Category Archives: Politics

Beyond Voting for People

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Reader Ben submitted a website that provides another perspective into the will of the people rather than the will of legislators. It is the referendum or public initiative. A referendum is a petition signed by enough citizens that it qualifies to be on a ballot along with the vote for elected officials. It is true that state legislatures may submit a referendum as well. The importance of referenda is that they are driven by pure populism; it is the mood of the people at the street corner. There is no better source about the American attitude than to track ballot initiatives based on signatures of individual voters proposing legislation. Ben recommended a very rich source for learning about the world of public initiatives. See:

https://ballotpedia.org/2016_ballot_measures

Referenda are proclamations that rise out of discontent by the common masses. Typically, they are confrontational declarations reflecting a dissatisfied and often constrained public. While referenda allow the lowest personal emotional attitude to be expressed, the referendum process also demonstrates the fallacy of populist resistance.

For example, in California, a tax referendum was proposed that would change the state’s well being through to today (source: Wikipedia):

Proposition 13 (officially named the People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation) was an amendment of the Constitution of California enacted during 1978, by means of the initiative power. It was approved by California voters on June 6, 1978. It was declared constitutional under federal law by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Nordlinger v. Hahn, 505 U.S. 1 (1992). Proposition 13 is embodied in Article XIII A of the California Constitution. Proposition 13 has been part of the California Constitution for 38 years, 2 months, and 25 days.

The most significant portion of the act is the first paragraph, which limited the tax rate for real estate:

Section 1. (a) The maximum amount of any ad valorem tax on real property shall not exceed one percent (1%) of the full cash value of such property. The one percent (1%) tax to be collected by the counties and apportioned according to law to the districts within the counties.

The proposition decreased property taxes by assessing property values at their 1975 value and restricted annual increases of assessed value of real property to an inflation factor, not to exceed 2% per year. It also prohibited reassessment of a new base year value except for in cases of (a) change in ownership, or (b) completion of new construction.

In addition to decreasing property taxes, the initiative also contained language requiring a two-thirds (2/3) majority in both legislative houses for future increases of any state tax rates or amounts of revenue collected, including income tax rates and sales tax rates. It also requires a two-thirds (2/3) vote majority in local elections for most local governments proposing to increase special taxes.

end quote

The impact of this initiative brought the California government to its knees. Every category dependent on property taxes essentially went bankrupt – especially education. It remains this way today because the initiative requires a two-thirds vote to change it.

Alternatively, in many states, ballot initiatives have moved the role of marijuana toward legitimacy – in spite of Federal resistance.

There are two ideas in play that often are lumped together but in fact are clearly different. One is populism, which is an action in resistance or rebellion; the other is egalitarianism, which is a philosophy of government often in conflict with capitalist attitudes. The following is from a Stanford University tract:

Egalitarianism is a trend of thought in political philosophy. An egalitarian favors equality of some sort: People should get the same, or be treated the same, or be treated as equals, in some respect. An alternative view expands on this last-mentioned option: People should be treated as equals, should treat one another as equals, should relate as equals, or enjoy an equality of social status of some sort. Egalitarian doctrines tend to rest on a background idea that all human persons are equal in fundamental worth or moral status. So far as the Western European and Anglo-American philosophical tradition is concerned, one significant source of this thought is the Christian notion that God loves all human souls equally. Egalitarianism is a protean doctrine, because there are several different types of equality, or ways in which people might be treated the same, or might relate as equals, that might be thought desirable. In modern democratic societies, the term “egalitarian” is often used to refer to a position that favors, for any of a wide array of reasons, a greater degree of equality of income and wealth across persons than currently exists. End quote.

The philosophy of egalitarianism and the emotional act of populism have the same objective but require different processes for implementation. Egalitarianism requires a government which governs a culture of equality while populism does not require a pairing of government oversight with public attitude.

However, expediency is a tool of change. Bookmark Ben’s link.

Ancient Mariner

Nits

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EXISTENTIAL

The mariner long ago grew weary of individuals – especially in news media – abusing the word ‘existential.’ Everyone who abuses the word should be forced to read Kierkegaard and Sartre, the philosophers who established the purpose and philosophy that spawned a popular movement by the same name.

The most common abuse is to use ‘existential’ when in fact the proper word is ‘empirical.’ It is a directional error. Existentialism says that all interpretations of reality begin within the self; to declare something as real or present in behalf of others is to suggest an empirical reality – to which one may have an existential response.

Oh well, mariner’s professional philologist friend says forget it; people will use words as they will. That’s how language works. This is another reason old people pass on.

