Saturday, July 30, 2016

The Anxieties Are Real



The 2008 implosion, no one seems to have seen it coming. Europe teetered. Greece went full scale. And people have been watching. There is a feeling among a sizable chunk of the electorate that if somehow the clock could be turned back, things would be okay, as if turning the clock back is an option, or even desirable.

Trade and immigration, both good things, get blamed for productivity gains through technological innovation. Humanity has longed for productivity gains, and now that it is here, people are complaining.

First, the big picture. 2008 and the aftermath has blown the cover from America and Europe. Both have been exposed to have accumulated trillions of dollars in bad loans while writing off the Global South as not creditworthy. This has been racism.

Trade is a good thing, and if it is not a good thing why don't the 50 states try to become 50 different economies? Bill Clinton created a pretty good economy, but he could not have done it without NAFTA and some of the other trade deals. But he, and his party, and especially his chosen successor messed up towards the end when they should have been the most vigilant. The record surplus of 2000 was allowed to be thwacked. I don't remember either Bill Clinton or Al Gore saying half the surplus should go into education and health because now it was a knowledge economy. Al Gore spent all his time running against Bill Clinton. Bush was the only one with a plan for what to do with Bill Clinton's money. The plan was to steal it on behalf of the super rich, but it was still a plan, and the only plan on the table. The Democrats did not have a human capital plan.

A trillion dollars in tax cuts, another trillion for drugs for seniors, a trillion to destroy Iraq, which got mistaken for the Al Qaeda, and a trillion to rebuild Iraq: all that was going to send a signal to Wall Street to go reckless, and it did. And Wall Street "cops" were taken off the beat very conveniently. The watchdogs were made weak systematically.

Trade is a good thing. It, coupled with other things like balanced budgets, gave you a record surplus. But trade is only a good thing if you know what to do with the money it brings you, apparently.

Immigration is a good thing. Eradicate immigration and America is no longer an entrepreneurial country. Immigration is in the DNA of America.

The thing is you can not globalize capital and finance and trade and drag your feet on the idea of a world government. Europeans tried the idea of an economic union without a political union. It does not work.

The anxieties of the middle class are real. The anxieties of the working class are real. But that working class needs to take responsibility for the political choices it has made and threatens to make all over again. You voted for a party that prevented the economically sound idea of a $3 trillion stimulus in 2009. With that the recovery would have come much faster and stronger with much of the money going straight to Main Street. Instead there was a much, much bigger monetary stimulus with all the money going straight to Wall Street. That was money printed on your behalf. You vote for the party of gridlock. You vote for the racist party. You vote for the sexist party. You threaten to vote for a guy who is known in New York circles as Mr. Bankruptcy. This guy has lighted the racial fire under your bottoms so he can give himself and his pals a tax cut. Where is your common sense? Think.

The biggest news is not trade or immigration or China. Jobs are also disappearing in China. The biggest news is technological innovation moving at warp speed. And this is supposed to be a good thing. The dream that humanity has harbored for thousands of years is about to be realized. Everybody wins if there is accompanying political innovation.

And the innovation is one person one vote democracy taken to its logical local and global conclusions.

The productivity gains are about to be so large that many of the old rules will no longer apply. The company ownership structure itself is going to be challenged. Maybe We The People are meant to own 10% of all companies. Perhaps that percentage should go up for companies that will show astounding levels of productivity gains. If your productivity gain is going to be 10,000%, perhaps We The People ought to own 30% of it.

Like it or not, the world is moving towards something called the Universal Basic Income. And why would you not like it?

The productivity gains are about to become astronomical. So far the politics and economics have been liquid water physics. We are about to experience steam physics. Many of the old rules will no longer apply.

This is not socialism. This is the Age Of Abundance. It is a new paradigm that asks for the rewriting of rules. And Donald Trump has no clue what I am talking about.

I read an article a few days back that showed your smartphone has free stuff that people in the 1969 to 1989 time window paid almost a million dollars for. Which basically makes you a millionaire. Everybody with a smartphone today would have looked a millionaire to the people of the ancient era of 1969-1989.

This productivity gain thing is real, it is unstoppable. Rejoice. This is good news. But what has happened is nothing compared to what is about to happen.

If you are a white person wanting a white president, I recommend white person Hillary. The Donald is completely clueless. He would fail the SAT today. His brain has been fried with racist, sexist venom. On bad manners alone he would go to hell. Read your Bible. Donald Trump is Sodom and Gomorrah two in one. Everyone in New York knows that.

Priyanka Chopra


















Friday, July 29, 2016

A Lot Of Women Will Break For Hillary Final Two Weeks

I fully expect Donald Trump to have a bunch of Rick Lazio moments during the debates.

Lazio ran for the US Senate against Hillary Clinton in 2000 and in one debate the guy was seen invading Hillary's personal space. He walked over to her podium.

Donald might not walk. But he has a foul mouth. He doesn't need to. The guy is zero on policy. His gas tank is empty. And that just makes it more likely he will act boorish. This dude's credentials are bad manners. They would not hire him at McDonald's.

All Hillary has to do is maintain her composure. Lazio lost big. A lot of women took offense, and rightly so.

Donald Trump is going to make Rick Lazio look like a gentleman.

Donald will lose big and will take his party with him.

Call it female diffidence, but a lot of women are acting coy about Hillary. But I expect them to break in Hillary's direction in large numbers during the final two weeks. This is going to be a landslide election. Nothing less is deserved.

The historicity of the first female president can not be lost on most women, but they are being diplomatic about it. They are trying hard not to gloat.

Donald Trump: Typical Republican

Donald Trump is not a different kind of candidate. He is a typical Republican.

He wants to light the racial fire under poor white bottoms so they may not think in terms of their economic self interest. He wants them to vote for him so he may give himself a tax cut. How is that new? How is that different? Was there ever a point in time when Donald Trump had enough money? The guy is greedy. The guy is sin personified.

