Of all the absurdities mankind is capable, War is the ultimate. It destroys and maims
lives, youth, hopes, families, homes, even civilizations. That wars are fought in furtherance of religious myths is the supreme obscenity. War solves nothing, and sets the stage for the next installment in destructive conflict.
War fought over territory defies the reasoning ability that supposedly distinguishes man from the beasts of the forest. No one is the owner of the land.
In the scale of eternity the land belongs to the cosmos. At best we can control
its use and disposition for but a moment. To destroy a generation of youth for such
a temporary advantage is idiocy.
The present political environment in our nation begins to resemble a rising tide toward warfare, between factions, not nations.
It has the potential to reach a shooting stage if demagogues continue to stoke the fire. With or without bullets, the damage
to our domestic tranquility could set this nation back for generations. When masses
cry out to "take this nation back", from whom are they repossessing it?
Rationality is color sensitive--when the economic ledger is red, it runs for the hills. People's minds close when under financial duress. It requires our politicians
to become statesmen and channel fear into more responsible channels. We are in real trouble when our politicos sell out to special interests, ignoring their responsibility for the needs of the public at large. We are at that point in our
national life. Our nation's health is precarious!
We need a Reform Bill for politics!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Supercharged
That is the word that describes the political attitudes poisoning our land today
A growing body of negatively charged particles is accumulating around one pole
of our landscape. At the opposite pole a critical mass of positively charged particles is building. At some point they will impact each other in a nuclear
reaction in which an enormous amount of destructive energy will be released. The
damage to our social contract will be significant, perhaps exceeding our capacity for
repair with our increasingly scarce resources.
The negative particles have turned from peaceful, somewhat reasoned oppposition
to a more violent form of anger. They are against any and all government imposed
discipline, whether established to promote the common wellbeing or to help citizens in need. It matters not that they are the beneficiaries of many such government
programs and would fight to the death to preserve them. The connection evades them.
The positive particles have concluded that Government exists to eliminate all
the travails that afflict us. They promote the public welfare by public funds, without regard to whether such funds exist. If they do not, they can be created
by the printing press, or borrowing from less profligate countries. In the process
we enter a slippery slope to third world status.
This dilemma could be resolved by joint discusssion, exploration and compromise.
But the particles are so highly charged that they cannot even approach one another without triggering an explosion. Can we find a neutralizing agent to dissipate the
charges and rejoin the particles into a benign molecule?
A growing body of negatively charged particles is accumulating around one pole
of our landscape. At the opposite pole a critical mass of positively charged particles is building. At some point they will impact each other in a nuclear
reaction in which an enormous amount of destructive energy will be released. The
damage to our social contract will be significant, perhaps exceeding our capacity for
repair with our increasingly scarce resources.
The negative particles have turned from peaceful, somewhat reasoned oppposition
to a more violent form of anger. They are against any and all government imposed
discipline, whether established to promote the common wellbeing or to help citizens in need. It matters not that they are the beneficiaries of many such government
programs and would fight to the death to preserve them. The connection evades them.
The positive particles have concluded that Government exists to eliminate all
the travails that afflict us. They promote the public welfare by public funds, without regard to whether such funds exist. If they do not, they can be created
by the printing press, or borrowing from less profligate countries. In the process
we enter a slippery slope to third world status.
This dilemma could be resolved by joint discusssion, exploration and compromise.
But the particles are so highly charged that they cannot even approach one another without triggering an explosion. Can we find a neutralizing agent to dissipate the
charges and rejoin the particles into a benign molecule?
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Damn the Nation, Full Stop Ahead!
Instead of pitching in and helping implement the health care reform and making
it work efficiently, the sore-losers Republicans have shown their true colors.
Their purpose has been to oppose and obstruct the President's agenda for turning
this nation from its slide into bankruptcy and third world status. This for the
narrow end of making his a failed presidency. That such a strategy
will cause irreparable harm to the nation is of no concern to those power obsessed
neanderthals. One of the leading Republican figures, Presidential candidate John
McCain said publically that there will be no further Republican cooperation in trying to solve the critical problems we must still deal with for the rest of this year. Holding the welfare of the nation hostage to petty political goals reveals the
true nature of his party. How Sad. How mean spirited. How Dangerous.
We still face enormously complicated problems affecting the very survival of this
nation as a capitalist democracy. The growing, crippling deficit will reach a point of no return soon, but in order to pull the economy out of the worst, intractable
recession in 80 years, we will still have to resort to deficit pump priming.
