Saturday, August 12, 2017
What if Reincarnation is Real?
Saturday, May 13, 2017
We are not in a failed state...yet. May it never be so.
I am seeing a lot of posts from friends and articles written for the left that are essentially declaring us a failed state and that our democracy is over. Donald Trump is a Tyrant and we can't rescue the system, seems to be the gist of these posts and articles.
While I understand the despair from whence this comes and I DO NOT want us to fail to realize the seriousness of the danger we are in, because we are in the balance and close to falling into authoritarianism, we haven't lost yet. We are not yet in a failed state.
Donald Trump has all of the characteristics of a tyrant and is causing constitutional crises (plural). But we have not yet lost and that is important because if we believe that we have, prematurely, it hands him the victory.
While I understand the despair from whence this comes and I DO NOT want us to fail to realize the seriousness of the danger we are in, because we are in the balance and close to falling into authoritarianism, we haven't lost yet. We are not yet in a failed state.
Donald Trump has all of the characteristics of a tyrant and is causing constitutional crises (plural). But we have not yet lost and that is important because if we believe that we have, prematurely, it hands him the victory.
It took a while for Nixon
to get ousted and, although it looks and is really bad (worse than Nixon)
things are moving in that direction. It was always political pressure that did
it. The reigning party must be more afraid of the voters than anything else. Of
course, we have terrible gerrymandering and this is all desperately
dangerous...I am in NO WAY trying to get us to think we are safer than we are,
but we also need to avoid freezing in despair and proclaiming it to be
over....or being too fast to throw our system overboard - although we clearly
see places where it has to be strengthened.
Trump has the lowest
approval ratings of any President at this point in time. We have a
couple of gerrymandering cases that could dramatically change things in
2018. We have some of the biggest enemies in Congress and in
government who are weakened. The courts are upholding the
constitution.
Yes…there are really
horrible things happening and McConnell has done more to undermine our
democracy than virtually anyone in our history. But just because he
and his cronies have blocked a special prosecutor and independent commission
right now, doesn’t mean that this is over. First of all…did people
really think he was just going to turn around and do it? If so, you
had different expectations than me. I expect us to have to put
pressure on EVERY DAY for six months at minimum to get it. If we do
it and do it right, we will destroy McConnell in the process…which is a worthy
goal because he has shown himself to be quite willing to re-write the rules for
his own success regardless of their impact on generations to
come. He is unworthy of office. We need to make this as
much about him as about Trump. I am going on the assumption that he
may be implicated.
McConnell and Sessions
need to be as strongly targeted as Trump. There is reason to believe
that they may be implicated. We know Sessions lied under oath about
Russia. He is supposed to recuse himself and has not.
So, when do we give
up? When do we proclaim that our democracy is over and it is no
longer worth trying to fight for the system? (And I believe it is
important for us to fight for our system both to prove to ourselves it can work
and to prove to the world…we are the oldest democratic system standing…we owe
it to the world to try with everything we have to make it
survive. And all of you radicals who want socialism or some
such? The dangers from a GOVERNMENTAL perspective are the same, so
we have to survive to prove it is possible).
These are the four things
I am looking for:
- 1. Trump suspends the government
for some sort of emergency (a Reichstag fire) and is not immediately
deposed.
- 2. The 2018 elections fail to
meet the standard for fair and free elections (and with voter
suppression…we are more dangerously close there than most of our citizens
realize).
- 3. The courts block Trump and
he refuses to abide by their ruling, using the executive branch power to
ignore them. If he is not virtually immediately removed…we are
a failed state.
- 4. He orders our military to act against our
citizens and is obeyed.
But, again, I would expect
us to have to scream CONSISTENTLY about the need for a special prosecutor and
to start implicating McConnell and Sessions for six months or so to get
action. Part of our problem is that these four months have felt like
a decade and people are tiring out and giving up. That is what they
are expecting. We have to remain focused.
And then, when we win,
we’ve got to very seriously revisit our form of government and see how to
strengthen the protections. Unfortunately, in any system, a huge
amount of it is always upheld by societal norms. Society is always a
compact. It just always is. And our system is grossly
imperfect and there are things we can do to tweak it. But the
biggest problem is that any democratic form of government is prone to what we
are currently facing because people can be ignorant, hateful, tribal, and
downright stupid. That’s a human condition problem. There
are other forms of government that would theoretically be better, (the old
meaning of aristocracy means rule by the best…which is not supposed to be
hereditary, oligarchy just claims that you are ruling according to who has the
most wealth which is usually hereditary, but can let new wealth in) but they
tend to degenerate rapidly into rule by hereditary lineage. The
dangers of socialism as a form of government are essentially the same as a
democracy.
