Here's a Speech I'd Like Bernie Sanders to Give

I respect Hillary Clinton. If you, the voters decide that she is the Democratic nominee for president, I will give her my full support. She is a respectable and capable woman. But I want your support. I want your vote. I want to win because of what it will mean about you, the American people. I am running for president to offer you, the voters, a choice. If you are ready for a political revolution to usher in an era of substantial change, then I am your president. If you are ready to work tirelessly for that change, then I am your president. If you are ready to bring fairness to our financial system, I am your president. If you are ready to work for peace in the world, I am your president. If you are ready to provide opportunities for education for all, I am your president. If you're ready to provide affordable healthcare for all, I am your president. If you are ready to implement policies that promote an economy that creates and sustains a vibrant middle class, I am your president. If you are ready to demand campaign finance reform that removes the undue influence of wealth from elections, I am your president. If you elect me president, it will mean you are ready to work for real change. It will mean you understand that electing me president, is the first, and the easiest step. With me in the White House, you will have a powerful ally in your work for change. If you elect me president, it means you are ready for a political revolution. It means that you understand that real change will come from you, the people. I will be your president, working alongside you as you implement the change that you, the people, demand in your political revolution. It means you understand that a political revolution means you will have to revolt. You will have to attend long meetings, march for the cause, donate your money, house the revolutionaries, weather the backlash from those who don't change. You will have to sustain the revolution for years, giving your time, your money, your presence to the cause. Because if you think that you can elect me, Bernie Sanders, president, then you get to go back to your ordinary life and change will happen without you, you are horribly mistaken. A political revolution requires the unwavering dedication of revolutionaries, and that would be you people. Are you really ready for a political revolution? Are you ready to put your life on the line for the cause? Really? Yes? Then Bernie Sanders is your president.

Should Bernie Sanders win?

Can Bernie Sanders win is the wrong question. Liberals should ask, “Should he win.” I'll get to that, but first, can he win? Yes, I think he actually can. The social conditions: disparity of wealth, climate change, police violence and injustice, the rising voice of the anti immigration troglodytes, could be just desperate enough that progressive liberals show up in droves, take charge of the DNC, and put Bernie forth as the nominee. It could happen. But should it happen?

If he wins the primary, can he win the general election and become President of the United States? It could happen. If Trump runs as an independent and splits the conservatives, and enough moderate overcome the “socialist” word, then yes, Bernie could win. Really? Yes, really. Don't forget, a black guy named Barack Obama, with minimal political experience, became president twice. If the stalwarts of the Democratic machine can rally behind a relatively new and untried black guy with a funny name, why not Bernie? Well, one reason: Socialism.

If we put Bernie forward as our candidate, you do realize that a sizable swath of voters will hear, “socialist” which of course equals communist which equals bad. Here's a quote from quora.com: “First, because Socialism means everything you own will be taken away from you.” http://www.quora.com/Why-is-socialism-considered-dangerous-or-bad-for-some-people

If the conservatives unite, and the swing voters buy into fear of the socialism boogey man, Bernie loses, we have a Republican President, with a Republican congress. And if you think it doesn't matter whether we have a Democrat or Republican in the white house, then please stop reading. Move along. There's nothing here for you. Get yourself some Reagan cheese, and paint a pretty picture while repeating this mantra: “Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?" It does matter who is president. Not as much as we could hope, but enough that we should give it our best fight to put a Democrat in the White House.

So, is Bernie our best fight? He is who we want, an actual honest, person in touch with his heart who will fight for issues we care about. Yes, he represents what we really want. And yes, he actually could win if we're willing to do the work to make it happen. But should he win?

Politics are ugly. Really ugly. And uglier now than ever. We have absolutely the worst congress in our history, almost completely bought and controlled by the vampire squid. Do we want to send forward our hopes and dreams in the form of Bernie Sanders and watch him be consumed by the leaching tentacles and destroyed by icy teeth of the greed hungry lust thirsty beast that has concentrated most of the world wealth into the little circle, and foments hate and discord amongst the masses of the world to create the disorder and fear that  maintains the strangle hold of its treacherous suction cups? We will watch the man we respect become sullied with the political and economic realities of the idiocracy that is us.

Obama was better prepared for it. He knew he would have to murder and kill, and said so flat out from the beginning of his campaign, and as he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, which was really weird. Obama makes compromises with the squid so he can get some things done that benefit the mass of us. He knew the ugliness, and not just the usual politics, but of racism he would have to endure, prepared for it, and handled it with admirable grace. He won, twice, and is one of the best men to have held the office of President in all our history.

And still the hopeful, the liberals, the progressives, sprouted angst and began to criticize him, and allowed his approval numbers to plummet. We sent Obama off to the stable to shovel for us, then complained when he came back smelling less than rosy. That Obama has accomplished all that he has, with the congress and the lobbyist machine that he's had to work with, is nothing short of herculean. And still the liberals turned on him.

