Need a Leader

I watch the debates and have some issues with the format.

The idea is to provide the voters in the democratic primaries an opportunity to select a candidate to lead the country for the next four years.

Yes after that candidate is selected he/she will need to defeat the republican and third party candidates.

To do that the candidate will need to display the leadership qualities needed to lead a great country.

The candidates aren't really provided an opportunity to display that in the format presented.

The country needs a leader to address the serious issues in health care, climate change, the economy, world trade, immigration  and others.

Whether the answers include Medicare for all or some other system is something we as a nation will need to decide.  The debates turned these important issues into arguments over details.

Our last candidate was full of details, but failed to inspire the American people.

Details are in fact boring for most of us.  National Health Care for all is the goal.

Sensible Immigration Policy is the goal, a fair tax system is the goal, a livable climate is the goal.

I don't know if it is the format or the candidates, but the whole thing bored me.

Where is the inspirational leader?

Fantasy Man

So now Mr Fantasy doesn't want you to call him a first responder.  No one was going to do that because, well he wasn't.

In fact he never went close to the site when it was in process, instead watching it on TV and seeing imaginary celebratory Muslims.

The only real question is when he lost his ability to distinguish reality from what he sees on TV.

I'm not sure what is happening to him, he thinks he was somehow a part of what he sees on TV and things he actually did fade from his memory.

I think next we will be hearing about his exploits in Vietnam.

Can We At Least Stop Shooting Each Other?

We live in pretty divisive times and I don't think that gun violence in general is related to that, but certainly it doesn't help.

While it is the bullets that do the actual damage, the person pulling the trigger is responsible.

It is so tiring to start another day with a story about a senseless shooting.

There is no reason for it and certainly no justification.

Should gun owners be penalized?

Well the second amendment interpretations protect them.

However there is no constitutional guarantee of the right to sell guns to crazy killers.

Maybe they need to be held liable if one of their guns gets used in senseless murders.

The certainly aided and abetted the act.

Sunday Ramblings

Today we have attacks on a congressman because the district he represents has some issues.

One might wonder how the President thinks he shares none of the responsibility, he is the President of everyone.

He obviously doesn't feel that way as he works hard to divide the country, hoping that he can galvanize enough support to get re-elected.

One could argue that the inner city problems demonstrate that trickle down has failed, but it also demonstrates that our social programs have failed.

Perhaps it simply demonstrates that the poor will always be with us.

O course the issues are now becoming as common in the rest of the country as low paying jobs, lack of education and opioid addiction spreads.

The country is continuing to divide economically with our middle class dwindling.

Enough failure for everyone.

Health Care

It should be fairly obvious that every person should be entitled to good health care.

We have however developed into a country where that is not true.

Some people simply cannot afford to get adequate care, and that is a shameful thing.

Some argue that ultimately everyone can get treated, if they are persistent, but of course in some cases they will have to lose everything first.

It may or may not be something you care about if you feel you are covered, but it should be.

Especially if the parts of the Affordable Care Act that mandated that pre-existing conditions be covered and the expansion of Medicaid are eliminated.

Most Americans are aware of this but there are still some conservatives trying to eliminate the law.

They don't like Medicare or social security either.

It should be a clear goal that everyone is entitled to good health care, no matter their individual status.

Some may be able to afford extras, but all of us should be covered.

Intelligent Design?

An old saying goes that the thing you lost is always in the last place you look for it.

It might take a second but of course you stopped looking after you found it.

Similarly there is an argument is support of the existence of God called intelligent design, simply that the world and its creatures are too complex to be random.

If evolution and nature were random it might have some validity, but nature is the one searching for the lost item, except it never gives up.

The planet is loaded with evidence of creatures that thrived for long periods only to go extinct and be replace by more successful ones.

The mutations are random but only the successful ones survive, driving out the ones that don't work as well.

In fact the evidence of features that we lost over time, like vestigial tails, shows the fallacy o intelligent design.  Why add a feature never used or even needed?

Of course evolution is the most intelligent and the most cruel designer.

The only way to survive is to outcompete other organisms.

We have done that.  Now we need to figure out how to survive ourselves.

