I don't know what Jesus would do if he found himself here today, but I
know that he would be in a state of incredible confusion. He simply
would not understand a thing that was going on around him. I expect that
a person transported from our time back to Jesus's time and place just
might be able to function a little better than he could in our time and
place.
On 12/14/2017 11:52 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Something that makes me chuckle is the insistence by Gun Advocates
that our Second Amendment protects the Right of today's citizens to
bear arms. It would probably be a pitiful sight if those Founding
Fathers were seated in today's Philadelphia, and suddenly a street
brawl broke out with today's weaponry blazing away. Cops in riot gear
tossing Flash Bang grenades, pepper spray, tasers, while ducking out
of the way of heavy automatic fire coming back at them.
It's such a different world that there is no way of guessing what
impact our present world would have on them. I also smile at those
who say, "How would Jesus act if He were here today?" I say, "Jesus
would do about the same thing you would do if you suddenly found
yourself walking in His sandals back some 2,000 years ago". Unless I
were writing a fantasy Tale, like "A Connecticut Yankee in King
Arthur's Court", it would be pure silly Wool Gathering.
Yes, I am a citizen of the USA, born and bred. My family lines go way
back, prior to the Revolution. Some part of my ancestry even predates
the Invasion from across the Big Water. But I believe that to dream
is one method of beginning a movement. While my physical self is held
down by the laws of the Ruling Class, my mind is still my own. I do
not accept that we have to accept what is being proclaimed as our
Great Society. While I never was the sharpest knife in the drawer, I
am smart enough to both understand that this is the life I must live,
and at the same time to understand that if I merely accept this as my
standard, I will be leaving no hope for my children and grand children
and beyond. What I do or say today will be like spitting in the wind.
But in the minds of my children, and in what they pass on to their
children, will make a difference. If we survive as a Race, the world
of 2500 will be totally different than anything we can imagine today.
Just ask Jesus when He gets here again.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/13/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The author of the article is the editor of The Nation Magazine which would
never, not in a million lifetimes, accept your suggestion. The Nation
endorsed Bernie Sanders when no other journalistic enterprise did so.
Stephen F. Cohen, the husband of the writer and a Professor Emiritus of
Russian Studies, has been fighting the establishment consensus on Russia
since 2013 when the US began fomenting the Ukraine coup. Of course, The
Nation is not a monolith and there are some very obnoxious old Democratic
Neo Liberal Hillary supporters on its staff. And The Nation has been around
for 150 years. It is a very interesting publication with a very interesting
history.
I guess that what I really want to say is that this country that you're
living in is America and it isn't going to become Denmark or Sweden, let
alone Cuba or a true socialist Democracy, nor a socialist state, nor any of
the other beautiful fantasies in the minds of the Left Wing. We can dream;
we can work toward goals. But in the end, we have to work with the laws and
the political structure we've got.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2017 7:25 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Democrats Have a Chance To Revive The Party.
Will They Seize It?
My first and best advice to those dreamers who think it's possible to raise
up a dead Jackass, is to stop trying. Do the smart thing. Drop out of the
Democratic Party and join the Republican Party en mass.
Take it over. Reshape it and use all that corporate money before it gets
sucked back into the belly of the Dragon. With the Democrats gone and the
Republicans in disarray, building a new People's Party should be a done
deed.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/13/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Democrats Have a Chance To Revive The Party. Will They Seize It?
Published on
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
by
Washington Post
Democrats Have a Chance To Revive The Party. Will They Seize It?
Most are rallying around the bolder agenda articulated by Sanders,
including a $15 minimum wage, Medicare for All, a green New Deal,
balanced trade, getting money out of politics and more.
by
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton participate in the Univision News
and Washington Post Democratic presidential primary debate last year in
Miami.
(Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
President Trump's unpopularity masks a harsh reality: Across the
country, the Democratic Party is in its worst shape since the 1920s.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton won just 487 of more than 3,100 counties
nationwide. Can Democrats come back from the deep hole they are in?
The growing reaction to Trump's grotesqueries and the Republican-led
Congress' extremism is promising, but the Democratic Party won't
revive itself unless it changes. The good news is that - against
entrenched resistance - reformers are beginning to force the party to
open up. Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) 2016 campaign - and the
reaction to Trump's victory - unleashed new energy and roused new
activists.
Remarkably, instead of turning their backs on the party or giving up
on electoral politics in disgust, many have decided that it's time to
reform the Democratic Party from the bottom up and top down.
