Working Across the Aisle

For many years Congress has observed strict separation of the political parties. They do not talk much with one another. They do little compromising; hell, they don’t spend enough time talking about common issues and goals in order to make any compromises!

Now comes a time in which the Supreme Court, the White House and the Congress is under the control of the republican party. At least in name this is so. So far the republican ideology has attempted to force the repeal of Obamacare. The White House is unilaterally attempting to undo all of Obama’s executive orders; although these attempts have been made, they are not yet viewed to be successful. Time will tell how the record stacks up to the attempts.

But another little noticed issue is approaching that will be a disaster if it occurs: potential shut down of the Federal Government. This will be caused if funding agreements are not forthcoming. The trouble is that no one party controls the vote on this issue as it currently stands. Agreement will need to be worked out among Democrats, the White House and republicans in Congress. A compromise is needed. It appears the White House is incapable of such a concept. So Congressional authorities will need to craft a deal between the many ideologies and political sentiments now steamrolling throughout the halls of the Capitol Building.

One wonders what the chances are for this compromise? My personal view is that it will only work if the White House manipulates republicans behind the scenes. Already Speaker of the House Ryan has stated he doesn’t want republicans working with Democrats. In his view evidently a shut down is not only inevitable, but preferred. It is consistent with his world view that government should be as small as possible and also ineffective. Both terms – small and ineffective – are desired by Ryan. And most conservative ideologues would agree with this stance.

However, not everyone in Washington DC is a conservative. Of course liberals exist, but so do ‘middle of the roaders’. I’m one of those, just not residing or working in DC. But there are a lot of middle of the roaders in the republican party and a lot among elected Democrats. Perhaps this is where we will inevitably end up: a moderate solution to a problem defined by extremists of both parties?

The important thing is this: moderates are reasonable and logical. Extremists are not. Any form of government operating at any moment in time is a product of moderates. They are the ones who make the decisions that work. They are the ones that fund the operations and programs. They are the ones providing oversight and management advice to operating segments of the government.

In short, moderates hold the keys to the offices and functions of the government itself.

Extremists have provided ample evidence of their inability to govern. In the middle of all this are the citizens of the nation. And the reputation of our nation in the eyes of the world community.

Thank God for moderates. Fie on extremists.

Now, let’s get back to work.

April 3, 2017

White House Agenda?

Chaos and misdirection. Broad scrapping of Obama executive orders. Another failed attempt to repeal Obamacare. Obviously trump is fighting for attention for himself. And he is asking for loyalty from all Republicans/GOP party leadership to support his actions.

As they fail, one by one, he only resolves to take more actions to undo what work has been done in the previous 8 years. Not all of it can he do. He doesn’t have the authority to do most of what he says he wants to do. But he will make the attempt anyway and provide the nasty facial expressions just to goad his enemies.

This is just more play-acting as president. Too bad it is just a waste of time.

But then one has to ask, why is he doing all of this if it is actually a waste of time?

I have thought about this often in recent months. I have come up with the following possible answers. I am not certain of any of them. I, too, am still learning what this administration is all about!

1. Rethinking all things governance related is an agenda of Bannon and Trump. One cannot do this rethinking if questions are not formed. Thus Trump is begging questions so that others will think. Although he and Bannon have their own answers, at least the rest of us now have the opportunity to rethink these matters. I think the ‘deep government’ hatred Bannon has for all government operations will lose with the American citizens. They realize government programs are necessary and government management of such programs should be supported and made professional and efficient.
2. Small government or large; trump supports small government, the kind that doesn’t fiddle with businesses or individuals, unless you don’t agree with them! Of course small government doesn’t have any power to enforce laws or regulations against huge industries and corporations doing wrong. Think environmental despoilment. Think Flint Michigan water contamination. Think oil spills on Indian Reservations threatening Native American access to potable water. Want more examples? We have many more to offer!
3. Deregulation of business rules and oversight. How does anyone figure Madoff managed to scam billions of dollars from investors? SEC protections were not as strong as they needed to be, and enforcement powers were also weak. And what about monopolistic powers of utilities and other ‘single suppliers’; are they actually allowed, even encouraged, to soak consumers with high prices?  Think also of pharmaceutical companies and how well they are protected so they can charge ridiculously high prices to Americans while supplying the same drugs to the rest of the world’s markets at low prices. Where is the justice in all of this?
4. Education standards set and enforced or totally left up to local standards. Where do conservatives think desegregation came from? Not from the southern states but because of Federal focus and attention forcing the southern states to conform to a national standard of fairness and equal treatment under the law.
5. Equal treatment for the LGBT community. There are regional religious variations that make LGBT folks targets in various states. The US Constitution mandates equal treatment and fairness. This is a civil rights issue, not a religious freedom issue. Religious freedom speaks to living freely your religious beliefs and exercising them. It does not require religions to cram their beliefs down everyone’s throat. That would impose an unwanted religion on others. LGBT people having rights and freedom does not impose a burden on opposing religious views. These religious people still can practice and believe what they want. No one will bother them. But they want to bother the LGBT people. See the difference?

