Remember the Cowards

 There were numerous times during the cold war when we would see examples of Communist dictators being agreed with by other attendees.

I remember watching a clip where everyone kept applauding for what seemed like eternity because the first on who stopped was likely to be arrested.  

It just seemed funny to us Americans because we would never be like that, agreeing with anything the leader said with no one voicing opposition.

Just ridiculous and now we have the Republican party which has been browbeaten into submission without the threat of death or prison.

Let's be clear, there was no voter fraud, there was not illegal votes, there was no reason to object to our recent election.

Trump lost and by his own standards he lost by a landslide.

His refusal to accept that is really quite ludicrous but he now has a parade of elected officials fall into lockstep.

It won't succeed but I hope the Americans in this country who value independence and those standing for the truth remember these cowards.

Give them what they fear most, losing the next election.

False Information is Lying

 Well the loss of a young congressman-elect to is sad, he had a family, but of course every loss is sad.

Maybe this will help convince some of the holdouts that this is real and deadly.  Probably not though.

In Pennsylvania they are trying to sow discord by comparing complete data with a system the is not fully updated.  Of course this results in two different numbers. Further even if such a discrepancy existed, it doesn't show how the discrepancy would impact the vote, only that a statewide system that is not fully updated shows less votes than the certified county totals.

One is certified and one is not so the one with all the votes would be the one you count.

At this point supposedly educated people are just playing games thinking that it will persuade some people not to trust the system?

Elected representatives deliberately pushing false information to the public?

Well that is where we are in this country.

Its sad and it should be something that haunts them for the rest of their careers.

Protecting our Democracy is important for every elected official.

Vote for Principled Candidates or get This

 One of the things that helps politicians and every one else is to be a person with principles.  You can use those principles to help guide you in a consistent approach to life, work, politics etc.

Republicans, at least many of them, dropped their principles to follow a fickle would be dictator.

The ones with principles have generally retired or decided to kowtow to keep their jobs.

The way we conduct primaries is supposed to be democratic but if people don't vote they aren't.

So having a corps group of loyalists who will turn out to vote against anyone who defies you was a powerful weapon.

To some extent the democratic party has the same issue, but the progressive movement is more like the tea party movement than the current situation in Trumpsville.

If you want to be the Republican candidate you have to win the primary.  In many parts of the country, another non-democratic symptom, being either the Republican candidate or the Democratic candidate is a near guarantee of victory.

Is it shared values or simply tradition?  Maybe a little of both.

So holding on to your principles is likely to cost you your job and either you drop them or you get replaced with someone who will.

The voters are really at fault, they need to vote in the primaries and vote based on issues, not party.

That's not happening anytime soon, sadly.

Almost A New Year

 This is the last week of 2020 and while most of us are glad to see it go, 2021 is not going to start off much better.

Covid is still going to be very much with us for the next few months and we have to deal with the Christmas rush when we see how many of us got Covid this year.

Precautions are still needed by all.

We have to put up with the LameAss for almost another month and he as erratic as ever.  He also might cause a bit of an issue on counting the electoral college votes, for no real reason.

Once he is out of office he will still command attention, at least for a while, and probably not in a good way.

Whether he faces legal problems for his behavior remains to be seen.

They Proved Our Elections Are Honest

 Still three more weeks and a few days of this tantrum throwing toddler.

It was never expected that an outgoing President would act like this, but here we have it.

Certainly something that could be sped up in this day and age.

In fact a lot about our elections could be improved except Republicans don't want to.

For all the pettiness involved, the recent lawsuits filed by our petulant leader revealed one thing.

Election fraud is nearly nonexistent.  They went to court after court and the only thing they could produce were dubious statistical models that proved nothing at all.

No dead voters, no illegal immigrants, no double voting, not real problems at all.

They almost did the country a favor showing how honest out elections are.

We mostly knew that but they proved it by trying so hard to prove the opposite.

They will still harp on it because it helps them do things to suppress voters.

A whole party trying to suppress Democracy.  Its a shame.

Fading Away in Spite

 From the time he was elected it was pretty clear to many Americans that Trump was not presidential material.  His supporters liked that about him, or at least some of them did because they were not successful in America.

Some of his supporters simply supported him because he was the Republican candidate but the real supporters, the ones still supporting him, were unhappy with a progressive America that didn't take care of them.  Of course they haven't done any better under Trump, lack of education and skills is hard to overcome, but they felt better about being failures.

It wasn't there fault, it was the media or the liberal establishments on the coast or the immigrants or the political correct culture that didn't reward their unique skill of be white and stupid.

They had their man in the White House who complained as much as they did about those things.

Like I said, outside of giving them some recognition, he really never did anything for them.

Still they are the only ones who have remained loyal to him and have believed in him despite the clear evidence that he simply lost, and lost big.

He will continue to be their representative and the whole delusional group will continue to occupy a dark corner of our universe thanks to the Internet.

He will mild them for the little they have while they will give their all.

They deserve each other.

Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it.

Whatever you believe, the life of a single person can have tremendous impact.  

Enjoy the holiday and know that better days are coming!

And for those who don't celebrate, you might as well be merry!

Power Plays

 One of the impacts of a complex society is that strong leaders tend to rise.  The reason for this is that democratic societies don't make decisions quickly when the issues are complex.

Conversely, once you have a strong central leader forces immediately try to undermine it since controversial decision always have losers.

The current LameAss spent most of his time consolidating his hold on the Republican Party and not the nation as a whole.  He may have thought that was enough but it isn't.

The Republican party represents a minority of Americans but has been able vis voter suppression, Gerrymandering and our electoral college and Senate to hold on to a certain amount of power.

Their base is dying off and they are not appealing to young and diverse electorates, at least not enough to hold power.

They have lost the House and the Presidency and possibly the Senate.

Currently of course they are at the mercy of the LameAss who is taking his pot shots at those he feels betrayed him.

That is a long list and the list is growing.  He may actually get Republicans to split away, but they have lost the ability to stand up to him.

The Hissy Fit Continues

Its pretty clear now that the transition from out current lameass President to the next one is going to be a rocky one.

In fact it might actually cause some real damage to the country, at least a first.

Now the opposition has reached ludicrous levels and we are likely to see a last stand objection, with no real basis, to the electoral college votes in January.  There is still some doubt about whether there will be a Senator to support it but we seem to have one unintelligent one from Alabama.

The effort will not succeed but even doing it and allowing more unfounded allegations to get coverage doesn't serve the country or its people.

It might serve to keep the current President relevant for a bit longer but I suspect on January 22 he will start to fade quickly.

He will continue to tweet and claim the election was stolen and his followers will stay loyal for a bit but he will inevitably fade into history.

Will he run again in four years?  Possibly but his opponents will be ready for him and he will certainly be old news.

No one is going to believe the Mexicans will pay for the wall.

If he was to get the Republican nomination barring a disastrous four years the animosity of his time will likely lead to another loss.

Of course four years is a long time and whether Biden would run again or not depends on many factors.

Still the idea of helping the country move on and working for the people is alien to this guy.

Pity.

Stay Alert

 We might be entering a very dangerous period both for out democracy and our health in the last month of this administration.

It continues to ignore the virus and while there is certainly hope with the vaccines it is still very infectious and deadly.  Its going to be quite a while before we have enough people vaccinated to get "herd" immunity.  Of course that only means you are safer not immune unless you had the vaccine.

Its probably a good idea to wear masks in public for quite a while if you want to reman safe.

We are also seeing last ditch efforts to overturn the Presidential election.  Almost everybody believes they have no real chance but they are still dangerous.

They erode the trust in our Constitution and our elections.

There are anecdotes from the past about elections but in the modern era we have no evidence of widespread abuse or fraud.  We need to restore faith that the elections are free and fair.  Continue to make sure that is true while eliminating the one thing wrong, voter suppression.

Government should not make voting hard for people it doesn't like.  

That's the real issue we have, not fraudulent votes. 

Freedom is a Two Way Street

Sometimes, on social media, I see people rant about how they are still going to use Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays.  Who is telling them otherwise?

Right wing media creates issues out of very little or nothing at all and convince people it is real.

Sure saying Happy Holidays is more inclusive but if you wish someone Merry Christmas, assuming they celebrate it, who cares?  Nobody.

If of course you are the Government of a town and are putting up a display, it may be problematic assuming you have a multi religious population. That's because even in today's radical political environment you are supposed to represent all of your people.

However none of this applies to individuals.

Maybe if you run a business and send out something to customers you might want to avoid offending some.

That's to stay profitable.

We live in a diverse society and you can still say whatever you want.  Of course if you are a public official or run a business you might want to be diplomatic.

You don't have to be but then again people are also free to vote for someone else or shop elsewhere.

Freedom goes both ways.

Over Dramatic Much?

 As much as I consider the last four years to be a step back for America, it never seemed to me like the country was terribly different. 

