How long can we live with an unsustainable way of making war?

It's been a while since I've posted in this journal, but I finally have something important to say.

Our special military operation against (read: war) Iran has been going on for several months now, and what do we have gotten for it?  As I write this, we got 18 service members coming home in body bags, a depleted munitions stock, an aircraft carrier coming to port due to an under-supplied, emotionally exhausted crew, and hundreds of billions of dollars deeper in dept.  We did not get regime change in Iran.  We did not eliminate the potential nuclear threat Iran poses.  And we did not vanquish our "enemy".  Instead, we have shown that the US is a paper tiger, and that Iran has the power to shut off 20% of the world's oil supply.

Our president is known for taking action based on the voice of the last person who spoke to him.  In this case, he was suckered into starting a war by the leader of Israel, a fellow crook in his own right.  Previous presidents knew that a war with Iran could not be won, at least, not with the effort Americans were willing to put into the war.  But, by starting this war, we have already lost it.   But, if you ask our president, he'll say we're winning the war, and that the Strait of Hormuz is open for shipping.  Yet, he'll act like a little child when someone asks him a question which holds him to account for his mistakes.  His ego is so fragile, that by not admitting any of his failings, he is unable to learn from his mistakes.  As a result, he keeps doubling down on his lies, and no one trusts him anymore.  Yet, people are afraid of him due to his ability to rally members of his cult to attack his enemies.

America is now $40,000,000,000 in debt.  For the first time in history, we are now paying more in debt service than we pay for defense.  This can not last for long.  This president would cut social spending in order to preserve our war machine.  But what good would that do?  We can't even defeat an enemy like Iran.  Our military is not nimble.  We still act as if we need to fight the wars of the 20th century, instead of those we need to fight now.  Instead of retreating into 1940's military technology, as our president would do with our aircraft carriers, we should be at the forefront of 2020's military technology, as Ukraine has exhibited with its use of drone technology.  I ask the question: why haven't we planned for the use of drones in warfare, given Ukraine's success of holding its own against Russia.

Unmanned vehicles (air, land, and sea) are the future of warfare, as they can enable militaries to fight wars while keeping their service members well behind the scenes in relative safety.  For those near the front lines of battle, they can provide the tools for defense that older, more expensive military tools and weapons can not provide.  Unmanned vehicles are cheaper and more effective than older military technology.  They have allowed Ukraine, a nation without a navy, to defeat the Russian navy and make it an almost useless asset.  Ukraine has developed a new way to fight wars, and all our president did was to say that Ukraine didn't hold any cards.  And Ukraine has proven that it has a stronger hand than our president would admit by being able to attack Moscow with its drones.  If anything, our war with Iran has shown that we hold a weaker hand than our current regime wants to admit.

Given the cost of proven drone technology vs. the cost of our overpriced military technology, I see a potential to kill several birds with one stone.  First, we can no longer afford to enforce a "Pax Americana" as we did for the second half of the 20th century.  So, let's wind it down to areas we can defend, and have other nations form healthy regional alliances for defense.  Second, let's take she savings from winding down the "Pax Americana" and do three things with it: (a) develop drone technology with Ukraine and build up stockpiles which both countries can use, (b) plug up holes in our social safety net (especially in healthcare, and (c) pay down our national debt.

Iran has tactics which it is using that we are not matching.  If propaganda is meant to modify public opinion, it is a cheap weapon in this internet age.  While our president is posting AI Slop on his social media accounts, the Iranians are posting entertaining "Lego Stories" on their feeds.  What's worse, as they are much more factual than the garbage our president is presenting as "Truth".  Truth Social is anything but truth.  Yet, Iran's videos cost almost nothing, spread further than our president's Truth Social posts, and contain more truth.  Who do you think should be believed?  Iran, a country who has said "Death to America" in the past, is no longer saying that (for now).  They are directing their anger (rightfully) towards our President and his regime.  What does this say for the legitimacy of the two contries' ruling elites?

The British empire fell because Britain couldn't afford to maintain it. As a result, it had to deal with decades of national decline. America is well on the same path to a similar national failure that could cripple us for generations.  And yet, our president's incompetency has given us an opportunity if we are wise enough to seize it.  Things are so FUBAR (F'd up beyond all recognition) that radical change may just be possible.  Licensing Ukrainian drone technology might help our military become more nimble and cost effective.  It may help America rebuild its industrial logistics, so that we can again build civilian products in the US, as we did with the aircraft and space industries.  We can learn from the past, and choose to take a different path than those who preceded us.

The big question is:  Will we learn the lessons of the past and make good choices.  I'm hoping that America will follow the lead of a wise woman (Mae West) who said: "Whenever given the choice between two evils, I'll choose the one I haven't chosen before."  It's time for something new, and even a bad choice of something new is better than the continued choices of something old we have been making as of late. 

The Fascists only control SOME of the levers of government - we still have hope

This past month, we have seen the murders of 2 American Citizens by Trump's Gestapo, ICE. His henchmen are labeling these killings as people wrongfully interfering with law enforcement activities in their propaganda releases.  But the public is starting to see through these lies.

Right now, we have both a worthless Congress and corrupt Supreme Court who are more than willing to make this country a fascist state. The rights given to all Americans under the first, second, and fourth amendments to our only apply for our 21st century Nazis.  For the rest of us, the Bill of Rights and the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments are worthless as long as the Trump is in power.   

What is happening in Minnesota can be seen as cruelty designed to intimidate the American public, something meant to trigger anticipatory obedience to authoritarian leadership.  This is exactly what happened in Germany during the 1930's.  Gradually, laws were implemented so that people wouldn't notice the erosion of their civil and human rights.  We're seeing that in the USA right now.  First, the Snowflake attacked Transgenders and their history.  (Look at what happened to the Stonewall national monument.)  Next, he started to erase the history of Blacks, Latinos, and other Minority Americans from national parks and other federally administered historic sites. And now, he's trying to erase America's "Original Sin", Slavery.  It's as if the White race could do no harm, and that everyone else was a criminal class not fit for America.

