Nation or people

There's a post at DailyKos titled 'New Poll Reveals The Eight CRAZIEST Things Trump Voters Actually Believe'. It would appear that non-Trump voters, presumably Democrats, are less stupid/crazy... except the numbers don't reflect all that well of non-Trump voters, presumably Democrats.

If anything, this further reveals a failure of the U.S. Constitution. The ignorance reflected in these poll results is a measure of the lack of a free press. The failure of Congress to confirm Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court is the failure of the Constitutional power/duty of the sitting President to nominate Supreme Court justices. The Constitution is a 'living document', capable of revision, modification and change in order to strive for 'to form a more perfect Union'. Yet for all this built in flexibility, it has not been sufficient to correct a major representation imbalance in the presidential election system because not all votes for president carry the same weight.

Democrats needn't be smug over their seeming superiority over Republicans when little divides them in terms of their actions.

The U.S. Constitution essentially defines the nation of the United States of America. A major cause of its failures can be attributed to the elite advancing nationalistic themes to gain more power, economic and otherwise. It's high time to carefully consider the priorities of the larger population of any nation... is it the responsibility of citizens to support (pay for and populate) a country or is it the responsibility of a nation to support the wellbeing of its citizens? Bear the difference in mind after DJT becomes president; he will likely define 'what is profitable for DJT' as 'good for America'.

It goes back to money...

According to Israeli journalist, Gideon Levy, much of internal Israeli policy regarding settlements in Palestinian land is about money. Much of U.S. aid to Israel is military in nature and justified as needed to help Israel defend itself from its enemies, including Palestinians.

It appears there two very powerful lobbies supporting Israel and both are about profiting themselves and not humanitarian concerns. One lobby is the group in Israel profiting from the control of land, property and resources of Israel and Palestine. The other lobby represents American military contractors who profit from the goods and services directly or indirectly given to Israel as aid.

From the linked video:

SHIR HEVER: And what do Israelis think about this when the government is willing to spend so much money on such a small group of people? Is there protests about it? 

GIDEON LEVY: Unfortunately, the Israelis stopped thinking a long time ago, and those issues don't interest anybody and are hardly on their agenda. Israelis are mainly concerned about their next vacation and their next new car and this very regretful but nobody makes the linkage between deep social problems and the money that goes for the settlers. It's somehow the Israelis remain totally indifferent and blind and there is no-one to wake them up.

It's important to remember that 'capitalists' and power brokers can only steal when we (the majority of people) look away. Unfortunately, they are experts at creating distractions - Israelis are distracted with their comfortable life and perhaps some 'keeping up with the Jones' cultural meme. Americans are distracted by social issues - racism, immigration, sexism, 'religious liberty, abortion, etc. We need to learn to look past the distractions and smoke & mirrors and really see what is being stolen from us.

A spot of silliness

Bernie Sanders has coined our PEOTUS 'tweeter in chief'. While perfectly true and completely valid, 'twit-in-chief' would also be accurate.

Who's the real enemy?

It was an odd presidential election to say the least. One of its outstanding oddities is Hilary's quick acquiescence to defeat and her unwillingness to pursue a 'recount' in the states where the vote count was dubious. Hilary Clinton is smart, strong willed and ambitious. After winning 2.8 million more votes than her opponent, she uncharacteristically declines make a perfectly reasonable legal query to challenge the election outcome. The question is why?...

Greg Palast has an explanation. According to him, the two primary reasons are:

(1) The DLC (Democratic Leadership Council) was started with $100,000 from the Koch brothers. This organization got Bill Clinton started in politics. So the Clintons have a debt to the brothers who have had a huge part in organizing the modern Republican Party.

(2) The establishment Democratic Party is as guilty of voter suppression as the Republican Party. The Democrats actively suppressed progressive voters during the primary against Bernie Sanders to ensure Hilary would capture the party nomination.

So the facts are:
-Republicans cry vote fraud to suppress minority (largely Democratic) voters.
-Democrats suppress progressive voters to game the selection towards corporate friendly nominees.

What's clear from this is that both major parties are on the same side. Neither party is looking after the interests of regular working people. They all use pretty worlds and flashy pictures to sell voters their version of 'The American Fairy Tale'. The real battle in American politics isn't between Democrat and Republican; they're on the same side, the side of their wealthy donors. The real battle is between wealthy donors and regular working Americans.

In the linked video, Greg Palast mentions that Al Gore was warned by Warren Christopher to not pursue a recount (it may be more accurate to say, Warren Christopher passed on a threat). In exchange for passing the presidency, Al Gore today is a Nobel laureate worth close to a billion dollars. Will passing the presidency net Hilary a substantial financial reward? She and Bill are doing pretty well as it is.

Now contrast the cultural and financial standing of Al Gore and Bill & Hilary Clinton to James Risen, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. The former were amply rewarded for not revealing the corruption inside the American political and electoral systems. The latter have been pursued/persecuted/jailed for revealing corruption in the U.S. military/intelligence gathering.

Finally, ask yourself who are the real enemies of the state and who are the real heroes of the state.


Update: It has been reported that Bill and Hilary Clinton will attend the upcoming Presidential inauguration. Supposedly 'She and President Clinton, the sources said, decided to do so out of a sense of duty and respect for the American democratic process.' A process that the Clintons, as prominent members of the Democratic establishment,
did much to damage beyond repair.

Accounts due

It common knowledge that climate related treaties do not count all contributions to greenhouse warming when deciding what industrial/economic sectors to target for mitigation. From a political perspective, this may make sense - for example, the politics and narratives of food production makes it a very difficult sector to modify in terms of public opinion and policy. But it is essential that we remember that the physical, geochemical, chemical and biological phenomena of climate change occur independent of human wishes, wants and intent. Natural systems don't care about human societies and politics. Human contributed changes in greenhouses gases alters natures' normal accounting of global climate. Global accounts, or 'books', cannot and will not change just because human policy decides that certain economic sectors are exempt from greenhouse gas mitigation efforts. By granting exemptions, we are essentially creating a false set of greenhouse gas accounts. The real greenhouse gas/ climate change accounts are kept by planet Earth. Cooking the books to ease the passage of international treaties won't save us when the climate accounts are due.

Independent media is essential for transparency

A major goal of this blog is to advocate for increase transparency. For most part, And although not always explicitly state, the directive tends to be primarily focused on economically valuable information along the lines of intellectual property - patents, copyright, proprietary information, etc. But a recent piece by Robert Reich about how Trump controls/manipulates the media should remind all of us of the importance of transparency at the level of power brokers. By controlling the media, Trump aims to control the narrative of his actions and decisions. How he is perceived and the support/opposition he garners is determined by his 'story'. By controlling the media, he controls the story regardless of its veracity. Independent media may not provide the entirety of 'truth' but it will be more than a controlled media. Thus independent media is essential to increasing information transparency.

Contraindicated

At this point, the world knows who won the electoral college and thus the recent presidential election in the U.S. But the final vote count clearly shows the other party won the popular vote. It seems that the weight of the votes of the majority of voters (mostly in the coastal states) is less that those of the minority of voters (mainly in southern and western states). What's interesting is that although many pundits say HRC lost because she did not campaign much/enough on the economic pain of voters, the states she won are among the economically most vibrant and robust. So the states with policies that support (slightly) more function economies lost to states whose economic policies leave their voters in dire straits. Letting the supporters of super-bad economic policy choose a president with policy power is not the best way to ensure good economic policy. As doctors would say, this treatment (President-elect Trump) contraindicates the disease/condition (poor economy).