Yes we were treating Immigrants badly and police seemed like they felt free to shoot down certain people but we still were on a day to day basis much the same.

It got worse with the Coronavirus and that seemed terribly mismanaged but none of this was so alien as to attack the basis of my country.

Now we have elected a new President who is, in my opinion, more likely to correct some of those differences.

Some people are acting like the very fabric of the county has been destroyed.

Some of this is based on the imaginary claims of voter fraud which implies a great conspiracy of someone who actually runs everything.

It almost as if we are seeing hysteria in some quarters.

Maybe this is simply the yellow media trying to get ratings and ad revenue without regard for the national cost.

We will see some changes, such as climate awareness, better pandemic activity and promotion of health care and better taxes.

It won't really be a major change in most people's lives, unless it saves yours with better health care.

We will still have our system of Government with plenty of representation from the other side.

When did the country become a big Drama Queen?

Voting

 When a political parties existence seems to depend on keeping votes from counting you have to wonder.

Some of the inequity started to protect slavery and it helps to continue discrimination.

In addition to the inequities built into the system via the US Senate and the Electoral college, the primary goal on many levels is to discourage or discount "bad" votes.

In the not so distant past they used things like poll taxes or other reacist means to suppress "undesirable" voters.

Now it has to be a bit more nuanced and they use things like voter I.D. which sounds neutral but isn't for many reasons.

Voting is a right and a privilege and the role of Government should be to make every vote count.  Right not it seems like in some places they want only the right votes to count.

Sad Its Come to This

 Even though the election is over we see the right wing media on a campaign to attack the Bidens not Joe particularly but his wife and son.

The attacks on Hunter are filled with unproven accusations and lots of pre investigation convictions.  It is possible that he didn't pay his full taxes but the rest of it has been debunked already and probably will be again.  Still the issue is that after a campaign where no holds were barred and hearings that were not very friendly we know that while it may not have been the wisest choice, his behavior was not a factor on his father's actions.

More importantly, he was not and still isn't a Government employee.  The attacks are being made simply because of who his father is and if it turns out he owes some back taxes or if in some way his employment was wrong it is simply not relevant to anything.  There are thousands of tax investigations ongoing and lots of people occupy jobs they may not be fully qualified for.  People don't rant about them.

I don't know if Hunter is guilty of anything and I don't really care.  To date there has been nothing indicating it had anything to do with our Government during the Obama years.  Some will believe it did, but we now live in a World where accusations backed by little to no proof are major news on some channels.

The attacks continue on this family as we see Dr. Jill Biden's use of her title attacked.  No one is saying she didn't earn the degree from an accredited University, they just are attacking her use of it and further whether she deserved it or not.  It was granted to her by an accredited University and she had to defend it at the time.  Is the second guessing going to proceed to every doctorate awarded?  Its clearly a politically motivated attack with no real point.  Use it or don't use it doesn't impact anything.  Are they simply jealous?  

Baseless accusations about non-issues are apparently all they have.  Why it would matter is more the point.  The attacks tell you more about the mean spiritness of the attackers who have not real issues to bring up. 

Conspiracy?

 We have free speech in this country and we see a lot of it, especially from certain radical conservative media.  That fine and it apparently is a money maker which is fine but the real question is how did so many Americans get so delusional?

The same people who want the Donna Reed version of America are trying to recreate Nazi Germany.

Their leader is a person who doesn't like them and doesn't respect them but is perfectly willing to deceive them to get their money.

Its no secret, those who knew him best know he is an elitist B list celebrity who found his audience among the great unwashed.

The idea that there is some sort of conspiracy to destroy America led by educated Americans is so absurd that its hard to believe anyone believes it.  But they do?

It had to start a long time ago since it has infiltrated all levels of the federal government and can ignore the political appointees.

I gather every letter but Q is involved?

It reminds me of an old joke about how the alphabet was reduced to 24 letters because L&M were kicked out for smoking.

That didn't happen and neither did your deep state conspiracies.

What holds up this country is a system of laws that must be followed.  They don't change easily, it requires a bill and a presidential signature and they can be challenged in court.  It keeps us stable as a county but its not done by a deep state conspiracy, its the rule of law and checks and balances.

I hope that was covered in school at some point.

One Person, One Vote, Oh the Fraud!

 In this country we get to vote at various times for the people who will represent us.  Assuming more than one person is running, there is a winner and a loser.  Since we are all American citizens who mostly want the same things, the losers are expected to congratulate the winner, wish him/her the best and maybe run again next opportunity.

Poor losers have been frowned upon because it is in bad taste and also because it calls into question the very basis of our democracy.

We have seen the spectacle of the sore loser in this last election and the fact that it is not being wildly condemned is scary.

The attacks on our fundamental basis of Government is the first step to tyranny.

If elections can't be trusted maybe we should adopt the system widely used in dictatorships of selecting the leader and then making people act like they voted for him.

Free and fair elections are so fundamental that the recent attacks on them have been easily rebuffed in the courts if not in the minds of the public.

If in fact there was any real demonstrable evidence it should be disclosed.  What we seem to have is an assumption that the election must have been fraudulent and lots of semi ridiculous theories presented to try to convince people.

The fact that we have media out there engaging in pure speculation because, I think this is the latest, the fraudsters are so good we can't prove they exist.

Maybe they don't.

Investigate What?

 Many Americans were convinced by the losing candidate in the election that there was massive fraud.  There wasn't.  

Multiple court cases failed to produce any significant evidence.

The Justice Department said nothing was there.

Our cyber people said it was a clean election.

Every State certified the results.

The rantings of a not very stable loser doesn't indicate any fraud, just rantings to raise money from followers.  

They are not easily persuaded people, they have drunk the Kool-Aid and that's the end of that.

So some Conservatives are saying the new President should investigate the fraud allegations to put concerns to rest?

Why, didn't we just have over a month of the "best" legal minds trying to find it?  

They couldn't.

Maybe we should launch a probe to get to the bottom of the quality issues at Santa's workshop?  What kind of warranty do you get?

I was always curious about where the Easter Bunny got all those eggs?

How come the Tooth Fairy never pays taxes?

These are more relevant issues than imaginary fraud that lots of people have tried to prove.

Transition Faster

 The Electoral College is going to vote today and we know the outcome will be that Joe Biden wins.

After today there is clearly no point in continuing to challenge the will of the people but that won't stop the Lame Ass from doing so.

We still have almost 40 days of him which is something we should probably need to address for the future.

We don't use horse drawn carriages anymore and while I know the pony express was amazing in its day we can transmit news a lot faster.

Couple of things we could do faster is require mailed in ballots to be counted when received or maybe once a week so on election night we could have the total count.

I am in favor of electronic voting to speed up the process but I know this will be considered risky by many.

We clearly don't need the electoral college.  Whether a State will lose influence is questionable but it would require both parties to try to win all votes not isolate some blocks by State.

It is pretty outrageous that we elected two recent Presidents who lost the popular vote but won the electoral college.

We should also do something about political financing its a bit outrageous how much is spent.  Guess its good for the economy.

No significant corporation would fire an employee and let him take his revenge on the company for over a month.

Why does the country get smarter?

The Real Radicals

 People who are trying to subvert the Constitution are radical Republican fascists who believe in racial determination.

They want to keep America WASPy if not fully WASP since they also not embrace conservative Catholics.

The groups they like to call radical have never advocated for anything similar to their calls to ignore the Constitution and the will of the voters

Groups which want to reform the Government, whether you agree with them or not, are working within the framework.

Groups which try to disenfranchise millions of voters because you don't like their opinion are not.

Weekend News

 Two events this weekend of some importance.  We have an approved vaccine for the Covid 19 virus and the electoral college is ready to vote on Monday.

While the electoral college votes every four years it is normally more of a non-event although it is constitutionally required.  There really was no reason to have so much drama about it this year except that our lame ass (promoted from lame duck) kept fleecing his followers with phony claims.  

He isn't done yet so if you still have a few shekels send it to him now.  It won't do anything but he wants you to.

The Vaccine is another matter and lame Ass could have gone out on a good note if he had focused on its development instead of so much election BS.  I don't think he actually deserves much credit but it happened under his administration so he would normally get some.

Of course he now wants the World to take back Obama's Nobel Prize and give it to him.

The racism in him never stops, he can't believe how a black man was so superior to him in almost every way.

The Burger Will Win

 The latest silly lawsuit trying to overturn the election makes some of the silliest claims.  While anything is possible, the probability of success is very low.

Of course probability is a predictive function, not a determining one.  So we all know the polls get things wrong.  That's because they are based on probability.  Any prediction cannot compete with actual reality.

There are claims going around the Internet about how improbable Biden's win was after the first days of in-person voting.  The numbers are wrong but either way are meaningless.

The chances of winning the lottery for any one person are astronomical, but someone does win.  Both are correct and unrelated.

