Transitions

Over the course of almost seven decades on this earth I’ve seen countless transitions in our society.  Some are memorable, some are laughable, and others are best put behind us.  Let’s review.

I was born at the beginning of the 1950s.  We were at war again, this time in Korea as we faced the threats we envisioned from communist expansion.  Here at home, we had Senator Joseph McCarthy attempting to improve his political fortunes by rooting out the communists in our nation.  For some context on this, in the 1930s communism was all the rage among the social elites of Hollywood and the Ivy League.  Joe played on the fears of the nation and the threat of nuclear war to ruin the lives of many good people in an effort to root out the threat of communism to our society.  As we learn in our history various industries created “blacklists” of people who had voiced their support of communism in the pre-WW2 era and during the war when the Soviet Union was an Ally.

In 1952, the nation elected retired General of the Army and President of Columbia University Dwight D. Eisenhower to begin a period of relative calm, albeit with frequent nuclear attack drills at school.  We, as a nation, began to put Senator McCarthy behind us, but its damage had already been done and those identified as communist sympathizers were ostracized.  There also lurked, just below the surface, the issues of racial discrimination and abuse of the minorities in the nation.  We had a large standing military with permanent bases in North Africa, Europe, and the Far East.  The great transition of that decade was the gradual replacement of the New Deal generation leaders in positions of power under Roosevelt to the young Turks who had served in the World War.  Names like Richard M. Nixon, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and John F. Kennedy began to emerge as power brokers on the political stage.  The 1950s are characterized by critics as a “gray decade” where there were no great social upheavals, but that is a false characterization.  The men and woman who had won the World War were busy building their families and chasing the American Dream.  They began the migration of families into the suburbs that continue today.  At the same time, the NAACP successfully challenged the standing policy of “separate but equal” that made the Negros second class citizens despite the amendments specifically passed after the civil war to create a state of equality.  For the record that judgment was “Brown v Board of Education.”

With the election of John F. Kennedy, we see the passing of the torch from one generation to the next.  JFK and his wife were the clear favorites of the social elite and the media fawned over his rise much as English storytellers celebrated King Arthur and Guinevere.  In fact, with his inauguration, Washington DC was crowned the new Camelot.  For three years we had TV tours of the White House and common people across the country strove to emulate the new King and his Queen.  What the media and the nation didn’t pay too much attention to was the role the FBI played in suppressing political dissent and racial equality as J. Edger Hoover kept track of people he deemed dangerous.  Also, the President seemed to stumble from one crisis to another in his foreign affairs.  First, he approved, but failed to support, an invasion of Cuba, then we had a confrontation with the USSR over placement of Intermediate-Range Nuclear Ballistic Missiles in Cuba (in response to ours in Turkey), next the beginnings of the racial struggles of the blacks in the southern states and his rather slow reactions to condemn the political leadership of the states, which were predominately Democratic.  Like Arthur, his reign was destined to be cut short, but the movements of the time went forward under Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Under President Johnson, we saw an increase in civil rights protest and violence in the South, but in Washington, the Republicans supported the President and passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by roughly a 70% to 30% in both houses.  With a few exceptions, the nay votes were mostly by geographical rather than party lines.  The sixties also saw the development of more violent extremism in civil protest over the war and civil rights.  The baby-boomer generation was coming of age, but not yet prepared to replace the generation of the depression and world war.  In fact, it would be another 30 years until that the Greatest Generation would pass the mantle of the Presidency to the baby-boomers.

As the 1960s progressed we heard a lot about the peace movement, but as today the name was mostly an illusion.  The members of the movement weren’t all that peaceful, in fact at times they were violently anti-war.  Despite them, my generation created some great music as we moved away from the swing and country music of our parents into rock and roll and rockabilly of Sun Records, the Motown sounds of Detroit, the harmonies of the Jersey boys and West Coast surfer and car groups, and then the English invasion.  Along the way, the President, Secretary of Defense and his political advisors thought they could micromanage a war and the Asian communists would cooperate.  That war cost LBJ any hope for reelection in 1968 and brought us Richard Millhouse Nixon and the beginnings of the open media condemnation of a particular politician/political party.

