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/

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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