Category: Politics

Ignorance Is No Excuse

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The laughs keep coming. Every day more and more cringe worthy statements come out of Republican mouths. The latest one is Trump’s excoriation of McConnell – a brief mention of his recent health scare, followed by scorn heaped upon him for supposedly signing on to the Green New Deal through supporting the infrastructure plan. See, what these “Publicans want you to know is that good ole American energy can only consist of things you burn. Coal, and natural gas, and oil, represent America’s birthright. Any suggestion that they cause harm goes against what all true American’s want. Thus the antipathy towards all forms of renewable energy – it’s not worthwhile to try to convert solar or wind to electricity because these sources don’t work 24/7.

It is obvious that none of these fake patriots who support fossil fuels ever took a course in thermodynamics. There they would learn about the inherent inefficiencies in the Carnot cycle. Energy can only be extracted from the difference between two thermodynamic states. In general, this is high pressure steam, being reduced to a lower pressure after doing work turning a turbine inside of a magnetic field. This is how we generate electricity in power okants. Any fossil fuel combustion process uses this. Nuclear energy also uses steam cycles as well. But what these science illiterates either ignore, or are ignorant of, is that less than 50% of the available energy from a steam turbine is converted into electricity. That means that only ½ of the energy created from combustion actually goes to creating a form of energy useful to humanity. All the rest of the energy goes to die in thermodynamic hell as what is euphemistically called waste energy. You may be able to capture bits and pieces of this waste energy, through extraordinary means, but the fact remains that a large portion of the energy we release by burning goes into heating the environment. By the way, that is only a small amount of heat compared to what the greenhouse effect can capture.

The two main sources of energy available from renewable sources are solar energy, and wind energy. Both of these sources have conversion issues. For solar energy, the direct current must be changed to alternating current, and stepped up in voltage. Similarly, the output from windmills must be changed into a useful form for transmission along electrical lines. But guess what? The same conversion issues exist with fossil fuel sources. Steam turbines electrical output must be converted to high voltages so it can be conveyed to the ultimate consumer. What can be said about renewable sources of energy is that they do not have the inefficiencies of the Carnot cycle to steal from their useful output.

Yes, but only in fossil fuel plants and internal combustion engines can we take advantage of the high energy density available in our fuels. We would be wimpy if we tried to use only electricity to fuel our God-given right to mobility. We will never surrender to those who say there are limits to what we can and cannot do. Damn socialists!

You hear those statements coming from committed conservatives, who wish the status quo to remain in place. By God, we became great by using what was available in this nation, and no one can tell this 4% of the world’s population that we cannot use 15% of the world’s energy forever and forever.   We are exceptional after all, and no one can steal our birthright.

Well, I hate to break it to the MAGA crowd, but we are not the only ones on Earth. And there are more and more people who are demanding a say in what is happening to them. As human population has surged over the past 100 years, so too has the number of people living at low elevations. These are the people who are most affected by sea level rise. So if we ignore their plight, we worsen the refugee crisis. Then the kneejerk reaction is to put up walls along our borders to keep out invaders. Sorry, but it might be instructive to look at the causes of refugee migration. By our insistence upon continuing to release ever increasing amounts of carbon dioxide, we threaten to inexorably turn our planet into a hell hole for many of the people we live with on Earth. And in case you haven’t noticed, there ain’t much hope for finding another world we can mess up.

During my lifetime, it is amazing how we have expanded our abilities to learn about other planetary systems. I see many stories about new planets being found in other solar systems, but nowhere have I seen a report on a habitable planet other than the one we live on. Besides, the planets we are looking at are many light years away. Do you have any idea how far a light year is? Do you have any idea how much energy would be needed to launch a sizable population to a new planet? And how many generations of humanity that would take? No, I am quite certain that those who control the money in politics are solely concerned with their own status as the lucky few who have “made it” in the world. By seeing clearly how far they potentially have to fall, they insist on using their money as political speech, writing multi-million dollar checks to political action committees whose intent is continuing the conflagration of fossil fuels. It does not matter that the projections of climate warming from increasing greenhouse gas concentrations are coming true on a daily basis. They find the one scientist who does not agree with the vast majority, and exclaim “Oh, it’s not a universal consensus. We can continue to claim that the science is not settled.”

So what will it take to convince these science deniers that potentially irreversible changes are occurring? And that they will not like the results? My guess is that their opinions will change only when heat domes descend upon their vacation homes, causing fuel drying and leading to catastrophic fires such as we’ve already seen in the west, and along the Mediterranean.  After all, if these pampered people cannot fly their private jet into Aspen because it is on fire, they may begin to feel the effects of global warming. In which case my prediction is they will wonder why no one has taken action before it got this bad.

Say Riddikulus!

