Celebrity

 If you consider some of the people who have become celebrities both now and, in the past, the characteristic that made them famous is much like an idiot savant.  For example, take charles Lindberg who famously wa the first to solo over the Atlantic.  The fame that came with this event was extraordinary and potentially led to the tragic death of his son.  However, it did not qualify him as a political candidate and in fact he had some odd views.

Celebrities are a bit like the student who makes a scene in the classroom, and everyone then knows who they are.  Most of us don't crave attention enough to make a spectacle of ourselves but some do.  Everyone is entitled to have an opinion, after all they are free, but they resemble assholes in that way.

Some might say I'm psting opinions here, and they would be right, but when I started doing this I did it more as a journal where I consider events and jot down my thoughts.

I have opinions and I didn't pay for them so I can offer them up now if anyone is interested.

They are of course free if you want to use any.

We have to control Climate Change We are like the people of Ponpei wondering if the Volcano was a problem.

We need to respect all people and guarantee they have the freedoms we have.  I didn't say like or love, but understand we are all equal.  It was common at on time to hear people (white) ask each other what do those people (Black) want?  Well, the question reveals the problem, they should have the same things as everyone else.

Immigrants have always been good for this country and that hasn't changed.  

Freedom to act is absolute until you impact other people.  Free speech doesn't cover yelling fire in a crowded movie theatre. Some of the stuff in social media comes under that.

Neighbors

 Politics has become a way of life in some respects but not in what I consider the real heart of this country where ordinary people simply try to live their lives and raise their families as best they can.  

Each family is different but when a single event like a blizzard impacts all of them you get to see the real America.  Helping each other out, not worrying about who they voted for or whom they might vote for, is what a neighborhood looks like.

A power outage is a real problem that needs to be dealt with while the Supreme Court is almost an abstraction.  Our system requires them to exist, but they should generally be hearing complex case of law, not creating problems.

It's always been true that Americans deal with problems and help each other.  It's a large part of our history.  With a few exceptions someone who moves in is rapidly incorporated.  

Yes there are issues in how we treat each other but the real solution is simply getting to know each other.  

Voting

 Some people continue to act like the last Presidential election can be changed.  It's unclear why, the whole thing has been certified and there is simply no means to o this.

They are buoyed by a meaningless ruling by a court in Pennsylvania that a mail in voting law is unconstitutional.  The decision is probably going to be overturned by their Supreme Court or the nations and the votes will still count.

Watching the shenanigans going on in various states highlights the need for a National set of Standards to protect the votes of Americans.  The failure to have one is clearly an example of why bipartisan politics isn't working.  Slaw to guaranteed everyone's right to vote should garner universal support unless of course on side doesn't want everyone to vote and it is clear by their own statements that Republicans don't want that.

Setting the Agenda

 `I sometimes wonder how many of the people giving Biden poor numbers in polls are progressives who don't think he has done enough.  It might not be a meaningful number for pollsters, but it also might be very meaningful indeed.

A poll released today by a well-respected pollster shows Biden beating his main Republican rival fairly easily.  The headline noted it was surprising and it turns out that those who disapproved of him wouldn't vote for the other guys.

Thenext Presidential election is still pretty far away but we hav the midterms coming, and I guess the good news for Republicans is that most local candidates are not burdened by the parties extreme views.

Three is still time to change that.

Moral Obligation

 Not everything is a matter of opinion.  Facts don't care what you think about them, yet we use opinion polls to justify certain actions.

At times this is self-serving.  If you tell people there were irregularities in an election, they will think there were, even if you provide not a bit of legitimate proof.  The fact that they form that opinion is not proof of irregularities just the public can be played.

Since we seem to have a distrust of Government it's hard to find an authoritative source we can all agree on.  Similarly, in the Covid pandemic people would take slight changes in policy or approach as proof that the entire position was compromised.  It's pretty easy to take a series of normal changes and paint it as a major issue, we see talking heads on TV do it all the time.  

The simple fact is that a few exceptions are not conclusive even if they are real and not fabricated.  Why some feel that misleading so many is acceptable for ratings or elections is a test of our morals not the facts.

