Rick Kinnaird

Day 847

May 3, 2019 by Rick Kinnaird Leave a Comment

Day 847 Friday May 3, 2019

549 Days to the 2020 election and 627 Days to Inauguration Day

More elephants, more deniers of swamp gas.

Washington was built on a swamp. Therefore, analogies to swamps are in abundance. But I came up with a clever new one (OMG, Donald Trump self congratulatory speech is infecting me! And there is no vaccine!!! Help me! Help Me! )

It seems the swamp gas is wafting through the halls of government and infecting many, if not all, Republicans. Certainly, anyone the president has contact for any period of time becomes infected. It’s kind of like “Day of the Dead” where people fall asleep and plants invade their brains. Oh, wait, that was “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

William Barr’s testimony in front of the Senate committee is still being analyzed. What comes out of it is that he’s a liar and that he uses finally parsed legal statements to say he didn’t lie, that’s not what he meant, that isn’t what it means, etc. etc. etc.

The Republicans on that committee have been sucking in and exhausting the same old stale gas with some added smells. It goes like this: Mueller found no collusion, no obstruction, no nothing and therefore everything said about Trump in the press and the report is a lie. Trump is therefore within his rights to stop investigations, fire people and do anything else to stop these unfounded silly investigations. If you want to look at collusion, look no further than Hillary Clinton. She hired Russians. She has hidden emails. You should be looking at here.

Barr of course is playing along, and or leading. He believes there was spying – on the Trump campaign. By whom is not really clear, but he’s going to be investigating. Then there’s the really weird legal argument about Trump and his not being a criminal. Mueller wrote in his report that he didn’t think he had the authority to charge a sitting president so he didn’t. Because he couldn’t charge it would be unfair to make a charge because the whole point of our justice system is to give a person “their day in court.” If they can’t go to court to clear their name then the charge would be hanging out there and that would, as I just wrote, be unfair. therefore, Mueller did not make a conclusion as to whether Trump was guilty of any crime. Mueller also said that he could not exonerate the president. Not because of the same logic but because the evidence did not support that conclusion. Mueller went on to lay out for 178 pages things that were obstruction of justice. He didn’t call them that because to so do would be analogous to charging someone. He wrote that he was preserving this evidence for Congress to act on if they wished, or for a prosecutor to so do once the man who was president was no longer president.

Mr. Barr and Senator Graham both indicated that they had not read the full Mueller Report nor looked at the underlying evidence. Mr. Barr also said that it was Mueller’s job to charge the president if he felt it warranted it, and because Mueller did not the decision fell to him the AG to so do. But he wouldn’t do it because Mueller hadn’t done so. If this seems like circular reasoning that’s because it is. ( Do not try to put into an Excel spreadsheet! “Circular Reference!!!” )

Amy Kloboshar asked Barr if Mueller had looked at Trump’s tax returns. He said he didn’t know and suggest she ask Mueller. She has now done that via a letter. She added in both the letter to Mueller and her comments to Barr that if Mueller had looked at such documents she would need to see them “as underlying evidence.”

The other fascinating thing that I see is that Barr has said it was Mueller’s job to charge the president. As far as I know Mueller is still an employee of the Justice Department and he’s still Special Counsel. So as I see it; Mueller could still charge Trump. And I being the legal beagle that I am think he should so do.

I also hope and pray that Jerry Nadler will have the Attorney General arrested and thrown in the House jail.

Oh and speaking of Barr and his performance recently, which has led to calls for his impeachment, do you know the last time there were calls for the impeachment of an Attorney General? And do you know who it was?

Let’s jump in the “not so wayback machine” boop boop boop … why it was one William Barr. Back with the Bushes. Yeah. Same guy. Same playbook. Same reasons. Why should anyone be surprised of how he’s acting now?

You don’t have to be a lawyer to understand that Trump and the people around him were deeply involved with the Russians. It was blatant. It was ham handed. It was.

