Author: Spocko

What Kamala Harris can learn from watching Madam Secretary


by Spocko

In the last week Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Tulsi Gabbard announced 2020 presidential runs. Tonight Harris will be on the Rachel Maddow Show to talk about what she wants to accomplish.

Right now all the candidates are putting out their messages. As Michael Brooks of The Majority Report put it, they are “cutting a lane for themselves” in the primary.  (We used to call it their core brand proposition, but that’s so 2000 and late.)

Here’s a New York Times summary story on who has announced they will run and who might run.

The Times summary has the conventional wisdom on each candidate and their signature issues.  For example: Warren, middle class under attack from big corporations and Wall Street’s influence on politics;  Sanders, “Medicare for All,” and free college tuition.

But what I didn’t see in any summaries or signature issues were candidates’ views on National Security. This issue is critical and must be addressed because the United States spends an estimated $1.2 trillion per year on defense.  

Pentagon spending now consumes nearly 70 percent of the discretionary federal budget.

Even if we just count direct US military spending, the figures are enormous. At $610 billion in 2017, US military spending accounted for more than a third of the world total. This dwarfs the $294 billion spent by our potential adversaries—Russia spent $66 billion; China, $228 billion.

From Progressives Need a New Way to Talk About National Security , by Joe Cirincione and Guy T. Saperstein


Now is the time for democratic candidates to get this and start talking about better ways for the country to use that money.  Will Harris talk about this?  Gillibrand and Gabbard didn’t. Maybe someone like Washington Governor Jay Inslee will bring it up.

What all Democratic candidates need to know is that the polling shows that the voters would rather money go to infrastructure and social programs than policing the world. 

But of course the Military Industrial Complex won’t let go of any money without a fight. Last week’s Madam Secretary, Strategic Ambiguity, was a great illustration of how defense contractors will lie, cheat, steal, threaten and scare people into voting for weapon systems that are inadequate, aren’t wanted or needed, and make us less safe.

My favorite scene from the episode is this short clip. 

The Madam Secretary writers, Barbara Hall and Matt Ward, explain the issue and put Presidential Candidate Elisabeth McCord in the position of pointing out the problems with the whole system while the Secretary of Defense and the President explain that yes, a defense contractor can “shake them down.”

My favorite line in the clip is when the secretary of defense defends the fighter jet and the shakedown for more money by saying, “Cost overruns are a feature of defense contracts.”

In this next clip the head of the group within the state department who works with the military on allocation for defense spending explains how untrammeled corporate greed distorts our foreign policy.

Show Me The Brightest Timeline

Madam Secretary shows viewers possible solutions and what the characters are up against. If Elizabeth is going to fight the Military Industrial Complex when she is President, she needs to realize she will be attacked, both behind the scenes and in public.

If President McCord cuts funds for a jet fighter 200 people making the wing fluid delivery system for the jets in a congressional district in North Dakota are going to need jobs. What can they do instead? Fluid delivery systems for commercial jets? High speed rail? Solar heating and cooling systems?

President Elisabeth McCord needs to have a vision that acknowledges the current national security budget and a way to redirect it to positive things.

Maybe she makes a Climate Change Service Corp to deal with emergencies and a cabinet post to prepare and manage climate disasters. 

The Madam Secretary writers showed that Eisenhower predicted and understood the problem.  The interstate highway system had long straight stretches so that the military could land a bomber on them if necessary. Probably not going to happen, but it helped justify the money for the interstate under “National Security”.

The Climate Race Is Like The Space Race 
Johnson split up jobs for the space program for political power. The “Space Race” against the Russians provided an urgency that going to the moon for scientific and exploration purposes didn’t.

We need infrastructure hardening and replacement in communities around the country right now.
Maybe President McCord rebuilds the Civil Defense system. Our enemy is Severe Weather. Having  severe weather as the enemy helps deal with the issue of climate change and could provide the kind of jobs that defense contractors have now.

President McCord could SAY we must prepare cities in case they will be being hit by a nuke from Russia or North Korea. That is probably not going to happen, but it is an excuse to prepare us for being hit by the equivalent of 10,000 nuclear bombs from a hurricane. (Link Scientific America article on the power of hurricanes.)

President McCord could SAY she is worried about Terrorists bombing our nuclear power plants and chemical plants, so we need to harden them. That is possible but a rare event, however it is an excuse to prepare them for the more likely events, hurricanes, floods and tornadoes.

She would need people to design, develop and implement emergency power grids and communications systems. Remember Puerto Rico? We needed this last year. Coastal communities need hardened seawalls, inland cities need strengthened levees.

President McCord could SAY we don’t want hackers from China or Russia to take down our power grid and communication systems, so we must spend money creating distributed and redundant systems. That work prepares us for what really takes down our power grids and communications systems, severe weather.

The reality in America today is that all communities could benefit from better power grids and communication systems in the event of emergencies, it doesn’t just have to help the “coastal elites.”

In our current political situation when you say, “National Security” the money is allocated with no questions asked, no audits demanded. That should change. Until then President McCord could still use that model to get money.  She just needs to change what national security includes.

