VOTING WITH YOUR BOOT

VOTING WITH YOUR BOOT http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/20/the-end-of-republicans-and-democrats-and-your-libertarian-future.html “Is it going to take $100 million? I have no idea,” he said, before suggesting that might be a lowball number. Convincing people that something is happening that isn't really happening is expensive. Why not take the $50 million he plans to waste on politics and invest in new energy tech companies? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/21/bob-mcdonnell-corruption_n_4639480.html "Because if it were applied as the law of the land, then nearly every elected official, from President Obama on down, would have to be charged for providing tangible benefits to donors." Every elected official should be charged with a crime. They're all guilty of something. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAuxXvNVhgA What Sheldrake says about scientific dogma absolutely applies to political thought. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/15/george-takei-sets-phasers-to-reform.html “The core of what our democracy is about ‘We the people,’ ‘All men are created equal.’ When we have a situation like the Koch brothers, [who] can donate multimillions of dollars to a campaign…you’ve got to fight fire with fire,” Takei told The Daily Beast. “‘We the people’ can fight that challenge with fire. We can’t each afford a million-dollar contribution, but we can afford $3. And there are a lot more of us, those who can afford $3.” More of the same. Takei is no visionary like his old boss Roddenberry. Einstein said you can't fix problems with the same thinking that created them. Takei obviously thinks otherwise . . . . and he's wrong. Being concerned about campaign finance reform is a foolish waste of time. All the campaign contributions in the world aren't going to turn New York City Council Republican or the Texas legislature Democrat. The whole political feeder system has been corrupted. Campaign dollars flow to the obvious winners before the fact. They are bribes. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/10/hey-boomers-millennials-hate-your-partisan-crap.html "Conducted this past spring among a representative sample of nearly 2,400 18-to-29-year-olds, the Reason-Rupe Poll finds that younger voters aren’t just less beholden to two parties dreamed up before the Civil War, they speak a radically different political language too. " http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/28/dawn-of-the-age-of-oligarchy-the-alliance-between-government-and-the-1.html For the most part, the oligarchs have lined up with Obama from the start. Indeed, at his first inaugural, notes one sympathetic chronicler, the biggest problem for donors was to find sufficient parking space for their private jets. As an observer at the left-leaning Huffington Post put it, “the rising tide has lifted fewer boats during the Obama years -and the ones it's lifted have been mostly yachts.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2014/05/05/how-election-lab-works/ Models are, by their nature, data driven. (That's why models tend to get better the closer the election gets. There's just more raw material -- poll numbers, fundraising numbers etc. -- to mine.) Because of that reality, models tend to favor elements of races that can be easily quantified (presidential approval, GDP growth, fundraising) and diminish less easily quantifiable factors like candidate quality and the sort of campaigns being run on the ground.

BECOME A LOCAL PROTEST CANDIDATE

BECOME A LOCAL PROTEST CANDIDATE http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/chris_hedges_jan_27_column_transcript_collapse_of_complex_societies_2014012// "Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan examined 100 years of violent and nonviolent resistance movements in their book “Why Civil Resistance Works.” They concluded that nonviolent movements succeed twice as often as violent uprisings. Violent movements work primarily in civil wars or in ending foreign occupations, they found. Nonviolent movements that succeed appeal to those within the power structure, especially the police and civil servants, who are cognizant of the corruption and decadence of the power elite and are willing to abandon them. And we only need 1 to 5 percent of the population actively working for the overthrow of a system, history has shown, to bring down even the most ruthless totalitarian structures. It always works on two tracks—building alternative structures such as public banks to free ourselves from control and finding mechanisms to halt the machine." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_loUDS4c3Cs Collins makes a lot of interesting points about government lies and conspiracy theories while tearing apart the moon landing hoax nonsense. http://politicalgates.blogspot.com/2011/12/citigroup-plutonomy-memos-two-bombshell.html "Low-end developed market labor might not have much economic power, but it does have equal voting power with the rich." See . . . . vote with your boot.

WHERE HAS THE MIDDLE GONE?