A thousand evangelicals gathered around Trump. I am not sure that's enough. You are going to need many more to save this soul.

Donald Trump wants tax cuts for himself. Trump University did not work out. He got caught in the act. Donald gotta make money somehow.

Hillary Should Collect A 10 Point Bounce


Hillary Clinton Speech

Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton: such uplifting, wonderful speeches. Such a contrast to the Republican arsonists. I think Hillary will see a 10 point bounce from this convention. This election is going to be won in a landslide. And by now I am so glad the Bernie crowd is all sewed up, and she did it herself. That crowd needs to know, how much you get of all you want is in direct proportion to the size of the mandate. I should write that in the form of a mathematical equation. Give her the House!

The top speakers from Philly should now fan out to the 50 states in a coordinated fashion.

Did you get the news? Donald wants to punch people in the face! This dude can't come anywhere near the nuclear code. This is a simple one issue election now. People, be very afraid.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

The Bernie Crowd Needs To Get In Line

The time to show enthusiasm is now. It is not about making the right noise. It is about getting things done. How much gets done is in direct proportion to the size of the mandate in November. Don't walk away now and in a year complain you are not getting it. Exhibit political literacy. Prepare to run for public office at all levels in all 50 states. That is what idealism looks like. But don't be walking away now. Every Democrat in over a hundred years has run against a Republican but this is the first time a Democrat has the option to kill the Republican Party. But it will not happen without total unity. There is a very real chance of Dems taking the House. If you want stuff done, get the House.

Show some sportsmanship. Bernie lost. But his agenda did not lose. His ideas carry on. But the government machinery asks for a mandate, or the levers don't move.

Not lukewarm unity, but total unity, enthusiastic unity. If you want to see things happen.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Warren Did Not Run, Bernie Did Not Win

The left and the center are together under the Democratic Party umbrella. The Clintons forged the New Democratic formula after the party had become lifeless for being too taken by the pure left. They dread going back there. Even if the ground reality has changed.

The Bernie crowd has had to google the word socialism. This is the crowd that will deliver the Universal Basic Income. This crowd will steer the conversation from liquid water physics to steam physics.

You do that by running for office at all levels. That is the only way.

Hillary won. She picked who she wanted to pick. That is what winning means. You get to pick.

For now the best bet progressives have is to work towards a large mandate. I hope Warren goes to every state.

Donald Trump Exhibited A Black Employee

Donald exhibited a black employee in Cleveland, as if to say, look, I have a black employee, I am the least racist person.

Like some people have a "black friend" and that is how you know they are not racist or anything.

Black Lives Matter needs to perhaps look for people who don't have a black person working for them.

How big is Trump LLC? Four people? Five? Seven?

What if having one black employee is a brand of racism called tokenism?

What if having a black employee is the 2016 version of a master slave relationship? That you need to have at least one black employee to boss around and feel good about yourself?

Was the exhibit a receptionist? Or was she like one of those struggling actors hired for Trump rallies? Was she paid? Minimum wage? Living wage?

Did Trump ever bother to learn her name? What does he call her if he does not know her name? Did he remember ever having seen her before?

Is the exhibit happy at work? Or is the racism too much? How does she feel when she hears Donald Trump hate speech on TV? Does she have Hispanic friends?

Donald Trump does not seem to realize blacks and Hispanics are one people now.

Friday, July 22, 2016

Advocate: A Tech Startup



Advocate is a tech startup. It is in round one. It is in for both the voter and the people running for office. It is impressive that it already has clients in Kenya and New Zealand, among other places. It is pursuing the "enterprise model," as in get the political party not the solo candidate.

From Senators in ancient Rome to parliamentarians in the 1200s UK to the revolutionaries of the American revolution to the chaos in Cleveland, democracy has evolved, but apparently not enough. "Driving an always-on political atmosphere where supporters and candidates are more thoroughly engaged throughout the total political cycle, not just during elections."

"Campaign finance will change when less TV ad spend allows the decoupling of the crippling money needs.....There will be location independent, mobile and secure voting as barriers will be removed in favor of rising voter turnout/engagement in the processes."

Chris Bystrom is the CEO and one of the three Cofounders.

But how will Advocate do what it wants to do? What is the product roadmap? What are its chances? Who are the other players in the space? When he came back from Cleveland I met up with him in his office near Union Square.







When Chris emailed me suggesting I write up about his tech startup, I called him up. One of the first things I asked was, how did you find me?

Oh, I was just looking online for people in the New York area who were writing about politics.

I was standing on the sidewalk in front of Baruch College near Little India smooching off the city's free gigabit WiFi from stands that used to be payphones but now look like pins on a Google map, only in 3D. He was in Williamsburg, getting ready to go to Cleveland.

"To protest?"

"No. To distribute flyers about the company, to onboard people."

We got disconnected a few times. Was the WiFi really gigabit, as promised, or more like a Trump University course, high on promise, low on delivery?



I just spent an hour with Chris, holed up at WeWork on 33 Irving Place near Union Square, right before lunch. It was an intense experience of a conversation. Technology is going to eat up politics but, just like with health, there have been many false starts by people who, just like with health, came to politics from the technology not politics angle and failed. Hello Google.

When you are at a WeWork, you feel incubated. WeWork itself has been an Uber size startup. It feels like it was launched only yesterday and is now in the billions. WeWork has revolutionized the work space concept.



What is in your background that got you to do this, I asked. Unless you have a burning passion, you can't do a startup.

His great grandfather was Governor of Nebraska. His mother is political. He grew up in a political family. He learned politics like he learned English. Kind of like me, both sides of my family is political. You get infected early.



"How do you end up in Kenya?"

"Skype."

Nobody does mobile money quite like the Kenyans. I am talking m-Pesa. The digital democracy tools are going to have to be redesigned with SMS only in mind.



"What about for countries with authoritarian regimes? Will you go into those?"

I was not happy with the answer. There are 120 democracies. That's a big enough market.

