Category Archives: Politics

A nation divided . . .

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A bill has been introduced in Congress to make Chicago the 51st state. Illinois is one of many states where one or more very large cities, like Chicago, dominate state politics. Mariner lives near the Illinois line and he knows downstate Illinois is no Chicago! It is classic conservative versus liberal, rural versus urban, agriculture versus manufacturing, republican versus democrat. The situation in Illinois is how Donald can brag he won Illinois because he won 90 counties out of 102. Donald does not mention that he lost Illinois to Hillary 5 to 3 in the popular vote.

By party affiliation Illinois is the third most democratic state in the Union behind New York and California. Converting the state from counties to districts which directly affects representation to the Electoral College, there are 18 congressional districts plus two at large for a total of 20. As it turned out, Hillary took all 20 because Illinois is one of those states that require all Electoral College representatives to represent the popular vote. However, seven of those districts were won by Donald. Many states do not follow Illinois’ interpretation and allow each district to represent its own vote. This is how Donald won the Electoral College in 2016.

So much for statistics. The real issue is a split society. These circumstances remind mariner of Ancient Greece during the era of city-states; it reminds him of the south versus the north in 1860; it reminds him of the generational dichotomy during the 1960’s. Now, it is conflict between thinly populated, monolithic agricultural regions versus crowded, high tech, internet-linked, culturally diverse cities.

The latest news demonstrates the defensiveness between rural and city in that nine states refuse to participate in Covid-19 recommendations. Defiance in either culture is a dangerous sign.

The US, among many nations around the world, is confronted by the Big Four: Economy, Global Warming, Artificial Intelligence and Role of Government. But now for the US, there is a fifth: cultural bifurcation.

This situation literally forces the Republic’s governments and its citizens to take control of dysfunctional relationships between the cultures. Specifically, the relationships in disarray are:

Taxes, Senate representation of population, gerrymandering, term limits, Electoral College and plutocracy (money runs the government).

Coronavirus certainly picked a terrible time to join the battle.

Ancient Mariner

Life with the flu

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֎ No sooner than mariner mentions the joy of being a united society against Covid-19 than the gun industry rises up saying it is exempt from the virus-associated instructions to stay in, avoid public gatherings and, in some states, close retail businesses.

Who didn’t guess they claim it’s the Second Amendment that protects them?

Further, reports are emerging that the conservative rural US denies the behavior of the dense city liberals and does not enforce the national mandates; rather, the mandates have become a litmus test for whose side one is on. Mariner suggests Donald instigates this attitude. It had occurred to mariner that sooner or later big government intrusion may not be appreciated by minimalists.

As the mariner’s wife suggests, the rural folks aren’t aware of exponential progression (1-2-4-8-16-32-64-128-256 . . . .). That’s how Covid-19 expands.

Shake the dust, folks, shake the dust.[1]

֎ Following is a significant paragraph from The Economist (March 02):

“So Covid-19 could soon be all over poor countries. And their health care systems are in no position to cope. Many cannot deal with infectious diseases they already know, let alone a new and highly contagious one. Health spending per head in Pakistan is one two-hundredth the level in America. Uganda has more government ministers than intensive care beds … the Spanish flu wiped out 6 percent of India’s entire population.”

It’s a big world and a small one. The world has struggled to redefine cultural values around global warming. Covid-19 will be much more invasive much more rapidly and much more deadly than rising seas and changing weather. Mariner iterates the hope for unity not only in the US but around the world.

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Have news viewers noticed that major newscasts now occur not from a big studio but from the homes of newscasters? Have viewers been distracted by being nosey about what kind of home the announcers have? As the rest of the population begins to learn how to use Skype, Facetime, Zoom and other video conferencing software, one’s friends and business associates may learn about the state of the reader’s kitchen or the noisy, uncontrolled children running around or the unmade bed. “Zip your fly, Dad!”

As the public becomes associated with video conferencing and live streaming, it behooves them to prepare a small space just as a background for socializing from the home. Set the lights so the reader’s face is properly lit; have a nice chair and houseplant visible; if there is a bookcase, reorganize the book titles so that the more erudite titles show (cameras can read book titles); herd the children to soundproof quarters by exceedingly bribing them; have an upscale floor lamp handy and a faux window with a wide angle view of a plush countryside. Of course, one must dress accordingly at least from the waist up.

