Month: November 2017

Categories
Uncategorized

Two Parties for capitalism and no alternatives

In a functional democratic society, a society in which there is a lot of thought and many voices offering many ideas for the good of the whole, for the betterment of the society, there would naturally be political entities with some power, some degree of representation in the public discourse, speaking for alternatives to what presently exists. In a functional democracy in the 21st Century, the democratic nation would, as exists in other 21st capitalist nations, political entities critical of capitalism as it presently exists simply because capitalism causes a great many problems for a great many people. In the United States of America, both parties are parties of capitalism. There are two parties but in regard to dealing with the most potent force in the society, its economic system, they are both one the same side of things, the one offering a particular brand of capitalism, the other a slightly different version, neither in anyway willing to provide the necessary critique.

The United States of America, under its current two party system is not a democracy but rather a capitalist society because in the course of what is supposedly democratic debate, alternatives to capitalism are never discussed because there are not political parties offering alternatives. How can it be that there is no labor party in the U.S.A., no viable socialist party, no–yes–communist party?

It is because capitalism is us and capitalism is inviolable. A telling feature of our existence in this country, isn’t it?

Categories
Uncategorized

Screw them all because we want even more!

Ace wrote in response to the article below: Screw the retired folks, college students, healthcare! Trump and his friends needed more Money!!!

My response: They do and they need it in order to gain even more control over the lives of the people of the world, people they view as their servants who they are willing to give enough to survive so they can serve the desires of those who have most of what there is. This is a scheme that has been working to erode the power of the people that has been in effect since the invention of capitalism and, following the capitalist ethic, it does not have to be played fairly, ethically,honestly, or humanely. It cannot be played fairly, ethically, or honestly because it is a scam and for a scam to work someone must be scammed. The more fools the better and, so far, the scam has worked so well as to insure that there are enough fools to keep the system working. That these bastards can propose what they have and their not be riots in the streets is a clear sign that the ploy has worked exceedingly well and soon it will be working even better for there are many provisions in this bill and other legislation and rules being proposed to insure that very few will be so well educated as to be able to see this for what it really is.

The article:

Screw the retired folks, college students, healthcare! Trump and his friends needed more Money!!!

AARP: Millions of senior citizens will see their taxes increase under GOP tax bill
The group notes that the new report should concern anyone who will become a senior citizen over the next 10 years.
THEHILL.COM
 Sc
Categories
Uncategorized

Stupid and democratic do not mix.

This causes to arise in my mind the reoccurring thought, one that I constantly work to dispel, that democracy is not going to work. That all should have the right to express their opinions and have them considered in the decision making process of a democratic society is basic to the democratic principle. Even fools must be heard. But what is to come of a society without the proper filters for separating foolishness from the meaningful and true? It seems that this is what we have now and it is leading to decisions that are not the best and, too often, not even decent or good. Is it our current state of existence to have reached a point where fools can rule and, in ruling, change the rules so that it is now that good sense has little chance of winning the day?
 
“Under a bill passed by the Florida Legislature this year, any district resident — regardless of whether they have a child in school — can now challenge material as pornographic, biased, inaccurate or a violation of state law and get a hearing before an outside mediator.”
 
This would not be a problem IF we could trust that a proper discussion of the issues would transpire and what is foolish would be rejected and what is sensible maintained. Should we trust still that this is what will occur?
 
“The Florida Citizens’ Alliance, a conservative group, pushed for the change, arguing that many districts ignored challenges or heard them with stacked committees, and didn’t consider residents who don’t have children in the schools. Members say boards rejected complaints over sexually explicit novels like Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eyes” being issued to middle school students. They also don’t believe evolution and global warming should be taught without students hearing counterarguments.
Keith Flaugh, a managing director of the alliance, said schools are using pornographic materials and textbooks that “totally distort our founding values and principles. They are teaching our kids socialism versus free markets. They are teaching our kids that the government is our nanny, the government is supposed to protect them.” He also said children receive a biased presentation against freedom of religion and gun rights.”
While sensible people may understand that what Mr. Flaugh and his ilk desire is not sensible, it does seem to me that there just might be so many like him as to make it more than possible that what students will learn in school will insure more who “think” like him and fewer who are able, because of the “education” they have received, to think well enough to reject the foolish perspective and seek out the informed and sensible one.
 