Currently, ICE is paying recruitment bonuses of up to $50,000 to new recruits.  This wouldn't be bad if they went through the full training that State Police and the FBI goes through - months of in-person training.  With ICE, it's less than 8 weeks of online training from what I remember.  How can anyone deal with potentially dangerous situations that could escalate to violence by only online training?  It's as if the design of this training is meant to encourage dangerous escalations.

Why is this happening?  The Gurdian has reported that Trump has cut funding for ICE body cameras, as well as for personnel oversight.  Elsewhere, it has been reported that Trump wants control of Minnesota's voter rolls and its public assistance rolls.  So what is really going on at another level?  As I see it, Trump will try and disqualify as many likely Democratic voting Minnesotans from voting, so that he can engineer a GOP majority in the House.  Additionally, he could be waiting for violence to break out, so that he can invoke the insurrection act and make it impossible for people to vote, also preserving the GOP majority in the House.

For the most part, we still can regain control of the House this year if we work for it.  Yes, we will have to keep our cool and stay non-violent even though Trump's Gestapo imprisons and and tries to kill us to force submission.  We need to remember the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, and how Blacks gained de jure Equal Rights, albeit not de facto Equal Rights.  In my lifetime, we've seen people like Martin Luther King Jr. change from being seen as agitators to being national heroes worth honoring.  Trump wants to erase this movement.  We must not let it happen.

How do we stop him?  Simply make sure that as many people as possible see the truth.  Even MAGA loyalists are starting to say - "we didn't sign up for this."  There are some signs that even Fox "News" is souring on Trump as he descends further and further into dementia.  We must do our damnedest to prevent him from invoking the insurrection act, while also preventing him from asserting Federal control over state elections.  Once we gain control over one part of the legislative branch, we can cause Trump a lot of grief.  But first, we have to get there. 

 

Clarence Darrow said it best.

 

"I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction."

Clarence Darrow

Recently, a right wing activist was murdered. No one important on the left is justifying his murder, but many are glad that this man is dead - he spewed hatred gussied up to sound acceptable to the younger generation. Although some of his points may have been valid (I never bothered to listen to this man's arguments), the general overtone of his messages have seduced people into believing the falsehoods spewed out by the right wing media. A quick look at the statistics will show that there are 3 times as many right wing assassinations than left wing assassinations in the USA. Yet, the right wing media conveniently ignores the murders committed by their loyalists and focuses on those from the left. Media bias in action to say the least.

I will never condone murder of any kind. Yet I wonder. If I could go back in time and erase the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Mao and others from history, would it be ethical to save millions of people by removing one from the earth? It's a simple case of the "Trolley Problem" on a larger scale. Most people would do nothing and let god (if there is one) decide. It is the rare person who would terminate the one person's life to save five lives. Yet, this is what many generals are tasked to do in wartime. So we have an ethical dilemma - what would you do? Sadly, there is no one right answer to problems like this. We can be glad that someone is dead. But we must prosecute the murderer to the best of our ability and get the guilty verdict he so rightly deserves.

- - - - - -

Right now, we are in a battle for our freedom. We can not use violence to achieve our ends, now that an authoritarian regime is in control of the federal government. If someone were to use terrorist tactics to attack the government, it would only result in an even more forceful crackdown on our personal liberties. So, what should we do?

It is said that people who chose not to study history are doomed to make the mistakes of the past But people who know history are able to see patterns of evil and use proven strategies to combat evil used by others in the past. Now is the time to study the tactics and strategies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohatma Gandhi. Although both leaders were asassinated, they achieved much of what they wanted in life. For Dr. King, he helped America realize that equal rights for all must become part of America's DNA. For Gandhi, it was the liberation if India from British rule.

I can still remember this man who stood in front of a row of Chinese tanks. What would happen if more of us were to stand in front of our president's goons and capture them on video as they break the law and attack innocent people? We already have seen his goons sink a Quebecers' boat on Lake Ticonderoga (on the small Canadian part of the lake) claiming he was in American waters. We have seen his goons sink a Venezualan boat with the false claim they were smuggling drugs into America. And to make things worse, the regime has deported American citizens, all in its attempts to "Make America White Again."

What can we do to short curcuit our president's evil actions? The only answer lies in non violent actions. Blockading ICE vehicles when they are harassing people is one thing to do. Video recording their illegal actions and sending it to the media (YouTube.com, Print Media, and Broadcast media) is an essential way to expose their crimes. There are many more things that one can do non violently. Any form of non violent resistance is essential. One should read how Dr. King and Gandhi achieved their goals, and use their methods.

Hopefully, we're not too late to stop this slide to authoritarianism....

No one stood for anything except their desire for power

The second debate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.  Like most political debates, it was rich on talking points, and poor on any real substance.  

- - - - - -

During the first debate, only two candidates would say that they considered Trump unfit to serve as president.  It was fitting that there is no venom as strong as that from a politician who feels as if he was previously denied his place as #2 on the presidential ticket.  Chris Christie was that man.  Everyone else that made it to the second debate was willing to kiss the ass of Trump so that they could be his VP choice for the 2024 nomination.  

Why is this important?

The GOP no longer has any leaders who can steer the party away from the cult of Trump.  The only hope for the GOP would be for Trump to eat a prescribed diet from the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas, and pass away like its former spokesman.  Virtually all the candidates are afraid of Trump's followers, as many have used violence (or the threat of violence) to intimidate GOP leaders who believe in real law and order.  So, they avoid taking positions against him, even though they wish hed go away and give the GOP a better chance of winning next November.

90 years ago, another democracy was under threat from a cult leader (and his followers) who believed that his will would triumph over all.  Heck, a movie (Triumph of the Will) was made at one of his rallies won the a gold medal at the 1935 Venice Biennale, and the Grand Prix at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris.  His nation was under great social stress as ours is today, and like Trump, he promised redemption.  True redemption never came, as this leader led his country into war and its distruction 6 years later.  Established politicians thought they could control this monster, as they once thought they could control Trump.  But the cult got out of control, and the evil leader ended up ruling everyone by fear - as is the threat if we let Trump get back into power.

