Monthly Archives: September 2019

“No Me, Gim Do It.”

Philosophy, Politics, , , ,

When I and my Cuz Shari were toddlers our mothers put us down for a nap in the same play pen. The then went into the kitchen for coffee and a chat. Sometime later there was a great crashing noise from the room we were in. When the mom’s got there they saw the pen had totally collapsed. Shari, standing in the middle of everything looked up and said “No Me! Gim Do It.” Even tho it was obvious to the moms that is had been Shari’s doing.

This is exactly what I think is starting to happen with the Trump Administration and the Ukraine scandal and why I have used the illustration above. While it is Tammany Hall, and thus Democrat Party it is still very illustrative of what is happening now. (Note: I know enough political history to know that both corruption and shifting of blame is an All Parties phenomenon.). While we currently only have three people in the ring (Trump, Pence, and Giuliani) and this is more of a triangle I feel confident that more will be added soon. Some of them will be totally uninvolved, others on the side of ‘Truth, Justice, and the American Way’, and others guilt of some involvement. This is a classic Mob tactic, throw everyone you can under the Bus in hope you will get away scot free. That is why the Impeachment hearings in the house are so important.

Like in chess, Mobsters, try and complicate things when they are loosing. This is about the only way you can get your opponent to make a mistake and that is their only hope of winning. The American people need to see in the simplest, clearest terms just what Pres. Trump did, and what his henchmen did. All of the underbrush being tossed out by the suspects need to be clear away. The facts of the case need to be stated in the simplest, cleanest, clearest manner for all to see. This is why the hearing(s) need to be as tightly focused on the attempt to use the Ukraine to become involved in our 2020 election. While the Impeachment is just an indictment the American people need to be able to see that if the Senate does not Convict, that vote was totally motivated by partisan need and not by any reasonable doubt of culpability.

These hearing(s) need to be done quickly, too. Not only for the nation as a whole, but for the Republican Party. The worst possible outcome would be for Donald Trump to win the Republican Nomination and then be convicted in the Senate. So to the House Of Representatives I say move with ‘all deliberate speed’. To the Democrats I say, do everything you can to see that the truth is shown clearly, to Republicans I say remember you are Americans first and Republicans second and work toward the best interests of the nation, remember what America stands for. This is the only way you can save your party from going the way of the American Party.

Libertarianism & Me, Part I

Philosophy, Politics,
MrPooter Image
The Richest Man in Bedford Falls Owner of half of the town

As some of you may know I recently attended my 50th High School Reunion. Some of you are now saying “Just what does this have to do with Libertarianism?” Just this, it give you a time frame as the U.S. Libertarian Party was formed in 1971 and I was a student in college working on my degree in Political Science.

The next year, being an election year, the campus was flooded with fliers for this ‘new & exciting’ party. I was curious, both because of the party’s name ‘Libertarian’ and because of it’s logo that uses TANSTAAFAL which is from one of my favorite SF Novels of the time.

Unfortunately for both me and libertarianism the more I found out about both the party and it’s ideology the more disenchanted I became. What first got me was the illogic of it’s fundamental political and economic principles. Often as not two or more of the the principles are in diametric opposition. Next was the basic hypocrisy of the party saying it was new. In fact only the “formal” political party was new. The name and political philosophies date back to the 1780’s.

So, where to start? Well, first is that there are really several ‘flavors’ of Libertarianism that can be broadly divided into “Conservative” Libertarianism and “Progressive or Scocialist” Liberalism. An as you might expect they hate each other with a passion. The funny thing is they are really mostly identical with the major difference being which “Liberties” they are fighting for. What is truly sad is that Libertarianism could be a great Political/Economic philosophy if it was so caught up with it’s desire to be totally right.

