Wednesday Open Thread: Day 283 of the Year 2018 CE

Wednesday Open Thread: Day 283 of the Year 2018 CE



So, October 10, 2018 - for my reference if nothing else. All of the stuff I wrote and scheduled before we departed on our 3 week road trip has posted except for next Monday. All of the stuff I was going to write while we were on the road did not get written. It's funny how that seems to happen on all of my travels. As it happens, however, I have some verbiage I can throw up here all the same.


200px-Peace_sign.png


At various times, various persons, blogs, msm talking heads and others have concerned themselves with whether or not this or that specific individual or group "has an agenda", and, if so, what it might be. In addition, there have been, in my life at least, occasions when some of "us" were concerned with our own agenda, what it should be and how to achieve it, etc. At some point, in response to some of this, I began to formulate a draft approach to building an agenda, for myself, if not others, by tossing words upon electronic paper after the fashion of Dali shooting mud out of a blunderbuss at a blank canvas. How else can one even attempt to build an agenda, and at what level of detail should one operate? I shall try to clean it up and organize it a bit as I go, but it is sketchy and incomplete as, in reality, any agenda must be.

First, I should note something really cool, so as not to completely waste your time. I wandered over to the internet archive looking for some cool "no known copyright" graphic to include here. My initial search term, "agenda" came up with a whole metric boatload of graphics identifying themselves as belonging to the "Fractal Art Series". You really, really owe it to yourselves to scroll through these. The link is: https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=Agenda&license=7%2C9%2C10

So, here we go. What, if anything, is my agenda, other than to have an agenda?

There's a peace symbol up there and yes, that is part of my agenda. Work toward peace, yup. Everybody talks about it, but few do anything about it, especially in the US, which really seems to love war. Damn near all of our politicians promote war at every opportunity, pass obscenely bloated military budgets, authorize the use of force over and over, ignore unauthorized military adventurism, wink at drone wars, bombing of foreign nations, regime change and the like. We can put it on the list, but the hard part is assigning it a priority. I'll get to that eventually.

Power to the People has always been on my list. Expand that to all power to all of the people. Take that as expansively as you like. Right now, the people border on powerlessness. While voting isn't the only way to exercise power, it is certainly one way. The Spaniards vote on damn near everything, because they suffered under Franco for so long. Many here don't even to bother to vote for the few things we can vote for because they feel that they are effectively disenfranchised. There is some basis to that belief, unfortunately. Huge numbers are actually disenfranchised as well. We don't vote for much anyway, because we have a "representative democracy", except for the fact that we don't. Our electeds don't, as a rule, even try to represent us, they represent powerful and wealthy elites, including foreign ones, as well as nonsense political slogans like "paygo" and ideologies like "trickle down" and "pure capitalism". They also represent political parties and cadres as well as inter-party and intra-party cabals. Anything but "we the people hoi polloi". One could argue for making this a top priority, for then we could control and fix everything, but I think I'll avoid that for the moment.

So, I'll just jump to my prior blunderbuss work here and see where we get to. This is not prioritized and in no particular order. It also includes various levels of detail in various areas.

End Racism (and otherforms of bigotry) Make use of SPLC teaching tolerance materials and "Dismantling Racism: A Resource Book for Social Change Groups" from the Western States Center
Restore & Increase Civil Liberties (voting rights, speech, press, assembly, religion, etc)
Police Reform (De-militarize police, stop over policing and police abuse) Do something about the lack of equality before the law in police matters that has been mandated by a handful of truly shitty ad unconstitutional court decisions/
Prison Reform
End Wars, of all types, by all names
End Imperialism, regime change, assassinations, meddling in internal affairs of others
Women's Equality (address dominionism, Civil Liberties)
End "free trade" agreements & agenda
Economic fairness
Ending poverty, see below, start with tax system and restoration of welfare supports if nothing else
Revamp and re-design economy, Eliminate rentier state, produce goods and services for people
Ungame the Market - transaction tax, etc. see preceding 3 items
Climate action (This has a natural priority as a crises)
Election Reform first, at a minimum, fix disenfranchisement by all means including gerrymandering, break the 2 party system, de-monetize and treat bribes as what they are
Separation of Church & State (& End blue laws of all types)
End the war on drugs
End the so-called war on terror. belongs with peace, ending all wars, etc.
Abolish the death penalty

One has to start with a Start with a non-prioritized list. In theory, one cannot prioritize until it is complete, but in process bubble sorts can fill in for prioritization, since completion in a pipe dream, compounded byt the problem of levels of detail in the listing process. Also Priority can take a back seat to opportunity as occasion arises. and: Humans can multitask.

A group, organization, movement, team or polity can also break into separate cadres to attack different goals.

Related material available on the web -

FREEDOM BUDGET(partial): [http://www.prrac.org/pdf/FreedomBudget.pdf]

the abolition of poverty
guaranteed full employment (or eliminate need for same)
fair prices for farmers
fair wages for workers
housing and healthcare for all
the establishment of progressive tax and fiscal policies that respected the needs of working families.
...

http://intergroupresources.com/rc/RESOURCE%20CENTER/OWEN'S%20CATEGORIZATION%20OF%20RC/2%20-%20Curricular%20Materials/2a%20-%20Publicly%20available/Dismantling%20Racism-%20A%20Resource%20Book%20for%20Social%20Change%20Groups%20--%20Western%20States%20Center.pdf
This is a monster pdf file, in a workbook format with the strengths and failings of that format that still provides some approaches and tactics applicable not merely to racism, but to all the isms and is done, as such things can only be done, at the individual and small group level. No government or political party will help with this and none even wants to. (do a future column on this)

Last, but not remotely least, as Ludwig Wittgenstein so wisely said:

“Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness, but come down into the green valleys of silliness.”
"If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done."

