Random Thoughts

October 14, 2017

I've said it before and I will keep saying it - banks fail when faith in banks is destroyed, currencies fail when faith in the currency is destroyed and democracy fails when faith in the pillars of democracy - a free press, an independent judiciary, elections themselves - is destroyed. Our president is working tirelessly to destroy faith in all these and more. (in response to a Facebook post by Dave Mathis. See also this blog post dated Feb 2, 2018)

Oct 14, 2017, 1:54 PM

April 26, 2022

The text message below from a sitting member of Congress suggesting martial law to overturn an election result upheld in numerous courts of law (which is how the rule of law works) should on its own be enough to drive her from office. There was a time when it would have. That it is not is evidence of how close to the precipice we are. I will add one more sign of the tipping point - when members of the conservative mainstream no longer decry the actions of Timothy McVeigh, but begin to rationalize his terrorist attack without political repercussion, we can take it as the likely point of no return.

“In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall law." - Marjorie Taylor-Green (R-GA)

May 3, 2022

Abortion threatens to be to the 21st century what slavery was to the 19th - the wedge issue that drives a wedge through the heart of America. 

June 25, 2022

Some are saying the overturning of Roe v Wade is the first time the Supreme Court has taken away a right it had previously found in the Constitution. I would argue otherwise. The Court once found a right to discriminate via the separate but equal finding in Plessy v Ferguson, then found that right unconstitutional in Brown v. The Board of Education. Yes, one can argue that the Court did not rule affirmatively in support of discrimination, instead finding that separate but equal was not a violation of individual rights, but that is a matter more of semantics than reality.

June 25, 2022

I fear the U.S..is becoming the next Middle East - an overly-armed region of disaffected young men with a warped, militaristic theocracy at its center.

July 5, 2022

Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice that the devil can cite scripture for his purpose. Likewise can we cite our founding fathers. Truth is that they struggled to agree with themselves, thus Ben Franklin's elegant speech on compromise to close the Constitutional Convention (oops, am I falling into the same trap?). Bottom line, if they could not agree amongst themselves in real time, how can we claim to be able to channel them explicitly a quarter of a millennium later?

July 5, 2022

If one sees Kyle Rittenhouse as a patriot and Colin Kaepernick as a traitor, I'm afraid they understand neither patriotism nor America.

July 10, 2022

The irony of the GOP's intense attachment to Constitutional originalism is that the party was founded in opposition to that very concept, serving as the driving force behind the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth  Amendments that sought to codify the founding principle that all men are created eqial found in our Declaration of Independence, thus making them a party of radical Declarationists, rather than Constitutional Originalists.

July 30, 2022

From the NY Times, an interesting stat:

"Last year’s returns, which retailers are not always able to resell themselves, totaled $761 billion in lost sales. That, the retail federation noted, is more than the annual budget for the U.S. Department of Defense."

August 24, 2022

There's an old cliche that says just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. A corollary to that, apropos of a certain ex-president is that just because they are out to get you doesn't mean you're not guilty.

October 18, 2022

Michelle Goldberg writes in today's NY Times that Mike Collins, a Georgia Republican who has promised to be a “great teammate” for Greene, has a campaign video in which he shoots a gun at what looks like a garbage can full of explosives marked “Voting Machine.”

Let me be perfectly clear - one who views guns as political tools and voting machines as electoral evils is neither a believer in democracy (or representative government, to satisfy the "republic, not a democracy" crowd), nor American principles. We are on a very dark path and I fear it will not end well. We have so twisted the idea of patriotism and what constitute American ideals that I fear we may never find them again. 

May 2, 2023

I had the opportunity to visit Normandy this year. Of all the sites we visited, none was more moving than the American cemetery off Omaha Beach. And nothing spoke more about American ideals and the morality of our cause than this inscription at the entry to the cemetery:

Inscription at Normandy American Cemetery

"If ever proof were needed that we fought for a cause and not for conquest it could be found in these cemeteries. Here was our only conquest, all we asked... was enough soil in which to bury our gallant dead." - General Mark W. Clark, inscribed at Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France 

Unfortunately, today there is this:

Donald Trump: "We should have taken the oil."

May 6, 2023

Following on the above, Simon Sinek spoke how the Navy Seals evaluate members using performance and trust scales, with high trust being more important than high performance. The video below is a worthwhile two and a half minute watch. Bottom line, they weed out what Sinek refers to as the a**holes. One way they do that is via self-policing and holding each other accountable in order to maintain the integrity of the unit. 

One such example involved Eddie Gallagher, who killed a teenage prisoner with a hunting knife, then posed with the body and subsequently held a bizarre "re-enlistment ceremony" over the body, forcing team members to pose with the corpse. He had previously killed a schoolgirl and elderly man from a sniper's nest, leading a fellow team member to tell investigators that "the guy is freaking evil." The U.S. eventually found him guilty of war crimes and removed him from active duty.

Donald Trump not only pardoned Gallagher, but lauded him as a great warrior, before inviting him to join him on the campaign trail. Another clear example that Donald Trump has no idea what makes America great (I'm reminded of the Oscar Wilde quote that a fool is one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing).

June 16, 2023

We are in perilous times. The indictment of Donald Trump on federal charges of violating the Espionage Act has led to the wholly expected reflexive defense of his actions by member of the GOP - or deflection by comparing them to Hillary Clinton's emails or Mike Pence's or Joe Biden's possession of classified material. Many of these folks know that Donald Trump was not just wrong in taking and retaining them, but dangerously wrong in how he handled and shared them. And yet they defend him, not out of fear of Trump, but of his base. As Hannah Arendt noted in "The Origins of Totalitarianism," it is not unusual to see men stand up to the king, but it is rare for them to stand up to the mob. That is what we are witnessing here, made all the more troublesome because in forgoing the opportunity to stand up for what's right, they both normalize what is wrong and miss the opportunity to teach the next generation of voters and leaders what real patriotism looks like. And just like other skills and traditions lost to the ages, once it's gone it will likely be gone for good, to the detriment of our nation and our global standing.

July 22, 2023

It is easier to quell dissent than it is to quell corruption because the payoff for dissent is far more intangible and less immediate than it is for corruption. This works to the advantage of the corrupt because corruption has a freer rein absent dissent.

August 1, 2023

Ronald Reagan introduced the idea of supply-side economics, arguing that increased capital availability would lead to greater production, thus driving growth in the economy and tax revenues. An argument could also be made that labor is just as important as capital in driving economic growth. In fact, a shortage of either is likely to restrain growth, yet labor shortages are likely to lead to inflation as Supply is constrained and wages grow. Conversely,  excess capital can also result in inflation. Therefore, increasing the labor pool may be our best hope at growing the economy, increasing output (supply) and thus reducing inflation. And the fastest source of labor supply is to increase immigration.

August 8, 2023

In their zeal to own said libs, conservatives do things to gleefully irritate their opposition. Thus we have the odd sight of conservatives attacking things like the FBI (out of control), the Pentagon (too woke), elections (corrupt), the Constitution (calls for convention of states, termination), the media (fake news), Disney (way too woke) and Bud Light (beyond woke). The irony is that the side claiming the other side "hates our country" seems to hate a lot of what makes our country our country.

