Political Lies

 Some of the things people are willing to believe are simply unbelievable.  In the Ohio Senate race one of the candidates apparently thinks the census reported that more people voted then were registered to vote, thereby proving election fraud.  No such report exists, the census didn't make that claim and the facts show nothing close to that.  Most of the other Republican candidates still support the idea that the last Presential election was stolen, trying to get endorsed.

This is not the most blatant lie currently, although it is close.  The accusations fired at our Supreme Court nominee were mostly based on nothing except a desire to get sound bites.  A certain number of Americans will believe them anyway.

Free Speech is one of our great freedoms but seeing it get abused like this makes you wonder if we need stronger libel and slander laws.  Free Speech protects the speakers right to say what he wants, but does it protect him from answering for his lies?

Reform in this area is unlikely, we have too many impediments to progress.

Lying is very important to some politicians.

Living Throughout History

 I was reding a forum today where a question was asked about the Middle Ages being depressing.  It wasn't except when it was.  This answer applies to all periods and all people everywhere.

Today I woke up made something to eat and considered the weather.  I would like to cut back some dead brush around the property but whether I do not that or not depends on the potential rain and how I feel later.  This is not much different than what people have done throughout history except when they were caught up in larger events.

We look at history and focus on the events that might have changed a monarch or led to a war.  Meanwhile in the thousands of years of our history, once individuals ended up in an agrarian life, it generally was about the same everywhere for everyone except when you were caught up in unusual events.  

People tend to focus on what is normal.  Yes, they might be in the way of invading armies or Viking (fill in the raider of your choice) raids but those were a horrible and rare event.  When they were over people picked up the pieces and went about their life.

Our view of the middle ages or even the dark ages is distorted by events that impacted some people horribly but weren't as much of a factor as we think  

Mostly they got up, did the work that needed to be done and hopefully had an uneventful work filled day.

It's what many aspire to today.

Spring Is a Gift

 My backyard is full of birds much of the year but in the spring I have the most.  Right outside my kitchen window is a tree in bloom that attracts feeding birds.  I'm not sure if they eat the blooms or insects attracted to the blooms but there's enough traffic to suggest the food supply is fairly plentiful and constant.

When you see them up close you can see how they are related to how dinosaurs are depicted.  No one ever actually saw  dinosaur, if you exclude birds.  Still our scientists have rendered depictions and recovered fossils giving us a good idea of what they looked like.

Think about how long life has existed on this planet?  Every year, whatever life was here the solar energy and the soil nutrients provided food for all life here.  It has varied and the food chains have chainged but it still continues to provide,

For much of its history humankind did not exist.  We seem to be trying to eliminate us again.  Take care of the earth and we can last as long as the birds have.  

Or not.

Peasantry Reborn!

 Let's be as clear as possible about the future envisioned by the Republican party, the deserving people have good jobs, nice homes and everyone else works for them and struggles to survive with no backup Government programs.

They may envision multiple levels of need but the image they hold to is that of the London described by Charles Dickens where the poor were forced to work for almost nothing while well off Britons lived well.

They seldom say it out loud although recently Republican Senator Rick Scott published the plans and while he outlines an agenda to tax ordinary Americans and eliminate social programs, he continues to lie about it. 

Even radical right media can read and he can't count of the fact that a majority of Americans don't normally read the news.

Understand that the vast majority of us are relegated in their minds to the "working" classs, fully dependent on our employers.  

It allows the right people to live the good life and we get whatever trickles down.

Progress Will Win

 Change is the one thing we can be certain of.  The world's climate has changed pretty dramatically within human history.  It was the receding of the last Ice age that coincided with the spread of homo sapiens and the decline of Neanderthals. 

Were they related?  Well, it seems like they should be but I don't know if we actually know.  They clearly coexisted for some period of time and while looking back at the history would indicate a fairly quick transition, it still would have lasted a fair number of lifetimes.

During any transition period, you have the new mixing with the old.  The old will inevitably give way to the new but they might try to fight back.  We see that today in America and with some success.  However the wave of change will eventually wash them out of the way and a better more fair America will emerge.

Just might be delayed.

Compete for?

 Winston Churchill reportedly said that Democracy s the worst form of Government except for all the others we have tried.

Democracy, by its definition. serves the will of the majority and leaves the minority unhappy.  Now this is not completely true since even the losers in our form can have significant representation and influence

Our system allows the minority to impede legislation and bring progress to a standstill. The other wasy to look at that is that it doesn't allow reckless proposals to pass.

The most common outcome we suffer through is a reaction to the last winners of dissatisfaction.  This leads to a change in the majority.  This generally doesn't fix the issues.

It has led both parties to focus on winning, which is normal.  However what are they winning?   

Oil Capitalism.

 The price of gas is high dues to a whole lot of factors, but hardly any related to Government policies.  Oil companies got devastated when the pandemic hit as demand dropped along with prices, devaluing the inventory.  Further the oil they were producing cost more to produce then they could sell it for.

Oil company took a hit on their bottom line and their stock price.  While consumers liked the prices that resulted, it wasn't the price that could sustain the oil company profits.

When the pandemic eased and demand shot up there wasn't enough supply, so prices increased. This is basic economics. This should be self-correcting as oil companies increase production but after getting burnt and unwilling to risk more shutdowns the wells lay idle.  What they were already producing was demanding premium prices and starting up more wells wasn't going to help they're bottom line.

It's not price gouging it is simple economics and profit margins.  where more wells would lead to reduce profits on curent supply.  

That's Capitalism!