Maybe so, but that's not the entire market. That's not the market segment with the greatest need. Oracle only became a serious company after it won a contract with the CIA. Maybe the State Department would like to become a client. Maybe George Soros might wish for a much better ROI on his liberally sprinkled money.



What about the competition? He listed a few: Nationbuilder, Brigade, ChangePolitics. I was not impressed with any of them. It felt like Advocate had a first mover advantage, which is surprising. Politics is one of the oldest professions, some might say the very oldest. And technology has been around for a while. But will Advocate deliver on the promise? Will it do what it is promising to do? 2016 will see $4.4 billion spent on political TV ads. It is not possible to talk to someone in 30 seconds without insulting their intelligence. Craig's List killed the newspaper classifieds. Will Advocate kill the 30 second politics ads? That is the question. It has a nine month runway based on money in the bank. That is plenty of time to prove it just might. Having already onboarded 100 American politicians before even launching is not a bad start for this eight person team, a few in San Francisco, one in Chicago, most of them in New York.

 

Trump: The Man The Founders Feared


Trump: The Man The Founders Feared

Trump's boorish, selfish, puerile, and repulsive character, combined with his prideful ignorance, his off-the-cuff policy making, and his neo-fascistic tendencies make him the most divisive and scary of any serious presidential candidate in American history. He is precisely "the man the founders feared"  

Thursday, July 21, 2016

The Kaine Possibility

Independent Senators 15 Reasons Hillary Clinton Should Tap Tim Kaine

Looks like the consensus is gelling around Kaine. If he be the pick, Warren should be given a large role in the fall campaign. Send her to all 50 states solo. She is electrifying.

It would feel odd though. I feel like Warren has earned it.

Not Picking Warren Would Be A Mistake

Tim Kaine

Not picking Warren would be a mistake, like Al Gore keeping Bill Clinton away in 2000.

Warren earned it. Imagine the Republican nomination in Cleveland going to Mitt Romney or Jeb Bush. Donald Trump is bad but he won the votes in the primary.

Warren has earned the VP spot as much as Hillary has earned the top spot. Somebody from that crowd is most likely to succeed Hillary in eight years.

I have nothing against Tim Kaine any more than I have anything against Mitt Romney or Jeb Bush. Let the democratic process decide.

Not picking Warren is going to pour water on the enthusiasm.

Warren No Longer Being Considered?

Elizabeth Warren out? The five most likely contenders to be Hillary Clinton's vice president

I am surprised.

(1) No one could do the attack dog role Warren does.
(2) The Bernie crowd deserved her.
(3) A lot of Republican women might have crossed over seeing two strong, smart women on the ticket.

Facts Free Racism And Sexism

Jeff Flake Equates 'Lock Her Up' Chants with Birther Claims

When the top law enforcement agency in the country gives Hillary Clinton a clean chit and you go ahead and call her a criminal, what is that?

That is like looking at a Hawaii birth certificate and seeing it is from Kenya.

These are harmful tendencies.

Use Warren To Deny Trump A Bounce

Every convention is known to give the nominee a bounce, no matter how temporary.

It does not have to be that way. Trump’s bounce can be nipped in the bud by announcing Elizabeth Warren as the running mate a day later.

Zero bounce from Trump. And it goes downhill for him after that.

Hillary Warren could do a 50 state sweep.

Day 2 In Cleveland Reveals The Trump Gameplan

The only weapon Trump will use until November 4 is the weapon he and his team unleashed on the second day of the Cleveland convention.

Personal attacks are known to happen in politics. But personal attacks and personal attacks only on the way to the nuclear code is the last mad dash attempt by The Devil himself. How could he get so close to victory and still be so near to the beginning of his end?

If whiteness asks for a white person in the Oval Office (it shouldn't, it can't, it has no legitimate right to) then Hillary is plenty white. Her inherently inclusive personality, outlook and policy positions have never been about not taking pride in her own heritage.

This mindless attack is the last hurrah of a political party that is about to lose its shirt. In jujitsu you use your opponent's force against himself. Political jujitsu is the same way. This attack can not be wished away, can not be ignored, can not go unaddressed. It can be harnessed.

I was expecting exactly this, but the decibel on it surprised me. It felt like a dust storm of the evil spirits. The soul storm of the negative forces was in full display. Handled right the political jujitsu will give Hillary a 50 state sweep.

The Republicans are the Whigs of 2016. Their time is up. The whole world is watching. American families are watching in their living rooms.

Every Christie, every Giuliani, every Trump has women in their families. They were born to mothers. They perhaps have wives and sisters. But that has been true all these hundreds of years while America has postponed electing its first woman president.

I expect Republican women across this country to start deserting the party in droves in the final week or two. Facts free sexism completely unhinged from facts and logic was in full display on day two in Cleveland. The mindlessness of the attacks was mind blowing.

I guess electing a woman president is a big deal. But the insane rage is not just about Hillary being a woman. Before Bill Clinton even Democratic presidents were born with silver spoons. Some rich people didn't care, but some did care, and you were glad that they did.

 

Why Melania Trump Plagiarized

Because she knows the Republican convention is as close to a Barack Obama status as Trump will ever get. And she wanted him to feel the glory.

Plagiarism was Melania Trump's take on Donald Trump's birtherism.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

The GOP: A Dying Party Indeed

I wondered out loud last fall, which party will take the space just as the Republican Party dies? Now I see an answer. The Democrats taking the White House, the Senate, the House, and all 50 states will give the Libertarians the space they need to get started. After all the idea is not to become a one party state.

The GOP Is A Dying Party And That Is Why I Am Running Against Donald Trump : Libertarian Candidate For President Gary Johnson

Despite the calls at the GOP convention in Cleveland for national unity, Donald Trump sees our country as a land of exclusion. He wants Americans to act as powerless serfs bullied by someone who says he will protect them. Throughout world history, that has been the calling card of Big Government autocrats.