August 9, 2023

The events involving the Weaver family at Ruby Ridge, the Branch Davidians in Waco and Cliven Bundy in Nevada may foretell what the aftermath of a Donald Trump conviction in any of the cases against him might look like. In each of the aforementioned cases, government opposition to adversaries deemed by supporters to be righteous foes of an overbearing government fueled further anti-government fervor that seems to be self-perpetuating as such anti-government forces seek out grievances to further fuel their anger. A conviction of Donald Trump may become the most explosive of such confrontations, seen as proof positive that the government is out of control. If there are violent outbursts that provoke a like response from law enforcement, we may see a tipping point. Just look at the martyrdom of January 6th rioter Ashli Babbitt. Now imagine a slew of Trump supporters gunned down by government forces. Fuel, meet fire.

August 23, 2023

I have to disagree with Donnie Duetsch, who said today that Donald Trump would be forever haunted by the mug shot to be taken tomorrow in Fulton County, GA. I think it is quite possible that the former president will use it to promote his martyrdom. We shall see.

December 2023

Well, what did I tell you. It makes me question Donny Duetsch's validity as a reader of markets or human psychology. From the official Donald Trump store - his mug shot even made wrapping paper.

October 24, 2023

The U.S. Constitution was designed to allow a minority to thwart the desire of the majority specifically to protect the enslavement of others, to ensure the dominion of an amoral few over a moral majority and a helpless many. That, quite likely, will turn out to be its fatal flaw.

November 13, 2023

Authoritarianism and tyrants never arrive with full support. Instead they begin in hidden crevices, with tiny followings and ideas that turn off the majority. The reasonable center waits for the sure-to-come moment when supporters see the tyrant for who he (never a she?) really is, but that moment never comes. Instead, what was yesterday's outrage becomes today's norm, until one day those in the reasonable center either fall for the seductive lure of being part of the "inside," are cowed (or beaten) into silence or become part of the vermin that must be vanquished, however that is to be achieved.

November 17, 2023

Following on the November 13 post above, we are witnessing the "frog in a warming pot" normalization of the unthinkable. As mentioned, tyrants behind atrocities never arrive fully formed - not Lenin, not Mao, not Hitler. Yes, they all made clear their hatred of the "other," whether the intelligentsia, the cultural elite or the Jews, but the manifestation of that hatred in the form of gulags, cultural revolutions and the final solution only appeared once each was fully in power. Trump is not there. Yet. But he's made clear his hatred of the other going all the way back to the Central Park Five. He made it clear when he payed the "us vs. them card in his original announcement speech, saying Mexico isn't "sending you," instead suggesting portraying migrants as rapists and drug dealers. He made it clear with his proposed ban on travel from Muslim countries, followed by his bemoaning that we must accept people from shithole countries, rather than places like Norway. But as happened in the past, he is now warning us of the manifestation of that hatred as he promises retribution. And as has also always happened in the past, it is certain that he'll seek to impose that retribution on more than those "others" he used to seduce the unwary to his side.

November 21, 2023

Ever notice that those gun rights advocates who believe thoughts and prayers can protect our children don't trust thoughts and prayers to protect their gun rights? Wouldn't it be nice if they simply thought and prayed about their gun rights, instead of donating millions to the NRA and voting in droves for politicians who'll do their dirty work in case God really isn't on their side?

December 9, 2023

I believe it is only a matter of time before high school football as we know it becomes a thing of the past. With revelations that children who never played beyond high school developing CTE, it is only a matter of time until lawsuits against schools and coaches make liability insurance unaffordable and passing those costs on to local taxpayers untenable. 

Footnote: I remember thinking that footballs days were numbered when I first saw the movie Running Man in the late 1980's. I had no idea that CTE might be its downfall, but I thought then that it would follow boxing's path, believed a brutal sport seen as a way for impoverished youth to escape bleak futures by providing vicarious entertainment for dwindling masses. We may not lose our appetite for football, and its financial clout may overwhelm the medical and human cost of playing it, but that says more about us than it does the sport. And I will confess to being as guilty as anyone.

December 20, 2023

Donald Trump says that immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country." I'm sorry, but Donald Trump is poisoning the heart of our country. We can try to dismiss it, as Lindsey Graham has tried, as "just talk," but that is how folks justified support for Hitler in the 1930's. The talk could be overlooked because of the "good things" he was doing. The problem is, you can't separate the wheat from the chaff and eventually no amount of "good" can justify ignoring what should never be ignored.

December 28, 2023

We are a nation of immigrants, born of rebellion - and what better way to honor our legacy of revolution than to continually refresh our energy than to roll over, renew the blood of our people with those possessing the same energy and fearlessness that brought our ancestors to these shores.

January 9, 2024

A couple of interesting stats that probably go a long way in explaining why Americans haven't felt good about the economy in a long time. Since 1970, per capita healthcare spending has gone from $353 ($2,866 in constant 2022 dollars) to $13,493, while per capita GDP has gone from $5,234 ($42,500 in constant 2022 dollars) to $76,399, driving helathcare costs from 6.7% of GDP to 17.7% of GDP.

Now, while I love numbers, I hate narratives that are filled with them, but it's hard to avoid them here. Bottom line, whereas about 1 in 15 dollars went to healthcare in 1970, today it's more than 1 in six. Or to look at it another way, for every three dollars in growth, one third of it went to healthcare. 

GDP data:  https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/gdp-gross-domestic-product

Healthcare data:  https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-spending-healthcare-changed-time/#Total%20national%20health%20expenditures,%20US%20$%20per%20capita,%201970-2022

My Favorite Quotes

A compendium of my favorite quotes, with no particular order, rhyme or reason.

"Character is destiny." - Heraclitus

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." -- Unknown (often incorrectly ascribed to Winston Churchill)

"A fool is one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." -- Oscar Wilde

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably why so few engage in it." -- Henry Ford

"Where all think alike, little thinking takes place." - Walter Lippman

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." - Unknown (likely Maurice Switzer, 1906)

"Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies." -- Robert Kennedy

"He not busy being born is busy dying." - Bob Dylan

"I dream of painting, then I paint my dreams." - Vincent Van Gogh

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."  - Howard Thurman  

"Then there was the man who drowned crossing a stream with an average depth of six inches." -- W.I.E. Gates

"Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think." -- Thomas Edison

“The greatest danger in turbulent times is not the turbulence, but to act with yesterday’s logic.” - Peter Drucker

“I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.” - Richard Feynman

"Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs." - Farrah Gray

"Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck." - Dalai Lama

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. - Martin Niemöller

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” - Falsely attributed to Edmond Burke, but most likely adapted from the more opaque John Stuart Mill (see below)

"The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference." - Elie Wiesel

“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, February 1, 1867

"Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional." - Anonymous

"Man is free if he needs to obey no person but solely the laws." - Immanuel Kant

"History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes." - Theodore Reik (often erroneously attributed to Mark Twain)

"What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do." - Bob Dylan

"A man is judged by the company he keeps." - Aesop

"Be curious, not judgmental." - Unknown (not Walt Whitman)

