The South is still ruled by feudal lords who hate everyone else

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/28/1331734/-The-Civil-War-never-ended-The-neo-Confederate-tea-party-fights-on?detail=email

Professor V.O. Key - used statistical methods to study politics in the South.

It clearly surprises some of us that the Southern oligarchs are thriving and have such a control over the demography of The Southern states. From Wikipedia: "In 1942 Key published the first edition of his textbook, Politics, Parties, and Pressure Groups, in which he emphasized that politics was a contest and the main players were organized interest groups. The book decisively shaped the teaching of political science by introducing realism in analysis of politics, introducing the "interest group" model, and introducing behavioral methods based on statistical analysis of election returns."

Key's opus, Southern Politics in State and Nation (1949) was a microscopic examination, state by state, of the expansion of Southern politics. This Dixiefication was documented using interviews and statistics. In Public Opinion and American Democracy (1961) he analyzed the link between the changing patterns of public opinion and the governmental system. Key found that the Michigan model (the theory that voters' preferences were determined by psychological factors) was unsupported by the data. In Key's view, that model took the politics out of political science. In his last (posthumous) work, The Responsible Electorate: Rationality in Presidential Voting 1936–60 (1966), Professor Key analyzed public opinion data and electoral returns to show that voters' choices were rational political decisions rather than responses to psychological stimuli. However, the choices in the South are manipulated by powerful and wealthy interests.

Professor Key refuted the hypothesis that "Southern backwardness" could be attributed to poor whites. Rather, he asserted that a rich oligarchy of "Southern Bourbons" manipulated working class whites. The Southern voters are unified, and dominated by, a small but wealthy class of people who deliberately act to preserve the economic and social order. They use well-entrenched techniques to inflame the race fears, and to prey upon the gullibilities of people whose education is deliberately marginalized.

www.librarything.com/profile/keylawk

Politics - the legacy of joy and profundity has begun

With the huge turnout and participation of The People in this election, we demonstrate a love of the "State" in the true sense of patriotism. The one in which l'etat c'est moi, and moi has a dog in the race. A wonderful dog. We are our best friend. Suddenly we have a future again. Time to get over the obstacle of outrage and shame.

Remarkable - John Cusack has expressed the Reality

The actor, John Cusack, provides a wonderful description of predator economics and the Bush Legacy. He provides a wonderful description of both history and present reality, both of which are necessary for understanding the Set Stage which we must now take as Opportunity. What is remarkable is that he does not hold back the recrimination, but does not permit the outrage to impediment a sense of great opportunity: The economics of grace, true Grace.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-cusack/no-currency-left-to-buy-t_b_140250.html

Instead of bailing out AIG with $85 billion....let's do the math

I received this wonderful email that got a surprising and rapid circulation.
Of course, the math is wrong. By three zero places. It's $425 for each citizen.
But notice that Bush and Paulson are now proposing a $700 billion bail out. Hmmm, the added zero...and the right principle, so it could work....?
___________________________________________________

Hi Pals,

I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve
It Dividend.

To make the math simple, lets assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S.
Citiz ens 18+.

Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and
child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We De serve It
Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let's assume a tax rate of 30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.
A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?

Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.

R epay college loans - what a great boost to new grads Put away money for
college - it'll be there Save in a bank - create money to loan to Entrepreneurs.

Buy a new car - create jobs

Invest in the market - capital drives growth Pay for your parent's
medical insurance - health care improves - Enable Deadbeat Dads to
come clean - or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks
who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is
cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.
If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of
trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( "vote buy" ) economic incentive that
is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult
U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG - liquidate it.

Sell off its parts.

Let American General go back to being American General.

Sell off the real estate.

Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't.

Sure it's a crazy idea that can "never work."

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion We
Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington
DC.

And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because
$25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

Kindest personal regards,

Birk

T. J. Birkenmeier, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic


PS: Feel free to pass this along to your pals as it's either good for a
Laugh or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85 Billion!!

Bringing up the subject of Politics - do it, and do it nicely

Opra made a plug for Daniel Kurtsman's books: HOW TO WIN AN ARGUMENT WITH A CONSERVATIVE, and HOW TO WIN AN ARGUMENT WITH A LIBERAL.

