Crying Wolf

Imagine you were responsible for the well-being of 13 million people (13,000,000) and people that drive and fly through.

Imagine:

• There was a disease that had infected 500,000 and killed 12,500 by mid-December in Pennsylvania alone.

• You were able to make decisions that still kept the death rate at half that of neighboring hotspot states.

• You had to make decisions based on changing data, much from a source that was subjected to political sabotage, withheld information.

• An election based disinformation campaign designed to make those acting responsibly look like enemies of free trade.

• A senate whose majority reached out with ⅔ of the rescue effort going to big business and not to smaller businesses and households.

• A president who left the states holding the bag with very little funding for small business only an offer of loans to stay afloat.

• A state legislature that votes to reduce disaster power as opposed to working on relief.

And then understand this is not imaginary. 

Wrap this all up in the politics of Pennsylvania - a state house that is predominantly politically opposed to recommendations of experts, looking for ways to make the other party look bad and keep wealthy supporters happy. 

A situation where our best course of action, until widespread vaccination is available, is to reduce face to face contact while still trying to juggle keeping the economy running (due to a failure on the part of the federal government to fund reasonable aid, to allow all but essential businesses to shut, without going out of business - and a refusal on the part of conservative politicians to do what is necessary to save lives and keep family afloat.

I’m not asking you to change political affiliation or like Governor Wolf. I do ask you to recognize that saddled with the impossible task, he has managed to keep the death rate much lower than many states with similar population profiles. He has managed to do this and still tried to make decisions based on the science and recommendations of professionals.

Wolf has been engaged in pushing for relief, has called for the senate to pass a version of the Restaurants act that already passed the house of representatives,- part of a 2.2 trillion rescue designed to help keep restaurant and bar businesses - specifically those with 20 or less locations, afloat while we save lives. To spend our tax money on the people that paid into it, while we make our way through this.

You can dislike the man and the decisions that have been made and still recognize the life saving he’s enabled and the efforts he is taking to help all of us make it through. You can recognize the political rhetoric about freedom really being about not stopping the flow of money to the rich, letting people die rather than shutting down. You can respect that he has not bowed to the tremendous political pressure that if submitted to, would have doubled the death rate here. You can respect that he has advocated on your behalf regardless of your political affiliation and understand how much worse off we would be without someone who was actively engaged and working as he is.

References

https://blumenauer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/house-passes-blumenauer-s-120-billion-restaurant-relief-legislation#:~:text=House%20passes%20Blumenauer's%20%24120%20billion%20restaurant%20relief%20legislation,-October%201%2C%202020&text=The%20U.S.%20House%20of%20Representatives,Blumenauer%20(D%2DOR).

https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-19-stimulus-mcconnell-refuses-to-endorse-bipartisan-plan-2020-12

https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2020/07/coronavirus-disaster-declaration-pennsylvania-legislature-powers/

Paramount to Treason

 In the waning days of the current administration, we are seeing an unprecedented attempt to sabotage the incoming administration, to hamstring their ability to help people and businesses out of their current predicaments and put them in a position where we will have a stalemate in congress once again, leading to some very severe braganing - or a do nothing period until congress can be freed up.

Emergency money for covid is being pulled back and put out of the public reach. Court appointments, many very questionable, passed and environmental regulations torn down, without the benefit of review or study. Much, much more.

This is not just normal politics. This is paramount to treason. When people act against the common good of the citizenry - it is what it amounts to. Because in a Democracy the government is to act on behalf of all of the population.

On top of this, the President wants to make sure the upcoming administration takes no credit for lifting the country out of the situation, even though it has brought more to the everyman’s fight in a few days than the administration has brought over the past year. 

Yes, the current administration engaged big pharma on the vaccine. After months of saying this was nothing to worry about. After not only dismissing evolving public health policies, but fighting against them and allowing the virus to kick into high gear. 266,000 dead in the USA. 1.45 million in the world. We have 4% of the world's population and over 15% of the casualties.

If this was a situation where incompetent management was the worst of this it might be hard to call it out as something else. But it goes beyond incompetence (although there is plenty of that).

The active lying, the move of policy to keep infection and death toll figures from the public and public health officials, to silence those officials, the political fight against public health policies and trying to manipulate vaccine process to produce a product to influence the election, shaking public confidence and undermining policy that protects the population, rather than supporting the process - using military money to fund it and go around congress, no national policy, pushing it onto the states, threatening Democratic run states with no funding or withholding of resources, to slow the post election transition and the continuation of a hate mantra that works to make the incoming administration less effective - and on, almost ad infinitum.

These are all acts against the public good and an attempt to use it to make political hay and hate. Not only does it need to be stopped, but the people responsible held accountable and law and regulation passed so it cannot happen again.

If you are defending the current administration, please step back and look at what is being done. You are wrong. It’s not just politics. It’s inhumane and unethical.

Actively sabotaging the public good for private and political gain is not acceptable. It cannot be, else it is what we will have in power going forward. We must reform in order to continue democracy by the people, for the people.

