dailykos--2020-10-21--A Strategy to Downsize Political Polarization

I am always amazed at how contemporary and relevant a passage of ancient literature can be in our present circumstances .
Even more stunning is the occasion in which an all-too-familiar passage of a religious tradition ’ s sacred literature brings new and unexpected lucidity to an otherwise opaque situation .
For me , this amazement was recently revived on a reading of the letter to the Christian group at Philippi , a congregation undergoing an appreciable degree of internal conflict because of opposition and persecution from their fellow citizens .
What prompts this observation about new insight from old @ @ @ @ @ @ @ economic , and political polarization that have been sweeping this country .
We have known for some time that the political spectrum is clustered more at the extremes of left and right .
As far back as 1996 , Sarah Binder at the Brookings Institute wrote about the disappearing political center .
Since then , our politics have become more extreme , our political context more turbulent and unpredictable , and our discourse about and regard for political opponents has become intolerant , illiberal , and cruel .
In a report published in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discovered that “ Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological lines – and partisan antipathy is deeper and more extensive – than at any point in the last two decades.
” These authors go on to note : Three years later , Pew researchers published another report , indicating that this divide between Republican and Democrats on politics and public policy issues is more extensive than the differences in demographics , religion , and education .
Indeed , the report observes : “ What is striking is how little common ground there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be sure , not all are agreed on why our politics are so polarized , or even on the extent to which they are functionally polarized .
Nonetheless , media outlets aside , even anecdotal evidence circulated by eye-witnesses to political events like town hall meetings , public demonstrations and marches , and other forms of policy issue-related activism suggest that political advocacy must now account for public pushback , confrontation , and even violence , all of which we have observed in recent months .
As we head toward the November election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ climb into full-blown political acrimony .
At practically every level of political activity , from local to state-wide and national elections , there is undoubtedly ample occasion for political dissonance and conflict , both inter-party and intra-party .
There are many opportunities to fall into and/or back away from political conversations with friends and neighbors , and these will be fraught with uneasiness and the potential for uncomfortable and strained discord .
These circumstances expose the degree to which we are ill-equipped to engage in contested conversations and how easily reasoned discussion devolves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s not like we don ’ t know there are differences of political opinion among us or that we want to be divisive in our discourse .
Like Oprah Winfrey ’ s conversation with a panel of Michigan voters about their views on President Trump , it is evident that there are some voters whose political consciousness is substantive and robust , and there are others whose knowledge of political ideology and issues of public policy is jejune .
Social scientists have been studying voters and their political knowledge and behavior @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1960 , Angus Campbell and Philip E. Converse and their colleagues published the findings of their research into national elections going all the way back to 1948 through 1956 under the title The American Voter ( University of Chicago Press , 1960 ) .
Then more recently , Michael S. Lewis-Beck and William G. Jacoby and their colleagues updated the Campbell/Converse work with a subsequent study of election and voter patterns published as The American Voter Revisited ( University of Michigan Press , 2008 ) .
These and other studies suggest that one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ % ) actually knows and understands what is both distinctive about their own political ideology and the policy options and proposals that emanate from and are governed by it ( Lewis-Beck , 279 ) .
Then roughly a third ( 30.20 % ) engage in politics and cast their vote largely because they are interested in utilizing policy and legislation for the benefit of the group with which they most meaningfully identify ; they are the voters who “ judge political phenomena according to the degree to which they provide rewards and benefits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to particular groups within American society ” ( Lewis-Beck , 267 ) .
Alongside this group are roughly one out of every four voters ( 28.93 % ) who “ judge political actors according to their coincidence with external environmental conditions ” ; a voter of this type “ favors one party and its candidates because good times and favorable conditions ensue when they take office and control the workings of government ” ( Lewis-Black , 272 ) .
These consider whether or not socioeconomic conditions are satisfactory and likely to improve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to vote .
Finally , there is a significant number of voters ( 16.34 % ) who can not give ideological , conceptual , functional , or policy-related reasons for voting for a particular candidate ; these voters “ did not employ any particular mental routines to organize their political thinking ” ( Lewis-Beck , 276 ) .
They are , quite literally , ignorant of policy issues and differences and are unable to distinguish ideologically between candidates of various political parties ; they are the naïve and uninformed voters who cast ballots @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cut of the candidate ’ s jib or the color of their hair or the rhythm of their rhetoric .
As an electorate and as a diverse nation of citizens and residents of all ages and backgrounds , in this era of coronavirus and Covid-19 , we are living , again , during a time of great upheaval when large numbers of people are struggling to endure in circumstances that produce anxiety and fearfulness .
The experience of isolation and estrangement from others , initiated in no small degree by the virus as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the struggle for political power , is engendering the formation of groups , organizations , and communities whose homogeneity is prized and expressed in contradistinction to “ opponents ” who are perceived as “ enemies ” to be overcome and eliminated .
What is missing in this tragic national situation is any sense of common ground and higher purpose .
We have always been a nation of individuals who pursued self-interests , but over the last few decades we have become so balkanized along social , economic , racial , religious , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no sense of what evoked and animated what George Washington called “ The Great Experiment ” that is the United States .
The erosion of mutual respect and trust , the absence of a national vision and sense of common purpose , the corruption of loyalty once directed to a cherished cause greater than ourselves , and the shameless allegiance to our own coteries and cabals have conspired to rob us of the conditions and motivations that seek the well-being of all .
There was a time when the words of our Declaration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , would have rung a resounding approval : The purpose of government , and the political processes that are constituted to empower and enact it , is to secure the right to life , liberty , and the pursuit of happiness—for all , and we have yet to achieve this !
But neither the failure to secure these rights for all nor the periodic alteration of the manner in which our government is enacted releases the citizenry as a whole from continuing to seek to establish the socioeconomic conditions requisite for all to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And this brings us to the first-century church at Philippi , a congregation so racked with internal conflict and external opposition that its capacity to stand fast and uniformly engage in advocacy for its fundamental vision and distinctive purpose was effectively compromised and curtailed .
The apostle Paul , author of the letter to the Philippians , writes that it is his desire to “ know that you are standing firm in one spirit , striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel , and are in no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Phil .
2:27-28 ) .
The fact that the congregation at Philippi was suffering from the struggle with outside opposition is not a surprise .
The Christian scriptures are replete with accounts of social and religious conflict .
What is noteworthy here , in this particular situation , is that Paul discerned that the members of the congregation were fighting amongst themselves , having divided into factions along the lines of religious and cultural boundary markers like ethnicity , social status , gender , and perhaps even spirituality .
Exhorting a congregation to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ side by side with one mind is illogical and useless unless the readers are failing to enact just those behaviors .
Moreover , it is Paul ’ s concern that their internal conflict , volatile and unforgiving as it is , is only denigrating their sacred purpose for coming together and undermining their commitment to enact the manner of life that honorably reflects the One whom they claim to serve .
What is to be done ?
What is the corrective ?
For Paul , the answer draws on his firm conviction that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way of life , and practice stood as the model of life together in community .
From this one life , Paul lifts up love and humility as the corrective .
He writes : The corrective to selfish ambition and conceit ( i.e.
, the belief that one ’ s self and one ’ s viewpoint are preeminent and that one ’ s ideology and strategy are alone the true and correct ones ) is the choice in humility and love to seek the well-being of one ’ s opponent , to encircle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and purpose not only greater than one ’ s own but more universal in its scope and promise .
The corrective , as startling as it is stunning , is to abdicate entrenched self-interests , advantages , and privileges , and embed oneself with others in the pursuit of what is good and just and right and true for all , not merely some ; it is a commitment to the unequivocal pursuit of the common good .
These are hard times , and unlike other periods of our nation ’ s history @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we have yet to see fully the emergence of better and truer selves who can serve as catalysts for conciliation .
We do well to be reminded of what President Lincoln said in his first inaugural address : And yet , remarkably , there are among us , as though by stealth , conspirators and better angels who are committed to realizing conciliation and cooperation .
In these times , as we endeavor to move forward in our respective journeys , people of faith can pause and focus , even if only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the power of indestructible life , and Loves with an all-embracing love .
This One summons us to enact love and mercy , justice and grace , in all our comings and goings and doings , and that means in the political arenas where we claim to be pursuing what is just for all .
As Wendell Berry confessed in The Art of the Commonplace : And , I might add , with one another !

