NO MERCY

So after 41 days of government shutdown, the longest on record, Democrats caved on the continuing resolution to fund the government. They acquired nothing that they had wanted, especially maintaining the healthcare subsidies, except a “promise“ to vote on the subsidies in December – a promise that will be broken, of course.

The vote was taken late on Sunday night, in the hopes people wouldn’t learn about it until it was done. Eight Senate moderates (corporatists) were chosen to fall on their swords, because they are not up for election next year. Long enough for the citizenry to forget this betrayal.

Congressman Ro Khanna called on Chuck Schumer to step down as Senate Minority Leader. Supposedly he, Schumer, was against this move by the moderates. But if you can’t even whip the votes of your own party, you cannot save democracy. You need to go. AOC may come for his seat.

The progressive Internet and media convulsed. Jon Stewart’s monologue tonight was just him screaming “I can’t fucking believe it!” interspersed with jokes. Independent Internet media like Meidas Touch are going bananas.

Nobody can fucking believe it. This is a collapse, an utter failure, a betrayal. Democrats put America through over a month of hardship for absolutely nothing, nothing at all. Less than a week after the Blue Wave special elections. After 8 million people marching for No Kings. The citizenry told Congressional Democrats in no uncertain terms that we want them to fight for our democracy. Instead they folded like an umbrella.

One has to ask – if three-quarters of the citizenry wants something to happen (extend the subsidies), and it doesn’t, how can we call that democracy?

Answer: it’s not.

There is a lesson to be learned from this debacle.  The lesson is that Congressional Democratic leadership does not represent the citizenry.  They represent their lobbyists and corporate donors.  That is who is behind this collapse.  The stock market is starting to waver.  The airlines want their Thanksgiving travel.  Walmart wants its SNAP monies again, to support their workers and take from their customers.  They’re all afraid of the upcoming Black Friday boycott.  Senate Dems just showed us who they truly work for.

The response needs to be a grassroots uprising to take over the party from the corporatists.  No mercy.  They are not our representatives.  They are our enemies.  There isn’t time to build out the infrastructure or secure funding for a new third party, just a year till the midterms.  And third parties seldom work in the American system anyway.  The extant Democratic Party structure is what we need.  Starting at the county level, citizen leaders take over the local Democratic Party structure, and uses it to support progressive, fiery young candidates who will take no corporate money but truly represent the people.  And elect those candidates so they will strike down Citizens United with legislation and do everything else in the New New Deal to shore up our democracy.

We can’t wait any longer.  We the People have been the last line of defense for democracy through the entire Trump era.  Now we need to go on the offense.  Because there’s another lesson to be learned.  These people, politicians, are willing to let us starve and die while they play their power games.  It’s a matter of survival.

November 11, 2025 0

No Kings 2

I had to wrestle down my social anxiety to do it, but we (my husband and I) went to the No Kings rally this weekend.

I’m so glad we did it. It wasn’t a protest as much as a hangout. People gathering with costumes and signs to say, “We’re not okay with this. And we’re not afraid of you.”

You know New Orleanians are going to be creative.

CNBC was correct to name it a street party vibe. It certainly was in New Orleans. Drums, music, crazy costumes. Kind of a festival vibe, but a serious festival. Deep play. Play for now, but it will turn serious if needed.

My favorite inflated animal costume: the Axolotl!

Almost seven million people turned out to say “No kings in America.” Ordinary people like me, you. Us. There were no serious incidents nationwide. In New York City and Washington, DC, there were no injuries or arrests arising from the protest. There were no gun incidents.

Old farts can rant about the “radical violent leftists” of their youth. Half a century ago. Things have changed.

Progressives, leftists, Democrats are not the violent ones in this moment. Not the gun nuts. Not the ones who spawn shooter after mass shooter.

Now, it’s the Christian Nationalists, the militant white supremacists. Ultra-right and ultra dangerous.

I rant. The march made me — us — feel good. Feel hopeful. We’re not alone in seeing how crazy this all is.

Let’s hang onto that feeling and let it fuel our resistance until the next big action. The next will be even bigger.

See you at the barricades. 😏

October 21, 2025 0

A New New Deal

When We the People

finally wrestle back our democracy, whether this year or next year or thirty years from now, I think we will deserve – and should expect – to be rewarded for our heroic efforts. Organizing, resisting, defending the rule of law. That means deep structural change to reform the government and support the citizenry going into the future. No more bailing a leaky boat.

It’s time for some kind of New Deal.

Teddy Roosevelt in his time had the Square Deal. FDR stepped it up with the New Deal. LBJ had the Great Society. We need a new impulse of this reforming movement. A MAJOR one.

