Civil Discourse Now

Where the far left and far right overlap for fun and enlightenment

May 2022 Blog Posts (32)

Kurt Vonnegut's "Player Piano" foresaw so much

Indiana’s economy has kept the same pace as its approach to social issues. We lag in the 1930s. In “Player Piano,” Kurt Vonnegut painted a stark future: Factory jobs are rare, machines have replaced people as technology has advanced. Today Indiana approaches that future. 1/4

Yet a lot of people cling to the past. In this context enabling billionaires to concentrate wealth in fewer hands is obscene. Their PR machine indoctrinates as early as it can (kindergarten) and has mass media at…

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Added by Mark Small on May 21, 2022 at 3:02pm — No Comments

2 facts establish why guns do not deter crime

2 facts: 1) Nearly all burglars avoid homes when people are there & 2) Guns deter burglars only when person is at home to use the gun. One: ppl buy timers 4 lights & when they’re away no one tell if it’s vacant. You don’t post vacays on FB ‘til you’re back. For the same reason 1/4

ppl who live in apts in complexes w/high % of public housing crank v-o-l on TVs if they’re not home. Two: can’t use a gun to protect your home if you’re not home. It’s a bluff can’t work as burglars…

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Added by Mark Small on May 20, 2022 at 7:48pm — 1 Comment

One more time: legalize marijuana and, well, all other drugs

In the GOP primary for U.S. Senate, Dr Oz (apparently) opposes legalization of pot: “We need to get Pennsylvanians back at work. You got to give them their mojo. I don’t want marijuana to be a hindrance to that.” If Indiana legalizes pot, we help our economy in several ways. 1/5

First: we ditch catastrophic damage caused when ppl are busted/convicted for sale or possession of a plant. These busts prevent people from getting into college, getting jobs, etc. Second: we stick a nice fork…

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Added by Mark Small on May 20, 2022 at 2:07pm — No Comments

Sec'y of State: Indiana's chief elections officer

Indiana Secretary of State (“SoS”), established by Indiana’s Constitution, Art. 6, § 1, will be on the ballot in November. An office few notice, the % of votes a party’s candidate receives for SoS determines if the party must hold a primary. I.C. 3-10-1-2. That’s free publicity. 1/5

% of votes also can make a party one of the 2 “major” political parties in Indiana. SoS is State’s chief elections officer. I.C. 3-6-3.7-1. The SoS can be pivotal. Pennsylvania’s GOP nominee for Gov, Doug…

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Added by Mark Small on May 19, 2022 at 4:20pm — 1 Comment

Response to IBJ op-ed by my opponent, Rep Ed Delaney

In an op-ed for the Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ), Rep Ed Delaney, my Democratic Party opponent in the November general election made several points, the basic notion being Indiana needs to use its budget surplus  for items that will attract businesses. Rep Delaney didnt mean we need to give more tax breaks 1/4

to businesses. He used a recent speech by the CEO of Eli Lilly, and that company’s decision to expand, but to do so outside of the Hoosier State, to make the point that…

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Added by Mark Small on May 18, 2022 at 6:46am — 1 Comment

Guns did not make this country "great"

Former high sch classmate posted on FB: “That’s how this great nation came to be. With the use of GUNS.” No. USA is not/inherently could not be great as long as slavery was legal (1789-1865), voting & equal rights were denied or we killed to expand fr sea to shining sea. 1/4

Guns were used to stop slave revolts. Unless one says guns were pivotal in winning The Civil War (& most right wing ppl embrace the Confederacy), guns have not played a role in securing freedom. otoh…

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Added by Mark Small on May 17, 2022 at 6:48am — 1 Comment

Idiocy & racism in Buffalo & on airwaves in Indy

Idiocy & racism struck in Buffalo last weekend but racism & idiocy know no geographic bounds. White gunman traveled couple of hours to kill people in the only grocery in an African-American neighborhood. He proclaimed replacement theory. Racism: cops talked him out of suicide. 1/4

Racism: how many seconds would an African-American male of the same age have lived as he stepped out of that store having just killed 10 people? Hold that thought. Idiocy here in Indy was on the…

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Added by Mark Small on May 16, 2022 at 7:56pm — No Comments

Our gov't is not a theocracy

In the early 1990s an NFL player negotiated a contract to require that he be 1 of the 3 highest pd linebackers in NFL. What would have happened if 3 other linebackers had the same provision? Our country faces threats on several fronts w/religion a common factor in each. 1/4

A theocracy is “Government of a state by those who are believed to be or represent that they are acting under the immediate direction of God or some other divinity.” Black’s Law Dictionary, 10th ed., 2014, p. 1706.…

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Added by Mark Small on May 15, 2022 at 7:59am — No Comments

Abortion opponents kill doctors; ppl in favor of women's rights march & picket

In academic debate, argument based on false premises loses. USA can’t legitimately claim to be the land of the free when 1787 to 1865 it not only allowed but protected slavery. Slaves made up nearly ½ the population of States that seceded in 1861& many were forbidden by law from 1/6

learning how to read & write. At Civil War’s end those 4 million ppl were not absorbed into the economy & recognized as having rights equal to the 5 million other ppl in the South. The South…

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Added by Mark Small on May 14, 2022 at 8:38pm — No Comments

Taking on the few who hold the fort on the hill: the GOP

The not-for-profit (NFP) corp that is IN’s GOP is like a fort on a hill that can shoot any who seek to pass it. In 2005, IN’s GOP was incorporated by Citizens United atty James Bopp, Jr. & are written to ensure that those who grabbed it nearly 20 yrs ago don’t lose it via elections. 1/6

Also, neither the IN GOP rules nor articles of incorporation tie the IN GOP to an ideology. Thus a RINO is mythical. Among ways to remove the fort are frontal attack (i.e., running against GOP…

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Added by Mark Small on May 7, 2022 at 7:30am — No Comments

This GOP nominee won't pander to MAGA: I'm pro-choice

As GOP nominee for Indiana House Distr 86 it would be easy to pander to the far-right-wing of this iteration of the GOP & cheer a leaked SCOTUS opinion that indicates Roe v Wade, written by Justice Blackmun, a Nixon appointee, soon will be overturned. I won’t pander. 1/4

I’m pro-choice. If elected to Indiana’s Gen’l Assembly I shall vote against any measures that seek to infringe women’s reproductive choices. Roe hinges on a right to privacy. Alexander Hamilton, one of The…

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Added by Mark Small on May 5, 2022 at 5:17am — No Comments

I won the primary. Now: let's change Indiana's corporate laws

Results of yesterday’s primary, IN House Distr 86: I’m GOP nominee for Nov 8’s gen’l election. Last Saturday, Washington Twp GOP held a Lincoln Day brunch, attended by a cpl of hundred. A person said to me he was “involved” because of where the country is headed. 1/6

Me: That’s why I’m running. Him: I voted Pres trump in ‘16 & ‘20. Me: trump’s a sociopathic thief. [pause] Him: Well, I agree w/his policies. Me: “He doesn’t have any policies.” We can’t let a minority of the far…

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Added by Mark Small on May 4, 2022 at 6:32am — No Comments

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