February 15, 2012 by Mike.

For folks who have not been present at non-violent demonstrations it may be helpful to understand that the original black block is the riot police who come out and assault non-violent demonstrators in a wholesale fashion.

Some pretty peaceful and peace-loving folks have been assaulted by the police.

Some of you may know Dorli Rainey from Seattle who was pepper sprayed during Occupy events.

Dorli was 82 years old when she got pepper sprayed. She is spry and spunky, but I think it’s a hard sell to convince a reasonable person that Dorli could look dangerous to a heavily armored police officer.

So this is the backdrop for the tactic known as the black bloc.  There are a lot of reasonable critiques of the black bloc.  The most persuasive to me is the potential for police infiltration, for agent provocateurs to join the black bloc and to then commit an act of property destruction that will trigger a violent peace riot.  There is also the opportunity for a genuine black bloc participant to choose unnecessary violence and/or property destruction that will trigger a violent street riot.

I will be facilitating a round table discussion regarding the Occupy movement and the domestic armies at the Olympia Occupy Social Forum this coming weekend.   Maybe I will see you there?

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February 15, 2012 by Mike.

But could not be done in American.

I am not sure, but this sounds like French to me.

More propaganda from Old Europe?

maybe…

Thanks to friends at Public Banking for this info.

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February 11, 2012 by Mike.

Chris Hedges made a few waves with his recent piece describing the black bloc as the cancer in occupy.

I  believe in diversity. I think diversity is a fundamental natural law of the universe.  But I understand that human beings have a tidiness gene that makes us think that we can organize and be more efficient through suppression of diversity, by rejection of the natural order and diversity that constantly arises and evaporates back in to the order of chaos.  Chaos is not merely disorder.  There may be a level of order benefit and diversity in chaos that is not easily observed and is under-appreciated.

The black bloc tactic is something that arises from police violence toward non-violent protest and the willingness of society to choose order over the bedrock right to peacefully assemble and petition for redress of grievance.

Diversity of tactics and tolerance of the diversity of tactics is something that I embrace whole-heartedly.  Things can go wrong.  I have seen that.  Things can go right.  I have seen that as well.   I am usually pleased to see a black bloc tactical option in a crowd of protesters.  I believe Hedges could not be more wrong about the black bloc tactic.

Here is an interesting and informative piece in response to Hedges cancer article.  I recommend that you read the piece if you don’t understand and appreciate the black bloc tactic or if you read the Hedges article and thought what he said made a lot of sense.

After you read the piece, you might want to look through the n + 1 zine that is carrying the piece.  Looks like a pretty informative vehicle.  A weapon of mass instruction.  I am down with that. Thanks to my friend Elliot Stoller for bringing this piece to my attention.

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February 10, 2012 by Mike.

Political pressure expressed through our collective wallets is very effective.  Count me in:

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February 6, 2012 by Mike.

Good day yesterday in Cascadia as the Washington State leglislature moved gay marriage forward through Senate vote.  The gov put her weight behind this legislation, apparently trying to establish some kind of legacy public policy.  I am completely supportive of the gay marriage legislation, but I have to wonder why the dems will only push one small part of a progressive agenda at a time.  The public is crying out for significant change in public policy and the dem party is such a timid organization.

In another section of the Senate, I believe the Washington Investment Trust remains stuck under the thumb of roadkill Senators Steve Hobbs and Mary Haugen.  Lots of good information about public banks at Banking in the Public Interest.  This is an idea whose time has come.  Banks for the 99%.  Please.  Let’s do that.

Want to let Steve Hobbs know what you think about his roadkill status?

How about Mary Haugen?

Steve Hobbs
Steve.hobbs@leg.wa.gov

Mary Haugen
marymargaret.haugen@leg.wa.gov

Can we help these two get scooped out of the middle of the road where they are doing no discernible good?  Is there an election coming up?  Let’s help these folks join our neighbors who are out there looking for work, shall we?

Lean on the legislators folks.  They respond to two things, private money and public pressure.

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February 2, 2012 by Mike.

Why was North Dakota the only US State not affected by the banking crisis? (It’s not the oil.)

Because it was the ONLY State with its own Public Bank!The State Bank bills are down to the wire in the WA Legislature.   SB 6310 needs to move out of committee now or the bill is dead for this session.  You can read all about the legislation at WA Public Bank Project.

This would be a bank for the 99%.  North Dakota’s State Bank is the model.  We are not reinventing the wheel with this idea.

The Washington State Treasurer James McIntire has weighed in against the bill and the idea of the State Bank.   McIntire has shown himself to the be the Treasurer for the 1%.

Senators Steve Hobbs and Mary Haugen are the two primary votes in committee that are holding up the bill at this moment.

Steve Hobbs
Steve.hobbs@leg.wa.gov

Mary Haugen
marymargaret.haugen@leg.wa.gov

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

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January 11, 2012 by mike.

