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Until public servants work for the public America has been overthrown by idiots and should be treated as such. Or has it? Although I dont see how much has changed, we have always been one republic for which it stands. The masses have always been disillusioned that they were free and they could change the whole picture? To do whats right. The worlds alway been this way. the few running things for the elite. Congress is nothing but a stall tactic for making sure nothing happens. Until the Executive branch forces change I dont see anything happening anymore but a slow certain demise! Also a whole lot of people going more broke with a every 15 year self correcting stock market wiping out the middle class consistantly. Ill never understand the philosophy of bitting the hand that feeds you. Keeping the masses just under broke to control them is one thing. Making the middle class unable to operate isnt smart at all. Meanwhile unless Congress is expunged and people vote,oh well. Forgetaboutit
While I certainly agree we need to get money out of politics, the question still remains, how do we politely convince low income and middle class voters to elect representatives who care about the will of the vast majority? How do we overcome the opaque darkness of the billionaire owned corpse media and lead voters to the light of political truth?
How do we communicate that a government owned and controlled by a wealthy few for parasitical self enrichment is nothing more than a form of billionaire socialism? In other words, with much of their wealth being a result of this government control and ownership, it's really nothing more than a massive government sponsored redistribution of wealth into the off shore pockets of that said few.
Funny thing is these same billionaires whine and cry whenever any of that government sponsored wealth ends up redistributed into the pockets of low income citizens.....thaaaaaats socialism! But it's just fine when it ends up getting redistributed into the pockets of the military industrial complex billionaires.....billionaire socialism!
Carson, I was mistaken when I typed "3013" as the date of my post. It wasn't a joke or a reference to republicans never changing, it was simply a mistake.
I remember George Bush and Dick Cheney being asked what their biggest mistakes have been, and both of them said, "Nothing comes to mind." In other words, republicans don't make mistakes. Ever. Wow. They're perfect and of course perfection never changes. I wish I was perfect. But as we have just seen, I am not perfect.
And flush with the spirit of full disclosure, I must tell you that my second mistake was that to avoid the appearance of being mean to fat people, I should have provided some backstory to my reference to Christy's rotunditude. So, here is that backstory:
1. When Christy was asked whether his weight and the attendant health risks would disqualify him to be president, he very clearly said no, his weight problem would not interfere with his being president. (Other than, of course, the fact that he would not be able to get through the hatch of a submarine. Unless the submarine was handicapped-friendly, with an extra-capacious hatch. But you know, now that I think of it, republicans have gotten thousands upon thousands of camels through the eyes of needles, so cogito ergo sum they can get Chris Christy through a submarine hatch. Besides, the republican party being the only party of God, well, I'm sure that if God wants Christ Christy inside a submarine, well He created the universe, so surely He could get Christy into a submarine. So the submarine thing isn't an issue. Oh geez, I'm really racking up the mistakes, here.)
2. We all know that republicans always tell the truth about everything, so the part of the equation dealing with Christy's weight not being an issue, is as though chiseled in stone by God Himself.
3. So, by reasoning that admittedly might drive Socrates to drink, here is my conclusion: if Christy is fat and being fat doesn't disqualify him to be the leader of the entire "free" world (including people who happen to be citizens of countries that are not America and who have elected leaders who, oddly enough, are not the president of the United States), then my being fat- and I am fat- does not disqualify me from ridiculing Christy, who is a lying, sociopathic, intentionally destructive hypocrite. Which, now that I think about it, is kind of more serious than Christy being fat, as well as being kind of more serious than me making fun of him for being fat.
4. As someone who enjoys a deeply personal relationship with Mark Twain (who dictates every single word of the Twain Report, without exception), I knew when I posted this Twain Report that Mr. Twain did not intend to give offense to fat people, other than, of course, giving offense to Chris Christy because Christy deserves it. But come on, at least I didn't say that Christy would be better suited to be the bearded lady in a sideshow, or that he would give new meaning to the phrase, "roll out the old and roll in the new." But be that as it may, I should not have assumed that other people would understand Mr. Twain's politically correct, eminently inclusive, and at the end of the day fat-friendly intentions.
