Inane?

Well in addition to the normal nonsense that the twit in charge tweets most days, we have a really nonsensical one.
covfete.

Now what he was trying to say is unclear and having a typo isn't all that unusual but sending it, and then not correcting or explaining it is.

Now we know he's not the sharpest tool in the shed but the question on many peoples minds has been is he actually suffering from a mental disorder.

Certainly this tweet doesn't provide an answer to that question, and I think we overuse mental illness as an excuse for crappy personalities.

If you just don't care about anyone except yourself are you mentally ill or just a greedy bastard?

I'm more in favor of the latter, but I'm sure that there is a description in the book of narcissistic disorder or something like it.

If you think about it, having a place to tell someone what you've done wrong and asking for help on how to make it right is a really old tradition.  It used to be called confession and now I guess for many its therapy.

Both are ways to absolve you from guilt, one via forgiveness and the other explains you couldn't help yourself because of ....

Of course how our parents and society treated us when we were young impacts how we behave now, and maybe working through those issues is helpful to become a better person.

I'm not sure its better than simple saying some Hail Mary's and an Our Father.

So is the twit in charge mentally ill?  I suspect he needed a few more spankings when he was young but I'm inclined to the greedy bastard answer.

Street Smarts

A number of things I learned growing up in the city have served me well over the years.  Now of course I'm not going to say I've never been hustled or scammed, but I do think that in general I have avoided the great majority.

First when someone tells you to trust them, especially multiple times, there's usually a good reason not to trust them.  It is possible that the phrase can be used in a hones context, but when you are interested in what is about to happen, especially if valuable are at stake, its a big warning flag.

Second, most bullies don't really want to fight, they want you to back down.  Real fighters don't threaten you they start fighting.  Now of course sometimes they are accompanied by a crew and it would be foolish to fight them then, but confrontation is usually the best approach.  Of course it has some risk but the choice is to be bullied.

Third, people who tell you how great they are usually aren't.  If they were that great they wouldn't have to be the ones telling you.  In fact in many situations, they don't want to think they are good, they want you to underestimate them. 

Fourth, most people are mostly concerned about themselves.  Some legitimately want to help others, but strangers you meet who say they want to help you for no apparent reason are probably up to something. 

Now this may come across as cynical, but when you live in a crowded metropolitan area, the ones that are likely to seek you out are often up to no good.  Most people are fine, but they are not telling you a story or trying to get you to trust them for no reason.

Remember there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Respect

Today is Memorial Day in the United States a day when we honor the memory of those who sacrificed their lives in service to this country.

Now with very few exceptions they didn't want to die, they wanted to live, come home, lead a life, but they followed a sense of duty or other motivation to put themselves in harm's way.

We owe them respect for that and our thanks.

We also need to make sure that their survivors are taken care of, they died in our service and those they left behind need our help.

We owe them that.

Character

During the last election there were a lot of allegations related to character of the candidates and it may have ended up being the decisive element.  Of course many of those allegations were baseless but they were repeated often enough to gain some credibility.

For instance on one hand we had multiple allegation that one candidate a sexual predator who treated women like objects and on the other hand we had allegations that one was married to someone who cheated on her and she defended him.

Now those two allegations are not the same in my mind but they are similar enough to cloud the issue.

In fact I would argue that the allegations were so plentiful and helped along by fake news in many cases that many voters decided to ignore all of them as simply noise.

The problem is that we ended up with a president who has a very questionable character and no idea on how to govern surrounded by people with questionable loyalties.

Voting is a right, but it is also an obligation.

Failure to have an educated informed electorate with access to legitimate information is the way democracy fails.

If you look at some famous failures of democracy in the past you see plenty of examples of it being perverted to the wishes of an unscrupulous tyrant.

The one thing that protects democracy is having leadership that respects it and that requires a certain degree of commitment. 

I don't think the current administration is clever enough or strong enough to destroy our democracy, but I have no doubt that they would if they could. 

Maybe though I under estimate them.  They have a coach who might have a game plan.

Challenge or Opportunity

Years ago I remember being told by an instructor that every challenge is also an opportunity.

Some let the challenge defeat them and others figure out ways to overcome the challenge.

It seems like this has become the defining characteristic of our society, the difference between those who want to give up and those who want to move forward.

We are faced with a number of challenges, such as climate change, terrorism, poverty, health care, etc etc.

We see the world of robots and automation eliminating jobs and forcing many people to reconsider their futures.

However, these challenges present opportunities as well as we can explore alternative energy sources, protect ourselves from terrorists, expand health care, and in general embrace the future.

The question is do we try to deny that the future is coming and bury our heads in the sand or do we embrace it and figure out how to benefit everyone, not just a few.

