The Importance of the Right of Free Association : Defending ourselves from the Shithead Hypothesis

Meet the ShitheadsOK here is the soon to be tremendously famous Shithead Hypothesis or The Simple Shithead Hypothesis for short:

“There are 3 groups of people in life 

      1. The largest are those we don’t know, then 

      2. The people we like, and finally 

      3. The people we’ve decided are shitheads.”  

You might come up with “friendlier” terms but in the end it’s really the same groupings….

The hypothesis came to mind when a very good friend asked me what could I do to make our current political system work better.  You’re probably wondering the same thing I was at the time what the hell does my thought have to do with the question?  Well, having “Madman” in my title you should expect some less than direct thinking.

The Shithead Hypothesis quickly turns into a problem when we get lazy and bucket people we don’t know as shitheads just because they are associated with a given group.  I mean what could go wrong assuming all people in a group are shitheads?  Don’t get me wrong there are some groups who truly support horrific ideas, e.g. hurting people, killing people, .…  But I’m talking about political parties here, not Boko Haram, the Aryan Brotherhood or NAMBLA.  And yeah parties are not in the same league! I mean don’t be a shithead…

Yet rhetoric, noise and money is aimed behind these artificial teams called political parties specially to make us think the “other side” is just a seeming pile of shitheads.  The sad things these teams are simply groups of Americans that would like to make life better but they see different problems and approaches.  Yeah that person you don’t know and can’t stand because of what “team” they’re on is trying to make your life better. But, since they’re shitheads we don’t listen to them at all.  In fact it is very effective to get an idea dismissed simply by associating it with the “shitheads”…

Ok great I see how this is a problem…  But Madman what is a step toward a solution?  Funny you should ask that (ok in my head you asked).  One of the main reasons this crazy rhetoric and division works is we divide people into political parties.  That is as far as our auspicious government is concerned you can only officially register with one party.  This forces people to choose a team (or not play at all).  However as Americans we all have the right to freely associate any and all groups we want at least those groups that will have us. And if we joined multiple parties we’re likely to understand they’re just groups of Americans rather than the worst shitheads ever.

So the solution? We need to sue states that do not allow us to register in multiple parties.  This won’t end political parties, just make us all more motivated o listen to each other a little bit more. Parties are of course allowed to reject people if they want to, but states simply need to respect our right to participate in any and as many parties as we want!

A Madman has spoken….

The Evidence is in: All Hail America’s Twithead and Chief : Too scared to call a terrorist a terrorist?

Well President Trump like you I wait for all the evidence to be in, and well now it is.  You are without a doubt America’s Twithead and Chief.  It should have been obvious given your twitter addiction.

But the real proof is when you somehow blamed “both sides” when a shithead white supremacist drove a car into people walking and carrying signs. He killed three Americans and injured several more.  And yes he clearly fell threatened but not by clubs but rather simply that these people believed in a free and equal America for all races.  Clearly he was scared by Americans with a different point of view.

By the way it’s a pretty big clue when David Duke thanks you and strokes your ego.  Maybe you and he should get a room.  Perhaps then he can explain the history of these groups terrorizing your fellow Americans.

We should also call it like it is, driving a car into people to stop them from protesting is terrorism.  So as a reminder in addition to being our twitched and chief you are also president and should protect all Americans from terrorism,  Just so you know this includes protecting black and brown Americans from shithead  white terrorists.  Perhaps you can get your balls back from David Duke and actually do something about this.

A Madman has spoken….

Why not double check? : Deflating the stolen election trial balloons

Maintaining the confidence of the vote

Dear Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn,

I don’t believe the election was hacked or a significant voter fraud occurred, but I have to disagree with your decision. The problem I have is that there would be no significant evidence of a hacked electronic voting system.

The only way to detect a hack would be to compare paper output of the machines to the electronic count. In fact such a test should always be done on a random basis as a simple security measure. I would suggest if any candidate is willing to pay to do such a hand recount it is a wise thing to do just to understand vulnerabilities.

