Lessons from Organizing for America

Review of "Obama's Lost Army"

The New Republic article "Obama's Lost Army" [https://newrepublic.com/article/140245/obamas-lost-army-inside-fall-grassroots-machine] which tells part of the tale of how "Organizing for America" got lost in the shuffle of his Presidency. MICAH L. SIFRY wrote this on February 9, 2017. I was a member of OFA during the election season and loved it. I also remember a few angles on the story that seem to be lost in the reporting. So I tweeted about the meaning of the article and how the structures and capabilities of "Organizing for America" could be the nucleus for modernizing our party and instituting real electronic democracy.

Hannah Arendt, Donald Trump and the Stateless

Nativists Versus the Stateless

Around the world nativism is raising it's ugly head again. Some People in nations all over the world are rising in rejection of immigrants, refugees and minorities among their own people. This phenomena is not new. It is not trivial or benign either. It was a feature of totalitarianism in the 30s and since. It is also a feature of totalitarian groups.

Demagoguing Immigrants

Unfortunately, we just elected a Nativist President in the United States. His premier appointments are the open nativist Bannon and the racist Reince Prebius. The "alt right" is just an updated fascism. They are folks who openly admire Hitler as a hero and want to continue his work. People who proudly wear KKK robes and talk about race war and their own identity. They are openly fascist. And their target are people who are minorities, "mixed races" and the stateless. Nativism is as ugly now as it has ever been. And nativists are set to direct the country from the White House. Trump himself talks openly about his racialist beliefs, but mainly he is demagogueing the subject.

Von Mises and Tony Wikrent

Economic Sophism

Sophism in economics and politics is like the Hydra. As soon as you cut off one head, new ones grow. Fascism never really goes away.

After we defeated the Nazis their fascism simply morphed into new forms. The same tropes that animated Mediterranean fascist states soon animated Latin American, Greek, Indonesian and other movements. What works for bomb throwing lefties works for bomb throwing righties. And it gets hard to tell them apart as they radicalize.

Similarly, the economic theories that support both monarchism and fascism never really went away. They are too convenient to the patroons to fund them to be allowed to go away. They serve the needs of the ambitious, to social climbers, grifters, swindlers and those with the perverse ambition and power to preserve and extend their personal power using them to bamboozle followers. So the shills for such ideas, don't disappear, they adapt.

Hannah Arendt on Donald Trump's Mob

Trump's Mob

Watching this election made me pull out my copy of "The Origins of Totalitarianism" by Hannah Arendt.

Here is what she wrote about Trump's followers:

“The mob is primarily a group in which the residue of all classes are represented. This makes it easy to mistake the mob for the people, which also comprises all strata of the people. While the people in all great revolutions fight for true representation, the mob will always shout for the “strong man,” the “great leader.” For the mob hates society from which it is excluded, as well as Parliament where it is not represented.” [Origins]

bait and switch confidence scheme of conservatism

A friend of mine noted that "Trump rose on GOP's 3 pillars" [Trumps 3 Pillars]:

racism(birtherism),

xenophobia(build wall)&

Islamophobia(Muslim ban).

"Anybody who sez otherwise is full of sh!t",

....and I have to agree. But that is only part of what is going on. If you go to one of the Conservative Websites designed to recruit students. They will tell you that the "four pillars of Conservatism" are:

Bait:

1 liberty / freedom

2 tradition & order

3 rule of law

4 belief in God

Source: https://home.isi.org/pillars-modern-american-conservatism

This sounds nice, except the constitution explicitly prohibits inserting religion into politics, since it is generally divisive and there is no true catholic and orthodox religion unless authorities resort to authoritarianism and impose it; or religious authorities have the wisdom to stay out of areas where their knowledge fails to be helpful.

But nobody can argue with concepts like liberty and freedom. Nothing is wrong with tradition & order, except that imposing it on others means abrogating or infringing on personal liberty and freedom, and tradition is something that has to have some flexibility or it becomes a source for oppression.

So essentially liberty/freedom are in potential conflict with tradition/order -- so these pillars have to balance or they bring down the table they are supporting.

Conserving Things

Us Progressives argue that tradition should not be restraining on improving personal and public welfare. They'd agree on Items one and three, but argue with rigid adherence to authority. Tradition should guide us not bind us.

And of course there are religious progressives and religious conservatives. So on the whole most people are fine with all four traditions and just differ on the degree to which they feel bound by #2. Progressives included!

