CPAC?? Conservative??

 Well they are having CPAC in Orlando which is probably appropriate since they have virtual reality rides there.

Years ago CPAC was a meeting of Conservatives, not just Republicans.  Not all Republicans were conservative and not all Conservative were Republican. Now people use the terms almost interchangeably.

A term which in todays world is a bit of an oxymoron was the intellectual Conservatives who espoused theory and principle about how Conservatism was the answer.  You had intellectuals like William Buckley who were actually able to make a rational argument about the benefits of conservatism.

Now the keynote is going to be Donald Trump who is unable to do the basic math of the last election.

Its turned into a bit of a Trump rally and how many of those supporters are actually conservative.  

At one time it stood for fiscal responsibility, conservatism and individual freedom.

Now its about ignoring the constitution, opposing abortion and promoting gun culture.

Sad.

Public Opinion is now Cancel Culture

 If you disapprove of something someone did you have the right to boycott them.  If enough people agree with your position it could have a devastating impact on the person or business.  It may be our truest form of democracy since it actually matters.

In recent years this has been called cancel culture and condemned by some.  It used to just be public opinion. What changed is the use of social media to call for cancelling somebody, often over a claim about past actions.  Take the recent allegation about the New York Governor.  The allegations may or may not be true but there are already calls on Social media to cancel him.  The next election will tell.

There are two thngs about cancel culture that are a bit worrisome.  First, because of the Internet and social media, you can be pretty sure that your past will come out.  So if you are or plan to be a public figure in the future or not, don't post stupid or improper things to the Internet, unless you just don't care.

If you need to sell yourself or a product, realize that negative social media could hurt you.  You can't undo things from the past but you can try to mitigate, or not.

That is the other factor in cancel culture, some of the most vociferous people have little actual impact.  People need followers on social media to be an influencer which is a way to actually make some money.  So they will dig and report every juicy tidbit they can find.  

It might matter or it might not.  It depends on how much you need the public to support you.  I get the impression that too much attention is paid to things like this.

If you get cancelled it means people won't support you because of something you did.  That is their right, its called Democracy. 

Fix Our Problems!

Has it gotten so boring that the press has to speculate who will be the 2024 Republican nominee?  I guess Covid19, the economy and the climate is so boring.

Someone will be the nominee and predicting who now is pretty useless.

What is so much more relevant is improving Democracy in this country and making sure our citizens are healthy and prosperous with a clean planet for future generations.

Clearly the goals of the new administration were going to have some opposition, that's expected, but the public needs to know what is being proposed and what isn't.

Lets focus on America and not the future of a lying insurrectionist.  

The Do Nothings

 Republicans oppose raising the minimum wage because they will reduce jobs.  Of course there is no evidence that this really happens statistically so they resort to individual affidavits.

Some business owners, not wanting to pay a fair wage will sign statements about how they won't be able to employ as many people if the wage increases.  They will also state how their customers can't afford to pay more for their product.

Statistics don't bear that out but it could be true for some areas and businesses.  Probably not but could be.

What of course is left unsaid is that the people earning the higher wage will have more money to spend, maybe on these very products.

Americans who work should be able to afford to live in this country.  Creeping up from $7 to $15 gradually is long overdue.  

I could envision certain exceptions for certain people in certain businesses, but that is something that would be worked out.

Its called legislation but since the Republicans are refusing to participate its probably not happening like that.

Is their slogan, vote Republican, we promise to do nothing for Workers!

Have They Read the Entrails?

 There seems to be a strategy nowadays to claim something happened, such as massive voter fraud, but presenting no evidence.  The evidence is clear and convincing and will be released at the right time.

Of course there is no right time because the evidence doesn't exist, at least not real evidence.

Take some allegations that Antifa was actually the ones behind the Capitol attack.  There was no legitimate evidence and what was presented in one of our talk fiascos shows were pictures on an Antifa site of know Fascists.  That would be like claiming the most wanted people were actually FBI agents because they are displayed on FBI websites.

Unfortunately you need to be careful about who you trust.  Moat of the cable news people are not actually reporters of fact.  They often tie together wistful wishes into full blown theories.  Its essentially fiction novellas with all imaginary facts pointing to the same outcome.

