Thursday, April 13, 2017

GOP & Russians worked together to defeat Democracy

British Spies First to Spot Trump Team Links to Russian Agents.

This is a follow up to the report on the arrest of Pyotr Levashov, in Spain the other day, and it's relationship to Project Alamo. I'm writing about this because there are multiple journalists pursuing multiple threads and I need a central place to keep the info and links. Also I expect Donald Trump to lash out at some country, probably North Korea, to divert attention from his treason.

Now we have a Guardian report which shows how Right Wing and Left Wing were being influenced by disinformation, stolen and massaged information and info-wars/psy-ops during or before 2015. The report details how Russian "Active Agents" directed by Russian Intelligence Disinformation experts working with Trump Campaign officials and members were picked up by allied intelligence doing their dirty work. It was those allies who relayed word on what the russians were doing back to, First CIA director Brennan and then, eventually, to James Comey.

"Britain’s spy agencies played a crucial role in alerting their counterparts in Washington to contacts between members of Donald Trump’s campaign team and Russian intelligence operatives, the Guardian has been told." [Guardian]

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

What Electronic Democracy Means

Local Democracy Necessary for Democratic Republics

Key principles:

For our system to be more democratic we need 5 mandatory things at all levels of public deliberation:

  1. Trouble Reporting and tracking of issues, complaints and commentary with follow up at periodic milestones
  2. Officer vetting Before Selection/Election
  3. Accounting for Performance at End of Term
  4. Top down, bottom up systematic deliberation
  5. Appropriate power with necessary resources in each part of Government

This post focuses on the electronic portions of these ideas.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Trumpenführer Goes to War

Wag the Dog or Insane Wannabe Dictator, or both?

Is this whole Syrian Affair "Wag the Dog" or is it a show meant to distract people from seeing that Putin owns Trump and Trump works for him, without actually bringing him down.

Sources:
http://linkis.com/washingtonpost.com/vHFnP
Randi Rhodes discusses it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIUsnxd9H-0
Olbermann: http://video.gq.com/watch/the-closer-with-keith-olbermann-the-media-fell-for-trump-s-syria-stunt
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/ap-fact-check-trump-lawmakers-saying-syria-jobs-supreme-court/

Sunday, April 2, 2017

General Grant and Mark Twain, Greenbacks versus "Solid Money"

Accounting Money and Credit Money

The General purpose of money is to enable trade by creating a currency as a common unit of account that allows agreed on measures of value so that people can more easily exchange goods and services. Where it gets tricky hinges on the question how do you regulate the value of that currency so that it measures the value of commodity and services in a stable manner. Whether a currency is based on "commodity money" (Gold, silver by weight and purity), "fiat money", or accounting money (credits and debits/ mostly debt money); this presents an issues of sovereignty. Without sovereign money, currencies fall into the hands of bankers and speculators, grifters and frauds. When sovereignty over currency is in the hands of a Privateering Central Bank; The same. The People of the world need sovereignty over their currenies in actually sound hands. When money is available in an unsound manner, it;

.... falls into the hands of privateers:

  • Money loses it's value as an accurate measure of transactions and relative value.
  • It loses connection to the commodities that are supposed to back that value.
  • Those with control over that currency speculate with their possessions.
  • When they do some get very rich, in money terms, and...
  • Suddenly part or all of the currency loses its collateral
  • And everyone else gets very poor.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Tricky Politicians Privateers and Land Value

Picture captured from Wikipedia Article

We like to think of our current governmental dysfunction as something new. But it's not. What is going on now is actually the continuation of issues and troubles that have plagued this country since it's beginning. This post refers to Henry George Junior's biography of his father [https://www.questia.com/library/338293/the-life-of-henry-george], which I was able to put a PDF version on my nook, my computer and even my cell phone, so I can read it at my leisure. The book is excellent. Henry George's son was a good son. What he writes about the electoral politics of the 1870's and 1880's could be said about today.

When I first ran into Henry George I found him captivating. But most of what was quoted from him turned out to be from highly edited derivative works, except progress and poverty which makes perfect sense.

Monday, March 27, 2017

Revisionism as a Way of Life

A few weeks ago I thought to try to open up a dialogue with a Baltimore Pundit, whose name escapes me but who is a doctrinaire conservative. I shared an article on the extended Lincoln/Douglas debates that won him the Presidency in 1860, and he rejected my argument as "revisionist." I would have laughed but he was serious. His comment made me realize that when dealing with Cons, I mean conservatives, one is dealing with iron clad myths. It really doesn't matter whether they are objectively true or not, once they become dogma, revision of one's opinions, understanding, even appreciation of facts, is "revisionism." That ancient conflation of the hebrew Herem (proscribed) with the greek Heresis (choice), that gave us the word Heresy, is a gift that keeps on giving. One can't argue with facts, I thought.

As long as "revisionism" is a slur, and revising one's theories is anathema. Then science is in trouble and the world will continue to be in trouble. Science doesn't move through merely "new discoveries" but through verification and validation. A Scientist is simply an honest person. One doesn't take an a-priori dogma and look for facts to justify it, if one is an honest person. But if one has dogma or an a-priori belief, one does just that. Revisionism becomes heresy. Choice becomes a crime. And facts are decided by what authorities say the facts are. Thus the ancient roots of fascism are found in dogmatic belief.

I'm proud to be a revisionist. I'll be revising my own ideas til the day I die. If I'm lucky I'll see the gates of heaven and St. Peter will tell me I was wrong on a few things. But I'd rather be wrong based on facts, than assert I'm right based on dogma. Dogmas are often lies and delusions so old, they are asserted as doctrine and forced into belief systems despite the dysfunctional consequences. You'd think people would learn from experience. But dogmatic people don't.

Further Reading:
http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2013/11/lincoln-marxist.html
Cooper Union Address: https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/aboutcooper.htm

*** since this is the park service and the GOP revanchists will probably take these pages down at some point. I saved copies