Thanksgiving 2020

Political theater aside, which I won’t sully this Thanksgiving note with, this year has certainly been one of tremendous challenges and tragedy, but also a very human one, full of promise. It hides in the cracks at times, it sits behind the clouds. It peaks out once you realize that we, in this country, even on our personal downswings, live a life of providence - and we can do much better when we think of our fellow person as a collaborator, a fellow traveler, not a competitor or enemy.

~~~

I’m fortunate in so many ways. I owe so much to my parents and Grandparents who struggled and showed me how to navigate this complex world.

I’m thankful for my wife, Jennifer, a true and lovely thinker, her companionship and tolerance for my guitar/music and tech addictions. I’m thankful for my beautiful kid, who is such a compassionate soul. To my other family members - cousins, Aunts and Uncles, near and far, now and in the past. 

And to my adopted fuzzy kids, who are a daily joy.

I’m grateful to my friends, with whom I share pieces of life - I’m a better and happier person for you and hope I contribute to your life in a similar way. 

I love all of you above in ways you know and ways you don’t, even when we are at odds, even when you’re gone. You have made and make my life worthwhile.

I thank my teachers both in school and musically. You helped me develop tools - music and writing being the platforms from which I understood I could actually think and synthesize - without which I would truly be lost. 

I’m thankful to be employed, in a job that can be done from my home. I’m thankful for my staff who are courageous, thoughtful and so very capable. I’m thankful for my coworkers, who have displayed such resilience. I’m thankful for my manager, who is mindful, collaborative and honest. 

I owe a debt to those who were negative examples for me too - who showed me who I don’t want to be. I wish you the ability to come back from your missteps and lead a life that contributes back to humanity in a more positive way - a joyful one if possible. And if not, that should there be an afterlife, you find that there.

On this day of thanks - and all year, my thanks and a wish to humanity: find a way to be good to each other. Love is all there is that is worthwhile. Everything else is distraction and noise at best.  

- Toby

~In Remembrance~

2020 will go down as a horrible year for the human race, in that we lost 262,000 souls in this country by today, Thanksgiving day in the US and 1.42 Million across the globe in the last year, mostly in the last 9 months, due to the Corona 19 virus. In contrast, 210,000 casualties from the dropping of bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Another 510,000 from the aftermath. Corona has killed more than double, just so far. We can do so much better.

What we do to ourselves

Today I’m interested in a discussion about the rules we place on ourselves and some of the rules and expectations that govern our interaction with others.

A friend had forwarded a post that told a story of an individual who was stuck, depressed, unable to move forward because they were overwhelmed by rules they put on themselves. In this case, depression had left them hung on little things - like not being motivated to scrub dishes, so the dishes came out of the dishwasher dirty - and caused them to not do dishes. The analyst was creative and said - run the dishwasher twice. The person had never thought of it - rules told them they had to get dishes clean and then wash them and they were stuck in that loop. We all get stuck on rules we or others have pushed into our scripting.

Our fragile selves can get hung up on rules that we don’t even realize we’re placing on ourselves, even when things are good , even when we’re not depressed, let alone in trying times.The meme - in short says - there are no rules. Stop putting limits on yourself for no reason. Now, that isn’t a cure - but part of recovery is getting past your limits and your pre-scripted limitations may be keeping you in stasis. 

The pandemic has put us all in harm's way. For some of us that’s the daily challenge of actually having to physically go out in the world and earn a living daily, For some that is being laid off or out of work, financially insecure. For some of us who are lucky, we can work from home but that brings many challenges (and opportunities), but in whatever way it impacts you, the rules by which you live either have changed, are working or are holding you back. 

It’s hard to self examine and it may help to have others involved in helping you find those rules. I go to therapy regularly, just to help keep me in balance - and I’ve found there’s a very real and positive effect of having someone help you with perspective. 

But some of this you do yourself too. Sometimes it’s just changing the order of things. Sometimes it’s stepping back and determining that some things are unimportant and that sometimes, little things, while seeming insignificant, are self care or care of others you love.We are creatures of habit and some of those habits help with comfort and others keep us from getting things done.

Control is one of those things. I’ll use an example of someone who is overwhelmed with all of their stuff (on the verge of hoarding) - they have their rooms piled with magazines, stacks of clothing- they have too much, need to part with some things and are overwhelmed with the prospect of going through their stuff. Others could help them but because of their need for control, they cannot let others help, And subsequently it doesn’t get done, even if they work at it. By not giving control away to help with it, they’re really sacrificing the control one gets when they’re free of that clutter - to make use of space, to keep clean, to enjoy what they do keep and have.

This happens at work too, when managers feel they need to control not only what is happening but how it is done, rather than allowing individuals to determine their best way forward - or at least collaborate on a mechanism.

And for one’s own rules about self, we can find ways to shatter those scripts and improve our lives, but what about the scripts we have in dealing with other people - our work ethic and our social contract. Things are a little more complex with others in the equation. Our rules exist to help ensure we keep promises, do good work, etc… but they too need to be taken out and looked at.

Another post that pointed this out crossed my path for the second time in a few days and said “Stop glamorizing overworking. Please. The absence of sleep, good diet, exercise, relaxation, and time with friends and family isn’t something to be applauded. Too many people wear their burnout as a badge of honour. This needs to change.”

I absolutely agree. It was interesting, however, when I first saw this, how many people came back and defended overworking. One boss said he encourages people to push themselves to achieve. To set the rest of their life side in order to move ahead of their coworkers. Clearly mental. Sociopathic.

It’s true, there are times in our lives where we need to push. But the race we are running is a marathon. We cannot sprint through it. 

In this case the rule we need to learn is balance and in this pandemic, there are opportunities as well as challenges - it’s key to find them and some of those are rules.

Where we need to be careful is where our decisions affect other people and see where we can be flexible and still keep our commitment or contract - it frequently involves being flexible enough to get where you're going by helping others get where they’re going and that means examining your rules to see if they are not forcing you into win/lose thinking. 

As a business owner or as a manager, you are presented with people’s real world issues continuously. A car doesn’t start, a school is closed, a family illness takes precedence - all of these things present very difficult challenges to those experiencing them and we as leaders can either get hung up on our rule or we can flex, understand and adapt. The latter allows others to get more balance out of their situation - and in reality, we are on this earth to live. Business is a construct of our own making, so we can define this by making reasonable commitments and plans and then flexing when issues present themselves. 

