This is a bit more serious than my normal blogs, but from time to time, I feel I need to express them. Protests across the region and the nation this past weekend have really got me thinking about where our country’s leadership, and our core values, are going. The “No Kings” movement is rapidly evolving into an effective counterbalance to MAGA, which, while still a force, appears to be seeing its support crumbling around the edges. The world is becoming more complex, and for citizens in a democracy, it goes without saying that the voters and the candidates they choose must be as well. I was listening to an interview recently of a supporter of the current administration. His views and his responses give us an insight to how the president’s supporters think. For example, he stated that cities are becoming ‘safer’ because National Guard-essential soldiers (without training in law enforcement, one might add)-are patrolling the streets. He also feels ‘safer’ because undocumented immigrants are being deported at a rate with no precedent. Again, he believes the message that “undocumented” equals criminal. He thought the economy was doing well, probably because he looked older, perhaps retired, and doesn’t particularly care what’s happening in the workforce, where unemployment is low but climbing. He may or may not care much about climate change, food safety, or medical research, perhaps he may think he won’t live long enough to see the results of cuts in the development of those sectors.
Continue reading “Advanced Citizenship 201”Tag: news
The Craziness Is Back – Part II
There’s no doubt – he’s back. As I wrote before, the man who delights in shocking us has returned as captain of our ship, and he’s heading us straight for the rocks. Going after perceived “opponents”, be it Democrats, immigrants, the previous administration, judges, museums, colleges and universities, even law firms. Let’s slash and burn to save money. Except for a staggering amount on a military parade that nobody wants but him. A show of power and, dare I say it, ego. Yes, Hitler, Putin, and Kim Jong Un have done it too. Vintage Trump. MAGA has become synonymous with “Take Control and Run Roughshod”.
Continue reading “The Craziness Is Back – Part II”The Kennedy Center: Our Cultural Home No Longer
Shortened to the “Kennedy Center”, it is officially the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, sitting majestically on the Potomac. It opened in 1971 to honor the late President for his and Mrs. Kennedy’s great passion for the visual and performing arts. It contains commissioned works of art, a gallery of flags from around the world, and wonderful performing venues. It is home to the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera. In short, it’s the United States’ cultural home and showplace.
Continue reading “The Kennedy Center: Our Cultural Home No Longer”And the Craziness Is Back
Yes, he’s back. The man who delights in upsetting the applecart has returned to the White House. The first two weeks in office have been like watching a squirrel in the middle of the road. Working on nerve endings and knee-jerk reactions. Blinding lashing out at “opponents”, the previous administration, diversity. Rather than consoling the friends and families of after that terrible, tragic plane/helicopter crash over the Potomac, he pointed his long, ugly finger at Joe Biden for allowing “diversity” into the ranks of air traffic controllers. Replace sadness and compassion with anger. Vintage Trump.
Rule by Executive Order. After all, Americans gave him a “mandate”. He swept the popular vote by a truly mind-blowing 1.5% margin. For comparison, Richard Nixon beat George McGovern by just over 23% in 1972. Ronald Reagan won his second term by almost 59% of the popular vote over former Vice President Walter Mondale, and Mondale only captured 13 votes in the Electoral College. So, with this new “mandate”, President Trump really doesn’t need Congress. The Constitution either. “Birthright Citizenship” is clearly spelled out in the 14th Amendment, which states that citizenship is acquired in one of two ways – a person is born in the US and its territories, or at least one parent is an American citizen. This was passed just after the Civil War, and its intent was clear – former slaves would automatically become citizens. It was meant to negate the flurry of state legislation prohibiting citizenship rights to African Americans. No matter, contend Republicans supportive of the latest action, that’s not what post-Civil War legislators really meant.
