So long mom, I'm off to drop the bomb....

Tom Lehrer - A man who was way ahead of his time in many ways. I only wish he would (and could) write and perform some new tunes for today's absurd reality. But I can't stop thinking of his song written in advance for World War 3: "So long mom (A song for World War 3)."

North Korea is taking advantage of the weakness it sees in the West to become even more belligerent. Trump is the critical weak point in the West's resolve to keep the peace, a peace which allows South Korea to prosper. And I can only see war in the future, with the likely possibility that nuclear weapons will be used as they may be the only tools which will stop North Korea from becoming a threat to the entire Western world.

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The problem dates back to the 1950's, when China decided to fight with North Korea against America and its allies to keep the American forces from coming too close to their border. China got stuck with protecting the Kim family's dysfunctional regime. We were at the beginning of the Cold War with Communist states, and the fighting in Korea was an anomaly. The Kims saw that they could become miniature emperors as long as they tied their wagons to Communist horses.

After almost 70 years since the uneasy peace was declared, the Kim family is still in power. They have used an elegant form of ransom to extract money from the West - holding Seoul as an effective hostage. Since South Korea has become a wealthy nation, the West would lose even more wealth if war were to break out again. So it decided to pay the ransom and kick the can down the road to future leaders to deal with. This was a big mistake.

The Kims made a big mistake too. They decided on building both ICMS and nuclear weapons, with the goal of being able to hold any nation on the planet hostage to their aims. The USA can not afford to lose any of its major cities. (Insert cynical joke here, based on your politics.) So we will likely be forced to act, even though the West will lose South Korea's economy and wealth in the process.

Strangely, as much as I hate Trump the man, I'm glad that he will let the military make the decisions needed to fight North Korea when the time comes. The military knows he is not competent enough to make decisions required of a commander in chief. So they will act responsibly, but give him enough cover to look presidential.

But what happens after the war? Ay, there's the rub. In order to limit the damage, South Korea will need to be protected from reunification. Since the North Korean people have been brainwashed to worship the Kim family, it will be a great effort and risk to absorb this useless population into a South Korea that will be trying to rebuild a country after a major war. They will want (but never saying this) as many primates as possible exterminated between the DMZ and the Yalu river (the Chinese Border). This means that South Korea has an interest in America to test and use as many of its military toys as possible in that war. And our military will only be too glad to oblige.,

Am I being overly cynical and pessimistic? Maybe. But I haven't thought of any other possible solution that could occur with less bloodshed and suffering....

Refusing to question authority is tantamount to treason!

"I was only following orders...."  We've heard that line before. And we're in danger of the same thing that happened to the Germans. People refused to stand up and question authority out of peer pressure, and later out of fear. And as the Nuremberg trials showed, this was inexcusable and was a betrayal of a great nation.

We now have a corrupt leader in Washington, DC who is not being openly challenged by his own political party.  They are only interested in being in power, and not the purpose of being in power - to govern.  Gradually, we're seeing the state houses pass laws which are meant to restrict the right to peaceably assembly and protest wrongful actions by government.

The most egregious offenses may yet come from the Federal Government.  We're seeing provisions meant to protect whistle blowers being repealed by executive order. We're seeing an attack on a health care plan, that in spite of its many flaws, has succeeded in bringing health care to millions who were not able to afford health care before. We're seeing an attack on Women's rights by extremists who want to limit a woman's access to birth control AND prohibit her from having the choice of having an abortion if that birth control method fails. We're seeing attacks on the LGBT community, by attempts to ignore the community's existence AND remove protections established by both the courts and executive orders. We're seeing a rollback of environmental safeguards, as well as ceasing to collect data which helps to prove that global warming is real.

Yet, what offends me most is not what one might expect from a "far right" shift in government. Instead, it is that "far right" government has been enabling a president to betray his country. Our president is tainted by his direct and indirect connections to the Russian oligarchy. The GOP fears betraying the man who would betray us all. They still act as if he is a leader who should be respected - even though he shows no loyalty to those below him. 

Several times over the past couple of years, my friends and I have discussed the alarming signs that America is about to have a Fascist government. Most of these friends are on the left, and never would have voted for a Republican candidate. However, today I had a similar discussion with a friend who never likes anything coming from the left - and even she is seeing the signs of Fascism coming from the right. If this doesn't make a person think, I don't know what does....

Hopefully, I am wrong. And I hope that the midterm elections make it possible for the left to check and balance the current unchecked power of the right. Only time will tell....

By now, we're a little over a week into the new season.

Nothing signals that Spring has come like the baseball season opener. There is a predictability in baseball that is unlike that of Mother Nature. When opening day comes, the games will be played unless rain or snow makes it impossible to do so. The birds and the bees do not have that kind of predictability.

Baseball may no longer be "America's Pastime", but it is America's sport. There is something about baseball that is timeless, and I'm not just referring to the lack of a clock to govern the duration of a game. If you look at the above picture, very little gives it away as an image taken almost 100 years ago, save for the graininess of the picture, the watercolor like colorization, and the two baseball players in the picture. 

For the most part, today's baseball game is played mostly by the same rules as it was 100 years ago, save for the introduction of the designated hitter. However, the game has evolved in ways no one could have foreseen even 50 years ago. No longer do pitchers throw complete games, nor do they hit in the American League. In a normal game, one sees a starting pitcher, a middle relief pitcher, and a closer. (Could you imagine Babe Ruth's career had he started playing today?  I'd bet that he'd have never hit 714 home runs, as he'd have earned a Hall of Fame slot on his pitching record alone.) 