Fiction has the power to show us what is possible. In the end the President fought the defense contractor to a draw, but Secretary McCord vowed to do better when she is President McCord.

I think she will. Elisabeth McCord 2020

Stop letting lobbyists, pundits and media decide who is electable in 2020

by Spocko

 On the January 2nd episode of The Majority Report, Sam Seder talked about the folly of deciding on ‘electability” now.

“Making the electability argument is the most detrimental force to getting a better candidate from the perspective of the left. Because “electability” is exactly what you will hear to discount anyone coming from the left.”

It’s a great point. He goes on to explain that the center right wants to define electability. He points out that there are people and industries that want to set what is electable for the left, especially in certain issues, like health care.

Then they illustrated this with clips of two democrats who were auditioning for lobbyist positions for drug companies and health insurance companies following the 2020 elections.

The drug companies and health insurance firms will want to influence whomever is running for president on the left. Since nobody knows exactly who it will be, they will cover all their bets. They hire former politicians as lobbyists on the left, betting that in 2020 a Democrat president will be in power.

The drug and insurance companies want to determine what is “electable” FOR THEM. They want to set what is a “reasonable” position on any health care changes. Part of this process is teeing up the lobbyists right now. Currently they are looking to hire Democrats who will help them slow down any change from the status quo.  Check out the Sen. Joe Donnelly’s audition tape below. He’s looking for a lobbying position for the health insurance industry.

The drug companies want these Democratic politicians who will soon be lobbyists to first make public statements about what is a “reasonable” policy on health care. If they mention “Medicare for All” they will quickly talk about why this is impossible, then pivot to something amenable to the industry.  In private these Democrat lobbyists will explain to senators, and Democratic presidential candidates in 2020, what the problems will be if they don’t pre-compromise their position to something “doable” or “reasonable.” What is “reasonable?” Whatever the drug and insurance companies say it is.

These Democratic lobbyists will talk about how Medicare for All is “job killing” or it is “too much too soon” or that the country just can’t handle this change. Arguments will range from moral hazard “If you give people free health care they will use it all up” to covert racism. The new Democratic lobbyists will use whatever tools they can, based on the situation at the moment and the people in place at the time. 

The harder the ground is for universal health care, the easier it will be for the “reasonable” ideas of the health insurance industry to be pitched to the Democratic politicians who will be in power in 2020.

It’s Overton Window Moving Time Right NOW. 

All the candidates on the left will have a health care position.  Our job is to keep talking about the need for Universal Health care. The insurance industry and drug companies will be backing trucks of cash up to the doors of former democratic politicians to help that message get out.

The pundits will set up what is a “reasonable” policy on health care. The media will then play their part. They will interview Democrats who have a “reasonable” position on heath care. These Democrats’ JOB is to talk about how impossible something like Medicare for all is.

I will always suggest going after Republicans and right-wing media rather than our own people. But if you still have a need to attack a Democrat in the 2020 campaign instead of a Republican, look into folks like Joe Donnelly

You can also attack any of those GOP candidates who fought ACA, voted to repeal it and then went on the stump and said they would protect it. They won’t have as much value to the drug companies and health insurance firms as Democratic lobbyists, but they will be trotted out nonetheless.

The insurance and drug companies go to the people who will be able to influence whomever is in power. They are the enemy to progress in universal health care.

How to stop friends fighting over the 2020 President picks

By Spocko

Watching the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination race start on MSNBC makes me weary. Friends tell me they dread it.

My friend Maureen Barnato said, “Spocko, my brain will explode if we go through another campaign season like 2016!”

As someone who has had his brain removed I am strongly against brains exploding, especially ones on our side. So, how can you stop friends fighting and brains exploding?

Here is what I’m going to do:  Every time I see an online debate about Warren, Beto, Biden, Harris, Sanders or any possible Democratic presidential nominee I will stop and ask myself.

“What can I do stop the criminality of Republicans? What can I do to expose the anti-democratic institutions and organization they run? How can I de-fund and defeat the people and groups that made Trump, McConnell and Ryan possible?”

Then I will act, based on how I answer those questions.

“But Spocko,” Mr. Lefty McLefterson says, “Some of the people on my side are WRONG!  Isn’t it my duty to educate them? If they aren’t castigated NOW for who they supported in the past, how can they learn from their mistakes?  If I don’t explain why their candidate isn’t the best, we will get Trump for another 4 years!”

Good question Mr. McLefterson! Let’s just postpone the discussion of possible candidates on the left and go right into attacking the GOP, their people and institutions the that made Trump, McConnell
Ryan possible.

In the spokesperson training biz this is called “pivoting.”  Sure, I could engage Mr. McLefterson, but I’d rather move the conversation to going after the right.

Focus on REPUBLICAN problems instead of ours. When we get sucked into fighting each other we lose focus on the ongoing criminality of the Republicans. It’s the ol’ “Let’s you and him fight” trap. Don’t fall for it!

The Republicans and their organization enablers should be worried about going to jail, not chortling as they watch Democratic presidential candidates attack each other.