So liberals, do we really want to pump ourselves up long enough to get Bernie elected, then become disenchanted when our hopes and dreams stall in the mire that is politics? When Sanders continues to order drone strikes, and air strikes, and likely have to order troops into conflicts, will you be willing to dry your tears and accept that compromise? When he can only make minor tweaks to the financial laws, and is forced to work with the very slime balls that created this mess, will you call him a sell out? And if you really want serious change, the kind we really need, are you willing to sacrifice your own hopes and dreams for your own homestead, and simple life of work and domesticity, and dedicate your time and energy to doing the work it will take to implement and sustain real change? Are you prepared to walk the picket lines for the months, maybe years it will take to cut off the tentacles of the vampire squid? Because sending a sincere person off with our hopes and dreams, and then hanging out online commenting about our disappointments, and reposting snarky memes, complaining that the world is still a mess and he or she hasn't fixed it, well, let's not do that.

So, should Bernie win? If we're really ready to change our own lives, and dedicate ourselves to the work of meaningful change, then yes, let's do it. Or if we don't want to do that work, let's at least be willing to accept that he won't change much, and stand behind him anyways, so he can change what he can.

By the Light of Ferguson

Hey whitey, I'm talking to you. In the fire light of Ferguson, maybe my words can have some clarity. I'm guessing a lot of us white folks are keeping thoughts to ourselves about Michael Brown and the reaction in Ferguson. If you watched the video of Brown pushing the man in the market, if you heard the reports of his belligerence, and then violence towards the officer who shot him, I'm sure you can easily turn away from any sympathy for him. And a community uprising, burning stores in their own hood, throwing rocks at the police, shouting hands up don't shoot, all for a kid who likely was being aggressive towards a cop who was just “doing his job”, it's easy to dismiss them too.

Whiteys, we haven't got a clue if we're thinking that way. We live here in our little bubbles reaping the harvest of privilege, and buying some version of the story that maintains the injustice that allows the bad choices of Michael Brown to lead to him to be shot down and left in the street for hours, while the white folks and rich folks do stupid stuff all the time and suffer little consequence. We get the news reports that essentially tell us what and how to think about it. The coroner's report supports the officer's contention that Brown was blah blah blah. If you think any of the details of what happened matter, you've been sucked into the distraction that sustains the system of inequality and injustice. Please consider my summary of the pertinent details.

In a social setting where people are subjected to daily stress with no real relief in sight, a young boy made some bad choices and was shot dead by a man, in a stressful and badly designed job, who was legally allowed to shoot him. This particular shooting triggered a public reaction in the stressed out community, which was then broadcast to the nation and the world, giving it a symbolic importance. The incident, while deeply painful, especially to the families directly involved, isn't particularly tragic in the bigger picture.

What could matter, if we'd be willing to help, is that it brought the suppressed anger from years of economic, social, and psychological oppression out. We all know there is something seriously wrong with our country, with our economic system, with our political system, and most especially our system of law. Come on whiteys, you know it's messed up, and it's messed up bad. Let's rally around that and support our brothers and sisters in the streets of Ferguson. Hands up, don't shoot.

Letter to President Barack Obama regarding Syria

Dear Honorable President Barack Obama,

Regarding the use of chemical weapons in Syria, you have referred to the "values that define us." One of those values is democracy, the will of the majority. The majority of Americans are opposed to a military strike on Syria. Please honor this American value, and respect the will of the majority. Another American value is ingenuity. I'm certain that if you put out the call, we can come up with a non military response to the use of chemical weapons. Perhaps we can arm the citizens of Syria with cell phones with cameras and post a stream of images of what is happening there for the whole world to watch. Or maybe instead of spending money on missiles and jet fuel, we can team up with Syria's neighbors and invest in the refugee camps to support a Syrian citizenry ready to return home when the civil war ends, desirous and capable of democracy. Blowing things up and killing people are not the only options. Honor democracy and find another response.

Respectfully

Jeff Kelley

A call for empathy and reason

Please take time to read Matt Taibbi's article before continuing to read this post

Here’s how I see our choice in the next Presidential election. Obama will bring us roses, use a water based lube, and he’ll leave $20 on the bed stand, whereas Romney will bring us plastic pansies, use petroleum jelly with sand in it, and he’ll leave the address of a church run food bank. Either way we’re going to be screwed, it’s just a question of the amenities used. I’m voting for Obama, and I wholeheartedly encourage you to do the same. Then let’s get working on the real event, “the real event being a looming confrontation between huge masses of disaffected citizens on both sides of the aisle, and a corrupt and increasingly ideologically bankrupt political establishment…” (Taibbi)

Why is it that “the candidate who raises the most money wins an astonishing 94% of the time”? The money serves in two important ways. First, only individuals willing to be servile to the 1% can get elected; you won’t get the money if you don’t smile bend over when you’re told to bend over. This ensures that the 1% get their way on key issues because elected individuals and the staff that serve work for the big money, not the voter. Second, the money funds the campaign machine which churns out spin, and spin influences voters.

Why does spin work? Because we, the voters, too often fail to think critically, and we are fall victim to the use of deception through fallacies. The spin machines keep the voters ill-informed and highlight and exploit our differences, and we fail to unite around our common interests. That ideologically bankrupt political establishment that Taibbi refers to includes you and me dear reader. Big money can only control the elections if we the voters let it.