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The world has gone mad today,

And good’s  bad today,

And  black’s white today,

And day’s night today

Cole Porter’s words were written nearly 90 years ago, but much like the words of H. L. Mencken, they resonate with honesty in today’s world. Indeed, much of what is viewed as classic literature over the years is classic because the emotions it describes are still applicable today, regardless of the age of the composition. We went to a Spoleto show recently of a one-man performance of his adaptation of the Illiad. It transported us to the universal human emotions of Homer’s characters, brought forward through time and space.

So maybe it is appropriate to view the world we live in as a single episode in a ballad yet to be written by the Porter, or Mencken, or Homer, or Shakespeare of today, who is able to take the events of the last decade and convert them to a universal meme we can all accept as representative of the world as we are experiencing it.

Certainly I could never conceive of a world where everything became topsy-turvy. Character traits assumed to be virtuous are ridiculed as being out of style and superseded by the need to worship at the feet of our fearless leader. Not only do we need to disparage our predecessors, but we need to actively disrespect them by hiding their secrets in bathrooms. Maybe what we are missing is that Mar-A-Lago is severely short of toilet paper, and the unwritten instructions were to use classified documents as a cleansing aid.

After over seven years, it becomes evident that this movement has a staying power beyond anything I could imagine. My problem is that I’ve tried to understand the logic behind the movement. Like many of my peers, I am unable to understand the movement through any sort of logical analysis. It just does not make sense logically. Therefore, I must assume all of the reason behind its success is due to its appeal to an emotional need on behalf of its adherents.

So we shall try to understand the emotions behind the movement, recognizing I will necessarily do a poor job since I do not share the emotional state of many supporters. I must assume that following a charismatic leader fulfils some deep, unmet need within the psyche of those who have succumbed to its wiles. Since many of the most ardent adherents are those who profess a firm and literal belief in God and God’s word, it is necessary to assert that following someone as an infallible figure is more emotionally satisfying than trying to get that same emotional satisfaction in raising your arms and hollering hallelujah.

There is nothing that stirs the soul up more than feeling you are minimized by the dominant culture. And certainly the culture wars stirred up by this movement reflect the minimization felt by these people over the past 60-70 years. Ever since an imperious Supreme Court told people they had to open up their schools to “those creatures”, removed prayer from school, enabled hussies to obtain abortions, and declared that the Constitution meant what it said when it was amended to ensure all people were covered by its clauses, they awaited their opportunity to wreak revenge. Owning the libs became more important than any economic accomplishment that might be simultaneously torn down. Though most couldn’t define the word, they became nihilists.

Yes, that describes the fault line running through the heart of the United States. Those who have more education, and are more comfortable with critical thinking, are more likely to lean Democratic in their vote. Those who prefer to be told what to think, who react emotionally to expressed threats, especially directed against their young, now tend to lean Republican in their political positions. So we are in a battle where logic must fight emotion, and throughout human history, emotion has prevailed far more often than logic. I am convinced it is not possible to convert someone who acts on the basis of their emotions, to suddenly see the errors of their way through exposure to a logical argument. One must fight emotion with emotion.

One of the fantasy spells in the Harry Potter books was “Riddikulus”. This spell was to be used to destroy the deepest fear buried deep in the person’s psyche. The magical creature Boggarts would assume the form of the deepest fear of someone, and it became necessary to cast the spell “Riddikulus” while simultaneously imagining some ludicrous idea that the Boggart would assume to obliterate the fear. What we need is a national spell of “Riddikulus” where we would convert the form of the fearless leader to an object of derision. Given the many foibles of the once and hopefully never future leader, it is easy to conjure up an image capable of inspiring loathing. Indeed, some of the endless parade of candidates who have declared for the Presidency sense this, as they tout their athletic prowess as a way of contrasting their fitness to the would-be returner to the throne. Does anyone find it abnormal that the only person drawing any physical taunts from the pulpit bully is Chris Christie, the only other candidate who may have more visible fat than does the Donald?

So pick your image. You might choose the sight of those magnificent buttocks as he attempts to return a tennis ball. You might pick an image of him driving his golf cart down the fairway as he solves the world’s problems on a course. You might have the image of him waddling down a ramp (now that’s really unfair. I had two bad knees and could empathize with him not dealing well with uneven surfaces.) But I think my very favorite “Riddikulus” moment was early in the pandemic, where he was suggesting the ingestion of antiseptics while flooding the body with cleansing light. Would that he would have taken his own advice, we would not be in this position today.

An American Fable

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Photo by Tunde Olaniron through CNN

Once upon a time, there was a nation where everything was peachy-keen. Nobody was discriminated against, everyone was judged by their character rather than their skin color, and the nation had never been guilty of anything bad ever happening in its glorious history. Into that country slinked some naughty evil people, who stole an election from the rightful winners, and went on to impose all manner of bad rulings and total debauchery.

Fortunately, the good guys (because of course, it was guys since you can never depend upon that other sex to do anything resembling logical and virtuous behavior) came up with a plan to reinstate their glorious leader and set our nation upon its righteous path again. Who could object to that?

