Post-Election Musings

Now that a month has passed by since the election, maybe it's safe to put down in writing a few of my thoughts about it...

• From a policy point of view, would I be feeling better if the president-elect was Ted Cruz? Ben Carson? Carly Fiorina? Bobby Jindal? Scott Walker? Or even Marco Rubio? Are you kidding? I don't think so. There's a good chance I would feel even more pessimistic. The prospects for the Supreme Court, or the Affordable Care Act, or immigration policy, or civil rights, or a host of other issues would look at least as bleak. None of those on the list offer any better hope for LGBT rights or marriage equality. Social Security would be in even greater danger. Hopes for dealing with income inequality would be worse under almost all of the GOP alternative candidates. In many ways, progressives have more to fear from a newly empowered Paul Ryan than from Donald Trump. And many of the most horrible things Trump said were just standard GOP talking points without the dog whistle filter.
• The Religious Right--as exemplified by Billy Graham's offspring, James Dobson, and Tony Perkins--continue to expose themselves as the vipers they are. Christians on the right ought to be utterly embarrassed to allow them to speak for them.
• As of this writing, the Clinton's popular vote margin (according to the Cook Political Report) is about 2.6 million, and a full two percentage points (48.2 - 46.2). I'm not calling for a rebellion by the College of Electors--such talk is silly. Donald Trump legitimately won the election. But it should be clear to progressives that the Republicans are the minority party in the US and we should be bold enough to behave accordingly.
• On a personal level, we intend to put our money where our beliefs are, even more than in the past, and support groups like the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and many others. They will need support more than ever.
• In many ways, America in 2016 has never been wealthier. Unfortunately, the distribution of that wealth is becoming more and more unequal. And the American people just elected a man who is a beneficiary of--and a contributor to--that very inequality. I feel bad that people thought that a man who helped create the current "rigged" system is actually going to be the fixer of it.

Quote of the Day

"But what if the previous investigations have shown no wrongdoing because there was no wrongdoing?...What if Clinton has been getting away with it all these years because she hasn't done anything wrong?"

Matthew Yglesias writing in vox.com today

Real Corruption

Are you tired of all the meatless faux-corruption stories about Hillary Clinton?  If you want to see real corruption at work, one need look no further than Scott Walker's Wisconsin. Wisconsin is my home state, something which is harder and harder to admit to every day that Walker is in office. Very sad to see a state once respected for its progressivism and honesty turning into one of corruption and the new Jim Crow.

10 More Things I Have Learned from Conservatives

The list goes on:

11. The right to bear arms is an absolute right for white guys with automatic weapons, but not so much for black kids with plastic ones.

12. In order for the police to properly protect the general public, they should be held to a lower standard of conduct than the general public they are protecting. (Chew on that one!)

13. More people having health insurance is a bad thing.

14. Ben Carson is the one person in America who is allowed to use aborted fetuses in his work without criticism, because he is Ben Carson. (Everyone else is going to hell.)

15. The President ought to consult with Benjamin Netanyahu and the anti-Cuba lobby every morning so that he/she knows what American foreign policy is for that day.

16. Christians who commit mass killings are troubled souls; Muslims who do are terrorists.

17. Policy substance is no substitute for bluster. (John Bolton's Law)

18.The purpose of teaching American History is to make students feel warm and fuzzy about America, rather than teaching, say, the truth. (Lynne Cheney's Law)

19. It's a good thing to demonize people for political purposes when they are alive (Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali, to name a few) and then change your tune for political purposes after they are dead by telling everyone what wonderful and inspirational people they were for you.

20. The more spouses one has had is in direct proportion to one's right to pontificate in the morality of others.

10 Things I Have Learned from Conservatives

These are only the first ten (there are many more). More lists may follow.

