The Mother Of All Blue Waves Or Bust!

It's November now.  The way things are going, I just hope we have the Mother of All Blue Waves this time.  MAGA is a cancer on the body politic that needs to be eradicated, root and branch.  That is why, much to the chagrin of some purists, I will continue to "Vote Blue No Matter Who" until such cancer is fully eradicated.  Then, and only then, can we even THINK about taking on what remains of the neoliberal duopoly, which we also need to do, of course. And I have faith that it will be a rout this November.  Because the alternative (Republicans winning again) would be MUCH worse.

Look, we clearly prefer genuine (and especially economic) progressives and leftists over squishy neoliberal centrists and identity politics. But now is NOT the time for any ideological purity tests! If we make the perfect the enemy of the good, we ultimately end up with neither, as we have learned the hard way.

This is our LAST CHANCE to save what is left of our beloved Republic, if it isn't already too late.  Look, we KNOW the GOP will cheat by attempting to rig the midterms, but if enough people vote Blue that would become much more difficult to rig.  Those who don't vote, vote third-party, vote write-in, or vote Republican will thus be asking for a TON of karma when all is said and done.

(Mic drop)

Remember In November: ICYMI, The Mother Of All Blue Waves Or Bust!

The way things are going, I just hope we have the Mother of All Blue Waves this November.  MAGA is a cancer on the body politic that needs to be eradicated, root and branch.  That is why, much to the chagrin of some purists, I will continue to "Vote Blue No Matter Who" until such cancer is fully eradicated.  Then, and only then, can we even THINK about taking on what remains of the neoliberal duopoly, which we also need to do, of course. And I have faith that it will be a rout this November.  Because the alternative (Republicans winning again) would be much worse.

Look, we clearly prefer genuine (and especially economic) progressives and leftists over squishy neoliberal centrists and identity politics. But now is NOT the time for any ideological purity tests! If we make the perfect the enemy of the good, we ultimately end up with neither, as we have learned the hard way.

This is our LAST CHANCE to save what is left of our beloved Republic, if it isn't already too late.  Look, we KNOW the GOP will cheat by attempting to rig the midterms, but if enough people vote Blue that would become much more difficult to rig.  Those who don't vote, vote third-party, vote write-in, or vote Republican will thus be asking for a TON of karma when all is said and done.

(Mic drop)

"Why Has Consent Education Failed?"

In light of current events, we at the TSAP have decided to ask Dr Google, in it's infinite wisdom, "Why Has Consent Education Failed?", and this is the answer we received, verbatim:

Consent education has often fallen short because it is implemented too late, framed too narrowly as a reactive rule rather than a continuous social-emotional skill, and undermined by systemic and political barriers. [1, 2]

Late Timing and "Too Little, Too Late" Delivery

University-level overload: Many institutions rely on one-off modules or heavy orientation slideshows when students arrive on campus, which fails to overwrite years of pre-existing social conditioning, rape culture, and power dynamics. [1, 2]
Delayed introduction: Formal discussions around bodily autonomy and boundaries frequently start in middle or high school rather than early childhood, missing the crucial developmental window where social norms are first established. [1, 2, 3]

Flawed Frameworks and Oversimplification

Binary "Yes or No" limits: Programs often reduce consent to a simple, isolated verbal transaction, ignoring real-world complexities like peer pressure, intoxication, and heavy power imbalances. [1, 2]
Disconnection from everyday life: Treating consent strictly as a "disaster planning" or abstinence-adjacent tool rather than a foundational life skill (respecting physical boundaries, recognizing non-verbal cues) limits its integration into everyday behavior. [1, 2]
Lack of inclusivity: Curriculums often rely on heteronormative frameworks that fail to address the specific vulnerabilities and intersectional harassment faced by LGBTQ+ youth, students of color, and disabled individuals. [1, 2]

Political and Systemic Obstacles

Curriculum erasure and abstinence focus: Many state legislatures restrict comprehensive sex education, favoring abstinence-only or "sexual risk avoidance" models that completely omit or actively strip out consent instruction. [1, 2, 3]
Institutional protection of perpetrators: Educational frameworks focus heavily on individual accountability while structural environments—such as underfunded schools or universities prioritizing reputation—frequently protect offenders and fail to support survivors.