His character assaults are unbounded. His campaign has been one of serial attacks on opponents and climbing to the top by hurting people. And frankly, his immigration and trade policies appear to consist of the same strategies.

This is a decisive moment in the history of party politics in America. In the period leading up to the Civil War, American politics was dominated by a Democratic Party and the Whig Party. The controversy over slavery split the Whigs, and the party embraced nativism, opposing immigration and members of certain religious faiths.

The Republican Party is on its way to becoming like the Whigs. The Whigs died, then a new party came forward with an inspiring and positive vision for America.

Americans are tired of games. They want and deserve simple, straightforward and good government — not overwrought theatrics and demagoguery.

Trump, on the other hand, hasn’t succeeded in business. He made himself rich by climbing over the backs of others. Creditors have been hurt as he walked away from debts.

The Republican Party Deserves To Die

Trump adviser says Clinton should be 'shot for treason' 

Like the Whigs once.

The GOP’s alternate reality - The Boston Globe

It will be whacked from two ends in November. The Libertarian Party will eat it from the other end.

No Warren, No Peace

I am writing this at 3 in the morning. Talk about the 3 AM call.

For Hillary Clinton to nominate anyone other than Elizabeth Warren would be sacrilegious. I, personally, am going to tune out if Warren is not on the ticket. I am going to pick up the Uttar Pradesh election to follow without Warren on the ticket. Online America and Uttar Pradesh are equi-distant. And online is the only place I follow elections. I have never owned a television.

No justice, no peace.

Unlike on the Republican side, the Bernie crowd has been robust. It was a narrow margin loss. This was a crowd crying out for Warren. Warren, unlike Bernie, has never used the word socialism. Because she is no socialist. I am neither. The very word gives me creeps. I am a small d democrat and a f for free marketeer. When I say one person one vote, I mean literally. Too big to fail is a monopoly situation. My gripe on global warming is, why are you so generously subsidizing dirty energy?

The Blockchain is going to be bigger than the Internet, and it is right round the corner. The companies that will rule the Blockchain have not even been incorporated yet. Warren is the only politician who has called Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple potential monopolies. So far so good, but they might play foul in the early innings of the Blockchain. The Blockchain will do to money globally what the Internet has done to information. Money will not become free but it will become universally accessible. The Wall Street firms are the paper newspapers of 1990.

Warren instinctively "gets" the Blockchain, and she is not even trying to. That is the beauty of being a small d democrat. You instinctively know the market has been designed to work for all people. Market distortions hurt everybody, especially the poor. Corporate welfare eats big money.

JFK was Senator, from Massachusetts too, before he became Commander In Chief. Warren is as ready as anybody to step in, should the need arise. The US Constitution envisions a civilian Commander In Chief, a small d democrat.

But Warren is not going to have to step in. Both of them get to retire after eight years. And somebody from the Dean/Obama/Bernie/Warren crowd is going to defeat the Libertarian candidate to enact the Universal Basic Income concept. The Republican Party is about to die.

Hillary should not try to do the Al Gore thing. The Gore specialty is to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Rudy Giuliani just issued a threat in Cleveland: "There is not going to be another election." That is not an empty threat. These guys mean it. These guys have taken over a party. Now they intend to take over the country and do away with elections altogether. Hitler also won an election at first.

Warren is the only person in either party who knows how to knee cap a dictator wannabe. The Republicans evaporated one after the other, and Hillary likes to stay above the fray. Warren's style is to go sucker punch for sucker punch.

The Clintons came up with the New Democrat philosophy of the centrist way by facing the fact of repeated defeats. But you don't want to be a stopped clock that is right two times a day. Face the fact. The center of gravity has shifted. In 1992 the word liberal was dirty. Now forget liberal, not even socialist is. Face the fact. Why would you want 40 states when you can get 50? Why would you want just the White House and the Senate when you can also get the House?

I was Barack Obama’s first full time volunteer in all of New York City. I have never had second thoughts on that. Granted my personal bar was low. The only thing he needed to do for me personally was get into the White House. Plant the flag, so to speak. But the dude has been outstanding. He has done things presidents have tried and failed to do for 50 years.

I have always liked the idea of a first woman president and I have deeply admired the Clintons since 1991. But 2008 is over. Hillary has to move from the penultimate draft of the speech to the final draft. The final draft is supposed to read like poetry.

I don't even know what Tim Kaine looks like. Please find other more private ways to make Terry McAuliffe happy. We The People seem to desire Elizabeth Warren.

Clinton closes in on VP choice: Kaine and Vilsack leading the way

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Clinton Kaine 2016?

Hillary Clinton Is Said to Seek National Security Experience for Vice Presidential Pick

Looks like Hillary is leaning towards Kaine, who is an impressive guy. Stavridis would be good to lead the Defense Department. And looks like Warren is slated for a major campaign role and then a major role in the Senate.

A 45-37 election might become 49-39. The Senate is in the bag. She might approach 40 states.

But Warren might have given her a 55-39 election. And the House to boot. Warren is electrifying. I guess she gets to continue to be electrifying on C-Span.

Donald Trump Is Claiming He Is Richard Nixon

I believe him. I also believe he is Saddam Hussein. The North Korean Lilliput is also fond of The Donald. Dennis Rodman, the Korean dude, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Zirinovsky all belong together.

Hillary's Goal Is To Take The House

Goal Is To Take The House

Hillary needs to take the House. Anything less will disappoint me.

Take the House and do the work and stay true to the arithmetic and don't lose that House two years later.

Until the Republicans learn to respect facts, clear evidence and data, they deserve to stay in the wilderness. The hate sickness has to go. Enough is enough.

Saving the planet is worth a massive mandate.

Uneducated White Folks And Economics 101

Warren is right. Trump is an arsonist. I could not have put it better.

It is a shame that uneducated white folks are listening to Donald Trump. What we have here is a failure to communicate.

Trump's diagnosis is wrong. His prescription is poison. And he is not the Moses.

