I had a dream

My apologies to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for using a variation of the title of one of his major speeches.

My dream early this morning was about a similar nemesis: those whose only interest is ruling with a false idea of conservatism and a misuse of religion.

The false idea of conservatism is holding on to power, irregardless of how it affects the vast majority of the citizens.  This conservatism puts the interests of some large corporations over the interests of large segments of the population.  The misuse of religion is to claim to have the truth even as it acts contrary to the teachings of its greatest prophet.

My dream was that teams of journalists met all over the country to unite against the attacks by false conservatives on the journalists integrity and professionalism.  Interestingly, many of these journalists being attacked are real conservatives, like George Will and Jennifer Rubin.

What is a real conservative?  We can start by naming a few: Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Dwight Eisenhower.  All of these have given warning about the order of men that is not to be trusted.

Adam Smith warned about those who live by profit.  Edmund Burke warned about the folly of not allowing the colonies to govern themselves.  George Washington warned about factions and about foreign entanglements (letting both friends and enemies control our judgment).  Abraham Lincoln stated that we had to think anew with new circumstances.  Dwight Eisenhower warned about the military-industrial complex.

The best way to counter these false conservatives is to vote in each and every election.  These false conservatives do all they can to dissuade people from voting from gerrymandering to false statements about their opponents.

Until such time as real conservatives appear on the scene, I’ll just have to keep voting for Democrats.  I don’t support many of the issues of the Democrats, but these issues are not so destructive of our country as the issues proclaimed by false conservatives.

Russian collusion and Donald Trump

If you have a few hours free, read the Washington Post’s long article on Donald Trump and the Russians.

If you still have time read all the comments.  This is a bit more time consuming because the Washington Post allows instant commenting.  It’s great to have instant posting rather than waiting hours for arbiters to approve comments, but some people criticize others over and over again, often with insult rather than insight.

Right on about voting

Sadly, so-called "conservatives" show up to vote for "flawed" candidates, but so-called "liberals" stay home if they perceive a "liberal" candidate as "flawed".




Supporting two commenters from Arizona who support Tuscon's police chief, Chris Magnus, in his even-handed law enforcement.

“How to Stand Up to Trump and Win”

Nicholas Kristof gives several ideas about standing up to Trump in a New York Times article, 2017-04-13.  See https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/opinion/how-to-stand-up-to-trump-and-win.html.

When I forwarded the link to my wife, I added the comment "Don’t just hold a sign. Experts share how to resist and get results.”

Questions for the “Freedom” caucus

Just what is this “Freedom” you lay claim to and who is free to do what to whom?

Is it the “freedom” to own slaves by a few or to make certain people second class citizens?

Or is it the freedom to be have a well-payiing job with respect from your employer?

Is it the “freedom” to gerrymander voting districts to give yourselves an unfair electoral advantage?

Or is it the freedom to know that your vote will count in a fair election?

Is it the “freedom” to be free from paying taxes for all the benefits that have helped you get rich?  Like public schools for educated workers, like roads to move your goods around, like courts to settle any disputes you may have, like police to investigate crimes committed against you, like fire departments to respond quickly to fires or medical emergencies?

Or is it the freedom to have all kinds of resources available that we can only afford collectively by contributing to the best of our ability?

Is it the “freedom” to have wider and wider highways to drive faster and quicker, regardless of the cost to tax bases, to individual families, or to the environment?

Or is it the freedom to be secure in your own house, knowing that the chances are almost non-existent that your house will be condemned to make room for an ever wider freeway?  Is it the freedom to not have to have a car because other forms of transportation are convenient and frequent?

Is it the “freedom" to reduce your own costs by polluting the air and water?

Or is it the freedom to have clean breathable air or to have safe, drinkable water?

Is it the “freedom” to donate large sums to “elected” officials to do your bidding?

Or is it the freedom to know the candidates you can vote for have received “small” amounts of money only from the people who have a right to vote for them.

See also "The false masters of words".

