Anti-Americanism in the 21st century

"The Anti-American Party now is the Republican Party." 

George Conway, conservative constitutional lawyer (practitioner and scholar), Never Trumper and former husband of Kellyanne Conway. 

MAGA spinning itself apart

Seems MAGA is almost literally spinning itself apart before they even swear in the Menace. Heather Cox Richardson: 

Civil war has broken out within the MAGA Republicans.

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	Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more December 27, 2024 Heather Cox Richardson Dec 28   READ IN APP   Civil war has broken out within the MAGA Republicans. On the one side are the traditional MAGAs, who tend to be white, anti-immigrant, and less educated than the rest of the U.S. They believe that the modern government's protection of equal rights for women and minorities has ruined America, and they tend to want to isolate the U.S. from the rest of the world. They make up Trump's voting base. On the other side are the new MAGAs who appear to have taken control of the incoming Trump administration. Led by Elon Musk, who bankrolled Trump's campaign, the new MAGA wing is made up of billionaires, especially tech entrepreneurs, many of whom are themselves immigrants. During the campaign, these two wings made common cause because they both want to destroy the current U.S. government, especially as President Joe Biden had been using it to strengthen American democracy. Traditional MAGA wants to get rid of the government that protects equality and replace it with one that enforces white male supremacy and Christianity. New MAGA—which some have started to call DOGE, after the Department of Government Efficiency run by Musk and pharmaceutical entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy—wants to get rid of the government that regulates business, especially technology, and protects American interests against competition from countries like China. Their shared commitment to the destruction of the current government is about the only overlap between these two factions. With the campaign over, traditional MAGA and DOGE are ripping apart. Trump sparked the fight when he announced on Sunday, December 22, that he would appoint Musk associate Sriram Krishnan, who was born in India, as a senior policy advisor on artificial intelligence. On Monday, MAGA activist Laura Loomer criticized Trump's choice of Krishnan. Loomer was in Trump's inner circle until three months ago, when her anti-immigrant tirades made Trump campaign staff worry she would cost Trump votes and forced her out of his public schedule. Loomer noted that Krishnan wants to remove the cap on green cards for workers from certain countries. Krishnan has also called for making it easier for skilled foreign workers to come to the U.S. on H-1B temporary visas. These programs are important to the technology sector, but critics say they enable companies to hire foreign workers at lower pay than U.S. workers, that H-1B workers are trapped in their jobs, and that wage theft is rampant in the H-1B program. Loomer said those jobs "should be given to American STEM students." Then she got to the heart of the matter, complaining that MAGA is getting left out of the new administration. She noted that "none of the tech executives who are meeting with Trump and getting appointed in his cabinet supported him in 2020 or during the 2024 primary." She continued: "I feel like many of them are trying to get into Trump's admin[istration] to enrich themselves and get contracts at [the] D[epartment] O[f] D[efense]. This is not America First Policy." When another tech entrepreneur and Trump appointee David Sacks defended Krishnan, Loomer made a series of racist posts, claiming among other things that: "Our country was built by white Europeans, actually. Not third-world invaders from India." She said, "It's not racist against Indians to want the original MAGA policies I voted for. I voted for a reduction in H-1B visas. Not an extension." On Wednesday, December 25—Christmas, a major holiday for MAGA supporters—Musk took a stand against Loomer and the MAGAs. He posted on X that the U.S. needs twice the number of engineers it has, and welcomed foreign engineers. "The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low," he tweeted. "Think of this like a pro sports team: if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole TEAM to win." Loomer responded: "Is DOGE real? Or is it a vanity project?" Others complained about the "Tech Bros" "hubris [and] arrogance with their flippant, condescending, and elitist responses to legitimate criticisms of the H1B1 program." Still others pointed out that there were big layoffs in tech this year and asked why they weren't getting rehired if there was such a desperate need for workers. Musk posted: "Investing in Americans is actually hard. Really hard. It costs money and time and effort to make a person productive. It's a short term net loss. It's much easier to bring in skilled workers who might not do quite a good a job [sic], but will work for a fraction of the cost and be happy just to be here." Loomer responded: "The elephant in the room is that [Musk], who is not MAGA and never has been, is a total f*cking drag on the Trump transition. He's a stage 5 clinger who over stayed his welcome at Mar a Lago in an effort to become Trump's side piece and be the point man for all of his accomplices in big Tech to slither in to Mar a Lago." [sic] Musk called Loomer a troll, and she responded that "Telling the truth isn't trolling… You bought your way into MAGA 5 minutes ago…. We all know you only donated your money so you could influence immigration policy and protect your buddy Xi JinPing." Thursday everything broke open. Ramaswamy, who was born in Ohio to parents who immigrated to America from India, posted on X an indictment of American culture that seemed a direct assault on MAGA Republicans, who have been vocal about their disdain for education. Ramaswamy posted that tech companies hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers rather than native-born Americans because "American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long…. A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers." He called for "[m]ore math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less 'chillin.' More extracurriculars, less 'hanging out at the