Monday, December 30, 2019
Smart Train
Our local paper prints many letters from people who are angry because the Smart Train, which runs parallel to 101, isn't profitable. They don't understand that trains need subsidies. 101 isn't profitable, either.
Sunday, December 29, 2019
Afraid to Die?
When my mother was dying, I asked if she was afraid. "No," she said. There was a bit of scorn in her voice. She was about 73, and with luck she might have had another ten or fifteen years.
The question is fundamental. I've been more lucky. I'm old now, and a family member recently asked me the same question.
When I was young I absolutely did not want to die or even think about it. Now--and I am healthy and active--I live in a country that many of the people I care about have departed. Packing it in looks like a natural event, good enough for anyone. No worries.
also on Facebook
The question is fundamental. I've been more lucky. I'm old now, and a family member recently asked me the same question.
When I was young I absolutely did not want to die or even think about it. Now--and I am healthy and active--I live in a country that many of the people I care about have departed. Packing it in looks like a natural event, good enough for anyone. No worries.
also on Facebook
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Seizing the Children of the Poor
tRump was not the first tyrant to take children from their mothers and cage them. In the Old Testament Job speaks of men who "seize in pledge the child of the poor." This renders the parents instantly helpless.
But the American President is unlikely to have read a book. We know he's unfamiliar with the Bible. A Satanic angel, familiar with Job, might have proposed this plan to the old flab, perhaps Stephen Miller.
But the American President is unlikely to have read a book. We know he's unfamiliar with the Bible. A Satanic angel, familiar with Job, might have proposed this plan to the old flab, perhaps Stephen Miller.
Old White Man
In the polling so far, the Democrats (especially people of color) seem set on nominating an old white man. That bias, I suspect, emerges in part from the fact that tRump is an old white man. Old white men win!
That's how limited our thinking is. And I support Bernie.
also on Facebook
Friday, December 27, 2019
tRump's End
From the Book of Job
"Though his summit go up to the sky,
and his head reach up to the clouds,
He will disappear like his dung for all time;
Those who've seen him will say, "Where is he?"
trans: Edward Greenstein
(from Facebook)
"Though his summit go up to the sky,
and his head reach up to the clouds,
He will disappear like his dung for all time;
Those who've seen him will say, "Where is he?"
trans: Edward Greenstein
(from Facebook)
Thursday, December 26, 2019
Fear
Andrew Goofimann (name changed to protect those with borderline personality disorder) is a rustic who has published more than a thousand letters-to-the-editor to a weekly newspaper that prints nything. His letters are fact-free deliveries of word salad.
"Gavin Newsom is the worst liberal in the country. The whole state is run by Democrats and look at the filthy rotten things that have happened here and the stupid rules in the stupid regulations and the stupid asinine democrat liberal anti-American Communist ideas we have in California. Yeah! Beyond description filthy dirty rotten people. God bless Donald Trump" etc. That is Goofimann at his mildest.
My guess is that Goofimann doesn't have electricity in the shed I picture as his home. He has lots of daylight hours, a bottle of Thunderbird, no friends or family and, like Trump, nothing to do. He seems driven by a terrible fear of reality. Like the President, he is a victim, in his own eyes a brave soldier but actually a whiny loser who keeps losing.
Like Donaldo Trump, Goofimann hopes his words will change things in California, which has a larger economy than Russia. Yet he insists California is mired in ruin.
Trump also hopes that his words can create a new reality--one in which he's okay. If you inherit 400 million dollars, that might seem kind of possible until you encounter people you can't buy.
(from Facebook)
"Gavin Newsom is the worst liberal in the country. The whole state is run by Democrats and look at the filthy rotten things that have happened here and the stupid rules in the stupid regulations and the stupid asinine democrat liberal anti-American Communist ideas we have in California. Yeah! Beyond description filthy dirty rotten people. God bless Donald Trump" etc. That is Goofimann at his mildest.
My guess is that Goofimann doesn't have electricity in the shed I picture as his home. He has lots of daylight hours, a bottle of Thunderbird, no friends or family and, like Trump, nothing to do. He seems driven by a terrible fear of reality. Like the President, he is a victim, in his own eyes a brave soldier but actually a whiny loser who keeps losing.
Like Donaldo Trump, Goofimann hopes his words will change things in California, which has a larger economy than Russia. Yet he insists California is mired in ruin.
Trump also hopes that his words can create a new reality--one in which he's okay. If you inherit 400 million dollars, that might seem kind of possible until you encounter people you can't buy.
(from Facebook)
Monday, December 23, 2019
RasPutin
Voter suppression is as American as the Lindy Hop. The Founders set up our first vote in a way that allowed less than a third of the adults in the nation to participate. They even barred some working-class white men.
Since then we’ve seen the franchise expanded to include women and people of color, and we’ve seen countermeasures like Jim Crow. The goal of the countermeasures has usually been to keep who gets to vote down to a relatively small, white number.
Saturday, December 21, 2019
Free College
My son-in-law explained this. Mayor Pete has mocked Elizabeth Warren's plan to provide free college for all Americans. Mayor Pete asks, Why should the tax payer offer free education to the children of the rich? They can afford to pay.
Mayor Pete has warned us. If we don't charge the rich for college, they will soon be demanding free high school.
( Also on Facebook)
Mayor Pete has warned us. If we don't charge the rich for college, they will soon be demanding free high school.
( Also on Facebook)
Thursday, December 19, 2019
Feeling Sad about Impeachment
I chaired three Democratic clubs in my life, but today I am an independent voter. One reason is that the elected leaders of the party lie a lot. Yesterday they told us how sad they were that President Flabbimann had to be impeached. One by one they appeared on TV with long horse faces. Nancy Pelosi gravely claimed to be saddest of all.
This weepy faux-Christian sorrow is obviously unreal. Impeaching a son-of-a-bitch who stripped children from their parents at the border and then caged the children and let them suffer from neglect is a rare moment for joy. I felt like dancing in the street.
If Pelosi and the others aren't happy, then they are as sick as Flabbimann. Fortunately for all of us, they actually are delighted. Elected Democrats have a new spring in their steps. They aren't idiots. But they are lying, and we can't trust liars.
When they tell us how sad impeachment has made them, they are faking, which is a fairly standard strategy and the reason politicians are generally thought of with contempt by anyone who can admit what she is feeling.
This weepy faux-Christian sorrow is obviously unreal. Impeaching a son-of-a-bitch who stripped children from their parents at the border and then caged the children and let them suffer from neglect is a rare moment for joy. I felt like dancing in the street.
If Pelosi and the others aren't happy, then they are as sick as Flabbimann. Fortunately for all of us, they actually are delighted. Elected Democrats have a new spring in their steps. They aren't idiots. But they are lying, and we can't trust liars.
When they tell us how sad impeachment has made them, they are faking, which is a fairly standard strategy and the reason politicians are generally thought of with contempt by anyone who can admit what she is feeling.
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
The Winner in 2020
Experts say that in 2020 each major party will support its own candidate for President at the same level, about 85%.
The Democratic party is larger.
The Republican party has better turn-out.
The Democratic party turn-out will decide the election. If the Dems nominate someone who enthuses their base, they will win. If the Dems register many new young voters, they will win.
The Democratic base is women and people of color (many working class), well educated people and young voters. It's a guess as to which candidate will interest them, but I doubt if it will be the 1990s Joe Biden or someone whose first name is Mayor.
The Democratic party is larger.
The Republican party has better turn-out.
The Democratic party turn-out will decide the election. If the Dems nominate someone who enthuses their base, they will win. If the Dems register many new young voters, they will win.
The Democratic base is women and people of color (many working class), well educated people and young voters. It's a guess as to which candidate will interest them, but I doubt if it will be the 1990s Joe Biden or someone whose first name is Mayor.
Friday, December 13, 2019
New Landia
This week President Flabbimann generously made my wife the citizen of a new nation he invented with an executive order. He gave the nation no name, so I will (temporarily) call it New Landia.
Flabbimann, an anti-Semite who thinks Jews make the best accountants, issued an order redefining American Jews as a nationality, whether their families came from Poland, China, Ethiopia or Ukraine (in my wife's case). My wife now has dual citizenship in New Landia and the United States.
Those who follow politics know that American Jews support Democrats over Republicans by about a 2-1 margin. Yet it is a Republican who has issued an order that will punish colleges that allow criticism of Isreal or support for Palestinians.
This is mostly a dispute about what can be said on campus about the policies of the government of Israel. The Leader of the Free World has attempted to confine that discussion under Title VI, which strips funds from colleges that allow verbal or physical attacks based on race, color and nationality.
Everyone knows that American Jews are not a race or color, so the President concluded that they must be a nation. Israel seems to be the first nation on the President's university no-blame list, but we can probably expect national additions like Turkey and North Korea.
Meanwhile anti-Semites murdered Jews shopping in a store in Jersey City.
(The size of the type above changed itself and remains out of my control)
Flabbimann, an anti-Semite who thinks Jews make the best accountants, issued an order redefining American Jews as a nationality, whether their families came from Poland, China, Ethiopia or Ukraine (in my wife's case). My wife now has dual citizenship in New Landia and the United States.
Those who follow politics know that American Jews support Democrats over Republicans by about a 2-1 margin. Yet it is a Republican who has issued an order that will punish colleges that allow criticism of Isreal or support for Palestinians.
This is mostly a dispute about what can be said on campus about the policies of the government of Israel. The Leader of the Free World has attempted to confine that discussion under Title VI, which strips funds from colleges that allow verbal or physical attacks based on race, color and nationality.
Everyone knows that American Jews are not a race or color, so the President concluded that they must be a nation. Israel seems to be the first nation on the President's university no-blame list, but we can probably expect national additions like Turkey and North Korea.
Meanwhile anti-Semites murdered Jews shopping in a store in Jersey City.
(The size of the type above changed itself and remains out of my control)
Thursday, December 12, 2019
Loser
We've had crooked Presidents before. What makes tRump different is the level of his skills. The man is crooked, delusional and incompetent--the attributes of a loser who is in and out of prison all his adult life, because he's too mentally disabled to get away with much.
tRump is that bum, but he inherited 400 million dollars. What a difference that makes! Leader of the Free World!
tRump is that bum, but he inherited 400 million dollars. What a difference that makes! Leader of the Free World!