Until we all manage to
achieve enlightenment…some form of democracy is probably best for
us.
My conclusions.
- We are in real, serious danger…do
not forget that and resist with everything you have got.
- We are not yet
in a failed state, so don’t give up in despair and it is not yet time to
chuck the system. That hands the victory to the enemies of
Democracy – which includes Trump, it includes the oligarch funders of the
GOP, and it includes the oligarchs in Russia. Don’t do it.
- We need to
scream EVERY DAY for the next six months at minimum for a special
prosecutor and special independent bi-partisan commission to investigate
whether there was collusion with the Trump campaign and Russia and whether
there IS a cover-up or continued collusion. Don’t let the
narrative wander (the media will let it wander if they don’t think it will
sell).
- McConnell and
Sessions are working to block a reasonable investigation – we very
publicly ask the questions about whether they are implicated.
- Work very hard
beginning now on 2018. And this is about the survival of our
democracy. We must elect people who will be willing to stand up
to the executive branch, if necessary…even against their own
party. Frankly, if this was a Democrat doing the same, we need
to be willing to be as vigilant and outraged. It is unlikely to
be since Democrats tend to work for the system and the GOP has been trying
to undermine it since the oligarchs have gotten control of their party…but
our loyalty should be to the system, not the party.
- Anything that
starts to slide on any of the four pathways to a failed state…we have got
to be immediately up in arms.
- We have to fight
with everything we’ve got against suppression of the free press.
There are a lot of issues. Tons of them…overwhelming us
and overwhelming the narrative so that we don’t stay focused. But
the Russia issue, we need to get to the bottom of it. At this point, if
we don't want to lose our form of government entirely and end up in civil war,
we focus on protecting the Constitution...just like every government employee,
including every member of the military, has sworn to do. May
the oath breakers be held to account.
Monday, May 8, 2017
Some thoughts on healthcare
I am rethinking how I am going to talk about healthcare with people. I think that it is important that we fight what is, essentially, a repeal of the ACA, but recognize that the ACA is a woefully imperfect bill. I think we need to force the discourse to move in a different direction and be careful about how we do it.
One thing that is dangerous is debating pieces of Trumpcare - although we can point some of it out. I'd really rather have us just start talking very differently about our entire healthcare system. Take the debate where we want it to go rather than being on the defensive.
To me, the real question--and it is a moral question--is, should profit-making motives have anything to do with healthcare? Do we really want a system of healthcare that is designed to generate profit for corporations?
The reason that we have governments is that there are times in which "the market" is the wrong instrument for social organization. There are many reasons why this might be the case. Sometimes they are social "goods" that are just never going to make a profit, but that we recognize as contributing to society in important ways, so want to support them. Sometimes it is because if the services were run like a business, it would be dangerous for society - imagine if the military was not a government entity, but was loyal to companies and shareholders - we would be back in the days of warring petite fiefdoms. I believe that healthcare is one of these instances in which the market is just the absolute wrong instrument for healthcare. The goal of healthcare is to prevent illness, heal the sick and the injured, ease the suffering of the dying, and to help the members of the society thrive. As such, there needs to be enough money in the system to fairly compensate all those who work in healthcare, to ensure that facilities are top notch, and to encourage continued research and development into new treatments, but they should not be about profit. And I'm going to point out that I know A LOT of people who work in the medical professions, and not a one of them got into healthcare with profit as their main motive. They got into healthcare because they wanted to serve humanity as healers....because they care about people.
The ACA was an attempt to move the needle, but it was a compromise, and not a very good one. What we really need is to get medical care free of the insurance companies by moving to single payer - to Medicare for all. This would cut way down on the administrative burden. A huge amount of the business that doctor's offices have to deal with is trying to get claims paid. Medicare for all would dramatically simplify that. With all the population in the pool - it would balance out the younger and healthier balancing the older and sicker. Rather than returning to the horror-show of pre-existing conditions exclusions, Medicare for all would eliminate the terrible risks to people who have employer paid insurance if they lose or change jobs. The government could negotiate for actually reasonable drug prices. We could kill the UCR tables where every bill I ever get from a doctor says things like "Hospital services, amount charged $39,541.60, Allowed amount $4,466.50, Amount paid, $4,466.50." (This was from my surgery). So, what this says to me is that my surgery costs around $4500, but in order to get that amount, they jacked up the price by almost $35,000 and if I didn't have insurance...I'd be paying almost $40,000 for the surgery I just had...which means I wouldn't be having that surgery because I don't have $40,000. I mean, who does? What reality are we living in? I guess I'd just continue to go through life with sinus troubles and not being able to breathe. I suspect that if we had single payer, they could negotiate what they are going to pay and there would be no more of this crazy math. And before anyone says, "But wait! SOCIALIZED MEDICINE!!!" That is a red-herring. Nobody says in hysterical tones, "SOCIALIZED STOPLIGHTS!!!" There are things that it makes more sense if they are run through the government rather than the market. Medical care is one of them.