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." - William Butler Yeats

"Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil." - Eric Hoffer

"The devil can cite scripture for his purpose." - William Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice)

"Between stimulus and response is a space - and in that space is your power and your freedom." - Max Frankl, Auschwitz survivor

"Comparison is the thief of joy." - Theodore Roosevelt

"Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party." - Winston Churchill

“Once the writer in every individual comes to life (and that time is not far off), we are in for an age of universal deafness and lack of understanding.” - Milan Kundera, “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting” (1979)

A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it." - William F. Buckley

"Freedom for the pike is death for the minnows." - R.H. Tawney (1931)

“Freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep." - Isiah Berlin (1958)

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - Unknown (often attributed to George Orwell)

“An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” - Thomas Jefferson

"Those who seem to despise half of America should never be entrusted to govern any of it." - David Frum

"Oh! What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive" - Sir Walter Scott

“In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man.” - Rabbi Hillel

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast." - Peter Drucker (allegedly)

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” - William James

"He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that." - John Stuart Mill

"To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it." — Henry Kissinger

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled." - Plutarch

"Correction does much, but encouragement does more." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Your vision can only be as big as the number of people that it positively impacts." - Unknown

"Unless the mass retains sufficient control over those entrusted with the powers of their government, these will be perverted to their own oppression, and to the perpetuation of wealth and power in the individuals and their families selected for the trust.” - Thomas Jefferson, 1812

“It's easier to hold your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold them 98 percent of the time.” - Clayton Christensen

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

"Fellow citizens, why do you turn and scrape every stone to gather wealth, and, yet, take so little care of your own children, to whom one day you must relinquish all?" – Socrates

"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." - Albert Einstein

"Not really. We study natural stupidity." - Cognitive psychologist Amos Tversky when asked if his Nobel-prize winning work with Daniel Kahneman was the basis for artificial intelligence.

"Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one." - Terry Pratchett

The earth was once molten rock and now sings operas." - Brian Swimme

"In war resolution, in defeat defiance, in victory magnanimity, in peace goodwill" - Winston Churchull

"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." - Samuel Johnson

"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism." - Herman Goering, Nuremburg war crimes trial testimony

"The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand." - Unknown

“Am I tired of doing Maggie Mae? F@#% no. That song put me on the map. And I wrote it. It’s like saying you’re tired of seeing one of your kids. Just f@#%ing stupid. It’s 4 min out of my life every show. Make the people happy…” - Rod Stewart

“Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.” - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

"There was a time when scientists would announce we have a problem and politicians would debate how to address it. Today, scientists announce we have a problem and politicians debate whether there really is a problem." - One of my children quoting the other August 10, 2017 (which is which is lost to memory)

"Those who are at the mercy of impulse - who lack self-control - suffer a moral deficiency. The ability to control impulse is the base of will and character. By the same token, the root of altruism lies in empathy, the ability to read emotions in others; lacking a sense of another's need or despair, there is no caring." - Daniel Goleman, "Emotional Intelligence"

"If our world is different, then our politics must also be different.” - Annalena Baerbock, German foreign Minister and member of the pacifist Green Party, on Germany's hawkish response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine

"Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first rate talent, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty." - Hannah Arendt, author of "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (1951)

“Men have been found to resist the most powerful monarchs and to refuse to bow down before them, but few indeed have been found to resist the crowd, to stand up alone before misguided masses, to face their implacable frenzy without weapons and with folded arms to dare a no when a yes is demanded." - Hannah Arendt, author of "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (1951)

"Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistance – where, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risks – the case for the state’s helping to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong." - F.A. Hayek (The Road to Serfdom)

"In times of such commotion as the present, while the passions of men are worked up to an uncommon pitch, there is great danger in fatal extremes. The same state of passions which fits the multitude, who have not a sufficient stock of reason and knowledge to guide them, for opposition to tyranny and oppression, very naturally leads them to a contempt and disregard for all authority. The due medium is hardly to be found among the more intelligent. It is almost impossible among the unthinking populace. When the minds of these are loosened from their attachment to ancient establishments and courses, they seem to grow giddy and are apt more or less to run to anarchy." - Alexander Hamilton, Nov 1775

“Against stupidity we have no defense. Neither protests nor force can touch it. Reasoning is of no use. Facts that contradict personal prejudices can simply be disbelieved — indeed, the fool can counter by criticizing them, and if they are undeniable, they can just be pushed aside as trivial exceptions. So the fool, as distinct from the scoundrel, is completely self-satisfied. In fact, they can easily become dangerous, as it does not take much to make them aggressive. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reason, for it is senseless and dangerous.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer [Editor's note: Keep in mind that by definition, one half of the people are dumber than average.]

"If conservatives become convinced they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will abandon democracy." - Conservative commentator David Frum and former speechwriter for George W. Bush (January 18, 2018)

“A representative democracy*, where the right of election is well secured and regulated & the exercise of the legislative, executive and judiciary authorities, is vested in select persons, chosen by the people, will in my opinion be most likely to be happy, regular and durable.” - Alexander Hamilton

"A republic**, if you can keep it." - Benjamin Franklin, when asked what kind of government the Constitutional Convention had decided upon

Fun & Games

“I was invited with Paul Kantner to meet Mick Jagger at his Chelsea home to discuss the Altamont concert. I was scared because I thought we were going to walk into an orgy. I’m not against orgies, but I’m not a good multi-tasker.” - Grace Slick, The Jefferson Airplane https://bit.ly/43WOA3W

And now, the best (or worst) of me:

"Hungry people gripe, starving people revolt." 

"There are two kinds of organizations - those who inspire good people and weed out the weak, and those who frustrate good people and are left with the weak."

"No one makes a better stooge than the stupid man who thinks he's smart." - Me, apparently (I was recently reminded of this statement)

"Never fight a battle of wits with the witless, because they have nothing to lose."

"We'll never solve anything as a nation as long as one party appeals to the angry and the other to the aggrieved." (August 8, 2017)

"We get more of what we subsidize, less of what we tax."

"If it's cold outside we use a furnace, if it's hot, we use the AC. If only we could be so wise regarding public policy."

"Cutting taxes is like lowering the thermostat - going from 90 to 70 improves productivity, but going from 70 to 50 is likely to do more harm than good."

"Begin with trust and you will find some unworthy of that trust, but begin with mistrust and you will never trust anyone."

"Treating others with respect will not guarantee one will be treated in kind, but treating others with disrespect will."

"People who admit mistakes learn from them, those who deny making mistakes never learn."

"A flag and a gun no more make one a patriot than a bible and a cross make one a Christian."

"One can't love their country without loving its people."

"Intelligence can recognize intelligence but stupid can't recognize stupid."

"Votes are like raindrops. One appears insignificant, but working in concert with others can move mountains."

"The only thing we have to be angry about is anger itself." (sorry FDR, had to steal it)

"A bad guy with a gun doesn't become a bad guy with a gun until it's too late."

"Total freedom leads to anarchy, which leads to tyranny of the strong."

"One who sees Kyle Rittenhouse as a patriot and Colin Kaepernick as a traitor umderstands neither patriotism nor America."