Oh, but of course the evil people wouldn’t stand for that. They insisted upon reminding us that this nation had not always behaved honorably. There were times where we didn’t give those who appeared different from us an even break. They even had the audacity to remind us that 350 years of subjugation could not be overcome with 60 years of legal equality. Why, by gum and by golly, if those who aren’t true Americans can’t overcome the disadvantages they are up against, then they don’t deserve any consideration at all. Can’t see giving them any sort of a hand-out. They’d only want more, and they’d take that from all of us who really deserve to be respected and honored.

Well, we will just have to make certain that our young’uns never hear about any of these past issues. After all, we now are past any of the sins of our long-ago ancestors. None of us have ever enslaved anyone. And just remember, it was our ancestors as honorable northerners who fought and bled to free those slaves. You know those others, who fought against the northerners and wanted to keep slavery as an economic system? Why, they just were trying to stand up for state’s rights. Certainly people could understand the lily-white motives of the good people on both sides? We would never have any sort of remembrance of that, no torch-lit parades of marchers, would we?

Oh, but of course we are conflating issues here. See, much of the problems that we have is due to those few people who follow Judeo-Christian religious beliefs, but only the first part of that hyphenated word. You know, that small group who somehow manages to worm their way into controlling all of us, the true Americans. You can see them as they spread their tentacles over all of our media. That is why we have to scrub all of our media, in order to ensure that any images reaching our precious children show no traces of the struggles of humanity.

Why, any suggestion that we might not represent the ultimate pinnacle of evolution needs to be stricken from any historical source. If we remove all traces, and ensure that our precious children never have to feel uncomfortable about actions of their ancestors, then we can move forward and claim our prize. Just like if we expunge the historical record of the foul stench of impeachment, it will be as if it never happened. See? If we’d only have discovered how easy it is to alter the past, we’d never have any actions to repudiate in the future.

Now, I know some of you are feeling just a mite uncomfortable with the thought we can change the past. Let me assure you of all of the successful movements of the past where this has borne fruit. We all remember the thousand-year Reich, right? That pinnacle of man’s glorious accomplishment where we all celebrated the purification of our race? There’s no finer example of how successful we can be if we but emulate those in our recent past. Why, I have no patience for those who dare to declare any words which minimize our ascendancy atop humanity’s peak. Since we’ve learned the trick of reversing anything unpleasant in the past, we’ve certainly learned how to get rid of any mention of the victims of those who dared to be different than the objectives of those who ran the Third Reich. Now those people would never have a reason to lie.

Look, if you don’t believe in the goodness of those who want to run this country, just look at all of those who support them. You couldn’t find a more honorable group than those evangelical followers who have not quite internalized the lessons of the Beatitudes. They are the ones who believe in the inherent goodness of concealed carry without a permit. They are the ones who embody the life of the gospels by turning away all strangers, since they might be carrying fentanyl. And everyone knows it is not their fault if someone shows up at their door without explicit permission, thus incurring a lead baptism. Why, if we have these God-given rights, would we not want to exercise them to their fullest extent?

I’m tired of trying to explain to others how wrong they are. Since they refuse to accept their faults, I feel justified in using my fist to impose a little ‘larnin upside their head. If we do that enough, surely they will begin to pick up some sense. Least that’s what I think.

So. Many. Boxes

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Photo from Justice Department

Hundreds of docs. Thousands of docs. Millions and billions and trillions of docs. Like many others, I had a mental image of the documents in question stored at the Mar-A-Lago resort. That image did not include a stage filled with boxes, a bathroom where the reading of choice could have included nuclear secrets, a wall filled with banker’s boxes of documents. The sheer scale of the illegally retained documents forced an unanticipated gasp from my throat. Of course, there are millions of people who will deny the evidence presented to them, and who defend the indefensible.

By this time, it is apparent it is impossible to shame any of Trump’s defenders. What we have here is the divine right of kings personified in a hugely unfit blob of protoplasm. If you look at Donald Trump through the veil of royal prerogative, his actions become much more understandable. He has been accorded the divine right, thus he is incapable of doing anything wrong. All of the moralists of all time have it wrong regarding Trump’s actions. You cannot hold him accountable for any of his actions because he was forgiven by the divine right he possesses. Thus it is not a problem for him to have pontificated for better controls for classified materials in 2016, and then claim total and complete innocence when his own issues dealing with classified materials were revealed in 2022-23. Then the victims of Trump Derangement Syndrome go on the offense, defending the man’s actions since it is clearly evident he could never do wrong.

No, what is evident to those of us outside of the Trump cult is the complete idiocy of his positions, and those who support him. What one must keep in mind is this quote from Charles MacKay: “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.” There will never be a single event which will cause the true believers to abandon the object of their affection. All you can ever hope for is that you have a slow and steady erosion of his support as the steady drip, drip, drip of his wrongdoing keeps getting exposed.