- - - - - -

One problem with cults is that no one likes to admit that what they are part of is a cult.  The cult has its own myths that must be accepted to be a believer, and has its own reinforcement mechanisms to prevent its followers from questioning the cults beliefs or leaving the cult.  Some cults are benign, only affecting the lives of their followers.  Heaven's Gate was one of those groups, even though everything ended in a mass suicide.  Jim Jones' People's Temple cult was more malignant, as a congressman investigating the cult and 4 members who wanted to leave were murdered before the mass suicide in Jonestown.  (This is from where we get the expression "Drinking the Kool-Aid.")  But worst of all so far, is the cult of Trump.  At least 6 outsiders died as a result of the January 6th insurrection.  And yet, 35% of GOP members believe that the rioters were defending their country.  What flavor of Kool-Aid did they drink?

On January 7, 2021, most GOP legislators were willing to speak the objective truth about the soon to be former president.  Yet, within 2 weeks, they became afraid of their base and decided against impeaching him a second time (and finally convicting him for a threat against their lives.)  The leaders are afraid of the cult, and its leader is still spewing venom.  Trump has no respect for the rule of law, as it has never been effectively used to stop him from achieving his goals.  His followers have no respect for the rule of law, as they only want it applied to people who are not members of his cult.

- - - - - -

As I write this, one of the extremist members of Trump's cult is calling for the removal of the Speaker of the House for cutting a deal with the opposition party to keep the government running.  These extremists do not care how many people in their districts will be hurt by a government shutdown.  They only care about serving their cult's leader.  And he wants to destroy the government, so that it can not destroy him.

The year coming up will likely be a very interesting year.  But I yearn for the relative peace of my youth.  Things were much better when the two political parties would work out deals with other and both take credit for doing good things.  We need that spirit to return, and we need to develop mechanisms to keep the lunatics from gaining control of the asylum....

The looming threat

Our former president's mug shot.  

No matter what they say about Trump, things could be worse.  The man was totally incompetant and not able to change the nature of our political system, but he came close to doing so.  He normalized being openly hateful of vulnerable minorities, and unleashed a movement of malcontents which will likely survive his potential incarceration. 

So why do I say that there is a looming threat?

Several things have happened as a result of this man's time in office.  First, this man has said that if he regains the office of president, he will attempt to consolidate political power in the executive branch.  This is dangerous, as our system was designed to work (or, not work, as of late) with the powers of each branch of government being checked and balanced by the other two.  Second, this man has only anger to propel him.  He has never forgiven the public, nor the honest officials that some may have elected, for not putting him in office for a second term.  What revenge would he try to take at the expense of his perceived enemies?  Most elected leaders in his party are afraid of his cult, and are following his mob to stay in office.

But what happens if this man is not nominated to be his party's presidential nominee?  Will the followers of his cult believe that the elections weren't rigged?  On 01/06/21, we saw the violence that his cult was capable of.  Could it happen again?  What if the man were convicted in one of the courts? Even worse would be the chaos that might happen if the election were close.  For years, Americans have been self-selecting into like-minded communities.  People live in communication bubbles where they select news from sources that reinforce their views, and find it hard to imagine how others could have different views when "the truth" should be self apparent.  If you lived in Rural America, watched Fox "News" on a regular basis, and have been trained by your church to see the world in binary terms, would you be able to challenge the orthodoxy that you've been fed for years?  Wouldn't you want to defend your country from "criminals" from the left?

Years ago, Senator John McClain held a campaign rally where one of his loyal GOP constituents started labeling then Senator Barack Obama as a communist traitor.  Senator McClain interrupted this woman, saying that Senator Obama was a good man with whom he had political differences.  Could anyone see this happening today, where radicals from the far right are calling for President Biden's impeachment? The leaders of one political party have enough "sober" people to govern, while the other's leaders are afraid of the mob who elected our former president.

In 2016, our former president ran for office with the campaign slogan:  

Make America Great Again

Did any of his constituents ever ask: 

When did America stop being great?  

Why is America not great anymore?  

What needs to be done to make America great again?

I never heard any of these questions answered to my satisfaction.  Instead, MAGA anger comes from people who have lost their place in society.  They see our former president as someone who would (at least) give lip service to their feelings, if not restore their former positions in the larger society.

The next year, the former president held a campaign rally in Charlottesville, where he effectively said that there were good people in the neo-Nazi movement :

“You had some very bad people in that group,

 but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”

Once a person implies that there some good neo-Nazis, where does permission to act on one's hatred end?  I can still remember chants of:

"Jews will not replace us!"

As if any self respecting Jew would want for his/her children to grow up with skills so limited that they could not earn a good living.  What successful person of any ethnic group would want for their child to become a bagger at the local Piggly Wiggly?  Many of the MAGAloons are poorly educated, resistant to change, and follow bombastic leaders without bothering to ask: "Does what they are saying make sense?"  They gravitate to "strongmen" who say things that validate their feelings, and not to people who understand the nuances of objective truths.

So, what is the looming threat?

In short, the threat is that our ex-president has unleashed a monster that can not be sent back to its cave before it causes a lot of destruction.  As I started writing this, Jacksonville, FL is dealing with the aftermath of a white nationalist killing 3 black people at a local supermarket.  What will it take to stop this?  I don't know.  But if the ex-president again comes anywhere near the levers of power, god help us.

A potential constitutional crisis

 

Most people know that I lean a little bit left of today's center.  By historical standards, I would have been a "Goldwater Republican."  That is, I don't want the government legislating or enforcing morality, I don't want government needlessly interfering with business, and I want to limit the functions of government to those things it can do well.  Sadly, the GOP has shifted to being a radical right wing party, one that looks to use government as a tool to quietly(?) reverse civil rights gains we've had over the last 60 years, one that looks to subsidize big business and billionaires at the expense of the working person, one that would use morality as an excuse to mistreat people whose looks and bahaviors differ from the fundamentalist White Christian Males who have historically had power in this country.

