Recently, retired Speaker of the House, John Boehner, said that Ted Cruz was Lucifer Incarnate. Well, as I write this, Lucifer (Cruz) has just been defeated by Donald Trump.
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We're seeing rebellions around the world from people disgusted with the status quo. In the Muslim World, ISIS is the latest metathesis of the plague from which Al Qaeda originated - people who want to impose a extremist view of their faith on the rest of the world. Before anyone says this problem is unique to Islam, the Christian and Jewish peoples also have this same problem.
In the United States, we've seen a string of states enacting bathroom bills to harass transgender people. In one state, they have effectively made it illegal for a trans person to go to the bathroom in a public facility. This is ludicrous - and people like Cruz should be ashamed of themselves. But then, these people think that their morality trumps both common sense and the rule of law.
As much as I dislike what Donald Trump stood for in this election season, I must respect him for one thing. He respected the rights of transgender people to go to the bathroom and be unmolested.
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Now it looks like it will be a Trump vs. Clinton general election. (Of course, California has yet to vote, and Sanders could receive a miracle.) Will Trump tack to the middle and start saying things that make sense? Stranger things have happened.
The other day, Hillary went to West Virginia and told idled coal workers that their jobs will never be coming back. Although that's true, it's not the message these people want to hear. Yet, Hillary doesn't have a clue about how to bring these people into the workforce, as she's still thinking of bringing dead-end jobs to rural areas. The typical employment problem "solved" by politicians is to bring low skilled work to rural and inner city areas. This doesn't address the real problem. Most non manufacturing work can be done anywhere that one has access to the internet. Why aren't we looking to bring small scale businesses which require internet connections to these people, and tax the hell out of "American" businesses who serve the American market with labor from overseas? If Discover Card is advertising "All American" call centers to service its customers, why can't we bring this kind of work back to the USA to be done by American citizens?
The tech industry says that it needs people, and uses a "lack of qualified American workers" as a reason to use overseas help. Why not train people in "low rent" areas of the country, and use them for grunt technology jobs? This would not be a complete or quick solution - it would take time to build up the skill sets to service our nation's needs using American labor, and we'd have to narrowly focus on which jobs we claw back, so that we don't completely disrupt business being done in this country.
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Of course, structural unemployment will be the idea whose name shall not be spoken in this election cycle. If more people were working, no one would mind the rich getting richer. But as long as people are being left behind, we'll continue to see the Trumps of this world dupe people who have lied to for years by our ruling elite of both parties....
As I write this, it looks like it will be Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump in the general election. This is a shame. Both are very flawed candidates. But the alternatives from the Republican party are much worse than these two people. (I'm in favor of Bernie Sanders, but I also recognize that he doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell anymore.)
Most people feel very upset about these candidates. I do. But I also have to admit - Trump has been very effective in the use of his celebrity in his successes this year. Earlier in the morning, Joe Scarborough (of MSNBC's "Morning Joe") noted that Trump has had 15 years of celebrity exposure on TV, and that the working class (not the Beltway class or any of the elites) felt comfortable with someone who speaks their language on their terms.
Trump has been bringing attention to the issues that the elites have ignored, addressing the concerns of the working class, and being the one person who could force the Republican party to take a hard look at itself. In a speech he made today (I'm writing this on 4/26), Trump notes that Bernie Sanders is saying a lot of good things, and that he should run as a third party candidate. (Although I think this would be a disaster for Bernie and the Democratic party, Trump should be careful of what he suggests - he may just get it in ways he never expects....)
Thinking of Bernie Sanders and a third party run.... I feel that Bernie and the Democratic party made a deal to allow him to run as a Democrat. Neither Bernie nor Hillary wants to have the progressive voting bloc split. Splitting the bloc would likely result in a GOP victory. This is the likely reason that Michael Bloomberg didn't run this year. So I am left to wonder - what will happen to the people who supported Bernie? They have no love for Hillary, and they have no love for the Democratic party elite. If Bernie doesn't support Hillary with all his might, she will likely lose the election, and we'll see "TRUMP" in bold, flashing letters over the West wing of the White House.
What are we likely to see happen? As I see it, Bernie will extract one hell of a pound of flesh from Hillary. He will make sure to control a couple of cabinet positions (indirectly, of course), and make sure that Hillary can't give away the store. The Democrats desperately need the votes his supporters bring to the party, and Bernie is smart enough to play the long game - even if he only visits the White House on a tour. If this election plays out as I think it will, Hillary will win by a handful of votes (remember Bush vs. Gore?) and Bernie will likely be able to reshape the Democrats back into a true progressive party - which it hasn't been in years....
