The Easy Path

 The fact that so many people seem to live in an alternate reality and think the world conspired against them seems like a new phenomenon.  Maybe it's not that new, maybe it has just become more visible.  Like when you turn a rock over and disrupt the crawly things underneath.

much of this free with the advent of the internet.  We all tend to think of ourselves as special but generally face a hard reality where we have to accept our normalcy.  The fact that our specialness isn't recognised is problematic.  In the web of you search for an answer you will find one.

In too many cases the issue is explained to you as an elite group denying you the recognition you deserve.  These elites control everything and you need to fight back.  

it is obvious that it's a manipulation to most but it feeds their egos because it can't be that they weren't talented enough or didn't work hard enough to succeed.  The odds were stacked against them.

Easier then actually trying.

Life Is Good, Enjoy It

 A lot of my fellow Americans seem to believe things are actually much worse than what they see and only want confirmation of how bad it is.

We do have people who are homeless and we just had a Pandemic which isn't quite over yet, but for various reasons it just isn't that bad.

Take crime increase.  It has increased from very low numbers that might have had something to do with the nations demographics.  The increase sounds dramatic in percentages but is really not that bad when you look at the actual numbers and the types.  Murders in New York increased nearly 25% from 2019 to 2020 but that represented about 100 murders in a city of over 8 million.  The nature of those murders hasn't changed much, there are not roving bands of murderers killing strangers, most murders are by people who know the victim.  We have seen two areas to be somewhat worried about, mass shootings and certain gang activity.

Property damage was higher somewhat related to the protests last year.  

Overall crime actually decreased a bit year over year which is why we see the rabble rousing media focus on murders.  

The economy is also doing fairly well buoyed somewhat by the stock market and federal money.  Will this come back to bite us eventually?  Maybe but not in the immediate future.

We are dealing with issues related to climate change more and more but the answer to that is to address the problem.

The world is a dangerous place but I don't think we see that impacting our day to day lives.  Some attribute the Pandemic to Chinese actions but that is generally illogical, even if it escaped from their lab.  

We even have a wide selection of paper products now.

A Good Start!

 Its still quite early in the Biden Administration and despite how pessimistic many observers were it is off to a good start.  The covid stimulus bill was enacted and is helping the economy.  Was the bill perfect but if you wait for perfect you ass nothing.  

We seem to be close to the end of the virus, at least in this county, although, to quote Mr T, I pity the fools who didn't get the vaccine.  They most likely will get the virus since the new variant is more infectious and some of them will die, but at least they avoided some minor side effects.  Its not too late to just get the vaccine.

We seem to be on the path to passing a bipartisan physical infrastructure plan while the soft infrastructure plan is not bipartisan but still on track.  

Some problem areas exist but that will always be the case.  Murders and serious crime went up during the pandemic and is still higher than it was.  Whether this has to do with the new administration or some other cause is unclear.  I'm not sure we ever will know for sure.  We have seen decreasing crime for quite a while now and never were sure why.  I would like to point out that it started from a very low level and is a bit worrisome but hardly a crisis for most of us.

There are more migrants applying for entrance at the Southern Border but condition there have improved for most.  It is an ongoing issue but it really seems to have been highlighted by some of our conservative media into something it never was.  However it does provide good video.

There are societal issues, some real, some manipulated that get a lot of media time.  This is basically campaigning.

We are not quite 6 months into this administration and the country is bouncing back.  

I call it a good start!

Lies Are Everywhere

 There are far too many people in this country who now believe things that are just not supported by factual data, or at least not real factual data.

It seems like when the Internet first took off, everybody was told that just because you see something there doesn't make it true.

Of course some things there are true and being able to tell the difference is hard.

When you have a President of the United State telling lies, no matter how moronic, it doesn't help.

The internet more than most relies on grabbing your attention and clicking on an item.  The amount of traffic they get lets them sell ad space and also helps them in search algorithms.

So the crazier the better!  This famously was a feature of the old Hearst newspapers the led t the term Yellow Journalism.  

It has stayed with us since it started but much of it was relegated to papers not considered a part of mainstream media.  Well thy now attack maindtream media and its often hard to tell where a headline originates before you click on it.  Since that's all they need they won.  Further, they don't even need you to read the article, just click on an ad.

What happens to almost all of us is the appearance of those headlines become our source for news and since the ones that spread are not reliable we have significant misinformation.

