Health Care reform gridlock and Money Corrupted Democracy...

...Form the dual core issues that need to be organized around and illustrate the heart of what is needed for any meaningful progressive democracy re-awakening to be successful in this country.

More and more the news about health care reform shows just how deeply entrenched the mentality is in mainstream circles that the status quo can and will ignore the will of the people for real change in our incredibly corrupt for profit health care and insurance system. Both need to be transformed into Not For Profit Public Trusts that serve the needs of people and other kinds of businesses in this country by providing true Single Payer National Health Care For All. The drain of "business as usual" in this area is almost impossible to overstate.

And of course- the money behind keeping things as they are for the major profit centers of the "health care industry"- any oxymoron if there ever was one- is a huge reason why there is no "political will" on the part of supposedly "our" elected representatives for the only kind of health care reform that will really make a difference and get the suffocationg monkey of profit corrupted health care off the backs of the people and businesses of this country.

Single Payer National Health Insurance...

...Without a doubt a bedrock fundamental issue that has to be made a reality for any genuine pro democracy reform to be successfully implemented at any level of our society, economy, and politics. Yesterday's radio program of democracynow.org was an eye opener. 2.2 trillion spent each year in this country on health care- that's $7 grand for every man woman and child and twice the per capita amount spent by any advanced developed nation yet we rank 37th in outcomes. Atrocious and a high crime. I would guess that 40% of what we spend or so is nothing more than the vig skimmed by the big time profiteers of the ponzi racket that they themselves have set up- truly gamed and rigged ponzi system that benefits big insurance, big pharma, the big hospital industry, along with all manner of public officials that are funded by those entities to ensure that the interests of those "profit centers" are protected rather than the health and security of the people, families and communities of this country. Check out these links:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/9/sen_bernie_sanders_and_nurses_union
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2009/5/14/amy_goodmans_new_column_baucus_raucous_caucus

I'm all a twitter and feeling pretty thweet...

...and inspite of how pervasively obnoxious some of the emergent media buzz about twitter and all these narcissist celeb types telling us how intereting their toe nail growth rates are and all- this seems to be a perfect quick posting and organizing social network tool perfectly suited to the type of pro democracy movement I am advocationg for... Sooooo: https://twitter.com/gskalsky

Needless to say I have a long way to go and a lot of work in front of me.

So I'm looking backward 30 or so years...

...and low and behold it leads to this discovery http://www.ieer.org/index.html which is a site that bills itself as advocating for "Science and Democracy" for 20 years now. From my quick perusal they look like they should be contacted for collaboratory purposes with whatever my pro democracy entitiy ends up getting called.

So, thanks Liz, and happy birthday one time almost Ms. Right for a year or there abouts.

Soon the personal journalizing will give way...

...to the more general efforts I want to have this blog be the initial catalyst to getting my own work started on. There is a lot of tinkering and playing with the capabilities of blogger that I have to just spend time on.

And before too very much longer I want to start building the companion Web Site to this blog so I can link here to more lengthy material (essays, articles, policy proposals, fund development, organizational framework stuff and whatnot) that will help move what I am proposing forward into the more real world "bricks and mortar" stages of its development.

Because, in the last analysis, at the end of the day, when we get down to brass tacks- or real nitty gritty, if you will- the purpose of much of my writing is to propose serious grass roots political organization all across America the Beautiful in order that "We the people..." might more successfully carry out the great work of our generation, or epoch more like it, that must- in order to be successfully undertaken at all or in time (given the magnitude and severity of the various crises and challenges we as a Nation face)- begin with a radical re-invigoration of our Democratic traditions.

And as I say at many times and places in my writing: this specific political movement I call for must, I believe, be undertaken peacefully utilizing the rich democratic traditions that are there for us as citizens to utilize for just such a momentous time in our history as we currently live in. However, that being said- the need for rapid and radical evolutionary transformation of the social, economic, and political aspects of our society must be approached and treated by all who participate as nothing short of another stage of our ongoing Democratic Experiment and perhaps even a true Second American Revolution.

Talking `bout, talking bout...

...My blog... or actually this blog. There is as y'all know, everything under the sun on the Internet and now, too, in the blogospere. It's "New Media", baby, and there ain't no Gatekeepers. Everything is there, and everything is possible. Thank you, Al Gore. Thank you, you genius you. And Bill Gates too. You big old creative entrepreneur visionary you. And of course, genius too. Not to mention squelcher of innovation and corporate behemoth. But that's another blogpost.