The ancients used to look at the insides of certain animals to foretell the future.

Think it was more dependable than a FOX.

Moving Forward

 The Republicans are upset about a Cabinet Nominee because she tweeted bad things about some of them.

Really?

While everyone needs to understand that what they do on the internet never goes away, tweets about about the opposition were quite common in the last four years.

I'm not saying she is the most qualified person ever nominated but from what I can tell she is certainly qualified to lead the Office of Management and Budget which is mostly administrative, although of course every agency gets involved in current policies.

We are currently seeing the result of Biden's competence as he proceeds to do the country's business and stay out of  politics.

Still we constantly get the sense that the Republicans are looking for a fight and won't stop until they get one.

They may get one eventually but I think the public is watching them flounder.

Work for the future or play politics, the choice is theirs.

Press is Bored

The pundits have decided that certain things are likely to happen and are looking for indicators that they were right.  

They probably weren't but because of these expectations they will pursue the themes.

 Since Trump was such a large media presence he is at the heart of some of these predictions.

For example the civil war in the Republican party.  Is it real?  What will be the impact.?

Similarly, with Trump defeated the alliance in the Democratic party between moderates and progressives will fall apart.  

Meanwhile we see policies designed to help America and Americans without internal civil wars.  Yes, some representatives oppose certain parts of the proposed legislation but that's the nature of politics and compromise.

What I find interesting is that after a period with Trump we see the media convinced that Biden cna't handle multiple issues at once.

He can and he is.

After one month we don't have the constant turmoil we had with the last guy.

The Press misses that.

Cancel Culture or Choice?

 You hear people, mostly "conservatives" complaining about cancel culture.  That this is, according to them is the act of finding onw actin or maybe more, and ignoring the rest of a persons accomplishments.

For example if a founding father or other notable from the past owned slaves or slaughtered Native Americans, we shouldn't use that as a reason to tarnish their other deeds.

Of course the question becomes on that is measured very subjectively.  Should we honor Christopher Columbus who did lead a voyage of discovery (for profit) and ended up treating the natives despicably?

We certainly ignored the second part of most of the past but should we keep ignoring it and honoring him now.  Why not acknowledge both?

The argument about honoring past heroes and villains aside, what about people alive today?

Should one horrific action or remark result in a person being blacklisted?  Some people point to this as McCarthyism  and condemn it.  Of course the crusade of anti-communism went too far, similar to the witch hunts, but had it been more legitimate was it bad?

Wouldn't we want to root out foreign agents infiltrating our society and Government agencies?

What about people who express unpopular views?  For those that promoted the lies about voter fraud in the last election, should they be held accountable?  

Its actually pretty simple.  If you want me to buy a pillow, don't go around being incendiary about a big lie.  If you don't realize its a lie well that makes me question your intelligence.  If you are doing it to curry favor with a particular group, well that's your right but I have the right to ignore your product.  If your product is you as an entertainer good luck with that.

It not cancelling, it personal choice.

Fear of the Stranger

 Racism is essentially a fear of strangers.

Its been a survival instinct over the ages, not trusting people ou didn't know or customs you don't understand.

One of the things that is true is that to real foreigners, Americans are identifiable whether they are Black or White because we share a common culture.  

But internally we see the two cultures as being distinct.

This is a big country but there are clear differences between Black and White culture.  Of course there are differences between most nationalities but unfortunately Black people are always recognizable.

Its time to just accept the common values and ignore the external.

Not easy to do and in many parts of this country there is a fear that goes back a ways, that the Blacks might take over.  

Since the Whites there know how badly they treated them, they are deathly afraid of that.  

Cant Deliver Honor Or Honesty so Cancun.

 When you privatize a utility like the power grid it gets a little cheaper.  This isn't some magical process.  They cut costs by cutting things they don't expect to need.

As we;ve seen some of those thngs include back up capacity being on the national grid and emeggency preparedness.

Both the Government and private industry do risk analysis to determine how much to spend on what.  Government is worried about consequences of failure while private industry is worried about profit.  