So, that would bring the total of my mistakes in just one post, to around several trillion. No, wait, several trillion is the amount of our tax dollars that was given to Christy's friends on Wall Street after they drove our economy into a ditch, which is the reason that so many 80-year-old Americans are now eating dog food (which I suppose is keeping them from being fat), and bagging food for people who can afford to buy food, in corporate-owned grocery stores.
Ok, so a priest, a rabbi, and a hooker walk into a bar...
Election fraud is a high crime and a public investigation alone would win the congress back for the Democrats.
Publicize the voter fraud, If the general public knew about the GOP rigging the voting machines there would and should be outrage.
Palindromedary ~ Good for Wikileaks! Someone has to have the initiative to follow Snowdens example. This cabal of secrecy must be extinguished for the good and the security of the country. Kudos to Snowden and Wikileaks! May they prevail.
After seeing Dr. Aslan I know know that Jesus was saying exactly this -- that the rich should be paying their fair share and NOT have the power to buy our democracy. It's a major reason why he was murdered == he was challenging the 1% of his day and he was very charismatic.
As a Jewish person in this country it feels good to know his intentions and I am proud that he too was a Jew.
Green, I love number five. That way NY and Californa would have a lot more votes so they can make a mess of all of the United States like they did to those two States.
Looks like Wikileaks is releasing some "insurance" as protection in the event any of the whistle blowers...like Snowden or Assange is captured. They will be releasing this information, albeit encrypted, in a number of releases. Here's a release you can download from Facebook if you have enough spare space to absorb it all. The idea is that you will have the encrypted data already and all they have to do is, sometime in the future, release the encryption key for you to open and read the information. You only need about 400 GB of spare storage space on you hard drives.
https://www.facebook.com/wikileaks/posts/561645433870573
bobcox ~ You raise a good point. Recently a disturbed father pointed a loaded gun in an infant's mouth in order to make a point during a domestic disturbance. He soon realized that threatening to kill his child was not going to score points with his wife so he put the gun away and left. She called the police and reported the incident. The man fled to a friends apartment in a building where people I know live. For some reason SWAT was called out and circled the apartment building with military style vehicles. Without warning, and without reason, the police broke the grids on the crawl space of the building and lobbed gas grenades under the house. They threw flash grenades into all the first story apartments almost killing an infant in one apartment. The suspect who was in a second story apartment came out and gave himself up. The incident--that could have ended with a knock on the door--was finally over. In the wake, six apartments had to be evacuated. Luckily, no one was hurt. However, everything in the apartments was destroyed. All the clothing was permanently infused with the chemicals from the gas grenades and had to be discarded. The building needed to be evacuated for a month while the chemical saturation and damage was repaired. The city--we taxpayers--got stuck with the bill--the cost of the repairs as well as the cost of housing six displaced families for a month.
Militarization of the police is unnecessary, irresponsible, expensive, stupid and dangerous.
Palindromedary ~ Your point further supports my argument. If the sewer system in Mexico is sub-par, then their Government run health care system shines in even starker contrast with our inability to provide health care for our citizens. Thanks for that tidbit.
Mauiman -- That top tax rate of 92% and reasonable tariffs are wonderful things.
How do you measure the size of government? Also, does your measure include state and local governments?
Sorry had to share this: THOM IRV is not a good idea: watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDzYRDTVRS8 Choice of Representation is the best way to select congress. NO MORE DISTRICTS!
Our present system of winner-takes-all single -incumbent-per-district makes the incumbents equal, they each have one vote. They then give a lot of their power away in winner-takes-all leadership elections.