Of course, much of the game's evolution has been propelled by statistical analysis. There are so many names for specific types of stats, that the mind starts to boggle. And Billy Beane's work with the Athletics was made popular with the book "Moneyball" and the movie of the same name. No longer is "gut instinct" a valid way to manage a team. Instead, a good manager has to understand all the statistics that apply to his players at the current moment in a game, and manage the team based on statistical probabilities.  This is not easy, and I doubt it is as much fun for a manager as it was 100 years ago.

Yet, baseball is eternal.  Children still dream of being a "Big League" baseball player. However, these children often come from third world countries such as Cuba, the Dominican Republic or Panama. The game is much more international than before, and we are seeing a better class of baseball than was available 100 years ago. Would Babe Ruth or "Shoeless" Joe Jackson be able to make it in today's game?  I don't know, but they were the greatest players of their time, and they set benchmarks that still stand almost 100 years later.

They seem like the Three Stooges. And they make Moe look like a good leader.

This week's entry will be relatively short.

As I write this, the AHCA act has yet to be brought to a vote before the full House. And it doesn't have that great a chance of passing. Then, if it does, it still doesn't have a ghost of a chance in the Senate.  What does this say about the GOP as a political party?

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For the past several years, the GOP has been stirring up its base, saying that the Affordable Care Act (A.K.A. "Obamacare") is bad for the American people and would be repealed on the first day that the GOP had control of government.  So far, it has been a little over 2 months since the GOP got its wish, and they were unprepared to do what they promised.

The key features of Obamacare (I use the word as a compliment to the man) are:

1. A mandated definition of what basic health care coverage is, so that people buying this care on exchanges could make "apples to apples" comparisons.
2. A mandated participation in the health care market (with subsidies, if needed) to insure that both the poor are covered, and that the insurance pool is large enough to absorb the expenses of the old and infirm who were unable to get affordable insurance.
3. A mandate that insurers accept people with pre-existing conditions and cover those conditions in their policies.
4. An establishment of government sponsored (state or federal governments) health care exchanges, so that people could easily buy insurance from a marketplace.

There are more features, such as the expansion of medicaid that could be mentioned here. But they only serve to make the discussion a little more complex than needed.

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The problem with health care is that many things dovetail with each other.  Take away mandatory participation in a health care market, and the insurance pools do not cover enough young and healthy people to absorb the expenses of the old and infirm. Isolate the old and infirm into assigned risk pools, and they will not be able to afford health care without subsidies. Take away coverage of pre-existing conditions, and the people who need coverage will not be able to get it.  Take away the public exchanges and mandated definitions of "coverage", and the public will not be able to make informed choices. In short, one has to address many requirements in order to maximize coverage across as many people as possible in a nation's population.

The GOP attacks the first two elements in the above list in all their proposals to repeal the ACA. They do not care that less people will be covered by insurance.  They do not care that insurance will become unaffordable to the old and infirm.  They only care about restoring a dysfunctional prior status quo.  The GOP has had several years to design a better health care plan than the ACA, and yet had not done so.  Instead they kept making noises about the free market being better than the ACA's "solution" - even when the other major industrialized nations have shown that "socialized medicine" has resulted in more available health care at a lower price to society.  In fact, one staunch GOP loyalist made the claim that if Stephen Hawking had to use Britain's National Health Service (NHS), that Hawking would be dead today.  Well, Hawking uses the NHS and is still alive as I write this.

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The GOP is now in charge of the Executive branch of government, as well as both legislative branches of government. And the three stooges in the above photo have yet do produce a health care reform that would be better than what we now have.  It should be the duty of any opposition party, that when it comes to power, that it has well thought out policies and actions ready to go.  This was not the case when the GOP gained power this year.

I don't need to say much about Trump, except that he is a malignant narcissistic sociopath who has no loyalty to anyone but himself, who has no taste, and who has no empathy with other people. In short, he is a social cancer that can cause damage when left unchecked. Paul Ryan is an idealog who can be very dangerous as he gets more power, as he does not believe that the fortunate in society have any duty to those less well off. And Mitch McConnell may not be an ideolog, as he has no ethics to guide him except a loyalty to his party.

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The public is enraged - and that includes many in the "Red States" who are seeing how the party they voted into power is about to betray them.  The GOP had no Obamacare replacement, so they slapped something together and called it reform. The public knows better, as they can see how they will lose their ACA benefits when what they derisevely called "Obamacare" is repealed. They see that giving away park lands in places like Montana will hurt their local economy. They see that polluting the water with mining waste will take away their clean drinking water. In short, they are willing to the Democrats if the Democrats have leaders who will address the needs of the people in "Fly Over Territory".

Luckily, we're seeing the Democrats get energized, as they are getting ready for the 2018 elections. But do they have enough of the right people in place for the future?  I doubt it. Their leadership is getting long in the tooth, and they don't have enough young leaders who can energize the public. The one person who can lead them, Bernie Sanders, is an older man who has captured the imagination of youth. He is the same man, when in a forum of Trump supporters received the ultimate compliment from a person in mining country. This compliment took the form of being told that Sanders, from the Northeast, is doing more for people in Coal Country than Mitch McConnell next door. 

My question is: Will the Democrats be ready in time to topple "Larry" and "Curly" in 2018, and take care of "Moe" in 2020?