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
FEMA
In a bankruptcy proceeding, PGE has agreed to pay 13.5 billion dollars to people who took losses in California fires that PGE started.
FEMA has announced that, for the first time in history, it wants to be reimbursed. It wants to be repaid for the money it spent in California to help during the fire season. tRump wants about a quarter of PGEs 13.5 billion, which would otherwise go to fire victims who likely didn't vote for him.
Most California fires have been declared acts of God. Will FEMA seek reimbursement from California churches? Have these churches neglected to harden their lines to the Deity?
FEMA has announced that, for the first time in history, it wants to be reimbursed. It wants to be repaid for the money it spent in California to help during the fire season. tRump wants about a quarter of PGEs 13.5 billion, which would otherwise go to fire victims who likely didn't vote for him.
Most California fires have been declared acts of God. Will FEMA seek reimbursement from California churches? Have these churches neglected to harden their lines to the Deity?
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg, the most corporate of Democrats, sitting on 50 billion, is attempting to frighten the party into nominating him. His claim is that the other candidates are too weak or impractical or too far left to win. He correctly reads the current Democratic leadership as craven on progressive issues.
Bloomberg, given how young people and people of color view him, is unlikely to win the nomination, but he might pile up enough delegate votes to become a factor in a brokered convention (along with the centrist superdelegates). That might be his goal.
Bloomberg, given how young people and people of color view him, is unlikely to win the nomination, but he might pile up enough delegate votes to become a factor in a brokered convention (along with the centrist superdelegates). That might be his goal.
Monday, December 9, 2019
Baked-in Racism
The Corporate Democrat, our newspaper in Santa Rosa, ran an op-ed article with the headline "Working Class Doesn't Want Grand Plans." What followed was an argument that we badly need the working class to become the backbone of the Democratic party again (plus the usual centrist attacks on planners Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders). "The alienation of working stiffs elected Donald Trump" etc.
What marks the corporate centrists (aside from their use of terms like "working stiffs," which they probably learned in some Yale graduate course on the songs of the Lincoln Battalion) is their use of "working class" to mean "white working class." There already exists a large cohort of committed working class Democrats--but with these columnists and papers they don't count. They aren't white enough. (The racism is baked in.)
What marks the corporate centrists (aside from their use of terms like "working stiffs," which they probably learned in some Yale graduate course on the songs of the Lincoln Battalion) is their use of "working class" to mean "white working class." There already exists a large cohort of committed working class Democrats--but with these columnists and papers they don't count. They aren't white enough. (The racism is baked in.)
Sunday, December 8, 2019
The Peak Population
In 1969 we worried that the world's population would continue to grow until the planet became uninhabitable. Since then the world population has more than doubled.
Today scientists say that the worldwide birthrate of children per mother has fallen from 5 children each to 2.5 children each since 1960. The drop is attributed to education. Scientists say that sometime around 2100, our population should peak at about 11 million and level out. The predicted world birthrate for 2100 is 1.9 children per mother.
Today scientists say that the worldwide birthrate of children per mother has fallen from 5 children each to 2.5 children each since 1960. The drop is attributed to education. Scientists say that sometime around 2100, our population should peak at about 11 million and level out. The predicted world birthrate for 2100 is 1.9 children per mother.
Saturday, December 7, 2019
Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi, a product of the old Burton machine in San Francisco (and holder of what was once Phil Burton's congressional seat), has said a lot in her overly long political career.
I'll remember Pelosi mostly for her comment that the President "is not worth impeaching." She said this after the children President Flabbimann had caged on the border had begun to die of neglect, after the President's greedy success in enriching himself at government expense had become obvious, after Flabbimann's allegiance to Putin's Russian kleptocracy had moved the entire Republican party into subservience to a foreign autocrat.
Pelosi's main concern, disguised in a variety of television commentaries, was to retain her own power in the House. Then events and a rebelling Democratic party forced her to begin impeachment proceedings against the loony criminal bent on destroying western civilization. For this very late start, much praise will be heaped on Peolosi this weekend by the corporate liberals of MSNBC. She is--like Hillary--their notion of a hero.
I'll remember Pelosi mostly for her comment that the President "is not worth impeaching." She said this after the children President Flabbimann had caged on the border had begun to die of neglect, after the President's greedy success in enriching himself at government expense had become obvious, after Flabbimann's allegiance to Putin's Russian kleptocracy had moved the entire Republican party into subservience to a foreign autocrat.
Pelosi's main concern, disguised in a variety of television commentaries, was to retain her own power in the House. Then events and a rebelling Democratic party forced her to begin impeachment proceedings against the loony criminal bent on destroying western civilization. For this very late start, much praise will be heaped on Peolosi this weekend by the corporate liberals of MSNBC. She is--like Hillary--their notion of a hero.
Friday, December 6, 2019
The Never Trumpers
The Republican party did not suddenly degenerate in 2015.
In the 1950s Republicans called Dean Acheson--a devoted Cold Warrior--a pinko. Harry Truman was accused of being soft on Communism. Relentless polarization increased. JFK beat Nixon by running to his right on foreign policy.
Now consider our current never-trumpers Bill Kristol and Steve Schmidt, who have quit the Republican party and denounced the President.
Why can't a host ask them about their own contributions to the mess we are in? Kristal and Schmidt are the pros who talked John McCain into nominating Sarah Palin--a then unknown, radical-right moron--for Vice President.
At the time they were intent on encouraging the loony wing that was finally coming to power in the Republican party. Kristal and Schmidt, George W. Bush, Paul Ryan and other corporate types set the stage for someone like Flabbimann. He is the culmination of a 60-year program. The never-trumpers try not to think about it, but they share the blame.
In the 1950s Republicans called Dean Acheson--a devoted Cold Warrior--a pinko. Harry Truman was accused of being soft on Communism. Relentless polarization increased. JFK beat Nixon by running to his right on foreign policy.
Now consider our current never-trumpers Bill Kristol and Steve Schmidt, who have quit the Republican party and denounced the President.
Why can't a host ask them about their own contributions to the mess we are in? Kristal and Schmidt are the pros who talked John McCain into nominating Sarah Palin--a then unknown, radical-right moron--for Vice President.
At the time they were intent on encouraging the loony wing that was finally coming to power in the Republican party. Kristal and Schmidt, George W. Bush, Paul Ryan and other corporate types set the stage for someone like Flabbimann. He is the culmination of a 60-year program. The never-trumpers try not to think about it, but they share the blame.
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
Jimtown
The Jimtown store is closing in December. They made the best chocolate pudding I've tasted. Jimtown has been a welcome stop for bicycle riders pedaling in isolated wine country.
The place has always been strange--I was never certain how to order food there. But the food was good. And the store sat next to the gateway to Pine Flat.
The place has always been strange--I was never certain how to order food there. But the food was good. And the store sat next to the gateway to Pine Flat.
wolf and man
In the middle 1960s I brought home a small wolf pup to raise, which surprised my young wife.
Wolves are not very dangerous. In the recorded history of the United States, there is no documented case of wild wolves killing a human. You can't say that for, say, deer.
Our pup had a fine coat of blacks, silvers and red-brown parts. We took him to a zoo to make sure what he was, a legitimate southern wolf, although I don't suppose there was such a thing in those days as a wolf with no dog genes in him. Wolves and dogs interbreed and produce young.
My wolf clearly believed that other dogs and other wolves were the same thing.
The pup adopted me as his family leader, I think. He would groom me by licking the top of my head until my hair was sopping with wolf saliva.
I accepted him for what he was, a wolf, and did not attempt to change him. That might have been the key to our relationship. I'm grateful for our time together.
The wolf was the first animal people domesticated and the only large predator. Maybe the wolf came first because it was the easiest (I did it myself). Wolves and people lived in similar family structures. There's speculation that ancient wolves and ancient people may have camped near one another and teamed up informally on hunts. They both liked to eat horses. A few wolves hanging around campfires may have tamed themselves in exchange for food.
If you're afraid of bears (and you should be) there's nothing like adding some wolves to your camp perimeter defense. The only time I saw my wolf enraged was the one time he came across a bear, whom he instantly hated with all his heart.
Wolves are not very dangerous. In the recorded history of the United States, there is no documented case of wild wolves killing a human. You can't say that for, say, deer.
Our pup had a fine coat of blacks, silvers and red-brown parts. We took him to a zoo to make sure what he was, a legitimate southern wolf, although I don't suppose there was such a thing in those days as a wolf with no dog genes in him. Wolves and dogs interbreed and produce young.
My wolf clearly believed that other dogs and other wolves were the same thing.
The pup adopted me as his family leader, I think. He would groom me by licking the top of my head until my hair was sopping with wolf saliva.
I accepted him for what he was, a wolf, and did not attempt to change him. That might have been the key to our relationship. I'm grateful for our time together.
The wolf was the first animal people domesticated and the only large predator. Maybe the wolf came first because it was the easiest (I did it myself). Wolves and people lived in similar family structures. There's speculation that ancient wolves and ancient people may have camped near one another and teamed up informally on hunts. They both liked to eat horses. A few wolves hanging around campfires may have tamed themselves in exchange for food.
If you're afraid of bears (and you should be) there's nothing like adding some wolves to your camp perimeter defense. The only time I saw my wolf enraged was the one time he came across a bear, whom he instantly hated with all his heart.
Sunday, December 1, 2019
The Automatic Voter
Most American voters are automatic. That is, they always vote Republican. Or they always vote Democratic. They don't have to think about it. I suspect that the results of automatic voting are as positive or negative, on the whole, as the results of careful voting by independents who take the time to read and think for themselves.
Automatic support for a party is a time-saving shortcut.
Our two major political parties have different roles, of course. The Republican party of today exists to transfer money from poor people to the 1%. It uses racism and sexism to accomplish that. The Democratic voters of today are a composite of outsiders. The leadership is there to provide jobs for itself and maybe attempt to improve the lot of the middle class a bit if it's no trouble. So I vote--as an independent--for Democrats.
Automatic support for a party is a time-saving shortcut.
Our two major political parties have different roles, of course. The Republican party of today exists to transfer money from poor people to the 1%. It uses racism and sexism to accomplish that. The Democratic voters of today are a composite of outsiders. The leadership is there to provide jobs for itself and maybe attempt to improve the lot of the middle class a bit if it's no trouble. So I vote--as an independent--for Democrats.
