Impending Death Splurge - A National Transition Plan

Let's all remember that the 1789 Constitution was illegal. The Articles of Confederation were so broken and so useless that the leaders of the country, including many of the Founding Fathers, set up a constitutional convention with the idea of fixing the Articles and instead they met in secret to propose an entirely new government. There was no Article V in the Articles of Confederation. The people just DID it and then it was ratified by the states.

The legitimacy of the state and the power to govern derives itself from the governed; even when not a democracy. Even when it pretends to be otherwise like a Monarhy or a Theocracy it still gets its power from the people who govern it. Under the 1789 constitution, you can't abolish the states, but if you make a constitution from scratch, ratified by the people at large. If the majority ratifies it, then its just as legitimate if not more so, then the old one.

Meaning, if the government doesnt stop a new constitution being made, or people voting on it, then you can get a new one. Of course, the old government typically has a say in that with this thing called the United States Military. But the Terrorist Red States can be circumvented from a tyranical 3/5th or 2/3rd majority impossible in their fly over minority rule, without abandoning the blue cities trapped in their Terrorist jurisdictions by focusing on the Democratic Party (or technically any other party but since we want to actually win and not be terrorists or nazis thats the one I'm writing about.). Run a candidate with the platform of holding a vote for a new constitution and all they have to do is prevent the military or DHS or FBI from rounding up the people voting on it.

Congress will babble of course but if a new congress is assembled and disolves the old and the President legitimizes it, then that automatically empowers the new governement. And there is almost nothing worth keeping about the current highly broken system.

Impending Death Splurg - Larping the Church of Crime

A larp stands for live action roleplay. The church of Crime is an invention of DC Comics with Organized Crime who worship crime and the God of Evil Darkseid. I always found the concept clownish but its no more ridiculous than the Republican Party which has such fools and evil idiots that any cartoon villain looks well balanced and well reasoned compared to it.

So the way you test your government is larp it out; pass bills, make decisions, pass laws but make sure that at least a third of the members belong to the Church of Crime. That way centrists and lecturing liberals wont squirm at making fun of their tools and pals the Republicans or the Conservstives

A government strong enough to survive two or three daya governing with the church of crime in it is far better than some shangrila utopia that hasnt been tested. A government that is going to help people has to be built from the ground up to keep conservatives out of power and to minimize that power one they or their party... i mean church of crime... are publicly declared as such.

I intend to eventually organize larps in just such a way.

Impending Death Surge - Red Team vs Blue Team

In the Military, exercizes are often done with one team pretending to be the enemy and one the home team. This doesnt predict what the enemy will due but it can predict what they may do and properly done, even what they are likely to do. Any new constitution must have itself tested against the forces that might destroy it.

So if I can unilaterally condemn capitalism as a failure for Climate Change and Fascism in the Free World alone....then next on deck as a total failure is Conservatism. I'm not going to get in other people's weeds of how they define it. I've known its been a problem for 15 years and have been seeking a legal definition of how to forbid it in a way that doesnt flat out outlaw Freedom of Association and I've come up with this one.

Outlaw any organization that does 2 of the 3:

1) Is Nostalgic about the past

2) Demonizes the Other

3) Lies like they breathe

I've found examples of this behavior in every human society since the dawn of time fictional or otherwise. Sometimes they are reactionary or 'movement conservative' or even communist but they ACT like Cnservatives. The Khmer Rouge were communists but they did all three of those things. A party that demonizes the other is going to go fascist if they arent put in check. A party that lies like they breathe is VERY likely to be conservative because conservatism favors lying. And lyrics to "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" aside, Conservatism always talks about 'the traditions of our fathers' and how the evil immigrants are stealing their jobs etc etc. Simply outlawing a flavor of this is going to have the same effect that Germany did outlawing Nazi, only to have supermarket generic fascism in the AfD.

Far Right parties if you describe Far Right as Anti Immigrant are THE most prime targets to get violent, to accept and encourage lies, to tactically be willing to do anything and everything to win elections including lie cheat and steal. We dont have to guess about this; the Axis of Fascism has allied all over the world; Bannon attends meetings with Putin and Slovakia and Hungary are clearly aligned with Putin. China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran are all allied to fuck with the US; even though they fuck with each other. But Saudi Arabia has its thumbs and fingers in nearly every pie undermining democracy up to and including particularly the Trump Family and Jared Kushner.

Lies do not work in a Market Place of Ideas. And its not like Conservatism ever helps anyone except the Rich. Everything they say they believe in is a lie; everything.

Tomorrow I will speak more on how we can conservative proof democracies.

Impending Death Posts - JIT Economic Governance

The following should (to me) be in any new constitution created by a democratic society.