So now, I want to wind the clock back to before the ACA and talk about what I DO NOT want to go back to...and what I believe Trumpcare could re-create.
Obviously, there were a lot of uninsured people who would go to emergency rooms for everything because they didn't have care and you can't get turned away from an emergency room. We will have a lot of people who will lose their insurance. But, at the moment, I'm going to speak from the position of someone who works as a manager in an organization that has employer-provided healthcare because I want to point out several ways that tying employment to healthcare makes NO SENSE.
Without laws making it illegal to exclude pre-existing conditions, depending on how large and aggressive your company is in negotiations, you may or may not have a plan that has pre-existing conditions exclusions. Now, this doesn't necessarily keep you from getting "care," it just means that the plan is not going to cover conditions that you had prior to being covered by that plan. So, let's say you are in the job and you have something that you are concerned might be serious or chronic. If you knew that no matter what you would be covered, you would go get the diagnostic tests as soon as you were worried about it...possibly catching a situation early, when it is easier to treat. But instead, you think..."well...I may want to change jobs in a couple of years and if it is something chronic, then if I switched insurers, they might not cover me and I think in the long-run, I'm not likely to be at this job in ten years. Maybe I should just wait and see if it goes away."
This kind of thinking is really common. It keeps people from getting checked out when things can often be dealt with more safely and cheaply and then they finally end up in the doctor's office when it is really bad and much more expensive to treat. This is one of the reasons why our healthcare costs were so ungodly high.
Another scenario goes like this. You know you have a chronic condition that needs to be managed and that if you left your job, would be uncovered. Maybe you need a drug that costs $200 a month for the rest of your life, a liver test that costs $1500 annually, and if anything ever went wrong with it, it could be quite expensive. You hate your job and you feel trapped, but you don't dare leave. On the other hand, you are a good twenty years from retirement. Every day, you get up, feeling trapped and resentful. You carry that into the workplace where you are angry, ready to take offense, frustrated in general and are a morale dark hole. You are totally toxic in your workplace, but are not going anywhere. You do your job well enough to not get fired, but negatively affect everyone around you. Another variant is that instead of being angry, you are a hyper-anxious mess about the possibility of getting fired and losing your coverage...which is also a seriously negative hit on productivity and morale. These were really common and are devastatingly bad to an organization.
Maybe you have an entrepreneurial spirit and would really like to try starting your own business. Or you are an artist and can support yourself, living frugally, on your art and a part-time job. Except you can't, because you can't get health insurance that would actually cover anything at a price you can afford. So, instead, you never strike out and, instead, stay at a full-time job that does not allow you to take a chance on your innovation. Is this good for our country? I don't think so.
Finally, you have employer-related insurance for your children. You have a teen that is showing some signs of a potentially chronic condition. They are going to be off your coverage soon...do you wait on seeking a diagnosis and medical care in the hope that they can make it until they get a job that they will then be tied to? Do you get them the care and then hope that they will be able to get into a job that is both large enough and has been able to negotiate strongly enough that they don't have pre-existing conditions exclusions...but what if they don't? What do you do? If it's a mental illness, you only have until they are eighteen where you can force them to get help, but then you set them up to be potentially without care the rest of their lives. Yay. This totally sucks and there is no good conclusion without pre-existing conditions being illegal.
We need, we absolutely need, the requirement that companies must cover pre-existing conditions and that those with pre-existing conditions should not be isolated into their own "high risk" pool. What will happen if they are isolated is that they will be given an "opportunity" to buy health insurance that will be so cost prohibitive that no one who is not wealthy will be able to afford it. That isn't "access" to health care. That is a "bare opportunity."
Again, I think we need to step back and ask ourselves why we have for-profit health insurance companies. Unlike, say, fire insurance - health problems happen to all of us. It is part of the human condition. There isn't anyone who is not going to get sick, get hurt, get old, and eventually die. So, it isn't like the statistical odds of various forms of accident or fire insurance where you are paying a bit into the kitty on the off-chance that you are the one who will need it...but you may never. You WILL need healthcare. You will probably need health care at some point this year. You SHOULD probably at least get screenings for something so that you can stay healthy. Insurance is not the way to deal with this.