If something is low risk, ant this cold wave was low risk until it happened, you don't spend funds on it.  It cuts into profits.  You really can't fault them, you should have known that when you awarded them the contract.  Of course they will point the finger at the culprits.  The culprit were the extreme cold and profit motivation.

Its hard to fault them for not being prepared the first time something happens.  It was devastating to many people and a number died.  They are looking to blame someone else and in Texas, environmentalists and renewable energy are easy targets.

I would say follow the money.  Privatizing the grid created profits and with profits comes temptation.  Someone made out like a bandit.

Take a look at anyone fleeing to Mexico.

Trivial and Trivia

 When you listen to talk radio or watch talking heads on TV you do it to be entertained or maybe just to pass some time.  They the entertainers do it to make money.  They make money by having more listeners and to get listeners they find a formula that works, or else they disappear.

One of our popular formats in radio and now on some Cable networks is to be outraged by some actions committed by the enemy of their choice.  In the scheme of things there are plenty of opportunities to provide fodder for your show and sometimes the other outlets pick one for you.

You can pick and choose and provide as much slant as you need to.  No one is generally fact checking you and when you enter the realm of the unknown all holds are off.

Take any one of the Clinton scandels that lined many pockets with cash exploiting it.  The fact that Bill was promiscuous was sort of a know secret and when he actually got caught, so to speak, lying about an encounter in the oval office, all restraint was off.  

Then his wife was secretary of State during Benghazi.  This disaster was at least in some part attributable to her although clearly she didn't want it to happen.  Over the course of our history there have been many worse attacks but this rose to the level of pearl harbor in some accounts.

One of those exploiters has now passed away and I guess some will miss him.  Oddly he had many personal flaws which were more fodder for his broadcast.

Some will miss him but I actually don't care one way or the other.  Surely his place will be filled and the nonsense will continue.  

He will fade into a bit of trivia.

Censures???

 When you run for office as a member of a political party you are expected to pursue their platform policies.  Of course if you win you represent all the people in your district and to a certain extent you have made promises of integrity and commitment to the Constitution of both your State and the United States.

Watching the positions being taken by various State Republican parties, censuring elected members for voting their conscience is confusing..

First, I doubt the party platform includes a directive to ignore the facts in a criminal prosecution and vote the party line.  If it does it is reprehensible.

Those people censuring people who voted their conscience should be censured for being un-American.

You can disagree with how someone votes in a trial I certainly didn't agree the the OJ verdict as an example, but I never thought the jurors did anything wrong.  

Since the former President may very well be found guilty in various criminal and civil proceedings I'm not sure what these censures indicate?

He isn't running for office now, he isn't in office now and he clearly spent a lot of time lying to the American people about the election results.

A majority of Senators and Congressman and I think the public believes he incited an insurrection against the Government of the United States of America.

If you think he didn't you are clearly in the minority.

Climate IS an Emergency

 Not every weather event is caused by climate change although ever one of them is influenced by it.

As we increase the amount of carbon in the atmosphere we retain more solar energy. That energy translate generally into heat but it manifests itself in other ways.

So we always had things like hurricanes and tornadoes and we still do.  The causes are generally the same and the results similar.

No one of them is caused by climate change but every one of them has more energy to draw upon which is likely to increase their power.

What the real impact of climate change will be is rising sea levels which has the potential to be truly catastophic.

We are seeing an administration that trusts the science and is starting to take positive steps.

Some say it might be too late, but since the issue is ongoing, we might not be able to avoid all impacts, we can't give up.

If we do we are inviting massive disruption.  

Washington's Birthday/President's Day

 Over the years we tend to change things to accommodate various factions.  This is now called President's day by most but the holiday was originally designed to celebrate George Washington, the "father" of our country.

He beat the British with the help of the French and gave us an independent country.  I remember an analysis that pointed out he lost more battles than he won, not sure that is true or if it matters, because he persevered and got the victories he needed.

He was greatly admired in his time and I think that might be the most important thing.

Some looking back want to attack him for owning slaves.  Owning slaves is wrong but it was a common practice.  You might not be able to forgive or forget but he wasn't evil for his time.

Are heroic deeds negated because of an individuals moral failings?  

