Impending Death Surge - Governance Is Economics

In the Beginning, Civilization was made due to property and law to adjudicate its division. Not all early civilizations were Slavery. People dont NEED property to survive and prosper but a subset seems instinctively drawn to it. We've tried all kinds of alternative forms to capitalism; Anarchism, Communism and Socialism. None has succeeded in a democracy to scale, but that doesnt mean they can't. Frankly, humans need to be able to safely experiment to find the way that works best for them and over time, the way will work. We know certain things do not work because we've seen them fail. State Communism is centrally planned which is inherently less efficient because information is limited and any degree of flaws at the central planners reflects on the system as a whole. 

Morever, all State Communism to date has been at the point of a sword and that cannot last; fear only motivates people for so long. People can be motivated by things other than greed, but dictatorship encourage people to lie to survive and that leads to corruption because a shadow market and shadow government exist which has no law. Every black market thus far that I have read of in history was a capitalist one; not just because capitalism is what people are used to but also because its decentralized and easy to implement. What I am saying, is that all the constitutionial theory and law theory in the world does us no good if we dont build a system of government to protect us economically. We know and there are plenty of evidence that capitalism eventually creates unregulated and almost unstoppable corruption and stratification. If you DONT have flat government, your system; no matter how many checks and balances you create is amendable to corruption. And corruption is the death of democracy. Ergo, your constition, your system of government needs to start with economic regulation. 

The legitimacy by which it governs must ensure the well being of the vast majority of its citizens and if it fails to do that, then it needs to automatically course correct. There is never a situation where a government that only benefits the minority is a good government. And a capitalist government or capitalist economic system simply does not. Climate change alone proves Capitalism does not work. Even now, capitalist companies and corrupted capitalist parties and capitalist politicians dont just drill but drill faster and faster. Clear and objective evidence that anyone with a memory and not deluded by bullshit can see that every year gets warmer and the weather gets worse. Capitalism is responsible for this. And as such, Capitalism must be held entirely in check by any system of government that works for the benefit of its citizens.

Impending Death Splurge - Just in Time Recall

 My brief sympathy and investigation of Anarchy did yield some positive results.  Hierachy is abusive and can be corrupted.  Any time another person can have power over another, then there can be corruption.  Flat is better, but Direct Democracies can do dumb things; because People can be very stupid.  We all know this.  And we dont even have to speculate on hypotheticals.   Athens tried regular vanilla democracy and it turned out the loudest voice in the room could Shock and Awe people into voting against their self interests.  The Solution to this is to still have a Checks and Balances framework, but make the people fulfill the role of the Legislature and allow time instead of supermajorities to counter radical changes to the system.  Indeed, if you simply make your system such that you can have one person in charge of the army but that the populace is NEVER allowed to delegate their ultimate sovereignty and that the Tyrant or Leader or President or whatever can NEVER prevent the people from voting; then that solves one problem right there.

But a functional system (ie not anarchic consensus) is still going to have some hierarchy and some laws because unless you are engaged in Human Eugenics, we will always have conservatives and sociopaths walking among us seeking vulnerabilities in the system to exploit.  However, if we assume that Hierarchy is abusive then we need to take the concept of the Recall but apply Just In Time principals to it.  For those not familiar with the term, it means that in supply dynamics, you keep the supply chain 'lean' and as barebones as needed to still meet the needs of the end point of the chain.  Walmart does an excellent example of this by having the supply chain start the instant you by a widget to replace it.  Obviously, in the real world, this process also has to adjust for supply and demand such as the Christmas season.  (And sit down, you in the back squealing about Capitalism and government is not a business; you can still learn from your enemies.)

HOW does one apply a JIT mechanism to the recall? (And frankly, I think this should apply to multiple areas but we'll get to that).  The first and best area is just like Checks and Balances, you make sure that a JIT recall adjusts its mechanisms to the needs of its stakeholders; meaning the voters.  How? Well, you build in automatic feedback.  If the Recall is used, then you have an official confirmation vote of the replacement for the office within 90 days.  Not voting in this case would be approval, but if people are satisfied with the person who replaces the individual recalled then you dont need to do anything; it works.

If, on the other hand, you have sneaky nasty lying conservatives trying to trick the system like they do every time it happens with the recall in California, and everyone hates the Nazi the Conservatives vote in, then you have an automatic method that kicks in to the ballot that allows people to vote on; 1) The Threshold of Votes required for a Recall Election (more or less; thus ensuring that conservatives who will always want more votes required for a recall in a conservative state or less votes for recall in a conservative state will always allow the majority to actually decide to increase or decrease the threshold of recall.). You also allow the voters to increase or decrease the window of the election cycle, and you also allow the voters at large to select a committee to add parameters to make a recall more or less difficult if it is discovered that conservative/elite interests are abusing the system.