WHERE HAS THE MIDDLE GONE? http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/22/what-s-driving-america-s-evolution-divide.html "What is of greater interest to me, however, is the failure of the “middle ground” to capture more support." "Only Team Red and Team Blue dead-enders can disagree. In January, Gallup found a historically high number of Americans – 42 percent – self-identify as politically independent. The Republican brand is totally in the crapper, with just 25 percent copping to that affiliation, and the Democrats are flatter than a leaking bottle of SodaStream seltzer, pulling just 31 percent." http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/us/politics/financier-plans-big-ad-campaign-on-environment.html?_r=0 http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/06/the-left-right-political-spectrum-is-bogus/373139/ "Rather, my approach is “philosophical”: to try to confront both sides with the fact that their positions are incoherent. " http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/nevada-democrats-chose-none-these-candidates-primary-n128166

WRITE IN VOTES CAN BE PRETTY FUNNY

WRITE IN VOTES CAN BE PRETTY FUNNY http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/25/what-is-it-about-soccer-that-brings-out-the-hooligan-in-its-fans.html "Colombian fans celebrated their team’s first World Cup victory in 16 years on June 14 by giving the team’s coach, Jose Pekerman, more than 400,000 write-in votes in the upcoming presidential election."l http://wonkette.com/489403/a-childrens-treasury-of-ridiculous-write-in-votes-against-georgia-congressman-and-witchfinder-general-paul-broun "This time around, the gentleman scholar from Athens ran unopposed for his seat in the House — but that does not mean people did not oppose him. This post was originally about how 4,000 voters wrote in “Charles Darwin” against Broun, because how sad is that, that the poor libruls have given up fielding candidates and are now just voting for dead scientists." http://www.mdjonline.com/view/full_story/8937814/article-Write-in-votes-show-funny--dissatisfied-sides-of-voters "And voters' dissatisfaction with the printed choice of either Tim Lee or Larry Savage for chairman can be seen in the random write-ins, with a total 21 such votes essentially for anyone else. Some of those write-ins included: "None of the Above" with five votes, "Anyone Else" with four votes, "Me" with four votes, "No One" with two votes, and "Incumbents Stink," "Anyone But Lee," "John Q Anybodyelse," "N/A" and "No Confidence" each with one vote." More of us should be doing this! There's no excuse not to vote! http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/21/who-voted-for-idaho-s-weirdo-candidates-for-governor.html

POLITICIANS: THEY'RE SOCIOPATH AND THEY DON"T CARE ABOUT YOU

POLITICIANS: THEY'RE SOCIOPATH http://disorderedworld.com/imperfect-design-how-our-psychology-screws-up-our-world/ http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/chris-christies-crisis-plunges-republican-party-deeper-into “Everyone thinks there’s probably a 60% chance the other shoe will drop,” said the operative, who like many of the people quoted in this story, requested anonymity to speak freely about a situation that is still evolving. “When I saw the press conference, I said, I don’t think he’s lying… But for the deputy chief of staff to do something like that requires a culture in the office that he would have set, and it probably requires other examples that would have made her feel like that was acceptable to do.” It's a shame these guys can't put the games aside and talk straight publicly. The whole game is a giant lie. Some more from the same article: "Meanwhile, as the GOP establishment agonizes over whether Christie — or anyone — can emerge intact for the primaries next year, one piece of news this week did manage to calm some nerves: a report in Politico that Hillary Clinton keeps a political “hit list” of all those who have wronged her over the years. As one veteran of the George H.W. Bush administration put it, “Bluntly, two misshapen psyches keeps you in the game.” That's what the world has for its' leadership talent pool . . . . misshapen psyches. the insiders know it too. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/05/the-smartest-book-about-our-digital-age-was-published-in-1929.html "Despite a title that promises political analysis, The Revolt of the Masses has almost nothing to say about conventional party ideologies and alignments. Ortega shows little interest in fascism or capitalism or Marxism, and this troubled me when I first read the book. (Although, in retrospect, the philosopher’s passing comments on these matters proved remarkably prescient—for example his smug dismissal of Russian communism as destined to failure in the West, and his prediction of the rise of a European union.) Above all, he hardly acknowledges the existence of ‘left’ and ‘right’ in political debates. Ortega’s brilliant insight came in understanding that the battle between ‘up’ and ‘down’ could be as important in spurring social and cultural change as the conflict between ‘left’ and ‘right’. This is not an economic distinction in Ortega’s mind. The new conflict, he insists, is not between “hierarchically superior and inferior classes…. upper classes or lower classes.” A millionaire could be a member of the masses, according to Ortega’s surprising schema. And a pauper might represent the elite." https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200790991957033&set=gm.225824997590976&type=1 The urban/rural divide is not exclusive to the US. Labor (red) dominates the metro areas in England and Conservative (blue) in the less densely populated areas. Why? http://news.bbc.co.uk/.../results_constituencies/maps/uk.gif You'll have to click this link to see the animation of the patterns changing in Canada, but the metro areas do seem to lean liberal and the rural sections go conservative. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Canada_Federal_Election_2004-2011.gif http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/01/blood-and-mud-a-french-soldier-s-wwi-memoir-vividly-describes-trench-warfare.html "The probability that policy change occurs is basically the same whether a small group or a large majority of average citizens are in favor. On the other hand, all else being the same, opposition from the wealthy means that a particular policy is only adopted about 18 percent of the time, but when they support it it gets adopted 45 percent of the time. Similar patterns are true for interest groups. The impact could also be even higher than their findings, as there may be policy differences among those they count as wealthy." The people are divided and conquered. Special interests know what they want and don't sit home on the couch and refuse to vote. http://rsf.org/index2014/en-index2014.php "Countries that pride themselves on being democracies and respecting the rule of law have not set an example, far from it. Freedom of information is too often sacrificed to an overly broad and abusive interpretation of national security needs, marking a disturbing retreat from democratic practices. Investigative journalism often suffers as a result. This has been the case in the United States (46th), which fell 13 places, one of the most significant declines, amid increased efforts to track down whistleblowers and the sources of leaks. The trial and conviction of Private Bradley Manning and the pursuit of NSA analyst Edward Snowden were warnings to all those thinking of assisting in the disclosure of sensitive information that would clearly be in the public interest." http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/06/libertarian-robert-sarvis-pulls-66-perce That's a full 33% of the swing vote!