Unfortunately I feel that a large portion of the country would like to turn back the clock because the future scares them.

The associate it with things they don't like and fear it is changing the face of America.

Well, the face of America has changed many times before as we incorporated more and more people into it.  Rest assured, after a generation they are as American as anyone else.  There is a certain irony in that the children and grandchildren of immigrants who were viewed negatively have now embraced that view towards the new immigrants.

No one has ever been able to turn back the hands of time, and we need to make our country and the world a better place for all of us. 

We need to look for the opportunities and defeat the challenges we face 

Otherwise we are defeating ourselves.

Republicans and Debt

If you look at the way they talk you would think republicans are in favor of reduced government debt.  After all they want to reduce Government spending and return the money to tax payers.

Now it is true that in this country, the tax system theoretically makes wealthier people pay at higher tax rates so any reduction in taxes benefits the wealthy the most.

This is pretty simple math, taxes on a million dollars, all things being equal will be much higher than taxes on a thousand dollars.

Now some of this money needs to be invested in something nice and safe.

The Government conveniently has to issue bonds and notes to finance itself without the tax money it just gave back.

So wealthy people can pay taxes or preferably loan the Government money for with interest to pay its bills.

I know what I would prefer.

Now of course the system is more complicated than that, banks and brokers get a piece of the profits but that government debt is nice and reliable.

Of course it doesn't do much for the economy.  Money has been very cheap for a long time and any expansion would have been fairly easy.

A lot of big companies with extra cash simply bought back their own stock instead of building new factories.  We already have plenty of supply and the ability to generate more.

You don't build a factory to make something you can't sell.

So giving them more cash when they have more than they need now is simply not going to change much.

Except keep the bonds and notes available, at least until the bubble pops.

Fake News in Trouble

The fake news industry with the Fox news channel in the forefront had a thriving period.

This was due to a number of factors, one that it was sort of entertaining and two that most of what they talked about couldn't be tested easily.

Of course this fake news was directed at people who felt that it wasn't worth responding to.

Sex dungeons under a Pizzeria in Washington DC?  Who would ever believe that.

Taking the tiniest bit of almost factual information and spinning it into a web of lies was where they excelled, and as I said it was a bit amusing.

However, what it can't stand up to is the bright lights of success.

When you actually go under the Pizzeria and find nothing, or the whole web of deceit about Benghazi and E-Mails goes no where.

After a while it stops being amusing and simply sad.

Throw some sex scandals and worse of all, someone in authority who believes the crap you broadcast.

Now the lies you spread get wide notice and they get fact checked.

You promote a silly conspiracy theory similar to many others and suddenly it gets enough attention that you actually retract it.

Now perhaps its still too early to tell, but advertising and ratings are down and the lies are getting exposed.

Maybe the glory days of fake news are fading.

Just Maybe.

No Jobs, No Help

Some might still believe that the new administration is magically going t bring back the jobs that went away because of automation and outsourcing but I think most realize that isn't going to happen. 

Also cutting investment in new research and new technology, such as solar and wind we are probably going to lose out on many of those jobs leaving the economy in pretty much the same state it was or a little worse.

Now the thing is that the economy has jobs, just not the high paid jobs of the industrial era and if you don't have the right skills, the jobs left leave you almost struggling.

Now let's be real.  Some people don't want to work, and they try to get as much as they can from the government.  How many people are in that category, it's hard to say and they don't live very well by most standards but just well enough to get by.

The rest of the people getting help are people who do work, or who want to and can't for some reason.  However, for many people, the whole system is tainted by the first group who are in essence gaming it.

We are going to hear a lot about that first group as the new administration is going to try to sell the big cuts to the safety net in its budget.

However, the baby is in that bathwater and you can't just throw it out without getting the baby out.

Its the working poor and workers just above poverty who will hurt the most, because the people who game the system will figure out how to keep doing it.

Many of these people bought into the promise that good paying jobs that didn't require a lot of skills were coming back, they only left because we were stupid.

Sorry they are mostly being done by robots and if they take away your health insurance and your food stamps, reduce spending on public education, and other services, your lives will get worse.

Message isn't here's a job, its go find one you bum.

Manchester

Part of the world we now live in includes terror attacks against innocent people, in this case many teens.

Its not clear to me what the perpetrators of these attacks hope to accomplish and I don't know much about the suicide bomber who apparently did this, but the incidents are becoming simply random acts of violence with no real purpose.

Now maybe that is the essence of terror except it would seem that a terror campaign to be effective would have to include a way to avoid the attacks.

I believe the underlying issue is the fact that the West supports Israel, but it has become unclear.

