Mammon (n)

We have forgotten this devil. So it is running our world. We elect officials with mammon, who benefit from mammon, and then we pay them to ruin our lives.

Vote with your conscience and vote with your dollar. This demon has become too powerful.

Vote With Integrity

"It is time to end the voting for the lesser of two evils."

And that time is now. Not next election, what makes you think that one will me 'less important' than this one? We must make a stand. If not now, then when?

At Daily KOS, Commodore said, "This election is the most important election we have had for years. We said that about 2012, 2008, and 2004. But this time it is dead serious." which is the same fear mentality that ran elections in '04, '08, and '12. And '00. And every election I can remember. And because we have continued to buy it, we have continued to hand our votes over to candidates who don't represent us. They don't have to fear our reaction to their poor representation because what are we going to do? Vote for Trump? Vote for the out-right Aristocracy? One that is motivated to put white, rich, male, landowners back in power? Hardly. They know we'll vote for them because they are marginally better than awful.

And they can continue to move further and further toward awful.

We have already lost our control over the election and our politics, and we have lost our voice. Hubris aside, your individual vote is not going to make or break any one party. But as voter turn out declines, and hatred of Democrats and Republicans mounts, there is no reason not to begin today voting for a third party who actually represents your interests. They are already out there and they are already better. The big hurdle is to change our strategy, because the current one is not working.

Despite the rhetoric, it is not pragmatic.

We need to stop worrying about "splitting the vote": both sides need to be splitting the vote and it will begin to happen. Democrats have already lost their seats and their power, and we know that they are corrupt. And are buying our allegiance with massive spending. Is Hillary really going to want to repeal Citizens United? Probably not. She is the .5%. 

I refuse to be bullied and intimidated by the Republicans, by Trump, or by other socially backward organizations like the DNC. I will be voting with integrity this election, and every election from here on out. I will vote, to do otherwise is almost as good for the Oligarch as voting Blue or Red, but I will Vote White. Vote Clear?

...It's a damn pity that's the only color left in our collection....

Vote Rainbow? I think that's already taken.

....we need a slogan.

Vote with Integrity.

The Old Crystal Ball

There are a lot of people who get paid to make their predictions about the future. The nature of the future makes this very imprecise and even the best of 'em don't have a great degree of accuracy. Even with a good historical perspective (which is always repeating), there's just too much to know to make a good prediction and the future will always be a little bit different.

Let me try my hand at some political analysis.

There are many possibilities of how this election is going to turn out. Here are my predictions:

1) First, let's follow a train of logic on what will happen if Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic Party's nomination. If she does, I think she will win the presidency; I don't think the Don can win a general election against anyone. (But who knows? Conservatives know how to participate.) So let's assume she wins the white house.

2) This will do a few things. First, it will continue to splinter an already dying party. Under half of the progressives still paying any attention to politics (a good portion have already dropped out due to low representation), won't vote for her. Most because they wont vote at all. The smallest number -- the best of them -- will do what we all should be doing and will vote with conviction and integrity for a third party. Knowing that if just a few more people decided to vote at all, and if a few more people voted with their actual beliefs, both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party would lose: no one likes them anyway. Some will vote Green, some Libertarian, some with conviction will even vote Democrat and Republican.

3) Most progressives will still vote for Hillary as a fear vote, and will be falsely mollified by their "victory", thus setting the chance for the progressive movement to make real systematic change back another decade or more. Both the Democrats and the Republicans will have the real victory: they are all 1%ers and not truly interested in the struggles of the average citizen as much as the profits of businesses. It is just not their world. They are too far removed from it to really understand. You can't hardly blame them, but you must understand that: they aren't us.

4) After her victory, the conservatives will rally. It's what losers do and Hillary has more enemies than friends. Never forget, however, that they aren't really losers: they already own all the lower offices, so that trend will continue. Here is Colorado, Bennet and Hickenlooper will probably lose their office, and the same story will be repeated across the nation.

5) Now depending on who the Republicans can find to run in 4 years, they may beat Hillary. If they can sustain their rally, and if the liberals, who are really bad at defending or even noticing the lost of lower offices, fail to rally on our losses--which I predict we will. She may or may not get her second term, I'm not as sure on this point. Should she lose, we will have a really interesting situation: Republican president, both houses, and every state government.

5.1) Should this happen I will predict the imminent collapse of the American government. This is based on my interpretation that most Republican policy decisions are flat wrong for the majority of people. We may get a violent revolution, we may just turn into a poor society governed by monarchs. I don't know at this point. They may not get this, the Republican Party is collapsing in a different way than the Democratic Party.