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
The Sky
Imagine that there's a large nation in West Asia ruled by El Supremo, an authoritarian decision-maker. Everyone obeys him (for now). Or at least it looks--from a distance--as if everyone obeys him.
El Supremo's qualification for holding a position of central importance for 8o million people is that he's the world's leading expert on an imaginary friend in the sky. This spirit in the sky apparently cares deeply about what humans eat and how they have intercourse and how many times each day they face the east and how they comb their hair. (Not even El Supremo can say why. )
El Supremo's qualification for holding a position of central importance for 8o million people is that he's the world's leading expert on an imaginary friend in the sky. This spirit in the sky apparently cares deeply about what humans eat and how they have intercourse and how many times each day they face the east and how they comb their hair. (Not even El Supremo can say why. )
Friday, November 22, 2019
The Biden Meritocracy
I don't know any Bidens, and I don't care to meet one, but I do want to know what laws Hunter Biden has broken. As far as I can tell, he has not been charged with anything illegal in Ukraine.
Bob Barr, tRump's furtive anus-sniffer, has an army of attorneys at his disposal, but he has yet to charge Hunter Biden with a crime in America. The topic never comes up.
It's fair to suspect that Hunter Biden is sleazy in the sense that he is a coddled prince of the oligarchy, but so are a million others. It's legal. It's part of a worldwide meritocratic system, in which merit consists of being born to privilege.
Bob Barr, tRump's furtive anus-sniffer, has an army of attorneys at his disposal, but he has yet to charge Hunter Biden with a crime in America. The topic never comes up.
It's fair to suspect that Hunter Biden is sleazy in the sense that he is a coddled prince of the oligarchy, but so are a million others. It's legal. It's part of a worldwide meritocratic system, in which merit consists of being born to privilege.
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Why We Need More Aircraft Carriers
As of this writing, the United States owns 24 aircraft carriers and helicopter docks. China owns one. It might seem to you that China, a new world power, is catching up. But we have the John F. Kennedy under construction at a cost of less than 17 billion dollars. Soon it will be 25 carriers to 1.
You might wonder why China lags behind with only one aircraft carrier. The answer is that China is a young nation that hasn't figured out war yet. In an age of intercontinental missiles and drones flown from couches in Kansas, China has neglected the building of really expensive, big fat target-boxes that float on water and can race away to safety at 35 mph.
(also on FB)
You might wonder why China lags behind with only one aircraft carrier. The answer is that China is a young nation that hasn't figured out war yet. In an age of intercontinental missiles and drones flown from couches in Kansas, China has neglected the building of really expensive, big fat target-boxes that float on water and can race away to safety at 35 mph.
(also on FB)
Monday, November 18, 2019
The Fate of Pompeo the Coward
According to Herodotus, when Xerxes and his army failed in their attempt to cross the strait between Europe and Turkey, Xerxes ordered his inept bridge builders beheaded and then had red-hot irons heated and used them to brand the incoming tide.
Today President Heelspurs stands ankle deep in an impeachment tide. He's screaming at aides like Pompeo the Coward, because Pompeo can't stop the waters creeping up his boss's swollen legs.
(also on Facebook)
Today President Heelspurs stands ankle deep in an impeachment tide. He's screaming at aides like Pompeo the Coward, because Pompeo can't stop the waters creeping up his boss's swollen legs.
(also on Facebook)
Sunday, November 17, 2019
Those Crazy Democrats
Recently former President Obama frowned darkly on about half of the Democratic coalition. Obama said:
“The average American doesn't think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it. And I think it's important for us not to lose sight of that,” Obama said. “There are a lot of persuadable voters and there are a lot of Democrats out there who just want to see things make sense. They just don't want to see crazy stuff. They want to see things a little more fair, they want to see things a little more just. And how we approach that I think will be important.”
I'm struck by the idea of the average American. That person would be a middle-aged woman of mixed race in her second marriage (in my opinion). She voted twice for Obama.
Perhaps President Obama hopes to unite the Democratic coalition (right wing Democrats, centrists, left wing Democrats, progressive independents, women, youth, minorities, organized labor) behind a slogan like "Make things a little more fair." But will that ignite the voting base and increase turnout? Or might Obama hurt this effort by calling the positions of social democrats like AOC "crazy stuff"? She doesn't seem all that crazy to me. I like her.
“The average American doesn't think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it. And I think it's important for us not to lose sight of that,” Obama said. “There are a lot of persuadable voters and there are a lot of Democrats out there who just want to see things make sense. They just don't want to see crazy stuff. They want to see things a little more fair, they want to see things a little more just. And how we approach that I think will be important.”
I'm struck by the idea of the average American. That person would be a middle-aged woman of mixed race in her second marriage (in my opinion). She voted twice for Obama.
Perhaps President Obama hopes to unite the Democratic coalition (right wing Democrats, centrists, left wing Democrats, progressive independents, women, youth, minorities, organized labor) behind a slogan like "Make things a little more fair." But will that ignite the voting base and increase turnout? Or might Obama hurt this effort by calling the positions of social democrats like AOC "crazy stuff"? She doesn't seem all that crazy to me. I like her.
Friday, November 15, 2019
Why Smear Yovanovitch?
Why did tRump smear Ambassador Yovanovitch? He had the power to replace her at any time and without explanation. The smearing was unnecessary and seemingly pointless. But not, I think, for tRump. His motivation isn't simply that he's grifter. There's a second key: he savors the cruelty. That's half of every decision he makes. It must be cruel.
Thursday, November 14, 2019
The White Country
In October's HARPERS, Lionel Shriver pointed out that the claim that the United States has always been a melting pot is a myth. The idea was that almost anyone could move to this country and fit in. That seldom actually happened unless you came from Europe.
I don't have the exact figures, but 80 years ago, about 85% of Americans were white people of European extraction. More than 10% of us were black; the rest were Asians, Latinos and Amerindians in small numbers.
Today the percentage of white people in America has dropped about 25 points to around 60%.
Global warming is driving people of color into the northern nations. Most of them would rather stay home, but they move to survive. North America and Europe are finally becoming cultural and racial melting pots, and angry resistance to newcomers is one reason tRump got elected. Something big has changed. Diversity is no longer a pretense.
(also on Facebook)
I don't have the exact figures, but 80 years ago, about 85% of Americans were white people of European extraction. More than 10% of us were black; the rest were Asians, Latinos and Amerindians in small numbers.
Today the percentage of white people in America has dropped about 25 points to around 60%.
Global warming is driving people of color into the northern nations. Most of them would rather stay home, but they move to survive. North America and Europe are finally becoming cultural and racial melting pots, and angry resistance to newcomers is one reason tRump got elected. Something big has changed. Diversity is no longer a pretense.
(also on Facebook)
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Kiev and Liev
A few years back I set out to locate the village from which my wife's father's family had emigrated. The story was that they had come from Teteeve in Russia. After much looking and a lot of luck I discovered Tetiev in Ukraine, an appropriately Jewish town, famous in a way for having been destroyed in a pogrom.
If Tetiev is pronounced "Teteeve", then (I reasoned) Kiev is pronounced "Keeve." Today this deduction was confirmed on television by various ambassadors to Ukraine.
Last night Stephen Colbert discussed with actor Liev Schreiber (of Ukrainian extraction) how to pronounce "Liev." The actor gave a two-syllable pronunciation, perhaps because he was born in California.
If Tetiev is pronounced "Teteeve", then (I reasoned) Kiev is pronounced "Keeve." Today this deduction was confirmed on television by various ambassadors to Ukraine.
Last night Stephen Colbert discussed with actor Liev Schreiber (of Ukrainian extraction) how to pronounce "Liev." The actor gave a two-syllable pronunciation, perhaps because he was born in California.
Monday, November 11, 2019
The Disaffected Versus the Democrats
In 2016 almost twice as many citizens did not vote at all as did vote for Hillary Clinton. In that sense the popular vote (or non-vote) was won by the disaffected by a margin of about 45 to 27. Ex-President tRump ran third and was installed in office by our electoral college.
We like to think of ourselves as a democracy.
Who are the disaffected? What do we know about the 45% of our citizenry that does not vote at all? Not much beyond some guesses.
Maybe 5% of the population was too drunk or crazy to lurch to the polls. Another 5% was too ill, too old or too cold.
The remaining 35% who did not vote probably believed (on one level or another) that our governance system has been so corrupted by grifters, corporations and billionaires that it cannot possibly represent ordinary people at all. Non-voters likely feel absolutely no connection to Washington. It's nothing to them.
If you have ever written or phoned your congressional representative and gotten back a canned letter from a computer, you probably understand why the disaffected outnumber the Democrats.
This has been going on for a long time. How do we get the disaffected non-voter interested in participating in an election? Is it by nominating a centrist? Is that the key move that the disaffected have been waiting for?
We like to think of ourselves as a democracy.
Who are the disaffected? What do we know about the 45% of our citizenry that does not vote at all? Not much beyond some guesses.
Maybe 5% of the population was too drunk or crazy to lurch to the polls. Another 5% was too ill, too old or too cold.
The remaining 35% who did not vote probably believed (on one level or another) that our governance system has been so corrupted by grifters, corporations and billionaires that it cannot possibly represent ordinary people at all. Non-voters likely feel absolutely no connection to Washington. It's nothing to them.
If you have ever written or phoned your congressional representative and gotten back a canned letter from a computer, you probably understand why the disaffected outnumber the Democrats.
This has been going on for a long time. How do we get the disaffected non-voter interested in participating in an election? Is it by nominating a centrist? Is that the key move that the disaffected have been waiting for?
Saturday, November 9, 2019
Harriet
At some level, probably very minor, there seems to be a fragmenting going on inside the American Black community. A Nigerian-made film with excellent reviews has been blocked from a foreign Academy Award nomination because it is in English (apparently a common language in Nigeria). A group has formed for people of color whose ancestors were enslaved--the group excludes people of color without an enslaved background. There have been complaints that Harriet Tubman (in the current movie HARRIET) was played by a British subject. My guess is that unity is what matters and will mostly prevail.
My wife and I saw HARRIET last night. I suppose it is a standard Hollywood biopic about an astounding life. The critics gave it a 72%. The audiences gave it a 97%.
