tools for advocacy

 
Who do you want?  You seem to
have problems with the people who
are willing to go through the gauntlet
of campaigning.
Long before these campaigns, at
various points along the way, I asked
who people saw that they like as
potential candidates, to very thin
response.  What leaders do people
want?


How has America permitted such
ignorance among our citizens to
proliferate?  Why are we not among
our world's best educated?


I have done nothing to deny or belittle
your expression of opinions meaningful
to you.  I just ask for that respect from you,
that I can regain respect for you.


I am no longer interested in the 2024
POTUS election.  It is too traumatizing 
to think about.  I am turning my thoughts
and energy to more comforting places,
like art.


Because people suck, you can't count
on anyone doing the right thing, no
matter how much better that result
would be for them.  Their immediate
snit seems so much more important
than what would be best for all involved.


Maybe the Evangelicals are right, that
Trump is acting within God's Plan, even
without his knowledge, to bring on the
Apocalypse and Christ's Second Coming
on that level of metaphor, in a time fraught
with meanings.


Far too much tragedy is created by people
acting stupidly against the interests of
they assume malignant strangers, which
results in bad outcomes for all, including
themselves.


Of course what the Israelis under
Netanyahu are doing is horrific.
There are horrific brutalities happening
all over the world.  Some may even be
in places where you can have a usefully
meaningful effect.  What was not useful
or in any sense a positive outcome,
were those Americans who didn't vote
in Harris because genocide.


Harris didn't lose because of the genocide, 
but because of ignorance and disinformation -- 
if they understood the true result for the people 
they are concerned for of a Trump regime, 
they could never have not voted for Harris 
if that was available to them



Is your aim to help people less
fortunate to speak up for their own
self-interests, to get more of what they
need and want from their lives, better
to tell them the truth of how our
government has been set up to work.
Give them the tools to be able to
usefully advocate for themselves, to
organize and figure out what needs 
doing and how to do it.  It does people
no good to angrily protest against some
misperceived government role as if 
some super being called Government
is meant to make it all right.


It is not about Dems or Repubs --
which team won the horse race --
it is about people getting what we need
from our representatives rather than
being hoodwinked against our best interests.


The problem is not with democracy, but
what the voters understand.

11/3-16/24

 my friend Mark Beaudin sent me this email, and is graciously allowing me to share it:

From: Mark Beaudin

"This is a letter that I submitted to our Anchorage newspaper but was not published. I believe that we need strong leadership before the inauguration. We must show people how and why Trump took actions to create problems that he could blame on others. We can show how  disinformation and emotion were used to manipulate them into voting for Trump, even though many had reservations about him. We can show the attempts to limit voting. We can have testimonials of people who voted for Trump and now realize that they were conned, so that there is a growing number of people coming to this realization.  We can point out the direction that Trumps early decisions and plans will take us in terms of hurting our economy. We need to turn the herd mentality so that we can stop this betrayal of America. Biden failed to stop Trump and hold him accountable. He must do it quickly or resign and let Kamala take over now. She was a prosecutor and would be better at doing this.   Perhaps she can stop Trump using the powers she would have as President. She needs to remove the Justices who gave her those powers  and call for new elections, making it clear that she would not be running again. In any event it will not be pretty.

My letter follows:

You may have heard the saying "When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and waving a cross". I fear that is what we are experiencing today in this country. There have always been political battles but, until Donald Trump came on the scene, the expressions of hatred and threat of violence were minimal. That is no longer the case.

We did not get to where we are now by accident. You may have heard of firemen starting fires so that they can play hero putting them out. According to a Reuters, "The Trump administration cut staff by more than two-thirds at a key U.S. public health agency operating inside China, as part of a larger rollback of U.S.-funded health and science experts on the ground there leading up to the coronavirus outbreak". Also, "the Trump administration eliminated a key American public health position in Beijing intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China, Reuters has learned.