The clear solution is Medicare for All.
One thing that is dangerous is debating pieces of Trumpcare - although we can point some of it out. I'd really rather have us just start talking very differently about our entire healthcare system. Take the debate where we want it to go rather than being on the defensive.
To me, the real question--and it is a moral question--is, should profit-making motives have anything to do with healthcare? Do we really want a system of healthcare that is designed to generate profit for corporations?
The reason that we have governments is that there are times in which "the market" is the wrong instrument for social organization. There are many reasons why this might be the case. Sometimes they are social "goods" that are just never going to make a profit, but that we recognize as contributing to society in important ways, so want to support them. Sometimes it is because if the services were run like a business, it would be dangerous for society - imagine if the military was not a government entity, but was loyal to companies and shareholders - we would be back in the days of warring petite fiefdoms. I believe that healthcare is one of these instances in which the market is just the absolute wrong instrument for healthcare. The goal of healthcare is to prevent illness, heal the sick and the injured, ease the suffering of the dying, and to help the members of the society thrive. As such, there needs to be enough money in the system to fairly compensate all those who work in healthcare, to ensure that facilities are top notch, and to encourage continued research and development into new treatments, but they should not be about profit. And I'm going to point out that I know A LOT of people who work in the medical professions, and not a one of them got into healthcare with profit as their main motive. They got into healthcare because they wanted to serve humanity as healers....because they care about people.
The ACA was an attempt to move the needle, but it was a compromise, and not a very good one. What we really need is to get medical care free of the insurance companies by moving to single payer - to Medicare for all. This would cut way down on the administrative burden. A huge amount of the business that doctor's offices have to deal with is trying to get claims paid. Medicare for all would dramatically simplify that. With all the population in the pool - it would balance out the younger and healthier balancing the older and sicker. Rather than returning to the horror-show of pre-existing conditions exclusions, Medicare for all would eliminate the terrible risks to people who have employer paid insurance if they lose or change jobs. The government could negotiate for actually reasonable drug prices. We could kill the UCR tables where every bill I ever get from a doctor says things like "Hospital services, amount charged $39,541.60, Allowed amount $4,466.50, Amount paid, $4,466.50." (This was from my surgery). So, what this says to me is that my surgery costs around $4500, but in order to get that amount, they jacked up the price by almost $35,000 and if I didn't have insurance...I'd be paying almost $40,000 for the surgery I just had...which means I wouldn't be having that surgery because I don't have $40,000. I mean, who does? What reality are we living in? I guess I'd just continue to go through life with sinus troubles and not being able to breathe. I suspect that if we had single payer, they could negotiate what they are going to pay and there would be no more of this crazy math. And before anyone says, "But wait! SOCIALIZED MEDICINE!!!" That is a red-herring. Nobody says in hysterical tones, "SOCIALIZED STOPLIGHTS!!!" There are things that it makes more sense if they are run through the government rather than the market. Medical care is one of them.
So now, I want to wind the clock back to before the ACA and talk about what I DO NOT want to go back to...and what I believe Trumpcare could re-create.
Obviously, there were a lot of uninsured people who would go to emergency rooms for everything because they didn't have care and you can't get turned away from an emergency room. We will have a lot of people who will lose their insurance. But, at the moment, I'm going to speak from the position of someone who works as a manager in an organization that has employer-provided healthcare because I want to point out several ways that tying employment to healthcare makes NO SENSE.
Without laws making it illegal to exclude pre-existing conditions, depending on how large and aggressive your company is in negotiations, you may or may not have a plan that has pre-existing conditions exclusions. Now, this doesn't necessarily keep you from getting "care," it just means that the plan is not going to cover conditions that you had prior to being covered by that plan. So, let's say you are in the job and you have something that you are concerned might be serious or chronic. If you knew that no matter what you would be covered, you would go get the diagnostic tests as soon as you were worried about it...possibly catching a situation early, when it is easier to treat. But instead, you think..."well...I may want to change jobs in a couple of years and if it is something chronic, then if I switched insurers, they might not cover me and I think in the long-run, I'm not likely to be at this job in ten years. Maybe I should just wait and see if it goes away."
This kind of thinking is really common. It keeps people from getting checked out when things can often be dealt with more safely and cheaply and then they finally end up in the doctor's office when it is really bad and much more expensive to treat. This is one of the reasons why our healthcare costs were so ungodly high.