One of the things an unfunded war, a race to the Moon, and the great social experiments (the Great Society) of LBJ did was to fuel an economy where inflation began to skyrocket.  By the time Jimmy Carter assumed the office of President we saw interest rates on loans and mortgages routinely sitting in the mid-teens, and prices rising on almost a daily basis.  The government, under Nixon, Ford, and Carter attempted to get control of this issue by setting price controls and price guidelines.  From my perspective, they seemed to do very little to actually improve an economy that saw the large manufacturing enterprises of textiles, clothing, steel, and automotive begin to move their plants overseas where the labor was cheaper.  This was all done with the approval, or benign consent, of the government (both Congress and the Executive) who gave little concern over the individual lives that would be impacted.  

In the 1980s we saw the President enter into a period of deficit spending as he began the process of rebuilding and modernized the military, which had borne the brunt of government spending cuts as the previous administrations had diverted funds to social program and attempted to gain control of a stagnant economy and growing inflation.  The Reagan administration’s position was if you could encourage the expansion of industry the money would ultimately trickle down to the poorer workers.  Of course, this was branded as foolishness by those who knew better but had never been responsible for actual job creation. By the end of the decade, President Reagan had won a cold war that had been going on since the end of the Second World War.  The Soviet Union collapsed under the weight of trying to match the economic power of the U.S.  In 1990 we had moved from a world of competing superpowers to the last remaining superpower.  It was a position that would not last long.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, we began another transition as we sought to downsize the recently bolstered military to divert funding to social programs.  Unfortunately for Iraq they misread the tea leaves and thought they could gain the oil of Kuwait while we were distracted.  I suspect they thought the same old dual superpower standoff would protect them.  They were wrong.  What they presented was the perfect tank war the US had built its conventional military to fight.  They used Soviet tactics and equipment and we had Air-Land Battle doctrine we had trained to for almost 20-years.  It wasn’t even close.

The next transition was the 1992 election where we passed the mantle from the Greatest Generation to the Baby Boomers.  I think anyone looking at governments over the next 30ish years would be dismayed at how poorly the Baby Boomers have handled the governing of this nation.  Whether it is the relaxed sexual standards or the loss of faith as a central basis for morality, we have been less than brilliant at setting a course for the nation that offers it hope for success.  With the ascendency of the Boomers, we have brought with us all the ME ideas that have led us, as parents, to demand participation awards for just showing up.

In the 90s we saw the further refinement of personality politics where the faux moral outrage of one political party fueled the impeachment efforts and division of purpose.  It was to become the springboard for the personality politics we enjoy today.  I can only assume it also serves as the basis for today’s faux moral outrage of the other party since as Newton discovered for every force exerted on a body there is an equal and opposite force. (3^rd law)

Along the way, we have discovered a new enemy fueled by the fundamental Islamic faith, whose followers are willing to die to advance the visions of their faith.  I am not sure how this new zealotry will continue, but the terror networks they create are next to impossible to destroy by conventional state diplomacy.

What my generation passed along to its children is, unfortunately, disrespect for civil discourse and the impressions that only those who agree with you are worth listening to.  We see these lessons every day in the new electronic global village our technological skill has created.  It is an environment our children have grown up with and are much more skilled at manipulating than its inventors of my generation, but it seems to be working differently than its inventors imagined.

We have also indoctrinated our children into the belief that youth have a unique wisdom that surpasses that of the older generations.  Perhaps that comes from the same place as the participation trophies?

As we approach this upcoming election it does not appear the boomer generation is ready to pass the torch or Gen X/Millennial crowds are all that ready to assume it.  What is clear though we have transitioned from an age of cooperation within government to one of open hostility between opposing political beliefs.  Serving their own interests, the media is happy to engage in rumor-mongering rather than factual reporting if it serves to further their corporate and personal political agendas.  In an electronic age speed rather than accuracy is the standard for most news outlets.

I wonder, what and when will be the next transition?

Today's Whistle Blower Quote

From CNN:  "The whistleblower didn't have direct knowledge of the communications, an official briefed on the matter told CNN. Instead, the whistleblower's concerns came in part from learning information that was not obtained during the course of their work..."

With TDS any hint of scandal, especially hearsay and innuendo is to be spread as quickly as possible.

And the Press blame Trump for America's growing disbelief in the Media's integrity.