The American disease expert, a medical epidemiologist embedded in China's disease control agency, left her post in July, according to four sources with knowledge of the issue. The first cases of the new coronavirus may have emerged as early as November, and as cases exploded, the Trump administration in February chastised China for censoring information about the outbreak and keeping U.S. experts from entering the country to help."

“It was heartbreaking to watch,” said Bao-Ping Zhu, a Chinese American who served in that role, which was funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2007 and 2011. “If someone had been there, public health officials and governments across the world could have moved much faster.”
But Trump eliminated the position and the virus spread. In the end, the U.S. had a far higher Covid Death Rate than other industrialized countries.

As for Trumps concern about migrants at our southern border, here is some background on that:
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Monday cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, after Trump blasted the three countries because thousands of their citizens had sought asylum at the U.S. border with Mexico.

The plan will likely encounter stiff opposition in Congress.
Lawmakers, including some of Trump's fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, have chafed against the president's repeated decisions to disregard spending bills passed by Congress, some of which he has signed into law himself.
Lawmakers who opposed the plan said it was cruel to cut off aid to countries grappling with hunger and crime and that the move would be counterproductive because it would more likely increase the number of migrants than decrease it.
"As feared, a presidential tantrum will limit our nation's ability to actually help address the challenges forcing people to flee to the U.S.," Democratic Senator Bob Menendez said on Twitter.

After a lot of work in Congress, a bi-partisan border bill was agreed to that would have strengthened out border law enforcement. That bill was then killed because Trump worked to kill it. He did not want the situation to get better, since he wanted to run on Biden's inability to protect our borders. He is done just that, scaring people with dire warnings about a situation that he helped to create. 
Alaskans who support Trump probably don't like that he was unfaithful to all of his wives, or that he has a history of not paying his debts. They may have concerns about his age, health and mental acuity. They may not agree with his contempt for people with handicaps, or the childish name-calling that is his stock in trade. They must realize that, under Trump, Pebble Mine would finally get the green light to go forward and the days of the Bristol Bay fishery would be limited. They may even be aware of what Project 2025 entails, dismantling Social Security and Medicare, but they still support him. 

Trump's most ardent supporters seem to be evangelical Christians. This puzzles me greatly. If God is a loving god, why would they follow a man who constantly seeks to spread hate and fear? Why are corporate profits more important than people and other living things?

Trump worships money and power. The richest people and corporations have gotten far richer since Trump cut their rate, adding to the national debt and depending on tariffs to bring in more tax revenue from the rest of us. Trump claims that China is paying the tariffs but that is another lie. Tariffs are taxes that our government puts on goods purchased from other countries. The company buying goods from China pays those taxes (tariffs) to our government and charges us more to recover that additional expense. This adds to our rate of inflation. Trump is not so stupid that he does not know this, but he obviously does not think much of his supporters intelligence or he would not keep telling the same lie, when it so easy to check. 

Until now, this has been a country governed by laws. All men were considered equal under the law. The Supreme Court Justices that Trump and the Republicans put in place have changed that. If even one man is above the law, then the rule of law has ended. Right now, while the wealthiest people can do pretty much what they want to do, they still have limits. A corrupt court system takes away those limits. Since the Supreme Court has ceased to be the protecter of our Constitution, even a close election result will be a win for Trump. We need to have an election result that is so large that it is not in doubt and cannot be overturned by the court. And we need to be ready to protest if they try take our country away from us. I believe there are a lot more good people than evil people in this country. Now is the time to make that obvious to the whole world. America can still be a beacon of freedom that other countries respect."

effective opposition

 

It seems too many Americans misunderstand
the workings of the US government, and,
notably, the powers and role of the POTUS.
We have separation of powers for the
purpose of avoiding a too powerful
kinglike ruler.  POTUS is not so much a
ruler as a Head of State, with designated
duties and powers, checked by the duties
and powers of (often oppositional) Congress,
and the rulings of the Courts.


One major problem with a Trump
Presidency is that he doesn't 
believe in or care about rule of law,
but expects to act from the unchecked
power his SCOTUS Immunity decision
allows him.


