DEADLINE EXTENDED (AGAIN)! The “Not a Plutocracy?” $20 Challenge

Given the way the health care debate has gone, it now seems that the insurance and pharmaceutical companies (a/k/a the “medical-industrial complex”) will once again come out on top, despite the express wishes of a good-sized chunk of the American people for some kind of public/government-funded insurance  option. The corporations and their lackeys have pulled out all the stops to confuse and frighten the American public.  Corporate control of politicians and media seems practically unshakeable.  This leads me to wonder if we oughtn’t just make a few little tweaks to the Constitution and codify what appear to be the facts-on-the-ground: that this is actually a plutocratic country, with decisions being made by the wealthiest folks, for the benefit of the wealthiest folks, all dressed up in a cynical “democratic” shell.

But maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe this really is still a democracy.  Maybe there are times when the wealthy interests lose out (or at least don’t get everything they want) in favor of the general welfare, or in response to the wishes of the people .  Maybe there are even times when wealthy interests VOLUNTARILY take a hit because it would serve the greater good.

So here’s the deal.  I’ve got $20 (not much, I know, but this SHOULD be easy, right?) that I will give to the person who can offer the most convincing evidence refuting the following assertion: “At present, the United States of America is a de facto plutocracy.”

This evidence could be presented in the form of an essay, a video rant, a list of facts, a dramatic dialogue, an interpretive dance, a crayon drawing scrawled on a napkin, a PowerPoint preso, whatever. My decision will be my own, quite possibly arbitrary, and it’ll be final. If I can’t make a final decision among a bunch of similarly-qualified entrants, I’ll commit some random act to determine the winner.  I also reserve the right to declare NO winner at all. All entries remain property of their creators, so you can republish or do whatever you want (that’s only fair), but by sending in your entry you grant me permission to publish it on this blog.  Send your entry (or a URL pointer to it) to smendler[at]yahoo.com; include the word “PLUTOCRACY” in the subject line.  Deadline (twice extended!) is 11:59:59 PM ET on OCTOBER 31, 2010.  Good luck!

THE PEACE AND JUSTICE FILES: MAYBE NOT SO BAD AS ALL THAT

It’s a great deal, really. You go to BloatMart and buy a six-pack of Diet Cherry Wobble Cola and not only do you get extra Wobble Points, redeemable for cool swag at wobblecola.com, it’s like you’re voting for President Sally SIX TIMES! (It’s got to be Diet Cherry, y’know, after all that’s her FAVORITE!) That’ll show those namby-pambies who drink Jetpax and like that dumb Senator Charlie! We’re going to have a Wobble Cola party next weekend to show our support for President Sally! Be sure to wear your official Sally Victory Sneakers!

Remember when they had to go vote, and put up with all those commercials, and have like debates and stuff? (Well, then you’re really OLD ha ha!) This way of doing politics is so much more FUN! Now all you have to do is decide which products support the candidate you like – or which candidate supports the products you like, I should say! – or who has like the most awesomest Mindpage feeds, or puts on the best concerts, or whatever, and then you go buy that stuff, and then the corporations just get together at the Chamber every few years and check the totals and decide who’s going to be President and who’s going to be the Opponent and there you are!

My granddad was telling me about the way it used to be.  (They let us see him every other weekend – it’s a video call through the Cloud, not a visit of course, but it’s OK except when for the lag while they decide what to bleep.)  He said something about way back in the Teens when the Supreme Court – they still had courts back then, I guess, before they started doing all the trials online like the WorldWideIdol finals! – decided that the corporations were just like people only of course better, and so they could spend whatever they wanted to spend to help people make up their minds!

That must have been so confusing, all those people arguing!  But Granddad – well, he starts getting all like loud and upset when he talks about it, and then his pharmapump kicks in, and he gets all sleepy, and then they cut the call – but I guess he liked it back when people still talked seriously about politics and stuff.

But now, it’s the “perfect marriage of capitalism and democracy,” just like the USAcorp commercial says! Granddad says there was a novel (that was a book) he read once called JENNIFER GOVERNMENT which was about corporations taking over everything and doing whatever they could to make money and people adopting the name of their employer as their last name – really, there’s an Old Web page still up at maxbarry.com/jennifergovernment, so I guess it was real.  And Granddad, he says some people were worried about things like that really happening, like this guy Nader that Granddad keeps talking about (but I can never find ANYTHING about him in the Cloud, I wonder why that is?), but everything just happens one step at a time, that’s what Granddad says before his drugs kick in again.

