Why Piketty is right to recommend that Democrats "go left" to win votes:

French Economist, Thomas Pickety, says Democrats will win more votes if they address economic inequality and other traditional Democratic concerns about workers. A Pro Publica article underscores how messed up the economy is for average Americans:

https://www.propublica.org/article/investigating-ibm-digital-community-ex-employees

Famous French economist, Thomas Piketty, says "go left" and Democrats will win more voters

Even Bill Clinton would agree... ("It's the Economy Stupid" ), Democrats have to address the economic divide to increase voter turnout. Article about Piketty's deeply researched paper (174 pages with charts) in RawStory:

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/famous-french-economist-counterintuitive-idea-democrats-can-retake-america/

Q: What do we do after the BLUE WAVE?

A: WE FLIP THE ECONOMIC PYRAMID

Q: How do we flip the economic pyramid?

A: We return to the New Deal, which worked amazingly well. We get serious about a progressive tax – which means tax the upper brackets a lot more and the lower brackets less. THEN we (smartly) allocate funds for physical and intellectual infrastructure – roads, schools, and environmental protections. We create the conditions for a robust PEOPLE's ECONOMY. Cultivate a healthy emergent system. It's really a traditional and highly effective idea with new biological theories to support it. See E.O. Wilson on emergent systems.

Q: What's a people's economy?

A: It's not one where corporations get all the concessions and tax breaks and everyone else gets crumbs and have to compete against those propped up behemoths. In a people's economy small business has leverage again – and "small" includes both a small family restaurant or plumbing outfit all the way down to an individual getting a state-funded nursing degree or electrician's license.

Return America to the Americans! Thank ALL progressive Democrats for reminding us that we abandoned what was once working in this country: the New Deal.

Same old? Hell yeah! It worked! Let's get ready to do it again – but better, with many lessons learned since the 1930s about INCLUDING women, the LGBTQ community, and all ethnicities and religious (and non-religious) persuasions.

I'm sick of doing three jobs. The pyramid must, and WILL be flipped.

MIT prof: We're now 3rd World.

Elizabeth Warren, Robert Reich, Bernie Sanders, Warren Buffet and Hilllary are ALL right. And it was said succinctly by Bill Cinton: "It's the economy stupid."

AND ACCORDING TO AN MIT ECONOMIST (see link below) THIS IS NOT A RADICAL FRINGE IDEA: Structurally we're already a "3rd World" Country and Democrats need to address the "common good" and gross economic inequality. Speaking for myself, but I know others are already there:

WHAT DEMOCRATS SHOULD EMPHASIZE:
Democrats are for the common good, not a minority of well-to-do economic elites. This means a strong, effective infrastructure for a PEOPLE'S economy. Increase money for education and roads, decrease loopholes for the rich.

AND AFTER THAT SINKS IN: Stop scapegoating women, African Americans, immigrants, the press, even the environment. The real problem is extreme economic inequality which affects EVERYBODY.

Link to article: https://www.themaven.net/theintellectualist/news/study-by-mit-economist-u-s-has-regressed-to-a-third-world-nation-for-most-of-its-citizens-Sb5A5HZ1rUiXavZapos30g

BLUEFIRE

The wave of Democratic activism is intensifying. It's like a fire, a blue fire.

Long live the BLUEFIRE! May it grow in resolve and depth.... and produce votes, cultural change and the building of new democratic institutions, apps, businesses, language and systems.

And may it be shared across generations and discussed – gasp! – over dinner (as we did tonight with two sets of parents and four children between us).

Blue VOTEFIRE: Rebooting the 50 State Solution and FDR

Democrats are STARVING for a 50 state BLUE VOTEFIRE and FDR-type progress.

See Dailykos: https://m.dailykos.com/stories/1745590

Ivanka's dirty secret in Panama

My new term for Republicans and "conservatives":

FANATICAL FEAROIDS

They certainly aren't conservatives (since they don't actually conserve anything – i.e. national parks and traditional New Deal legislation). And recent psychological profiles of so-called "conservatives" shows that such folks are distinguished by fear and simplistic thinking.

Yes, it sounds like sci fi, but we have entered a kind of Twilight Zone where none of the old labels are working. These people, these fanatical fearoids, support extremist positions on assault rifles, tax policies serving only multimillionaires, and believe Jesus condones sexual assault and white supremacy. "Reactionary" is not accurate enough a term. Until someone finds me a better term I'm sticking with fanatical fearoid.

Professor amazed: today's "conservatives" aren't actually conservative.

Jeffrey P. Kimball, Miami University professor emeritus, has finally articulated what has been needling me for years. So-called "conservatives" should be conserving the New Deal, national parks, polite manners, and other longstanding US traditions. They aren't, in fact, conserving much of anything – especially under the current Russian puppet despoiling the Whitehouse. Referring to dictionary definitions of conservative, Kimball states in Raw Story:

Ideals are central, not peripheral

We sometimes treat ideals as silly and impossible to implement. Some, like making all blizzards go away, certainly are ridiculous. But maybe we should separate the silly from the realistic and treat the formation and vivid articulation of achievable ideals as a critical operating system at the center of the hive mind.

Take democracy and the abolition of slavery. These were once considered out of reach, but became a standard for much of the world. Initially they had to be promoted as achievable – repeatedly – but what this framing did was actually quite critical to the functioning of group mind: a positive, well-defined ideal may actually function as a memetic seed or operating system... it provides a vivid, and achievable blueprint for the future. It isn't pie-in-the-sky at all. Ideals are actually necessary for a functioning society.

Here are some examples of how well-defined ideals actually leverage change:

– Women claiming their rights by marching in the streets during the women's suffrage movement. They embodied the concept of women's collective power and the institutionalization of the same came about: voting rights for women.

– A vision of scientifically advanced black culture in the new film Black Panther is breaking box office records and giving African American children new kinds of role models.

– The Parkland massacre survivors stating with intense emotion that enough is enough. It has catalyzed a ripple of sentiment for a ban on assault rifles and the linking of Republicans with funding from the NRA. These kids' vision of change is more likely to bring about change in gun laws than any efforts by the more wonkish set before them. They have fearlessly and passionately framed the ideal and it is working.

– Philosophical discussions about the usefulness of ideals (like this one) being swept up in the Democratic Underground and reminding us all that change comes through a combination of ideal-setting (philosophy and culture), platform articulation (social science and policy wonks), and action (everyone voting).