Ancient Mariner

[1] This is a metaphorical term mariner likes. He invented it in the post ‘Pondering the rest of the year’ posted 03/28/20: “Like a horse rises from the ground and shakes off the dust, the United States must rise and shake off the dust of the twentieth century.”

Restricted to the compound

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֎ The ‘shelter in place’ has not affected mariner much. He mostly stays at home anyway. However, the garden season is fast approaching and mariner has begun to start many, well, too many projects for garden improvement; he has added organizing the basement and is adding more shelves in his workshop.

Focusing on the compound increases mariner’s awareness of small things. For example, he and his wife maintain a bird feeder outside the kitchen window. A large variety of birds, rodents, squirrels and rabbits are regular visitors. This draws predators as well. Mariner and his wife have seen a red tailed hawk swoop in to capture a small rodent, a large cat visits regularly and a fox was seen carrying a squirrel carcass.

Mariner’s town has had resident foxes the past few years which has kept the rabbit population low. Five years ago there were rabbits under every bush and rhubarb plant. One year he planted 40 perennials in a border; as they started to grow, they all disappeared in one night. In self-defense mariner now has a 117 gauge bb rifle at hand. Recently, the rabbits don’t visit very often thanks to the predators.

The other irritating creature is Japanese beetles. Mariner has advice for readers: don’t ever use beetle traps because every Japanese beetle in town will swarm to the reader’s garden. Mariner tried it once; he had to replace the little bag that comes with the trap with a 40-gallon trash bag. That bag weighed 23 pounds and mariner still had thousands of beetles in his apple trees, rosebushes, and shrubs.

֎ So much for mariner’s shut-in world. As the ‘shelter in place’ restriction and the accompanying crowd limitations spreads to significant portions of the United States, mariner is fascinated by the way social interaction changed. It’s as if the virus has forced society to do a training drill for how society will change as new concepts of economy emerge, how working from home will be a major aspect of jobs under artificial intelligence, as the retail world finally succumbs to online purchase and delivery and how active group experiences among friends, neighbors and extended families is adapting to Internet communication.

A new Skype-type product, ZOOM, is a fast rising software product. A full harmonic orchestra was able to play classical music together with ZOOM. Check it out with the reader’s search engine.

It is, however, a harrowing time. Pandemics have and will change the path of the future. Given the nation’s political conflicts, it is a good feeling to have everyone united for a common cause.

Ancient Mariner

 

Pondering the rest of the year

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֎ The reason Donald wants to get rid of the shelter in place and the six-foot rule in rural counties is because in the November election delegates to the Electoral College are assigned from election districts representing, more or less, one or more counties. Just to make sure everyone understands how the Electoral College works, mariner quotes Wikipedia:

  • The Electoral College is a body of electors established by the United States Constitution, which forms every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president of the United States.
    The Electoral College consists of 538 electors, and an absolute majority of at least 270 electoral votes is required to win the election. According to Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution, each state legislature determines the manner by which its state’s electors are chosen. Each state’s number of electors is equal to the combined total of the state’s membership in the Senate and House of Representatives; currently there are 100 senators and 435 representatives. Additionally, the Twenty-third Amendment, ratified in 1961, provides that the District of Columbia is entitled to the number of electors it would have if it were a state, but no more than the least populated state.

Donald’s favorite Electoral College map shows counties he won in red:

Mariner has written about how thin Donald’s 2016 victory was in a handful of states.[1] Now, with the interruption of the Coronavirus, mariner is concerned that the anticipated groundswell of democratic voters will not occur in November. As the democratic turnout lessens, the more likely the Electoral College will come into play. Red states assured, Donald’s campaign managers have their eye on flipping the same four states: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Less democratic turnout quickly will bring Florida and Iowa into the mix. In 2016, two western states had delegates that did not support the popular vote in their states; this likely may occur again.

֎ The coronavirus has interrupted not only how large the turnout will be but how the electorate will vote. The virus likely will be around through the summer and certainly won’t be gone by November. State election supervisors may have to change the rules for voting, perhaps to mail-in, email, telephone or whatever. Besides the issues of bureaucracy, imagine 50 separate states dealing with security, timeliness, accuracy and gerrymandering. Further, how the electorate votes can dramatically shift the results. For example, recently Montana had several elections within months. The counties complained about cost since the counties had to pay for the elections. The counties suggested a mail-in. The republicans nixed this idea because if everyone voted in Montana, clearly it would be a blue state.

