All posts by James Daniel

Say It Ain’t So

Honor, Philosophy, Politics

Say it ain't so, Joe.I selected this plaintiff cry from a young baseball fan from almost a hundred years ago for a good reason.  I am asking everyone out there who reads this and for the past eight years have talked so strongly about how corrupt, unethical, criminal, etc the Democrats in congress, POTUS, Hillary Clinton, etc was, is to now to do something both very hard and very easy.

If you live in a state with even one Republican Senator, please contact them, phone is best (it is the ‘hottest’ medium) but email will do, and tell them you want them to insist that every one of POTUS-Elect Trumps nominations must compleate the Office of Government Ethics review(s) before they will progress past the  Committee  hearings.  Do this for for two very good reasons.  First, and foremost it is the right thing do.  You and every other American deserves people in government who can unabashedly show history.  Who can smile and say, “See I did all this and I have everything to be proud about it.”  This is after all this is what you were asking of the last Admenistration so why not use this opportunity to show you mean what you have said.

This leads us to the second reason to do what I am asking.  Show us that it is not “Just Politics” when you told us that you opposed Hillary because she was ‘crooked’.  You have an excellent opportunity to take the high ground in new year, new congress and new Admenistration.  You can show anyone who will bother to look that you believe in what you have said about honesty and eithics so much you will hold those who you believe in and support to the same standards you have held others too.

If you do this and if the Repubican controlled Senate does it you will be able to put to LIE those of the left you say you are just a bunch of hypocrites.  So I challenge you, Do you really so believe what you have been saying for ever so long.  Are you strong enough, brave enough, believe in your rhetoric enough to put your words to the test.

I wait with bated breath.

 

The Purpose of Power

Politics

“The Puropse of Power is Power!”

Until I got the idea for this post I had thought this quote was from George Owell’s novel “1984”.  It is not.  As far as I can see I t is of my own creation.  I still like it.  It is so much more powerful (sic) than the actual quote from 1984: “The object of Power is Power”.  So why am I writing  this, now, this minute?

I write about power because I have been ready so much online about the new House Rule the GOP caucus leadership is proposing that will punish any House member who Films, photographs, or streams any House Floor protests.  Most of the postings are trying to explaine or understand just why the GOP leadership would be doing this.  It is such a blatant use of power by the majority on the minority for so little effect that many are puzzled on why they would do it.

It is very simple, “The Purpose of Power, is Power”.  If you have power it serves no purpose if you don’t use it.  Like energy, political power exits in two very distinct states, it is either “Potential” or “Kinetic”.  By “Kinetic” I don’t mean moving but rather being active.  Like potential energy, potential power it is virtually undetectable.  We know it is there, but we can not measure it.  We know it is there, we can calculate how much it is there, but we can not  actually show it is there until is is actually used.  This need to use power to Know it is actually there is why the GOP House Leadership is taking this action.

Most students of politics, both practical and theoretical, will tell you that the best, most effective, way to test just how much actual power you have is to demonstrate, use, it on something small, and really trivial.  Something you really don’t need to do, but will show everyone who is watching who has the power and willing to use it.  Traditionally in the Congress this demonstration was done in assigning Office Space, size and location of offices, and Parking spaces, convince and walking distance.  These tow have already been done to the max since the GOP took control so they are not available for this new Congress.  So they had to come up with something and this new rule is it.

Do not be misled, this new rule was meant to send a message, it just wasn’t meant for the Democratic Caucus.  It is really meant for the Caucus’ that make up the Republican Caucus.  It is a clear and simple statement, behave or we will punish you.  An why would the Caucus leadership feel the need to send such a message?  My theory is that the Republican Caucus Leadership is not nearly as secure in its control as they want everyone to belieave.  The need to start cracking the whip now to keep everyone in line or it all can come apart on them.  The need to use the power now or it all may become ephemeral and leave them hanging.

Coming soon: “Why I think the Republican Leadership is not really all that secure.”

 

My Vs The

Politics

Ever since the election in November there has been a great deal of talk about Donald Trump being “Not My President”.  I’d like to take this time to talk about the significant difference between “My” and “The” in this discussion.