When you have the urge to attack someone on our side or respond to a comment on a post, stop and think, “Who can I attack on THEIR side instead?“

Let’s channel our shared disgust for Republicans and their terrible behavior away from each other and to the people who really deserve it.

LARS BOHMAN, 2011 Circular firing squad, pastel stick on wood. 35 x 40 cm

Let’s make this a Happy New Year for our side.

The gift I got from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford

By Spocko

I got a lot of fun and thoughtful gifts for Christmas this year. But I realized the best gift I got this year was from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.

Reuters / Jim Bourg

Her testimony had a serious impact on my entire mind, not just my conscious thought. I know this because of the horrible nightmare I had last night. I don’t want to go into details, but in the nightmare I ended up having to tell my story to the police, the court and on TV.

In the nightmare I was preparing to go on TV to tell the public my story.
 I was thinking about the strength and courage Dr. Christine Blasey Ford showed when she testified in the Kavanaugh hearing.

Pool Photo by Tom Williams

As I walked into a TV studio I remember being depressed and disgusted by the fact that as a man my story would be taken more serious than a similar story from a woman.

As I sat before the cameras I though about how sad it was that for some white men the only way they could get the seriousness of an assault was for it to happen to one of their own.

Pool Photo by Tom Williams

These men had shown an inability to empathize with a woman’s experience. But if the only way to reach them was for me to give a painful public testimony, then it was my duty to go through with it.

Remember, this was just a nightmare/dream. I didn’t actually have to go thought any ordeal, but I was ready; to do anything less was to dishonor the courage of Dr. Ford. My subconscious mind would not allow it.

This year I got to know some smart, funny and brave women in the gun violence prevention world. They actually have had to go through these kinds of ordeals.

They are courageous and persistent. They are also often ignored.
Some are told to sit down and shut up.
When they don’t, and speak up, they are threatened both online and in person by men with guns.
Yet they persist.

Pool/Getty Images Andrew Harnik

These women gave me a gift of showing  the power of continual, thoughtful action.

The process of changing an entire mindset is hard. It takes actions both big and public, as well as small and local.

The women might not think they are making progress, but they are. Kavanaugh was placed on the Supreme Court. Does that mean Dr. Ford’s testimony was worthless? No, it does not.

You can never know how your actions, attitudes and words will have an impact on people. Your words and actions may be the ones that reconfigure people’s minds. Long-held attitudes and perceptions may have been changed by something you did that appeared to be a failure.

In the Christmas Carol story Scrooge said this about the ghosts that led him to his change.

“You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”

This was Scrooge’s way of dismissing what his subconsciousness mind was telling him. When I woke up this morning I blamed the peanut sauce, raspberry sorbet or wild blueberry pancakes for my nightmare.

Vegan Wild Blueberry Pancakes.  Acacia Patisserie in Frederiksberg, Denmark. Photo by Spocko

But the food didn’t create the fears that fueled my nightmare, it just triggered my mind to reveal them. The sorbet didn’t create my need to be brave like Dr. Ford, it just set up the scene where I saw it was there.

“I had a dream about you last night…” 

When a guy tells a woman he had a dream about them there is often an awkward pause where he rushes to assure her it wasn’t one of “those” kind of dreams. In this case none of the women I mentioned were actually IN my nightmare/dream. What WAS in my mind during the nightmare was a memory of those women’s strength.

My gift from Dr. Ford was a model of strength of character. I now have a vision of what it looks like and what it might feel like. I  can draw upon this if I am ever in a similar situation.

Pool photo by Michael Reynolds

Since I can’t tell Christine Blasey Ford directly how much her actions impacted me, I decided to tell this to the women I actually know. Thank you for taking nightmare situations and turning them into mind changing actions.

LLAP,

Spocko

If you value what we write here, I hope you’ll consider supporting the blog with a couple of bucks. If you’ve already donated, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. If you haven’t and would like to, the paypal buttons are on the sidebar and below as is the snail mail address.

Buckle up everybody. It’s going to be a very bumpy New Year!

cheers — digby

Digby’s Hullabaloo
2801 Ocean Park Blvd.
Box 157
Santa Monica, Ca 90405

Nation’s Right-Wing Uncle: “I won the Thanksgiving conversations!”

By Spocko

“My sister begged me not to talk about politics at Thanksgiving,” said Uncle Dick Vespa, speaking from a recliner in his sister’s house in a Lincoln Nebraska suburb.

“She pleaded with me, ‘Talk about happy memories when we were kids.’ So I did. The happiest days of MY childhood were teasing her until she cried!”

While Uncle Dick sat in the living room waiting for his younger sister and niece to clean up, he explained why he had no choice but to attack, correct and educate his relatives during the annual holiday event.

“Look, it’s not my fault. From the second I arrived everyone attacked me! I came into the kitchen and my sister was ranting about how important government regulations were, blah blah blah. I didn’t catch it all because she started going off about the food I bought: a very expensive 17 pound honey-baked ham. I know I said I was going to bring a salad, since they’ve been vegan for years, but the stores removed all the romaine lettuce because of the caravan invasion. I couldn’t make my famous Caesar salad so I got a ham instead–which, by the way, was much more expensive. I figured she would be thankful for a break from all the rabbit food, but she wasn’t.”