It is also likely that the perpetrator of this was some resident who became radicalized.

In fact, as I write this, they haven't identified the attacker although the police believe it was the work of a single individual, who may or may not have been acting alone.

While likely related to a terrorist cause, it is entirely possible that it was simply the work of a madman.

It gets some attention and causes terrible grief to those who lost loved ones. 

It accomplishes almost nothing else, except perhaps to make the British people more determined to retaliate is some fashion.

This sort of event doesn't change anything on the world stage, it simply kills some innocent concert goers. 

Clearly some will try to use it for political purposes and while of course we need to do everything we can to prevent these tragedies it should make us forget our Western values.

If it does, they have won.

Stop Being Poor

The main message of republicans is pretty much to stop being poor if you want us to help you.

They are perfectly willing to help rich people keep more of their money by not having to give any of it to poor people.

After all, isn't that socialism?

Why have Government programs waste money on poor people who are likely to be a poor source of donations?

Get big donations, help the donors make and keep more money, and repeat.

Now you have to talk about the middle class a lot and throw them a bone or two, but you really don't have to worry about the poor, after all the bible says they will always be with us.

Why go against the bible?

Now they should all just go out and get jobs and stay healthy or suffer the consequences.

They need to have some incentive to stop sitting around complaining about the economy and the unfairness of it all.

One option is to incarcerate a lot of them and pay wealthy people to run the prisons.

This is the republican version of a win-win situation, if you consider a way to house and feed large numbers of poor people and still provide profits to private individuals who can make big donations.

Those really sick and expensive people should just pay a ton for medical care or if they can't afford it, well everyone dies sooner or later.  Think Scrooge articulated that position well in a Christmas Carol.

We will need people to pick crops and change sheets as we cut back on immigration so just work a few jobs and hope you don't get sick.

All that extra money they give to the rich will have a positive impact on the economy, especially theirs.

For the poor, not so much.

Jobs for Humans

Despite the recent campaign talk the biggest force impacting jobs has been and will continue to be automation.

This is a trend that can't be stopped simply because it is a way to improve profits.

Why would we want to stop it, the work the robots can do is generally drudge work.

Unfortunately many people have those jobs and while they generally don't like them very much they provide some income source.

Of curse the first jobs to go were actually the clerical jobs that used to be so prevalent but which were lost to the personal computers and printers.

I remember a time of steno pools, typing pools, filing rooms and so on, most of which are long gone and the jobs with them.

Then as mechanization progressed we saw the impact on manufacturing as industrial robots took far more jobs than trade agreements.

These were the high paying jobs that were the result of unions and labor shortages as industry expanded.

The jobs are gone and not coming back in any sizable numbers.

We have seen the start of the loss of retail jobs as we now can do our own banking, shop on-line and check ourselves out at many places as well as pump our own gas.

Everything mentioned here used to be jobs. 

If you don't have valuable skills you will have trouble finding a job and even more trouble finding a job that pays a living wage.

The jobs that will pay well require the one human asset that machines haven't duplicated yet, our ability to think and solve problems. 

Skills hat seem to be in short supply.

Saturday Ramblings

Now that the president is traveling to Islamic controlled countries do we have to let him back in?

Does anybody really not believe in climate change anymore?  I read article after article about all the Arctic and Antarctic melting going on.  Guess they just consider it fake news, but think they are taking secret swimming lessons.

The problem is that it seems to be going faster and faster and I just think that all the calculations failed to account for the cumulative impact.

The one thing that the climate change deniers are correct about is that there is a lot of atmosphere and changing it isn't easy.  We had the whole industrial revolution and the modern era of gasoline powered cars to get it to this state.  Reversing it will be a very slow process.

Of course, we have a near idiot in the white house who thinks that there are a bunch of people making this stuff up for some reason.

If you don't try to save this planer and don't massively invest in space travel, isn't that real terrorism?

Climate change deniers who do it for money should really consider what they are doing to their own children. 

Inevitably everybody will be convinced but the question is how long will it take?  Solving the problem gets harder every year.

The real question is why wouldn't we move to cleaner energy and renewable resources anyways?  They are the jobs of the future if we invest in them.

Sing Like the Birdies Do

Tweet, tweet, tweet.

I think it was FDR who started the fireside chat traditions when he was President and it was pretty groundbreaking to be able to reach out to the American people directly.

Of course that seems a bit quaint nowadays, but still, it was less than 100 years ago and it certainly helped him sell his programs to the public.

Of course he was professional and followed a script to get a clear message out to the public that was coherent and logical

Now we have a new way of doing something similar, but its unscripted, uncontrolled and gives us insights into his mental state that is unprecedented.

