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Californias quest to tax itself into oblivion looks to be taking another great leap forward, with the state legislature approving a plan that will hike gas taxes by 12 cents a gallon. That will solidify the state's standing as one of the highest gas-taxers in the nation. Add requirements for "clean-burning" gas to existing taxes and Californians were already paying 67 cents a gallon more than the national average to fuel their cars.

The money raised by the new tax will supposedly go to road repairs, but count The Scrapbook skeptical. California is famous for playing a classic shell game. Step 1: Waste money on shiny, unnecessary projects (high-speed rail, anyone?). Step 2: Point to neglected but popular needs such as dilapidated roads, understaffed police departments, and underpaid teachers to justify tax increases. Step 3: Repeat.

Except that in the case of California's latest tax-hike, that standard strategy proved insufficient. Critics are now accusing Gov. Jerry Brown of buying reluctant votes. He succeeded in persuading key lawmakers to raise the gas tax by promising to fund infrastructure projects in their legislative districts. You know the whole process is unseemly when your governor is forced to explain to reporters the subtle nuances between legal and illegal bribery. Which is just what Brown did last week: "When somebody says, 'Here is $10,000, I want your vote,' you got bribery. It's illegal. When someone says, 'You know, I think this bill would be better if you included these projects or these ideas or these rules,' we listen, because that's democracy and that's openness and that is a compromise spirit that makes democracies work."

There you have it: backroom tax-hike horse-trading as the democratic virtue of "compromise spirit." Now you see why California is called the Golden Statethe state finds a way to get all the gold.

* * *

In not necessarily unrelated news, growing numbers of people are leaving California. According to an article in the Orange County Register by urban affairs experts Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox, a net 110,000 California residents "outmigrated" last year. The bulk of those fleeing were escaping the densely populated urban areasLos Angeles, The Scrapbook is looking at youwhere Gov. Moonbeam's style of left-wing rule is most entrenched. Even San Franciscothe playground of the leftist plutocrat classlost population to the tune of 12,000 in 2016.

Kotkin and Cox focus on the desire of families to find "affordable, less dense housing." Some have been moving within the state in search of less expensive towns to livemodestly priced Modesto, for instance. But compared with the number moving into California, far more are moving out of the state altogether. Many of them are going to places such as Florida and Texas. Not only is the housing more affordable, but it's clear that for all the double-talk of politicians such as Jerry Brown, people are quite capable of comparing state tax burdens.

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Becau$e That'$ Democracy, Baby - The Weekly Standard

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: In an interview with Reuters, President Donald Trump has warned there is a chance we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely. And then you have the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson saying that he might engage in direct talks with North Korea. Can you talk about what is happening right now?

REP. PETER WELCH: Well, what we see with President Trump is that he just flies offwhatever is in his head comes out of his mouth or comes out in the form of a tweet. When he is talking about, seriously talking about military action in North Korea, it is pretty reckless. Think about it. North Korea has artillery pieces. They have like 30,000 artillery pieces that are within 30 miles of Seoul. Seoul has millions of people living there, including almost 300,000 Americans. So any military action on our part is going to have massive retaliation.

So the military option is not realistic without this having us drawn into a conflagration and millions of people or hundreds of thousands of people possibly losing their lives. So thats a really bad situation, and I think the president should be just talking diplomacy, and not making a reckless threat of military action where it is going to be very damaging. A lot of people would lose their lives.

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Democratic Rep. Peter Welch Condemns Trump's "Reckless" Threats Toward North Korea - Democracy Now!

New York Times

Election Tests Indonesian Democracy New York Times In the two decades since Indonesia ousted its last dictator, the country has evolved into a democracy based on tolerance and a moderate interpretation of Islam, an encouraging trend in a world where authoritarianism and religious extremism are on the rise. and more »

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Election Tests Indonesian Democracy - New York Times

Police confront a protester against Donald Trump, Los Angeles, November 2016. Photograph: Ringo Chiu/AFP/Getty Images

In 1995, Nicholas Negroponte, an MIT technology specialist, celebrated the emergence of the Daily Me a digital news service tailored to each readers specific interests. With the Daily Me, he suggested, you would no longer rely on newspapers and magazines to curate what you saw, and you could bypass the television networks. Instead, you could design a communications package just for you, with topics and perspectives chosen in advance.

If anything, Negroponte understated what was on the horizon. Its now easy to create your own information cocoon, simply by selecting online stories and sources that interest and please you. Even if you dont, an algorithm might do it for you.

But lets hold the celebration. The Daily Me is an enemy of democracy. Representative government depends on shared experiences, common knowledge and a host of unanticipated, unchosen encounters. All too often, information cocoons become echo chambers, which make mutual understanding impossible and which promote dogmatism, polarisation and the fragmentation of society.

The simplest explanation for the dangers comes from an old finding in social science, which goes by the name of group polarisation. When like-minded people get together, and speak and listen only to one another, they usually end up thinking a more extreme version of what they thought before they started to talk.

If group members begin with a certain point of view on, say, immigration, climate change or international trade, their internal discussions will make them more extreme. The rise of the Daily Me helps to explain apparently intractable political divisions in the UK, the US, France and elsewhere. It also helps account for some of the most intense forms of political enmity, not excluding terrorism.

What can be done? A clue comes froman obscure US constitutional doctrine, where the supreme court has ruled that public streets and parks must be kept open to the public for expressive activity.

