Category Archives: Politics

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And these days, every vote not counted, counts.

Ask any candidate for public office to explain a poll that finds 98 percent of the electorate despises him, and this will be his answer: “The only poll that matters is taken on election day.” Self-serving? Yes. Dodging the question? Sure. Putting lipstick on a pig? Uh-huh. The thing is, though, it is absolutely true.

Polls don’t tell us much of anything. Many of them have small samples, or self-selected samples (as in Internet polls), or loaded questions, and actually subtract from the sum total of human knowledge. The ones that are well done offer us a snapshot of opinions held when the poll was taken, and that almost certainly have changed by the time we hear about the poll.

But polls are the junk food of journalists — no nutrition, but tasty, with no work required. Thus every day we are told what polls have to say about the economy, international diplomacy, and whether brain surgery should be conducted with stainless steel, or ceramic, scalpels. In that last category, we have recently been informed that Robert Mueller’s approval rating among the American populace has dropped. The assumption apparently is that only popular prosecutors get convictions. Continue reading →

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When we find ourselves surrounded by thick fog that obscures familiar landmarks and directional signs, we need help to get home, or to the pub, whichever comes first. It happened to me in the mountains once, and I was glad for the company of my faithful dog, who promptly abandoned me. I found him home by the fire when I eventually made it there.

Natural fog is one thing, it comes and goes, but the industrial smokescreens being laid down these days by our politicians and disinformation sources have become chronic. We need either a very good dog, or some other tool, in order to navigate them. In these cases, logic, as applied by an experienced critical mind, is often the equivalent of a functioning GPS unit in the wilderness. It might not get you home, but it can show you where you are.

A recent case in point was the alleged attack on a retired spy and his daughter in Salisbury, England, two months ago. Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a park bench in the center of Salisbury. The smoke generated around the incident was the equivalent of a continental forest fire, it could be seen from space, yet much of it can be dispersed by elementary logic. Continue reading →

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Seems we are going to have to think outside the box to keep our fighting forces up to strength.

It does not take a particularly jaundiced eye to see that the American Empire is foundering. And now, to the long and growing list of wheels coming off the juggernaut, comes a new and startling piece of evidence of the decline and fall, one that is a profound shock to those swaddled most deeply in the myths of American exceptionalism.

Let’s first review, briefly, the last few years  in the life of the Empire That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, setting aside the fact that it has started an endless progression of wars that it has been unable to win or, in many cases, end. This has in no way hampered the Empire’s (illogically named) defense budget — it spends twice as much on war, each year, as its two principal adversaries, Russia and China, combined. With the result that: Continue reading →

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Although Hillary and Putin both like the idea conveyed by this illustration, it is not the way it happened. By a long shot.

Turns out it is possible to overstate the impact the Russians had on our last presidential election. According to the latest Mueller indictments, the Russian government spent as much as $1.25 million dollars a month to influence the 2016 elections. Imagine! If they had kept that up for only 12 and a half years, they would have almost matched what Jeb Bush spent before dropping out of the primary races in February. After spending $150 million, Jeb had managed to win the support of most, but not all, of his extended family. His mother remained on the fence. Continue reading →

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Refugees from Syria on a freedom train to somewhere. Migrants like this all over the world are leaving countries where there is no hope of living a decent life, and they’ve added a new country to the list of those to be shunned. (Photo by electronicintifada.net)

They come all day, starting before full daylight. They come to the end of the road in taxis, or in beat up old cars driven by friends. They come alone sometimes, but usually in pairs or in families, often families with small children. When their transport has left, they gather their suitcases and cardboard boxes and struggle into the woods. Their goal is a shallow gully not far down the well-trodden path. With many a fearful glance behind them, looking for those who are out to intercept them, they reach the gully.

On the other side stands a uniformed police officer. He greets them politely. He tells them that they are about to cross an international border, and by so doing will have broken the law, and will be taken into custody. That is their plan. Being arrested on the other side is far preferable to the increasing levels of harassment, discrimination, forced deportation and overt bigotry they are experiencing on this side. And so they cross, relieved to be in a kinder country, and willingly submit themselves to its bureaucracy.

Here’s the kicker: these refugees are running away from the United States of America, seeking safety and a better future in Canada. Continue reading →

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As long as you’re running for Congress you will be spending six hours a day on your smartphone, dialing for dollars. Did they tell you that in the recruiting brochure?

First of all, I’m glad you’re doing it. You’re young, energetic and smart, and seem to have a moral compass that can still find true north, so you probably won’t do very much harm to anybody. At first. I’m glad you’re running as a Democrat, because the wind is at your back this year. But I have to tell you — you, and your party, are blowing it. Hugely.

You’re doing all the right things that all the right people tell you to do. You’re spending six hours a day and more on the phone, begging strangers for money, answering their inevitable question: “Where do you stand on (fill in the special-interest blank)?” Then with the little time you have left, you’re spending the money on consultants: fundraising consultants, social-media consultants, data-analysis consultants, communication consultants,  campaign-management consultants, consultant consultants. And after all the meetings you need to have with them, you rarely get a chance to go to a public event. Continue reading →

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[I am re-posting this from last December in honor of the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Black Monday, 2/5/2017]

It’s one of the oldest stories of human association — a viral meme, if you will, that predates Facebook. Things are going well in the camp/village/pueblo/kingdom, and the family/clan/tribe is prospering. Before long, somebody — a priest/shaman/elder/king — takes credit for the good times. “Yes,” he/she/it says demurely, “It’s all my doing. I control the weather/game/crops, and if you want the good times to continue, you’d better keep me happy.”

It starts with a few extra sandwiches from a few dubious neighbors — “what the hell, just in case, what could it hurt” — and if the weather holds, proceeds rapidly to absolute power, virgin sacrifices, massive demonstrations of loyalty, and crushing taxes for the multitude to provide unimaginable luxury for the top guy. Continue reading →

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Trust us, America, you’re going to feel a lot better soon. We’re going to elect better doctors. (Wikimedia Commons image)

Many years ago, as a young soldier (in civvies, but somehow they always knew) quaffing a few beers in a Georgia bar as far from the post as I could afford to get, I saw a young black soldier (in civvies, but I could tell) come through the door with a lovely date on his arm. She was white. Actually, blonde. I was sore afraid, and looked for a table to get under, envisioning the bar existing only as a pile of kindling when the riot was over.

As far as I could tell, not one person in the bar — remember I said it was far from the post, so it was not an all-Army crowd, but mostly locals — no one gave the couple a second glance or seemed to comment on their presence. That was in 1968, and it was then I began to rethink my easily-acquired caricature of Southerners as racist hicks. Having rethought it, and having similar Southern epiphanies many times over the years, I retained some faith in the decency of Alabamans, and became convinced they would not elevate the odious Roy Moore to the Senate of the United States. Continue reading →