Televised Boredom

Watching the televised hearings was a good way to waste some time but it wasn't entertaining.

It wasn't supposed to be.

He conducted a two year investigation into election tampering by a foreign government and possible obstruction of justice.  He wrote a two volume report that detailed his investigation and findings.

The report is a pretty boring document in the tradition of almost all government reports ever written but it does represent the official findings of the investigation.

It was intended for congress to be used to determine if further action was required.

The report has been used for political purposes and in that vein they decided to make the leader of the effort testify.

He stood by his report, as he should, and didn't provide any bombshells.  In fact he was careful after a career in Government service to respond in a careful measured way.

In today's world of short attention spans and politics above all else, nether party got what they wanted, a response that would provide fodder for their election campaigns.

Some got to make little speeches, disguised as questions, but we know pretty much as much as we did before the hearings.

Some late night shows criticized the whole thing as boring, well it wasn't supposed to be entertaining.

For that you have the clown show in the white house.

Impeachment?

Today we are witnessing testimony that will almost certainly accomplish nothing.

Still it will provide some decent campaign sound bites and may get some people to realize that the report did not clear the dontard.

Sitting Presidents are generally exempt from criminal prosecutions,  They are instead subject to impeachment which replaces the criminal process.

The report details a number of activities that appear to be criminal obstruction but of course a series of facts isn't a crime until it is tried.

Whether impeachment proceedings are brought is an open question.

Whether they are is probably more a political decision than a legal one.

The house serves in a way the same way a grand jury serves, to determine if the impeachment should be filed.

However the senate than takes it on as the final decider, requiring a 2/3 majority to convict.

It isn't going to happen.

The House might go ahead and file articles of Impeachment but the Senate won't convict.

Knowing this the politics take over as to whether the process would help or hinder candidates in the next election.  There is no clear evidence of that.

These hearings may influence the public enough to sway the decision.

They may not.

Values

People are different but we tend to view others the way we are ourselves.

This causes us to judge their behavior using our internal values and not theirs.

Everyone's world view is shaped by their experiences.

Certain values may be common, but even then they may be less common than they seem.

The more different the experiences, the less common the values.

Of course many of us have the same general experiences based on shared experiences.

F Scott Fitzgerald noted in the Great Gatsby that the rich are different.  They grow up in a world where they can have anything they want and other people are always trying to help them.

This is not what most of us experience.

On the other hand we have a whole bunch of people who are viewed suspiciously simply because or the color of their skin.  

The first group is just not able to truly understand the second.

Bag of Nothing

Its hard to believe that anyone takes anything the dontard says seriously, but I guess some do.

When the media details the lies and exaggerations they just think its some sort of liberal plot to undermine him.

The fact that there is usually empirical evidence, statistics, recordings or videos to demonstrate the lies is ignored.

Sometimes the contradictions are ironic, such as when he accuses his opponents of badmouthing America when they are doing no worse than he did during his campaign.

His patriotism was not strong enough for him to serve in the military, but he wraps himself in the flag when he can, mimicking the patriots who give their lives and have their coffins draped.

It is obvious he has not respect for his supporters, who as he said would still support him if he murdered someone in public.

Oddly he has done nothing to gain this admiration, he has absolutely no record of being anything except a spoiled rich person who got on a TV show.

The only real explanation is that they liked him because of his racist and misogynist rants on twitter.

Guess he knows his audience.

This Land Is Our Land

America belongs to all of us.

No one group or ethnicity or religion can claim it.

It is we the people, not some of the people, all of the people.

You may like everything about it, or you may want to improve it, but either way, its still your country.

I may find some of what you espouse to be despicable, but it doesn't change the fact that America is big enough for everyone.

You can't define what other people believe is best, although of course you, like them have the right to express your opinion.

So do they.

Changing polices or positions is a very American thing to do, we after all started out that way.

When you condemn someone's opinion as being un-American, you are wrong.

The Bill of Rights defines the right to free speech and freedom to assemble, not just the right to bear arms.

You can look it up if you want.

Minimum Wage

Last week the House of Representatives passed an increase to the minimum wage.  I think the odds of it becoming law are probably slim, although it might create some issues for Republican lawmakers.