6) If Hillary loses, we will get the Don, who will mostly be ineffectual, make some horrible decisions, maybe lead us into war, certainly cost us all our remaining international allies and respect, and lead us down path 5.1 above, but sooner rather than later and with a lot less support. So it might not be so bad. For prediction 6.1) I wouldn't be surprised if Trump doesn't serve a full term. He might just pull a Nixon after he sells Mississippi to Mexico and fly away. Don't quote me on that, though. I'm not sure how that end-game will play out.

7) If Trump wins, the progressives will rally. We will have a chance to take back the Democratic Party, run strong and moral candidates like Sanders, start winning smaller elections around the nation and start making headway against catastrophe. I know there are a lot of people who don't think Trump or Hillary is a catastrophe, but I tend to think they aren't paying attention. Both of these people would be cast as a villain in a comic book. In reality, politics isn't an "opinion", it is a theory. Someone is right and someone is wrong. Racism is wrong, we should know that by now, and so is classism and environmental destruction for short-term gain. We need to be playing a long-game here, people.

8) Or we can have our Great Turning now. Realize that profits are not the only thing that is good in the world, there are things that need to be done that don't make money, that we are close to collapse on several fronts, and elect Bernie Sanders to president, continue that momentum to put some strong and moral people in state offices around the country, and join much of the rest of the world and start making decisions that are good for the majority and the future of our planet. Colorado will pass Colorado Cares. Progressives will start showing up for elections again because that is what Sanders will ask for. Bennet and Hick might keep their office.

Of all of these, I like Hillary's candidacy the least.... I think it will unravel the Democratic Party. That is, perhaps, what it deserves. I can only hope that the Republicans have a concurrent collapse.

9) We also have a chance, should Hillary win the nomination, to rally a 4th candidate. Look at the other side of the board: the Republican party is as unhappy about Trump as any other sane person should be. And they have deck to play with: the first 2 years of any Democratic candidate's presidency will mean nothing: they will block everything anyway. That's their game and it isn't actually costing them points with their constituency: we all just hate each other anyway. There is no reason for the Republican's not to run a 3rd candidate. Which means we can run a 4th. We can have 4 viable candidates to chose from in one election, which is how it should be, anyway. Maybe we can even get a 5th! There's a real democracy. This opportunity will require people to actually think for themselves, so it is very remote.

Elect Bernie Sanders, because he will 10) have more capability of reaching across the aisle than we give him credit for: he isn't a Democrat, he doesn't have that label stigma. Republicans like him more than Hillary, Libertarians have joined his movement, he is a natural Green, if they weren't so debilitatingly idealistic, and real Democrats will agree with him 90% of the time.

Bernie Sanders Or Bust - Take Back Our Democracy or we all lose. Again. So get out and VOTE and something can happen.

The Democratic Process

Has anyone else noticed that in any truly democratic process during this election cycle, Bernie Sanders has won?

All of those I know about. First he clinched the Democracy for America nomination with a record-breaking 87.9% of the vote. MoveOn also ran a vote for who they ought to endorse and again, it is Bernie Sanders with again a record-breaking 78.6% of a record-breaking turnout. Recently, it seems, he won the National People's Actions vote. In the primary election, Bernie has won the only state that doesn't have a disenfranchising caucus system people don't even know about (New Hampshire). Polls are showing him as more popular than Hillary.

Now Alan Grayson is also holding out a vote for who he should support. I would suppose that if every super-delegate --  all 700 of them -- ran a similar vote, he might win them all.

Whether the establishment likes it or not, Bernie Sanders and the Political Revolution are our future, if the Party is to have one.

If we just show up at the Caucus, it will change the system. We can take one small step toward ending corruption.

Vote.BernieSanders.com to find your location.

How Dare You?

How dare the (so-called) "League of Conservation Voters" call me and ask I caucus for Hillary Clinton?

This action is actively weakening the conservation movement by fragmenting and dividing a base of support they have worked hard to mobilize. They are spending their time and credibility campaigning against a conservationist candidate which is self-destructive to the environmental movement in America. Do they not realize how motivated the Political Revolution is? How passionate? How many more people might show up to vote in the general election and in the mid-term elections because of it?

Why is it so hard to see that this is the future of the Democratic Party if it is to have one at all?

Explain to me the reasoning behind this, because I do not understand why you would alienate your allies and your future. Young voters who have grown up under the yoke of unbridled capitalism can see how detrimental it can be to the environment -- And how powerless we are made to do anything about it. Young voters overwhelmingly support the Political Revolution.

I would understand backing a half-assed ally (she wont answer Keystone -- thus TarSands -- questions) in a race against an enemy. I don't agree (for there is always an ally to back and if there's not then don't back anyone) but I understand. But do not campaign in a race against two allies and back the least supportive one.

