A Newer Deal Part 10: Taxes, excellence & the Liberal agenda! Before solving your favorite problems, shall we repair our nation's ABILITY to solve problems?

My Newer Deal series, a ten-part – (“tl;dr”) -- array of thirty-five proposals for Democrats and their allies, is finally drawing to a close. 

All 35 concepts - some of them wholly unique and desperately needed, right now - are summarized in Part 3.

Parts 1 & 2 were introductory, showing how a 1990s Republican tactic -- both polemically brilliant and hypocritically evil -- offers important lessons for us, today. Or it would, if anyone gifted of curiosity might perk up and notice.

Parts 4-10 dived into the proposals, four at a time, with deeper explanations.

Alas, other than this person, who sagaciously understood and expanded on some proposals, I doubt anyone will pay heed. Democrats may be far less-corrupted and more focused on better things. But their political caste has the tactical skills of a tardigrade.

No matter, I've done my duty. And now I'll drift back into my lane, having at least offered some tools and pragmatic priorities. In case we ever get savvy 'generals' in this awful ninth phase of the recurring U.S. Civil War.

This time, part 10 offers some basic fixes... for taxes and such. Plus (and some of you will mutter "at last!")...  the Liberal Agenda!

                        == Tax Reform ==

THE TAX REFORM ACT will simplify the tax code, while ensuring that everyone pays their fair share.  Floors for the Inheritance Tax and Alternative Tax will be raised to ensure they only affect the truly wealthy, while loopholes used to evade those taxes will be closed. Modernization of the IRS and funding for auditors seeking very large caches illicitly hidden wealth shall be ensured by IRS draw upon major penalties that have been imposed by citizen juries. 

Tax reporting amnesties will be offered, contingent upon affirmations that no future surprise caches of hidden taxable wealth are found.

The simplification process shall be separate from all other tax issues, while guaranteeing that no large category of taxpayers will be net harmed by simplification itself.

 

All tax breaks for the wealthy will be suspended during time of war or foreign conflict, so that the burdens of any emergency are shared by all.

This one may need to be parsed-out. First, modernization of the IRS that began with the Pelosi-Schumer-Sanders miracle bills of 2021-22 ... and trashed by Trumpers to protect cheater-oligarchs... will be restored. 1970s computers and software will be modernized and auditors sufficient to the task will be sent to world tax evasion havens.

Tax simplification was offered by Donald Trump and Paul Ryan in 2017: "You'll do your taxes on a postcard!" In fact, many European nations have computerized records so that Tax Day takes less than an hour for most citizens. While it's unlikely that AI omniscience will be delayed in the USA for long, we can try a different, non-European approach. My own proposed method has been around a long time. The "No Losers" concept.  A neutral notion that will only be opposed by the vast and powerful tax-preparation cartel.

As for that final paragraph:  Elites who send our sons and daughters to war, but not their own, will have to choose whether to keep their overseas adventures or their tax cuts.   This will elucidate a poorly known fact. That all previous generations of the rich were at least willing to tax themselves during times of urgency, to help pay for wars they would not personally fight.  This provision is not so much an anti-war measure as one that is anti-hypocrisy… one of the most devastating traits to attack in your opposing political side.

   == The Excellence Act ==

THE AMERICAN EXCELLENCE ACT will provide incentives for American students to excel at a range of important fields. This nation must especially maintain its leadership, by training more experts and innovators in science and technology and resuming our immensely profitable method of attracting the world's brightest to come and study and work in the USA.  Education must be a tool to help millions of students and adults adapt, to achieve and keep high-paying 21st Century jobs.

Okay, that one is pretty much self explanatory.

And yes, it's been noticed and commented that a majority of my proposals are structural, or procedural, for example protecting the neutrality of our civil servants, law agencies and military officer corps... or else ensuring that calamitous failure modes exploited by the Trumpians get patched and sealed!

Fair enough. Structural repairs can and must be passed swiftly - with 60%+ public support. Because saving the Republic and its responsible institutions and democracy -- and preventing an authoritarian putsch -- are paramount! As is prepping the way for a return to the politics of negotiation.