And yes, pushing hard in a single direction - sprinting - is needed every so often, but we need to understand that sprinting continuously, for most people,  is not sustainable. There’s no recharge. Those that choose this are often people who have chosen work over family, over home, over hobbies - and we might call that obsessive behavior, if they weren’t pointed in a socially acceptable direction. 

If that is how you choose to spend yourself, that is one thing. But expecting it of others is demonstrably harmful to many. And we don’t have to live this way.

We can accomplish work goals and personal goals if we plan for reasonable work loads and are flexible when life happens. And when we do need to sprint, it’s either a short planned event or an emergency. Work is already ½ of your waking time if not more. 

Because overwork culture is our own scripting. Stretch goals are set to push people to perform beyond what could be reasonably expected in a reasonable week. It’s not that we aren’t already massively productive without working 50 and 60 hour weeks. We need to orient business at performance with planning. Counting on overfunction is a sure recipe for disaster and can only be justified if you don’t care about people. 

We need to remove the scripting that says we are not productive if we’re not constantly online or at work. We should not feel guilty if we are spending time with family or at the doctor or cooking, doing laundry, paying bills, working on the house or the yard, doing a hobby or watching a bit of television or reading.

That means we need to set realistic goals, to reward managers who meet their goals and provide their workers with flexibility. We need to reward workers for doing their jobs effectively. Right now we view that as a participation award, which it is not. Maintaining your ability to produce reliably is very important, more important than your ability to overwork and burn out. Yes, special situations where you fix a problem or exceed expectations where it makes a real difference is important. But the goal shouldn’t be the overperformance. It should be able to be successful without superhuman effort. 

 If you are counting on superhuman effort, you are planning on someone giving up their personal health to succeed. And that is sociopathic.

Moving forward

Donald Trump is rapidly becoming irrelevant, but is grasping for ways to stay relevant.  He lost the election and is focused on keeping his base, saving face. Our best way forward is to relegate him to history by making his rhetoric meaningless.

The people who voted for him are not irrelevant. And those in the Republican party who want to hold on to the base without holding on to him are maneuvering - that's relevant. We need to work to help bring in difficult conversations. We cannot approach everything as right and wrong. We are in a conversation to work for peace.

I feel sorry for some of his supporters. They believed/believe the propaganda and have put their credibility on the line for him, which puts each of them in the situation of having to backpedal when confronted with the reality of his horrendous humanitarian record, with his push for self gratification and the real criminal charges he could face when out of office.

We need to offer these folks a way back to sanity. And while it’s important for people to understand what an atrocity they voted for, it’s our job to educate, not punish, not shame. The only meaningful shame is that which people feel when they come to realization that they pushed for something that was wrong. Not from someone telling them they don’t count. Because they do count, as humans and people. That doesn’t mean I or many of us are not a long way from their set of beliefs. But we have to address these.

For ourselves we need to forgive  - forgiving is not about someone else when that individual believes something, even if we consider it wrong. If you sit down someone who feels they're viewpoint is right and tell them you forgive them, they get incredulous - and they're not looking for forgiveness. And they haven't done wrong. They followed their beliefs. Forgiveness in this case is for you - so you can move to the more productive path of changing what is in your sphere of control and advocacy for those things you cannot do alone). 

Having said that, if an individual holds beliefs that include prejudice of any kind, if they involve subverting someone else's rights, if they involve choices that are harmful to others, they're in the wrong. They don't want forgiveness and don't deserve it. But they do deserve to know how others feel about those choices and the impact of those choices. And that’s not shaming. That’s the only way we grow and change. That’s accountability.  

There will always be a contingent of people that are only interested in themselves.  There will always be a contingent of greed. But the only way we help change is to engage one-on-one. For loved ones or friends this means hard conversations about real things.Sometimes this ends friendship. Sometimes it deepens divides, but sometimes, your humanity helps them see their humanity. Because when you boil it down, most people do not want to wrong others. Sometimes they don’t see that. Sometimes they don’t feel that until it is brought directly to their attention.

It is possible for folks to get caught up in celebrity politics and not even understand policy pushes or understand real root causes as opposed to misdirection. 

For instance, if you are told that immigrants are coming to steal your jobs and you have worked in semi-rural america where there has been an influx of migrant workers, you might believe this. If you were laid off as your company outsourced to a lower cost country, you might believe this.  Because your personal negative experience has been used and pulled together with a root cause that's not accurate. These people did not steal your jobs.

1. Jobs don't belong to anyone in the US. Our lawmakers made sure of it - companies have no obligation to you in a right to work country. These laws were  passed to reduce the power of unions )and collective bargaining in general), to the point where your company doesn't actually owe you the pension they promised or paying you any kind of severance if you are laid off. You literally have to take them to court if you are wrongfully dismissed. 
2. In the case of migrant workers - people have always changed their lives by going to where the work is. It's survival. If companies uphold hiring standards, illegals don't get hired and all things being equal, you compete on a level playing field. If our government passes good legislation for immigration, people are given a path to citizenship and folks that are in this country illegally are given a mechanism to get on the right track (they are people, even though your conservatives have demonized them - they're just looking for a way to eat too).
3. In the case of the outsource, the immigrant did not make the choice to outsource - your company did. Because laws have been manipulated by your federal and state politicians to allow those jobs to easily be subverted.  Constant lobbying by businesses and use of  multi-national organizations (where job movement is not subject to much in terms of law in any country) allow companies to move work to the least expensive alternatives.  There are smart people in every country. We need to improve education systems so we can compete with them and we need laws that mandate employment for our people, for companies that wish to participate in our markets (we have 25% of the wealth of the world).

The immigrants and the outsourcers are only filling a void that's been made to facilitate the cheapening of labor. It's the people that have made the void that are responsible for this. And it is you that is responsible for keeping yourself competitive, when the field is level.

But that understanding doesn't fit into the MAGA narrative, created by the very people that brought you the situation in the first place. They point at foreigners and immigrants and demonize them and tell you they will not only take your job but they are baby eating devils. That they will turn your neighborhoods into gang warzones.