Still the math of that probability calculation is very wrong because the assumptions aren't sound.  Its a bit like observing the breakfast hour at McDonalds and predicting what products would sell the most at the end of the day.  Burger would be come out ahead, not matter the early results.

Contributions Shouldn't Reduce Taxes

 There are many things in this country that need t be fixed.

It has gotten much worse since the Supreme Court opened up the floodgates in political donations with the Citizen's United Decision.  This allowed unlimited donations to PACs that didn't support a candidate directly but supports political positions.

So you can actively campaign with unlimited tax deductible contributions, for positions held by specific candidates but not the candidate himself.  Well that isn't much of a distinction.  

Sure it may actually be free speech but why are we giving them tax deductions to influence out elections?

We know why the politicians support it and to a certain extent corporations and rich donors might have some quid pro quo going, but if they get a tax deduction, some of that is paid by all of us.

In fact I tend to object to giving tax deductions to most charities.  It passes part of that bill onto us.

We prohibit tax money from going to certain organizations that promote things like abortion. Fine, but then why allow federal funds, which tax deductions are, to go to similar organizations?

Do charitable organizations do good?  Some might actually do harm, but even if they do why is the Government financing them via tax deductions.  I would think that anyone making a deduction has already received their reward.

They don't need to reach into my pocket.

Support the Constitutional Right to Vote

 Elections are run by the States, it is clearly stated in the Constitution.  It is actually pretty simple although in the past there were plenty of instances where States attempted to suppress certain citizens from voting.

Voting is not a privilege it is a right which at first was restricted to white males but has been extended to include minorities and women.

When you see a party or a group attempting to stop others from voting it should fill you with outrage.  It is the same as stealing, taking away their right to vote.  Voter suppression is a real problem in the United States.

Voting fraud is not a real problem.  You can find some instances of it but it is just not prevalent.  Yet we have people claiming it was widespread and use that as an attempt to suppress voting of people that don't agree with them.

The recent attempts to disenfranchise millions of voters is shameful.  Yet many Americans supported it and still do.

Real Americans support our Constitution and the rights of all of us, whether you agree with their views or not.  Everyone had a chance to vote and no significant irregularities have been discovered although many have been alleged.

We are now approaching the day the electors will vote and the good news is that our courts upheld the constitution.  The sad news is that so many of our citizens didn't.

Its Over Except for the Fleecing.

 Today is the date that the state electors are all safe from challenges.  Of course challenges will continue because that allows the fleecing to continue.

The main talent of the trumpeter is ripping people off and protesting the election has been quite profitable.  It never had a real chance at success but it kept donations rolling in.

A very little of the money was used to finance the appeals and the rest becomes a slush fund for whatever.

He will get to influence Republican primaries for awhile.  How long he will tweet is uncertain.  Probably for a long time and he might even run again.

He can do whatever this is America where the suckers keep on coming.

Honest News - Maybe the BBC?

 I think a lot of Americans would simply like to feel like their Government has their best interests at heart and is honest with them.

We haven't had that these last four years.

To accuse someone like Joe Biden of being radical is simply absurd.

To say that the State Officials who ran the last election participated in massive fraud is just as absurd.

We have been bombarded by these type of absurd allegations so long they seem almost plausible.

They aren't.

Understand much of this is the product of the same type of yellow journalism we had when we fought the Spanish American War.  It is not news it is unproveable allegations to sell information.

They need to be more and more outrageous to get sales or ratings to increase their advertising revenue.

Americans need to understand this and rely on honest sources of information.

Of course if you think the railings on some of these media is real, you won't change.

It is so bad that we have members of congress believing some of this stuff.

Maybe we need a news source that everyone trusts.  Certainly some of our media is honest but its been attacked so much people have doubts.

You could always try the BBC, they are used to dealing with ex-colonies.

End The Undemocratic Electoral College

 If you consider the last election you can see how the electoral college distorts our system of Democracy.

In the popular vote Americans clearly picked Joe Biden to be President just like they had picked Hillary Clinton in the last one.  However the overwhelming advantage in votes wasn't enough in 2016 and it also distorted the 2020 results.

Yes we have strong geographical preferences in this country but a vote in California should be as important as a vote in Wyoming.  It isn't

California and other big states do send more electors than smaller states but it isn't equal to the difference in population.  Wyoming is guaranteed three electoral college votes or about one electoral college vote for every 100k voters.  In California with its 55 electoral college votes that represented about 1 electoral college vote for every 300k voters.

Why should a voter in Wyoming or any state for that matter count more than any voter anywhere?

This was a system designed to protect Slavery when we were founded and to this day it continues to allow for unequal treatment.

Its not going to be easy to change but that only means we need to try harder.

Where Is The Outrage?

 We are now seeing new cases in the hundreds of thousands and new deaths in the thousands and the public outrage is muted.

Many seem to think the crisis is a hoax.

It seems that while obviously many have been impacted, the real devastation is a bit contained.

Perhaps because it devastates the old and sick.  These people were probably near the end of their lives in many cases.

That seems callous and I'm sure the family members generally don't feel that way.

Maybe we have simply grown used to the daily reports.

Maybe its just not public enough.

Consider that we have lost many more people in less than a year than we lost in the entire Vietnam war.

Where is the outrage?

Virus Rages, Trump Golfs

 Well we are setting new and ominous records with Covid 19 while the current President fiddles about.

That didn't end well for Nero and we already know a change is coming.

The fact that so many don't seem to take the virus seriously is related to a number of facts.

First we have the politics of it all.

Was shutting down the economy really necessary?  Its hard to say.  It did seem to help in the spring but you can never know the alternative.  Maybe had we been a country that could follow the rules we could have avoided it?

One country that tried that, Sweden, didn't avoid the virus but didn't seem to suffer worse than its neighbors.

The countries that seemed to fare the best used masks, contact tracing and isolation of infected.

Ultimately that is probably the safest course, if our citizens would follow it.

It such a contagious disease it has to be strict adherence.

That simply doesn't seem part of our DNA in this country.

Time to Restore America

 All the differences being highlighted between Progressives and Moderates are really not very important.  It mostly has to do with the speed of change, not the change itself.  

What we would like is for America to clean itself up.  We want to leave our children and grand children the opportunity to grow up in an America that they can be as proud of as the one we did.

I grew up believing how this country was the world leader and while as I got older I realized we had problems both overseas and at home it never occurred to me that we were the villain's.

Some of our corporations were purely interested in profit and the chase for the almighty dollar led them to do some things that weren't right like promote bad products or hide defects, I didn't blame America, I blamed greedy corporations.

We then let money take over the political process and it led to political corruption.

We need to restore the values America stood for.

Clean up politics, restore civility and common goals.

Clean up the environment, our descendants deserve a clean world.

Clean up social justice, no one should be oppressed over the color of their skin or their beliefs.

Clean up our finances, we need to leave a clean balance sheet.

Clean up our health care system, everyone should get excellent care when needed.

Clean up our electoral system, don't suppress voters and get rid of undemocratic institutions.

Clean up our foreign entanglements, we should be a force for good, not oppression or assassinations.

Clean up our educational system, everyone should have the opportunity to excel.

Its pretty simple, make America Good again and it will be great.  .Some of these items might take some time to achieve but they are worth it.

Lies Lies Lies

 There are so many lies being told on the right because it has been a successful strategy for them.

Even the real media responds to the continued lies giving them a hint of credibility.

We have more than one right wing media outlet that lives off of nothing but lies.

Those who accept the lie about fake news are faced with a crisis of doubt.

It continues because it has been successful and it is successful because as famously said, when they go low we go high.

Well unfortunately too many Americans go low.

How we bring honesty and decency back is the question.

Killer Bees or Murder Wasps?

 Some people want America to be a Christian White country. They don't see the need for diversity and don't like change.

Others want America to be inclusive and take advantage of the gifts and talents of all the people in the world.

The first group is in decline mostly because of demographics.  Still if history is any indicator the people viewed as problems for them today may be them in the future.

We have seen this before as Eastern Europeans, Southern Europeans and at one point the Irish were viewed as disruptive.

It almost seems silly today.

Now we see an influx of Latinos from Central America and Asians.  Those that came here years ago have generally assimilated.  Even though many of them came here as refugees fleeing a brutal regime they don't particularly have special concern for other populations fleeing harsh conditions.

I say special concern because obviously they are not all the same.

The Acronym WASP may become inaccurate as the number of White Anglo Saxon Protestants become less white, less Anglo Saxon and less protestant, but the ideas will continue.

Its what always happens.

Moderates Compromise for America

 As we await the transition on January 20 I see story after story about how either the left or the right is going to prevent or protest Biden's picks.

Well he is a moderate and most of his picks will be moderates too.  Now he is a left of center moderate so we will see a move to universal health care, a fairer tax system for the middle class, climate and environmental regulations and a move towards more social programs and less military ones.

Will any of this be extreme?

No and it shouldn't be.