Civilian massacres as if No Lives Matter


Horrific shit keeps happening
all over the world, because people
suck!  Not all the time, and some much
more than others, but enough to keep
us from getting together to do what
needs to be done to make our world
a place at least reasonably good
for all of us.


I identify as nonbinary.  I don't
believe in gender.  I know there are
biological sexes -- but gender is
a social construct, like so many
social constructs, designed to
stupidly divide us.


It is not an effective opposition
against the Patriarchy to outdo the
in their offensive attributes and
behaviors.  To make a positive
difference, be and do better.
[NO evil in the service of good]


Could it be we are so anxious
depressed, lonely, because we
are terrified ot our little world
getting intercepted by others?


10/27-11/2/24

time to do democracy

 
We should never sacrifice our values 
or refrain from questioning the values 
or understandings of political leaders. 
That IS democracy. 
Yet, this is also the real world in which 
we must accept less than perfect 
leaders because we are all human. 
We can elect the best choice for the 
time and work with each other to keep 
them honest. 
We can also understand that government 
is not our uberparent or otherwise 
omnipotent, and do what we can for 
ourselves, including whatever 
it takes to reach our social goals.

political parties do not democracy 
make but rather they can be a danger 
through the divisiveness that's killing 
our better natures
if the citizens of a democracy were doing their due diligence 
within the firm understanding that they are their government, 
there would be no separate entity “government” to oppose. 
There would be people working out what they need and how 
to make the world they want to live in. There would be power 
hungry narcissists, but they would be easily shouted down by 
the people who understand the politics of power and the 
difference between power over others and power to achieve 
our common goals. The education necessary for well-informed 
citizenry would be an underlying given, including frequent
 practice of problem-solving through democratic means.
We have to stop abdicating our democracy to 
political parties (remember Washington's warning)
 -- get together with people you trust with similar 
political beliefs.  Get out there and find people 
you can trust, with similar beliefs, who have shown 
their knowledge and effectiveness and promote them 
for the position you think they are best suited to. 
 Or run yourself.  
Make Democracy about The People Again






voting is the basic duty of a citizen in a democracy 
(necessary, not sufficient)
the problems in our democracy mostly stem from 
We the People abdicating our role as self 
governors, allowing "parties" and "media" to take over 


the thing is, with politicians, there should never 
have been such an industry. Democracy is not 
about top-down ambitious salesfolk raising exorbitant 
funds to tell us to put them in power. We were meant 
to care enough about our self-governance to find the 
people who rise up as leaders, who know how to put 
into words what we want to say, and imbue them with
 our trust to, with others from other regions, do the 
daily due diligence of governance.

We claim we want to live as a democracy.
Let’s do the job of an active electorate.


Democracy, government by the People, is only as good as the majority of participants


Capitalism does not require Democracy
Democracy does not require Capitalism
Democracy can accommodate any
economic system the People embrace.
Capitalists get along best with pro-profit
Authoritarians
Our Capitalism experiment has
failed.
Unfortunately, those who have
decided they are benefiting
exceptionally, and therefore have
too much power, would rather
destroy our experiment with
Democracy.

It's not a democracy because
we vote.  It is a democracy if we
do the work to rule ourselves.


Isn't the essential point of democracy
-- rule by the people --
to create and maintain a social structure
that provides for all citizens' needs?


When we talk about threats to #democracy, it may seem some
philosophical argument without real daily life immediacy.
Think, though   we are talking about our long, hard, mortally
fought for rights: our ability to be who we are and demand more,
hope for better futures, power to speak our minds, to demand
our human dignity, our possibility to improve the background
rules we live by, to not be helpless against uncaring aristocrats
and ignorant mobs.


voting is not just about POTUS
 it is vastly important to elect Congressional
representatives that will more likely
vote as you would prefer. And then
there are the initiatives and such, and
participating in your democracy.