There has been a barrage of back-and-forth, squirrel-like scurrying as decisions are made, rescinded, and blocked by the courts. Federal employees scrambling, their jobs uncertain from day to day, hour to hour. Because most of his intention to cut spending is outside his purview – that is Congress’ job. In fact, he’s not absolutely clear on the roles of each division of government. Congress sets policy through legislation, and determines allocations of money. The Executive branch carries out those policies, and oversees the funding that Congress has approved. And the Judicial determines that which is legal and that which isn’t. Clearly defined. Nowhere in the Constitution is the President authorized to appoint his friends and family to an outside “department” review the operations of government. The Constitution, nor acts of Congress, allow those outside individuals to demand official government records and documents, or to interfere with normal government operations.
Interestingly, the piles of executive orders tell us more about what Mr. Trump doesn’t like, rather than what he does.
He doesn’t like diversity. Few non-white nominees for key positions. Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, and Kash Patel, designate for FBI director are about it. Vivek Ramaswamy has stepped away from the “department” to which he was ‘appointed” as he considers a possible run for office elsewhere. Mr. Trump has issued decrees banning any policies in government departments that mention diversity and/or equity, and has revoked funding for transgender medical care. He even finds the name, “Gulf of Mexico”, offensive.
He also doesn’t particularly care for non-rich people. His advisors and appointees include more than a dozen billionaires. We should expect that, like his tax overhaul of 2017, new policies and regulation-cutting will favor those with money – lots of it. We remember Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education in his first term, pushing for-profit schools (and denying debt-forgiveness when those schools went belly-up), private schools and vouchers. This time, he’s appointed a billionaire donor from the world of professional wrestling, who’s mission, apparently, is to abolish the department altogether.
He doesn’t put much “stock” in alternative energy sources, or the development thereof. His pick of Chris Wright, a man right out of the fossil fuel industry and an advocate of “fracking”, to be Energy Secretary, isn’t likely to advance new initiatives. Mr. Trump has taken the US out, once again, of the Paris Climate Agreement, and issued an executive order that cancelled funding for wind turbines, solar energy, and other energy development projects. Pleasant news for the Chinese, virtually “passing the ball” on to them to develop the globe’s new sources of energy when oil and gas run out, which they will.
He doesn’t place much value on medical research, having put a freeze on funding grants by the National Institute of Health for the development of new medications, vaccines, and treatment programs. Included were cancer treatments and possible immunizations for new global infectious diseases should they come along, which they will, and withdrawn the US from the World Health Organization, which shares vital information among its member countries.
He also doesn’t care much for foreign aid, having listened to his billionaire advisors, who probably aren’t seeing much return from it on their business investments. Even though it funds clean energy, medical care, preventing pollution, and education in poor and developing countries, the world’s good will isn’t that important. It’s more important that we’re number one and keep it that way. “We Are the World” has been replaced by “America First.”
It is one thing to take a systematic review of government investments and the services they provide its citizens. But it would seem to this observer that it is a time-consuming process, looking at all aspects of those services and, in particular, the unintended consequences of their reduction or elimination. For example, reducing the number of tax examiners at the IRS would seem, on the surface, to be a popular, vote-getting idea. Until you factor in the lost revenue from illegal tax avoidance. Reductions in the numbers of federal employees typically means that agencies are slower and less able to respond to changes in policy, like the recent Social Security Fairness Act, or to things like natural disasters – floods, wildfires, and hurricanes. One of the more concerning issues from the last election is affordability, and skyrocketing prices of housing. Will the deportation of thousands, perhaps millions of immigrant construction workers, desperately needed to rebuild southern California and across the country, hinder solutions to construction and reconstruction? (Side note – the building industry estimates it will need, going forward, almost half a million workers that it currently doesn’t have.) Or, how will putting tariffs on the supplies of building materials from Canada affect home prices? Probably not well. But as our new president has sounded loudly the alarm against the undocumented, the vast majority of whom are in fact “documented” – holding drivers licenses, residency documents, and paying taxes with valid tax returns, he feels committed to both avenues of narrative. Will cybersecurity take a hit as hackers both at home and abroad gain a foothold? It’s possible the government could lose track of possible terrorist cells and other bad actors, because the FBI tracks them. These are all essential services that we take for granted, even if we don’t see them in action every day.