Border Situation

 When I think about what's going on at the Southern Border I just don't see what the big deal is.  People who flee their home countries to find a better future is how America was built.  We also don't let the majority of them into the country.  

It seems that the number of people fleeing their home countries and trying to enter has increased.  I wonder if people turned back at the border actually return home or if they come back time after time?

Still while some media outlets are making this into what they hope will be a major issue, I just don't see much difference from previous administrations.  Some of the policies are a bit more humane and I think some immigrants are allowed to apply for entry while staying in this country but I don't know all the details primarily because I don't care.

I haven't seen them doing anything different than previous immigrant populations.  They come here take menial jobs and give their family a better life.  Do they drain our resources?  I think most studies show they contribute more than they take, especially after the initial year or so.

Unemployment is this country is low and likely to go lower as we power up infrastructure repair.  

We need to consider our immigration rules and continue to be the shining light on the hill that attracts the oppressed people of the world.  

It is who we are.

Moderate America

 Being a reporter must be very frustrating at times, especially in these times.  Our media like to paint in big broad strokes indicating we have mostly crazed people who believe in crazy conservative or progressive ideas.  

For example, everyone on the left is a big supporter of AOC because she is popular on social media.  Well its simply not true and in all honestly while I do think she is herself more moderate than portrayed, she has enough support to win primaries which are a broken system.  

Similarly the reason we see so much support for the last president is his followers are also willing to come out and vote in primaries.

The first thing the media needs to realize is that most Americans are not spending their days arguing over the intricacies of Government or politics.  It shouldn't be hard to figure this out.  Generally they like the Government as things seem to work and dislike it when they don't.

Many people, probably too many, will vote for their parties nominee.  So winning the primary is close to a guarantee of election in much of the country.  The people then expect results so while opinion polls show certain trends, much of that is deceptive.

If asked to pick between two things, it is likely they will pick something even if they really hardly care.

They may oppose anything called illegal, like some immigration, but how much they care about it on a daily basis is questionable.  Is just not a big part of their real lives.

As we may be starting to see Americans all basically want a Government that works and addresses issues that matter to them.  

Not a story the media can sell.

Filibuster?

Almost all democratic countries rely on simple majorities to pass legislation and if the legislation is unpopular it gets reversed.  It doesn't generally cause much of an issue since that threat manages to require compromise.

Requiring the Senate to get 60 votes to pass anything allows a minority to control the agenda.  We have also eliminated any onerous requirements, such as actually filibustering since that is a lot of work and holds up all Senate business.  So we made it easier because we certainly wouldn't want the obstructionists to be inconvenienced.

We have checks and balances built in to the constitution and they should be sufficient.  If a majority in both houses and the President all agree, we still have the Supreme Court as the ultimate arbitrator.

We honor the things the founders put in the Constitution even if they lived in a different age than we do.  Guns were so different in the 18th century for example.  We should also honor the things they left out.  The evidence we have in the Federalist papers is that they believed a simple majority was enough.

So should we.

Stupid Ideas Get the Press

I can't decide if the outrage over Critical Race Theory is real of simply a product of Conservative politics.

I suspect the latter as they are appealing to what has become the core of their party.  These are the people who Hillary called deplorables and while that was a political mistake it was accurate.

Of course when I read about things like defund the police of redesign of the flag I have to shake my head.

Stopping police brutality is an important concept and more so if you are likely to get gunned down by them for simply being somewhere.  Too often the police act like an occupying force who have to maintain order.  Still no one really wants to eliminate them except maybe the criminals.  Teach them other skills or provide them with better help to resolve conflicts.  When we defined the war on drugs a war I think it was a mistake we still live with.  

Things like changing the flag are just silly.  Its just another crazy liberal thing.  We do have our crazies but if you want to improve America fix voting, fix policing, fix income inequality.  Don't worry about the flag.  No one ever equated the colors of it to racist ideas although it has been used by proponents of hateful ideas.  

We live in a country that honors free speech so of course those with outlandish ideas can express them.  You just need to realize you might be giving away the congress and the senate if you get too bad.

The Real Crisis

 In 100 years almost none of us will be alive barring some miracle medical breakthrough.  Our descendants will be barring some catastrophic event.