Quotes of the day: Trump and voting

Quote of the day about Trump

"They are also saying there’s an unidentified lying object in the White House."

"The Offender of the Free World", Roger Cohen, New York Times, 2017-01-28, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/opinion/the-offender-of-the-free-world.html

Quote of the day about voting

We must turn out and vote like our lives dependent on it! If we don't vote we turn elections over to the regressive minority!

Ibid: comment by Reader MegaDucks

My comment:
Hear! Hear!

The only way
We throw are votes away
Is to stay away!

Call to Sen. Al Franken

I recited the message below to Sen. Al Franken's Duluth office.  Supposedly, a call is more effective than a letter or an email.  Surprisingly, the office worker didn't take my name or address.  Maybe the caller ID on her screen showed that I was local.

I hope you can keep up your opposition to Donald Trump.

I hope you can convince some of your more realistic Republican colleagues that it is not in their interest to give Trump carte blanche.

I enjoyed your books “Lies and the Liars Who Tell Them” and “Why Not Me”.  When I finished the latter I thought that a comedian would make a far better President than a clown.

I hope you, dear reader, can think of something similar to send to your Representative or Senators.

I plan to call something similar Rep. Rick Nolan and Sen. Amy Klobuchar later.  It kind of exhausted me just to say the above.

See also http://magree.blogspot.com/2017/01/thousands-of-phone-calls-are-better.html.

Thanks to the Marchers Who Voted

I posted the following comment to “‘We’re Not Going Away’: Huge Crowds for Women’s March”, Anemona Harocollis, Yamiche Alcindor, and Niraj Chokshi, New York Times, 2017-01-21.

If you were a marcher and a voter, your country thanks you.

If you were a marcher and not a voter, your country hopes you make sure to vote next time.

Remember, Trump came in third to a de facto "none of the above".

The only way

You throw your vote away

Is to stay away!

Donald Trump came in third, not second

Forrest Johnson’s latest column in the Reader Weekly stated that Donald Trump came in second ("Dear President-Elect Donald the Clown").  The reality is that Trump came in third; the real winner was a de facto “None of the above”.

Wikipedia gives the following figures:

Turnout - 55.3%
Trump -  62,979,879 45.95%
Clinton - 65,844,954 48.04%

Neither received a majority of the votes, but Trump is acting like he has a mandate.  In almost every election (too many) where a candidate doesn’t get a clear majority, the winner acts like he did.  If we didn’t have the Electoral College mucking things up, Clinton probably would act like she had a mandate.

In this year’s election, Trump received the votes of 25.4% of the electorate.  Clinton did only slightly better with the votes of 26.6% of the electorate.  This is not the way to run a “democracy”.

Few candidates have the humility to admit that more people didn’t show up than voted for him or her.  This holds for local elections as well as national elections.

It is far better to show up and leave a slot blank than to not show up at all.  In the first case your vote “counts” because you are part of the electorate.  In the second case your “vote” will never be counted.

The Election Project has slightly different figures, but the result is just as bad for democracy.

Turnout - 60%
Voting Eligible Population - 231,556,622
Ballots - 138,884,632

We will only have a democracy is when all eligible voters truly believe the following:

The only way

You throw your vote away

Is to stay away!

Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy?

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt wrote an article with the above title that was published in the New York Times, 2106-12-16 at
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/opinion/sunday/is-donald-trump-a-threat-to-democracy.html

I was surprised that a day later it was still open for comments with 1667.  I just had to put in my two cents with my the following comment.

"Let's stop blaming the system for the embarrassing low turnout, among the worst in the world, especially for a nation that regards itself as the greatest democracy in the world.

"Sure, many blocks to voting have been put up by corrupt, self-serving politicians. Sure, the "media" has spread many distorted stories that have discouraged many potential voters. But too many people willingly choose not to vote.

"What would the result have been if half the no- shows had actually voted? We really don't know. Maybe Clinton would have won. Maybe Trump might have done better than third to a defacto none of the above.