In the most prominent case, from 1939, the court stated: Wherever the title of streets and parks may rest, they have immemorially been held in trust for the use of the public and time out of mind, have been used for the purposes of assembly, communicating thought between citizens, and discussing public questions. Such use of the streets and public places has, from ancient times, been a part of the privileges, immunities, rights, and liberties of citizens.

This public forum doctrine, as it is called, is meant to serve three purposes. It increases the likelihood that citizens will encounter diverse points of view including serious complaints and concerns even if they did not choose that encounter. Some of those encounters will affect people, perhaps in enduring ways.

It also ensures that speakers can have access to a wide array of people who walk the streets and use the parks. If they stop and listen, they may well hear peoples arguments about such issues as inequality, education, taxes, pollution and crime; they will also learn about the nature and intensity of views held by their fellow citizens.

Increasingly, technology enables people to create their own communications universes

In addition, the public forum creates an opportunity for shared exposure to diverse speakers with diverse views and complaints. In a city or town, many people will be simultaneously exposed to the same views and complaints: they will see them together at the same time. Anyone who has been to Speakers Corner in Hyde Park in London an area where public speeches and debates have been encouraged since the mid-1800s, when protests and demonstrations took place in the park will understand the important role of public forums in a functioning democracy.

We should not, of course, idealise public forums. In the second half of the 20th century, the media television stations, radio stations, newspapers, magazines carried out all three functions. At their best, they broadened peoples horizons by exposing them to novel topics (a scientific discovery in Berlin, a health crisis in Nigeria) and perspectives (left or right) that could change their views, their days, even their lives.

To be sure, the media could also promote polarisation, especially when they had identifiable political profiles. But even if they did, they often aspired to take readers and viewers out of their comfort zone by trusting them to display two characteristics intensely prized by democracies: humility and curiosity.

Public streets and parks continue to matter, and the same is true for the traditional media. But increasingly, technology enables people to create their own communications universes, limited to topics and perspectives they find congenial. That may seem like freedom, but its a prison.

However, technology is producing escape routes. An iPhone app, Read Across the Aisle, allows people to see, in real time, whether their reading habits are skewing left or right. PolitEcho shows you the political biases of your friends and news feed on Facebook.

Traditional media can also combat polarisation. The New York Times has a new feature, Right and Left: Partisan Writing You Shouldnt Miss, with the aim of exposing people to political ideas from other publications. In a way, this promotes serendipity. It increases the likelihood that people will stumble upon something that challenges their convictions and will be able to understand, and learn from, people they might otherwise demonise.

For providers and consumers of information, and those working at the intersection of democracy and technology, we need far more creative thinking in this vein. The stakes are not low. Ultimately, democracy depends on it.

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Challenge everything you think democracy depends on it - The Guardian

Bridgett Townsend and Jackson Koeppel 11:02 p.m. ET April 27, 2017

Communities should be able to determine their own energy futures, the authors write.(Photo: David Coates / The Detroit News)Buy Photo

In 2011, the city of Highland Parks streetlights were repossessed by DTE Energy and residents were left in the dark. This was not simply an inability to pay the bill, it was the result of archaic legislation designed to serve profits, not people. This also occurred in a city where the active destruction of school systems and emergency management have aggressively stripped citizens of their democratic rights and control over basic services, including public lighting.

Contrary to a recent coverage of Soulardarity, we are appalled by these assaults on local government, and the harm they cause in our communities. We work to ensure that community members have a say in the energy decisions that impact their lives, that all communities should have healthy, safe, and affordable power, and that human lives matter. We exist to create an energy democracy.

Michigan energy companies have raised costs on homes and businesses, and even attempted to stop cities from saving energy and money by raising the operating rates for LED streetlights. Their priorities are clear and they are not alone. Therefore, we cannot lay the blame for the repossession of streetlights in Highland Park at the citys feet.

We dont, however, give those in government a pass. We hold them accountable. True government is a tool, a reflection of the will of the people, an institution through which that will is brought to life. Despite the attempts to strip people of that right through emergency management, communities continue to advocate, resist, and engage in shaping our collective future.

When Highland Parks streetlights were removed, we came together. In a few years, we raised funds for and installed six solar streetlights on Highland Park streets, and organized a bulk purchasing program that bought almost 50 home and alley solar lights. Highland Parkers did not sit in the dark, waiting for better things to come. We built better things. But to be clear: six streetlights do not come near to replacing the 1,100 that were taken. Our years of work and extensive feasibility research have made it clear: To truly restore light to the city in a way that is equitable to all residents, we need our city government.

We are committed to working with the city of Highland Park to create and fund a plan to make the city of Highland Park the first city in this country to adopt solar street lighting technology full-scale, with integrated social services of affordable internet and improved emergency response. We believe in this vision, and the power of grassroots leadership to realize it. Some may find this line of thinking idealistic, perhaps unimaginable. But our work is precisely that to take the unimaginable and find the path to making it real and its working.

Michigan stands at a crossroads. Coal is on the way out, and investor-owned utilities are fighting hard to replace it with pipelines and natural gas plants. This will only lead to more monopoly, poverty, pollution, grid instability, and climate change. A better path is a world where communities control their futures using sun and wind for energy.

Bridgett Townsend is the board president and Jackson Koeppel is executive director of Soulardarity.

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Building energy democracy - The Detroit News