My Vote in 2024

My guess is that most of you have voted, and this isn't intended to change your mind even if you haven't. Instead, I just feel a need to share my reasons for voting the way I will. I guess it's sort of a catharsis since I have been quieter in the runup to this election than I've probably been since I've been old enough to know what an election is.

I'll start by saying there are three traits I consider essential in anyone who is going to earn my vote. These are decency, integrity and intellect. Decency is demonstrated in the respect one shows for others. Integrity is doing what's right even when it is not in one's own best interest. And intellect is the demonstration of curiosity and critical thinking that makes possible the strategic decision-making required of any effective leader.

Everything I have witnessed tells me that Donald Trump is woefully deficient on all three counts.

Decency

I could rehash all the former president’s insults, name-calling, threats and even the self-proclaimed pride he takes in the way his celebrity allows him to commit acts of criminal sexual assault. I could do that, but to what end? Somehow, good people have chosen to turn a blind eye. I can’t - my personal values won't allow it. Instead, I would ask those who support him to convince me I am wrong. Prove to me that he is a good and decent man. By that I mean not by dismissing the awfulness of his behavior as inconsequential, but by demonstrating in the affirmative how his behavior is evidence of his decency. More importantly, please convince me that he appeals to the best in us, that he makes us better as individuals, as citizens, as neighbors and as a society. Please help me understand. I really want to know. 

Integrity

It is said that reputation is what others see, character is who we really are. It is well-known that Donald Trump has endured multiple bankruptcies. It is well-known that investors in Donald Trump’s casino stocks watched their investments go up in smoke. It is also well-known that he has been sued multiple times for non-payment of bills, often sending his vendors into bankruptcy as well. But what is not so well known is that while the pain of his mismanagement was being felt by lenders, vendors and shareholders, Donald Trump was using those lenders and investors’ funds to pay himself millions and pay off tens of millions in personal debt. If integrity is doing what is right even when it is not in one’s own best interest, then this would be its antithesis. 

These represent just a small part of the questionable, and as the courts have determined, often illegal dealings of a man some would like to see return to the presidency. I am not one of them, and here are some more reasons why. 

He’s been convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, forced to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit over defrauding financially-strapped students of Trump University, found to be an adjudicated rapist by the judge in the E. Jean Carroll sexual assault case and ordered to pay more than $450 million in fines for bank and tax fraud. Meanwhile, he is facing charges for intentionally refusing to return top-secret documents which he improperly stored and shared at his properties in Florida and New Jersey. Worst of all, he is under investigation for his actions on January 6 (a date, which like 9/11, needs no year to denote its infamy), where at best he turned a blind eye as his supporters sought to stop the legal process of certifying a presidential election, people he now seeks to lionize (I strongly recommend you watch this video beginning around the 26:20 mark through the moment Ashli Babbit gets shot at 28:35 and determine for yourself if she deserves Donald Trump’s praise as a “Great Patriot”).

Please note that everything in the preceding paragraph transpired after Donald Trump took office as president. His legal troubles stretch back decades before, beginning with the federal case over racial discrimination against he and his father in 1973. The apple does not fall far from the tree and his is a long history of disreputable behavior. Also note that none of the above is opinion. These indictments of his character are all documented fact.

I could go on, but at this point he has disqualified himself from my consideration. I would love for people to convince me otherwise, as long as they are committed to facts and evidence in proving these are not reflections of his true character.

Intellect

A cousin of mine who’s deeply involved in education once told me how brains develop in early childhood. We all begin with billions of disconnected neurons that begin to make connections as they are needed. This goes on for the first 4-6 years of life, at which point the brain starts pruning those that aren’t being used because it’s too inefficient to maintain those unused neurons. Mary Trump, Donald Trump’s niece and a PhD psychologist, has argued the neural connection process may have been short-circuited in her uncle thanks to his mother’s cold indifference, literally leaving him with an under-developed brain. One may dismiss this as simple family disharmony. However, consistent with Mary Trump's diagnosis, Dr. Justin Frank, the author of psychological studies of both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, noted in his book Trump on the Couch, intellectual deficiencies and psychological needs in Donald Trump that are often the result of maternal neglect in infancy and which often manifest themselves in ways that “involve lying, exaggerating, and feigning certainty about things they do not comprehend” (Page 146). He goes on to describe how children and adults suffering from this subtype of dyslexia are often seen as having thin skin, confusing questions for criticism or attack because they either do not understand the question or lack the depth of knowledge to respond effectively. There are countless examples of this behavior, as seen in exchanges with NBC’s Peter Alexander or at a recent NABJ conference. 