I am always amazed at how contemporary and relevant a passage of ancient literature can be in our present circumstances. Even more stunning is the occasion in which an all-too-familiar passage of a religious tradition’s sacred literature brings new and unexpected lucidity to an otherwise opaque situation. For me, this amazement was recently revived on a reading of the letter to the Christian group at Philippi, a congregation undergoing an appreciable degree of internal conflict because of opposition and persecution from their fellow citizens.
What prompts this observation about new insight from old literature are the waves of social, economic, and political polarization that have been sweeping this country. We have known for some time that the political spectrum is clustered more at the extremes of left and right. As far back as 1996, Sarah Binder at the Brookings Institute wrote about the disappearing political center. Since then, our politics have become more extreme, our political context more turbulent and unpredictable, and our discourse about and regard for political opponents has become intolerant, illiberal, and cruel.
In a report published in 2014, researchers at Pew Research Center discovered that “Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological lines – and partisan antipathy is deeper and more extensive – than at any point in the last two decades.” These authors go on to note:
The overall share of Americans who express consistently conservative or consistently liberal opinions has doubled over the past two decades from 10% to 21%. And ideological thinking is now much more closely aligned with partisanship than in the past. As a result, ideological overlap between the two parties has diminished: Today, 92% of Republicans are to the right of the median Democrat, and 94% of Democrats are to the left of the median Republican.
Three years later, Pew researchers published another report, indicating that this divide between Republican and Democrats on politics and public policy issues is more extensive than the differences in demographics, religion, and education. Indeed, the report observes: “What is striking is how little common ground there is among partisans today.”
Now to be sure, not all are agreed on why our politics are so polarized, or even on the extent to which they are functionally polarized. Nonetheless, media outlets aside, even anecdotal evidence circulated by eye-witnesses to political events like town hall meetings, public demonstrations and marches, and other forms of policy issue-related activism suggest that political advocacy must now account for public pushback, confrontation, and even violence, all of which we have observed in recent months.
As we head toward the November election, we find ourselves again in the climb into full-blown political acrimony. At practically every level of political activity, from local to state-wide and national elections, there is undoubtedly ample occasion for political dissonance and conflict, both inter-party and intra-party. There are many opportunities to fall into and/or back away from political conversations with friends and neighbors, and these will be fraught with uneasiness and the potential for uncomfortable and strained discord. These circumstances expose the degree to which we are ill-equipped to engage in contested conversations and how easily reasoned discussion devolves into ardent pronunciations of political sentiment.
It’s not like we don’t know there are differences of political opinion among us or that we want to be divisive in our discourse. Like Oprah Winfrey’s conversation with a panel of Michigan voters about their views on President Trump, it is evident that there are some voters whose political consciousness is substantive and robust, and there are others whose knowledge of political ideology and issues of public policy is jejune.
Social scientists have been studying voters and their political knowledge and behavior for decades. As far back as 1960, Angus Campbell and Philip E. Converse and their colleagues published the findings of their research into national elections going all the way back to 1948 through 1956 under the title The American Voter (University of Chicago Press, 1960). Then more recently, Michael S. Lewis-Beck and William G. Jacoby and their colleagues updated the Campbell/Converse work with a subsequent study of election and voter patterns published as The American Voter Revisited (University of Michigan Press, 2008).
These and other studies suggest that one out of every four voters (24.53%) actually knows and understands what is both distinctive about their own political ideology and the policy options and proposals that emanate from and are governed by it (Lewis-Beck, 279).
Then roughly a third (30.20%) engage in politics and cast their vote largely because they are interested in utilizing policy and legislation for the benefit of the group with which they most meaningfully identify; they are the voters who “judge political phenomena according to the degree to which they provide rewards and benefits, as opposed to penalties and disadvantages, to particular groups within American society” (Lewis-Beck, 267).
Alongside this group are roughly one out of every four voters (28.93%) who “judge political actors according to their coincidence with external environmental conditions”; a voter of this type “favors one party and its candidates because good times and favorable conditions ensue when they take office and control the workings of government” (Lewis-Black, 272). These consider whether or not socioeconomic conditions are satisfactory and likely to improve when it comes time to consider how to vote.
Finally, there is a significant number of voters (16.34%) who cannot give ideological, conceptual, functional, or policy-related reasons for voting for a particular candidate; these voters “did not employ any particular mental routines to organize their political thinking” (Lewis-Beck, 276). They are, quite literally, ignorant of policy issues and differences and are unable to distinguish ideologically between candidates of various political parties; they are the naïve and uninformed voters who cast ballots for a candidate because they like the cut of the candidate’s jib or the color of their hair or the rhythm of their rhetoric.
As an electorate and as a diverse nation of citizens and residents of all ages and backgrounds, in this era of coronavirus and Covid-19, we are living, again, during a time of great upheaval when large numbers of people are struggling to endure in circumstances that produce anxiety and fearfulness. The experience of isolation and estrangement from others, initiated in no small degree by the virus as well as the encroachment of partisanship and the struggle for political power, is engendering the formation of groups, organizations, and communities whose homogeneity is prized and expressed in contradistinction to “opponents” who are perceived as “enemies” to be overcome and eliminated.
What is missing in this tragic national situation is any sense of common ground and higher purpose. We have always been a nation of individuals who pursued self-interests, but over the last few decades we have become so balkanized along social, economic, racial, religious, and political lines that we have little or no sense of what evoked and animated what George Washington called “The Great Experiment” that is the United States. The erosion of mutual respect and trust, the absence of a national vision and sense of common purpose, the corruption of loyalty once directed to a cherished cause greater than ourselves, and the shameless allegiance to our own coteries and cabals have conspired to rob us of the conditions and motivations that seek the well-being of all. There was a time when the words of our Declaration of Independence, penned by Thomas Jefferson, would have rung a resounding approval:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
The purpose of government, and the political processes that are constituted to empower and enact it, is to secure the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—for all, and we have yet to achieve this! But neither the failure to secure these rights for all nor the periodic alteration of the manner in which our government is enacted releases the citizenry as a whole from continuing to seek to establish the socioeconomic conditions requisite for all to thrive and realize their own potential.
And this brings us to the first-century church at Philippi, a congregation so racked with internal conflict and external opposition that its capacity to stand fast and uniformly engage in advocacy for its fundamental vision and distinctive purpose was effectively compromised and curtailed. The apostle Paul, author of the letter to the Philippians, writes that it is his desire to “know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, and are in no way intimidated by your opponents.” (Phil. 2:27-28).
The fact that the congregation at Philippi was suffering from the struggle with outside opposition is not a surprise. The Christian scriptures are replete with accounts of social and religious conflict. What is noteworthy here, in this particular situation, is that Paul discerned that the members of the congregation were fighting amongst themselves, having divided into factions along the lines of religious and cultural boundary markers like ethnicity, social status, gender, and perhaps even spirituality. Exhorting a congregation to stand firm in one spirit and strive side by side with one mind is illogical and useless unless the readers are failing to enact just those behaviors.
Moreover, it is Paul’s concern that their internal conflict, volatile and unforgiving as it is, is only denigrating their sacred purpose for coming together and undermining their commitment to enact the manner of life that honorably reflects the One whom they claim to serve.
What is to be done? What is the corrective? For Paul, the answer draws on his firm conviction that there is One whose very being, way of life, and practice stood as the model of life together in community. From this one life, Paul lifts up love and humility as the corrective. He writes:
… be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others (Phil. 2:2-4).
The corrective to selfish ambition and conceit (i.e., the belief that one’s self and one’s viewpoint are preeminent and that one’s ideology and strategy are alone the true and correct ones) is the choice in humility and love to seek the well-being of one’s opponent, to encircle them with inclusion in a shared vision and purpose not only greater than one’s own but more universal in its scope and promise. The corrective, as startling as it is stunning, is to abdicate entrenched self-interests, advantages, and privileges, and embed oneself with others in the pursuit of what is good and just and right and true for all, not merely some; it is a commitment to the unequivocal pursuit of the common good.
These are hard times, and unlike other periods of our nation’s history when our people have endured hard times, we have yet to see fully the emergence of better and truer selves who can serve as catalysts for conciliation. We do well to be reminded of what President Lincoln said in his first inaugural address:
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
And yet, remarkably, there are among us, as though by stealth, conspirators and better angels who are committed to realizing conciliation and cooperation. In these times, as we endeavor to move forward in our respective journeys, people of faith can pause and focus, even if only momentarily, on the One Who Lives in the power of indestructible life, and Loves with an all-embracing love. This One summons us to enact love and mercy, justice and grace, in all our comings and goings and doings, and that means in the political arenas where we claim to be pursuing what is just for all. As Wendell Berry confessed in The Art of the Commonplace:
I take literally the statement in the Gospel of John that God loves the world. I believe that the world was created and approved by love, that it subsists, coheres, and endures by love, and that, insofar as it is redeemable, it can be redeemed only by love. I believe that divine love, incarnate and indwelling in the world, summons the world always toward wholeness, which ultimately is reconciliation and atonement with God (146).
And, I might add, with one another!


dailykos--2020-10-22--A funny thing happened when I went for some clickbait...

It was one of those things with a clickbait babe photo and a catchy headline : 25 States Where Americans Do n't Want To Live Anymore I always like to see where my state ranks , so I clicked .
It was put together by Esther Trattner , a freelance contributor to MoneyWise .
Clicking my way through and ignoring the ads , I started to notice a pattern .
The number one reason people move out of a state is jobs — there aren ’ t any or the pay sucks , or the cost of living is higher @ @ @ @ @ @ @ getting some mention is that some of the states were not so great for retirement , followed by terrible climate , taxes , etc .
There were hints in the text that the results this year were different from last year ’ s version of this article .
The reason I picked the graphic at the top of this post just might be that red line on the plot… Trattner did a related story back in August , on the 20 cities people are fleeing .
The top three reasons are summed up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election , I ’ d guess it might be a good idea to have a plan to get people good jobs with good pay , communities they could afford to live in , and a secure retirement , with maybe a dash of tax reform towards more progressive ends .
What do you think ?