Politics

 So Covid can still infect us, and while being vaccinated probably protects you form hospitalization and death. It's not guaranteed but guarantees in this world are hard to find. 

There is a lot of negative press about our President for not doing what he promised to do during his campaign.  Not that he didn't try, just wasn't able to get past the wall the Republicans have built against any meaningful progressive legislation.  We did have two Democratic senators who didn't help on some of this.

If we don't elect the right people, the President doesn't get a magic wand to change minds.

I should also point out that there are still three years in his administration and the midterms.  

The polls don't look good but its early and surprises happen.

Society Has Tough Choices

 The job of Government is to do things that improve the lives of it citizens.  This includes portecting citizens from invaders and making sure they are treated fairly in society.

These functions have gotten increasingly complex in modern society and can be debated.  At what point does society (Government) need to step in?  People have a responsibility to take care of themselves and their families.  Those who can't are reliant upon society.

Society doesn't always treat them well.  Helping the poor takes away from helping your own.  Why exactly are they needy is also a question.  People who are in need because they got injured while serving society are clearly needy, yet we have many homeless veterans who may have only suffered mental trauma.

We live in a developed society where some people feel that they are entitled to live a certain lifestyle.  This depends a lot on how their expectations were built up.  Some went to college and got a degree along with a ton of Student Debt. Unfortunately, some degrees do not lead to gainful employment.  

Faced wth the need to support oneself, start a family and burdened with massive student debt they feel that the advisors who told them to go to college misled them.  College graduates on average make more than people who didn't go, but not every time.

Now they want society to pay their loans.

Ultimately, they made the decisions and while they may have been poorly advised, blanket forgiveness helps the ones that don't need help. 

If you decided to get a job instead, spent time learning a trade and now have a decent income and obligations, should you pay for someone who went to college for 4 or more years to graduate without marketable skills?

It's a tough question but I think we all know the answer. 

Public- Private

 Think about the bureaucracies you have to deal with. Consider the one that almost everyone had to deal with and the one that was the epitome of slow and bad service, Motor Vehicle Departments.  It was a large organization dealing with almost everyone from people who wanted to keep taking their pictre until they got one they liked to people who couldn't fill out a form properly.

I don't know about how everyone else feels about it but from my limited exposure they have improved significantly over the years.  They are still bureaucratic, (they have to be) and at times, seemingly uncaring.  However, if you need a license or registration and do what they tell you to do you will get one. How many millions of vehicles and drivers are there, all of whom dealt with a motor vehicle department.

I can pretty much guarantee that they have faced significant budget cuts over the years and while some of what they do has been automated, they have always managed to get the job done.

It hasn't been turned into a pleasant experience although you see the joy of new drivers who get their first license.  

Think of a private organization that does as good, or better for similar numbers?  Take car dealerships, each of which is privately owned and there is a lot of difference.   Yes, they are trying to sell you a car but we expect them to try and take advantage of us.  I have bought a fair number of cars and I usually have done a considerable amount of research first.  Still, while I leave with a car and may think the salesman was plreasant and helpful, I leave knowing he may have screwed me in some way.

They tend to treat me better than the Motor Vehicle Department, but they are out to maximize their profit which means get me to pay more.  It's often a long tiresome process, where they force you to hear about all sorts of options and financing ou don't want.  0I now see ads on TV for apps that let you buy a car on-line without dealing with a salesman in person.  

Is either of these processes enjoyable?  Not for most people but we have to do them.  In one they are treating you better, maybe getting you a coffee or beverage but you know they are after your money.  In the other they treat you as a faceless customer.  Everyone involved is simply trying to do a job, but one's jobe involves making you pay.  I'm OK with faceless customer myself.

Profit is a Cost

 Democracy can be messy.  It requires compromise and patience.  As long as everyone is trying you will eventually reach a compromise, where no one gets everything they want but everyone gets something.

Now in our current situation we have one party that refuses to try.  This makes things a bit difficult, and they defend their position by declaring everything proposed extreme socialism.  