mall.'" "If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve," he warned. "'Normalcy' doesn't cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we'll have our a**es handed to us by China." He called for America to embrace "a new golden era," but warned it was possible "only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness. That's the work we have cut out for us, rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence." With that, the fat was in the fire. MAGA dragged Ramaswamy, with even former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley retorting: "There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture. All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers." Haley ran for president against Trump but ultimately endorsed him. She is herself the child of Indian immigrants. Loomer also hit back against Musk, posting: "Is DOGE a way to 'cut spending' or REDIRECT the spending toward the pet projects of tech bro billionaires? It's looking like the latter, T[o] B[e] H[onest]." She continued: "'Hey, let's convince the peasants that we are saving them money as we enrich ourselves!'" Another right-wing poster wondered: "How did DOGE go from 'let's cut wasteful government spending' to 'here's why we need to import more immigrants' almost overnight?" When Musk appeared to limit Loomer's ability to use X, she posted: "I have always been America First and a die hard supporter of President Trump and I believe that promises made should be promises kept. Donald Trump promised to remove the H1B visa program and I support his policy. Now, as one of Trump's biggest supporters, I'm having my free speech silenced by a tech billionaire for simply questioning the tech oligarchy." Other right-wing accounts accused Musk of censoring them, too, and racist anti-immigrant sentiments flowed freely. On Friday, when cartoonist and right-wing commenter Scott Adams posted that MAGA was "taking a page from Democrats on how to lose elections while feeling good about themselves," Musk agreed and added: "And those contemptible fools must be removed from the Republican Party, root and stem." Loomer commented that Musk "is now referring to MAGA as 'contemptible fools.'... The Trump base is being replaced by Big Tech executives. So sad to see this." She tagged Trump and added "I feel so sad for MAGA." Meanwhile, other MAGA supporters on X piled on Musk, complaining that he had not paid them, as promised, for their participation in his "free speech" petition during the campaign. By today, key Trump ally Steve Bannon, a central figure in MAGA, had taken to another right-wing social media platform to warn his supporters that Musk is showing his "true colors" and to demand that the H-1B visa program be "zeroed-out." Another right-wing influencer, Jack Posobiec, tweeted: "Today was the day we found out who is getting rich by screwing over the American worker." Trump did not weigh in on the fight but, in what appeared to be intended to be a private communication to Musk, wrote on his social media site: "Where are you? When are you coming to the 'Center of the Universe,' Mar-a-Lago. Bill Gates asked to come, tonight. We miss you and x! New Year's Eve is going to be AMAZING!!! DJT." (According to Aaron Pellish and Alayna Treene of CNN, "x" here likely refers to Musk's son X Æ A-Xii.) Why does this all matter? Because while Trump's people keep insisting he won in a landslide and has a mandate that he will put in place on day one, his fragile coalition is splintering even before he takes office. Trump won less than 50% of the vote. Despite their slim victory, the Republican Party was already in a civil war between MAGA and establishment Republicans who are fed up with the MAGAs who threaten to burn down the government and almost a century of international diplomacy: just a week ago, Senate Republicans were publicly complaining about the dysfunctional "sh*t show" and "fiasco" in the House. Now, with Trump not even in office yet, the two factions of Trump's MAGA base—which, indeed, have opposing interests—are at war. — Notes: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-allies-worry-laura-loomer-georgia-north-carolina-rcna171137 https://www.epi.org/publication/new-evidence-widespread-wage-theft-in-the-h-1b-program/ https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/data/H-1B-FY15.pdf https://www.newsweek.com/trump-musk-ramaswamy-immigration-h1b-visa-workers-2006669 https://www.newsweek.com/h1b-immigration-visas-india-elon-musk-vivek-trump-2006308 https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/21/tesla-has-downsized-by-at-least-14percent-this-year-internal-number-shows.html https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/24/tech-layoffs-2024-list/ https://newrepublic.com/post/189681/vivek-ramaswamy-american-workers-suck-maga-reaction Jeff Tiedrich, "hey MAGA— President Musk wants an immigrant to take your job," December 27, 2024, everyone is entitled to my opinion. https://www.axios.com/2024/12/27/elon-musk-contemptible-fools-maga-doge https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/27/politics/donald-trump-bill-gates-elon-musk/index.html https://www.rawstory.com/elon-musk-2670690070/ https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5049966-senate-republicans-house-government-funding/ https://www.newsweek.com/steve-bannon-elon-musk-h1b-visa-2006627 https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/12/27/h-1b-visas-elon-musk-trump-immigration/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-appoints-former-paypal-coo-david-sacks-ai-crypto-czar-2024-12-06/ https://talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things-stand/who-got-duped-maga-activists-worry-that-nativism-and-tech-oligarchy-may-not-go-hand-in-hand X: trump_repost/status/1870949048750104795 LauraLoomer/status/1872068786767228992 LauraLoomer/status/1872319643936870548 VivekGRamaswamy/status/1872312139945234507 NikkiHaley/status/1872344248915554712 GavinWax/status/1872124852695679189 politiwars/status/1872284365771931867 davidshuster/status/1872457573817065589 DavidShuster/status/1872770778472825089 TheTNHoller/status/1872488549037281583 rpsagainsttrump/status/1872443407349817531 micah_erfan/status/1872497996392522219 elonmusk/status/1872744295884841262 LauraLoomer/status/1872753504085000262 acnewsitics/status/1872680874350907455 DavidSacks/status/1871649673158758458 Share