We read media reports about wording in the National Defense Authorization Act and invoke fear of the holocaust, and assail the President and vow not to support him, which in turn makes him further dependent on the 1%. We don’t have the money to buy candidates, but what we do have is the votes. Yes we should be concerned about the wording in this Act, and any other threat to our progress towards a better world. But we will not serve ourselves well by running around like Chicken Little with our heads cut off. There are two necessary tools we must train ourselves to use if we are to limit the political power of the 1%: empathy and reason.

Ask yourself this: who put that worrisome language in the NDAA and why? I suspect it was done by people who actually love this country, who read intelligence briefings, and are deeply afraid of more acts of death and destruction. The 9/11 attacks are only one example. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed. Timothy McVeigh et al killed 168 people in Oklahoma City. The biggest fear generator of all: what if the next successful act is a nuclear detonation? There actually are individuals in the world, some of whom are US citizens, who will commit heinous acts. Our government, with its military and intelligence agencies actually is trying to protect us. Governmental power can be and is abused, and when we suspect that is happening, or potentially happening as with this troublesome wording in this latest NDAA, we should raise the hue and cry, perhaps even donate some time and/or money to organizations whose mission is protect our civil rights.

But let us raise that hue and cry with an empathy and understanding that most people truly mean well, and when making bad choices are quite likely misguided and acting from fear rather than malice. Let us also respond with reason, and specifically informed reason. Always, always, and I repeat for emphasis, always question the source of your opinion. Beware most of the confirmation bias. Do you believe what you’re being told because it supports what you already believe, or because you’re being presented with an honest assessment of available information that you have made an honest effort to verify and have thought it through with critical reason? If you are reacting from fear, be highly suspicious of your own thoughts, and redouble your efforts to investigate the information with reason. Please, I beg of you, take some time to understand fallacies, how they are used to manipulate public opinion, learn to recognize when it’s happening, and help defend against this pervasive manipulation. When engaging in discussion, always do your utmost to honestly assess the conversation and participate with civility, empathy and reason. Please don’t be intellectually lazy, and chastising somebody else for being intellectually lazy is also being intellectually lazy. Rather than try to win the argument, make it your goal to have the discussion be an honest attempt to express what you understand and believe, and to truly understand what others are expressing and believing, even if they do so imperfectly. Let us find common ground, build a coalition of voters and elect representatives that are dedicated to us and our values rather than the 1%. We can’t outspend them, but we can out vote them. First, we have to learn how to effectively talk to each other and build upon our common ground.

We could be together

Government is not the problem. Business is not the problem. Unions are not the problem. The problem is scoundrels. Regardless of your political leanings, your income bracket, your religious beliefs, you are hurt by the self serving behavior of scoundrels. We can disagree on various issues, but let us agree that scoundrels, those who lie and cheat and abuse power need to be purged from our institutions.

Shocking Music

I'm attending a parenting class. My goal is to find and keep motivation to implement a system that encourages my son to get his schoolwork and chores completed, and engage in other meaningful, skill building activities. Video games and videos don't build much character.

At the last class, the subject of what music your kid is listening to came up, and the facilitators passed out a sheets of rap lyrics displaying all that violent, misogynistic, hate filled, shocking phrases that those delightful little rappers use. The ensuing discussion took long enough that we didn't get through the agenda for the night. Why did this subject inspire so much enthusiastic response, and take so long to discuss?

Rock n Roll is about defiance, it's about sticking it to the man and to conventions and raging against the machine. It's about offending sensibilities and numbing the pain of existence. It's about sex and violence and the ugly underbelly of the human condition. And for many of the rappers, it's about the world they actually live in. Can I as a parent really say, that is wrong, don't listen to it? Well I certainly can't, because I'm mad as hell at the injustice and oppression our institutions perpetrate, and if someone with a microphone can provide me catharsis for my anger, then I'm all for it. If rap can help me understand the twisted world of our impoverished streets, the dysfunctional minds of the criminal character, then I'm slightly more informed having that glimpse. Here's a snippet of a Tech N9ne piece I allow my son to play in my presence:

I'm a little dysfunctional, Don't you know?
If you push me, It might be bad
Get a little emotional, Don't you know?
You could fool around and make me mad.

There are crazy people in this world, sociopaths, and some of them are political leaders, and captains of industry, and "[they] don't got no scruples." I don't mind my son listening to that song, because he should know that those crazies exist. We all know it. That's a reason why the discussion on denying our children access to these offensive music inspired so much discussion. We all know that there's crazies in charge, and if somebody's shedding some light on that, maybe we should let it shine. While Dysfunctional is about a partying street thug, it does provide a glimpse into a messed up mind, and that glimpse increases understanding that can translate into other social arenas. And understanding is good. The truth can set your mind free.

That doesn't mean I don't restrict what my son listens to, at least in my presence. I won't tolerate anything I don't believe has redeeming value. I got him to understand why I detested a particular artist and his sexually abusive lyrics, and my son voluntarily deleted the songs off his iPod.