* Fight with humor. Daniel says. "If you can make them laugh, they'll be much more likely to listen to the next thing you have to say." Jon Stewart is a good example of someone who uses humor in an argument.

* Ask a rhetorical question. Asked gently, this can put them on the spot while giving them an invitation to join the conversation. "When you can put someone on the defensive like that", Daniel says, "that's how you can begin to seize control of the debate and get the upper hand."

* Keep it simple. "This is one area where I feel the Obama campaign has been pretty effective," Daniel says. "Their core message, at this point, is: 'John McCain is more of the same.' It's easy to latch onto; it's not a 10-point plan." A long winded, nuanced, complex argument is a guaranteed ticket to disaster, Daniel says. No one is certain What the McCain core message is -- successfully converted prisoner of war into "war hero"? Maverick?

* Don't become overly emotional. Daniel says if your goal is to try to be persuasive, set aside some of the emotion to move toward the argument. You also need to "release" it--don't stay upset or aroused, people will want to flee.

* Don't become conspiratorial. Avoid the common tendency to discuss conspiracies about the candidates. "There are so many good arguments to seize on, why go toward those kinds of crazy arguments that will discredit you?" Daniel asks.

Senator-Nominee Obama's culminating call

The speech Obama made to 84,000 delegates at the Democratic Party Convention of 2008, concluded with this invocation of the Promise:

"America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done....

"Let us keep that promise, that American promise, and in the words of Scripture, 'Hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.'"


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Scripture may be drawn from Hebrews 10:23. Here is that verse in its context:

"Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries."

The book of Hebrews is a highly controversial document. But there can be no dispute that the passage clearly begs people to "consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds...encouraging one another".

The attempted "swift-boating" of Obama

A book attacking a Presidential candidate with false allegations has surfaced in this election cycle. Negative advertising works. I know of no "effective" means to counter it, in light of the time-sensitivity of elections, and the perversity of humankind.

Recall the previous work of Jerome R. Corsi, a professional hate-mongerer. He coauthored UNFIT FOR COMMAND: SWIFT BOAT VETERANS SPEAK OUT AGAINST JOHN KERRY. That raft of speculation and falsity was launched against a Viet Nam War veteran, and it was condemned by John McCain in the 2004 election cycle for what it was: Pure slime.

Corsi has now published THE OBAMA NATION: LEFTIST POLITICS AND THE CULT OF PERSONALITY. Ironically, this attack by the same author, using the same methods, for the same political purpose (to defeat a candidate), has not (yet?) been condemned by McCain. However, he should. Although he may benefit from the same purpose and may share motives with Corsi, the means and methods of the two books are identical: To slime the candidate using profoundly hot-button conclusions based on fictional "evidence" which appeal to the prejudices of the public most likely to distort their good judgment. McCain has already clearly condemned the strategy.

The text of OBAMA NATION can be summarized: Obama is a jihadist drug user who is lying about his religion and his plan to impose a black supremacist communist state as soon as he seizes the reins of power.

The allegations in Corsi's latest book, to the extent that they advert to any "facts", are rebutted point-by-point on Obama's website. ALL of Corsi's conclusions are shown to be based on outright fictions. But the real point here, is that this publication is not part of political discourse. This is not "Oops we misstated" something, or "reasonable men may disagree". The repeated misquotations and mistakes cannot be excused. This book, and this repeated form of negative press, is a deliberate tool of deception designed to "win" an election by using fraud. Once again, Corsi is manipulating the gullibilities of the voters.

Who is Jerome R. Corsi? First, he is not a "conservative". He does not advocate ANY form of government, nor does he lay out any positive program or institutions in his books and articles. He is a professional attacker. Why bother building a bridge, if you can make millions blowing up the country?

His current work is a website in which he writes "stories" about how President George W. Bush has been conspiring to eliminate the border between the United States and Mexico. He has been working on an expose' of the secrets about 9/11 which the present administration has been withholding from the public.

Other books and articles by Corsi use racist epithets to inflame a hate-mongering fear of whatever is foreign, unifying, inclusive, or somehow "tainted" by color. He is being interviewed on "pro-white" radio, endorsing a confused ideology of State secession by the "Christian" nations. All government is a conspiracy.