Hence I diverged from varied 'platforms' pushed by liberal or leftist mavens like Robert Reich, whose own proposed "Democratic Pledges" coincidentally appeared a couple of weeks after I started posting this series. To be clear, I generally quite respect and admire Reich! But his 'pledges' amount to a fantasy - give everyone a pony! - wish list of spectacularly unrealistic idealism, learning nothing from the agenda failures of Clinton and Obama when they tried for Grand Vision, all-at-once legislation... 

...or from the hugely more-effective (incremental) successes of Biden/Pelosi/Schumer/Sanders in 2021-22.

Am I betraying the ambitious goals of liberalism? In a few cases - where I demur or disagree - perhaps so. 

But actually, I share most of the goals expressed by Reich! Indeed, I expect many of them to follow! After we have saved the nation and world. After we have restored honest American political process. After we have protected the professionals on whom we all depend. After we have revived a word "negotiation" - unheard in this century - back into the political lexicon.

Indeed, after keeping our 'contract promises' under the 60% rule, we'll be rewarded with a mandate to do more.

But sure. Let's list some of those priorities here, just to show you that I am an ally who is arguing with you about WHEN, not whether to do these things, too!

         == The Liberal Agenda ==

THE LIBERAL AGENDA: Okay. Your turn. Our turn. These are HIGH priorities, though beyond the 60% rule.

 

· Protect women’s autonomy, credibility and command over their own bodies,

·   Ease housing costs: stop private corporations from buying up large tracts of homes, colluding on prices. (See my proposal #19.)

· Help working families with child care and elder care. (See proposal #8.)

· Consumer protection, empower the Consumer Financial Protection Board.

· At least allow student debt refinancing, which the GOP dastardly disallowed. 

· Restore the postal savings bank for the un-banked.

· Basic, efficient, universal background checks for gun purchases, with possible exceptions.

· A national Election Day holiday, for those who actually vote in person. (See proposal #13.)

·  Carefully revive the special prosecutor law. 

·  Expand and re-emphasize protections under the Civil Service Act.

·  Anti-trust breakup of monopoly/duopolies to restore competition to American market economics.

And of course there are others... that will require that we get past the fanatcism and sloth exhibited by today's Congressional GOP... the laziest Congresses in the history of the Republic.

Once again, those Liberal Agenda items are not afterthoughts! Nor left to the end because they are low-priority! They are here at the end of my series because all but two of them will entail major fights! Battles we'll be better able to take on if we learn from the Clinton-Obama mistakes and start with those 60%+ reforms! 

This is called politics, folks. Don't waste your political capital right at the start. Be seen as heroes by a clear majority, and they will reward you. Try it!

And if you have some other fresh ideas of your own, come on by the Contrary Brin comments section below!  (And subscribe.) It's one of the best and most erudite comment communities online, with only a couple of occasional (polysyllabic ) trolls. Mostly folks talking in actual, complete sentences!  Your cogently clear insights will be welcome.

          == A final note about tactics ==

How shall we deal with a tense nine months ahead, while Donald Trump's health plummets and he ponders desperate spasm end-games? And the MAGA/Foxite/Putinist cult grows ever more frantic to avoid commuppance... either in November elections or much sooner?

Is it forlorn to hope that recent GOP defections are harbingers of a coming flood of escapees from a sinking ship? From an ever-stinkier undead, zombie were-elephant?

Now - right now - 200 residually sane/decent Republicans could step up with the courage of patriots and file for the GOP primaries next spring. Make that 5000, to include state legislators!  Running as decent non-Trumpian conservatives. As relative grownups, willing to negotiate with their blue neighbors and stand up to the monsters who have taken over their party and the nation. 

Judo-flipping the 'primary tactic' that terrorized decent people out of almost the entire Republican political caste. Turning that tactic on its head.

If they made their case well, and it looked like even just 1/3 of the district's Republican voters - sick of Trump - might vote for them... then WATCH as the GOP in that district will get floods of newly registered Republicans, joining the party in order to have a choice, for a change. In order to get someone decent representing everyone... yes, even liberals... in Congress and statehouses across the land.

YOU could get this rolling. If you live in a gerrymandered Republican district, REGISTER REPUBLICAN so you can vote in the only election that matters to you - the one where your vote would matter - the GOP primary. Make this a movement. A flood! 

Oh, and there's another reason! When (not if) many red states suddenly start purging the voter rolls, just before the next election, they won't purge you if you have registered Republican! Ponder that. And how it's just a word. You can live with it.