– – – –

THE ELECTION

The last post about gladiators and vector analysis was a dud as the mariner suspected – but he was entertained constructing the allegory. Below the mariner suggests six sources (dare he mention they are comparable to weights?) with which to measure a candidate’s momentum versus the opposing candidate(s).

538.com: Nate Silver is renowned for his accuracy in anything that is associated with probability from horse racing to political elections. His website provides the reasoning behind his projections and he does analysis of each poll in context – something television doesn’t do. Check the politics page at

http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/08/15/nate-silver-the-538-election-prediction-model-issue-historic-new-statement-stats/

Electoral College: Keeping track of votes by poll is deceptive. For example, polls asking voters who they will vote for shows Hillary ahead 43% to 40% while electoral votes have Hillary ahead 339-197 (270 to win). Unfortunately, each vote carries more or less influence depending on the state in which the vote occurs. The Electoral College allocates its votes at the state level according to the number of Congressional districts and Senators (2). All but two states are ‘winner take all’ which means the state party winner also takes the losing party’s votes, combined to equal the electoral vote for the state. Conceivably in a close state race, what is a close number of citizen votes is suddenly doubled in the Electoral College in behalf of the state winner.

Battleground States: As of the moment, there are eleven according to Politico [www.politico.com]. In principle, battleground states are states that, according to election history, are split evenly enough to vote either way. They change over the years but typically run eight to twelve states en toto. The premise is that all other states will vote traditionally in the election; it comes down to how the battleground states will vote that determines the election. Below is a list of this campaign’s battleground states.

Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin.

Down Ballot Races: The Presidential Campaign has an unusual amount of influence on the voter turnout. Senators, Representatives and local legislators must compete among unusually active groups: tea party, “alt-republicans,” establishment republicans, progressives, establishment democrats and even the Libertarian and Green parties are active as alternatives to Trump and Clinton. Check your local and state polls to have a sense of how much Congress and your state will swing. Local politicians reveal a lot in their behavior and group preferences.

Local paper editorial page: If you are fortunate enough to live in a location populous enough to have a decent newspaper, it will be more favorable toward one candidate.

All these sources may talk about what the candidates said yesterday but the source cannot help but reflect momentum. Using momentum instead of gladiator punches to determine who is winning provides more substance for entertainment, keeping bored folks involved.

Two Magazines: Atlantic Magazine and The Economist are two of mariner’s favorites. Pick your own but make sure they are not too biased one way or another.

Ancient Mariner

Two Roman Gladiators

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This is a post that indicates mariner is bored and looking for something to do. Most readers will find little benefit in reading further. Nevertheless, the mariner grows bored with the Presidential Campaign. Some readers may be bored as well. We have learned who the candidates are by watching endless interviews, and reading redundant commentaries. By now we intuitively know our four candidates’ personalities, platforms, location on the spectrum of liberal-conservative, rational-irrational, useful-irrelevant, and plutocrat-egalitarian among many more. Whatever else is to be known is minimal and fodder only for the gristmill of the news media.

What will keep our attention for the next seventy days?

The post title implies what the mariner will not watch. He will focus on the larger perspective of two combatants sparring in a coliseum – more like boxers than gladiators. We have grown tired of the meaningless debate points (punches); we may be more interested in watching a higher level of competition: It’s not what they say; it’s whether they successfully counter the other one thereby gaining or losing the match to the Whitehouse.

This means we must keep track of polls, betting odds, electoral probabilities, one or two political websites, related national and international news, and which pundits are brought to the glass tables of cable news. The specific detail of the candidates’ comments will not mean as much to our spectrum analysis – it’s whether the campaign changes a candidate’s momentum.

If the reader chooses to pursue this more sophisticated comparison, his reasoning powers will be enhanced by practicing ‘vector analysis.’ Assume the reader has the task of keeping a washer centered over a small circle on a large table. This is made difficult because the washer has seven strings attached to it hanging over the table edge each with a different weight tied at the other end. The task is to rebalance the weights on all the strings so that the weights are complimentary to the task of centering and stabilizing the washer over the circle. In the example of the campaign, it’s how much out of balance the strings are – the distance away from the center; the farther, the more momentum for one of the candidates….. Perhaps this is too much trouble.

But for those who may enjoy casually thinking about the campaign from the point of view of all the elements of a campaign instead of just the words of the candidates, entertainment may be had for seventy days. The personal benefit from this effort is that the reader will know why the candidate won, not just because the Electoral College and FOX/CNN says so.