We need transcendent, transformative politics in this country and the world, but the mainstream paradigm remains a struggle between established power bases - one, a social democrat model as epitomized in Scandinavian models and the other, a Thatcher/Reagan model of social darwinism wearing a mantle of trickle down, supply-side economics.  There is no question that I prefer the social democrat model, but I think neither model is particularly well-suited to the challenges that the planet is cranking up to deal with a species that is out of control. 

Greece’s experiment with austerity politics in a time of economic stagnation proves once again that pulling more money out of a economic system that has a crashing demand side will cause the economic system to slip to a lower state.  It doesn’t seem to matter if all of the most photogenic politicians that money can buy are spouting platitudes about “growing the economy” by reducing debt, austerity politics just don’t turn stagnating economies around.  You do austerity politics in good economic times, you do keynsian economics in economic downturns if you want somewhat stable economies.  You also need a stable and consistent tax policy that generates the revenue needed for public services.  You don’t flatten taxes in boom times because you will need the accumulated revenue when the boom times go…  well…  boom!

Boom and bust.  Bubble economies.  These cycles should not be a big surprise to anyone who has studied economic cycles.

Transformative politics?   Does that mean democrats?   uhh…   no…   I don’t think those folks misunderstand who is footing the bill for their elections.   Do you think Goldman Sachs money is showing up in the Obama re-election till because they think Obama’s ideas are great?   Well, maybe.    GS has done pretty well since Obama became president.

No, I am thinking about really transformative economics and politics.

Real utopias.  I like the sound of that .

Envisioning Real Utopias from West Coast Poverty Center on Vimeo.

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January 7, 2012 by mike.

The brightest moment in the Jan 3rd meeting with Senator Fraser, Representative Hunt and Representative Reykdal came when Chris Reykdal took the opportunity to talk about the impasse that exists with generating revenue for the State.

Reykdal had campaigned for election to the legislature on tax fairness and he appears to be willing to make efforts on that question.  Chris described the revenue proposal that he and freshman Senator David Frockt will be putting on the table.

Reykdal and Frockt’s proposal will eliminate the State business and occupation tax (B&0).  This element of the proposal is expected to be attractive to the republicans.  According to Reykdal, republicans really hate the B&O tax.   I will take him at his word on that, but I haven’t been able to identify any tax that our current generation of republicans don’t hate.  I guess there is some reason to believe that republicans prefer regressive taxes like sales tax that are paid disproportionately by middle and low income citizens.

So, the first part of this tax proposal that Reykdal referred to as The Hope Act is total elimination of the B&O tax.  The second part of The Hope Act would reduce State sales tax from 6.5% to a flat 5%.  Elimination of the B&O tax may or may not be regressive.  I am a low income small business owner who pays the B&O tax each year.  Last year I was pleasantly surprised to find that a tax credit for small business owners was in effect that reduced my annual payment by a significant amount.  I have checked with other business owners whose scale of business is much larger than mine and have been told that they did not notice any significant reduction in 2010 B&O tax.  So, the elimination of the B&O tax may be fairly regressive if that tax has been made somewhat progressive by an enduring tax credit scheme for low income small businesses, but I think the jury is out on that one.  I think there is no question that the B&O tax raises a lot of revenue for the State, so elimination of that tax structure raises the question about how that lost revenue will be replaced.

Sales tax revenue is clearly regressive, so a reduction of the sale tax rate (State part only, local add-ons will still be in effect) is clearly progressive.  But like the elimination of B&O taxes, the sales tax reduction is a loss of revenue for the State and that translates into cuts in services.  Reykdal and Frockt could probably pass these tax cut elements with 100% support from the Norquist Tax Patriots, but we would probably have to reduce education funding in the State to be K-4 proposition from the current K-12 model.  Most folks who get through the fourth grade with the standard set of skills should be able to operate a deep-fryer or a touch screen cash register and will be able to stock shelves at a big box store, so this model works for a State economy based on 32 flavors of fast food and lowest prices, guaranteed, but there are many of us who think that there is a problem with the consumer utopian society, so there may be need to replace some of the lost revenue.

Revenue generation:  this is where Reykdal/Frockt’s proposal gets interesting.  This proposal seeks to increase State revenue by expanding the 5% State sales tax (we should assume that all local add-ons will follow suit) fromEconomic Opportunity Institute goods to goods and services.

So, the bill from your attorney, doctor, tax preparer, and more would start arriving with a sales tax bite.  There is a large number of small business owners (I look in the mirror and see one) who will now need to start collecting and turning over sales tax if the Reykdal/Frockt proposal becomes law.  Reykdal stated that the expansion of sales to everything, would not include sales tax on food.  Ok.  Sales tax on food is a really regressive source of revenue.  It’s a good thing to keep the sales tax off of food.  That’s progressive.