AOC tried the Green New Deal, but that became a lighting rod for kneejerk partisanship. I can’t think of a better name than the Gen-X inflected term the New New Deal. No bullshit. Everyone knows what it means. It is time to repair the damage done by forty years of Republican sabotage of the New Deal. The rot started with Reagan with his supply-side fantasy economics and dog-whistled white supremacy. He courted Christian fanatics as voting blocs but did the bidding of the Heritage Foundation. The super-rich. Starve the public good to engorge the already wealthy, and imply it is godly to do so. “Greed is good.” Now, forty years later, we are suffering the effects of those policies, political and economic. It’s too expensive, too perilous for an ordinary person to just live a life.

The New New Deal

We need to repair and rebalance our government to make it properly democratic and build a social safety net that supports democracy into the future. This is all doable and well within the bounds of the Constitution.

Here are what I think are the top ten things that should be in any kind of New New Deal.

1. Universal Voting Rights and Election Integrity

One human, one vote, freely and fairly. It’s time to stop messing around with the fundamentals of democracy. End gerrymandering, universal voter registration, paper ballots. Election Day as a national holiday. Restore the Voting Rights Act. Hell, make voting required by law. It works in Australia.

2. Federal Funding of Federal Elections

End reliance on private money by providing full public funding for all federal campaigns; ban super PACs and dark money. If it takes an Amendment to ensure that, we do it.

3. Overturn Citizens United

Get dark money out of politics altogether. It is corrosive to the entire system. It allowed the propaganda to spread that brought us to this pass. Money does not equal speech. Restore strict limits on campaign contributions and require full transparency for all political spending. Maybe even put it on a blockchain.

4. Abolish the Electoral College

Again, this will take a Constitutional Amendment, but it is essential for repair of our republic. The EC is a relic of slavery, and it has extravagantly failed to do what it was ostensibly supposed to do: prevent the election of a tyrannical madman. The President must be chosen by direct popular vote like any properly democratic country.

5. Expand the House of Representatives.

The House of Representatives was last expanded in 1913, over a century ago. The population has almost tripled since then. And that was back in the age of rail; we are in the age of Zoom. Enlarging the house is not against the Constitution. It used to be done regularly. It will make the House more responsive to the People, as it was intended to be.

6. Reform the Supreme Court

What was supposed to be the bulwark of the rule of law has been completely captured. It needs dramatic reform. A binding code of ethics for the Justices, and 18-year term limits are necessary repairs. Also enlarge the size of the court to 13, to meet the number of District Courts.

7. Universal Basic income

It is time for the explosion of productivity released by the Industrial and Computer Revolutions to be returned to those who actually produced it, the workers. We did the labor that allowed this current grotesque explosion of wealth to emerge (cue Jeff Bezos). We deserve our cut. And that goes double for the oncoming singularity of wealth and innovation to be released by the AI Revolution. There is enough for everyone. Stop telling us there isn’t. We see it all around us.

8. Universal Access to High-Quality Public Education

An informed, educated citizenry is essential to a functioning democracy. People who understand what’s at stake and are not swayed by memes and vibes. Fully fund public K–12 and higher education; invest in trade schools, ensure civic education and critical thinking are at the core.

9. Strengthen Labor Rights and Collective Bargaining

Capital without the check of Labor will consume the world. The oligarchs have forgotten that we the people do the labor and buy the products that make them wealthy. Protect the right to unionize, restore collective bargaining, and enforce fair labor standards for all workers.

10. Restore the Fairness Doctrine

In whatever 21^st century guise it requires. We need to reestablish it in spirit — the news needs to be established as a public good again, not a source of revenue. The Founding Fathers recognized the importance of a free press. We need to do the same. That educated citizenry needs professional news organizations delivering factual, balanced information. As it is, it’s nothing but a dopamine extractor.

My question is, why not swing for the fences? We are not fighting so damn hard to restore the old, broken status quo. Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City shows us that. It’s time to really dig in and fix what’s been broken our entire adult lives.

There are my suggestions for a New New Deal for the American people. What are your ideas? The time to plan is now. We have the means. Let’s have the will.

July 1, 2025 1

It Has To Be Said

So I watched a bit of Donald Trump’s “economic policy press conference” — via YouTube, not cable news.

Nobody is saying what needs to be said, so I’m saying it: He’s lost his mind.

That was two hours of insane, contentless raving, while the “press” stands there and says nothing. The same old ideas he has fixed in his rotting brain: windmills kill birds. Hordes of “migrants.” Barack Obama. No “policies,” no answers to “questions,” just mania. The stress of his criminal career crashing down around him while he “tries to run for office” has been too much for him. He needs a 5150.

The press hounded Joe Biden for being slow of speech until he was forced to step down. But they run hours of Trump’s deranged ramblings and say NOTHING.

It’s clear now the Fourth Estate has turned against democracy. Treat it accordingly.

August 15, 2024 0