Ancient Mariner

An Issue or Two

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Regular readers know the mariner is a fan of thoughtful ideas wherever they may occur. Here are a few that are contemporary:

Required voting: Recently universal voting came up on Fareed Zakaria’s show. It occurs to mariner that a citizen movement at the state level may be the easiest (hah) way to correct several issues with our democracy. If everyone were (a) required to vote or face a nominal fine and (b) automatically registered with their driver’s license or, as in the draft, registered at age eighteen, votes for Federal elected officials would reflect the cultural attitude and, of course, be immune to gerrymandering for Federal positions (President and Congress). It may possibly be immune to purchased elections (Illinois); even state elections would suddenly be unprotected by plutocrats.

There are two strong objections to this. First, given the spirit of the founding fathers in a time of slow communication, there are those who fear egalitarianism (rule by the population who are considered too uninformed and too irrational to understand national priorities). Those are called Federalists. They say such complete voting influence would contaminate the Electoral College and further denigrate the independence of Congress. It may be that the Republic may be truly altered from its 1776 political environment. But in 1776 communication is tied to mail on horseback; just consider social media – even Presidential candidates run their campaigns on a world-wide, instantaneous communication system.

Second, the sin of coveting would be laid bare. Today, Federal politicians have arranged election laws and political party politics such that it is very difficult and expensive to roust them from their lucrative, life long careers – one that the founding fathers never intended. A common citizen complaint is that lobbyists can buy elected officials like pets – the public be damned. Name a large corporation from Monsanto to Fossil Fuel to Banks to Google and the mariner will damn them as uncontrolled greed and irresponsible destruction of citizens’ rights.

Our nation was set up to assure freedom. Freedom from prejudice and abuse and the opportunity to accomplish independent and successful lives.

Every single person with one required vote may be the best option we have.

– – – –

Donald Trump: Donald is evaluated by the principles of Joseph Campbell . To encourage you to read the website, the mariner offers one quote from Joe:

“A hero properly is someone who has given his life to something bigger than himself or other than himself. – Joseph Campbell

See:

http://billmoyers.com/tag/donald-trump/

– – – –

Michael Moore: As a curiosity piece, see the following link. Further, in an interview on one of the news networks, Donald’s son said that Trump will turn over operation of domestic and foreign policy to Mike Pence. Trump will be an overlord with no accountability. Can one fire a Vice President?

https://medium.com/@MMFlint/is-trump-purposely-sabotaging-his-campaign-91b11fe07a91#.9pcv1e4rj

Ancient Mariner

 

No One is talking about the Economy

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2016 Presidential Election

It’s been a long, long campaign. Odd that neither party has a candidate who lifts the spirit of voters – with the exception of the hard core base for each candidate. For them, what their candidate says can do no wrong. It is a campaign without policy – especially economic policy. One candidate is full of character assassination; the other is full of detailed objectives not bound by policy. In each case, we’ll have to discover policy after one is elected President.

The press, too, has done a poor job. We should be used to it; they have done a bad job since Murrow, Huntley and Brinkley were news anchors. Unfortunately, the on-the-ground news journalists really would like to do a better job but they are constrained by bosses who want only news that brings viewer share. Not only should big money be removed from the politicians, it should be removed from news rooms as well.

Many voters the mariner has spoken with have placed their hopes on the Congressional races. It will take nothing short of collusion between voters to replace a decadent and bought Congress with a modern, statesmanlike one.

Lack of economic plans for the next ten years and beyond.

Neither Donald nor Hillary has had a sit-down with the American voter to discuss the realities of US economics. To quote economist Robert Gordon[1]:

“Even if innovation were to continue into the future at the rate of the two decades before 2007, the U.S. faces six headwinds that are in the process of dragging long-term growth to half or less of the 1.9 percent annual rate experienced between 1860 and 2007. These include demography, education, inequality, globalization, energy/environment, and the overhang of consumer and government debt. A provocative “exercise in subtraction” suggests that future growth in consumption per capita for the bottom 99 percent of the income distribution could fall below 0.5 percent per year for an extended period of decades.”

In a past post, the mariner took a thread of thought from Gordon’s paper published in August 2012, Is U.S. Economic Growth Over? Faltering Innovation Confronts the Six Headwinds. Gordon’s logic is a central pillar in the mariner’s economic perspectives. The topic in the post was whether rapid product versions were actually growth. In a recent interview on PBS’ News Hour, Robert touched on this thread, covering his entire presumption about future growth – the six headwinds.

Given the nation’s current state of affairs – especially an election offering a rich narcissist or a richer establishmentarian, Gordon’s concern about restoring an historically robust economy is real. To paraphrase Gordon, We invented cars – no more horse manure to clean in the streets; we invented electricity – no more drudgery for housewives and services; we invented air conditioning and heat – no more coal to shovel or sweaty homes; we invented airplanes – transforming travel; we invented Interstates – now everyone can travel coast to coast; we invented radio and computers and speed of light communication. What is the next “new” phenomenon that will change the world and provide huge numbers of jobs for generations?