We found the film moving, suspenseful and informative. It conveys the horror that was slavery and the spirit that fought it. I understand better why Tubman should be on our currency--she set an impossibly high standard--and why Andrew Jackson should not.
My wife and I saw HARRIET last night. I suppose it is a standard Hollywood biopic about an astounding life. The critics gave it a 72%. The audiences gave it a 97%.
We found the film moving, suspenseful and informative. It conveys the horror that was slavery and the spirit that fought it. I understand better why Tubman should be on our currency--she set an impossibly high standard--and why Andrew Jackson should not.
Too Hip
Terry Southern wrote a short story about a white guy so deeply into jazz that black musicians couldn't stand him: the man was too hip.
Friday, November 8, 2019
Thaddeus Stevens
In high school long ago, I learned that Thaddeus Stevens was one of America's worst political villains, a "Radical Republican," which meant, I think, that he was supposedly a vindictive winner of the Civil War, a man who wanted revenge against the white secessionists instead of a peaceful binding up of the unfortunate wounds. Translation: Stevens argued that black men should have the same rights as white men. So he was hated.
He told Congress, "If you and your compeers can fling away ambition and realize that every human being, no matter how lowly born or degraded by fortune, is your equal, that every inalienable right which belongs to you belongs also to him, truth and righteousness will spread over the land."
He would have understood Bernie Sanders.
Stevens died shortly after that speech in the house he shared with a free black woman. Many visitors tried to visit him on his death bed, but he admitted only two, both black preachers, and he thanked them for coming.
He told Congress, "If you and your compeers can fling away ambition and realize that every human being, no matter how lowly born or degraded by fortune, is your equal, that every inalienable right which belongs to you belongs also to him, truth and righteousness will spread over the land."
He would have understood Bernie Sanders.
Stevens died shortly after that speech in the house he shared with a free black woman. Many visitors tried to visit him on his death bed, but he admitted only two, both black preachers, and he thanked them for coming.
Sunday, November 3, 2019
Leaving Clothes at the Door
Mom always said to leave your clothes at the door--and for a good reason. Otherwise you risk damaging your chairs, couches, rugs, carpets and bedding by bringing in bacteria and toxins.
Even if your shirts and pants look clean, they're probably coated with more debris than you realize. This can lead to additional dusting, mopping, washing, wiping and dry cleaning.
If you want your couches, tables, countertops, beds, rugs and so forth to last, you should contact them only with your own oily skin. Otherwise fibers may break down prematurely.
Your clothes are expert at picking up microscopic toxins. And they linger. Things like motor oil, pesticides, antifreeze and e-coli may be present in your shorts. Do the right thing. Leave your clothes at the door.
Even if your shirts and pants look clean, they're probably coated with more debris than you realize. This can lead to additional dusting, mopping, washing, wiping and dry cleaning.
If you want your couches, tables, countertops, beds, rugs and so forth to last, you should contact them only with your own oily skin. Otherwise fibers may break down prematurely.
Your clothes are expert at picking up microscopic toxins. And they linger. Things like motor oil, pesticides, antifreeze and e-coli may be present in your shorts. Do the right thing. Leave your clothes at the door.
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Common Sense
The first Presidential impeachment trial in American history, that of Andrew Johnson, a white supremacist, raised familiar issues.
The defenders of Johnson tried to claim that a President could be impeached only if he had committed a serious crime. That rejected claim is today being advanced by the grifters defending Gen. Heelspurs. They are arguing that, yes, Heelspurs behaved badly but what he did was legal.
Thaddeus Stevens, a famously anti-racist member of congress, presented another view in the tenth article of Johnson impeachment. Stevens argued that Johnson had disgraced the office of the President when he had made crude speeches and threatened members of congress. In an eleventh article Stevens charged Johnson with obstruction of justice etc. At the time, Wendell Phillips wrote that “Impeachment is the refuge of the common sense of the nation” when dealing with someone unfit for the office.
Democracy
You can't have a genuine democracy in a town where one voter has ten billion dollars and another voter has nothing. Money is power.
Friday, November 1, 2019
Harry Reid
I've been too hard on Nancy Pelosi. I'll put it this way. She's not a leader, unless what you seek from a leader is half-a-loaf. But she is an effective organizer and vote counter. She's famous for explaining her method: it's someone like "You wait until you have enough votes and then you call for a vote." She's not FDR or even LBJ. She's ObamaCare rather than single payer. But a little something is better than nothing, sometimes.
Harry Reid, now, he was a leader. He was the dude who realized that if Hillary became the Democratic candidate for President, the Republicans would win. So he recruited Barack Obama to run in the primaries.
Harry Reid, now, he was a leader. He was the dude who realized that if Hillary became the Democratic candidate for President, the Republicans would win. So he recruited Barack Obama to run in the primaries.
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Adventures in Evacuation
Sonoma County's biggest fire ever is still burning, but my electrical power is back on. I have returned home.
We had to leave Santa Rosa when our power was shut off by some damned fool working for PG&E. It's difficult to live in a cave without light or heat.
1. Management of our complex of about 200 apartments bugged out immediately, warning no one, fleeing, and leaving a sign on the door that said the office would be closed until further notice. Meanwhile maybe 10 of the renters are more-or-less apartment-bound or close to it. Lucky for them that a tenant in a helping profession stayed behind and provided warm lunches, cooking on the bar-be-cue on the pool deck.
In general the balmy power shut-offs stranded many old or ill people in the North Bay Area, customers left behind by PG&E to suffer whatever fate awaited them. This included old women upstairs in electric wheelchairs and dependent on elevators.
2. At our motel near the zoo in San Francisco, Susan came upon a toothless woman at the desk telling the clerk that she had accidentally thrown away her teeth. She apparently wanted the clerk to climb into the dumpster and search. He explained that dumpster entry was contrary to company policy.
3. I ate a wonderful chunk of apple pie at Butter Love, a bakery in SF everyone should visit.
We had to leave Santa Rosa when our power was shut off by some damned fool working for PG&E. It's difficult to live in a cave without light or heat.
1. Management of our complex of about 200 apartments bugged out immediately, warning no one, fleeing, and leaving a sign on the door that said the office would be closed until further notice. Meanwhile maybe 10 of the renters are more-or-less apartment-bound or close to it. Lucky for them that a tenant in a helping profession stayed behind and provided warm lunches, cooking on the bar-be-cue on the pool deck.
In general the balmy power shut-offs stranded many old or ill people in the North Bay Area, customers left behind by PG&E to suffer whatever fate awaited them. This included old women upstairs in electric wheelchairs and dependent on elevators.
2. At our motel near the zoo in San Francisco, Susan came upon a toothless woman at the desk telling the clerk that she had accidentally thrown away her teeth. She apparently wanted the clerk to climb into the dumpster and search. He explained that dumpster entry was contrary to company policy.
3. I ate a wonderful chunk of apple pie at Butter Love, a bakery in SF everyone should visit.
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
The Last WASP
Many of the Founding Fathers believed they were putting together a nation that would be ruled by dour, Harvard-educated, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. These leaders would be voted into office by lesser white males, grateful for the chance to choose between the Cabots and the Lodges. I suppose the end of that line of smirking, burned-out alcoholics was George W. Bush, our fifth-worst President. And he pretended to be a bowlegged cowboy.
Today Harvard is the sort of American meritocracy that might admit a talented Hindu from Moosejaw if her parents make $500,000 a year. A mentally-ill sociopath whose grandfather was a pimp and whose father supported the KKK is President. WASPs have been replaced by the Snopes of Faulkner, cunning pussy-grabbers lacking any pretense of class, education or rationality.
The WASPs, who figured in so many sociological conversations when I was young, are history.
Today Harvard is the sort of American meritocracy that might admit a talented Hindu from Moosejaw if her parents make $500,000 a year. A mentally-ill sociopath whose grandfather was a pimp and whose father supported the KKK is President. WASPs have been replaced by the Snopes of Faulkner, cunning pussy-grabbers lacking any pretense of class, education or rationality.
The WASPs, who figured in so many sociological conversations when I was young, are history.
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
You Know How to Order
In San Francisco, refugees from fire, we had lunch today at a Chinese place recommended by our son-in-law. We drove to a small Asian enclave on Balboa, where we ordered a large meal for about eight bucks each. This was one of those places without any barbarians present, except for us, and, as often happens, a Chinese customer said to us, "You know how to order."
The first time that had happened, I had swelled with pride. Today I wonder what the speaker means. It's pretty clear we do not know how to order to best advantage in a Chinese restaurant. We always order too much food, so maybe "you know how to order" means "You ordered way too much food."
Or "you know how to order" may be ironic, meaning that we don't know jack from soy sauce. But the Chinese who say it are usually loud, warm and friendly, which suits me. They seem to be a confident and intrusively social bunch, my kind of individuals.
Maybe "you know how to order" is just a welcoming cry intended to encourage barbarians in general. In my case it is often followed by an offer from someone at the next table to teach me how to use chopsticks.
The first time that had happened, I had swelled with pride. Today I wonder what the speaker means. It's pretty clear we do not know how to order to best advantage in a Chinese restaurant. We always order too much food, so maybe "you know how to order" means "You ordered way too much food."
Or "you know how to order" may be ironic, meaning that we don't know jack from soy sauce. But the Chinese who say it are usually loud, warm and friendly, which suits me. They seem to be a confident and intrusively social bunch, my kind of individuals.
Maybe "you know how to order" is just a welcoming cry intended to encourage barbarians in general. In my case it is often followed by an offer from someone at the next table to teach me how to use chopsticks.
Sunday, October 27, 2019
The Axis Powers
Syria is now being divided up by the new Axis powers: Russia, Turkey and the USA.
Turkey gets to move its border 20 miles to the south and dump a bunch of Arabs-in-exile in there to serve as a local population. They will replace the ethnically cleansed Kurds.
Russia gets to insert tanks into what was a temporary Kurdish homeland. Putin can pretend to be Great Power.
tRump gets to do the opposite of pulling American troops out of Syreia. He is added new troops and, for the first time, tanks. The assignment of this new fighting force is to control and protect the meager Syrian oil fields. This completes a tRump campaign pledge, to grab some oil belonging to another people and keep it.