It won’t be tomorrow, or even in a month or two. But the craziness will catch up with us. The disruptions in which Mr. Trump delights will manifest themselves negatively, and it will get ugly. It did before, and it’s starting again. Americans that voted for him, confident that he would bring down prices, that he’d “improve” the economy, and deport undesirables will find themselves sadly disillusioned in the not-too-distant future, possibly even by the next mid-term election. The political pendulum will, as it always does, swing back.
Has Democracy Run Its Course?
Time for something serious. I try to keep serious topics at bay, writing about the foibles of Her Ladyship, the Princess, and myself. But, sometimes, it seems to be appropriate, with a presidential inaugural on the horizon and recent political activity that accompanies it.
Continue reading “Has Democracy Run Its Course?”“Mankind Was My Business” – Remembering Jimmy Carter
That famous quote, spoken by the ghost of Jacob Marley in Charles Dickens’ immortal classic, “A Christmas Carol” is especially poignant with the passing of former President Jimmy Carter over the holidays, and memorials this week in Georgia, Washington, and across the country. It was his guiding principle before, during, and after his time in the White House. It defined his role in leadership, his sense of honesty and his overall character. Whether sitting in the Oval Office, teaching Sunday School, building homes for the needy, highlighting the dangers of parasitic diseases, or working to preserve election integrity abroad, he was a role model for all of us. His engaging, infectious smile calmed a nation emerging from the turmoil of Watergate.
Rising to the highest office in the land, Mr. Carter pledged “I will never lie to you.” And he didn’t. His honest, straightforward approach got him elected, but many have also called it a stumbling block in Washington, where “spin”, denial, and deception are too often the currency of government. Carter’s administration was overshadowed by inflation, high gasoline prices and rationing, long lines at the gas station, and the Iran hostage situation and its failed rescue attempt. We tend to forget the pictures of a smiling Carter shaking hands with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Brokering an agreement that included peace between Egypt and Israel that included a proposal for self-governing powers for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and guidelines for more collaborative partnerships in the Middle East. Visionary, even if they haven’t seen long term success, undermined by “digging in” and a renewal of ancient feuds. None-the-less, core beliefs underscored that for which Jimmy Carter was known. And, for which he would later win a Nobel Peace Prize, one of only two US presidents in this century to do so, and the first since Woodrow Wilson. He also turned Americans’ attention to Africa, the “forgotten” continent, struggling to overcome elite minority rule, the last vestiges of colonialism, extreme poverty and hunger, and rampant disease.
Wearing a cardigan sweater, he urged Americans to conserve energy, to turn the heat down. His message presaged a warning of global climate change, for which Vice President Al Gore later also won a peace prize, and built the foundations for a steady shift away from fossil fuels that continues to this day, up to the reelection of . . . . . Ironically, that’s a platform on which Elon Musk later built his empire of electric cars.
Mr. Carter’s strong defense of, and fierce advocacy for human rights laid another foundation – one that saw authoritarian governments in Eastern Europe in the 1980’s and 1990’s start to crumble and democratic activists’ voices begin to be heard. Coalitions that had existed behind the “iron curtain” for much of the 20th century, and that had been considered immutable were starting to lose their stranglehold on power. Much of that groundwork, for which President Carter never was and never will be credited, can be laid to his unwavering belief in what was right and what wasn’t.
I remember the Carter years. My wife and I were married in 1977 and relocated in 1978. I remember with appalling clarity when gasoline hit $1.00 per gallon. When we could only buy gasoline on odd or even days, and we waited in long lines. I got my first teaching job and we moved from Southwestern New Hampshire to Nashua. Our rent doubled, and I was paid the princely sum of $5,800 per year. Much like today, people voted with their wallets in 1980, and assumed that the president had complete control of the economy, so it was had to be his fault. Into office marched the Republicans, because Ronald Reagan was a take-charge guy, and he’d fix the problems. Swept into office on the twin themes of lowering taxes and deregulation. Sound familiar? And so, Jimmy Carter left office perceived as weak and ineffectual, the simple, honest man from Georgia for whom the Oval Office was just too much. The Presidency is like that. Vietnam overshadowed Lyndon Johnson’s term, and we have tended to forget the Civil Rights Act, the War on Poverty, the Voting Rights Act, and Medicare. Fortunately, historical record takes a broader, more balanced view.