I get it that we all have differences of opinion. But there is no law that says you and I have to agree. The laws and processes of justice ensure that you and I can continue to disagree. What we cannot do is make either one of us believe each other’s points of view. Nor does one party have the right to force another to act contrary to their nature.

Gracious discussion of issues is fine. Bombastic, threatening and forceful language and actions is not fine. Neither is it fine just because the president says so.

It’s about the Constitution and the Law. Let the system work. And let it be fully funded to work as efficiently as possible. For all of our sake!

March 31, 2017

States’ Rights Vs Conservative Trump

The world is full of oxymoron these days. Recall the definition of the term – the presence of contradictory ideas in the same phrase, sentence or thought making the overall statement incorrect. And yes there is a plural form of the word and it is not oxymorons but rather oxymora.

And yes, of course there are oxymora aplenty!

States’ Rights is a concept of governance theory in which federalism of a central government shares powers with component segments of the same nation, in the case of America, the fifty states comprising the nation. The US Constitution reserves rights to the states and assigns all other rights of governance to the Federal Government.

Conservatives have long argued that states have rights that stand in peril of an overambitious federal government or its officials. They have feared a take over of states’ rights by federal authorities for generations, even before the Constitution was approved. They are still arguing the concept.

A recent example of this is marriage equality. States claimed the right to define this solely on their own local standards. Federal courts disagreed and claimed equality was a standard best settled on all citizens of the nation. Each state could not arbitrarily deny this equality on their own. So states’ rights were trimmed a bit with that decision. It's a constitutional issue.

Abortion rights is yet another example of tempestuous skirmishes regarding states’ rights.

And yet our current president trump contends states do not retain the rights to manage police matters in their own cities. Else why would Attorney General Jeff Sessions threaten federal policing grant funds to cities as punishment for Sanctuary City status?

Make no mistake: this is a states’ rights issue. The states and the municipalities do manage their territories as effectively as they can with their own resources. When citizen safety faces special threats or negative trends, pooling resources helps attend to such problems. In special cases federal assistance is appropriate to defend against escalations of lawlessness not in the control of local authorities. Help can be requested and is usually granted.

Now comes the heavy arm of the federal government to say “do as I wish or feel the financial consequences.” This is exactly what the conservatives have long argued the federal government can do to threaten the comity of the US Constitution.

Isn’t that interesting. The conservatives using their own argument to attack states’ rights!

Sanctuary cities have nothing to do with escalations of lawlessness threatening the safety of citizens. It has to do with the ideological argument that a broken immigration system should not be a burden to the powerless among us.

Ideology run amok. In the Day of Trump. Interesting, indeed! Is he a conservative? Or a liberal? Or an oligarch? Or a dictator? Take your pick. It could be anything these days. Dictionaries are evidently losing their authority. Or are they?

March 30, 2017

What’s the Title?

I am pondering writing a book. This is nothing new. I’ve thought about this many times in recent years. Here’s why.

It seems I like to write. A lot. I’ve written this blog for 5.5 years (started in October of 2011) and have continued non-stop ever since. In that time I have posted 1701 times without one repeat. I thought I would run out of topics to write about but that hasn’t happened. A moment or two before the keyboard and suddenly I’ve written 700 to 1000 words on a new topic! I don’t know where this is coming from. It just appears!