Also he will allow the Kurds to move into a featureless desert shaded by oil derricks.
Turkey gets to move its border 20 miles to the south and dump a bunch of Arabs-in-exile in there to serve as a local population. They will replace the ethnically cleansed Kurds.
Russia gets to insert tanks into what was a temporary Kurdish homeland. Putin can pretend to be Great Power.
tRump gets to do the opposite of pulling American troops out of Syreia. He is added new troops and, for the first time, tanks. The assignment of this new fighting force is to control and protect the meager Syrian oil fields. This completes a tRump campaign pledge, to grab some oil belonging to another people and keep it.
Also he will allow the Kurds to move into a featureless desert shaded by oil derricks.
Friday, October 25, 2019
Americans Love Art
Americans love art. Adam Gopnik in the October 28 New Yorker points out that more Americans enter art museums each year than enter all their sports arenas combined. We care how art is housed. (Sonoma County has several thousand people living in tents along a bicycle trail.) Also we love basketball more than childhood education, which is why the highly skilled Draymond Green earns more than a junior high science teacher.
But Gopnik was not focused on our values in general. The question he addressed is where do we want to live? And what should we do about the homeless?
In the last century well-intentioned progressives thought poor people wanted to live in huge towers of concrete surrounded by a brutal plaza. These projects failed. No one liked them.
Gopnik points out that what most (but not all) people want is to live in a local neighborhood. They want to be able to walk to small businesses, the bakery, the cafe, the movie theater. They want some big shade trees and a fountain. That is what people like. Not a secret. I live in such a place.
We could build like that. The French restrict the size of small businesses in certain neighborhoods. It can be done. We could build the neighborhoods people seek.
But Gopnik was not focused on our values in general. The question he addressed is where do we want to live? And what should we do about the homeless?
In the last century well-intentioned progressives thought poor people wanted to live in huge towers of concrete surrounded by a brutal plaza. These projects failed. No one liked them.
Gopnik points out that what most (but not all) people want is to live in a local neighborhood. They want to be able to walk to small businesses, the bakery, the cafe, the movie theater. They want some big shade trees and a fountain. That is what people like. Not a secret. I live in such a place.
We could build like that. The French restrict the size of small businesses in certain neighborhoods. It can be done. We could build the neighborhoods people seek.
Monday, October 21, 2019
The Slurs
Niner fans are happy. Yesterday their football team beat the Washington Racist Slurs 9-0.
The Slurs have been asked to change the team's name, but tradition, you know. What stronger Washington tradition is there than American racism? The team's billionaire owner insists on honoring the past.
Sunday, October 20, 2019
More on Honor
I don't write about my honor. It's not appropriate. I am aware, of course, that there are lines one shouldn't cross, but it takes a family of degenerates like the Bonespurs to clarify honor for me, once a PFC.
What the President did to the Kurds--abandoning a fighting friend to a mortal enemy to be crushed--was dishonorable. It defines the term. This isn't the first time America has behaved dishonorably, but this time seems particularly hard to swallow.
The Kurds lost 10,000 troops in the winning local fight against the bloody chaos of ISIS. We lost six.
I agree that we should get our military out of West Asia, including Syria. How we do that matters. Shifting troops from Syria to Iraq, as Bonespur has done, pushes them farther from home.
The explanation for the brutal treachery by President Bonepsurs is that "I guess I'm an unconventional person." But he's not a person. He'll die a cruel, cowardly, dysfunctional lump of privileged lard (many people are saying).
Thursday, October 17, 2019
I am honored
One of tRump's boys, on hearing that the G7 meeting would be held at a failing tRump resort this year, said, "I am honored."
I think he felt honored because the President awarded a government contract worth millions to himself. He trusted that the money would be well spent. The President's confidence in the recipient of the contract seems clear to me. The money is good, too.
I think he felt honored because the President awarded a government contract worth millions to himself. He trusted that the money would be well spent. The President's confidence in the recipient of the contract seems clear to me. The money is good, too.
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Reality
There were European philosophers who argued that we create the world with our minds. That's paranoia, but maybe all they meant was that we perceive the world from a human point of view. Of course, if they said it that way, without exaggeration, who would buy their books?
The Nazis believed that if you told a big lie often enough, people would believe it. The lie would become real. Later we had post-structuralists who argued that there are no facts and no genuine truths. The Bush folks mocked Democrats for their belief in a "fact-based world." And so on.
Right now we have the Trumpfolk telling us that the Democrats do not have a genuine impeachment committee working in the House. They seem to believe that if every Republican says this three times, the impeachment process will vanish.
The Republicans are in for a surprise when Trump gets impeached.
As Peter Viereck, a conservative thinker of the last century, wrote, "Reality is that which, when you don't believe in it, doesn't go away."
The Nazis believed that if you told a big lie often enough, people would believe it. The lie would become real. Later we had post-structuralists who argued that there are no facts and no genuine truths. The Bush folks mocked Democrats for their belief in a "fact-based world." And so on.
Right now we have the Trumpfolk telling us that the Democrats do not have a genuine impeachment committee working in the House. They seem to believe that if every Republican says this three times, the impeachment process will vanish.
The Republicans are in for a surprise when Trump gets impeached.
As Peter Viereck, a conservative thinker of the last century, wrote, "Reality is that which, when you don't believe in it, doesn't go away."
Hunter Biden, Prey
Now Hunter Biden is on television apologizing for being on a company board in China, which is the opposite of what he should be doing. What he did is ordinary capitalism, where the sons of famous men join boards and get paid large sums for nada. That's normal oligarchical stuff. Trump's sons would not apologize for it once in a million times.
You do not beat Trump by apologizing. Instead you talk about how great it is to be rich and tell Trump to go back got Florida and jack off. But the Bidens have no idea how to respond effectively to Trump.
Please, Democrats, do not nominate a weak centrist no one gets enthusiastic about, unless you seek a low turnout and a loss.
You do not beat Trump by apologizing. Instead you talk about how great it is to be rich and tell Trump to go back got Florida and jack off. But the Bidens have no idea how to respond effectively to Trump.
Please, Democrats, do not nominate a weak centrist no one gets enthusiastic about, unless you seek a low turnout and a loss.
Sunday, October 13, 2019
Truth
Historian Sophia Rosenfeld talked yesterday about the uses of truth in a democracy. In the Age of tRump, discussions of truth are playing a major role. Rosenfeld argued that there have been two competing views of truth in America from the beginning.
One view was that educated experts know the truth about various things. They rely on verifiable facts. The problem with this technical approach is that experts tend to lose touch with the wishes and needs of ordinary voters.
The opposing view is populist, the idea that the impulses of ordinary people lead them to truths not available to expert verifiers. This leads to faith-based truths and global warming.
What is new today in American politics is the voter who just doesn't care about the truth. He recognizes when a politician is lying and applauds it. He likes it. And he has a cousin, the voter for whom truth is entirely personal, "my truth." His personal truth is as good as anyone's truth because the God made all of us equals.
(There is a failure to grasp that "truth" is a social construct.)
One view was that educated experts know the truth about various things. They rely on verifiable facts. The problem with this technical approach is that experts tend to lose touch with the wishes and needs of ordinary voters.
The opposing view is populist, the idea that the impulses of ordinary people lead them to truths not available to expert verifiers. This leads to faith-based truths and global warming.
What is new today in American politics is the voter who just doesn't care about the truth. He recognizes when a politician is lying and applauds it. He likes it. And he has a cousin, the voter for whom truth is entirely personal, "my truth." His personal truth is as good as anyone's truth because the God made all of us equals.
(There is a failure to grasp that "truth" is a social construct.)
Saturday, October 12, 2019
The Soul of David Brooks
I've been asked more than once if columnist David Brooks is an intellectual. I think he is--he's just not a good one. Put it this way. Some gynecologists are excellent doctors, but we knew one whose nickname was "Ironfinger."
In his latest column Brooks sets out to tell us what makes us equal. We aren't equally smart or tall or rich, but "all humans have souls." These items "make us all radically equal." And if citizens "lose the concept of soul, they have lost everything."
This argument looks somewhat logical if you believe souls exist, in which case I have a tooth fairy I'd like to sell you. The claim that our souls make us equal is sometimes taught in introductions to 18th century American thought. Brooks' discussion of souls today resembles Trump's discussion of Frederick Douglas.
But let's agree that souls do exist. Why believe that all souls are equal? What evidence is there to back the assertion that Billie Holiday and Rudy Giuliani are equally soulful?
In his latest column Brooks sets out to tell us what makes us equal. We aren't equally smart or tall or rich, but "all humans have souls." These items "make us all radically equal." And if citizens "lose the concept of soul, they have lost everything."
This argument looks somewhat logical if you believe souls exist, in which case I have a tooth fairy I'd like to sell you. The claim that our souls make us equal is sometimes taught in introductions to 18th century American thought. Brooks' discussion of souls today resembles Trump's discussion of Frederick Douglas.
But let's agree that souls do exist. Why believe that all souls are equal? What evidence is there to back the assertion that Billie Holiday and Rudy Giuliani are equally soulful?
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
The Mandate of Heaven
Soon we (fanatical centrists like Joe Biden) will be facing a key question. Is President Trump guilty of the crimes he confessed to on national television? The Republicans say no. Nancy Pelosi wants to see more evidence.
Rick Perry might be to blame for the confessions. Or the President, in his great and unmatched wisdom, might have been joking with the press. I have never seen him smile, but maybe he enjoys a night out and a good laugh with Rand Paul.
I noticed that Pat Robertson is not laughing. When informed that the President was abandoning our allies, the Kurds, to be slaughtered by the Turkish army, Robertson said that Trump was in danger of "losing the mandate of Heaven."
Meanwhile, Jerry Falwell is still dead.
Rick Perry might be to blame for the confessions. Or the President, in his great and unmatched wisdom, might have been joking with the press. I have never seen him smile, but maybe he enjoys a night out and a good laugh with Rand Paul.
I noticed that Pat Robertson is not laughing. When informed that the President was abandoning our allies, the Kurds, to be slaughtered by the Turkish army, Robertson said that Trump was in danger of "losing the mandate of Heaven."
Meanwhile, Jerry Falwell is still dead.