It is our job to expose these narratives. Once you break down these arguments to their reality, where is there to go? What can Donald Trump or any like him offer that removes the issue? They cannot. The way to address these issues are through legislation that makes employment fairer, that helps raise immigrant workers to legal employment and raises education and training for all Americans to help them compete. It provides safety nets for those that cannot or fail (how we learn).  It means we invest in ourselves as a country. 

and at the very same time, we invest in the rest of the world, sharing our technology to relieve famine, hunger, global climate change, disease and social evolution - because we control so much wealth we have a responsibility to help lead and bring the rest of the world with us. Because their success is our success.

Demonization is win/lose and is how Donald and many politicians have captured their voters attention. We need to debunk it.

The path forward must be win/win. No need for losers. We can help our own and help others at the same time. We can help each other - it’s the basis of community. It’s the basis of society and the basis of most religions (organized or otherwise). We need to extend a hand to help people up. We need to lead by example. Peacefully, in the way of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. 

There is no way to peace, peace is the way. (A.J. Muste). I believe this. We cannot force people to collaborate. We can invite them. We can show and we can educate (even when this is hard) - and in that process we also change ourselves and understand the struggles that brought them to their decisions and find creative win/win ways to solve problems.

We all win - and now the real work starts

I’m celebrating the win. And I’m grateful that what i feel was a cancer in our executive branch will be removed.

But I’m also very aware, without wanting to spoil the party, that we are far from at least 25% of our fellow Americans/

We have so much work to do. How do you get folks to understand what was being promoted in conservative America is not the hallmarks of their institution.

My Grandfather was a Republican. He was a fiscal conservative and socially moderate/conservative. He was a compassionate man, who donated his service at times, fought for his country and the to rid the world of Nazi’s, to make people’s lives better.

But my Grandfather NEVER said “Me First”. He never looked at the rest of the world and shrugged of their problems as something he had no interest in. He would never endorse the confinement of immigrants - or the turning away of them - he immigrated to this country during the Russian revolution and taught himself to speak, put himself through medical school and got his citizenship.

He was anti-fascist and anti-communist, but he was not opposed to social responsibility. He did believe in hard work, but he lived through the depression too. 

The modern conservative has been turned into a tool of the rich. To fight against public education. To fight against socially responsible government and businesses being held accountable as members of our community and this country. They’ve been taught that taxes are more evil than human suffering - that human rights only belong to conservatives. They’ve been taught that the separation of church and state is somehow an injustice to religion, instead of allowing all to worship as they see fit (as long as they don’t impose their beliefs on others). They’ve been taught that black people should be quiet and well behaved while it’s ok for a white man to take their rifle or handguns into the supermarket. 

We need to get back to an understanding of how to live together in this melting pot, which I fundamentally believe is who we really are - and in fact is a source of our strength and promise as a country. We all need to get ther with the understanding;

• Racism is not an opinion. It’s a belief and a flaw.
• The human treatment of everyone (citizens and non-citizens) is a fundamental right.
• That regardless of your age, your sex, your sexual preference, your gender identity, you have the right to pursue life and love. 
• That our government needs to be a balance of all of us and not this polarized shitshow, where only huge campaign donors get legislation.

This is our work now. This is the harder part - getting us back to a reasonable place, not this me-first bullshit. We can thrive together - all of us - if we can put greed aside. 

Post Election Plans

Regardless of which old white man wins the election  (I can call them this having been around the sun enough times to validly have an AARP card, even though there's not a matchstick's chance in hell I'll manage to retire before I'm 80), my plan post-election is fundamentally the same:

Lobby and write, to make this a better world for the poor and middle class, make healthcare accessable, make equality and human rights realities, make government transparent, reform campaign law. To help bring people from all the walks of life together and understand we do sink or swim together.

Sure, who wins changes how hard the fight is, but neither guy is a panacea for these issues. Biden certainly is a better start and I'm still hopeful he wins. 

It will depend on the counting of every vote and tilt on how successful Republicans are in suing to remove Americans rights to have their vote counted (seriously, look at the court actions, Republicans. Your party is suing because people that made typographical errors - like not completely filling in a circle, are being given an opportunity to correct them.). 

The thing is, if this election were just about me, either candidate effects me moderately. I'm white, I'm male, I'm relatively privileged. But I am not voting with just me or my family in mind. I'm voting, like a lot of democrats, with everyone in mind - even my Republican friends who have somehow been talked into voting for the other guy.

But regardless of who is elected, the path forward requires plenty of work, so we all can thrive, love, worship and laugh. See you there.

Ads are not truth. I'm not sure if it needs to be said - but it seems like it.

I have always felt uncomfortable listening to politicians talk about their competition. Even if the issue they were bringing up was relevant and true, It always feels like the motivation comes from the wrong place. I always felt you need to look at a candidates plans. I can find fairly substantial outlines of Joe Bidens. I admit I cannot find Donald Trumps. I see broad generalities from him (it will be really beautiful) but there's no meat behind the menu.

I don't need anyone to tell me Donald Trump is a liar, a racist and a bad manager. It was obvious from his actions and statements before he was president and is certainly obvious in my research now.

But if you do listen to candidates, then you need to take what they say and then look at other sources to understand what is true, what is out of context, what is false. And ignore stupid character attacks. 

Is Joe Biden really sleepy (lol)? Is he really a radical leftist (does the radical left really even exist in the US in a meaningful way - I mean, what we call left, the Canadians and most of Europe laugh off and call center at best. The communist party here is a non-entity - there is barely any socialist party either. Ideas that republicans have represented as socialist, generally aren’t. Funding research for alternative power for instance - the government has funded research for most major breakthroughs - think NASA and Bio-Genetics), Is he going to defund the police (no, but he will look at reform which is badly needed), is he going to pack the court (no, but he''s going to look at reform which is badly needed). Is he a socialist/communist and at the same time accused of rabid capitalist tendencies of wanting to go after the presidency for personal gain? These are ridiculous - Biden is a moderate democrat and supports a capitalist economy. Research it and throw it out.

If you do your research you will find that Biden isn't a perfect guy - he has changed his position on some things over time - and I'm not perfect and have too - that is what thinking people do when they encounter new information. He is definitely a moderate. He's not a liberal by any stretch. I have areas where I don't agree with Joe's approach - I think his approach to healthcare stops short of what is ideal, but it's a moderate plan - and certainly the best - and only proposal available from a contending party. Not 100% for me, although I still feel like he is heading in a promising direction. 