Progressives believe that "order" should not be an excuse to infringe on people's private behavior. We are the conservatives on matters of personal liberty, mostly.

So in theory conservatives would be environmentalists, conserving the traditions of public access to parks and recreation, our harmony with nature, and man's role as Gardner of the planet tending to God's creation. Conservation of Nature is a conservative value.

In theory conserving the public good would be a conservative principle. The bible enjoins conservatives to look out for "widow's and orphans" to help one's "brother", and to contribute to the public welfare. Under a conservative regime paying tithes would be mandatory and public welfare would be administered through the churches. In our secular society it is too much for Churches, who have no one to enforce their tithes. So those advocating dismantling the welfare state are not conservatives. They look for other excuses to nullify the constitutionality of such programs -- saying the Church should do them. But upholding that tithes should not be mandatory. Thus defenestrating Churches from doing that role.

I point that out because there is nothing conservative about building giant walls, abrogating treaties, or doing away with public welfare, privatizing public services and education, or turning over our resources to rich people. All that is not conservatism.

The Confidence Scheme

So what it is is that modern conservatism is a confidence scheme. Read the offered link and you'd think that conservatism is all about liberty and tradition, upholding the constitution and establishing order over criminals and terrorists seeking to invade and trouble the country.

But the sales of conservatism are aimed at convincing people that a particular religious ideology, a particular tradition and peculiar ideas of who, what, how and why we get and keep order in our society. Modern conservatives complain about Donald Trump, but he's only pushing ideas that the GOP has developed and used over the past 50 years in order to win elections by stoking fear, paranoia and anger. I could go into detail but I won't. I have other things I need to be doing right now.

Besides, I wrote on this 2 years ago, talking about Lee Atwater:

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2014/09/southern-strategy-and-war-on-poor.html

People should read my article and it's references

But of course the 4 pillars are the bait in a confidence scheme!

The Switch

Unfortunately, the reality, the "switch" of the conservative confidence game is that the only thing conservatives are actually conserving is wealth.

Their economic distress is diverted, using scapegoating, to bigotry. Part of the con! Sell them on "conservatism" hook them with hate!

switch:

1 No liberty unless white

2/3 order & law = authoritarianism

4 belief in God unless Muslim.

So essentially the "4 Pillars of conservatism" translate to nativism and authoritarianism.

Trump is the creation of Lee Atwater, Reince Priebus and the GOP

I have a lot more to say, but I need to work on some other things right now.

Further reading

https://home.isi.org/pillars-modern-american-conservatism

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2014/09/southern-strategy-and-war-on-poor.html

Economic, Democratic Subsidiarity and local democracy

Greece in 2015, Puerto Rico Now, What to do?

Almost a year ago I blogged a series on the Eurozone and what was happening to the Greeks and what that means for us:

"The privateers give a Broadside to the Greeks",

Privateering through Banks and the EuroZone and

Going Greek on the Whole World

And I showed that neo-liberalism is not Bill Clinton, us Democrats and Company. It is our Republican movement:

Neoliberalism versus Economic Policy that Really works

The Difference between a Prophet or a Leader and a Critic

Yes Bernie Globalization is Failing the 99%

Yes our current structures protect "private, separate advantage" regimes of trade, monetary policy and legal protections that protect the rights and privileges of a select few. Really more a .1% than a one percent. They are engineered to protect neo-colonial features. Those features turn most of the world into either drive-by neo-colonies or fly-over neo-colonies. And yes, they are tyranny and oppression.

He's right. It is tyranny. Of a very special kind. One we engineered, first as step children of the European Colonial adventure, and then as the dominant power in the world.

Yes Bernie, WE Need to Wake up

So here's the thing: At one time those features benefited this country.

Yes, that degraded a long time ago. Employers, seeking low wages and playing off governors against governors, north against south, and then country against country; headed south in the 70s and then kept traveling south and East and West til former enemies were competing for jobs we once performed at home and former friends, offended, have been wondering WTH is going on. Globalization mostly has meant offshoring since the 80s began. We can talk about NAFTA, CAFTA, etc... but these are symptoms of a trade regime negotiated for big industry, the wealthy and a tiny pool of very wealthy trade lawyers. And it is a three fingered thing. But does Bernie Sanders mention any of this? No, He's a politician not a prophet or an analyst.