I’ve read the 49-page indictment. It is abundantly clear that the object of Trump’s obsession with his documents was a misguided belief they belonged to him, and him alone. Never mind his insistence on deceiving his own attorneys into swearing to his veracity when saying he had turned over everything of interest. How could he be held accountable for retaining items post-presidency when he never actually entered post-presidency. After all, he won the election, didn’t he? It’s not his fault that the reality-based view of everyone outside of his cult is that no, he actually lost the election. He’s been totally consistent in his insistence that the election was stolen from him.

The problem is now he is dealing with those who are mentally disturbed who still belong to his cult. And many of these (as Kari Lake points out) believe in second amendment solutions. That is, over and over, those who believe violence is justified are simply awaiting their opportunity to demonstrate loyalty to their fearless leader by committing some act of violence with their plethora of second amendment weaponry. In their warped minds, anyone who dares to express any statement of disloyalty is just asking to be upbraided with a 9 mm solution. If they can take out a transgender supporter at the same time, so much the better. In other words, the entire political discussion has now become more than toxic. It has become dangerous to the vast majority of the nation, since it is only a relatively small minority who still believes in Trumpal infallibility.

I for one am sick of this charlatan who has hijacked the national discussion. There are so many real issues we need to deal with, yet we keep getting stuck on discussing this toddler who commands the loyalty of so many who are brain dead. Sooner or later, they will discover it was never about them. It was always what can we do for Donald? How can we give him the honors and fealty due him? If we give him what he wants, then everything will be all right, because of course, his magnificence will solve all problems we have. We just need to return The Donald to the seat of power and all will be right with the world. Gahh!

If You Keep Yelling, Folks Will Believe What You Say

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Today’s number is 87,000. Today’s quiz concerns that number and its position in today’s political discussion. What does 87,000 represent? Is it:

  1. The number of new jack-booted thugs armed with assault rifles who will enforce the IRS’s evil mandates, shooting any who resist the decrees from the Federal government,

Or:

2 .  The number of hires the IRS will need over the next 10 years to off-set retirements, and    improve the response time for an agency that has been starved of resources for over a decade.

OK, I know that was an easy question. If you live totally in a right-wing cocoon, the answer is 1. If you have any relationship with reality, the answer is 2.

It really shows up the hypocrisy of the Republican party as to how they frame the issue around the increased resources for the IRS. What they don’t tell their gullible rubes is that a few of these 87,000 proposed employees will end up auditing high-income returns, making it less likely that overt cheating will avoid scrutiny. Look, a vast majority of taxpayers do not have any opportunity for not paying their fair share of taxes. They don’t have ownership of limited partnerships, where income and deductions are played with by accountants of mixed morality. They cannot play with depreciation of assets, since they do not own assets they could depreciate. It has been easier to look for those who cheat by playing with their eligibility for earned income tax credits. Certainly we do not want those who are benefiting from taxation redistribution programs to cheat and cause them to benefit excessively from taxpayer’s largesse. But to pretend that significant amounts of dollars can be recovered by keeping the IRS status quo, and mandating increased work requirements for benefit programs shows the true financial illiteracy of the would-be ruling class. Either that, or they are pretending to care about the true victims of our economy by appealing to moral instincts by lying about the unworthiness of those who are losing out in the national income race.

Over the last several decades, the mantra of the Republicans has been that any expenditures from the Federal Government are unjustified, and wasteful. Therefore, it is their bounden duty to reduce taxes on the productive class (themselves), while imposing strict limits on any redistribution of income to the wastrel class (those who are in the lower bounds of the income distribution). It is as if the belief system of Ayn Rand has sprung to life in their political pronouncements. What they have is theirs, since they earned it. No mention of them rigging the system to ensure their types of income is treated more leniently than income earned through participation in the labor market.

And now they would have us believe the proposed increase in the IRS budget is the number 1 evil they are fighting against. Well, I am of the belief that taxes are the rent we pay to live in a civilized society. Taxation does not represent evil taking. And when overt lying becomes a main form of political discourse, it is the responsibility of others to speak up against these lies from becoming embedded in the beliefs of those who drink the swill of the upper classes.

There has always been an element of wish fulfillment in Republican politics. They always represented the capitalists against the majority who do not have capital to play with. Their trick now has been to convince a substantial portion of the laboring class that they are being deceived by the evil of the social issues favored by Democrats. They have subjugated their economic pitches by wailing about the degradations they see in their culture war issues. Meanwhile, those who provide the political lubricant (money) in the Republican party are literally laughing on their way to the bank as they chortle over the tricks they are playing on the lower classes. It has been their dream to reduce the portion of national income going to those who labor for their living. That way, corporate profits can increase, and they benefit from the share buybacks and increased dividends accruing to those with capital.

