Browsing History

Watch as the Republican Party destroys the USA or themselves… or both.

May9

If you think January 6th was scary just wait… the Republican party is fully swallowing the lie that the election was stolen and that there was election fraud despite every piece of evidence (aka reality – which they are not familiar with given the last twenty years of delusion). Trump is massing control of the party and forcing everyone to back this HUGE lie. Normal American Republicans believe this lie and this is not going to end well. And, Republicans are using this lie to justify laws designed to reduce voting and American’s participation in Democracy. These are the same laws they have been trying for years but amped up considerably. You have Republicans like John Kavanagh saying things like “Quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes as well.” What does quality mean? It means Republican voters and winning at any cost… it makes you ask, does the Republican party want to live in a Democracy?

Best case?

It destroys the Republican party. My irrational hope is that there are enough rational people in the Republican party that they lose 3% to 4% of voters who are turned off by this insanity. I think that is pretty unlikely given the echo chamber of Fox News, the cowardice of their “leadership”, and experience. The other hope is that 5% to 10% of their voter base gives up because they think the entire thing is rigged by the communist lizard people who are stealing children. The flip side of this is it requires the Democratic party to finally recognize the Republican party is not a governing partner (and hasn’t been trying to govern in 20 years. Then they have to get rid of the filibuster and make real changes (as currently, Biden has done NOTHING except optics).

Worst case?

The Republicans win the midterm election based on restrictive voting laws upheld by the SC and their normal propaganda… and stop the government from doing anything (not much past the current situation where they refuse to govern). Then in the next presidential election, a Republican wins and moves to disband large aspects of our Democracy. And as a country we slide into a fascist dictatorship… something like McCarthyism with a constant Communist/Socialist boogyman as everything is rewritten around the insane conspiracy theories that define the Republican party.

Regardless, large swaths of Republicans have been radicalized and violence is going to follow regardless of the path…

And, if you think the Republican party believes in maintaining Democracy as a core attribute of this country you need to wake up. The number of editorials and “think” pieces from Republicans challenging the idea that Democracy is tied to freedom is increasing… you are starting to see the idea emerge that freedom isn’t tied to Democracy and that what needs to be protected are the rights of the “few” against socialism. If you think it can’t happen in the USA you were not awake during the Cold War. The Republican party is heading toward a path of trying to overthrow the United States government, January 6th was the idiot’s version of that, and now we wait to see if the Democrats will do anything about this looming threat.

posted under Politics | Comments Off on Watch as the Republican Party destroys the USA or themselves… or both.

Now the work starts. Biden/Harris.

January20

Is the end of a failed experiment? Or, 1923 before 1933? Weeee…. “interesting” times.

I am very fucking happy to see Trump out of the White House. He is the worst President in history and an absolute failure by every measure. Just an absolute scum bag with racist unamerican values. I feel calmer now that he is off Twitter and not spreading extremism and racism in our country.

I am disheartened by the total lack of action by Republicans, but not surprised. They have utterly failed to respond to an armed coup trying to subvert democracy and they continue to spread absolute lies that are encouraging right-wing terrorism. The Republican party has become the party of treason, racism, right-wing extremist, and power at all costs.

Imagine if Bin Laden and his supporters stormed our capital, broke through doors and windows, planted two bombs, killed 2 cops, injured loads of cops, tried to kill/take our vice president and other members of government, and pooped all over the building among other damage. What does the Republican party say? I am looking forward to seeing all these traitors go to jail.

posted under Politics | Comments Off on Now the work starts. Biden/Harris.

Van Jones Rocks.

November7

This sums it up, it is hard to be cynical when you hear this and feel this. It made me cry. So well said Van Jones.

posted under Politics | Comments Off on Van Jones Rocks.

Biden Wins. Yay.

November6

Congrats to Biden, now you get to govern a country where ~70 million people live in a different reality created by Fox “news”, right-wing propaganda, and conspiracy theories. A group of people who would vote for Hitler if he promised to ban abortion, believe the left wants communism despite any evidence, and do not believe in science.

On the left, you have a party that doesn’t know how to play the game, fails to lead the national conversations, fails to accomplish any economic policy that would help people in the bottom 70% of the economic spectrum, and continues to try to fight an idiotic culture war.

This sums up a lot of how I feel about the failure of Democrats.

Democrats = forgot how to talk to normal people. Warren and Buttigieg are better than most.

posted under Politics | Comments Off on Biden Wins. Yay.