It was one of those things with a clickbait babe photo and a catchy headline:
25 States Where Americans Don't Want To Live Anymore
Note: this was the original graphic in the click bait ad. It’s not the one on the article now the last time I checked. Funny how that works...
I always like to see where my state ranks, so I clicked. It was put together by Esther Trattner, a freelance contributor to MoneyWise. Clicking my way through and ignoring the ads, I started to notice a pattern.
The number one reason people move out of a state is jobs — there aren’t any or the pay sucks, or the cost of living is higher than local wages can support. Also getting some mention is that some of the states were not so great for retirement, followed by terrible climate, taxes, etc.
There were hints in the text that the results this year were different from last year’s version of this article. The reason I picked the graphic at the top of this post just might be that red line on the plot…
Trattner did a related story back in August, on the 20 cities people are fleeing. The top three reasons are summed up as:
As many of the largest metro areas in the U.S. become too expensive, homeowners and potential homebuyers are ready to go elsewhere for lower taxes, good jobs and affordable homes.
There’s that pattern again.
If I were running for election, I’d guess it might be a good idea to have a plan to get people good jobs with good pay, communities they could afford to live in, and a secure retirement, with maybe a dash of tax reform towards more progressive ends.
What do you think?


dailykos--2020-10-23--IAN: October 23, Time for a Digital Guy Fawkes Plot

Happy Friday !
This week ’ s diary brought to you by my daughter , Bit .
She would like your opinions on this before she brings this to other forms of social media .
As you can see by Itzl 's concerned look , this group is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive , doing OK , and not affected by such things as heat , blizzards , floods , wild fires , hurricanes , tornadoes , power outages , or other such things that could keep us off DKos .
If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ else on DKos , and there are adverse conditions in your area ( floods , heatwaves , hurricanes , etc . )
, we are going to check up on you .
If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week , let us know here .
We care !
IAN is a great group to join , and a good place to learn to write diaries .
Drop one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime !
We all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group !
Every member is an editor , so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say , photos and music to share , a cause to promote or news !
The fifth of November , I know of no reason Should ever be forgot !
To blow the King and Parliament But , by God 's providence , him they catch , … ” Habing , B .
( 2006 , November 3 ) .
The Fifth of November @ @ @ @ @ @ @ http : //www.potw.org/archive/potw405.html Some of you may have watched a movie titled “ V for Vendetta ” .
And I know that most of you probably know what Guy Fawkes day is .
However , for those of you who do not , I will briefly summarize both .
Guy Fawkes was a Catholic man alive during the rule of King James I .
He started helping with a plot in 1604 to take down the unfair government , and they spent an entire year collecting gunpowder and barrels to blow up parliament @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nearly all the conspirators were captured .
To this day , the fifth of November is still celebrated .
V for Vendetta was filmed in 2005 based on Vertigo comics by the same name .
Our anti hero , V , seeks to replicate the plot of Guy Fawkes and his conspirators .
However , this time , he plans to succeed .
Here is a quick trailer , and I highly suggest the movie if you have not watched it .
Trigger warning however , there are explosions and blood , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wake of many very important elections , many conflicting views , Covid making life ever more difficult , and a lot of people being at a loss of what to do , I have come up with a plot of my own .
One that all sides of the political spectrum can take part in .
One that everyone with internet access can do from the comfort of their own bed .
And it is all inspired by this historical event .
On the fifth of November , I put forth the plot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and current societal issues ( such as climate change , covid , etc . )
in the United States .
On the fifth , I suggest we celebrate a digital Guy Fawkes style day and “ blow up ” the social media of government officials ( because blowing up government buildings is illegal , and I don ’ t want to be hanged , drawn , and quartered ) .
Write down complaints you may have or ideas for solutions and tag local , state , and federal politicians on social media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the correct politicians who have a say in the matters that are important to you .
Spam different politicians throughout the day with different complaints and ideas .
Use this day to educate yourself and your family on things you find important .
Also take this time to sign some petitions , and make phone calls to local government branches if you want .
All of this can work for other countries as well , especially the U.K as they are the country that started this all .
And remember to light a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t very covid safe .
Just because the election will be over , doesn ’ t mean the fight is done .
We still have a lot of work to do .
If you wo n't give me one , The better for me , And the worse for you .
A penn'orth of cheese to choke him , A pint of beer to wash it down , And a jolly good fire to burn him .
Habing , B .
( 2006 , November 3 ) .
The Fifth of November - @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : //www.potw.org/archive/potw405.html

Happy Friday! This week’s diary brought to you by my daughter, Bit. She would like your opinions on this before she brings this to other forms of social media.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
Monday Crimson Quillfeather
Tuesday ejoanna
Wednesday Pam from Calif
Thursday art ah zen
Friday FloridaSNMOM
Saturday FloridaSNDad
Sunday loggersbrat
“Remember, remember!
The fifth of November,
The Gunpowder treason and plot;
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!
Guy Fawkes and his companions
Did the scheme contrive,
To blow the King and Parliament
All up alive.
Threescore barrels, laid below,
To prove old England's overthrow.
But, by God's providence, him they catch,
With a dark lantern, lighting a match!
…” Habing, B. (2006, November 3). The Fifth of November - English Folk Verse. Retrieved from http://www.potw.org/archive/potw405.html
Some of you may have watched a movie titled “V for Vendetta”. And I know that most of you probably know what Guy Fawkes day is. However, for those of you who do not, I will briefly summarize both.
Guy Fawkes was a Catholic man alive during the rule of King James I. He started helping with a plot in 1604 to take down the unfair government, and they spent an entire year collecting gunpowder and barrels to blow up parliament. However, the plot failed and nearly all the conspirators were captured. To this day, the fifth of November is still celebrated.
V for Vendetta was filmed in 2005 based on Vertigo comics by the same name. Our anti hero, V, seeks to replicate the plot of Guy Fawkes and his conspirators. However, this time, he plans to succeed. Here is a quick trailer, and I highly suggest the movie if you have not watched it.
Trigger warning however, there are explosions and blood, and a attempted rape scene.
In the wake of many very important elections, many conflicting views, Covid making life ever more difficult, and a lot of people being at a loss of what to do, I have come up with a plot of my own. One that all sides of the political spectrum can take part in. One that everyone with internet access can do from the comfort of their own bed. And it is all inspired by this historical event.
On the fifth of November, I put forth the plot to help find solutions to the corruption, and current societal issues (such as climate change, covid, etc.) in the United States. On the fifth, I suggest we celebrate a digital Guy Fawkes style day and “blow up” the social media of government officials (because blowing up government buildings is illegal, and I don’t want to be hanged, drawn, and quartered).
Write down complaints you may have or ideas for solutions and tag local, state, and federal politicians on social media. Make sure they are targeted at the correct politicians who have a say in the matters that are important to you. Spam different politicians throughout the day with different complaints and ideas. Use this day to educate yourself and your family on things you find important.
Also take this time to sign some petitions, and make phone calls to local government branches if you want. All of this can work for other countries as well, especially the U.K as they are the country that started this all. And remember to light a candle, since bonfire parties aren’t very covid safe.
Just because the election will be over, doesn’t mean the fight is done.
We still have a lot of work to do.
“...
A stick and a stake
For King James's sake!
If you won't give me one,
I'll take two,
The better for me,
And the worse for you.
A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope,
A penn'orth of cheese to choke him,
A pint of beer to wash it down,
And a jolly good fire to burn him.
Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring!
Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King!
Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!”
Habing, B. (2006, November 3). The Fifth of November - English Folk Verse. Retrieved from http://www.potw.org/archive/potw405.html
Poem by John Milton.


dailykos--2020-10-24--Countering Attacks On Biden's Energy and Climate Policies

I ’ ve been pleasantly surprised that various Trump lines of attack on the Biden campaign haven ’ t appeared to get the traction that I feared , and in particular the “ law and order ” themes .
At the conclusion of the last debate Biden , in response to a fairly innocuous but penetrating question on environmental justice , appeared briefly to call for ending the oil industry , before immediately walking this back to eliminating subsidies for fossil fuels and transitioning to clean energy .
Predictably , Trump and his allies have seized on this and are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ committed to destroying the suburban way of life and to torpedoing the economy , a false charge that may get traction especially in energy-producing states such as Pennsylvania , Texas , and New Mexico .
Here ’ s my concern , which goes beyond being damage control to a political “ gaffe ” and more of an appeal about messaging for Biden supporters .
During the third debate in 2016 Hillary Clinton delivered a full-throated defense of many progressive elements of the Democratic platform , abortion rights in particular .
Based on my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voters of all political stripes these commitments were “ heard ” much more by GOP voters than by Democrats , and in particular by progressive Democrats , which helped galvanize the GOP base .
As Ed Markey showed in Massachusetts there is now a substantial political constituency , especially among young people , who strongly support the energy and climate change policies that Biden is actually calling for , and who understand that support for renewables and a stronger economy go hand in hand .
I am reiterating that point in my final @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me about this moment in the debate , and pointing out more generally the numerous studies ( Moody ’ s , others ) that conclude that Biden ’ s policies , both on energy and in general , are likely to provide the economy with a bigger shot in the arm than Trump ’ s .
We know that the supporters of fossil fuels and their allies will double down on this point ; we need to tap into the countervailing response that is close at hand .

