by Jim Buckley
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3/7/20 Biden surged in Super Tuesday after South Carolina voted. Blacks led the way and apparently whites followed their lead. Turnout was good but didn't seem to help Bernie much. I'm disappointed that Bernie isn't doing better but my position all along is to support any Democrat who wins the primary in order to get rid of Trump. AND, regardless of who wins, keep the Movement going to make the Democrats more progressive or even lay the groundwork for a third Progressive Party. Poor Bernie. He hasn't lost yet but it has been apparent for months that he's not going to win going head to head with the drug companies, insurance companies and fossil fuel corporations and maybe all corporations and the one percenters. If I were Bernie I would name Stacy Abrams as vice president if he wins, tell Elizabeth Warren that he would like to name her as Attorney General but that it's awfully important that she stay in the Senate. I would also not pick fights with all the rich and all the corporations at the same time. Target the corrupt and greedy but work with the few who see that regulation and fair taxes benefit us all and keep the system sustainable. Bernie might have one last dramatic chance. But most importantly we all need to keep the Movement going. What is the Movement? The Progressive Caucus, Justice Democrats and Courage to Change as well as Bernie and AOC?? 1/11/20 Good news about Bernie and other Progressives. I imagine the corporate powers including those within the democratic Party will be on the attack. I'm supporting various progressive groups like the Progressive Caucus, Justice Democrats and Courage to Change as well as Bernie and AOC. I don't know which, if any progressive group will emerge potentially as a movment of party after the election. I would vote for any Democrat to beat Trump but after the election, if we do beat Trump, I think it's time to form a "democratic socialist" or "progressive" party. I think a three or four party system would be more democratic and way less likely to be sabotaged by one party. It hasn't been possible so far in my lifetime but hopefully the Trump party will fall apart like any cult giving both the progressives and conservatives an opportunity to reconstitute their parties or form new ones. Potential Progressive Prties: Progressive Caucus - PAC focus on US Congress, Pramila Jayapal, co chair and supported by Bernie, AOC, et.al. Donate through Act Blue. Justice Democrats - PAC focused on US Congress with platform promoted by AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Pramila Jayapal, et.al. Donate through Act Blue. Courage to Change - PAC formed by AOC in reaction to DCCC and funded through ActBlue
Hope Support any Democrat to defeat Trump. Hopefully the Democrats will take the House and Senate too. The Republicans will be in disarray. Then the Democrats will screw things up, as usual. But there will be an opportunity to form a Progressive third party from progressive Democrats, Socialists and the disenfranchised who voted for Trump. There will be some important things to fix, of course, but at least revise the electoral process to eliminate the Electoral College and promote a system of proportional approval voting (PAV) which will favor more civilized elections and more cooperation among elected officials. 10/28/19 The Big Questions: What happens if trump loses the 2020 election? Will he leave? With Corporate America funding all the Republicans and most of the Democrats what chance do we have of regulating corporations? Or universal health insurance, gun control or tax reform? One reason "fake news" works is because most Americans have never been taught how to verify or vet what they see or read. Most print and broadcast news organizations do have a vetting process requiring two or more sources and some documentation or evidence. Maybe they should run stories to educate us about vetting and what they do to assure us that the news they print or broadcast is true and help us recognize typical propaganda techniques or other strategies and gambits used in "fake news". 3/9/19 Elizabeth Warren's new plan: Break up Amazon, Google and Facebook is good and relates to long-established manufacturer-dealer relationships. In our maosnry business we don't sell to contractors at dealer prices because it would give those few contractors advantage over everyone else. We want dealers to not be contractors and sell to all contractors at the same price. We could elimiate dealers and sell to eveyone at the same price ourselves but, if we want dealers to promote and stock product to save time and freigh costs, then we can't undercut them by selling to a contractor at the same price the dealer pays. Isn't that what Amazon does? They sell third party products but also create their own products to compete. Or do they? Does Amazon actually own manufacturing plants or do they just look for other competing products? 3/4/19
Fight Political Corruption Locally to fix the Broken National System