Another scenario goes like this. You know you have a chronic condition that needs to be managed and that if you left your job, would be uncovered. Maybe you need a drug that costs $200 a month for the rest of your life, a liver test that costs $1500 annually, and if anything ever went wrong with it, it could be quite expensive. You hate your job and you feel trapped, but you don't dare leave. On the other hand, you are a good twenty years from retirement. Every day, you get up, feeling trapped and resentful. You carry that into the workplace where you are angry, ready to take offense, frustrated in general and are a morale dark hole. You are totally toxic in your workplace, but are not going anywhere. You do your job well enough to not get fired, but negatively affect everyone around you. Another variant is that instead of being angry, you are a hyper-anxious mess about the possibility of getting fired and losing your coverage...which is also a seriously negative hit on productivity and morale. These were really common and are devastatingly bad to an organization.
Maybe you have an entrepreneurial spirit and would really like to try starting your own business. Or you are an artist and can support yourself, living frugally, on your art and a part-time job. Except you can't, because you can't get health insurance that would actually cover anything at a price you can afford. So, instead, you never strike out and, instead, stay at a full-time job that does not allow you to take a chance on your innovation. Is this good for our country? I don't think so.
Finally, you have employer-related insurance for your children. You have a teen that is showing some signs of a potentially chronic condition. They are going to be off your coverage soon...do you wait on seeking a diagnosis and medical care in the hope that they can make it until they get a job that they will then be tied to? Do you get them the care and then hope that they will be able to get into a job that is both large enough and has been able to negotiate strongly enough that they don't have pre-existing conditions exclusions...but what if they don't? What do you do? If it's a mental illness, you only have until they are eighteen where you can force them to get help, but then you set them up to be potentially without care the rest of their lives. Yay. This totally sucks and there is no good conclusion without pre-existing conditions being illegal.
We need, we absolutely need, the requirement that companies must cover pre-existing conditions and that those with pre-existing conditions should not be isolated into their own "high risk" pool. What will happen if they are isolated is that they will be given an "opportunity" to buy health insurance that will be so cost prohibitive that no one who is not wealthy will be able to afford it. That isn't "access" to health care. That is a "bare opportunity."
Again, I think we need to step back and ask ourselves why we have for-profit health insurance companies. Unlike, say, fire insurance - health problems happen to all of us. It is part of the human condition. There isn't anyone who is not going to get sick, get hurt, get old, and eventually die. So, it isn't like the statistical odds of various forms of accident or fire insurance where you are paying a bit into the kitty on the off-chance that you are the one who will need it...but you may never. You WILL need healthcare. You will probably need health care at some point this year. You SHOULD probably at least get screenings for something so that you can stay healthy. Insurance is not the way to deal with this.
The clear solution is Medicare for All.
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Shu
One of the things that happens to me sometimes is that poetry comes through my pen really quickly without my real thought. Mostly it is Apollon, but this one is from a God about whom I knew virtually nothing at the time this appeared on this paper. It is about 6 years old.
The river runs through the mountain.
The river flows through the sea.
Of all the lore forgotten
How could you forget me?
I am the breeze in the morning.
I am the world's last breath.
I count your length and rhythm,
I'll leave you at your death.
The starlight is my stallion,
The blood flows at my whim.
I mediate your spirit.
I sing your life's great hymn.
I am Shu, I am Shu, I am Shu.
The river runs through the mountain.
The river flows through the sea.
Of all the lore forgotten
How could you forget me?
I am the breeze in the morning.
I am the world's last breath.
I count your length and rhythm,
I'll leave you at your death.
The starlight is my stallion,
The blood flows at my whim.
I mediate your spirit.
I sing your life's great hymn.
I am Shu, I am Shu, I am Shu.
Saturday, March 4, 2017
Demanding a Special Prosecutor
Hello Everyone
I have not had the chance to write much, but I have been quite busy. It is clear that we need a special prosecutor and a bi-partisan investigatory committee to investigate the connection between President Trump, his campaign, his surrogates and the Russians and whether or not there was collusion and/or cover-up about the Russian interference in our elections with the intention of aiding President Trump.
The Justice Department is supposed to appoint a special prosecutor whenever there is a conflict of interest or unusual circumstances. Given that Jeff Sessions, the head of the Department of Justice, was a Trump surrogate and lied about his conversations with Russia and the FBI is supposed to be investigating both Sessions and Trump, among others, there are CLEARLY conflicts of interest. A special prosecutor is a necessity.
