Why I Would Be a Better President Than Trump

I consider Donald Trump to be the worst President in the history of the US.  Period.  So I started thinking about who would make a better President, and it appears to me almost anyone would make a better President than Trump, except perhaps the people he has recruited for his cabinet, judicial nominations, personal lawyer, campaign manager, etc.  And the boys from Enron and the boys from Nixon’s inner circle.  Out and out crooks and charlatans would not make better Presidents.  Probably.  But I think even I would make a better President than Trump.  Here’s why:

I know how to use spell check on Twitter.

I am not offended when other people think differently than I do.

I am not offended when other people verbally attack me.

I know the US Constitution and totally support the notion of checks and balances.

I believe in equal rights, civil rights, freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of religion and freedom from religion, etc., etc.

I understand that no tax cut for the rich has ever, ever improved economic productivity.

I understand that tariffs hurt our economy more than a targeted economy.

I understand that the market place is void of moral values and regulation is necessary to protect citizens.  When making money is more important than people, people will suffer without oversight.

I understand that we are killing our planet and we must, absolutely must, stop using fossil fuels.

I understand that many folks across the aisle are good human beings.  I just think they are misguided, misinformed and operate from the wrong sense of values.  I also understand that progress is impossible without bi-partisanship.

I admit when I am wrong.

I am data driven and science driven.  Facts mean more to me than beliefs.

I get it that collaboration is more effective than “my way or the highway”.

I get it that we are one nation in a global community of nation states comprised of diverse human beings.  I see no nation as a “shithole”.

I see diversity as a strength, not a weakness.

I see immigrants as a source of economic growth, nor a source of fear.

I see humanitarian efforts as a noble cause.  Illegal aliens is a term to be reserved for Martians who sneak on our planet.  Humans are indigenous to earth.  National boundaries are not.

I am willing to admit what I do not know.  I have a sense that there are things I do not know I do not know.  I am wide open to expert advice.  I trust facts more than guts.  Honesty must be the bedrock of human transaction.

I believe success depends on us, not on me.  We do not become stronger by attacking each other.

And, I have never had to pay for sex.

So, there you go.  I would make a better President than Trump.

Time to Fire Trump

I served as a public school educator for 40 years, 17 of those as a school superintendent.  As such I took multiple graduate courses in employee supervision and evaluation.  I was a trained appraiser on 3 different administrator evaluation instruments.  I earned extensive experience in evaluating college-degreed certified professionals and non-degreed support personnel.  There was not a year that went by when I did not terminate someone or non-renew someone’s employment.  All of that is to say I believe I am qualified to make the following observations.

If Donald Trump was a high school principal in a district where I was superintendent I would have fired him long ago.  I would have fired him when he would not produce a transcript to verify his worthiness to lead as Trump has refused to release his tax returns.  I would have fired him the first time women brought forth sexual assault charges against him.  I would have fired him the first time it was revealed he made payments to sex workers for sex while he was married and then made payments to the same women to not tell anyone.  I would have fired him the first time he called a faculty meeting and told lies to his staff as he lied to our troops this week.  I would have fired him the first time he violated appropriate protocol expected of a high school principal when interacting with other educators as Trump has done with other world leaders on the world stage multiple times.  I would have fired him the first time he implemented policies without getting consent and support from within the system, especially policies that we know to be failed efforts that harm the system like Trump has done with the trade war.  I would have fired him the first time he worked with our athletic competitors to improve their advantage in competition with our system as Trump has done with Russia and North Korea.  I would have fired him the first time he threatened to close his school because he did not get his way as Trump is doing regarding the funding of a border wall.  I would have fired him the first time I heard racial slurs, bigotry, and misogyny uttered from his mouth.  I would have fired him the first time he organized a pep rally solely for his supporters and lied to them and personally attacked others as Trump does at his rallies.  I would have fired him the first time he attacked a member of the press demonstrating his lack of understanding of school policy not to mention the US Constitution.  Yes, he would be long gone.  I would fire him because that would be best for the staff, parents and kids of our district.  No man with his personal characteristics should be allowed to lead even a local high school.

I would be in shock if as I terminated Trump there was any outcry in the community regarding his tenure as principal.  Parents and patrons in the district would applaud his departure as it became more and more obvious he was not fit to lead.

I am in shock that we continue to tolerate this man as President of the United States.  It is well past time to dump Trump.  It must happen soon or our “high school” will lose all respect and all clout in the arena of schools as our nation is losing respect and clout on the world stage.  I love this country too much to tolerate such a man as our leader. 

If he was a man of character he would resign.  He is not, so he will not.  He must be fired.

So Confused

11 people get sick from eating Romaine lettuce.  All Romaine lettuce recalled.  Over 300 mass shootings in the US killing over 1,000 people and everybody keeps their guns, semi-automatic military grade weapons are still available, and we cannot make gun registration more stringent.

Trump has chanted “lock her up” regarding Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for government business when it was not illegal to do so.  Now it is illegal and Trump says Ivanka Trump is not guilty of any wrong doing.

Trump criticizes the Navy Seals who took out Osama Bin Laden and allows the Saudis to kill an American citizen without consequence.  Trump assaults the intelligence and military community again.

Trump defends no consequence for Saudis due to the murder of an American citizen because we would lose millions in business deals.  Human life versus money? 

Trump blames the courts for not supporting his policies even though there is no evidence he understands the role of an independent judiciary and totally misses the point of the rulings. 

Trump blames California wildfires on poor management of forests and suggests if California raked leaves liked Finland does we would not have this problem.  Trump cut millions from the federal budget to fight wildfires.  Finland does not rake leaves.  Finland chants, “Make America Rake Again.”  What burned was not a forest but brush.  Who is listening to this man?

Trump removes the press credentials of a reporter who was pushing him to answer questions.  Court won’t allow it.  Once again Trump does not understand the role of the free press in a democracy.

All we heard for weeks leading up to the midterm elections was scary descriptions of the people in the caravan heading to the US from Central America.  There was never any proof of any of these claims.  Trump moves troops to the border to protect us from the caravan.  The Blue Wave hits on November 6 and all discussion of the caravan disappears, except the soldiers are still in place on our border and they are missing Thanksgiving with their families.  Unbelievable.

