This is no longer a political blog. (Election Day 2024) [Updated, the morning after]

But I will leave you with one, rather important, political reminder as you go out and cast your ballot today.

It matters not they who vote. What matters is they who are counting the votes. 

Remember that as events unfold over the next few days/weeks/months.

In my attempts to be pithy I undersold some pretty important things:

1. The meltdown of the Democratic Party last night and this morning has been a sight to behold. It's almost as if their attempts to hide Biden's declining mental capacity, thwarting the will of their primary voters during the run-up to Harris' "nomination" (coronation) and their terrible campaign strategy had nothing to do with the loss blindsided them.

2. Make no mistake about it, Harris was a terribly flawed candidate. I imagine that, after the emotion is finally spent, Democrats will (in their quiet places) admit to this. That said I doubt they have the self-awareness to really understand the voter's message here.

3. Speaking of self-reflection: Will the pollsters, especially in Texas, take a good, hard look at how they got everything so, so terribly wrong?  Doubtful.

4. More importantly, will the media have the ability to take an honest looked at where they effed all of this up?  Again, doubtful.

5. In an election where one party ran on "we don't like him" it's no surprise that the voters sent mixed-messages. Apparently being told you're awful is a powerful reason to vote against, even IF you agree with many of the proposals.

What a world.

Creating the Narrative for the New USA.

"We have always been at war with Eurasia"

The desire to rewrite history to fit ones chosen narratives is as old as humanity itself. If you don't think the first cave dwellers weren't exaggerating the size of the animals on the cave walls they supposedly slayed you haven't been paying attention to humanity.

Today in America is no different. Media outlets and politicians are the best at this. Take, for example, the NY Times 1619 project, a tome so flawed, so fundamentally out of focus with historical reality that the publication ultimately was forced to abandon all of its central tomes and basically try and white wash its entire original purpose from existence.

It's too late though, the damage is done. Because no one notices corrections or retractions, they just focus in on the original narrative not matter how flimsy or bizarre the main idea is.

This is the problem the GOP faces right now. The choice, of some of their members, to follow the Bronzed Ego down his fever dream of #StopTheSteal they ran into the harsh light of reality displaying some (not all) of Trumps followers as 100% batshit crazy. Once they realized this, and many recanted their support, the damage was already done. The narrative set so to speak.

This could possibly diminish the GOP for a generation in America. Think California but with an unlimited budget and power to inflict harm. The belief, on this blog, was not that Donald Trump would destroy America (It takes more than the ego and bloviations of one man to topple a free society with laws and structure), but that he might all but destroy the GOP and leave the country looking at the very real possibility of facing the abyss of single-party rule.

And, to be clear about this, there is very little separating single-party, monolithic rule from pure authoritarianism. Certainly this is the case if the courts have decided to sit on the sidelines and just observe. This gives those whose goal it is to tear down the existing order pretty much a blank check to do so.

The belief here at TPM headquarters is that it will be fascinating to watch America and China spiral closer to one another (albeit from different directions) as authoritarian ruled, crony capitalist economic powers.

The media will be more than happy to keep this division alive as they will continue to focus on both the mis-deeds of Trump (even long after he is gone) and any instance where a member of the GOP might have agreed with him on anything, even something that made sense. (and, even though Trump himself was a personal disaster, not all of his policies were. It's important to separate the two) Part of the reason for this is that the media is lazy, and an even larger part of it is because the media does not particularly like the GOP.

There was a great scene is the 80's movie "Moon Over Parador" that comes to mind.

This was a harmless little Richard Dreyfus vehicle that took place in an authoritarian country that ostensibly elected it's leader through free and fair elections. The problem was the ruler of the land was on the ticket for both parties. Near the beginning of the movie two peasants are looking at two campaign posters, one with a red background, one with a blue background, both with the picture of the President on them.

"Who are you going to vote for? Red or Blue?"

"What does it matter?"

Without a meaningful, serious, opposition party the real elections are going to occur in the Democratic Primaries. Who is selected in those races will ultimately determine the direction of the country. If you don't think this is possible, look at California on the Left and Texas (for now) on the Right.

"Who are you going to vote for? Democrat or Democrat?"

"What does it matter?" 

The Attack on the Holy Temple Will NOT go Unpunished.

 Yesterday was ridiculous. There is no other word for it.

If you've not paid attention, and I would not blame you if you didn't, yesterday possibly the most motley group of protestors ever 'stormed' the US Capitol with the sole intent of disrupting the Congressional certification of the Electoral College vote for the 2020 US Presidential election.

It should come as no surprise that the ruling class is viewing this as a Holy War. Upon reconvening every Representative or Senator was afforded the chance to record themselves a future campaign ad where they rallied around the iron tree of Democracy and were allowed to denounce the protestors in one form or another. Many (Democrats) called for Trump to be impeached, many (Republicans and Democrats) denounced this 'unprecedented' attack on Democracy and all but stripped the humanity away from the protestors, suggesting that they might be willing to support stripping away their rights as well.

Of course, all of this was done after they had emerged from their "secure locations' some of them remaining cowering in lock down hours after the Capitol had been cleared.  "Fighters" for the little man indeed.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D - The village that's missing it's idiot) took the booby prize however when he compared this dust-up with Pear Harbor.  I shit you not.

As is custom these days, social media erupted. On the Left there was rending of garments and gnashing of teeth, as well as, not surprisingly, a surprising amount of blood lust as many called for pain and death for the rioters. On the Right there was a desperate search for equivalence and hypocrisy, as people desperately searched past tweets of Ilhan Omar, AOC and others for Tweets in support of BLM and Antifa (and they found them).

Reactions went from falling on the fainting couch and rending garments, to wishing pain and death on all of the protestors, even IF they did not partake in the storming of the Temple walls. There were many calls for Trump to be impeached or removed from office via the 25th Amendment. Twitter, of which I am a member, fell rapidly into a sewer of bad takes, name-calling and otherwise intelligent people losing their damn minds.  I've taken a break from the platform for a few days to allow these spleens to fully vent before I return.

If you're looking for a trend here, it's this: The protestors who entered the Capitol and scared a bunch of politicians were not simple political protestors taking things too far. No, while that may seem what it is you're viewing this through the wrong lens. What this was, to the ruling class, was a sullying of the Holy See of America and an attack on the Religious Order to which they worship.

