Italy New Deal

Gli Italiani hanno votato per il cambiamento e questo bisogna fare: cambiare!! Producendo risultati concreti subito e in maniera intelligente. Io suggerisco quanto segue.

Implementare il reddito di cittadinaza in maniera graduale. Cominciando dai casi piu’ urgenti e con la piena copertura economica. Escludendo i casi piu’ urgenti, trasformare il "reddito di cittadinanza" in un salario. Iniziare un programma di impiego gestito dall Stato come fece Franklin Roosevelt nel 1933 negli USA. Vedi il seguente video:

Questo programma andra’ dall'infrastrutture (per esempio ferrovie specialmente nel Sud Italia, manutenzione etc...) alle foreste, dall'ambiente all'agricoltura, dalla gestione del flusso dei migranti alla cura degli anziani, dai musei all'archeologia, dai siti turistici ai paesini abbandonati dell’entroterra e alle spiagge. "The sky is the limit".
Questi sono alcuni dei punti salienti:

• Cominciare un programma di lavoro nazionale come fece Franklin Roosevelt nel 1933 negli Stati Uniti con i “Civilian Conservation Corps” (CCC) che furono creati per combattere la disoccupazione. Questo programma ebbe l’effetto desiderato e diede lavoro a milioni di Americani durante la grande crisi economica del 1929. Il CCC porto’ a compimento moltissimi proggetti di pubblica utilita’ e creo’ strutture che sono ancora in uso. Leggi Top 10 New Deal Programs of the 1930s.
• Leggi i dettagli del "new deal programs" qui: The Living New Deal. 
• Chiedere aiuti economici a zero interesse da parte della BCE (quantitative easing o QE) per i cittadini. O usare i fondi congelati europei non utilizzati per lungaggini burocratiche. Definire il "reddito di cittadinanza" come un incentivo economico questa volta per i cittadini reali e non per le grandi banche.  

Ascolta quello che Franklin Roosevelt disse molti anni fa, che i democratici americani hanno dimenticato ed è per questo che perdono elezioni dopo elezioni.

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Tutto questo darà una spinta potente all'economia. Le persone, dai giovani ai meno giovani, guadagneranno i loro soldi e impareranno mestieri ed il loro morale migliorerà. Non aspettate il ‘miracolo’ dalle multi-nazionali. E ultimo, ma non meno importante, la gente votera’ per voi per anni a venire. Soprattutto l'Italia avra’ un Nuovo Rinascimento (New Renaissance) come merita.

Political Sabbatical

Thi post is my personal answer to the problems many in the Democratic party face, I know I do. It is not a solution but it is a call to take a stand by not allowing the party "apparatchik" to take you for granted.

In my view, the democratic party leadership screwed up big time. The only thing that might "save their day" is that people do not have too many choices, just 2. I think it is high time to have more than 2 parties, but I am not holding my breath.

By the way, this is the kind of political analysis that the Democratic party must undertake. This applies to the Italian Partito Democratico too, but this is another story (albeit similar one) for another time.

A while back I made the decision to take a "sabbatical" from the party shenanigans. I had better things to do with my life than spend time listening to empty promises by people that did not know what they were talking about. This goes all the way up through the "food chain".

This may upset some, but in my view, many so-called "democrats" in the highest ranks have sold the people down the river. I give you a couple of examples, which in my view, have convinced the "deplorables" to vote for Trump:

• The outsourcing of jobs has caused the deindustrialization of the US and the dwindling of the middle class. The responsibility is not of the Chinese government, for example, but of the myopic policies put in place by the Clintons and their supporters in the economic and financial world. 

• WTO.  Oh boy, he was wrong!! What the hell was he thinking? Obviously in all this the working class, supposedly "protected" by the democratic party, was completely absent.
  
  

• NAFTA. During its planning stages, NAFTA was heavily criticized by Reform Party presidential candidate Ross Perot, who argued that if NAFTA was passed, Americans would hear a “giant sucking sound” of American companies fleeing the United States for Mexico, where employees would work for less pay and without benefits. The pact, which took effect on January 1, 1994, created the world’s largest free-trade zone.
  