This is my postcard text: We need a special prosecutor [as per 28CFR 600.1] and a bi-partisan investigatory committee. Given what we know right now, refusal to allow proper investigation looks suspicious.
I am specifically thanking:
John McCain and
Lindsey Graham
290 Russell Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
I have not had the chance to write much, but I have been quite busy. It is clear that we need a special prosecutor and a bi-partisan investigatory committee to investigate the connection between President Trump, his campaign, his surrogates and the Russians and whether or not there was collusion and/or cover-up about the Russian interference in our elections with the intention of aiding President Trump.
The Justice Department is supposed to appoint a special prosecutor whenever there is a conflict of interest or unusual circumstances. Given that Jeff Sessions, the head of the Department of Justice, was a Trump surrogate and lied about his conversations with Russia and the FBI is supposed to be investigating both Sessions and Trump, among others, there are CLEARLY conflicts of interest. A special prosecutor is a necessity.
This is my postcard text: We need a special prosecutor [as per 28CFR 600.1] and a bi-partisan investigatory committee. Given what we know right now, refusal to allow proper investigation looks suspicious.
Paul Ryan
1233 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Mitch McConnell
317 Russell Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
GOP members of the House Oversight Committee
Jason Chaffetz
2236 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Trey Gowdy
2418 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Blake Farenhold
1027 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Virginia Foxx
2350 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Thomas Massie
2453 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Mark Meadows
1024 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Ron DeSantis
1524 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Dennis A. Ross
436 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Mark Walker
1305 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Rod Blum
1108 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Jody Hice
324 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Steve Russell
128 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Glenn Grothman
1217 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Will Hurd
317 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Gary Palmer
330 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
James Comer
1513 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Neal Dunn
423 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Clay Higgins
1711 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Scott DesJarlais
413 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Paul Gosar
504 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Justin Amash
114 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Mark Sanford
2211 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Jim Jordan
1524 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Darrell Issa
2347 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Jimmy Duncan
2207 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Senate Select Intelligence Committee GOP members
Jim Cornyn
517 Hart Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Tom Cotton
124 Russell Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
James Lankford
1015 N. Broadway Ave. Ste 310
Oklahoma City, OK 73102
Roy Blunt
260 Russell Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Susan Collins
413 Dirksen Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Marco Rubio
284 Russell Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Jim Risch
438 Russell Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Richard Burr
217 Russell Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
John McCain
218 Russell Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Sunday, February 5, 2017
Forming a Resistance Group - Do it
One of the things that I have done since 11/9 that has been most important to me is that, in December, I founded The Symposia of the Resistance. This is NOT a Facebook group or a virtual group. It is face to face.
One of the things that I strongly believe is that no small part of our culture's current weakness and danger is our social isolation and that, although I love social media, it is not a replacement for real, face to face, support. On November 17th, I wrote a post about the Resistance and part of that, an essential part, is that this is a marathon, not a sprint...so we must build into our daily lives ways to increase our own resilience and capacity and the resilience and capacity of our communities. In order to do that, we must meet in community face to face.
Based on this, I founded the Symposia of the Resistance shortly after that post. For me, it has been an essential support and I have had others tell me that it is for them as well. These are my guidelines for such a group:
1. Schedule it on a regularly recurring rotation so that people can plan for it. Not everyone will make it every time, but everyone will know when it is happening.
2. Make it EASY to host - potluck, order a pizza, pick up a rotisserie chicken or something - don't overcomplicate. I kind of pick up my house, and maybe run the vacuum and wipe down the bathroom sink - but the main thing I am doing is giving people a place to come. I don't really clean for the group. I lived in a studio for years - if you can't host, choose a restaurant.
3. Name it. This will help everyone remember that it is a Resistance Group. We talk about the Resistance. We talk about Resisting. As long as it stays on related topics, that is fine. But don't let it devolve into a regular social group that has no purpose.
4. No prep work! I do have a component (a book) that is helping build our capacity BUT we have one copy, we read aloud and discuss as we go, meaning that there is NO pre-work. We all have too much to do and I want people to spend their free-time outside of the Symposia actually resisting and keeping updated on the relevant topics, not preparing for the Symposium. Besides, this is, actually, how we used to run symposia - there was no mass production of texts. We sat and read aloud together and discussed. Reading can be incredibly social and it becomes much more awesome that way.