The deeds are done regardless.  I don't see any problem with pointing out people failings in the past but its not like that really matters.

Washington held his army and the country together and allowed for what it became.  He was a man of his times and not a saint.

If you love this country even if you don't like some things in it, he should be celebrated.

Buld the Future Together

 The Republican party isn't the first victim of New York real estate but it really needs to decide what it wants to do next.

It can work for Americans and pursue conservative values or it can continue to pusue the overthrow of our democracy?

America is a large rich country which is capable of supporting its population easily.  Yet we have isues of wealth distribution and poverty, homelessness, illness and more.

If you believe the answer to these problems are individuals who will devise profitable solutions, you are a Republican.  If you believe the solutions require Government intervention to assure fairness you are a Democrat.

Both sides support America and are equally patriotic.

Many social issue are also in the mix but economics are the fundamental difference.

Let's work together to solve problems, not to create them.

Politics is Tricky

 I doesn't seem likely that the ex-President will be convicted even though he is clearly guilty of inciting the entire thing.

The Republican Senators who vote to convict, if any, will face some repercussions but I would like to believe that they will have a clear conscience.  Those who vote to acquit might not.

What will happen over the next few years is hard to determine, but the current state of divisiveness may fade  It may not.

The politicians need to vote based on their conscience, not their politics.  Politics is variable, conscience isn't.

I would like to think that all Americans can look at the facts, the real ones and draw a conclusion.

Rebuttal?

 Well we have seen the devastating evidence of what he said and what happened and now we get something that probably doesn't matter.  

The vote was probably predetermined and there is no argument that can be made that these thins weren't said or the events didn't happen.  The only argument is that the rhetoric and the insurrection are not connected in the sense that the rhetoric was not meant to be taken literally.

Weak argument but since the verdict was pre-determined it will sort of work.

Probably should do it quickly and get it over with.

True Believers

 Despite the horrifying footage and Trump's clear involvement, there will not be enough votes to convict in the Senate, not because they don't think he di it but because the politics don't support it.

Still, for anyone who was thinking this was not as bad as portrayed, it was probably worse.

I don't know what percentage of his supporters would do something like this but a tiny percentage of a large number is still a lot of people.

I don't want to over characterize these people but most of them spend an excess of time on the internet, 

Its not hard to find these groups and if you go on one of their sites and disagree, you will see the vitriol.  Of course engaging with them is not a winning proposition, they tend to repeat certain catch phrases which even if disproven they believe.

Its essentially a cult which is effectively a religion where your beliefs are driven by faith and not logic.

The underlying people who benefit are either true believers or scam artists.  Its very hard to tell the difference.

Some will have their faith shaken by these events, others will hang on.

The followers are still out there for the next time.

Tar and Feathers Would Be Better

 Statistics are funny in that the past is not predictive.  Consider this.  If you toss a coin into the air a thousand times it will generally come up head half the time.  Wo you might think that if it has come up tails 100 time in a row the next toss has to be heads?

Not at all, it is only the same 50% if the coin isn't rigged.

The coin doesn't care about the prior tosses and the next one is brand new.

This would seem to contradict the fact that in the long term the number of each instance should end up abut the same (heads or tails).  It doesn't, but it seems like it should.

Of course this sort of logic can seem persuasive so in the recent election we saw a lot of trash statistics thrown out to prove nothing really.

For instance some places had voted for the presidential winner most of the time but not this time.  This means absolutely nothing.

Still a lot of nonsense data is still out there nd is still believed by some.  

Think snake oil salesman.  The product is phony and they jst want your money or your vote.  

Tar and feathers anyone?

Flat Earth and Other Fantasies

 The problem with America today isn't that we don't disagree on what we want as much as we can't agree on basic facts.

I myself wouldn't want a bunch of Communist pedophiles running the Government.  I also am not in favor of violent racist Nazis either.  

The fact that we have characterized people in those ways is problematic.

We do have a lot of racism in this country but most people have managed to keep it from being so blatant.

We also have some pedophiles, but they also keep it hidden.  I doubt they belong to any particular political party and I'm also not sure they are also white slavers.