"Whatever elections come up next where you live, remind your friends and neighbors 'The only way You throw your vote away Is to stay away!'”

After I posted the above, I searched for “The only way You throw your vote away.  One of the top hits was https://justinegraykin.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/be-subversive-vote.  Justine posted a lot of right-on comments:

“If you fail to vote, you have only yourself to blame."
“Bad politicians are elected by Good People who don’t vote”
"If 99% of America showed up to vote, it wouldn’t matter what the 1% wanted.”
“Vote as if the future depends on it.  It does.”

She had a link to “HP Lovecraft Historical Society — Why settle for the lesser evil?”  As I had recently listened to a “To the best of our knowledge” podcast on HP Lovecraft http://www.ttbook.org/book/hp-lovecraft.  I thought I would check the link out.  Unfortunately, it was broken.  But I did find https://cthulhuforamerica.com/.  Among the pictures is hooded figures holding signs for “Cthulhu for President 2016, Vote best evil”.  Cthulhu was a deep sea monster in one or more of Lovecraft’s stories.

What would have happened if there had been a massive vote for Cthulhu?  If Cthulhu won, the election would have to go to the runner-up because Cthulhu doesn’t exist?  But what if somebody had adopted that name?

I think this kind of tomfoolery indicates that we should have far better candidates running: people who truly want to make the U.S. a country for all of us rather than stoke their own egos or be in the pockets of the 1%.

Quotes of the Day, misdirected politics

 “It’s just more about getting the other people than worrying about the American people.” Christine Etima, quoted in "Immersed in the election, but unable to vote", Duluth News Tribune, 2016-11-05

"But not making a choice — sitting out the election — is to turn our fate over to others."  Ann McFeatters, Duluth News Tribune, 2016-11-06

Revolution if Clinton Wins?

“Some Donald Trump Voters Warn of Revolution if Hillary Clinton Wins”
Ashley Parker and Nick Carasaniti, New York Times, 2016-10-27
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/us/politics/donald-trump-voters.html

Those threatening "revolution" if Donald Trump loses the Presidential Election don't really know the U.S. Constitution.

As to the elections being "rigged" consider

"Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections...of its own Members..."

- U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 5

This means that the outgoing House and Senate get to judge the elections to keep themselves in office or to judge the fairness of the election of their replacements.  If the Clinton "landslide" many are predicting comes true, wouldn't many members of Congress be out of office?  Do you really think there are so many Republican members of Congress who believe the elections are "rigged" that they would nullify the election of their successors?  Given the number of congressional Republicans disavowing Trump, I seriously doubt they would nullify the election of their replacements.

As to having a "revolution" consider

"The Congress shall have the power "To provide for calling forth the Militia to ...  suppress Insurrections..."

U.S Constitution, Article I, Section 8

Whatever the result of the election, would not most members of Congress, Republican or Democrat, be repulsed by an insurrection in support of a defeated Presidential candidate?

Political sign thieves

My wife had put a lawn sign for Jennifer Schultz, our state representative.

I put out the lawn sign I mentioned in "Elections are not won!"
http://magree.blogspot.com/2016/06/elections-are-not-won.html

I modified it to be

THE ONLY WAY

YOU THROW YOUR VOTE AWAY

IS TO STAY AWAY!

And at my wife’s insistence, I added

ALWAYS VOTE!

Without that she thought I was encouraging people to not vote.

I ordered three in the expectation that either one would be stolen or somebody would ask for one.

Sure enough, about a week later my sign was gone.

And the next night the Schultz sign was stolen.

The Schultz campaign delivered another sign but they put it close to the house.

I haven’t put up a second sign yet, but I might do that next week.

If that one is stolen, then I’ll put the third up on election day.

The question is the sign thief doing it because he or she wants the sign or is the thief playing petty politics.