However, the present system makes we the citizens unequal in that some of us have the representation of our choice, more are represented by the lesser of two evils that they voted for, nearly half of those who vote in a two way race (and sometimes a majority of the voters in a three or more way race) are denied the representative of their choice whether or not it was a lesser of two evils choice or a "I really like this person" choice. Then we have a plurality and often a majority of people who do not vote in an election because they are not interested in empowering any of the candidates.
Presently a person's vote is something that is usually wasted if cast for an independent or third party candidate and rarely has any effect even if cast for one of the two major party candidates.
A Choice of Representation System treats a vote as a durable proxy of voting power that the representative carries to the governmental body in which he or she serves. When they vote, they do not have one vote equal to all of the other representatives, they have a vote that has a weight equal to the number of people who voted for him or her.
The candidate receiving the vote becomes a true representative for the person casting that vote. The representative is marginally empowered by every vote he or she receives therefore there are no wasted votes.
Under Choice of Representation, there are no wasted votes, every vote marginally increases the power of the person receiving it, a person obtaining the representation of his/her choice does not reprieve another person of the representation of his/her choice.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
add this to the 1:30,000 rule from the constitution where every state divides its population by 30,000 and that is the amount of representatives the entire state can vote on. SEE BRVE (bill of rights for voting equality)
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If you would like to read the reasons behind each rule go here instead. https://www.facebook.com/groups/152631684794770/doc/527186630672605/
Whereas we the people are created equal, and
whereas we the people are endowed with certain inalienable rights, and
whereas we the people instituted a government to secure these rights, and
whereas we the people lay the foundation on such principles, and organize its power in such form, as to us shall seem most likely to effect the above objective, do require the following Bill of Rights for Voting Equality.
1.
Each citizen of the United States at or exceeding the age of majority has the right to vote in any public election in the jurisdiction where he or she resides. That right shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, any State, agreement, person, or entity. After incarceration all rights shall resume.
2.
a) All citizens of the United States, residing in all states, shall have equal access, (the same requirements), to creating a political party and achieving a ballot line.
b) All candidates and parties shall have equal time constraints to qualify for ballot access.
c) All proofs will be received by a multi-partisan regulatory board, such as the Board of Elections.
d) All citizens that desire to be candidates, shall register at their local Board of Elections.
e) The Board of Elections shall divide equally, the campaign tools for election purposes. All tools must be properly labeled as citizen provided.
f) Elections shall be publicly funded. No private money may be used for a public office, or seat in the government. The citizen must have full confidence that no bribery or appearance of bribery is taking place.
3.
The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall elect Senators and Representatives in the Congress in such number and such manner as it would be entitled if it were a State.
4.
All citizens must be able to verify that the vote has been counted accurately. All ballots must be counted by hand. All counting must be supervised by multi-partisan personnel and recorded.
5.
a) There shall be at least one Representative to each Thirty Thousand citizens, per state.
b) Each state shall divide its population by 30,000 to determine its number of representatives.
c) Each Representative shall have the voting power equal to the number of citizens that voted for them.
d) Congress shall be unicameral, and the Senate shall be dissolved.
6.
All citizens shall have equal early voting hours in which to cast their vote. sufficient voting places, materials, and personnel shall be provided to reduce the voting time to within an hour.
7.
The Presidential/Vice-Presidential election shall be counted by (score or approval) counting.
Why Amend the Constitution to Eliminate Corporate Personhood?by: ken_krayeskeThu Oct 27, 2011 at 13:19:11 PM EDT
David Cobb and Jean DeSmet, CT Green Party activist and former Windham First Selectman, share a laugh before Cobb's presentation at UConn, Tuesday, October 25, 2011.
Amending the U.S. Constitution to eliminate corporate personhood will open up the creative space in the American democracy, according to David Cobb, the Green Party 's presidential candidate in 2004.
Cobb, who is now the spokesman for MovetoAmend.org addressed 35 people at the University of Connecticut's Dodd Center on Tuesday, October 25. It was the first stop on his Connecticut grassroots organizing tour.