I am consistent in what I write. A lot of themes are very similar but always a new twist or added factotum to enrich the commentary.

Make no mistake about it, this is a commentary blog. I started in my late 60’s and am now approaching 74 years of age. As a retiree, active volunteer in many venues, and a curious mind, I’ve pondered many issues and dared to write about them.

In my past life I volunteered to help co-found a small community newspaper. I was the weekly columnist, City Hall reporter, obituary writer, and keeper of the community calendar. I also was the managing editor and corralled the talents of 32 volunteer writers! Our paper served one town intensively, and two neighboring towns lightly. We did this for seven years. We wrote, edited, reported, researched, networked, sold advertising, picked up the print run from 40 miles away and toted it back to town, sorted it by mail routes, and delivered to two post offices and 30 drop off distribution sites. A lot of blood sweat and tears went into that enterprise. We never made any money at it and finally closed it down with modest losses.

That enterprise, however, taught us that we had something to say and it needed to be distributed. I continued to write my blog throughout. At first the blog was developed so I wouldn’t bleed my world view and political bent into the local paper. That worked. Afterwards, however, I continued to blog to keep my mind from exploding!

I now share the blog on my local Facebook and continue my local readership. It’s been fun and I will continue to do this as long as I have something to say.

Everyone has something to say. I’m not the only one. Millions of blogs are written each day. Each has its own following. Mine does, of course, but strangely, several hundred readers each day from Europe and around the globe open the blog. I don’t know why they do but I think many of the readers are university students in communication or English writing classes. They study America and its culture by checking into blogs on the internet. I’m just one of their many ports of call.

At any rate, most of my commentary is political in nature or governance related. The why and how of government is of central interest to me. I think government and its functioning is very important for the well-being of any society. How it works and why it is moral and ethical is of vast importance to me. The fact that often government acts immorally and unethically is a problem I probe. For the most part, however, government is made up of people just like you and I who care about what they do for a living. They run the offices and programs of the government, not elected officials. The latter think they have to act and over-act in order to build a ‘brand’ of leadership. Most likely they create a turmoil without creating anything much good.

Elected officials, to be good and effective, must become the masters of why a program is in existence and why it needs to be well-run. This is not a personal issue. It ought not be an ideological one, either. Our national history is clear about the role of government. We have a Federal System that shares well defined powers among the central government and the several (50) states. Each has their own legal bailiwick. Each needs to cooperate with the other and among themselves to succeed.

The one and only beneficiary of all of this work is the common good of the American people. That’s what the Constitution says and means.

So why are we still discussing this? Because each generation and each American must come to their own understanding about what their nation and government are all about and what it all means. Only when they get it does the system continue to function well. In times of confusion and ideological roiling, government suffers.

We are in that phase currently but this shall also pass. It always has. There are millions of good people who keep the tracks of government and history and education clear and functional. The rest is necessary noise learning what it is all about.

Yes, trump years will pass. Not without some damage, collateral or otherwise, but the damage will be survived and repaired and the government will go on as it should.

I believe this staunchly. It is hard work to keep the belief alive, however.  A lot of hard work. But then that’s what ‘the book’ should be about. I keep struggling how to focus my energy and thinking on what the book should be about. That’s why it hasn’t been written yet.

I have over 1.5 million words of the blog on record and saved. I could cull from that mountainous presence to print a book or two of 200,000 words each. But would they be read? Would they be bought? Would they have an impact? Is this effort worth all the hullaboo it takes to produce a book or two?

I really don’t have an answer to that question. But I will keep you posted on plans as they develop. Right now the itch to write a book is very present. Will it last long enough and remain strong enough to propel me through such an exercise of will and toil?

Only time will tell. And you, dear reader, will be the first to know!

March 29, 2017

Healthcare Fail?

Yes and no. Obamacare has more legs than its enemies thought. But then the program was incompletely formed and introduced, a product of compromise that makes sausage-making look positively pristine! The Republicans know this because they were the authors of the poison pills baked into Obamacare. They knew they were going to lose their fight back in 2009 so they ‘spoiled the broth.’