Maybe the problem is that what
the People want is not democracy,
but the pomp and glitter of
aristocracy. The Hunger Games
type society, where the poor are
made useful as brutal entertainment,
the wealthy privileged are entitled
as the ruling class.



we have a democracy, but the rulers (The People)
have abdicated in favor of big money propagandists
we really need to do our job in finding people who
truly have the background, skills and values we want,
then keep them honest by paying attention and
praising or complaining as appropriate -- and doing
our job of learning about the people we vote for so
we can't be taken in by flashy big money paid for ads and such

So defeated we lose the fight
while they chortle.
The flaw is there is no such
thing as perfect people, perfect
government -- the point of democracy
(instead of just giving in to dictators)
is to keep trying, especially when it seems
overwhelming, learning to do better
and find the very real people who are
willing and able to do better
with and for us


we make our lives worse by not taking the
responsibilities of democracy seriously and
letting our so-called representatives act like
spoiled middle school brats because, hey,
that represents us, doesn't it.


we used to have public education that
emphasized civic knowledge -- the point of public
education was to have an educated citizenry to
participate in a well reasoned democracy.  Now
our political reality is a Reality TV game show,
much more like football than Jeopardy.  It has
become the major tactic of a highly competitive
either/or to keep the public ignorant of how
our system is meant to work and
heap on the propaganda.


we as a democracy should know
that it is imperative to have a well
educated citizenry who understand
our history, philosophy, system(s)
and structures to usefully
participate in self rule

I am not perfect, nor are you.
"Perfect person" is an oxymoron.
If we the People expect perfection,
that is not democracy:  rule by we the People.


There is a great deal we can do -- if we are willing 
to do and not just post complaints.  We can create 
bit by bit that world we want, first small steps 
until we get into the swing.  Most "government" 
happens locally -- yet we focus almost 
exclusively on the national, POTUS, whose 
power would be greatly diminished if we 
all practiced democracy from the bottom up.


It s not the tribes, but elite rulers who
obstruct tribes from having equal voice
that thwarts democracy.
Democracy is not a homogeneous group
agreeing, but diverse tribes negotiating
for common rule that works well enough
for everyone.

disconnected

Is this what life is to be?

bombardment from out of nowhere,

without reason?

untethered aggression

murder without consequence

ever more brutal destruction

when all out war is easier

than to build, create, improve

solve our urgent issues together

We need to initiate a project to 

terraform Earth -- remake this planet

to better suit humanity.

It will be great practice for when we

want to settle other worlds.

Meanwhile, think of the jobs, the

opportunities, and eventually

a more human world.

Humans generally exhibit a vast

variety of imperfections.

What we may see as senselessly

bad decisions, reactions, may well

just be that the behaviors we expect

are blocked by that person's faults.

Evil done "in the service of good"

corrupts that good, turns it to the

service of evil.  To serve good implies

doing good in every part of the project,

thus uncorrupted, good made of good.

I don't get this quitting public office in protest

I would think a better protest would come 

from inside, maybe refusing to do what is 

wrong and having that huge public stink.

If everyone is so desperate for connection,

why don't we connect?

10/20-24/24 

Rehumanizing

 
Journalists in some parts of the world
are dying or being horribly incarcerated
in their efforts to report the truth about
atrocious actions of authoritarians.
In the US, with our 1st Amendment
rights given to a free press, too many
use that power kowtowing to authoritarian
interests.

Where are the forces for justice?
How is it we haven't figured out
how to stop clear intentional violent
humanitarian criminals, like Putin,
through enforcement of international
law?  How is it in the US that a clear
criminal like Trump is allowed to run
for POTUS (aka Supreme Leader)?



We should never sacrifice our values 

or refrain from questioning the values 

or understandings of political leaders. 
That IS democracy. 
Yet, this is also the real world in which 

we must accept less than perfect 

leaders because we are all human. 

Would you prefer a robot POTUS? 

Consider how AI is faking it, not able 
to reason or understand human needs. 
We can elect the best choice for the 

time and work with each other to keep 

them honest. 
We can also understand that government 

is not our uberparent or otherwise 

omnipotent, and do what we can for 

ourselves, including whatever 
it takes to reach our social goals.