Our founding fathers understood that our nation was imperfect from the beginning.  The Preabmble to The Declaration of Independance opens with:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of  Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

They knew that men are imperfect, and that governments derive their power from the people.  It continues with:

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.

But here lies the problem with the January 6th insurrection.  The majority of the people were happy with our system of government.  They were not happy with the actions of a government that no longer seemed to care about their needs.  And they were ripe to become part of a cult which would enable a despot to overthrow the government while leaving a shadow of its structure intact.

The heart of the Washington, DC indictment of Donald Trump says that he was trying to overturn the electoral college election of Joseph Biden by interfering with the counting of the votes from the 50 states (plus DC).  Assuming that Trump is convicted, he could be considered to have engaged in an insurrection against the United States, as some conservatives are now posing.  Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the constitution reads:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Since there is no chance that the Democrats in either house will vote to remove this disability, what would happen if lunatics in the GOP make Trump its 2024 presidential nomines?  I pose that we could have a constitutional crisis if the following events occur:

1. Trump wins the GOP nomination.
2. Trump is convicted on January 6th issues (and maybe, Georgia RICO as well)
3. Trump wins the Electoral College.
4. Trump is ruled ineligible to serve as president during 2024 (case on rapid appeal to SCOTUS.  SCOTUS says Trump ineligible.)
5. Electoral college vote in chaos.

Since Trump would be ineligible to serve as president and the electoral college hasn't voted, what happens next?  Some states' EC election laws would commit electors to vote for Trump/President & Mate/Vice President.  Other states' laws might allow electors to vote for VP as President, but who gets VP vote?  Even more confusing, we could have issues of "Faithless Electors."  Could the election go to the house?  Could we see a President of one party and a Vice President of the other?  28 years ago, Jeff Greenfield wrote a book about this problem, albeit in an era where we couldn't dream of a criminal being elected as president.  Now, the electoral college risk is much worse, and people need to understand it.

Right now, we must start thinking of amending the us constitution to deal with the issue of what happens if a President/Vice President slate is elected by the 50 states (plus DC), and one member of the pair becomes ineligible to serve or unable to serve before the electoral college elects a President/Vice President slate, or before it takes office.  As part of this amendment, we also need to fix the anomaly of what would happen if the presidential election goes to the House of Representatives, and the vice presidential election goes to the Senate.  Currently, if this were to happen, we could see a President elected from one party, and a Vice President from the other.  Maybe we need to make sure that both legislative houses agree on both the president and vice president as a pair before the president is considered selected.

Is there a peeing section in the swimming pool?

 

Soon, our four year ordeal will be over.  The minute that Joe Biden takes office will be the minute that Donald Trump can be indicted on State level charges of election fraud.  No amount of Federal pardons can keep any of the states from indicting an ex president.  In fact, it is possible that the mere acceptance of a federal pardon will provide the admission of state level crimes.

Even if Donald Trump spends the rest of his days in prison, the disease he represents is still affecting America.  There are still too many people whose lives have been destroyed by globalism, as our coastal elites have not provided safety nets, nor have they provided meaningful employment to those left behind by global trade.  The people in the heartland have a legitimate grievance against the coastal elites, as the elites have benefitted as the expense of the American working class.  

Although Trump is a grifter who played well out of his league, he finally got caught due to his own failings. Many of Trump's supporters never look inward to determine the nature of their problems. If they did, they would see that they continually make bad choices, and then blame their failures on others.  So it only makes sense that these people chose a "bigger than life" persona to represent their interests.  Unfortunately, they didn't bother to look at this man carefully.  If they did, they might have seen the grifter who no major American bank would lend money to.  They might have seen one of the few men who could lose money running casinos - something very hard to do in this world.  They might have seen a man who was posing to be a false messiah.  And they might have seen a very little man behind an emerald green curtain. In short, with a little bit of effort, they would have seen someone who had only his own interest at heart, and would play them for suckers once again.

Years ago, I read a news article about a young man in Appalachia who asked his state's senator for career advice.  The senator gave the young man honest advice, telling the young man to leave.  There was no opportunity for him in his state.  The senator realized that his  state's would retain political power if it cound keep poor people from moving away for better opportunities. Yet, he was honest enough to give good advice to the young man.  What would have you done if you were that senator?  And this is the nature of the problem for many in the heartland.  There are not enough good opportunities to go around, and politicians often have interests which conflict with the needs of the people they represent.

Many of the coal mining companies in Appalachia are winding down their operations.  They know that the days of coal as a fuel are numbered.  Some of these companies have tried to retrain people for their growing renewable energy businesses and were willing to relocate these employees.  Yet, many of these employees return to the soil of their birth, as they have strong family bonds.  They make a choice to return to a land of poverty for family ties, rather than to prosper in new areas.  How would many of our ancestors have thought about this, given that they came to America and severed ties with their old lands?  They loved families that they left behind.  But they realized that they needed to make better lives for themselves, and that the old country wouldn't be fertile soil for those lives.  Too bad that today's people aren't the risk takers their forebears were.

A while back, I attended therapy sessions with an unconventional therapist.  One of the metaphors he often used was the idea of choosing the same door every time one wanted to exit a room, and getting beaten up each time that door was chosen.  It was his way of trying to get me to choose differently when things weren't working the way I wanted. When I think of typical Trump supporters, they want to live in a way their great grandparents lived without dealing with the problems they face today.  They are not able to choose a different door, and they continually get beaten up when they open the same door again and again.  Success and failure in life depends on the choices we make, and no one can help us if we are excused from the results of our bad decisions.  

So where does this leave us with the populist disease for which Trump is a symptom?  For the short term, we probably need to look back into history to see a solution our government tried 85+ years ago - the WPA (Works Progress Administration).  This "socialist" program made work for many unemployed people, giving them a purpose in life, and some hope for the future.  When people are housed, clothed, and fed, they are less likely to support populist kleptocrats like Trump.  They are also unlikely to fall into the depths of despair and become self destructive.  But if they do, we need to treat these people without applying moral stigma. Instead, we need to find ways to make them choose the right paths in life.  "Little brother", not "Big Brother" must show the way out of despair.