The thread is open and the floor is yours.) Whazzup?

((Image not a Mercedes Benz hood ornament))

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

The Aspie Corner's picture

up
0 users have voted.

Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

enhydra lutris's picture

@The Aspie Corner
This particular propaganda campaign was (and is) easy to foist off on we of the west since most of us are so totally ignorant of the history of the Ukraine (and Russia for that matter).

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

Quite a list. I like it. I've been wondering about more direct democracy. I mean you can go to an ATM and they know your acct to the penny, certainly we could do the same with voting. Imagine if citizens got the opportunity to vote us out of Yemen, Syria, et al. I think we would do so. TPTB would never allow it of course. I think it's Gladstone - "the ultimate use of power is to empower others."

There are real solutions to our various dilemmas (including climate chaos), but greed and power confound the likelihood of achieving those solutions. I think most people would buy into your circular priorities above if given the opportunity.

As to climate chaos...we were bombed by hickory nuts through the night as the winds of Hurricane Michael begin to gin up (tonk, tonk, tonk - I guess sometimes you feel like a nut). We're not in the main track but will get some wind and rain. And we're just at the beginning of the chaos to come over the next few decades.

"The only tune that the fiddle would play was oh, the dreadful wind and rain."
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtnKT2ipRgs&list=RDMtnKT2ipRgs&index=1]

Seems our species isn't equipped to act today in order to have a better tomorrow. We react today to correct yesterday, and so remain a day late and a dollar short at every turn.

Well thanks for the OT and the well considered priorities list.

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout
It would be a start if we could find a few politicians of good will somehow able to electronically and non-electronically circularize their constituents on a wide range of issues, both broad and detailed, and then pay attention to the results. How can they pretend to listen to us if they don't seek our opinions?

People freaked out about Citizens United, but massive damage was already done, by a long string of prior decisions. These range from their highly restrictive definition of bribery to prior decisions that money was tantamount to speech and that it was legitimate for persons and corporations and other organizations to "pay for access" to legislators, even where they wee not in said legislators' districts. Thus wealthy corporations from all across the country can ply my rep with funds and favors in order to get the "access" that we, the real constituency are pretty effectively denied.

Ah well ...
Thanks for that version of Wind and Rain, and stay safe, warm, dry and dealthy during the storm (and all the future ones in the pipeline).

Seems our species isn't equipped to act today in order to have a better tomorrow. We react today to correct yesterday, and so remain a day late and a dollar short at every turn.

It has been said that generals are always studying and preparing to fight the last war. As you note, this seems to be a characteristic of our entire species and one which is universal as to subject matter, not just war.

Have a good day.

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

divineorder's picture

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

enhydra lutris's picture

@divineorder
video. We need to be proactive in many ways, including technologies to recover, recapture and bind up already emitted greenhouse gases, which are out there, but not profitable, and hence won't be used in a market based economy, for example.

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

divineorder's picture

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

divineorder's picture

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

divineorder's picture

@divineorder

http://globalsecurity.worldbeyondwar.org/

"
Be sure to check out our complementary online study guide: Study War No More: A Concerned Citizens Study and Action Guide for “A Global Security System: An Alternative to War.” "

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

enhydra lutris's picture

@divineorder
as a resource.

Have a good one.

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

lotlizard's picture

to be allowed or censored any more.

I now see the SPLC as a lobbying group like any other, whose priorities are set by its donors. It has come to represent just another type of special interest.

I think the spectrum of opinion protected by the First Amendment is infinitely wider than what the SPLC in its current form thinks it should be.

up
0 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@lotlizard
else as the arbiter of speech, and wasn't intending to suggest such a thing. The suggestion I was making related strictly to racism and intolerance. They have some materials available under the "teaching tolerance" umbrella, which I think could be useful for precisely that purpose. That a person or persons working toward this goal wouldl selectively pick and choose among them and the ideas therein is always assumed, just as with anything else. Similarly, it is expected that people will use a wide spectrum of resources and ideas, from many sources including themselves, and that it won't be limited to formal educational settings, schools, or any of that.

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

ggersh's picture

up
0 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

enhydra lutris's picture

@ggersh
unforseeable and certain never to repeat event, until the next one. The folks in San Clemente did score a minor win over the San Onofre plant, but there is still an ongoing battle regarding the decommissioning and destruction process.

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

ggersh's picture

up
0 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

lotlizard's picture

If reliance on the SPLC is only confined to using some of their better, less objectionable materials, that’s fine then, I have no problem with that.

up
0 users have voted.
EdMass's picture

Please tell me on what planet that sh*t happens?

With all due respect, of course, cause we're not like them...

up
0 users have voted.

Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

enhydra lutris's picture

@EdMass
things don't seem to be logically impossible, and have even been (rarely) achieve on small scales, but, beyond that, they never seem to happen. In fact, we never seem to get close.

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

magiamma's picture

Thanks for your musings! And have a very good day...

Here is a place to watch hurricane Michael as it lands

https://www.cnet.com/news/watch-hurricane-michael-make-landfall-on-flori...

up
0 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

enhydra lutris's picture

@magiamma
Have a great day.

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --