Progressive Taxation principles and Piketty

Thomas Piketty wrote an extraordinary book called "Capital" which I didn't really appreciate until I started digging into it. His analysis accepted the definitions of those with wealth and power, and so when I first heard about the book I thought he was defending our current system. Doing this actually allowed him to skewer many of the myths and "zombie ideas" that have been driving progressive economists crazy for more than 30 years. It turns out he's teaching principles that I do believe in, just he's not coming at them by the expected route.

He's quoted in interview with PBS (see: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/inequality-will-worsen-in-america-unless-pikettys-rx/) here:

Systemic Corruption and Dysfunction

Analogy to Disease an Introduction

If you've seen these arguments before, forgive me and skip to the next title.

I wash my dishes constantly. Part of it is to keep them looking pretty, but the main reason is to keep the crud down, and to keep the bacteria that live in that crud down. I understand and wonder at the amazing bacteria. Most of them are commensal or even beneficial and symbiotic. Bacteria do wonderful things, and even the cleanest (and most obsessive about cleanliness) person has a body colonized by bacteria. Maybe bubble children don't have bacteria on them, but everybody else does, and without them we get ill. Normally they are good citizens.

But when the immune system is compromised even symbiotic or commensal bacteria turn on their hosts. When folks started dying who'd spent their summers at Fire Island in New York's long Island, weird diseases showed up. Normally commensal innocuous viruses were causing major disease, pneumonias were killing young men that ordinarily kill old men. Weird cancers were appearing. The syndrome that eventually was diagnosed was Acquired Immune Syndrome, previously only seen in victims of radiation poisoning. The nearby Brookhaven plant was ruled out as a source of radiation poisoning and ultimately the Human immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was identified as the culprit. When the immune system is compromised people get sick from things that normally wouldn't make them sick.

Perfect Little Randians

One of the diseases that can compromise the immune system is leukemia. When someone has leukemia some or all of the "cops" that keep us healthy get sick. For example in myeloma baby cells that eventually spawn platelets, blastocysts, and other cops of the body (including sometimes the red blood cells themselves) get ill and become defective little babies that will never grow up. The only thing they can do is to reproduce, find places to sit, and ultimately displace their healthy brothers and sisters. These sick little babies can't do their job and they ultimately kill their host. As with AIDS bacteria, virii, and other normally innocuous or even helpful citizens of our bodies turn on us. Leukemia kills by turning the "cops" in the body into criminals and then letting the criminals run loose. Leukemia's and cancers are analogous to purely self centered and selfish adolescents running wild and ignoring all rules and authority. They are perfect little Randians. They owe nothing to their fellow system members and they eventually kill it with their wild behavior.

Leukemias and similar are caused by biological dysfunction at the cellular level. Genes that enable cells to do their job are somehow disabled. Communications path ways that would allow the rest of the body to get control of their behavior are turned off. Ordinarily the body has signals that can order a sick cell to self destruct, that usually gets turned off. Organization wide dysfunction reflects dysfunction at the cell level in cancers and many immune system diseases. For any living system to function the cells need to be able to moderate each other's behavior. There has to be a functional body of instructions (gene code) that all live by. A poorly constituted cell sickens and dies. The larger organism dependent on that cell is threatened by the same disease that makes the cell sick. The chromosomes of our cells constitute our existence and provide rule of law for every system in our bodies. We live (and die) because of the wonder of our chromosomes.

There are all sorts of cancers and systemic diseases, and most of them can kill left untreated. Some of the most horrible ones occur in vital organs. Brain diseases prevent animals from being able to eat or interact with others. Nervous disorders wind up starving vital organs by misallocation. If our bodies work perfectly every part does it's role. If not we are at ill ease; disease.