Some have said that for Trump and for some around him, they think the laws don’t apply. I think it’s a slightly different outlook. Laws are for other people, yes, to constrain those people and if you can convince someone to not do something that you don’t want them to do because of a law that’s great. As far as you and the law? Hey, if you can’t get caught, go for it, and if you do get caught? Deny, deny, deny. But if you consider that Trump is a sociopath then this analysis makes sense because sociopaths don’t really understand emotion, reason, or law. Like Nixon said – he would say things not because they were true, but to watch for the reaction. Much like a billiard player watching how the balls moved about the table (his analogy – not mine.) I guess that’s why he lied to LBJ about his illegal activities with the Vietnamese government before he, Nixon, took office.

549 Days to the 2020 election and 627 Days to Inauguration Day

PS Boropudur, The largest Buddhist Temple in Indonesia. The kid is going there soon!

Day 846

May 2, 2019 by Rick Kinnaird Leave a Comment

Day 846 Thursday May 2, 2019

550 Days to the 2020 election and 628 Days to Inauguration Day

I am struck by the weird amount of lying and willful disregard for the truth that is all around me.

It’s hard to know where to begin. R. Kelley a singer who has had many close calls with the law, most of which deal with his relationships with underage girls, claimed he didn’t show up for a court appearance because he “has a learning disability.” The disability? He can’t read.

Then there’s William Barr’s testimony yesterday in front of a Senate committee. The amount of parsing in legalese and the amount of lying, bold faced lying, was incredible. Barr didn’t take this or that for what it was. Didn’t know what Robert Mueller’s thoughts and feelings were about Barr’s actions in regard to Mueller’s report when all along Mueller had talked to Barr, sent him letters and made very clear what his thoughts were. It’s incredible.

Even more incredible was the willingness of the Republican Senators to go along with the sham. Chuck Grassley trying to equate the fact that the Dems paid for oppo research from an American firm that hired a British specialist that talked to Russians is not engaging in communications with Putin’s buddies or the Russian intelligence or their cutouts. Lyndsey Graham (initials L.O.G.) opened up the hearing by wanting to look at Hillary Clinton’s emails and the other Republicans piled on. When Joni Ernst was questioning even the newscasters cut away to talk about something else. Maybe it was because she sounded like a 15 year old mall rat? I don’t know. I finally had to turn it off when Ted Cruz did his usual bit. He thanked Barr for his service to the country, noted his exemplary career before this, and that Barr answered “the call to service” and came back to government. I wanted to puke. Barr’s exemplary career includes being the mastermind behind one of the greatest coverups in U.S. legal history: the pardoning of the criminals involved in Iran-Contra. He also did the same thing before with summarizing a report, even used the same phrases, when he was in the Office of the Inspector General, covering up the stuff that Wu had written excusing the torture the CIA was doing for Cheney as “enhanced interrogation.” This is not some dedicated patriot, doing the will of the people, or for that matter representing them. This is a small minded craven toady, who will sell himself out for god knows what, I can’t figure it out. I guess he missed being in the middle of a shitstorm that he creates.

Then there are the 10,000 lies of Trump.

There’s Jared Kushner repeating Russian propaganda talking points.

And the really big issue to me is that the Russian elected this man as president of our country and no one is talking about that, because it’s so far out of the realm of possibility or proof that those who support Trump or are diehard Republicans are willing to say things like: “Well, we don’t know that,” or “There’s no proof.” etc.

Yeah? We know that the Russians in their social media attack reached 129,000,000 Americans. Do you think that changed 72,000 votes? I do.

There’s the outright gaslighting and the Republican Senators seem to be caught in a Stockholm Effect and desperate to hold on to whatever they can.

It makes we wonder when did the indians who allied themselves with Cortez think that wasn’t such a good idea? Or the Carthaginians who didn’t resupply Hannibal? Ot the Romans who didn’t come to the aid of the general who tried to get them to defend themselves against Attila? Or the Christians in Europe who didn’t come to the aid of Constantinople? The list goes on and on, but the point is the same. You may have differences with people close to you, but ignoring them you do at your peril.

Imagine if FDR hadn’t teamed up with Stalin and Hitler had won WWII?

Yeah, Stalin was a bad dude, but Hitler was worse.