What will the world be like and do we care?  For most of history our ancestors didn't worry about the world even as they were changing it.  We likely hunted to extinction many of the largest mammals and once we figured out agriculture removed trees and started to irrigate.

How much did any of this impact the World?  Probably very little in comparison to natural occurrences.

Still if you look at our oldest civilizations the landscape was altered to accommodate our needs.  It was when we learned that carbon from the past was available to us for things like heating and to run our new machines that things heated up (literally).  

We don't create carbon, we just recycle it so to speak.  All living things incorporate carbon and much of that was trapped in the earth as the circle of life kept happening.  Plants, especially ones in marshy areas took their carbon with them as new generations of plants grew above them.

Digging up and releasing this carbon will reverse the hundreds of millions of years in basically a flash.

We are already pretty far down this path and we can continue or stop.  Ideally we would find a way to re-trap the carbon.  Some of the changes are now inevitable and the earth will survive and so will we.  We might have to migrate to new cities in Greenland of the Antarctic as our current habitats become inhabitable.  

This is the crisis we have to worry about.

Thinking?

One of the things that is simply true is no one knows how long they have on this earth.  That is true from the moment you are born until the day you die.  Of course as you get older you become more aware of your mortality.

Most of us believe that death is not the end, that there is an afterlife.  That may be no more than human hubris since we have the ability to imagine we continue on.  I have no way of knowing and I doubt anyone else has about whether this is something that exists in other animals.

Whether you believe in evolution or something else, we share our origin with the animals.  We can see the evidence in our DNA or in religious books.  Animals share many of our attributes such as procreation, fight or flight, sleep, ability to identify food and the ability to remember there mates, in many cases.  

We consider these attribute instincts in both them and us although we think some of them involve higher thought in our case.  The question is what sort of thought process do animals have? Years ago I was told that prey animals have short memories since they would never venture out.  Of course they venture out to satisfy strong urges to find food or mates so the risk is consider less than they reward/  Or is this even a part of the process?

Humans constantly measure risk versus reward.  It is something done at the highest levels of Business and Government and being good at it often leads to success.  Of course the same was true when we lived in caves although we probably didn't use complex equations.  Neither does the rabbit.

 

Voting Rights

 The question that has to be answered is whether our Government can do anything in a bipartisan way?  If course many things line the recent vote on Juneteenth passed with cross party votes, but the real policy issues seem unlikely.  

Take voting in this country.  This was something left to the States because after all it only involved counting votes and verifying the people who voted.  Those two simple requirements have led to a series of controversies.  The one that has cropped up throughout our history is the verifying who can vote or maybe more accurately stopping the wrong people from voting.

It is simple math, if you suppress the votes of people who won't vote with you, you can win even if unpopular.  Counting the ballots is also a simple task that has been challenged multiple times.  

Should it be centralized or should the central Government set up rules and assure they are followed?

Well a State depriving a voter of his right to vote should be a crime.  We already had a rule that addressed this in certain States but the Supreme Court felt pre-approval was no longer necessary.  Yet discrimination in voting continues.    It does seem like rules for voting should be the same everywhere.  

This is a law that cries out to be bipartisan but we already know it won't be.  It will probably never pass.

Entertainment, Not News

 If you listen to certain right wing media over the years they have been warning us of all sorts of  looming tragedies as those socialist fascist liberals were attacking the America we all love.

I haven't been keeping score but using the swag technique, exactly zero of them have materialized.

No one is confiscating your guns, no one has opened the borders, no one has mandated unisex bathrooms, no one has replace the national anthem, etc. etc. etc.

In fact they are more accurate if you believe the opposite of what they say.  Covid was not fake, the vaccines do not have a relationship with 5G, the election wasn't stolen, the economy hasn't collapsed, unemployment is shrinking despite the benefits and the vast majority of black lives matter protesters were peaceful.

The lists go on and on but despite their terrible track record they maintain ratings.

That's because they are an entertainment channel using what used to be called shock jock tactics, be more outrageous than everyone else.

Its fun until you realize some of the audience actually believes what they say.

What Crisis First?

 According to the Republicans and right wing media we are in the midst of multiple crises right now.  They sai so at a press onference.

Now to be clear a crisis is effectively  a do ot die thing, solve it or face dire consequences.  They listed all sorts of crises including the border, inflation, critical race theory, the origin of covid, etc. etc.

