Our America, Looking Forward

If the evening news, local newspaper, Internet feeds, and Facebook friends are any indication, people seem fascinated with our current political scene.  Liberal sources present our new president as a buffoon and conservatives tout his accomplishments.  To say that most of these pronouncements are a tad overzealous in their rhetoric would be a gross understatement.

Very little of what I have heard and read give much of an indication of our future beyond either doom and gloom or a Great America with newly minted manufacturing, construction, and mining jobs.  While the president is busy signing executive orders, Congress, and the old-guard power brokers in Washington, seems to be watching from the sidelines.  We are in the “honeymoon period” common to any new presidency.

Three Ring Circus

This three ring circus is being directed by a new Ringmaster who is issuing his proclamations with typical hyperbole to enhance expectations of what you are about to see.  Words like the “biggest”, “most spectacular”, and “amazing” are among his descriptive adjectives.  What we seem to forget is that there are two other rings in our three-ring circus, known as our Legislative and Judicial branches.  Without the support of these other branches, pronouncements from the Ringmaster are mostly hot air.

Our New Ringmaster

This is not to say that executive orders are without consequence.  We have already seen the disruptive effect one such order on travel restrictions with regard to certain countries has had on many people.  It will however be necessary for Congress to fund and for the Legislative branch to possibly uphold as legal, some of these actions for them to have long-term acceptance.

Our Republican Cabinet Gets In Line

The elephant act is now center stage.  I of course refer to the animal depiction of the Republican Party.  While not a true Republican in the strictest sense, President Trump was elected under the guise of a conservative Republican.  He embraces many of their ideals but is not respectful of their establishment.  This makes him attractive to his followers and a caution (sometimes a nightmare) to his fellow party members.

It remains to be seen but, if our founding fathers were right, the separation of powers will keep the missteps of Mr. Trump down to a manageable few.  As President Obama learned after his honeymoon period, where he also enjoyed a majority in Congress, you can’t get much accomplished on your own.

Republicans

Where does all of this leave the Republican Party?  They need to take a hard look at how they lost control.  They were divided by the hard right that became the Tea Party.  This hijacking of the Republican ideology by extremists was predictable.  You can’t argue or reason with religious fanatics who hold their truths to be self-evident and which come from a higher power.  You can only outnumber them, hold your ground, and move on.  Let the Tea Party be its own entity to survive on its own.  Don’t let it corrupt your own ideals.

Tea Party, aka Mad Hatters

Be honest with yourselves. A Great Wall at the Mexican-US border is political, not practical.  We won’t be safer.  Such a wall won’t stop illegal immigration or drug traffickers any better than the Great Wall of China stopped the Mongol hoards.  If a partial fence, drones, air patrols, land patrols, electronic sensors, and cameras haven’t stopped our border problems, a 30’ wall won’t work either.  This wouldn’t be the first time a politician didn’t keep a campaign promise.  I think it’s happened once or twice before.

If you insist on a wall, why not make it a six-lane elevated expressway from Brownsville, Texas to San Diego, California.  Provide free gas to incentivize people to take this inconvenient route and make the speed limit at least 70mph.  Any illegal immigrant that can make it across six lanes of high-speed traffic deserves a chance.  You could call it Project Frogger.  This makes as much sense as a border wall.

Frogger Wall

If you have the funds to build a 20 plus billion-dollar wall and spend tens of billions to maintain that wall, you might as well build something useful.  I can think of a few bridges in need of repair, highways that need maintenance and updates, utility grids in need of modernizing, and water maintenance projects that are needed to help farmers and city dwellers alike.

Jobs for the Rust Belt won’t appear because of imposed higher tariffs.  Mining jobs for the coal industry won’t materialize by ignoring climate change and lifting environmental restrictions.  Modern jobs require modern job skills.  Robotics has had a greater impact on these jobs than the shipment of jobs overseas.  Use education to better equip the upcoming generation for these new jobs.  Provide cross training of the under employed work force into construction jobs and related functions that will reuse their existing skill set.

Create construction jobs with infrastructure projects.  Facilitate relocation, when necessary, to allow workers to get where the jobs happen to exist.  You could create a federally owned corporation, similar to the TVA of 1933, which would manage and oversee these congressionally mandated projects.  The corporation could contract much of the work but would have autonomy to “git 'er done,” to use a phrase familiar to your constituency.

Promote education and don’t look at it as a profit center for private industry.  Go back to teaching the three R’s.  You know we need it if we still call it Readin’, Ritin’, and Rithmatic.  Nevertheless, include practical training to facilitate the matching of skill sets with the local job market.  You can also provide life skills so graduates know how to read a rental contract, fill out a tax form, manage a credit card, pay bills safely online, complete a job application, dress for an interview, and cook a healthy meal.

Realize that your “Republican” president is starting office with a record low unemployment rate and a Dow at 20,000.  Look at Obama’s starting numbers eight years ago.  Divide the improvement by eight to find the annual improvement he achieved.  Take this result and calculate where we should be in 2019.  If you aren’t there, prepare to lose the next presidential election.  If you drop the ball with the Affordable Care Act and people end up uninsured, plan to start losing Congressional and state held posts.