A Functional Society

A living system is a system composed of living things constituted in such a way that they collectively behave in a symbiotic manner. We live in a living system composed of interlocked and symbiotic systems (often known as subsystems). Earth is alive and in a very real sense is a large scale organism on which everything alive on its surface is either commensal, symbiotic or harmful. Our nation is likewise a living system. Most living systems have functions and issues analogous to our own human bodies to one degree or another. The constitution of a society follows the dictates of form and functions necessary to create systems that moderate and channel people's passions and abilities into useful services and products. Our governments are composed of individuals who govern themselves by laws and rules that they themselves create. When those rules are functional the system can be said to be well constituted and behaves in a functional manner. When the rules are dysfunctional the result is analogous to a sick organism.

When any system is sick it is vulnerable. And when it is vulnerable ordinarily good members (citizens) of that system can turn into criminals. A sick government can turn ordinarily good people into criminals. A poorly constituted society has a poorly constituted government and that results in vulnerabilities which get exploited. The Gene code is complicated because it has instructions for manufacturing or acquiring everything the body needs to function and survive in this world. Similarly we create laws and governments to enable us to function and survive in this world individually and collectively. Collective, collaborative and social behavior are necessities for survival as individual organisms and as a human race. Doing away with any social order threatens the survival of the system and that threatens all of us.

A Well Constituted Society

We need a well constituted society that provides all the functions necessary for human beings to serve one another and to live commensally and symbiotically. If we think of society as an organism a lot of things become clear. We want police who do their job -- and only target disfunction. We want brains who serve society and don't arrogate resources to themselves. We want a functional transportation system so that vital organisms aren't starved of food, water and air. We want a good quality communication system where the brain receives feedback from all parts so that the body politic can respond to issues and devote the necessary resources or direct cops. We need fat cells (Wall Street) to store energy -- and then release it when the body needs it. Too much fat in hands of dysfunctional wealthy folks makes us sick. Dysfunctional cops can kill us. Parasites can make us ill whether they pose as fat cells or wander around junking corporations. All diseases have analogies in human activity. Regulation is designed to enable everyone to pursue his or her bliss, and to help them find their bliss so they can find a role in this system of ours.

When idiots come up with ideas that destroy this function, threaten it, or justify their own wild behavior at the expense of the common-wealth of the system, those idiots are behaving as disease organism. We need to constitute our society in such a way so that such folks are forced to be commensal or symbiotic and are not allowed to harm the system as a whole. Randian ideology denies the importance of the system of human affairs and so has to be fought so that the people embracing such ideology don't act like cancers on our politics.

Feedback

If we think in terms of systems then we see why we need democratic forms to give feedback to our government. Why we need to differentiate our efforts so that each of us can concentrate on what we do best. And also why we need to have functional infrastructure and local governance within the scope of what folks do best. We also then learn that there is such a thing as negative feedback which can tamp down a response, and positive feedback which can open a response full throttle, and so we constitute our society with each kind of feedback loop where needed. Separation of powers is about creating feedback and feedback loops to enhance function -- not about deliberately gumming up the works except when positive feedback can be ruinous.

Anyway, for those of you who already think this way I'm preaching to the choir. For those of you who don't understand what I'm talking about, please do some reading on basic systems theory and notions like Gaia, etc...

Nothing like a Toxic Spill

Nothing like a Toxic Spill,
over in the Ogalalah sands,
to end our dreams of a land of milk and honey,
and turn our watered lands to dust.
God might have given us a land of milk and honey,
but if we throw it away for worthless money,
We have played Judas to our own promise,
and poisoned our own dreams for our children.

https://www.facebook.com/senatorsanders

Hot Soot

Chaotically scattered around the world.
Soot from reactors that burned in the night.
Smoking deadly soot that burned and swirled.
Corium nightmares that can never be right.

And now the horror is dispersed and uncontained.
While sick children die, truth is restrained.
And corrupt monsters sit in board-rooms 
and continue their games.

That dust you breathe may have flown thousands of miles
From nuclear tests or Chernobyl, from Siberia or New Mexico,
and that strange disease you get may have been avoidable
but for some secret calculations made,
by liars sitting in offices, wearing dark shades.