Basically, what I do is that every other Friday, I open my home, I always have something easy to eat (pasta, rotisserie chicken, pre-made pot pie) and people bring food. I always have some wine and people have been bringing some other drinks if they want them. And we get together for a few hours and talk about the Resistance. I have a book that is on a topic useful to the resistance (right now it is Don't Think of an Elephant by Lakoff) that we are passing around the room, reading aloud to the group, and discussing. Now, honestly, after about 15 or more hours of the Symposia, we are on page 12, so, clearly that is not mostly what we are doing. However, several of us have said how even those 12 pages are shaping how we are doing some things and that we are consciously thinking about framing (the topic of the book).
Mostly what we are really doing is:
One of the things that I strongly believe is that no small part of our culture's current weakness and danger is our social isolation and that, although I love social media, it is not a replacement for real, face to face, support. On November 17th, I wrote a post about the Resistance and part of that, an essential part, is that this is a marathon, not a sprint...so we must build into our daily lives ways to increase our own resilience and capacity and the resilience and capacity of our communities. In order to do that, we must meet in community face to face.
Based on this, I founded the Symposia of the Resistance shortly after that post. For me, it has been an essential support and I have had others tell me that it is for them as well. These are my guidelines for such a group:
1. Schedule it on a regularly recurring rotation so that people can plan for it. Not everyone will make it every time, but everyone will know when it is happening.
2. Make it EASY to host - potluck, order a pizza, pick up a rotisserie chicken or something - don't overcomplicate. I kind of pick up my house, and maybe run the vacuum and wipe down the bathroom sink - but the main thing I am doing is giving people a place to come. I don't really clean for the group. I lived in a studio for years - if you can't host, choose a restaurant.
3. Name it. This will help everyone remember that it is a Resistance Group. We talk about the Resistance. We talk about Resisting. As long as it stays on related topics, that is fine. But don't let it devolve into a regular social group that has no purpose.
4. No prep work! I do have a component (a book) that is helping build our capacity BUT we have one copy, we read aloud and discuss as we go, meaning that there is NO pre-work. We all have too much to do and I want people to spend their free-time outside of the Symposia actually resisting and keeping updated on the relevant topics, not preparing for the Symposium. Besides, this is, actually, how we used to run symposia - there was no mass production of texts. We sat and read aloud together and discussed. Reading can be incredibly social and it becomes much more awesome that way.
Basically, what I do is that every other Friday, I open my home, I always have something easy to eat (pasta, rotisserie chicken, pre-made pot pie) and people bring food. I always have some wine and people have been bringing some other drinks if they want them. And we get together for a few hours and talk about the Resistance. I have a book that is on a topic useful to the resistance (right now it is Don't Think of an Elephant by Lakoff) that we are passing around the room, reading aloud to the group, and discussing. Now, honestly, after about 15 or more hours of the Symposia, we are on page 12, so, clearly that is not mostly what we are doing. However, several of us have said how even those 12 pages are shaping how we are doing some things and that we are consciously thinking about framing (the topic of the book).
Mostly what we are really doing is:
- Processing the events and sharing information
- Sharing analysis and strategic areas to watch and areas of our individual interests, such as information about Whitford v. Gill, in depth information about the Russian connection, environmental information, data security, etc.
- Sharing our various experiences in Resistance - what we are doing, what effects we are seeing, and reflecting on them
- Sharing opportunities - such as information about making calls for special elections, including local state legislature elections in red and purple areas
- Sharing resources (e.g. this is the best place to buy pocket constitutions, it is cheaper to order a ton of post-cards to send to Congress and local representatives than to buy them or print yourself)
- Sharing information from other groups that are engaged in the Resistance and linking people up to training, opportunities, or others who have special knowledge, skills, connections
- Strategizing and trying to think through short and long-term priorities
- Reaffirming our patriotism, our love and care for our communities, our nation, the earth, the vulnerable, and our willingness to STAND UP in their defense
- Communal, social, human support. This is huge. We are talking openly about our fears, our wounds from past oppression, our hopes, our dreams and all of this, ALL OF THIS, openly discussed in a group of people who are also part of the Resistance fortifies our resolve in profound ways.
Now, in the Symposia of the Resistance, we are not, at least at this point, taking specific action TOGETHER. We have a bunch of people who are involved in a bunch of actions, who are involved with other groups, and there are subgroups of us are working together on specific actions. However, in your group, you could decide that you are strategically planning and taking action as a group. We are beginning to consider if we want to link up with a Sister District in a purple or red area: https://www.sisterdistrict.com.
Call to Action
If you are not in a group like this, really, consider creating one. It will help your resilience, it will build resilience in others, it will strengthen your community, and all of that is needful work.