Some of the programs being proposed have elements of socialism but they are not socialist.  This is a capitalist country, and we will continue to allow our corporations to profit off us.  We pretend that the private sector brings efficiency and cost control to the process but how do you explain we pay more and get less in our hybrid system?

The private sector brings a profit motive and not much else.  We just pay more.

Taking Part

 In too many States, the old guard, generally White Christians, is trying very hard to maintain control.  They are finding ways to create confusion about how to vote, when to vote and what you need to vote.  Generally, this has worked for them because those constituents are more in touch with the rules.

However, they are aging, and it might not be long before they are a bit disadvantaged by complex rules.  Young technically savvy people are going to dominate at some point.  

There is only so much you can do to slow the change and the more you do the more likely that it might backfire.  We saw similar efforts in the big cities to keep groups of immigrants out of power.  Eventually they were able to join fully in our democracy.  

In much of this country, African Americans have been held back.  This started to change with Civil Rights but it still has a way to go.  More significantly is to energize the next generation to get out and vote.

They are not taking over, they are simply taking part in our democracy. 

Americans Vote as Much as Americans?

 Well, it wasn't really a secret, but Mith McConnell revealed that the GOP doesn't really consider Afro-Americans as real Americans.  These are the votes that help Democrats to win and are the heart of the fraudulent voting they complain about.

It was certainly true after reconstruction, and it is still true today. They will deny it but the evidence is clear.  If they thought of them as real Americans, they wouldn't be trying to make it harder for them to vote.

 In fact, it's probably time we got real about this issue.  Voting rights need to be defended for all Americans.   Once we start defining different groups it allows the segregationists the opportunities to make them the others.  

                                                                                                                                            

Let Americans Vote

 It's pretty simple really, either you support the right of every American to vote or you don't.  It's a hallmark of our systems that depriving one citizen of his rights is worse than any alternative.  Finding real election fraud is a very rare event and when it is found it isn't organized.

If you increase requirements and prevent some eligible voters from voting you have violated their civil rights no matter their ethnicity.  This is happening in a number of states under the pretense that there was a lot of fraud in the last election.

If you replace the word fraud with "minority voters" the whole campaign makes more sense.  If you went back to the good old days when only the "white" people got to vote the result would have been quite different.  This attempt to make America white again is doomed to failure but there is a scorched earth policy by some to hold on as long as possible.

The solution is pretty obvious, stop seeing the world in black and white and trust your fellow Americans.  Think of the silly white supremacist chants of "We will not be replaced".  Well, everyone gets replaced sooner or later.  

You just won't be around to worry about it.

Gas Guzzlers Stil?

 There is a streak of contrariness in some people that ignores the facts and will simply disobey the authorities.  

It doesn't seem like an acquired thing, so it seems that a certain percentage of the population was born with contrariness.

I imagine in some ways it could lead to survival if the rest of the tribe followed a fatal order.  Still in modern society it just seems to be an annoyance and a hindrance.

We are seeing it on display with Covid where people won't get vaccinated or wear a mask.  That behavior allows the virus to continue and stay dangerous.

I don't know if the climate deniers are a significant force, but our use of oil seems unabated and pricey.  I realize the electric vehicles are not the same as gasoline, yet but we keep buying, when available, giant cars that most of us don't need.

I think many of us have made world friendly decisions in our choice of lightbulbs or energy efficient appliances, but it seems a bit odd that people complaining about gasoline prices buy gas guzzlers?  

Get Vaccinated, It's a Winning Strategy

 If they are still survivors, I'm not sue getting vaccinated at this point is going to offer a lot of protection to the individual but a lot to society.  The omicron variant has been sweeping through the country but tends to have more mild symptoms.  It can still kill you but the decline in infections makes me think it has created a certain amount of herd immunity.

That is until the next variant arises, and that is virtually guaranteed to happen.  When there is as many cases as we have one virus mutation somewhere will manage to replicate and spread.  This is natural selection and the proof of evolution some have questioned.  Survival of the fittest, for a virus, means replicating better than the other versions.