Is that electricity really clean?
Is this poison really green?
Is it really natural to boil water with such a deadly sheen?

Reacting to article titled: "Nuclear Fuel Fragment from Fukushima Found In EUROPE Washington's Blog washingtonsblog.com "The Nuclear Core Has Finally Been Found … Scattered All Over the World. Fukushima did not just suffer meltdowns, or even melt-throughs …It suffered melt-OUTS … where the nuclear core of at least one reactor was spread all over Japan." Article posted May 6 9:39 AM poem written that morning.

Murdering Pregnant women in Argentina's Neoliberal "dirty war"

Background

El Equipo de Antropología identificó a tres embarazadas desaparecidas

The Argentine Army called it "El Processo." US people call it a "dirty war." But to my friends who lived it, it was a genocide aimed at a whole generation of young people. Most of whom were no more than idealists or local activists trying to improve the lives of poor people, or stand up for their own rights peacefully. People were taken off the streets with no real crime. When they'd be asked the motto was "you must have been guilty of something. I wrote about this before. The killing teams used Ford Falcons and would come in the middle of the night to get people. But sometimes they'd pick people up right off the street. They once stopped my wife on her way home from school and told her they were watching her and that the only reason they didn't pick her up was that they knew her father. My friend tells me to call this a genocide, because it really was directed at Jews, Intellectuals, "progressives", socialists as well as marxists. And the ideology behind it was the same conservative "neoliberal" ideology that is behind libertarianism and conservatism in the USA. One that conflates the word "democracy" with socialism, and social progress with communism.

We have to fight for change

Chris Hayes had Elizabeth Warren on his show today, and he asked her about whether it is possible to fight back against increasing oligarchy or not. She replied with the following clip. "We've got to have our voices heard."

http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/elizabeth-warren-its-up-to-us-to-fight-back-243487811831

It's up to us to fight back.

Cliven Bundy and his insurrectionist, subversive and rebellious followers

I was having fun at the [ https://www.facebook.com/events/688187351242203/] and got to read up on the Bundy ranch and the hijinks there. Got to learn about the Moapa Paiute Indians and their efforts to build a solar power plant to replace the coal fired one they have there. And to find out the real deal on who Cliven Bundy is. I want to share my findings so I don't have to repeat the research.

One: The Bundies have not been on that ranch more than 60 years.

This article reports that:

"Clark County Recorder documents show the 160-acre Bunkerville ranch Bundy calls home was purchased by his parents, David and Bodel Bundy, from Raoul and Ruth Leavitt on Jan. 5, 1948. The purchase included the transfer to the Bundys of certain water rights, including water from the nearby Virgin River. Cliven Bundy was born in 1946."

So his claim that his family has been on that ranch since the 1870's is a lie.

http://www.8newsnow.com/story/25302186/an-abbreviated-look-at-rancher-cliven-bundys-family-history

Two: The land that they are claiming is not their land and never was.

Bundy didn't start grazing cattle on BLS land until 1954.

"1998 opinion from U.S. District Judge Johnnie Rawlinson" found that "it wasn’t until roughly 1954 that “Bundy or his father or both have grazed livestock on public lands owned by the United States and administered by the BLM.”"

So the land wasn't his before 1954 by squatters rights either.

Three: They are scofflaws not victims of Federal Perfidy

The Los Vegas Sun reports on the amount that Bundy owes as follows: Question "How much does Bundy owe the Government:"

"A. Depends who you ask. He’ll tell you that he has refused to pay the BLM grazing fees since 1993, bringing his tab to about $300,000. But the government says he owes $1 million and will have to pay for the some of the round-up costs."

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2014/apr/11/q-behind-bundy-blm-battle/

Alan O'Neill claims that Bundy is actually a bully

The Las Vegas Sun also reports an article from Alan O'Neill who had to deal with him in the 90's:

" I served as superintendent of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area for the National Park Service from 1987 to 2000. In 1993, we reduced the number of cows that could be grazed on the Bunkerville allotment to 150 because of the emergency listing of the desert tortoise as an endangered species."

