government

Trifles

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After the post about Tariffs, the Trump Administration added “Port Fees” and plain, old taxes to an escalating trade war with China and other countries. China used Port Fees first  (I think) so our fees are retaliatory. According to Ai, the owners of the “shipping vessels” docking in the ports pay the Port Fees. There is no consensus on the new fees’ effects except to say nothing is going to get cheaper in the near future, if ever.

Donald Trump needs and–in the case of the Middle East—deserves praise. I won’t even add the phrase “if it all works out”. Well, I did, but in a good way because it will work out. We will have a new paradigm in the Middle East in the next few years, thanks to DJT. He may even get that Nobel Prize when he is eligible next year*. But he reminds me of my father. Dad was a gregarious, drink-buying, do anything for you, “loved by the public” person who was an entirely different person at home, behind four walls. No more about dad, but DJT is fostering peace out in the world while acting differently at home. Why?

A phrase heard a lot lately, in community discussions: “Some people always ruin it for the rest of us.” It was repeated in discussions about free performances and open spaces. The remarks were from civil authorities and disgruntled citizens who know the process where a community tries to make life better for all, and an “ungracious” few take advantage and scuttle the opportunity. Think bad graffiti on a newly painted park mural, or unruly attendees at an open-air movie event in the park. We all know it happens. Why? It appears there is a certain part of the population dead set on being selfish, ignorant, greedy, insensitive, stupid, thoughtless, self-destructive…ungracious. This segment of the population has always been part of life probably in the world, but more obviously in a free country like the United States of America where self-indulgent, self-centered, shameless, ungracious people are free to show just how ungracious they can be. It is important to remember this fact when we think about Government, and all it entails. For example, law enforcement where a few “bad apples” can ruin a police department’s reputation and harm its efficiency. Citizens stop supporting the department and all respect for law and order is lost. This type of selfish behavior is sometimes illegal, but more often just unpleasant, unproductive, and…ungracious. What do we do, just live with it? Factor it into our daily lives? Given our current social climate, citizens now have to be aware an ungracious person may also be exercising his or hers or their Second Amendment Right. Most non-ungracious(sic) citizens can then see the sense in sporting their own defense…and so it goes.

This is not an attack on that Second Amendment, but a grim statement of “Some people ruin it for the rest of us.”

Constitutional “Originalists” have a unique problem in their views on The American Constitution. The writers of the Constitution purposefully included Article V to allow for change, or Amendment. Google the first sentence for Article V and enjoy. It should be added that Originalists can rely on the words of Article V to offer support for their own interpretation, but the design and inclusion of the Article theoretically opposes an inability to be flexible in Constitutional Judgments. IMO. Plus, modern American Common Sense would admit what was written as a design for the new government in the musket-heavy days after the American Revolution might not be the best advice to follow in AR-15 America.  I own a gun so don’t think the worst of these last two paragraphs. Just think.

*Cut off time for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize nominations was January 31, 2025. Trump will be eligible in 2026 to win for his work in 2025.

Things Hard To Understand

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A 90,000 square-foot ball room next to the White House? In these uncertain and unnerving times when the government might be closed and DOGE is slashing budgets? After already paving over the Rose Garden and turning it into a social club for rich people? A reckoning might be coming along the lines of the French Revolution or the Domus Aurea. Ask Ai. Ask about “decadence”, too, while you’re at it.

Income inequality. Period. Aren’t rich people smart enough to know there is only so much “poor” the rest of us can take?

People who don’t want government or taxes. Really, who needs roads, police departments, fire companies, sewer systems. Maybe we can get our cities and towns professional sports teams and stars to fund everything? An outfield “star” for the New York Mets makes more money per year than the entire budget for the upstate NY city I live in. The national “tax” that keeps the NFL and others paying millions to players for a game,…think about it yourself. Don’t make me say it.

Why aren’t firemen, teachers, police men, and even garbage men more respected than Aaron Judge? Or Juan Soto? Should public servants start their own trading cards? Allow betting on how soon a police department might catch a criminal? How much lead is in the water? Vegas will handicap anything, set odds, and offer SGPs galore. Googe it but ignore the first three examples.

Why people don’t know more about history. Because of a long-standing national cognitive crisis, we are doomed to taking one step forward in one generation and then falling two steps backward when the next generation has no idea what the preceding generation did. That is a generic statement that, however, holds true for almost all our current problems. This innate genetic and systemic fragmentation is why we still fight and argue over broken legal systems, immigration, elections, and health care systems, to name a few, after hundreds of years.

