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.

Survival

In this first world that I and many of you live in, we have built systems to help insulate us from many of the base issues that threatened our ancestors.

Very few of us will be eaten by wild animals. Food is plentiful and available and largely pre-prepared (which can mean anything from pasteurization and packing - to cooked and made into a ready-to-eat meal. We are able to weather cold winters and hot summers much better and we have ways of communicating far distances - and on and on.

We built governments to help secure our livelihoods and regulate our getting along together - both to leverage the world as a team, a working and buying collective, built in services to help arbitrate differences and set up alliances to protect ourselves.

It's at this level of insulation from or original survival issues that we are caught off guard then by something that doesn't pay attention to any of the rules we set. That might be personal illness or of course Covid-19 that represents dire personal illness and an issue for our civilization.

The threat is multifaceted. But the biggest threat to us are the individuals that will take advantage of the situation for personal or political gain. That hamstring the systems we set up to protect us. By either not caring/intervening and planning but even worse, by taking actions that threaten the whole.

The Post Office - a seemingly first world service, but millions rely on for delivery of information, money, medicine and supplies - is under attack by the administration. They have been for years, but the opportunity to squeeze hard, close to an election is an act of treason. It's strangling the population for the benefit of a few.

The education system - by pressing schools to reconvene too quickly they are having to choose between federal funding (our money) and the welfare of those involved. Again, the administration is turning the screws against the well-being of most of us, using our own contribution to injure us and profit.

The social safety net - again our dollars, are being held back in order to keep a "pro=business" atmosphere to "incent" people to go back to work. In other words, keep them starving, so they don't have mobility and save the money to return to the rich.

The common good - is being exploited in separation, a set of propaganda released over the years to re-enforce going against our own needs for the benefit of the landed and wealthy. That supports not helping out businesses that are failing and the poor, because they are portrayed as leeches on the wealthy, through taxes. In order to stay in power, they are disabling the post office and closing polling places - again top force people to choose between their health and their prosperity.

I could go on, but the point is, when these systems fail to serve the bulk of the community, the nation, then they need to be attended to. The deliberate acts of sabotage to coral them for personal game are treasonous. They are against the good of the whole.

And that, is life threatening. Your risk of being eaten by a tiger is low. Your risk of being eaten by the current administration's inaction, self-serving action and policies, is high.

Call your congressperson and tell them the post office needs to be saved. That education needs to be funded. That the safety net needs to be deployed for all in need. We absolutely need to vote - but we need to act before November in order to get to November.

Find your representatives contact information:

Voiceyourstance.com

Humanity vs Autocracy

As we watch the events of the last four years, indeed the last 50, held up against this pandemic, that there has been a coordinated effort to pull control of the democracy around the world away from the public. For all the pro-democracy claims, we have seen conservative moneyed interests – big oil, big pharma, big media, private healthcare, private education and others work to favor the moneyed class. We see the division of class being ever more present. 

The efforts for this are well documented – the Kochs, The Scaifes, the Devoses, etc... all have worked to peck away at the government we built to protect and care for the needs of people.  

It’s a struggle that is thousands of years old and told over and over again, but in our immediate past we can see efforts to define success as that of an individual and owe nothing to the group and therefore decimate attempts to lift people out of poverty, out of disease. To say freedom is individual couldn’t be farther from the truth. 

We live and die as individuals yes, but we are dependent upon one another. When we convince ourselves that others should care only for themselves, when greed drives us, and we believe we are not responsible for our fellow human – is when we lose our humanity.  

I’m not saying we must sing kumbaya together. But to complain when we pay taxes to have children in our community educated, to object to healthcare for everyone or god forbid we help provide a meal or a place to stay for others, when we feel to treat others as equals, then we have lost our humanity. 

However, you can express yourself in support of your fellow human – in thought, in donation, in contribution – work to defeat those forces that allow people to starve and suffer to further their own cause. No effort to small or too big – whatever you can do. No judgement. 

We live and die by each other's hand. Let’s make sure our efforts promote living to the extent possible. 

The right balance is imperative

There’s an inherent selfishness in living. We teach our children to not be self-centered in very specific ways but in every part, we are animals with a will to live – so water, food, shelter and health all fall into a realm where we look to ourselves first. Those that overcome this – who run into fires, who nurse the sick, who step in front of danger, do so in knowing sacrifice of that, frequently for very personal and complex reasons.

In this wealthy, consumer-based country, there is deep scripting for further personal fulfillment. We’ve been taught we need our hair cut every couple of weeks, nails done, drinks with friends, dinner out, gym membership, beach time and on and on. We don’t wear masks because they aren’t comfortable, or in some cases, because we feel we’re exercising our rights.

This is also natural. Animals feast when food is available. We’re opportunists. And instant gratification addicts. I don’t exempt anyone from this. And we are privileged to think that the safety of others is a choice we get to make.

 
But this disease we’re dealing with is insidious. It’s more opportunistic that we are. It counts on our inability to distance, to curb our desires – it waits for situations where we are forced to be near each other and spreads this way. Conservative politicians push to not restrict and to keep consumers openingly consuming citing the economy, inviting people into more of these circumstances.

And so, we decide we cannot live without the hair cut or coffee. Or dinner out. Or drinks with friends. And a large number of us contract the disease. We then bring it home to our families and give it to coworkers, to the first responders and front-line workers.

And people, real people, die or go broke surviving – or both. Husbands and wifes die leaving spouse and family to rip out the carpeting, throw away furniture and sanitize the house to prevent additional exposure.
We justify this with “it’s all in gods’ plan” or “when it’s your time, it’s your time”. 

But doesn’t god give us tools to fight and frequently defeat these things? Unless you believe in total destiny and the absence of free will (and in that case for those that follow a biblical faith, I’m not sure how you interpret the creation myth – after all, wasn’t understanding and choice the reason Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden? At that point we were left to our own decision making, our free will?).
Only you can decide where the right balance lies. Me – I shop every couple of weeks. We supplant with some online ordering. An occasional meal delivery (once or twice a month). I go down the street to the mailbox every couple of days. Did a home project and replaced a sink and ended up at Home Depot 3 times based on a relaxed view of the risk at the time.

