Monthly Archives: March 2016

Think On It

General, Politics, ,

For the past few days I’ve been following the reaction to what Susan Sarandon has said about Brine, Trump, and Hillary and I just have to put in my two cents worth.  First, I’m not sure if all that is credited to Sarandon is what she has actually said or not.  For my purposes, here, it does not mat as I have heard these things from many sources.  It makes for a good place to start talking.  What I’m about to say is for Liberals, Progressives, and all people who think of themselves as open minded Moderates.  Conservatives, Libertarians, etc.  you can read this too, but it is not really talking to things you really have to deal with in this election.

That said………..

First and foremost; to all those who ‘Feel the Birnie’ who avidly support Sen. Sanders and/or believe in the ‘Revolution’.  To all those who have supported Hillary for years and years, who know that Sec. Clinton as been unjustly attacked for years and years.  To you all, LISTEN UP!  No mater who gets the nomination. They are, both of them, our kind of candidate.  They stand for and fight for the same things we stand an fight for and have for done so for years and years and years.  An to say you will not vote for Brinie/Hillary if he/she is the Democratic candidate is just WRONG.  Ask yourself this do you really want The Donald or the Cruz as president? Because that is what is facing you right now, this very moment.

To those who agree with Ms. Sarandon when she says that Trump as President ‘will bring the revolution’ don’t know what they are talking about.  Look at History for Christ sackes, this is not how it happens.  Just look at the 1920’s and early 1930’s, revolutions all over the place and how many of them ended up with more liberal (free) governments?  China? no.  Germany, Italy, Spain?  No.  Japan?  No. Poland, Yugoslavia?  No.  Only in the USA did anything like a revolution take place and that only happen by our good luck in finding a man like FDR.  Just what kind of country would we have had if Hue Long gotten the nod?  Think on it.  Think on it long and hard.  Just what kind of country would The Donald build? what would Sen. Cuz build? An is it worth it just because the best, I.E. Your, candidate didn’t get the nomination and you, like Ancient Greek hero went and sulked in you tent?

If Senator Sanders or Secretary Clinton does not win this November the responsibility for that will fall on all of the disgruntled liberals who stay home in a fit of peek. Look at how lucky the Democrats are in this election.  We have two outstanding candidates.  We get to choose between best and better and this doesn’t happen very often.  Just look at what the GOP has Bad, Bader, and Blah. We should be happy.  Senator Sanders supporters should be ecstatic, he and they have already made major achievements.  They have gotten the debate on issues, not a debate on the size of their ‘members’.  Secretary Clinton has been encouraged, alright made, to state her positions on these issues and we now have a much clearer feel for what both candidates stand for.  And how well they will do the job.

Think On It

Capitalism and Wealth Redistribution

General, Politics, Socioeconomic, ,

Today I’m going back to logic or the lack of it in our political discussions.  For over a hundred years the ‘Right’ of American body politic has lambasted the Socialist ‘Left’ for being anti-capitalism and pro Wealth Redistribution.  For anyone who is pro Capitalism, in all it’s myriad forms, to be against the redistribution of wealth is flatly illogical.  Capitalism is the foremost wealth redistribution economic system.  It is all about moving in wealth around from one place or person to another.

“WHAT????? That’s not possible.  It’s Socialists and Socialism that wants to take wealth from the rich and give it to the undeserving poor.

An your right, Socialism is interested in moving wealth from the wealthy to the poor.  But that does not mean that Capitalism doesn’t move wealth around.  In fact classical ‘Adam Smith’ Capitalism was/is all about moving wealth from the landed nobility to the much poorer tradesmen and craftsmen. Capitalism is a system of moving wealth from one person to another in such a way as to reward the hardworking and innovative person and to punish the lazy and stick in the mud person.  Unfortunately the society that enables Smithian Capitalism hasn’t existed for over a hundred years.

The kind of Capitalism that exists now, what I call Mega-Corps Capitalism is not anything like Smithian Capitalism.  The Capitalism we live with now is still interested in the moving of wealth, but unfortunately it is moving the wealth from people in the middle class to the top 1%.  This is still wealth redistribution, it’s just not trying to spread it around, it is trying to concentrate it more and more.

So next time someone says you’re supporting Wealth Redistribution, smile and say yes, I’m a Capitalist.

Nehemiah Scudder LIVES!

General, Politics, ,

If_This_Goes_On_ASFFor those of you who don’t recognize the name Reverend Nehemiah Scudder is a character from the Robert A. Heinlein,’s novella “If This Goes On—“.  The story takes place in the 2nd American Revolution and Reverend Nehemiah Scudder is the last elected president under the old constitution and the ‘First Prophet’ of the theocracy that takes it’s place.  What interests me is that the story was first published in 1940 when totalitarianism was riding high.

People who know me now I use the phrase “Nehemiah Scudder LIVES!”  When I think I see the rise of a totalitarian leader in the U.S.  Unfortunately I see that possibility rising it’s ugly head in this election, at least on the GOP side.  The GOP, for all practical purposes , is down to one of two candidates; Donald Trump, and Sen. Ted Cuz. Both are extreme candidates and both are Authoritarian Leaders. Both could lead to an Authoritarian, Totalitarian USA.  I won’t both with listing all of the possible ways and forms the USA can come to this fate.  I will talk about the two distinct forms each of the candidates could create.

