Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Simple Tasks for my Representative

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One advantage of the right wing attacks on democracy in America over the last 20+ years is the fabulous opportunity it presents to learn how the US Government and its Constitution is intended to work.  Forget what you learned in civics class, that is just the beginning of the story.  While we theoretically have some sort of representative democracy, by no means is it intended that an individual should have much influence on the government and its policies.  In fact, it is exactly the opposite: the individual is intended to NOT have much influence except in very specific and limited ways.  The process is intended to give a superficial legitimacy to whatever the elite, in their magnificence, decide to do for us, the little people.  Although one may vote for two US Senators directly and the POTUS indirectly, at least you can, depending on your skin color and whether you can afford to take time off from work, have a tiny, itsy bitsy impact.  But you dont elect judges, certainly not at the federal level.  That the POTUS and the Senate do and to the extent the process of voting is perceived as legitimate, then perhaps the judges are legitimate.
 
The only election you have even a prayer of influencing (unless you have a lot of money or are for some reason famous or inherited your elite status) is your congressman.  Therefore, if you dont like how things are going and want some changes then feel free to write anyone or contact anyone you like, but probably the only one who *might* listen to you is your congressman and even that is marginal.  The more one understands how and why the Constitution was written, the more it becomes clear that it is intended that you contact your congressman.  It might not work, in fact it probably wont, and they have very limited power, but that is how things are designed and you may as well give it a try.  Besides its entertaining to annoy them and talk to their pleasant interns who answer the phone.  Its fun! you should try it.

But for this whole shaggy mess to hold together it requires that people not get really pissed off about how things are going.  If, say, your elected representatives fail to deal with a baker's dozen of critical life and death decisions, and choose to kick the can down the road to avoid doing anything hard, then bad times may be on the horizon.  Then "the people" may get ornery and decide to hold their elected representatives responsible for solving some problems.  And if our elected swine, I mean representatives, have waited to solve those problems until they are much more difficult, well isnt that too bad?  "The people" may not take no for an answer and then things may get nasty.  Isnt that one part of the story about the so-called Tea Party.  Sure, it was funded by the right wing nuts the Koch brothers, but they would not have been able to do it unless there were a lot of pissed off people.
 
And that, I propose, is one part of where we are today.  In order to help move things along I have graciously donated my time here, on this blog, to suggest some things that need to get fixed sometime in the future.  Ha ha just kidding.  No they need to be fixed right forking now.  God bless those sweeties in the House, or the Senate or the DOJ or the Supreme Court, but they may have to take some direction now.  Right now.  Obviously they wont and in some cases they are too late.  They fucked it up and we fucked it up by not screaming louder, earlier.
 
America used to be about process and compromise.  Not any more.
 
So here are some issues that need to be addressed. 

1. Trump and his co-conspirators in the attempt to overthrow the government need to be barred from government office and go to jail.  The DOJ is only now looking into this and it is likely that Trump will declare for the presidency right after the midterms which in normal times would mean he is untouchable.  Too bad, he gets indicted and goes to jail anyway.  

2. Trump stole US government property and endangered national security.  The Trump judge moron decided without good reason to impose a delay in an attempt to get Trump off the hook.  Too bad.  Proceed with the investigation, bring the indictments, and put Trump in jail.  Right now.

3. Having the electoral college select the president is like having a spinning gun in the middle of a room of people.  It is going to get off and people are going to get hurt.  Al Gore and Hilary Clinton won their respective elections.

4. The Republicans in various states are restricting the vote.  Fix it now, you have less than 60 days.

5. Get the Trump morons off the judiciary.  

Its too bad they let the situation get out of hand, but that is what happens when you have cowardly representatives like we do.  They knew what was happening.


Tuesday, September 13, 2022

How to Understand Republican Arguments

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I have an approach to help understand and interpret something a Republican says in favor or against some proposition.  For example, a Republican might say that abortion should be decided by the states.  Or a Republican might in a few months say that abortion should be decided by the federal government and not by the states.  And these are the same Republicans so it can be confusing.  I have a technique that helps me understand such things and I want to share it with you.
 
Remember in the following that "all models are wrong but some are useful".  In other words, I am not suggesting that Republicans are lying pieces of garbage.  I am saying that they appear to be lying pieces of garbage for the purposes of predicting future behavior.
 
The technique is as follows.  When a Republican makes an argument such as "abortion should be decide by the states", what they are really saying is "We want to outlaw abortion and we will say any damn thing we want to attain that goal. Then when it is convenient to say something else to attain that goal, that is what we will, without hesitation, do.  We are shameless and powermad and there is no point in arguing with us because you are just wasting your time.  We dont believe our arguments either".

The Democrats, being endlessly naive and weak, fall for this trick over and over again.  Dear Democrats: please grow up.  Stop falling for this trick, it makes you look stupid and it does us (remember us? the little people?) no good.


Friday, September 9, 2022

The Heavyweight Fight of the Century!

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Ladies and Gentlemen!  Your attention please!  The fight you have all been waiting for!  In this corner we have the world champion bully, traitor and narcissist, Donald Trump!  And in this corner we have the plucky idealist, Merrick Garland!  Who will win?  
 
At last, yes you thought that this day would never come.  The Donald is such a nutty boy and his followers so incredibly loyal and stupid that they seemed to be able to overrun any of that vaunted "constitutional protection" we have all heard about all our lives.  But maybe not so much, especially with the completely opportunistic and shameless Republican party running interface for this piece of garbage.

What will happen?


Image "borrowed" from MSNBC