I imagine that they will ignore the very argument they used when they passed the tax break for the wealthy, that it will pay for itself in additional revenue.

The workers who would be impacted by this are not investing in the stock market or buying Government bonds.  The money would be spent as soon as it was available.

There is a multiplying impact of money flow in the economy.  The second person who gets it then spends it on something they need and that person spends it and so on until taxes or other factors dissipate its value.

It would also likely cause additional salaries to increase since people making slightly more than the minimum would want to keep that differential.

Would it lead to fewer jobs?  It might, it really depends on how employers react.

These are low paying jobs and replacing them with automation may or may not be affordable.  I'm going to assume that the number of workers is roughly equivalent to the lowest number of workers needed for operations.  Places that employ minimum wage employees are generally not hiring extra workers.

We will hear all these arguments that are always rolled out but paying our lowest paid workers a living wage is simply fair.

Isn't this economy supposed to be so great?

Patriots Can Disagree

We seem to have forgotten the fact that people can hold different opinions without one of them being a traitor to the country.

As misguided as I might think your ideas are it doesn't mean you don't have the best interests of the country at heart.

We seem to be moving in a direction, led by our racist dontard where any disagreement is traitorous or at least disloyal.  No one is absolute in this country, we have a republican from of democracy where all opinions are allowed.

We aren't a dictatorship, at least not yet.

We used to at least pretend to respect people who held different opinions but it seems like that is a rarity nowadays.

What might be even worse is the amount of lying and deceit justified by some as a means to win an election.  We had an election where, at least one candidate, relied on catch phrases and slogans instead of policy proposals.

For years the attention span of many Americans has been shrinking and I think we are starting to see the impact of that in our politics.  Too many have no real grasp of the issues and rely on sound bites and headlines.

The politics are getting shallower and shallower, but the hate is running deeper.

Send Her Back? Send Him Home!

One of the things that people who gather in large group like to do is chant.

Not being a psychologist, I can't explain why, but its fairly easy to get a large group of people to join in a chant.

This has been a staple at Trump's rallies with "Lock her Up" being the popular chant of last year.

While of course there was no real chance of that happening, the chant was popular being rhythmic and it at lest had some relevance in terms of the accusations related to the e-mail server.

We now see that chant replaced by an un-American and racist chant of send her back.  The fact that the chant is directed at an American citizen who happens to have come here as a child and at American Women who were born here is despicable.

All Americans have the right to criticize the Government and speak their minds, its part of free speech and freedom of assembly.  To incite a mob to demand citizens be sent away is just wrong.

The pretense of being non-racist is gone and we now have a clear picture of the underlying evil of the man.

I think we should adopt the more appropriate chant of Send Him Home.  It is just better in every way.

Statistics and Reality

People like o look at statistics and believe they reflect what is actually happening and they do in a certain way.  However take a simple statistic I saw the other day saying a certain company was having its best year since 1990.  Well it was about the stock price and that company's stock had virtually collapsed in the last year.  It recovered from the lows and had therefore a big percentage increase.  Of course the company was doing much better years ago and the percentage increase did not make up for the fact that the stock was around 20% of its one time high.

The same is true with the statistics about the economy.  Unemployment is low, true, but workforce participation is low.  Wages are increasing, true, but from lower bases.  Wages are for most working people no where near where they once were.

Things not accurately measured in statistics, at least not the economic ones are the other risky changes to most Americans.  Pensions have been eliminated at many companies and while they offer self investment plans, many don't participate because it means a lower paycheck.  Issues with social security add a degree of uncertainty to many people.

Health insurance is also a high risk for many even if they have coverage now.  Its in danger or the contributions required keep increasing.  Sure the stock market is up but working class Americans are generally not big shareholders, except maybe in a company 401K if they participate.

Housing is up, but not at the level is once was and many young people have onerous student debt to contend with.  The reality is see is that most people struggle to make ends meet and dig themselves deeper into debt to afford some nice things.  Some are doing much better than that.

Is the economy as good as the statistics say?  Well the statistics are correct, but the reality is just different.  An increase of a few percent in average wages is not changing anybody's life.  A secure future and secure health care would.