The good news is that this is likely to happen in the Omicron Subset which is pretty dominant right now and while the manner of infection might change, most of its other features probably won't.  There is always the chance of a mutation that increases infection rates and is much more deadly but that is not the most probable outcome.

Those two outcomes are a bit contradictory.  The more a variant causes serious illness or death in its victims the more likely it will be isolated and quarantined reducing its ability to spread and become dominant.  The less it causes identifiable and threatening symptoms the more likely it can spread.  

Protecting yourself and others by getting vaccinated and wearing a mask can help reduce the number of cases and the number of variants.  It certainly reduces the severity of infections per the data.

Indoctrination?

 Apparently, inflation varies significantly by region and even individual.  I see people post that they are paying as much as 50% more for groceries when the inflation for food is more like 5%..  I don't doubt that many prices are higher than they were a year ago, but the statistics don't support increases like that.

Much of the increase measured is related to energy and housing.  Energy costs had a significant increase over last years depressed prices but that seems to be fixing itself as more gasoline and oil hits the market. Housing is running very high but for every buyer there is also a seller.  Plus, buying or selling a house is not a monthly event.   Rents are up but that also is related to lease renewals.

I suspect that a certain number of those reports are created by bots, not people and are designed to plant an impression in people's minds, similar to rightwing media.  If you see posts complaining about the high rate of inflation you may subconsciously believe it, even when the actual inflation figures are much lower.  

The only policy the Republican party seem to have is to win the next election.  Once they win, they can reward their corporate backers and further erode voting rights.

Its Winter and Its Cold

 My biggest problem right now is that my old house can't handle these single digit temperatures well.  The fix has been staring me in the face for 40 years, more insulation, a more modern heating system, and an energy audit to reduce places like my dryer vent that allow cold air in.

This year is a little worse since my central air died and I decided to use window units for now.  They are not really insulated that well and overnight when we turn off our space heaters, the common areas drop into the lower 60s which is still 50 degrees warmer than outside but in the views of my family unacceptably cold.

As the first one up I turn on our electric fireplace and try to incorporate using the stove in my breakfast plans.  As I sit a little bundled up it really reminds me of my early days in the Bronx where it always seemed cold in the early mornings in the winter.  I didn't bleed my radiators this year but will do so this week if they need it.  Some are sort of inaccessible and I'm just not as flexible as I used to be.  Since the cold snap is due to end, I probably won't do any of the major upgrades that would reduce the problem.

In fact, having to deal with being chilly in the morning is a bit nostalgic as I remember sitting in the kitchen with the stove on before heading to school.  In those days we had to walk through the fairly constant snow uphill both ways somehow.  It actually was true as the street I lived on had a bit of a crest that was uphill until you got to it and then downhill for a bit.

So yes, you had some uphill walking both ways, then downhill.

The uphill was what you complained about.

Mid-term Tradition?

 In 2018 I was on the road a lot and generally I would stay in places with complementary breakfasts.  A lot of the places I stayed were very Republican and since the mid-terms were coming up there were a lot of political ads on the early news, which I assume was more affordable than later in the day. The real election in many of those places was the Republican primary and the races revolved around those loyal to the then unpopular President and "principled" conservatives.

I'm not sure who won what races, but it seems like it was those loyal to the President based on the results.  I may have been watching the last gasps of the old Republicans who were clearly trying to separate themselves from some of the actions of the President, thus the "Principled" part of the message.  

It's hard to find many of those old time Republicans in office anymore.  What we see is a party that has one purpose, to obstruct the current Democratic administration and take back the reins of power.  They may succeed since all we tend to see reported are failures of the administration and not the earlier successes.  It's not a full year since the inauguration, but many media outlets are taken great glee in any failures of Biden.

There is a lot of focus on his Poll numbers, but they may be deceptive.   Clearly Republicans are negative about him, but he has angered a fair number of Progressives who are not familiar with how Democracy works in this country.  I wonder how many of them are saying they don't like his job performance.  The question will be how they will vote in the mid-terms?