So after over a decade of consent education, why has that apparently not moved the needle even one iota?  Because it's basically done too little, too late. It needs to begin MUCH earlier than college, and earlier than even high school (in a general and age-appropriate way, of course), and be ongoing.  And it is all too often very poorly designed and executed, and all too often patronizing, paternalistic, and infantilizing, thus it needs to be revamped with best practices.  Is it necessary?  Absolutely.  Is it sufficient?  Sadly, no.  Rapists practically always know and understand consent at least on a rudimentary level, but they simply don't care.  It's entitlement, not ignorance (unless it is willful ignorance born of entitlement), that's the real problem here.  And of course, the culture and institutions full of apologists, enablers, and guilty bystanders that give them "social license to operate".

In other words, what typically passes for "consent education" all too often fails to play to the MUSIC of what really happens in practice much of the time.  And that needs to be fixed.

Emily Nagoski's model of consent seems to be one of the best ones out there that we could find.  In her model, consent is not a binary, but rather a spectrum from enthusiastic, to willing, to unwilling, to coerced.  The real dividing line to truly watch out for, where the slope gets slippery, is between willing and unwilling, and then it quickly goes downhill from there.

All that said, ultimately, rape and sexual assault are always and everywhere a cultural problem.  We need to change the culture to reflect enthusiastic consent as the standard:  "if it's not a HELL YEAH!, it's a HELL NO!".  Or at the very least, it must be awake, aware, AND willing consent as the bare minimum.  And furthermore, anthropological evidence has shown that it is entirely possible to have relatively "rape-free" societies as well. In such societies, which are typically matrilineal and matrifocal and where women are highly valued members of community and society, rape is NOT considered "macho" or virile behavior at all, but rather quite the opposite, and those very few men who would dare do so roundly face much ridicule and shame for it. It is basically seen as the ultimate loser, failure, and weak behavior, and it is not at all tolerated. (Nor would a "real man" feel the need to prove himself a man by "scoring" just to get proverbial notches on his belt, as true virility is self-evident.) Rapists thus have no "social license to operate" there at all. In other words, nurture seems to be far more important than nature, as male violence against women and children is a cultural problem at base.

(The late anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday had a LOT to say about this!  We should really heed her words of wisdom.)

When rape and sexual assault (and male violence against women and children in general) are seen as not only dishonorable and degenerate, but also the most unmanly thing a man could possibly do as well, that really seems to be the "Achilles' Heel" to eradicating this pandemic of sexual violence for good.

We need to take away rapists' "social license to operate", and stop enabling them.  Yesterday!

"Awake, Aware, AND Willing" is the BARE MINIMUM.

(Mic drop)

UPDATE:  We recall that 30 years ago in 1996, MADD president Katherine Prescott had noted that the drunk driving program had been largely reduced to a "hard core of alcoholics" that do not respond to public appeals, and others had noted that "the educable have been educated" already.  And one can make a similar argument about sexual violence as well.  By roughly the mid-2010s, and certainly by now, the problem has been largely reduced to a "hard core of unrepentant serial rapists" who understand consent perfectly well (certainly when it comes to their OWN orifices, of course!), but rather they simply don't care.  And they are surrounded by an entourage of apologists, enablers, and guilty bystanders, without whom they simply would NOT be able to get away with their vile misdeeds.  THAT is what truly needs to change, yesterday, and meanwhile continue to educate the youngest generations about consent long before that.

Remember In November: The Mother Of All Blue Waves Or Bust!

The way things are going, I just hope we have the Mother of All Blue Waves this November.  MAGA is a cancer on the body politic that needs to be eradicated, root and branch.  That is why, much to the chagrin of some purists, I will continue to "Vote Blue No Matter Who" until such cancer is fully eradicated.  Then, and only then, can we even THINK about taking on what remains of the neoliberal duopoly, which we also need to do, of course. And I have faith that it will be a rout this November.  Because the alternative (Republicans winning again) would be much worse.

Look, we clearly prefer genuine (and especially economic) progressives and leftists over squishy neoliberal centrists and identity politics.  But now is NOT the time for any ideological purity tests!  If we make the perfect the enemy of the good, we ultimately end up with neither, as we have learned the hard way.

This is our LAST CHANCE to save what is left of our beloved Republic, if it isn't already too late.  Look, we KNOW the GOP will cheat by attempting to rig the midterms, but if enough people vote Blue that would become much more difficult to rig.  Those who don't vote, vote third-party, vote write-in, or vote Republican will thus be asking for a TON of karma when all is said and done.