Each time I do, I’m increasing my chance for exposure – sometimes minimally. Sometime palpably (shopping for groceries is a particularly tense and frustrating business, with people ducking in while you open a freezer door – “just let me grab…” or not distancing or refusing to wear a mask.
And each time I do I’m increasing exposure for my wife. For others I may inadvertently come in contact with. Invariably good people. My neighbors – each with different risk profiles. One took pains to pick daisies and deliver them to our door. He was careful when he handed them to us, but no mask for either of us, forgetful in the moment (please don’t judge me on this singular indiscretion – I certainly understand I’m imperfect). Or my interaction with a next-door neighbor for a community purpose, where she handed me something – we were wearing masks and were careful, washed hands after, but still, interaction and physical transfer.

I see friends and neighbors online and see them ache for human interaction. I do to some extent too – I’m lucky enough to have my life partner with me – and I have loving pets. But I see the wish to do what comes naturally and all I can say is;

Balance folks. In this case, it’s light, necessary interactions – things that are survival items. Things that can be done with frugal exposure and much caution. Wearing masks as a life saving measure for those we come in contact with. We can do this with consideration.

141,000 deaths in USA up to today. 600,000+ worldwide. Each of these were people that laughed and loved. Many of them could still be doing that if either they or someone they knew could’ve shown some restraint and caution.

And that’s what is needed to beat this – thoughtful, compassionate action and some temporary sacrifice. Thanks, if you are doing this and thanks to those who start. 

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In other news, we see our president sending unmarked military to Portland, to put down those exercising their right to protest (yes, there’s violence in some cases – but the violent response begets violence and some peaceful demonstration is being broken with violence, like it was 60 years ago during the civil rights marches in the 1960s). That brings us top the death of John Lewis who knew the struggle and fought every day of his life. He will be sorely missed as we work to defeat racism and totalitarianism. Trump and Devos are working hard to force “full” public school openings, because, if schools refuse or come short with only partial week attendance in person, they can then site non-opening as a reason to redirect public funds to private schools. The defunding of public education should be a huge story – but it’s buried behind the dumpster fire that is this administration.

The only way to right this ship is to vote the current administration and Senate out. Each day it becomes more imperative. Please, please, make sure you are registered to vote. Make your vote count.

Everyone Struggles - that's not the point

Let's start out the day with this;

Everyone struggles. With lots of stuff. It is the condition of life.

And everyone has a unique set of conditions (although many will be similar), and privilege is part of what makes that up.

I struggled a good bit early in my adult life, to make ends meet and at times, it's still a struggle. But based in the life I live. I can point to times when I dug ditches for a living, did factory work, cleaned floors and bathrooms.

Others who might know me longer or better might have other views; "Your Dad was a dentist, your grandfather a doctor, your Mom a Computer whiz. Surely you lived a privileged life" and I would say it's absolutely true. I have. I've also known what it's like to have less than $5 mid-month and not know how I was going to feed my young child, except that I knew family would help, even if they had reduced means. My family couldn't pass on wealth on any large scale but helped me immeasurably when I was down - I was supported. That's privilege.

Because of who I am and how I was raised people assumed I attended college (and did, in my late 30's and again in my late 40's - and my employer helped me). That's privilege.

Some of you can say your parents paid for your college. Your wedding or even your house. Some families can pass on wealth and others cannot. All these things are in this combination of struggle and privilege we work with. And it's not equal or fair. Those are cards are largely dealt by decisions my family or I made.

I humbly submit that I have had struggle (like everyone) and have managed to frequently overcome it, but I won't bore you with further details, except to say;

I've never had to fight systemic racism. I never fought sexual discrimination. If people have judged me for my sexual preferences, I cannot say it impacted me in a life changing way. My gender can be an advantage or disadvantage, but from what I can understand nobody has paid me less for being a white male. I haven't had someone say to me I'm too old to work or invest in. Nobody's refused to serve me and I've not feared for my life when stopped by the police.

I've felt envy from those who see my privilege, and I've had people think that I'm not credible because of it - that is unfair and discriminatory, but it's part of the privilege too - life is definitely not equally fair to everyone. And look, I cannot help what I was born with, but I can help what I perpetuate.

Minorities in this country suffer just for being minorities and die at a much higher percentage due to violence and poverty. The LGBTQ+ community suffers for being queer or trans. Women in this country suffer just for being women. People are pushed out of meaningful work because they are seen as too old. This is discrimination we can do something about.

Yes. Everyone struggles. But that struggle doesn't need to contain systemic discrimination and violence. And how we fight it is to educate, to vote, to advocate for equality and help create situations where equality can thrive. Part of that is acknowledging privilege and discrimination and stopping the perpetuation of it by friends and family (and strangers when possible). Part of it is then trying to do something about it.

Stop posting memes of All Lives Matter. Yes - we know.

Stop saying that discrimination will continue as long as we keep talking about it - that we're making the divide worse by bringing it up. That's not how this works. Talking about it is only the first step in dealing with it and we cannot even get everyone to acknowledge that.

Stop saying there's good and bad "on both sides" when one side is anti-racism and the other side is racist. There are not "good racists". I do believe in converted racists - it's a learned behavior and people can learn and correct, but if you're still saying and doing racist things, you're not a "good person otherwise". A racist that is good to puppies is still a racist. Same goes for sexual preference, religion, ageism, gender discriminators - if you discriminate in any of these ways, you are treating others badly.