By building in correction mechanisms into the recall process, and making it so that the franchise or recall process CAN NEVER be taken by any system the voters may select, you ensure that the majority is never disenfranchised and that the system can be self correcting.  Conservative liars and sociopaths can manipulate the populace for part of the time, but over time, this gets harder to do since the Gullible Conservative is the only one that believes that Vaccines cause cancer etc etc etc.

Impending Death Splurge - A Constitutional Culture

 I have long felt that the first episode of any podcast involving the constitution should be about Jefferson's belief that the constitution should be changed every 20 years.  But to do that, you need a high bar of civic education where every school child in America gets together as a class and makes a constitution and then likely again in High School.  The act of making a constitution; especially if they act out making it work in a fashion similar to the National Crisis Decision Making game or "Larp" so they can see what works, and what happens when people have an agenda; where the parts of power that consolidate or where the exceptions or edge cases can be abused, they will get a much more concrete idea of how the actual government works and know what they are reading about in the news.

Constitutions must be changed.  I have spoken about this before.  People from 200 years ago would not and frankly could not know about what faces us today; the franchise of voting has expanded, the issues facing us are very different from weapons of mass destruction to gun control or social media.  Broad sweeping generalities like "Congress shall make no law abridging speech" has allowed the pernicious Alien and Sedition Acts, the House on UnAmerican Affairs Committee or FOSTA which persecutes women who try to make a living as a sex worker.  And yet at the same time, we allow Fox News or Cloud Flare or Corporate Personhood and deny basic services to our citizens.

Climate change alone proves there is a system failure of our government but no reasonable mechanism to address it with antiquated states and a bar that allows Oligarchs to dominate the process.  Change has to start somewhere, and grass roots is always where meaningful change for the United States has always originated.  It should start in school but I would love to see Constitutional LARP groups meet and build their own governments experimenting with what does and doesnt work long before state governments try out their own.

Impending Death Splurge - Head of State - The National Chorus

Our impending death is coming at 50/50, so before our death warrants are signed by Maga Project 2025 Stasi Death agents, I thought it was time to capture some thoughts while I still (potentially) can.

I had wanted to do these as podcast episodes, but I lost my windows machine and there was nowhere in the house in Springfield decent enough to do it plus odd psychic block..its been on my to do list but time may be running out so recording these thoughts as I can

The power of Head of State to me, especially as shown by the Crown, made me wonder how this could be used as a force for good rather than Tourism and Posh Imperialist Colonial Riffraff or Echoes thereof like the Presidency of the United States also being Head of State because Washington wanted to be treated as Posh to dignify the Presidency.   This as compared to Head of Government.  (And since while I do think Anarchists have some points; they decided that they would allow a Committee of Six to Hierarchy their ass, I'm not taking Anarchists seriously.)

The Head of State meets with other heads of State and has posh dinners and parades and pagentry.  But the thing is folks; there is a reason Fascists are obsessed symbolism is because the State is an Illusion.   But it is an illusion that has great power when accepted by the nation write large.  But civilization and society can do so much better than a symbolic monarch or a symbolic president with no real power or even great power and mixed duties with head of government and head of state.

In Ancient Greece, during plays, the Chorus represented the perspective of the common man.  Why must we distill our symbology in one person? Especially in America, we celebrate and embrace democracy.  I firmly believe that in a Secular society, Religion has no place in government.  I also dont approve of other societies that lay aside token members of the Legislature to indigenous peoples, minority religions or even women as a way of 'balancing the scales.'  But in the National Story this is different.  People's religions are sacred to them and they want to ensure that they have a part on the national stage.

The National Chorus would be appointed (ideally by a combination of executive and legislative branches) with some seats going to certain groups such as the First Nations, Oppressed Peoples or Oppressed Minorities.  It could also be an honorific in a Republic similar to the House of Lords and British Knighthood, with a lifetime appointment for great artists, scientists and the like.  It would be a place to tell the national story.

I do have some alternate ideas of what this body could be; I think they, not the head of Government should appoint ambassadors.  I think they, not the Government should approve national charters for non governmental organizations such as the United States Postal Service, National Trusts (which should do a public good and Replace corporations), PBS, The NEA, etc etc etc.  Right now these things rest with the President and I think that Government has a separate function from the machinery and symbology of state.

Finally, the reason I approve of this path is because some of the religious need to stick their moral dick in your face, and if it has to be somewhere, let it be in a body that isn't making laws or decisions about criminality.   

Revolution: Good vs Bad

 When is revolution merited?

In Georgia right now, Fascists have passed the Russia law making it easy to destroy NGO's that allow a democracy to function.  There is substantial overlap but not total overlap between fascists and conservatives, but it is sufficient that I now believe any properly designed government must do everything it can; short of curtailing essential liberties to lock conservatives and conservatives out of power.