Sure, I'm daydreaming. Will that wish-scenario of sudden courage from the till-now craven Goldwater Right come to pass?

So far, with a few exceptions, the decent conservatives* have been utter cowards. But that could change, if YOU show them the way.

------

* They exist! Some of them are your neighbors who would help you if you get in trouble. They have been fooled, sure. But welcome them back into the light. And re-demonstrate to them the arts of listening and negotiation.

And yes, in some states the Register Republican notion doesn't matter. Those like California that have made party labels moot in compined primaries, for example. Still, give it some thought. Hold your nose, if you must. But reclaim some value to your vote.

A Newer Deal Part 9: Fix politics! And a (very) few people who seem to get it.

I'm close to finishing my Newer Deal series, a ten-part – (“tl;dr”) -- array of thirty-five proposals for Democrats and their allies, that might empower them to save America and the world, during the year ahead. 

(Folks who’d rather view it through Substack might start here.)

Yes, I waste time in forlorn hope that fresh ideas will influence a party that – while they are the good-guys in this era of vicious national strife – are arthritic/calcified in their tactical and polemical rigidity. Still, a few folks out there appear sufficiently immune to the Zorblaxxian Lobotomy Ray to actually read and comment cogently. 

Here’s one fellow whose Substack appraisal of my “Newer Deal” is not just coherently lucid. It riffs fresh perspectives about what's happened to American conservatism, plummeting from the erudite honesty of William F. Buckley to the clever hypocrisy of Newt Gingrich, to Sarah Palin's dizzy unsapience, to the vile purity of Trumpism. 

Heck, go read him instead of me. While flattering -- he calls me a "political gadfly with a blog that reads like Thomas Paine crossed with a frustrated systems engineer" -- the fellow is also incisive: "if you can’t get 60% of Americans to nod along, you’re not doing politics. You’re doing wishful thinking. And wishful thinking, however righteous, loses elections."*** There's even a short summary of some of my proposals that impressed him most. 

But on with this slog! I gave the full list of proposals in Part Three. Then, in parts 4-8, I dissect and appraise most of them - from IGUS (Inspector General of the United States) to subpoena powers for the Congressional minority, to sunsetting secrets and NDAs, to restoring in-Congress expertise that Newt Gingrich banned, so that uppity nerds could not utter the words that no Republican wants to hear: "Um, sir or madam, that's not true."

Now in Part 9 let's serve up a few more, so we can wrap up my year-end daydream... that anyone will listen.

 == Gerrymandering ==

By now we're all familiar with the desperately-evil way politicians steal powers that belong to the People. I cheered when Californians - urged by moderate GOP governor Schwarzenegger - ended the vile practice by popular referendum, as have a number of other blue states... but effectively no red ones. And those lopsided efforts put the absolute lie to Republican claims that 'everybody does it.'  (As it's been blue states leading the way in ending the damned Drug War.)

So, Maryland and Illinois gerrymander too? And now California has retaliated vs. the obscenely shameless voter rape by the Texas GOP? 

BFD. Just watch. If they ever get a chance, Democrats will ban it, nationwide! As I propose here:

END GERRYMANDERING!  We shall return the legislative branch to the people, by finding a solution to an indefensible cheat that lets politicians choose voters, instead of the other way around.  We shall encourage and insist that states do this in an evenhanded manner, either by using independent redistricting commissions or else by innovative and inherently fair means, like minimizing overlap between state legislature districts and those for Congress. 

 

Since in many districts, the majority party primary is the only election that matters, we shall act to see to it that all citizens in such a district may get to vote in that election, regardless of party registration.

 

Newly elected members of Congress with credentials from their states shall be sworn in by impartial clerks of either the House or Senate, without partisan bias, and at the new member’s convenience. 

The House may be called into session, with or without action by the Speaker, at any time that a petition is submitted to the Chief Clerk that was signed by 40% of the members. 

That last couple of paragraphs was added to address recent, outrageously turpitudinous behavior by "Speaker" Mike Johnson in the fall of 2025.

Note: 1) The Senate remains inherently gerrymandered to favor small states with extra power. (We needed TWO Dakotas?) Forget changing that, for now. Concentrate on reminding farmers why their grandparents loved Franklin Roosevelt.