We are fully engaged in two foreign wars which we finance by cutting taxes on the wealthy, something done in no earlier wars.
Unemployment is rising and persistent, causing millions to lose their homes,
savings and future security. The foreclosure deluge has devastated neighborhoods, depressed housing values, shut off construction, adding to unemployment.
Our reliance on imported oil is a punitive surcharge on our economy, weakening the
dollar, fouling our environment, and driving us ever deeper into debt and dependancy
on China and the Oil sheikdoms.
Our educational system has become third rate compared to the other developed countries and to the Asian steamrollers. As a result our technological lead has
largely disappeared. I could go on listing more problems, but the point is made;
the Republicans intend to offer NO COOPERATION toward solving any of the above, so says their Presidential candidate. Is that attitude statesmanship? Is it worthy
of a party that wants to take over control of our government? Are they mature politicians, or spoiled brats who, if they can't win, won't play?
They are assassins of a system of governing which served us well for more than two centuries and made us a shining beacon of liberty and prosperity to the world.
That beacon is being extinguished!
it work efficiently, the sore-losers Republicans have shown their true colors.
Their purpose has been to oppose and obstruct the President's agenda for turning
this nation from its slide into bankruptcy and third world status. This for the
narrow end of making his a failed presidency. That such a strategy
will cause irreparable harm to the nation is of no concern to those power obsessed
neanderthals. One of the leading Republican figures, Presidential candidate John
McCain said publically that there will be no further Republican cooperation in trying to solve the critical problems we must still deal with for the rest of this year. Holding the welfare of the nation hostage to petty political goals reveals the
true nature of his party. How Sad. How mean spirited. How Dangerous.
We still face enormously complicated problems affecting the very survival of this
nation as a capitalist democracy. The growing, crippling deficit will reach a point of no return soon, but in order to pull the economy out of the worst, intractable
recession in 80 years, we will still have to resort to deficit pump priming.
We are fully engaged in two foreign wars which we finance by cutting taxes on the wealthy, something done in no earlier wars.
Unemployment is rising and persistent, causing millions to lose their homes,
savings and future security. The foreclosure deluge has devastated neighborhoods, depressed housing values, shut off construction, adding to unemployment.
Our reliance on imported oil is a punitive surcharge on our economy, weakening the
dollar, fouling our environment, and driving us ever deeper into debt and dependancy
on China and the Oil sheikdoms.
Our educational system has become third rate compared to the other developed countries and to the Asian steamrollers. As a result our technological lead has
largely disappeared. I could go on listing more problems, but the point is made;
the Republicans intend to offer NO COOPERATION toward solving any of the above, so says their Presidential candidate. Is that attitude statesmanship? Is it worthy
of a party that wants to take over control of our government? Are they mature politicians, or spoiled brats who, if they can't win, won't play?
They are assassins of a system of governing which served us well for more than two centuries and made us a shining beacon of liberty and prosperity to the world.
That beacon is being extinguished!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Health Care--what is next?
Now that health care, make that health insurance, reform is on the way to becoming a reality, where is it going next? Certain inevitabilities can be expected:
1. Republicans will try to repeal whatever form the final bill takes. They have invested too much venom and lies in their anti-campaign to face the possibility that
it may work out well. That would represent their total repudiation, with disastrous
effects at election time.
2.When the final bill is signed and becomes law, the agencies that opposed it and who will be charged with conforming with its provisions, such as insurance companies, will find many opportunities to make mischief, even sabotage, to gain
advantages the law sought to take away.
3. No matter how carefully planned, no law can anticipate unintended consequences.
These will provide grist for the mills of the nay-sayers. Only when the beneficial
results for the millions of victims of the present system become evident will those ill-wishers be silenced. That may take a while, but as it happened with Social Security and Medicare, so will it happen with health reform. A decade from now I predict not a single opponent of the reform will advocate retracting it.
4. The predicted costs will be greater, and deficit reductions much less. Government
operates through bureaucracies which inevitably develope a life of their own and
a self perpetuating constituency. If the benefits far exceed the costs, the
program will succeed. That is likely to occur in a program of such vital importance to the life and health of our nation. How healthy it would be if everyone united
in good faith to make it succeed!
1. Republicans will try to repeal whatever form the final bill takes. They have invested too much venom and lies in their anti-campaign to face the possibility that
it may work out well. That would represent their total repudiation, with disastrous
effects at election time.