"Corsi" himself, is of Sicilian extraction - that island first inhabited by Africans, then colonized by semitic phoenicians, and whose people enjoy to this day the interconnectedness of the Mediterranean. The Corsi's have long enjoyed the benefits of the mixed race, foreign exchange, and freedoms he now condemns.

It appears clear that Corsi can write. He cannot quote Obama or Scripture accurately, but he can write. The OBAMA NATION is now "number 1" on the Sunday New York Times' bestseller list. In other words, in spite of the fabrication of extremely hurtful personal defamation, in spite of logical incoherence, and hypocrisy you can measure on the Richter Scale, a publisher has decided there is money to be made in slime politics. Publish it and people who want to believe it will buy it.

History will duly note that OBAMA NATION is published by Simon & Schuster, which hired the Bush-Rove political operative, Mary Matalin, to edit the imprint. A network of book clubs and radio shows is in place to generate "buzz" for this slime.
The financially stressed publishing industry does not intend to lose money betting on the gullibility of the voting public.

Interestingly, my good Christian friends in the National Guard have been sending me email attachments containing breathless announcements of how important it is to buy the OBAMA NATION. Abomination, get it? And Obama is the anti-christ....etc.

These poor remnant soldier-citizens! Economically capsized more than most after eight years of Bush-Cheney-Rove, and continuing to bear the burden of a fight none of them asked for or knew anything about, and that so-called "conservatives" want to continue. They are the mainstay of the mixed-race Army, invoking the Love-Gospel Jesus of the Resurrection. And in this crazy world, they are making Corsi rich, and they want to drive a great leader from public office.

Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do.

Frederick Turner and "natural classicism" - the BASIS for giving Hope a Chance

The Culture of Hope; a New Birth of the Classical Spirit, by Frederick Turner (1995), English born son of Anthropologists. The book blurb says: ..."Its highly controversial positions have been attacked by both the right and the left; the right because of its foundational use of evolutionary theory and its defense of liberal freedoms, the left because it systematically refutes the logical and evidentiary underpinnings of much contemporary academic feminist, multiculturalist, environmentalist, and deconstructionist social theory. It welcomes a new era of evolutionary hope."

http://benturner.com/genesis/book_culture.html

Another scholar working outside the narrow confines of academia and politics, and contributes to the recognition of the ideas of EMERSON, the contributions to a nascent American Renaissance revival.

Unlike the current and late Nazis, and the hatemongering ilk of any day, and to the extent that Obama is expressing a philosophy of Hope, Obama has a scientifically valid and culturally authentic BASIS for his oratorical presentation. When Hitler pounded the podia, the tables, the air...he invoked feelings,, "You know in your heart this is true; you feel its correctness!" Yet, although he asserted power and sought to conquer everyone, and although many SS PhDs were awarded for teutonic studies, there is not a page of scientific vindication of his race-theory, and not a sentence of "cultural" authenticity. There has never been a "pure" culture, much less a "white" culture. ALL culture is semitic...and white, black, brown, yellow, red and blue and green. The intermixing is HOW "it" became culture.

We see this in NATURE. Emerson, for example, decades before Darwin, and a century before the sociobiologists, observed that "from any one object the parts and properties of any other may be predicted", because each part contains the "code" of the whole reality. There is no "other". No "there" here.

Now 200 years after Emerson, we are indebted to the author of The Culture of Hope (1995) for reminding us of the enormous depth of validity and authentication behind the message of Hope resurrected by Senator Obama in his political campaign.

Love...Harmony...Peace...Gratitude -- these are the Taught Values

The CORE of what we call Christianity today was summarized in a variety of letters composed by the Roman Paul of Tarsus during his efforts to build a community of believers. In his letter to the Colossians [chapter 3], a large community of Christians who lived in what is now Turkey, he wrote:

"Above all, clothe yourselves with Love which binds everything together
in perfect harmony...and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts...
and be thankful."

The Church Fathers ever since have recognized this letter as a true and inspired grasp of the message of Jesus Christ, who is referred to by name. It spells out what Christ taught people to DO, and BE, and How.

It is only left to us to recognize that the authentic "Religious Fundamentalist" must be one who acts to achieve harmony out of Love and gratitude. Nowhere, did Christ teach us to deceive, defraud, cheat and steal. Nowhere, did Paul construe any teaching point or rule of Christ, so as to justify misleading anyone, or in any way burdening others to the benefit of yourself.