Some feel like the mid-terms were decided because of the record of the Presient losing seats after winning the presidency.  There are reasons for that and whether this election will follow suit is only going to be determined after the votes are in.  

Income Inequlity

 There is a concern about income inequality in this country.  One of the ways to correct this would be by using the income tax regulations which are progressive in nature.

The idea of a progressive tax system is certainly socialist in nature where those who have more pay more.  This would be true under almost any tax system.  Consider sales taxes, not a progressive system in general.  The more you spend the more taxes you pay, but the percentage you pay stays the same. Some progressive elements have been introduced in some places by exempting basic necessities such as food from taxation.  It's not progress since two people buying the same thing pay the same tax no matter the income or wealth differences.

Some want to make the tax rates much more progressive which in our history has precedent.  Top tax rates were at 70% a few times in our history.  Let's be clear, tax brackets not the most effective way to influence change.  The tax code has a lot of built-in loopholes which are used by out wealthiest.  \

Some have proposed imposition of wealth tax to fund some progress reforms.  The distribution of wealth in this country is worse than income inequality.   

Do we want to fix income inequality?  I think most of the public looking at the numbers would like to bur not if it impacts them.  

The best way to correct it seems to be to increase the wealth of our poorest by giving them programs like health care, childcare or retirement security.  It avoids the Robin Hood concept of taking from the rich and giving to the poor once it isn't money being transferred.  Its indirect.

Shared Values - Right Values?

 One of the issues you run across is do the people you meet and the people you don't really know share your values.  For example, family is an innate value for most of the world.  However, in some parts of the world, female children are not considered as important as male ones.  I suppose at one time this could have been justified by the idea that the male children would have to support their elderly parents eventually while females would leave to join another family.

The idea is pretty alien to me but it's still out there to some extent.  We can assume to some extent that Christians share a common set of value, i.e., the ten Commandments, but those are frequently violated and don't really impact non-Christians unless they share our bible.  Throughout Western history we have many examples of philosophers discussing the concept of good and evil.  To some extent these ideas are ingrained in the culture unless of course you ignore them.  There are alternate philosophies like nihilism that encompass the might makes right theory since life is meaningless.

So where I expect values like truth, justice and the American way, I don't always get it.  In fact, the American way is disputed.  Working hard to suppress opposing viewpoints seems like an underhanded tactic, but it has had success when you see how districts have been created that shift power.

So is the goal of life to win or is it how you play the game?  I grew up thinking it was the latter but that is not the shared value I thought it was.  

Maybe we need more immigrants to stock shelves?

 People are posting pictures of empty shelves on the internet.  Now, depending on where you live and when you visit your supermarket, there was always a chance you would see an empty shelve, especially after a weekend where the store was busy.  Monday was a day when shelves got restocked.  It was never considered a crisis but now it is being portrayed as one.  

There are plenty of articles being published but only those issued by biased news outlets depict this as some sort of crisis.  The main reasons, outside of the normal one where stores want to sell everything on the shelves during busy periods, is staff shartages and supply chain issues.

Maybe it's a sign of our prosperity or a sign of the falling birth rate or a lack of immigrants but stores are facing labor shortages.  Stocking shelves is not the most desirable of jobs, but we used to have enough part timers to do it.  Not so much anymore it seems.  I did this job when I was in high school for a while and besides paying you poorly, they used to make you deduct fees for things you were unlikely to ever use, like union pensions.  Still, it was a job.  between prosperity and the Pandemic, it seems like they don't pay enough.

Similarly, deliveries to the stores are less reliable.  Omicron has spread so quickly that disruptions are inevitable.  I've not experienced many empty shelves, but I also have opted to use delivery primarily and sometimes they can't find something.  They generaly can find a substitute product but it is at most an inconvenience, not a crisis.

If you are old enough, we used to talk about the Soviet Union's failure to have supermarkets like we did and do.  They had real supply problems we have people out sick.

Don't Look!