 In some ways, the Totalitarian state that Donald Trump wining the Presidency could lead to is the lesser of two evils.  It most likely not be based on any political or social ideology, rather it would be based on self aggrandizement.  It would also be one of the most corrupt administration in U.S. History. It most likely no survive Trump not being based on anything other than the cult of personality for Donald Trump.

A Cuz state is much more likely to go on long after ‘Ted’ Cuz has left the scene as Sen. Cuz is much more ideologically driven.  Just from his speeches and writings Sen. Cuz be leaves and practices a political/theological ideology.  From my own personal research I would wager that Sen. Cuz is a strong believer in Dominion Theology.  I would fully expect him to do everything in his power to move the USA in the direction of his vision of a Christian Nation and that vision will be based on his personal beliefs. This could easily lead to USA that Heinlein envisioned in his story.

So, come Nov. 1st, remember to VOTE because if you don’t vote you just might get the government you voted for.

How far right can the Republican Party move?

Politics

One of the fun things Polical Science wonks are doing right now is comparing our current election with the 1964 AuH2O/LBJ election.  For me one of the more entertaining things pointed out that while many many people in the GOP thought and said that nominating Goldwater would many the end of the GOP, just like what is being said now.

For me is a much more interesting question from looking at the 1964 election and it’s effect on the GOP.  As we all know now, the loss by the GOP in 1964 was quite stunning and traumatic but it didn’t destroy the party.  It did drive it more to the right and it did remove all of the liberal/moderate Republicans from the party in the next 12+ years. The election also had a big effect on the Democratic Party, in 1964 the old Confederate States (the ‘Solid South’) was Democratic.  By 1984 the ‘Sold South’ was Republican. Since then the GOP has just gotten more conservative in it’s base and rhetoric.  So I’m just wondering, if the GOP picks Trump (or Cruz, for that mater) and looses big and doesn’t break-up will it move more to the right.

Of course the GOP Amy not move at all, it may move more to the left, center.  But I find it much more likely that the GOP will move to the right.  Why?  Because the both the GOP and the ‘Conservative Movement’ have the tools and methods to move the GOP more to the right.  More over the base of both the GOP and the ‘Conservative Movement’ have the mind set needed.  For the last 15 years when ever something the Base wanted didn’t work the were able to find a justification to apply more of the same thing. A great example of this is Tax Cuts.  Back in the 80’s tax cuts that strongly favored the wealthy were supposed to give more money in the hands of the ‘makers’ and the wealth would ‘trickle down’ to the rest of the Economy.  When this didn’t happen the GOP said it was because we need more and bigger tax cut

So what does this mean?  Well, if extrem right ideas so the pass 16 years doesn’t get you elected it is time to have even more extrem ideas.  This is what I call a ‘bad thing’.  It is a ‘bad thing’ not because in will keep the GOP moving more and more extrem positions, it will keep conservative thought in an ‘infantete loop’ of ideas and theories.  An we need new and innovative ideas from conservatives.

What’s with the Anti-Trump

General, Politics

I’m Back!  I shan’t bother to issue any of standard apologies people make in this situation and just say I had my reasons and I’m sorry it took me so long to get back.

It has been a week since Supper Tuesday and I’ve got my ear to the ground and watching what is happening.  I fear we, the USA electorate, are living thru the Great Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times and people in high places know your name.”  But more of that latter.  On to what is happening.

First and foremost there is the “Stop Trump” and/or the “Anybody but Trump” agitation in the media.  Late me be clear, I am a California Democrat.  It is almost a total certainty that I will have no say in who the GOP selects as it’s candidate.  First, because there is no chance this side of Hell that I’d switch parties before June.  Secondly, California comes last for the GOP and therefor will most likely it will be all over but the shouting.

I have been aware of politics on the Presidential level since 1964 when one of my classes, American history if my memory services, had us color in a map of the states showing who won what states. (I used gold for Goldwater). By 1968 I was vitally interested in the election as by that time I had already lost two friends to Nam and was turning 18 next spring.  I was passionatly patriotic and passionately anti-war.  Being so confused I naturally became a Demicrat, all though I was ‘Clean for Gene’.   I have never looked back.

So what does this have to do with Trump?  Everything.  Since I first voted for President I have voted three times for the Republican candidate.  An all three times it came down to the same basic reason; the Republican could do the job better.  I was wrong only once, the first time when I voted for Nixon.  I new he was a ‘crook’, but I thought he was a ‘smart crook’.  He wasn’t.  I won’t go into the “why and wherefores” of the Fall Of Nixon, for me it was all about hubris.  So what I have to say to all of you out there is simply this ‘when you vote please look carefully at the candidates and think’.

Remeber that your vote is more than just a protest.  It is more that shouting “I’m mad as hell and won’t take it any more.”  The person just may be the next President and we will have to live with that for the next four years.  Just what kind of Presidentcy will we have with Trump in office?  Remeber this is a Promoter, a showman, with no expreance with having to get along with people to get things done.  Think about the kind of people who will support him in the House and Senate and do you really want them controlling your life.  Think about the kind of White House he will build (his staff and advisers) and what will happen in an administration where all failures will be the fault of an underling and all success’ go to Trump.  Don’t think about ideology yet, first look at what kind of Predident the candidate will make.  Then if your lucky you’ll end up with one or two candidates who look good and now look at their ideology.  Remember, no mater what the ideology of the President, he/she still has to work with the Congress and the Court.