Quote on voting

"And those not planning to vote, heed the lyrics of the old Rush song: 'If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.'”
Dale Harris, Judge in 6th Judicial District of Minnesota, Duluth News Tribune, 2016-07-11

Judge Harris was writing about not ignoring the judicial candidates in the August primaries, but his words apply to any election: from president to city councilor.

I hope you will pass on my voting mantra:

The only way
You throw your vote away
Is to stay away.

What true patriotism is

I’m sitting at my computer listening to all the fireworks, both public at the Bayfront Festival Park and private.  We can see some of the Bayfront fireworks if we look out our front upstairs window at the right angle.  But is enjoying fireworks patriotism?  People all over the world enjoy fireworks.

Is patriotism pledging allegiance to the flag or singing the Star-Spangled Banner.  Anybody can do these as a rote exercise.  In fact, it seems that the more flags behind a political candidate, the more “patriotic” they are.

Is patriotism “supporting our troops” wherever they are fighting at the behest of our politicians?  Many of those wars have led to further wars.

Maybe patriotism is saying that a war is immoral and unwinnable.  Remember also that those on the other side think they are being patriotic to their country or cause.

True patriotism is obeying the laws, paying taxes, voting, and speaking your mind about how government is acting.  Given these guidelines anybody can be a patriot whether they are Republican or Democrat, “conservative” or “liberal”, or none of the above.

Republicans are undemocratic?

Republicans claim to believe in democracy, but they seem to be doing everything possible to limit democracy to only those who have their views.

They want voter restrictions or oppose making it easier to vote because there will be more Democrats voters.

If they restrict voting because more people might vote against them, are not the Republicans opposed to democracy?

A Political Ad Not Paid For By A Billionaire

This ad was paid for by nobody on behalf of everybody.

If you vote for nobody, everybody loses.

If you stay away, you throw your vote away.

Whether you vote for Jane or Wayne, Harry or Mary, be sure to vote.

Here are some simple rules for intelligent voting.

Don’t watch TV.
Read lots of newspapers.
Always vote.

Nobody thanks you but everybody wins.

You can be a somebody by helping this ad go viral.  Please pass on this link:
http://magree.blogspot.com/2016/04/a-political-ad-not-paid-for-by.html.

Why you should always vote!

I would rather see a 90% turnout with 60% voting for someone I didn't like than a 60 % turnout with 60% voting for someone I liked.

Think about it!  In the first case 54% of the eligible voters elected the winner.  This is democracy.  A government by "the people".

In the second case 36% of the eligible voters elected the winner.  This is oligarchy, government of the few.

Always vote!  You may not like your choice, but if you don't vote for "the lesser of two evils" you may get "the greater of two evils".

Also never ever believe polls.  Did they ask you who you would vote for?  Chances are better than 90% that they did not even call you.

Never respond to polls.  If you don't respond you increase the uncertainty of polls.  By increasing the uncertainty you will decrease the uncertainty of people who might not vote because their candidate was "down" in the polls.

Polls have another bad effect on democracy.  Candidates may change their messages to align with the polls.  If candidates ignored polls, they would work harder to convince you of their solutions.  if candidates adjusted their messages to match the polls, they might give you solutions which they have no intention of implementing.

Finally, my favorite mantra that I have yet to see elsewhere:

Always vote!
The only way you throw you vote away
Is to stay away!

Corporations and governments: can’t have one without the other

Considering some of the shouting, one might think that politics has divided into two camps: government is bad and corporations are for the common good, or corporations are greedy and government is for the common good.

As too often is the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

First, let’s look at the similarities.

Corporations and governments are organized by people for a large number of reasons.  The people who organize these entities do so to provide goods and services, to make money, to be famous, or to push certain views, both altruistic and selfish.  Neither type of organization is any better than the people who run the organization.  Success depends more on the leadership and the resources available than on the form.  Success also depends on the circumstances of the time.  If a large segment of the population is not interested in an idea, it will take a lot of effort to promote the idea, whether a new product or a new law.  On the other hand, if a very large segment of the population is interested in an idea, somebody in corporations or government will be working overtime to fulfill the population’s wishes.