"Pursuing policies that irritate your opponents because you believe them to be best for the country is what democracy is all about. Pursuing policies simply because they irritate your opponents is a cancer upon democracy."

"I have always looked for - and found - the best in people. I believe ability and goodness is to be found equally across race, creed, ethnicity, class, country of origin, everything. I grew up a Republican, but when the party turned toward its nativist, nationalist side, seeing evil and danger in "others," I rejected that and left the party. However, the left also has its demons that they unfairly vilify, including the wealthy, the successful, the right and the "infidel" Whites who have not fully embraced the left's identity politics. I cannot be party to either side's extreme view." August 7, 2021 (the day I left Facebook)

"All costs are ultimately labor costs, with profit being the premium we are willing to pay to direct that labor toward one pursuit over another. That said, the purpose of capitalism is to drive out cost (labor) while uncovering new value to put that labor to work elsewhere in pursuit of profit. This is creative destruction in a nutshell. However, if technology reduces labor faster than human ingenuity can find new uses for it, we will find ourselves in a very tricky conundrum. The time to plan for that, whether it comes to fruition or not, is now." - August 9, 2017

"Human behavior is malleable. Human nature is not." (November 2021) [Note: to change human behavior, one must appeal to human nature - wants, fears, aspirations, but most of all, self-interest - however each individual defines it for themselves]

"When faith in guns supersedes faith in elections, strife, chaos and tyranny are not far behind." (November 20, 2021)

"Put money in the hands of the wealthy, asset prices rise. Put money in the hands of the masses, consumer prices rise." (November 25, 2021)

"We don’t need tighter election laws to stop the alleged things the Democrats did, but to prevent the real things Republicans have actually tried to do." (January 12, 2022)

"Christians never need proclaim they're Christian, honest folks never need proclaim they're honest, smart folks never need proclaim they're smart and patriots never need proclaim they're patriots." (April 2, 2022)

"A group of men who wrote slavery into a nation's constitution should not be heralded as infallible." (April 2, 2022)

"The day folks on the right stop decrying and begin defending the politics of Timothy McVeigh will mark the point of no return." (April 12, 2022)

"Our phones may be smart, but too many of their owners are not." (April 30, 2022)

"Better to suffer fools gladly than fail to recognize they are, indeed, fools." (September 22, 2022)

"The best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to keep the bad guy from getting a gun." (March 28, 2022)

"Life is complicated, which is why so many seek simple answers." (October 30, 2022)

"It's easier to quell dissent than corruption because the payoff for dissent is neither as tangible nor immediate as corruption.' (July 22, 1023)

And finally, the most mind-boggling quotes:

“The baby is born. The mother meets with the doctor. They take care of the baby. They wrap the baby beautifully. And then the doctor and the mother determine whether or not they will execute the baby.” - Donald Trump at a 2019 rally (when he was president) 

*   Democracy, from the Greek Demos, meaning the people, and the Greek kratia, meaning rule or power

** Republic, from the Latin res, meaning entity, and the Latin publicus, meaning "of the people"

How Many People?

 There is a well-known photo of German factory workers universally saluting Hitler - universally, save for August Landmesser, who stoicly, courageously, refuses to pay homage to the Fuhrer. The photo raises so many questions..,

...what gave him the courage?

...how many others felt as he did but lacked his courage?

...why did so many feel the need to go along to get along?

...how did so many fall for Hitler's lies, anger and hatred?

...would history have been different if the righteous-minded hadn't been so cowardly?

Edmond Burke famously said all that's required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. How many among us today know better yet sit in silence, or worse, speak favorably of what we know to be wrong, false or dangerous simply because it is in our own immediate best interest?

In the photo above, only Landmesser is remembered. The rest are just so many sheep.

[Footnote: I recently watched a debate among Republican candidates for Arizona governor. One candidate asked for a show of hands from those who believed the 2020 presidential election was stolen, then immediately raised her own hand. Two other candidates hesitated before raising their hands in unison, as though waiting to see if the other would follow. So, I'll ask the question again - how many people have the courage to stick to their deeply held beliefs in the face of peer pressure? And when that peer pressure normalizes dangerous lies, whether about the security of our elections or the threat of other races or religions, what price do we pay as individuals and as a society? In such circumstances, we do not have the luxury of pointing fingers. We can only look in the mirror.]

Though Fraught With Peril, Critical Race Theory Has Its Place

No doubt, how our racial history in the U.S. is taught is fraught with peril, but much of the reason it’s so perilous is because of the nature of that history. It has understandably resulted in some serious scars that are not easily or painlessly addressed. CRT at its core seeks to explore the role race has played in our society from its earliest days, and to explore to what extent race still plays a role in society today. 

Let me preface this by saying I do not like the term "white privilege." I think it is counterproductive in that it assumes a predestined outcome for whites that leads to resentment among those whites who do not feel so privileged. I also do not believe in white guilt, either that we should all feel it simply because we're white or because the mere fact of being white somehow makes us guilty. Those two factors are probably the greatest risk in the application of CRT in teaching U.S. history. Also, attempts to judge the founders who stated that all men are created equal - in my opinion, the most important idea ever to emanate from the mind of man - by today's standards because they did not interpret it the way we do today is a mistake because doing so fails to recognize both how revolutionary that idea was at the time, however narrow its scope, and the fact that we would not know the universal interpretation of that phrase today that includes ALL people, were it not for the flawed men who first put it to paper.

That said, we'd be wise to mind the adage that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. We can think that won't happen, that we won't repeat some of the uglier chapters of our history, but that will only be assured through a combination of diligence and vigilance. Diligence in learning not just about, but from our history. Vigilance in watching for and fighting any embers of that history that might reignite into something far worse.

My personal journey regarding our racial history has been largely unintentional, reading books where race was often tangential to the main topic, but where it was revealing nonetheless. 

The first of those books was Ron Chernow’s biography of Ulysses S, Grant, a book I read because I’d enjoyed Chernow’s bio of Hamilton (before it became a Broadway phenomenon). My preconceived notions of Grant were more than blown away, especially as I learned of his dedication to real reconstruction of the South and guaranteeing the rights of freed slaves. But more revealing was how little I knew of Reconstruction, which had been effectively limited during my school days to “carpetbaggers,” so-called northern opportunists who swarmed the south seeking to profit from the societal upheaval and government intervention taking place there. So, to learn that during Grant’s presidency thousands of freed slaves had won elected office in the South, with a Black even being elected governor of Louisiana, came as a shock, as was learning of the impact of the original federal Civil Rights Act that preceded the 1964 CRA by nearly 100 years. To think how different things might be today had that early flourishing of equal rights had not been extinguished is a lot to ponder. 

So the question arises, how was that early flourishing of civil rights crushed? Well, we all have some idea - the rise of the KKK and the implementation of separate, but equal laws that came to be known collectively as Jim Crow. But that turns out to be just part of the story. How those developments came to gain the upperhand is less well known. It began with the Compromise of 1877, which resolved the disputed election of 1876 (Bush/Gore was not the first time an election wasn’t decided on Election Day). Thrown into the House of Representatives when no Electoral majority could be reached, Democrats agreed to give the presidency to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes in exchange for withdrawal of federal troops from the South. Those troops had been enforcing the Civil Rights Act of 1866, thus protecting the rights of the now free Blacks. Into the vacuum created by the federal departure stepped the KKK, the deleterious effect of which we should all be familiar, and subsequently, Jim Crow. The question then arises as to why we (the U.S.) allowed this to happen.

