SHOW UP. RESIST.

Hey, Kids. Look what just happened. There was a HUGE PUBLIC OUTCRY against the outrageous attempt by the House Republicans to gut the House Ethics office (y'know, cuz Republicans got no USE for no damn ETHICS!). So what does Trumpo do? He aligns himself with the public outcry!

What does that tell us? It means WE HAVE POWER. We can do what Bernie Sanders says. Light up the Congressional switchboards. Rally. Show up. Write to Congress and to media outlets of all kind... especially against gutting the Affordable Care Act, cutting Social Security, privatizing Medicare, cutting Medicaid and SNAP, granting huge tax breaks to the obscenely wealthy...When we make it CRYSTAL CLEAR that the American people WILL NOT STAND FOR THESE THINGS and DID NOT VOTE FOR THEM, Trump, who wants more than anything to be popular, just might abandon the Right Wing Republican position on some or even many of these issues, and many others. Climate Change. LGBTQ rights. Minimum Wage. Infrastructure investment, not crony capitalism. We must be ACTIVE.

DO NOT BE PASSIVE. DO NOT allow Trumpism to become "new normal." Resist. Be Active. SHOW UP. Please, it really, really, REALLY MATTERS.

Thank you.

¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!
«The people united will never be defeated!»

Greetings

Merry Christmas, or other end of year holiday of choice, to all, and may our new year be as prosperous, felicitous, and uneventful as possible. Given our current situation, uneventful would be good. 

♦ David Studhalter

Please visit The Gyromantic Informicon 

¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!
«The people united will never be defeated!»

Letter re electoral reform to governors of key blue states

I sent this letter to the governors of four key blue states, including my own state of Oregon.

December 16, 2016

Hon. Kate Brown, Governor of Oregon
State Capitol Building
900 Court Street NE, 160
Salem, OR 97301 

Hon. Jerry Brown, Governor of California
c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814

Hon. Jay Inslee, Governor of Washington
Office of the Governor
PO Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504-0002

Hon. Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New Yor
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

 

Dear Messrs. and Madam Governors:

I am writing to strongly urge you to support efforts in your states to further the ideas recently promoted by the leading progressive thinker Thomas Geoghegan to improve the essential democracy of our nation, wherein your states are crucial: 

1.       That your state refuse to cooperate with the undemocratic Electoral College, by returning presidential ballots blank or not returning them at all. This will force the Congress to use procedures to obtain the votes, and will register for the notice of the public that your state's people object to being disenfranchised by this undemocratic system. (In the case of Oregon, it is also necessary to pass as soon as possible the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which when it is triggered into full effect at 270 votes will effectively end the injustice of the Electoral College.

2.      That your state enact as soon as feasible Australia-style mandatory voting (coupled with Oregon-style vote by mail). If this law were in effect in this recent election, nearly 6 million votes would separate the majority vote for Clinton from the non-democratically designated winner. Such a wide margin of popular electoral preference being disenfranchised would make it virtually impossible for the nation not to reform its electoral process in the near future.

Please consider these recommendations carefully. I trust that as patriotic leaders who believe in essential democracy, you will realize the wisdom of supporting them.

Thank you.

 

Very truly yours,

  

David Studhalter 

What's in a name?

I have a new dermatologist (both parents had and survived melanoma, so it's indicated for me to have a skin survey yearly). Her name is Dr. Kwak. I kid not. I feel for her. That must be a burden. The receptionist thought it advisable to volunteer, "it's spelled K-w-a-k." My last name (as occurs to some people but not others), although it is Swiss-German, is sometimes taken for English, and given a somewhat rude connotation. 

As a kid, I had to put up with the occasional taunt. My mother, who was Secretary of a pioneering reproductive rights activist organization in California in the mid-1960s was the butt of one of those margin blurbs in Playboy in 1968: "Aptly yclept Secretary of the California Committee on Therapeutic Abortion: Ellen Studhalter." It's actually not that funny. 

My newly adopted city addresses excessive income inequality

My newly adopted city of Portland is doing its bit to address the most important issues facing our nation, which the Right Wing coup we are now forced to endure for at least four years will make all but impossible to make progress on. In this case, excessive income inequality. Portland is also ahead of most of the country in addressing the environmental crisis, another area where we can expect nothing but setbacks on the Federal level for some time to come. 

Link.

 

Bolton: Report of Russian Hacking "False Flag"

In yet another example of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's dictum that you can have your own opinions but not your own facts, the fatuous and, hell, I'll say it, EVIL John Bolton is now accusing President Obama of releasing the evidence of the Gangster Empire Russia's hacking of the electoral process in our country as a "false flag operation." John Bolton, who is either delusional or postively Goebbelsian in his willingness to outright lie to advance his own political agenda (which I consider much more likely), is NOT WORTHY TO CROSS THE THRESHOLD of the White House, the People's House.