Has there ever been a good CONSERVATIVE revolution? None I can think of.  Pick any historical context, and 9 times out of 10 the conservative faction (military, business, nationalist hardliners, or theocrats) leads to blood shed or the reduction of individual liberties.  Moreover, since everything conservatives say is a lie or projection; the net result of conservative actions is the gross reduction of individual liberties across the board.

But wrong thinking centrists will attempt to be ideologically neutral, so it is worthy to explore tests to indicate when a nation is headed for doom and anti democratic norms beyond how conservative the initiators are (ie just because it is patently evident to me, wrong thinking centrists or nauseatingly gross both siders will and are entitled to disagree).  This test is important for dictating decent foreign policy and foreign aid beyond the disgusting realpolitik of late stage capitalism and klepto capitalism (but I repeat myself.)

Fortunately, this was already done in the Declaration of Independence, which to paraphrase summarized this: A government must have both evil action AND evil intent.  Why is this?

Evil Intent but Good Action: Very often, conservative governments enact good in spite of themselves.  Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive from a regressive party and since loyalty and tribal thinking is the only conservative/regressive value they passed many of his reforms to Follow The Leader.  Ditto for Ike.  There were many good and beneficial actions that have helped society as a result of this.

Good Intent but Evil Action: Many bumbling but well intentioned administrations; such as Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden do things that are positively stupid but for the right reasons.  The reason for continuity is obvious, especially in a democracy in that if the intent is good but they are still too stubborn to acknowledge reality they will eventually get hit by a clue by four and correct themselves or at least be voted out.

The true objective advantage of democracy is that it allows stability which breeds wealth (unlike Capitalism or the Oligarch class which actually add nothing of inherent value despite the protestations or lies of conservatives (but again I repeat myself.)

There is a third test I would add however, and that is an attempt to slide a nation from more democracy to less democracy.   Republicans love to harp on about how we live in a Republic, not a democracy, because they are undemocratic.  In truth we live in a Democratic Republic, but since we now see Republicans unwilling to acknowledge the legitimacy of Democratic candidates, we can know beyond doubt that Republicans can and will steal any power or ability for peaceful democratic transition that they are allowed to get away with.  This allows any right thinking individual to treat these organizations as actual enemies of the state, since the state is a Democratic Republic that derives its legitimacy from the governed.  Any attempt by any organized group of individuals to reduce the sovereignty of the citizen majority writ large (note, the majority and not the entitled or enriched minority, nor the theocratic or ideological minority) is an attack on all.

This makes the revolution of the NUG in Myanmar, the Arab Spring or a pending revolution in Georgia totally justified.  Conversely, it self evidently points to the illegitimacy of Israeli colonialism given their refusal to provide democratic sovereignty to their colonial subjects (the Palestinians).  Any anti democratic organization is, by their own admission, an enemy of democracy and to be abolished by any intelligently governed state thereof.

I will also add a hypothetical fourth test which is, in the event of willful incompetence (such as the Democratic Party of the United States) to deal with repeated and recurring enemies of democracy (ie the Republican Party) sets a ticking observational clock that any intelligent person can use to see how long good intent but evil action remains in place.  Should action not be taken, it eventually merits direct and revolutionary action to maintain and keep democratic norms.

The Insecurity Council

 The United Nations is a joke.

Because the Security Council is a joke.

Because the five permanent shit members are responsible for most of the items before the committee.

It needs to be reformed.

The Shit Five will veto normal reform attempts.

Just like the national popular vote compound to end the shit anti democratic electoeal college, the UN needs a pledge by half non Shit Five members in the general assembly that when more than half have signed the pledge then the general assembly gets a counter beto for the Shit Five and if the Shit Five dont undo their Veto

like the American Empire shielding the genocide in the Dirty Theocracy then they leave the UN

Half the UN members leaving means no more UN

Stop the dirty genocide by stripping the American empire of its Shit Veto.

Words Matter

A Libertarian A Communist and A Socialist 

try to go into a bar

But none of them can agree 

On the definition of the word

Bar

Door

Or Try

To all three 

Purity is the only acceptible solution

Theirs is the only true way

Words exist to Indoctrinate

Rather than communicate

All at their core offer good things

Individuals always matter

And a leaner government is a less intrusive one

Why shouldnt workers 

Own the means of production

And what is so specifically great

About Profit?

Why should there be a socially economic elite?

All dislike the state 

Except when they dont

They all have purity definitions

That no country in the world practices

And 99% of all human societies in history reject

But they know better

When Superman God the Messiah

Undead Vampire Singularity AI Marx comes down

And makes the world see theirs is the one true way

Except Marx Bernie and Heinlein went into a bar

And got drunk mocking three idiots 

Bumping into a chalk door outline

Drawn

On a  fucking brick wall