Random Thoughts

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

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

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).

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.

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 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 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 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 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.

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.]