Magical Thinking

There was an interesting soundbite on twitter last week.  Democratic candidate Marianne Williamson was opining about how FOX News was nicer to her than the progressive left is.  I commented on this on FB and a young liberal felt compelled to snarky comment, as he does with many of my posts.  He’s dismissive statement was that conservatives have “a much higher tolerance for magical thinking.”  I could only smile at the foolishness, but I believe it reflects the mindset of almost everyone on the left.  I think they believe they are the only smart ones with the answers.  In their mind everyone else is a fool and should be dismissed, even those who believe as they do if they offer even a hint of disagreement.

I believe what Ms. Williamson has experienced is called public civility, which never dominated our debate of political ideas and ideologies, but the commercial media would at least let both views be explained before engaging in a debate on their merits.  Now we see decreasing room for that on the right and almost no tolerance on the left and she is confused the conservatives would be more civil to her than her own progressive movement.  That, in my opinion, is what we see in today’s internet-driven world where companies like FB and Alphabet seek to control the flow of information to suit their corporate ideologies, and individuals think they have found some sort of anonymity in fake screen names allowing them to become as base and vile in their comments/opinions with little perceived risk.  Fortunately, we are beginning to see where old postings are now coming back to haunt the posters, but how long before the worst offenders are brought to task?  But I digress.

I keep coming back to that idea of magical thinking.

So, let’s talk about who has a greater tolerance for “magical thinking” and address the foolishness of my young friend's comment.

Magical Thought #1:  If we just created a big enough government to provide everything for everyone then life would become a utopian paradise.  Karl Marx identified the evils of capitalism (as it existed in the 19^th Century during the industrial revolution), and proposed alternatives to capitalism as a basis to correct the disparity in wealth it was creating.     

“If alienation and exploitation are social problems caused by the nature of the capitalist system, then the solution is to abolish that system and replace it with a better one.”[1]

Of course, over the past 100 years, a number of societies have attempted to replace the evils of capitalism with various versions of Marx and Friedrich Engel’s economic theories where socialism would eventually evolve into the ideal communist state.  As we look at those experiments they have all seemed to fall short of creating the utopia the two economists envisioned in their theories, yet still they remain as the siren song of those who believe the basic nature of mankind would be changed by a society where there was financial equality for all, despite the individual differences in human ability and desire.  The proponents (economists and socialists) long for a time when there is no difference in the wealth of the rich and the poverty of the poor.  In their effort to believe in the utopia of socialism progressives will point to whatever country seems to be working on some aspect of their ideal.  For example, just ten years ago Senator Sanders was praising Hugo Chávez as the model for how socialism could make life wonderful for everyone.  Today, people are eating scraps in the street, fleeing the country, and protesting the oppression of the government.  Health care, if it is available at all, is a benefit of the Cuban regime supporting the government as the state stops imports from the US.  You don’t hear Bernie talking too much about Venezuelan socialism these days.  He has moved on to Medicare for all as he keeps the magical thinking alive.

Magical Thought #2:  If we just pay everyone a guaranteed income we would eliminate poverty and improve the economy.

Along with universal health care (remember “If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor.”) the idea of a guaranteed basic income keeps floating around in the world of progressive economics.  The idea is if everyone is guaranteed a living income they would be free to look for jobs without concern about losing their basic income.  They were supposed to become more entrepreneurial, develop new products and the economy would take off, and in turn pay the costs of this program.  Finland tried it and found that people who lived on welfare, to begin with pretty much acted as they had before the program, unemployment didn’t go down, the beneficiaries didn’t look for work, and the economy didn’t take off.  Finally, they had to abandon the program when they could no longer find a way to pay for it.

Magical Thought #3:  Gender is a social construct and we should get to choose the gender we prefer to be, whenever we prefer to be it.

This is perhaps my favorite fantasy, especially since it is brought forward by the same people who claim that debating the science of global warming is being a science denier.  Within the progressive left, there is an apparently huge desire to be all-inclusive (except for people they don’t like, e.g. conservatives).  To support this move they have embraced the social minorities of the LGBTQ communities, and have provided them with months of celebrations, flags, and parades.  The politicians seeking out their votes have jumped on board with their pronouncements, one of which is gender is a social construct and we should each get to choose our preferred gender.  Clearly, the science which for centuries has identified two genders (male and female) is to be disputed and ignored.  Just an afterthought, what does the B in LGBTQ stand for?