I am one of the fortunate ones in this economy. I went to college and majored in a STEM field which was in demand when I graduated. I was able to save throughout my career, and through a combination of pension, and inheritance, I’ve been able to build up my share of capital. I look to deploy my capital in investments where dividends play a significant role in total return. But I see how unfair our income distribution is. Look at the graph of total US income:

Nearly 40% of households earned less than $55,000 dollars in 2019. And while that income may be acceptable in places like West Virginia, it is untenable to live on that amount in our urban centers. So for those who claim only the undeserving in society need assistance, I maintain it is the system imposed upon this nation which precludes many dedicated laborers from earning a decent wage. We either need a system which increases the value of labor, or we need a national program to aid those who find themselves at the bottom of the heap in this ongoing race to the top. Of course, since service worker wages are the foundation of the economy, rises in service worker pay is reflected in higher costs for the products of those service workers. And immediately, concern grows about the inflation those higher costs produce. Of course, blame is attributed to high spending from the Federal Government. And those Republicans who seek to deceive the foolish masses, trumpet their folderol loudly so people believe their words instead of seeking to analyze the situation for themselves.

Selma Lives!

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Rep. Justin Pearson, Rep. Justin Jones, Rep. Gloria Johnson People hold their hands up as they exit the House Chamber doors at the Tennessee State Capitol Building, in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. April 3, 2023. Nicole Hester/USA Today Network via REUTERS.

Bull Connor was resurrected this week. It had been years since his name had crossed my mind, but after the events in the Tennessee house, he came back uninvited into my consciousness. He was also mentioned by cable news commentators, along with the images of the fire hoses being used against civil rights demonstrators. It was telling that it took images of 60 years ago to match what was happening in Nashville.

I spent 10 years in Memphis. The district that just got “unrepresented” was not one I lived in, but if I lived there now, it would be familiar to me. The 86th legislative district was the one that Justin Pearson represented, and now has no representation in the Tennessee house. That district was gerrymandered to include the industrial lands next to the Mississippi River, downtown Memphis, and a swath of land along the river and up into a county adjacent to Shelby County (home to Memphis). My old workplace along the Loosahatchie River is currently without representation.

As I watched cable news coverage, they were in split-screen mode. Those who were pontificating were on one side, while images of the speakers in the Tennessee Assembly were shown on the other. The sound was off in that chamber, but it was apparent through the shaking of fists, and the clenched jaws of the speakers, raw hatred was being expressed. Raw hatred against three individuals who dared to stand up and challenge the one-sided nature of legislative discussion after the murders in the Nashville church-based school. In the end, the two black males were on the losing end of the vote, and their expulsion from the chamber was completed. The white woman who had joined the two in violating the decorum of the house chamber? She received just enough votes to avoid being expelled as well. So the final score was one white woman allowed to stay, two young black males sent packing. As the remaining female legislator said, the result was probably related to the color of her skin.

My knowledge of Tennessee politics ended nearly 40 years ago when I moved away. I was there when the newly elected governor of Tennessee took over earlier than anticipated (three days prior to the scheduled inauguration day), in order to forestall then-governor Ray Blanton from selling any more pardons. Fortunately, he was held accountable for some of his multitude of crimes, although not for pardon sales. Yes, he was a Democratic party member, but I was very glad to see the Republican Lamar Alexander take over. Back then the crime and grift was equal opportunity, and all politicians were suspect regardless of party affiliation. Now, however, it does seem like one party is inclined to use their power for one purpose only – to maintain said power.

White privilege is debated often. States have gone to extraordinary lengths to deny its existence, so much so that in Florida, you may not discuss in the classroom anything that could bring discomfort to the youth of that state (those who just happen to be white). The party that decries cancel culture, is guilty of cancelling anything that presents a challenge to the lily pure image being presented by the dominant class. Snowflakes cannot stand any warmth of reality, else they melt away.

I am old enough to remember seeing the fire hoses used against demonstrators. I felt awful that a group of people had to put up with such vile hatred in order to gain a semblance of citizenship. At the age of 8, I was only capable of thinking that could not happen in the state of Nebraska, where I lived. I had to be older to learn that the same feelings existed even in my state, though they were expressed with less overt violence. Somehow I managed to live through learning of the imperfections of our nation. Still I retained the belief that things were getting better, and we would soon embody the post-racial world Dr. King discussed. But events like those in Nashville show how far away we are from truly becoming a post-racial society. They replace the images of Barack Obama with those of Bull Connor, letting us know we are drifting back to a world we believed we had left behind. Who will be the voices we hear in the 2020’s that will match that of Dr. King? If we continue to follow the racism as expressed in the Tennessee Assembly, it may be a long time before we ever can accept our ongoing participation in the American sin. There is a call for reparations now. Yeah, let’s go throw money at the problem. Seems like that is our answer to everything. Let me say now, reparations without repairing the schism in our hearts will not bring about true equality. We now see so many who do not want equality, who will not accept the founding principles of our nation. And they are the ones who are gaming the system to ensure their continued occupation in the lead coach. Unfortunately, if we follow their lead, it will be towards national derailment and ultimate ruin.    