In short, the invaders were attacking the House of God. This was sacrilege. 

And the punishment for it should be Biblical.

This is why the Democrats are suddenly the DC Police best friends, despite spending the entire year demanding they be "defunded". This is why Republicans have fled from Donald Trump despite initially backing him and showing willingness to dispute the Electoral count to bolster their own political aims.

From that perspective this is a very simple matrix.

Joe Biden is God.

The Democrats in Government are his Angels.

Donald Trump is the Devil.

His supporters are the Demons.

The ruling class views this (falsely) to be American Armageddon. 

In reality, we are not witnessing the fall of Babylon at this moment, but it could not be too far away if our ruling class is not up to the job.  Early returns from Biden ("America is better than this") and Obama (America needs to come together in support of Biden and his policies) are not promising.

2020: Our Rulers have no Clothes (or Clues)

As we roll into month six of our never-ending partial lock downs it's becoming increasingly apparent that those we unfortunately elected to rule us have little clue as to what they are doing, or what they're going to do, going forward to get us out of this mess.

Unfortunately, because the entire country views things through a partisan lens and scored via zero sum, whether or not you think your ruling class is doing a good job is directly related to which party you pledge fealty to.

Granted, few people rise to the rank partisanship of Paul Krugman (who is, without a doubt, one of the worst thinker/writers in the US) there are writers across the political spectrum who are using this ongoing public health disaster as nothing more than a chance to try and amass political power and shame their political opposites into the dustbin of history.

Ironically, Democratic thinkers are ignorantly starting to parrot Karl Rove, dreaming of "permanent majorities" due to the self-immolation of the Republicans. Of course, no majority is permanent and eventually a ruling party will begin to eat itself from within. Look no further than the Republican Party in Texas, or what's going on right now with the Democrats in California.

My feeling is that Texas will not "flip" in 2020, but it's going to be close.  I'm not even sure in 2022 or 24 that will happen, but many so-called pundits will continue gaining paychecks assuring us that it will.

The real issue is going to be a potential Biden Presidency, which could prove catastrophic for long-term Democratic plans. Biden is low-functioning at this point, and that's as big of a concern as is the ego of Donald Trump.

America could use a firm hand on the tiller right now, but there are no adults in the room that seem capable of guiding this listing ship.  The rocks are getting closer, and we seem intent on sailing directly toward them waiting for them to move out of our way.

This is not a Democrat/Republican issue, it's a Ruled/Ruler one. The Ruled are getting destroyed on every level, economically, health-wise, freedom-wise, and in public safety. The Rulers are continuing to find creative ways to do nothing while trying to look like they're doing something in desperate attempts to draw your eyes away from their utter incompetence in handling both the pandemic and the issue of systemic racism.

Years from now historians are going to look back at 2020 and wonder just how it was a country with so many advantages squandered them so quickly and elected such a low-functioning, vile, group of people to rule them.

I used to think that, at some point, the populace will wake up, take a good hard look at the situation and come to the realization that we've made a complete hash of this. Instead we've got a group of rulers who cater the the Twitter mobs, who have no idea what an average citizen looks like or feels, and is more comfortable mingling at a DC cocktail party dining on lightly braised swan than they are shopping for groceries in their old neighborhood.

Finally, your elected officials are habitual liars. For all of her fawning media coverage AOC's voting record is fairly in-line with Nancy Pelosi's diktats, except in issues where a bill's fate is certain and the parties allow representatives to "bet their conscious" (shouldn't they do that on every bill?) Ted Cruz talks a good game, but he rarely votes against what the party heads say. He just talks a lot to be perfectly honest.

There's no governor that understands what they have done or what they are doing, and don't throw Cuomo in my face, his order to nursing homes requiring them to admit elderly COVID-19 patients likely killed hundreds, if not thousands, and our Mayors are even worse. (fining the poor $250 for mask non-compliance is the most Sylvester Turner of all Sylvester Turner's moves to date)

The reality is the USA is currently a rudderless ship where the crew is drunkenly scrambling around the ship looking for the Captain.  Unfortunately, the captain has already abandoned ship.

Grab the braces, set the sails, and steer your own damn ship away from the rocks.  We can find calmer waters, but we're going to have to do it ourselves, the old fashioned way, relying on our communities to band together, give the ruling class a strong middle finger and dealing with this mess ourselves.

One last note:  Carolyn Goodman got her "Las Vegas experiment" and it has not gone well 

To be fair though, very little has gone well in regards to COVID-19 primarily because the ruling class has squandered every bit of their credibility and continue to do so.

Social distance, wear a mask, practice good personal hygiene and take care of your self. What we've learned during this mess is that the ruling class will not do so. They're to busy getting fitted for invisible clothes.

Winners (and losers) and the destruction of wealth 'in these times'

As we roll into the dog days of Summer there's still much concern about COVID-19 (rightly so) but we're starting to see our ruling class increasingly pivot to crocodile tears for the majority of folks that are going to be casting votes come November.

In-between made-for-TV accusations against one's political enemies of incompetence, corruption, stupidity and down-right evil is a sudden, manufactured concern for those who have lost their jobs due to forced closures, fear-mongering and general ham-handedness by the very same rulers.  Suddenly people being out of work, broke, and holding no hopes for the future is less a reality brought on by shuttering the economy, and more the result of......something the other tribe has done because they don't care sufficiently about the poor and suffering.

It's never about policy, it's about "feels".

The battle lines here have always been simple: It's the ruling class against the middle-class, and the rulers have all of the power over the ruled and there's little the latter can actually do about it.

Oh sure, you're told you can vote, but what is the difference between voting for a Corporatist party and voting for a Socialist party?  Both want to remove the largest amount of money from you that they can, to distribute to their political patrons, the only difference is where they want the money to go.

There will always be winners and losers, even in a so-called "fair and just" Socialist system. The ruling class in Soviet Russia had dachas while the ruled waited in long-lines for bread. At least straight-out strong men were honest about what they were doing. The only difference between a Bolivarian "revolutionist" and an African strong-man was one of marketing.