History is littered with people not acting in their own best interest. Our nation is suffering from that right now, and it seems to be getting worse. Ignoring of basic facts. OMG. I got my Mumps vaccine yesterday, and to think that there are people who claim to be educated that think vaccinations are bad. The willingness and gullibleness of people still astounds me. When people do not look at the facts or are willing to believe untruths masquerading as fact I find it disheartening and realize we need to more to educate and inform. We are facing tidal waves of deceit and deception coupled with a willingness to believe that which is false but “feels right (or good or something)”

Neil deGrasse Tyson said about science that it is the search for the truth. I like that.

The search for the truth.

That is what I strive for and I hope others will too.

550 Days to the 2020 election and 628 Days to Inauguration Day

PS Mini-Eggs

Day 845

May 1, 2019 by Rick Kinnaird Leave a Comment

Day 845 Wednesday May 1, 2019

May Day! Five days to Cinco de Mayo (no four! Where’s my Cinco shirt? Get out the Margarita glasses. I think I have a cassette of Jimmy wasting away somewhere. {Oh man that’s funny. Is the “somewhere” Margaritaville or where the cassette is hiding? Get it. Oh man, hold me back.] )

551 Days to the 2020 election and 629 Days to Inauguration Day

We’ve got news tidbits and analysis to get to. First the news:

The president has passed the 10,000^th lie marker with no end in sight. Remember when a president telling a lie was a big deal? Oh man, the good old days.

There’s been another hate crime shooting, maybe two. The terrorists were white guys. Surprise. Don’t know what the weapon was this time, but the deadliest mass shootings have all used AR15s. Gee, if there was only something we could do. I’m beginning to wonder if we are the stupidest country in the world because everyone else has figured it out.

Meanwhile Venezuela is blowing up. Our administration has put out statements on the situation: one by John Bolton the National Security Advisor and one by Mike Pompeo the Secretary of State. The one by Pompeo is some kind of veiled threat, I think, we think, it’s not clear. Who knows. Hopefully, the guy who it was meant for. One of the two fighting for control of the country. The other statement by John Bolton seems to be a direct message to the people of Venezuela. Weird. I mean, maybe John doesn’t know this, but the people of Venezuela speak a language that is different than ours. It’s called Spanish. So putting out a message in English isn’t going to be understood by many in that country. I know. Weird huh? Oh wait, other than “putting it out there” wherever there is, seems no effort was made to actually get it to Venezuela. That’s our National Security chief, on de ball.

Moving on, seems the administration has decided not to abide by the law. Hum. The Treasury Secretary has decided to insert himself in the middle of a matter he has no business being involved in, but there he is. He is an arrogant twit. I don’t know if you saw his exchange with Maxine Waters where he told her to bang her gavel and that he might not show up, etc.

I had a dream. Yes, I did. I dreamt that some of the police officers that took our president’s words to heart (the words about not using your hand to make sure someone you were throwing in the police car didn’t hit there head). Yeah, I dreamed that those so-what-if-they-got-roughed-up-a-bit-they-deserved-it fellows (and gals) were the ones to grab Steve Mnuchin, cuff him, and throw him halfway up onto the table for resisting arrest, then taz and drag him out of the congressional hearing and throw him in the House jail cell. Then I dreamt Maxine turned to the IRS Commissioner and asked him to produce Trump’s tax returns. It’s just a dream. Okay, okay, I did wonder what would happen if we had that guy on the team who got confused between his gun and his taser and shot that guy in the back of the head, but that wasn’t part of the dream. Or was it?

Meanwhile, in part two of the administration disobeying the law, it seems the top law enforcement official may also need to be tazzed and incarcerated. I only suggest this as a way to help straighten the confusion he seems to be having in his head. Maybe a few zaps will clear out the cobwebs and rewire the circuitry. Apparently, the Attorney General made comments and summary statements (they’re not summary statements!) about the Mueller report while trying to “land the plane” as he put it, that weren’t quite true. Not quite true? How about outright friggin’ lie? Under oath. Hum, isn’t lying under oath a crime? Why yes, I believe it is. Shouldn’t such people be arrested? Yes, I believe they should.

Okay. Barr told Congress that he did not know what Mueller’s opinion was of his, Barr’s, comments about the Special Counsel’s report. He must have forgotten about the memo he received a few days after he got the report. You know the memo from Bobby Three Stick saying, “Yo, you lying bucket of scum.” That memo. the one that was followed up with a phone call.