Trump refuses to honor the fallen from World War I because it might mess up his hair.

Trump claims he is a Nationalist, a belief system that lead to World War I and World War II.  This belief system springs from the white supremacy movement and is incredibly dangerous to our country.

50 of the nation's top political scientists state Trump is the worst President in American history.

Trauma surgeons in the ER attack the NRA stand that doctors should not comment on gun shootings.

And all of this occurred in the past two weeks.

It appears 30% of the American public continues to support a man who lacks knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of American government, of international trade, of the military, the intelligence community, of fiscal policy, of monetary policy, of freedom of the press, of the role of the judiciary, of the notion of core values driving decision-making, and most importantly the notion that no man or woman is above the law.

How can we remove the blinders from the remaining 30%?  What will it take?  Scares me to imagine because I fear those supporters will never abandon the despotic fool in our White House.  Our allies are meeting without us, drafting policy and alignments without us.  Our President cannot get an invite to internationally important weddings and funerals.  We have become the laughing stock of the world.  If God chose Trump he did so to demean, demoralize and destroy the great democratic experiment we call the United States.

I am so confused.  Are Trump supporters anti-American?

Dancing with the Stats

Trump says this, Biden says that, Fox says this, MSNBC says that, and on and on we go, lost in a fog of competing paradigms.  With no real anchor in reality we continue to make decisions based on our perceptions and beliefs.  It is as though we want to go to Mars, but some argue Mars is a myth or a liberal conspiracy and we have never really sent a rover there, while others argue it is the 4^th planet in our solar system and we know exactly where it is and yes we have landed rovers there.  How do we resolve these issues?  How do we clean up our current political mess?

Here’s how:  We speak the truth.  We identify the truth.  We separate the truth from the lies and make it clear to all what is what.  In my humble opinion and limited brain power it appears to me that unless we can all agree what is truth and what is fiction we will never escape our current crisis and will lapse deeper and deeper into divisiveness and vitriol, doing from the inside what our enemies wish they could do from the outside.  We must stop our current cannibalism if we are ever to return to being the land of the free and the home of the brave.

To say such implies that there is one truth.  There is no such thing as alternative facts.  There is no such thing as multiple truths.  There are alternative beliefs and those beliefs purport to be the truth, but facts must mean more to us that beliefs or we are doomed.

I spend a great deal of time fact-checking what I hear from the players and the media.  It is very discouraging to learn how many in the public arena simply lie.  Until we can convince each other that these sources tell the truth and these sources lie we are at risk.

How do we identify the truth and separate it from lies, opinions, falsehoods and beliefs?  We follow the successful model of reality TV shows, that is how.

We identify a panel of experts.  Democrats, Republicans, political scientists, economists, evangelicals and those who maintain fact checker websites.  This panel is convened every evening from 7:00 to 9:00 to review what the “news” is broadcasting and what the politicians are saying.  Scrolled across the bottom of the screen is the panel’s conclusion regarding what the presenter is saying:  False, misleading, opinion, truth.  Then as time goes by the panel is rated based on their accuracy in identifying the truth.  Some may bat 1000, some may earn a mere 10%, but we will know.  And we say any panelist who fails to achieve at least 50% accuracy is removed from the panel.  It is like American Idol with the judges being judged as well as the performers.  Meanwhile, the sources of the information also get a rating.  Trump may get 5% and Biden 90% truthful statements, but we will know.

And I suspect there would be a constant scroll at the bottom of all Fox News broadcasts that says, “This show is for entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as reporting facts.”

Surely the producers of Survivor, American Idol, America’s Got Talent, etc. will recognize the possibilities here.  It could be called Dancing with the Stats or whatever.  But if we knew, really knew, who was lying, who was stretching the truth, who was simply voicing their opinion and not facts, and who was speaking the truth, then as a nation I believe we can escape this quagmire.  We will be free once the truth is known.

Or is that just too Pollyanna?  My experience has been that when MAGA’s are confronted with truth they retreat to name calling and their minds close even more.  If the truth will not set them free then perhaps the voting booth will.  I even doubt that, however.  The MAGA’s won the last round of elections and they are still fearful and still mad.  Geeze.

The Dangers of Socialism

The word “socialism” is tossed around so often, usually with strong negative connotations, that it seems appropriate to catch our breath and examine the term and application.

Socialism is an economic system in which goods and services are provided through a central system of cooperative and/or government ownership rather than through competition and a free market system.  (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/socialism.html)

Simple.  It is not free enterprise.  It is not privately owned and funded.  Employees work for the community.  The government dictates the goods and services.  It is funded by tax dollars, not supply and demand.  It is not a totalitarian government.  It is an economic term, not a political term.

Some examples might be helpful.  In my small rural town we have several feed stores.  They are owned and operated by individuals (or partnerships, or corporations).  The owners decide what goods will be offered and at what price, and the owners decide whether to hire more people or not and what to pay them.  Free enterprise.  Not socialism.  Increasing or decreasing government regulation of the feed stores does not make it more or less socialistic because it remains a privately owned and operated enterprise.

In my small town water emerges from my pipes when I turn on the faucet or the sprinkler or the shower or the washing machine.  I have no choice regarding the source of the water.  It is not like I can select this water company or that water company.  Everybody within the city limits gets the same water.  In fact, citizens cannot drill water wells if they live in the city and have public water available.  The cost of the water is determined by an elected governmental body.  The equipment to provide the water is owned by the local government.  The employees of this public works division are paid out of tax dollars.  The point of the operation is to provide quality water to everyone in the community, not to maximize income of the water department.  The water department in my small town meets all the criteria of a socialistic operation.  The government owns and operates the water service.  It is regulated and must meet certain standards, but what makes it socialistic is that it is publicly owned and operated.  It is a public works.

The same thing is true for our local police department, and the county sheriff’s office, and the DPS, and the Texas Rangers and the National Guard.  They are all public entities governed by elected bodies.  They are not private enterprises.  The employees are paid from tax dollars.  The equipment is purchased with tax dollars.  Law enforcement is a socialistic enterprise.  It is not a free enterprise, privately owned.  There are private security companies that are not socialistic.  But they are limited in what they can do.  Law enforcement meets all the criteria of socialistic enterprise.

