Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

A Gathering Storm


We seem to be watching the slow motion creation of a dystopian plutocracy. Obfuscated by the administration’s contrived crisis of dealing with undocumented immigrants and horrific scenes of families being separated, is an alt-right agenda of dismantling the so called social net.  Stories such as a recent one in the New York Times are hidden by other events of Trump’s creation. 

Highlighted here are some salient points from the New York Times article of a few days ago, “Behind Trump’s Plan to Overhaul the Government: Scaling Back the Safety Net”.

I have depended on the Times for the Truth all my life and I see no reason to disbelieve any of this about “a small army of conservatives [who] have produced dozens of initiatives like the cabinet reshuffle proposal, with the goal of dismantling the social welfare system.”

·       *Among the most consequential ideas is a proposal to shift the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a subsistence benefit that provides aid to 42 million poor and working Americans, from the Agriculture Department to a new mega-agency that would have “welfare” in its title — a term Mr. Trump uses as a pejorative catchall for most government benefit programs
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          *Mr. Trump, for his part, joked on Thursday that the plan was “extraordinarily boring” before TV cameras in the Cabinet Room.  But being boring in an all-too-exciting White House has provided cover for a small army of conservatives and think tank veterans who have been quietly churning out dozens of initiatives like the proposal to reshuffle the cabinet, with the ultimate goal of dismantling the American social welfare system from the inside out.
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          *Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s former adviser,…believes the attack on social programs will be one of Mr. Trump’s most enduring policy achievements.
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          *Philip G. Alston, a New York University professor and the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, agreed with Mr. Bannon’s assessment. “My sense is they are making very considerable progress, even though no one is paying much attention,” he said.
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      *As president, Mr. Trump would become so bored with the details of domestic policy that aides long ago stopped sharing all but the most top-line specifics of their plans — including the reorganization, according to several people who have worked closely with Mr. Trump.  If Mr. Trump is fuzzy on policy, he is acutely attuned to the perils of offending his base, especially older voters.
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      *The core of Mr. Trump’s safety net policy is an expansion of work requirements to foster self-sufficiency among recipients of food assistance, Medicaid and housing subsidies to reduce dependence on the government. “Our goal is to get people on the path to self-sufficiency,” Mr. Bremberg said. Its real purpose, advocates for poor people claim, is to kick hundreds of thousands of the needy off the federal rolls, to cut taxes for the rich
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      *By early 2017, Heritage produced a government reorganization plan that served as the initial template for Thursday’s announcement. They also drafted a list of 334 policy recommendations, about half of them aimed at domestic programs for poor people or Obama-era regulations protecting low-income consumers.

The first part of the plan, cutting taxes for the upper 1%, has already been implemented.  What remains to be seen is the long term impact of those cuts on the deficit; most economists agree that GPD growth will not offset those cuts. This leaves an ever growing national debt, something the Republicans staunchly opposed before and now seem to be content with.  When cries of deficit spending reach a crescendo in the future, their “Trump card” may be to throw the neediest 42 million Americans under the bus in the name of fiscal responsibility. 

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Sense of Impotency in the Age of Trump


Gaslighting will do that to you.  The endless stream of invectives and distortions coming from our own President and his administration, ignored by many of our elected representatives, leaves one feeling a sense of helplessness, hopelessness, and even sickness.   The easy way out is to get dragged into the melee, and engage with extremists from both ends of the political spectrum, taking our tribal positions.  I’ve done it and still do, but there may be another way.  Join RDI, the Renew Democracy Initiative.  Here is a place for non extremists from both sides of the political divide to find solace and work together to preserve our Democracy, like-minded folk who believe in their Manifesto, particularly #13:  There is still a center in Western politics, and it needs to be revitalized— intellectually, culturally, and politically. The center right and center left are still joined by a broad set of common values, including respect for free speech and dissent, a belief in the benefits of international trade and immigration, respect for law and procedural legitimacy, a suspicion of cults of personality, and an understanding that free societies require protection from authoritarians promising easy fixes to complex problems.