Poor Granddad. He doesn’t like the way it is now, but that’s just because he doesn’t understand how well it works. It’s not so bad as all that. If you really like something – I mean, really, really like it – then of course you’ll spend more money on it.  What better way to decide elections?  And the people who have the most money, well, of course they get to say what people should like, after all that’s how they got their money in the first place – by guessing what people will like, or figuring out how to TELL them what to like, right?

So, just like President Sally says, “Okay then!” See you at the PARTY!

A Green Year (suggestions for focus and discussion)

Start by looking over the “Ten Key Values” and “Four Pillars” of the Green Movement. You might notice that the Key Values can be distributed under each of the Pillars in an almost symmetrical way…

As I was thinking about this, it occurred to me that with the addition of a couple of values, we could make four sets of three, and assign each Value to a month, and each Pillar to a season – thereby setting up a kind of canonical Green Year, that could then be used as a framework for Greens and Green groups.

So I added two, and tweaked some of the terminology a little bit. Here’s the result I came up with. Feel free to make your own adjustments – I know that not every Green will approve of some of my word choices (which is why I’m not submitting this for any kind of organizational imprimatur ;*).

WINTER
PILLAR: NONVIOLENCE
First Month (January) – Nonviolence (Dr. King’s Birthday)
Second Month (February) – Restorative Justice (Black History Month)
Third Month (March) – Feminist Values (Women’s History Month)

SPRING
PILLAR: ECOLOGY
First Month (April) – Ecological Wisdom (Earth Day)
Second Month (May) – Future Focus/Sustainability
Third Month (June) – Personal & Global Responsibility

SUMMER
PILLAR: COMMUNITY
First Month (July) – Social Justice
Second Month (August) – Respect for Diversity
Third Month (September) – Community-Based Economics (Labor Day)

AUTUMN
PILLAR: DEMOCRACY
First Month (October) – Active Engagement
Second Month (November) – Grassroots Democracy (Election Day)
Third Month (December) – Decentralization

NOTES

1. You can either count the months using the equinoxes and solstices as your starting points, or use the standard calendar months. (Alternatively, consider using the overlaps to reflect on the connections between these topics…!)
2. I have included some key holidays and commemorations that relate to certain values – let me know if there are other special events that could be linked.
3. Also let me know if you think the order of values within a season should be changed.
4. Under “Restorative Justice” (the meaning of which can be found here) I also mean to include such notions as mercy and forgiveness.
5. By “Active Engagement” I mean encouraging citizens to undertake ongoing participation in democracy – not just by voting, but staying informed, writing to elected officials, etc.  If you look back on the original 10KV statement, you’ll see that the “Grassroots Democracy” value is more about setting up systems that allow particpation – this value is about making sure that people use their power.

WHEN AMERICA WAKES

“WAKE UP, AMERICA!” 
     — frequent talk-show utterance

When America wakes
it will scrabble for the alarm clock
knocking it to the floor

When America wakes
its first thought will be
“oh god my head…”

When America wakes
it will vaguely remember a dream
something about… mountains?

When America wakes
it will plod down the hall
thinking about coffee and cigarettes

When America wakes
it will notice its bathrobe
is on inside out

When America wakes
it will sit in the bathroom
for a long time

When America wakes
it will wonder
who left all the lights on

When America wakes
it will shuffle into the living room
and find the front door open and the TV set gone

When America wakes
it will realize there is no more coffee
and settle for a diet Pepsi from the fridge

When America wakes
it will push aside the pile of mail on the table
to make room for a bowl of corn flakes

When America wakes
it will  try to recall
what happened

When America wakes
it will wish
it will wish it had stayed in bed

THE PEACE AND JUSTICE FILES: YOU SAY YOU WANT SOME RESOLUTIONS…?

Happy Merries and Merry Happies!  I hope all of you have had enjoyable and fulfilling winter holidays, whatever and whenever they were.  By now, I suspect that some of us may have already bent or broken some of those fresh new resolutions – but not to worry, here are a few doable goals for 2010 that carry some transformative impact.

1.  MOVE YOUR MONEY: We’re blessed with many healthy, locally-owned banks and credit unions that keep our money invested in our communities.  If you’re miffed about “Too-Big-to-Fail” banks, check out the “Move Your Money” campaign (www.moveyourmoney.info), which encourages folks to pull out of overgrown institutions like JP Morgan Chase, Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, and reinvest locally. The site even helps you locate nearby community-oriented banks.  (Credit unions aren’t included in that particular database, but you already know they’re a good option, right?)