The same thing is true for our local public schools.  Schools are governed by local school boards, state legislatures and the federal government.  The buildings are owned by the community, not the principals or the coaches.  The employees are government employees paid from tax dollars.  Education is a right prescribed by the state constitution and is a socialistic enterprise.  The mission is to provide quality education for all kids, not to make a profit doing so. 

If the operating expense and the salaries are paid by tax dollars, if an elected governmental body defines what is to be produced by whom, and if the capital assets are owned and operated by the public then the operation is a socialistic operation, not a free enterprise or private sector or market driven operation.

We have always had a large number of socialistic operations in our country.  Our armed services, believe it or not, are a socialistic operation, as is our highway system (for the most part), our waste water systems, and our justice system of courts, judges, jails, etc.  Any service you can name that is funded by tax dollars and where the assets are publicly owned is a socialistic operation. Our military and law enforcement folks defend democracy via a socialistic organization.  That may be hard for them to swallow, but the economic term for their organization is socialism, and the political term for our country is representative democracy.  For some reason we seek to hide that reality and refer to what these government employees do as serving their country or community.  And that is true, but the service they provide is socialistically organized.  Thank you for your service is sincere for the military, law enforcement, teachers, firemen, public works employees, etc.

(As an aside, there is an entrepreneurial trend attacking our public services.  These private sector folks want to get paid with tax dollars too.  So, they have initiated charter schools that take tax dollars but are not publicly controlled, private prisons, security forces overseas, etc.  Each of these are efforts to avoid the government controls while getting rich on tax payer dollars.  No, I do not support any of these schemes, especially when we continue to hear about corruption and failure to perform by these entities.  Everyone who says government should run like a business is arguing that some people should get rich from tax dollars.)

So, what is the danger of socialism?  Clearly, the more operations in our country that are assumed by the government the fewer the private sector jobs and profits in those areas.  And vice versa, the more socialistic operations are converted to private sector operations the more private individuals will grow wealthy while the quality of the service declines.  How can I make such a broad statement?  Simple, he says rhetorically.  The motives are totally different.  If my motive is to make a profit then I will seek ways to cut costs. If my motive is to provide a needed service I will work long and hard hours regardless of the salary to accomplish my motive.  Public sector operations are phenomenal.  We call the private sector operations phenomenal if they make their owners rich. 

Plus citizen influence on socialistic operations is much higher than on private operations.  If I am unhappy about my local water service I can show up at City Council and complain.  It is at the public meeting of this elected body that decisions are made.  In the private sector we are not sure who is making the decision, or when or where.  We can often take our business somewhere else, but that means we change, the business doesn’t change.

(As another aside, human beings are not socialists.  Some humans may support socialistic operations more than private sector operations, but the person is not a socialist.  I doubt that one could find a person who would be willing to do away with all the privately owned and operated restaurants so that the government could run community based food service for all.  Ugh.  It is the private sector that provides choice, not the public sector.  When I call 9-1-1 I do not pick which enforcement agency shows up.)

Perhaps now we can have an adult conversation about health care.  Currently health care in the US is a private sector operation and all the evidence says that the quality of our health care is declining, large numbers of people are not receiving appropriate health care, and health care providers, pharmaceuticals and insurance companies are growing rich.  OK.  So, do you want health care to be a public service operation or would you prefer to leave it in the hands of the private sector despite the evidence that it is run for profit and not for service?

For me, the real danger of socialism is that we do not look at converting those operations in our private sector to socialistic operations for the benefit of all and the loss of millions for the few.  All the industrialized nations that have followed such a path are generating higher standards of living than we are and are healthier than we are.  But if your response to the term socialism is visceral and not logical you will never see it that way.

Fascism is a much larger danger for our nation, but that merits another post.

When Did it Become OK?

I must have missed all the announcements because I do not understand how or when the following happened:

When did it become OK to lie?

When did it become OK to mock others?

When did it become OK to renege on your word?

When did it become OK to publicly express racism?

When did it become OK to put women down in public?

When did it become OK to take pride in bigotry?

When did it become OK for our leaders to engage in adultery, sexual assault and funding a cover up?

When did it become OK to praise infamous dictators who are not our friends and insult our allies?

When did it become OK to say something not nice rather than say nothing at all?

When did it become OK to claim Christianity and move to stop feeding the poor, clothing the needy, welcoming the stranger, healing the sick?

When did it become OK to reduce taxes for the most wealthy while threatening the livelihood and safety nets of the working class and the poor?

When did it become OK to claim your religious beliefs are better than others’ religious beliefs?

When did it become OK to shame protesters?

When did it become OK to attack the freedom of the press?

When did it become OK to drop off the list of the top 20 democratic nations on the planet?

When did it become OK to build walls not bridges?

When did it become OK for America to relinquish its role as world leader for human rights?

When did it become OK to ignore science and risk the planet?

When did it become OK to sexually assault women or men?

When did it become OK to spew nationalism and isolationism, rather than world leadership and global understandings?

Oh, that’s right.  It all became OK on January 20, 2017.

The Trump Taunt

We know Trump does not like the NFL and we know why.  (He purchased a USFL team and then filed suit against the NFL.  He lost and the USFL went bust.)  Here is another reason Trump could have for hating the NFL:  He would not survive the rules for good sportsmanship if he played for the NFL, specifically the rules regarding taunting.

Taunting of an opponent is a foul under N.F.L. playing rules and will be called by the game officials (15-yard penalty).  In addition, the taunting player will be fined and can be disqualified from play. Any flagrant acts or remarks that deride, mock, bait or embarrass an opponent are considered taunting.

Whoa!  Can Trump get through a speech without taunting? 

Most recently he has criticized and mocked Dr. Ford.  He has criticized John McCain, the fed, Jeff Sessions, a reporter with disabilities, a female news reporter, NATO, Obama, Hillary, New York Times, Washington Post, LeBron James, the FCC, the EPA, the EU, Jim Acosta, CNN, MSNBC, etc., etc.  The Times has documented 487 people and organizations Trump has derided, mocked or sought to embarrass on Twitter alone, not counting his public speeches.

