FOR THE LOVE OF GOD ... DEMOCRATS STOP IT!!!

 

Dear Democratic Party Leadership,

What the hell are you doing? Clearly there's something going that we can't see but maybe you shouldn't be dragging that sh*t out in public. 

If the Democratic Party unified and came out swinging this election would/should be a cake walk. You should be able to run ANY walking, talking, not corrupt candidate and win but here we are, publicly eating our own. ALL YOU'RE DOING IS DEMORALIZING THE BASE. 

You don't have a lot of options BTW -

1. Run Biden, back Biden fully and cross your fingers.

2. Run Harris at the top of the ticket and see if she can fend off the misogyny and racism that plague this country. She ought to be able to, she's an incredibly qualified candidate. Fingers crossed. 

3. Release the delegates from their commitments. (Get knocked off the ballot in Ohio BTW). Have a contested convention and hope it goes better than 1968. Fingers crossed. 

4. Run both Harris and Biden as if they were the primary candidate and keep them both on the ticket. 

I think number 4. is your best option BUT JUST PICK ONE. Whatever else you need to do you need to get it together. 

YOU, THE LEADERSHIP, AND NO ONE ELSE, ARE LETTING US, YOUR BASE DOWN. YOU ARE LETTING THE COUNTRY DOWN. 

WE ARE BEGGING YOU TO STOP THIS CRAP. Your constituents are getting mad at the party. Why don't you see this?

I will literally support any Democrat who's not a horror show equal to Trump.  

An Open Letter to Biden/Harris (How to break the Witches' Hammer)

 

Dear Biden/Harris campaign, What are you doing?

I suspect that Joe's debate coaches urged him not to appear too amped up, to be calm and reasoned… that didn't play out so well. To echo Jon Stewart's advice, give him all the performance enhancing drugs. He should've never been allowed to go out there hoarse. You should've told people ahead of time he had a cold. You should've blood-doped him. You should've given him adrenaline. You should've done all the things… but here we are. In the next debate you really need to take George Conway's advice and go in punching.

Why are you letting this current narrative run away from you? Joe acknowledging his age and its impact is good but what else? 

A long time ago someone figured out that we needed a built-in back- up plan, and that back-up plan is the vice president.

Here's some unsolicited advice: make sure his surrogates hit hard on the fact that Kamala Harris is the vice president, that she's competent, experienced, and already on the ticket. 

It's so disrespectful, and maybe not unexpected, that a woman as capable and with as much experience as Kamala Harris is being overlooked in the current fantasy scenarios being spun around the “ditch Biden for some unnamed perfect candidate call.” The Biden/Harris campaign needs to put Kamala Harris out there more and with the opportunity to give policy speeches and to demonstrate her fitness to lead. Have her give presidential-style speeches. Treat both candidates on the ticket as if they're running for president, because they are. Make sure the surrogates hammer home that, unlike the former Trump Administration, this administration is a team of “all the best people.” Run them all.  

To everyone else…apparently as a nation we don't understand politics. In order to govern there must be coalitions. If it's an all or nothing scenario then you get the kind of gridlock we've been seeing in Congress for years and you have Hillary defeated because you just don’t like her. She won the popular vote by-the-way. There is no perfect candidate. The opposition wants you to feel dissatisfied with the options on the table and disincentivize to vote. Let us be clear we have one of the most competent administrations in the history of the United States but more importantly, they're not a bunch of psychopaths.They don't want to turn us into a theocracy. By the way there have been theocracies in western culture, they tortured heretics, they held trials for witchcraft, and they burned women.

In praise of love and earnestness

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.
- Buddha

Without courage we cannot practice anyother virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
- Maya Angelou

Love cures people – both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.
- Karl A. Menninger

Cynicism is a cancer in the world.

It causes us to lose the logic of principles. It erodes our commitment to them.

It causes us to ridicule the earnest and reject sincerity.

These days one “wins” by the cutting remark, the dismissive response, the keener the ability to humiliate or shame – the greater the share of the spotlight.

Cruelty, at every level, is the norm.

Leaders who lead you to cynicism do violence to your soul.

They lead you away from love, from joy, from gratitude.

For their own purposes, they stoke cynicism and with it, its companion hate.

Like a drug, it causes us to forget love and its companion, hope.

An open letter to the Republican Leadership:

Recent years have seen the unfolding of stunning and historic events.

The American experiment, the very foundations of the American Revolution, is in the throes of what may be its most daunting challenge since the Civil War.

Arguably – it is all one struggle, one continuity of purpose that brings us to this place, a struggle for the freedom of the everyday person, not as an accessory of wealth or as a special birthright, but as a birthright for all.