To start, lets be very clear about just one thing, come next month Donald J. Trump will become the next President of the United States.   Weather you voted for Trump or not.  Weather you support him or not, it makes no difference, he will be “The” President.  He does not, necessarily, become “My” President if you oppose him or his administration.

The significant difference is that “My” denotes support or likening for some one or something.  In this case the current holder of the office of the President of the United States.  All Americans should remember to see the Office, not the man, most of the time.  When Donald Trump is acting in his capacity of being the President, then he is “The” President.  All other times he is just “My” or “Your” President.  All Americans are free, for now, to say what ever we want about President Trump when he is not being “The” President.  We are not free to say anything when he is acting as “The” President.

Many people have asked me, “Well, how can I tell when he is ‘The’ President and when he is not?”  Good Question, and not an easy one to answer but there are some good clues.  First, and easiest is you can be fairly sure he is in his role of “The” President when he is in any of the formal settings of the office, like the Oval Office or the White House Rose Garden.  Like wise, he is not in the formal role when he is talking to political leaders of the GOP, or the Democratic Party for that matter.   Past Presidents have usually worked very hard to let people know when they are stepping out of the persona “The” President and this made it easier for people to know that when they didn’t send the signal(s) that they were NOT being “The” President then they were being “The” President.  That is, absent any signal(s) to the contrary the person holding the office of POTUS is always being “The” President.  One of the most common signals is when the President leaves the White House to go to Camp David or on Vacation.

These signals are going to become very problematic with the Trump Presidentcy if he follows thru with his indicated plan to spend a great deal of time in his home in Trump Tower.  Also, is he being “The” President when he Tweets?  How will we tell?  If he follows thru with his stand-offishnes with the press, the traditional signaler of the change of status it will be up to each individual to decide.  This may cause some very interesting problems for the new Administration.  I can’t wait to see what happens.

So, come January 21st 2017 Donald J. Trump will be “The” President but he will never be “My” President.

First Rule!

General, Humor, Politics

First rule of Plutocracy is don't talk about PlutocracyAs  Inauguration Day approaches American’s are starting to learn the first rule of the next four years.  We will be having a great time while the Plutocrats and their running dogs (Sorry, I just could resist it) to learn the first rule of the new age.  I thought I’d share a few more for my fellow, benighted liberals:

  1. Don’t talk about Plutocracy
  2. Then Man on top is ALWAYS Right
  3. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain
  4. When something goes wrong, it is either the fault of the designated fall guy(s) or it never happened.
  5. When things go right all Credit MUST go to the Man on Top
  6. No one, ever, may criticize, or appear to criticize, the leadership and most especially the Man on Top
  7. The people who are not granted ‘Grace’ by the people on top are only ‘good’ if they know their place and keep to it.
  8. Anyone who does not know their place or does not keep to it must be  immediately and severely ‘ disciplined’.
  9. Don’t talk about the rules of Plutocracy
  10. he who has the most wealth WINS it all

Members of Congress and all RED state governments please take note.

 

 

Reaping the Whirlwind

Philosophy, Politics

To all of the voters out there who voted for Trump because he would shake things up.  Congratulations, your going to get your wish.  Unfortunately your not going to like the changes your in for.

There is what I’m told is an old Chinese Curse:

May you live in interesting times

May people in high places know your name

May all your wishes come true

I truly belieave that the election of Donald J Trump has brought down this curse upon your head.  Unfortunately a lot of not so innocent bystanders, myself included, are in the damage zone.

You wanted to shake things up.  To though out all the corrupt politicians (an by this you meant every politician that didn’t agree with you).  To ‘drain the swamp’.  Someone who talks straight and says what he means.  Be happy, your going to get all these things and more.

Trump is well on his way to shaking every thing up, unfortunately it is going to be more like a magnitude 7+ earthquake on alluvial than on bedrock. An just like an earthquake on alluvial  there is going to be way more collateral damage than expected by those who wish to shake things up.  So be happy with everything falling down around your head, you have gotten what you wished for.

A new mission

General, Philosophy, Politics

Today I am repurposing this site to ending the Post-Truth era of American politics.   I promise to stand against the idea that worlds mean only what the speaker thinks (says) they mean.  That road leads to insanity.  To start this battle I will say this about logic and reason.