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PS: After I wrote this, the GOP Bill went down in flames.  As expected, Trump had to find someone else to blame the failure on, and he blamed the Democrats for not working with him.  Hmmmm.  The GOP refused to help when Obamacare was passed 7 years ago. So why should the Democrats respond any differently.  Trump claims that Obamacare will implode, and it may yet in some states. But if it fails in 2018, it will be an election year, and I doubt that Trump will be able to stop the upcoming disaster that an honest attempt to repair what was in place could have prevented.

There are 3 kinds of lies about Healthcare

Mark Twain once said that "There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics." And in the case of Obamacare, Trumpcare and the Healthcare debate, all three kinds of lies are in play.

When the Affordable Care Act was enacted, it had no support from the GOP, even though the design came out of a GOP think tank. The GOP was so focused on making Obama a one term president, that it became an extremely polarized opposition to anything supported by Obama. And this included the beginnings of a national health care system based on free market principles, yet tempered by the realities of unequal wealth distribution and unequal health across subgroups of our nation's population.

I was surprised to find that a president and party would have spent so much political capital oh health care. And in retrospect, I am reminded of LBJ who noted that by standing up for civil rights, he was giving the "Old South" to the GOP. It seems like healthcare reform may symbolize something similar for Democrats, as the GOP has used Obamacare as a tool to rally the base.

Over the past few years, the Democratic party has been losing seats in both the House and the Senate. In 2016, the Democrats finally lost the presidency, which gave the GOP a chance to remake healthcare in ways that may reflect either an ideological purity or a pragmatic recognition of reality. Unfortunately, the first important draft at a reform bill will only serve to double the number of uninsured people, and give excessive tax cuts to the rich.

Designing reforms to a health insurance system is not something that can be done in days. It took the Democrats months to flesh out a plan, and then they had to pull out all stops (including bringing in a sickly Ted Kennedy to help break a filibuster) to get the bill passed. Even then, the bill was far from perfect - and was signed into law with known problems. The Obama administration figured that Healthcare reform was now in play, but repeal would be political suicide once the average citizen started to receive the benefits of this new entitlement.

President Trump promised that he would sign a repeal of Obamacare the day he took office. It's been roughly two months since he took office, and no repeal or replacement bill has been signed into law at the time I'm writing this entry. The GOP never thought that they would be in a position to fulfill its promises to repeal Obamacare, and now they are caught between keeping this promise and doing the right thing.

The GOP is saying lies of varying magnitudes in regard to the ACA. What they are not saying is that their lack of cooperation in congress and in their statehouses helped to cause major problems in the "Red States". Obamacare is in trouble in many of the Red States, as quite a few did not accept federal monies for Medicaid expansion.  As a result, many people who could have gotten medical care were caught in a gap - between Medicaid eligibility and being able to afford healthcare. So they got screwed by their own leaders, just because of a political game that was being played.

In the "Blue States", we see a system that is relatively successful. Yes, there are problems. But people are accessing healthcare who could never have afforded it in the past. So, what's going to happen to them now that the GOP is in charge? Trump and the rest of the GOP do not want to look at the statistics regarding Obamacare. The Congressional Budget Office did predict a $370+ million savings due to the GOP's most recent health care reform bill. But it said that the number of uninsured would more than double. This means that the GOP will need to tell big lies to mollify its base - a base which is finally coming to terms with the Affordable Care Act, not realizing that it is one and the same as the dreaded "Obamacare".

There are Senators warning GOP house members that the current bill will be DOA if it reaches the Senate. Both the President and the Speaker of the House are saying that this bill is the only one that might pass muster in the House. Yet something more may be going on here.  Could a bad bill be written up, making it possible for purists to say they voted for an acceptable bill that will never come to law - and please their constituents?  Could a future bill be designed to "repeal" the ACA, but merely be a set of tweaks to make the existing law more palatable?

What is most telling is that TRUMP, a man who puts his name on everything, boils red when he hears the phrase "Trumpcare". He doesn't want his name associated with a GOP suicide pact. And yet, that's what seems to be happening right now - GOP Congressmen and Senators are avoiding their constituents in order not to address their fears of losing affordable health care.  Does this mean that because of ideological concerns that the GOP may commit political suicide?  Who knows?

The other night, Bernie Sanders held a town hall in "Trump Territory". And it is amazing how he addressed the concerns of West Virginia voters better than that of their own leaders.  In fact, one person there said that he was amazed that Sanders was looking out for retired coal miners more than Mitch McConnell, a Senator from a nearby coal mining state. What does this say about our 2 party system? To me, it says that if a party ignores the concerns of people who are minorities in the party, it will lose the votes to the other party - even if the only things given are lip service and lies, as the GOP has done for years.

Even in a state that bleeds red, the ACA has shown to be useful. It made sure that coal miners suffering from Black Lung disease got the benefit of the doubt when claiming benefits - something that would be lost in an ACA repeal.  People in Trump Country see this, and do not want the ACA repealed - they want it fixed.  Even so, our VP went to Kentucky and talked about all of Obamacare's failures - even when the little guy is starting to see the benefits of the law.  I can only imagine what would happen to the GOP if more people started seeing the lies for what they are - mistaken tribal and ideological opposition to a "lesser of evils" law.