And some of this is a long path. If your religion brought you up to believe that homosexuality is fundamentally wrong it's hard to get rid of that scripting. If your culture teaches you to devalue the elderly, it's hard to get rid of that scripting. If your father dominated your mother and you were raised to believe that is the way men behave, it is hard to get rid of that scripting. But we have to,

Like former alcoholics, this is also part of our struggle - to be better people. And while trying isn't the same as achieving, it's a start and overwhelmingly better than complacency or denial of the issues. We're not perfect, we're always a work in process. But please, be a work in process if you're not there yet. I am. Don't contribute to the problem and please, please work to step across that border.

July 4th, 2020

On July 4th, we celebrate the birth of our nation, the United States of America. Our country was born of noble ideal, by good thinkers - but certainly not perfect. They knew this so they designed our basic tenants to be able to be expanded and changed.

We’ve always been a nation of change, our principles designed to support diversity and equality. Patriotism is to honor and adapt - by doing that, what we are preserving and furthering is our ideals. I love that about this country and I am proud to be an American because of this.

~~~~~
I didn't want to make this post political, but on this day where we celebrate our country, I cannot sit back as it's attacked. If you're looking for the summary of my patriotic statement and nothing else, you have it and I wish you and yours a safe, happy and thoughtful holiday!

~~~~~
Our Challenge

Because we are a nation of change - by our very charter. We invite the diverse by being a free society, by maintaining a large economy, by stepping up to lead in areas that benefit the world.

Our promise, is that we profess to treat all persons equally. Our challenge is that we haven't reached that. Our struggle is between those who do work for continued change and those who want to preserve or even increase, discrimination (Race, religion, class mobility, sexual preference, gender choice, ageism - and more).

We're living in times where those tenants are being challenged and are in jeopardy of being retired, by the very people that are supposed to protect and defend them, in the name of protecting "American Heritage".

This is a frequent tact of those who would subvert true free society. Wrap yourself in the flag and claim that your opponents are trying to destroy what you have and replace it with something horrific.

I'm going to call this Contrary Redirection - The act of saying something is true about yourself when it isn't, but is true of your rival - or saying something that is false about your rival that is true about yourself, frequently used in political circles as a way to fool the public. A form of Doublespeak.

Our President uses this at almost every opportunity. At Mount Rushmore, shrouded in the flag, Blue Angels flying overhead, he said;

"Make no mistake. This left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution. In so doing they would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence, and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery, and progress. To make this possible, they are determined to tear down every statue, symbol, and memory of our national heritage."

He couldn't be more wrong. He's arguing against change that would allow more Americans to live reasonable lives, reduce poverty and further technology. What he is arguing for is the preservation of old money, of existing and historical discrimination, the preservation of parts of our system intended to silence the poor and the different, to punish them, to keep them down. He's arguing against the principles of our great nation, but claiming to do it to preserve the nation. Donald Trump doesn't care about the country. He doesn't care about anything besides Donald Trump and he is using propaganda and doublespeak, as he always has, to further his political goals.

He argues against the removal of statues, and yet, when it comes to things that matter - that is, caring for the health of our people - food, shelter, medical care - he has destroyed more than any other president. He has dismantled a government we funded and built to do this. He's made way for big oil, big pharma, big insurance, big banking - and he's left the citizenry and the small businessman high and dry.

He's used propaganda to dismiss the current health crisis. He's used it to dismiss and even further racism and anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives. With the flag around his shoulders and a bible in his hand, he proclaims to protect the second amendment and religion, then works to stifle the very freedoms that the constitution is aimed at protecting (why does the second amendment exist? Not for the purpose of further gun ownership, but for the purpose of protecting equality, which at the time, required guns - to keep the King from taxing without representation through force - removing equality).

We don't need winners and losers. We need to help each other get where we're going. That is the American way. We put ourselves out there to help each other and the rest of the world we strive to raise the bar. We do the hard work. If you want to preserve something of this country forget about statues. Preserve our ideals.

I urge you to look around, at the others in our nation and ask yourself, if you could honestly stand in their shoes - especially the shoes of those that are downtrodden - and still work to support a man and a party that wants to keep them down.

And then vote in November. Vote. Vote like the fate of our nation rests on it, because, it does. We cannot go gently into this night... we need to continue to fight.

Narrative vs Fact

Today I'd like to talk about the fragility of our narrative based political system. The highlighting of this idea by Andrew Cuomo (via a good article by Heather Cox Richardson) tied this together for me.

Per the article; “Cuomo pointed out that the coronavirus highlighted the difference between reality and a narrative based in ideology. "A virus has a rate of increase and a number of deaths either goes up or goes down," he said. “The number of people going to hospitals goes up or goes down. It's not subject to debate because the hospital bed is either empty or it's full, we either bury people or we don't."

"We tested both theories," Cuomo told Cillizza. "We have the evidence. It's numbers. It's irrefutable. Why don't we pause and recognize the undeniable reality of the situation?" "There are no Democratic facts and Republican facts," he said. "There are just facts." *1

Decision making based in fantasy and "stretch goals" have a long history in business and there's a constant struggle between people who understand the realities of what a particular project or undertaking takes, and the executives who are sponsoring the work. Invariably there's a divide, between reality and fantasy versions. And so it goes with a Government of CEOs.

As we move into July we're hitting about the 5th month of US impact of Covid a few things are very clear.

The facts and numbers about Covid overwhelm the conservative's narrative of everything being "OK"- that we should sacrifice some of the living to ensure that business continues to survive, purportedly to ensure that people can work for a living. Except that is only part of the story.

• It's a fairytale that business leaders and the rich are job creators. Consumers are job creators - they create demand. When demand ebbs, business responds by cutting jobs. When it expands, jobs open up. Jobs don't get "created", they are created to fulfill demand. Yes - business will take advantage of it - and possibly apply capital to it - but many times, so will individual entrepreneurs in business for themselves.