Not being a psychologist, I can only talk based on my experience with people over my lifetime. 

We all see he world from a first person perspective when we are born and to some extent for the rest of our lives.

However part of maturing requires us to develop an understanding that there are other people who also have interests and desires.

Now its not the easiest skill to develop but most of us do a pretty good job of it.  It requires that you start to consider the needs of others on the same basis as you consider your own. 

It generally something we develop in a family situation and as we start to interact with others.

Some never fully develop it and become what I call self centered.  Everything that happens is only significant to the extent it impacts them.  Disasters and bad things happening to other people are simply events to be observed.

This is what makes someone a bully.  If he/she wants something that you have, it is obvious that since you don't matter the best solution is for them to take it, if they can.

Of course even those people while lacking empathy learn there are some limits to what they can get away with.

Watching the tweets coming out, this is one of the most self centered bullies I have ever seen and of course anything that happens to him is the worst that ever happened.

Everything that isn't him is simply an object that he can use or discard.  Sad in a way.

Is This What you Wanted?

I admit I don't really understand how anyone voted for the idiot we have in the White House.  He's been a joke in the New York area for many years and a wanna be forever.

When he ran for President, it seemed like a publicity stunt as his contract for the apprentice was up and he needed some publicity. 

He has absolutely no qualifications and a checkered history of misogyny, greed and failure.

He does have some money, although exactly how much might be a good question and the odds are that the TV show saved his butt from being a complete failure.

It seems like the one thing he was sort of good at was getting headlines, not always for good things, but as they say all publicity is good publicity.

Now I have seen the analysis that many people in this country feel that they are losing out as immigrants and foreign countries take their jobs and futures.  Of course they probably needed to pay better attention to what was happening and prepare themselves for it.

So many jobs have been lost to automation over the years and the benefits of that accrue to a relatively small number of people.

Not the people working for $2 a day in an Asian sweat shop or the immigrants picking crops or changing bed linens, but wealthy people who run things have benefitted.

However, a story has been told that its some conspiracy to steal your jobs and your country form you and give it to people we used to discriminate against, minorities, gays, immigrants and other undesirables.

This benefits those same wealthy people, keeping you quiet or focusing your anger on the wrong group.  Wealthy people are behind the deception and you then elected one of them to fix it?

Grow up and get a set or put on your big girl pants and smell the coffee.  You are being duped and you blame everyone except yourself and the real culprits who took the money and ran.

Wallow in your own self pity while you pretend to believe in rugged individualism.  Millennials understand that we each have to create our own brand and find our own success. 

Why don't you?

The Future

No one has a master plan for what happens next.  Now some people have plans and companies and even political parties, but as far as the overall future is concerned we as a whole don't have a plan.

This is in large part because the people of the world can't agree.

People actually do agree on the vast majority of things.  Pretty much everybody wants to be safe and secure but while we all want that we don't all agree about what that constitutes.

Its also a bit of a question about the haves and the have-nots.

You can find people living is pretty squalid conditions in certain Asian countries who consider themselves fortunate if they manage to have a little bit of food stored up and who have to spend every day struggling to find more.

You can find American driving "old" cars, behind on their mortgage working a not so desirable job who feel they are miserable victims.

Part of this is what you were taught growing up.

The developed countries of the world have achieved a standard of living that is remarkable in many respects considering where the rest of the world is.  This was largely the result of the industrial revolution and progress that provided a plentiful supply of goods to be consumed.

We talk a lot in this country about how wealth inequality has grown.  More and more wealth is controlled by fewer and fewer people.  However, on the world stage we are starting to see previously poor countries getting a slightly bigger share of the pie.

Now the pie isn't fixed but there is certainly a problem if the wealthy are taking more of it and the poor countries are also getting a bigger share.  Certain people are going to feel squeezed.

Now nothing guarantees anyone a certain standard of living and it is the best interest of the wealthy to keep most of us struggling to make ends meet, it makes us more willing to abide by their rules to survive and get some rewards.

The really poor people of this country and the world just want a little bit of that for themselves, but they are painted as the problem.

Because they are willing to work for wages we wouldn't even consider in order to feed their families and maybe have a slightly better life. 

How dare they!

No Secrets

We all know someone who is so eager to show he's important that he tells stories about how great he is.  Of course they include a lot of exaggeration normally and generally distort the facts so much that its hard to know what actually happened.

Now imagine that person in an important position where there were actually things that are important, but that he isn't supposed to talk about except with certain people.

Now, it might be that it was unclear that he couldn't tell foreign nationals about secrets shared with him by another nation, because we know he's basically an idiot, but to exclude the US press and in effect do it in private indicates he may have had an inkling.