If Trump played for the NFL he would have been fined to bankruptcy and disqualified from play.  Sad that we have a higher standard for the conduct of professional athletes than we do for the President of the United States.

Kava Naught

Every member of the US Senate must take an Oath of Office to be sworn in as an official Senator.  The Oath is simple:  “I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States”.  I will argue that every Senator that voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh today as a judge on the US Supreme Court has violated this oath and should immediately resign their position, or be impeached.

The Constitution is not just the backbone of our democracy, it is where the soul of our democracy resides.  It is a living document.  It has been amended to re-shape our understandings as time, events and circumstances evolved.  Humans cannot own other humans.  Women can vote.  The government may not show favoritism to religion nor prohibit religious people from practicing their religion.  Discrimination is immoral.  Segregation is immoral.  The right of a free press and free speech is critical to the survival of our democracy.  All these elements of our core beliefs are embodied in this hallowed document.

The Supreme Court of the US is the final arbiter of what is aligned with our Constitution and what is not.  This court decides what is constitutional, what is not.  The people appointed to this position are appointed for life so that they will not be subject to the political oscillations that occur; so that they may judge aloof from the pressure of seeking majority support.  They are empowered to protect the weak and the minority.  That is why they have a lifetime appointment.  They by definition must be men and women of integrity, of honesty, of a sense of fairness.  And they must also be men and women of courage for the ruling of the Court may not be popular.  They must arrive at the bench after thorough review and vetting by the Senate to ensure on behalf of the American people that their confirmation of a candidate for the Court meets all these characteristics.

Brett Kavanaugh does not meet these characteristics.  There remains reams of documents the White House refuses to release regarding this man’s former role in the Bush administration.  A thorough review of the accusation of sexual assault was not conducted.  Key witnesses were not interviewed.  Clarifying his perjury was not accomplished.  Further, a man of courage and integrity would have withdrawn from consideration when it was clear that the controversy around his appointment was tearing the country apart, prompting protests and conspiracy theories.  A man of fair mindedness and honesty would not have perjured himself during the hearing process.  A man of wisdom would not have lost his cool and his tears during the hearing.  Only a man who is self-serving would have remained in contention for this appointment.  And in so doing proves he is not worthy of the job.

The fact that members of the Senate do not recognize that simple fact means they are unwilling to defend the Constitution and they must go.  They have placed our government, our citizens and our democracy at great risk by the appointment of this young, shallow man.  We deserve so much better.

Two Realities

The most disturbing conflicts to me today are the conflicts that occur when two realities collide.  In the US we have two realities.  I will call one of those realities “Reality” and the other reality “Pseudo-Reality.”  I assume we understand that there really is only one reality, so one of these realities must be false.  Clearly I will argue for Reality not Pseudo-Reality.

Let’s talk about Reality first.  More than anything else Reality is based on facts, on observation, on truth, on science and on math.  The list of Reality realities includes the earth is not flat, evolution is real, the earth is 4.5 billion years old, homo sapiens have been on the planet for over 200,000 years, 75% of the earth’s surface is water, global warming is happening to a large extent to human behavior, Santa Claus is a mythical figure, etc. etc.  Reality is neither liberal nor conservative.  It is the way things are.  It is real, verifiable, provable, observable, and mostly the result of scientific investigation.

Pseudo-Reality rejects much of Reality.  More than anything else Pseudo-Reality is based on beliefs, opinions and attitudes.  The list of Pseudo-Reality beliefs includes the earth is flat, the earth is 10,000 years old, secret conspiracies are afoot, there are witches, warlocks, ghosts, demons, zombies and devils, Obama was a bad President, a Muslim and born in Niger, Hillary is a crook, global warming is a myth, evolution is just a theory, God actively interacts to select winners in American politics, Christians are right and every other belief system is wrong, if Fox News reports it, it must be true, etc., etc.  Pseudo-Reality is not based on fact, it is based on beliefs, attitudes, values and opinions.  Each of the beliefs of Pseudo Reality followers can be disproved by reality, but that does not matter to the ardent Pseudo-Reality follower. 

Confronted with Reality, Pseudo-Reality followers get angry, call the Reality followers derogatory names, and/or unfriend them on Facebook.  (I have wondered why after gaining control of the Executive and Legislative Branches of our government that the Pseudo-Realists remain so angry.  They won!  And yet to hear their vitriol one would think they are a persecuted minority.  Me thinks they protest too loudly.)  To be called a snowflake or a libtard is not life threatening and likely even amusing when one realizes that faced with fact, Pseudo-Realists must resort to name calling as there is nothing else to say. Worse, some Pseudo-Realists will argue that there are two realities, there are alternative facts.  Some have said do not believe what you see and hear for it is not real.  Others have said there are multiple truths.  If one does not find this extremely scary I yield to their courage or ignorance.

A classic example of this is when Trump, King of the Pseudo-Reality crowd, announced that his inauguration crowd was the largest in American history.  That was not real.  In fact, photos of the event showed his crowd to be significantly smaller than Obama 1, Obama 2, Bush, Clinton, Bush, etc.  One could in fact make the reality based argument that he had the smallest crowd.  But, his followers did not believe those facts, despite the reality of the photos.  Interesting that much later the White House photographer admitted that Trump had ordered him to photo shop the inaugural crowd pictures to make it appear that more people were there than actually were present.

Another example of this is when Trump announced he won the Presidency with a landslide election.  Again, this was far from the truth.  Not only did he not win by a landslide, Trump actually lost the popular vote and became the winner via the Electoral College.  3 million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than voted for Donald Trump.  Upon hearing these numbers Trump made a remarkable statement:  If he lost the popular vote it must have been due to voter fraud and he ordered every state to conduct an investigation.  So committed was Trump to making his Pseudo-Reality actual reality, he found a non-real reason for the reality.  After months of state level investigation 200 fraudulent votes were found.  Trump’s theory was false.  Trump’s picture of the reality of his election was false.  It was all Pseudo-Reality, not reality.  Sadly, many Trump supporters are desperate to show that the Psued0-Reality is real and even after learning the real numbers believe there must have been some kind of conspiracy to thwart their beloved leader from creating a reality that better fit his ego.  Not gonna happen in reality, however.