As such, the only difference between a Republican and a Democrat is one of messaging. Republicans have not, in recent times, done a very good job of conveying their message. Democrats have done a very good job convincing the ruled that removing their money and freedom from their control is in their best interests. The ruled have lapped up their message because of the unending drum-beat of government competence, this despite the fact that we see constant reminders of just how incompetent our government truly is.

Yet, time after time, we see the government cause a problem and we're told, in the media and by the ruling class, that the solution to the problem is MORE government.  Look as schools for example, America's education system is a cesspool of poor administration and corrupt unions. It has as little to do with education children as "climate-justice" has to do with stopping climate change. Yet we're told over and over that the "solution" to the problem is more money, more putting children into failing schools, and more funding.  Funding, by the way, that will not, in most cases, go to the actual education of children, but into the coffers of political connected organizations whose goal is increasing the bottom line.

As COVID-19 continues to work its way through the population, and a communicable virus continues to do what a communicable virus is going to do, we're now being force-fed a happy myth of bailouts and stimulus checks and the horrific lie of universal basic income, the idea that the government should provide everyone with just enough money to scrape by, the central premise of this being that the only thing worse than being poor is having the temerity to believe that one can make a living income without the benevolence of the ruling class.

How to pay for all of this?  The scourge of the moment is the "ultra-rich". They seemingly have an endless bag of money that could be distributed to the masses if only the government had the will to tax them until their eyes bleed.  Just don't pay attention and realize that the entire combined wealth of the hated ultra-rich couldn't fund Medicaid for a year, much less in perpetuity. 

What we're left with is an angry populace that's wondering when they're going to get theirs, when the rich are going to be placed in the public square and be forced to answer for their crimes of success while being pelted by organically sourced, non GMO tomatoes.

Ah well, at least we still have our freedoms......oh...wait.

The on-going scourge of Social Media

The wife and I made an escape last weekend. After three months of work from home, of only making one trip per week. to the grocery store, wearing my mask. we decided that we needed to get out of the house, more specifically, I needed to get out of the house.

So we decided to pack our bags, our masks and around 2 gallons of hand sanitizer to make the trip to our "local" casino in Lake Charles.  We spent a fun weekend gambling, losing, eating good food, drinking good wine and cocktails, sitting in a pool cabana on Sunday, and generally just having a grand time.

Yes, we wore our masks, we had sani-wipes and used them to disinfect every machine that we sat down to, and we wore our masks for the most part, except if we were sitting at the bar drinking and playing video poker, at which point it seemed a little silly to keep them on when we'd have to touch them repeatedly to pull them down and keep drinking.

Was there a risk of contracting COVID-19?  Yes, probably so. But at some point we have to return to living life in the safest way possible, but we do need to get back into the swing of things and start being productive again. Virus gonna virus, we just have to adapt to our new realities.

We need human interaction, we are social animals after all.

What I did notice is that, after 3 months of lock down, my human interaction compass was mightily skewed by the cesspool that is social media.  If you believe Twitter, every conversation surrounding race etc. is fraught with anger, name-calling, one-upmanship and online "owns".  Drop the mic moments seem to be the goal, and there's no room for nuance. no room for those little moments in Houston interaction that allow for understanding.  Twitter. especially is a cold, brutal place full of awful people whose only reason for existing is to injure others. Not physically, they don't have the guts to do that, but there are different ways to ruin people's lives. You know about "SWATting" and you've certainly heard of "cancel culture" by now, these are just some of the ways bad actors on Twitter go about stifling debate.

Twitter is where the "Karen" meme revealed itself, and it's where the worst of humanity is placed on a pedestal to be mocked, knocked down and humiliated, where mob-rule is the rule and the powers that be seem little inclined to police their huge bot problem.  The government's "solution" to this is to cudgel them into submission, or extinction, by removing their "platform" privileges and making them responsible for what's posted by their users.

Like any government response, this is not going to work, it's only going to push cancel culture underground where, in my opinion, it becomes more dangerous.

The good news is that regular, decent society still does not operate like social media society but the gap is getting smaller., mainstream media reporters, too lazy to work their beat, scour social media for unvetted memes and broadcast them nationally, without question, and without applying journalistic principles such as verification and corroboration. This is leading to social media creep into polite society and, unless we do something to stop this, we're going to live in a society where mob mentality rules, and rule of law goes the way of the Dodo.

It's a big problem.  We're still, just, in a place where decent humans can have a polite conversation on difficult issues without resorting to cancel culture and mob anger.

Humanity needs to keep that, or we're going to regret that it's gone.

2020: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Firstly, and this might come as a shock to you, I'm an upper middle-class Caucasian male.  As such I'm not going to use this format to lecture you on how you should feel about the Black Lives Matter protests that are currently ongoing.  I'm not going to tell you how to feel about it, I'm not going to lecture you on what you're doing wrong in thinking about it.

I'm just going to say that I have no idea what minority, especially Black, Americans are going through but I understand they are angry and empathize with their feelings that nothing has been being done about it for quite some time, decades even.

I will also say that THIS is why we have the 1st Amendment, to allow the people to gather and protest the government and ask for redress from grievances. 

So, some good can come from this. We can have some change, the demilitarization of our police force for one, a re-look at some of the policies that allow police to use smaller charges as smoke-screens for blind-searches for bigger crimes, for an end to no-knock raids and for meaningful change withing the criminal justice system.  Ending qualified immunity for the police would also help (and might do the MOST to help FWIW).

Harder to end is going to be the Blue Line. The idea that police protect their own, that some will look the other way when a crime by other officers happen, that's a bigger issue that's not going to be resolved by a politician giving a speech, or passing a law.

Hard truth: You're never going to 100% eradicate racism. In a perfect world yes, it would be possible but this is not a perfect world and we are not perfect animals. You cannot police minds, even minds holding beliefs as fundamentally wrong as this, thinking that a person's worth is contingent on what color of skin they were born with. There will always be lesser animals among us. How we deal with this is going to say just as much about us as it does about them.

My hope is that something meaningful, fair and just comes out of this. My fear is that the solution is going to be built out of anger and opportunity instead of justice and fairness. America has a pretty sad track record in the Western Hemisphere of tearing down old regimes and putting in place something sensible that works.

Our biggest problem is our reliance on both the Republican and Democratic Parties to run our political system. We've co-opted our democracy not to corporations, but to two groups of influence-peddlers who's primary goals are score-keeping and dividing up the Country in the false hope of gaining a "Permanent Majority".  Because of this we forget the greatest truism in America:  "It's US (the People) versus THEM (The Government) when it comes to protecting our rights.

