A right wing inspired terrorist group murdered 49 muslims and injured 48 more in an attack in New Zealand today. The perpetrators claims to have been radicalized by Trump and the forces of right wing extreeminsm. Just before, Trump hinted at violence aimed at Democrats. Please join me today as September continues anew in a deadly fashion.
49 dead because words and memes have power
New voting machines? What nobody is talking about.
Please join me today at 4pm as I cast an educated eye towards this new crop of voting machines. Because of a settlement between Jill Stein and the state of PA, PA is required to obtain new voting machines that leave a paper trail. But dangers lurk with this new crop, dangers I will reveal for the first time.
Use words, not memes
In September of 1993, America Online offered Usenet access for ther first time. Before that time, the only way to access Usenet was at colleges, libraries, and such. Every september, freshmen would swamp usenet and had to become acclimated to the “Netiquite” rules. Those who acclimated stayed on, those who did not left. When AOL offered usenet access, all hell broke loose, and the trolls ran amok. In time, they were kill filed. By the time AOL removed usenet access in 2005, “Sporge” or spam forgeries had made Usenet almost unusable as kill filing could not keep up.
I see modern social media experencing the same problem, magnified by the cumulative effect of Russian trolls teaching and inspiring both sides of an issue against each other. Facebook is filled with N00Bs. And kill filing won’t work. Please join me as I begin to explore this issue, and options to fix it.
HB338: The bill to block stingrays
On this show, my guest will be Ed Quiggle, Former Technology chairman of the PA state Libertarian Party and current acting secretary of Restore the 4th. We will be discussing House Bill 338, which is designed to block the use of Stingray devices. Stingrays are basically customised, portable cell towers that are designed to capture and sniff all cellular traffiic in a given area. In effect performing a “man in the middle” attack. If you are caught up in one, you will never know. Unless, you have a certain kind of phone running a certain kind of software. We will be discussing the bill, it’s status, and how you can help as well as what you can do to protect yourselves from this 4th Amendment violation.
The Second Amendment, the tea party, and me.
Last night, I raised a few eyebrows with my support of the second amendment. Tune in to find out how.
The other side of the opioid crisis
This abbreviated show will highlight what most people don’t talk about. The forgotten elderly.
Don’t listen to this show, unless …
So, Since Putin helped Trump win the White House, our country is more divided than ever while Putin threatens America with nuclear war. Bernie Sanders had recently announced his campaign and the trolls have come out of the woodwork. My intention, from here on out, is to bring back this show, done live as a weekday show beginning tomorrow. I PROMISE I will flub my lines or mis speak, or maybe even stub my toe. Who knows. But it will get better the more I work on it. Oh, and tomorrow is my birthday. So please tune in. It might even be funny, as I may have the wierdest calls coming in. The only way to find out is to tune in.
The American Anti Corruption Act
The other day, in the town of Allen, our 4 term mayor Ed Pawlowski was sentenced to 15 years in club fed, $93,000.00 restitution, and a whole lotta misery for 38 counts of pay to play. More info here https://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-nws-allentown-mayor-ed-pawlowski-sentenced-20181022-story.html
He should have listened to me
Several months before, on 1-21-15, my friend Robert and I celebrated the 5th anniversary of the #citizensunited Supreme Court decision that greatly expanded the role of money in politics. We did this by attending a meeting of Allentown city council in an effort to persuade them to adopt a symbolic resolution in support of the American Anti Corruption Act. While we failed that night, in time, we were able to assist council with adopting an anti pay to play law. That work is ongoing.
But there is much more to be done. Donald J Trump ran for President on a platform to “drain the swamp” yet has done the exact opposite by filling key positions with oligarchs. If you give me your write in vote as your Congressperson for the PA 7th district, one of my first order of business in DC is to compose and propose a version of the anti corruption act something like this:
“Proposed anti corruption act
Summary of Provisions
FIX OUR BROKEN ELECTIONS
Politicians prioritize big donors to get elected and redraw their districts to stay in office. By changing how our elections work, we can put power back in the hands of the people.
End Gerrymandering: Create an independent citizens commission for redistricting that follows strict guidelines to ensure accurate representation for all voters.
Change how elections are funded: Offer every voter a small credit they can use to make a political donation with no out-of-pocket expense. Set strict limits on campaign contributions.
Make candidates more accountable to their constituents: Allow political contributions only from the district where the candidate is running.
Equalize ballot access: Level the field for all party and independent candidates. Potential candidates should have to collect the same number of petition signatures regardless of political affiliation.