Magical Thought #4:  If we confiscate all the AR-15 and AK-47 look-alike rifles we will end mass murders.

The Democratic presidential candidates have finally admitted in public when elected they would begin to confiscate all the guns, supposedly to make the U.S. and its children safe.  As far as I can tell the only thing it would accomplish is to give the government greater control and set the standard for whatever future freedom they would like to remove.  It certainly won’t stop the social violence of people seeking notoriety and their brief flash of fame by killing innocent people.  It won’t stop the gang violence that occasionally spills over to other victims, and it won’t alter the fact we are teaching children to fear life because there is a possibility of violence coming into their schools.

What the candidate’s public admission has accomplished is to end the possibility of whatever middle of the road improvements in gun control there might have been when pragmatic politicians sat together to work out potential compromises between the left and the right.  Because of their magical thinking, we will continue to kick the can down the road and harden both sides positions.

---

[1] https://reasonandmeaning.com/2014/11/13/theories-of-human-nature-chapter-14-marx-part-1/

Creating Libertarians

I find it amusing to watch the responses on social media to the proposals to limit/regulate vaping; it seems to be creating a whole new crop of pseudo-libertarians concerned that the government is going just a step too far when they take away something they enjoy.

Disclaimer:  Probably the only really smart choice I made as a teenager was to decide I had no reason to smoke.  Nothing in the ensuing 55-years has persuaded me that was a bad decision.  So, this whole vaping thing is of very little personal interest, but the idea of government oversight is.

It wasn’t very long ago, vaping was being praised as the cure for smoking, and the world would be a totally better place if it replaced cigarettes as a means of relaxation and drug ingestion.  Vaping was supposed to solve the evils of cigarettes and cause far less damage to one’s lungs.  Of course, the young were all over that, because doing something like smoking is one of the first steps in achieving adulthood.  Moving out of your parent’s house used to be another step, but in these times that is perhaps a step too far.

When I held a regular job, I used to marvel when following cars into and out of the base as they rolled down their windows to blow what amounted to a mid-size cumulus cloud out into the open air.  I often wondered if there was some kind of award for the person who could suck in and blow out the greatest amount of that stuff and they were all in training for that contest. 

Now state and federal researchers are investigating e-cigs (vaping devices) because they are allegedly causing lung damage[1] and the alarmists in the federal government have announced they are considering regulations to these products.  Of course, all those people who use them are outraged.  Liberals who have no problem confiscating guns are upset their favorite flavor might be regulated because it could kill you.  Conservatives who have no problem building walls to protect America are outraged because they may be limited in their device of self-abuse selections.  Conspiracy theorists are adding their usual humorous input by claiming this is all being paid for by tobacco industry lobbyists. 

It is kind of fun to listen to the creation of new libertarians although we’ve abandoned the concept of logic and reason years ago so very few, if any, are aware they have a disconnect between expecting the government to regulate what they want to be regulated and leaving them alone to live some singular aspect of their lives unregulated.  Such archaic terms as “Nanny State” are reemerging into the lexicon, and maybe we need a flag or something that reflects the personal choice to fill the air with used water vapor while destroying your lungs.

---

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/s0821-cdc-fda-states-e-cigarettes.html

I Wonder?

I’m so old I remember when both mainstream parties held a spectrum of political views ranging from conservative to progressive.  The Republicans of the Northeast were different from those of the West.  The Democrats of the North and North Central states were significantly more liberal than those of the Southern States.  In my opinion this all began to change when the parties introduced the primary system to ostensibly allow a greater voice to the members, but then the political activists took charge of shaping the primaries and the party platforms.  Now we seem to have two parties racing towards the extremes with decreasingly little concern with middle of the road solutions.

Years from now when the Millennials are old and complaining about how that younger generation just doesn’t understand the struggles of life and the decay of society what will they be posting on the thought machines of the day?