"The problem is not with the idea of a corporation," Cobb said, "The problem is what we are doing with it. It is stupid that we are embedding a corporation with human rights."
He will speak tonite, October 26, 2011 at McCook Auditorium at Trinity College in Hartford at 7 p.m. On Thursday, October 27, at 12:30 he will be at Southern Connecticut State University, and at 7 p.m., he will speak at the Clinton Library.
On Friday, he will be in New London, and on Saturday Cobb will speak at Wesleyan University in Middletown at 3 p.m. and at the Kent Town Hall in Kent at 7 p.m. His complete schedule can be found at movetoamend.org
On Sunday, he said he hopes to address the general assembly at Occupy Wall Street.
"Democracy means conversations in public places," Cobb said. "Democracy means that I have the opportunity to participate in power."
ken_krayeske :: Why Amend the Constitution to Eliminate Corporate Personhood?Cobb has been on the road barnstorming about the for six weeks, and every time he speaks to a crowd, he asks if they think that the American people run their government. No one ever raises their hands.
"I think it is a good thing that no one ever raises their hands," Cobb said. "People are disabusing themselves of the notion that we rule the government."
The most important thing we can do is be honest and tell the truth, Cobb said.
He took the audience on a historical tour of the corporate framework that we know today. Corporations were first created during the Roman Republic as a means to build roads, aqueducts, hospitals and universities.
"The genius of a corporation is to take private goods and put them to public use, voluntarily," Cobb said. Taxes, on the other hand, appropriate private goods for public use involuntarily.
"We are not anti-corporate," Cobb said. Agglomerations of capital are necessary to accomplish certain tasks. "It is valid to say corporations work for good things," Cobb said.
In fact, Cobb supposed that 99 percent of corporations are fine. But, the one percent of corporations that have become the modern transnational corporation are now predatory instruments of oppression.
Cobb did not cite this, but a study released by Swiss researchers last week explained that 147 corporations seem to control more than 50 percent of the global economy.
The modern corporation began during the European Age of Discovery, which, as a truth teller, Cobb said was an age of empire and colonialism and rape and theft of resources.
Corporations like the British East India Company existed to exploit people, lands and resources. "It was designed to legalize the destruction of Indian institutions and replace them with British institutions," Cobb said.
The divine right of kings - which most of us cannot discuss without laughing now - created these companies to benefit the king and the members of parliament, who were all shareholders.
Of the 13 original American colonies, 10 were joint stock corporations. One, Georgia, was a penal colony, and the original slaves there were white, Cobb noted.
The original charter of the Massachusetts Bay Trading Company stated its purpose was to plant and rule and govern on the king's behalf and on behalf of the shareholders, ie, parliament.
The king appointed governors to run the colonies. The colonists did not like this. The American revolution, then, is a story about a people's uprising against unaccountable corporate CEO's, Cobb said.
"We cannot merely call for socially responsible corporations," Cobb said.
It makes no sense to ask corporations "Would you please not cause so much cancer? Would you please not cause so much asthma? Would you please not destroy the Gulf of Mexico? Is a little less death all we want?" Cobb asked.
In a word, no. The Move to Amend the constitution is about people regaining the sovereign power over corporations. The beauty of the American constitution is that it vests all authority to govern in the people, who delegate that to the government.
People are sovereign, government is subordinate. People have rights, government has duties.
"In discharging those duties, government is not allowed to violate the sovereign rights of people," Cobb said. "Government cannot infringe on human rights."
In 1789, the US Constitution became the supreme law of the land, yet it applied to only five percent of the people who lived here - the landholding, white males. Women, blacks, Native Americans, indentured servants - none of them had legal personhood under the Constitution.
Historian Howard Zinn considered American history to be a struggle of people to be defined as persons with rights under the U.S. Constitution.
At the formation of the American Republic, corporations had to be created by acts of the legislature, Cobb said. They had to be for the public good, were time delimited, and were dissolved when they served their functions.