This requirement for a new direction in the daily life of 300 million Americans is a stiff requirement. Already, the US has reported that ‘there are no more jobs.’ Unions are driven out of existence, salaries continue to drop precariously as a percentage of GDP, and oligarchy is entrenched in the American culture. Rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, from potholes to fiber optics, will not be a permanent reprieve.

Gregory Clark[2], an economist as well, challenges Gordon’s view by suggesting a computerized future is the new economic force. The mariner agrees with Gordon: Already we have invented computers; Gordon sees computers as a dividing force in economics – making the rich richer and the other 99% poorer.

Well, Donald and Hillary, what say ye?

[1] Robert Gordon is a renowned economist who has published many books and papers challenging many economic assumptions. Liberal in thought but conservative in assumptions, he is a leader in predicting future economic conditions.

[2] Gregory Clark, a professor of economics and department chair until 2013 at the University of California, Davis is most well known for his theory of economic history related to the change in behaviors that enabled the Industrial Revolution, discussed in his book, A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World.

A Farewell to Alms discusses the divide between rich and poor nations that came about as a result of the Industrial Revolution in terms of the evolution of particular behaviors originating in Britain. Prior to 1790, Clark asserts, man faced a Malthusian trap: new technology enabled greater productivity and more food, but was quickly gobbled up by higher populations. In Britain, however, as disease continually killed off poorer members of society, their positions in society were taken over by the sons of the wealthy, who were less violent, more literate, and more productive. This process of “downward social mobility” eventually enabled Britain to attain a rate of productivity that allowed it to break out of the Malthusian trap.

Ancient Mariner

Donald

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Chicken Little was hyper after Donald’s acceptance speech at the Republican Convention. The entire speech provided no solutions, no specific resolutions, only promises that Donald will do something. In later interviews with Donald Junior, it turns out that Donald doesn’t intend to oversee Federal Policy; that job, described as domestic and foreign policy, is Pence’s job.

What disturbs Chicken Little is the fact that the entire speech sat on a foundation of authoritarianism. It’s Reaganism all over again but run with less voter input. Donald sees himself as a CEO, not the Executive Branch representing public policy. How close can a President get to dictatorship in a Republic?

The mariner feels the TV polls are not accurate. If cell phone users share the mariner’s habit of not answering calls that he doesn’t have in his directory, or not answering phone numbers on a land line with caller ID, any poll will not reflect the opinion of a large section of voters. The mariner does not listen to polls. He listens to Nate Silver, who has a stellar reputation collecting valuable information that affects betting odds. See:

http://www.bing.com/search?q=nate+silver+2016+presidential+predictions&qs=LS&pq=nate+silver&sk=LS1&sc=8-11&sp=3&cvid=187BAD3BDABD4840A57B41C4C8464FC6&FORM=QBLH&ghc=1

If the reader would like an analysis of how Donald may win, see from Nate’s website:

http://www.newsweek.com/2016/07/29/donald-trump-can-win-481404.html

Also, check out http://fivethirtyeight.com/politics/feed/ probably what the reader wants to know in the first place. The article covers everything in the world of polls.

Finally, if you want to poke around in trends, see:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/politics/features/

The point is this: This is a culture-changing election. It’s comparable to FDR, Kennedy, Johnson and Reagan. The voter is required to think beyond the news, beyond the political ads, beyond the water-cooler advice, and beyond the reader’s clique of friends. There is a lot at stake in this election that is not covered in news media. The reader has an obligation to think hard – not something the American citizen is often required to do in a general election.

REFERENCE SECTION

The mariner’s wife has contributed an excellent website that is focused on the spiritual side of life’s experiences – not spiritual in a religious doctrine sense but the website provides a rich collection of short essays about the fragile side of our species and how empathetic roles are important to our survival. For liberal arts readers, it is an excellent site. See:

http://www.onbeing.org/program/xavier-le-pichon-the-fragility-at-the-heart-of-humanity/transcript/8832#main_content

The Olympics is days away. This is an unusual Olympics fraught with Zika and Russian doping. Type ‘2016 Olympics’ into your search engine to catch up not only on the sport aspects but the politics and health issues.