You'll note that I've only mentioned Appalachia so far.  These same problems exist in urban areas as well.  Our economy is shifting to work that can be done anywhere, with a few minor exceptions. So we have to work with business to educate people for the jobs that need to be filled, and make sure that businesses hire the people we trained for these jobs.  Is this too much to ask?

Harry Truman said: The Buck Stops Here

Harry Truman said: The Buck Stops Here


Years ago, our 33rd president had a sign on his desk that read: "The Buck Stops Here!" Even if he was not to blame for a problem, it was his responsibility, as it happened on his watch. Contrast this with our 45th president who takes no responsibility for any of his mistakes. When push came to shove, he was too busy trying to be reelected than to do the job of keeping America safe.


As much as I felt that stopping the flow of people between the United States and China in January was Xenophobic and not called for, I now realize that this measure didn't go far enough to keep America safe from the Coronavirus. For any measure to be effective, we'd have had to quarantine ourselves off from the world, and then do whatever was needed to identify and isolate any carriers of the virus who have already made it to the United States. Unfortunately, our president claims that his January action was appropriate. He will never acknowledge that his half assed actions and cheerleading was not enough.


When the virus started to become an epidemic inside the United States, we were ill prepared. Little did we know that so much of our medical supply chain came from outside the United States - mainly from China. We didn't have enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the people in our hospitals and nursing homes, much less the people who had to interact with the public on a regular basis. Globalization failed us. In this regard, the rhetoric from our 45th president was correct. But he was a fatally flawed messenger for this message, as most of his branded goods came from the very countries he condemned. Yet, Americans rose to the challenge and started to make many of the goods we needed to help survive the pandemic. Even with this, we needed to import many of the products needed. And our federal government became a hindrance, as it delegated all pandemic related public health responsibilities to the states. It also bid against the states for the very same goods the states needed to help deal with the pandemic. In fact, one state's governor had to arrange for a secret shipment of South Korean goods to American soil, as he rightfully felt that the federal government would illegally confiscate these goods for its own use. Of course, it didn't help that the federal medical reserve was being managed by the president's son in law - someone totally out of his league for the responsibilities thrust upon him.


By the time the economy started shutting down in March, the Northeastern United States was the hardest hit area in North America. The United States, Canada, and Mexico officially shut down their borders to "tourist" traffic, but allowed essential trade and cross-border services to continue. ("Essential Workers" who worked on the other side of the borders were allowed to continue commuting to their jobs. Other people were stopped at the borders.) The New York Tri-State region was "Ground Zero" for the pandemic in North America. From being one of the busiest areas in the world, New York City's streets were empty. One could easily walk across Broadway in the middle of the day without worrying whether any vehicle posed a threat to one's crossing the street. Almost no one was on the road, save for ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars. Almost everything was closed.


Between Mid March and Mid June, the Tri-State region suffered its greatest losses. New York's governor was holding daily press conferences to give current status reports on the number of people suffering from the virus and the number of people who died of the virus. (My father was one of these people.) Nursing homes did not have enough PPE for their staffs. Yet, our president didn't bother invoking the Defense Production Act to make most of the needed goods when we needed them most. Instead, he allowed slaughterhouses to continue with their "Covid-19 unsanitary procedures" (my phrase) in spite of the fact that their workers were getting infected with the coronavirus due to poorly designed work areas. (These work areas are still not redesigned, and the federal government still ignores the health of the low wage workers in these plants.) While people died, our president kept saying that when summer comes, the virus will magically disappear. (Bob Woodward's recent book, Rage, shows that the president knew he was lying when he made statements such as this.) And to be more galling, our president claims that millions of people would have died if he didn't act. Hmmm. Maybe if he had acted more decisively earlier on, we'd have much less than 220,000+ deaths.


Unfortunately, the coronavirus became a political issue, separating political tribes. States where the virus hit hardest tended to vote Democrat, while those where it had yet to hit hard tended to vote Republican. So our president did not feel any need to help his opponents. In fact, he tried to make New York's governor look bad, and Cuomo did not take the bait. Instead, Cuomo deftly managed his relationship with the president, so that the federal government would not interfere with the efforts that states in the Northeast were making to deal with the pandemic. By the time New York (and the rest of the Northeast) got the virus "under control" so that it could relax restrictions on the economy, the virus had started affecting the rest of the United States. Because of this, New York, once the pandemic pariah of states was able to have the last laugh and require people from outside the Northeast to go into quarantine upon entry to the state. Sadly, the use of face masks became a symbol of which political tribe one belonged to, and a symbol of the success or failure of a state's efforts to tame the virus.


From the very beginning, our president dismissed the problems that the virus was causing, and made the reopening of the economy his highest priority. Unfortunately, he didn't understand that he should have been modelling appropriate hygiene by wearing a face mask. So most people from his tribe ignored directives meant to encourage social distancing and the use of face masks, enabling the virus to spread like wildfire outside the Northeast. It didn't help that our president was running for reelection, and held "super spreader" events which made it possible for the virus to infect many more people than had the behaviors in the Northeast had been modelled. To make things worse, governors of many states (mainly in the South and West) ignored the lessons learned in the Northeast, as they wanted to be seen as loyal to the president. Luckily, lessons learned in the Northeast regarding how to treat coronavirus patients helped to keep the death rate lower than it might have been otherwise.


It is now 7 months since the pandemic changed all our lives, and the president has been infected by the coronavirus. He continues to act as if it was a intense case of the flu, and nothing to be worried about. That may be easy for him to say, as he has the best doctors on call and he doesn't have to pay for treatment. But what about the rest of us? How many of us can afford medical treatment (and aftercare) needed to survive the virus? How many of us have doctors with up-to-date coronavirus skills to keep us alive? How many of us will suffer if Obamacare is ruled illegal on a technicality by the Supreme Court? What will replace it? Our president (and his political party) have demonstrated no plan to replace it. They don't care what happens to the public.