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David Rothkopf's summation

We are all sick and tired, almost literally, of mulling over and hearing others blather on about what the new year will bring in crazy politics world. But this piece is well worth reading anyway:  https://davidrothkopf.substack.com/p/ill-say-it-again-the-numbers-dont 

You may have to subscribe to the free version of the substack, but Rothkopf is always worth paying a bit of attention to. 

Happy New Year, and may it be not as bad as many of us fear.  

Merry Christmas

Whatever your belief or practice, wishing you peace, love and joy on this traditional day of rejoicing. 

David & Brad 

Wray is a coward, as you'd probably expect

This is perhaps a bit weedsy for some. But shee-it. What a coward Wray is. Unfortunately unsurprising. But by acquiescing to Trump's nose thumbing at the intention of Congress in establishing a straddled term for the FBI director, and voluntarily resigning instead of forcing the issue, he has, after Trump did the same thing to Comey, ensured that this particular "norm" and "guardrail," among so many others, is now gone forever. I truly hate these people. I try not to, but I do. They are deliberately, corruptly, and anti-democratically destroying my country. On purpose. 

What really disturbs me is that there is so very little protest, or even mention, of these terrible developments, which keep coming, one after another, even before the Menace takes office. 

 

Amazon sells crap (not all crap, but it's a thing)

I freely admit to hypocrisy when it comes to Amazon. I used to decry Walmart as a destroyer of small retail business, but of course Amazon is far, far worse, having launched a largely successful assault on nearly all brick and mortar retail, with devastating effects across the land. Yet the convenience and fantastically honed service is addictive, and I shop at Amazon more than I care to admit. Which brings me to my comment. Not entirely original, of course, but worth repeating. Amazon engages in, or at least tolerates from its "merchants" and suppliers, a curious phenomenon in the realm of caveat emptor. I call it "quality counterfeiting." Frequently, if you buy a part, piece of hardware, or just some small utilitarian item (such as a sink stopper, which is what prompted this), and you buy one of the cheaper listings, what you get is an object that looks like the desired item, but which, in fact, is of such poor quality that in many cases they will fail in a short time or just not work as intended at all. They know most people will not bother to return something that only cost $5 to begin with, but it's really very insidious. Even things like fasteners and electric switches are sold that simply don't work, or break soon after purchase, and are essentially worthless. A savvy buyer learns to recognize this, and avoid the cheapest items, or items with few or no reviews (although once they acquire a bunch of bad reviews, they just pull it and release it as a slightly differently described but actually the same item; indeed the same item is often sold at different prices by ostensibly different producers, when in fact they are identical and equally worthless). So, indeed, caveat emptor. I've started buying things like this in... mirabile dictu ...hardware stores, where the price is higher but the damn thing actually works and lasts longer than a month. 