A small, but relevant detail about the sales tax on “everything.”  It’s not quite everything - airplane sales are exempt and would continue to be exempt.  We had a short discussion of the sales tax exemption that exists and will continue to exist if you are selling airplanes.  Planes are a movable feast and buyers might insist on taking delivery of their planes in flight over the Cayman Islands to avoid paying a sales tax, so Reykdal says the only way to generate State tax revenue if you have a company that builds and sells airplanes in your State is through a State income tax.  Hmm…   There will continue to be some tax loopholes so large you can fly an airplane through them.

I am not sure how progressive the expansion of sales tax to services is because I experiencing a bit of resistance to a new tax requirement for my small business operation.  Like a lot of small business owners, I am wondering if I am really going to be able to add this tax without losing some business or if I am going to need to absorb some portion of the sales tax as a business cost that would not be that different from the B&O tax.  My initial calculation on the sales tax v. B&O tax suggests that my small business will be collecting and paying about three times as much money the Dept of Revenue with sales tax than I paid with B&O tax (and that’s before I factor in the surprise small business tax credit that unexpectedly left a few dollars in the till last year).  I think it’s fair to say that businesses and business owners who have not been collecting sales tax are going to be lukewarm at best about the expansion of sales tax to services.  I think we should look to the Economic Opportunity Institute for analysis of Reykdal/Frockt’s proposal. The historical analysis of expansion of sales tax to services is going to suggest that this tax is regressive, but less so than a simple tax rate jump (Gov Gregoire’s and others are ready to go that way to raise revenue).

Finally, the capper on the Reykdal/Frockt tax fairness proposal is implementation of a 1% State income tax.  Reykdal stated that the Washington State Constitution limits State income tax to 1%.  I haven’t fact-checked that assertion, but I am going to trust Chris on that one.  The State has repeatedly rejected State income tax out of ignorance about the woefully regressive nature of our State revenue structure.   We are the most regressive State in the Nation!  We are number 1!

In addition to ignorance and a deep abiding faith and love for the most regressive tax structure in the nation, the opponents of State income tax have always been able to reach into their (deep) pockets and outspend the proponents of a progressive State income tax and I don’t think there is any reason to think that these leopards will change their spots in 2012, so I think the State income tax is going to be a sticking point even though it is a crucial part of the Reykdal/Frockt proposal.

Reykdal projects that this tax package will raise revenue and have instant tax fairness.  I think he is correct.  I am ready to get behind this bill. Bring the fight.  Eyman has been wagging the State’s dog for long enough.  It’s time for the legislature to take back responsibility for the budget and revenue generation.

Well done, Chris.

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January 1, 2012 by mike.

I don’t want to put together a best of list to review 2011.  It was an unsettling year.  The politics of stalemate made it pretty useless and 2012 is an election year, if I am not mistaken, so there is not much chance of legislative action and good public policy in this year (unless an unhappy electorate turns out to the streets in numbers we have not seen to date).

I continue to be bearish on the economy and public policy.  Obama squandered the opportunity of a century to move the country in the right direction, and his financial rescue of Goldman Sachs instead of a jobs program would have to be high on the list of dumbest public decisions of the young century, but we are talking about dumbest public moment of 2011, so that one is out of the running in this context.  

The Herman Cain campaign’s idea of “Women for Herman Cain” was pretty dumb, but it’s the campaign season, so I think that one gets a bye.

Rick Perry had three spectacularly dumb moments, including…   uh…   let’s see….   oops.  Can’t remember the details right now.  I feel bad about having to mention that one. Watching the GOP campaign is  like fishing with dynamite. Some good-looking fish end up floating belly up pretty fast.  Small car, many clowns, it’s a tried and true formula for laughs.

Michelle Bachman has been a disappointment.  Except for a certain deranged twinkle in her eye, she has not really produced.  Michelle Bachman is simply no Sarah Palin. I also want to go on record that I think Sarah would make a dandy ambassador to Saudi Arabia.  You can’t see Saudi Arabia from Alaska, but I am not sure that is very important.

oops…   I digress.

From the Business and Technology sector, I have to give Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons his due for his video and claims to have shot a “problem, rogue  … bull elephant.”  Discovery News says, well, it was a young female elephant.  Just sayin…   Great white hunter.  Isn’t that one a little tired?  I think we are supposed to go to Africa with vaccines and mosquito nets now, the safari days were last century.  Bob didn’t get the memo.

My personal favorite though is Pepper Spray? “It’s a food product, essentially.”

atta girl.  Pretty dumb moment.  by the way, pepper spray?  It’s not a food product.  Have you tried it?

I guess it would have looked even worse if the police had sprayed non-violent protesters down with ketchup.

Mustard gas?  Can we get Megyn’s take on that one?  Sounds like a food product, right?

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November 26, 2011 by mike.

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