Who Gets to be Free?

One of the things about America is that everyone is free from having to conform to specific tenets.

Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of thought are all part of our heritage.

We have had certain times when some freedoms were curtailed and we didn't always extend those freedoms to everyone (i.e. slavery) but we now have constitutional protection that require all to be treated equally, or do we?

We are seeing a number of movements that threaten our freedoms.

One of these, and one often condemned by the conservatives and libertarians is political correctness.  However, political correctness is not a Government policy, it is enforced by public opinion and while it may act like a bully forcing people to conform it is still not official.

We are now seeing a movement tied to the President of the United States trying to make America less diverse.

Admittedly much of his agenda is being challenged but it is in fact offensive that a public official even attempts to make everyone conform to some set of standards that restrict their freedom.

He clearly envision an America with white, Christian, people and if you don't fit that mold he would prefer that you leave, or at least stay quiet.

Everyone gets to be free, whatever your race or religion.  It shouldn't be up for debate.

Win First, Explain Later

Throughout history wars were won by the stronger, not the nicer.

Up through the colonial period and continuing today, warriors overcame, killed, enslaved and raped peaceful peoples who were, well there.

The victims weren't necessarily nice but generally they were trying to live their lives, raise their families, have a future when one day invaders would swoop down on them, overwhelming any defense they had and doing whatever they wanted.

While in America we focus on the African Slave Market since many of the victims ended up as slaves here, but we were generally guiltier as we effectively wiped out the Native Americans who were here.

Guiltier is a subjective term and there is plenty of guilt in both instances.

Unfortunately these are not isolated instances.  To our south the Spanish and the Portuguese were doing similar atrocities,

Of course this followed a long tradition of the strong imposing their will on the weak.

We would like to think we live in a more civilized time, but the reality is human nature hasn't changed and we see examples of this frequently.

People will do almost anything to win and failure to enforce any rules we have is the same as not having rules.

Economic Thoughts

We keep hearing about how good the economy is and by many measures it is doing well, unemployment rate, new jobs, etc.

However it is also true that these measures don't capture the reality many people face daily.

First Student debt is crippling for many who effectively mortgaged much of their future for a degree.

If you have the right degree and skills it may very well pay off, but many of our graduates end up working in jobs that give them little hope of paying off that debt, let alone accumulate enough to say buy a house or raise a family.

Farmers are suffering because of competition and our trade disputes with China who was a major buyer.  They can find other suppliers to satisfy their needs as more and more areas are cultivated at the cost of rain forests.

There has been effectively no progress in bringing back high paying mining and manufacturing jobs.  Yes some have been kept and a few have been created but most of the jobs being created are in highly technical areas or low paying service jobs.

The tax law provided significant savings and profits to many companies who used that money to pay dividends buy back stocks or increase executive compensation.  The wealth gap keeps increasing as the few derive the most benefits while the many tread water.

It did increase the deficit and therefore the national debt which is being managed because of the low interest rates but is eventually going to be a problem.  Its not a question of it, just when.

So is the economy strong?  Well it reminds me most of the early days of this century when many lived off homeowner equity by refinancing again and again.  It worked until one day it didn't.

Legal Immigration?

Whenever I watch news coverage of the "border" crisis I wonder why is it even a crisis?

The fact that certain people are fleeing their home countries because they are in danger or because they have no economic opportunity sounds a lot like the story of every immigrant who ever came here.

I suppose one could say it was a crisis for the Native Americans.

Still if we simply processed these people, checked their backgrounds and gave them temporary visas, we wouldn't have detention centers, families being separated or a crisis.

I gather some people in this country are concerned about how these immigrants are changing the face of America.

Of course so did every other group.

If we simply reemployed the same techniques we used in the 19th century we wouldn't have a crisis we would have new hardworking residents.

Is it really that hard?

Not Open Borders

One of the things that is often misrepresented is the idea of decriminalizing immigration.

If you change it back to a civil violation instead of a criminal one, the main difference is how they are treated.  In a civil proceeding the issue will come down to the lack of documentation and failure to produce or obtain it will still lead to deportation.  It won't lead to people being locked in cages and separated from their families until it plays out.