Monday, October 7, 2019
Thaddeus
Back in the 1950s, when I was being badly educated, I learned that Thaddeus Stevens, a prominent congress member in the Civil War era, was a horrible man. I was taught that Stevens was a "Radical Republican," who pushed hard to punish the South for its sins, making knitting the divided nation together in 1866 difficult. Thaddeus Stevens wouldn't let the wounds heal.
That made good sense if you didn't know that Stevens had devoted his life--and risked it--to fighting slavers. He was a working-class guy whose mother somehow managed to put him through Dartmouth, which led him to a leadership position. He was known for what we now call empathy and generosity. Once when he learned that a widow was about to lose her home, he bought it and gave it to her. He was also known for brilliant maneuvers and sarcastic wit on the floor of congress.
The negative view in California history texts of the Radical Republicans went along with admiration for the chivalrous Robert E. Lee, who once had an enslaved black woman whipped for insolence.
What had actually made Thaddeus Stevens a villain in American history texts--I discovered many years later-- was his absolute insistence that black men be given citizenship and the right to vote, to sit on juries and to own property after the Civil War. Stevens--who lived with a woman of mixed race and left her a pension when he died-- had no doubt that all men are created equal. At the time (and for the next hundred years), many white men considered that view radical, absurd, even evil.
A few years ago there was a popular movie about a short section of Lincoln's life, and in it, Thaddeus Stevens, played by Tommy Lee Jones, was accurately portrayed as a tough and witty progressive who knew when to compromise. The times they are a'changing.
That made good sense if you didn't know that Stevens had devoted his life--and risked it--to fighting slavers. He was a working-class guy whose mother somehow managed to put him through Dartmouth, which led him to a leadership position. He was known for what we now call empathy and generosity. Once when he learned that a widow was about to lose her home, he bought it and gave it to her. He was also known for brilliant maneuvers and sarcastic wit on the floor of congress.
The negative view in California history texts of the Radical Republicans went along with admiration for the chivalrous Robert E. Lee, who once had an enslaved black woman whipped for insolence.
What had actually made Thaddeus Stevens a villain in American history texts--I discovered many years later-- was his absolute insistence that black men be given citizenship and the right to vote, to sit on juries and to own property after the Civil War. Stevens--who lived with a woman of mixed race and left her a pension when he died-- had no doubt that all men are created equal. At the time (and for the next hundred years), many white men considered that view radical, absurd, even evil.
A few years ago there was a popular movie about a short section of Lincoln's life, and in it, Thaddeus Stevens, played by Tommy Lee Jones, was accurately portrayed as a tough and witty progressive who knew when to compromise. The times they are a'changing.
Repeating the Narrative
Trump fabricates to control the narrative. George Lakoff has written about that. If we respond to Trump's stream of claims and conspiracy theories, he controls the news cycle. To respond thoughtfully, we must repeat and re-enforce his narrative. We argue with an idiot.
That cuts both ways. Right now Trump and his goblins are complaining about impeachment, which strengthens the Democratic narrative through repetition, making impeachment seem more normal day by day.
That cuts both ways. Right now Trump and his goblins are complaining about impeachment, which strengthens the Democratic narrative through repetition, making impeachment seem more normal day by day.
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Finlandia
Watching Colbert I became aware that tRump had missed his chance yesterday to ask the President of Finland to find some dirt on Joe Biden. That was a massive mistake. The President had already asked Ukraine, Italy and Australia to look for dirt, and this morning he asked China, which may or may not owe him a favor. What is Finland, a nothing? A Lindsay Graham? Be fair, Mr. President.
Monday, September 30, 2019
Hunter Biden
From an enormous distance, it appears that Hunter Biden took a job in Ukraine (the ancestral home of my father-in-law's family) for which he was paid about $600,000 a year. His qualification for the job was that he had a politically important father. That's ordinary sleazy capitalism and how it works.
I believe it would be a mistake to nominate Joe Biden. In the past he got elbowed aside by Gore, Kerry and Hillary, all losers, because he was such a lightweight. Since then he has lost forty pounds. He's now a featherweight. I doubt if the Democrats want to lose badly enough to nominate him. But Joe Biden should not be blamed for what his son did, and what Hunter did was ordinary and legal.
Saturday, September 28, 2019
The Gates of Hell
My old friends and I survived Richard Nixon and relished his sweaty downfall. What fun that shaming fall was!
This time around tRump--the cager of children--has been doing his best, out of spite, to hasten the sixth extinction (the fifth extinction took the dinosaurs). But, I say, when times are hard, enjoy the pleasure you find. Watching a malignant, brainless planet killer flail and whine is the next show scheduled. We will now get a year of watching tRump get dragged screaming through the gates of Hell. Savor it.
This time around tRump--the cager of children--has been doing his best, out of spite, to hasten the sixth extinction (the fifth extinction took the dinosaurs). But, I say, when times are hard, enjoy the pleasure you find. Watching a malignant, brainless planet killer flail and whine is the next show scheduled. We will now get a year of watching tRump get dragged screaming through the gates of Hell. Savor it.
Friday, September 27, 2019
Spanking Greta Thunberg
David Futrelle has compiled on the Internet a list of men advising somebody to spank activist Greta Thunberg, a small 16-year-old girl famous for her opposition to a mass dying-off of humanity. One of the pro-spankers is Breibart's John Nolte.
Old men spanking teenage girls is apparently a sex fantasy for those who conflate sex with violence and pain. I don't get it, but it feels appropriate that the fantasy comes from the radical right.
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Eating the Barr
"Sometimes you eat the Barr, " Sam Elliott drawled in THE BIG LEBOWSKY, "and sometimes the Barr eats you." He was quoting from America's book of frontier wisdom. Before the Europeans arrived in the New World with firearms and horses, bears and humans were evenly competing to be the dominant species. Imagine a man on foot with a bow and arrow facing a grizzly.
Arctic horribilis sometimes stood about 8 feet tall and weighed more than 1,000 pounds.
Sam Elliott is famous for many reasons, including his acting, his long marriage to Katherine Ross, his mustache and his very deep voice.
I'm really talking about Bill Barr, of course, an officer horribilis of the court system and the President's complicit enforcer, famous for having lied on an industrial scale to cover up for several Republican eras.
Many people are saying that Barr should be disbarred and then eaten by geese.
Arctic horribilis sometimes stood about 8 feet tall and weighed more than 1,000 pounds.
Sam Elliott is famous for many reasons, including his acting, his long marriage to Katherine Ross, his mustache and his very deep voice.
I'm really talking about Bill Barr, of course, an officer horribilis of the court system and the President's complicit enforcer, famous for having lied on an industrial scale to cover up for several Republican eras.
Many people are saying that Barr should be disbarred and then eaten by geese.
Unfit to Serve
There's an unwritten rule that to serve as President of the United States you must be mentally competent and emotionally sound. Or maybe not, in which case we have a long-range problem.
Richard Nixon was paranoid. Reagan was senile. George W. Bush was a dope who invaded the wrong country. Trump is a malevolent narcissist Four Republican Presidents in my lifetime have been unfit to serve, which may faithfully reflect the people who vote Republican.
The Democrats are, at last, going to impeach Trump, keeping it simple. Nancy Pelosi will charge him with a few decisions that were illegal or inappropriate. That will miss the point. Trump should be charged with general incompetence, an inability to function as President because of mental and emotional disorders.
Trump is worse than a crook. He would be grossly inadequate as the head chicken in a chicken coop. That's the truth. We need a new rule.
Richard Nixon was paranoid. Reagan was senile. George W. Bush was a dope who invaded the wrong country. Trump is a malevolent narcissist Four Republican Presidents in my lifetime have been unfit to serve, which may faithfully reflect the people who vote Republican.
The Democrats are, at last, going to impeach Trump, keeping it simple. Nancy Pelosi will charge him with a few decisions that were illegal or inappropriate. That will miss the point. Trump should be charged with general incompetence, an inability to function as President because of mental and emotional disorders.
Trump is worse than a crook. He would be grossly inadequate as the head chicken in a chicken coop. That's the truth. We need a new rule.
Monday, September 23, 2019
Mike Thompson on Impeachment
My wife has contacted Rep. Mike Thompson's office four or five times in an effort to find out where he stands on impeaching President Spanklyn T. Borderline. She has gotten a few responses--on unrelated matters. Thompson has apparently remained noncommittal until now, and now it is too late. We no longer care where he stands on this or any other issue.
It's time for a change.
It's time for a change.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Downton Arby's
Mark Meritt is working on a script for a TV show called "Downton Arby's." It's about a wealthy British family that loses its money but has just enough left to buy an Arby's franchise on Rosecrans Avenue in Compton.
Gitmo
I once visited Guantanamo Bay as part of the personnel of a light cruiser. In those days it was just another limited navel station, although an odd one in a foreign country. The terrain was desert-like, and there was a chain link fence around the place, if memory serves--I'm thinking back 65 years.
Today Gitmo houses about 40 prisoners who are serving life terms without a trial. Holding them in Gitmo is expensive. Their food has to be brought across a sea. Major surgery means flying in a specialist.
Maybe the justification for imposing life without a trial is that the men are prisoners of war in the war against terror, a war that by definition cannot end. I'm almost certain that imprisoning 40 people for life won't make a dent in the events to come, in which millions have enrolled in the other side.
Meanwhile the life-without-trial prison at Gitmo makes us look as primitive as kings in West-Asian folk tales.
Today Gitmo houses about 40 prisoners who are serving life terms without a trial. Holding them in Gitmo is expensive. Their food has to be brought across a sea. Major surgery means flying in a specialist.
Maybe the justification for imposing life without a trial is that the men are prisoners of war in the war against terror, a war that by definition cannot end. I'm almost certain that imprisoning 40 people for life won't make a dent in the events to come, in which millions have enrolled in the other side.
Meanwhile the life-without-trial prison at Gitmo makes us look as primitive as kings in West-Asian folk tales.
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Time after Time
In 1814 Alexander von Humboldt wrote:
“When forests are destroyed, as they are everywhere in America by the European planters, with an imprudent precipitation, the springs are entirely dried up, or become less abundant. The beds of the rivers remaining dry during a part of the year, are converted into torrents, whenever great rains fall on the heights. The sward and moss disappearing from the brush-wood on the sides of the mountains, the waters falling in rain are no longer impeded in their course: and instead of slowly augmenting the level of the rivers by progressive filtrations, they furrow during heavy showers the sides of the hills, bear down the loose soil, and form those sudden inundations that devastate the country.”
