Memorial Day Thoughts

The men and women who gave their lives for this country did not generally want to do that.  They did however accept the risk when they served.  In the movie Patton there is a scene where Patton says the object isn't to die for your country it to make the enemy die for theirs.  Clearly true but everyone knows the risk.

I sometimes wonder if we made a mistake eliminating the draft and going to an all volunteer military.  When I was growing up boys didn't talk about if they would be called but when.  Not everyone was and some did everything they could to avoid it.  Still it was something we knew was there and it certainly gave us an interest in our policies I think is lacking today.

Today is Memorial Day and we need to honor the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice.  They served their country and while not wanting to die were willing to take the chance to preserve our liberty  

Honor them by preserving those rights for all Americans.

Changing the Rules is Easier Than Getting Votes.

 The math is simple, you can win an election by getting more people to vote for you or by keeping people from voting for your opponent.   Its pretty clear that lacking an agenda that appeals to all Americans the Republicans want to limit who can vote to their supporters.

They view this as letting real Americans decide elections and real Americans happen to be, in their minds, white Americans who ran the country for much of our history.

They still do largely, but there are a lot of American citizens who are diverse.  They might be descendents of former slaves or immigrants but they are Americans who should have the right to participate in our Democracy.

Now for various reasons they are less likely to be as established as white voters and might not be as able to interpret the rules as easily.  Further it is also almost certain that their areas will be allocated less money and less voting places.

You can tell yourself that anyone who follows the rules can vote, and to some extent that is true.  It is also true that those who will have the most trouble will be the poorest and least educated among us.

It is a undemocratic and short sided approach that might not even work.  

Even if it doesn't it tells you a lot about their belief in Democracy.

Government Role

What do we need from our Government?

I am a firm believer that Government should take care of the common good while staying our of individuals life as much as possible.

So behavior that doesn't impact others, such as using drugs or having consensual sex shouldn't be a Government concern unless it impacts others.

Think about playing music.  Its fine but once it gets loud enough to disturb your neighbors it becomes an issue.  It would always be better if people simply worked these things out, but sometimes that doesn't work so we need Government intervention.

In modern society we are so intertwined that Government seems to be pervasive. 

Government also provides some people with power and power corrupts.  So its right to be concerned about the people running the Government.  

We need to hold it accountable but we also need to be logical.  Yes, its possible and maybe even likely that Government leaders will use their positions to profit themselves and family but they probably won't turn into monsters who drink blood.  

Some Things Are Still Unknown, So?

 Early mankind looked at the world and really didn't understand much of it.  The fact that the sun seemed to rise every morning and set every evening was clearly something that seemed regular and controlled so it had to be the result of active intervention.

For many of these things which we now understand he invented Gods, in fact you might just think of Gods as the forces of nature in early thinking.

Our history is essentially the history of understanding and controlling these events which at first seemed magical but which are now explainable.  Of course some of us cling to the magical explanation, it is less work and equalizes the playing field in many ways.

In todays world the majority of us prefer science and reality to mystic explanations but those who believe the mystic side are hard to dissuade.  There will probably always be some things we don't understand even when we can observe them.  Some quantum experiments are not explainable but predictable.  

However the unexplainable doesn't negate all the things we can explain.

Similarly a few examples of bad behavior does not mean everybody is bad.  

We unfortunately live in a world where the sensational is more popular than the mundane.  Claiming the world is controlled by a secret society is much more interesting than saying it isn't.  When those who claim it is get the rest of us to prove it isn't its a logic trap.  

Proving a negative is often impossible, especially if you don't trust the people doing the explanation.

Are Things Getting Better?

Comparisons are interesting especially when there are significant events.  For example last year we were in the midst of the pandemic and we had a lot of shut downs going on.

You see some comparisons from people showing the price of gas was less.  You don't see them compare the price or availability of things like Toilet paper.  They shouldn't.

For every bad comparison you can probably find as many good one such as number of unemployment claims.

All of them are distorted by the events that were happening.

Statistics are useful ways to measure whether what we are doing is being successful but they are also easily twisted.  Suppose you have a business and run a promotion to increase sales.  After the promotion you see sales did increase by a significant percentage.  Good. but what if in order to increase sales your incentives caused you to lose money?  Bad, but will they become repeat customers improving you bottom line for years to come?  Well you won't know for a while.