That means they also knew where to look for the broken pieces that needed to be ‘fixed’ only their fix was elimination outright (60+ attempts during Obama’s two terms in office) or at least emasculate the program so it would fall of its own weight.

The latter may still happen but that would be bad. Too many people rely on the program for their everyday healthcare. Eliminating the program would be a disaster for tens of millions of people.

So the Republican idea was to replace Obamacare with their own rube Goldberg creation. They nearly did so until the researchers discovered that 24 million people would lose coverage in the next few years. And poor people would have the new program price them out of existence while rich people culled still more wealth from public programs.

Well, anyway, republicans lost in their latest campaign to embarrass Obama instead managing the near-impossible task of embarrassing themselves. This was well earned on their part. Congratulations republicans on showing your true colors and your inability to govern.

Ideology makes for bad government; usually does. Check out Mussolini, Hitler, many leaders in Africa and South America. Strong leaders in the guise of dictators usually spell disaster for the masses. So too in America. Learn the lessons, Trump and trumpettes.

If you truly wish to fix healthcare in America then sit down with a cross section of Americans and begin the process of defining what outcomes are wished for. Accessibility is one; affordability is another. Research and medical discovery are yet others to assure quality results.

When that process is done, then set out to determine the cost of providing each and every one of the ideas. Some will be too costly and will need to be eliminated. Others will be practical and should be saved and implemented.

Next, design the delivery system and determine what will be needed to smoothly administer such a program. Now you are getting somewhere manageable. Give it more time and thought process. In time phase one will be ready for unveiling; in carefully timed segments other phases can be prepared and introduced as well. And then implemented.

This is a picture of people working together on common cause. It is also a picture of collaboration. We Americans do that well and have for centuries. Rather than pit each other against each other, let’s find the common ground and work on solving related problems.

Please let us do this. The whole world is watching. I’d rather they see a success rather than a failure. How about you?

March 28, 2017

Corruption in Government

Real or imagined? Personally encountered or anecdotal sharing?

Many complain about corruption in high places and in government especially. And yet when confronted with choices at the ballot box these same people choose whom to lead them into the future. And nothing seems to change. Who are they voting for and why?

Let’s see: a billionaire in Illinois as governor. He has bought and paid for the office many times over and also many legislative seats that will hopefully help his cause in passing desired legislation. So far no good; gridlock remains and name-calling escalates to blame others for their own bad.

The same goes on in legislative districts: powerful lobbying interests buy legislative seats to prop up special interests in the state house. The system works for those few. The dollars have greased the way. The same goes on throughout the state. Result: gridlock in state-wide issues; corruption in local venues.

The rich get richer; the poor get poorer; the needy become more ignored and needier. Education systems become ignored and school outputs degrade. The result: the rich get richer; the poor get poorer; and the state becomes less competitive in jobs, industry and economic power.

Counties have this problem as well. Local influential people and captains of industry lobby for their interests and the money is too good to pass up; decisions are delivered in their favor. The rest of us be damned.

In large cities and government venues, these shenanigans go on because they are more difficult to spot and take action against. But there is hope elsewhere!

That is in local communities – towns, villages, fire protection districts, park districts, library and water districts. Up close and personal these taxing districts rely on good citizens to step forward and get elected to positions in which the local people have a stake and decisions are made with them in mind. The local municipality is in better condition today than the state. And nation!

Government is better managed and watched locally. That’s a simple truth.

The larger units of government generally are more removed from our daily lives and thus more shenanigans can and do take place. Yes, corruption exists in government. How much or how little depends on the electorate paying attention and getting involved. Due diligence belongs to all of us, not just elected representatives.

Inspect what you expect. That’s the first rule of supervision and management. And yes, you and I are the supervisors and managers of our own government. So begin the inspection. Read the reports for yourself. Find the source documents containing the information you need to know to make good decisions. Then make them and hold your elected officials accountable.

If we let them get away with corruption then the blame is on us. Are you and I big enough to admit that and follow through?