(Mic drop)

The TSAP's Statement On The Cornell Seven Case

We at the True Spirit of America Party absolutely and wholeheartedly condemn the vile and disgusting actions of the Cornell 7 and all of their apologists, enablers, and guilty bystanders, from the other members of their Chi Phi fraternity who knew and did absolutely nothing, all the way up to and including the administration of Cornell itself who let them off relatively easy for "allegedly" drugging and raping a woman who was clearly incapacitated and could not consent. ("Allegedly" is doing a LOT of work here!)

May their names forever be MUD, the world over!  And may the victim FINALLY get (belated) justice for the atrocities that these vile monsters put her through!  Yesterday.

(Mic drop)

EDITOR'S NOTE: All opinions expressed herein are those of mine and the True Spirit of America Party and Twenty-One Debunked, and not necessarily those of anyone else. Legally speaking, all suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

The Mother Of All Blue Waves Or Bust!

The way things are going, I just hope we have the Mother of All Blue Waves this November.  MAGA is a cancer on the body politic that needs to be eradicated, root and branch.  That is why, much to the chagrin of some purists, I will continue to "Vote Blue No Matter Who" until such cancer is fully eradicated.  Then, and only then, can we even THINK about taking on what remains of the neoliberal duopoly, which we also need to do, of course. And I have faith that it will be a rout this November.  Because the alternative (Republicans winning again) would be much worse.

Look, we clearly prefer genuine (and especially economic) progressives and leftists over squishy neoliberal centrists and identity politics.  But now is NOT the time for any ideological purity tests!  If we make the perfect the enemy of the good, we ultimately end up with neither, as we have learned the hard way.

This is our LAST CHANCE to save what is left of our beloved Republic, if it isn't already too late.  Look, we KNOW the GOP will cheat by attempting to rig the midterms, but if enough people vote Blue that would become much more difficult to rig.  Those who don't vote, vote third-party, vote write-in, or vote Republican will thus be asking for a TON of karma when all is said and done.

(Mic drop)

In Defense Of Liberalism (Re-post)

A recent Vox article basically said out loud what so many people have been thinking lately.  The (largely right-wing) self-styled enemies of liberalism have indeed been having some serious second thoughts after seeing first-hand and up close exactly what happens when the key pillars of liberalism are dismantled piece by politically correct (or "patriotically correct") piece.  In fact, liberalism itself can best be defined by its three key pillars:

1. Individual rights 
2. Democracy (particularly with universal suffrage)
3. Rule of law

That is the very essence of liberalism, that some might call the True Spirit of America.  Like a three-legged stool, if even ONE of those three pillars are taken out, the whole edifice collapses.  And all three are currently under attack by the Trump regime, as until very recently we took them for granted.

(Ironically, we actually already got the "free trial" of illiberalism during the pandemic, when you think about it.)

Winter is coming, basically.  And, like the song says, we only miss the sun when it starts to snow.....

Of course, this is NOT to be confused with neoliberalism, which is best defined as "capitalism on steroids".  That is a completely amoral ideology, to the point of being practically a secular religion of sorts, one which serves literally no real purpose at all except to rob from the poor, give to the rich, and torpedo what is left of the shrinking middle class.

Yes, in case you were wondering, economic progressivism, social democracy, organized labor, and a robust social welfare state are all perfectly compatible with genuine liberalism defined by its three key pillars above, unlike neoliberalism, which loathes all of the above and seeks to dismantle them.  Don't let anyone tell you differently!

And if anyone says they "don't believe in democracy", that means that they don't believe in consent, and that is a MAJOR RED FLAG!

And for the love of all that is good, stop using the word "liberal" as a slur.  It does NOT mean weak, spineless, milquetoast, squishy centrist, nor does it mean one who is hopelessly addicted to identity politics and ideological purity tests to the exclusion of all else.  Seriously!

(Mic drop)

Once Again, Bernie Is Right!

Once again, Senator Bernie Sanders is right as usual.

He, along with Rep. Greg Casar, have put forth a bill in Congress that would ban tech developers from creating “superintelligent” AI programs capable of surpassing human cognition and resisting human attempts to shut them down. It would also halt any “advanced” AI development until a new federal regulatory body was established to set clear rules and processes for AI safety.  I mean, that is literally common sense to make sure we actually know how to control something like this before it becomes capable of literally outsmarting us all and going rogue in very big way, which is clearly an existential threat to all of humanity.  And 68% of Americans, a solid 2/3 majority, agree with this bill.

We at the TSAP fully support this bill as well.  This needs to pass and be enforced yesterday, if it isn't already too late.  Let's NOT play Russian Roulette with something like this!  The early warning signs are already there, as revealed recently by whistleblowers, as to what can happen if we don't. 