And that is why we need Hillary

A Reckless and stupid Trumpster and a Feckless media

The Trumpster accused Obama of not being willing to talk about "Islamic Extremism" in language that made Darth Cheney and Padowan George W. Bush's tirades seem almost intelligent and gentle. Almost accusing Obama of Treason for not using the term! The Moron said it in multiple speeches and even a tweet!

"Is President Obama going to finally mention the words radical Islamic terrorism? If he doesn't he should immediately resign in disgrace! Tweet: 1:58 PM - 12 Jun 2016" see [http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/06/trump-obama-immediately-resign-disgrace-not-mentioning-radical-islam-pulse-attack/]

Obama explains why The Trumpster is reckless and the Feckless media calls his comments a Tirade!

Principles of Federalism

Federated principles are concerned with uniting people and getting them to work together in solidarity. Federal Government is general government that spans multiple centers of population and subdivisions and links people who might otherwise be at war with one another. Thus all the principles of Federal Government derive from two basic concepts: "E Pluribus Unum" -- out of many one and the notion that we are stronger when we work together; "United We Stand, Divided We Fall." The notion of "Union" as better than disunion is central to all of them. For a Federation to work it has to recognize the rights and responsibilities of both central authorities and local authorities, subsidiarity and replication of republican forms to the local level.

Finding PLACE

The other day, there was a presentation at the Kaplan. The Powers that Be have ignored local folks. But as with the saying "An Expert is someone from out of town" they brought in some mavens from out of town, and with the input from those folks they seem to be getting closer to the right idea:

"A meeting to help shape Brunswick’s future took place Monday inside the brick shell of the four-story former Kaplon department store. About 20 business people, elected leaders and nonprofit redevelopers considered options to fill space in the city with a combination of arts venues, small stores and places to live on any income."

A little Electoral Troll humor

 

Troll Troll on the knoll

Surfing the internet

Big fat troll at the bridge

Collecting tolls from all who cross!

Don't wanna pay?

At the end of the day

You'll be roasting on a spit!

 

Run real fast! You still might pass!

And he will have a fit!

But if he catches you

He'll put you on a spit

And make you "feel the Bern"

 

Droll troll on the knoll

No sense of humor at all

Comes out at night

Full of anger

At everything in sight!

 

But if you can trap him

In a thread

He'll argue til first light

And when the sun comes up

And the light strikes him

Poor fellow, he'll turn to stone!

 

Christopher H. Holte

Winning doesn't always mean getting elected

I have friends who are Hillary supporters, and other's who are Bernie Supporters. Initially I was a Bernie supporter. I stand behind some of the same ideas as Bernie does. I like him best when he talks about ideas and defeating the Cons.

Bernie say's he's not running for President to lose the election. I admire his determination but winning isn't everything and sometimes winning a personal battle can be a Pyrrhic victory. One can take the field and lose the war for wasting resources. Sometimes one can lose a battle in order to win a war. In this case of this election the war is not a war between Bernie and Hillary. It is a war between neo-liberal "zombie economics" and progressive/ equitable notions of economy. So when he focuses on winning the election to the point of distorting the issues and attacking his allies he loses me. And he has.

But it is also about strategy. Sometimes you don't get your way right away.

Sometimes it takes patience.

The Trouble with Bernie Sanders Part II Hanlon's Razor

Hanlon's Razor

Bernie had the opportunity to bring transformative change to the Democratic Party and he's blowing it. I was going to put all this in one book length post and then I realized it was too unwieldy. The subject is too big, and there is too much to talk about. And one cause of this failure is the paranoia and anger of his so-called movement. And what is driving that movement is Hanlon's Razor.

Hanlon's razor basically states that one should avoid ascribing to malevolence what is more likely caused by stupidity. It's a corollary to Occam's razor and this is so because in observing human affairs complex narratives usually involve elaborate conspiracies or hidden motives. But human stupidity is usually the more likely cause for failure or even conflict. People misunderstand each other.

What Bernie is doing Right

The Trouble with Bernie Sanders, Part One
What Bernie is doing right

I started this season last year as a fervent supporter of much of what is in the Sander's plank. I wanted Bernie Sanders to serve as a "loyal opposition" to our party and take a bit of a prophet's role. I wanted him to push the party to uphold its core values and for Hillary not to do that "compromise" and "I'm the Centrist" thing that our candidates have been forced to do for as long as I've been able to vote. I was hoping that Bernie would be active in electing a progressive democrat caucus to be a majority party in the country and support a transformation of our party from bottom up. We need local as much as national changes and I was hoping that he'd put a fire under democrats around the country.