1. Americans fight and die in wars because they like the National Anthem at sporting events.
2. The words "Constitution" and "Bible" should always be used together in a sentence. (Apparently they are both the inspired word of God.)
3. When you are caught in a lie, just say it more frequently and more loudly. That proves it is really true.
4. Popes are okay as long as they are conservative.
5. Atheists are okay as long as her name is Ayn Rand.
6. The white privilege under which I have lived for 68 years apparently isn't real.
7. Torture is a bad thing unless Americans are doing it.
8. The Founders really only intended religious liberty to apply to Christians.
9. If you are a Christian, you should only have to obey the laws you feel like obeying.
10. Gays are going to ruin the institution of marriage. (Heteros were doing such a good job of doing it right.)

A Good Example of Why We Left WELS

In this article in the official Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) periodical Forward in Christ, you can find the following quote:

But America's values are rapidly changing, and we Christians feel our religious liberties are slowly being eroded. More and more we feel like "strangers and pilgrims" (Hebrews 11:13) in a foreign land.

Well, this particular "we Christian" doesn't feel that way at all. I don't feel my religious liberty has been eroded at all, and I grew tired of WELS repeatedly thinking that they are speaking for me in their recent public statements and articles like these. This is a Fox News talking point; please don't think you are speaking for "we Christians" when you repeat it. The only place we felt like "strangers and pilgrims" was in the WELS. That's why we're not there anymore.

Independence Day Musings

• Okay, so a former President of the United States ran into the Attorney General and chatted a bit. Well, maybe it's a little awkward and unfortunate, but I don't really understand the hyperventilation. It seems a lot less egregious than what Scalia did a couple times. Take a deep breath everyone. The MSM seems to be getting just as frenzied about everything as the Tea Party does.
• I continue to insist that Trump isn't really any worse than most of the other GOP candidates (I know, I know, I am in a minority here). The difference is that he says things that the GOP wishes were left unsaid, but that have been part of their dog-whistle platform for many years now. Anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant is a core of the Republican agenda. It's interesting that the problem guys like Paul Ryan have with Donald Trump seems to be that he is not conservative enough for their Ayn Randian economic credo. As long as he gives in on that a little, they will accept all the other stuff.
• If Donald Trump chooses Newt Gingrich for his running mate, it will set a record for most marriages and divorces (and adulteries?) on a presidential ticket that may never be broken!
• I have said something like this before but am repeating it (I can do that because it's my blog!). Christians used to worship the triune god of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Many Christians still do, but those on the Religious Right today seem to have changed their beliefs, and now they worship the triune god of the Second Amendment, Supply-side Economics, and American Exceptionalism. (There is a word for this: Idolatry.)

Quote of the Day

"Student movements have an odd habit of ending up on the right side of history."

From the article "The Big Uneasy" by Nathan Heller in the May 30 issue of The New Yorker.

It is--I think--a pretty thoughtful and fair discussion some of some of the issues and controversies on today's college campuses. One thing I especially like is that Heller's nine-page article deals with the topic in a serious manner without once using the term "politically correct", which has become a term of the utmost banality and uselessness, and a term indicating a lack of rigorous thought.

Profile Change

For those who actually read this blog, you may or may not have noticed that I changed my by-line by removing the reference to "Progressive Island in the WELS". Again, for those who don't know what the WELS is, you can ignore. For those who do know, I sent a request for release of membership yesterday, so I am now outside looking in. The WELS has strayed from its core teaching about the two kingdoms and has become more and more politically active, and in a more and more strident way. Sarah Palin would feel welcome there, but I don't anymore. So sad.

James Comey Again?

For the second time in a few months, FBI Director James Comey has blamed the so-called Ferguson effect for the increase in crime in some areas of the country.  (Here's one column on the conservative blog HotAir.)  Mind you, there is no real evidence to back this up and I think Comey's statement is a little dopey, but let's leave that for a different discussion.