2.  EAT LOWER ON THE CHAIN: As John Robbins (the ice-cream heir who renounced his legacy and became a leading advocate for healthier eating) points out in his seminal Diet for a New America, you don’t have to give up meat totally to make a significant difference – even a 15% reduction in meat consumption can have positive effects in both your personal health and the larger environment.  So if you’re “carnivorous but concerned,” consider just moving your choices lower down the food chain – more poultry instead of mammals, more seafood rather than poultry, more vegetables instead of seafood (with attention to sustainability and sourcing, of course).  (For more about Robbins, see www.earthsave.org; for interesting variations on dietary philosophy, do web searches on the words “pollotarianism,” “flexitarianism,” and “mafism.”)

3.  TAKE 10% OFF THE TOP: The folks behind the documentary THE AGE OF STUPID (ageofstupid.net) have started a campaign called 10:10 (www.1010global.org), whose goal it is to reduce carbon emissions by 10% in 2010. (The UK-specific site, 1010uk.org, provides you some “how to do it” suggestions.)  Reducing personal energy consumption by 10% would be a fine way to contribute towards this goal, and fairly easy to track thanks to the consumption figures on your electric and gas bills.

4.  CHANGE THE WAY YOU VOTE: Whether you’re liberal, conservative or centrist, you can probably find some good reasons to be ticked off at both “duopoly” parties – but you might feel stuck between the ol’ “rock and a hard place” when it comes to showing displeasure with the party that’s closer to your beliefs.  Nonetheless, if you feel frustrated with present political practice, consider voting against the status quo itself – with a commitment to supporting third-party and independent candidates wherever possible. (In Pennsylvania, check out the PA Ballot Access Coalition at www.paballotaccess.org.)

5. GET READY TO GO: This one may be a little harder to contemplate – but you can save yourself and your loved ones some money, worry, and trouble by making sure that all your final ducks are in a row, even if you’re relatively young and the end of your road still seems well out of sight.  Getting things like advance medical directives in place now rather than later is an inexpensive form of insurance against unpleasant surprises.

I invite you to share your ideas for peace-and-justice resolutions at skipmendler.wordpress.com.  In 2010, I wish you more music and less noise, more delight and less distress, more reasons for hope and less evidence for despair.  Cheers!

“RESOLVED: the USA is a Plutocracy”…?

Well, no one has yet offered any cogent arguments that the US is not a plutocracy … so maybe the next step introduce a simple Congressional Resolution that would explicitly recognize Plutocracy, not Democracy, as the de facto governing system of the United States.  Cut to the chase, stop the hypocrisy… I think the ensuing discussion could be very interesting and enlightening.  Would the American people oppose admitting the truth?  What do you think?

In the meantime, I’m gonna research the wording of Congressional resolutions, and see if I can come up with something that looks good… I’ll add language to this post when I do.

---

RESOLUTION.

WHEREAS, both the cost of federal campaigns and the political value of a seat in Congress have steadily spiraled upward in recent years; and

WHEREAS these circumstances necessitate the raising of increasingly large sums from special interests to finance electoral campaigns; and

WHEREAS this system requires that large donors be given special political access to lawmakers, and provided wideranging influence over federal budgets, earmarks, regulations, lawmaking and public policy in general; and

WHEREAS such a system is inherently undemocratic; and

WHEREAS it will be a cold day in Hell before we enact any meaningful reforms of the electoral system;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that this Congress acknowledges the obvious fact, that Plutocracy, not Democracy, should be considered the de facto governing principle of the United States of America.

“(Diggin’ Out Our) Winter Wonderland”

There’s a big storm a-comin’
Sales of shovels are hummin’
They say nine to ten
Oh no not again
We’ll be diggin’ out our winter wonderland

Gone for now are the snowbirds
Ten to twelve, that’s what I heard
The snowblower putts
As we’re freezin’ our butts
Diggin’ out our winter wonderland

(bridge)
In the morning I’ll dig out my driveway
Maybe I can get to work by 10
I’ll be happy when I’ve done my driveway
Until the snowplow fills it up again

Later on when we’re achin’
And the Advil we’re takin’
I’ll need a back rub
A soak in the hot tub
After diggin’ out our winter wonderland

(repeat bridge)

Later on when we’re achin’
We will plan our vacation
My town I won’t leave
But I could use a reprieve
From diggin’ out our winter wonderland

Well, there it is

Didja hear AEI’s Alex Pollock on NPR yesterday?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121433401

>>
SIEGEL: So, a banker comes out of the meeting with President Obama at the White House and goes back to his bank, to his executives and to his board. Can he say, Mr. Pollock, “this is – look, the president wants from us. I’ve got to do this. Remember, you know, what they did for us…”

{POLLOCK bursts out laughing)

SIEGEL: I think you’ve answered my question.
<<

Arrogant SOB, wouldn't you say?