For those of you who are not really familiar with logic let me say this:  In most forms logic a statement has three states, not two most people think.  A statement can be can be “True”, it can be “not True” (False) and fianly it can be “undefined” (that is there is no way to no if the statement is iehtger True or False).  A great deal of logical reasoning involves moving a statement from the undefined state to either the Ture or the False state.  Sometimes it is impossible to do this, and this is the problem we are facing.

In the coming days all Americans will be faced with the problem of deciding just what our elected and appointed leaders are telling us and in this new Post-Truth age it will not be easy.  It is to this effort of finding out just what statements are True, are False or are still undefined that I rededicate this blog.  I will label as “Undefined” (U) any reports or comments that come to me without proper citation(s).  I will research each and every source of a statement to the best of my ability to let you know where the statement came from and what it is passed on.  I will tell you if I then find the statement True (T) or False (F) and will live it up to you to judge for yourself.  Finally I will call out every instance of anyone basing the truthfulness of a statement solely on what they believe.

This is my promise to you.

Functioning in a Post Truth World

Philosophy, Politics

Surviving in a Post Truth America, much less staying sane, is not going to be easy.   I’ve given this much thought over the past few weeks after the election and we see the new administration taking shape and I’ve come up with just a few ideas.

First, take nothing said by President Trump or anyone in his administration at face value.  Nothing they say will mean what you think they mean.  Like the Lewis Carrol character said “..The words mean exactly what I mean them to mean….”. For most of my childhood I had to live with someone who never told a lie, she always believed everything she said, but as often as not what she said did not match either the facts or reality.  Also she would often change what she said, diametrically, from one conversation to the next.  I learned to never take anything she said as ‘accurate’ until it was checked against the real world.  This is what I recommend we all do with the new Administration, trust nothing they say, but take no action until you have check what you have been told against observable facts.

When President Elect Trump says he is going to do something, stand still and do nothing until he actually does what he said he’d do.  Place it in what I call the “undefined state”. This is a concept from Logic where you have to deal with statements that you have not been able. To decide if a statement is either True or False.  We also have this problem to deal with in computer science where you can have a bit that is not set to either a positive or negative state.  Unfortunately we can not do what was done in computer science, which is to force the bit to a known state (usually Zero).

With most Presidental administration Americans give them the benefit of the doupt and assume that they mean what they say. That is, what they are saying is true.  Most Admenistration work fairly hard to actually to stay constant and really mean what they are saying.  Unfortunately the Trump administration is already shown it doesn’t really care one way or the other if Americans think he is tell the truth.  What seems to mater to the incoming Admenistration is what Americans think is true, right now, this moment.  An truth does not mean what are hard observable facts, but rather truth is what you believe is true.  This makes truth/falsehood a very unstable thing.

Fortunatly the actual real world is much simpler, and unforgiving.  In the real world a persons belief has little to do with what is.  When trying to decide what to do humans really do need to have a degree of trust in what we are being told.  This is what is going to be missing in the new Administration, Americans will not be able to trust what they are being told because we will not be able to tell if what is being said is either True or False.  We all can work with someone who always try’s to mean what they say.  You can, with a little more effort, work with someone who never means what they say.  But try working with someone who you have no way of judging the truth/falsehood of anything they say.  Try it, just for one day, go thru one whole day where you can not judge if anything you are being true or false.  When your alarm goes off and the clock tells you it is 7 am, but you go into kitchen and the clock there tells you it is now 7:30 am.  Now you go show & shave (if your a man) and come out to get dressed and the clock says it is now 6:35 am.  Now apply this to everything.  Even if you just limit it to people are telling you and know you will soon find it impossible to do your job.

So, what Americans are going to be doing very soon is waiting to see what the Administration actually does before we take any action.  I just can’t wait to see how the Stock Market reacts.

Interesting Times in Post-Truth America

General, Philosophy

Donald Trump hasn’t even taken the oath of office yet and he is already making things interesting.  First it was his victory tour speech at Courier about keeping jobs in the USA that was ‘misunderstood’ by the MSM (Main Stream Media) an then his taking a phone call from the President of Taiwan on Friday.  Seems either his  foreign policy advisers didn’t tell him just how sensitive the PRC is about Taiwan or he didn’t listen and/or understand.  Or, just maybe he just doesn’t care one way or the other.