History will review his legacy – in fact, it has already begun. Not unlike President Biden today, we can’t say Carter’s single term of office was without consequence, didn’t have real accomplishments, and didn’t chart a path forward. Time and objectivity often reward those who chose to do what was right rather than what was popular. Those that perceived “weakness” in Jimmy Carter have seriously underestimated the power of his warm smile and gentle Georgia drawl. Behind them lay a steely determination to make the world better.
Mr. President, your spirit of humanity is alive in many people, and we’ll remember you for the good you did. Images of swinging a hammer for Habitat for Humanity, sitting next to Nelson Mandela while each of you holds an HIV-baby in South Africa, teaching Sunday School classes in Plains. You and Rosalyn – a couple working in harmony. Traveling the globe in service to democracy, in service to people in need. Yes, Mr. Carter. Much more than peanut farming, “mankind” was your business, and your life’s work. Goodbye and thank you.
Here We Go Again – On Gun Violence
I tried hard to keep politics out of these writings, and least this time, it’s only tangential. I hope my readers aren’t offended, but here goes.
Continue reading “Here We Go Again – On Gun Violence”Yes, I’m Still an Independent Voter
Well, that time is rolling around once again. I originally posted some of this in 2020, before the general election that either was legitimate or “stolen”. We have to ask ourselves if we’ve moved forward, backward, or just have been treading water. Democrats want to move on, to make changes, to adapt. Republicans want to step back, because what worked for years surely must still be of value. Fingers are pointing, blame is laid. Two presidential candidates – one a former prosecutor, the other convicted. An interesting choice. So, here we go again.
Continue reading “Yes, I’m Still an Independent Voter”Heading Into the Primaries, Again
Once again, the election process kicks in. This is not an endorsement for any candidate, as I feel that would seriously jeopardize my credentials as an impartial, independent blogger / influencer. For those of you that don’t understand the primary system, it’s a convoluted, messy, scrappy way that we pick delegates, and sometimes really good delegates – they’re called superdelegates, state-by-state that will eventually elect the party’s nominees. We have dozens of candidates blowing through gazillions of gallons of jet fuel crisscrossing the country in attractive geometric patterns, and its ultimate purpose is to take all of the mystery and surprise out of the conventions. That’s it in a nutshell. Right now, there’s a lot of fun going on here in New Hampshire surrounding our primary because it’s the first officially scheduled one, except for Iowa, which is a caucus and not really a primary. The difference is that, people go to polling stations and, well, I’m not really sure what, but somehow, they indicate their preferences. We use a paper ballot, which is much better. Then we have foreign nationals to count the ballots and tell us who won.
Continue reading “Heading Into the Primaries, Again”Lady Peacock on the Disabled List
(Part of the continuing series: The Lady Peacock Chronicles – the Life, Times, and Challenges of Being Lady Peacock)
Our dear friend Lady Peacock had an unfortunate, serious accident recently. She was taking her granddaughter to a play and fell on a brick walkway. We’ve all done that, and it’s painful and traumatic. Lady P. did sustain some significant injuries, and I don’t mean to make light of them because I genuinely feel sorry for her, particularly at the holidays. She broke a bone in her thumb and has a brace to immobilize that hand, which of course is awkward for any number of tasks. This follows on the heels of a car accident in which her significant other was involved, so he too is in a period of recuperation. So, life continues to be difficult for pool Lady P.
Continue reading “Lady Peacock on the Disabled List”
I'm Thinking...No! 