You are hoping for the last outcome but it takes a while to determine that.

That's why in many areas, such as the nation, statistics are deceptive and people rely much more on how they feel about things.  For the last few years, some Americans felt things were going well because of the rhetoric about how we were returning to older values.  Not sure we did any of that and not sure that is even desirable but millions felt good about it.

Many others felt the country was becoming more intolerant and racist and democracy was under attack.  Once again that might not be true but it led to a change in leadership.

Human personalities are different and if you feel change is a threat, you vote against it.  This isn't new and it takes a while to determine if change is good or bad.  One example is the Affordable Care Act.  Many felt it was a step towards socialism and used it to scare people.  Almost everyone is OK with it now although it is still under some attack.

Change takes getting used to.

Bat or Lab Doesn't Change Our Failure to React

 In the world we inhabit we like to argue over issues that in all honesty have no real impact.  Take the origin of the Covid19 Pandemic. Everyone agrees it originated in China but was it a natural cross over  from Bats or did it escape from a lab.

If the later it would be important that the lab institute better controls to prevent any leaks in the future.  Of course they should be exercising extreme caution in any case.  However it wouldn't make much difference to the people who died from it or the millions who caught the virus.

If it originated naturally the results are the same.

Some issues might be worth exploring but they are not confined to China.  It would be naive to think there aren't bio research labs in other countries.  We count on them being secure but we realize they are subject to human error.  There have been horror stories about such events and movies resulting in the destruction of society.  Still even if this was a lab leak our response to it could have been much better.

It is interesting that the Republicans want to find someone else to blame since the response of the prior administration was so bad.  

If it was a leak it happened while they were in charge.  They want the voters to blame China and ignore the failure to deal with the issue.  I think voters know better.

Majority Needs a Voice

 No matter who we elect as President there will be problems.  It is how they react to the problems that matters. The way they react should be a benefit to our country and its people.  We all get to vote, generally, but after the vote we are all equal citizens with rights and responsibilities.

There will still be differences over policies, we always face difficult choices.  Sometimes those differences might be large and other times not so much.  We of course remember that in our history the disagreement over slavery led to war and while it left deep fissures, we all managed to work together and build our modern country.

We are called the United States because we are a bunch of States who United for the common welfare.  That makes us all American, not Iowans or Arizonians or even Texans.  The way our country was conceived the people have the power.  They authorize their State to exercise some of it for them but they authorize the Federal Government to exercise some.  

I believe that if unencumbered by party vast majorities of Americans could agree to some common sense solutions.  Should everyone have access to good health care?  Should all citizens be treated equally under the law?  Should education be available to all?  Should the Government promote religion?

The answers to these questions are mostly no brainers until we see the issues twisted until they are unrecognizable.  

I'm Drinking My Coffee

 I woke up today in this beautiful country with the sun shining and birds singing.  If I didn't read the  news it would seem like everything was wonderful.

now I realize that in many ways I'm pretty fortunate.   First I'm white which allows me the privilege of not being afraid.  I could get in my car and drive anywhere in this country without incident.  If I was pulled over  for a Traffic infraction I would expect it to be an inconvenience, not life threatening. 

Second I have health insurance and I`m relatively secure financially.  I never got Covid19 and I m fully vaccinated.

Then I read the news and i realize how bad things really are.  We seem to be engaged in a battle between good and evil where each side wants to destroy the fabric of this country.  Its pretty hard to decide who is on which side unless they tell you.  One group wants less Government but wants the Government to tell women what they can do with their bodies.  Another group claims to want better democracy but wants to put hurdles in the way people vote.  It seems that the same people who thought Covid was a hoax believe it originated in a lab in China.  Some want to explore for more oil and gas despite all the scientific evidence of climate change.  

We have racism or we don't. (think we do).  We have some people violating the laws of God and of course we have quite a few versions of those laws.  Apparently some people won't go back to work because they get an extra $300 a week in unemployment.  We ahve crumbling infrastructure which needs to be fixed but apparently not all of it.  We need to build the tools we need for our future carbon neutral world or we don't.

