Facts or Narrative?

 Russai is continuing a tactic that has been used by many tyrants and wannabe tyrants over the years, lying to their people.  I suppose some might argue they aren't the ones lying, a Russian sympathizer for example, but the concept that the Nazis of Ukraine were at fault flies in the face of some logic.  The fighting is taking place in the Ukraine, not Russia, so I guess they committed reverse aggression.

You would like to think that people would wise up to the lying, but hard to criticize them who live in a country where the media is controlled by the ruling party when here with free press, so many believe similar lies. Some here seem to work hard to believe and make no attempt to find the truth.

Something I have noticed is we assume perfect knowledge by the people we don't support. This allows us to say they are lying when they simply don't know things.  

Up until the Russians actually invaded, there was some uncertainty about whether they would so the impact on energy prices was debatable.  Once they did and we applied sanctions, the impact became apparent.  You could easily argue that the impact has been greatly mitigated by the administration's actions but in our current political environment, all that is emphasized is how bad the impact was.

All we see generally is biased reporting, not factual stuff.  

The facts are not important to the narrative.

Help People do the Right Thing

 In everything we do we should have both short term and long-term goals.  Ideally the short-term ones support the long-term ones, but not always.  For example, we have a long-term goal of eliminating carbon-based energy sources and replacing them with renewable ones.  However, replacing high carbon sources with lower ones might be a good short-term goal.

In that respect we can't be opposed to certain actions which serve as stop gate measures.  We also need to be aware that in order to make any progress we need to have the support of the majority of the people and hopefully all of them.

This can be a long crusade.  Look at how long it took to get the message out on cigarettes.  I don't think it's fully out even now.  People still smoke even though it has become expensive and clearly a known danger.  Stopping can be hard and similarly transitioning from oil based to renewable is also hard.  

One of the issues relates to our capitalistic system.  The Government does not want to influence or benefit particular companies.  This makes scammer seem as legitimate as everyone else.  Should the Government pick winners and losers?  No, but it can create standards and identify those who violate them.

Buyer beware is one of our fundamentals.  Some have trouble being aware.  We can make that easier.

Cruel Nature?

 I used to have an office that looked out on a seldom used railroad spur.  In the winter the trees lining the spur was home to birds who would cluster together for I assume warmth.  Every morning quite a few of them lay dead on the ground under the trees. 

I don't know if someone cleaned them up or if they provided food to other animals.  I worked late enough to see them return for the night nosily as they jostled for a spot.  It clearly was a life-or-death matter although I read that the ones who died probably were malnourished.

I guess the ones who had trouble finding enough food had two problems.  They weren't strong enough to get a good spot where the warmth of the flock would help them and they couldn't withstand the cold being undernourished.

It seems cruel but the flock seemed to survive and when it became time to breed the weak had been weeded out.  Nature isn't cruel but it is pragmatic.  Your existence is not guaranteed, you have to fight for it. 

I never researched what type of birds these were but I'm pretty sure if I went to that office (it might not exist) the flock would still be flourishing.  

Nature made it stronger each year.

Disagree, but Don't Hate

 People have had to deal with disasters in their personal lives. The loss of a job, a serious illness or unexpected death can be devastating.  There are some support systems but only to a certain extent.  None of this is new and the one thing we know is that people will cope the best they can.

It does seem to me that somehow, we have many people who can't deal with even minor setbacks, at least in the scheme of things.  I was looking at pictures from Ukraine, a pretty modern country where the invaders apparently somewhat randomly shot people in Bucha.  These were men and women who had normal lives.  The pictures are gruesome in and of themselves but the ones where I guess relatives or neighbors were trying to identify the dead struck me the most.

Sometimes after a terrible accident or natural disaster we see similar images, but this seems totally random and particularly callous.  It made me wonder how we would react to similar carnage in this country.  Based on the current level of rhetoric, I don't think it is so impossible.

It's time to stop repeating or believing hate.  Americans who disagree with you on an issue are just as American as you are.  I don't personally support people having abortions, but I don't consider them murderers.  I'm not sure how we can dictate to one person that they lose control of their own body ever.

Still those who have an opposing view are not evil.  We just disagree.

Increase Production?

If you consider the Republican efforts, if any, to control inflation, it is basically to punish workers and reward big corporations who are profiting from the situation.

Some elements of inflation are external to this country, but others are not.   For example, American oil companies could reopen closed wells and increase the supply.  They say they are too expensive, but they have a good economic reason not to.  If a barrel of oil is selling for say $70 and it costs $40 to produce it you get a profits of $30 for each barrel.  If the price goes to $100 you are making $70 a barrel.  Say you produce a million barrels that's 70 million dollars.  Suppose you can double the production and drive the price of oil down to $70.   The new production drives the cost of production to $50 (these are the more expensive wells) only make 20 a barrel and at 2 million barrels you make $40 million dollars.  

Oil executives know that $70 million is more than $40 million so why open up those wells.  Since these same oil companies have bought up most of the available leases, expect no help from them.  In fairness they couldn't justify it to their shareholders.

Supreme Court

 There is some dispute about whether the Supreme Court has become more political.  Let's be realistic. It has.  Until a few years ago Supreme Court Justices could be filibustered.  Then we had the situation where the Republican senate refused to even hear arguments about Obama's nominee.  They knew by any standard he was an acceptable candidate and that they might not be able to filibuster his nomination if it got that far.    

Under Trump they dropped any pretense and dropped the filibuster capability.  Now the filibuster prevented proposing nominees so unacceptable to the other side that you could get 60 votes.  This led to rhe politicization of the court as nominees could be clearly partisan.  

Still, it isn't required that they be.  The latest nominee has all the qualifications and moderate opinions that should have led to a smooth confirmation.  Only 3 Republicans voted for her and they are trying to present her as a radical.  Her confirmation is historic and the fact that Republicans walked out while she wa being applauded is more a reflection of their closed mindedness than her.

More Representative Government

 If you frequent social media or watch some shows which pretend to be news you are probably familiar with accusations about (liberals/conservatives) trying to ruin this country.  These accusations are generally based on taking a position attributed to some and ascribing it to all.

Both sides have their share of hotheads and crazies, but what they say or do is not the official policy of either party, unless of course it is.  We have a lot of media people who like to pretend it is. 

Even worse, our primary system allows people with extreme views to become the official party nominee.  Unfortunately, too many Americans don't pay enough attention and vote based on name recognition or media exposure.

Even worse is that primary participation is so low and hardly reflects the will of the majority.

More honesty and better representation are the goals and we are not that close.