The Pseudo-Reality crowd is further helped by media outlets that feed Pseudo –Reality miss-information to the masses as though it was reality.  That does not work on those of us grounded in reality.  The current debate over Trump’s nomination should, in reality, not be a debate at all.  Kavanaugh has lied multiple times in the hearing, that is perjury and he should be withdrawn and prosecuted.  Kavanaugh is accused of sexual molestation.  That should be grounds for withdrawal.  Kavanaugh’s college buddies back the stories of Kavanaugh being a rowdy and aggressive drunk.  That should be grounds for withdrawal.  But the Pseudo-Reality crowd is convinced these facts are not real.  They believe these facts are a Democratic Party sabotage effort.  Would the Democrats love to see Kavanaugh withdraw?  You bet.  Is it a conspiracy?  Highly unlikely.  There is no such evidence, just wishful thinking and opinion of the Pseudo-Realists.

I do not know how to close the reality gap.  I do know that presenting facts in a logical, dispassionate way and urging the Pseudo-Realists to fact check what they hear has earned me the label libtard and I have been told to pull my head out of my butt.  Interesting.  I have yet to be confronted with another set of facts that reside in dispute to the facts I present.  I am confronted with beliefs.  I just get called names.  I have been unfriended.  It does not matter.  When Reality clashes with Pseudo-Reality it will be Reality that prevails.  Facts, truth, confirmation are not liberal conspiracies though the Pseudo-Realists want so much to believe they are.  Why, I do not know.  I do know that the 10 states in the US with the highest level of educational attainment all voted strongly for Hillary, and the 10 states with the lowest level of educational attainment all voted strongly for Trump.  Therein may lie another less pleasant truth.

OK. Let’s Make America Great Again

The Kavanaugh appointment and hearings have totally overwhelmed me.  And to hear females defend him brought tears to my eyes.  Our new stance on immigration, trade wars, taxation, civil liberties is so alien and so un-American to me that I feel like a tornado hit and I awoke in Oz.  Either the country has gone totally bat-shit crazy, or I have.  So, I am going to throw myself into the fray on the side of the Trump supporters and see how that feels, how that plays out, how that aligns with our core values.  Perhaps I have been wrong all along.

Since the Kavanaugh hearings are on our minds, let’s look at the time in America when a woman’s role was great, or at least great from a man’s point of view.  Let’s allow the notion that boys will be boys and that women will be not much more than sex objects.  That’s the way it should be.  Women should submit to men.  There is no reason to give them the right to own property, the right to vote, the right to claim their husbands raped them.  Not if women know their place.  The thought of a female president is just ludicrous.  The thought of a female CEO is equally crazy.  If women insist on going to college, which they do not need to do if they can find a man, they should be trained to be teachers or nurses.  Best if they just stayed home and watched soap operas, reality TV, and the Hallmark Channel while they clean house and care for the little ones.  Ozzy and Harriet, with Ozzy always coming first.  And while we are at it, why allow women to make any decisions regarding their ability to bear children.  We white males should decide if a woman can use contraceptives and if she can abort a pregnancy.  Those decisions are too important to leave in the hands of women.  All guys could grab women by the genitals knowing they secretly want us to.  And if not that, it is OK to cover their mouths so they cannot scream while we grope them and undress them.  So if we could simply downgrade female rights and female citizenship we would be making America great again. 

How about minority rights?  We’ve really screwed up there.  We know Anglos by definition are smarter and better than any other race.  Why in the world do we need to even think about quotas or equal access or integration of schools?  Birds of a feather flock together so let’s return to the good old days when Blacks lived in defined areas and kept to themselves except when we needed to hire them for menial labor.  The thought of a Black president is equally ludicrous.  And if we appoint any Black to a position of power or influence he or she must know their place and totally support the White perspective, i.e. Uncle Toms.  Blacks may not protest.  They should sit in the back of the bus and feel lucky that they have a seat.  If they are shot by police more than whites it is because they deserve it.  If they simply knew their place we would all be better off.  Same is true for Hispanics.  They were meant to be roofers and body shop workers.  Any other role is truly out of the question.  Even though we make them pay taxes it is not fair that they come here and expect the benefits of white Americans.  If they would just stay put and work for us life would be great, even if they send most of what they earn back to their families in some poor shit hole country.  So if we reverse the trend of treating racial minorities as human beings with rights we would be making America great again.

It will continue to be OK, however, for racial minorities to play professional sports and fill the ranks of our armed services.

How about religion?  This whole notion of separating church and state is probably sinful.  We are a nation of mostly Christians so Christian policy should be implemented everywhere.  We should have religious icons in all our public places, begin all meetings with prayer, allow believers to discriminate against or punish those whom the Bible says are sinful, i.e. homosexuals, transgender, etc.  We should return to the way it was in Europe when our fore fathers came here.  Each nation had a government-supported religion and if you happened to believe differently you were persecuted and that was OK.  Or, we should take a lesson from the Muslims and simply establish a theocracy.  That would make America great again, at least for the Christians, if they could ever agree on what the policies should be.

How about guns?  Every man, woman, teacher and child should have guns.  (Well, maybe arming women would turn out to be a mistake.)  If all the good guys had guns the bad guys would all get shot.  And for those who are afraid the government will show up to take our guns away we must be able to fight.  We must keep our guns because if the National Guard arrives at our houses to disarm us, we must have deer rifles to defend ourselves against the tanks and mortars.  Besides, how can we enjoy the thrill of killing mammals and fowl if we do not have firearms?  We know that the more guns there are equals the more shootings there are, but we have never tried arming everyone.  We would have to do some screening, however, to be sure that Democrats do not get guns.  If we could do all that we would make America great again.