Trump is flat out wrong on the economics. If I were China trying to become number one, Trump would be my dream candidate.

If Donald Trump becomes president, the trains will stop running.

The Democrats have some explaining to do. The Democrats are the party of the poor.

The thing is, you are supposed to invest in human capital. Massively.

Call 911

Check out @paramendra's Tweet: https://twitter.com/paramendra/status/755374025124315136

Monday, July 18, 2016

Ann Coulter: Donald Trump's Karl Marx

Trump: Malice For All, Charity To None

Donald Trump and the Politics of Being an Asshole 

Despite the feeble NeverTrump effort, Trump found a home for his vileness within the Republican Party. In fact, Trump’s ascent was made possible by the GOP he has taken over. For years, Republican leaders and elected officials have suggested that Obama was essentially destroying the nation. (Obamacare was death panels, his stimulus produced no new jobs, and he was—take your pick—either a tyrannical, power-grabbing chief executive or a feckless leader doing nothing to stop the nation’s enemies.) GOPers trafficked in hyperbole to win the votes of tea partiers. They played footsie with birtherism and did not challenge the racism and conspiracy theories infecting large swaths of the right. When Mitt Romney ran for president in 2012, he enthusiastically accepted Trump’s endorsement, at a time when Trump was going full-birther. House GOPers were Benghazi maniacs, fueling the darkest notions on the right. On key issues, most notably climate change, Republicans delivered the message that facts and expert opinions don’t matter. They legitimized brinkmanship with government shutdowns and debt-ceiling fights.

Trump, 1997


Trump, 1997

Sunday, July 17, 2016

The Madman And The Nuclear Code

Donald Trump is a madman lunging for the nuclear code. He has to be stopped. He is also a Climate Change denier. That is like being a Holocaust denier times 1,000. Planet Earth is titanic, currently headed straight for the iceberg. Course unchanged you are looking at extreme, volatile and completely unpredictable weather. That is a bye bye agriculture and six billion dead endgame.

Warren For VP

Elizabeth Warren unleashes tweetstorm on Trump, Pence, GOP platform

But I repeat myself.

She gives Donald the creeps. With her in the ring Donald's mysteries seem to, poof, evaporate.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Black Lives Matter Manifesto: A Good Starting Point

Obama Vents On Race

I kind of like this 10 point manifesto put out by the BLM a few days ago.

10 Point Plan

My Draft For Hillary's Convention Speech

Fellow Americans. Democrats, Independents, Republicans, and everyone in between. We are gathered to decide if a woman can be president after all. We are gathered to decide if sanity matters for the top job. We are gathered to decide if diversity is only America's past or also its future.

After a lifetime of having looked at politics in this country and this world from every possible angle in ways nobody before me has, I present myself to you in sharp contrast to someone who would be lost at the City Council level in our shared city of New York. Competence matters. Policy homework matters. Having read the constitution matters. Good manners matter. Love of God matters.

Grand challenges lie ahead of us. Anyone who denies climate change is in cahoots with Satan himself. But if this country's history gives us one lesson it is that the greatest of challenges are always accompanied by the greatest of promises. The greatest days America has ever seen are right in front of us. The very determination that will help us steer away from the worst of climate change will also allow us to tap into cutting edge technologies that promise to take us into an Age Of Abundance. But it will not happen on its own. We have choices to make. We all have a big choice to make on November 4th.

I ask that you give me not only the White House, but also the Senate and the House so I may give the best first two years this country ever saw in terms of concrete political action.

Divided government was never meant to be a paralyzed government. Senators were never supposed to try to put the country's constitution into the acid tank. It should not matter if your elected officials are black, white or Hispanic, male or female. Lunatic hysteria, facts free racism and sexism, ideological masturbation completely unhinged from facts, data and clear evidence were never supposed to rule the day, in power or in opposition.

And so I ask for your nomination and your willingness to reach out to your neighbors and your vote. The most honored title in a democracy is that of a citizen and I proudly share that with you. The work we will do we will do together. Come be my comrade for eight years.



Thursday, July 14, 2016

Ginsburg Need Not Apologize

Why Ruth Bader Ginsburg regrets her Trump comments

This is an amazingly insane election year. Donald Trump is not running to be president. He is running to be a Hitler, or at least a Putin, or a Saddam, by his own admission. Democracy is in danger. Separation of powers has been in grave danger since Trump went after the "Mexican" judge, and someone from that branch of government needed to call him out on it, and she is the only one who did. Kudos.

Her mind is shot? This from the same guy who called Hillary a mosquito.

Authoritarian government experts will tell you, those in power start referring to people as insects before they get ready to kill in large numbers. First you strip away the humanity, then you do your deed.

These are not harmless words from someone lunging for the nuclear code.

The country should be afraid. Very afraid.

Snowden, Hillary And Emails

Hillary Has No One to Blame But Herself

A few years back this country got all riled up with the Snowden thing. I don't know all the details but Wikileaks was forced social media on the government. Departments that were not blogging and tweeting found leaks left, right and center. Politicians in distant lands got exposed and went on the defensive, some of them.

With Hillary the country has been riled up in the other direction. Again, I don’t know all the details. But now a former Secretary Of State is being hammered, Why are you not as transparent as Julian Assange wants you to be?

A country that doesn't care if Trump will make public his tax records or not. His medical record has been a non topic.

These are triple standards.

A population that could not load Windows onto the computer is riled up about the intricacies of one email server that has caused zero harm.

When Your House Is On Fire

"When Your House Is On Fire, Don't Call An Arsonist. Donald Trump Is An Arsonist."
--- Elizabeth Warren

One black guy trained as an armyman under the cover of Texas' "liberal" gun laws in a despicable act snipers away five cops and public opinion in this country swings towards Donald Trump. What kind of country is this?

People who have voted for a party whose only policy has been total obstruction are now claiming the government has not been delivering and are threatening to vote for the same party and a mad man candidate. Donald Trump is the American Boris Johnson, down to the hair.