I’ve been pleasantly surprised that various Trump lines of attack on the Biden campaign haven’t appeared to get the traction that I feared, and in particular the “law and order” themes.
At the conclusion of the last debate Biden, in response to a fairly innocuous but penetrating question on environmental justice, appeared briefly to call for ending the oil industry, before immediately walking this back to eliminating subsidies for fossil fuels and transitioning to clean energy.
Predictably, Trump and his allies have seized on this and are distorting it to suggest that Biden is committed to destroying the suburban way of life and to torpedoing the economy, a false charge that may get traction especially in energy-producing states such as Pennsylvania, Texas, and New Mexico.
Here’s my concern, which goes beyond being damage control to a political “gaffe” and more of an appeal about messaging for Biden supporters. During the third debate in 2016 Hillary Clinton delivered a full-throated defense of many progressive elements of the Democratic platform, abortion rights in particular.
Based on my canvassing of Democratic voters and talks with voters of all political stripes these commitments were “heard” much more by GOP voters than by Democrats, and in particular by progressive Democrats, which helped galvanize the GOP base.
As Ed Markey showed in Massachusetts there is now a substantial political constituency, especially among young people, who strongly support the energy and climate change policies that Biden is actually calling for, and who understand that support for renewables and a stronger economy go hand in hand.
I am reiterating that point in my final outreach, as several people have asked me about this moment in the debate, and pointing out more generally the numerous studies (Moody’s, others) that conclude that Biden’s policies, both on energy and in general, are likely to provide the economy with a bigger shot in the arm than Trump’s. We know that the supporters of fossil fuels and their allies will double down on this point; we need to tap into the countervailing response that is close at hand.


dailykos--2020-10-24--CHAPTER 4 OF "PASSIONATE INTENSITY"

CHAPTER 4 OF "PASSIONATE INTENSITY"