Last weekend, members of the party's Unity Reform Commission voted on
final recommendations for reforming the national party. The commission
is the creation of an agreement made by Sanders and Clinton at the
2016 national convention to help heal the deep wounds the primary had
left with Sanders supporters.
Not surprisingly, the Sanders delegates drove the reform agenda,
pushing to open the party up to new voters and new energy. The
resulting recommendations make important changes in three major areas.
First, they slash the number of superdelegates to the Democratic
National Convention - delegates who can vote for whomever they want -
by 60 percent, limiting them to sitting legislators, governors and
former presidents, vice presidents and DNC chairs. In addition, in
each of the 57 separate state parties (parties include territories and
Democrats abroad), activists will push to demand that the remaining
superdelegates be pledged to vote for their state's choice. In 2016,
superdelegates gave Clinton 30 percent of the votes needed for
nomination before the first caucus or primary. Going forward,
insurgent candidates such as Sanders will have a more level playing
field.
Second, the commission suggested changing the rules for caucuses to
open them up and make them more transparent. Sanders won nearly all
the caucuses, but his nominees pushed to open them up even further.
State parties holding caucuses will be required to allow same-day
voter and party registration and to offer absentee ballots, reducing
the disadvantage for workers with inflexible schedules.
The commission was not able to codify similar reforms for primaries,
as the state parties control those. However, the commission sent a
message with its strong objection to closed primaries like that of New
York, where independent voters must register as Democrats months
before the primary to be eligible to vote. (For the 2018 primaries, it
is already too late: The deadline fell on Oct. 13.) This system is
intentionally designed to disadvantage a candidate such as Sanders
capable of bringing new voters to the party. The commission urged
primary states to adhere to the same rules as those imposed on
caucuses, and called for penalties against state parties that do not
do so.
Third, the commission would curb the license of DNC insiders to spend
money on cronies and consultants without accountability. Jim Zogby,
who has been a voting member of the DNC for more than a decade, notes
that he had never seen a DNC budget. The commission recommends an
Ombudsmen Council to investigate conflicts of interest, and empowered
the Budget and Oversight Committee, with elected DNC members, to
review any expenditure exceeding
$100,000 to outside contractors or consultants. It required that
budget documents be made public to the committee and that meetings be
open to all DNC members. It also expressed clear disapproval of
consultants serving both the DNC and a Democratic candidate, as
exemplified by the law firm of Perkins Coie that somehow found no
conflict of interest in representing both Clinton's campaign and the
DNC during the Democratic nominating process.
The commission, of course, doesn't have the final say. Its
recommendations will eventually have to be approved by two-thirds of
the entire DNC. The DNC is where reforms go to die, particularly those
calling for curbing the privileges of DNC members. This time may be
different, however. A broad range of grass-roots groups pushing to
transform the Democratic Party has vowed to continue driving the
reforms. The first step is pressure on the existing DNC to approve the
commission's report.
Many bemoan the growing intra-party fights over direction, procedure
and candidates, but this new energy may well be the party's salvation.
Our Revolution - which grew out of the Sanders campaign - has more
than 500 chapters in 47 states, with a growing capacity to drive issue
campaigns while also pushing to take over Democratic Party committees
and recruiting and supporting candidates. Its president, the
charismatic Nina Turner, has pushed them to build infrastructure in
red states as well as blue. As John Nichols reports in the Nation, it
has made Texas its first formal affiliate.
There, old populists such as Jim Hightower are combining with young
activists to mobilize voters, drive a platform and run candidates,
even in areas Democrats have neglected for years.
Our Revolution isn't alone. The Working Families Party, People's
Action, MoveOn, Democrats for America and a spate of new organizations
such as Indivisible are recruiting and supporting candidates. Most are
rallying around the bolder agenda articulated by Sanders, including a
$15 minimum wage, Medicare for All, a green New Deal, balanced trade,
getting money out of politics and more.
As Trump continues to trample all bounds of decency and betray those
voters who supported his economic populism, and congressional
Republicans escalate their class war on working people, progressives
have every reason for despair. But as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
taught, it is always darkest before the dawn. And if the Unity Reform
Commission's ideas are codified, Democrats may begin to see the light.
C 2017 Washington Post
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Katrina vanden Heuvel is an American editor and publisher. She is the
editor, publisher, and part-owner of the magazine The Nation. She has
been the magazine's editor since 1995.