Election Day 1 of ?…

November4

Well, this is fun :)

About what I expected… this is going to take weeks to finish counting as it has come down to a few key states.

Biden will most likely still squeak out a win (Trumps odds are up though). The chance of a Democratic Senate is probably finished, meaning nothing is going to change. The Republicans will be Republicans and oppose everything. Meanwhile, on TV tonight an attempted coup by President Drumpf who doesn’t want to count all the votes. We shall see how that goes and if we still have a Democracy by Thanksgiving.

I was really hoping there would be a mandate/repudiation of Trump. I am not seeing that currently. We shall see how counts come in if anything changes. But in completed districts, you can see that he actually gained votes in a lot of key areas.

Just look at the above so far… those people looked at the last 4 years and said I want more of that and I support what is going on. Just think about that. We shall see how the final numbers land.

3 Conclusions (in my mind)…

1. The same conclusion as 2016. The America I thought I knew is over and dead.

2. Propaganda and your ability to spread that virally is what wins elections. Both for blue/red… but especially red. This should not be surprising given the history, but I like to believe people try to educate themselves on key issues. But from conversations with friends on both sides, it is clear ~90% is just the messaging and antidotes. Nobody wants complexity, they just want stories that back up their way of thinking. And, fear/hate work really well.

This seems especially evident when you look at how many “liberal” ballot measures pass and responses from the exit polls. Just look at how Florida passes a minimum wage increase, legalized weed, stricter gun laws, spending on green energy, immigration, etc…

3. As a species I am wary of our ability to overcome climate change. Some good trends showing up, but we are cutting this dangerously close to limits that would protect our future economy and modern survival. I still have a lot of hope, but it is fading fast. I figure in 10 years or so we will know if my son needs to learn to grow gills.

Oh, and some fun posts so far :)

posted under Dangers To World, Politics | Comments Off on Election Day 1 of ?…

How should rage be expressed?

August27

I would love for change to be achieved without violence or property damage… but how can you not understand the desire to burn this system to the ground that has failed a group of people so badly?

Put yourself in a black person’s shoes. Count the number of people who look like you who have been shot and police let off without any repercussions or change to the system. Then count the daily interactions you have with a society that treats your children, your siblings, and your family as 2nd class citizens.

The vast majority of people protesting are peaceful. That is remarkable. We should listen to them and work to fix a broken system. The property damage you see on TV is amplified 100x because it gets ratings and with right-wing media, it fits a narrative that scares white people (also do not forget cases like this that rarely make the news when the dust settles, it was white nationalist pretending to be protestors that are trying to cause violence).

But, who are you to condemn protestors who are burning property and causing economic damage? People are angry, they are tired, they have been trying to get change and nothing is happening. Maybe burning down a business or a building will get your attention, what do they have to lose at this point?

It reminds me of the Boston Tea riot. When Americans “violently” rioted and destroyed businesses that were part of the system oppressing them. They “violently” destroyed millions of dollars worth of tea, ran ships aground, burned warehouses, broke into shops and stole their goods, and other violent actions. As an American do you think that was justified?

Samuel Adams argued that the Boston Tea Party was not the act of a lawless mob, but was instead a principled protest and the only remaining option the people had to defend their constitutional rights.

Are you ready to support this principled protest as the only remaining option the people have to defend their constitutional rights?

P.S. Also to the people on Twitter posting “all lives matter” please STOP saying that BS. “All lives” are not the ones getting shot by police and they are not the ones who have to teach their children entirely different rules for any interaction with the police. Saying Black lives matter is saying please value us as much as white lives, please help us stop a system that is killing us without repercussion, and please help us fix this system so that our country is stronger together.

P.S. 2. If you want to see the difference between how police treat white people and black people just imagine this… a white man shoots 3 people with an AR-15 rifle at a protest, he walks with his hands up down the road toward 3 police cars, police just let him go past despite people screaming that he just shot people. The man walks to his car and drives home. The next day they arrest him for murder. Do you see how that could be a problem when 3 days previous an unarmed black man surrounded by 3 cops is shot in the back 7 times while walking to a car with his 3 sons in it? Do you see the difference there?

P.S. 3. Defund the police is a bad slogan… what it means is let’s rethink what the police do. Do we need armed police to do traffic stops or respond to accidents? Do we need police responding to mentally unwell people who need help? Do we need police interacting with the homeless? Do police need to be the first responders to domestic incidents? In no way does defund the police means no police, it means let’s chop down what isn’t working and start anew. That might mean police need to reapply for their jobs and they need training that teaches them to de-escalate. Plus police should focus on solving crime because they are currently doing a shit job (Approximately 38% of murders, 66% of rapes, 70% of robberies, and 47% of aggravated assaults go uncleared every year – source FBI)

posted under Politics | Comments Off on How should rage be expressed?