Failure to show up for a hearing will result in warrants and make the offense more serious.

If your image of the undocumented people is a bunch of criminals and rapists who are intent on violating our laws this will not seem like a good policy.

However that describes very few of the undocumented people in this country.

They and their families are generally simply behaving like all previous immigrants have.

The problem is simply what standard should we apply to hard working people simply trying to lead a better life.

I think treating them like people and the good neighbors they are is appropriate.

Census Counting

The constitution requires us to count all the people in the United States every ten years.

It doesn't matter if they are citizens or not, they are supposed to be counted.

The current attempt to include a citizenship question is clearly designed to not count a certain portion of the population, real people who live here but aren't going to submit a census if that question is there.

Even if you want to argue that they should be rounded up and deported, our constitution also protects us from self incrimination which in effect this would be.

The supreme court has rejected the convoluted argument of the administration and now it seems like they will try to circumvent the decision.

The fact that they are blatantly trying to manipulate the required census for political purposes should be no surprise.

They care about nothing except perpetuating themselves in power.

The census is not about that.

Improving Kidney Treatment

One of the things that has always been prominent in American politics is that efficiency is a secondary concern. The primary concern is getting re-elected and to do that you have to help the people who can help you.

All else being equal they politicians are of course OK with efficiency but not if it hurts a major donor or important constituent.

Even some of our most vocal fiscal conservatives find ways to play this game, often developing convoluted arguments explaining why a specific program that happens t help your donors is essential.

It is often so convoluted in practice that millions or billions can be save if a few essential reforms are pushed through.

Today we see a proposal designed to rationalize much of the donation process.  Just a few common sense changes related to kidney disease could lead to significant health advantages as well as significant savings.

Dialysis is the worst form of treatment, even though it does save lives.  Much better treatment is a Kidney transplant or adopting in home dialysis like many of our European friends do.

The latest proposals are outlined in the following article.

Organ Transplant

Its a product of the current administration but much of what is proposed is simply common sense solutions.  It is likely to be opposed by many for that reason, but it seems to actually address some real issues.  It should be considered on its merits no matter the source.

Which Future

We have been dealing with the transition to a world where machines do much of the labor previously done by people.   The benefit of this transition has been the accumulation of wealth by fewer and fewer people.

People who considered the rise of technology envisioned a number of possible outcomes.  One of those scenarios includes the way we seem to be going, where the availability of a new labor source concentrates wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people.  The other scenario involves a world where the benefits of technology are used to benefit humanity as a whole.

The second is difficult to implement but provides the greatest good to the greatest number of people.

We see certain proposals to redistribute the benefits which will be attacked as socialist or too expensive.  Still if it seems like the accumulation of more and more wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people is hard to defend.

Unless you are one of them.

Selfish Policies

One of the problems with selfish people is they think everyone else is also selfish.

Most of our foreign policy now seems based on trying to get what we want via economic measures, sanctions, tariffs and trade agreements.  It isn't working.

Countries do of course concern themselves with economic well being but they also have other considerations that influence them.

Issues related to national pride, religion, and long term goals are often the primary drivers.

To think we can bluster and bribe other nations is simply simplistic and ineffective.

Its not even clear what the goals actually are.

We have renewed nuclear activity in Iran, a deficit that is our of control ,increased costs to American consumer for many products and a loss in export for our agricultural sector.

Not what I think we should be trying to do.

Under Attack!

If we were under attack by a world of aliens who were polluting our planet with a noxious gas that would start to make it uninhabitable, I imagine our response would be to stop them at all costs.

Of course the aliens in this scenario turns out to be us as we continue to poison the world we live in.

Most are aware of the danger, including most world leaders, but a few including our dontard refuse to accept the scientific evidence and is willing to risk our future so his pals won't have to lose some profits.

Its a losing battle since every day more and more evidence is convincing more and more people that climate change is real and its impact will be wide ranging and catastrophic.

Some might have thought it would be restricted to some coastal areas, but the increased energy of a warmer earth is going to make changes and increase storms everywhere.

Most of us have taken steps to reduce energy use and help to reduce dangerous emissions, but we need industry to live up to its duty to be good citizens of this planet.