“Over dinner I won the conversation with my snowflake niece about the economy. I explained the need to cut government regulations and taxes on corporations. She brought up the recent stock market crash, but I pointed out the facts. The stock market only crashed because in January the Dems will start imposing needless, job-killing regulations on corporations.”

“I owned the libs in my own family! Making my snowflake niece cry was the highlight of the day!” – Nation’s Right-Wing Uncle

While wrapping up the remaining 14 pounds of ham to take back to his bachelor apartment, Uncle Dick explained his one regret of the day–his inability to convince them that Brett Kavanaugh was innocent of the sexual assault accusations.

“The fact is that Christine Blasey Ford was a liar! She lied about the reason for her two front doors! One was for renters! Check the dates on the remodeling plans! She lied about her fear of flying! Her ex-boyfriend said she flew all the time! Also, nobody explained convincingly to me why she didn’t report this alleged assault when it happened. If something like that had happened to my sister or niece I’m sure they would have reported it!”

Asked if he had ever talked to either of them about sexual assault or their experiences with high school boys or college men who had been drinking he changed the subject to Brett Kavanaugh’s grades, his potential for a bright future and questioned why Ford couldn’t remember how she got to the house.

“Also, why would a guy who had everything going for him do something like that? Look at his calendar! This was a democrat hit job. Kavanaugh was falsely accused, just like Clarence Thomas was. Frankly I think Ford and her lawyers should be prosecuted for lying.”

When asked why his relatives were visibly unhappy at the end of the day. Dick speculated, “I think it’s because they lose all the conversations. If they could just provide evidence for their opinions maybe they could win a discussion.”

A vegan Thanksgiving meal

“I can’t figure out why they don’t want to have conversations with me more often. They’re fun. Deep down I suspect they know they can’t beat me in a conversation, so they just stop trying. I guess they are tired of being losers and don’t like hanging out with a winner like me.”

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Win or Lose: We Must Demand Investigations

By Spocko

Democrats are expected to be good winners. After a Democratic win, the media will ask the Democrats about their plans to reach across the aisle when they arrive in congress. The media will question Democrats on how they will “unite the country,” as if they were the ones working 24/7 to divide it. They will ask about–and expect–bipartisanship going forward.  Many Democrats will fall for this framing from the media. I understand. They want to be uniters, not dividers.

Democrats are expected to forgive and forget how Republicans did nothing while our highest values were trampled on by Trump.

 Even if an opponent lied about health care and supported hateful and violent rhetoric from Trump, Democrats are expected to forgive and forget. They will talk about being a representative for all the people in the district, not just the people who voted for them, because that is what you are supposed to say as a good winner.

Red and Blue Being Good Sports. AP photo CBS News

Democrats are expected to be good losers. They aren’t supposed to demand investigations of voter suppression, hacking and campaign election fraud. There will be pressure to conceded rather than fight the results.  The mainstream media, Republicans and some centrist Democrats will want Democrats to concede –even when there isn’t an overwhelmingly clear winner or loser!

Howie Klein said the other day that many Democrats have to win by 6-8 points because of the gerrymandering and voter suppression. That’s insane.

But here’s the deal. Democrats don’t have to be good losers. We can be suspicious about all results that weren’t projected blowouts for the Republicans.  We SHOULD be suspicious. If the shoe is on the other foot this evening Republicans will be demanding investigations.

Democrats don’t have to be good winners. We can be winners who don’t forget about the bad things that happened. I want winners who will change things so the people who follow them can have fair elections.

If there isn’t punishment for abuses of power and law breaking in our system the problems continue. That is what happens when we only “look forward not backward” after a win. If we don’t investigate and prosecute the people involved, the problems never stop.

Some problems, like breaking norms that weren’t laws (e.g. disclosing taxes) need to be made into laws.

Democrats don’t want to be like Red Hats at a Trump rally, mindlessly screaming ‘Lock him up!’ about their opponents. We actually do believe in the rule of law and the assumption of innocence until proven guilty. But what if their opponents actually committed crimes? 

We need a chant that assumes innocent until proven guilty. Something that applies to both real and false allegations of wrong doings. How about:

“A Full Investigation Means Justice For The Nation!”
(Nah, too many syllables, but at least it rhymes.)

Full investigations take time. People have short attention spans. Our people won’t be in office until January. The good news, if you can call it that, is that Trump and his people will continue with their violent rhetoric, law breaking and lying every single day, win or lose.

As Sam Seder said, the Trump fever won’t break if they lose. They didn’t relax when they won. They are angry winners because they knew they didn’t really deserve it. When they lose they will scream and cry like Trump. Everyone will be to blame but themselves. It will all be so very very unfair.

In The Squire of Gothos a powerful child-like being was punished by his parents who then apologized to the crew for the damage he had done.  When his parents took him away he whined, “But why? I didn’t do anything wrong. I was winning, I was winning! You saw!” Sound like anyone you see on TV?