I can hear people now: "But the Government is there to protect our rights."

This is not true, our rights are there to protect us from the government, full stop. The Government can only protect our rights IF our rights come from the government.  And if they did, what the government provided they can take away.

Granted, there are times when flawed government policy strips people of their rights, which is why we have the Justice System, and why (despite what people say) the War Between the States was fought so long ago*.

At the end of the day however, it's the provision of the people to stand up to the government and demand their rights be recognized, which is what you're seeing today in these protests that are spreading across the globe. Man does not grant rights, they are natural, given by whatever higher power you believe in. They cannot be stripped away by government unless the people are compliant and give their permission to have them taken away.  This is true, obviously, in cases where force is not invoked to remove rights. That's a post for another time**.

Again, my purpose here is not to lecture you on how to feel about that. I have my feelings, you have yours, and those people out there marching have theirs.  And they're doing a very effective job getting their message across.

Do I have worries?  Of course I do.  I'm concerned about the rumblings of military deployment to try and quell the violence. The military is not a scalpel it is a broad sword. I am concerned that our tendency to turn things from discussions and dialogue into a lecture is going to result in backlash. This issue needs meaningful discussion, not a dressing-down of anyone who looks or thinks differently.

This feels like a key moment in history. It feels as if we have a perfect storm of circumstances, COVID-19 lock-downs and the resulting economic collapse, have freed people from the trappings of work and are allowing this to continue longer than it normally would. That means that this will go on longer than the normal news cycle and, with an election upcoming, some legislation might be passed by a Congress with an eye on re-election.  That legislation is almost certain to be partisan and rife with unintended consequences but I think something gets done.

Which leads me to my last point:  The solution to this issue is not simply electing more Republican or Democratic politicians, depending on your political point of view.  Many of the atrocities that have happened have taken place in cities under Democratic rule. Many of the legislative drivers of these problems have sprung from Conservative State Houses and Washington D.C. 

Anyone telling you that the solution to this problem is to "Vote Blue" or "MAGA" is simply regurgitating the advertising campaign of two of the biggest money collecting agencies in the US today. 

The answer to all of this is to elect politicians who espouse workable policy goals with which you agree. Then, and this is the tricky bit, to hold them accountable by un-electing them if they don't produce.

If they are successful and advance policies you like? Then by all means vote them back for a 2nd term. But if they don't?  It's up to the citizenry to vote them out, even IF that means casting a vote for the other "side". This is where, as a society, we have failed. It's also why we're still looking at Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnel's ugly mugs on TV cameras still.

That is what we need to change, and it's also why we continue to fail because we have not, as a society, shown a propensity to wish to do that.  Until we do meaningful change is never going to happen, no matter how many protests we decide to hold.

*Despite what we hear the "Civil War" WAS fought to eradicate slavery. The "State's Rights" that were being contested was directly related to that.  And yes, I do think that having Confederate monuments in the US is odd. It's one of the odd instances in history where the losers got to tell their tale.

**Slavery was a taking of rights by force. Anyone who says otherwise is being ridiculous. True 'fascism' (not the politically convenient meaning we use today) is the deprivation of rights by force, as is communism, and "seizing the means of production" FWIW but people do not want to recognize that depending on their political leanings.

COVID: How to navigate the partisan waters.

Trump is either the worst President in the history of the United States of America, OR he's the best we've ever seen. There can be no middle ground.

You must either shelter-in-place in your home, ordering delivery and staying 20 feet away from every other human lest you die, OR you march on State Capitols in protest, bearing guns and try your best to not be associated with the grimy creep hoisting Nazi symbolism. There can be no middle ground.

Either we're all going to die, OR we're doing an unprecedented job. There can be no middle ground.

You've seen the stories, you've watched the news, you see the breathless missives on social media and, if you're like me you think: "What a load of crap!"

I've had discussions with people who, with a straight face and without a hint of irony, suggested that people can go outside provided they be willing to forego healthcare services. For the good of society. I've also had people suggest I want people to die because I'm starting to side against the lock down model of Coronavirus prevention, leaning more toward opening up with social distancing while working hard to isolate the more vulnerable among us.

The problem, today, is that this is now considered to be "radical" by some. With the media constantly feeding us a steady diet of panic, turning otherwise harmless interactions into psuedo-racist assaults, with the health experts lumping in ANY COVID-19 symptom into the Novel Coronavirus buckets, and with government generally doing a terrible job providing meaningful virus data, it's getting real hard to try and remain a calm, measured realist in an increasingly freaked out world.  What am I on about?  Think about this. When you see a statistic that says "[insert your State here] has had a grim day with the highest count of New COVID-19 cases EVER!!!!" it really means nothing absent more information about the number of tests performed.

More tests, means more cases, not necessarily that the pandemic is getting worse. Nor is it clear, yet, that this soft-reopening is leading to a so-called "second wave" as breathless young J-school grads are implying.  In fact, in a cruel twist of irony, medical providers are LOSING money, and in some cases filing for bankruptcy during a PANDEMIC.  That's just insane when you think about it.

Are some of the protests occurring the master-plan of "far right activists"?  At some level that is possible, but the more likely scenario is that people without work, and without means of feeding their kids, are getting sick and tired of having parks closed, not being able to get their hair cut, and not being able to provide.

On the other side the conspiracy theory du jour is that those mean, evil Democrats are intentionally killing the economy to damage The Bronzed Ego which would put Captain Creepy Confusion into the White House.  Possible?  Yes, but if you've been around any politicians for any period of time you'd soon realize that they couldn't conspire to open a can of beans, much less pull off something this complex.

The more likely scenarios are this:  We have allowed ourselves to be ruled by low-functioning idiots. They type of people who, as in the Biblical tale, are more likely to bury their wealth in the Earth rather than invest it. They are a risk-averse lot who's worst fear is not "having people die" but instead being "blamed for having people die" on their watch.  It's bad for being re-elected you see.  Yes, there is an element of Torquemada in some of these mini-despots, they crave the power, need the power to assuage their egos. But, and this is important, for the most part their Poly-Sci degrees don't give them the intellectual bandwidth to have a full concept of what they are really doing. So, they're playing it safe.