How about social welfare programs?  It pisses me off that I work so hard and some of my tax dollars get spent on welfare for lazy, do-nothing criminals, drug addicts and bums.  It doesn’t bother me that we have cut back on mental health funding and a lot of people who should be hospitalized are on the street.  That’s what they get for being messed up.  It doesn’t bother me that most of the welfare money is spent on children.  It doesn’t bother me that some folks don’t qualify for welfare because they are working three unskilled jobs and make too much money.  It doesn’t bother me that it is harder to register and receive welfare than it is to buy a gun.  It does not bother me that people sleep under bridges and go hungry and without medical care.  That’s their problem.  They may be victims of circumstance but until we start punishing those victims things will not get better.  And where the hell does the Bible say we have the responsibility to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, heal the sick and welcome the stranger?  Abolishing welfare will allow this section of our society to simply die a slow death and America could be great again.

How about income tax?  Only makes sense to reward the most successful people and companies by reducing the amount of money they are taxed.  Though it hasn’t happened yet, surely these good people, these winners, will spend their new found money on new factories and higher salaries for their workers and stop spending their new found money on executive salaries and bonuses, purchasing their own stock and increasing dividends.  Meanwhile, the less than rich get a tax cut too, but it will not offset the rise in health care insurance, groceries, rent, and interest rates.  That’s OK.  These people vote to MAGA and this is the price they pay for philosophical support.  And the huge debt that the government has now created can only be reduced if we cut back on welfare, Social Security, Medicare, etc.  Perfect scenario, we continue to punish the victims supported by the anger of the middle class.  That will make America great again.

How about foreign policy?  Why have a foreign policy, much less one grounded in core values and beliefs?  We are the biggest dog on the block and people need to fear our bite.  We can get a lot done just with threats and bullying, cutting foreign aid if we don’t like what that country is doing, and spending more on the military.  We should insult our allies who have been hiding behind us for years and elevate dictators in countries that were hostile to us.  We do not want to be the leaders of the free world.  We're America first and to hell with the rest, even when they start making treaties without us, negotiate deals not involving us, and laugh at us in the UN.  This approach will work great as long as there is not a global economy and no instant global communication.  We are making America great again for Americans, who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

How about the environment?  If we protect the environment we hurt the ability of fossil fuel related industries to make money.  It’s that simple.  I know there is a lot of science out there that says global warming is a result of fossil fuels, but the oil companies have hired researchers who disagree.  We need to punch more holes in the ground, lay more pipelines, build more refineries, and initiate more fracking.  If you have more earthquakes, more hurricanes, more contaminated water and farmland and forests you should just shut up and buy Exxon stock.  That is how we will make America great again.

How about work related safety requirements?  What a joke.  Do you know how expensive it is to the producers to provide eye wash stations, first aid kits, safety training, safety equipment and liability insurance?  It is astronomical.  We can make America great again by eliminating safety requirements and letting the workers know they are on their own to keep themselves safe at work.

How about voter registration and voting?  Let’s be honest.  If everyone over the age of 18 voted on election day Republicans would never win.  Democratic voters vastly outnumber Republican voters.  We must find a way to limit the number of Democrats who can vote.  How do we do that?  We draw district lines so that the Democratic vote is diluted and Republicans can win.  We purge voting roles ever so often so people must re-register and Democrats will not know to do that.  We will require additional documentation when people show up to vote like picture ID’s.  That will scare off some of the Democratic voters.   Keep election day on a work day so that mangers and CEO’s and stay at home Moms can most easily vote and working men and woman have a hard time voting.  We are on the right track with all these initiatives and that is how we got into power in the first place.  Yep, we are making America great again, just not more democratic.

I have got to quit.  I tried.  I really tried to see the benefits associated with the MAGA crowd and I cannot find a benefit for anyone other than the wealthy, bigoted, misogynist crowd.  Women, minorities, the environment, the economy, and international diplomacy are all worse off under these assumptions.  I am sick to my stomach.  This is not America.  This is not what made America great nor is it the path to maintain our greatness.  It is a path to the past.  It is a path to promoting wealth accumulation at the expense of societal improvement.  For the poor, middle class and working class Americans who bought into this, you have been misled.  You have been conned.  You are now supporting un-American polices.  America is not getting great.  It is going downhill from great.

We are becoming like any other 3rd world banana republic.  We do what the leader says because he says so.  Not because it is right, or even ethical, but because he says so.  Men are forgiven for using women as objects.  Corporations are forgiven for harming the environment while producing goods in dangerous situations for employees.  The religious views of the leader are becoming law.  The rich and powerful are buying elections.  The only ethic, the only good is money and power.  If that is what we are becoming then we are no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave.  We are the land of the craven and the home of the misbehaved.  The path to riches has no moral code.  That is up to us to establish.  Do good things for others.  Protect the weak.  Feed the hungry.  Heal the sick.  Welcome the stranger.

At least, do no harm.

Update 09.06.2018

If I got mad at Molson Coors Brewing Company I might write them a letter, post something mean on Facebook, use social media to organize a boycott, etc.  What I would not do is take my Miller Lites out of my fridge and pour them down the drain.  That hurts no one but me since I have already purchased the beer.  It reveals that I am stupid.  So, go ahead, those of you who do not understand the issue surrounding the NFL kneelers, do not understand the freedom to peacefully protest, do not understand the American hero Kaepernick truly is, go ahead and burn your Nikes.  You confirm what I have always suspected about you.  If you think the flag and the anthem is America and you think burning your own shoes makes a point then you are less than bright.

In the cuckoo’s nest the sane person must remain under cover and anonymous to both survive and provide contact with reality.  The anonymous author of today’s New York Times op ed is no coward.  A coward would have quit.  A coward would have buckled to the craziness.  A person that loves America would try to get word out from behind the lines to the rest of us.  To the author I say Dilly Dilly and buy yourself a pair of Nikes in case you are caught and must make a hasty retreat.  I appreciate you.

To those of you who through some magical, irrational act have convinced yourself that Kavanaugh is the best candidate for a lifetime appointment on the SCOTUS I say you are out of your minds.  If you have to keep his documents secret so we citizens won’t know the truth about him you violate the oath that put you in your chair in the first place.  If you are supporting him because he will take us back to the 1950’s then it is clear you have no business governing in this century.  If you confirm him you are cementing your own future.  He is not worth it.