Is He Really Naked?

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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” The words of Charles Dickens reach out to us over the centuries and still hold true. Within the US, you will find both sentiments existing simultaneously among the political tribes we are sorted into.

You find those who bought a celebratory bottle of sparkling wine after the first step was taken towards holding a former President accountable for his actions. And you will find those in sack cloth and ashes moaning about the complete collapse of the legal system in this nation if they were supporters of the former President. Taken as a whole, this nation has cognitive dissonance in how the actions of the legal system in the State of New York are viewed. But both sides are utterly convinced theirs is the correct interpretation of events. Indeed, I now see where the concept of alternative facts can appear. The facts themselves are not much in question, but how they are viewed through lenses of partisanship varies greatly.

One side sees the status of this nation torn to shreds by having the audacity of indicting a former President. The other side sees the honor of this nation upheld by a demonstration of the commitment to the rule of law, a commitment other nation-states can only dream about. What-aboutism has reared its head as one side tries to equate events in the 1990’s with interns, to the events of the last decade where the price of dalliance was made clear. It takes a bit of historical perspective to view events in their proper context.

It is apparent this nation is not where it used to be. Regardless of the personal sexual habits of politically connected individuals, there used to be a red line that could not be crossed if one wished to be taken seriously by the electorate. That red line was paying at least lip service to the concept of moral consistency with the sexual morality expressed in countless pulpits across the United States. But as the moral exemplars of the church yielded to the temptations of the secular world, be they related to money or sex, the moral authority of our political leadership also became compromised. So much so that when a candidate for President discussed his own privilege and preferences, his supporters were not bothered with his confession. He grabbed them by the pussy, just like he could grab the pussy of anyone else who caught his wandering eyes.

He could not be bought. That was his original argument. His business empire threw off so much cash he could ignore the traditional high rollers of campaign finance. But with a political environment so corrupted with money (equivalent to speech), by the time the second run for office came about, he was less picky about who supported him financially. Sure, the small donor was satisfying. After all, a few million supporters averaging $30 per capita could exceed even the mega moneys of the privileged class. There were efforts made to crack open the aura of financial success, like the reporting of the New York Times. But by the time serious investigation into his business “successes” was made public, his followers had morphed into a cult incapable of hearing any flaws in their leader’s public persona.

So one group sees the Emperor in his gaudy clothes, while the members of another group is blinded by the glare of lights upon the gilded fixtures in his palaces. Meanwhile, his true business successes remain few and far between, and without a television series adding to his mystique, slowly his true nature becomes visible to many. But what is really wild, is that he still reigns over the wreckage of the party he appropriated. Once the Republican party was a party of ideas, and those ideas were discussed and debated on the platforms of this nation’s elections. By 2020 though, the Republicans actually committed themselves to “what he says”. Never have I seen a party completely abdicate its responsibility to enunciate its principles. Not until this last election where the dedication to a cult leader became absolute. It mattered not who objected to this charade. An entire party apparatus was usurped, with the added effect that anyone who disagreed with the dear leader immediately became subject to the charge of being a RINO. Good luck at trying to convince any of his true followers of their leader’s faults and foibles. Indeed, we are now in a world where attempts to hold the man accountable for his actions has become reinforcement for the cult member’s beliefs of unjustified political persecution. It may take shooting someone on Fifth Avenue before his true believers would open their eyes to the actual nature of their leader. But given his style, he would just suggest that someone should be shot, and one of his deluded followers will take it on themselves to execute the desire of the leader. That way, he can claim he was only warning about what was to come, not that he was responsible for nudging someone into fulfilling his desires. Buckle up, because the ride is just beginning.

What Did We Talk About Before 2015?

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Again and again, the national discourse is being hijacked by an unworthy person. The gift of rotting fish just won’t go away. He obviously is incapable of taking a hint, or even 80+ million hints as of the last presidential election. No, what he insists is that he is incapable of making a mistake, and all of the past times when he was captured, in video or on calls violating the laws of the nation, those were just perfect human interactions. Perfectly normal for someone to insist they received five figure vote totals higher than he actually did. I am sorry he feels so persecuted and put upon by the citizens of this nation who were repulsed by this overweight hulk of a man who is nearly incapable of walking down an inclined plane. Surely people should have gotten the message (carefully crafted by his cabinet lackeys) that he was not guilty of collusion with Russia during his original political campaign. Maybe not guilty of legal collusion, but certainly he was intertwined with his Russian counterpart through less formal means of obtaining foreign assistance to help in his initial election.