• There is a fallacy that business is more competent than public service (Government) in taking care of people. Business is fluid. IOn order to survive in the set of rules that govern it, people are a variable to be manipulated. Good government, works with people at the center and manipulates other variables to work for the best personal outcome for the most. See states that enforced lock downs, like Pennsylvania. Fact and evidence-based decision making saved thousands of lives over narrative based decision making which is resulting in huge surges in the wake of "re-opening".

• That re-opening business means returning to conventional mechanisms - we need to be realistic - we cannot congregate. It results in death. Yes, some businesses will keep their profile but for many the world will change. Lots of restaurants and bars will fail. Black Friday will be held more virtually. Our lives are more focused on our own living spaces. Travel will take time to get back to. Gasoline sales will suffer.

And subsequently, we need to revamp our economy. Sudden change shows how trend based our business has become and we punish those that cannot predict what consumers want. We need to use our understanding of statistics to not only predict what will sell, but to hedge our risk if it doesn't. Businesses need to invest in a government insurance that supplements them in times of uncertainty. That makes us more robust.

We need programs that make sure that people eat and have shelter regardless of the state of our economy. We need education and healthcare that's available and affordable for everyone. We need to stop the narrative based thinking that says there are only winners and losers. We must be in this for everyone. everyone needs to win, at least to the point of human decency.

In the end it comes down to taking care of people. Because there is no economy or business without workers or consumers. There is no government without the consenting governed.

*1 Heather Cox Richardson, Substack, June 26, 2020 https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-26-2020

When the oppressed are ignored...

I'm not a fan of violence and this current situation does not change this.

Look at what's happening. A man is shot and killed and it takes a month and two weeks after video is made available to arrest and charge the people responsible. A man is killed as a Police Officer kneels on his neck and he gasps for breath. Also, on video and the officer is charged with 3rd degree murder and manslaughter - meaning we aren't holding him responsible for intentional acts, only the result. But these are just the last of years and years of this. Yes, we made strides in civil rights in the 60's but the promise of the post MLK world is still unachieved. Black people live in fear because white people are afraid of them and the very people who are paid to protect have that bias - to the point where black people are arrested, brutalized and killed at rates that far exceed that of white people.

Peaceful protests since the 1960s whose results can only be measured in millimeters since the right to vote and the "ending" of segregation laws. When the French people were starving and the king ignored them, they had to take to the streets to affect change. The king lost his head.

All that Black Americans (and every other nob-white ethnicity closely following behind) have gotten in regards to equal rights since the 60s are platitudes. Promises. Hopes and Prayers. What will it take to affect change? If voices were being heard and change was happening, we wouldn't be having this national conversation. And the world is watching, with many of the same issues to a lesser or greater extent.

The establishment wants this to fade into the news cycle. But it's not and it shouldn't. The system is broken and needs to be fixed. People are dying. Dying.

We cannot ignore wrongful death. Cannot. Want to fix the protesting? Change the system. Announce a national task force to revamp law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Show that real work is being done to get root cause and solve it. Platitudes won't work. Ignorance won't work.

Want to solve it, government? Do something real, holistic and immediate.

Memorial Day 2020

Here we are at the cusp of Memorial Day and there the coincidence of lots of things for us. There’s the day itself and the honoring of the sacrifice made by so many that we might live together in a free society. I’m grateful for it and the importance of that. More on that in a bit. There’s our current ordeal with Covid 19 and the incredible toll it is taking on the people of our nation – both in lives lost – almost 99,000 people, and in economic hardship, especially for the poor, the self-employed .and the small business person. The illness has similarly affected the rest of the world, with over 300,000 deaths so far and economic hardship of varied levels depending on the responsiveness of their governments. 

On a personal note, my late father’s birthday was last Tuesday. He would have been 84. It’s been 21 years since he passed and I miss him very much. He is on my shoulder as I think about what’s happening.

As we celebrate the lives of those who sacrificed them in defense of our Democracy, I want to reflect on who that sacrifice was for and why it is important.

As a people, we are involved in a divide in what a free country means. We are living in a time when our self-categorizing pushes us to choose labels and is amplified by a system that can be manipulated by those with self-serving agendas they wish to push upon all of us – willing or not.

There are some that interpret this as the right to do anything they want – but that’s not a democracy. That would be Anarchy if applied to everyone equally and oppression for some if applied unevenly.

The Declaration of Independence says “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

If all men (people) are created equal that means we have Freedom up to the point in which our exercise for that freedom infringes on the rights of others. That means;

• We have freedom to create and practice religion freely. That does not mean we get to subject others to our religious belief, unless they are in mutual agreement.
• We have freedom of speech. But not to the detriment of others – it is why fraud, liable and slander are part of our legal system.
• We can pursue livelihood and make our own decisions, unless they infringe on the rights of others. It’s inherently why we make it illegal to drive recklessly, it’s why we make it illegal to produce poisonous food, it’s why we prosecute for theft and murder. It is why civil liberties are protected (even though these are still not applied universally). These laws are protecting us from some of the harm we do to others.

In all of this, we have the right to challenge laws that we believe infringe on our rights – but we do not have the right to disobey them until we go through due process. 

The test of our democracy now is to see if we can survive the misinformation that’s provided to push those that would act in their own self-interest to take actions that harm others. Clearly, we’re struggling with this. 

We are acting in ways that endanger others and put our own interests first. We are blaming the sick and those who are pushing us to do the right thing for economic suffering, which should be offset by our safeguards – unemployment benefits, safety practices in food and drug processing, – but the radicalized “conservative” agenda has worn at and dissolved many of these and prohibited advances, like healthcare for everyone, so we are left with suffering, when we could be taking care of each other.

The whispering that these groups are pushing – that we couldn’t possibly afford to take care of each other, is counter to the actual facts. The money that was looted from the public till in 2007/2008/2009, in the tax breaks given early in this administration and in the multi-trillion amounts that have been pushed to the already ultra-wealthy tells us the money is there – it is collected from us but not being spent on us.
You can continue to believe that Democratic Capitalism means that there are a few winners and many losers or you can understand that our democracy is being looted and there could be a better balance, even while we preserve our Democracy and our Capitalist economy.