♦ David Studhalter

Please visit The Gyromantic Informicon 

¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!
«The people united will never be defeated!»

Mt. Hood from Robinette Court

​Only from a tiny corner near the street, but you actually can see the snow capped peak of Mt. Hood from our front yard. 

Carrier Stunt and Trump as Con Man

This is a little out of context. It's part of a response I wrote to a friend who had some specific thoughts about Trump's Carrier stunt and cabinet picks. 

Trump's Carrier coup was just a stunt. It's not a policy. It's a PR stunt. And a pretty effective one. They aren't going to systematically use public funds to try to save American jobs. It's only a small amount of money, and Carrier went along with it (for now) in order to curry favor, and for no other reason. The realcause of this kind of thing is the change in SEC rules in 1982 that permitted unregulated stock buybacks. Owners, and CEOs are owners, of large corporations are incentivized to maximize their short term gains at the expense of the company's long term health, and even moreso at the expense of their American employees. Before 1982 this kind of conflict of interest/market manipulation was (sensibly) illegal, as it had been since such destructive anti-democratic and anti-free market policies had been seen to have contributed to the crash the first time. In 1929. The gradual unraveling of financial regulations that prevented a recurrence, or relapses, in the 1930s, started under Reagan, and has continued under all presidents since, including Democrats. Obama, notwithstanding Dodd Frank (now facing evisceration anyway), did very little to change it. (BTW Chubb did a lot of stock buybacks, enriching Finnegan and other top execs, prior to the ACE buyout, which we should have seen coming when it became clear what they were up to. This kind of stuff, which should be as illegal as insider trading, is so common nowadays it hardly even gets any notice at all). 

As far as Il Donaldo's choices for the cabinet go, I look upon his entire campaign as a grift. A con. He sold one thing, and now that the bait has been taken, it's switcheroo. Kleptocracy full on. Use of public assets to enrich himself and his cronies. Mnuchin is a perfect example. I strongly recommend you listen to THIS segment from Ian Masters's program 11/30 to get the picture of Mnuchin, an odious kleptocrat who would not be out of place in Putin's sphere. 

This is Trumpworld, and we're going to have to somehow survive it. I hope the Democrats wise up and organize soon, because this guy is a very effective con artist, and he just might pull off a long stint at the helm, to the great detriment of the United States of America. 

¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!
«The people united will never be defeated!»

The utterly odious Mnuchin

I was disappointed and disgusted by Trevor Noah's softpedaling the odious predatory banker Steven Mnuchin, nominated by Trump for Treasury Secty. This total asshole engineered a government guarantee of the face value of thousands of loans in So. Cal. (IndyMac, renamed OneWest). Bought portfolio for about 65cts. on the dollar, got the govt. to guarantee 80% of FACE value, then aggressively foreclosed, auctioning houses, depressing RE market and throwing thousands out on the street, so he could get 80% of the losses measured by FACE VALUE reimbursed by the taxpayer and make millions in Corporate Welfare while the kind of people who believed and supported Trump were badly hurt. Mnuchin is the EXACT OPPOSITE of what Trump promised, a vicious financial predator, second generation Goldman Sachs sharpie, put in charge of the henhouse! But was there even a HINT of this in the Daily Show's segment on him? Nope.

​ 

¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!
«The people united will never be defeated!»

We must make this their Waterloo

You gotta wonder how many of the idiots who believed the worst serial liar ever to run for president and voted to elect Trump had any clue that he would immediately appoint someone to HHS who has declared his intention to achieve not only the complete destruction of the Affordable Care Act, but Medicare, the second most popular social program in history, and Medicaid, on which millions of Americans depend, as well? Can Social Security be far behind? 

We must make these attempts to destroy the social safety net the WATERLOO FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

Organize! Act! Join! Contribute! Resist! Protest! Demonstrate! Write letters, call, and e-mail Congress! Do not sit idly by and let them do this! We won the popular vote, by 2.5 million votes, it now appears. We can organize and change course before it's too late, but it's gonna take involvement from millions of ordinary citizens. 

PLEASE DO WHAT YOU CAN. 

Are you in? 

What truly terrifies me

I repeat: It shouldn't even be necessary to point out that Trump's saying burning the flag should result in jail time and loss of citizenship just shows that he has absolutely zero grasp of the First Amendment, either in its legal effect or its spirit. Nothing is more essential to what American Constitutionalism is all about.  

