North Sonoma County Democratic Club: News

Welcome to the North Sonoma County Democratic and Progressive Club!

The North Sonoma County Democratic Club is organized to promote progressive ideas and local candidates. The club serves Cloverdale, Healdsburg and several smaller areas south on the Russian River.
There are no dues.

Psychopathic Leaders

I don't put much stock in Robert Hare's psychopathy checklist, but just for fun we might want to check it against some of our political and corporate leaders. Hare estimates that about three million Americans are psychopaths. That means that if you go to a Santa Rosa Symphony concert, there are probably about three psychopaths in the audience and maybe one leading the orchestra. Keep in mind that psychopaths are often "deciders" who exhibit what humans call "leadership."

Leaders suffering from aggressive narcissism show many of the symptoms listed below:

Glibness or superficial charm
A grandiose sense of self-worth and pathological lying
Cunning/ manipulative skills
Lack of remorse or guilt for antisocial outcomes of their behavior.
Shallow affect (genuine emotion is short-lived and self-centered)
Callousness; lack of empathy
Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

It's easy to point to examples of people who are glib, cunning, lack remorse and fail to accept responsibility for their own actions: Dick Cheney, Ralph Nader, Michele Bachmann, Noam Chomsky, Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, most corporate CEOs, Donald Trump, Mitt Romney, Paris Hilton, Ron and Rand Paul and so on.

Many of us are eager to follow at least one or two of them, aren't we?

No One Celebrates

People who said that it would make no difference if Obama or McCain won the Presidency, might want to consider the following message from President Obama.

"Early this morning, the last of our troops left Iraq. As we honor and reflect on the sacrifices that millions of men and women made for this war, I wanted to make sure you heard the news. Bringing this war to a responsible end was a cause that sparked many Americans to get involved in the political process for the first time. Today's outcome is a reminder that we all have a stake in our country's future, and a say in the direction we choose."

John McCain, outraged, has protested. He wanted the war to continue endlessly.

_____________

We don't say it out loud, but the sacrifices made by our men and women and by the Iraqis were made for nothing. They died for nothing. The war was pointless, except that it made certain rich Republicans even richer. What we hear today, a few days after leaving Iraq, is that the Shia President has begun to crush the Sunni minority. As many predicted, the outcome in Iraq may be a new dictatorship to replace the old dictatorship, the real difference being that the new dictator will befriend Iran.

We can't face pointless deaths in an open way, but a war has ended and no one is celebrating.

My Senior Aide

Newt Gingrich, it seems, has been saying uncomfortable things to reporters about his opponents and allowing himself to be quoted--but only if the quotes are attributed in the press to a senior aide in the Gingrich campaign. I know how Newt feels. I have a senior aide like that. She's the one who called Newt Gingrich a walking snot-bubble. Later she claimed that when Rick Perry tries to fall asleep at night by counting sheep, he gets a boner. Just yesterday she said that if Darwin is right, Michelle Bachmann will learn how to add and subtract in 800,000 years. Today she told me--and you can quote her on this-- that one of the Romneys is a male hooker, and for an extra twenty he will change his position.

I fired her, of course, and have hired a new senior aide, who is the author of the paragraph above.

Gary Goss

Teabagger Studies

Studies of teabaggers have begun to reach us, and we can begin to form a more accurate picture of them. For instance, the Teabaggers have always been Radical Right Republicans and always will be. They have never voted for Democrats.

Teabaggers are old. They have no youth branch, but if they did they would look down on it, because young people are not old. Teabaggers regard young people as fools.

Teabaggers approve of government programs to support wise old white semi-literate people. They disapprove of programs to help children, people of color and young adults. They don't care for public education, prenatal health counseling, student loans, etc. These things are, in the Teabagger's view, undeserved freeloading.

Teabaggers are as white as polished rice but not as smooth to touch.

Teabaggers like Newt Gingrich because he is an authentic butt-head who looks wisely ancient. Newt is their idea of an intellectual leader, someone has noted.

Teabaggers disapprove of the sciences and rational discussion. In their view, the idea that some people are better informed than others undermines democracy, which depends on a belief that all men are equal once they grow old.

_____________________________

This is a curious era in the sense that we have a block of ignorant old people who dislike the young vs. a larger and growing block of young voters looking for change. Perhaps that is always the case, but seldom has the division been so stark. The election in 2012 will decide a generational struggle. The next year should be fascinating.

--Gary Goss

SHIP OF FOOLS

As I write this, the Republican candidates are lining up to take part in a forum led by Donald Trump, perhaps the most ludicrous horse's ass to appear on the American scene in my lifetime. Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul have refused to attend--salvaging a bit of honor for the Republican Party. At the moment the Ship of Fools is led by Newt Gingrich, narcissist. He exudes excessive self-love, much like a military dictator whose every whim has been met for 40 years. Something strange has happened. The two most disliked candidates running for the Republican nomination are now the two leaders. That Republican insiders detest Romney's fake face is well known. Their dislike of Gingrich is equally strong--they can't bear his arrogance, his nasty tongue, his ego, his condescension, his domination, his sexual cheating, his policy shifts, etc. What to do?

Meanwhile the rest of us emitted carbon dioxide from fossil fuel last year at a record rate. Yes, we set a new record. Emissions rose 5.9% in 2010. I remember how we scoffed when George W. Bush offered his solution to global warming: "Get used to it." Now that seems to be the road our leaders have taken.

