democracy

things should be getting better for everyone. This is inequality in America, do not mistake it for poverty.

flag USA

blue 0015bc, grey eee

D

blue 0015bc, fff ff000

circle D Democrat

"I'm immune from criminal prosecution because I'm president." That would be like if he took a bribe to veto a bill then he is immune from criminal prosecution. That is what this is about.

SCOTUS said he is an oathbreaking insurrectionist. Trump is an idiot autocrat def: a ruler who has absolute power. see Putin, Pres Russia and Orban, PM Hungary. he lies and betrays the voters. he is a corrupt evil man, a fraudster.

Trump s/n be allowed an any ballot because Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits anyone who has held public office and taken an oath to protect the Constituion 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

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.

a thoughtful treatise on democracy
Democrats vs ..... Republicans
progresschaos
democracyfascism
freedomtyranny def: cruel and oppressive government
equal protectionracism
vote Democrat
the internet

there is only one source of the truth.

as a civil society we are acting against extremism, hate and disinformation. The internet can give global reach to misinformation and rally people to believe impossible things.

common prosperity

entitled inconsideration vs common prosperity.

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.

be discerning about where you get your news to avoid disinformation.

Neo takes the red pill and awakens in the real world

red pill or blue pill refers to the choice of learning the truth by taking the red pill or remaining in contented ignorance with the blue pill. The red one frees you from the enslaving control of the simulated dreamworld. The Matrix, 1999

democracy rather than autocracy

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.

democracy
U.S. budget deficit: $2.7 trillion, 2021
Democratsvs.Republicans
climate actionNo
voting rightsNo
women's choiceNo
gun regulationNo
$28.43 trillion in federal debt

climate and healthcare

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.

as a civil society we are acting against extremism, hate and disinformation. The internet can give global reach to misinformation and rally people to believe impossible things.

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

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. willing to give up privilege for the common good.

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     
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.  
Revive global cooperation. 
Whitehouse

American Jobs Plan

collective goals. not so individualistic. more like "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
Bernie Sanders

$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.

tax breaks for super-rich donors

see Trump's 2017 Tax Reform Act, a.k.a. Trump's Tax Scam, enriching the super-rich and corporate sector at the expense of everyone else - the bill that Joseph Stiglitz termed 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."

Voting rights

American democracy is under attack. Republicans have launched an attack on voting by changing the rules of democracy with aggressive new restrictions on the right to vote. It suggests that Republicans do not believe that everyone is equal.

"The coordinated onslaught of voter suppression bills is not the norm." Stacey Adams in Georgia, May 2021

the many restrictive voter suppression bills tout the big lie of voter fraud. The Republicans are desperate to hold onto power and believe the only way to wield any power is to keep as many people as possible from voting.

the conspiracy of lies, deceit and fraud is a distraction. They want us to believe some $#!t to conceal their agenda of discrimination and hate. "Their hate and lack of integrity is as common as their greed and incompetence," she said of her Republican colleagues.

antidem /anti-democracy is authoritarianism /the enforcement of obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom. What is the Republican platform? what do they stand for? Republican party has no stated policies. Erasing Obama is not a policy.

democracy is based on a shared reality. Antidem has a warped acceptance of conspiracy rather than reality. They shout "fake news" to discredit all other sources of news but their own. Seek the truth and get the facts from many sources rather than to isolate yourself in a silo of disinformation.

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 all said, everyone said, of Trump.

protect and serve, with shields and tear gas?!

To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. demilitarize police Brennan Center

Trump deployed DC police with shields against citizens who were demonstrating peacefully.

Trump deployed DC police with shields against citizens
CS tear gas

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.

we are not asking for special treatment, just equal treatment

how to pay for Medicare for All

"We have the money to make health care a right in this country. What we need is the political will." Robert Reich 5 Aug 2020

  • repeal the $1.9 Trillion tax scam for corporations and the 1%
  • pass a wealth tax
  • shrink our bloated military
@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.