Further evidence of his limited intellectual capacity are the insults referenced above. Unable to formulate a coherent, factual response to those who criticize him, he must resort to insults and name-calling. His behavior matches his vocabulary, which has been shown to be that of a 4th grader. Interestingly, the late Charles Krauthammer, not only a reliably conservative commentator, but also a Harvard-trained clinical psychiatrist, was not so generous in describing Donald Trump's psyche. In a 2016 piece he wrote, “I used to think Trump was an 11-year-old, an undeveloped schoolyard bully. I was off by about 10 years. His needs are more primitive, an infantile hunger for approval and praise, a craving that can never be satisfied. He lives in a cocoon of solipsism where the world outside himself has value — indeed exists — only insofar as it sustains and inflates him.”

Krauthammer’s comment about a craving that can never be satisfied is insightful. In a 1989 Time cover story, a close colleague of Donald Trump’s describes him as a “black hole” which can’t be filled, no matter how hard he tries. He goes on to predict that Trump would pursue ever larger deals to try to fill the void, but to no avail. Viewed through the lens of the three PhDs above, this person’s take becomes unvarnished evidence backing the under-developed, juvenile nature of the future president’s psyche. And one can't help but wonder if his pursuit of the presidency isn't just that last, desperate grasp for fulfilment predicted by his colleague, or help but see his angry stream-of-consciousness rally rants as public therapy sessions. Trump on the couch, indeed.

Of consequence, the neediness in Donald Trump’s mindset - the need for approval, the need to have the biggest crowds, the need to be seen as the smartest - can be exploited by others. For proof, look no further than his debate with Kamala Harris, who only needed to question his crowd sizes to get him to go off on a nonsensical rant that ended with him talking about unverified stories of immigrants eating cats and dogs. And in a world where every accusation is a confession, where he fears he's been outsmarted, Donald Trump needs to call Harris a “stupid woman” because he needs to convince people not that she is stupid, but that he is not - and because he lacks the intellectual capacity to make his case in any other way.

This craving for validation has real world implications. Why do you think he brags about the great relationships he has with Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un? Is it because he is working to develop relationships that are in our nation's best interest, or is it because they, like Kamala Harris, recognize how easily he can manipulated, whether by flattery or ridicule? If my country needs to stand up to those three tyrants, and others like them, I far prefer someone who knows how to play the game, as Kamala demonstrated, than one who is so easily manipulated.

Clinical explanations such as these necessarily give weight to the claims by his former aides and cabinet members like Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn and others that he’s a moron, idiot or worse. But we don’t need to take others’ word for it. We can see it for ourselves in comments where he has asked why we can’t nuke hurricanes or hit Covid with a really strong flu shot. A seemingly humorous example, but one that could have serious consequences involved his Sharpie mark-up of an NOAA hurricane cone of uncertainty when he was trying to prove that Hurricane Dorian was headed towards Alabama. Instead of simply saying he misspoke and moving on, he felt the need to prove himself. Many of us laughed while others defended him, but it raises the serious question of how he would react in a far more serious situation where he’d made a mistake. Such stubbornness born of intellectual deficiencies and insecurities, combined with a lack of curiosity and strategic thinking in an increasingly unstable world could have devastating consequences.

I hesitate to say this because it will come across as, dare I say, a little Trumpish, but a line from Animal House comes to mind - nasty, amoral and stupid is no way to go through life. Nor are they traits I want in a president. But these are the traits that Donald Trump has exhibited again and again. And I have yet to come across anyone who can make an effective argument to the contrary. Yes, there are deflections, denials and the blind loyalty of a rather embarrassing cadre of sycophants, but I continue to wait for a coherent argument proving that what has been said above is unfounded.