And if Donald Trump is who he thinks he is, that is a great American hero sent to save us, brilliant, articulate, and stable man, then he would resign immediately based on what has been revealed this week and before knowing that the world now sees him as a buffoon, a danger, and a source if chaos.  The fact that he hangs on and lashes out is evidence that he is not great,he is as we now see him, and he must be removed.  If God chose Donald Trump then he must have done so to wake up the rest of us.

Things You Probably Don’t Want to Think About

The earliest homo sapien bones have been found in Ethiopia, Africa.  Those bones are 200,000 years old.  Therefore, we are an African species.  All of us.  We all are descendants from shit hole countries.  Even if you believe there is some magic that makes these bones appear to be 200,000 years old when they are really just 10,000 years old or so then you cannot explain that the oldest bones still come from Africa.  We have found none older.  Of course those of you who continue to use books written 4,000 years ago to explain the world in conflict with what we know from science today will become extinct because to be philosophically pure you will no doubt give up modern medicine, cell phones, TV’s, automobiles, etc.  Otherwise you are consuming the fruit of the tree you want to chop down.

Yes, global warming is real.  It is mostly man-made this time.  It is caused and promoted by those in the fossil fuel industry who quite frankly care more about the money they can make today than the quality of life of their grandchildren.  Besides, if they did not make billions they could not convince the ignorant among us to vote into office those who most accelerate our destruction.

About 60,000 years ago as the human population in Africa grew, some brave humans struck out for other parts.  Some followed the southern coastline around the Indian Sea and ended up in Australia.  Some went north then west and eventually populated North Africa, Southern Europe, Western Europe, and Northern Europe.  Some from the original southern coastline group broke off and went north into Asia then Eastern Russia before they crossed a land bridge into Alaska.  Those groups headed south and populated North and South America about 15,000 years ago, thousands of years after India, Europe, and Asia were populated.  10,000 years ago agriculture emerged and the human population began to explode.  We did not grow so much when we were hunters.  We did as farmers.  Humans have been here for 200,000 years but mastered control of fire about 125,000 years ago.  For 75,000 years we all ate our steaks rare.

If you live in America you are an immigrant.  Our only native home appears to be Africa.  Your family may have emigrated 15,000 years ago from Asia and we refer to you as Native Americans, but really you are Asian immigrants.  If your family came to this hemisphere as recently as 1,000 years ago by boat from northern Europe or by boat from Australia, then you too are an immigrant.  If your family came here about 300 years ago or less from Europe then you are part of the last arrivals here.  It is funny now that these new comers want to keep “immigrants” out, especially those who have been here thousands of years longer than they have, and especially those from shit hole countries like all of us migrated from in the first place.

If you migrated here from Europe in the 1600’s and 1700’s you were not part of the established elite in Europe.  You were not royal.  You were not landed gentry.  You were not wealthy.  If you had any of those characteristics you would not have left Europe.  Why would you?  No, if you migrated here you were likely opposed to some dominant, state-backed religion, you were in trouble with the law, you were poor, you were a member of some minority or another and you came here for freedom of opportunity and freedom from oppression by the powerful in Europe.  Of course once your forefathers arrived and became wealthy you began a systematic rejection of other immigrants because they were a minority race, poor, believed different religions, and/or were criminals.  What a hypocritical hoot.

To the original writers of our Constitution Freedom of Religion also meant freedom from religion.  It did not mean that some majority religion was allowed to discriminate based on their beliefs grounded in a 4,000 year-old Bronze Age document.  It did not mean that some majority religion could erect religious icons and symbols of their faith, or stamp their logo on our currency, or require school children to recite religious loyalty oaths in classrooms.  It did not mean that tax dollars collected from all could be spent on those who believe like the majority.  If you do not think that is true, put the shoe on the other foot and picture the day when the fastest growing religion in the world, Muslims, become the majority in America and want to do the same things Christians want to do now.  You would likely hit the streets.

As more and more men and women of different racial backgrounds produce children, and as those mixed race children grow up to have children, the human race will eventually merge into a coffee colored race.  It is inevitable and it is happening.  This will be really tough on the bigots who prefer to judge humans on degree of pigment in the skin.  Time to abandon prejudice by race.  We are all of the same species.

As scientific advances accelerate we will abandon more and more religious beliefs that conflict with reality.  The earth is not flat.  The moon is not a source of light.  The earth is not the center of the solar system, much less the universe.  Evolution is a fact, not a theory.  The earth is 4.5 billion years old.  Human beings as we define them have been here about 200,000 years.  All matter was created at the Big Bang about 14 billion years ago.  Life emerges everywhere conditions allow.  99% of all life that ever existed on our planet is now extinct.  We are destroying the only planet where we can currently survive.  Less than 15% of this planet is habitable by human beings. 

That’s likely enough to get your had spinning or to get your head nodding depending on what you want to believe and what is real.

Alien Point of View

I find it liberating and illuminating to assume the point of view another person, a person who is different than me.  I read a book in high school entitled, Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin, and it had a profound impact on my thinking.  Griffin was a white journalist who in 1961 dyed his skin very dark and entered the southern United States as a Black Person.  His experiences are amazing.  Ever since, I try to imagine the world through the eyes of others:  A Syrian refugee, an African mother watching her children starve, a Muslim Jihadist who hates America, a fourth generation Mexican American, a hedge fund manager, etc.  I have very little in common with these imaginary people, and I can only guess what they may be thinking or feeling.  But I am enlightened by the mental effort.

It seems only reasonable to advance this mental exercise to include a sentient alien life form.  I picture an incredibly knowledgeable being, carbon based, bipodal who is capable of conversation in my own language.  I picture a female being with luminescent eyes, hairless head, and thin limbs.  Though wise and knowing she is blessed with empathy as well.  She comes to me as I walk a lonely path in a forest at night, with a full moon lighting my way.  I hear crickets and owls and nocturnal beasts scurrying in the dark before a wind and a wush and she stands before me.  Her thin mouth smiles.  I feel no fear as her features hold no anger, no hostility.  Just a smile and a deep curiosity as she gazes at me and me at her for the first time, taking in our similarities and differences.  She tells me her name is Sitio.  We begin a dialog.