At the same time, if you do your research, you will find that Donald Trump is an egotist, a poor manager, lies constantly, works for himself before others. You can also see smart politicians that have used his willingness to pursue self as a mechanism to get what they want. His policies have been disastrous. He has skirted many of the protections put in place to keep our country in balance - for instance, he has skirted congressional approval of his cabinet his entire term. 

He has touted himself as the "economy President" yet Bill Clinton and President Obama have had much more overall success for more people than he has (the economy needs to benefit everyone and his policies are aimed at helping, almost exclusively, the 1% - except where he sees an opportunity to benefit - like aiding farmers. It's not that I disagree with aiding farmers, but rather, he has done it only for personal gain. If farmers would predominantly vote Democrat, he'd not give them a dime.He has hurt so many Americans and immigrants alike, through policies and through propaganda. 

The fact is, Democrats have performed much better than Republicans economically, consistently over time. The Republican reputation for overall economic expansion is unfounded - supply side economics make some investors happy but do little for the population - and let’s face it - this economy depends on consumers to create demand - and that drives business, so consumer oriented policy ends up improving everyone’s lives, not just the 1%^ and subsequently GDP and wealth increases for all. 

I’m tired of the Political ads screaming at us - but more than that, I’m tired of the lies - I want to hear what a candidate will do and how, not calling their opponent names.

I’ve noticed Biden ads focusing much more on his plans (although there are still ads pointing out Trumps failures - but there are no untruths. At the same time I see Trump ads calling Kamala a communist, mistating Biden policy, even misrepresenting him on fracking (for god's sake it is horrible ecologically, but Biden clarified they’d work to change over to renewable sources and that fossil fuels would remain in our mix for years to come - yet that ads only say he will get rid of it). It’s the equivalent of Obama is coming for your guns. But he didn’t, did he? 

When will the American public get tired enough of the laws to defund politicians - by demanding the passing of campaign reform - limit the amount of time allowed for campaigning to one month (October of an election year for National races, let’s say) and limit the amount that can be contributed to a campaign - getting rid of PACs (for all of those constitutional Republicans who don’t think the Supreme Court should be making policy, Citizen’s United is a case where the people of the US lost to big money donors - and that ruling should be overturned with law. We should set higher standards that allow the public to not only sue for defamation, but for fraudulent representation - so that politicians are held accountable for their words and deeds.

I’m admittedly a social liberal and a fiscal moderate. So Biden is who I choose (if you care), 

If you are for Trump, I urge you to do your research iof you haven’t. If you still land on Trump, I'd love to hear about the concrete upon which you've laid your decision, with relatively unbiased references (in the vein of Reuters, BBC - or even the economist, which leans slightly right but is very truth based or NPR or NY Times which leans left but are very truth based). 

I use https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/ as a good source for media rating along with others, a useful tool in determining if your source is actually news or mixed propaganda and news.

References

]]https://www.thebalance.com/democrats-vs-republicans-which-is-better-for-the-economy-47718

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/kamala-harris-woke-capitalism-democrats/

39]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/01/us/politics/trump-presidency-dishonesty.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/business/socialist-biden-trump.html

Not Socialism

We are conditioned by our business funded politicians to believe that any attempt to manage the invisible hand is socialism. The invisible hand is a good metaphor for a market's ability to create wealth. But it can be cruel and even violent too. If you lose your job, then you have nothing to trade for food and shelter. That's the invisible hand too. The great depression was the invisible hand in a downswing (or possibly an uppercut).

There are ways to manage the swing and we invest in many of them since we learn from our mistakes, sometimes. We supply clean water through the government. We manage crucial services like disaster management and social security. Medicare, public power, investment in research, and health and human services. 

Consider group insurance. Why does it work? Well, you get a body of people to invest. Some will be sick and others healthy, but the coverage is there for everyone to help keep them from having to suffer the unfathomable tragedy the invisible hand deals if someone gets ill - it provides income to help them recover and get back to a point where they can manage.

The flaw in our thinking is that this should generate a profit. Group insurance is all about a zero sum game. Add a profit motive to it and all of a sudden you are aiming not just to keep people healthy, but to extract a dividend from the investment - this drives up costs and cause scarcity management in the process as they shorten the health goal in order to maximize the return, making insurance a different proposal. 

They start talking about not covering certain illnesses. They start talking about raising prices for those that are more likely to get sick. Suddenly we are back to "every man for himself" because we're told our neighbors are dragging us down.

This is a red herring. Health Insurance is one of those areas where business and the profit motive work against the basic idea of providing services to mitigate the negative impacts of market swings and profit driven decision making. Group insurance is not socialism.

How do we know this? Well, if you look at how businesses are managed internally, you will see the same dynamic. I'm in IT and my team provide central services for our business. I am not allowed to make a profit - just provide the necessary services to my businesses at the lowest cost. My business is a capitalist enterprise, so how is this possible? Because it's sensible. I cannibalize my business if I insist on an internal gain rather than providing the central service. Is my department socialist? No. It's still capitalism. But I choose not to make money in this area in order to facilitate the wellbeing of my other businesses. I don't do this for free - I charge a "tax" but I have to prove that I'm not profiting through the process - just covering costs.

But if I try in our society to introduce the concept of Universal health care, as a zero profit concept, I'm accused of socialism or communism. The same rules apply - profit motive eliminates the proper incentive of the zero sum game. It disables it. It causes it to fail.

It turns out that in order to shelter ourselves from the bad aspects of the invisible hand, we have to turn to systems that work differently. Still within its mechanism, capitalism can thrive while having certain aspects - like public care and education, being non-profits (actual non-profits, not the pseudo non-profits that mega hospital systems have become).

To do this, we have to overcome the socialism label. This is responsible democracy, responsible capitalism - and those arguing against it are arguing against the public good. They're arguing to keep insane profits for some and death and starvation for others, representing it as the way it has to be - but it doesn't. There's room for both. Many European countries illustrate the balance and ability to do this. It's those that profit insanely that are telling you you will lose your job if we try to help the poor. 

