Category: Politics and Government

America Will Take a Big Leap to the Next Peak – or Into the Abyss

 This Will be One for the History Books – and the Rest of Our Lives

How many times have we have heard – or said – “This is the most important election…”? Yeah, they all seem to feel that way, and at the time, each met that criterion. Surely the presidential election of 2016 did. Elect Donald Trump? That would be a disaster. Thanks to the anachronism of the Electoral College, we blew it. The rest is,

Join the discussion at: Mid Term Elections Unlike Any in Our History

Watergate Hearings Shaped Politics for a Generation – These Hearings are Even More Important

The House Select Committee examining the events of and leading up to the January 6 attempt to overthrow the government begins public hearings today. This after over 1,000 interviews and 140,000 documents reviewed.

They seem clearly focused on the importance of ensuring the public gets a complete and coherent presentation of what happened and who is responsible. Time will tell, but it seems they have done good work and know what needs to be done. The rest is up to us.

Join the discussion at: A Special Post – Watch the JAN 6 Committee Hearings – Starting Tonight

It’s Surely Not Easy – But It Actually Is Uncomplicated – and Doable

 America and Guns

It has been my great privilege of living all over this country, have travelled through almost all of it, and have lived and traveled around the world. As will surprise no one, I can say definitively, there is no other country, certainly no other advanced country, with so demented a relationship with guns as the good old US of A.

I have spent time in other countries in which guns have a long history intermixed with society – France and Switzerland come to mind foremost.

Join the discussion at: The Gun Thing is Not Complicated

Observations from the Front Lines During Primaries

The First Votes are In

Primary season is upon us, about wrapped up, actually. I think what I saw in working at the polls for a few days in my neighborhood likely reflects what others saw in many other areas. For the most part, more good news than bad, which was something of a pleasant surprise. Let’s hope the good things noted below carry through to the general election.

Primaries are important for many reasons, but they have unique characteristics that do not always carry forward to the general election,

Join the discussion at: Reflections from a Poll Greeter

Suggestions to Stay Informed, Yet Stay Sane

We Are Off to the Races

If you think you have already been awash in political news, arguments, and solicitations, stand by. This has only been the warmup. Both the pace and the volume are sure to pick up and be sustained at high levels for about the next six months – which will perhaps feel like an eternity as we deal with all that information and disinformation.

And the deluge will be coming from every imaginable outlet. From the internet, emails, snail mail, phone calls, text messages,

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The Hypocrisy is Palpable

First, Let’s Admit a Near Universal Truth

I know you will be shocked to hear this, but hypocrisy is rather common within our species. It can be especially virulent among our political class. All those old aphorisms about “watch what they do, not what they say,” “power corrupts,” and similar sayings are true pretty much across the board.

People change their tunes when circumstances or opportunity calls upon them. While this is a near universal truth, the scope and depth of such hypocrisy within the Republican party today is unique,

Join the discussion at: Big Government Is Good- When It Does What YOU Want

For Governance and Economics, This is The Key Ingredient

Human Frailties Will Arise, Every Time

Every human endeavor has the potential to be a thing of beauty and long-term benefit for all concerned. Unfortunately, they also hold potential for great distortion and damage. Eventually, those failures of excess and lack of perspective almost always rear their ugly heads and do damage to people, the planet and everything in between.

One thing seems to be the best preventive measure/corrective process – good old-fashioned competition. Most of us basically understand this in economics, although as we will note in a moment,

Join the discussion at: Competition is the Key