We will have to make it so. We need to insist on better protections. We need to insist on insurance of personal and small business continuity when a pause is needed, when we’re in crisis. We need to insist on a healthcare system that can take care of the poor in addition to the median and the wealthy.
We need Republicans to get back to an un-radicalized agenda (it is radical, conspiracy based, pushing religious special interests and is primarily focused on the wealthy now) of conservancy and responsibility. I cannot tell you how many Republicans I know that were disenfranchised when the party started to pander to millionaires and people that wanted to exploit our resources in the name of profit. Even more of them jumped the tracks during the last election. 

We need Democrats to focus on social reform (safety net and civil rights), ecological and economic renewal and protections. We need both to walk away from the money from special interests.We need investment in technological research that can be used for public and private good, in medicine, in energy, in the next generation of work and production.

Freedom for us needs to be about living free and responsibly with each other. It needs to be about building each other up, not tearing each other down. We need to get where we are going by helping others get where they’re going. 

That has to be what we fight for. Fighting for an agenda that kills or oppresses someone else is not what our predecessors were fighting for. They were fighting for the equality of all people. The prosperity of all people. The right of everyone to live, to worship (or not), to learn, to pursue happiness in ways that are important to them and don’t step on the rights of others. That’s noble and an ideal, but we can move closer to the ideal rather than further from it. 

We just have to start ignoring the spin. We need a responsible dialogue on our differences. We need to recognize that laws need to work for the best interest of people, of society. We have to demand accountability from our elected officials and make sure we are given the authority to enforce it. Now and this November and going forward. Please vote and support others right to vote. Please vote to change the current state to one that will allow a broad national conversation between our many viewpoints.

Masks, Opening, Freedom

The mask is not primarily for you. It's for the people you come in contact with. It prevents you from directly breathing, coughing or spitting on them - not that you would intentionally do any of that, but your mask prevents that.

 

Yes, it also helps protect you, from touching your face, from getting sprayed by someone else - at least for your mouth and nose.

 

Yet there's a set of people who say masks are violating their rights, obscuring their freedom. But that's not the case. It's just the opposite - not wearing one could violate the right of others to safety.

 

And certainly, I'm not perfect. The other day a contractor doing some work knocked on my door (painting our townhouses). I had talked with him before, at a distance without wearing a mask. This time he wanted me to show him some spots on one of the townhomes and was asking me to "come now". I followed him outside without thinking, no mask with me.  We walked a block and I showed him the wood that needed to be replaced. Each time he moved toward me to see where I was pointing, I stepped away.

 

Later in the day when he came back to my house, I grabbed my mask (to give him access to paint in my garage) and I could see in his eyes he was questioning why I was wearing a mask. After all, he wasn't sick, coughing, sneezing or anything like that. That pressure is an issue.

 

The fundamental misunderstanding between people - that it's some kind of affront to wear a mask around them, that you are somehow judging them individually by wearing one is palpable. I assure you I am not. 

 

I'm protecting you and yes, protecting me. I wish you could afford me the same courtesy.

 

But the people railing against using masks are the same ones who are angry when I don't let them make their illegal left turn before traffic starts (a Pittsburgh courtesy, but one that completely opposes the law. They expect me to hold traffic to let them turn after the light turns green as opposed to letting them wait until opposing traffic has cleared. They give me the finger as I legally and safely start driving in my lane.

 

It's the same people that carry their pistols and rifles to public events to show their privilege.

 

It's the same people that say the Governor (pick any one) is a tyrant for not opening up a county that still has a high death rate or new infection rate, or that has been statistically determined to be a potential death zone. It's the business owner who opens up despite being in one of these areas.

• You endanger others merely by doing what you are doing. Stop putting yourself ahead of others. It's not your right. Your right stops exactly at the point it endangers others.

• You use freedom and economic urgency to argue this.

• Look, I get that not running your business means no cash flow. We need to be looking to the government to push taxes we've paid back to us in aid.

• We need to establish business continuity insurance as part of the taxes you pay - so that in the event business must pause like this, it doesn't break us or keep us from paying employees.

• For those that say this is not government's job, I say to you bullshit. This is exactly governments job. Business only takes care of business. Religion takes care of the devout (sometimes). Charity takes care of the non-devout (sometimes) - none of these can be relied on. Government is here to protect people - all people. That includes invading armies and includes issues like keeping people fed, housed and medically well. 

The hurry to open is driven by impatience and economic necessity, the latter being created by a system that effectively endangers the poor and the independently employed. It's artificial because if these people had a source of income to help them wait out 90 days and not ruin their lives, the wait would have little impact other than boredom. Need proof? People with savings, income and food are complaining of boredom. 

 

So instead of protesting that waiting and protecting others is violating your rights, protest a system that leaves you, your business and your neighbors without a safety net. Protest a system where the wealthy grabbing 3/4 of the stimulus money in addition to the huge tax breaks they got just before that. Protest an administration that wants to privatize social security and education rather than provide. Who wants private research rather than shared government research (after all, the Government cannot do anything that benefits business - except for huge advances in technology from the space program, the CDC, The Internet, Project Management, Food Production and Distribution - literally getting us closer than ever to solving world hunger, and on and on). Protest the downfall of publicly funding the success of Americans and America. 

 

Blaming politicians that are taking steps to keep people safe and are pushing for programs to help keep people fed and in their houses, is ignorant. Protest the system that makes your endangering everyone else a necessity.

 

Make sure you are registered to vote. And vote. 

Antiseptic.

So, look, when I saw the president's questions about sanitizing with light and disinfectant, I didn't think he was suggesting anyone do it - I think he genuinely didn't know if there were ways to apply that technology to the illness.

My problem is that he pursued a stream of consciousness on public television, which had potentially dangerous side effects - just like he's done hundreds of times, riffing about things that should be discussed before he speaks to an impressionable audience - and b) that when it didn't play well, he came back trying to say he was being sarcastic. He wasn't - it's very obvious.