Ancient Mariner

 

Darts

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The mariner is embarrassed to live in the same state as Steve King (R-4th) because Iowan people actually chose him as a Federal Representative. Already identified by analysis of his work as the worst representative in Congress, Steve has stepped forward to block Harriet Tubman as the face on the $20 bill. The NY Daily News said:
“Republican Steve King had claimed that putting the abolitionist in place of President Andrew Jackson, most famous for the Trail of Tears, would be divisive.
He had attempted to block any attempt to change up currency by sneaking an amendment into a bill about Treasury Department funding, though the Republican-controlled Rules Committee shot down the measure Tuesday night.” (King has never had one piece of legislative language survive his Congressional Committee)
If only to rub salt in the whole “face on money” issue, we aren’t too good at selecting our premier statesmen and citizens. As mentioned above, Andrew Jackson was responsible for the “Trail of Tears.” PBS wrote:
“In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andrew Jackson’s Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the “Trail of Tears,” because of its devastating effects. The migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the forced march. Over 4,000 out of 15,000 of the Cherokees died.”
Note that racism isn’t a harsh issue in white, plain state Iowa; Steve King’s career as a do-nothing Congressman was not at risk over this issue. To the mariner, this is one reason an aptitude test must be passed for those wishing to represent the citizenry.
Even Steve’s own Republican Representatives kicked this one out.
But to further impugn Steve, Huffington Post covered this gem:
For crying out loud, whether it was a good or bad thing to drag human beings across the ocean to serve as slaves is still, for some reason, a matter for debate. But somehow, perhaps incorrectly, I’d come to accept that America was pretty clear about the matter of pitting dogs against each other for amusement. Dogfighting equals terrible advocates for dogfighting equals reprehensible humans — I figured that this was, by now, axiomatic.
But, lo, here comes Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) with a bee in his bonnet over the Humane Society and its stance on animal torture. Various state measures have been enacted to limit “several horrific farming and food practices,” including Maryland’s prohibition against arsenic being added to chicken feed, which seems eminently reasonable, given the fact we are talking about, well, arsenic.
How does dogfighting get wrapped up into these deliberations? Well, as Scott Keyes reports today, King took a question at a “tele-townhall” about “his opposition to animal rights and recently introduced legislation that would undermine local standards preventing animal torture.” And part of King’s response declared it strange to be so concerned about dogfighting, when humans are allowed to step into a ring and fight for sport themselves.
KING: When the legislation that passed in the farm bill that says that it’s a federal crime to watch animals fight or to induce someone else to watch an animal fight, but it’s not a federal crime to induce somebody to watch people fighting, there’s something wrong with the priorities of people that think like that.
Keyes added in his column: “Manny Pacquiao chooses to step into the ring. Michael Vick’s dogs did not.”
Steve King is 67 years old. By the mariner’s standards, he should have met term limitations seven years ago. Steve has been serving in Congress since 2003 (13 years). Though he isn’t competent enough to cause harm, it might be nice to have a productive representative for the 4th District.
Ancient Mariner

The Republic versus the Parties

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The mariner is not sure about the reader but the mariner has been tossed about on the deck of the 2016 election for President. Since the very beginning of the process, the voter hasn’t had much of a say. The Republic (Federal, State and Local) has not modernized itself since Lyndon Johnson freed the slaves again in 1964. Richard Nixon, socially clumsy as he was, had an intuition for international policy; with the aid of Henry Kissinger, a bright Secretary of State, he established a relationship between China and the US. The two nations were absolutely unknown to each other and were blocking a move toward globalization.

Jimmy Carter introduced kindness to the language of politics but it washed off as soon as he left office.

Reagan became President in 1981. Everyone remembers “Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” but that event was already ordained by European and Russian economics – Reagan was just the toastmaster. What Reagan really did was stop cold the center-left culture that took root under FDR and flourished until Reagan (Eisenhower never was an ideologue but was favorable to business interests).

That center-left culture included voters as an influence in politics. Reagan and his kitchen cabinet put together a list of policies which put the Republic back in the hands of Plutocrats. Wealth and upper class became the drivers of the Republic. This group is known today as the “Establishment.” It still is controlling things. With the mental acuity of a worm, the Supreme Court finally and legally turned the Republic over to the Plutocrats with Citizens United. Voters no longer drove the Republic – unless one voted with money. The Supreme Court is not allowed to consider cultural values. Consequently there is no issue with calling money speech. If dogs were a political force, they would qualify as having free speech. In fact any creature would qualify. If you doubt that, watch ‘The Birds” with Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren (1963).

Since then, the Republic’s gestalt has been left adrift. 41, Clinton and 43 were no more than keepers of Reagan’s list. All three left the heart of the Republic on its own while improving the world of corporations and unsavory tax and banking interests, releasing them to become the modern version of buccaneers in the fifteenth century who robbed cargo ships from Jamaica to Yemen and India. The new world economic model was the same – except lust need not be satisfied by raiding a ship at sea, it was satisfied by wage suppression and manipulation, by moving labor to the cheapest country allowing the tax-free hoarding of cash and, as Bernie may say, sending 90% of the Republic’s GDP to 1% of the population.