֎ Sadly, the intellectualism and idealism that dominated the democratic campaign for President has been pushed aside by the virus. Still, the twenty-first century remains an unsettled and undefined future. At this time in history, many large events will unfold whether the US and other nations are prepared or not. Like a horse rises from the ground and shakes off the dust, the United States must rise and shake off the dust of the twentieth century. Elect young, smart and humanistic representatives to the entire Republic.

Ancient Mariner

[1] See ‘It is time to pick’ (Jan 26) and ‘Whoever wins Wisconsin wins the Presidency’ (Feb. 5)

What would Socrates say?

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Mariner recently reported on the corruption of Wells Fargo Bank forcing line level employees to create false customer accounts in order to increase bank profits. Mariner knows he is an eccentric but the word profit is a synonym for selfishness, is an abuse of power, and metaphorically profit is comparable to reusable resources that are thrown away every day rather than make further use of them. Power and profit often are the same coin. To wit:

A Newsy and USA TODAY investigation reveals that former employees of one of America’s fastest-growing dental chains say they saw dentists — under pressure to hit revenue targets — repeatedly suggesting treatments patients didn’t need. Patients complained they were diagnosed with a mouthful of cavities only to later discover nothing was wrong with their teeth. Former employees said they felt uncomfortable with what they witnessed. “I have watched them drilling perfectly healthy teeth multiple times a day every day,” said dental assistant Ashley Hughes. Watch “Open Wide” on Newsy.com or stream it anytime on Roku and Fire TV.

The clearest example of a remedy for the profit disease is set by the Native American Indians (mariner has cited this example on numerous occasions). The notable person in the society was the hunter. What sustained Indian culture for thousands of years was that whatever the hunter brought home did not belong to him; it belonged to the tribe and was distributed accordingly. Not until white man appeared did ideas like profit, wealth and supply and demand become cultural terms. One of mariner’s heroes, Will Rogers, lived by the code of his Native American ancestors.

Everyone deserves to be comfortable in life and to have feelings of fiscal sustainability. However, to possess billions of dollars just to possess them is tantamount to leftover food tossed in the trash rather than redistributing it for re-purposing.

A hackneyed complaint of mariner’s is the pharmaceutical industry. CEOs take home an average of $26 million as an annual salary. Meanwhile, the ‘tribe’ has lives ruined – if not ended – to sustain a corporate profit based on what the marketplace will tolerate. Mariner speculates that no person can make meaningful use of profits beyond what it takes to live quite comfortably; excess profits are an abuse of power and a rejection of tribal responsibility.

When FDR was confronted with the great depression, he changed tax laws to limit income to $33,000 annually[1]. If anyone earned more, that amount was sent to the government as tax due. The principle was that the government needed every dollar it could muster to sustain the nation. In perspective, today virtually every major corporation hides billions of dollars in profit – and the privileged class does as well. These dormant assets are not in use; they are in a cash attic. True, these assets can be used to hoard additional cash through investment and that profit, too, is put in the attic.

It was Socrates who questioned whether wealth was a good thing. He also pondered what was good for the human condition, which he felt was a preeminent concept to understand if humanity was to be happy. Today’s societies, if not at war or destitute, are too busy becoming rich or richer to notice that more and more humans are not happy and cannot sustain themselves financially.

Socrates wasn’t sure about democracy, either. He believed that the ultimate power in life was knowledge – even to the point of denouncing trial by one’s peers. He saw in the democratic method an easy boat to sink because voting was not controlled by knowledge but by the myriad vices of the population.

We need Socrates today. In what direction is wisdom? In what direction is happiness? Donald is a classic antagonist for the US: he can’t read, lead, believe valid truths, or have compassion. Only wealth calls his name.

Beyond Donald, humanity around the planet watches an entire civilization crumble. Is the Coronavirus one of the four horsemen along with artificial intelligence, rampant capitalism and cannibalism of the human soul by big data? What kind of culture will emerge that will bring happiness to humanity? Does today’s world know what is good for the human condition? If it did, could it abide?

Ancient Mariner

[1] $656,644 today.