“When forests are destroyed, as they are everywhere in America by the European planters, with an imprudent precipitation, the springs are entirely dried up, or become less abundant. The beds of the rivers remaining dry during a part of the year, are converted into torrents, whenever great rains fall on the heights. The sward and moss disappearing from the brush-wood on the sides of the mountains, the waters falling in rain are no longer impeded in their course: and instead of slowly augmenting the level of the rivers by progressive filtrations, they furrow during heavy showers the sides of the hills, bear down the loose soil, and form those sudden inundations that devastate the country.”
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
The Stupid Party
We live in a world with hundreds of nations and maybe a thousand political parties. I haven't looked closely, but as far as I can tell, only one party on the planet denies global warming, the Stupid Party. It's one of a kind. Even Boris Johnson, with the brains of a dry mop, believes in global warming.
How stupid is the Stupid Party?
Imagine walking into a gun store and telling the proprietor, "I'd like to buy a Winchester saddle gun like the one used by John Wayne. I have a coupon that gives me 10% off. And I'll need a box of ammo, because I intend to kill you and your family." If the guy sells you the carbine and ammo, he probably votes Stupid. Also he is a capitalist.
How stupid is the Stupid Party?
Imagine walking into a gun store and telling the proprietor, "I'd like to buy a Winchester saddle gun like the one used by John Wayne. I have a coupon that gives me 10% off. And I'll need a box of ammo, because I intend to kill you and your family." If the guy sells you the carbine and ammo, he probably votes Stupid. Also he is a capitalist.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Kavanaughs
A private school for rich kids looked down on the road where I grew up. Public school kids didn't interact with the private school kids often, but I encountered some at a high school dance I went to with an attractive girl who eventually ended up doing TV news in a big city. At that age I knew nothing about girls, and she had no reason to be interested in me (and she wasn't).
One of the private school guys began to pester my date. Like Supreme Court Justice Boofer Kavanaugh, Charlton Dude was a drunk, socially lame even with his buddies and a semi-deranged, unattractive butthead with nothing going for him except money. My date did not like him and said so. She asked him to leave her alone.
He wouldn't go away, so I told him to get lost. He challenged me to go outside. I had never been in a real fist fight, but some reason I found this challenge agreeable.
We walked out onto the night lawn, followed by his friends and mine. At the time I knew nothing about fighting except what my father, a machinist, had told me, which was always get in the first punch (often decisive) and hit your opponent in the nose as hard as you could.
My ancestry had any number of street fighters in it.
I set myself, and Charlton yelled some curses and took a run at me. Even I could see that this strategy might betray him. Maybe he thought he was in a football game. He basically ran his face into my fist. I hit him in the face as hard as I could, getting both cheeks into it. He landed on his back with a broken nose. Fight over.
As Mike Tyson said, every fighter has a plan until he gets hit in the mouth.
Charlton was a guy much like Brett Kavanaugh, who to this day makes his own friends cringe.
One of the private school guys began to pester my date. Like Supreme Court Justice Boofer Kavanaugh, Charlton Dude was a drunk, socially lame even with his buddies and a semi-deranged, unattractive butthead with nothing going for him except money. My date did not like him and said so. She asked him to leave her alone.
He wouldn't go away, so I told him to get lost. He challenged me to go outside. I had never been in a real fist fight, but some reason I found this challenge agreeable.
We walked out onto the night lawn, followed by his friends and mine. At the time I knew nothing about fighting except what my father, a machinist, had told me, which was always get in the first punch (often decisive) and hit your opponent in the nose as hard as you could.
My ancestry had any number of street fighters in it.
I set myself, and Charlton yelled some curses and took a run at me. Even I could see that this strategy might betray him. Maybe he thought he was in a football game. He basically ran his face into my fist. I hit him in the face as hard as I could, getting both cheeks into it. He landed on his back with a broken nose. Fight over.
As Mike Tyson said, every fighter has a plan until he gets hit in the mouth.
Charlton was a guy much like Brett Kavanaugh, who to this day makes his own friends cringe.
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Is Joe Biden Racist?
Is Joe Biden racist?
Hell, yes.
He's not lynch-mob racist, of course. But this week, at the candidates debate, he told the world that Black children grow up suffering from a shortage of words, and he urged Black parents to make up for this with a record player (using those platters to smarten up inarticulate homes).
The talking heads on TV seem to be ignoring this. My guess is that it went unnoticed for some reason. Three guesses why it got overlooked.
I believe that I am racist, because I grew up in a place where racism is as common as oxygen. It's in the air we breathe. But we have the option of struggling with our own racism and trying to keep up with current, shifting insights into the problem. Biden has not done enough of that to serve as the President of a diverse nation.
This week Biden will give a speech on racism (likely written by someone more up-to-date). Perhaps he will apologize to Anita Hill. He may point out that one of his friends is Black. He may change his negative view on reparations. Biden will still be Uncle Fudd, who recently discovered that some children of color can be as bright as white children, and he wants to tell the world about it.
Hell, yes.
He's not lynch-mob racist, of course. But this week, at the candidates debate, he told the world that Black children grow up suffering from a shortage of words, and he urged Black parents to make up for this with a record player (using those platters to smarten up inarticulate homes).
The talking heads on TV seem to be ignoring this. My guess is that it went unnoticed for some reason. Three guesses why it got overlooked.
I believe that I am racist, because I grew up in a place where racism is as common as oxygen. It's in the air we breathe. But we have the option of struggling with our own racism and trying to keep up with current, shifting insights into the problem. Biden has not done enough of that to serve as the President of a diverse nation.
This week Biden will give a speech on racism (likely written by someone more up-to-date). Perhaps he will apologize to Anita Hill. He may point out that one of his friends is Black. He may change his negative view on reparations. Biden will still be Uncle Fudd, who recently discovered that some children of color can be as bright as white children, and he wants to tell the world about it.
Friday, September 13, 2019
Cheap Labor
Santa Rosa's shameless daily newspaper, The Corporate Democrat, had two long pieces this morning attacking the idea that the adult workers who deliver newspapers deserve health care and pensions. The state is legislating decent treatment for "independent" employees, and that doesn't fit the newspaper's business model, built around savings from cheap labor. (O, capitalism.)
The paper is threatening to end rural delivery, restrict city delivery and cut back on reporters. I read this already dwindling paper, mostly for the crossword, but I guess I can do what young people do. They get their news off the 'net. I can buy puzzles at the book store.
The paper is threatening to end rural delivery, restrict city delivery and cut back on reporters. I read this already dwindling paper, mostly for the crossword, but I guess I can do what young people do. They get their news off the 'net. I can buy puzzles at the book store.
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Tia Maria
If you happen to be driving south on Wilson/Cleveland near Railroad Square in Santa Rosa, keep going across Third and keep on going. The street will turn into Sebastopol Road in Roseland in about three blocks. And where it does that (it turns right), you will see small house on your left that has become Tia Maria, a bakery.
That's at 44 Sebastopol Road, the east end of the road
There's no cooking in the house. The food and drink are supplied by someone else, maybe by the French bakery in Healdsburg. I'm not sure. But the food is good and cheap. Mexican pastries, sandwiches, Jamaica, you name it. I ate a breakfast sandwich and then bought a large wedge of carrot cake for $3.50. There are tables and chairs.
That's at 44 Sebastopol Road, the east end of the road
There's no cooking in the house. The food and drink are supplied by someone else, maybe by the French bakery in Healdsburg. I'm not sure. But the food is good and cheap. Mexican pastries, sandwiches, Jamaica, you name it. I ate a breakfast sandwich and then bought a large wedge of carrot cake for $3.50. There are tables and chairs.
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Three Times in a Row
Analysts on TV have been telling us how unlikely it is for one political party to win the Presidency three terms in a row. We've all heard that. It hasn't happened since Reagan and Bush. But how seriously should we take what the media tells us? I decided to look the facts up.
There have been other three-term runs, of course. Washington and Adams come to mind. Also Jackson and Van Buren. Harding, Coolidge and Hoover made three, along with McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft. Madison and Monroe covered four terms. Five terms in a row were put up by Grant, Hayes, Garfield and Arthur. Also by FDR and Truman.
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Bad
I grew up in a time when we argued that people are naturally good. If something went wrong with your environment, you might end up doing bad things. You might become the rare person who cheated, stole or killed. But you could be reformed if people took the time to be helpful.
Even then we knew about the Holocaust and all the hard workers it took to murder millions of people. We had theories about what had shaped workers committed to mass murder. They were different from us--they were foreigners who had been misshaped by too-strict forms of toilet training.
In my life it may be the case that there has not been a single day on which a genocide was not taking place somewhere on this planet.
I have to admit that 60,000,000 tRump voters have modified my view of human nature. tRump voters enjoy caging brown children and grabbing women by the private parts. They love a man who can shock brown people and the educated. Watching a billionaire harm minorities, women and children makes tRump voters feel better.
We can describe people like tRump and his voters. tRump is a malevolent narcissist. But after a century of studying the brain and the mind, we still don't know how tRumps get made. We have primitive, competing theories that do not satisfy. We have found no cure for narcissism.
Science has a way to go. In the meantime I'm with John Oliver, who said on Sunday, "Ted Cruz can suck my balls."
Even then we knew about the Holocaust and all the hard workers it took to murder millions of people. We had theories about what had shaped workers committed to mass murder. They were different from us--they were foreigners who had been misshaped by too-strict forms of toilet training.
In my life it may be the case that there has not been a single day on which a genocide was not taking place somewhere on this planet.
I have to admit that 60,000,000 tRump voters have modified my view of human nature. tRump voters enjoy caging brown children and grabbing women by the private parts. They love a man who can shock brown people and the educated. Watching a billionaire harm minorities, women and children makes tRump voters feel better.
We can describe people like tRump and his voters. tRump is a malevolent narcissist. But after a century of studying the brain and the mind, we still don't know how tRumps get made. We have primitive, competing theories that do not satisfy. We have found no cure for narcissism.
Science has a way to go. In the meantime I'm with John Oliver, who said on Sunday, "Ted Cruz can suck my balls."