Sliding into post-reality
All this siloed, splintered realities
makes it an easy ride.



We have seceded from Reality
Nothing more is real
So nothing can really matter
May as well just do what it occurs
to us to do
What's occurring here and now
What we're doing here and now
for each succeeding here and now
that's all the reality we have



10/12-16/24

Advancing

 

You need to start small,

what you can do on your own,

while you (hopefully) locate  others

you can join with.  But keep expectations

small.  You can't count on the will

of The People, or even wide action

on obvious self-interest.  The People

are busy dealing with living their lives.

People who believe the US is

by and for those White Christian

BusinessMen vying to die with

all of the toys.

Kamala Harris is not running against

some perfect candidate.  She is 

running against Donald Trump.

If you wanted a perfect candidate,

you had four years since the last was

elected to find and promote them, and

what did you do then?  Now's the time

to vote for Harris, then go out and find

your perfect candidate for next time.

As to Gaza, by the time the next POTUS

takes office in January (providing that actually

happens), how much will be left to save?

In any case, the situation will have changed,

and may well be much worse, or even

much better.

Terrorists cause death and destruction 

to bring attention to their point.

What do we call terrorism for its own

sake, as we see so often these days

by our ubiquitous mass shooters?

SCOTUS, in league with Texas

suborning manslaughter, or possibly

1st degree murder, disallowing life-saving

abortions.

No, this is NOT self-defense.  Netanyahu,

like Putin invading a sovereign country,

murdering and terrorizing the civilians,

because they can.

It would not be sane or useful to defend

oneself against a bully by blowing up

the school full of kids and teachers (and

others).  How can one think the result

would not be desperately brutal revenge,

not from the bully, but all those new,

unnecessary enemies, aghast at those actions,

feeling the utmost need for defense against

those perpetrators of terror and death.

Advancing toward better gentleness.

Look at the many outrageously stupid

ways we handicap ourselves by insisting

on dividing ourselves into fake categories

to enforce inequalities.

Biden has been in an impossible situation, 

made more poignant by his longtime, and 

generally accepted  by US history, love and 

support for Israel as the democracy of the 

Middle East.  He strives to be bipartisan, 

POTUS for all Americans, many of whom are

 strong supporters of Israel, including many in 

Congress who vote for those weapons to be sent 

there (perhaps to some extent in support of 

those weapons' manufacturers who 

support candidates).

Yet, he is a deeply feeling man who 

understands and abhors the suffering 

of civilians.  He has valiantly tried to 

encourage peace, but Netanyahu is having 

none of it (perhaps to some extent in 

support of Trump who he may see as 

being a better ally to himself).

Apparently Biden's policy is (and has 

been) to work for a ceasefire.  It's 

Netanyahu's policy to commit genocide 

and take over the Palestinian territory, 

and Republican (Congress) policy to keep 

up the arms payments to support genocide 

by Israel (as promoted by Trump's love for

"strongmen" and real estate deals)

While we know Trump is all about real 

estate deals for the current Palestinian 

land once it's been(bloodily) cleared, 

we don't really know Harris's plans.

Right now she is VPOTUS -- not in charge, and 

honor bound to support her President.  

Yet, she does not have the decades of matter 

of course support of Israel, but comes \

rom a generation in which Israeli cruelty 

and bad faith has played out. If she has 

a Democratic Congress, it would be easier 

to replace authorizations for Israeli defense 

funding that now rule, especially if those 

Congresspeople are elected with their 

positions on Palestine in mind.

Of course, the Christian Right is 

pro-Israeli victory, despite their loud 

anti-semitism, in their quest for the 

Apocalypse, and as allies in Islamophobia. 

There are other powerful US groups 

with pro-Israel biases vying for their 

voice in our national policies. I am thinking 

it might be useful to find out who Harris listens to,

 respects, and develop a dialog.(social media)

AI targeting loves to annihilate those 

terrified civilians: just tell them we 

were targeting Hamas/Hezbollah 

operatives, they won't check.