Changing Principles?

I’ve had people suggest my values have changed. They haven’t. I became a Republican the way most people choose a party - because that’s how my parents voted. But I quickly developed my own set of values that I found better supported at the time by the GOP, including individual liberty, limited government, commitment to fiscal responsibility and the championing of democracy and human rights around the world through a combination of military strength and moral leadership. However, even early on, I recognized that there were two ideologies coursing through GOP veins. One, an optimistic one embodied by Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp, reflected the principles just noted. The other, led at the time by Pat Buchanan, pushed a dark, us versus them narrative that saw the world as a zero sum game. I noted my opposition to such a world view in a handwritten 1992 journal entry and I hold that view to this day. Sadly, the GOP has been taken over by the Pat Buchanan wing, led by Donald Trump. They no longer represent my values, so I can no longer support them. As Ronald Reagan once said of the Democrats, he didn’t leave the party, the party left him. Or, as Winston Churchill observed, some abandon their party for the sake of their principles, others abandon their principles for the sake of their party. To me, principles matter more.

That’s because I have never held policy as sacrosanct. I see policy as a means to an end, as a means to living up to my principles. And just as I see my HVAC unit as a means to comfort - sometimes I need some heat, sometimes I need some A/C - so I see policy as a necessarily flexible means to a better, stronger, more just society that empowers individuals to be all they can be, respects personal liberty, chooses long term fiscal responsibility over short term interests and promotes the right of self determination around the world. It’s not the means, but the ends I care about. Unfortunately, Donald Trump’s GOP has abandoned all the above. 

Now, I understand that there is one issue, abortion, that for some matters more than anything else. I understand the concern, but I am not, and never will be, a single issue voter. And even on the matter of abortion, I would rather folks seek to change hearts than use the courts to reinterpret the Constitution, because doing so has required the appointment of justices who have a narrowly defined view of all rights inherent in that document. We should not lose sight of the fact that Plessy v. Ferguson, which enshrined separate but equal as a constitutional principle, and Brown v. The Board of Education, which found separate but equal unconstitutional, were both based upon interpretations of the 14th Amendment’s equal protections clause. The wording of the document didn’t change. All that changed were the people interpreting it. That is what is at stake. Justices who see fewer individual protections put all our liberties at risk and those are the justices today’s GOP seeks to place at all levels of our federal judiciary. I cannot and will not vote for that.

Which leads to what I see as Donald Trump’s greatest shortcoming - that he understands America no better than the Grinch understood Christmas. It’s all about the material goods with no understanding that America, just as the Grinch learned about Christmas, is about so much more. Here are two examples.

The first involves a visit I made to the American cemetery in Normandy honoring those who died on D-Day. There is a plaque at the entrance that reads:

"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 

Nothing could better represents what makes America special. Our young men sacrificed their lives not for material gain but in defense of American ideals of freedom and democracy.

Contrast that to Donald Trump’s comment in this video regarding the war in Iraq, where he casually argues that we should have taken the oil. Forget that doing so would be a war crime, it shows how everything is transactional with Donald Trump. That is not what made America great, nor will it ever. To be honest, that comment makes me ill, as does the thought of someone who would so disgrace our nation serving as our president. 

The second example begins with a talk by management guru Simon Sinek on the Navy Seals, describing how they became the most effective operating unit on the planet by self-policing based upon a system that puts a higher value on principles than on performance. He relates how they would rather have a low performer with high values than a high performer with inferior values. Yet consider Donald Trump and the case of Seal Eddie Gallagher, who killed a teenage Iraqi 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." As is the Seals' custom, he was reported by his team members. The U.S. eventually found him guilty of war crimes and removed him from active duty.

Donald Trump pardoned Gallagher, not only undermining the Navy Seals' self-policing methods that make them the effective force they are, but lauded the war criminal as a great warrior before inviting him to join him on the 2020 campaign trail.

Just two of many examples of Donald Trump not understanding the soul of America, or even basic decency. If he wants to cavort with war criminals and insurrectionists like Gallagher and Ashli Babbit, let him do so on his own time. But please, let’s not let him poison the minds of the American people, lest we forget who we really are. 