Post election we need to stay vigilant and keep track of people to investigate.

Newly elected Democrats will need to hold various members of the GOP accountable for their role in enabling this dangerous child with power. This includes holding people accountable who knew about various crimes, had the power to stop them, but didn’t.

Finally, we can’t let law-breaking, resigning Republicans fly off onto Lobbying World free as a bird. Yes, I’m alleging Republicans broke the law. I know of six Republicans who broke campaign finance laws in connection with money they got from the NRA that was really from Russia. Which specific laws they broke and how much they knew is still unclear, but that is why we need investigations.

Win or lose the GOP will continue to damage to the country until they are prosecuted for their crimes. Mueller’s findings will push Trump into new levels of craziness between now and January.  Get ready to demand full investigations. 
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Halloween Scenario: Trump Launches A Drone Strike On The Caravan
By Spocko

It’s Halloween so I wanted to use my knowledge of military drones, rules of engagement by the military on US soil and Donald Trump’s executive power as Commander In Chief. I’ll call this Scenario: Operation Cucaracha Crush 

1) Trump launches surveillance drones to report on “the invaders” in the caravan while they are in Mexico. 

Drone footage shows caravan of migrants in southern Mexico.
Thousands of Central American migrants arrived in southern Mexico on Oct. 21, on their journey to the United States –Washington Post footage from October 21

2) Trump says the surveillance drone footage shows there are some really “bad hombres” in the caravan who are using the women and children as cover.

Here are Trump’s real October 31st tweets. 

3) Trump tells “the invaders” to disband and stop coming. If they don’t stop he will launch an airstrike. (This will bring up comparisons to Obama ordering airstrikes in foreign countries and allow a flurry of “both sides do it” stories in the media. Trump will take advantage of the executive power granted to Obama by congress to launch drone strikes in foreign countries, so questions about its use in Mexico will only be about breaking “norms” not breaking laws.

3) Mexico will see this as an unwarranted attack on their sovereignty and respond, saying that they will shoot down any drones in their airspace.

4) Trump will claim that he has a responsibility to protect America and—since he doesn’t have a wall yet—he has to act. The caravan doesn’t disband after his warning, so Trump sends a drone.

5) The drone will kill some people who Trump says are “bad hombres” He will claim to use intelligence about the “bad hombres” gathered in the same fashion Obama did. The use of this method is suggested by John Bolton.  Any criticism about the process will end with, “Obama did it.”  Women and children will be accidentally killed, but so did strikes run by Obama.

Alternative 5a) Drone is shot down by Mexico before the strike.

6) Trump declares war on Mexico for their response in aiding and abetting invaders.

7) Trump tells the Mexico that they either stop the invaders or he will send in his own troops that are already massed at the border. (Trump can’t order military action on US soil, but if they move to Mexican soil they can attack to retaliation for shooting down a US drone and to take out the invading caravan.

8) Because Mexico doesn’t want to have a war with Trump, they are forced to act, which is what Trump wanted. Mexico sends in local troops to break up the caravan.

9) Trump “wins” showing he is tough on illegal immigration. This escalation all happens before midterms while the GOP still controls the House and Senate.

Scary enough for ya? Happy Halloween!

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If today’s American media had covered the news on November 10, 1938

By Spocko

The American media format is designed to support “both sides” stories. It’s especially bad in mainstream media, but I just heard Joe Biden use the “both sides” line yesterday. Sigh.
I think I figured out why.

This was the main ingredient in the salad dressing at the White House Press Correspondents dinner!

The many are energized to stop the power of the few and the one 

By Spocko

Star Trek often told stories about power.

 The 1960’s weren’t that far away from World War II. Some of the lessons learned about fighting Nazi’s and fascists could to be reinforced, since over time people forget.

They also had stories of how new technology could upset the balance of power. I spotted a Writing Prompt on Reddit that inspired me to write a Star-Trek like story about technology, people and power.  Here’s the prompt:

Researchers have developed a prototype for teleportation but it hasn’t been announced to the public. Being the 53rd tester, you hop in. But as the scientists pull the switch, you feel your body being ripped apart. Before you fade away, you see yourself come out, reassuring everyone it worked.

My science fiction story takes place in the near future:

Yes I am a Star Trek fan. A HUGE one. I’ve written as “Spocko” for over 20 years. When an announcement of the human teleportation trials came out my brother and I volunteered. Of course I had read why teleportation was created in Star Trek. To save money! Gene Roddenberry knew they couldn’t afford to make shuttlecraft sets and flying down to the planets every week slowed down the plot. Thus, the transporter was born. Here’s how they did the special effect for the cameras.

Since Gene had gotten so much right about the future from multiple races and genders working together to the creation of communicators, universal translators and tablet computers, we figured teleportation had to be next. Signing up was a no brainer.

The trial was funded by the United States government, out of the Department of Energy but it was run by a venture capitalist billionaire buddy of Elon Musk. That was cool since, like other Redditors, I’m a huge fan of Elon.