(The late Stephen Hawking already warned us a while back.)

And while we are at it, let's put a national moratorium on large data centers as well, as New York already has done recently.  From the massive and ravenous water and electricity hogging, to the significant environmental impacts, to the existential risks noted above, any further expansion of these "hyperscale" data centers absolutely needs to be paused, ideally indefinitely.

AI can indeed be a blessing or a curse for humanity, depending on who, what, when, where, why, and how it is controlled (or not) by humanity.  We at the TSAP are NOT Luddites by any stretch of the imagination here, but we must acknowledge that this is categorically different from any other technology before it, and the risk is very real.  Who woulda thought that blindly and cavalierly outsourcing and automating the ONE thing that makes us truly human, i.e. the ability to think for ourselves ("I think, therefore I am", as Descartes said), would potentially backfire on us all?  Only anyone with a shred of common sense, that is!

We ignore all of this at our peril!

UBI Is The Only Way To End Modern Slavery (Updated Re-post)

Most of the objections to Universal Basic Income (UBI), from both the left and the right (usually the right), are fundamentally patronizing, paternalistic, and/or sadistic in nature, whether subtly or not-so-subtly.  Those are, of course, very easily debunked as void on their face in anything even remotely approaching a free and civilized society.  But what about the very few supposedly ethical objections that don't quite fit this mold?

One such objection to UBI is the tired, old zero-sum argument it is really just "crowdsourced slavery", both within nations as well as (especially) with the imperialistic Global North continuing to exploit the Global South.  Or something.

Tell me, how exactly does one "crowdsource" slavery?  And if everyone is getting free money, and all work thus becomes de facto voluntary and optional, who exactly is really being exploited or enslaved?  How would anybody be able to economically coerce anyone else?

And how exactly can it possibly be any worse than the status quo?  (Don't think too hard about that.)

Even the biggest degrowth advocates like Jason Hickel had, at least until very recently, openly supported UBI, and he is certainly no imperialist shill!  Ditto for Charles Eisenstein and the late David Graeber as well.

Life does NOT have to be a zero-sum game, after all.

True, the Romans had the Cura Annonae (aka "the dole"), and slavery still persisted for quite some time then.  But what they didn't have, of course, was anywhere near the number of "energy slaves" that we have now, let alone today's technology that should have made all forms of slavery obsolete long ago, but for the system of late capitalism under which we live.

True, UBI is unlikely to be global overnight, and will have to start at the national or subnational level.  Ideally, a global currency created just for this purpose would be the best way to do it globally, starting small and growing it from there.  Until then, to avoid the worst unintended consequences, particularly those related to currencies and inflation, a global UBI (especially one directed primarily towards the Global South) would best be funded by a Tobin Tax on foreign currency exchanges, or perhaps dividends from taxing the use of the global commons, while a national, subnational, or local one would best be funded by seigniorage via national or local currencies, and/or Georgist-style taxation on the use of natural resources (see: Alaska Permanent Fund, for example).  But until then, even a globally lopsided national-only UBI is highly unlikely to be any WORSE than the status quo, even if we do still maintain a sizable "trade deficit" in the near term.  In other words, if you make the perfect the enemy of the good, you ultimately end up with neither.

(Some may counter that they are really "making the necessary the enemy of the convenient", and trying to assuage Global Northern guilt, but that is really just begging the question.  Any way you slice it, it is an unserious argument to oppose UBI.)

Also note that a global UBI and a national/subnational UBI are NOT mutually exclusive, and can and should be considered orthogonal and complementary to one another.

Over the lifecycle, we ALL subsidize each other to one degree or another.  Period.  And whether we like it or not, the globalization genie is out of the bottle, and has been for some time now.  And while all empires should of course go back to being republics, returning to complete autarky (whether it be national or small-scale autarky) is a practical nonstarter for the foreseeable future, so a new model of "alter-globalization," perhaps combined with some partial economic relocalization, is the least worst way forward.  (The scarcity mindset sure doesn't help!)

Until then, we need to meet people where they are at.  Dismantling an empire this staggeringly massive and utterly entrenched is best done very, very gingerly to avoid catastrophic unintended consequences, even if it takes a bit longer to do.

(Sorry, Tereza Coraggio, but history has shown that strictly small-scale sovereignty also has it's own set of pitfalls as well.  And unfortunately, NOT all people are inherently good either, and thus to blame any and all bad behavior entirely on The System is to rob individuals of agency.  Better to be protopian and not utopian, as the latter, which literally means "no place" in Greek, ultimately leads to dystopia in practice, as history has painfully shown.)