End gerimandering Ranked choice voting Automatic voter registration Overhaul lobbying and ethics laws Transparent political spending Voter vouchers More information or join The Comonwealth 2/28/19 DSA debates endorsing Bernie Sanders before the Convention. 1/27/18 Money Laundering and other pervasive corporate crimes. Mueller's investigation progresses is really very interesting. But the elephant in the room is money laundering. Making his golf courses and Trump Towers available to Russian gangsters to hide their money is the real crime - not that collusion with the Russians to meddle with our elections or the subsequent obstruction of justice or perjury aren't important but these pail in comparison in my mind to the money laundering, tax evasion and outright racketeering. Why isn't the media more interested? Maybe Mueller is - we don't know yet. Why does the stock market keep gong up? Why has Trump been as well received at Davos as he has? Maybe that's because it's common. Everybody does it. Maybe international corporations in general are run like Trump runs his rackets. Look closely into a bank in Panama or Switzerland and you find a lot of people and corporations you thought were legitimate laundering money and avoiding taxes. Are Trump's clownish antics just a side show to divert us from the pervasive crimes of big business and the one percenters? Social Media instability Google, Facebook, Twitter, et.al. figure out what you like and feed it to you. Good targeted advertising, perhaps, but the practice does real harm to the truth. It feels good to read only what I already believe but I would rather - and think it would be better for our country - if there was more truth and balance. It's not just political. If I want to see how my website ranks on Google I type in "Rumford" and I see that the top three or four listings are for my pages. But is this what everyone sees? Maybe Google just knows that I like Rumford fireplaces. Maybe using only browsers that are encrypted or hide your identity would be good. And maybe the open source promised by Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies is the way to go. But wouldn't that make it een easier for corporations to launder money? Corporate Taxes In the Eisenhower era federal corporate taxes were about 90% of profit but now we have to reduce our corporate taxes from 35% to 25% to encourage corporations to keep their money in the US? Let's see if I have this right. Corporations only pay taxes on profits. Profits may sound good to investors but corporations could reduce profits, and pay less tax, by paying their employees more or re-investing in production. So who benefits from low taxes on profits? Isn't it the investors, owners and stockholders who are keen on amassing great fortunes? If so then the issue isn't corporate taxes so much as personal taxes. If corporations were taxed more like 90% like they were under Eisenhower we would foster more production in the US and grow the middle class. Let the people who gamble in investments take their paper money anywhere they like. 4/4/17 So with the "nuclear option" invoked to elect Gorscuch, which might mean even less bipartisan cooperation in Congress, we need a third party so that no single party has an absolute majority. Maybe cooperation between factions within each party coud work. 2/26/17 So, maybe, as Aaron says, I'm too hard on the establishment Democrats who don't seem to have a problem with corporate money. Maybe Bernie is almost unique and it's unreasonable to expect every Democrat to renounce Big Money. Every one of the Washington Democrats, who I voted for, take big Pharma and Boeing money. The new leadership of the Democratic Party, Perez and Ellison, say they want to move forward together. Let's take them at their word and see what moving forward would mean. First of all, for my support, the Democratic platform would have to include a pledge of transparency and justification for any Big money accepted. For example, an elected official or candidate might reveil that he or she accepts money from the drug lobby but only to stave off open opposition while working toward a single payer heath system. Or that they accept Boeing money because they wouldn't be elected if they didn't and, while Boeing pays it's CEO too much and screws it's unions, they are big Washington employers. But we don't take money from the oil industry or Wells Fargo or any other entity that skirts the law and greases it's larder at the expense of the people.
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The Progressive Party was formed in 1912 by former President Theodore Roosevelt, after he lost the nomination of the Republican Party to Taft. Now the Progressives are the Bernie wing of the Democratic Party. Interesting parallel and many shared interests: rule by the people, breaking up monopolies, tax reform, regulating industry, promoting national parks, women's suffrage, etc. Check out the 1912 Progressive Platform. Maybe we should see if there is a reform or progressive wing of the Republican Party - people who might also like to get the money out of politics. Maybe the Democratic Progressives and the Republican Progressives could form a viable third party.