2) John Roberts and ilk will continue concocting contorted rationalizations to allow continuation of gerrymandering's massive cheat. Hence, elsewhere I offer innovative ways to get around the "Roberts Doctrine" that wriggle-justifies letting state legislators rob their own citizens of voting power. See a general deep-dive ... and this never-seen-elsewhere proposal!

== Defend the enemy they hate most 

      -- their enemy called fact ==

Some years ago the Internet Caucus of the California Democratic Party asked me to write -- and publicly present -- a piece of 'futuristic legislation." While tempted to address changes in the Outer Space Treaty that we discussed at NASA's Innovative & Advanced Concepts program - (NIAC) - or at the Space Development Conference...

... I chose instead to try out something hugely science fictional... encouraging Americans to rediscover something called Objective Reality!  

Summarized and condensed, here it is.

 THE FACT ACT: The Fact Act will begin by restoring the media Rebuttal Rule, prying open "echo chamber" propaganda mills so that assertions may at least be briefly challenged by opponents. 

Any channel, or station, or Internet podcast, or meme distributor that accepts advertising or reaches more than 10,000 followers will be required to offer five minutes per day during prime time and ten minutes at other times to reputable 'vigorous adversaries.' Until other methods are negotiated, each member of Congress shall get to choose one such vigorous adversary, ensuring that all perspectives may be involved. 

Those 535 groups will get equal numbers of subpoenas to forge forth and challenge echo chambers, so that they may then supply further material evidence on their public sites. And those adversary sites will be subject to this same rebuttal rule.

 

The Fact Act will further fund experimental Fact-Challenges, where major public disagreements may be openly and systematically debated and adversaries reciprocally confronted with demands for specific evidence.

 

The Fact Act will restore full funding and staffing and autonomy to both the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the executive Office of Science and Technology Policy (OTSP). 

Every member of Congress shall be funded to hire a science and fact advisor from their home district, who may interrogate the advisory bodies – an advisor who may also answer questions of fact on the member’s behalf. 

 

This bill further requires that the President must fill, by law, the position of White House Science Adviser from a diverse and bipartisan slate of qualified candidates offered by the Academy of Science. The Science Adviser shall have uninterrupted access to the President for at least two one-hour sessions per month.

^{And yes, I know parts of this will never pass. But notice the common theme for at least half of my proposals. Not only will they sound reasonable to 60%+ of average, voting people, but they are nearly all about ensuring the continuation of the 'secret sauce' of our enlightenment experiment.}

^{Accountability.}

                      ^{== VOTER ID ==}

^{STOP OPPOSING THIS! It's a trap to make us look bad.} 

^{Sure, confederates want to use Voter ID laws to repress voting by poor US citizens, as with their old tricks like poll taxes. (They have never shown appreciable evidence of significant non-citizen voting.) Still, blanket rejection of voter ID is just walking into a trap.  Stop reacting out of reflex!}

^{Instead, we must point to the hypocrisy! That these same states are currently closing DMV and state services offices in districts with Democratic voters.  The exact places to get that ID they need!}

^{Hence, the GOPper cheaters aren't aiming at honesty or verification, but repression!} Moreover, when it is put to folks this way, you can be sure that millions will grasp the difference. And give us that 60%+.

^{Also note, helping poor US citizens to get their ID resolved is a great way to help them stop being poor! Helping them to rise up in the world. And also, it will help protect U.S. citizens from abuse by ICE!}

^{Let's be seen as the ones offering fair and just solutions.}

 

THE VOTER ID ACT: Under the 13th and 14th Amendments, this act requires that states mandating Voter ID requirements must offer substantial and effective compliance assistance, helping affected citizens to acquire their entitled legal ID and register to vote. 

 

Any state that fails to provide such assistance, substantially reducing the fraction of eligible citizens turned away at the polls, shall be assumed to be in violation of equal protection and engaged in illegal voter suppression. 

If such compliance assistance has been vigorous and effective for ten years, then that state may institute requirements for Voter ID.     

     

In all states, registration for citizens to vote shall be automatic with a driver’s license, or passport, or state-issued ID, unless the citizen opts-out.

Any state that 'purges' its voter rolls must first attempt to contact affected voters, both via their registered address and, using modern technologies, conveying such notification to them via any accessible change-of-address process, such as used by the Postal Service.

Note that "compliance assistance" has long been a demand by Republicans, whenever a new regulation puts any kind of burden on corporations or rich individuals. There's ample precedent for insisting that the principle also apply, when burdens are imposed upon the poor.