  

• The final result was this: Left Behind America.
• The economic crisis of 2008, from which the Western world has not recovered, was caused by the policies made once again by the Clintons, and sheepishly followed by Obama, with the "blessing" of their Wall Street friends.

• Bill Jefferson Clinton in a few years, with the help of Gramm, Leach and Bliley signed into law the Financial Services Modernization Act that eliminated the Glass-Stegall Legislation which separated the investment banks (Goldman and Sachs, for example) from the commercial banks (credit unions, for example).
• If this was not enough, Bill went ahead to sign into law the Commodity Futures Modernization Act which opened the floodgate to the derivatives (subprime mortgages, etc...) casino gambling that ultimately took down the entire (world) economy from which we have not recovered.
  
  

Without talking about the endless wars and the destruction of the environment.

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• It is the ideology stupid. I would encourage you to listen to the following debate between Steve Bannon and Larry Davis. Please, listen with open mind and pay particular attention to the ideological positions of Mr. Bannon (translated into practice by Trump) and the old rhetoric of Mr. Davis (which is the same of the democratic party establishment).  There is no wonder why the "deplorables" supported Trump.
  

Also, see Breakdown of Power.

I am a progressive minded person and the only thing I can control is my vote which will never go to the kind of people that caused the problems I mentioned before.

Conclusion
In my view, a "cultural shift" must happen in the US starting at the very top of the food chain. And the democratic party must change tune and start talking and behaving like FDR did.  Until then I withhold my support. That's the way it is!!

Why the whole banking system is a scam - Godfrey Bloom MEP

Ideas Before Policies

#Progressives must learn how to challenge ideas before debating policies. Only by debating ideas people know that the solutions depend on what we understand the problems to be in the first place.

Research in neuroscience and linguistics shows that we understand reality through #mental-frames composed of neural networks in our brains. These mental structures, or frames, structure our ideas, shape our reasoning, and impact how we act. They define common sense.

Facts require "frames" because they only make sense in context. As the philosopher Thomas Nagel put it succinctly, you can't have a view from nowhere.

Frames operate through the words we use to discuss the world around us by linking together values, principles, and ideal models of everyday things, like fairness, a living wage, and what a typical corporation does. Words and phrases trigger related frames deep in our unconscious minds that give them meaning. This is the mental process through which we understand what we hear and read.

A frame is a deep seated mental structure about how the world works.

• We use frames to understand facts. They are like filters or lenses we all use to interpret the world around us.
• Frames are burned in our brain and define our “common sense”.
• It is impossible to think or communicate without activating frames, and so which frame is activated is of crucial importance.
• Progressives often argue that the truth does not to be framed and that the facts speak for themselves. In reality, the truth must be framed appropriately to be seen as truth. Facts need a context.
• Progressives regularly mistake policies with values that are ethical ideas.
• Policies are not values though they are (or should be) based on values. For instance social security and universal health care are policies meant to codify values such as fairness, equality, human dignity, and common good.

For example, there's been plenty of talk about cap-and-trade, carbon offsets, taxes on fossil fuels, and investment plans for renewable energy. But there is hardly any talk about what all this means to everyday people or why public understanding matters. The way people think about and understand the climate crisis is vital to actually solving this problem.

The conservative position is: Protecting the environment harms the economy.

The progressive position is: A healthy economy depends upon a healthy environment.

Power Sharing: Conditio Sine Qua Non

Indispensable Condition for a Political Alliance

In a parliamentary government, Clinton's side would not have the necessary majority to govern. In the USA setting this translates in Clinton's risk to lose the presidency against Trump.

That said, because the history and fundamental political differences, it is wishful thinking to ask Bernie's supporters to fall in line. 

Bernie's supporters do not buy Clinton's changes of heart and her words at face value (Obama's endorsement or not). This is why Bernie has to stay in the race to the end and should have a meaningful convention, as never done before.

In my view, to defeat Trump, and the only way this thing can work, is if there is real power sharing between Clinton and Sanders. Not just honorary assignments but actual hands on the levers of power.

This would amount to a coalition government, or in other words, checks and balance in the respect of the will of the people on both sides of the Democratic Party’s fence.

What I mean is to divide the following roles and responsibilities by the convention end, way before the presidential election. This would be an actual political revolution that could satisfy the majority of Bernie’s supporters.