We just had four year of radical nationalism where the country regressed from improving social programs and hurt health care, hurt the climate and gave billionaires a nice tax break.

The way a democracy should work is that the majority of the country prevails in what they want.

Unfortunately we have become way too partisan.

No one seems to understand the concept of compromise and negotiation where the outcome is not radical simply what is best for America.

Maybe we can relearn that?

Lies and Treason?

 The main issue we have with our elections is how the system allows minority parties to have excessive representation.

Yes we were formed as the United States, not the United People so the constitution spreads power by state rather than population.

The Senate is the least Democratic part of the Government, at least considering voter representation.

A senator in a big state like California represents more people the both senators from 40 states.

In fact he/she represents more people than are in the lowest ten states population wise, who get to elect 20 senators.

It clearly isn't something we are going to fix since it would require the small states to give up a tremendous amount of power they now have.

There are no significant amounts of fraudulent voting and clearly the issues with uneven representation far outweigh any that might exist.

The attacks on the recent election are odd considering that in 2016 we elected someone who lost the popular vote by millions but managed to win the electoral college.  I've seen his supporters act like he was somehow victimized which indicates a level of blind loyalty that has no real place in a democracy.

Unfortunately the trends in America don't look good for the continuing of our democracy, if we can even call it that.  We now question the very basis of it when we question the integrity of the officials running it.

Its treasonous and dangerous and the public needs to realize this.

Sadly it doesn't.

Encore

 Watching the predicted winter outbreak of Covid 19 while so many in this country have become convinced its not even a real disease is driving home the point about repeating history.

The Spanish Flu ravaged the world almost 100 years ago in much the same way.  Eventually we developed herd immunity and it passed from an extremely deadly disease to just a deadly disease.

It lives on in various mutations and we accept the flu as simply an inconvenience mostly, unless of course it kills you.

Covid 10 is deadlier but it still spares most of its victims inflicting them with symptoms or in some cases not really.  It kills a fair number but still in the low percentages and it kills our weakest members generally.

It ravaged us for a while and then seemed to quiet down as the weather improved and we ventured out where infection is less likely.  Scientists warned us that it would come back in the fall, even stronger and it has.

Still our health has been politicized as our current President tried to convince us it wasn't something to worry about.

Too many believed him and so here we are.

Even where he is not believed we see Covid fatigue where people are just tired of the restrictions.

The numbers are not convincing people and apparently even getting it and dying from it are not always persuasive.

Its real, its deadly but we are doomed to repeat stupid mistakes because we are us.

Society

 When you look at America today there just seem to be a lot of people who feel that they've been wronged.

This seems to be fired up by certain news media that simply wants to get customers.

I gather the culprit is either the Government or Society as a whole in most cases.

We have of course people who have a legitimate complaint because they have in fact been discriminated because of something like race, sexual preference or age.  Of course this is more a societal problem that is going to be hard to fix.

Can the Government even fix it?  Probably not, it requires long held societal beliefs to change.  It has gotten better or at least less overt in many cases.

This brings us to the privileged white people, many of whom don't know they are privileged feeling oppressed by help given to the historically oppressed.  If you don't get into a school it probably isn't because you are white.

Any actual evaluation shows that white people fare better in almost everything in this country, as a group.

The historical trends show that more white children grow up in better circumstances than most black children and that impacts the rest of your life in many cases.

Consider this for a second.  A poor white child growing up next to a poor black child and both of them strive to be successes.  If they were to get the same grades, take the same courses, go to the same schools and graduate college, buy nice suits and go on job interviews, only one of them will remain identifiable just because of the color of his skin.  

It is generally not an advantage.

Thanksgiving

 Thanksgiving is a day that allows us to appreciate the good things we have.

2020 has not been a very good year for many of us and far too many have died because of the ineffective actions of our Government.

We are seeing a change there and clearly its something the majority wanted.

Considering the virus, being alive and healthy is probably the number one thing to be thankful for.

So many have lost people they loved and unfortunately the coming months may be the worse yet.

We will of course get past this, we as a species have faced many such pestilences in the past, but we need to prepare for the next one.

Still if you are healthy and your family be thankful and enjoy the day.

Next year is almost certainly going to be better.

The Bully Puppet

Twenty-one hundred died the other day from the Trump virus. 

It is the legacy of his administration.

Not a border wall he never really built, not new trade agreements that didn't really change much, not his foreign dalliances that led to a greater nuclear threat in North Korea and Iran while turning Afghanistan back to the opium trading, women suppressing Taliban.

Perhaps something will come out of his Supreme Court appointees, but nothing is certain there.  

The two things he will be remembered for is the deadly virus he failed to adequately address and his ornery nature and tweets.

He really is almost all bluster and very little substance and the bluster was pretty effective in the phony world of Washington.

It also appeals to a certain part of the populations that fails like they are on the outside and are happy to see insiders taken down a notch or two.

However ultimately it changes nothing and accomplishes nothing.

Like most schoolyard bullies, he can't actually stand up to anyone.

Lies and Treason

 Well after an unreasonable delay the GSA director finally relased the transition money.  We treat these people like doing what they should is commendable.

We have elections and we honor them.

To do what the Trumpidiot has been doing is actually an attack on America.

He knows the elections was fine and his continued waste of time and effort to convince Americans and the courts otherwise is attacking one of our most important institutions.

It didn't succeed in the courts but apparently a certain number of his supporters actually believe the electin was rigged.

Without any proof by the way.

Further certain right wing media has taken on the cause and propagated it.

This is an attack on the States, the elected officials and our Constitution.

Very few of them are actually stupid or crazy enough to believe what they contend.

What if they had succeeded?  They would have destroyed our democracy.

This is not OK and it should not be forgotten.

Free speech is not the issue, treason is.

Its A Public Duty

 I keep reading reports about how some of the people dying of Covid-19 deny to the very end that the disease is real.  I don't know if that is dedication or gullibility.

The question I have for these people, mostly Trump supporters, is why is there hero so interested in the vaccine for this hoax?

I am a firm believer in individual liberty, however that has limitations.  You can't fire a gun if someone is in the way. Similarly, not wearing a mask is fine until you come in contact with other people.

Those other people have rights to, equal to your own.  You can't go around infecting them so either you stay alone of wear a mask in public.

You may be selfish and entitled but this is a real disease.  Public health takes priority.

Your logic would allow nudists to stroll around anywhere they want.  They don't even pose a threat to anyone.

Silver Lining

Well I see that Trump supporters in Georgia are threatening to boycott the senatorial elections if they don't switch the electoral votes to Trump.

Something good may still come out of all this, although they are probably just lying.

Its sort of what they do as followers of the most lying President ever.

He might be in the running for person.

Still the whole thing is getting more Alice through the looking glass every day.

Not sure he can keep his smile while he fades away though.

Time will tell.

Really?

 Our biggest loser ever doesn't seem to accept that fact.

His failure to act honorably isn't new or the fact that he is tell lies is no suprise.

Still "intelligent" people who joined the Republican cult seem to be going along.

The facts are clear but what is even worse is that the allegation is so obviously made up as to be ridiculous.

Most States have significant Republican presence in Government, in fact most of the swing states have majority Republican legislatures. 

So for this wide spead conspiracy to work, they all would have to be in on it or be fools.

Further, in most states the people who count the votes have representatives from both parties participate.

So all of those people would have to be involved.

Finally the major media would all have to suppress any investigative reporter trying to make a name for himself.  

It is not credible or sensible.

Yet a majority of Republicans seem to believe it.

Really?

REALLY?

Some Thoughts

People are normally worried about how their actions impact politics.  Analysts are.

When people protested for Black Lives Matter they did it because it allowed them to express their outrage.  Some used it as an opportunity to loot and destroy property and while that was a small number of the total, they were able, with the help of some media to poison the water so to speak.

Did this help or hurt electing sympathetic candidates?  Probably it hurt overall but I think that is a difficult question.

If you look at the election results there is a fair amount of hand wringing over how the Democrats underachieved.  Yes we held on to the House and still have a chance at the Senate (slim but possible) and won the Presidential election fairly easily in the popular vote and by a decisive marging in the electoral college.  Still the polls indicated a blue wave which didn't materialize.

Once again the pundits will spend the next four years analyzing that but the election got a large turnout, to some extent thanks to mail in ballots.  While I believe many traditional Republicans likely voted for Biden they didn't abandon their party on the rest of the ticket.  

Each race is based on local factors and there is some evidence that too much national involvement is not a good thing and causes a reaction.  All politics are local and being attacked at the National level may backfire since it increases name recognition and the spite factor.

We have in this country strong divisions and some of that is more cultural than political.  The liberal establishment is viewed as a enemy in much of the country since they are changing America.  Some of the vote for Trump in 2016 and this year was to show them who's boss!  

Address issues Not Fallacies

 The election is over although we are still seeing desperate court filings and unfortunately an ongoing dis-information campaign that seems designed to raise money.