--GARY GOSS

Joe Hill Last Night

Bob Boardman, the warm heart of the Healdsburg Peace Project, died yesterday. Death came for Bob in stages, taking him chunks at a time. He kept coming back, missing a few parts, riding his bicycle with a smile, active with the Chaucer Boys Bike Club, until Monday, when he didn't make it.

There's too much to say about Bob. He studied THE BIG LEBOWSKY. He fathered a great blended family. In his sixties, he took up bike riding and made the AIDS ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. He sat in meditation. He coached soccer. He loved his wife. He was an ex-Commie who quit because he had his own views. He worked as a teacher and social worker. He served in his union. Most of all Bob remained, in a natural way because it was Bob, committed to helping others. He was big and loud and could get angry, but he had too much empathy to stay angry long. Bob read and thought. He had common sense. He voted for Democrats, because they would do less harm to the poor. He befriended me when we met at an anti-war demonstration because he liked and admired my brother. For many of us he was a force that helped organize our social lives. And aside from all that he had a much bigger life with relatives and friends all over the country. He cannot be replaced but, as the song says, "Joe Hill will never die."

--Gary Goss

Free Yourself

The great American revolution of the 20th century went unnoticed by many of us, because it was silent and leaderless. In 1900 about 90% of black people in America lived in the South, where they were denied citizenship. In the 1920s, for example, if you were a black motorist, you were forbidden by law, in much of the South, to pass a white motorist on the road. Over the next 50 years about half the blacks, deciding one at a time, moved out.

--Gary Goss

The Duke of Earl, author of HAMLET

For most of my life I had to cope with professors who claimed, while staggering about, that Shakespeare did not write his plays. Now a movie has come out based on that premise. I haven't seen the movie--I haven't seen any movies about Shakespeare, because I am not stoned, but Eric Idle has published a fine discussion of related conspiracy theories in The New Yorker, November 21 issue, where he got some things wrong.

Here is what you need to know. There are several theories about who wrote Shakespeare's plays.

1. The plays were not written by Shakespeare but by another man with the same name.

2. Shakespeare's better plays were actually written by the Duke of Earl. This must be the case because only nobility is capable of writing good plays, and Shakespeare was, on his best day, lower middle class.

3. The Duke of Earl is not the same as "They up and call me Speedo, but my real name is Mister Earl." (These two Earls were contemporaries, however.)

3. Ben Jonson's plays--Eric Idle gets this right--"were written by a teen-age girl in Sunderland."

You might think that these theories are pointless because no evidence supports them, but, as Eric Idle points out, "Look at intelligent design. The fact that it is bollocks hasn't stopped a good many people from believing in it. Darwinism itself is only supported by tons of evidence."

--Gary Goss

Shrinking Employment

We've seen the new Sonoma County pension proposal made by Supervisors Shirlee Zane and David Rabbit, and it is conventional, thoughtless and a good illustration of why the Democrats will have a hard time enlisting the 99%ers into their party. The Tea Party fled immediately into the arms of the Republicans because they were Republicans to start with and because the Tea Party wanted funding from Wall Street. Now the Democrats hope for a similar boost from the 99%ers, but they won't get it unless they figure out why the 99ers are in revolt. So far they haven't.

The county Democrats plan to reduce benefits for county employees (a Republican concept involving punishing workers for the sins of the rich) and to increase the age of retirement (guaranteed to reduce employment slots for young people). The elected Democrats are not getting the message--they listen to corporate campaign donors, not to ordinary people.

The basic problem is that there are 7 billion people on the planet and not enough jobs to go around. The Democratic Party response is to make the lucky folks who have jobs keep them longer, shutting out newcomers. That's senseless.

We live in an age where technology ends more jobs than it creates (see RACE AGAINST THE MACHINE by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee). That is our future, except that it's going to get worse. Robots are more profitable than human workers. Our current economic system depends on everyone working to earn money so we can purchase products etc. And the system is failing because many cannot find work. An estimated 2 billion people on this planet go to bed hungry each night.

There are quick temporary fixes for the relatively rich Western World. We could cut the work week to 35 hours and have instant full employment. We could make the retirement age 55 and have full employment. But our ideology--when times get tough, America punishes the poor--forbids these answers. Our political class doesn't get it (or doesn't want to). Almost no one in power is listening. Finding humane answers is left the powerless.

--Gary Goss

99%

I've managed to join Occupy Santa Rosa only twice to date (I've been in Canada), and I have no idea how all of this will turn out. The movement is somewhat reminiscent of the 1960s marches on Washington against war, which I joined (having served in the army). Today's marchers strike me as better informed than usual.

The last New Deal President was LBJ, who floundered into deep war waters and went under. From that point on the formerly New Deal party has been the wishy-washy corporate party intent on softening the regulations that stave off financial bubbles and recessions (Carter) and then on ending regulations (Clinton). The Republicans responded to this race to the right by turning over their party to wingnut radicals and idiot values punishers. And here we are today.

George Lakoff sees the Occupy movement as moral--rather than political--in nature. That is, the Occupiers want the country to change its priorities and work together for the common good. This isn't a matter of one issue or 100 issues. A world view is central. The Republicans offer a view that is pure Wall Street greed backed by Christian bigotry. The Democrats currently mill about in circles. What the country needs is a party that focuses on ordinary people and what they need to live useful and enjoyable lives right now. Right now is all we will ever have.

--Gary Goss

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