1) Forbid public paid political expression from the top .01% income of the population. You can be rich or you can criticize or publicly influence the government, but you cannot do both. Once you become that rich, your ability to corrupt a functioning democratic government is sufficiently high that you dont get to contribute to political campaigns, political access campaigns, political special interest groups; none of it. You can donate to charities, but those charities must also receive small donations from non rich people to equate to half their income, and you dont get a seat on any board (governing or advisory) of a charity or NGO that attempts public advocacy or to influence public opinion or public governance in any way.

Full stop, do not collect $200, do not pass go.

2) The upper income tax rate is decided independently with no exceptions of any kind. Even the legislature or the government itself cannot adjust this formula short of a full constitutional rewrite and any new constitution would be idiotic to allow anything else. No exceptions. None.

The upper income tax bracket should go up by 1% if the median GNP per capita of the lower 90% of the population goes down relative to the upper .01% percent. If the median income of the lower 90% relative to the upper .01% goes up for 10 years in a row, then the upper tax rate goes down 1%. If it EVER goes down, the 10 year clock resets, but if it KEEPS going up, then the upper % can keep going down to 0.

If you are rich and want your taxes to go down, you make sure that EVERYONE prospers and you cant bribe the legislature to do it.

Full stop, do not collect $200, do not pass go. Tax breaks are for the not rich.

3) Unionization is a right. It should be unalterable by congress except to enforce the basic provisions.

a) The union must always be democratic.

b) The union should always be allowed to own at least 10-15% of the stake of whatever venture the workers participate in.

c) If the organization has stock, they must also be able to participate in 10-15% of any stock issued; ownership or governance or otherwise.

d) Any attempt to stop unionization means that the offending party loses all ownership stake in the organization and that the union gets first dibs in owning it (senior most union with the org if more than one union was supprsed) and anything not sold the union is sold for reasonable value by the government ont he open market.

e) The government shall provide a secret ballot platform which will allow people to join a union with ease, and the question will be asked every single year until at least 90% of the employees of the organization or endeveor are unionized.

f) Attempts to circumvent this law in anyway makes those found guilty ineligle to start a business or financial endevor for no less than 20 years.

g) Every year, members of the union will vote on whether or not the union is representing them. If the majority vote no, a new union is to replace it as organized by members of that union and no one else.

Full stop, do not collect $200, do not pass go.

4) The populace at large determines what rights are; and there are some kinds of rights that are considered economic rights if the civilisation is right enough to afford them.

a) The Right to Housing

b) The Right to Food and Water

c) The Right to the Internet

d) The Right to Education

e) The Right to Transportation

f) The Right to Medical Care

If the government or civilization can afford being able to provide these things (or future things that a majority of the population deems reasonable) then it must be free for at least 90% of the population.

Every year, the population gets to vote on whether or not they feel these rights are being met. If they are not met, the government must come up with a plan to meet those needs. If not voted for positively in the next year, everyone in government who has been involved with solving the issue is out of office and a new government must be elected. Those who failed to meet these needs are not eligible for reelection until the issue is solved for that issue.

Anyone attempting to interfere with this politically, especially for economic gain or to promote stratification shall be disallowed from owning or participating in ownership of money generating enterprises; ESPECIALLY managing or owning property for rental purposes; commerically or residential.

5) Taxation or Wage Slavery is only allowed by the Government. A private individual or organization must have a liscence from the government to have an organziation that charges time tax in the form of wages; recognizing that coercion is the full monopoly of the government and that to have this ability leased or deligated from the government requires permission and continous (ideally annual) renewal and that the business or organization doing so is in risk of having its charter removed if it attempts to politically influence the populace away from its economic freedoms IN ANY WAY.

The population will vote annually on the effectiveness of this provision. If it fails, everyone in government involved in enforcing this provision is removed and not eligible for reelection until the issue is solved.

Full stop, do not collect $200, do not pass go.

6) Any wealth disparity of more than 2000 times the lowest member of society is absolutely disallowed. Anyone who has an anual income of a Billion dollars, when the lowest earning citizen only has an income of $30000 a year will result in the seizure of assets from said person. Furthermore, transfer of assets from the jurisdiction of the government to avoid this penaly AT ANY TIME is to be considered a violation thereof. Stripping jobs from America to another country because you want to continue to be a robber baron or a slum lord means that you forfit your right to own property in the United States of America.

TLDR You do NOT have a right to be rich at the expense of others. Climate Change and Fascism in America have proven that insufficentl regulated capitalism are a threat to the people at large or even for the state to exist and function. It must be stopped. It can be stopped and that includes limiting the "rights" of those who choose to own or inherit property of a sufficent caliber to influence the opinion of the people at large.

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.