Supermarket Merger Quashed

Here in Portland, for all practical purposes, there are only two major chain grocery stores, and neither is named Albertsons nor Kroger, but, in fact, they are, both of them: Safeway (Albertsons) and Fred Meyer (Kroger). (The current names are relicts of earlier mergers that effectively ended the original holders of those names). So, the quashing of the obviously monopolistic merger of these two major players in the nationwide supermarket biz is definitely a good thing. Even as things stand, both these chains engage in altogether too much wink and nod price fixing and other monopolistic practices. Plus there are already food deserts in our city; I can only imagine that the inevitable closing of proximal locations would just make matters worse. So, in the bleak run up to America's first overtly aspirational autocrat's taking office, there is at least a little good news. I'm assuming the reason the Federal court action was here in Portland is that our town is ground zero for why this proposed merger should not be allowed. 

Ending birthright citizenship? Huh?

So the would-be autocrat says "we're going to end" birthright citizenship. I don't think he knows or cares that it's in the Constitution (Amendment XIV). I want to say there's no way he could get a Constitutional Amendment through. But that's us, Americans who believe in the rule of law and playing by the rules, who can't hope to amend the Constitution, with the anti-democratic procedural hurdles in place. Can MAGA? I guess only time will tell... I suppose the alternative is that they will simply impose their will by fiat, and the era of the Constitution as supreme law will effectively be ended. Is that possible? I honestly don't know. And that's absolutely terrifying. 

"Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it."
― Spinoza (Ethics)

Where the hell are we?

In case you would like a little help visualizing where our Galaxy is, in relation to its surroundings, this might help (a response from ChatGPT to my question about it, in which I suggested the "edge of the city" metaphor):

The Milky Way is located on the outskirts of the Virgo Supercluster, which is a massive cluster of galaxies that acts as a central hub in this part of the universe.

The Virgo Supercluster itself is part of an even larger structure known as the Laniakea Supercluster, which encompasses over 100,000 galaxies stretched out over 520 million light-years. Within this vast structure, the Milky Way, along with its local group of galaxies, is situated toward the outer regions of the Laniakea Supercluster.

Beyond the edge of our galaxy and its immediate galactic neighborhood lies the Local Void, a vast, relatively empty region of space. This void serves as a stark contrast to the densely packed clusters of galaxies found in the supercluster. In this sense, describing our galaxy as being on the "edge of the city" with the void beyond is a useful visualization to capture our relative position in the cosmos. 

Laniakea Supercluster

Hell, no, to dictatorship

When I heard yesterday that S. Korean president Yoon had declared Martial Law, I immediately thought, in my cynical/sarcastic mindset, "oh, great, now OUR incoming would-be dictator will find inspiration in that and do the same thing!"

Today I'd like to think that if he tries it, OUR Constitutional system will do the same thing as Korea's legislators: immediately move to impeach him (this time for real), and emit one giant "Hell, no, you don't!"

The Milky Way from the South

I don't know if it's common knowledge that the view of our Galaxy from the Southern Hemisphere is vastly better than the view from up here in the North. If you've never been South of the Equator (as I have not), you've never really seen the Milky Way in its greatest splendor (naked eye/dark sky). 

"Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it."
― Spinoza (Ethics)

Sharing a picture

Instead of a picture of bug eyed crazy person "Gimmida Kash" Patel, Trump's pick announced today for SS FBI Direktor, how about this newly revealed photo of the restored interior of Notre Dame de Paris? There is still beauty, and lasting heritage of civilization, in the World. Despite everything. 

"Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it."
― Spinoza (Ethics)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Sometimes we may allow ourselves in weak moments to gripe "what's to be thankful for?"... but then we remember how lucky we are to be able to wake up and see the sun rise, to feel love and be loved, and to contemplate the miracle of our very existence. Brad and I have had a pretty rough year, including loss of family and people close to us, but here we are, and grateful for our lives, our friends and family, and for a future that may not be what we imagined or hoped for, but can and will still be a source of awe and wonder. And gratitude. 