In the major Western nations, there is no country which has free market health care - not even us.  In a free market, people would die if they were taken to the hospital without money or insurance coverage. Out of humanity, we require hospitals to treat all people regardless of ability to pay, and then those hospitals shift their unreimbursed costs to those least able to pay "rack rate" for medical care. And yet, the GOP keeps arguing that a free market can work with health care when there are no examples in the world of a free market working for health care.  What lies will they tell to bamboozle their base to convince them that a return to healthcare's past is what is needed in a "reform" effort?

Luckily, there are a few GOP Congressmen and Senators willing to buck party ideology and demand that a replacement bill actually be better than the system we have now. It's not important that they dress up their verbiage in fantasy talk or pragmatic statements. Instead, it's important that they are realizing that if the GOP breaks Obamacare without having a better Trumpcare ready to roll, then the GOP could lose both houses in the next election, and possibly start losing the statehouses as well.

I predict that we will hear a lot of misinformation spouted over the next few weeks while ACA repeal is being discussed. Luckily, the Democrats still have the ability to filibuster many bills that come through the Senate, and have an effective veto that can be used for most half-assed attempts to repeal the ACA. Hopefully, the Democrats will use what little power they have left in both a wise and effective manner.  And I hope that in the middle of this political game being played, that people lose the ability to purchase healthcare that they once enjoyed under the ACA.

How deep is the Russia Connection?

As I write this, a TV reporter was discussing with a guest asserting that there was a FISA court warrant on two data servers connected to Russian Banks at Trump Tower.  I have not yet been able to find evidence of this in internet searches, but things have gotten "Curiouser and Curiouser".

A while back, I was concerned when I read that there was a data connection between Trump's campaign and Russia.  We now know that Wikileaks has been feeding one sided information in sync with Trump's campaign, bolstering him when his campaign was flagging. Now, we're finding out that many in Trump's staff have strong ties to Russia - more than I ever thought when I started paying attention to this connection.

Could Trump's now silence on the issue of being bugged be related to violating the law in relation to a FISA court warrant by making things public?  Who knows?  Only time will tell.

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Strangely enough, even though I do not consider Russia to be a friendly country, I do believe that we can have a rapprochement with them. But this is not because of Donald Trump. Instead it is because I see a way to profitably knit them together with the West, in spite of the regime now in power.

Russia has a more sophisticated set spy masters than we have.  America has shifted away from "Boots on the Ground" in many areas, including spying.  We have gotten caught up in electronic surveillance, and have forgotten the art of culturing people who will eventually betray their countries' interests.  Potentially, with the Trump crew, Russia has scored the ultimate success.  Again, only honest news reporting will show this to be true or not.

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I am far from happy with this administration.  Virtually all of its civilian department heads are there to preside over the dismantling of those departments.  Executive orders are being used to strip away protections given to individuals, and shift protections to the corporate state. Even if we ignore the alarms being sounded by the left, radical change in big government is dangerous. There are good reasons that change in big government come slowly - it gives people and businesses time to adjust to the new reality.  The changes being proposed by this administration do not allow for this adjustment, and could turn out to be a great disaster.

Another report that I've read says that Russia's interest is to disrupt developing nations' interest in Western models of democracy and economic development. By making the West (as a Whole) look bad, Russia can look good by comparison.  Could Trump's victory be the ultimate victory for Russia?  I have no idea, but it's an interesting idea to pursue.

Is he insane, or is he just evil?

I'm not sure what to believe anymore.  As much as I want to hate the man, something is triggering pity in me for him.  And it started with an article in Eater.

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The Eater article, "Actually, How Donald Trump Eats His Steak Matters" caused me to start thinking of how insecure Trump really must be inside, and why his view of the world resonates among many Americans. Trump always eats the same type of steak - a dry aged strip steak, has it cooked "well done", then adds ketchup to make up for the lost flavor. "Adults who won’t eat pink-hearted steaks might lean on any number of reasons for their position, but almost always it comes down to an aversion to risk, which is at its core an unwillingness to trust the validity and goodwill of any experiences beyond the limited sphere of one’s own." And I'll bet at the core, most of Trump's base has similar fears. Can I blame anyone for being fearful in this day and age?  No. But I'll bet that Trump's fear goes back to his youth, and may be related to the loss of his brother.

But I don't want to dwell in that area of his life.  I am not a psychologist, and I am not trained to diagnose mental illness.  The New Republic states that "a debate is raging among mental health professionals about Trump’s mental state, and whether it’s unethical of them to speculate publicly about someone whom they haven’t examined." It goes on to mention that "Trump was potentially exposed to syphilis based on his own statements that he was sexually promiscuous in the 1980s, a period when syphilis cases were rapidly increasing in the U.S.."  If Trump has this disease, he'd be in notable company, as Al Capone (a man who I respect more than Trump as a businessman) also suffered from syphilis.

Of course, we could take syphilis out of the equation, and still be dealing with mental illness. The N.Y. Daily News notes that "The American Psychiatric Association says that anyone exhibiting five of the following nine egotistical traits has Narcissistic Personality Disorder:

1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements).

2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.

3. Believe that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with other special or high-status people.

4. Requires excessive admiration.

5. Has a sense of entitlement.

6. Is interpersonally exploitative.

7. Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.

8. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her.


9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes."

Do you agree with me, that Trump shows 8 of the 9 characteristics of Narcissistic Personality Disorder?

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I still believe that Trump should be removed from office as soon as possible. Even a disastrous 3+ years under a "sane" President Pence would likely be preferable to the chaos created by Trump. Is Trump mentally ill, or is he just evil? It's hard for anyone to say, as it is easy to argue for both possibilities.