I like to think that neither party considers either of these people as "good" people but recently the Republicans are making me wonder.

I mean Democrats want you to wear a mask and pass Universal health care while Republicans are convince there is a conspiracy that somehow stole the election.

More than half of them believe that, apparently, per the polls.

Are the polls trustworthy?  Well is anything?  We don't seem to trust any media anymore except the ones that agree with us.

We live in a world where people think the Moon landing was staged, Student killings were staged, and other things are in question.

When you can't agree on basic facts or occurrences, what can you agree on? Is the world really flat?

Society

 Societies are social by their very nature and working for the common good is socialist.

There are periods where the majority of a population is oppressed by a minority who is normally better armed and aided by internal belief that says they have a "divine" right to rule and an external threat that justifies the need for them to protect us.

Its a model that worked in many places and is the definition of trickle down. 

Of course trickle down is deceptive since what is trickling down are things created by your hard work.

The need to create a society where everybody is equal and able to keep more of what they create is evident.

The goal of a society should be the betterment of its members.  All of its members.

Why Believe Lies?

 I suppose the Social Scientists will have to answer this question but the difference between the lies being believed and factual evidence is blatant.

All of the accusations being made were groundless and I suppose you could believe against all common sense that there is a cabal of white slaving, pedophiles, controlling things and working closely with the Chinese.  Its just not true.

So to believe that you have to ignore all the factual information.  Maybe we have reached a stage in this country where reality has been supplanted by fantasy?

While we should maintain free speech, it is over all the solution, content providers need to be held to higher standards.  If you are reporting things that are clearly false or imaginary, you need to add a warning.  Its not enough to let insane people say insane thins unlabeled.

I'm not a big fan of lawsuits but it does seem like when Dominion and Smartmatic decided to sue we saw the far right media get religion.  

I'm also not a big fan of whatever cancel culture is, but if some lunatic is promoting attacks on our constitution using money from a product he/she sells, don't buy it.  

Just cancel their income, its actually part of free speech.

Bipartisan/

Bipartisan support  ultimately means that the two sies share common goals.  For example during World War 2 everyone agreed that we need to defeat the Japanese and Germany.  There may have been some differences in tactics but the ultimate goal was the same.

Unfortunately I think the parties have a fundamental difference nowadays.  Take the Pandemic.  During the last Administration it was not considered a grave threat, called a hoax, something that would just disappear and a ploy to make them look bad.  Some of those beliefs persist and if you don't accept the need to eliminate it you will not be part of a bipartisan effort.

Similarly, on our basic Democracy you either believe that all Americans are entitled to vote and should be allowed to in a fairly easy manner.  However one party is sure that this is bad for them so they want to restrict certain voters so they can continue to get elected.  They have raised election fraud and illegal voters when none of that happens significantly.  It is hard to be bipartisan when one side favors Democracy and the other doesn't.

We can never have a bipartisan policy on Abortion but we could have one on the right of every individual to be in control of their own body.  Or maybe not.

Americans are more in agreement than not, but there is a lot of lying and disinformation attempting to muddy the waters.  Those attempting to preserve their privileges resist real change.  

The system has worked for them if not everybody.  Why be fair?

Political Parties

 Well our Qanon congresswoman from Georgia had been striped of her committees.  Shamefully the Republican conference was unable to do this so it required a vote of the entire house.

The news is filled with descriptions of how the Republican party is in disarray after its shift to Trump and where that leaves them without him.  For a while at least he still influences the white nationalists and that is enough to make him dangerous in primaries, especially in "safe" Republican districts.  

If this doesn't represent the views of the majority of Republicans the party will likely continue to shrink and a replacement party will emerge.  I predict we may see a schism where traditional Republican exert themselves and either take back the primaries or run as third arty candidates.  

In democracies this won't be the first time and if you look at the history of our country you can see switches in policy between the current parties.  At one time Republicans were the party that supported the end of slavery and led reconstruction.  Democrats were the party of Southern Whites until the Republicans convinced them that Democrats were two liberal for them.

Now we may see that as education levels and racism recede in those states, maybe the Democrats are just the right degree of liberal.

People change and parties will follow, or disappear.