In short - Bernie has likely just earned his place in the history books, and people don't yet realize it for what it is....
It now looks like we're likely to see a Clinton vs. Trump general election. And given the choice between the two, I'd like to be able to say "None of the Above".
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Of all the candidates still running for office, Hillary is the only one with Federal Executive branch experience. Kasich was a governor of a state, Sanders and Cruz are Senators, and Trump.... He's a great big bag of wind. Yet, people like that breeze. No, it's not a breath of fresh air. Instead, it's a storm which his supporters hope blows the old regime out of office.
As much as I want the old regimes from both parties thrown out of power, I still wonder - will their replacements do any better? From what I can tell, Trump will likely become much more reasonable in what he says the closer election day comes. Hillary will likely attack Trump for the stupid things he said in his run up to getting the GOP nomination.
Hillary has a big problem - if she doesn't take care of the needs of the Sanders supporters, she will only be a one term president. She is not the type to stomach that. She needs the people that are loyal to Sanders, and he has not extracted his price for his support. No doubt, he does not trust Hillary to support the things he campaigned for, and he will be a tough negotiator - especially when he got so many delegates in a campaign season in which Hillary was expected to have an easy march to the nomination.
What happens if Sanders is able to extract his price from Hillary? Can Trump exploit a leftward turn from the Democrats' presumptive nominee? I'm not sure. Trump is already to the left of much of the GOP, and many in the GOP like things he has supported before primary season. Could we see a Trump run to election day as a person more moderate than Hillary?
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As they say - Only time will tell....
When I wrote the following rambling missive to a friend, I didn't realize how well it could work as a blog post. Thinking about this letter (and my friend's unpublished response), I realize that I am a Jeffersonian at heart, while my friend is a Hamiltonian. In short, I believe in the will of the people, although I believe that it must occasionally be checked and balanced. My friend sees the elite as a needed safeguard against the rabble running amok.
For the most part, our views are two sides of the same coin - both of recognize the public's need to have a say in their own affairs, but we both recognize the need for a buffer to keep the common person from destroying the society in which he lives. And both of us have been lucky enough to avoid the encumbrances that would make us slaves to the society in which we live, instead of controlling our own destinies to a large degree.
Right now, I see the Trump and Sanders campaigns having their successes rooted in the general belief that the public is mad as hell and isn't going to take it any more. A Trump or Clinton win would result in a one term presidency - and would leave the body politic much more unstable than we can afford at this time in history. Yet, I like instability (to some degree) as I like to see the body politic refreshed by healthy blood - something we haven't seen in a while.
So I hope you enjoy today's missive, in the form of rambling thoughts I've written to a friend to provoke conversation....
If I were going to do a War Of The Worlds story today, I'd make the "aliens" look more like us, so that the alien invasion would not be that of a faceless enemy, but of an enemy that lives with us. (This reminds me of a movie that Roddy Piper made - "They Live.") The story would be more of the dilemmas a space faring civilization faces when encountering a "sort of" sentient species, and then the ultimate realization that this planet is too toxic for that species to inhabit - leaving the formerly colonized to think that they had the upper hand in their own right. Of course, one could throw a lot of social metaphors into the story to give the story more gravitas than it deserves, and to score higher ratings from the critics.
The problem with a lot of mass media these days is that it has been dumbed down for a lot of Americans to consume. For example, how many shows will they make about antique and pawn shops, along with the people who run and supply them? How many shows can they make about dwarfs and their families? How many shows can they make of "unusual" families? Of course, I'm biased. I feel that narrowcasting has allowed a significant portion of the American public to avoid exposure to ideas to which they feel uncomfortable.
I think the problem starts in the schools and in the homes. Both liberals and conservatives can make good arguments about the problems in educating our children. But I also think we're seeing signs of structural unemployment which can't be ignored. Low end jobs are being outsourced to low wage places, leaving America to increase the size of its social safety net, lest we have major social unrest. Couple that with middle to high end jobs now gradually being replaced by computer functions, and we may be looking at a situation (which could become worldwide) where there are more people than jobs. How can a society cope?