The Corrosive Impact

When a party revels in making their opponents uneasy, behavior inevitably takes on the nature of an addict who requires ever stronger doses to get the same high. Thus, what we witnessed in the campaign's final weeks, culminating in Donald Trump's closing argument at Madison Square Garden. The important and most frightening questions are how far can this go and where does it stop? When people sharing the stage with a would-be president refer to their fellow Americans as garbage, when influentual supporters receive wild applause when they argue that America needs to be spanked like a petulant teenage girl, when a former and potentially future president calls for the execution of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or the termination of the Constitution (not for the nation's good, but his own), that is a step too far. I fear that for some these are just jokes, when they should be taken as warnings of a step towards a world we should not want to inhabit. When Edmund Burke said that all that’s required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing, this is where it starts. We can either dismiss it as playful fun, which is a dangerous game to play, or we can put our foot down and say this is where it stops, this is not who we are. I am proudly putting my foot down.

Bottom Line

I realize this has been almost 100% about opposition to Donald Trump, but with good reason. He is an ill-tempered person lacking the moral character and intellectual capacity required in a leader of a great nation like ours. By contrast, though she has been frustratingly vague on policy, Kamala Harris is striking all the right notes about who we are and the leadership our country needs. While the Biden administration shares blame for the inflation that followed Covid, pushing a relief program that was almost certainly too much, too late, it is also true that the U.S. suffered lower inflation than any other western nation and has enjoyed a far healthier economy than Trump would have us believe. In fact, adjusting for all job losses and bounce back jobs in the wake of Covid, Joe Biden has created more jobs on a monthly basis than Donald Trump did before Covid struck (247,000/month to 180,000/month). In fact, nearly as many jobs have been created in the last 26 months under Joe Biden as were created under Donald Trump in the 37 months before COVID struck (see chart below). Also, Donald Trump forfeited any right to use immigration as a campaign theme when he chose to torpedo the bipartisan border bill. Meanwhile, the infrastructure bill and the CHIPS Act promise to be investments in American productivity and competitiveness that will benefit us for decades to come. It’s things like that - the Panama Canal, the interstate highway system, the internet - that made America great and will continue to do so. Preying on fear, anger and grievance will do no such thing.

Sadly, this election has ignored numerous challenges we face involving deficits, demographics, climate change and global affairs that will shake our world regardless who's elected. I am of the mindset that tax cuts will only worsen our looming debt crisis, that robust immigration is necessary to not only offset declining birth rates that risk undermining our ability to deliver on our Social Security and Medicare commitments, but also strengthen our competitive position vis-a-vis the rest of the world, that letting fossil fuel companies operate with abandon will worsen what nearly everyone now recognizes as a real threat to climate and the resulting human disruptions that will make today’s migrant crisis look like the good old days, and that sober, strategic thinking will be required to manage the geopolitical crises roiling the world. Only one party has expressed any interest in solving these problems and only one candidate has demonstrated the decency, integrity and intellect needed to pursue those solutions. I would challenge anyone to argue that Donald Trump has offered any idea that would deliver on any of these vital needs.

In the end, the GOP of Donald Trump is not the GOP I supported when I was younger. Meanwhile, the influx of disenchanted Republicans into Democratic ranks is having a moderating effect on that party, to the chagrin of its progressive wing. Whereas the GOP once thrived as a center-right party of ideas, the Democrats are-building a center-left coalition seeking solutions to a range of problems. Meanwhile, the GOP has moved from being a party that believes in limited government and self-reliance to one that thrives on limited thought and self-aggrandizement, and not much else. The GOP now represents everything I stand against.

Still, it comes down to values. Like the Navy Seals in the video above, performance matters not one bit when one fails the values test, and Donald Trump fails that test miserably.

Thus, my vote for Kamala Harris.

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Jobs created by president in my lifetime.