Looks like I ’ m only managing a new chapter every week .
Okay .
Sorry .
I ’ ll keep it coming though .
It aint like all our problems will be over even if we kick rump ’ s snaggly boody into the South China Sea .
By the way , now you can log on to this serial novel by googling Passionate Intensity .
JUST SOME RICH GUY IN NEW YORK It was nearly six o'clock in the evening when Bilaly left Bragaldi 's place , through the back door .
He had waited around the block @ @ @ @ @ @ @ table and reading his paperback of Two Gentlemen of Verona until the commissioner and the chief of police left .
He preferred to read his Shakespeare in his gorgeous Rockwell Kent illustrated edition , with the wonderful preface by Christopher Morley , but it was too heavy to carry around with him , so he had bought a bunch of the used paperbacks .
There were always used paperbacks for Shakespearean plays .
If nothing else , all the students at GWU had to have one or another of them for at least @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the class was over , back they went straight back to the bookstore .
For probably less than a dime on a dollar .
Sure , it was better to have a quarter than a play by Shakespeare .
The world was full of privileged morons .
When the honchos left , he returned to the scene and conferred with the security team .
They had used the MOSAIC threat prediction software perfected by Gavin de Becker .
Bilaly knew the system , and it was a good one .
It was mostly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to recognize common-sense signals when you saw them .
It had n't helped them this time though .
They had n't been able to tell him much .
The death seemed pretty clearly political , but Anticrats did n't go in much for death threats .
That was mostly Demagogs .
Maybe the Anticrats did n't threaten .
But did that mean they would never kill ?
He himself would never threaten an enemy .
Why warn your opponent ?
The first thing an enemy would know about his feelings was when he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him down hard .
Threats were just a way for cowards to avoid a fight .
Somebody should tell Pludd .
He knew the members of the security team felt the same way he did about the death .
They had a hard time believing Bragaldi would have committed suicide .
There was plenty of evidence .
The suicide note was short and and to his mind sweet , and it did n't talk about remorse .
It said , “ I 'm a shithead and I deserve to die.
” “ You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ second of life , ” one of the security team said .
“ You 'll do anything they tell you to.
” She was right .
Up until it happened , most people thought they had a chance .
A big tough guy like Bragaldi , he probably thought he could take his killer 's gun away .
Or at least grapple for it .
There was dried blood on the note , which still lay on the desk where it had been written .
Bragaldi had probably just finished signing it .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ thinking the killer 's guard might be down at that moment .
The chair had been knocked over when he fell .
That was another point .
Why stand up to shoot himself ?
“ He did n't put the gun in his mouth , ” the security agent said .
“ The entry wound is in the forehead.
” Bilaly knew what she meant .
Most head-shot suicides would put the gun in the mouth or under the chin .
Fast and sure .
Almost nobody shoots himself in the front of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whole , did n't shoot themselves at all .
They preferred pills or poison .
Sometimes hanging . )
The killer—Bilaly noticed he was already assuming it was murder , not suicide—had taken no chances .
No dallying around .
He shot Bragaldi as soon as the man stood up .
There would be three slugs .
One for the kill shot , one for the furrow in the cheek , which would have been the killer convincing Bragaldi he meant business .
Another to deposit GSR on Bragaldi 's wrist and sleeve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the cheek was n't just another failed attempt , though .
Hesitation jerk .
If he was going to commit suicide , this jerk would n't have hesitated .
Bilaly decided he might as well go home , clean up , have supper , get a good night 's sleep .
Maybe something would come to him in his dreams .
Marsha was there when he got in , sitting on the sofa , reading the evening edition .
She was a newspaper junkie .
Read them from end to end , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He found found her habit refreshing in this age of computers and clickbait , though he himself was pretty much a computer jockey .
Nowadays he solved as many crimes using the computer as he did using his feet .
Most people used the computer but had no idea what kind of trails they were leaving .
They were like the criminals who still hadn ’ t known about fingerprint evidence when the cops were already using it .
Bilaly even had his own website .
Interestingly enough , most of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but mystery writers .
He had seen , in this or that mystery or crime novel , points he had made on the website .
The writers were using him to make themselves seem knowledgeable .
He did n't mind .
The more good sense there was out there , the better .
You could think of Marsha 's love of newspapers as old-style as rather refreshing in an age of mindless computer blabber .
So it was old-style .
He did n't mind that either .
The New York Times was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her .
She had already finished it .
He wondered if she was spending the night .
They both knew it was n't love .
But they both wanted company , and they liked each other .
Bilaly and Andrea had never had children .
His closest remaining relatives were cousins , and far away in Mississippi anyhow .
Except for Maggie , with the NYPD .
Sometimes he flattered himself she was following in his footsteps .
But he knew better .
They were amiable , but they did n't know each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ following his lead , it was from quite a distance .
Nobody was left who really cared .
Andrea would have understood Marsha , but Bilaly did n't waste time on that sort of self-imposed guilty anyway .
He had loved her immeasurably .
Now she was gone .
He had to keep living .
It was pretty much the same way with Marsha .
Nobody else was ever going to replace Kenny for her .
But she and Bill could eat together , watch tv together , have an actual relaxed conversation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bed warm .
She waved hi , but did n't look up from her paper .
There was a glass of red wine on the coffee table in front of her .
So she was staying .
Bilaly got himself a glass of the red , fetched the Rockwell Kent from the bookshelf of his spare living/dining room .
Which was pretty much entirely furnished by the sofa , lamps , a couple of chairs , the wall of bookshelves .
There was a healthy-sized kitchen , bedroom , a bathroom with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The Kent was a big book , the size of a building block and almost as heavy .
But damn , the illustrations were good .
And he loved theMorley intro .
He re-read it every time he read a play .
Made him feel like a great person for having the verve and intelligence to enjoy Shakespeare .
But how could you not like the man ?
Whatever it was , Shakespeare said it first and said it better .
Never mind you had to get used to the way people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ talked when they wrote about them , at least .
He finished Two Gentlemen of Verona , made a loud disapproving snort , and slammed the book shut .
“ The matter ?
” Marsha said , finished with her paper .
“ Ah , shit .
I hate this play .
Nonstop yuks .
Like all they had to do all day long was trade ridiculous sallies of supposing wit.
” “ Well , why do read it , then ?
Surely you 've read it before.
” She knew all about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I do n't know .
I was just trying to get the taste of the history plays out of my mouth .
The Henry plays , anyway.
” “ I thought HenryV was supposed to be pretty good.
” Marsha was no dummy .
Of course not .
He had no use for dummies .
“ Yeah , I guess it is .
But it 's just— Hal is great , yeah , I guess he is , but I get so sick and tired of all that patriotic yap , all these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on about how 't is better to die than faithless be , and then yappity-yap , they change sides and they start yapping the very same shit in the other direction .
Could n't any of those clowns hear themselves ?
The whole story of the kings of England is just one murder after another , just a bunch of high-assed yahoos talking big talk while they kill each other trying to take over the crown.
” “ In other words , just like modern politics .
Admit it , you 're just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like that.
” “ Yeah , ” he said .
“ Yeah , I am .
Nobody does that .
Nobody plays the dissolute and lovable crook that well , then turns out to be a responsible citizen and a good king .
It comes across as snootiness . '
I 'm better than all this , ' Hal says . '
I can indulge in it because I am inherently superior .
When I turn to my better side , I will drop the act , and people love me even more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . '
Nobody with genuine empathy could be so cold .
Nobody but a psychopath.
” He knew the scholars and critics would disagree .
It was a Shakespeare play , and therefore by definition great .
Well , he was n't a critic .
He was a reader .
The solution seemed obvious to Marsha .
“ Well , why do n't you read something by Shakespeare that you like ?
” “ Ahhh.
” He could explain , he was going to read something he liked .
He was reading them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them all , you have to read them all .
You ca n't just wallow in your favorites .
No , maybe he could n't explain .
He woke up early , six o'clock or so .
Marsha was n't in the bed .
There was a light on in the living room .
He came out in his pajamas , to find her reading the morning paper already .
“ There 's coffee in the kitchen , ” she said .
“ Some of that fresh-ground Kenyan .
I 'll make us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not hungry yet .
Coffee 's fine .
Anything worth reading in the paper ?
” he said , idly , passing into the kitchen , just being friendly .
“ Nothing much , ” she said as he came back out with a cup .
“ Some rich guy in New York is dead .
Jumped out of his office window.
” “ Huh.
” He had visions of 1929 , though that had been well before his time , cartoon bankers leaping out of high windows on Wall Street .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Anything anyone can pin on Moran T. Pludd ?
” He sat down beside her .
“ Nooo , ” she said , studying the obituaries .
“ Who cares why the super-rich do what they do , anyway ?
Now this is strange.
” He took a sip of the coffee .
Dark , with just a quarter teaspoon of cream .
It was good .
A good way to start the day .
“ What ?
” he said .
“ Were n't you telling me about that Supreme Court guy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ here his doctor committed suicide last night too .
Doctor Hiram Weatherstone .
Mentions all his high-toned clients .
One of those weird coincidences , I guess .
Pancreatic cancer , it says .
86 .
He was 86 .
Overdose of morphine .
Well , he would have had access .
Ca n't say I blame him .
That 's the way I would have done it.
” Bilaly felt like a bomb had gone off in his head .
Something had changed .
Something important had changed , but he did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her paper and gave him a look .
“ What 's wrong ?
I 've always heard about people looking like they saw a ghost .
Was he your doctor too ?
That would be just too too weird.
” If there was any fault Bilaly found in Marsha , it was that she was too chatty sometimes .
Not when she was reading her paper , you did n't want to disturb her then .
The rest of the time .
It was the week-end , and they were in the habit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or any of the plethora of museums in the capitol , or else heading into the countryside for a walk or a picnic .
Ending the day with dinner at one of the plethora of fine restaurants in the capitol .
A lot of politicians went to those restaurants , but what could you do about that ?
Psychopaths like good eating as much as anybody .
“ Something has come up , ” he said .
“ I have a really busy day today , ” he said .
“ I 'm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you company today.
” After she left , the irritation plain in her expression , he faced facts .
There was no way around it , he had gotten rid of her so he could think .
She would have understood his being busy .
What she was irritated with was his refusal to explain why he wanted her gone .
What was worse , he had been in too much of hurry to be polite .
Would she let it go , or was this going to mess with their friendship ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that she was gone , now that he was free to think , all he could think about was how nothing made sense .
It could not , it absolutely could not be a coincidence .
Co-incidences do n't work that way .
The two suicides .
Something connected them .
Something not even remotely obvious .
But no way was this an accident .
But how were they connected ?
He had no answers , but for the first time he saw an angle .
What he would have meant by angle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an easy way in .
In fact he had no idea how to get “ in , ” or what he would find when he got “ in.
” But for the first time he was certain there was something about these events that did not bear close examination .
They were not what they seemed to be , could not be .
That meant they were worth his study indeed .
He had to be clever , very clever .
He could not miss a trick .
The suicide of an elderly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his own oncoming death ( and its likely torments ) from cancer .
That made sense .
The suicide of a man who never felt guilty about anything .
That did not make sense , but there had been no angle .
Now there was an angle , a connection .
He went on-line to see what he could find out about the doctor .
Highly respected blah blah blah blah , some of the most powerful actors in Washington among his clientele blah blah blah .
An anticrat .
The doctor was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ criticism of him on the left for including influential rightwing politicians among his patients .
He had refused to the debate , other than by releasing a statement defending his right to provide his services even to those whose politics differed strongly from his own .
Since he had founded a medical nonprofit specifically aimed at childhood cancer , and had devoted part of his time to DoctorsWithoutBorders , Bilaly tended to agree with him .
Hell , where would he be if the only people he helped were people he agreed with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the more he liked the doctor .
Could a man like that be involved with a plot against the right-wingers ?
Shit , no .
Let it not be .
About one thing , however , there was no doubt .
If that was the way it was , he was gon na find out about it .
And he would n't sit on it when he did find out .
Idling , his thoughts flitting from place to place , he typed in Moran T. Pludd 's name in the search-bar .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Of course .
There was something on Youtube .
He punched it up .
An anonymous poem , a rant on the pluddle .
That was his private name for the creep in the White House .
He refused to refer to him as “ the President.
” The fellow did not deserve capitalization , either .
He did n't bother reading the whole thing .
He got the idea after the first few stanzas .
The poet was no Shakespeare .
But you 're probably curious , so we 'll give @ @ @ @ @ @ @ won it , but who woulda though he would ?
He likes to stand on streetcorners grabbing women by the pussy .
If anyone accuses him , he calls her a lying hussy .
Liar and druggie and traitor , rapist and pederast— He thinks he 'll rule forever , but he 's going down fast .
All the fake christians call him the chosen one of God .
Maybe if God had horns and a tail—but on the level , the way he acts is more like the chosen one of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ say , and God will never fail : So why does he need a team of lawyers to keep him out of jail ?
His schemes are crumbling fast—get out while the getting is good .
He does n't listen to science , he never tells the truth -- he doesn ’ t care about the elderly or the youth .
Give money to the rich , pretend it 's for the poor— listen , where have you heard this kind of crap before ?
He thinks he 's handsome and smart , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and bald .
All the best words are his , except for , maybe , “ appalled.
” He knows more than scientists , ambassadors , and generals .
He humps the flag , but he 's afraid to get wet at funerals .
Do n't bother tryingt o love him ; not even a mother could .
Anyone who supports him is either a fool or a liar : believing his hench-people is like throwing gasoline on the fire .
Frauds and liars and killers certainly are n't high-class— but what about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ass ?
Flatter him to his rubbery face , and you 're his good bud .
Of awful presidents , he 'll easily come in first : If there 's a choice to make , he always makes the worst .
If there 's an agency to guard the public at large , you can be sure he 'll put a lobbyist in charge .
He 's always flapping his lips but never says anything good .
It 's easy to stop him .
Nobody has to obey illegal orders , no matter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ takes is someone to tell him No to his face .
It 's time to face the music : Moran , your name is mud .
The text along with the “ poem ” encouraged people to make up their ownstanzas .
He thought of giving it a noodle , but decided it was n't worth his time thinking up rhymes for Pludd .
So was he , though .
What did he have ?
A suicide that was n't a suicide but is unprovable as anything else .
The coincidence of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he would probably have looked into the doctor 's companions .
They might have told him that the doctor had seemed oddly satisfied lately , even jubilant , though he knew quite well what sort of cancer he had and what his prognosis was .
That he had behaved as if some life-long desire had been answered , some deep satisfaction that even the thought of death could not dent .
They could have told him all that and it 's a question where it would have led , but it is n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were happening faster and faster now .
They were already happening way faster than anyone could imagine , although some were trying .
Not that anyone knew it yet .
He decided he needed some more distraction , more hobby-time , something still more to freshen his outlook .
He brought up the Numbers blog .
Today Numbers was talking about the Fibonnaci Sequence .
That was the sequence of terms in which each succeeding term was the sum of the two previous terms .
The standard sequence , the one everybody referred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” began with 1 , 1 and went on to 2 , 3 , 5 , 8 , 13 , 21 , 34 , 89 , and an infinite sequence of such numbers .
One really weird thing about the Fibonacci Sequence was that if you took the ratio of the next-to-last term to the last term you had calculated , it approached the Golden Mean ( .61803399 , to 8 significant digits ) , and approached it even more closely the larger the terms got .
Then there was the “ Lucas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sequence beginning with what Numbers referred to as the “ seed ” ( the first 2 numbers in the sequence , which then naturally generated all the others ) .
The “ seed ” for the Lucas Sequence was 2 , 1 instead of 1 , 1 .
The ratio of the next-to-last term to the last term approached the Golden Mean for the Lucas Set too .
In fact , although the mathematicians were aware of this ( but hardly ever spoke of it ) , and although nobody else appeared to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ begin a Fibonnaci-type sequence with any two numbers , and it would still converge to the Golden Mean in the ratio of the last two terms calculated .
Even fractions and irrational numbers .
You could begin with , for example , 7 and the square root of 1018 as a “ seed , ” and the ratio would still converge to the Golden Mean .
The Lucas Set was just one example from an infinity of examples .
Numbers cut though all the bull , and referring to all the sets that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sequences .
But , Numbers pointed out , if the nature of the seed numbers did n't matter , then it had to be the nature of the way you created new terms that determined the Golden Mean as the converging ratio .
Which had led Numbers to wonder what would happen if you derived each succeeding term from the sum of the previous 3 numbers .
Or 4 .
Or 12 .
Or whatever .
It turned out , he said , that it was indeed the “ sum number ” —that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ summed to produce the next term—that determined the ratio .
When your seed was 1 , 1 , 1 ( or any 3 numbers ) , the ratio converged to something like .5436 .
The ratio got lower the larger the “ seed number ” ( the number of numbers in the seeds ) .
But no matter how many terms you summed , the ratio never got lower than .5000—in other words , one-half .
Numbers called these numbers “ parafibs , ” because they were like Fibonnaci sequences , except that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ term calculated to the last term calculated converged to different figures .
Numbers had used algebra and spreadsheets to demonstrate his points , and Bill could follow the logic , sort of , with some difficulty .
Numbers went on to say that the relationship between the ratios of the various parafib sequences was the equation xn + xn-1 + .
.
.
+x = 1 , where n represented the number of seed terms , but Bilaly could n't follow his math there .
He also declared there was a way to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way to define ratios for sequences whose seeds had a fractional and even irrational number of terms , but again , Bilaly could n't follow .
He gave up , and went back to detecting , thinking about the puzzle of the judge 's apparent suicide , and how it was connected to his former doctor 's suicide .
But refreshed or not , he still could n't get anywhere .
He was saved by the bell , though .
The telephone rang .
Fourth Interlude : Hansel Delaphont smiled .
He was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white robe with the golden cross on front that he had worn on television .
Another successful sermon .
The Ministry of the True Faith was really paying off .
Already this week ’ s donations were coming , the money was pouring in .
In an hour or so , he would be on his private jet to Bimini , where he would stay , enjoying the beach , the booze , the sun , the prostitutes , until next week , when it was time to return to the U.S. , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nobody , he had found , was more gullible than a fundamentalist .
Apparently , if they could believe that set of preposterous assertions , if they could believe that all the scientists in the world were part of a conspiracy to bring Jesus down , you could get them to believe anything , and not only that , they would make you a rich man .
Probably that was how Pludd had pulled it off during the election .
He really ought to call Pludd before he left , keep in touch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ office door opened .
A long slender tube protruded into the room .
Hansel heard a sort of “ whfft ” sound , and then felt a slight sharp twinge in his neck , like a mosquito ’ s bite .
That was the last thing he felt .
The man who had used the blow-gun came into the office , removed the little dart from the body lying behind the desk , and left , casual , calm , and measured .
There had been nothing on the dart anyway but what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ peanut butter .
Hansel Delaphont had had a deathly allergy to peanut butter .
The man , wearing gloves himself , wrapped Delaphont ’ s fingers around the opened wrapper of a “ health bar , ” whose makers had noted in tiny writing on the back that it contained miniscule amounts of peanut butter .
He shoved the broken-off end of the bar into Delaphont ’ s mouth , and moved it around , and then he dropped the bar on the floor near Delaphont ’ s hand .
He had put @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that no one else could see it , and nobody stopped him when he left , or even spoke to him as he exited the building that The Ministry of the True Faith had its tv studios in and disappeared into the streets .
The jet sat on the tarmac a long time , waiting .