There is a part of me that could feel sorry for this man and his family, as he is not able to have any empathy towards others. Sadly, he is only interested in himself, and seems very lonely as a result. Even with this being said, I still must raise the question: Why has much of the GOP sacrificed its principles and whatever integrity it has left to be loyal to a man who will not be loyal to them or care about them?

A problem for protesters, and a way to help deal with it.

The Women's March on Washington. It's hard to believe that this took place a month ago as I'm writing this entry.  A lot of feelings were vented, but has it yet led to anything substantial? Probably not. The protesters were marching against Trump, and not FOR anything in particular. And this is where the problem lies. Trump's opponents are still divided.  We think of women's rights, LGBTIQ rights, immigrant rights, but we're not focusing on what should be the core issue - Human Rights and how to achieve them for all.  Each of these causes is important. But without a central focus, our opposition wins. 

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In order for progressives to win both the cultural war and the ideological war being foisted upon us, we need to make sure that no one accepts any of the lies coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as anything other than what they are - tools being used to get the common person to stop paying attention to a critical press, and to only focus on what Trump claims to be truth.  This is dangerous, as an honest free press is the most important check and balance against government overreach when the public feels empowered. 

Right now, we're seeing attempts from the Trump administration to disempower groups that have traditionally been disenfranchised in the USA: Poor People, Blacks, Latinos, Gays & Lesbians, Transgenders, and Women. Ignore the rhetoric from both sides of the political aisle. We have an Attorney General who was once voted down by the Senate for being too racist to have a judicial seat. We have a Secretary of Education who has no clue how public education functions, and wants to replace the public school system with private schools. We have a Secretary of Housing and Urban Development who has never run an organization of any size. Virtually all of his civilian appointees are there to destroy the departments which they are supposed to run.  We've already seen protections once held by the LGBT community overturned by the new Attorney General, as he won't defend protections established by the prior administration.

It's easy to give up hope.  But the progressive movement needs a set of tactics that can be used to 

1. Maximize the impact of any protest. 
2. Prevent Trump's bullying of dissenters from being seen as "normal".
3. Stagger large scale protests, so that people stay sensitive to the protest message.
4. Disrupt the potentially authoritarian status-quo from being accepted as "normal".
5. Develop a rotating focus on key issues, having an entire coalition protest one issue at a time, and preventing messages from becoming tired.

There is much more that can be done.  But the people must stay alert to any lies that are being spewed as part of this administration's propaganda campaign. And then, they must expose those lies for what they are, using as much humor as possible in order to deny this regime the social legitimacy it craves.

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Every year, there is a "mooning" of Amtrak trains as they pass through a California town. The "Mooners" (not to be confused with "Moonies", who are affiliated with a Korean Church) line up along a 2 mile stretch of track, and expose themselves when an Amtrak train rolls by. Might we want to consider mooning Trump's motorcade to show him the respect he deserves?  It's one idea among many we should be thinking about - we need the attention of the press, and we need to find as many non violent, but media catching methods possible.  Hopefully, we will find a few things that work well, and will use them as long as they work well....

I'm not sure about to write about this week

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The "Gray Lady", as the New York Times is often called, had a lot to report on the day I wrote this post.  And I was unsure about what was the most important thing out there.  Was it the resignation of Michael Flynn, after less than a month into Trump's regime? Was it Trump's statement that Israel need not pursue a "two state" solution with the Palestinians? Was it the revelation that senior Trump assistants were in constant contact with Russia during his campaign?  Was if the assassination of Kim Jong Un's half brother in Malaysia? Was it the revelation that Russia broke one of the nuclear anti-proliferation treaties, by testing a new type of missile? Or, was it the revelation that the American intelligence agencies no longer trust Trump or his staff to keep America's secrets secret, and are now withholding information from the president?  Any one of these things could be major news items in their own right.  But all of these things happening at once has gotten me worried.

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Our current president is as inept as he is corrupt.  Couple this with a GOP that is ethically bankrupt, and wants power over doing things for the public at large, and we are in serious trouble. One Republican that I once respected, Rand Paul, has just lost any support I might have given him.  He would prefer to dismantle the ACA (Obamacare) than to determine how close a relationship the Trump Campaign had with the Russians.  Paul believes that no Republican should be investigating other Republicans.  Paul Krugman notes that the GOP would rather choose treason to give tax cuts to the wealthy, as corruption is endemic to the GOP. Whether I'd go this far, I don't know.  But it seems as if the GOP wants power for power's sake, and not to exercise it wisely.

I am concerned about giving Netanyahu options NOT to pursue a two state solution in Israel/Palestine. This region is dangerous enough now.  Why give extremists any more fuel to add to the fire?  Our previous Secretary of State noted that Israel could be either a Democracy or a Jewish State. But it could not be both if a two state solution is not pursued. If we support Netanyahu's actions, we may just light the fire of the next Middle Eastern war without realizing it.

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Often, what North Korea does is an interesting side show to the world.  They tend to make bellicose statements, but can't do much to cause trouble elsewhere.  Yes, they have forged $100 bills so perfect that the Federal Reserve told US banks to honor the "funny money" until they had a reliable way to detect the bogus bills. Yes, they have hacked into many computer systems, and caused organizations such as Sony Pictures much grief. But now, they have started to assassinate people outside their borders.  Can this be tolerated? Yes, the fellow who was poisoned was the half brother of the "supreme leader". But who might be killed next?