Random Thoughts

Pinned Thought: I wish someone would ask Donald Trump what he loves about America. (April 22, 2024)

Pinned Thought II:

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)

[note: this appeared in the October 11, 2024 edition of the NY Times: "Donald Trump doesn’t [understand the importance of government stability]. He has attempted to destroy our faith in the institutions that keep us safe — the courts, the F.B.I., the intelligence community, the diplomatic corps, the military, even our electoral process and, this week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/11/opinion/kamala-harris-donald-trump.html]

November 20, 2024

Demonstrating again that every accusation is a confession, Donald Trump continues to name administration candidates who range from wholly unqualified to outright charlatans, proving where the real enemy within resides. Rome fell not at the hands of an outside enemy, but from incompetence within. It is in that way that Trump resembles Caligula, an amoral hedonist who named his horse a Roman Senator.

It was ten years from Beer Hall Putsch to Enabling Act. If the U.S. Senate rubber stamps these picks, we'll be well on our way to cutting the time necessary by more than half (Jan 6 2021 to 2015???).

November 7, 2024

We face four crises that threaten to upend our world:

• Debt
• Climate
• Demographics
• Geopolitics
• Bonus: A proliferation of assault-style weapons with an unhealthy fixation on patriotic revolution

Unfortunately, not only were none of these even remotely addressed during the campaign, simply suggesting solutions to any are a surefire way to draw withering attacks. Just imagine a candidate who suggests raising taxes, restricting fossil fuels, increasing immigration (legal) and calling for closer ties with allies. We have become so soft and so entitled that we refuse to even consider causing ourselves the least bit of pain. 

November 5, 2024

I believe we're going to face rough waters over the next four years, regardless who wins tonight. Therefore, I have mixed feelings about how I want tonight to turn out. Whoever wins will be blamed for tough times to come, and given that we tend to see tectonic shifts in policy about every fifty years (FDR replaced laissez faire government with an activist one, which was replaced 48 years later by Reagan's supply side revolution). The upcoming presidential term will end 48 years after Reagan's ascent. Whether the next shift swings further right or back towards the left may well be decided tonight.

October 28, 2024

When a party revels in making their opponents uneasy, behavior inevitably takes on the nature of an addict who requires ever stronger doses to get the same high. Thus, what we witnessed last night during Donald Trump's closing argument at Madison Square Garden. The important and most frightening questions are how far can this go and where does it stop?

October 11, 2024

If 2016 was the Flight 93 election, then 2024 is the China Syndrome election - just because the core didn't melt down last time doesn't mean it won't. Many are taking comfort in the fact that our constitutional guardrails held last time when contemplating a possible return to the White House by Donald Trump, but that ignores that those guardrails have been severely weakened since 2016 and there is no guarantee they'll withstand another onslaught. In another similarity, when the plant employee who discovers the unit's flaws has the opportunity to go public on live TV, there are so many moving parts that he becomes scattered and comes across as what those with a vested interest in keeping the plant open describe as "disturbed." One might call it Meltdown Derangement Syndrome. It's how many of us who try to pin down the multitude of flaws, lies and dangers inherent in a Donald Trump presidency feel, leading some to refer to it as Trump Derangement Syndrome.

October 6, 2024

The economy is is driven by human nature (there's a reason Behavioral economics has become a Nobel-worthy endeavor). This explains why mankind has progressed through war and peace, liberal and conservative. It may be slow and halting at times, but our ingenuity keeps pushing us forward. What has held us back, and threatens to do so in the future, is pestilence, famine and reliance on religious faith to the exclusion of science. The Dark Ages, the plague, drought and famine did more to thwart progress than any policy. Likewise, climate change and fundamentalism are likely to do more harm than taxes or regulation.

September 20, 2024

Chris and I met a couple about our age in Fance who, upon hearing we'd visited the Normandy landing beaches, thanked us ("Merci, merci, les Americains ont aidé sauvre la France. N'oublier jamais, n'oublier jamais." - Thank you, thank you, the Americans helped save France. Never forget, never forget.) . Decades from now, Ukrainians will feel the same way about us - if we do not abandon them.