And just as we've seen him speak incorrectly about stuff he doesn't know about, we've seen him lie continuously rather than own it. He could have said - "I was just asking."? Not defending the guy, but a lot of our solutions come from brain storming and looking a things that already exist differently. We just don't do that in front of millions of people who are look for assurance and accurate information.

I want someone in the White House that will own their mistakes. I want someone who will listen to the experts and to constituents, and think carefully before opening their mouths. I want someone who will make decisions based on people rather than money. And I want someone who won't be using the news cycle to distract people from the almost irreparable harm that is being done to our public investment in our government as a mechanism for (all of) the people.

Real Freedom

Here’s the thing: in our society where we are all created equal, your rights extend exactly as far as life and death decisions that affect yourself physically. The “my body, my choice” argument is valid in cases like abortion or suicide, cancer, etc. the minute you get to infectious disease or other actions that potentially physically harm others, you’re past your rights.

We outlaw actions that potentially harm others. You cannot poison the buffet. You cannot crash your car into a crowd of people, and call it freedom. You can’t knowingly take actions that spread contagious disease. We shut down dirty restaurants. We quarantine.

Putting others in danger for your benefit is putting yourself above them. You’re no longer supporting freedom as defined by our constitution or society.

Yes, you need to eat and a place to live, you have your right to survive which is why distancing guidelines are in place, businesses are shut and why your taxes should guarantee you eat, keep your house, cars and can get medical attention regardless of your lack of income. That is something you should protest for.

Being part of a society comes with responsibility to respect your fellow humans right to live. If we don’t maintain that, we’ve lost what we’ve fought so hard to achieve.

The forest for the trees

I read a paper a number of years back that said that we, as a race, had a problem understanding and responding to slow moving threats. Anything that didn't hit as a fire during a news cycle and sometimes something that was discussed too long (and wore off it's shine, as it were).

I've found this true, time and time again. The holocaust. Apartheid. Darfur, Rwanda. Aids. Global Warming. Universal Healthcare. World Hunger. The destruction of the South American Rain Forest. Corona virus.

It's because we have a hard time digesting the big picture. We've been so successful as reactive analysts that we try to break down to the detail and the doing without stepping back and seeing the big picture (continuously, as it changes). Its because we can be distracted with short term goals and by the explosion in a news cycle.

I was talking with a friend the other day and mentioned that I really get angry when people say in a meeting "we're not trying to solve world hunger" or "We're trying to boil the ocean". Big problems can be solved - but they need top be seen and kept in mind.

Some of us have the big picture firmly in view in this crisis and they are being attacked and torn at, by some who need to eat and by some who are greedy and do not care about who dies - those greedy people are taking advantage of those of us who want to eat, by pushing us to take risks, rather than feeding us. Because feeding us means using money (that we have paid into the system) and starving us makes money.

Right now the Corona virus dominates the news cycle, because we didn't pay attention to it when it didn't. Ignoring the warnings, the science, the root issue does not make it go away. It makes it worse. It's time to step back again and look at the big picture.

We need to feed people. We need to make sure they keep their homes. We need to make our social programs more robust and require business to pay into a business continuity insurance fund, so we can help them keep people in mind during hardship. To succumb to the idea that we cannot feed people, keep them sheltered and healthy, but can bail out businesses is to fall for the big lie, the short view, the small picture. We have the means, right now, to solve this. We just need to see the forest for the trees.

Stay at home for now, stay well. Demand better from your representatives. Vote out the greed in November.

Disruptive Change

Everyone is a little stir crazy. "When will we get back to normal?"

To paraphrase Ving Rhames in Pulp Fiction. "We're pretty phreaking far from normal."

Normal will change - it has to. Businesses will look to repair the status quo. We need to get them back and functioning, but not exactly as they were. We need to make this better.

We cannot walk out of this experience and move back to the same unstable, socially insecure for 70% of the country we were at, where employment, a condition for survival, is treated as something that can be ended in minutes. We cannot move back to pretending the world cannot function without everyone congregating in an office building. We cannot go back to a medical system that will drown people without insurance.

Isn’t it time we figure out ways to give each other a pass, to at least live a life that is free from hunger and where anyone can get treatment for injury and disease?

And we have to be robust enough to pause. We cannot be in a situation where our economy collapses when we need to take a break or change slightly. It cannot be dependent upon the will of companies that only have the profit motive - we can harness that engine, but also put safety belts and brakes in, so that we don't die when we have a blip.

Coronavirus is disruptive. In the same way that cell phones have replaced home phones, we have to replace what was the norm with the emergent norm. It has exposed weakness in our current system that we can fix.

A few ideas - none of these are new, but they are appropriate:

The government ensures banks. FDIC. Right? If there are businesses too big to fail then we should insure them. They should PAY PREMIUMS in the forms of taxes to the federal government and then when the Federal government needs to bail them out, it comes out of the insurance pool. This keeps them running, keeps people employed as a condition of the insurance, but keeps ownership private.

Universal health and human care. We pool resources to fund food, shelter and medical safety nets for everyone. It is no longer an employer based "privilege" but a human right.

We invest in technology that transforms us from unsustainable power to solar, wind, water and geothermal. We start heavy investments in both research and production for these. We stop mining coal. We stop fracking and damaging our water table. We put in programs to stop burning oil. (this all takes time). We train fossil workers in manufacturing and deployment of these new technologies.

Why now? Because we are surpassing ecological limits of fossil fuels and we need new markets to drive employment. Like tobacco and smoking, we are killing ourselves with fossil fuels. We need to quit and the new technologies will generate growth - they are untapped markets. Power can become personal in many cases - we can work off of power and technology grids, but not be solely dependent because we can also diversify our power sources, so that we are not reliant on a few companies to provide - it allows us to become more robust.