Why people don’t realize they are being manipulated? It’s time we all said this about ANY and ALL information suppliers: some of it’s true, some of it isn’t. Letters to the editors and online comments reveal most people think they have the only true source of facts and information, and everyone else is an idiot. This first appeared years ago with the new Fox viewers, but now every political ideology and fringe group has its own information supplier with its own baked-in bias. How long will it take the entire country to realize this and read each different bias and sort out the truth? Hm. That is impossible, so let’s at least admit our favorite sources of news might not be right all the time? And maybe then we can see the ones who purposely try to fool us and lead us by the nose.

The world is an interesting place if you look at it and see it. It’s human nature to let the grind of life wear us down and make us think bad thoughts but remember this is your only shot. Don’t blow it by burying your head in the sand. Look up, look out, and be aware. As the good Doctor Wright once said: “Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm,”

And for good measure: What did the grape say when the elephant sat on it? Nothing. It just let out a little whine. If you get the joke, you’ll be okay.

Climate Change? What Climate Change…Am I right?

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Talking to people online is an experience. Often, if we agree, it is okay. But when we disagree, the lack of facial and other physical clues makes it difficult to make a point, but easier to think we got the better of the argument. Getting the last word and shutting down the conversation is soooo satisfying.

One of the hardest “debates” to have is about Climate Change. A warming climate to uneducated people (see how I got the first insult?) means we won’t have winters. This is a “short view”, a style of critical thinking prevalent in America: it makes sense in the moment. Warming climate, no winters. But…

“The existence of winter doesn’t disprove climate change,” says Stuart Evans, assistant professor of geography at the University of Buffalo. “Climate change is a long-term trend that makes winter warmer, but it’s not erasing the occurrence of winter.”

This quote is used because of the phrase “long term”.  Very few of our current world problems (and personal problems) have short-term solutions, but immediacy is of the most importance, these days. The end result is one side makes a case for short term solutions while the other advocates for long-term, with both thinking they are correct. The sad part is they are, technically, both correct: one for now, the short term, and the other for the long term.

Case in point: We have always had a Federal Debt. Google it. Almost every president (google Andrew Jackson) has added to the debt which is now over $36.22 TRILLION dollars. As you research the National Debt the main drivers of the increases are wars, natural disaster, and tax cuts. “Servicing” the debt, paying the interest only, is costing nearly $800 billion dollars a year and rising. It is important to note a majority of this debt is “owned” by Americans.

It needs to be addressed after nearly 200 years of “kicking the can down the road” with short term solutions.

Debt is caused by spending (expense) more money than we take in (revenue). So the solution is less expense, and more revenue, right?

In 2001 Bush lowered taxes, which lowered revenues. Then, 9/11 happened and Bush spent billions–we did not have–on middle eastern wars. (Remember: they all do it’) To solve the Financial Crisis in 2008, Obama chose to extend those tax cuts while working with congress to spend over $831 billion (we did not have. See?) on financial recovery. Trump added more tax cuts in 2018 and spent billions (we did not have) on pandemic relief in 2019-2020. Biden left taxes alone, basically, while spending billions (we did not have) on pandemic recovery. So now what?

It appears Trump47 has decided to try and pay off the debt in one year. (After Trump45 contributed his share.). Noble, and not a bad start…but short term. Our Federal Government is not a “for-profit” enterprise and cannot be run like a business. We need some sound business principles (lower costs more revenue, for example) but when disasters strike, wars break out, or pandemics hit…people who can never pay it back, need monetary help from the government. Business principles are the last thing we want to hear about when we lose everything to a hurricane and need help just to survive.

So, again, what do we do?

Sidebar: It might be a good idea to look at taxes as insurance premiums. We can call them Government Insurance Premiums because that is what they are. None of us could afford to build our own roads, set up our power supply, or take care of Grandma when she needs 10 years in a long-term care facility. Paying our “premiums” helps roads, power grids, and other essentials of daily living. (No discussion of waste, here, but remember anytime humans are involved with money–especially men– waste is almost impossible to control. (See Madoff, Musk, Trump, etc.)

So. When we talk about lowering the debt, the long term solution is to cut expenses and raise revenues. But can we afford to cut expenses? Covid is an example: remember the dead bodies piled up outside morgues? Our government’s rush to get supplies and equipment to where they were needed? It is a mean, and short-sighted person who would cut expenses that help people in times of need.

But that is our current 2025 approach: cut, cut, cut…expenses…short term. At the same time, though, Trump wants to cut taxes/revenues. Cut expenses and cut revenues? What will that do to the debt? And where are all the unemployed, uninsured fired employees going to go?