I say to you that any act or practice attempting to repress the voice of “the people,” is in the most clear definition of the word, treason. Whether through gerrymandering, voting laws, or turning a blind eye to informational warfare, it is treason.

Are there not principles that are more important than short term goals? Are there not values to be prized more than political standing? than “career”? Shouldn’t the health of our republic be our first priority?

We cannot know if the 2016 election was materially altered by Russian interference or not. We didn’t have the opportunity to find out.

It is clear to any but the most naïve pundit that Mr. Trump is grateful for Mr. Putin’s support. Mr. Trump clearly fears that evidence of Russian interference undermines his “accomplishment” of winning. It is his ego that poisons his thinking and attracts him to despots who bolster his own sense of importance. He cannot see, or even care, how what feels good to him might somehow be bad for the country. If you question my conclusions go through and review ALL of his statements on Russia and Putin. Anyone can judge this for themselves absent the filter of spokesperson spin.

Let me repeat – Review Mr. Trump’s statements. All of them. The idea that replacing the word “would” with “wouldn’t” substantively alters his statements in Helsinki is absurd. It is a farce – and you – the Republican leadership must, if you’re truly patriots, do whatever it takes to act as a wall against these foreign assaults.

You must explain, in the most clear terms, to your constituents and the world, what is happening and what you are doing to protect our government and our people from Russia. You cannot sit by and do nothing. As long as you fail to defend us, as long as you fail to move against this erosion of our national principles, whatever you accomplish, whatever you “achieve,” is corrupted.

For Liberals and Conservatives - a note on feeling(s)

Feelings are not truth – Feelings are not truth – Feelings are not truth – Feelings are not truth -

Acting on your feelings doesn’t make you authentic, but it can make you reckless and ill considered.

Serial killers act on their feelings, rapists, abusers, racists – all are feeling driven.

Feelings are the source of racism, misogyny, prejudice, sexism, and bias of all sorts.

Less antisocial but equally valid as an example – people with bipolar disorder must regularly sort through what is a “true” feeling and what is a product of brain chemistry –

Children, before they’ve learned self-discipline, are examples of an unexamined emotional life capable of equal parts joyful and uninhibited; and cruel and unrestrained.

Narcissists believe in the truth of their feelings.

Feelings are sometimes just intrusive thoughts that need to be ignored. YOU may not be the author of them. They may be a product of conditioning through life experience – or chemical shifts beyond your control. In the medieval period, intrusive feelings were sometimes thought to be the product of Satan or a demon.

Everyday minor biases play out so that we privilege those we FEEL comfortable with over those we FEEL less comfortable with. The system is an accumulation of these choices. It’s not always or even often a conspiracy, but most often a byproduct of people with power helping those they feel comfortable with – generally with no ill (but ill considered) intent -

Feelings are how the system gets rigged.

When you meet someone and you instantly dislike them; when you automatically choose to hire the friend as opposed to the possibly more qualified stranger; when you assume the guilt of someone without evidence but based on what you imagine about them - (how you imagine someone’s motives or intentions absent evidence) … these are feelings at work and they lead to an out of kilter system.

Good news – you don’t have to feel guilty for your feelings, … just for not examining them.

I think it’s important that we consciously decide what principles we are committed to and then as objectively as we can apply ourselves to these. It’s important to build systems that remove the potential for bias as much as possible. We must test what we do against the logic of what we say we believe.

For example – if you believe that it is an ethical imperative that we love one another – then what you say or do should follow the logic of this. Just as some feelings are a negative product of conditioning, some positive feelings must be cultivated, and we must condition ourselves to them.

If we long for a system that is fair, a world where everyone begins on equal footing, then, we really do have to examine our feelings and cultivate those that make us who we hope to be, as individuals and as a nation.

#endgerrymandering

Too many of our citizens are shut out of our election process. It is dominated by money and gerrymandering. Too many are disenfranchised and too few of us are outraged by it.

If you’re a liberal in a “red” state or a conservative in a “blue” state – your vote doesn’t count. Often you don’t even bother voting. Only the “swing” states matter.

Frankly any “popular” vote is grossly skewed because of this.

The Electors in our Electoral College system don’t debate or confer.

We watch the Republican and Democratic conventions and we already know the outcome. It’s a coronation not a process.

We have undermined our processes for building consensus. We don’t believe in consensus – only winning.

We have become so very very cynical. – Our elections are like sporting events. On the spectator side it’s more about personality and the team you want to align yourself with. There seems to be a real desire to punish the other side. On the political side, it’s a craven approach to the game – saying what has to be said to line up support. The public understands that there’s a disconnect between what a politician says and what they really believe. We play the outrage game when it suits us.