These are the same people responsible for the great depression and the 2008 housing collapse. They're the same people who called FDR a socialist. They're the same people who are paid by oil and gas to make sure we don't change to sustainable fuel sources. Who argued that smoking wasn't unhealthy, that climate change isn't real and that guns are true freedom. I'm not talking about the people that believe these things. They are lambs brought to the slaughter (and I'm sorry if I insult you because you believe one or more of these things - I'm not inherently against guns properly managed or that there's no space for fossil fuels or plastics for specific purposes).

I'm talking about the politicians and businesses that profit off of the human misery. And unless we find ways to mitigate it, we will wind up in a Shakespearean tragedy - everyone dies at the end. We need the better story of reconciliation and balance. 

And reconciliation and balance is the story of the Democratic party today, in 2020. It's not extremism as the Trump adds shout. It's the start of an alternative to the dog-eat-dog world that business and politicians are profiting off of. Republican politicians are not leading a way forward. They are trying to maintain the same old story with repression, wealth for a few, profiting off the misery of others.

Please vote - and please consider voting for the alternative.

The Census, Weaponized

Citizenship is great. It defines our place officially; it offers access to benefits of being born in our country or having pledged allegiance to our country.  Citizenship describes a standard we can apply to many things.

What citizen is not - what it's being twisted into, is the definition of a human being.

Since the birth of our country the mandated census has provided the means from which to determine representation = not of our citizenry exclusively, but of all those in the country.  Legal and illegal. 

Why would we represent those that are not citizens in our lawmaking process you ask?

I answer: for lots of reasons. First, Country is an artificial construct. If you put two people on the opposite sides of a border and shoot them both, the loss is unfathomable on either side of the border. Their contribution to the world around them easily could be the same. Their basic human rights that we consider fundamental - that we are all created equal does not change.

And yet, the census is being brought before the supreme court by the Trump administration to change that - to change the definition of all men being created equal and introduce into law the idea that some are better than others.

First, there is an attempt by the administration to cut off the Census because traditionally it takes time to get good report of those who are not on the official radar. The Republican party wants to keep them from being counted and is using the excuse that they need to deliver a report in December.

The real reason for that is they intend to challenge how the electoral college and the house of representatives is distributed fundamentally to enable a Trump win and ensure Republican dominance in populations where they aren’t the majority. If they remove the immigrants from the population count, then more representation is apportioned to areas with fewer immigrants - it takes power away from California, New York and other centers of population.

There are a myriad of reasons it is important to stop this and highlights the importance of balanced constitutional interpretation - by not giving representation to centers of population, we pull back the ability to provide food, aid, education, funding for public transportation, allocation of health resources, effect environmental and housing regulation, effect minimum pay, get funding for mail service, infrastructure... and on and on and on. 

It's just one more attempt to put more power in the hands of old, white heterosexual men. How? Well, our migrant populations live in cities. by removing them from the count, rural areas get additional representation, having small or nonexistent migrant populations and much smaller minority populations. So, in areas that are largely white (over 70% of the country) they get more power and in areas that have higher, more mixed populations, where laws for sexual orientation and gender equality are fairer, they get less. 

That translates into humans being treated as lesser, based on the idea that certain people, who are part of our population and are mandated by the constitution to be counted suddenly are not. 

 And it's wrong.  It denies them representation. It denies the community resources. It means more populated areas get back less of the tax they pay in.

 It also provides an opportunity to change the distribution of the electoral college before the results of the 2020 election are finalized, especially if an abundance of legal challenges are put up delaying the results.  It's why the Republican party deployed an army of 6000 lawyers to oppose election law and set the stage for extended legal battles. 

It's a political power grab and a chess move, meant to entrap a majority under minority rule. It's a violation of "All men are created equal".  It's wrong and it's evil. 

 It makes your vote ever more important. Please vote.

We cannot afford the status quo

Wall Street, Big Insurance, Big Pharma and Oil pay huge campaign donations into the people that tell you they know how to save the economy, but who had to be saved in 2008? Business and Republicans preached the invisible hand needed to be left unhampered and a policy of hands-off management of the economy (laissez-fair for those economists and political scientists in the readership). They held up corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthy (advertising that taxes will cause you to lose your job) as the biggest evil affecting the US internally. This is a load of horse_ _ _ _.

13 years ago, many of these businesses lost the market on bad speculation and backed their trucks up to the treasury and George Bush started the program to bail them out – and big business grabbed huge chunks of money from the American taxpayer. 

Obama was elected into office and reset programs and managed the recovery, started programs for smaller business and healthcare for folks who needed it. 

Here we are in 2020 and we have 200k+ dead and laissez-fair mismanagement has put us there. In addition to failing to manage public health, they’ve failed to manage economic stability and recovery in the face of a need to minimize contact among people for a period. Countries that have managed this better have seen death rates 1/5 of ours. 

But I’m being generous by using the term mismanagement. That implies culpability but not premeditated decision making or even promoting, with an understanding of the impact to people and proceeding down the path of greed anyway. Which is what, in many cases, has happened in this administration, Senate and local and state Republican governments.

In 2020 again the Republican solution was again a money grab (already following huge tax credits pushed to the businesses and wealthy) to throw huge amounts of money at large business and the 1% and force small business to take loans and individuals to increase their risk in order to continue to live, resulting in huge economic loss and increased poverty, huge death and illness rates that continue to pound away at our population, coupled with ignorance and impatience that will continue resulting thousands more deaths until a medical solution is widely distributed. 

All while Republicans are trying to hide the results of the policies by trying to control CDC communications and recommendations, through propaganda tweets twisting the life saving work that many Democratic state and local governments are organizing, Republicans continuing to make political decisions on opening states rather than trying to help small business and people. And yet they preach lower taxes and continued face-to face employment as the solution. It’s a hoax. 

The only world where chronic disease and death, starvation and homelessness aren’t more important than taxes and productivity is one where chronic disease and death, starvation and homelessness don’t exist – in the world where these are ignored because the population of voters  don’t have this as part of their reality or, they have received assistance that has kept them from that.