To be honest I didn't see a real crisis anywhere.  There are issues in this country such as crumbling infrastructure that need to be addressed.  Whether its at the crisis level is uncertain.  Climate Change is a Worldwide crisis but many Republicans don't want to address it because it clashes with some of their donors. 

Is there a crisis at the border?  It seems to be pretty much the same situation we have faced for years and hardly a crisis for the country, more so for the immigrants/refugees looking for a better life.

We are coming out of the Covid crisis adn the economy is starting to recover.  Covid is not over and it is likely that there will be a surge among unvaccinated people as new variants spread.  Let's hope it isn't too bad or too deadly.

Just not sure they are going to convince too many people of all these crises.  

Ignoring the Past Doesn't Work

 People objecting to critical race theory being taught in schools when in fact it isn't.  It might be part of a university course but it is certainly not taught in lower grades.

I'm also not an expert on it but as I understand its fundamental point it takes a deep look into the impact of race in our society.

I will say this about the theory, it looks for the impact of race on everything and maybe some thing don't have much to do with race, but if you look for a connection you may find one.

That being said any conclusions should be open to debate,  What shouldn't be open to debate is the academic research.

What most of the uproar is about is simply conservative propaganda.  In general that sort of research is going to disclose a lot of white oppression and a lot of black victims.  There isn't anyway it comes out different.

It doesn't say all whites are guilty or inferior, that sort of conclusion would be absurd.  

However its hard to deny the actual history where people were seized against their will and turned into slaves.  After emancipation their descendants were often treated as second class citizens with impact that have lasted until this time.

That is history and if you want to root out racism you need to understand how it exists.  

If teaching children about slavery and pointing out the whites oppressed the black slaves and maybe others or that after emancipation there were Jim Crow laws and forced segregation, is wrong then we are not teaching them history.  Facts are facts and how white people treated others is often not a pretty fact.

Its not critical race theory.

History

Teaching history should be pretty straightforward but it actually has a lot of nuance.  For example it is a fact that Christopher Columbus was an Italian who talked the Spanish Monarchy to fund his expedition to find an alternate route to the east Asia.  This was an investment designed to compete with the Portuguese who had the profitable spice trade via the Horn of Africa route.

It was a for profit expedition that failed in its original purpose but did, by accident, discover a continent, that had been visited by Vikings but not colonized.

What happened next is that the Europeans finding a weaker foe (weaker in weapons) they exploited them and this led to the enslavement and killing of millions.

So was Columbus a hero or a villain?  Probably neither, but he was somewhat ruthless as the Captain of a ship with obligations to the Monarchs of Spain.

For many years he was celebrated as a hero and recently he is being villainized by many.  The fact that our ancestors lived in a time when you either oppressed others or were oppressed is simply a fact.

It may not have actually changed much although certain behaviors have.

Historical facts are real, if verified.  Our interpretation of them changes.  Teach the facts and discuss the interpretations.  If you leave out some facts you aren't teaching history, you are teaching propaganda.

Democracy Is Us

 Some people are clearly intelligent in one field but then say idiotic things in politics.

Some notable ones are actually Doctors and I think  demands on people in pre-med and then medical school prevents them from being well rounded.

Further, if you are not exceedingly rich you will also likely end up with tremendous student debt.

Now being a doctor requires that we screen out people who might be unable to perform, it is often a life and death profession, but have we failed to provide them with an adequate understanding of humanity?

The latest example is the article written by Rand Paul defending voting restrictions by pretending that Gerrymandered state legislatures need to protect the voters because they know better.

Well they have organized the state legislatures to be Republican and if the majority of the State's voters are Democrats, well of course the legislature's know better.

Oddly this is an old argument in history where the elite need to protect society from the uneducated masses.  

In Roman history the rule of the elite led to the downfall of the Republic and 400 years of Emperors.  

Democracy has its problems.  It is just better than everything else.

Traitors Among Us

I have always lived thinking that almost everybody in this country shared certain values, one of which was a degree of patriotism and belief in our system of Government.

People disagreed with certain policies and worked to change them but very few were attempting the overthrow of our Government. The following is the oath that I and every military and Government employee has to take.

“I, (Name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

I took it seriously and while it is sometimes done in group settings or even remotely it has an impact.