All of this seems to go on and on so I stopped reading took by coffee and enjoyed it while I listened to and watched the birds busily taking care of their next generation.  That goes on and on also.

In the News but Not an Issue

 We live in a big country.  Lots of people, lots of places and lots of different opinions.

Most of our institutions do the best job they can but they are run by people who sometimes interpret things in odd ways.  So for example, in one school district they may not follow proper flag etiquette or maybe they don't allow certain symbols on clothing or pins thet consider divisive.

This is really not new, people have been at the helm since they started but what is essentially a very local matter often gets escalated into a national news story.

When it does, it might be interesting or even entertaining but it only represents how the people at that institution reacted to a particular situation unless of course it is a trend of some sort.

So an ultra conservative school bans certain female attire because it distracts the boys might be an issue for that school board but it has very little to do with anyone else, not doing the same thing.  On the other hand a school may decide to ban certain pins from school pictures to promote unity it is still a local issue.

Of course since schools are public institution, these situations can end up in the courts but any decision is hardly ground breaking.  

Sometime the local official is just wrong.  He or she being wrong should be dealt with locally.  It doesn't mean very much at all, although the way the media grabs these stories you might think it does.

We live in a very public age that escalates first and asks questions later.

Power Is Not the Goal

 What I guess the last few years have done to all of us, especially if you are over a certain age is dispel the idea that this country and its people are somehow immune to the power grabs you see in other countries.

We go from election to election and we have winners and losers but we have a peaceful transfer of power and acceptance of the results.

It was one of the things that set us apart, our commitment to our Republic and a free and open election.

Of course we knew that when the country was founded the franchise was restricted to free white male property owners who defined our first 40 years or so.  With the election of Andrew Jackson we saw the Presidency become more democratic.

He was significant in that while by the time he was elected he was wealthy, he didn't start that way.

Our history since then has been the inclusion of Americans of all sexes, all races and all origins.  Until recently when we see a campaign to restrict the votes of certain people.

This was tried before, fairly successfully after reconstruction as black voters faced onerous restrictions.  It seemed like that problem was solved but it is back again.

In addition there has been a concerted effort at the state level to control who gets elected by gerrymandering the districts to favor certain voters.

This attempt led to the last President and when he lost we saw the petulant reaction.

My belief in my fellow Americans is not really shaken but I do think that a certain number is more interested in gaining power than doing good.

Evil for Profit

 The question I ask myself every so often is how many people are actually evil.  

If you are an educated person some things should be obvious to you, such as Climate Change, yet some who should know better still deny it.  It could be self interest like when some scientists continued to defend cigarettes when they knew better because they got paid to do so.  This is evil but it was more evil to be the ones paying them.

Take the big lie about the last election.  Outside of the fact that it shows gullibility in this country may be at an all time high, there have been enough bipartisan reviews to show anyone who cares that there was no widespread voter fraud or changed ballots.  Still some persist in using it for political purposes or to keep audiences watching.

If the fact that they have ulterior motives a mitigating factor or a contributory one?

The evil of the lie is unlikely to benefit anyone long term but it keeps the true believers watching the shows they put on instead of fleeing to a rival who promotes the lie.

Years ago I had a house guest who after dinner wanted to watch Fox news.  He was almost salivating over what new outrageous thing they were going to do.  I didn't know the right channel and he missed his dose of evil ranting that night.  It reminded me of shock radio in that they got as outrageous as they could to bump up the ratings.  Now they have competition with even more outrageousness.

Its a spiral towards big lies and evil for profit.

Good Governance

 The country is starting to return to normal and for the Republicans this is unacceptable.  They want the administration to fail.  They keep trying to raise an issue that works.

They tried the border but while there were some issues that needed to be handled, they were being handled.

We also had the claims about Hunter Biden but no one cared.

As far as Covid goes, they tried every aspect, its a hoax, its a threat, its an attack on civil liberties,its all political and a few others.  Nothing worked really except among their core followers.

The denied the election was legitimate and now they deny they did that.

The Stock market was going to crash but it didn't.  It still goes up and down like it always has but has generally done well under the new administration.