In all cases it does seem to show just how well organized his administration is going to be.  I fear that we are in for an administration almost as well organized and run as Pres. Warren G. Hardens.  I also fear that we will have just about the same results.  This is not me making a prediction, I’ve sworn off trying to predict anything since the election, just me stating what I fear.

What I can say is that given what some of Mr. Trump’s surrogates have said and what he himself has said that we can not take ANYTHING he says at face value, much less literally.  What Americans need to do is follow the following simple postulates

1) Trump is ALWAYS right and never makes a mistake or error

2) That constancy is the bugaboo of small minds

3) Credit always follows up and blame always follow down

I’m sure I will have some more later but these will do to start.  As you can see using theses three postulates Donald Trumps recent statements are perfectly understandable.  It just takes a little work on your part.  If your having trouble I recommend the following three books:

1984

Alice in Wonderland

Through the Lookingglass and what Alice found there

An now we see why Angles Weep.

The Impossible has happened!

Politics

An by impossible I don’t mean the election of Donald Trump to the presidentcy of the United States.  It was always “possible” just very improbable.  No, by impossible I mean conducting an experiment in Political Science.  One of the great limitations in studying Politics in a scientific way is the inability to conduct real world experiments.  The election of Donald Trump has set us all on the road to a very great experiment.

The experiment is just how well a person who has had NO expreance governing will govern this country.  So far we have a few clues from who he is placing in his staff.  His chief of staff will be Reince Priebus, a man with a great deal of expreance in politics, but none in real word governing.  He does have many contacts with the GOP members who do have governing expreance but little to no contacts with anyone else.  Not Democrat, not independent, not anyone of any political persuasion. We will now get to see how well Pres. Trump is able to work out political deals to get work done.

President elect Trump has also placed Steve Bannon, the CEO of Breitbart New in another key position.  Mr. Bannon also has no expreance governing.  He does have a great deal of expreance selling ideas, what is often call propaganda in Political Science.   That the ideas he is selling are often anathema to half the country is not nearly as important as that he has no expreance getting those ideas implemented by government.

So what is the experiment?  I think it is can an  amateur really do as good a job governing as a professional?  I think we will see very soon.

“I Abide”

General, Politics

When I first thought of writing this post I was going to entitle it “By the pricking of my thumbs…” An it was going to be a very negative, fearful polemic about how I see the Trump Presedentcy working out.  But then I remembered my own personal motto “I Abide”.

I took up the motto when I joined the De Molay when I was 16.  It got me interested in Medivel history and the custom of people having thier own personal motto, usually in latin, and I thought it would be kind of neat to have one myself.  At the time I was going thru some very rough times and like most teenagers I just could see how I was going thru it.  Then I read the book “Earth Abides” by by George R. Stewart.  It is a fairly typical post apocalyptic story of one mans struge to survive and rebuild civilization.  What got me was the use of the word abides in it’s less known definition ‘to accept or bear (someone or something bad or unpleasant).

I also use it to remind myself that no mater what you can get thru to the other side and be better for the all of it.  This is what I wish to bring to everyone out there who is frightened and fearful by the election of Donald Trump to the presidency.  Yes, he has said some very hateful things and many of his supports expect him to do things that can really hurt alot of people.  But we can ABIDE.  We can support an help each other thru the hard times ahead.  Remember that this is not an Autocracy.  President Trump can not just do something.  He need not only the cooperation of the Congress.  He needs our aquessance to his acts.

I hear by call on all people who do not approve of something that Pres. Trump wants to do to fight with every peaceful and/or none violent way you can. Remember we only need to flip 2 votes in the Senate to keep anything from passing we can’t approve of.  When he calls for touching Social Security or Medicare, remind your Senators you are watching.  Also help organize and go to mass meeting and parades protesting the action.  The right of the people, you and me, to peacefully assemble and the right of the people to petition the government for a regress of grievances are two constitutional rights even more sacrosanct than the much ballyhooed 2nd amendment right.  There is no need for guns or violence if we get enough people togeather.

As HRC said “We are Stronger Togeather”.