Think about it.  We live in an age where a porn star is suing a sitting President for defamation of character.  Not that I don’t think she has a right, particularly as we elected a man who boasted about grabbing women by their “pussy.”  A reality TV star has turned politics into a reality TV show. We elected him.  The Office of the Presidency is demeaned every day and in so doing the moral compass of America’s leadership disintegrates in a haze of gaslighting, jeopardizing the democratic principles we have built for more than 200 years.  We’ve made such progress, and shame on us all to let it be undermined with catchy simplistic slogans like “Make America Great Again,” or the endless stream of consciousness impulse tweets, mass-market entertainment passing as Presidential proclamations.  

From RDI’s site: The world is in the midst of a modern political crisis fueled by fear, distrust, and confusion. Disturbing global trends, such as populism and authoritarianism, are imperiling the basic tenets of liberal democracy.  The Renew Democracy Initiative (“RDI”) came into existence as an effort to reinvigorate democracy and combat the extremism that deforms public debate.  Our goal is to remind, to educate, to advocate for liberty.

Friday, April 6, 2018

The Big Bad Wolf Comes for Little Red Riding Hood


Totalitarianism feeds on propaganda and the control of information.  My former college psychology professor, Gustave Gilbert, the author of The Nuremberg Diary said that Joseph Goebbels, who had been an unsuccessful writer, “devoted his considerable talents for propaganda to the task of winning over Berlin’s leftists to the cause of Hilterian fascism.” (The Psychology of Dictatorship, 1950).  Ultimately Goebbels served as Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.  Per Wikipedia, “Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry quickly gained and exerted controlling supervision over the news media, arts, and information in Germany. He was particularly adept at using the relatively new media of radio and film for propaganda purposes.”

Imagine if he had the Internet at his disposal.

Now we have Moscow born, former Trump special assistant, and presently Sinclair Broadcasting’s senior political analyst, Boris Epshteyn, vying for the position of the “Ministry of Truth & Public Enlightenment.”   Sinclair Broadcasting has been quietly buying up local television stations, mostly in Trump country, to spread its conservative propaganda. By now everyone knows of the coordinated “Newspeak” perpetrated by Sinclair’s stations where local “news” anchors were required to read the same statement: The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common in the media. More alarming is that national media outlets are publishing these same fake stories without checking the facts first. Unfortunately, some members of the national media are using their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control 'exactly what people think'


Word for word, all Sinclair stations with local news broadcasters many of whom we have followed through their years, thinking of them as, well, just regular people like ourselves.  Old friends.

One such station happens to be in our viewing area, a CBS affiliate.  They too parroted this statement, as if they were speaking to us, although it was really Boris Epshteyn.  These are friendly faces we’ve seen on air before our morning commutes or once we get home. A Palm Beach Post staff writer, Frank Cerabino, wrote a funny but profound parody of what these local news anchors “really said.”



Ironically, on the surface, the statement IS essentially true, and that is where the danger lies, voiced by an organization which indeed has “an agenda.” The unsuspecting public is but a little Red Riding Hood being toyed with by a big bad Wolf, one who knows exactly what it’s doing.  After all, this is the organization which has pushed the “deep state” conspiracy theory. 

One of the favorite techniques in propaganda is to say it over and over again.  Fox News has been doing it for years.  Now your local news broadcaster may be coming for your mind.  "Oh Granny, what big teeth you've got!"

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Who Holds Whom Hostage?



For decades North Korea has crafted a delicate balance, building a nuclear capability while promoting nationalism to perpetuate the Kim Jong-un regime. American Presidents during those years were willing to accept the status quo which was preferable to a military confrontation.  Even with conventional weapons, , on a first strike North Korea could kill up to a million people in Seoul, only a few dozen miles from the DMZ.  That potential has held the world hostage all these years.

Pressure on North Korea’s trading partners, particularly China, to enact stiff sanctions on North Korea has, until recently, been futile.  Here China holds the U.S. hostage, owning a portion of our debt and more significantly knowing the American public’s insatiable demand for cheap imported goods would prevail over any economic retaliation against China.  China was content to have North Korea as a buffer zone until it, too, has been startled by NK’s nuclear ambitions.

Indeed, a delicate balance, and then Trump’s opening day message at the United Nations, where he threatened to “totally destroy North Korea.”   We all know what that is code for – the use of nuclear weapons.  An American President has said he would use this country’s nuclear force as a first strike.