In that memo Mueller sent to Barr, not only did Mueller say Barr had misrepresented the findings of the report but he, Mueller, gave Barr a redacted version of the introductions and executive summaries that he and his team had written so that they could be immediately released to the public so as to clear up the fog of BS the AG had laid on the ground. Naturally, Barr did no such thing. (I mean. “Tell the truth?” Are you kidding? Come on. This is Team Trump. They never tell the truth. Scout’s Honor.)

But Willie B is in second place for the lying sack of shit award. That has to go to Chris Christie and his pals. Why? Well, this is the story that just won’t go away, and gets stinkier with time. Yeah, I’m talkin’ Bridgegate. Okay so to remind you all of the situation. The George Washington Bridge had it’s traffic lanes rerouted that caused the Town closest to the bridge on the New Jersey side, Fort Lee, to have terrible traffic problems, So bad that one person died because the EMTs couldn’t get to her due to the traffic.

Apparently, the traffic lanes were redone to purposely screw up the traffic in Fort Lee to punish the Democratic mayor of that city for not endorsing Christie for Governor. When this came out, Christie being the sad bully that he is, blamed others, denied knowing anything about it, and had an expensive inquiry done that totally exonerated him. The most damning thing in the investigation was an email from Christie’s Chief of Staff, Bridgett Kelly, that said, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

For that she is going to jail. Christie has said he knew nothing about the lane closures and that he didn’t talk to Kelley about it, and he doesn’t care to hear her side of the story, and he fired her. End of story.

Oh wait. There’s more?

Hum, well, see Kelly has a slightly different recounting of what happened. During the investigations and trials it came out that the cover story was going to be “a traffic study.” Oddly, no one that would typically be told about such a traffic study was forewarned. In fact, Kelly was specifically told not to tell those people and when they called to ask what was going on she and others were told to stonewall.

And despite Christie saying he never knew about the lane closures he was specifically told on two occasions by Kelly. She also was concerned because she could tell immediately that this would be terrible for Fort Lee, and when she was told by the governor to go ahead with the traffic study she wrote an email specifically saying that there would be traffic problems for that town. In fact, that’s the very email that got her in trouble.

Oh wait, you say. How do we know if that’s true, if that was her meaning and intent? Good question.

Well, it seems all the other players in this little game of move the traffic cones were good long time buds of the Governor and they were all in on the scam, except Bridget. She wasn’t one of the guys. Not one of the long time pals. Too bad.

So right after this whole thing blew up (the story, not the bridge) Ms Kelly got a phone call from a lawyer who offered to help her, to represent her. She knew the guy and was grateful for the offer. She had one concern. He was on a board in the State government and she thought it would be a conflict of interest for him to represent her. He assured her it was no problem. She told him just about everything she knew and had for her defense. Then days later he said he was out. He couldn’t represent her. He told the papers it was because of a conflict of interest that he had because he was sitting on a board. The very board Kelly had mentioned on their very first call. Hum, a lawyer didn’t know that to begin with and then did? Nothing to see here, right?

Oh, and there’s this teeny tiny fact. Turns out this guy and the Gov go way back. They’re good buds. So good that Christie appointed him to be a judge. So a guy who offered to be a lawyer for Ms Kelly, whom she was worried about a conflict of interest, turns out to be the Governor’s good friend and after hearing everything she had in her defense then says he can’t represent her. Oh and there’s more. the fellow who cooked up this while bridge screw up plan is also a good bud of the Governor and goes way back with him, and that’s the person to whom Kelly sent the infamous email.

So you are left with this decision. Did a woman who was on the staff of the governor cook up this whole plot or was she merely conveying a message from the governor to his long time buddy to go ahead with the plan? The “traffic study”?

The gall with which Christie tells such flagrant lies is an affront to me. This, like Trump, is gaslighting of the most flagrant bullying kind. (“No no, I didn’t cause the traffic problems on the GW Bridge, you did!”) Kelly had no motive to do it. She was carrying out what she was told to do. In this case convey a message.