Of course impressing Putin who he sees as a real leader as opposed to whatever he is, is probably important to him.  He seems to crave approval, and he's not getting enough of it right now.

This information, as I understand it, was provided to us by another nation so he not only leaked classified information, he betrayed the trust of an ally.  If other nations don't trust you, they won't share information.

For those of you who voted for him because you thought we should put America first, sorry, its a Russia first policy.  I guess he feels they will take care of us.

All those former iron curtain countries used to be so happy before we enticed them with gaudy trinkets like consumer goods.

We might soon have a better understanding of how native American felt as they lost their country.  Of course they didn't have the media we have today so we will watch it up close and in color.
 

Positive Thinking

There are probably a million books about successful people and how to be successful.  Of course what constitutes success might also be worth studying, but achieving a goal whether artistic or monetary and being recognized for it is probably a reasonable measure.

The point is that defining what we mean by success is, it seems, always the first step in being successful.

Once you have a goal in mind, everything you do can be measured by either helping you achieve that goal, or preventing you from achieving that goal.

Take something like losing weight.  If you do in fact make that your overarching goal, you simply have to consider everything you do in that light.  Now if you simply want to lose weight, it probably won't happen.  You have to commit to it and use it as the standard that influences your behavior.

It is this sort of commitment that has been promoted under various names and programs, such as positive thinking, the secret etc. etc.  I don't want to oversimplify anything, but from what I can determine, it is the need to dedicate yourself to the goal that is the key component.

We all have heard the phrase that you can achieve anything you put your mind to.  This is essentially true, although there may also be physical issues with some things.  However, if it is within the realm of possibility wanting it is the most important thing.

You can't sort of want it or hope for the best.  If you muse how you would like to be a movie star but don't do what is necessary, the odds are really stacked against you 

However just wanting it a lot isn't enough either.  It has to be the yardstick that determines your behavior above all else.  If you decide that its' too risky to do what needs to be done, you are probably going to fail.

Is success guaranteed?  It might be, but what is guaranteed is failure if you fail to commit.

You can't fail until you actually give up.

Sunday Again

Today is Mother's Day and I want to extend my best wishes to every mother, its the most important job since it brings and melds the future of humanity.

Of course becoming a mother involves getting pregnant and then caring for a newborn, something that in America is associated closely with our health establishments.  We need to make sure that every mother and baby receive the best possible care in this country.

We aren't doing so well in that department.  We have an unacceptably high level of maternal deaths attributed to childbirth in comparison to the rest of the developed world.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternal_death

Why the US is trending up instead of down is something that needs to be determined.  We are the only developed country where access to health care is not a right and that might be a factor.  We would expect that the rate would decline somewhat after the Affordable Care Act if that is the case, but it might be other factors.

I can't imagine a better day to dedicate to the idea that women's health, and that includes becoming pregnant and delivering, is among the most important things we should assure.  It doesn't seem like a political thing to me and for those that think it is, shame on you.

Saturday among the Bushes

I guess we can rename hide and seek to among and seek now to stay up with the recent White House speak.

People roll their eyes at you because you are talking nonsense.  I believe you actually know you are and want to practice deflection by raising sexism.

Millions of people don't vote illegally in this country, millions are legally prevented from voting by republican bigots.

What is wrong with being considerate in how you talk and act?  I don't consider that political correctness, I consider it common courtesy.

Free trade increases global efficiency and results in lower prices for everyone.  If you work for an inefficient enterprise, its not the best thing for you.

You can't really have a debate with someone who simply isn't willing to use actual facts. 

Things like climate change are not in question.  Some aspects of the theory are still debatable, but not the fundamental fact of it.

The most scary thing is that it is possible that humanity is out of control.  Nature has a way of correcting that sort of thing, and it's usually not pretty.

One of the things coming out in many studies is that a lot of Americans think their children will do worse than they did.  Maybe, but isn't it the parents job to prepare their children to live good lives?

So many people who complain about food stamps are receiving much bigger government subsidies which they fell they deserve for some reason.  Price supports for agriculture or small business incentives are paid for by us taxpayers too.

Charitable tax deductions allow people to support causes many of us don't like at our expense.  If you want to support discriminatory causes do it on your own dime.

The new Jefferson in the White House

The person who seems to embody our new president the most is George Jefferson, a rich guy who said pretty much whatever came into his mind while getting himself in and out of various antics.

He even lived in a deluxe apartment in the sky and was a friend to the working man (Archie Bunker)before he got spun off.

It took me a while to see the resemblance, partly because of the physical characteristics, but the personality just seems about perfect.