Looks like I’m only managing a new chapter every week. Okay. Sorry. I’ll keep it coming though. It aint like all our problems will be over even if we kick rump’s snaggly boody into the South China Sea.
By the way, now you can log on to this serial novel by googling Passionate Intensity.
JUST SOME RICH GUY IN NEW YORK
It was nearly six o'clock in the evening when Bilaly left Bragaldi's place, through the back door. He had waited around the block, drinking a latte at an outside table and reading his paperback of Two Gentlemen of Verona until the commissioner and the chief of police left. He preferred to read his Shakespeare in his gorgeous Rockwell Kent illustrated edition, with the wonderful preface by Christopher Morley, but it was too heavy to carry around with him, so he had bought a bunch of the used paperbacks.
There were always used paperbacks for Shakespearean plays. If nothing else, all the students at GWU had to have one or another of them for at least a class or two, and when the class was over, back they went straight back to the bookstore. For probably less than a dime on a dollar. Sure, it was better to have a quarter than a play by Shakespeare. The world was full of privileged morons.
When the honchos left, he returned to the scene and conferred with the security team. They had used the MOSAIC threat prediction software perfected by Gavin de Becker. Bilaly knew the system, and it was a good one. It was mostly common sense, combined with the genius to recognize common-sense signals when you saw them.
It hadn't helped them this time though.
They hadn't been able to tell him much. The death seemed pretty clearly political, but Anticrats didn't go in much for death threats. That was mostly Demagogs.
Maybe the Anticrats didn't threaten. But did that mean they would never kill? He himself would never threaten an enemy. Why warn your opponent? The first thing an enemy would know about his feelings was when he put the enemy down. And put him down hard. Threats were just a way for cowards to avoid a fight. Somebody should tell Pludd.
He knew the members of the security team felt the same way he did about the death. They had a hard time believing Bragaldi would have committed suicide. There was plenty of evidence. The suicide note was short and and to his mind sweet, and it didn't talk about remorse. It said, “I'm a shithead and I deserve to die.”
“You'll do anything to buy that extra second of life,” one of the security team said. “You'll do anything they tell you to.”
She was right. Up until it happened, most people thought they had a chance. A big tough guy like Bragaldi, he probably thought he could take his killer's gun away. Or at least grapple for it.
There was dried blood on the note, which still lay on the desk where it had been written. Bragaldi had probably just finished signing it. Let's say he stood up, thinking the killer's guard might be down at that moment. The chair had been knocked over when he fell.
That was another point. Why stand up to shoot himself?
“He didn't put the gun in his mouth,” the security agent said. “The entry wound is in the forehead.”
Bilaly knew what she meant. Most head-shot suicides would put the gun in the mouth or under the chin. Fast and sure. Almost nobody shoots himself in the front of the skull (Women, on the whole, didn't shoot themselves at all. They preferred pills or poison. Sometimes hanging.) The killer—Bilaly noticed he was already assuming it was murder, not suicide—had taken no chances. No dallying around. He shot Bragaldi as soon as the man stood up.
There would be three slugs. One for the kill shot, one for the furrow in the cheek, which would have been the killer convincing Bragaldi he meant business. Another to deposit GSR on Bragaldi's wrist and sleeve. Impossible to prove the groove in the cheek wasn't just another failed attempt, though. Hesitation jerk.
If he was going to commit suicide, this jerk wouldn't have hesitated.
Just a little personal joke.
Bilaly decided he might as well go home, clean up, have supper, get a good night's sleep. Maybe something would come to him in his dreams.
Marsha was there when he got in, sitting on the sofa, reading the evening edition. She was a newspaper junkie. Read them from end to end, the society pages, the obituaries, everything.
He found found her habit refreshing in this age of computers and clickbait, though he himself was pretty much a computer jockey. Nowadays he solved as many crimes using the computer as he did using his feet. Most people used the computer but had no idea what kind of trails they were leaving. They were like the criminals who still hadn’t known about fingerprint evidence when the cops were already using it.
Bilaly even had his own website. Interestingly enough, most of the people who followed him were not cops, but mystery writers. He had seen, in this or that mystery or crime novel, points he had made on the website. The writers were using him to make themselves seem knowledgeable.
He didn't mind. The more good sense there was out there, the better.
You could think of Marsha's love of newspapers as old-style as rather refreshing in an age of mindless computer blabber.
So it was old-style. He didn't mind that either.
The New York Times was scattered in layers on the sofa beside her. She had already finished it. He wondered if she was spending the night.
They both knew it wasn't love. But they both wanted company, and they liked each other. Bilaly and Andrea had never had children. His closest remaining relatives were cousins, and far away in Mississippi anyhow. Except for Maggie, with the NYPD. Sometimes he flattered himself she was following in his footsteps.
But he knew better. They were amiable, but they didn't know each other that well. If she was following his lead, it was from quite a distance. Nobody was left who really cared. Andrea would have understood Marsha, but Bilaly didn't waste time on that sort of self-imposed guilty anyway. He had loved her immeasurably. Now she was gone. He had to keep living.
It was pretty much the same way with Marsha. Nobody else was ever going to replace Kenny for her.
But she and Bill could eat together, watch tv together, have an actual relaxed conversation about nothing in particular, keep the bed warm.
She waved hi, but didn't look up from her paper. There was a glass of red wine on the coffee table in front of her. So she was staying.
Bilaly got himself a glass of the red, fetched the Rockwell Kent from the bookshelf of his spare living/dining room. Which was pretty much entirely furnished by the sofa, lamps, a couple of chairs, the wall of bookshelves. There was a healthy-sized kitchen, bedroom, a bathroom with a big clawfoot tub and a shower attachment.
The Kent was a big book, the size of a building block and almost as heavy. But damn, the illustrations were good. And he loved theMorley intro. He re-read it every time he read a play. Made him feel like a great person for having the verve and intelligence to enjoy Shakespeare.
But how could you not like the man? Whatever it was, Shakespeare said it first and said it better. Never mind you had to get used to the way people talked back then. Or pretended people talked when they wrote about them, at least.
He finished Two Gentlemen of Verona, made a loud disapproving snort, and slammed the book shut.
“The matter?” Marsha said, finished with her paper.
“Ah, shit. I hate this play. Nonstop yuks. Like all they had to do all day long was trade ridiculous sallies of supposing wit.”
“Well, why do read it, then? Surely you've read it before.” She knew all about his Shakespeare addiction.
“Yeah,I don't know. I was just trying to get the taste of the history plays out of my mouth. The Henry plays, anyway.”
“I thought HenryV was supposed to be pretty good.” Marsha was no dummy. Of course not. He had no use for dummies.
“Yeah, I guess it is. But it's just— Hal is great, yeah, I guess he is, but I get so sick and tired of all that patriotic yap, all these goddamn nobles and dukes and what-not blathering on about how 'tis better to die than faithless be, and then yappity-yap, they change sides and they start yapping the very same shit in the other direction. Couldn't any of those clowns hear themselves? The whole story of the kings of England is just one murder after another, just a bunch of high-assed yahoos talking big talk while they kill each other trying to take over the crown.”
“In other words, just like modern politics. Admit it, you're just pissed about Prince Hal turning on Falstaff like that.”
“Yeah,”he said. “Yeah, I am. Nobody does that. Nobody plays the dissolute and lovable crook that well, then turns out to be a responsible citizen and a good king.
It comes across as snootiness. 'I'm better than all this,' Hal says. 'I can indulge in it because I am inherently superior. When I turn to my better side, I will drop the act, and people love me even more, the story of the prodigal son.' Nobody with genuine empathy could be so cold. Nobody but a psychopath.”
He knew the scholars and critics would disagree. It was a Shakespeare play, and therefore by definition great. Well, he wasn't a critic. He was a reader.
The solution seemed obvious to Marsha. “Well, why don't you read something by Shakespeare that you like?”
“Ahhh.” He could explain, he was going to read something he liked. He was reading them all. Again. When you read them all, you have to read them all. You can't just wallow in your favorites.
No, maybe he couldn't explain.
He woke up early, six o'clock or so. Marsha wasn't in the bed. There was a light on in the living room.
He came out in his pajamas, to find her reading the morning paper already. “There's coffee in the kitchen,” she said. “Some of that fresh-ground Kenyan. I'll make us some breakfast later.”
“I'm not hungry yet. Coffee's fine. Anything worth reading in the paper?” he said, idly, passing into the kitchen, just being friendly.
“Nothing much,” she said as he came back out with a cup. “Some rich guy in New York is dead. Jumped out of his office window.”
“Huh.” He had visions of 1929, though that had been well before his time, cartoon bankers leaping out of high windows on Wall Street. “You think it was the market? Anything anyone can pin on Moran T. Pludd?”
He sat down beside her.
“Nooo,”she said, studying the obituaries. “Who cares why the super-rich do what they do, anyway? Now this is strange.”
He took a sip of the coffee. Dark, with just a quarter teaspoon of cream. It was good. A good way to start the day. “What?” he said.
“Weren't you telling me about that Supreme Court guy last night?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“He committed suicide?”
“Well, it looked like he—“
“It says here his doctor committed suicide last night too. Doctor Hiram Weatherstone. Mentions all his high-toned clients.
One of those weird coincidences, I guess. Pancreatic cancer, it says. 86. He was 86. Overdose of morphine. Well, he would have had access. Can't say I blame him. That's the way I would have done it.”
Bilaly felt like a bomb had gone off in his head. Something had changed. Something important had changed, but he didn't know what.
She put down her paper and gave him a look.
“What's wrong? I've always heard about people looking like they saw a ghost. Was he your doctor too? That would be just too too weird.”
If there was any fault Bilaly found in Marsha, it was that she was too chatty sometimes. Not when she was reading her paper, you didn't want to disturb her then. The rest of the time.
“Bill?” she said.
It was the week-end, and they were in the habit of visiting the NationalGallery or the Philips or any of the plethora of museums in the capitol, or else heading into the countryside for a walk or a picnic. Ending the day with dinner at one of the plethora of fine restaurants in the capitol.
A lot of politicians went to those restaurants, but what could you do about that? Psychopaths like good eating as much as anybody.
“Something has come up,” he said. “I have a really busy day today,” he said. “I'm not gonna be able to keep you company today.”
After she left, the irritation plain in her expression, he faced facts. There was no way around it, he had gotten rid of her so he could think. She would have understood his being busy. What she was irritated with was his refusal to explain why he wanted her gone. What was worse, he had been in too much of hurry to be polite. Would she let it go, or was this going to mess with their friendship? He decided to worry later.