Before you think that my idea of people outnumbering available jobs is a problem that could result in a radical solution, think of this. Before the Black Plague, "serfs" (I could equate them to newly freed slaves becoming tenant farmers) had no social power, owed most of their production to the manors, and could afford to take no chances with what they grew. There was always another serf to take his place. The plague took away all that excess labor that the manoral economy depended on, took away many of the lords and ladies, and left the remaining labor with the upper hand. They started to grow a wider range of crops, ate better, and were part of an economy that started to develop labor saving inventions because there were more jobs than labor. What could happen in America with roughly one gun in circulation for each of its citizens, if our elites don't address the problems of an economy where there are more jobs than people? Any slight event could radically destabilize things, resulting in great population loss before a new stable state is achieved.
So we go back to the schools and the homes. Religious fundamentalism has shown itself to be a plague on mankind. We have home schooled students who can't prove they know enough to enter trade schools. In fact, many of them can't do the math required for these schools, because their parents decreed that the bible contains everything the child needs to learn. We're already seeing what happens to some states when these clowns get to power - education gets shafted, in one case, the cutbacks meant that there was no local school available for the children of one town. (I wish I remembered the full details of this situation - I think it was in Kansas, but I'm not sure.) I shouldn't pin the blame on religious fundamentalism alone. We've seen the same neglect for our school systems and families in non religious areas of the country. We're seeing an America divided on Rural vs. Urban lines, and the Rural populations are winning for now. They are making the mistake that the solutions that worked 50-75 years ago, when the US was at its greatest level of prosperity vs. the world, are still valid today. Simply praying to god a bit more, and resisting social change (acceptance of the GLBT population as having equal rights), will not solve their problems. Something more is needed from both Rural and Urban populations....
We now have ready made scapegoats for people like Trump to exploit. Before you say I'm about to go into a diatribe against "the Donald", reflect on this - he did bring issues into the political conversation that the political elite would rather not address - albeit in an inelegant, crude way. I'd rather see him as president than Cruz. A vote for Trump is the hard core Republican's way of giving a vote of "No Confidence" to the GOP and its candidates. Sanders is the equivalent from the hard core Democrat's side of things, especially when it's a vote against Hillary Clinton. Although Sanders has not fleshed out his ideas that well, he might be the least dangerous person to elect because a GOP dominated legislature will block his every action.
Both political parties have their own reasons for keeping the insurgents from taking power. But it's harder to see the benefits of the insurgents gaining power. If Trump were to be elected, he'd be a wild card, a joker waiting to do something that would trigger impeachment and conviction - removal from office. It would also mean that the GOP would be able to get rid of its extremist elements and could produce a party ready to govern again. If Sanders were to be elected, it would give the Democrats a reason to stop a continued slide to the political right, and renew its position as a moderate leftist party again. And with both Trump and Sanders, I expect that they would have their reasons to deal with Wall Street and the corrupting influence of its money and power. Trump, to remove power from his enemies. Sanders, to clean up a system which caused the mess we are in....
As I noted, this was the start of a conversation that has lasted several sets of email exchanges so far. The ideas are not well formed yet, but they touch on problems that have been long ignored by our elites. I only wonder whether our leaders will bother to do their job, or continue to push America towards the decline of its empire....
The "Panama Papers". Expect to be hearing a lot about these leaked documents over the next few weeks. Although there were few Americans involved in this scandal due to our money laundering laws and treaties, there are enough other people involved to create a lot of juicy headlines for months to come.
It is well known that Panama is on the list of countries who enable money laundering and tax evasion for non-US nationals. But who knew that the Icelandic prime minister, Vladimir Putin, and the Saudi Royal Family would be caught up in this mess. And, given the US political system, the exposure of these documents gives Bernie Sanders another tool which to use against Hillary Clinton - as she supported trade deals with Panama in the past.
Hopefully, we'll see even more leaks in the future. There are a lot of powerful people who are affected, and it's time that the world's elite is taken down and replaced with one more responsive to the needs of the people.....
More to come....
The elite of the GOP wants anyone but Donald Trump. They are afraid that he is both unelectable, and that his presence at the top of the ticket will affect the downstream races. But what will happen if Ted Cruz is at the top of the ticket?
Right now, the GOP is not a party which believes in anything that benefits the common person. They want to destroy a healthcare system designed by a conservative think tank, taking away health care from people who'd never have access to it if the ACA had never passed. They want to take away a social safety net from people who need it, saying the "sins" of a small minority of abusers excuse the punishment of all. They are are party who supports radicalism over conservatism, looking to restore a status quo that never existed.