New Florida law expected to increase textbook challenges
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A parent in Florida is citing profanity and violence in trying to get the local school to ban Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” — itself a caution
APNEWS.COM
Categories
Uncategorized

We the people own an obnoxious society

So, what are we actually going to do about it? So many are threatened and have reason to be threatened by what is taking place in government, the trading back and forth of allegations of corruption and the unwillingness of anyone to come forth and demand that we come to terms with basic issues of what is right and what is wrong, what is humane and what is inhumane, what is unconscionable and what is righteous, what is ethical and what is unethical, what is thievery, murder, assault, and harassment, what is sane and what is insane. That we cannot agree on basic definitions of what is good and what is bad tells me that we, as a society, are at a terrible impasse and that we will not find ways to compromise because the terms of such would have to force some to radically change the way they understand the universe.
I do not and cannot, if I want to think myself a good person, and it is important to me that I am able to do so, I cannot compromise with the Bannon legions or those who celebrate the rise of Trump and all he signifies. I cannot compromise with those who sell out people in order to be loved and rewarded by Exxon and Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs and all those other companies that are so exploitive that, in a good society,would be torn from the face of the earth by its good people.
I cannot compromise with those who advertise and sell terrible products, gun manufactures for instance, or those who go for what the market will tolerate when people are desperate, as in medical care and pharmaceuticals. That little bastard who boosted the price of his medicine hundreds fold because people suffered greatly without a supply of his drug? That little bastard should have been put out on a gulag or somehow rehabilitated into an acceptable human being.
I have said before that Trump and, for that matter, all those big shot bosses who use their money to wield power over others and treat them badly are symptoms and not cause. Instead, it is acquiescence to an ethos that is, if thought about, disgusting, an ethos that not only gives a pass to, but rewards greatly, dominance by some over others, the powerful who step on the weak to acquire great wealth which they use to keep their power and use that power to amass even greater wealth. That power, that wealth has, for a very long time, come with license to mistreat others, to exploit, intimidate, harass, and yes, rape those dependent upon them for their livelihoods.
That is the fucked up society in which we live, the one we constantly find ways to make look better than it really is, the one the people who are being crushed by it have been taught to praise.
As human beings, as humane individuals, we cannot allow ourselves to tolerate what is truly intolerable.
But are we willing to change?We
Categories
Uncategorized

Religidiocity

Oh my: As Moore is speaking people write things such as:

“Lord we pray in your name for Judge Moore and ask you to give him the strength and wisdom to endure the attacks of Satan in this election. We ask that every one of his accusers be exposed for the dark vile wickedness they are bestowing upon this great man and that your blessings be upon him, his family and all who support him. We ask in Jesus name and Amen.”

So this man comes home and teaches his kids “the truth,” the real truth and then he sends his kids to school where a teacher is trying to promote the growth of reasonable beings.

The potential for a good outcome is not high and one might imagine what a teacher-parent conference might be like and what the teacher might be asked to do to accommodate parents such as these.

It is difficult to teach to meaningful goal when critical thinking is seen to lead to disobedience and defiance because to think critically is to question rigorously until a sensible answer is produced. The process is unkind to nonsense. Working well it dispels that for which there is no evidence, for which no reasonable proof can be found.

Our schools have had to deal forever with the ugly dilemma religion, religion in particular, has caused and it is a dilemma only because the schools refuse to assert that they are about reason and now something else and, therefore cannot appease those who would are afraid of reason for what it would lead them to understand if they applied it to their faith.

Indeed, parents decide what is right for their children. But only to a point for doing harm to a child thinking that what you are doing to them is good for them still means that the child is harmed. Mistakes are one thing. Abuse whether intentional or not is abuse.

In order to avoid having to deal honestly with the dilemma, schools have dismissed, ignored, avoided dealing reasonably with it, have allowed those who cannot tolerate reason to have a voice in shaping what gets taught and how it gets taught and the voice of religion, as irrational a voice as it is most of the time, has made it so that reason, the teaching of solid reasoning, of critical though, is, at best a very minor part of the school agenda.

To avoid the confrontation, the controversy that erupts whenever religion, its basis in reality, its tenets based in that reality are even scraped, the institution is attacked and those attacks lead to compromises that are not at all benign. The consequences are horrendous, a school system that teaches students to believe what they are told, to answer questions as they have been taught to answer them. Questioning authority is punishable under school rules and most of the school authorities are comfortable in enforcing such rules be it through control of teachers who are not to think for themselves but do as they are told.