Democrats

I almost don’t know what to tell Democrats.  I would start by saying to look back at what you have been doing and, don’t do that anymore.  At this writing, there are only five states with a Democratic governor and a Democratic state legislature.  The Republicans have 25 states with both a governor and control of the state legislature.

Democrats Don't Have Much of a Presence Between the Coasts

While I hold with many liberal ideals, the Democratic Party has lost touch with the working class.  This was your stronghold.  While improvements in the minimum wage and trans-gender bathrooms may be important, actual good-paying jobs are what the voters want.  Unemployment rates are important to politicians, not the unemployed.  As much as I could gain favor with an obstructionist’s recommendation to my Democratic friends, I would advise otherwise.  Come up with a plan to revitalize cities and towns with closed mills and factories. Read my recommendations to the Republican Party above and, if anything comes up for a vote that promotes these ideals, support them.  You can skip the Frogger Project, but all of the other ideas are valid.

Hold by your ideals but don’t let them blind you to the needs of middle class working America.  Find some middle common ground.  Fight for women’s rights and racial equality.  Fight for Social Security and Health Care reform.  Fight for education.  Fight for responsible immigration laws.  Fight for environmental ideals.  Climate change is real.  Let people know what you stand for and what you have done to benefit them.  Up to now, you haven’t gotten your message across.  Ignore the Rust and Coal Belts at your peril.  Cultural issues have their place but if Joe or Jane Factory-worker is unemployed or under employed, you won't get their vote.  If the Republicans don’t improve employment figures, or improve the economy, or improve the environment, or improve education, or improve health care, and don't protect Social Security and Medicare, let people know.  Shout it from the rooftops.

You didn’t lose the White House by much but, despite all of your thoughtful analysis, this country is now being led by a real estate professional.  If he didn’t self-destruct during his campaign with all his highly publicized antics, you can rest assured he will be a force to be reckoned with in 2020.  You need a fresh candidate without Hillary’s baggage.  You need someone who can identify with and talk to working class America, not just the poor.  Start looking now.  Groom that person and perhaps a few alternates.  You need to reevaluate your platform priorities and provide Middle America with a viable alternative to Mr. T.

The Big Top

The Greatest Show on Earth--Making America Great Again

Well, as the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus (Greatest Show on Earth) is set to close its Big Top after 146 years, we can only hope that the three-ring circus that is our government doesn’t suffer a similar fate.  They (Ringling) blamed changing public tastes and battles with animal rights groups as reasons for their demise.  In May of 2017 their clown car will have unloaded for the last time.  

Our political clown car (Congress) continues to roll on.  Our new Ringmaster is a master of the media.  He knows how to get the attention of the working middle class.  He knows how to excite an audience.  His Greatest Show on Earth has opened for its first performance year.  Let’s hope his aerial tightrope act maintains its balance and doesn’t bring us crashing to the sawdust floor.

How Much of America Views our Leadership

After recently watching our president perform for the news media he despises, I was reminded of a scene from a classic film noir movie, Nightmare Alley.  In that movie, Tyrone Power gets a new job in a carnival.  He talks to Zeena, part of a mentalist act.

Joan Blondell and Tyrone Power in Nightmare Alley 1947

Scene from Nightmare Alley (1947)

Setting:  Carnival

Mademoiselle Zeena (Joan Blondell): 

You like this racket, don't you?

Stanton (Tyrone Power):

Oh, lady, I was made for it.
I had all kinds of jobs
before this one came along...
but none of 'em
were anything but jobs.
But this gets me.
I like it. All of it.
The crowds, the noise,
the idea of keeping on the move.
You see those yokels out there,
it gives you sort of a superior feeling...
as if you were in the know
and they were on the outside looking in.
Kinda hard to explain, but I like it.

Life in the Time of Fake News, Falsehoods, Alternative Facts, Intentional Lies, Half-Truths, Misinformation, and GBS

For the purposes of this analysis, we shall refer to all of the above-mentioned informational concepts as GBS, otherwise known as General Bull Shit.  Some GBS has its place in our society.  It can be used to good effect in comedy or satire.  It can help make a point.  It does however, have no place when used to deceive and function as a tool to guide opinions to a conclusion that is based on that deception.

The Fount of Knowledge

Gutenberg Press

Responsible individuals will read information and, based on its source and importance, verify the validity before acceptance.  All information should be verified with additional reference before it is relied upon for other decision-making.  Information should always be verified before further distribution.

1984 The Book that Brought us "doublethink"

While George Orwell’s 1984 Ministry of Truth is not yet here in any discernible official capacity, the effect of rewriting and distorting history is the net effect of promoting falsehoods through unverified redistribution of BS.  In 1984, terms like “doublethink” were defined as the act of holding, simultaneously, two opposite, individually exclusive ideas or opinions and believing in both simultaneously and absolutely.  It uses logic against logic with slogans like, Ignorance is Strength, and War is Peace.  It would seem that 1984 was a bit premature in its prognostications but recent political events portend to be harbingers of its eventual realization.