What truly terrifies me is the realization that the limits of power are only what we demand and what we refuse to allow. Trump has already shown that he is perfectly willing to lie brazenly about just about anything, ignore norms and laws, and arrogate unto himself powers and perquisites that are not actually allowed by any law or norms. So it is a small step to simply nullifying Constitutional limits to power by simply defying anyone to do anything about it... this is how Fascists operate. Does anyone really feel confident that our system is robust enough that this is not possible? Do you really picture THESE Republicans in Congress doing anything about the seizure of unwarranted power by these people?

We must unite, organize, stand firm, resist, refuse, protest, and persuade. We must join forces. We cannot allow our country to fall into the hands of people who care nothing for its founding principles and care only for protection of their privileges and arrogation of power unto themselves. Don't kid yourself... this is what Trump and the current crop of Republicans in Congress ARE, full stop.

National Popular Vote

Trump is LYING. As usual. Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 2½ million votes. This can NEVER, EVER happen again. The National Popular Vote initiative must be a TOP PRIORITY.

If you live in a bluish or purple state that has not passed this bill, or even if you live in one (like New York and California) that has, please do what you can to support passage in enough states to ensure that from now on, the winner of the popular vote will become president as a matter of course.

 

http://www.fairvote.org/national_popular_vote#what_is_the_national_popular_vote_plan

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¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!
«The people united will never be defeated!»

National Popular Vote does not require a constitutional amendment

[To an OFA activist friend], 

Although it is easy to focus on other priorities, I think the fact that this election was the second time in less than a generation that democracy has been subverted by the antiquated and entirely undemocratic Electoral College System is reason enough to make the National Popular Vote compact a top priority. We must NEVER let this happen again. I advocate this to you because I'd like to suggest that OFA should make THIS one of its top priorities. 

http://www.fairvote.org/national_popular_vote#what_is_the_national_popular_vote_plan 

¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!
«The people united will never be defeated!»

Trump's Mania

Last week I thought this election was a nightmare. Now this serial liar is making Infowars-originated conspiracy claims and conducting crazed foreign policy by tweet. And planning to basically privatize all the assets of the United States. I am getting more and more scared. "Deeply concerned" doesn't even get it started. 

¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!
«The people united will never be defeated!»

Remembrance

Could we take just a moment to reflect on the memory of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945), the Lutheran Pastor who was an influential critic of Hitler and Nazism. He was executed in 1945, after publicly speaking out against the Nazi policy of euthanasia and the murder of Jews, shortly before the end of the war.

And of Martin Niemöller (1893–1984), another Lutheran pastor in Nazi Germany, who narrowly escaped the same fate and who famously said: ""In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."

I truly hope it will not be that bad in Trump's America, but may we all have the courage to resist whatever may be coming.

​ 

  

¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!
«The people united will never be defeated!»

Resistance

I am truly alarmed by this Neo Nazi stuff, the appointment of Bannon and overt racist Jefferson Beauregard Sessions as AG (the name alone is like some Gone With the Wind nightmare). To see Neo Nazis celebrating the ascendancy of their movement with Trump, and saying "Hail Victory" (a literal translation of "Sieg Heil") and "Hail Trump" should send chills down the spine of EVERY decent American.

RESIST! NEVER GIVE UP!
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!

I was prepared to hope for the best, but it's already clear these people are unbelievably terrible. It's going to be a long hard time, and we must make dead sure it's over after four years, by organizing and fighting them at every turn, and working like crazy people to change hearts and minds to overturn their regime at the ballot box, while it's still possible (assuming it even will be).

¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!
«The people united will never be defeated!»

What REALLY scares me about Trump

I haven't yet seen this put quite this way, so here goes. What really scares me about Trump is not just that he shows unparalleled mendacity, narcissism, psychopathology, and every intention to pull the biggest bait and switch in history by gutting the key elements of the social safety net (after promising to enhance them), turning back the clock on all forms of social progress to the first gilded age, bankrupting the government, and selling off its assets and ongoing operations to the highest bidders (or in some cases, friends or relatives). These things are terrible, and frightening, and his authoritarian tendencies and apparent belief that no limits or rules apply to him at least hint at far worse even than that. But what really scares me is the realization that he and those who have put him in power do not care about losing elections in the future. They believe, probably correctly, that they have the tools at hand right now to do irreparable damage to our country (of course they think it's in their interests, but they will find out different; eventually a shrinking pie gives even those at the top smaller slices). And they think that damage will be so complete and irreversible given the current economic and political climate, not just in America but globally, that there will never, in the lifetime of most Americans, be any way back. And they may be right. 