It is an authoritarian system designed to appease dogmatic and authoritarian people and their sheep.

Categories
Uncategorized

Religiidiosity

See version above

Categories
Uncategorized

We the people own an obnoxious society

See version above

Categories
Uncategorized

In the wake of the time-bomb going off

A devastating article in The Atlantic by Megan Garber who describes what seems to be obvious now that a good many predatory men, men without respect for women or concern for how their behavior was harming women, for years have made themselves out to be advocates for women’s rights. The following is a passage from that article of particular poignance:

“Taken together, it [the revelation of behavior we somehow learned to think better of]reads as an extended version of C.K.’s a…

See More

Louis C.K., Harvey Weinstein, and the Art of the Brotest
Many of the men now alleged to be abusers and harassers have something else in common: They were great at seeming to be good.
THEATLANTIC.COM
 In
Categories
Uncategorized

Washoe County School District Leadership is Incompetent, the Superintendent and the Head of the Board and Need to Be Removed for the Sake of Students

An e-mail sent after receiving a note from the President of our school board replying to my request that the Superintendent be re-evaluated after the Board decided to ignore such information as reported her and give her a positive evaluation.
I asked that the Board, since it had admittedly not followed its own evaluation guidelines, rescind the positive evaluation it gave the Superintendent despite information in the evaluation that was done that showed that a less than satisfactory evaluation was warranted.
The President of the School Board told me, without addressing my real and important concerns that the positive evaluation would stand even though the data the Board had paid to have collected showed that the Superintendent deserved a less than positive rating.
 
Reno people!!!! This should not be tolerated.
 
AND THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED THE TRUSTEES TO IGNORE? THE PEOPLE WHO ARE THE KEY TO THE SUCCESS OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM, WHO KNOW THE WORK OF THE SUPERINTENDENT BEST, DO NOT FIND THE SUPERINTENDENT TO BE AN EFFECTIVE LEADER BUT MAJORITY OF THE TRUSTEES ARE WILLING TO IGNORE THE FINDINGS?
 
From today’s RGJ:
 
The survey identified three areas most needing improvement, according to OnStrategy, the independent third-party company that facilitated the review. Changes to those areas could improve Davis’ effectiveness as superintendent and the community’s perception of the district, according to OnStrategy.
The three top areas for improvement, in order of how much potential positive impact they’d have on perceptions of the district, were:
1. Organizational leadership: Developing a more effective understanding of Davis’ employees in all levels of WCSD
2. Instructional leadership: Having a grasp of the needs of her instructional staff, maximize resources for best student outcomes and her ability to recruit and retain highly effective employees
3. Collaborative leadership: Better articulating the direction and goals of the district, and then getting everyone on board with those goals
Respondents who identified themselves as certified staff — the category that includes teachers — gave her the lowest scores on her understanding of district employees. Just 15 percent agreed that Davis “demonstrates an effective understanding of all people in the district.”
Categories
Uncategorized

And so it is called free enterprise but it is really a system in which those who do not have pay dearly for what others do have

Capitalism needs a major adjustment or perhaps replacement with a humane and just form of economy.  Really, for the vast majority of people in the world, it works against them.  The lie that good quality of life is dependent on the survival of capitalism is a lie capitalists tell over and over again to justify a system that puts most of the world’s wealth in the hands of a very few and, with the outrageous amounts of money these people own, they acquire the rest of us.
We are bought and sold and trained to like it, bought off with a little that is allowed to trickle down.
The leak, called the Paradise Papers, centers on an offshore law firm that has helped obscure the wealth of multinational companies and the superrich.

 

From the Paradise Papers

II. Tax Base Erosion. Another key implication of this study is that the impact on lost tax revenue implied by our estimates may be huge SS large enough to make a significant difference to the finances of nations, especially to developing countries that are now struggling to replace lost aid dollars and pay for climate change.

© James S. Henry, TJN 2012

41

Assuming, conservatively, that global offshore financial wealth of $21 trillion earns a total return of just 3 percent a year, and would have faced an average marginal tax rate of 30 percent in the home country, this unrecorded wealth might have generated tax revenues of $189 billion per year more than twice the $86 billion that OECD countries as a whole are now spending on all overseas development assistance.