My bribes are in…

August18

I hate putting money toward Politicians, but it is how the game is played in the USA and until we get it out of the system…

Now that we are ~80 days out I gave money to any of the Senate campaigns I think there is a chance to win. Especially to unseat Mitch. Who got money? Amy McGrath, Barbara Bollier, Alan Gross, Doug Jones, Mark Kelly, John Hickenlooper, Jon Ossoff, Theresa Greenfield, Sara Gideon, Cal Cunningham, Jaime Marrison, and MJ Hegar.

So stupid that this is how we vote in the USA. I basically view this money as a lottery ticket, that maybe something will change compared to the dark path the USA has been going down for 25 years.

posted under Politics | Comments Off on My bribes are in…

Biden / Harris – Why should I vote for them?

August12

I posted in 2019 about my struggle to vote for Biden.

So, why should I vote for him now?

He is a bland centrist, he is too old, and * most importantly * I think he lacks the knowledge and will to use the Republican’s own methods against them. My biggest complaint about the Democratic party is their resistance to using Republican tactics against Republicans. They like to stick to informal rules that haven’t existed for 25 years and they need to recognize that the Republican party is no longer the Republican party of old. It is a cult run on fear and Fox news. If the Democrats do not start playing by the new rules they will lose the war to determine the soul of this country.

By not playing the new rules they have already allowed the Republicans to play the game without offering real solutions to the American people. The Republicans only have fear mantras that their supports recite, have you ever seen a Republican plan to improve anything we face? Health care? Climate change? Growing inequality? Clean water?

I should note, I am not a Democrat, I switched from being an Independent to a Democrat after Trump. I felt I had no choice and wanted to register how utterly disgusted I am by the modern Republican party. The Democratic party and I have many differences, but the Republican party’s war on data, good governance, science, education, clean water, clean energy, good capitalism, and minorities is insanity.

But back to Biden/Harris…

I will suck it up and vote for them.

Why?

Because at the very least they are competent. Joe Biden is too old to be President but Kamala Harris is uber competent. We need competent people at the helm during this crisis. I am also hopeful that out of this crisis we can reboot significant parts of our society and economy to make them more resilient. It might be too early, but my hope is this is the right time for FDR level change. And, I have hope that Kamala recognizes the new rules.

I won’t lie, a big part of me thinks this country needs 4 more years of Republicans and Trump. Why?

Because only then will enough people be in REAL PAIN to drive REAL change. We are too rich and too stupid. Too many poor white people are voting Republican and too many rich white people are stuck in their bubble, unable to see past the Republican fear mantras.

P.S. Republicans of old used to have many good ideas. We need to move to a personal and corporate territorial tax system like the rest of the world. We need to safeguard the USD as a tool internationally. We don’t need to balance the federal budget, but we need to get it under control and build some better planning around how and when we flex it (see the prior point about safeguarding global USD dominance), we need to increase taxes or lower military spending, we need to bring in economist and data and experiments into government programs to make sure they are effective, we need to reduce and streamline rules, we need to de-license some of the license economies that have grown up, we need to look at the pros/cons of the monopolies we have created in a globalized world, etc, etc.

There are lots of great people who vote Republican. It is easy to see why. Simplistic solutions are easy to sell and easy to fit into your world narrative. We live in an uber complex world and it isn’t easy to sell the complexity. For example, keeping our water safe for consumption is HARD, we are failing at that in many parts of the USA yet the EPA gets railed on for overreach and hurting business by the Republican party. I want to live to see a future where the Republican party cares about giving people clean water to drink instead of pretending the EPA is some anti-business boogeyman.

P.S. 2. I think Joe Biden is a superb human being. And, someone who has dedicated his life to public service. I just don’t think he is the leader we need right now. I hope I am wrong :).

posted under Politics | Comments Off on Biden / Harris – Why should I vote for them?

Some things I am thinking about…

May15

What I find interesting about the current situation is that all the tools and knowledge we gained from past economic crises are not *super* helpful in our current situation. The modern globalized world has not really faced a global pandemic like this one. And, the way forward for the economy and society is a new path that is going to require experimentation.