As for me, I know how I'm going to vote. And it won't be for people who have mismanaged things from the beginning. Hopefully, you will consider this when casting your vote - your life may depend on your decision....

Coronavirus - A Custer F--k we should have been better prepared for.

The Coronavirus.  Many images of it look.like a serious work of designer art. But it has proven dangerous to thousands of people.  As for me, it has put a dent into my social and work life, and has caused my 401-k to drop by 30+ percent.  Yet, I am still one of the lucky ones.  I will likely have an income through the worst of times soon to come.  But today's post is not about the virus itself.  Instead, it's about the consequences of the virus as it spreads across America.


What we're seeing today around the world is reminiscent of what happened in 1918 with the "Spanish Flu". Look at the world today then read about America in1918, and you'll see some eerie similarities. Today, the ease of air transit allowed people from one part of the world to infect nations all over the globe. In 1918, America had people from one area of the country infecting people from other areas of the country, facilitated by our interstate rail network.


"Social Distancing" is a polite term for keeping people away from each other.  We are social animals, and generally hate to be away from others of our own kind.  For example, all of my meetup groups cancelled gatherings voluntarily.  But I know of at least one that had three scheduled meetings in the second half of March.  And its organizer said the following in a group email:

Greetings, Just wanted to respond to members' comments and questions:

This is a group of intelligent, educated, informed and engaged adults. Therefore I am leaving it to each of you to decide how to respond to the current 'crisis'.

If any of our restaurants cancel, I will let you know right away.  Until that happens I am not cancelling any dinners or other activities - it is up to you to decide whether or not to come. If you choose to cancel - no problem and no need to explain why - we understand!! - just change your RSVP.

Stay safe and well and I look forward to seeing you again whenever you think it is safe to join us.

Cheers and best wishes,

Do you think this was responsible, based on what we already knew on March 13, 2020?  Each and every one of my other meetup groups had already cancelled their meetings for the rest of March, and some cancelled meetings through the first half of April.  This woman put social cohesion above the health of the people in her group.


Sadly, the above Meetup organizer's feeling about the virus was not uncommon. 

• Reuters - Florida Retirement Hub worried more about stock market than virus
• Crooks and Liars - See no evil. People in The Villages are a test case of whether ignorance is bliss
• Washington Post - Older Americans are concerned about the Coronavirus, unless they are Republican

The common factor - most of the people who believed that the virus story is a hoax are Republicans who watch Fox "News".  They echoed Trump's early statements that the Coronavirus was a hoax, and was no worse than the common cold.  It took a while, but New York State is now mandating that all but 10% of an employer's personnel either work at home, or are furloughed for the duration needed to stop the spread of the virus.


As I said earlier, protecting people from this virus means behaving in a manner we are uncomfortable behaving - as if we were hermits.  Yet, some communities, such as the ultra orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn continue to violate public safety norms.  These will be the same people who complain most when many people from their community get sick then die.  It's hard to have compassion for these people, as they put their tradition above their communal safety.


During an age of social distancing, the function of governments must still be performed.  Garbage must still be picked up, Fires must still be fought, and the normal paperwork of government must still be processed. Not all functions will be performed well.  For example, we can't release every person from our prisons, nor can we staff the prisons at normal levels during this outbreak.  This means that more people will be at risk inside our prisons than before.

There are two functions of the federal government that can not be avoided or postponed this year - the presidential election and the decennial census. We're already seeing problems in the first, as no one ever dreamed that we'd have a pandemic in an election year.  Nor did anyone dream that we'd have so much politically at stake in this election.  In regard to the census, how many people will bother to open their doors to respond to a census taker - even when most people will be able to file electronically?  A screw up in the census can affect all 50 states for the next 10 years.  So it's very important that we get it right - in spite of the virus.

Without much help from the federal government, the states have taken it on themselves to act.  But uncoordinated action is likely to put resources where the highest bidders are, and not where they are most needed.  Can you imagine if California and New York were to buy up all the available masks, respirators, and other medical supplies before Texas felt there was a need to do so?  Even worse?  What if a poor state like West Virginia couldn't get needed supplies because they couldn't afford them?

Luckily for me, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are working together to slow down and stop the virus' spread in the tri-state region.  Andrew Cuomo looks much more like a national leader than our own president, as he is taking actions that the public can understand AND he is being clear about what is happening that can influence.  Unfortunately, there is only so much any leader at his level can do, as his powers are limited by custom, law, and the norms of society.


Unfortunately, there is an economic cost to fighting this virus.  Many of us will be out of work for a short time.  Others will lose their jobs permanently.  Businesses with healthy cash reserves will survive, while others that do not have adequate reserves will fail.  Even Steven Mnuchin, Trump's financial guru, says that we could have a 20% unemployment rate by year end.  This is coming way too close to the 25% unemployment rate of the Great Depression.  It could take decades to dig ourselves out from under this economic hole.  We need tools to keep things from getting as bad as the great depression - and we need to use them soon.

During his presidential campaign, Andrew Yang proposed the idea of a basic minimum income.  Recently, Mitt Romney suggested that we give out $1000 to every American to help keep the economy afloat.  Even though Romney thought of this as a one time action, universal basic income is now starting to get some traction on Capitol Hill - if only because politicians know in their guts that we need to spend some big money now to avoid radical political change.

Yet, the cost to sociaty can not only be measured in terms of money.  People need to feel they make a real contribution to society.  Getting paid real money for real work is part of the solution. And we have tools from our past we can use.  During the Great Depression, FDR put as many people as possible building (and enhancing) our nation's physical infrastructure.  We built dams, roads, post offices, and other public places - many of them still in use today.  Why not make similar investments in this country, instead of wasting money on our military-industrial complex?


