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Did Oregon Militants At Least Save the Constitution?


The Oregon tragi-comedy has left one dead, one injured, six arrested, some guys in Michigan trying to fix a water system with their guns, and millions of Americans deprived of intelligent television content for weeks.

I know that people outside the Occupy movement, in particular those employed by CNN, had a hard time telling what we wanted, but I myself have had a hard time telling what the Nevadans and others in Oregon wanted.

They demanded justice on behalf of people who said they'd never wanted the help. They demanded a small government willing to do them big favors. They wanted a fight to the death but didn't want to hurt anyone.

Really, the clearest answer was that they wanted to save the Constitution.

But how? Which bit? From whom? When we in Occupy demanded taxation of billionaires and cuts to the military, the CNN employees grabbed their heads and moaned in pain, insisting that we must settle on One Single Demand or their brains would explode.

Well, the Constitution has seven articles and twenty-seven amendments. That's way too many for an effective peaceful gun battle.

Spin Shift on Bernie: The Escalating Media Assault

For a long time, as he campaigned for president, a wide spectrum of establishment media insisted that Bernie Sanders couldn’t win. Now they’re sounding the alarm that he might.

 

And, just in case you haven’t gotten the media message yet -- Sanders is “angry,” kind of like Donald Trump.

 

Elite media often blur distinctions between right-wing populism and progressive populism -- as though there’s not all that much difference between appealing to xenophobia and racism on the one hand and appealing for social justice and humanistic solidarity on the other.

 

Many journalists can’t resist lumping Trump and Sanders together as rabble-rousing outliers. But in the real world, the differences are vast.

 

Donald Trump is to Bernie Sanders as Archie Bunker is to Jon Stewart.

 

Are Most Americans Still Afraid to Be Unafraid?

“Priority number one is protecting the American people and going after terrorist networks. Both al Qaeda and now ISIL pose a direct threat to our people, because in today’s world, even a handful of terrorists who place no value on human life, including their own, can do a lot of damage. They use the Internet to poison the minds of individuals inside our country; they undermine our allies. But as we focus on destroying ISIL, over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands…. they do not threaten our national existence. That’s the story ISIL wants to tell; that’s the kind of propaganda they use to recruit.”

                                – President Obama, State of the Union, January 12, 2016 “Even worse, we are facing the most dangerous terrorist threat our nation has seen since September 11th, and this president appears either unwilling or unable to deal with it.”

Bernie v. Media

Major corporate media outlets in the United States are reporting on a new viability for Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign, based on his rise in the polls nationally and in Iowa and New Hampshire -- and possibly, though this goes largely unmentioned, based on his big new advertising purchases from major corporate media outlets.

Bundy Bunch Ballyhoo


     Every year that I am able I pay a visit to Big Sur, California, one
of my favorite places since I was very small. I love the scenic drive
up the rugged coast on the winding WPA-era highway One through the
land where the mountains meet the sea. You've seen it in car
commercials, and the famous chase scene from North by Northwest, and
the picture in your mind, no doubt, is of the azure Pacific waters
glistening in the sun as waves lap the rocky coast line below sloping
Emerald meadows. As a kid I took all of this for granted, but I
gradually came to realize that the ribbon of highway isn't the only
feature there that is foreign to the natural landscape. The fact is
that those brilliant swaths of Green shouldn't be there – and they
wouldn't be were it not for the small herds of cows that regularly
scour the fenced-in private ranches, allowing grasses to flourish
where once there were coastal prairies and thickets of woods. The
fact is  that the Big Sur we have all seen in pictures and post cards
for as long as we can remember is, in reality, a severely altered

Why We Must Now Adopt the "Ohio Plan" to Prevent the "Strip and Flip" of American Elections


As the 2016 election approaches, we must remember that our electronic voting system as it currently stands is thoroughly rigged.  The entire outcome can be flipped with a few late night keystrokes, as was done in Ohio 2004.     This year least 80% of the nation’s votes will be cast on electronic machines whose outcome can be altered by a governor and secretary of state with just a few keystrokes, and without detection.   There is a way—-we call it the “Ohio Plan”—-by which we can attain a fair and reliable vote count.   The Ohio Plan is this:   Voter registration must be universal and automatic for all citizens as they turn 18; Electronic poll books are banned, with all voter registration records maintained manually; All elections happen over a 4-day weekend—-Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday—-which together comprise a national holiday, preferably around Veterans Day in November.
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