Unthinkable.  There were so many other ways to signal our resolve, to further pressure North Korea to the negotiating table.  He went on to call Kim Jong-un ‘Rocket Man,’ --in front of the United Nations, schoolyard name-calling.  Then, further undermining the dignity of the Office of the Presidency, he continued those threats and name-calling in Tweets.

Surprise.  Tensions have ratcheted up, Kim Jong-un responding with new threats, including testing a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific.  Unlikely, but to even utter that is giving as good as one gets.

There has been much criticism levied at Trump for worsening an already incendiary environment between the two countries, so what does he do?  -- he turns on the NFL.  He has a reptilian instinct for survival.  In so doing, he wrapped himself in the flag, the one that belongs to us all.  “Fire the sons of bitches” referring to NFL players who went to one knee during the playing of the National Anthem.

I come from a generation which would never do that, but I would defend another person’s right to protest that way over such weighty issues as “Black Lives Matter.”  Of course all lives matter in this country and to be born black should not be an impediment, but look where Trump brought President Obama – to the point of producing his birth certificate to prove his legitimacy as the President.  If Obama was white, no such argument would have been made. 

Now, if anyone is an illegitimate President, it is Trump.  And he knows it -- how he got to be President, by his actions and Russia’s and astonishingly by those of the head of the FBI.  Even his ignorance of American history, and his divisiveness seemed to work in his favor.   He did not win by popular vote and although some of his marginal supporters say they would not vote for him now, he still has a solid 30 -35% base enamored by his strong-arm tactics, convinced he can do no wrong.  And it is HE who is holding the rest of America hostage.

He knows his tenure as President is precarious, with the possibility of impeachment or the invocation of the 25th amendment, which provides for the removal of the President if “disabled” and unable to perform the duties of the office.  One could argue that we are already there, but it is a high bar to achieve and it has to be set in motion by the Vice President and ultimately have the backing of 2/3 of Congress if the President objects. 

With his pathetic response to the Charlottesville show of power by white supremacist groups and his attack on NFL players, mostly black (although he disavows that as being an issue), he dog whistles to his hard-core followers, many probably NRA diehards, and thereby creates a hostage situation.  I can see clearly, now, the “strategy:” “remove me as your President and suffer the consequences of a new Civil War. “  He has his army, he has the means of communication, he exhibits sociopathic thinking, and his politics of divisiveness have created such an environment.  He would even risk nuclear war.

So, North Korea holds the world hostage, China holds us hostage, and Trump holds the majority of the American people hostage.  Never has there been such a President who disrespects the very ideals which makes the American flag so sacred.  He has done more than take a metaphoric knee to fortify his fragile ego.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Flag Day Despoiled



I was going to write a piece about Flag Day with photos.

Now, the depressing news about the shooting at a baseball practice field of Republican members of the congressional baseball team leads to other thoughts.  Thankfully no one was killed other than the gunman.  Good riddance to him. And thankfully the brave Capitol Police were there to take him down.

But will this be a time that we pull together long after the incident?  Or will it just pull us further apart?

I’ve heard comments such as Representative Mo Brooks’  “It’s not easy to take when you see people around you being shot and you don’t have a weapon yourself.”  According to initial reports the deranged gunman had a military assault style weapon.  One can understand the helplessness and the impotence felt by Rep. Brooks.  It is an outrage that we cannot even enjoy our national pastime without feeling threatened this way.  And it is an outrage that political divisiveness should lead to any kind of violence.

But unless we all pull together the subsequent dialogue can go two divergent ways.  One could lead us down the path of greater authoritarianism and the call for arming more citizens (although a greater police presence is going to be necessary when many of our Representatives are in public venues).  The other path could call for the long-needed ban of military grade weapons.  Are we all supposed to be armed  with AR-15s on our baseball fields?  I’m no Pollyanna and know that such a ban would have little impact on what happens in the near future.  I’m thinking long term.  This is not about challenging the 2nd Amendment, and it is not about Republican vs. Democrat.  It’s about common sense banning military weapons, doing comprehensive background checks, expanding our treatment of mental illness, and developing better early warning signs of mentally disturbed people from social networks and prior arrests.

I worry about how this horrible incident will move the country in the future.  Will we come together, E pluribus unum, or be driven apart, politicizing this horror?  I look to the flag and wonder and hope.