She asks why I walk the woods at night in the dark all alone.  I tell her that though there are many humans I love and many humans with whom I enjoy sharing time and space, I feel the need to remove myself from them for alone time, to think, to ponder, to reflect.  Yes, in answer to her question, this was to be such a time.  No, Sitio, I do not want you to leave me to my alone time.  I would much rather spend it with you than alone.  She smiles again.

I have many questions, she says.  As do I!  We both start talking at once and I laugh, she smiles.  That is such a remarkable sound, she says, when you open your mouth and make noises from your diaphragm that have no meaning but sound happy.  They are happy, I reply.  We call it laughter and all humans are capable of it when they are amused or happy.  We have no such sounds, she says.  We smile.  I say that in some ways that strikes me as sad.  Her head cocks as she ponders my response.

You appear to be a female, I say.  Yes, she says.  I am.  We have two genders as do you.  Then you ask your questions first as in our culture we allow women to go first.  Why? She asks.  Are they stronger or superior to males so they go first?  I laugh again.  No, it is an assumption from our past that women are to be coddled and cherished so males allow them to go first to demonstrate our own strength.  Males are chivalrous.  We will give up a seat on a life boat for a woman, or a child.  Amazing she said.  It sounds as though females have tricked you into this assumption that letting them win is somehow a victory for males.  My head cocks as I ponder her response.

She begins:  Why do humans war against each other?  Why do you fight?  Why do you compete?  It seems to result in such waste, so much death, so much hunger.  It results in some having very much and others having very little.  Are some humans more important than other humans?  Wow is all I can say.  I think for a moment, then respond.  We argue that as we evolved we had to compete to survive.  As we advanced it became clear that those who could win in wars and competition had more than those who did not.  So we developed heroes who won and others became losers.  We do that still today.  We have a very hard time imagining a society of collaboration and sharing.  We have always pictured life as a struggle, a competition.  We believe that such struggles and such competitions make us stronger and smarter.  It is in our best interest to compete.

She smiles again.  That of course, is nonsense, she says.  You claim to advance via competition and war when in fact that is what destroys you.  That is what wastes your resources.  If you collaborated and shared rather than vesting so much energy in competition both in your wealth accumulation and war machines then you would be so much better off.  All of you.  Your planet would be healthier.  Everyone would have food, shelter, clothing, medicine.  No human would have basic needs deprived as your resources are so great.  It makes no sense to us.  It appears that you think of yourselves as advanced because you now cook your meat even though you use the same principles to get your meat.

I am stumped.  The issue she has raised as her first question right off the bat is so profound to me my head spins.  What would a cooperative society look like?  How could we curtail our desire to have more and to demonstrate superiority to our neighbors if we did not compete, if we did not want to win?  Is it our nature to compete, or is that learned behavior?  What would it look like to have a culture where we each want for others what we want for ourselves? 

Your eyes are moving rapidly back and forth, she says.  Does that mean you are thinking?  Yes, I guess it does I reply.  Good, she says.

Now tell me about religion.  It appears a large number of humans believe in a deity, a being that they cannot see.  A being with total power and total knowledge.  A being that can punish them or reward them.  A being they pray to, worship, give money to, take pilgrimages in behalf of.  A being who moderates over a heaven of eternal bliss for the spirits of those who die and a being who controls a hell of eternal torture for others who die. A being that rules over all, is capable of doing anything, and created all.  Even more interesting is that humans do not worship the same deity.  There are many deities all of whom have many followers.  Is that accurate?

That is pretty much accurate, I think.  I tell her I come from a Christian heritage so I cannot speak with any knowledge of other belief systems.  I know that there are more Christians than any other faith, followed by Muslims.  Atheists make up the third largest group, more than Buddhists, Hindus and Jews combined.  But, other than atheists, your description sounds mostly Christian.

Sitio asks, are there not only 3 possibilities regarding such a deity?  One is that there is no such deity, two is that there is such a deity and that deity controls everything so that all that happens, good and bad, can be laid at the feet of the deity, or three that there is such a deity but that deity does not intervene in human affairs, perhaps because the deity has a secret plan for humans, or perhaps because such a deity just likes to observe.  None of the three options promotes beseeching and worshipping the deity as all three options eliminate the likelihood of divine intervention.  None of the three possibilities provide evidence of such a being.

Are you and your people atheists then? I ask.  She smiles.  We were never theists so to be atheist has no meaning.  Early in our history there were many things we did not know and did not understand but we simply perceived those things as unknown or challenges.  We did not make up answers, we sought answers.  That is one of the reasons why you are so interesting to us.  You made up answers and despite your knowledge still hold on to those beliefs.

Is there no God?  No heaven, no hell, no life after death? I ask.  We have found no evidence to support any of those beliefs, she says.  There is no life before birth and no life after death.  There are no such mythical places as heaven and hell housing post mortem spirits for all eternity.  In fact we see such beliefs as silly and child-like.  But I do not wish to offend.  Your life form tends to react irrationally if beliefs are challenged.

I ask, what is your moral base?  What is your code of ethics?  Sitio smiles again.  Simple, she says.  If a behavior benefits others it is good.  If a behavior benefits the individual at the expense of others it is bad.  We do not deal with rights or wrongs, just consequences as either good or bad. 

I tell her I do not understand.  Yes you do, you just do not apply that code everywhere and to everyone.  A mother is exhausted caring for her sick child.  She wants to leave and go somewhere to have an alcoholic beverage.  If she does, she leaves the sick child unattended but she benefits.  If she leaves is that good or bad?  OK, I get that.  A “good” mom would stay with the child rather than seek selfish benefits.  But life is more complicated than that.  No, she says, it is not if I am mother to all and child to all.

My head hurts.

Sitio smiles her enigmatic smile again and tells me she has enjoyed our conversation very much.  She learned much and has much to ponder.  I tell her I feel the same.  Good, she says, we shall do this again.

She turns, walks into the woods and with a wind and a wush she is gone. 

Wow.  Not surprising that someone from the stars is over my head.