Will they be identified by some aspiring thought leader/social influencer as the “Greater than the Greatest Generation?” Will they replace the one our great social influencer Tom Brokaw knighted for their role in surviving the great depression, winning a globe-spanning war, fought the communist threat to liberty, recognized social inequity, expanded the social safety nets, and created the most robust economy in the world for over 60 years?

Will this Millennial generation actually learn from the lessons of the past or will they duplicate all the mistakes of our generation?

Unfortunately, from my vantage point, it appears to me they are falling into the same traps my generation fell into.  Whether they recognize it or not they are being herded along, like so many sheep, by those who view the society our generation has built as evil and destructive.  Each day it seems we move just a step closer to the doom portrayed in the post-world war writings of George Orwell.  The newest crop of social influencers seems to happily climb on board with vilifications of opponents, by the politicians and celebrities who are clearly in it for the fame, wealth, and the power it offers and in so doing accelerates us down a path of division.

For example, my generation railed against a war that cost America 58,000 lives and the after-effects, which have impacted the entire generation but go willingly along with wars that were okay with the press when the cost didn’t seem too high.  Now we are in another war without end, with no apparent way to get out.  If the President does anything the opposition will point out how dangerous that is and how unsafe the world will be.  Far easier to just keep spending the money and the lives.  For the newest generation coming of age this war doesn’t seem to be nearly as critical as making sure the right minority groups receive favorable press coverage, the majority religions and races are vilified for their dominance, the right people are let into the bathrooms of their choice, or if drag queens can read to toddlers.

Ask yourself are there fewer terror groups, or less hatred of minorities today than when my generation rose up in civil protest?  We fielded our own extremist groups, just as the millennial generation is doing, but in 50 years what will they look back on as actual accomplishments?  We had the weather underground setting off bombs in protest of the war, they have Antifa beating up people in the streets of Portland in protest of differing political opinions.  We had the freedom riders and protests in the South to end segregation and racial hatred, today they have the talking heads on television telling us we are all still racist and owe African-Americans money for what the slave traders of Africa and slave owners in America did.

Our politics are still dominated by boomer generation leftovers.  On the one side is an individual who made his wealth in private enterprise, on the other are people who made their wealth through the largess of government and their political connections. 

Like so many Pied Pipers of Hamelin, they offer a utopian world to the youngest generations now coming into adulthood.  They are describing how they, and they alone, know how to save the planet from itself or how to reduce the populations of continents living in despite poverty by funding their abortions.  Offhand, that sounds a lot like a call to return to the progressive idea of eugenics where the global elites believe it is their right and responsibility to limit the births of those who can least afford children (see: Margaret Sanger).  Of course, the moral superiority of those destined to rule the world is beyond reproach, but to a simple person like me, it seems pretty racist.  But then I remember when we were dismayed by the Chinese state policy of one child and the resultant death of so many female children.  Perhaps the new science of non-specific gender identification will make reproduction irrelevant and everyone for at least one last generation can be asexual and no children will be born, thus solving at least one social issue and one environmental problem.

They say hindsight is 20/20, but in the modern world who looks back to say, well that was a stupid idea then and I think it will be a stupid choice now.

I wonder?

Severe Mental Decline

    I can only laugh so much, but the press seems to demand that response on almost everything they report on Trump.  After three years of reporting there is no way I can take anything they say as serious.
    Today they are, once again, reporting he is in severe mental decline.  That would be significant if they haven't been saying the same thing now for at least 18 months, and they weren't the exact same people who see Joe Biden at the top of his own mental game.
    I'm not a huge fan of President Trump as a human being, but the left has turned me into a solid voting fan mostly because they are far more insane than anything I've seen the President do.  I don't know how the RNC has managed to infiltrate the DNC so effectively, but they must be in charge of the talking points because of the increasingly insane stuff every candidate comes up with.

Saving The Earth for a Generation Who Don't Want Kids

Summing up the week in Democratic Politics seems to come down to which of the clowns is really driving the clown car?

CNN held some sort of marathon political rally for its candidates calling it a town hall on the environment.  Within the seven hours of softball questions and blathering, we've learned little about how they would actually save the world, but a great deal about how little they really know of how our nation works within the context of the global community.