Best to everyone on this day of thanks, and may you be blessed with bountiful good fortune. 

"Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it."
― Spinoza (Ethics)

Trump Tariffs

So it appears any hope that Trump would back off his idiotic plan to impose outsize across-the-board tariffs (so far on Canada and Mexico, our principal trading partners), thereby crippling the US economy, is officially dashed. If he were an actual agent of our principal adversary in the world, Russia, with a goal towards undermining our position in the world and destroying our prosperity, I can't think what he would do differently. I said it while he was running and I'll say it again. Donald Trump is a traitor to America. 

Demography is Destiny

This is pretty straight, not disinformation. I don't think we have fully come to grips with this. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PImDVT8fb-I

Some inchoate thoughts

I think it has always been true that most of humanity bases its beliefs and strategies for negotiating human life on this planet on tradition, peer pressure, received wisdom, and often simply what is au courant. But, I would argue, even long before there was such a thing as a theory of knowledge or a scientific method, there has been a literal evolutionary reward, in the form of persistence of one's own kind, for getting things right. Seems pretty obvious, but it's amazing how often people, when confronted with incontrovertible fact developed from methods that reliably yield the truth of a particular matter contrary to their beliefs, will simply refuse to believe the evidence. And more often than not then blame and attack the one putting forward the contrary view, rather than honestly examining the evidence and arriving at the inference, or at least an inference, consistent with that evidence. 

We all do this, and we all practice willful ignorance, which often has much the same effect. But there is a mindset, promoted unevenly and sometimes not at all in our institutions of learning (higher and lower), which generally regards honest confrontation of evidence and reasonable inference from evidence as the only real knowledge, and which, when challenged to do so, will alter conclusions in accord. This is what I call liberalism. I know, the term is almost never used in this sense anymore, but it's what is really at the core of a "liberal" mentality: discarding bias and traditions founded on former errors and misunderstandings, and attempting to order life and society according to what is real. You know, things like, the science and technology we all depend on, the need to find sustainable solutions to environmental threats to stable human survival. Little things like that. 

At its best, modern liberal democracies have been able to come close enough to this lofty ideal that real progress was made in curtailing needless violence globally, improving crop yields, deploying technology which has made billions of peoples' lives better. Some of the "social democratic" aspects of these modern states have, I think undeniably, played a key role in fostering these developments, which have included things like controlling ozone depletion, improving resource management, and, finally gradually bringing down at least growth of fossil fuel carbon buildup. 

But authoritarian populism is threatening this "world order." We have people coming into power, and not just in the US, who see the curtailment of immigration and concentration of authoritarian power as their only concern. They tend to deny inconvenient problems, apparently in pursuit of untrammelled short term personal gain and temporary power. But, as evolution should have taught us, nature does not give a single shit about what we believe. And if we base our policies on falsehoods when what is real flies in the face of them, the outcomes cannot be good. 

It really should be obvious to anyone who really looks at the near to medium term future that global cooperation, conflict reduction, allocation of resources to infrastructure transformation, etc. are crucial. But we have in power in Russia, China, India, and many other countries, and even to an extent in the so called liberal democracies; and now, in spades, coming to America... leaders who are happy to ignore reality and lead their societies straight off the cliff. And, as we have seen repeatedly in history, it is often easy to appeal to the public's perceived (though not often real) self-interest to support such short-sighted and even malevolent policies. 

But we seek people to blame for this predicament not only in vain, but with utmost futility. We, the people of the world who want to see humanity come together to solve its problems, and learn to live in peace and security, have to not seek to fight with and blame others. We have to exercise whatever influence we have to try to convince others, not who to vote for, but what is important, and why, and why it is important to reject, and resist, authority that seeks to lead us away from that. 