I will say that George Jefferson seemed to be a much more well intentioned person than our current president, that heart of gold under his brusque exterior thing, but there's still some plot twists ahead I'm sure.

You may have thought about Thomas Jefferson based on the title of this, but that's not even in the ballpark for this guy.

Just George wandering around admiring the residence in his bathrobe, watching TV and ranting and raving about whatever pops into his head.

It's a new standard for presidential behavior and it seems like the lowest one ever.

Not so much a president as an entertainer, with pretty low ratings.

Your Papers Please!

One of the scary moments in any number of movies over the years was when the hero or heroine was confronted by the police with the demand to see their papers.

Now it was scary either because they were spies using false identities or on the lam trying to avoid.  Of course in some movies it was because they were Jewish trying to escape the NAZIs.

Now being a naive American who lived in a land where we were free and allowed to have privacy I didn't think those words would ever be something to worry about in this country.

Of course I knew that in certain situations you had to provide IDs, such as if you were pulled over while operating a vehicle either recklessly or too fast and entering or leaving the country, but not say driving between two states or just walking down the street.

Now I've grown less naive over the years but I also think we as a country have grown more suspicious.

I learned that people who looked Mexican could be required to show their green cards.  Since I never had any such thing I wondered how people born here got past that.

Then we started stop and frisk in some cities where ordinary citizens, some of whom might be up to no good could be stopped and required to prove they weren't?  We were getting closer to some of those old films, if not actually there.

Then we started to make people trying to exercise their fundamental right to vote jump through hoops to prove they had that right. 

This was pretty much all the way there.

Now Texas is allowing their state police to stop anyone and prove citizenship.

The scary movie scene has now become real, at least in some places.

Hell we might start asking people who buy dangerous weapons to prove they are sane soon.

Slip Sliding

You watch countries that had reasonably democratic governments fall under the sway of a dictator or a strongman and wonder how did they let that happen?

Its sometimes the result of military coup, and of course that is understandable, but the more common course or at least the more insidious one is when rights are taken away one at a time until one day, you are under the control of a dictator,

It has to start with the election of a person who rants against the current system as being corrupt and oppressive already with drastic measures needed.

Then they have to establish control by cowing or controlling certain institutions. 

The first is the press.

You need to discredit the press and suppress unfriendly press while creating a media that touts your praises. 

Clearly you need control of the law enforcement apparatus so you can arrest public enemies, those who oppose you.

Whatever legislative apparatus exists has to be brought under control.

And of course the excuse for doing this has to be an enemy to the state, either traitors within or enemies abroad, probably both.

Its a steady if slow process as each step needs to be accepted by the public as either necessary or at least understandable considering the danger we face from those enemies.

And finally you need to have the courts agree with everything you do or you need to suppress them.

You don't think it can happen in your country until one day you notice it is happening.

Bummer.

Rambling Thoughts

Fake news, old news, alternate news, we seem to have more news than ever with the new administration.

In order to reduce premiums for the people who are healthy now, they are raising them for people who are old and sick now.  That's just a guaranteed future increase.

Current Republican policies seem to be to increase profitability and wealth for companies and rich people.  That's pretty much it.

A company that is growing creates jobs, it has to in order to grow.  A company that makes more money because of a lower tax rate isn't necessarily growing, so it doesn't have to make jobs.  Pretty simple logic, but too complex for some.

Less Mexicans seem to be crossing the border, or at least less are getting caught.  Maybe they are waiting for the craziness to die down.  Could be a long time.

May have to pay more for fruits and vegetables since oddly there are less pickers available.

We are already talking about the mid-term elections.  There is no end to the election cycle in this country.

Parents seeking to adopt children in Texas could soon be rejected by state-funded or private agencies with religious objections to them being Jewish, Muslim, gay, single, or interfaith couples, under a proposal in the Republican-controlled Legislature.  Restoring the freedom to hate under the guise of religion.

Sad.

Viva La France

After a number of elections that made it seem like voters had become narrow minded and xenophobic, we have an election where a substantial majority voted for a candidate who stands for a more balanced approach.  Macron's Election

While one of anything doesn't make a trend, the question is more along the lines does it stop one.  The last two significant elections had a narrow Brexit victory and a popular vote loss but electoral college victory for American xenophobes.  Were these aberrations or were they the start of a trend.

It seems that while you also have to account for local electoral factors, such as personalities and bias, the trend towards xenophobia is not as rampant as it could have been.

France has been targeted by terrorists is some of the more recent events and yet the vote shows a resilience that is apparently lacking in American voters.

Its even more remarkable in that America is clearly a land of diversified backgrounds while the French, have a more recognizable national identity.  Maybe it provides them with a better sense of self.  Of course they have fought against the loss of their French identity for many years fearing the influence of America and England. 