Seem like some crackpot ideas? 3 weeks ago, so did the idea of 40% of our population working from home. So did the idea that more of us would have to choose between our safety and eating (some of us have been living that already for many years). And like many emergent markets, getting in early is the key to leveraging them.

Many will fight against this change. Typewriter manufacturers fought against computers. It didn't stop people from writing. Republican fought against FDR and the New Deal, even in the face of the Great Depression and World War II. Social security didn't stop businesses from making money. Changing ourselves to be more robust will be represented by the opposition as Socialism, Communism, Totalitarianism - any name they can think to call it, to preserve the status quo were 1% of the people control 90% of the resources. It’s not the end of capitalism. It’s making capitalism robust enough to support our civilization. It’s making it socially responsible.

It has to change. 2 Trillion dollars suddenly appeared because there's an election coming up 3.4 of that is being given to business scot free. Another grab. We need to change that. We need to invest in ourselves now and continually. We need government for this - business is designed to create wealth, not take care of people. Government is designed and needs to be repaired, to take care of people and keep our society robust. It needs to support business in a way that allows the engine to work and produce the great things it produces, while benefiting people - monetarily and safely.

We the people need to press it. It is time for us to invest in ourselves. It starts with your vote.

Actual Social Security

Let’s come to terms with a few things.

Covid – 19 represents something we, despite our own good sense as a world population, expect. SARS, Aids, Ebola, Ecoli and other fast spreading infections are huge warnings that this will continue to happen – and we need to be prepared for this.

Our infrastructure for the care of people cannot handle this for two reasons

First, it’s privately owned and intended to make a profit. Profit motive, at its core makes its primary goal the antithesis of human wellbeing. It’s not bad for companies to aim at profit. It’s bad to consider healthcare a profit system. (I’m not arguing that Doctors shouldn’t make good money. I’m arguing that profit should not be the goal for the funding of a medical system).

Secondly, our Republican representatives, our so called “conservative” political party, have sold off, defunded and otherwise worked to derail our publicly owned systems to push people into becoming customers of the privately owned systems – and to take over the public investment at no or little cost. This party is conserving nothing. It’s radically destroying the protections we built, after the great depression, to keep these kinds of things from happening.

Think about this:

If we all had a plan that assured we would have enough to eat, that we wouldn’t be evicted from our homes for losing our jobs, if we couldn’t go into debt because of school or medical bills and we had environmental protections that prevented unsafe food and pollution practices, then, where exactly would the emergency be?

It would be with the care of the people dying from this disease and the prospect of not working would have an impact, but it wouldn’t “destroy our way of life”. People who drive ubers or work at restaurants wouldn’t be worried about being homeless or without food or medical care and wouldn’t be worrying about the medical costs destroying their lives.

By making a substantial social safety net, we don’t ruin life. We preserve it. Conserve it.

And the emergency in business would be substantially less too. They could idle with the understanding they could draw on assistance to keep workers whole while the issue was dealt with. Yes, they would need to idle in some cases, for public safety, but that would just be put on hold.

But in our current system, businesses will be punished for standing still, for doing what is right in cases like this. And they will layoff and cut workers in order to “stay in business” but that’s like cutting off your legs because you drank poison. Even if you recover from the poisoning, you now have no legs. Cutting your means of production is killing the golden goose. Idling it is not perfect, but you can still come back from it.

So when people argue against a progressive agenda with environmental and social safety nets, they are arguing for short sightedness, they are arguing against the ability to do the right thing. They are arguing not for reasonable capitalism, where the company makes a good profit – they are arguing for a profit only motive. They are arguing for money over everything else. And it’s a suicide argument. Everything – our health, welfare, safety, morals are all sacrificed on the alter of greed. This cannot be the case.

Capitalism is an economic system designed to make money. It is not a form of government. Democracy is a system designed to protect all of the people. To pursue life, liberty and happiness. Life. We cannot protect life by protecting greed. We can only protect life by intentionally protecting life.

Better vote Democrat. Register to vote if you have not. Register to vote by mail if need be.

IN PA https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/OnlineAbsenteeApplication/#/OnlineAbsenteeBegin

Or look up mail in or absentee ballots in your state.

Singularly optimized systems aren't robust

I have spoken a bit about the Invisible Hand – Adam Smith’s metaphor for the unseen forces that balance markets and distribute income in free society.

I have seen it in action (we all have regardless of knowing it or not) and it works to our benefit and detriment depending on who we are, what decisions we make and what money we have.

It’s a system, that we’ve tried to optimize for personal gain, which does work, especially if you have a lot of money. But the market is a gamble, which is played by a bunch of people who are unwittingly risk adverse – they want the game spun to optimize their chance of winning.

The system is so sensitive to the slightest turn of the screw that big things, which are complex to predict, send it into collapse.

We see this pattern repeated in many systems, because the human race has been so successful at Analysis and optimization, we push it to the max, everywhere, never thinking as to why some things always seem to incorporate “waste” or “lag time”.

The reason is, we are human. We need some lubrication in our systems. We don’t work like machines. We need to build in the ability for things to not go as planned. We need to understand that we don’t get 8 hours of work from and 8 hour day all of the time. We need to have systems that are robust enough to care for (food, medical attention) the poorest as well as the wealthiest among us.

I’m talking about Capitalism but with Social Responsibility built into our plan, our laws.

We cannot rely on business to do it. Business has the goal of optimizing capital. Fine. Good. But government cannot have the same singular goal. It needs to maintain balance in the economy and take care of every citizen. Its goal needs to be running a sustainable, durable, robust system that helps people and works with business in a balanced way.

It means businesses need to pay taxes. It means the wealthy need to pay taxes.

And in our other systems – food supply, medical supply and yes, toilet paper supply, we need to be able to build programs that makes sure the poor and elderly have access to necessities.

We shouldn’t need to go into massive special modes to ensure we can survive a pandemic. Or a market change that freaks out wall street. It should be part of our planning.