The Republicans make fun of this and don't deny it happened.

Because Bundy refused to remove his cattle to meet the 150 level and ignored repeated requests to do so, his permit was canceled in 1994 and the allotment was closed to grazing.

Bundy didn't accept that decision,

"As the news coverage has reported, Bundy continues to graze his cattle and has refused to pay the BLM a grazing fee. The figure he owes the government exceeds $300,000. The estimate of cattle being grazed illegally since 1994 on the old Bunkerville allotment have ranged from 550 to more than 900."

So he's been violating the law since 1993. And he did contest it in court, but failed:

"It is unfathomable to me that 20 years after the Bunkerville allotment was canceled in 1994, we are still wrestling with getting his cattle off the range. And there were issues of overgrazing that allotment before 1994. It is my opinion that the BLM and the Park Service have done everything possible administratively to try to resolve the issue amicably. In addition, there are two federal court rulings upholding the agencies’ position, and the most recent ruling demanded Bundy not physically interfere with any seizure or impoundment operation."

Not that it made any difference to him.

http://lasvegassun.com/news/2014/apr/06/rancher-land-dispute-bully-not-hero/

Four: The right is trying to instigate insurrection

Bundy is a bully who has used his threat of a range war and to do “whatever it takes” to stop the government from impounding his cattle to scare public officials.

And that includes shooting marshals.

The implications are that he would resort to a gunbattle. And who wants to see another Waco? I was one of those public officials who were told to back off at one point because of concern for violence.

What Bundy is doing is a criminal act, and he should be accountable for his actions rather than be held up as a hero fighting the federal government.

But of course instead of supporting rule of law Hannity, Fox News and the Militia movement came to his support. But Alan continues:

Most of the grazing permit holders on public land are good stewards and law-abiding citizens, and Bundy is doing them a disservice with his actions. He is a perfect example of someone who publicly states that he abhors the federal government but who relies on it for his welfare.

And of course:

He is grazing free on the public’s land to the detriment of the environment and the honest taxpayers who support his welfare lifestyle.

http://lasvegassun.com/news/2014/apr/06/rancher-land-dispute-bully-not-hero/

Five: The right is subverting the constitution

The Constitution states that:

"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."

But of course the Bundies and militia men dispute the authority of the United States. And were threatening to fight a war against the United States:

"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."

Making war against BLM is treason under the constitution, not a second amendment right.

Six: The right is threatening armed rebellion in a lawless fashion.

Sean Hannity all but directly called for armed rebellion against the Federal Government.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/3472854985001/cliven-bundy-harry-reid-has-no-business-in-clark-county/#sp=show-clips

Hannity has had him on the show multiple times and has encouraged his sedition. One example:

"My next guest, Cliven Bundy, is a Nevada rancher waging a battle against the federal government over his cattle grazing on public land which is overseen by the Bureau of Land Management"

And Hannity, endorsing him asked him how far he'd go, and Bundy said:

"My statement to the American people, I'll do whatever it takes to gain our liberty and freedom back."

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/2014/04/10/nevada-rancher-threatens-range-war-against-federal-government

In this April 15th clip he practically egged him on while blaming Harry Reid:

http://video.foxnews.com/v/3472854985001/cliven-bundy-harry-reid-has-no-business-in-clark-county/#sp=show-clips

Seven: The Folks trying to build a solar power plant are the Moapa Paiute Indians

The Moapa Paiute, with the help of both father Senator Harry Reid, and son, were able to get what they needed to build a Solar power plant for selling electricity to Los Angelos:

Keith Rogers in the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL [http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/energy/moapa-solar-plant-deal-signed] writes:

The sun is shining more brightly on the Moapa River Indian Reservation today.

So while Cliven [Al from Married with children's prototype?] Bundy and his followers are full of incoherent rage and fear. The Moapa Paiute are feeling good because:

"Council members for the city of Los Angeles approved a $1.6 billion, 25-year pact Tuesday to purchase solar power from a company that will build nearly 1 million photovoltaic panels on tribal land."