Enough to say that we see a victory for what I believe is the high ground in that election, where issues will be addressed in a rational way rather than based on irrational fears.

We could learn something from that.

VIVA LA FRANCE!+

 

Greatest? Show on Earth

Watching our government in action now a days is pretty entertaining.  The White House has no idea what is in the laws being passed and thinks congress pays attention to him.

I assume they tell him it has what he wanted and know he has no ability or inclination to actually read it.

Whatever advisers he has seem too busy with in-fighting to actually advise him and we have a bunch of apparent clowns each pursuing their own agenda while trying to be the last one to talk to the idiot at the top.

Further he believes the lies spread by the actual fake news outlets and therefore believes the mainstream media is lying since they tell him it is.

The best comparison I can think of are the latter days of Louis XV who never seemed to have much interest in ruling France and while he was king for a very long time he preferred parties and spending time with his mistresses to any actual governance. 

You might wonder why I would dig up a semi obscure French king for comparison, but as obscure as he is to most American he was an arbitrary ill-informed, disinterested leader of a major world power who managed to avoid the actual consequences of his behavior (his grandson, wasn't as fortunate).

It just seems to fit.

Trump is spending most of his time golfing or tweeting nonsense while the rest of the gang does various things.

It seems like as a country the fact that they can't do what they want effectively is a good thing.

Remember how efficient the NAZIs were and breathe a sigh of relief.

Trains aren't running on time under this administration, they may not run at all.

Spin Cycle

One of the reasons fake news works and real news can be accused of being fake is that everybody is always spinning information hoping to make it more favorable.

Of course this is nothing new, it just seems that we get more spinning than we ever did before.

The way to do a successful spin is to find something that supports your position, no matter how insignificant and make it seem like the most important element.

Take the Affordable Care Act. While it clearly extended health coverage to additional millions, a small number of people had to change health plans and in some cases pay more.

Well the opponents couldn't stop talking about those people to the point that news coverage was often more about the few thousand than about the many millions.

In fact, a lot of the coverage was when people got cancellations in the mail, so what was the actual outcome is uncertain.

This was spin and in fact one way to recognize spin is when people use anecdotes to make a point.

They do this when the statistics are so against them they need to point to poor old Nell who had to change doctors because of the evils of obamacare.

Of course statistics can be spun also, especially when you have blip or a correction.  Take something like climate change.  While there is a very convincing and conclusive multi year trend that the earth is warming, there will be periods, generally short ones where whether shows a temporary increase.  Deniers can seize upon events like that to spin an alternate story.

There are many people, who normally are driven by market forces who don't want the public to be well informed.  We saw this during the tobacco denials where special interests tried to "debunk" the link between tobacco and health problems.  Of course they wanted to keep selling tobacco and they did, but millions got ill and died.

Why wasn't this mass murder? 

People who are denying others health care or refusing to address climate change are also going to kill people.  We have freedom of speech, but at what point do they have to pay for the lies they tell?

Free speech isn't the right to yell fire in a crowded theatre.  Why are blatant lies protected?

People will be spun to death.

So funny except millions may die.

Another example of the show politics we now have instead of anything real took place yesterday.

Now I understand that in many cases one house will pass a bill knowing the other house may want to change some things.

However if the news reports can be believed the Senate isn't starting with the House version but crafting their own.

Now remember that the bill is passed using the reconciliation process which means it is only allowed to address budget items to avoid a filibuster.

One would think that if they had such good ideas for health care they could have gone bipartisan and come up with a plan that helps America.

But instead they passed a bill they don't really like to avoid the embarrassment of not being able to pass a bill.

How embarrassing.

Even more embarrassing is the president saying that Australia's universal health care is better than what we have.

He may have been talking about his misconceived vision of the Affordable Care Act, never can tell what is in that brain, but that statement as we watch the silly stuff in congress has to make you scratch your head.

Its like the congressmen have to get more money to their wealthy donors come hell or high water or at least be able to tell them they tried.

There is enough analysis of the plan to show how it will impact the people who actually need health care in bad ways.  Ultimately this is almost all of us and what many in the public and the congress don't seem to realize is that the people currently healthy are insuring themselves in the future by being part of a pool that includes older and sicker people.

As you age you start to reap the benefits of group insurance. 

Otherwise you simply die.

Clowngress

When you consider the lack of progress on almost everything that does on in clowngress, the only real achievement is that they can get all the members into a single chamber.

Its not hard, they have adequate space, and it isn't common for them all to be there, but it does happen once in a while.

Very little else does.

Today they might pass a so called repeal and replace measure meant to fulfill a campaign promise.