Dig it again: do not fall for their traps!  They are the ones doing electoral cheating of all kinds. Don't give them a chance to point at us.

            == EQUAL VOTING RIGHTS FOR THE HOUSE! ==

As I said, there is an inherent 'gerrymander bias', imposed upon us by the Constitution, in apportionment of seats in the U.S. Senate. And while I'd amend that bias away, if I could, I can't... we can't... so stop whining about it. OR about the Electoral College!**

But the the House of Representative is a different story. As the Senate represents states, the House is supposed to represent the People with utter fairness. And it doesn't, because of a silly law (not in the Constitution) from the 1920s. Which was incidentally the heyday of the Ku Klux Klan.

 And so...

THE WYOMING RULE: Congress shall end the arrangement (under the  Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929) that perpetually limits the House of Representatives to 435 members. Instead, it will institute the Wyoming Rule, that the least-populated state shall get one representative and all other states will be apportioned representatives according to their population by full-integer multiples of the smallest state's population. The Senate’s inherent bias favoring small states should be enough. In the House, all citizens should get votes of equal value. 

Note a few things. The newest members would be tight for office space! But technology should let up to 600 representatives vote, just fine. It would bring reps closer to their now-fewer constituents. And yes, urban voters would see some relief from their wholly unjustifiable under-representation in the House.

Oh, and yes, this would affect the Electoral College. By a bit. Not tons. But some.

** And there are things we can do about the Electoral College other than the silly National Popular Vote Compact. We can discuss those elsewhere. But they do not fall under the 60%+ Rule.

          == Housing and Rural Citizens ==

 

THE RURAL AMERICA AND HOUSING ACT: Giant corporations and cartels are using predatory practices to unfairly corner, control or force-out family farms and small rural businesses. We shall upgrade FDR-era laws that saved the American heartland for the people who live and work there, producing the nation’s food. Subsidies and price supports shall only go to family farms or co-ops. Monopolies in fertilizer, seeds, machinery and other supplies will be broken up and replaced by competition. Living and working and legal conditions for farm workers and food processing workers will be improved by steady public and private investments.

Cartels that buy-up America’s stock of homes and home-builders will be investigated for collusion to limit construction and/or drive up rents and home prices and appropriate legislation will follow. 

These final two are pretty much self-explanatory. And heck yes, the Rural America Act is a blatant effort to persuade farmers and such to ask their grandparents about FDR.

The next one speaks for itself. If expressed right, sustainability can come under the 60%+ rule.

                      == Sustainability ==

THE SUSTAINABILITY ACT will make it America’s priority to pioneer technological paths toward energy independence, emphasizing economic health that also conserves both national and world resources.  Ambitious efficiency and conservation standards may be accompanied by compromise free market solutions that emphasize a wide variety of participants, with the goal of achieving more with less, while safeguarding the planet for our children.

        == Getting near the end ==

Okay, enough for this session. But me reiterate a core point...

... that our biggest problem right now is to patch the damage done to America's systems of accountability, deliberation, negotiation, resilience and pragmatic problem-solving! Problem solving by the People and by honest representatives, who are adults and sincere citizens.  And hence, most of these proposals are about that...

..while passing the 60%+ test. Reforms that are so blatantly reasonable that they might bridge simplistic partisan chasms and draw nods of support from most decent folks.  And hence... their votes.

Do we want more?  You'll get more! As in the miracle year of 2021-22, when Pelosi+Schumer etc. allied with Bernie, Liz, AOC and their wing to pass some really excellent bills!  They concentrated mostly on governing -- infrastructure and taxation, better bureaucracy and bringing home domestic manufacturing. All of them great priorities!  And if you get all children under Medicare (one of these proposals) then the rest becomes inevitable.

Only, alas...

...what we need right now, above all, is a heap of reforms to save the very notions of democracy and accountable law, themselves... and even the very concept of things called facts.

Hence, those aims have been our top emphasis, here.  We'd be weathering the Trumpian psychotic episode far better, if some of these simple measures had been in place, when a perverted tyrant-toddler took over the helm of our great ship-of-state, steering it toward rocks.

 In Part Ten we'll round out some of the last items from the agenda that I've offered in this series. Including -- yes -- some of the stuff you hyper-liberals want on the agenda.

And sure. Some of those things are pretty urgent, too. Just as soon as we cement-in the survival of any sort of decent republic, at all.

======================================

======================================

*** When "Mongoose" says that you need 60% to 'do politics' he's talking about now, amid phase 9 of the US Civil War, when we have deeply opposing 'sides' and the art of negotiating has long been shredded by one of those sides. And one of those sides is entirely responsible. Look up Dennis "friend to boys" Hastert, the criminal perv whom Republicans elevated to head of their party and Speaker and two heartbeats from presidency. The "Hastert Rule" forbade any Republican officeholder from ever again negotiating in good faith with a Democrat, or even having one as a friend. And politics - as an art of listening, negotiating and occasional compromise - died that day in America.

Perhaps someday we'll return to the maturity of when Americans with just 40% support will be heard and get to make practical tradeoffs with their neighbors in positive sum ways. It may take a space mission to destroy that Zorblaxxian Lobotomy Ray that's been shining down on this country for some time, now.

A Newer Deal Part 4: Zooming in on IGUS(!) & subpoenas & cyber & political reform

Last week I commenced issuing a ten-parter that proposed several dozen fresh tactics for the Enlightenment side of our current culture war. And as a unifying umbrella, Part One and Part Two began the series by examining – dissecting – the greatest political gambit of the last 40 years, and the greatest act of political switcheroo betrayal!  Newt Gingrich’s successful-and-despicable “Contract With America.” The lessons we draw from it informed my own efforts to draft a Newer Deal for America. Thirty-Five proposed actions that Democrats can promise, in order to draw support from 60%-plus of voting citizens…

…and then quickly enact, in order to save the very structure of our republic.  Saving for later the controversies and hail-Mary passes that will happen too! Once the Republic is saved. 

Part three that has all of the meaty proposals, summarized.  Then they are examined in some detail, in parts four through ten.

Whether or not you liked my using that overall umbrella, the thirty or so proposals merit discussion in their own right! Some of them -- maybe ten or so -- are ideas that have been floating around on the moderate-liberal agenda, but that I've meddled-with, in order to add some punch, or judo spice.  Or zing.

         Others are wholly my own.

Some of the proposals take the form of internal reforms that Congress could enact on their very first day - of a session whose majority consists of sane and decent people.      

For starters, pause and envision this reform and procedural rule. One which no future GOP-led Congress would be able to retract! 

Distributed subpoena power: We shall establish a permanent rule and tradition that each member of Congress will get one peremptory subpoena per year, plus adequate funding to compel a witness to appear and testify for up to five hours before a subcommittee in which she or he is a member. In this way, each member will be encouraged to investigate as a sovereign representative and not just as a party member, ensuring that Congress will never again betray its Constitutional duty of investigation and oversight, even when the same party holds both Congress and the Executive.

Think about that for a sec. very soon each Representative or Senator would view that personal, peremptory subpoena -- whether one per year or per session -- as a treasured and jealously-guarded prerogative of office. Possibly useful to their party or to confront major issues, or else to grandstand for the folks back home. Either way, they will balk at any attempt by future party leaders to terminate the privilege. And thus it could become permanent. And the minority will never again be barred from calling witnesses to interrogate the majority.

Or look at another internal reform that I'll talk about next time... to reconstitute the advisory bodies for science and fact that used to serve Congress, but were banished by Gingrich and Hastert and company, because... well... this Republican Party despises facts.

Other proposals would be legislated LAWS that seem desperately -- even existentially -- needed for the U.S. republic! Like this one I have offered annually for the last fifteen years:

 

We shall create the office of Inspector General of the United States, or IGUS, who will head the U.S. Inspectorate, a uniformed agency akin to the Public Health Service, charged with protecting the ethical and law-abiding health of government.  Henceforth, the inspectors-general in all government agencies, including military judge-advocates general (JAGs) will be appointed by and report to IGUS, instead of serving beholden to the whim of the whim of the cabinet or other officers that they are supposed to inspect. IGUS will advise the President and Congress concerning potential breaches of the law.  Structures and procedures of the Inspectorate shall be debated and optimized for independence, professionalism and efficiency at detecting and correcting either misbehavior or errors.

 IGUS will provide protection for whistle-blowers and safety for officials or officers refusing to obey unlawful orders. 

Wouldn't everything be better if we had IGUS right now? Go back and read the full text.

And then there's this one - a way to bypass the corrupt Citizens United ruling by the suborned Supreme Court - using a clever and totally legal means, that is supported factually by Robert Reich. Though I think my approach is more likely to get passed... and to work.

 

THE POLITICAL REFORM ACT will ensure that the nation’s elections take place in a manner that citizens can trust and verify.  Political interference in elections will be a federal crime.  Strong auditing procedures and transparency will be augmented by whistleblower protections. All voting machines will be paper auditable. New measures will distance government officials from lobbyists.  

Campaign finance reform will reduce the influence of Big Money over politicians. The definition of a ‘corporation’ shall be clarified: so that corporations are neither ‘persons’ nor entitled to use money or other means to meddle in politics, nor to coerce their employees to act politically.

There are others, like how to affordably get every child in America insured under Medicare, while we argue over going the rest of the way. We'll get to that amazingly simple method next time.

But here's another one that is super timely because - as reported by the Strategic News Service - "Huge new botnets with 40M+ nodes are available to criminals on the dark web..." That's Forty MILLION computers around the world - including possibly the one you are now using to view this - have been suborned and turned into cryptic nodes for major cyber crime. 

Indeed, we are far more open to cyber attacks than ever, now that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has been downsized by a third! And the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) dissolved, and the Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council (CIPAC) terminated. And many counter-terror agents have been (suspiciously) re-assigned. Hence, here's a reform that might address that... and it might - if pushed urgently - even pass this good-for nothing Congress.

THE CYBER HYGIENE ACT: Adjusting liability laws for a new and perilous era, citizens and small companies whose computers are infested and used by ‘botnets’ to commit crimes shall be deemed immune from liability for resulting damages, providing that they download and operate a security program from one of a dozen companies that have been vetted and approved for effectiveness by the US Department of Commerce. Likewise, companies that release artificial intelligence programs shall face lessened liability if those programs persistently declare their provenance and artificiality and potential dangers. 

IGUS shall supervise an audit of US and state government computer systems for access security, hygiene and modernization needs – prioritizing first those used by defense and intelligence agencies and the U.S. Treasury and Social Security systems. All disbursements by the Treasury shall be registered immediately on log that is visible to IGUS and to pertinent subcommittees in both houses of Congress.

NOTE that in February 2026:  Google said it crippled IPIDEA, a massive residential proxy network that secretly turned millions of everyday devices into tools for cybercrime. IPIDEA hid attacks behind real home internet connections, making malicious traffic harder to detect and block than data center-based proxies. About nine million Android devices were freed, along with the removal of hundreds of compromised apps.

But that was just one botnet. There's a Sh**t tsunami of these parasites, out there.

=====

Again... these and maybe 30 more are to be found in my big series on a proposed "Newer Deal." I'll try to repost and appraise each of them over the next few weeks. As next in part 5.

Almost any of them would be winning issues for the Democrats, especially if they were parsed right!  Say, in a truly workable 'deal' for the American people...

     ...and for our children's future.

       == Political notes ==

While we all should be impressed with Gavin Newsom's people for expertly trolling old Two Scoops, it's not the core tactic I have recommended for 20 years. Though one fellow who seems to be stabbing in the right general direction is Jimmy Kimmel, who keeps offering to hold public, televised challenges to check the factuality of foxite yammerings. 

 

Kimmel’s latest has been to satirically take on Trump's crowing about his 'aced' cognitive test. That test (which is not for IQ, but to eval senility or dementia) was accompanied by yowling that two female Democrat Reps were 'low-IQ.' Kimmel's offer of a televised IQ vs dementia test is brilliant. It'll never happen. But brilliant.   In fact, Kimmel's offer of a televised mental test is a version of my Wager Challenge. 

The key feature is REPETITION! The KGB-supported foxite jibberers have a tactic to evade accountability to facts. point at something else and change the subject. Yet, no dem - not even brilliant ones like Pete B and AOC - ever understands the power of tenacious repetition. Ensuring that a single lie - or at most a dozen - gets hammered over and over again.

All right, they ARE doing that with "Release the Epstein files!" Will they learn from that example to focus? To actually focus? And yes, demanding $$$ escrowed wager stakes can make it a matter of macho honor... honor that they always, always lose, as the weenie liars that they are.  

Next... onward to four more pragmatic, 60%+ proposals in Part 5!