Finally, there was enough dissatisfaction about how the plutocracy was treating its citizens that the Reagan gestalt began to splinter both in the conservative citizenry and in the liberal citizenry. On the one hand, blue collar conservatives had had enough of salary suppression and the newly legal opportunity for manufacturing to move out of the US destined for cheaper labor markets. Once manufactured, the products were sold in the American markets at higher prices. Enough is enough, said the blue collar conservatives. Joining the blue collar dissatisfaction, the fundamentalist conservatives had had enough of a “no comment” Congress who had ducked religious issues since the last generation. LGBT had blossomed overnight, abortion would not die and State’s Rights were constantly overridden by the courts.

On the liberal side, it was the same story. The same types of folks suffering from unfair labor practices on the right were suffering the same dilemma on the left. The college educated were faring no better. Graduated and truly deep in debt, jobs for the graduates were disappearing rapidly. The biggest culprit was computerization. Unless a grad could get a job in technology or invent some odd thing that turned into a billion-dollar buyout, times were just as rough as on the labor class. By April of 2015, still not recovered from the recession of 2008, grumbling was afoot everywhere. Conservatives wanted to throw the bums out and return the Republic to 1970. Liberals wanted to restructure the overly capitalistic oligarchy and turn the Republic back to the voters.

The time was right to join a political party!

Join to what end? Voters quickly realized both parties were controlled lock stock and barrel by the “establishment” – Reagan’s plutocracy. By April 2015, The Dems knew it would be Hillary; the Reps knew it was Jeb→. Who needs primaries and caucuses? In the early going, the two presumptive candidates were raking in money from contributors and PACs.

But strange statistics were emerging: 47% of previous full time workers still were working part time. Government reports said there were no more jobs. Wages were dropping every month. These statistics revealed a churning, irritated electorate the plutocrats had underestimated.
In the last Presidential election, times were peaceful. Party Rules Committees agreeably changed Convention Rules to accommodate favored candidates. In April 2008, the Establishment thought the election would be status quo. Was the plutocracy surprised when Jeb → and Hillary were joined by 16 serious candidates for the reps, a talented and experienced Governor from Maryland and an independent Senator from Vermont? Oh, by the way, enter the Donald. The voters (and the Establishment) knew by now that things were going screwy in a hurry. To complicate matters, broadcasting companies thought they could improve market share if they marketed debates. Now five distinct groups were in the game: nineteen candidates, two parties, four broadcast companies, the Reagan Establishment (R+D), and the discontented voters (R+D).

To shorten this account of the Republic versus the Parties, a few quotes will suffice to describe how both parties slowly had squeezed out public participation:

Donald says, “The primaries are crooked. Every time I read ‘Bernie wins!’ then I read ‘Bernie loses.’ I win the majority of voters then I’m told, Lyin’ Cruz wins.”

Bernie says, why are we having a debate on a Saturday night during an important basketball game?”

Bernie says “The delegate system is designed to control the vote. It is not democratic.”

It was too obvious that primaries were tightly controlled by the two parties. The plutocrats were caught in the open playing puppeteers. The resultant split between the Republican Establishment and its party members threw the whole Republican process into disarray. Donald saw a hole in the line and charged through it for a touchdown. Mariner and the reader will have to wait for the Republican Convention to see how things turn out but however they turn out, the Republican Establishment has been stopped dead in the water. The role of the party primary must change what it represents ideologically and procedurally in 2020. Let’s hope the voter is included.

As to the Democratic Party, it is in shambles, too. Democrats will win the Presidency if only because the Tea Party and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shut down the Congress for the last 7½ years.

The delegate process will be under close scrutiny.

There are still seriously damaging behaviors by each party. The most serious is gerrymandering. Redistricting must be removed from any hint of political influence. Primaries will never represent the true intent of every voter until the districts are a matter of census rather than a description of political and class preferences that intentionally falsify representation.

Also serious is money in politics. There should be none except what the Republic provides and what can be raised within the scope of one’s jurisdiction. After all, the Party is not the Republic, the reader is the Republic. Broadcast corporations don’t collect profits for campaigns, the Republic requires educational programming for campaigns.

Ancient Mariner

This and That

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The Midwest, between parallels N35° and N43°, has suffered temperatures in the high nineties with humidity above 70% for a good while. It isn’t pleasant. If you work outside, dehydration, sunburn and heat stroke lurk nearby. Still, plants and seeds cannot delay their required attention. The garden experience has transitioned from digging, hoeing, planting seeds, little pots and large pots, to an activity more akin to reconstructing frames for cucumbers and string beans, laying brick walks, processing compost, layering mulch in the gardens and weeding, weeding, weeding. As the mariner tells his town friends, “Anymore it takes me eight hours to work a four-hour day.”