 I guess if you listen to the negative nellies on right wing media you might think the country has a long list of problems.  i don't see it.  Like any country we have things to deal with, like taxes and budgets, but those are not in crises.  Some might report them like they are, they just aren't.

Is our Democracy in trouble?  Well, I doubt it, I can't imagine most Americans have any interest in getting rid of it.  In fact, the list of issues seems manipulated, probably by foreign entities.  As a nation we tend to rely way too much on immediate feedback from social media.  Social media is very flawed and maybe it deserves to be called a crisis.  Probably not, maybe we just need to ignore it more.

Climate change is the only real issue we need to deal with.  or it will deal with us.  We also had the Pandemic but in the long run it isn't really a threat to our existence like climate change is.

There is movie on Netflix which while a bit exaggerated shows how politics and profit motive can impact doing what we need to do to survive. It's called "Don't Look Up" and is about a scientific discovery that threatens all of us.

You would like to think that we could put the good of everyone ahead of the interests of a few.

Can we?

Build for the Future

 The next few months will give us a true indication of the economy and whether its going to continue its expansion.  It certainly seems likely as the infrastructure jobs hit and life becomes moe normal.  

If we can also get the work to builfd the green projects, we might see a real period of growth similar to the 1950s.

We have perpetual naysayers who despite being wrong most of the time, manage to attract an audience.  They appeal to the people who prefer controversy.  I refuse to accept the argument that a large number of Americans would prefer secession to working out any problems.  I don't think we hve that many real onew except exaggerated ones played up by some media.

Immagration is mostly an issue near the border and even ther not much of one. 

Inflation may be with us a little longer.  We will always have some, but it will return to what is more usual recently.

We have plenty of jobs and wages are going up, The bigger danger might be a shortage of workers.

Social issues seem to be problematic but not really if you get past the hoopla.  Abortion is high on the list but no matter what the Supreme Court does the issue will remain.  It is a ver significant matter to anyone wanting or needing one but that is a pretty small percentage of the population.  The struggle to end racism will continue and people are learning the extent.

At the heart of these issues is a lot of misinformation.  Much of this is as a result of foreign actors using our social media.

We can solve that too.

Needs?

 It would be naive not to realize that some people take advantage of others.  To some extent maybe everyone does.   I sometimes take for granted everyone is aware of things like Maslow's hierarchy of needs but I'm sure that's not true.  Effectively it is a theory that humans have needs that need to satisfied and some are going to be more pressing than others.

The theory has a lot of common sense associated with it as it postulates that humans have to satisfy some needs before they worry about higher level ones.  If you are hungry and cold you are probably not interested in discussing philosophy.

I don't want to oversimplify the theory, but the commonsense part is that when you are really hungry the only thing on your mind is getting food.  Satisfying those needs opens the door for "higher" level development such as social and intellectual needs.  

Human behavior is complex, but it is also something we are all familiar with.  There are also times when certain other factors influence it.  Parental feelings can cause you to ignore your own basic needs to those of your children.

One thing the hierarchy tells us is that those with unfulfilled basic needs will try to satisfy them without considering higher level issues like social norms.  It also tells us that if all basic creature needs are satisfied humanity can move up and on. 

Should needs be denied as policy forcing many to take any jobs to survive or should they have those needs satisfied so they can participate more freely in higher level activities?  This question is one of the basic issues in our politics.

Checks and Balances?

 Some states have provisions for direct input by the citizens.  California has a referendum process where initiatives get put on the ballot for the citizens to decide.  While many states have them, California has had some of the most controversial and publicized ones (proposition 13 comes to mind).  

They are of course very political and can lead to outcomes that might be problematic.  Great Britain put Brexit to a popular vote and against most odds it passed forcing ongoing issues with separating from the European Union.

This is a good example of the porblems with the process.  Some issues can be too complex for the average person to fully understand. The appeal of Brexit was to eliminate European requirements and let the English be ruled by themselves.  Of couse the downside of the vote was the loss of significant markets.  

Whether British politicians understood all the issues is doubtful but like us partisan politics leads to certain decisions despite the facts.