Enter another book, “The Second Founding,” so-called because it details the passage and aftermath of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments in the wake of the Civil War - amendments that codified the founding value stated in our Declaration of Independence that all men (though not women, just yet) are created equal (note, women were strong supporters of these amendments as they saw common cause with Blacks in the quest for equality - but I digress). The most interesting, troubling and thought-provoking takeaway from this book is how those amendments were eventually used to give Constitutional cover to Jim Crow laws. In fact, the cases Plessy v Ferguson, which found “separate but equal” constitutional and Brown v The Board of Education, which found “separate but equal” unconstitutional, both were argued over the same question - do separate but equal amenities and institutions violate the Fourteenth Amendment? In the former, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled they did not, in the latter it found that they did. Consider that for a moment - the exact same amendment was interpreted such to deliver opinions 180 degrees at odds with each other. It speaks to how fragile our Constitutional protections are (Madison referred to them as mere parchment barriers against the willful tyranny of malevolent men) and how the only thing separating liberty from tyranny are the nine people sitting on the Supreme Court, and our willingness to accept the rule of law. It also highlights how much we have to learn from history such that we can avoid backsliding.

I think we all understand the significance of those nine justices, but (personal opinion here), I fear that the nearly single-minded focus on finding justices likely to overturn Row v Wade unwittingly, but almost by default, drives us to favor justices likely to have a narrow or restrictive view of any rights that should be “reserved to the people.” We start to see this as the USSC weakens enforcement of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 or cedes more power to government in seizing private property through eminent domain, where “public good” (e.g., higher tax revenue) has supplanted “public use” (eg, highways, dams, airports, etc.) as sufficient justification to seize private property. In fact, in Kelo v New London (Connecticut), the Supreme Court ruled that private property could be taken by eminent domain from one private property owner and given to another private property owner based solely upon the promise the new owner could provide a use that generates higher tax revenue. It is not an exciting topic, so we tend not to consider it much, but such a ruling puts every one of our homes or holdings at risk. We don’t worry about it much because most of us need not worry that our homes will be seized since we live in nice areas where there is little pressure to improve the neighborhood, so-to-speak, nor do we live where there is little land for new development, or if there is limited land, where the difference in tax revenue would make such seizure desirable, but such a ruling cedes tremendous power to the government at the expense of individual rights.

So how does this apply to race or CRT, one might ask. Enter another book, “The Power Broker,” Robert Caro’s 1974 biography of Robert Moses, New York’s almost dictatorial public works czar during much of the twentieth century who arguably became the most powerful unelected public official in U.S. history. Skilled in writing legislation and unabashed in using the power of his position to get such legislation introduced and passed by state legislators, he was able to use the Constitution’s wording on contract law to make himself a party to state and city bond issues, which are protected under contract law, thereby making his role inviolable in the execution of those bonds - bonds which he used to build parks, highways, bridges, tunnels and eventually, public housing. His use of eminent domain to make way for such projects time and again cleared out poor, but thriving communities that enjoyed low crime, steady employment and pervasive entrepreneurship. What took their place were often displaced communities forced into slums and/ or public housing, the latter which may have replaced the lost roofs over people’s heads, but not the foundation of local businesses and cultural touchpoints - bowling alleys, barbershops, funeral parlors, grocery stores or the front stoops and tree-lined streets - that make for a thriving community.  Most often, the communities taken via eminent domain were populated by people of color, including migrants from the Jim Crow South. It wasn’t until Moses proposed a cross-Manhattan freeway (I-78) through Greenwich Village that he finally met his match. And the reason he met his match is because he finally tried to move out connected, wealthy elites, almost exclusively white, who had the resources and wherewithal to fight him. Were such discrepancies in who got relocated and who did not driven by race? Perhaps not, but the outcome was definitely one where those most harmed were Blacks and others who could least afford it. Similar iniquities took place across the country, including Detroit’s Black Bottom neighborhood, Chicago’s south and west sides, and elsewhere. Even the conservative Federalist Society has weighed in against the sordid racial history regarding the use of eminent domain. It is not a partisan issue.

But, as the late, legendary Billy Mays would say, wait, there’s more. Those Blacks who had been forced out of their homes and communities thanks to eminent domain and urban renewal had often arrived in these northern cities in hopes of finding something better than the Jim Crow south, only to find they could often get work only by accepting wages lower than their white counterparts, putting them at a financial disadvantage in cities that were more expensive than those they had fled, while sparking animosity among whites who lost their jobs to the lower wage newcomers. Not only were their wages lower than those for whites, but rents were often higher because restrictions on where Blacks could live decreased available housing supply. As any Econ 101 student could predict, increased demand from the newly arrived migrants, coupled with limited housing supply for those same migrants led to inflated rents. Thus, these migrants faced lower wages, higher rents and racial animosity from their new hosts. This was made clear in the meticulously researched, matter-of-fact book, “The Warmth of Other Suns” about the Great Migration of southern Blacks to locales in the north and west.

But even as we attempted to make amends for these injustices and obstacles through affirmative action and diversity initiatives - and we have done a decent job for many - we replaced those obstacles with new ones in an effort to fight drugs and crime. One of the most egregious developments of the war on drugs was development of the “Drug Courier Profile.” If one wants to see the unequal application of such profiles, they need only note the demographics of those stopped and having their vehicles searched along I-75 north of I-275 in the area of southern Ohio where I live. I had noticed long ago that a preponderance of those so stopped were Black. Statistics show this to be more than anecdotal evidence. Drug courier profiles are so vague that traveling alone is a valid consideration, as is traveling with a partner. So is dressing poorly, or dressing well. Likewise, driving a luxury vehicle or driving a dilapidated car. Or driving a nondescript vehicle like a used Honda Accord. Two takeaways from the list of red flags is that ANY ONE of us could be guilty of fitting the drug courier profile at any time, and FEW OF US ever think about it. But there are many that do - because too often those criteria are simply a pretext for justifying a thorough search for reasons more nefarious (the problem runs much deeper and is far more insidious, as is described in "The New Jim Crow").

To which it is common to say, well, if you have nothing to hide, there’s nothing to worry about. To a degree, that’s true. But how many of us might have something to hide. A joint in the glovebox, an opioid in a purse, a gun under the seat? I know more than a few white folks who’ve been caught with these or more and been let go without incident. Is such street mercy applied equally?