And that is the Trump Republican demographic; Whites wealthy enough to ignore this, Whites poor but on aid that prevents their poverty. Farmers in conservative rural areas given aid while working against those impoverished in the cities.  Smatterings of other ethnicities and race in the party, but a general understanding that the Republican party is promoting racism by labeling racial protests as terrorism, by supporting white nationalist candidates and collaborators, by representing a restructuring in the funding of local government social aid as the abandonment of safety. 

Just watch the ads lying about the nature of racial justice protests, the amount of money Republicans are spending on repressing the vote and disqualifying ballots on technicalities, like not using the correct envelope and restricting  where ballots can be dropped off to one box per county in PA (but similar lawsuits brought by Republicans all over the country) and working to restrict voting places only in areas where the Demographic doesn’t favor them. They cannot win on their platform.

We cannot continue down the current Republican path. It’s suicide. The economy needs to be smartly managed. We need to use our tax income to help everyone not just the wealthy or big business. We need to make our healthcare affordable and available to everyone, especially with pandemic. Now.

Economic recovery is not the recovery of businesses without the population. Economies work from the bottom up not trickle down. Businesses only create jobs when there is demand.  Demand starts with each consumer and if that consumer has money and spends it or invests it, businesses prosper. Not the other way around. 

So the first step is making sure people can live – eat, breath and stay warm. The Republicans have no plan for that – they've made up of propaganda falsely relating protest to crime to scare people into voting, but they have no plan on how to keep people safe from the real threats. They don’t need a plan for the crime they’re talking about because it exists only in very limited situations. They made Portland sound like the overthrow of the state and the issues were contained within 2 city blocks. 

Republicans have no plan to help people and small business. They have no good covid plan (push billions to Pharma companies with no fiduciary oversight using military money they already have control over. All the while, investing in these company’s stock getting ready to make a killing on inside information. 

They preach small government, but that only translates into no investment in the country. Cut NASA. Cut assistance. Cut Social Security. Cut Medicare. Cut Veterans benefits. Cut diplomacy, treaties with allies and real trade negotiation. Cut education. Cut climate and fuel and medical research (overall). Cut FEMA. Cut equal opportunity. Pack the courts with people that will keep bad legislation from reaching the public,

Read Bidens site. He has good plans for fiscal recovery and public health. For investment in the country and in education. For the rebuilding of our trade capability and working towards renewable energy. It takes mindful management to do these things. You have to plan, manage and adjust. You need scientists and data, economists and diplomats. You need oversight and checks and balances, so that what we get is a good balance of priorities for all of us, regardless of race, sex, sexual preference or gender identity, age or religion.

We cannot get there with the current people in power. They have already shown they won’t do what is needed to help Americans, have plans to do worse and have lied to try to scare you into voting for them. 

Please vote regardless of your decision, but please make that an educated decision. We cannot afford or survive the status quo.

Truth Has Never Been More Important

The mythology that surrounds the Trump campaign and presidency is really cultivated propaganda. Today I saw a claim that Trump had hired, with his own money, 100 (and then later 125 and 150) people on 9/12/2001 to go through the rubble of New York Ground Zero and look for survivors.

I did some research and Trump has made this claim. But there's absolutely no proof it ever happened. No record with the first responders, the city, no indication of who was hired or any kind of receipt or bill for those he hired. Just a claim that he did this.

Now since some of us know the President is a pillar of honesty, they take his word for it. And then their narrative turns, in this election year, to "What was Joe Biden doing". I've looked and what I can assume is just that Joe Biden was doing what most of us were doing - processing, mourning, in shock.

Trump supporters say he was doing publicity shots - I also find no record of that. Trump claimed that thousands of NJ Arabs were celebrating on rooftops and that he saw this on television, however, that's been widely investigated and debunked.

These are just a couple of the 9/11 Trump myths, but they illustrate the will to exploit the public, that we are so familiar with. Thousands of lies told around this Presidency. Because the mythos goes, Democrats and Liberals hate Donald Trump and therefor try to discredit him, by claiming he lies. Even when completely debunked or unprovable - or even when video evidence that contradicts mistruths is provided, Trump and core Trump supporters call these attacks on the truth by "fake media".

In setting up themselves as the only "Speakers of Truth", Trump and the new Republicans are exercising propaganda of extreme proportion.

It smacks of George Orwell's Newspeak and Doublethink;

Doublethink: "The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them... To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just as long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies—all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth."

Newspeak incorporates contradictions in thought - of Doublethink - "War is peace" and "Freedom is Slavery" and "Ignorance is Strength".

And so, we find Trump accusing his foes of doing things he's accused of doing. It has his administration and the Republican congress disguising political favors and tax breaks and giveaways as public assistance.

And certainly, they're not the only ones to do it. Back when George W. Bush was president he released stuff like the "Clear Skies Initiative" which appeared to improve EPA goals, but upon examination made them very easy to legislate over later on, providing relaxed standards now and kicking the hard standards that made up the numbers 25 years down the road, giving plenty of time to make and pass new legislation that eliminated any gain, without appearing to do so.

What's different is Trump claims are blatant. And anyone who puts them in the light of day gets attacked. Reporters' questions that ask things that show the president in a poor light get called out for "Bad Questions" and lose press passes. Right wing and alt-right sites pour out a constant stream of propaganda. Attempts to tell the truth are dismissed as Anti-Trump, Left Wing Extremist lies.

So how do we combat this?

Left wingers and moderates need to continue to tell the truth. No holes barred - unembellished, giving credit where due and describing wrongdoing and lying. Our words cannot contain exaggerations or mistruths. Because the evidence of wrongdoing, untruthful divisiveness and lying are clear. There is no need for propaganda from the left. The truth hurts this administration.

And it's clear that many understand the truth. It's also clear that many don't and won't in the face of this election, so it's important we get out and vote. And that our words from now, ring true in the future - it's the way we hold on to reality and bring our brothers and sisters who are currently swept up in this propaganda back.

It is how we show how cruel and inappropriate this pandemic response has been. It is how we help understand the need of healthcare for everyone (regardless of how it is implemented) is and how important public education is for our children. It's how we understand that it's reasonable to tax the wealthy a little more, how we educate on value of diversity and not ignore our differences, but value them, until such time as this is the norm and we fund social programs that help our population learn and grow to take advantage of the dream.