Today, corporations can be formed for any legal purpose, go on forever, and be created with the stroke of a pen. And they have the rights of legal personhood. This needs to change, Cobb said.
The real world ramifications of amending the Constitution to eliminate corporate personhood are vast, Cobb said. For example, if a corporation had to open its books to the public like at the start of the American republic, the Enron disaster never would have happened.
The move to amend the constitution will hopefully result in a conversation that involves securing the affirmative rights to food, health care, housing, education, clean air, clean water, and meaningful employment.
Cobb closed by asking "What is our social contract? We have not renegotiated the social contract in America in a long time. The current social contract in the Constitution protects property rights."
Getting metaphysical, he said that if enough people believe something, it can be true. Just as the divine right of kings was eliminated, so can corporate personhood be eliminated, and a new world be created in its wake.
Responding to the original blog. That is what the people who formed the Green party had in mind. They formed a party that would not be corrupted by corporate influence, but the PEOPLE have yet to realize how to weild this powerful tool. When they do... we can fix these crazy rules.
Do you ever think they are trying to drum up new business for the prison system. The drug trade is going to take a blow with the legalization of pot. There is a need to drum up more inmates. $$$$
There is always the paranoid method of looking at this. Congress might not defund because the people in charge of the NSA have information on the congress men and women that they can hold over their heads. This agency holds a lot of power right now, knowledge is power.
That's good penning, David!! I digging it! I think the two of us are really starting to start a new element in these here blogum's! The '3013' touch on the date is classic Twain, you nailed it! A lil curveball to suggest that this'll never change, oh, excuse my appearance, it's temporary, I hope. No, It's temporary Im sure of it
HEY! Can't you knock? Well, if it's that important then I guess I don't mind answering your question about how we teach kids how-to-count where I come from back on planet Better, even while wrapped half naked in the ugliest towel I own. The easiest way to demonstrate this would be to compare it to how you smart-fone-Earth-people teach your own. We teach our kids to count like this, 0, 1, 1.75, 3.0625, 9.37890625, etc. The reason for this is very simple. 1 + 1 = 3. One momma bear + poppa bear = baby bear (note that baby bear will grow up to be either one of the two equal parts from which created)
We teach them to count this way so that they build very natural tendencies to quantify and value living things greater than mere objects. Indeed, every child at some point asks the inevitable question, "DO MY TOYS MULTIPLY TOO LIKE THAT!?" Which the unavoidable answer is always, "No son, only life can blossom joy in great bounds, your toys rewards will only diminsh over time no matter how many you amass, for they are not alive as are you or I.
Us dem's need to rely on our own strengths and not always buzz about after what the rep's are doing with money or how much they have. Us Dem's have the numbers! The Real Living Numbers! That's all its ever took for all of time. Unite the voices, the great magnitude of low income voices to reach a volume no entity can deny. And their money will lose its mirage of power as it becomes as helpless as it ever was without the people providing it its life.
Now, um, do you mind, I gotta shave my legs. I'll be right out though
The Twain Report
All The News That Mark Twain Says He Would Report If He Was Alive Today
8-20-3013
In a surprise move the other day, New Jersey governor Chris Christy made it illegal to use psychological manipulation and hypnotism to convert gay people into straight people.
And in related news, Christy was the keynote speaker at a meeting of the Gay Peoples Alliance, where he said, "Just remember, it's you pretty boys, you manly women, and me, against the rest of the world. Why, I was gay in my last life. Oh, and by the way, I'm running for president in the next election."
Later that same day, Christy appeared on the 7-11 Club with Pat Robertson, and said, "I was just giving God some advice the other day, and He told me that He causes earthquakes, tidal waves, and tornadoes because He hates Gay people. Oh, and by the way, Jesus wrote in the Old Testament that I will be the next president of the United States, and will usher in a new day of mindless grinning intolerance."