When Joe Scarborough (a noted conservative) from the "Morning Joe" show openly states that neither party has bothered to address the needs of people earning under $50,000, something is very wrong. To me, it is the very greed for power which causes most presidential candidates to such on the tit of Wall Street in order to get elected. Once they accept any Wall Street money, they are owned by the big banks - and banks have no heart. Everything and everyone is just a number to them, and the poor are simply liabilities to be scrubbed from the balance sheet.
Sadly, it looks like Hillary Clinton will be the likely opponent of whoever the GOP selects. Trump offends me, but Cruz horrifies me even more. Neither are fit to serve in this country's highest office. Hillary is owned by Wall Street, and she can't be trusted to do much more than line her own coffers.
So....
Unless Bernie Sanders is nominated (and he has big flaws as well), I want none of the above. Neither party deserves votes when they are trying to game the election to prevent the peoples' choices from being on the ticket. One could argue that Bernie is not the choice of the Democrats. But with the way the game was rigged to coronate Hillary, who knows what would have happened if the Democratic party had not shown such bias?
I still have hopes for a Sanders vs. Trump election. But the way it's going, we will never know which direction the people really want this country steered - and we will never have a chance to check and balance the power of Wall Street....
The Cuba Libre - a drink that has both political and social meanings.
As I write this, President Obama is about to visit Cuba - the first American President to visit in approximately 90 years. Much has changed in both countries, and in the drink since then, As a result, many angry words have separated these two countries - countries that should have been friends for most of the past 60 years.
One can not say for sure that the original drink was made with Coca Cola according to the linked article. But by the 1940's, a Rum and Coke was what was understood to be a Cuba Libre. During this time, Ernest Hemingway was becoming a native of both Florida and Cuba, being well known for being a patron of El Floridita. Fast forward a few years, and we have the Cuban Revolution - where Castro threw out the corrupt Batista regime (as well as the American mob), and sided with the Soviets in the time of the Cold War. As a result, the American public became brainwashed to see Cuba as an enemy nation.
During the early stages of Castro's rule, he nationalized virtually all of Cuba's industry, and did not compensate their owners (mostly American) for the taking of their property. (Bacardi's holdings were affected. Luckily, they had enough resources to relocate their brand and production to Puerto Rico.) A large wave of people fled Cuba, coming to the US, and many of them settled in Florida - distorting the politics of the state for generations to come. Not only did we have an important group of business leaders who had a bug up their collective ass regarding Cuba, but we had a vocal group of people making sure that we couldn't easily make peace with the Castro regime.
Let's look at some complications that caused us problems:
- Bay of Pigs fiasco
- Cuban Missile Crisis
- Cuban Trade Embargo
- Kennedy Assassination
Each issue on its own wouldn't be that bad. But when the net effect of all of them are put together, it's easy to see how we'd be unable to have official relationships between our countries for 50+ years. The Bay of Pigs fiasco made it possible for Castro to use his revolution as a potent symbol to encourage support for his regime against the will of the USA. The Cuban Missile Crisis allowed the US and USSR to deescalate tensions, preventing a war (that Castro wanted). The Cuban Embargo which prevented commerce between the two nations didn't help but to further separate the two nations from each other. Most people don't know this, but Kennedy was working on ways to get rid of the embargo before he was killed. Sadly, the one person who could have reversed this pattern of animosity between nations wasn't around to fix things - and as a result, we had an extra 50+ years of separation.
It's amazing how much flak Obama received for starting the process of normalizing relations between our two countries. Unlike North Korea, Cuba has not developed nuclear weapons, nor has it developed intercontinental ballistic missiles. Yet, until recently, I could legally spend money in the DPRK, and not in Cuba. This is ludicrous! I'm glad that I'm seeing positive changes occur in my lifetime....
But I will close out with a thought I had about 20 years ago, and wish I could have made true. When my dad was cleaning out my grandmother's apartment, he found a bottle of Bacardi Rum that was labeled "Product of Cuba". (I wish I could have saved that bottle and its contents.) A few years later, the CEO of Coca Cola was a Cuban emigre. A couple of my co-workers were Cuban exiles. A perfect thing to do would have been to bring in this bottle of rum, have a fresh bottle of Coke near my desk, and bring these two men over on New Years Eve to wish them a Happy New Year, and a free Cuba, all with true Cuba Libres in our hands.....