Of course it would still have to pass the Senate and it still doesn't actually fix anything except to give rich people a tax break.

High risk pools have failed every time they have been tried since they just cost a lot more than expected and the only way to make them seem to succeed is to make them unaffordable.

There are some real issues with the Affordable Care Act but instead of fixing them they need to have this charade called repeal and replace, otherwise it might keep a hated name that's been associated with it.

Its like your toddler decided to fix the world by keeping all the things he liked but eliminating all the things he didn't.

It would be a world of ice cream and cookies with no unpleasant reality.

Of course it wouldn't actually work and I think even most toddlers would realize that eventually.

Our clowngress isn't quite that smart.

Even a Stopped Clock

There is a saying that says that even a stopped clock is right twice a day.  That's of course based on analog clocks and with progress it could be down to once a day.

No one can ever be wrong all the time, or I don't think its possible.  Now we do have a candidate trying to prove you can be somewhere between the White House and Mar A Lago, but still I don't believe he can do it.

Of course the fact that he seems to have almost no knowledge of history, geography or mathematics says a lot about the perils of expensive private education I guess.

He cites his time in a military boarding school as his military experience and thinks making a profit is equivalent to sacrificing your life in the service.

He believes he was wire tapped by the prior administration and that Andrew Jackson was turning in his grave during the civil war. Good news is that Fredrick Douglas is still around.

I saw a moronic TV personality argue that he doesn't lie, he just exaggerates a lot.  Now maybe when he says his chocolate cake is the greatest I'll give him a pass but when he says that Mexico will pay for the wall if we just front him the money, I have to pass myself.

I've seen that sort of thing on the streets of New York and get e-mail with similar offers all the time.

If you give them the money you don't get it back.

Now what I guess he is right about is that by creating a semi military approach to rounding up immigrants it has, at least or now, led to a reduction of undocumented coming across the border.

Now that sounds good to his supporters but it may just mean no one is available to harvest the crops for the type of wages they get paid.

Guess all the high priced manufacturing jobs they used to snatch up will be available (harder to find than four leaf clover).

Now he is going to settle the disputes in North Korea and Syria while his son-in-law brings peace to the middle east.  If they actually do any of that I would be in favor of giving one of them the Nobel Peace Prize.

I just wouldn't hold my breath.

Progress Made Us Great

In the beginning of human existence, we struggled to survive.  Clearly we started as gatherers and probably scavengers until we got enough tools to hunt, via progress.

Gathering turned into farming, and for many centuries farming was a labor intensive operation.  Eventually technology and science has greatly increased the food supply while reducing the number of people required to produce it.  Progress.

Hunting turned into herding or ranching and once again a fairly labor intensive process.  Of course we continued to hunt, but where hunting used to require groups of hunters, one person with a powerful rifle can bring down large prey.  Progress.

We used to make items by hand and it was of course very labor intensive.  Then factories and machines created the industrial revolution where we could produce more items with better and more consistent quality cheaper.  Progress.

This list can go into every phase of our existence and there has been one constant factor, we learn how to do things cheaper, better and faster, using less manual labor.

This is the essence of Progress.

Of course it has its consequences.  Each step forward displaced people who were raised in the old system.  It happens over and over through our existence although the pace really picked up in the modern era.

We aren't going to reverse it.  We shouldn't want to.

Currently the factors of automation and to some extent globalization have eliminated certain jobs.  Unfortunately it is similar to having your house destroyed during a tornado.  Its a painful mess but no one is at fault.  You need to build a new house or develop new skills.

Now pretending we can reverse progress is simply misguided.  All those patriotic buy American people went for the cheaper product.  If we are stupid enough to stifle innovation, we will diminish the future for our children and grandchildren.

Progress is, for humanity a force of our nature, those large brains.  Use yours.

Bipartisan Deal?

Word is that the two parties have come to agreement on a spending bill that takes the Government to the end of the fiscal year.  The actual details have something for both sides to get them to agree to it and the winners are the American people as a whole.

This is the nature of compromise which is lost on the hard liners in the congress. 

The biggest issue is the primary threats where the more fervent constituents enjoy significant clout since so few vote.

This creates an all or nothing entry bar to getting the nomination which leads to hard line stances in congress.

The idea of Government is to provide the nation with the best approaches to common problems.  Now most issues are not black and white, although some are.

For the majority of issues there is a spectrum of opportunity which is where the final solution needs to end.

If you believe that all the way to the left or all the way to the right is the only answer, we get no government.

Some think that is a good thing, but of course most don't.

The idea of compromise in the national interest is an old concept that seemed to go out of popularity.

Maybe the current retro trend will revive it.

It did the job.