2009 asked for a $3 trillion stimulus. But the crowd that voted for a party that fought all economists and instead paved the way for a much much larger monetary stimulus with all the money going straight to the banks is now complaining the recovery did not happen hard and fast enough.

The crowd that voted for a trillion dollar tax cut in 2000, and a trillion dollar destruction of Iraq, and a subsequent trillion dollar reconstruction of the same Iraq, and taking the cops off their beats on Wall Street acted surprised about 2008.

Madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. That was not Warren, that was Einstein.

The fastest way for America to lose its number one status would be to put Donald Trump in the White House. No matter the Chinese bought hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real estate from Trump Inc. over the years.

The crowd that is worried America might be slipping wants to vote for Donald Trump. Go figure!

The uneducated white folks who also tilt racist claim we are like the white La Raza. Excuse me, but La Raza does not claim we hate white people. You can also take pride in Polish heritage. I hear Poland has good culture.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Hillary Looks White To Me

Trump is supposed to be riling up a lot of what is being called white nationalism.

Really?

Hillary looks white to me. But apparently her being a woman makes her unqualified to represent white people.

Trump is not riling up white nationalism. He is riling up sexism.

South China Sea: The Nine Dotted Lines

China's ridiculous claim in the South China Sea is proof it is a dictatorship. Every dictatorship needs an external enemy to survive. Saddam did not have the option to not invade Kuwait. North Korea needs to act belligerent.

South China Sea is first and foremost an ideological tussle. Free speech is sacrosanct. In thoroughly stifling free speech the Chinese Communist Party is saying it is so brittle it might not survive if the people truly started speaking their mind.

The Chinese regime needs to keep making its ridiculous claim in the South China Sea because it needs to stay in power in Beijing. It is a diversion tactic for the home audience.

The Chinese military is not as bad as the Pakistani military in that it does not think it is a parallel power center. The political leadership is supreme. But that political leadership is a monopoly situation, kind of like the too big to fail banks in America.

Formula For 50

Hillary Clinton has the option to win all 50 states. She already has the White House and the Senate in the bag. She can also grab the House. Hillary has the option for a total sweep. And as president she gets to appoint three justices to the Supreme Court. That pretty much clears the deck to 2050. Appoint them young. Appoint them progressive. Don't apologize for being right.

But her victory is not a given. It still has to be earned.

She has to pick Elizabeth Warren. For one, Warren seems to be the only one in either party who seems to know how to go after The Donald, sucker punch for sucker punch. With Warren batting, you get a total demolition of The Donald. In the Republican primary The Donald's 18 opponents never were able to figure out what hit them. Warren seems to know how to put The Donald in the exact same predicament. When Warren hits The Donald, he knows he got hit, but he does not know how, he does not know where. And Warren does so without discussing policy, just like The Donald.

Warren is a democrat and a free marketeer who gets labeled a Democrat and a socialist by her opponents. In a free market economy there are no monopolies. Too big to fail is a monopoly situation. Warren has called out on the big technology giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple as potential monopolies that might get in the way of the next technology wave. That takes guts. But more likely it just takes a commitment to basic principles.

The 2000 Bush tax cut was money that should have gone into investing in human capital, namely education, health, child care. Bill Clinton has the option to recreate the magic. Give it to Al Gore to walk away from a president with a popularity in the 60s.

The Bernie crowd is actually the Warren crowd. Warren was the original want of that crowd. This is not a socialist crowd. This is a crowd that has needed to google the word socialism. This crowd can smell the Universal Basic Income right round the corner. UBI will not be socialist rabble rousing. It will be evidence based decision making. It does not need an ideological label.

Hillary has to go into the South with the intention of sweeping it. She has to move to own the abortion issue. You could not make poverty illegal and thus end it. Abortion is the same way.

The way to keep hubris in check is to raise the money and build the organization. Another way is arithmetic. Be the party of low deficits and perhaps balanced budgets. Create the surplus to then plough into human capital. Fight the good fight and usher competition into all sectors of the economy. Stop subsidizing dirty energy. Clean has market momentum.

Both Hillary and Warren have to blow the dog whistle to women across party lines. I think some time in October a ton of Republican women are simply going to break party ranks. It will be a flood. It could be a tsunami.

Women need to ask, why has there never been a woman president, or vice president?

America lags behind Germany and Britain. And South Asia for that matter.

The (G.O.P.) Party’s Over
I hope Hillary Clinton wins all 50 states and the Democrats take the presidency, the House, the Senate and, effectively, the Supreme Court.




Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Trump Is Running To Be Rush Limbaugh

Trump Is Running To Be Rush Limbaugh

This explains it. Trump is not running for president. He is running to build the audience around which to launch the Trump News Network. And he has it. The people who voted for him in the primary are big enough a number. TNN is a viable business proposition. Losing all 50 states would give him the purest, most loyal audience. 20 million people? That's a lot. It's a sufficient number.

Warren For VP

Warren For VP

Varanasi: Modi's Adopted City

Varanasi: Urban Chaos Or Urban Energy

I was just reading this article by a journalist friend. A few things struck me.

In the south east Nepal I grew up in the "progressive" farmers were those that were learning to use fertilizers. I come to America and "progressive"  farmers here are those moving towards organic farming.

Varanasi seems to have what a lot of cities in the west wished it had: large, excited crowds, urban energy.

Progressive cities in the west are building bike lanes and paths for dedicated foot traffic. Public transportation is the in thing.

If those attempting to transform Varanasi were to tune into some of the global conversations taking place, very easy to do online, they might realize they are starting out on a solid ground. There are positives to preserve. And what they call urban planning is too much unthinking imitations of models that are no longer thought great in the west.

The idea that the best way to build a city is by starting out on an empty plot of land is not true. The people are the city. And Varanasi seems to have that number one ingredient in plenty.