It continues to amaze me so many still rush to defend this toddler. So many are caught up in his cult of personality, vulgar as it is. I guess that is his appeal. He does not avoid vulgarities, in fact, his entire adult life has been a series of vulgarities and they continue to this day. How can you stand to support someone who is the antithesis of all things patriotic. The image of him literally embracing the flag at some convention of losers was obscene on so many different levels. Perhaps the most obscene was that the person who wanted to claim the literal image for himself (hugging the flag) is the same individual who denigrated and denounced those who had actually sacrificed for this nation. When his generation’s opportunity for military service came about, he manipulated a physician to provide a diagnosis of bone spurs. That has to be the 20th century equivalent of paying someone to take their place, something wealthy New Yorkers were accustomed to back in the civil war.

I still subscribe to the quaint belief that a President should be a moral example to those he or she leads. As in so many cases, that belief was shattered when we elected a moral klutz, incapable of behaving in a consistent, upright manner. Looking at that perspective, it is not necessarily the recipient of the votes who we should be denouncing, but those who so willingly gave their votes. So we will call out those who are determined to be Old Testament and Letters of Paul Christians. They seem to love the tones of vengeance prevalent in the Old Testament, along with the homophobia and misogyny evident in Paul’s letters. The Jesus of the Gospels? Never heard of him. All of this woke, touchy-feely stuff about loving your enemies, and welcoming the stranger is not meant to apply in this day and age. No, if you can’t demand a good smiting of those you disagree with, what good is it to belong to an Evangelical congregation?

Unfortunately, those who feel ill-suited to exist in this nation in the 21st century have shown an ability to project their voices stridently and to shout over those who disagree with them. Since they found a hero who gave voice to their sublimated desires to express their racism, you hear expressions of racism spoken proudly in our public spaces. Those of us who are opposed to these cretins are dependent upon people being reasonable and thoughtful to sway them back to a shared reality. We keep running up against the vitriol of those who insist upon terrorizing anyone who deigns to disagree with the mob who denigrates wokeism. If their leader insists the election was stolen, then by gum, and by golly, it must have been stolen. Anyone who says otherwise is itching for a fight.

I consider myself to be a fighter in this war for the conscience of this nation. I pay for my own platform in the form of this blog to put my own thoughts into the public sphere. I realize I am influencing almost no one, since I have a small readership, and those who disagree with me often will not bother to read anything requiring an attention span greater than a typical Tik-Tok video. Still, I am able to express my thoughts and am willing to put myself out there for hearing opposing points of view.

We are in grave danger of totally losing this experiment in representative democracy. If those individuals who demonstrate antipathy to morality manage to find their way back into power, we will soon find ourselves in a dystopian world where Orwell’s creatures would be totally comfortable. “Who controls the past, controls the future”. “War is peace”. And “The best books … are those that tell you what you know already”. All of these are sentiments just waiting for reemergence in a new administration. After all, we’ve already suffered through alternative facts. We see the extreme efforts aimed at erasing the past, so that we can all read the books that only tell us what we already know. Once we have a totally ignorant generation brought up in these beliefs, it will be nigh unto impossible to reverse the downward spiral we seem determined to impose upon ourselves.

What Do We Do Once We Catch the Car?

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So the great speaker chase is over. Kevin McCarthy caught the prize, although the actual prize differed greatly from what he originally sought. Rarely have I seen such naked ambition overwhelm common sense and a sense of self-dignity, but then what do you expect in this, the age of the TikTok 5 second video receiving millions of views. The national attention span has gotten smaller and smaller as social media has gone through successive generations. Pretty soon we will be reduced to subliminal messaging serving as the primary exchange medium for philosophical insights.

There is no doubt but that this is a different world from the one I grew up in. I grew up knowing it was necessary to pay for my debts, not to foist them off on future generations. And so I ended up being a saver, and was fortunate enough to find a life partner with a similar sensibility. As a result, we will not have to worry about our retirement. Heck, it’s now been 8 years since I’ve worked for a salary, and our savings just this year declined for the first time, but that was due to general market conditions and not due to withdrawals. My former employer allowed me to retire and keep family medical coverage, paying a pension in addition. On top of that, we had a savings plan even before the advent of 401k’s which transitioned neatly into a tax-deferred plan later on. As such, I realize how lucky I’ve been when compared to the average person of my age.

Unfortunately, at a national level, we’ve found it extremely difficult to pay for our debts. One political party has insisted reducing taxes for the wealthy is the best way to ensure prosperity for all. Though experience has shown the futility of this practice, it is the original “big lie” we’ve lived with for over 40 years. Only once in my lifetime has the national tax / spend account been balanced. I can still remember the dismay as pundits feared a loss of government paper for all entities who needed a guaranteed income stream. They were certain that the temporary excesses of income over expenditure by the federal government would become a permanent condition. Thus the haste in ratcheting down tax rates as soon as the Republican administration took office in 2001. Then the war on terror happened, and the need to pay for the increased military expenditures never crossed the minds of the party in charge of this national budget.