The big difference is that the corporations are run by the few and governments are run by the many, if the many show up and vote.

As many misinterpret Adam Smith’s “invisible hand”, many misinterpret Milton Friedman’s the only purpose of a corporation is to “increase profits”.

“[t]here is one and only one social responsibility of business–to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud."  - Milton Friedman, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits”, The New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970

Many interpret this as the only purpose of a corporation is to increase shareholder value.  Unfortunately, they ignore “rules of the game” and “without deception or fraud”.  But what is shareholder value?  Is it a continued gain in stock price?  Is it a continuous stream of increasing dividends?  Or could it be the long-term provision of a good or service?  For example, do investors want to create a product that could take years to bring to market?  Do investors want to insure that medical services can be provided to a community for decades rather than maximize profits for the short-term and destroy the community long-term?

Many point to the problems of MNSure and ObamaCare as examples of government inefficiency.  But guess who provided the computers and software for these health insurance programs?  Private companies!

And private companies have not been known for efficient, trouble-free rollouts of new products.  How many auto recalls are there every year?  Has every computer program or system you purchased or downloaded been free of bugs?  It seems every time I get a notice of an app update, the description includes “bug fixes”.

In the “bad old days” of mainframes, it was really a major milestone when a computer ran a whole day without a crash.  Now things are much better.  My laptop, which is more powerful than any mainframe I worked on, might go a whole week without some kind of frustrating error, including freezes.

MNSure and Obamacare are massive systems requiring massive co-ordination of many pieces.  As we don’t give up on our computers, we shouldn’t give up on massive projects that don’t work perfectly on the first day.

"I'm as confident of this as I would be that when the first cars didn't work well, it wasn't time to return to horses and buggies; it was time to improve the cars. This is the new technology; there are kinks to it and it's going to take some time to work them out.”
Joel Ario, quoted in “Contractor’s report slams MNsure weaknesses, readiness”, Elizabeth Stawicki, MPRNews, 2014-06-18

Are you collecting Social Security?  Is your check posted to your bank account on the promised day every month?  But it was not always so.  Like getting computers to not crash, the rollout of Social Security was not without glitches or without critics who claimed dire consequences.  Like “nationalization of wheat fields would soon follow” and Americans would be reduced to passive servility.  It would take forty years of tinkering to have ninety percent of Americans covered by Social Security.

See “What about Social Security’s rollout?” Bruce J. Schulman, 2013-10-29, Reuters

An interesting contrast to the call for less regulation and taxes is the call by some of the same people for government subsidy.  How many stadiums for billionaires have been built without government subsidies?  How many companies have chased after the best subsidies and tax breaks to determine the location of a new office or factory?  Are these the same people who say government shouldn’t be picking winners and losers?

Consider the big howl from Congress when Solyndra collapsed.  But nothing was said about the success of Tesla.  Both received start-up subsidies from the Federal government.  Tesla paid its loans back!  Also among those who received subsidies were Compaq, Intel, and Apple.  Now Apple is the largest company in the world in capitalization!  And looking for ways to avoid paying back its benefactor through taxes.

For a lot more on how government has fostered many other successful innovations, see “The Innovative State: Governments Should Make Markets, Not Just Fix Them”, Mariana Mazzucato, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2015.

- Mel wishes a few far-sighted Republicans and Democrats would start a Pragmatic Party.

This was also published in the Duluth Reader, 2015-03-26 at 2015/03/26/5005_corporations_and_governments_cant_have_one_without

Do you give elections away?

Are you going to be in the 40% who lets the 31% decide who's going to be elected?

If you are among those who stay away in elections, then a majority of a 60% turnout is less than 31%.  Too many media outlets use "landslide" when the victor receives 55% of the vote.  If the turnout is only 60%, then the victor only received 33% of the eligible vote.

If these figures were reported more often, then maybe the "winners" would have less hubris when they take office.

Always vote because all votes count!