The number one thing to do would be citywide municipal WiFi. Then build a ring road around the city and make all roads inside toll roads, to relieve congestion. Turn into a city of 24/7 public buses, buses every 15 minutes. Turn it into a city of foot traffic and bike lanes. Build satellite cities outside the ring road. In a second phase build an elevated metro to criss cross the city.

Focus on WiFi, water and sanitation. Focus on safety. Focus on 24/7 electricity. Focus on public transportation.


Monday, July 11, 2016

Hillary Listens!

Hillary Clinton Listens!

No wonder Germany, Britain and America are all going female! Listening is a good thing.

Although I think she should attempt more poetry in stump speeches. She delivers the penultimate draft. The final draft should be poetry.

And the media is its own beast. Hire a team to deal with it. Use social media more. Videos of her listening can be released on YouTube so others may listen in and skip mainstream media altogether.

In this day and age, you become your own media.

BJP's UP Problem

ABP News Opinion Poll: BSP to win 185 seats if UP polls are held now

The BJP had the same problem in Bihar. Nobody was running for Chief Minister.

In 2014 Modi was the only one running to be Prime Minister.

If the BJP loses UP and Gujarat, it has to figure out a way to work without a majority in the upper house.

Anti-incumbency worked against Mayawati last time. This time it might work against Akhilesh.

But 2019 will be about Modi’s performance. If the growth rate has hit 10% he should see victories again in both Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, not to say Gujarat.

Women To Lead Both Parties In The UK

Angela Eagle launches leader bid 'to heal Labour' 

One of the pleasant surprises of the Brexit vote was not the guy with Donald Trump hair and temper but a woman is going to be Prime Minister. Now looks like the opposition might also go to a woman. Men have created enough mess.

Friday, July 08, 2016

Solving Hillary's Trustworthiness "Problem"

A More Personal Hillary Clinton Tries to Erase a Trust Deficit

There is the truth to the person. Hillary the person as people who have known her a long time would know, like family and friends, people who might have known her even she had never become a public figure.

The Republican surgeon that Trump defeated a few months earlier, his colleagues at John Hopkins said, "We don't recognize the person portrayed by the media."

That gap between the real person and that person's public image does not seem to go away even if tens of books might have been written about them, and the Internet is full of articles about them, and there is saturation coverage, and now there is social media. You can cut through old media and go straight to the people via social media and that image deficit is still there.

So there is the public private gap.

Being Bill Clinton's wife doesn't help. Bill Clinton said not long after he launched his career: "People either love me or they hate me, there is nothing in between."

Both ways you get exaggerated, inaccurate pictures. With Hillary people not only get a Dem, you also get a woman, and the culture's sexism takes wings. Besides, before Bill Clinton even Democratic presidents were all born with silver spoons. Bill Clinton faced regional as well as class biases. The power structure did not take too kindly to him.

So there's all that partisan mythologizing.

How do you handle this?

The Clinton campaign should go all over the country and all over the world and talk to everyone who ever spent more than 10 minutes with Hillary Clinton and record it all and put it all out on YouTube in one grand release of 10,000 hours.

Let people who have met her in person talk about her. Americans might be utterly surprised what people around the world say about her. She starts looking like an angel.

Like some Canadians said about Barack Obama years ago: "Send him over here!"

Trump Is A Narcissist

Cancer is not one disease. It is many diseases. Poverty is not just lack of cash. If it were only lack of cash, it could be solved in a heartbeat.

Narcissism is a disease. It approaches the complexity of cancer and poverty.

I am going to argue Donald Trump is not a racist or a sexist or an anti semite or a xenophobe. He is all of the above by the textbook. But those are but symptoms.

The disease is narcissism. This guy needs help. Just like guns should be kept away from the mentally unstable, the mightiest political office on the planet needs to be kept away from a suffering person.

The comic part is a narcissist is completely unaware of his situation.

Narcissism is not a character problem. If Trump were just a liar, you could say he has a character problem. But narcissism is a condition, kind of like alcoholism. Psychiatrists will attest to it. Only this one patient is in full public view. He keeps giving evidence every step of the way.  

His racism, sexism, xenophobia, anti semitism all stem out of the affliction. Does an alcoholic love his family? Does he at least want to? What if he is not able to? Does it matter that he wants to?

When he talks hate speech, he attracts attention, and that feeds his narcissism. He feeds on that. It is a vicious loop. This guy needs help.

Is he a racist? Racist is that racist does. Racist is that racist speaks. So yes. He is. His hate speech is designed to defend structural racism and sexism.

But that is not his primary concern.

If you can not stay away from your smartphone for 24 hours straight without feeling withdrawal symptoms, you have a problem. If you have become dependent on your smartphone notifications so much that they feel like indispensable emotional nourishment to you, you are in the early stages of narcissism yourself, and you should be able to relate to Donald Trump.
 

Guns Kill People

And if guns don't kill people, why manufacture defective guns?

The strategy of those who would control guns has been in fundamental error. It has been about whipping up the outrage.

There's plenty of outrage. The outrage is in clear plurality.

Gun laws are in a political monopoly situation. The NRA needs to be sued out of existence.

This has been done before. Big Tobacco was successfully sued.

Families of gun victims need to come together and sue the NRA out of existence. After that the democratic process can decide on sensible gun laws.

Sensible means a constitutional amendment. No more right to bear arms. What are you? An animal?

A national 911 on a location aware smartphone with a camera with a response time of three minutes or less (keep helicopters at the ready in rural areas) will protect you better than a handgun.

Hunting can apply to be recognized as a sport. Who goes hunting with AK-47s? Cannibals. That's who.   


Thursday, July 07, 2016

Donald Trump Would Have Been A Janitor

Donald Trump Defending The Defenseless

There are tens of millions of black men on the planet (and women) who have, objectively speaking, higher IQs than the Donald, but who are janitors. The only reason Donald Trump is not a janitor is because he is a white male. One is allowed to be lucky. One is allowed to be in the right place at the right time.