Now that she was gone, now that he was free to think, all he could think about was how nothing made sense. It could not, it absolutely could not be a coincidence. Co-incidences don't work that way. The two suicides. Something connected them. Something not even remotely obvious. But no way was this an accident. But how were they connected?
He had no answers, but for the first time he saw an angle. What he would have meant by angle was entry-point. He didn't mean an easy way in. In fact he had no idea how to get “in,” or what he would find when he got “in.” But for the first time he was certain there was something about these events that did not bear close examination. They were not what they seemed to be, could not be. That meant they were worth his study indeed. He had to be clever, very clever. He could not miss a trick.
The suicide of an elderly physician, motivated by the certainty of his own oncoming death (and its likely torments) from cancer. That made sense. The suicide of a man who never felt guilty about anything. That did not make sense, but there had been no angle.
Now there was an angle, a connection.
He went on-line to see what he could find out about the doctor. Highly respected blah blah blah blah, some of the most powerful actors in Washington among his clientele blah blah blah.
An anticrat. The doctor was an anticrat. There had been some criticism of him on the left for including influential rightwing politicians among his patients. He had refused to the debate, other than by releasing a statement defending his right to provide his services even to those whose politics differed strongly from his own.
Since he had founded a medical nonprofit specifically aimed at childhood cancer, and had devoted part of his time to DoctorsWithoutBorders, Bilaly tended to agree with him. Hell, where would he be if the only people he helped were people he agreed with politically?
The more he read, the more he liked the doctor. Could a man like that be involved with a plot against the right-wingers?
Shit, no. Let it not be.
About one thing, however, there was no doubt. If that was the way it was, he was gonna find out about it.
And he wouldn't sit on it when he did find out.
Idling,his thoughts flitting from place to place, he typed in Moran T. Pludd's name in the search-bar. Something like a million pages popped up. Of course. There was something on Youtube. He punched it up.
An anonymous poem, a rant on the pluddle. That was his private name for the creep in the White House. He refused to refer to him as “the President.” The fellow did not deserve capitalization, either.
He didn't bother reading the whole thing. He got the idea after the first few stanzas. The poet was no Shakespeare.
But you're probably curious, so we'll give you the entirety:
MORAN T. PLUDD
Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd!
Anyone could have won it, but who woulda though he would?
He likes to stand on streetcorners grabbing women by the pussy.
If anyone accuses him, he calls her a lying hussy.
Liar and druggie and traitor, rapist and pederast—
He thinks he'll rule forever, but he's going down fast.
Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd!
All the fake christians call him the chosen one of God.
Maybe if God had horns and a tail—but on the level,
the way he acts is more like the chosen one of the Devil.
God's omnipotent, they say, and God will never fail:
So why does he need a team of lawyers to keep him out of jail?
Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd!
His schemes are crumbling fast—get out while the getting is good.
He doesn't listen to science, he never tells the truth--
he doesn’t care about the elderly or the youth.
Give money to the rich, pretend it's for the poor—
listen, where have you heard this kind of crap before?
Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd!
He's worse than incompetent, he's a complete and total dud.
He thinks he's handsome and smart, but he's blubbery, stupid, and bald.
All the best words are his, except for, maybe, “appalled.”
He knows more than scientists, ambassadors, and generals.
He humps the flag, but he's afraid to get wet at funerals.
Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd!
Don't bother tryingt o love him; not even a mother could.
Anyone who supports him is either a fool or a liar:
believing his hench-people is like throwing gasoline on the fire.
Frauds and liars and killers certainly aren't high-class—
but what about the creeps who kiss the killer's ass?
Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd!
Flatter him to his rubbery face, and you're his good bud.
Of awful presidents, he'll easily come in first:
If there's a choice to make, he always makes the worst.
If there's an agency to guard the public at large,
you can be sure he'll put a lobbyist in charge.
Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd!
He's always flapping his lips but never says anything good.
It's easy to stop him. Nobody has to obey
illegal orders, no matter what his lawyers say:
All it takes is someone to tell him No to his face.
(It's hard to believe he's a member of the so-called “human” race.)
Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd, Moran T. Pludd!
It's time to face the music: Moran, your name is mud.
The text along with the “poem” encouraged people to make up their ownstanzas. He thought of giving it a noodle, but decided it wasn't worth his time thinking up rhymes for Pludd.
Useless, basically.
So was he, though. What did he have? A suicide that wasn't a suicide but is unprovable as anything else. The coincidence of the doctor's suicide. Given time, he would probably have looked into the doctor's companions. They might have told him that the doctor had seemed oddly satisfied lately, even jubilant, though he knew quite well what sort of cancer he had and what his prognosis was. That he had behaved as if some life-long desire had been answered, some deep satisfaction that even the thought of death could not dent.
They could have told him all that and it's a question where it would have led, but it isn't a question that matters, because things were happening faster and faster now. They were already happening way faster than anyone could imagine, although some were trying. Not that anyone knew it yet.
He decided he needed some more distraction, more hobby-time, something still more to freshen his outlook. He brought up the Numbers blog. Today Numbers was talking about the Fibonnaci Sequence. That was the sequence of terms in which each succeeding term was the sum of the two previous terms. The standard sequence, the one everybody referred to as “The Fibonnaci Sequence,” began with 1, 1 and went on to 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 89, and an infinite sequence of such numbers.
One really weird thing about the Fibonacci Sequence was that if you took the ratio of the next-to-last term to the last term you had calculated, it approached the Golden Mean (.61803399, to 8 significant digits), and approached it even more closely the larger the terms got.
Then there was the “Lucas Set,” which was a Fibonacci-type sequence beginning with what Numbers referred to as the “seed” (the first 2 numbers in the sequence, which then naturally generated all the others). The “seed” for the Lucas Sequence was 2, 1 instead of 1, 1. The ratio of the next-to-last term to the last term approached the Golden Mean for the Lucas Set too.
In fact, although the mathematicians were aware of this (but hardly ever spoke of it), and although nobody else appeared to be aware of it, you could begin a Fibonnaci-type sequence with any two numbers, and it would still converge to the Golden Mean in the ratio of the last two terms calculated. Even fractions and irrational numbers. You could begin with, for example, 7 and the square root of 1018 as a “seed,” and the ratio would still converge to the Golden Mean. The Lucas Set was just one example from an infinity of examples. Numbers cut though all the bull, and referring to all the sets that converged to the Golden Mean as Fibonnaci Sequences.
But, Numbers pointed out, if the nature of the seed numbers didn't matter, then it had to be the nature of the way you created new terms that determined the Golden Mean as the converging ratio.
Which had led Numbers to wonder what would happen if you derived each succeeding term from the sum of the previous 3 numbers. Or 4. Or 12. Or whatever. It turned out, he said, that it was indeed the “sum number”—that is, the number of previous terms summed to produce the next term—that determined the ratio. When your seed was 1, 1, 1 (or any 3 numbers), the ratio converged to something like .5436. The ratio got lower the larger the “seed number” (the number of numbers in the seeds). But no matter how many terms you summed, the ratio never got lower than .5000—in other words, one-half.
Numbers called these numbers “parafibs,” because they were like Fibonnaci sequences, except that the ratio of the next to last term calculated to the last term calculated converged to different figures.
Numbers had used algebra and spreadsheets to demonstrate his points, and Bill could follow the logic, sort of, with some difficulty. Numbers went on to say that the relationship between the ratios of the various parafib sequences was the equation xn + xn-1 + . . . +x = 1, where n represented the number of seed terms, but Bilaly couldn't follow his math there.
He also declared there was a way to make the sequences continuous—that is, a way to define ratios for sequences whose seeds had a fractional and even irrational number of terms, but again, Bilaly couldn't follow.
He gave up, and went back to detecting, thinking about the puzzle of the judge's apparent suicide, and how it was connected to his former doctor's suicide. But refreshed or not, he still couldn't get anywhere.
He was saved by the bell, though. The telephone rang.
Fourth Interlude: Hansel Delaphont smiled. He was in his office, taking off the white robe with the golden cross on front that he had worn on television. Another successful sermon. The Ministry of the True Faith was really paying off. Already this week’s donations were coming, the money was pouring in.
In an hour or so, he would be on his private jet to Bimini, where he would stay, enjoying the beach, the booze, the sun, the prostitutes, until next week, when it was time to return to the U.S., and fleece the rubes once more. Nobody, he had found, was more gullible than a fundamentalist. Apparently, if they could believe that set of preposterous assertions, if they could believe that all the scientists in the world were part of a conspiracy to bring Jesus down, you could get them to believe anything, and not only that, they would make you a rich man.
Probably that was how Pludd had pulled it off during the election. He really ought to call Pludd before he left, keep in touch, keep his hand in.
The office door opened. A long slender tube protruded into the room. Hansel heard a sort of “whfft” sound, and then felt a slight sharp twinge in his neck, like a mosquito’s bite. That was the last thing he felt.
The man who had used the blow-gun came into the office, removed the little dart from the body lying behind the desk, and left, casual, calm, and measured. There had been nothing on the dart anyway but what might be thought of as extract of peanut butter. Hansel Delaphont had had a deathly allergy to peanut butter.
The man, wearing gloves himself, wrapped Delaphont’s fingers around the opened wrapper of a “health bar,” whose makers had noted in tiny writing on the back that it contained miniscule amounts of peanut butter. He shoved the broken-off end of the bar into Delaphont’s mouth, and moved it around, and then he dropped the bar on the floor near Delaphont’s hand.
He had put the tube under his jacket, so that no one else could see it, and nobody stopped him when he left, or even spoke to him as he exited the building that The Ministry of the True Faith had its tv studios in and disappeared into the streets.
The jet sat on the tarmac a long time, waiting.