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Russia has tested a new cruise missile that the US says violates previously signed treaties. Would this have taken place had Hillary Clinton been in office?  I doubt it.  With Trump in office, Putin can do no wrong. Now that US intelligence agencies no longer trust the president to keep secrets, I wonder what comes next.  

These are scary times, and I don't trust our leaders to do the right things, nor do I trust the system of checks and balances to work in the presence of this much corruption in the system.  I could be wrong.  But when Joe Scarborough started worrying about the White House and its lack of respect for the Judiciary, we should see this as the canary in the coal mine alerting us to big problems ahead.  No president should have unchecked powers, and Joe makes this clear after reviewing Steven Miller's comments on the power of POTUS.

Authoritarianism - A present danger

Recently, I reread an article published almost a year ago, and noticed something salient to what has happened in America over the past year. The urban/rural divide in America also corresponds to a second divide - that of Libertarians and Authoritarians.

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In the Vox article published last March, they discussed a simple 4 question test that could be used to determine whether a person had authoritarian tendencies:

1. Please tell me which one you think is more important for a child to have:  independence or respect for elders?
2. Please tell me which one you think is more important for a child to have: obedience or self-reliance?
3. Please tell me which one you think is more important for a child to have: to be considerate or to be well-behaved?
4. Please tell me which one you think is more important for a child to have: curiosity or good manners?

These questions appear to ask about parenting but are in fact designed to reveal how highly the respondent values hierarchy, order, and conformity over other values.

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I do not intend to ignore how a person values hierarchy, order and conformity.  Instead, I pose that without adequate checks and balances, these values can easily be subverted to destroy liberty.

Recently, one member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir resigned her position in the choir, instead of perform at Trump's inauguration. She considers her church's lesson of always choosing to do what is right, over that of what is convenient, a very important lesson for all to follow.  The appearance of the choir at the inauguration in her eyes is an endorsement of someone who violates all Mormon tenets, save that he does not drink alcohol.  

The history of the Mormon church was one that began with oppression.  They were persecuted in the early days, and chased out of states like New York and Missouri until they reached their promised land in Utah. Although I do not agree with their creed, I respect them as people - as they try to respect others.  Many Mormons remember their history, and are very offended by Trump's campaign when he advocated a Muslim Registry.  They were among the first to see the potential for an authoritarian government going wild.  And though Mormons tend to be more "traditional" in their answers to the 4 questions above, their faith tends to provide a form of check and balance against tyranny - which might be due to the teaching to do what is right, over that which is convenient.

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We now are seeing a president who does only what is convenient, and not what is right. He has partnered with people whose beliefs and prior actions indicate that they will shred the current social safety net, and leave nothing good in their wake. Additionally, he is now starting to destroy the credibility of the independent press, so that he and his cronies can "gaslight" the public. 

In a recent CNN posting, we are asked what side of history we want to be on.  I hope that enough Americans stand up to do the right thing, no matter how inconvenient, so that we pass on a great country to our children and grandchildren.

I'm not sure of what to think

Does adding a second bible add any substance, legitimacy or truth to what Trump swore to on Inauguration Day?  I doubt it.  It only serves to create an image of false piety for a man from whose mouth only comes lies - including the words "And" and "The".

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As I write this entry, less than two weeks have expired since Trump took office, and we're already seeing chaos in the land. Previously approved refugees, legal residents/green card holders, and other vetted people are being denied entry to the USA, because of Trump's latest executive order. How does this make us any safer? How does this make us appear to the rest of the world?  To me, it only gives nations such as Iran a propaganda advantage, as they will not reject previously approved holders of American passports from visiting their country. And to make things worse, the 3 Arabic speaking countries which are exempt from Trump's executive order (Egypt, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia) are those in which Trump has business interests.  Two of these countries (Saudi Arabia and the UAE) are countries that supplied the 19 hijackers that commandeered the planes on 9/11/01, killing almost 3,000 Americans.

An op-ed piece in the Huffington Post is already.talking about the inevitability of impeachment. But is that what a Democrat should be looking for?  Each day that Trump is in office, he tarnishes the GOP brand and helps to mobilize more potential Democratic voters - people who could be very useful in 2018 and 2020. When the Women's March gathered 3 times on the National Mall as many people as Trump's inauguration, one has a potential movement.  But when one takes into account the other 1,500,000 people protesting around the world, it's easy to see that a raw nerve has been touched.  We have to make sure that the reaction gets us the results we want.

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It is no accident that ALL of Trump's appointments have been to the extreme political right. His deal with Pence is likely the same he offered to John Kasich: You run both foreign and domestic affairs, while I make America great again.  Kasich has some ethics, Pence does not. He is a religious wingnut, someone more dangerous to us than Trump - something that I found hard to believe at first.  If we are stuck with a President Pence, he will follow the GOP policy with no compromises allowed. This is different from Trump, as he can easily be manipulated with flattery.  

The Huffington Post piece noted that Trump suffers from Malignant Narcissism.  Otto Kernberg characterizes it by an absence of conscience, a pathological grandiosity and quest for power, and a sadistic joy in cruelty. And everything said about Trump indicates a diagnosis of Malignant Narcissism would be one of the things high on the list of possibilities. Can we afford this in a national leader?

It is possible to manipulate someone like Trump.  It has often been said about him, that if you are the last to give him an opinion, he will often lean your way - as long as he feels in charge and feels that he is the strongest alpha male in the room.  However, it is much harder to manipulate someone like Pence, as his currency is power. Pence is smart enough to wait around until someone self destructs. And that's what Trump seems to be doing, seeing how much work and thought goes into being president.