We don't have Federal Referendums which is a bit of a shame.  Some things could probably be fixed such as the Electoral College.  

The system of checks and balances we learned about is really just protection for states with unpopular policies.  When it was established, it protected Slavery. It balanced or checked the will of the majority with hard to overcome requirements.

It's not democracy.

America Moving On

Countries exist because people created them.  Sometimes its mostly a historical accident or a product of geography.  Each country has its own unique history but none of them exist because of the land they occupy.  there are natural boundaries such as mountain ranges, but without the people they are just features.

America is the country the people make it today not what it was when it was founded or 30 years ago.  As the people change so will America.  Some like to argue that the country is what they imagine it was.  Generally, they have a Norman Rockwell sort of America.  That America sort of existed for a certain percentage of Americans, but not all of them.  I doubt it existed for a majority.

Many others had a totally different experience especially considering the problems faced by the country and its peoples.  American values existed but how they were applied varied based on who you were and where you lived.  Poor white people impacted by the Dust Bowl were having problems and weren't welcome everywhere.  

America today is prosperous and growing.  Some Americans resent the success and gains of groups traditionally disadvantaged in this country.  They want to revert to those good old days.  

They can't, things move forward, even if the advance is slow and faltering at times.  

Expose the Ringleaders

 A year ago, today we saw an attack on the US Capitol motivated by political unrest based upon a lie about the election.  The videos clearly show violent acts and forceful displays I never associated with this country, just coups in thir world countries.  You can try to ignore the videos but even if many people in D.C that day didn't participate in the worst of the violence, they aided and abeted those who did.   

Some are trying to compare this to what happened during protests over Black Live Matter.  There is no doubt that during the BLM marches some took advantage to loot.  The looters took advantage of a situation to steal things they wanted.  We call them criminals.

Those attempting to overthrow he results of a lawful election are traitors.  It's also becoming clear that the actions of Jan 6 were planned, organized and encouraged by certain elected politicians.  While peaceful protests over racial injustice are supported by many people, no one claims the looting was justified pr didn't happen.

We spent a lot of time a few years ago trying to assign blame for Benghazi, an attack on our embassy by foreign terrorists.  We owe our democracy as much if not more.

Voting is A Right!

 Is voting a right or a privilege?  I think most of us would agree it's a right but recently we see it being treated as a privilege you have to earn.  They did this after the Civil War and even made people pay a poll tax which was eventually found illegal.  The idea was that only certain people should vote so a way of life could be preserved.

There is no doubt that over the years the country has changed as we have expanded.  Many more people are now eligible to vote including women.  Why they couldn't vote originally is related to historical and in some cases biblical beliefs about how independent they should be.  

We are no longer the country that was founded which primarily represented the interests of property-owning white men.  This was pretty much the situation in the parent country although there you had nobles to deal with.  

The first big breakthrough was the election of Andrew Jackson, a representative of the common man.  He was by the time he was elected a wealthy plantation owner, but he came from common stock.  This was, to some extent the first populist President and the conflict between Populism and the establishment is an ongoing thread in American history.

Going back to the original question, populism rose because the right to vote was inalienable.  It allowed the common man to be heard.  Restrictions on voting today is odd since its being pushed by people who might be called populists because they oppose the establishment.  

We should not allow the right to vote to be abridged in this country   It is probably our most fundamental right.

Smoke and Fire

 One of the difficult things to decide is how to react to people who simply don't follow the normal rules of behavior.  One of the things that happens in a society is that by being outrageous you make the outrageous seem normal.

This can be both good and bad depending on the issue.  Take an issue that most of us now agree with, Gay Marriage.  It almost seems like it was always something we should agree with, but 50 years ago we generally did not.  The generally accepted view was that marriage was between a man and a woman.  Even our progressive or at least liberal population generally felt that way.  

However, the more we talked about it and had people arguing it was the right thing to do the more the idea shifted from a fringe position to a middle position and now a mainstream position. Very little ele has changed, simply societies view of it.  Could it move the other way?  Unlikely but possible.  We still have a fairly sizable contingency that feels it violates the will of God and attitudes can shift.

