| Title | Post Boost | Reach | Like | Comments | Shares | Clicks | Hide | Hideall | Cost | Topic |
| Regional federalism is an alternative to secession or | 2021-12-31 | 8 | - | 1 | theory | |||||
| Regional federalism is a way to try the rural dream, | 2021-12-30 | 4 | - | theory | ||||||
| A traditional conservative laments the end of traditional | 2021-12-23 | 1 | - | theory | ||||||
| Why does GOP support right-to-life, universal unpermitted | 2021-12-08 | 1 | - | 1 | theory | |||||
| What happens after the revolution? It's the same | 2021-10-17 | 13 | - | theory | ||||||
| Do you still want to be a Libertarian? | 2021-10-16 | 3 | - | 1 | theory | |||||
| The oldest excuse in politics - everybody's doing it! | 2021-06-04 | - | theory | |||||||
| Why does populism always go bad? | 2021-06-04 | - | theory | |||||||
| The hardest sales pitch! | 2021-04-26 | - | theory | |||||||
| "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts | 2021-03-18 | 15 | 1 | 3 | theory | |||||
| 200 years ago the immigrant demons were whisky-soaked | 2021-02-13 | 11 | - | theory | ||||||
| Concentrations of Power and Liberty and Equality in | 2021-01-18 | 18 | - | theory |
The table above has these entries. Post entries with just one line for Reach were not boosted. Boosted posts have two lines for Reach and several other items. The upper line reflects all interactions, the bottom line just those resulting from paid ads.
========== Regional federalism is an alternative to secession or division into two or more parts. https://www.political-scrapbook.net/2020-regional.html Secession would be better than civil war, but the practical difficulties are enormous - which is why Quebec and Scotland are not independent countries. Read about what's required to be accepted as an independent nation - https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/12/31/secession-civil-war-stephen-marche/ Regional federalism is more like a trial separation that, after a generation, might well be undone by mutual agreement - red states agree to majority rule in exchange for resumption of economic subsidies from blue states. Or maybe just some of the red states - the old slave states might never return, preferring to preserve their peculiar institutions. Separation might end sooner in response to a severe enough external threat. The foreign powers that would succeed a fractured USA have an intense interest in provoking and maintaining that fracture; how long before the people recognize that and respond? #PS1theory ===== hide 1 impact 15 impactrate 0 negative 1 posted 2021-12-31 ratio 8 react 1 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 title Regional federalism is an alternative to secession or topic theory wordrate 0 words 149 epoch Lifetime hideclicksusers 1 ID 1571487853195728 impress 9 pageid 534332363577954 pagename "Political scrapbook" posted "12/31/2021 20:12" reach 8 title "Perspective | Secession might seem like the lesser of two evils. It’s also the less likely." type Link URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/1571487853195728 ========== Regional federalism is a way to try the rural dream, with a return to rationality when it wears thin. https://www.political-scrapbook.net/2020-regional.html The eternal rural dream of being free from government means, instead, being subject to whichever gang has the most guns. That's anarchy, just like in Portland. Which is just what they want to escape. They forgot, or don't know, what life was like in the rural South when the KKK ruled by terror against white people as well as black. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/12/oregon-secession-idaho-move-border/621087/ Perhaps it's just a harmless fantasy that will fade away on its own - a harmless outlet for Emotions which could lead to war Or social agitation.. The State of Jefferson had the bad luck to schedule its first press conference for December 7, 1941. Life is what happens while you're making other plans. Purely libertarian societies have existed - with private cops, jails, courts, and judges - consisting of the local feudal lord/gang leader. The ruling class was indeed free to do whatever it wanted. #PS1theory ===== impact 0 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2021-12-30 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 title Regional federalism is a way to try the rural dream, topic theory wordrate 0 words 166 epoch Lifetime ID 1570533009957879 impress 4 pageid 534332363577954 pagename "Political scrapbook" posted "12/30/2021 14:12" reach 4 title "Modern America’s Most Successful Secessionist Movement" type Link URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/1570533009957879 ========== A traditional conservative laments the end of traditional conservatism vs traditional liberalism. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/22/center-right-is-collapsing-globally-it-has-only-two-options-survival/ Now it's populist cult of personality, fueled by social media and cable TV and foreign interference, vs rule of law. Traditional conservatives have trouble digesting the concept that the rule of law is on the left now and that's where they belong too. Ultimately their indigestion is due to the painful realization that traditional conservatism was never a real mass movement after all. They are no longer able to co-opt the populist audience. #PS1theory ===== impact 0 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2021-12-23 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 title A traditional conservative laments the end of traditional topic theory wordrate 0 words 86 epoch Lifetime ID 1565764360434744 impress 1 pageid 534332363577954 pagename "Political scrapbook" posted "12/23/2021 10:12" reach 1 title "Opinion | The center right is collapsing globally. It has only two options for survival." type Link URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/1565764360434744 ========== Why does GOP support right-to-life, universal unpermitted concealed carry, anti-vax, anti-immigrant? There's no moral logical consistency in that. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/06/how-is-gops-coronavirus-recklessness-compatible-with-being-pro-life/ Why does Trump support strong rulers usually, but not in Cuba or Venezuela? There's no ideological logical consistency in that. The answer is that there is POLITICAL logical consistency - essential to GOP protection of minority rule. All these issues have strong single-issue voter consistencies, who will vote a straight ticket for GOP to carry out its real minority rule protection agenda - billionaire tax relief, deregulation, union-busting, etc - as long as their single issues are advocated, which aren't that important to minority rule. Why do the nations so furiously rage together, And why do the people imagine a vain thing? It's essential to keep these constituencies worked up and excited to vote GOP, that's why! Keep them furious and vainly imagining! While the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds, Their large professions and their little deeds, Mingle in selfish strife, Lo! Freedom weeps, Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps! Why little deeds? What would happen to GOP if it achieved the goals of all these groups? You can tell by immigration - decades of bipartisan proposals for comprehensive immigration reform have gone nowhere. Why? If immigration were solved, where would those single-issue voters go next? And worse, major GOP donors depend on having cheap exploitable illegal immigrant labor. Even Trump did until he was caught. So the GOP keeps talking too much and not doing too much about its hot-button issues. Madison Cawthorn was proud to announce that his staff was heavy on media and light on policy. Anything to get on Fox! The very model of a modern Trumpist Dixiecrat defender of minority rule. Keep the voters in line and the donors happy! Make sure the voters don't have to decide what to do after all their goals were won, by keeping their goals just in sight and just out of reach. It's reminiscent of the novel 1984, where the world was divided into three empires constantly at war - the two weakest allied against the strongest. But whenever victory came too close, the weaker of the allies would switch sides to put the other on the defensive again. Just like Afghanistan or the Balkans on a global scale. The ruling classes of all three empires understood that their survival depended on keeping the masses under severe control until victory was ours while making sure that never happened. Just like North Korea today. The imagination and strength of the masses must be channeled to a more productive purpose than they could imagine for themselves - namely protecting the minority rule of the ruling class. Otherwise the masses would just selfishly pursue their own interests. #PS1theory ===== impact 46 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2021-12-08 ratio 1 react 1 reactrate 0 shares 1 sharesrate 0 title Why does GOP support right-to-life, universal unpermitted topic theory wordrate 0 words 457 engaged 1 epoch Lifetime ID 1555545634789950 impress 1 pageid 534332363577954 pagename "Political scrapbook" posted "12/08/2021 06:12" reach 1 sharesimpress 1 title "Opinion | How is the GOP’s coronavirus recklessness compatible with being pro-life?" type Link URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/1555545634789950 ========== What happens after the revolution? It's the same for communists and Trumpists - political power attracts ideologically flexible people interested foremost in power and the trappings of power. Eventually they take over behind the scenes, for their own benefit, even if they continue to mouth the state ideology in public. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/an-insiders-view-of-chinas-communist-party-corruption-and-capitalist-excess/2021/10/13/679696c4-1189-11ec-882f-2dd15a067dc4_story.html That's how dissimilar ideologies always seem to devolve into similar corrupt regimes, that in turn tend toward hereditary nobilities. Continuous revolution is no prevention - the masses become tired of continuous turmoil and gravitate toward authoritarians promising stability. == So what usually becomes of the revolutionary cannon fodder? Their purpose is to sacrifice - to take the risks and absorb the damage for the benefit of the leaders that they want to put in power. The leaders destined to survive and lead the new revolutionary government know better than to be on the front lines - they inspire and lead from a safe distance. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/10/16/us/capitol-riot.html The soldiers that survive and remain revolutionary eventually have to be liquidated by the people they put in power, who are now the new establishment. Nobody has any use for perpetual revolutionaries at loose ends. #PS1theory ===== impact 0 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2021-10-17 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 title What happens after the revolution? It's the same topic theory wordrate 0 words 190 epoch Lifetime ID 1520574338287080 impress 14 pageid 534332363577954 pagename "Political scrapbook" posted "10/17/2021 14:10" reach 13 title "Review | An insider’s view of China’s Communist Party: Corruption and capitalist excess" type Link URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/1520574338287080 ========== Do you still want to be a Libertarian? https://www.political-scrapbook.net/theory.html#registration There's a name for systems in which your rights supersede the rights of others. Anarchy, if superior rights are decided by superior might. Feudalism, if superior rights are decided by superior caste. Modern minority rule is an offshoot of feudalism. Except maybe in New Hampshire, where it seems equally close to anarchy. https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-legislature-new-hampshire-misinformation-f2545555283926ca3baea10a9476fac2 #PS1theory ===== impact 6 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2021-10-16 ratio 3 react 1 reactrate 0 shares 1 sharesrate 0 title Do you still want to be a Libertarian? topic theory wordrate 0 words 61 engaged 1 epoch Lifetime ID 1520078328336681 impress 4 pageid 534332363577954 pagename "Political scrapbook" posted "10/16/2021 23:10" reach 3 sharesimpress 1 title "In New Hampshire, vaccine fights and misinformation roil GOP" type Link URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/1520078328336681 ========== The oldest excuse in politics - everybody's doing it! 1873 - Politicians of the time largely catered to business interests in exchange for political support and wealth. Many participated in graft and bribery, often justifying their actions with the excuse that corruption was too widespread for a successful politician to resist. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-ushistory2os2xmaster/chapter/political-corruption-in-postbellum-america/ 2018 - Americans Think Corruption Is Everywhere. Is That Why We Vote for It? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/10/magazine/americans-think-corruption-is-everywhere-is-that-why-we-vote-for-it.html Corruption is what many politicians see when they look in the mirror in the morning, so they see it everywhere they look all day. Russians knew that story line all along - Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible - which culminated in Putin but was deep in the soul of almost all his predecessors - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/04/nothing-is-true-and-everything-is-permitted-peter-pomerantsev-review-russia-oil-boom And Trump signed up 100%, believing probably sincerely that he is no more corrupt or deceitful than anybody else in politics and it's not fair for anybody to be criticizing or prosecuting him in particular. https://www.npr.org/2018/08/04/635294139/for-president-trump-life-is-just-not-fair-and-what-that-means-for-the-rest-of-us #PS1theory ===== impact 0 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2021-06-04 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 title The oldest excuse in politics - everybody's doing it! topic theory wordrate 0 words 157 epoch Lifetime ID 1428710620806786 pageid 534332363577954 pagename "Political scrapbook" posted "06/04/2021 21:06" title "For President Trump, Life Is Just Not Fair — And What That Means For The Rest Of Us" type Link URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/1428710620806786 ========== Why does populism always go bad? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism Populist politicians start out by mobilizing the people against the elites and their evil allies. Their appeal is emotional rather than rational, so the only truth that matters is how people feel, rather than objective truth about reality. This flexibility about objective reality inevitably attracts the wrong sort of leaders whose main interest is making it into the elite and thus can be easily co-opted by the previous elite. Thus populism fits in very well with cult of personality - a legendary hero fighting valiantly for the people - and minority rule. https://www.political-scrapbook.net/2020-minority.html The actual ruling elite usually end up combining with the populist leaders to their mutual benefit, and so populist leaders usually end up kleptocrats too. The populist leaders never deliver on their promises - and always blame a scapegoat that the people must struggle and sacrifice to overcome, but which they never do. Note that this works just as well with a nominal far-left ideology as with a nominal far-right one. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/03/populist-right-is-still-robust-we-cant-afford-complacency-left/ #PS1theory ===== impact 0 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2021-06-04 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 title Why does populism always go bad? topic theory wordrate 0 words 170 epoch Lifetime ID 1428583017486213 pageid 534332363577954 pagename "Political scrapbook" posted "06/04/2021 17:06" title "Opinion | The populist right is still robust. The left should not be complacent." type Link URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/1428583017486213 ========== The hardest sales pitch! https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/26/biden-address-congress-defense-of-democracy/ The most pressing need in the country is a return to the Enlightenment ideals of the founders - not their practices which often fell far short of their ideals - slavery, segregation, suppression. But distinguishing that need, in a way that most voters can understand, from the GOP alternative - explicitly embracing the practices and implicitly rejecting the ideals - is a monumental challenge, certainly the greatest in Biden's career. Most voters eventually just vote their pocketbooks - and Biden understands that and is doing all he can to address those voters. But that's not