We still have other problems which need attention.

The virus is almost unchecked in many parts of the country and while it appears vaccines are close we have the winter and spring to contend with.  Precautions need to be taken and it will always ultimately require individuals to take precautions.  Those who don't are public health hazards (also put themselves at risk but that's fine) and should be dealt with.

We are so odd sometimes.  A sign that says no shoes no service in beach areas is OK but a sign saying masks are required are not?  

The virus is at crises levels but climate change may have already passed that point.  It is not going to be easy to reverse and undo the damage already done.  It will be harder if the Senate remains uncooperative.

We also are seeing articles highlighting potential dissension among Democrats.  That is nothing new but these really need to play out in real life before anyone panics.

Iran and North Korea are unchecked and two of the biggest blunders of the last administration.  

The lame duck has decided to hibernate and encourage actions that are almost embarrassing in the courts.  

His lack of action is not surprising but we Americans suffer.

Americans Will Believe Almost Anything

 Over the years I have become more and more disenchanted with the state of Americans in general.

This is primarily related to their ability to understand simple concepts.

Early in my professional career I was working on some advertising contracts for Military recruitment.  The thing  that surprised me was that the contract stipulated that the ads had to be at the third grade reading level.  Well you are recruiting young men and it was explained that while many of them could read at higher levels than that many could not and they were a rich source for the recruiters.  I don't know what reading level they use now but I'm sure its not higher.

Of course many companies and even utilities added a college requirement, just some college in many cases.  I was told they did this because high schools were unreliable measures, some just passed everyone but performing in college was a better indicator.

As the years passed I had reason to look at college catalogs and realized that they all included remedial courses for reading and math that were required if you couldn't get a high enough score on entrance exams.  I just don't remember these existing in my college days, although they might have.

We have seen more and more of our fellow citizens buy into theories that really make no sense at all.  We have people thinking vaccines cause autism because of one crackpot scientist.  We believe that our rather ineffectual pubic servants are able to get together to form a complex conspiracy that actually runs things.

Do we still have people who think OJ was innocent?  

UFOs have managed to avoid all our high tech detection devices or their presence is covered up by our Government for some reason.  Before the Internet these sort of crazy stories were relegated to certain supermarket tabloids that were not in fact accurate.

I don't know if we are getting stupider over time or if our educational systems are at fault.  Our programs to equalize education may have simply leveled them off at the least common denominator.  no child left behind might really be no child can excel.

I have conversations with some people now where they buy into lies that are simply spread by media with no compunction.  The people spreading the lies almost certainly know better, but they get good ratings and make money.  Hell, the people buying into this stuff are an advertising gold mine.

Their gullibility quotient is off the charts unlike their reading level.

Simple People

There are certain things people tell children that are actually lies.

We tell them there is this elf who at the end of the year judges if they have been good or bad and brings them rewards.

We also tell them about a fairy who takes their baby teeth and leaves a reward.

There's also a bunny who once a year likes to bring candy and treats in the spring.

As children get older they "grow" out of these myths when they ae told they are not true or figure it out.

Still there is an inherent gullibility that stays with many of us which is evidenced by all sorts of superstitions and beliefs that last into adulthood in many cases.

A certain percentage of the population has recently taken to believing in conspiracy theories, such as the moon landing was faked or we have aliens at an Air Force base.

We can now add the massive voter fraud conspiracy.

It isn't there, it never was yet we seem to have millions who just believe it.

Of course this is being repeared over and over again by the President on the internet and repeated by his loyalists in the media, at least some of them.

With no other evidence at all, they just believe it.  I wonder if they ever got the word on Santa?

Whose Reality?

 It is amazing how we have peole viewing the same thing in completely different ways.  On one hand some people view things meant to protect them as Big Brother trying to run their lives.

Take financial reform.  Now this seems simple enough don't make bad loans guaranteed by the Government.  This of course leads to less people getting loans.  The people denied the loans don't see that as a good policy.  They see it as a way to keep them down.

Someone is keeping a lot of people down.  They have been told so by a New York neer do well real estate developer who comes across as one of them, although he never has been.

The "Deep State" is at fault and he is the savior.  Of course his efforts seem to benefit his friends mostly who be almost any account would represent "The Man".

Still didn't you see that tremendous tax cut!  Well it wasn't that much for you but his friends did a lot better.  Further yours is going to expire and theirs isn't but you might have got enough for a new applicane if you were lucky.  It was financed with deficit money but don't worry the new jobs will make up for it.  The jobs are coming, just trust me.

Its the same spiel that has worked for centuries.  

Sadly as silly as it seems, many simply believe this stuff.  If you argue with them you are the one out of touch.  You don't think it can last but there are plenty of countries that show it certainly can.

Look at how close the last electin was after four years of lies and failure to deliver.

Modern Know Nothings

 One of the questions that probably will never be answered is whether Trump is a cause or an effect.

Clearly he touched upon a certain current in the American political landscape that promotes what seems to be a authoritarian agenda, although it pretends to be about liberty.

One could argue that they are fighting big Government although there is very little evidence of that.  They seem to want to disenfranchise anyone who doesn't look like them.

We had a previous movement that was very similar in the 1800 called the know-nothing movement.  It is a bit of a historical footnote but maybe we need to understand it a bit better.

It was primarily opposed to immigration, especially at that time the immigration of Irish Catholics who were going to destroy our way of life.

Sound a bit familiar?

These immigrants were taking American jobs and serving as agents of the pope who was going to take over America.

The Irish were mostly coming because of the potato famine.

Of course now it is Mexicans or other Hispanics who threten our way of life.

The know nothings of the 1800s ran a candidate for President but lost. 

The point is that we have an ongoing problem in this country which has been long recognized in real estate, where the person moving in doesn't want future changes.  Of course the irony is that he/she is a change to what was there.

How long Trump will remain their leader after January is an open question.  His interest may fade especially if he gets distracted and he is easily distracted.

I guess he will milk every cent he can from them first.

Stop Counting its Over!

 I was watching the news about the protests planned in DC today and one of the Trump supporters was asked by a newsperson why did all the major networks and media think Biden won the election.  Her answer was that just because people believe a lie doesn't make it true.

Well exactly but she is believing the greatest liar of our time and traveled to DC to support his lie.

I find it a bit ironic.

I also wonder what they thinnk marching to stop the counting is going to do since the counting shows Biden won and is effectively over.

I think they are convinced that people who voted by mail are not legitimate.

Still its going to be a sunny if chilly day and they get to walk.  Unfortunately they also seem anti-mask, guess they think that's another lie they don't believe.

I think the counter protesters should agree with stoping the counting.

Biden has already won.

The Future is Coming

The issue that hurts Democrats a lot is the changing demographics of Government and the way people think about the future.  

There is a lot of underlying racism in America but not just the kind where you actively disseminate.  There are many people in this country who have problems thinking about a future America where whites are not dominant.

Of course the demographics show this is going to happen and while the projections are that non-Hispanic whites will be a minority in about 25 years.

The issue with this is that non-Hispanic part.  Of course being Asian or Black isn't really an issue, its just the way the numbers are portrayed.

For those who envisions a Norman Rockville idea of America, this seems troublesome.  Of course most of those people, or at least a good percentage of them won't still be around.

This "fear" that America is being invaded and destroyed is actually not a new one.  In fact if you consider the way it is phrased, non-English people seized the majority long ago.

It is not actually a problem, simply a statistic.  Still it is part of the white supremacist's credo and when you hear them chanting about how they won't be replaced they are referring to this statistic.

They are not going to be replaced simply ignored eventually.  In 25 years if you are still alive will possibly still be an issue but the non-whites aren't going to gang up on the whites.  

They will be playing Golf with the at the club.

Polls and Elections

 There is going to be a ton of analysis about this election, like there always is.

The polls showed some things that led to certain expectations.  Some didn't happen and others were a bit closer than expected.

While not to the extent predicted, the polls did generally get the presidential election right.  In both Texas and Florida they seemed off on predictions about Latino voting.

When all is said and done the eventual electoral colllege vote is going to be in the predicted range.

While the popular vote is pretty lopsided it is a little below the predicted level.

The biggest disappointments are in the down ballot races and the only conclusion I can come to is that we had more split ballots this year than usual.  More republicans who couldn't vote for Trump still supported the rest of the slate.

It should be noted, as the old saying points out, all politics are local.  So in each race the reasons for the outcome could simply be locl reasons.  

What is always important to remember is that polls are based on statistics.  You sample a few thousand people and extrapolate to millions.  In order to do that you make a lot of mathematical assumptions.  Assumptions don't vote, people do.  

When you have a candidate who is untraditional and divisive, I think it is very had to get those assumptions correct.  

Pollsters are effectively excellent mathematicians but people aren't as predictable as numbers are.

Shananigans

 What we see happening now is the impact of a demagogue who has loyal followers and no sense of history or decency.