Moving on, Samantha Bee had her “Not the White House Correspondence Dinner” show, roast, and banquet. Held at Constitution Hall she was terrific. My only complaint was – it was too short. One piece they had pre-recorded showed the use of a technology that allows you to paste a different face on someone else. Kind of the old lips poking through a hole of a picture of someone else to make it seem like the person pictured was talking. Except this is much better technology. Kind of creepy. Watch out, a lot of people will get fooled.

Now to the presidential candidates:

There were some biographic pieces on Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren that I saw. Both pieces reminded me what there was to like about both. Joe is a heart felt guy. Warren holds the banks and financial folks accountable.

Then there was stuff about Buttigieg and Beto. Buttigieg has surged to third place in the polls. Mainly, it is felt because he has gone on a lot of TV shows. Beto has been out campaigning and doing a lot of local stuff. He’s kind of disappeared. He’s changing his strategy, but does he have what it takes. He sounds good, but vague. Mayor Pete on the other hand seems to have thought about whatever question that has been thrown at him. He comes across as thoughtful and genuine.

I like a lot of the Democratic candidates, but Buttigieg is the only one that really makes sense to me. I’m afraid Biden has a lot of name recognition, but will fade. He’s older than most of the field and I think it’s time for a new generation to take over. Sorry Joe.

Oh boy, Bill Barr is going to testify soon. To which I say – so what?

I mean what’s he going to do? He’ll prevaricate. He’ll dodge and weave or just flat out lie.

Apparently, Mueller was really pissed at him.

I think Barr should take flying lessons. Specifically, plane landing lessons.

Do you remember the Gahan Wilson cartoon where you are looking into the cockpit of a plunging large jet. There’s a French poodle in a commanding posture and the line below the cartoon panel says, “Suddenly Fi-Fi seized the controls.” Frankly, I think we have a better shot of landing the plane with Fi-Fi at the helm.

551 Days to the 2020 election and 629 Days to Inauguration Day

PS Tacos!

Day 844

April 30, 2019 by Rick Kinnaird Leave a Comment

Day 844 Tuesday April 30, 2019

552 Days to the 2020 election and 630 Days to Inauguration Day

sign "When Atlatls are outlawed only outlaws will have Atlatis" — Nothing to Say It’s True! QED

As a high school student I remember being interested in two periods of American history and wondering how they related to the present day. I wondered if we were in a cycle where these two periods would reappear, and if so, what should we do if and when they did reappear. Those two periods were The Great Depression and the period of corruption around the administration of Ulysses S. Grant.

Grant had been a successful general. Maybe not so much due to his brilliance on the battlefield as his tenacity. That and the fact that there had been so many truly bad military leaders before him. But what I remember about the Grant presidency was that he would leave the White House, go across the street to the hotel and read the newspaper. I guess he saved the country the cost of the paper by reading the hotel’s copy. It was known by some that he would do this and they hung out in the lobby waiting for him so they could bend his ear and ask favors. Hence, the term lobbyists. (We should be thankful for that because if it had waited until this era the term would be much different, and like our times, much more vulgar. It turns out that Bill Gates can’t even take a piss without someone pitching him an investment idea. He has a security staff that blocks anyone else from going into the bathroom while Bill is in there. Imagine if he didn’t have his security team do that? And imagine if in Grant’s time we didn’t coin the term “lobbyist”? What would we have? Pissers. You heard me. Hum, I kind of like that, “so and so was convicted of being an unregistered pisser…” It’s got a nice – well, hum – “ring” to it. Kind of like when you really have to go and that first stream hits the dry bowl. Never mind. I digress.)

In high school I thought the 1880s through to the 1920s and then 30s was a bleak time in our country and the world: Grant’s corruption, the robber barons, WWI, The great Depression, fascism. The only bright spot was the roaring twenties that ended in a huge thud on Black Friday. I wondered if the rising problems in Vietnam and the civil unrest it prompted as well as rising health care costs via what seemed a rigged system and politicians inability or unwillingness to deal with inflation were not a harbinger of another similar cycle that we were on the cusp of it beginning again.

I still wonder. We seem to be trying to break through the wave crashing on the shore and hoping that calm waters lie beyond, but the reality seems to be even bigger waves that suck all the water up into them and would leave us on a bare sandbar to be pounded into that sand as the bigger waved crashed upon the bar. (Okay, every analogy suffers at some point and this one didn’t take long for it to happen.)