Sadly, everything always seems to come back to politics - something my brother hates talking about with a passion.  With this virus, we had few tools to deal with many of the problems we now face.  For example, our president cut the CDC's pandemic response team in 2018, climing he could hire people quickly when needed.  Has this happened yet?  NO!  These people have moved onto better paying jobs, and will not make a sacrifice to be on Trump's team.  The financial stimulus tools we once had were squandered to give the wealthy a tax cut in 2017, goosing the economy's health for an extra 2 years.  Our president judged the health of America solely by the health of the stock market, and not the health of its people.  If he had cared about the health of its people, he would not have tried to gut the ACA (Obamacare) before having a good replacement ready to go. And recently, the president kept a cruise ship from docking, as it would increase the number of Americans in the 50 states afflicted by the virus.  

Years ago, Harry Truman said, "The Buck Stops Here!"  He took responsibility for dealing with things which were not his fault.  Trump says nothing is his fault, and shifts blame elsewhere. He is ignorant of science, and had no clue about how viruses spead.  All his actions were reactionary, and in his self interest - including NOT using the WHO virus test kit, and developing one of our own.  This wasted precious time we'll never get back in stemming this virus.  When asked about firing the CDC pandemic staff and not using the WHO virus test kit, he shows no responsibility.  Someone else is always to blame. This is not leadership. 


We could and should have been better prepared for a pandemic.  Even now, they are wondering what to do about Congress.  Why not brush off the old plans for a nuclear war, and move the three branches of government to an underground shelter after 30 days of self quarrantine?  There are 9 Supreme Court justices, 100 Senators, 435 Congressmen, a President and a Vice President. Can't they figure out ways to deal with their duties in a confined, safe place until the virus is contained?  What sould we do about elections?  This is something we should have planned for as well.  We did much of the thinking when we planned for a nuclear war against the USSR.  Now it's time to complete the thought process and update our preparedness plans.

To me, the biggest preparedness problem we should have solved was the presidential and congressional elections.  After that, comes the census, as we have both taken more than one year to complete a census AND have delayed reapportionment for several years.  In regard to this year's election, this is something we'll need to deal with quickly, as many current polling places are not equipped to handle large numbers of people and keep them the needed 6 feet apart in this age of the virus. It's bad enough that we have to deal with foreign meddling in this year's election. But having to worry about spreading a virus is way too much for many people to contemplate.  Hopefully, we'll be better prepared next time.

To impeach, or not to impeach, that was the question

As of early December, it looks like the Democratic controlled House will impeach the President, and that the Senate will vote to acquit him.  Our country is so polarized, that no GOP Senator would risk being "primaried" because s/he voted to convict him of "high crimes and misdemeanors."  We're seeing a political hypocrisy that we haven't seen since the Clinton impeachment. And it's so sad....  

Donald Trump is a narcisist. He will revel in the House presenting the impeachment to the Senate for a trial.  At that time, political hell will break loose.  The GOP will put their wagons in a circle and defend a president that most elected officials dislike, but our powerless to control.  (Shades of 1930's Central Europe....)   But there are ways that sane men and women from both parties could prevail if they gave the process some out of the box thought.

Many in the mainstream press report that most of the GOP Senators would vote to convict if their ballots were cast in secret.  There is nothing in the constitution that prohibits the Senate from making rules to allow this to happen.  Since politicians are in the business of lying to their constituents at times, saying that they were one of the handful of GOP Senators who voted to acquit should be easy for them.  Will Mitch McConnell take this way out of trouble?

An option that involves the House would be to impeach the president, but not send the articles over to the Senate until they are complete.  The house can approve a subset of articles based on current investigatory evidence, and hold off delivering the indictments until a full investigation is complete - sometime in late 2020.  This would prevent the president from getting the Senate acquittal he wants and allow the House to continue presenting public evidence through election season.  An added benefit for the Democrats would be to allow their presidential candidate Senators to continue their campaigns without having to be in Washington, DC for the Senate trial.

This nation has a serious problem.  Adding "Democracy" to the presidential nominating process has encouraged the bases of each party to grow more and more extreme.  When I was young, there wasn't that much that separated the left and right wings of American politics.  The party leaders would allow the base to voice its opinion, and prevent "extremists" like Lester Maddox and George Wallace (who later moderated his views) from getting on a nationwide ballot.  It is no coincidence that politicians pander to the base before the primaries, and move to the center afterwards. Over time, this process served to cull the centrists from both parties and leave people who want a winner take all process - and we all lose out because of that.

Given the polarized bases, might a middle road be chosen?  The majority of people polled want our president removed from power.  But this doesn't apply to his base.  It will accept no evidence that he has gone past tolerable political limits.  Do we have still have leaders in government who know how to finesse the system to deny the narcissist in chief what he wants - an acquittal?  The jury is still out on that verdict, but I hope they figure out something, as it doesn't bode well for people who have faith in the 2020 elections.

Thoughts on Impeachment

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Words, Meanings, and Spin

In regard to Trump's recent statement on "Getting Tough with Democrats"....

Recently, Trump mentioned sending Bikers after Democrats. In a nutshell, It all depends on whether the bikers are law abiding or not. But how would you feel if Obama had endorsed a biker group? I know many peaceful biker groups. Yet, the image of bikers leans to modern day outlaws.

Words have meanings and harmonics of meanings. Trump knows this, and ignores the harmonics when acknowledging them doesn't serve his purpose.

As for me, I've learned to recognize when he's speaking to his choir and when he's spouting BS that are blatant lies, but reinforce the falsehoods his followers believe.

For example: Whether or not one believes his wall is needed, one can see the falsehoods in his justifications. In a recent speech, he talked of "thousands, millions" coming to the Mexican border. Even in these caravans, we're talking in the LOW thousands, not the millions. He'll stretch a number without regard to reality, and people eat it up. His followers don't care whether the number implied is true or not. They care that it reinforces their beliefs that we're being invaded by hordes of foreigners.

Trump has violated the social and political norms which normally hold a leader in check. The GOP has been emasculated by the mob, as the primaries gave Trump a legitimacy that he never would have been given in normal times. The gate keeping function of the electoral college hasn't worked from the beginning of our republic. As a result, we were ripe for a corrupt president to be elected by the "unwashed masses" (social term, not a literal term) who speaks the meta language that they want to hear, but doesn't deliver the things the common people really need.