The election result is in and its not going to change.

What we are seeing are a series of meaningless lawsuits designed to drag the process out and go to a scenario where the election results are tossed.

This lawsuit strategy is not new to Trump, he has used it frequently and still uses it to hide his tax returns.

Unless there is actually something to make a case on it won't delay the results but its a bit despicable.

It is harmful t the country from the sense that it aims to delay the peaceful transition of power and might set back the new administration somewhat.

Of course what did we expect from a failed New York real estate developer who dodged the draft, sexually abused women, cheated on all of his wives, and is unable to tell the truth?

The Deplorable Factor

 When you consider why the last two presdential elections were somewhat missed by the pollsters I believe they fail to take into account the Trump effect.  

He claimed frequently last time that he was bringing people to the party that otherwise would not be there.  Now there are two types that are somewhat ignored by pollsters.  First the actual white supremacists' who often are not easily reachable by pollsters.  These are not shy trump supporters, more like hard to reach trump supporters.  The addition of a black women vice presidential candidate energized this group to show up and vote.

Another group that get miscounted are what might be described as shy trump supporters.  These are people, generally men, who are afraid to say publicly who they support.  Possibly they live with a more progressive wife who sees trump for the misogynist pig that he is.  He can agree with her in public (including polls) but we do have secret ballots.

What is undetermined is whether these voters will support regular republicans if Trump isn't a factor.

In 2018 when he waan't on the ballot many of them didn't care enough to vote.

Of course as we saw this year, unlike 2016 he brings out plenty of voters who detest him as well.

Still I think 2018 is a better measure of the results if we don't have the trump factor.

Will republicans continue to espouse his beliefs is a big question.

That remains to be seen.

More Democracy and Faster

 In four years we wil be doing this again and there is a chance, whatever it may be that we will have to deal with orange head again.

The odds of that are what they are and lots could happen but if he keeps tweeting he will still his followers.

However he may have other issues to deal with.

We should try to fix the electoral process, not becasuse it gives wrong results but because it could be a lot faster.

The States that don't precess mail in ballots until the day of the election should change that.

Early voting should be encouraged and made easier.

I would be in favor of an on-line voting system but I realize that would possibly have too many people convinced there would be fraud.

Of course the election should be based on the national popular vote, not this electoral college system that was designed to protect slavery.  There are ways to do that but it isn't goiing to just happen.

You have to want democracty which many really don't.

Time to Get Back to America, Land of the Free

The current president has entered lame duck status.

It fits.

The point however is to ignore him as much as possible.

There are, let me call them real republicans and then there are people who simply like Trump.

They take different positions from Democrats on certain issues, but generally they are not lets say overly racist or white supremacists'. They probably are somewhat but they manage to suppress the darkest aspects of it.

However they are willing to tolerate the extremists in order to get some policies they want.

\Some are anti abortion for religious reasons others are anti-immigrant because they have been convinced they cost them money (studies show otherwise).

Some of the things they believe in, like smaller government requires an underlying belief that helping others is an individual choice and not a societal one.

Then there are the ones that are properly considered deplorable, not because they supported Trump but because they espouse beliefs that are misogynistic, racist and a few other isms.

In general they don't care about the other issues except immigration.

They think minorities are going to replace them and instead of trying to have more children they want to suppress them.  

There are valid predictions that in a certain period of time the number of "white" people will be exceeded by the number of "brown" people.  However, as is easily observable your origin is very instructive of anything.  We have a number of Republican senators from Hispanic backgrounds who are every bit as racist as their white counterparts.  

Assuming the rest of the dog whistle republicans slow down, these people will soon lose interest in things like tax rates or deficit reduction.

Make the Call!

If you have been following the election there is only one logical conclusion, Biden has won.

The result was called by Decision Desk but the major networks are not following suit.

However while there is still a mathematical chance, nearly non-existent but still there, they are waiting.  however everyone who isn't blinded by partisanship, knows the outcome.

The lead in Pennsylvania is growing larger and larger and there is no real possibility that votes will be found to turn it around.  

Similarly Nevada is clearly decided even if they count slowly.

Georgia is also pretty clear although it is possibly the one most likely to reverse.

Arizona has been called by two of the major players and it looks like they were right (the Math is clear).

What is even more significant is that the cominations for a Biden victory at this point are multiple while there is no real path for Trump.

Its time that the networks call the obvious and stop being afraid of being called fake news.

Not calling the obvious is as fake as it gets.

 

Everyone Needs to Breathe

 The talking Pumpkin went on national TV and made allegations of voter fraud without any actual proof.

Apparently he doesn't trust local Republicans who have been observing the process and would prefer sending in his Proud Boys with guns to make sure things go his way.

They aren't and since he can see how the count and math are going we aren't going to see the Sequel, Pumpkin Head II.

For the next few weeks we will see him squirming about filing legal challenges left and far right but we all know the vote was fair and the count honest.

Well I guess some don't believe that but the deep internet conspiracies will continue to claim nefarious doiings.

In this world we rely on honest people to do their job.

This cynicism is probably the bane of this generation while racism dominates older white Americans..

I have high expectations that the next administration can bring some sanity back.

We all need a dose of it.

Count, Of Course

 It is customary in this country that votes are counted by or in front of people from both of the major parties.  Legal votes are votes cast on or before election day by citizens.  When they arrive and get countered varies by state but after election day no one can vote.

So for an elected official to say stop the voting is meaningless.  It has stopped.  If you appoint someone to destroy the postal service you probably shouldn't complain about its performance.  The votes have to arrive, be examined and get counted.

This election will come to an end, maybe today, but the legal wrangling's may continue, although none of them seem likely to impact anything significant.  It certainly looks like we have elected a new president and the old one is refusing to accept it gracefully.

Well being the toddler he is, that's no surprise.

When the election is over states should look at their procedures and pass laws to use successful practices from other states.  Lets make this process better while its fresh in our minds.

Election Blues

 Well now we wait while all the votes are counted.  The states we are waiting on are no real surprise since they were targeted from the beginning.

There are also archaic laws to deal with and we already know that the process will be challenged and probably delayed by court challenges.

Pennsylvania is going to take awhile, since they couldn't start to process mail in ballots until election day itself.  Election day was consumed by dealing with the in person voters.

Right now the election is still very much up for grabs as because of the method of processing votes, the mail in ballots are generally processed last.

It doesn't have to be this way but unfortunately it is and for now we just have to wait.

Its likely, although not certain, that the northern states will turn blue and maybe even Georgia.

If so Biden will win.  If not we have another four years of tweetstormer.

Election Day

 Its election day although so many votes have already been cast or mailed that it is more like counting day.

It is of course posssible in our system that the candidate with the most votes will not win.

it is also possible that it may take longer than usual to determine a winner.

Voting should be convenient and easy for all.

We can clearly see that not allciriazens are treated the same.

We should be able to do better.

Like Upset Toddlers

 I've seen things that just seemed stupid to me but the last weekend it seems that some Trump supporters decided to be disruptive and block traffic or harass a Biden Campaign bus.

Now some of this is protected by free speech although the potential damage in Texas is not but are they doing it to demonstrate how boorish they can be?

If they are going for name recognition, I think its not needed.  If they want to parade in cars or boats or even on foot, that's fine.  However jamming up traffic and causing havoc isn't going to win support for their cause.

Maybe its an attempt to suppress voters trying to demonstrate that they can cause issues on Election day?

Its not going to have any real impact.

Its sort of like the fact that the rallies draw people.  Big rallies are hardly as effective as a television ad in reaching voters.  

Just a place for the misinformed to gather and hear more disinformation.

 

Its Not a Hoax

People were asked to wear masks in public and social distance.  Failure to do those simple things would result in additional virus deaths.

We have reached new levels, worse than we had previously, at least nationally.  

It didn't fade away or become harmless, it is raging across the states that didn't believe they were at risk.

I sometimes wonder if we, as a country, have lost common sense?

We have lost respect for science even in our Government.  Scientists aren't making these things up.

Sometimes the latest evidence changes a previous theory.  However that is not as common as some would like you to believe.  It is possible that newly discovered evidence may tell us that there used to be water on the Moon, we are not going to find that Climate Change is not caused by man.  One is at best speculative and distant and the other is all around us.

Wear a mask, wash your hands, stay socially distanced and stay away from large groups for both your safety and the safety of those you love.

Its not hard and the alternative can be deadly.

Play Dirty?

 It's pretty clear that Trump and Republicans just want to win anyway possible, even if it mean disenfranchising America citizens over technicalities.

We saw this behavior back in 2000 in Florida and in the end it turned out to be successful.

In that election they fought over hanging chads while in the one comin up it is going to be about disallowing perfectly good ballots over technicalities.

The one most likely to have some success is challenging signatures.  Most people sign their name, sometimes years ago, when they register, but over time some changes happen.