enough. https://www.political-scrapbook.net/2020-offenses.html #PS1theory https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/26/biden-address-congress-defense-of-democracy/ ===== impact 0 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2021-04-26 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 title The hardest sales pitch! topic theory wordrate 0 words 101 epoch Lifetime ID 1402681670076348 pageid 534332363577954 pagename "Political scrapbook" posted "04/26/2021 15:04" title "Opinion | In his address to Congress, Biden will advance his agenda. He’ll also have to defend democracy." type Link URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/1402681670076348 ========== "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." It's true of leaders, legislatures, corporations, and labor unions. A pluralistic society is best served by a variety of competing interests small and numerous enough to create a free market. But with groups as with individuals, liberty tends over time to spur inequality, since people are born with unequal advantages in genetics and parenting and luck. So a vital function of government is to re-level the playing field as needed so that inherit merit and effort receive the fruits of labor rather than inherited advantage. Libertarians like to dream that the free market left alone will produce the best results for the most people, as if anonymous Wall Street bureaucrats have the best interests of the masses closer to their hearts than anonymous DC bureaucrats. Instead the free market tends to consolidate advantages of skill or luck until it becomes very difficult to do anything revolutionary that would threaten the status quo. Successful startup capitalists are always stunned to discover that the tactics that made them successful become illegal once they reach the size to dominate a market, and they always try to explain that they are different. Maybe some of the founders are personally different, but economic power attracts the same old kinds of flexible executives hoping to exploit the startup to advance their careers and fortunes - just as a successful ideological political movement attracts the same old kinds of flexible politicians hoping to exploit the movement to advance their careers and power. So it was just a matter of time before Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google, Twitter, et al - who've come to dominate their markets - would be scrutinized for concentration of power inimical to a free market economy, just as ATT, GM, and IBM were in a previous generation, and Standard Oil before them. GM self destructed in collaboration with its unions, but IBM and ATT needed encouragement, or a consent decree, from the Federal government. https://apnews.com/article/publishing-health-coronavirus-pandemic-book-publishing-airlines-383681c569b18262df1d95baf65484a4 Consolidation of markets tends to be a feature of GOP rule. It's more efficient! Fewer big players means that it's more efficient for politicians to implicitly threaten regulation or offer deregulations. It also means that it's more efficient for the big players to implicity threaten or offer dark money campaign finance. Nothing explicit of course - it's always implicit - the way the Godfather would do it! And so all the GOP programs to help "small business" actually seem to end up mostly benefiting "big donors" - https://apnews.com/article/push-to-prevent-next-meat-shortage-pandemic-8a0f0fef5717801db48208bfff666ec4 Democrats are little better, because big donors tend to purchase access in a bipartisan way to insure that their calls are returned no matter how the election comes out. The tension between liberty and equality of opportunity is not new nor is it a bug - it's a permanent feature of a competitive marketplace. We have Federal, state, and local governments, and three branches of Federal government with two houses of Congress - because we know that in the long run, though it's less efficient, each player regulates the others. https://www.political-scrapbook.net/theory.html#liberty%20and%20equality #PS1theory https://apnews.com/article/publishing-health-coronavirus-pandemic-book-publishing-airlines-383681c569b18262df1d95baf65484a4 ===== impact 206 impactrate 0 likeimpress 1 negative 0 posted 2021-03-18 ratio 3 react 4 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 sumclicks 3 title "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts topic theory wordrate 0 words 515 audclicks 3 audreach 2 engaged 2 ID 1376818629329319 impress 20 likeclickusers 2 likeimpress 1 likeuimpress 15 likeusers 1 likeuusers 13 matchedlinkclicks 1 matchedotherclicks 2 oimpress 20 oreach 15 posted "03/18/2021 03:50:12 PM" postlinkclicks 1 postotherclicks 1 reach 15 type Link URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/1376818629329319 ========== 200 years ago the immigrant demons were whisky-soaked Irishmen. https://www.history.com/news/when-america-despised-the-irish-the-19th-centurys-refugee-crisis 150 years ago Republicans described Democrats as the party of "rum, romanism, and rebellion". http://inthepastlane.com/rum-romanism-and-rebellion-october-29-2012/ 60 years ago American-born Catholics started leaving the Democratic Party. Now American-born Latinos and Asians are starting to see themselves as Republicans. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/13/opinion/democrats-latino-hispanic-black-asian-american.html "a Republican coalition of secure minorities and anxious whites may be a match for the emerging Democratic majority of anxious minorities and secure whites" #PS1theory ===== impact 0 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2021-02-13 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 title 200 years ago the immigrant demons were whisky-soaked topic theory wordrate 0 words 70 ID 1355052401505942 impress 11 likeuimpress 9 likeuusers 9 oimpress 11 oreach 11 posted "02/13/2021 09:55:48 AM" reach 11 type Link URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/1355052401505942 ========== Concentrations of Power and Liberty and Equality in Democracy What do the separation of powers in the Constitution and antitrust legislation have in common? They are designed to limit concentration of power. Why limit concentration of power? Because power corrupts, and concentrated power concentrates corruption. 1) America's founders observed that governments tended to accumulate power, at first by popular support, but later for their own sake, and lose the ability or motivation to obtain popular support and instead maintain and protect their political power by whatever means are necessary. 2) Individuals are born with different capabilities and raised in different environments and so eventually, depending also on chance, they achieve different degrees of material success. The most successful leave financial and other legacies to their children, who start off with an advantage that they might magnify or squander. But without external interventions, financial power tends to accumulate, originally based to some degree on merit, but later due to accumulating advantages across generations. Later generations that do not have the ability or motivation to create new wealth focus instead of maintaining and protecting their inherited advantages. Eventually they convince themselves that they are entitled to their wealth as others are entitled to their poverty. 3) In business, startups usually fail but some become successfully, some spectacularly so, and accumulate advantages over competition, and in extreme cases, dominate their industries and obliterate old competitors and stifle new ones. They may lose the ability or motivation to create new wealth and instead maintain and protect their dominant economic positions. 4) Labor unions sometimes concentrate power, though not much in recent American history. One of the accusations against Jimmy Hoffa was that he was striving for a common contract expiration date for all transportation workers. His original successes in trucking did benefit truckers but those aspirations became fused with his personal goals toward power and wealth. So at some point, to prevent economic and political fossilization, explicit actions are required to preserve economic and political mobility. That's because economic and political power attract the ambitious and unscrupulous. Regardless of the magnanimous intentions of the founders, their successors may be motivated only by greed and lust for power. 1) The Federal Constitution provides three branches of government, two legislative houses, with specified powers, and reserves all other powers to the states and the people. The hope was that "ambition would check ambition" to prevent concentration of power. But legislative power has tended to atrophy, resulting in executive overreach and judicial activism to address problems that Congress can't bring itself to face. https://www.political-scrapbook.net/2020-congress.html 2) Income, wealth, and estate taxes are one way to leaven inherited wealth inequality. Proceeds should go to improve the economic competitiveness of talented persons not born to wealth - such as public schools, universities, and libraries. So is universal basic income. A flat tax on discretionary income is one simple mechanism toward reducing wealth inequality. 3) Antitrust legislation is a way of reducing excessive concentration of corporate economic power. It's not merely specific anti-competitive practices but the very fact of market-dominant size that must be addressed. In some industries, such as municipal utilities, it may be desirable to have a limited number of large participants - but then their behavior must be closely regulated to remain in the public interest. What about social media? Is it best to have a few large social media platforms that connect everybody? If so who decides what is proper and improper content? https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/01/14/trump-twitter-ban-big-tech-monopoly-private/ Economic Liberty and Equality Because of differing natural advantages, unlimited liberty eventually reduces equality. Forced equality along communist lines reduces liberty. In a society that intends to foster both liberty and equality, active steps must be taken to re-level extremes of economic power over generations without removing the incentives to strive for material success in each individual's life. Economic passiveness starting with the Reagan administration has resulted in increasing economic and social inequality and finally the Trump presidency, obtained on promises of reducing inequality but maintained by preserving the reactionary Reagan ideology of low taxes on wealth and income, low regulation of industrial aggregation, judiciary opposed to active measures toward reducing inequality, and little role of government generally. https://www.political-scrapbook.net/theory.html#liberty%20and%20equality #PS1theory ===== impact 0 impactrate 0 negative 0 posted 2021-01-18 reactrate 0 sharesrate 0 title Concentrations of Power and Liberty and Equality in topic theory wordrate 0 words 694 ID 1338108893200293 impress 19 likeuimpress 17 likeuusers 17 oimpress 19 oreach 18 posted "01/18/2021 02:44:59 PM" reach 18 type Link URL https://www.facebook.com/politicalscrapbooknet/posts/1338108893200293