Corruption exists elsewhere as well. Namely in corporate America. Big money is readily available so big corruption can and does occur. That is why we have consumer protection laws and agencies to protect the public. That is also why corporate dollars are spent to lobby court decisions, legislation and regulatory formation. Each of these areas will cost corporations big dollars; if they can avoid that their profits are protected and the largesse of corruption continues. Greasing the palms of many intermediaries is how this is accomplished.

Our defense is a government system that is attuned to justice and the needs of the public. We call this the common good of mankind. Managing this is the role of government. Cheapening the process or ham-stringing it will yield corporate profits and government influence. The common good is ill-served. And we know this instinctively and statistically.

A free press rakes through the mud to find the facts. The less they do of this the more facts remain hidden and corruption lives on. No wonder government types don’t like a free press. No wonder corporate types often don’t like a free press.

That which they don’t control can undo them. And that’s precisely why we need a vibrant, free press willing and able to ask the hard questions, research the tiniest of details, and report the truth.

After all, the truth will set us free. That includes the corrupt!

March 27, 2017

Bits & Pieces

North Korea

Well, well. Peck’s Bad Boy is at it again threatening to take down demon America with his missiles tipped with nuclear weapons. Every president since cessation of hostilities in Korea have labored to keep North Korea a non-nuclear nation and one also incapable of firing missiles at all. Placating the nation did not work. It only bought time. And much of that time was spent by North Korea in developing the capability both in nuclear bombs and missile technology to do their offensive damage in many parts of the globe. They are not there yet but very close if we give them any credit at all.

The world community has watched this tit for tat playground spat for decades. They did little but hope that America would succeed in quelling North Korea’s ambitions. But that didn’t work; it rarely does. If you see a playground bully at work, for heaven’s sake get involved and help the kid being bullied. In this case it is not North Korea. No, it is the peace-loving world.

Halfhearted attempts to lend a hand to this process never quite worked. Delayed progress, maybe, but not lasting solution.

Chief among the players at this game tactic is China. It did attempt many times to curb North Korea’s appetite to do bad things. In the end their efforts have come to naught.

The United Nations has lent its voice to discouraging North Korea but that hasn’t brought desired results either. Neighboring nations have dramatically wrung their hands in public view over North Korea’s antics, but to no avail.

No, the primary contestant in this battle of wills is America. And that hasn’t worked either.

Other than wiping out the entire nation with one good nuclear strike – a move not likely to happen – the only thing left is for China to step up and take on North Korea as a parent must do from time to time. China doesn’t like America having mobile missiles temporarily on site in South Korea as a deterrent to North Korea, so it is in their interests to have them removed by America as they (China) goes into North Korea and disarms the impoverished nation. This appears to be the only solution that will work.

I doubt North Korea will bloody China in this action. Afterward the global community can enter North Korea and bring massive humanitarian aid – food, housing, medical care and education. This is most likely the only peaceful option left on the table at this time.

The alternatives are too horrible to contemplate for any of us in the world community.

China, it’s your turn to act. Please do!

Retail Apocalypse

Many soothsayer economists are decrying the upheaval in retail markets across America. Yes, the upheaval is real, but an apocalypse? No. That is an overstatement.

Internet shopping and massive door to door shipping networks have eliminated shopping at malls and in stores for many people. But it has also enabled people to do shopping that they were increasingly unable to do. Think of the disabled, the mobility challenged, the elderly and other pockets of consumers who found it impossible to get to the store. They now can purchase freely and get the goods delivered right to their door. Those are huge new markets opening up.

Then there are the consumers who are tied up with work, commuting and family duties that shorten available hours once spent shopping. They now scan on-line shopping sites and order home delivered goods.

Catalogs going extinct? Hardly. They are just being replaced with on-line catalogs with vastly increased buying information and helpful guidance. This is another market being enhanced enormously.

With disposable incomes rising shopping will increase as well. So marketing will change, shopping routines will change, but goods and services will still be sold and bought. Just not likely will they be traded in large, inefficient malls or small mom and pop shops.

Trade remains healthy. The site of the trade and method has changed.

Adapt and prosper. Or, lament and falter and fade away.

Which do you prefer? Which will you do? Or are you waiting for North Korea?

March 24, 2017