Usually not significant but all indicators are that Republicans is close states are preparing to challenge as many signatures as they can for voters from certain counties which lean Democratic.  if they were really interested in preventing fraud they wouldn't pick specific counties.

They will of course find ballots to question and some will get thrown out.  They are hoping this might swing a swing state.

It is an assault on democracy.

Polls and Voting

 How accurate are polls?  Generally they can be fairly accurate but there are lots of variables that need to be accounted for.  It would be pretty easy to set up a poll that would show a distorted result if the people you query are not representative of the population you are predicting.

Even some of the most respected polls have sample sizes of a few thousand people.  The is supposed to be representative of a population over 300 million.  They actually end up being fairly accurate but there is risk in the results.  Stilll polls do not determine elections, they are just predictors.

At this point about half of all the ballots the will be cast have already been cast.  This is still going to result in long lines on election day, in some cases deliberately as a way to discourage voting.  Being able to cast your ballot safely and quickly should be the standard for asll Americans.  National elections should be run nationally.  Unfortunately this basec obligation and right of Americans is too often jeopardized for political purposes.  

Voting rights should be non-partisan but unfortunately we still see some racism involved where certain white American would prefer that only their vote get counted.  It doesn't help that we have on of the political parties attempting to suppress voting under various pretenses.

It needs to be fixed and hopefully after this election it will be addressed.   

Deliver the Mail On Time and More

 There is no outrage over the media ignoring the Hunter Biden story because there is no story to ignore simply lies and innuendos.

The reason some can't drop it is because they parlayed the non story about Hillary Clinton's e-mails successfully last time.

Of course there are lots of illegal or barely legal going ons in Trumpland as we have obstruction of justice, conflicts of interest, illegal use of Government resources for private purposes etc. etc.

Who cares?

This election is about what is good for America, not a few rich white men who are unable to get the mail delivered on time.

America needs to address the dangers of the Coronavirus.

America needs to address the issue of Climate Change.

America needs to address the inability to pass meaningful legislation.

America needs a rational immigration policy.

America needs to restore it position as a beacon of hope to the world.

America needs to increase economic prosperity to create jobs while having fair trade policies.

America needs to protect the rights of all Americans equally and fairly.

America needs to protect our social programs.

America needs to assure every American has access to world class health care.

America needs to reform our justice system, including the courts.

We need to end the Trump ineptitude and reinstitute effective Government.

Science and Common Sense

 With 6 days to go until the election we have an unprecedented number of early votes already cast.

What is going to happen on election day will of courese determine if we are going to continue this anti-science and pro-wealth agenda or give the Government back to the people.

In order to combat climate change we have lost too much time already.

Further the new jobs and infrastructure improvements would be a significant boost to the economy.

Oil and gas will not go away overnight and there may be a place for them in a carbon neutral future, but rising sea levels, extreme and frequent storms and long climate events are not going to stop without significant action.

Soe of it is already irreversible.

This election is not about a short term change of policy, its about the long term health of the planet.

It is also about the day to day lives of Americans threatened by the coronavirus.

There are better ways to deal with it that protect people and don't destroy the economy.

Vote for Science and Common Sense, ignor the hate.

Lies and Hypocrisy, Election Strategy

 The hypocrisy of many of the Republican senators can be demonstrated by news clips where they go on record that they shouldn't vote on a Supreme Court justice close to an election.  Well documented lying is all too common today.

The argument is made by some that all politicians lie.  Often they like to point to statements which contain some exaggeration or othe misstatement.  Most people I know except that mistakes will happen and at times everyone might misstate a fact about how many did something or when something happened  

The ies I'm talking about are when you deliberately say something you know is false.  Getting caught in a lie was a big deal at one time.  Of course we used to have an electorate that cared about honesty and decency.

I imagine some will dispute this, generally by making false allegations, but in today's politics Republicans have become the champion hypocrites and liars.  This is largely because of their leader but it has become more endemic to the party.

It is also encourage by the FOX lie network which is able to get away with fairly constant propagand.

Still I have faith in the American people who I believe have recognized what's going on.

Unfortunately I don't see it changing.  Its likely going t escalate after this election.

Its their only move nowadays.

Young Progressives

 In 2016 about 130 million votes were cast for president.  About 90 million eligible voters didn't vote.

Most agree that the non-voters are greater in the younger and minority groups.  So one of the issues is clear, get these folks to vote.

Of course this is something the Democrats are more interested in.

Those groups tend to be more progressive than the others and if they all voted we would see some significant changes in our country.

You can see the impact if you simply look at what is happening in our urban areas, at least their residential parts.

I grew up in the Bronx and it was, like the other Burroughs mostly a place for working people with neighborhoods that tended to represent particular nationalities .

We had Irish Neighborhoods, Italian neighborhoods, Puerto Rican neighborhoods, German and others.

It was heavily Democratic, They were often Union members, veterans, who got jobs in the various small manufacturing and retail related jobs, like warehousing, available to them.  They were generally religious and family people although there were plenty of underlying issues there.

They supported the traditional Democratic party and once elected to a seat you were pretty safe.

It still as Democratic as ever and the people there still work in similar jobs, but the children of these people are starting to vote and they are much more progressive.  So we see them turning out and voting for fellow progressives.

This trend is expanding and it bodes badly for the Republican party.

They are getting energized about climate change, health care, social equality and wealth inequality.

They are voting and I think we will see some historic results.

 

GIG Economy

We had a society where workers could expect a decent wage and benefits as well as a pension that was nearly adequate.

Most of these were the result of unions fighting for the worker.

A lot of these jobs were located in the "rustbelt" but cheaper labor was available.

So first we saw a move to the Sunbelt followed by a move to cheaper overseas locations.

You became responnsible for your own pension and health benefits to a great extent if you could even retain employee status.

Modern economic thought treats employees as an asset not a person.

It led to a surplus of labor, especially unskilled labor.

If you want to be an entrepreneur because you have an idea that you believe in, it is a thrill a minute.

If you become one because the job you do was defined that way and you are left on your own, not so great.

We have moved to the gig economy where you don't have a job, you have a gig with now security or benefits to speak of.

Good luck with that.

Energy Subsidies

 Of course he will continue to lie and misrepresent until the election and probably after.  Everyone knows who I'm talking about.

It really is unlikely to make a difference unless every reputable pollster is simply lying.

The latest lie he is making is aimed at some oil producing states.

Drilling and fracking are at best necessary evils until we can transition to renewable options.

However the American taxpayer should not be subsidizing these climate damaging activities.

To the extent we subsidize it should be geared to climate friendly industries like Solar and Wind.

We need to build those industries here because they represent potentially millions of jobs and will help reduce climate change.

So should we subsidize wealthy oil men to drill and frack or clean energy?

I prefer the clean stuff. 

To address his concern about Wind.

Maybe we could find a way to save some birds?  

We have been supporting the vultures.

He Gave them the Virus I Guess?

 Trump has an unusual knowledge of American history, the little he exhibits.

When he claims to have done more for black people since President Lincoln you have two problems.

While many Presidents have done more for black people he doesn't seem aware of it.

Grant pushed for the passage of the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution which guaranteed former slaves the same rights as all citizens.  Trump is trying to suppress those rights.

During the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations we saw the civil rights movement and the national guard was called up to protect the protestors, not subdue them as Trump wanted to.

Truman significantly desegregated the Military providing significant opportunities.

Johnson passed the civil rights act and voting rights act which Trump is interested in gutting.

While other president's have done things these stand out to the casual observer of major actions.

Trump is trying to suppress black votes, eliminate housing opportunities and generally remove services from the cities they live in by failing to help fund them (taxes are way down due to the virus),

Even his opportunity zones primarily helped developers more than ordinary citizens.

Has he done more?  Has he done anything?

Voting issues

 It would make sense for someone who wanted to cheat in an election to try to attack the actual voting system.  Everybody knows that and everyone tries to prevent it.

By all accounts this has been extremely effective.

You may hear one of the candidates talk about it like it actually exists but the amount of fraudulent voting is miniscule.  

Issues with the voters registered, such as not removing voters who die or move from the rolls is not fraudulent voting unless someone votes.  Some of our systems might have trouble keeping up with things like that but that is simply bookkeeping unless a vote gets cast.

If applications or blank ballots get sent to the wrong address, it is still not a fraudulent vote unless someone tries to vote.

The real issue in this country is voter suppression or uncounted legitimate votes.

Our systems tend to reject ballots is anything is questionable.  We also know that some want to make voting as difficult as possible to discourage certain legal voters from trying.

Asking your followers to provide a threatening presence at a polling place isn't fraudulent butit is designed to suppress some voting.

Every citizen should be able to vote without being harassed.  

We should all want that..

Terrible Cover Administration

 At his most recent rallies Trump is saying that only he can fix the problems he caused?

America needs him to get out of the Coronavirus mess he created and to recover from his economic decline.

It reminds me of an old joke when a person accused of killing both his parents throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.