September 17, 2024

I think folks should revisit The Grapes of Wrath, seeking to view the plight of Haitians in Springfield OH through the eyes of the Okie's in John Steinbeck's classic, then read Matthew 25: 31-46 and ask themselves not what Jesus would do, but what Jesus would have us do. We've always been resentful of outsiders, whether the Irish, Chinese, Okies or others. Heck, I even felt it when I, along with thousands of other Michiganders, moved to Texas during the oil boom/auto bust of 1983. I was harassed by cops and locals in ways that were both amusing and troubling, though nothing serious ever came of it. That is not always true and it is often the native who is the source of trouble.

August 6, 2024

An article in the NY Times about "zombie pharmacies" raises an interesting question about whether market forces are always best at resolving civic and economic issues. In this case, major chains have shut down hundreds of locations in New York City, leaving numerous vacancies in an otherwise thriving retail real estate market. Yet these spaces remain vacant, creating eyesores and attracting illegal activity, which in some cases is actually making retail space less attractive to potential renters. So, why don't landlord re-rent the properties? Because many of them are on long-term leases backed by financially viable giants like Walgreens that pay better than what the market supports today. So what is in the neighborhood's best interest interest is not in the landlord's. A case where perhaps incentives may need to be changed by government action, such as a tax on vacant properties that would be otherwise filled?

June 13, 2024

The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on a president's immunity, but it is hard to fathom how they could possibly argue that he should be immune in a case where one would try to remain in power, which would open the door to seeking to remain in power by any means necessary with impunity. The only way to justly determine if such a president should remain in power is via the judicial process, and that becomes suspect if a president can do anything - including disregarding the legal system - without fear of prosecution. I can think of no more dangerous ruling.

[Well, I can think of no more dangerous ruling than the one the Court handed down on July 1, 2024. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf.

June 11, 2024

There were two kinds of people who stormed the Capitol on January 6 - sheep and traitors. Traitors were those who stormed the Capitol, breaking through barricades, attacking law enforcement, busting windows, knocking down doors and climbing through broken windows knowing there were armed guards defending them from the other side (I'm talking to you, Ashli Babbitt). The sheep were those who wandered through those open doors fully aware of the chaos that had forced them open. Blindly faith is the textbook definition of the descriptive term "sheep." 

[Footnote - I was visited by FBI agents investigating January 6, following up on a lead involving an  old acquaintance of mine. The agents assured me they were only interested in those who acted violently, stole or vandalized government property or threatened individuals. Nothing suggested a "witch hunt."]

June 4, 2024

There have long been two opposing views of freedom in this country - one that seeks to allow others the freedom to do as they please and those who seek the freedom to force others to do as they please.

It should be noted that the latter has an advantage in that by nature they are more comfortable enforcing ideological adherence, whereas those in the former, also by nature, are opposed to enforcing such rigidity. Though there are certainly those extremists on the left enforcing woke culture rules, the left and center is far more fractured. To the degree that the extreme left mirrors the ideological rigidity of the right, it serves as an example that ideology is more a cylinder than a flat plane, where one can travel so far east that they end up where east meets west. 

May 31, 2024

In the wake of his supporters' response to Donald Trump's conviction on all 34 counts in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial, and in light of my pinned post of October 14, 2017 that the health of democracy is as dependent on faith as are the health of banks and currencies, I keep coming back to the explanation for last year's failure of Silicon Valley Bank that said it was with due either to a bank run by idiots, or, a bank run by idiots. In this case, the former president would be running the bank and his supporters would be causing the run. Only it is not a bank that is suffering the run by idiots, it is our country and our 246 year-old form of government.

May 24, 2024

Once the NCAA begins paying athletes directly, it will only be a matter of time before they become direct competition for traditional professional sports leagues. NIL was just the beginning.

May 22, 2024

I told my book club this evening that I predict high school football will not exist in ten years because lawsuits surrounding CTE will make insurance too expensive for schools to justify it. Some disagreed it will ever go away. I may be off in my timing, but I am confident in my view that Friday Night Lights as we know it will become a thing of the past.