People did protest for many things in my lifetime, Civil Rights, Vietnam, Woman's Rights, etc. etc. but I never viewed these protests as an attempt to overthrow the Government of deny the Constitution.  

The only tie I ever saw that to any real degree is now with the storming of the Capitol and the attempt to undermine out electoral process.

There have been some close elections but the eventual losers always acted with a certain amount of grace and accepted that we once again followed our rules.  

We saw this challenged and we are still dealing with a display of treasonous behavior while they accuse the winners of the same.

It is not acceptable and it wasn't even that close.  The number of people willing to believe it according to the polls is absolutely shocking and is indicative that we have so many willing to ignore the laws or think somehow the country is filled with traitors.  Well maybe it is, unfortunately.

Colonial Views in a Modern World

 Something that has kept lawyers wealthy and the rest of us confused is how what were meant to be simple ideas get twisted into complex ones.

Take the 2nd Amendment.  It was written by people who had recently had issues with the British Government trying to suppress local militias.  In fact the historic battles that started the war were based on the British marching to seized weapons caches.  

So w see the simple words of the 2nd Amendment that talks about a well regulated militia and the people to own and bear arms not being infringed.  Its pretty obvious to many they were reacting to what they had just lived through.   Simple enough although we are still arguing about it over 200 years later.

The world of today is very different than the world of the founders although human nature is the same.  Would the founders approve of giving people weapons that could kill hundreds in a very short time?

Similarly, freedom of speech was straightforward enough but if they were presented with social media and other modern technologies would they feel the same?

I can't imagine it happening and especially since we almost definitely couldn't reach agreement, but we might need a relook at these basic rights and a new determination considering modern technologies.

The founders were prestigious men of the 18th century who accepted things like slavery and women's subservience as normal.  Might be worth another look every so often.

Fiscal Responsibility?

 If the media is correct we may have a deal on infrastructure but it doesn't include higher taxes on the rich and business to pay for it.

If that can pass they should do it since the possible is better than nothing.  Of course there will be opportunities to address the tax issues later.

To some extent taxes are a bit of a usage fee.  If you live in this country you almost definitely use its infrastructure and resources.  Business bein in the business of moving inventory delivering products or using freight trains for freight is a heavy user of our infrastructure, meaning highways and bridges.

To some extent tolls help but the impact of a tractor trailer is so much more on a highway than almost any number of cars.  That much weight can clearly do damage that no number of cars could match.

Further businesses in this and other countries count on infrastructure their employee who use it to get to work or even to work at home. They should pay a fair share of the costs to maintain it.

Outside of startups and struggling businesses, any increase in taxes is lily to result in less stock buybacks.  Price increase are tied to competition not tax benefits.

It seems a bit ironic that to maybe get Rpublican support the Democrats had to agree to increase the deficit and national debt?

Acting

 Looking at our elections with a National perspective is somewhat deceiving. There is a saying that all politics are local.  Voters aren't concerned enough about the plight of transgender people if the local plant shuts down.  This explains at least in part the appeal of certain politicians.  Donald Trump for all his faults and lies was flawed enough to seem like he got it, to the people at his rallies.  He acted more like they did than most national politicians and he managed to convince many of his listeners he was one of "us" and not one of "them".

Of course as a child of privilege and a New York want to be socialite he really was on of them and could care less for the people.  But despite that he was a child of popular culture who could for the most part seem like he did understand and did care, even if he didn't.

Joe Biden has a lot of the same appeal although not quite at the same low level as Trump did.  If you are a white supremacists, Donald was with you but Joe is not.  Similarly he convinced people he was anti-abortion now although based on his history on the subject his real views are unclear.

Before the election his life was mostly a series of failures with his only real success being as a reality TV star.  He also had a flair for being in the news over the years but not all of that was good, unless you believe all publicity is good publicity.

The last few years indicates his acting skills might have been much better than anyone imagined.  Or may the role just fit him.  He is certainly typecast now.

Setting the Temperature

 The problem with politics in general is that it takes everything to the extreme.  Most things are really someplace in the middle.  Take inflation which is a bit of a concern right now.  Generally some inflation is good, but too much is not.  However, you will hear politicians jump on any inflation as a horrible thing if they can blame the other party.  

Another example is the supplemental unemployment amounts passed as a result of Covid.  The extra money may have cased some people to pass up jobs but certainly it didn't impact others.  Certainly it didn't impact everyone the same way but the debate makes it sound like an all or nothing proposition.