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At least it's time to stop trading insults and fake news with many of the people who voted for Trump that might vote to really clean out the swamp and take our country back for the people. It was Eisenhower, after all, who warned us of the "military-industrial complex". See US History on the Progressives and a possibly emerging modern Republican Progressive party with an emerging platform by Chris Ladd who has quit GOPLifer to form Political Orphans and is a good writer 2/24/17 Trump says the press is rigged. And the "deep state" at CIA, FBI State, EPA and so on are also rigged. If it were Bernie saying that I would be right there. The media is controlled by five or six big corporations and the deep state guards the interests of big money and big business. The difference is that Bernie has a cogent analysis (get the money out of politics) while Trump either doesn't get it or can't say clearly that it's big money and big business that is rigging the system. Trump is doing a great job in crating havoc and maybe bringing down the system and Bannon, the Leninist turned Libertarian, is egging him on as the state withers away. Maybe these are the kinds of struggles Bernie would have had had he been elected. But it's a formidable problem and Bernie was defeated by the big money within the Democratic Party. It certainly is ironic that I find myself hoping the corrupt, dishonest and authoritarian CIA, the rigged media and big business (all my old enemies) will bring Trump down. And it's downright strange for me, who lived through the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's to find comfort in states' rights. 2/22/17 Now, with Trump's draconian tweets and executive orders, there is a plethora of new protest groups:
Indivisible Port Townsend (and across the nation) dedicated to resisting Trump Jefferson County Immigrant Rights Advocacy Group evolved from BP Free group New Sanctuary Movement to withness and disrupt ICE and BP raids My frustration stems from the immediacy of the immigration crise (and maybe other crises) without a general philosophy, direction or platform. I will try a draft a weighted platform below.
A - Most important long range plan is to get big money out of politics. Very few Democrats or Republicans see this as a priority. Maybe only Bernie. Interesting that the stock market is hardly phased by Trump. Government is less important than we thought, the Republicans have made it even less relevant playing right into the corporate conservative/libertarian game plan. Maybe the game is over and corporate interests have won and are not worried. They are in charge and Trump is merely incompetent - the more incompetent the better. They are free to rule. In this most important category would be...
Tax Reform: Corporate taxes on par with other countries, individual taxes fair simple and graduated Regulate banks and large corporations - nationalize them if necessary De-militarize or greatly reduce military spending that is only to enrich corporations Big and publicly held corporations should have a representative of the public on board of directors, publish tax returns and, in general, be more transparent Support whatever comes up in the short run like the WA I 735 or get rid of Citizens United
Support public schools free through university Labor unions - allow, support, require. Ban “right to work laws”. Labor is a potential rationalizing force within a company or industry Universal health care
Womens' rights immigration reform
Organizations for the next four years: |
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11/20/16 Trump wins. So what now? Check with Mericle and Kettler - and Tom Heyden and Chris Hedges, Reich. Analysis: Democrats have become a fund raising organization for liberal elites and loyal to their monied supporters (Reich) and no effort in organizing the working class or middle class or whatever the are to be called. Too much emphasis on the poor and minority groups and not enough attention paid to those put out of work by globalization, automation, etc. Trump, on the other hand spoke to the working class but I don't see you he will be able to deliver. Plus his racism, xenophobia and misogyny is troubling to ay the least.
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So what to do? My instinct is to distribute income better through fair taxes. Not sure about corporate taxes. Apparently the US is already high by world standards but corporate power is increasingly out of democratic control. I think I would tax individuals on a serious sliding scale with few loopholes more like that of the 1950s and use the tax money to fund education and corporate regulation. Term limits, transparency, public ownership of public things like parks, jails and maybe banks and resources like coal, oil and electricity. Research how the rich get really rich. Hedge funds - is it basically gambling? Mainframe computers trading by the nano-second? Let's tax the gamblers - a small tax per transacton. This is not a revolutionary plan but a gradual one that will require grass roots organizing during the next four years after which we will have a good chance of wining control of the presidency and the congress. We need a party with a platform. We would lose a revolution: it's an infantile leftist idea and we don't have the fire-power.
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