As for slavery, I hereby cordially invite anyone reading this to go look up your own slavery footprint under the status quo.  Go on.  I bet your hands don't feel so clean now, do they?

If you still feel guilty about receiving UBI for whatever reason, then by all means, feel free to to donate it to GiveDirectly then.  Go on, put your money where your mouth is.  Otherwise, silence is golden.

Bonus points for those who decide they now support UBI, even if only so they can now finally afford to buy ethically sourced, fair trade products instead of the usual cheap junk often produced by slave labor.  (Because, let's face it, "just doing without" is not only a political nonstarter, but often is not even a viable option at all under the current system, at least for those who are not extremely privileged, and is really like saying "let them eat cake".)  If you just spotted the very, very glaring "collective action problem" in the status quo before I mentioned it, you are thus quite astute, and even more bonus points to you.

If that's still not purist enough for you, dear reader, then feel free to "sell all you have, and give the proceeds to the [global] poor", as Jesus of Nazareth famously instructed the rich man.  (You may not feel rich, but you are far, far richer than even the very richest person was back then on an absolute basis, albeit admittedly ignoring relative wealth and poverty.)  And while there is no guarantee that you will "find treasure in Heaven" after doing so, at least then you could finally honestly oppose UBI for moral reasons without being a flaming hypocrite.

(Cue the crickets and cicadas)

Honestly, NO ONE's hands are truly clean in the system we currently live under.  Except for those at the very top (the oligarchs) and the very bottom (literal chattel slaves) of the global pyramid scheme, we are ALL effectively varying degrees of slaves AND slavers at the same time under the global kyriarchy.  (And, contrary to popular opinion, it is entirely possible for slaves to own or rent other slaves, as Harriet Beecher Stowe noted in her famous, and now politically incorrect, book whose very title was since converted into a mild to moderate racial slur.  There was then, and still today, a pecking order that goes ALL the way down, in fact.)  And clearly some form of UBI is necessary, even if not sufficient by itself, to finally end this evil system once and for all.

And finally, as futurist Walter Ignatius Baltzley famously noted over a decade ago, the only effective way to end capitalism for good is to give it the one thing that the system cannot survive for long: ABUNDANCE.  Because capitalism needs scarcity (whether real or artificial) in order to function.  Degrowth, on the other hand, would merely get us permanently stuck in a bad place and still end up destroying the Earth, albeit a bit more slowly and in somewhat better taste. (And then there's, of course, the pesky problem of human nature as well.)  Ergo, social democracy + technological progress + abundance for all for the win!

(TL;DR version:  there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, and the sooner we move beyond it into post-capitalism, the better we will all be.  UBI is a crucial key policy tool that, while not perfect, will still help further that goal from a protopian perspective.  After all, life doesn't have to be a zero-sum game.)

(Mic drop)

Wake Me Up When September (And October) Ends!

The song "Wake Me Up When September Ends" by Green Day hits particularly hard this year.  I would also add October as well, i.e. until the much-awaited midterm elections in November when we (hopefully!) have the Mother of All Blue Waves:

And then after the Blue Tsunami of the midterms when he is truly a lame duck, the very next song ("Homecoming") from the same Green Day album comes to mind: "Nobody likes you, everyone left you, and they're all out without you, having fun!"

The Mother Of All Blue Waves Or Bust!

The way things are going, I just hope we have the Mother of All Blue Waves this November.  MAGA is a cancer on the body politic that needs to be eradicated, root and branch.  That is why, much to the chagrin of some purists, I will continue to "Vote Blue No Matter Who" until such cancer is fully eradicated.  Then, and only then, can we even THINK about taking on what remains of the neoliberal duopoly, which we also need to do, of course. And I have faith that it will be a rout this November.  Because the alternative (Republicans winning again) would be much worse.

Look, we clearly prefer genuine (and especially economic) progressives and leftists over squishy neoliberal centrists and identity politics.  But now is NOT the time for any ideological purity tests!  If we make the perfect the enemy of the good, we ultimately end up with neither, as we have learned the hard way.

This is our LAST CHANCE to save what is left of our beloved Republic, if it isn't already too late.  Look, we KNOW the GOP will cheat by attempting to rig the midterms, but if enough people vote Blue that would become much more difficult to rig.  Those who don't vote, vote third-party, vote write-in, or vote Republican will thus be asking for a TON of karma when all is said and done.

(Mic drop)