OK, Done. Anyone else? Ten bucks to oust the Lesters?
Lawrence Lessig is such an odd-ball choice for reformist hero. And he needs better fitting shirts. But if anything matters right now in US politics this is it.
My heart melted with his use of āgrokā.
Iām thinking KICKstarting politicians might be a good idea.
Any chance that the politicians who receive funding would actually stick to their promises once elected?
Iām missing something here. Leaving aside the paradox of giving money to politicians to vote against giving money to politicians, the factor of scale is bothersome. If they succeed and all funds are matched they say $12 million will get them what they need. While that is a staggering amount of money to me, it is pin money for someone like the Kochs. So if itās that simple why doesnāt some iBillionaire simply fund this and thatās done? Of course, that would simply escalate activity on the other side, but what is stopping that same thing from happening here?
Iām not knocking this, it may be a wonderful idea. Thereās simply some missing information.
I donāt quite understand the title. Are we sending foreign politicians into the US? And how many politicians can you ship for $5M?
Also, is āKickstartedā (capitalized) now a generic verb? As for as I can tell theyāre not actually using Kickstarter.
I support this effort, but they could be a little bit more up-front about the fact that any contributions will be made a matter of public record, and will be posted to the open Internet for all to see (admittedly, not by the PAC itself, but by the FEC, and by other organizations that download the data and make it accessible on their own websites).
I expected the site to be very clear on this fact ā that the donation would in no sense be āprivateā ā but the siteās āPrivacy Policyā was surprisingly coy on this point: not inaccurate, but not particularly informative either.
$100 pledged to the initial campaign (I think early heavy support is key to gaining momentum), $50 pledged to the next phase. Come on BoingBoing!
https://my.mayday.us/t/8d66-KEVIN-R-PIERCE (yes, I know it shows $ZERO - Help to change that, ahem)
This matters, a lot.
I really put my head down on this one and dropped $50 their way. The contradiction is only emotionally quelled by the āFight Fire with Fireā angle, which is indeed a practice that works. Hopefully this will succeedā¦
In my opinion, itās not like fighting fire with fire. Itās like hiring mercenaries that will finally fight for our interests for a change.
I donāt quite understand the title.
Start reading much, much more than titles and stop focusing so much on pedantic distractionsā¦ and all will be revealed to you. That is, if your goal is understanding and not distractions. Then people will want to engage you in matters of substance.
Leaving aside the paradox of giving money to politicians to vote against giving money to politicians,
Thereās no paradox, itās taking actions to quell corruption effectively within a complex system. An attack thatās useless without funding. Thereās plenty of fronts attacking the corruption from the outside. Now this is one of many attacks coming from within the inside.
Weāre flanking the bastards.
So many of the people involved in running it were associated with dumb and corrupt insider āreformā movements in the past that Iām skeptical. I wish them well. Thereās a chance that theyāre all sufficiently disillusioned and radicalized that they wonāt be taken in by operators like Bloomberg and Whitman. Again. So maybe, butā¦ I sort of expect this to fizzle out in the bewildered cloud of well-educated fluff that results from bringing pillows to a chainsaw fight.
So many of the people involved in running it were associated with dumb and corrupt insider āreformā movements in the past that Iām skeptical. I wish them well.
Iām a bit confused. Why would you wish so many dumb and corrupt people well? And, who is dumb and corrupt, exactly?
Thereās a chance that theyāre all sufficiently disillusioned and radicalized that they wonāt be taken in by operators like Bloomberg and Whitman. Again.
Who was taken in by Bloomberg and Whitman? And, what do you mean by ātaken inā?
I sort of expect this to fizzle out in the bewildered cloud of well-educated fluff that results from bringing pillows to a chainsaw fight.
Why do you think this is bringing pillows to a chainsaw fight?
And, what do you think is a better plan and/or what would make this current plan more viable?
The gerrymandering problem is not created at the US Congressional level, the problem is created at the state legislature level. State legislatures re-draw the US Congressional districts each decade after the census. If the US Congress wonāt change the districting rules (and why would they?) then the problem has to be attacked at the state legislature level.
The main reason why a campaign like this can succeed is that popular opinion (and truth) is on the side of MayOne here.
If we imagine that it takes an ad campaign on TV for amount 1 to convince someone who already has a gut feeling that money corrupts politics in the US, but doesnāt quite know where to go (i.e. a message that becomes self-evident if it reaches you)ā¦
And if we further imagine that it takes an acampaign on TV for amount 1000 to convince someone that the rich really need to get richer with benefical laws at the expense of the 99% (a message you need to hammer in over and over)ā¦
ā¦ then our $5 million are their $5 billlion.
In addition, MayOne will trigger word of mouth spreading, and its message can hold up further scrutiny. So while the $5 billion message needs to be repeated, and canāt rely on free spreading, the $5 million can cause a spark that gets the thing to become self-sustained without further cashflow.
In short, truth is a much cheaper sell. And yet, it may well still be the most difficult undertaking of political reform ever. But also the most importantā¦
The difference between āmovementsā and āpeopleā is the essence of any response to this. Americans Elect was a dumb and corrupt effort, and the non-political work of the Mayday staff who werenāt involved with that is mostly corporate IT and PR which is almost exclusively defined by its relentless struggle (and frequent failure) to avoid being blatantly dumb and corrupt. Itās not a direct reflection on the people. Like I said, I wish them well.
Because while I respect Lessigās work and achievements, his focus on copyright and trademark in his law work misses the mark on market corruption and its restraint on human advancement, opportunity, and prosperity for all, which is much more about exclusive patent rights, though there are some areas of overlap with the realm of copy/trade. I think Lessig has a poor understanding of the stakes. It isnāt about the media, itās about the industrial giants who own and chair the media, and the essence of their impact on the world is physical control over the energy produced and materials used by the whole of humanity. Copy/trade is merely a component of that global institution.
Lessigās political focus on āgetting money out of campaignsā does not seem to build a credible āimmovable objectā to counter the infinitely deep pockets of capitalās āirresistible forceā. I donāt doubt his sincerity, and the Mayday project does seem to have a āphase 2ā which isnāt just an awkward silence before a chorus of āprofit!ā I just think heās expecting a battle against ratfucking when he should be concerned more about bearfucking. Weāll see how it goes.
Itās not a direct reflection on the people.
Then why mention it? If you wish them well, Iām not sure associating this project with stupidity and corruption is the best way to go about it.
his focus on copyright and trademark in his law work misses the mark on market corruption
So his law work is a hindrance to the current project how?
Lessigās political focus on āgetting money out of campaignsā does not seem to build a credible āimmovable objectā to counter the infinitely deep pockets of capitalās āirresistible forceā
I think thatās a bit of a over-simplistic representation of the goals and somewhat hyperbolic.
Also, aside from your amorphous bearfucking, Iām not really seeing any alternative plan coming from you, nor any tangible constructive criticism. My question still stands, do you have a better idea and what is it?
Iām left wondering what the point of your posts are within this thread.
The real world is not a team sport, no matter how easy it is to chop it up so, so being skeptical isnāt an expression of opposition. Even given the team-sport-ish nature of politics, the Mark McKinnon/insider wings of both the donkeys and goppers have become the loser wings of both parties. For the Ds in this group, theyāve been left behind by more explicitly populist and, frankly, competent tactics. For the Rs, theyāve been dogpiled by the idiots and cynical scam artists. It bodes ill for their chances on this collaboration, even if Iām happy to be proved wrong.
- To note that Lessig isnāt going after the real power of political evil, merely the symptoms.
2., 3., etc. To respond to you. If I was concern driving trollies Iād be pestering others rather than being pestered by you.