I suggest that one do two things before making your next support of Trump. First, watch the first 15 minutes of "Triumph of the Will" which explains the humiliation of a Central European people in few words, then presents the imagery of a false messiah who promises deliverance from suffering. Then read the first 50 pages of "How Democracies Die". And finally, ask one's self, do you recognize a pattern here? No matter what you believe in regard to Trump, and no matter whether you acknowledge what you really feel to others, if you don't see what is going on, acknowledging the truth to one's self, your opinions are meaningless drivel and part of the overall problem we all face.

Please note that everyone is entitled to his or her view. But if one can't acknowledge that the other side also has its points and discuss them fairly, one's voice is meaningless spin and can easily be ignored as it is only spouting useless propaganda....

Snake Oil for Sale

I find it amazing that so many people have been conned by this two-bit snake oil salesman who occupies the office of the President.  They have given their allegiance to someone who has no loyalty to any principles, shows loyalty only to family, and exhibits a strong affinity to authoritarian regimes, only because they wish to follow a bully from his demonic pulpit. 

Most politicians have to sell some "Snake Oil" in order to get elected. Pledging allegiance to a man with few (if any) principles wouldn't be too bad if he understood how power should be used, and that he was truly making America great again.   Instead, Trump is destroying the very things that helped keep America great in the economic world we shaped after World War 2.  

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In their effort to extract more wealth from the populace, our nation's elites have abandoned the most vulnerable in our society. Structural unemployment is damaging both rural and urban areas in America, as it is doing in the rest of the developed world.  And the populist insurrection that brought Trump to the White House is playing all over the world with "Yellow Vest" protests in Paris, Brexit in Britain, and the shift towards autocratic rule in Eastern Europe.  Trump is acting exactly as I'd want him to do if I were Vladimir Putin.  Every action Trump takes is geared to destabilize American political institutions, American social institutions, and American economic institutions.  It only makes sense for Trump to have done what he did, if he were a puppet of the Russians.

Sadly, in its leaders' lust for power, the GOP has lost its soul.  The base no longer cares about principles.  It is mostly a populist mob led by people who will deliver meager rations of bread and entertain them with meaningless political stump speeches geared to promote tribal identity.  The base has allowed its leaders to become irresponsible, enacting a so-called tax cut which is adding more billions to the budget deficit than if they left the tax code alone.  Even more important than this is their tolerance of a leader who shows them no loyalty as long as he is willing to pursue a retrograde social agenda.

Did the swamp get drained?  No, that was only a useful political slogan.  And yet, the base ignores the lack of progress in this area. I think this illustrates a greater social problem in our society. America has divided itself into haves and have-nots. It has also divided itself into well educated people and poorly educated people.  More importantly, it is divided into compassionate people and non-compassionate people. I feel sorry for those government employees not getting paid because of a pissing match between the House and Trump.  My Dad, however, has no compassion for them - he lived a hardscrabble life, and only has enough room in his soul to care only about himself and his immediate family.  Many of Trump's supporters are very much like my Dad - life has not allowed them the luxury of caring for others who are not doing well. 

Sadly, we have only ourselves to blame if this traitor is allowed to hold the office of the President much longer.  It is no longer a luxury to be well educated or compassionate.  The world has changed from a "Win-Lose" world into a "Win-Win / Lose-Lose" world, where education, communication, and compassion will be needed for future prosperity.  That means we have a choice: Continuing to let this traitor lead us astray, or to go in the opposite direction - where we can all work together to pursue common interests, making things better to pursue our individual interests as a result....

Politics will be the death of us yet.

As I write this entry, the partial US Government shutdown is in its second week.  This is an embarrassing shame for this country, as important government functions are not being performed, people are unable to earn a living, and those "essential personnel" which remain on the job are not getting paid for their work.

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Government shutdowns should be rare and short.  In the first 2 years of the Trump presidency, we have already experienced 3 shutdowns.  The first 2 shutdowns were relatively harmless, as they lasted less than a week.  However, this shutdown is going into its 3rd week, and shows no sign of ending.

The nation’s largest union representing federal employees filed a lawsuit Monday afternoon against the government, seeking damages for the roughly 400,000 federal employees forced to work without pay during the partial government shutdown. To me, having the government order me to work without pay is akin to slavery, and is illegal according to the United States Constitution.  But what would happen if a court were to tell these employees that they have the right to NOT work?

In the above case, the 2 plaintiffs work at high-security prisons owned by the government.  Could you imagine if all affected employees were to walk out, leaving prisoners locked up in their cells?  What would happen in a protracted mandated shutdown?  Would we leave the prisoners to starve?  But this gets even more interesting.  The Coast Guard is affected by the shutdown as well.  Could you imagine if they started selling drugs to pay their service members?  Being serious, I could imagine what could happen if the Coast Guard were to stop functioning, and this is not a pretty picture.  And what about TSA employees walking off their jobs? What about Air Traffic Controllers? Could you imagine what would happen to interstate travel and commerce if no one were able able to fly during the shutdown?

As usual, this shutdown hurts poor people the worst.  Many of us live from paycheck to paycheck, and are less than 3 paychecks away from total financial disaster.  The Federal Government has outsourced many of tasks once done by employees.  Unlike Federal employees, most contractor employees will not get back pay when the government is fully open for business.  How will they cope with the loss of 2 (or more) weeks of salary?  What would happen if this shutdown stretches into February?  We will likely see SNAP and WIC benefit funding stop.  What will happen to the affected families?

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I am not in favor of Trump getting any money for his so-called wall.  He is holding many Americans hostage against their will, pawns in the game of politics. He did this with DACA "Dreamers" and screwed them anyway.  What's to say that he will not do the same thing again?  Collateral damage is part of most wars, and this is a political war where government employees are needlessly being hurt.  I am hoping for a radical ruling in the above mentioned lawsuit, allowing ALL unpaid employees to walk off their jobs at will.

Maybe it's time for the people to fight back against a body politic that is out of control....