Which, of course, is all the more reason why every American who cares about any of this is going to have to get out of their comfort zone and get active, organized, and militant. As my new e-mail signature says (and I hope it doesn't get me put into a Trump Branded reeducation camp), The people united will never be defeated! (The slogan of the Allende revolution that was brought to an abrupt end by a CIA coup in 1973 that resulted in his murder). 

♦ David Studhalter

Please visit The Gyromantic Informicon 

¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!
«The people united will never be defeated!»

Re: None dare call it ILLEGITIMATE?

AGREE. This is a travesty 

Why in the hell was my vote in Georgia totally nullified by those of the White Crackers? 

Electoral "College?"

~ Jean Clare Smith

On Nov 19, 2016, at 9:41 PM, David Studhalter (studhalter@gyromantic.com) <oldionus@gmail.com> wrote:

 The late count of the popular vote for Clinton over Trump is now very close to 1.5 million votes, far more than the margin of victory in several modern presidential elections. OK, then. This has to be said.

THIS CALLS INTO QUESTION THE LEGITIMACY OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE SYSTEM. It may be "the system," but legitimacy of republican (small-r) government derives, according to "inalienable" principles our founders clearly believed in, from THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED. Donald Trump does not have the consent of the governed. Not even close.

I will say it. The presidency of Donald Trump is not legitimate. (As was not, in my view, the first term of George W. Bush's). If he governs with anything like recognition of the issue of the fact that more than half the voters chose his opponent, we can limp through this Constitutional anomaly. But if, as it appears he will, he intends to continue the radical upending of governing norms

​ commenced by his party during the Clinton administration of the 90s,​

and essentially be a plutocratic autarch, then he MUST BE RESISTED, through civil disobedience and whatever procedural means are available to those of us who stand opposed to autocratic, anti-democratic governance.

​​

None dare call it ILLEGITIMATE?

 The late count of the popular vote for Clinton over Trump is now very close to 1.5 million votes, far more than the margin of victory in several modern presidential elections. OK, then. This has to be said.

THIS CALLS INTO QUESTION THE LEGITIMACY OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE SYSTEM. It may be "the system," but legitimacy of republican (small-r) government derives, according to "inalienable" principles our founders clearly believed in, from THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED. Donald Trump does not have the consent of the governed. Not even close.

I will say it. The presidency of Donald Trump is not legitimate. (As was not, in my view, the first term of George W. Bush's). If he governs with anything like recognition of the issue of the fact that more than half the voters chose his opponent, we can limp through this Constitutional anomaly. But if, as it appears he will, he intends to continue the radical upending of governing norms commenced by his party during the Clinton administration of the 90s,​ and recently accelerated to full-on Constitutional crisis; and essentially be a plutocratic autarch, then he MUST BE RESISTED, through civil disobedience and whatever procedural means are available to those of us who stand opposed to autocratic, anti-democratic governance.

​​

PLEASE READ: NYTimes: Bernie Sanders: Where the Democrats Go From Here AND another plug for national popular vote compact

Bernie Sanders: Where the Democrats Go From Here http://nyti.ms/2epRZVl

​This sums it up for me. Engage Trump, see what good things may be possible. But plan and strategize to develop a winning coalition. Republican-lite Democratic politics have now conclusively failed, and it's time to rebuild the party as a winning coalition that can attract not only its "new demographics," but working and middle class white people in the flyover states who feel marginalized (including by that expression), and voted for Trump because he (falsely) promised to "Bring Back Jobs" and "Make America Great Again." (I believe more despite than because of his racism, misogyny and complicit homophobia). 

​Bernie has not only a clear agenda, but a clear strategy. He understands that we have to mobilize and rebuild, and that it won't be easy, and that in the meantime we have to mobilize public opinion to oppose oppressive minority rule... because that is what it is. The electorate did reject Clinton, under our system, but we must keep in mind at all times that the majority who voted voted for the Democrat, Clinton. 

I want to encourage Keith Ellison (likely new DNC chair), Schumer, Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and other Dem leaders to ​strongly back passage in enough additional blue and bluish states of the National Popular Vote compact (already passed by California, New York, and enough other states to comprise 165 electoral votes). If you aren't familiar, look it up on Wikipedia. Basically, it's state law, but when enough states pass it to equal 270, it goes into effect, and binds each state's electors to vote for the declared winner of the popular vote nationwide. Were such a law in effect in 2000, there would've been no Bush v. Gore, and Gore would've been the 43rd president. Were in in effect before Nov. 8 this year, Clinton would be preparing to become the 45th. Before 2000 the last time this happened was in 1888. It is a travesty of Democracy, that's happened twice now in a single generation. (It could happen to a Republican, too). We must never let this happen again. And Democrats on a national level need to strongly support it... which they failed to do after 2000. 

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