politics

politics

Proposal for Congressional Security Clearances

Posted Mon, 2020-09-28 23:05

Tl;dr: In order to be considered for Congress, a person must first obtain a DoD “Secret” security clearance. To be considered for President, “Top Secret”. Security clearances are not currently required by Senators and Represenatives to read classified information.

"Economic Impact Payment"

Posted Sun, 2020-05-24 20:28
Due to governmental mismanagement of funds, our family received an "Economic Impact Payment" from the IRS, despite the fact that neither I nor my wife have lost our jobs. While my son's first suggestion was to send it back, we quickly realized that that would simply contribute to more mismanagement, so we chose three charities (a local food bank, an environmental group fighting the climate crisis, and a local group supporting mental health issues exacerbated by COVID) and have contributed the money from "President Donald J. Trump" to those.

The MIT Intelligence Quest

Posted Thu, 2018-02-01 12:28
As digital transformation revolves around data, managing - making sense of - that data is increasingly the realm of Artificial Intelligence. AI is what Google uses to determine what ads to show you, it's what Amazon uses to get you to buy new things, and it's what Facebook uses to make sure you keep clicking. All of these things increase the revenue of these companies but perhaps at great cost to democracy as they segment society.

GMOs and Kashi Boycott

Posted Mon, 2012-09-10 09:37

I'd like to think Ms. Carson would be an advocate against Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) creeping into our food supply. There's great debate about whether Monsanto's GMO corn is unsustainable and there are reports that GMO foods can "can significantly impact the viability of human cells".

Rachel Carson and the Silent Spring

Posted Mon, 2012-09-10 09:26

I work at CivicActions where we provide online consulting and services for non-profits and progressive organizations. We host websites on a variety of machines (servers) each given a different name so that we can refer to them easily. Civicactions.com resides on a server named 'carson', named after Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring and credited with helping to advance the environmental movement.

Money Corrupts (but the media won't cover this)

Posted Sun, 2012-09-09 21:20

Corporations have one essential purpose aside from creating products or services that result in happy customers: to increase shareholder value. If the current CEO and Board of Directors fails to do so, they will be voted out and replaced with those that will.

And guess what: all major media are - or are owned by - major corporations.

What would be your answer to the Answer Man?

Posted Sun, 2012-09-09 20:43

Listening to the Cause last night, the last line from St. Stephen (written by Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia) struck me: "What would be your answer to the Answer Man?"  Though I've heard this line sung so many times before, this time my brain mapped it differently than I have before, with Google (plus all other hunter/gatherers of personal information - I'm looking at you, Facebook and Amazon) playing the part of the Answer Man.

Tea Party Anger

Posted Sat, 2010-12-04 19:33

Message to the Tea Party - What took you so long to get angry?

You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court decided corporations were people that could secretly fund political elections.

You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate Energy policy and push us to invade Iraq.

You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.

Big Oil and Us

Posted Mon, 2010-06-21 09:38

From a recent email I sent to friends:

I am angered at the pervasive causes of the spill in the Gulf that are far more wide reaching than the terrible effect the oil is having on the environment.  Our country's addiction to fossil fuels and our willingness to blind ourselves to the effects that such non-sustainable choices have on our only planet - the one we will be leaving to our children - are truly monstrous.

Obama Signs Stolen

Posted Fri, 2008-10-31 15:47

Everyone on our street who had an Obama yard sign (about 20 or more) had them stolen last night. I agree with Peter Frampton that this is an affront to freedom of speech. But now the Obama campaign will get more money as all the neighbors I've talked to are planning to replace them today.

Pisses me off, though.

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