So when a real economic emergency happened, in 2008, the only solution available was incremental borrowing and throwing money at financial institutions. Of course, we had to pretend we cared about the budget, so a series of machinations took place to keep discretionary spending level. Meaning that we had no money available to deal with the infrastructure needs that kept getting deferred. Then we had a new administration who represented the worst of all possible worlds. A faux-populist who was manipulated into pretending we had short-changed military spending, while insisting on adhering to the mantra of increasing prosperity through lowering tax rates for individuals and most of all, for corporations. Then, when COVID hit, the only weapons available were to: 1) Ignore the pandemic, hoping it was just a ploy that would soon be a minor irritant, and 2) Throw lots and lots of money at the economy in the hopes of keeping personal spending alive.

Now, three years later, we have no clue how to return to normality. Increasing tax rates is still off the table, though experience has shown increasing rates up marginally does not reduce economic activity. Indeed, government sometimes has had to be the first investor in an area in order to spur increased economic activity. Only the government is able to spend money which will not pay off fully for a generation or longer. The private sector cannot operate on that long of a payback period. No, activist investors will instigate a corporate takeover for any public corporation trying to improve the public good rather than maximizing short-term payback. But the insistence on quantifying the 10-year spending for any program lends itself towards propaganda, making it appear to mathematically-impaired citizens that all of the money is being spent right now, and of course, that is why we have inflation. It’s all Biden’s fault!

So how do we get out of the dilemma we find ourselves in? Early feedback from the House Speaker race is not hopeful. We will anticipate the upcoming federal government shutdown as these inept representatives strut and preen pretending to save the nation from overspending. Yet still none will consider any solutions involving an increase in taxation. Look, the ship on adhering to the letter of the constitution sailed long ago. In the name of the commerce clause, and in the name of addressing the general welfare of the nation, we’ve developed an entire series of programs which would be impossible to remove from the fabric of this economy. Imagine how this nation would function without social security? Yet you will not find a single phrase in the constitution authorizing a national pension program.

We will be entertained with a call for a new constitutional convention. Those loudest in this call are those who wish to return to the original intent of the founding fathers. Meanwhile, the world has long gone past the strictures of the 18th century. In order to compete in the marketplace of ideas and economies, we do need a new social contract developed. Can those who favor a more expansive view of allowable government activities ever reach an agreement with those who believe all government is bad? That seems to be the battle of our age.

Thus Endeth This Cycle

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 So the mid-term elections are over. We hear all of the pundits now either crowing about their prescience on their absolute knowledge of the coming lack of a red wave, or bemoaning the fact that the electorate did not wish to continue the trek towards authoritarianism represented by the MAGA wing of the Republican party.

Some trends continued. In North Carolina, which voted 50% Republican to 49% Democrat in the 2020 election for state legislators, but had a 69-51 margin in legislative seats, continued their trend of unrepresentative selections. Republicans won 71 seats in the North Carolina house in this election, although the actual votes for the two parties is not yet available. In my state of West Virginia, almost a complete wipeout of Democratic legislators occurred. 16 of the 17 Senate seats in this state went to Republicans.

But for those of us who like to live in a democratic republic, the national election results did provide some hope. We saw what happened when a drop of Trumpism was placed in a peach tree dish, causing the Republicans in the dish to flee. All Secretary of State candidates who pledged to overturn election results if they were not to their liking, ended up on the scrap heap of electoral losers. We shall see if the Democratic lead holds up for Arizona, where Katie Hobbs is holding on to a razor-thin margin over everyone’s favorite Trump toady, Kari Lake.

In the US House, Kevin McCarthy (or whoever takes the speakership) will find out how difficult it is to herd cats. The House under Democratic control was a messy place, but the Progressive Caucus at least found it possible to hold their noses and vote for policies which they disagreed with. Somehow, the Freedom Caucus does not seem inclined to follow the lead of the Progressives, and have pledged always and every time to put ideology over governing. Good luck on holding a majority together. Expect to see one or two changes in party over the next several months as it becomes evident how difficult it is to govern the rowdy crowd of Republican legislators.

It was in the US Senate where the most interesting results were recorded. Not only did the Republicans fail to take over control, they actually have the potential to lose one seat due to the “quality” of their candidates. It certainly appears that the only ability Herschel Walker possesses is his ability to hit the hole. We will find out in early December whether the Republican denunciation of intellect and ability will overcome the erudition of Rafael Warnock. I’ve had just about enough of the Republican’s overt campaign against people on the right hand of the intelligence bell curve. Republicans do believe in affirmative action. They gather as many as possible who lack mental capabilities. Witness Ron Johnson, Tommy Tuberville, Marjorie Taylor Green, and Matt Gaetz as poster children for needing affirmative action. It is only due to fortune that they will not have to share the stage with Louie Gohmert, and Madison Cawthorn.

So we will end up with nearly the status quo on the national level. Yes, the Republicans will likely have the ability to stuff the House agenda full of nonsense legislation and pointless investigations, but the flame of Trumpism does seem like it is flickering, threatening extinguishment. Just remember. The embers will stay hot for a long while, and it is very possible for flames to reignite from the remains.