Some Good News

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֎ Some Good News from RealClearPolitics –

“Yet the furious resuscitation of Biden’s political fortunes has not only positioned his party more strongly against Trump in the general election, but suddenly scrambled the Senate map. Four Republicans up for reelection are now officially behind their challengers (or their most likely challengers) by four percentage points or more. And Biden’s numbers against an incumbent Trump show he is stronger than Hillary Clinton ever was in 2016 against the insurgent outsider most Americans expected would lose.

“More important than his wins against Sanders have been the underlying numbers behind Biden’s success this past week. In a majority of the primaries, he is winning a broad and deep coalition that threatens Republicans’ ability to hold the Senate and the White House. With black voters, suburban voters, white voters without a college degree, white voters with a college degree, union and non-union, Republicans and independents, Biden’s breadth of support is remarkable.” [A.B. Stoddard]

֎ Some Good News from Politico –

“After holding more than 300 rallies during the 2016 campaign and nearly 100 more since he was elected—after going last month to Iowa and New Hampshire and Nevada and South Carolina to “troll” Democrats in the runups to the primaries—the president was not in Michigan, Missouri or Mississippi this past week, and he won’t be in Ohio or Illinois or Florida or Arizona ahead of Tuesday’s votes. He has canceled events in Las Vegas, Denver and Milwaukee. And for the first time in a long, long time, Trump has on his typically merry-go-round docket of rallies … nothing.”

Three days from now, millions of voters in Arizona, Illinois, Florida, and Ohio will grasp the same door handles, drag their fingers across the same touch-screen voting machines, and wait in long lines with dozens of other people knowing full well infection with the virus is likely. True, this is not completely good news but the good news is the spirit and dedication of the electorate to fulfill an important job as a democratic citizen. Everyone in the nation knows this is an historic vote that will lift the nation’s tires from the mud or allow the tires to dig deeper in the muck.

Election administrators in the four states have stepped up routines aimed at cleanliness, suggesting early voting, bring one’s own pen, and staffing a continuous effort of wiping down the machinery, handles and furniture. Administrators expect there to be a small drop off in voters but that commitment runs high in the districts.

Ancient Mariner

Does Virus = More Donald?

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Now mariner is frightened. Chicken Little is apoplectic. Mariner learned today that States are beginning to push out primaries for months. The virus may keep a hoard of voters away from the polls in November; one politician suggested extending the election for a year!!! Mariner’s palsied and now frantic fingers can barely type.
It is classic Donald luck that a pandemic came along after he had defunded the department that handles pandemics. The pandemic is apolitical and Donald clearly doesn’t know what to do. Ironically, the virus comes at the end of his first term and may affect the election greatly in his favor. Mariner is speechless and on the verge of epileptic and catatonic failure.
Rick Wilson, a popular pundit on MSNBC, wrote a book titled, “Everything Trump Touches Dies.” It is true – his cohorts cast aside to serve jail time, government stalwarts and experts tossed out like garbage, and a nation falling to its knees. He wouldn’t be around except for his father’s money, the stealing of liquid assets from several of his corporations forcing bankruptcy, tax fraud, and collusion with several dictators all of whom are involved in oil.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is our saint, our example of salvation. Justice Ginsberg stays on the Supreme Court bench in spite of a health condition that would have sent most folks to the afterlife years ago. The electorate must emulate Saint Ginsberg. Keep the faith; keep the voter registration card at hand; stay alive to vote in November.
Mariner is going to the shop to make trellises.
Ancient Mariner

Opines

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֎ It seems the democratic candidates are trying to keep the party truck on the highway. Joe should incorporate a clearly progressive objective into his platform to demonstrate his support for Bernie’s advocates and Bernie needs to cancel pejorative, personal assaults on Joe. Still, Bernie must stay in the race all the way to the democratic convention to keep the progressive bloc participating in the process to nomination. No citizen, democratic, independent, moderate, other than white, white, progressive or otherwise can miss or not feel part of the presidential election in November. Remember the wicked witch of the Electoral College.

֎ The tactics of the professional health experts appear to be making progress in managing the public regarding the coronavirus. The tactics seem fragmented but just may constitute a unified plan on different levels. The big challenge is to have enough tests available. Mariner’s fear is that Donald and Congress will pass blanket relief for the financially challenged but at the same time will give the oligarchs a windfall.

Coronavirus is dominating all news traffic at the moment which is appropriate. Sequester and quarantine may cause income damage but may provide a fresh focus on things. It may be a chance to do some face time with the family. Can the reader still name them all? Mariner’s wife suggested a self-managed job for high schoolers freed from attendance: babysit for families where younger children are home alone.