Those who benefit themselves at the expense of others IN THE NAME OF CHRIST are NOT "Fundamentalists" in any sense of the word. They are the Hypocrites, the false leaders, the miscreants who who been consistently excoriated in detail since the days of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, and Jesus Christ. One simply cannot injure, disenfranchise or insult others AS A CHRISTIAN.

Just as we must recognize "liberal" for what it is and always has been, we must also recognize what "fundamentalist" is and always has been. And do not forgive or forget the crimes committed by those who have distorted the meanings of these words for their own mean-spirited ends. The days of spin-politics are numbered, simply by the reckoning brought on by the collapse of the Bush-Cheney-Rove take-over of the Republican Party.

Historiography - the balancing between academic work and popular audience

The Purpose of the Past; Reflections on the Uses of History, (2008)
by Gordon S. Wood

At last, a recognized authority calls for hostilities to cease between the pompous academics (deliberately writing for other professors bulked up with quantitative social science data and theory) and the trendy popularizers. For our generation, Wood is the prize-winning dean of American historiography. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 (1969) won the Bancroft Prize. The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1991) won the Pulitzer.

Collection of long-form praise and criticism of works by American historians published by Wood in NY Review of Books and New Republic, to each of which Wood has added an afterword, analyzing the significance of the subjects in hindsight, and reviewing his own reviews.

Wood seems to admire: Charles Royster, “The Fabulous History of the Dismal Swamp Company”; David Hackett Fischer, “Albion’s Seed”. He champions historians who have not earned advanced degrees but who communicate the story, such as David McCullough, Stacy Schiff, and Barbara W. Tuchman.

Wood is critical of those whose modern political views infect their work: Simon Schama, John Patrick Diggins, Richard K. Matthews. He is not as dismissive as other academics are of the “popularizers” such as Ron Chernow, Walter Isaacson and again, David McCullough.

Wood decries the academic “hyper-specialization” which turns off the public and deprives them of what would be a “sense of where we have come from and how we have become what we are”. The social science trend, for example, his brought historians closer to the sciences, but while enrollment in higher education was booming from 1970 through the 1980's, history majors declined by almost two-thirds.

As academic historians embraced theories of “deconstruction”, “textuality”, and “essentialism”, and incorporated compilations of quantitative data and technological tools of analysis, they communicated only to other tenured faculty. The university presses became obsessed with Derrida techniques and the structuralism of Michel Foucault. The academics lost the Story.

Ironically perhaps in light of the title and subtitle, Wood is critical of the attempt, especially by popularizers (Tuchman, McCullough), to make history “useful”. The Story is not for spinning. He seems to be an umpire of political shifts, calling ideologues out, but doing all he can to bring more people to the game.

Simple Concepts - Simplifying Politics should not be left to the Experts (paid specialists)

Immigration and "illegal" people. It should never (ever ever) be "illegal" to work for a living; it makes no sense to criminalize labor. It should never be "illegal" to migrate -- travel, along with Free Press, is one of only two guarantees of Freedom.

School. It should never be compulsory to attend school; that turns "education" on its head, and is why schools become devoted to Control instead of discovery and problem solving.

Pollution. Build anything anywhere -- products, factories, whatever. But if what you made has an "exhaust" pipe or chimney, or a "waste product" of any kind, including any solid, liquid, gas, noise, or smell, or if it creates an environmental impact such as a bottle-neck, traffic congestion, or nuisance to a neighbor, then you pay for the cost of that impact. Mitigation by the following design principal should always be recognized: Whatever you build that has an exhaust pipe, it must vent into the face of the user FIRST, before it vents into the faces of non-users; whatever is discharged, must first be vented into the water and air system of the maker/manager/owner, before discharging into the sewer or environment.

Religion. Redemption and Rapture can only be experienced individually; no priest or principal can "save" anyone else except upon proof that they have taken their own advice and have saved themselves. Anyone who proclaims a religious basis for killing any other person should be prosecuted for murder, as plainly as any other such solicitation made without the claim of sanctity.

Theft. Title to material goods never passes by theft. You steal something by force or fraud, it is never yours to use, sell, or profit from. You buy something without title, it is the same as if you stole it from the true owner yourself.