In August, there are wedding bells in the mariner’s family. The wedding is in Los Angeles with many show business neophytes in attendance.

Every August mariner also hosts a neighborhood fete called “The Turkey Fry.” Mariner provides two large turkeys – one for roasting and serving sliced in gravy, the other dipped in dangerously hot and open cooking oil which could easily spill onto the propane burner under the pot. This year mariner planted sweet corn timed to be ready for picking for the Turkey Fry. About thirty neighbors attend. He assumes a fortress of electrified wire around the12x12 foot corn crop using a 13-acre AC charger will deter raccoons.

The mariner has a tip for tomato growers who invest time, money and frustration with tomato cages: don’t use them! The mariner’s model is to grow each plant about eight inches apart in a square configuration. The tomato plants prop each other just fine. It is still possible to tread carefully among the plants when harvesting. Another benefit is the plants help suppress weeds among the plants.

In a manner of days, hordes of in-laws arrive at a park down the road for their quinquennial, weeklong gathering. It has occurred every five years since 1981. They look old now but one can easily tell the new ones are continuing the tradition.

Readers are advised of these events to warn them of other gaps in post writing. The mariner will do his best to be regular.

A piece about Muhammad Ali is in the Reference Section. What set Muhammad apart was his statesmanship. He wasn’t just another boxer among boxers; he had class, empathy and intelligence. True, he played a buffoon as part of the show but he had a quick and caring mind. His feelings about the wellbeing of others were the basis for his conversion to Islam – an act that was spiritual and was distant from more rebellious sects.

REFERENCE SECTION

Muhammad Ali was a gentleman in the boxing community. He had an extra sense of grace that translated from his pugilist profession to one of awareness, care for the common man and a sharper mind than most in his profession. Oh, that more statesmen could be in politics! Muhammad had the courage to defy the draft and serve his punishment; the courts plucked him from that fate but still he would lose three years of income, age and prestige before the military was behind him.

His extra sense of grace allowed him to quote poetry about himself more succinctly with entertaining braggadocio. Note this one before the “Rumble in the Jungle” against Joe Frazier:

Last night I had a dream

Last night I had a dream. When I got to Africa,

I had one hell of a rumble.

I had to beat Tarzan’s behind first,

For claiming to be King of the Jungle.

For this fight, I’ve wrestled with alligators,

I’ve tussled with a whale.

I done handcuffed lightning

And throw thunder in jail.

You know I’m bad.

Just last week, I murdered a rock,

Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick.

I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.

I’m so fast, man,

I can run through a hurricane and don’t get wet.

When George Foreman meets me,

He’ll pay his debt.

I can drown a drink of water, and kill a dead tree.

Wait till you see Muhammad Ali.

–      –   –   –

Add another one to the list of extinctions occurring during the Holocene, the period in which humans trashed the biosphere: Melomys rubicola — Bramble Cay Melomys, a species of mouse that remained in existence only on an island in the Torres Straight near Queensland Australia. The rodent, also called the mosaic-tailed rat, was only known to live on Bramble Cay, a small coral cay, just 340m long and 150m wide off the north coast of Queensland, Australia, which sits at most 3m above sea level.

mousex

–  –   –   –

Mariner stopped by the Forbes Magazine to review an article. The first screen had a display that said:

Quote of the Day

“You will never own the future if you care what other people think.“

Cindy Gallop

Each of us could write three of four counterpoints to Cindy’s comment – which is  required to be a capitalist. Assets do not normally flow up hill; they deliberately must be acquired. Capitalism unbridled by compassion will make few rich, most poor, and the capitalist, protected by layers of wealth, will be indifferent to environment, fairness, contribution to the point of meaningful sharing and a twisted sense of self-worth.

“Only when the last tree has died, the last river been poisoned, and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.”

                        – A  Cree Indian Saying

Ancient Mariner

Is Homo sapiens too Expensive for its Habitat?

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Through his retirement years, mariner has had more time to sit aside and watch the world go by. What has emerged is awareness that Homo sapiens will have a relatively short, finite time as a member of living things on Mother Earth. For the last five hundred thousand years or so, H. sapiens has used superior skills to garner excessive resources beyond the amount required given the type of animal spawned within its natural environment.

It began when H. sapiens invented the spear. The invention of weapons to hunt game has been used by a few other primates but not with the intellectual capability to leverage weaponry as its own, organized thing.