We had an inflation crisis that almost no one noticed last month.  We also had an unemployment crisis.

What we are actually seeing is what I like to call good governance.  As issues arise that need to be dealt with, the administration figures out what to do and does it.

Do we Need More Parties (Political)

 In the United States we have developed a two party system by tradition and with the help of Governmental units.  

While other parties exist the rules pretty much dictate that the two major parties are dominant, and in fact State Governments have passed laws concerning how they choose their candidates.  The other parties, i.e. Liberal, Conservative, Green etc., seldom get a candidate elected.

It doesn't have to be this way and it isn't in most Western parliamentary countries.  Generally you have parties that band together to form a Government.   This allows people who support specific causes to have more say then here, although to some extent we can have party rebels exercising influence.  

So the Green Party in Great Britain can negotiate terms for its support if a party is putting together a Government.  

It also allows for a party to switch allegiances if the terms of that agreement are violated.

In that sense it makes the Government more flexible than ours.

Is it better?  I sort of think it is since extreme positions get muted more effectively driving a more national approach.  Our system is just more immovable, but of course I'm looking at our current state of affairs where stalemate have become the norm.

Enough are dissatisfied that we see talk of forming a third party. Of course we already have more than two parties, so it wouldn't be a third party.  We ahve just learned to ignor the minor parties.

Learning Is Survival

 There are still a significant number of Republicans mostly who say they will never get a vaccine for Covid.

It seems like it has a political aspect but outside of some media talking heads I'm not sure if anyone in the Republican party is pushing this.  It seems like they are doing it to show that the prior President's handling of the crisis wasn't as bad as it was.  Guess the logic here is by not getting the vaccine we will keep the country awash in the virus.

Of course they won't although maybe they can inpact certain parts of it.  I think it is also that if a Democratic president says get a vaccine they just won't. 

The vaccines are working and it would be nice if we achieved herd immunity, having a percentage of obstinate people willing to sacrifice themselves for no reason,

If they are asking for rope to hang themselves, let them buy some.  The good news is that you are either vaccinated or you are not and once vaccinated there is no going back.  So its just a matter of time until they give in as long as we don't re-motivate them by trying to save them from themselves.

Let them learn the hard way.

Did Elvis Die?

We are fast approaching memorial day and the summer yet for some reason much of the country is still obsessed with the last presidential election and of course Covid19.  

 The country is awash is skeptics who don't believe the Government because they have been sold on a list of conspiracy theories and fake news accusations.

The bigger issue isn't that they believed these things originally but that they keep believing them although the proponents haven't actually provided any evidence.  They have provided wild accusations and the promise that everything will be revealed in the future.  

What are they waiting for?

We live in an age where too many people have too much time on their hands. There was a time when people spent most of the waking hours trying to make a living and not trolling the internet..

We always had gullible people in this country and everywhere, but they were tricked by evangelical preachers and snake oil salesmen.  Now they listen to people on cable news or the internet willingly.  

I suppose over time this big lie will fade and we will move on to the next one.

We could always resurrect the one about Elvis.

A Lie by any Other Name will Stink as Bad

 So a lot of comedy explores the absurd.  For example when SNL decided to portray aliens as Coneheads pretending to be from France to cover up their obvious differences it was meant to be and was pretty funny.  Now one expected anyone to think Coneheads was anything except absurd.  Of course no one ever went broke by underestimating the American public so I suspect a cult of people believe in cone head aliens.

I can't decide if the country has gotten more stupid or were we always like this?  Take the silliness over the election results.  First it demonstrates something Hitler and Stalin knew and what George Orville outlined in his book "1984" a lie repeated often enough starts to seem true.

Of course it remains a lie but people are generally more social than confrontational.  Not that there have been many social gatherings lately but if at dinner and someone comments about how Biden actually lost the election, most people avoid the confrontation.  If you do react strongly most of the others will ask you to calm down, the liar skates.

Just because he may have repeated that lie calmly doesn't give it credibility.  Some think it does.

We have free speech in this country which allows for some media to continuously lie for political purposes.  By doing it contentiously they attract viewers.  These viewers start to believe the lies and they spread.

I am pretty convinced we have become more stupid, although the Spanish American War makes me wonder a bit.