Monday, September 9, 2019
The Socialist!
For some time I've been calling Bernie Sanders a social democrat, much like the New Dealers. Bernie has called himself a democratic socialist.
One way to differentiate between a social democrat and a socialist is whether the candidate wants to nationalize the coal industry. If he does, he's a socialist.
Sanders wants to nationalizes all of the fossil fuel industries (not a bad idea). That would be a major step toward lessening global warming and ending government by Big Oil.
Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist.
One way to differentiate between a social democrat and a socialist is whether the candidate wants to nationalize the coal industry. If he does, he's a socialist.
Sanders wants to nationalizes all of the fossil fuel industries (not a bad idea). That would be a major step toward lessening global warming and ending government by Big Oil.
Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist.
Saturday, September 7, 2019
America as Cowards
We start the weekend learning that the leaders at the national weather service have repudiated their own scientists and agreed with tRump's deranged lies about Alabama being threatened by Hurricane Dorian. Also that several branches of government--the Attorney General, the military, the Vice President--have been patronizing tRump's properties at government expense, enriching the balmy President in joints that formerly ached with monetary losses. tRump is sucking the government dry.
Nancy Pelosi cravenly continues not seeing enough evil in tRump to open impeachment hearings, although the President's deranged malfeasance is obvious to every person in the world with his or her own brain. The Democrats have failed us. The Republicans are abolishing their own primaries in an effort to block a minor challenge to the President's re-election.
The Constitution hangs in tatters. Moscow Mitch and Leningrad Lindsey have seated enough creepy judges to get away with more than even tRump can steal .
-----------
I'm going on a family bicycle ride. And my granddaughter's singing of "Alone" has had 5,000 views on the 'net.
Nancy Pelosi cravenly continues not seeing enough evil in tRump to open impeachment hearings, although the President's deranged malfeasance is obvious to every person in the world with his or her own brain. The Democrats have failed us. The Republicans are abolishing their own primaries in an effort to block a minor challenge to the President's re-election.
The Constitution hangs in tatters. Moscow Mitch and Leningrad Lindsey have seated enough creepy judges to get away with more than even tRump can steal .
-----------
I'm going on a family bicycle ride. And my granddaughter's singing of "Alone" has had 5,000 views on the 'net.
Friday, September 6, 2019
Cheap Labor
Our local daily newspaper, the Corporate Democrat, ran a beefy editorial today attacking Assembly Bill 5, which will turn many "independent contractors" into people with company jobs and benefits. The editorial writers are particularly upset because no exemption will be granted for adult newspaper carriers. "Most carriers have second jobs," they point out, as if that should count in the favor of the corporation.
What we have now (for many) is a gig economy where the worker gets no benefits and a non-living wage and works three jobs to survive. That's socially unhealthy. Assembly Bill 5 is an attempt to change things.
Our daily paper is a corporation insisting we supply it with cheap labor.
(What a country we have!)
What we have now (for many) is a gig economy where the worker gets no benefits and a non-living wage and works three jobs to survive. That's socially unhealthy. Assembly Bill 5 is an attempt to change things.
Our daily paper is a corporation insisting we supply it with cheap labor.
(What a country we have!)
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Schrodinger's Impeachment Committee
"Schrödinger’s Impeachment Committee," someone said on the TV.
Early in the development of Quantum physics, Irwin Schrodinger, a Nobel prize winning physicist, came up with a thought experiment to demonstrate that Quantum superposition would not work with large objects like cats. Tiny particles can be several things at once, but this does not apply to mammals.
Schrodinger’s thought experiment involved closing a cat in a black box with some harmful items. If the rules for particles applied, the cat would soon be dead and also alive at same time, which is absurd and obviously not true. (Yet we still come across people who think large objects work like particles.)
Schrodinger’s Impeachment Committee is chaired by Rep. Nadler who claims it is an impeachment committee, while Speaker Pelosi claims that it is not. It is and is not at the same time. But as Schrodinger might point out, the committee consists of many large items. They do not follow the laws of particle physics.They either form an impeachment committee or they do not.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Surface Facts
One of the handicaps I had as an English professor was my secret belief that much of the literary theory and criticism of my time consisted of paranoid inventions of patterns that did not exist. No poem said what it seemed to say. Poems had to be unpacked to make clear the hidden conspiracies.
This approach came from several sources at the end of World War II, some of them European Fascists. They had a compelling reason to argue in 1950 that facts should be deconstructed. In a world without solid facts, your former membership in the Nazi party would not matter.
Such views eventually degenerated into Republicans mocking a "fact-based" view of things, promoting "alternative facts," attacking the "deep state" and labelling the truth as "fake news."
This approach came from several sources at the end of World War II, some of them European Fascists. They had a compelling reason to argue in 1950 that facts should be deconstructed. In a world without solid facts, your former membership in the Nazi party would not matter.
Such views eventually degenerated into Republicans mocking a "fact-based" view of things, promoting "alternative facts," attacking the "deep state" and labelling the truth as "fake news."
Monday, September 2, 2019
Death as Leader
The people, discouraged, voted for Death, and he became their leader. Everyone faced Death, and Death was pitiless, but Roger Federer started a pointless argument. While Federer held Death's attention, several young friends slipped across the borderline into another country where Death would not find them for more than 65 years.
Friday, August 30, 2019
What Republicans Do
It used to be a cinch to predict what the Republicans would do. They were the party of Mammon. Their mission was to make the rich even richer. To accomplish that mission, they ran for office on racist dog-whistles, primitive Christianity, the subjugation of women and related issues that appealed to the clucks, sadists and morons who crowd the bottom of our voting pool.
There's a price to be paid for that strategy, and the party has slowly degenerated, electing Presidents who were paranoid, senile, dumb and now criminally insane.
Like others with his personality disorder, tRump tends to focus on certain targets (Obama, Hillary, McCabe), but even when corporations ask him to stop supporting climate change, tRump presses froward. Why would anyone support global warming? Unless he wants to take us with him when he dies.
There's a price to be paid for that strategy, and the party has slowly degenerated, electing Presidents who were paranoid, senile, dumb and now criminally insane.
Like others with his personality disorder, tRump tends to focus on certain targets (Obama, Hillary, McCabe), but even when corporations ask him to stop supporting climate change, tRump presses froward. Why would anyone support global warming? Unless he wants to take us with him when he dies.
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Biden
From the start I have believed that the Democratic voters will not nominate Joe Biden. He's a weaker candidate than Gore, Kerry or Hillary Clinton. Like them he is a DNC-backed insider centrist, which doesn't make him a bad person but does make him a loser.
The Democrats win when they nominate someone a little outside of the DNC center, someone who brings something extra like Barack Obama. They need a candidate who will fire up the reluctant voters who are tired of Washington and Wall Street.
The DNC's main interest in all this is in retaining power at the DNC. They will back a weak candidate if it means they retain control of the Democratic Party and its budget and jobs.
I intend to vote for Bernie, but everyone's second choice seems to be Warren. That puts her in an interesting position. She's my second choice, too.
The Democrats win when they nominate someone a little outside of the DNC center, someone who brings something extra like Barack Obama. They need a candidate who will fire up the reluctant voters who are tired of Washington and Wall Street.
The DNC's main interest in all this is in retaining power at the DNC. They will back a weak candidate if it means they retain control of the Democratic Party and its budget and jobs.
I intend to vote for Bernie, but everyone's second choice seems to be Warren. That puts her in an interesting position. She's my second choice, too.
Monday, August 26, 2019
The Trade War
Our troubled President starts a new fight daily. It was probably inevitable that he would start fights he can't win. I see no way for tRump to win his trade war with China.
I see talking heads on TV saying that the war hurts the Chinese more than it hurts us. That's probably true, but the Chinese have been in pain for 5,000 years. They can handle pain.
The Chinese Communists probably have a long term plan in place. This is not because they are Communists, which is doubtful, but because they are Chinese. They understand time. They are led by a careful leader-for-life. Our President has 16 months left in office if he is lucky. Those may be the odds he can win his trade war, about 16 out of 5,000.
Some Chinese people will suffer during the next year. The Chinese leaders may not be as uncaring as a Republican senator, but they can probably manage to ignore the pain of ordinary Chinese citizens for 16 months. Or four more years, if it comes to that.
(also on Facebook)
I see talking heads on TV saying that the war hurts the Chinese more than it hurts us. That's probably true, but the Chinese have been in pain for 5,000 years. They can handle pain.
The Chinese Communists probably have a long term plan in place. This is not because they are Communists, which is doubtful, but because they are Chinese. They understand time. They are led by a careful leader-for-life. Our President has 16 months left in office if he is lucky. Those may be the odds he can win his trade war, about 16 out of 5,000.
Some Chinese people will suffer during the next year. The Chinese leaders may not be as uncaring as a Republican senator, but they can probably manage to ignore the pain of ordinary Chinese citizens for 16 months. Or four more years, if it comes to that.
(also on Facebook)
Sunday, August 25, 2019
The State of Democracy in the USA
How is democracy doing in the USA?
A few years back, social scientists studied who influences government choices in America. The results were unsurprising. Financial elites and organized interest groups get what they want from the government. When the wishes of the rich or an interest group conflict with what the public wants, the public loses. For example, 93% of the public wants background checks on all gun buyers, a weak. symbolic reaction to mass murders. The House, Senate, President and Supreme Court have ignored this proposal for decades. The gun manufacturers and their organized interest group, the NRA, get their way.
In 2016 white-wing voters rebelled against being ignored and seized the Republican Party. The unheard Left rebelled in the Democratic Party but lost. In the general election, financial elites backed the candidates of both parties. tRump ran second and won.
A few years back, social scientists studied who influences government choices in America. The results were unsurprising. Financial elites and organized interest groups get what they want from the government. When the wishes of the rich or an interest group conflict with what the public wants, the public loses. For example, 93% of the public wants background checks on all gun buyers, a weak. symbolic reaction to mass murders. The House, Senate, President and Supreme Court have ignored this proposal for decades. The gun manufacturers and their organized interest group, the NRA, get their way.
In 2016 white-wing voters rebelled against being ignored and seized the Republican Party. The unheard Left rebelled in the Democratic Party but lost. In the general election, financial elites backed the candidates of both parties. tRump ran second and won.
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