Wingnut

The Internet, like television, radio, and the Gutenberg press before it, has greatly increased our access to information.  All advancements in media distribution have provided the opportunity to reach larger audiences.  Unlike the press, radio, and television however, the Internet is not easily monitored for content accuracy.

To quote Ben Franklin, “Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see.”

  

Lazy individuals will forward, re-send, and otherwise distribute anything they find that promotes their beliefs and will do it without verification.  They will ignore those who illuminate their mistakes or will even argue that their statements were based on some facts and anything found to be wrong was an opinion.  Some when presented with irrefutable proof of a falsehood will even “double down” on the GBS and, just like mom, use the “because I said so” argument.  These lazy purveyors of misinformation are as guilty as the persons who originated the falsehood.

Some clever individuals will, in order to promote an idea, blend some limited factual information along with stuff made from “whole cloth.”  This blending of facts and falsehoods makes it very difficult to wholly disprove a statement.  See Ben Franklin above.Everyone is entitled to an opinion.  Our American society is based on free speech, with certain limitations.  Things like slander, threats of violence, or shouting Fire in a crowded theatre will still get you in trouble.  Promoting opinions with GBS, while still protected speech, is also still BS.  To quote my mom, “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”  As a kid, I didn’t understand why anyone would want a silk purse or where you would get a sow’s ear, but I eventually understood the wisdom in the statement.  Even when GBS is peppered with a few verifiable facts, it is still BS.  Once a lie is told online, it’s difficult to retrieve it, quarantine it, and debunk it.

It is simple to verify most things through a number of Internet sources.  While Snopes is very popular, Ask Factcheck is also available.  You can generally perform a simple Google search with the word Snopes or Factcheck at the beginning of a string of key words from the statement being checked.  You can “cut and paste” a headline of an article with Snopes or Factcheck at the beginning of the search.  Look at the results and follow the link to the proper site reference to verify.

Consider the source.  Satirical sites like The Onion and DailyCurrant have even fooled major news outlets.  We have all seen “Breaking News” stories from the major news media, which repeat misinformation and, at times, offer guesses as to what is happening.  Try to use reliable major news sources for your information, but verify.  See Ben Franklin above.

Beware of extremes.  Left wing or right, they both have their nut jobs, wingnuts if you will, on a mission.  Never trust a statement that starts out with, “I heard that….”  See Ben Franklin above. Try to find some middle ground.  While the Mayo Clinic site might not be right 100% of the time, it is generally reliable.  Uncle Fred’s Freedom Foundation and Alien Abductions Directory dot com may not have the same record of accomplishment.  The same cautionary instincts you have had in life will be of use here.   I leave you again with some more Ben Franklin.

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”

and another....

“Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” 

ACA ObamaCare Alternative

Why couldn’t we have a two-tiered medical system?  One tier would be the one we currently have (without benefit of the ACA).  It would stay in place.  People would be free in the open market to purchase any level of care they want or can afford.  

The second tier would be available to all and serviced, in large part, by medical practitioners who receive a full medical scholarship from a university.  Those scholarships are paid for with tax dollars.  Graduates from that group owe the first ten years or so of their careers to ACA hospitals.  The length of the ACA obligation could vary based the years of training received for their specialty.  The ACA hospital facilities would be staffed with both scholarship doctors and a group of highly paid salaried doctors.

Scholarship doctors are paid a good but reduced salary commensurate with their skills and specialty.  At the end of their ACA obligation all doctors could go into private practice or stay on in a salaried position.  This type of scholarship program could extend to nursing and other medical specialties.

We Have Room For Improvement

No ACA facility doctors (under obligation and salaried) would have any malpractice liability.  They would be subject to a complaint and review process by a medical audit board, which would set penalties for deviations from best practices.  These doctors would however be subject to criminal liability for gross negligence.

Admissions to these ACA hospitals would be for people covered by a single payer system of insurance.  This single payer system would cover all residents of the U.S., for all medically necessary services, prescription drug, and medical supply costs.  All residents would also have the option to elect to buy their own medical insurance and go to any hospital of their choosing.  This latter group could continue with whatever insurance and medical treatment process they elect.

Private hospital systems that accept Medicare payments would be required to accept ACA patients and would bill for drugs, medical supplies and services at the same rate established at full ACA facilities.

All universities that receive any public funding are required to reserve a certain percentage of their enrollment to government medical scholarship enrollees.  Other universities could opt in.  The individual universities would set their own scholastic admission criteria.  There would be no financial criteria for joining the ACA program, only the obligation upon graduation.

Under this new ACA program, universities could also get into the drug research and development business.  All drugs so developed would be sold, by the university at negotiated rates to ACA hospitals and at a reasonable mark-up to non-ACA facilities.  University profits from drug sales would go back into the drug program.  A certain percentage of drug research would be set aside for so-called "orphan diseases" where profit obligations currently prohibit development.  Federal grant monies could be made available to offset research into these not so profitable areas. 

Purchasing of drugs and medical supplies for all ACA hospitals would be through a single procurement office, which would negotiate the best prices based on their large-scale acquisitions.  The procurement process would be totally transparent and subject to continual audit from an established external board.   Drug or equipment acquisitions could be done on an international basis to get the best pricing.