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But I go back to the title of this entry, as it raises an important question: Is it in our best interest to help get Trump out of office, taking an immediate gain? Or, is it better to help Trump stay in office until the 2018 elections, preventing a potential President Pence from serving more than 6 years as President in his own right?  Can we afford the damage that Trump will do to this country in a little under than 720 days?  

I've already accepted that Trump will destroy as many external checks and balances as he can, regarding those we have on large businesses.  I've already accepted that Trump will be a disaster for the environment, given his belief that Global Warming is a Hoax.  And I've already accepted that he will be a disaster for human rights. Do we know ALL the risks of removing him from office either via impeachment or via the 25th amendment to the constitution?  I don't think so.  And that worries me.

A modest border proposal

Like our president, I want to build a wall along the border with Mexico. But I don't want to build a wall that separates our peoples, but builds links of friendship across the border. 

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There is a famous play about two men who build a fence between their properties.  They both wanted their children to want to get to know each other, and they figured that the fence would get their kids interested in knowing each other.  It's a famous musical, and one well worth seeing if you get the chance. But I'll be darned if I can remember the name of that play now.

Since this wall is to be built for purposes of friendship, I propose using both Mexican and American children (of various ages, all under adult supervision) to build this wall as play, using Legos as their prime building material.  The wall would be 50 Meters long, by 1.5 Meters high, and 20 Centimeters thick. At the center would be an American hand shaking a Mexican hand in friendship. This wall would be the first wall built to bring people together, and not keep them apart from each other.

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Our current president wants to force Mexico to pay for a wall that its people do not want. He has just suggested that he is thinking of sending our troops South of the border to deal with "Bad Hombres" in Mexico. Is this the way to make friends?  I doubt it. Our Southwest was settled by people of both Anglo and Mexican heritage. And it's about time we stopped being the bully, and treated our next door neighbor with respect.

Something that most people don't realize is that there is already a wall along parts of the USA/Mexico border. It hasn't solved out problems with Mexico, it has only made them worse.  If we were to build Trump's wall along the border, we'd spend at least $25 billion for materials alone - and that doesn't account for the cost of labor.  Is it worth the price?

One might say, what about all those people crossing the border?  We have a right to keep them out. And this is a valid point. But many Mexican illegal aliens are moving back to Mexico for reasons of opportunity. NAFTA has helped Mexico develop, and we no longer have as big a problem with illegal immigrants crossing that border as we once did.  Instead, we're being infiltrated by illegals flying in from overseas, then overstaying their visits. And our President's proposed wall does absolutely nothing to stop them.  Instead, he's making a symbolic gesture which will accomplish little in the long run.

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Another person might focus on drug smuggling and other crimes which involve border crossing.  And to them I say that we should rationalize our laws. Making recreational drugs illegal has only served to act as a price support.  Berkeley Breathed (of "Bloom County" fame) made a point of this when a "hair growth tonic" was made illegal, and h ad Opus say "thanks for the price support". He then made jokes about all the ways drugs could be smuggled in, and showed how stupid many of these laws are.  To me, the only way to beat a narco mafia is to legalize and regulate such substances, killing off the profit margins.

How many people know that the laws against Marijuana were written to deny Mexican Americans their presumed drug of choice?  In the early days of the 20th century, Opiates were banned to deny Asians a recreational drug. And in the 1930's, Marijuana was banned to deny Blacks and Mexicans their fun.  Booze was made the only recreational drug available to the masses after prohibition ended - and we suffer from that decision today.

The Narco Mafia understands that drug bans only serve to increase their profit margins. But they have had a perverse side benefit.  They now take people from South of Mexico, move them through Mexico, and use these people to deliver their drugs into the USA.  They have taken over the "Coyote" trade, and have little interest in delivering people safely across the border to their final destinations. They have found another business where government provides them with price supports.

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If the problem is with the illegal alien, then we must do two things.  First, we must deal with the 12 million illegals already here. And for them, I want one last amnesty using the model established under Reagan's presidency.  But I do not want these people to ever become American citizens. Instead, I want them to be "green card" holders, so that they do not disrupt American politics in my lifetime.  Second, we must prevent new illegals from finding work, making it a criminal offense to hire (or otherwise employ) people who are not citizens or green card holders. And we must mandate the use of technology that would allow an employer to verify that a person has the legal right to work here. (We could also offer a bounty for those who lead the government to a successful prosecution of employers who violate this law.)

Americans need to feel secure.  And Trump's wall only provides an illusion of security. However, true friendship can provide the security we need, as friends can and will look out for each other....

A distraction and a risk

When the author of this blog was growing up, a 6 oz. bottle of Coke cost only 5 cents. 50 years later, the same 6 oz. bottle would sell for 50 cents, if that bottle were still available. (The 12 oz. can usually sells for $1.00 in many outlets, so I use that for my comparison.) Even if my prices are off a little, the price of most optional consumables has gone up by a factor of 10 since I was a child.

Inflation is the thief that robs us all without immediate pain. Governments tend to spend more money than they take in via taxes, and quietly run the printing press to repay creditors with inflated currency. America has done this several times in our history, most notably during the Great Depression, when we changed the price of an ounce of gold from $20 to $35, and then confiscated the gold in American citizens' hands. 