Party of No

 If some was to ask me what the Democratic party was trying t do I can list things like fight climate change, provide health coverage, reduce income inequality, fight racism and discrimination, allow woman the freedom to choose, increase educational opportunities by reducing the cost of higher education and various other things.

If asked the same about Republicans they say they want all the same things but without Government involvement.

So the question becomes if the private sector is going to do all those things, why haven't they done it?

I don't want to ignore the States which do have certain programs, but if you look into it, the States controlled by Republicans get more money from the Government than do the States controlled by Democrats/

Federal Taxes Vs. Federal Benefits: How Much Each State Gives and Gets (businessinsider.com)

This suggests and almost proves that the Democratic model seems to work better. Apparently allowing diverse people to feel comfortable in your State unlocks tremendous potential.

Republicans are mostly the party of no nowadays and what is the most logical conclusion is that they are determined to protect the current elite who support them.  To do that they have to convince others they are on their side so they support issues lke Abortion that gets them votes or white supremacy.

There was a time Republicans argued economic, not they argue cancel culture.  

There's a good reason.

Calling Something a Crisis Doesn't Make It One.

 Maybe its because we have so many channels or because we have lost perspective on things, but we have a tendency to call everything a crisis.

Crisis at the border was an increase in people trying to get into this country and an increase in unaccompanied minor.  It might have been a crisis for the migrants but while it was increasd workload this crisis never had much impact on America and American lives.  Not sure what made it a crisis.

We have a crisis at the gas pump because the price of gas is up a few cents. Now a year ago the price dropped precipitously because of the Pandemic shutdown but since the price is up it is nicely withing the historical trend line which indicates we see a price rise as we approach the summer.  Add the pipeline hack and the freeze in Texas and here we are.  Some people in some states apparently got panicked by the local news coverage and go on long lines to get gas.  Now that the pipeline is operating everything should return to normal fairly quickly.  It was a situation, not a crisis.

Some felt we had a voting fraud crisis. If that is/was a crisis it is only because of the reaction to the non-event.  Many states are trying to suppress the "wrong" voters" via convoluted laws.  

Inflation has been deemed a crisis by some because of a one month blip.  Some inflation is good for the economy and I think the Fed traditionally aims for 3%.  One month in the 4% range is not an indicator of hyperinflation and is not a crisis and maybe not even much of a situation.

The list goes on and the only actual crisis facing the world is the one about climate change which is real and already impacting us.  

The New Guillotine

 Its pretty ironic that the group that adopted the mantra of fake news is so enamored of actual fake news.  Completely fake and demonstrably fake information is spread around and believed or at lest accepted.  Based on various reports, the rabid group that believes in things like QAnon or other wild theories that actually say people are being lied to, have their lies accepted.

Now people who actually know better have been cowed into supporting these lies because we have a system where radicals who show up can "primary" people out of existence, the real cancel culture.  Unfortunately because of the divisive nature of our politics, in many places being nominated by the right party is as close to a guarantee to get elected as we can imagine.  So winning the primary is enough and primaries don't get that many voters, so easily won by an organized group.

To avoid a primary you have to appease the mob.  Its a bit like the scenes I imagine from the French revolution where the revolutionary court would convict reactionaries on mere denunciations of past behavior and sentence them to the Guillotine.

Our Primary system is the new Guillotines and it is keeping the sheep in line.

Party loyalty isn't the issue, loyalty to an insane concept about the election is.

Its a shortsighted vision that is likely to come crashing down.

Heroism

 For almost all of us self preservation and the preservation of our family is firmly rooted in our nature.

Its pretty instinctive and automatic.  Beyond that it isn't so certain.

That is why many if not most people hesitate to jump into a situation that involves a stranger being wronged.  I'm fairly sure that many Germans did not agree when the Nazis started to terrorize local Jewish merchants and eventually rounded them up and marched them away.  They didn't however do anything about it for fear of reprisals and the fact that they didn't feel a connection.

I'm also sure some did, and likely paid a price.  The Nazis weren't kind to objectors, even Aryan ones.

There are stories of heroism where people hid or helped Jews escape.  Still it didn't stop the policy.