First, we come to saving the ocean creatures.  The key to marine survival is to eliminate plastic straws.  The pioneering work on this has been done by the brilliant progressive scholars on the left coast.  This work has been supported by those equally brilliant scholars on the east coast who know without exception that "Big Gulp" drinks are making Americans obese.  There is clearly a cause and effect relationship they are working to figure out, but they do know without straws you can't drink Big Gulps and as a side benefit the turtles will all be saved.  Ms. Harris knows the pain this will cause, for she has used a paper straw once and knows they bend and collapse unless you drink everything in the first 30-seconds.

Mayor Pete and Bato, while chomping down on the subject of red meat and straws recognize they are somehow part of the problem that leads to global warming and certain death unless the Green New Deal completely alters the planet's ecosystem within the next 24-months are willing to identify others whose appetites need to be altered.

Next, we come to clean energy.  Everyone just knows those greedy tycoons in the carbon-based fuels group (coal, oil, and natural gas) are spending billions of dollars to keep us from realizing the true potential of wind-driven cars and solar homes.  We, in the US, must be completely off of such toxic things like petrochemical and nuclear fuels if we are to singlehandedly save the planet for the Chinese.  Besides, saving our petrochemical supply to make plastic (except for straws) will extend our domination in the creation of products that fill the landfills and the oceans, but don't affect marine life except for the unfortunate few who get caught in the carriers for our beer cans and our fishing lines and nets.

The drama in this latest political rally was so great Joe Biden burst a blood vessel in his eye while he explained how he had saved the planet so many times before any of this latest crop of wannabes was around. 

While all this was happening, God created the world's worst Hurricane because of all the global warming we've been doing.  Fortunately for us, some politicians just knew this storm was a result of President Trump's misuse of sharpie marking pens and they hoped God would send its wind to destroy Mara-Largo.  If people who were unfortunate enough to live near there were killed it was a small price to pay.   I am sure the people living around Mara-Largo were thankful God didn't listen to them.  Unfortunately, this meant the Bahama's had to suffer the brunt of the storm while God looked for another den of inequity to smite.

At the end of the day, I'm still not sure which insane candidate will face the wrath of President Trump in the upcoming election.  So far it seems like each of them is trying to out-crazy their competition, which plays into the crazy ideas of those infected by TDS.

A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste, But We Do

A statement originally made in an advertising campaign for the United Negro College Fund, the thought was brought home to me today as I watched the twitter fights regarding the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, gun rights, AR-15 ownership, and God.  Unfortunately for us we have a lot of wasted minds, which is only made worse by our desire to reject God.

It seems obvious we no longer study history, civics, or religion and as a result almost anyone younger than say 45 with access to twitter knows next to nothing about the creation of our nation and the age of enlightenment.

How Come?

How come in today's political discourse we hear people like Chris Hayes on MSNBC telling us what is wrong with things like the Electoral College, but we never see them advocating for a movement to fix the problem, just a plea to abandon the constitutionally mandated process?

Hayes notes the Federal judiciary has, since the early 1960s, been mandating a "one man equals one vote" requirement and the same should be required of the Presidential election.  What he fails to address is the historical context that drove the founding fathers to the decision of first how the states should appoint their senators, and then why the Electoral College was established to protect the rights of the smaller states by preventing the larger states from imposing their will by dominating the Presidential Election with sheer numbers of voters.

Going to the courts seems the popular approach these days, expecting some judge to impose their will on the other two branches of government, but ultimately this will fail as judges change over and society changes.  Take, for example, the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in 1957 in the case of Dred Scott v John F.A. Sanford, where the court ruled that escaped slaves were not citizens and remained the property of the slave owner.  This decision ultimately led the nation into war and was finally resolved with the creation of the 14th Amendment.  The precedent set by Dred Scott became moot and non-binding from that point forward.

If the brilliant minds of the DNC and progressive-left don't like the fact Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 because he won the necessary votes in the Electoral College and they think their path to power is by eliminating the college and going to a popular vote then just get the Congress to craft an amendment and have a 2/3 majority of states approve it.  If you can't do that then all you are doing is whining and that is getting pretty old and tiresome.

p.s.  Back when politicians could talk to each other we fixed the issue of how Senator's are appointed with a change to the constitution (17th Amendment), so don't tell me it can't be done.  Perhaps it just can't be done when each side is yelling at the other about how stupid they are.