I know that non-profits are having a difficult time securing funds and that part of this reason is generating trust because I have worked in non-profit development. So I have difficulty understanding our nonprofits when they do this: it fills me with distrust. I can't say I will ever trust the League of Conservation Voters in the future, nor will I trust the Human Rights Campaign for they have done the same thing but in an even more striking way. You have abandoned the progressive platform.

We, we all, have been convinced of a very misguided political philosophy. In a bad attempt to be strategic within a two-party we have lost our collective voice. Because we don't vote for our interests or with integrity, we have slowly lost almost all our representation and are losing more every day. Our elected officials only have to be marginally better than awful to get our vote, so that is all they are. Voter confidence turns down, less people go out to vote, but for politicians, that is hardly a problem. Now they have even less reason to listen to what people want; they can do what they want. Then we convince ourselves (or allow ourselves to be convinced) that it is unrealistic to expect more.

That is how we have arrived here, with a more oligarchic system: through dishonesty and cowardice.

The only way we have a hope of taking back our democracy is to vote with integrity. It is the only way to make a real achievement. We might lose a battle or two, but if we stand by the righteousness of our position, and it is truly the righteous position, it will prevail in the end.

Or we will succumb. We may anyway, but the only chance we have to prevail is through honesty, integrity, and follow-though, and some bravery. A two-party system cannot ever represent all of the voices and views in the world; it is inherently undemocratic. Eventually, we will need to figure out how to have more than two choices. Following the status-quo, allowing fear and cowardice to own your vote, will not get there.

LCV, I am caucusing for Bernie on Tuesday. And if he doesn't get the democratic nomination, I will still vote for the stronger candidate: probably Jill Stein. Win or lose, I will vote for what I believe is right, rather than spiral slowly down the toilet.

Vote with Integrity

I am very disappointed in the "Leave of Conservation Voters"

How can you claim such a title if you actively work against the stronger environmental candidate? Bernie is consistent and public about our need for environmental stewardship and reversing climate change. I would understand in the General Election, but it is irresponsible to work against a candidate who does have environmental issues at heart.

It is not integrity. This is how we have lost our voice in America. By trying to be "pragmatic" with our vote. In the long term, we will lose with this strategy.

Do you really trust Hillary Clinton not to reverse her stances during the general election and during her term? Will I not have to sign petition after petition trying to get her not to sign TTP-like bills or support Tar Sands? I don't have that trust. She profits from war, which is not very climate neutral.

As a long-time environmentalist and activist, I know now that I cannot trust your motives. 

I would like to be removed from all of your lists.

Bernie Sanders Or Bust! Take Back Our Democracy!

Deasil (adv)

To go in the direction of the sun. The natural way, for sun-worshipping and aware cultures. This is the "good" or "right" way to go, obviously, because the sun does it.

Or clockwise, in modern English.

The opposite is "Widdershins". This is the bad-luck way to go. If you want to curse someone without their understanding, start walking around them counter-clockwise.

I like these words far more than our modern versions, "clockwise" and "anticlockwise". They are less descriptive, and therefore a lot more fun to say.

But it is a little Jibber-English like.

Jokes a month later..

Why should you never trust atoms?

                      They make up Everything.

How Did Bernie Win? Oh My Gosh! It's So Hard to Understand.

There are a few words that don't seem to be in the lexicon of political analysts. "Integrity" doesn't have all that many occasions to be used. "Righteousness" perhaps even less. "Honesty" is rarely used by politicians. "Consistency"... as fickle as American fears.

However, Bernie does, actually, have all of these. He has integrity and refused to see a dime of Martin Shkreli's money because he's a arrogant sociopath. He is Righteous and refuses to organize a Super Pac on moral grounds. He is honest, at times more honest than fact-checkers... which is strange (yes, American's are working longer hours for lower wages. On average? Maybe not because the other half of us are underemployed. Go into your local Starbucks, though, and ask how many of those kids have a second job and a major they are pursuing. We do have a stupidly high childhood poverty. More than almost anyone).

And Bernie has been consistent in his support for civil rights, equal opportunity, family support, immigration reform, civil liberties, environmental policy, veteran support, and more.

I know it's a little hard to understand and swallow... At least for the political establishment, the elite, and the analysts who have had their head down and followed politics as any other national sport, but the reason people care about Bernie Sanders isn't from some misguided political philosophy, or to get the attention of boys, God damn it. It is because he really is the first open, honest, and moral candidate to run for President I have ever seen. He stands up for us all and the only thing he asks for in return is for us to stand up with him.