Even later the same day, Christy spoke to a Flat Earth Society convention, where he said, "It is my deeply-held belief that the earth has always been flat, is flat today, and will always be flat. Just remember that when the next presidential election rolls around."
And later the same day, Christy spoke to a large group of aerospace engineers, saying, "If I am elected president, I will build huge spaceships that will carry humanity to all of the nice planets throughout the galaxy, and at the same time solve our landfill problems by dumping our garbage on those planets. And of course I will outlaw the Flat Earth Society."
Why, in that one day, Christy- a rotound man by any definition of the word- demonstrated a flexibility that would embarrass a drunken olympic gymnast. Which is why Christy has the Twain Report's full endorsement for the position of unarmed guard at one of New Jersey's incredibly polluted Superfund sites.
And Chuckle8 both the size of government and the percentage of GNP spent by the Federal government was a HELL of a lot lower during that time period than it is now.
http://www.booktv.org/Program/14839/quotRise+of+the+Warrior+Cop+The+Militarization+of+Americas+Police+Forcesquot.aspx
"Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces"
Radley Balko
About the Program
Radley Balko talks about the militarization of the police in the United States, including the expanded use of SWAT teams to deal with low-level crimes. Mr. Balko argues that today police officers have become conditioned to seeing American citizens as the enemy. Mark Lomax, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association, provides commentary. This event, held on Capitol Hill, was hosted by the Cato Institute.
Radley Balko
Radley Balko is a senior writer for Huffington Post and a former senior editor at Reason magazine. He was named Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Club in 2011. He tweets at: @RadleyBalko.
This shows the danger of the present system of government (I don't call it a represational republic or a democracy any more) is going away from the protection of its citizens to considering thke citizens to be "others", similare to the "gooks" of Viet Nam, the "chkinks" of Korea, the "krauts" of WWII and the "terrorists" of today. The $1.3B some congressment are wanting to take away from Egypt under the preeent circukmstances are actually manufactkuring operations in PA, OH and a lot of other states. They'll probably build the tanks and "lend-lease" thkem to police departments in the US so their won't be any savings to the removal of the money from Egykpt, just arming the american "gestapo" with the arems.
DAnneMarc: I think that a possible reason why they try to "ration" toilet paper is not so much because of a shortage of toilet paper but rather has more to do with clogged pipes. The sewer pipes in Mexico are not very substantial...they clog very easily. I had often seen baskets along side the toilets that were full of used toilet paper...as the practice is to use the basket instead of risking clogging the sewer pipes. And sometimes if a basket wasn't there...they'd throw the used paper on the floor behind the toilet. In some countries, the bidet is popular (I stayed in a hotel in Rio De Janeiro where they had a bidet right next to the toilet), and in Saudi Arabia, they just use a hose. And actually, those are way more sanitary ways of getting the job done than using toilet paper anyway. And it is really way more "green" than killing all those trees so people can wipe their butts.
When did Obama care start in Texas? When we can not get medical help here,, we are told it is Obama care. This has been told to me for the last two years. I know Gov. Perry rejected it. Whats up with all that? Love your show. Send me a e-mail if you can answer this question Thom. Thanks..
Yes, the Republican party is struggling to get back on top, and yes they are playing dirty, but remember that both parties are being used as tools by the ruling elite and the ruling elite will play them both to achieve their goals. The ruling elite will use the Republicans, when they can manage to get them into power, but when the masses start thinking revolution, the ruling elite back the Democrats because the Democrats are used as panderers of false hope. They know that if they feed the ticked off people a little hope, which tends to defuse or take the pressure off of the idea of revolution, then they can sneak whatever they want later when the people's ire has subsided. It ends up making the Democrats look bad...because they are bad...they are fake people's representatives because they represent only the wealthy ruling elite. Their hope is to dishearten Democrats so that they either vote Republican or don't vote at all. What they don't want is for masses of people to vote third party. That would really upset the corrupt little game they have rigged.