VOTE WITH YOUR BOOT . . . WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014_full.html#.U7idbbE2tLT "We’ve got to try something. These idiotic trickle-down policies are destroying my customer base. And yours too." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/03/we-need-smith_n_5554830.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/03/meet-the-governor-turned-ganjapreneur.html Johnson was the Libertarian nominee for president in 2012. And people actually voted for Romney and Obama anyway. http://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20140122-a-new-physics-theory-of-life/ “People often get stuck in thinking about individual problems,” Prentiss said. Whether or not England’s ideas turn out to be exactly right, she said, “thinking more broadly is where many scientific breakthroughs are made.” Political science is a social science . . . . http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/25/world/europe/eu-elections/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2 "The sovereign people have proclaimed that they want to take back the reigns of their destiny into their hands. Our people demand one type of politics: politics of the French, for the French, with the French. They no longer want to be directed from outside," she said. "They can agree they don't like the EU," Usherwood said, "but they can't agree what they like and what the answer is." "Eventually soldiers on all sides could not endure this hell. Part of survival ultimately depended on refusing to obey orders, even as their officers promised to shoot them on the spot should they not advance. Soon troops from both sides exited the trenches, met their enemies in peace and even agreed not to fire on one another. Barthas came upon “French and German sentries seated tranquilly on their parapets, smoking pipes and exchanging bits of conversation from time to time, like good neighbors taking some fresh air at their doorsteps.” http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/04/12/3426152/wealthy-lobbyists-policy/ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/magazine/eric-cantor-is-on-the-market.html?_r=0 "In 1974, according to The Atlantic, 3 percent of retiring members of Congress became lobbyists. Now half of all senators and 42 percent of representatives enter the field. And those numbers don’t include our former leaders who call themselves “policy advisers,” consultants or strategists. (“Unregistered lobbyists” is how they are known, winkingly, around town.) Or the fact that more than half the members of Congress — who tend to be well educated, well raised and well married to begin with — are already millionaires." http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/phillynow/2012/08/14/green-party-stays-on-ballot-in-pennsylvania-while-constitution-libertarian-parties-challenged/ "all Pennsylvania third parties, are required to hand in 2 percent of the most votes gotten by a candidate in the previous election. This year, that number was 20,601 signatures, compared with a 2,000 benchmark for Republican and Democratic candidates." Outrageous!