So where to start? There is so much to cover and so little space-time. How about the idea of “That government than governs lest governs best.”? A grand old American Political ideal, but in the hands of many followers of Libertarianism it is morphed into the desire to have a government so small that it can’t hurt the individual. The only problem with this is that when the government is that small it is too small to protect the individual. I’ve heard many Libertarians say “that’s ok. They should stand on their on two feet and protect themselves.” Well and good for those big enough and strong enough but what about the small and weak? If you are wondering what I’m thinking about try watching some of the great John Wayne ‘Rio’ movies. You know the ones where the local land baron has the town under it’s thumb? I like the ones where John Wayne is the town marshal who is waiting for the US Deputy Marshal to come thru. Why? Because if the local land Barron messes with a US Marshal he is going to have the whole US government down on his head.

This whole political philosophy is based on the great american myth of the self reliant “frontiersman” who relied on no one but himself. This almost never, if ever happened. America was settled by groups, be they individual family, or just by groups like the 49ers of California. I have always like the statement “Men conquered the West, Women settled it.” While we can and should always depend on ourselves we also need help from time to time. This is more true when dealing with those who don’t follow the rules. Like the bullies we all saw in school, I never saw one by themselves. They always had the groupies (minions) around them and they always seem to get them to do the actual bullying.

I can see I have a lot more to say so I think breaking this up into multiple posts. So BBFN.

The Sheldon Crisis, part III

General, Philosophy, Politics, , , ,
Foundation

The Sheldon Crisis the U.S. is currently experiencing is going into it’s next faze today with the first of the Donald Trump Impeachment inquiry by the House Judiciary Committee. An it did not go well for anybody. While the supporters of Pres. Trump seem to have won on points this is only round one of the match. There are many more rounds to go and maybe a few more matches.

As a person who watched much of the Senate Watergate Hearings and the most all of the House Impeachment process Of Pres. Nixon. I also followed closely all the sordid process of the Clinton Impeachment and trial. I can say that today was not a good start. I hope the chairman and the House leadership rethink just how this process needs to work. Or, just maybe we all are missing something. This is more than just a legal process, there is a lot of politics involved.

Things just might get more interesting as time goes on. The House GOP seems to have won the day today with the witness standing his ground and refusing to say anything that is not in the testimony given in the Mueller Report. I just wonder if the GOP really want’s to go down this road to the Prerogative State. The use of Executive Privilege as done by the current Administration is quite expansive and would easily lead to no one who has anything to do with the Executive branch ever having to testify about anything to any body.

Let’s run a little thought experiment here. Let us suppose that no one who has any contact with the President, either directly or indirectly can not be forced by either the Congress or the Courts to give any testimony about anything the President may know, or could have know, or should have known or does not know. Ever! Now let us suppose the Executive Branch acts to confiscate all arms not in the possession of their party membership. An now let us suppose that it is taken to court and SCOTUS rules against the Administration and then the President orders the agency/persons charged to ignore the court order and they do? Now lets say the Court orders the arrest of those persons for criminal contempt and sends US Deputy Marshals to do it and these marshals are met with armed resistance by Federal security officers. Now what?

This is, of course a bad to worse case scenario. We don’t have to go this far to be in trouble. What would happen in the case of absolutely blatant corruption, like the Tea Pot Dome scandal but involving a siting Secretary. If the President could order all witness’ not to testify how could the House and Senate Impeach and Convict? How could you even try some one? Could not the President order the forensic witness and the investigators not to testify about their findings?

I think we can see where the unfettered use of any privilege can lead to. Privilege needs to be highly limited to keep it from being abused. We may live in the 2nd Guided Age and if we do it is paramount for the citizenry to flex it’s mussels and reign in the excesses of this age. The time to start is now. This election. Each an everyone of us needs to look at our Representatives, both House and Senate and see if they are putting Self or Party before the people and the country. To do that we need to stop listening to the Hate Mongers who want to tells that all are troubles are do to ‘THEM’. We must remember who we are and what we stand for. We are Americans and we Stand for more than just wealth, power, and prestige.

More signs of GOP Morbidity

Politics, ,

Once more we see signs of the coming demise of the Republican Party in the actions of the North Carolina House of Representatives this week. It is not the vote to override the Governors veto, but rather the way the Republican Speaker went about it. The damage he has done, not only to the GOP of North Carolina but to the entire party can well be devastating. With how the current GOP National leadership, read current Administration, treats keeping it’s word what can the state house GOP say?