I had a friend who dabbled in selling marijuana while in school. He once got a message that someone in a specific dorm had called asking about a purchase. This guy went door-to-door looking for the prospective buyer, prompting someone to call the cops, who came and arrested him. Yet, this son of a prominent Detroit advertising executive had all charges dropped. This same friend recently retired from a C-level job with a U.S. automaker. Contrast that with the unconnected Black kid living in Avondale or Lower Price Hill who is trying to help pay the electric bill or put food on the table. Or the Black kid in college trying to make some extra spending money like my friend was. We may picture him as a street thug, but he is far more likely to be no more a threat to society than my friend, but that is not how the criminal justice system treats him. Instead, he is likely to get charged with the most severe crime permissible under the law, with the intent to draw a plea deal that leaves the kid with a jail sentence and a felony record (prosecutors tend to play numbers games, statistics they can use for future campaigns). In fact, Rudy Giuliani made exactly this point recently, inadvertently admitting this was the case while trying to portray the plea deal as leniency. It is no such thing. It is still a felony, and a felon is instantly behind the eight ball in trying to gain meaningful employment. A felon is barred from housing assistance. And since felons are barred from jury duty - and thanks to the proliferation of such drug sentences - they are far less likely to enjoy a jury of their peers that might understand how the system is stacked against them. They are also often precluded from voting, essentially making them non-citizens for crimes no different than that committed by my white C-suite friend. Their options are often reduced to menial jobs or a life of crime, which we then blame on the criminal, rather than a system stacked against him. What we can be sure of is that any chance of gaining a C-level role with a major employer is immediately and forever off the table.

All this feeds the stereotype that leads to unwarranted police shootings. I have witnessed the flip side of this in a way that really brought it home. I was pulled over at 5 AM just outside of Detroit a few years ago after taking a wrong turn while trying to get to the hospital before my 86 year-old father was going into surgery. Now, I’ve been stopped so many times I’ve lost count. Likewise, I’ve been let go more times than I can remember. Seriously. It's not so much that I'm a leadfoot, but that I get so lost pondering stuff like this that I just lose track. But again, I digress. Anyway, I thought this was just another stop. But when I glanced in the rearview mirror, I saw the cop crouched low, hand on his holster, approaching wide to my left. He was clearly tense. Until he saw my face. As soon as I leaned out, he visibly relaxed, standing upright, taking his hand off his gun and approaching me directly. Clearly, he did not see a 57 year-old white male as a threat. All very understandable.

But let’s consider the bioscience of what had just taken place. The cop’s stress hormones were clearly elevated. It is easy to imagine his heart rate rising, his palms and back of his neck sweating and his mind racing. He is in fight-or-flight mode, which shuts off the rational mind and turns on the instinctive, reactive one. All that changed as soon as he saw me. It is easy to understand and imagine the wave of relief that washed over him (put yourself in his position and consider the relief - I bet you can feel it). But what if instead of being a 57 year-old white guy, I’d been a 27 year-old white guy. Or worse, a 27 year-old black guy. Not only do those stress hormones remain elevated, but I am not likely to be as relaxed as I was. It is easy to see how a simple traffic stop can escalate to something much worse. And too often, it does. Again, we may say, well there’s a reason the cop was nervous because of the circumstances, but too often we stop considering the circumstances beyond the culture of crime in our cities, ignoring the societal obstacles listed above that have created that culture.

So this is where things are. Most of us live rather innocuous lives unfettered by the realities so many face. Even those Blacks who seem to have made it suffer from the daily uncertainty that comes with not knowing if the invitation to golf with the boss that you failed to receive was an oversight or something else. If the fact the people who arrived after you, got seated before you was a mistake or something else. If the Confederate flag flying at the corner of Tylersville and Lesourdsville-West Chester ( a local suburban intersection) simply represents a good ol’ boy or something darker. And they still worry every time lights go on in the police car behind them in ways most of us never do. It all leads to a form of PTSD, which can be triggered (yes, triggered is the proper term to describe how stress hormones are activated) by what most of us consider insignificant.

To combat this, it is up not to those who suffer the indignities, but those of us who do not. Otherwise, it could be much worse. Returning to “The Warmth of Other Suns,” there was a passage that was almost a throwaway. It involved one of the migrants profiled returning from L.A. to his hometown of Monroe, Louisiana, where he decides to eat at a diner that just a few years earlier had once been Whites Only. The experience is so unremarkable that it leaves him wondering how something so mundane - a black man eating in a restaurant - could have generated so much anger and hatred that not that long before it could have gotten him killed. 

That vignette haunted me for several days. How, indeed, I wondered. But then I saw a news report of a rally where the president of the United States - the person charged with defending the U.S. Constitution and the rights of all protected by it - stood by for seventeen seconds without even attempting to silence a crowd as they chanted “Send Her Back!” Suddenly, I realized how it could happen. As Jonathan Haidt described in his 2012 book, “The Righteous Mind,” fight songs, uniforms, flags and yes, rhythmic chants all lead to more fervent binding of those involved. They are essential in creating emotional bonds that can cloud judgment and create unthinking devotion to a cause. They are the source of what’s known as the madness of crowds. It is what makes otherwise good people participate in everything from public lynchings to the Holocaust. And I realized it is a fairly straight line from “Build The Wall!” to “Send Her Back” to “String Them Up!” And “string them up” is what that returning southern Black was remembering at that diner as he considered how fragile his - and our - liberties really are. We may snicker and get a kick out of such chants, but to others they are rightfully terrifying. We need to be able to understand that, and why. Furthermore, it is our duty to stop them in their tracks.

There were more than 4,000 lynchings across the U.S. from 1880 to 1920, yet attempts to pass a federal anti-lynching law was politically untenable until the late 1940s for fear of upsetting white southerners. We are not that far removed from Jim Crow or the hate-filled violence that accompanied it. Claims it can't happen here are misguided because it already has. It is up to us to make sure it doesn't again. That's why learning our history, in all its gory details, is so critical.

Slavery, segregation, voter suppression, eminent domain, forced relocation, simple traffic stops, unequal application of the law, angry chants and the madness of crowds - all things we whites rarely, if ever have to worry about, but which are a daily source of anguish for so many. Anguish that impacts the health, safety and economic well-being of millions of our fellow American citizens today, just as it has since they first arrived on these shores in 1619. 

And for all our progress, the system still works to oppress. Consider how so many like to make the case we are a republic, not a democracy (school levies and ballot initiatives prove the lie that claim really is, but yet again, I digress). This argument is often used to justify the electoral college and Senate representation, where there is unequal representation. However, it ignores the real aim of a republic, which is to ensure that all interests are represented, even those in the minority. By that measure, we fail miserably. In an ideal republic, all groups and classes would feel fairly represented, be it business or labor, rich or poor, Black or White, but thanks to gerrymandering and our archaic method of ensuring senate representation - itself a remnant of our desire to placate slaveholding states - many groups are not represented as they should be.

Consider Ohio. In the 2018 election, Republicans earned a slim majority of the vote for US congressional seats, 52 percent to 47.3 percent, yet because of how districts are drawn, the GOP won 12 seats, the Democrats only 4, an unrepresentative 75-25 split. We can take pleasure in “our side's” bonanza, but at what cost to confidence in our system of self-governance. Let us not forget that the rallying cry of our ancestors against the British was “No taxation without representation!” Why should we not think that people who have suffered the indignities, the inequities, the injustices outlined above would not someday take up a similar cry? That is the real threat to our democracy, to our liberty, to our republic. We ignore it at our own peril.