I realize I'm speaking in broad generalities, but I think the point is clear enough. Business as usual, preparing for political fights and elections coming down the pike is not going to work. There is already too much polarization, too many lies, too much propaganda, out there. For sanity and reason to prevail, those of us with some understanding of the issues based on actual facts must cooperate with one another to really listen to our fellow citizens and try to understand their needs and why they have become alienated. And we need to be prepared to change our own thinking, while maintaining our core values and understanding. We must respect that others are going to have different views, and that we have to coexist with them and their needs even as we reach a consensus that, in recognition of actual realities of the environment and available resources, affords dignity to everyone and recognizes and takes into account their interests. Telling people they're stupid and don't understand will not convince them. Asking them what it is they want, and what they resent, and actually addressing their needs and interests, to reach a basis for not just co-existence but mutual respect, are what is needed. If people are more open to meeting with and developing common interests with their neighbors, the reality of optimal solutions to our problems can only be fostered. Polarization and oppositional tactics tend to result in political loss, which leads to bad policy, even deadly policy. A truly liberal attitude is one that embraces disagreement and conflicting interests, but seeks optimal outcomes. Such genuinely liberal outlook really is quite infectious, and can spread attitudes that garner real improvement in peoples' lives. Just as much as we've seen the rise of authoritarian nightmares in recent history, we can also find examples of these less dramatic, but much more positive developments. An archetypal example would be the Marshall Plan. 

At best, we are in for a rough few years. But we must not lose heart, nor succumb to the cowardice of obedience in advance. There are people who will be swept up in some of what is coming without any real power to do anything about it. But totalitarian or authoritarian states tend to be inefficient, and if there is always a current of thought and discussion that favors cooperation and democracy, and that always seeks to better the lives of all the people. Our job is to make that current strong, and growing, by the only way that really works: including people, hearing their issues and considering their interests as well as our own, and gradually, small group by small group, assembling a coalition not only for salvation and restoration of democracy, but forming the beginning of a political transformation in the future consistent with these goals and values. This is a long term task, from which no one of conscience is excused. 

"Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it."
― Spinoza (Ethics)

My apology.... Persevere, friends

Friends, 

For the third time in my life I have experienced a political loss of faith. And as someone who really does care deeply about the institution of democracy, however flawed, it cuts me to the bone. I am truly devastated. Of course we all knew this could happen. But I guess I was smoking too much Hopium. 

In 2000, I was truly shocked, not by how close it was, but the twin whammies: the realization that the jury-rigged Electoral College system, even though for over a century demographics had been such that the real winner, of the popular vote, did win every time, suddenly we saw that it was a fundamental, even fatal flaw. In every other "democratic" country, who wins the most votes wins. Surely, I thought, we will fix this, even after the Supreme Court, in defiance of all ethical or moral standards, simply decided to make Bush president. Maybe he won Florida anyway. That will be debated forever. But it was never their business to decide elections, and doing so was fundamentally corrupt. 

And then, of course, we didn't fix it. So in 2016, my faith in the electorate was shaken to the core, and maybe especially because there seemed to be so little outrage, so little determination to make it right... that the winner of the most votes... by millions... did not win. The votes of millions of people counted for less than nothing, and we weren't going to... didn't... do anything about it. 

We survived Trump I, barely, and elected someone fair and square who was, on balance, pretty good, at least domestically. But he was too old, and failed to do the right thing and declare he would serve only one term. But that's not what defeated his successor as a candidate. It was the same thing: an undemocratic constitution. Combined with a country, I'm sad to say, which is very nearly one-half made up of people who will elect a demagogue, and a crude and vicious one at that. 

I am sorry. If I led anyone down a garden path of optimism I am sorry. I am sorry for my country. I am heartsick. I'm sorry that I have no answers, and no ability to become an active promoter of resistance. All I can do is try to keep the hope for restoration of real democracy alive. And personally, persevere. Remain faithful to the concepts of democracy, even as we are living through what I honestly believe is the last long sigh of the death of the oldest of the great republics that grew out of the 18th century Enlightenment. That time will never come again, so democracy can only be restored by somehow clawing back those ideas and designs. 

Let me state it succinctly. To be a creditable democratic republic, a nation must elect its leaders by majority vote. It must accord geographic and ideological political equality to its people and regions in determining their representatives. It must have a court system that is free of political suasion and really practices impartiality. And it must have an electorate that by great preponderance actually believes in democracy and practices it, within the realm of human possibility. I am sad to say, and truly know, that our country, as it has come down to the present, has and is none of these things. And the key reason is, of course, deep seated racism and anti-immigrant hatred that drives the toxic brew of right wing ideology. These toxins won't kill us. They have killed our democracy. It is done. 

