Being a member of congress is a great gig, despite all the “sacrifice and exhausting public service.” Why do some of these characters hang on for decades? I agree with Randy Bryce, Paul Ryan’s long shot iron worker opponent. They should trade places – an excellent idea. Rand Paul is warning his colleagues that they will have to explain their healthcare positions to their “republican” constituents and face their wrath when they return home for the summer. Do these . . .
Category: Politics
The Team versus The Country?
According to Fred Barnes in an opinion piece in WSJ 7/17/2017: “Politics is a team sport…. legislative success depends on operating as a team”. Wouldn’t a better measure of success be based on legislation that works for the country rather than winning as a team for political benefit? Granted, there are times when having “serious doubts” may require some courage. That is what we should expect and demand. Maybe Republicans care “passionately about ending Obamacare” but the majority of . . .
Responsibility – Article 2 Section 2
The Commander-In-Chief has given “total authorization” to the military. This seems better than having a man-child making decisions to shoot or not, but does represent a fundamental dereliction of duty. There is a reason that tradition and the constitution assign the authority (and responsibility – that is the rub) to the President for control of the military. Has anyone mentioned to the “commander” that responsibility is not absolved, despite any efforts at blame shifting? This tactic, increased military-industrial investment, . . .
Our Mad Man?
The U.S. appears to be out of step. Our guy is a Mad Men era character with the grabbing, stream polluting, and sclerotic thinking about us against them. Canada seems so much more evolved and now probably France. Sure, if you are in the “us” camp you can look forward to tax breaks but pity the fools over there with “them”. Who do they think they are getting sick or being poor? Our guy created a fabulous empire with only . . .
The Greeks had their Metics
What is so vile and scary about a “path to citizenship”? Amnesty, from Greek amnēstía, “forgetfulness of wrong” seems like a good concept. Who wants to hold on to resentment for someone who bravely escaped a hard and often dangerous life and crossed a border? Could it be simply a dislike and fear of the differences in appearance, language and habits? If so, maybe it is time to do some travelling. This attitude is nothing new. The ancient . . .
Small Fingers on the Buttons
The motives are suspect, “beautiful babies” notwithstanding. Now he has a taste and with no semblance of strategy or thoughtful engagement can feel the power he has at his tiny fingertips. This was a win, win, win, win for him: major distraction, demonstration of toughness and new sheriff in town, favorability bump and awesome sense of majesty. $60 million worth of Tomahawks and the defense suppliers enjoy a happy $5 Billion addition to their market value in one day. What . . .
Unsafe at any speed!
Wow: this is strong stuff! LA Times is taking a stand. We almost feel sorry for the man-child, but no we don’t. Here are the problems that we see: Immigrant policies hurt agriculture, construction, food service,tourism, tech,academia and medicine. Ceding trade leadership in the Pacific Bloc ($28 trillion) to China. Ceding clean energy leadership to someone else (most likely China.) Climate change denial: A casual survey of the scientific community (people who know what is going on) comes back with . . .