Ours is a history I had really not considered in full, largely because I was unaware it existed, or because it didn’t impact me, how would I even know to care?

Well, that is what Critical Race Theory seeks to address. Yes, how it is taught could simply replace one resentment with another. But if done properly, it could be the transformative change we need. 

So, what would make the latter true? I figured the best place to see how awful the teaching of CRT might be would be to look at likely offenders, so I sought out several very liberal U.S. history professors to see how they would teach it. Heather Cox Richardson, who many would view as a liberal U.S. history professor put my fears to rest, while describing it perfectly. She teaches that the U.S proclaimed that all men are created equal, like a company that posts a set of values on the wall but fails to live up to them. But then, like employees who point to those values posted on the wall, the people decided to hold the nation’s feet to the fire and force it to live by its own stated principles. She said that in doing so, we made that creed about us. About we, the people. And that is how the government Lincoln described at Gettysburg - a government of, by and for the people - is supposed to work. It is the American experiment working as it should, in all its glory.

We are not only strong enough to face our truths, but we can and will be all the stronger for doing so. That is the promise of Critical Race Theory. Instead of repeating mantras spewed by ratings-hungry demagogues about Marxism and the downfall of America, we would be better served by engaging in real dialog to ensure productive application of CRT so that we can begin to understand, appreciate and address injustices large and small that so few of us even realize exist. Had we done so long ago, we would not be having this conversation today.

With that, I am out. Happy to share many more reading recommendations. 

A Primer on Guns and Freedom

This meme got me to thinking...

But in reality...

The Bolsheviks took over Russia, backed by armed peasants. Mao took over China, backed by armed peasants. Castro took over Cuba, backed by armed peasants. Ho Chi Minh took over Vietnam (and defeated the US), backed by armed peasants. Meanwhile... Communism ended in East Germany without a shot being fired. Communism ended in Poland without a shot being fired. Communism ended in Hungary without a shot being fired. Communism ended in Czechoslovakia without a shot being fired.

Even the fall of communism in the former Soviet Union took place with more whimper than shout (or shots).

This is typical of the simplistic and misleading argument linking guns and freedom. In fact, outside of the US, whose revolution was led by the greatest collection of intellectual elites ever to rebel against central authority (a foreign authority, I might add) one would be hard pressed to find a violent revolt by armed citizens that delivered more freedom than existed at the time of the revolt. The end of apartheid in South Africa, British colonial rule in India, the end of Jim Crow here in the US all came about through long and painful, but largely peaceful pressure to end suppression.

Bottom line, the argument that our guns will somehow secure liberty and democracy, especially in the oldest and most successful democracy on earth, is dangerously misleading at best, and an outright lie at worst. And meanwhile, tens of thousands of our fellow citizens die every year in deference to that lie.

Cancel Culture Threatens our Freedom and Safety

I know next to nothing about Gina Carano, either as an actress or of her political views, but entire college programs have been developed trying to understand how the Holocaust was made possible. From Auschwitz survivors like Max Frankl to noted scholars, it comes down to desensitizing the population to cruelty by dehumanizing an entire group. You refer to Jews (or Gypsys or Communists) as vermin, an infestation, snakes and the like, while blaming them for what ails society. As Frankl said in his book "Man's Search for Meaning," the Nazi death camps had only a handful of sadists who took actual pleasure in the torture and murder of prisoners, while the vast majority of guards had been "dulled by the number of years" that they'd been exposed to the dehumanization of their foes.

It is said, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. It is instructive what the CEO of the parent company of Cambridge Analytica had to say about Donald Trump's tactics. Cambridge Analytica helped Steve Bannon field test things like "build the wall" and "lock her up," as well as more vile things like "Can Blacks succeed in American without the help of Whites" or "Are Blacks genetically predispositioned to fail?," seeking out people who would respond positively to such messages and suggestions. Not surprisingly, the CEO of Cambridge Analytica's parent company was later recorded saying that the tactics the Trump campaign used in 2016 were identical to those used by Hitler to turn Germany against the Jews.

Which brings me to Gina Carano. This is what she posted:

"Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers, but by their neighbors...even by children. 🙁

“Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”

The result of such densensitization, whether directed at Jews, Gypsies and Communists, or at Blacks, Muslims and socialists (and Mexicans, liberals and NeverTrump Republicans or conservatives, Christians and white males) is to villify dehumanize the opposition such that resisting becomes an act of courage, where those who act in defiance of the leader and in solidarity with the oppressed are treated as outcasts and enemies of the state. Below are two images that show the horrors of such dehumanization, two images suggesting how such atrocities are made possible, and finally, two photos showing how standing against the hatred is an act of courage. I would argue that what Gina Carano was warning us of, is that we risk following the path that Germany followed. We should not - MUST NOT - ignore history. It is why our founding fathers felt freedom of speech, the press, and to protest were so vital that they placed them first among our Bill of Rights. What has been done to Gina Carano via cancel culture, while fully defensible from a legal standpoint (she was fired by a private company) is so misguided. I don't know if the hatred against political opponents she decried was against liberals or conservatives, but she is correct in her assertion as to the potentially tragic outcome ignoring her warning could bring about. She wasn't saying that where we are is just like Holocaust, she was saying what we are now witnessing is akin to what transpired in Germany that made the Holocaust possible. It is an accurate and critical distinction.

Please tell me where I am wrong in that belief.

Nazi Germany

America

Nazi Paramilitary

American Paramilitary

German Outcast

American Outcast

The Poisoning of the Conservative Mind

I have referenced my time on the Butler County GOP central committee as the penultimate straw in my growing disgust with the Republican party (Donald Trump was the final straw). When I was approached about running, it was by a good friend who suggested it as part of a group seeking to repair the party. This was in 2010, just as the Tea Party was beginning to take root. I saw that movement nationally, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, as one growing out of misplaced and misguided anger at the response needed to avoid financial calamity. Misplaced, because the real anger should have been directed at the lasseiz-faire policies that created the environment that made those bailouts necessary. Misguided, because it stirred up a lot of anger that should not have been stirred in the first place.

One of the people in the group that approached me, Ann Becker, is referenced in this piece. I was shocked when I found she was overtly campaigning for Trump in 2016. I was also shocked to find others in that group, including the person who approached me, supporting him as well. 

In her book, "Twilight of Democracy," conservative writer Anne Applebaum describes the rift in the GOP that began somewhere in the mid-2000s. I can trace my own disillusion back to that period. What you had were two wings that had been battling behind the scenes for decades - the nationalist wing, led by folks like Pat Buchanan, and, for lack of a better term, the limited government wing represented by Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp and the like. One was backward looking, the other forward looking. Somewhere post-9/11, those wings began to diverge. The latter, which included people like George Will, William Kristol, Anne Applebaum, Mitt Romney and John McCain became outcasts - RINOs in conformity-enforcing terminology. The others, including folks like Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Joe Digenova and their cast of burn-it-all-down flamethrowers like Jim Jordan, Louis Gohmert and Josh Hawley delivered us the GOP of Donald Trump. It proudly proclaims to be the party of God, guns and Trump. That is not a governing philosophy by any stretch, but that is what they live by.