Given that we have the President-Elect and Dr. Stein talking about voting irregularities it would seem a more reasonable decision to do the most rigorous type of recount possible that those candidates are willing to fund.

Sincerely,
Your friendly Madman….

Are We Half Crazy? : What's broken in American Elections

what-happenedWell here we are after the election, and no matter who won you were going to end up with half the country with a huge pit in their stomach wondering what went wrong why did the other side win.  And the other half breathing a sigh of relief.  But no matter what side you we’re on the world is not coming to and end.  Of that I am relatively sure…

But having these elections where we have such a polarizing feeling portraying total destruction by either side is a real problem.  We really need an election where we feel like multiple candidates could do the job are running for. There are a few real problems in our elections:

One is a natural tendency people to want to gather tougher and support “their team” no matter what.  Basically we don’t have political parties that represent policy opinions, we have “teams” that we rally around. Unfortunately given our American tenacity in pursuing winning at all costs we eat ourselves alive.  Rather than looking at how to make the country and American’s thrive we get caught up in brining the other team down.  And losing sight of the fact that “other team”, well it is made up of another set of Americans.

Making this tendency worse is how money gets used in politics.  Money itself isn’t the issue, but that the vast majority gets spent in ad campaigns.  Ad campaigns by their nature are trying to find the most effective way to get one candidate / team to win.  Trying to present what the issues are, weigh multiple points of view and pick the best option is simply too long, tedious and uncertain for a political campaign,  It is far more effective to tie your candidate / team to a brand and make it a right / wrong choice.  So basically money in politics today is trying to make us all stupid…

Finally money in politics today has gone dark. The biggest problem I see with the Citizens United Ruling is not how much money is allows to flow into politics its that is misses the very important difference between free speech and money.  When I speak out on a subject you know it is me speaking, even if I use a megaphone.  But now people can “talk” via money and leave no trace.

We simply need to find a way to counteract this and work toward real information, discussion and debate on what is best for our country.

 

A Madman has Spoken…

Who owns Trump? : Tax returns would let Americans know

Who Owns Trump?

Who owns Trump?  Of course Trump would say Trump owns Trump, not beholden to anyone. But as as he has told us his wealth is built on “excellent” deal making.  I’m guessing he doesn’t only deal with himself…  So the question is who does Trump deal with?  Because whoever they are his wealth depends on them.

Given the international reach of his deals Trump’s own wealth could be coming from foreign nations such as China or Russia.  In a normal election we as Americans would know more about any candidates dealings via their tax returns.  While other candidates have provided their tax returns Trump has continued to withhold his.  While tax returns are an important way for too for Americans to know more about him as a candidate he keeps coming up with excuses for not telling us.

I have no way to know if he has something to hide.  Or if the fact his wealth depends on other is something he doesn’t want to remind us of.  But I’ve been involved in enough deals myself to know when someone avoids sharing information, they think it will hurt them.  Without the tax returns we simply don’t know who owns Trump.  Maybe we should care…

A Madman has spoken….

Sometimes Winning is Not Enough

PM-KnorWe’re already getting to the point where Brexit is old news, except for the part where no one knows what’s really going to happen…

In reality there is no way to predict if the vote was the right or wrong thing for the UK. To be honest it’s just the starting point. The outcome depends far too much on really hard work simply not yet done. And after that work is done it actually might not have mattered which way the vote went. So when Mr Trump praised Boris Johnson for having “got it right” on Brexit he was well, … let’s call it “confused”.

Its an all too common confusion, simply mistaking winning for “getting it right”. In a democracy this confusion is really important to understand. It is simply a tool that pundits use to validate their narrative, sadly showing complete disregard far what is actually best. The real damage is the overconfidence in a simple election result which stops critical thinking and working toward better solutions. Especially in a case like this where the “right” answer really is a path yet to be worked out.

We all want to have our point of view prevail. But no matter how happy or sad we are after an election it is vital to always look for the better path forward after those results come in. Because while there is often not a simple right or wrong answer there is always a way to make things better. But making things better requires cutting through the BS….

A Madman has spoken…