As for the protesters?  Most of these people just want to get back to work. Most people on the beaches are practicing social distancing, but are being made to look like their not through dishonest camera angles. Most adults with an even half-functioning brain understand, and will comply, with social distancing and will wear PPE if the local Pinochet's will just stop with the overreach and the rule by angry diktat.

If there has been any bad actor in this crisis it's the media. America's so called "5th Estate" has long abdicated their role of being America's watchdog, and has devolved into America's fear-monger. That's a problem, and I don't think there's an easy fix because the Emperor is completely unaware that he is sans clothes.

The United States are facing a mess of issues right now, and partisanship, plain laziness, institutional incompetence and downright dishonesty, have made it damn near impossible to get any semblance of the straight story.

And this is where it falls on you.  Because, in these United States since, oh the 1970's, we've fallen down on our responsibilities as citizens. We have handed over the administration and resolution of all things to an increasingly all-powerful government, asking them to deal with issues that they were never constructed to handle. We look at media stories uncritically, demanding that J-school grads with no real-world experience on the items on which they are reporting convey truths with 100% accuracy. We expect companies to be our gate-keepers for bad things.

Every step of modern life now is about having someone else do things for us, for relying on others to be the holders of our common sense. Then, when things go pear shaped, we look at those to whom we've outsourced our security for recompense.

The only way to resolve this is if enough people start taking control of their own lives, to stop screaming at our institutions every time something goes wrong, to force ourselves to spend time doing the important things rather than creating Tik-Tok videos.

Will it be hard?  Yes.  Does this mean that we're totally on our own?

Of course not.  because government does have a role and serve a purpose, corporations do have a role and they serve a purpose. The media has a crucial role and serve a vital purpose to the proper functioning of the Republic.

And we have a purpose as well. A critical one, a vital one. One that we've refused to perform for quite some time now.

Let's use this pandemic to change that.

Health care for thee, but not for me.

You can't make this stuff up.  Presented without further comment:

Lawmakers, aides, may get Obamacare exemption. John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman, Politico.com

There is concern in some quarters that the provision requiring lawmakers and staffers to join the exchanges, if it isn’t revised, could lead to a “brain drain” on Capitol Hill, as several sources close to the talks put it.
The problem stems from whether members and aides set to enter the exchanges would have their health insurance premiums subsidized by their employer — in this case, the federal government. If not, aides and lawmakers in both parties fear that staffers — especially low-paid junior aides — could be hit with thousands of dollars in new health care costs, prompting them to seek jobs elsewhere. Older, more senior staffers could also retire or jump to the private sector rather than face a big financial penalty

Out of $85 Billion we decide to cut this?

Like most of you I'm trembling at the thought of Obama's federal government having to make do without the equivalent of 9 days worth of spending in the federal budget.  If we HAD a budget that is, which we don't, because US Senate majority leader Harry Reid is smart enough to understand that passing a budget puts restraints on the amounts of taxpayer dollars you can spend. It's always (and I do mean always) the party OUT of power who wants a budget so that they can have something to appear on the TV news talk shows and bludgeon the party in power over the head with.

Leading up to this dark 9 days in US fiscal history it's useful to take a look at what is, and isn't, on the chopping block to see what our elected officials real priorities are. Right now it appears that the sequester is going to end Flyovers at sporting events, airshows by the Blue Angels (No word on whether or not the Thunderbirds will be affected) and the gainful employment of many air-traffic controllers. 

Amazingly, on the latter, while the FAA says there's "no way" they can possibly avoid cutting back on crucial flight operations enabling controllers they have plenty of money to fund in flight Harlem shake investigations.  And, when you think about it, this makes perfect sense.

If you would ask pretty much any member of congress what the main job of the FAA was the answer would publicly be to ensure the safety of the flying public.  Privately, however, they'd say that the FAA is there to investigate the airlines.  Because airline investigations can sometimes cause scandal, and scandals mean hearings, and hearings mean that there's a chance your elected representative can rise out from anonymity and receive a moments fame on a committee panel giving one of the airline CEO's the fifth degree.

This does two things. (usually)

It allows them to meet Diane Sawyer, and it allows them to fund raise back home with the new tag line that they are "protecting the little guy from big, mean, evil corporations."

Granted, this is a Democrat's wish list, and typically only plays to a Dem constituency.  For Republicans however there is a benefit as well. If you've ever watched a congressional hearing on C-SPAN there are two parts to the introduction before the questions begin.  One is political grandstanding by the offended party.  ALL of the members of the panel get to read a prepared statement (if they wish, and they usually wish).  Typically, the first group is the party in power and they get to tell you how bad things are. In this case they'll tell you how evil the airline corporations are and how they've trodden over the good union worker by choosing to locate factories in South Carolina (which many Dems consider a worse practice than off-shoring) and how they have cherub-like children give them sponge baths in the back garden while they're dining on peacock.

The second group (typically the party out of power, depending on the industry) choose to read a glowing review of the CEO in question building them up as a titan of industry and one who's business model, and integrity, is beyond reproach and how they're embarrassed to even be associated with these hearings.  They might as well pass a collections bowl out among the industry supporters while they're speaking to make fund-raising easier.

The point of all of this is to give the lowly congress persons some much needed face time on film so that their campaign teams can use that in their upcoming round of campaign commercials.  It's not about "helping" the people or keeping an eye on industry, but in keeping the incumbents in office.  When they're all done these elected gnats are going to go out and play golf together.

As funny as all of this is, it's not near as humorous as the reactions to the unelected bureaucrats.  To understand why they're cutting emotional infrastructure first you need to understand them.  The only thing that a bureaucrat hates more than having to deal with the American taxpayer, is having to cope with the fact that their unearned revenue bucket isn't going to be 20% larger this year than the year prior.  What this means is that the managers, directors and other middle-management are going to actually need to get some work done and come up with a workable budget on just 19.995% increases.  Horrible thoughts I know.

In an attempt to counteract this they make cuts designed to appeal to the low-information voter, to tug at heart-strings and to convince them that all their problems can be solved if they would just raise taxes on everyone making slightly more than they.

In other words: The progressive political model.

It could be that cool is going to bring down a nation.