 

It is easy to look at sectors like retail and restaurants that are getting destroyed at a speed we have never seen, but there are a lot of sectors that are slowly bleeding out. Taken as a whole this is as bad a situation as I could possibly imagine. Especially with a total lack of federal leadership in the USA. The EU has handled it better due to the design of their institutions but the division between the north and south is impacting a real response.

It is hard for me not to look at this situation and see parallels to the Great Depression and FDR revamping American society and government. Or, on a darker note the rise of Hitler and other dictators.

What worries me right now?

  • In March in the USA, 40% of households making less than $40k had lost a job. 33% of households in the USA make less than $40k.
  • Real unemployment right now is probably ~25%.

That is a crazy amount of pain inflicted on a lot of people and communities. And, if we undo the lockdown too soon we make it worse because Covid comes back and we have to start over… causing even more economic damage. And, if we don’t convince people it is safe they won’t go out.

Next, you have all the chain reactions that are slowly going to make things worse and take a long time to shake out the economic impacts. Especially when these are all happening at once instead of one sector is really hurt and the rest kinda ok.

  • Restaurants – A lot of restaurants are not going to open, and those that do have to figure out how to survive on xx% less revenue (even if states/cities open up the lack of trust in the gov and fear of covid is going to hurt). A lot will declare bankruptcy, thus making it near impossible for those owners to start a new business. All the industries that supply those restaurants suddenly might have 25% less business, food suppliers, wine/liquor suppliers, linin services, etc. They layoff people, people have less money, repeat, repeat.
  • Retail – The same problem.
  • Tourism and Travel Related – Just decimated. Airlines will be back but at what % compared to last year? 25%? 50%? And, for how long. Once again, more layoffs. Hotels too. Think of all the ripple effects downstream from those… This is a huge part of each State’s income too.
  • Hospitals – They are all going to lose massive amounts of money. All their elective surgeries have disappeared, at what pace they come back is going to be interesting. And, with the USA’s poor response it is likely they will have 20% of their hospital for Covid and as things spike watch everything happen again. Stories of nurses and doctors being laid off or having pay reduced during this crisis are emerging. Covid doesn’t pay the bills.
  • Doctors – Small practices don’t have many patients right now. They are going to start going out of business or having significant revenue declines.
  • Health Care Premiums – I am curious about what premiums will cost for 2021. The fun thing is we should find out a few weeks before the election I believe :). A ton of elective surgeries are being put off, but what is Covid care costing and will see the normal 3% to 5% increase. Or a 20% increase?
  • States – Income is down and they have balanced budget amendments and obligations. Goodbye teachers, cops, and firemen. More layoffs.
  • Universities – Loosing foreign and domestic students because they can’t reopen classes. Some could need States to step in to fill the holes.
  • Daycare – Absolutely vital for working parents, and already insanely unaffordable. How many are not going to be able to stay in business and reopen? How many are losing kids now both from fear and to cut down on costs? 40% of households making less than $50k a year use a daycare, a big chunk of them just lost jobs, can they still pay that bill or are we about to lose a ton of people from the labor market.
  • Oil – Ditto.
  • Trucking / Shipping – Duh.
  • Landlords – A lot of missed rent payments, a lot of missed mortgages. A huge swath of landlords are just normal people not big businesses and that is going to impact their spending and ripple out.

Things I am thinking about what comes next…

  • Are we going to nationalize the health care system in the USA? Or will they just keep giving it money they create and ignoring the nightmare that is our medical system?
  • The 2020 election…
  • Can the EU pull their shit together and build an actual union, or just kinda limp along until someone else tries to leave.

My hope is that Covid just kinda mutates and goes away like the magical ending of a Michael Crichton novel. Or, maybe we will get a true scientific breakthrough and get a vaccine to market that breaks all previous speed records. Or, maybe we can’t make a vaccine and we are living with this thing for a long time.

Maybe you live in interesting times and all of that.

posted under covid 19, Politics | Comments Off on Some things I am thinking about…

I do not think I can vote for Joe Biden.

September1

This is a hard one to say, but I do not think I can vote for Joe Biden if he is the candidate.

Joe Biden is a symbol of everything that led us to the current situation. One where not enough was down to make sure there is a real safety net and that everyone in this country benefits from the prosperity we enjoy. I am tired of a Democratic party that does not provide real solutions to the problems the middle class and poor face in this country. A dark part of me would rather Trump get another 4 years and for it to get even worse so that people wake up and start realizing we need real solutions to the deep structural issues we have created in this country.