We had a similar experience in this country during the years slavery was allowed .From the very beginning some saw the slaves as equal human beings who were being oppressed.  These objections didn't stop it but it did help create some escape routes.  Still it remained the law of the land until the civil war inspired its abolition, more as a punishment to rebellious states then anything else.  

Does doing nothing in the face of injustice make you evil?  It generally makes you average.  Heroes are the ones who  take a risk to help those in trouble.  Yes jumping into a lake to save a strange is heroic, but I suspect the jumper expects to live, if they think at all.  Standing u to oppression is not so straightforward.

Don't Let the Lies Go Unchallenged!

 

I've seen a few stories recently about how people in interviews are confronting people spreading big lies about the virus, the last election, cancel culture and the critical race theory.  I think everybody should speak truth to lies.

Too many times we allow liars to frame the discussion by posing a question based on a false assertion.  Much of the time they don't even know what they are arguing about. 

They attack phrases without trying to define them.  For example the best explanation of critical race theory is that there is no such thing as race and we are all the same.  Now the implications of that can be discussed and if that is true differences by "race" are cultural nor biological.  To Republicans this seems to imply that they are arguing blacks are being elevated.  Well to the same status as everyone else.  The part of the theory they don't like is that the differences are the result of racism.  They have told their base it elevates non-whites.  Well saying we are all the same only elevates them if the theory is true.

Call them out as liars and fools.  The more they are exposed the more they will start to wither.  They need to focus on serving America not fighting for racism or big business to everyone else's detriment.

Don't let the lies go unchallenged.  Correct them with facts.  They won't argue on that basis.

Statistics Measure

 Suppose I was to provide two facts that seem unrelated but find that they fluctuate in the same way?  Say that more people die in boating accidents when it is a sunny day.  Did a sunny day cause boat accidents?  well unless it was sun glare, obviously not.

What is more likely is that more people like to boat on sunny days and more people boating most likely results in more people having accidents.  Each accident would of course have its own cause and the perceived correlations is meaningless.

There is a connection of course, the first event a sunny day led to more boating.  Statistics would indicate more boats lead to more accidents.  So there is a correlation, just not a cause and effect.

Statistics can be manipulated in many ways.  They can be useful to prove or at least indicate certain things but can also be manipulated to argue for lies.

Take a use from the last Presidential election where past statistics were used to argue a falsehood.  In past recent elections, Ohio was a good predictor of presidential winners.  This was possibly a good correlation but not a cause and effect.  So when in the last election Ohio went for the loser, his people claimed it indicated voter fraud since it went against its prior trend.  However that trend was always just correlation and never cause and effect.  Populations shift and potentially Ohio's no longer is a good reflection of the nation as a whole.  Essentially it was never a predictor, simply a coincidence.

Statistics measure, and some use them to predict.  However those predictions would be based on flawed logic, even when they worked.  

Getting Gridlock

We are not even halfway through the first year of the Biden term and it seems that more speculation is going on about the next presidential election than anything else.  I don't think the prior President will run again or even be able to although a lot of Republicans are courting his voters.  When I say his voters I mean the deplorable ones that support racist, homophobic and misogynist policies.  Unfortunately their ranks have grown and are big enough to influence primaries especially.

This points to what is possibly the real issue in American politics today.  Most districts are engineered to be easily dominated by one party or the other, meaning win the primary win the election.  So a group, such as white nationalists, or for that matter left wing progressives, can get elected by voting in the primaries.  Too many people simply don't bother waiting for the "real" election.  Unfortunately the real election is often the primary.

This is how we get some of the worst representatives we have ever had.  We used to nominate people who were supported by the party but now it is wide open.  A well organized group can take a primary ousting a moderate for a radical if they can organize a relatively small number of supporters.

Of course maybe I am wrong and we want a radicalized congress that leads to gridlock.  I don't meet too many people in favor of that, but it is what we have had for a while now.

Winning elections seems to be the goal.  Serving the country, not so much.

Benefit More, not Less

If you consider the state of the world in 2021 vs 1921 there is one clear trend, it is demonstrably a more progressive place.  It hasn't been a steady progression, were still faced with the rise of fascism and communism and their atrocities and many countries have regressed for some periods of time, but colonialism is mostly gone, and most of the world now accepts some fundamental human rights.