End closed primaries: Primaries are a function of the major parties but are funded by all taxpayers, though not all taxpayers can participate. Open primaries to all voters, or eliminate them altogether.
Let voters rank their top candidates: Ranked choice voting allows voters to support their top choice without fear of inadvertantly helping elect the other party’s candidate.
Allow early voting through absentee ballot: Lift the restrictions on the use of absentee ballots to make voting access easier for qualified voters.
Keep voter rolls up to date and secure: Allow all state agencies to register voters using positive identification and share that information with county boards of elections.
Make voting easier for working people: Allow voters to vote at voting centers outside their precinct or ward.
Make election day a holiday: Voting is the most important action for a citizen of a democratic republic. We should enshrine and encourage voting by making election day a holiday.
Make all elections accurately auditable: Votes must be recorded accurately and have an auditable paper trail.
Allow hiring as well as electing poll workers: Currently, poll workers are elected in Pennsylvania, leading to understaffing at the polls. By allowing county boards of elections to hire poll workers, elections can be fully staffed and poll workers can be properly trained.
END UNLIMITED GIFTS AND SECRET MONEY
Pennsylvania lawmakers are allowed to accept gifts and donations of unlimited value. Lax financial rules lead to open bribery of state politicians. Secret money groups funnel millions of dollars into state elections. Voters deserve to know who is buying political power.
Enact and enforce a gift ban on politicians: Politicans are influenced by money, lavish gifts, trips and fancy meals. We need a gift ban to stop this practice which is unlimited in Pennsylvania.
Immediately disclose political money online: Update disclosure laws on political donations and spending. Make public disclosure of all significant transactions immediate.
Stop donors from hiding behind secret money groups: Require any organization that spends money on political advertisements to file timely online reports disclosing its major donors.
Crack down on super PACs: Enforce the mandate that super PACs must be independent from candidates by making meaningful rules aimed at preventing coordination.
STOP POLITICAL BRIBERY
From lucrative job offers and unlimited gifts to campaign contributions, there are too many legal ways for special interests to bribe politicians. Exchanging money for political influence is corrupt and should be illegal.
Make it illegal for politicians to take money from professional lobbyists: People who get paid to influence politicians can either lobby or donate, they can’t do both.
Ban lobbyist bundling: Prohibit lobbyists from aggregating other people’s contributions and delivering them to political campaigns.
Close the revolving door: Stop elected officials and their staff from selling off their government power for high paying lobbying jobs. Prohibit them from holding or negotiating jobs with firms that lobby or do business with the state while in office. Bar former elected officials and staff from all lobbying for five years after leaving office.
Eliminate conflicts of interest: Make it illegal for sitting politicians to hold positions with lawfirms and companies that do business with the state.
ENFORCE THE RULES
Existing anti-corruption laws are weak and outdated, and agencies routinely fail to penalize the rulebreakers. Stronger enforcement will stop elected officials, lobbyists and super PACs from evading the law.
Eliminate lobbyist loopholes: Prevent lobbyists from skirting the rules by strengthening the definition of lobbying and penalizing paid lobbyists who fail to register.
Strengthen anti-corruption enforcement: Fix the State Ethics Commission and give prosecutors the tools they need to combat corruption.”
More information about this movement can be found at https://anticorruptionact.org/ and https://represent.us/
#sendmetotrump
A proposition for Facebook, as soon as Facebook straightens its act out.
Hello. My name is Lewis Shupe, and I’m a recovering Democrat. So, I am about to kick my write in campaign for Congress into high gear (see below) and I wish for help to communicate this idea to the Facebook higher ups. My main reason for running is to propose and institute an idea I believe whose time has come. PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY. Defined, it is my idea of a sitting and serving elected politician directly conferring ONLY with the registered voters in a given political district. No sock puppets, no outside agitators, no political parties, no Russian trolls, no lobbyists, no armchair power trippers, no spooks, and no bullshit.
If I am chosen to represent the PA 7th Congressional district, this group of registered voters is where I will draw from there collected wisdom in my day to day dealings with Congress within the confines of the law. I say this because, as a Congressperson, I will become privy to classified information that I cannot share. At that point, I would have to ask for your trust in my 30 years in cyber security and computer programming to make the right decisions. Outside of that caveat, I intend to depend directly on the voters to inform me on how I should conduct legislative affairs such as how to vote on legislation, proposals, etc. As I have a natural distrust of lobbyists, I would stream my meetings with them to the registered voters, much as I do now with Allentown city council meetings posted at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8TGc8vyVtO24LrwZ-5hXVA. If this special group is set up the way I wish, which is as securable as possible, this could solve the problems Facebook has been experiencing with all the political bovine manure that has, and will continue to transpire. If not, I will continue to chart my own course without Facebook, and I may even speak out against Facebook again. My website where all my words are is http://realchange.us/the-gist-of-it-all/
Around the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, I admin and / or moderate several different Facebook groups. One of which is REALCHANGE.US. You won’t likely see me post a page about my write-in campaign, because to put it as simply as possible I believe in dialogue. Watching these groups and a few others, I see the dialogue that goes on between the politically-connected people here in the Lehigh Valley. It has both educated me and enlightened me to what people can discuss on a daily basis. This can’t happen as well with a dedicated page.
