the U.S. has a one-party political system - the business party - with two factions, Democrats and Republicans."

"... where the impact of corporate lobbyists, always significant, has exploded since the 1970s as the corporate-run neoliberal assault against the general population gained force."

Noam Chomsky chomsky.info

Robert F. Kennedy, 1968

Robert F. Kennedy, 1968 on the night Martin Luther King was killed: "Let us dedicate ourselves to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world."

"We must rid ourselves of all division, hatred, violence and lawlessness if we are to survive as a nation. It is our capacity to love and have compassion for one another that will build the nation."

"... it is now unmistakably clear that we can change these disastrous, divisive policies only by changing the men who are now making them." Robert Kennedy, 1968

social benefits

$3.5 trillion infrastructure: "I already negotiated. The truth is we need more." U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, democratic socialist, Wed 25 Aug 2021

democratic socialism is a program of social benefits funded by taxes, a democracy based on the principle of one person one vote.

Socialism is an economic and political system based on public ownership of the means of production. The government is involved in the rules, collection, and distribution of funds. Everyone gives a little and everyone takes a little.

Social Security is a form of social welfare that ensures that the elderly, disabled workers, and their dependents have some minimum level of income.

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a bill to block the $735m arms sale to Israel, as he added, "Netanyahu has cultivated an increasingly intolerant and authoritarian type of racist nationalism." The resolution is not likely to pass, said everyone. Thu 20 May 2021

vote them out

1. Donors give huge sums to elect politicians to office
2. Elected officials rewrite the rules in the donors' favor
3. Donors make a huge profit
4. Repeat

language war

it's a language war: the racist rhetoric is fueling the violence.

it's a language war, and mainstream Republicans are constructing a new moral panic using the qanon messaging: that top Democrats were involved in elite child sex-trafficking rings.

alt-right ideologies, white supremacy, racism, spread only because they convince there is a bad guy. it is not us it is them. us vs them, there must be a monster. "They are taking our jobs, they are grooming our kids!"

alt-right Republicans are using the tactic of attaching a negative label (communist) to those who hold different beliefs and relentlessly repeating that label regardless of its accuracy.

populist

a populist is a person who strives to appeal to people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups. Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against "the elite."

populism is associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment.

a populist autocrat

Bolsonaro is a populist autocrat. far-right former president of Brazil.

"It kept getting more insidious," they said.

Trump deployed tear gas on US demonstators

tear gas is a pain nerve gas deployed by federal agents to disperse rioting protestors or crowds of peaceful demonstrators. Tear gas is the generic term for a class of compounds that cause a burning sensation. LE use a chemical called CS, 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile. CS activates a specific pain receptor, and it is 100,000 times stronger than the sting from wasabi. When inhaled, the pain induces people to cough.

history

John Lewis knew that we have to be vigilant against the darker currents of this country's history. Of our own history. Where there are whirlpools of violence and hatred and despair that can always rise again. Bull Connor may be gone, but today we witness with our own eyes, police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans. George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators.

Supreme Court @repAOC: the biggest scandal in american democracy which is the extraordinary corruption and wholesale purchase of the supreme court. referring to the fishing trip flown on private jet, Justice Samuel Alito and billionaire Paul Singer. disclosure would be required, and he did not disclose. when Singer had business before the court, Alito did not recuse himself from the case, the court ruled in Singer's favor, and Singer's hedge fund was paid $2.4 billion.

Russian disinformation

Russian disinformation. Putin is playing him.

Richard Stengel, get his book: Information Wars. He says this a redux of 2016 by Russia's govt to create a proRussia stance. Russian scheme: this is a $10million scheme of Russian disinformation.

In order to win their land war against Ukraine, Russia needs Trump in power to vote against aid to Ukraine.

political

Senator Bernie Sanders. People are hurting. In America, corporate greed and corruption is destroying the social and economic fabric of our society. This is wealth inequality. Focus on expanding Medicare, including home healthcare.

Timothy Snyder, Freedom.

Anne Applebaum, Autocracy, Inc.: the dictators who want to run the world.

Michelle Goldberg and Heather McGhee, Color of Change. racism. demagoguery: political activity or practices that seek support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument. a change in country.