We know we’re not perfect. So why not plan for it?

Shopping for the Zombie Apocalypse

Thinking I’d get a jump on things, I figured I’d shop Friday night (which I do sometimes to avoid Saturday rush) and figured as schools are closing and events are cancelled and working from home looms as a potential for some of us (unfortunately, not enough of us), this was going to be one of those Saturdays.

I knew heading into Sam’s Club, wiping my cart handle down, that there would be no toilet paper. Not an issue – my wife and I are well stocked. We buy a large pack, a few times a year. But I admittedly was not prepared for what I found.

Thinking maybe I would get a whole chicken and a couple pounds of ground beef I headed for the meat department, only swinging by to pick up cat food, which we have a reasonable amount of but there are 3 cats and couple of weeks is long enough we would run out and they would kill us in our sleep and eat us. Mine are little angels most of the time, but when they’re hungry…

Swinging over to the meat isles I was instantly stunned. Each section was completely empty, excepting the Tomahawk Ribeyes which were 2+ pounds and represented a similar investment as graduate school.

No Chicken, Pork or Beef. No milk. No eggs. Grapes and Bananas completely gone (?). Over to the frozen meat. Only a few bags of chicken nuggets left (now remember, this is a bulk buy retailer – huge inventories). Plenty of prepared meals available but very little. I found a small box of 12 frozen hamburgers Some Italian chicken sausage, half and half. As I looked around, stares of disbelief which likely mirrored my face.

There was even a substantial dent in the available bags of Doritos and Cheetos and I did grab one of each, so if you find my dead body with a strange, presidential looking orange dust on it, I went out, but I went out happily. It ain’t easy being cheesy.

A few more things and I was on my way. Stopping over at Target to get a few things I found a similar situation. Almost all meat (well, they did have some Bison, but it was $9 a pound and wasn’t doing that. A few cans of soup. Some Smarties which I use in a pinch instead of diabetic glucose when my blood sugar drops, of which they are the cheapest supplier but are almost always out of. I’m not sure why, sugar is eminently abundant.

Giant Eagle was more of the same, although they still had a lot of fresh Salmon and a few frozen ducks. I guess Duck is not “shelter in place” food.

As I was coming out of the last store, I ran into a friend and coworker and she reminded me of a thought I had earlier. In this world of just-in-time inventories, they only stock and plan on runs for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Snack foods for the super bowl. Milk and Toilet paper in substantially bad weather.

Inventory in fact, in our capitalist minds, exists as a necessary evil. But because of it, re-supplying will slow down. Manufacturing will slow down. Wall street and subsequently business, thrive on predictable outcomes and they scream in pain when they are not.

And that is infinitely funny. Because the Stock Market is a game of chance, but one whose players complains when they have to take a chance. Insurance companies and banks too, when they aren’t allowed to manipulate their bets into sure things. Oh, they’re fine with tossing the world for the little guy, overextending credit, charging high interest rates and late fees.

They’re only geniuses in the sense that they have put themselves in a position to gamble, but not in the sense they would actually want to gamble. And then you realize (if you hadn’t long ago), the issue for the market isn’t the deaths Covid 19 will cause or disruption to lives. It’s of course, the monetary impact, but even more, the unpredictability of it. And it effects a lot of us. Our retirement savings, which is invested there.

And those same people who run businesses that push for predictability, want to take away social nets that save families medically and economically – that make their lives more predictable (at least to the point where they can live and eat).

This is a mild version of what might happen if this virus was say Ebola. We are not ready. Which is why we need a socially responsible democratic government to pair with our capitalist economic model. Capitalism is ultimately not built to govern or deal with people. It’s brutal. Supply and demand, right there in Sam’s club. Fortunately, it’s not life or death for me. But it is for many. Many without health insurance, without jobs, without homes. We need systems that cushion the reality of Capitalism for the little guy, where it is so brutal. The rich can lose money, but can remain rich. You cannot lose your health and remain alive. You cannot lose your sole income or ability to make that income and remain alive.

And if we need to remind the rich, more than a 70% of the world lives below the poverty line and overf 10% in the USA, the worlds richest country, do. We don’t need to save the rich. They will save themselves. It’s time for us to vote to save ourselves and our fellow humans.

It turns out in the Zombie Apocalypse, the zombies are just wandering around Sam’s club, trying to decide if they should try “meatless chicken” or subsist on Pop Tarts. They’re not dead, they are people who are seeing their social footing shake beneath them. And if the people in Washington are only concerned about the same things as the people on Wall Street, we’re screwed. Better vote.

The Ball Pit Analogy

The basic idea of publicly funded health, publicly funded education and publicly funded military is capitalistic, but leveraging group buying.

Groups work like ball pits. if you slide down the slide you are bolstered by the balls in the pit - your fall is broken. If there are too few balls, you bottom out and still hit the floor.

If you already have health insurance, you already participate in a group to leverage investment. You do this with the military already.You don't purchase a "Military Plan" from an independent military contractor (although they exist and are purchased by those who have different-than-ordinary needs.

So when folks get freaked out with the idea of publicly funded healthcare or secondary education, I think they're not thinking clearly - they've been programed to label it socialism and call it evil (it's not socialism - the means of production is still privately owned - schools and doctors and hospitals and teachers - are paid by the state.

Yes, profit is not part of the equation for the payer. But it is if you are an institution or a provider - you make money. The part that changes, changes little. removing the profit motive from the payment system allows doctors to make decisions in favor of the patient. For teachers to make decisions based on the needs of students.

It's not that institutions (private or public) don't make mistakes. But publicly owned we have an opportunity to influence through ownership and advocacy and it means everyone gets access to these necessities.

I'm a capitalist - I believe in making money. I also believe in social responsibility. The two are not mutually exclusive. We can profit and make sure people have basic needs fulfilled. We already do it in many places. It's merely expanding it in ways that benefit everyone.