Humans (AKA H. sapiens et al) elevated hunting with team management and scientific advancements like the atlatl; it was the advantage needed for earliest humans to overhunt environmental resources. Humans still overhunt species today (American Bison, Carrier Pigeon) – or intentionally eliminate them only because they interfere with other prerogatives (estuary and otherwise rare habitat, coral, useless specimen hunting) – from overhunting African wildlife to being, as of today, the cause for the extinction of 50% of all living species – plant and animal. Humans have so decimated the Earth’s biosphere they have added to cataclysmic events by causing the Sixth Great Extinction. The other five were caused by the greater laws of astrophysics.

Humans have extended hunting to the mineral and chemical world, also known today as science and technology, until we accomplished the following effects:

Better weapons for hunting using iron, steel, copper, and unnatural chemicals like Roundup and agent orange to make it easier than weed pulling by hand or landscaping large areas with axes and brushhogs. The primary reasons to impose these aberrations then, would be ‘it’s easier than by hand’ and ‘why not; we can do it.’ Humans pay little note to the infringement on nature’s way of running the biosphere.

Better weapons for destruction using chemicals and metals that have total disregard for ramifications to the biosphere, which, on the good side eliminates some of the dangerously overpopulated species (H sapiens) but on the other hand demonstrates the continuous devastation humans have on the biosphere. Mariner will mention only Hiroshima as an example and let intentional military destruction go at that. Did you know that nuclear warhead testing and use is responsible for Strontium 90 being present in our tobacco and similar broadleaf plants?

The mariner thinks all human abuse on the biosphere can be traced to the thought that it takes idle minds to invent trouble – why aren’t we busy cultivating common weeds into a food source and otherwise weeding them from our gardens by hand? As the ‘intelligent’ creature, why aren’t humans doing their share to help the biosphere for the betterment of all creatures? After all, the biosphere is the perpetual uterus for everything – including humans.

Humans ignore the sophisticated balance of the biosphere – how every living thing has a niche that provides enough to survive but limits its imposition on the balance of nature. 90% of Monarch butterflies are gone. The human impact continues as if humans want them all gone – or at least are indifferent to our unwelcome behavior that sends so many creatures from tree frogs to elephants into extinction in this century. Is this a sign of the apocalypse? If it is, it includes humans.

A conundrum arises if humans reset their attitude: There aren’t enough resources to support seven billion soon to be twelve billion humans who want to drink percolated coffee every morning before each human drives off in its own expensive seashell. [the hermit crab shares our plight] Point made. Not to mention the six hundred-thread bed sheets and Donald’s Mar a Lago. The biosphere will deal with that last one shortly.

Humans are pretending they aren’t aware that anything is wrong. HAH. Why are the following terms worthy of mention in most nations?

Grass fed – No Hormones – Not genetically modified food – Nature’s choice – Naturally caught seafood – No additives – Not commercially owned water source – Not made from ivory – Not manufactured from coal – and on and on. Think of a few on your own.

Accountable to readers for some kind of advice, mariner has the following:

No amount of effort will turn things around. Planet Earth has decided to end this age. Being the boss, Earth neither requires permission nor will accept suggestions.

Within the reader’s own biosphere, assume a lifestyle that respects simplistic, natural habits. Methuselah lived over nine hundred years without airplanes, trains, or automobiles. It took Noah’s flood to kill him off. Many of mariner’s closest friends travel frequently; the mariner admits to a few passage sailing trips. Bon voyage, he says. A simplistic solution may be to set aside a trip every now and then to use the unexpended resources to help our uterus (yes, graphic but the entire subject is contained within).

Remain aware of cultural impact. Many times biosphere issues can help lawmakers and voters decide the better direction for legislation, e.g., too much carbon for the biosphere.

Remain educated on the relationship between humans and the biosphere generally. It helps with awareness. Visit the following website to keep in touch.

http://www.overshootday.org/

Check out Earth Overshoot Day which this year is August 8.

A general news source for interesting and important topics: One article describes a day in the life of an orphaned hippopotamus; the main article headline reads, “Humans Stripping Earth of Its Resources – Global biodiversity has fallen 30 percent in 40 years, the new report says.” See:

http://www.seeker.com/humans-stripping-earth-of-its-resources-1765773906.html#news.discovery.  Otherwise, be aware that with a little more human-biocentric awareness, how can you simplify your life without the over-abundant dependence on the “plastic/electronic” aspects of your culture?

Further, definitely assign yourself the responsibility to grow some milkweed for the Monarchs, have a place on your property – if only your fourth story windowsill – to provide water to birds and food in the winter. Like the good Samaritan, don’t pass up opportunities to rescue the plight of any creature including Homo Sapiens.

Today’s comfort and sense of accomplishment is most important now rather than waiting 10,000 years to the end of our age when there will be no Homo sapiens.

Ancient Mariner