There seem to be basic patterns in human history that shape the outcome at any particular point in time of a civilization. Why does a political entity succeed or fail? Failure seems to be rooted in not understanding how or why something can fail. Ayn Rand repeatedly wrote, “Check your assumptions. One of them is wrong.” One that point I have to agree with the old gal. The problem is, “Which assumption?” (I liken this to the folks who want to sell you penny stock screening programs. Their pitch is that on any given day a number of stocks double in value. If you invested in those stocks the day before that happened you’d be rich in no time. The problem is there are so many stocks and so few doubles. The stock screener sales people claim to have a program that will tell you what those stocks are. They don’t. Of course or they’d be using them.)

If we go back and look at history several things jump out at me in this regard. A failure of a political entity comes from not knowing, or not dealing, with something. This or assuming things would stay the same (I.e. always be there):

The Roman Republic’s people became complacent because in their lifetime the republic had always been there, until it wasn’t. (I’ve heard similar things with the rise of Hitler. People in Germany knew he was crazy, but didn’t try to act until it was too late.)

Constantinople had stood for centuries as a bulwark against invasion into Europe so it was thought that it always would, because it had. However, in those centuries there was a back and forth phenomena. The land owners (the rich) and the priests (the influencers) would team up to rig the rules in their favor. When they got enough power they would change the tax laws so they paid little or no taxes. This put the burden on the middle class: the workers and the shop keepers. What did those workers and shop keepers do? They left town. They literally “took to the hills.” The middle class disappeared. The city faltered and finally a new administration would come in, clean up the mess, until people weren’t paying attention and the land owners and priests would sneak into power again. Constantinople finally fell when they decided not to pay a young man who had this idea of a canon. A canon that shot an 800 pound ball of stone. Boom. End of a civilization and a way of life.

Interestingly what did the city in, before that, was the ginned up feeling in Europe that the city was not a team player, not on their side, and people stopped supporting it. This was caused by a crusade. Yup, the Christian crusades were the social media campaign of its day that soured folks on supporting what was in their best interest. Instead of supporting the city they attacked it. There was a fellow named Peter the Hermit, a priest. He wandered around Europe gathering every hanger on and starving person promising them great salvation and riches if they followed him to the holy lands to take it back for Christianity. At the same time the jews were blamed and slaughtered in Europe. When Peter’s rag tag mob showed up in Constantinople they demanded food and arms and everything else. Why they thought the city would do this was based on some vague idea that they should. The city didn’t have the resources or the interest in doing this, but let the mob pass through. Guess what happened? I mean what happens when a street mob meets a professional fighting force? Yeah, surprise. They got their asses kicked and the rest of Europe blamed Constantinople. Left unsupported and roiled by internal conflict the city couldn’t rise to defend itself adequately and fell to the Ottomans. Then everyone in Europe was shocked. Kind of like Notre Dame burning.

“People don’t know what they’ve got til it’s gone…” Joni

The Roman Republic fell because folks were tired of the corruption and let a strong man take over. Sure they were concerned, but the republic had always been there in their time so surely it would survive. Surprise, it didn’t. Their system of government scaled up to a certain point and then became unmanageable. The idea was that you elected two men to serve for a year, then you had another election. Once the empire got so large that a year wasn’t enough time to wander off and do something great to get you elected again, things fell apart.

The Roman Empire suffered a similar fate*. It’s politicians and populace decided to ignore the threat posed to them by an invading army. They killed the man who said we have to do something. Then when they were on the verge of being wiped out they cried.

The United States goes through cycles. There have been cycles of boom and bust brought on by greed and over confidence. Much of this has been tamped down by having a central banking system. Before then it was much worse. There are also cycles of addiction too, notably to cocaine and heroin. I suspect a few other drugs will enter that pantheon. There also are cycles of political thinking. This is often viewed as conservative versus progressive or left versus right. The underlying thinking seems based on beliefs about human behavior and fear.