Sanders War against the 90s

Hillary faces a Right Wing and Activist/muckraker inspired rewrite of the 1990s that the media calls a "liberal war against the 1990s."

"Hillary Clinton has long literally and figuratively stood beside Bill Clinton, fully embracing his policy moves to make the Democratic Party more centrist in the 1990s and defending him after his affair with a White House intern and subsequent impeachment." [NBC]

The distinction between a critique and destructive criticism is that a critique acknowledges the merits and context of what is being criticized. In this case, broken window theory has a legitimate critique. But we aren't seeing that are we?

Stabbed with our Own Sword - "Hoisted with our own Petard."

Or how the New Left Movement became the Establishment

The Generation that wouldn't trust anyone over thirty de-evolved into the generation that didn't trust anyone under 30. They (we) invented the "New Left", "Third Way," "New Democrats" and attacked our parents generation of politicians as "establishment", as "out of touch" and in return many of our parents generation turned on us. The New Left abandoned interest in economic progress for working people and focused on gay rights, pacifism and "fighting the establishment."

What happened to the New Left?

The New left fractured over new issues. These issues included:

• The Anti War Movement
• Women's Movement, Gay Rights and Radicalized Civil Rights
• The Values Movement

ISDS as an agency of Neo-colonialism

Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) Tribunals are now starting to bite what used to be known as the first world, in the rear. Recently the threat of an Investor Suit in the World Trade court instigated Congress to rescind point of origin labeling laws. And another lawsuit was filed even more recently seeking damages for a ruling that the Keystone XL pipeline was too great a risk to the US water supply to be built. [see Washington Post: "TransCanada is suing the U.S. over Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline. The U.S. might lose."]

Transformation or half loaves -- A Debate

I still wish for an in person debate between Paul Krugman and Robert Reich. In a way we have one between their newspaper columns. Krugman in the times: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/22/opinion/how-change-happens.html and Reich in his blog: http://robertreich.org/post/137882162570 I think they both are making valid points. But I disagree fundamentally with Krugman's attack on the value of “transformative rhetoric”

The Search For Justice -- Susan Matzkin

A Life in Search of Justice

Susan Matzkin

My friend Raquel Partnoy announced the death of the activist Susan Matzkin today. I noticed there wasn't much out there in English on her. So I realized I needed to pass this information along. Raquel's announcement, in my poor translation goes:

"With deep regret we hear the sad news that Susan Matzkin has passed away. She was a tireless worker for human rights in lawsuits against those guilty of crimes against humanity and in the struggle for justice in the murder of her Sister Raquel Matzkin Zulma and companions during the military dictatorship. Her example of human dignity will always be remembered and will help to continue fighting for Truth and Memory." [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10208608784285501&set=a.1539358572349.71963.1486466851&type=3&theater]

Injustice

Her sister, Raquel Matzkin Zulma, was one of many young people killed by the Argentine Fascists during what amounted to a holocaust for educated Jews, progressive and radical Argentines, in what is euphemistically called "el processo" or "the dirty war" in Argentina. She dedicated her life to bringing to justice the people who committed those crimes against her own people. Roberto Baschetti has a brief bio of her sister:

Raquel Matzkin Zulma

Murdered 10/5/1976

"Matzkin, Zulma Raquel.
Born June 9, 1952 in Francisco Madero, Buenos Aires. She studied economics at the Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS). Militant Peronist University Youth (JUP), abducted on 18 July 1976 and taken to the concentration camp "school" of Bahia Blanca. She was murdered in a faked encounter with three others, actually by the repressive forces in that city, the 10/05/76."

If we keep listening to Faux news, Right Wing Radio, and folks like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, this sort of thing could happen here. Althoug with police extrajudicial murders and "accidental poisonings" like happened in Flint. I would suggest it's already happening here for some people.

Further Reading

Raquel Partnoy's "Packages"

http://www.embassyofargentina.us/en/the-packages-paintings-by-raquel-partnoy.html

Spanish (Español) Versions:

http://www.robertobaschetti.com/biografia/m/131.html

Details:

http://basededatos.parquedelamemoria.org.ar/registros/571/

Our Corrupt Supreme Court of the USA (SCOTUS) overturns a bribery conviction

Our incredibly corrupt Supreme Court (SCOTUS) announced they are going to hear the case of the even more corrupt former Governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, and his appeal of his conviction on bribery. The courts continue to affirm that the private separate advantage (tyranny) of money and power to buy private separate access and undue influence are:

"protected free speech."