֎No NBA? No March Madness? No Indian Wells? No Tokyo Olympics? What’s a chair jock to do? Virus is one thing but this is going too far! Mariner already has overbuilt the Alaskan wilderness, botched all of Alton Brown’s recipes, remodeled over a hundred homes, memorized the history of England, listened to Morgan Freeman tell the story of God twice, won dozens of times on Family Feud and failed terribly at Jeopardy. What’s left? No, No – not cable news! Time to try ROKU.

Ancient Mariner

 

More Important than TrumpNews

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֎ How would a quarantine actually work in the U.S.? It would be an utter mess. Part of the reason is that the federal government can’t just step in with a quarantine. America’s public-health system is split into 2,684 state, local, and tribal public-health departments, and each of them have jurisdiction over whether to impose quarantines if needed. [The Atlantic]

The U.S. economy has been something of a ticking time bomb for some time.

  • Growth has declined over the last two years despite higher government spending and a $23.4 trillion national debt.
  • The labor market has boomed, but many of the jobs added have been hourly service-industry positions that offer limited health insurance.
  • Brookings Institution reports that 44% of all U.S. workers earn barely enough to live on.

֎ As if corruption from the outside world isn’t enough, and Donald has spread a blanket of ‘executive privilege’ unheard of in history, and two billionaires ran for president at the same time, and a blatantly guilty president was found not guilty by the Senate, and money in significant sums flows into every Congressperson’s bucket on a daily basis – now Congress is making the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) a useless watchdog. OCE does not have subpoena power, so lawmakers have decided that not cooperating is the better approach. All OCE can do is request a visit and look at surface evidence but Congress simply ignores these requests.

Most if not all OCE requests have to do with misappropriation of campaign funds and illegal liaisons with private enterprise (e.g. Mar-a-Lago). As 44 percent of the population struggles to sustain a household, elected officials are accepting abundant cash. Is it any wonder none of them will vote for term limits?

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One needs to escape this disheveled world for the sake of sanity. This is so needed that mariner spent the entire day in his shop sorting large containers of junk – most of it brought from the farm 10 years ago. The day passed quietly with no thought beyond whether he wants to keep 37 brackets used to frame buildings.

Ancient Mariner

 

It’s Monday

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The Monday morning gossip around the keyboard is speculating about Joe Biden’s VP, cabinet positions, etc. The most succinct list is produced from Axios:

“Joe Biden confidants are privately discussing potential leaders and Cabinet members for his White House, including the need to name a woman or African American — perhaps both — as vice president.

John Kerry would love to take a new Cabinet position. Mike Bloomberg would be a top possibility to head the World Bank.

Sally Yates, the deputy attorney general under Obama who stood up to Trump and was fired is a leading contender for attorney general. Sen. Elizabeth Warren as Treasury secretary.

Jamie Dimon — chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, and mentioned over the years as a potential presidential candidate — would also be considered for Treasury.

Another possibility to head Treasury: Anne Finucane, vice chairman of Bank of America.

Behind the curtain: Campaign officials say the name game isn’t where Biden’s head is — he knows he has major primary and general-election fights ahead.

Officials point out they don’t yet have a transition — and haven’t run a process that would surface new talent, like Dr. Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize physicist who was Obama’s first secretary of energy.

It’s a sign of the sudden optimism around his candidacy that some in his circle of trust are starting to think down the road.”

It’s Monday morning and it will rain all day. No garden work today; mariner likely will stay in his workshop to make trellises for tomato plants.

As many families plan to do, mariner’s family is having a family get together this spring. This involves airline flights, interstate travel, old folks, children and dogs. The question for family gatherings is whether the virus will permit them.

In response to Ben’s speculation about the disappearance of Earth in the storm of the Sun’s death and therefore sustainability in the long run is not sustainable, Guru chimed in with his typical abstruse comment: There is no ultimate sustainability in the Universe. The Universe is the result of an explosion and, like explosions, will continue to dissipate that original energy until it is gone. This fact resides in all objects in space and in every living creature on Earth and elsewhere. There is no object or circumstance that does not dissipate energy from that original explosion.

First, however, humanity must make it to the twenty-second century. In the meantime, mariner is off to his shop to dissipate some energy making trellises.

Ancient Mariner