A picture alone is not worth a thousand words

The New York City Subway. Sometimes, it's an acceptable way to travel. Sometimes, it's a tolerable way to travel. And some times more, it's a disgusting way to travel.  The other night, I had seen (and smelled) a new low in New York City Transit.

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In the picture above you'll note several people sleeping in the subway car.  II presume that they had the usual wintertime garden variety body odor, given the way people at the far end of the car are dressed.  This means that these riders smelled, but not bad enough to vacate the car at the next stop.  New York has always had a problem with the homeless on its subways, but most of the time, people are able to live and let live. It's hard enough for a healthy person to find work which pays enough to put a roof over one's head. But for the unlucky in our society, it's almost impossible, as there are not enough safe spaces in the shelters to go around.

I don't want to delve into the problems with NYC's homeless shelters in this entry. They are a mix of people down on their luck, where mentally ill people are mixed in with garden variety poor people who just need a place to stay the night. But I do want to talk about the subways, a place where some of the dregs of society tend to go for relative comfort.

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Several years ago, when I regularly commuted on the subway, I saw a derilict relieve himself at Times Square. Knowing how filthy the bathrooms are at that station, a man would want to relieve himself elsewhere. And in this case, the homeless person did.  Thankfully, he was at the far end of the station, and easy to avoid.
   

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....

Some impromptu thoughts on healthcare and the United States

I started writing this entry because of a post I read about Canadian health care....

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Let's strip away all the political rhetoric and look at the facts. For goods and services whose demand can be affected by external factors such as cost (i.e. elastic demand), markets are the best way to allocate resources. Health care (a product with inelastic demands) does not behave this way, as no one bleeding to death will ask how much does it cost for a doctor to fix me? For goods and services like health care, other, more efficient methods have to be devised to best allocate resources.

Let's take away from our argument the idea of charity hospitals and doctors practicing without regard to money. The number of these people and organizations is shrinking, as states have allowed medical organizations to be profit making organizations. This has led to markets being used to allocate resources where markets are not the best way to allocate resources.

In a society that values human life more than ours, people's lives are maintained without regard to market forces. The individual receiving health care is not part of the market. So, how is care allocated? In the US, we used to have organizations called HMO's. But even they were affected by markets, and limited care when care was needed.

Many developed nations, such as Canada provide health care services with a fixed amount of money allocated for care in each province's budget. People get to see their doctors by appointment (usually more often than in America). Care provided has been vetted against "best practices" and drugs/procedures which provide the most bang per buck are usually chosen to reduce costs. In areas where there might be inflexible demands, such as needing heart transplants, they prioritize recipients of care to those who would get the greatest statistical benefit from that care. This means that a 40 y/o man might be selected for a transplant over a 90 y/o man. This takes market forces out of the decision, and allows care to be provided without regard to a person's wealth or lack of it.

America has distorted the use of markets so much, that many of us fear what might happen if we move some goods and services out of market place allocation of these goods and services. The experiences we've seen in foreign lands shows us that costs can be reduced by taking things out of markets. In fact, we're now seeing medical "tourism" where many Americans are flying to Europe and Asia for non-emergency procedures. There are many procedures that cost half as much when done in Europe than when done in the States. In Asia, the costs are even lower. And, quality is similar (or better) than what one finds in the States.

The drawback - no one likes being a gate keeper. No one likes having gate keepers. And non-market systems require gate keepers. Who wants to hear that a $500,000 procedure won't be performed that could add another year to your 90 year old grandma's life, because society has chosen to fund a rural clinic that provides 10,000 people with essential health care?

Being a decent human being means making choices. Canada and most of the developed world have made good choices. America  doesn't yet make that many good ones....

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....



 

Yin and Yang

Yin and Yang.  Neither aspect of life can exist without the other, and aspects of both are needed in any organism for life to exist at all.

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I have followed a path in the opposite direction to that many have followed. When I was young, I lived in fear and tended to be much more conservative. As I got older, and learned more about, I lived in confidence and tended to be much more liberal in my thoughts.

There is nothing wrong about being a thoughtful conservative or a thoughtful liberal. It's when we follow others without thought, that being conservative or liberal becomes a problem. It becomes way too easy to follow leaders that do not have our own best interests at heart.

There is a natural yin and yang to life. When we close ourselves off to things we don't agree with or don't understand, we get into trouble. But we can cherish differences instead of forcing those differences out of existence.

I pose the two following videos as a way towards understanding the yin and yang of conservatism and liberalism in an abstract way, and then what happens when evil people try to get us to stop critical thought and to follow them into destruction....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SOQduoLgRw

https://www.pbs.org/…/the-story-of-fascism-in-europe-pthanf/

I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!:

Al Franken - Giant of the Senate, and the man who should be out next president.

In an age of political correctness on the left, Al Franken was one of its victims.  I will not focus on his resignation from the Senate, nor will I focus on this man's comedic past.  Instead, I will focus on a man who won the respect of people, and is more qualified than our present president to hold that office.

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When Al Franken decided to run for the Senate, many people didn't take him seriously. Because of his previous career in comedy, they thought he'd be making fun of the Senate and its institutions. Even though many people didn't take his candidacy seriously, he won his first election by 312 votes - forcing a recount before he was seated.

During his first term, he barely cracked a joke.  When he did, it was not in public.  He was spending all of his time earning the respect of both his fellow Senators and of his fellow Minnesotans.  By the time the votes were counted in his second election, he won with 53.8% of the ballots cast.

An avowed Liberal, Franken favors a single payer health care system.  He has also addressed conflicts of interest in the issuance of financial securities, by creating an independent board to choose which ratings firm would be used to rate a given security. I could go on and on, but it would sound more like a rehash of a Wikipedia entry than a detailed list of things this man had worked on during his tenure as a Senator.

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Sadly, Al Franken was forced out of office by the puritanical wing of the Democratic party. Although he has showed remorse for his actions (unlike our president), the "Me Too" movement needed sacrificial lambs, and he was chosen.  Yet, he still has the respect of more people in the Democratic party than those who would keep him from running for office again. 

Franken's sense of humor (as a politician) can be summed up by two jokes about Ted Cruz:

1. When an average American thinks of a bad cruise, they think of Carnival.
   When a Senator thinks of a bad Cruz, they think of Ted.
2. I'm Ted Cruz's closest friend in the Senate.
   And I Hate Ted.

Years ago, Charlie Chaplin said that if he knew how evil Adolf Hitler was when he filmed The Great Dictator, he'd never have made the film.  Mel Brooks takes the opposite tack. He tries to belittle and make fun of Hitler every chance he gets.  He feels that people that evil do not deserve respect.  As for me, I wish I could have told Chaplin to make the film, as all dictators need to be taken down, and the best way to do so is with humor.  Franken is the type of person who can and will use humor as a weapon if needed. And he is the only one who could burst Trump's bubble of invincibility with a well placed gag during a debate.

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Given the man who is POTUS now, we know that Franken is good enough to be president. We know that he is smart enough to be president. And he is still well liked by the majority of Americans.  Hopefully, he will throw his hat into the ring, and be elected our 46th president in 2020.

Al Franken for President - 2020