I know I am naïve to imagine that the principles we espouse should actually mean something.

I think a lot about Venn Diagrams and how we find those points of overlap.

We need to end gerrymandering. Surely we can find a less political system for establishing our voting districts, one that protects the voices of all our citizens. We simply require the will to do it.

Why I'm a liberal ...

I’m a liberal because of my spiritual beliefs.

I don’t usually talk about this. Like my father before me, I want to be careful that I don’t become a hypocrite by presenting myself as something I’m not. I belong to many communities where I’m not sure the nuances of my beliefs will always be apparent and I fear being classified. I am, to the point, very uncomfortable expressing these things. At this moment, however, in the hopes of furthering understanding, it seems appropriate to share.

I believe very deeply in the divine. I believe that the natural and the “supernatural” are one and the same. I believe that life is the presence of the divine. I believe that to look into the face of others is to see the face of God.

I have studied the teachings of many religious leaders. I am from Alabama and I was raised as a Christian and my dad and I spent many long nights talking about the bible. The teachings of Jesus were held up to me as the truth. Jesus was, in my mind, a philosopher and a social activist. From the turning over of the tables of the money changers to the “giving unto Caesar” or the eye of the needle or the loaves and the fishes or the giving of coats and cloaks and even unto his death, - love your enemies - Jesus, as the bible describes him, was about asking us to see, to feel, our common humanity.

These ideas of love and mutual care are ideas that at every turn of my spiritual quest I have found reaffirmed as the truth. While I fall short (so short) – these are ideals to which I aspire.

Jimmy Carter is a hero of mine. I have many, but in terms of politicians, he’s stayed true to his principles. Unfortunately, I don’t think we were ready to follow where he was trying to lead us.

I hope that as a nation we will reject nastiness. I hope we will lift up all of our citizens. I hope we will open our hearts and see the grief of others. I hope that we will work to ease the suffering of this world and to truly embrace and value all of humanity. I hope that as a people we come to understand the fleeting nature of life and that we become more generous with one another.

The Rules for (Political) Discourse ...

I believe the world would be better if we could argue and debate without it turning into mutual loathing. I truly believe that if we could step back and allow ourselves to be moved sometimes –

Well toward this end these are the rules I’ve laid out for myself – and of course I won’t be perfect but I am going to try.

1. Do not betray your ethics. You know it may sound sappy but I believe in all of the love one another stuff. I’m trying. Evaluate what you say and do against that ethic. Try to be a decent human being.
2. Try not to bait people and try not to take the bait.
3. Try to stick to issues – try to lay out positions cleanly, without getting personal.
4. Let people you don’t agree with have room to speak. (I won’t defriend you for differing views but I will for hate speech.)
5. Don’t call people, known or unknown, what my mother would have called “ugly names”.
6. Try to find the overlaps. Seriously – TRY TO FIND THE OVERLAPS.
7. I don’t have to have the last word.
8. Let go of anger – it only closes us off from one another.
9. Work in the garden, read a book, run, walk, watch the sunset – make art – dwell on what you love - see things for what they are.
10. Life – the world – is an aggregate – do your best to make your part of it kind.

overturning the tables of the money changers - Why I'm Voting for Barack Obama.

I am voting for Barack Obama because I believe he believes in equal civil rights for all people. I believe he believes that women own their own bodies and should receive equal pay for equal work. I believe that he believes that it is wrong to judge people, to impinge their civil rights because of their race, gender or sexual orientation. I believe that he believes in equal access to education – both in quality and availability. I believe that I and the people that I love will and have fared better under Barack Obama.

I cannot vote for a man who would callously dismiss 47% of the population when he is behind closed doors and he thinks it’s safe to speak the truth.

I cannot vote for a man who has to be told that there are qualified, smart, able women.

I cannot vote for a man who would pass laws that would curtail the rights of people because his personal religious views tell him to …

I am voting for Barack Obama because I remember George W. Bush and the condition his policies and practices left the U.S. in. I remember the economic spiral down, the financial meltdown that followed in the wake of two terms of financial policies meant to support “the job creators”. I remember the deregulation that lead to Wall Street and the need for bailouts. I shudder that Mr. Romney and so many others have forgotten what those policies did to this country.

So much of the vitriol is dressed up as Christianity. Jesus said “My kingdom is not of this world.” He really didn’t seem interested in what the government was doing … He didn’t speak of it except to say “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” … but I wonder if people who would legislate Christianity’s directives wouldn’t be serving their faith better if they focused on the love and generosity part.