This has been used effectively in many countries over the years.  The shift to a more liberal or a more conservative position by society possible by public manipulation.  In the years before World War 1, most German people accepted, and frequented stores or businesses owned by Jewish people.  There was a lot of antisemitism in Europe and Germany, but it didn't result in actual policy.  The NAZIs changed that and eventually the isolation, round up, and extermination of the Jewish population happened with only minor resistance.  They were able to take an idea that most Germans would have considered barbaric and implement it.  

It was a lesson that some have learned too well.  Lie upon lie works.  Look how many Americans believe there was widespread fraud in the last election.  This lie has simply been repeated so often that it seems normal to many.  The lesson is simply that by making it sound mainstream, it can become mainstream.

Reality for most people is what they are told by authorities and media.  Making outrageous accusations is more effective than you might think.  People like to think where there is smoke there's fire.  

Not always.

Where are the Flying Cars?

 Its 2022 and I can remember when that sort of date was considered Buck Rodgers territory.

When Science Fiction writers considered the future, they tended to think in the terms they were familiar with.  Space exploration would be similar to our age of exploration where early discoveries were followed by actual colonization.  

They tended to underestimate the cost of such a thing and the difficulty of settling on a hostile planet.

While some of the things they imagined might be possible, no one wants to pay for them or live in them considering an error is disastrous leaving you on a hostile planet without much expectation of help.

Despite science fiction imaginings, we can only travel through space similar to how we travel on earth, one mile at a time, making trips to other solar systems or galaxies incredibly difficult.

It might seem like a good thing theoretically but in practice we don't see any profit in it nor any real military advantage.

I'm in favor of exploring Space and the unknown but I think we need to figure out a benefit besides curiosity to justify it. Maybe mining will make it worthwhile if in fact there is anything we could mine profitably.

It doesn't seem any closer now than it did back when we were writing the Sci Fi stories.

Its not enough Science for the Fiction.

Economy and Labor

 I was watching a news show the other day and they have a section about where to get the cheapest gas around here.  Not sure if driving 40 miles to save a few cents a gallon is worth it but they do it every day.  The news caster pointed out that gas prices have been going down a bit, but she told us they would be shooting up again shortly.  

She cited no authority just that some economists feel that way. Maybe they will or maybe they won't but maybe she should report facts instead of speculation?

I'm not in favor of reporters simply parroting Government press releases, but I see very little of that.  The economy has been a very good story this year with a few areas of concern.  Housing prices and gas both went up significantly.  While gasoline impacts a lot of us, the causes of that are unrelated to any policies.  Oil production went offline when prices collapsed because of less demand, and it is slower amping up.  Housing is another story but you are only impacted by that if you are buying.  

I'm sure that we will be hearing about rampant inflation until the next election but a lot of that will be propaganda.  There is mostly positive developments related to inflation, but it will take time to reduce the year over year increase.  I admit there is a possibility that we will have continuing inflation related to labor costs, but that hasn't appeared yet.

We may have a period of catching up as labor costs have been effectively stagnant for years.  I'm in favor of working people getting paid fairly, even if my Burger costs 10 cents more.  

Happy New Year

 Happy New Year and there is every reason to believe it will be a good one.

The economy seems to be stronger than it has been in years.  We do have to get over the new variant, but in all honesty the reports as they come in indicate that vaccinated people are likely to have a mild case from Omicron.  Word to the wise, protect yourself.  

Some of the measures we took are effective against other infectious diseases, like the flu so we may see the wearing of masks for a while.  

While there are worldwide issues we are no longer engaged in the war in Afghanistan and the political opponents who predict it will be disastrous are hoping it will be.  I don't think that any of these nations are going to be our friends, but I am cautiously optimistic that we can co-exist in peace. 

The Affordable Care Act seems safe and can possibly be expanded.

The biggest issue we face and have face is climate change.  The impacts from that are global and we need to be the leader in becoming carbon neutral.  

That will give us a bit of a head start on technologies of the future.