The long view: Conservative Republicans want to get rid of government, altogether. Not a bad idea for the short term in perfect weather with full employment and ethical billionaires. When it comes to governance, Republicans have no “long view.”

For those of us not connected, not rich, and powerless…it’s going to be a long, hard four years.

And after…?

America Great, Again? No. America Gone.

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In 2024, 77 million people voted for Trump. 75 million voted for Harris. 90 million did not vote. 2024 might have been the last chance for those 90 million to vote in a presidential election.

The long game of Trump and the Modern Republican Party (MRP) is to turn America into Russia, with Trump the New Putin and MRP members lining up–and butt kissing– to be Trump’s/Putin’s successor.

From the early 1800’s on, America’s Federal Government—our government–has been designed and built to protect the American Citizen. The normal, AVERAGE American citizen. It’s easy to see this defense in terms of war: The United States, for example saved the world during a war fought an foreign ground in the 1940s.

But the biggest government “wars” have been fought against American Businesses. Once America settled on Capitalism as our new religion, innovative intelligent entrepreneurs began to find ways to make money. Lots of money. Slavery was an important part of many entrepreneurs business plans. The “free” and “low-priced” labor of slaves, immigrants, and poor whites made many an American Businessman rich.

And the lack of regulation or rules benefited new American companies, as well. The leather industry, for example, dumped used tanning chemicals into the nearest river since there was no cost and the free water carried the chemicals away, to be someone else’s problem. The Acid rain of the 1970’s is a perfect example of unregulated pollution from a specific industry. (Young people, you’ll have to research that since I’ve little space, here.)

It became apparent to intelligent people unregulated commerce and industry was not beneficial for America—or it’s citizen–in the long run. The newly forming financial institutions needed to be monitored, as well, as most Americans were completely ignorant of loans, mortgages, and banking “stuff”. Think Henry Potter in “It’s A Wonderful Life.” (Again, google it.)

At the prodding of angry citizens, the Government of the United States proceeded to design and implement regulatory systems to protect the citizens from capitalist profit seeking. Regulations eventually banned slavery, 7-day work weeks, 20 hour work days, and other unfair labor practices. In addition, regulations enforced pollution controls to stop, for instance, a chemical plant from disposing of its waste in the clean rivers, lakes, and streams of America.

And the Government funded the armies, navies, and air forces to defend America.

It’s easy to see why the Capitalist Businesses of America began to see government as a “problem”, while the “Government” began to see Businesses as problem creators. A natural adversarial relationship developed and a “balance” blossomed, a symbiotic relationship between Government and Business lasting for hundreds of years. I’m not sure what “Make America Great Again” means but modern actions by Trump indicate MAGA wants to go back to the era of NO REGULATION. Republicans have historically been anti-government/probusiness in the last two centuries, so the sentiment is not new. Democrats assumed the roll of pro-government, understanding government regulations mainly benefitted the poor, average, and middle class sections of America as citizens needed a powerful entity to protect them against the rich, powerful businesses. The relationship has never been perfect, but it worked.

Until the last 20-30 years. When Republicans get political power, they dismantle regulations as fast as they can. Why? To increase business profits. And once a regulation is gone, it takes a convoluted process to get it back. The Reagan and both Bush Presidents were regulatory purge-fests, orchestrated and instituted within the framework of a constitutional government…mostly..

But now we have Trump. And two other problems.

  1. Fox News. In their zeal to be Number 1 in cable news in the 1990s, they broadcast their version of the truth. We now have two generations raised on Fox News.
  2. The Internet. In the days before the internet, a crazy conspiracy or nut-job character, were isolated to their region or community. Now, a flat earther in Iowa (no Offense) can connect with a flat earther in China. (again, no offense.)

If we mix in Trump’s ego, we end up with the volatile mix threatening our nation. Trump was born into money and has no concept of anything remotely “normal” about America. He is a billionaire with the usual hunger for more billions and regulations get in his way. His response is Shakespearean: “Out, out damn regulations.”

In our modern world millionaires grow on trees, and all the millionaires want to BE billionaires, so there is a large segment of American Business caring about nothing but profits.

Trump now sees the opportunity to dismantle the “regulatory state” and guarantee unfettered profit-seeking for all millionaires, billionaires, and soon to be trillionaires. Screw the environment. And screw the people.

Even worse, Trump is following the Putin Model (google it) for tearing down a democracy and setting himself up, Trump, to be America’s Putin. He is purging the remaining parts of the government of anyone who doesn’t support him, and if we let it happen, 2022 may be the last time we ever have free and fair elections.

America will finally be great, again?

PS Trump wants to dismantle the Education Department? A statement attributed to Thomas Jefferson explains why: “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”