This is what I don't understand:  Let's suppose they are right, that some cops are hesitant to act because they don't want to end up in a video.  If that's a problem then what is the solution?  (I'm a little tired of conservatives criticizing everything from Obama's foreign policy to entitlements to the ACA without ever proposing a solution.)  Here's the way I see it: if I see a cop gunning down an unarmed person, am I not supposed to take a video?  If I do take a video, then I am the one at fault for the increase in crime?  Really?  Is that your solution?  If not, then what?  Or maybe if the unarmed person wasn't killed in the first place, then there would be no video and the cops wouldn't have to worry so much about being on one.

I know which solution I am in favor of....

Unexpected Endorsement for Hillary

I see that T. Boone (Swift Boat Liar) Pickens has said that Hillary Clinton doesn't know what she's talking about and that he is kinda supporting Trump for president.  Seeing as how this is coming from someone so lacking in honesty and integrity, I can't think of a better endorsement for Hillary Clinton for President.

The Best and Worst of the Bad

It seems to have become sort of conventional wisdom among my fellow leftists that Donald Trump is the worst disaster as a presidential possibility since the founding of the Republic. It seems a little odd to even be talking about this, since the last thing I want to do is "defend" Donald Trump. But I disagree emphatically with this conventional wisdom.

Let's back up....There has also been a sort of unchallenged conventional wisdom among the mainstream media that the Republican Party had a "deep bench" of presidential candidates. Well, the 2016 campaign has shown how ridiculous this idea is. Intellectual lightweights like Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, et al, have all fallen by the wayside, and for good reason.

It's also silly to pretend--like some on the left--that all of these folks are equally bad. John Kasich is a conservative to be sure, but make no mistake about it: he would be a far superior president to the other two who remain, and most of those who have left the race.

Anyway, as I see it, here is my personal list--from most dangerous to least--of the long list of disastrous GOP candidates (my apologies to any that I forgot):

1. Ben Carson
2. Ted Cruz
3. Carly Fiorina
4. Bobby Jindahl
5. Mike Huckabee
6. Rick Santorum
7. Scott Walker
8. Donald Trump
9. Marco Rubio
10. Rick Perry
11. Lindsay Graham
12. George Pataki
13. John Kasich
14. Rand Paul
15. Chris Christy

It's really difficult bringing myself to actually rank this crowd, but there really is a big difference between those on the top of the list and those on the bottom, even if one could quibble about the exact spot each belongs. Some are definitely scarier than the others. As you can see, I only put The Donald in the middle of this list. That is even scarier!! Quite a "deep bench", huh?  This crowd is something to lose sleep over.

Unsolicited Advice from Me

Some advice to a few people:

• To the GOP legislators in North Carolina, trying to defend their anti-LGBT law:  Your argument might be on thin ice if it relies on comparing your state to Sudan.
• To Charlie Sykes and the other talk radio right wingers in Wisconsin:  Your lament that Donald Trump lacks the civility that Wisconsinites love (expect maybe for the ones that listen to you!) might have some credibility if you weren't using it to contrast with Ted "Mr. Civility" Cruz.
• To Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana:  I recommend a moratorium on signing any new laws in your state until you get get some new advisers whose only job is to keep you from making a fool of yourself.
• To the Religious Right:  If you are going to rely on bogusly manufactured and edited videos to make your case, you might want to at least have someone produce them without committing a felony.

A Few Things That I Thought Were Interesting

• I don't think I have read a single newspaper article about Ben Carson that didn't contain the phrase "soft-spoken". Talk about cliches...
• Interesting article in the New York Times today about K-12 students and internet access. It said that 70% of teachers assign homework that requires internet access but that one-third of K-12 students in the country don't have broadband access.
• I read another article in the New Yorker that was speculating about why Bernie Sanders is as popular as he is even with the "socialist" label, which would have been a disqualifier just a few years ago. One of the ideas she suggested is that the Fox News crowd has been mischaracterizing Obama as a socialist for seven years, so the stigma has kind of been removed. If we've already had a socialist president, what's the big deal? Finally something to thank Fox News for!
• The astonishing tax plans of the Republican candidates (reminiscent of Paul Ryan's various hoax plans) show that the GOP has never really interested in reducing the deficit or the debt. The plans of Trump, Rubio, and Cruz would add somewhere between $12 and $16 trillion to the debt over ten years.