And without Uncle Sam’s red tape slowing things down everything moved incredibly fast. Raytheilion, the company created for the project, said they made more progress in 2 years than all the previous government efforts had in the past 20.

The day of the test I was reminded of something John Glenn said when asked how he felt before his first rocket flight.

‘I felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of 2 million parts — all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract.’

I was nervous, but excited, no lowest bid government contract here!  I was number 53, but all of the volunteers were kept separate and we weren’t told how the other trials had gone. It was all standard double-blind study stuff.

When I went into the lab I saw two pods, lots of cameras and some VIPs that I assumed were investors.

The pods looked a bit like they were from the movie The Fly with a big glass door in the front.

When I got in the pod closest to me I found the inside was much smaller than the outside, it was like a reverse Tardis from Dr. Who.

The techs closed and sealed the door. It quickly filled with a decontamination mist. I was supposed to breathe it in, but I held my breath. I couldn’t see anything and it felt like I was spinning. There was a loud vacuum pumping sound, which made my skin feel like it was tearing off me. My ears popped and there was a blinding flash of light like in the ending of movie The Prestige.

When I opened my eyes it was dark. All I saw was a sliver of light outlining the door in front of me. I shouted and pounded on the door, but the pod was sound proof. I pushed my face up against the edge of the door and saw the monitor showing the whole room and the two pods.

The video feed from the camera pointed at my pod showed it was empty. The camera pointing at the other pod showed someone inside. It was my twin brother, whom I hadn’t seen since we started the trials. He came out smiling and saying something to the scientists and investors.

SON OF A BITCH! It was all a goddamn trick!

Instead of being teleported I had been spun around and was now standing behind a front-surfaced mirror reflecting the side of the pod making it look empty. It was a text-book “smoke and mirrors” trick.

After hearing some talking and what sounded like celebrating the lab got quiet. The two techs opened the door. They knew I hadn’t teleported, what they didn’t know was that I was conscious and had peered around the edge of the mirror, saw my twin in the other pod and had figured out the trick.

They opened the door and said “Sorry, Spocko, we aborted the test, we’ll try again later. Go get some rest.”  I did my best to look disappointed and headed back to my dorm.

All science fiction fans know the Arthur C. Clarke quote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” but what most people don’t know is the Randi corollary, attributed to the skeptic and magician James Randi, who noted that laymen and scientists were often tricked by fake psychics like Uri Geller, or con men who sold perpetual energy machines which were really clever magic tricks.

“Sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.”
    -The Randi Corollary 

I should have known this was a scam. The VC wasn’t an engineer, he was a  money guy and libertarian. Libertarians hate government oversight. With no oversight they just created some tricks to keep the government money flowing. 

As they said on Battlestar Galactica, “All of this had happened before and will happen again.” Like Reagan’s Star Wars program, human teleportation was a scam designed to get money out of the Government.

I’m lying on my bed in my dorm room with my back to the “health monitoring camera” writing this on tiny scraps of paper. Maybe this can be smuggled out to some journalist before the staff figures out what I saw. If they believe me their life will be in danger. But more likely this will be dismissed as an attempt to get back at the funders after what happened to Gawker.

It will be called fake news. After all, I don’t have any evidence of my story. It would be my word against a powerful group of financially successful men.

If I point out all the other people shut up with perfectly legal NDAs who don’t want to talk I will look like a conspiracy theorist.  Nobody is looking out for me, people will say, I knew what I was getting into. But I didn’t know they were lying to everyone! I figured someone would have busted them by now. I didn’t count on all the people getting rich on the deal to keep their mouths shut.

I thought a scientist whistleblower would have come forward by now. But I guess after they have seen how whistleblowers are attacked and destroyed it makes sense they would keep their head down.

I was a tech guy who believed in the “power of the market” to fix things.  I used to joke about “Good enough for government work.”  Right now I WISH there was some kind of government watchdog looking out for me…

—end–

And now here is the “bonk, bonk on the head” moral of the story, Star Trek style, because you can’t be obvious enough sometimes.

The reason that the government is involved in oversight and regulation of businesses and science isn’t to hamper entrepreneurs who want to make progress. It’s to protect us.

Centuries ago, we the people got together and decided to elected some folks to protect us. We accepted the military as protectors, but there are other ways to protect citizens than the military. We need protection from contaminated food, rigged drug tests, dangerous experiments and out of control ego maniacs.

We need regulations, regulators, and inspectors who aren’t beholden to the companies they inspect.

To put it in a classic Star Trek form:

• We need our institutions to serve the needs of the many, not the few or the one.
• We need a free press to show the world what happens when a system is broken, rigged or corrupt.
• We need a justice system that puts the rule of law above the rule of power and money.

In a few Star Trek original series stories there were beings with tremendous power who acted like children and abused their power.

In The Squire of Gothos in the third act “The Adults” came in and stopped Trelane, the powerful being. That scene was the Hollywood ending that we crave. They punished him and apologized to the crew for the damage he had done.  (I love how Trelane whines when his parents take him away. “But why? I didn’t do anything wrong. I was winning, I was winning! You saw!” Sound like anyone you see on TV?)