You had to know that, after the agreement that kicked the fiscal cliff down the road a bit there was certain to be some football spiking by the winning side and wailing and gnashing of teeth by the losers.  In this case the Democrats clearly placed a "W" on the Ledger and the Republicans are taking the "L".  Let the Democratic victory dance begin. NY Democratic Rep. Israel says that Republicans are children in need of TLC and (I'm guessing this time) stern supervision from their Democratic elders while the National Journal's Michael Hirsh goes gaga over Biden (and loses all sense of history in the process) while Ed Schultz put to rest all of the adults in the room talk by acting his usual childish self.

In the long run, much of this policy talk and bemoaning that the American Century is coming to a close and cheer leading isn't the biggest problem that Republicans face.  In a nation where the Kardashian's every move is followed more closely than Hillary Clinton's the GOP needs to come to grip with the fact that it has a cool problem.

I know what you're thinking.  "Who cares about cool when it's our principles at stake?"  And I agree with you, being cool is less important than keeping your principles.  No serious talker is suggesting that the GOP transmogrify itself into a big spending, high taxing, ecomental, union supporting copy of the Democrats.  This is not England where the conservative party is really Labor light only just a little bit more industry friendly.  That's not the solution.

Neither is the solution to copy the Democrat's handbook for losing.

One of the things for which Texas Democrats are (rightly) mocked is their inevitable meltdowns after electoral losses where they call every Texan stupid.  It's to the point of high comedy.  So why then should Republicans get a pass when they do the same thing?  I understand that it's easy to get angry when things don't go your way, or when the actions of your political opposites bring on bad results the temptation to rub it in everyone's face is almost too much to avoid.  But, and here's the big rub, Republicans need to learn to avoid it because you're going to need many of those same "idiots" to vote for your side come 2014.

The Mitt Romney campaign had a lot of faults, but there's no denying that the 47% video was among the most damaging.  Basically, it reinforced the public's perception that he was out of touch with most of them and cemented his position as someone for whom a majority would not vote.  He just didn't seem as cool and caring about the problems of the working man as does Obama.

And that's the real rub, not that Republican policy is bad but, by retreating to talk radio and Fox News almost exclusively, the GOP is spending most of it's time preaching to the choir, allowing the Democrats almost free reign to classify them as old, white and rich.  Certainly much of the old-guard party leadership can be classified as such, but the same holds true for the Democrats as well.  For every Koch Brother there's a George Soros (who's not even an American citizen FWIW) and for every Bob Perry there's a Steve Mostyn.  I'm not suggesting that any of these financiers are good or bad, only that they're morally equivalent.  Yet the Koch brothers and Perry are held up (by Democrats and the media) as the primary reason Republicans are evil.

To turn this around I really think Republicans need to do two things.  First, change the leadership. It's time for Boehner and McConnell to go. In their place I would suggest Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. John Cornyn.  I understand that Texas' conservative blogosphere is currently calling for Cornyn to be primaried, but the facts are his record is solidly conservative and his leadership style would be a great improvement over Sen. McConnell.  He's also a better speaker and (let's face it) would put a cooler face on the GOP as would Ryan.

What Republicans need to realize is that they were placed in a no-win situation once the Democrats came out ahead in last year's election.  They had zero leverage, and they will continue to have zero leverage until, at least, the 2014 mid-terms.  They're also reeling right now, struggling to find something that is an effective and winning message, in some respects, Jonathan Krohn is correct, they're not connecting with middle-class and young voters.  Where Krohn gets it wrong is that he's incapable of making any other argument than "Why can't you be cool like me?"  He's a selfish kid who doesn't have the intellectual chops to craft a good argument.  His movement from conservative wunderkind to progressive hero has been one big "look at me" moment and that should be pointed out.

To progressives like Krohn "cool" means acting and believing just as they do, they couldn't be further from the truth.  There's nothing cool about breaking the Nation for short-term political gain, and there's nothing cool about being a selfish sot. Remember this: Obama is considered "cool" despite being entirely void of substance. So clearly then there's "cool" and cool at the same time. What is cool is crafting your message for modern times, and finding people who can go out and deliver it in a clear, compelling way.  It's also cool to lose with dignity, and then come back with a solid plan to win again.  So far the Republicans have been failing on every front.  What we're seeing now is a circular firing squad and nothing could be less-cool than that.

Now that all the countries problems are fixed.....

.....we can start working on the critical problem of TV Commercial volumes.

New Law in Effect: TV ads can't blare anymore. AP via KHOU.com

TV viewing could soon sound a little calmer. The CALM Act, which limits the volume of TV commercials, goes into effect on Thursday.

CALM stands for Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation. The act is designed to prevent TV commercials from blaring at louder volumes than the program content they accompany.

I understand that ads like this are annoying, and that low production values typically are what lead to them, but is this really something that our august body of legislators really need to focus their time on?  Further more, do we really want society's least common denominator telling us how loud our commercials can be?  Have we lost the ability to reach over with our increasingly obese arms to grab the remote control and change the channel?

Laws like this make me wonder.

And to note: This is not a Republican vs. Democratic thing.  For this law to have passed and been implemented there were scores of mind-numbingly stupid votes cast by members of both.  The sad thing is, there was probably a speech or two given about how this is "a matter of decency" or some-such hogwash.  And why not, we already have elected Representatives who believe islands can tip over, and there was a turnip on the ballot last election cycle who famously said that rape could somehow be legitimate.  We have a comedian in the Senate and, for some reason, people actually care what Angelina Jolie, Kid Rock, Clint Eastwood, Samuel L. Jackson and Eva Longoria think on certain policy issues.  That the number one choice to replace Senator Jim DeMint is Stephen Colbert should worry you, that Kentucky could possibly elect Ashley Judd to the same body should cause alarm, and the fact that, during the last election cycle, the best idea the Texas Dems had for their Senate nominee was Tommy Lee Jones should bring tears.

I know, I know the argument is that the Republicans had Ronald Reagan.  I get that, but when he ran for the federal office he at least had a gubernatorial tenure under his belt.  OK, Arnold Schwarzenegger, I give you him, but that's California and they've long ago tossed the plot anyway.