I am struggling to bring myself to vote for such a bland centrist whose only idea on how to fix the country is to put him in power so he can go back to how things were. I do not want to go back to how things were, I am tired of ignoring the many structural problems we have in this country. IMO… Biden sees Trump as the disease, but I think he is the symptom. His supporters, as well as Democrats, have been fucked over for years. Trump is a symptom of a broken American dream. Replacing Trump will do nothing to staunch the bleeding if you don’t fix the wound. Biden can’t fix that wound. He will put a little bandaid on it and we risk it become a massive infection…

/rant

Live shot of the democratic party right now:

posted under Politics | Comments Off on I do not think I can vote for Joe Biden.

Kids realizing nobody is there to pick them up from school.

August8

On Wednesday…

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 700 workers at several Mississippi food processing plants in a series of coordinated raids that were described as “the largest single-state workplace enforcement action in U.S. history.”

What about their kids?

Keep in mind these kids are American citizens and who were in school while this was going on…

These children were relying on neighbors and even strangers to pick them up outside their homes after school and drive them to a community fitness center where people tried to keep them calm. But many kids could not stop crying for mom and dad.

“Babies and toddlers remained at daycare with no guardian to pick them up. A child vainly searched a workplace parking lot for missing parents.”

How fucked up is it that we are arresting people who are doing incredibly hard work and paying taxes in the hope of building a better life for their family. That is the definition of being American.

Imagine you are one of these kids, waiting outside of your school, full of fear and anxiety on if your parents are still there and not knowing where to go or what to do. Maybe you are 9 and you start thinking about how you will even get food, or how to feed your younger sister.

Now imagine the larger community of kids in schools across the state and country who are filled with the constant fear of wondering if they will have parents when they get out of school tomorrow or next week or next month.

We have to figure out a way to grant citizenship to people who are here in the USA and who are for all effective purposes “American”. Plus we need to figure out a new path forward for sustainable immigration.

I’d love to see blanket amnesty and for Congress to grant everyone in the USA right now citizenship. These are great people who are working hard, paying taxes, and trying to raise great kids. They are just like everyone else in the USA except they were not lucky enough to enter this country when a “visa” was just a ticket on a ship to get here. We need more people for jobs right now, for the next generation of an educated workforce, and because we can provide a lot of people a better life. There is no reason we can’t take in more people who want to become American.

And, to people who say things like “oh they broke the law and came here illegally”, we shouldn’t reward them… that is silly. Your families did the same thing back in the day to get away from debtor prison or religious persecution or because you were accused of sorcery or just because you wanted a better life for your family.

In terms of immigration going forward… fuck if know what do as that is why I supposedly vote for competent politicians to research, learn, and make good decisions… :)

But I do know I’d like to see it be a lot easier for skilled and/or educated people from around the world to get a visa easily and for people studying here to get a 10-year visa easily. We want to attract, build, and retain the most driven and educated people in the world.

But, we are also Americans and that means a lot of our ancestors left their homes and everything they knew to try to make something better for themselves and their family. We’ve created something great here and to keep that going we need to have an honest conversation if we still want to be that “shining city upon a hill”. Because if we do want to be a shining city upon a hill we need to find a way to admit people who are so brave and courageous to leave their countries to find a better life. We need to give them a path to citizenship and give them the chance to build a better life and become Americans.

This is the America I want to see.

P.S. I also think we should be working to support all of Latin/South America economically and encourage the rule of law (not something we have done in the past + our drug policies). It is in our best long term interest to have an economically strong and free Mexico, Latin America, and Central America.

P.S.2 Reference articles on this here:
Jackson Free Press, Common Dreams and BuzzFeed. Among many others…

posted under Dangers To World, Politics | Comments Off on Kids realizing nobody is there to pick them up from school.

Trump is a racist piece of shit.

July15

Sure this is a big DUH given everything he says and stands for, but to see him say that 4 Americans should go back to their countries because of the color of their skin is so repulsive and so disgusting it sets a new low… and then to see him double down just utterly disgusts me. How can anyone support this piece of shit?

Even worse… to watch Republicans “leaders” not speak up and call him out on this blatant racism and the un-American remark is maddening. We are a nation of immigrants. My family are immigrants…. just subtract a few generations and who isn’t. I can’t wait for the 2020 elections to arrive. I am optimistic that this is a dark period in our history can be made right. And, I hope we can make some real progress on the problems we have failed to address over the last 35 years that induced a group of people so economically and mentally insecure they voted for this piece of shit human being.

posted under Politics | Comments Off on Trump is a racist piece of shit.