The second time America raped its currency was during the Vietnam war. Instead of taxing the public, and openly dealing with the costs of this unneeded war, we issued debt that would be paid off with cheaper currency. And our government got into the habit of printing money, inflating the currency, until we had short term interest rates approaching 18%. When credit card debt isn't expensive, the economy has serious problems. And we did have them in the late 1970's and early 1980's, where Jimmy Carter had to slam the brakes on the economy to prevent hyperinflation from kicking in.  (Of course, Ronald Reagan got the credit here, as actions of one president often show results in the next president's term.)

Today, we're seeing a great distraction taking place. Our president has decided that the public wants a stronger military (rah, rah, rah for our team - yeah, right!) and is willing to spend money that we don't have.  During his campaign, he posed a question which is very dangerous for the issuer of the world's settlement currency - why doesn't America renegotiate its debt, and settle for pennies on the dollar? Many people have forgotten that question, but I haven't. What will happen if he decides to pay back creditors with cheaper dollars?  

70 years after World War 2, the world now has several decent options for a settlement currency of choice, the dollar being only one of them. The other two possibilities of note are the Euro and the Chinese Yuan. Any nation or zone that issues the dominant settlement currency has a distinct advantage, as its businesses have an easier time dealing with currency risk. And that results in lower costs for the nation/zone, resulting in a higher standard of living for people within that nation/zone.

Can we afford another round of inflation?  No.  But based on historical trends, we will likely see one with disastrous effects. Hopefully, I am wrong, as there are a lot more people living on fixed incomes now than when I was a child, and they are much less able to afford the risks of inflation.

By now it has happened

Obamacare.  The GOP promises that we'll have something bigger and better.  With all the rhetoric that has been spewed to the party loyalists, I doubt that they can deliver anything that is half as good as what they pledge to destroy, if only because they never have worked to design something that can replace Obama's signature accomplishment.  It saddens me that the only thing unifying the GOP has been a pledge to destroy healthcare for millions. Yet, it could be much worse.  We don't know what the "new normal" will be in the near future.  

Recently Meryl Streep came out and protested the president elect's style in a recent speech at the Golden Globe award show. She didn't even have to mention him by name.  Was she justified?  She decried the bullying that passes for strength nowadays, and attacked a subculture that wants power for its own sake, and not to do something good with it.  What is wrong with that?

There is a rush to undo the gains made in society over the past 8 years.  We have a president who is likely owned by the Russian government.  He is already breaking some of his many promises, pledging to build a wall along our Southern border with our money, then convincing Mexico to pay for it.  Does anyone really believe that they will do so?  I doubt it very much.  Strangely enough, some of his nominees have more class than Trump has, including Jeff Sessions.  Sessions is willing to say that Waterboarding is torture, something that Trump can't bring himself to say.  Why is that?  Could it be that many Trump supporters only care about their rights, and not the rights of humanity?  Could it be that they have no empathy for others, and like Trump, are on a narcissistic ego trip?  

It is troubling how extreme how today's GOP seems for a centrist.  Abortion should have been a question settled 40 years ago, and it is still in play because of cultural politics. White supremacists have cleaned up their message, and use phrases such as "Southern Heritage" when they fly the Confederate Battle Flag.  (Heck, most of these people don't know that the "Stars and Bars" referred to a different flag, the flag the South wanted to use for its national standard.)  Centrists fear a government led by people who would shut down polling places heavily used by poor people.  Centrists fear a government who would take rights away from the GLBT community because it angers a small religious minority. Centrists fear a government run by people who can not compromise in any way.  And now, we will get to see what a "Right Wing" government will do.

There is a big problem in America, and it is the Urban/Rural divide.  Maybe it is about time that we think of dividing this nation into three separate nations: (1) States along the Pacific Coast, (2) States along the East Coast, and (3) The "Heartland" states.  Each would inherit the US Constitution, but would make its own laws following the dissolution of the America we once knew.  Only then would we be able to see which nation's laws makes the most sense.  But until then, we have this social conflict that can not be resolved, and can result in a second civil war. Hopefully, we will not see that happen....

Thoughts on the coming change in control.

Like it, hate it, but Obamacare (or, the Affordable Care Act) has been a political hot point for the last 6+ years.  If it had been enacted by a Republican administration, the Democrats would be looking to dismantle it.  But it was enacted by Democrats, and the GOP will soon be in charge of that den of iniquity called Washington, DC.

This year's group of Republicans is worse than most one-party governments.  They have already set their sights on dismantling programs designed to help the poor and needy. And they have decided to eliminate a non-partisan ethics office that helped keep politicians in check. There are very few GOP politicians willing to check and balance the incoming president and his tangled web of conflicted interests. And there are even fewer in congress who want the Office of Congressional Ethics keeping an eye on their affairs. What is surprising to me is that the President Elect has chastised congress for not having its priorities in order - they should be focused on things like healthcare instead of the Ethics Bureau.

The President Elect has been amazingly friendly to Russia, given that both the CIA and FBI have stated that the Russians have hacked the computers of the DNC.  I'd bet that Putin is calling Trump a "Useful Idiot" in private circles. Unlike many loyal Americans, I am not angry at Putin. He is acting in the best interests of Russia as he sees it.  Instead, I am angry at many in the GOP who refuse to stand up and tell the President Elect that he must take the hacking allegations seriously.  

Right now, the entire GOP appears to be like a kid in a candy store.  They can have anything they want, and as much of it as they want.  The big question is: Will they over do it?  Given current behavior, the answer appears to be "Yes".  Only time will tell.