It used to be said that politics was nothing more than show business for ugly people.  The point was they were ugly but (at the least) capable of reading a bill and understanding it.  How did we get from the elegant prose of the Founding Fathers to John Conyers and Nancy Pelosi?  How did Republicans let a teary-eyed Representative with the spine of an earthworm get elected to a leadership position in the House of Representatives?  We currently have a President who's incapable of giving an off the cuff speech without saying "um...uh" so many times you're afraid they're going to have to jump start him to keep the speech going, a Vice President who may, or may not, share a brain with a 5 year old, and an opposition party who can't even agree on what their core values are.

You know what the Nation wants?  We want a leader who's not afraid to stand up for what he believes and who doesn't believe that this whole "politics" thing is nothing more than a Jr. High game of "gotcha" to the opposition.  Instead we're stuck with a government that's only slightly more coherent than the British House of Lords.

And here's the sad thing.  As America plunges full speed into sequestration our lackluster, lazy, boneheaded media is more worried about "who's to blame" than they are about reporting on serious solutions to the problems.  The so-called "fifth column of democracy" is more concerned with gaffes and gotchas than they are policy and governance.  Instead of an honest reporting of sequestration we get breathless proclamations that the "fiscal cliff" is going to be the end of us all, that the scary red menace of China is rearing up it's head to a point that Palin is going to see them soon. In today's media world you can be viewed as a serious thinker by starting off every Tweet with "Why is the GOP screwing up.....?"  Trust me, it's being done right now.  If you're really lucky you can get a Dem activist with anger management issues to tell people he's not even sure WHAT party you're affiliated with.  Of course, you still have to have good business sense to land a reporting job until you find a way to live on Democratic good will but hey, money isn't everything right?

"Ah-ha!" you might say, "It's the media's fault".  No, it's not.  It's our fault for allowing it to get to a point that the number one Google search on November 6th was "who's running for President of the United States?".

More security genius from the TSA

Testing drinks purchased in the clean zone, I kid you not.....

Passengers could be asked to give drink samples to TSA, Janelle Ericsson, KJCT8.com

Passengers say their problem is not with the rules at the airport. They understand why drinks are not allowed through security, but when they buy one while they wait for their flight, they say the TSA shouldn't ask to test it.

The article is somewhat poorly written, but the concept is this:  After you pass security, inside the clean zone, you decide to purchase a drink from a store/restaurant etc.  The TSA now believes they should test that drink for.......well, they're not saying actually, they just want to pull you aside and test it.

It's a monumentally stupid idea from a monumentally incompetent agency that desperately needs some oversight.  Or better yet, to be outsourced to the individual airports and removed from Federal control.  In it's current form, the TSA is nothing but a jobs program for the unemployable. (I stole that from my friend Kevin).

I like the headline though.  "Passengers could be "asked" to give drink samples..."

Bull, they're going to be REQUIRED to do it, upon threat of detention.

ChronBlog Class Warfare

Bringing it hard today.....

Most of you will never "see" my house either.

How dare they sell this house?

If only we all could enjoy Chesapeake's 1% tax rate. - This is the actual lead-in headline on the home page.

Tax break for Landry's - owned by Billionaire Tillman Fertita - on agenda. - Whether or not you're for these types of tax abatements (I'm not) whether or not the company in question is owned by a Billionaire is irrellevent.

In all of these stories the question isn't whether or not the subjects are wealthy, it's whether or not we're dealing with good public policy.  As someone who's against drilling subsidies and tax abatements I think they're bad public policy, but that holds the same for "green initiatives" or tax abatements "for the community" as well.  Bad tax policy is bad tax policy.

The home headline is just ridiculous.

There are, and always have been, rich and poor people on this planet, even in Socialist and Communist countries there was a wealthy class that lived off the backs of the poor.  The Politburo had Dachas while the proletariat had bread lines.  Income disparity is very real, and not really all that bad of a thing.  Oddly enough, in progressive states, such as California, the income disparity is greater, on average, than the rest of the nation.  My guess is that this is partially driven by the lack of wealthy businesspeople willing to invest in jobs that are sure to be taxed out of profitability.

I understand that ChronBlog, for all of its ballyhooing about the death of newspapers and their comparative worth to a community, is a bad newspaper whose current editorial slant is doing more harm than good to Houston and her repuation, but that doesn't mean that this type of shoddy, attention-grabbing, schlock should go unchallenged.  Certainly not when they bemoan a low tax rate while supporting (on the editorial side) almost every tax increase that's come down the pipe.  At least be intellectually honest and suggest that Chesapeake's tax rate should be dramitically increased.  That's the argument ChronBlog is making, not that the populace should be taxed less.  It's not that the poor are being put upon, but that the "rich" are not being burdened enough.....

Except newspapers of course, these for-profit enterprises should be given special treatment, as if their contribution to society somehow outweighs that of the oil and gas industry.

Voting myths debunked (part 1)

"If you don't vote you lose your right to gripe."

Untrue, you have the right to gripe guaranteed by the Free Speech clause in the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution.  Don't listen to the ranting of partisans otherwise.

Vote because you want to vote, not because you feel obligated to vote.  Those who vote due to obligation are typically the folks who don't educate themselves and cast "straight-party" or incomplete ballots.  I'd rather you not vote than mail it in.

You can still gripe.

Think about this for a second.

$13-per-mile ambulance fee passes in Houston. Chris Moran, Chron.com

Houston dropped the mileage fee in November 2010 to make more palatable its action to raise the base price from $415 to $1,000, Councilwoman Melissa Noriega explained.

Worst.political.admission.ever.

It undercuts your protest when you don't know the law.

Just as much as it undercuts your reporting when you include something in your story but don't point out the obvious....

True the Vote draws Houston protest, Joe Holley, Chron.com

Lucas said her daughter and granddaughter were intimidated by True the Vote-trained poll watchers during early voting in 2010 — her granddaughter because she was wearing a T-shirt bearing the image of Barack Obama

Yeah, so she was "intimidated" for breaking the law which isn't intimidation, but is a legitimate complaint of a voting violation. Joe Holley doesn't mention this, allowing the protester's accusations to go unchallenged by fact.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of "True the Vote" as I feel their tactics of targeting poor, minority, heavily Democratic districts undercut their assertions that they are 'non-partisan'. That being said I do believe voter fraud (especially on mail-in/absentee ballots) to be a bigger problem then anyone will admit. The Democrats say there's nothing to see, despite numerous stories documenting voter irregularities. The Democrats say it's only reported on by Republican-leaning news outlets. Which is a true statement, mainly because none of the mainstream Texas media have shown an interest in it.