That didn't work and Trumps argument is only going to work with his true believers.

I imagine there are less of them this time around since they have seen him in action.

America is a great and strong country which has not become greater or stronger over the last four years.

Have you noticed his themes are like a greatest hits record, not his though.

He is like a cover band trying to revive successful past platforms.

Stronger Defense, has been near the top of the charts frequently.

Law and Order, another popular one although he hasn't provided much.

Pro life, a fairly popular number.

Jobs, this has played well for both parties.

Etc. Etc.

His record in all these areas is questionable but he plays them anyways.

The only reliable thing he has done is provide credibility to the racists, misogynist, homophobes and conspiracy nuts.  Is that enough to win?

Vote and Stay Vigilent

 Whatever happens in the coming election, we need our Democracy to continue.

I don't think we are about to have a coup, I don't think any institutions would let it happen, but possibly that was the way many others felt right before they had it happen in their country.

So we need to be vigilent.

The people running the election are not part of some conspiracy planning to skew the results.

Strangely the people who are part of a conspiracy are those claiming to fight the hidden one.

They mostly ended up their by chance, although there are some military people who always wanted to be in the military.  I don't think they planned to take over the country.

The current level of lying is reaching new heights.  In his last rally he said Biden would end Christmas.

Hail Mary Time?

Its pretty clear to everyone that for Trump to pull out a victory he needs something of a miracle.

In Football we call a last second heave to try to score a touchdown a hail mary but we can also call it pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

Four years ago it was provided by the FBI when they announced they had found more e-mails.

They really hadn't, it was merely copies kept by her aide, but it provided enough impetus for the victory.

The victory was by the narrowest of margins and there were other factors involved such as complacency and the failure to woo working men.

However it seems pretty certain that without the last minute FBI announcement it wouldn't have mattered.

The attempts to manufacture a siilar scandal are falling woefully short.

Most hail Mary's fail.

Completing two in a row would be real magic.

 

Shock News

 The fact that so many of Trump's supporters seem to think he is the one honest man and everybody else is dishonest and lying is just inexplicable.

Nothing about him implies honesty but like Rupert Murdoch and various shock jocks he has learned that Americans, at least some of them, prefer to be entertained than informed.

When Fox news represented the opposition party, they strongly embraced shock value to get ratings.

Years ago I had a house guess who asked me to put it on for him because he gleefully wanted to see what they were talking about that day.  That's sort of the point, they present wild theories with little proof and argue its the news the real news shows are suppressing.

This is why the fake news claims of our President resonate with some, Fox went there first complaining about the liberal news and media.

One can argue how they define liberal but its not necessarily even real postions.

I don't watch Fox ever but I have seen it at airports and other places where they consistently accuse moderates of being radical leftists.

Someone who is in favor of reasonable gun restrictions is coming to take all your guns any day now.

As we watch their favorite son run up the national debt, the leftists are somehow to blame.

In a movie about a particular shock jock they were trying to understand his ratings.  People who agreed with him watched about an hour mostly to see what he was going to say next.

Those who didn't agree with him watched even longer for the same reason.

This is the Fox media plan.  The audience can't handle the truth, just get them to watch.

Glass Houses all Over

 It wouldn't be that hard to imagine a future where things we do today and consider normal are viewed as barbaric and possibly evil.

Take the use of fossil fuels.  If climate change causes the type of damage it probably will and billions of people are forced to relocate causing mass diruption, famine and possibly war, the burning of fossil fuels might be viewed the way we view slavery today or the exploitation of native Americans..

Maybe not, its hard to predict.

Still we should know better, we have been warned and yet most of us do very little about it.

Judging the past is tricky.  Morality isn't a relative thing, or is it?

There is significant evidence that ancient people engaged in human sacrifice at times.  Certainly we know the Aztecs did.

It was common not so long ago to have public executions which were sort of a carnival event.  

How many of us can't wait to view a You-Tube video of something gruesome?  

A few years ago some terrorists beheaded an American journalist and released the video/

It went viral.

The point is that human nature isn't really that great without some control.  In most revolutions the old regime is executed.  

Yet we like to condemn people from the past for things they didn't even consider wrong.

Pot and kettle maybe?

Lies and a Fireside Chat

There was no debate last night but we did have the two candidates conduct town halls.  

Trumps was mostly fictions that were easily spotted and almost constant.

Biden's were honest but a little too convoluted.

Trump was in fact disclosed as the crazy uncle we mostly ignore buying into conspiracy theories and listening to Fox propaganda.  You know the guy you tell, just because its on the internet it isn't true.

Biden on the other hand was a bit dull but he was basically giving honest answers to the questions.  Of course he had a few minor slips but nothing that mattered much.

Perhaps the most controversial thing is whether he will want to expand the number of Supreme Court Justices which he say he will announce after the current seat is decided.  Clearly if Republicans come to their senses and don't push Barret through he isn't likely to.  If they do he probably will.  They ahve a chance to honor our traditions but if they don't why should he.  

Of course controversy loves Trump and on almost every issue he took disproven positions or told lies.

He keeps the fact checkers very busy but just to clarify a few, Mexico isn't paying for the wall, Masks are good, the economy wasn't the greatest ever and he isn't as popular as Jesus.

And many more.

Fake Gold

 We live in a world where some people can take any two items and spin into a conspiracy of deep dark secrets.

Its almost like a party game.

If it turn out that a number of people from an office like to eat at the same restaurant and pne of those people have been falsely accused of sex trafficing we can weave a full scale case of a sex trafficing ring centered at that restaurant.

Who can prove what they were talking about?  Well it could have been anything so why not some illegal trafficking.  Wait young people have been seen going into that very same restaurant,  Must be agents or victims of that very ring that never existed in the first place.  In fact sometimes a group of people from the same office would arrive all at once and other times they would come and go separately. How mysterious!

The fact that people from an office would frequent a nearby restaurant must have dire overtones.

Can you prove it didn't?

Conspiracies theories aren't really hard to come up with and at time hard to disprove.

There is a principle called Occam's Razor which tells us to use the simplest explanation because it is probably the correct one.

People just having lunch at a local popular place is pretty simple.

However the Rapunzel network can spin fake gold out of any straw you give them.

Have any of their conspiracies ever held up?  I can't think of one.

Truth Justice and the American Way of Life

 When did we decide that everybody was either a liberal or a conservative?

While the Democratic party has been the more liberal of the two, both parties tended to be moderate with a spectrum of political beliefs included.

There were more liberal parts of the country and more conservative parts but much of the country was actually just in the middle.

So to win in a liberal state like say New York, you had to be at worst a moderate.  So someone like Nelson Rockefeller was elected as a Republican Governor multiple times but probably couldn't survive in the party today.

Similarly we had conservative Democrats, often from the South who were a significant factor in the Party.

Americans often voted based on factors that were hardly ideological.  

Now of course you are either a die hard Trump supporter or a Radical leftist.

At least that's what certain media like Fox news likes to preach.

I consider myself an American who wants what's best for this country.  I think  I support the American way of life and am pretty much married to the the old catchphrase used by a TV superhero.

Truth, Justice, and the American Way of life.

Church and State are Separate

 One of the biggest problems in this country is that we act like God is part of it.

Whether or not God exists is something worth discussing but it is pretty clear that if he does he isn't particularly associated with America.

Why would he be?

It raises the question that tend to be ignored, why if he is the creator of everyone would he favor one person over another, let alone an entire country?

The country was founded by men who were in large part deists and generally Christian.  They were almost certainly aware of the problem of a state run religion since the Church of England was in fact just that.

So they mandated a separation and freedom of religion.  This is one of the fundamental principles of this country.

It was never perfect, religion creeped into certain areas, but if you are familiar with the scriptures you should know to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and render unto God the things that are God's.  

Religion is not something that the state should favor.  In fact the tax exemptions we grant them seem inappropriate.  Simply put no person should be told what religion to practice or if they should practice any and no person should try to tell the Government what it should do because of their religion.

You can vote your conscience but don't think its your right to impose it on others.

Columbus, Daring Exploiter

 Columbus has become a controversial figure.

Since he has been long dead the change has to do with our society not his.

He was clearly an exploiter interested in getting rich and able to convince the Spanish monarchs to finance an expedition with the promise of great profit.  It was never an altruistic voyage, but it also wasn't designed as an evil one.

Once he stumbled upon what we now call America, his actions were both ruthless and exploitative.  He was there to make money any way he could.

What we celebrated him for was the bravery he displayed in making the voyage, which exposed him to significant danger.  That hasn't changed.

He is now under attack for exploiting the natives who he infected, enslaved and treated ruthlessly.

While his behavior was not unusual for his time it was clearly brutal and hardly Christian.

The bravery he exhibited is real and his voyage led to the exploitation of the Americas.

Most of the exploitation was actually done by others following him.

Recognize human nature and celebrate the best of it.