Which is win/win for Nevada, the Paiute Indians, and Los Angelos.

"I just can't believe that we're actually going to have something like this on the reservation," Moapa Band of Paiutes Chairman William Anderson said after arriving at McCarran International Airport on a flight from Los Angeles, a few hours after the council made its unanimous decision to purchase power from K Road Moapa Solar.

Which is nowhere near the Bundy ranch.

"We are going to have a solar farm and jobs for our people," Anderson, 39, said about the 320 members of the Moapa band.

Just the maintenance on this will employ caretakers and electricians for years.

They will serve as landlords and provide sand and gravel for the project, the largest solar plant on tribal lands in the United States.

Which means that nobody is stiffing the Paiute (for a change), and everyone will benefit.

Expected to go online in 2016, the 250-megawatt solar farm will generate enough electricity for 118,000 homes more than 280 miles away in Los Angeles.

And though I'd like to see more solar cells on those homes, this ia great start!

Anderson said the farm consisting of some 910,000 solar panels will be built on 2,000 acres on the 71,680-acre reservation. It will be across from the tribe's Moapa Travel Plaza truck stop, west of the Valley of Fire exit off Interstate 15, about 35 miles northeast of Las Vegas. It will be southwest of NV Energy's coal-fired Reid Gardner power station, which the tribe blames for health problems.

Again, nowhere near the Bundy Ranch.

So this is a win/win deal for the Paiute. No Feds stealing their land here!

http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/energy/moapa-solar-plant-deal-signed

There is no plot from Senator Reid and his Son to take the Bundy Ranch for a Solar plant

So why are the right maintaining that that is his dark goal?

The logic seems to be: Bundy is grazing on land that once was part of the Moapi Paiute reservation but was stolen in the 1800's. Obama and Reid helped the Moapi Paiute get some of their property back. Bundy's supporters are afraid the Indigenous want their land back out of guilt (since the previous owner probably helped pressure the Feds to steal it in the first place -- bundies only there since 40's) therefore in typical loopy Faux reasoning Reid (and the Indians -- but they won't say that) want the land back so they can build a solar power plant on it. Okay, I get the paranoia now. So now they send a faux reporter to the Reservation to elicit sympathetic comments about Bundy. Well I'm sympathetic with the old arsefart too. I understand how it hurts to give back nearly a million in grazing fees.

SNOPES debunks the allegations against Harry Reid here in an article [http://www.snopes.com/politics/conspiracy/nevada.asp]

"The site that ENN Mojave Energy was planning to buy in order to build a solar plant is nowhere near the public land Bundy has been disputing with the government, and ENN gave up the solar project and terminated its agreement to buy land to house it as far back as June 2013:

"A Chinese-backed company is pulling the plug on a multibillion-dollar solar project near Laughlin after it was unable to find customers for the power that would have been generated there, a Clark County spokesman said."

SNOPES notes that even Breitbart backed off this BS:

"Despite the obvious partisan gain to be had if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's son Rory (a failed 2010 Nevada gubernatorial candidate) had somehow been involved in a "land grab" affecting the Bundy family ranch operation — the facts just do not pan out as such. Indeed, Rory Reid did in fact have a hand in plans to reclassify federal lands for renewable energy developments. Just northeast of Las Vegas and Nellis Air Force Base, plans were drawn by Reid allies to potentially develop 5,717 acres of land for such use. While it would be fair to claim that such activity was in Bundy's relative neighborhood, the federal lands once leased by the family were more than 20 miles away, east of Overton, Nevada." [http://www.snopes.com/politics/conspiracy/nevada.asp#yZmJmCDLKCms2Rlp.99]

Read more at http://www.snopes.com/politics/conspiracy/nevada.asp#yZmJmCDLKCms2Rlp.99/"

There is a lot more to write about. But this will do for now.