Look at this story by Joe Holley, equating True the Vote with the vestiges of the racist South. It's an image many of them were fed in J-school, and to which they uncritically tie anything conservative today. Granted, groups such as True the Vote don't help themselves with their tactics, but the end result is that we're not getting an impartial vetting of how big the problem really is.

I've got a feeling it's somewhere between Massive(R) and Non-Existent(D) but we won't know until an election is out and out stolen and the media finally decides to take a look  and even then the thoroughness of the investigation might depend on which party is damaged most severely.

Until then can we at least get the basics of voting right? You have to be an American citizen (either through birth or naturalized) over the age of 18 and legally registered. All of the "no vote" provisions (felon, etc.) are ideally handled in the registration process, although this is not always the case. When voting you cannot campaign within a certain distance from the polling site, you cannot wear clothes, buttons, etc. that advertise a candidate and you sure as heck can't vote for someone else or intimidate them into voting a certain way.


You'd think this would be simple to report on. Obviously you'd be wrong.

The Doonesbury Controversy

Many newspapers have refused to run Gary Trudeau's take on Texas' sonogram law, ChronBlog has decided to embrace it....

Talk about Doonesbury’s take on the Texas sonogram abortion law, Dean Betz, ChronBlog

The “Doonesbury” comic strip this week directly takes on Texas’ law requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion.

The series by Gary Trudeau features a woman who goes to an abortion clinic and is confronted by several people who suggest she should be ashamed about her decision. Among them is a doctor who reads a script on behalf of Gov. Rick Perry welcoming her to a “compulsory transvaginal exam,” and a middle-aged legislator who calls her a “slut.”

Trudeau is also going to state that GOP voters, and a doctor performing a procedure, are "raping" the woman. To me that's taking it too far, but I understand what Mr. Trudeau is going for here.

Part of the reason is that I'm in the odd position of being anti-abortion but anti-sonogram law also. I never did like this law and I feel that it's an overreach by the State into a medical decision that should be private. In my perfect world, there would be no need for abortions except for in cases of rape, incest and when the mother's health is in imminent danger. However, because of the political pressure put on by pro-choice groups we now live in a society where abortion is viewed as just another means of birth control. Once you cross that line, then the next logical step is post birth abortions which then gets us closer to the "perfect state" as described by current SCOTUS Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg:

Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion.

Getting rid of the "undesirables" so to speak. Ethically, morally, that's a real problem for the pro-abortion movement as we saunter towards the next-gen discussions of this hot-button issue.

Which is where the real damage from this Doonesbury comic strip lies. In much the same way Rush Limbaugh's "slut" comment changed the debate question from one of religious freedom to a mean man attacking a woman, the strip this week is going to change the question at hand from what are reasonable restrictions on a complicated medical procedure to some ham-fisted argument against GOP voters.

Whatever the outcome, the GOP is currently losing control of how this debate is framed, and they seem to have no answer to it, for fear of finding themselves thrown up against the wall and shot with accusations of misogyny. Believe me, I know, I've been there, even though what I was writing about at the time had nothing to do with gender, and everything to do with personal qualifications. These are attacks that, once they start, won't stop.

If the GOP wants to have any fighting chance in 2012 however they had better grow a thick skin and be prepared to take arrows like this that are thrown at them. They also had better circle the wagons and come up with an effective, consistent response. I'd start by publicizing post-birth abortion theory, linking it to Ginsburg's own words and tie them both around the Democrat's necks like a mill-stone.

That won't happen of course, and we'll continue to allow our abortion debate to be co-opted by the abortion industry, who stands to reap a financial windfall because of the expansion of abortion services inherent in Government Health Care. Shame on us.

About that road paved with good intentions.....

When I first saw this story i thought it was something that came from The Onion.

Houston's Plan to Criminalize Charity, Mark Levin, Texas Public Policy Foundation

Houston City Council will be considering an ordinance (see page 32) today which would criminalize the giving of food to the needy without permits or complying with a long list of regulations. The offense for helping others in a way that is not approved by city bureaucrats is a fine of up to $2,000 a day, with each new day of renegade charitable giving classified a separate offense.

The reasoning behind the law seems to have little sense and the enforcement mechanism in place makes even less sense. People and non-profit organizations shouldn’t be deterred from helping others due to government red tape. With no requirement of a culpable mental state for conviction (mens rea), those who will most likely suffer are those who had no idea such a statute existed or attempted to comply but made a mistake when trying to follow cumbersome regulations.

You should go read Levin's entire write-up on this, because the City is really contorting logic in an effort to create a new revenue stream on the backs of the poor and charitable.

Of course, our Prog friends would remind us that the Government should handle all charity and could afford to do so if those that were making just slightly more than they were would agree to hefty tax hikes.

Unbelievable.


UPDATE: ChronBlog chimes in. Adding another piece to the puzzle I missed above: It's about controlling the homeless and keeping undesireables out of desireable areas. If conservatives really treated undocumented immigrants 1/2 as bad as Houston's Democratic establishment treats the homeless the media would freak out.

Still. Unbelievable.

Proving my point on the 'middle class'

For years now I've been saying (on Isolated Desolation, Lose an Eye, Harris County Almanac and now here) that most progressives define "wealthy" as being anyone who earns more than 60K per year.

Today the Apple Dumpling Gang provides hard evidence of that:

(How do you define middle class? It depends..., The Apple Dumpling Gang, Chron.com)

By the strictest of definitions, American families that fall into the middle fifth by income are middle class. By that standard, families making between $38,048 and $61,735 (in 2010 dollars) would be middle class.

Remember that, when you hear progressive bloggers, progressive politicians and progressive members of the media talking about "making the wealthy pay". If you have a household income of $75K, you're the "wealthy" and they want to make you pay "your fair share".

It's an important data point in the upcoming debate over which direction we want our economy to go.


Added: All of this makes you wonder what type of middle-class jobs the President and The Apple Dumpling Gang are speaking of? Certainly not professional positions that require a degree, or an advanced degree for that matter, because most of those, outside of entry-level positions, have pay scales in excess of the middle class.