dailykos--2020-10-25--Who are the Matchmakers?

Who are the Matchmakers?

My wife and I have already voted .
We have already donated , what to us is , a lot of money .
We have been glad to donate .
We have not taken a vacation in over a year due to Covid .
We are both retired and had saved up to do some traveling .
So the money we are not spending has been going to National , state and local races .
We are glad to do what we can .
But my question is this .
These fund raising emails that state that your contribution will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ times never tell us who is providing these matching funds .
And where are the people providing these funds getting the money to provide the match ?
Federal Law prohibits any individual from donating more than 2800 to any one candidate during a campaign cycle .
So if I give $ 1000 to Joe Biden in response to an email that says all contributions matched 5 times there is no way that any one individual can legally give $ 5000 .
Now if 100 people each give $ 1000 that is 100,000 which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Again , where is that money coming from ?
The DNC , DCCC and DSCC are all trying to solicit money so if they are matching my contributions are they using other contributors to them to donate to themselves ?
It is very confusing .
And if there are people out there who have found an altruistic and legal way to match every contribution by 300 % or more why can ’ t they just give the money to the candidates without making it contingent on other people contributing .
Look , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Well aside from the fact that if we spent all the money raised for all elections every year we could probably provide healthcare and infrastructure for every person and state without raising the debt .
The amount that needs to be raised is obscene but I realize we can ’ t win without it .
That should be one of the first things happen if team Blue takes over the Executive and Senate and keeps the House .
But if anyone can tell me who or where these so called matching contributions are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .

My wife and I have already voted. We have already donated, what to us is, a lot of money. We have been glad to donate. We have not taken a vacation in over a year due to Covid. We are both retired and had saved up to do some traveling. So the money we are not spending has been going to National, state and local races. We are glad to do what we can.
But my question is this. These fund raising emails that state that your contribution will be matched 3 or 5 or 10 times never tell us who is providing these matching funds. And where are the people providing these funds getting the money to provide the match?
Federal Law prohibits any individual from donating more than 2800 to any one candidate during a campaign cycle. So if I give $1000 to Joe Biden in response to an email that says all contributions matched 5 times there is no way that any one individual can legally give $5000. Now if 100 people each give $1000 that is 100,000 which would require a $500,000 match. Again, where is that money coming from? The DNC, DCCC and DSCC are all trying to solicit money so if they are matching my contributions are they using other contributors to them to donate to themselves? It is very confusing.
And if there are people out there who have found an altruistic and legal way to match every contribution by 300% or more why can’t they just give the money to the candidates without making it contingent on other people contributing. Look, I have nothing against contributing for campaigns. Well aside from the fact that if we spent all the money raised for all elections every year we could probably provide healthcare and infrastructure for every person and state without raising the debt. The amount that needs to be raised is obscene but I realize we can’t win without it. That should be one of the first things happen if team Blue takes over the Executive and Senate and keeps the House.
But if anyone can tell me who or where these so called matching contributions are coming from I would greatly appreciate it.


dailykos--2020-10-25--Voting during the pandemic.

Voting during the pandemic.

I voted on my way home yesterday .
The polling site was down in the predominantly black section of town @ @ @ @ @ have that here .
No paramilitary forces , no protestors , just a normal day @ @ @ @ @ to thank the elderly poll workers for their efforts .
They put themselves in harm @ @ @ @ @ to vote .
They all seemed to be surprised to be thanked for their service @ @ @ @ @ get to the polls .

I voted on my way home yesterday. The polling site was down in the predominantly black section of town. Yeah, we still have that here. No paramilitary forces, no protestors, just a normal day. I made a point to thank the elderly poll workers for their efforts. They put themselves in harm's way to allow me to vote.
They all seemed to be surprised to be thanked for their service.
Wear your mask and get to the polls.
Keep making things , Millrat