A Dylan Carol

Bob Dylan, as you may have heard, recently did released an album of Christmas standards. Reviews have been, uh, mixed. Nonetheless, here’s a piece of what we might have expected instead….

I ain’t gonna work in Santa’s Workshop no more
I ain’t gonna work in Santa’s Workshop no more
They make me follow the rules like any other elf
Never get a chance to just be by myself
These pointy shoes they make my feet so sore
I ain’t gonna work in Santa’s Workshop no more

I ain’t gonna work for Mrs Claus no more
I ain’t gonna work for Mrs Claus no more
Well, yeah, she’s nice and yeah, she’s sweet
But she’s obsessive-compulsive when it comes to bein’ neat
She’ll make ya lick the crumbs off the workshop floor
I ain’t gonna work for Mrs Claus no more

I ain’t gonna work with Rudolph no more
I ain’t gonna work with Rudolph no more
His stall’s all decked out like a N’Orleans bordello
And although for all the stardom he’s a nice enough fellow
No one can sleep between the blinking and the snore
I ain’t gonna work with Rudolph no more

THE PEACE AND JUSTICE FILES: GETTING OUR AFFAIRS IN ORDER

Here’s my column for December:

In one of those interesting coincidences, my father’s death came a few hours after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, one of the events generally seen as marking the start of the so-called “financial meltdown” of 2008. So this year, between those events and the healthcare debate, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the financial system… and mortality. The two, I’ve come to realize, are deeply intertwined.

Consider the language of simplicity: in talking about creating more sustainable lifestyles, we frequently use phrases like “slowing down,” “cutting back” and “letting go” – and aren’t those phrases that we might use when speaking to an aged relative, or to someone who’s terminally ill?

It is the language of “getting our affairs in order” – in other words, of preparation for death.

No wonder the idea is having a hard time getting through to some people.

But it’s true: something really is dying, something that we are each parts of, and that forms a part of each of us. Our consumption-oriented culture is coming to the end of its natural life, as are the philosophies that fueled it. The good news is that there is something better waiting on the other side of the transition – but nonetheless, just as with our personal deaths, it’s understandably tough for us to accept the idea, much less to prepare accordingly.

In hospice and bereavement groups, we learn about the so-called “stages” of dealing with death identified by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross – denial, anger, bargaining, despair, and acceptance. The process is not strictly sequential, as it happens – we can pass from any one stage to any other, and may revisit each one repeatedly.

But there is yet another possible stage: serenity, even joy, if we can not only accept but embrace what is happening, understand it within its larger context, and look ahead to the future. The process can also be seen as one of healing, of completion and summation, of not just “passing on” per se but passing something of value on to those who will follow. Unburdening ourselves of what is not essential, rediscovering and reconnecting with what is truly essential, we find our spirits no longer encumbered.

We can look on this transition in another way, too. Twenty years ago, the peoples of Eastern Europe saw that their systems of governance and economics were no longer functional – and like flocks of birds that realize the time for migration has arrived, they moved. The time has come for us to move as well.

Not everyone wants to move, of course, or sees the need to move. We see the denial, the bargaining, the anger everywhere. We clutch at straws. We think we can squeeze a few more years’ energy out of the rocks, rather than moving to sustainable energy sources. We pretend that there will be no changes to our oceans and atmosphere, rather than contemplate how much we waste unnecessarily. We demand to keep what we have, rather than think about we will leave for others after we are gone.

Nevertheless, the diagnosis is in. It’s alright: you can let go now.

What to do with those wornout shoes

Just a reminder from the Bush Regime Memorial Society:

Don’t forget, December 14 is SHOE DAY – the anniversary of the famous George W. Bush shoe-throwing incident.  To commemorate the occasion, and re-emphasize our rejection of the Bush Regime’s policies, send your old/useless/wornout/decrepit shoes (sandals, flipflops, boots, whatever, dead footwear of all kinds) to

George W. Bush Foundation, PO Box 600610, Dallas TX 75206

or

George W. Bush Library, 1725 Lakepointe Drive, Lewisville, TX 75057

We recommend shipment by no later than December 10.

(If they’re still wearable, of course, donate ‘em to a local charity instead.)