The fear seems to be a sense that someone is getting something for nothing. However, those who believe that seem to also think it’s slick to get something for nothing, to learn to play the system, which they deem okay for themselves but a travesty if someone else does it. The belief side of this seems to be a sense of how a person will behave in a given situation. The conservative mindset seems to be not only a fear of someone getting something they don’t deserve, but a sense that if people don’t earn it for themselves they won’t appreciate it, and therefore should be made to struggle. While a more progressive mindset is the thinking that the system is rigged and folks need a helping hand to overcome the inequalities built into the system. They tend to believe more in the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats while a conservative seems more of the mindset of “I got my boat off the beach and you can too if you work hard.” (I’m trying to be positive here.)

I recently asked some of my conservative friends what they believed in. I never got an answer to that question. The first round brought a “Here’s what the left believes and why that’s no good,” and the second attempt got a “when government gives hand-outs over a certain percentage of (wealth? tax revenue? GDP? something) then the country is in decline and everything will go to hell.” Both arguments are based in fear. Yes, there’s a point along an economic curve where if you go too far (in whatever it is) the underlying premise no longer holds. I always liked “the backward bending curve of labor,” which basically states that a person will continue to work in 24 hour period longer hours as long as you pay them enough, but at some point they will say no, because no matter how much you offer they need to sleep. (Hence the backward bend.) The Lafler curve was another one that I liked because it really didn’t work in the general case and perhaps in certain extremes it would, but Lafler tried to apply it to the general case where it didn’t work at all and hence Reaganomics was shit.

I would posit that an economy and a political entity do better when everyone is involved.

I would guess that few would argue that point. Where the argument comes in, is how to achieve that state and what does it mean? Also, how willing are you to work to achieve it? What if it means giving someone help? One could argue that by giving someone help they aren’t earning it and therefore won’t appreciate it because they didn’t struggle. The other side of that argument is that people that are down and out need some help. What form that should take and how much is the question. In the case of the very rich, they believe they are entitled to the help in the form of tax breaks. In the case of the very rich’s attitude toward everyone else, it’s dog eat dog and good luck. If you’re poor or if you are struggling then any help you get is typically appreciated. It’s hard to worry about altruism when you’re struggling to breath. Also, it’s hard to worry if someone else is getting more than you when you are drowning.

552 Days to the 2020 election and 630 Days to Inauguration Day

PS Truth!

Day 841

April 28, 2019 by Rick Kinnaird Leave a Comment

Day 841 Saturday April 28, 2019

555 Days to the 2020 election and 633 Days to Inauguration Day

It’s been a week since my last screed and it seems like forever. I’ve been busy with a Mayan workshop and then symposium. It’s been refreshing to be away from the maddening madness. I started my re-entry last night where I scrolled through Facebook posts for longer than I’d like to admit. Then I got an email from one of my right wing friends’ buddies who asked the question, “Isn’t there someone better than Trump to represent the right’s values?”

I have to ask, “What are those values?”

I see none. Whatever “they” have claimed to stand for they have proved in the face of Trumpism that they don’t. Tax cuts? Only for the wealthy, we have to pay the rest. Fiscal responsibility? Please. Steve Mnuchin just had to borrow another $1,000,000,000,000.00 to make ends meet for this year, and that goes on top of the $1,000,000,000,000.00 he borrowed last year.

Conservatism as in “conserving out resources”? Once again Trump is letting every oil and gas man drill wherever they want and to throw their sludge in our rivers. Chemicals? Dump in the river, cover them up. Forget about it.

So what are these right’s values?

In a stunning display of the right’s values the courts in Kansas held up a woman’s right to say what goes on with her body. For them individual rights trump some religious nonsense, which has been getting foisted off on the general public under the name of pro-life, which should really be called pro-death and personal destruction, but somehow pro-life sounds better.

The right is really good at putting labels on things, like “right to work.” This little goodie means “We have the right to fire anyone for any reason and there ain’t stink you can do about it.”

Then there’s the old “socialism” yell. As far as I can figure out if there’s a suggestion to help the public it’s socialism. This isn’t my idea. It’s Harry Truman’s.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ve got to get ready for a workshop on the glyphs of Ek Balam. After four or more years of looking and studying this stuff it’s starting to make sense. Which means I will be able to go on and on and on about them if you ask me.

555 Days to the 2020 election and 633 Days to Inauguration Day

PS Maya at the Lago glyph