February 18, 2024

It wasn’t until last week that it finally dawned on me how Republicans - my long time but now former party - could tolerate candidates as flawed, as awful, as Donald Trump, Paul Gosar or Marjorie Taylor Greene. Then, as Herschel Walker’s Senate prospects actually improved in the wake of revelations he had coerced a woman into having an abortion that he apparently paid for, it hit me. Republicans don’t support such candidates despite such behavior, they support them because of such behavior. If something drives liberals crazy, then conservatives are all in - and nothing drives liberals crazier than dog whistles, unfounded conspiracy theories, misogyny, sexual assault or hypocrisy. It’s a new twist on the adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, except that it’s now the behavior that causes my enemy pain brings me joy. But as mom used to say, it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Or takes a hammer to the skull.

Before anyone heads down the whataboutism path - what about the softball shooter who hit Steve Scalise or the plot against Brett Kavanaugh - let’s point out that no one on the left sought to dismiss the seriousness of these event, let alone revel in them. Only one side revels in anything that pains the other side, and that's the GOP.

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 healthcare 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

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 renew the blood of our people with those possessing the same energy and fearlessness that brought our ancestors to these shores.

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.

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 16, 2023

What does a pickup-loving, gun-soaked, alpha male society look like? This. Sprinkle in American, Gadsden and Trump flags and you've got a MAGA wet dream.

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.

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?

November 17, 2023

Following on the November 13 post below, 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 played 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 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 2, 2023

Venture capitalist and Netscape founder Marc Andreesen recently posted a manifesto on his blog arguing that people like him should be given free reign to build as they want without the restraint of oversight. In other words, capitalism on steroids. In his free market religious fervor, he betrays the same shortcoming suffered by Marxists - a failure to understand human nature. Just as Marxists believe that people will perform to the best of their ability without incentive, Andreesen and his ilk believe people will behave their best without restraints. Both are dangerously misguided. The truth is that self interest, which is at the heart of human nature, encourages us to minimize our effort for desired returns. This would include both slacking off on the factory floor if it means I get the same as the guy who works his butt off, and cutting corners on safety, pay, workers rights, the environment or paying taxes if given the chance to do so. Lack of incentives ensures the former, lack of regulation ensures the latter. Yes, there will always be exceptions, but lack of incentive and regulation empowers the lazy and the corrupt. A healthy society requires a healthy balance.

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.

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.

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 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.

[Note: And now, on September 6, 2024, we have conservatives suggesting Hitler may have gotten a bad rap. How far will these folks go in trying to irritate their opposition (or do they really believe this)?]

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.

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. Thus the incentive to dissent is more easily quashed than is the incentive to be corrupt. This works to the advantage of the corrupt because corruption has a freer rein absent dissent.

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.

May 6, 2023

Simon Sinek once spoke on 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 on how this has made Seal Team Six the highest performing unit on the planet, bar none. 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).

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."

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. 

August 30, 2022

The requirement to sign an NDA to retain severance pay is just one example of the need to rebalance the relationship between employer and employee in favor of the latter. From binding arbitration to requiring everyone from coders to plumbers to sign non-compete agreements in order to get a job, the pendulum has swung too far in employers' favor.

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.

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."

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 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 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?

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.

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.

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. 

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)

My Favorite Quotes

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

"Character is destiny." - Heraclitus

“Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.” - Thomas Paine

"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, few think at all." - Walter Lippman

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

“If there is a severe deficit of language, there will be severe deficit of thought.” - Noam Chomsky

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

"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  

"Talent hits a target no one else can hit.  Genius hits a target no one else can see." - Arthur Schopenhauer

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

"We can't always choose the music, but we can choose how we dance to it." - Unknown 

"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

[Editor's note: consider this quote in the context of choosing between the rule of law or the law of rulers.]

"Where law ends, tyranny begins." - John Locke

"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

“Someone who hates one group will end up hating everyone - and, ultimately, hating himself or herself.” ― Elie Wiesel

“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

"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.

"The species that survive aren't the strongest or most intelligent, but the ones who best adapt to change." - Charles Darwin

"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

"Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame." Arthur Schopenhouer

"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)

"The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent" - Bertrand Russell

“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."

"'Common sense' is too often used as an excuse to avoid thinking."

"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 Grand Canyon was carved by snowflakes."

"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"