From now on when GOP leadership in any chamber of any state house says it will do or refrain from doing something how will they answer the question: “What assurances can go give that you wont ‘renege’? Even in a profession renowned for the lack of truthfulness like politics, especially in such a profession, something must be sacrosanct. Keeping your word about when and when not votes will be held is one such item. You can obfuscate to your hearts content. You can stand silent. But you can not say, as the Speaker did, say there will be no votes this morning/today and then when things are in your favor call a snap vote. There can be only one result to such an action, nothing this speaker says can be taken as true or accurate. Only his actual actions can be trusted and not even then.

With the election of Donald J Trump as President and the rise of Transactional Politics (aka Zero Sum Politics) the GOP is well on it’s way of joining it’s predecessor the “American Party” (aka No-nothings) on the trash heap of history. For a political party who’s leadership, and membership, is more interested in winning than ethics it exposes is doomed to fade away.

Why a Wave Election is Important

Politics, , ,
Blue Wave

Yes, I know the election is over a year way, but the 2020 election is going to be history making in ways most Americans don’t know about. This is going to be the first Presidential election where the electorate has been told, and is mostly aware of, all the election tampering being done by foreign governments (mostly Russia). At the same time one side, the GOP, has been running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off screaming about ‘election fraud’. If the 2020 election is a close one, or worse yet one where the winner of the Electoral College does not get a plurality of the popular vote, then we are in a world of hurt.

So lets run a little thought experiment here. There are basically two conditions we need to think about. An election where one side wins big and one where the winner just squeaks by (like 2016). With the former Americans can have some faith that the elections were fair as it is very very difficult to massively stack the results in 40+ states. So lets look at the latter.

Lets say the Donald Trump and the GOP just barely squeak by just holding on to the Presidency and control of the Senate. Let us further state that Donald Trump wins just like he did in 2016. The Democrats can, and should, cry out that it was a stolen elections. But besides that, how can the GOP erasure the people that it wasn’t stolen. How can we trust the results?

Little to no effort has been taken by either the National nor State GOP to do anything reassure us that the elections are fare. Indeed in the last few years it has been then GOP who have taken actions to skew the elections in their favor with means both lawful and unlawful. Just the latest is the North Carolina congressional district gerrymandering that violated the State constitution. An let us not forget all of the efforts to prevent voter impersonation election fraud and all of the efforts to have proper IDs. While this is not a bad idea, the way it has been gone about leaves much to be desired. Seems like in most cases these laws impact poor voters. Of course, given the position of many in the GOP that most election fraud is done by ‘liberals’ and/or Democrats this is not to unexpected.

But the point is that the GOP has, for many many years been complaining about how fraud ridden our elections are but seem powerless to make any substantial changes. An the changes they do make seem to make maters worse not better. Now let us add in the widely held belief that in 2016 the Russians used the internet and social media to influence our election. Plus we now have reports of the election systems of some states, like Florida, have been hacked. This is leading us to a very big problem.

If the Trump Administration and/or the GOP in 2017 had taken the position that any interference by anyone is totally unacceptable. That it unfairly casts dispersions on the validity of Donald Trumps election. An to demonstrate that neither he nor the GOP will have any truck with this kind of action. We would not be where we are now. We have a President who totally believes that it doesn’t mater how you win as long as you win. We have a political party so afraid of its far right base that it is totally unwilling to do anything that might though any doubts on the legitimacy of it’s power that it will do nothing. So even if they win, they loose.

So what need to be done? Simply put, but hard, very hard to do, is to create a ‘wave’ election. An election, no mater who wins, that will put into Washington people who will say “enough is enough” and creates a bi-partisan national effort to secure both our elections, the internet, and social media. This will be a tall order, their are people who will see these changes as a challenge to both their power and their wealth. They will join with those out side the country who wish to see the USA in political disarray to do everything in their power to keep things as they are. Finally we need to do one thing:

Get Out The Vote