I am too old, most likely, to live to see whether we can someday throw this over and return to, or perhaps better to say, finally craft a system that actually is, reliably democratic. I don't mean pure democracy, which has never existed; just actual, functional, reasonably fair representative democracy. For the third time in 24 years our system has made our leader not whom the people voted for, but whom the majority did not. Other societies have had collapses into dictatorship, and returned to representative democracy. Maybe often enough that you can say it will probably happen. Someday. But the thing is, it always takes a long time, like a generation or more, and it usually involves great violence. 

I am an old man. I will try to use my voice to encourage reason, enlightenment, and democracy, but real resistance will have to come from those stronger and younger than I. 

I wish I had a message of hope, but I don't. So, rather than "Courage!" I will say only, Persevere. It is demanded of us as human beings. 

I am guessing I will be posting a lot fewer of these messages to farflung correspondents, but please keep in touch with me. 

Peace. And Persevere, my friends, because in the great scheme of history this is a blip. It probably is the end of the idea of America we grew up with, but if life teaches you anything it's that you don't know what will happen, and you can't really judge the future, because it will always surprise you. 

"Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it."
― Spinoza (Ethics)

Madam President

I'm not superstitious, so I'll just say it. I don't think this election is going to be particularly close. Come January 20, it will be Madam President. It's high time. Some of us, including some of us men, have been waiting our whole damn lives to hear that. 

_________________________________

 HARRIS

WALZ

Our Champions for Democracy

_________________________________

The they see HIM the more they vote for HER

I honestly think we've reached a point where the more people see of Trump, even if they voted for him before, the less likely they are to vote for him this time. Thus, although I don't really see that it was necessary, NBC's giving him free time to offset the "partisan" SNL skit with Harris is actually likely to help Harris more than Trump. Trump's obvious decline and uniformly negative attitude and mood is more likely to cost him votes than help him. 

_________________________________

 HARRIS

WALZ

Our Champions for Democracy

_________________________________

Stay the Course

Friends, stay the course. We have a very good shot at defeating the MAGA fascists altogether, although the chances of keeping control of the Senate are shaky. We are the real patriotic Americans, who have not been victimized by a cult of personality., and who really believe in representative democracy and the rule of law. Let's show them that the real Spirit of America persists and is stronger than any egotistical asshole and his little empire of lies. 

_________________________________

 HARRIS

WALZ

Our Champions for Democracy

_________________________________

Why taking back the House is vital for the outcome of the Presidency

Watch this to understand how and why it is equally important to take back the House for Democrats as to win the presidency. The MAGA Fascists are fully prepared to screw democracy through trickery, but if we have the majority in the new House, we can prevent them from succeeding. (This time... it is also essential that we fix these problems, through legislation insofar as possible, and ultimately through amendment of the Constitution). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8GGuLfv0dM&list=TLPQMDMxMTIwMjT6YdDUZJjZcA&index=4

_________________________________

 HARRIS

WALZ

Our Champions for Democracy

_________________________________

Trump in actual collapse

Sure looks like Donnie is suffering from narcissistic collapse. I honestly think it's finally dawning on him that he really is losing, and some part of his reptile brain realizes the jig is up, and he will, at long last and in due course, have to pay the piper for his crimes. The fact that by melting down so completely that even many of his hardcore cult members are walking out on him is, of course, not exactly helping his chances of pulling off an upset. 

But even at this late period, we cannot be complacent. Harris, and every democrat up and down the ballot, need every vote. We cannot let up. 

Thanks for anything you can do, and for your vote. 

My annual jackolantern

Jimmy Kimmel's pre-election monologue

Please send this to everyone you know who you aren't sure is going to vote against Trump. 

https://youtu.be/Oy0zq8YzY9w 

_________________________________

 HARRIS

WALZ

Our Champions for Democracy

_________________________________

Please go back and watch Harris's "closing argument" speech if you didn't see it.

Every American, even if inclined to support Trump or undecided (how can anyone be undecided!?)... should watch Kamala Harris's pitch perfect speech from last night. This is the speech of a genuinely well qualified public servant, who truly believes that the essence of public service is just that... to serve the public... not oneself.