In every bodies daily lives they have to make compromises.  One good example is simply what you set the thermostat on.  That is one of the most bipartisan things in most people's lives.  Depending on how many people are involved  it may involve significant tweaking to reach the acceptable temperature.  In addition to comfort there is also a matter of cost.  Imagine a household where everybody decided what temperature they liked and wouldn't compromise.  It would turn ugly pretty quickly.

Unfortunately that seems to be where we are in our Government and the temperature is unacceptable.  

Its Cultural

 Some people like to point out that both the electoral college and the filibuster were essentially created to protect racism.  Yes to some extent that was related to States rights but only because some states were determined to enforce racist laws and programs that were clearly opposed by the majority of Americans.

Racism is so engrained in this country that many of us who have racist beliefs manage to avoid being outwardly racist and therefor deny it.

Being a child of my times I remember seeing many racist incidents in al parts of the country, usually disguised in one way or another.

It was probably more obvious in desegregating some southern schools but the anti busing demonstrations in places like Boston and the ongoing treatment of blacks in housing, schooling, employment and more is based in racism.

White flight wasn't limited in scope as we saw the transformation of our cities and some suburbs to avoid living in a dangerous neighborhood.  It was viewed as dangerous primarily because black people had moved in.

Some black people are dangerous, so are some white people.  Poor people are more likely to resort to crime and drug addicts even more so.  Still one black family moving in isn't going to result in much change unless it leads to most of the white families moving our.

Science

 When is enough, enough?

There are many complex things we experience.  In the scientific world there is a method where theories are advanced and whatever one best explains the data becomes accepted.  While probably not obvious even long established science theories change of a better explanation arises.

Clearly the longer a theory is accepted the least like it will change.  Still new advances can change even well established theoris.   Before relativity we felt comfortable with Newton's theory.  That still works for almost everything but situations that few will experience.  

So consider the Coronavirus.  Certainly the early theories were sure to change and they did.  This is simply the way science works but because it was a life threatening situation, the early theories were shared.  So don't wear a mask turned into wear a mask.  No conspiracy involved.

Let Everyone Vote!

What authority does anyone have, including elected officials, to deny an American Citizen from voting?

Those elected officials are selected by those American Citizens.  

Voting is something that predates this country.  In the United States there are about 250 million adults of voting age. The estimates of undocumented immigrants is in total around 10 million many of whom are too young to vote.  

In order to vote, generally you had to provide information to verify who you were although some can register on the same day they vote.

As we add restrictions to what we need to do to vote we deny some citizens their rights.

What is ultimately wrong with this country is not secret cults it is the same old one that thinks it knows better than the rest of us.  

They are not entitled to decide who gets to exercise their right to vote, its inalienable.

   

Focus On Real Issues

 Most of what you read in the media and see on shows is discussion about what party will do better in the mid-terms and how they can, as a party, win or lose.

Its written this way because it makes it manageable and simplistic.

The problem for the American people is that deciding what party to support is hardly the question.  

Its support for the actual candidates.

To some extent parties are brands but unlike say McDonalds, each candidate is different.  

Establishing the Democratic brand as the one that will deliverer good Government, Climate corrections, low taxes, health care and infrastructure improvement is only as effective as the candidates presenting that message.

Some other social issues are at times associated with a candidate but are not real issues to the party or the electorate.  While all people in this country are entitled to equal protection and access under the law, what pronoun we use is not the Government's concern.  

Issues that are important to a very small number of people should not define how Americans view the party.  The Republicans want them to be.

Being "woke" is fine but run on the real issues that impact all Americans.

Whatever pronoun you use doesn't change having to flee rising coastal roads on bumpy roads while catching infectious diseases.

Help The Urban Poor

 The infrastructure of this country is vital to commerce and citizens.  Its our roads bridges, trains, airports, and utilities.  They enable trade and increase business.

There may be some question on whether something is or is not infrastructure, especially it seems when it comes to providing for our underprivileged urban populations.

The simple reason for that is they are underrepresented because of our structure.

Both our electoral college and our senate are biased towards area, not population.  So providing internet to underserved rural communities gets a higher priority than poor urban neighborhoods, even though the latter would help many more people.

The best way to correct some of our countries inequalities in the long run would be to help poor urban youngsters have better opportunities.