2.When the final bill is signed and becomes law, the agencies that opposed it and who will be charged with conforming with its provisions, such as insurance companies, will find many opportunities to make mischief, even sabotage, to gain
advantages the law sought to take away.
3. No matter how carefully planned, no law can anticipate unintended consequences.
These will provide grist for the mills of the nay-sayers. Only when the beneficial
results for the millions of victims of the present system become evident will those ill-wishers be silenced. That may take a while, but as it happened with Social Security and Medicare, so will it happen with health reform. A decade from now I predict not a single opponent of the reform will advocate retracting it.
4. The predicted costs will be greater, and deficit reductions much less. Government
operates through bureaucracies which inevitably develope a life of their own and
a self perpetuating constituency. If the benefits far exceed the costs, the
program will succeed. That is likely to occur in a program of such vital importance to the life and health of our nation. How healthy it would be if everyone united
in good faith to make it succeed!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
An Unhealthy Health Care Bill
The bill the Dems are attempting to slip-slide through the House and get to the
President for signature is a product of compromise, horse trading, negotiation
and bribery, and completely satisfies no one. It contains some noble provisions such as vastly expanded coverage, limits on some of the most unsavory insurance company practices, some realizable cost savings and measures to streamline Medicare and make it more cost effective. However many of the needed changes have delayed effective
dates, and savings which will depend on future congresses to implement. If these
were so difficult and distasteful to this congress to implement now, the likelihood
that future congressmen will have the backbone to put them in force is almost non
existent.
What confronts us now is a Hobson's choice: Do we finally face the problem that the status quo is unsustainable and pass a bill, though far from perfect, that makes a substantial effort to improve matters, or do we allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good, and leave the problem to fester? It is likely that our present health
care system will continue to increase costs, reduce the number of people insured,
and cause serious economic damage to the middle class. Medicare and Medicaid will
bring the nation to the brink of bankruptcy within a decade or so if not altered.
Waiting until after elections to tackle the problems could bring us to that tipping point even sooner.
President for signature is a product of compromise, horse trading, negotiation
and bribery, and completely satisfies no one. It contains some noble provisions such as vastly expanded coverage, limits on some of the most unsavory insurance company practices, some realizable cost savings and measures to streamline Medicare and make it more cost effective. However many of the needed changes have delayed effective
dates, and savings which will depend on future congresses to implement. If these
were so difficult and distasteful to this congress to implement now, the likelihood
that future congressmen will have the backbone to put them in force is almost non
existent.
What confronts us now is a Hobson's choice: Do we finally face the problem that the status quo is unsustainable and pass a bill, though far from perfect, that makes a substantial effort to improve matters, or do we allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good, and leave the problem to fester? It is likely that our present health
care system will continue to increase costs, reduce the number of people insured,
and cause serious economic damage to the middle class. Medicare and Medicaid will
bring the nation to the brink of bankruptcy within a decade or so if not altered.
Waiting until after elections to tackle the problems could bring us to that tipping point even sooner.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Renewing America
America is like an old dowager beset by dreams of her maiden days when she was
young and beautiful. Her closet is full of faded gowns of her youth, but
her present raiment is threadbare and decrepit. Only illusion keeps her from
seeing her own countenance as it is.
The content of our nation's closet, our infrastructure, is also decrepit. Our bridges and tunnels are collapsing. Our aging water supply systems break down and flood everywhere, and can't guarantee drinking quality. Highways designed for 1930's traffic are collapsing
under present day demands. School and municipal buildings everywhere are obsolete
and dangerous. Our state mental hospitals resemble the BEDLAM in English novels.
Our inter-city mass transit systems have almost disappeared. The National parks have
been allowed to deteriorate and state parks have closed for lack of personnel.
To renovate all of those would take money, lots of money, which we don't have,
and won't try to get by taxing those who can pay. So to address the problems would require us to go further into debt. Understanding the role of debt would be helpful
at this point.
Taking on debt which is used to acquire permanent and income producing assets is
not debt--it is investment. Debt used for non-productive purposes such as wars,
pork projects, a bloated military, huge salaries and bonuses for executives of
failed enterprises which were bailed out by public borrowed money, is destructive.
It depreciates the currency, weakens our ability to invest in productive projects
increases interest rates, and promotes inflation.
Suppose we were to embark on a massive public works project, similar to those
used during the great Depression, to put millions of unemployed to work restoring
our infrastructure. It would increase our public debt enormously but pay dividends in the form of wages, which would increase consumption and keep people in their homes.