Some Opinions

• It has taken Scott Walker and the current Republican three-ring-circus legislature only a few years to change Wisconsin from the poster child for honest and open government to one of the most corrupt.
• It is comical to watch all the Don't-Tread-on-Me constitutional scholar Senators creating their own faux-Constitution out of whole cloth to justify ignoring a still-nonexistent Supreme Court nominee.
• I saw a post on Facebook or somewhere that said people get the President/Governor/Senator they deserve, and I'm afraid he is right. The reason Brownback (insert any other name you choose) is governor is that a lot more people voted for him than his opponent. The same is true for Bevin in Kentucky, Walker in Wisconsin, Pence in Indiana, etc. They were who the people wanted and now they pay the price.
• Carson and Cruz are the scariest candidates of a scary bunch.

Quote of the Day

"Antonin Scalia, who died this month, after nearly three decades on the Supreme Court, devoted his professional life to making the United States a less fair, less tolerant, and less admirable democracy. Fortunately, he mostly failed."

Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker


 

Quote of the Day

"If Karl Marx had lived long enough to see Carly Fiorina’s failed GOP campaign, he might’ve been impressed with the former Hewlett-Packard CEO. After all, Marx only preached about the overthrow of capitalism—Fiorina had actual hands-on experience bringing a major corporation to its knees."

Branco Marcetic, article in In These Times 


 

Martin Feldstein and Groundhog Day

I see that Martin Feldstein is once again telling us that inflation is just around the corner. (The blog post cited uses the very fitting term "Permahawkery".)  It's also fitting that Feldstein makes his permanent prediction just before Groundhog Day, since this has definitely become a deja vu phenomenon.  It seems that Mr. Feldstein comes out every so often to check for the shadow of inflation and he sees it every time!  I suppose if he does it every year he is bound to be right sooner or later, and then he can say "told you so".  But so far a ouija board would have been more accurate.

I think I will add him to my list of People No Longer Worth Listening To.

Reading List for 2015

Books I read in 2015:

Elizabeth Berg, Range of Motion
Vicor Hugo, Les Miserables
Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore
Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Loren D. Estleman, Frames
William H. Gass, Middle C
Molly Antopol, TheUnAmericans (stories)
J. H. van den Berg, The Changing Nature of Man
Howard Norman, The Bird Artist
Doris Lessing, Martha Quest
Yashar Kemal, Memed, My Hawk
Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend
Doris Lessing, A Proper Marriage
Amanda Coplin, The Orchardist
Frederick Reuss, The Wasties
Andrew Miller, Oxygen
Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
Dorothy Wickenden, Nothing Daunted
Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels
William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair


 

Simple Truths

• Police are public servants. In a democracy (at least this one), the people decide how they are to  be policed. One of the cornerstones of our democracy is that the military is commanded by civilians. The same principle applies to the police. There is a term for the alternative: police state.
• The voters of Michigan rejected Michigan's emergency manager law in November 2012. Within a few weeks the Michigan legislature passed--and Gov. Rick Snyder signed--pretty much the same law. They also attached a sham appropriation to the law to make certain that the Michigan voters couldn't overturn it again. (Apparently Michigan Republicans aren't crazy about democracy.)  With the Flint water crisis we see what can happen when democratically elected city officials are stripped of their authority and replaced by "managers" whose primary responsibilities don't seem to include the welfare of city residents.
• I agree with Kevin Drum: Donald Trump has really been a fairly mediocre businessman.  That's what the Democrats and his other opponents should be focusing on.

Corruption in Wisconsin Continues

As a follow-up to my 10/24/15 post, here is more on Scott Walker's campaign to institutionalize corruption in Wisconsin.