What I do here, and invite some people, a small cadre of trusted patriot peacenik progressive evolutionaries to join me in doing, is to try researching and filtering and adding to the mix of what's out there regarding what's possible, already being done, and activist encouragement/ organizing toward "what 'we the people' ought to do from here" (to bastardize and plagiarize the great philosophical question of the late and great Commander Scott)- in a peaceful yet urgent passionate no holds barred "2nd American Revolution" manner.

Eventually this blog will have all kinds of links to what I find and who I communicate with about "all of this, this great assed gaiea thing of which I speak". There will also be a companion Web Site that tries to organize both funding for the real world bricks and mortar activist-organizing- entrepreneruial boots on the ground entity that the movement I am calling must have in order to be more than the mere pipe dream of one slightly addled and agitated ghost poet-philosopher / writer-naturalist / adventurer-explorer / working class hero of the counterculture (and that is indeed something to be...

And besides fund development that companion Web Site will present, in a more cogent manner and "professional tone and voice" specifically what is being proposed, what I reccomend based on how things with my work evolve from here, and so forth...

But till then, tramps like me- maybe I was born to run, eh?

Moving forward in the post Obama euphoria of hope hangover mode...

...Which is, of course, what we had better do and get going on fast or the tremendous hope and optimism that came with this man's enormous and stunning rise on the American political firmament will simply de-evolve into the precursor to the next nutjob kneepad Tory NeoCon shift further right in a pendulum swing that I fear may not be over...

...If, that is, all progressive foment simply simmers in the "Obama as Savior" and be all end all of what is possible now that their might in fact be a new and long term demographic shift that makes it unlikely that the same tired old Conservative hoodwinking of the American people can continue mostly unabated as it more or less has since WW2 ended- those fabulous sixties notwithstanding.

So here are a couple of starting points for discussion:

• A little bittie article in the Cleve-A-Burg Pee Dee today notes that Obama has toughened standards on mining with regard to "Mountaintop Removal" practices that effectively enhance profits through "Strip Mining on Steroids" (and we thought the worlds biggest shovel was a travesty in its wreckless pirsuit of easy clean coal money) while in the process ruining land, watersheds, wildlife habitat, and of course, the obligatory lives of people, families, communities, etc. etc..
• Mind you, Obama the Be All End All that he is strengthened regulation but stopped short of taking a stand on ending the practice- because that no doubt might lead to a fight with Mr. Cheney, the political and bureaucratic pit bull operative shill of all things powerful and wealthy that eminate from the overall extractive industreis: coal, oil, nuke-ular...you name it.
• If the Democrats, starting with Obama at both the point and power forward positions, don't start spending their significant political capital they have gained finally after 40+ years of being the Republican Light Loyal opposition/ collaborators to the Hard Right- then the capital will be gone and an amazing window of opportunity will close quickly...
• And we will have a Republican team in power in the White House consisting of Sarah Palin or General Patreus playing the roll of "Cheerleader in Chief" made famous by Sonnie Dubya with perhaps, in a madcap ironic twist, Jeb doing a stint at Vice learning the ways of the control panel in the bunker perhaps from Cheney himself, or could be a Virtual Reality holigram of old Dick if he's out to pasture or quail hunting full time by then.
• And speaking of Quail- don't be surprised if his career can be resurrected by the NeoCon think tanks. And Newt Gingrich is a real man's man and supreme intellectual with honor and a code he lives by. Just ask Rush.
  

Just like starting over...

...And Again

Welcome to the new beginning of, like, my work. If you are looking at this in the early stages you probably are or have been at one phase or stage or another a pretty close friend and I have asked you to become involved with what I am trying to do with my writing and internet advocacy efforts. These next few weeks I will put in the time necessary to get past all the restart up glitches and questions. This blog, although Beta in a very real sense, should begin to explain itself and my intentions and function as a good starting point for whatever is to evolve from here.

And although I do like to think I have a fair idea of what that is supposed to be- from my personal point of view- I am always reminded at times like... this when I am attempting to wade back into the "work" and "the writin'" that I have been dabbling at for decades now... of William Least Heat Moon's mantra from his book and journey Riverhorse: "Proceed as the way opens". Yeah, that's what I'll do.