Rights are difficult to win and hard to hold onto, but over time progressive ideas spread and as they spread they take root.  Why?  Because they are clearly better than the alternative.

Should the benefits of modern society be shared or hoarded by a few?

Should all people have the right to vote freely?

Should opportunity be something for everybody or only a few?

The answers may seem obvious but not so long ago in human history we had a legally privileged elite and everybody else.

We still have an elite and to some extent they are only there because they are rich.

That is progress but more is needed to share the benefits of the technology and science that crafted the modern world.

More Ornery Than Gullible

 What would it take to convince you that the world as you know it was lying to you. So you couldn't trust the media or most everybody  except for a few people who told you about the deception.

I would want to see significant convincing evidence.   I don't think a reality TV star and  an anonymous person pretending to be an insider hiding as a letter.

So why are so many people convinced?  I doubt they are.  They may support some of the agenda but they aren't stupid enough to believe all these lies.

Yes they have issues they would like changed and some of them would be impossible to please, they are just anti everything but do they believe all this crap?  I don't believe many believe much of it.

You have fellow travelers as we used to call them who have one issue that leads them.  Some are so anti-abortion that anyone who takes their side gets their support.  Others are simply white supremacists' who will support anyone who is anti minority.  Others blame the liberal establishment that may or may not exist for their economic and social issues.  I'm sure there are some other groups involved.

I would argue almost none of them, or at least none of their leadership believes most of the lies.  However, they believed that the last guy was on their side (another big lie) and therefore support him.  What might make them happiest is how unhappy this seems to make the people they oppose. 

It would have faded by now except some media keep it going for profit.

They fan the flames is search of viewers and profit.  They need ornery people, it pays.

Some Are Entitled Some Are Not

 First lets be honest, people from all nationalities, religions, race, and any other groups have some people who do bad things.

In some cases its violent, take the colonization of much of the world by Western Powers, in others its the near genocide of people in enemy tribes or nations.

The amount of damage is often related to the amount of wealth and power one of them has.

Look at the destruction that resulted from Nazis in Germany.  

What the Spanish and others did in the Americas was devastating and was mostly deliberate.

Its not like it can be reversed but it should be depicted accurately.

Columbus was hoping to get very rich, and he did, not caring about anyone who might suffer as a result.

Had he actually reached the Indies he would have tried to establish trade for Spain to compete with Portugal.  Instead he stole and ravaged the inhabitants, often with the aid of one tribe against another.

The slave trade was bad but the initial people who captured others were often locals, not western slavers.  

Guilt is plentiful.  

It is also true that disadvantaged people have significant challenges to catch up.  Many people who got to go to good schools in safe neighborhoods with adequate staffing and facilities don't consider this as entitlement.  It is clearly better than the conditions in our poorer towns and ghettos but reallocating money to fix it is reverse discrimination?  

When we saw the great migration north, when southern blacks came to get good paying jobs, the residents fled to the suburbs.  I leave it to the Sociologists to explain the great white expansion of the suburbs as the cities grew darker.

It happened.

Can We Cancel Some People?

 The trouble with cancel culture is that it doesn't seem to work. 

A fair number of people have done outrageous things, like promote an insurrection, lie continuously about the election, claim things like the BLM protests are all riots, that liberals support communism and fascism (they really claim both things) and so on and they don't seem cancelled.

This just points out we never had such a thing, its simply another conservative talking point, much like Antifa.  There are people who identify as Antifa they just aren't a subversive group, more like environmentalists.  Instead of whales they want to save democracy.

We can't even seem to cancel the my pillow guy who seems to continue thanks to Fox news watchers which is the only place he seems to advertise.  Yes there are enough of them to provide him the funds he needs to keep going even if the pillow gives them neck cramps.

In fact the only people that seem to have been hurt by cancel culture are a few liberals who felt guilty and resigned or stopped performing because of a scandal.  It hasn't really worked if you just ignore it, unless of course unless you actually broke a law.

There are a fair number of people who in my opinion should be cancelled and of course I can cancel them out of my world generally by not watching them or supporting them.  We always had this option.