Of course poor rural youngsters need assistance also, there are just so many more in the cities.

Everyone Contributed

 There is a bit of a debate concerning how this country became great.  Who is responsible and what does that mean for our future.  

The simple answer is that it was everyone.  From our frontier days to our modern days it took all of us to build this country.

The Native Americans who were here were displaced by colonists so you might argue they suffered more than they benefitted but as time passed they became part of the country.  The colonists from Europe whether Spanish, French, English, Dutch  or Swedish  started colonies some lasting longer than others.  

The Africans brought here as slaves were important, if unwilling participants in building this country.

After we became independent wave after wave of immigrants, Irish, German, Italian, Slavic, Scandinavian came to build a future and they did.  We expanded via purchase or war until we reached from sea to shining sea and the lure of land, gold, silver or other wealth led to the population spreading.

The transition from a farming population to an industrial one led to the growth of our cities and the rise of the industrialists who started great companies.  Those companies depended on workers but it took Unions to develop some of the basic rights we now take for granted. 

Everyone contributed by building a life here as our economy became the modern one based on consumer spending. 

If you want to celebrate out past celebrate all of it.  If you want to build our future use everyone.

Federalism?

 Since our founding we have had an issue with the idea of Federalism.  Federalism requires the State Governments to concede primacy to a central Government.  

In the early days of the republic, we saw a significant difference between slave states and free states.  This ultimately led to the civil war as the slave states started to fear they would be forced to change by the majority.

That war was about slavery but a secondary issue was whether we were one nation or a collection of many.  

The issue faded for a while but has become more relevant as in the modern era States are more exposed to national scrutiny.

It may seem like ancient history but continued to impact this country in many ways.  The descendants of slaves have been treated in some states as second class people, 

The only way to fix some of this, barring a major shift in the politics of those states would be federal intervention guaranteeing some rights.

Should a person in this country have the same rights and privileges in every state of the union are not?

That question is not solved to this day and maybe it should be.

We Are Still the Melting Pot

 It is hard to imagine that the Americans I know are wiling to let others lose their rights because of a lie.

It is also hard for me to imagine that there are still many people that honestly believe that we had  any significant fraud in the last election.

Call me cynical but I believe those who claim to believe the lie are in fact lying.  It is just about the politics where they want to install a Government that will pursue the polices they want.

They haven't been presented with any facts indicating fraud, merely theories that can't be easily disproven.  If the people who examine the machines say it didn't happen that just means they are part of the cover-up.  

It is so transparent that I don't believe people actually believe it to any great degree.  They repeat the lie and defend it because it is now a core tenet of their cult.

The issue that drives them is the fact that demographics show the country will in a few years have more not-whites than whites. This of course depends on how you determine non-whites.  

They envision an American where they and their descendants suffer the way minorities have suffered.

That is simply not going to happen since most of the people they fear will be just as American as they have ever been.  Despite it being an unreasonable fear the facts are true.

We are becoming a more diverse country population wise but that has been the case since the beginning.  Wave after wave of immigrants were considered undesirable until they became the ones complaining about the next wave.

If you come here you and your descendants will be Americans upholding the same traditions we always have.  Maybe we can get rid of the racism though.

Playing Games With Democracy

 Democracy is pretty simple really, the person or people with the most votes wins.  What should keep them on their toes is the idea that they have to run again to keep their seat.

The simple concept has been manipulated since the beginning by Gerrymandering.  Simply put you set up districts that are designed to concentrate all of one's sides votes in a small number of districts so the other side can win in more districts.

To some extent this happens a bit naturally since often cities are the most populous and most liberal areas.  It isn't that hard a concept but to illustrate imagine a State with 1000 residents.  Five hundred live in urban areas that vote 80% for a liberal candidate while the rural areas tend to be conservative.  One would think this would lead to about equal representation.  But if you can manipulate the districts so that the liberal votes are in just say three districts where liberals win by large majoritoes and the other 7 have safe but smaller conservative majorities you get a 7-3 split.

This strategy has been effectively used by the Republicans and since they control the legislature, after each census they can fine tune it.

Democrats have used it also, but in recent times the country has made it a tool best suited to Republicans because of the distribution.

So even in states where liberals hold a majority of the population, conservatives often control the Government.  Changing that will not be easy/