But this is not a guy appreciating his luck. This is a guy rubbing it in. If his hate speech were only free speech, I'd be glad for it. It would be puss coming out. But his hate speech is not just free speech. His hate speech is a diehard defense of structural racism. This is not a guy who got lucky. This is a guy who has benefitted from structural racism every step of the way and has hated the mere symbolism of a black guy in the White House. Where do black people go after that? To the polling booth, again and again.

At first I thought his star of David tweet was merely anti semitism. Now he is out to prove it was also gross political incompetence that would not even fly at the City Council level.

I have never seen a more racist, sexist, xenophobic person in any presidential race, ever.

To swat a mosquito and call it Hillary! Those are concentrated sulphuric acid levels of sexism. Women of this country regardless of political party should take note. Where do you go after this? You go to the voting booth.



Wednesday, July 06, 2016

Hillary's Trustworthiness

If you were to gather 100 of the most trustworthy human beings on the planet, from the spiritual leaders to the scientists and the fortune tellers, Hillary would be in that room. At a personal level she is quite an exceptional character. It is astounding that she is even in politics. There are quite a few slimey types in politics.

But her untrustworthy ratings are only a few points behind that of Trump. How do you explain that? Partisan politics. People who will never vote for her have woven this elaborate false mythology around her, absolutely baseless, but politically real and potent. At least she does not have eating disorders. A lot of young women succumb to similarly sexist attacks coming through the media and end up with eating disorders. Which is sad and wrong.

Political tussles are allowed but sexism is sin. Political competition is healthy, but you are supposed to fight with ideas.

I hope women will see through it and vote for her in large numbers. Hillary is not untrustworthy. She is female.

Politicians go sailing. They don't have the privilege of stating one position and sticking to it like an academic. In a democracy public opinion of course matters. Public opinion is the wind that a politician has to sail with. Sometimes you go a little to the left, sometimes a little to the right. That is the democratic way. A politician is supposed to listen to the people even as they stake out their positions. Hillary has been sailing for decades. Her positions have evolved. They are supposed to. She has been listening. To you the people. That is a good thing. Don't tell me you miss Saddam. He did not sail. He ruled.

12 To 5

Looks like Hillary went from leading Trump by 12 points to 5 points. How come?

It is one of Clinton's laws of politics. When you get hit, you hit back. Otherwise the public believes the lies.

Donald Trump gave a pretty agitated speech full of lies, full of tabloid "research"  and it worked because there was no counter punch.

The women of America don't need to see a woman take the punches. Heck, that much they do on their own most days of the week. The women of America need to see someone who fights back and wins.

Trump is not running on policy. He is running on misguided mumbo jumbo identity, KKK nationalism, and hot air. And "political correctness" grievances. Which basically means white guys should be allowed to say mean sexist things to women and mean racist things to blacks and Mexicans.

Looks like Hillary needs Warren who goes sucker punch for sucker punch against Donald.

That will give Hillary the luxury to keep to the high ground.

Tuesday, July 05, 2016

What To Do After Grabbing The House

As Mitch McConnell does the racist thing and puts the US constitution into the acid tank, democracy's resiliency is that Hillary will win both the White House and the Senate and a more liberal appointee than the one Obama has proposed will end up on the Supreme Court. Hillary is also on schedule to make two more appointments during her eight years, which clears the deck to 2050.

The White House part of the race is over. The Senate part of the race is over. And Hillary is set to also take the House. Right now the numbers are not officially there yet, but the momentum is unmistakable. I see a tsunami building up.

I have watched elections all my life in many different countries all over the world. I don't watch sports except for the World Cup.

I have never seen anything like this. Hillary just might win all 50 states. The battleground states are no more battling. The focus can now move to the South. And the South is caving in. Tennessee dollar numbers are in and Trump is getting beat by everyone who ran in either party this year.

Hillary is yet to get the Warren bump. And the Obama bump. And Bill Clinton is busy like a bee behind the scenes. This just might be the purest political work he ever got to do. All the craft, none of the tabloid nonsense.

Four is a team. And what a team. This is without precedent in American politics.

So what do you do in the aftermath? How do you run a one party state?

To quote a sentence from Bill Clinton's autobiography, one word: arithmetic.

Don't overplay your hand and lose the majority two years later. Stay in conversation with the grassroots. Stay focused on the future. Celebrate diversity in public ways. For one, that doesn't cost money. If you think diversity is America's past, you have not seen the future.

We are at the cusp of The Age Of Abundance. America (and the world) is about to get so rich that Donald Trump is right, America is Third World today.

But it won't happen automatically. There is some serious steering to do.

There is a world government to hatch. Barack Obama is George Washington. There is a global warming fire to douse, almost all of it through innovation. God gave you a brain.

The same effort that turns the tide on global warming and steers the ship away from the iceberg unleashes technological forces that gives America a Universal Basic Income in 10-12 years. Bernie's asks will be proven small.

Friday, July 01, 2016

Sanders Lost

His attempt to get 100% of his ideas onto the party platform is sexist, in that he is refusing to face the fact that he lost.

Sanders is itching for a convention fight

On the other hand, this pressure makes sure Elizabeth Warren makes it to the ticket. Warren was the first choice for people who rallied to Bernie and Bernie knows it.

If Bernie wants as much of his ideas to see the light of day as possible, he should do the opposite of what he is doing. He should get 200% behind Hillary and Warren.

How Tim Kaine went from 'wild card' vice presidential pick to shortlist favorite for Hillary Clinton

Right now Hillary is leading in all battleground states, is the only one with a ground game, and could put the South into play.

With Warren Hillary gets a unified convention, 300 million in grassroots money, a disappeared Bernie, and a chunk of Republican women. Without Warren she is looking at a fractured convention.

Deliver the House to Hillary Warren to effectively fight global warming.

Forget Terrorism, Republicans Are America’s Greatest Existential Threat. Americans face greater threats of extreme weather, seal level rise, water scarcity, heat waves, and wildfires, and biological systems disturbance.