Give to every man that asks of you; and of him that takes away your goods ask them not again. – Luke 6:30

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. – John 13:34

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. – Romans 13:8

Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way. – Romans 14:13


I find these tenets more in keeping with Obama’s policies than with Romney’s.

living and courage

In my small life, where courage has to do with smaller things, I wonder what the world would look like if folks like Martin Luther King jr had, when they were beginning, been diverted by practical concerns.

We all hope for the good, for a place and a community that values us and the things we love. For all of us … we long for fairness and consideration. We hope for conditions that will move us to “a better place.” My better place, my ideal, is one that privileges creative excellence, the exchange of ideas, mutual trust and respect.

As one of my most esteemed colleagues has said, hope is passive. These things require actions to be made real. It is a failure of imagination and courage which keeps us from achieving our ends.

Daily, in incidental places and ways, we are challenged to perform our ethical position - to make words and deeds match. In the face of these challenges there is always a temptation to give into what would seem “practical.” It seems futile, foolish, to pursue the ideal. The path toward the ideal is easily abandoned. The constant voice of “they” admonishes us to be “reasonable.”

To walk away from our ethical imperative harms us – diminishes what we would call our soul. It makes us less than we could be. It takes a knife to our ambitions. It assures our bitterness.

In the large and the small, we must build the world we want to live in. We must adhere to, and not defer, our ethical position. We must match words to deeds.

We must demand of our leadership that, rather then divining the path, that they envision it. We must demand that they persuade us, and others, to the value of their course. We must demand that they lead us through the courage of their convictions, that they must risk failure in order to achieve real success. We must demand that they make war on mediocrity and complacency. We must demand that they inspire us through their example.

I believe that the place and the time I live in can come to fruition. I believe that we sit at the brink of a remarkable moment. I believe that the challenges that we face are merely opportunities. I believe that what is required of us … what will achieve our goals, is the courage to pursue the course of our ideals … and leadership, real leadership.

lane cooper blogs on politics, philosophy and society

A friend asked me to what end, other than the expression of my own compulsions, do I pursue “blogging” as an enterprise? He said, “How does it advance you or your position?”

In answer to that:

This blog is a space for my philosophical, political and social musings. The lack of an editor or other body to which I must answer provides a freedom in my writing. It is writing for the sake of writing; thinking for the sake of thinking; a practice that I cultivate for the ideas and the writing themselves.

I imagine an audience. I do not dissuade or forbid an audience, in fact it could be said that I wish for an audience, believing as I do the subjects that I turn my attention toward should be of broader interest. Yet it is a practice, like meditation, which I do to cultivate those faculties on which it depends.

this election...

The first time I voted I was eighteen. I worked the polls. I embraced the political process as an emblem of my maturity – my voice equal to others.

I face the current state of our political system with nothing but gut wrenching disappointment. I understand now… we have no statesmen… not to say that we ever had an abundance of them… but somehow my eyes have opened. Those who seek to lead, those dedicated to some sense of purpose beyond short-term economic gains and a place in history, those also-rans, are certain to fail.

I could give a f**k who wins this election because not one of them could do any worse than the current administration – and I’m sorry dear friends, no thrill of history convinces me that any of the current viable candidates have a vision worth following.

We do not elect candidates on the basis of issues or abilities… but in response to who has the best “spin” machine and PR representatives. I am a republican with a little “r”. We should elect representatives we know and trust to choose the president. What we have now is a parody of democracy… the popular vote may or may not matter in either the primaries or the general election and any candidate without a “war chest” can pack it in. Power rests in the hands of the few and we are placated with the “Entertainment Channel” illusion of a process.

I wish as a nation we would turn our attention to the real issues. I wish we would consider the environment, a sustainable economy and what we’re going to do with the mess in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq is the greatest blunder since Vietnam…. but I cannot bring myself to agree with my political compatriots who feel we should “just leave.” I can’t tell you how it grieves me to come to that conclusion…

We elected and allowed to be elected George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. We allowed them, out of our own real fear, to take us places we should have never gone. Now will we take responsibility for what has been done in our name? How will we repair the damage? Can we change our presence in Iraq from war to building? I don’t know…

a buck a song...

boy's death

Put your money where your mouth is... We spend billions on Iraq... billions... we're protecting our future right? We're making for a better world... We're insuring our security...

How many people a day in the US die from lack of medical care... pre-emptive and all of that...? What's the reality on the ground? How much good will could we have bought with billions? How many could we educate?

and then there's my own democratic party... How many of you guys voted to support the war because it was political suicide not too?

Is there an American leader who has the political backbone to do what's right because it's right?

now that I think of it...

It is all linked...

The oil:

our love of the car... our increasing obesity... the environment... war.

There is one root to our ills,

and there are those whose wealth and power are tied to it...

who would keep us bond as well.