Digging up Dirt?

 There are times in everybody's life when they have dug themselves into a hole they can't get out of, at least metaphorically.  The best  thing to do is to admit your mistakes, apologize and hopefully move on.  The other alternative is to keep digging.

Clearly our Republican friends have decided to do the later.

There was no massive election fraud, there was no reason to support the coup or try to overturn the electoral college and end up inciting a riot that attacked the Capitol leading to some deaths.  They could admit these things and work to help the country heal from the pandemic, which many of them also lied about.  

It looked for a brief minute they might do the right thing but then I guess they found some more shovels.

So they dig deeper looking for a way out.

I can't imagine they will find one.

Unfortunately many of them are in "safe" districts although you have to wonder if they are pushing the limits on that.

Its only two years until there will be a reckoning and the American people aren't that forgetful?

Are we?

Build for the Future, not the Past

 We are seeing the fulfilling of promises and the restoration of the Government that most Americans actually want.

The last Administration was more interested in undoing the progress we had made in the last few decades by both parties to move into the future.  It was sort of a nostalgic ride into a past that never was but where some favored American got very wealthy.

I think some Republicans actually believe in trickle down economics and supply side economics but both are discredited.

Trickle down only works for a very few and supply side is in fact voodoo economics.

The way they interpret it is a bit like a ponzi scheme which suffers from the fact that neither the supply side or the demand side can be extended to infinity.

The theory is fundamentally that reduce prices on the supply side which will increase demand which will further reduce prices and further increase demand etc. etc.

The additional economic activity will result in more and more jobs and a booming economy.

Trouble is that companies are more interested in profit than expanding jobs so the reduced cost from tax breaks ends up as profit, not jobs.

In order to keep demand up you see companies offering upgraded products with new feature using less workers overall as robotics and outsourcing reduce costs.

Think about cell phones, a relatively new market where dominance has gone to the high priced high featured smart phones not to the cheap low feature ones that cost a lot less.

Many of the early entrants have disappeared and while other phones are available only two really dominate.  No supply side magic there. 

Lies, Lies, Lies

 Its sort of easy to understand why many Americans can be led to believe lies.  They are lied to constantly.  A lot of the lying is done by people who promote not lying as a central creed, religion.  Without getting into specifics much of what they teach is based on sources that are not close to what they pretend they are.  Many churches simply exist to get you to donate or tithe with the promise of future benefit. (you don't need organized religion to follow the scriptures) 

Ignoring Religion companies lie to you as much as they can to get your to buy their product.  Not really very different from what the organized churches do.  We do place some limits on this but not many.  

Of course there is the day to day lying we run into but we have to talk about politicians and lying.  Once again they have to sell themselves and we have moved into total new areas as we have expanded media to have whole networks lying in support of certain politicians.

We seem to accept politicians lying and accuse both sides of doing it, as if that would make it right.  We seem unable to distinguish normal slips of the tongue from bold faced lies that ae threats to our country.

Recently we saw a lie that the last presidential election was stolen.  It wasn't and no one who looked into it could conclude that.  Yet the lie persisted and is still out there, despite clear evidence it isn't true, its a lie.  In fact we see that after the election Trumps own pollsters showed him how and why he lost.

We have to be more rational.  No one is coming to take your guns away unless you use them to commit a felony.  Immigrants are not coming here to live off our wonderful social programs, they are trying to improve their lives like all the immigrants before them.

There are other big lies that are designed to trick you.  Don't fall for them.

Trojan Horse Proposal?

 Its a bit hard to believe that Republicans are acting in good faith.  Maybe they are and there may be a few changes that can be agreed on, but sadly I fear based on recent history that they will be an all or nothing offer, designed to win political point for trying to be bipartisan but in the end unifying against whatever is agreed to.

This was their strategy 12 years ago dragging out the process, getting concessions and then vaoting against so they can clam they tried but had to oppose the final package.

There is no way to guarantee they vote for what they agree to.  Maybe they will but stripping away things that the progressives want for no support in ght end is a tactic they use.

Moving the stimulus package along quickly with enough to jump start the economy is more important that working with the insurrectionists.