The article linked above shows how that mindset not only lives, but is thriving at the grassroots level. Too many are oblivious to it, but if not reversed, it will be our downfall. I believed that in 1992, when I wrote against Pat Buchanan's nationalist rantings. I believed it in 2004 when I wrote the GOP faced a coming rift between the chamber of commerce limited government sorts and the "do as I believe you should do" religious right. I believed it in 2008 when I wrote that the GOP had stopped being the party of limited government and self-reliance, choosing instead to celebrate limited thought and self aggrandizement. And I believed it in 2010 when I ran and won a seat on the county GOP central committee in an attempt to correct the party's course. But it was already running off the rails. I am convinced that it can no longer be righted. It must crash or we will all suffer.

My Agenda for America

I hope to flesh these out in the coming days and weeks, but for now, a simple agenda.

1) Decouple health insurance from employment

2) Preserve the environment

3) Enhance custodial responsibility for gun owners, buyers and sellers

4) Reform and demilitarize the police

5) Reform immigration, including a path to citizenship or legal status for those productively entrenched here.

6) Educate our populace for a 21st century world, including critical thinking skills

7) Restore a balance of power between business and workers

8) Reduce the deficit, with higher taxes on the table

9) Ensure the voting rights of every legal voter.

10) Defend our rights and privacy from government and corporate overreach.

Related links:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/01/opinion/amazon-workers-union.html (#7)

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/01/ftc-proposes-rule-ban-noncompete-clauses-which-hurt-workers-harm-competition (#7)

The Kenosha Chaos Our Guns Have Wrought

Folks are sharing this NY Time timeline as evidence that Kyle Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense. It will be up to the courts to sort that out, but it appears obvious that his possession of a gun is the source of his situation today. And the possession of guns by others did nothing to make a tense and tragic situation better. They only served to turn chaos into tragedy.

According to photos and video in the accompanying story, a gun was fired and Kyle Rittenhouse turned towards the sound. Joseph Rosenbaum, a 36 year-old father then apparently moved toward Rittenhouse. It is certainly just speculation, but it is quite likely that in the confusion he believed Rittenhouse was the shooter because he had a rifle in his hands. Thus, Rosenbaum was possibly trying to disarm what he thought was an active shooter. He was shot in the head and killed by Rittenhouse.

Rittenhouse then flees. One would expect he would be agitated and anxious, having just shot and killed someone (there is video elsewhere where he seems to be heard saying he had just shot someone). In any event, his adrenaline and fight or flight response are almost certainly high at this point, not a circumstance that is going to make for what we might call "good choices."

Meanwhile, the nearby crowd, having heard at least two gunshots and seeing one person with fatal injuries, is also certain to be in a highly agitated state. Others exercising their Second Amendment rights apparently pull out their guns, as multiple gunshots can then be heard. Whether they were in response to Rittenhouse's act, the first gunahot that had drawn Rittenhouse's and Rosenbaum's attention or just the general chaos is impossible to discern at this point, but those folks firing can be viewed no more, nor less justified than Rittenhouse at this point. In fact, it could be possible that they, too, were the subject of attacks from others who might have thought THEY were the source of the original gunshot and thus, active shooters in need of takedown, the only difference being their gunshots hit no one.

Amid all this chaos, Anthony Huber, a 26 year-old skateboarder, runs towards Rittenhouse, who bystanders are identifying as an active shooter. Rittenhouse trips and falls, at which point Huber appears to try to hit or tackle him. Rittenhouse, understandably agitated turns and begins firing blindly, killing Huber. He also shot Gaige Grosskreutz, who was holding a hand gun.  Grosskreutz was shot in the arm and ran off.

It is important to keep in mind that by this point, Rittenhouse has fired his gun repeatedly and killed two people. This is precisely the type of situation where the argument for concealed carry is often made - when the so-called good guy with a gun is needed to take out the bad guy with a gun. But in a chaotic scene like this, who is to decide who is good and who is bad? Herein lies the entire problem with our misplaced faith in guns to deliver peace, safety and freedom. They do not. They only deliver what we witnessed here, and apparently witnessed in Portland overnight as well - chaos and death.

Kyle Rittenhouse is no hero. He shot three people, killing two. If he was acting in self defense,  it was only because his gun appears to have made him the subject of suspicion when another gun went off. And we have no idea why that other gun went off (perhaps they were acting in self-defense as well). It is a simple case of armed insanity. This is what our fascination with firearms has wrought. And we can expect more of it. The cycle of insanity must stop. It is hard to see how it can.

We Ignore Disenfranchisement at Our Own Peril

At the end of his first live show after the lockdowns ended, Dave Chappelle closed by warning that if we don't begin to take the concerns being expressed by the George Flynn protesters seriously and act upon them, rather than simply paying them lip service, we risk an ugly progression of the frustration into something more than protests (the last words spoken were a drawn-out "rat-a-tat--tat---tat----tat"). It wasn't a threat, but a warning - a warning of what can happen when the oppressed and downtrodden feel ignored and powerless.

It is not just the violence against blacks and other people of color. It is the lack of a voice. It is troubling how many still dismiss the violence with an "all lives matter" retort, but the dismissal of systematic disenfranchisement is even more troubling. From the Electoral College to Senate representation to gerrymandering to outright efforts at voter suppression, the combination of institutional violence with an intentionally limited voice in the halls of power is a dangerous and combustible mix.

We are all aware that Donald Trump won the presidency despite being favored by 3 million fewer American citizens than was his opponent. But are we aware that in 2018, the Democrats received 59.3% of the votes for the US senate, yet LOST two seats? Granted, California's method of running the top two primary vote getters - both Democrats - skewed those results, but even absent that aberration, the Democrats still out-polled the GOP 55/45, yet are in the minority in the upper chamber of congress.

In the House, Ohio is instructive. As the table below shows, the GOP edged the Democrats in statewide voting by a slim 52 to 47.3 percent margin, yet the GOP won 12 seats to the Democrats' four, a 3 to 1 ratio. Regardless one's political views, it is foolhardy to think folks in a nation that claims its government is of, by and for the people will continue to quietly and peacefully acquiesce to non-representation.

Conservative commentator David Frum has stated that if conservatives become convinced they cannot win democratically that they will not abandon conservatism, they will abandon democracy. No true believer in America, no one who truly loves this country and what its ideals proclaim to be, can accept or support such an outcome.

Much is made of the United States being a republic rather than a democracy. But a republic is not defined as a system where the minority rules, as has become the case today, where an ever-shrinking number of voters rely upon archaic rules and nefarious means to maintain a grip on power. Instead, a republic is meant to provide all segments of the citizenry with representative government in the truest sense of the word - a government that is representative of the wishes of the governed. The further we stray from that truth and the longer we ignore it, the greater the strife this nation will suffer. And it will not be the fault of the aggrieved, but of those who choose to look the other way. Eventually the day will come where the couple in St. Louis will become a metaphor for the American ruling class - fearful, gun-toting citizens hiding behind gated walls of their own making. We owe it to both our forefathers and our children to be better citizens than what we've become.