Integrity in our actions is ever more important. Just like MLK believed in Non-Violent protest (which eliminated any accusation of wrongdoing - and needs to be practiced today) our actions and words need to reflect the truth, to provide the true north. Hindsight can be 20/20 - but there has to be prominent truth in the rubble in order to be seen.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink

Focus

Driving this morning and shifting, I realized I went through these motions 10 ,000 times before I ever drive a car. In the car with my Dad and Grandfather, watching intently and knowing the sound of rpms before and after a shift, the thrill of acceleration after a new gear. Practicing up in the attic where my father built us a rocket (and gave us gear shifts and steering wheels), shifting for hours, yearning for a time when I could legally drive – and was still 10 to 12 years away.

The feel of shifting, steering tacitly makes the earth seem solid under me, even as I’m moving, making me trust that everything will be alright, in an otherwise much more tentative world. It harkens back to a subliminal place in my mind where I feel safe and at home – worry free and marveling at everything.

Heading down Perry Highway, I passed a section of woods and with the sun streaming down, I smell the peppery odor of dewy fern fronds pushing up and leaves, just starting to decay. It takes me back to the farm, Rivendell, the commune where I spent some of my adolescent summers - and simultaneously I feel in the moment, feeling air and sun.

As I moved in towards Westview village, I noticed trees with lush leaves, some Maples to the right hanging over the road, pushing out to find more sun. The car hugged the curve, even though I wasn’t going fast, slight acceleration made me feel alive.

When the senses are in tune and the conscious and subconscious are clicking, each moment is a gift. At any other time, a routine drive – what a marvel that a slight shift in focus changes how we perceive things.

Republicans need a Democrat in the White House Too

You won't survive the current austerity for the middle class and poor, and riches for the upper class.

I don't think that most middle and middle upper-class Republicans recognize that their programmed hatred of Democrats stems from misunderstanding and intentional propaganda.

The austerity measures that the Republican congress wants adopted will starve the poor and bankrupt the middle class while furthering money spent on the rich, a new federal building, military projects and more.

They are offering businesses loans that still need to be paid back rather than using the taxes they paid in to help keep them afloat and deferring payroll taxes that will either be coming due post-election or if made permanent will hurt social security. That's not rescue but deferred punishment. Yet they give businesses and billionaires millions.

Look - I make a good salary and had a retirement pension plan that grew up to a couple of years ago (and still have a 401k). And social security is still 50% of what I am counting on for a meager retirement fund. Even if you are well invested, a chunk of that is your social security and while you may not have come to terms with it, it's been the best investment program you've been involved with. It didn't devalue in 2008 when your 401k did. It has remained a steady commitment despite conservative attempts to privatize. It continues to provide returns, with interest back to those that worked for it, which puts their money back into the economy.

Speaking of that - recognize that no Republican administration in the last 120 years has brought the middle class out of economic hardship. Democrats have done it numerous times, twice in huge disasters (the great recession and the great depression). Republicans rode Bull markets helping make them more bullish, but that doesn't work to help the poor much.

The poor don't have investments, tax breaks don't work as relief when you don't make enough money to pay taxes. And they only do a little for the middle class.

It's hard for some to admit that we depend on the social programs that are in place because of Democratic administrations, but they are keep some of our poorest in food and then bring that money back into markets - actually better than tax rebates do. And that money pays other workers and businesses and eventually prop big businesses up.

Beyond Social Security there are safety net programs that are used more by poor whites than any other part of the population. The racist narrative associated with welfare doesn't reflect the reality - and we all have the potential to need a hand up, especially in this economic period. Losing one's job is not generally a partisan specific problem - we are all vulnerable.

But these crucial services are things we built to protect even the most vulnerable of us from threats to survival. And when we pull this back, we expose our humanity (which is apparently the enemy of the wealthy, per Republican Libertarian philosophy). If you are under economic pressure, you need the help you paid into. And in the Republican world this only goes to those who have so much it's not impacting their survival - it's just underwriting their wealth against "harm".

What is needed right now is thoughtful planning and action. A plan to test, vaccinate, distance and practice public health reasonably and economic aid to allow us to do this sensibly. All you have from the current conservative politicians is short sighted pandering to those that cannot grow up enough to engage in practices that keep them, their families and their neighbors safe.

Biden is a moderate. And frankly, so is Harris. While the RNC tries to paint them as far left leaning, both have shown they don't swing the country far left. Ask any far-left leaning person - they weren't the first choice for the group because they were too conservative. Both turned down Medicare for all. Both support policing - Harris was a prosecutor - so the propaganda that is being served by the White House is trash.

Rather than accept what someone says about their opponent, however, I invite you to look at these candidates and understand there's compassion and an understanding of the true suffering people are going through now - and a plan to get through it. While the insults keep getting tweeted out, they are the adults in the room, figuring out how to help those of us that need it.

And that's something you are not getting from this President or your conservative representatives or Governors. They not seeing a role of the government in helping you to truly ride this out - instead of providing aid they're telling you must work or die. Your child must attend class in person or lose funding (your funding, that you paid for) or have it redirected to private schools that operate without public regulation. They direct funding for a new Federal building rather than to help those that are out of work, those whose businesses are shuttered.

I've heard time and time again that we wish to close the political divide, that we should forget the conflict, compromise and focus on moving forward.

Time to take that advice yourselves and understand you cannot survive the current administration easily and others cannot at all. That thousands have already died and are struggling to feed their families. It's every man for himself. It's "me first". The risk you take in voting for these moderate democrats is so mild - what they are suggesting is good-for-all policy. Healing. Helping yourself by helping others. The current administration has pushed "good for me" policy and left scorched earth. We are not offering up these candidates as perfect - they are human. But the philosophical basis they come from is what's needed. It's crossing the divide together.

You need a Democrat in the White House because they will provide a balanced economic recovery, allowing businesses and people to heal and get back to their lives. You need them because they're performed these recoveries before. And yes, that means opening your mind to the helping of others too - but in the end, our humanity defines us. The hand we extend and the help we need is what binds us. Every major religion tells us that. Every humane philosophy tells us that.

Vote for who you want but recognize that who you need is unquestionably a humane, compassionate, thoughtful administration that will act on your behalf. The current administration has had a chance to show who they are. Now we need to do better.