It would translate into improved infrastructure and facilities thus increasing
efficiency and earning power. Just the savings in oil consumption alone would
make a big dent in our unproductive spending. Such debt would be INVESTMENT, repaying
itself over time. It would rejuvenate a dowager America.
If, along with that we were to rationalize the income tax laws and regulations,
and ask those at the peak on the income pyramid to accept a period of additional
marginal taxes, impose strict austerity on the bloated federal government, change
the reimbursement method for Medicare and Medicaid to rewarding outcomes, not procedures, withdrawing from foreign wars, slimming the military, within a decade
America could be in the black and ready for a new blossoming of the American Dream.
Do we still have the capacity to dream big?
young and beautiful. Her closet is full of faded gowns of her youth, but
her present raiment is threadbare and decrepit. Only illusion keeps her from
seeing her own countenance as it is.
The content of our nation's closet, our infrastructure, is also decrepit. Our bridges and tunnels are collapsing. Our aging water supply systems break down and flood everywhere, and can't guarantee drinking quality. Highways designed for 1930's traffic are collapsing
under present day demands. School and municipal buildings everywhere are obsolete
and dangerous. Our state mental hospitals resemble the BEDLAM in English novels.
Our inter-city mass transit systems have almost disappeared. The National parks have
been allowed to deteriorate and state parks have closed for lack of personnel.
To renovate all of those would take money, lots of money, which we don't have,
and won't try to get by taxing those who can pay. So to address the problems would require us to go further into debt. Understanding the role of debt would be helpful
at this point.
Taking on debt which is used to acquire permanent and income producing assets is
not debt--it is investment. Debt used for non-productive purposes such as wars,
pork projects, a bloated military, huge salaries and bonuses for executives of
failed enterprises which were bailed out by public borrowed money, is destructive.
It depreciates the currency, weakens our ability to invest in productive projects
increases interest rates, and promotes inflation.
Suppose we were to embark on a massive public works project, similar to those
used during the great Depression, to put millions of unemployed to work restoring
our infrastructure. It would increase our public debt enormously but pay dividends in the form of wages, which would increase consumption and keep people in their homes.
It would translate into improved infrastructure and facilities thus increasing
efficiency and earning power. Just the savings in oil consumption alone would
make a big dent in our unproductive spending. Such debt would be INVESTMENT, repaying
itself over time. It would rejuvenate a dowager America.
If, along with that we were to rationalize the income tax laws and regulations,
and ask those at the peak on the income pyramid to accept a period of additional
marginal taxes, impose strict austerity on the bloated federal government, change
the reimbursement method for Medicare and Medicaid to rewarding outcomes, not procedures, withdrawing from foreign wars, slimming the military, within a decade
America could be in the black and ready for a new blossoming of the American Dream.
Do we still have the capacity to dream big?
Saturday, March 6, 2010
A more perfect union?
As I observe our two party system congealed into a state of immobility it occurs to me that what has taken place is a brazen case of identity theft. The two parties,
Republican and Democrat, have concluded that they each individually are the embodiment of the federal union, and the other party are aliens.
The fate of the nation, its very survival, is identified by and with their party, and the other is the ENEMY. A war to the death is under way, and among the casualties are millions of citizens who are losing their livelihoods, their health
care, their homes and their very futures.
As in all warfare, there are no real winners, only temporary victors who gain the spoils of victory: a devastated economy, a diminished world status, and a bitterly divided nation. The losers nurse their wounds, re-arm and mobilize for the next time.
Meanwhile they sabotage every attempt by the victors to govern.
Is this the perfect union our founders meant for us? They tried to account for
the frailties, imperfections and pettiness of men in the checks and balances they built into our federal system. It seems they underestimated our venality.
Republican and Democrat, have concluded that they each individually are the embodiment of the federal union, and the other party are aliens.
The fate of the nation, its very survival, is identified by and with their party, and the other is the ENEMY. A war to the death is under way, and among the casualties are millions of citizens who are losing their livelihoods, their health
care, their homes and their very futures.
As in all warfare, there are no real winners, only temporary victors who gain the spoils of victory: a devastated economy, a diminished world status, and a bitterly divided nation. The losers nurse their wounds, re-arm and mobilize for the next time.
Meanwhile they sabotage every attempt by the victors to govern.
Is this the perfect union our founders meant for us? They tried to account for
the frailties, imperfections and pettiness of men in the checks and balances they built into our federal system. It seems they underestimated our venality.
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