Democratic Candidates For 2020…

July8

I really like Mayor Pete, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren. I’d love to see a Kamala / Pete ticket with Kamala as Pres and Pete as VP and Warren a senior position. I’ve donated a few times to Pete and just chipped in $25 to Kamala and Warren. I was a bit surprised Kamala hasn’t raised more.

I am not sure I can bring myself to vote for Biden… He is way too old to be president and his policies are way out of touch, and most of them are so centrist they are meaningless and just more of the same that caused us to end up in this situation. We need new ideas that many in the party have been talking about. I’d rather see 4 more years of Trump and more people to realize how stupid the GOP is and their war on the poor, science, and governance through data.

I HATE that money is the way we really vote in this country, but no other choice right now.

posted under Politics | Comments Off on Democratic Candidates For 2020…

Our house is now 100% wind powered!

September17

I just found out that our electric company, XcelEnergy, has a program where you can pay a little extra for your electricity to be 100% powered by renewables! Very cool! I think it will only increase our electric cost by $15 to $30 a month too.

posted under Pollution / Environment | Comments Off on Our house is now 100% wind powered!

Fascinating report on America’s recovery since the great recession.

May24

EIG.org just posted this fascinating report on how America has recovered community by community since the big recession. They divide the zip codes into categories, those being prosperous, comfortable, mid-tier, at risk, and distressed. Here is how that works out population wise:

Interesting things in the report…

Prosperous zip codes added 6.5 million jobs on net between 2000 and 2015. Factoring in the losses from lower quintiles, total employment increased by only 6.8 million across all zip codes over the same period.

That blows my mind, that means only 300,000 jobs were net added in zip codes other than prosperous… so 80 million people lived in areas that added 6.5 million new jobs, while the other ~228 million people got 300,000 new jobs.

Prosperous communities were the only group to contain more places of business in 2015 than they did prior to the recession.

So they are also the only areas that are creating new businesses which have an outsized effect in creating new jobs…

Distressed and at-risk communities, which contain 108 million people, have had no recovery in terms of jobs from the great recession. At risk communities are unchanged, and distressed communities have lost 2.2 million jobs.

That is hard to word, but basically, if you live in one of those areas things look the same as during the great recession or worse. I am curious what average pay looks like before and after as there have been a lot of articles about how the jobs that returned after the recession pay a lot less too.

Summary
You are fucked if you don’t live in a prosperous zip code.

Everything good economically is happening in those areas. Comfortable zip codes are holding their own, but I was amazed how fast they are being outpaced by the prosperous zip codes (winner takes all?). There should be some inequality, but this just looks more and more like someone is going to start getting the guillotine out.

“The social ramifications are profound. Growing up in areas of concentrated distress often has long-lasting negative effects on an all aspects of residents’ lives, from physical and mental health to earnings to family and financial stability. Even setting the moral implications aside, the financial costs of having the economy fail thousands of communities and tens of millions of people falls on everyone in the forms of lower growth and increased social outlays.”

What the hell do I like reading this stuff?
Beyond finding it fascinating I am really scared of another rise of populism and fascism. And, I think they can emerge when a country is failing a huge swath of its citizens economically. Plus we are already seeing the damage right wing propaganda is doing to our democracy and our institutions. The lack of education and economic opportunities is fanning that. Hitler’s rise to power had a lot of nuance, but I think it would have been a lot harder if the economy had been good for the vast majority of Germans. I think people like to close their eyes and vote for someone who makes outrageous problems if they think it will fix theirs. Especially if that story has a scapegoat they can blame their woes on.

What really frustrates me is that the Republican party is hell-bent on making it even worse, their policies create more inequality and remove more of the meager support network we have to help people get back on the ladder. It is almost like they want to revert back to medieval times where you had a lord and his castle surrounded by poor indebted peasants. They seem blind to the fact they may be leading this country toward a violent revolution because of their blind allegiance to ideology.

posted under Politics | Comments Off on Fascinating report on America’s recovery since the great recession.
« Older Entries

This is bwb’s personal blog, so he can share his thoughts with the world, however scary or silly they might be. Plus family and friends can track what I am up to, and where I am in the world.

I am pretty simple. I love Mangos. I love the ocean (although mostly at sunset, as I’m a ginger). I love to travel, eat exotic food, do long bike rides, read, and use my imagination. At some point, I decided it was better to be a pirate captain than an admiral. I am a globalist and see the entire world as my responsibility and playground. And I am married to an amazing woman who makes life even more fun :)! And we are now the proud parents of Calico Jack :).


Archives