Yes it’s Deus ex Machina, but the good news is that we can get some of that ending. We need to remember that the Democrats are The Adults, not the Republicans. The Republicans have shown time and time again they fail in their duty to protect the many and instead act to serve the needs of the few and the one–themselves.

In the show when powerful child-like beings were being stopped, they whined and cried.  The powerful child-like beings didn’t apologize for any damage they have done because they don’t think they did anything wrong.

After the election there will be people on the left and newly elected Democrats who won’t want to punish the GOP for their role in enabling this dangerous child with power. They will let them resign and sail off onto Lobbying World.

They will want to act like Obama and look to the future and move on. But as we have learned, there must be punishment for power abuses and law breaking. And, if something wasn’t a law, but a norm that was ignored, we need to turn that into a law.

We need to include people who knew about the crimes, had the power to stop them, but didn’t.

Failure to act to protect the people, and allowing criminal acts to continue might be difficult to prove, but one of the things that we have learned during this time of widespread corruption is there are many law-breaking avenues to follow.

The right’s projection onto Hillary Clinton and Benghazi tells us a lot about what they are guilty of. Their attacks on George Soros, who and what he funds tells us what to look for on their side.

If we don’t investigate and prosecute the problem will never stop. 

In the episode, Charlie X Kirk wanted to train Charlie to use his power, but the Thasians knew that Charlie couldn’t be trained to use his power wisely, “He will use it and he will destroy you and your kind or you will be forced to destroy him.” So they took Charlie away.

I believe in American’s ability to defeat powerful child-like men. If they can’t use the power given them wisely, they need to go away.

These people won’t give up power easily, they will throw tantrums, lie, bully, point fingers and cry. “I was winning!” and “You’ll reap the whirlwind if you take me out of power!”  But we are The Adults in this story. Time’s up for these children.

LLAP,

Spocko
@spockosbrain

Why we should name the unashamed at Trump rallies

By Spocko

When Trump mocked Dr. Ford at a rally I watched the video of the people behind him smiling, laughing and clapping. My first thought was, “Name ’em and shame ’em!” But as many pointed out to me, “These people HAVE no shame!”  So is naming the unashamed at Trump rallies a useless activity? No, and I’ll Vulcansplain why.

Who is 1) Gold Tie Guy? 2) Tan Hat Guy? 3) Grinning Glasses Guy?

These people chose to attend the rally.  They volunteered to stand behind Trump. They are the opposite of ashamed, they are proud to be on national TV showing their support for Trump as he mocked Dr. Ford. It was an honor.  

Who is 4) Mutton Chop Guy? 5) Beaded Laughing Guy 6) Red Hat Logo Guy 7) Happy Mocking Woman

People suggest name and shame, because they know it would work on them if they said something considered shameful by themselves, their friends and family.

If you showed a video of me laughing, clapping and cheering for Trump as he mocked Dr. Ford, my family, friends and clients would be shocked. Someone would ask me, “What the what!? Is that Spocko’s brain tumor talking?”

My activist friends would ask, “A new deep cover action?” My close personal friend George Soros would call and ask “What’s wrong with you Spocko?” Then he would thank me for volunteering my services.

That is what my friends, family and business associates would do based on who they are and what they believe is shameful.  In this case we have shared beliefs.  They also know from my writing and activism that this behavior would be out of character.

But the people at the Trump rally liked what Trump was saying. You can tell by the looks on their faces right after he talked followed by their applause. (I’ve circled them in the video when they started smiling, laughing and applauding while he mocked Dr. Ford. )

If we found those people now and asked, ‘Is this you in the photo?” they wouldn’t run away from it like we would, they would embrace it. We need to remember that supporters laughing as Trump mocked Dr. Ford is viewed as a good thing and importantly, a NORMAL THING. This is an example of normalizing something that is repugnant.

Trump’s rallies show the country that it is okay to bring out your inner misogynist. This behavior is approved by the GOP.  It now the acceptable social norm in the Republican conservative community.

Trump’s goal is to link winning with his misogynist views. Because greed is his driving force, he also wants people who agree with his views on women, business, and truth to believe it will MAKE them money. (This is why he hid his father’s constant influx of cash to shore up his massive business failures.)

Trump wants to show everyone there are no social, political or financial penalties for holding his misogynist views.  “Look at me! I said this and I’m a winner!”

He wants GOP members to believe that holding these views will lead to more votes in the upcoming election. If they do, it strengthens them.  If they don’t, it should weaken them. 

These events are supposed to support local politicians. Maybe Gold Tie Guy holds an elected position.  At the Council Bluffs Iowa Trump rally two state senators were spotted.

It appears Nebraska state Sens. Steve Erdman (left) and Steve Halloran (right) had good seats at Tuesday’s Trump rally in Council Bluffs. Their hats say “Make Our Farmers Great Again.” pic.twitter.com/mKTbTmATvg

— Chris Dunker (@ChrisDunkerLJS) October 10, 2018

That photo identification of those two politicians was useful. I then found video of Nebraska state senator, Steve Halloran, chanting, “Lock her up.” referring to Senator Dianne Feinstein. So much for innocent until proven guilty, eh Senator Halloran?