On the flip side, I have seen various tea party, republican, and even leftist groups filled with sock puppets, fake accounts, out of area trolls, and general assholes who must be spending all day and all night filling the groups with bad memes, bad facts, disinformation, and plain old fashioned BULLSHIT and Facebook does nothing to stop them. THIS MUST CHANGE. In particular, tea party groups like “Tea Party” “The Facebook Tea Party” “National Tea Party” among many more like it, wrap there hate in the flag and have been posting there hate for years, unchecked by Facebook. And if you try to enlighten them, not only do the trolls get mad, Facebook keeps popping up with posting reminders every time someone posts a response.
This is as bad as it was 2 years ago, when I ran the local Bernie Sanders campaign. And we all know what happened when the Internet Research Agency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Research_Agency amplified the hate and discord
I was originally inspired in this idea by the coffee party, and its founder Annabel Park. Several years ago, in response to the paranoia of the national tea party, she had this crazy idea that people should get together and be able to talk about politics in a civil matter. Considering all the bovine manure that I’ve been seeing for the past oh 50 years or so, I thought this idea would be great for voters to get together and discuss what is in their best interest. Unfortunately, the organization that she founded eventually got corrupted with people who took over the board and tried to make money from it. She still chugs along with a core group of believers, and so do I.
So, it is with these thoughts in mind that I share my idea of a better world with the reading public. This is why I do what I do.
The trick is to verify the voters are in the PA 7th congressional district by uploading a picture of there photo ID with a photo of there voter registration card. Something Facebook has not gotten right yet. As some people might be a bit skittish on verifying there ID, special precautions must be put in place to put there fears at ease. For example, No Facebook marketing, tracking, or spying code in this specific type of group. People need to feel they are able to converse about potentially controversial subjects without fear from the American surveillance state you so willingly help. This whole endeavor should not be used to inconvenience voters of little means, such as myself. Another suggestion is that, withing the group, people should use nicknames, and not there real name. This is to prevent outside coercion, buying opinions, bullying, ect. More specifics can be discussed soon. Readers, suggestions welcome.
But wait, there’s more. Facebook is approving political advertisements by Islamic State? https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/wj9mny/facebooks-political-ad-tool-let-us-buy-ads-paid-for-by-mike-pence-and-isis
So Facebook, work with me here. I am posting all this here, rather than the group, because I worry my words may not reach as wide an audience as I seek. I would hope as many people as possible see this. Help me out and I can help rescue Facebook. Facebook already has a reach into the population far far greater than whoever is in second place. Failure to come to an agreement will simply mean I will look towards second place and beyond. Because at the end of the day, I CARE.
Dreamers town hall with DNC Deputy Chair Keith Ellison
On this day, I recorded video from the town hall held at the Resurrection Center at 9th and Turner in Allentown PA. In addition to sponsors Northampton County Dems, East Penn Dems, Indivisible Berks, Power Northeast and Make the road action PA, speakers included PA Governor Tom Wolf, Murat Guzel, as well as DNC vice chair Keith Ellison. Marcel Groen, PA state Democratic chairman, was absent. Video links are below:
part 1 = https://youtu.be/oiR2s1wxugg
part 2 = https://youtu.be/f23Urg2K_lk
part 3 = https://youtu.be/cUvmJNp5prU
part 4 = https://youtu.be/wNVK1RsjdYA
At the end of the event, Keith Ellison took 3 questions from the audience, visible in part 4. What I found very lacking is the questions about when the superdelagates would be removed, not just lessened? By the time I swapped batteries out of my smartphone, he was gone. But the big questions remains. What will become of the superdelagates that are left? And what guarantees do the American people have that the bovine manure forced upon us by Hillary Clinton and Debbie Wassermann Schultz do not happen again? To his credit, Keith Ellison answered that by refusing to endorse a democratic candidate in the audience before the primary, visible on part 4. There is hope. But will it be enough?