They will have to live here too.

One Nation?

I don't know but it certainly seemed like this Independence day was a bit of a bust.

We had tanks and fly over in Washington, but it certainly seemed more like a campaign rally than a celebration of America.

The fact that the dontard doesn't seem to have a grasp of history or pretty much anything doesn't help.

We used to get to celebrate America at lest once a year without all these politics.

However at times we still seem to be replaying the last election since thy dontard can't stop talking about Obama.

Its only going to get worse as we get closer to the next election.

The country is going to need a while to recover from the last decade.

It has to start at the state level where the principle of one person one vote needs to be restored instead of trying to fix districts so certain votes count much more.

It was a successful strategy is you consider undermining democracy a goal to maintain power in the right hands.

Heaven Now or Later?

One of the great issues in human history has been the struggle between the haves and the have nots.

The have  nots generally greatly outnumber the haves so the haves have invented various ways to maintain control.

One of the most powerful of these forces is religion, since it promises so much in return for obedience today.

Religion exists everywhere because it is needed to maintain the social order.

Of course we are all entitled to our religious beliefs but one should wonder why a being with absolute power and infinite wisdom would need some of his creations to worship him?

Still believe what you want but realize that the promises being made are unenforceable if they don't materialize.

It seems like time would be better spent pursuing equality and justice here rather than letting the haves continue to control everything.

In the stories about Jesus he attacked the organized religion of his time, driving the money changes our of the temple.

Wonder what he would think of all the money involved in religion today?

Happy Independence Day

This is not a day for revisionist history, we should simply celebrate the founding of this great nation.

There are things that happened which in hindsight are easily condemned, but our acceptance of slavery and mistreatment of native Americans is beast dealt with on other days.

The decision to declare Independence turned out to be one of the most significant events in modern history and America was born out of it.

Celebrate!

Proud Americans

What does it mean to be proud to be an American?

If you were simply born here its more a matter of chance than anything else.

Yes someone in your past took the risk of coming here but how does that justify any sense of accomplishment by you.

Clearly, some have served this country and risked their lives in the military. A few others have done things that are certainly a credit to themselves and the country in some way.

But the vast majority of the people who are proud were simply been born here.

They may be good citizens, or they may have been is trouble a few times, still they are Americans born and raised here.

Should they be proud or should they just accept that they haven't done anything special?

They have gotten to live in one of the richest countries that ever existed and reap those benefits, to some extent at least.

We are about to celebrate independence day, when the founding fathers decided to risk their lives and declare independence.

It worked out and here we are, enjoying the freedom they helped win for us.

Celebrate them, and think about what you have done or could do to make the country better.

It probably doesn't involve hate or guns.

Our Patriotic? Draft Dodger

What an embarrassing time we are living through.

We have a person who was able to use his father's money to get out of serving his country who now literally wraps himself in the flag and acts like he is a great patriot to fool his followers.

Now he is wrapping himself in the trappings of militarism with tanks and airplanes in our nations capital.

Apparently he was impressed by a French military parade but these are the trappings all dictators like to wrap themselves in.

He is not a dictator, although I'm sure he would like to be.

His election was a fluke cause by a number of anomalies even though he lost the popular vote by about 3 million.

It really should have been more but the belief he was going to lose big was one of the things that helped him win.

That won't happen again.

Relativity

There are issues which have evolved over time and positions from 10, 20, 30 years ago are no longer acceptable in today's world.

Its easy though to look back and applying hindsight condemn views from that time.

In some cases that might be justified, but often it isn't.

Many people had quite different views on the appropriateness of certain sexual behavior.

Wrongly certain things were considered sinful and abnormal by many, a view supported by many people's churches.  That view is now widely condemned as ignorant and wrong.  Not everywhere yet and in some parts of the country and some parts of the world views are still problematic.  Still we just celebrated a month dedicated to acceptance of behavior once considered deviant.

Does that mean everyone who once held those views were evil?  More likely they were misinformed and influenced by societal norms.

Certainly their behavior or beliefs should not be celebrated, but neither should they be condemned.

Some behavior would of course always be wrong, like murder or assault, but beliefs are much more relative.