Call it what you will but public opinion has been around a long time..

Cultural Wars or Racism?

 There are a long list of things used as red flags by certain media to inflame the public or are least certain portions of it.  The tactic requires that certain issues tie into an US vs them narrative and them is the enemy.

Now once in a while there might be a real issue but it generally is pretty insignificant except for the media hype. It seems like they scan every local bit  of info to find things that fit their narrative about the "attack" on "us".

Of course it helps if you can identify the bad guys by a clear divider.  The Nazis used anti-Semitism to define the enemy.   In this country anti-Semitism is part of the mix but it has expanded to include various minorities.  The underlying theme used is that the real Americans are being used and abused by these groups who are taking over the country.

They have fooled the liberal establishment who can't see how real Americans are suffering.

So any action that calls out racist behavior or tries to correct a past injustice is fuel for their fire.

Do both sides do this?  I suppose to some extent, but it seems like one side has put all their eggs in the one basket since actual policies are in short supply.

So we have a lot of people who exhibit racist behavior under this disguise to the group but not against any individual.  So of course they aren't racist.  They might even have black friends after all.

Deficit Spending

 One of the economic models that works pretty well, until it doesn't is the continuous spend  It probably has other names but the way it works is you spend future income to live better now.  For example you wouldn't have enough money to buy a house or a car for years so you borrow the money and pay it back with interest over time.

If the value of the asset goes up you managed to buy it at a low price and if it depreciates, like a car,, you got the use of it.

Ideally your income is also increasing during the payoff period and if the asset also increases, you can continue to trade up or refinance with cash out to buy more things.  

It becomes a problem when the income dries up and you can't make the payments.  The whole system require a reasonable stable environment, at least for you, to maintain your lifestyle.

It has of course been very successful for many but disastrous for a few.  

Out current Government went to deficit spending quite a while ago.  It has promoted growth and has not yet caused a crash.  Some object to it but these are equivalent to those who would tell you not to have a mortgage.  There is a chance they will be proven right but one wonders what happens to all those renters when the money loses its value?

Jobs Come and Go

 The world changes.  At one time being a Mammoth hunter was both prestigious and rewarding but then we ran out of Mammoths and I suppose they had to adjust.  I can't imagine they were happy about it and even worse if you go out hunting Mammoths and can't find any, you have a real survival issue.

Of course we survived, we always have, even if some individuals might not have.  If you insist that you are only a Mammoth hunter and refuse to do anything else your status will fade quickly.

Simply put life is hard and adaptation is how we survive. 

We are living in an age of significant change due to technology and transportation advances. The changes are certainly a good thing for most people but not everybody.  If a robot can do the job your father had, you can't get it.  If it is chearper to offload jobs to cheap labor countries, its not here for you.

Of course that cheaper labor area could be even in this country as we have seen a migration of jobs from the old industrial states to the sunbelt where businesses are courted.  

We need to create new high paying jobs in the industries of the future.  We also need to provide free or cheap educational opportunities to prepare people for these jobs.  

The benefits of technology should help everyone, not just a privileged few.   

All atwitter?

 After a President gives a State of the Union speech to congress we see the other party give a response.

This is generally televised right after the official speech and the person selected to give it shuld represent the opposition party.  This last spokeperson was  a Republican Senator.  Oddly, they picked their only black one.

I would argue that they knew this would create a response on social media and to some extent it did, allowing them and their propaganda machine to accuse Democrats of racism.  

I don't actually know or care who went on Twitter to criticize the Senator, Twitter is a place for that sort of thing.  For all I know the trend was started deliberately as a false flag, but it could have been actual people.  Considering the Republican Party positions on Black issues in general it was an obvious thought.

Is Tim Scott a sell out?  Almost certainly.  He may honestly believe is some Republican issues, whatever those might be.  Should Twitter have stopped the trending comments about his Uncle status?  They did, but apparently not fast enough for the Republican trolls.

Does anything that happens on twitter matter?  Not really but it has assumed some sort of position in influence.  To some extent it serves as a way to get the opinios of twitter users, at least the ones that post.

Of course they may be bots, so everything is suspect.  Its no the voice of either party.