But Why Name Them Now?
Each new Trump rally is an opportunity to identify more people who are proud supporters of what Trump says. After Plaid Shirt Guy was spotted making faces during a rally, the Trump advance team only puts real supporters behind him so now is the time to name them.

The people who let out their inner misogyny, bigotry, racism and sexism when supporting Trump’s comments need to be named now when Trump appears to be winning. Because soon Trump and the views he expresses will experience a huge setback.  The excuse “we won, so it doesn’t matter” will no longer provide an excuse.

When Trump stops getting away with his misogynistic comments and faces consequence for them, people will go into denial mode and claim they never agreed with Trump. That is why the video of all these people supporting morally repugnant views needs to be saved and repeated.

Some politicians are more clever about being caught on camera saying equally hideous things (I wonder if Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith was laughing while Trump mocked Dr. Ford. She voted to confirm Kavanaugh)

This specific video has been seen by 10’s of millions of people, yet I didn’t find any identification of the people in the videos. 

Each rally will bring people cheering, laughing and approving new horrible things said by Trump. As Chris Hayes said tonight, “Trump is best at bringing out the worst in people.”

On Thursday night in Montana he praised a politician for his felony assault of a journalist. And he said that the assault helped him win. (This is part of normalizing violence against journalists. He said this following the murder of journalist Khashoggi.)

Where will these Trump supporters be next? Here a link to the complete list.

I’m just like Jesus. He said let the children suffer too!

Mesa, Arizona
Friday, October 19, 2018

Elko, Nevada
Saturday October 20, 2018

Houston, Texas
Monday , October 22, 2018

Prepare For The Trump Crash 

I’ve worked with brand managers for major corporations who sponsored athletes and movie stars. When a celebrity athlete or performer says or does something that is considered horrible by the company, they often drop sponsorship. Even if that celebrity made them 100’s of millions of dollars. Words can sometimes be clarified or “walked back” but no amount of previous Jello pudding pops sales will buy continued support for a convicted rapist.

This is especially the case when the words or actions of a person they sponsor are not in line with what the company stated they stand for. That said, I’ve learned that not everyone has the same values! Surprise!

There are employers, clients and sponsors who said, “Yes! Way to go Gold Tie Guy! Laughing and applauding Trump while he mocks Dr. Ford is in line with our values.”   There will also be employers and clients who were disgusted by the laughter, cheering and applauding of Trump mocking Dr. Ford.

I want to make clear that Gold Tie Guy and the rest definitely should be free to express their political views. Two points:

• The First Amendment protects Americans’ free-speech rights from being restricted by the government, not their employer.
• Freedom of speech is the right to freely express an opinion. It is most assuredly not the right to express an opinion with freedom from the consequences.

When @YesYoureRacist tweeted the photo of some men who were at Charlottesville Virginia the internet identified them.  One was Cole White. His employer, Top Dog of Berkeley, had a conversation with him and he resigned.  There was much discussion about employee’s rights and if a company could fire someone for being a white supremacist.

There is a possibility that when Gold Tie Guy and others are identified there might be negative consequences. If so, they will lash out and attack the people who named them.  Employers would be wise to review how Top Dog dealt with the Cole White situation.

“We pride ourselves on embracing and respecting all our differences and every individual’s choice to do as that person wishes within the boundaries of the law. We do not endorse hatred or any illegal conduct. It simply is not part of our culture.

We do respect our employees’ right to their opinions. They are free to make their own choices but must accept the responsibilities of those choices,” the statement said.”

— Top Dog LLC

Even though the behavior of the people at the rallies is clear, I believe it is important for employers and organizations to gather all the information and consider the context when confronted with a situation like this, because video can be manipulated and info taken out of context. Then, if warranted, appropriate action should be taken.

As a follow up note, people should know that in the case of Cole White, on October 2, 2018 four men, including White, were charged with inciting a riot in Charlottesville.  

Soon more illegal, immoral and traitorous actions leading to Trump’s and the GOP’s wins will be revealed. That is when we should bring out the video of the unashamed at the rally applauding Trump as he mocked Dr. Ford.

Trump kissing Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, at Mississippi rally  right before he mocked Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony about her sexual assault. Five days later Hyde-Smith voted to confirm Bart Kavanaugh.

Losers Double Down 

I believe in people’s ability to change and grow in both wisdom and compassion. I also know some people chose not to change. The unashamed will double down on their views following a loss at the polls. 

They knowingly chose to celebrate the mocking, lying, cheating, bullying and law breaking of Trump and the GOP. They believed that nothing mattered on the way to a “win.”

They trumpeted their support of cruelty on national TV. They knew what they were doing when they hitched their wagon to this dark star.

It is important to name these proud misogynists at that rally in Southhaven Mississippi. I’m hoping that people from Mississippi can identify the people in this video. When the rationale for their horrible views — winning — is gone, we can show they are misogynists AND losers.

.