_________________________________

 HARRIS

WALZ

Our Champions for Democracy

_________________________________

A few thoughts about dynamic kinetic systems (DKS's) and persistence

As some of my farflung correspondents are aware, I try to keep abreast, in layperson's terms, of developments in science, especially cosmology, astronomy, geology and biology. Perhaps a welcome respite from politics, here are a couple of insights from  a conversation between Sean Carroll and Addy Pross, who is something of a philosopher as well as evolutionary biologist. 

1. Survival of the fittest isn't really a good summary of the evolutionary imperative. It's more that systems that persist have a tendency to develop complexity in order to do a better job of persisting, and persistence in time is the only measure of "success" of any dynamic kinetic metastable system. Of which life, as it has evolved on Earth and perhaps elsewhere, is the pinnacle. It can be said as a tautology: That which persists persists and that which does not does not. But really, this is exactly how evolution works. At every level, the ability to persist, as a pattern or template of a dynamic kinetic systems where free energy fuels not only the flow of energy but the persistence of the template itself, determines the course of evolution. Increasing complexity to overcome chaos and threats to the persistence of the pattern is the observable result, but not a predetermined "design" or intention. Although it becomes hard to pin down just where "purpose" comes in, and just when and how sensory feedback loops start to cross the threshold into self-awareness and strategy, but clearly these things do emerge as part of the template persistence paradigm. It just takes a long time. But so far, every time we think we're so smart, like inventing the CRISPR system for editing genes, it turns out to be something life invented on its own millions or even billions of years ago. 

2. A fountain is a DKS. The water always changes, just as all the molecules of your body are changed out within a few years, but the pattern persists. There is a continual flow of free energy to waste energy (heat). Same with life, but life has the added element of dynamic control of the flow of energy.  This is the essence of what life is: stable patterns that have the capacity to autonomically maintain a net flow of energy. It's not the energy which seems to defy the rules of entropy, but the template or pattern itself. And what makes life different from a waterfall or a hurricane is that it also includes a pattern, or template, for maintaining the flow of energy. 

3.  The genome is not, as usually thought, a read-only system of encoding all that is needed to form an organism. Rather, it is a read-write library which the organism, itself as a whole patterned to maintain itself in a stable state, uses to "look up" what it needs to produce the incredibly complex chemistry (including time and space design elements) that make the persistence of the DKS itself possible. The pattern that persists is not fully encoded in the genome or anywhere else, it simply is; the entire organism, indeed in a sense the entirety of life on Earth (Gaia?) is the persistent pattern, and it is always tending towards greater complexity in order to maintain persistence (or survival if you prefer) itself. This is why organisms incorporate a bit of viral DNA into their own genome... they learn from it what they need to avoid vulnerability to that particular threat to persistence. DNA is just a means of storing information; evolution acts on the organisms and even ecosystems themselves. This is more or less in direct contradiction to Dawkins's "selfish gene" theory. It's not that organisms are just reflections of the genome. It is organisms that participate in evolution; their genes are their major tool of "remembering" their strategies and techniques for success, but they don't exist apart from the overall organism and even its relationship with other organisms, independently. A DNA molecule, or even an entire chromosome, left lying on the table, will quickly decay into chaos and dissipate; what makes it alive is that it is part of a DKS that maintains itself through a whole host of elements, of which information storage, though crucial, is only one. 

4. It is the possibility, indeed the inevitability, of the formation of such dynamic stability that maintains itself by "learning" to channel free energy that gives all of nature structure. The universe is not a rarified gas of particles that don't interact, although such universes are possible and may even exist in the multiverse. But in this universe, at a level of physics and chemistry, the emergence of dynamic kinetic stability gives us structure like stars and galaxies, and planets with oceans, and on a level where increasing complexity eventually results in the ability to actually control the channeling of energy, it results in life. It is all but impossible to imagine that this emergence, of stable dynamic kinetic systems of increasing complexity resulting in more and more successful persistence, which we call life, has only ever occurred one time, on this lonely little planet in a vast cosmos. Possible, theoretically, but hard to imagine how it could be, given the obvious fact that, given the laws of physics and chemistry which we imagine to be essentially universal, it is possible... since it happened here, and indeed pretty soon after it first became possible, given the emergence of conducive conditions. 

There, something to think about other than the existential threat to democracy and our way of life going on around us at this particular time.