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
What is Our "Wall of Wood"?
I am getting the really powerful feeling, right now, that we have been given our "Wall of Wood," but I don't yet know what it is. I am trying to figure this out.
For those who do not know the reference, it comes from the stories of the second Persian invasion of Greece, as recorded by Herodotus. It is, I think, difficult to realize what these battles looked like. Suffice it to say that all of the Star Wars franchise and others owe a tremendous debt to this history.
The Persians had sent a comparatively small (for them) number of troops into Greece/Hellas and were repelled at Marathon over odds that look like a Jr. High football team defeating the winners of the Superbowl. They went back, regrouped, and launched a second attack.
For those who do not know the reference, it comes from the stories of the second Persian invasion of Greece, as recorded by Herodotus. It is, I think, difficult to realize what these battles looked like. Suffice it to say that all of the Star Wars franchise and others owe a tremendous debt to this history.
The Persians had sent a comparatively small (for them) number of troops into Greece/Hellas and were repelled at Marathon over odds that look like a Jr. High football team defeating the winners of the Superbowl. They went back, regrouped, and launched a second attack.
When the Persians were in the process of sending their second invasion, Athens sent a delegation to Delphi to ask Apollon what they should do. The response was unequivocal and terrifying.
" “Why sit you, doomed ones? Fly to the world’s end, leaving
Home and the heights your city circles like a wheel.
The head shall not remain in its place, nor the body,
Nor the feet beneath, nor the hands, nor the parts between;
But all is ruined, for fire and the headlong God of War
Speeding in a Syrian chariot shall bring you low.
Many a tower shall he destroy, not yours alone,
And give to pitiless fire many shrines of gods,
Which even now stand sweating, with fear quivering.
While over the roof-tops black blood runs streaming.
In prophecy of woe that needs must come. But rise,
Haste from the sanctuary and bow your hearts to grief.” (Herodotus, VII, 140, trans., Selincourt)
This is not ambiguous. Athens was going to be utterly destroyed. So, the Athenians deliberated and did a lot of sacrifices and went back as suppliants for a second reading to see if they could get anything more from Apollon that would help them. After all, they were the city devoted to Athena and Apollon, Himself, had both given them their first courts, assisted in the development of democracy (the rule of the people) and their constitution, and was the divine ancestor of the people. Both Athena and Apollon have a strong relationship with Democracy.
The Athenian delegates were granted a second reading.
“Not wholly can Pallas win the heart of Olympian Zeus,
Though she prays him with many prayers and all her subtlety;
Yet will I speak to you this other word, firm as adamant:
Though all else shall be taken within the bound of Cecrops
And the fastness of the holy mountain of Cithaeron,
Yet Zeus the all-seeing grants to Athena’s prayer
That the wooden wall only shall not fall, but help you and your children.
But await not the host of horse and foot coming from Asia,
Nor be still, but turn your back and withdraw from the foe.
Truly a day will come when you will meet him face to face.
Divine Salamis, you will bring death to women’s sons
When the corn is scattered, or the harvest gathered in.” (Herodotus, VII, 141, trans Selincourt).
The delegation went back to Athens and there was a debate in the ekklesia. The debate centered upon what is the "wall of wood?" Themistocles held the day by saying that clearly the physical city of Athens would be destroyed, but the wooden wall was referring to the triremes, the ships, and that the second prophecy gave both the location (the straits of Salamis) and the time (two options) of a stand, but that they should evacuate the city and run. The ekkesia agreed and decided to make their stands in ships against a vastly superior navy in the straits of Salamis. The Athenians won over odds that make Star Wars look realistic.
However, acting correctly on Apollon's prophecy involved a massive shift in thinking for the Athenians. The argument was that it was the people and Athena Herself that constituted Athens, not a particular location. They abandoned the city (which was utterly destroyed by the Persians), but they took the holy xoanon statue of Athena from the old temple and took the people. Wherever they were, together, that was Athens. Then the citizens went onto the ships, where they had more maneuverability and had an advantage from knowing the straits and being great fishers. And they won against impossible odds.
The question I feel compelled to ask right now is, what is our wall of wood? I do think we are given one. According to Apollon, it was Athena (and, honestly, Him), using their power to sway things on the inner planes and move probability as best as possible. It doesn't mean that there is not destruction...awful, horrifying destruction...but Athens was victorious in the end from using power in ways that their enemy never dreamed about. I think this is also a possibility for us, here, in one of the incarnations of Athens. I feel it. We have to figure out, what is our wall of wood?
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